altered ambitions

Playing with some Unity Echo Park....

2012-01-27T06:39:00.000-06:00

Good morning!!

I just realized that I have all these posts stored on my blog that haven't been published yet, so thought that I would post a new card for today.

This was a simple little card that I made yesterday using one of the new Unity Stamp Co. Echo Park stamps...

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Echo Park Remember This Bicycle

*MME paper collection

*Martha Stewart doily punch

*Nestabilities Labels die

*Maya Road frame

*Glimmer mists

*doily

*buttons

*twine

*MM polkadot sticker

I love this little stamp and it's only $1.79. You can't pass up that kind of bargain!!

Unity Stamp of the Week #3

2012-01-22T11:12:00.001-06:00

It's time for a new Unity Stamp of the Week!

Have you signed up yet???

At only $5.79 (which already includes shipping) you can't pass up on this wonderful deal!!!

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp of the Week #3

*Pink Paislee papers

*Crate Paper paper

*doily

*K&Co. tag

*shipping tag

*martha stewart doily circle punch

*Nestabilities labels die

*flower brads

*corner rounder

Today's happy....

2012-01-21T06:00:00.000-06:00

New slippers...

That is all! Have a great weekend!

Writing on Wednesday...on FRIDAY!

2012-01-20T07:00:00.000-06:00

I'm sorry! Wednesday was absolutely MANIC this week with everything that I was trying to get done. As a result, something had to give. It ended up being this blog post (and about a half dozen other things...hehe!)

So, here I am on Friday, posting about my writing...and just let me shout it from the rooftops...

IT'S DONE!!!

Operation: Endgame is COMPLETE!!!

And this is what my compete book looks like....

Wednesday was also my writers' meeting. This week, we had a thirty minute writing challenge using the prompt...through an open window. Below is what I wrote in my 30 minutes...

Through the Window

by Christi Snow

She was going to go to hell. AsEmily watched the gorgeous hunk furtively over her cup of coffee, she knew itas easily as she knew that her hair was brown. She was going to hell. It wasn’tright for her to sit her day after day and drool over this gorgeous, lusciouspiece of man-candy. But as she watched him climb the ladder through theglass-paned windows to reach something just out of his reach, she could see allthose amazing muscles flex and contract, and just couldn’t find it in herselfto worry about her eventual damnation. The view right now made it all worth it.

When she moved to the city threemonths ago, she had no idea that a simple storefront would mean the fall of hereternal soul. She’d discovered this little quaint street purely by accident. Withits cobblestone streets and chic little boutiques, it was like entering afeminine nirvana. She’d been drawn into the cozy little street-side coffee shopthat looked like it belonged on a Paris corner by the lure of aromatic coffees,but it was the view that kept her coming back…day after day.

See, this quaint little coffee shopwas right across the street from a flower shop. A flower shop with old oakglass-paned bay windows which led to the perfect view…of him. The side ofbeefcake that invaded her dreams, both day and night. He had dark wavy hair,trimmed short on the sides. It was a little longer on top and was alwaysfalling across his face so that he ran his hands through it constantly to getit out of his way. He wore wire-rimmed glasses that gave him a geeky hunk lookthat was so seductive. She’d never been close enough to tell for sure, but shewould bet good money that they hid vibrant blue eyes. Then there was his body.The guy was fit. He tended to wear jeans to the store, topped off by buttondown shirts rolled up at the cuffs. Today he wore a black vest over that shirtthat simply made her heart go pitter-pat.

Quite simply put, he was the devilincarnate. Having just moved here, Emily hadn’t made any friends yet. Sheworked really long stressful hours trying to prove herself at the architecturefirm where she was filling in temporarily for an associate who’d had to takepersonal time for a family matter. It was a temporary job, but an incredibleopportunity to break into a highly competitive field where there weren’t manyjob opportunities for someone without a reputation yet. She wasn’t here toplay. She was here to make a name for herself. As a result, this was the onesimply joy that she allowed herself…her nightly gawking through the windowsacross the street.

It really was too bad he was gay.

These are my words so you are not allowed to copy, alter, or re-print them anywhere else without my permission. ;o)

Hip Hop & New Beginning Challenge...

2012-01-19T00:01:00.000-06:00

Hello, Unity Peeps!

It's Hip Hop TIME!!!

This week, we have an extra little theme...Pinterest inspired!

Have you joined the pinterest bandwagon yet??

OMG, do join! It's so much fun!!!

So this week, some of us are sharing some Pinterest inspired art.

Here's my card...

And here's the Pinterest photo that inspired it...

Pinterest Inspired photo found HERE.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Live What You Love

*Crate Paper (newsprint)

*MME (blue floral)

*MM chipboard clock

*Nestabilities Labels and Lacey circles

*Martha Stewart circle punch

*Fiskars border punch

*StazOn Jet black inkpad

*watercolor pencils

*buttons

*corner rounder

***********

Then our challenge which started the 15th had a theme of "New Beginnings."

I found this Echo Park stamp in my un-inked pile and thought that the sentiment for a New Day fit the theme well, and created this card...

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. All Smiles Itty (butterfly)

*Unity Stamp Co. Smile! (only $1.79...Wow)

*Martha Stewart border punch

*various papers

*MM chipboard clocks

*Nestabilities labels die

*StazOn jet black ink

*watercolor pencils

*buttons

*MME twine

Now you need to hop on over to ***Jimmi's Fantastic Blog***

Playing with my Unity....

2012-01-16T12:24:00.003-06:00

Hi, everyone! I'm over on the Unity blog today...

I have a quick card to share using the new Unity Kit of the Month, Heart and Soul.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Heart & Soul

*StazOn Jet black ink pad

*Melody Ross paper collection

*watercolor pencils

*ribbon

*Martha Stewart border punch

*Nestabilities labels die

*corner rounder

*button

I used the Mojo Monday sketch for this card....

I hope that everyone's having a great day!!

BTW, did you see this week's Stamp of the Week??

LOVE IT!

Only $5.79 (which already includes shipping) and it's only available for one week!!

Here's a fun little card that I created using it...

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp of the Week #2

*Spellbinders die

*Crate Paper patterned paper

*ribbon

*button

*Martha Stewart border punch

*watercolor pencils

Writing on Wednesday-The first time...

2012-01-11T08:16:00.000-06:00

I did it.

Yesterday, for the first time ever...

I wrote "writer" under occupation.

That may not seem like that big of a deal, but for me, it was huge.

Yes, I had my reasons.

It was an optometry appointment.

I figured the fact that I look at a computer screen or printed page ALL DAY LONG

might affect how they look at my eyes and the way that I use them.

hehe.

It also meant that there was discussion about it.

I had to actually talk about my book with strangers yesterday.

That was odd. ;o)

So, the book.

Where am I at?

Honestly, I am stuck.

*ugh*

So, I spent ALL DAY yesterday re-reading my book.

Did you know that it takes FOREVER to re-read your own work?

Geez, after about 7 hours reading yesterday, I finally stopped.

And I still haven't finished it.

It's not that long...don't worry.

It just takes so much longer to read and proof your own work.

Today, I plan to finish reading those last few pages.

Then, I PLAN TO FINISH IT.

It's so close...

I just need to FINISH!

Re-reading it?

I have NO IDEA if this book is even readable.

It seems okay when I read it,

but I think that I am too close to it.

I can't see the problems with it.

I need others to read it.

I know that you all are waiting and willing.

SOON...

I promise!

Simple Stories Year-o-graphy

2012-01-10T11:07:00.000-06:00

Scrapbook Steals is a website that Unity Stamp Co. is working closely with to provide some exclusive little kits.

Today, they have a FABULOUS deal using some of the Simple Stories Year-o-graphy kits.

I played with these stamps a bit and made a couple of cards for their site.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Calendar Kit

*Unity Stamp Co. Month Names - large

*Nestabilities labels die

*The Paper Studio paper

*ribbon

*watercolor pencils

*Colorbox Red ink

***************

Suplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. mini months

*Unity Stamp Co. Best Day

*Collage Press paper collection

*Pink Paislee paper (calendar)

*The Paper Studio paper (b&w polka)

*StazOn jet black

*brad

*Fancy Pants pins

*ribbon

*Fiskars border punch

New Unity Stamp of the Week....

2012-01-09T12:34:00.001-06:00

I love it when we enter the new year and new things are happening.

One of those amazing new things is the Stamp of the Week from Unity Stamp Co.

This week is the first week.

For only $5.79 (which includes shipping!)

You get a brand spanking new stamp in your mailbox every single week.

I love that!!!

It's like a little gift for yourself.

Every.

Single.

Week.

For basically the cost of a cup of fancy coffee!!

So you know that I had to play!

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Stamp of the Week #1

*Basic Grey papers

*Making Memories tag and large heart

*velvet ribbon

*Nestabilities labels die

*watercolor pencils

**********

This second card is very simple.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Stamp of the week #1

*Crate Paper paper

*Nestabilities die

*ribbon

*watercolor pencils

*Martha Stewart border punch

January 2012 {ippity} release....

2012-01-05T00:01:00.000-06:00

Happy, happy Hip Hop, everyone!!

I have a couple of cards to share with you today.

First up, is a project using one of the new Authentique Itty Bitty Stamps, Oh Happy Day!

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co- Authentique, Oh Happy Day

*Authentique paper collection

*Nestabilities labels die

*Stampin Up punch

*ribbon

*StazOn jet black ink pad

**********

We are also showing off some art using the new, gorgeous {ippity} stamps.

Supplies used:

*{ippity} Happy are Those

*Sassafras paper

*MM trim and buckle

*Nestabilities Lacey circle die

*Stampin Up paper punch

*Fiskars border punch

*watercolor pencil

RELEASING THIS WEEKEND! - We are VERY EXCITED about the NEW YEAR CHANGE with {ippity} stamps by Unity!

Starting this weekend {ippity} will be available on the UNITY WEBSITE!

Once the WEBSITE IS READY and all tuned up for this change over - All YOU will have to do is CLICK ON the photo of YOUR Favorite {ippity} CHICK - and BUY your favorite {ippity} stamps from there...HERE is something MORE LOVELY! ...if you would like to add UNITY STAMPS to your order YOU CAN!

ALSO - Starting SOON - ANY Unity DISCOUNT CODE used in combination with your order of {ippity} WILL WORK, including Unity Kit Member 25% discount codes.

It is going to be UNITY SIMPLIFIED - making our {ippity} line available through your favorite {ippity} chick - RIGHT on the Unity website and SHIPPED TO YOU directly through Unity! :)

****************

Finally, we are going to be adding a bit of something to our Hip Hop posts a little more personal. This week's theme is "how will our New Year's Resolutions affect our stamping?"

I don't do NY resolutions as a general rule, but I have been working on my 41 things to do this year. Included in that list is to work on this blog more and this is an ongoing challenge.

