Wedding!

My friend Rachel is getting married! She's asked me to be a bridesmaid! AHHHHH! I'm so excited! Now to grow out the hair and lose a bunch of weight is in order! Here is a little wedding organizer I made her and her groom for Christmas!

Happy Holidays!

Well, another Christmas is over! I can't believe how fast it came and went! My girls had a wonderful holiday! Everyone was very generous and they are very thankful! Santa came to our house and left goodies for everyone! Myself included! We had a huge snowstorm the weekend before Christmas and today the day after Christmas it rained liked crazy and the snow is almost all gone! My hubby is happy, he hates shoveling the snow. I have to admit, I'm not much help! I love the snow but from inside the house, with the heat on, coffee in hand and warm toes! My very dear friend got engaged on Dec. 11 and asked me to be a bridesmaid! I am so honored and can't wait for her wedding! Now I have to lose about 50 pounds and let the hair grow out, but I have until June 2011 so I'm covered! I think?!

Planning on crafting all this week! Will post some new things soon! Happy Holidays to everyone and a wonderful and safe New Year too!

Sad Day....

Today we had to say goodbye to our kitty cat Casey. She was 13 years old. Casey suffered from type II feline diabetes. For two years we gave her insulin, totally changed her diet and with her help she lost 5 lbs., which was a 1/3 of her body weight. She seemed to be doing so well, until this morning. After talking to our vet and given our options, my husband and I along with the vet felt that putting her down was the best thing for her. It was a horrible decision to have to make but we just wanted her to be no more pain. Our daughters got to say goodbye and we've all been pretty emotional today, so love your pet and give them a hug today. I'll be sending my love to heaven where Casey is finally with her sister Harley running around and having fun.

Soccer Scrapbook!

My friend is our school nurse, her daughter is a senior at another local school. Each year their school has Senior Spotlight Recognition Day. Each seniors family is asked to present the senior player with a memento or memory of their years on the the team. Well my friend asked if I could make her a scrapbook. It chronicles her early days of soccer to her senior year in high school. I was so honored! She supplied the pictures and paper and I did my thing! I think it came out pretty good! Not too bad for 2 days work!

Bridal Shower!

Today was my little sister's bridal shower! She was surprised and received so many beautiful gifts! Here's a few "thingys" I made for the shower!

Gym Class! AHHHH!

Well I do have to say that I am beyond grateful that I don't have gym class anymore! Not that I couldn't use it for sure! I made this bulletin board for our school's gym teacher.

Just a few more......

Let the School Year Begin!

Well, another summer is over and another year of school begins! Big changes here, my oldest daughter, starts the middle school! She's excited, I'm a little sad though, I like seeing her during the day but she needs to move on and up to bigger and better things! My little one, is starting 3rd grade! When did I get so old?! Here are some pictures of the latest bulletin boards my Cricut helped me create! Enjoy!

Washington DC!

We spent a few days in our nations' capital. We have the greatest friends! They own a condo in Arlington VA, and were heading to the Jersey shore for vacation and gave us their keys to the condo! How great is that! We drove, 3 hours from NJ, hit a little traffic, but arrived in one piece. Okay now let me preface this by saying, we saw TONS of great things and it was wonderful to see all the new monuments that I've never seen, however...................we had no idea how freakin' hot it would be! I know, it's August, it's hot in August, I know! I live in NJ! It's hot here in November sometimes! But this was unlike any heat I've ever experienced! OMG! My oldest was so hot she actually was getting goosebumps, a sure sign of heat stroke! Good times! We needless to say came home earlier than we had planned but nevertheless, we saw amazing sites and I'm happy my kids saw DC, but next time I'm going in the winter!

Getting Ready for School (part 1)

Well, my friend is a 5th grade teacher at my kids school. He doesn't decorate alot, and since I sub in his class, I selfishly decided to decorate! My daughter and I worked on these posters and went to school, laminated them and hung them up yesterday! I hope he likes them! There were 8 in all, and the Cricut was super handy (each is about 25" x 40", except the reading and the writing ones)! We used, Cuttin' Up!, My World, Graphically Speaking, Lyrical Letters & Plantin Schoolbook! The diversity and "solution" posters were stuff we found online (gotta love Google!), but the technology poster & the reading=everything posters, I came up with! Gotta say, I'm pretty proud of them! Enjoy! (there are 2 posts because the file was to big!)

Getting ready for school! (part 2)

CK Convention Valley Forge PA

Well, I went again this year. My friend and I have gone every year for about 4-5 years now. The first year we took 3 classes, and only one was really any good. If you scrap you know the stuff they were teaching. Complete novices would benefit from some I think, but if you scrapped even once or twice, beginner classes are not so good! We haven't taken classes since that first year though. I have to say, I was a little disappointed this year. I expected to see alot of the same things as last year, maybe new colors or new packaging, that doesn't bother me since I always look forward to seeing the "new stuff" or hot new item, not the case this year. I walked the whole convention vendor fair in under an hour, bought a few glitter pens and glue and left. Nothing was super great or new. I don't know maybe I was expecting too much! I guess the economy really screwed everything up!

Are you kidding me?!

This is no joke! Apparently it was at the CHA convention in Orlando at the Provo Craft booth! C3PO or what?! Could this mean a Star Wars Cartridge is not far behind? It's so funny, you can't help but laugh! After my day today, this made me giggle!

Good Night!

