Weight Control and trying to live the healthy life

I am a Weight Watcher and for the most part I follow the program without problem....and then sometimes I just need a donut! Imagine my surprise when I pulled up to the "altar of all things fried and sugary" in my twice yearly pilgrimage and found the dichotomy that is my life. I just had to go back and snap a picture for proof that I sometimes live in a parallel universe and sometimes for convience sake they live right next door to each other.

I went back today to check out the new Nutrition store. It was not what I imagined, it was an Herbal Life commercial come to life. It is upscale, trendy and hip in appearance. The clientel was younger....much younger ie. a young 20 something couple just returning from the slopes of Colorado to get their energy drinks and meal replacement smoothies. I was given a sample of the Strawberry Cheesecake Smoothie and it didn't wow me...in fact it had a gritty taste from the protein powder in it. So I took a pass on having them fix me one. I did try the mango aloe "shot" and had a peach green tea that I paid for. $2.50....kind of expensive for a 12 oz. tea! I did say that because I was getting over being sick this past week that my taste buds could be off but I would try them another time. I don't know if that will be the case, but at least I know it is there.

Now on to my weigh in tomorrow, hope I record a loss. I skipped a lot of food this week at the beginning but my appetite caught up with me midweek and needless to say not a lot of great choices were made. Too sick to cook, too tired to care. We will see!!!

Spring is here, or is it?

As I look out my window this morning I see the sun and it looks really wonderful outside, that is until I look at the temperature. What is up with the weather? They are calling for snow for the next 4 days in our area.....it's Spring.....someone didn't get the memo! I have pictures of my grandson, Logan, helping the guys take down a dead tree in their yard. They were too cute and I had to scrap them.

I used some wood veneer, how appropriate, from the company Trees to Treasure and loved how it turned out. I took my vintage paper ink and rubbed it on the tree to darken the tone somewhat, used the banner to place a name to the title, and the bird and word bubble veneer is from Micheals recollection brand. It is placed on the wood background paper. It worked well with the story and pictures.

Last Thursday, Mia was over to create her banner for her first Holy Communion in April. I took pictures of her working on her piece sewing. She loves learning new crafts and I love teaching her.

This is the finished banner, Mia sewed on the buttons, the grape stem and sewed on the leaf, she helped glue on the jewels on the chalice also. The wheat was difficult so I did that and then I had to paint the letters, Heidi Swapp ghost letters with pink nail polish. Worked well I think. Have a great week!

Kit Club, Card Tweaking and a clean Scrap Room

So I hit publish a bit quick there and had to go right to edit. I hate when that happens.

I joined a kit club this last month after thinking about, pondering about, dismissing out of hand, rethinking, and just plain getting confused about the decision. I have been on both sides of the fence about kit clubs. On the one side I have wanted to join one but it seemed the ones I would hear so much about had a lot of added extra drama associated with them. Would I or would I not be able to get the kit, could I get the add ons, could I make an intelligent decision with sneak peeks only, would it be exclusive enough, did I want exclusivity, did I want lots of embellishments or did I want lots of paper, did I want a gianormous kit or mixed media, how was I to choose????????? The questions swirled in my head until I would walk away from the issue without making a decision or yet making a decision that I could do much better on my own without being boxed in by the constraints of being in a kit club.  Then again, I wanted all the new stuff and in smaller manageable bits without having to buy a lot of one thing and maybe not liking it. So enter http://mycreativescrapbook.com. I fell in love with this kit. I love the Dear Lizzy papers and the wood veneer embellishments were some I had in my cart at 2peas. I loved this kit and wanted to get my hands on it. I ordered my kit on or around the 5th of the month, the kits shipped on the 10th of the month (mine at 2:45 p.m.) and I got it on the 11th at 2:40 p.m. How is that for service. I was unaware that the kit club I chose was located in Olathe, Kansas, a mere 15-20 minute drive from my home. So I think I picked well for a change and can't wait to use this kit.

So my question to you is, can you create in chaos or are you bordering on OCD in keeping you area clean? In anticipation of getting this new kit I cleaned up my scrap area. I say that like I don't do it often but in fact after every project I clean up the area. Clutter drives me mad and I don't create or do well with lots of stuff everywhere. I prefer a clean area to make dirty as opposed to working in the clutter and getting frustrated with trying to find lost tools or papers.

This is a view from my door into my little 8 x 8 room. The desk is clean and houses my computer with the printer below and a rolling rubbermaid cart holds office stuff. To the right on the jetmax cubes is my Cameo. Believe it or not the jet max cubes hold the majority of my scrappy stuff.
The table is where I scrap and has four paper files from Archivers that holds my paper and cardstock. The white metal container holds all of my immediate use tools, ATG, cropadile, scissors, ruler, corner rounder, vintage paper distress ink and applicator, dimensional adhesive, glossy accents, glue dots, silhouette picker upper tool, needle and a couple of other things I can't remember. The rolling cart under the table is where I keep my scraps, acrylic stamps, Christmas stuff, pictures and extra goodies. My trimmer is on the table above it.

