2day I Choose

Friday Favorite-Cutest Table Redo Ever!

2011-02-18T18:33:00.001-06:00

My favorite post this week is a tutorial for this cute little table over at Maple and Magnolia-it just looks like Spring! It was $1 at the resale store, and she used scrap paper to make the banner. Kind of makes me want to go look for a table, but we don't have anywhere to put one! Anyway, this looks pretty easy and the basic idea could be applied to lots of different things.

Free Spring Subway Art Printable

2011-02-17T16:00:00.006-06:00

Since Valentine's Day is over I have been looking for some fun Spring printables to swap into my frames, but I searched for a bit online and didn't have much luck. So, I made a Spring/Easter subway art printable for myself and I am sharing it with you! I made it in 3 different Spring colors, blue, green, and lavender-Easter egg colors. Click on each picture below and it will take you to Picassa where you can do a high-res download and then print. Happy Thursday!

Linked to:

Fun Photo Wednesday-Photoshop Storyboard

2011-02-16T15:52:00.002-06:00

So more playing with photoshop. I downloaded this free storyboard template from Paint the Moon. I tried to used it once before, but had some issues, namely that when I copied the pictures in they were so large I continued to just see white and thought that it wasn't working. However, I figured that out when I made my birth announcement, so this time I knew to Transform and then just keep shrinking and shrinking and shrinking. I also had to readjust the edges of the template grids because they did not meet exactly and there were gaps between two of the pictures. I did a google search and found several more storyboard templates that were free to download from various photography sites. Yay for free templates!

These are from Saturday. Bailey has an ear infection, but a few doses of antibiotic got her feeling much better. She was having a great time climbing on the rocker and showing out. We have the most awesome rocker-it is doublewide and was a gift from all the lovely teachers at Maplewood after I had Bailey. I enjoy it so much, and of course, so does Bailey!

Tuesday Poetry-"i carry your heart"

2011-02-15T19:37:00.000-06:00

i carry your heart

e.e. cummings

i carry your heart with me
(i carry it in my heart)
i am never without it
(anywhere i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling)
I fear no fate
(for you are my fate, my sweet)
i want no world
(for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

Valentine's Day Treats

2011-02-13T14:03:00.000-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day! Tomorrow is Bailey's Valentine's party at daycare, so I am showing how to make some cute little candy dispensers. She only has seven kids in her class, so I was able to make these up pretty quickly. Again, with her "help". I like that she comes and tries to help but it really does slow me down. I'm sure she'll be crafty before too long though and can help me for real. These were featured on the House of 3 webcast last week and a video tutorial is here. The basic dispenser is made out of 3 cups, one paper cup on the bottom and two clear 9oz. plastic cups on top. To make the dispenser take the two plastic cups and cut across about 2/3 of the way down from the top of the cup. Then, keeping the two cups together either use a circle punch or use sharp scissors to cut a half circle in both clear cups. Use adhesive (I used glue dots) to attach one of the clear cups to the base paper cup. The candy will go in here. Then place the second clear cup on top, but do not glue it. It will be free to turn. When both holes are aligned, the candy can come out. Turn the top cup so the holes are not aligned and the candy will stay in.

I then cut 3x8 strips of Valentine's paper and adhered them to my basic dispenser. I took the top clear cup off first, because it needs to be free to slide. It worked best for me to fold the strip in the middle. Apply adhesive, then lay the back of the dispenser on the center of the strip.

Then wrap the strip around to the front. It will meet at the top and gap at the bottom like this because the cup is not straight, but it's okay!

Almost finished! I added matching ribbon over the top of the paper strip.

Last step-I made tags for the dispensers that said "Happy Valentine's Day from Bailey" in Photoshop. I did this by saving a dotted background from the internet, then opening it up and using the cookie cutter tool to cut a circle. I reduced the opacity down to 50%, then added text on top. I wanted to use a 2" circle punch, so I sized my circle to 2.5" so I would have some wiggle room after I printed it. After I saved the tag as a JPEG I was able to print 4 to a sheet off on my printer, punch them out, and attach them to the front of the dispenser. This hides the paper gap.

Hope everyone has a day filled with love and treats tomorrow!

First Valentine's Scrapbook Layout

2011-02-12T21:26:00.002-06:00

I got the Valentine's pictures from the park printed up and this is my first layout using those pictures. I have a whole set of papers and stamps of the Love Letters line from Little Yellow Bicycle. It is such pretty, sophisticated colors, grays, black, reds, and dark pinks and also came with some beautiful flocked papers. The top of this layout and the lettering are both actually flocked. I love black and white pictures and I thought the black and white pictures with these papers would be really pretty.

I used one of the January sketches from PageMaps for this layout. I have not used sketches very often in the past, and I'm not sure it helped me to go any faster, but it did give me ideas for using multiple pictures on the layout in a way that was out of the ordinary for me.

Post of the Week-Tiered Trays for Under $5

2011-02-11T21:16:00.003-06:00

My favorite post this week is a group of ideas from Tatertots and Jello. Each of these super cute tiered trays cost less than $5 to make with items from the dollar store. I love the banner and colors on the first one-so cute!

My Spring Wreath!

2011-02-10T20:48:00.005-06:00

Last week I posted some of my favorite wreaths that I have seen, and here is my new wreath, sort of inspired by two of those! I purchase a wreath form at Michael's for 40% off and I had everything else I used at home so my total cost was $5.50. It took about 45 minutes to make, but that was with Bailey 'helping' me, so with less help I could have probably done it in 30.

I had some green fuzzy fur yarn that I bought on clearance a long time ago, so I used that. It is not as wispy so it is grass colored, but does not have that thick, lush look to it. I had a bunch of butterflies already cut out at home so I chose some of those and a few large and small prima flowers to mix in. I thought about covering the whole wreath in butterflies, but I didn't like the look of that so I just did a few. For the price and the time that it took I am very happy!

Linked to:
Keeping up with the Schultz Family February Round Robin
Tatertots and Jello Weekend Wrap up Party
30 Handmade Days

Giddy-Up! Fun Photo Wednesday

2011-02-09T20:30:00.001-06:00

These are a few more of the pictures that I pulled from my mother-in-law's camera during the holidays. It is amazing the difference some hair makes!

Tuesday Poetry-"Address to the Lord"

2011-02-08T20:38:00.003-06:00

Address to the Lord

John Berryman

Master of beauty, craftsman of the snowflake,

inimitable contriver

endower of Earth so gorgeous & different from the boring Moon,

thank you for such as it is my gift.

I have made up a morning prayer to you

containing with precision everything that most matters

'According to Thy will' the thing begins.

It took me off & on two days. It does not aim at eloquence.

You have come to my rescue again & again

in my impassable, sometimes despairing years.

You have allowed my brilliant friends to destroy themselves

and I am still here, severely damaged, but functioning.

Unknowable, as I am unknown to my guinea pigs:

How can I 'love' you?

I only as far as gratitude & awe

confidently & absolutely go.

I have no idea whether we live again.

It doesn't seem likely

from either the scientific or philosophical point of view

but certainly all things are possible to you,

and I believe as fixedly in the Resurrection appearances to Peter and to Paul

as I believe I sit in this blue chair.

Only that may have been a special case

to establish their initiatory faith.

Whatever your end may be, accept my amazement.

May I stand until death forever at attention

for any your leat instruction or enlightenment.

I even feel sure you will assist me again, Master of insight & beauty.

Healthier Rice Krispie Treats and Monday Meal Plan

2011-02-07T20:16:00.001-06:00

I am considering these to be healthier treats because they use brown puffed rice instead of the regular cereal that is used. Of course they still have lots of other not so good for you ingredients, but any little bit counts! I had a bag of brown puffed rice that I have no idea why I bought and I didn't want it to go to waste so I incorporated it in out of necessity.

Ingredients:
3 Tbsp. butter
1 bag marshmallows, divided in half
6 cups puffed rice cereal

Melt the butter over low heat, then stir in the divided marshmallows and continue stirring until the marshmallows are melted.

Remove the marshmallow mixture from the heat, then add in the puffed rice and stir to coat. Then stir in the remaining half of the marshmallows.

Normally the mixture is pressed into a pan, but I made mine in small muffin cups so they would be more portable for lunch and less messy.

Weekly Meal Plan:

The last time I sat and planned out our meal menu was three weeks ago, and I plan meals for every day even though I know we will not eat all of them, so this week we are going back and eating some of the things that were on the menu in prior weeks and that never got eaten. We have been doing really well sticking to the menu, if not following it directly then we have still eaten something like leftovers, tamales, or pancakes for supper. January is a really long month for us since we both get paid in mid-December and not again until February, but this time we had food money left over so I am really proud of that.

Sunday-leftovers

Monday-black bean patties with green peas
Tuesday-Jambalaya

Wednesday-Empanadas

Thursday-Roast Chicken

Friday-Peas and cornbread

Saturday-BBQ chicken pizza

Weekly Reflection

2011-02-06T21:13:00.003-06:00

Again, my reflection is a little late. I had all good intentions of doing it Sunday but instead I took a nap and went to the park and did a scrapbook page. This week has been an interesting one because school was cancelled for two days because of the weather, which was great. I love spending time at home and it was nice to hang out in front of the fire in my pajamas and relax. I did some things around the house, but didn't worry too much about anything particular. However, it did disrupt the routine. It's funny how I know that I had all of these beautiful extra hours that I don't normally get, but I still don't get everything that I would like accomplished because I choose to take that time and rest. I am still finding that it is hard to reflect back on the week because it is hard to remember what happened at the beginning of the week, so in this week that is upcoming I am going to make an extra effort to be mindful of what is happening and to try and record some short notes to look back on at the end of each day and see how that affects my recollections and my emotional perception of how I did on my goals. I hate that I can't remember what I was doing 7 days ago because it really makes me aware of how I can go through my days and enjoy them and still not have been fully present. I think some of it is a function of me just being tired right now, but I know that isn't it completely.

Read More Poetry

This week I read Red Bird by Mary Oliver. This is a short collection and the red bird is a recurring theme throughout the poems, but none of them jumped out at me. I was spoiled by reading a volume of her collected works, the best of the best. I am also reading the Poetry Daily website, which is interesting because it is poetry that is recent and it varies wildly from day to day. Sometimes I like the poems, lots of days I don't, but I enjoy thinking about why I like some and not others.

Take More Pictures

I didn't take many pictures this week because we spent most of the time inside hanging out and not doing anything particular. I guess this is the time when I should take pictures-when we are doing regular ordinary things, but we just aren't very photogenic at those moments. We were going to take Bailey to a community event on Saturday and I brought the camera to take pictures there, but she couldn't stay awake so we had to go back home.

Create More
I continued playing with Photoshop this week-I made a Valentine's card with a sweet picture of Ryan and Bailey on it and I also made birth announcements for after Sophie is born. All I need to do is drop in the pictures! I also did a scrap layout with some of the Valentine's pictures. Again I feel like I spent way too much time on the computer, but I am not going to undertake any more photoshop "projects" until the Mouse, Paper, Scissors class starts in a few weeks.

Exercise More

I still don't have the prenatal yoga DVD back from the library, but I did a different prenatal fitness DVD. It was a lot more energetic, and I made it about halfway before I sat on the couch and watched it to the end. Next week I might be able to finish it!

