JulieK | Embrace the Everyday

Made for Monday… Handmade Cards

May 21, 2012 By JulieK

I don’t know about you, but I still LOVE to get snail mail (especially when it’s NOT bills!!) A thoughtful card can totally make my entire week. But, as much as I love getting a handwritten note or card, I am not good about putting those beautiful thoughtful cards in the mail to other people to make their day a little sunnier… I teach a monthly card class, and have lots of beautiful cards to choose from, but don’t send them often enough. I’m going to try to send a card a week to someone I know… Want to join me? Doesn’t have to be handmade, just send a little card or handwritten note to someone once a week… Here’s a few cards I’ve made recently that will hopefully have new new homes in the upcoming weeks…

This first one is one of my favorite cards I’ve made… That’s part of the reason I still have it :) I don’t want to send it away!! The flowers are stamped directly on a book page (I love the Used Book Superstore… But, you do have to be slightly careful about the page you use, just make sure there isn’t anything inapporpriate :) and then I colored the flowers with colored pencil. The snippets of patterned papaer are scraps of Fancy Pants papers that I had used on another project, and the Thank You stamp is Technique Tuesday (as was the flower and stem).

Oh, Happy Everything!! The word stamps are very old Stampin’ Up set that I’ve used so many times… I don’t remember who made the dandelion stamp, but I LOVE it. Along the bottom of the paper I used a strip of paper and folded it for the pleat.

Oh, this little chickie stamp jumped into my hand one day at the store and just wouldn’t let me put it down… The stamp is Jillibean Soup… He’s stamped on the background first, then onto the scraps of patterned paper and layered… I think it’s just so cute!

Speaking of cute! Look at that little birdie! Love this new stamp set by Stamps of Life, I just joined their monthly stamp club, and LOVE the stamps… Inside this card it says “It’s your birthday.” Love that you can make a super cute card with just a couple little pieces of patterned paper!

So, who’s with me? Send someone a note today!

Whoooo you lookin’ at?

May 14, 2012 By JulieK

I know I have a ton of projects that I need to post… BUT… I was so excited a few weeks ago when “our” owl was back… Clearly not the same exact owl, the last time we “had” an owl was March 2008 But when that owl left (in the fall) we didn’t see another owl (even though we looked :) The tree in front of the house, RIGHT in front of the house has a fabulous “owl hole” and we were kinda sad when it was empty for so long… Well, a couple of weeks ago we were coming home from baseball at dusk, and when I opened the car door I heard it! We had another owl!! Yeah!!! but… this one is a bit more shy than the last one, we only see him at dusk, and the couple of times I’ve tried to get pictures, I failed… I do have CRAZY zoom in my p500, BUT, it was too dark for the shutter to be quick enough… So, Mike dug out the old tripod and voila! Here’s a couple of shots of him! He’s handsome, I think :)

This one was taken yesterday without the tripod a little blurry, but I like it anyway :)

Handsome (or beautiful… how do you know if an owl is a boy or girl? I think he’s a boy)

Mike was trying (and succeeded to) get his attention… Owl’s looking at him like, what the heck are you crazy people doing?

Then he looked right at me like… You looking at me?

Beautiful First Communion Gift

May 4, 2012 By JulieK

Kathryn’s First Communion is tomorrow (no worries, pictures will follow!!) and I wanted to get her something special. At the moment her favorite color is purple. I contacted my absolutely favorite Etsy seller, Graceful Rosaries, who I’ve purchased many bracelets and rosaries from in the past and asked her if she had purple stones (I didn’t want fasceted beads) and if she could make a matching rosary and rosary bracelet set for Kathryn… After just a couple of emails back end forth to be sure she knew what I was looking for… Here is the final result, they arrived yesterday, and I honestly cannot wait to give them to my special little girl… They are simply beautiful in the pictures, but really stunning in person. If you’re ever looking for religious jewelery or rosaries, I cannot recommend Mary enough… She does beautiful work, and stands by it as well, if it doesn’t fit she’ll resize it and when I broke one of my bracelets (not because of workmanship, but because I snagged it on something and moved my hand too fast not realizing it was caught) I sent her the pieces I was able to salvage, and 4 days later my repaired bracelet was back on my wrist, at no charge. I can’t recommend her enough!! Her prices are reasonable, especially considering the beautiful workmanship… She has lots of beautiful items in her shop, and will custom make items to meet (and exceed) your needs!

Here’s the beautiful purple jasper rosary… In person it practially sparkles!

and the matching rosary bracelet

If you’re ever looking for religious items, please visit her onlin shop!! You’ll be glad you did :)

What have you been doing?

April 23, 2012 By JulieK

Well…

Certainly not updating my blog :) Actually I’ve been doing a whole heap of stuff!! I just finished an online class, we had vacation, there’s the kids’ baseball schedules and there’s always crafty-projects going on… But what I’ve been doing most lately is reading… Yes, I’m obsessive compulsive, and that’s my obsession of choice at the moment. Here’s what I’ve read lately… Quite a hodge-podge of books :) The links when you click on the pictures are affiliate links. Please see my Disclosure page for more information.

