Sweet Bunnies

These punches were actually all confetti in a recent Etsy order I placed. How fun is that? We are in the middle of our Easter festivities. The church Easter Egg Hunt was Saturday, Stephen's school Parade and hunt are Thursday, and of course Sunday is Easter.

Also this week is interesting because we are getting a new roof on our house. It's pretty stressful, have our quote, but depending on how much damage there is to the boards under (we have a leak) it could go up a bit from the quote. So that's pretty nervous. But the new roof should look so pretty and not leak! It is the most expensive thing, besides the actual house, that we have purchased. Course that whole new AC/Heat system we put in last year came pretty close. Home ownership is expensive!

More Schlosser

This time I'm using the other new set I got from Schlosser Designs. Outside the Box just looked like it had so many posibilities. This is the first card I made with this set. I love how bold it looks as just a one layer card.

Sewing Inspired Card

I recently got a few stamp sets from a new to me company. Schlosser Design. One of them was this really cool set Hexagon-A-Thon. I have a few ideas for this set that I'm hoping work out. This was my first idea, paper pieceing a hexagon quilt. I love hexagon quilts. Next I want to do one of those hexagon flowers that are common in quilting.

The papers are various makers from my Scarlet Lime kit, cardstock and Get Well Soon sentiment are by Papertrey ink, ink is coffee bean color by Vivid!.

In Other News:
I only threw up once yesterday! It is amazing. It's kinda lame that throwing up "only once" is such exciting news for me, but there you have it. I was able to do some laundry, vacuume, do dishes and make dinner yesterday. It's a banner day for me these past few weeks.

I'm glad to be feeling better. Look what we have coming up:
Tomorrow: Easter Party at church, I'm in charge
Sunday: I give the lesson in Sharing Time in Primary, and we have Ward Conference, so meetings with the Stake people.
Monday-Wednesday: Normal
Thursday: Stephen's Easter party at school.
Friday: Stephen has the day off of school
Saturday - Friday: Stephen has spring break
Saturday: Stephen's birthday party
Sunday: Stephen's actual Birthday

So we are about to enter in a very fun two weeks. I'm glad I'll be able to experience some of it.

Oh you know my orchid? It's buds are blooming, almost one a day. And the original flowers still are stunning. The thing is beautiful.

Congrats

This card is beyond simple. I think I got the idea from a go-to-layout? Is that a thing? I can't remember where it came from. Anyhow super easy, chipboard stickers and a stamp. On yummy kraft cardstock.

So want an update on my pregnancy? It's GROSS. I just spent a week throwing up CONSTANTLY. I finally kept down a few cups of water and a small bowl of ceral today. literally all other food for a week has come back. Even all water. I've lost a ton, but I can't see it, so it must be that weird water weight they speak of. For a while I literally thought I'd have to be hospitalized. I couldn't even read blogs properly. Stamps came in the mail and I didn't even care! Shocking! It was all made worse by a simple cold. The post nasal drip would set me off so bad. I was beyond miserable. Today I'm just normal miserable, which is a vast improvement!

So I'm thinking of planning my baby shower in something other than traditional themed stuff. Like not bears or duckies. I'm thinking this. I mean it's very "me" and unique and fun. And I guess this is a factor of having already had two kids but I am sort over baby themed stuff. Oh and for the record I AM HAVING A SHOWER. With Ethan I didn't have one. As in no one threw me one. With Stephen before I got to thinking of it TWO people threw me seperate ones. I sorta thought the world would throw me one with Ethan. But the world was right, I didn't need one. I mean Ethan came so close behind Stephen we didn't even pack stuff up between them, just slid it over into Ethan's section of the closet. But I have NO baby clothes now, no cute stuff at all. I mean I have a crib and a carseat. Plus it's been 4 years, I want a stinking party! So I discussed this with my BFF Roniece and she totally agrees. What do yall think? A shower for your 3rd kid is not totally unreasonable right?

Some things I've been working on.

I made this card: I cooked some new recipies. Mom, this is what grated cheese looks like in my chopper.

Oh and there is this:

It has a heartbeat! This is further then I got last time. We are excited of course. I'm TERRIBLY sick. I also have a cold. I like to do everything really to the max.

So that's what is going on in my life. New cards, new foods, new baby.

