Seeing Red!

I'm seeing RED right now.

No, I'm not a bit angry.

I'm just basking in the glow of some redness that has come my way recently!

Yesterday, we returned home from a trip to find the usual pile of mail.

Both of our birthdays fell while we were away so there were lots of Birthday cards to open, along with the bills and advertisements, catalogs and magazines.

There were also some fat envelopes of various sizes and one big box.

I wouldn't allow myself to open any of the packages until all of the suitcases were unpacked and I started on the laundry.

If you recall, I won the February Giveaway in my swap group,

A Swap For All Seasons

The color this month was RED.

Such cute redness in the package from Linda, our clever and adorable hostess!

 LOVE LOVE LOVE!

 LOVE LOVE LOVE!

 Linda knows I love paper dolls...everything came in this little cloth sack.

 Another friend, who must know that even though I have a nice handkerchief collection, I didn't have one for Valentine's Day. Now I do! More RED! And a cute card and buttons, too!!

 The biggest Birthday surprise in the mail, was the big box from Twyla, of Two Crazy Crafters. (believe me, there is nothing crazy about this girl except, maybe, crazy kindness!) She, and her multi-talented daughter, Lindsey, have a wonderful blog...you should visit if you have never been there. Right now they are featuring vintage Valentine's cards that you can download for your own use.

Twyla wrote to me last week and said she'd like to send me a pair of her adorable, crocheted, house slippers. Such a kind gesture! Of course I said yes...I've wanted a pair for a long time but couldn't decide on a color. Twyla suggested a RED & pink combination which turned out to be the perfect choice!

The box was much bigger than a pair of house slippers...because, this was also inside!!!!

No photograph could ever capture the beautiful colors in this crocheted afghan! Twyla is a wizard with crochet hooks! Even the edging is adorable!

They are the colors I love, RED, pink, minty aqua, grey/blue.

It is just what I needed for these -7 temps we are having in Pittsburgh. I wrapped up in it last night and this morning and it is sooooo warm!

The last REDs I'm going to show you this morning are 2 gifts from my dear friend, Michele, in Virginia.We were able to spend some time with her and her husband in our travels. One of the things we did together was to take a short hop to Leesburg to visit a favorite shop and find a new favorite place. I will write about that in another post. Anyway, Michele gave me a treat bag of gifts for my birthday including the cute tea towels with the RED cherries and the little RED Valentine tin. 

When I opened the tin (sorry, I should have photographed it when I first opened it-LOL!) 

I found it filled with her shortbread cookie hearts!! Michele knows that shortbread (and specifically HER shortbread cookies) are my favorite. I took them to the beach with us and rationed them out every day. Look, I even came home with a few!

So much love! So much creativity! So much RED!

I am very Blessed, indeed!

Now, don't forget to sign up for my (Big) Birthday Giveaway.

You can read about it in the previous post....and you must leave a comment on that post to be entered. I will randomly draw a name on January 31st! Good luck!

Boy, I'd love to be in a warm place right now!

xoxo

Joyce

It's (Big) Birthday Giveaway Time!!

Today is my Birthday!

It's a really BIG one!!

65!!!

I love Birthdays and I enjoy celebrating every one!

Age, to me, is only a number.

It doesn't have anything to do with how I'm feeling...

Like everyone else, I have some days when I feel 

25

and other days when I feel 

95

But today, it's a day to celebrate in my favorite way...

by giving a gift package to one of my followers!

I've been gathering an assortment of fun things,

 in bright colors,

so that you can feel that you've been to the party with me!

Tea towels in my favorite red and blue!

Nested Susan Branch tins...

Heart shaped playing cards...

and some Mary Engelbreit...there always has to be some Mary!

It's really simple to enter for the Big Birthday Giveaway!

You need to be a follower of my blog to be eligible to win, and that's easy to do...just sign up near the top of the page, in the column on the right, and leave me a comment on this post. If you are already a follower, thank you...

you will also need to leave a comment.
Follow and comment....simple!

On January 31, I will randomly pick a winner!!

I want to thank all of the friends who follow my little blog...

I always say I have met some of my dearest friends through this

writing adventure and I appreciate every comment or email that I receive!

You are all a treasure to me!

Good Luck!

