Still trying to get to Grand Rapids MI

As things turned out - my sister and I decided not to meet in Louisville after all. Her airfare would be almost triple the cost of mine.  So, I am flying into Grand Rapids and we will drive down to visit everyone we want to.
Now, I am trying to get the best deal on airfares and I am almost close to just screaming!

By the time I get through Orbitz, Expedia, Priceline, OneTravel, Travelocity, blah, blah, blah......

Talk about price fixing at the max..... I need a good travel agent.  I am calling the AAA travel agent and see if they can help me.

I do use airfarewatchdog.com (thanks to my friend Mary). She's cool and comes to my rescue so many times.

Shutting down now. Tomorrow I am working on the two cards for World Cardmaking Day and then I will get on fb for a few hours.

Thanks for stopping by and checking me out.  Jane  pinkpigy@aol.com

World Cardmaking Day coming October 6th

I am so excited that I gave Poinker a big hug and I think I squeezed him too hard. So he is resting and not talking to me right now. Is this a curse or a gift??? Ha. Good thing he can't see what I'm writing.
Anyway, back to the point of this post - October 6th is World Cardmaking Day and I will be hosting my event again this year.  I am sharing this really neat card I did. Now, most of you experienced Stampin' Up! demonstrators/stampers will notice that a few of the things I used is not current.  Since this is a free event --- I think I can slide by without too many harsh reprimands.

Everyone is invited to participate. They come and pick out which cards they want to make and make as few or as many as they want.  I have 20 different designs and I have prepped for 20 of each design.  So, if we finish them all on this day - that will be 400 cards to go to the Operation Write Home and AZ Veterans programs.  Pretty cool!

If you are interested you can email me at pinkpigy@aol.com

Thanks for stopping by and checking my blog out.

Poinker is in love

Oh my goodness. Do you ever remember being in love - like that cute little "puppy love" stage? Well, this pet of mine is love.......  I was cruising through the websites and visiting StamperDog's site. Poinker perked his ears up and that was it. I could see it in his eyes. You know... the little hearts that fly out and he just gives a sigh.

Can a pig and a dog have a "love thing" going on?  I don't know. I have to be careful about going on Ann's stamping blog. Especially around Poinker.  He wants me to send a pigture of him to StamperDog. Maybe if I just keep him busy, he will forget it.  I also told him I think he can be just pals cuz' they are both boy animals.  Now, if he wants to see Bella over on ChicnScratch........................ hubba hubba!

Don't you want to get out the Donny Osmond record and sing along with his "And, they called it puppy love".

Thanks for stopping by and checking us out. Jane (pinkpigy@aol.com)

Poinker the Oinker has something to say

Poinker has been so moody the past year or so that I told him he was not going to make any porky-type remarks on our blog. So, he just went and hid. Thank goodness he doesn't eat anything but dust bunnies.
He was on my lap the other day while I was cruising through the marvelous Annual Catalog and he let out one big OINK. The loudest I had ever heard. He doesn't squeal anymore - it seems to be oinks.
I looked at him wondering what it was that made him do that.  I had turned to the page 40 and he wanted me to tell everyone that the stamp set on this page was his favorite!  I should have known.  Now he wants me to contact Demonstrator Support to see if they would take a pigture of him to make a stamp. Oh my goodness. The answer is no. But, I can't tell him that. I did say I would post a pigture here for him.

Thanks for stopping by and checking us out. Oink, oink, oink. Jane (pinkpigy@aol.com)

Leave a comment and be eligible for something free

Yesterday I posted a photo of the ornaments I made using the samples from the Holiday Catalog. If you didn't see it, go back and look at it.
I mentioned to check today's blog post and see what idea I have. Here it is -

Leave me a comment on what else can be made using these framelits (they actually called the Holiday Ornaments Framelits Dies).  You have until Wednesday, August 29th (midnight) to tell what you can make besides the Ornaments.  Put on those creative caps on and get to thinking.
The best one that I choose on August 3oth will get something free from me.  I will post the winner and give him or her a few choices.  It will be worth it though.  Don't reply to my pinkpigy email address. Post it here under comments.
Make sure I get your name and email address.
Ready, set, go!  (note to self - remember I did this little fun contest). Someone remind me! LOL and Poinker just isn't good at reminding me of things I get into.
Thanks for stopping by and checking it out.  Jane (pinkpigy@aol.com)

Here are the three Ornaments

Not bad for experimenting. It takes a while to get these done. The longest part is stamping twenty petals of each image (that would be a total of forty) and running them through the Big Shot. As I showed you a couple days ago how I ran both sizes at the same time on the platform.....

