Lots of stuff goin' on!

It is amazing to me how  much we have going on and yet not so much? I know that doesn't make sense of course. I have been getting all kinds of goodies in the mail and from UPS. Painting rooms or at least that was the plan before the rain and cold weather. I am trying to spruce up the house and mother nature is not co-operating with me at all. I did get a dresser painted and it looks beautiful if I do say so myself. I saw a dresser on the cover of HGTV magazine and loved it and the color so I went to my local Lowes and picked a paint and a spray paint for the hardware and spent the day doing this. And as we know it took forever to dry.....rainy day.

Then we had the excitement of the neighbors house on fire.....crazy! At least I can say this for the Liberty Fire Dept., they all show up and do an excellent job of controlling the situation. Luckily for the neighbors it was contained in the garage and didn't spread any further than needing to replace some siding and the inside ceiling of the garage. 

I am getting Smart!

I ordered my first ever Smart phone today from HSN (cheaper) which is a Samsung Galaxy Sll 4G

Then I hopped on eBay and bought a couple of cases for it......my luck I would drop it coming out of the box!

This case is going to be for Spring and Summer because I love the white background and we all remember the old adage.....no white after Labor Day.

This will be my Fall and Winter case. If you notice I seem to be harkening back to the 60's with 21st century technology! Of course pink is in the mix and the only thing to make this better would be if they made these in aqua!

I also have a few photos to share of my granddaughter, Mia's first Holy Communion.

Mia being given communion by her Papa who was an ordained deacon ( he still is just retired from it).

Monsigneur Mancuso asking Mia questions, Mia by the Crucifix, Mia by the Blessed Virgin, talking to her best buddy, Sister Vicki, and her cake at the reception. We had a great time and were blessed that Mia's great-Aunt, Carol, was in town from Texas and played the piano and sang. She has such a beautiful voice (studied Opera) and is the Liturgical Minister of Music at her church. Mia's great-Aunt Eileen was there from St. Louis, her great-Uncle Patrick and his new bride Lisa another great-Aunt came to be with us also. They live nearby and had a wonderful wedding and reception just about 6 weeks ago. We had the mass and communion at Our Lady of Mercy Country Manor, a retirement community, where John's parents lived. This was planned while John's mother was still alive but sadly she passed a few months ago. The people at the Manor are like family and Mia has visited with everyone since she was a baby. It just made sense. We have had a wedding, 2 baptisims, and now a 1st Holy Communion there and the residents like celebrating with us. Everyone was in town for the inurnment of his mother the day before so those that could stayed and celebrated with us. Mia's cousin James had his 1st communion at another church in town and her great-Aunt Peggy was there (James is her grandson) but joined all of us at lunch after the reception at Brava restaurant. My daughters Jennifer and Susie took care of the reception and it was lovely. They are such a good bunch, how did I get so lucky! I got a picture of the 3 of them together, Samantha, Jennifer, and Susie with their heads together over the cake. I wish I would have gotten a picture of them all together!

Have a great week and eat cake!!!

Cloudy Skies, Remodeling and Slushies (a little scrapping thrown in too)

Grey days this week with predicted storms and rain so massive an Ark building might be underway, at least according to one local forecaster running the numbers. He was quick to predict rainfall of epic proportions equaling 32 inches in 4 days.....15.5 inches in one day alone. Now I have to slow down, take a deep breath and remember that this particular on-air personality is the brother of a well-known Congresswoman from MN. who herself is predisposed to exaggeration and doomsday predictions. So far, looking out my window, we have had sprinkles with 1 more day left for the predicted deluge. So, on to more uplifting and inspiring topics.

My daughter posted a slushie recipe from Pinterest that was frozen fruit and diet 7-up.....I must report that it is excellent and will go a long way to help curb my sweet tooth. That sweet tooth was cultivated the moment I was born. My Mother told me that she would make my formula from a recipe that included Karo Syrup, sugar in a bottle.

Then if this wasn't bad enough, my pediatrician, Dr. Shore, would offer a sucker on a safety stick at the end of the visit. My first taste was at 6 weeks.

