While I’ll be sharing lots of our convention ideas and projects later on, I wanted to let you see that we didn’t spend ALL of our time with just STAMPIN’ UP!.  There are other things to take in and do in Salt Lake City, for instance …

You would think that this being my fifth year to attend the STAMPIN’ UP! Convention in Salt Lake  that we’d have scouted out most all shopping venues! . . .NOT SO!!!  Salt Lake is one of those places that likes to hide, little small enclaves of great shopping boutiques amidst the outer edges of its’ urban areas.  But as my up-line Dawn Derrick and I discovered there are sweet gems to be uncovered!

One day we took a cab out to Piper’s Quilt Shop…and all I can say is W-O-W, what a fabulous quilt shop it is!

Housed in a quaint little wood slat bungalow (probably dating back to the ’30′s I’d guess) Piper’s Quilt Shop  is one of the most amazing quilt, fabric, and nick knacks shop I’ve ever been in.  Along with the most amazing quilt patterns and uniquely different fabrics she also has a wonderful supply of alternative fabric crafting items, like aprons, purses, baby clothes, smocking, knitting, wall hangings, and it goes on and on and on!  We were wishing we could spend lots more time there, but as it so happened, (and probably better for our pocketbooks!) we had arranged to meet up with the remainder of our gal group.  We did enough damage as it was…let’s just say that our ‘boxes’ that we shipped because we knew it wouldn’t fit in the suitcase, will be arriving later this week! WOO HOO!!and ROFL!!!

Dare I say that Piper’s Quilt Shop will be a regular stop for us in the future.  If you are ever fortunate enough to be in the Salt Lake City area and are brave enough to venture into this little establishment, you will be glad you did!

Thanks for stopping by today and be sure to come back for more great Stampin’ UP! ideas and convention news!

Have a wonderful week!  Katherine

Inside:  (1st floor powder room)

Outside: (hubby’s work shed) 

Inside: (Kitchen hutch)

Outside: (View of back elevation)

Inside: (Kitchen cabinetry)

The appealing symmetry and abundant use of window panes was not an intentional decision, but a subtle design element that has appeared and reappeared throughout our home.  Note that our previous home of 20+ years, situated on 20 AC adjacent to our existing home has no window lights at all in any of the glass work or decor!  Hmmmmm ? I don’t know when this transition took place but it is a taste we are attracted to and much more than just a trend or preference.

This brings me to the latest project I just completed for my kitchen counter greeting.  The piece incorporates a myriad of Stampin’ UP! resources to highlight the Galatians 5:22 Fruits of the Spirit scripture verse.  Among them are the Stampin’ UP! Sizzix Big Shot dies, my new Stampin UP! Artistic Etchings Clear Mount Stamp Set (a ‘So Shelli’ exclusive design!) and the fabulous Stampin’ UP! Newsprint Designer Series Paper:

The original design was created by a fellow Stampin’ UP! demonstrator and was in a 12″ x 16″ vertical frame using 3″ x 3″ squares.  I don’t have the wall space in my home for such  a huge  piece so as usual, I started thinking of how I could adapt and make it work on a smaller scale.  Two years ago I created another piece in this frame and decided to ‘give it a rest’ and reuse the frame! Voila!  The frame accommodates a 4 1/2″ x 11 1/2″ piece and was just perfect for the scripture verse.  The results are an inspiring combination using the appealing window pane design element within a collage style effect.

Stampin’ UP! elements employed in the piece are:

Stampin’ UP! Sizzix Big Shot Timeless Type Alphabet Medium Sizzlits Dies; Birds & Bloom Sizzlits 4-Pack Die

Stampin’ UP! Punches: Word Window, Curly Label, Modern Label, Heart to Heart (small heart), 1 3/8″ x 5/8″ Oval, 1/2″ Circle Small

Stampin’ UP! Build-a-Brad Pewter Brad

Stampin UP! Stamp Sets:  Define Your Life; Typeset Alphabet Upper & Lower Case (retired); Simple Serif Alphabet(retired)

Stampin’ UP! Real Red and Basic Black Classic Stampin’ Ink Pads

CLASS SCHEDULED:

“FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT” Workshop

Cost of workshop is $25.00 (frame included)

Come and create your “FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT” word frame!

