Stampin' on Saturdays

Some day....

2011-08-05T17:39:00.002-05:00

Some day I will have time to really craft, stamp and scrapbook like I would like. Until then, I will enjoy every minute of this.... They grow TOOOOOO fast!

Baby Benjamin has arrived!

2011-04-30T11:13:00.002-05:00

I don't really have any legitimate excuses why I have let the blog go. But I do have a cute excuse - our final baby has arrived! Benjamin was born on April 13th and is loved by everyone in the house. Carly said the other day that she could just lay by him and stare at him all day long because he is so cute. Sophie is at the age (19 months) where she could just really care less. She acknowledges him, but could really take him or leave him. And Trevor and Collin are just your typical teenagers who just roll their eyes at you, but they do love to help me out and hold him from time to time.

So, now that he is here, I REALLY am going to try and keep up with the blogging world. Ben did actually make it down to the craft room two times in the last couple of days to watch me crank out some cards for my mom. I meant to take some pictures of the cards, but she swooped them up before I had a chance. I do have a couple of pictures of the baby that we are using for his birth announcement which now I need to get done!! :-)

New Cards and a New Year!

2011-01-14T16:21:00.003-06:00

So my resolutions for last year pretty much fell by the way-side when it came to keeping the blog updated in any kind of fashion. My biggest problem is that the computer near my craft room doesn't have iPhoto on it so I can't just edit cards/photos as quick as I would like to... So there will be no resolutions this year!! We'll just consider it lucky when new projects get posted. I am "resolving" to use my Cricut more to make cards with and use up as much retired SU! paper as I can this year!

I did get some pictures taken of a few of the last batch of cards that I got made. So here they are! :-)

Digi-scrapbooking - trying out Smilebox!

2010-10-19T20:08:00.000-05:00

Make your own free digital scrapbook

Wow!!

2010-10-07T20:32:00.003-05:00

Wow - I knew it had been a long time since I had posted but wow - I didn't realize it had been THAT long! Like summertime a long time ago!! The sad thing is that I have made probably sixty cards since June since I've been sending about 20 a month out to my mom as "payment" for my laptop. In fact, I just sent 20 out west today and didn't get a single picture taken.

Well, I'm hoping now that the holiday season is practically upon us to post some upcoming projects soon. I have some super cute ideas for Christmas gifts that I am going to try out. I just need to pick up a few canning jars and then I will get going. :-)

New cards!

2010-06-22T21:46:00.004-05:00

I have finally made some time to upload some pictures of new cards that I've made recently. I REALLY need to clean and organize the craft room again. I have a huge pile of paper, stamp sets, ribbon, stamp pads and more that I have decided to part with. I'm pretty sure that I've sold enough stuff to people on craigslist that I can probably advertise a "crafting garage sale" and get a good turn out, but I just need to make a time for that to happen!! :-) Thanks for looking at the cards!

Finally some new cards!!

2010-05-21T13:58:00.003-05:00

Okay, I just can't seem to make time to get cards or projects posted! Bad me!! I guess they will just get up here when they get here!! I have been working on some cards lately and last night Carly helped me finish up a couple. She's going to be quite the crafter when she grows up - I can tell! Thanks for looking and here's to hoping I can post a little more regularly from now on!

Crafty Carly ~ before and after!

2010-04-28T09:21:00.003-05:00

Carly likes to spend time in the craft room with me when I am in there creating. Guess I need to get her a trash can of her own!! :-)

Crafting with Carly (and Sophie)!

2010-04-20T08:48:00.003-05:00

Sophie hung out in the craft room with Carly and me this past weekend while we worked on a couple of cards. Carly loves helping me make cards with the Cricut Expression! She picked out all the papers for the You Take the Cake card. My only "complaint" is that the background paper she chose is too busy and I would have used a paper with less pattern. Otherwise it's great!

What happened to New Years Resolutions???

2010-04-06T09:04:00.003-05:00

So I'm not doing a very good job of following one of my resolutions for 2010! That was to keep this blog updated. It's not like I don't have enough material to keep it active! I have 40 cards done towards a goal of 240 that I have to finish by the end of the year to give my mom. We always seem to have some sort of bartering program going on. This one involves her old MacBook Pro. :-)

Here are some cards that were in the last batch of cards she got. Enjoy!

Sneek Peak

2010-03-02T16:16:00.002-06:00

Here's a sneak peak of a card that I am making for the Columb's Ceili basket "Girls Love..." It's full of an eclectic mix of things girls love - chocolate, shoes, jewels and fun!

You Take the Cake!

2010-02-06T08:20:00.000-06:00

I've been steadily working on cards for the Columb's Ceili auction basket. Here is another one that is going in the basket. I think it turned out cute. :-)

I'm excited for the weekend! We have no sports or children activities going on today! Collin's game for today got moved to tomorrow. So as you read this, I very well may still be laying in bed in my jammies!! :-) Life is good.

Think summer!

