Dinner and a movie

I did it. I bought tickets for the girls last night. DH got us on some Disney mailing list last year when he planned our trip to Disney. I haven't been real happy about being on that list until this weekend. I got an e-mail about buying advanced tickets to see High School Music 3 when it comes out in theaters. It happens to be the same weekend Lauren has her first official meet and I didn't want her to be tired so we are going to the 4:00 showing. I will pick them up from school and we will head over to the theater. The girls are so excited, I don't know how they are going to wait until the 24th.


We made dinner for a dear, sweet friend from church who is suffering quite a bit from cancer. He is such a sweet man and I have done bible studies with his wife for some time. I wanted to make their dinner a little special. The disposable aluminum pan just doesn't cut it. So I made this tag and tied it onto the pan with red ribbon and raffia.

You can find all the supplies except the raffia at Emma's Paperie. The girls also made him cards that we tucked under the ribbon. If you are the praying kind, he sure could use some prayers right now.

I have got a busy, busy week. The girls have a half day of school today so I think I am going to take them to the zoo, maybe the children's museum if it doesn't clear up. Tomorrow I work the book fair at school, Thursday in Lauren's class and Friday in the library. I really want to get some cards ready for World Card Making Day. I may have to fit a little crafty time in somewhere. You are planning on stopping by for WCMD right??? If you haven't heard about it you can find the details here. I will be giving away lots of goodies (in between soccer games) so make sure you stop by periodically during the day.

Have a great Tuesday!!!

Wonderful Weekend

Happy Monday all!

What a wonderful weekend. The weather was gorgeous here, hope you were lucky enough to have the same. Needless to say, because of the great weather, I did not get much scrapping done. One project for Emma's Paperie which I will be able to share later this week. I will tell you that I used some of the adorable Jenni Bowlin felt birds, cool jounaling tags from Making Memories and delicious ribbon from Melissa Frances. Oh, I had so much fun with this one. :)

We did have a busy weekend, soccer games, yardwork, and a car hop at church. That was fun. Our associate pastor dressed up like Elvis (tight white pants and all!) and even sang a few songs for us with his guitar. :) It is actually a fund raiser for the youth. They all dress up in poodle skirts and the boys in jeans and white Ts. They come to your car and take orders. Everybody brings lawn chairs and sit behind the cars while the kids go play. I was glad to see it was such a huge hit and everyone obviously had a great time.

We did have a chance to relax on Friday night and have game night with the girls. I love doing this. We ordered pizza and just played games until bedtime.

Some of our absolute favorites are Blokus and Zooreka. Zooreka is put out by the Cranium people and one of the girls' favorites. I really like Blokus. It is not only such a great game but it is really good for their logical reasoning skills. That is a picture of it on the bottom. The object is to try and get rid of all your pieces (which is nearly impossible).

Hope you had a great weekend too. Have a wonderful week!

Save the Date

Do you know what is coming up??? World Card Making Day-Saturday, October 4th!!! I can't wait. If you are not familiar with WCMD it is an event hosted by Paper Crafts Magazine and involves lots of challenges, inspiration and prizes all over the web. You can find more information at the WCMD site. Plan on stopping by here for chances at lots of prizes and fun!

The winner of my RAK yesterday was Nancy Jones! Congratulations Nancy. Get me your address and I will get your goodies in the mail to you!


I have a project to share with you today. Mmm...just love that Scenic Route paper!


Hope to get a layout or two done this weekend. Have a great weekend!!!

Happy Mail

I have made some of the sweetest cyper friends over the last couple of years. I would have never imagined that these woman would come to be so dear to me. I got the best RAK from two of them this last week and it has just made me so happy. My dear sweet friend Linda sent me some very yummy papers along with a copy of her amazing book Starting Points. Have you seen this book? It is simply amazing! I also got a wonderful RAK from Audrey. She sent me some of the new Bazzill Stitches. I have been dying to try these and as I type this they are sitting here on my desk screaming at me. :) Audrey is an amazing card maker. I am constantly inspired by her work and look forward to getting to know her better. Anyway, look for a project using those stitches in the near future.


Since I believe in paying it forward, I want to give out a RAK of my own. I have a pack of Basic Grey, the Cupcake Collection, an October issue of Paper Crafts and some K&Company chipboard to give away just leave a comment and I will draw a name randomly.

Speaking of cards, I have one to share with you today. I used lots of My Mind's Eye on this one along with a little bit of Webster's Pages. I can't stay away from those awesome butterflies.

