Sassy Scrapper

End of Blog-aversary giveaway!!

2010-04-09T23:38:00.000-07:00

Alright, the giveaway has ended! Thank you all for playing along! I used random.org and the winner is......dun-dun-dun-dunnnnnnn....

BECKY G. from Stamping With Bekah

Thank you all for signing up to follow, for the sweet comments and for being good sports! Becky, email me your mailing information and I'll get the package sent off to you on Monday.
sassychristina@hotmail.com

Here's to another year, Lord willing!! :)

Another addition to the blog-aversary giveaway!!

2010-04-06T18:00:00.000-07:00

I've added a mini album, a little wooden box, an oval wall hanging plaque, a tin canister, a tube of CTMH black ribbon and a tube of various gold clips/clasps/brads! More to be posted tomorrow! See the 2 previous posts to see what else is in the box and how to enter to win!

Blog-Aversary....

2010-04-05T18:11:00.001-07:00

So I'm going through my stuff, finding things to add to the box to give away to the lucky winner of my blog giveaway and I'm putting in these 4 stamp sets!

To enter, see the previous post! :)
I'll have another picture tomorrow of new stuff being added to the box...stay tuned!

A Mystery Blog Candy Giveaway!!

2010-04-03T16:47:00.000-07:00

Ok so I'm FINALLY getting to the Blog Candy giveaway to celebrate my 1 year Blog-aversary. I don't have a picture of the loot just yet because I honestly haven't gotten it all together quite yet but this will give me the push to get it done! :) I will have scrapbook paper, stamps, stickers, an album, things to alter and some other stuff. I'll post a picture in a few days...it'll keep you on your toes! :)

Here is how you can enter to win:

1. Leave a comment telling me about your favorite crafting hobby and if you have a blog feel free to post your web address. (That's one chance to win.)

2. Become a follower of this blog (Leave another comment, giving you 2 chances to win.)

3. Become a follower of my other blog: A Family Filled With Love & Fun (Leave another comment, giving you a 3rd chance to win!)

4. Post about my giveaway on your blog (leave me a link in a comment for a 4th chance to win).

Everyone will have until 11:59pm (west coast time) on Saturday, April 10th and I will announce the winner on Sunday the 11th.

Wow, feels like it's been forever! Crafting...oh how I've missed you!

2010-03-22T01:19:00.000-07:00

So I think it's been like 2 months since I've done any crafting/cardmaking so I announced to my hubby that I would be spending the night getting reaquainted with my crafting area! LOL I attempted to do some etching projects (you can see them on my other blog HERE) and I also started to make up the invitations for my sweet baby girl's 2nd birthday party. My friend Tessa over at The Button Shop made a set of these amazing buttons so I begged for her to make a set for me to use for inspiration for the theme of Tatym's birthday party. Tessa is so sweet and got right on it for me and I got this package in the mail the other day:

Aren't they absolutely AMAZINGLY FABULOUS??? I just love them! Anywho, so I'm using those for the color scheme and theme. I made 3 invites tonight, here is one that I made (they are all a little different).

Blogaversary!!!

2010-03-02T23:53:00.001-08:00

Wow, March 14th will be my one year blog anniversary! 150 posts later and 70 followers now...probably should offer up some blog candy to give away!! I will go through my crazy stash of crafting supplies and post an official giveaway post on my other blog A Family Filled With Love & Fun sometime this week...so stay tuned! :)

Blogaversary1

2010-03-02T23:53:00.000-08:00

Have I mentioned that I LOVE my Cricut?

2010-02-21T08:27:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I was just tackled with a migraine! Those of you that have ever had a migraine know just how crippling they are and how miserable you feel for the whole day. This was only my 4th ever migraine and I pray, my last! My poor sister suffers from migraines and I don't know what brought this one on, the others only happened when I was preggers with my daughter so this one caught me way off guard! Anyways, by the end of the night my head was down to a low dull pain and although I was light headed, I couldn't stand being stuck in my bed or on the couch for one more second. My amazingly awesome and spectacular and wonderful husband wanted to spend some time with me so he helped me set up the Cricut and we started working using my new cartridges and also busted out the roll of magnet that we've been wanting to test out!

Here are 2 cards we made and some magnets:

The Cricut is one of THE best inventions on the planet!!! :O) I love the owl card and how easy it just cuts them out and those magnets are adorable and got lots of excitement from the kiddos this morning! I definitely recommend getting the thick cutting blades and some rolls of magnet...so many possibilities!

Awww...Beautiful Blogger Award

2010-02-20T08:29:00.001-08:00

My friend Sarah and fellow blogger, bestowed this award upon me! :O)
You HAVE to check out her blog: A House On Fire. She's got so much information about homeschooling, biblical teachings, her new adventures in photography and so much more! She's super funny and super sweet. We went to high school together and then the Lord brought us together as friends via MySpace/Facebook and I just love her!

Ok, so the rules for this award are:

1) Add a link and note of thanks to the person giving the award

2) Pass the award on to 15 bloggers whose blogs you have recently discovered that you love

3) Share 7 things about yourself

Now to pass the award, here are 15 of my favorite blogs (besides Sarah's blog):

1: Everyone HAS to check out the ApParent Project blog! I've never met Corrigan or Shelley in person (yet) but Corrigan is from my area and he and his wife and children moved to Haiti almost 2 years ago while they were in the process of adopting 2 children. They started the ApParent Project to help women learn to make jewelry to earn money to feed their families and they were in the process of starting a school to teach english to the teens so they had a better chance at getting good jobs. Since the earthquake Shelley and the kids have come back to the US to finish out the adoption process and Corrigan has stayed in Haiti to help in everyway he can. I will get to meet Shelley next month (YAY) and I hope someday to travel down there to help in anyway I can!

2: My friend Kim's blog, Memories In Thyme. She's constantly posting her latest paper crafting creations and she's one of the sweetest people I've come across in Blogland! Always leaving comments of encouragement and kindness!

3: My friend Sarah at Sarah's Paper Tray. She has some of the most amazing cards and layouts and she has the sweetest personality to go with her talent!

4: Amy at The Idea Room. Her blog has definitely been my go-to place for creative project ideas. This girl has such a variety of fun things to do and she posts lots of pictures and tutorials. FUN FUN FUN!

5: Bakerella is my favorite place to go for trying out new baked goods recipes. I've done cake balls and peach crumb cake using her recipes and there are so many other things on my "to do" list from her site! YUMMM!!

6: Skip To My Lou is a great place to go for craft projects and tutorials.

7: Confessions of a Homeschooler has so many great kids craft ideas and I loved her Minivan Express idea based on the movie The Polar Express. She also posts a lot about what they are doing in homeschooling that I love!

8: Not So Idle Hands is another go-to blog for me when I'm wanting some fun craft ideas or I just want to drool over someone else's talents! LOL She just adopted a child from Russia (I think) so her blog posts haven't been as consistant *sniffle* but I think she's getting back into the swing of things and I'm praying they get back into a routine and just LOVE on their new addition!

9: Tresa at Fabulously Artsy is a fellow CTMH consultant and she is amazingly gifted and talented! She's soooooo stinkin creative with her cards and layouts and techniques...I want to be like her when I grow up! LOL

10: Of coures I can't leave out Ree aka The Pioneer Woman. She is so whitty and such an amazing cook. I made her Cinnamon Rolls and gained like 50 lbs...they were incredible! My neighbors and family were very thankful that I came across that recipe! LOL I just bought her cookbook and can't wait to get crackin! She also has areas about homeschooling, photography and gardening.

11: Our Best Bites has so many yummy recipes!

12: Nap Time Crafts really makes me wish I could sew but she has other fun projects as well!

13: Serving Pink Lemonade is another craft blog (can you tell I'm a craft junkie??) that I think everyone will love! Such talent all in one spot! LOL

14: I love Be Different...Act Normal. More great ideas.

15: Mod Podge Rocks is a great place to find all sorts of things you can do with Mod Podge! I've seen posts about doing things with shoes!! Craziness and FUN!

** Although this blog is private, only visible by invite from the blogger, it's one of my favorites! I'm sorry you can't check it out but I couldn't end this post without mentioning her blog. Talia at Girlz of God is a young girl (a 6th grader) who is ON FIRE for the Lord and even though she's so young, she's posted many a thing that has made me think about stuff differently! I hope and pray that my children have such a passion for serving the Lord at such a young age! She is the sweetest and cutest girl and I adore her and her family so much!

Ok, so that's 15 of my new favorite blogs, now for the "7 things about myself" section! :) Let's see.

1. I LOVE Jesus!
2. As you can tell from my blog list, I LOVE crafting!
3. I hope to learn how to sew sometime soon!
4. I love to Zumba!
5. I have an extreme dislike of being around a group of birds flying overhead! I'm not sure if it's a real fear but it seriously creeps me out! LOL
6. I want to travel to Israel before I die so I can see all the places where Jesus taught and traveled but I don't want to go until my husband gets saved so we can go and experience it together!
7. Even before the earthquake I've wanted to go to Haiti and help out with the ApParent Project (see #1 blog on my list above) and since the earthquake I feel an even stronger desire to go help in anyway I can!

So that's that! Thanks again Sarah, you are such a blessing to me!!! Now I'm off to let the bloggers know about their award!

Magnets

2010-01-26T22:16:00.000-08:00

I posted this over on my other blog: A Family Filled With Love & Fun but figured since it was a paper craft, I should post it here too! These are some magnets I made tonight:

More Valentines

2010-01-21T23:19:00.001-08:00

I think I might just be done with my Valentines Day cards for this year! WAHOO! I'll have to make out my list and double check. Pretty sure all I need now is to make a card for my kidlets then I be done! :O) The top card kinda feels incomplete...something about the phrase area...not sure...any suggestions? The bottom card is simple and sweet and hey, gotta love the glittery letters!

My first Unscripted Sketch

2010-01-19T23:22:00.001-08:00

I was needing some inspiration this evening so I hopped over to Unscripted Sketches and came across the latest sketch...#38:

Here is the card I made using this fabulous sketch:

I will definitely be stopping by this blog on a regular basis!!

Happy...EVERYTHING!

2010-01-19T23:20:00.000-08:00

Just a quick card I whipped up tonight! I think the colors are fun and I was stoked to be able to use some of this fun ribbon I had on hand!

L O V E

2010-01-16T23:02:00.000-08:00

I've had this picture frame for years...seriously, years! I have a tote that I use to hold things I pick up here and there to use for gifts. I've always thought I'd do something with it and give it as a gift but decided to be a bit selfish and keep it for myself! :O) I used the CTMH Grace paper pack (LOVE IT) and went to town! I LOVE my Cricut...made this job a whole lot easier. I did have to play around with letter sizing and letter shadowing but in the end, I'm pretty excited about the way it all turned out! It looks great on our fireplace mantle!

Love...Love...Love

2010-01-13T00:17:00.000-08:00

Valentines Day has to be right up there with Christmas and Easter for me! I just love having a day to, well, celebrate LOVE! :)

Here are 4 cards I got done tonight using CTMH Topstitch Level 2 paper pack (aren't the colors just adorable?!):

Quick & Easy...cards that is!

2010-01-09T23:41:00.001-08:00

I whipped up these quick n' easy cards tonight while I was waiting for my movie to get over. Gotta get a head start on Valentines Day because before I know it, it will be VDay!

Goodnight!

Another post for the evening!