I promise you more art especially on Mondays and on occasional weekends. I am trying to get better at this, but balancing my writing, reading, stamping, blogging, and family is a very delicate balance. I am thinking that the sleeping is going to have to stop. LOL!

I promise right now to share more art! My resolution for you! Love you girlies!

*************
Now you need to hop on over to ***Jimmi's blog***

Writing on Wednesday plus Monday Meanderings...

2012-01-04T09:46:00.002-06:00

Good morning!

This is definitely a mixed post, but mainly it is about the writing that I am doing.

I am *still* working on finishing up Operation: Endgame.

I keep thinking that I only have around 5000 words left to write,

but then I write 1000-2000 words and I still have 5000 words left to write.

LOL.

It's a process that I am slowly learning.

I hope to have it done within the week, but I know...you all have heard that before.

There is a lot to tie up because this is a romantic suspense.

I am at the climatic ending which means that there is a lot of description and action.

Whereas normal scenes take about 1000 words, these scenes are taking 2000-3000 words.

It's a lot and it isn't easy writing.

So I am trudging along...

In the meantime, I am trying to stay on top of my review book blog by reading a book/day.

I am stamping a bit more than normal right now.

AND I am working at the craft of writing with other things.

For example, we have a San Angelo Writer's group that just started last month.

PRESSURE....having other writers looking at my ability as a writer....not necessarily the story.

*eeks*

I am also starting up daily 30 minute writing practices, based upon the daily topics from this book....

Below is yesterday's (remember, this is 30 min of writing on a random topic, so try not to be too harsh.)

Jan. 3 In a Courtyard...

Elise strode into the courtyard with purpose. She could do this, but her footsteps faltered as she caught sight of the parrot tulips blooming to the right of the stone bench. Jack had planted those for her last year- back when all had been right in their world. Now she wondered if anything would ever be right again.

It had started six months ago with a simple phone call...

Elise wiggled her toes under the edge of Jack's leg. They were both sprawled across the couch reading their books. Today was the first day where there was a chill in the air signaling the coming of autumn. They weren't ready to turn on the heat yet, but that meant that snuggling was required to keep them both warm.

Elise wiggled her toes again, burrowing them deeper under the warmth of Jack's leg. He looked up at her in exasperation but his look quickly changed to lust as he focused in on the swell of her breast exposed by her cleavage. She gave him a saucy smile with an innocent, "What?"

He grabbed hold of her hand and pulled her quickly into his lap. Elise uttered a surprised squeak before his lips reached down to capture hers in a scorching kiss.

He leaned his forehead against hers. Both of them were breathing significantly harder than they had been just five minutes ago. He started speaking and his voice was gravelly with sexual tension. "You know, I can think of better ways for us to stay warm this evening."

Elise found it hard to think straight with him nibbling at her neck, but she didn't plan to make this easy for him. They may have threes years on their marriage, but she wanted to keep him on his toes. "I don't know. I am enjoying my book."

"Hmm, maybe I need to work harder to convince you of the wisdom of my plan."

"Yes, maybe," she responded, but she couldn't withhold the gasp and moan as he palmed her breast. The nipple pebbled below his ministrations and Elise could feel the tingles of arousal spread throughout her entire body. She could feel his impressive erection pressed into the cleft of her ass. She wiggled her butt a little to give him some friction. His eyes darkened and he suddenly sprang up, continuing to hold her in his arms. "Let's take this upstairs," he growled.

With his foot on the first step, the phone rang and he hesitated. "Damn, I am expecting news from work so I need to get that. Go on upstairs and be ready for me. I'll be there in five minutes." He gave her another scorching kiss and patted her ass as she started up the stairs while he went to answer the phone.

And that's it. I have NO IDEA where it goes from there...LOL!

BTW, when I read the In a Courtyard prompt, my immediate thought was of a photo that I took in France. I didn't pull out my disc to find the original photo, but you can see it on this old layout below (March, 2006 is when I created the layout.) The photo on the left was my visual I had in my mind...just with a different type of tulips.

So that's it for today. I will be back tomorrow with more art for Hip HOp!!!

These are my words so you are not allowed to copy, alter, or re-print them anywhere else without my permission. ;o)

New month, New Kit, New Challenge....

2012-01-01T07:00:00.000-06:00

I have a new card to start off the New Year.

This card uses the brand new Unity Stamp Co. kit of the month, Heart and Soul, and the new sketch challenge.

Here is the sketch from the challenge. I simply turned the sketch on its side.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Jan kom (sentiment, playing card, bird detail, and ticket)

*MME paper collection

*Melissa Frances chip board

*Nestabilities die cuts

*corner rounder

*ribbon

*Websters Pages button

Be sure to join in on the challenge. You always have a great chance to win some amazing prizes!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

2011-12-25T06:00:00.000-06:00

From our family to yours,

I hope that your holiday is fabulous!

Photograhy and Christmas Card design by Kara Bryant Photo.

Photography Friday: Merry Christmas to Me!

2011-12-23T06:00:00.000-06:00

I got my Christmas present a little early this week.

When Jacob started driving in July, he took my Nissan Xterra, and since then I have been driving the Jeep. Finally this week, we bought me a new (to me) truck...a Toyota Tundra CrewMax.

Yesterday, I pulled out my camera to play with taking photos of it.....

Christmas Cards

2011-12-22T00:01:00.000-06:00

For the first time in a VERY LONG TIME, I did not make my Christmas cards this year.

I know, I can hear the gasps of shock heard around the globe....hehe!

But I did still have to make a *few* cards for a few special people, and here they are...

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Merry Christmas Home (tree stamp)

*Unity Stamp Co. Christmas Delivery (sentiment)

*MME papers

*CTMH cranberry ink

*StazOn jet black ink

*black flat back gems

*Martha Stewart border punch

*Nestabilities labels die

Now you need to hop on over to ***Jimmi's beautiful blog***

Sharing some {Ippity} art...

2011-12-21T18:00:00.000-06:00

Hello everyone! Sorry, there is not a Wednesday Writings post today. I haven't been doing very good about writing in the past week. We are working at buying a truck and it's been taking up a lot of my spare time, and stressing me out...which is not very conducive to creative writing. *ugh*

But I was tasked with doing the {ippity} post on the Unity blog today, so thought that I would share the project here too.

Supplies Used:

*{ippity} Love in Return

*{ippity} Regal Greetings

*MME papers

*Colorbox blue ink

*CTMH Gray ink

*doily

*Fiskars border punch

*Nestabilities labels die

*pop dots

Monday Meanderings...Inspiration

2011-12-19T10:48:00.001-06:00

Most of you know that I am a reader. Sometimes, I even buy books because of their pretty covers. I know that you all are shocked at this because I am not a visual person at all. *said sarcastically*

Below is a photo of one of those books ( I haven't read it yet, but I hear that the actual book is good too...hehe!)

But because I loved this cover so much, I decided that I needed to make a bookmark inspired by it.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Take Time to Laugh kit (mittens)

*Unity Stamp Co. What I Know kit (branch and sentiment)

*watercolor pencils

*Cuttlebug embossing plate

*Nestabilities Labels die cut

*doublesided tape

*Marth Stewart chunky glitter

*MM trim

*StazOn jet black ink pad

I love my new bookmark!

Now I just need to find the time to read the book!

Dec 15th Unity Challenge

2011-12-15T08:58:00.000-06:00

Good morning.

Every 15th of the month, Unity starts a new design challenge.

This month's Challenge it's all about Gift Giving so the Challenge:

Gift Wrapping or it could also include:

Gift tags

Gift card holders

Bags and so on!!!

So easy and fun....

AND there is a prize involved!

The Big Prize

For a chance to win 100 random stamps
and a free kit of your choice valued at $45 or under!

I went with EASY for my example...just some fun little gift tags made from shipping tags.

Unity stamp used: Santa Bingo itty bitty

Unity Stamps used:

Cosmo Cricket Tiny Tags Vintage Christmas & Websters Pages Christmas Delivery

*Unity Stamp used: Websters Pages Believe in Miracles

Writing on Wednesday...Readers wanted!!

2011-12-14T06:00:00.002-06:00

The end is in sight for Operation: Endgame.

As I get closer to finishing the first draft of this book, the thought occurs...what next?

I am signed up for a self-editing class next month so that will be a good start.

Also, I think that I need someone else to read it.

So far, I am the only one that's done so and it's time for someone else's feedback.

So, I Need 5 Readers!

Warning: this is the first draft of a very first novel, so it very likely sucks, like big-time sucks.

But I know that.

What I can't see, as the author, is exactly where in the story/plot/writing that it sucks.

That's why I need you and your feedback.

So, I am asking for volunteers to read my novel when I get it done (will likely be within the next couple of weeks.) I just need a few people willing to read it and be honest, but not cruel. ;o)

Warning: the novel contains some graphic sex.

(it would probably rate as a spicy on my sexual scale on my book review blog)

I can send you the novel as a Word doc or as a pdf file which you can load onto your e-reader.

(it's so cool to see my book on my Kindle...hehe!)

When I convert to pdf though, it does lose some of the formatting...

specifically, parts of the book that are in Italics...like remembrances or internal dialogue.

If you are interested, you can leave a comment here or send me an email at snowchris_01@yahoo.com

I will need your email address to send the file.

And just because you all have been so fabulous with your support, here's another little snippet from the story.

The scene here is Cassie and Jake. Jake is trying to help Cassie take a bath after she has been hurt (her collar bone is broken so she can't move her right arm.) At this point, they are still just friends...

Cassie watched the myriad of emotions cross Jake’s face as he helped her out of her clothes. She stopped him now though with a hand cupping the side of his face. “Jake, relax. It’s just me, the girl you used to tie to the tree and abandon when we were little.”

Jake gave a self-effacing chuckle. “Can we not talk about bondage when you are standing there looking so gorgeous in just your underwear and about to get naked?”

The comment was so out of left field and Jake had such a look of pain on his face that Cassie had to laugh. “Relax, Jake, we can do this. We are adults.”

“Again, not helping, because I don’t need to be thinking adult thoughts right now, trust me.”

These are my words so you are not allowed to copy, alter, or re-print them anywhere else without my permission. ;o)

Monday Meanderings...

2011-12-12T12:59:00.000-06:00

It's Monday...is that saying enough?

LOL!

I had planned on sharing lots here this morning, but I am dragging and think that most will wait til another day. *sigh*

So instead, I will share a card that I made last week with one of the new {ippity} releases.

Supplies used:

*{ippity} Your friendship- My cup of Tea

*EK Success border punch

*MME paper

*watercolor pencils

*corner rounder

And this is simply a share that makes me happy....

My new Wallflower/changing nightlight from Bath & Body works

Pretty....AND it smells delicious too!!!

Hip Hopping into December...

