I felt like sewing...

...so I made this pillow...

What do you think? I like it. I just cut the heart freehand and sewed it on. Had to use that new pom pom ball fringe that I found. I hardly ever feel like sewing anymore so this was a rare moment.

Not much going on here. Special K had an interview this morning for a job I really want him to get!! Please say an itty bitty prayer for us! Thank you kindly!

I just discovered this singer named Sean Fournier. I really like him because I dig acoustic guitar music and well, he's cute! You can watch a little video here.

You can download his album for FREE right here. It's legal and everything. All he asks is if you like it you spread the word, I like it and I'm spreading the love!! Check it out!

xoxo
~L

Thank you!!

...for all of your wonderful birthday wishes yesterday! I feel so very loved!

Today would have been my Mom's birthday. I've been looking at old pictures this morning. I found this one of us from my wedding day (1993) and couldn't help but laugh!

 

If she were still here, I'd email this to her and say "What were we thinking? Our hair was huge!!" And she would laugh so hard and say, "I know, right!" Oh how I miss her laugh. I used to call her everyday just to hear it!

Happy Birthday, Mum. I hope they have a giant sized cannoli with a candle in it and a 72 ounce iced coffee from Dunkin' Donuts up in heaven for you today!

Have a beautiful Sunday, my friends. And if you can, call your mom and make her laugh... for me.

Love to you,
~L

It's a Fabulous Friday!!

Hey there! I just got this award from my friend Donna! How cool! Thanks, Donna!

 

Now I get to give it out to someone else! I'm just going to give it to my friend Danni! She is so amazingly talented and the sweetest person to boot. Check out her blog and her amazing creations. I just ♥ her!!

Donna tells me along with giving this award away I have to list five things that I am addicted to right now. Perfect timing because I was planning on listing my five faves today!

1. In my "happy birthday box" from Denise was this fabulous soap:

 

I'm not usually a bar soap kind of gal but I love it. Makes your skin smell so fresh and feel so soft! You can buy it here.

2. She also gave me this fabulous makeup bag from Juicy Couture!!


Now I have a makeup bag that is fancier than any purse I have ever owned! Thank you my sweet little Sis! You are the BESTEST gift giver ever!

3. If I could only watch one show on TV it would be Ugly Betty!! I love this show! Here is a (horrible) picture of me in Times Square in front of a poster of Betty in the window of the ABC building. My friend Becky is not much of a photographer, LoL!

 

I just discovered that you can watch webisodes of Amanda and Mark on the ABC website here. I've been watching them and LMAO!

I'll tell you what is not my FAVE show this season... Grey's Anatomy!! What da hell? I'm so sick of Dead Denny! Please go away! I mean he's hot and everything but I just don't get the dead thing. Are you feeling me?

4. I'm totally addicted to Starbucks lately due to our dreary weather. I treated myself to a Valentine's mug the other day:

 

Go to the Starbucks website and watch a cool video. You may have seen it on a commercial. Love it!

5. Can't let this historic week go by without listing the presidential inauguration as one of my faves! Love this quote from our new PRESIDENT:



I have to go get beautiful now because I'm going to a birthday lunch today with ten of my Bunco Babe friends who are all total knockouts!! Tomorrow I will be 41 years old... what da hell? Seriously?

Leave me some birthday love, please!

♥Lori♥

Congratulations to the new First Family!

How stunning they all looked. I love Michelle's style. I thought this color was such a statement. And those girls, ooooh, I want to steal them for my very own! (Not really, I'd never do that! LoL)



I do a lot of reading about autism and I found this article very interesting.


I'd love if you'd take a few minutes to read it too.

Edited to add this quote:
Sometimes we feel that we've got to climb a mountain or raise a monument to leave our mark on the world. What we fail to recognize is that often we make a difference simply by existing, by handling what life gives us. Maybe the way we deal with our challenges and our rewards inspires someone else to achieve worthwhile things in their own life.

Blaine Lee

Wow, so well said!
♥ Lori

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Valentine's Day!! I know these pics are awful and blurry but seriously, we haven't had a peek of sunlight in weeks here in Boise due to an air inversion in the valley. It's pretty hard to get a decent photo of anything with no natural light.

 

 

 

 

We are getting a few snow flurries this morning. Hopefully that will clear the air. I'm usually okay with no sun because of my years of living in Arizona (too much sun!) but this is getting a little old!

Peace, love, and just a little sunshine,
~L

Winner!

...or should I say "winners"? I had Nick pick a name out of a vase for the happy box and he picked:

Scrappygirl!

Then I told him to pick one more and he picked:

Michelle!

So, Scrappygirl, email your mailing address to me at lorirenn at msn dot com and I'll get you your goodies! Michelle, I already know your address!