2010-01-23T08:02:00.003-06:00

It's been a long cold, snowy winter here in Papillion this year! I think that's what prompted me to make a summery looking card. This card will be going on the auction basket for Columb's Ceili. :-)

We had a pretty busy week here filled with basketball games and such. When this posts, I hope to be sitting in a spa chair, sipping a mocha from Starbucks enjoying a pedicure! Ahhh....what a great way to start the weekend!

Cards for the auction

2010-01-18T16:15:00.003-06:00

Here are two cards that are going in the auction basket for the Columb's Ceili. Out of 52, I already have 10 done! Woo hoo! Maybe I will get them done before the time crunch kills me! :-) The brown polka dot card reminds me of a cute little skirt that Carly has. And who doesn't love chocolate!! Thanks for looking and I'll see you back here real soon!

Baby shower invitations and my baby helper!

2010-01-10T15:05:00.004-06:00

Here's my little helper who might as well get acclimated with the craft room from an early age, because she's likely to spend a great deal of time in there either watching me or playing!!

My mother in law is hosting a shower for the daughter of one her friends in February, so I volunteered to make the shower invitations. I think they turned out cute, but I will say - since they didn't find out what sex the baby is it would have been more fun to make pink or blue invites.... I used the Stampin' Up! set called Swell News and paper pieced together the dress. I love paper piecing images!

Reviving the blog - and some New Year's Resolutions!

2010-01-07T10:29:00.002-06:00

It's time to get this blog back to life! It seems like time just gets away from me and quite frankly, Sophie and everyone else just seem to suck up my time, so that when I do have a free moment all I want to do is vegetate! :-)

So I have two craft related goals for 2010. The first is to make at least ten cards a month. The second is to scrapbook at least ten pages a month. Those shouldn't be too hard to do, right!? I did get a new photo printer just so that I would have no excuses why I couldn't get some scrapbooking done!

I volunteered, just last night, to make a basket of cards again this year for our church's big auction celebration. So to make that happen, I'd better get to crafting! My goal is to get back to posting on Saturdays with what I've been up to during the week!

Distraction from stamping!

2009-09-20T11:30:00.003-05:00

So I haven't posted on here in like FOREVER! I'm blaming it on being pregnant and having no energy to do much crafting. The time I would craft was during daycare naptime, and the last few weeks, I found myself laying down on the couch with the kiddos to rest while they were sleeping!!

But now our newest little addition is here so I won't have that as an excuse. Now I can blame it on sleepless nights!! :-) We spent this last week pretty much in our jammies all day, so the goal from here on out is to get up and get dressed in the morning. Hopefully the baby will like the little swing that is set up in the craft room and I can get a few things created while on maternity leave!!

Here's the details of our sweet little princess....

Sophie Anne
Born September 13th at 8:50 a.m.
Weighing 8 lbs 2 oz
Measuring 21 inches long

Scrapbook pages!

2009-08-21T15:41:00.002-05:00

I have made some time to sit down and use my Cricut machine to help me get some scrapbook pages done. I must say - what a piece of cake it is to cut out letters using this machine. I LOVE it! I have started making birthday albums for my kids. I think it will be way easier at this point than trying to catch up on scrapbooking every day activities and holidays! So I started with the youngest, since hers was the easiest one to finish up - she's only three!! :-)

Time to post again!

2009-08-05T12:16:00.004-05:00

You'd think my mother bugging me about not posting would be enough to get me going...but apparently it hasn't been. Until now! :-)

I have been busy doing a variety of things in the craft room lately. Most of them have involved moving my stuff and putting it away as we've had a home remodel project going on.

I did however, start some scrapbooking a couple weeks ago, which felt good to do! I have started by making birthday albums for the kids. I started with Carly's - which hasn't been that hard to get caught up since she's only three. It's going to be more of a chore to do the boys' who are 14 and almost 12. But, I will get it done. It helped that I have moved my photo printer down to the craft room so that it's more accessible.

I do have one card that I CASEd from somewhere - sorry don't remember where. It was super easy to make. And the nice thing is you could change the sentiment to say about anything happy you wanted it to!

Long lost neglected blog!

2009-05-16T06:46:00.000-05:00

Oh for pete sake - I realize that it's been a month since I've posted! Bad me! We've been busy, I guess is my only excuse. I haven't made any cards since this last week. That's really sad! But oh well - such is life!!

I do have two new cards and will have some more for later postings. I'm getting back into the grind of bartering with my mom. Cards for candles is our little project. 10 cards earns me a small Barn Candle. :-) I always have a nice stock pile of candles so that when I need a quick little gift, I have one!!

Wish me luck this weekend. I will be taking my soon to be three year old to the bakery to pick out and order her cake for her birthday party which is next weekend. Let's just say, she has changed her mind about as many times as I've expected. We have gone from wanting a Tinkerbell cake, Strawberry Shortcake cake, Disney Princesses cake to now wanting a Madagascar cake. Well, once we order it, that's it!! No changing our mind!!

Happy Easter!

