Home Reno

Because I have not been posting you have missed out on all the fun of us loosing our minds and deciding to move. Well unless you are my facebook friend, then you got every painful moment. Basically we decided we wanted to move because our house felt small. Also it's not on the water. Or historic. Basically it's boring. 

So we looked at some cool houses in Springfield. This is a neighborhood right near downtown. Every once in a while it tries to come up in property value. The houses there are AMAZING. Huge 100 year old historic charmers. That need work. The area is marginal. Some homes have the work done and people live in them and are happy. And the other half or so are vacant and barely livable. There is also a good bit of crime. Not terribly serious crime, but it's not really a play outside unsupervised area either. But it's so beautiful. Oh and the schools for that area are dreadful. But not the worst ones we saw... Anyhow the house we liked there needed a terrifying amount of work and we gave up on it. But it was beautiful and I still dream about it. 

Then we found one on the water. Real water, deep water. With access to the huge St. Johns River. The house was very large too. And the water! Oh and cheap. I mean really cheap. REALLY CHEAP. Of course there are reasons for that. It is about a mile from the MOST TERRIFYING NEIGHBORHOOD I HAVE EVER BEEN IN. Springfield felt economically depressed. Ken Knight felt like it wanted to rip me out of my car and kill me. In front of my baby. Then kick him down a gutter. I'm not kidding. I have never felt such hostility. But, like I said, it was a mile from there and on the WATER. So I bring Brian out to see the house too. And he loves it. It is Brian who wants water. We discussed for hours first the safety of the area and came to terms with it. The schools are absolutely not going to happen. Home school or Private. PERIOD. But I'm still game. Brian looks over it, there is some water damage, needs a new roof. Still cheap enough to justify that. So he goes in the attic. And there was an attic in the attic. I should have taken photos, you are not picturing it right. We figured out that they did an addition and instead of tieing it into the old roof, they just build an entirely new roof over the old one, using the roof rafters going into the top of the old, smaller roof. Like the old roof is the support for the new one. Is that even code? Anyhow it just decided it all for us. We decided not to put an offer. 

In the mean time I was collecting quotes on work we wanted to have done here. You know, if we were to stay. We wanted a huge super pool enclosure and covered patio. Do you have any idea how much money that was going to be? Like twenty thousand dollars. So I got quotes on just making our existing patio into a screen room. Bingo: 

 Nice right? And it's plenty big. We also got a brand new pool motor and filter. That was a disaster. It cost more at every single turn and I had to argue about the price and I don't think we will work with them again. But it's done, so that's good. The screen room, by the way, did not go over on price.

At the same time as the screen room we had our house pressure washed and painted. We did the garage door white, black trim and a bright red front door. I've always wanted one. Oh and we did the soffat (sp?) white. It looks amazing. Here is the door.

I can't seem to turn my photos right. They look right on my computer then are sideways on the net. Sorry about that.
Also I'm getting a new camera. Mine died. Stephen got one for Christmas and he loves it but I do not love it. So I bought a new one from Amazon, my favorite store.

Next up is doors. Brian works from home a good deal. In our totally open office/craft room/sports collection room. The problem is that I have several children, one of which is 2. So the no doors is hurting my marriage and sanity. I literally, several times a day, have to take the kids into my bedroom and hide so Brian can do his conference calls. So this week we are having EXTERIOR grade doors installed. We need a HUGE span for the one opening because it's 72 inches and the other opening is 32. Wide for interior, but standard exterior. So that works well. We are all hoping this provides a good buffer. Screaming children still will not be allowed, but we could talk or watch TV quietly I hope. Also it will look so much nicer than the baby gate and book cases that I'm currently blocking that off with. Yup, making a wall out of book cases. Sounds awesome, is terrible.

