There Are Some Sick People Out There - Happy That Comments Don't Go Into My Blog Automatically

Hello,

Sometimes I just shake my head at what people do. I have this simple, little blog about cards and dolls, etc. Why would someone feel the need to send a ridiculous and inappropriate comment that could have been posted automatically on my blog.

When I read the comment: "Nice article you got here. I'd like to read more concerning that theme. Thanks for giving this info.The only thing it would be great to see here is such photo like on -------------------" I thought that's a strange comment - what 'article'? I looked to see what it was referring to and it was my last posting titled "Wishing You A Happy New Year - Valentines Day is Coming!" Then I saw the signature and I knew - this was not a a friendly comment regarding my card.

I clicked on the signature - a photo came up. Such trash. Why send this to someone's blog? I don't know if this has ever happened to you, but if not I hope that it never does. Makes one wonder what the point was - to hope the comment was posted automatically and get their site out there? Well, I have one comment for you - person who sent this - about your 'article'. SEND IT TO TIGER!

Wishing you all a good day of fresh air and sunshine. Take care. I will return posting next week.

Barbara Diane

WIshing You A Happy New Year - Valentines Day Is Coming Up Soon! :<)

Hello!

I wanted to wish you all a Happy New Year! early, as I will be taking a week's break so I won't be posting.

Thank You! to all of you who so kindly leave comments and send e-mails as I love hearing from you! Knowing that you are looking at my blog gives me the inspiration to create more cards and projects! :<) I will still be checking out your blogs to see what all you are creating and will leave some comments of my own. :<)

When I return I will have my first blog candy offer to celebrate beginning another new year as a blogger. This is one of my valentines from last year - it just felt good to post something with pretty colors with all this snow and ice we are having in WI.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Take care and have a safe New Year's Eve! See you back here in a week! :<)

Barbara Diane

Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas! :<)

Wishing you all a most wonderful and happy day today!

Thanks for stopping by!

Take care and have a great holiday weekend!

Barbara Diane

A Much Thinner Snowman

Hello!

This snowman is quite a bit thinner! I love this Jumbo Snowman stamp and how you can change the shape! He is such a happy fellow!

Thanks for stopping by today!

We have had a very bad ice storm here in WI. I have not gone out to see the damage done yet - but the plows were in our parking lots for hours very early this morning.

Wishing you all a good day - it is Christmas Eve! :<)

Barbara Diane

More Christmas Cards

Hello!

Another of my Christmas cards to share with you today. I find that I am barely getting them all completed in time this year! Everytime I think that I am done, it seems that I still need additional cards! It is getting so late in the season now that as each new batch is finished, the cards go directly into the envelopes and are mailed! :<)

I finally received my SU ornament punch and couldn't wait to use it to make a card! I didn't have a lot to time to make a complicated layout, but I liked the results! This seems to be my year for glitter! Both the white and the dotted papers used in making this card are glittered. It is everywhere in my work area! And on me!

Thanks for stopping by!

More cards tomorrow.

Wishing you a great day today!

Barbara Diane

Some of My Christmas Cards

Hello!

Lots of snow here again today! I see that schools are delayed but not closed, so the amount is not that of the blizzard. I have not seen the weather forecast yet but looking out the window, everything is covered in white again.

I have always loved the wonderful image of this great snowman and his reindeer friend, but did not own the stamp. My friend Michelle kindly lent it to me so that I could make some cards using this stamp this year.

Thank you Michelle! I hope that you enjoyed receiving one of the cards that I made using your stamp! :<)

I love these two guys - they just make me smile! :<)

Thanks for stopping by today!

I have to get dressed now and go out to find my car under all that snow! Just heard the weather report - slide outs, spin offs, delays on the beltline. We had between 2-4" of snow. It is to taper off this morning but then the snowfall will start again tomorrow mixed with freezing rain into Thursday for Christmas eve.

Wishing you a good day today!

Barbara Diane

Another Split Negative

Hello!