2009-04-11T07:00:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone is enjoy the beauty and wonder of Spring and having a wonderful and blessed Easter. We've taken a couple days off to venture north and spend some time with my DH's sister and her family. I am hoping to get some serious shopping in and just have some time to rest and relax!

This first card is a favorite of mine. It's probably because I like lady bugs so much! :-) The saying says "bug me anytime."

The second card I love the colors of and I really like the stamp set with the butterfly. I'm sure I will make many more cards with this set.

Have a wonderful weekend! See you back here next time! :-)

Chocolate Mint Cookies

2009-04-05T16:43:00.005-05:00

Collin is in the 6th grade advanced math class right now and one of their assignments was to find a recipe that included at least 5 fractions. So he looked through the family cookbook - A Taste of Chase and decided on the recipe for Chocolate Mint Cookies. We made them this afternoon because each student in advanced math is supposed to bring a sampling of their recipe. I'm not that much of a chocolate fan - but even I thought these cookies were good. Here's the recipe....

CHOCOLATE MINT COOKIES

Ingredients:
3/4 c. butte
2 c. chocolate chips
2 1/2 c. flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
2 TB water
1/2 tsp. salt
1 box Andes mints candy

In medium saucepan, melt butter, brown sugar and water until melted. Add chocolate chips and cook until partially melted, remove from stove and stir until completely melted. Let cool for 10 minutes. On high speed, beat in eggs. Reduce to low speed and add remaining ingredients. Chill for one hour.

Roll into nickel sized balls and place on foil lined cookie sheet 2" apart. Bake at 350ºF for 12-13 minutes. Remove from oven, press 1/2 mint on top of each cookie. Let melt and swirl with knife. Let stand on cookie sheet for two minutes and place on cooling rack. Makes approximately 4 1/2 dozen cookies.

Enjoy!

Another action packed weekend!

2009-04-04T07:36:00.000-05:00

We're having another action packed weekend. We started out by attending the last fish fry of the Lenten season. I know my DH thinks I'm weird, but I love going to the fish fries at our church!

Baseball season has started and we have a couple of practices under our belt now. Yea! I know that I'll complain in just a few short weeks about "how many more games do we have left" and "geez I'm tired of sitting out in the heat" - but I do enjoy watching DS#2 play! :-)

Sunday is our DD's last swimming lesson. It's kind of been disappointing because since she isn't three yet, her dad has had to go in the pool with her. So she hasn't been really learning all that much, but I guess just getting acclimated to the water before we start heading out to the cabin is good. Maybe this fall we'll get her in some "solo" lessons!

I do have two cards to share this week. I've been busy working on some daycare projects as well as a project for our school advisory council - so maybe now that those are settling down and coming to a close I will actually want to get crafting! Wouldn't that be great!?!

Have a great week!

2009-03-28T06:48:00.000-05:00

The forecast for the weekend is for kind of cruddy weather - so I'm glad that I will be sitting inside at the Infant-Toddler Symposium today. :-) I've decided that 2009 is the year I will kick my butt back into gear getting more than the minimum in-service hours for my daycare! So I'm making a concerted effort to attend more conferences and workshops! But that means no stamping again today. :-( Maybe on Sunday I will just make some "me time" and get some crafting done! I'm really in a mood to clean and organize, and goodness knows that the craft room could use some TLC.

The card I have for this week is one that I made for our church silent auction basket. The nice thing about having made 52 cards is that I have ready made blog materials!! Enjoy the card and have a great weekend!

Busy weekend, as usual!

2009-03-22T18:36:00.002-05:00

Let me just start this posting out by asking this --- how can a sixth grader be so good at making the picks fo the NCAA mens basketball tournament? After the first and second round of play, DS#2 is 41-7. And of course, this year we didn't join any of the office pools....lol If he doesn't grow up to be a commentator or sports analyst, I don't know what he'll do!

We had a busy weekend filled with Boy Scout camping, the final two basketball games of the season and swimming lessons. And thanks to technology, even though I didn't have time to make it into the craft room (I haven't even gone down into the basement all weekend!), I do have some pictures saved of cards from my silent auction basket from our church auction at the beginning of the month. Enjoy your week and see you back here next time!

My first shaker card!

2009-03-17T21:12:00.004-05:00

I love glitter shaker cards but had never had the gumption to make one before now. But I decided to step it up for the basket of cards I made for our parish auction. I love the SU! set with the skull! It's just "made" for turning into a shaker!! :-) The heart shape of the eyes was cut out and I used the chunky pink glitter to fill up the shaker part. Now that I have done one, I'm sure that more will be in order!!

We're nearly half through a busy week which includes a late basketball game tomorrow evening (I mean, seriously, who schedules 6th graders to play a 9pm game on a school night???) and a Boy Scout camping weekend coming up. Have a great rest of the week and see you back next time!

Wow!