Calvin is in the TERRIBLE Two's. The other two didn't do this. They were horrid at 3 going on 4. But darling at 2. Calvin is darling, but also horrid. He throws stuff, and the kid has wicked aim and is strong. He bites and scratches. He says no. He thinks he can live on candy and fruit. He whines. He is super loud in sacrament. He breaks things. He climbs. He can get stuff off the top of my fridge. I have a knot on my forehead that is from him. He wakes up every day at 6:30am and will not consider going back to sleep. Also he ONLY wants me at that hour, no one else can give him breakfast and cuddle him. He is also a sweetheart. He can really play well now. He says, "I love you" and "Thank you" and "You're welcome" all the time. He suddenly doubled his vocabulary in the past few months. He makes funny faces. He has the best laugh. And we love him to pieces. But he is also driving us nuts.

Well that's what's up. I'll post good pics when I get a camera. :)

Felt Board

 Did you know that felt boards are back in? Oh yes, so super retro trendy hot right now. Of course I don't have the skill or patience to cut things out of felt. (watch I'll be doing it next week) So I decided to make a cardstock version. I used my Cameo to cut things with cardstock, then "laminated" them by covering them with packing tape. Attached a bit of the felt on the backs of them and there you have it!

This Nativity Scene is by Lettering Delights. You can also put your fingers in the holes and make them a little finger puppet set. Cute!

 In this picture you can see the whole board. I put fleece over a sheet of foam board and taped it to the back. With packing tape. Also you can see the 1-10 counting set I made. Took forever but how stinking cute! I'm not going to credit all these, because they are from all over. Most are from Lettering Delights though. They are my favorite.

I'm going to make a smaller board too, then I can grab a baggie of a set and the board and have something quiet to keep him occupied on the go.

Blogging

I don't know if I'm going to continue blogging. Clearly, it has been over 6 months. I miss it, but I don't. Does that make sense? Honestly I don't make as many things as I used to. I might make this an everything blog instead of just a creative blog.

In the mean time look at this silly picture of my family. I'm the crazy one.

Farms and Food

So I've been trying to loose weight. As usual. But good thing is made this amazing salad:

 I also finally placed a Papertrey order. I wanted to, then read that they were falling apart on Customer Service, which concerned me. Then one of the main stamp sets I wanted was out of stock for over a month. Sigh. But then they made a farm set and I'm a sucker for a farm set so I finally ordered. I'm happy to say it got here in 3 working days and all was well. Hurray.

 Made a cute duck card.

And this chicken card, which I FREAKING LOVE.

So in other news:
Calvin is growing up too fast for me. He's crazy and into trouble and climbs all over absolutely everything. But he's stinking cute for days and very loving and so all is forgiven.
The other boys are excited that there is only a week of school left. We have several different memberships for the summer to keep us busy and out of Brian's hair. (Brian is working from home more and more.)
Ethan's Birthday is this Saturday. He got to pick the restaurant of  his choice... He picked McDonald's. We don't go there much, so I guess in his mind it's a treat. So that will be awesome I guess.
We are getting a fancy new computer. It comes tomorrow. It is the most we have spent on pretty much anything so I'm hoping it is fantastic. We do use our computer a TON so we sorta splurged.
I got a bike. It's a red schwinn cruiser. I love it.

More rejects

Here are some more publication rejects. 

It's a funny thing with magazines. Some cards that I thought were stinking awesome got no interest, while projects that I thought were just ok made the cut. You never know what editors are looking for. Which goes back to my earlier point, Send a lot in.

Apparently I'm giving advice like I'm some sort of publication expert. I'm totally not. But I will say that I used to be terrified of the rejection, and think I could never do it and now I have. And I'm totally normal. I'm not one of these mega amazing girls, with perfect blogs and outstanding photography and shiny hair. (actually I have pretty awesome hair.) So you can do it!

thanks. (Pub Reject)

This card is a publication reject. I just love it though. And I LOVE the matching envelope. So FINE I'll just keep it then! LOL.