I made this card using the bits and pieces that were left from my Lime Tart kit. I just loved that kit so much. I seriously did some damage on it. There is barely anything left.

Hope you all enjoy your Thursday and thank you for checking in!

What's for lunch?

My meeting yesterday afternoon was cancelled so I decided I would surprise Katie for lunch. I had already had a chance to eat with Lauren but not Katie. It used to be that each child could invite one friend to eat with them at the parent table. Then is was two, yesterday Katie says, "I can invite three friends." OK, so much for having a conversation with my daughter. LOL I am just joking. Actually it was a VERY enjoyable lunch. If you have read my earlier posts you might be aware that I was a little nervous about Katie's experience this year. She knew very few people in her class and had no friends that were going to be in there. Of couse, I had no need to worry. These three little girls were all so sweet. So glad Katie has made such sweet friends.

I have a project to share. I have been working on here and there since this weekend. There are actually 7 pages. I only took pictures of a few. You can find most of the supplies for this album at Emma's Paperie.

Have a fabulous day!

twists and turns

Good morning!

I wanted to share some photos of what we did this weekend. My DD had a mock gymnastics meet this weekend. This was her very first experience with any kind of meet and she loved it. The photos are not real good since we were sitting so far away and the litghting in there is not very good but I thought I would share a few anyway.

Her favorite event is vault, although I was not able to get any pictures of that. Here are a couple from her beam routine. I can't believe my baby is doing handstands on the beam! Ahhhh!

Warm-ups (I wish I could do that!)

Floor routine

She also did a bar routine but I really don't have many pictures from that.

One project I wanted to share with you real quick. This weeks projects are up at Emma's Paperie. Here is my take on the sketch. You have to head over there to check out all the great versions of the sketch.

Have a great day!!!

Thank You God

Sorry I missed a few days last week. I have been swamped and barely been at home. Not bad stuff, lots of volunteering at school (love, love that) and other running around. My friend Shari and I hosted a movie night for our woman's ministry group also. I just love when they do all these great events and I wish I could go to all of them. We used the Joy Luck Club. I really enjoyed the movie. It gives you a lot to think about as a mother and a daughter. Love that I have this group of woman to share conversation and good food with.

Speaking of church activities, I had to share this. You know as a mom I always hope that what I am teaching is getting through to the kids but you just never know. We were sitting in church yesterday and my DD wrote a prayer out of the blue on a piece of paper out of the bulletin. It read:

Dear Lord,
Holy, holy, holy is your name. You give us everything. Thank you for bringing me hear today. Thank you for giveing me all this stuff. Even when we don't earn it. Thank you for enternal life. Thank you for for giving us more than one chance. Amen

I couldn't have said it better myself. :)

I have a few projects that I wanted to share with you real quick. The first two were in a recent issue of Paper Trends.

This one was for the quick and easy gifts section in a recent issue of Paper Crafts.

All of three gifts were made using this caddy from Creative Imaginations. I bought the caddy knowing that I wanted to use the three smaller pieces to make the teacher's pencil caddy but couldn't bare to throw the other pieces away.

Have a spectacular week and thank you for stopping by!

Snips, cuts and cards

Not a whole lot to share with you today. The girls and I got our hair cut after school yesterday. Theirs looks really cute, the verdict is still out on mine though. I have to wash it and style it myself to see how I feel about it.

Got a few cards to share with you. For this first one I used the sketch over at the CPS blog and cathrine's berry wreath from Just Johanna's.

This second card is also from Just Johanna. That cute little stork is kelly's delivery stork. You can get him facing right or left.

And one more Chirstmas card for you. I stamped the image on white cardstock and after coloring it, I added rhinestones to each of the ornaments.

Have a fantastic day!

Bubblin' over

What a fun night the girls had last night. My youngest DD got to have her best friends over last night. We have the unfortunater experience to live in a area that is growing faster than the schools can keep up. Our neighbors have been redistricted 4 times! Thankfully the girls have not had to change schools (I guess they decided our neighborhood had had enough) but the district lines continue to change. Last year my DS's friends were the ones that had to be redistricted. So now they go to another school. It is hard when your two best friends are twins. :) Anyway we had a chance to have them over to play last night. I just love listening to little girl giggles. It is the sweetest sound. :)

Here is a layout I did a couple of months ago about the three of them and another friend. Aren't they the cutest? Sweet, sweet girls. :)

OK, now for something new. Have you been over to Emma's Paperie today??? Holy cow!!! I know I say that every week when the new projects are put up but WOW! I am just so inspired by all the amazing projects everyone comes up with.

