It was a beautiful sunny day, really cold but sunny. Sun always makes you happier. So I took my new buddy, computer #2 on a little ride. We stopped by the store that buddy recently called home and popped in, right up to the support desk." Ben" was very nice and helpful. We reset the password, actually using the original one I set up, duh, and we were off and running. He did answer a lot of questions I had but said he needs to set the computer up with stuff. Anti virus that is already in it and google chrome. Does that sound right to anyone? Just asking because I can't imagine why I have to pay $99 for him to do that. Is there something I don't know?  I feel like this isn't necessary. It didn't say anything in the instructions about getting a set up. In fact, what used to be books and books that came with a computer, I now have a pamphlet! Please feel free to send me any comments you have about this. He won't come until Monday. So far I've been able to get around. I don't have all my favorite places in so I hope I don't miss anyone. This keyboard is a little different and I keep hitting the wrong keys. So far I've shut this post down twice. I'm really not complaining or ranting today, just telling you a story. Haven't made a card for two days now,

My heart goes out to the people in Georgia and the southern states in the grip of their winter storm. Poor kids sleeping in schools and parents can't get to them and all that ice. Please be careful and just stay in. We are issued a state of travel, red, orange or yellow. It tells us who can .go out.

Many, many thanks to all of you with tips and hugs and cartoons yesterday. It made me feel so much better. I did get a mouse to go with this and my life is so much easier.

Please let me share my thoughts on this. There should be technicians that can repair old desktops for people like me that really don't want to move into this century. Or they should follow you home and teach you how to use a new computer. That is true for any electronics. DVR's, CD players and fancy kitchen appliances. You should not have to upgrade if you don't want to. It should be fixable.

On a side note, my electric can opener just quit working today. I just laughed and laughed.  I will be using the old fashion hand crank one in the bottom drawer. Who knows what I would have to endure just to open a can and how costly would it be?  Be kind to one another.

You don't have to read this. No cards involved, it is just a rant.

I have talked to HP people for a fee to see if they could figure out what was wrong with the monitor. No such luck. Talked to cable provider, they say it's not them. Went and bought a laptop yesterday. Got it out of the box and hooked up. Sounds easy, not so much. Got it to load apps and created my name and password. Turns out you can't update the password from what you had without going in  physically and changing it in the system. I now cannot get into the new laptop. They will fix it if I bring it in and also will transfer my information from one computer to the new one. Unfortunately, this is a no travel day because of the cold so they are not open today. I keep praying every morning this computer will come on. I have to keep turning it off by just pushing the off button so it doesn't shut down properly. When the monitor goes out, I can't see what to do so I just turn it off. If I reset the modem it will hopefully come back on. Cable says it is the video card. I am frustrated. Did not make a card from class yesterday because I spent the day running around to get this taken care of.  Hope to do some crafting this afternoon but I am afraid to leave the computer. If it goes into sleep mode it will turn off.  Can you hear me screaming where you are? The cold air should carry the sound of my voice. Thanks for listening or just tuning out. I feel better. Can't wait to see what happens next! If I am not here for a while at least you will know why. I find I'm not good with this touch pad thing instead of a mouse. This will take some time to learn all this new stuff. Old dog, new tricks sort of thing.

Love you all, be kind to one another.

Then this last card. This one is from today's class. It is hearts made with embossing paste then covered with embossing powder. Love the look and will be posting this card to http://onlinecardclasses.com/stenciled/day-3-student-gallery-texture-dimension-with-pastes/.

 

This is the card from the second day. It was colored with colored pencils through the stencil. Easy and quick. Not exactly the greatest background for this card but my granddaughter will like it.

 

This will go to http://onlinecardclasses.com/stenciled/day-2-student-gallery-template-techniques/

 

Hi from the frozen tundra. Again - -40 in the morning. Schools delayed 2 hours and travel advisories to stay home. Got to stay in and make a couple of cards. One is from the other day and one from today. Will be posting to http://onlinecardclasses.com/stenciled/day-1-student-gallery-inking-misting/. Still very simple as I am limping around! Be kind to one another. This was made by using versamark and embossing with white embossing powder. Then inking the paper around it. It sure didn't photograph well, but then it's not that great!

