Prayers for the Day

I am in love with this new set from Hanna Stamps, "For The Soul." For this card I used a base of Basic Black and overlayed a layer of vellum that I used one of Martha Stewart's scallop border punches on. I used Ranger Alcohol Inks on glossy paper and blotted the colors. I let them dry and stamped the stained glass window on top of the colored parts of the paper. I cut out my two favorite windows and used them as the background for Hanna, who was cut out and placed in front.

I used the Swiss Dots folder from cuttlebug for the background paper and added some flowers and fern branches (also from Martha).

What I really wanted to highlight in this photo was the candleholder I decorated, but I could not get a great photo for anything! In real life it truly sparkles, though. I stamped Hanna images onto clear acetate with StazOn and carefully cut the images out. I chose a votive holder that had straight sides and attached Hanna images with very tiny amounts of red sticky tape. Then I covered it all in a big sheet of red sticky tape that I had cut out to wrap around the votive holder. I put micro beads all over the tape. Voila! It is very pretty in real life and shines at night.

Don't forget to join us at the Hanna Stamps forum on SplitCoast Stampers for our Anniversary week, and one year Anniversary and Release Party Thursday Night! Also, we are still giving away new Riley Moose stamps so be sure to visit the other Hanna Design Team members' blogs and leave comments. One winner per blog! That's a lot of chances to win a new stamp.

Too Tired

Today is the kick off of a new Hanna Stamps Sneak Peek Week. Hanna will be releasing new sets on Friday, and one of them is a penguin set. My kids are so excited. Seth has already been making his own creations with my penguin stamps, all the while complaining that I won't let him have the set for himself. I made the card with stamps from the new set. the phrase at the bottom reads "It's a penguin party!" It really is! This set is too much fun.

Hanna Stamps is also giving away blog candy this week. Every Hanna Stamps blogger will get to give away a brand new Riley Moose stamp set, which will also be released this week. So, go around and leave comments on the blogs of all the Hanna Stamps Design Team members and you may be randomly selected to win.

On the family front, we went to Chicago for the weekend. We spent an entire day at the Museum of Science and Industry, went to the Brookfield Zoo, Navy Pier, and the highlight and reason for the trip was a trip to see Wicked. Seth has been begging for a very long time for me to take him, and then Noah decided he wanted to go as well. Wicked will be on tour next year and will be in our town. It was actually cheaper to see Wicked in Chicago than here. Well, if you don't figure in hotel, gas, food, etc... but the tickets are cheaper in Chcago. I cannot tell you how wonderful it was.

I came home to a pile of dirty laundry and I am right now both hungry and tired. I need someone to come take care of me and the house so I can catch up on lost sleep. Also, Archiver's called while I was gone and left a message that an item I want had come in and I had till the end of the day to go get it, or they would release it to someone else. But I have no idea when they called. If I can recover sufficiently, I'll be off to Archiver's today to see if they have more. Well, I'll call first as it isn't really that close to my house that I want to make a trip for nothing.

I Feel Evil Today

This is the card I made for the SCS Sketch Challenge today. The image is from Inky Antics, I believe. I can't tell you who made the papers. It all came from the same company, which is why it works well together, but since I am all about using up scraps, there is not a name left on any of it that I could locate.

I have a home party tomorrow night. The lady from Cake and Crumbs is coming to teach many of my neighbors how to make caramel apples. In Seth's class they learn economics by earning "Funny Money" which they can use to buy things, including lunch out with your teacher. Most kids choose fast food, but we are having a fancy lunch here for Seth and a classroom friend, plus his teacher and a friend of hers. The kids are having hot dogs and mac and cheese but the adults are having home made bread, chicken tetrazini, salads...So I have busy day ahead tomorrow.

I hired a local company to come and give my house a cleaning today before the hostessing adventures of tomorrow. I was here for most of the clelaning but stepped out to grab lunch with my friend Steph. When I came home, the cleaners were gone and they had not vacuumed or dusted the family room. Huh? How do you miss that room? And they totally forgot about the basement. No dusting or vaccuuming there either.

