Marker Club - November

This month, Holly is the hostess of Marker Club. She rounded up a group of ELEVEN people for tonight's workshop! WHEW! Go Holly! So hopefully it's successful and everyone likes the two projects.

The suggestion from my group of four core girls was that they wanted to use GLITTER this month. So, after searching around (and wanting to focus on Christmas), I CASE'd a card that I found on SplitcoastStampers, using the Dasher stamp. I love this stamp (it's super versatile). We used iridescent ice embossing powder all over on top of the stamped dasher image AND on top of the snowflakes. WHEW! That's a lot of bling!

Secondly, we used Delightful Decorations to make a simple card. Sentiment comes from the hostess stamp set, Christmas Punch. There are lots of way to "hang" the ornaments, but instead of choosing ribbon or glitter on sticky strip, I decided to use the bow from Berry Christmas. This is by far the easier card of the two, but it will be a good balance with 8 people; don't you think?

Next month, I think we'll focus on a 3-D project. Suzanne is the hostess, so it will be a fun time doing this whole thing in Gorham...most likely the last time that I'll visit that house (they put in an offer on a new house)! Scary!

Holidays in Hand - Day 1

Our goal for Holidays in Hand today is to focus on what we want to get out of the class as a final project. Jessica suggests documenting our Values and Goals. She's challenging us to write/craft/document 20 minutes/day EVERY day in December so everything can come together once the holidays are over. WHEW!

My goals for documenting Christmas:
1. Show family traditions

• Stockings
• Dad Being "Santa" on Christmas Day
• Christmas Breakfast
• Segee/Laustsen Christmas

2. Document past traditions

• Caverly Holiday Party (Morgan Lane)
• Stockings for the dogs
• Hiding presents in the Christmas Tree

Discuss future traditions. My favorite parts about the holidays. Segee/Laustsen Christmas dinner and what there HAS to be on the table. Mimi's fudgecrackers. Family photos.

I think that's it for now!

The Yellow Dog's Barn

On Saturday, after my Stamp a Stack at Julie's (photos to come later), Warren and I traveled to Barrington, to check out a new doggie daycare. The place is called The Yellow Dog's Barn, and the people there were super nice. They were offering "family" photos with Santa, so there were a good amount of dogs and people in and out throughout our visit. We got a tour of the facility, an idea of what the dog schedule is like, and their outlook on the business. Warren and I were both impressed, so we scheduled a "trial" day for Titus. The trial day is both for us and the daycare; we get to make sure that it works for Titus and they get to make sure that Titus is right for their business.

So, I drove to Barrington this morning and dropped Titus off. Joann (one of the co-owners) encouraged me to call around 1030a this morning to see how he was doing (that's right at nap time), and to see if they suggested that I pick him up at lunch time (often times, dogs get stressed out in a new place on the first day) or if I could leave him there for the day.

I called at 1030a this morning, and they had great things to say about Titus. He was a little shy at the dog by dog introductions this morning, but once let loose in the pens to play, he played HARD. Joann said that not only did he play hard, but that she really enjoyed his "time-outs" every now and again where he'd trot over to her for some love. Definitely sounds like our man! We were interested to hear how nap time was going to go, as they have many crates set up for the dogs, and Titus has been in a crate in over six months. She said he trotted right into the one they'd set up for him and went to sleep. Where did this well behaved dog come from? :)

The Yellow Dog's Barn is more than happy to continue to have Titus as a client of theirs, so he'll attend TR during the weeks to wear himself out. So happy!

Titus and Doggie Daycare

As many of you may know, that shortly after we got Titus, we decided that putting him in doggie daycare 2x/week was the best option, both for him, and us. Originally, he was attending a place that was on the campus of our Veterinarian, Great Bay Kennel. They were really great with the dogs, Titus liked it there ok, but it was realy dirty inside (so Titus came home very dirty), and when he was six months old, they refused to continue to take him until he was neutered. Due to the fact that we didn't want to fix him until he was a minimum of 9 months old, we started to look for a new daycare.

I stumbled upon K9Kaos just by doing an internet search. When I called them, I was excited to learn that one of the employees had a great dane that was only 6 weeks older than Titus (Fifi). They were more than willing to accept him without being neutered and had many "plus-es" to offer over Great Bay, including the fact that the had more play area, were cleaner, and broke the dogs into groups by age and play style. Recently, though, Titus has been coming home with a good amount of battle scars (last week they don't know how he got hurt, but he had a dime sized boo-boo near the top of his left front leg). So...because he can't tell me what's really going on at K9Kaos, we are, in fact, looking for a new daycare.

Fifi's mom has graciously provided a suggestion that we're going to check out tomorrow, called The Yellow Dog's Barn. I called today to see if we could swing by tomorrow, and the co-owner that I spoke with on the phone was extremely knowledgable and friendly. Hopefully we like what we see! It'll be a little more out of my way in the morning, but only about 5 minutes extra each way, so it's worth it! I'll let you know how it goes!

October Marker Club

So, tonight was our second of four marker clubs. Valerie was the host tonight and before the girls left last month, we talked about any special requests that they had for holidays/cards/techniques for the following meetings. It was an overwhelming response to do Halloween tonight, so we did!

The first card is created with Pumpkin Patch as the stamp set, Pumpkin Pie cardstock base, Old Olive, the pumpkins are "markered" onto Whisper White Cardstock, and the grass is made with Versamark. My favorite part? The Pumpkin Pie ribbon. This ribbon is the softest ribbon I've ever felt. I love it!

The second card is created with the Twick or Tweet stamp set. All "ink" that you see on this card is made from Stampin' Up Shimmer Paint. Night and Day DSP covers the Basic Black cardstock base, and I cut out the scallop square using a die. With just a hint of ribbon, I think it really brings this card together.

What do you think? Are YOU dressing up for Halloween? Do you get trick or treaters? We don't...but oh well!

Stampin' Up Regional - Portland

So last Saturday, (October 17), Julie and I made the trek to Portland, Maine, to attend the afternoon session of the Stampin' Up! Regional. I think that this may be the first? time that they've come north this far, and Julie and I had a great time. We didn't do swaps (well, I brought digital cards with me, but no one was interested....MDS anyone? BOO!), but we met a lot of great ladies, heard some excellent demonstrations, and had a wonderful time scouting out the idea boards that they had set up at the back.

They did a bunch of giveaways, but neither of us won anything. Oh well! The three projects that we did revolved around the Berry Christmas set that is in the Holiday Mini. I wasn't so crazy about this set pre-Regional, but now I like the way that they combined colors and the stamps for Christmas.

I would definitely go back again, I wish that they would come to this neck of the woods more often!

The photo that you see here isn't one of our projects, but is instead one of the cards that they had displayed on the idea board. Image is copyright Stampin' Up!.

Richards' Wedding - Oct 10

Yesterday, I had the joy of witnessing the marriage of Suzanne and Chris! The ceremony was in a beautiful church in Loudon, NH and I do believe that Suzanne found a GEM of a reception place in Chichester. No detail was overlooked; Suzanne did a lot of crafty work to decorate the reception area, including making drink tickets, name tags, table cards, a welcoming framed sheet from the Richards'....it was just amazing. The centerpieces were PERFECT, ranges of low to high berries, wispies that you would see in a field, etc, all placed in Bell Jars. Just absolutely astounding and fitting in with the whole country feel extremely well.

The reception was great, the food was fantastic, and catching up with everyone from UMaine was AWESOME!