Holiday Bazaars.......

are a way of life and I love em. Especially around here in rural VA. Everything from handmade soaps to sock monkeys to fresh turnips pulled from the cold garden beds to kitchen handtowels with prayers sewn inside. Our church is no different. Along with handmade crafts there are tables GROANING with baked goods including oatmeal pies and double-layer coconut cakes and snickerdoodle cookies and the last of the summer's perserves which will be perfect on the Thanksgiving table. And then there's the homemade soups we sell by the cup or the quart plus turkey and ham sandwiches and more desserts by the slice followed by super sweet home brewed tea. Hungry? Crums Church Bazaar is on Nov 6th at the Enders Fire Hall from 8am-6pm!! I will contribute a few crafty items made using mostly Close To My Heart products. Hope to see you there!

October Stamp of the Month

This is what we have been waiting for! New program for purchasing the Stamp of the Month-yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stamp of the Month Customer Program FAQ

1. What is the new Stamp of the Month program?
Under the old program, customers were able to earn the right to purchase the Stamp of the Month at a 25% discount by making a qualifying purchase of at least $25. Under the new system they can do that and more-they can actually choose their own discount (including getting the stamp sets for free) as shown in the following charts:

US Dollars
Spend: Qualify:
$0 to $24.99 Full Price $22.95
$25 to $49.99 25% off $17.21
$50 to $74.99 50% off $11.48
$75 to $99.99 75% off $ 5.74
$100 or more FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2. Can a customer buy the Stamp of the Month with no qualifying purchase?
Yes, the new program allows a customer to buy the Stamp of the Month set at full price with no qualifying purchase. The more they buy, however, the bigger their discount gets.

3. Can a customer buy more than one Stamp of the Month set?
Each customer is only allowed one free or discounted Stamp of the Month set per order, but they can buy as many full price sets as they want.

yayayayayayay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All About Me

I'm afraid to see how long it's been since I've posted to my blog. Life has been soooooo crazy the last few weeks. So this weekend I am leaving town with some friends to get some serious scrapping done. I plan on working on an album "All About Me" for my focus. That's me in the picture. My maternal grandparents were tenant farmers in Clarke and Loudoun counties, so I got to chase calves when we visited, then go home to Fairfax where life was quite different. But no matter where we were, my father took a camera-thank goodness. Must be where I got my love of photography. I wish I could ask my Dad about some of his impressions of country life. He was born and raised in New York City but loved the idea of raising a family as close to rural areas as possible. Miss you, Daddy.

have a great weekend, everyone, and I promise to share some artwork SOON!!

IT'S HERE...IT'S HERE!!!!!!!!!!!
Go to my website
www.laurabohall.myctmh.com to see inside!!!!!!!
Just click on Products and you will have your hands on the 2009 NEW Autumn/Winter Idea Book. Scavenger Hunt date with great prize to be nnounced soon!

.......something different........

Today I want to post something different from my usual images.
This card includes stamped images from CornishHeritageFarms.com, assorted vintage ribbon and lace and everything else is CTMH. I dyed the flowers using CTMH reinkers and used our distressing tools on the edge of the stamped image. This card is for a sweet friend that I missed at an event last night so I'm just dropping her a note to say I missed her. Hi, Katie!

We are just getting back from the most wonderful vacation at Rehobeth Beach, DE. You would think it would be extremely chaotic with 8 kids and 8 adults, but this year that didn't happen!! The kids ages range from 13 to 7 with our set of 8 yr old twins and all the cousins got along beautifully. This photo was a lucky shot since it's so rare to get the 8 of them to hold still together!! The weather was incredible at the water's edge all week-temps in the low 80's. Up on the boardwalk was a DIFFERENT story-almost felt like 900 degrees instead of the posted 96 degrees!
Just gotta add this...while we 4 Bohalls from Berryville were packing the van last Sat morning to start our vacation, one of the kids bikes fell off the top of the van and hit daddy in the head! Had to go to Urgent Care in the next town and Brian got 4 stitches! So after a short rest at home we were on the road by 5pm and at the beach by 930pm-yay! The FIRST day on the beach poor daddy burned his feet on the sand! So he was suffering injuries from his head to his toes and he is 6'4" so that's a lot a hurt! :D) The rest of the vacation was smooth sailin' ....cept for me gettin rolled by the waves 3 different times! Thankfully there were lots of helpin hands and nothing popped out of swimsuits unexpectedly -another yay!

(sorry about the pics not sequencing with the messages-still gotta figure that one out!)

anyway...we're home and school starts wednesday and there's tons of laundry to do and the new Close To My Heart Idea Book will be made public on 9/1 and I start subbing again and I can't wait to get back on my bike and on and on and on.........

talk to you soon!

just a glimpse...

I just wanted to show a quick glimpse of a soon-to-be available stamp set! This is a 6x6 card I created using the Close To My Heart Sept Stamp of the Month "Treasures". I can't begin to tell you how much I love this stamp set. I'm sure it will be in a lot of my work in the near future. The papers used are from "Perfect Day" paper pak although their colors didn't scan very well at all. Let me assure you this is a beautiful collection of patterned coordinated papers! The crocheted ribbon from CTMH is one of my favorite products of theirs as well as the chocolate ribbon, clear buttons and chocolate waxy flax. Creating is so Fast~Simple~Easy when everything is so beautifully coordinated for you. Thanks, Close To My Heart!

more to come later!

Farewell....

13 years ago Brian and I decided we wanted cats and knew that 2 siblings would suit us fine. When we went to Ellen and Troy's farm to check out Miss Lucy's litter we had plenty of beautiful choices. First we chose Bluemont because he was the only black cat in a basket of stripes! Then we chose Dulcenea because she had the most beautiful huge eyes and tiny, sweet meow. The entire time we were making these choices, this one kitten kept hopping out of the basket and insisting on attention. I remember because I had to put him back in the basket each time. He was so persistent and playful that we knew we NEEDED him as a good offset to the other two kitties. On the way to the vet we came up with names based on a play we had seen "Man of LaMancha" and this kitten ended up with the name Pedro-named after a loyal fellow. It didn't really sink in what we had done until the vet told us we would get a discount for having 3 cats in the family! It didn't matter because Pedro was so worth it! Not only was he the biggest of the three and of course the alpha cat, he had the biggest purr, the biggest heart and was the only lap cat in the family. One of my favorite things about Pedro was that he would love to run the length of the house at full gallup, and with his tremendous size we had to make sure everyone was out of the way!! There were many times he almost knocked me off my feet and we quickly learned to get the kids to move when we heard him coming. I think it was just a fun release for Pedro because at the end of his run he would stop, look around like "what's all the fuss about?" and then find a quiet place for a nap. Yesterday we had to let Heavy P go home because of a severe illness.

Rest in Peace, Pedro.
We will miss you forever, sweet boy.