Be still my beating heart!

Trying this on an old laptop in my sewing room and it appears to be working....yay!

I realise now that I have become a bit obsessive with regard to card making supplies.  I have been going back and forth the past couple of weeks to the doctor's for tests and MRI's etc. as I had a bit of a scare. But thankfully, so far, all is good.  I have been prescribed a lot of different medications though so multiple trips to the Walmart pharmacy.  Anyway, whilst there yesterday I spotted some white glitter cardstock in the clearance section.  I swear my heart beat doubled. $3 for  a 10 sheet packet.  They were originally $7. Two packets quickly jumped into my trolley.  I would have got more but I am starting to feel guilty about buying card making supplies.  I am frugal by nature and we have a fixed income which is already stretched by the current inflation and I had purchased some used wooden stamps from ebay a few days earlier.  An excellent deal, 10 really nice stamps for less than $6 and I negotiated down the postage (as I am apt to do).

But now I am putting myself in 'time out' and am not going to buy any more supplies.

The cheapie cutting dies I ordered weeks ago have started to come in the mail from the orient so I am more than well stocked.  

Some of the new dies and some glitter card have been utilised in my anniversary cards as well as some recycled materials.

The dragonflies are made from recycled wrapping paper and the humming birds are cut out from the covers of a magazine that the State sends out for free every month.  Some of the covers have glorious colours in then and are good quality card.

The glitter card and one of the new dies were used for the 'LOVE'.

I made a couple more dragonflies using the wrapping paper ready for some future card.

The colour options to make these are endless and now I have glitter card too! Oh my, I am so easily pleased lol.

Well, time to go to the mailbox so be safe everyone......

Now for something completely different.... No it's not about cards today!

 Last year, it must have been around April or May we went to a local Swap Meet.  I bought the red gingham curtains there that I recently altered to fit one of our bedrooms.  I also bought something I had always wanted but could never justify the cost of. A food slicer!  It is something I had wanted for years and years.  Well I saw one at this swap meet.  It was priced at $15.  I offered $10, we haggled back and forth and I ended up paying $13 for it.  I didn't fare too well in that deal lol.

Anyway, I bought it home, checked it out, cleaned and sanitised it and put it away.  

As you know Friday was St. Patrick's day and we always have corned beef and cabbage.  Here in the US corned beef is a piece of beef, usually brisket, that has been infused with spices and goodness knows what else which makes it red and salty.  I boil it for many hours, (with the additional spices that come with it) to make it nice and tender.  With about an hour to go I throw in a cabbage that has been quartered, potatoes, onions and carrots.  Totally delicious.  I slice up some of the beef to eat with the dinner then we use the rest to make Reuben sandwiches for a couple of days.

I had forgotten all about the slicer at Christmas for the pork and Friday and Saturday too for the corned beef but got it out Sunday to slice up the meat and cheese for the Reubens.  This shows it just as I was finishing the last batch of cheese. Afterwards I cleaned and sanitised it again and put it back up until next time.  

As you can see it slices very well, I vote it a success! It isn't something I would use for just a cheese sandwich but I might slice up my next block of cheese in one go.  That would be worth all the effort of getting it out and cleaning it all up afterwards. It isn't a really high dollar one either but it is perfectly adequate for anything I might want to use it for and it was very nice  to eventually use one.  

Bet you're glad this post wasn't about cards again eh?  But, be warned, I am working on our anniversary ones and I have new cutting dies!!!

A different style of cards

 I watched a video by Shelly Goodby who has a website  Stamping Smiles and it gave me some ideas.

Here is the link if anyone is interested.

Stamping Smiles

Based loosely on her instructions I made these two cards. She is a demonstrator for Stampin' Up and has a lot of supplies.  Mine are a lot more limited but I think the cards turned out quite well.

 

Something a bit different and a bit of enjoyment on a drizzly, dull day.

Taking a gamble on the Washi tape and finished cards now in the mail

 Well, I used the washi tape again and I hope it sticks as there are two cards now winging their way to England that I have used it in. I like how it looks so am hoping it holds up.

Here is the front of my great grand son's, I have posted my grand daughter's in a previous post.  I like that I can personalise the cards by printing the verses out on my computer and I found some nice fonts to use. The washi tapes adds a nice finishing touch.

Our local (ish) Walmart has some pastel coloured card stock in now and some white so I will tag them onto my next grocery order.  I am leaning away from brown cards and bright colours, I want to try something different.  I will keep the brown blank cards for Christmas.

I got outside for a little while today to trim the huge forsythia bush at the end of our front porch, it blocks the way to the side of the house.  It has been a beautiful day.  Going to cool back down a bit for about 10 days and rain quite a bit so today was the day to do it.

My husband is not too well right now, he has lost a lot of strength over the winter so I don't think he will be able to get outside and do much this year although he is a summer person so when it heats up it might just energise him.

The daffodils survived the late cold weather and are proudly popping up all over the property.  The iris are starting to breakthrough the ground, the bushes are budding and soon the trees will be too.  Spring is definitely in the air!

Not a lot else happening though, which at our time of life is a good thing!