Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all have a happy and safe New Year's Eve.

I will see you in 2009!

Addicted to Wii

Someone should have told me this game would be so addicting. LOL I have to admit that I am somewhat of a nazi when it comes to video games and TV. The girls do not get much TV time (pretty much zero) during the school week and maybe an hour or two on weekends. We have so many other things to do. But Christmas break is a little different, especially when some of their presents were video games. I have let them play the Wii pretty much any time they want, although I have strongly suggested doing other things periodically. I wasn't prepared though for how much I would enjoy playing. We, meaning my parents, sister, DH and I, played for several hours after the girls went to bed. My favorite is definitely Mario Kart. :)

Speaking of technology, my photo printer died several months ago and I have been using the HP one that came with my computer. I do not like it that much but it will do. I have a hard time justifying buying a new one when I have one that works just fine that was free. Anyway, when Comp USA went out of business I bought a bunch of ink for my old computer. Now I have ink sitting in my desk that I am unable to use. If you have an Epson printer that uses the T007 or T009 ink cartridges, would you please e-mail me. I would love to give these away to someone.

Alright, now for a couple of projects. I have to apologize for these being out of season. I created this centerpiece, invitation, and place card using the White Oak Leaves from Magistical Memories. I actually started with a Christmas wreath I found at Micheals for dirt cheap. I cut all the Christmas berries off and used just the wreath. The acorns and spiral pieces were also Christmas pieces, also dirt cheap.

I still love you

Did you think that I had forgotten all about you? We had such a wonderful time over Christmas. My parents and sister are still here today and then they will be heading out but I snuck away for just a bit to do a quick post. I promise I will be back up and posting regularly after New Years.

I wanted to share a few of my favorite pictures from Christmas with you.

Now how about a project for you as well. I created this card using this week's sketch. You can find the sketch, supplies and all the amazing projects by the rest of the design team by visiting the Emma's Paperie blog.

Thank you so much for stopping by. I am so very thankful for all you who check my blog. Have a fabulous Monday!

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

Happy Monday before Christmas everyone! Brrr...yesterday was a chilly one. They were predicting a low of 20 below with the wind chill. Please remind me why we moved back to the midwest from Texas. LOL Actually, even though I miss Texas, I really do love Indy.

Anyway, another very quick post. L is spending the morning with her best friend at Libby Lu, so K and I are going to run a few quick errands. Somehow, my cheese grater has gone missing. I do believe that it has eloped with the colander that ran off a couple of years ago. After finding a new cheese grater we are going to go get a brisket for Christmas Eve. Yummyyyyy. There is a fabulous meat shop in Dallas that sells the most delicious marinade. Last time we were down there we picked up a bunch of bottles.

I did want to share two quick projects with you. These would make great last minute gifts. Find a great book to pair them with and you have a quick and easy gift. Hope you enjoy.

Have a very Merry Christmas everyone. I will see you after the holidays!

On the 6th Day of Christmas,......

fa la la la... it is a good thing you can't actually hear me. I am sure you would be running from your computer covering your ears. I can promise there are not record companies knocking on my door asking me to sign contracts!

I am happy to say that my office is cleaner than it has been in years!

Of course, now I am dying to create something in this squeaky clean room but can't. Too much cleaning and cooking to do. The girls had a half day today so I think we are going to tackle their rooms. But please tell me how I make them clean? Look at how sweet they look sitting there reading Christmas stories together.

I did take a little break from cleaning yesterday to finish up some Christmas projects before cleaning off my table. I made a couple more of the toppers for L's gymnastics coaches and made another hot cocoa jar for a neighbor. I also made this quick card using scraps that were laying on my table. I had cut the butterfly out a while back and hadn't used him.

I made this USA card last week but hadn't had a chance to take a picture of it. The folk stars and mini film strip are both from Magistical Memories. All that yummy paper is from Melissa Frances and you can get it from Emma's. I found that fabulous star garland at Hobby Lobby in the Christmas section.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope that your weekend is safe and warm and filled with the holiday spirit. Take time to enjoy everything that this season gives us!

Have you seen my head?

