Home Again - but reluctantly!

It was a fabulous three weeks and it went flying by much too fast.  I arrived back home yesterday and am missing the Captain something awful.  He'll be home in a month or so though so I'll just have to keep busy!!!

I thought I would share just a couple pix from the new camera:

 

This is our beautiful Belmira. We woke up that morning to a marina that was like glass. DH took my camera and I out in the dinghy so that I could take some pictures. I took a lot!

This is DH and his brother picking some Bluegrass music on the dock at Westport Harbor.  I took lots of pix of that as well! DH heads out there most Wednesday nights to play with a group of musicians and a crowd of appreciative fans.

Here are a couple of shots from a day trip to Newport:

I took lots and lots of pictures trying to get used to my new camera.  Pictures of the fabulous food, people and sights of the Massachusetts coast.  I had a fantastic time (I always do) spending time on the boat and with DH.  It is nice to get away from everything and just enjoy our life together.  I can't wait until I am able to retire and spend even more time on board Belmira with DH!

The crafty cave is a total shambles and the Monday night gals are coming over tonight.  Have to get it cleaned up a bit.  Maybe I'll take some before and after pix to document the creative chaos!

I have a road trip downline meeting on Friday and plan to bring my camera along.  There will be fabulous swaps, fun make and take projects and lots of wonderful sharing with my stampin' buds.  I'll be sure to share some pix with everyone!

Thanks for visiting!

chris

If you have any questions about the techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

The Newest Addition to My Artistic Arsenal

Take a gander at this sweetheart:

After my sweet Nikon P90 hit the deck my first week on board Belmira, DH decided it was time for me to graduate to a big girl camera.  This is the latest addtition to my arsenal.  Now .... I just have to learn how to use it!

I will be heading back home on Sunday.  3 weeks just gone ... can't believe it's already time to leave.  I hope to get back to posting regularly once I get back and get settled in.  Thanks everyone for hanging in there with me while I get my act together. 

Thanks for visiting!

chris

If you have any questions about the techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

Greetings from Provincetown!

Well we are now moored in Provincetown Harbor.  We spent the first night here anchored, but a storm blew in and we decided to pick up a mooring instead of staying up all night monitoring the anchor.  My camera hit the deck however and now I am using DH's to try to get some shots of the local color!  P-town is a very, very colorful place and I'll try to get some pix up tomorrow. 

Thanks for visiting!

chris

If you have any questions about the techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

Greetings from Buzzard's Bay!

Well I actually made it - got the okay from the doctor on Saturday morning and left on Sunday morning!!!  It is so good to be back on board Belmira and even more wonderful to get to see DH again!  Nearly three months apart is a very long time!

Here he is at helm on a short day trip out into the bay:

I still have some Convention swaps to share but things have been so very crazy these last few weeks that I never got them posted.  I will also have some Holiday Mini swaps to share when I get home so watch for those.  I will be back in Colorado - flying solo again until late September - on August 26 and really hope to get back to some regular posting.  

I will have more pix of the Massachusetts Coast adventures though.  We have wifi when we are on our mooring so each time we come back to port, I'll try to post about our adventures.  Tomorrow will see us heading for the mouth of the Cape Cod canal.  We'll be going through the canal early Thursday morning (with the tide) and venturing out into Cape Cod Bay for a bit of whale watching before we head across the Bay to Provincetown.  Where we are off to after that will totally depend on our mood, and of course the weather!

Thanks for visiting!

chris

If you have any questions about the techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

Card Samples from Convention

I have put together a slideshow (finally figured out how to do it now in the "new and improved" Picasa), so here it is:

These were all cards on the display boards at the convention center in Salt Lake City last week.  I have some more photos of swaps that I took at our Front Range Stampers meeting last night and I will put those together to share soon.  If you want to save any of these photos, I think you just need to click on the picture and it should take you to that photo in my album on Picasa and you can right click and save it to your computer.  If that isn't how it works, I'll be back with better instructions. 