Yeah!!

Inauguration Day!

So proud to be living here:


Remember, without change, there would be no butterflies!





I got a very fun "happy box" from my favorite little chica, Denise, last week. She gave me all kinds of wonderful goodies from Sephora for my birthday (which isn't until Saturday!) I love them all! She also sent me lots of fun Valentine's Day papers from Making Memories and Teresa Collins. I made this layout with Teresa's Crush collection:



And how cute is that little quote stamp? I picked up a few of those from Inkadinkadoo on my last trip to Archiver's. Denise loved my layout so I made her a similar one:



I left some space in hopes that she would do her own journaling but she is being difficult and wants me to do it. LoL!

You know what it means when I get a "happy box" from Denise, right? It means YOU get a "happy box" from me! Leave a comment here on this post if you'd like some scrappy supplies to play with and I'll choose a winner at random tomorrow!

I started celebrating my birthday early with my Bunco girlfriends this past weekend. We went to a wine bar and did some tasting of some wines from Argentina that were pretty good. It was my friend Wendy's birthday on Saturday so we celebrated her birthday too.



Saturday night, we went to see Seven Pounds with Will Smith. Have any of you seen this? WoW! It was extraordinary. I love those types of movies that really move me. That is the first movie I have seen for months. I'd love to go see some of the other great movies out now. What have you seen that you loved?

Thanks for stopping by and thanks to my friends that ordered my new stamps! Melissa says they are selling well! Yeah!

♥Happy Inauguration Day!♥

Peace,
~L

My new gig...

I have been invited to join the immensely talented ladies over at The Design Experiment challenge blog! I'm very excited to work with these ladies who inspire me. The challenges focus on the journaling which is always a BIG challenge for me so I know it will help me to be a better writer.

Here is this week's challenge:

It's a new year. A time to look towards the future yet also a time to look at the past year and reflect as to what went wrong, and what went tried. The new year is a time to make ourselves and our lives better by fixing what wasn't working for us in 2008. So, for this week's challenge we'd like you to explore this further. Your prompt this week is:

What burdens did you leave behind in 2008? How did you overcome that feeling to just LET IT GO?

And here is my layout:

 

 

 

Oh, and I have a little tip for you!! If you have some clear bling that you want to color, you can paint it with your Shimmerz Paints to change the color! How cool is that? I used Aqua Marine Shimmerz on this Prima bling and also on the ghost butterfly. The paint is not opaque so you can still see the sparkle of the bling through it!

If you haven't tried Shimmerz Paints yet, you can buy them through The Rubber Cafe! This is the website that I design the stamps for! One stop shopping, LoL! Dont forget that if you use the code LR2009 you get free shipping with a $20 order.

Angie at Scrap Scene has a giveaway on her blog today! Make sure you stop by and leave her some love! She is starting to post all kinds of Valentine's creations, my favorite!!

Here is a quote for you on this Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. day:

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Happy Birthday to Cristina. She is pretty much one of my favorite people on the planet! ♥♥♥

Hope it's a good one.
♥love to you♥
~L

Design Team Call!

Shimmerz Paints is having a Design Team search.
You can read all about it and get the details here!
Good Luck!!

I'll be back a little later to post some stuff I've been creating and tell you some cool news!

Happy Friday!

~L

My Stamps...

 

 

...are now available for purchase from The Rubber Cafe!!

There are 15 total and they are listed here under Lori Renn Designs. The stamps are made of the highest quality, deeply etched rubber. They are unmounted, which I love because it makes them very affordable and easy to store! You just slap them on your acrylic block or you can permanently mount them to wood. The stamps are selling for $5.25 each and Melissa, the owner of The Rubber Cafe is offering FREE shipping with your $20 minimum order for my blog readers. Thanks, Melissa! You just use the code LR2009 to get the FREE shipping. I hope you like my designs, and I hope they sell well for Melissa because if they do, she'll want lots more designs (I hope!)

I will be creating lots of cards and things with the stamps and I will be sure to post my samples here to share with you.

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you are having a great week. Getting the stamps in the mail from Melissa was definitely the highlight of a bummer week so far for me. My hubby didn't get the job he interviewed for in Arizona. I was all excited to move back there :) even though I LOVE Idaho! Something else will come along. When one door closes another opens, right? I've also been under the weather and drowning myself in hot tea and ibuprofen.

I'm not too sick to stamp though! Hope to do some of that today.



Lots of love to you,
~L

A couple more...

