goshery

This blog has moved!!

2011-10-23T19:50:00.000-05:00

Hi! I wanted to thank you for visiting my blog and share some exciting news! I’m pleased to announce that I have a new and improved blog!

Please visit my new blog at: www.goshery.typepad.com/goshery

One of the reasons I moved to a new blog platform is to offer my readers a better experience with more clickable links to quickly find what they are looking for and an improved comment function. I’ve heard from many of you that it’s difficult to leave comments and hopefully this change will improve that experience.

Thanks again for following my blog and please take a few minutes to view the new site!

Nancy
shop: http://www.goshery.etsy.com/

welcome!

2011-10-21T07:20:00.000-05:00

I'm excited to announce that today I am the guest blogger on Lupin Handmade! Lupin Handmade features wonderful items created from felt including flowers, bird brooches, felt flower hairbands / headbands, masks and disguises and other felt treats, plus felt squares and other colourful sewing supplies.

If you are visiting from Lupin Handmade . . . welcome to goshery! I made these cupcakes just for you!

More exciting news: I recently listed two new items in my Etsy shop; both listings are for paper flowers in two different color schemes. I made the blue and yellow flowers and photographed them for my new blog banner and since they turned out so cute I made some more in maroon and yellow. You can see them in my shop here and here.

The flower embellishments measure approximately 1.75" and would be an excellent addition to a scrapbook page or handmade card. You may remember these flowers because the last time I made them I won the Handmade Accents Sweepstakes from Creating Keepsakes. You can read about that here.

My new blog is coming together slow but sure. I can't wait to share it with you!

documenting fall

2011-10-12T18:25:00.000-05:00

photo taken by me at the MN Landscape Arboretum

Here in Minnesota we have had a beautiful fall season. The only complaint might be that's it's been so hot, but no one really wants to say that out loud! Following 8 straight days in the 80's (in October!) today is cool and rainy and I think our extended summer-like weather has come to an end.

Have you been enjoying the fall weather and fall colors where you live? If so, I hope you are bringing your camera along and taking lots of pictures. It's such a beautiful time of year and it's great to capture those memories.

Speaking of documenting fall, just a reminder that this mini album kit is available in my Etsy shop.

It is full of the colors of fall and would be a great way to document a trip to an apple orchard, visits to the pumpkin patch or even the fun costumes you see on Halloween, which is how I used the album.

This mini album kit and includes lots of stickers, die cuts, ribbon, etc. so you can print your photos and have this album ready to display super quick. Love that.

working weekend

2011-10-09T14:31:00.000-05:00

I've been spending the weekend working on a blog re-design just for you! Actually for me too, because I'm kind of tired of the look of my blog!

I'm taking an online class from Elise Blaha, who is a gifted crafter and blogger. I'm excited to be "working" with her and so far I have been very impressed with the class content, her teaching method (which includes text, photos, videos and handouts) and her quick response to questions.

The class involves some coding. Ugh. I've had very limited exposure to coding and report writing and they are certainly not "my thing". I'm making progress though, and I've found that when I get stuck it helps to take a break and come back to it fresh.

This class has also pushed me to use my Photoshop software which I still find incredibly confusing. I'm making progress there too; I have successfully edited photos and made several different blog banners all using the software this weekend. YAY me!

I have another week of classes ahead of me and then I hope to have the new blog ready for you! Watch for an announcement here!

paper

2011-10-07T19:52:00.003-05:00

As much as I love paper, storing it can be a real a challenge. You may remember that I bought this armoire to store craft supplies, including paper:

I love it, and it holds a lot of craft supplies, but it wasn't working that great for paper. I had all of my paper in vertical paper holders and they just barely fit on the shelf in the armoire. Because it was quite dark inside the armoire I always needed to take each paper holder out in order to see what I was looking for, which was a real pain.

Another problem in my craft area was in a corner of the room where I had stacked several plastic drawer units. It looked messy and it was hard to get the drawers open because of the weight of multiple units stacked on top of one another. Here's what it looked like:

In order to solve both of these problems I decided to buy 12" x 12" stackable paper trays, which would store my paper but keep it more visible. I ordered 20 stackable trays but I knew that I would need something to set them on so that I could see the paper in the bottom tray without laying on the floor.

Luckily I found a table that was small enough to fit in the space but large enough to hold the trays. I actually found two tables - and I have no idea what I'll do with the taller table but it was so cute I just had to have it. Here's a look at both tables:

Cute, right? I'm not crazy about the color of the taller table but once I decide where I'm going to use it I can give it a quick coat of paint and it will be awesome. The shorter table is the one that I bought for my stackable paper trays.

I sorted my paper by color or theme and when the trays arrived I was excited to get that corner of my room looking better. Here's a look at that corner now:

As you can see, the table fits perfectly and the trays are almost all full. To be honest I have a lot of paper that's not in these trays - tablets of paper that I haven't taken apart. I still might do that, but I kind of like having those tablets all in one piece because it's nice to have a whole tablet of coordinated paper for larger projects. We'll see, I may end up taking them apart yet. I was able to fit one of the plastic drawer units under the table and the other two fit nicely under my desk.

