Back to school

Kids set off for school in new outfits (and new contact lenses)



With my few hours of quiet (first day was a half day) I made this



and this



and this




So although I hate the early morning rises and the "hurry up we've got to go" ...... it was nice to have a few hours to myself and make some fun stuff for my girls :o)

4th July and other happenings.....

We had a pretty low key 4th this year. People up and down our street usually set of fireworks so we just sit outside with sparklers and watch. The girls didn't really want much of any ourselves except the colored smoke balls




It was funny watching them - this year for the first time they played with fire - trying to relight burnt out sparklers with the embers of another. Interesting to watch their thought processes.



I made a few cards over the weekend using my growing Unity Stamp collection. This one as an invitation to our design team dinner




And this one as a thank you to those who helped out with inventory at the store




I really like how this one turned out! I think I need to make a few more just like it.

Tonight.......

Time: 8pm
She says: mum I need pj's for pajama day at camp tomorrow
Me: (bewildered) don't you have pj's????
She says: we are not allowed to wear short ones or nighties so I only have winter ones and they're too hot
Me: (wondering what this was leading to...) okay... can you borrow some of your sister's?
She says: uh - NO! they're all too big plus I don't like them
Me: okay...so what are you going to do?
She says: It's okay mum - you can make me some - I'll help you find the fabric
(Translation: I want to look cool in front of my new camp friends tomorrow and I know exactly what I want to be wearing and you are here to fix that for me)

Time: 9:15pm
Me: Is this what you wanted



She says: oh thank you mum! I love you.
Me: (I think somewhere I missed the lesson where they explained to you how to avoid being wrapped around your child's ever so cute little finger...)

Post Valentine daze

Wow the days are really getting away from me lately! I am sorry for not being a better blogger. I will try and keep up more regularly in the future. The sad thing is I am not getting much crafting done either. My sister has though and you need to go and check out her etsy store right now! I am proud to say that we own quite a few of her creations and they are well loved! My younger DD got glasses this week and so we have been adjusting to those - she was dealing with them much better today than yesterday so hopefully it won't be long and she won't even notice she's wearing them.

We are definitely on chocolate overload here after yesterday - hope you had a wonderful V day full of sweet things. My older DD - the one with the pig fetish - wanted.... yes you guessed it.... pig valentines for her class and so this is what I came up with



I got the pattern from a link off a link off a link so I am afraid I'm not sure where that was anymore but it was very easy - the cardstock is 4x8, scored in half and then along the 4" edges score from the middle out to the center score line edge....... clear as mud right???? Then I filled cello bags with M&M's and tied the top closed. The pig stamp is from the "Walk this Way" set which was from a mini catty a few years ago.
Have a great day!

The Perfect Picture

Last year the girls and I had such fun taking photos to put in our Christmas cards so I was looking forward to doing it again. I got matching sweaters and UGG boots from Old Navy and the girls happily got into their matching outfits and were ready to go - or so I thought........... and this is how it went

could you sit a little closer..... this is supposed to be a nice loving photo to show everyone

a little closer and smile............

don't worry about the cat - just sit a bit closer and smile - act like you like each other for just a minute...... please ?!?!?!

a little TOO close....... can we try one more time??? Sit close and smile!!! Remember - this is FUN!!!

Finally - thank you!! You can go back to being normal sisters again....... until next year.

The party

It's done! It's over! It was a hit! Now maybe I can take a breath and focus on something else.......

The cake - I made cupcakes for the guests and the official birthday cake I made to look like a big cup of hot chocolate (which is what half of them opted to drink at the tea party) topped with cool whip and sprinkles.

The table was set with as much pink and white as I could come up with - including the food - marshmallows, pink M&M's, frosted animal crackers, jam sandwiches, strawberries, powdered mini doughnuts (yes they went home fully sugar loaded).

And each girl had a place card to show them where to sit.

As they came in we colored a tea set picture I found online, then decorated straw hats with flowers and ribbons, ate and drank and ate some more, played pass the parcel, played twister and ended up with a game of tag in the front yard while waiting for the parents to arrive. The girls had such a blast trying to act "proper" at the table - holding the pinkie fingers up while they drank and reminding each other "we're ladies, not men"! (where that came from I don't know).

But now I am glad it is over for another year and I can have a few days of peace...... at least before the Christmas frenzy begins - ugh!

