my boy...

This is my boy. He's eight and loves mini golf so we celebrated with his classmates and friends by playing a round of mini golf. It was a beautiful day... the sky was much bluer than it looks in this photo :)

Happy birthday bud :)

i have an amazing sister...

Did you know that? I have three actually, but my sister Joanne has been home from work the last few days and I stopped by one day to keep her company. Not only did she make all these yummy flowers for me, but she taught me how to make them too! Some are five petal and some are six petal... I just might go all out and make some seven petal! Rebel! I still need practice. Mine aren't nearly as beautimus as these delights but they are usable.

Thanks Jo <3

hijacked...

No, it's really just me. I just fell off the face of the earth for a while :) There was Christmas, then my daughters birthday in early January and she's in kindergarten now so it's kinda a big deal these days. And I am going to be a grandma.. yeah, I know. I'm not old enough but it seems no one told my boys that! Anyway, we're getting excited as Bryce will soon be here. Just a few more weeks if he decides to show up on time. Plus, I am ashamed to admit I was addicted to too many of those blasted facebook games. Yoville. That's it. I allow myself that one game. No Mafia Wars, no Cafe World, no Farmville... you get the picture. If you play look me up :)

So, I plan to get back into crafting and blogging again. Actually, I've been crafting. Any kind words of encouragement is appreciated :) Oh, and thanks to those who missed me. I really appreciate that.

Here's a little tote I made for my daughter to give to her kindergarten teacher. It's got a bag of Valentine Ghirardelli chocolates in there. Yup, the big one. She's that good. I just wish I knew school would be closed for three days due to the snow we have in the Northeast. I would have gotten them tomorrow when they are half price.

For this sweet tote, I pulled out my Scor-Pal. Love that thing! I just lined the candy box up with the lines on the Pal and went at it. I rarely follow directions and I just wing it quite often. I waste a LOT of paper that way, but I still have an abundance so I am generally OK with that. The mouse is from the DCWV stack and I cut her out with my craft knife. I added a little shimmer of cheapo glitter glue to her bow, and some red grosgrain (after Christmas clearance at Target, love it!) as a handle. The top of the bag was done with the EK success punches. My intent was to do both layers with the larger scallop but the punch had other ideas. It stuck on the cardstock and refused to give it up. An email to EK success solved that little problem, but not in time to finish the bag. If your punch gets stuck on cardstock, they say to toss it in the freezer to contract the metal then punch foil and wax paper. I knew the last part but the freezer idea was new to me. I hope that tip helps both of you :)

supplies
paper: dcwv farmer's market paper stack
accessories: red grosgrain, ek success punches

ring around the snowman...

I've always loved this image. I'm not really sure why I don't own it. LOL

I colored these guys with Copic markers and cut them out with my nesties layering on a nestie flower. I really like the wavy crazy look of that.

The card base and layers were done at CKC during the crop. I didn't stay long. It seems the CKC crops go down hill every year. I'd heard that the Friday night crop is better than the Saturday night crop so I scheduled that one but there's so many people there and it's so loud and the contests they do are so cheesy anymore! I'm not sure if I will be attending a crop next year. Seems a waste to pay for a crop that I leave half way through. I wish the vendor fair was open that late though! Hee hee ;p


supplies
ink: black colored with colored with copic markers
paper: sei christmas mint cocoa cluster, american crafts red textured, coredinations color core green
accessories: pti white organdy dotted ribbon, stash red organdy ribbon, nestabilities

a little birdie told me to get a...

Bind it All. So, here it is... the book that started it all. Georgann and I went to my friend Tracy's house a while ago and we made these cute little books. Tracy rocks, and I am truly not as good of a friend as she is... I just have such a hard time getting back to people in a timely matter! It's not personal, really... so if any of you out there is waiting for a reply from me... give me a prod OK?

This was made with Tracy's stash of goodies, and I really can't remember it all. I know it's a Stampin' Up chipboard birdie, some May Arts, Stampin' Up and American Crafts ribbons (as well as others) I think the eyelet is WRMemories and the paper is also Stampin' Up.