Freeing up a whole shelf in the armoire allowed me to fit some miscellaneous supplies inside rather than piled on the floor. Now that I'm more organized I hope to actually get some crafting done!

it was good.

2011-09-26T19:27:00.004-05:00

THE WEEKEND was good.

There was crafting.

There was yardwork.

There were walks and bike rides and naps and football and friends and egg salad and organization and laundry and sleep.

Yep, it was GOOD.

story telling.

2011-09-24T09:47:00.000-05:00

Who doesn't love a good story? I sure do! I tend to creating stories in my head when I'm doing other things, like taking a walk, doing dishes, mowing lawn, riding a snowmobile, etc. I don't even realize I'm doing it most of the time; I'll just be going along doing my thing and then realize that I just created a story.

I used to do a lot of snowmobiling through the Minnesota wilderness and I loved to pretend that I was on some great adventure, or in a race, or in a movie. When our group would stop along the trail I would tell them the story I created, and then when we would start up again I would continue my story or maybe start a new one.

I was thinking about this last night as I went for a walk. The end of my walk takes me through a beautiful park in my neighborhood, down a giant hill and then back up (the hard part). I listen to music while I walk and there's a certain song I like to listen to as I go up the hill because it sets just the right pace to get me up the hill without having a near death experience. Sometimes I need to pace around at the bottom of the hill waiting for the song to start (Elton John's Philadelphia Freedom). The problem is that there's a creek at the bottom of the hill and I think it's creepy! It's very overgrown and dark and I always worry that I'm going to see a dead body floating in the water. I know! Crazy, but that's the story in my head! Here's what the area looks like:

Isn't it creepy? It smells too.

Most of my stories are much more upbeat and Bruce Springsteen seems to be in a lot of them, but this one is clearly a bit dark. And no, the dead body in my story is NOT The Boss.

Remember the typewriter?

2011-09-21T18:30:00.000-05:00

Do you remember the typewriter? Did you take typing class when you were in school?

When I was in high school we had to take typing class; I think it was for one semester. Half of our time in the class was spent using an electric typewriter and the other half of the class was spent on a manual typewriter. Using a manual typewriter was the worst!

I realize that you now know (if you didn't already) that I'm old.

I recently received some old instruction manuals from typing class. My mom was cleaning at her house and came across these old manuals which she knew I would want. She was right.

A few days ago I was looking through one of the books and thought it would be fun to make some cards using pages from one of the books. I made a total of four cards:

The typewriter on all of the cards is cut from a Cricut. I don't have the cartridge but a friend of mine does so every time I have access to it I cut a bunch out because I love it!!

These cards are available in my Etsy shop. Also, if you plan a visit to the pumpkin patch or an apple orchard this fall you might want to document your fall photos in this mini album, also available in my shop.

The album also works well to document Halloween, which is when I used it for. The album is 4 x 6 and has a total of 7 double sided pages made from patterned paper. The album also comes with stickers, die cuts, ribbon, etc. Everything you need to document fall is included in this album.

Sewing 101

2011-09-18T10:08:00.002-05:00

I've been working on putting my Week in the Life album together, slowly for sure. As a reminder, I documented one week in my life with photos and journaling back in July along with Ali Edwards and lots of other scrapbookers.

As I started laying out my album I decided to make 4 journaling cards for each day; one for each of the following:

gratitude
favorite moment
overheard
observations

I typed all of the journaling and cut the cards into the size I needed to fit into my page protector, which is a 9 pocket protector like a baseball card page protector. Once I had them all printed and cut I decided to sew a line on each journaling card as an accent. This required me to get out my sewing machine. I would consider myself a novice sewer. I have made a few aprons and one chef hat (I needed help with that!) and I once made myself a dress - a maternity dress. By the time I had it done I was far too pregnant to fit into it, but I did wear it home from the hospital.

Because of my lack of experience this is what typically happens when I start sewing:

That's the instruction manual that came with my machine, and it gets a lot of use. My struggle this particular day was the bobbin; for some reason I could not get it to work! I tried many times (see the pile of thread up inthe left hand corner of the picture?) and then I consulted my manual and eventually figured it out.

I got my sewing done as you can see in this photo. My goal wasn't to have perfect looking straight lines, I wanted them to look kind of messy. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! I decided to put the four journaling blocks all together in the same place for every day of the week. That could change as I continue to work on the book.

When I pulled one of the journaling blocks out of the page protector to sew on it I accidently pulled out the photo behind it and didn't realize it until I had done the sewing. So now this photo has the back side of my sewing efforts on it, which certainly wasn't my plan but I can live with it!

