No Such Thing as a Lazy Saturday

I am battling a little bit of a cold my husband brought home and I was hoping to get some sleep today, but Noah decided 7:30 was a great time to come wake me up and ask if he could take a shower. He is one of those kids who has to be kept track of or he will stay for hours in the shower. Good thing I got up though, it gave me time to finish my card for the day.

I used a new image from Sophie Moose (the one on the right) and used Hanna's reverse image block to add her friend. I love the way it looks like they went to have pedicures together. The sentiment stamp is from SU's Riveting set and I used black brads, ribbon, Bazzill paper scraps and colored with copics.

Noah had decided he would like to lean how to spin yarn and a first step to that is to learn how to use a drop spindle. So, weeks ago we went out and bought a cheap spindle and some colored wool and today he finally had his class. he is very proud of himself. I just hope he keeps working on it. I can easily see this being something that now that money has been spent on the items and the class he will never do it again. But he had literally been talking to me about how much he wanted to do this for months. So, now he has done it and we'll see if any good comes from it.

I came home after class and picked up Seth for lunch and Scott ran off to clothing shop while the sale was still on. The boys wanted to go to the grocery (for ice cream and potato chips) and Seth has to go to a birthday party this afternoon. I have a friend having a trunk show of her sewed items and I am really hoping to find time to squeeze in a visit with her. Whew...All I really want is some sleep. And to win the lottery. And have a nanny. And a driver. Maybe a lock on my bedroom door to keep the kids out.

Undress Me

I made this foir the Thursday challege to use only left over supplies on hand. The challenge was called Go Frugal, and if ever there was something I can do, it's be frugal! I had an image from inky Abntics that I stamped at a friend's house and I used left over paper,ribbon, flowers, and brads.

This card is a sneak peek of one of the new sets coming our Monday from Hanna Stamps. The new set is called Dress Up Hanna, but I really just want to undress her. She has on pretty underwear that would make this an R rated blog, if I showed you what she looks like in her natural born rubbery goodness. I used two colors of ribbon, light blue on bottom and pale pink on top, then mostly hid them behind the flowers, but you can see their luscious texture in real life.

I made chocolate cookies with vanilla chips yesterday and today need to make oatmeal scotchies. I am preparing for a meal at church on Sunday. The main course is lasagna. Mmmmm. I also have to drive across town to a Michaels store. There are two not far from me and I bought all the frames they had in the 10x10 size a few weeks ago. They are on sale again, but the local stores never restocked. I am making framed art and I need more frames. I asked at the store closest to me and was assured that the frames would in by the end of the week, when the sale ends, but so far, no luck. The frames are only five bucks, so they are a bargain worth searching for.

Does a Bear.....Oh Never Mind

I made this with Stampin Ups Happy Camper set. I really think it is an adorably cute set, but I am dying to have some very witty sayings to go with it. The only ones I can think of are not exactly Rated G for my blog, if you know what I mean. The layout is from the Sketch Challenge over at SCS.

I used Hanna Stamps' new Bowling set for this card. I love the layout and the Spring colors. Did I happen to mention that Hanna is moving to a new release date? The releases for new sets will now be on a Monday, First Monday of the month, which happens to be Monday March 2nd. I will start showing the new sets on my blog on Friday and plan to post over the weekend, which is a radical departure for me. So check back often and see what is new. In addition, Hanna has two Guest Designers for the month of March, Jennifer Buck and the Silkie. That means two more fresh looks on our soon to be released sets.

On a personal note, I am still stinging from a neighbors' meanness yesterday. Most of you know I have a child on the Autism spectrum. We also have neighbors with kids who have special needs and their child was calling my child names and the neighbor man came to my house. I really feel like kids need to learn to work out their own issues out without adults trying to save them all the time. I also feel that people who have nothing kind to say, or who are so angry they cannot hold it in, should stay home and get themselves together before making a public appearance. It is safe to say that in many cases, the adults involved are part of the problem and not the solution. Some days I simply feel heartbroken by the unkindness of others.