:) So many things to do and so little time. I hope you have had a chance to enjoy the season amist all the chaos that Christmas can bring.


I know if I write everything down it really helps me feel more relaxed and under control. As one of my Lime Tart projects for this month I made this little organizer.

You can find step-by-step instructions on how I made it on the Zest Blog.

I just have to say that even though my girls have been bickering a ton this week (I blame it on Christmas-why else would they bicker?) :) that they are just the sweetest. I have been working on organizing my scrap room. That sweet baby in yesterday's layout will be claiming this room as hers next week. My oldest DD came home from gymnastics and sat in here with me helping for over an hour. She went through all my scraps and organized them for me and put them into a new organizer for me. Now this may not sound like much but believe me, I have been needing to do this for years!

OK, enough procrastinating. I need to find a dust rag...maybe we could teach my niece the ABC's by writing them in the dust! what do you think? :)

Have a wonderful Thursday!

Delay Today

The roads are nasty and icy today. The good news is that my girls have a delayed school day today. It felt so good to sleep in a bit. :)

First I want to announce the winner of my stamp RAK....

Becky wrote:
I have so many great Christmas memories, but probably the best was about 3-4 years ago. Hubby made me open and read my card before I opened one particular gift, and he'd written a sweet message inside, ending with "I finally found something that sparkles as much as you do, open the box". I opened the box, and inside was a gorgeous diamond ring, much more than we could afford, but he'd found it and didn't get it, couldn't quit thinking about it, and went back to buy the ring later. Obviously I love the ring, but I love the card, what it said, and that he loves me that much, even more! Merry Christmas!

Congratulations Becky!!! Please send me your e-mail and I will get you your goodies! :)

Another quick post today so I can spend some time with the girls before they have to get on the bus. This is my sweet neice. I took these pictures of her last Christmas at my in-laws' house. Isn't she the cutest? :) I have to admit, it has been nice to do a couple baby layouts here and there. Pretty much everything on here is from the December Lime Tart kit.








I created the stars from the chipboard that came in the kit to support the pattern paper and cardstock. :0) I simply used my star punch and punched out the chipboard. It does require a lot of pressure though. I placed it on a hard floor and stepped on the punch. Probably not the best for the punch but it worked great. After painting them red, I added red glitter. I used brads tohelp hold the ribbon in place and attached the stars to the tops of the brads for dimension.







Thanks for stopping by and have a safe, warm and wonderful day!

Quick and Easy Gift Ideas

Just a fly by posting today. The clock is ticking and guest will be arriving in a few short days. Do you think my Mother-In-Law would really mind sleeping with those cute little dust bunnies?

Anyway, it is project day over at Emma's and once again I am awed and inspired by the creations everyone made. We were asked to make quick and easy gifts. I made these quick little bag toppers. I actually made two, one for each of L's gymnastics coaches.






Um...yes, I did use my doily punch again. Can you blame me? It is just soooo pretty. Cindy did tell me that they are sold out of it now but she will be getting more in after CHA so make sure you check the store then. It is seriously awesome! A list of all the other supplies are listed on the Emma's Paperie Blog.

Did you notice the Ghiradellis chocolates inside? Have you tried these? They are seriously yummy! They are special edition for the holidays and I got my box at Michaels.

OK, I am off to pick up more Christmas cards...um, I mean slave away creating hand made cards for all 80 people on our list. :) And then start on our bedrooms. Oh joy! Have a wonderful day!

Drizzle, Drizzle, Drip, Slip

It is so slick and nasty out right now. I am actually suprised the girls had school. It is 28 degrees and raining and sleeting. Yuck!

It is quite happy and sunny here by my computer though! I got my copy of the February issue of Craft N' Things magazine this weekend. And there along side the editors is my picture as one of the featured artists for the month. Wahoooooo! I was so excited when Dawn asked me if I would be interested. Um.....yah! :) So if you happen across the February issue of this fabulous magazine make sure to take a peek.

Another great reason to be happy is that I get to share my Lime Tart projects with you today. I am sad to say this is my last month with Lime Tart and Odd Bird Stamps. I have enjoyed working with them. In honor of the chance to design for these two great companies I would like to give away a RAK. I have two Odd Bird Stamps to give away. If you would like a chance at these two stamps just leave me a comment telling me your favorite Christmas memory.