I will continue to share my album as I work on it . . . I hope to eventually get it done! I think once I get a plan in place it will go quickly, but as usual the plan it taking a while.

nature inspired.

2011-09-10T11:59:00.000-05:00

It's September in Minnesota and it's going to be 90 degrees today. What the heck? I'm not complaining though, because next week we will have highs in the 60's so I'm soaking up the last few days of warm weather. On my schedule today . . . hanging laundry on the line and crafting.

I started my day with a walk, and found this on my journey:

Looks like fall to me! Although there are a few trees that have turned colors it's not the norm and I think we have some time before the fall colors hit their peak.

Outside my kitchen window I have an ant superhighway! It's the strangest thing! I don't know why but I have had lots of ants in my yard this summer and they seem to be using this black edging as their path from one ant hill to the next.

You wouldn't believe how long it took me to get this many ants in one picture. There are tons of ants going back and forth, but every time I raised my camera there wouldn't be any ants in my shot. So it may not look like much but trust me, it really is a busy "road".

I haven't done much crafting this summer but I did make a bunch of tags (50) for an Etsy friend that was making gift bags for her class reunion this summer (what a great idea!). She asked if I wanted to send her something to put in the gift bags as advertisement so I made these cute little tree tags with my Etsy shop name on the back.

I used some left over paper and ribbon so that's why they aren't all the exact same. It was a fun, easy project that hopefully brings more visitors to my shop.

My goal today is to make as many cards as possible. I have an outstanding IOU to my mom for a variety of cards and I also want to make some to sell at a fundraiser tomorrow. I'm planning to use some of the card ideas I posted here earlier this summer and use up as much scrap patterned paper as possible because I just have too much! And it's so cute!

Hope you are having a great day!

Week in the Life - Friday and Saturday

2011-08-18T18:03:00.000-05:00

Hi! Sorry for the extended absence. I was on such a roll posting my WITL photos every day, but then things got crazy around here! Over the course of a few days we had several relatives arrive from a variety of states! My Aunt arrived from Texas, then a few days later my Aunt & two cousins arrived from Colorado and then just a few days later my step-sister and her husband arrived from Arizona. Those arrivals were followed by days and days of family fun!

When it was all said and done I was tired! Then came the realization that having dinner at my parent's house every day was o-v-e-r and suddenly I had to cook for myself. And open the mail. And mow the lawn. And do some laundry. In other words, get back into the swing of things and that took me about a week!

Now that things are back to normal around here I wanted to finish up the photo sharing portion of Week in the Life and then I need to move into the creating an album portion. As a reminder, I started my Week in the Life documentation on a Sunday, and my last post was my Thursday photos, so here are Friday and Saturday.

Friday and the end of the work week is always a good thing. I snapped this photo as I drove home from work. I loved the contrast of blue, green and white. Such a pretty sky!

I was excited to find this package waiting for me! It contained my Hambly overlays. I'll use some of them in my WITL album and some for a future project.

It was a nice night so I decided to grill some pork chops for dinner.

While they were cooking I admired my flowers and my brand new purple mushroom! A friend gave it to me and I just love it.

After dinner I washed a few dishes. I have a dish washer, but sometimes you just need to wash a few things by hand. Especially when you have super cute gloves like me!!

I spent much of Saturday mowing my lawn using this Toro lawn mower that I have had for about 18 years. It takes me about 3 hours to mow the whole lawn, which means that I get lots of exercise.

Since it was a very hot day I took lots of breaks, sitting in the garage in front of a fan. It felt great! I was doing laundry and hanging it on the line and my laundry basket quickly became a foot stool.

While I was in the back yard I looked over at the corn field behind my house and noticed how tall the corn has grown. Nothing says "Kodak moment" like a field of corn, right?

It was late afternoon by the time I had the whole lawn done and I caught the sun peeking through a tree. Then it was off to the shower - did I mention it was really hot out??

So, that's the end of my WITL documentation. I have my album, my page protectors, the Hambly overlays and a few other things all ready to go. My photos should arrive in the next day or two and I'm excited to get to work on the album.

Fun Thursday - Week in the Life

2011-07-29T15:37:00.000-05:00

Thursday was a good day and I'm glad that I was documenting it for Week in the Life. I'm starting to get really excited about printing my photos and putting my album together. This is a pretty brave statement when you consider that I don't have the album or the page protectors! I ordered everything earlier this week so I expect them to arrive any day. On with Thursday.

Work: lots of typing and doing. Busy day.

We had a visitor at the office - this adorable little girl is the 2 month old daughter of an employee. They came to visit and she was super sweet! Look at that face!

It was a theme day at our company - we have them every once in a while just for fun. The plan was to dress up as a baseball player - MN Twins if possible - and all of the employees would vote for their favorite outfit. The top two vote getters won MN Twin's coolers. Here are the winners! Out of 60 employees about 50 wore some sort of baseball attire which made it a lot of fun. There was also a potluck with lots of good food.