2009-03-03T15:08:00.004-06:00

Okay- I've taken enough grief from my mom that it's time to get my blog updated. Yes, it's been over a month since I've last posted. But you know what... I've been busy!!!! :-) Between the boys' school and sports activities and everything else, it seems I have hardly had a moment! And I've been super busy in the craft room. I made a basket for our church's silent auction which contained 52 cards - enough for "one card a week for a year!" :-) So now that I finally have that done, I will have more personal, fun time in the craft room! This is the third year that I've done a card basket for our auction and they always seem to go over very well. I'm slowly learning my lesson that perhaps as I'm making cards throughout the year, I should put a card here and there away for the next year's auction basket..... But what fun would that be - it would completely go against my human nature which is to do everything at the last minute!!

I also put together a cupcake-themed basket for the auction. It was fun to do. I got three fun cupcake cookbooks and gathered some other assorted cupcake related items so that the person who wins will be all ready to go home and whip up some cupcakes! Below are pictures of the baskets and one card from the card basket. I thankfully took pictures of a lot of them, so I should have some ready-to go blog material for a while!!

Thanks for looking and maybe, just maybe I will TRY to keep this updated better!! I do have some exciting news to share next week - so perhaps you should come back next week to see what that is!! :-)

Baby swap cards!

2009-01-26T14:10:00.003-06:00

One way to force yourself into getting some cards done is to join a swap. I do this through Splitcoaststampers. :-) It's a great way to get some cards done and then get some back in return. This swap's theme was baby cards. I signed up for two spots, so I had to make two different cards. Both cards are 100% SU! :-)

Now that I have these cards done, I need to decide what I'm making for our Parish auction which is coming up the first weekend in March. The first year I made a basket of 52 cards - for
"a card a week." Last year I made two baskets of like 30 cards each that were just all general cards and a coffee themed basket. So I need to put my thinking cap on and decide how ambitious I am going to be this year! I'd like to do another theme basket- and I'm thinking about cupcakes because they seem to be sooooooo "in" right now. Stay tuned to see what I get figured out!

Have a great week!

Handprint poster

2009-01-22T10:15:00.003-06:00

I love my new Cricut Expression!! :-) I can use it to cut out letters for projects and activities we do for daycare!! So this posting isn't so much a craft as just a project we did that used my craft supplies!! lol I used the Cricut to cut out the letters and my SU! White Craft ink pad to do the handprints. I thought it turned out very cute!

Boo hoo!!!!

2009-01-14T20:29:00.004-06:00

I'm pouting tonight because it's too cold to go out and do anything! lol I haven't left the house since Sunday. But that is an occupational hazard when you run a daycare from your home!! :-) DH took the boys to a Creighton basketball game tonight and gave me and DD strict instructions not to even think about leaving the house because 0º F is too cold for girls to be out in. Well, you know what that means.....all I have been craving tonight has been a Starbucks mocha!!!!! lol Oh well. Instead, I have been using my time productively. I got a swap card done and DD has been playing the daycare's Sega Pico for the last hour.

I thought the swap card turned out cute. It's a coffee themed swap - which hasn't helped curb my desire for a mocha... But I thought the card turned out cute. Thanks for stopping by to look! Have a great week!!

Cards!

2008-12-29T17:13:00.002-06:00

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!

2008-12-29T13:37:00.006-06:00

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

2008-12-21T13:01:00.005-06:00

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!

2008-12-19T09:59:00.001-06:00

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!

2008-12-16T20:11:00.001-06:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Our family pictures

2008-12-03T07:33:00.006-06:00

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!

2008-12-02T09:35:00.006-06:00

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!

2008-11-30T14:11:00.003-06:00

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!!

2008-11-08T07:30:00.001-06:00

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!

2008-10-27T09:10:00.003-05:00

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!

2008-10-18T22:50:00.003-05:00

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!

2008-10-18T22:16:00.007-05:00

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!!

2008-09-29T08:41:00.003-05:00

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!

2008-09-26T22:06:00.002-05:00

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!!!

2008-09-13T13:10:00.004-05:00

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!

2008-09-01T20:47:00.006-05:00

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!!

2008-08-30T07:30:00.000-05:00

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!

2008-08-16T08:00:00.002-05:00

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!!

2008-08-10T16:58:00.004-05:00

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....

2008-08-03T14:31:00.004-05:00

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!

2008-07-20T14:44:00.006-05:00

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!!

What a week!! :-)

2008-07-12T10:14:00.005-05:00

Let me start out this week's blog post by saying wooooo hoooo!! My Stampin' Up! pre-order came last night!! That means we are that much closer to the new catalog coming out. I can't wait! So I spent last night and this morning playing with my new toys, uh, I mean supplies for making cards!! lol Plus it's been quiet around this house this morning. DH took the boys to help work on our neighbor boy's Eagle Scout project. And DD is quite content to play on the floor beside me in the craft room - how nice is that!!?! She and I would have started our morning out by walking up to Starbucks so I could have had a mocha to sip on while admiring my new stuff - but it was sprinkling this morning. (And let me say - thank goodness our new neighborhood Starbucks was not one of the 600 stores that is closing!!!)

