Martina McBride's "I'm Gonna Love You Through It"

This is one of her most powerful songs to date.
I'm Gonna Love You Through It

Goes along with my post from earlier today.

SU! Stamp Club with Joann - HOPE Card

I can't take credit for the design of this card, my SU! demonstrator, Joann, did that. She has a Stamp Club Weekend each month and opens her home to a group of us on Saturday and Sunday (different people, different days, but you are free to sign up for either day). I am a "switcher" - I go to whichever day works best for me, but many of the ladies go only to the Saturday class or only to the Sunday one --- the card to be made is the same on both days.

August is a special month because it is the Annual SALE! Joann sells her left-over paper, retired stamp sets, ribbon she doesn't use often, etc at a reduced price and we get to gobble it all up! She also offers us the chance too pour over her sample cards and choose those that we would like for our sample card collections! It is almost too good for words!!! OK it IS too good for words!!!!

So this was Stamp Club weekend (it is the second weekend of each month) - and she used the special Breast Cancer Awareness stamp set to make the design of the card. It is a fabulous pink and grey card with a glittered butterfly. The card is, as are all cards, so much more spectacular in person than on the internet.

My sister's best friend is currently fighting - very hard - a battle with breast cancer, so I am sending my card to her. Here is the card:

I really like this card because it used so many different techniques. The glittery butterfly, was stamped with Versamark onto a transparency then SU!'s heat & stick was applied, heated and red glitter was applied, then heated again to make it stick. Sorry, that transparency, should be called, in SU! language, a "window sheet."

The "H" hope stamp and the encouraging/empowering words (courage hope believe unity survivor caring together love kindness support strength blessed thank you) are embossed using craft ink and clear embossing powder. And the great doily image in the corner is....wait of it... the "Hello, Doily" stamp :) from SU! which we stamped in Sahara sand onto the Blushing Bride paper.

OK usually I do not give out so much info about how I make a card - but since Joann told me how to do it, I thought I might pass this info on to you. And, if you ever want to know how I have done something, please feel free to ask :)

btw, after all that, my card to Corinne for tomorrow seems like a child's work. :(

Nickelodeon's "iCarly" Stigmatizes Mental Illness | Child & Adolescent Bipolar Foundation

Nickelodeon's "iCarly" Stigmatizes Mental Illness --- Child & Adolescent Bipolar Foundation
Nickelodeon's "iCarly" Stigmatizes Mental Illness
written by Susan Resko on Thursday, August 11, 2011 at 5:36pm
The August 13, 2011 Nickelodeon ("Nick") episode of the popular adolescent show, iCarly, is entitled "I Lost My Mind". The character Sam kisses a boy she hates, so she assumes she has "lost her mind" and checks herself into a "mental hospital." While there, she "finger-paints." Her friends try to "break her out." The promo suggests their plan is "crazy" and "insane."
This characterization is beyond the pale, and stigmatizes adolescent psychiatric hospitalization. Such callous rendering would never be given to treatments for other life threatening illnesses such as cancer or AIDS.
I have urged Nick to pull the episode, AND do an episode that shows the kids learning that psychiatric hospitalization is no laughing matter. Words and phrases like, “I lost my mind,” or “mental hospital” are not cool. This rendering will stigmatize kids seeking needed care, causing greater suffering and potentially even deaths. Nick's audience is the generation that can end stigma, if helped to understand! The very responsible 90210 episodes on bipolar are a great example of what can be done.
Jokes about psychiatric hospitalization went the way of calling a child with Down Syndrome the “R word.” They are offensive and tactless. In fact, suicide is the third leading cause of death among teens and young adults. A 2010 SAMHSA study found nearly 1 in 10 youths between the ages of 12 and 17 experienced major depression in a year—nearly 2 million youths. Fewer than 4 in 10 of these youths received treatment. These kids are Nick's and iCarly's audience. Does Nick think this is funny?
Our 2009 nationwide survey shows that over 60% of the children of respondents have been hospitalized at least once and nearly 40% have had multiple hospitalizations. CABF represents over 37,000 families and receives 600,000 visits to our website each year. These families find "the joke" no laughing matter.
If you find this characterization offensive, I urge you to contact the producers at Nickelodeon and share your thoughts. The only way we end this type of objectionable programming for our children is to voice our opinions (and click away from Nick’s iCarly.)
Send your complaints to Viacom, the parent company of Nick.