I wore my Twins t-shirt - I'm pictured here with my friend / co-worker.

Lunch: eaten at my desk while reading Ali's blog.

I spent part of the evening weeding my flower bed and snapped a few flower photos like this one.

The past two days I've taken way more photos than I thought I would. It's been fun! I have found myself explaining what I'm doing to people that look at me funny as I take photos of everyday things. Has that happened to you? Do you explain? Everyone that has heard about the project seems to think it is a fun idea and I have to agree.

Only two more days of documentation to go. This weekend I hope to order my photos online and also come up with a design plan and get some journaling cards made. I decided to use my own design rather than using Ali's so hopefully I can get a plan ready so I can work on my book next week.

Week in the Life - Wednesday

2011-07-28T12:03:00.003-05:00

Wow! Wednesday was a long, busy day for me and it was kind of fun to document! Rather than going home after working at my day job as a Human Resources Manager I drove 45 minutes to a much bigger town to run errands. Here are some pictures from my Wednesday:

At work :: reading through suggestions employees put in the suggestion box

Ran home mid-morning to meet with an insurance adjuster after recent storm damage. That's the ladder he used to inspect my roof for hail damage. No damage - YAY!

Back at work, doing my annual pay range review in preparation for year end.

After my manicure/pedicure :: sitting in the store parking lot waiting for my toes to dry so I could put on my sandals and go shopping

Home Depot :: lots of organizational items were purchased for my garage project!

clock in my car :: 9 pm and I'm driving home

It was a full day! My evenings are usually spent at home - especially now that my daughter is grown up and on her own. However, when I do go to run errands I try to run as many as possible in one night, which means that I get home late.

All of the pictures I'm taking this week are uploaded to my computer each night and filed by day. I have a main Week in the Life folder and then a sub-folder for each day. Along with taking pictures I'm also completing two documents that Ali provided everyone to use each day. One of the documents is simply an hour by hour sheet to write down what you did, and the other document has room for 4 items: observations, overheard, gratitude and favorite moment. I'm trying to write everything down during the day on the hourly sheet and then complete the 2nd sheet at night.

So here's my favorite moment for Wednesday. After all of my errands I stopped at Leann Chin to get some sesame chicken for dinner; it was 8:30 and I was starving. I walked in wearing black capri's and a zebra print top. The young man working got a big smile on his face and said, "look at you in your zebra print shirt. You got it goin' on!!" Here I am when I got home - tired but trying to look like I did indeed have it goin' on. Which I do not!!

I love Week in the Life - it is so much fun!

Week in the Life - I'm in!

2011-07-26T21:31:00.000-05:00

This week I'm participating in a project called Week in the Life, a concept Ali Edwards came up with several years ago. The idea is to document a typical week in your life in pictures and words, and then use that documentation to create an album. There are tons of people participating and you can see other participants documentation on Ali's blog.

The plan is that this week you do the documentation, and then next week you create the album. It requires some organization, which I love, and it's fun to do it with other people so that you stay motivated to get the project done. This year Ali teamed up with Big Picture Classes so participants can purchase a class for a great price - FREE - and then share their documention in a gallery and participate in a forum to share ideas and cheer each other on.

Today is Day 3 for me because I started on Sunday - some participants started on Saturday, some on Sunday and some on Monday. I chose Sunday because I was home all day and had more time to take photos, and I wanted to start strong so I didn't lose interest.

Here is a photo from each of the 3 days so far:

Day 1

I had to include laundry on the line! One of my favorite things.

Day 2

Monday, back to work.

Day 3

Feeding the fish

Get the idea? The hardest part for me is remembering to take pictures of every day activities. The first two days I took several pictures but today I only took about 8. Ali took over 100 photos! That would be a bit overwhelming for me!

I'll talk more about how I'm staying organized and the supplies I'm gathering in my next post.

Handmade Card #6 and #7

2011-07-20T21:39:00.002-05:00

That's right, double card day today! Put it this way, if I don't start showing you two cards a day this could go on and on!

Card #6 and #7 are very similar, so it seemed like a good idea to group them together. That sentence isn't even true . . . I typed it before I decided which cards to talk about. Let's start again. Card #6 and #7 are both birthday cards. Now that is a true sentence.

Card #6 features a cute little cupcake and the words "make a wish". I started with a white card base and covered the front with some bright green paper.

Next I cut out two frames - one is 3.25" of tan card stock and the other is 3" of a brown, green and white patterned paper. I layered the two and adhered them to the front of the card.

The cupcake comes from a birthday stamp set from American Crafts, and so does the sentiment and the little stars. I stamped the cupcake on to the same tan card stock and then carefully cut around it and used pop dots to add it to the card. I stamped the sentiment and stars on the tan card stock which I trimmed with the pinking blade on my paper cutter. Adhere that to the front of the card and this card is done!

Card #7 is another window card, which I talked about when I showed you Card #2. I used the same process here, so I won't repeat it.

