Another LO, and we're off!

To middle TN, that is :) Madeline's cheer competiton is tomorrow afternoon, so we are getting up early (or at least earlier than I would like) and heading out. Madeline's uniform is all together, my camera is charged, the diaper bag is packed, and snacks are ready. I made 3 1/2 dozen of my BIG breakfast cookies and have packed some to go along with us, there are pretzels in the bag, and I have lunchables for the kiddos. I have the oven set to warm up around 7 am so I can whip up a batch of Fiber One's new apple cinnamon muffins first thing in the morning, and have 'em out in time to leave. maybe I should plan to make myself a smoothie, too. Hmmmmmm....

So I made another LO :) I did this one for a challenge at Color Line Design. I really loved the lines of Tanyia Deskin's template, and wanted to keep 'em clean. Pink Princess, the kit I used, is like all of Chris' kits - packed full of great stuff! Check out her blog for links to her stores - Heavenly Scraps.



Well, I better get to bed if there is any chance of me being awake in time to make muffins!

Like my new header?

I acquired "Beep Beep Bugs" by Lorie Davison on NSD, and have been wanting to use it.  Last night, I was playing with my blog template and it hit me that it would make the most adorable header!  I love how it turned out - all nice and summery.

I've been busy decluttering today.  My hard drives, that is!  I really took to heart what was said yesterday at my Weight Watchers meeting about clutter being linked to being overweight.  I have decided that I have way too much digital scrapbooking stuff and some of it has to go.  I kinda wish it was like the paper stuff and I could give it away, but digi just ain't the same LOL ;o)  Then again, if I were to give my clutter to others, I would be creating clutter in their homes, right?  So, I am going through all the kits on my external drive right now and I am deleting things I know I will never use.  I've only been digiscrapping for a year now, but the gigs of space that stuff is taking up is insane!  There are lots of freebies I have downloaded, especially when I first started, that are just mediocre quality, or worse, in some cases!  Then there are other kits that are fine on the quality scale, but they just aren't my style.  I am so spoiled and PICKY when it comes to what I like to use!  The bows and ribbons are my biggest issue, I think.  I really hate bows that aren't photo realistic.  So, I am getting rid of all the papers and elements that don't meet my needs, and I'm just keeping the pieces that I can use, along with the designers' TOUs.  I'm storing alphas in one folder, papers in another, and elements in yet another.  Templates have their own folder as do all the zillions of QPs and albums I've collected.  It's all fairly well organized onmy hard drive, but there is just too much.  After I go through all the kits, I'm going to use the same process to whittle down the contents of all the other folders.  Baby steps are the key - it took me a year to get 'em all, and I won't be able to sort everything in a day or two!

As for actual housework, I did make a little headway today lol!  I baked 8 dozen Flourless Breakfast Cookies this morning, mixed up a lime vanilla frozen yogurt recipe, and did all my laundry.  The fro-yo should go in the ice cream freezer tomorrow after I get ice for it.  I can't wait - it sounds so yummy!  I'll let you know how it turns out :o)  

Tomorrow I am planning to make some muffins and some more breakfast cookies, with a different recipe, and I would like to get a little sewing done, too.  I am almost done with the dress I have been working on for Ellie, and Noah needs some new shorts. Bless his little heart - he is so skinny that the 6 and 12 month shorts would fit - except for him being so tall!  They just don't fit thru the rise...  Ah well, it's a good thing that I can sew, right?  I love making the little pull on pants that come below the knee.  They are so sweet and so little boy, yet very practical as they give him grow room, too.  

Time to get back to work - and to watching Lost Boys!  Man, I LOVE that movie!!!!!

Memorial Day weekend photos

You would think that they spent the whole weekend in the water, but they didn't lol!  These were just the best photos I got.  These were from the zoo party - I was playing with the depth of field settings on Paint Shop Pro - whatcha think?






Here are some pics from our trip to Nanny and Grandaddy's yesterday. Noah had a blast in his car floatie until he figured out how to climb out - EEK! So we put him in the arm floaties and stuck Ellie in the car as she, obviously, wasn't happy with the arm floaties. Unfortunately, the battery on my camera died before they switched, so I didn't get any pictures of that...







And this was about all I saw of Madeline the whole time she was in the pool lol!



Here are a couple of pictures from the zoo party - I was really tickled to get pictures of the kids on the very same rides I LOVED when I was a kid!!!

The boats - my favorite! At the end of the ride, Ellie and the little girl got off the boat and walked out holding hands ::awwwww:: She told me they were best friends lol!





I totally remember these carousel horses, too - that is one fast moving ride, too!!! It was all I could do to snap pictures as they came flying by - Adron and Noah were 2 horses behind the girls, and I had to catch them on seperate trips around eek! I rode it with them the 1st time, and Noah threw such a fit when we got off, so I had Adron ride with them the 2nd time.