Start To Finish, Cupcake holder

Ok, this project starts with a cheater. I'm sure Lauren Meader would whip up her own gable box with a clear window just wide enough for 3 cupcakes. And I would love it too. But I'm Erin Kellogg. So when I saw these boxes at The Container Store for less than two dollars each I bought the heck out of them. I wanted my cupcakes to fit and not slide around. I had a tip from my cake decorating class I took a while back. That rubber shelf liner stuff!

I used double sided tape to stick it down into the box. The other good thing about this is it made the bottom of the box more stable.

Then I started to decorate the box. I happen to love white, so I saw no reason at all to cover the whole box with print papers. If it was a card I wouldn't cover the whole thing.

I went with a tropical theme. The cupcakes inside are coconut cupcakes. (Recipe follows) I felt like the tropical flowers made it fun. And the fact that they are those prelayered stickers made it fast and easy to make a great looking box.

I felt they needed one more touch to make them extra special so I added a cute bow. I was going to do tags, but I was handing them right to the recipients. Stephen has two teachers in his class and these were for them. (That cutie pie in the back of my shots is little brother Ethan who helped with all of this, including making the cupcakes)

The teachers loved them. Stephen has really fantastic teachers. I was happy to be able to bring them a little tropical sweetness.

Cupcake recipe:

Two young cupcakes. It was an adventure getting to the meat of them, the boys drank the coconut water, I put the meat in the chopper then just added it to a super moist vanilla cake recipe. I don't actually recomend "super moist" though, the coconut adds a ton of moisture. They are good, just REALLY moist. If you were doing a normal cake it would probably be weird. As a cupcake it worked.

For the frosting I took a basic whipped recipe, 2 cups heavy whipping cream, dash of vanilla and 1/2 cup of confectioners sugar, whipped all that up but I added just a few drops of coconut extract too. The coconut flavor in the cakes is pretty strong, in the frosting it's pretty light.

The whole thing ends up being a moist slightly sticky delight! Very tropical tasting. :) Need to be stored in the fridge or the frosting will melt.

Smile

Here is a super duper quick card. the pink base is trimmed down because I wanted the flower to go off the edge, but for the whol card to still fit in a standard sized envelope. The cardstocks are by Papertrey, the pink flower is Making Memories, the huge pearl brad is Kaiser Kraft and the letters are Cosmo Cricket. The brad and the letters are from my Scarlet Lime kit.

I hope you have a "smile" today. Brian comes home from a work trip today so I know I will.

Exotic & Everlasting

Meet the newest addition to my home.

I'm in love. The label says "Exotic & Everlasting" I hope I can live up that and not kill her.

Jenny Butterfly

When I saw that my Scarlet Lime kit would have a Jenny Bowland butterfly in it I knew I'd make this exact card. The little trail is by Papertrey from the Little Lady set. I spent most of the time for this card deciding if I wanted the trail to actually be stamped in color like this or if I wanted to pierce it. I'm not positive I made the right choice, but I'm pretty happy with this card.

I don't know if anyone noticed but I've been using a ton of Papertrey's Rustic Cream and Rustic White. I'm loving those colors right now. It's odd for me, for years, and I mean like ten years, I would not touch a paper with flecks of fiber in it. When I was in college I worked at a copy shop. One color we had in cardstock was called confetti. It was white with all sorts of colored flecks in it. It was hugely popular. I mean it's popularity was far beyond it's actual value I thought. I found it so frustrating when someone would design a perfectly nice looking cover or something then put it on this garash cardstock. I think that ruined me!

But nothing garash (garish?) about Rustic Cream and Rustic White. They are so nice.

So I'm going to make some coconut cupcakes today. I think... I'm VERY tired. But if I get the energy I"ll make them. I have fresh coconut. That I got into with a hammer.

I think I'm going to take a nap now though.

So Cute

Ohmyheck I'm so tired today. I love Daylight Savings Time for the later daylight, but the first few days of it make me so tired. Stephen didn't believe me when I told him it was time to get up. Silly boy. I have this fun card to share. I used the K and Company set from Valentines day. I love a good coordinating set of papers and such, makes it so easy to throw together a project. This is for a friend who has a new nephew. :) I love babies.

So Sweet

Here is a card I made using the cutest single piece of chipboard that came out during Winter CHA. Seriously. We all know how I feel about anthropamorphism. And a SEWING MACHINE? And it's Winking at me! Love it. The red lace was an extra goodie my Doll Quilt Swap partner sent me. The sentiment is by Papertrey Ink.

