Cards!

It feels like I haven't posted a craft item for a while - so here are three cards I did yesterday. I still "owe" my mom 20 cards - so I now only have 15 left. I made duplicates of two of these three designs. Typically, when I'm making a 5x7 card, I make two of them just to do a little bit more of an assembly line. And then, too, I don't have to come up with (or CASE) but only half the designs. :-)

Thanks for looking!! Have a great rest of the week!

Belated Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! I know ours was fun and busy!! We had family over for soup on Christmas Eve. Christmas day found us going to 7:30 a.m. Mass and then to IHOP for breakfast, and then we came home and opened a couple Santa presents with our 2 year old DD. The boys were at their dad's for Christmas, so we took advantage of DD not really getting the whole Santa thing this year and so finally about ten o'clock she opened a couple little things Santa had left. When we took DD to see Santa, all she asked him for was a Barbie and so she was VERY excited to have gotten one on Christmas morning!!

The boys didn't get home until Saturday late afternoon, so we opened all the rest of our gifts then. I don't know who the wait was harder on, the boys or my DH! DS#1 got the XBOX Live stuff that he wanted. So now he can be the gaming nerd who sits on the couch and talks to his friends while he plays with them on the XBOX game. I really have NO idea how this works, but apparently it does because I've heard him using it already! He was also very happy to have gotten a Texas hoodie. We live in Nebraska, so it's not the most common thing (or should I say, most popular thing) to wear, but he loves the color orange... I guess it's a good thing that the high school he's going to next year has orange and blue as their colors!!

DS#2 didn't really ask for anything for Christmas that he would have "died" if he hadn't gotten, so I think overall he was pretty happy with the loot he got! He seemed very happy to have gotten a new case for his trumpet and a mute to go alone with it. He did get a new iPod Nano and a radio/clock/iPod docking station which didn't take him long to get all hooked up!

All five of us also got new winter coats for Christmas. I figured the boys were due for new coats and seeing as how they do walk home from school a lot, they need to be warm! DH had been saying for weeks about how he needed a new wool coat to wear to work and you have no idea how hard that secret was to keep!! I just kept saying that maybe I'll look for one in the after Christmas sales!

DH also got a catchers mitt from the boys so that they can play catch more this spring and summer. Apparently DS#2 throws the heat and a catchers mitt was needed already!! I was very lucky got tons of things that I wanted! I am so very lucky to have such a wonderful DH and kids - that or they are just trying to buy my affection to keep them out of the dog house!!! I got another cartridge for my Cricut Expression, so I can't wait to play with that! One of my new years goals is to get some scrapbooking done!

We're headed out to my parents for New Years and then to Denver for a couple of days of pure R&R! It's about time I started reaping the benefit of my husband's work travels by getting a couple of free hotel nights with his hotel points!! :-)

Have a wonderful rest of the holiday season and a Happy New Year!

Junior Cougar Band Program

DS#2 has really enjoyed being in the band program at Gross HS. (If you're REALLY "lucky", and one day come home to a message of trumpet music on your answering machine, you'll know who it is!! lol) The advanced band group - which is 6th through 8th grade had their Christmas program a couple of weeks ago and I managed to tape some of it using my HP digital camera. One of my new years resolutions is going to be to figure out how to make my Panasonic camcorder link to my MacBook!! When my DH bought it for me, the box said compatible with Mac so I don't know what the problem is and I just haven't made the time to either take it out to the Apple Store or call Panasonic.... Anyway, below is a snippet of the concert. Happy Holidays from a very cold and windy Nebraska!!

Our first snow day!

The boys are both excited - it's our first snow day of the school year! They are kind of bummed, though - they only had school until 11:15 today because it's the last day of school until next year! They are out until January 6th. I never remember having that long of a Christmas vacation!