2010-01-06T00:57:00.001-08:00

Well, I guess it's actually now Wednesday considering it's 1am but whatev! :)
So my co-mom had given me a thank you card the other day for Christmas presents and as any cardmaker knows, you check out the card to see how it's made if you like it and I totally had that "hey, I can totally make that" kind of moment because it was so cute. I've been itching to work on cards but hubby wanted me to spend some time with him so I figured it was a good time to work on these cute little notecards while perched on the couch near him. I have little tv dinner trays in the living room which don't have a whole lot of surface space but this project didn't require much room!

These are just a single cut of paper, not like normal folding cards but they will make for cute thank you cards or a "just thinking of you" card! I had fun and they were so quick and easy to make! The base is 4 1/4 x 5 1/2", the white cardstock measures 4 x 5 1/4" and the strip across the top is 1 x 4". Easy peasy!! :)

As always, you can click on the picture to see a close up! Happy Wednesday!

My 1st Cricut card!

2010-01-05T22:57:00.001-08:00

One of my dearest friend's daughter is having a birthday pretty soon and Sara recently told me that Karis really likes the Disney Fairy, Silvermist and I just so happened to have the Disney Fairies Cricut cartridge so I thought I'd attempt to make Silvermist to put on Karis' birthday card! OY...what a headache it turned out to be. I think as I learn more and more it will get easier and faster but it took me a good 1.5 hours to make this card. Trying to figure out what size to cut, how exactly the layering works, switching colors for every body part, etc. It ended up being pretty cute but I can say, I probably won't attempt another fairy for quite awhile! LOL

Here's the end product:

It doesn't look much like a birthday card but I really wanted to put Silvermist on the front so I added this to the inside:

The glitter turned out kinda sloppy...still figuring it all out but hopefully since she's only turning 5, she won't hardly even notice! :)

Celebrating the everyday!

2010-01-02T23:57:00.000-08:00

I finally pushed up my sleeves and dug into this cardmaking kit that I got from CTMH and I LOVE it! Last night I made a birthday card for my co-mom (stepson's mom) and an anniversary card for my in-laws.

Tonight I made 3 more birthday cards to send out to other January birthdays.

New Years crafts

2009-12-27T22:53:00.000-08:00

This year my family and I will be staying in a cabin over New Years and I always try to make a big deal about every holiday and New Years at the cabin will not be an exception! I'm making some crafts to decorate the cabin and I've got games and things planned to make the night exciting! I made this "disco ball" to be our version of the Times Square ball that drops at midnight! I covered it with glue and sprinkled silver glitter all over it. It was a pain because I'd have to let part of it dry so I could do the other side. Then I took blue glitter glue and wrote 2010 on it and had to pierce the styrofoam with a metal rod so I could hang some metal wire through it to hang it up.

Then I used my paper punch and cut out all these shapes, stamped the letters, inked the edges and pierced the paper so I could add a star brad and some elastic string so that I could hang them up at the cabin. I'm so excited!! We're going to have a blast!

Another blanket!

2009-12-25T09:28:00.001-08:00

Here's the blanket I made my sister and her hubby! It was hard not to keep it for myself because I love the colors of it! :) Merry Christmas!!

Blanket

2009-12-24T22:33:00.001-08:00

I made this blanket for my favorite sister-in-law for Christmas! Now, yes, she is techniqually my ONLY sister-in-law but nonetheless, she'd be my favorite no matter what! The funny thing is we have opposite views on politics and religion and life and stuff but we still have a great friendship/relationship! I love when she comes over to visit and she loves my kiddos and we've shared similar experiences with being a stepmom and all that it entails so it's been nice having someone to talk to when either of us is frustrated! She's super sweet and we can always count on her if we need her! I love you Jessie!!! Thanks for being such an important and great part of our lives!

2009-12-24T10:28:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to take a minute and wish everyone out in Blogland, a VERY Merry CHRISTmas! I pray that everyone takes some time to reflect on why exactly we celebrate this amazing event...the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ! I pray for amazing time spent with family, love surrounding you and many amazing moments shared with those closest and most important to you! God bless you (although He's blessed us all more than we deserve with the freedom to just accept Jesus and be given the best gift of all...an eternity spent in Heaven rather than being condemned to spend eternity in Hell) today, tomorrow and in 2010!!

Reindeer cups

2009-12-20T22:01:00.001-08:00

My son & I made these reindeer cups today! So cute and fun! My daughter LOVES them!

I GOT MY CRICUT EXPRESSION!!

2009-12-19T22:53:00.001-08:00

I am one happy lady this evening!!

(Don't mind the red face, I just got back from a 3.5 mile walk with my sister!)

I have the BEST husband in the entire UNIVERSE!!! For awhile now I've been eye-balling the Cricuts and talking to my hubby about whether I should get one or not (space issues) and if I was to get one, wondering which one I wanted the most. He's been looking online and in stores with me and I decided that if I was going to spend the money on one I wanted to get the Expression because it's capable of doing the biggest projects. I didn't want to buy the smaller one and decide down the road I wanted the bigger one and end up paying even more. Then I saw on Black Friday that they had colored ones and I have had my eyes on the red one. Never in a million years did I think my hubby would drop that kind of money on one of those, especially this time of year when sales aren't as big at his work. My poor husband has the worst luck at trying to surprise me with anything! I don't purposely go out looking to ruin his surprises, it just seriously happens by shear accident! One year he hid something UNDER the dresser and I happened to decide to rearrange our bedroom and that's how I found it! How was he to know his crazy wife would move his dresser?? LOL He's bought cards for me and was stock piling them in his drawer and I happened to go through it to throw out old stuff and organize and I found them! He has the worst luck! So tonight the credit card bill came and I normally don't look at the charges section because we haven't used our credit cards for quite awhile but there was an error on the last bill so I was checking to see if it had been fixed and happend to see that he made a big purchase to an ebay seller and with the amount I just knew it had to be my Cricut! I looked over at him and he instantly knew what I had found! Poor poor guy! He got up, got his shoes on and headed down to his work where he'd been stashing it! I told him that I was sorry for ruining his surprise but not to feel bad, to me it doesn't matter whether the surprise is on Christmas or on a Tuesday, it means a lot to me that he put the effort into finding the exact thing I wanted and attempted to surprise me at Christmas! I'm soooooooooo excited! Mind you, I've never even used a Cricut so I have no idea exactly how to use it (other than a general idea from what I've seen on the 5-million infomercials I've watched of the Cricuts) so tomorrow I'm going to clear off my crafting space and start playing around with it!

Here it is in the box:

This Serenade cartridge came in the box with it and this is the one I'm most excited about! It's got butterflies (my fave), birdcages/houses, trees, flowers, swirls...all the good stuff!

This Plantin SchoolBook cartridge was also in the box originally:

The next two cartridges had been added as a bundle purchase with the Cricut and previous 2 cartridges (so I got 4 total)! The Tinker bell & Friends (which is perfect because I have stickers of them stuck on my daughters wall and they are also Christmas ornaments we bought for her this year) and the Storybook cartridge:

Minivan Express

2009-12-17T14:48:00.001-08:00

Over at my other blog:
Desiring To Be A Domestic Diva (click on the name to take you there), I've posted some info about the Minivan Express! I know a lot of you crafty ladies out there are Moms or Grandmas and think you'll get a kick out of this idea! It's the newest tradition we're starting in our family! :)

Christmas Ornaments

2009-12-14T13:33:00.000-08:00

So awhile back I showed some clear ornaments that I'd bought and put rub-ons around the outside to decorate it and I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do to the inside. I thought about using some of our CTMH papers and cutting thin strips and folding them accordian style in the inside to give it more color but then I got to thinking that would take forever! LOL With all the other crafts and things I've got going on I couldn't add one more lengthy project to the mix. Maybe next year I'll give it a whirl! My co-mom (that's what I call my stepson's mom) and I exchange gifts for our children and for each other every year and this year she made some really cute ornaments for Tatym & Keegan (my kiddie pies). Here they are:

Aren't they cute?! Then I remembered that I actually have a few packages of tinsel that I've had for years and years and it would look cute in the ornaments that I'd been needing to finish! Thank you Marly for the idea! So, here are my finished ornaments! I'm going to be wrapping them up and taking them to our church's womens' night out party Thursday night. We're having an ornament exchange! Remember that if you click on the picture it will enlarge it so you can see the details better! The ornaments say Peace and Faith. I had Love and Joy but they broke! *sniffle* I better go snatch up some more packages and make some more!

Reindeer Cards

2009-12-10T23:50:00.001-08:00

For those that don't know, I'm a homeschooling mom and we're involved in a christian homeschool co-op that meets the first 3 Fridays of each month and has field trips the last week of each month. All moms (and some dads) have 2 teaching jobs, either lead teaching or assisting along with an administrative job. My teaching job is lead teaching the hands-on PreK/K class and I LOVE it! PreK'ers are my FAVORITE age group! They are just too stinkin cute and I love, love, love arts & crafts which most of them love to do also! Anyways, our co-op takes a break in December after our Christmas party and then does swimming lessons in January and then meets back up for classes in February! It's a long break and I'm gonna miss my PreK/K'ers so I decided to make them each a Christmas card and mail it to them so they get to feel extra special getting their very own card from the mail! I made 16 of these cards and my wrist hurts but it's all worth it! They are a great group of kiddos!!

Making some head-way!

2009-12-10T01:11:00.000-08:00

Tonight I managed to cut out all 24 stocking shapes for the advent (see previous post). I've decided that since my sewing machine hates me and I'm not willing to take the time to make up with it, I'm going to hand sew each little stocking. I'm just folding over the edges so it looks a little nicer (notice, I said "little" nicer because yes, I'm the sewer so it still looks like a kindergartener made it). *SIDE NOTE* I notice that to write sew-er it is spelled the same as sewer, ya know, the place where poo and pee go. It's weird to me that they would be spelled the same so I think from now on I will use the dash between sew and er! LOL I'm a nut job! Ok, back to the subject...I managed to get three of the stockings sewed up and then I pinned them onto the base of the advent. Still deciding whether I want to have a couples therapy session with my sewing machine and try to see if we can improve our relationship or if I'm just going to shove it back in my closet and pull out my new BFF, the ironing fabric adhesive. We'll see how I'm feeling once I've sewn up the 21 remaining stockings! :) Here's a pic from my work tonight:

I wish I knew how to sew!

2009-12-08T15:40:00.001-08:00

I have always been envious of the ladies that can sew and that make really neat things! I never took Home Ec in school and my mom never showed me how to sew. I mean, I've sewn buttons back onto pants or shirts and I've repaired holes in our couch cushions and blankets but it's never anything fabulous. I can't even sew a stinkin straight line with a sewing machine and it drives me nuts. I'll admit, I'm not very patient when it comes to much of anything. When I start a project I want to finish it and finish it SOON! I think that's why I don't end up very happy with a lot of my cards or scrapbooking projects because I rush through them just so I can get them done. I have a hard time starting something and not finishing it or setting it down for another time. For some reason it just drives me crazy! So, with that said, don't ask me why I still feel the need to attempt to sew things! I get this bright idea in my head to make something and shortly after starting I realize that I'm just torturing myself but yet again, I can't stop once I've started a project! I'm a freak! LOL!! So yesterday I posted a picture of the advent that my MIL had bought for my hubby back in like 1984 at a craft fair and that I was going to attempt to make some of my own.
Here is the pic of the original:

I found this pretty sparkly Christmas material at JoAnns and quickly snatched it up.

I chose this green with white polka dots for the edges.