I started with a white card base and added some green card stock to the front, then a piece of retro patterned paper.

I cut out a white frame using my Cricut (2.5") and stamped the sentiment using Leaf green pigment ink from American Crafts. I also brushed the edges with the ink, then I used pop dots to adhere the frame to the inside of the card.

Whew! Two more cards done and several more to go!

Handmade Card #4

2011-07-17T08:58:00.000-05:00

Today I'll show you a card I made without using my Cricut - shocking, right?! Card #4 is a get well card and it's truly one of a kind because I don't have the supplies to make more, although I could make something similar.

As usual, I started this card using a white card base. I covered the front with green grid patterned paper from Scenic Route.

The flower is a sticker that I've had for ages; sorry but I don't know the source on that.

I used a small flower punch to cut the two little flowers and then I added a black pop dot from Pebbles, Inc. to the center of each flower.

For the sentiment I typed "Get Well Soon" in Word using Ali Edward's handwriting font, printed it on yellow card stock and cut it out. Then I found some coordinating yellow patterned paper and cut a block just a bit larger then the sentiment block and added them both to the card. I also cut a strip of the yellow patterned paper to go across the top of the card. I used my pinking blade on my paper cutter when I cut the strip.

The inside of the card is blank since the sentiment is on the front.

Very easy card but one of my favorites, probably because of the colors which are bright and cheery. Hopefully the recipient of this card will love it too!

Handmade Card #3

2011-07-16T12:04:00.000-05:00

Today I'll add some variety and show you a more generic card rather than another birthday card.

I started with a white card base and covered the front with some pretty red & white patterned paper. Next I cut a smaller piece of white card stock, rounded the corners and placed it on top of the red & white paper.

Once again my Cricut played a big role in this card - the tree was cut using the Serenade cartridge. I cut the tree out at 3.5" because I wanted it to fill up most of the card. I adhered the card to the white cardstock using pop dots to give it some dimension.

This card could be used for many occasions - I stamped "with sincere sympathy" on the inside but it would also work well as a blank note card.

Card #3 was very simple because of my Cricut. It was a big purchase at $200, but I have definitely gotten my money's worth out of it in the 3 years I have owned it. The cartridges are faily expensive ($40-$60) but sometimes you can find them on sale. The Serenade cartridge that I used for this card was on sale for $9.99 and you will see more of the shapes from the cartridge in the days ahead.

More cards to come - stay tuned!

Handmade Card #2

2011-07-14T17:57:00.000-05:00

Thanks for the positive comments about Card #1 (I'm not being sarcastic - there were comments on FB just not here on my blog!). I appreciate your kind words.

Now for Card #2:

They aren't all birthday cards - I promise!

Card #2 is a birthday card with a cut out window. I needed to use a clear, plexi glass stand to photograph this card because when it was standing by itself it was very hard to get the vision. So, that's why you see what you see.

Moving on. I decided that I wanted to do a cut out window on this card, something I don't ever do, and by the time I was done I swore I wouldn't do it again! But I did, as you will see in the coming days. I will explain what made it so hard later in this post.

I again started with a white card base and then chose this fun green and brown floral paper from my stash. I used my Cricut to cut the window out of the patterned paper; I used the Accent Essentials cartridge and cut the window at 2.5". This was the easy part, because I just put the entire 12" X 12" piece of paper through my Cricut and then cut it to size afterward, centering the window.

The hard part came when I realized that I also needed to cut the window out of the card base. If you have used a Cricut you may agree that it's kind of hard to know exactly where the cut will end up on the paper you are using. You can move the blade anywhere you want, but once you press start you lose all control and the blade shifts this way and that while you stand and watch in horror! Dramatic, right? So I was confused about how to make that next cut. I gave it a try and had very bad results; the cut was not at all centered on the card base. On to Plan B, which was to attach the patterned paper to the base and then use it as a template to freehand cut the window out of the base. It worked - but there's nothing like watching the Cricut do the work so I was bummed that I couldn't figure it out. Oh well, I got the result I wanted in the end, it just wasn't the quickest way to get it done. I wouldn't want to do this if I was making multiple cards.

Once I conquered the window challenge the rest of the card was super easy. I used a balloon stamp from my American Crafts birthday set and stamped the balloons using green ink from Studio g.

Next I used some coordinating green cardstock and some white cardstock and cut a little banner. I free hand cut the strip and then just notched the end to make the banner shape. I used rub ons from Pebbles, Inc. for the Happy Birthday sentiment.

A little bit of adhesive to attach everything and Wa La - Card #2!

Need some cards?

2011-07-13T21:48:00.000-05:00

I have been on a card making spree and over the next several days I will show you some of the cards I have made along with information about the process I used to create the card. If you see something you like let me know! I don't have any of these cards listed in my Etsy shop but I can make more (in most cases) and would love to make them for you!

This is one of my favorite cards - I love the colors and the cheery sentiment.