I called to inquire about what should and should not have been part of the cleaning package and of course they should have cleaned those areas. The man on the phone offered to send someone back out to vaccuum, but I am over it. If you can't do the job right the first time don't bother returning. One of the ladies spent some time talking to me about her little kids and how one is teething and she slept through her alarm clock and she is sorry was so late getting here, blah blah blah.

You know what, I don't care how tired you are. You have a job, get up and do it. Do you think the fireman or the copier fixing man for that matter can say "sorry, I just didn't feel like getting up today.?" I did get a reduction in fee for their services and I won't be using them again. You should not give them a call either. They are called Maid Pro and are local to our area, so if you live far away and read this you have to worry about their poor performance.

The man on the phone also lacked some customer service skills, which I think are crucial to small business owners. He never apologized, he never asked what he could do to make things better, he never offered a coupon for the next service, etc...He said he and his wife are the owners and I suspect they have some learning to do. The cleaning people also parked right in front of my mailbox so I did not get mail delivery at home. Grrrr, I have to go crack open a cold Diet Rite now.

All Around the Town

After creating the Riley Moose card and little bags for the SCS challenge today ( a color challenge, to use Very Vanilla, Kiwi Kiss and Baja Blue)I was all over town running errands.

Last November we painted the family room and I commented at that time that I thought we should paint some of the doors in the house. Doors like the pantry, the bathroom, places where dirty hands are evrywhere and door knobs are not always used. Scott told me what type of white paint to buy and I did. I sat it near is stuff, then I sat it in the laundry room where it would be very obvious. but after ten months I have decided that he does not understand that when I say "we should" I really mean "you should."

I broke down and started painting yesterday and today went out and bought some new door knobs at Lowe's. I know Scott will install them, but he will really think they are a waste of money since the old door knobs work just fine. The old knobs are the cheap gold round ones that came with the house. The new ones are silver, like our light fixtures, and have some flair to them. That should teach him to make me do menial labor. If I have to paint it, I' am going to make it look nice, too!

Anyone know what I can do with the old door knobs? It seems wasteful to throw them away when they really are perfectly good.

After Lowe's I went to the grocery, the dollar store, the scrapbook store, the craft store and lunch. Whew. I came home just in time to paint some more before the kids came home and touched something again. They really do seem to wash their hands enough, but I guess it is not enough if they live dirty hand prints behind them. Who gave them permission to touch stuff in my house anyway?

Sleepless Sunday

I had a terrible dream last night that my teeth were falling out. They fell out and fell out some more. More teeth fell out than the average person could ever possibly have stored in their head. Everytime I opened my mouth, more teeth fell out. Then my friend Aaron took me to the pediatrician that both our kids go to, so he could fix the problem. Aaron must not be too bright or he would have taken me to the dentist, don't ya think? Apparently I couldn't tell him where I wanted to go, because everytime I tried to tell him, more teeth fell out! I was walking around holding piles of teeth in my hands and in baggies. I wonder what it means. (When Aaron reads this he'll say it means I want to play doctor with him. He is naughty! And I have to remind him that those who do not at least occasionally comment on my blog are on cookie probabtion. Or possibly caramel apple probation.)
So, we slept in a bit and did not go to early church like usual, but made it in time for Sunday School. Scott teaches Third Grade Sunday school, so there is no rest for the weary. Or the toothless. I am the leader of an adult Sunday school class, but they can function without me being there. Mainly we have a sign up list and people sign up for whatever week they wish to teach, and they talk about whatever subject they choose. This is how Noah has spent the rest of the day. I kid you not. we do have clean furniture, but Noah is often on the floor. Seth at least sits on the furniture and watches TV. I wanted to take a nap, but the kids kept coming in and asking questions.
Auntie asked about Michaels yesterday. That was a traumatizing experience I would rather not re visit, but since she asked.....Seth made crafts at Michaels, for free craft day or something. He put bling on the pink T shirt for his Gloria and made a little purse with bling. A man who crafts with bling surely shares my heart!