Technique Lovin'

On Mondays the challenge on SCS is the Technique Lovers Challenge. The technique today is to wrap rubber bands around a block (acrylic or wood is fine, whatever you have around to help with your stamping.) Then you pick up your ink with your rubber banded block and stamp with it. Finally you add embossing powder and heat it so it sticks. There are many technique challenges that I truly do not love, but this one was completely do-able. Unfortunately I decided to use my white embossing powder, as black seemed like the common choice, and I am anything BUT common. Unfortunately, the pattern I was left with looked a bit like what happens after birds fly overhead. But I was on a mission and stuck with it!

I used paper from Basic Grey's Cupcake pack, stickles, white gel pen, Marvy punches in oval and scalloped shapes and both the sentiment and trophy stamps are from my beloved Hanna Stamps.

It is still early so there isn't much to say, but I had a nice quiet weekend and have dihnner in the crock pot. I do love crock pot food, fork tender and delicious and out of the way early. MmmmGoood!

Metal Challenge

I am again trying to do two challenges at once. The SCS Challenge was to use green and minimal layers, the Hanna Stamps Challenge is to add metal to your card. So, I have a metal brad and a beaver charm on my card. We have a friend who goes to Canada for two weeks a year and fishes, and the beaver gives this a Canadian charm (pun intended.) Hanna Stamps has tons of stuff at 25% off right now, so this is a great time to go help the economy.

I wish I had a photo of my oldest son to upload today. I took him to my friend Steph's house to get his hair buzzed. She put on a longish buzzer clip and half way through his haircut it broke. Rather than leave him shaggy she had to trim him up a bit. He loves it, but it is pretty short. He recently started Tae Kwon Do and he said his hair makes him hot and he needed it cut off. His hair grows like a weed and I am tired of paying Great Clips every month. My husband has clippers, he just needs to learn to use them, it could save us tons of money in the long run.

Todays plan includes laundry and a trip to Target for a wedding shower present for a niece. The invitation for the shower just came and the shower is next week. I have plans and can't go, but need to get a present in the mail so I don't look like a deadbeat aunt.

I need to come up with a topic to teach in Sunday School, too. I am the teacher of record for this week in our adult class, and I planned to talk about the group Answers in Genesis. This is the group that founded the Creation Museum in Kentucky. They state the earth is only 6,000 years old and that man and dinosaurs lived at the same time. I tried to get info off of their web site and couldn't find anything I could download. I sent a very polite e mail requesting info but did not hear from them. Maybe they sense I think they are odd as scientific evidence refutes a lot of their claims. I was surprised no one in class had heard of this group which appears to be taking over fundamental Christianity very quickly. Our class is a group of well educated individuals and I was hoping we'd have a great discussion, but it looks like I may need to come up with another plan. I am open to suggestions.

Liar, Liar

I told my friend Steph once that I DO NOT sit around and craft all day, no matter what it looks like. At that time it was the truth, I worked in advance, getting lots of samples made for the Hanna Stamps release each month. But then I discovered a little secret, if you participate in the challenges at Splitcoast more people view the challenges and more people comment on the challenge items made.

So now I wake up and get the kids off to school and head straight for the computer to see what the challenge will be and whether I want to participate. Mostly, I do chose to participate. So, I look like a liar to Steph, since I craft ,most mornings. But really, I just had a change in strategy.

The card above was for yesterday's Sketch Challenge and the card below is for todays' Use Stripes Challenge. I used the Sweet Celebrations Hanna and Riley Moose with his horseshoe. I love that he looks like a Colts fan in his horseshoe. Go Colts!


For about the last week everytime I eat, my stomach hurts. Anyone got any ideas? It doesn't matter what I eat, my stomach is a churning and complaining battlefield. It is annoying and I'd love to have all of your armchair diagnosis and remedies.

And doesn't the shape of the top card make you think of breasts? You don't know how hard it was yesteday when I posted it on SCS not to make some kind of a joke about it. If you didn't notice it yourself, I take full responsibility for my dirty mind.

Card of the Day

I know, this card is not a stunner but it was all I could manage today. Today is Tuesday which means the challenge of the day is a color challenge. The assigned colors: More Mustard, Rose Red and Old Olive. I always find the color challenge to be the most difficult challenge of the week. It forces me to use colors I normally would not put together. I thought Hanna's Moose would be perfect in his battle colors for the Old Olive portion of the challenge.

