Belize Journal 6/1

"For breakfast today we went to Kent and Marian's. Today is the last day that we will be eating there. Once we got done eating we told everyone goodbye and headed to Belize City. Once we got to San Pedro Island, I was so amazed. I have never seen anything this amazing in my life. It was so cool.I have never seen the ocean before and it looked amazing. It is a bluish green color. After we ate lunch...we went snorkeling. I was kind of scared at first. When we got off the boat at the first stop the water was only three feet deep. This is where we practiced for awhile. Once we kind of got the hang of it, we headed out. It was really cool, but it would have been a lot more fun if I could swim.
The next stop was Shark Ray Alley. There were sharks and sting rays that were so awesome...Tom was right about the salt water, you always float."

Belize Journal 5/31

"At the 26 acres I helped make screens and painted. I helped move a pile of boards. This pile was no little pile either. We had to load the boards up on the pick up and drive them behind the container and then unload it. If the boards were no good thne we had to make a pile that we were going to burn. We found so many things in the boards-mainly termites. There were quite a few soldier ants too and trantulas. Then as we lifted up the last board, David & Corny were yelling and jumping back. Then Mrs. Chi started freaking out yelling "scorpion". There was a lizard that was ascorpion that apparently was very poisonous."

Belize Journal 5/30

"After going to the 26 acres and working for awhile (Iwas trying to put drywall around the door) I decided to switch job, so I helped Kimberly and Michaela spackle. Then I left it to dry. After awhile Dustin and I went back to sand it. For dinner today we had chicken fajitas. They were made with corn tortillas...after lunch we went to the blue hole. It was some under water river as I found out when I saw it. There was a pond with a blue spot towards one end. This is where the river was. The water was so cold but it felt so good after awhile."

Inky Flowers

The layered flowers are by InkyAntics clear flower set and the "birthday" is from Karen Foster snap stamps. Paper is by Marcella that came in a 4 x 6 pad. This was made for a layout challenge here.

Belize Journal 5/29

" We went over to 26 acres and finished the flat part of the ceiling...after lunch we finished the ceiling and finished a wall. Then we went swimming in the river...for supper we had tacos with apple, pineapple & pecan pie."

me speaking...I thought I would add some pictures to each journal blog. Here is Benjamin working on the ceiling (in grey shorts) and a beautiful picture of the jungle. I finished developing his cameras today (these two pic's were taken by someone else on the trip) and now need to get busy and get them all scrapped.

From the archives

I haven't had much time to stamp lately as I worked this week at the Den (a sr. center here that serves on meal a day and does meals on wheels). So I decided to pick some of my favorite cards/projects that I have done in the past and post them from time to time. Maybe this way I can post a pic/project a day. Ü I am working on a tutorial for a fun folded card.

This is the first card I sewed on. I marked a 1/4 sheet of white cardstock with a ruler and pencil and then sewed on the lines. I then sponged the whole card for the background. The clown is a stamped image that Lana sent me from the Jest Between Friends SU! stamp set. The pom poms on his suit and hat have glitter on them.

Belize Journal 5/28

"Today we went back to work. When we first got there, Dustin and I got the last wire put in and put up the light boxes in the ceiling. Then we built two saw horses and put up sheet rock on the ceiling...for dinner we had pizza with Marian's bread"

Belize Journal 5/27

*note: my comment in color
"Today we went to church...for the church service Tyce played the guitar, Taylor played his water bottle drums and the rest of us sang. After church service was over we went and looked at the building dedicated to David." (David is my cousin who went to Belize as a teen and was killed in an accident when he was 16. He was loved by all and they dedicated a building in his name in Belize)
"Today we had chicken with rice and potato salad."

Blog Candy Winner!

Thank you so much to everyone who left a comment. I loved reading all your favorite colors.
I know there is a URL out there that will pick a random number, but I didn't have time to search for it. If anyone knows what I am talking about and can send me in that direction I would appreciate it. So I did it the "hard" way. I didn't want to have my boys pick a number between 1 & 37, because then rarely would "1" or "37" be chosen. So I wrote all the numbers on torn pieces of paper and drew one. I drew #12 who is....Sara! Sara said "I don't actually have any SU colors, but from what I have seen my favorites are Carribean Blue and Chocolate Chip. I just love the browns and blues, but there are also so many more to choose from that when I get the chance to buy some items I think that I will be looking into those colors first!" Sara, Please e-mail me your full name and address and I will get the blog candy in the mail to you. Thank you to all for playing and visiting my blog.