Today I have another split negative card to share - the other half of a set I have made to send to my two good friends Doug and Sandra. I wanted to make them special cards. I had posted photos of Sandra's card on 12/9/09 and when Doug e-mailed me that he liked the card I had posted on my blog, I knew that I had made the right choice. :<)

Thank you Doug and Sandra for all that you do! Wishing you a both a wonderful Christmas with your families! I hope that you like the cards - they are each one of a kind! As are you both! :<)

Doug's card on the left and Sandra's on the right.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Wishing you a good Monday!

Barbara Diane

Linda's Love Wreath

Hello!

I don't post on the weekends any longer, but I promised you a photo of the wreath that someone had created using my tutorial and here it is! :<)

The creator of this wreath is Linda (Linner) who lives in Georgia and she made this beautiful wreath for her only daughter and calls it her Love Wreath. Her use of the gold hearts and scallops, with the little gold brads, make this a very unique and wonderful gift for her very lucky daughter! Your moma loves you girl! :<)

Thank you for sending the photos Linda - and the very kind e-mails! Wishing you a very good weekend in Georgia! Where the sun is shining and it is warm - whilst we in WI have cold and snow and all those good things that accompany a winter here.

BUT we will be having a white Christmas! :<)

Thanks for stopping by today!

I am still busy making my Christmas cards - will I never learn to start early! Like in June!

Barbara Diane

All White Card for Wreath

Hello!

When I had finished this all white card, the early morning sun was across my work table. The sunlight was hitting a suncatcher hanging in the window and it sent this lovely soft light across the card. The reflection across the card looked so pretty that I took the photographs of the card in this natural light.

I gave the card with this wreath to a friend.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Tomorrow I have photos to share that a very nice woman sent to me of a origami wreath she made using my tutorial. I love hearing from others!

Barbara Diane

Magnolia Stamps

Hello!

For those of you who have sent e-mails inquiring where to get the Magnolia stamps, their site is here: http://www.magnoliastamps.us/ Another wonderful site to order from is Kellie's Magnolia Down Under at http://www.kelliewinnell.com.au/ and there are some fun blogs to check out for inspiration!

The Magnolia-licious Highlites Blog site is at http://magnolia-licioushighlites.blogspot.com/ and the Just Magnolia Challenge Blog can be found at http://justmagnolia.blogspot.com/

Barbara Diane

The Third Magnolia Plus Card

Hello!

This is the third card I made in my Magnolia & Stampendous marathon on receiving my first and long awaited Magnolia stamp.

I am sure both this little guy and the snowman will be back. :<)

Thanks for stopping by today!

Tomorrow I have an all white card to share. A special card.

Barbara Diane

Second Magnolia Plus Card

Hello!

Here is the second card I made with my new stamps. :<)

Thanks for stopping by!

Wishing you a good day today! We are having some bitter cold days here in WI!

Barbara Diane

My First Magnolia Plus Card!

Hello!

As I said yesterday, I was so excited to get my first Magnolia stamps in the mail last week that I immediately sat down this past weekend to use them to make a card!

I was so in love with their 'double sided' stamps (the back of the child stamp and the separate face stamp for the front) that this is what I had to order first! As soon as I saw them, this cute little person and the fence to look over was it for me!

I also had this wonderful Jumbo Snowman stamp from Stampendous which I was just as excited to get and had not yet used. This clear stamp can be stretched so that you can make any shape of snowman that you want! They just seemed to go together so well - the little child looking over the fence at the poor snowman who had lost his head. :<) Then 'discussing' it with the little red bird, who had also come to check it out!

I used SU Garden Green, Real Red and Baja Blue CS, Dazzling Diamonds and a white gel pen.

Thanks for stopping by today!

I hope that you liked my card! I had so much fun making it and I have 2 more versions to share with you. :<)

Barbara Diane

A Birthday Card

Hello!

I hope that you had a nice weekend!