Tracy, if you're reading this... love ya and I suck :(

how quickly they grow...

It's hard to believe the cute pup we got just a few months ago has already grown into this monster! I had him at the vet this morning and he weighs 27.5 pounds already! Someone send him a memo... he thinks he's a lapdog. We expect him to grow to be about 80-100 lbs. WHAT was I thinking???

Bowzer has been going to puppy training classes and he's usually a pretty good pup. We've "bell trained" him so he rings a cow bell when he needs to go out, which is actually a lot less annoying than it sounds. He wasn't signaling us to take him out but this seemed to work great for him. That in itself is less annoying!

bees at gees...

So, I've been fooling with a new watermark. I love images of butterflies and orange is my favorite color, so I wanted to incorporate that too. I'm kinda feeling like the orange is too bold though. What do you think?

I don't even know how long ago this was made! Georgann had recently ordered this stampset and I was playing around with it. I think because she was using it for a workshop. I oozed a little crystal effects on the honey creeping out of the honey pot.

supplies
stamps: stampin up just buzzin' by
ink: memento tuxedo black, copic markers
paper: patterned paper by making memories, barely banana, old olive
accessories:crystal effects, ek success border punch

a pup named bowzer....

I know, I am crazy, right? Yup... I am. Meet Bowzer. He's two months old now and he's been around for about a week. He's a really good pup, but that could change by tomorrow. Today he started nipping at feet. But look at those eyes... who could stay mad?

didja know i love orange...

Monday my hubby and I celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary and he surprised me with this beautiful bunch. We are going to dinner on Friday. I don't know where yet, it's a surprise!
Now... if only the rest of outside was this colorful!

our nation's history...

This weekend we spent some time at Historical Valley Forge National Park for some reenactment shows. If you're ever in the area, check out the park. It has amazingly beautiful views not to mention wonderful American History.

Here's some of the great performances we saw today:

Firing the muskets

marching in formation

preparing the cannon to fire (boy was that thing LOUD!)

cozy kids....

My husband bought me a *slanket* for Christmas. The kids love it so today I am making one for each of them. If you don't know what a slanket is, it's similar to a *snuggli*. Pretty much, it's a blanket with sleeves. I used some SU purely pomegranate satin ribbon to edge it. I will add my son's tomorrow... I am still sewing that one!

a gift for you...

I picked up this tag from a blogging friend Jorge... oh wait... it was Jen!. It sounded like a lot of fun :) so I am game. I hope you are too!

This game involves a few of my favorite things: handmade goods, creativity, and gift-giving. Here are the tagging instructions: The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It'll be done this year. (might be a little while)
4- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry or an article on properly cleaning your face before a masque. I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog.

The first 5 people to do so, and leave a comment telling me they did, win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!

Feel free to tell me some of the things in life that inspire you & make you happy in your post :)

new banner...

I am still learning how to use Photoshop so bear with me, K? I wanted a more wintry theme. I think this one is more autumnal but I don't have a lot of digital stuff to play with. Plus, if you don't already know... orange is my favorite color... so expect to see if a lot! Let me know what you think about my banner :)

almost set...

Last week I got a new PC and we've been working to get XP to run on it and make back up disks of Vista for Justin (Case). Well, this is my *first* blog entry on my new PC. There's till work to do... I need to copy over my fonts (my husband actually thinks that the 50ish that comes with the PC is enough!) and I need to copy over all my music. Last time I got a new PC there were issues with that, so I am going to rip everything from CD. I don't do any music downloading so I have everything and I am not too concerned about that.

Throwing another wrench into the mix was a trip to IKEA. My managed to drag my son along. It's almost an hour ride and I hate to drive alone. I wanted to make a home mad clip it up. Well, I decided after getting all my clip it up supplies that I'd look at the dent and scratch area. They had BRAND NEW base cabinets for $10 each. They only had the corner cabinets, so if you're thinking you're going to do your kitchen you'd be wrong. But if you're not going to put doors on, and you just want a base to get your counter top off your Crop In Style cubes then these are the perfect thing! I also have an old shelving unit that I want to demote to the garage. So I am getting pretty much a whole craft room/office overhaul :)

And I got some stamping in yesterday to boot! But I will share that with you later.

ch-ch-ch-changes...

