So This Was My Day. . .

Fun in the sun with those I love!
Both of my daughters, My Husband, My Granddaughter, My Son-in-law and many more!

It doesn't get much better than this!

A Dear friend that I only get to see once or twice a year. Sadly this is the only picture of us after 20+ years!

Thank you Jordyn for graduating and giving us all a reason to get together and just enjoy the day!!! Congratulations!!!

After the grad/Bday party I took the girls and their perspective boys and Monkey out to dinner. It was great FUN!!!

On my way home I stopped at QT to get a soda for the long ride home. I ran into this nice couple.

I loved their car and asked if I could take a couple photos. They were gracious and let me . . .

What a GREAT DAY!!!!

that's all

Toodles

FROZEN!!!!

Yeppers, that's what I am. I am completely frozen here in AZ in mid-May. Not frozen as far as temp but as in funds. All of my accounts have been frozen and have a "hard hold" on them. I cannot touch my money right now. I am glad I have a full tank of gas, food, pepsi and ciggarettes!

I got a phone call from the fraud dept at my bank around 7:15 tonight. I was happily cooking dinner and thinking about what a great day I had had when I got the dreaded phone call. After carefully varifying who I was, they informed me that someone had been making purchases on my debit card. $400+ to Zune, 2 different $350 to Nordstroms, and 4 charges to some online company I never heard of! They tell me they have frozen my debit card and will be issuing me another one. They said my actual account had not been breeched - just the card. While we talked on the phone I went online to look at my account and found another charge that I did not make that they did not find - one for Macy's! So, they filed a claim in my behalf and said all should be well in about 10 days. So I hung up and went back to cooking etc.

After dinner my mind wandered to an email I got last week from Paypal. It said there had been some security issues and unusual activity and wanted me to update my info. That sounded legit to me since I have been using my paypal account so much lately. It had been about a year since I had used it, and since I have been selling so many flower files I went ahead and clicked on the link and gave them ALL of my info!!!! I looked that email up and clicked on the link again - "website Not Found"! I called Paypal and told them about the email - they had me read it to them - NOT sent by them! What a FOOL I was to answer that email and give them all of my info. I am typically so careful with my money and accounts. But it just made sense to me - it looked legit - it had their logo, it had Paypal in the email address.

Well I called my bank back and told them about the bogus email and my foolish response to it. They had no choice to freeze all of my accounts! Not only that, they had to close them all! I have had those accounts for over a decade - now I have to learn all new numbers, get new cards and be without my money until all is settled.

I sure hope they find this person(s) and throw the book at them! WARNING: Becareful friends! Don't be a fool like yours truly!!!

Now on to something "Crafty". . .

Remember I took that Teresa Collins class on Thursday? The one I did NOT finish during the class? The one I said I would have finished over the weekend? Well, I did NOT finish it this weekend either. Not for lack of trying though. This 6x12 format is hard for me to get used to. I was talking to a friend on the phone and she suggested I put the 2 facing pages together and think of them as one 12x12 layout. That is starting to help me a little. But still it has been over 3 years since since I have done a traditional scrapbook page. But I am trudging along and pretty happy with what I have come up with so far.

Teresa was very generous with all of the embellishments she gave us at class. I really wanted to take advantage of using them but again I struggled in how to keep them accessable as I worked. I tried little baggies (you all know how I love my baggies) but that was not working. Then I remembered this coffee sorter Liz brought me from Starbucks - PERFECTION!!! I think I will use this little tool for all of the big projects I work on now - it really works for me! It doesn't take up a lot of space on my table, it's clear so I can see everything and it has 10 compartments to keep things seperated. I still kept the bigger tags in a baggie but that's it - just these 2 things on my workspace as I create - well except for the actual page and photos I am working with at that time.

I took some pictures for you tonight if you are interested. . .

One baggie and the coffee sorter

The coffee sorter - isn't this great!

The front cover - I stamped on some acrylic I had at home and covered the photo with it

See the stamping?

Mounted the title on the 7G's black double adhesive sheet

These are the pages I have done - I am using 3 of the file folder pages and dividing my book into 3 days for the 3 days we were in Vegas for Lizzy's 21st Bday

I folded one of the postcards and wrote my journaling inside. Then I added a BG magnet and one of the TC phrase tags as a closure for the postcard. Since all of her papers are 2 sided I was able to do this nicely.

I added the room key holder the hotel gave us when we checked in to hold the room key of course but "blinged" it up with a row of gems

Even the epoxy letters I used had gems!

Still working on this page - I have 3 more pages to go for day one - then I can move on!

Anyhoo - that is all the ramblings I have for tonight - I hope you all had a great weekend and have a SUPER week this week.

Toodles

WOO HOO!!!

This year I set a goal for myself to TAKE more classes this year. I teach lots of classes and I LOVE it!!!! But I decided I needed to get inspired and learn some new things too. So I have been very successful so far this year. I have taken a couple photog classes and I took a book class at the quest. Then last night I took a class with Teresa Collins in Prescott.
Today (while I should have been showering and getting ready for the class I was teaching tonight) I was surfing around on the computer and ended up on Tim Holtz' blog. Low and behold - he has a class coming up locally (in Scottsdale)! I immeadiately picked up the phone and took the LAST spot in his class. I had no idea what the project was, I just knew it was a "Tim Class" and taking one of his classes was also on my list of goals this year. It's kinda funny because in the past (a few years back) I had several opportunities to take some of his classes locally and I never did.
Now I'm gonna tell you why I think it is funny. . . I grew up in a home where my parents always told me that bosses, famous people, people that you may feel inferior to in some way were "just people". The famous line from my Doodle was "they put their pants on one leg at a time, just like you do". So I grew up almost the reverse of most people, feeling almost snobbish about "those people". I remember being a waitress and refusing to wait on Tom Cruise when he came in - I just wouldn't do it. Some how I always felt that "those people" would be hard to deal with - that they would put on aires and I never wanted to deal with any of that. I sort of put poor Tim in that category. But the longer I am around all of this fun and creative paper world the more things I hear about people like Tim Holtz, Teresa Collins, Ali Edwards that makes me WANT to meet them. I hear about their sencerity, humor and generousity. Of course I already realized their talents - now it time to see more.

