Another contest!

So, one wasn't enough.... I saw that Faith Sisters was having a designer call for their birthday bash. While I'm terribly new at designing, I love their store, and just couldn't pass up the opportunity :o) I am pretty happy with how this little kit turned out - but I know I've still got a long way to go to get to where I would like to be. If you wanna go check it out, you can click on the preview to go to the gallery for the link. And if you wanted to vote for me, I would really appreciate it lol! Oh, and while you're there, be sure to check out all the awesome kits in the gallery lol!



Have a great day - I'm planning to post again tomorrow... The past couple of weeks have been nuts with all the school stuff we've had going on! I doubt if the coming weeks will be much better, but I'm getting a litte better grasp on managing my time ;o)

Final round of Teachers Pet

So, despite being eliminated in round 1, the fabulous ladies over at Funky Playground Designs let me stick around and learn from them. The last challenge was to do a collab kit, and they assigned me an incredibly fun and cool partner. Lynn and I have put together this kit for you - click on the preview to be taken to the gallery :o)



I also made an alpha to put in, and figured I'd go ahead and make the lower case letters, the symbols, and the numbers, too. The uppercase is in the kit, but you can get the rest by clicking on the alpha preview.



Sorry about the super dorky preview on the alpha - I thought it might help if you could see it LOL! Then again, the way that preview looks, I'm not sure if anyone would *want* to download it lol!

Wow, I am SO tired!

I am really fortunate to be a member the wonderful Memphis chapter of the Smocking Arts Guild of America (SAGA). This week, Claudia Newton came and spent 3 days sharing her vast wealth of knowledge with us! Wow is all I can say! She is absolutely amazing, sweet, and is an incredible teacher :o) I can't find a webpage for her, but her work is simply gorgeous! Thursday night, our class was on Italian hemstitching, Friday we worked on a whitework sampler, and yesterday we did a notebook class on making scalloped edges. Holy cow! Talk about intense lol! Thursday was 6-10, Friday was 10-5 and dinner afterwards, and Saturday was 9-4. I actually broke down and cried when I got home Friday, just from sheer exhaustion. By yesterday morning, my brain had turned to mush, and my stitching looked horrible. I gave up, and figured I can work on the projects another time... I worked the whitework sampler on a sample piece of fabric, and feel like I am comfortable enough to move on to the piece of linen that will be the actual finished piece. I absolutely love Claudia's teaching style - she had everything in powerpoint and showed it on a large projector screen as she described what each figure represented. Then, she sat down and demonstrated for us. After that she would walk around the room and help each of us individually as needed. I'm such a visual learner, and when someone just *tells* me what to do, I'm lost. I really feel like I got more out of these classes than I have from any of the other wonderful teachers we've had in the past. The moral to this story? If you are interested in creating beautiful hand embroidery and have a chance to go to a Claudia Newton class, by all means JUMP ON IT!!! On top of it all, she is incredibly sweet!

Other than that, I've been busy with the kids and their schools. Audrey needed to be in band, so I went up to the school Tuesday to get her schedule switched around. I entered about 250 new PTA members into the computer for Madeline's school, and then I had my class. I BARELY had time to complete my round 3 submission for Funky Playground's Teacher's Pet program. I didn't have time to make an add-on for it, but if you would like to get it, you can check it out here.



I've got to get to church - have a wonderful Sunday!

Quickie post!

Super quick post for now - Adron and the big girls are wanting to watch a movie, but I thought I'd upload these papers to go with my element pack in the gallery at Funky Playground Designs.

Click on preview to download the paper pack - I hope you enjoy it!

A litte freebie for you

So, I figured I could give away a little add-on to my Teachers Pet submission :) I've had way too much fun designing this and want to try another kit - with a totally different style. Stay tuned to see what I come up with next LOL!



Link expired.

The sweet vintage photos are not included in kit.

Enjoy!

I Can Not Believe It!

I totally just entered a design contest - and am so very nervous! I like the kit I made, but it is so different from all the others. The theme was "trendy", and I seriously feel like I was in a totally different Trendville from all the other contestants! Not that I don't like what I came up with, just that mine was inspired somewhat by altered art, and, well, theirs weren't. Ah well, it is what it is, and if you want my kit - or any of the others - check 'em out here! You do need to sign up for the newsletter to get the password to unzip the files, and you can do that here. There are tons of gorgeous kits, and some from some very well known designers, too! My kit is here - I would love some feedback on it :)



Gotta run for now - here's a quick couple of pictures of the outfit I made for Noah last week! He was mad that I was trying to take his picture, but once I showed him how silly he looked, he started smiling for me ;o) I appliqued a square of clear vinyl on the front, and put the plastic lizard in just before the last stitches were sewn.

