Wow, I'm **blushing***

The fabulously talented Dawn gave me this:


I feel like a scrappy super star, just look at her work, blows me away with creativity!!

Anyhow, the rules for the award are -
(1) The winner can put the logo on their blog.
(2) Link the person you received your award from.
(3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
(4) Put links of those on yours.
(5) Leave a message on the blogs of the girls or boys you’ve nominated.

Now I get to nominate 7 people:
Jenny (check out my beautiful neices and handsome nephew!!)
Trisha (watch this blog, she's gonna be famous in the scrap industry one day!)
Jennifer (SU! goddess)
Annie (SU! princess)
Amy (she cooks, she scraps, she's ultra organized, what's not to love?!)
Erin (Amy's sister who could be mistaken for her twin in the talents category, but they don't look that much alike, but you kwim?!)
Krista (only because you blog every 3 or 4 months and you might include a picture of my godson and his big bro that I can print off so I can have pictures of them - hehe, have to give you a hard time because I love ya and you cannot sing our song with me anymore!)

Have a great TGIF - I'm waiting on the UPS delivery of my Studio Calico kit - Oh Happy Day!!

Please help!

I am SO not a card maker, but I am ALL over this one and hope that my card crafty friends who stumble onto the ole blog will help out too!

Through Studio Calico, I've "met" a wonderully talented scrapper, Stephanie Howell and her husband is active military, serving overseas while she is home raising her two precious girls. She posted this on her blog this morning - I'm doing it, so don't care if I win anything and my cards are not all that, but I'm so happy to have the priviledge to share my thanks with those serving our country. Take a look (this is written by Jennifer McGuire, another super scrapper):

I heard of a great website called Cards For Heroes. This sites mission is “to support our nation’s armed forces by sending greeting cards on which deployed troops can write home, as well as cards full of gratitude sent to injured heroes recovering in hospitals.” I started talking to Sandy Allnock, the site’s generous and talented president, and we thought that it would be fun to collect the holiday cards for this weeks Hero Arts Blog challenge.
If you would like to participate, you can send your card(s) to the address below. (The cards can either have a message written in them for a soldier, or the cards can be blank so that the soldiers can write in them and send them home to their families.) We will collect them and send them via Cards For Heroesto soldiers overseas. (For all of you stampers who aren’t in the USA, you are welcome to still send them in to us or pass them on to a program in your own country. I am collecting a list of contacts for each country, so you can also email me at jennifer(a)heroarts.com if you would like that information.)
On September 30th, we will randomly pick three winners from the cards that were sent in and will send the winners a Hero Arts Let It Snow Clear Design stamp set (see image below)! So, send those cards in.
Here is the address:
Jennifer McGuire
Heroes Card Drive
PO Box 428612
Cincinnati, OH 45242
To read the details for yourself, read HERE.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, I'm off to get lil man dressed - we're meeting a friend at the park for a picnic lunch before we take the kids to school, then I'm coming home and making some cards!!

Presenting...

Our little kindergartner:


He went straight to his locker and hung up his backpack:


Alex and his teacher, Mrs. Bree:


While he was at school, I went to the farmers market and got this gorgeous bouquet of flowers for only $5!! And some yummy yellow and red grape tomatoes:


And this smorgasbord of delish veggies:


Last night I tossed the zucchini (golden and regular), onions and cubed Mahi Mahi with EVOO, sea salt and pepper - broiled it, yum! I made a green bean, red potato and grape tomato salad with fresh scallions, double yum! Tonight we're having steak and I'll roast the rest of the potatoes in the oven and make a big salad!

I'm off to get house clean and enjoy it staying clean for a few hours before the tornado blows off of the school bus!

Have a great day!

Cards and more cards...

Today is the FIRST official day of Kindergarten!!!!!!!!!

We had orientation yesterday where we did a fun scavenger hunt to familiarize the students with their classroom and the school. Today is a very fall-like day, perfect for the first day - pictures will be posted soon!

For now, here are some cards.

I made these for Grandparent's Day using a color challenge from Erin's Thursday Inspirations. I traced Alex's hand and luckily it's still small enough to use up some of my premade boxed cards, next year, not so much - he's a growin boy!!!

The front of the card with a red wool felt heart (inspired by Janna!).

The inside reads, "To get ready for Kindergarten, we've been reading a book, "The Kissing Hand". In the book a mommy gives her son a kiss on his palm in the shape of a heart, that is love, to go with him so he'll always know that she loves him. This is Alex's kissing hand just for you!" And on the other side he signed his name (all 6 of them, in one sitting, but don't be too impressed, I bribed him with pepperoni pizza!)

Next up are four of my Deck of Me cards. I think I'm only 4 cards behind from being caught up, gasp!

The list reads, "Seeing Alex as a happy, successful adult. Giving my parents a wonderfully extravagant, frivolous gift. Taking Alex & Haley to Disney World."

The brads on the front say, "ME @ 30"

The list reads, "get Andy to retire to TN; tithe and donate to charities; go to Europe with Andy; buy Haley a VWBug convertible; make provisions for family members; buy a beach house in the Panhandle; provide daily random acts of kindness; remain thankful!"

The back reads, " Chad was my friend since I was 5 and was my first boyfriend, first kiss, first date and luckily was my friend after all of the firsts!"

Thanks for looking, I'll be back later with pictures of the kindergartener!!