Halloween

Whew! It's been a busy week at our house and it's not over yet! I hope you all had a great Halloween. Ours was a lot of fun - both girls trick-or-treating with friends for the first time this year. I made some little treat boxes for my older DD to take to girl scouts with her


they were a big hit. They are called peep boxes and were very quick and easy. You can find the directions here on SCS.



As far as costumes this year my older DD was a "bad fairy" - I had to get her to draw it for me so I knew what a bad fairy looked like - in case you were wondering "bad fairy's wear purple and black and have their hair all funky" like this .........

I want her tights but she won't give them to me..... my younger one was Snow White

and her American Girl Doll had a matching dress and looked equally as adorable :o)

Tomorrow is the Tea Party birthday party. I have finished up the goodie bags which I am quite happy with



They include this "tea bag" filled with pink M&M's which I made out of vellum.



TOO cute even if I do say so myself :o) Okay so it's off to the last minute preparations and I'll let you know how it all turns out. Have a great weekend!

Oh and happy birthday to my sister Natasha!

Gourd Creatures

My friend and neighbor shared her Family fun magazine's idea for making Gourd people and I though it would be the perfect fall break activity. The girls set out with buckets in hand to collect the necessary supplies for faces, appendages etc and then sat down to work. My younger DD likes going by the book and enjoyed making people



My older DD - always the one that likes to be different - made gourd creatures

and soon had us singing "It's a great day in Suessland today" - you probably only know the song if you have the computer game.... but it's a catchy one - feel free to sing along if you know it :o)

Two bags of gourds and several more trips out to the yard to find the perfect item we had a nice collection of gourd creatures decorating our front porch.

A great end to fall break.

A very pink tea party

My younger DD has requested a tea party for her 7th birthday this year. " A REAL tea party mum with REAL cups that you can REALLY eat and drink from. And they need to be LIGHT pink NOT dark pink" Well how could I turn down a tea party? I am guessing that this is my last chance to do such a party and when I think of the pinkness and the tulle and the cupcakes and the mini sandwiches and the fruit cups and I get all tingly myself just thinking about it- should be easy right??? WRONG!! Have you ever actually gone out and looked for a light pink real tea set that doesn't cost your life savings?? It's not nearly as easy as you would think - at least not in the great US of A - maybe in England or Australia.... but not here. I searched and searched, had friends, relatives and acquaintances - people I'd barely met - searching everywhere from online, to department stores to Goodwill - nothing!! I thought I had found one set - but alas it was too dark pink - not LIGHT pink as specified. So I finally gave up - found the one store online that had reasonably priced tea sets, sat her down in front of the computer and we picked out this one



way more $$ than I was hoping to spend but there comes a time when the price is much cheaper than the amount of time and stress and effort that you are putting out. So step one is done! Next was the invitations..... oh did I mention this is a "pink poodle tea party"? Yes well where I am supposed to fit the pink poodles in I haven't quite worked out yet. I did get one on the invitations




and I guess that I can make them cup cake toppers. She wants to play "pass the poodle" which is from what I gather a musical game where you pass the poodle around the circle and when the music stops the person holding the poodle gets the prize - I still have so much to learn! Now that I have the tea set though I think the rest will be much easier - it's got to be! If you have any cute recipes/ideas for food I would love to hear them.

Life Lesson #23

Your kids will always make a liar out of you.

It's true! You promise the sitter/friend's mom/camp staff that such and such is their favorite food and that pretty much guarantees they won't touch the stuff - or the reverse that they don't like it and they'll eat 3 bowls of it. Or take for example my 6yr old DD who I was explaining to my neighbor after 2 yrs of swimming lessons and threats and coaxing and bribes still will not put her face in the water past her chin - won't even blow bubbles in the bath. I was considering putting her in swim lessons in AU to try again - next thing you know this is what she's doing....

Yup that's right - she's swimming UNDER WATER!! And I mean the next thing you know - I had literally just finished the sentence and she was under the water. Not just a little - completely and totally under the water and now suddenly she can't get enough of it! So once again I look like the idiot mum that doesn't even know what her kids can do. Lesson learned!

I was blog cruising this morning (because it's not like we leave in 2 days and I have nothing to do around the house......) and I stumbled onto Trisha's blog and she is Bella-less. Well I can't let a fellow stamper be with out a Bella so I quickly made a card to send to her

Obviously my creativity is at an all time high since this is the exact same layout as yesterdays card... anyway....This Bella looks a bit like me (in my dreams) and she has my brown and pink bag too :o) So a little envelope is on it's way to you Trish - enjoy!