Now onto the projects. We got the yummiest stuff in the kit this month. I love all the Little Yellow Bicycle papers. They are so pretty. There were also some other fun goodies in this kit as well.

I just loved the chipboard tree. It is a little hard to see but I painted it cream and covered it with glitter so it sparkles. :) Love me some sparkles. I used my new favorite punch from Martha to make the edges around the gift box covers. I made the tag by cutting a small strip of the die cut paper from Little Yellow Bicycle and then using rub-ons for the sentiment.

Hope you have wonderful week and are able to enjoy the peace of the season instead of the hustle and bustle that we usually create for ourselves.

Sweet Success!

L's party yesterday was a huge success! The kids had a lot of fun. We created chocolate pretzels and then made gift bags and cards to go along with them. Afterward they sang some Kareoke Christmas songs and then played in the playroom. This gave me a little time to clean up before parents showed up. L really enjoyed have two of her best friends from last year come. They were redistricted this last year and she just doesn't get to see them as often.

Tonight is K's party and I am actually looking forward to it. I don't know some of these girls quite as well and I would like to. I know I will not always be able to know all of her friends but I can try. :) I am also spending the day in the library at school. I don't usually go in until 9:30 but they need extra help today. Before I go though I wanted to share the VERY quick and EASY recipe for these prezels.

White Chocolate Pretzels

Ingredients:
Round Pretzels
White Chocolate
M&Ms

Melt the chocolate for approximately 1-1 /12 minutes in the microwave. Use a spoon to pour chocolate into the center of each pretzel. Place an M&M in the center of the chocolate. Allow to cool. It helps to do this on wax paper for easy removal. :)

That is it. Easy peasy as the girls would say. :)

I thought I would share another older layout with you today since I can't show you anything new quite yet. This layout was in Creating Keepsakes Magazine last year. I figured since they were decorating Gingerbread houses it was quite appropriate. Look at how young my munchkins look! :) I used texture builder mixed with white paint to create the "frosting" on the bottom of the layout. The peppermint candies were hand drawn and then I placed an epoxy sticker over them to give them a more realistic look.

Have a fabulous day and thanks for stopping by!

Whew

I can finally breath. We are just about ready for all the little girls to come over for L's Christmas party tonight. The house is clean, the candy supplies are bought, and the craft supplies are all lined up. I need to go get some red Staz-On. I decided that part of their craft will be to decorate celephane bags for their candy. I found some cute stamps at Archivers that I am going to let them use.

I finished up all my Lime Tart projects last night too. I love how they turned out and I can't wait to show them to you. Just a few days, I promise. :)

Since I can't share the projects that I have been working on this week, I thought maybe I would share something else with you. A couple months ago, Paper Crafts came out with an issue called Cards, Gifts and More Paper Crafting 3 ways. I had several things in this issue and my favorite set were these three gable houses. You can find these boxes at Emma's Paperie. I used the largest box but they come in medium and small sizes too.

Hope you have a fabulous day!

Hugs,

Lisa

Sneaks and a game of tag! :)

Happy Wednesday!

Just a quick post today. I have more Lime Tart projects to finish up and 12 little girls coming over for Christmas parties in the next two days. There are still Christmas decorations on my dining room table and the tree is half decorated!

Speaking of Lime Tart...I fell in love with the products from Little Yellow Bicycle this summer at CHA. I am so excited to have a chance to work with some of them in this month's Half Tart kit. Oh they are so very yummy!

I have a little sneak for you today, although they don't do these wonderful products justice.

Can't wait until I can show you the actual projects. :)

I have also been tagged by my sweet friend Jen. Let me see, I need to list 6 random things about myself.

1. I taught for 7 years before K was born. Still miss it but wouldn't trade being a stay at home mom for anything.

2. I have been charged by an elephant.

3. I love to read. I went through a serious Steven King stage when I was in middle school. Now I can't stand the creepy stuff.

4. I was a diver in high school and dislocated my finger during a dive once. My coach pulled it back into place on the deck of the pool and I kept diving.