I LOVE the new scallop edge punch! Now I can put my corner rounder punch back together!! :-) The new In Colors are lovely. I think I like them more than the last two years worth of colors. So, the card that I whipped out this morning is from a new set called Sock Monkey. I must say, I wasn't a big sock monkey fan, in general, but after putting this set together, I can see that I am going to enjoy using it. I don't know why, but the sock monkey screams out to me "paper piece me"! So that's what I did this morning. Next time I will dig a little harder to find cooler paper to piece together, but for now, this will have to do. I also used my primsacolor pencils and baby oil to color him and to be honest, I think he looks like a hobo monkey. So I will work on the coloring and blending!!

While I was downloading the card picture off my camera this morning, I also had these pictures of the kids. DD is now the proud owner of a cat and dog. These are as real as we will ever get around here. (Thank heavens for pet allergies!!) DS#2 got new golf clubs last Sunday and it is all he can talk about. He's "lucky" to be the only left-hander in the house, so he doesn't have the option of getting hand-me-down clubs from anyone - so these had better last him for a while. The picture of DS#1 is a nice one of him. It's hard to believe that he's 13!! He's doing his favorite thing - sitting on the couch watching tv....

Have a great week and see you back here next weekend!!

Happy 4th of July weekend!!

2008-07-06T12:27:00.003-05:00

I hope that you all have had a Happy 4th of July weekend! We spent Friday and Saturday at the cabin enjoying the nice weather and family. The boys probably spent four hours shooting off fireworks, then we enjoyed another hour or so just watching the fireworks all around us! Today DH and DS #1 are out shopping for their upcoming Boy Scout High Adventure trip. I will be anxious to see what all they have bought when they get home!! :-)

The card this week is what I made for our niece's birthday. It was my first attempt using the prismacolor pencils and baby oil. While I still need some practice blending and coloring - I thought for the first time it was okay. I got the cupcake stamp for my birthday from my SIL. It came in a set with three others and I'm excited to use them!!

Enjoy the card and have a great week! I hope to get some cards done this week, as my DH will be on a work trip for three days. So I will have some time in the evenings to make some cards! My mom is also going to be here before she jets out to London and Paris, so I'm going to show her how to use the colored pencils and baby oil!!

Marvels of technology!!

2008-06-28T13:58:00.009-05:00

You know we've come a long way with technology when I can be lounging on the couch at my parents house five hours from my own home and still be posting on my blog!

I guess I've been an over-achiever this week. Not only do I have two cards to show, but I also cleaned up my craft room and took some pictures. :-) I love looking at the gallery on Splitcoaststampers of all the pictures of how people have their craft rooms set up. I know mine isn't my "dream" room - because I also share the space with a lot of my daycare storage - but it's getting darn close.

So the first picture is of my stamp storage. I have tubs where I store all my Stampin' Up! stamps. I label the outside of the box so I can glance at them and find the set I want. On the bottom shelf next to the stamps is one of my paper organizers. This one is big enough to hold all of the Bold Brights and Soft Subtles papers. Underneath the bottom shelf on the floor are two of the Iris brand carts where I have all my single stamps and stuff that I alter - baby food containers, tins, etc.

The second picture is of a spice rack that I cleaned out (okay, my DH cleaned it all up for me!!) and re-purposed. Don't you just LOVE finding things that you have in the house that you can turn into something for your crafting purposes??? In this handy little rack, I have buttons and brads. (I have all my eyelets in a different area - which I will have to show a different time because I don't pictures of them.) I love this spice rack because you can just spin it around until you see what you are looking for.

The next picture is just of the carts where I have assorted craft items stored. My SU! markers are in one drawer, other brand markers and pens in another, adhesives in one drawer, you get the idea.... One thing I would like to get out of the bigger drawers on the right hand side are all my SU! punches. I'd sure like to find a better way to store them where I can see what I have a little bit better. I'd love using the idea of a curtain rod to store them on mounted to the wall, but I have very little wall space and most of it is painted cinder block in this room.

The fourth picture is the side that has the rest of my SU! papers and all the rest of my designer papers. It's not the best picture, but it's a pretty good wide shot of that side of my craft room. I have most of them in Cropper Hopper paper storage systems, which I seem to like just fine. The paper sorters on this side came from Sam's Club and hold 12 colors each, which was perfect for the SU! color families. :-)

My favorite picture from my craft room is this final one - I love these cute little white flower pots that I found at Wal-Mart. I am now using them to store my Copic Markers, Prismacolor Markers and Colored Pencils in. I also have one for my scissors and I bought two spare pots just in case I need them in the future. (I would have taken a picture of my craft table - but it's a mess right now!!) You can see the edge of my Ott-Lite in the picture. I got this for Christmas this last year from my DH and kids - and I love love love it!! So that's a quick peek at what my craft room looks like. I have t.v. in the craft room, so I can sit in there and keep caught up on the day - or in the case of this year, keep an eye on the nasty weather we've been having in the Omaha area this summer!!