Sorry my banner is so..... blah right now. I have a few new things coming up... I am working on a new banner but my PC crashed last night. I *hate* Microsoft! So, I couldn't finish it. I made a new little signature... I hope you like it. I am going to try to keep things fresh around here, so I am planning on new banners and signatures every few months. I hope you enjoy that part of my blog too :)

the monkeys are coming...

My beautiful daughter just had her fifth birthday a few days ago and she wanted a sock monkey theme... so I made about 20 of these invites for her friends. The inside was printed on my 'puter and stamped with SU Sprinkles and the banana from Sock Monkey.

I have a bear Wilton's cake pan and I decorated it like the sock monkey on the invite. The pink is a whole lot darker than I wanted it to be but Abby didn't mind, so I went with it. It's been a long time since I did a cake like this and I forgot how fun it is.

supplies:

paper: pink pirouette, chocolate chip dsp, cheap textured vanilla from AC Moore

ink: basic brown, pti dark chocolate, summer sun, pretty in pink

stamps: sock monkey and accessories, sprinkles, i forget what set the *you're invited* sentiment is from, sorry

accessories: copic markers, stickles

bad blogger...

I've been a bad blogger! Actually, I've been a bad stamper too. I've had nothing new to share. With the holidays, my daughters birthday and the Wii that we got for Christmas I just haven't had time to stamp!

My sister got me a Wii Fit and I've been pretty good about getting on it everyday. Today I was only able to find time to *play* for about twenty minutes but the last week it's been at least a half hour everyday. I always try to make sure that half hour counts and it's just games. I give the Fit two thumbs up and wish I would have started my fitness program on Christmas day instead of waiting for everyone to be back to work or school. If you have a Wii, I suggest getting a Wii Fit.

Tomorrow I will have a card for you :)

so very honored...

A few weeks ago I went to the Ft Meade SBS. It was such a great time stamping with so many lovely Splitcoast ladies. One talented stamper I always see there is Sara aka ChicagoGirl at SCS... she is so much silly fun! She gets right into all the action playing games and having a ball! You can't help but laugh and have a great time when you're near her. Sara has a great blog called Sara Stamps and she nominated me for my very first blog award! I am so honored and excited!! Thanks so much Sara!!

So, the rules of the award is to:
1. put the logo on your blog (if you choose)
2. put a link to the person that sent you the award
3. nominate 5 blogs
4. put links to their blogs
5. leave messages for your nominees

I would like to nominate the these super talented stampers... check them out when you get a chance, you won't be sorry!!

1 Michelle
2 Patty
3 Vicki
4 Karen even though she isnt blogging right now. She will be soon and well, she is super talented!!
5 Patricia

wanna know what's yummier than chocolate snowflakes?

This delicious blog candy from Michelle Giraud. A few posts back, I mentioned the blog candy that she was offering over at twisted-chick creations. I can't believe she picked me! I've never won blog candy before... and it's surely not from the lack of trying. LOL The assortment she sent me left me wanting more! I wanted to put in an order the other day, but I'd left my credit card in the car and didn't want to go all the way out to the garage (it's just downstairs... yes, I am *that* lazy!) So, in the next few days when I can remember to bring my wallet in, I am planning a big order! I need the papers she used in her explosion box... and those chocolate snowflakes!

what could be yummier....

than a CHOCOLATE snowflake? Anything Chocolate sounds delish to me!

Michelle (aka DD alum, flaxychick) has BLOG CANDY and some fabbo inspiration on her blog Twisted Chick Creations. Michelle has been an inspiration to me since I first saw her stuff on SCS... long long before I dared to post... or **gasp** even upload! LOL She creates adorable projects and is super creative... plus she has some fantastic stuff in her store Paper Addictions. I love how the stamps and papers match! .... now where's my credit card?

.... and did I mention she is having a sale???