I've been busy this week trying to finish up all the little projects I wanted to get done before Christmas. Well....I'm still working on a few, but hey - Christmas isn't until Thursday, so I've got some time!! I did get our Christmas letter written and printed off. I try to keep ours to the front side of one piece of paper. It's hard to condense a whole years worth of activities onto one page! But I did!! :-) I also finalized the design for our Christmas card. Whew. I didn't say I came up with the design... I completely cased it from a card in the gallery at Splitcoaststampers! It was pretty much completely CASEd from a card by MicheleTx whose blog is http://micheleforce.blogspot.com. Check it out - she's got some fabulous cards!

Last weekend we had my entire family in town to celebrate Christmas early. We started doing this during the first half of December a few years ago. With everyone having kids and being super busy, it just works out great to get it done early! The cousins sure had a good time playing together. We had a bowling tournament Saturday afternoon which was a lot of fun. I'd forgotten how much fun bowling can be! I TOTALLY would have broken 100 if DD hadn't been helping bowl about 25% of my frames. Yes, I will blame my 97 on a two year old! She and her cousin loved dancing around the bowling alley and tapping around in their bowling shoes! It was cute!

We have a busy weekend planned with some last minute shopping and a couple of holiday parties to go to. So have a fun weekend and I will see you back here real soon!

Dancing elf children of mine!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Our family pictures

Okay - a couple people I know who read my blog, asked where our family photo was. Yes, I purposefully left it off yesterday. I know, that's bad - but how many of you also don't like having your picture taken????  lol So here they are...

Family picture time!

It's that time of year - the dreaded family picture time! lol The boys thought I was inflicting cruel and unusual punishment by making them wear dress socks with their pants and dress shoes instead of tennis shoes! Of course, I spent hours deciding what the little princess was going to wear and how that would coordinate with whatever one else was wearing. :-) Despite all that - I think the pictures turned out good! Thanks for looking!

My new baby and a card swap!

I have a new little baby in my craft room!! Lookie!! It's a new Cricut Expression! :-) I had no intention of buying one but it was such a good deal.... I'll blame it on my SIL because she's the one who wanted to go shopping on Black Friday! I'm going to enjoy spending some time with my new little toy. I can already see some fun projects in the days ahead!

I also have a new card to show. I am participating in a swap with the SU! set Crazy for Cupcakes - so this is what I came up with. I sure love this new set. Cupcakes are so in right now! I feel like a trend setter because we had cupcakes at our wedding three years ago, and now everyone is having cupcakes. lol

So I'm nearly done Christmas shopping and it sure feels good. I hope to have some time now to make some Christmas goodies. I've had requests for peanut butter balls and almond bark pretzels so it will be fun to do some baking with the boys now. I am also going to start setting some goals for 2009, even though we still have a month left in 2008. We'll see how that goes!! Once I get my list I will have to post in here so that maybe by making it public, I can be held accountable (if by no one else than by my mom!!).

Well, it's time to head back in to the craft room and make room for my newest addition! Have a great week! See you back here real soon!

Finally posting again!!

Okay, for those of you wondering, I am still alive! We've just been super busy with stuff going on! But now, football and baseball is over for our boys and that has freed up time on the weekends for us all! I have been busy working on things and have been making myself work on stuff in the craft room. The first project I've been working on has been Christmas gift tags. Below is the photo of the ones I have done. I've made 12 of each design so that I have some to give to people as gifts. I thought - why not!!? Everyone needs gift tags and I have plenty of paper and stamps to make them! What a simple, homemade gift! I need to figure out how to get better lighting because this one looks just blah. My craft room doesn't have any natural light (no windows) so my Ott Light must really make a big difference when I have it on! I've also fallen in love with the stationary boxes! They really aren't as hard as they look! Here is a Christmas one I made recently. One of the inside pockets is just the right size for giving a gift card - so what cute packaging for a gift card and some additional goodies inside. I have four gift tags, four 3x3 cards and four A2 sized cards inside the box. I would show them to you - but it's a gift for a blog reader of mine!! So the outside is all you get to see!!
One last photo - since I didn't post during Halloween time... Here's a picture of our buzz buzz bee all dressed up. She definitely got the hang of trick or treating but was sooooo shy when we'd actually get up to the door! And I'm enjoying all the loot that she brought home! DS#1 dug out a costume at the last minute to go trick or treating with a friend and DS#2 stayed home to hand out candy. He enjoys the social aspects of Halloween, so I think that was a much fun for him as anything. Then when DH and I got home with DD, we made caramel apples, so that was a fun and yummy treat!
I'm REALLY going to try and get back to posting on a regular schedule (regular for me, which means on the weekends) - so I hope to "see" you back here very soon! Have a wonderful week!!