I picked up a Martha Stewart punch to buy with my 50% off coupon. I have been thinking all week about what I wanted to buy with the coupon. Then I snagged a new dollar stamp from their bin. At the cash register I asked the lady to check and see if the MS punch was already on sale for 30% off, as it was not clearly marked. Instead she rang up the sale and gave me a total. I said "Oh, so the punch was already on sale? I'd like to go pick up something else for the coupon." She then informed me that she had already scanned the coupon and could not unscan it. Yeah. She gave me 50% off my one dollar stamp!!! To say I was ticked was the least of it. I will definitely be talking to the manager when I am there this week.

Glorious Friday

I went to the basement to see what I could create for the Hanna Challenge today. The inspiration piece is to do something with polka dots that are wild and colorful. Since I am sadly lacking wild and colorful polka dots, this is what I came up with. This is Sophie Moose and I added glitter to her antlers to give her a bit of a pregnancy glow.

The real joy is that I turned on the TV to see a West Wing marathon going on. I might just sit here the rest of the day and watch TV till my eyes bug out. Well, except for the fact that Noah is now home and I need to get him a snack, Seth has movie night at school and I need to find his required items. He likes to take his sleeping bag, pillow, Mumbles the penguin, and of course, a dollar for candy. I do hate packing him up for movie night as he genberally has as much as he can possibly carry. being a minimalist type person, I have no idea why one would want to take so much stuff along. I don't even have that many items in my purse on most days!

Back to our regularly scheduled program

Oh good, you say. Cards again. No more of those slithery things. Yep. Viper was released and has not found his way back to our house. Here's to wishing him a cold winter in the woods.

This is a stamp camp card I am posting. the challenge at SCs today is silhouettes and I can barely spell the word, much less come up with my own idea. But this is a good example. The exciting news is posted below....
I took a caramel apple making class through the local parks department last night. Oh My Goodness, it was so much fun! The lady who taught it actually works for a company, I think there name is Cookies 'n Cream. They sell the best stuff at the most reasonable prices. the premise is the same as a home show. The Cookies 'n Cream lady comes to your house and teaches a new skill, caramel apple making, cookie dipping and decorating, chocolate candy making, coated pretzels, you name it. It is all about creating fun food items and there really is minimal effort. you learn a skill and then buy products from them.

The product line is so reasonably priced I couldn't believe it. And the taste is all chocolate, not chocolate and wax like you find in Wilton products that need a long shelf life. The kids were really impressed when I came home and couldn't wait to eat this apple. Plus, I ordered things I'd need for more apples, coating cookies, pretzels, etc... seth is excited to get to have cookie time with mom coming up, and Noah will play with us a bit, but he really is more excited about the eating.

When I have made these apples before, the caramel slid off. I got lots of good tips and tricks and I can't wait to try this at home!

Oh My!

Well, Viper survived the night, but shed his skin. When you look at him today, he definitely has the racing stripes down the side like a garter snake has. I called the local public park and was told garter snakes are terrible pets, they are bitey, aggressive, and speedy, and generally don't like captivity at all. It was suggested that Viper go back to his home in the field where he was found.

Noah came home from school and I showed him what Lynn wrote in the comment section, and I told him what the park naturalist said and he cried and he cried and he cried. He refused to let Viper go, and would not say goodbye to him. I had his friend Nick, who had been with him when Viper was found go and release him in the field.

Noah has been horrible the rest of the day and is lucky he is still breathing and not abandoned somewhere. He is crying, cursing, beating his brother, calling names....I need a stiff drink but am afraid if I picked up a bottle, I'd beat him with it. It will be an early bedtime for all of us tonight!

The good news this weekend was that my friend Nana came over. Nana is the best cook in the world. Her specialty is cakes, but she has never met a recipe she hasn't turned to gold. Nana brought lasagna that was divine and a chicken lasagna that I just have to have the recipe for. I would have posted a picture of her food, but we ate it too quickly! Well, she brought an apple dumpling that I have not eaten yet, I am hiding it from my children though! Not only is Nana a nice person, but she shares her recioes, too. That is the mark of a truly nice person in my book.