Okay I really have got to finish packing and cleaning (because the Lord knows it's not likely my husband will be picking up a broom in the next 2 months....)

Inspired by a dress

My younger DD's piano recital was tonight (final extra curricular event for the school year - woohoo!!) she was so stinking cute and she even VOLUNTEERED to go first!!




She did a great job too and I was so proud. Anyway - I sat for an hour or so with not much to do but listen to the performers (and these are all kids so you know it's not overly mesmerizing...) and the more I looked at her dress the more I thought that it was totally a stampable card so tonight I quickly had a go and here's how it came out.



I used a strip of the new 6x6 DP pack and after stamping the flowers in Rose Red I took an aquapainter and just ran it over the ink here and there to give it a bit more dimension. It was quick and not that hard to do - and okay it's not spectacular but I could totally see this as a gift set if you made a bunch with different sentiments or even monograms - and you have all the different colors that go in that DP pack.
I'm off to bed now - tomorrow is the Kindergarten Carnival at school so I'm there the whole day with 120 crazy kids running wild - I think I'm taking Tylenol before I leave in the morning as a preventative measure!

Playing Catch-up

Yesterday and today I have been trying to get my life (and stamp room) back into some kind of order after the craziness of last week- doesn't really help that this week is nearly as bad - but it has to be done or I WILL go insane!!!

The teacher's LOVED their scrapbooks so that was a happy ending to the stress. My sister has finally set a time for the wedding so I am working on getting the invites finished up asap so I can send them on to her and she can get them out. I am still unpacking for the CK convention last weekend and trying to finish that stuff up. The only complaint that I have about the classes there is the first thing they tell you is "you won't have time to complete this in class" and then they proceed to go through it all in lightning speed. Needless to say there's not much hope of me coming right home and finishing it up so then when I go back to it weeks/months later I have no clue what it was supposed to look like anymore. I took one class by Little black dress designs and though I haven't finished the 6x6 blankety blank book but I wanted to show you this one cool idea that they shared.

See the black and white square of paper on the left page? All you do is get a sheet of rubons and randomly rub them all over the page - they don't even have to be complete. What a great way to use up those left over letters from alphabets!!! You could throw in a few colored ones too and have a completely different look. It was one of those moments that the lightbulbs went off over everyone's heads :o)

The rest of the weekend was spent doing kids activities. My older DD had her dance performances and they went wonderfully! I was so proud my chest hurt :o) My younger DD had her final soccer game for the season.

She is so fun to watch :o) And you know it struck me this weekend that we are fortunate to celebrate mother's day only because we have kids... if it weren't for them we wouldn't be the people we are - put things in a little bit of a different perspective for me.

Anyway - back to my game of catchup. Hope all you mother's had a WONDERFUL mother's day and treasure the little ones who made you the mom you are :o)

Teacher Appreciation Day

Today is teacher appreciation luncheon and gift giving day so I will be spending the day at school to do first my younger DD class and then my older one, and then tonight is the first night of my daughter's dance performance - so it's going to be one of those "crazy chicken" days. I did finish my second scrapbook for the 3rd grade teacher and I am very pleased with the way both scrapbooks turned out. I just hope the teachers like them.

These are the gift bags the girls are giving to the teachers.

I found those too cute totes at the Dollar Tree and then filled them with everything you need for a day at the beach - sunscreen, bottled water, M&M's, gum, lip balm and then this little box

has gift certificates to a bookstore and of course Starbucks - I so wish someone would give one of these to me! I am SO ready for a day on the beach doing nothing but reading :o)

In the mail yesterday I got yet another RAK this time from Nancy.

She thinks she doesn't do well with the Doodle This set but I think her cards are great! I don't know if you can see it in the scan but the doodle on the side of this card is glittered and it looks so delicate and pretty! Go check out her blog and tell her yourself how great her cards look.

Okay before I am off on my crazy day I will leave you one last photo from my DD's dress rehearsal last night.

They are dancing to Cirque du Soliel music and the dance is called "Splash" and it is such a cute dance - you can see they are wearing shower curtain skirts - LOVE it!!! (Not that I'm biased or anything ......) I can't wait to see the whole show tonight.

Helpful kids

My DD's were trying to surprise me this afternoon by being helpful - I wish they'd stop! First my older DD "helped" me by weeding the garden - she walked into the house carrying a tubular (my Echinacia) asking me if it was a carrot - if it was it didn't look like we could eat it yet - or a weed..... AHHHH!!!!! She planted it again but I don't know if it will make it or not. Then my younger DD "helped" me by refilling the bird feeders - there was birdseed spread throughout the garage - and the birdseed container is right by the garage door! I still don't know how the birdseed got spread everywhere. After that I told her she could help me by sweeping it all up - she didn't think that was as much fun. I know they were trying but couldn't they do something less trying for me????