Reflect More

I have been continuing to think about the same things as in the prior weeks-mainly what is it that I really want to do and how am I doing it, and what am I not that worried about doing even though they are good things and how am I avoiding getting drawn into doing them anyway. I am still trying to balance the goals that I have for myself and to incorporate them into every day in small ways.

Maintain a Welcoming Home

We started this week off great with the chore list, but spending four days at home with Bailey pretty much wiped out any semblance of order. She loves to pull all of her toys and animals out into the floor and is not telling them to sit, covering them up for naps, and trying to feed them cookies. This goal pretty much had to be abandoned, but we will get back into our routine next week.

Connect More

Date night this week was a game and doing the budget together-kind of funny but that is just reality I guess. I also did some things for others this week. I am continuing to try to be more conscious of my relationships with others and if I have a thought to do something to act on that. I am continuing to have lots of coincidencs pop up, which is out of my comfort zone, but I am trying to be open to it.

Write

Yes!

Be Open to Spiritual Growth

I am continuing to go through The Purpose Driven Life. I have made it farther into it than I ever have before and I am liking the later sections much better. What stuck out to me this week were the sections on worship and the idea that there are different ways to worship that inegrate into day to day life and go beyond the prayer/devotional idea that usually comes to mind. I communicated back and forth with Pastor Todd about this concept, and what separates worship from just living. I feel like it has given me a lot to think about.

Spring Wreaths Inspiration

2011-02-04T20:22:00.001-06:00

I still have my Christmas wreath on the front door. It is lovely, it has fruits and berries in it, but it also has Christmas lights so it is clearly out of season. I was looking for some ideas for a wreath to make and these were some of my favorites from online.

This wreath is so cute! It is made out of paper towels sprayed with glimmer mist. I love it, but I'm not sure how long it would survive the humidity. There is a tutorial for this wreath at Made by Nicole. Check it out here.

Here is another really cute one made out of brown paper bags. There is a tutorial for this one
over at Mary Janes and Galoshes. This one looks like it would be really affordable to make and I already have lots of beautiful butterflies cut out. I'm wondering how long it would take to make.

I think this wreath from Capture the Details if my favorite! I love how she used the fuzzy yarn to simluate grass. It looks so good and I wouldn't have thought of it on my own. I also love that it only takes a few supplies so it is also affordable, but still bright and eye catching. She posted a tutorial for this wreath also.

Playing with Photoshop

2011-02-03T19:32:00.007-06:00

I got to spend the day at home today because school was cancelled due to weather. Bailey woke up at 5:30 and came and bounced into bed because of course she doesn't care that we could be sleeping in. She lay (crawled around on top of us) for a while and then I got up with her and picked up the kitchen and made pancakes. I also hauled in a great big load of firewood so we have been sitting inside in front of the fire today. I love having a fireplace! I love not having to get out of my pajamas!

I have been playing with my trial of Photoshop Elements and Bailey's Valentine's day pictures this week. I made the Valentine's card below. My first try came out very pixelated, I think because my background was from the internet and wasn't sharp enough, but I love the second try!

I also used a free Before and After Template from Paint the Moon and put in some of the Valentine's pictures. Bailey is such a funny girl! I need to make a few tweaks in the mask layer on the first after picture-I think it is something to do with the template because it isn't in my original picture. It's a mystery!

Linked to:
My Romantic Home
30 Handmade Days

Fun Photo Wednesday-Daddy Love!

2011-02-02T19:00:00.003-06:00

I see a daddy's girl! I don't even remember what they were doing-I think playing in front of the fire. She is so funny-I think the snuggling lasted for a moment, but then she ran off to play. She sort of looks like she is already swinging into motion.

Tuesday Poetry-"The Life of a Day"

2011-02-01T20:50:00.000-06:00

The Life of a Day

Tom Hennen

Like people or dogs, each day is unique and has its own personality quirks which can easily be seen if you look closely. But there are so few days as compared to people, not to mention dogs, that it would be surprising if a day were not a hundred times more interesting than most people. But usually they just pass, mostly unnoticed, unless they are wildly nice, like autumn one full of red maple trees and hazy sunlight, or if they are grimly awful ones in a winter blizzard that kills the lost traveler and bunches of cattle. For some some reason we like to see days pass, even though most of us claim we don't want to reach our last one for a long time. We examine each day before us with barely a glance and say, no, this isn't the one I've been looking for, and wait in a bored sort of way for the next, when, we are convinced, our lives will start for real. Meanwhile, this day is going by perfectly well-adjusted, as some days are, with the right amount of sunlight and shade, and a light breeze scented with a perfume made from the mixture of fallen apples, corn stubble, dry oak leaves, and the faint odor of last night's meandering skunk.

Microwave Pralines Recipe and Monday Meal Plan

2011-01-31T21:31:00.003-06:00

I made these pralines during the holidays. I wasn't sure how they would turn out since I've never made pralines in the microwave but they turned out really well and it was so much easier than using a candy thermometer and stirring nonstop. I love that they have only 4 ingredients, but I do wish that any of these ingredients were good for you.

Ingredients:

1 lb. brown sugar

1/2 pint whipping cream

2 T. butter

2 cups toasted pecan halves

Stir brown sugar and whipping cream together. Microwave in 2-minute intervals until the sugar melts, stirring occasionally. The length of time will depend on the strength of your microwave, but mine took about 10 minutes. Remove from the microwave and stir in butter and pecan halves. Stir vigorously until the mixture begin to thicken. Working very quickly drop by teaspoonfuls onto wax paper and let sit until firm. Makes about 36 pralines.

Monday Meal Plan

This is the last week that I had planned out, but we have a few meals from the previous weeks that we haven't eaten and my parents are coming in this weekend so I know we will eat out on one of those days so I think I will be able to stretch the schedule to last one more week after this one. That's longer I can prolong going back to Wal-Mart! Ryan went with Bailey today to pick up the necessary basics like milk and bread so we are set for a while longer.

Monday-Empanadas

Tuesday-Spicy Black Bean Soup

Wednesday-Roast chicken

Thursday-Potato soup

Friday-Chicken and bacon ranch quesadillas or chicken fajitas

Saturday-Peas, sausage, and cornbread

Sunday-BBQ chicken pizza on naan

Weekly Reflection

2011-01-30T19:47:00.002-06:00

Okay, I have to be honest-it isn't Sunday. I am backdating my reflection because it was supposed to be on Sunday, but I was still thinking then. Not surprising since it was three weeks after New Year's before I set my goals in the first place. Sometimes I feel like I move at a whole different pace than most of the world, but I don't guess that's a bad thing.

Today is not a poetry day, but it was a hard day in some ways and I kept going back to "Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver-

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

It's comforting and humbling to remember that "meanwhile the world goes on". Everything continues in the same cycles and the same paths-helps to keep things in perspective.

This week has been a week to think about balance-mostly because it is so hard to keep. I have also noticed how the way I am feeling about things changes through the week-I feel like I am accomplishing less as the week goes on even though this isn't true. I think I have too many expectations for what I should do on the weekend and I get disappointed with myself. I tend to do things from least liked to most liked so I get all of the unfun stuff or things for other people done but then I am out of time. I also find that when I reflect back on the week the beginning of the week seems about a year ago-it is almost hard to remember so if I did something earlier in the week I almost forget about it. I'm not sure how to bring better perspective to time so this doesn't happen.

Read More Poetry

I did do this. I read through "Good Poems" and marked things that stood out to copy and reflect on more later. I went too fast, which totally defeats the point but it's a library book so I wanted to be able to return it. Balance issue here-I went too quickly and I knew I was doing it so even though I read I felt like it mostly did not get absorbed. I didn't feel particularly enriched by this, I felt more enriched by sitting and reading "Wild Geese" for 30 minutes today.

Take More Pictures

Did this-took a few during the week and then went and did Valentine's pictures with Bailey at the Lakefront on Saturday. Thank goodness, because the weather was bad Sunday and now it is freezing cold.

Create More

I spent more time this weekend playing with Photoshop. I bought some actions from Paint the Moon and edited the Valentine's pictures. Time passes way too quickly on the computer and even though I upgraded I am still hitting a learning curve. I finished on Sunday afternoon and I was able to move a lot faster. Balance issue-I spent all my time on the computer and didn't do anything else and even though I am very happy with the results doing computer stuff is just not the same to me as doing something hands on. I made Valentine's decorations for my house on Monday and decorated the mantle, but it seems so long ago. I also made cookies and granola this weekend, finally. I have been wanting to do the granola for a month and never go to it.

Exercise More

I guess more is relative. I exercised more than someone who did nothing. I did yoga once, but then I had to return the DVD to the library and I didn't do anything else. Bailey even asked to do yoga two or three times-I need to listen to her!

Reflect More

I guess I should revise this so it doesn't include getting up earlier because maybe that isn't going to happen. I felt like I alternated between working to be present and aware and totally wasting time and having no idea why this week. That could be why it took me two extra days to process enough to do my reflection. I feel like this goal is in progress.

Maintain a Welcoming Home

We did great until Wednesday and then we skipped a few days. This happened last week too-hump day is bad for cleaning. We caught back up on the weekend.

Connect More

I went to Bunco Thursday which was fun and made plans with one of the other ladies to get together in a few weeks and make bows. We also talked about doing a crafty group every few months and there was some interest in that so I am going to try to get some things together that we could do. I wanted to go to Dress a Girl around the World at church but Bailey woke us up in the middle of the night and then I slept too late so I didn't make it, but maybe next time. I sent out some cards of thanks for things this week too-sitting and writing what I am specifically thankful for was very centering-I feel like it is a little weird, but hopefully a nice weird. The world needs more of that. I am making an effort in this area, and it is an effort because I feel like I am putting myself out there more which is scary but I am finding things come back to me-different ways, different people, but back nonetheless.

Write

Still no. I have the same two sentences I did before. Still a great big chicken.

Be Open to Spiritual Growth

We missed small group this week because I made spaghetti bolognaise without reading the entire recipe, which I should have done because it had to bake for a long time and it wasn't ready for us to leave. I am still going through The Purpose Driven Life. I don't have too much to say about that except that I am trying. I am still in Matthew in The Message translation. I am still loving that verse...Just be there, as simply and honestly as you can.

Friday Favorite-Free Valentine's Printables

2011-01-28T19:04:00.001-06:00

My favorite post this week is not really a post, it is a whole website, iSharePrintables, full of great free printables for holidays and occasions. There are lots of cute things scattered around the web, but it is nice to have a site that gathers things into one place. This is a Valentine's printable that was featured this week. It is sweet and simple and comes in 3 different colors.

Valentine's Mantle Makeover

2011-01-27T16:32:00.003-06:00

In my reflection on Sunday I mentioned that I would like to decorate my mantle, and as soon as I published the post I saw an update for a mantle linky party in my blog roll. It was a sign-the universe wants me to decorate my mantle! I bought some red and black tulle at Wal-Mart to go across the top, and used stuff I had at home for the rest. I took the pictures out of my frames and cut Valentine's themed scrapbook paper to go into them, and used the same paper to cut some freehand paper hearts to string across the mantle. This is my first foray into Valentine's decorating, but I think it turned out pretty cute!

