StampARTic Sketch Challenge for March..

This is my card for the StampARTic online magazine March sketch challenge. I love sketch challenges. They inspire me to have ideas that wouldn't otherwise occur to me. I love to see the projects other cardmakes and scrappers create following the same sketch. There were some really beautiful cards done for March.

The stamp I used is called, 'A Tasty Read.' It's a digital stamp designed by Elisabeth Bell. I love it. She is my favorite, favorite stamp designer.

This sketch was especially fun to work with. It offers the opportunity to use a wide variety of embellishments in one sketch. I used metal flowers, ribbon, punches, foam squares and more. The sketch was created by Marianne of Norway. Thank you Marianne for a truly fun sketch.

Origami Snowman Advent Calendar

This was a fun Christmas project I made for two of the children in our family.

It's a fourteen day snowman advent calendar made of paper and yarn. It's very simple and adorable.

Each bag has a couple of pieces of candy and an inexpensive stocking stuffer type toy. I used things like stickers, small handheld games, puzzles & christmas stencils. I braided the yard into a rope. I punched a hole in each snowman and tied him to the braid with ribbon.

I started at the bottom with day 14 and day one at the very top was a little biger than the rest with a little better surprise. The boys had fun with it

I didn't actually print each snowman. I printed one to use for a template. I made my own eyes, hats, noses and ties with craft paper. The mouths and buttons were drawn on with marker.

It was fun.

This idea came from Kiddley.com.

Origami Snowman Advent Calendar

To Realize........

To realize
The value of a sister
Ask someone who doesn't have one.

To realize
The value of ten years:
Ask a newly divorced couple.

To realize
The value of four years:
Ask a graduate.

To realize
The value of one year:
Ask a student who has failed a final exam.

To realize
The value of nine months:
Ask a mother who gave birth to a stillborn.

To realize
The value of one month:
Ask a mother who has given birth to A premature baby.

To realize
The value of one week:
Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realize
The value of one minute:
Ask a personWho has missed the train, bus or plane.

To realize
The value of one-second:
Ask a person who has survived an accident.

Time waits for no one. Treasure every moment you have.

You will treasure it even more when you can share it with someone special.

To realize the value of a friend or family member:

LOSE ONE.

Remember...Hold on tight to the ones you love!
.............................................................

Don, my husband---Thank you for shring this with me and the rest of the family. It's so true. I love you so much.

In Loving Memory..............

Terri 

Jan. 19th. 1957 - August 16th. 2009

A loving wife, devoted mother, daughter, sister and a wonderful friend.

You have been my closest friend for eighteen years.

I love and miss you.

Please know we will do well with your boys. We will raise them to be the fine young men you would have raised them to be. We will guide them as you would want us to and do everything in our power to keep them safe.

We will make you proud.

You and I will meet again

When we're least expecting it

One day in a far off place

I will recognize your face

I won't say good-bye my friend

For you & I will meet again.

- Tom Petty -

Washington Renaissance Fantasy Faire 2009

We had a blast !!

Don & me at Ren. Faire.

Don & I go to the Washington Renaissance Fantasy Faire almost every year. We even camped there for a weekend three years ago. This year was more fun than ever. It was held at Maris Farms in Buckley, Wa. We camped with a group of our good friends from Friday night until Monday afternoon. The place has a great spot for RV or tent camping. Lots of room and friendly people.

This year Don & I volunteered to help, too. My friend, Terri & I took a shift each day at the information booth. Don helped with fire watch, parking and bus driving.


Our bodices & skirts were handmade by Theresa Maddock of Olalla, Wa. She adds beautiful detail to everything she makes.

Theresa cinching my bodice.

Terri's beads were hand strung.

Little brother Ryan in his costume.

There were some really outstanding costumes.

The Ale House is always a hit.

Cavallo Equestrian Arts
Beautiful, well trained horses.

The costumes were beautiful, the food was great and the people were wonderfully friendly.

And....we spent our weekend with some really special people.

Baydo's RV in Fife, Wa. - An unhappy Customer Review, Part 2

I finally called Tommy on his cell phone on the afternoon of July 4th. He said they had all left work early to celebrate the holiday. He did not have any information for us yet, but would have it on Monday. He said he would give us a call first thing Monday morning. Once again, he said he appreciated our patience. We even joked around about planning a group camping trip when this was all taken care of. I wished him a Happy 4th. and we hung up.