...projects that I created with the new Shimmerz Blingz colors:

 

This birthday card was created by taking a card base that matched the new Flashee Fuschia paint. I think this is from Stampin' Up!. It's from my old stash so I'm not sure! I cut some KI Memories lace cardstock (black swirls) and adhered it to the card base. I stamped the cupcake (from Hero Arts) in black and embossed it. I painted the top with Flashee Fuschia and the bottom with Hi-Ho Silver Shimmerz. The bling cherry is from Heidi Swapp. I then cut it out and adhered it to the die-cuts (made with the Making Memories Slice - Noteworthy design card). The sentiment (happy birthday) is one of the stamps that I designed for The Rubber Cafe that will be available very soon! It's just a little sneak peek of the 14 stamps I designed for them.

 

For this Valentine's Day card, I used patterned paper by Heidi Grace and layered it on black then white cardstock. I stamped the image (from Inkadinkadoo) in black ink and embossed it. I used Hottie Pink Shimmerz on the heart and Pixie Dust Shimmerz around the heart. I cut out the image, adhered it to a black circle made with a 3" circle punch. Then I added a little ribbon and a pin, added the circle to the card and voila!

Thanks for stopping by!
Lori

Shimmering Photo Frames

I have a huge stack of these canvas photo frames from Stampin' Up! in my craft room closet. I was saving them for "someday". Well that "someday" came yesterday when I turned a couple of them into Valentine's decor with a little acrylic paint, paper, stamps and of course, Shimmerz!

For this frame I painted the frame with Heidi Swapp acrylic paint in "Betty". I then used a piece of old patterned paper that I've been saving for "someday" as well! Love this paper. It's by Teresa Collins for Junkitz which is no longer available but I'm all about using up my old stash this year! The heart stamp is from Stampin' Up! and the wings stamps are from Heidi Swapp. I stamped and embossed them in black on white cardstock. I then Shimmered them up with Hottie Pink Shimmerz in the heart and Hi-Ho Silver on the wings. I cut out the heart and wings and adhered it to my project with dimensional dots. For the chipboard letters on the bottom, I painted them with a quick coat of the "Betty" paint then a coat of Hottie Pink Shimmerz.

 

 

For this frame I used Hi-Ho Silver Shimmerz on the edges. I stamped the heart on white cardstock with Versamark ink and embossed the heart with Silver embossing powder from Ranger. I colored in the heart with Hottie Pink Shimmerz (my favorite, can you tell?) and colored in the wings with pixie dust. The text paper is new from Little Yellow Bicycle.

 

 

That little cutie in the photo is my niece, Marlies from a photo shoot I did last summer in Washington. She is such a doll! I think I will send her this for Valentine's day!

Don't forget to comment on the Shimmerz blog for a chance to win the new colors!

New Shimmerz Blingz!

Make sure you check out the Shimmerz Paints blog to see all four new colors and for a chance to get all four for free!

The new colors are called Pixie Dust, Hi-Ho Silver, Flashee Fuschia and Hottie Pink!

 

For this card, I painted a chipboard crown from Scenic Route Paper Co. with some hot pink acrylic paint. I then gave it lots of shimmer with the new color, Hottie Pink. I used two coats. I tied a little bow of silver cording from Stampin' Up! and adhered the crown to a white card base made from Bazzill Swiss Dot. I added a little (well a lot!) of bling. The pink jewels on the tips of the crown are from Doodlebug designs. The flower is from Glitz designs. The line of pink on the bottom of the crown is cut from a large oval from Prima. And lastly, the "princess" bling is from me & my BIG ideas.

This is just the first of many projects I was inspired to create with the new Shimmerz Blingz so check back later for more creative ideas!

For 2009...

I got this list from Laina's blog and it really spoke to me. I think I have received it in an email before and maybe you have too but it is worth repeating. Thanks Laina!!

1) Take a 10-30 minute walk every day, and while you walk, smile. It is the ultimate anti-depressant. I like to sing along to my iPod when I walk even though I look crazy!


2) Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day. Buy a lock if you have to.


3) Always pray, eat right and always make time to exercise.


4) Spend more time with people over the age of 70 and under the age of six.


5) Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less foods that are manufactured.


6) Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat broccoli, almonds and walnuts.


7) Make at least three people smile each day.


8) Clear your clutter from your house, car, desk and let new and flowing energy into your life.


9) Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead, invest your energy in the positive present moment called "NOW".


10) Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class, but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.


11) Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a layman and dinner like a beggar.


12) Life isn't fair, but it's still good. 13) Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.


14) Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.


15) You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.


16) Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present. ALL YOU HAVE IS NOW!

17) Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

18) Go on and burn those 'special' scented candles, use the 600 thread count sheets, the good china and wear fancy clothes now. Stop waiting for a special occasion. TODAY IS SPECIAL!

19) No one is in charge of your happiness except you. Don't Worry ... Be Happy! IT's A CHOICE!

20) Frame every so-called disaster with these words: 'In five years, will this matter?'

