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.