To check out more mantles decorated for Valentine's day you can swing by the linky party
http://www.thestoriesofa2z.com/2011/01/valentines-mantel-linky-party-mantle.html

I also swapped out the pictures in the frames on my sofa table for a Valentine's theme. I have a few more things I want to swap out to be more seasonal in my entry and living room, but I have to make one more quick Wal-Mart run before I can finish so those pictures will have to wait! I have been intimidated by the mantle, but now I feel like I have conquered it and am already thinking about Easter. Hmmm...

Fun Photo Wednesday-At the Park

2011-01-26T20:25:00.000-06:00

Tuesday Poetry-"Ode to my Socks"

2011-01-25T15:52:00.003-06:00

I love this little poem about the beauty and goodness in simple things.
Even your socks.

Ode to My Socks

Pablo Neruda

Mara Mori brought me
a pair of socks
which she knitted herself
with her sheepherder's hands,
two socks as soft as rabbits.
I slipped my feet into them
as if they were two cases
knitted with threads of twilight and goatskin,
Violent socks,
my feet were two fish made of wool,
two long sharks
sea blue, shot through
by one golden thread,
two immense blackbirds,
two cannons,
my feet were honored in this way
by these heavenly socks.
They were so handsome for the first time
my feet seemed to me unacceptable
like two decrepit firemen,
firemen unworthy of that woven fire,
of those glowing socks.

Nevertheless, I resisted the sharp temptation
to save them somewhere as schoolboys
keep fireflies,
as learned men collect
sacred texts,
I resisted the mad impulse to put them
in a golden cage and each day give them
birdseed and pieces of pink melon.
Like explorers in the jungle
who hand over the very rare green deer
to the spit and eat it with remorse,
I stretched out my feet and pulled on
the magnificent socks and then my shoes.

The moral of my ode is this:
beauty is twice beauty
and what is good is doubly good
when it is a matter of two socks
made of wool in winter.

Spaghetti Bolognaise Recipe and Monday Meal Plan

2011-01-24T21:05:00.005-06:00

This is a recipe from one of Jamie Oliver's cookbooks. I have had it in my recipe binder for a long time but never made it before. I think this was the most delicious smelling thing that I have ever made. It was really good, but I think smelling it was better than actually eating!

Kinda Spaghetti Bolognaise - Serves 4
10 slices bacon
1 Tbsp dried rosemary
olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 lb ground beef
1 wineglass red wine
1 tsp dried oregano
1 14oz. can of tomatoes
1 6oz. can tomato paste
1 lb spaghetti
Optional: Fresh basil, grated parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 350 and prepare the sauce in an oven safe pot. Fry the bacon and rosemary in olive oil until golden, then add the onion and garlic and fry for 3 more minutes until softened. Add the ground beef and stir for 2 or 3 minutes, then add wine. Reduce slightly, then add the oregano, tomatoes, and tomato puree. Season with salt and pepper to taste and bring to a boil.

Cover the sauce and place in the oven for an hour and a half. Toward the end of the cooking time cook spaghetti and drain. Just before serving add some fresh basil and grated parmesan cheese.

I made this with a Cabernet Sauvignon which was perfect and topped it with real parmesan reggiano (a little goes a long way). Lovely! The hands on time was about 20 minutes.

Weekly Meal Plan:

Sunday-Ham and cheese calzones

Monday-Spaghetti Bolognaise

Tuesday-Tortilla Chicken

Wednesday-Chickpea Potato Curry

Thursday-Jambalaya

Friday-Baked chicken and Lentils

Saturday-Roll ups with bacon and peas

Linked to:

Weekly Reflection

2011-01-23T19:58:00.003-06:00

I feel like this has been a good week overall. It started off well because we had Monday off of work and I had a chance to make some things and have family downtime. Bailey had tonsilitis again, which is always hard because there is nothing I can do to make her feel better any faster, but her antibiotics started working quickly and she is back to her normal self. She was outside today running all over the yard calling, "come here Momma!" It was nice to see her run and play instead of cry and whine. We also made a visit to the hospital Friday night, but everything was fine and my mother and father in law drove over to so we wouldn't have to wake up Bailey and take her with us. Sophie kicked the fetal monitor most of the time they were checking, so there was no doubt that she was moving around in there!

As far as goals go, I have been making an effort to think about them through the day and even though I don't "feel" like I have really accomplished much I did meet most of my goals for the week. I'm not sure what that means exactly about me or about my goals, but anyway...

Read more poetry-I have been reading Mary Oliver because I love the way she writes about nature and the simple things in life. She recognizes the wildness in things, which makes me think about being in the redwoods which was the wildest, freest feeling place that I have ever been. Ryan said he was surprised because he hasn't seen me read poetry in a long time. I told him that's because last year's goal was to understand poetry but this year I have downgraded to just reading.

Take more pictures-For some reason I don't feel like I have, but I have taken pictures every day. Not great ones. Not even good ones. But it is still better than nothing. Honestly, Ryan has taken quite a few pictures too, if not more than me-Thanks babe!

Create more-I haven't done any major projects, but I did make treats and the play doh and I spent most of the weekend playing with a free trial of Elements 9 (a major upgrade from my previous version which was Elements 4). I had a conversation with a friend and teacher at school about actions and that combined with the hospital visit was the perfect excuse to park my butt on the couch and fiddle with it for hours. I love all the possibilities, but I don't want something else that will be time consuming because as fun as it is there just isn't that same sense of gratification that I get when I spend the same amount of time making something with my hands.

Exercise More-I have been doing prenatal yoga with Bailey, which is not exactly relaxing but it still counts. And she is so cute-she says, "Yoga mommy!".

Reflect More-no, not at all in the way that I have intended. The way I intend to do this involves getting up when Ryan goes to get in the shower and sitting quietly. I haven't gotten past the getting up part yet, but it is still a goal! I will get up! I have done a lot of thinking and reflection in other ways though.

Maintain a welcoming Home-Yay for the chore list! I hate cleaning, but Ryan is now the official mopper so that makes it much better. We missed a day but got caught up the next day so this is going great. I would like to move a little further and decorate my mantle and put up some seasonal decorations, but for now I am happy to just have done the chore list.

Connect More-We started date night again after a long lapse and we are taking turns planning. This week is my turn to plan and I found a website with lots of great ideas beyond watching a movie or playing a game so I am excited about that.

Write-no, not at all. Sigh. Again. If I didn't really want to do it I wouldn't make it a goal, because I get frustrated at myself for never doing it. Wait, I did write two sentences! I can't be excited about that because really it is just sad, but it is still a beginning.

Be Open to Spiritual Growth-Last Sunday our pastor had a verse from Matthew in his notes that said (in reference to prayer)..."Just be there as simply and honestly as you can. The focus will shift from you to God and you will begin to feel his grace." This was The Message translation which I have never read, but I went to Books-a-Million after church and bought a small New Testament in that translation and have been reading it. I love that verse-I feel like it just sums up everything that I want out of myself and life right now. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can... We also started out Purpose Driven Life small groups this week. I am not so sure about that, but I am trying. Really I am. It would be easier to take seriously if the guy didn't wear such ridiculous clothes on the video-it makes me question his overall judgement.

I have given a lot of thought this week to what it means to be an authentic person instead of compartmentalizing all over the place. I have been thinking a lot about what it really is to just be, simply and honestly. I have been thinking about my colleague Karon Granger that passed away last month from the same cancer as my grandmother and another colleague and friend that had a baby just a few days later. I also read a post on time management in which the author talks about what her goals and priorities are, but also all of the things she doesn't do. I love this list-I love that there are great things on there that she is completely okay with not worrying at all about doing and that she is clear enough about what she wants to identify those things and put them out there. I keep going back and rereading it and I will probably end up printing it out and sticking it somewhere, because I found this so refreshing and honest and centering. I feel like there are so many things that I should want to do, and I would like to be a person that would do them, but I'm just not. And it's okay.

Homemade Play-Doh

2011-01-22T20:00:00.004-06:00

Earlier this week I made Play-Doh for Bailey using a recipe from a great crafty blog Brown Paper Packages. We had all the ingredients here at home and it took about 15 minutes. Bailey helped me measure and stir the ingredients and picked the colors, and then I cooked it on the stove and mixed the colors up. I used gel based colors which I learned are not that easy to wash off, but mixing the play doh up was super easy. Today we pulled it out again, and it even smelled like the Play Doh from the store!

Recipe for DIY Play Doh:
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
4 t. cream of tartar
2 cups water
2 T. vegetable oil
Food coloring

Mix the first 3 ingredients together, then stir in water and vegetable oil and mix well. Cook over medium heat, stirring continuously, until mixture thickens and pulls away from the sides of the pan. Transfer the dough to wax paper and separate into sections. Add in food coloring and knead until dough is cooled and a uniform color. Glitter and Kool-aid can be added in for play doh that is sparkly and scented.

We did a little anger management, counting, and picking out colors. Fun!

Favorite Posts of the Week

2011-01-21T19:29:00.003-06:00

Friday, friday! I have seen lots of fun Valentine's related projects and tutorials this week, but two of my favorite projects were tutorials for making rosette wreaths out of inexpensive items. Although I think they are both lovely, they appear to take a very very long time to do so I doubt either one of these are in my future.

The first is a wreath made out of book pages and shown over at Lovely Crafty Home.

The second is a wreath made out of red Duck Tape rosettes shown over at Poppies at Play. I never thought of Duck tape as a home decor item (kind of sounds like the beginning of a redneck joke), but I think these look just right for Valentine's day.

Have a great Friday!

Fun Photo Wednesday

2011-01-19T20:25:00.001-06:00

This is not a new picture, but I got it off of my mother in law's camera during the holidays and I think it is sooooo cute...Lots of changes from one to two!

Bailey having bedtime fun. PILLOWS!

Tuesday Poetry

2011-01-18T19:21:00.009-06:00

The Summer Day - Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

Chicken Salsa Soup Recipe and Monday Meal Plan

2011-01-17T17:16:00.006-06:00

My recipe for today is one of my grandmother's. It is similar to Tortilla Soup, but is lighter and easy to make. She called for boneless, skinless chicken breast but I substitute shredded roast chicken instead. For me, this uses up part of the roast chicken leftovers or rotisserie chicken leftovers. Using roasted chicken makes this a super fast recipe. I was also able to use up the end of a jar of salsa in the refrigerator and stale corn chips from the pantry!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups shredded chicken
2 cups water
2 cups chicken broth
1-2 tsp. chili powder
dash cumin
1 1/2 cups frozen corn
1/2 cup thick & chunky salsa
2 oz monterey jack cheese
tortilla chips

Combine all of the ingredients but the cheese and tortilla chips and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Crush tortilla chips into the bottom of bowls and serve the soup over the chips. Top with cheese.

My meal plan this week was a challenge since I am trying to use as much as possible of what is in the freezer and pantry already. We are so bad about buying something and then finding an unopened bag of the same thing in the freezer. I actually made a 3 week plan and did a 3 week shop to work through most of what is left and to also find ways to use the leftovers and we did a fast 40 minute power shop through Wal-Mart this morning so we should be set for a while. We will have to go back for milk, bread, and cheese but I think Ryan and Bailey can handle that without me.