Busy weekend!

Wow - what a busy weekend we had! My mom didn't have school on Friday, so she came down to spend some time with us. Friday after my boys got out of school, she took DS#2 on his birthday shopping trip. He's in heaven now as he got some sort of baseball practice hitting thing that he's been dying to get! I have no earthly idea how it works - but he loves it!

Saturday we went and got (much needed) pedicures. There's something nice about being able to sit and sip Starbucks while someone else pampers your feet! Then we pretty much shopped from one end of Omaha to the other.

So, needless to say - I didn't get any crafting done this weekend! I am going to work on the Halloween treat containers that I'm making up for my daycare kids and a few of our close neighbor kids this afternoon. So when I have those done, I will post picks of them!

I do have a picture of DD from last week. It's of her cutting a rug in her new snow boots. We haven't had any snow yet - but I'm sure soon enough and I guess when you're 2 1/2, you still like to break your shoes in!

Have a great day!

Happy Birthday!

My DS#2 turned 11 years old on Friday the 17th. I can hardly believe it! We're going to have cake and ice cream (or a DQ ice cream cake, most likely) on Sunday to celebrate since they had a Boy Scout campout this weekend. If there is anyone who would want their birthday strung out three or more days, it would be him! lol Now to find time for him to go spend his birthday money! He really wants a new baseball glove - so it will be interesting to see what he finally decides on! Happy Birthday, baby!

Hello from stolen pumpkin-land!

Sorry - I have to do it... I have to take a couple of sentences to vent about how someone(s) - I suspect neighborhood teens - stole SEVEN pumpkins off my front porch. I had purchased nine pumpkins last week so that my daycare kids and their families could come over this coming Wednesday and carve pumpkins like we have been doing for several years now. Ugh! Why does anyone feel they have the right to come up on my porch and steal anything???? And then to leave TWO of them - just go ahead and steal them all for pete sake! I'm pretty torked about this, to put it mildly. Let alone the fact that someone was as close as our front door area really wigs me out! Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be pumpkin stealers.

On a much happier note - I have pictures of my DD and even a couple of projects to share! :-) I'm proud to say that my nearly 2 1/2 year old DD is becoming quite interested in Barbie dolls. Ah, yes, a girl after my own heart! I LOVED Barbies. I played with them all the time - and not just because it seemed like I was sent to my room a lot!! lol I probably played with my Barbies until I was in 7th grade. So when DD saw the Cornhusker Cheerleader Barbie today at our neighbor's garage sale, who I was I to say no! :-)

DH and both DSs are camping this weekend at Little Sioux. I'm eager to hear how it went, as this is the campground that was devastated by a tornado this past summer. It's a Camporee, which means that there were several troops camping so it should have been a lot of fun!

Their being gone means I have had some time to stamp!! Yea! The first card came out of a kit that I got at a stamp camp probably three years ago! I don't think I've mentioned that the past two weeks I have been in a huge cleaning and purge mood - so I have sorted through more craft stuff!!!!! And it's amazing what you find! I thought this was a cute card, though I wished I would have rolled the snowglobes on the backrgound in rows closer together. But, this was before the wheel guide, so I guess that's my excuse!!