I’ll have everything you need and even have some of the work done beforehand to help make it quick and easy for you to complete! Call to reserve your spot because attendance will be limited for this workshop.

Dates and times:  Daytime workshop:  Tuesday August 17th 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Evening workshop:  Tuesday August 17th 6:30- 8:30 p.m.

For reservations call: 254-848-5173 or email kpritchard@hot.rr.com

]]> http://mybluebonnetcottage.com/blog/2010/07/12/inspirations-with-stampin-up/feed/ 0 http://mybluebonnetcottage.com/blog/2010/07/12/birthday-celebrations/ http://mybluebonnetcottage.com/blog/2010/07/12/birthday-celebrations/#comments Mon, 12 Jul 2010 11:00:12 +0000 Katherine Pritchard http://mybluebonnetcottage.com/blog/?p=1952 [Continue Reading]]]> If you stopped by the other day you got to see the great Happy Birthday card that was created with my awesome Stampin’ UP! punches.  The card was created for our son Brandon who turned 24 on July 2nd!

Happy Birthday Brandon!!!

Here he is with his sweetie Janelle! And here we are wishing him a wonderful birthday!

We had a lovely dinner at Outback Restaurant .  I had another picture of Brandon, Colin and his girlfriend Katie but for some reason when I was editing it and ‘saving it for web’ something happened and it got deleted.  No joke!  I was so mad at my computer because I’d already erased it from the flash card on the camera and now it’s gone, gone, gone!  Why do things like that happen, just a split second wrong key stroke and poof! Too bad, it’s history now…well, I guess we’ll just have to schedule a re-do!  I’m always up for dinner at Outback and maybe next time everybody will be able to get in on the picture.

Thanks again for stopping by, I appreciate how busy your schedules are in the summer!  Have a great weekend!

Katherine

P.S.  Eight days till I leave for CONVENTION!! Salt Lake City. . .Look out, here we come!! WOOHOO!!

The Bundle of Joy Stamp Set has always been one of my favorite sets and I do enjoy the opportunity to bring it out and use it again.

I thought the spots and  spiked mane on the giraffe would go nicely with the retired designer series paper in my scrap bin.

Mounted on a Brilliant Blue standard size card and using Only Orange 1/4″ grosgrain ribbon over the middle seam.  This is a tried and true card recipe that you can use again and again with all sorts of stamp sets and paper in your stash!  For a little extra ‘pop’ I added Crystal Effects to the Brilliant Blue on the giraffe.  The ‘hello baby’ is from the new Teeny Tiny Verses Stamp Set.

It’s a good idea to have several of these basic card layout recipes in your repertoire to turn to when you need a quick card.

I hope you’re having a wonderful week as March is on the wane and April is growing near!

Thanks for stopping by!

Katherine

Wednesday was no exception to an ordinary day in the life of Colin. He anxiously rushed in the door after his Math class at TSTC and needed a dish and shovel to dig up a beautiful round clump of purple flowers on the roadside down by the bridge about 1/4 mile from the house.

Now, how many 18 year old guys would have even NOTICED a clump of purple flowers by the roadside, much less want to go dig them up and bring them home for mama? (I don’t think many, but I could be wrong)

Not to mention that he wanted to put them in my fine crystal bowl no less! “This is perfect”, he said with delight, and yes it is I agree.

Funny thing though, on Monday I had been downtown and saw bunches of these lovely blossoms in a yard out front of the business I was at, had stopped to admire them, and even contemplated trying to ‘dig some up’ so I could find out what they are.

It appears to have an onion/garlic odor, it is not a fragrant floral essence at all, and they do appear to be some kind of wild or ornamental onion or garlic because they do have tiny little bulbs like an onion. But upon further investigation they do not taste at all like an onion nor a garlic really so I’m not quite sure.

