vicki's birds

Happy Monday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. we just returned from a wonderful family vacation in the Outer Banks.

We rented a beach house in Kitty Hawk. My sons and daughters-in-law and grandsons were all with us for a week. We soaked in the sun and waves and enjoyed family dinners together in some great local restaurants.

Brett & Ghilly live in California so having everyone them with us was great. She is 5 months pregnant now. It's a girl in case I didn't post that before. My first granddaughter, and I am so excited.

There was a problem with red jelly fish and sea lice this year. The lice sting you and you get really itchy from them. The sea lice are the larvae of jellyfish we discovered after doing some online investigation.  The stings are often concentrated in areas covered by swimwear. So it's best to leave the water and wash out the suit.

The water temperatures were really cold for 2 days. The lifeguard stand had a temp of 57 posted. These 2 days the jelly fish weren't around, but it was too cold to stay in the water for any length of time. So we just hung around the pool at the house. Our beach time for these 2 days was taking long walks which I love doing. as well.

The guys had their long awaited beach wiffle ball game. They get so serious talking about the rules and making their foul lines etc. Even my grandsons get in on this part. The girls just watch and laugh. The winner gets bragging rights until the next vacation.

Brett had Austin and Aidin on his team and they were the winners this year. They re-hashed the game as guys do and talked about the plays and hits. Men get serious about their sports, you know!!
But, vacations all have to end and now I am back home with loads of great photos and lots of memories.

It's been a week since I have made a card for my blog. I didn't take anything with me on vacation. So needless to say I was anxious today to create.

I discovered today that my paper doll friend Vicki Dutcher is the featured stamper on splitcoaststampers. Congrats, Vicki you are so deserving of the recognition. Of course I had to make a card in her honor. She is such a fabulous stamper. I just love the work she does. Here is a link to her blog
I chose her botanicals card to recreate ala Mary Marsh style.

In this challenge we have to change at least 2 things on the original card. I kept her layout which I really liked.

My changes: I used different colors-soft suede, so saffron and very vanilla.  The designer paper is from the greenhouse gala collection.
My ribbon treatment is so saffron. I put a strip of tacky tape and layed the ribbon on top and shaped it into ribbon candy. I added some pearls to the ribbon as well as the images.

My images are a new set from stampin-up "aviary". The sentiment is from the "whimsical words" set.

Well, my friends that's my card for today. Hope you are all having a great summer. It's going way too fast for me. God Bless!!

card recipe:
stamps: su aviary, whimsical words
paper: su soft suede, so saffron, vv, greenhouse gala dsp
ink: memento rich cocoa
accessories: so saffron ribbon, reflections pearls