My final little project to share came from the blog Addicted to Stamping at http://www.jackietopa.typepad.com/. I love her tutorials! I am making some of the stationary boxes. So far what I have done is awesome! I have the box done and a matching pen made. So now I can't wait to fill up the box with some little 3x3 cards, some tags and some regular cards. These are soooo cute! The box was really easy to make, just following the directions. I thought it would be harder, but it wasn't. I used the RSVP pen, but it was too long to put in the box like in the tutorial, so for future boxes, I will look for a different pen to stick in it.

Well, DD and I are getting up and going to 7:30 Mass in the morning - so I'd better sign off and head to bed! Have a great week and thanks for stopping by my blog - even though I'm horrible about keeping it updated!!

Fun weekend!!

Look who I got to see this weekend!!! The amazing Shelli Gardner herself! As if I wasn't excited enough to the Stampin' Up! regional event in Kansas City! The picture isn't the best - but our seats were wonderful. As I checked in at the registration table, a lady from Omaha recognized me and so she directed me to where a bunch of other ladies from Omaha were sitting. It was a great day. I got some cool swaps and we made some great projects. Then, we also got to see several presentations. Let me just say, my wish list of things I want from the catalog grew exponentially! When you see sets demoed, you want them!! :-) Oh and one more thing about Shelli - I love her clothes! I'm sure I'd look terrible in it - but the outfit she had on Saturday was soooo pretty. Her style is like vintage with a modern twist.

We were given supplies to make five projects on Saturday. And guess what - I only got two of them done! lol Between talking with the people at my table and walking around taking pictures of all the display boards, I just didn't get them all done. But, here are two of the projects that I did get done. The first one is a very simple card that weaved ribbon in the card. Neat idea.

I love love love the next project. It's a little card holder that fits the sized cards you would find with gift bags, etc. It was so easy to make and really cute. I will be making more of these for sure!

Well, this will be my post for the upcoming weekend because we're heading out of town on our family vacation. The boys don't have school Thursday or Friday, so we're taking them out on Wednesday and heading to Florida. Then Thursday afternoon we are boarding the Carnival Sensation ship and sailing to the Bahamas on a three day cruise. Wish me luck --- I'm not sure I have patience to deal with three kids and a DH in close quarters for that long!! lol But, I know it will be a fun adventure for all of us!!

Have a great week!!

Yea! I'm in Kansas City!

I don't have any photos to post this week - even though I have been super busy finishing up my swaps for the Stampin' Up! regional event in Kansas City this weekend. So I'm very excited to be spending Saturday doing one of my favorite things - stamping and crafting. I ended up making 70 cards to swap, so I look forward to getting some new ideas! After I'm done stamping, I'm hoping that we can make it out to the Legends to shop. :-) They have a Stride Rite outlet and a Gymboree outlet so it would be a shame to miss out on them. However, it's also NASCAR weekend at the Kansas Speedway - so we may not want to mess with all the crowds out there. Who knows. I do know that we'll spend the evening watching the Husker game on t.v.

Okay - I will post early this next week with what projects I make at regionals tomorrow. Then Wednesday morning we leave for our family vacation. Get this - we're taking three kids on cruise to the Bahamas. It's either going to go great --- or I will come home and never want to go on a family vacation again!! lol I know the Bahamas seems pretty "out there" but we found that it was as inexpensive to go on a cruise as it was to fly and stay anywhere else in the U.S. Wish us luck!! :-)

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Yes, again, I'm a bad blogger!!!

Okay, I admit it (again) - I skipped posting last week because we were very very busy. Bad, bad me!! Our first item on the agenda last weekend was going to the Nebraska Cornhusker football game. My DH was given an awesome opportunity through work to sit in the corporate skyboxes. Wow! That was fun. Then our sons both had sporting events last weekend too. So by Sunday night we were all pooped!

But, to attempt to win you back as a blog viewer, I do have four cards this week. I'm going to the Stampin' Up! regional event in Kansas City in a couple of weeks and so I have been busy making cards to swap. I only have 50 done and my goal is 100, but with a little more work, I know I can get them done! The hardest part is just coming up with a design. Here's what I have so far...



