Saturday, November 15, 2008

Water Water Everywhere and Not a Drop to Drink...

What a last 18 hours we've had. Yesterday morning after the kids went to school I went downstairs and threw in a load of laundry and came upstairs. A few minutes later I heard a lot of noise downstairs and thought something had gone wrong with the washer, maybe one of the hoses had come loose...NOPE. Worse. I come down to a whole lot more noise....water gushing from the water heater all over the floor and the smell of gas. You guessed it, our water heater burst. I called my husband in a panic, shut the water and gas off and he came home. He was scheduled to leave with our High School students for a weekend retreat yesterday too, but he sent them off with our volunteers and stayed home an extra day to make sure everything was fixed. He's a good man.


So, we had to purchase a new water heater. I had no idea how expensive these were! We did get a much larger one, good for soon to be teens in the house, but the water heater alone was $900 not including installation, which we couldn't get till today (and weekend installation is more expensive just in case you were wondering!). So, because one of the lines was still leaking we had to shut off the water to the house. It really puts a cramp into life!


But....I am grateful it didn't happen when no one was home, and it didn't happen say today when my husband would have been gone.


So...I can have a shower in a bit when the full tank has heated up! Yippee!



Alright...down to the creative.


Today's inspiration challenge at SCS is a really neat website of felt scarves and wraps called The Felted Garden. Here was my inspiration.





I have been wanting to make a special thank you gift for the family that let us stay in their house in the mountains for my birthday. I wanted to make them a gift set of Christmas cards, like the tutorial that Beate recently did. Our friends like classic simple design so I used To You and Yours for some pretty Christmas cards.


Here is the entire ensemble:




Here is the boxed set and card I'll write in for them. The scoring lines are made with my Scor it tool.






The box closeup. It holds 12 cards and envelopes. The finished lid is also sponged to give it more warmth and the tag is embossed with the swirls from the dove.





And the gift cards. Here the dove was embossed, the top section embossed with the Scor It, and the flourishes are stamped in VersaMark and then Aztec Gold Pearlex is swept over the stamping to give it a golden shimmer.






A very pretty set, and practical!


Recipe: Baroque Motifs, To You and Yours, All Holidays Ink: VersaMark, Ruby Red , Gold Encore Ink Pad Paper: Very Vanilla, Ruby Red, Ginger Blossom DSP Accessories: Oval Punches, Aztec Gold Pearlex, Vanilla Taffeta Ribbon, Riding Hood Red Taffeta Ribbon, Gold Cording, Scor It, Zig Painty Pen, Gold Brads, Dimensionals, Piercer, Scallop Edge Punch, Coluzzle, Sticky Strip, Sponge

10 comments:

Natasha said...

Wow! This ensemble is absolutely STUNNING! Beautiful work!

Judy Rozema said...

Christine, this is such a beautiful gift set! The colors are so pretty!

Rose Ann said...

I am so sorry about your hot water heater, Christine!

Your ensemble is just stunning, girl!! Classic, and gorgeous!! Love them!!

Anonymous said...

Christine, I'm so glad life will be getting back to normal for you! This card set is fantastic. Mmmm...red and cream, beautiful!
--Becca

Joan Ervin said...

OMG, what a nightmare!!! Yikes....no water for 18 hours....Bless your little heart!!! Sure glad everyting is back to normal and you had time to create this gorgeous card set!!! I was blown away when I saw it on Splitcoast...every piece is just fabulous!!! Your friends will flip when they see these beauties!!!

Anonymous said...

A gorgeous ensemble Christine, absolutely stunning. I can relate to your water heater story. It happened here. I walked into my bathroom and saw a large puddle of water, I looked up and drips were coming from the AC vent. I called my AC guy, he came out and looked and said my AC was fine and then he asked if I had a water heater upstairs. He went into the attic and sure enough it was my water heater. It was only 7 years old and the bottom had rotted out. What a nightmare, it was gas and we had to get a plumber in for repairs, talk about expensive, wow!

Michelle Woerner said...

Oh Christine! How awful about the water heater! I hear you on the cost -we put a new heating system in and it was VERY spendy!

What an amazing set for that family. Boy oh boy will they appreciate it. So beautiful!

LeAnne said...

Gorgeous! I need to get off Whisper White and use some Very Vanilla!
LeAnne

Altered Annie said...

Oh, this is a very lovely set. The red is so warm and inviting, with the soft off white next to it, reminds me of an old red work quilt!
Bravo!
-Annie

Anonymous said...

Simply gorgeous gift set!!!! Love the colors!