Now THIS is my new best friend! I started out hand sewing around the outside of the base fabric and quickly (or not so quickly) realized that that way would take FOR-EV-ER! It seriously took me 2 hours to measure out the batting, measure out the fabric and then hand sew about 5 inches. I ended up having to put it down because I had to go somewhere and busted out my sewing machine today to attempt to finish it. After busting the thread a good million and one times I have now resorted to using this:

So now I've gotten the base done and the border around it and I don't have time to finish it today (it's torture). My son is really excited about it so that's making all this work, worth it!

Gotta love Christmas countdowns!

2009-12-07T09:17:00.001-08:00

Last year I decorated this to use for our countdown to Christmas. Each box is pretty much only big enough to hold one piece of candy like a Hershey's Kiss or something but my son LOVED it!

This is a one that my MIL had bought in the early 80's at a craft fair. For some reason my stepson's mom ended up with it and had been using it for the past 8 years or so (my hubby didn't know she had it) but out of the blue she asked if we wanted it back so now it's at our house. I thought it was super cute and although I don't sew but maybe once every million years I'm going to attempt to recreate it and make one for each of my kiddos! Shouldn't be too hard *fingers crossed & knock on wood* to figure it out! :)

I LOVE craft fairs!

2009-12-06T18:32:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I made the 2 hour drive over to this big craft fair with my kiddos and talk about being in heaven!!! I'd never been to this particular craft fair and was blown away by just the size of it! It was held at the fairgrounds and took up 4 HUGE buildings, wall-to-wall! Praise the Lord my kids were super good (until the end when my 17 month old daughter decided to have a meltdown). We spent about 2 1/2 hours walking around and I kept trying to take mental notes of all the projects I wanted to attempt to recreate on my own. I wanted desperately to whip out my camera and just take pictures but figured that would be pretty rude! I did take out my notebook and take some notes of things so that maybe it would jog my memory when I got home and I could visualize what I wanted to do. Seeing the booths made me want to have my own booth...maybe in a few years when my kiddos are older! I could totally make a lot of that stuff and even more things that no one else had! The funny thing is to see how many booths were so similar! I can't even count how many booths had the dish towels with the crochet tops that you can loop around the fridge door handle of the stove handle or the no-sew blankets (which I love to make and give as gifts too) or all the beaded jewelry booths! So many!!! I was given strict orders from my hubby that I was to "be good" which coming from him means that I wasn't to spend any money. I figured I could buy a few things but told myself I wasn't to spend more than $80 which is how much cash I had on me. I'm happy to report that I only spent about $50 on crafts. My son was rewarded with a pop gun for being such a big help to me and for being so good. He also got a water balloon yo-yo thing. Here are pictures of my other purchases:
This is my favorite find of the day!! And yes, I totally had one of those "I can make that myself" moments but since I don't have a Cricut (YET) I went ahead and bought it ($10) and it will look great in my scrapping area!

These are some leggings I bought for my daughter. I don't sew very well or really, hardly ever at all so I thought it was ok to spend the $8. They look so cute on her!!

These are so stinking cute! I'm sure almost everyone has seen these before. You put the candy in the clear cup and seal it up and it's an ornament! I got the Santa, Snowman, Gingerbread Man and the Ornament, each for $2.99 and will attempt to recreate them for next year!

This is another favorite and yes, another one of those "hey, I can make that myself" purchases. I just couldn't help myself!! It was $12.50 and it will go nicely in my living room, right above my fireplace!

Secret

2009-12-01T10:00:00.000-08:00

So I'm working on a few scrapbooking projects and for some reason it's killing me that I can't post pics yet! LOL I don't want the people I'm making them for to see any of the pages until it's completely done so I'm holding off on posting pictures until I'm done! One of the scrapbooks is almost done. I have about 5 pages left to do and it will be all finished! YAY! I thought it would take me a lot longer to do it but thankfully the other night I hosted a scrapathon that lasted 7 hours so I was able to get 7 pages done and then last night after the kids went to bed I was able to get 4 more pages done. The scrapathon was a huge success! I reserved a party room at one of our local pizza places and invited a bunch of friends to come along and bring any sort of projects they were working on. Some friends brought scrapbooking projects, one brought a needlework project, one brought a calendar scrapbook project, 1 made the magnetic cookie sheet projects and 3 actually brought their Christmas presents and wrapping paper and spent the evening wrapping all their presents! I'm pretty sure I'm going to make this a monthly gathering because it was so much fun and we all got so much done and were able to listen to music, chat, snack on some goodies and check out what each other were working on!

Here's a sneak peek at the scrapbook I've been working on! Don't mind the poor picture quality, my camera batteries were about to die and the lighting was awful in our dining room!

More Tukey Day Cards

2009-11-23T09:15:00.001-08:00

Ok so I just have to brag for a second about what a great hubby I have!! The other night we had just laid the kids down for the night and Josh asks me if he can make a card with me! I thought he was joking but he said if I'd help him do it then he'd love to make a card with me! Now, he didn't do this because he's just been dying to get his hands on all my cool crafting stuff, no, he did it because he wanted to spend time with me doing something I enjoy doing!! Isn't he awesome?! He actually did a good job and even chose what papers he wanted, they way he wanted it to look and put it all together on his own from picking the papers to applying adhesive to sponging ink around the edges and applying ribbon for finishing touches!! I love him! So, here is his handy work:

Not too stinkin bad for his first (and very likely, his last LOL) card! To return the favor I sat down with him for about 10-15 minutes and played his video game with him! I figured it was only fair and it was nice that we were both able to take the time to step into each other's hobby world! :)

The deadline quickly caught up to me on the day that I had to have 15 cards made to put in each Thanksgiving dinner food baskets so Saturday night I was scrambling to get 10 more cards made. There was a big ol' storm going on outside and as I heard the wind just whipping around and knocking things over I just prayed like crazy that the power wouldn't go out! Not sure how my cards would look having to put them together by candlelight! LOL The Lord helped me out and kept the power on and here are the 10 cards I made that night.

Thanksgiving Cards

2009-11-17T00:28:00.001-08:00

Our church is doing a "Turkey Trot" where we deliver food baskets to families for Thanksgiving and I was asked by my dear friend Alisha to help make cards to put with the baskets! Of course I said yes and after our long walk tonight I came home and got these 4 cards made up! I was a little worried at first because I don't have any specific Thanksgiving stamp sets but thankfully I had a few non-CTMH autumn/Thanksgiving paper packs in my stash so that was a huge plus!!

Man, we're getting hit with a big ol' storm tonight! The wind is whipping around and I hear the rain barrelling down...I LOVE IT!!! Thank the Lord the rain held off until after we finished our 3+ mile walk tonight!

A simple Christmas card

2009-11-14T02:22:00.000-08:00

Another Christmas card to add to the mix! :)

Christmas cards & a birthday card

2009-11-10T11:49:00.000-08:00

I'm frantically busting out Christmas cards and thankfully last night I had a few hours after the kiddos went to bed to work on some cards! I made 4 Christmas cards and was making a 5th one but decided that the colors weren't "christmasy" enough for my liking so I turned it into a birthday card!

Now I've found I have a bit of an issue! I like to send out a family newsletter along with a family picture but I made most of my cards 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 so trying to cram in extra stuff isn't going to look so nice! Oh well, maybe I can condense the newsletter or something! :) I'll figure it out!

Christmas cards galore! :)

2009-11-09T10:17:00.000-08:00

Well, this past week has been crazy! Hubby was on vacation and his best friend got married so we were busy with all that fun stuff and spent 4 days at my sister's house. One night I was actually able to get some cards made while I watched a movie with my brother-in-law (hubby was at the bachelor party and sister crashed early). It's still hard to believe that I need to make about 30 more cards but I'll bust them out this week & next week hopefully! The happy note is that I'm pretty much done with Christmas present shopping! It's nice to be ahead in that area. I hate scrambling at the last minute to fine meaningful gifts for people! It will be nice to kick back and enjoy the Christmas festivities all month and not be stressed! I LOVE LOVE LOVE CHRISTMAS!

2 More Christmas Cards

2009-11-01T08:36:00.001-08:00

Finally I'm able to post these! For some reason Blogger has been giving me issues the past 2 days when I've tried to log in and post new blogs.

Anyways, here are 2 Christmas cards I made the other night. I was very productive that night! :) I counted out how many cards I had already completed (35 cards), put them in envelopes, put address labels on them and created my christmas card list. Come to find out I need to make about 40 more cards to mail out by December 1st so I really need to get my hiney in gear and get to busting out some more cards! Worse case scenario I do have some store bought cards that I bought on sale after Christmas last year but I really don't want to resort to that. We'll see! I still have some Christmas gifts to make too so I'm gonna be a busy little bee the next month & a half!

Happy Sunday!

I got my PhD! :)

2009-10-27T22:39:00.001-07:00

I totally spaced sharing with my friends in BlogLand that I got my PhD the other day! :) For those that don't know, I'm a Close To My Heart independent consultant. CTMH offers training courses for us to learn about the products we sell, techniques used on various projects, how to run a successful business, etc. They have the bachelors, masters and PhD courses and I completed all 3 levels and got this certificate in the mail the other day! I totally wasn't expecting it and inside was this super pretty magnetic clasp to wear around! I couldn't get a good shot of the pin but it says Close To My Heart across the top of the circle, the bottom part of the circle says Training Academy and the whooshy thing across the front of the circle has a rhinestone on each end and says PH.D. Certified in the middle! So cute and what a great company to do something like that for little ol' me!

Also, a few weeks ago when my family and I were shopping out of town I stopped by Michaels (oh how I wish we had one in our town) and found these clear glass Christmas ornaments. I bought some super cute Christmasy rub-ons and thought it would look super cute on the ornaments. Unfortunately the 4th ornament broke when I was rubbing the "LOVE" rub-on onto it but I still got "peace", "joy" and "faith", all of which are great things to have! :)

Here's a picture:

I'm thinking about designating them for certain people or families. I want to write on pretty paper, prayers or bible verses or special things about each person that we love and then folding them accordian style and putting them inside the ornament. Not sure about it though...still have some time to think about it! Any suggestions????

3 more Christmas cards

2009-10-20T18:19:00.001-07:00

Christmas Cards

2009-10-11T08:19:00.001-07:00

October 17th I'm having a Christmas card workshop where we'll be making 10 cards. I'm trying to get my samples finished up so last night I added some embellishments to the 4 cards that weren't quite done and then created 2 more. The card that had trees on it I just left the same so I'm not posting that picture again.

Here are the 4 that I had already posted pictures of previously but thought I'd show the finished work.

And here are the 2 cards I made up last night:

Started a 2nd blog!

2009-10-09T14:19:00.000-07:00

Ok, so yesterday I started a 2nd blog! I wanted this blog to be specifically used for my paper crafting and I'll be using my other blog for more personal stuff like my Weight Watchers stuff, and family things. If you want to check it out and become a follower, it's called Desiring To Be A Domestic Diva. Click (HERE) to be taken to it.

I'm hoping to get a chance to work on some crafts this weekend...we'll see though! Life is crazy busy and tonight my hubby & I are going to spend the evening together! It's the first night in like forever that we don't have anything going on after he gets off of work so I requested that we don't have any friends over, don't make plans with anyone, we're just going to kick back and enjoy each others company!! I'm excited!

Have a great weekend!!

