The Best Top Desktop HD Wallpapers: January 2011

There was no line dancing…

But there was beauty, everywhere you looked:

The Opryland Hotel is seriously one of the most magnificent places I have ever stayed. Absolutely gorgeous. And just like last year, I didn’t have nearly enough time to look around!

I only got night shots, and they’re still amazing:

There was plenty of goofing off:

I’m trying to bring Traci to the dark side…that would be giving up the sweet nectar that is soda. It’s not happening. But that’s why I love her! :)

We even fit in some thrifting:

Kate and Chris’s faces are the BEST. (We weren’t too sure about those chairs.) And no, that is not a beer in my hand, it’s a root beer. ;)

I got to meet the man who inspired us to change our lives, and our family tree:

Thanks SO MUCH to Jen for having me along!! (More on that soon!)

But more than anything, there was a lot of smiling:

(Chris and me)

TONS of hugging:

(Marian and me)

Bonding:

(Lorie and me)

A LOT of laughter:

(Myra, Chris, Richella, me, Traci and Rhoda)

Making new friends:

(Shauna and Ashley, new friends; me and Layla, an “old” friend)

And generally having an absolutely fantastic time!!:

I reconnected with the friends I’ve already met over the past year, and I finally got to meet so many bloggers I knew were friends but I had never met in real life. It never ceases to amaze me how I can meet someone for the first time, yet it’s as if I’ve known them for years and YEARS.

It’s instant friendship and love and understanding, and I am so fortunate to call all of these women friends and coworkers. It overwhelms me. What a blessing blogging is.

To say we had a blast would be an understatement. :)

Cheers to all of you – bloggers who were friends before we knew we were. :)

(If we met and I didn’t mention you, I mean YOU too!!)

A special shout out to my roomies – Chris, Rhoda and Beth:

I already miss our late night talks!! :) You are a few of the loveliest, funniest, best women I know.

I got home from Nashville just in time for the storm of the century (echo, echo, echo)…ice, snow and wind for the next couple of days. This was our bedroom window one hour into it tonight:

That would be a sheet of ice. Thankyouverymuch.

We are warming up, hunkering down and planning on staying in for the next 24 hours, at least. I hope to get some projects started and a few finished since we’ll be stuck inside. Stay safe if you are facing the same!!

**Some photos borrowed from Beth and Kate! :)

Punched Flower Tutorial

This is a card I created with flower punches. I thought I would give you a little tutorial on how I create these flowers because they are so much fun to make. All the supplies used for this card can be purchased from Joan's Gardens. The design paper is from my "stash". The flowers are attached to a Nestability Labels Ten die cut. The greeting is from the new JustRite "Fancy Tags" stamp set. A few lavender "Dew Drops" were added to complete the card.

Closeup of flowers

The flowers are easy to create with the instructions from the "Paper Bouquet" book. It shows step by instructions. This book has complete instructions on how to make 40 different flowers. You can purchase any of the many punches listed from Joan's Gardens.

Here is a picture of the power punch available from Joan's Gardens. It makes it really easy to use any punch. Of course you don't need to use this tool, but it makes punching so much easier.

The flower I created is the "Petunia" and this shows the punched out petals using the "Super Giant Begonia Petal" Punch. You can make so many flowers with this one punch, including large and small sizes. I only needed the largest petal for this flower, but save all the other petals for other types of flowers I will be making later. Some of the other flowers you can make with this punch are: Begonia, Carnation, Gardenia, Rose, and Pansy.

With the Flower Tool Kit, you can easily shape each petal for a very realistic flower. You can see the flat petal in the lower right side. What a difference when you shape the flowers.

This shows one of the tools, from the kit, for shaping the petals. You just roll it around on the petal and it "cups" it into a pretty petal shape. You use the tweezers to do further shaping. All the details are in the Flower Book.

Here are the two punches I used for these flowers.

Another picture to show the Flower Tool Kit, the two punches used, the two pieces used to create the flowers and the finished flower. Isn't it amazing you can take a piece of paper and turn it into a beautiful flower that is so realistic. I just love it.

Joan and I will be creating lots of different flowers from this book. I have been putting my flowers on cards, but can you imagine all the beautiful boxes you can create with these flowers. Remember the pine cones I created at Christmas time -- those are in this book too.