5. I was a major tomboy in grade school. I was always the one little girl always playing kickball with all the boys.

6. It took me five years to finish college. Education is a tight four year program at my school and

I didn't start my education classes until sophomore year. I actually thought I wanted to be an accountant! hahaha

Now I tag my sweet friends Audrey, Linda, Melanie, Roree, and Linda

Thank you so much to Scrappermom for this award. You are such a doll! I will nominate my people in the next couple of days.

Have a fabulous day!

How Small is Too Small for God?

I have to admit that there are times that I have NOT said a prayer for something because I thought that it was too small or too silly for God. I mean, come on, really...He is the God of the universe. Does he really care if get to an appointment on time, or find my keys? I am starting rethink this. Not that He is going to answer every little prayer that I pray but I really do think that He is interested in our daily lives. There are some things that happen that just seem too be too much of a consequence.

Take yesterday for instance. My sweet friend Mary, asked me if I would help her go get a VERY large present for her DH. Now, if I am being completely honest, the thought did run through my head for just a second to say no. I mean, I have SO MUCH to do right now. But there was no way I could let her down. So we headed over to Menyards to rent a truck because this large gift would not fit in her mini van. Just in case you are thinking of renting a truck from Menyards, you might want to check and see if it actually has knobs to adjust the heat. Or maybe check to see if there is green fuzz in the cup holders. At least check to see if you can adjust the seat. Ummm..yah, it was that good. Anyway we get to the store where I also bought a rather expensive gift for my DH and Mary comes out and says, "I think you might want to check your receipt for your husband's gift. I think they have them marked way down." Sure enough I actually have the receipt (I never carry receipts with me) and they give me $85 back!!! Can you believe that? Now here is my point. Yes, it could just be a coincidence. But the fact that I actually was there with Mary, that she HAPPENED to notice that my present was on sale and that I just HAPPENED to have my receipt with me. It just seems that "Someone" had His hands in this. :) And if not, I am very happy thinking that he did. :)

OK, so now that I have gone on and on about my day yesterday how about a project. I want to share a little gift box that I made for the color challenge this month over at the Emma's Paperie Blog. Our color this month was Sage green. I have really started to like green. Something I never thought I would say. May have something to do with that lovely grass green carpet that was in my room as a kid! LOL Anyway, here is my creation.








I made this little gift box for one of Katie's swim coaches. You can find all of the supplies on the blog. Make sure you jump over there to check out the other wonderful creations. While you are there make sure to leave a comment. Cindy is randomly drawing a few names to win some Emma's gift certificates. Good luck!


Have a great day!

Hugs,
Lisa

Oh Happy Day

Happy Saturday everyone!

I don't usually post on weekends but I just had to post some exciting news. :D Yesterday I got the wonderful news that I will now be a part of the very talented Magistical Memories Design Team. If you are not familiar with this company you definitely need to head over to their site. They have the CUTEST chipboard and I can't wait to start designing for them.

The second bit of good news is that my oldest DD had a meet today and she did an amazing job. She has taken another 5 seconds off of her backstroke time AND finally has a qualifying time in the breast stroke. She has been disqualifed three previous meets and she worked so hard to do this. I am so very proud of her.

On a down side, we are all supposed to be at church night participating in a program they put on every year called Journey to Bethlehem. It is absolutely amazing. Guides lead visitors through different stations of the birth story. This year DH is one of Herod's guards, my oldest DD is one of the villagers, my youngest was supposed to be one of Herod's dancers and I was also supposed to be a villager. Sadly L came into our room early this morning complaining that her throat and ear hurt. She complained about her throat yesterday but I thought it was just a cold. Well, this morning during the meet DH took her to the doctor and she has an ear infection AND strep throat. :( So tonight, I am home cuddling my sweet girl.

Hope you have a fabulous weekend!

It's Friday already???

Seriously, where has the week gone? More business in store today. I get to spend the day at the girls' school. First in L's room and then in the library. After the kids get home we are heading over to church to help sort all the food for a local food bank. We helped last year and it was one of the most moving experiencing of my life. I think it is such a valuable lesson to the girls too. It is more than just dropping off food at the church once in a while. This way they really get to help out and feel like they made a difference.

