Last day of school tomorrow!

I just cannot believe that this school year is OVER already, how did that happen? It's just been a crazy couple of weeks since we got back from our trip, so many school events, plus trying to fit a month's worth of work into two weeks, I need a nap! Today I went to Finlay's field (sports) day and Callum's "Un-birthday" party that his teacher put on to celebrate all the summer birthday kids - it was a lot of fun! Above are the little party favors Callum made for his friends - he chose those "rolls" of gum that I never let him eat and I was happy to agree, anything to avoid having to make cup cakes or mince pies like Finlay always insists on.

Then he decorated them with animals from the fox and friends stamp set and these giant flowers we cut out with the new Island floral die. Easy peasy. Look at how trashed my craft room is now! I have just been running in there and pulling everything out and quickly closing the door... no wonder my kids' rooms are such a mess! We leave for England on Sunday so I am just running around like CRAZY! It's all good. Have a wonderful week! Brenda

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day Everybody! I hope it was wonderful - mine was - until my youngest started throwing up, sigh, back to reality!

Look at the lovely card Callum made me - It has a letter in it - he says "you are the greatest mom because you give me food" That's my boy! Always thinking about his belly. Finlay made me a pair of Duct Tape slippers. Aren't they fun?!!

Then look at this amazing card - One of my lovely customers, Kim, was at stamp club on Thursday and sharing with us some of the cards she's been making. She handed me this beautiful Mother's Day card to look at and imagine my surprise when I opened it and saw MY picture inside! I had emailed her some pictures from my trip and she downloaded one of the photographs, "improved" it a little (thank you Kim!) and used it to make me a card. I was so touched!

Have a great week! Brenda

Back from the Southern Caribbean!

Oh My!!! We had SUCH a brilliant vacation! Stampin' Up! just spoiled us rotten - it was fabulous! I was really looking forward to the trip (scroll down!) beforehand but it completely exceeded all my expectations! It would be hard to go wrong in the Caribbean of course but we loved being on the cruise ship, all the activities and the food (that's always a big hit with my family!) And I loved getting lots of ideas and inspiration and rubbing shoulders with some of the stampers I have admired (not stalked of course) from afar. The share night was fabulous with an overwhelming number of ideas and a chocolate buffet! Yikes! Then, every night when we got back to our cabin, there was a present waiting for me - isn't that amazing? I felt like a little kid at Christmas every day, plus there was a little "fishy" hanging from the gift that we would take to the hospitality suite the following day and spin a gameshow type wheel to win another gift. Here are just a few of the almost 600 pictures I took... You can see Fort Morro in San Juan, Puerto Rico, a pirate ship we took our little pirates out on, some beachy shots and some stamping shots! Our make and take was from Midnight till 2 a.m. one night, so I was a little spacey and even slower than usual (imagine that?!) I am so grateful to my lovely customers for helping me to earn that trip of a lifetime. Thank you so much! Brenda

I'm on the final stretch!

We leave for the Stampin' Up! cruise this FRIDAY! Yippee! As Finlay says "it was so far away but now it's nearly here!" Exactly how I feel... So I have to share what I got: Last week the FedEx guy knocked at the door and left a box. My heart will always belong to the UPS guy who brings my stamping stuff of course but now it's straying a little because the FedEx man bought the cruise tickets! I tore the box open to find a Bermuda Bay shiny purse stuffed with lots of info. about our cruise, real plane tickets (it feels like a long time since I saw a real ticket rather than just a piece of paper with the details on!) cute luggage labels and our name tags. La La La! How fun. I see on the itinerary we have a "midnight madness" make and take session from midnight till 2 a.m. one night, I just hope I can stay awake! I love that I can spend the evening with my family and then go out to play once they're all asleep. I'm going to be "offline" while we're away but I am planning a special just for my customers so be sure to check back and find out more! Have a great week, Brenda

SPRING COLORS!

Change is in the air! And I am welcoming it... I'm tired of winter and snow and being indoors, I'm ready for some fresh air, some warmth and some new color in my life! Here are the new Stampin' Up! colors - I am loving them. (Click on the picture to view it larger)

You can see we have several returning "In Colors" which I am REALLY excited about! Baja Breeze, Riding Hood Red, Pink Pirrouette, River Rock, Tangerine Tango, Wild Wasabi and (my favorite) Pacific Point. Plus we are keeping Rich Razzleberry and Soft Suede from this year's selection, yippee! So if you are a long time stamper and have been collecting the In Colors you already have a head start on the new collection.

We have a few new colors too which I am DYING to get my hands on: Cajun Craze, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, Daffodil Delight & Marina Mist. They are mailing the demo's samples of these new colors so I'll be sure to share some pictures when I get them in my hands, can't wait!

The sad part, of course, is that some of my old fave's are retiring :-( There are a couple I'm frankly happy to wave goodbye to, but several that I will be keeping a stock of because I know I will want to continue using them. Be sure to order a refill and maybe a packet of card stock or ribbon for your favorite color before the end of May. Everything will be available through May and then during June they will be clearing their inventory so come June 1st they will be available on a first come, first served basis. The new colors, bundles and accessories will all go live July 1st with the new catalog, yippee! Here are the retiring colors:

As soon as I have more information I'll be posting it here. Have a wonderful day, please let me know if you have have any questions. Brenda

Spring is in the air!

And I couldn't be happier! I was working in the yard this weekend and I decided I like it so much better when I can SEE the ground rather than just having to heave that white stuff around. And now (most of) the snow is gone I see little green shoots coming up, yay! Some of them appear to be grass and bind weed where it's not supposed to be but that's OK. I am loving it all. You can remind me of that in August when I'm sick of weeding!

Well, Stampin' Up! are talking about colors too... there are BIG CHANGES afoot, they are shaking up all the color families, retiring lots of colors, putting some of our favorite ex-In-colors into our core line and bringing out some new up-dated versions. I am going to be really sad to say goodbye to a couple of them but on the whole I LOVE the new collection. I'm going to be buying some refills and card stock so I can keep using a few of my fave's and a couple of them I'm going to be quite happy to see the back of.

Would you like to see a sneak peek of the new line??? Well... I would LOVE to show it to you but I can't figure out how to upload a .pdf file, I'm sorry! I'll do some research and try and get it up tomorrow. Doh.

Here is a different picture for you instead:

This is an emergency card kit we will be making at our class on Monday, April 19th at noon or 6:30 p.m. The noon class is almost full already so please let me know if you'd like to sign up! More info. here www.brendamarshall.stampinup.net/events

Happy Easter

Robin made this card at our Easter Class - she changed it up from my original and I liked hers better than mine, I hate when that happens! Actually, that happens all the time - that's one of the things I love about stamping - everybody adds their own individual touches, either by mistake or on purpose, and each card is unique.

I have been having a lovely Spring Break - I haven't seemed to achieve anything significant - but I've sorted out lots of piles of junk that seem to accumulate by magic in my house, (by sorting them I mean I've moved them from A to B and back again) plus I've nearly finished my TAXES and we still have a whole week and a half to go. That's a first for me. The trouble with having my own business is I have so many bits and pieces to keep track of and anybody who knows me knows that kind of thing is really not my strength... Every year I resolve to be better organised but every April - here I am again - sigh.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend - Brenda