Monday, May 28, 2007

what color?

Is the text easier to read as white? or do you like it better in black? please leave me a comment, so I can decide what to do. Thanks

Sunday, May 27, 2007

We found a floor plan...and a builder we like!!!

B has been searching for months with our realtor, Shirley (who is the BEST!!!) and now after this long and tiring weekend, we have found a builder, a floor plan, and a home site we like. We went to a sold house and altho we will make several changes, I love the overall flow of the floor plan. The bedrooms are a bit on the small side, but we can add a bonus room with extra bathroom and closet upstairs. The house is a RANCH!!! This one shows brick, which I didn't care for, so we went with vinyl. The lot we like is about 3/4 of an acre. It backs up to a thick tree/bush line and then a main road. Road noise didnt' seem to be much of an issue.
The formal living room has a study option, so that will become my studio, with walls and french doors-(the room at the front of the house in the pic.) The formal dining room has tray ceiling and pillars (we are deleting the pillars, but keeping the tray, the stairs for the bonus room would come down across from the study, creating a small hallway towards the bathroom and girls bedrooms, and giving us a 'cupboard under the stairs" GRIN
The formal dining room flows into the great room with fireplace. The fireplace in the photos is from the sold house, ours will be clear, with no walls on the sides, and will be double sided so you can sit in the morning room (which we will add) and enjoy the fireplace from that side too. (Isn't that cool??) The breakfast nook off the kitchen will become our dining area. I think we will use the formal dining area as part of the great room. Off the morning room we will have a large wooden deck. (I think 12x14)
Kitchen layout I think is about the same as this one. Cabinets are different, and we upgraded to a flat top stove, mounted microwave, large side by side fridge and granite counter tops. Hard wood floors thru out great room, morning room, kitchen and nook/dining room. Bedrooms and bonus rooms will be carpeted, and master bath will be ceramic tile. Upstairs bath and downstairs bath will be vinyl. There is no official guest bath, because the girls bath is right off the formal dining room. But the bonus room is large enough for a guest room, and we've added a full bath up there..altho I had to give up my fourth bedroom, the house has lots of living space, and I think it will work for us. For some reason I didn't take any pix of the girls rooms, or any of the bathrooms, the master bath has a separate shower, soak tub (we upgraded to jets) and the toilet is in a separate little room. Must be the German influence. LOL
There is a huge walk in closet off the master bath, and another one in the master bedroom. The one pic of the master br I took, does not do it justice. This one is wood, and we will have carpet, and a tray ceiling. The laundry room is the door next to the entertainment center bump out, which leads to the garage. The attic pulldown is also in the laundry room. We added a mud sink in the laundry room.
We added and upgraded a bunch of stuff...simply because this builder is having a half off on ALL upgrades with no cap. Which means the morning room, clear fireplace, large fridge, ALL those extras were half off!!! We are very excited about the plan, and if we get all the paperwork in order, etc they plan to have the house finished for an end of September move in. Wouldn't that be a great bday gift to me??? LOL
Brian does time these things well, I must say...giggle
And for those of you who are wondering about our house in Ohio....anyone in the market for a cute lil ranch with a 6ft privacy fence and unattached 2 car garage? LOL

Friday, May 25, 2007

Found a House-NOT!!

