thank you

Eat Something Cute

/ Jodi / 22 Comments

birthday bakery card

Marty (hubby) came home from work one day last week with a beautiful box of homemade cupcakes from a coworker’s wife.  He asked if I would make a “cupcake” thank you card, because these little gems were seriously worth a homemade thank you card!

I had this old StampinUp Birthday Bakery hostess stamp set that seemed just the ticket.  I love the sentiment, “If you are what you eat, eat something cute!”

cupcakes

And how amazing are these cupcakes?!?!!

cupcakes and birthday bakery card

I was inspired by a very similar card I CASE’d (technical stamping term for “copy and share everything”)  from Splitcoaststampers.

I kept it pretty simple because I felt the sweet bakery treats should be the showcase on this card.

Hey – it’s Sunday!  Eat something CUTE!

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Thanks

/ Jodi / 20 Comments

thank you card 2015

Decorations down…. thank you notes sent…  the holidays are over.

Now it is another New Year.  A time for renewal, hope, dreams, clean slates, reflections on the past, goals for the future.

For the first time, I “mass produced” a batch of cards.  I had many thank yous I wanted to send in appreciation for wonderful friends and family – good times spent together, generous and meaningful gifts exchanged, love and appreciation expressed.

thank you card 2015 w

I designed a card I liked that I thought would be somewhat easy to duplicate 15 or 20 times.  I’m happy with how they turned out, but the important part was the handwritten message inside – a message of appreciation and gratitude.  I love sending thank you notes.  They are probably my favorite….  Maybe because they are becoming such a lost art and etiquette.  Mostly because it is an opportunity to let the recipient know how thankful I am to have them in my life.

jodjodi

Thank YOU my lifeinbetween.me blog friends!  I am thankful to have you in my life.

Cheers & Thankful Hugs,
Jodi

Vintage

/ Jodi / 28 Comments

I couldn’t wait to make a card for The Paper Players Challenge (PP220) this week!  The theme is Vintage, and I love making vingtagy cards!

vintage

I needed a thank you note for a special someone for something special, so I couldn’t wait to start vintaging up a card.  (Do you like the vintage adjective and verb I [ahem] created?!)

And the SUOChallenge (SUO109) is to make a Thank You card, so I am submitting this card for that challenge too.  Bonus – a twofer! 🙂

vintage2

Stampin Up’s Hello Doily and Dress Up Framelits seemed the perfect start. I had seen some great inspiration on Pinterest done by Lyssa Griffin Zwolanek and Cheryl Garratt  that gave me bits and pieces to create my final Vintage Thank You Card.  I used the distressing tool to rough up the edges and sponged with crumb cake and and soft suede brown inks.   I used SU Flowering Flourishes to stamp onto the dress form.  A little lace, an antique-look button, some linen thread and lots of little pearls all added embellishment to finish up the vintageness.  Finally, the sentiment is from SU Petite Pairs.

vintage3

Whadayathink???

Girly girly – eh?

I kinda love it.  Hope my special someone does too :).

vintage4Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

 

Cheers! (or in our case John’s Bar!) – There ARE good people in this world!

/ Jodi / 13 Comments

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This past Thursday evening, Marty and I went on our regular weekly “date” to John’s Bar.
John’s Bar is our CHEERS.
It’s our “where everybody knows your name.”
It’s an everyone-gets-a-hug-when-you-leave kinda place.
It’s NOT classy.
It’s NOT fancy.
Dare I say it is a bit of a “dive” (in the most flattering way you can call something a dive).

Don’t ask for a Cosmo at John’s Bar.
Brad (the bartender) laughed when I asked for Bombay Gin instead of Tangueray.
No frozen fru fru drinks.
Appetizers are packs of saltine crackers (if you’re lucky!)
The menu never changes – as many times as I ask to look at it – and even when I try writing something different on the menu pad, like Belgium waffles with fresh strawberries and whipped cream or a chicken quesadilla.
But you can always count on a grilled chicken salad (with French fries),
Or a bowl of cheeseburger mac soup,
Or some pretty darn good wings.