WW week #11 weigh-in

2009-10-01T18:00:00.000-07:00

Another quick post...life is busy, busy!! I lost 2 lbs this week which is good, it makes up for the 1.6 lbs I gained last week! LOL So I'm down like 18.2 lbs total so far! I love losing weight but it's getting to the point that my clothes are starting to look all scroungy and baggy on me but I don't want to fork out the money to buy new clothes when I plan on losing even more weight. It's a vicious cycle! I guess it's a small price to pay to get healthy so I better quit whining! :)

Gotta run! Hubby and I are getting ready for our Cub Scout leader meeting!! Fun stuff!

Co-op Competition & Ministry Outreach

2009-09-29T11:44:00.001-07:00

So I'm the "Outreach Ministry Coordinator" in our homeschool co-op. This just means that I help set up and organize various projects for the co-op to do to help out people in our community or missionary families that we're familiar with. For our first project I'm going to have each grade grouping of kids take part in a little competition to raise money for us to send to a family in Haiti. Check out this blog (click on the name): The Apparent Project BlogI decorated empty jugs I had (still need to do one more for the preK/K class) with each grade grouping. I'll have the high school kids help the 1st and 2nd graders because they only have 8 kids in their group and the others have like 10 and 14. Our co-op only meets on Fridays and this competition will be for the month of October so each co-op day I'll set the jugs on the stage during our morning announcements and whichever group of kids brings in the most amount of money by the end of the month will either get a bag of candy each or a pizza party. I'll let them decide. Then we'll make a one time donation to the Apparent Project to help women buy materials to make things and sell them. Like it's said, give a man a fish and he can eat for a day but teach a man to fish and you'll feed him for a lifetime! The Apparent Project is working to give people the tools to build/make things so they can earn their own money and continue to feed their families. Amazing! If you get a chance to check out the blog, be prepared to have some tissue on hand because some of the stories break your heart! I wish there was more that I could do!!!
Anyways, here are the pictures of the decorated jugs:

WW Weigh-In Week #10

2009-09-26T23:14:00.000-07:00

First off, check out this sunset we had tonight!! I have family visiting from Arizona and a group of us went to the beach to watch the sunset and it was freezing but GORGEOUS!!! (You can click on the picture to see a bigger version.)

So I'm late getting this posted! I did really bad this week at Weight Watchers...gained 1.6 lbs this week YIKES! Oh well, I'm not really beating myself up about it which I'm really surprised about! I guess I knew it was coming, sorta been expecting it for a few weeks now. It's girly time stuff along with a super busy schedule and eating out WAY too much...it had to add up eventually! Now that my nephew is back home with his mom I'm hoping to get a grip on our schedule and start cooking dinner at home again. Really looking forward to soccer season being over especially now that DH and I have signed up to be the Tiger Cub Scout den leaders which is going to add to an already crazy schedule! I've figured out that I get really overwhelmed and stressed out if I focus on too many things at one time. I can't look at the whole weeks events, I have to take it one day and project at a time or I get anxious and freaked out and start getting snippety with my hubby!

On a side note, my other sister, Kimberly is a total angel!!! She came down this past week to spend time with us and she told me that on Thursday she didn't care what I did or where I went but I was not allowed to take my kiddos! She wanted to bless me with a Mommy Day where I didn't have to worry about the kids or the house or anything, I was just able to go and do whatever I wanted to do and it was AWESOME! Seriously, since my son has been born (he's almost 7) I have NEVER spent an entire day doing stuff just for me, that I enjoy doing by myself or with friends. I love my family more than life itself but I was desperately needing a day for me and I'm so beyond thankful that Kim did that for me! What did I do on my special day??? One of my best friends, Dea and I started around 8am by going to a local cafe and ordered coffee drinks, hopped in my hubby's sports car and drove down the coast a little ways and walked along the beach for about an hour and the Lord truly blessed us with perfect weather. We chatted, took some pictures and got some exercise then we drove down to the shops and went in just about every store on the strip and we were able to take our time and look at everything and not have to worry about kids grabbing things or begging for us to buy them things or saying they were bored! It was awesome! LOL After spending a few hours shopping we headed back to our town and grabbed some lunch at the cafe, browsed around the Christian bookstore, chatted a bit then walked down the street looking in antique stores and little shops that we had never been in before. We went to the pottery store and colored pottery for an hour or so which is another amazing thing to do without the kiddos! We were able to take our time and focus on our projects in peace and quiet and got to visit without any interruptions. We walked down a few more streets looking in neat stores and then I had to run to Weight Watchers and a Cub Scout meeting. Hubby and I were supposed to go out to dinner and a movie afterwards but our sweet baby girl was having some tummy issues and got a fever so we opted to grab fast food and just eat at home and snuggle little Tatym til she went to bed. Even though the day ended sadly with her being sick it was generally a perfect day for me. A much needed break which I jokingly told my DH should be a once-a-month event! LOL Seriously though, I'm definitely going to do something like that at least twice a year, it did wonders for my attitude!!

Well, now that I've babbled long enough, I'm totally exhausted this evening and need to hit the hay! I'm working tomorrow (my one day a month) and I'm also going to visit some family in the morning so I need my sleep!

Hope you all are having a GREAT weekend!
Here are pictures from our walk on the beach on our Mommy Day Out:

Christmas Cards with help from KP!!

2009-09-23T09:13:00.000-07:00

First of all, I just LOVE Karen Pedersen's work! She is extremely talented and I'm always drooling over her stuff! Last night I sat down to come up with some cards to make for an upcoming Christmas card workshop and I came across some of her Christmas cards and had to steal some of her layouts!! I think her cards are way better than mine but I gave them a shot! :O)

Here are the 5 I made last night:

Be sure to stop by Karen's blog (HERE), you won't be sorry!!!

WW Weigh-In Week #9

2009-09-17T20:44:00.001-07:00

Wow, what a week it's been! Without going into too much detail, I've had my nephew (he's almost 2) staying with me since Saturday night and he's a handful, especially when it comes to nap and bedtime! I'm talking hours upon hours of battling to get him to sleep which gets frustrating especially when I'm exhausted and my 14 month old daughter is teething and has a cold. Fun stuff! LOL

Anyways, I haven't had any time to do crafting other than a quick thank you card and a quick Tooth Fairy card for my son (he lost his first tooth the day before last).

It's not beautiful but it gave the intended effect! :O)

With all the stress and chaos of having my nephew here we've eaten out just about everyday and I haven't been good about sweets so I was really thinking I gained this week and thankfully I didn't!!! I lost 1.8 lbs this week for a total of 17.8 lbs lost FOREVER! I looked at a picture of myself in February and April and WHOA MOMMA...I can already see a difference! I only have 8.2 lbs to lose til I've reached my 10% goal (26 lbs) and once I hit that mark I'll post one of those pics along with a recent pic for comparison! Thankfully I still have the same shirt as my before picture so it will be a good comparison!!

Alright, I'm off to RELAX!! Nephew is staying 2 nights with my mom to help give me a desperately needed break and the new season of The Office starts in 9 minutes YAHOO!!!! I'm gonna relax on the couch and not have to worry about spending the next 3 hours battling a 2 year old! PRAISE THE LORD!!! It's a good thing he's cute and I love him so much! LOL

Hoping to get some cards made tomorrow night...I'm feeling the twitch from withdrawls! LOL GOODNIGHT!!!

WW Weigh-in week #8

2009-09-10T19:40:00.000-07:00

This is a quick post because I'm making myself get up off my bum and go on my walk. I lost another 0.6 lbs this week for a total of 16 lbs gone forever! :) It's not nearly as much as I would have liked but like every week I'm shocked I haven't gained so I'll take it and be thankful! LOL

So I've gone from 264.8 down to 248.8 in 8 weeks...not too shabby! I'm really crossing my fingers that I can lose 4 lbs this week for a total of 20 lbs gone...we'll see! My 10% goal is 26 lbs so I still have 10 lbs to go to reach that goal!

Alright...I'm grabbing my pepperspray and ipod and heading out the door! I'm hoping to get something crafty done tonight so maybe I'll have another post later!

Laurel's Blog Candy

2009-09-08T21:25:00.000-07:00

Laurel is celebrating her followers and a big weight loss by giving us the chance to win some blog candy!!!

Check our her blog HERE to not only see her amazing paper crafting talents but also to see how you can maybe win some of the goodies!

CONGRATS LAUREL!!!

Kim's Blog Candy

2009-09-08T10:21:00.000-07:00

My wonderfully talented friend Kim over at Memories In Thyme blog is offering up a chance to win some blog candy! She's celebrating her 5 design team spots and what a sweety to shower us with the gifts! I personally think it's gift enough to scope out her awesome work but hey if she really wants to offer up some candy...why not?! LOL

CONGRATS KIM!!!!!

Go HERE to see her offer!!

Mojo Monday card & a notebook!

2009-09-06T23:56:00.001-07:00

Here's this weeks sketch for Mojo Monday:

And here's my take on the sketch:

I also made this notebook cover tonight:

A Blog Award for lil ol' me! THANKS KIM!

2009-09-06T17:28:00.000-07:00

My sweet, sweet blogging friend Kim over at Memories in Thyme sent this blog award my way! She's just the best! Definitely click (HERE) and check out all her amazing cards and layouts...she is one talented lady and I'm so blessed to call her my friend (even if we've never actually met *wink wink*)!

So the rules for "I Like Your Style" are to pass it on to 5-7 bloggers who inspire you. Geez louise, how in the world do I narrow it down to 5-7??? There are so many of you ladies out there in blogland that inspire the poo right outta me...ok, not really the poo but you get what I mean! LOL
So in no particular order here are the ladies I'm giving this award to (click on their name to be taken to their blog site):
Sarah
Teresa
Tresa
AaronB
Vicki
Karen
Kelly Jo
Laurel
Kristen

Ok...that's more than 7 and I could keep going but I'll stop now! :)

3 Gift Card Holders

2009-09-05T20:53:00.001-07:00

So I mentioned in another post that we're going to a birthday party for my friend Deena and 3 of her 5 kiddos and I always have such a hard time picking presents for kids. I took the easy way out and got them gift cards! :) SOOOOO...of course I had to bust out with some gift card holders to spruce up the gift a little! LOL

This one is my favorite of course because it's got butterflies (LOVE BUTTERFLIES) and it's girly. It's for little Alissa who is turning 3 this month. She's so adorable!

This one is for the oldest boy, Nicholas. I think he's turning 11.
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And lastly, this one is for the Andrew who is turning 7.

For direction on how to make these gift card holders see the right sidebar of my blog where it says "Tutorials" and it gives you step-by-step directions!

Weight Watchers week #7

2009-09-03T21:04:00.000-07:00

It's a good day! I went for my weigh-in and found out I've lost 1.2 lbs this week for a total of 15.4 lbs lost so far and never to be seen again! THEN, even though my knees are still tender and sore I set out to go on a walk, thinking I'd do a half walk rather than my normal 3.5 miles but I was feeling pretty good, took it easy the first half and noticed that the longer I walked the less my knees hurt (except going downhill...that still hurt) so I decided to push it and did my full walk AND...even jogged the last 3 blocks WITHOUT FALLING!!! LOL WAHOO!! I think I might actually like to jog now which is weird because I've never enjoyed it before. My sisters and father are runners and always have been but I figured I didn't get that gene but ya know...maybe I did but it was just hiding out! :)

Also, on a side note, my little man, Keegan got reading glasses today. He'd been complaining about headaches and his eyes hurting. The Dr. said his vision isn't very bad, just one line up from 20/20 but because he complains of headaches and eyes hurting that it would be best for him to get glasses just for reading. I'm not a fan of the glasses he chose but he's still cute and as long as he likes them then that's fine by me. He's the one that has to wear them!

