Monday is "Mom"day

Good Morning! I hope everyone had an awesome weekend. I know I did. It was crazy busy and seemed to fly by with a blink of the eye, but it was great!

First of all, let me begin this post by saying a big ol' "thank you" to everyone who attended my class at CP2 on Saturday. You guys ROCK!! ;D It was my largest class to date, with 15 folks in attendance. When I was working up kits the night before I had fears that there wouldn't be enough supplies, I would miscount the kits and come up short, we wouldn't finish until well after closing time, and ultimately the class would string me up by my feet with ribbon and pelt me with ink pads. I am a worrier by nature, but fortunately, none of these fears became a reality. Truth be told, it went very smoothly...there were just the right number of kits, plenty of supplies, and most of the class finished up by the scheduled end time of 3:30 and everyone else finished up by 4:00, which was no big deal. AWESOME!!

After class, I was talking to one of my stamping buddies, Stacy (Hi, Stacy!) and she suggested that I put some of my mom's cards on my blog. She said she'd love to see them and other folks would, too. Sheesh! Why didn't I think of that?! It's an absolutely, positively, excellent idea! So, from here on out, Mondays are "Mom"days. Every Monday I will feature a handful of mom's amazing work with you. She is going to be so surprised, because I haven't even mentioned this to her. Now, before you opt to send me back to kindergarden to learn my days of the week, let me clarify by saying that I know today is Tuesday. I enjoyed a bit of rest and relaxation yesterday and didn't do a blog post, so I am catching up today.

Here's a morsel of background info regarding my unhealthy addiction to rubberstamping and cardmaking. I'm sure you've heard this story a million times before from other people, but you're going to hear it once more from me...it all started with a Stampin' Up party roughly 13 years ago. I didn't even want to go, but my friend dragged me there kicking and screaming. The demonstrator showed us how to make a sweet little card in a matter of minutes. It was fun, but I wasn't impressed. Then she pulled out the big guns. Heat guns, that is! She showed us how to heat emboss and I flipped! I sat there running my fingers over the shiny raised letters of the sentiment we just embossed and it was all over. I placed an order for enough supplies to make 30 Christmas cards to mail to family and friends the following month.

What is that reminiscent of? Let me break it down with a few details left out and see if that doesn't help. I went to a party that I didn't want to go to. There was a person there talking up a new "product" we needed to try. She even went to so far as to pass around a little bit of the white powder and let us sample it. I tried it once and I've been addicted ever since. I scrounge up nickels and dimes to buy more...and more...and more. I can't live without it! Yeah, I know. It's the synopsis of every drug themed after school special I have ever seen! Shame on you, Stampin' Up! Tsk, tsk...(kidding, I love you...smooches ;D)

That same Christmas, after I had mailed out everyone's handmade Christmas card, my husband and I went to Las Cruces to spend the holidays with our families. In their infinite wisdom, my brother-in-law and his wife gave me a gift certificate to Stamp A Mania, the local LC stamp store. When I originally attended that infamous party a couple of months prior, I thought Stampin' Up made the only rubber stamps on the planet. I didn't know what to expect, so with my treasured gift certificate clutched in my hands and my mom at my side, we headed to this store. When I told my mom about rubber stamps and where we were going she said to me, "Rubber stamps? Like Paid in Full, or Return to Sender?"

One step inside this store and I swear the roof opened up, bathed the store in white light from heaven, and the angels did sing. No, really, that's how I remember it. It was glorious! It was a large store made up of big rooms that just begged to be roamed around in. Walls and shelves were lined with little wooden blocks covered in amazing artwork. We must have spent 3 hours in there, picking up every stamp, caressing it, and carefully looking it over. I have been in lots of stamp stores since then, but the first one always holds a special place in your heart. It's no longer there, but the owners continue to sell their own line of wonderful Southwestern themed art stamps online and at stamp shows. Gorgeous stuff!

That day, I walked out with a bag containing purchases well above and beyond my gift certificate amount. Mom walked out with a bag of her own, too, neither of us really knowing how we were going to use any of it. We carried our new treasures back to her house, spread them out on her dining table, and spent the rest of the evening cooing over our bounty. The rest is history.

I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to share a hobby like this with my mom. We can talk for hours on the phone about new projects, the latest tools, and Tim Holtz ;D We even took a fabulous trip one year to the Creative Palette in St. Mary's, GA. Such a wonderful time, but I will save that story for another day.

Enjoy mom's artwork and have a fabulous day!