Shadow of the Titanic by Andrew Wilson

I’ll start with the book that I just finished… And the book that is totally out of my “box.” If you know me at all, you know that I don’t “do” drama, I refuse to go and see movies if they are real-life or could possibly be sad in any way… There’s enough drama in real life, I don’t want to pay to go see it… Ummm (spoiler alert!), the Titanic? it sinks. I have no idea why any person would want to see it in 3D… But, I heard this author do an interview on NPR during their coverage of the 100th anniversary of the sinking… And it sounded interesting. The book follows the survivors, and how the sinking and survival shaped the rest of their lives. I will say, it was excellent! I really enjoyed the book, it was well written, and I found the transitions from person to person well thought out and connected. I can’t say enough about it, and it really isn’t my kind of book… but it was really good.

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Now, this book? My kind of book :) There are witches AND vampires… what’s not to like?? I read all 4 of the Twilight books in a month… This is my kind of story! The only problem is that the sequel doesn’t come out until July 10th, and I can’t wait that long to find out what happens next! This book flowed nicely, with enough fake history to allow you to escape into their world :)

30 Pieces of Silver by Carolyn McCray

This book was not what I was hoping it would be. The description touted it as something like the DaVinci Code… Described as a controversial historical/religious thriller that will challenge everything you’ve ever been taught… Ummm, not so much. I throughly enjoyed the DaVinci Code book, it didn’t “challenge” my beliefs, I read it as a novel… and really enjoyed it. This book didn’t hang together as well as the DiVinci Code. The changes from past to present were clunky and awkward. There wasn’t enough of the historical information to make it really “believable” (and I’d like to point out that I found the aforementioned witches and vampires believeable… so my threshold isn’t all that high). The action scenes were entertaining, but not enough to make it all hold together. I wasn’t completely sad when I finished this one.

Griffin’s Daughter Trilogy by Leslie Ann Moore

Well, I finished Dead Sexy, and needed something else to read… The first book in the trilogy happened to be on my Kindle, I have no idea how long it had been there, but I figured, it was there, and something to read… Elves and castles… My kind of book. The first book was very entertaining, the second seemed kinda hurried, and the third book was disappointing… So, for 3 books we’re leading up to this epic battle between good and evil… and on one page, with one sentance… “he knew what he had to do”… That was it… No description of the battle, no explanation of what happened… All that build up… the ending was a disappointment… but the first book was entertaining…

Dead Sexy by Tate Halloway

This book started the obsession… I picked this one up at the library, simply because we were standing by the “new” books area, and Mike was talking to someone… I happened to look over at the shelf, and saw the title: “Dead Sexy: No Rest for the Wiccan” which made me giggle out loud. This one had witches, vampires AND Zombies oh, my! Very fluffy read, and very entertaining. I enjoyed it a lot, and although it’s not the height of literature, it was a fun and quick read.

That’s what I’ve been up to lately! So, what should I read next??

10 on Tuesday

February 28, 2012 By JulieK

Oh, we had SUCH a fun vacation last week… Nothing major, no big trips, but we had a super fun time! Here’s my 10 for the last week (or two)!!

1. First… I discovered Teavana… Holy Heck, that place is DANGEROUS!!! I now have a gajillion different types of teas in my cupboard and man, it’s delicious!! and not cheap, but delicious! hmmmm… I don’t think I can pick a favorite, for morning, I like a mixture of White Ayurvedic Chai tea and Samurai Mate Tea… Another yummy combination is Youthberry or Citrus Lavender Sage and Scarlet Cloud… but the Cacao Mint Black tea, with a little bit of Wild Orange Blossom… Yummy!

2. We took a little mini-vacation… We drove to Howe Caverns

3. Very cool place to visit and tour. I was kinda surprised at how many people were there, it’s in New York, but barely :) not a far drive at all and the cavern itself was beautiful… but difficult to photograph!!

4. There’s also an OCC Chopper designed for the Caverns… Cool! I don’t know why the skull theme, but it was a really cool bike!

5. Next stop (well, the next day) was the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge.

6. It is fabulous!! We were there for a gallery talk, which was great and very informative, and the museum is really great (if you like Rockwell’s)… The Studio isn’t open in winter, we walked out to it anyway :) but we plan to go back in the summer.

7. We had an absolutely amazing lunch at the Red Lion Inn… I should have taken a picture… The Mushroom Soup was REALLY yummy :)

8. Our next “adventure” was to Parker’s Maple Barn, just for a yummy breakfast/lunch… It was their first day sugaring of the season… Which, of course put the idea in our heads… So… yup, that picture below… that’s a bucket on one of our own trees… drill a little hole, and holy cow!! Sap comes literally pouring out!! Amazing!! There’s not much time left in the season here, the buds will be out soon, but it’ll be fun anyway!