The Sweet Shop Challenge

It's time for another Sweet Shop sketch challenge! This week I'm using an adorable Cocoa image paired with a boatload of chocolates (I thought they were cupcakes! LOL!) and this sweet birthday themed paper from s.e.i., which I purchased at Wholly Scrap. All of the paper on my card is from this same line, love how the patterns work so well together! My sweet partying Cocoa is called Cocoa's Chocolates and can be purchased from Sweet 'n Sassy for a mere $3.00! For my background, behind Cocoa, I cut out two Nestie label shapes and then embossed them with a swiss dot embossing folder before joining them with foam tape. My original intention was to cut out two sizes because I didn't know which one I liked more...turns out I liked them both!! The happy birthday sentiment is also from Sweet 'n Sassy, a set that contains four birthday sentiments for only .99! My little flowers are from SU! Be sure to head over to The Sweet Shop to see all of the wonderful creations submitted by the design team! In other, non-stamping related, news...We were flooded out here in New England this weekend. I think we got over five inches of rain in a day and a half! Thought I'd share a few photos of the flooding...It's more dramatic if you live here and realize just how high the water is!

We live about a block from a river that winds through a good part of our county and eventually makes it's way to the ocean. The benches in this photo are typically 15-20 feet from the water's edge and the cream colored house across the river...they have a 6-8 foot foundation that is under water. The newer houses on that side of the river are built on huge foundations to allow water to run right through them. Unfortunately, that little brown house (a vacation home I think) doesn't have such a foundation is looks to be half under water. Folks from this side of the river were being rescued by boat yesterday afternoon. This is on the other side of the river where you can see that the river has overflowed it's banks. That house off in the distance is usually 15 or so feet from the river's edge.

This house is on the corner of the street that leads into our neighborhood. They usually have a tiny stream, which doesn't even exist in the summer, in their backyard. The river is running right through their basement and is about a foot from flowing right over the bridge. Just last week the river level was so low you could see the ground in some areas. The river by us is typically pretty narrow.

And here's the river running through our basement!! Ugh! It's not really the river but I guess the water table got so high that water started to find it's way into our basement through any tiny crevice. We've never had water in our basement so we were a bit shocked and not prepared to deal with it...Had to make the emergency sump pump run, which has managed to take out about half of the water. Not a ton ruined since most of our storage stuff is in plastic bins but we lost some good furniture and my hubby lost some parts from the Power Wheels, which he repairs and sells.

However, we are thankful that the damage wasn't worse and that the sun is shining today!! Looking forward to having a drying out time! Enjoy today's sketch!!