It's been fun!

Hi friends and family,

I have been battling this decision for quite some time, but have decided that it's time for me to discontinue blogging.  According to my stats, I've posted 2214 posts, and had a shade over 200,000 comments! It's been SO much fun, but...

I have not posted since January. With no design team work, a terrible lung disease, and kids/grandkids that live many hours away that we like to visit, I just don't have the desire or time to do this anymore. 

I will still visit your blogs, dear friends! I love seeing your inspiration, and keeping in touch with you through our creativity.

As I sadly close this page in my book of 'Life', and open the next page, I plan to continue creating and sharing. I'm hoping to feel well enough this summer to teach a class or two again, and to have my local creative 'sisters' into our new home to craft with me. I will try to post creations on Facebook, and might even teach myself  to Instagram!

I'm just an email (mamagilliam@gmail.com) away, or a Facebook page away (Patti Gilliam). If I get an IG page up and running, it will be 'google-able' by my name, somehow. Please keep in touch when you can, and I'll try to do the same.

Thanks SO very much for following me for EIGHTEEN years of blogging! I've loved reading each one of your comments, but most meaningful of all has been the friendships I've found over the years. I have had readers/friends in Canada, Northern Ireland, France, Germany, and lots from the good old USA. Each of you have a forever place in my heart! Hopefully, I can continue to encourage you on your blogs, as you have me on mine over the years!

Hugs, love, and blessings in measures of LOTS!!!

Patti J.

Eight days?????

Wow!  How crazy is it, that we are already 8 days into 2026? 

The older I get, the faster the days go by!

So, we had our Card and Cuppa today, and I decided to whip up a bit of snow-fun for

my 'village' of ladies.  Sally McDonald does an amazing job with the Card

and Cuppa - she's a wonderful Stampin' Up demonstrator.

Anyway, it's SO gloomy here, that I wanted to help some of the folks I'd see today smile for a minute or two.  I found these online, and couldn't resist making some.

Two Hershey nuggets

3 x 3 handmade tag topper

Two pair of Dollar Tree gloves, cut fingertips off

1 PomPom

One 3" x 4" Plastic baggie

What isn't pictured, was the wee gift bags they were in - there was a computer

generated sticker on the front with a snowman wearing his shades, that said,

"Why was the snowman rummaging through the bag of carrots"?

Answer:

He was picking his nose!

Have a great day, and always, ALWAYS look for a reason to smile!

Life is too short to be sad!

Hugs and well wishes,

Patti J.

Happy New Year!

Hello out there in blogland!

I hope that you are all doing well!  It's been August since I posted, and I feel a bit embarrassed!  

Life seems to have 'happened' again around here...

September brought a new home for us (meaning closing dates, cleaning the old house, cleaning the new house, moving furniture and things out of the old and into the new, and in the midst of all of this...

another small parcel of ground we own sold quite unexpectedly. Since this ground was where hubby's workshops were, it meant we had to put the 'move' on hold to build a 30 x 60 shop for him to move his equipment to!  

So, that's where we are now. The shop is under roof, and hopefully will be ready for the high winds that are to come through Sunday and Monday.

As soon as Mothe Nature is agreeable, we will begin putting the walls up.

Healthwise, we will find out on Jan. 7th, whether hubby's cancer treatments were successful. He seems well!  I've held my own this winter, so far. I've had to learn to recognize my limitations and have learned to have sit-downs between tasks, but otherwise, am doing pretty well.

I'm loving my new organized craft room. My old room was 21 x 16, plus a bathroom and closet to store stuff in. My new room is 12 x 12, period! Hubby hauled 3 completely full truck loads of craft items to Goodwill, as we were packing for our move. I only kept about 6 wooden stamps that had sentimental value, otherwise, about 300 rubber stamps have hopefully found new homes in Christmas gifts. Any craft I was no longer doing, supplies I don't use anymore, inks I didn't like, etc., are all gone. I have lots of empty cubbies to grow into now, as well. 

I also ordered some plastic sleeves from Amazon, and unboxed all of my Stampin' Up stamps and now just have a few boxes that are filed alphabetically, and easy to flip through. 

So, now when I come into my creative space, I clean up after each project, and I can find anything I'm looking for! It's amazing, and SO freeing! I wish I could make myself do that with every other room in the house, but that would leave me with no time to create!

Happy New Year to each and every one of you - I promise to try to post here a bit more regularly. It's so much more difficult to do so, when there is no design team to post for!

Hugs to you all, and blessings for 2026

Patti J.

Hello out there!

 Hello friends!

Golly, I hope that you are all well, and that life is amazing!

We are holding our own here on the hacienda - we both have fall appointments to check on progression of our diseases, or hopefully lack of progression, right? Right now, every single day that we put both feet on the ground and everything works is a huge WIN!!!

I can't believe that it's been SO long since I was on the blog. Hopefully, I'm back! Going to give it one more try - see if anyone is really reading what I'm typing!!! 