They will undoubtedly disappear in a week or so and be gone until next Spring. But for now they look lovely on my kitchen counter where we can marvel at God’s handiwork, even for a brief moment. I have loved perennials since I went wildflower picking with my mother one Spring many years ago. We brought home such a lovely colorful bouquet. We didn’t have to till the soil, water or feed and tend them or anything. We just brought them home from the ditches and fence rows in the country, a wonderful gift from the Lord and we enjoyed admiring their beauty and intricacies.

I have a lovely, hand carved flower press purchased twenty years ago at Homestead Heritage, and we will press some of these lovely blooms before they become overly mature.  That way, we can keep a small memento of this day.

I hope you and your family are enjoying this wonderful change of seasons, time marches ever onward.  But, take a few minutes to enjoy the wonders of the country road, you’ll be glad you did!

Blessings on your day!

Katherine

I remember a particular conversation with the perky young real estate agent at closing that took place because it was snowing heavily outside and she was remarking about how unusual this was because it happened to be October 28th.  We were in the midst of the EARLIEST snowfall on record.  Not to mention that before it was all over they had nearly a foot of snow by the end of the day.  She also was relating that Durango proper really didn’t get that much snow but that the ski areas about 20 minutes away was where most of the snow usually accumulated.

R-E-A-L-L-Y???

I told her that our first winter in Waco they had a record 8″ snowfall one Tuesday in December and that she’d better get her snow boots ready!

Well here you go, Durango has had more snow so far this winter than ever before and it ain’t over yet!

In all fairness, being up on the mountain as we are, the snow doesn’t melt as quickly as it does in town and half of this came from having to have the THREE FEET of snow shoveled from the roof to prevent damage to the home from the weight.  Even several commercial structures in town have had roof collapses due to the excessive weight of all the snow.

The snow removal folks, contracted by the development, knocked off the transformer cover at the end of the driveway for our meter and with the thawing and re-freezing ice and water blew up the transformer cutting off power to our home causing a pipe to freeze behind the washer and leaking down through the wall to the bedroom below.  So a bit of unexpected remodeling is in order:

Thankfully most of the damage was confined to that one bedroom, but the entire hand finished wood floor in the lower level will have to be refinished once the new wood is in place.

It’s been an interesting adventure for this ‘flat lander’.  I can’t wait for Spring!  I don’t know, but I think it’d be an awesome place for a STAMPIN’ UP! retreat!  Maybe?

Anyway, as you can see repairs are quickly underway and hopefully we’ll get the family up there sometime soon!  It’s really no fun going solo!

Hope you’re having a wonderful weekend and many thanks for stopping by!

Katherine

It was an honor and privilege to share this exciting award ceremony with our many friends and family who came to congratulate him and support his achievement.

It was a bitter-sweet moment as we leave TROOP 497 with memories of  many, many  years of cherished experiences.   Scouting has been a huge part of our lives since Brandon joined Tiger Cubs in first grade at St. Paul’s Episcopal Day School back in I believe 1993.  Seventeen wonderful years of scouting activities.

It was difficult to put his Memory Table together, since so much of his ‘stuff’ had been relocated in our move 5 years ago to the new home, it was a bit challenging to pull it all together and remember where it all had been stashed.

Scouting has been somewhat of a ‘tag team’ effort for  Dad and I.  I got to go on the local and in-state campouts with the boys acting as chauffeur carrying several kids, sleeping in a bunk aboard the USS Lexington with no AC and 100+ weather or sleeping under the stars in the Crockett National Forest of East Texas; either in my special cot or on my special mattress in MY personal tent…it really was fantastic fun… and loving the outdoors as I do.    Dad got to enjoy the ‘High Adventure’ experiences hiking the Rockies in Colorado summer weather, freezing in drizzling rain; soaking wet in the muck of the Boundary Waters on the Canadian Border; or snoozing aboard a sail boat at Sea Base off the Florida Keys.

Scouting has brought experiences like no other activity can.  Learning life skills along the way while having a blast.  Witnessing some of the most breath-taking sunrises and sunsets that God provides.

We will continue to support their activities ourselves however we can and encourage others with son’s to enjoy the manifold blessings of the Boy Scouts.

Congratulations Colin!

Love Mom!

