Ringing in the new year and some resolutions

As I mentioned in the last blog on December 14th, it has been a crazy month.  I decided to take the rest of December off from blogging and worrying too much about any stamping as there was way too much stuff on my plate this year.  To share a little of the craziness of the month and the wonderfulness of family, I decided to share a  little of this month's high points before getting back into the stamping world.

First, one of the biggest events that is happening this year is my granddaughter Kira's approaching wedding.  Normally most families handle weddings in a simple fashion getting ready over the course of a year or so.  In Kira's case, we are having to do it in very short intense periods of time.  She fell in love while visiting friends in Australia and was proposed to last year at Christmastime when her fiance came to visit during his summer break.  After finished her Master's in Teaching last April and making all of the preliminary decisions regarding their wedding in July of 2015, she left for Australia to live with her fiance and his family while working at a parttime job and getting ready for permanent immigration.  In November, she and her fiance, Clinton returned for his summer break again and made all the final arrangements for their wedding including two bridal showers, Save the Date cards and Invitations.  So during the week before and after Christmas, I attended two bridal showers and had huge family gatherings for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  We had eighteen for Thanksgiving dinner, twelve for Christmas Eve dinner and seventeen for Christmas brunch.  Here are some quick pics of some of the fun times.

 Getting ready for the first bridal shower held by my oldest daughter!

 The first bridal shower!

 The eight grandchildren with one significant Aussie in the center of the group!

 Christmas Brunch

In addition, three of my granddaughters have all graduated from college and started their new lives in their own homes.  When they collected their Christmas ornaments from their parents, they realized that they didn't have a Christmas tree skirt like I had made for each of their parents trees so they all decided that they wanted one made for them in their special colors for Christmas this year.  Now I do like to quilt, but making three special skirts on four weeks notice was a little more of a challenge than I had planned for, but being a good gramma, I didn't want to disappoint.  I worked everyday for most of three weeks to make it happen and that is why there was virtually no stamping done during that time.  Here are the three skirts which were finished at 11 PM on December 23rd.

 Meaghan's Red and Brown Skirt

 Kira's Red and Gold Skirt

Brooke's Blue and Green Skirt

After Christmas, I had a sneak peek class on Saturday for the new catalogs coming out on January 6, then there was another bridal shower on Sunday which was also my 51st wedding anniversary which my husband and I celebrated with happy hour at Trader Vic's.

Then there was my usual Simply Stampin' Lunch Bunch and downline Aerubbecisor dinner on Tuesday to finish out an incredibly busy month.  Kira and Clinton left for Sydney on Tuesday and life will be returning to normal for a few months.  I did lots of fun projects for the classes on Saturday and Tuesday and now I am preparing a new workshop for the seven that I have booked this month.  In addition, I will be getting ready for Leadership which will be held the end of January.  I'll be sharing lots of fun new projects from the Spring Occasions mini and our annual Saleabration.  Here is the first one from my Sneak Peek class on Saturday.

Stamps

Painted Petals

Paper

Pacific Point, Whisper White, Wild Wasabi, Painted Blooms Designer Series Paper

Ink 

Pacific Point, Wild Wasabi,

Accessories

Spring Flowers Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Wild Wasabi Seam Binding

I can't post the actual items from the catalogs until they go live on January 6 since you can't order them until then, so come back and I will add the links once they are available.

Thanks for your patience even though I know you were all as busy as I was.  I'll be posting lots more in the next few days, but you will have to be a little more patient until I can show all of the stuff from the new catalogs.  Hugs, Sherron

Stampaholics Anonymous

It's been another busy week and I think it will be this way until after Christmas.  I received my new catalog order and did my last workshop of this year.  The Wild Cards stamp club was so fun.  One of the members, Barb Jewell has a gorgeous house just down the street from mine and her decorating is exquisite.  Would you believe that I forgot to take any pictures of her 14 Christmas trees and all the little cubby holes and vignettes that she has placed throughout her house.  It was an awesome workshop and the refreshments prepared by hostess, Arlene Smith were to die for. 

Today was my last Stampaholics Anonymous for 2014.  It was a little bit wild with two brand new stampers joining us and lots of my regulars.  My good friend and downline demonstrator, Jana Gann had prepared some gift tags and a fun little box for a class so I shared those with everyone.  Thanks goodness, another of my wonderful downline demonstrators, Darlene Almer was here and helped to teach the projects once she learned them.  I was very busy bringing down supplies and preparing the treats that I am known for.  Most of my stampers tell everyone that they come for the fun, friendship and food.  I prepared my world famous peanut brittle and almond roca cookies for everyone as well as had lots of great Costco cheese and crackers.  It's world famous because my soon to be grandson in law is from Australia and raves about my cooking.  Here are pics of the group and the fun tags and box everyone was able to make.

Yesterday, we drove north to Olympia, our state capitol to pick up our Grand Dog, Harley.  He was given to me about five years ago, but my daughter and her family decided that they needed a dog after their's had died of old age so they dognapped him at Christmas time that year and so I get him each year when they go on vacation.  They are at DisneyWorld for eight days so we get to keep Harley until Christmas when they will come down for dinner, brunch and presents.  Isn't he a doll.

My Shih Tzu who will be 10 years old in May is my baby, but Harley and Brandy play so well together and have such a good time, it is a joy to have him here to play for the two weeks.  They are both so cute together.

 Brandy on the left and Harley on the right.  I couldn't get them both to look at me at the same time so had to take two pics to get both of them full faced.