Actually for me, all my publication has been after sending TONS of stuff in. I have one little project in the next issue of Papercrafts Magazine. It's a sweet little thing, you'll see it soon. But I sent in about 30 projects to get that one chosen. I know girls who make a handful of things and they mostly get picked up. Not for me. But that's ok, I'm so thankful for all the opportunities I've had and feedback I get. I'm very thankful for a fun and rewarding hobby.

OLW 88 and a new vanity

First here is my new vanity table. I found the child's desk at a yard sale for $20 and painted it SUPER PINK. I need a little stool for it still but I love it. :) 

 Next I have not made cards in forever! I've been really busy, happy busy but still busy. But I saw this week's OLW88 and HAD to make a few.

 This flower is in one of my favorite cards I've made in a really long time. Masked with post-it notes, stamped, colored, sentiment under. Simple and sweet.

I like this octopus one. A lot. But I'm not sure I love it. I think it maybe is too dark? I'm also not sure the font really works with the image. But I still will call it a useable card. :)

It felt good to get crafty again.

Chore Chart

Tonight I made a fun chore chart for the kiddos. 

 Each kid has every day chores that are in their color. Stuff like "make your bed" and "put away dishes" are in there.  Then the "take one" chores are special things, they only have to do one of those a day. These include, "wash dishes" (which is a new chore so they are not all the time doing it yet) "dust baseboards" and "clean your bathroom". As they complete their daily chores they move the sticks to the "all done" envelope, so they get to see their accomplishments for the day.

I have hanging issues with it. If I put it on the wall high enough that the baby won't pull it apart Ethan cannot reach his sticks. So this fridge thing seems to work for now. :)

Nails and more Hello Kitty

Here are my first Easter Nails. I will likely have to re-do them before Easter. And here is a super cute Hello Kitty card. :) I think that squirrel is just the most adorable thing ever. (btw squirrel is a horrible word to spell. Doesn't look right at all, I move we change it.) I also love these Paper Smooches stamps, the words and word bubble. :)

Really CAS Hello Kitty

My mother-in-law, who also happens to be a very good friend of mine, loves Hello Kitty. And my cards. So when I saw a set of cute Hello Kitty stickers the other day at Michael's I picked them up to make her some cards. Here are a few.
I never think to make get well type cards. I'm making a concentrated effort to make more of them. And I really like how these sweet stickers worked out.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Mine was pretty stinking good. Some fun thrift store shopping. Found a GREAT home for one of my chickens who was not happy here. Got a new fridge. It was a good weekend.

Oh and I set a goal. I REALLY want to know how to play the piano. I always have. So I'm setting that as a 5 year goal.

Kitchen is done!

This is my last "before" picture of the kitchen. It is showing you my old fridge. It's not just that it's ugly, it was also on it's last leg. So here is my kitchen with the curtains and a new door for the pantry.
And here is the new fridge!
With that the kitchen is pretty much done. I might do something decorative, but I don't see what. Maybe replace the rug? I still want to rip out the protective calk around the sink and replace it. Just a maintenance thing there. I am just overjoyed about the kitchen redo.

Curtains

Still working on the super kitchen redo. Oh I figured out I have spent a grand total of $336.09 on the kitchen so far. That doesn't count anything I already had or my countless hours of labor. :) CHEAP!

So I wanted to do a curtain for over the window. Break up all the white up there. My mom convinced me that a red stripe would be fun. I'm not sure I'm in love with this, but it is definitely ok and I will likely leave it for a while.

Oh and I'm gonna leave that caulk sitting out in plain sight until I get around to ripping up the old and redoing it.
In other news I've been doing my hair a fun new way. I do no heat curls by twisting it around a stretchy headband and leaving it overnight. They last about two days. It is exciting because I have never gotten curls to stay in my hair. I used this tutorial to figure out how to do it: No Heat Curls. Each time I have done it I've gotten different looking curls, but that's fun too.
Oh and if you were interested, yup, that's me without a bit of makeup on. And yes, you can still see the pink stripes I put in. I like them though.

Angry Birds!