Thanks for looking!

Tweet

Here is another card I made using my Scarlet Lime Kit. This stuff is mostly by Memory Makers. The pearl and lace are Kaiser. This cute bird is just a sticker! I've heard that stickers are out, heard it for years actually. Maybe they are back? Maybe I'm getting lazy? I don't know, but lately I'm all about a nice sticker. Oh working out got even more fun! I fixed my MP3 player! I had been using Brian's. His is way nicer than mine, but has boring music on it. Mine has nothing at all on it 'cept my favorite dance type songs. I am by no means a music person, but I like me some club pounding beats when I'm working out. I was thinking about buying myself an MP3 player, or digging out the manual for Brian's and making myself a playlist, but now I'm totally happy! And all for FREE! Apparently mine eats batteries though, so I might still have to figure out how to do a playlist for Brian's.

Also I have been working out on different machines, trying to work ALL my muscles. Full range and all. I found one that works the heck out of my armpits! I mean it works my arms too, but also my pits. I'm not sure that I've ever had any work out there. What does strong armpits do for me?

Paper Garden Sketch

So I got my Scarlet Lime Kit! It's EVERY BIT as magically delicious as I had hoped! I was actually in Michaels today for a home dec item and I was SO not moved by all the little embelishments and thingies that usually end up coming home with me. I knew that I had a wealth of goodies waiting for me!

So this is my first Scarlet Lime Kit card. The print papers and the butterfly are SL. Well actually the papers are Kaiser Kraft and the butterfly is Jenny Bowland, but I got them in my kit. This card is for the sketch challange at Paper Garden Projects. Also I did the cut away circle thing that Kristina Werner did today in her Finally Friday video. *Ok maybe I did pick up the Martha Steward circle cutter while I was in Michaels, after seeing Kristina's video...

I'm going to let you know, I actually did a PILE of cards today. I LOVE my kit.

In Other News:

Brian's Papa did pass away last night. It is sad, of course, but we are so glad we got to see him yesterday. The kids are handling it ok. Every once in a while they get a little sad but they are ok.

I took Victor (Stephen's pet rat) to his school today. Everyone loved him. Victor was GREAT, not shy, not nervous. It was great.

Quick update

So we are dealing with a family situation. Brian's grandfather is passing away. It's mostly age. It's totally expected and we are all at peace, but we are also traveling to where he is frequently this week to be around him as much as possible and more importantly, be with Brian's mom and gram. (Papa is totally non responsive and doesn't likely know we are there)

So the point in telling you this is that I have made some painfully adorable cards, but haven't had the daylight to photograph them in! Soon, I promise.

Also I got my Scarlet Lime kit today. OHMYHECK it's as fab as I had dreamed. I don't even know where to start or what is my favorite thing. I think I'm going to LOVE this kit business. Yuppers. I can see myself getting this for a long time to come.

Stephen has a crazy hive situation, so that's taking my time and energy too because when a 4 year old is crazy itchy and uncomfortable that affects the mom in a major way.

I have some really lame song stuck in my head. something about "gonna something till we see the sun light oh oh o oh! oh oh o oh! tick tock some crap" I want to force it out. If they play it at the gym tonight I'm afraid I'll vomit.

What is the nicer way to say that? Vomit, puke, throw up? What's the less icky way to say what I mean?

Did I mention the Scarlet Lime kit? Because I CANNOT stop looking at it. I unpacked it all. Do you think that was smart? I think I won't worry about using it all togther. Feels less new now though...

Ok that's all for now. I have a headache from spending all day bedside.

A couple of bright cards

So I'm trying to use some papers and such that I've had around. When I saw THIS card on Kristina Werner's blog yesterday I knew I had some bright cheerful papers to do something similar. I like how it turned out. I HATED though using the Stampin Up letter stamps! It's so hard to see what you are doing, I was going for an uneven look and I still had to redo it twice. I already ordered some clear ones to replace these. I might be selling this SU set. UGH.

Then I went on and made this card. Lots of stitching. Love that. Also these colors are just SO BRIGHT. And I love their very brightness on Kraft. Also I love the greeting set by Papertrey. Yummy.