I have lots of other things to post and will try to get back into everyday or so.  I want to share the cards from my Swap of the Month group, plus I am getting ready for my classes the end of December plus I received the first swap for this month's Aerubbecisor swap today.  Hope your Christmas preps are going well.  I am madly sewing my Christmas projects while making Christmas cards and getting them in the mail.  More to come.  Hugs, Sherron

The last swaps

Last night was my stamp club with the Impression Obsession stampers.  We had a wonderful dinner of Lasagna, Salad, Rolls and a great Razzleberry pie.  Thanks to Theresa Ames for a yummy job of hosting.  They enjoyed the projects, but I think my projects this month are a little too complicated or they were having way too much fun.  They were here for three and a half hours. 

Before that, my granddaughter Kira and her fiance, Clinton from Australia were here finishing up their "Save the Date" cards to send out to all of the local family and friends and I worked with Kira to make the first ten cards and envelopes for her mom's Christmas cards.  More on that later.  We succeeded in getting the first ten done so it's a start.

Today, I finished the last of the deliveries from last week and paid all of my bills and had a nice lunch at Red Lobster with my husband.  I'm working on my Christmas projects which I will post after they have been given so I don't wreck any surprises.  Here are the last of the Aerubbecisor swap cards including one of the two that I did with the ingredients for making it.  It was inspired and some what cased from a card that I saw somewhere, but have no clue where.

 Holiday Home in Silver Embossing by Wendy Droke

 Seasonally Scattered in Silver Embossing by Jana Gann

 Mingle All the Way in White Embossing by Jana Gann

Christmas Bauble in Silver Embossing Powder by Sherron Karasek

Stamps

Christmas Bauble

Paper

Whisper White, Brushed Silver

Ink

Pacific Point, Silver Encore, Blendabilities-Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, Daffodil Delight

Accessories

Filigree Frame Embossing Folder, Silver Embossing Power, Silver Metallic Ribbon, Rhinestones

Tomorrow is my last stamp club for this year.  It has been a busy and fun year.  This stamp club is normally held at my house, but one of our Wild Card members is an exquisite decorator and had offered to host it at her house so we can see the 14, I think, trees which she has in each room of her home as well as little areas with incredible decorations.  I plan to take lots of photos and share them with you.  Our actual hostess is bringing what everyone calls Funeral sandwiches which are "to die for" so I will brief you on this workshop.  It promises to be fantastic.  Hugs, Sherron

More swaps and short blogs

My blogs will be short and sweet until after the holidays.  I have so many projects to complete and lots of family events.  My granddaughter Kira is here with her fiance for six weeks to finish final preps for her wedding and there are two bridal showers scheduled this month.  She has immigrated to Australia to teach and live with Clinton and his family.  She loves Australia and I am excited about the idea of traveling to visit her.  She will be back in July to celebrate her wedding here with family and friends before returning to Australia.

There are Christmas cards to make and I finally finished my annual Christmas letter today.  Yesterday was my last bazaar and I have two more stamp clubs this week and I will be free to work on just Christmas preps.  Yay!

Here are a few more of the swaps from our monthly Aerubbecisor swap.  There were some great projects and I will share the rest of them over the next several days.

 Six Sided Sampler in Cherry Cobbler Embossing Powder by Karen Ross

 Lovely as a Tree in Iridescent Ice and Silver Embossing Powder by Bobbie Hartsell

 Ornamental Pine in Black and Gold Embossing Powder by Lacey Auvigne

Merry Christmas in Iridescent Ice by Verna Almer-Tidd

Aren't these swaps wonderful?  I have such a talented group of ladies in my group.  They are so much fun to get together with.  Stay tuned for the last four and I will share some of the projects that my stamp clubs are making later this week.  Hugs. Sherron

Crazy week and fun swaps

It has been a non-stop week since Thanksgiving.  Finishing up swaps and getting them sorted, wrapped anddelivered was the big challenge at the end of the week.  Since then I have been on the road doing workshops, picking up orders in Rainier and getting them delivered, and attending our big Occasions and Saleabration catalog previews in Clackamas, Oregon.  The drive was not fun and the weather was cold and blustery, but we loved the new catalogs (mine are all multi flagged with all the pages of stuff that I have to have) and had such a fun time afterward sharing a dinner at the Clackamas Town Center.  Here is a pic of the seven of us from this area who attended the premier.  I can't wait to share it with you all.  You should be getting yours in the mail soon if you are one of my regular stampers.  If not, let me know and I can get one to you.

I've been promising to share the great swaps that my downline did for the month of November.  The theme was wet embossing, using our wonderful assortment of great embossing powders.  We had some great cards.  There were eleven total and two of us each did two to make sure no one got one of their own back.  Here are several of the projects including one that I did and the supplies that I used to make it.  I'll post more, hopefully tomorrow if my day doesn't get away from me again.  I have several ladies coming to make up classes and learn missed techniques so we will see how the day goes.

 

Christmas Bliss, Festival of Trees, and Endless Wishes in Silver and Irridescent Ice Embossing Powder by Wileen Davidson.

 Lovely as a Tree in White Embossing Powder by Darlene Almer.

Making Spirits Bright in Calypso Coral Embossing Powder by Sherron Karasek.

Stamps

Making Spirits Bright

Paper

Calypso Coral, Garden Green, Gold Soiree Specialty Designer Series Paper

Ink 

Versamark

Accessories

Calypso Coral Embossing Powder, Calypso Coral Seam Binding, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter

 I hope you are not as frantic as I have been this week and that your holiday preps are going well.  I'm hoping to slow down a little this weekend with only two workshops left to go next week.  I have lots of projects to complete before Christmas and hope to start on my own Christmas cards tomorrow.  Hugs, Sherron.