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.