I used hanna Stamps' Backyard Dwellers (on the ground by Riley's feet), her sentiment set and GI Jon. The Rose Red stamp set is Seeing Spots from Stamping Up and the paper is from DCWV.

We had a nice time in French Lick this weekend and we went back to Abraham Lincoln's boyhood home in kentucky so the boys could get their Junior Ranger badges from the US Parks Service. It is a programmed that is offered at all the Nationa Parks. Kids get a workbook and have to explore the site and answer the questions then meet with a Ranger. The kids are rewarded with a pastic badge and a form. My kids only discovered the program recently and only havetwo badges. If it were up to them, we'd live in an RV, homeschool them, and travel from park to park collecting badges. It sounds good to me, too, but we'd have to bring along a tutor as I would hate to miss all that knitting time on the road.

Mercy

Not so much to show you today, but I knew if I did not get a quick post in, it would be next week already before you hear from me. We are going out of town this weekend as Monday the kids are of school in celebration of president's day. I have been running errands and doing laundry in anticipation of leaving.

Then I saw (on the internet) a certain size scallop punch that I wanted that would go great with some stamps I have. I went to Archver's, two Michael's stores and two Joann's stores but no one had what I wanted. They had other sizes, but not what I want. Then there were things to take to Goodwill, cookies to deliver, class parties to attend, you get the picture. I have been in my car all day.

I packed for myself and the kids and got the dog and guinea pigs taken care of. I am just waiting for Scott to come home and pack. I even have gas in the van and have vacuumed and loaded it. I tell you, I was born to travel.

Busy, Busy

I don't know how well you can see the picture above, I took the glass off the frame for the photo, but I still don't think it photographed well. Seth has a student teacher right now and I thought I would make her a little something as a going away present when she is finished with her assignment. Teachers usually don't like stuff with apples, but Papertrey had a cute Teacher's Apple set that I just had to have. Now I am not quite sure how to best use it. But maybe Seth's teacher will see it and love it and be sad it is not for her? So, dear reader, please tell me what you think and whether I should make one for each of them. The apple in the middle is popped up on a pop dot so the whole thing looks lovely and lively in person.

I have been busy, busy. For Valentine's Day I make cookies for my husband's co workers and their familes. They get 1-2 dozen each depending on family size. While I was at it, I made cookies for teachers for both the kids, too. I made chocolate chip and snickerdoodles, which tend to be universal favorites. I started yesterday and finished today and am making about 30 dozen cookies. Most people will only get a dozen cookies, but I have a lot of people to spread love to. last night Seth asked me if I felt okay. When I asked him why he said "Usually you put away your baking and make us dinner, but tonight you didn't make us dinner and you keep feeding us cookies." I was hoping they would be so full of cookies that they would not want dinner, but my secret plan did not work, and they still wanted something that resembled a meal. Drat!

I hope to get this baking desire out of my system and return to papercrafting soon.

Weekend Challenge

The Hanna Stamps Friday Challenge was to make anything but a card. I chose to do dominoes again, as I am in a domino mood. Seth helped with these, he loves to make dominoes, too. We stamped the backs with various colors of StazOn then stamped them with a variety of items from Hanna sets. I know we used a garden set, the teacher set and the Hippy Chick set. The picture is fuzzy because I tend to shake for some reason, I really gotta get a tripod or something to help me. I rushed out to try to get these in some natural light, but alas, the light was already dwindling for the day. Such is an Indiana winter.

We got pictures taken for the church directory yesteday. At the last minute decided he didn't like that I had combed his hair one last time and decided not to participate. It was fine with me as I had decided I didn't really like his attitude much. So, we will have pictures of three of the four of us in the directory. We get a free 8x10 for participating and I think I'll hang it ion his room so he can look at the family that loves him everyday. (And remind him that rash decisions can get you taken out of the family altogether!)

Busted Again

I do love the Busted set that Hanna is releasing tonight at their release party on SCS. I feel like I could play with these stamps forever. What I have shown you is just the tip of the iceberg. I have yet to get out the handcuffs and the whipping stick and the donuts! I have more to show you from the set, I am just teasing you slowly. (I know that's how you like it.)

