As today marks the end of another school year, I’m conflicted in how I feel.  I’m relieved that the stress of homework, exams, & daily routines are on hold for a couple of months, but I’m also a bit melancholy.  Having an upcoming sophomore and senior make me wonder where the time has gone.  In this moment, I’m reminded to count my blessings and cherish every moment.  I find myself wondering how a tornado rips through multiple elementary schools, killing small children.  Why does a gunman enter a school and shoot the youngest of students?  Why is a child born with a life changing birth defect? And HOW does a sweet 10 year old girl, who had a flu shot, die from getting the flu?  I’ve come to understand that terrible things don’t just happen to “other people”.  They happen to people in our community, to our friends, and yes, even in our own families.  I learned that the hard way when my husband was killed in the plane crash that claimed all but two members of Reba McEntire’s band all those years ago.  Most recently, my heart aches for a family of one of my dear friends, Audra.  You see, her 10 year old daughter’s best friend died recently from complications of having the flu.  How do you explain that to a child?  How do you comfort the young family?  What do you say that will make it better?  Sometimes, I think there are no words….I’m reminded of a Bible verse that helped me to get through my darkest hours, times when I couldn’t grasp how God could have let this happen.  Issaiah 55:8-For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD, then my favorite, Jeremiah 29:11-”For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  I don’t have adequate words for Halle’s family and Halle’s best friend, Abbey.  I can only offer up prayers for healing and special memories.  I don’t know that there really are answers for this kind of heartache, this side of Heaven.  Missy and I wanted to do something to let the family know that we were thinking of them, and hoped to offer a way for Halle’s mom and her best little friend to (literally) keep Halle close to their hearts.

Love and prayers for this family are so very appreciated!

Friday, May 24, marks a lot of things…..first day of Summer vacation, the start to the Memorial weekend, AND…………another awesome challenge from my friends over at Sister Act Card Challenge Blog!  This week, our sponsor is Rick St. Dennis.

I chose the image, Gardening with a Friend!  I was inspired my MFT Card Sketch, #89   .  I used copics, copic x-press it paper, and stickles, all found at 7 Kids College Fund!

Copics

Skin: E000, 00, 11, R20

Bunny: C3, C1, R20, 00

Overalls: B37, 34, 32

Shirt/flower: Y17, 15, 11

Carrots: YR18, 16, 12

Hat:  E44, 43, 42, 40

Basket: E57, 55, 53

Carrot Greens: G28, 24, 20

Grass: YG23, 17, 03

I hope to enter her in the following challenges:

Crafts and Me Challenge- Lots of Layers

The Cheerful Stamp Pad- It’s Natural

Freshly Brewed Designs- Flowers

Fussy & Fancy- Pearls & lace

The Crafting Cafe- Lady Luck

Paper Pretties- Fab Favs

Bearly Mine Challenge- Anything Goes

Robyn’s Fetish- Four legged Friends

Through the Craftroom Door- Anything Goes

Challenges 4 Everybody- Anything Goes

Our Creative Corner- Anything Goes

Happy Friday, and hug your babies a littel closer tonight!  Thanks for stopping by!

Trisha

I would have never thought this time yesterday that we would have been able to start our baseball tournament last night and already get 2 games in!  It rained ALL DAY!  Luckily, the rains stopped and the fields drained well and we played!  We are 1-1 in pool play, not what we would prefer, but we are getting to play and with the last few weeks of rainy weekends, we are happy!!!!!

I say all of this to remind you that we are in the middle of making lots of sports pendants for summer sports!  We can take a photo of your favorite player and make a great pendant or charm to wear to all of their games!  Just email us the photo to get started!  We can put team name/mascot. player name and number, or anything on the back and matching team colored beaded dangles!

Some samples:

Email us at missyandtrisha@gmail.com to get one started for YOU!  Be sure and “like” Sassy and Southern on Facebook!

Hope your team WINS this weekend!!!!  (unless, of course, you are playing us!  ha!)  Check out some of the other great creations at Five Simple Things, Inspire me Friday!

I cannot believe that we are in the middle of May, already! School will be out next week in Middle Tennessee! I think this is the least camping we’ve EVER done in the spring! The weather has been perfect during the week, then the skies open up and it rains ALL weekend long! We’ve cancelled the last 4-5 weeks of campground reservations! I’m keeping my fingers crossed that THIS is the lucky weekend! The temperatures are supposed to be in the upper 70′s-low 80′s….a little warmer than I like it, but at this point, I will just be grateful to enjoy nature! After Maggie’s surgery, I know “the girls” are ready to explore the wilderness!