XOXO

Joyce

In The Mail

I have been stalking carefully checking the mail delivery for several weeks, waiting for a particular package. Yesterday, David went out to get the mail and when he came back inside, he said, "Joyce, I think you'll want to come down and get your mail!"

Would you be excited to see this?

A cuter-than-cute package from Cath Kidston!!!

But wait...there's more! Another package!

I thought that was the most clever saying I've ever seen on a package!

Are you ready? From Cath...TA DA

a new cross-body bag and matching wallet!

(Garden Rose is the pattern) 

I have been wanting a bag from CK for years but could never make up my mind (Do you see where this is headed?) One is more beautiful than the next! Right after Christmas, they started a big sale at Cath Kidston USA, and I figured this was my chance, and so I had to 

DECIDE!!! 

(my one little word for 2014)

This is what I picked and I absolutely love it! Both bag and wallet are oilcloth, which means they aren't as heavy as leather...I love leather but I'm tired of hauling that extra weight around on my shoulder.

The bag is a good size with one outside zipper and one inside.

The zip-around wallet holds lots of cards...

and a generous section for cash...not much in there now!

It's all packed up and ready to go out for a spin...

I am also putting this oilcloth case to good use. 

I bought it in the summer thinking that if I ever made up my mind about a purse, I would use it for carrying the plethora of coupons, reward cards and gift cards I have

. It's a generous 6x8-inches...not Cath.

 If you're interested in the CK sale you can use this link here.

Now to the other box...

That box came from HSN. Anna Griffin had several sales events on their station last Friday and I resisted everything but this stamp set...

I am borrowing this image from the HSN website (where the stamp set is, unfortunately, sold out. I also purchased the set at a price less than the one they're showing now)

Anyway, 30 chalkboard style stamps, 2 ink pads and an acrylic mount. Anna's stamp sets are outstanding and the fonts used on them are beautiful! If you hop over to HSN's website, you can see some card samples made using this set of stamps.

OK-pretty exciting mail day!

But wait....there's more!!

Our Swap Goddess, Linda, has a giveaway once a month on 

A Swap For All Seasons, featuring the color of the month...this month is red!

This morning I received an email from Linda letting me know that I had won the drawing!!

I will be receiving all of this wonderfulness...

and some of Linda's Sweetheart Snack Mix! I will write more about this, of course, when it arrives!

A very good day, indeed!

xoxo

Joyce

A Swap For All Seasons...January...Thinking of You

We are in Month 4 of our year long swap at 

A Swap For All Seasons.

Our assignment each month is to send our designated person (and this changes every month)

a card, a tag and some stash from our collection (nothing newly purchased) in a specific color.

You can jump in any month and participate...sign-ups are always the first day of the month.

You can read about the swap with the guidelines here. It's too late to sign up for the February swap but if you come back on February 1st, you can sign up for the March swap.

Our theme for January was Thinking of You and the color for the month was blue.

 Bev had my name for sending. Bev and I are the 2 Pittsburghers in the swap. We met some years ago when we both worked at a local scrapbook store, which has sadly gone the way of many independent scrapbook stores.

Bev is a great card maker and has been on a design team or two.

The package she sent was all wrapped in sewing pattern tissue, plus a box sealed with Washi tape and a dear little matchbox. .

A cute card with a sweet little girl on the front....she does look like she's thinking of you.

The tag coordinated nicely. 

Inside the matchbox was an assortment of buttons, tiny blue flowers and some felt do-dads.

The stash that Bev sent for me was some old Bingo cards, dyed seam binding in a beautiful shade of blue and some rick rack!

If that wasn't enough, Bev also sent me this gorgeous necklace that she made from an old key of some type and some repurposed gems from another piece of jewelry! I love this!!

Thanks for being such a generous "donor", Bev. You made this month very special!

Wendy was the person whom I created for this month. I think it was her fist time swapping with our group and I hope it was a good experience for her.

This is the card and tag I made for Wendy...

Blue is one of my favorite colors so this month was fun for me. I love that little girl image...

and I managed to work in  a paper doll stamp on the tag.

The stash was an assortment of vintage images, button card and a package of blue card blanks.

I hope you will consider joining in on this swap. We do have a lot of fun and I've met some wonderful crafters from all over!

xoxo

Joyce

One Little Word for 2014

(I found these notecards at Michaels today...I thought the message was appropriate! 

Thanks Mary Engelbreit...you always know the right thing to say!)

Read on...