Monday-Chicken Salsa Soup

Tuesday-Global Salad with Tuna Sandwiches

Wednesday-Slow Cooker beef with Broccoli and Brown Rice

Thursday-BBQ Chicken Pizza on Naan

Friday-Black Bean Burger Wraps with Carrots

Saturday-Soft Tacos with Fajita Beef and Corn

Sunday-Ham and Cheese Calzones with Steamed Vegetables

What are you having for dinner this week?

Linked to:

Inspirational Layouts from My Creative Scrapbook

2010-04-24T21:44:00.002-05:00

One of my subscriptions is the limited edition kit from My Creative Scrapbooks. In fact it is my only subscription now, but after I work through some of my excess and am ready for another second kit I think I am also going to get their main kit. I have noticed having kits from different sources that there are some repeats and I think that would eliminate the doubling up.

I was looking through the gallery and saw so many beautiful layouts using the Bayberry line from Pink Paislee. Now I'm wondering if Almanelle would kill me if I brought my scrap to her house instead of to the new house!

Update

2010-04-16T21:57:00.002-05:00

Just a quick little personal update-
My poor little blog is being neglected because we are in the process of moving so all of my beautiful scrap stuff is packed away =( I have two packets that came in the mail that I have not even spread out yet, just packed into a box, because I knew I wouldn't be able to do anything with it. We are moving in about a week and a half and will then be living with my lovely in-laws for 4-6 weeks until our new home is ready.

I am looking forward to when I can get back to blogging several times a week and making new LOs because I am missing it! I do have a few little projects in the works that I may be able to share soon!

I Want This!

2010-04-07T10:00:00.000-05:00

I am back from cruising, done with Spring Break, and now it is on to TESTING. This was my favorite week as a teacher, but now it is all about getting things organized and bubbled so there will be no 'impending zeros' for my school. Just the term impending zeros sounds ominous...dum, dum, dum...

I only took a few cruise pictures but I have lots of beautiful ocean themed scrap stuff that I got at the Woven Heart sidewalk sale earlier this year so hopefully I can do a LO soon although my house is in complete disarray since we have started packing. I must say that we do have awesome boxes this time around. No more scavenging from outside the liquor store and taking the used milk bottles from the grocery. I think that made moving harder last time since all the boxes were (a) small and (b) falling apart. We bought real moving boxes from a storage place so now we have many sizes of boxes, wardrobe boxes, dish boxes. I'm not packing any of my scrap supplies in boxes, just moving in the shelving they are in, so hopefully I can still get a little done.

The Peachy Cheap deal today is this Clip it Up. I love it and it comes with 85 clips so there could be a lot of stuff hanging there. I'm not going to get it because I refuse to bring anything new into the house until we move, but I can still gaze at it with longing. Ahhh...It reminds me of the 7 Gypsies ATC holder.

So Tired Today and a LO

2010-03-23T21:35:00.002-05:00

I am so tired today. I was all keyed up about testing so I woke up at 4am and it was nonstop. Happily I got all my stuff turned in with no major issues. Now I am trying to relax and I am watching the Apprentice. Apparently Ron Blago loves balloons and hair gel.

Today I am sharing a LO I made of Ryan. I used paper from the 7 Gypsies Venice collection. My title is chipboard that I inked and then covered with Glossy accents. I added a swirl with rock candy stickle for a little sparkle and a vintage style Prima flower. I made the two smaller flowers using organza. These are fun to make because the petals can be cut out very freely and they are singed on a candle. My favorite part of this LO is the journaling section. I cut a strip out of a plain piece of white cardstock and glimmer misted it with two different colors. I did this on my patio table and rubbed over it hard with a paper towel to make the diamond pattern of the table come through and show in the background. I love how this accents the diamond pattern of the patterned paper.
My journaling is a portion of a beautiful poem by Neruda that reads:
Perhaps your dream
drifted from mine
and through the dark sea
was seeking me
as before,
when you did not yet exist,
when without sighting you
I sailed by your side,
and your eyes sought
what now--
bread, wine, love anger--
I heap upon you
because you are the cup
that was waiting for the gifts of my life

I love the imagery and expression of this passage and it makes me think about some of the events that Ryan and I were both at as teenagers before we met one another.

2day I Choose Remodelaholic as Post of the Week

2010-03-21T17:24:00.002-05:00

Okay, I guess this wasn't technically from this week, but I found it this week and I think that counts. This was created by Cassity at Remodelaholic and featured by U Create. In case you can't tell what exactly you're supposed to be seeing here I'll give you a hint...it's something made out of paper (surprise!). Give up? The beautiful mosaic behind her bed is a board with a black base coat that she then glued about a million one inch paper squares on and then mod podged over. Her tutorial is great, but she had mentioned how long it took. I'm thinking a LONG time! I think I'll save this as a summer project for the new house.

Another Challenge LO from the Crop

2010-03-18T21:31:00.005-05:00

This challenge was to use the title "Lucky Me" with journaling. I just got a set of the Prima Pastiche line in the mail and it is so beautiful. I used alpha stickers that are a part of the pastiche line, of prima pearls and flowers layered with some border stickers and ribbon, and matted my pictures on a pieces of velvety dark red paper. Easy peasy. The paper is so detailed it doesn't take much to get a lovely LO.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-17T08:00:00.002-05:00

**I entered this LO in the Practical Scrappers challenge to use something you've had for over a year. I don't even KNOW how long I have had that background paper! Definitely more than a year. You can visit Practical Scrappers to see all the challenge entries.**

Today I thought I'd share one of the layouts I made during the Seeing Green crop last weekend. The challenge was to do a monocromatic layout using all green embellishments and patterned papers. I dug through all of my stash to find things that were green and then put together this LO with pictures of Bailey eating her goldfish. I liked these pictures because the green bowl goes with the whole "green" theme. I used some glittered letters for my title and sprayed glimmer mist onto my background paper. It is in a floral design, but it is difficult to see.

I used a Basic Gray doilie on the bottom of the layout. For the solid portion I turned the paper over and glimmer misted it with Olive. I cut out three of the flowers from the unused portion of the doilie to use as accents and layered on a light green Prima pearl swirl.

Challenge Reveals!

2010-03-13T10:00:00.000-06:00

I planned to post more sneak peaks this week, but I didn't quite get there. I didn't get my final picures taken until this afternoon so I'm jumping right into the reveals.

The Seeing Green challenge at From Here 2 Scrapternity starts tomorrow and I picked the first three challenges.

Challenge #1 is to use blooms and blossoms on a LO. My LO uses 2 pieces of Webster's Pages paper from the Life.Beautiful. line. I glimmer misted my PP and chipboard frame and also defined some of the cherries with Glossy Accents. I also used a filmstrip that came in my March Swirlydoos kit.

Challenge #2 is to use a Dr. Seuss quote on a LO. I scrapped a picture of Bailey from family night when I was dressed as the Cat in the Hat. She is my Thing 1.

The third challenge is to scrap green by recycling on a LO or altering packaging into a gift. I altered a plastic chipboard package into a thank you present for a colleague.

The crop is all weekend so come over and play!

Beautiful Blogger Award

2010-03-10T10:00:00.002-06:00

I have a blog first-I got an award! Nadya over at Nadya's World graciously awarded me the beautiful blogger award.The rules of this award are:

1) Add a link and note of thanks to the person giving the award
Thanks again Nadya!

2) Pass the award on to 7 bloggers whose blogs you have recently discovered that you love
Always full of creative ideas, Brown Paper Packages
Erin over at Girl, Paper, Scissors has cute layouts
Cristin over at SER.EN.DIP.I.TY always has lots of fun seasonal inspiration
Mango Mommy over at Adventures in Crafting has great DIY crafts
Read about the ambitious year of no eating out at 365 In
Love the ideas for using up my stash over at Practical Scrappers
and the beautiful detailed layouts over at Scrapperlicious

3) Share 7 things about yourself.
1) I have a birthday coming up, but can't always remember how old I am. I think I'm too young for that!
2) I love to camp and travel
3) I have been married for 7 years
4) I like to use fussy cuts and die cuts in my scrapping
5) I think caffeine free diet coke better than regular
6) I love indian food
7) I have one beautiful daughter!

Seeing Green Crop Sneak Peek #1

2010-03-09T10:00:00.000-06:00

Finally, finally I have finished the half-finished LOs that have been hanging out on my desk! I can't show the whole LO because it is for the Seeing Green crop happening this weekend at From Here 2 Scrapternity. But...here are some sneaks. Can anyone tell who the papers are by? I will post full pictures this weekend after the crop starts.

Things I Love About You

2010-03-08T10:00:00.000-06:00

I made this layout for the February journaling challenge at From Here 2 Scrapternity. The challenge was to do a "10 Things I Love About You" layouts. My background paper is 7 Gypsies and is from the Swirlydoos February kit. I covered the chipboard heart with canvas, also from the Swirlydoos February kit.
I love the glitter frame. I used Making Memories letters I got at Tuesday morning. I like the look, but it is a tight fit so they are hard to keep straight!

I love the font. It is Bleeding Cowboys downloaded from dafont.com. I love that site! I have found so many fun fonts to use on my layouts.

Post of the Week-Banner Tutorial

2010-03-07T11:27:00.002-06:00

Good morning,
I am sooo ready for spring to be sprung, or whatever. As I think most of you know we put our house on the market a week ago and have had a few showing which means we have to keep our house super clean. This is a good and bad thing-it needs to be clean, but it just seems unnatural. I de-cluttered a bunch of stuff. I think it looks nice, but it was all of our personal pictures, all of my Gail Pittman pieces from my kitchen, and other stuff that I really like so if the house doesn't sell I will be recluttering. Also, the first day of LEAP testing is in 2 weeks and we picked up our first set of materials last Thursday. Honestly I am not all that sure how to do all this, but I am just diving in and hoping the way opens in front of me. And, in addition to all that somehow I am still sick. It was a virus, then a cold, then the virus came back. I feel like a germ magnet. We cruise in 21 days, so as long as it is out of my system by then I will be happy. We are going to Cozumel, Grand Caymen, and Montego Bay with my lovely parents so I am excited!

Okay, enough random personal stuff and on to the pick of the week. My pick this week is a tutorial for making banners posted over at Tater Tots & Jello. Banners are so trendy right now, and this one is so cute! I love how detailed the tutorial is-lots of pictures for each step. Check it out here.

Read Across America

2010-03-02T10:36:00.004-06:00

Happy Tuesday! Today is Read Across America and Dr. Seuss' Birthday. So of course, I had to dress up. Just another day at work...

Back on the Blog

2010-02-28T18:39:00.002-06:00

Oh no! I have mised a whole week of posting! My husband and I decided to put our house on the market last Friday so we have been doing around the house stuff pretty much every waking hour since then. Our ad went into the paper today and we are {this close} to being finished. Just in time because tomorrow I start my Guest Designer spot at From Here to Scrapternity. Hopefully I will be back to my regular schedule and can get some scrapping done.