Alright, it's movie time with my hubby and our friend. Have a great night!!

My clumsy update! LOL

2009-08-31T22:40:00.001-07:00

For those that missed the lovely story of how I injured myself, read the 2nd post down and you'll be all caught up! :O)

I managed to get some sleep last night thanks to some Advil PM but the pain woke me up off and on. Today my knees are really tender and it's hard because I'm trying to work on my range of motion but it hurts somethin fierce especially when I bend my left knee. I don't think I did major damage to the knee itself but I'm fairly certain I've bruised it internally and it will just take time before it feels better. My right knee oozes grossness a lot but I've kept bandages on it for most of the day. Right now I'm in shorts and letting them get some air but will put some more neosporin and bandages on before bed. I guess the silver lining to all of this is that I haven't been as itchy today from the poison oak. I don't know if that means it's healing up and getting better or its just that my mind is mainly focused on the pain from my knees and forgets that I'm itchy too! LOL Whatever the case, I'm just glad I'm not as itchy!

I took my son to get an eye exam today and found out that he needs glasses for reading. He's pretty excited about it but I know that will pass after awhile and I can just see the battles to get him to wear them. Maybe since DH and I both wear glasses and he will only have to wear them when we do school work or when he's reading his comic books it won't be so bad. I thank God that he doesn't have to wear them all the time because he's very athletic and I'd hate for him to have to wear them while playing sports and stuff.

My daughter will be 14 months old on Wednesday and can you believe it...she still has yet to have a tooth pop through her little gums! It's craziness! I know the longer it takes for them to get teeth, the healthier they are but it's so funny to see all our friends' babies with mouths full of teeth and my sweet girl has zippo! :O) We can tell there are at least 2 teeth wanting to pop out on her bottom gums but it's been at least a month that it's looked like that. I joked with my sister who is in dental school that maybe I should be worried that she doesn't have any teeth but I know that's not the case! I'm curious to see what she's going to look like with teeth. I just love seeing how much babies change.

Alright, enough blabbering, I should go do something creative or at least get my shopping list in order! YAY for payday tomorrow! :)
Thanks for all the well wishes and sympathy, you girls really are the best! *sniffle*tear*sniffle* LOL HUGS TO YOU ALL!!!
Goodnight!

Blog candy!

2009-08-31T09:13:00.000-07:00

Run over to Karen's blog (here) and leave her a comment telling her what your favorite scrapbooking item is and you'll be entered in for a chance to win some goodies!! The winner will be drawn tomorrow!!

Don't forget to check out all her cool creations while you're at it!!!

Not for those grossed out by blood!

2009-08-30T21:27:00.001-07:00

This is SOOOOO not my week! First of all I get poison oak and have been itching like a crazy person. My hubby says I look like a crackhead scratching at my legs all the time! LOL Isn't he sweet?! He's just teasing but I probably do. Then I have ovaries that hate me for a few days and I'm in mega pain from that. Thankfully that part is over but then comes tonight. I've been taking benadryl since yesterday to ease the itchiness of my legs so I wasn't thinking I'd exercise because of how tired I've been feeling but got a sudden spurt of energy and decided to go for a walk. Ok, so my walk is about 3.5-4 miles and I'm about 3 blocks away from getting back home and decide that I'm feeling pretty good, have some good beats comin from my ipod and I think I'm gonna jog the rest of the way home for a little kick to my workout. Uh yeah...not a good idea! My legs were a little wobbly from the long walk and the ground was uneven so guess what a lovely combination that is...yeah, it ends with me falling very ungracefully to the hard ground! I'm not talking a little trip and oops...I'm talking full-on knees slamming to the ground, hands getting scraped up and coming milimeters away from smashing my face along the ground too. I had my phone in my hand because I didn't want it falling out of my pocket so it went flying and I always carry pepper spray in the other hand just in case and that went flying. Praise the Lord no one was driving/walking by and it was dark outside with only a few lights coming from inside some houses. That would have been the ultimate humiliation because I'm pretty sure I looked like an idiot! Then of course when you do something like that you get up really fast and act like it doesn't hurt nearly as bad as it does. I tried not to limp but really was about to burst into tears because the pain was so bad. I got in the house and lifted up my pant legs and saw this:

The picture doesn't even do it justice (thanks honey for having lame photog skills, LOL). My left leg hurts the worst because it looks like I landed right on a rock. It hurts to the bone and is throbbing like crazy. The right knee got tore up a lot more so there's a lot of blood. I'm already soaking through my big bandages (sorry for the gross out) and thankfully have a first aid kit in the van with more. I had 3 vicodin left in my medicine cabinet from when I had my daughter (who is now almost 14 months old) so I took one of those because the pain is so bad. I ended up crying pretty good for a few minutes which I hate. Makes me feel like a child but I had to let it out! The pain pill has finally kicked in but I can still feel the throbbing. Pretty sure I'm going to be sore for the next few days which really sucks because my goal this week was to get back into my exercise routine! Oh well...hopefully it heals quickly!!!

Now my hubby is running to the store to get me some more bandages for tomorrow...God love em', he's a great hubby! He helped clean me up and get me situated!!

Alright...I'm gonna go lay down and put these legs up! Sorry if the pic grossed you out!!! :)
GOODNIGHT!

Post #3 for the night! On a roll! :)

2009-08-30T00:11:00.000-07:00

My nephew's second birthday is fast approaching (Sept. 25th) and I wanted to make something for him and first thing that came to mind is a counting book using the 3-ring mini binder from CTMH! It's nothing fancy because chances are, he's most likely gonna trash it! I'm hoping my sister will let him look at it and use it but make sure he doesn't tear it up so he can keep it forever but I know how things go! I got the first 7 pages done and they're a little on the plain side but I don't want to add too much to it and take away from the things that are being counted (did that make sense??) so I'll probably leave it plain. Next time I might use patterned paper for the base to spice it up a little but this will do just fine for this one! So, here they are:

I'm going to finish up the rest and finish the outside of the book tomorrow (hopefully).
Have a great night...errr..day...it's after midnight! Whatever, I'm sure your catchin what I'm throwin! :O)

ANTI-MONKEY BUTT!!! LOL

2009-08-29T13:47:00.001-07:00

So this is just a silly post but it was so funny that I thought I'd share it with everyone! LOL I have poison oak all over my legs and some spots on my arms and stomach so last night DH and I went to Walmart to get some calamine lotion and found this nifty bottle of ANTI-MONKEY BUTT powder and snatched it up super fast! Perfect gag gift for my BIL but yeah, a little embarrassing actually going through the checkout with it. You always wonder what those poor cashiers are thinking when they scan stuff like that! I wanted to announce that it wasn't really for us, that it was a gag gift but I'm sure they hear that all the time! LOL I'm actually thinking about going back and getting a few more for other people too! It was only like $5.50 for the bottle and so worth it to hand off as a gift!!! ROFLMBO!!! Oh, and this is my 2nd post of the day...look at the post below this one for a neat project I made last night and 2 birthday cards! I hope you're enjoying the weekend!!!!

Message note board & birthday cards

2009-08-29T13:02:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I told you guys that I have a million birthdays in Sept. so last night I finished up cards for everyone (there is really just 7 birthdays but it feels like a million). I made these two birthday cards for two of my friend Deena's sons and for the rest of the birthdays I used cards I had already made up and what a time saver that was!

After getting the cards done I decided to tackle a new project that I've been wanting to try out. I had found a package of 4-5 corkboards at Walmart for like $6 and knew I wanted to try to make one of these note boards. I dug through some of my craft bins in the garage and remembered I had bought some cloth napkins on clearance on the off chance I could find something to use them for and this was perfect! I found coordinating ribbon and went to work. It took awhile because staples weren't the best at holding the fabric on the back so then I busted out that stuff you use for sewing that doesn't require sewing! You put it between two pieces of fabric, use an iron and it glues it together. I added the ribbon, some brads to the front and this is the end result:

I put a birthday card on here to give you the idea of what to use it for (if you already didn't know):

I'm really excited with the way it turned out. Now I just need to put a piece of wood or cardboard on the back to make it more stable!

Alright, it's a beautiful day and the kids are napping right now so I'm going to go clean up my mess a bit (I'm a bad girl and left it out all night) and get some chores done or maybe squeeze in a nap for myself! :)
HAPPY SATURDAY FRIENDS!!

I love birthdays!

2009-08-28T09:18:00.000-07:00

I think birthdays are awesome! I love making/buying presents/cards for people to let them know how special they are!

One of my dearest friends, Deena, is having a birthday next month and I'm so excited because my family and I actually get to go celebrate with her! They moved away 1 1/2 years ago and we haven't been able to make it to any of their birthday parties (she has 5 kiddos...GOD LOVE HER! LOL) because it's a 3 hour drive and with my hubby having to work Saturdays it just hasn't worked out. This year the party is on a Sunday so we get to go party it up with them! YAY!! When I first made a cookie sheet magnet board she had mentioned that she liked them and wanted one so I knew exactly what I wanted to make for her birthday:

When it came time to maker her card I thought it would be a cool idea to make her card match the cookie sheet and then use one of the magnets I put on the board to hold the card! I love the magnets too. Awhile back at our christian bookstore I bought 3 packages of these magnets that have bible verses and symbolic pictures on them so I grabbed 4 magnets out of a pack and put on this board! Here is the card:

Another birthday we're celebrating in Sept. is my mom's! She's turning 50 this year so we're throwing her a party!! Her favorite color is purple so I made this card for her:

Now I need to decide what to get her for her big birthday! I also have quite a few other birthday cards to make and presents to make/buy! There's gotta be something about December & January being such cold months that makes for lots of September babies! LOL

On that note...it's raining outside and weirdly enough, I'm kinda thankful for it! My ovaries have rebelled today and I'm in a lot of pain so it's a good excuse to have to just lay low and stay inside! I'm off to take some midol and lay down til it kicks in! HAPPY FRIDAY FRIENDS!!!!

ROCK ON!!! Met my first WW goal at week #6!!!

2009-08-27T19:46:00.001-07:00

As you can probably tell I'm totally OVER THE TOP with excitement about reaching my first WW goal! My goal was 13 lbs and after losing 2.6 lbs this week that's a total of 14.2 lbs!!!!! WOOOOO HOOOOO!!! Man, I was not expecting a loss this week (seems like I feel that way every week) so it was a very pleasant and welcome loss! Now I'm working on my 10% goal of 26 lbs and now I'm 11.8 lbs away from that goal!
YAY YAY YAY!!!! Ok, so my goal this week is to get back on track with my exercise. It's gonna be hard because I have my mom's 50th birthday party to co-plan with my sister, her present and card to make along with 5 other cards, my friend Deena's birthday present to make and I need to do my meal planning for the next month and start getting my lesson plans in order for homeschool co-op (I'm teaching hands-on PreK)....it's gonna be a busy week but I have to make sure I get out and go on my walks no matter what!

Alright, I'm off to work on some of those projects...with a big ol' smile on my face!! Buh-bye 14.2 lbs I'd like to say you will be missed but that would be a big fat lie! LOL

Post #2 for the night!

2009-08-20T22:38:00.000-07:00

I got some new stacks of papers from JoAnn's today (shhhhh...don't tell my hubby LOL). Really, I had two 40% off coupons and a love coupon from hubby saying I could buy a stamp set (my love language is gifts and he's not so good in that department so he just wrote a coupon and put it in the jar labelled "Love Tank" that he made for me a few years ago) so I used that money for this stuff. Anyways, I bought a SUPER COOL pack from DCWV called All About Boys and it has some really neat paper in it that my son ohhhed and awwwed over so I decided to make him a card and ended up making two.