Stephen is having an Angry Birds themed birthday party in a few weeks. I saw this website and loved a bunch of her ideas. I especially loved her favor bags. I don't have a color printer so I had to hand draw templates for the pieces and trace them on colored cardstock, cut them out and glue them. Actually I made Stephen do most of the work, his party and all...

So here is a sampling of our bags! It is cool in this pic how it looks like Red Bird is peeking into the pig bag. He's all, "Are my eggs in there?"

And a closeup!

Chemistry and Kitchen Progress

I will be glad when my kitchen is done. I have saved a TON doing the work but I'd like to get back to crafting!

I did have this to share with you. I have not shared it yet right? Maybe I have... ugh! Anyhow:

LOVE the chemistry set by There She Goes. LOVE LOVE LOVE it. My son loves science stuff so I like to make him stuff with it. This time I made a love card. I used crystal lacquer on the vials. Fun!

And here is about where my kitchen progress is at. I have actually grouted all this tile and installed undercabinet lighting in the area where I do my food prep. You cannot see the lighting and the grout is white so it looks pretty much the same.

Don't you love how my orchid bloomed to celebrate the occasion? So thoughtful.

Cabinets

I'm happy to report that painting my cabinets white is complete. Painting cabinets is a MUCH harder job than I thought. I cannot say I regret it, I love the finished job, but oh man it took a while.

Now I have tile to do on the backsplash. I am looking forward to that going in because I think it will make such an impact.

At this moment everyone is in reasonable health. Brian and I are still tired from being sick. But guess what? I woke up with a sore throat! I feel fine, just a sore throat. UGH.

Happy Anniversary.

Quick card today. I embossed the gray with my woodgrain embossing plate. Made the flower with a scallop circle punch. Edged the flower with silver ink. Embossed the phrase with embossing powder.

I had a submission in mind for it, but it didn't quite meet the criteria when I ended up with the final card. So I guess I'll wait for someone's anniversary and then have a card already. :)

Blast from the past, when I remember to Sunday

I have a quick blast from the past card. This isn't all that old but it sure is fun. :) I think this chipboard sticker thingie was Cosmo Cricket. The stamp is Papertrey.

In other news: Folks here are still sick! Not me now though. Work on the kitchen continues. Also I had the most stressful past 24 hours EVER. I mean not EVER but in a long time. I'm very tired.

Here for you

Still fighting this funk. Here is a simple card. :) This is the set that I had a hand in designing for Gina K. I came up with a variety of sentiments. She did all the art and font and editing. It was a fun thing. Sort of the peak of my craft fame.

Enjoy.

Mother

Today I'll talk about my mom. She is great. She thinks I'm great, which is a fantastic thing for a mother to think. :) My mom is crazy talented with growing flowers and other plants. If you go in her yard it is like a tropical paradise and it feels like a huge garden, while actually being a small area. She never plants things that refuse to thrive. Everything blooms. Everything is lush and perfect. She has the touch.

Because of this I think of my mom whenever I see really lovely flower stamps. This one by Papertrey Ink really reminds me of her. I decided to use in a bit of a different way this time. Stamping and embossing it in white, then watercoloring the flowers. What do you think?

Kitchen and plagues

We are not having the best winter cold season. In the past few weeks Brian has been sick, then Ethan got pink eye, Calvin had Roseoloa, and now some sinus thing. I have the sinus thing and pink eye! Jeepers! We are all handling it fine though, but it has cut into my crafting/blogging.

Another thing that has cut into it is this:

I am redoing my kitchen! I took down some horrible wallpaper, painted the walls white, and am currently painting the cabinets white. And yes, it is a mess. Keeping it real. :) I am LOVING how my white cabinets look. The tile you see on the backsplash is not installed yet, but I will run that all around. Super excited about that. That will be the last step for now. Eventually new countertops and fridge and pantry doors. (Not showing you those things, they are horrible.) Oh a pipe behind my fridge broke yesterday. Plumber call was needed. HUGE flood. Always keeping it exciting around here.

