My Etsy shop is closed

I am sad to say that I have closed my etsy shop. No more hand carved rubber stamps for sale by gettiinghooked :(
About 7 months ago my neck started hurting and at times it would actually cause my head to shake like fatigued muscles do after a hard workout. I have been to the Dr. and they are still in the process of running tests, I am not to worried that it is anything serious but I think I may have given myself  nerve damage by bending over a magnifying glass for hours a day. I just hope it is not permanent. So, by the Dr.'s suggestion, I am taking high doses of vit. B12 and am giving my neck a rest.

Despite my limited ability to carve stamps right now, I still hope to continue with all of the other crafts I am totally hooked on. So keep following me to see what my crafty heart comes up with. Crochet is top on my list right now, along with getting back to some fun swaps!

Of course, I will have to make the occasional stamp for my family's letterboxing adventures. Now that we are in a new place we are excited about planting some new boxes in the area :) We have found a few boxes already, take a look at our latest letterboxing adventure... we brought some of our new friends with us and they are now hooked on letterboxing too :)

Isn't this such a beautiful place to letterbox?? 

Thanks JeLyBean for planting these boxes in the Ute Valley Park.

A little about our new place....

Hi to all of my blog friends! This post will be a little different, no rubber stamps this time :) I have had many ask about our new place and how my family is doing. Well.... we are doing good. My husband and I really like the area, there are lots of fun outdoor things to do that we both love like hiking! Lots of hiking in Colorado Springs :) My children, well, they do like it buuuut they really miss Georgia. We have had several teary nights. It is soooo hard for us to see our kids have broken hearts. I see them trying to make the best of it and stay positive the majority of the time but there is something about the sun going to bed that makes missing Georgia all the more prevalent.  We were stationed in Georgia for so long that many attachments were made for all of us and it is always hard being away from people and places you love.  It will just take time for them to feel like this is home. I met a really neat lady at church who just moved to the area also and she told me there is  a huge difference between being unpacked and feeling settled. We are unpacked and waiting to feel settled. But, we are off to a good start. We found a church that we really like and have already met some great people.  For me, I miss things being familiar, but here again, it will just take time.

Did I mention that there are lots of great places to hike in Colorado Springs? Here are a few beautiful places we have hiked...  



This is my daughter looking at the amazing view




A little hiking, a little cliff climbing... it is thrilling!





One of the best parts of living here is that this is the closest we have been to family in 13 years... this is a picture of my dad enjoying a nice walk with us, what a blessing it was to have him and my brother over for a visit now that they are within a days drive away.



And finally, this is me. Used to be my kids would bury me in the sand at the beach, now they bury me in the snow :) Believe it or not, the snow is more comfortable to be buried in! LOL



Back in Business

I just took my shop off of vacation mode!!

Wow, what a transition!! The traveling went great! Only had a few minor vehicle issues on the way, ran into a bit of bad icy weather, but here I am, all safe and warm and practically settled in. The horses did great during this dramatic change... I was a bit concerned, but they have adjusted with no issues!! YIPEE!!

Our horses went from this....

To this......

And we all went from shorts to snow pants :)

It really is beautiful here, and I will post more pics as I settle in more.

Hope you all have a great day!!

Rustic wedding decor, a few pics of what I made

Here are a few pictures of the decorations I made for the wedding. The wedding was beautiful and my Kristen is now married!! I am so happy for her! She has had a fairytale courtship, engagement, and wedding. I will post more pictures of her rustic themed wedding as I get time.

I made 6 different rectangular saying that were placed int the center of swags made of twigs. They  were used in the chapel at the windows.

I also added a few of the same flowers that I used in the bouquets with the twigs.

This little chapel is located in the most adorable country place, so I added a few decorative items to the  entrance of the chapel... it actually is surrounded by a picket fence, how cute is that!!

