Birthday Cards

 There have been several birthdays in our church. I have started trying to send a card to each member. There aren't too many right now but I know there are SEVERAL in September. I should probably start now getting them made!

I have a whole box of cards made of varying kinds but every time I look through them they don't seem to fit the person I want to send them to so I end up making a card just for them.

This was for a teenager in our church. I thought the girl kind of looked like her.

The girl image is from the Angiegirl Collection at Unity called

This is actually an acrylic stamp set that is NOT Unity! Can you believe it?! I think it is by Hero Arts.

The sentiment and banners are a Unity stamp set. I stamped on colored paper and cut out the banners.

I made this card for a little boy in our church. No stamps were used. This is all paper!

I had enough of this paper to create a couple more to have on hand.

This is for a man in our church. The stamp set is Unity by artist Phyllis Harris called "Strong & Courageous". I just love this set. I have the girl set but I have figured out how to convert and make it look like a boy. That did require me to cut out the image but it works. Genius huh?!

I made this card for a dear friend who loves birds. This image came from Unity's May Kit of the Month "Free Your Dreams". I love this birds. There are lots of other neat images in this set as well.

This card was for my niece's birthday. This stamp set is Unity called "Little by Little" by artist Tierra Jackson. This penguin is so cute! I chose to only add a touch of color to him. I colored the heart balloon. I used red ink for the sentiment and heat embossed it.

Thanks for taking a look.

Have a good one!

Riding Bikes with the Kids

July 16, 2017 I rode bikes with the kids on the trail. Keannon has Korin behind him and Kashton is riding beside him.

Kennedy and Remi are behind me.

Kashton on his Spiderman bike with a Spiderman helmet.

After we got back to the trail head the kids wanted to climb on the old caboose.

I could not get all of them in the picture at once!

Our time with Remi has gone by so fast. She goes home Friday, July 28th.


Have a good one!

Ride at Bunker Hill Ranch

July 15th I had the opportunity to go on a trail ride at a local ranch with the Sheriff's Posse. It was short notice. Doyle said the email came either Thursday night or Friday morning for a ride on Saturday. He wasn't interested in going but thought I might be. I was!






It was a small group. Only about 10 of us but that was ok with me. We are waiting for our host who was a former ranch hand. Look at all that beautiful green grass. I had a hard time keeping Fancy's head up!






And we're off! I rode Fancy mostly because Diamond was missing a shoe.

There was only one other woman there. She's riding ahead of me in this picture. She is the daughter of one of the guys.

A few stranglers.

It stayed overcast nearly the entire ride making it very comfortable despite the fact it's July.

It is so pretty and green.

I love how the trees form a canopy over the trail.

We came to this man-made tank (Texas term for pond).

Those who wanted a drink got one. Fancy wasn't interested.

Riding across the tank dam, the cows spotted us. Nope we're not after you today!

We rode by this large Oak tree that appeared to meet its demise by lightning.











At one point Fancy and I had worked ourselves all the way to the front!

The sky is so pretty.

You will have to click on this photo to see the buildings off in the distance. The entrance to this ranch is right off of highway 180 East almost right across the road from the State Park entrance.





It was a great ride. We didn't ride the whole ranch. That is for another time I hope. It was beginning to get hot and 3 horses in the group had lost shoes so we called it good for this go around.

Have a good one!

At it Again

I have been telling myself for months that I needed to start riding my bike again. Although I like mornings, I'm not a morning person. I prefer to stay up late which makes it hard to get up early! Now that we are in the middle of summer the best time to ride my bike is mornings. Plus I am more likely to ride my bike if I do it first thing in the morning. If I wait I tend to lose control of my day. 

I looked at the last time I had "logged" any miles and it had been a year....almost to the day! Yikes! Needless to say I did not ride 10 miles. I'm starting at 6 and working myself back to 10 or 12.

I do love the coolness of the morning. I am getting to watch the sunrise and just like sunsets are sometimes very colorful.

