Merry Monday – A Wish for Peace

Hi Everyone.  Happy Tuesday and a VERY, VERY happy New Year to all of you.  I hope that 2012 brings you all the wonderful things that you wish for yourself and your family.

I went along to check out what my good friend Lesley's blog and noticed that she has started up a "Merry Monday" challenge.  This week is the first week of the challenge and I thought I would play along.  The reason it is called "Merry Monday" is that it is a Christmas card challenge.  Now, I really thought I was all done with making Christmas cards, but I was wrong!  I realized I had not used one of my favorite sets this year"A Wish for Peace" and this sketch was a great sketch to use for the set.

It was also a great excuse to use some flocking and some Shimmer Paint.  I am challenging myself to use things that I haven't used in a long time or, in some cases, used at ALL! So, I got out one of my Stampin' Up! wheels and used that on the background DSP.  The "Music Notes" wheel is very versatile and was perfect for the card.

Here's Lesley's sketch:

So, if you pop along to Alwaysplayingwithpaper and play along every week, you will have 52 cards made by Christmas!

Here's what I came up with

I know it doesn't show up very well, but there is great texture on the focal point from the flocking powder and the shimmer paint gives a nice little bit of … well…. shimmer along the bottom of the image.  Unfortunately when I photographed it, it just looked a little splodgy!

I'm dedicating this card to Rach.  When I saw this sentiment I immediately thought of the amazing amount of time and effort she puts into decorating her home (including 4 Christmas trees) and how gorgeous it looked on Christmas Eve.  (Rach also started the whole "elf" thing (I miss Buzbee)!)  Rach really does create magic at Christmas for her family and I was thrilled when she shared a little bit of that with us all via her blog.  You can check out her Christmas Eve magic photos at this blog post.

On a personal note:

Well, it is almost time to go back to work.  I have so enjoyed my short time off work.  I've managed to make some cards and spend some time in my stamping space trying new techniques.  In addition, Lou and I have seen several movies:  Bridge Jones Diary – Edge of Reason; Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; Hugo; The Adventures of Tin Tin; Crazy, Stupid, Love; The Descendants; Midnight in Paris; The Help. 

Lastly, I spent 16 hours straight ready books.  Yep…. I started reading the follow-on books to Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and didn't stop until I had finished.  I cannot remember the last time that I read through the entire night (except for 1.5 hours) and then read the next day.  It was glorious to just sit and READ.  Bliss.

Several of you have sent me emails and asked me to show you an update on the progress of the house.  So, here are a couple of photographs that we took on our visit last week.

We were so surprised to see a forklift parked in the garage -)

We then walked down the side of the garage and found that the entire basement was framed and there was a propane heater running in the basement to stop the ground from freezing over the Christmas period when the builders were not working.

The corner closest to the camera is where my stamping room will be and this is the view that I will have from the window.  What I hadn't realized when I took this photograph was that my finger had pressed the zoom button!!!!

Lastly, Lou decided to go for a walk over the plastic into the wetland area.  It's really gorgeous and we can't wait to see the change over the seasons when we move in.  We will be in at the very beginning of spring and will be able to watch it change all through the year.

We are planning to put in a patio away from the house.  This next picture is what the view will look like from the patio looking to the east.  This particular spot has a great 180 degree view and we really think it is the ideal place for a patio and a picnic table, firepit, etc.

If you look really carefully, in the middle of the picture, you will see a little yellow dot.  That's the yellow piece on the arm of Lou's jacket.  It really is a special piece of land and we feel so blessed to be able to call it ours.  the fact that it backs straight onto 70 acres of pristine, protected wetland, makes it even more special.  It feels as though the 70 acres belongs to us! 🙂

Not much will happen to the house now for about another week as the framer's will not be back on site until then, so not much to see for a couple of weeks!

Well, I'm off to go cook dinner.  Well, if you can call it "cooking"!  Lou and I have decided that it is a perfect night for soup and sandwiches.

As always, thank you so much for visiting my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  Warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

Supplies – all supplies SU unless otherwise noted:

• Card stock:  Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla
• Inks:  staz-on; Always Artichoke.  More Mustard and So Saffron for the window of the chapel.  Soft Suede for the steeple.
• Stamps:  Focal image:  A Wish for Peace.  Sentiment: Holiday Spirit Sentiments, Papertrey.  Music Notes Wheel
• Tools:  Big Shot.  Nestabilities.  Flocking powder (Recollections).  Shimmer Paint.  Scallop border punch.  Basic Pearls.
• DSP:  Webster's Pages