And Lynn, from the comments, do I know you in real life? You didn't leave your last name so I have no idea! Help an old lady out here, will ya?

Stinky Boys

Noah went out to play this afternoon and when he came back, he had a new pet. Do you see it? Yes, it would be a snake. A new pet? Not exactly, but he is hopeful. It seems that Noah and his friend Nick went to the fields surrounding our sub division to play. Nick caught the snake and gave it to Noah, as Nick says his mom and Grandma are deathly afraid of snakes and he knows he can't take it home. So Noah did!
We have not yet determined exactly what type of snake it is. A neighbor child says it is an eastern garter snake and will be a great pet. I don't know if we should believe him, as his mom won't let him have a snake either. I think it might as well be arattlesnake as it looks just as ugly as one. It doesn't seem to be bitey yet, but it is still a little snake and they don't all start out as biters. I figure if Noah gets bitten, I'll take both he and the snake to the hospital and they can figure out what type of anti venom will work. A neighbor suggested wrapping it around Noah's neck to see if it is a python! Ha! Thankfully, pythons are not native to our area. A few get found each year in river areas, but they are usually full grown ones that someone has released.

Seth is not so fond of snakes, but thought I should check the sex of the snake so we would have an appropriate name for it. I have not yet touched the snake, and if I do, it will not be to check the underbelly. (I have seen Mike Rowe do a lot of things on Dirty Jobs, but I have not seen him sex a snake, so I don't know how to do that yet.) Right now Seth has named him Viper, which does not persuade me that the snake is friendly.

Viper is currently living in a big bucket with aluminum foil over the top of it. Scott put in mulch so he could stay warm. I think he'll need food eventually and we won't have a thing to feed it. Shame. :)

Good Works

I don't now what it is about this set, but I can't put it down, despite the fact I always seem to have other half made items lying around, needing to have finishing touches put on them. The quote is from Mother Teresa and says "Good works are links that form a chain of love." Who can resist Mother Teresa? The quote came with the set, but I have a couple of other quote stamps from her that I love, too. For this piece I stamped the background grass and cut out the flowers so they are added onto the piece with pop dots. I am going to have ato find a frame for this...and somewhere to hang it as my walls are fairly full already!

The kids watched the movie "College Road Trip" today and I took a nap. Scott is now out on a bike ride, so he'll be gone for a while. He'll do 25-30 miles most likely. All in all it is a quiet saturday and we'll be heading out to dinner after a bit.

The kids like to go to a place called The Old Country Buffet. Only they usually call it The Old Crunchy Buffet." One of the teachers from school works there a couple times a week so they love to go see her, and I usually take in a small handmade item to leave with her tip. We always sit in her section, and as tired as I get from eating there, it gives the kids such joy.

I Should Go To Bed

I should be getting ready for bed, or at least finishing up with the kids, so they can go to bed. I have been chasing Seth up to bed at 9PM. He is the slowest person ever when it comes time to get ready for bed. I am going to buy a timer and if he doesn't have pajamas on, teeth brushed, and the potty used, he will be grounded the following day. Half the time I find him asleep in his clothes, on top of his blankets with a book nearby. Scott will wake him up and change him into pajamas and sit him on the toilet. Me? I strip him naked, and if he sleeps in a wet bed, too bad for him. He can bathe in the morning.

I made the card above with the Baseball Hanna set. And the one below is from Hanna's Tis The Season set

The SCS challenge today was to use the white gel pens we all have. All I can do is doodle with mine, but a lot of people seemed able to turn out highlighted works of art with theirs. I gotta get some lessons apparently. I did highlight the tree andthe snow beneath it, before I resorted to random doodles on my card.

Can you believe I have already bought Christmas presents? I see things on sale I know the boys will like so I buy them and store them away. I just hope they are still excited about their water guns in December.

Tuesday Already?