In the meantime, here's what I'm hoping I will get in a kit this month, maybe, if I'm lucky:

Lucky Me by Little Yellow Bicycle:

Blogger Trick

2010-02-22T10:00:00.001-06:00

Since I started my blog I have figured out that the slowest, most time consuming part of blogging is waiting for my pictures to upload. I've thought that surely, surely there is a faster way...well guess what! THERE IS! I figured this out by accident, but thought I would share with you. Here is the simple version: uploading the picture URLs takes much less time that uploading files.

If that seems unclear, here are more detailed directions:
1) Upload your pictures from your computer into a web album like PhotoBucket, Flickr, or Picassa (I use Picassa).
2) Go into the web album and view your picture
3) Right click on the picture, then go to the bottom of the box that pops up and select "Properties"
4) Click on the address/URL line until it is all highlighted, then click "Ctrl+C" to copy
5) Open up your blog, go to create a new post, and click the add image icon
6) When the Upload Image page comes up paste the address you copied under the title that says "Or add an image from the web". You can add up to 5 images at a time this way, just like if you were uploading files from your hard drive.
7) Click upload, wait 5 seconds, and then go on about your day. (That's right...seconds...5 seconds!)

I know these are long directions, but it is really easy and so, so fast. This works for online galleries too. Love it! Hope it speeds up your blogging.

2day I Choose Mary Janes and Golashes as Pick of the Week

2010-02-21T10:00:00.000-06:00

Today is Sunday, so it is time to post my Pick of the Week! I love looking at all of the beautiful projects that are posted around the internet, and I love it when one just jump out at me. This week the project that I love is a Butterfly Wreath created by Taylor over at MaryJanes and Golashes.

Isn't it beautiful! You know what my favorite thing is about it? It is made out of brown paper lunch sacks. I have a stack of these on a shelf in my office right now...hmmm...seems like they might be getting repurposed soon...And I already have a whole envelope full of butterflies in my stash. It seems like this is a project that just has to be made. You can read Taylor's whole tutorial on her blog Mary Janes and Golashes.

Disaster, Disaster!

2010-02-20T10:00:00.003-06:00

I had a scrap disaster! Ryan brought me tea in a very wide mouthed mug and somehow some of it sloshed out and got onto my paper-it was sooooo sad. Most of the time I work in the living room on a tiny TV tray anyway so everything gets a little squished. Fortunately it only got on the edge of my cardstock background so I took the top portion off and just have to get new cardstock to replace it. I really don't think working with the sketch went so well for me. Here is the sketch:

Here is my unfinished LO. The pieces are laid out but need to be distressed and the journaling isn't written in. Does this look like the LO? Ummm...not so much. It is unfinished because of the tea crisis, but I will post the completed version soon.

Carnival Baby

2010-02-19T10:00:00.003-06:00

I posted earlier this week about Mardi Gras. Ryan and I took Bailey and went out to the parade. It was about 50 degrees, but the day was bright and clear so it didn't feel cold. We got downtown about an hour before the parade started and the crowds weren't too bad yet. We even got a really good parking spot. We brought our lawn chairs and a big bag of snacks. We met up with some friends who had never been to a Mardi Gras parade before.

Bailey and I hung out before the parade. She sat in her stroller under the Bundle Me for a while and ate Doritos and then I got her out so she could look around.

Ryan held her up so she could see the floats coming. She laughed and bounced up and down as everything passed by. It was really loud, but it didn't seem to bother her.

Here she is loaded down with beads!

I Feel Appreciated

2010-02-18T10:00:00.002-06:00

Last week was Counselor's Appreciation Week and I do feel appreciated, I really do! I thought it was the week before and nobody said anything, but they didn't forget, I just don't know what week is which. A few of the classes made cards or signs for me and my coworkers in the office got me this cute picture frame and post-its. I love how the frame matches the Valentine I made of Bailey-it's perfect!

A coworker also made me a block frame for me like this one, except of course it said my name instead of LeBlanc. One of my weekend projects is thank you notes for everyone. Thanks for making me feel so special!

My Announcement and a Grandmother is a Treasure LO

2010-02-17T17:52:00.004-06:00

Here is my announcement...I will be the March Guest Designer at From Here to Scrapternity! I am so excited. Ryan said, "What does that mean?" And I told him, really, I don't know, but I did apply and get chosen and that always makes you feel good. The crop next month is "Seeing Green" so I get to create some challenges for that and do Scrap Questions of the Day on the board. This is my first Designer experience, so YAY! I'll be posting about the challenges next month and maybe you can come by and play with us. You can visit the site here.

This is a layout I worked on after my mom left. I used the papers from my Swirlydoos kit, and cut the corners from a sheet of paper from The Robin's Nest that I bought at my local scrap store. I didn't buy it planning to put it with these pages, but the colors came together really beautifully.

I did a lot of distressing on this page. I inked all of my edges. I printed my title (A grandmother is a treasure that can never be lost) on cream cardstock. Then I wadded it up and inked it and went back over it with some Caramel glimmer mist. I like the overall look but I wish my words had printed out a little darker. I think this is such a sweet picture of Bailey and my mom together.

It's Mardi Gras...Plus a Great Site for Sketches

2010-02-16T10:00:00.001-06:00

I just have to share a little Mardi Gras Cheer with everyone today...Happy Mardi Gras, laissez les bon temps roulez! Be safe, have fun, and don't even think about Lent. If you don't live in South Louisiana I will explain the signifigance of this holiday...it's very meaningful...ready? People here love to party (there is no age limit on this) so this is a holiday that makes continuous partying for 6 weeks totally acceptable. It makes people that camp out at the Civic Center for five straight days of Mardi Gras fun not seem over the top. It allows us to have time off of school to participate in the said partying, and you get to eat cake pretty much every day. In all seriousness I don't know the whole history, and I personally haven't done any partying, but we are planning to go to the parade with Bailey tonight so hopefully I will have some cute pictures of that tomorrow.

It's been a few days since I shared any scrappy stuff, and when I was sick I didn't really scrap at all so I am a little behind. I did a layout yesterday that I think is just pretty and I have a few things I'm working on that I hope to post later this week. Today I thought I'd share a site that I found that has some really nice sketches called Page Maps. You can visit their site here. They have all kinds of sketches-12x12, 8.5x11, tags, cards, pretty much anything you might want to scrap. I have seen several different sketch sites but this one is my favorite because I find these sketches really easy to visualize with the different elements that I want to use.

I will be working with this sketch this afternoon-I have a picture of Bailey that I want to scrap with some red and black Jenni Bowlin paper-the sketch fits my needs perfectly!
I'm off to get dressed, get pictures printed, and get fortifications for the parade later, then back home to scrap!

Valentine's Company

2010-02-15T20:00:00.000-06:00

My parents came to visit this weekend. It was a long weekend for us because there is no school Monday or Tuesday so it was nice and unhurried. My dad had to leave on Sunday to go see other family and my mom stayed until Monday afternoon. They brought Bailey a wooden butterfly that opens and closes its wings and it is pushed along the floor. She really didn't get the hang of that, but she did stomp around the house holding it in the air and did NOT like it when anyone tried to help her with it.
She ate lots of Animal Crackers with Mimi. My mom found some cute animal cracker embellies at Big Lots so I was trying to take the perfect picture for that page.

We made chocolate dipped pretzels for our Valentine's date night. I'm not sure what's going on with Ryan's face, but I think we were having fun!

We even did a little Chocolate Dipped Bailey!

And here she is playing with her Valentine's balloon from Poppy. That was good for a lot of weekend fun!

Happy Valentine's Day

2010-02-14T23:00:00.001-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope everyone had a sweet one with someone they love. I've been sick, but will be back posting tomorrow. And...check back for a BIG announcement!

Silly Daddy

2010-02-12T10:00:00.000-06:00

Hearts and Pearls LO

2010-02-11T10:00:00.001-06:00

Here's another LO I did this week. This one gave me trouble! I just could not figure out how I wanted it to be so I moved things around and around and around. Finally, I ended up with this-I like the black and white look. I really wish my picture was black and white too, but...it's not. I cut the center out of a piece of die cut paper to make my border and used the center as a mat for my picture. I like the text that shows on the left side of the background paper.

I used the extra singed flower that I made on this layout. I inked my heart black and then covered it with Rock Candy Crackle. I put Prima pearls on as an accent to match the center of my flower.

Then I peeled the top layer off of a white chipboard heart to reveal the soft cream underneath and accented it with black Prima pearls. Last I cut out butterflies from another sheet of paper and drew around the edges with glossy accents. I like how the open frames seem to echo the frame Bailey is holding in the picture.

She's my little Valentine!

Check Yes or No

2010-02-10T10:00:00.002-06:00

Here is one more layout from the Valentine's picturesa I took several weeks ago. I had a Pink Paislee "Do you love me?" die cut and I thought it really matched this picture. Bailey's face is just classic.

The chipboard heart frames came in my Swirlydoos kit. The larger frame is covered with Antique Linen crackle paint and then inked. The first try did not come out looking very good, but I flipped it over and and tried again. I put on a much thicker layer on the second try and it took forever to dry but it looked even and made nice big cracks. I put Rock Candy crackle paint on the thinner frame and it came out looking pretty patchy too, but I inked over it until it blended together. I like the look I ended up with although it took a lot of trial and error to get there. I think what I got out of this experience was to crackle small areas because it's a lot easier to get uniform coverage.

I clustered together Pink Paislee valentines tags, tickets, and Prima flowers around my hearts. This is a different look that the other layouts I've made, but I'm really happy with the end result. I've had so much fun scrapping these pictures!

Flower and Pearl Necklace

2010-02-09T10:00:00.003-06:00

Linda over at Craftaholics Anonymous made a cute sweater flower and pearl necklace and posted the tutorial on her blog. I loved the look of this necklace, but since I didn't have a sweater I was ready to cut up I made a singed flower instead. I also added a clasp instead of leaving the ribbon long to tie since I want to wear mine to work and there is no way I could do that if I had to be retying all day.
I got 5/8" ribbon and pearls from the sewing department of Wal-Mart. I also purchased 1/8 yard of synthetic fabric for my ribbon flower. I already had the clasp and pearls I used for my flower center at home.

It was fun to make the flower! The first one I made was black (I feel like my mother, I can't tell the difference between black, brown, and navy) so I had to make another one out of brown fabric. I really think the black flower is the prettier one, so be looking for another ribbon flower project later this week...maybe a baby bow.

Valentines Post It Note Holders

2010-02-08T10:00:00.002-06:00

Valentine's Day is approaching and I wanted to make something for the ladies I work with in my office. I thought about making valentines but since I already made a batch of those I decided to do something a little different. First I went to the Dollar Store and bought these acrylic frames. They were $1 each. There are several different sizes that are all the same price and I chose the 3 1/2 by 5 size.

I used leftover scraps of Valentine's paper for this project. I took the insert out of the frame and cut my papers to fit. I then printed each ladies' name on a strip of cardstock. I then stamped a Valentine's stamp onto a piece of cardstock and layered it onto a larger piece of patterned paper. This slips into the frame.

I then adhered a stip of double sided tape to the back of a Post-It note and adhered it to the front of the plastic frame.

And here is the finished project. A cute, personalized and useful gift!