2011-12-08T00:01:00.028-06:00

It's another Thursday which means it's time for another Unity Stamp Co. Hip Hop!

Yippee!

And guess what?? Ang has some crazy holiday sales for you all.
I hear that the sales are going to go on for the next THREE WEEKS...

..AND there are new releases too!

OMG, I love Thursdays!

So what do I have to share first? Some fabulous new stamps by Phyllis Harris!

I just adore this new kit called, Your Wings Exist.

Supplies Used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Your Wings Exist

*MME paper

*Echo Park papers

*Martha Stewart border punch

*twine

*watercolor pencils

******

This second card uses some of the new Itty Bitty tags and that wonderful Audrey cameo that I just adore....

Supplies Used:

*Unity Stamp Co. You're the Ticket
*Unity Stamp Co. Audrey

*MME paper

*Prima paper

*Nestabilities die cut

*Basic Grey ribbon

Now you need to hop on over to ***Jimmi's gorgeous blog***

Writing on Wednesday...Big Bad Wolf

2011-12-07T06:00:00.001-06:00

I am a HUGE fan of the new show, Once Upon a Time, and would love to write a series of books based upon the classic fairy tales. So yesterday, I was thinking about this in the shower and the idea for a new series was born. I am thinking that this could be part of an ongoing series where the fairy tales are re-invented into modern day stories...past lives, repressed memories, etc...

They say that all stories and legends are based, in part, on fact.

Do you think that’s true?

Even the fairy tales…

Amanda awoke with a start. The wolf was after her again. She had the same dream/nightmare night after night. It frightened her, but it also aroused her and that was something that completely confused her. She didn’t remember her past, but what kind of twisted person was she that she became turned on by a wolf baring his fangs at her? It was a wolf….a really ferocious dog that looked like he could eat her… and it turned her on. That was so wrong on so many levels.

Amanda glanced over at the clock and groaned. It was 3:27 AM and her alarm clock was going to start buzzing in three minutes. It was time to get her ass out of bed and head into the bakery for this morning’s prep work, but the residual adrenaline and arousal from her dream made her want to snuggle back into her warm covers. What did the dreams mean? Why couldn't she remember anything about herself prior to a year and a half ago? The wolf dreams had to be a clue, but Amanda wasn't sure if she was strong enough to delve into them even further. What if she didn't like what she discovered?

These are my words so you are not allowed to copy, alter, or re-print them anywhere else without my permission. ;o)

Granted, it's not much more than an idea right now, but I am excited about it. I am thinking that these would be novellas....around 40,000-60,000 words. What do you think? What other fairy tales would you like to see re-done in modern day??

My initial thoughts:

*Beauty & the Beast

*Robin Hood

*The Elves & the Shoemaker

Tell me your thoughts...

Photography Friday....Thanksgiving Camping

2011-12-02T07:54:00.000-06:00

hmmm, this post is a good example of a Photography FAIL...

We went camping Thanksgiving week.

My whole family...Ben, Jacob, Kat, and me

My brother and his wife...Alison and Dave

My parents...Mom and Dad

And my Grandfather.

The only person I have photos of...Kat.

hmmm....FAIL

I think that I need to get better about taking more photos.

None of the photos are spectacular, but here are some of the better ones...

Writing on Wednesday...50,000 words later

2011-11-30T17:02:00.000-06:00

Today is the last day in November which means National Novel Writing Month is about to end.

The goal for NaNoWriMo is 50,000 words.

I hit that goal last night.

What does that mean??

It means I am about halfway through writing the first draft of Operation: Endgame. I still have a long ways to go, but I am so excited about what I have accomplished this month and about where the novel is at.

I haven't gone back and re-read the book as a whole yet, and I know that it has detail and flow issues. For the next month, I plan to slow down the daily word count and start working on the issues within the book. I have several books that I am also reading to help with my process...

Below, is the view of my working notebook. That first section is pretty much the novel printed. Double spaced on my computer, it is sitting at 152 pages right now. I love looking at it all printed! I am also feeling very addicted to the writing of it.

The goal at this point is to have the novel completed by the end of January and hopefully almost fully revised by then too. I will keep you all fully updated as I go.

I am over on the Unity Stamp Co. blog....

2011-11-28T12:01:00.002-06:00

...playing with the November kit of the month.

Come and see!

A Thanksgiving Hip Hop....

2011-11-24T00:01:00.000-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

I hope that you all are spending the day with friends and family and haven't eaten TOO MUCH!

It may be Thanksgiving, but we are still Hip-Hopping in true Unity Style!!

Today I wanted to share with you a layout that I created using Unity's November SMAK kit (only available for a few more days....)

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. November SMAK kit

*Webster's Pages paper collection

*various circle punches

*Fiskars border punch

*Nestabilities labels die

*Recollection bling

There are only a few more days to pick up Unity Stamp Co. November SMAK kit...

And don't forget to help out your loved ones with their shopping this Christmas.

You can print off this graphic and leave it around where they can see it.

Wouldn't you love to have a Unity Stamp Co. gift certificate under the tree??

;o)

Now you need to head over to ***Jimmi's gorgeous blog***

(and give her a few get-well wishes. She wasn't feeling too good yesterday.)

Writing on Wednesday...Concerned

2011-11-23T08:00:00.000-06:00

Good Thanksgiving Eve. This is going to be a super-quick post. Here is the next scene in Operation: Endgame. This will probably be the last excerpt from this book that I post for a while (I don't want to give away the entire book.)

To read the excerpts prior to this one, they are all listed in order on last week's Writing post.

Half a day and, seemingly, a lifetime later, Jake was looking at that same photo when Colton walked up behind him. He looked over Jake’s shoulder at the photo and grinned. “You three were always the hellions of the neighborhood.”

Jake nodded and smiled. “Yes, it’s amazing that the neighborhood put up with us playing our war games through everyone’s yards for all those years without calling the police on us.”

Colton looked around the room at the food and plants that were everywhere… so many of them were from the neighbors. “Nah, the neighborhood loved you three with your war games. They knew that as long as you were playing together, you were more than likely keeping each other out of trouble.”

Jake pressed his finger to Chris’ face on the photo. “That only seemed to work when we were kids though, didn’t it? I wasn’t able to keep him out of trouble this time.”

Colton looked thoughtfully at Jake. His rank had enabled him to gather more information about the crash than Cassie had been told so he knew that it was Jake’s PJ team that had gone in for Chris’ extraction…an extraction that failed because of bad weather conditions. It was why Chris was on the ground for eighteen hours after his crash before he was recovered and, by then, he had been tortured to death. “Jake, there is nothing that you or any of your guys could have done differently to change this outcome. The weather was beyond your control.”

Jake flashed a haunted look at Colton. “I should have pushed harder. The weather had just moved in. We could have moved just a little bit faster when we got his distress signal. We could have scrambled just a little bit faster. We could have pushed the envelope just a bit further. We might have saved him.” Jake’s voice broke as he finished his thought.

“No, you cannot second guess this. What you would have ended up with were more dead personnel, Jake. This is not your fault. Chris did a dangerous job, just like we all do. He knew the risks. You could not have changed this and second-guessing it doesn’t do anyone any favors.” Colton ran his hand over his face. “This is hard for everyone right now. Give it some time and you will see that I am right.”

Jake and Colton were talking quietly in front of the fireplace, but Cassie was in the kitchen with Julie and Penelope. Jake looked at her now. “Do you think that she would see it that way if she knew the truth? Do you think that she would see me as blameless in Chris’ death? I don’t think so.”

Colton shook his head at Jake. “That’s where you’re wrong. Cassie is one of the greatest military tacticians in this country. She knows how combat works and how long it takes to deploy and when the risks are too great. She would NEVER blame you for this and she would be damn angry if she realized that you were blaming yourself. If she wasn’t so wrapped up in her denial of the entire situation, she would see that what you were doing and would tell you that herself.”

Jake looked at Cassie. “She’s not dealing with this at all Colt. What are we going to do? We both have to get back to our bases and aren’t going to be here when reality finally sets in for her.”

Colton shook his head. “There’s nothing we can do. We can’t force her to accept the reality of the situation. The girls will help look out for her. She is still planning on doing her European tour for the video game thing. It’s just been postponed for a week, so I will be able to keep an eye on her while she is over there, at least on the weekends.”

“When do you have to head back?” Jake asked him.

“I still have another week of emergency leave. What about you?”

“I need to fly back tomorrow or the next day at the latest. I don’t want to leave her yet.” Jake was looking at Cassie. Jake had no idea that his heart was showing through every look that he gave her today. He had a feeling that Jake was in for a shock when he realized it.

“Listen, I have a favor to ask. I know that the timing sucks, but Dianna is insisting that I come deal with some paperwork about the divorce and I need to head to Dallas to do that. I will be gone tomorrow, but will be back early enough the next day so that you can still make your flight out. Could you stay with Cassie tomorrow and spend the night tomorrow night so that she’s not alone in the house? I am not comfortable leaving her alone yet.”

Jake continued to watch Cassie as she stared off into space. She didn’t even seem aware of what was going on around her. He was worried about how she was going to react when she became aware again. “Of course, you know you don’t even have to ask. I am always here if Cassie needs me.”

These are my words so you are not allowed to copy, alter, or re-print them anywhere else without my permission. ;o)

Writing on Wednesday...Condolences

2011-11-16T08:24:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone!

Continuing to do NaNoWriMo here with Operation: Endgame, although I fell a little behind on my word count in the past week (I have just hit 25,000 words which is about 25% of the book.) I am hoping to make some of that up over the next few days though.

I have posted several scenes from the beginning of this book. If you would like to read them in the order they are in the book, here is the breakdown in order:

*Prologue: Meeting Jake

*Chapter 1: Margaritas

*Chapter 1 continued: Notification

*Chapter 2: Condolences...below

And PLEASE remember....this is ALL very rough draft!!

Chapter 2

May 15^th, Present Day

Lubbock, TX

Numb. That was all Cassie felt…simply numb. Cassie peered into her coffee cup and wondered if she should be feeling something more. Today was Chris’ funeral. She should be feeling more than this overwhelming apathy about everything going on around her. She stood here in the same kitchen where she stood every morning holding her coffee cup wearing the same periwinkle blue plaid robe that she wore every morning. Shouldn’t something feel different if Chris was really gone?

That was part of the problem though. She still couldn’t believe that Chris was really gone. Colton had arrived back in the States and back home about twelve hours after Jake had arrived. He verified the same things that Jake had told her. Chris had crashed his jet. No one knew exactly what had happened. The PJ’s had gone in and retrieved his body eighteen hours after it happened. No one would tell her where, how, or why. The only intel she could get was that Jake’s crew had something to do with the recovery and that Colton had identified what was left of his body.