I can't believe that it's January 8th and I haven't told you my 

One Little Word for 2014!

(I know you have been waiting breathlessly for me to reveal the word!! Ha!)

Choosing a word is always an interesting process. This is my 6th year participating in this exercise. It all started with a post on the blog of Ali Edwards. She chooses a word every year to focus on and let it inspire her into learning more about herself and take some chances. You can read her post for this year right here, which has links to previous years. This doesn't have to be a difficult process, just one that makes you more conscious of who you are and where you are going.

My former Little Words have been

2009-FOCUS

2010-MANAGE

2011-SIMPLIFY

2012-CELEBRATE

2013-LEARN

Now I'm not going to rehash the successes and failures with these words and there have been some of both every year. I will only say that while I LEARNed lots of things this past year, I didn't LEARN some specifics that I really wanted to. I wanted to LEARN how to use David's fancy Olympus camera...I'm still plodding a long with my little one. I wanted to finally install and LEARN Photoshop Elements 10 which I have now had for 3 years!! I'm still limping along with my Barney Rubble publishing program. I wanted to LEARN to use my super duper Ninja Blender/Food Processor without amputating a limb...I gave my Cuisinart to my daughter when I bought the Ninja so I'm back to hand chopping. I wanted to LEARN to make bread...from scratch. Nope, haven't done that either. I'm only writing about this publicly on my blog to shame encourage me to LEARN these things even though 2013 has ended. I almost kept LEARN as my word for this year but I must move on.

I thought for a long time about my One Little Word for this year.

I couldn't seem to make up my mind, and then, in writing a message to my good friend Marie,

it suddenly appeared!

DECIDE !

There it is! 

There are a number of rather big decisions David and I have to make this year....

do we stay where we are or do we move. We've been talking about if for a long time. It is not an easy decision to make by any means. Either way we decide, there will be other decisions that go along with the BIG decision. I need to be strong and decisive this year. I have to let go of a lot of "stuff" that I've been hanging on to even though it's in my way. (I'm not being vague here...I'm talking about tangible "stuff") I need to clean out and tidy up. But first I (we) need to decide. 

I'll let you know how things are going...

I'll fill you in as I attempt to LEARN the things this year that I didn't last year.

Feel free to nudge me if I'm not reporting in.

I will leave you with a photo of the little scraggly amaryllis I wrote about in my last post

In less than a week....this little plant went from being almost dead to this!

There are even 2 more flowers coming along...

Thank you for stopping by. I love when you visit and I am thrilled when you leave a comment!

xoxo

Joyce

He Saves

David and I scurried out to run some errands the other day and while I was in Target, I saw a display of Smith and Hawkins amaryllis pots on the clearance end cap. 

The sign said 70% off, but the pots were not marked with the original price. Several times during the season, I had looked at these pots because the colors of the pots themselves were beautiful! Candy apple red, cream or a robin's egg blue, all very attractive, but I didn't feel like taking a chance on the plant quality. 

By the time I saw them the other day, most had totally dead looking plants hanging out of the side of the packaging.. The thought suddenly occurred to me that the pot itself would make a perfect holder for my pancake turners and whisks. I have been looking for a replacement but didn't want to spend a lot of money. I picked a red pot with a plant hanging out of the covering and it only looked 1/2 dead. I really didn't care about the plant, it was the pot I wanted. When I went to the check-out, I asked the cashier to scan the price because I might be interested. $3.89 was the price. SOLD! was my reply!

When we got home, we unwrapped the packaging and I lifted the ailing bulb out of the pot, along with the growing medium that you had to soak in water for 15 minutes. I washed out the pot and David, the plant magician, soaked the growing medium, got another pot and planted the bulb. 

I only wish I had taken a picture of the pot when we brought it home with the limp plant hanging out of it. This is what the pot looked like...

(I recreated these pictures after the bulb was removed)

It's new assignment...

No, no, I don't have too many whisks. They are all different sizes and they all get used.

She's all shiny and happy in her spot between the toaster and the salt pig.

And the title of this post...he saves?

David never gives up on plants...this is what the plant did in less than 24 hours!

He has 2 green thumbs and a tender touch!

Now, once he snow plows the driveway, I think I'll hop back to Target for another pot for my wooden spoons and spatulas. $3.89! Who doesn't like a bargain?

xoxo

Joyce