2Day I Choose Chose Country Life in the Big City as Post of the Week-Bookmarks

2010-02-07T10:00:00.001-06:00

Today I am posting my very first "Post of the Week". I have been seeing so many wonderful, inspiring projects on other blogs and today I am sharing some beautiful bookmarks created by Dianne at the Country Life in the Big City. You can check out her complete tutorial here.

The bookmarks are created using the corners of envelopes that slip over the pages of the books and are decorated with paper, stickers, rub ons, and other flat embellishments. Here are three bookmarks that I made using this tutorial. They were a little challenging because it is such a small space to work with, but I love the way they turned out. This is a great way to use up scraps and I think they look like nice little gifts. Give it a try!

Inspired Valentines

2010-02-06T10:00:00.002-06:00

I've been seeing all sorts of "love"ly Valentine's goodies all over the blogs that I read. I saw these Valentines at the Brown Paper Packages blog and felt inspired to make some too. I think this might actually e a first-I don't ever remember making my own Valentines before. I initially planned to use clothespins on my Valentines like was shown in the example, but I was going to mail mine and I knew that wouldn't fit into an envelope very well so I had to rethink things.

I did end up dividing my Valentines into 2 distinct sides and I also put Valentine's treats into small bags to attach to the cards (I already had these at home). I used a paper pack that I bought at Ross-it came with stickers and chipboard included-to make my cards. I am loving that Ross carries scrapbook supplies now-6 sheets of 12x12, one sheet of stickers, and one sheet of glitter chipboard stickers for $4! And of course Bailey's sweet little Valentine's day picture is on there too. I love that little smile! Here are a few of my finished Valentines:

I made envelopes out of plain white cardstock and then glimmer misted them to get this pretty red and gold blend.

I will be posting more Valentine's projects next week. Hope everyone is having a great Saturday!

My Homegrown Love Album

2010-02-05T10:00:00.001-06:00

I got this "Homegrown Love" album from Paisley and Polka Dots before Christmas because I thought it was just the sweetest thing. I loved the papers and the different shapes on the cover. It is very "fresh" looking, so when it arrive I didn't really know what I was going to put into it and was saving it for maybe some pictures later in the Spring. But, I loved the Valentine's pictures of Ryan and Bailey together. They were so sweet! I decided I would make the album and put in the different pictures of them together. The only thing I didn't like is that some of the photo mats were a little smaller than they looked on the website photos, but I made it work!

The kit comes totally precut so the first thing I had to do was glue the backgrounds onto the chipboard pieces. I used spray adhesive and I think my neighbors probably thought I was a little crazy. They kept driving by and I was all out in my sweat pants putting the papers together and spraying away. Ryan and Bailey came out to visit, but I scared them off to the hammock. It was pretty windy and Ryan said he was getting glued whenever I sprayed the paper.

Then I just had to put the pages together. The components of each page were all in their own, separate labeled baggies so I didn't get everything all mixed up. The picture instructions even show you what order to lay the pieces down onto the pages, although I didn't figure that out right away (sad to say).

I need to go back and add in journaling on the tags. I love how the pictures go with this album! Ryan and Bailey are such a good pair!

Meal Planner Shopping Guide

2010-02-04T10:00:00.004-06:00

I love the blog Brown Paper Packages. They have so many cute tutorials and projects there! Sweetpea posted a meal planner shopping guide that she made. You can see it here. Basically she made a list of meals that she regularly prepares and added the non-staple ingredients so when she is planning menus she can prepare a grocery list without having cookbooks all over the place. I love the idea. I've been cooking from the same cookbook for the past 2 months because it takes too long to plan monthly meals otherwise. I was planning to make this later...BUT I found this little book at Tuesday Morning for 99cents! Can't beat that!

The book has 80 pages front and back so there is plenty of room for all of my favorite recipes. I chose my recipe, listed which cookbook it was in, and wrote the ingredients that are not staples in my pantry. I used it when I planned our meals for February and it was great! It was super easy to make my grocery list and we have all kinds of different meals on the menu. Thanks for the great idea Sweetpea! Thank you Tuesday Morning for things that are 80% off!

Goldfish are Good!

2010-02-03T10:00:00.001-06:00

Bailey is having a really picky food phase right now. As in, she is hungry but seals her little lips shut and shakes her head violently when you give her food until you pry her lips open and throw a few grains of rice in there. After that though, she will eat it all. What to do when you don't won't to go through the lip prying, finger biting, baby screaming routine? Eat goldfish!

Good to the very last one!

"My Daughter" Layout

2010-02-02T10:00:00.002-06:00

This is one of my favorite layouts so far! I scrapped one of the pictures from a week or so ago when Bailey was playing outside. I do want to give credit where it is due-I visited the Mosh Posh gallery where there are some really beautiful layouts and I saw 2 that used papers that I had here at home. This layout is inspired by a very similar one posted by Laina Lamb. These are nook and pantry papers with a few odds and ends from other projects.

I used cardboard scraps to mat my picture. I used some rub-ons to make the words on the side of the picture (Thanks mom-got these from you!) And of course a beautiful Prima flower...

I Won a Blog Hop Prize!

2010-02-01T19:13:00.004-06:00

I participated in Scrap that Poetry's first blog hop and I won not one, but two awesome prizes. The first prize is a Wisteria Lane kit to make these super sweet houses. They were my fave blog hop prize! I didn't even know I won until my mom called me at work to tell me to go and read my comments. Thanks Shazza, you made my day! You can check out her blog here.

And...I also won a book of 101 Best Loved Poems from Windy! Thanks Windy! You can visit her here.

Thanks so much! Looking forward to the next hop!

My Man the Grillmaster

2010-02-01T10:00:00.001-06:00

Ryan is like the king of the grill at our house. Unfortunately it is a really old, hurricane blown, kind of unpredictable grill. (Maybe a new one is in the future...) Anyway, I stopped on the way home the other day and bought some steaks and baking potatoes so we could have a nice dinner. We have had a few really nice warm days so it was perfect for heating up the grill. Ryan seasoned them up and got things cooking out there while I made salads.

Thank you babe! It was delicious!

Love is Sweet

2010-01-31T10:00:00.003-06:00

I think this paper is just too cute!

Sidewalk Sale!

2010-01-30T13:16:00.006-06:00

Today my local scrapbook store, The Woven Heart, had a sidewalk sale! They don't happen very often, maybe once a year. People drop off their stuff and they get store credit for whatever they sell. I took a bunch of things up a few weeks ago, but unfortunately I didn't see anybody buying any of my stuff when I was there. No store credit for me I guess.

I got there at 8am because I didn't know what time they were going to open but since they were closed and went and did my Wal-Mart shopping. I made it back to the store a few minutes before 10 and there were people wating in front of the doors. It was like Black Friday! Thank goodness I got there early, because by 10:20 all the good stuff was gone! Of course, some of it came home with me...here's what I got.

Things that were a quarter:
A bag of die cut flowers, birds, and butterflies from K&Company. I just looked at these on Joann.com but didn't buy them! Guess what, at Joann they weren't a quarter!
A bag of travel goodies. I don't think I'll use it all, but there are 3 really cute tages and some tickets with travel saying on them that I like a lot.

Okay, this was the BEST purchase of all. A bag of sea themed things-K&Company stickers, chipboard, glitter words. Lots of pretty, pretty stuff.

PLUS in that same bag there were these pretty rubons. They were like a little extra!

These rub ons were a quarter....

And so were all these paper embellishments from Rusty Pickle...

And all these these tags and library pockets...

And these pretty photo corners. (The total so far is $1.75)

These were 50 cents each...I love the Cosmo Cricket stickers...so cute!

Getting to the big sticker items now...these two premade projects were $1 each. I guess they were class samples. I wanted to make an advent box, but now I can just fill this one!

The Santa album just needs some pictures and embellishments. And it jingles!

And for $2 I got all of these chipboard buttons and frames. There were a bunch of chipboard words too, but I'm not so sure about those. I really wanted the frames.

All this for a grand total of $9.75! If only the sidewalk sale came around more often! But alas, it is a magical yet elusive event. I'm hoping maybe some of my stuff sold later so I can go back and get some glimmer mist with my store credit! I called my mom and she wanted to know what I got for her...hmmm, what do you see that you like?

My Creative Cookbooking Layout

2010-01-29T10:00:00.001-06:00

Earlier this week I mentioned a new blog that I found. Well today I want to share another new blog I have found. Creative Cookbooking is a blog that focuses completely on scrapbooking recipes, people in the kitchen, and other food related things. I want to start working on a scrapped cookbook of some of the things I cook often so this blog is great inspiration. This is a LO that I am sharing on the site.
The left side is a picture of me when I am younger and on the right is a picture of Bailey playing in the kitchen a few days ago.

I had a lot of cute little charms to incorporate into the layout. I used them as flower centers.

This is more stuff from my Paper Posies Packages-it is all yellow, red, and browns.

The journaling card is cut out of a sheet of Cosmo Cricket tags from the Early Bird line.

A Progression of Events and Webster's Pages

2010-01-28T10:00:00.001-06:00

I like pictures in a series, that show some sort of a progression, so I had to post these pictures of Bailey from when we were playing outside.
Picture 1: I have stolen mommy's water! I am soooo clever and sneaky!

Picture 2: Aahhh, I am such a big girl. I love to drink water.

Picture 3: I can't breathe! I'm all wet!

Step 4: What went wrong?

These pictures just keep making me laugh!

Okay, ready to see something beautiful?
I have been hearing about Webster's Pages and how fabulous they are but I haven't ever seen any of their products at my local scrapbook store. BUT, when I went this Saturday they had some new stock including these pages from the "Sweet a Cherry Pie" line. I'm working on some cooking pages so I thought they were perfect! So cute!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

2010-01-27T18:14:00.002-06:00

Today is my dad's birthday. Now I know age is a secret so I'll just put it this way-he's old enough to have sense and young enough to have fun. There's no one like him in the world. I love you!

Altered Playing Card-Week 2

2010-01-27T16:03:00.000-06:00

The past two weeks have been crazy-three or four meetings a day! I am so tired I am seriously contemplating taking a rest day from work, but I can't because I have meetings scheduled every day. I think next week is meeting free-Yay!

Here is my playing card for Week 2. I know it seems a little behind, but I won't even print the pictures from this week until tomorrow. I used one of the Valentine's pictures for this too (do you think I like them?) The theme for this week is "pink"

Charmed, I'm Sure

2010-01-26T16:03:00.003-06:00

I got my first French General jewelry kit in the mail-fun! I wasn't really sure what to expect in the way of charms-this kit had cups and teapots and vintage buttons. I sat down and made my bracelet in one sitting while I watched t.v. with Ryan. I have to say that I totally love projects that I can sit down and make all at one time!

Here is my finished bracelet! Everything came in the kit except for the "share" and "love" charms. The chain was too long for my little arm, so I cut a few links off it was just right!

Sweet Snowy Layout

2010-01-25T06:50:00.000-06:00

Here is a layout I did from one of the few, rare, exotic times that a snowflake not only falls here, but sticks. This picture is from the day after we brought Bailey home from the hospital. It snowed several inches during the night and stayed on the houses and the ground far into the morning. We missed most of it because we were sleeping, but there was still snow when we woke up! I love having an actual snow picture to go with my snowy embellishments.