Heart Cake Pops

Last week my church ladies group had a "Girls Night" and it was chocolate themed. We did a little mixer thing like speed dating each other where we got to mix around and talk to a bunch of different ladies. Then the chocolate. We were all invited to bring "something chocolate". Some people did cakes, cookies, chocolate dipped fruit, boxes of chocolate. I did these heart shaped chocolate cake pops. It was my very first time making them. They are super easy. Way too easy, I insist everyone make them if they are interested. They turned out YUMMY too. :)

Zipper card

Today on Capture The Moment Nichole has a post about all these new interactive card dies they are coming out with tomorrow. Some of them are AMAZING. I cannot wait for the "zipper" one. But it made me think, Erin, you should do a real zipper card. So I did:

I can put a little gift card or extra special message inside the zipper part. Also it really works. :) Stamps and dies are all Papertrey Ink. :)

I hope you had a great Valentine's Day. Every member of our family is ill or injured with something DIFFERENT from everyone else and my car broke down today. Somehow it still managed to be a GREAT day. I got to make a few cards, made a stellar dinner, the car repair was cheap and fast and my kids and husband all were sweet and loving to me. Also my oldest wrote the nicest Valentine to his middle brother. So yeah, great day!

I LOVE you!

The first thing I want you to understand about this card is the ribbon is NOT uneven. It is some sort of optical illusion making it look like it gets skinnier near the heart. I was fooled too and measured. Other than that there isn't really all that much to say. Super simple card here. The phrase is by There She Goes. Punched a heart, punched a mat, ribbon, stamp, mount on card and done. I like it though. I like these colors.

So big news, I found out I got a project in the upcoming Paper Crafts Special Issue Stamp It! Cards. :) I'm super duper excited.

Family Night and Valentines Day

Last night we had Family Home Evening. Our entire Mission District is having a special thing this week where we are all encouraged to invite our friends to church for this coming Sunday. (And by the way, if you are local please join us for church this Sunday at the LDS church on Hendricks Ave at 1pm.) So last night for Family Night we talked about why we would want our friends to come to church. The boys both said they think their friends would have fun at church and that they would have more fun if their friends were there. So we made invites for them. I wrote the address and they wrote notes and drew pictures.


You cannot read Ethans but it says "I like church" and it has a picture of him and his friend Nicholas sitting on a church pew together and Ethan is reading his scriptures. (Oddly he is not acting crazy and kicking the pew in front of him and generally running

amok. I'm not sure why that is?)

Stephen's says "You are very nice Ethan. It would be a pleasure" Then there is a picture of the church and he and his friend Ethan are inside and it says "I love my church". ADORABLE!!!

So this Ethan kid lives down the street and we delivered his last night. His family is going to try to come. We did say that if they felt comfortable we could bring just Ethan. Also Ethan down the street does not spell his name Ethan. He spells it some other way that I can never remember.

I hope the boys do have friends come. I think it would be such a nice thing for them to see their efforts come to fruition. But I know they will be blessed for making the attempt so either way they are winners!

I also wanted to share the super simple Valentines my boys are doing this year. Well... I guess I'm doing them. I printed the "You brighten my day" out a bunch of times, punched it with a heart punch, punched the scalloped heart out of pink. Then I made slot holes in it and slid a glow stick inside. The glow sticks are 15 for a dollar in the dollar spot of Target. Get it? You "BRIGHTEN" my day and it has a glow stick? I love Valentines Day, if only for the puns!

Speaking of reasons to love stuff, my church's Enrichment Meeting this week is all about chocolate! Same address as above Thursday evening at 7pm, ladies only! CHOCOLATE. I am trying to go. If I do I think I'm going to make chocolate cake pops. If I make them I will take pics and show you.

