West Point

Hi everyone! I just wanted to post some pictures of my family and me at West Point last week. We ate at a cafe inside the building where the theater is and we went out to the balcony to take these pictures. The view of the Hudson River is just breath taking- I'm so glad some of the scenery shows up in these pictures! :) We were there to see the national tour of Les Miserables (my mom and I have seen it on Broadway 3 times and this was our second time seeing the national tour.. needless to say it's a favorite!)

My grandmother has been with us three weeks now and she's having a ball. My mom and I have been taking her shopping as much as possible, which she LOVES. Grandma also has her schedule ready for the theater's fall season- next up is Spamalot in October :) I'm so glad she enjoys going to theater as much as my mom and I do... we can't take her to the city, but West Point is only 15-20 minutes away, so that works out for everyone! I won't be able to help my mom as much once I start working, but hopefully we can work out a schedule so I can give my mom a break when I get home from work..... which leads me to my next topic!

Over the past several weeks I've been interviewing at schools, and most recently for social services. The first school I knew during the interview that someone else already had the job (she already works there and she showed up for the interview in capri pants, soooo I knew she was either inappropriate or was just showing up as a formality). The second interview I thought was going well until they asked me to type up a memo- YIKES! I haven't ever had to do that before, and I knew I wasn't doing it right.. so I figured I could just forget about that job. The third interview I was hopeful about because they were only interviewing the top few scorers on the civil service exam, but I got a letter a few days later saying the position was filled. At my last interview, they sort of hinted that I was over qualified, and I'm technically still waiting to hear back from them, but I don't think they'll want to hire someone with a college degree to file papers. Anyway, I was ready to move on.. my plan was to help my mom take care of my grandmother and go to school (online) to become a medical transcriptionist. I was going to sign up this Monday, but.... I got a call yesterday from the "memo interview" school asking if I was still interested! It was totally unexpected, and of course I said yes. When I got my last job, I was screaming and hollering all over my house because they offered me $5,000 more than I had asked for and it was my first "big girl job". This job I'm not nearly as excited about- the salary is a lot less AND there's a crazy mountain I'll have to drive over every day that I'm dreading in the snow. My hope is that I won't have to worry because when it snows, the school will be closed, buttt... there's always that chance that it'll be snowing as I'm driving home, but I'll just have to deal with it if it happens. Otherwise, I'm excited.... there were 3 positions open and they thought with my degree in psychology, I'd be perfect in the guidance office, which is okay with me! I'm not sure exactly what I'll be doing, but I'm excited to work in a school... I'll be working 7-3, I'll have school holidays and snow days off, and I enjoy being around kids. Hopefully I'll be able to work my way up with this job, too. If the school board approves me, which I'm 99% sure they will, I'll start working on the 15th. Now it's time to go shopping for clothes...! :D

Well, I think I've chatted enough for one night.. thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoy the pictures!

-Suzanne :o )

Ice Cream Challenge

Hi everyone! I made a fun card for a challenge posted by Angela Sgro on her blog, asking us to make ice cream themed cards/layouts etc. I went through my stash and found this sticker and figured I needed some bright, fun papers to go with it :D I played around with a CPS sketch (#71) until I got all the pieces of my card to fit. The green and pink papers are by Stemma, the yellow is by Making Memories and the purple was in my scrap folder. The sentiments are stamps by Doodlebug (my favorite company!) and the blue brads are by Making Memories.... a very simple card! I know stickers are kind of frowned upon by most card makers, but I don't get why. They're easy and this one especially is so FUN! I hope you enjoy, and thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

The Witching Hour

This is my first Halloween card of the season! I made it for Jennie's challenge on the PCMB- we had to make a Halloween card without using orange or purple. I put it off for several days because I didn't know where to start, but I knew I would probably end up using lime green and yellow.. the rest just fell into place when I re-discovered my Martha Stewart double-sided stickers. I say "re-discovered" because I always buy stuff on clearance at the end of the season and then forget about it until the following year when I dig it out of storage :) I smudged staz-on ink on the buttons and I like how they turned out- kind of funky, witch-y looking. I need to buy more of the Colorbox chalk inks, because I like inking the edge of almost everything, and it helps when I can match the color of the ink to the color of the paper :) Anyway, I think this is a fun card, and one I wouldn't have dreamt up without Jennie's challenge! Now I have to figure out who's getting it when Halloween rolls around ;) Thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Halloween Recipe Cards

