Design Team!!! and Two New Cards

I was so excited to get an email yesterday letting me know that I was selected as one of the new Design Team Members at my local scrapbook store, The Scrapbook Cafe!!!! I have been a customer there for several years and am so happy to be selected for their DT! My first project will be a layout about me that will be displayed in the store, so I have to get working on that :) YAY!
On another note, here are two new cards I made for a great Etsy customer and a new friend! Isn't the internet great? You get to connect with people all over the country and the world!


Thanks for stopping by! I hope you are having a great week.
:) Nora Anne

Cleaning Out My Craft Room & Saturday Night Challenge Cards

My craft room is getting OUT OF CONTROL! One of my goals for the New Year is to SIMPLIFY my life! I am a self-proclaimed pack rat and am trying to change that! I can't stand the clutter that it causes and am working hard on changing my ways. I went through some of my old stamps that I have either NEVER used or used once 5 years ago! I listed some for sale on Split Coast Stampers, so check it out!

I made two cards, both of which qualify for this weeks Saturday Night Challenge. In honor of Shelia's birthday, the challenge is to use her favorite color-purple-in either a card or layout. I also have a February birthday and since the birthstone is Amethyst, purple has always been one of my favorite colors too :)

Thanks for looking! Have a great Monday!

Better Days Ahead?

I haven't been around much lately. Some of you know that I lost my mom a year and a half ago after a long illness. This has been the most difficult time of my life and some days I don't know how I get through. If it weren't for my son, I'm sure I would have given up by now! My mom was such an amazing woman and the center of our family. She made everyone she crossed paths with feel like they were the most special and amazing person that ever walked this earth. The simplest things I did she would gush over and always made me proud to be me.
Last week on what would have been my mom's 69th birthday, my Aunt (her sister) joined her in heaven. I feel like this has undone any of the healing my heart has begun since the loss of my mom. She was the closest person to my mom and always her friend and confidante. Her three daughters, my cousins that I grew up with and are like sisters to me, are devastated and heartbroken, much like my sister's have been for the past year and a half. My heart aches for them and the long road they have ahead of them.
My family has endured a lot of hard times and suffering in the recent past. But we also still have eachother and our amazing children to get us through! I only hope that life settles down now and we are able to enjoy the little ones and the upcoming spring and summer seasons.
I am hopeful now as well that I can get back to some sort of normal routine in my life, for the sake of my son and my own sanity!
On another note, thanks again to everyone for your caring comments and emails in regards to my sister. We are still waiting for some more biopsy results but the doctor's are very positive that she is going to be fine. Good news that she desperately needed to hear!

Saturday Night Challenge

The challenge this week was hosted by Shelia since Pat's daughter was in town and they were spending time together and did several classes at One Little Spark.

And since Shelia realized that January 28th was Pat's one year blog anniversary, she decided to change up the challenge from what she originally had planned. So this week the challenge was to make something that was inspired by Pat.

So, I did a card with my Nestabilities that I recently got from Pat's shop and also my Copics markers that I got after taking the Copics class that Pat's daughter Heather taught last weekend. In addition to the supplies I received, I just want to add that since Pat and Lee opened the shop, I have gotten back into card making, something that I haven't done much of in a long time but I truly enjoy!!! All of the adorable stamps they carry and samples in the shop have inspired me to create and it feels SO good :)

So here is my card, inspired by Pat! Happy Blog-iversary Pat!!! Hope you enjoyed the time you spent with Heather :)

Thank you

Thanks so much to everyone for all of the kind words and prayers for my sister. She spoke to the oncologist today and after reviewing her biopsy, he seems to think they caught it very early and that she will be fine. She goes on Tuesday to have surgery. They are removing the area around the tumor and will biopsy that to make sure it hasn't spread. But at this point, they are fairly certain it has not. THANK GOD! She was in better spirits today too. Yesterday was just a very scary, shocking day for her and for all of us. I love my sister's so much and don't know what I would do if something happened to one of them. Too scary to even think about.

Here is a card to celebrate all of the awesome girls in my life! Sisters, sister in laws, cousins, friends, cyber-friends! All of your comments really mean a lot!

Hugs! Nora Anne :)

I don't get it.....

my sister found out today that she has skin cancer, melanoma, i don't understand what's going on. She is 39, just had her second beautiful baby boy and today she is told she has cancer. I can't even see straight or think straight or believe that this is true.
Please say a prayer for my sister.

Check Out This Awesome Giveaway!

I came across this blog and new Etsy shop today on mycraft.com and it just so happens she is doing a giveaway....stop by her blog to enter! http://primitivemomoftwo.blogspot.com/2009/01/giveaway.html
You should also check out her Etsy shop, it's super cute :)
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5904671
You won't be sorry ;)
xo, Nora Anne