This church is just a few houses down from Mom's.

One morning I startled a couple of does. Yep, right in the middle of town!. I only saw their hindquarters as they darted off before I was aware of them. But God being good the way He is allowed me to see them again on my way back home and this time I saw all of them!

Until next time, have a good one!

Sending You a Big Hug

This card was fun to make. It isn't my usual style but I love how it turned out! I used several stamps on this.

I was inspired after watching a Unity video. I do not recall which one now.

I used Distress Oxide Inks. I put the three inks on a non-stick craft mat then spritzed with water and laid the paper on top smooshing it into the ink. I let it dry then I took a background stamp from an old Unity KOTM 2010 called "Together We Bloom". This kit is still available.

The big heart came from another Unity set called "I am who I am" and the smaller heart came from the kit "Hello Beautiful" both these sets were designed by artists Jolande van Oosterhout and Marleen van Meerendonk both from the Netherlands. I used Distress Oxide ink and embossed the hearts.

The girl and sentiment came from Unity's Kit of the Month for May called "Free Your Dreams". I colored the girl using Copic Markers. The sentiment I stamped and heat embossed then put foam under to give it dimension.

I made this card for a friend of mine that had been in the hospital. I enjoyed making this so much I may just make some more in this same style.

Have a good one.

Give. Do. Be the Hope

Doyle and I signed up to be part of a local summer mission project in our city. The event kicked off on July 4th and the work began July 5th and ended on Saturday July 8th.

The project was coordinated by Mission Mineral Wells. Here is a an explanation of Mission Mineral Wells. 

MISSION Mineral Wells is a joint effort between the City of Mineral Wells, The Mineral Wells Area Chamber of Commerce, the Mineral Wells Police Department, several local churches, businesses and nonprofit organizations to help struggling homeowners make necessary home repairs. Mobilizing community volunteers, we aim to strengthen, grow and revitalize our community one neighborhood, one home and one family at a time.

There were several from our church that were also a part of this revitalization. 

We began each day at 8AM checking in and getting breakfast before heading out to the work sight. Breakfast was provided by a different group or business each day.

The house we worked on belonged to a single Dad. Our situation was unique in that this home owner joined our team in helping us work on his own house! 

In this picture is our Pastor's wife and one of her grandsons.

The first day was spent preparing the house for siding. There was a portion of the house that was covered with metal siding which had to come off. That's what we are doing here. I was working with one of our youth pulling nails and pulling the metal off. He and I are on the right corner of this photo. It was harder work that it sounds!

Those on the team with a little more construction experience installed some new windows in a couple of places.

As the siding goes up we have people calking and sealing. This siding was put up before it was painted. The rest of the sheets were painted before they were installed.

Work is in full swing! There were a total of 4 houses that were part of the mission. Ours was the largest square footage.

Our construction coordinator Paul Reed, checking out the work done and what is left to do.

On Friday, I did not join the team. I needed to go into the office since I had not been in all week. Doyle did go and had a great day working with one of our Pastor's grandsons. 

This guy is pretty proud to have learned a life skill and Doyle has gained a new friend 😊.

At the end of day 3 things are looking really good.

I rejoin the group on Saturday, our last day. A group pictures was taken before we head to our work sites.

Doyle & I are on the front row on the left side.

I did a lot of painting on the last day.

Painting the trim that goes around the doors and windows.

This is Paul Reed our construction coordinator. This kitten showed up about day 2 or 3 of the work and seemed to make himself right at home. Paul said he was the team mascot!

Each day lunch was provided for us by different churches. We also had plenty of water and gatorade. After all it is Texas...in July...it was hot!!

I did notice that some ants got very creative and made these two ant hills.

After it was all said and done there were four home owners with some wonderful, much needed home repairs. It was very fulfilling to be a part of something where the whole community came together to help each other. I can't wait to do it again next year! If you are interested in seeing more pictures from that week and of the other homes go here.

Have a good one!