To make this card I began by covering the front of a blank, white card with textured blue paper. Then I chose two coordinating patterned papers to place on top. I wanted them to be slightly smaller than the base so plenty of the pretty blue color showed. I free hand cut the wavy bottom; it took a few tries to get it just how I wanted it.

I used a Happy Birthday word stamp and separate frame stamp (both from a birthday set from American Crafts) to stamp the sentiment. I stamped both in red ink on blue & white grid paper from Scenic Route. I rounded the corners, and then placed the grid paper on a piece of red paper, also with rounded corners.

The final step was to cut out a flower using my Cricut. This flower is from the Accent Essentials cartridge; it is 1.75". I cut it out of the same blue paper as the base of the card and then I sewed a small red button on using red embroidery floss. The red button is from Fancy Pants.

Check back tomorrow for another card idea!

good times.

2011-07-09T10:32:00.001-05:00

Last night I had the absolute pleasure of hanging out with an old friend - we hadn't seen each other for 30 years!

We drank wine, looked at old photos, laughed, shared pictures of our kids, reminisced, smiled a lot and talked and talked and talked.

It was a very good night.

Garden Party

2011-06-27T18:25:00.003-05:00

I hosted a Garden Party at my house on Father's Day to honor my stepfather, Dan. I wanted to make it extra special for him because I was the only one of 5 children that was going to be around that day - everyone else either lives far away or had other plans. The fact that I was the only one that would be celebrating with him does not in any way reflect on his awesomeness so I set out to make it a special day for him. My step-sister lives in Arizona and we really planned the party together; she helped me plan the menu and gave me cooking advice. She also sent a card and gift for him and I wrapped the gift and had it all ready for him.

It all started with an invitation addressed to Dan and his "guest". This was followed by much merriment as we teased my mother about whether or not he would invite her as his guest or chose someone else. In the end, he chose her. See how smart he is? Here's the invitation:

The party took place in my garden of course! I live on a busy road and there's a bike/walking path that runs along one side of the house so it was a challenge to find a quiet, somewhat private location. The spot I chose worked out well - it was a nice level spot with some shade, perfect for eating and visiting. Here's a look at the party location, all ready for guests:

The table I used was my card table. I wish I would have had a cute little patio table and chairs but this worked just fine. I mowed the lawn the day before the party so it looked nice and my flower garden looked pretty although my clematis wasn't blooming yet (it just started blooming yesterday).

Here's a closer look at the table including some fresh flowers (not from my garden):

I bought the vintage tablecloth from a shop on Etsy and I used my favorite blue & yellow dishes. Here's a closer look at one table setting:

Each person had a plate, rolled silverware with a butterfly decoration, their own personal salt & pepper shakers and a glass of ice water with a slice of lime. I cut paper circles to use as glass covers to keep bugs out and cut a slit in the middle of each circle so that I could insert a straw. It was a bit breezy that day so I placed a small rock on top of the paper circle to keep it in place. By the end of the meal every one's rock had fallen into their glass of water!

My daughter, Emily, helped me prepare for the party; this photo shows her bringing a wheelbarrow full of beverages (a variety of beer and some bottled water).

The menu was beef, chicken and veggie kabobs, shown here on the grill, along with a salad and bread.

They tasted just as good as they look! I marinated the meat overnight in two separate marinades. For the chicken I used Terriyaki marinade and for the beef I used steak and chop marinade, both from Lawry's. I brushed the veggies with olive oil and sprinkled them with salt and pepper.

For dessert we had cupcakes, which are shown in this photo:

I used two separate cake plates, one stacked on top of the other, and then inserted an upside-down wine glass in the middle of the top plate and tied a piece of yellow tulle to the stem of the glass to keep insects away. Here's a closer look:

I made little paper flags for each cupcake using the same paper as the invitation and the circle paper glass covers.

The Guest of Honor and his guest arrived wearing garden hats and ready to party!

The weather cooperated, the food all turned out well and we had a nice afternoon. It was a lot of fun and worth the effort!

as promised.

2011-06-25T11:08:00.000-05:00

So today is the day for my Becky Higgins rant. It's going to feel so good to get this off my chest! But let's back up, because if you aren't familiar with Becky Higgins then this whole post is going to be meaningless, so here's a little history.

Becky Higgins is a scrapbooker. Really I would like to say was a scrapbooker. Through a quirk of fate she happened to sit by Lisa Bearnson's mom in church years ago - Lisa Bearnson is a scrapbooker and was the founder of Creating Keepsakes magazine, which is sort of like scrapbooking's version of the bible. Seriously. So Becky, back when she was a scrapbooker, was amazing and her talent was recognized and she became well known in the scrapbooking industry. She wrote a monthly column for Creating Keepsakes, wrote a few books on scrapbooking, yada yada yada. Not taking anything away from Becky, she deserved all of the attention and accolades she received. Back when she was a scrapbooker.