Cassie looked across the island into the living room where Julie and Penelope were milling around handling the details and the lists for the funeral and the reception afterwards. Cassie could see Julie checking things off her never-ending lists. She could hear their murmuring voices although they were so low, that she couldn’t hear what they were saying. From the glances that they kept giving her, it was probably a good thing that she couldn’t hear what they were saying. They obviously were discussing her. Could they tell that she wasn’t feeling anything? Did they understand this never-ending numbness? Cassie couldn’t, but for now she was okay with it. She didn’t want to feel because, when it happened, Cassie knew that the pain was going to shred her. For now, Cassie felt like she was living life in a fog, and that was really okay.

Julie came and joined her in the kitchen. There was a plate of muffins on the island in front of her that someone had brought in this morning. Julie pushed the plate towards her. “Cassie, you need to eat something.” Cassie started to shake her head no, but Julie wasn’t going to let her off the hook that easily. “Cass, you haven’t touched anything in days. It’s going to be a stressful day today and you don’t want to pass out at the funeral. Just eat half a muffin and I will leave you alone.” Julie was looking at her with such concern in her clear green eyes that Cassie couldn’t refuse; besides she had a good point. Cassie didn’t want to pass out at the funeral.

“Okay.” Cassie scooped up a muffin and pointed towards the French doors. “I am going to go sit outside while I eat it, okay? Just yell if you need me for anything.” She glanced towards where Penelope was still working in the living room and scurried out the doors.

Cassie sat down at the bistro table where just five days before the three of them had been drinking margaritas and celebrating life. How had so much changed in such a short amount of time?

Cassie heard the doorbell ring inside the house. It had been ringing non-stop for days now as friends brought food and flowers. She knew one of the girls would take care of whatever it was. If Cassie was a good person, she would get up and handle some of this herself, rather than leaving it all to others to handle, but she just couldn’t bring herself to care.

As she had that thought, Penelope stuck her head out the door and said, “Cassie, there is a delivery here. They are insisting that you have to sign for it.”

Cassie looked puzzled, but stood and started towards the door. “Okay, I am coming.” When Cassie arrived inside she saw a delivery man standing at the front door holding a long rectangular box and a clipboard. She rushed over and signed by the X and looked questioningly at the delivery box. There was not a return address, so she turned back towards the delivery man and asked, “Where did this come from?”

He glanced down at his clipboard. “It says here that it’s from someone named Bernard Kleptofine.”

Cassie looked at him sharply. “Do you mind if I look?” She reached for the clipboard and looked down at it. “Weird.” She handed the clipboard back to the delivery guy with a scowl between her brows.

Penelope looked at Cassie questioningly. “What’s wrong? Who is Bernard Kleptofine?”

“He’s the bad-guy in Endgame, the video game that I worked on last year. He’s a fictional character.” Cassie grabbed the scissors out of the drawer and opened up the box. On top of a pile of Styrofoam peanuts was a small card. Cassie opened it. “It just says ‘Condolences’. It must be from a fan of the video game that heard about Chris.” She handed the card over to the girls as she reached into the box to pull out a heavily bubble wrapped oblong object.

As she unwrapped the object, Julie looked at her worriedly. “How would a fan get your home address?”

Cassie shrugged. “I don’t know. Until a year ago, it didn’t matter who had my address so I doubt that it would be that hard to track it down if someone wanted to. I am not exactly hidden especially with my University connections and the fact that this has been my address for a long time.”

Cassie reached the end of the roll of never-ending bubble wrap which revealed a very small, probably 1/3 scale, replica of a Thompson machine gun. “Oh wow. Look at this.”

Penelope looked even more perplexed. “Why would anyone send you a gun as a sympathy gift?”

For the first time, Cassie felt the first crack in her apathetic armor and her eyes filled with tears. “I collect them, and this is a gorgeous miniature replica. Look at the detail on this thing.” She held the gun up and inspected the details closely.

“I still don’t understand. Why would someone send you a gun for a condolence gift when your brother was just killed in action?” Penelope was becoming obviously upset by what she considered to be a crass gift.

“No, Penelope. You don’t understand. This is from one of the fans of the game. In one of my magazine interviews I talked about the fact that I collect Thompson machine guns. The reason that I collect them is because when Chris, Jake, and I were young, we played war games around the neighborhood constantly. The Thompson was our favorite weapon of choice. It’s actually a really thoughtful, sweet gift to remind me of fun times with Chris.” Cassie’s voice choked up when she said Chris’ name.

Penelope came up behind Cassie and gave her a gentle hug from behind. “You, my friend, are a very strange bird. You had to have the most unusual childhood of anyone I know, growing up with all the boys.”

Cassie looked at the gun with a watery smile. “It was the best childhood that any girl could ask for. I had three guys who loved and took care of me every single day of it.”

Julie came up and hugged Cassie from the other side. “So what do you do with a miniature replica weapon?”

Cassie extracted herself from their embrace and walked the gun over and set it on her mantle above the fireplace. “You put it in a place of honor to remember the good times.” She rubbed a hand over the framed snapshot that was sitting right beside the gun of the three of them when they were young. If she remembered right, the photo was taken about a year after Jake had moved in next door, so that made him eleven years old and the twins nine years old when the photo was taken. All three of them were in full camouflage regalia…full face paint and camo fatigues. Chris stood in the middle between Jake and Cassie and all three of them wore a grin that spread from ear to ear. Those bright white teeth and white eyes standing out against their smeared and running face paint. It was one of her most beloved photos of the three of them…the Three Musketeers. Now they were down to two.

These are my words so you are not allowed to copy, alter, or re-print them anywhere else without my permission. ;o)

Fabulous-looking new movies coming out....

2011-11-15T08:38:00.000-06:00

I have seen so many fabulous trailers for upcoming movies that I thought that I would share some of them. Anyone want to come to the movies with me this year?? Ben isn't much of a movie guy...

Snow White and the Huntsman...

The Hunger Games...

One for the Money...

Hopping with Creative Imaginations

2011-11-10T00:01:00.001-06:00

Unity Stamp Co is hopping today with Creative Imaginations...

They have such gorgeous, gorgeous products.

And you can win some of those beautiful products.

Just head on over to the Unity blog for more info...

They were so much fun to play with!!

I created two cards to share with you today...

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. IOD

*Creative Imaginations Provencial Collection

*Martha Stewart border punch

*Prima bling

*flat-backed pearls

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. IOD- Loolah Collection kit

*Creative Imaginations Loolah Collection

*Nestabilities Labels die

*Martha Stewart border punch

*flat back pearls

*button

Now you need to hop on over to Jimmi's gorgeous blog...

Writing on Wednesday...Meeting Jake

2011-11-09T06:00:00.017-06:00

Below is another excerpt from my WIP Operation: Endgame.

This scene is the very first in the book and takes place 20 years before the timeline in the book. It's when Jake moved in next door and shows you the start of their friendship.

As a reminder, here is quick blurb about the story:

Jake's world fell apart when his best friend, Chris, died after his jet was shot down. Jake was in charge of the mission to recover Chris when he was shot down, but Jake failed. He failed a second time when he gave into his grief and passion and slept with his other best friend, Cassie, Chris' twin sister.

It's been six months since his world fell apart and he lost both his best friends, and now Cassie is in danger. She is being stalked and Jake is determined that he will not fail again. He will keep her safe, both from the danger that's stalking her and his own lust that threatens to overwhelm them both.

Prologue

Twenty Years Ago

Lubbock, TX

Jake could feel the bark of the limb cutting into his palm, but he refused to give away his position by changing anything about the way he was clinging there. The old oak tree was the perfect place for him to watch his new neighbors. This was his 3^rd day spying on them while they played their war games and he was starting to understand their strategy and how the game went as they tried to capture each other’s flags. There were two of them that played every day, dressed up in camouflage, complete with face paint and wooden Thompson machine guns. Every once in a while, their older brother would join them, but usually he would stomp off in a huff after the two smaller ones tricked him and captured him instead of his flag.

At the age of ten, Jake yearned to join them in their game. His loneliness ate at him after being uprooted from the only friends that he had ever known and dragged across the country to this strange place they called West Texas. He had never felt anything as hot as it got here, had never seen a place so barren, and had never felt so out of his element, before he had moved here from North Carolina. He felt like he was exploring the wilds of Africa compared to the world that he had known up until just a few short weeks ago. Now he spent his time observing the local wildlife in two boys that appeared to be about his age from his perch up in this tree. He wanted to approach them, but didn’t know how. He had never had to work at finding new friends before, so instead he just sat in his tree and watched all day long. He brought along plenty of provisions…water and pb&j. His mother was so caught up in her own issues; she didn’t even notice that he was gone all day every day.

It had been quiet for a while and Jake wondered if the boys had gone in when he caught sight of one of them sneaking around the tree just to his left. This boy was the smaller of the two although there was no doubt that they were brothers. They looked too much alike to be anything else. The boy had his Thompson drawn and Jake could see the sweat dripping down the sides of his face leaving trails through his face paint. He wondered how they could stand those heavy camouflage uniforms in the West Texas summer heat. As if sensing his thought, the boy drew a canteen out of his belt and drank some water and, while his attention was diverted, the other boy ran up behind him and leapt on him with a tackle that sent both boys rolling through the grass. Their roll took them around behind the tree so that Jake couldn’t see them any longer. He craned his head around under the limb trying to see what happened when he lost his balance and felt his grasp on the limb loosen.

Jake scrambled to catch a good hold on the limb again, but it was no use. He felt a scream rise out of him as the ground rushed up to meet him and he tumbled out of the tree onto the drought-hardened ground. The two boys had continued to wrestle on the ground, but now they both stared at him in shock as he rolled on the ground in pain and tried to get his breath back. The larger of the two started to approach him, but the smaller must have decided that this was a good time for retaliation for the sneak attack, because he pulled his arm back and belted the other one right in the eye. Jake couldn’t help but wince in commiseration. That must have hurt, plus he was still dealing with pains of his own from his fall. He eyed the two boys warily wondering if they were going to turn on him next as an enemy within their territory.

Instead, he was surprised to see the smaller one smile at him and offer him a hand to help him stand. “Hey you’re the kid that moved in next door aren’t you? We’ve been wondering what happened to you.” He looked up at the limb where Jake had been sitting. “What were you doing up there?”

Jake mumbled, feeling stupid for falling out of the tree. “Just watching. Why did you hit him?” Jake looked over at the larger of the two who was still clutching his eye.

The smaller boy looked angrily at the larger one and stuck his tongue out at him. “He snuck up behind me and jumped me. That goes against the Geneva Code. You aren’t supposed to jump on someone when you have a gun, so I hit him.”

The larger boy rolled his one uncovered eye. “You are so stupid. That’s not the Geneva Code. The Geneva Code says that I can’t jump on you if you surrender. I sure didn’t see you surrendering as you slunk around that tree. I was just trying to minimize casualties by jumping you. You saw it, didn’t you?” The larger boy looked at Jake. “I was in the right wasn’t I? I beat her fair and square, didn’t I?”