I'm also throwing in a picture of DD at the zoo. We took her this morning while her brothers were at Patrol Leader training for Boy Scouts. She cried and cried when we left and all I could hear her saying when she laid down for her nap was "go back zoo". So it's a good thing we bought a zoo pass this year!!



Enjoy the cards and have a great week!

Happy Birthday, DH!

I'm going to try and post a video of DD singing Happy Birthday tonight to her dad. We'll see how good of skills I have getting this done!! :-) It's nice that my digital camera also does live video. Now if I could only get the camcorder I got for Mother's Day to work with my MacBook.... We were spoiled this weekend and had carrot cake from my favorite cake place - the Cake Gallery. Tonight we had an ice cream cake from DQ! Whew...I'm going to need to work out tomorrow!! lol

Happy Labor Day Weekend!!

Wow! What a last week and a half. I am sorry that I didn't post last weekend - but, boy - was I under the weather! That and we traveled about five hours to my parents' house for my dad's 60th birthday celebration. The way out there was one of the longest car rides EVER!! lol I think everyone around here is glad I'm feeling better because when I'm not feeling well, I'm a grouch to be around. See, I can admit it!! :-)

This weekend is Labor Day weekend in the States so we are enjoying some rest and relaxation at the family cabin with all of DHs immediate family. Monday, we are doing nothing and I might very well stay in bed until noon and my jammies all day!! lol Okay, we all know that's not going to happen. With a two year old who is up at the crack of dawn, I'm sure I'll be up doing something. Plus Monday is my DH's birthday!! Happy birthday, dear! He claims he reads my blog - so we'll see if I get any comments from him. His birthday present has been hiding in my dresser drawer for about three weeks now. :-) I hope he likes it!

I'm excited to report that I registered for the SU! regional event in Kansas City on September 27th. I can't wait to go!!!!! As long as I've been a demo, I haven't made it to a convention and this will be my first regional event. With Kansas City so close to Omaha and family to stay with down there - there was no way I wasn't going!! I've been trying to come up with some ideas for swap cards - but so far, I'm not having much luck. I'd LIKE to come up with an original design of my own, but I may settle for just CASEing something out of the catalog. My problem is - I want the cards to be something simple enough to make 100 of, but not so plain that people are like "those cards stink - I don't want to swap with you." That is like my biggest fear - being THAT swapper that everyone thinks stunk!! lol Oh well - I'm sure I will come up with something before then. And because it's just my nature, I'm sure I will be frantically working on them the week before we head down to Kansas City!!

The cards I posted today I can't decide if I really like them or not. That's terrible, isn't it?? I'm trying to come up with swap cards that I like, but the mojo just isn't flowing. Maybe spending the weekend at the family cabin, lounging with my catalog will inspire me!! Who knows - but thanks for looking!!

Yea! It's the weekend!

It's been a long week and I am sure ready for some down time!! The boys are having their Scout camping weekend this weekend, so they are gone. And we don't have anything else until 1:00 on Sunday when DS#2 has his parent/player meeting for fall baseball. I very well may stay in my pj's until noon!! I am thinking about taking DD to get a hair cut while the boys are all gone. That ought to be fun!! She won't let me put it in pig tails any more, so it might as well get chopped!

I have two little creations that I've whipped out this week during naptime. :-) The first is a 2-5-7-10 Box. The tutorial can be found on Splitcoaststampers. They are really pretty easy. This one is full of Hershey's kisses.



The second thing(s) are some treat containers. Honestly, please tell me if they are dumb or not because I am planning on donating them to a church group who is putting on a craft fair in October. So do you think people would buy them? Some are filled with Halloween candy, some with those Hershey's chocolate sticks and some I am going to fill with pencils and markers. The are juice concentrate containers decorated with designer paper and embellished with ribbons and tags.