Well, we spent all of yesterday looking at house with our real estate agent Shirley. She is totally terrific, btw!!! (B was at work, so the girls and I spent the day with driving all over the place, with her.) We looked at 8 or 10 houses I think...and found one that I LOVE the floor plan of, and love the gorgeous natural light the large windows bring in. But when B. met us there after work, to look at it, he didn't like it. He said he also liked the floor plan, master down, formal dining room that could easily convert into a studio, 3 large bedrooms up stairs, plus a HUGE bonus room up.....breakfast nook, and family room down...but he thought the cabinets were too short, didn't like the counter tops (he wants corian), and the floors in the kitchen and nook were only vinyl (we want wood)...(I knew these would be a problem but I figure they could be upgraded) The driveway has some issues...poor drainage too....but the house was a corner lot..which was nice...but the biggest problems were that B didn't like the neighborhood. No sidewalks, no amenities..(no pool, no walking trails) etc..and hardly any trees. SO, we keep looking.No biggie. The house that HE likes, in in a neighborhood I adore..but I don't like the floor plan of that house...it's set up sorta dumb...the dining room is down the hall from the kitchen, and the family room with the fireplace is off the kitchen (flows into it). I thought at first I could close off the formal living room, for a studio, and then make the dining room the living room..and the family room the dining room (cuz you know it's RIGHT there by the kitchen!) but then there would be a fireplace in the dining room, which I think is dumb. So that house is out too. Oh well, we havnen't sold our house yet anyways...and the right house is out there for us...somewhere....lol

flight to sc

We landed in Charlotte on Wednesday (B's birthday) We had the MOST fun on a flight I've ever had!! LOL Our flight attendant was named James,and he had us crackin up most of the flight. He started out by asking E (who was sitting behind K and I) if she was going to be a trouble maker, and if he had to keep a special watch on her...course, she has had no experience with this kind of behavior and had NO idea what to say...she just sorta laughed and said..."uhh, no..." :0) We had gotten up at 5am to catch a ride with our friend Mike E. to the airport. (He dropped us on his way to work) and I didn't get to sleep til after midnite, so I was pretty tired, I decided to catch a nap on the plane. Before we had taken off, I had my pillow in place and eyes closed...James starts the safety info, and just before he says his second line he says "Oh, there is a no sleeping on this flight before take-off. If you do nap before that there is a $5.00 fee." and he goes on with his safety speech. I open my eyes and look at him (did I mention we were sitting in the second row? LOL) and said "I'll gladly pay you the 5 bucks, do you take monopoly money?" Everyone around us laughs, and I close my eyes again. He starts to go on, and says "And there will be a short quiz on the safety instructions after I'm done..hope you all brought your number 2 pencils" More laughter. He finishes up, then comes down the isle checking on the passengers, and he stops at our seats and says "Are you ready for the quiz?" I said "Sure....whatcha got?" His asked me to tell him the row number of the emergency exits. I thought he asked where the exits were...so I tell him they are at the front and over the wings...(see I WAS paying attention..lol)
course, I didn't answer the question he asked...and for anyone who wants to know..the exit row is in aisle 8. LOL He of course, gives me an F. grin...He asks a few other passengers questions too...then goes up to start the beverage service. When he gets to our row, he asks me another question...How many exit signs are there on the plane....You KNOW I got that one wrong too. so he tells me I get NO beverages as penalty... then he asks me what kind of drink I want, and hands me a coke. Bwa haa haa...He banters with several other passengers,including K and E. After the drinks are finished, he is at the front of the cabin, and starts to get ready for the descent. (it's a short flight) and he asks the lady in front of us "You know, I have all this stuff up here I have to get done, and cleaned up...you know what that means right?" He's holding a big trash bag in his hands...the lady shakes her head no, and laughs. So he turns to the man seated next to her, and asks him to gather up the trash from the passengers. He also says NO. Next he looks at K, and asks her..."How bout you?" at the same time she is raising her hand saying "I'll do it~!"
so he actually HANDS HER THE TRASH BAG ,AND SHE GOES DOWN THE AISLE COLLECTING THE DRINK CUPS!!! I was cracking up..as were all the passengers around us. When she gets back to the front of the plane, he takes the bag from her, and asks everyone to "Give this young lady a round of applause...she's really helped me out!" K just thought that was the koolest thing yet! BWA HAAA HAAAA HAAA HAAA
So we land, get our bags (which we had a heck of a time finding...lol) and called B to pick us up.
We then went to lunch to celebrate his bday with the most enormous pieces of sushi I've EVER seen!!!! YUM!!