Belize Journal 5/26

"Today we went out to San Agnosia...we brought along a cooler of food for lunch. Once we got to San Agnosia, we went to this ferry dock thingamabob and went across the river then we went up the road on the other side of the river to the Mayan City ruins of Xunantunich. Once we were in and went up to the main part it was so amazing. The main temple was so big and it took forever to get up it. There were 105 steps if Taylor counted right....We went back to the dock and went across the river and the person running the machine pointed out two iguanas."

It's finally here....

Blog Candy! Ü To thank you all for reading my blog, I have a little blog candy to give out. There are 15 -quarter sheets of varied Cuttlebug embossed images, 19 yds of different vintage silk ribbon, two sets of clear stamps and one clear block (that I found at Michael's in Thornton, CO), a mini stapler, staple remover and staples and a bag of (various colors) punched tabs.

For a chance to win, please post your favorite color, using SU!'s colors as a guide. Mine is Chocolate Chip with anything Ü, but usually Pretty in Pink or Cool Caribbean.

I will draw a number Wednesday morning(6/20) to see who wins.

Belize journal entry 5/25

" ...today I did electric working. Lots and lots of electric working. After dinner we went into town tot he woodworking shop. There was so much cool stuff...I got mom a candle holder, dad a set of coasters, Aaron a bookmark and me a letter opener. It was raining for the first time while we were here. And when it rains here, it pours here....for supper we had Hawaiian baked pork chops."

Blogger RAK's

I rec'd a couple of blogger RAK's before I left for Denver. The first one if from Beate. I "met" Beate on SURAS and we have exchanged my cards/projects. I love Beate's work and we have alot of the same tastes in colors and images. This RAK is from Diane Gilbert. She says this is her first blog RAK. I love it Diane!! Thank you so much for this lovely card. Be sure to check out both Beate and Diane's blogs.

Belize Journal 5/24

"It is very bright at 5:00 am and very dark at 7:00 pm...after breakfast we went out to 26 Acres to work...we put the beams for the ceiling up and I helped with that for quite awhile, then I started to help with the electrical work. It is a good thing I had experience with woods and electrical work because that is all I did yesterday...for supper we had sweet and sour chicken and rice with coconut milk."

Sweet Kitty

I have lost my "mojo"!! I haven't stamped in so long and whenever I would sit down
to stamp, I just couldn't seem to get going. Hopefully I have found it now. I really do like how this turned out. Kitty image is Inky Antics that someone RAK'd me with. The patterned paper was also a RAK and I don't know what company
it is from. It was in a pkg of several 6 x 6 sheets. The parenthesis is from the George Cricut cartridge. This sketch is #118 from Splitcoaststampers sketch challenge. "Sweet" is Karen Foster snap stamps. The image is colored with colored pencils and gamsol and then stitched together with sewing machine.

Belize Journal 5/23

me talking...Every four years the youth group kids get a chance to go to Belize on a mission trip. There is a couple in our church that lives there part of the year and the youth group leaders are the daughter and son in law of this couple. The kids go down and help out where ever they are needed.

Benjamin..."When they first opened the door on the airplane the first thing you could notice was the humidity. It is so humid here, but after an hour or so it seems to be normal and it doesn't bother me so much...Kent picked up a stick that he called stinkitoe. It smells awful, but it tastes like bitter chocolate."

I am home

and I am tired! Benjamin is making supper and I plan to go to bed early.
Dad did really good on the way home. We had to stop every hour for him to walk. I figured he would sleep all the way home, but he was awake. He will sleep good tonite (and hopefully so will I). I can't believe that he is in NO pain, is walking straight and not stooped over. It's amazing that that could all happen within a short amount of time.
Thank you for all your e-mails and prayers. With the exception of a road rage incident all went well.
I will start posting a bit from Benjamin's Belize trip journal tomorrow. I see I am getting closer to the 10,000 mark, so be watching for a blog candy posting.