 

This is my second card from Saturday. I wasn't able to post it yesterday for some unknown reason so I'm trying again this morning. I will try to add it to http://onlinecardclasses.com/stenciled/day-2-student-gallery-template-techniques/.

 

I'm back again. I did get two more cards made for stencil class. They are very simple since it is still a little hard for me to get around. I just wanted to do the technique. I thought this one could be a guy valentine for grandson. He's not into fussy and this certainly isn't. I'm posting this in the http://onlinecardclasses.com/stenciled/day-2-student-gallery-template-techniques/.

 

I'm so sorry, I have to reload the second card. I think I did that the last time too. I couldn't figure out how to load two cards at a time on the gallery for the stencil class.

I would like to welcome Lisa Petrella as a new follower. She makes the cutest cards with stamps by DeNami. Oh my gosh, wait till you see them! Her blog is http://bellalistona.blogspot.com/. I don't have any of those stamps yet, but I'm saving for them. No one around here carries them so they were completely unknown to me until blogging. Lisa has also designed some that are darling. Stop by her blog when you can and take a look.

Okay, here is the same card as before. I will send it to the gallery of http://onlinecardclasses.com/stenciled/day-1-student-gallery-inking-misting/

 

Hi on another blusterly day here. Wind is blowing so hard and snow flying everywhere. Good day to stay in and craft. Had some monitor issues yesterday and hopefully they will be fixed soon. I'm loving the stencil class that started yesterday. I didn't really get going on the cards until today. My hip was sore but I do believe it is getting better (or the pain meds are keeping it at bay).  You gotta love pain meds!  Here are the two cards I have gotten done from the first day. Today is the second day and I hope to feel good enough to make a couple more.  Be kind to one another and keep warm (or cool) where ever you are.

 

I am going to link up in the http://onlinecardclasses.com/stenciled/day-1-student-gallery-inking-misting/ gallery.

 

I don't usually post in the evening but I will be brief. Hubby has infection in lip and a virus. We got meds for both and also have to put salve on his lip. If not all healed in two weeks he will have a biopsy. I have arthritis in my sacroiliac. Have pain meds and anti inflammatory meds.  Should feel better soon.

It was an emotional day here for our family. Grandson was in lecture hall across from the classroom where the shooting occurred at Purdue University. Police ran into their room screaming "get your stuff and get out". They ran out but didn't know where they were suppose to go or what to do. He ran into two frat brothers and they ran to the  building  next door and barricaded themselves in a classroom. They kept watching on twitter and facebook until the all clear came. Then they waited another hour just to be safe. All went back to the house and stayed there. My son called me about 30 seconds before it came on the news. Said he had a text that grandson was okay, there had been a shooting. We knew he was okay right away, but they didn't know if there was another shooter or what was going on. He emailed me and told me what happened and what they did. Oh so scary. My heart goes out to the family of the student shot and to the family of the boy who did the shooting. Plus you have to think of all the scared students and their families that are far away and can do nothing. Oh my, what a day. I'm emotionally drained. 

Also want to tell my blog friends where the weather is so terribly cold and snowy to be safe and stay warm and snuggly.

Sorry, I was not brief. Just wanted you to know. Be kind to one another and be sure and tell them you love them every day. Life can change in a moment.

My sister in law loved her card, the receipe cards and the pin. We had a great lunch at a brand new place called Bagger Dave's.  Fun place. We had three more inches of snow over the weekend and expecting more overnight. Plus extreme temps again. This isn't usual for Indiana so we are somewhat stunned. Seems the weather patterns all over are changing. I'm not crazy about this pattern we're in. Sometime last week my tummy settled down and my left hip started being painful. Dr. thought maybe I had contracted a h pylori germ, but it wasn't. By Saturday I could barely walk. Tried Aleve, heating pad, BioFreeze and nothing helped. Hubby's lip was better, then started with new breakouts in different places. We are both going to visit dr. today. It's kind of a hip and lip appointment! Please fight getting older. It brings a lot of unexpected ailments that are not pleasant, just a nuisance.