Did this tutorial help explain how easy it is to create these dimensional flowers? I hope it did. I no longer purchase flowers for my projects, because I can make my own in any style, size, or color. Hope you will give it a try.

Wait & See

Hum...liking the look after applying a bit of furniture wax!

Walking away, waiting to see how it dries...but you can hardly go wrong on a table that is meant to look like its had a long life already.

Now I'm off to pick up a few supplies for a new DIY tutorial...more on that later this week.

Happy Monday!

Scentsy Giveaway

***GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED***

Sweet and pretty Jordan Buerschenk, an escential consultant for Scentsy contacted me a few weeks ago to ask if I had ever tried Scentsy products. Scentsy is a type of wickless candle product where the wax is melted using the heat of a lightbulb. I had heard of Scentsy and I have friends who have them but I had resisted buying one telling myself that I already own enough candles to light and smell up a small city. Jordan kindly offered to send me a plug-in to try so that I could give an honest review.

I choose the Taro which is so pretty during the day

and night.

I plugged it into the wall of my dining room. A few hours later I was delighted to walk into the living room and smell the wonderful aroma that had filled both areas of my home. When I walk through my front door I am now greeted with a delightful smell and the best part is that I don't have to worry about blowing out a candle when I leave the house.

I'm very happy with my Scentsy and now one of you lucky readers will be able to own one too! To enter all you need to do is leave a comment. You can get bonus entries for :

1) tweeting about the giveaway
2) subscribing to Jordan's newsletter on her homepage

Jordan will send the winning reader a Groovy White Plug-In + The following three Scents : Enchanted Mist, Cucumber Lime + My Wish.

If you don't want to wait to see if you win, or if you want one and you're not feeling lucky, or if you already own a Scentsy and want to buy more products, Jordan has generously offered my readers an additional 10% discount (for all orders received by February 15)! To be eligible for the discount, you will need to click on the 'email me' tab on her home site. Make sure 'JOY' is in the subject line and your order is in the body of the email. Everything will be an additional 10% off in February for Scentsy - so this is a great chance to get the products at 20% off!

The giveaway will end

Saturday, February 5th at midnight(MST)
Winner will be announced Monday, February 7th

Good Luck!!!

Tackling The Legs! Done...

In Friday's post I showed how quickly the table top had gotten sanded, as well as the solution for how to finish the table...thanks to your comments in an earlier post.{Furniture wax!}

Before I could get to applying the wax however, the table legs and leaf needed to be sanded as well. To make sure the leaf was sanded down in a similar way to the rest of the table top, I extended the table and placed it in where it would go if feeding a crowd of 30. Seriously, have you ever seen such a big table? Even extended it fits comfortably into the space. Now to just find a dozen chairs...

Before sanding: the legs are green, really!

Then it was on to the legs. I knew from testing an area that the legs were going to prove to be a little more difficult to sand than the rest of the table: by hand rather than with a sander. I had asked my Dad in a phone call if he would want to come out and catch up while we sanded, and I really did hear silence on the other end of the phone. So that was that and I didn't bring it up again. Then he read Friday's post (in which I mention his silence to my question)...ha! He promptly called to say he'd be out on Sunday to help sand. (I guess he hadn't heard me ask on the phone?)

After sanding, green 99% gone and nearly ready to wax.

Can you tell much of a difference? Probably not. And it doesn't surprise me, the green simply does not show up in the photos. I have taken well over a hundred photos trying to capture the green tint that drove me to sand the table in the first place. No luck. Oh well, it is all turning out just fine...loving both the color and the smoother finish.

Hopefully I'll find a bit of time today to clean the table of all its dust and apply some wax...

In the meantime, here are the two winners of the Lisa Leonard Designs Giveaway, each receiving a $50 gift certificate to Lisa's shop!

The first is LindsB of Everything LEB, who wrote:

LindsB said...

So so sweet! I think if my name was picked I'd have to get either the basic ID tag bracelet with my upcoming wedding date or one of the necklaces with tiny charms on it, one with my initial, one with my fiances, and one with the wedding date :)

(I was excited to see her win, how perfect with her wedding coming up! And make sure to check out her blog if you haven't already done so.)

And the second is C. M. Turner, who wrote:

C. M. Turner said...

I would LOVE the "You Are Loved" necklace for my daughter. =)

(I would probably select this as well!)

Enjoy your jewelry, and a big thanks to Lisa for hosting this giveaway here on my blog! Janell

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