Speaking of camping….It’s Friday, which means it’s time for another card challenge from my friends at Sister Act Card Challenge Blog!

Our sponsor for the week is Digital Delights.   This week’s winner will receive a $5 gift voucher from our sponsor.  I don’t have an image from them, so I chose this cutie from Saturated Canary! She just gets me in the mood for camping!! I chose this adorable camping paper from Imaginisce.  I found the cute camping brads from Scrap your Trip, and colored her with copics!  I was inspired by an OLD Mojo Monday sketch challenge, #73!  Some frosted lace Stickles from 7 Kids College Fund, and she is good to go!

COPICS

Clothes: BG10, 11, 13/R22, 20, 12, 02

Skin: E000, 00, 11, R20

Hair: E25, 31, 50

Fire: R29, 27, 24/YR18, 16, 12, 20

Shoes: E57, 55, 53

Wood: E59, 57, 55, 53, 51

Challenges:

Crazy for Challenges (C4C185)

Our Creative Corner

Challenges 4 Everybody

Forever Friends

Cupcake Craft Challenge

Simply Create, too

Through the Craftroom Door

Stamp n’ Doodle

Crafting Cafe

Paper Crafting Journey

2 Creative Chicks

Fussy and Fancy Challenges

Crafty Boots

Five Simple Things-Inspire me Fridays (Anything Goes)

The Cheerful Stamp Pad

Alota Rubber Stamps

Crafts and Me Challenges

Clear it Out Challenges

One Stitch at a Time

The Paper Shelter

Shelley’s Thrilling Thursday

Thanks for stopping by, and thanks for letting me share!  Remeber, if you don’t have kids or grandkids, we can still set you up with a pendant/keychain of your favorite pet!

I know that there are some happy Mamas and Grandmamas today opening their new pendants and charms with their sweet people on them!  Some husbands probably got some really good “points” today for getting their wife the perfect Mother’s Day gift!  (we are good at sending hints to husbands about ordering a photo pendant for any special occasion-keep that in mind!)  Be sure and send us a pic of you receiving or wearing your new pendant or charm!

On this Mother’s Day I just want to let the mothers in my life know how much I LOVE and APPRECIATE them!

I will start off with my mom-Mimi as you know her here!  I am so thankful for her and her love for me and my daddy and David and my kids!  There is nothing that she and Pop wouldn’t do for us!  I am so happy that they moved near us several years ago so they can be here to share in all of the everyday events of our lives!  I love you, Mimi!

Pop and Mimi with Katie and Whitt

Next, I am thankful for my mother-in-law-Gran Gran as you know her here.  I am so thankful for her raising David to be such a wonderful husband and father!  She loves me like her own and that means the world to me!  She, also, would do anything for us!  Living near grandparents has been a huge blessing!  Our kids hit the JACKPOT when it comes to Grandparents!!!!  I love you, Gran Gran!

Gran Gran and our McDaniel crew

I appreciate all that these ladies have taught me about being a loving wife, mother, daughter, friend, etc!  I could NOT have done it without them and their Godly examples!  THANK YOU!  I sure do LOVE ya’ll!  David and I both also had wonderful grandmothers in our lives for years!  We certainly miss them!

I will add a couple of pics of these two-the two that made me a mother!  What a BLESSING!!!!!!!

I wish you all  a very HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!  Go and celebrate all of  the Moms in your life!

Wishing you much love from our whole crew….

WHEW!!! We think all the Mother’s Day orders are in the mail!! There should be some excited moms this weekend with new pendants and charms of their sweeties! If you’re behind in your shopping, don’t forget that we have GIFT CERTIFICATES!! Mom can pick out her own pictures and bead colors, saving you all the tough decisions! Contact us with questions or requests!

It’s FINALLY Friday, which means it’s time for another card challenge at Sister Act Card Challenge Blog. Anything Goes means it’s easy peasy to join along! Check out what my DT friends have created with this week’s sponsor, The Doodle Pantry!

I bought this adorable digital image a while back, but had not made a card because I didn’t have a fitting sentiment. The Too Tweet sentiment from the Doodle Pantry is the perfect compliment to Wryn & Wren from TiddlyInks!  Since I have absolutely NO idea what a wren looks like, I went with a blue bird!  I used Echo Park’s Bundle of Joy paper and added gems & stickles from 7 Kids College Fund.  This week I chose a sketch from My Favorite Things Sketch Challenge, #101.