Today's card is a thank you for some sweet ladies that I won blog candy from. This one is with Graphic 45 paper and made with the daisy. The one I forgot to take a picture of was similar only using the lilly of the  valley. Graphic 45 makes such fun paper. I've been browsing the CHA releases and oh my gosh. I may have to go back to work to support this habit. I keep telling myself I don't need more "stuff". The point is to downsize my "stuff". But someone has to buy the things they worked so hard to create for us! Be kind to one another and support the industry.

 

It is snowing again. We have another 2-3 inches and of course it is cold. A lady at the grocery store told me yesterday the Farmer's Almanac said we would have a huge blizzard in February.  I could truthfully do without a blizzard at any time. Anyway, got the food shopping finished and laundry done. Took sister in laws birthday card apart and started again. Still not crazy about it. I bought a set of cards with a thimble and scissors to use on her card and I was bound and determined to use it. She is a quilter and I used the Our Daily Bread quilt stamp. My first attempt got the purple mat on crooked. I looked at it for a while and decided I couldn't use that. I have a pin with gold scissors I want to give her, so I embossed the scissors and thimble in gold. I don't like them on the card but there you are. I do like the rocker raised on dimensionals though. I also stamped her some receipe cards and made an envelope for them from the punch board. I am taking her out for lunch tomorrow on her birthday so I hope she likes it. This is the first crooked card. Then the second card. Then the receipe cards.

 

This is the pin I want to give her.  Be kind to one another.

 

Today hasn't gone as planned (not that any of them do). I have to get my work done first and then blog. I am falling behind and need to clean. Notice I said need to, not want to. I didn't get the card finished that I wanted to post today so I am showing you a card I made in a class I took from Michelle Zindorf  http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/. She is the queen of brayering and is so much fun. She doesn't travel now but still has tutorials on her blog. You will love her work.

I received blog candy last night that is terrific. It comes from Leena at http://alacards.blogspot.com/ in Canada. Love her blog and she has great inspiration and such pretty cards. Hope you can visit both of these fantastic ladies and say hi.

I say I got blog candy last night because our mail doesn't come until 6:30 or 7:00 pm. It is dark and has been slick so sometimes it stays in the box all night. My hubby is the one who gets the mail. He looks forward to it. One night not long ago he went out at 7 and didn't come right back. I went to check on him and saw him in the neighbors house talking so I came back in. Then our phone rang and the neighbor said her husband was bringing my hubby home. He couldn't figure out how to get back and kept going to their house. All of the houses are alike and it was dark and he didn't know which one was our house. So now mail sits all night long in the box.

My resolution for today is to finish my sister in laws birthday card and post it next time. I am the slowest card maker that you can imagine. Be kind to one another.

I just learned about this company and they are celebrating their second year in business! I am so far behind things. They are having a blog hop to celebrate and I am going to hop along and see all the inspiration. Also learned that one of my stamping/scrapping friends is going to open her own store when Archiver's closes. This is exciting and I'm so happy for her. This blogging is wonderful, you learn so much and meet the bestest people.

Last week was really busy for us. Hubby had doctor's appt. and that took most of the day. Then I took him to the dentist because of a problem that popped up on his lip. We have to call back Wed. and see if it is better. So far, I don't think it is. If not, we see an oral surgeon to get a biopsy. I hope he doesn't have to go thorough that. He can barely eat as it is and he is not about to miss a meal! May be making a lot of shakes.  I will have a card next time. I am on my way to dr. to see why my tummy is not playing nice. Then I will pop into Hobby Lobby or Michaels to get some new embossing paste. I signed up to take the stencil class Jan. 24th and will probably need that. Be kind to one another.

