Roses July Challenge

I'm afraid I may have to resign from the Roses because I keep doing all the challenge wrong!! Guess my new resolve will have to be to complete the challenge as soon as it is issued so I won't have time to forget the details!! LOL

Wonderful Connie challenged us to Christmas in July (anything but a card) -- guess what I did -- you probably guessed it, I made a card! Oh well, I've had a few other things on my mind this month -- if you want an update, please see my previous post!

Okay, so here's my card...................
I went up on our roof (mirador) to take the picture so you can see a hazy image of our mountains in the background at the top of the card. I used papers from Docrafts Papermania, Classic Christmas, a Cuttlebug embossing folder, and Spellbinders Nestabilities dies to make my card. With a bit of ribbon and three shiny flowers, it was easy as pie!

While I was up on the roof, I took a picture of the sun accenting a beautiful cloud and when I came back inside I decided to take a picture of my clock/thermometer to give you a taste of our weather (outside temp 63; inside temp 72 at 7:30 am). My sister took many pictures of the clock/thermometer while she was here; she couldn't believe the temperatures she was experiencing during the month of JULY!



Have a wonderful day, everyone!
Betty

Moving In Update!

Hello everyone! We moved into our permanent home on June 23 (did you hear that, Patti???? I said permanent!) and I feel as though I've been drowning in boxes for the past few weeks. How about I give you an update in pictures?

Our movers arrived on July 9. By the way, our stuff didn't even fill up half of this truck. Asked them why they brought such a big truck and they said that they slept in there while the driver was driving down from Monterey! A-1 Freeman was our mover in Houston and Moreno Movers took over in Mexico. Both gave us excellent service. Only very minor damage to a couple of items (not even enough to claim on insurance!) Thanks to skillful packers and movers! Things got really busy very quickly with boxes coming into the house and furniture being unwrapped and brought in! Here are pics of just some of the aftermath!

I had 5 days of unpacking and shuffling boxes around until my sister from Mississippi arrived for a visit on July 15.
We forgot all about boxes for the next five days while we played and had fun! We found lots of good places to eat, introduced Barbara to our friends here, explored nearby villages and walked along the lake. The time passed by much too quickly and soon we had to say goodbye.
I am totally in love with my new house but it does have its flaws -- the main one being not enough storage space. So, we are in the process of having a large closet built that can be accessed from both bedrooms. When that is completed we'll be able to unpack the rest of our clothes.
Also being built is an outside storage area for garden tools/garage items and a desk for Larry's computer and office type items. Next we'll need a bookcase built so we can unpack all the boxes of books.
We brought way too much stuff for the size of the house we bought but who knew????? I've been doing a pretty good job of finding spots for most of the "stuff" and have been working on my craft area for the past few days. Here's what I've accomplished.
I have a wrought iron folding screen that separates my craft storage area from the living room. Right now it just has lace panels but I want to get some gorgeous Mexican material to replace the lace when things calm down a bit! OMGosh!! I have to interrupt my story -- I just saw a juvenile red-bellied woodpecker in my yard. He landed in the palm tree outside and stayed for a while before taking off again. Wow! I have only seen woodpeckers once since leaving Houston -- saw some outside of a restaurant where we were having breakfast one morning. Sure hope he'll come back again!!!
Okay, back to the craft room -- I have an over the door type shoe holder that I have hung on one of the panels of the folding screen to hold my punches. I also appropriated one of the three bookcases we brought down and had a couple of extra shelves made for it to hold miscellaneous craft stuff. What with the plastic storage bins and a bedside table that has baskets for storage underneath, I think I'll have space for most everything.
It's coming along, friends! One of these days I'll have every one of the boxes unpacked and everything will be in its place. Until then, there will be no stressing -- a friend of mine once told me that there's no stressing allowed at Lake Chapala and I think that's pretty good advice!
Life is wonderful,
Betty

Annabelle Stamps Say It In Red, Cream, and Chocolate

What gorgeous colors, Red, Cream and Chocolate -- they make such an elegant card! Hope you can play along this week!

Sorry my post is late -- I've been having some computer probs, but it seems to be working now, thank goodness! Cardbase this week is Very Vanilla by Stampin' Up; also, Real Red and Chocolate Chip. Dp by Basic Grey. I really like this round border stamp from the set Sentimental Bluebells by Annabelle Stamps. The sentiment is from this same set. Nestability dies were used for cutting the circles and a Cuttlebug border die for the corners. I also like this brown ribbon with cream polka dots -- reminds me of the dress Julia Roberts wore to the polo match in the movie Pretty Woman.

I want to thank Andrea for giving me the chance to be guest designer this month. I have been a fan of Annabelle Stamps since being introduced to them by my friend, Sue Walsh and it has been such a joy to join her and the rest of the design team this month. Hope I've inspired you a bit and that you'll begin your collection of Annabelle Stamps -- you'll love 'em!
Betty

Annabelle Stamps Say It With .... Circles

This week the challenge from Annabelle Stamps is to Say It With Circles. I'm not only saying it with circles, I've been going around in circles ever since Saturday when our household goods arrived from the United States. It's been a crazy few days unpacking and shuffling furniture and it's not over yet!
My card was made with a Creamy Caramel card base from Stampin' Up, stamped with Backgrounds By Design2. The circular border from Sentimental Bluebells was stamped in the accent color of Not Quite Navy by Stampin' Up on an ivory base, and cut with circle and scalloped circle dies. The butterfly from All Things Grow was stamped twice; once in the center of the decorative and again, cut out for dimension. Another circular element is the sentiment which was printed on cork circles (one wine cork bit the dust to add this element!)
Hope you enjoyed my card and also enjoy the challenge this week -- please join us!

Betty

Annabelle Stamps Challenge

The challenge from Annabelle Stamps this week is ........

And here's my card ........

The stamp set that I used is Ballerina Rose, colored with Koh-I-Noor pencils. The card base is Kraft and dp is Origins, by Basic Grey. The ribbons are white grosgrain and a double-stitched green. Butterflies were done with a Marvy punch. I distressed the edges of the sentiment with green and added a couple of gorgeous light green pearls.

I was pleased with the outcome of this one -- truly enjoyed coloring those delicate wild roses. Unfortunately, we had gale force winds several evenings back which caused two slight leaks from rain getting under the tiles on the roof. And guess what happened to be directly in the path of one of those leaks -- yep, it was this card! (You knew that was coming, didn't you????) I can salvage the ribbon, butterflies and sentiment but the rest will have to be redone.

Do you want to see a picture of the sky during this bad weather? Well, here it is -- if you're scared of storms -- don't look! Actually this was taken as the dark clouds were blowing away and a bit of bright sky was appearing, so the worst was over by this time! We normally don't have very bad weather here at Lake Chapala but Tropical Storm Arlene was slowly moving through the Sierra Madras mountains causing havoc all over Mexico.



Adios,
Betty