Here's a lovely picture of my mess:

Is anyone as messy as me when you're working on stuff? I try to keep it an organized mess but whatever! LOL

Alright, now I'm off to clean up and visit with my sis before we hit the hay!

Weight Watchers week #5

2009-08-20T21:16:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I know every week I've been saying that I thought I'd gained weight but seriously, cross my heart, I thought I'd gained 5 lbs this week. We had a big family campout and BBQ last weekend and I scarfed food down like crazy...cobbler, cookies, pasta, chips & dip, etc. Then we got home and ate out at Wendys and then the next day ordered pizza and so I ate pizza for two days and everything else in the house not nailed down (thank you PMS week LOL). Even stepping on the scale yesterday it showed that I'd gained somewhere between 3-5 lbs so I was NOT looking forward to weighing in this evening, felt like the walk of shame as I entered the building. So, I step on the scale and I announce that it's going to be a gain for sure and the lady gets a confused look on her face and she says, "nope, it's a loss of 1.2 lbs" and I seriously told her to shut up! LOL Ok, not in the rude, I'm yelling at someone to shut up way but more of the confused and excited and baffled kind of joking shut up but it threw her off! Oops! I was totally shocked and even though it's barely over 1 lb, I was soooooo excited! So, I'm down 11.6 lbs in 5 weeks and only 1.4 lbs away from my 5% goal! WAHOO!!! One of my husband's best friends is getting married on November 7th and my goal is to lose AT LEAST 20 lbs by then so I can get a cute dress and be feeling all good and get to dance with my handsome hubby in his tux (he's one of three best men)! My hubby is doing awesome with weight loss too! He's lost like 15 lbs in the 5 weeks and he is looking GOOOOOOD! Yes ma'am, my honey is a fine lookin specimen of a man! :O)

So yeah, anyways, not too shabby, not too shabby! Now I just think how much weight I could've lost had I not eaten all that garbage this week! Tomorrow begins a new week and I'm vowing to do better and throw in some 3 mile walks while I'm at it!!!

Goodnight bloggin buddies, thanks for all the support and cheering me on...again, you guys are THE BEST!!!!

Support a great cause!!!

2009-08-19T12:48:00.000-07:00

My friend Alisha is raising funds for the Race For a Cure. Click HERE to be taken to her fundraising page and please consider making a donation (of any size), this is such an amazing cause and can help women get a jump start at beating breast cancer!!
THANKS!!

What a crazy week!

2009-08-18T15:30:00.001-07:00

I've been busy with a family campout and BBQ this past weekend and then coming home and cleaning up and all the laundry...oy...but lots of fun was had and made it all worth it!

Today my grandma called and said they're having a birthday dinner for one of my uncles so instead of using a card I already had put together I decided that I was due for a creative session so I sat down and made him a card! I'm telling you, I'm not good with masculine cards, it's a big struggle of mine but I think it turned out pretty manly! LOL I used the CTMH Originals book to give me the outline and then I used the Heirloom paper pack (mentally noting it will be a good one to use for Christmas cards) and VIOLA:

Alright, now I need to clean up my mess before my daughter wakes up from her nap and decides to make an even bigger mess!! HAPPY TUESDAY (I've thought it was Wednesday but whatever LOL!)

Weigh-In Week #4

2009-08-13T18:02:00.000-07:00

I lost 1.2 lbs this week which isn't huge but hey, every little bit is welcomed with open arms! LOL I'm down to 254.4 which is a total loss of 10.4 lbs in 4 weeks...not too bad, not too bad! I'm just 2.6 lbs away from my 5% goal...maybe I can lose that this week *fingers crossed*!! I'm getting back into working out again so hopefully that will give me a big boost for the week. I went on a 3.5 mile walk last night (including some big hills) and my tush is SORE today! LOL I tried out a WW recipe from a book my mother-in-law let me borrow (THANKS LINDA!) and it tasted pretty good but it took me 2 flippin hours to prep and cook everything! It was taco salad and yeah, yeah, I hear the questioning of 2 hours but it called for chopping green and red peppers, carrots and celery and mincing garlic and crushing garlic and shredding carrots and lettuce and cilantro and adding all these herbs and what not...can honestly say that I probably won't be making that recipe again but thankfully I made enough so that we not only fed our family and my in-laws but also had enough leftover for another dinner! YAY!! It probably wouldn't have been so bad if I'd had my Pampered Chef food chopper but sadly, mine bit the dust awhile back and I haven't replaced it yet! Not sure what I'm cooking for dinner tonight, not really in the mood...maybe it's an eating out sort of night! LOL
Alright, I'm off to freshen up for my wonderfully hubby, he should be here any minute!
HAPPY THURSDAY!!!

A three-fer

2009-08-13T09:34:00.000-07:00

Oh man, am I sore today! That's what I get for getting out of my workout routine and being lazy for 2 weeks! LOL

Here are three cards I made last night.

Here's the inside:

I'm really excited with the way they turned out. The last week or so I've really struggled with my designs so it was nice to sit down last night and have things just coming together without much effort! I've only been making cards for 6 months now and I still feel myself holding back, too afraid to really let go and just experiment! I see so many blogs of ladies with amazing cards and projects and I always wonder how their brains work because I see their end work and I think "I would never think to put those colors together or those accessories on there!" I'm soaking it all in and someday I hope to experience the release of my inhibition so I can start playing around with different styles! I don't like feeling so reserved! LOL

Short and sweet!

2009-08-12T21:06:00.000-07:00

I'm keeping this post S&S because I just got back from a walk (and got all cleaned up) and my legs are sore and my crafting area is calling my name!! Here's a quick card I made yesterday:

Tomorrow is weigh-in for week 4 and I'm not expecting a big loss, I think I'll be lucky with any loss. I've eaten pretty good but haven't been drinking my water or working out (other than tonight). We'll see, I'll definitely let everyone know!
Have a great night!!!!

Blog Candy

2009-08-11T09:12:00.000-07:00

This is my 2nd post of the day (see below for my 1st post) but I couldn't help myself! Had to pass on the chance for some blog candy!

Go to Steph's blog: Where'd All My Money Go?!

Good Morning

2009-08-11T08:58:00.000-07:00

Wow, what another gorgeous day the Lord has blessed us with!! It's not even 9am yet and the kids have already played outside and we have the back door open to let in the summer air! Once we get our homeschooling done for the day I'm going to try to get outside, maybe a trip to the beach or the park!

Here are 3 cards I made last night. I love how the butterfly one turned out...not so impressed with the other two but I'm posting the good, the bad and the ugly, no matter what! It's fun to look back at the way I've made cards even if some of them are lame-o!

Well, I'm outta here, gotta get some school work done so we can go play!!

One word: FUN!

2009-08-08T16:29:00.000-07:00

"One Word"
{You can play this too, just cut and paste, add your own response and paste into your blog…}

you're feeling: Excited
to your left: Treadmill
on your mind: Hubby
last meal included: Pita
you sometimes find it hard to: Relax
something you have a collection of: Purses
a smell that cheers you up: Clean
a smell that can ruin your mood: Farts
how long since you last shaved: days
the current state of your hair: Up
the largest item on your desk/workplace right now (not computer): Purse
your skill with chopsticks: Decent
which section you head to first in the bookstore: Crafts
something you're craving: Pizza
your general thoughts on politics: Irritation
how many times you've been hospitalized this year: None
a favorite place to go for quiet time: Bedroom
you've always secretly thought you'd be a good: Baker
something that freaks you out a little: Debt
something you've eaten too much of lately: Turkeylunchmeat (counts as one word, right?? LOL)
you have never: Canned
you never want to be: Unsaved

Please let me know if you posted this quiz on your Blog too!

A couple 3x3's and a magnet board!

2009-08-07T11:10:00.000-07:00

Last night I made these 2 3x3 thank you cards and decorated the note board. I need to get going on my Christmas presents because I generally hand make a lot of my gifts and I think the magnetic boards might just be some of the gifts I give this year! I am curious to see what others make for presents so if you want to share, leave me a comment telling me about what you plan on giving as gifts this year or gifts you've given in the past that were big hits!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

Yay...good weight loss this week!!!

2009-08-06T17:33:00.000-07:00

I was not looking forward to today's weigh-in because I've been bad a few days and haven't worked out even once this week so I was expecting a gain if anything! Well, on the contrary I lost 4.2 lbs this week!!!! YAY YAY YAY!!! I'm down to 255.6 so that's a total of 9.2 lbs lost in 3 weeks and I'm only 3.8 lbs away from my 5% goal!!! I could seriously jump up and down and dance a little happy jig! :O) I've been noticing the last few days that my normally snug fitting clothes have been fitting better and I've actually worn 2 pairs of pants that I haven't been able to wear for quite awhile but tried to brush it off because I didn't want to be disappointed if the scale said I gained weight! I know I have a measuring tape around here somewhere and I even looked at Walmart today to see if I could buy another one (no luck) because I want to keep track of inches I'm losing! I'll dig deeper tonight to see if I can find it...if not, I'm off to JoAnn's tomorrow to buy one! One thing I have to share is that my hubby has been doing this along with me. He doesn't go to meetings or weigh-in there but he's been looking at my books and eating better and weighing in at home on the same nights I weigh-in and he's lost just about as much as me. He hasn't weighed in yet today because he's still at work but he told me yesterday that he was able to tighten his belt up one more notch! YAY FOR HIM!! It's so much nicer having him do this with me! He only wanted to lose 35 lbs so I have quite a bit more to lose than him but since we're changing out eating habits, this will be a life long adventure for us and he says he'll keep up with it right along with me! Talk about great support! The Lord really blessed me when He picked Josh for my husband!
Alright, I'm off to get ready for hubby coming home from work and then we're off to buy produce and have dinner! Thanks for all the encouragement and support ladies, YOU ROCK!!!!

Missin my boy!

2009-08-06T09:08:00.000-07:00

My little man, Keegan is off spending 2 nights with his Mema (my mom) and his Uncle Bubby (my baby brother who is actually going to be 10 in Dec.) and it's so strange when he's not here. He's 6 1/2 and has only had like less than 10 sleepovers so I'm still trying to adjust to nights when he's away. It feels like a piece of my heart is missing, like I'm not complete when my kiddos are away from me. I just have to stop and thank the Lord for restoring my marriage because I don't know how I'd handle having to share custody. I feel so bad for my hubby who only gets to see his son 2 days a month, if we're lucky! I know how hard it is for him and even after 11 years he's still has a hard time with it. Anyways, so I feel like I'm forgetting something all the time like going to bed last night and seeing Keegan's door open and thinking I needed to send him to bed or this morning he wasn't on the couch like he is every morning and thinking I need to go see if he's sick...LOL...needless to say I can't wait til he gets home Friday! He called last night and asked if we could get him a present and write him notes while he's gone! Goober! I already planned on making him a card or two but doubt we'll go buy him a video game like he wants us to. We're trying not to spoil the kids by buying them stuff all the time. Keegan has to earn his own money and save to buy what he wants except for at birthdays or holidays or a rare treat! Here's the card I made him last night:

Hubby & I have a new tv show obsession...LOST! Yeah, I saw previews forever and thought it was some weird sci-fi show that I had no interest in watching but, like with Twilight, my curiosity won out and I watched the 2 pilot episodes and got hooked! I'm all through Gilmore Girls and am now on season 2 of Lost! My poor hubby doesn't get to watch all the episodes because he's at work during the day and spends a few nights a week playing video games with one of his best friends so I watch episodes without him and so all he gets is a recap from me! :O) I guess if I was a good wife I'd wait for him but oh well! LOL He really doesn't mind! If he asked me to only watch them with him then I would!

