2012: A Year in Review!

Every year, I say I'll post my year in review on January 1st and somehow it's March before I know it, ROFL! :p  

 With my recent blog hiccup, I thought it would be fun to revisit some of my cards from the past year!  I have to manually add them all back one by one from my pc hard-drive (eek!) so in at least I will have 10 of them in one place! *smile!*

January

Operation Write Home card donation :)

February

For my husband :) 

March

Crafters of Faith: Spring

April 

Whipper Snapper swap card :)

May

My special Raggedy Ann doll card ~ Buggaboo digi :)

June

My son made his black belt in TaeKwanDo at the age 7!

July

Crafters of Faith:  End to Summer!

August

TAT card - mirror image (Try A new Technique!)

September

Olympics card: I chose Archery as my theme (dd16 is an archer!)

October

Zombie card for my dd17, who LOVES The Walking Dead!

   November

Crafters of Faith: Christmas Carols

December

Ye old Merry Christmas from Riley and Company!

And that's just a quick 2013 Year In cards Review! :)

I know some are slightly out of order but with my blog crash,

I'm fining files all over the place!

Btw, the update on my blog hiccup!  A month or so ago, my phone hard-drive crashed and with it went my contacts, information and photos.  Apparently, at some point unbeknownest to me, the phone was connected to my blog - hence, anything stored on my phone when it crashed took the blog with it!

Although I have everything back up in our pc hard-drive (thousands upon thousands of pictures!) it will take a process of loading them ONE BY ONE,

each and every post.  The task is somewhat daunting, so I will reload them little by little in the next year.  So just a head's up - careful where your pictures are connected! I didn't even know my blog was on my phone!

Lesson learned the hard way :P

Winter Wonderland :-)

Happy New Year's Eve!!  

Wishing you an abundance of blessings for the New Year - 2013 is just hours away and I pray that the year ahead brings you many good things!

I have a two-fold card today - both the Calendar Girls and the Crafters of Faith cards were 'snow much fun' winter wonderland cards so I managed to fit both challenges into one card!  Yay me!

I found this gorgeous picture on the web and wish this was my backyard! 

 I asked the Calendar Girls to use this photo as their muse this month:

 and my card:

 and the inside of the card:

 and since the Crafters of Faith are to make a card using snow and glitter/glitz to bring in the New Year, I added lots of white shimmery glitter to the snow!

I used the SU! set Sleigh Bells Ring and kept the blue color through-out the card theme including with the ink (love that Marina Mist!) Of course I had to decorate my card inside and use some buttons to finish it up! :)

Please be sure to visit the Crafters of Faith AND the Calendar Girls and you can find them on my side-bar - they have been quite crafty this month and have "snow much" to share with you! 

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings and

Happy New Year!

~Kelly

Merriest of Holidays from Riley and Company!

Happy Holidays from our house to yours!

  I hope your Christmas day was all things blessed and wonderful!

I've been bed-bound and slowly recoverying from one of the worst cases of the flu ever starting on the 22nd.  I missed 3 crucial days of shopping, cooking and entertaining and dragged myself out of bed for the Christmas morn gift openings and watching the *babies* definitely has it's own healing qualities.  Whew, definitely a Christmas for the record books!

Not to mention I came back to see my blog has been basically wiped clean! :(  Every picture, every post and sidebar details are all gone and I have tried everything I know to retrieve it.  I spent over an hour rebuilding back the past week's posts and to do that for the past YEARS worth?  I'm out of energy, time, and strength to even give that another thought - so it looks like I know what one of my 2013 projects will be! :P

The new Riley and Company bi-weekly card challenge is up and running!

The challenge this week is Anything Goes.  Easy peasy!  

I ended up making a holiday card using non-traditional colors {love doing that!}

I used Riley and Percy Snow Dancing and the matching Winter Words Sentiment on the inside.  The papers are bright and festive and remind me of the colors of Miami, even in "Winter" :)

To add your card to a gallery, please use the keyword Riley2612 and of course,  play along with us at the Riley blog, too!  Please stop by the DT blogs to see what inspiration the Riley DT has for you to see this week.

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Book Review and GIVE-AWAY!!

Hi there!!  Oh friends, forgive my lack of visits/blogging/crafting - 'tis the  Season to be unbelievably busy!  But I have some exciting news!  In addition to a book review, I wanted to give you a chance to be able to get this for yourself! The author of "On a Quest For Christ" has sent me an additional copy of her book - SIGNED - as a give-away!  How wonderful is that!

On a Quest for Christ: tracing the footsteps of your spiritual journey is a simple yet comforting journal book.  It opens with the refreshing statement of what a quest is: “a journey towards a worthy goal, the seeking of a noble end.”  For each of us, that quest means a different journey ~ one that may be easy or hard, laden with guilt, burdens, fear or maybe one filled with hope and wonder or anywhere in between.  With a pencil in hand and an open mind and heart, this devotional sure gives you a beautiful opportunity to find where you are at!

This book is divided into 30 mini chapters which are short and do-able.  Each chapter contains 5 great components:

1. Relevant scripture
2. Opening thoughts, 
3. Lisa Are’ Wulf’s personal shared words
4. Your Story – a reflective journaling area with questions to inspire thought
5. Closing prayer

Lisa Are’ Wulf’s devotional book is pure delight.  It’s a light and refreshing read.  I enjoyed going outside the box and applying the questions to my own walk of faith.  As we walk in the journey of faith, we always hope that we are moving forward and with each step, gain more knowledge and life experience.  And guess what?  Jesus is right there all along to help you do just that!

