Hello, how are you...

Good morning!

Wow! Thank you for such a warm welcome back. It was a pleasant surprise after my six month hiatus from not just blogging but coloring and card making all together. I'm not ashamed to admit that I've been a bit nervous about jumping back into it. My coloring skills are more than a little rusty but it feels good to hold a copic in my hand again so I'm just gonna let it be what it will be until I'm fully back in the groove. ;)

Yesterday I promised a brief explanation of my absence and first things first, the family is all healthy and happy. No new health scares or anything worse befell us in 2014, everything is good in that regard. And no, I wasn't kidnapped by pirates... though if we are talking Captain Jack Sparrow, I certainly wouldn't have minded that scenario. LOL
Seriously though, it wasn't any one big thing that knocked me out of commission but more like a hundred different things. I certainly never intended to take such a long break from crafting and creating but each time I tried diving back into it something else seemed to come up. And before I new it the new year was hear. 
There was good, an entire kitchen remodel. There was bad, a leaky roof right into my craft room. There was work stuff and there was play stuff. Dog stuff and cat stuff (my senior aged yorkie is diabetic and has gone blind and a new kitten recently joined the family). My camera is on the fritz (hence the slightly fuzzy pics) but my Kindle is working just fine (hello Outlander series). And just a need to cut back on my internet time for a while.

Now I'm ready to dive back into card making, refreshed and ready to use some of the stamps I've recently acquired in anticipation of my return. Like Honey here from Roberto's Rascals. I love her winter style! Unfortunately when I started coloring her up I realized that my Copic color chart is MIA after the roof leak that I previously mentioned. It must have gotten lost in the clean-up and I felt like I was coloring blind without that trusty piece of paper. So the blend on her sweater isn't as smooth as it could have been but I'm going to take some time this weekend to make a new chart and be better prepared for next week's cards. Which brings me to one key change that I will be making around here. I know in the past that I've kept this blog going with posts seven days a week but this year I am cutting back to five days, taking the weekends off for other things. I think this will help stave off possible burn out and keep me fresh and excited to be here doing my thing and sharing it with all of you.

So thanks again and enjoy your weekend... I'll see ya again on Monday. :)       
 

Supply list:
cardstock- Bazzill and Copic X-Press It
paper- Simple Stories (Snow Fun)
stamps- CC Designs (Roberto's Rascals Honey), Craft's Meow (sentiment), Papertrey Ink (stitches)
ink- Memento tuxedo black and espresso truffle, Prima old road and shabby tote
American Crafts fleece heart
buttons
Silver Smooch
Copic markers:
skin- E000, E00, E11, R00, R20, RV14
hair- E50, E51, E53, E31
eyes- E34, BG000
clothes- BG70, BG72, BG57, B37, B39, W3,W5, W7, W9, YG03, YG95, YG99, BG10, E81, E40, E41, 0
ground- E43, E44