Some wonderful times!!

We made it to San Diego and back, and had a wonderful time!! Here are a couple of pics for you to enjoy! This is one of the best Mexican restaurants in Olde Town where we stayed. I just love all the palm trees they have!

Here is me and the girl on the beach, very sunburned from family day. It was supposed to be 92 and ended up 102 and we were on asphalt all day.

Here is the first hug after a looooong 13 weeks!

And here is Marine boot camp graduation! Congratulations Travis!!

My baby is a whopping 67lbs. now! She is such a sweet baby! Checkin' out the fishes!!

Sitting so pretty! What a good girl!!


So I have a new online friend!! She is officially my most loyal customer! Here are some bears I made for her this past week as a trade. She now has 7!!!


I sent her more surprises, but I just got them shipped today so I will have to wait til she gets them before I put them on here. She is by the way the one that talked me into expanding my doll collection in a different direction. I promise I won't go as crazy as I did with the beanie babies! These girls are way more than beanie babies! But I always loved my barbie's growing up and you are never too old to play with dolls. (That is what I have been told!!) My story, sticking to it!! Here is a couple of pictures of her dolls, the first one with the first 4 bears she purchased. They are so cute!





I think this one is my favorite!!!!!


So the DH and I built a dollhouse! Gotta have props for the etsy store! This thing turned out huge!!

So my new friend sent me some things, for trade, to help me fill it up. She told me when I opened the box it would look like Christmas, and boy was she ever right!!!!!

Here is a pic of the dining table and chairs. She also sent me a stereo with speakers and a TV!

Talk about hooking me up!!! I think I owe her another bear!! I just love miniature stuff. I have made some things for the house like a couch, night stand, wardrobe, pearl hangers, and a bed. I will post pics of those when I get it all set up.

So a BIG THANK YOU to neodesign for getting me on a big head start!!!

I have been working on some knitted dresses for the Blythe doll that I will post when I get ready to list them in my etsy.


Hugzz,
Gina

Update and Award!!

It is so wonderful to have cyberspace friends, that are friends even though you have never met face to face. Thank you so much Jann for this award. Your friendship means the world to me!

The wording for this award is as follows: The Karma Award: These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kinds of bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award................................. Since most of my friends already have this award I think I will spend a little time on the net looking for some new friends of blogs that I enjoy, but haven't taken the time to meet yet.


I never feel deserving of my awards because I feel I have neglected my blog more than I should. Hopefully I will have more time to update after school starts this week. Right now, it is all about finishing the garden stuff ( I feel like a squirrel stocking up for the winter, haha) and getting things ready for the last year that I will have a child in the public school system! YEAH!! and BOO!! I have had a child in school nonstop since 1986. Hopefully I got over all the empty nest syndrom when the first one left. Otherwise I will be burying myself in my crafts!



I will leave you with a pic of J's rosebush that her boyfriend bought her. It has really outdone itself blooming since he has been gone to bootcamp. He is so much like my husband it is scary. He asked her what she wanted and she said roses. So he shows up at the house with a WHOLE BUSH! Yep, just like her dad!

It's Been a While!

Funny how summer takes on a life of it's own. One minute, not much to do, and the next is just swampville. Once we got the fence finished, the garden started producing. We have put up green beans, pickles (4 kinds), corn, and tomatoes. I got 6 custom bear orders all needing to be shipped while my girlfriend from Texas and my sister visited the last week of June. Whew!!

Then we got Chanel fixed, didn't slow her down too much. She is now over 40 lbs. and big. HaHa. This is her favorite afternoon napping spot, and whenever daddy wants to sit there! He complains, but for some reason does't make her move.



The temps have been really high here the past few weeks, so we haven't seen Blue in a while, and have been busy every evening watering. That rain seems to just go around us. We have only had .4" the past month.

It is almost time to start school shopping. I can't believe the summer vacation is almost over. I have tried to enjoy the summer with my daughter as this is her last summer before high school graduation. I thought it would never get here and yet I can't believe it is already here.

I will leave you with some eyecandy from all the flowers I have been watering every day. Enjoy!!







Hugzz,
Gina

AWARD!

I was given this award from Becky of Whymsicalmusings.blogspot.com. THANK YOU BECKY! You are such a sweet friend. Here are the rules.

1. Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link.
2. Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you've newly discovered.
3. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.
I will have to get busy and find some new blogs to award now.