Monday morning, July 6th. I waited anxiously for Tommy's call. Knowing his poor history with returning my calls, I only waited through the morning. When He didn't call, I called him. He said he had just been getting ready to call Baydo's service department. He told me to hang on and he put me on hold. After a couple of minutes he returned to the phone. He said the service department had completely finished with the inspection of the exterior and were getting ready to start the interior. He said they believed the leak was from the emergency exit window above the damaged floor. I again mentioned my concern about mold in the wall. He told me that had  all been inspected and the wall was dry. He told me they had opened the nose cone and there was no damage. He said they would inspect the interior and have an estimate the following day. I called my husband to give him the good news about the wall.

We knew there would be no further work done on it on Tuesday, July 7th., because Monday afternoon the service department realized they did not have a key that would open main door. They could go no further until my husband dropped off the key after work on Tuesday evening . We had been told the locks were generic and they had keys that opened them. Evidently, the former owner had changed the locks at some point, so as it turned out, Baydo's did not have a key that would open the main door. The key was delivered to one of the Baydo's salesman on Tuesday night.

Wednesday evening, Tommy called Don's cell phone. I was home from work for my lunch break. Tommy said he was ready with a rough estimate for us. He said the service area was planning to replace the floor under the bedroom and in the storage compartment. . He said the estimate was for $2100.00. We were shocked. We were not expecting anything like that. Don questioned Tommy as to why the cost was so high if there would be no labor charged. Tommy's response was that because it was a three day repair job, they were going to need to charge us for labor afterall. Needless to say, we got upset. Tommy said he was planning to talk with his boss first thing Thursday morning to see if he would split this cost with us.

After Tommy's call, Don called my Brother-in-law who has experience with this type of RV repair. My BIL assured us the repair could be done in a couple of weekends and cost would be nothing like what Baydo's was trying to charge us. He also offered his help and guidence. He said that unless Baydos was treating us fairly we could consider bringing our travel trailer home and after this camping season was over, we could buy the materials and start our repairs. My BIL does meticulous work and with his experienced guidance we were comfortable taking on this endeavor. We decided we would make our decision after we heard back from Tommy. If Tommy's boss agreed to split the cost with us we planned to have Baydo's service department do the repairs. If we were going to pay the whole amount, we would bring it home to repair ourselves.

Thursday morning, July 9th. Don spoke with Tommy on the phone and was told Tommy's boss, Paul, had agreed to split the cost with us for the repairs. Tommy said the service area did not feel there would be any problem having the trailer done in time for our trip. He said he would instruct them not to start the repairs unless they could guarantee that. He said he would make certain we had the trailer for our trip.

Our trip was planned for July 17th. only eight days away. I decided I would call and talk directly to the repair person. We were really concerned the Travel trailer would not be ready in time.

Later that same Thursday morning, I called and spoke with the gal in Baydo's service department. I believe her name was Sandy. I asked if it would be possible for me to talk with the person who would be working on our trailer and explained our concern about the trip. I said I understood they were busy and would be happy to wait for a call back as long as he would please call that day. She said he would and then asked me to hang on the line for a minute. When she returned to the phone, she told me there was no workman yet. No one had been assigned to our travel trailer. I told her what Tommy had told me about the complete inspection, the water chamber test to find the leak and the opening of the nose cone to look for mold. She told me nothing like that has been done to our travel trailer. I asked if there was any chance she was mistaken. I told her if what she was telling me is correct, then Tommy has been far, far less than honest with Don & me.

At that point, Sandy asked if she could call me back. She said she wanted to double check her information with their service manager. She said he wasn't in yet but was due very shortly. She said the only day she was not absolutely certain about was the day before on Wednesday. She would find out about Wednesday and call me back.

When Sandy called back, she said the service department confirmed what she had already told us.  Nothing had been done with our travel trailer other than a visual inspection and feeling the soft spots in the floor.

After receiving this disappointing news, we decided we did not want to rely on Baydo's RV to have the RV ready for our upcoming trips.  Both trips were very important to us.  Because time was an issue for us, Tommy suggested we take the RV home for the summer and return it to Baydo's RV Repair Center at the end of summer for the needed repairs.  I repeated Tommy's suggestion to Sandy and asked if there was any reason why this would be a problem.  She assured us it was perfectly fine and offered to have the travel trailer ready for pick up the following morning.  I also asked if it would be possible to have a work order written up committing Baydo's RV to the 50% they had agreed to cover for our RV repairs costs.  She said she would send the work order to Paul, Tommy's boss, for approval.  

On the morning of July 10th, 2009, my husband Don, picked up our RV so we could prepare for our trips.  I tried repeatedly to reach Sandy to ask about the work order.  She never returned my calls.


To part 1

To part 3