Jake glanced between the two boys nervously, not really wanting to choose sides, but the larger one was right. “Yes, you beat him fair and square.”

“You liar! He did not.” The smaller boy swung back around and gaped at Jake, looking angry. “Wait, did you just call me a boy?” the boy screeched as he launched himself at Jake who was still sitting on the ground.

Jake was the bigger of the two so quickly found himself sitting on top of the smaller one, pinning his arms to the ground. He felt his jaw drop when he realized that the boy’s hat had fallen off and a tumble of long red hair had come falling out of the confines of the hat. “Crap! You’re a girl?!?” and immediately started scrambling back off of her.

“No duh.” She said as she stood up quickly and started brushing off her pants. She quickly grabbed back up her hat and started shoving all her long hair back inside of it. “I’m Cassie. That’s Chris.” She gestured at the larger boy. “He is a boy, in case you couldn’t tell.” Cassie smirked at her brother, taking in his blackening eye. “We’re twins. What’s your name?”

“I’m Jake.”

“Nice to meet you, Jake.” She obviously had manners even though her next few words were said with a sneer. “Since you boys seem to have an issue with girls, you better run because this girl just caught your flag.” She grabbed the flag off the ground and took off running.

Chris looked at Jake and sighed. “Hi Jake! Welcome to the team. We need to get you some gear.” He looked him up and down and gestured towards the twins house. “Then we will see what we can do about capturing her cocky butt.” He smiled.

Jake grinned back at him and decided that this move to West Texas may not have been such a bad thing after all.

These are my words so you are not allowed to copy, alter, or re-print them anywhere else without my

permission. ;o)

Monday Meanderings...A Crazy Month

2011-11-07T13:36:00.005-06:00

Okay, you all know that I have certain things that I am trying to do better with this blog, but I am thinking that for this month, we should just ignore them. Hehe!

NaNoWriMo is kicking my butt, but not in a bad way. I am actually loving the process...AND my book. BUT my goal is 100,000 words in 30 days. That's a TON of work...just over 3000 words/day...and that's if I don't delete anything. Right now, I am a little bit behind on that goal. My book is sitting at 17,500 words....it needs to be at 21,000 by the end of the day today and I have already been writing for a couple of hours. *eeks*

Btw, I will have another excerpt from this book posted on Wednesday...the scene where Chris & Cassie met Jake when they were kids.

So if I am seem quiet this month, that is why. I am also still trying to keep up on my stamping and reading obligations (which means reading an average of a book/day) and trying to keep the health department from coming over and tenting my house as a bio-hazard. I am definitely not finding much free time to do things like my normal blogging.

But there is hope on the horizon...

Readers & Ritas

This weekend...4 days, 3 nights.

Completely to myself.

To talk books.

To write.

To rejuvenate.

I am so excited.

And really hopeful that I can manage to get a bit ahead on my writing with all that non 4 year old invaded time.

*******

And just because I haven't shared a card in a while, here's one that I made a while ago.

I don't think that I have shared it yet...

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Bella Blvd You're Cool Itty

*Collage Press paper

*Nestabilities dies

*watercolor pencils

*Fiskars border punch

*Martha Stewart pom flower embellishments

See you again on Wednesday!!!

Photography Friday....Hit n Run

2011-11-04T09:12:00.000-05:00

I am one of those people...I am always up really early, but I am rarely dressed before 10 or 10:30. This morning, I had a writing epiphany at 4:30 that had me up even earlier than normal. As a result, I was dressed by 8. It also just happened to be the first really frosty morning that we have had here in West Texas. So I bundled Kat up and we took off down our road with our cameras so that we could have some frosty pictures of the sunrise over the river. While walking down the road, my cell phone rang...it was the 16 yo...someone backed over his car at the donut shop this morning and took off.

So this morning, instead of pretty frosty river pictures, I have awful hit and run pictures of Jacob's car. Fun! NOT!!

And below is the one frosty picture I managed to take before that phone call. The poor teenager has had a dreadful week. I know that he is happy for this one to end.

Writing on Wednesday... Operation: Endgame

2011-11-02T09:31:00.000-05:00

For National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), I am working on Operation: Endgame.

I shared an excerpt from this book a couple of weeks ago.

The scene below is the continuation from that excerpt above

(so you may want to read it if you haven't already done so.)

Excerpt from Operation: Endgame

Suddenly, a doorbell rang from inside the house. “Oops, no more maudlin anymore. Like I said, I am sure it doesn’t mean anything. Come on girls, it’s the start of summer. Drink up and I will go see if whoever is at the front door wants to join us.” Cassie bounded into the house, while Julie and Penelope shared a look of concern.

As Cassie ran through the house, she swiped at her eyes, smoothed over the top of her ponytail, and glanced down at the very miniscule top of her orange polka-dot bikini and the matching sarong to make sure that everything was covered. She wasn’t expecting anyone, but with the semester ending the day before, any of their colleagues knew that the girls would be hanging out at the pool today and celebrating the end of the semester. So it was a huge shock to see Jake standing at her front door in his blues when she opened the door.

Cassie flung herself into his arms. “Jake? What are you doing here? When did you get back into the States?” She suddenly realized that he was standing very stiffly at the same time that she spotted the Chaplain and another high ranking officer both in blues standing behind him. Her gasp came out before she even finished processing her thought and she yanked back from Jake to look into his eyes that were filled with tears.

A guttural, “Cassie…” crossed his lips, but she didn’t want to hear what he had to say.

“No, no, NO!” Cassie was shaking her head viciously back and forth while she tried to escape back into the house, but Jake wouldn’t let go of her hand. This couldn’t be happening. She refused to accept this.

“Cassie, sweetheart…” Jake tried to clear his throat. “I’m so sorry, hon.” Cassie watched as a lone tear dripped down Jake’s cheek. “Chris...”

Cassie wailed, “No! Chris is fine! No, you can’t do this to me Jake Madsen! No! He’s fine! Don’t you think that I would feel it if he wasn’t? I always know. You know that about us. He may be hurt, but he is NOT GONE! NO!” Cassie was shaking her head wildly back and forth and kept trying to escape from Jake’s grasp, but he refused to let her go.

He reached up, cupped her cheek, kissed her forehead, and then looked directly into her eyes. “Cassie, hon, I am so sorry, but he was in a crash and we couldn’t get to him in time. Cassie, Chris is gone.” Jake pulled her into his arms to try to comfort her, but Cassie didn’t feel it.

Cassie just stood there within Jake’s embrace with her arms hanging to her sides. This couldn’t be right. Chris could not be dead. That is not the way that things worked between the two of them. She was his twin and she would know if he had died. She would feel it in her soul. This simply could not be happening. Cassie looked over Jake’s broad shoulder to the two men looking at her with sympathy in their eyes. They didn’t understand, but she knew better. Chris was not dead.

These are my words so you are not allowed to copy, alter, or re-print them anywhere else without my permission. ;o)

Up on Unity....

2011-11-01T12:01:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone! I am up on the Unity blog today sharing some Ippity. Go check it out!

We are Hip-Hoppin it with My Little Shoebox!!

2011-10-27T00:01:00.002-05:00

Good morning Unity Stamp Co & My Little Shoebox Peeps!!

Aren't these joint hops fun??

If you have just stumbled across my blog, then you need to do this hop right and head on over to the Unity Stamp Co. Blog to start (hint: there are prizes involved.)

This week, we were so lucky to get to play with some of the MLS products that coordinate with the Unity Stamp Co. co-branded stamps!!

I love the mix of these two companies!!!

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Little Miss Sunshine

*My Little Shoebox Enchanted Garden Collection

*Palette Burnt Umber ink pad

*Martha Stewart border punch

*watercolor pencils

*Nestabilities labels die

*American Crafts pearl brads

*corner rounder

Now you need to hop on along to ***Norine Borys' blog***

Writing on Wednesday...First Aid in a Snowstorm

2011-10-26T06:00:00.027-05:00

Right now I am in the process of writing three different books and playing at a couple of others. I switch back and forth depending on my mood because they are all different genres. My excerpt for today's writing is from the book A Bewitching Snowstorm.

Writing this book is a different process because, simply put...I am not really using a process on this one. It's weird. I sit down to try and plot it and it just doesn't work with this book, so I just keep writing and every single time I write on it, something happens that surprises me. It's the most bizarre writing process. I don't even know if it's possible to come out with a decent book this way, but for now, it's working for me.

BTW, I already have an earlier scene posted from this WIP that explains how Todd gets hurt. You can find it HERE.

As she came back in the room, he noticed that she a first aid kit, some rags, a bottle of Jack, and a steaming bowl of water all on an old fashioned wooden tray. She nodded to the bowl that she carried, “Luckily the house has an old gas stove that will work in any weather.” She spread her supplies over the coffee table and reached toward his shoulder to remove the blanket that was still draped over him. “This is going to pull a bit as I remove this other dressing. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it. I am sure that I will survive.” As she started to pull on the tape, bolts of pain started shooting down his arm and abdomen. Todd gasped and grabbed her arms with his uninjured left hand. “Okay, let’s try doing this a different way, just to take the edge off. I get that the Jack is for medicinal purposes for the infection, but I am thinking that we should utilize its deadening qualities for this. Do you mind getting me a glass?”

Maggie nodded, “That’s actually a good idea.” She went to a cabinet on the other side of the room and pulled out a cut crystal highball glass and poured several shots of Jack into it and handed it to Todd. She tried not to notice the shaking of his hand as he reached out to grab the glass from her. Todd’s eyes were looking a bit glassy and he had a sheen of perspiration on his brow just from what little she had done. God, she hated hurting him like this. “I am sorry.”

“Not your fault. Damn deer.” Todd was drinking the potent liquor like it was tea, but he had a feeling that getting drunk was the only way that he was going to make it through this without passing out…again. He drained the first glass, and lifted the empty highball up to Maggie. “Let’s fill this up one more time, give it about 10 minutes to take effect and then we can try again.”

She looked at him worriedly, but grabbed the bottle of Jack. “Okay, but you can’t accuse me of getting you drunk without your acquiescence.”

He cocked an eyebrow at her and teased. “Does that mean that you plan to take advantage of the situation, because I am totally on board if that’s your plan.” He looked at her breasts and saw the nipples harden and grinned a lopsided smile. Yep, the Jack was definitely achieving the desired effects because he seemed much more relaxed. “So why does someone as pretty as you live way out here all alone?” He looked into those gorgeous violet eyes. If he hadn’t been watching, he wouldn’t have ever seen the pain that flashed across them, but it had definitely been there before she hid it quickly.

“I don’t live alone.”

“What?!? Aw crap, you’re married aren’t you? Damn, damn, damn.” Todd now looked like a pouty little boy who had just had his favorite toy stolen.

Maggie laughed as she took away his now empty highball glass. “No, I am not married, or involved, or committed, or dating. I live here with my cat, Lacey.”

“Oh no, that’s almost as bad. You’re a cat person??” Todd looked genuinely morose. “I really, really don’t like cats.” Except for the ‘cats’ came out sounding like ‘cash’. It was definitely time to work on his shoulder again because Todd appeared to be soundly medicated with his Jack Daniels.

“No worries, big guy. I don’t think that Lacey likes you either since I haven’t seen her since you arrived.” Maggie looked around the room wondering where she had gone to, but not seeing her, decided to concentrate on Todd once again. She reached toward his shoulder and this time managed to get the entire dressing off.

Todd gasped in deep breaths as he said,“Damn, that hurts like a mother-fucker.” Todd looked down at his swollen, red, oozing shoulder. “Hmm, it doesn’t look too good either, does it?”

Maggie was concerned. No, this definitely didn’t look good. Todd was well on his way to a raging infection if they didn’t get this under control. “No, it’s not good. Listen, Todd, you are getting a really bad infection here and we have to get it under control. That’s why you are still running a fever. Right now, this is full of puss. I need to drain it and then we are going to have to clean it with alcohol. After that I can make up a medicinal poultice for it which will help it heal and hopefully sooth it some, but I am not going to lie to you…getting to that point is not going to be pleasant.” Maggie looked up into his eyes, her own eyes full of sorrow, as she started pulling her medical supplies out of her first aid kit.

Todd tried to give her a cheering smile. “Well, talking about it isn’t going to make it any easier for either of us so let’s just get it done. I don’t suppose I could have any more Jack could I?” He glanced over at the bottle a bit drunkenly.

“Unfortunately, no. It was probably a bad idea to let you have as much as you already have had while you are running a fever, have a possible concussion, and haven’t eaten much for the last 24 hours. Believe me, a hangover and puking isn’t going to make any of this feel any better.” Maggie tried to give him a brave look.

“Okay, well let’s get to it then, right?” Maggie started to reach for his shoulder again, but Todd stopped her and looked into her eyes. “Distract me. Talk to me. Tell me about yourself. Anything to keep my mind off what you are doing over there.”

Maggie looked startled, but she understood what he was asking. She took a deep breath and started sharing, her voice more than a little shaky, both about what she was about to do and what she was about to tell him. “You were right. This house is too big for just me. My husband and I bought it three years ago. This was our forever house. You know the one where we planned to raise our kids and grandkids.” Her voice took on a raspy quality as she cleaned his shoulder. “Last year we were out in a snowstorm a lot like this one, when we were in a wreck… a bad one. Mike was killed instantly when we hit the tree. His side of the car took the brunt of the impact.” Maggie took a deep shuddering breath and worked at lancing the puss out of Todd’s shoulder. She could feel the muscles flinching under hands as she worked, but he didn’t utter a word. The only sound was his hiss of indrawn breath at the pain, but she continued her story and continued working. “I was trapped in the car with Mike’s body. I knew that he was dead, but I didn’t want to leave him. It was my fault. I knew better than to mess with the Winter Fairies when they are in a mood like that, but I was cocky that my magic could keep him safe. I was sure that my own powers were stronger than theirs. I was so wrong.” By now, the tears were rolling freely down her face, but she continued to work with sure, steady hands, trying to work quickly so that this torture would be over for both her and Todd.

Todd was breathing heavy and he had sweat rolling down his temples. He could barely breath the pain was so bad, but he had to interrupt her story. “Wait, what? Magic? Fairies? I don’t understand.”

Maggie leaned him forward and placed a towel behind him and reached over for the Jack Daniels, and now her hand started to shake. Right before she poured, she looked him in the eye. “I know you don’t. Most mortals don’t, but I am a Magic Fairy.” Her eyes flashed, and she poured the Jack directly into his shoulder wound. Todd screamed, the shock and pain reverberated out of his eyes as he passed out.

These are my words so you are not allowed to copy, alter, or re-print them anywhere else without my permission. ;o)

I am on the Unity blog today...

2011-10-25T09:08:00.000-05:00

I am over on the Unity blog today, sharing these two projects.

Go check it out!

Monday Meanderings....

2011-10-24T08:01:00.000-05:00

So, did you see this month's Unity Stamp Co. challenge?

"Autumn Harvest"

I thought it would be fun to gather inspiration from this poem,
or something that reminds you of Autumn!

Autumn Harvest

I been thinking about summer ending
fall beginning, about Halloween
and all the children dressed in glad array.
I been thinking
about apple cider, good to drink
pumpkin pie
and the sounds of trick or treat.
I been thinking
about the days getting shorter
and the wind and rain
making the leaves fall to the earth again
acorns and pinecones, late blooming flowers
harvest, candy apples, I been thinking.
- Linda Seaver

Create a card, layout, or project...whatever you'd your heart desires...

For a chance to win 100 random stamps
and a free kit of your choice valued at $45 or under!

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Fright Night

*Pink Paislee papers (purple, orange)

*MME paper (black polka, stripe, and swirl)

*K&Company journaling paper

*brads

*Misc circle punches

*Maya Road journaling block

See the Unity Challenge page for contest details and other examples!!

Photography Friday....Details

2011-10-21T11:30:00.000-05:00

For today's Photography Friday feature, I just took some photos of the details around my house. Mainly this is just an exercise to try to become more artistic in my photography with everyday objects...

So, here are some of the details around my house...

Writing on Wednesday....Margarita Party

2011-10-19T06:00:00.008-05:00

Last week, I told you about the book that I am working on for NaNoWriMo.

The book is called Operation: Endgame.

You can see last week's post for the story overview.

I don't plan on actually doing anymore writing on it until November besides plotting and character work, but I did give in and write the very first scene of the book a few weeks ago.

This is it, although it is still pretty rough and will probably go through a few more revisions before I am real happy with it...

Prologue

May 10^th, Present Day

Cassie switched off the blender, stuck in a straw through the top, and moaned in appreciation, “Yum. I am the Queen of Making Margaritas.” She yelled out into the backyard at her best friends, Julie and Penelope, “Refills coming right up! Those glasses better be empty and up in the air ready for more of my fabulously perfect margaritas.”

Cassie was smiling and laughing as she sauntered through the back door, carrying the pitcher of margaritas and her own glass, already topped off. Classes had ended the day before at Texas Tech University, where all three of them worked in one capacity or other, and they were spending the day, lounging by the pool, and celebrating the end to another academic year.

As a military history professor, Cassie would be headed to England in two weeks to spend the summer as a guest lecturer. The year before, Cassie had acted as a military strategy consultant on a video wargame. It became a bestseller within three weeks of release and had remained there ever since. The fact that Cassie had an interview on the video extras had made her a celebrity and in high-demand as a guest lecturer. It promised to be a crazy summer, but for now, she was celebrating the freedom from responsibility and drinking accordingly. This was their third pitcher of margaritas, and all three of them were pleasantly buzzed.

They were at Cassie’s cozy little bungalow just a couple of blocks from the campus. She loved this house and had lovingly restored it when she had inherited it from her grandparents, while she was still in college. That restoration had included the addition of this oasis that she now called her backyard. Chris, Jake, and she had spent two whole summers transforming it, but the work had been worth it. There were terraces filled with mood lighting, easy-to-care-for plants, outdoor speakers, and the piece de resistance….the pool that beckoned all of them in the West Texas heat.

Today, it was Julie and Penelope that were beckoning her to come refill their empty glasses from where they sat in the shade of the outdoor umbrella over the café-style bistro tables. They were her best friends, next to Chris and Jake, but the three girls could not have appeared to be more different.

Julie was the tiniest of the three. She was a physical therapist at Texas Tech Health Sciences Center and also filled in as a physical trainer at the Fitness Center on campus. Her dark black hair was cut into a cute little pixie cut that fit her small frame and many times, she was mistaken for someone in junior high. At least, that was the case until she turned around and said person got a glimpse of her rack which would make any Playboy bunny envious.

Penelope owned the local bookstore, which was located in one of the old Victorian houses adjacent to the campus, and taught yoga at the University Fitness Center. She had wavy honey colored long hair, startling jade green eyes, and a free-spirit attitude that made everyone love her from the very first. She was vivacious and outgoing and didn’t meet anyone that wasn’t an immediate friend. She was also flighty and a bit scatter-brained, but most people just learned that was part of her charm and overlooked the fact.

Cassie was the last of the three. She was tall, with a thick cascade of auburn hair. She had grown up in Lubbock with her twin brother Chris, and had the Texas drawl to match. Having spent her early days running around with Chris and their best friend, Jake, she had always been a tomboy and very athletic. Now she channeled that athleticism through her running, which was almost like a religion to her. It was how she kept the margaritas from going to her hips, how she sorted through her lesson plans, and worked out the stresses which came from working at a high-stress University system. Also, it kept her fears about all the boys at bay so that she could sleep at night.

They were her best girlfriends. Put the three of them all together and they were every man’s wet-dream fantasy come true.

Cassie re-filled their glasses and then flopped down into one of the empty chairs. Julie looked at her. “Have you heard from any of the boys lately?”

“Colton called Sunday. He’s doing okay, although I still don’t think that he’s dealing well with Dianna’s desertion.” Cassie’s forehead scrunched up as she considered her older brother’s pending divorce and his current situation. “Right now, he is safely ensconced behind a desk playing commander in England. I am looking forward to getting to spend a little bit of time with him over the summer, so I am hoping that the desk duty continues.” She gave a mischievous grin, “No matter how much he hates it.” That grin quickly turned into a scowl though as she continued. “He said that he didn’t know where Jake and Chris are stationed, but he was lying to me.” Chris was her twin brother and Jake was her best friends. They were both part of the special forces, Chris a fighter pilot and Jake a PJ, and constantly in too much danger for her liking.

Penelope looked at her questioningly. “Why do you think that he was lying?”

Cassie shook her head. “I know my brothers too well. I could tell it from his voice. Besides,” she said, her voice cracking, “I am having nightmares about Chris. Something is wrong. I know it.”

Both of her friends suddenly looked worried. As twins, Chris and Cassie had always had a connection that most other people didn’t have. They simply knew when something was wrong with the other one. Cassie continued, “I am sure that I will hear something soon that Chris broke his toe or something and then I will feel stupid for getting all worked up, but until I hear that, I just don’t have a good feeling.”

Suddenly, a doorbell rang from inside the house. “Oops, no more maudlin anymore. Come on girls, it’s the start of summer. Drink up and I will go see if whoever is at the front door wants to join us.” Cassie bounded into the house, while Julie and Penelope shared a look of concern.

