One is the Loneliest Number……


Okay, everybody say L-O-N-E-L-Y…….that is a word I don’t think I ever knew the meaning of until I moved to Ohio……but you know, it’s good for me, it builds character, AND, it means I get a lot of stamping done!! 🙂 Next to Luca, stamps are a girl’s best friend!! (He’s faithfully lying at my feet even now, HE is my best friend when Keith’s not home) 🙂 LONELY just SOUNDS like it’s lonely, doesn’t it? It’s one of those words that just sounds like it knows what it’s talking about……like……say……HOME. That’s another word that sounds like that…..is anyone relating to what I mean out there, or are you all going, “Oh boy, the loneliness got to her…..” – but HOME is just a word that wraps around you and gives you a big HUG. When I come home at night after a long day at work, my house hugs me, I’m not joking you. I walk in, and it just hugs me. The only thing is, Keith isn’t there to hug me too, so it’s kind of L-O-N-E-L-Y. How do you go from side by side desks for 20+ years to being separated for two weeks Monday at a time? He keeps saying, Life is too short, I’m looking for something closer to home this weekend….we’ll see- if we HAVE to make it thru a year for him to get the experience driving the big big truck, we will, cuz ultimately, you do what you have to do….and after 34 years you are solid enough to
take it!! Anyway, as you can see these days, I have been stamping up a card storm!! This time instead of getting hung up on one set, I am hung up on a technique called Black Magic, which is where you stamp an image in White Craft Ink and then dry it with your heat tool and then color it with Pure colored pencils. If its a solid stamp like most of the cards I made, you color in the white ink part, but if it’s an outline stamp like the one to your left now with any luck, (it might be four feet down when I go to post this puppy, but right now, it’s on my left….the one made with Floral background stamp) then you color in just the way you would with any outline stamp….and then I highlighted all of these with the white gel pen. A random thought just popped into my head, imagine that…..and it’s this – Do you know that in a blog if you click on a card it gets GINORMOUS?????? It does. 🙂 Okay- back to the “tutorial” – wow – I don’t think this is actually a “tutorial” in the true sense of the word but it’s all you’re gonna get and just be glad I’m not blabbing on about What About Bob? like I usually do….at least I’m explaining what I have done to your left……but the main thing to remember when you try this technique is this……I ALMOST threw away every card I ever did using this technique cuz it sort of goes thru an gawky stage like a 9 year old kid before you use the white gel pen to accent it. Keep on going, after 4 hours or so you just might really love your card!! 😉 Okay, I need to concentrate now cuz it’s time to pull up the next card, so far so good, no deletions of cards in
waiting – phew! There we go – here it is….this is such a fun technique – TRY IT!! And the hours just fly by….I went to bed at 1:00 am Thursday night…..a work night. BUT, Fridays’ are our down day at the dentist office cuz we don’t see patients, so if I am having a bit of a stamping ‘hangover’ – it’s just okay. 🙂 Back to thinking about the word L-O-N-E-L-Y……I have a new respect for people who live alone now. (Mom, and Cynthia, you are my heroes now!!) If not for Luca, I might go stark raving MAD…..I turn to tell Keith something about 20 gazillion times a day…….so I just tell Luca instead. He’s a very good listener….but Keith and I made a decision this year to invite someone we hardly even know, to THANKSGIVING dinner. She is a very lonely person I met at work…..and the thought just occurred to me one day, to invite her to Thanksgiving dinner. She has no family at all around her. She lives alone. At first I thought she will think I am nuts…..but the thought persisted. Fear of rejection, or making a fool of myself, or misreading that she might even WANT to spend Thanksgiving at a total stranger’s house, all these things kept me from just doing it. Then one day she was telling me that she absolutely hates the holidays…..cuz both parents died in a car accident and she has no siblings and she just spends it A-L-O-N-E…..and that was it, I just invited her…..and she said YES!! So our Thanksgiving will be so different this year with just Bekah and Jon, and my new friend from work. She is a patient of Dr. Sato, not a coworker. Maybe one less L-O-N-E-L-Y person on Thanksgiving, and maybe that will be ME, cuz right now we are not sure that Keith will be able to make it home……actually we are pretty sure he may not make it home. Weird to spend a real
live holiday without KEITH. He’s right, life is too short, we gotta at least TRY to find him another job. Those recruiters promise you the moon, and then when you actually try to get home….it’s like you’re asking for the moon. Do you like this one on your left now? It reminds me of that kids toy, a Spirograph, remember those? Next weekend, Betty and Ruth will be here, OH HAPPY DAY!! OH HAPPY WEEKEND!! Nothing like a visit from old kindred spirits to beat the lonely blues!! I wish they could stay like a month or so…..but I will take what I get and be happy with it. 🙂 Hopefully they get to see Keith too….argh…
You know, I like to read my own writing…(like I said, if NO one read my blog I would blog anyway so I could read it myself…..)I just backed up and read this over….and it made me think of two friends and fellow stampers of mine, who will be spending their first Thanksgiving without their best friends….for the first time. Two of my friends this year said goodbye to their husbands until they meet again on heavens’ shores….and I am just thinking of them right now and thinking they probably wish with all their hearts that their husbands were just out driving a truck and would come home soon. My prayers and deepest love and heartaches go out to Anna Mae and Carol this year…..I am thinking of you both, knowing that each of you lost the best friend you had in the world this year. The older I
get the more I realize that we really need to look at this life like we are just passing through….we have a Lord and Saviour waiting to meet us on the other side….and we need to be prepared, cuz life is short, and life is precious, and whether we are lonely or bored, or tired and weary, or blue or just in a funk, life is precious……enjoy each moment but remember that we are just passing through. On that solemn note I will end this blog….I have saved my favorite card till last again….this is the BROWN Magic technique, I invented it myself. :):) You just use Brown cardstock instead of black. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there….say a prayer for all the lonely people on Thanksgiving……and say a prayer for me, and for those who may have to eat my food, cuz remember Keith might not get home, and I might have to cook something besides embossing powder. HAPPY THANKSGIVING SEASON EVERYONE!!

