Summertime!

Hello Everybody!

Life has been cra....zy lately, summertime fun, traveling, visiting, yard work, ferrying the kids around, you know how it is! Anyway, I just put together my calendar for August and will be posting LOTS of fun things so I hope we can get together and get our fingers inky again soon!

Here's a little peek at what I've been doing the past few weeks though, yesterday the ladies at our local LDS church were doing Christmas in July and I took some fabric flowers for us to make, too much fun! I enjoyed hanging out with old and new friends.
On Monday we had our BLISS demonstrator group meeting, Tammy and Teresa have just got back from convention and they had a BLAST. The rest of us were GREEN with envy, especially when they pulled out hundreds (literally HUNDREDS) of swaps and samples... oh my word! They made some really cool things, entered lots of the optional swaps, got free stamp sets and new toys that I hadn't seen - we had a great time rummaging through their boxes and bags and I took a couple of pictures of my favorites. I couldn't go to Convention this year :-( but I am planning on attending Leadership for the first time in January. It's in Nashville, Tennessee so that's what I'm working towards now... Here's a picture of Linda who is a returning demonstrator to our group, she needed a little sabbatical to make this little cutie! Adrian. Isn't he adorable?

Well, I be sending out my August schedule today, so watch out for my email and I hope to see you soon! Have a great week,

Brenda

Thank You!

I had another amazing year with Stampin' Up! and I just got the official letter to tell me I'd earned another cruise (can you believe it?! I can't!) We're going to Alaska next May. I have never been there and so this is a real dream of ours. I am so grateful to my lovely customers and friends for helping me achieve this. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Stamp club today. We learning all about wheels. I've been terrible at posting haven't I? I'm going to try and get a little more regular - we'll see how that goes! Here's a picture for you. I made these little "thank you's" for the customers who placed orders while I was away... I used the Pedaling Past set from the mini and made up little 3"x 3" note cards. Easy and quick. I used the new color Marina Mist on the front right set, I'm loving it!

Have a great week, Brenda

Having a lovely time in England!

Well, I finally got here after after our delay from the volcano, and we've been having a lovely time with our family and friends. We've even had some sunny weather which is amazing! (Cloudy today but that's ok too!) I imagined that I would be posting all the time but it hasn't quite worked out that way, patchy access to the internet and just too busy. Anyway, I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the start of the summer. I wanted to give you links to the Stampin' Up! lists of retiring products that have been released today. There are three, the stamp sets, the accessories (including wheels) and decor elements. I have a HUGE list of things I need to grab before they're gone! If you're on my shopping site http://www.brendamarshall.stampinup.net/ don't miss the clearance rack too, you have to order online to access that but there are some great deals tucked away on there! I am doing a promotion of my own right now too, order via my website above or by email while I'm away (until June 13) and I will enter you into a drawing (One ticket for every $25 you spend) for 2 great stamp sets plus you'll get a free little something from me!

Here are the links for the retiring produts:

Decor Elements

Stamp Sets

Accessories

Don't forget the new catalog will come out July 1st! Email me to reserve your copy ;-) If you are in stamp club you will automatically get one. Have a great month and I look forward to seeing you soon! Brenda

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