COPICS

Skin: E000, E00, E11, R20

Hair: E43, E53, E50

Dress: R22, R21, R20, R00

Boots: E44-41

Grass: YG63, YG03, G82

Wren: B02, B00, R02

Challenges:

Paper Crafting Journey-  Anything Goes

Created With Love Challenges- Mother’s Day

Crafting Cafe-  Lady Luck

Shelley’s Thrilling Thursday-  School’s out for Summer

Ribbon Carousel-  Let’s Celebrate!

Simon Says Stamp-  Things with Wings

V’s Sweet Ideas-  Mother’s Day

Through the Craftroom Door-  Anything Goes

Challenges 4 Everybody-  Anything Goes

Papertake Weekly-  Anything Goes

The Paper Players-  Mother’s Day

Our Creative Corner-  Anything Goes

Twisted Tuesday Challenges-  Free for All

Penny’s Paper Crafty-  Die cuts and/or punches

Crafting by Design-  Remembering our Childhood

First things, first!!!  CONGRATULATIONS to our winner, Marie Sullivan Gruber!!!  Marie shared our Sassy & Southern blog link on her FB page and was automatically entered in a drawing for a FREE PENDANT or CHARM!!!  Marie, please email us at missyandtrisha@gmail.com so that we can get started on your free custom photo jewelry!!!

After a wet April, May has finally arrived!!! Let’s hope for some May flowers after all those April showers! We have been busy working on Mother’s Day orders!!! It’s not too late, but if you are still interested in getting a pendant order back in time for Mother’s Day, please get your order in ASAP.

If you have school aged kids, yours are probably counting down the days until summer like ours are! We have been working on end of year teacher gifts. We’ve had orders for pendants of the teachers’ own children, the teachers’ classroom students, and the most popular……The Gift Certificate presented to the teacher so that she can pick out her favorite picture and size. We have a new record for number of people in a photo pendant. The previous record was 11. We recently completed a gift for a kindergarten teacher! Including the teacher, there are 15 cuties in the pendant! That will be a tough one to beat!

It’s Friday, which means it’s time for another card challenge from the sweet girls at Sister Act Card Challenge Blog. Make sure you take a moment to hop over to their blog to see what the creative design team has come up with this week. Our sponsor for the week is Paper Nest Dolls.

I’m such a dog lover, I couldn’t pass on this adorable digital image, sweet friend! I also used the inspiration from My Favorite Things sketch challenge. This fella and his furry friend are colored with copics. The designer paper from My Mind’s Eye and the paw print brad from The Paper Studio almost complete the look! You KNOW I have to throw in some stickles for bling and Copic X-pree It paper from 7 Kids College Fund for the card to be complete!!

COPICS

Skin:  E000, 00, 11, R20

Hair: E50, 31, 25

Shirt: B99, 95, 93, 91

Icecream: E44, 43, 42, 41

Puppy: E50, 53, 35, 33

CHALLENGES:

Penny’s Paper Crafty-  Animals

Stamp and Create- Use at least one die cut

Twisted Tuesday Challenges-  Anything Goes

Our Creative Corner-  Anything Goes

Forever Friends Challenge Blog-  Anything Goes

The ABC Challenge-  M is for Make it Sparkle

Challenges 4 Everybody-  Anything Goes

Through the Craft Room Door- Anything Goes

The Sisterhood of Crafters-  It’s a Free for All

Sepia 1 1/2″ pendant

Mother’s Day is knocking on the door! We thought this would be a great time to do a drawing for a free photo pendant or charm…your choice! You can give the pendant as a gift or use it for yourself. If you are having trouble coming up with a picture, don’t forget we sell Sassy gift certificates! There are two ways you can be entered in the drawing:

#1- If you have a blog, link up to our blog on one of your posts, then leave a comment on our blog to let us know so we can verify.

#2- Share our link on your FB Page and let us know in the comment section.

Why not do both and DOUBLE your chances! We will have the drawing next Friday, May 3, so make sure to check back with us to see if you are the lucky winner!!

It’s Friday which means that it’s time for another card challenge at Sister Act Card Challenge. I absolutely love that this weekly challenge is always “Anything Goes”! It couldn’t be easier to play along! We are lucky ducks this week because we have TWO wonderful sponsors, Milk Coffee  and Digi Darla Designs!