To learn more about the author and her vast ministry work, you can visit her website at www.onewomansanctuary.com.

Thanks for stopping by and please ad your name to the comment area to put your name in the draw :)

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book product to review.   I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.   The opinions I have expressed are my own.   I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.   I am part of The CWA Review Crew.

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

Winter Travel ~ Dueling Darling style!

Peace be with you today as we sit and mourn the loss of the tiniest of victims in CT.  My heart aches for those parents and know that there are such few words to bring comfort ~ and I pray for the families of these most precious gifts of life lost in this senseless tragedy.  

Although by now I'm on the road heading to a field trip for the next 3 days, I sure hugged them all - my kids and those who call me 'mom' just because - a whole lot tighter.  Peace with you today!

Well, it's time for another friendly 'duel' between the Divas -vs- the Dazzlers! This month, our hostess with the mostess was Barb and WOW!  Did she send a kit to send us over the moon happy!  This is one of my favorite color schemes and the papers were rich in blue, brown and green! It's *snow* much fun to see all the papers, embellishments, cute image!  Starting out with a stamped image of Downhill snowman from Whipper Snapper, I colored it up with prismas and left it rather plain because I was having a blast with all the papers!  It was truly hard to chose one side over the other :)  

In addition to our cards, Barb asked us to include a story related to "Winter Travel."  When I was about 6, we had just moved to Germany and I met a bunch of new friends and we all went to the 'sledding hill' and would FLY down the hill.  At 6, I'm sure it looked like quite a mountain!  Yours truly here thought it would be cute to stand up on the sled (on ice, going downhill!)  Not only did  I fly off, writhing in pain from my broken arm, but my friends piled me back in the wagon and took me home.  As soon as it healed and the cast was to come off, I broke it weeks later - same wrist - ice skating.  Time for me to stay off the ice I reckon?  (I broke the other wrist, too .. feelin' jinxed! :)

Please be sure to stop in an see what the DT have created on this duel!  

Big hugs,
Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Riley: Say it in Song!

Good Morning!  Today a new Riley and Company challenge starts and it's brought to us by DT member, Jovita!  She has challenged us to create a Riley card using the theme: "Inspired by Song".  

For me, music is a big part of our lives and we have it playing all the time, including Christmas songs!   One of my all-time favorites is Noel ~ esp when song by Josh Groban  ::: swoon! :::  I was blessed to see him in concert a few years ago and he's a truly gifted and amazing performer.  But I digress! My card ..... I went with the song "Noel" :)  I paired up the brand new, clear stamp Carrying Tree Riley with a 4.25 x 5.5 cut-out card that I found here. I printed out the template and paper-pieced the letters with a 'top coat' of paper in country hearth tones of paper.  Our church has decorated this year using ferns and red gingham ribbons, raffia and real pine cones - such a heart and home-spun feel to it all and that's what I was channeling when dreaming up this card :)

We'd love to see what song inspired cards you come with, too!  Please link them to the Riley and Co blog and if you use a gallery, please use the keyword Riley2512.

Have a *musical* day! :)

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

It's *Snow* Mystery!

Hi there!  Looooong weekend here and I'm about to drop from exhaustion.  Honestly, December is truly one of those months that is always in constant blur!  But we made it through and we're about ..... half way, almost?  

Just a quick post to show you the 'almost' card :)  As part of the mystery image swap, this month hostess by Jeanette, we received this darling image of Darcie's snowman to work with.  So I did!  Pretty much the week I received it - then lost the cards!  My crafting Cabana is that bad!  I know they will turn up ......... say ........... in May of next year! :x  Jeanette was kind enough to resend another set of images and this was what I came up with in my time crunch, utterly exhuasted, completely mojo-less, crafted out brain .... but isn't he the cutest snowman EVER!  Even though I'm not happy with the final result, it's all about the destination but the journey - right?!  He's so happy, it makes ME happy! :)

I have bible study first thing in the morning and haven't even CRACKED the book open (not *the* book - smile! The study guide!) so I'm keeping this short and wish you a multitude of snowy blessings!

 Big Hugs!

BIgger Blessings!

~Kelly

Just Dance!

 
Good afternoon!  Wow, I actually made a card! :)  Blogging/crafting at this time of year are next to impossible with our busy schedules but it's almost a busy birthday month for us - all 3 of our daughters :/

Today's card is one that I made for my daughter, Chrissy :)  I am so excited to ink this stamp up because I just received it in the mail from Kraftin' Kimmie as a stamp win from a challenge I entered (this card for my other daughter!)  Thank you, Kraftin' Kimmie, for your generosity and the unexpected blessing of receiving this fun stamp to ink up!  OMGosh, I adore Kraftin' Kimmie Moonlight Whisper stamps and this was absolutely perfect for my daughter!  She's a musical babe ... always singing, dancing, performing.  I thought this would be a perfect tribute card to her as she has been in so many shows, constantly trying out for dance numbers at school and audition after audition after audition ...... whew!  Through it all, she remains grounded and sweet as pie and just such a gentle, beautiful soul to all that get to know her :*) 

For my color palette, I followed the new color combo at SCS CC404 this week ~ a little out of my comfort zone, but that's exactly why I chose it!  Chrissy's favorite color is blue so I let that be the focal point of Holly Hip Hop! I added the coordinating sentiment to the inside where my dh and I will writer her a little note :)

Thanks for stopping by today! I know I am WAY behind in my visits and I hope you bear with me ... December is just crazy for us and I usually don't get to take a breathe til about January!  One birthday down ... 2 more to go!  (and did someone mention Christmas was this month? eeeek!) :x

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly