What's on My Kitchen Counter

Hello there! Life and health have gotten in the way of posting, but I am much better now!  Turns out I have a small aortic dissection - they think it will heal with some blood thinners and time (keep your fingers crossed).  I have messed you all! Catching up with the T-gang over at Elizabeth's Blog with a cup of tea or whatever you want it to be.  The images are from Close to My Heart. I made this card yesterday for the Keeping Warm CAS challenge at Splitcoaststampers.com. I am sharing a few of my favorite cards I have made the last week or two.  This next one was water colored for someone who is facing one of the biggest challenges we will all face in life.  I made the plaid in the background as well.  This one was done for a save something from the bin challenge last week.  I had stamped the original panel crooked and a bit wobbly and was going to see if I could save it or needed to trash it.  The challenge inspired me to save it.  I recut ...

 Hello Friends, The past two weeks Central Alabama has been through two giant storms.  They produced large tornadoes that came within a few miles of our home.  Luckily, we had no damage, but many people around us had lots of damage.  One family friend lost her Son. His truck hydroplaned during one storm and he ran into a tree - he was still in High School.  So many sad stories and lots of damage. When we were hiding in our safe place last week, I started shivering and could not get warm.  I figured it was from the stress of the storm or the power being out.  I wrapped up in blankets but it didn't help.  When the power came back on, I turned the heat up high, put on several more blankets and drank some hot chicken soup.  Hot tea. A shot of fireball whiskey.  Nothing helped.  Turns out, I had COVID.  I am doing much better now and that was really the worse that I felt.  Lucky again.  I am visiting with my friends at T-d...

 Hello Friends. It's T-day over at Elizabeth's Blog where we always celebrate a drink of some type (drinks in art, books, pictures, gifts, dinners, etc.).  Happy T-day if you celebrate it.  My youngest daughter gave me a lovely butterscotch beer last week, and I drank it with one of my grandsons today.  I loved it and wish there was more than one bottle - lol.  It was non-alcoholic and tasted like a very flavorful cream soda. I love the label too.  I also made some ATCs today to celebrate Hot Buttered Rum day (January 17th).  They are for an ATC exchange where the theme is to pick an unusual holiday.  I picked this one because I thought it would be fun to draw some rum bottles or cups of hot buttered rum (I did both). The images are from Artistic Expressions (the men) and Rubbernecker (the window and greenery).  I did draw the bottles and the cup.  I added a bunch of gold around the edges of everything, the cane, and the windows because ...

 Hello friends. It's a new Year and a new pledge to do more Bible Journaling, lose weight, declutter, and organize better.  I actually accomplished a few things on my list last year so I have high hopes.  Over at **Art*Journal*Journey* Mia has us using photos in our Mixed Media Journaling.  I used a fun picture my daughter took the other day and and also took inspiration from THIS cool clock. The clock was part of the inspiration challenge over at Splitcoaststampers.com.  This is a chunky page! Gesso on the bottom, and then a layer of modeling paste which I pressed a clock and some gear images into (old SU! set).  After the paste dried, I did a few water color washes, stamped on some snowflakes, and dabbed on some Tim Holtz distress ink.  Next came some white paint splatters, Snowtex, and Stickles Gel (love the stars in that stuff). You can see the chunkiness in this close up.  The bible verses are from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 - the Mystery of Time....

Hello Friends. I am off today so I used this morning to catch up one of my favorite challenges - Global Design Project. There is lovely sketch with still a bit more time to get it in -   Global Design Project (#GDP374) .   I flipped the sketch since I like my cards tall. I  had a piece of cardboard from a present so I cut it down, painted on some snow, stamped the tree from SU! Snow Front and a greeting from SU! Petal Palette. These are some older sets, but still much loved.  The embossing folder is also an older SU! folder - one of my all time favorites.  Happy New Year - it is almost here! Hugz,  Nancy

Hello friends.  I hope you had a wonderful Holiday! It is T-day over at Elizabeth's Blog so sharing a drink first.  Happy T-day to the gang and everyone who visits.  After a recent youth wrestling match in Opelika, Alabama, we decided to try a local restaurant called Zazu Gastropub .  They boost of using fresh local foods and of having the best hamburger around.  The pimento cheese burger was good,but I should have had them cook it just a bit longer.  They also have tons of cool beers.  I tried the Moody Tongue Porter - soooo good.  The boys placed high in the match so we were celebrating and happy.  Christmas was a hit this year.  Seemed that everyone got things they wanted, we had lots of precious family time, and only a tiny bit of drama.  We opted for Italian this year so the prep wasn't as time consuming. We did a fun charcueterie tray for during the day.  In between the fun, I read five books from Thursday night to last ...

Happy T-day friends.  Since it is Tuesday, we are celebrating T-day at Elizabeth's Blog - The Altered Book Lover .  Celebrants just need something to do with a drink of any kind and everyone is welcome.  I will start off with my drink at the Aquarium Restaurant in Nashville. The drink was wonderful, and we got to keep the glass. You can see my daughter's drink in the background.  We were lucky my daughter made reservations because the wait was over 2 hours (someone said 4 hours when we were walking up).  My Grandson loved this place.  They had a giant aquarium that took up most of the restaurant - it was like one you see in Atlanta with sharks and stingrays and all kinds of beautiful and interesting fish. The food was ok, but this place is about the fish and the atmosphere really - that is what you are paying for.  Here is a look inside - I barely remembered to take a picture because my Grandson was up and down and so excited.  He could name almo...