Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Halloween is Coming!

Hey everyone! Now that the kids are back in school and tomorrow is September first, it's time to start crafting some eerie Halloween projects! Digital Doodles has created some fun 'Happy Howl-loween' icons and sentiments to help you create some pretty cool and spooky projects. And the design team has created some awesome projects to give you lots of ideas for this new kit!

Card and Treat Box
Kathy Martin
Digital Doodles Designer


Treat Bags


Boo Banner


Witch Hat Treats


Framed Haunted House and Card


Trick or Treat Goody Basket


Trick-or-Treat Gift Bag


Haunted House Goody Bags


Happy Howl-loween Kit

Are you as excited about the projects as I am??? When the design team members turned in their projects I was blown away by each one! They really did a fabulous job! This 'Happy Howl-loween' kit goes on sale on Tuesday September 7, 2010 exclusively at Two Peas in a Bucket for just $4, that's only .67 cents per image! Now that's pretty frightening! Also next Tuesday, the design team will have another round of fun projects using this set! Can't wait to see what they think up next!  ;)

Monday, August 30, 2010

Do You Like Antiques?

It's the beginning of another week! Did you enjoy the weekend? I work a lot of my weekends, but this weekend I didn't do a whole lot in my office and it was a refreshing change. On Saturday my dear friend Audrey and I decided to take a little road trip to an Antique Mall called Granddaddy's. She's been shopping there for years and just introduced me to the place about a month ago. It's huge! It's in an old K-Mart type building loaded with individual booths. You can spend the entire day there! Both last time we went and on Saturday we got kicked out at closing time! We were there about five hours and could have stayed longer!


Knowing that we would be walking, standing and browsing for so long we decided to eat first at a favorite traveler's stop in the south called Cracker Barrel. They serve breakfast all day that includes biscuits, gravy and grits! Cracker Barrel is famous for their chicken and dumplings, meatloaf, and sides such as collard greens and lima beans. It's a great place to eat and shop. Each location has a country store filled with gifts and goodies that will bring you back to the good old days!

Here's Ms. Pettit, ready to take on Cracker Barrel!


We really had a fabulous time looking at all the wares at Granddaddy's! They have it all! And we both found a few treasures among a lot of fun and nostalgic things. I've recently decided that I'd like to go back to storing food in the refrigerator the old fashioned way, in old glass refrigerator boxes. It's been in the news lately that plastic is made of some pretty nasty stuff that leaches into our food. I found four nice refrigerator boxes that I liked. I didn't take pictures of those, however. I did get pictures of the following items.

I love old books and classics and found a few to keep me busy for a little while. I'm currently reading one called, 'Heidi' so that's on my nightstand.


Audrey spied this little guy and showed him to me. She knows I like birds and he's quite handsome, don't you think? And at just $4 I couldn't resist taking him home!


This is a little milk glass vase that I really like. I love it's pedistal feet and fancy edging at the top. It stands about 6" tall. It was probably made during the period of the 1930s and 1940s when depression glass making was big business in the United States. Depression glass pieces were given out at movie theaters just for going to see the show and were also included in boxes of Quaker oats!


Here's an old Ball canning jar I picked up. I love storing little treasures around the house in these jars. I have one full of old marbles and another filled with pretty little shells. I think I'll put some of my vinatage buttons in this one.


This little red elephant was my favorite treasure of the day. He's a Larry Moore pottery piece. I did some research and discovered that Larry is the brother of Charles Moore who was more famous for his pottery pieces working at Jugtown pottery until the year 2000 when he founded his own workshop. I suppose brother Larry made pottery with him at his studio. Charles Moore later passed away in 2007. I can't find any current information on Larry Moore, however, I did find some pieces of his that were auctioned on eBay.

I hope you enjoyed browsing at my little treasures. Do you collect antiques? Do you have a particular collection? I'd love for you to share with me! Thanks again for dropping by. I apprecciate your visit! :) Kathy

Sunday, August 29, 2010

So Happy to See You!