Why would I not be able to go? Well cars. See we bought a new-to-us car this week! It is a '92 Dodge Stealth. This car was the HOTNESS when we were in High School. Brian wanted something sporty. He got it. However, buying a 20 year old car has it's downside. The car is at our trusted mechanic getting a few minor things fixed up. Should get it back today. In related news we sold our Camry. In like FIVE MINUTES. Apparently we priced it a smidge too low. '93 Camry for $800 is a great deal it turns out. I had over 40 offers within an hour. Should have rounded them all up and had an auction! LOL. I wished I had one for everyone who called. I hope the guy who got it enjoys it and it serves him as faithfully as it has served us.

Ok final news, I submitted a total of 12 cards to the Stamp It Cards special issue by Papercrafts Magazine. Wish me luck!

friends

Last night I went out with a group of friends. There were 13 of us. It was for one of the girl's baby shower. We had a BLAST. It was at the Melting Pot, I had never been, that was fun and yummy. The conversation was the most fun. Every few years something so funny happens that I loose my mind in my laugh and do my hyena laugh. I cannot stop it from happening. It actually sort of hurts and usually I have to fight not to pee myself. But it is also a sign of me having the most fun ever. And last night I sure did break out the hyena. My friends had never heard it. We all had a total blast. I stayed out late too!

This Friendship card reminds me of nights like that. Even though this card is quiet and classy the sentiment rings true.

Also I'm redoing my kitchen and this is pretty much the colors I'm considering. :)

I'm a total zombie today. I got home late, then couldn't get to sleep for a while, then Calvin woke up before 6. Turns out he is, in fact, sick. He will be fine, it's some virus. He is ALSO getting like 8 teeth all at once. Poor guy. I did get him some medicine today and I hope he feels better soon. But for now he is taking a nap and I think I will too.

Chickens! :)

Yesterday after school me and the boys rode out to get some new chickens! We now have 5. 5 is the absolute most that our setup can take (according to us, technically you can put more, but we like them to have room) so we are now complete. We got a buff Naked Neck which are also called Turkens because with their naked necks they look a little like a turkey. Super cute! She is all we went out there for but when we arrived Ethan and Stephen both fell in love with this white Cornish Bantam. She is a tiny thing and super sweet. I love how all our chickens are so different from each other. It's a little Chicken United Nations out there.

To celebrate new chickens I decided to make a chicken card! The sentiment is by Paper Smooches. How cute is it? The stickers are BoBunny and I looked high and low for them after seeing them in a magazine. Found them on clearance at Hobby Lobby. SCORE. I think I need more actually.

In other news Calvin is all better! It was teeth I think. He looks more grown up to me now. I'm sad about that and happy at the same time. Moms, I know you understand. It is nice to have him back to his normal happy self. Course I need to make sure I get lots of rest because normal Calvin is a lot more work than sick Calvin! :)

back to school tube.

This is the last of my projects I had saved up. I have not really crafted in a few days because Calvin is getting all his molars at the same time. He is celebrating this with extreme fussiness, the need to constantly cuddle his mommy and a fairly high fever. I assume the fever is so that mommy feels bad and cuddles him all day. In any event I have been snuggling a sick baby not crafting. It is especially upsetting when I remember the grand new desk I have and the rearranged craft room!

Anyhow, Calvin seems much better today.

Also, here is a project. I submitted it for a magazine but it wasn't picked. So Brian ate the candy. :) I rekon I'll put a goodie in it next year for one of the boys. :) Or loose it before then. That is most likely.

Shaped Summer Rejects

Made a few shaped cards. They were submitted but didn't get chosen for publication. I find shaped cards extremely difficult. I think these turned out pretty fun though.

Blast from the past Sunday

I am sure I will not stick to it, but I'm going to try to start doing a regular Sunday thing where I share a project or two out of my "Old" file. It is fun to look at past creations.

The two I have today are very similar in description: Stair step card with Alice in Wonderland stamps colored with copic markers. But they do have quite two different looks.

On the top set I used Red Eowyn stamps. These are from the John Tenniel illustrations. In my mind these are the "Real Alice In Wonderland" images.

For the second project I used Greeting Farm stamps. I do not think they sell these anymore. Totally different look. The bunny on this set is ADORABLE.