My life at 40...

TGIF!!

Are you excited the weekend is here? I am. I think Robert & I may even take in the local Home & Garden Show if we can get all our chores done. Woot, Woot! 

Speaking of Home & Garden, I thought I would show a couple of things we have done around the ole house lately. My Dad was asking for photos so I figured I might as well post them here for all to see rather send them to him direct. 

First off, we have the side drive way in our front yard...

Now we have PLENTY of parking space, I love that! What I didn't love was getting a notice from our HOA stating we violated our CC&R's by not getting permission to pour the concrete in the first place. We now have to go to the HOA & have them sign off on our drive way. Hopefully they will like it as much as we do & approve it. LOL 

What I didn't bother telling the HOA was that we also had concrete poured in our backyard too! Such a rebel, huh? LOLOLOL

Did I mention that Robert found an incredible deal on a used hot tub on CraigsList? He did and it's FABULOUS!! 

Oops, how did her picture get in there? That bad, bad girl! LOLOL

We've also done a bunch of planting but I will show that on another post. In the mean time, I will leave you with cheery birthday card...

Card deets: 

• Stamps: A-muse
• Paper: Base card from Memory Box & White
• Inks: Black, Red, Copics & Turqouise
• Misc: Ribbon & White Gel Pen

I might have a hard time giving that card away. I love the color combo. Sigh...

Alright, I better hit the road. Hope you all have a swell day today!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Cow's it going?

I made one of the cards I had swimming around in my head this morning. It is a simple one but I think it turned out pretty cute. What do you think?

I made a new cloud stencil for my background clouds since I can't find my old one. I am so bummed about that. I loved that other cloud stencil. WHAN!

Card deets:

• Stamps: Cow is from Rubbernecker and saying is from a-muse
• Paper: Chocolate Chip, Creamy Carmel & White
• Inks: Tuxedo Black, Bashful Blue & Copic Markers
• Misc: QK circle dies & home-made cloud stencil

This is totally off topic but...did you know that there is such a thing as "winter grass?" It's true, there is. In Arizona, if you want pretty grass in the winter you have to plant "winter grass." It's the craziest thing. But...it sure is pretty. See what I mean...

Our puppies like it too! And really, it's all about the puppies, isn't it? heehee

Alright, I am off to do a little more stamping. I hope you are having a WONDERFUL day today!!

Thanks for stopping by!

My view this morning...

I let the dogs out this morning to take care of their "business" and this is what I saw...

 
How gorgeous is that? I love it.

And looking to the other side...

Yes, I have a view of the mountains from my backyard. HOW FRIGGIN' COOL IS THAT??? heehee (Don't mind the lawn that needs to be mowed, Robert is taking care of that this morning!! LOL)

Alright, I am off to Home Depot to pick up a couple of things with the hubby. Plus, a quick trip through Starbucks for my morning JOLT! Then I have to get the house cleaned, start the laundry, go see Cowboys vs. Aliens and hit up Costco. Whew, I am beat already! LOL

I guess I better get busy, see y'all later!

So where in the world am I stamping now?

Well...let me show you...

Let's start with the closet, shall we?

When you walk into the office the closet is on your immediate left. I keep pretty much all my paper in the closet & those two huge drawers. The binders you on the shelf hold my unmounted single stamps or oversized unmounted stamps. In the little clear drawers I have my embossing powders, glitter, tags, eyelets, stuff to alter with, etc.

Then, as you slowly turn to the right you see my baskets of goodies (bakers twine, buttons, chalk ink pads, Memory Box paper, paper flowers, my camera, etc)...

I opted for more drawers this time around. Actually, I opted for more EVERYTHING this time around...LOL

Those brown containers/drawers are from Ikea & house even MORE stamps. They are all wood mounted stamps from Amuse & Rosie's Roadshow. I can't bring myself to unmount them. In addition, I keep my nesties in CD cases which are also housed in the brown CD drawers.

Can you believe I have an empty shelf?? I tried really hard to clean out my stamp stuff when we moved. I still have the "purged items" sitting in my garage, waiting to be sold. It was ridiculous the amount of stuff I had. It took me an entire day just to pack my last stamp room up. UGH!

Anywho, back to my current space...

Sorry for the semi repeat picture but I noticed I didn't get any shots of the window wall when I started uploading the pics to my blog. I am such a dork.

The next picture is my husbands tiny slice of the pie. He said he didn't require much space...I took his word for it. 

As you can see, I took over all the shelf space above his computer. He has three drawers below his printer & I gave him two additional ones to his left where he sits. How big of me, huh? LOL

The brown CD cases below house all of my unmounted SU! sets, Odd Bird Planet, MFT, TCP & Papertrey sets. The photo boxes are filled with ribbon, twine, yarn, etc.

And last, but certainly not least, a picture of our supervisor when we are in the room...

My desk looks really clean in the pictures above but I have to tell you, right now, as I type this, you can't see my desktop thanks to all the stamp stuff littered everywhere. Go messy or go home, I say. Oh wait, I'm home already! LOL

I have to say, when it came to my new stamp room, I really lucked out. I drew up what I wanted and handed my drawings over to my designer. My designer was/is a SU! demo so she knew EXACTLY what I was talking about when I was going over my wants/needs. Needless to say...I could not be happier with the end result. I am such a spoiled brat. Just ask my husband!

If you want to see my old room, click HERE.

I think that's it for today. Hope you all have a SUPER Sunday!

I have killed every one...

Yes, it is true. As much as I love Gerber Daisies I cannot, for the life of me, keep them alive....until now...

Yeppers, my girls & I have been together since last fall, it is a beautiful thing. I am so, so, SOOOO, happy right now. See what I mean...

look at this little lovey...



and one more of the girls...

Don't they make you smile? Such a happy flower!! Hope they brighten your day!

See you tomorrow...

Okay Mom, just as I promised...

Here are the pics of the backyard and one of the front. This is what we have been working on this past week. Only a couple more things to do and we are DONE! YEAH!!!

Here are the new barrels in front of the hot tub...I tried to talk Robert into just one but he wasn't having it. Sometimes you just have to give in...

These are the new cement bowls we have sitting in between the pool and the back patio...

This is the side yard (my favorite place)...it used to be a dog run but now the entire back yard is. We filled the side yard in with cement (a couple of years ago) and then added the over hang. We keep adding potted plants, pretty soon we will run out of room. LOL

Spent quite a bit of time replacing dead flowers this week...

Check out this cool cactus the super helpful guy at the Nursery gave me...okay so he really gave me three...heehee (so spoiled, I know...)

These are some of the pots we had to replant...the tall grass is a trooper but everything else eventually dies. Oh look, another COOL cactus!! :)

And this is where the pots REALLY start coming into play...LOL

Even more pots...my husband gives me a bad time about liking things symmetrical. Awww, there's Molly's cute little butt... LOL

Here's the third super cool cactus I scored...

Newest barrel addition and super handsome boy named Buddy... :)

Look Mom, there is the outdoor hanging lantern you and Kevie bought us. Looks great, huh? LOVE IT!! Although, the candle is not going to make it much longer...the heat is starting to melt it. Oops! :)

I stood on top of the pool waterfall to get this shot. The lighting was off but at least you get an idea of where the cement pots are. :)

Oh and last but not least...we yanked those ugly green plants out and put these babies in the front yard...

Well...what do you think Mom? You likey? We do!!

Alrighty then, I will talk to you later. Love you! Kare xoxox