Okay, so not as productive as I had hoped! Got the girly stuff done this morning, ran to ACMoore for a few things, had lunch and here's where everything went wrong.
After lunch, I realized that my husband had ran the dishwasher, so I proceeded to empty it. Everything was going along as it should when I reached in to get the tray of utensils out of the door of the dishwasher and I miscalculated and wound up with a fork tine jammed up between my thumb and thumb nail. There are no words that can adequately describe the pain. I saw a white light, followed by what I can only call a primal internal scream that made me literally fall to my knees. Forget the blood, that I can deal with but the pain, not so much! I napped and considered drinking for the rest of the day, but my kids are only 12 and 8 and a drunk mom is not a good mom!
Mind you, 4 years ago I had a staff infection in my right thumb from an ingrown nail (didn't even know it was ingrown, looked normal) and spent 5 glorious days as a patient in the hospitals geriatric ward (no other bed available for the 30 something ol' gal). Let's see what happens next!
Good times!

Good Morning!

It's Tuesday morning and I have slept for 4 hours! I'm pretty excited! I know that doesn't seem like alot, but after 3+ weeks of an hour here or there I'm thrilled! I plan on being productive today and posting good stuff! I first have to make it, but I promise it'll be good! Wanna see some pages I've done? Yes, good. I'll post those! First, I am off for the fun, yearly mammo! Nothing like having that done bright and early! Sets the tone for the day huh? Last time it took 2 hours! I'm hoping for only and hour this time! Keep your fingers crossed!

Late nights, rambling, and a couple of cards!

It's really late here in NJ, and I have insomnia! It happens to me every single summer. It sucks! No mincing words here, I am dog tired all day then night time comes and HELLO, I can't go to sleep. I've tried teas, the TV, deep breathing, no napping during the day, I know you're thinking, take a sleeping pill and go to bed! I've tried that in the past and I swear I feel like I'm absolutely USELESS for days after! Even an allergy pill or a "PM" pain relieving pill kicks my butt! I can't seem to catch up for at least 2 days after. Swimming in mud or sweeping back the ocean is the best way to describe it. I move real slow and everything comes at me so fast I start to worry! So here I type. Rambling on as my husband would say. It's the blog or I wake him up! I think he'll be happy I chose the blog!

Since I'm up, I thought I'd share a couple of cards I made! The cactus card was made with Stampin' Up! stamps. Believe it or not those are actually pumpkins! The seasonal stamp got another use! Prima flowers top each cactus! The doodle card was stamped (SU again!) and hand doodled by yours truly!

Hope you like 'em! Now if I could only create sleep...................

Wedding Bells.....

My little sister is getting married! He's a great guy and we are happy to have him join our crazy bunch! My sister is non-traditional and decided that she does not want to carry flowers. Well as you can imagine, that caused quite a stir with our mom. So the crafty gal that I am, I came up with what I think is a "peaceful resolution" to the problem! I'm making the bouquets out of crystals! AHHHH! I went online and researched these little things and people are charging upwards of $800 per bouquet! I ordered all the stuff, the wire has arrived, still waiting on the crystals, so stayed tuned! I did make a "prototype" for my sister to see what I was talking about, but it's made out of acrylic beads. I'll post pictures once I'm all done! Wish me luck!

What's in a name?

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE to scrapbook, but sometimes I feel the need to break out of my 12 x 12 box and do something different! Each of my girls wanted something for their rooms. Hannah's signature color is PINK, PINK & PINK! Jordan love purples and blues and anything not PINK! I made them each one of these and they loved them!

Check out this video!

Got this from a friend! TOO FUNNY! Totally child friendly!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0

Diaper Cake!

This was so fun to make! Just a little something for the gift table! The diapers were rolled up, tied together with a clear ponytail rubber band and then tied with string to hold them in place. I used pretty ribbon to cover the string. The New Arrival Cricut Cartridge was so useful for this! The "critters" are on dowels and stuck in between the diapers! When the shower was over, mom and dad had emergency diapers just in case!

Got a YUDU?

I do! I made these shirts for my daughter's 2nd grade end of the year picnic! I think they came out pretty well considering I had NO IDEA WHAT I WAS DOING! I'm more of the fly by the seat of my pants, I'll figure it out as I go along kind of gal, rather than take the time to read the directions in their entirety!

Fun Gift Idea!

My friend had a beautiful baby boy in December 2008, and instead of the usual outfit gift, I made him a special, personalized gift! I used the Zooballo Cricut Cartridge and I think it turned out pretty good!

Fun Wreath!

I got this idea from the Cricut Message Boards! These ladies are so talented! Here's my spin on it!
Jenny Titus is the creator of this fun wreath! Here's a link to read all about her and her creation!
http://www.cricut.com/newsletters/volume.aspx?ID=135

Dinner Impossible!

The show Dinner Impossible from the Food Network was at a local block party today and my family was invited to attend! A friend from work lives on the street and each family was allowed to invited extra people. Well, we were honored to be asked and we had so much fun! The competition was between Chef Robert Irvine and his fellow chef Doug. The mystery judge was Robert Irvine's Sous Chef "Big Bob". The food was delicious! Everything from chicken to burgers but gourmet style! Here are some pictures from the event! The show will air at the end of Sept. or beginning of October. It was a competition one side of the street versus the other each having it's own chef. It was the black team (Robert Irvine) and the green team (Chef Doug) at the Palmer Palooza Block Party! I won't tell you who won, you'll have to tune in to watch!