I guess that is about it for today. I did weigh in today, and with all the trash I consumed this week, I was up 3 lbs. That was so depressing! But I am going to do better this week. Penny, our fearless leader, was reading an article out of Weight Watchers magazine that was discussing the connection between clutter and weight. I am more determined than ever to get my house decluttered and I know that my weight will follow! I know I can do it - I just have to get a handle on this emotional eating and total lack of discipline.

The things they say...

Noah said this and I thought it was about the cutest thing ever!  Adron and I were lying in bed waking up, and I had my head on his shoulder with his arm around me.  Noah crawls into bed with us and starts squealing at me "Pip-pooh YOU! Nohannon!"It took me a sec to realize what he was saying, and when it hit me I laughed SO hard!  "Pillow YOU! No hand on!"  I suppose he thought I should have my head on my pillow and Adron shouldn't put his hand on my shoulder?  ROFLMBO!!!  

A couple of digi LOs

So I have been working on a couple of layouts for challenges, and I really like how these turned out!

My brother, Robert, took these pictures of Ellie at the picnic we went to yesterday.



Credits are here.

I took this picture when we went to the zoo last weekend:



Those credits are here.

It has been a fun, but very busy weekend, and Adron is feeling icky. I think I'm going to head off to bed now, and I hope to be back tomorrow with some pictures from our trip to Nanny and Grandaddy's house.

Busy weekend ahead...

Woohoo!  It's Friday!!!  We are looking at quite an exciting weekend here :o)  Today is the last day of school for the big girls, and we found out today that Audrey should be moving back here next weekend.  Besides that, my 2 youngest brothers are in town today and are going to spend the weekend camping on our living room floor, my baby sister came over earlier to borrow my embroidery machine and do laundry, and we went to a birthday party earlier tonight.  Tomorrow isn't quite as scheduled, but I think Adron is planning to smoke some pork shoulders - YUM!!!  Sunday is Mass, then there is a picnic at Deb's church, and a member's only party at the zoo, which I would love attend with Adron and the kids.  His mom would like us to come up to visit Monday, but I'm not sure if we will be able to swing the gas for that.... Ah well, if not, at least we will be having ribs for dinner!

I made a birthday present for the party tonight.  I made a spinny skort, and appliqued tank top, and a headband.  It seemed to be a hit - Kendahl hugged the skirt when she saw it lol!  Here's a pic of the skort - I didn't have time to take a picture of the top as I was running way behind EEK!  Ah well, here's the outside, and a pic of the inside :o)  I really meant for it to be fuller than this, but the instructions I was following were on the skimpy side it seems. Sighhhhhh.... (Sorry I didn't clean these pics up... Been a long day and I would rather upload 'em in the rough that put off posting!)





Oh - and I did some more cooking yesterday. I made breakfast foods to freeze, and discovered that this amazing breakfast cookie recipe isn't enough to freeze if I am only making one batch LOL! The kids and I ate all of those yummy litte gems for breakfast this morning! Special thanks to Susan of Raspberry Road for letting me offer these cards made using her kits. This card is made using Grandmother's Delight.



You can download this recipe card HERE

This other card is a favorite recipe of ours. It is super quick and easy, and tastes fabulous! Noah isn't a fan, but it's not like he really eats much of anything good anyway... I used Raspberry Road Always Asia kit for this card.



You can download this recipe card HERE

Ok, I'm off to bed. I need some sleep after the babies keeping me up last night! Both Noah and Ellie woke up around midnight needing attention. Not normal, and rather exhausting after getting used to them sleeping thru the night lol!

Just a quick post

Whew!  Been a busy week here!  I've had so much going on, and didn't ever have a chance to sit down and blog.  Well, here I am now, and I don't think I really have much to show off lol!

I am working on a really cool project right now that I will be posting here May 30th - I am really excited about it!!!  I can't say much right now, but it was a challenge issued by Maggie on her blog. I just love her blog - her ideas are so fun and exciting, and it always makes my day when I see she has posted!!!

Well, I am being distracted by my hubby - and the season finale of NCIS, so I'm gonna run for now, but will be back soon with more recipes!

Boy, I am SO ready for school to be over!  I miss having my big girls at home, and I really enjoy having them here during the summer.  Granted, Madeline gets out of school and is home around 3:30 every day, but with the evening rush, I feel like I hardly see her.  Audrey has been living with her dad for the past 3 years, but it looks like she may be coming back here to live!  I am afraid to get my hopes up, as there is nothing "legal" yet, but I can't help but be excited at the possiblilty!!!  If all goes according to plan, we will be picking her up next Friday!  That thought just makes me giddy!!!  I know, I'm saying that I'm excited about bringing a teenager home, but I've been looking forward to having teenagers for a long time.  I really think teens are neat people in their own right, and I like them as a whole.  I know liking them from a distance is totally different from living with one, but like all parenting challenges, I know it will have plenty of wonderful things to offset the tough times.  Hmmmmm....  I may have to come back and read this in a couple of months when the novelty wears off and her hormones go into overdrive!