I made this card last night and - though it turned out fine - it wasn't anything like the card I was aiming for - that ever happen to you?

I did want to watercolor the picture using the watercolor crayons but the colors and the layout weren't at all what I envisioned. On top of that I was thinking I would use it for a stamp camp and then realized that I used the last of those hodgepodge labels (will have to order a new box) and only have 2 more paperclips so not enough of those either. Oh well - it's a pretty enough card and I am sure I will find a use for it but it's back to the drawing board - or should I say stamping desk!

Easter Peeps and other stories

I saw this post on SCS and decided to make the Easter Peep jars for my DD's girl scout troop leaders and teachers - that's 6 in total...... when/if you make them I suggest you do it only for your most favorite people in the world - there is a definite learning curve to making them (at least for me) - though by the last one I was a pro!

They turned out pretty cute though and we did try out the recipe first and it is yummy - though ours didn't turn in to the bars they were supposed to but it makes a great ice cream topping :o)

Made an Easter card using my new Cuttlebug - yes I am afraid I joined the craze even though I have never been one for the die-cut machines. I liked the Cuttlebug for the embossing folders - and I LOVE the embossing folders and how easy they are to use.

My younger DD lost a tooth yesterday - though "lost" really doesn't cover it in the slightest. She spent approximately 3 hours yesterday morning wiggling and jiggling and pulling on it in front of the mirror and using up about a whole roll of TP to dab up the blood until there was finally success.

Now she's working on that other front one which is barely hanging on there and she likes to close her mouth with it sticking out - GROSS!!! I am sure she will be a hit with it at school tomorrow. Meanwhile we have to cut up all her food (including tonight's hamburger) in little bite sized pieces because she can't bite anything anymore. Ahh the joys of motherhood :o)

Crazy days

Okay today is my recovery day after 2 days of non stop kid activities. Friday night we took the girls to see the Ringling Brother Circus. They have changed the circus format and instead of being a 3 ring circus the circus has a story theme to it that runs through the show and each act then is part of the storyline. The kids enjoyed it - I found it a bit "Disney" (if you know what I mean) though I think it was better to be able to just watch one performance at a time than trying to see 3 different acts simultaneously. We went at 5:30 for a special girl scouts "meet the clowns" performance. My younger DD loves that kind of slapstick humor so she was laughing away. Yesterday my older DD had dance from 9:45 - 12, younger DD had a b'day party 12-2, then both had the girl scouts International Thinking Day from 1-4.... by the end of the day I just wanted to curl up somewhere nice and quiet and have everyone else GO AWAY!!! My DH stepped up and dinner for which I was very grateful (even though it was taking soup out of the freezer and reheating it - be thankful for the little things right??)


I have started working on my DS wedding invitations (yes the date is officially set - woohoo!!) - she is happy with the format but we are still playing with the colors. (the flower is from the SU set "Artfully Asian")

This one uses regal rose and sage shadow

This one uses Regal Rose and Old Olive

and this one is rose red and old olive.

Which do you like best? I would like to put some ribbon or something on it but I am not sure what or where... any suggestions?

Okay I'm off to find my desk (I am sure it's under there somewhere...) so I can start working on some other projects.

Snow much fun

We took off for the Great Smokey Mountains this morning to play in the snow from yesterday before it all melted. There wasn't as much as there has been other times but there was still enough for the girls to play in and for DH to throw snowballs at them.

My younger DD decided it looked good enough to eat.....

Thankfully we were one of the first ones there and there was no yellow snow.....

As we were leaving the crowds were starting to arrive and the snow was starting to melt so it was perfect timing. By the time we got home you couldn't see any anymore except in patches of shade. Stopped on the way home to try out a new Starbucks we spotted near the airport - yes it is a family addiction :o) And I am happy to say it passed with flying colors!

This afternoon I played with the new "Doodle This" and "Doodle That" sets from the SU Spring mini. I loved this set when I first saw it and love it even more now! I am afraid I have no option but to buy the "Doodle Alphabet" that goes along with it.

Just for a teaser here are 2 of the cards I came up with

Off to play some more - the DD's are out from school tomorrow so hopefully I can get some more playing done.