I am a Spotlighted Reader!

2010-01-24T17:56:00.002-06:00

I emailed Jen at Tater Tots and Jello a pic of the burlap wreath I made using her tutorial and she included it in today's post. You can check it out here. Thanks Jen!

Isn't it supposed to be cold?

2010-01-24T11:36:00.004-06:00

It's January? Right? Our weather here is so unpredictable. As I wrote on the blog a few weeks ago school was cancelled because the weather was the coldest it's been in 14 years, but the past few days have been in the high 70s in the afternoons. It has been beautiful, beautiful weather.
I went outside with Bailey and she played on her slide toy (I don't know what to call this!) that she got for her birthday. Before she screamed if you tried to slide her down, but today she liked it! Here are a few pictures...

Also, the blog has a new look for Valentine's day! I am again impressed with myself for figuring out how to get writing on the header and doing all the blog stuff. I know it's not really hard but still. And all this beautiful stuff if free thanks to the Shabby Blogs site. Awesome! What do you think about the new look?

I love you...Scrappin' That Poetry

2010-01-23T09:13:00.005-06:00

I'm linked up to the Valentine's Party at Craftaholics Anonymous. Click over and check out some of the other sweet Valentine's Day projects!

I have been finding so many fun blogs on the internet, usually as links off of the blogs that are on my website. I discovered two this week that I really like, and they both go right along with layouts I was already planning to do! The first on is called Scrap that Poetry. The site uses poetry as inspiration for layouts, an idea that I love! They are doing a pre-Valentine's blog hop this weekend and the poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, "How do I Love Thee" is the theme poem. I knew I wanted to do layout with some of the pictures Ryan took of Bailey and I last week and I had a layout in mind but no title. In the poem there is a line that says, "I love thee...with childhood's faith" which I really liked. Here is my handy post-it sketch of my layout.

And here is my finished LO. I planned to use 3 pictures on the layout, but they didn't fit so I cropped the smaller one down and used it as an accent point. Her face is really the best part of the picture anyway. Also, I finished this late last night and in my sleepy state I printed "with childlike faith" instead of "childhood's faith" but I don't have another tag that I like as much so I can't redo it. I am frustrated with myself about that, but I guess they are essentially the same.

I used a combination of stuff from different kits that I have gotten recently. I planned to do red and black because of the black and white photos, but I didn't have paper that I really like, plus I wanted that scallop on the side and there are no black die cuts at my house. The papers and tag are from the Pink Paislee Eternal Love collection which I didn't really like at first glance, but obviously it grew on me. The other embellishments are from different Paper Posies kits. I love having all of these goodies to play with!

I like the blue felt circle-it matches and it is a good eye catching focal point. The brown ribbon is recycled from a package of Prima flowers-I even have some left over!

What projects are you working on this weekend?

Burlap Fabulous!

2010-01-19T20:53:00.000-06:00

I finished my burlap flower wreath inspired by the Tater Tots and Jello blog. I have never done anything with burlap before and I learned that it is itchy and messy! I added a few more layers to some of my flowers and used buttons and knotted ribbon centers for my flowers. I think I like hers better, but maybe it is just seeing mine close up. I am going to take it to work to replace the snowman that is hanging on my door now. It's good to be done!

Valentine's Pictures

2010-01-18T20:47:00.003-06:00

Today we went to take Valentine's pictures of Bailey. It was a horrible experience because they were running 2 hours behind and did not call to let us know so we could stay home. We got one picture out of it that I will use for Valentines and they ended up being free, but still. When we got home and after she got a nap I took some more pictures in our driveway. These are a few of my favorites. I think if you click here you can see the whole album of photos. I edited these on my netbook using Picassa and it was so much faster than Kodak gallery! It only took about a minute to upload all of these pictures. I may be a convert.

Super Sunday

2010-01-17T19:01:00.002-06:00

I'm not sure why it's super...oh wait, it's because there is a holiday tomorrow! I made pizza for lunch and was thinking about saving the leftover for lunch until Ryan reminded me no school!
We went to the 9am service at church this morning and then had a whole lovely day to relax. I took this picture of my little scrap corner to post on the Swirlydoos forum. Thankfully everything actually fits back there. I can't open all the drawers while I'm sitting in my chair, but besides that it is actually a pretty sweet setup. And the limited space keeps me from buying more stuff-always a good thing!
This was my layout for today. I am still working through the paper in my Swirlydoo kit. The theme for this month was winter wonderland with a lot of snowy stuff. This isn't the best choice for me since there are no snow pictures because it is sixty degrees outside, but the papers are really pretty. I like this one-shades of blue and purple. I scrapped a picture of our family from the very end of the year. I am wearing a dark blue sweater so I thought it might all pull together. Almost everything on the layout came from my kit, but I did use a purple tin corner and word and a decorative pin from my stash.

I went to CVS and printed pictures from this week so my goals for tomorrow are to finish my Week 2 playing card and to do a kitchen-themed layout using some of the cute kitchen stickers and brads that I have hoarded for year and years but never used. They are going to see the light of day!

Catching Up

2010-01-16T20:17:00.004-06:00

Well I missed a day! Actually more than one since I did a few posts at one time and scheduled them to post over a few days so I didn't look like I was completely attached to my computer. Also I've a few hard days at work. Any day that involves a call to child protection is a difficult one. There have also been several lingering items on my "To Do" list that just seemed to never get finished and on Friday I got them ALL DONE!!! okay...except for one. That's better than on Thursday though and on Tuesday it is going down! I did have a "I am completely among my people" moment at work this week. I was in the office and I was really thirsty but going to get something to drink would mean leaving the office and thereby missing something *gasp*. I leaned over to another office worker and said, "I am so thirsty but I don't want to miss anything!" Instead of thinking that was crazy or telling me no I wouldn't miss anything she said, "Get a coke from my office. Then you don't have to leave." She totally completely got me! She even had a caffeine free diet Coke in there for me. Love it, love it, love it=)

Here are some of the scrappy things I have been doing. I finished my jumbo playing card for the Scrappin' Patch challenge and posted it to their gallery.

I scrapped the pictures of Bailey with her books. I made this layout using goodies from Paper Posies. I think this was a kit from last summer-I bought a few extra kits that were on sale (for only $15 +very little shipping since it came with my regular kit. YEAH!) I layered two pieces of paper and a die cut for the background, used green fabric Thickers for my title, and bunched up two types of flowers from the kit. Love it! The only thing I don't like is that is says "Read" because I know she's not reading but putting look just didn't sound the same and Ryan said may I should put something like contemplating but I had to make him understand that there are only so many Thickers in the pack so four syllable words are really not the best choice. Aahhh. Okay, that was me letting it go.

I used coordinating papers to make a pleated border around the two smaller pictures on the layout. I saw a tutorial on how to do this at the Scrapbook Circle Blog and wanted to make this a part of the layout because I thought it was just too cute. I didn't cut the edges of my pleats because they are on top of a die cut so it seemed like it would be a lot going on there. I also didn't ink the edges. There was really no reason I didn't, except that I forgot. Maybe I'll go back and try to do that at some point. The only thing I didn't like about the pleats was that it took a quite a bit of blue and they don't all want to lay down nice and flat.

And here are my beautiful, beautiful flowers. I think I could have a little love affair with Prima.

They are my favorite scrapbook products ever. They're everything I never knew I always wanted. (Anyone catch the quote there?!?) I looked at my local scrapbook store today to see if they had Prima flowers because I have never noticed them and since I seem to drool like a Pavlovian dog whenever they are near I thought that was a little strange. They had about 4 packs on the back wall. I know they are expensive, but really, step it up people! I might not have to turn to the internet if only there were some flowers to be bought! And here is yet another reason I love my husband. We got in the car and I said, "I love those flowers even thought they are expensive." And he said, "How much were they?" And I said, "$4 for two." And he says, "That doesn't seem like that much." xoxoxo for that baby!

And here is my last Christmas layout. There were just too many pictures-overwhelming. I cropped the pictures down into 32 smaller pictures and made a 2 page layout.

On the far right I typed up what each picture was by row. There were more pictures on that page.

And put my title on the left. I need to go back and dot my "i". I used diecuts from my mom's Cricut for the word love and the trees.

This picture isn't very good because it's dark, but it's still happy Bailey.

And here she is indulging in her new hobby, empty all the drawers. It was actually really funny because she would take a pan out, play with it, then stand up and put it back...and then take it out again. She did this little process over and over. I wanted to say, "Hello! Just keep it out already!" Maybe I can get her to put her book back on the shelf next.

Happy weekend everybody!

Sweet Dreams

2010-01-14T17:42:00.000-06:00

I love, love, love the sweet sleeping pictures I took of Bailey last week so I decided to use some of my beautiful Swirlydoos papers to scrap it. I love how the gallery images there are mostly of single pictures and they are all beautiful embellish. They are all works of art. After looking through the gallery there I sketched out my layout on a post it. (Love post its! What did the world do before they were invented?) I planned to layer two papers together and embellish with flowers, crystals, and butterflies.

And here is my final product...pretty close! Instead of using crystals to make a swirl I used this beaded material from my kit that made curves and swirls naturally when I put it down. I used cream and purple prima flowers and pearls to embellish and eliminated the butterflies. I handwrote "sweet dreams" around the inside of the scallop in pale silver ink just like in my sketch.
This was my first layout using a sketch and it did make putting the layout together a lot faster and easier. I knew exactly what materials I was going to use though. I don't think I could sketch it out like this every time. Pretty sweet!

First Visit with Santa

2010-01-13T19:29:00.000-06:00

So I am still working on Christmas pages. I think I am almost done! I am planning to do one more with a lot of different pictures on it and then call it quits. I had a 5x7 of Bailey's first visit with Santa that I knew I wanted to scrap. My mom made an 8x8 page for Bailey's first year book with a smaller version of the picture, but I wanted to do one too. My goal for this page was to use supplies from my Tattered Angels kit. I also got my beautiful Swirlydoos goodies in. They are all glittery beautiful blues and purples. The "Season of Joy" paper was in that set and I thought it was perfect for a background. Here are my papers sort of laid out where I think they might go. Which turned into this...that I didn't really like...

So I took off the vintage Christmas paper on the left hand side and replaced it with the larger cream scallop. I added silver tinsel ribbon through my tag to pull it all together.

I used the "25" card, ticket, tinsel ribbon, and glimmer misted photo corner from the Tattered Angels kit. I still have stuff left, but at least I feel like I am using some of it.

I got several of these tags and I didn't think I would use them but I tried pulling it in so I could use as many of the kit parts as possible and it turned out really cute!

Getting Ready for Bed

2010-01-13T18:53:00.000-06:00

Bailey has her baby and is getting ready to go off to bed. She looks so big in this picture! She is so tall!

Of course now she has realized that I am taking pictures with some interesting electronic device so she is fighting to get down. Sleep can wait!