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14 Comments
  • merrymstamper
    November 10, 2007

    Hi Karen! love your playlist! I will have to figure out how to add that to mine.

    Found you on SCS! Here’s a (((((HUG)))))) for you!!

  • Unknown
    November 10, 2007

    Hi Karen…loved your cards and featured you here: http://stampinwhenican.blogspot.com/2007/11/once-again-i-have-been-lazy-with-this.html

    Cheers!

  • Renée
    November 10, 2007

    These are beautiful cards! I love the technique. Thanks! Would you mind if I link your blog to mine?

    Thanks, Renée
    Stamping For Sanity – http://www.reneevs.blogspot.com

  • Jacki Marie
    November 10, 2007

    wonderful cards. I found you thanks to Allison. I’ll have to some back and read the details on how you do that black magic technique

  • Jacki Marie
    November 10, 2007

    oh I meant to say that I’ve moved a few times so I know what you’re going thru. My online friends are my bridge thru times like that. We are in our new location 4 months now and I’m finally starting to meet new people here. Email me if you want to chat.

  • Cindy Lawrence
    November 10, 2007

    Sigh…thanks for the good cry again Karen. 🙂 I think it is wonderful that you have invited the lonely lady for Thanksgiving. We did that for Easter dinner last year, and it was a wonderful blessing! This year we have a Korean exchange student for Thanksgiving. 🙂

    I love these cards you’re making! The blue one is absolutely STUNNING!!!

    Hope Keith is home soon! I’ll say a prayer for you both! Love you lots! ~Cindy

  • SmilynStef
    November 10, 2007

    Great technique … congrats on being a featured inspirational blog … love those cards.

  • Karen Barber
    November 10, 2007

    This is me, commenting on my own blog – because I’m not sure how to answer all these msgs!! (very computer challenged am I….) I just wanted to say of course anyone can add me to their blog list – (Renee asked)and if I knew how I would add you all to mine!! What an inspiration to have all these special people looking at MY cards!! 🙂 LOVE IT!! Thank you – sometimes when you blog you feel like you’re talking to yourself….right? Anyway -hello to all of you and thanks for taking the time to make my day!! Karen Barber

  • Penny
    November 10, 2007

    Hi there, just popping over to say you have fabulous cards! I found you through Allison. I am going to have to re-read the black magic technique as it sound great and I would like to try it.

  • Leslie
    November 10, 2007

    Hello Karen,
    My dad was a long-haul trucker for nearly 12 years. For some of those years my mom drove with him but for the last 7 years he would go out for 3 or so weeks at a time and then come home and stay home for 7-10 days. She stays very busy and they talked at least once a day on the phone. She is glad he is no longer trucking though!
    Right now my husband, Rich, of nearly 20 years is working a job that is just over 2 hours from our home. He has a small apartment that he stays in during the week. He goes to work on Monday morning and comes home after work on Friday.
    I am sending lots of long distance hugs to you! I hope Keith can find a job closer to home. My very best to you both!
    Leslie
    U/L Lisa Bunce, Cindy Lawrence

  • Linda Peterson
    November 10, 2007

    Hi Karen,
    I discovered your blog thru Allison’s blog A(stampin when i can). She is right, you are extremely talented. Sounds like you are going to make Thanksgiving a much happier holiday for someone else—you are truly an earth angel. Bless you thru the coming holidays!
    Linda

  • Mary
    November 11, 2007

    I had no idea that if I kept reading your blog entries, I would end up crying!!!

    Sending you a hug to help you not be quite so L-O-N-E-L-Y.

    God bless you and your family and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

    Mary Hortin

  • Pat Huntoon
    November 12, 2007

    Very nice take on an old favorite — this is the Pencil over Ink technique that was covered in the February 2005 issue of the Technique junkie Newsletter! Your cards are wonderful!
    http://www.patstamps.com

  • stampinhappy
    November 16, 2007

    Your cards are GORGEOUS! What a neat technique.