Friday mid-day my guests arrive and as we are going through the cottage it was discovered that there was no water!? I was sure I had paid the bill so a cut-off was out of the question, (although I did drive out to verify that the meter was indeed OK). But, upon further inspection I discovered there is about a 12 inch piece of pipe behind the cottage that USED to be enclosed in the underpinning and apparently when the new underpinning was installed back in February of ’09 the gentleman who provided that work for me apparently did not see the need to enclose the pipe, therefore allowing it to FREEZE during the 13 degree temperatures we had Thursday night. A quick call to my trusty plumber and five minutes after his arrival he had it cleared and the water began flowing nicely. He secured the exposed pipe for me with that wonderful gray Styrofoam Pipe Insulation and all was well. Even so, he advised to allow a stream to flow inside the cottage during this current extreme cold spell. (So much for GLOBAL WARMING eh?!)

Oh yeah, did I mention the flat tire I had on my vehicle in between? Yeah! truly a BLACK FRIDAY if ever there was one, but it was not over….. Mercedes-Benz has this cute little ‘inflatable spare’ for some of their vehicles…mine, with it’s own SPECIAL lug nuts…! The repairman had never put a spare on a Mercedes before, and could barely figure out how to get the thing out of the trunk of the car. (Is this really happening to me?!) I nearly froze while reading him the directions on how to change and inflate the spare. What a three-ring circus! He had to take my tire to the dealer for repair and I could have it switched out the next morning. What a privilege!

Saturday mid-day I’m at the dealer waiting for my tire make-over and my cell phone message alert beeps in about half a dozen messages….from Friday evening. You see, the stone on the exterior of our home being anywhere from 6-8 inches thick over the 6″ studs sometimes prevents cell phone reception indoors, and when you go outside, whenever that is, your phone gets ‘caught up’. Mine did, finally, and amidst the messages was one from the cottage guests…apparently upon returning from Friday evening Dinner-out-on-the-town they entered the Cottage to a blazing 86 degrees! Thankfully through their resourcefulness (aren’t all scrappers resourceful?!) they Googled the thermostat over the internet and found the owners manual and re-set the thermostat AGAIN.

Ahhhh, but that was not the end of it …..wait till you hear about Saturday night!

The weekend was not a TOTAL LOSS though, BAYLOR Men’s Basketball tromped Oklahoma!! Woo Hoo!, GO BEARS!! Men’s Basketball is going to be GREAT this year!

I’ll let you know about the rest of the weekend next time, till then, SMILE!

Blessings to you!
Katherine

It was  a lot of fun to watch the shifting of gears from an outdoor field, pads, helmets, gloves,  and cleats; to tennis shoes, gym shorts, and tee-shirts.  Colin gets a lot less ‘playing time’ in basketball since this is his first season to participate, but he’s learning the ropes quickly, or should I say ‘hoops’.  A bit reluctant initially, but I think he’s warming to the sport and feeling more comfortable on the court with each practice and game.

We are pleased that Colin is with most of the guys from the Live Oak Classical Academy football team and Coach Barker is continuing his shepherding of them.  It’s a great peer group of  Christian young men in training!

It’s so important during the High School years that your children have the ‘right’ friends in their peer group who can encourage each other in their faith and help hold each other accountable for their behavior;  on the field, on the court, or on the bus enroute, or just hanging out with each other.  We are thankful that Colin has the opportunity for this positive influence and experience to help him on the road to adulthood.

I hope you had a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving with your loved ones!

thanks for stopping by!  Katherine

It’s that time of year again! It is just amazing how fortunate our Colin is when it comes to hunting. Seriously! For the last three years Colin has bagged his deer on his FIRST time out! And this year was no exception.
The spread on this trophy animal is larger than either of the other two by far. And he was in wonderful condition so we’re looking forward to some excellent meals this winter. We will donate a large portion of it to the local food bank since it is just the three of us so he is well appreciated.

Of course, Colin is decked out in his finest hunting gear! ( HA HA!!) If there’s one thing clear about Colin, he really doesn’t care what people think about what he wears…you won’t find many deer hunters in shorts with their boots on. . . Go figure!