On a totally different subject, I have been working very hard on a menu for all of our meals.  I used a template I got from the Racketty Scrappety blog Megan has a wonderful blog with oodles of fabulous templates, if you are into digiscrapping, and has also put up a lot of her recipes for everyone to use :) I filled it in using recipes that are my family's faves. I have had a wonderful time with it - I am in week 3, and it has made my life so much easier! We have done a pretty good job of sticking to the menu for what to eat on a particular day, with a few exceptions. Tonight, I had planned to make Beef Burgundy, which is a crockpot recipe, but I didn't remember to put it together yesterday so I could just throw it on this morning. So, I'm subbing tomorrow night's Lasagne, and will put the crockpot meal on for tomorrow night. Which will be perfect, as the Spring Carnival at Madeline's school is tomorrow, and I'm helping!

Anyway, I have been trying to make a master cookbook for the 8 week meal plan, and it's going well - one week at a time. The breakfast menu is the same week to week, and includes homemade instant oatmeal packets, breakfast cookies, scones, muffins, French toast sticks, and pancakes/waffles. I made a ton of the oatmeal packets all at once, and that was so easy!  I make the French toast sticks with a free sample recipe I got from 30 Day Gourmet. They are very good, but I tend to make them without orange juice, just 'cause it's not something I keep on hand. Milk works beautifully, and I usually add in some instant powdered milk to add a little more calcium.  I froze each serving in zipper sandwich bags, then put them all into a couple of gallon freezer bags.  Very convenient!  Last week I made 3-4 weeks worth of scones and froze them. I also made a big batch of breakfast cookies, but I hate to say, they were incredibly popular and I don't have any left lol!  Here is a recipe card I made with the Orange Poppyseed Scone recipe I used - and it rocks!  



Chris, of Heavenly Scraps, was very graciously allowed me to offer this card that I made using paper from her "Rainbowz" kit.  The title font is Boingo, and the recipe font is Ziggy Zoe, and I made the paper that the ingredients are on. If you would like the full-sized 4x6 card, it is available HERE.

I will be posting more recipe cards as I get permission from the designers whose products I have used.  My plan is to print them up at Costco, then put them in one of the photo albums that has openings for 3 photos per page.  I am going to have a breakfast section, a lunch section, and a section for each week of dinners.  

Well, it's looking like naptime for me - I have been SO exhausted the past couple of days!  This two little ones have been running fevers, so I wonder if we don't all have some kind of minor bug...

Tuesdays are hard work

Well, today was just nonstop for me! I woke up to the kids fighting. Sighhhhhh.... Gotta love living with a 3 year old. While making my breakfast, I used the last of the yogurt I made Friday, so I had to start another batch. Not difficult at all, however, it is slightly time consuming to sterilize everything. So my thermometer is registering boiling water as being 160 degrees F.  Yeah, not even close!  So I snagged Adron's thermometer from his home brewing equipment, and went back to making my yogurt.  Then Noah went down for his morning nap - woohoo!  Next step was coloring my hair.  Got that started, then sat down to check my emails.  Got sidetracked by IMing with Rebekah, my middle sister.  Finished coloring my hair just before Noah woke up.  I got him dressed, and we hit the road.

Next step was stopping at Rite Aid to buy razors (great deal on Schick Quattro disposables there, btw lol!), and started talking to the cashier.  She was incredibly neat to talk to, and by the time I left, we had swapped numbers.  Then I headed over to my Weight Watchers meeting.  I was about 30 minutes early, and since Noah tends to get antsy if we sit still for too long, we walked down to Tuesday Morning and picked up an oven thermometer.  Walked back to WW, weighed in, and was up 2 lbs.  Ugh!  The kiddos did pretty well at the meeting today, so I rewarded them with the cookies I picked up at Rite Aid.  Came home and started cooking lunch (aka reheating leftovers).  Deb, my baby sister, joined us, and as soon as we got done eating, we went running errands.  

First stop was Hobby Lobby to pick up the door prize for my smocking guild meeting.  Found a cool needlework travel organizer and some pretty varigated floss.  Wandered through the store a bit more, then headed to Walgreens.  I got some amazing deals on a few things there, then we headed home.  I dropped off Deb and the kids, then ran back out to Schnucks to get something to make to take to the meeting tonight, as I had signed up for snacks.  I wound up grabbing some diet orange soda, SF orange Jello, FF Cool Whip, 2 bricks of Neufchatel cheese, a box of graham crackers, a box of those pretzel/crackers, a bag of semisweet chocolate chips, and a tub of ice cream.  I still wasn't entirely sure what I was taking to the meeting, but I knew I had options.