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Our bill for the evening rarely exceeds $30 – for dinner and drinks!
And we have made lifetime friends we would have never known if not for our regular Thursday evenings at John’s bar.
We get invited to pig roasts and picnics and parties.
We celebrate birthdays and weddings and anniversaries.
We laugh – and laugh – and laugh.
Sometimes we talk politics… and even though my views are a bit more liberal than most at John’s on Thursday nights – they love me anyway.

Well – When we got home this past Thursday evening from our “date,” I realized I had lost my debit card.

ARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!
(Dang that Marty for having me pay this week!)

Nick said I looked distraught…
I felt like I lost my left arm (I’m a leftie – so right arm does ME NO good!)…
I called our friends that were still there.
They checked the bar, the bathroom, the parking lot….
No luck.

So Friday morning I called the bank, cancelled the debit card, and ordered a new one.
What a long 5-7 days it will be waiting!  (seriously Mars Bank!?)

Then about an hour later, the bank called me.
Someone had returned my debit card TO THE BANK!
They told the nice lady on the phone that called me that they found it in a – ahem – bar (or maybe restaurant she said kindly) parking lot.

So see! There are good, kind people in the world!
Everywhere!
Doing kind little random things every day.
If you just pay attention.

Thank you to whoever was so kind to return my debit card to the bank! I appreciate you!
(even though the bank doesn’t – ahem – trust – and said they have to destroy it since “someone else touched it!” and issue me a new one)

YOU tried, and I love ya!

pink hello doiley victorian thank you

Hello Doily SU Stamp on Distressed Victorian Thank You Note

Cheers and Hugs,
Jodi

the joys of a handwritten note or a homemade card…

/ Jodi / 1 Comment

en francais and thoughts and prayers

Oh the joys of receiving a handwritten note!  Don’t you love it when you go to the mailbox and there is an actual card or note or letter instead of the usual junk mail, advertisements, catalogues and bills?

In fact….. as I type this… I am trying to remember the last time I actually received a “letter.”     Hmmmm……  Does anyone write letters anymore?  I honestly can’t recall the last time I received one.

I know I am thrilled when I get an actual note or card.   Especially a handwritten note or card!

In our current day and age of emails, texts, and instant messages, a LONG Thank You Note is:   TYVM (instead of just TY  or THX).

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Remember when we used to pass “notes” in class?  (before cell phones and texts and snap chat)   Boy am I sounding O L D !   

I recently discovered a couple of great treasures I had boxed in the attic with some old photo albums.

This first one is a book of “notes” from my 9th grade  BFF Sara that we passed back and forth during class.  She made this as a gift for me when her Dad got transferred for work (to China!) and she had to move away.  How funny it is to remember the “important” things we had to write about – almost always boys!
sara notes

And then there is this little gem that brought tears to my eyes as I remembered receiving this “good-bye” friendship gift when I was moving away to a new town from a very sweet girl (the same one who I boiled worms with in Grandma’s kitchen from my Stella Star post).  She had to have spent HOURS typing (on a TYPEWRITER) and drawing and writing a book of poems on friendship for me!

janet book

And guess what?!  We are still friends.  In fact, she is one of my BFFs!

So, my dear sweet Janet (SURPRISE!) – do you remember making me this wonderful gift?  We are “Friends Forever!”

I can’t wait to share this with her tomorrow evening when she comes over for dinner – with a glass of wine for me and a “Zach Special” for her!   (Oh Zach – see how we remember you!)

FF Jan

And then – the piece de resistance – those wonderful handmade cards from our children or that we ourselves made as children?   I’ll bet many of us have a stack in a shoebox, folder or special drawer.  We get them out and go through them every once in a while and smile and reminisce.cards

Aren’t they the best!?!

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So I made this card and wrote a note inside and put it in the mail today for someone special.

en francais and thoughts and prayers

I hope they enjoy receiving it as much as I enjoyed making it.  They deserve it.  They did something very special, and I wanted to thank them, from the heart, and with lots of love.

Those are the kinds of things I think about and are important to me (and I hope you) at Life In Between.

Cheers and hugs,

Jodi

(P.S. for my stampin’ friends, this card features the SU En Francais and Thoughts and Prayers stamps)