These are my words so you are not allowed to copy, alter, or re-print them anywhere else without my permission. ;o)

Unity Stamp Co. & Spellbinders Two-Day Blog Hop!

2011-10-17T07:00:00.036-05:00

Welcome to our Two-Day Event!!!

You should be joining me from Kazan's blog,

if not then head to the beginning on the Unity Stamp Co. blog.

With all the blog-swaps that are happening out there lately,

I can't think of one more exciting than when

the amazing women of SPELLBINDERS get together

with the rockstars of UNITY STAMP COMPANY!

We can't wait to show you a special line of coordinating products featuring SPELLBINDERS dies

and SAMANTHA WALKER for Unity Stamp Co. rubber stamps!

Not only are we thrilled to be collaborating on such a special 2-day event, but ONE of you will win ALL of the coordinating stamps and dies from the Samantha Walker collection! We will also have 1 winner each day from the comments that will receive 1 Samantha Walker stamp set and coordinating dies.

So be sure to enjoy our hop both days,

leave comments on all of the blogs each day and check back to see if you won!

(winners will be posted on Wednesday, October 19^th on the Unity Blog and Spellbinders Blog)

I have two cards to share with you today using the

Unity Stamp Co. Blossom Stackers

and the coordinating dies from

Spellbinders Blossom Tags & Accents.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Blossom Stackers

*Spellbinders Blossom Tags & Accents

*MME paper stack

*Martha Stewart border punch

*Fancy Pants pins

*StazOn jet black ink pad

*pop dots

*************

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Blossom Stackers

*Spellbinders Blossom Tags & Accents

*MME paper stack

*StazOn jet black ink pad

*Fiskars border punch

*twine

*button

*pop dots

Now please head over to ***Linda's blog...

Photography Friday....Sunset on the River

2011-10-14T08:32:00.000-05:00

I know that I have mentioned it here before, but I am going to mention it again.

I come from a family of very talented photographers.

A family that LOVES autumn.

So we have started an annual Autumn Challenge to capture the images of Fall.

There are 10 of us that participate and we try to post a new photo every day.

That means, I am taking LOTS of photos this time of the year.

The photos below were taken at sunset at the end of our road.

Yes, we are lucky to live on a river with all the gorgeous vignettes that entails..

This last picture below is the one that made the final cut and was posted on the Autumn Challenge blog for the day that I took these photos....

Hip Hop for Awareness October 13

2011-10-13T00:01:00.022-05:00

Good morning Unity Peeps!!

Today, I have a couple of breast cancer awareness cards to share with you using the October Kit of the Month: Faith, Hope, Love...Live By It.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Oct kom

*various punches and dies

*ribbons

*buttons

*Making Memories paper collection

*******

This second card uses this month's sketch challenge.

It was already posted on the challenge blog, but I never posted it here.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Oct kom

*watercolor pencils

*MME paper collection

*ribbons

*corner rounder

Now you need to hop on over to Jimmi's blog...

Writing on Wednesday...NaNoWriMo

2011-10-12T08:58:00.002-05:00

NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month.

It takes place every year in the month of November.

The goal is to write 100,000 words (or a complete novel) in a single month.

That is not a light thing.

Overall, my goal the past month has been to write 1000 words a day.

That's pretty easily do-able.

Over the last week, I have up'ed that to 2,000 or 2,500.

That's infinitely more difficult.

For NaNoWriMo, I need to be able to write 3,000+ words every single day.

It's NOT going to be easy.

My hope is to have my novel entirely plotted and planned. Yes, for that month, I am concentrating on a novel that I started in my head about 9 months ago...it's actually a trilogy, based on a family from Lubbock, TX. It's romantic suspense.

Yesterday, I wrote a brief description of it and thought that you all might like to read the story blurb.

Operation: Endgame

And because you all know that I like visuals on my posts, here are photos:

Cassie:

Jake:

These are my words so you are not allowed to copy, alter, or re-print them anywhere else without my permission. ;o)

Monday Meanderings- A Bit of Everything....

2011-10-10T08:34:00.001-05:00

Good Monday Morning everyone!!

Sorry about last week.

I just up and abandoned the blog here, didn't I?

It wasn't intentional.

I got caught up in a series of books.

Then I got sick.

Then I was simply too behind to do anything.

But now I am back!

Crafty Meanderings

Whoa! 116 comments on my Authentique & Unity blog hop post!?!

Thanks y'all!

AND I didn't even share my FAVORITE Authentique card that I have created lately...

aww, I just love this card! Is that wrong to say? hehe!!

I just want to stare at it because it makes me happy.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Glowing Hours

*Pink Paislee paper collection (green papers)

*Lily Bee paper collection (b&w damask)

*ribbon & trims

*Nestabilities labels die

*flat back gems

****

Writing Meanderings

Well, the same things that kept me from blogging last week, also kept me from writing, but when I did get some time to write, it was very successful. It's been a really good writing week. So, I need you all to chime in. I have been working on both

A Bewitching Snowstorm

and

Confessions of a Book Blogger.

So, I am leaving it up to you.

Which one would you like a new excerpt from for the Wednesday Writing post???

Chime in & VOTE!

****

Book Meanderings

So, I mentioned that I got caught up in a book series last week. The book series was the Georgina Kincaid series by Richelle Mead. Did you know that there is a whole group of us that have created an online book club group, The Chick-Lits.

Well, this month's book is the first book in the Georgina Kincaid series, Succubus Blues:

Our chit chat about it doesn't start until the 15th, so you still have time to read it and join us!

Here is a brief story overview:

Succubus (n.) An alluring, shape-shifting demon who seduces and pleasures mortal men. Pathetic (adj.) A succubus with great shoes and no social life. See: Georgina Kincaid.

When it comes to jobs in hell, being a succubus seems pretty glamorous. A girl can be anything she wants, the wardrobe is killer, and mortal men will do anything just for a touch. Granted, they often pay with their souls, but why get technical?

But Seattle succubus Georgina Kincaid's life is far less exotic. Her boss is a middle-management demon with a thing for John Cusack movies. Her immortal best friends haven't stopped teasing her about the time she shape-shifted into the Demon Goddess getup complete with whip and wings. And she can't have a decent date without sucking away part of the guy's life. At least there's her day job at a local bookstore—free books; all the white chocolate mochas she can drink; and easy access to bestselling, sexy writer, Seth Mortensen, aka He Whom She Would Give Anything to Touch but Can't.

But dreaming about Seth will have to wait. Something wicked is at work in Seattle's demon underground. And for once, all of her hot charms and drop-dead one-liners won't help because Georgina's about to discover there are some creatures out there that both heaven and hell want to deny. . .

It is such a good book (and series) and I am really excited about our discussion of it.

Come join us!!

Unity Stamp Co. is Hopping with Authentique!!!

2011-10-08T07:00:00.001-05:00

When Unity Stamp Co. announced that they were going to be teaming up with Authentique as a co-brand, I was so excited. Authentique is one of those companies that has a style that simply causes me to drool with the beauty of their lines. So you can guess that I was a bit excited when I learned that I would get to Hop with them!! Whoohooo! If you haven't been hopping, you need to head on over to the Authentique blog (link below.)

Blog Hop Order:

Authentique Paper – http://authentiquepaper.blogspot.com/

Tifany DeGough - http://inkblotsbytrd.blogspot.com/

Maria Gurnsey - http://scrapsbym.blogspot.com/

Misty Buck - http://mistylynnwhat.blogspot.com/

Lisa Arana - http://dahlhouse-designs.com/

Cristine Redmond - http://onescrappynovice.blogspot.com/

***Christi Snow (you're here) - http://www.alteredambitions.blogspot.com/

Brenda Smith - http://theimperfectscrapper.blogspot.com/

Eva Dobilas - http://evafromca.blogspot.com/

Jeannie DeGruccio - http://polkacabana.wordpress.com/

Lisa Henke - http://mylittlecreativeescape.blogspot.com/

Natalie Dever – http://dougnat.blogspot.com/

Unity Stamp Company – http://theunitystampco.blogspot.com/

If you have already been hopping, well then let me share what I have been creating with these wonderful lines! I got a little carried away...

First up is a card...

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Splendid Things

*Authentique Splendid Collection

*button

*seam binding

*Martha Stewart border punch

*glue pen

*fine glitter

*watercolor pencils

*Palette burnt umber ink pad

************

A Christmas card using non-Christmas stamps, but I think that they work with the tags...

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Share Your Smiles

*Authentique Wonder Collection

*seam binding

*buttons

*Stampin Up notebook punch

*Sizzix label die

*corner rounder

*********

A fun little Halloween card using one of my favorite Unity/Authentique stamps...

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co Glowing Hours

*Authentique Glowing Collection

*Nestabilities Labels die

*assorted trim/ribbon

*CTMH Orange ink pad

*StazOn jet black ink pad

*corner rounder

**********

And then a little Clean & Simple card....

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Share Your Smile

*Authentique Splendid Collection

*assorted border punches

*seam binding

*button

*StazOn jet black ink pad

*Zig Writer in black

*Bazzill bling

***********

Then finally, this last project is a Christmas countdown hanger for my 4 year old daughter. I saw this paper from Authentique and it was too perfect for this project to ignore it.

This project literally took me less than an hour...so easy!!!

Supplies used:

*Authentique Wonder Collection

*kraft chipboard

*book ring

*7gypsies knob

*mini hanger

And don't forget the details about this hop (LOTS of chances to win some fabulous products!!)

Blog Hop Prizes: {*4 total winners*}

From Authentique Paper –

2 prize packs (one each for 2 winners) including a sampling of papers from each of the first 6 Authentique Paper collections and a sampling of the Free Bird Series

From Unity Stamp Company –

2 prize packs (one each for 2 winners) including the complete set of Unity/Authentique co-brand stamps

To win:

Participants should leave a comment on each blog along the hop.

(Winner will be chosen randomly from all comments on the manufacturer blogs AND the DT blogs.)

{Winner must have a US/Canada address}

Blog Comments Close:

Monday, October 10^th @ 11:59pm (Pacific)

Winner Announced:

Wednesday, October 12^th (on Authentique Paper blog and Unity Stamp Co. blog)

Now you need to hop on over to...

***BRENDA SMITH'S BLOG!!!***

WCMD & Unity

2011-10-01T12:01:00.007-05:00

Happy World Card Making Day everyone!!!Unity is hosting a series of 4 challenges for today and I am in charge of #4. I copied most of my post from the Unity blog to here, BUT you need to be playing over there, not here.Also, there are three other FABULOUS challenges over there with prizes to win! My challenge for you today is an inspiration challenge.

The photo below is from Pottery Barn and features some Halloween hats. There are a lot of little details there that make them so inspiring. (you can click on the photo to see the details better.)