Today I used the Sketch Challenge from the Hanna forum and the layering challenge from SCS. At its thickest point, I have 8 layers of paper. I layered on some bling and layered the flower with bling. The paper is from Basic Grey's archaic pack.

We got our guinea pigs from Alaina, who loved them dearly and gets visitation rights. Above is Emerald, renamed Emily. She is the baby piggie. Seth put her with his favorite stuffed animal, Mumbles for this photo.

And this is the mommy piggie. Seth put his glasses on her and took this picture. I don't know if they like playing dress up and running over stuffed animals, but they do get a good dose of loving every day at my house. The neighbor girls who have guinea pigs put them in baby strollers and take them to the neighborhood playground in warm weather. Our little ones have not been taken on a tour of the neighborhood yet, but I am sure once it warms up they will get a ride in the umbrella stroller.

Snow Delay, Again!

Sorry for the bad photography skills on my crad. I made it late at night and there was no natural light to be found to help make the picture look good. I used the sketch challenge of the day and the paper is from a Basic Grey pack, called Archaic. I used the Hanna set "Busted" for the lock up bars and put the new Hanna, "Bowling" in jail. She looked pretty sassy to me.

I also finished another hat. I am not sure who will receive this one, but I do like it. Seth was not in a mood to pose, but I made him do it anyway. Hey, I bet the guinea pig didn't want milked either, but sometimes life hands you surprises and you just gotta roll with it. Next up, I've got a pair of socks to finish.

Snow Filled Tuesday

This new Riley Moose is a tribute card for a friend whose husband is in the National Guard in Iraq. I incorporated the colors from todays color challenege, Tempting Turqouise and Gable Green. I couldn't find a way to squeeze in the third color, which was a version of pink. Seriously, making a soldier card with pastel colors was challenge enough without adding pink to the mix today.

And the snow? It never stops. We are finally digging out and got another 3-4 inches today. Thankfully the kids got off to school on time with no delays this morning. We never look in Noah's folder on Friday as he does not generally have homework over the weekend. Scott cleaned out the folder this morning to discover Noah has two projects due tomorrow. I guess his teacher thought a three day weekeend would give him plenty of time to work on them. Sheesh. He needs to make a 3 D planet and an illustration of a planet. The planets he has to choose from must come from Section 2 of his Science book, which did not come home with him over the weekend anyway. Tonight I'll be taking him to the teacher's supply store so we (I) can make a planet and an illustration.

As for Seth we overheard him saying " Noah, just so you know, you can't milk a guinea pig." The guinea pigs were got are mom and daughter so the mom has some nipples. I don't want to know why he would try to milk the poor piggie. He did baptize them this weekend. He made a little paper church for them to go to, and he did the traditional Methodist pat on the head with water baptism. We couldn't decide if it was adorably cute, or absolute sacrilege.

We are obviously a bit cabin fever crazy here.

Misfit Monday

Hanna Stamps has several new releases coming out this week and one of them is Good Luck Riley. I made him a Colts Riley instead, in honor of the hometown team, the Indianapolis Colts. Truth be told, I have never really been a Colts fan, but I have a friend who is a huge Colts fan, so she will enjoy this card.

The football Riley has alread been released, but the Riley in the horseshoe will be available Friday at Hanna Stamps. Thursday night if you come to the Release Party on SCS. I used paper from Basic Grey and tried to make a pop out frame card, which is the SCS Challenge of the day.

Today is a staff development day at school. They have about 6 of these built into the school calendar. That means the kids are home with me today while I try to craft and I am babysitting three kids that belong to a teacher friend. I should really get bonus points for being able to craft with kids underfoot. Either that or I get my babysitting license revoked for neglect. Either way, I am okay.

Next fall school starts August 11th. Hello? If we had a few less staff development days and less built in holidays and snow days, we could shave a couple weeeks off the school calendar. Who says we don't do year round school here? I would actually love a real year round school calendar, then I would have more vacation time and less crappy four day weekends in the middle of winter. But enough about what I would do if I ruled the schools.