We are having a light snow here in WI, but the aftermath of the blizzard is pretty much cleaned up. It was in the low 30's yesterday and the forecast again for today, but now the bitter cold is to return again by tomorrow. Winter is here.

This is the birthday card I made yesterday for one of the women in the building where I live. It was quick and easy and I was pleased with the finished card.

Thanks for stopping by today!

I just received my first Magnolia stamps on Friday - I LOVE those stamps! I was so excited to find the package delivered with my mail - and I have been having so much fun creating cards over the weekend! They are NOT quick and easy - but I have 3 to share with you! I will post the first one tomorrow. :<)

Wishing you a great Monday!

Barbara Diane

A Sobering Thought

Hello,

A sobering thought this morning. The homeless and where do they go in bad weather. It is something that is always on my mind.

This morning I turned on the weather report to see just how frigid it was going to be today. It has warmed from last night - the temperature is now 5 degrees - a minus 4 windchill. A brutally cold day. Plus, the roads and sidewalks are now made dangerous from the snow that has turned to ice and salt cannot be used until the temperature is above 30 degrees as it won't work to melt the ice. So it is sand for now - if anything is used.

The forecaster also had a report on the Salvation Army homeless shelter. There are 100 on their waiting list.

Men, women and children. The other shelters are also filled. God knows the actual waiting list. Where are all these people keeping warm!? Where are they finding food!?

What I learned through my Jim (who is DD and now lives in a temporary adult home and was homeless at different times over the years while trying to survive on his own) is that most people do not know:

- If a homeless shelter is full, you must be turned away - no matter the weather. Yes, there ARE waiting lists for shelter for the homeless - no matter the circumstances. Yes, people ARE turned away. You come too late - you are out of luck.

- You can only stay in a homeless shelter for so many nights and when that quota is spent, you again have no place to sleep and must try to find another location. If you can't - you are out of luck, you try again the next day.

- The homeless shelter is only open and available for the nightime hours - usually you can come in at 8:00 pm at night and must leave again at 8:00 am - hopefully with breakfast. It may be the only food that you eat that day.

That means that in the winter some place to keep warm must be found for the daytime hours - where can you use the bathroom, where can you find food, what to do and where to go for the next 12 hours until you can once again lay down and rest - IF you have shelter for the night.

- The shelters may not be safe. The shelters may just be rows upon rows of cots. The shelters may not offer food. You may be able to rest, but unable to sleep.

In the summer it is the heat and hunger and thirst and fatigue - in the winter it is the bitter cold and hunger and thirst and fatigue. Mixed in with all the other issues a homeless person faces:

With no money for bus fare, you must walk - you cannot use pay phones to call anyone - from inquiring about a job listing (nor can you be called) to a friend or connection who might give a ride, food, etc. You cannot wash/dry you clothing when they become soiled. No money to buy clothing/boots to keep warm. No belongings except what you can carry - there is no such thing as money for storage of belongings.

No bathrooms available to shower, shave, fix your hair, brush your teeth. No doctors if you feel ill, you just keep moving. No dentists if you have a toothache or have no dentures, you just keep moving. The list goes on and on.

Tomorrow it may get to 30 degrees. By Tuesday of next week it will again be those brutually cold temperatures. And how many of those 100 homeless on the waiting list will have found shelter? How many more will have been added?

These are men, women and children who have nowhere to go.

I have a place to stay, food to eat, a car to drive. My sons are all safe and warm. I may have to shovel some snow but I have an apartment that all I have to do is open a door to return to. I have water, I have food, I have warm clothing. I have my prescriptions and a doctor's care. God bless and watch over the homeless - who don't.

Barbara Diane

Birthday Calendar

Hello!

Well, our blizzard has past and now we have winds and frigid temperatures. The plows finally came to clear our snow accumulation today - they started at 8:30 am and finally finished with the sidewalk running along the property at 3:00 pm. A massive job with all the snow and then to have it freeze made it difficult to remove. I am so worried still about some of our huge trees I took photos of, as their branches are so heavy with the snow that they are touching/laying on the ground and in the summer these same branches are over my head.