It's been a couple of days

I figured after 4 days in a row, I had to take a little time off so I could look like a self-respecting slacker ROFLOL!

I finally finished Ellie's birthday dress!!!! Woohoo! She wore it to church yesterday, but I totally spaced on taking pictures. Meant to do that today, but it was too hot to do anything. I mean, at 10 am, it was over 100 degrees! Eek! That is just silly! Maybe I will get motivated to go out and do something fun with the kiddos tomorrow, as most everything is free on Tuesday afternoons. If so, I can dress her up and snap a couple pictures to share here.

On a cooking note - I made a few recipes this week that have been amazing! I have done up a couple of recipe cards for a chili recipe I made yesterday, and the Core-n Bread recipe I made to go with it. The chili was super easy to make, and everyone liked it! I got the chili going before I made the corn bread, as I figured that the extra cooking time would make the chili even better. I also used a little browning sauce on the turkey, and I managed to make myself think it tasted pretty beefy LOL! Here are the cards - I used Krystal Hartley's "True to Yourself" kit for both of these cards. Let me know if you try the recipes and like them - I modified the core-n bread recipe slightly. To see the original, click here.





Click on previews to download.

Just call me "Butter"...

Four days in a row! Wow, this is a total record for me lol! Of course, today is Angel's fault - she tagged me ;o) Thanks, girlie, you made my day!

So, here are 6 unimportant things about me...

1.) I love punk! I started listening to skater music when I was 13 (Suicidal Tendencies and Exploited), and now listen to all kinds of stuff, but punk is still my favorite. Blink 182 is one of my all-time favorite bands.

2.) Along the same lines, I love the rockabilly, psychopunk style, although I just can't figure out how to pull that look off. I am, however, plotting something along those lines to wear in the very near future....

3.) I am addicted to a few things. Gum, fabric, and digital scrapbooking. Not necessarily in that order though ;o)

4.) I am the VP of Membership for Madeline's school PTA, but I have only ever been to *2* PTA meetings my whole life! I went once when Audrey was in kindergarten or 1st grade, and then again the last meeting of this past school year. Mostly, I wasn't able to go because I was working evenings, and when I wasn't working, I homeschooled. This is my 1st year on the board.

5.) I totally hate having blue eyes! I have bought several different brands of brown contact lenses only to discover that my eyes are shaped oddly, and it looks really creepy with the color floating over part of my pupil...

6.) I'm not really a redhead. I swear I must have a dominant red hair gene (that just didn't show up), but my hair is naturally blonde. But since my skin is pasty white, and three of my four kids have red hair, everone assumes it's my natural color! LOL!

So there you have it. 6 totally insignificant things about me, yet they are so much of who I am! And in return, I am tagging

Stephanie (Bootz)
Tammy
Chris

I'm working on a couple more recipe cards right now, and have a few of my favorite LOs that I am thinking about posting. Aw, shoot, I'll just go ahead and show you a couple of them! They aren't all brand new, but they are some of my very favorite LOs ever. Click on the LO to be taken to the credits.

I took this one of Ellie looking all grown up at the Children's Museum.



Noah sure does love his sister! Actually, he likes to lie on all of us, and it cracks me up. He's a sweet little guy.



I'm particularly poroud of this one - I took this picture in my front yard this spring!



I just love this picture of Noah. I took it when he was pretty sick, and had lost 25% of his weight, which is why he looks so gaunt and has dark circles under his eyes. He looked so sweet and sad!



Audrey and Madeline were blowing bubbles, and they just seemed like they needed wings lol!


Did this one for a challenge, but I'm not sure if I like it or not...


I did this one for the same challenge as the one above - I like it better lol!


And here is a card I made for Adron for Valentine's Day :o)


That's enough for one day, I guess lol! I have a few more that I love and will put up eventually...

I'm being such a good little blogger this week lol!

I've retired my computer chair. I've decided that I don't get nearly enough exercise, so in order to make sitting more productive, less inviting, and more fun, I replaced my chair with a fitness ball! Adron was laughing at me last night for sitting here bouncing all night lol, but I was, pardon the pun, having a ball!

I made a Core chocolate cake last night, and it was divine! Not a light, fluffy cake, but it had a more muffin-like texture. I can totally see this made with all kinds of variations. Of course, since it's a keeper, I had to make a recipe card for it. I used pieces from DSO's Scrap Journal kit. Pink paper by Mel C, brown paper by Trivettes Designs, cream paper by Livia Y, ribbon by Mel C, book by Nikki Fabulous Designs, alpha by Livia Y, and the font is Tracy. I'm not sure who made the stitching, as the file was named "stitching.png" and had no TOU with it :( I hate it when that happens! Anyway, without further adieu, here it is!