Last Monday night we went to our son's school to meet his new fourth grade teacher. It was also a great opportunity to say hello to his third grade teacher whom he adored. As soon as he saw Mrs. Walter he ran to her and gave her a great big hug! It's so awesome to see Christopher enjoy his teachers so much! They are like a great big happy family!



I used some Ki Memories papers from their  2008 School Days line. Feels good to use some of my stash of patterned papers! I bought some new stuff this year, but it just didn't work with my photo. The apple is a Silhouette die cut and the ruler, pencil, star, smiley face and journaling card accents are from October Afternoon's  Report Card line.

Well, hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend! I appreciate you taking the time to stop by! Yesterday I went Antiquing with a dear friend and found some pretties that I think I might post tomorrow. Tuesday will be more fun projects from the Digital Doodles design team so I hope you will come back then! :) Kathy

Friday, August 27, 2010

Home Sweet Home

Welcome to my home! I've been cleaning and rearranging our little treasures over the past couple days. About once a month, even though I detest cleaning, our house gets some loving. When I find myself dreading the work ahead, I try and remember that giving our home some attention is a good way to appreciate all our home is for us.


I really need to get a new photo! This was taken six years ago right before we moved in. I can't believe how much our trees and garden has grown since and we painted the front door black to match the shutters after a couple years because the hot afternoon sun made it so we would have to refinish it almost yearly!

The kitchen...a spot we tend to spend a lot of time in. The place we make everyday meals or bake up something special.

Our kitchen nook gets the morning suns which I love. The sun helps energize me for the day ahead! Here's were my family eats breakfast and dinner together everyday!

I love these windows! The photo doesn't really do them justice. I should have stood further to the left so you could see more. There are no homes behind us as there's a lake to the left and a creek that runs from the lake through our back yard. I feel so lucky to have such a beautiful yard to look out over. We often see deer, we have a couple resident ground hogs, rabbits, tons of birds and an occasion fox will trot through.

Here's the book shelves on the left side of the fireplace where I took down all the nick-knacks and rearranged them. You know you have a lot of dust when the can-vac works better than a dusting cloth!

The fireplace. Appreciated more than I can say during the cold winter months here in North Carolina.

And the bookshelves on the right side of the fireplace. Notice that I keep easels with the latest scrapbook pages throughout. I figure if I'm going to put as much work into them as I do, we should all enjoy them for a while. I often find our son looking at them. I'm so glad he enjoys them!

Ah...the comfy sofa with lots of pillows! Here's where I enjoy an occasional moment or two looking out the lovely windows. I also spend a little time on this sofa each morning drinking my coffee and checking e-mails on the iPad. Most of the time you would see a big train set up on the floor in here! Christopher adores trains and always has one going. He takes it down before I clean so I can vacuum and mop the floors. One day I'll actually have a nice rug and coffee table! And something for the big empty wall behind the couch.

The formal dinning room. This picture didn't turn out too well, but you get the idea. Lovely room and ceiling. I remember when we were moving in six years ago that I really didn't like the bright red walls! But once the furniture was in it and a picture hung on the wall, I warmed up to it.

The foyer...the first place one sees when they walk in. Perhaps I should have started with this picture?  ;) I really like all our plantation shutters! Even though they are not as elegant as draperies, they are so much easier to clean, better for indoor air quality and let in a lot of light.

Here's a peek into our living room from the foyer. I enjoy sitting in that chair and watching the goings on outside. I really should take more time to enjoy my favorite perches! During Christmas, I sit in that chair nearly every night with a cup of cocoa and gaze at our decorated tree.

Here's the sofa in the living room....a comfy one! I think a carpet and more art on the walls would be nice in there as well. It's nice that we still have plenty of space to fill with the treasures we'll find on future shopping trips and vacations. As I'm getting older, I want to buy more antiques.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my little blog tour. I only had time to photograph the downstairs since I wanted to have plenty of time to rearrange all the nick knacks. I'll have photos of the upstairs bedrooms, bathrooms and offices another time.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a lovely weekend! :) Kathy


Thursday, August 26, 2010

Missing in Action!

