Hard to say Farewell!

When you live overseas its hard to say farewell, good-bye to those transferring onto new places. Its something that happens on average every 2-4 years ...we of course are the exception going on 6 years! But its like saying good-bye to family since your lives intertwine much more living aboard than at home. We have two families leaving and so there was an open house for them. These are two Qatar books I made for people to sign and send well wishes. The towels at the end of the post are something fun we recently found and of course you can't leave the Middle East without a Camel!

Qatar Flag is maroon and white so I colored chipboard and accented it with tiny Qatar flags and ribbon. The books amazingly were already white so I sprayed them with matte spray to keep protected.
We will miss you two families! Best Wishes for more overseas experiences!

The Sandbox vs Grandkids

So while we are in the giant Sandbox with AC blasting look what the grandkids are doing! Playing in the snow and throwing snowballs. Oh how I love them.

New Stamp Classes I am offering

This is a Christmas Card Class. Make 12 cards with envelopes. 3 each of 4 designs.

This is a Gift Packaging Class I am curently offering. It consists of three projects. A glass jar done with rub ons, Pringles can covered with paper and riboon, and a paper sack decorated.

Halloween Cuties

Need I say more.......

Tyson as Nemo

Max the Dragon

Madi Minnie Mouse

Fun Project My Quilted Bag

Want to make a fun project? This is it. I made this Quilted Square Bag with matching flower attached and wide ribbon handles. (hard to see click on pictures for closer view) Fast easy and all fabric and batting cut with my Stampin' UP! Big Shot! Gotta get one...ask me how!

Happy Birthday to the Max's! Both Born on Oct. 15th!

There are two special people in my life named "Max". First, is my dear Father who is the greatest Dad a girl could ever have! Then on the very same date our grandson "Max" was born. He is three today! So this day is for the two of you!
Happy Birthday Dad(Max)and Happy Birthday Max our grandson!

This is my father , Max or great grandfather holding little Max the day he was blessed. He looked so much like is Father, our son Mike, with a full head of black hair.

Here is Max now. He is having a "Spiderman" party today with his sister Madi and little cousin Tyson. Have fun little buddy!


Spiderman cake!

Opening presents, his cousin Ty giving him his present...maybe wanting to play with it too. LOL

Stampin' Up! Scrapbook Expo

I have some great stampin friends, Tami, Liz, Julie and Chari who were doing a booth at a Scrapbook Expo in August. So while I was in the US they invited me to help them out. I was honored. It was alot of work but great fun and our booth was fabulous! I can say that since, I did not make ANY of the items I just helped out. Seriously, we had comments constantly about how fabulous the booth was. In fact, we even got asked if "professionals put the booth together. So, I decided to show you a few photos so you can see for your self the talent these ladies have. We offered a FREE make n take and mini catalog to any customer which was a big hit. Be sure to click on the photos for a larger view. This is a look at the whole booth at once.


This is my favorite corner. The birdcage was a fun addition with items inside. They were all displayed on an antique school desk. Love antiques!

This was the jewelry tree (yes Stampin' UP! now sells jewelry)

This is a window frame with the decor elements used for the lettering. This is a fabulous project.

This is one of the many display boards of cards and scrapbook pages done with our new digital scrapbooking.


These are the blocks we sell using "My Digital Scrapbooking" to make photo cubes. Awesome!

This lamp and topiary are to die for. The picture does not do them justice.

This tree was filled with fun goodies. It sat upon a hat box and then vintage suitcases.

Lighting not great but here is a close up.

This bulletin board made with our ribbon and decor elements and it is darling...I am copying it for sure.

Close up!

This is "Cricut Dan" he was in the booth across from us and we got to look at him all day long for two days! Aren't we lucky?!

Way Behind..The Hospital Visit..Another Doha Day...How do you get released!

I am way behind on updating my blog. Bear with me as it will take a bit to get caught up. In late August upon my return trip from the USA I was hospitalized at Al Ahil . It is a private hospital, good care and modern for this part of the world. Apparently due to my 3 hour flight from Utah to Houston and then another 16 hour flight from Houston to Qatar I developed blot clots. Two of them broke loose and traveled to both my lungs. Diagnosed with Massive Pulmonary Embolism. I was in CCU for 5 days and then a private room for 3 more. I feel extremely blessed that the Lord was watching over me and made sure I got the care I needed. The many prayers from family and friends were felt as I gathered peace more and more each day. I also am grateful for the church family here. I had visitors every single day and they kept my spirits high not allowing me to get down or worried. Now, time came to be released and here is the Doha Days moment. The doctors signed all the papers and came in my room to give me final instructions. Just now waiting for the insurance people downstairs. A few hours went by and I being restless asked a nurse what is happening. Finally it came down to the insurance people emailed our US insurance company which was the middle of the night US time and expected them to respond back. Hello...no one is there. I convinced them to call. They said they could not get through. Its a 24 hour, 7 day a week number . So I called on my cell phone (costing an arm and a leg). They said, we approved the claim three days ago, all costs will be covered and a letter was sent. Great I thought. No...of course this isn't the end. The email went to another employees hospital email and that person was not working so now they had to have another letter because of course in three days the insurance may change their mind. I called back and the lady said if you stay on the phone with me I can write another letter and send. I agreed to stay on the line. The letter was sent. Steve goes downstairs to the office to see why its taking so long. The man could not open it...an attachment. No reason he should not be able to, but that doesn't matter. So I asked, can you email it to my email. The lady said yes. Steve drives homes, prints out the letter from our email and brings to the hospital, lays it down on the mans desk and says, "now let my wife out of here." So you see life is still difficult in the great Land of Sand! Check back in a few days I will post more.

Got on a plane for what...

To see the grandkids! Why else would you fly 16 hours then have a 4 hour layover and fly another 3 1/2 hours ? Well to see my grandkids (their parents) and my family too. But are these not cute kids that anyone would fly all the way around the world to see! I think so.

The Qatar Masters Golf Tournament

This happened way back in February I am behind so be patient I am catching up. This is the annual Qatar Masters Golf Tournament. I really enjoy it for two reasons. First, I think the golf course is the prettiest place here in Doha. It's green and feels serene to me. Next, it is not that crowded so you can really get up close to players and watch all the spectators which come from many countries. As a result, I like to play a game and get pictures of some people without them knowing it. So here goes... The first two pictures are the beautiful course.


These next two pictures are players giving autographs.

The next two really got my attention. Look at the caddy with the long wild blonde hair. He is a Rod Stewart look alike!

This last one is my game. The guy in the polka dot pants cracked me up. Click on picture to get full affect of pants pattern. I could not get his companion but oh..I tried. Some people need style experts to dress them. LOL

Doha Day for Making A Movie!

Story here...one day when we lived in Riviera, in the famous "Pink Villa" I heard all this noise outside and went to investigate. Now the gardener and I tried to find out what but they would not talk to us, a worker and a woman!Ya right! I finally talked Steve into going out and they glady told him they were making a movie in the villa next door. It was about a family under crisis with the recession and had to move. We don't know if they were forced to move into Riviera or out of Riviera. Anyway, our good friends lived there and had just moved to the states. She had painted inside and had a great backyard area. Somehow they liked this villa and decided to make an Arabic Movie. It was crazy. They put huge lights in our yard going over the concrete wall because they shot the movie from 1:00 PM to 3:00 AM..no kidding! So at night it was like daylight in our living room. Anyway, enjoy!

Lights, Camera, Action!

Chatting about the script.

That is my white Pajero in the driveway. Those are the men that told Steve what was going on.