Oh, Happy Day!

   Today is a happy day!  After the storm that wrought havoc along the east coast last Friday, we felt fortunate to have only lost phone and internet...but on Saturday we lost our power too.  My friend, Amy Sheffer, regained her power on Sunday and invited us to dinner and the use of her bathroom so we could shower.  It was divine!  At night we camped out in our basement, where it was less humid and much cooler.  This week dhDH (dear husband, Doug Houck) showered at work and the girls are in summer school, so they enjoyed air conditioning.  In the mornings I drove to a local coffee shop to make use of the wi-fi to catch up on email.  Yesterday I was anxious to ask Amy for use of her shower again, but then our power came back on around 2:30pm!  dhDH and I worked feverishly getting our bedding, snacks, books, magazines, etc. that we used in the basement back upstairs and in its rightful place.

  I don't think I have ever been so eager to be able to wash dishes, wash clothes, and to flush toilets!  The funniest part to me was trying to make cards without the use of my Cricut or to be able to peruse challenge blogs for inspiration.  I don't always use my Cricut nor do I always need a challenge blog for inspiration, but I think my issue was knowing those things were not available to me.  I could still crank my Big Shot :)

  I love this July Artful Delight sketch!  I think my card works for this challenge, but I took some liberties with the vertical strips (left-justified in my card.)  I adore Simple Stories "Summer Fresh" collection.  The 6x6 pad, all of the Bazzill card stock, and twine I used were included in the June Artful Delight card kit; only the white card base and that lone navy Making Memories snap came from my stash.  I also used an MFT scallop die for the vertical strips.  They are actually the scraps from my sailboat card!!!  Good use of scraps, eh?

I am also entering my card at Paper Playtime Die Cut Creations:

 #78 Red, White, and Blue colors plus add a Die Cut 

Happy 4th of July!  Stay safe and have fun.  We are celebrating with a crab feast and fried chicken :)