Last weekend before school starts!!

I'm having a hard time figuring out where our summer went!!! Can you believe that this is our last weekend before the boys start school??? They go back on Friday. We have our open house on Tuesday night where we'll find out who they will have for teachers. The boys are both eager to see friends and though they will never admit it - I think they look forward to going back to school and getting in a routine again! We're going to be busy with Jr. Cougar football, fall baseball at the Strike Zone, Boy Scouts and band, let alone all the homework 6th and 8th grade will bring!!!

This past week at SCS the tutorial was for diaper fold pouches. Though this wasn't new to me, it had been a while since I had made any. They are VERY easy and super cute and can be customized to whatever theme or event you might need them for. I plan on making some up for Halloween! Here are the two that I made on Wednesday....
The only thing that I would "recommend" is that if you are any kind of perfectionist - don't use polka dot paper!! It drove me crazy looking and the red one. All I could do was think about how the dots weren't straight!!

I also got a few more cards done this week that will be heading to my mom's eventually. I only owe her 40 more cards from our trip this past spring to NYC. We're going out there in two weeks for my dad's 60th birthday celebration - so do you think I can get 40 cards knocked out by then? We shall see!! :-)




I was glad to see the SU! Designer Series Paper used in the thinking of you card made the new catalog. I stocked up on it just in case, so I won't need to buy any for a while - but it's just good to know that it's there! I have enjoyed drooling over the new catalog this weekend! I'm going to try an control myself when tomorrow morning rolls around and we can order out of it!!

Have a great week!

Yes, I'm bad....

Okay - I'm a bad blogger... I didn't post last weekend. :-( So to the few of you who actually check out my blog, I'm sorry! I KNEW I'd never be able to keep up on a daily blog - so it's amazing that last weekend was the first one I have missed posting!

The last two weeks have just been super busy. The week before last, DH and DS#1 were gone on a Boy Scout High Adventure trip all week. When DH is out of town, my goal is always to get DD to bed a little earlier than normal so that I have a couple hours to come down to the craft room - but I was just so tired at the end of the day, I just had no energy! Then this most recent week, we've been working on getting our rental house ready to go. (Okay, I've been doing very little to help - even marginal on the emotional support...) But our new renters are moving in this week - so the stress will have been worth it. And how familiar is this - our new renters are a lady moving from Lincoln to get married to a guy living in Papillion. How could we not rent to them??? That's only cute if you know us --- I was the lady who moved from Lincoln three years ago to get married. :-) In fact, our 3rd wedding anniversary is this Wednesday! :-)

So, I do have some cards this week. The first one is a very simple Halloween card using all Stampin' Up! materials. The second one is a baby announcement for a swap I'm doing on Splitcoaststampers. It's actually the announcement I made for DD's birth and I happened to have enough extras that I decided to "get rid of them" through this swap. :-) The annoucement card also is 100% Stampin' Up!. Which, speaking of SU!, I will be stalking my mailbox this week in anticipation of the new SU! catalog which should be on it's way!!! Yea!! I won't mind sitting at football practice waiting for it to get over if I have the new catty to look through!!

Have a great week!

Hot July Sunday!

It's hot and humid here today and so it's a great day to be stamping!! I've been working on a project for a football fundraiser. DS#1 is playing football through a local high school program this fall and each family is asked to donate something of $20 or more for the BBQ fundraiser coming up in a couple of weeks. So, I'm making a basket of goodies that are themed around football and the team colors - orange and blue. So far, I have four birthday cards done, two of the binder clip photo holders and some of those cute little peppermint patties with punches stuck to them. I don't know what else I will add. I picked up a cheap photo frame that maybe I will alter.



My next little organizational project was taking a cleaned out plastic juice concentrate container into a pencil holder. I covered it with my favorite SU! designer paper and topped it off with some ribbon. It now is the proud holder of all my Koh-i-noor pencils. I love it! :-)

Enjoy your week and see you back here next weekend!!