I may resort to just sharing on Facebook - sigh...

Anyhow, I have OODLES of cards to share, so I will start today with some of the 'Bits and Bobs' cards that I've made the past few months. These are all leftover pieces, ephemera, stickers, etc.

Enjoy!

This one has a random card base, an ephemera left over from a kit, or pack, and a sentiment that I purchased at a really fun stamping store while in CO last fall and winter.

This is all leftover pieces of Stampin Up papers, etc.

This one is Stampin Up designer paper with an ephemera bicycle added. The seat and handles have a bit of Glossy Accents for shine.

This one is a random card base (maybe from a big box store?) and a Dollar Tree dragonfly sticker.

Lol....just something cute I saw posted on line, and had to put it on a card to bring someone special a smile!

Same as last card! Hope it brought a smile or two!

Card base uses a Stampin up 'lines' stamp, and a Dollar Tree sticker, along with a sentiment from the CO stamp store.

Dollar tree sticker, not sure about the rest. Probably S.Up dies and papers?

Another ephemera piece with bits and pieces from my bins.

Another of the fun sentiments I found in Colorado, and some Tim Holtz Ephemera, and and OLD Cuttlebug embossing folder.

Just some odds and ends. I think the Cactus pot was from a pack of S.Up Ephemera.

If you have questions about anything, just shout out - I'll try to jog my memory and find and answer!

Have a super blessed weekend!

Will try to get back here on Monday with another post of 'catch-up'.

Patti J.

Chirpy Fun...

Hello out there! The ground is white, with promise of about 8 more inches tonight, so I'm doing what makes the most sense - creating!!!

A while back, a long time friend, and Stampin'Up! Demonstrator, Sally McDonald, held a Cuppa and Card at the Panera near me. We were to make a Chirpy-a-Doodle card. I've slept since then, so I have no idea why we chatted up the hours and didn't create, but Sally sent kits home with us all, and here's what I did with mine:

I used some cute Stampin'Up! designer paper that Sally included in the kit, and cut two different sized circles, so there's a bigger chick and a smaller chick. How fun is this? There are dimensional foam pieces at the fold, to help with some dimension on the chicks.

Well, I'm going to push away from the screen and attempt to create something!

Ya'll take care!

Hope to be back soon,

Pj

Hi Honey, I'm Home!!!

Hello there, friends!

We are home, and settled back in, and I'm going to attempt to get some creating and blogging done, before we move on to another surgery, or hospital stay...lol!

All went well in Colorado with dear hubby's treatments. We return to CO. late in April for a 3 month check up, scans, and lab work, to see if the treatments and medications have been successful. We are hoping for good news.

Update on me: I'm doing breathing treatments with two different medications, twice a day, and they seem to be helping a bit. Have been dealing with a horrific pain that went from back to side, on any given day. Last week, I had that checked out, and I guess I had coughed my #9 rib out of place! It was manipulated back into place, hopefully. We shall see. 

For now, I'm trying to live my best life every day! It's sort of a gut punch to hear 'no cure', 'no treatments, except to help with symptoms'. If you are like me, and want to run to Dr. Google, you can research something called PPFE (Pleuroparenchymal fibroelastosis.

Hoping that you are all doing well! We are expecting 9.6" of snow tomorrow and Weds a.m.!!! I'm sure hopeful that this is winter's last hurrah, as spring is only 31 days away.

ANYWAY......on to some creative goodness!

I decided that I'm going to attempt to enter some challenges, hoping that will get me back into the swing of things. When one has been on 1-5 design teams on any given day, and suddenly is no longer designing, it seems harder to get back in the groove!

My first card will be entered in the challenge at: Pattie's Creations.  We were to use any digital or stamped image, and the theme is Anything Goes.  Pattie offered up this free digi image, 

and I thought it would make a super cute card on a plaid background. Here's what I made:

This is one of the cards that I made up with some 'kits' of cardstock, designer papers, etc., that my creative friends sent me. I had found this cute stamp set in CO, and it seemed perfect for some friends of ours that had the whole 'snotty nose' thing going on. There are only so many folks that one can send a snarky, silly card to!

Card inside

Last, but not least, I placed a Stampin Up order with my friend Sally McDonald, and this is one of the stamp sets I got. I don't have a lot of pretty leaves, and thought this would be a good set to have on hand. Not sure who will get this, or for what reason, so no sentiment yet!

That's all I have for today. Hope to get to some creating while I'm snowed in, so maybe I'll be back soon!!!

Take care, ya'll!

Hugs and blessings,

Patti J.

The days after...

We had a very nice Christmas day with our Colorado family, and got to visit with our California family on FaceTime!  Hope that your holidays were blessed, as well!

Here are a few more of the cards that I made either at a class with the incredibly talented Ruth Petsel, or with kits that she puts together.

Enjoy!

Have a great weekend, and a wonderful New Year!

See you in 2025!

Patti J.