I started a new birthday calendar today - working backwards and starting with December. I was making some monkey cards for Jim, as he loves these little guys and so used the stamps for this month's images. I used glitter on the snowflakes and for other highlights. I apologize for the photos, as they are not too good. My lighting was bad and I think my camera has to recover from being out in the cold and blizzard for so long. :<)

You can see I have your name on the calendar Dick, so you know I won't forget your birthday!

Thanks for stopping by!

Wishing you a great weekend!

Barbara Diane

Mega Blizzard Photos

Hello!

We have had one huge storm system here in WI - a blizzard of proportions that we have not seen in many years. In the words of one weather forecaster, "It was the worst storm this area has ever seen." We had 15" of snow here - more in other areas. It was a record for a 2-day snowfall since 1948. For the first time ever, the UW campus shut down. On the news they had a video of students using cafeteria trays to sled down one of the hills. :<)

It started on Monday, Tuesday the blizzard warnings began and soon everyone started cancelling events and schools started closing and by Wednesday morning the weather conditions were unbelievably bad!

When I went to go outside to see if I could find my car under all the snow that had fallen, to clear the snow off, I could not get the door to the outside to open. It was stuck. I kept trying until I felt it give and when I pushed it open all of this snow on the ground went with it. No wonder it was so difficult to open! :<)

The first thing I saw when I opened the door was that the huge tree that stands right outide the door was covered in heavy wet snow.

I turned to my left and saw my car. I only knew it was my car because it was parked in my parking stall - otherwise it looked like just one big area of never-ending white covered with huge while lumps. :<)

I was fascinated with this beautiful sparkly world of white outside. When I saw the trees by the drive into our parking lot - they were so heavy with snow that their branches were touching the ground in places. These are major size trees and this snow was taking them down! I was in awe.

This was my car on the right.

Some of the photos have this blue cast to them, I don't know why except that it was early morning and these first photos were not taken in as strong of daylight as later ones. It was 7:15 am when I went outside and 8:45 am when I finished cleaning off my car and shoveling around it so I could walk next to the car to reach the snow. It was very wet and heavy snow and my coat and gloves were soaked through when I was finished.

I cannot remember snow this deep for some many years.

The storm had blown the snow against the side of the building and it stuck to the outside wall by the entry door. The large trees at the corner of the building protected it somewhat or I am sure that this would have been a much larger area - as it was on other parts of the building. The man with the snowblower had been there by now and you can see the narrow path to the door.

He never returned and the parking lot was not plowed at all today - so now the cars that have been cleaned off during the day have to sit there until tomorrow, as no one can go anywhere.

This photo continues right, around the corner of the building. It was very quiet - nothing was moving. No traffic as the road was not plowed, no people out yet with shovels and snowblowers. It truly was a winter wonderland to look at it - if you didn't think about the reality of the impact of a storm this size.

This was around the building to the left - at the back of the property.

When I went around to the front of the apartment building, the snow covering the trees was beautiful. Then I realized we no longer had a street running by! No snow plows had been through and it was again just a never-ending landscape of white.

Here are a few more photos of this huge snowfall that covered everything.

The trees were so heavy with the snow that the branches kept bending and hanging lower and lower throughout the day and I am afraid that some may break by tomorrow.

After 1 1/2 hours of shoveling and literally pushing the snow off of my car, it was finally clear! Now it sits waiting for the plows to come tomorrow and clean our parking lot so that we can move our cars and they can then clear our parking places so we can move them back.

Here's hoping this snowstorm ends soon. The winds and blowing of snow started today, causing whiteouts and hazardous road conditions - and the temperatures started to drop with 15-20 degrees below zero windchill expected for overnight. Winds of 25+ mph will turn the snow to ice and there is a winter advisory out through Thursday. So many people in so many states were affected by this storm system - I hope it ends soon.

Thanks for stopping by today!

This is my posting for Thursday - I will be back on Friday.

Barbara Diane