I’m always in need of a get well card, so I chose Charlotte is a Nurse from Milk Coffee! I think she’s precious!!

Copics

C5,C3,C1,C00

E35,E31,E50

R24,R22,R20

E11,E00, E000, R20

She is colored with copics and embellished with stickles. I also used the lacy oval nestabilities from Spellbinders. All these things can be found at 7 Kids College Fund!

Challenges:

Crafty Bloggers Network-  Anything Goes

Challenges 4 Everybody-  Anything Goes

Through the Craftroom Door-  Anything Goes

V’s Sweet Ideas-  Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp-  Anything Goes

Pink Elephant-   Lift It

ABC Challenge-  ABC25 Recycle

The Siterhood of Crafters-  Free for All

Crafting by Design-  Anything Goes

Penny’s Paper Crafty-  Anything Goes

One Stitch at a Time-  Use a Digi

Ladybug Crafts Ink-  Red & White

Missy sent me a blog that wanted to know why people blog….interesting question….Missy and I blog because it’s been a great way to promote our custom photo jewelry! We’ve been able to create beautiful keepsakes for customers in nearly ALL 50 states! We think it’s the best way to spread the word about our unique jewelry. We are both stay at home moms, so we enjoy having a business that allows us to bring in some money and still stay home with our families. You can check out answers from other bloggers or even share your story by visiting Blonde Ambition Blog!
I’ve also enjoyed sharing my card and stamping creations. Now that I have the honor of being on the Design Team at Sister Act, it’s a great way to network and share ideas!

We would like to invite our local friends in the Nashville area (Franklin, Brentwood, Columbia, Hendersonville, Dickson etc!) to join us NEXT THURSDAY, May 2nd.  Drop by to browse, have a yummy snack and visit with friends!  .

Sassy and Southern Open House

Featuring Sassy and Southern Custom Photo Jewelry, Initials, Inc., Pampered Chef, Premier Jewelry and MonaVie.

Thursday, May 2nd

  10 am-2 pm

At the home of Missy McDaniel

(615) 495-4435 or missyandtrisha@gmail for address and directions

We sure hope that you can join us!  Have a GREAT day!

Sassy and Southern Photo Pendant

I am having a hard time fathoming that David and I have been married for 20 YEARS!  WHERE has the time gone????  It hardly seems possible since I’m still 29!  A little mushy but I don’t think I knew 20 years ago that it was possible to love him more than I did that day, but I do!

Well, to celebrate this little milestone, we spent several days exploring the coast of Maine!  Now, Maine in mid-April might not be for everyone, but we had a BLAST!!!!  It was quite chilly and rainy alot of the time but we took it all in and loved every minute of it!  We flew in to Manchester, NH and started making our way North.  We HAD to have our first lobster roll as soon as we hit Maine!  WOW-we have been MISSING OUT!  It was delicious!  We hit Hwy 1 and drove through all of the towns along the coast and spent the night somewhere different every night.  Our first night was in Kennebunkport, ME.  I highly recommend the Kennebunkport Inn if you are ever in the area!  We drove around town and checked out the Bush Family compound on Walker Point.  We spent LOTS of time researching good places to eat on this trip-we do LOVE to eat-ha!  We ended up at a little place called Mabel’s that evening.  David had his first whole lobster! I had my lobster stuffed in mushroom caps with melted cheese on top-OH MY!  I wish I had some of those right NOW!

The next morning we hit the road again!  Heading North to our next destination-the Berry Manor Inn in Rockland, ME.  I have to admit, I thought that we would see lighthouses EVERYWHERE!  Well, those lighthouses are hard to find!  You really have to know where you are going and be intentional to see a lighthouse!  We did end up seeing several but we were determined!  We made it to the B&B in Rockland and were thrilled to come back after dinner to fresh pies a la mode from the Pie Ladies-who had been featured on the Food Network on Drive Ins, Diners and Dives.  The Pie Ladies are the owners’ mothers and they make pies and have them out all of the time for guests!  (AND they keep ice cream in the kitchen for you too!) They were delightful!  Blueberry pie is most famous in the area!  (we have to admit that we had it twice!) It snowed REALLY hard on us on our way to dinner that night-we weren’t expecting THAT!  I mean, it’s SPRING, right???   Breakfast the next morning was great too!  We have never been big B&B people but this was a really neat experience.  If you ever get the chance, give one a try!  The Berry Manor Inn was GREAT!