Here is a photo of the three from the Holiday Catalog. I rolled the tulle on the biggest one and also stuck smaller cut pieces into the spaces. The other two ornaments you can't really see the Crumb Cake tulle. I cut the tulle lengthwise and adhered it scrunching and gathering together. I've had them out so many times showing anyone who comes for a visit that I need to go back and secure the petals and rosettes again. I think using the Bakers Twine for the hanging thread would look good too. Or take some fabric or ribbon. hhhmmm.......
Thanks to Stampin' Up! for having such examples for us to duplicate.
Check in tomorrow and see what I am offering.  Oh no! "she's got an idea".

Thanks for stopping by and checking my blog out.  Jane (pinkpigy@aol.com)

Did You See How Long Wednesday's Post Was?

Oh my gosh! I have to get busy and stop rambling on so much. No wonder no one stays around to hear me go on and on about what??? Nothing.  So, I am making this short and sweet.
Here is a photo of Operation Write Home cards. Most are 'case' cards. So, if you happen to see one that looks like yours, it probably is. A big thank you to everyone who does swaps. What a great way to get ideas.

You can hardly see most of them. I wanted to get the most in together. I've got a workday coming up this Saturday and have invited a few club members/customers to join me prep for them.
I have done this every year for the past 4 years. There is a little bit of work that goes in to it but it is well worth it. And, each year more stampers/crafters help put them together. I also ask for cards from anyone and I fix them to send as well (that would be the Card Hospital).

Anyway, this next photo is my Sherrie Robinson's Convention Shoebox Swap card.  I am learning each year to make it easy-peasy. Next year, it will be.  The background is done using the acrylic block tapped onto the ink pad- using darker and lighter pressure. Primrose Petals is a pretty color. Almost like Regal Rose with a twist in it.

That's it for now. Thanks for stopping by. Congratulations to all of us for hitting over 1,000. Yippeee. Not a million, but keep checking in. Jane (pinkpigy@aol.com)

Ornament Keepsakes Bundle - what a deal!

I don't think I have been as enthused about a bundle than I am with this one.  The stamp set is one of the best deals right now. It is on page 3 of the Holiday Catalog. I keep wanting to say Holiday Mini Catalog but it is not a mini anymore. Full size catalog... not as many as the Annual Catalog. But, packed with super neat stuff.
Here is how I place the stamped ornament image on cardstock and then how I secure them on to the Big Shot multipurpose platform.  I suggest you only cut one piece of cardstock at a time. It's up to you, but I want to do as few runs through the Big Shot. I usually mess a couple up.
 Here is a hint when using the framelits. Notice that the smooth side is facing up. Yep. That's right. The cutting (raised side faces down on the image). After I started paying attention while running it through the Big Shot, I noticed something.....
Okay, you know when you use one of the regular dies that the die faces up and the cardstock goes over this and the top cutting pad gets all cut up? Well, the framelits go in reverse. They cut the bottom cutting pad. So, word to the wiser than I am people out there (that might be you)..... designate your cutting pads. When I place a demonstrator order and reach the eligible hostess points, I will select the cutting pads. This gives me extra pads. I think it is a good idea. Even I surprise myself.  Did this even make sense? hhhhmmmmm.....

                     The photo below shows how they were stamped and punched out using the framelits.
I can get both sizes on the platform. I secure them using that correction tape. It works very well. I don't know if the stores carry this anymore. But, scotch tape will work too.  Try it. Who saves all those cut out pieces. Throw them in a container or box and every few weeks take them to the local school.