Okay - on to the cards!!!! They are quick and easy - just the way I like them. :-) Sorry that I don't have time to go into details about them - but I can hear my DD waking up from her nap. Have a great week and I will see you back here next weekend!!

Hello!!

2008-06-22T14:14:00.003-05:00

Happy day to all of you!! :-) Wow - not much to talk about this week. I guess that's good - either that or I'm just tired from the past few days of getting DD in a big girl bed!! Overall she has done great. She was up for about half and hour last night around 2:30, but I was able to get her back to sleep in her own bed. The nice thing about summer is that kids are so tired by the end of the day that getting her to bed at night has been pretty easy. I hope things continue that way!!

I have actually had quite a bit of time this past week to stamp - so I have three different cards to show! I am hoping to spend some more time this week in the craft room. I'd like to get some cleaning/organizing done, so maybe soon I will have some pictures of my clean crafting area!!

Enjoy the cards and have a great week!

Happy Father's Day!

2008-06-15T13:43:00.002-05:00

We've made it through another week of running here and there and everywhere!! lol Even with our sons gone this week, it seems like we still had plenty to do. The major "excitement" was on Wednesday night of this past week - we spent about an hour in our basement while the wind blew, the rain came pouring down and the tornado sirens sounded. Thankfully, the most severe weather missed us. However, it did not miss the Little Sioux Boy Scout camp site. Our prayers go out to all of the people affected by the tornado that swept through the camp site killing four boys and injuring dozens of other Boy Scouts. Both of our boys are Boy Scouts now and our middle son was actually at a different week-long Boy Scout camp. We were glad he was safe and, boy, did I give him a big hug when we went out for Parent Night.

For Father's Day today, we treated my DH to a nice breakfast after Church. I hope he enjoyed it, because not often am I going to spring $60 for breakfast!! I knew I should have never let our middle son pick where we went!! lol I guess I've instilled good taste in him, but sheesh!!! After that we came home so Dad could open his gifts. Yes, he got the much made fun of Father's Day gift ---- ties and dress shirts! But honestly, it's what he likes now that he's wearing suits to work most of the time.

This past week I've been spending quite a bit of time in the craft room working on a project that middle son and I wanted to get done. We've made 8x8 scrapbook albums for our boys' friends whose dad passed away. The two boys are the same ages as our boys and then they also have a sister who is going to be in the 3rd grade. The albums were pretty simple - mostly we just wanted to give them something that they could have to put special pictures in and a place to write down some memories. I hope they like them! I did find some time to get some cards done too. My mom has reminded me that I still owe her some cards from the trip we took this past March. We bartered cards for her paying my share of our hotel bill when we went to new York City. Not a bad deal, in my opinion!

The card I uploaded is pretty simple. Again, that's the way I like doing them. Sure - I like looking at all the cards out there on people's blogs that are all embellished up, but I just don't seem to have the time for that. Maybe one of these days I will get out my mini-sewing machine and see what I can do with that!! All the stamps and paper from this card are SU! I made it for a swap at a SU! Demo event that my upline sponsored.

Well, our baseball tournament was rained out for this afternoon - so I'm going to get busy getting some household chores done around here. DH and our middle son are probably going to down to the NCAA College World Series and hang out there for a while later. Sounds likes a good end to our nice Father's Day!

Have a great week!

2008-06-08T19:28:00.003-05:00

The card that I had to make this week was not a happy one to do at all. Sympathy cards are my least favorite and it's even worse when it's for the family of someone you've known. This past Tuesday the funeral of a man who, though we'd only known him for a few years, he was the type of guy you'd like instantly. He was always smiling and made everyone around him feel good. He was the coach of our 10 year old's baseball team and had coached our other son in basketball previously. He will be missed by everyone who knew him. So this past week has been a long one. It's hard enough to talk about death to your kids, but when someone is lost well before they should have been, it's that much harder.

We spent most of Saturday out at the family cabin. Our darling little dear got to play in the lake for the first time this season. I can see that a life jacket is going to be mandatory for her because she will just get right in the lake. No fears there!! I'm glad that she likes the water - but holey moley - we're going to have to keep an eye on her!!!! Last summer, she was content to play in the wading pool we'd fill up on the beach, so I can see I'm going to get a good tan this summer out with her. :-)

Well, have a good week. I'm working on a project with my ten year old to make scrapbooks for his friend and siblings who lost their dad. Hopefully a nice memory book will give them someplace to put some special pictures. I'll snap some photos of them to post next weekend. They are nothing elaborate - just something simple to help them remember the good times.

See you next weekend!!

Happy Birthday Weekend!!

2008-06-01T17:53:00.005-05:00

Wow - is the weekend over yet????? lol We're just all beat around here from the hub-bub of the weekend. The good news is that the one-two year old birthday party was a complete success! Our little nephew had a great time and boy, did he ever give new meaning to the word "smash cake"! The bad news is that I had no time to stamp or craft this weekend. However, I did find time to go to Michael's with my mom Saturday morning to buy some stamp and craft related goodies - so maybe that will give me the motivation to get something done this week!!

