Baby Shower Invite & More

My daughter looked at the price of store-bought baby shower invitations and quickly decided to make her own. Kind of a no-brainer for us stampers! Simple and cute, she designed this invite with some classic background & texture paper from Close To My Heart days gone by. The title "It's A Baby Shower" was printed out on plain white copy paper using a Close To My Heart font, Dot Dash from our Expressive Font CD Volume 1. Some things are better left plain and simple...and this is a perfect example!

A little update on the leak in our house....the plumber was here this morning and able to use leak detection devices to isolate the leak. Once he jackhammered a nice 2 foot deep hole in the cement of the living room, he came to within 3 inches of the leak in the pipe. Pretty darn good, I'd say! Good, that is, until the insurance adjuster came by and gave me her "news".

We've been following everything by the book...it's been a phone circus with different people from insurance calling to line up various people to take care of the problem. On Monday, one of the insurance guys I spoke to said any damage caused by the leak would be covered. Access to, repair of, and closure to the leak isn't covered. But, carpet would be covered since it was water damaged. Leak detection services would also be covered as would be the services for drying out the area. Great, I understand this.

Okay...fast forward to today...some random adjuster lady drove 2 1/2 hours to stop in this morning, peer at the hole, whisper something to the plumber so that I couldn't hear, and got out her tape measure to measure for carpet. Then she excused herself to go to her car and make a phone call. She came back in a short time later and said she had bad news...nothing is covered. WHAT?????????? That was a complete contradictory statement to what I had been told!!! Now, if I used foul language, I might have cussed her out, given her a quick boot to the arse and a slammed door behind her. But instead, it all stayed in my head and I asked a few questions then told her to leave. Am I furious? You bet! Soooo, exactly why do we pay homeowners insurance?? I'm not quite sure other than to make someone else's life very, very comfortable. (If you're an insurance agent reading this...don't take it personally.) We'll see what our local agent has to say...he's a reasonable guy, right?

So, Jill, my darling neighbor, bailed me out again. I wanted...no, I needed...a Diet Coke for lunch and the box was empty. Since everyone living here seems to have discovered all of my Diet Coke emergency hiding places, and the plumber was here, I phoned Jill up to ask if she had any extra Diet Cokes...(or hard liquor since I had just finished up with the adjustor lady)...and guess what? She did! (Diet Coke, that is.) Ah, at least I could drink to my frustrations with a cold soda. Thanks, Jill:) About the hiding places? I'll be finding some new ones as soon as I replenish the soda.

No news on the mouse front. Pierre, bless his passive little heart, slept all day yesterday in Karliann's room, where the mouse was last seen. Good grief dude...get up and hunt that beasty boy down! Maybe we should quit feeding the cats for a day or so and let them get good and hungry.

Until next time!

Of Mice and Butterflies...

Doesn't really have much of a ring to it, does it? Each one is so opposite! I need to discuss both here so I figured I'd make the title a bit on the curious side...kinda like the mouse we can't seem to find.

Let's chat about the pretty card to begin with...it's one that I featured recently in a monthly card making workshop and the ladies loved it! The butterfly is attached to the insert card along the body area. The wings are cut out and backed with a coordinating piece of cardstock. The paper is Close To My Heart's Amore, one of my favorite color schemes. The right side of the card insert with butterfly attached, slides out to reveal a message. Embellishments include brads, pearl paint, and ribbon. Really pretty and super easy to make!

Alright, do you want an update on beasty boy? This morning I woke up to a note on the kitchen counter that read..."will someone PLEEEEZE get a mouse trap today?" According to Karliann, she caught the silhouette of little beasty boy zipping across the windowsill behind a sheer curtain early this morning. (Kinda reminded her of a scene from a creepy movie.) She hollered for dad, who came running with a shoe. A shoe?? Karliann had a fit at the thought of a squished mouse on her windowsill so she suggested that her dad choose a more humane method of catching the speedy little imp...so...how about a box? A box?? What, are you gonna catch it with the box or smack it silly? Well, it was time for school and once again, the mouse is on the loose and not at the forefront of my mind today since I'm dealing with a very flooded living room and difficult insurance folks.

It's great to have friends who have got your back because my good friend and neighbor, Jill, had mine today. Remember, according to my kids, one must posses a hunting license in order to purchase a mouse trap so that was going to be a significant delay in my mouse hunting today. But, didn't turn out that way since Jill and Karliann chatted about the mouse "situation" on the way to school. Shortly thereafter, I went over to Jill's to borrow something and she was on her way to my house "bearing gifts." Ohhh, cool, I thought...a belated birthday present that would help fix the leak in the house! No such luck...but something way better...illegal mouse traps! Complete with peanut butter. The best part? By the time she left, they were all set. So far, no one has showed up at my door asking about possession of illegal mouse traps so we should be good, at least for the night.

If beasty boy ventures into this water-damaged room, he'll have cold feet, for sure. And maybe wet! The carpet is gone and the cememt is not real welcoming. There are holes to fall into, tack strips around the edges, and dangers lurking around every corner...that is, if you're a mouse. This photoshows the living room (and my workshop area) where the leak is. The carpet was the first to go and as long as we have water turned on, we're sucking it up with that wet/dry vacuum over there in the corner. Ahhh, it's just a minor inconvenience. It will all be sorted out soon enough and we'll be celebrating new carpet!

Maybe tomorrow I'll have good news about beasty boy...good news, that is if you're on my side. See ya soon!