Well, enough of me for now.Thanks for stopping by and checking things out. Jane (pinkpigy@aol.com)

Trying to get to Louisville KY

So, I get a call from my sister. Now what is it I wonder. Twice in the past week. Yes, we were on the phone talking for 2 hrs. 25 mins.
Well, she wants to know if I am planning on coming back. And, if I was - were we going down toward southern Indiana - Kentucky. I tell her I was thinking of surprising her and showing up.  She is going through a reclusive state right now.  Alot of my friends and customers and club members say I have to get out more. Believe me..... she takes the cake.  I can tell it in our conversations each time.
She said she would be unhappy, (just as my wonderful niece said);  but I really don't think she would. She labeled herself as compulsive/obsessive. Not even close darlin'.  I got miffed but then she's entitled to whatever she wants for herself.
Then she tells me if I wasn't then she and her daughter would drive down. Now...... the steam is starting to rise!  What, go without me.  So, I had to tell her what I was planning. Not my old sister for sure! I think those new shoes she got for her feet might be a little too tight.

The next couple days I will try to get my airfare figured out.  And, call her on Thursday to see what we can do.  Here's my dilemna:

Do we fly in to meet in Louisville - rent a car - travel to our designated visting sites (which is in the Fort Knox area)?  Then head our way up to Indiana to visit aunts and cousins? Then up to Grand Rapids for a week or so?

Do we fly in to meet in Indianapolis and drive down to the southern part of our planned trip? Which means we would be travelling through Indiana to get to Fort Knox and then back up again.

Does she drive down to meet me in Indianapolis and we head on down south? And, just drive the whole way?

Do I fly in to Grand Rapids and we drive to our planned trip sites?  It is about an eight hour drive and we would take a day to get down there and a day to get back.

I don't know of anyone kind enough to give me a free plane fare to Louisville. So I will check the flight fares out .  Oh brother!  Speaking of brother - I might ask my brothers if they want to go. On second thought, naaaah.
See the mess I can create.   I'm exhausted now. Gotta go to the chair now.  Thanks for stopping by for a visit.  Jane (pinkpigy@aol.com)

Stamps, stamps, stamps

Well, as luck would have it and I don't have a lot of that lately... I got myself in a mess (now, that shouldn't surprise you one bit).  I decided to get my stamp sets ready for my big Jane's Sale coming up Saturday, September 22nd. So, I had Lee(my husband/worker bee) bring all of the ones I kept under the bed out so I could sort through them.  It never fails..... one of the kids decide to come for a swim. In comes by favorite 5 year granddaughter (Sweetie Pie as I call her). She also happens to be my only 5 year granddaughter.
I get her to help me for about 10 minutes which is good for her attention span. We only got through three or four plastic bins with one and half of them going back under the bed. hmmmmm! Outta sight...outta mind!
Here is a photo of one of the bins I am going through.
I am going to make a list of all of them and try to post them on Stampin' Connection for Stampin' Up! demonstrators to buy.
If you aren't a demonstrator, I think I might pick out a few stamp sets to see if anyone wants to buy them.
I'm not sure how many will sell at my "Jane's Sale" but in the past years, I have sold quite a few.
And for my club members - on September 15th (after club time) - they get to go shopping in the pre-sale.

Thanks for stopping by.  Jane  (pinkpigy@aol.com)

Club Project

Oh my - how we all have fun during club time. I only have one club so I don't rush any of my members.
I allow them to take their time so we can have a bit of chat time.
Of course, I miss those who aren't able to attend.  If they are not present, I make their projects for them.

Here is a photo of what we did:

 Snow Flurry Die using silver glimmer paper (love this paper)

this a glass goblet purchased at the 99 cent store.
It's a Libby brand so you know it's good.
We added a ribbon around the middle and some
put a piece of tulle around the stem. Maybe add a charm
or tag with each individual tag attached.