A few years ago, after having 3 children and all that goes along with it (and other things I'm sure - not pretending that I know her or have a window into her life), Becky decided that she didn't like the pressure that came along with staying up to date with scrapbooks. Totally get that, I'm behind myself. She ended her Creating Keepsakes column and designed her own scrapbooking product called Project Life. There are a number of items that fall under that umbrella including a binder, page protectors, journaling cards, stickers, etc. She sells them as a set or individually and the theory behind the project is that you slip photos and journaling into the page protectors rather than designing pages on your own.

That's great - inventive, creative, easy to use. The probem that I have with the product is that Becky doesn't use it! Ok, that's not exactly true because there's also a digital version of Project Life and that's what she uses. However, that's not a new product because you could do the very same thing on Shutterfly and other photo websites. For a lot cheaper. For the non-digital version Becky depends on her customers to do the work and uses their photos, videos, etc. to promote her product.

An even bigger problem, the thing that really gets to me, is that the other way of promoting her product is to criticize traditional scrapbooking, the very thing that she used to do and that put her in a position to create and sell her own product. She doesn't criticize traditional scrapbooking in an outright, honest sort of way, but in a manipulative, condescending sort of way. As in, "if you want to continue to spend tons of money and time doing traditional scrapbooking you sure can, but it's certainly not the smart thing to do". Clearly, I'm pharaphrasing or even more accurately, telling you what I'm hearing even if that's not what she's saying.

In stark contrast to Becky's message are people like Ali Edwards and Cathy Zielske, other well known scrapbookers that use and promote Becky's product in a way that Becky does not. In my opinion they do a much better job of promoting her product by actually using it and showing creative ways to make it your own. They aren't doing that for any reason other than they like the product and it works well for them. And it feels honest.

So, why do I care? I don't have to buy her product - and I won't - but it's very disappointing to have someone that you have admired badmouth traditional scrapbooking in order to sell her own product.
I have continued to read Becky's blog but honestly it just upsets me. In one of her most recent posts she tells us, her readers, that now that summer is here and her kids are home from school she won't be blogging as much so that she can spend time with them. Oh, and design future products. She goes on to say that she's sorry if we are disappointed but she's really doing it for us, and if she did have to continue the daily grind of actually writing a post it would mean that she would create less future products, so we should be happy that she's going to be less active. Again, not her exact words but the message I got when I read it. Here are her exact words:

The more time I take to answer questions, the less time I am working on product design for items that are coming out this year. Which means the process will be delayed and ultimately, you’ll be frustrated if products aren’t being released when you’re expecting that they’ll be released. So … I want to answer your questions. I really do. I love to help. But I have to stay focused, especially for the next little while, on some hard-core design work. Trust me, this will benefit you

So, there you have it. My Becky Higgins rant, for what it's worth. I've had a link on my blog to her site but I've decided to remove it, not because I think it matters in the scheme of things but because I don't want to link to someone that no longer appreciates the creative process of scrapbooking. I don't expect her blog to suffer due to my non-linkage, but I do feel better knowing that I'm not promoting her disparaging remarks about a hobby and creative outlet that I love.

So there.

memories.

2011-06-16T18:43:00.001-05:00

Memories. No, not the kind you scrapbook. I'm talking about the part of my brain that stores the things I need to remember, and how it seems to get smaller as I age.

I'm a big fan of to do lists, calendars and reminders because it seems as though if I don't write it down I won't remember to do it, to tell someone what I want to tell them or to be where I said I would be.

The other day at work we were celebrating a co-workers birthday. We always bring treats to celebrate birthdays, and one co-worker, the one is scheduled to arrive at the office the earliest each day, had forgotten to decorate the "birthday girl's" work space. We were giving her a hard time for forgetting and someone suggested that I remind her before each co-worker's birthday. I told them they had the wrong girl and backed it up by telling them a little story.

Just the other evening I thought of something that I should do at work the next day, and to be sure I wouldn't forget I called my extension at the office and left myself a voicemail. The next day I arrived at work, saw the blinking light on my phone signaling a voicemail, and entered the code I use to retreive voicemail. As I started to listed to the message it dawned on me that it was me that had left the message! I had totally forgotten!

See, that's why I write everything down.

Next blog post . . . a Becky Higgins rant.

road trip.

2011-06-11T11:00:00.002-05:00

Oregon.Washington.Idaho.Montana.
North Dakota.Minnesota.

Yep, that's 1800 miles and 30+ hours of driving. In a U-Haul. Lots and lots of road ahead of us.

My daughter graduated from college and after all of the fun and festivities came the hard work - packing, loading up the truck and starting the long drive home. We had a small, 10 foot U-Haul truck and it seemed to be brand new and it was actually quite comfortable and easy to drive. We loved the fact that on the back of the truck was a photo of a mother and daughter as if to say, "see, it's so easy that even moms and daughters can do it!" And we did.