Kindness Cards

I do not think I shared with you my Kindness cards. these are the cards I sent to the gracious man who fixed my A/C and the news reporter who made it all happen. Now that I think about it --- did I share the story???

Hang on, while I go look at my posts..... (you hanging on, while I look......even though in cyber space, it does not take waiting time......) OK yes, I did tell you about it on July 31st.

But here are the cards I sent (they were a little different from each other, but not too much, you will get the idea from this one, which was Tom's the Amazing A/C guy). This is the Easel set-up, but the envelope closed:

And this is with the envelope open and the card displayed on top of the Easel:

And, finally, this is the saying on the outside of the card (which was tucked in the envelope on the Easel) -- I know a little confusing and involved, but it make for a great presentation.

Well that is that card I really wanted to share with you - I hope you enjoyed it :)
Please leave a comment of you can :)

Exploding Purse - Paper Folding Experience --- a teaser

I saw this really cool Purse that opens sort of like an exploding box, so I call it an "Exploding Purse." I have been working on English-language directions (yep, I saw it on a Dutch website), and I have the main directions ready, but not all the pictures, so I am still holding off. Look for it soon. Just a little tease :)

Monday's Card to My Cousin

Yep, it is that time of the week!

Card going out to Corinne, who is now recovering from both neck and arm surgery!

So, the card --- which was pretty simple this week, but I liked it because I was in a cheery mood and wanted to use COLOR! Here it is:

"Th-th-th-that's all folks!" :)

My backyard

So another week begins.

I spent a lot of the weekend in the backyard with my mom, working onm getting weeds out and generally keeping up with the mess I call a yard. It isn't much to write home about. I have a few fruit trees - although nothing produced this year! I have an apricot tree, a lemon tree and two peach trees (one for eating ; one for pies). Then there are several very OLD, very not healthy rose bushes and a LOT of random little rocks, weeds and sporadic landscaping. Plus, of course, numerous weeds that grow despite my use of PREEN and Round UP.

Oh, and I have 2 tomato plants - my pride and joy, the actual things that I have planted and that I care for back there!

We tried to get ahead once again, but I have finally made the decision (after living here for 2 1/2 years) to put in grass. It means doing a lot of back-breaking work to get the backyard ready to accept grass seed, but I think the grass will be easier to maintain than the rock/dirt/weed mixture I have now. So I guess I am going to try to move the rocks around, get the dirt really soaked and buy some grass seed.

My housemate has offered to take care of the lawn in the short term (she wants lawn for her little dog), so I will leave it to her as long as she comes through for me, and maybe I can get the backyard looking good in time for the fall to take over!

I guess my first stem will be to buy a new hose and splitter so I can water it while keeping my tomato set-up in place....hmm hadn't thought of that before. I wonder if you can buy hoses in 10' lengths? That is about all I need for the tomato plant project...

Gazpacho!!!

My favorite summertime meal is a cool bowl of gazpacho soup.

Gazpacho is a tomato-based vegetable soup that is served cold. It can be a very time-consuming and labor-intensive meal to make. Yet, I have come up with an easy non-V8 based way to go about it. While I am not knocking the V8 versions, they are incredibly high in sodium and have an aftertaste that I just do not like.

So here is my version (which relies on having a Raley's grocery store nearby):
--24 oz NOB HILL brand FARMERS MARKET Vegetable Soup (in the fresh deli section)
--1 lb (16 oz) RALEY'S Pico de Gallo (a mixture of tomato, yellow onion, jalapeno, & cilantro) (found in the produce section)
--1 lb "Shrimp Meat Cooked Salad Size - previously frozen" (usually about $6.99/lb) -> the small little guys (in the fresh fish counter)
--Avocado to garnish (I use about 1/3 per serving)

Mix it all (well, not the avocado) and serve with the avocado on top. It makes about 4 good sized portions, maybe 6 to 8 skimpy ones :)

The shrimp makes it -- usually gazpacho does not have shrimp. Of course, the shrimp also makes a vegetarian, even vegan dish, a meat-eater dish. But, oh well, I like my shrimp!

ENJOY :)