This is the medium snowflake from the Snow Flurry Die (they didn't do this one but I showed it as an option).  It's a jar with a cute little paper scrunched flower using the new 1-1/4" scallop punch.


There you go. Another cute thing or two. Easy to make... less than 20 minutes.
I don't know about you, but my club members are worth it!  Thanks for checking it out. Jane (pinkpigy)

My Convention Black & White Swaps

I just love black and white cards. They send a definite message like no other cards can do.

I coordinated the black and white only swap this year and I made a slight little mistake by moving our meeting location. Half went one place - half met at the new location. I humbly apologized. Lesson learned.
I will do it again next year and leave well enough alone.  We had three full groups. That is a total of 75. Most of everyone said they had no trouble swapping the cards that were not swapped in our groups.

I try to please everyone somehow and that gets me in trouble; however, that's the kind of person I am.

So, check these out..........  thanks for visiting my blog.  pinkpigy@aol.com

I should probably do one picture at a time. Next time I will.

Sister time

A couple days ago I was talking with my sister (Peggy) on the cellphone. First, I always start our conversation out by asking if she was sitting down, phone plugged into the charger, gone to the bathroom, ate something..... now we are ready for our conversations.

We usually get our main stuff out of the way - husbands, kids, grandkids, great grandkids (none for me), her diabetes, etc.  She had to get some special shoes because of her feet and I asked how that went. She doesn't like them but they seem to be working for her. She said they look like Mickey Mouse shoes. So I told her to put stickers on them. Dress them up and then show the shoe place what she had done. A new invention perhaps???  I told her I put my shoes on when I first get up and keep them on all day; they keep my feet warm and help me to walk better and keep my feet from getting dirty and heel cracked.
I wear Easy Spirit which I think is Naturalizers. Anyway, I had to give my two cents of how shoes should feel comfortable when you try them on. It works for me.

Somehow the chat turned towards how smart we are. Now, that was a good one!  We both agreed that our grandkids are way smarter than we seemed to be. I asked her if our Mom thought we were smart. Well, silence for a second and then I said for two of us five --- yes. The other three - well..... we both started laughing. She said I used to lie all the time - well, that got be smarter in a different way.
I told her that a couple people thought I had a high IQ. I don't. Maybe in one of the categories of the high iq life. I think it was because I had been around people most of my life. I prefer to think of me being a little on the psychic side. We had to laugh at that one too. So, our next conversation lasted about thirty-forty minutes (maybe longer). How many socks would you have to pull out of the drawer to get a matched pair? Two grown, over-60 woman trying to figure out how many it would take. Amazing....that blew the idea of a high IQ out of the water. I'm not sure if that problem was ever solved between us.

So, Peggy said she had to go and get dinner ready. Her husband would be home soon. I said okay but I wasn't done talking. She asked what I wanted to talk about and I said I couldn't think of anything just then but I know I had something to talk about. We talked about people in the stores and our impressions of others. I am so glad there are people out there who don't care what they look like out in public.
Okay, we both admitted we had gone to the store looking grodey. oouuuuuueeeee! Subject change.

Okay, my hand is stuck to the cellphone and my arm won't move. We have to hang up. I love you and will chat later.  Tell Dick hi. Tell Lee hi. I love you, too.
Time on the phone:  2 hours 22 minutes.  Not bad for nothing to talk about. Just checking in with each other.

Who has a high IQ?

Okay, this will be very short:

One question -  There are black socks and white socks in the drawer. You are holding a white sock in your hand. Without looking into the drawer to get a match- how many socks would you have to pull out to get a match?

My brother Doug is smart. Or, so I think he is. Hahaha. If  he ever read this blog, he would crack up.
I'm beginning to think all this time that he wasn't so smart as to just making things up that sounded good. Anyway, I still think he is. He probably has a high IQ.  His son (my nephew Jeremy) is a brain-geek. He has a very high IQ. You can just tell. He's a good kid.  Lucky for us that Doug's wife and her family has got the smarts as well.