Hello from Thornton, CO!

We had a safe trip out here and dad had surgery this morning. It was much better news that we could have dreamed. He has a herniated, ruptured disc that broke (ruptured just means a cracked disc) and a piece was pushing on a nerve causing the pain to go down his leg and loss of feeling in his foot and toes. He is waking up now and the dr said he should have little to no pain when he wakes up. He will be really happy about that. He made history today here as he is the oldest patient (64) to have never had surgery in his life (at this place anyway) and did really well.
They have one computer here that no one is using, so I am cking up on messages and e-mailing people about dad.
Thank you all so much for your kind words and prayers. If all goes well today and tomorrow morning, we can go home tomorrow.

I see I am only 420 visits from 10,000. Very close to some blog candy Ü
TTYL,
Debbie

thank you...and a note...

Thank you for all the kind words and prayers I rec'd for my dad. I didn't expect to hear from so many, was just letting everyone know where I would be if there was no e-mail access at the hospital. I have had some ask what hospital we will be at, and I have no idea, I am just the driver Ü. All I know right now is we are going to Denver.

I have also received several messages asking to hear about Benjamin's trip to Belize. He kept a journal (per my request Ü) each day. He gave me permission to write a little from each day. I will do this when I get home. Just right a couple sentences from his journal to give you an idea of what he did. We gave him 4 disposable cameras as we were told not to send our digital or it would get stolen. The disposable camera pictures are kinda fuzzy and we found out the other kids took their digital cameras! Oh well. I will post a couple of the better pic's too.

So things to look forward to...
me getting back
news & pic's from Belize via Benjamin
blog candy when I hit 10,000 visits

I'm packed and hope to get a GOOD night's sleep. Going to early church in the morning, then we are going to see gr'ma (she is worrying about dad), then heading out. Please pray for me as I drive the whole way-should be about a 6 hr drive.

See you in the funny papers! LOL!! (my gr'pa always said that and it came to mind *heehee*)

Going to be gone

If I hit 10,000 while I'm gone, I will post the blog candy contest when I get home.
My dad has 3 ruptured discs in his back and one of them a piece broke and is floating in his leg. I will be taking him and mom to Colorado Sunday to see a specialist on Monday and possible surgery on Tuesday. I have no idea how long I will be gone.
Need to get things ready for a garage sale Saturday and finish up things that need to be done here before I leave. I won't have access to a computer to my knowledge as I don't have a laptop, so will post when I get back.

Benjamin is home!!!

As of 2:30 am this morning. We are all tired and he is still sleeping. I don't have any cards to show you this morning, but hopefully tomorrow. Can't wait until Benjamin wakes up so we can hear all about his 12 days in Belize.

Slit Flower Frame

This card was made by another of Maria's wonderful tutorials. You can find the tutorial here. After making the card I had a hard time trying to figure out what to put in the center. I chose a SU! set and like how it turned out. Papers, ribbon and sticker border is from CTMH (Close to my Heart). I didn't have CTMH ink, so really had to *grunge* up the SU! inked images to match the CTMH paper.

Accordian File

EDITED: the tutorial link should now work. Thanks AJ for letting me know it wasn't working.

Now that things have slowed done a bit, I am going to try to post a few times a week. I would like to post every day, but just can't promise that that will happen. Here is a FUN Accordian File I made. You can find step by step instructions here. While checking this out, take time to look around Maria's blog. She has WONDERFUL tutorials. I am in the process of making a couple more samples from her tutorials.

I used CTMH papers and sticker (the circle is a sticker) and SU!'s tab punches and stamp. I colored the image with gamsol and colored pencils. I am showing you the side image as well as the open image, but Maria shows it much better. You could use this as a fun mini album and cut cardstock to fit in the envelopes and add the tabs to the cut pieces rather than the envelopes like I did. I am going to fill this with some stamp goodies and give to someone.

Blog candy #2

Here is the second blog candy I won. This was on Jen's blog. Go check out her awesome blog! She sent me lots of ribbon, primas and some vellum squares (not pictured).

Thanks bunches Jen!