Soul Stamper

Have a Heart - Haiti

 

As part of the Advent Conspiracy this last December, I was introduced to the water crisis in Haiti. Did you know that mothers in Haiti had to walk miles for water that is polluted and unsafe to drink for their children. A friend told me recently about how she saw a mother on the news who was giving her children water that was obviously dirty. She expressed to the camera man that her children were begging for a drink and she had nothing else to give them. This last week, much of the world has become more cognizant of Haiti's plight due to a devastating earthquake. My heart aches for the people of Haiti. I ache to help in my own ways. For this reason, I am so grateful to be part of an organization with a heart. One that is caring enough to express their concern for others and help them when they need it. After all, isn't that what making cards and scrapbooks is all about? Expressing our love for others. 

Stampin up! will be donating $2 from every I {Heart} Hearts stamp set purchased between now and Feb 28th to the American Red Cross’ Haiti Relief and Development Fund. The Red Cross is already well-established in Haiti, and this money will be used to provide immediate relief and long-term support through supplies, technical assistance and other support to help those in need.

Product Name	Item #	Price
I {Heart} Hearts – clear-mount  (block D recommended)	118571	$18.95
I {Heart} Hearts – wood-mount	117010	$26.95

Cold and Cuddly in my neck of the woods

Well as promised here is a photo of my neck of the woods. We have been buried under snow for days. Today was the first day I was able to finally drive my vehicle out of the neighborhood (took the pup and went sledding with some friends). 

 {Photo was taken during the storm in my back yard. Note that my yard is fenced, the fence is just buried}

The Cold and Cuddly set and sentiment "Here is some love to keep you warm" just seemed appropriate for my week. I love how this darling set works for both Valentine's Day and Christmas. 

  
 
Unfortunately this set was from the holiday mini and thus currently not available to purchase. Yeah, this little guy is not official retired, but sadly not available for purchase either. As I truly adore this set, I have my fingers crossed that it will appear in the next catalog.  

 With being MIA for a bit while trying to balance the new place, new job, and holidays I did not get a chance to thoroughly play with my holiday goodies and wish the holiday mini farewell. My holidays were wonderfully packed with fun (more on them to come). Thus the stack of mini catalogs to toss in the recycling and the vow to be more organized this time. 

This card features:

Stamp set: Cold and Cuddly by Stampin Up (from Holiday Mini 2009)

Cardstock : Stampin Up Classic Cardstock in Bermuda Bay (115317) and Real red (102482) and Whisper White (100730)

Ink: Stampin Up Classic Stampin Pads in Bermuda Bay (115655) and Real Red (103133)

Ribbon: Stampin Up Satin Ribbon in Whisper White (114616)

Punches: Stampin up 1 3/8 inch Circle Punch (104401) and Scallop Circle Punch (109043) 

Oh and Ahem.. it looks like I am not the only one to take my toys that are not exactly water proof out in the snow. 

 

Yeppers, caught in the act. 

 
 

I also made this card for this weeks Card Positioning Systems challenge (CPS151).

Thanks for looking and hope you are safe and cozy where ever you are! 

Returning to my roots

Aha...and you thought I was quitting this blog? Lol. Sorry for the long hiatus. I needed some time to rethink and reorganize some my various efforts. Taking up a blog the same week I started a new job and moved to a town 2 hours away...kind of hectic. Probably bit off more than I could chew, but wow am I learning about blogging and I can't wait to return to it. So with having been snowed in for days I have once again returned to playing with paper and dreaming of blog ideas. 

Then craziness happened...

My quaint little mountain town was declared under a state of emergency a few days ago due to this massive crazy winter storm (or three...it was a series of three storms) that blew through. Quite a few roofs in town have collapsed and I have been eyeing my own apartment roof cautiously... This ain't my first rodeo. I have been in this town in previous winters and I know they say to shovel the roof when we get this kind of storm. We had roofs in town collapse last year. I have even called the apartment complex a few times to ask that they shovel it. No dice.

So tonight, this was nagging in the back of my mind. I was trying to go about my business and not seem all paranoid and such (although I took a shower and hopped out and got dressed pronto out of fear of the roof collapsing while I was indecent. lol). Upon making myself decent it seemed there were all kinds of banging noises. Finally out of frustration (and paranoia) I open my front door...what on earth? There was a fire truck! I look over...oh dear... yep, neighbor's roof collapsed. We live in apartments of sorts, but they are more like duplex style. The neighbors have an identical building to us and it is just a few feet away (two cars park in between the building). We have the same amount of snow too. The Fire dept. evacuated their whole building. 

For now I am safe and cozy and paranoid and anxiously watching my own roof. A friend offered that I can stay at her place if we end up evacuating. My car is loaded with some basic stuff... and I will likely sleep (sleep being a relative term) on the couch tonight fully clothed and ready to leave at a moment's notice.

As my offer to help the neighbors was declined, I watched as a family with kids loaded the kids and basic essentials in to their vehicle. It is a strange site to watch a adult male walk out on the snow covered path carrying a fish tank with some form of reptile to try to fit in the trunk while mom loads kids and dogs in the back seat. They were out of here quickly without expressing concern for their belongings. Then I watched the college age girls that lived in the apartment next to this family as they had every friend in the town show up and basically move ALL of their belongings out. 

Then I went inside and packed a few bags to put in the car just in case... Ok, I ran around the apartment like a chicken with my head chopped off going "Oh MY GOD....what do you take when you evacuate and there is potential all things left behind will be destroyed? What is essential? What small sentimental things do I grab?" AHHHHH!!!!  (not a pretty site)

PHOTOS...ack the photos... 

So in addition to returning to blogging... I realized I have a deep desire to returning to preserving my photos in some way. My love of paper crafting actually started with intentions to preserve photos. Granted my ideas of what that means have changed over the years, but the reasoning is still the same. Some of this will be via scrapbooking so I am sure you will see more layouts on the blog soon. More than anything though this means for me that I will be scanning all my photos, and my parent's photos, and maybe even my sister's if she will let me and uploading them to a computer and then saving them on CDs to send to various family members. It would make evacuating any place easier if I knew I just needed to grab that stack of CDs and maybe not even worry about it as copies would be safe at one of the other family member's homes. 

So what about you? What are your essentials if you ever had to evacuate fast?

I know that I would be ok with just the pup. He is my first priority, but there are plenty of things I would rather have cared for before running out. 

Suddenly I am finding I have a long overdo to do list to take care of now that I have my own place. Things such as:

- Scan and save photos and layouts (or upload them somewhere digitally)

-Get a fireproof/waterproof safe for important documents (and actually put them in there). Possibly make copies of some documents as well.

-Pack a bag with essentials that could stay in the car or near the door to be easy to grab. The stuff that is needed for at least one night (stuff like clothes, toiletries, dog food)

-Take photos and make a list of my ever growing stash of stuff for insurance reasons. 

So hopefully all will settle soon (if they clear the roof tomorrow it would really help with the anxiety) and I will add some photos of the projects I have been working on. :)