I have a layout to share with you this morning. I made this layout a couple of months ago. I absolutely love these pictures of the girls. They make me feel so happy.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful day!

Sweet Tart

Yesterday was such a good day. I love having the girls home early. They had so much fun picking out presents yesterday at Toys R' Us. I do have to say, I think they enjoyed getting the presents for each other the most. They are both so excited about what they are getting their sister they can hardly stand it. That is how I am feeling about the presents I got them too. L's gymnastics mat is supposed to be here today. I know she is just going love that when she opens it on Christmas Day. Not sure where we are going to store it but DH and I figure it might save us a trip to the emergency room, as well as make her extremely happy. :)

The December sneaks are up at Lime Tart and they look so very yummy! I can't wait to get my box! I in the meantime, I wanted to share two more projects I made with last month's kit.

Isn't that little mouse the cutest? Each month one of the kits comes with a set of Odd Bird Stamps. I think this little guy may be my favorite so far. The girls love him too. I may just have to share him. :)

I also made this quick and easy ornament. These papers were so gorgeous that they were perfect for a project like this. I used a very inexpensive paper mache ornament I got from Michael's last year. I painted the edges, top and bottom black. In order to get the right shape for the sides, I simply used a plain piece of white paper. I creased it around one of the sides and cut on the sides. I then used that as my stencil for the pattern paper. Inked the edges of the pattern paper and that was it!

I can't thank you all enough for stopping by my blog. I love sharing my art with all of you and hope you gain a little bit of inspiration along the way. Have a blessed Thursday!

Hugs,

Lisa

Lots on my plate today

Morning all!

I have got a busy day ahead today. Dentist this morning, kids have a half day so they will be home at 11. We are then going to head to Toys R Us so they can do their Christmas shopping for each other and their cousins. Have to run to the East side to drop off some donations and then we are back by 4 to get them to gymnastics. Gotta figure out when to do homework in there.

I did want to quickly share a couple of projects with you though. Both of these projects were done for the Emma's Paperie Blog. So much yummy stuff in that store.

For this first project Cindy asked us to create something using these cute little glass jars. Here is what I came up with.

You can find all the supplies and instructions on the blog.

This other project actually went up a couple of days ago but I haven't had a chance to share it with you. Cindy gave us a card sketch and I decided to turn it into a gift bag.

You can find Cindy's awesome sketch and all the supplies on the Emma's blog for this one too.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your Wednesday!

Some Vintage Goodness

Happy Tuesday!

Today is my day to back up my photos. I need to do this so badly. Have you backed yours up lately?

If you checked my blog last week you may have seen that I went with a good friend of mine to several antique stores and hit Goodwill, as well, looking for goodies to use on projects. I was thrilled with some of the fabulous things I found. I am giong to have to make time to go do that more often! Anyway, I found some amazing postcards at one of the antique stores here. I used one of them to create this gift box.

I also found a great chorus book at Goodwill for 69 cents. I cut a couple of flowers out of one of the pages and inked the edges with pink ink.

I also found a great schoolbook at one of the shops. It had all of those fabulous vintage images that a teacher like me love. :) I cut one of the images out of the book and used it on this card.

Hope these images have inspired you to do a little antique shopping. :) Have a great day!

Hugs,
Lisa

Thanksgiving weekend

Happy Monday everyone!

I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving! We had such a wonderful time. We went to visit DH's aunt and uncle. Since his family is so small, we are very close with them and the girls considere his cousin's girls their cousins. There was lots of playing games

and watching shows that the girls' put on for us. This one was about turkeys. Here they were running around singing some gobble song. It was pretty funny.

DH's aunt also bought gingerbread houses for each of the girls to make. They had such a great time with those.

Yesterday after we got home we the girls were excited to see that we got snow-nice, wet, soppy snow. The stuff that is perfect for making snowmen. All in all, the perfect weekend.

Please check back tomorrow. I have some projects I would like to show you. Until then, have a fabulous day!

Hugs,
Lisa