Thanks again to everyone that hung in with me while I worked through all my various and sundry issues.  First physical therapy session is Thursday and hopefully that will net great results.

Thanks for visiting!

chris

If you have any questions about the techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

I'm Back!

Well, I'm back from convention - exhausted but renewed!  Here's hoping that things will get back to normal now (as normal as they ever get in my life).  I have two more weeks in Colorado before I head to Massachusetts for three weeks to be on board Belmira with DH.  I have tons and tons of stuff to share with you - stamp camp cards (Christmas in July was a blast), downline meeting pictures and cards (thanks Ann and Pat for wonderful times sharing, eating, swapping and creating) and some pix of cards from convention too.  I did not swap, but I did get lots of pictures of projects and cards that I loved.


Here's a little sneak peek at some of the cards from convention:

My hand is better.  I've been out of the splint for two weeks and while I still don't have full range of motion or strength in it, it's much improved and physical therapy starts on Thursday.  I can at least type now!!!  Hopefully the spell checker will catch any goofs I make when my clumsy fingers hit the wrong keys.


FXW, DS and two of our grandchildren are aboard Belmira with grandpa so be sure to visit his blog in the next few days as he's promised to post some pictures of them all sailing and fishing and generally having some watery fun!


I have resigned from all my design team duties and am hopeful that it will allow me the time to get back on track with this blog.  I really want to learn to make videos that I can share with all of you as well as some pdf tutorials of some of the wonderful things I am learning to do.  Thanks so very much for hanging in there with me - only a few of you jumped ship when I was unable to post over these last few weeks.  You are all the BEST!!!!!


Thanks for visiting!

~chris

If you have any questions about the techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

Still Alive and Kicking

I am not missing or dead but I am physically, mentally and emotionally fried.  I'll be back soon.  It's been a crazy month or so but I am well (mostly) but I'm just not ready to blog yet.  Thanks for hanging in there with me and I hope to have a "catching up" post very soon.

Thanks for visiting!

chris

Design Teams:
Kaboodle Doodles
Heart Song Inspirations

If you have any questions about the techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

Kaboodle Doodles Challenge #118

I actually got a card made for this week's Kaboodle Doodles Challenge - honoring mothers!  Here's my card:

Our sponsor this week is The Stamping Boutique and I used one of their wonderful images and colored it with Copic markers.  Stop by and check out all the great projects from the design team.

Thanks for visiting!

chris

Design Teams:
Kaboodle Doodles
Heart Song Inspirations

If you have any questions about the techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

My Favorite Track Star

My oldest grandson ran in the 30th Annual Lion's Club relay race today.  This was his second year running and he was fantastic (I'm not the least bit prejudiced either!)  Here he is holding his ribbon:

He is such a great kid - love you Kael!!!!!!

Thanks for visiting!

chris

Design Teams:
Kaboodle Doodles
Heart Song Inspirations

If you have any questions about the techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

Sassy Chic Project

Here's what you will be making at my table if you come to tomorrow's Sassy Chic Stamp Camp in Longmont, CO.

You can choose whatever color combo and sentiment you want.  You'll also get to feast on our wonderful Cinco de Mayo taco bar and be entered to win any one of our fabulous door prizes!  Kits for Kash will also be available so if you find some cards that you really like - you can buy an extra kit or to for just $2.  If you need any details, just shoot me an email and I'll get them to you right away!  Hope to see you there! 

EDITED TO ADD:  The inspiration for this card came from this card created by the super talented LeAnne over at WEEinklings.  Please pop over to her blog and take a look - I guarantee you will be inspired too!