It is friday and the fence is almost done, good thing because I received a custom order for 4 teddy bears this morning. Yeah! The only problem is my hands are so sore from bending wire it is hard to hold the crochet hook. The hands aren't the only thing that is sore. It is amazing how you find new muscles you never new you had til you use them. Then they let you know they are there! HAHA Between the fence and the garden I haven't had much time for my crafting lately and I am having withdrawal symptoms! So the bears will be a nice break for me. I processed 15 lbs. of green beans yesterday morning by myself. You have to know that when it comes to outside yard stuff, I am not your girl unless it has to do with the flowers or my koi pond. I just don't find much joy in all the dirt related things, besides the heat index has been in the high 90"s all week. The garden hobbyist is the hubby. Don't get me wrong I love to eat the stuff and I don't mind too much helping him but if it was left up to me I certainly wouldn't have a 35' X 120' patch of weeds with some veggies in it! HA

Update: Since the boyfriend is gone away to bootcamp, we worked out a deal to steal his dog Blue at least once a week. He is such a sweet, huge baby and Channel dearly loves him. By the way last week when he was here I don't know if he did it on purpose or accident, but he took a swim in my koi pond and had a hard time getting back out. I was standing there looking at him like how in the world am I gonna get a 95 lb. lab out of that slippery pond. Luckily J coaxed him to the little island and he was able to climb out with a little help. Needless to say after a little scolding he doesn't go near the pond now. Here is a pic of them wednesday night.



Have a Great weekend everyone!
Hugzz
Gina

Another Wonderful Day!

Yesterday my BFF Becky and I were blessed with a day out together. Eating lunch and craft shopping is our favorite 2 things to do together. I am so blessed to have a wonderful person like her to "hang" with.

Lots going on since my last post. Prom is over, YEAH, went well, so very tired from decorating and cleaning up. School is out for the summer! Graduation is past! Now time to prepare for summer camp. I did manage to get more beads done, did some research on the net for recycled crafts, found some reallllly kewl stuff. Here is a pic of one of the progects that inspired me to try something new with all of the magazines my 2 girls still have stored around the house. I will post another pic when it is finished.


Took the baby (Channel) back to the vet yesterday for the last set of puppy shots and rabies. She weighed a whopping 27.4 lbs. I had no clue Labs grew so fast. I did know how big she will be full grown, I just didn't know she would grow so fast the first few months. Here she is today

She has been tired the past few days from shots and her buddy Blue spent the weekend with us.
I was going to post more pics from the yesterday shopping extravaganza but the camera is doing really strange things this morning. It took an hour to get these 2 pics I posted here so I may be shopping for another camera today. I got some really pretty paper yesterday for some new bead designs I saw and am going to try to recreate.
A new friend of mine has a wonderful giveaway on her blog, you should go check it out if you are interested at all in making your own beads. http://justjenndesignz.blogspot.com/

Have a Great Week!
Hugzz
Gina

I have been awarded!

Thanks Becky for nominating me for these 2 awards! If you only knew how much you challenge and encourage me! The first award is the creative blogger award
With this award I need to list seven things I love and then pass this along to seven very creative bloggers, so here’s my list;
1. My first love is God.
2. My husband of almost 19 years, Richard.
3. My children, daughter-in-law, and extended family.
4. My dear friends that stick by me no matter what.
5. The wonderful talents I have been blessed with.
6. Nature and all the beauty it beholds.
7. All of my wonderful pets.


The second award is

This award I received is accompanied by the following words: "This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY-nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this clever-written text into the body of their award." I now have to pass this award on to 8 fellow bloggers.

Since I am new to the blogging world and I can't get Becky back, I will include some new friends I have met recently.

1. My new friend FOREVER JANN http://www.foreverjann.blogspot.com/ (great artwork)

2. A friend I met through etsy http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5142446 (Wonderful jams and jellies and a new baby)

I am not really sure what all I have to do with these awards so I will just do 2 for now and add more later.

Hugzzzzz
Gina

Wonderful Day

Yesterday was a wonderful day! I spent the day with my bff crafting buddy Becky! I so look forward to our time spent together. Lunch AND shopping for craft supplies, doesn't get any better than that! You can find her at whymsicalmusings.blogspot.com , there she has several links to finding her artwork on the web, also links on my blog.

I feel so inspired to create today, but I have so many wonderful ideas in my head I don't know where to start. We visited a really kewl new shop yesterday called My Heart's Fancy. Talk about inspiration. It is run by 2 wonderful ladies that are friends as well and they have a little bit of everything. Including craft classes and a once a month make and take class that is free! I can't wait to attend one of those. We had some weather issues yesterday while at this store. A storm came up very suddenly and we thought we would have to leave before we got to look at all of the eye candy, but a quick call home and we were told to stay put, the storm is on top of you guys! Gee, that is too bad we have to stay in such a wonderful place! HaHa. It turned out to be a severe tornado that indeed was very close. We made it home fine and had a wonderful time together in spite of it all.

I promise I will post some pics of my art and craft things soon. Today I must start packing for my trip, so I will leave you with this poem.


New Friends and Old Friends

Make new friends, but keep the old;
Those are silver, these are gold.
New-made friendships, like new wine,
Age will mellow and refine.
Friendships that have stood the test--
Time and change--are surely best;
Brow may wrinkle, hair grow gray,
Friendship never knows decay.
For 'mid old friends, tried and true,
Once more we our youth renew.
But old friends, alas! may die,
New friends must their place supply.
Cherish friendship in your breast--
New is good, but old is best;
Make new friends, but keep the old;
Those are silver, these are gold.

Joseph Parry<
OXOX
Gina