I know you just saw this stamp, but todays' SCS challenge was to use Red Riding Hood, Green Galore and Going Gray as colors. I couldn't think of a better stamp than this one. I love the stamps in this set and I love the quotes and I will be using this set until they pry it out of my cold dead hands. (Let's just hope that is a long time away.)

I have a fairly empty day today. My calendar says my dad is having back surgery today and I planned to spend time with my mom at the hospital, then run home for carpool, soccer practice for Noah and dinner out, as Scott is working late. But it turns out surgery is tomorrow and I have a busy day tomorrow so I have been excused from the hospital sitting. WooooHoooo!

I woke up with a pounding headache today and took enough Excedrin to keep me wired all day long. I may just catch up on the laundry today. Or maybe not!

Birthdays

I made this card for my friend Steph for her birthday, which is today. we celebrated last night with dinner and a movie at a friend's house. Our friend, also named Stephanie, has a theater room in her house. I cannot tell you how much I love to watch movies there. It is clean and quiet, and fairly free (except for the occasional cost of a movie rental) and usually child free as well. We watched the Other Boleyn Girl" and now I will need to add that book to my must read list.

That book list is not getting shorter, either. Drat. I am reading as fast as I can, too. I am still reading "The Shack" which is the book that has taken my bus stop by storm. All the other neighbors have read it, or are reading it and I am slogging my way through, even though it is a mere 250 pages. Next up is "Three Cups of Tea" about one persons work to educate women in countries where eduacation is often not easily come by for women.

We are headed out to Steph's tonight for a fire pit and S'mores party. Thent omorrow Seth is going to a friend's birthday party. I gotta make him a card to take, as the cards around here are all girly. I'll use the phrase on the card above, it says "Age is merely the number of years the world has been enjoying you." Thankfully that is perfect for most people I know. Of course, that would be because if I don't enjoy you, you won't be getting a card from me!

Happy Friday

Today is a great day, I can feel it in my bones. I am having lunch with my friends, Maria from Argentina and Mrs. Ukraine and we are having Greek. The ladies know each other from school as their kids are roughly the same ages. I found a restaurant review for a recipe that serves Iraqi food and I am itching to try that, too. Maybe next time. Iraqi food? You wonder. It looks like a pretty typical Middle Eastern place. At least typical for the MidWest of the United States, as much as I would know about middle eastern food.

The above card was made for the Hanna Stamps Sketch Challenge and for a challenge to use the color orange and coffee on the same card. I knocked out two challenges onto one card amd I am happy! Also, this mornings paper had a great coupon for Lowe's, so I will be headed that direction to get some tiles to stamp on for Christmas. I love a good coupon. I may have to call neighbors and see who else has the coupon and can spare it for me.

Tonight I am off to celebrate my friend Steph's birthday. She is turning 29 for about the third time, I think. It is a full fledged girls night out with dinner at a restaurant and then a movie or cfat night. WoooooHooo. Maybe I'll even be awake past 10 PM tonight.

More cards, can you believe it?

I made this with the Hanna set for Halloween/Fall. The challenge today was to use some of that expensive and/or fancy paper that most scrappers have around. This paper is called "Magic Fairy Wands" and is a sparkly pink . Why I bought it, I'll never know. I am sure I had a plan, but the reason is now lost. I figured bats fly, so they can take the place of fairies, right? At least it works in my own little corner of the world. I made the naughty bat fly off with some poor kids Halloween candy. Eeek!
This is the new hanna set, being released tonight at Split Coast. It is very cute. I put some glossy accents on the turkey's eyes and I have to say he looks like he is wondering is that is a turkey pot pie the pilgrim is holding! I forget about this paper, it was a scrap I had around and I thought it looked Thanksgiving like.

Seth said he got compliments on his hair barrete. Someone told him it was "freaking them out" but he wore it all day very happily. I'll have to hide them from him. Or I should gain some self controla nd not let my son leave the house looking weird. I must come up with more appropriate boy things for him to make, he is so proud of homemade items.

Anyone out there read "The Shack"? I am working on it and wonder what others think.