To the right of my scrapping table is my 9 hole cubbie that houses all of the stuff that won't fit in the drawers of the jet max or rolling cart. I have books, mini albums, cuttlebug, and PL stuff on the shelves. That is the extent of my scrapping stuff and I intend to keep it at this manageable amount. When we move I am planning to store all of this stuff in a long low dresser with an expedit unit on its side on the top secured together forming one piece. I will paint it a beautiful aqua color. Then I will have a desk area  maybe a sofa table and all of this will be in the dining room area of our apt/townhouse. The jetmax cubes will retire to my closet and be used to hold miscellaneous stuff and knitting/crochet and counted cross stitch goodies.

As for card tweaking....that card was bugging me. I thought I was finished but as soon as I saw the picture on my last post I knew what was wrong. I needed to mat the embossed white piece to ground it and make it look finished. So I got a piece of green paper that matched the green on the inside areas of the cupcake and it worked beautifully. I would post a picture but it is on its way to its recipient. Have a great day!

A Card and First Communion

I was asked by my hubby to make a card for Sister Vicki's birthday later this month. I am not a card maker. I don't do well with cards and those that make them have a special talent for doing so. I just find that creating on such a small canvas to be daunting. That said I actually like how this one turned out, of course that is after I cut the cupcake out of a couple of different papers that I ended up hating. I love my Cameo and it makes it easier to make cards....I don't have to worry about buying embellishments that will look right on the front, just make my own and size to order.

John took Mia home from spending the weekend with us. We took her to see Oz The Great and Powerful on Friday night, complete in 3D with the glasses, popcorn and Dr. Pepper. It was a cute movie and the 3D effects were some of the best I have seen. The sky full of spears coming at me actually made me duck! When he took her home they had Mia try on her first communion dress complete with veil and this is the resulting image:

Pretty cute I would say! The cross necklace is one they made in religion class and they brought home the base for the banner they have to make. John and I went to get the felt needed to make the embellishments for the banner and I guess this week we will be working on this because Mia is out for spring break and will be staying with us!

Have a great week.......oh by the way the posts recently have been getting blurry as a result of my aging eyes and the fact that I didn't have the lens to the camera all the way on. No wonder everything was so blurry and I couldn't get a good focus. It is all good as I am getting my glasses next week. I had the exam and nothing is wrong with my eyes that old age and lenses for astigmatism won't cure.

New Company and a little controversy

First off let me show you my newest layout. I did this layout starting with a white background, the drawn heart and the chevron arrow. I wasn't sure where I was going with this but love where it ended up. The layout was created solely with the color of the photo in mind. That and I love me some turquoise and green together. As I describe what I used I will be touching on the topic at hand.

The banner under the photo is of course Color Magic by Heidi Swapp that I bought at Micheals ( the boys store aka on 2peas ) along with the mist that I purchased there. Oh and I think the doilies were purchased there. The heart alpha was purchased at TJ Maxx for a deeply discounted price. I made the crocheted hearts . A lot of these supplies were raked to me from another pea that is from LA. The background paper from MME and the tab were from her. The turquoise heart is a wood veneer from Trees to Treasure Inc. I think they are out of Canada (edited to be a company out of Southern California, don't know how I came up with Canada), but I am not certain. All I know is that they create quality product to order and ship in an amazing time frame so that it was in my hot little hand before I knew it. Wood Veneers . I love the purchase I made with them and will be doing so again. There is no way to convey how pretty that heart is with the treatment I did on it. I first put a little color shine (Tropicana Teal) on a sponge and wiped it on the heart. Because these are wood veneers it was a little dark for my taste so I took some Mr. Huey's white and put a little on my finger and wiped it all over the first layer. The wood grain shows through but in a beautiful turquoise finish.

 I purchased a lot of my other supplies from Archivers and 2peas in a bucket. My point is that even though we post our finds on the 2 peas forum, I think it is safe to say we all purchase from there also.

It is the reason why I buy from 2 peas and remain loyal to them because I felt the freedom to share with fellow crafters the joy of the craft without being held back and having to watch every word uttered. If I find a great buy somewhere I want to share it so that others can experience the savings but also it enables me to use my scrappy $ wisely and make necessary purchases from 2 peas. Sometimes they just have what others don't. For example, I love the Maggie Holmes line and went to Archivers to see if they had it in stock ( 2 peas did not ). They had all but the 12 x 12 papers. I didn't buy any of it because it would seem to be counter-intuitive to do so if I need to fill a $50.00 order to get free shipping from 2peas. Why buy any of the other pieces in this line from anywhere else if I can't get the full package?  I would think we as scrappers would try to budget our money and our time wisely. I just happen to be lucky and have an Archivers and Micheals nearby. I can call and see if the items I want are in stock, if they will be carrying them and if I can purchase them all together or not. Another example of this is that Archivers will not be carrying any of the Webster Pages. I love this line and want to get it but that means my purchase will either have to be from 2peas or from Webster Pages itself. From what I could tell the manufacturer does not offer a break on the shipping as 2 peas does and that could sway my order, but if I am feeling like only my money is welcomed at 2 peas then I might look at this a different way.  All I am saying is " lighten up 2 peas" all the sharing of purchases is our way of using our $ wisely and making informed and smart purchases from you.