In Other News:

• I'm feeling MUCH better. Still a bit of tickle in my throat, but not the run down, feverish, painful, hacking, cough. I'm thrilled because I've missed a WEEK of the gym. Gross! I'm going to probably notice some muscle tightening when I get there and mabey some endurance loss. ICK.
• Also, I cleaned my craft room last night. It was just messy, and also I had taken out one of the tubs of junk in there so I was able to move some things around. I can now actually get at this five shelf thing that I never used because it was stuffed in a corner. I was just using the top shelf of it. Now I have FOUR extra shelves! Fun stuff.
• I'm still really excited about The Scarlet Lime subscription. I hope I got in time to get this month's kit. I think so because it says if they still have the current kit you will get it. Also I got billed in this month, so I should get it right? Anyhow I'm very excited, I visit it online each and every day. DORK.
  

Doll Quilt Swap 8 Received

Ok yall. I think I'm CHARMED when it comes to Doll Quilt Swap. I mean I must qualify that, ALL the quilts in that swap rock and everyone takes the time to make sure what they make is a good fit for their person and all. But AGAIN I think I got the BEST OF THE BUNCH! Look at this beauty! It's by scrapnchick. Here is her photostream on Flickr. Can you tell the little black thing is a sheep? It's aDORABle. Also the quilting is stuff like grass and clouds and smoke coming out of the chimney. Seriously! And the orange blanket that's hanging on the line actually isn't fully attached, it's HANGING ON THE LINE. You can flip it up. How darling is this thing?

And look at this little handmade strawberry pin book she made! And let me tell you I have one and it's got stuff on every page, I totally need one for special needles and special projects. So now I have one! This pic also gives a close up of my fave part of the quilt, the sun, it's a circle of fabric spiral stitched in place. How cute is that??? GET OUTTA TOWN CUTE.

In other news
I seem to be at the tail end of the flu. some coughing, but not all the time. not much really. I plan to get to bed early tonight and let sleep kill the rest of the flu.

Just a quickie

I'm so glad I made up that pile of paper flowers. When I want a really quick card BAM it's done. I'm not in "love" with how the "l" on this is so small. I guess its the way it has to be. Anyhow this flower is cute, I made it with vellum and then rubbed a bit of glue on the edges of the leaves then glittered them. Easy goes to peasy.

I know yall have asked for a tutorial on the flowers. I've been seeing them everywhere. You basicly punch a bunch of scallop circles, spray them with a bit of water so they are slightly damp. put a brad through the center, then crumple them up around the brad, one layer at a time till it's all crumpled, then uncrumple it back one layer at a time. I did find a tutorial for you HERE. It's not the one I used, I can't find that one.

Also if you go on splitcoast stampers there is a thread HERE with tons of fun links to these type flowers and many other handmade paper flowers. They range from even easier than these ones to really hard looking ones. And they are all fantastic.

In other news:
still sick. not pleased about it.
I'm not regreting the Scarlet Lime signup. Sometimes after a big or biggish purchase I feel a little sick about it, but not this time. I feel GREAT and excited.

Sewing card

Well I finally mailed off my quilt for Doll Quilt Swap 8. I really hope my person likes it. I should hear in a day or two.

I wanted to show you the card I made for her: The paper is My Minds Eye (I tHINK?) and the chipboard thingies are by Cosmo Cricket in the Material Girl line.

And here is the cute inside. One fun thing, all the print paper is from the same one 12x12 sheet, it was double sided and one side was divided into 4 different prints. So that's fun. Also I'm in LOVE with the Material Girl line. I have more stuff from it on order.

I did decide to do with The Scarlet Lime www.scarletlime.com. I went back and looked at every single past kit and there was not a single one I didn't love. I mean I would have happily paid $40 for ANY of the kits. So I'm in for 6 months. I can continue longer if I want. I'm excited. I can't wait for my first package to ship. fun fun.

I'm not sure if I've updated yall on the working out? I'm still going and still enjoying it. I'm feeling funky this week so I did take one day off this week. I went to bed really early last night instead. I have not lost any weight. But I'm definately loosing inches, and my face looks skinny, I have cheekbones and just the one chin. Also those giggly flaps under my upper arms are gone. Those giggly flaps were the straw that broke the fat girl's back by the way. I mean eewwwwww. Mostly I'm feeling so GOOD about it. The first week just doing 20 minutes of cardio made me feel like I was going to throw up, pass out and die all at the same time. Now I do 30 or 40 and I feel winded, sweaty and GREAT when I get off the machine. That's huge for me, I've never been particularly active.