Thursday, May 17, 2007

ATC Workshop-Lesson 2


Had fun with this lesson too! Idea is to take a baby wipe and add color to it. Calls for liquid water colors, which I didn't have, so I used ink refills, and spray inks. The color was supposed to drip thru the babywipe and make cool patterns on my atc paper...but alas, that wasn't happening. SO, I used a brayer and helped the ink find it's way. I have to say, due to the cool pattern in the baby wipe, I got some totally kool patterns on my atcs. In fact, I didn't actually want to cover them up! LOL
I love the colors I ended up with, and the babywipes dried so nicely, I will keep them around for future use for sure!! Each of the 3 I made in this lesson uses a piece of the baby wipe on it. To see all 3 go the the Workshop ATC page on my site.
In the mean time, here's my favorite of this set....enjoy!!

New Overlays!



I created 2 overlays to use in your digital designs. One is 12 x12 and one is 8.5 x 11. Each size has 2 colors. One is black, and for those of you who know how to add color to your elements, one is grey. If you use PSP, and you don't know how to do this, leave me a comment, and I'll put up the directions. It's really easy! LOL
Here is a layout of my MIL I did using one of the overlays. Enjoy!
Link:New Overlays

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

ATC Workshop


SO I started the ATC workshop that ART (Artists of the Round Table) is doing, I know I won't have time to do all the lessons, but I'm so bored with my ATC art...I need some new tricks to try...lol
The first lesson is all about seeing art where there isn't any. LOL Or maybe it's in the eye of the beholder? Anywho. the lesson is called Intuitive Watercolor. Kinda like seeing animals in the clouds, you have to find images in your ink splots..I imagine this would be much easier after a margarita or 3. Bww ahaa haaa

When I first started, I sat there looking at this gray ATC with these green and brown splotches of ink and thought, yeah right..I see NOTHING>>>
then a few moments went by, and I could sorta make out a bird wing...and then wait, maybe a sorta mallard face...or something...oh yeah...here we are!
I ended up making 3 of them (you can see all of them on my ATC workshop page)
but this is by far my favorite one.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

HA!! I've been tagged!!!

Here I am thinking no one even READS my blog!! I've been tagged by Hetty of the Netherlands! How cool is that!? ok, so the idea here is to list 7 things about yourself that other people might not know, and then tag 7 other bloggers to do the same thing. SO here are my seven:

1. I could eat Ice Cream, sushi and Mexican food everyday of my life, and never get sick of it. (granted, I would not want to eat them all at the same time, but you know what I mean! LOL)
2. I don't like fruit. Most of the time it has no flavor, or it's sour. Altho I buy lots of it, I rarely eat it unless it's in something else.
3. I am not an outdoor kinda gal. I don't like bugs, or heat, or humidity. I also dislike the cold, and snow too! If given the choice I prefer a hotel to camping, and the mall, to hiking. LOL I love to LOOK at nature, and the few times a year when the weather is perfect for it, I have been known to actually go out in it...but it's not my favorite thing to do. lol
4. I believe in signs, and angels. I believe we all have lost loved ones who become our special Guardian Angels, who watch over us. (hello Uncle Al!!) I think we don't pay enough attention to the signs around us.
5. I believe that if I ever get lost in the woods, a grizzly bear will probably eat me. (see why I prefer the mall?)
6. I used to paint wooden basket sitters for an Artist who sold her designs to Longenberger Basket Company. It was a tough job, but I sure learned a lot from Jan!
7. If you opened my garage, you could probably start your own craft store, with all of the supplies and 'gotta have' crafts I have tried over the years. From Tole Painting, to Wood Burning, Wreath making to Cake Decorating, I have done so many things! And my dh has put up with them all! GRIN
But, now we are moving, and I've given away most of those crafts, because I know I've finally found one my one true calling!!

Ok, here are my seven that I'm tagging!
Cat

Donna

Fran

Debbie

Gayle

well, I can only think of 5 at the moment, so here are my 5. LOL

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Quick Page-My Guy and Soak in the Sun



A couple of quick pages I created some time ago. Thought you might enjoy them.
Here's the link:
FireCracker Designs By Pamela Digi Kits