Click on image to download

You know, I'm looking at the cards I've shared here, and it hit me that they all look about alike! Not that it is the end of the world, I suppose, but I'm going to have to look into a different layout for the next one lol! Ah well, at least I have changed up the colors and all LOL!

It's getting late, so I'm off to bed - I hope someone out there can benefit from this recipe!

Hey there!

We had a really great holiday weekend!

Friday, Ellie and Madeline were in a 4th of July parade, then we went to Adron's parent's house and spent the afternoon with them.  We had a great time - the kids swam, and we sat around talking lol!  The parade was the 1st one Ellie has been in, and she was stinkin' cute!  I was so proud of her - she was the tiniest one out there, and one of her coaches had to carry her for about 5 minutes, but she did a great job.  It seems that somewhere around the parade route, she started missing her mommy!  Poor little thing!    Here's a LO I did of the one picture I got - there were so many parents walking with the kids that I couldn't get any pictures.  I lucked out on this one, but it's pretty grainy.  Grrrrrr!  Ah well...



{Click picture for credits}

Saturday, we piddled around the house, and Adron started brewing some beer. Sunday, I went to church, then had to go get the littles from Adron, who was finishing up his beer brewing with some friends. We went over to my brother's house for a cookout celebrating his engagement to my awesome friend Boots, then we went out for Ellie's birthday dinner. Quite a busy weekend, to be sure, but it was so much fun!

I can't believe my little Ellie will be FOUR tomorrow! Ack! I guess I had better get upstairs and finish the dress I've been working on for a couple of months now lol!

Oh, I do have a recipe card, too! I nearly forgot lol! I have started doing Weight Watcher's Core plan, and am really liking it so far. I am determined to get this excess weight off for good! I want to be healthy so I can enjoy my kiddos ;o) Anyway, this one is for Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches. Not completely Core, but the Points are minimal, and they are SOOOOOOOO yummy! Oh, credits are here.



Download HERE

Enjoy!

It's been quite a busy few days here.  It seems like that is the norm, but I suppose that is a good thing.  Madeline's team won 2nd place at state, sending us to nationals in July, Audrey came home with us, and we are enjoying her being here, and I've just been playing catch up on the laundry, cooking, and cleaning.

It seems that there is a PTA meeting tonight, but not only do I have no idea what time it is, I'm not too sure where it is LOLOLOL!  Thankfully, one of the girls on the board also goes to the same Weight Watchers meeting I attend.  She told me about the meeting and emailed me what little she knows about where it is - I just hope I can get ahold of her in time to find out when I am supposed to be there!  Ah well, nothing like going into this with no clue about what is going on, right?  I mean, my term starts next month and I am totally lost on what I am supposed to be doing... EEEKKKK!!!!

As for Weight Watchers, I did a good job of eating right last week, but I didn't lose anything.  At least I didn't gain, like MY scales said I did!  It's frustrating to do the right thing and get nowhere.  I really want to try the Core plan, but just can't afford to modify my grocery list to fit.  Not that Core has to be expensive, just that lean meats are twice the cost of fattier cuts, and we don't eat a whole lot of veggies right now.  I dunno.  Something has to give 'cause I am not going to keep paying good money to gain weight or stay the same!!!

Bootz (who I think is the only person reading my ramblings lol!)  came over last night to do some laundry, and she was asking for some of my dinner recipes.  I haven't put many of those on cards yet, but I'm working on it.  It was so awesome spending time with her!  She has been dating my brother for about a year and a half now, and I just love her to pieces!  She would make a great sister in law - she's fun, spunky, gorgeous, sassy, smart, and, most importantly, a devout Christian.  She is so young and full of a passion for life!  It is downright contagious, and she inspires me to try to be a better person!!!  Steph - I LOVE YOU!!!!  Thank you so much for being such a special part of my life, for being best friends with my sister, for loving my obnoxious sweet brother, for spoiling my kids, and for providing a great home for "the cat"! Just thinking about you makes me smile!

I've done a few LOs in the past couple of days, but haven't had time to upload them to photobucket yet.  I'll try to get that done when I get home tonight.  I was working on a LO for a challenge over at Snap & Scrap, but PSP decided to lock up on me. I'm really liking how this one is turning out though. I haven't been terribly pleased with my LOs recently. I feel like I have lost my scrappin' mojo LOL! Nothing seems to flow, even though I love the kits and pictures I've been working with. Must be a case of the Junes hitting me...

Off to the meeting!

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!!!!!

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.

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...