Glittery pink card and more kit talk

First of all I might not post tomorrow. I seem to have the flu. Maybe I just have fatigue and allergies. I can't tell, the point is my body hurts, I have a slight fever and my throat hurts. And it stinks. BLAH on that. I've tried this year to be really good about posting every day or close to it, so please bear with me, with last week being vacation and now this illness. xxoo.

Ok today I have this pink glittery card. It's terribly simple. I have a glitter covered heart, black scalloped layer, pink circle, more black scallop, ribbon and a greeting. I think it's fun sometimes to work in just two colors. :) I'm going to join a kit club. You know, those monthly mail you things kits? I don't need stamps but I like to have fresh papers and stuff to play with. I'm between two. They both look great and there is a HUGE price difference. Of course they are totally different kits.

First up is Taylored Expressions Key Ingredients kit. Here is this month's kit. The kits are all pretty fresh like this. Not always with the black/white thing, usually there are lots of colors. They seem to all have cardstock, print paper, ribbon and embelishment. This kit is just $23.95 a month including shipping. Oh and it comes in a plastic clamshell, I do use those for a lot so that is a bit of value. There is a design team with blogs that feature this kit. They are blogs I already follow and I do like the style of the creations they make. I don't particularly love the Taylored Expressions stamp line, but the stamps are not in the kit... (nothing neg to say about TE stamps, just not my style)

Next is The Scarlet Lime. Here is this month's kit. This kit is always super lush like this. It is a bunch more stuff, the list of ingredients is huge each month. I truly love all the kits in this line, but the price is much higher. It is $38.50 a month for this kit. But I definately like it more. So maybe it's worth the extra cost to get the kit I like more. Also there is a message board, and extensive galleries and such with this kit. This kit feels more grown up to me and I think would be more fun to play with.

The thing is that I have a set amount of craft budget each month, $100. My LSS did close though, so no more popping in to grab the latest. So I'll have to order all my stuff online or get it at craft stores. I'm not thrilled with craft store shopping. Anyhow the SL kit would leave me with less spending money, but maybe I wouldn't need as much with the awesome kit coming it?

Well it sounds like I'm answering my own question. I mean I seem to LOVE the SL kit and like the TE one... Maybe I can get Roniece to get the TE one and we can both enjoy both?

Well if you have any input on this crazy issue let me know. xxoo

Way too long

This simple card is fun because it combines stamps from three of my favorite companies. The leaf image is by Stampin' Up, the greeting is Papertrey Ink's Big Bold Wishes and the bottom part is a backgrounder stamp by Cornish Heritage Farms. The whole thing is easy goes to peasy.

In Other News:

• I found out yesterday one of my closest friends is moving to BOSNIA. BOSNIA people. That's not a quick trip to visit. It's only for a year then she comes back, and it's a wonderful opportunity for her family, but still. Bosnia...
• One of my other good friends is seriously considering moving to Germany.
• Roniece, if you leave town I won't be able to take it.
• Stephen got a pet rat yesterday. I think he's naming it Victor, he has until bedtime today to decide. It's a dumbo rat, so it has cute huge ears. He took photos of it yesterday and will be uploading and blogging them himself on the Kellogg Show blog today or tomorrow.
• Ethan just now walked funny then when I looked at him weird said, "I'm trying to only step on the white squares" All my tile is white... I think I need to mop?
  

Celebrate with style

I'm very happy with how this card turned out. I got the pack of flowers at Tuesday Morning on super clearance. (.70 for the package). Ethan stole some of the flowers. I can't really resist them when they ask for an embelishment for their artwork. I LOVE that they think a 3D layered flower will be the perfect touch.

In Other News:

• We were on vacation last week. Atlanta and then Agusta. We had a BLAST. I forgot our camera though! I know right! My mom was so flabbergasted at me she actually cussed. (Not a norm for my mom.) Anyhow I have no pictures, but we went to; The Atlanta History Museum, CNN tour, the Aquarium (AMAZING), World of Coke, Fernbank Museum, Fernbank Science Center, And the Zoo. Also we ate at The Varsity and EATS. YUMMY.
• I'm not sure if I blogged this, but I did see the trainer at the gym. I do need to make some changes to my workout plan. I'm doing WAY too much weight work. So that's pretty much why I'm not loosing weight, but am working so hard. So more cardio, less weights. But I can still do the bike. Just have to add stupid eliptical to it.