We are up to -1 this morning. Molly has been outside four times already so things are looking up. I didn't make any resolutions but I have things in mind I want to do like clean closets and drawers and under the sinks. Clutter takes up so much room and bogs me down. I don't know why I don't throw out 3/4 finished tubes, bottles and jars, clothes I know don't fit or I don't like and just everyday stuff. We move things from the house to the garage to the attic. When we clean out the attic, there are things in there that we don't recognize or know where it came from. But blogs and cardmaking come first. This is a new year and we need to have our priorities straight! This is the last card I received from a card making friend. She has moved away and I miss her. We used to go to Archiver's every Wed. afternoon and craft together. Stay warm and be kind to one another.

 

This first snow picture is looking out our front door and across the street. The bushes are overwhelmed with snow. The other picture is the house across the street where they have plowed the driveway. We live in an over 55 community and they do our streets, driveways and sidewalks all the way to the door. They've had their hands full this time!

 

Oh happy day! The phone saga is over. Thanks to all of you who went through it with me. Now the phone actually rings, there is a person on the other end, and we can speak to each other. I'm so excited. Email me your number and I'll call you! I want to talk to everyone. We did get 11 and 1/2 inches of snow and had a wind chill of minus 41 below this morning. It has warmed up to a chill of minus 14 right now. The wind is beyond cold. Never felt anything like it. Molly is in shock when she has to go out. She waits until there is just no more time and runs out and right back. Our mayor has closed all schools today and tomorrow and we are under a travel advisory. No one can be on the roads unless you are police, ambulance or going to a shelter because you have no heat. I feel so bad for the power and light people who have to restore power. I don't know how they do it in this cold. I tried to load a picture this morning and blogger or internet explorer wouldn't let me. This is the card my sister in law made. She is a quilter but it was her daughter who got us started stamping so she still does sometimes. Stay warm where ever you are. I know we aren't the only ones who have this terrible weather. Be kind to each other.

 

This is the day!!! My phone should get connected by the end of the day. I called yesterday to double check because if it does not go well, my previous company is closed over the weekend so I couldn't get any help until Monday again. I got a person here in the US and she couldn't have been more helpful. She checked the order, it is set to go, gave me a number to call to verify that it is working, AND checked and adjusted the bill. I told her I hadn't even looked at the bill other than the amount so far. It is now what it should be. Other than the 10" of snow we are forecasted to get tomorrow and the 30 to 40 degress below zero we are to have Monday and Tuesday, all is good in my world! I can get on with cardmaking.  I have a question that maybe someone can answer. Some of the time on blogs, the picture won't load. All I get is a little red x in the top left corner of the square. Does that happen to anyone else and is it something I should do to my computer to make it work? 

I want to say a happy hello to Holly at http://kopykat-holly.blogspot.com/. She is a new follower to my blog and I'm happy to welcome her. Thanks, Holly.

Today I'm showing you a gorgeous card I received for Christmas from one of my cardmaking friends. I only have a few gals who made cards, so they are all the more special to me. Hope you like it and enjoy the day. Be kind to one another.

 

I wish you all a wonderful, healthy, safe and Happy New Year. Hope you achieve all you set out to do and all your cards are beautiful! I've been kind of out of it since the funeral. I made a sympathy card and was so rattled I just put it in the envelope and mailed it without taking a picture! I'm sure you've seen it a million times. I used the Wetlands SU stamp on sand with water and sky and the birds walking on the sand. I made that one because at this time of year they were leaving for Florida for a month and he would walk the beach every day, so that reminded me of him. I hope to do some challenges this year as I only make cards when I need them. I have a birthday card coming up in late January so that will be next. I am a slow crafter. Takes me forever to choose paper, then stamps, then what I want to say. Then I start over!

I'd like to introduce Dangina, who is a new follower. Stop by and say hello to her at http://mycarden.blogspot.com/. Thanks to all of you for the inspiration and help you have all shown me this past year, I love you all. 

On a side note: don't have phone fixed yet. Had to call my previous carrier and have them reinstall my old phone line again so the new company can disconnect it. That took a while and now only certain carriers can call me, not everyone! They assured me (ha, ha) that it will be fixed by 1/4. I didn't even call my old carrier to tell them only some people can call me. Just waiting it out. Not stressing anymore, it is what it is. If you never hear from me again you'll know I lost my internet service!  Be kind to one another.