I do have some pictures from the birthday bash to share. Our darling little girl who is actually turned two today had a strawberry themed birthday and as if that wasn't enough, we had one of those big blow up castles in the backyard for all the kids to jump in. :-) We live in the first house you see as you turn in to our neighborhood - so it was funny to watch all the people gawking as they drove by!!

Have a great week and come back next weekend when I promise I will have some homemade creation to show off!!!!

The birthday girl!

2008-05-25T12:43:00.003-05:00

Here are a few of my favorite birthday pictures of our lovely little daughter. I can't believe she is going to be two years old in just a week - although, she has had some recent temper tantrums which make me realize that the twos have hit already!! :-)

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

2008-05-25T12:21:00.004-05:00

I hope that all of you out in the blog world are having a good weekend! We spent most of yesterday out at the family cabin getting it ready for everyone to enjoy this summer. I can't wait to stretch out with a good book on the beach while the kids swim and play!

Today we have been just hanging out around the house getting odd jobs done and cleaning. While all of you who know me know that cleaning is not my "thing", it does feel like an accomplishment to get things picked up and cleaned around here. After my DH gets done mowing the yard, we're going to head out to a baseball tournament that our oldest is playing in. I don't know how we're going to spend Memorial Day tomorrow. We may take the kids out to the cabin or we might just hang out at home and do nothing (or maybe, just maybe doing some crafting!!)

The card today is easy enough. The stamps sets used are Embrace Life and Sincere Salutations both by SU! The papers are Ginger Blossom Designer Series Paper, Ruby Red, Whisper White and Groovy Guava. I used Ruby Red ink to stamp the flower and sentiment and used a Blender Pen with the Groovy Guava stamp pad to color them in. The ribbon is True Thyme and I dazzled it up using diamond Stickles on the flowers. There you go - a birthday card whipped out in about ten minutes!

We're going to be getting ready for birthday parties this coming weekend - so wish us luck as we celebrate one and two year old's birthdays on Saturday!! As soon as I have time to get on the laptop, I will post a couple pictures of our DD's 2 year old pictures. They turned out great!!

Have a wonderful week!

Whew! Another week down....

2008-05-18T12:38:00.004-05:00

Well, we've survived another week around here and head into another busy week!! This past week we had baseball games every night of the week - which wouldn't have been so bad, by my DH was out of town on a work-related trip. The boys were supposed to have camped with their Boy Scout Troop this weekend, but everyone is just toooooo busy and they didn't have enough adults to go and only a few boys signed up. I guess another time. Friday the 23rd is the boys' last day of school, so they are very excited about that. I can't say that I'm THAT excited - but I'll manage!

This morning DH and our oldest son went out to the family cabin to get some much needed work done so that we will be able to enjoy going to the lake this summer. So, instead of sleeping in and being lazy (which is what I really wanted to do) the other two kids and I walked up to Village Inn for breakfast and then we took our darling little girl to get her pictures taken for her upcoming 2nd birthday. We went to Portrait Innovations because I love how they are able to take candid pictures and then have them printed and ready to take home about 20 minutes after the "shoot" is over. But, today their printer was broken so I have to wait until tomorrow to run back to the mall and get them. However, that's okay because I saw a cute outfit in the window of Christopher and Banks that I might have to go look at when I pick up the pictures! :-) The pictures were so cute that I may have to make time for an extra posting this week and put a couple of them up on here!

I did get some card making done this week and really cleaned up the craft room in the process. I think that is a never ending task because I just can't seem to get things organized just how I'd like them. But oh well. This card is for a swap on SCS that I'm signed up for. I'd give you all the details, but I'm in a hurry to get sleeping beauty up from her little nap so we can run middle son to his baseball game. I'm going to drop him off and run back to our neighborhood Starbucks so that I can try out their new Mint Chocolate Chip Frap. Thanks for the gift card, Mom!!!!

Have a great week and happy stamping to you!

Happy Mother's Day!

2008-05-11T13:34:00.003-05:00

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there!! I've had a very enjoyable Mother's Day so far. I got to sleep in (and that's worth a ton!!), got a camcorder from the kids, and we went to the Omaha Zoo for a couple of hours this morning. This afternoon we will go to oldest son's baseball game and then to my mother in law's for dinner. All in all, a pretty good day! The only thing that would make it better would be more time to stamp!! (Maybe after we get home tonight and the kids are in bed!)

Here is the Mother's Day card we will be giving my MIL this afternoon. Can you tell I like making very simple cards? This one is not elaborate because I just don't have the time to doll up the cards like other people do - and it's just really not my style. The "M" comes from SU!'s Headline Alphabet set and the flower for the "O" is the big flower from Looks Like Spring. The center has a circle punched out of Chocolate Chip cardstock and a Bashful Blue brad. We got my MIL a digital picture frame for Mother's Day - so that will be fun to get set up at her house. I can't show you the fun little item that I have altered to give my mom because I know she will be looking at my blog shortly. So, everyone will have to wait until she comes to town for our daughter's birthday party to get her present - then I will post a picture of it!

