12 Tags of 2016: May

What???  Yes! I'm alive! and no, I haven't lost my mind.  Well, maybe half of it...  Anyway, I am still struggling something awful so this weekend I decided to try something different.  I signed up for the Creative Chemistry 101 class on Online Card Classes and have been watching the master of distress, Tim Holtz, do his magic.  I have made quite a few backgrounds and one other completed tag!  I wanted to be brave, so I jumped in on the last day and made this tag for this 12 Tags of 2016 May challenge.  It was fun, but hard!  I had such a blast though and I think I'll go back and do the months I've missed.   So yay! I'm crafting again.  :)

Now I need to sell a kidney or something to buy all things distressed.  lol

I'm still exercising most days and am feeling some better.  The past few days have been the bad part of the month for me, so I've been weepy and quick to anger.  Being distracted and staying in my room distressing stuff happened at a great time.  I like hiding out.

I'll be back tomorrow with my second tag which I love so much!

Thank you, Puppy!

It's Wednesday and time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.  Linda  is the sketch designer and hostess this week.  It's a great week to let those bold sentiments shine!  I love these Super Script sets from Altenew but never seem to use them enough.  The sketch was perfect for them!

You'll probably be seeing a lot of dogs in my cards for a while. I wanted to make up some dog-themed thank you cards and send them to some of my favorite dog rescues.  I thought it might be a nice way for them to thank people who go above and beyond in helping the rescue.  I don't know how it will go, but we'll see.  I hope to have a batch ready soon to mail off.  Lately I just feel drawn to do something along these lines with my craft.  

I'm off to the treadmill.  I pretty much had a major mental breakdown on Monday and I've decided to fight back with exercise.  The depression and anxiety medicines help, but they need some back-up.  It's a struggle to exercise, but I know it's what I need...mentally AND physically.  

Have a great rest of the week!

Rita

Freshly Made Puppy

Sorry for the late blog post!  I cleaned and cleaned yesterday and fell in bed and forgot to do it last night!   Oops!   I'm the hostesses/sketch designer this week at Freshly Made Sketches and I picked a bit of a complicated (but fun!) one.  I have so much pretty paper that needs used, so I thought a sketch that offered the opportunity to use up some of it would be good.  

I hope you like it and will come and play along!  My card was a special order that I was asked to make for a pet-lover birthday.   That little puppy from Avery Elle is the cutest thing ever, so I just had to use it!  

My little sassy girl.   We have an appointment to tour an in-home Montessori school tomorrow, so keep your fingers crossed for us.  The director seems so nice and so willing to work with kids to overcome any issues they have.  One of my friends sent her kids there and they were doing long division before they left for kindergarten!  That sounds just like the challenge Laila needs to keep her mind busy!  

Rescue Dogs Rock

Sorry if I rattled on too much on this post.  I am a major animal lover and it came out a bit too much.

After we rescued Sadie I really started paying attention to a lot of our local dog rescues.  Texas has a bad animal overpopulation and an even worse owner responsibility problem.  The shelter we got Sadie from takes in over 27,000 dogs a year.  When it was built, it was built with a yearly intake of 12,000 a year in mind.  They aren't allowed to deny any dogs or cats, so they get up to 80 a day on average.  It is such a sad situation.  Thankfully our county voted and they are getting money to expand the shelter.  They also got a grant from Petco to build a transfer station to hold dogs until they can be transported where there is more of a need for dogs.   They also debuted a new mobile adoption vehicle last month which will help them get the animals out and in view of people!

Anyway... one of the rescues has pulled some injured and abused dogs and totally changed their lives.  To see their transformations is amazing!   I wanted to send them a little card to say thanks and let them know that their work is noticed and appreciated.  I try to donate my class fees and other money to them when I can, but it never feels like enough.   If you have it in your heart to donate, please check out their website.  Let me know if you donate and I'll send you a handmade card from me!

If you have Facebook, check out their page and you'll see some before/after pictures and be amazed! If you see Flora and Tulip, those are the dogs that I tried to color the ones on my card like.  :)  I sent it anonymously from them.  :)

All the stamps and dies are from My Favorite Things.

Hello Gnomie!

Believe it or not, I'm still alive!  lol  My laptop is not.  Boooo....  But, I did get this awesome new desktop for Christmas and now I'm learning to use it for something other than Netflix and Hulu!  Windows 10 seems to have ruined my laptop, so we'll see if we make friends as I learn to use it on my desktop.  Anyway...  I did a bit of stamping today and made a card with some new My Favorite Things stamps.  I love these cute gnomes and wanted to play along with their current sketch at the MFT Card Challenges blog.

Isn't that a great sketch?  I hope the person I made my card for will enjoy getting a cute gnome and some fun red mushrooms!  It would definitely brighten my day! 

Isn't Laila so cute in her leggings?  She loved mine and asked for her own pair of "pajama clothes" so I got her some.  She picked the pattern out herself and she likes them because they have "G"s on them.  :)   She had her evaluation with the school last week and passed with flying colors.  In fact they were so impressed with how smart she is that they asked her questions that were for 6-8 year olds just to see if she could answer.  Their recommendations were Montessori school and lots of social activities.  We can't really afford Montessori school since it can be as much or more than our mortgage, so we are on a search for something similar.