This cake was so perfect!! I made the cake topper by drawing out a tree design and transferring it over to a wooden heart that I cut out, then.... I took out my handy wood burning tool again :)

Let me know what you think!!

Some lace, some ribbon.... Ooh La La

Been a busy busy week! As I mentioned, we will be making our final military move in a few months. We have been working on getting our little ranch sold for the past month and a half and it looks like it is sold YIPPEEEEE!!! We had to vacate our place :(  and finding a place to stay for a few months with horses, dogs and kids should have been a huge challenge, but by the grace of God it was not!! A friend of ours has a large ranch house and she offered to rent us a room and board our horses!! That was a relief! Normally, I would have just went a head and moved to our new state early but because my adopted daughter is getting married in November, she needed us to stay (her and her future husband will be moving with us). So, we found a place to hang our hats for a few months, all was looking good. Then came the news that our movers would be showing up 5 days before we scheduled them, which only gave me one and a half days to get all of my stuff organized!! And of course... my military man was in the middle of a base exercise and there was no way he could get off, so the kids and I were on our own. I ran a round like a crazy woman, throwing things in boxes that I thought we might need for the next 2 to 3 months. I packed my little car and ran back and forth dumping my stuff off in the room . I think the past few days had been the most stressful few days I ever had in my life!! Before I knew it, there were men trudging through my home again, packing up all of our belongings that will be going into storage until we find a home in our next state.         So, now it's all over, I am sitting here in my rented room, watching my kids play the Wee (they are loving that there is a Wee here :). I am still feeling a little displaced and frazzled but I know that too will pass in time. I have a little place set up to carve my stamps, which I have been working on.... I have a HUGE order, yippeeee :)

In the mist of all of this moving chaos, my adopted daughter had a lingerie bridal shower Thursday night. What fun!! She thought she would die of embarrassment :)))
One of the things I gave her are the garters that she will be wearing on her wedding day. Of course, hand made is always best :)  and thank the Lord I made these garters a few weeks ago, phew am I glad I did not procrastinate :)

I was totally hooked on this lace the  minute I saw it!! Isn't it pretty!!

Found some beautiful ribbon...

 I ironed the ribbon in half, got it all pinned in place and went on to sewing

This is the one she will keep... it has the special lace that I fell in love with

This is the throw a way garter, I made it a little different. I changed the lace, the bow and the charm

I wanted to present her gifts to her in something special

I found this adorable little suitcase in just the right colors and Ooh la la appeal :)

Under the first layer are the garters, under the second layer is the ooh la la :) I will just keep that one private :)

I made this cute little traveling tag using one of my stamps that is for sale in my shop. I actually made this stamp design a few months back just for this reason

I love the way it all came together :)

How cute is this cake!!! And yummmmy it was good :)

Weekend nail art

For me and my life  here on the ranch a weekend out is exciting!! I actually went out to eat on two nights in a row!!! YEA :))) I had a great time! Friday night was spent with a few girlfriends, they are helping me with my adopted daughters wedding. We went over decorating ideas and shopped and then went to eat. It was great! Then Saturday night we went out to celebrate my husbands birthday. We had a great time... my mind reeled back to last year at the same time...we celebrated his birthday with heavy hearts. He left to Afghanistan just 2 days later... actually today is the one year mark. He was deployed for over 6 months :( It was a long 6 months for our family but with the strength of the Lord Jesus and His many blessings we made it through! After having been through a long military separation through the holidays with children I really feel like I need to start some kind of something for children of deployed family members. It can be a very lonely time for children and spouses. My husband told me of all of the packages they were so thankful to receive, our citizens really took care of them with all of the support. But it dawned on me last night that the families left behind can sometimes be forgotten about. Rarely to they get thank you cards and words of support that are so desperately needed. I wish I could do something this year, but as we ourselves are gearing up for our final military move in December, I will not be able.... but hopefully next year I can :) !! I will keep you all posted on that.