Hi everyone! I believe this is my first recipe card post, but I've been swapping these for a while. The recipes calls for Ritz crackers, pretzel sticks, raisins and peanut butter, and after some arranging you'll end up with a cute little spider! I wanted to add the picture so people would know how the "recipe" should look, plus the image doubled as a fun embellishment. The ribbon I bought when I first started making cards, and I don't like it now for two reasons:
1. it's too wide
2. the print is vertical

I think it works well on the recipe cards though and I managed to use up the rest of the roll (woohoo!). I have this weird thing about getting excited when I finish something like that.. I think it's because I feel like I'm clearing space, and also because I get to buy new things to replace the one I've used! Yay!

Ahem. OK, back to the card... I printed the recipe with a spooky font on lime green cardstock, and the scalloped punches are my new toys that I bought at a scrapbook store on Long Island (when I went to visit my grandmother a few weeks ago) ;) I believe the ribbon is from Target (looooove those stacks of dollar ribbons!) I chalked around the edge of the spider with lime green ink, but it's looking yellow for some reason. Anyway, it was a pretty easy card to make, I hope you enjoy it and thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

First Attempt At Publication...

Well I guess I can post this card now as I haven't heard back from Paper Crafts mag about my entry. I wasn't expecting to, but I thought it would be fun to try and enter a card for their Joy of Card Making recipe just in case they fell in love with it! ;) The recipe is for their March/April issue, so I thought I would make a St. Patrick's Day card. I don't think too many people send cards for that holiday, but I always like to- who doesn't love rainbows and leprechauns?! This isn't a layout I would have come up with on my own, but I like how it turned out. I know it's out of season, but if I don't post it now I'll probably forget! I hope you like it as much as I do.. thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Happy Birthday to my Dad!

Today is my dad's birthday, so I thought I would share with the card I made for him. I got this stamp when I went camping in Maine... it's a double sided stamp, and it's made specially for "swing cards", so when you pull the sides of the card, the image flips. I don't do much with cards that move, but I thought these were really fun! I love funny cards, so I couldn't resist buying this stamp. I hope you enjoy!

-Suzanne :O )

First Christmas Card of 2008!

Ta-da! This is my first Christmas card for this year (and it's only August! :D). I made this for jennie_hi's challenge on the PCMB where we had to make a red and black holiday card (not Valentine's Day). I thought that was quite a challenge, as I wouldn't normally consider black for a Christmas card, but I figured I'd give it a shot. I really like how this card turned out, so I'm glad I participated in the challenge! The stamps (carolers, joy to the world, the Lord is come) are by Clearly Wordsworth, the music note brads came in a card making kit from Hot off the Press, and the black paper is by KI Memories (Pop Culture collection, Heiress). I used scraps of green and red for the matting and green, purple and blue scraps for the dresses. I LOOOOVE using up my scraps, I try to do that whenever possible! :D The rest of the image I colored with watercolor pencils.

I had a little trouble with the brads.. on the single eighth notes, the "legs" weren't together, they were on either side of the shape, so I had to punch two separate holes for the "legs"... it was a learning experience for next time :) Anyway, I think this card is super cute.. I wasn't sure when I was ever going to use those brads, and then it all came together when I thought about using black and I remembered I had the carolers stamps.. it all goes together perfectly. Success! :)

I'm not sure how many more cards I'm going to make this year... I have a bunch of leftover cards that I bought at Linens 'n' Things (somehow I ended up getting a free $20 giftcard from my Discover Card, so I bought a box of handmade-looking Christmas cards) ;) I hope to use up those cards first, and then if I need more, of course I'll make them, but I may not need to.

Anyway, enough rambling for tonight.. I hope you enjoy my card! Thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )