avoidance adventure

I mailed my last two sympathy cards today, after mailing one last week, and one the week before. I try to have one or two made ahead, since those can be the most difficult to make as needed, so this evening I made a thank you card:

stamp sets - Send Me Soaring (retired), Another Thank You; ink - Midnight Muse (retired); card stock - Marina Mist, Very Vanilla, Gumball Green (retired); designer series paper - Print Poetry (retired); punch - 3/4"x15/16" oval (retired)

Well, that's not quite the whole story. I was looking through challenge blogs for inspiration for sympathy cards. I did find some ideas, but this Retro Rubber sketch challenge closes Friday, and it really needed kites.  I really needed kites, too, for a custom job of kite-related thank-you notes.  Stampin' Up!® doesn't date their stamp sets any more (I miss that) but I've had Send Me Soaring at least 3 years.  It was a must-have when it was released and will be a must-keep, because we have many kite-flying friends.  More than half of the flyers are men, and Little Red Wagon is looking for masculine cards. The kites are easy to paper piece, too, so Cardz for Guyz played right into my excuse for avoiding sympathy cards.

We took a long weekend to visit our grandson in Dallas (and his parents), then our grandson from Denver brought his mother to visit us here the following weekend.  Meanwhile I finally got the *big* annual report done at work, and there are just a few smaller ones due before the end of March (then I can start the quarterly reports).  I squeezed in a Card Buffet, and now I've finally caught up reading (ok, skimming) blog posts and recording challenges. whew. I'd like to spend some time playing along with some of those challenges, and I really need some sympathy cards, so hopefully you'll be hearing from me again soon.