Ballet School

The new moose that Hanna Stamps is bringing out on Friday is a ballet mooose and the proceeds will be going to a childrens cancer charity. As soon as I saw this moose, I knew what I wanted to do. I cut out three mooose and put them on pop dots. the lowest background is scored so it looks like white wall board. The brown line is the ballet bar and you can see the sign for the school hanging on a brad and with string. This is such an adorable card in person!

I am going to find a lot of use for this moose.

Freaky Hot

Usually on September First I wake up and am thankful that our hot and sweltering August is over. This year, not so much. September is bringing us a freaky heat wave that feels nothing like fall. Is there a word for this? "Bah humbug" is my general mood in reaction to the weather we are having, but it just doesn't sound right when it's not Christmas.

Hanna Stamps is releasing a Ballet Moose this Friday. I stamped some on Shrink Plastic and colored them in with sharpies. Once shrunk I put them on hair barrettes. You know I only have boys, so I'll be making hair barette items for the next little bit here, in order to use them up. Seth saw these and wanted them immediately. I tried to hold him off. But today as we headed out to the us stop, he proudly showed me that he put one in his hair to wear today. yes, a pink barrette with a ballet danicing moose. I know when he comes home today he will bust out the shrink plastic and color in some more moose for himself. I just hope I don't get a note home from school this year about his possible gender identity issues. I should be proud I have a child who doesn't care what the other kids think.

I posted this todat at SCS for the sketch challenge. It's Riley Moose on a bike. Now I am wondering how he'll look as a hair barrette. I have another moose card to post, but I think blogger didn't put it up for my blog, I'll be back with it in a minute.

Ode to Joy

This is my Hanna Stamps sneak peek today, this set "Kiss the Cook" is too cute and the quote from River City Rubber Works just cracks me up. I made this for the challenge to make a monochromatic card for SplitCoast today. I looked in my scrap pile and saw tons of browns, so brown was my color for the day.

Last night was the season premiere for my much beloved show, Prison Break. I put Seth to bed early. He had a sleep over at a friend's on Sunday night and just could not be quiet. I decided he was so tired he couldn't help himself so I put him in bed during a commercial break so Scott and I could fully enjoy the show. I must say, Seth was much easier to wake up for school today so I may give him an early bedtime from now on.

Both my kids were whining about going to the dentist today. They actually like to go, they get free toothbrushes, toothpaste, a sticker and a toy. BUT they have not been good about brushing their teeth lately. They think it is something they do for me, to make me stop nagging and don't yet realize they do it for themselves, so they will have teeth they can chew with in their old age. I am going to tell the dentist to have a little chat with the bad boys.

Long Weekend

It may be Labor Day for the rest of you, but I am hard at work for your viewing pleasure! The card above was made with the new set, Cats, that is coming out from Hanna Stamps on Friday. I put the cats together in a unique way because they just called out to me that they were really naughty kitties. Let's face it, I am a dog person, so I am sure whatever these cats are up to, it's bad.

The paper is from a DCWV pack from Target and the layout is a previous sketch challenge from Jen over at SplitCoast. I colored with copics and added some ribbon.

We celebrated my parent's 50th Wedding Anniversary this weekend. Noah was actually born on their 38th anniversary and as I showed their first grandchild off I challenged my brother to top that as a present! We are still waiting. However, my parents still seem to love my brother, even though I give the best presents!

We went to a little place that serves food family style and none of us had been there in years, although it was somewhere we went when we were children. They serve food family style, fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls, homemeade apple butter, good green beans cooked with ham and onions.....you get the idea. The kind of food you should be eating for Sunday dinner with the family. I loved it, and I love to see my neice Chelsi, who is a great little crafter.

My neighbors had a cook out yesterday and seth and I went. Scott went on a bike ride and Noah stayed home to play nintendo. Noah noticed about 8 PM that he hadn't had dinner. Well, dinner was served next door and he opted not to go!

A nice lazy weekend, I am loving this. Only my BFF Steph is in akarate Tournament and not here to play with me. The good news? She got First Place in the padded sword fighting divsion. You go, Girl!