Now, back to my weekend nails! I had to do something cute for my weekend out :) I stamped my nails and this is how they turned out....

Exciting weekend....

Here they are... my two rodeo champs!!

This weekend we had a banquet for the saddle club my daughters compete in... it was a proud moment for mama :)

My daughter, on the left, faced many road blocks this rodeo season and still managed to take reserve champion (2nd place :) !! Whooo hoooo. I could not be more proud of her! She had to deal with the very  traumatic death of her champion horse two weeks before the first rodeo of the season. The horses name was Shadow, she and my daughter fit together perfect. My daughter took her time and trained this mare herself. She even won a saddle with Shadow... it was a HUGE accomplishment. You see most of the kids that compete in rodeo buy very high dollar horses that are trained by someone other than themselves. Not my girl... she takes pride in her patient training and hard work and always give the horse the credit for her wins. She and Shadow were quite a team, she had a love for this horse that was strong and true. The story behind the death of Shadow makes grown men cry, it was a true tragedy. I may share this some day, but for now just know that is was heart breaking and a horrible thing for young girl to witness. My girl was determined to go to the first rodeo, I did  not think it was a good idea but we took her. She rode my husbands horse in the first event... it did not go so well. She could hardly see through her tears, she declared her hatred for Sable (husbands horse) and I decided it was best to go on home. A week later her daddy left to Afghanistan for 6 months. She was sad, it was so hard. About a week after he left she started working with Sable, my husband's horse. She worked daily with her and slowly but surly made progress. She competed in every other rodeo of the season and managed to take 2nd!! She worked so hard, and showed such grace through this trying time in her life. I reminded her yesterday that the Lord shined through her during the entire time. What a blessing.

My "adopted" daughter also won a buckle!! She took 4th place!! She was such a trooper through the entire season! She stood by me and my family and supported us and loved us through the hard times. I am so blessed to have these two fantastic ladies in my life.... thank you Lord! 

So... I did manage to carve a really cute custom order stamp this weekend. It is of the wedding rings but with names under the rings :) I loved the look and posted the personalized stamp in my shop.

The end of the month is here... if you have not yet entered the August giveaway be sure to go to the post and enter :)

An ode to my Chickens... something silly

An ode to my chickens: ( For those of you who know about horses and chickens, you will apperciate this... for those who do not you will get the idea :-)

Oh chickens chickens how I love you,
not only do you spread the horse poo,
but you give me two eggs every day,
and you keep the garden bugs at bay :-)

The making of a wedding invitation

A very special young lady is getting married this fall. She is someone my family has known since she was 13 and she has become a special part of my family. She calls me mama T, my husband daddy K  and we call her our adopted daughter, and my kids call her sis :-)

Her wedding will be in a small chapel (adorable) in the country, so we have decided on a country/rustic theme. We could have just ordered the standard computer generated invitations.... BUT no way!! Homemade is best!! :-)

I put my crafty thinking cap on (it must have been my night cap because I stayed up until all hours trying to come up with an idea for the invitations) and got busy, this is what I came up with...

I had this idea of a sweet little tree with their initials carved into it so I drew it out and transferred the drawing onto the rubber

Next, I carved and mounted the stamp

Then I gave the stamp a test run in the colors that we are using for the wedding

Because I liked the way the stamp looked in ink, I was ready to take the next step and try it embossed.

These are the supplies I used for the embossing and gluing the layers of card stock together

Started with embossing the tree trunk... yea, I was getting excited!! I really liked how it turned out!

I carefully embossed the flowers next, then went back and embossed the buds. I tried to stamp them at the same time but some would dry by the time I got to the powder, so I just did it in stages

Now it was time to layer the card stock that was all pre cut to size

(did it earlier)

And here it is... all put together! :-)

And after making over 30... time to put the night cap back on, but this time I may sleep :-)

There are many more homemade projects that will be going into this special day, I will be sure to keep you all posted :-)