After leaving Rockland (and the Camden area), we headed toward Bar Harbor, ME.  This was the coldest day that we had!  There was SNOW along the sides of the road on the way North.  When we arrived in Bar Harbor, we realized that not many people plan trips to Maine in mid-April!  Not much was open!  One shop that we found open, when we walked in the cute girl said, “I am SO happy that you are here!  I thought noone was going to come in today!”  Most places had signs that said “CLOSED-See you in the Spring!”  Our favorite line of the trip was when you were in somewhere and the locals would be talking they would always say, “How was your Winta???”  We then realized that they must not get out much in the “Winta!”  ha!  We were sad to learn that Acadia National Park was still closed for the season due to sequestration.  SO we went on a lighthouse hunt-and we found it!  Luckily, our sweet waitress at dinner that evening told us about ONE road into Acadia that stayed open all Winter!  The next morning we headed out that way!  We were able to see Cadillac Mountain from the bottom and Sandy Beach and Thunder Hole up close!  The views were beautiful even on a cloudy day!  Supposedly, Acadia is the first place that the sun hits the US in the morning.  We woke up early that morning to see what little we could of the sunrise and then went back to sleep for a while so we’d be ready for a big day ahead!

We ended up leaving Bar Harbor earlier than we had planned due to the weather and most things being closed so we headed back South on 95 and got the most exciting surprise!  We were able to meet up with my life-long friend, Lucy Ann, who lives just north of Boston!  She drove to Kittery to meet us and spend the afternoon!  It was SUCH a treat!  We had not seen her in 2 years!  We flew home the next day and arrived home JUST in time to see Katie Mc play some ball!

It was a WONDERFUL 20th Anniversary trip!  SO much to see-lobsters, beaches, harbors, lighthouses, snow, and lifelong friends!  I am ready to head out on another adventure!

Thanks to the grandparents and Aunt Sharon for taking care of Katie, Whitt and Daisy Belle and going to and cheering at all of the sporting events that we were missing!  I hate missing any activities but it sure was nice to get away!  We hit it hard when we got home with Katie’s 17th birthday the next day  and our actual anniversary the next!  No rest for the weary-there’s a baseball tournament this weekend, Katie goes to her first prom Saturday and then graduates from Youth Leadership Franklin, a great community organization that she has been involved in this year, on Sunday!  I think I better go take a nap now thinking about all of that!

I will leave you with a picture of our birthday girl!  Happy Birthday Katie Mc! (OH and a wedding pic of 2 kids from 20 years ago!)

Missy is back from Maine, and I am back from California, so it’s back to work for the Sassy Girls!!  Make sure you come by and visit us next week.  We will announce our FREE PENDANT DRAWING just in time for Mother’s Day.  We hope you will play along for your chance to win a custom photo pendant for your special mother.  Pssst….we won’t tell anyone if you decide to order one for yourself, instead!! ; ) I can’t wait to read about Missy’s trip, but until then, I’m going to share my creation from Challenge #3 of the Sister Act Card Challenge Blog!  This week our sponsor is Resale Clipart.  In the past, I’ve seen digital images that are pre-colored, but since I LOVE to color so much, I never really entertained the idea of getting any.  However, after the crazy & busy schedule of the last few weeks, I totally “get it”!!

I chose the image, Army Boy.  With the  perfectly pre-colored image and the help of the Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge, I was able to put this card together in a jiffy!!  No stamps, no copics, just some camouflage paper from The Paper Studio, some Army embellishments, and I was good to go.

I plan to enter him in the following challenges:

Simply Create- Challenge #35

Created With Love- Recycle/Reuse

Papertake Weekly- One Paper Taker

Crafting for All Seasons- No Stamps Allowed

Crafty Bloggers Network- Anything Goes

Challenges 4 Everybody- Anything Goes

Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge- #206

Nutcrafters Challenge- Anything Goes

Through the Craftroom Door

Card Making Mamas- Time for Ribbon

Stamp n Doodle- Anything Goes

2 Sisters Challenge Blog- Hats

V’s Sweet Ideas- Anything Goes

Thanks for letting me share!  Take a moment to jump over to Sister Act Card Challenge Blog to see what my DT friends have created! Don’t forget to come back next week to get details for the FREE PENDANT DRAWING!!!