Thanks for visiting!

chris

Design Teams:
Kaboodle Doodles
Heart Song Inspirations

If you have any questions about the techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

Front Range Stampers Slideshow

These are the cards from the swap at this month's Front Range Stamper's meeting.  I'm missing one of the make and takes and will try to show that to you later this week.  I had hoped to be able to share them as a slideshow, but for the life of me I cannot figure out how to do that with the new web Picassa interface.  It used to be sooooooo simple and now they've "fixed" and "improved" it and it doesn't work at all!  If anyone can point me to instructions on how to do this I would greatly appreciate it!  This new blogger interface is driving me nuts and now they've managed to screw up the Picassa interface as well.  Crap!  Well, here's the individual photos and I apologize for the long post this creates.

I also wanted to share this photo that I took on the Pearl Street Pedestrian Mall in Boulder over the weekend - such gorgeous colors!

Am trying to get ready for May's stamp camps and hope to have some ideas to share soon.  I'm heading to Washington, DC to work in my office there later in May and will take my camera ...!

Thanks for visiting!

chris

Design Teams:
Kaboodle Doodles
Heart Song Inspirations

If you have any questions about the techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

Stamp Camp North - Slideshow

Anybody else having a mostly "hate" relationship with blogger lately?  I hate messy code and this new version persists in inserting it's interpretation of what I want instead of letting me do it myself.  GRRRRRRR! Hard spaces, font codes, spans and divs all over the frigging place!  

Anyway, here's the promised slideshow from last weekend's stamp camp:

Thanks for visiting!

chris

Design Teams:
Kaboodle Doodles
Heart Song Inspirations

If you have any questions about the techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

Kaboodle Doodles Challenge #115

I'm a day late (again), but here's my card for the latest challenge over at Kaboodle Doodles:

It's much larger than my usual card (it's 5.5" square) and totally outside my comfort zone, but I think we have to make ourselves do that once in a while just to prove that we can!  I've got slideshows from last weekend's Stamp Camp North and also one from last night's Front Range Stampers meeting.  Great stuff so be sure to stop back and check it out.

Thanks for visiting!

chris

Design Teams:
Kaboodle Doodles
Heart Song Inspirations

If you have any questions about the techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

Stamp Camp North - April 14, 2012

Well, it's time again for another Stamp Camp North.  This camp is so much fun and there are so many talented demonstrators offering up their gorgeous creations for you to make.  If you didn't get an email from me with info and would like some information, please email me and I will get that to you right away.  This is the project that you will be making at my station on Saturday:

There will be color choices as well as sentiment choices, so you can make this card truly your own!
 
Thanks for visiting!

chris

Design Teams:
Kaboodle Doodles
Heart Song Inspirations

If you have any questions about the techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

Happy Easter!

For all of you that celebrate it - I hope you have a wonderful and joyful Easter!
Thanks for visiting!

~chris

Design Teams:
Kaboodle Doodles
Heart Song Inspirations

If you have any questions about the techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

CAS?

I have a couple cards to share today along with a couple more "kid" cards.  First, I'd like some feedback from you about whether or not the flower cards I'm sharing today could be considered CAS in your opinion.  I think there's a difference between CAS cards (clean and simple) and cards with only one layer which some folks think is definitive of CAS cards.  Here's the cards I whipped up last night:

 
I'm trying to figure out how to describe my style (in general).  I consider these to be CAS cards because while there are multiple layers, there's no ribbon, no buttons, no brads, etc.  They are not embellished in any way except for the image and the designer papers.  What do you all think?  The tulip and poppy images are by Arielle at Wax Fruit Company and the vase image is a freebie from Digital Two for Tuesdays.

Here's the aforementioned "kid" cards (I think they are pretty CAS too except for the brads):

 
The top image is from Designed 2 Delight and the bottom two images are from Digistamp Boutique.  I combined some elements from two graphics on the little piggy because I wanted him to have something besides mud in his portrait.

Also, while you all have your thinking caps on, which background do you prefer - the black or the white?
 
Thanks for visiting!

chris

Design Teams:
Kaboodle Doodles
Heart Song Inspirations

If you have any questions about the techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.