Everyone have a great rest of the day and I will see you next weekend with something new that I have stamped!!

Happy May!

2008-05-04T11:23:00.006-05:00

It's hard to believe that May is already here! Did you do anything fun for May Day? I was thinking back about when I was younger how we always took May baskets to school - but nobody does this any more, do they?

We've had a super busy weekend with baseball games galore. However, fear not - I've made some time to post a couple of cards this weekend.

This first card is a 6 x 6 square card using a base of Real Red. The floral stamp set is Mixed Bouquet and the wording is also a SU! set called Simple Sayings II. The strip across the middle is vellum. I like making square cards, but they require extra postage, so I hardly ever send them to anyone. It's a very simple card, but I like the way it turned out. Simple. Clean. Pretty.

We will be gearing up around here as we prepare to host birthday parties at the end of the month for our young girly-girl who is going to be two and her cousin from MN who will be one year old very soon. It's going to be a great time to have all kinds of family and friends over to celebrate two very fun kids!

The second card is our daughter's birthday invitation. Again, very simple - but I like how it turned out. I used Bashful Blue cardstock and punched out a square so that I could mount her picture behind the cutout in the inside of the card. Her picture is mounted on a square of Real Red c/s which is layered on a piece of Summer Picnic designer series paper. The "cigar" band around the card is a strip of Real Red with the scalloped circle punch in Old Olive with a circle of Real Red on top with the strawberry from the Tart & Tangy set. (How many times have I posted using this set??? I love it, can you tell?) The inside just has the details of the party, inviting everyone to come have a "berry" good time with us! She has a sundress that has strawberries on it and matches this color combo perfectly, so why not coordinate her invites with the dress she'll wear at her party. And, those of you who know me...of course her cake will have to coordinate too!! I'll have to post pictures of that when the party happens!

Well, that's all for this week. My DH is running boys around to ball games right now so that our little girl can catch a quick nap before the rest of the day turns into baseball watching time. She was born during baseball season two years ago, so she's spent a lot of time at the ball diamond! She actually sits in her stroller great watching the games, as long as we keep her supply of M & Ms coming.

Have a great week! Hope you come back next weekend to see what's been going on around here!!

Woo hoo!

2008-04-27T12:20:00.003-05:00

Happy day! The conference I have been helping with is over so I'm finally going to be able to have more time to stamp!! We had a great child care conference with wonderful speakers. Our keynote was by Mr. Stinky Feet who is a great performer. If you have young children, go to his site at www.mrstinkyfeet.com and see what he's all about. Fun music!

The card I have today is 100% SU!. The designer paper and stamp set came from the Occasions Mini Collection 2008. I love the sets in this mini-catalog! The stamp set is Tart & Tangy and the paper is Summer Picnic. You can order these through May 31st, and let me tell you - I'm not taking the chance on this paper! I don't know if it will be in the next SU! Idea Book (catalog) so I'm going to buy up a ton of it! I love it that much!!

I'd better log off for now and go get some things done around the home front. I'm pretty sure now that conference is over, my husband is going to expect I get my butt in gear and keep the house a little more picked up. We have two baseball games this afternoon and then a birthday party for our 12 year old to go to - so never a dull or boring moment around here.

Have a great week and see you next weekend! I'm hoping to actually have time to post on SATURDAY, since my mom has reminded me this is "Stampin' on Saturdays."

Welcome!

2008-04-20T10:22:00.000-05:00

I have finally forced myself to sit down this weekend and get a blog up and running! I'm so busy working and being a mom that I have made a resolution to make some "me time"!! So I've committed to post on Saturdays - I'm kidding myself if I think I will have time to do it more often. Do I look at everyone else's blogs every day??? You betcha, but I know between baseball games and a two year old keeping us busy...this is as good as it's going to get for the time being. I'm no superstar stamper, but it's definitely a hobby that I LOVE!

This first card I am posting is for a cupcake swap I am participating in at SCS. I don't know about you - but I adore cupcakes. (Did any of you watch Martha Stewart's "cupcake week"? I did, and I can't wait to try out some of the recipes!) This card used SU! cardstock in Cool Carribean, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose and the DSP Loves Me - which I have been hoarding! I wish I would have bought more of it when it was retiring!!! But oh well... The cupcake stamp is from Michael's dollar bin and the sentiment is from Eclectic Paperie's exclusive Hey There Cupcake set. The cupcake is stamped in Basic Black and colored with SU! markers in Pretty in Pink, Creamy Caramel and So Saffron with just a touch of Diamond Stickles on the candle. Hey cupcake is stamped in Taken With Teal. The ribbon is narrow white organdy, also from SU!

Well, that's all for this weekend! I've got to get our two year old daughter down for a nap since both our boys have baseball games this afternoon.

Have a great week - and come back to see me next weekend!