Christmas Layouts

2010-01-12T17:35:00.009-06:00

I started working on some of the Christmas pictures this weekend. I really like making small things, but doing pages is really hard for me. I got out my sparkly, glittery paper and my ribbons and my chipboard and all the other stuff that ends up in piles all over. Then I got out my picture and put it on the sparkly, glittery paper and stared at it. I've read some people plan out their pages, but I don't really grasp that-maybe I will get better. I can't even remember what all I have so preplanning, while I'm sure it would be faster, seems like it would be difficult. So I stared, and I pushed my picture around and stared some more, sigh...did I mention that I don't like to cut into my pretty paper?

Eventually I gave up on a 12x12 layout and cut my paper down to 8x8 and that made things a lot more manageable. And here are the end results! The one with our Christmas card on it took a lot of rearranging, but I got there in the end. Making that page reminded me of a secret desire to have a personal scapbooker to do this for me...I could have made them cut out all those little white snowflakes by hand!

Playing Cards Retooled

2010-01-11T19:00:00.003-06:00

The ladies over at Scrappin Patch have a great idea for 2010 and I am going to try and play along. First I have to say that I am amazed that they are from New Zealand. Do they scrap there? Yes, yes they do! I love that I get to see all their fun projects even though they are far away. Their challenge is to use a jumbo deck of playing cards and scrap one per week for 2010 with pictures on one side and journaling on the other. I think this is such a great idea because it is such a small thing to do each week, but at the end of the year it will be a great reflection to look over. They posted all of the themes for January which are: Week 1-glitter/bling, Week 2-pink, Week 3-ribbon, and Week 4-paint. I made Weeks 1, 2, & 3 (without the pictures obviously) already, but I am a little stumped on Week 4. I had some paints and I just gave them away because I never used them and that isn't really my thing. I may have to cheat and use chalk or marker. My favorite thing about this so far is that I am using papers and things that I have been "saving" (i.e. buying but never using because it is too pretty to cut!). The card with the dress is my favorite so far, because it fits so perfectly on the card with the quote. It is like it was meant to be!

Date Night!

2010-01-10T18:00:00.000-06:00

Today is Sunday so that means it's date night. For Christmas I planned 24 dates and wrapped the supplies up and made little cards to go with it. Today he picked blondie brownies from Wal-Mart so I will bake that up later.

Also, I was looking through a giant William Sonoma cookbook that I got for Christmas, compliments of my wonderful, thoughtful father (I know you're reading this daddy!) and found a recipe for....
***Spoiler Alert***

...by wildly popular demand....

Satay with Peanut Sauce!!! I know that may not sound like something that would be over-the-top popular, but believe me, it is. So I am making pork and chicken satay and and tandoori chicken salad. Surprisingly the Williams-Sonoma people like to entertain with ethnic food, who knew? Cross your fingers for me, it is still really, really cold so there's a teeny, tiny possibility that we might be off again tomorrow.

How Many Lovies Does it Take...

2010-01-10T12:45:00.000-06:00

I guess the answer to that question is 3. In case you can't tell Bailey has her baby, her pig, and her pants snuggled up next to her!

Taking Down the Tree

2010-01-09T18:00:00.001-06:00

We took down our Christmas tree today. I like to leave it up longer, but it was taking up a lot of space. I packed the ornaments and Ryan crammed the tree back into the box. It's kind of sad, it only takes about an hour and then Christmas is gone. Bailey wasn't sure what to think! (Yes I know there's a knife in her hand. I was watching her, really I was)

Redo, Redo!

2010-01-09T12:35:00.002-06:00

Okay, so I did not like the way my braided card turned out at all. But, I was too tired to try and fix it so I just gave up and went to bed. This morning I dismantled it all and put it back together and I like it much better! I some double sided paper from a Crate Paper collection. I cut the oval for the front from the same green that will be on the inside of the card and inked in Colorbox Eggplant to make it stand out. I like how the stripes on the paper go with the little picket fence. Sometimes you just need to sleep on it!

365 Card Challenge-Braiding

2010-01-09T10:00:00.001-06:00

The Saturday challenge for 365 cards was braiding. I wasn't planning to make a card, because that is a toughie...BUT the awesome ladies there have been so sweet and left 5 nice comments about my other card. That is more than my mother has left, so I just had to play again! I braided lightweight tan yarn and green fuzzy fur to make my flower stems and then secured my flower heads with pop up dots after I printed out my saying my cardstock. It ended up being a single sheet card (not the plan) because after I printed I realized any way I folded my paper it would be upside down. Any tips to solve this problem? Thanks for the fun challenge!

Kitchen Sink Cookies

2010-01-08T13:31:00.004-06:00

Well, I have done as much on my project as I can, until I get a wreath form. Maybe I'll get one tomorrow...maybe not. So I am on hold for now. When I finish it should look a little something like this one at Tater Tots and Jello. Reminder to self-you hate hot glue!
Since I am OFF today! I can eat chocolate. I know those things seem to be unrelated, but I'm sure they are somehow. I was loosely following a recipe from Health magazine for "America's Healthies Cookie" so that makes it all ok! They are yummy! I will make a confession. They have been out of the oven for an hour and I have had six! They are kitchen sink cookies because I stuck a little bit of whatever in them.

Here's the recipe:

Mix 8 Tbsp melted or room temp butter with 3/4 cup packed brown sugar and stir until smooth. In a separate bowl combine 2/3 cup white wheat flour (or regular all-purpose), 3/4 tsp baking soda, 1 1/2 cup oats, and 1/2 tsp salt. Combine the dry ingredients and butter mixture. Then add 1 egg and 1tsp vanilla. Here comes the best stuff...fold in 1/3 cup chopped pecans, 1/3 cup sweetened coconut, and 3 oz dark chocolate (I used 71% dark with espresso nibs) chopped into chunks. Bake for 12 minutes ad 350 degrees. Happy munching!

Linked to the REMODELAHOLIC

Round Robin

2010-01-08T09:17:00.005-06:00

I am making progress! Here is another peek-obviously it involves fabric and ribbons, but NO sewing! I am missing something, so I won't be able to finish until I go out again and that probably won't be today. I'm hoping I can get all the pieces together for a quick assembly.

Check out the Round Robin at Keeping up with the Schultz's by clicking on my title. I added my felted penguin, Elvette. Looks like some cute stuff!

My Magical Mystery Project

2010-01-07T20:44:00.003-06:00

Awesomely enough SCHOOL IS CLOSED TOMORROW! I know it is silly because we've only been back for 4 days and I was ready to go back, but I think being excited about getting a (paid) day off is a prerequisite of working. And it is so much better to be off for single digit wind chill than for one of our hurricane friends. Happy, happy day. Hearing rumors of this possible good fortune I surfed around the internet and found a project (more than one project, but one thing at a time!) just in case. So, I was totally ready when the call came. I braved the elements and then I braved Wal-Mart to get my supplies and I will be a cozy busy bee tomorrow. Since going to Wal-Mart inevitably takes way too long I don't have any pictures yet, so I am going to just give a sneak peek and maybe I will have more to show tomorrow.

Needle Felted Penguins

2010-01-06T06:43:00.002-06:00

Here is Ryan...supervising!

I planned to "glimmer" today and I did play with my glimmer goodies a little but I wanted to think about how to use my supplies, so instead I decided to play with some wool. I bought a beginner needle felting kit about 2 years ago along with some bundles of roving and I saw the directions to make a cute little penguin in the December Martha Stewart.

I started with these directions from the magazine and my supplies. It doesn't take much to needle felt, which is one good thing. All you need are needles, wool, and a foam block.

Here is my penguin body. I took some other "in progress" pictures, but I accidentally deleted them from my camera. Oops.

To make the body parts of the penguin, push the fibers into a ball and punch them with the needle over and over again. It is good stress relief, and it is pretty amazing to see the wool start to hold itself together into a shape. Here is what the finished product is supposed to look like next to my actual penguin. Not too bad! I didn't have any grey or orange wool, so I improvised and used colors of pink that I had in my stash. My penguin is a girly girl! I also made her a little magenta scarf.

I think she's really cute, even though her hair has a distinct Elvis look to it. Long live the King!

2010-01-05T21:14:00.003-06:00

I think these pictures are perfect for a look into the mind of Bailey. What is she thinking?

Hmmm...which book shall I choose, which book shall I choose? Maybe I forgot to pull a few off the shelf?

It has to be this one, new and unchewed upon. Look at the colors...green is for beans (Yum) and peas (Yum) and asparagus (Yu...CK!)

That is so funny!

Okay, I'm bored now. Stop taking pictures and adore me! Now, now, now!

A Kit is Here a Kit is Here!

2010-01-05T20:58:00.005-06:00

I finally had a package when I got home today. This one was from the apparently inventive ladies over at Tattered Angels. They have a regular kit, but this was a one time purchase, mainly because everything has names with "Glimmer"-like glimmer mist and glimmer glass and glimmer chips. It just sounds all blingy. Unfortunately I don't have any time to play with this today--boooo. I started to not open the box (for about 2 seconds) but then I thought, who do I think I'm fooling! So the goal for tomorrow is to glimmer something! I feel glam just thinking about it!

Opposites

2010-01-04T19:49:00.006-06:00

Today was my first day back at work-Yay! Kind of. I was excited, but I didn't sleep well at all last night (probably because I was too excited) and so I was tired all day. Bleah. AND THEN my Scholastic books arrived! I used my 2300 leftover book club points to get awesome books for Bailey for FREE. She loves to pull all of her books out and spread them around her to "read". She sits and turns the little pages, so cute. Then she gnaws them to bits with her four pointy teeth like an industrious beaver, so there can never be too many books. Anyway this is a cute little book about opposites: Big and Little.

The publisher should have included these pictures:

Big Mess & Little Mess

Guess which mess belongs to whom...

And here is the little mess in the flesh. We were grocery shopping which is the worst Monday task ever at Wal-Mart, the worst store in the world ever, so it was just all around bad. And it was cold! Bailey is all bundled up and showing off her many moods.

Scraparatus Fun & Card Challenge

2010-01-03T17:44:00.001-06:00

Today was a great day-beautiful weather, got to sleep in because Bailey was gone...aaahhh. This morning I broke out the Scraparatus my mom gave me and that I have never opened to try and figure it out. I thought it was probably complicated because my mom never opened it when she had it either. But...it wasn't! I played around with its different parts-it punches, sets eyelets, and cuts out little shapes. The results are above. Unfortunately I chose to do this while I should have been good ready for church which had two consequences-I scared Ryan with my banging while he was in the shower and we were late for church.

I wanted to try and use the Scraparatus for something, so I looked at the card on the 365 Cards and made a card using the sketch and some of my abundant stash. I almost hated to use my stuff, but that's why there is so much. And MY KITS ARE COMING!!! (I'm excited-I have subscribed to some monthly kits) so I have to start using stuff. I messed up on the stamping but I think it came out okay.

Paper Flowers

2010-01-02T23:13:00.001-06:00

I finished my paper flower bouquet this morning. It was actually very easy since the pieces were precut. A little slow, but since I worked on it while I watched a movie it didn't really matter. I am going to take them to my office next week.

Thanks to Martha Stewart

2010-01-01T14:23:00.000-06:00

I started making a paper flower bouquet tonight. I am using a Martha Stewart kit I got on clearance at Michael's. It makes 27 flowers, so if I can get it finished I should have a large bunch to take to work. There are three different kinds of flowers in the kit.