My other Brett is smart in a different way. He likes to read and go places and learns that way. Who in the world would just get up and go to Russia. I mean, that is taking a risk. Or, perhaps it is his faith that makes him step out and venture into the world outside of the USA.

I stepped out about 8 years ago into my stamping business and here I am = just plugging along. I don't make much money from it, but I have found a lot of fun things to do and make and definitely a lot of people of come into my life. Praise the LORD for that.

Gotta go.  I am going to try to load some cards on here in the next few days or weeks.
I have club coming up so I better get done with it.  pinkpigy

BINGO

Now here is something really interesting. Have any of you ever played Bingo?  I was at one of regular bingo halls the other night and got to thinking of some really funny things that go on during the course of the night. Come on! If you ever want a little laugh time - this is the place to be. Let me share some things with you.
Scenario#1:
I walk into the bingo hall to find a seat. I placed my stuff on the table and went to get my papers. When I returned this woman approached me and said I would have to move. Being a seasoned bingo player - I do know exactly what she was talking about.  It seems that the "regulars" have domain over certain seats and save them for their friends. Now mind you - there was nothing on the table where I sat to indicate it was saved for whomever. I politely told her that I was not moving and her friends would have to find another place to sit. Apparently, this didn't settle well with her. All night long I could hear her talk about how I wouldn't move. So, if you should go in and see papers with names or the word 'reserved' on them - don't sit there!  If there is a dauber on the table - don't sit there.  The bingo halls let certain players dictate what they will or won't do. It shouldn't be that way. If players can't get there in time to get their space, then it should be open to anyone who wants to sit wherever.  I have to laugh at this woman because she really got upset and kept coming back to me asking why I have to sit there and even used a few words that I would not like to hear out of the mouth of a woman who should know better.
Lesson learned!  I moved way over to the other side of the room after that.

Scenario#2:
Before bingo starts, I will chat with the players around me. I told this guy who was sitting next to me that he was going to be lucky because he was sitting next to a lucky person who sits next to the winner. He smiled. I told him "yeah, it's true". You will win tonight because whoever sits next to me wins. And, that's exactly what happened. He won and all I could do is hang my head and whisper a few words under my breath. As the games progressed through the evening - the guy on the other side of me won. Oooooooo.... my blood is boiling! Okay... be glad because we all know someone is going to win.  By this time, I am going into depression.... poor me! Inside voice be quiet. Don't let my outside voice say it. I can never win.  Thanks to the guy on my right who happened to win - I did get a $10 gas card. I was happy. So the lady on his other side won (two times even). Let's start the second half - come on Jane - get mad and instead of settling for a C - get that A!  So, I get set and can't even look at the numbers in the monitor. Well, by golly there are only two g's out so that figures! Oh my gosh! There's one of the g numbers. I got it! I got it!.  I barely could yell it out but I managed. Yeah! I won. And, the last g was in the monitor.
Yeah for me. And, that's how bingo goes.

Scenario#3:
This man and woman was sitting across from me. The game came up and they were arguing. She was telling him to play a paper and he kept asking which one.  I leaned over and told him not to play it because that was the last game. She kept saying to play it. I wanted to run around to his side and show him. She was yelling at him and I was "shushing" her saying he had to buy it on the floor. Fin-a-ly, a floor worker was walking by and I pointed him to help that man. Problem solved. Now I realized I had gotten behind on my own papers! Crap!!!!  The guys next to me were laughing and I started laughing too. I got caught up but didn't win.

And that's how it is in the night of bingo. Entertaining - just like going to the mall and watching people. My favorite thing to do.
pinkpigy

A little laugh today

I just chuckle each time I think of this little incident. It happened when my brothers were younger.
Enjoy......

One morning they were arguing about something and our Mom comes in and asks them what their problem is. Doug said "he says I fell out of my bunkbed last night and I know I didn't." Brett replied, "yes you did." A few bickerings back and forth later, my Mom turned to Brett and asked him what made him so sure Doug had fallen from his bed.  Brett looked at them and said "because I saw you go by."  How could you not laugh at that one.

I'm back. Not in full force but a little at a time.