This week we were challenged to make something Halloween themed. I fell in love with the Making Memories journaling tags as soon as I saw them. This whole layout was definitely inspired by the tags. The journaling talks about how my two girls switched places with their Halloween costumes last year. My youngest has always been the princess girl and my oldest has been the one that wants a costume that is different. Well, last year that changed.

I had some serious fun with that one. How cool is that goopy punch? You will be seeing that on another project, I promise!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope your day is amazing! :)

Extreme Makeover

Do any of you watch that show? It makes me cry everytime. Which of course leads to DH ribbing me about it. :) I was thinking last night about what a cool job that would be. OK, so I realize that it has to be hard on the families of the designers because they are constantly traveling. But think about doing that for your job. You would get to be creative every day and make that kind of impact in the lives of those people. THAT would be very cool.

OK, so I promised to show you my Lime Tart goodies. I know I have said it more than once but this kit was so amazing. I had a hard time cutting up all those beautiful papers so I descided to make this canvas for my DD's room:

Everything was from the kit except the canvas and blue paint which matches my sweet girl's room. The trail behind the butterfly says "True beauty comes from within."

There were also these amazing tiny little seed beads in the kit. I threaded them on wire to make the flowers on this card.

I also used the beads to make the circle around the butterfly on this layout. To create the layout I cut out two of the butterflies and inked the edges of the top one and then pop dotted it.

Oh and look at the cool pink pearl brads on this one. Aren't those awesome?

You HAVE to go over to check out all the amazing projects the other designers did! I am so honored to be working with such talent. WOW, there is some amazing stuff in that gallery this month. Make sure you see all three galleries: Full Tart, Half Tart, Ala Tart

I worked on a bunch of cards this weekend. Hopefully the weather will clear up so I can get good pictures of them today. I will share those with you tomorrow. Have an amazing week and thanks for stopping by!

A bit random

I want to start by saying thank you to everyone for your sweet comments about my ankle. I am feeling so much better today. I hope to be back to normal by Monday.

I never realized how how much I loved my mini van until having to put it in the shop. Snowball (yes, my children named our van ) is back and we are so happy. I can't tell you how pleased I am with the place that fixed our van. They did an amazing job, even smoothed out some of the dings that were on the right side. The inside is immaculate and it really looks brand new, well except for the juice stains on the floor mats! Don't you just love it when you find a place with such great customer service?

I want to take a minute to thank both Suzie and Sarah for tagging me again. You are both such super sweet, talented ladies. I am honored that you both would add me to your lists. :)

Oh I can't wait...Lime Tart ideas go up this weekend! Make sure to check back on Monday and I will share my projects with you. Until then, how about a card? I got my issue of Holiday Cards from Paper Crafts yesterday and WOWEEEEE! It is fabulous. Thought I would share a card I had in that issue.

Hope you have a fabulous weekend!

The cat did it

I can't believe that right after posting a layout of my sweet kitty would do this to me! Yesterday after my post I was heading down the stairs to leave for my walk and our cat decided she was going to join me I guess. I got down to the bottom of the stairs and tripped over her, twisting my ankle. :( So much for my walk. I was able to wrap my ankle real good and take some Motrin so I could get to school and help out. I knew my DS would be upset if I didn't show up and I didn't want to let her teacher down on the first day I was helping in the room. I did a lot of sitting while I helped the kids but I was still VERY sore afterwards. Sadly I didn't get a whole lot done yesterday.

On a happier note it is project day at Emma's today! Yayyyyy! :) This month we were challenged to use the color chocolate. Not a huge stretch for me. I am a big fan of chocolate :) and I like the color brown too! LOL Anyway, here is my project and make sure to head over to Emma's Paperie to check out all the other amazing projects. So excited to have Betsy Veldman joining us this month!

It's good for the soul

Oh it was so very nice to get back to bible study yesterday. So many good friends and lots of new ones. I was so excited to see such a big group! When we first started there were about 8 or 10 of us, yesterday there were 36!

I have another Lime Tart sneak for you. Man, oh, man that was an awesome kit. I say was because I have used most of it up but I do still have a couple bits and pieces left that I can't bare to throw away. I am sure I can get one more card out of it! :) So here is the sneak, I can't wait to show you the all the actual projects!

I wanted to share a layout with you that was recently in Memory Makers. This is our sweet kitty. Her name is Doctor Cat but we just call her Doc. LOL, no I did not name her! She showed up in our backyard in the middle of winter two years ago and stole our hearts. She was scrawny and hungry and oh so sweet so we took her in. After posting signs all over the neighborhood and no one claiming her (thank goodness) we got to keep her.

