You Warm My Heart - CASE-ing Christmas

Hello All:

Wow!!  It has been a while since I have posted.  This past month our home has been in topsy-turvy mode.  We moved a lot of furniture around, re-arranged cabinets, a deep clean and vacation time.  After vacation I took a week to recover and the month has flown by.

Before I post my latest creation I wanted to share with you some of my vacation.  Mom, Beverly (my sister) and I made our annual trek to Lake Conroe, more specifically Montgomery, Texas.  The day after we arrived we partook in our annual "Sister's Reunion - Birthday Celebration!"  You see four of the six sisters gathered have birthdays in August and several of our cousins also share the same month so, we celebrate them all.  Those present were my 94 year old Aunt Sister, yes that is what we call her.  My 85 year old Aunt Ouida, my Mother who celebrated her 81st birthday, my Aunt Winnie celebrating her 78th birthday and my Aunt Janice.  My Aunt Kitty was still in rehab for her recent heart surgery, but we all celebrated with her another day her 75th year.  It was a grand time.  There was some miscommunication in that we wound up with two full sheet cakes and a half sheet cake for 17 people ... "Let them eat CAKE!!!"  As with great reunions that have great cooks there was plenty of wonderful food for our gala.  We all had a terrific time celebrating and continued to do so for the remainder of the week.  Well, now it is time for a Christmas card.

This week at CASE-ing Christmas we are CASE-ing Mynn's card.  Here is my take on her card:

 

Here are the details on my card:

All items are Stampin' Up! products unless otherwise stated.

Stamps:  Winter Wonders (snowman) by Autumn Leaves and Sheltering Tree (sentiment)

Card stock:  Island Indigo and Whisper White

Ink:  Island Indigo, Real Red and VersaMark

Misc:  Bermuda Bay Sequin Trim, Banner punch, Frosted Sequins (retired), Embossing Buddy, Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, D'Vine Swirls Embossing Folder by Cuttlebug, Stampin' Dimensionals, Multipurpose Liquid Glue and SNAIL adhesive

This was a quick and easy card to make.  I really like it when a card comes together the way it was pictured in my mind.

Now it is your turn to join in on the fun at CASE-ing Christmas #29.  We celebrate Christmas every month on the 25th with random prize drawings.  For your chance at winning create a card for the challenge and link up by the 20th.

This card is entered into the following challenges:

Creative Card Crew - #95, Christmas

AAA Cards - #47, Spectacular Embossing 

Crafting When We Can - #102, Anything Goes

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long - #55, Anything Goes 

613 Avenue Create - #139 Anything Goes + Twist: Create Your Own Challenge, A2, Christmas Sequins

Get Creative Challenge - #22, No Printed Paper

A Gem of a Challenge - #152, Do you want to build a SNOWMAN? 

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.  

Blessings and Happy Crafting,

Belinda

"Baby, it's Cold Outside!!!"

Happy Monday,

Hubby and I have been snuggling to stay warm in our cozy home this past weekend.  Most of the nation is covered in snow or ice.  Here in North Texas we have been indoors due to icy roads.  There has been about 1" of ice covering most surfaces (roadways, bridges, etc.)  My mom and sister were without power for about 36 hours.  They too were iced in as well.  Here are a few pictures I took Friday morning.

This picture is just outside my garage.  As you can see the road has a slight incline.

We live just below the highest point in the DFW Metroplex.  Our neighbor just to the right of this picture is at the highest point.

This is a view of our side yard and the junction of the street beside our home and the street in front of our home.  At the stop sign it is pretty level.  Just north of the stop sign (left of the picture) the street starts a decline down the rest of the block.  With this ice if we had left our home we would not be able to return until the thaw.  The folks who owned the home before us made that mistake in 1993 and could not return except on foot and left their truck in a vacant lot down the road.

This picture shows part of our front yard.  Our area does not have curbs or sidewalks around the streets.  It is very much like a country lane in our area.  That is part of the appeal.  However, we have drainage ditches in around the homes to take advantage of the city drainage system.  We can not have a sidewalk to our mailbox so the previous owners installed a wooden bridge that connects the sidewalk from the front door to the street.  Our flag is frozen in the state pictured.  It did not thaw out until late Sunday afternoon.  Amazingly there was not accumulation of ice on the bridge handrails but everywhere else.  I found that quite humorous.

This picture depicts the leaves that are frozen to the roof!  Can you see the ice?  Most of the leaves on this tree are still green.  Now they will turn brown after the thaw and not give us a pretty turning of the leaves.  Most of our trees are Live Oaks so they just shed brown leaves in the spring and not lose all of their leaves in the fall.  We only have two elm trees that create our fall foliage. 

The ice is beautiful, but so treacherous.  Hubby has been home since the schools are closed.  I was glad to have the extra days with him.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend and was able to share some snuggle time with your honey.  Hopefully we will thaw out a bit more today and be able to get back to a normal schedule.  Our mailperson will have a load of mail for us on Tuesday (first day of mail service since Thursday) when they finally make the rounds. 

Have a happy and crafty day.
Blessings,
Belinda