Hi there My Stamping Friends, I hope you are all ready for Spring!! I'm so excited. Yesterday the weather here got up to a wonderful 78 degrees and I felt like I was in heaven while I was sitting on the back deck watching all the kids run around the yard. What fun!
So, I thought I'd catch you all up on whats been going on since my last post. Some of it was great and some of it not-so-great. I'll start out with the not so great stuff and move on to the happier news. My Aunt passed away in the end of February (about 5 weeks after my uncle, her brother, passed away). It was very sad, especially for my dad who now has no siblings left (they were a family of 7!). I come from a large family also (there are 8 of us) and I can't imagine what it feels like to lose your last two siblings so close together. My Dad is one of the most amazing men I know (I married the other most amazing man I know, and am a daughter-in-law to the third man in that category) and my heart is broken for him!
On a happier note we've starting making plans for our trip to Italy, just me and my Dad. He's always wanted to go (he taught himself Italian about 20+ years ago) and life is so short so I've decided to take my dad to Italy in a few months (thank goodness for frequent flyer points). I don't want to make this post 17 pages long so I'll post more news on that on another day. Meanwhile, if you've been to Italy and there is something we just HAVE to see, please let me know. I'm open to suggestions.
One of the fun things we did recently was take a fantastic family vacation. My Father-In-Law, a retired Bishop, has been taking services on the beautiful island of St. Barths for the past 25 years so we all gathered there to attend a big celebration in his honor. It was fantastic to hear the local parishioners and frequent travellers to the island tell us how grand they think my Father-In-Law is.....and I happen to agree with them. Here are a few shots from our vacation.
First, I actually met up with one of my fav customers at the airport in St. Martin. We found out just the day before that we'd be on the same flight. She spent the week sailing and actually spent a day on the island that we were on. We didn't run into her there, but we were on the same flight back to the US. What a coincidence!
Here is a view from our deck, looking into Gustavia Harbor.
Here is a vew from our pool area. It was tiny, but deep and the kids were able to have a blast!
This is a photo of my wee ones with their Granddad.
Cocktails and Dinner with Gene and Mark
An AMAZING sunset
Another wonderful thing we did was attend the 2011 Leukemia Lymphoma Society Ball thanks to our generous friends Lisa and Mark (THANK YOU!!!). As many of you know, one of our daughters was diagnosed with cancer when she was in Kindergarten and again when she was in 1st grade. Its been a rough road but she's now in 3rd grade and doing well. This ball and these friends hold a special place in our hearts. Oh, and one of the best parts of the evening was who we got to 'party with'. We were 10 feet from the amazing Ms. Diana Ross. Check out these photos from the evening.
I've also been busy gathering and organizing paperwork for taxes, watching my oldest daughter's class play, attending a local theater show where my husband did the lighting design, taking another daughter to the doctor for regular follow up visits, caring for another daughter with strep throat, chairing a pre-school auction, attending international night at elementary school, having lots of meetings about an addition we are putting on the house and hitting all the local home improvement places to pick out plumbing, tile, furniture, carpet, lighting, etc. I feel like I haven't been stamping in a while even though I have. Tonight I'm having a workshop with a relatively new customer and I'm REALLY looking forward to it.
I can't have a post without a card, so here is a card that I CASEd from my upline the very creative Anna Haase.
This card shows the Bliss stamp set from the Sale-A-Bration catalog, Teeny Tiny Wishes for the sentiment and I used the Big Shot and the Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder for the card base. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Don't forget that Sale-A-Bration ends on March 31, 2011. Right now you can still get a free stamp-set of your choice for every $50 you spend. If you live in the DC, MD or VA area and would like to schedule a workshop, I'd be happy to come over and show you and your friends a few little tricks.
So, whats been going on with you?? Leave a comment and let me know.
Talk to you soon,
Rose-Ellen