21) Forgive everyone for everything.

22) What other people think of you is none of your business.

23) Time heals almost everything. Give time, time!


24) However good or bad a situation is, it will change.


25) Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and family will. Stay in touch with them.


26) Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.


27) Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need. God provides, remember?


28) The best is yet to come.


29) No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.


30) Do the right thing!


31) Call your family often.


32) Each night before you go to bed, complete the following statements:
'God, I am so very thankful for __________.' 'Today I accomplished _________.'

33) Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.


34) Enjoy the ride. Remember that this is not Disney World and you certainly don't want a fast pass. You only have one ride through life so make the most of it and enjoy the ride.
LIVE, LOVE, LAUGH LIFE'S A gift. That's why now is called the PRESENT ... UNWRAP IT!

2008 was a good year for us. It's really all about how you look at things. No, my husband didn't land his dream job, or any job for that matter, but lots of good things came of that. He got to spend so much time with me and with the boys. He and Nate have really bonded since he has been home. He also has guy friends now. I mean REAL friends. Not just the guys that you have worked with for years that you spend 12 hours a day with. Guys who you golf, ski, play poker with. I love the fact that my husband has real friends now because he has always been so supportive of me and my "girlfriend" time. He has gotten in shape, I mean rock hard buff shape and can bench press a baby elephant! (I'm exaggerating but he's wicked strong now!)

Nate has made SO much progress this last year. I really need to upload a video of all of the things he is doing now. It's amazing and I owe it ALL to Cristina, his therapist. He went from being almost completely non-verbal to being able to communicate his wants and needs. He is almost potty-trained (such a battle!).

Joe and Nick did well in school and both started playing the guitar which they love!

I got to travel to spend time with very special friends a few times while Special K held down the fort at home. I went to New York City and Chicago and have memories that will forever bring a smile to my face. I had friends and family members visit me here in Idaho which means the world to me.

I got to create, and create and create which brings me SO much joy and keeps me sane. I created about 150 scrapbook layouts, dozens of cards, some canvases, pillows and other various crafts. I am so grateful for my me time that enables me to keep doing what I love. I'm also grateful for all of my online friens who inspire me more than they know!

I hope 2009 brings more of the same for me, a job for Kirk, more progress for Nate, contentment for Joe and Nick, and continued good health for all of us.

I'm hoping for good things for all of my friends and loved ones, too.

I appreciate each and every one of your comments, so thank you for taking the time to type a few words. It means a lot me!

♥♥♥
Lori

I love this!!

Whenever you feel 'short' or in 'need' of something, give what you want first and it will come back in buckets. That is true for money, a smile, love and friendship. I know it is often the last thing a person may want to do, but it has always worked for me. I just trust that the principle of reciprocity is true, and I give what I want.


Robert T. Kiyosaki
American Author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad

How true is that? Try it!

Have a great day my friends!!

It's all about the LOVE!

So I hit Archiver's yesterday as planned and was pleasantly surprised to see the embellishments for the Love Story Collection from Making Memories! Yummy! The paper wasn't in yet but I'll be stalking them to get it. Let me know as soon as you see it Kim!!

 

I made this new banner (see above) while playing Scrabble on Facebook the other night. I've always loved Scrabble. I'm a total word nerd!! Now I can play with my friends all over the country. Too cool! I do spend a bit too much time on it though!

I'm so excited to dig into all of my new Valentine's Day finds.

Yep, It's all about the LOVE! I'm loving that the kids are back in school today (in spite of the early alarm clock). I'm loving our beautiful new blanket of snow. And most of all... I can't believe I still love my husband even though he has been home with me for 18 months! LoL!

~L

First post...

of the New Year!! I'm hoping for lots of good stuff to come our way this year. I know it will be a year of changes in many ways so I hope to stay calm and just ROLL with it, you know?

I was dying to create something, anything so I've been on a little card making frenzy lately. Here are just a few...

 

 

 

 

I am over the moon excited because the stamps that I designed for The Rubber Cafe will be in my hands next week! I'm really looking forward to creating with them because they are Valentine's stamps. Valentine's Day is my absolute favorite theme to create with!! I will be sure to let you all know when the stamps are in stock and ready to purchase!

Today was a very happy mail day. I received a check for the stamps that I designed along with some coupons to Archiver's!! Coincidence?? I think not!! I see some new design cards for my SLICE in the near future. :)

Here's today's quote:

"Every man should be born again on the first day of January. Start with a fresh page. Take up one hole more in the buckle if necessary, or let down one, according to circumstances; but on the first of January let every man gird himself once more, with his face to the front, and take no interest in the things that were and are past." -- Henry Ward Beecher

Have a great weekend everyone!

Lots of love,
~L