So here I sit - all signed up for a "Tim Class" and I am very excited to attend! BTW - I did find out AFTER I signed up what the class project was going to be
"A very special one of a kind project..The Artful Curio...
a wonderful wooden curio cabinet filled with compartments and niches to create numerous collage and assemblage pieces all covered with hinged glass door" (description is straight off of their website)

So we are almost to the halfway point in 2010 - how are you doing on attaining the goals you set for this year??? It's not to late to get started!!!

Have a GREAT weekend friends
Toodles

No Way!!!! Two Posts in ONE Day???

That's right - this is number 2 for the day. I am back home - had a great time at my class tonight. Teresa is as sweet as she seemed she'd be from reading her blog etc. As much as I HATE having my picture taken - here I am with Judie and Teresa.

In typical Marta style - I did NOT finish my project - not even close! But it was still early when I got home (11:15 pm) so I worked on it a little when I got home. I am sure I will have it finished by this weekend. I would finish it tomorrow but I am teaching a class tomorrow so I wont have time.

Anyhoo - Monkey will be here early in the am so I better hit the sheets. Have a GREAT Friday!!!

Toodles

YIPPEE!!!!

I am so EXCITED!!! In just 2 hours I will be headin' up the mountain to Presscott for a Teresa Collins class with my gal pal Judie! It is so great to just have a fun, creative adventure away from home and out of town even! I am taking my camera so I will try to get some pictures to share with you all later this weekend.
Tommorrow I will be teaching a class - it is "Love Notes" day at The Quest! I think it is a full class - more fun stuff to start off my weekend.
Last night I had to get a going away gift for Gary's boss and his family (they are leaving the country to do missionary work) As hard as I tried I could not find an appropriate card to go with the gift so I had to resort to making a card - GASP!!!! I have not made a card in years! I really do NOT enjoy making them. And making one for a man is even harder!!!!
But this is what I came up with - not too shabby if I do say so myself.

I hope you all are having a great day and have fun creative adventures planned for your weekend!
Toodles

What a FUN Surprise!

Look at what got delivered to our house yesterday

What a FUN treat on a Tuesday! Our neighbors sent it to us with a really sweet note thanking us for "all we do for the" and saying what "great neighbors" we are.

It is really kinda funny because we used to worry all of the time that they would not like us. Those of you that know me, I rarely worry about that kind of stuff. But these poor people live right next door to us and our dogs bark at their dogs and Zsa Zsa hangs from the top of our ajoining fence and stares over into their yard (mind you our fence is over 9feet high!) They have twins that were born prematurely and the twins' bedroom window faces the back yard - right where our barking dogs are! Well the twins are 18months now and have managed to sleep okay. And Mom & Dad apparently still like us.

I walked over to thank them for the basket yesterday and told them I really did not know what all we do for them. She assured me it was alot, between watching the twins a few times when they were in a pinch, helping when their dog had a seizure and taking their family photos for them. To me all of these things are just what neighbors do for each other.

When I was growing up neighbors were just "unrelated" family. You borrowed a cup of milk or sugar from them, you watched out for each others kids, you took care of each others animals when you went on trips and just helped out where ever you could. No one kept score, it all just worked it's self out eventually.

Maybe those days are gone for good? I sure hope not! I personally would have no problem asking for help from one of my new neighbors if I needed it. And I certainly would never mind helping if I could. So what's it like in your neighborhood? Do you know your neighbors?

Have a great humpday today and remember to smile and wave at all of your "unrelated" family today!

Toodles

One More New Class!

After making my oval hat box I had so many requests to make it a class. I would have loved to have done that for everyone but it was too big of a project for a class. It took me a day and a half to make it myself. I also had a ton of money invested in supplies so it would have been a costly one even if it didn't have the time barrier.

But I came up with something that I think you will all like just as well.

Introducing the "Shabby Trinket Box". . .

You can click on the photo for more detailed images

This box is very similar and uses all of the same papers and techniques as the bigger box did. But with it's 6" size it is much easier for me to reproduce in a classroom setting. After the class is over you will know all of the ends and outs of making your own box and and can recreate it in any shape, size or theme. You will get a chance to make some of my pretty roses as well in this class. So if you missed out on the flower making class I taught you can at least learn this one! I even used some glitter and glimmer mist on this project. That is quite a step away from my traditionally inked up projects.

I only have 10 of these boxes available so spaces will be limited. Class will be on Saturday, July 10th - ALL DAY. So sign up fast to save your spot!

I Never Win Anything!!!!

This morning I was looking around at my favorite blogs and I was on the G-45 site. Mom was talking to me so I really wasn't reading anything, just scrolling. Then something caught my eye - There was MY name MARTA GLADDEN in red letters! I told Mom to wait while I read what was going on. I won a random drawing - I entered nothing - they just picked my name somehow and I guess they are mailing me some papers. Happy Scrapbooking Day to me!!!!! I hope it's a sign and I will be lucky all day!
Now I am heading off to the kids' new house to help unpack and hang pictures.
Have a GREAT SUNDAY Friends
Toodles