I got back home and started making pizza, our every Tuesday night dinner.  This week was BBQ turkey pizza - YUM!  Then I melted the chocolate chips while I mixed up peanut butter, confectioners sugar, graham cracker crumbs, and melted butter, then pressed it into a 13x9.  Poured the melted chocolate on the top, and stuck it in the freezer to chill before I left.  I also had Madeline help me mix a packet of onion soup mix into the Neufchatel, and when it was blended, I rolled it into a ball and covered it with chopped walnuts.  Then I wrapped it in plastic wrap and stuck it in the freezer, too, to firm it up.  About then, the pizza was done, so we sat down and wolfed it so I could hurry up and leave for my meeting.  Well, but the time I finally got out the door I was running a little behind.  Then I had to call and get Madeline to bring out the crackers I left inside.    I headed off, and 3 houses down, realized that I had forgotten the darn door prize!  Ack!  So I ran in, wrapped it, and ran right back out.  Got to the meeting safely, and sat down to enjoy it.

First order of business was a program on silk ribbon embroidery.  Then we had a nice long business meeting where it was established that our guild's bylaws had been misplaced some years ago, and we needed some direction.  So I volunteered to help out on the bylaw committee...  Then we finally got to the snacks, and the cheeseball was a particular hit!  Yeah!  I took the Anna ripoffs I made last week and showed those in the sew and show portion of the meeting.  

Once I got home, I nursed Noah and put him in bed.  Then I got on here ready to post, but my dumb router was acting ugly!  Grrrrr!  So I had Adron fix it while I got our obligatory Tuesday night ice cream.  I enjoyed that while I started typing, and now I think I'm ready for bed lol!  

Hmmmmmmm.....  I have no idea why I'm so tired......

The plan tomorrow is to get the house straightened up, drop off my crockpot at Madeline's school, and get some sewing done.  Oh, and I have a bit of scrapping that needs to be done by Thursday night, too.  That sounds strangely like a slow day - wouldn't that be nice!!!

Ok, to start off with a bang (two posts in one day!  WOOHOOO!!!), here are some pics of 2 dresses I made for Ellie the other day.  I am totally in love with Farbenmix's "Anna" pattern. Oh, you don't speak German? Yeah, me either, but Sewzanne's has the pattern and will send you a sew-along in English if you order the pattern from there. I am totally not affiliated with them, but Suzanne has been wonderful to order from in the past.

Anyway, for as much as I love the Anna dress, I just don't have the funds right now to buy another pattern, and I don't have the patience to wait for it to get here via snail mail, either lol! So, I did what any self-respecting designer wannabe would do, and I played around until I had drafted a pretty nifty rip-off of my own. I am really happy with the results, but I think I'm going to play around with the hem some more the next time I make one. It is a little big on her, but I think I'm okay with that :o)

Here is the 1st attempt:



And my 2nd attempt, which is fully reversible. 3 sides are floral prints, one is sushi. I will have to get a pic of that later, as Ellie, much to my dismay, strongly prefers the florals. Did I mention that she picked these fabrics out by herself when she was 1? Yeah, my kid is a fabric freak just like her mommy!




Allright, I've played enough for now - I have SO got to make my grocery list! I usually do my shopping over the weekend, but Audrey was in town, and I had too much other stuff going on, so now I get to do it with the two littles in tow... I am praying that there is a "car basket" available at Kroger today!

Here I am, rockin' like a hermit crab!

You've heard that song by the Scorpions - starts off something like "It's early morning, the sun comes out..."? Yeah, well I found out what the "real" lyrics are for the chorus!

"Here I am (dah-dah DAH DAH DAH) rockin' like a hermit crab (dah-dah DAH DAH DAH)
Here I am (dah-dah DAH DAH DAH) rockin' like a hermit crab!"

Dear, sweet Ellie, who will be 4 in July, was singing along while Adron was playing Guitar Hero on the Wii. I thought that I heard something about a hermit crab, and was rather confused until she explained it to me. I told her that I thought it was actually supposed to be "rock you like a hurricane", and she gave me the funniest look. I haven't laughed so hard in ages! I love it when the kids come up with random stuff like that!


So this is another attempt at a blog - one I hope to actually keep up with. Not a blog dedicated to scrapping, sewing, children, or any other one topic, but one that encompasses my whole life and all the things that make me "ME"! I know I will probably never be one to post daily, but my hope is that I will start to journal the daily events of my life and post them here several times a week. I will be sharing sewing projects, recipes, a little altered art and my digiscrapping, along with everything else I would like to remember.

To anyone who is reading this, thank you for taking the time out of your day to stop and read my ramblings! I hope you are able to take something from this blog to make your life just a little bit brighter :o)

P.S. I am very aware that I have a horrible tendency to overuse exclamation points, so if this bothers you, close your eyes and run for your life!!!