Guess what I'm doing? I've taken yesterday and today off from my office and my usual crafting duties to give the house some much needed loving'. Yesterday I scrubbed, mopped, vacuumed, dusted polished and even cleaned out the refrigerator! The place is sparkling and whilst it's looking it's best, I went around taking pictures of each room and some of my favorite treasures collected during our 18 years of marriage and domestic bliss! ;) I've been wanting to do a mini album of our home...a few snapshots in time to show what our home was like way back in 2010. Christopher is nine so it will be fun for him to look back and see what things changed and what things remained the same.

This morning after all the photos are taken, I'm embarking on a project I've wanted to do for some time. I will gather all nick-nacks on the shelves and rearrange everything! I'm excited...it's an adult version of playing house! I'll have a whole new look without buying anything new! Now that's so cool and environmentally friendly! I will then take more photos for a few before and after pages.

Anyway, that's what I'm doing in case you noticed that I've been missing in action from your blogs! I'm looking forward to returning to them and mine tomorrow! Hope your day is going swell and thanks for stopping in!

:) Kathy

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Digital Doodles Card Sentiments

After creating Digital Doodles stamps for nearly six months, I thought it was time to create a few 'Card Sentiments' to match! As you will see, there's a perfect sentiment for each and every Digital Doodle! The design team has been working extra hard this week to come up with sets of cards and note cards to show you the variety of sentiments available. Click on image if you would like to see a bigger image or visit each design team members blog to see more pictures and get further information.


Kathy Martin
Digital Doodles Designer























Aren't these 'Card Sentiments' projects fun!?!? Each week I love to seeing the projects everyone creates! This week I've also included the ad page that appears on Two Peas in a Bucket so you can see all 14 stamps. I love that you can resize these sentiments to fit your need making them perfect for a scrapbook pages as well. And you can change the color of them like Lori Mar did with her card set. Oh, I almost forgot to tell you that this set sells for just $4! That's just .29 cents per sentiment that can be used over and over and over and over and....okay you get the idea! ;)

Thanks again for taking time to drop in and see the new Digital Doodles set! Next week's will be just as spook-tacular...if you get my drift? ;) Kathy

Monday, August 23, 2010

It's A Digital Monday

Hi! Did you have a relaxing weekend? A busy one? A fun one? Mine was all the above wrapped up into one! Relaxing because I enjoyed a cat nap with one of my fluffy boys. Busy because I got a lot of work done and fun because I love my work...paper crafting!

I have a couple creations to share with you this morning. Friday evening Erica Hernandez of Two Peas in a Bucket hosted their first on-line digital crop. Oh what fun it was! Lots of chatting going on and challenges to work on over the weekend. The challenge I took part in was to make a page using the blues and green colors of Two Peas in a Bucket. I thought that would work perfectly with my beach photos from the previous week!



When I was browsing our photos from last week's beach trip I was surprised to see that one picture looked so much like the year before that I wanted to create a comparison page. The digital elements are the Silhouette die cuts...clouds, large circle, birds, 'beach' word, and starfish. I also used a digital image from The Graphics Fairy of a vintage news paper and printed it on the top layer of my clouds.

One of my favorite things about creating this page is that I used some ancient scrapbooking supplies....my little Paper Shapers fish punch that I've had since the beginning of my paper crafting days. I remember when my son was just a bitty little thing who loved to take all my colorful Paper Shaper punches and line them up according to color! I also broke out some vellum that I've had since its hay days. Vellum seems to be making a come-back.

This second project is a hybrid card using Erica Hernandez's 'Twenty Eleven Calendar Kit' from Two Peas in a Bucket.


Obviously, this kit would be perfect for desk and wall calendars! And I thought the calendars were also excellent for birthday, anniversary and save-the-date type cards as you can circle the special date! These calendars would also make great date accents on scrapbook pages. Oh the possibilities. Great kit to have!

I hope you enjoyed my projects today. Tomorrow I have another great Digital Doodles kit coming out. Again, it's different from any other kit I've had so far so come back tomorrow and check it out! :) Kathy
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