Is it any wonder that I am addicted to sugar and it is my one nemisis in my quest to lose weight. Then add to the equation, butter or lard and flour and deep fried oil and I am putty in the weight gods hands.

So, I will take any manner of recipe and suggestion to help me replace all of the sugary substances in my life. I have gone cold turkey at one time when my Mother put me on a diet so that I could lose the chunky weight I put on at the age of 12. Poor mom didn't understand that what I was gaining was due to my ever changing hormones and not the food I was eating. I had 2 of my children that went through the same thing. There growth cycle was very visible to everyone, the would put on a few pounds and then spurt up a couple of inches, going from wider to taller all through puberty. So the battle rages and I WILL WIN!!!

We are going to be staying in our home so we are on a remodeling quest to keep it the way we want it and to forget about remodeling for resale. In other words I can use the colors I want. I am going to be painting my front door this week and I am trying out a few colors. I picked up the free sample of paint from Valspar called Tranquility in a satin finish. They had a coupon in some of the design magazines and luckily I could get 2. I think this might be the color for my door. I have had a lot of inspiration:

I love this color of door and how it plays off the grey of the stone. My house is that color of grey. My other choice is:

I love the color combination of grey and yellow with touches of black and white, it is very elegant and uplifting at the same time. Imagine this door with spring daffodils in among the foundation plantings with pink azaleas later in the season.

I scrapped another layout this week using a closeout collection from Authentique which had a beach theme but that I wanted to use for these pictures of my grandsons. Love the pictures of them and their relationship.

Have a great week everyone! Stay dry and run for the Ark if you see a need.

It has been a while or late to the party

It has been a while since I last made a post and I must say that we have been sick around here. Thankfully the sickness is gone and I am still awaiting the presence of Spring.....she too is late!

I am trying to get my Project Life up to date and I really am not too far behind. I seem to agonize over a smaller canvas to work on. I find tags, cards and PL to be my nemisis for some reason. Give me a 12 x 12 and I can rock it but freeze up on a smaller area. I am still debating whether or not I want to continue on in a kit club or not. I am finding that if I just limit myself to the items in the kit that it is stifling my creativity but when I give myself permission to add from my stash I am a much happier person.

I have 4 layouts to share 2 are new and using some of the supplies from the last 2 months kit clubs and the other 2 are UFO's ( unfinished objects) that I have updated with embellishments and of course photos that are more recent. It was really fun updating the UFO's and I also realized that I love doing 2 page spreads occassionally. I will make it a point to do them more often.

First up is a layout done with the March kit from www.mycreativescrapbook.com. It is a layout for Amelia's First Holy Communion and I am just waiting for the professional photo to complete it but I will show it to you now and then when I get the picture I will repost.

The next layout is of Mia and Lily on a shopping expedition and lunch. They loved shopping for clothes and sunglasses. What a cute picture of them both. This is using some of the April kit with the Maggie Holmes die cuts and background paper. The paper strip that is matting the photo is from the March Kit with the Dear Lizzy collection. I also used several strips of washi tape and a flair badge along with my own crocheted heart and bows made with my Cameo. Love how this one turned out.

Now we venture into the land of UFO's. These have been the bane of my existence since I knew they were there but chose to ignore them in a drawer somewhere buried. I will admit that I had a bigger stack of them but the papers were way outdated and really didn't appeal to me at all. I just trashed them. Sacralige to some but it had to be done. This first one is of all the grandkids and how they have changed over the years. I love this one even the cheesy 5 petal flowers with the brad centers. I added more embellishments to flesh it out some more.

This last one is of my son on his beloved Harley. It was originally intended by the designer to highlight her grandkids and I really thought about doing that but had these great pictures that would work well. I used wood veneer ( my now favorite go-to supply) in the stars and the motorcycle embellishment in the lower right corner.

So that is it for now, I am going to try to remeber to post a little more often and to keep a better record of what I create and what is going on in my world!! Have a great week!

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!