Simply be inspired by the photo above to make a card and then come back and share it with us. Please come share your link on the UNITY SCS WCMD thread so that we all can see your entry!!!Please upload to SCS using the keyword: Unity and UNITYWCMD4
One random entry into this challenge will win 6 random Itty Bitty Stamps. Deadline: October 15; Winners will be announced: October 17

Below is the card that I created using one of the Store kits, Bold Insight, using the photo as inspiration...

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Bold Insight (store exclusive. See Unity website for retailers.)

*Graphic 45 papers

*Bella Blvd. flower

*StazOn jet black inkpad

*Heidi Swapp chipboard clocks

*Maya Road journaling piece

*button

*ribbon

And don't forget

the AwEsOmE sale

going on at Unity Stamp Co.

to help celebrate the day...

Have a great World Card Making Day!!!

Photography Friday....The LilyPad Park

2011-09-30T08:18:00.000-05:00

San Angelo is in West Texas.

Not much water to be had...anywhere out here.

BUT, San Angelo has a park that is full of hundreds of different Lily Pads.

It's gorgeous.

The whole park is and we spend lots of time there.

This week, I headed out there with my camera. The camera still had the football zoom lens (70-300mm zoom lens) on it and I decided to see what I could do with it. Why haven't I been using this lens all along? OMG, most of these photos were taken from at least 15-20 feet away. They have not been altered AT ALL...not even cropped. These photos are DIRECTLY out of the camera.

Click on the photos to get the full effect...

And if you are a fan of photography, come over and follow the Autumn Challenge blog. My entire family plays along and it all begins tomorrow!

Hip Hop with the Holidays!!!

2011-09-29T00:01:00.003-05:00

Morning Unity Stamp Co. Peeps!!!

Did you see that Unity is having a pre-holiday sale???

This is the time to start planning all those holiday projects!

Less than 3 months to go and if you get started now,

you could just sit back and enjoy the holidays when they actually get here.

For today's project, I used one of Unity's NEW holiday kits, Welcome Winter.

**************

We are also almost to the end of September.

I know! How did that happen?!?

So I thought that I would create a clean & simple card using the Sept. KOM, All Seasons.

Now you need to hop on over to Jimmi's gorgeous blog...

Writing on Wednesday... A fish out of water

2011-09-28T06:00:00.001-05:00

I LOVE writing the start of a story. Before the last month, I have never sat down and worked at writing an actual book, but I have written DOZENS of beginnings of books. In fact, if you pick up a random notebook on one of my bookshelves, the odds are pretty good there is a couple of handwritten pages of the beginning of a story. I have done that for years.

The following excerpt is one of those beginnings. I just worked with it a bit this week, to clean it up and expand it. Any of you that know me, should be able to recognize the inspiration from where this story line came from....and yes, the Major will be Katya's love interest in the book (if I ever write anything else on it.)

Katya peered up at the huge security gate as they approached the Ft. Bragg checkpoint.

Overwhelming…the gate appeared at the edge of this massive army base like a Jersey tollgate, but instead of grumpy tollbooth guards, each station was manned by a very young soldier holding a very large gun.

Katya looked at her escort, Capt. Neil Pierce and whispered, “Do they actually know how to use those?” gesturing at the very big black guns being held by, what appeared to be, baby-faced 12 year olds.

Capt. Pierce chuckled, “Ma’am, not only do they know how to use them, they won’t think twice about shooting someone who tries to run through this gate without stopping.”

A shudder wracked Katya’s body as she thought about what that meant. “Let’s just wait for our turn nice and easy, right Captain?”

“No problem, ma’am. I’ll take care of you. Believe me; it’s very rare for us to have problems at these security gates. Almost everyone in these lines of cars does this every day. We are all very familiar with the procedure and how to approach the gates.”

Katya tried to joke about her nervousness, “I’m sorry. This is all so foreign to me. It’s hard to believe that I was actually born here.”

“You were born in Fayetteville, ma’am?” the Captain looked at her questioningly. There was no mistaking that she had a Texas drawl.

“No, I was actually born on Ft. Bragg, at the hospital here. But my Dad retired about a year later and moved us to West Texas to work in the oilfields. My two older brothers, who are a lot older than me, grew up surrounded by all of this.” She said, waving her hand towards the massive gate. “They grew up with the nomadic life of exotic destinations like the Azores and Germany. Me, I just knew Texas, until I started working as a professional photographer a few years ago. I have been all over since then, but this is nothing like anything that I have ever seen before.”

Captain Pierce looked at her speculatively. He was simply her escort onto the base, but this was something usually done by an Airmen, not a Captain. She may not have any ties to the military any longer, but he would bet that her father, whoever he was, still had some significant pull or else she wouldn’t have had a Captain serving as her escort. It also helped that she was working on General Compton’s pet project to rejuvenate the 82^nd’s battered image, after the PR mess they had suffered a few months ago.

Not that escorting this beauty was any hardship. She could have easily been a model herself. She was tall, about 5’10” with long, thick auburn hair that was pulled back into a ponytail. She had high cheekbones, riveting green eyes that took in everything, and legs that went on forever in her nicely fitting jeans. She was also really nice. He had enjoyed chatting with her on their way out to the base.

He just hated that he was going to have to turn her over to Major Cole Davidson. Cole had issues. He had good reasons for those issues, but there wasn’t anyone who was saved from his wrath when he got into a mood and lately, he had been in that mood pretty much 24/7. He just hoped that Cole didn’t chase Katya off before Neil had a chance to get to know her better.

These are my words so you are not allowed to copy, alter, or re-print them anywhere else without my permission. ;o)

Monday er, Tuesday Meanderings- Fall is HERE!

2011-09-27T08:24:00.001-05:00

Good ~~Monday~~ Tuesday Morning to you all!

Sorry, I played too long with my mom yesterday and never got my Monday post done.

Ooops! Sorry!

I do have a few things to talk to you about this week though...

Mom & Scrabble...
Mom is in San Angelo for a few days this week. Have I mentioned we play Scrabble. A lot! We LOVE Scrabble. Unfortunately, we have ruined our ability to play scrabble with anyone besides each other. We CHEAT...a lot. We rely on the Scrabble dictionary. We play each other's tiles. We NEVER stick to a time limit. Thank goodness we can play with each other though. So we have to take advantage whenever we are together.

Autumn Challenge

October 1st is coming and with it comes the Second Annual Autumn Challenge. Have I mentioned lately how talented my entire family is?? OMG, this is a photography challenge that 10 of us (ALL the siblings, my parents, and the 2 teens) participate in to take pictures of Autumn. We have a blog. Go check out last year's photos and be prepared because there is some gorgeous photography on there!!!

Monarch Butterflies
The monarch's are showing back up in West Texas. Monarch's migrate to Mexico every year and they come through here on their way. We are seeing signs that they are here and I will probably be posting photos soon (after they are here en masse.) This photo was one of the MANY that I took from last year's migration....

Football
The boy caught TWO amazing passes last week against Midland High for two first downs. This was his second catch when it took FIVE players to finally pull him down. LOVE that! And yes, they won this game, although San Angelo lost the two other games that they played against Midland High with the other two football teams.

That's what's happening in my world this week. Anything happening in yours???

Photography Friday....Sage

2011-09-23T06:00:00.004-05:00

We have a couple of sage bushes in our backyard. Whenever we get any rain (it doesn't happen very often,) they start blooming purple all over. We had one of those rare days this week and so Kat & I went out to photograph one evening this week. These are the best from the foray...

(Be sure to click on the photos to see them the way they are meant to be seen.)

BTW, when we went out to do this, Kat had just woken up from an impromptu (and sweaty) nap on the couch. She doesn't normally look quite so much like an orphan child.

It's a Holiday Sale!!!

2011-09-22T07:36:00.001-05:00

It's Thursday, which means that half the Unity DT is hip-hopping.

I am not in the half playing this week, but I wanted to share about

Unity Stamp Co's Pre-Holiday Sale this week!!

Are you making your Christmas cards and projects this year???

Well, this is the time to stock up because a TON of the Holiday stamps are on sale this week!!!

As well as some gorgeous NEW RELEASES!!!

These are some little Christmas tags that I made with a fabulous Cosmo Cricket kit called, Tiny Tags Vintage Christmas.

Supplies list:

*Unity Stamp Co. Tiny Tags Vintage Christmas
*Paper- K&Company Peppermint Twist stack

*Misc. Martha Stewart border punches

*EK Success scallop circle punch

*red fine glitter

*corner rounder

*misc. buttons

*Stampin Up punch (on Best Wishes, snowman, and Jack-in-the box tags)

*oval scallop punch (deer tag)

Keep watching the Unity Stamp Co blog and Angela will let you know when these sale prices are all up!

I just love Christmas!!

altered ambitions

Playing with some Unity Echo Park....

Unity Stamp of the Week #3

Today's happy....

Writing on Wednesday...on FRIDAY!

Hip Hop & New Beginning Challenge...

Playing with my Unity....

Writing on Wednesday-The first time...

Simple Stories Year-o-graphy

New Unity Stamp of the Week....

January 2012 {ippity} release....

Writing on Wednesday plus Monday Meanderings...

New month, New Kit, New Challenge....

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Photography Friday: Merry Christmas to Me!

Christmas Cards

Sharing some {Ippity} art...

Monday Meanderings...Inspiration

Dec 15th Unity Challenge

Writing on Wednesday...Readers wanted!!

Monday Meanderings...

Hip Hopping into December...

Writing on Wednesday...Big Bad Wolf

Photography Friday....Thanksgiving Camping

Writing on Wednesday...50,000 words later

I am over on the Unity Stamp Co. blog....

A Thanksgiving Hip Hop....

Writing on Wednesday...Concerned

Writing on Wednesday...Condolences

Fabulous-looking new movies coming out....

Hopping with Creative Imaginations

Writing on Wednesday...Meeting Jake

Monday Meanderings...A Crazy Month

Photography Friday....Hit n Run

Writing on Wednesday... Operation: Endgame

Up on Unity....

We are Hip-Hoppin it with My Little Shoebox!!

Writing on Wednesday...First Aid in a Snowstorm

I am on the Unity blog today...

Monday Meanderings....

Photography Friday....Details

Writing on Wednesday....Margarita Party

Unity Stamp Co. & Spellbinders Two-Day Blog Hop!

Photography Friday....Sunset on the River

Hip Hop for Awareness October 13

Writing on Wednesday...NaNoWriMo

Monday Meanderings- A Bit of Everything....

Unity Stamp Co. is Hopping with Authentique!!!

WCMD & Unity

Photography Friday....The LilyPad Park

Hip Hop with the Holidays!!!

Writing on Wednesday... A fish out of water

Monday *er, Tuesday* Meanderings- Fall is HERE!

Photography Friday....Sage

It's a Holiday Sale!!!

Monday er, Tuesday Meanderings- Fall is HERE!