Alright, I'm off to enjoy some alone time with my daughter!! HAPPY THURSDAY! Oh yeah, it's weigh-in day at WW! Sorta nervous about this week because I haven't worked out at all and had a couple bad POINTS days...we shall see! I'll keep ya posted!

Alanna's blog candy

2009-08-05T11:07:00.000-07:00

Go check out Alanna's blog here not only for a chance to win some blog candy, but also to see all the cool stuff she's created!!
HAPPY WEDNESDAY!!

A sweet blog treat!!

2009-08-04T21:08:00.000-07:00

One of my most favorite blogging buddies, Kim, left me this cute little guy on her blog. She is such a sweet lady and I just love checking out her stuff and seeing the super sweet comments she leaves for me! You definitely have to check out her blog, Memories In Thyme!

So now I'm going to pass this along to some other ladies that I've come to adore!

Sarah (I saw she got this award from Kim too but along with Kim, she's one of my favorite blogger buddies)

Weight Watchers week 2 weigh-in

2009-07-31T10:08:00.000-07:00

So I lost 1.4 lbs this past week which is better than I expected but not as much as I had hoped! We took a weekend trip to California and had to eat out a lot and although I made healthier choices at the restaurants, they still weren't the best choices and when we got home Wii Fit scale said I gained 3.3 lbs so I worked my butt off the rest of the week and ended up losing all of that and the additional 1.4 so not too shabby I guess! I hate feeling like a slave to the scale because it gets me feeling down when I don't see the weight dropping as quickly as I want it to. Granted, I know 2 lbs a week is the "healthy" way to lose weight but goodness gracious, it's not the fun and exciting way to lose weight! LOL So in two weeks I've lost 5 lbs and I'm only 8 lbs away from my 5% goal which I'm hoping to get by the end of week 4 but we'll see. When I'm home I do really good with my Points and I workout everyday so hopefully this will be a good week for me. I don't have any out of town plans until the 8th and that's just a day trip over to pick up my stepson for a weekend visit. Hopefully his mom will meet me closer than usual but I'm not getting my hopes up. Will most likely be a 10-hour day in the car...oh joy! The things we do for our kiddos, huh? LOL I'll just have to be sure to pack our lunch and snacks so we don't eat at McDonalds like we usually do! Anyways, so that's my news. I was mega bad last night at the fair and ate 3/4 of a scone with butter & honey on it which I'm sure ate up my 35 allowance points! LOL I figure one splurge a week is pretty good and I have the rest of the week to burn it off with my workouts! So 5 pounds down and 105 to go! YIKES! LOL I like to look at my short term goal of 8 lbs way more than that 105!!
Happy Friday everyone!!!

A little somethin

2009-07-29T09:09:00.001-07:00

Last night I decided to make some boxes for my son. We have mailboxes in the house for each of us and every so often we'll leave notes or candy or treats of some kind in them for each other as a little surprise. I thought I could make one of these boxes and put some candy in it as a special treat for my son when he got home from VBS today and I ended up making 5 of them, figuring I could use them later down the road.

Here's a picture of our mailboxes. We used stickers to decorate them and I just used a sharpie to write the names on the front.

With the scrap papers I made 3 little 3x3 cards for my hubby. I like to stick notes or cards in his wallet or laptop bag or underwear drawer or wherever he might stumble across them throughout his day so these are just the perfect size for that!

I made these 3x3 cards with some of the left over papers I had from the Scrapbook Expo we had at the mall on the 18th. I figure I can use them as thank you cards to my customers when they order stuff.

Alright, now I'm off to workout although I'm super tired and super sore...weigh-in is tomorrow so I gotta do it! :) Happy Wednesday everyone!

PS Giveaway

2009-07-28T10:09:00.000-07:00

If you go to Practical Scrappers and sign up to be a follower you get a chance to win some goodies!!! Check it out here and good luck!

Where o' where did my mojo go???

2009-07-28T09:51:00.000-07:00

I've been so busy lately that it's been like 2 weeks since I've done any form of crafting and I was going batty!! I sat down last night even though I was totally wiped out because I just felt the need to make some cards or something and low and behold...my mojo was missing!!! I made three cards which were plain and boring and I started looking for inspiration on blogs but was pretty much falling asleep at my desk and gave up. I even left my mess out all over the floor and my table which I NEVER do and went and crawled into bed. I watched a bit of Gilmore Girls and within 10 minutes I was OUT! On the bright side I've been having massive bursts of energy the past two mornings and I've gotten some killer workouts in, including today! Yesterday I worked out for 45 minutes on Wii Fit doing various things from the Yoga, Aerobic and Strength Training sections and then finished with 45 minutes of working out with weights. Then I walked 3 miles. Today I jogged for 30 minutes on my treadmill and finished with the awful and dreadful sit-ups! I hate sit-ups with a passion but I wanna get rid of this tummy chub so I gotta do it! At noon I'm gonna go for the 3 mile walk again. I walk down to my grandma's church to pick up my son and cousin from VBS and then walk back home. Praise the Lord it's been really nice outside so it's a great walk! Now that I'm all cooled off from my morning workout I'm gonna hop in the shower! I pray everyone is having a FABULOUS day!!! Happy Tuesday!

Week 1 on Weight Watchers

2009-07-23T19:39:00.000-07:00

Today was weigh-in day and....*drum roll please*...I lost 3.6 lbs this week! Not the 5 lbs my scale told me yesterday but still not too shabby! That's what I get for ordering pizza yesterday and it doesn't help being a girl and having a particular week during the month when you get all bloated and what not (if you know what I mean) but whatev...I'll take the 3.6 lbs and do a happy dance! LOL Now 10 more lbs and I've hit my 5% mark!! WOO HOO!

I bought the Complete Food Companion book from WW and the Dining Out Companion so that's what I'll be looking at tonight! We're going on a road trip this weekend so I'm gonna try very hard to stick to healthy eating and these books will help me when I don't know what to do!

Alright, I'm off to visit with my hubby and work on some crafts!!!!

Weigh-in Tomorrow

2009-07-22T12:10:00.000-07:00

I'm so anxious to weigh-in tomorrow at Weight Watchers. I've been camping since Monday afternoon and have done pretty darn good all week with sticking to my daily points. Monday night our friends made bacon cheeseburgers for dinner and I fudged a little and ate two of them (they weren't huge or anything) but managed to only go 6 points over that whole day which still leaves me 29 allowance points for the week (which ends tomorrow night). I made a point to take lots of walks while camping to get some activity points and I'm SORE today! I did all the packing and unpacking for the camping trip so lots of lifting and moving around and now I'm working on 500 loads of laundry! LOL Ok, so it will end up only being like 8 loads but it feels like 500! I was curious to see if I totally botched my weight-loss by eating those burgers and I did eat 2 smores last night and 2 little cupcakes (bad...bad...bad) but to my surprise the scale in my bathroom read 260 lbs so that's almost 5 lbs lost in less than a week...not too shabby! :) I can't wait to see what the scale says tomorrow at the WW meeting! I also want to say a HUGE thank you to the ladies that left such positive and encouraging comments on my last post about WW! It's so amazing to know I've got people rooting for me and praying for me and joining me in this adventure! It's awesome to hear how WW has helped other people and that obviously they know what they're talking about so I'm gonna stick with it! I'll post tomorrow night with the official results of the weigh-in! Now I'm off to relax between loads of laundry!! HAPPY WEDNESDAY!!!

Blogger looking for design team applicants!

2009-07-16T21:25:00.000-07:00

Christine at Practical Scrappers has started a blog and she is in search of design team members for scrapbooking and cardmaking!! If you are interested in applying, check out the blog for guidelines and give it a whirl!!

My 1st meeting!

2009-07-16T19:22:00.000-07:00

Alright...*deep breath*...my starting out weight is:
264.8 lbs.

I knew it was going to be around that, I half expected it to be 270 because that's what the scale said last time I got on it in my bathroom a week ago. My first mini goal is to lose 5% which works out to be 13 lbs.

According to the book they gave us, for my height (5'9") my healthy weight ranges are:
Minimum joining weight is 140 lbs (this is saying that in order to qualify to join WW you have to need to lose at least 5 lbs so if I weighed 135lbs then I couldn't join)
Minimum weight: 135
Maximum weight: 169

When I was in high school I fluctuated from 170-175 and still felt fat so I'm hoping to be somewhere around 160 but Josh (my hubby) thinks I'll look gross that small. BUT, that's coming from the guy that likes some meat on a girls bones! :O) I honestly could care less what the scale said (except I want desperately to be under 200 lbs) , as long as I like what I see and I feel good.

So there we have it...my starting out point!!! I'm armed with the tools & support I need and I'm ready to get going!
My daily POINTS target is 34 (whoa, that seems like a lot) and I get 35 allowance points a week. I'll update this weekly (at least) to show my progress (or lack of...hope not) and pass on what I'm learning about the program and myself! Thanks for riding along with me! :)
Now I need to go take a "before" picture and someday I'll post it on here....maybe once I've reached my 10% goal so we can do a picture to compare!

Weight Watchers

2009-07-16T12:51:00.001-07:00

I've been using my blog for posting my creative stuff but I'm gonna start adding in my newest adventure...weight watchers! I like the accountability that I'll have from publicly having to talk about my progress and it will also be a way for me to pass on what I'm learning to friends and family that are interested but can't make it to meetings or afford the cost of the program.

Tonight will be the first weigh-in and meeting I go to and I'm SOOOOOO beyond excited about it. I did WW 3 years ago online and lost 30lbs. I quit the program because I got pregnant and they didn't have a plan that was designed for pregnancy. Sadly I lost that baby and went on to lose another baby and then PRAISE THE LORD, I had my 2nd successful pregnancy and now have my daughter, Tatym who is a year old (July 2nd). It's time for me to get serious about changing my eating habits and make a point to have a workout schedule and stick with it. I want to have a healthy and long life (or at least until the rapture) and I want to be able to run and play with my kids and ride on fair rides and do all the fun stuff that in-shape parents do with their kids! I want to feel good about how I look and be able to wear cute clothes that weren't designed to just cover up the fat! LOL

So, I'll blog tonight about my first meeting and keep my blog up-to-date with my weightloss progress! I'm hoping to eventually lose around 110-120 lbs so I know this isn't going to happen over night (although I wish it could LOL)!

As ashamed as I am about how heavy I am, to be open and honest about what I'm going through I'll even post my weight on here. I'll start with my 'starting off weight' tonight after the first weigh-in! *gulp*

Alright...this day is going by soooooo slowly....c'mon 6pm!!! LOL

****Oh yay...just figured out how to change my font and colors and stuff...now this is even more fun!!!

What's in the bag?