Thanks for stopping by. I am off to walk and then spend the morning in my sweet DS's classroom. Yayyyyy! Have a great day!

Yay, it starts today

Only a quick post today. Bible starts today and I couldn't be happier. I have missed doing these wonderful Beth Moore studies over the summer. Do you know of her? She is fabulously inspiring and quite funny. :) This time around we are studying the patriarchs. I can't wait to start!

OK, so I have two quick projects for you. The first is a layout I did a couple of months ago but haven't had a chance to share. I really love this one because of the pictures. The joy on their faces is just makes me smile. :)

Second is from a Paper Crafts Special issue called Paper Crafting with Kids.




Hope you have an amazing day!

A few spooky projects for you

WOW the weekend flew by! We enjoyed the wonderful weather and watched lots of soccer this weekend. Hopefully I will have some pictures for you soon. I do have a couple of things to share with you today though.

First I figured I would share a Halloween layout I did a little while back. Lots of different techniques on here. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Second I got my October issue of Paper Crafts in the mail. Oh this is a fun one! Love all the Halloween projects in there. I thought I would share one of my projects from the magazine. I will share the others in a week or so.

Have a fantastic week and thanks for stopping by!

Just an ordinary day

Wow, I was waiting for all the back to school activities to get started back up and now I got my wish. Don't get me wrong, I love having some time to myself but I just LOVE spending time at the girls' school. :) Anyone who knows me, knows that I thrive on routine. So I am actually happy with days like today.

Walked this morning my sweet friend Mary (she makes me laugh and it is always the perfect way to start my day)

Room Mom meeting at 9:30

Projects to get done

Laundry to put away

Dentist appointment for Katie

Soccer for Lauren

Two tests for the girls tomorrow

Interfaith Hospitality at church tonight (very cool program and I get to work with the kids who come)

And I am loving it. :) Truth be known though, the laundry will probably not get done! :)

OK, so I promised a sneak from my Lime Tart projects. So here are two for you for today.

How about a layout too? I have been actually doing a few more layouts lately. I have been trying to go back and do a few older pictures. I just love these of sweet Lauren. Look at how young she is! I added the border to define the layout a little bit.

Thanks for stopping by today! Hope you have a great day!

Birthday Goodies

I had the most wonderful birthday this year. :) It was so nice to be able to celebrate with my family once again, even if it was a little early. Then yesterday both my girls woke up singing Happy Birthday. Literally the first words out of their mouths. Talk about a great way to start the day. :) One of my favorite parts of the day Lauren running down the sidewalk after school singing me Happy Birthday the whole way. Soon after the girls got home there was a surprise knock at the door. My in-laws drove all the way from Illinois to surprise me on my birthday. Wasn't that sweet??? We had a wonderful dinner out (seafood yum-o), cake and ice cream here and then hung out for the rest of the night.

Today I get to start shopping for a new flash for my camera, as part of my birthday gift! I am so excited. I have been wanting one for quite a long time but haven't saved up enough yet to even think about it.

OK, so obviously, I didn't get much scrapbooking done. I start a layout using the new fabulous lime tart kit that is sitting on my table. I will share a peek with you after I get it all glued down.

So, in honor of my birthday yesterday, how about I share some older birthday projects?

This first one was published in Paper Crafts Magazine a while ago. It is still up on their homepage. :)

This card was published in Cards Magazine not too long ago.

I made this card for a book put out by Cindy Smith called Go Figure.

That's it for today. Hope you have a fabulous Wednesday!

Ahhh, what a weekend!

I had the best weekend. My parents will be celebrating their 40th anniversary at the end of this month. So my family left on Friday right after school to head up there and my brother and his wife came in late Friday night from North Carolina. My sister who lives close to my parents came and spent the weekend as well. My parents have been wanting to have professional photos done of all of us for quite some time so this was the perfect excuse. We went out afterward for a wonderful dinner and spent the whole next day at the county fair. It was so nice to spend the weekend with my whole family. Busy lives have kept us from all being together for way too long. I will share some photos hopefully tomorrow after I get them loaded.

For now I have a couple of projects for you. I am so in love with these Gable boxes and was thrilled when Cindy chose to highlight them on the Emma's Paperie Blog. Here is the house I made using the largest size gable box.




One more quick card that was in a recent Cards Magazine.


Have a fantastic Monday!