2009-07-15T15:12:00.000-07:00

I was blog surfing a bit ago and ran across a blog where a girl at one point has posted a blog about what was in her bag and I thought it was pretty fun so decided to do it myself! I have a HUGE purse obsession that really, I should seek help for but I don't want to be saved from it so I'll stay away from the meetings! LOL I've toned it down a bit because of husbands dislike of my addiction but I still can't help but feel them calling to me when I'm in a store! LOL Anyways, so here's a shot looking into my purse from the top:

This is what's inside---Wallet, checkbook, too many pens & pencils, lots & lots of loose change that I've been meaning to put in my kids' piggy banks, a bundle of bobby pins...been wondering where all my bobby pins have disappeared to...a hair tie, kleenex, wet wipes (my son has an obsession with making sure he's clean after he poos so when we're in public I HAVE to have these on hand), lotion, lip gloss, hand sanitizer which I don't ever even use because I think it's of the devil LOL, 3 packs of gum...who needs 3 packs of gum in their purse????...2 gold coins that I took to church for a Sunday school lesson I was teaching, the square thing with a moon on it is a little flashlight...I've never used it for the purpose I put it in my purse for, ya know, being out at night and not being able to find the keyhole in the van door but it comes in handy when my son is bored LOL! What else??? A mini purple notebook, directions to a friends house, a spare binky, two baby hair bows, a $5 bill and a check that I need to cash and my glasses in their case. This was a good opportunity for me to clean out my purse and I'm feeling the need to use a different purse. Before, when I was done using a purse I would just give it away but since my hubby didn't like me buying new ones all the time I decided to start holding onto them and yes, I'd still buy a purse here and there but now I've gotten good at reusing some of the older ones!

So now I'm curious...what's in your bag???

Swap cards

2009-07-15T10:16:00.000-07:00

I signed up for a CTMH consultant card swap and had to make 3 sets of 10 cards (3 different designs) so last night I watched Harpers Island episodes and did the last 2 sets I needed to do. Harpers Island was a bit too much for me in the murder area but I got sucked in and just HAD to know who the killer was. Also, I'm a bit of a fraidy-cat and once I started watching an episode late in the night I had to finish to get my closure so I could sleep without the nightmares! LOL Yeah, no kiddin, I'm the kind of girl that when I'm freaked out by a scary movie has to turn every light on in the house as I'm walking through it and when I'm done in a room I flip the light off and RUN to the next room because my mind thinks that 'something' could jump out and grab me! LOL I try to logically think that I know there isn't anything in the house that is going to "get me" but the chicken part of my brain thinks maybe something slipped in! LOL So yeah, that's a peak into how my brain works! I try not to watch scary movies/shows but sometimes I let one slip by! :)

Anyways, here is one of the cards I made for the swap (1 of 10):

Now the 3rd set of 10 cards I made didn't go as planned. When I was cutting the papers I didn't even think about how they would layout on the paper. So although the cards are all supposed to look the same in each set this set didn't turn out that way. They're still cute but most of them look a little different!

We have a scrapbook expo coming up this weekend and my upline & I are manning a booth to show off CTMH products. I cut out enough papers to do 70 make-n'-take cards for people to test out the products. Connie (my upline) has also done 50 different cards so hopefully that will be enough for the day. Here is the card I made as a sample for the people to get an idea of how they might make their card.

Teaching Moments

2009-07-13T18:34:00.000-07:00

The Lord has really been teaching me about forgiveness today along with being mindful of the things we say so I took this opportunity to talk to my son about it. I'm sure everyone has done this or at least heard about this but thought I'd share my pics with everyone!

Ephesians 4:29 says Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

I talked to Keegan about how sometimes when we are angry or hurt or just plain grumpy we sometimes say things we really shouldn't. The toothpaste represents the icky things we might say. I then gave him a spoon and told him to put the toothpaste back in the tube. He quickly found out that it's nearly impossible and all-in-all it makes a BIG mess. I told him that our words can make a big mess of things and although we can apologize about what we said we can't take them back and it has a lasting effect on the world around us.

Obviously Keegan had more fun making the mess and playing in the toothpaste but after his dad got home from work he ran right in to show him what he did and told him about what he learned! So...totally worth the tube of toothpaste! :O)

Here's the proud boy & his mess:

Our icky words and the mess it can make:

Trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube:

Not working out so well:

Giving it a try!

2009-07-11T23:51:00.001-07:00

I saw this really cute card, called a tri-fold shutter card and knew I had to give one a try! I got the instructions here.

Hubby and I were watching Knowing while I worked on this. It's not completed but I wanted to post some pics before I hit the hay. I'm teaching childrens' church in the morning and need to be well rested to keep up with the pre-K & kindergarteners! LOL

What a day!

2009-07-10T11:36:00.000-07:00

So on top of the 15 Christmas cards I got made up yesterday I was able to finish 5 other cards. Granted, I was up til 2am working on cards (and watching Gilmore Girls) but hey, I got 20 cards done in one day...not too shabby!

Here is a card I made for my friend Julia's birthday (in August). I wanted it to look like a present and I loved the colors of this paper!

I made this card for our friend Anthony and his new fiance, Amy. They recently got engaged and my hubby & I are beyond excited for them! They'll be getting married on our son's 7th birthday (Nov. 7th) so it's now going to be an even more special day!

The rest of the cards I made just for fun to keep on hand for moments that I need a card and don't have the time to make one right then!

Had a few extra minutes...

2009-07-09T18:38:00.000-07:00

I'm wasting the last few more minutes before we have to head to dinner so I'll post the rest of the Christmas cards I did this afternoon. Now keep in mind that some of them are not totally finished. I left spaces for when I buy Christmas stamps to add to them. I wanted to at least get a base done so all I had to do was stamp or add embellishments!

Here they are:

I'm on a roll today!!

2009-07-09T18:33:00.000-07:00

This afternoon my son went to a birthday party at the local bowling alley so while he was doing that my daughter and I went cruising around the mall which kept her awake longer than normal. After we picked up my son and came home Tatym napped for 2 hours (my hubby just woke her up since we have dinner plans with friends) so I worked on Christmas cards again! I was able to bust out 10 more so now I've got something like 15 done! HOORAY!! I better slow down because I know I'm gonna buy some CTMH Christmas papers and stamps when the new Idea Book comes out and I don't want all my cards already done before I get to use my new stuff!

Here are 5 of the cards I just finished. I'll post the other 5 after we get home from dinner.

Please pray for Tammy & her family!

2009-07-09T13:44:00.000-07:00

I was doing my usual blog-surfing and came across Tammy's blog and her post today (here).

Her daughter was killed in a car accident this past week and if that isn't bad enough, 9 months ago her son was also killed in a car accident! I cannot even imagine the horror and pain that would come from losing a child and then to lose both of them within such a short amount of time...my heart just breaks for her and her family! PLEASE keep them in your prayers!!!!!

Christmas Cards In July

2009-07-09T12:12:00.000-07:00

Every year I mail out about 50-60 cards for Christmas and this is the first year that I'm going to make my own cards so I've decided to start now so I'm not scrambling later on! I got 5 made this morning while my daughter napped. WOO HOO! Some of them aren't quite finished because I don't have any Christmas stamps just yet. I can't wait for the Fall/Winter CTMH Idea Book to come out so I can order some and then I'll go back and finish up the cards that need a little more pizazz! This is so much fun because no one will get the same card as someone else!!

Here they are:

Pretty day but I love being inside!

2009-07-06T13:24:00.000-07:00

I'm such an addict! LOL It's like 70 degrees outside, bright and shiny and I'm inside working on cards! LOL My son even busted out a card for some friends of his that moved away a few months ago! I love that he has fun making cards with me!

So here is a card I made for my hubby's grandparents wedding anniversary. They're celebrating 70 years of marriage this summer! WOW, that is HUGE! Now-a-days it's a miracle if a marriage lasts 10 years so it's just amazing to be able to celebrate a marriage that has truly stood the test of time! These 2 people are so sweet and loving and have accepted me into their family from day one and I just adore them!

I made this card for a friends birthday:

Wow, a blog giveaway!

2009-07-06T10:43:00.000-07:00

Melissa at Creating From The Heart is offering up a Cuttlebug and some extra goodies to a lucky winner of her drawing on July 15th!! Leave her a comment & become a follower for 2 chances to win!

My Scrappin Space

2009-07-05T21:39:00.001-07:00

I know I'm always curious to see how other crafters have their space set up and I'm uber jealous of the ladies that have a whole room just for their creative outlet so I thought I'd post pics of my space. I've sort of taken over the dining room area of our 3 bedroom 1 bath duplex. I hated the way a kitchen table seemed to take up all the space in there because the sliding glass door that leads to our backyard is in the dining room along with the door that leads to the garage so our kitchen table is now in the garage being used to hold boxes and what not. I bought a folding craft table from my friend Bonnie at a garage sale for $5 and it's perfect for my space and my needs. I can fold it up when I'm done and stick it in the corner and pull it out when I need it.

So, here is a picture of our dining room (view from our living room) when the table is folded up.

Here's how I set the table up with my comfy computer desk chair.

Here are pics of my computer desk armoire that I got for my birthday from my wonderful hubby (he let me pick out what I wanted). I've converted it to my craft closet. I've stuck it in the corner of the dining room.

This is what the inside looks like:

Very top of the armoire holds my paper bins, latest shipments that I haven't had a chance to sort through yet, photo boxes with envelopes and extra pens and stuff for my home gatherings.

The top shelf is open and I put my CTMH card/scrapbooking layout books, my embellishments, extra stamp sets, jars that hold buttons, glitter, projects that I'm working on for swaps or whatever else.

After you open the doors, in the space that you would normally put a computer monitor, I have a magazine rack for my scrapbook/cardmaking magazines, my scrapbook, extra packs of cardstock, a holder for my pens/markers, glue, other embellishments, my paper cutters, business stuff (calculator, prize box, etc). In this first pic, the keyboard table is pulled out and I use that as an extra shelf for cardstock. The 2nd picture is with the table pushed in.

The bottom section I use for my bins of ribbon, scissors/hole punches, photographs, stickers and misc. inks/stamps (non CTMH).

Since the dining room can't fit all my stuff I've taken over a big portion of the garage as well! I love my hubby for letting me have and store all this stuff! He's so good to me and my addiction! Here is the view from our garage door:

I've got two bookshelves that hold things like templates for paper boxes or other crafts I've made, empty storage jars, a box full of toilet paper rolls for future projects, my Idea Books and other business forms, other things I've found that I want to alter in one way or the other (cookie sheets, picture frames, etc.), I also have some VHS movies that don't fit in the house and a craft bin for my son's stuff.

There's a table that was here when we moved in that I use for storing bins of paper scraps, templates, extra cardstock, blank scrapbooks or other altering projects.

These drawers hold fun stuff I find at scrapbook stores like blank recipe boxes, fun mini albums, blank clock frames, etc. The bottom drawer on the right has paper packs that I've bought from JoAnn's.

So there ya have it...my scrappin space! I dream of one day having my very own room that would have a door on it so I could leave things out and I wouldn't have to worry about little fingers destroying anything! For now I don't mind (too much) having to set things out when I'm ready to craft and then put everything away when I'm done! I'm just thankful to even have a corner to work on my projects! The bonus is that I can still visit with my hubby and any company we have while I'm working on things and I have a plug-in near my table so I can use my hubby's laptop to browse blogs or watch movies as I'm working.

I hope you have had an amazing 4th of July weekend and now I'm off to do something creative in my little corner! :O)

Happy 4th of July

2009-07-04T17:04:00.000-07:00

Just a quick posting for the day. We've got friends coming from out of town and we're gearing up for a BBQ and then off to do some fireworks!

I made some flag cakes today. One for our BBQ and then mini cakes for my grandparents and my in-laws! Here are some pics:

I pray everyone is staying safe and having a blast!!! Happy Independence Day!!!!