Along for the ride - a fish. If you know my daughter at all you know that she's an animal lover and it probably doesn't suprise you to know that she had a pet to bring along. J-WOW rode along in a travel cup. 2 coffees and a fish. We were lucky that there were 3 cup holders in the truck!

We have driven this route many times - 3 times we drove from Minnesota to Oregon and 4 times I drove from Oregon back to Minnesota. That means that I have made the drive 7 times in 4 years, and that's enough.

Every trip we have made some of the same stops - creatures of habit that we are. One stop is always in Wallace, Idaho. The first time we must have needed gas and just ended up there; after that it was such a cute little town, perched on the side of a mountain that it became one of our favorite stops. On the sidewalk in Wallace there's a wood cut-out made for photos and we have taken our picture there using a timer every time we have stopped. Sometimes the timer shots don't quite work out as shown below as Emily races to get in place.

One side note about Wallace: One of Emily's professor who was also her advisor was born in Wallace!

Another annual stop is in Ritzville, Washington. The first year we made the drive we were looking for a place to stop for the night and when we saw Ritzville on the map we figured it would be a great place to stay. Turns out we were wrong. Ritzville is not ritzy. We ended up driving for 2 more hours that year to find a decent hotel. It became an annual stop for gas and coffee because we love to hate Ritzville.

Speaking of coffee, we got behind this truck and we were racing to catch it. Desperate times call for desperate measures. We were not successful but we got a great photo.

Now this was a great sight . . . you are now entering Minnesota! YAY! It was a long drive and we were exhausted and so happy to be back in the Land of 10,000 lakes.

We now have a great fondness for U-Hauls. You might think that after that long drive we would never want to see one again, but we both feel a bit sentimental about U-Hauls. Go figure. Driving down the interstate we waved at every U-Haul we met - we felt a real kinship with other U-Haulers. We talked about starting some kind of group; U-Haulers Unite or We Love U-Haul. Hey, it's a long drive and you have to talk about something!!

All in all it was a great trip. Good bonding time for mother and daughter, beautiful scenery and challenges we faced and conquered together. We listened to many, many podcasts (This American Life, The Moth, etc.) and lots of music along the way. We talked about what the future holds for my daughter, we argued about little things when we were tired, we drank lots of coffee and we ate lots of Subway sandwhiches and sunflower seeds. Good times.

Playing catch up.

2011-06-07T18:34:00.000-05:00

I mentioned in my last post that I'd be back to fill you in on what I've been up to and why I haven't been a regular blogger. So, here goes!

On May 15th my daughter graduated from college. YAY! Here she is walking in to the large tent where the graduation ceremony was held. I expected a reserved, formal atmosphere but it was not that at all! The administration - professors, speakers and the college President - arrived first and lined up on both sides of the sidewalk outside of the tent. Next came a group of bagpipers leading the graduates as they walked down the sidewalk and received applause, high fives and cheers from the administration. It was very exciting! As they processed into the tent there was more applause, lots of hugging and yelling and an all around festive atmosphere. So much fun.

But let's back up a bit. I should explain that we live in Minnesota and my daughter attended Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. We were thrilled to have some of our family members attend the graduation - my parents, her dad, his parents and his sister. We all arrived on Friday and graduation was on Sunday so we had some time to do some sightseeing. On Saturday we drove to the Oregon coast which is beautiful! It was an overcast, chilly day but we had fun anyway. In this picture my daughter, Emily, is in the front and she is surrounded by the family members I mentioned.

On our way back to Salem from the coast we visited the Cristom Winery where one of Emily's friends (her freshman year roommate) was having a graduation party. The flowers and grounds were beautiful and we had such a great time.

That night we dined at the Willamette Noodle Company, an Italian restaurant where Emily worked while she was in school (that's me in the white jacket).

Willamette is a beautiful University with red brick buildings and lots of green space. Before I left for Oregon my good friend Peggy suggested that I be sure to take some pictures around campus and it was a great suggestion. Thanks Peggy!

Across the street from the campus is the Oregon State Capital building - look closely - it's a white building so it blends into the background in this photo. On top of the building is a gold statue of a man - I'm sure he was very important but I can't tell you who he is. Let's just call him Gold Guy. Anyway, Ali Edwards' husband, Chris is a State Senator and spends time in that building. So there's a little scrapbooking connection for all of you scrapbookers out there!

Back to the graduation. The ceremony was wonderful and lots of fun. Bill Nye (the science guy!) was the Commencement speaker so that was entertaining, and the graduates were surprised to find out that as they crossed the stage to get their diploma from President Pelton they got to shake Bill Nye's hand. Very cool. President Pelton is leaving Willamette to head to Emerson College in Boston so this was his 13th and final Commencement Address, which made it even more special.

We had so much fun over the course of the weekend and I am so proud of Emily for graduating with an Art History degree. I let her enjoy it for approximately 5 minutes before I reminded her that now she has to find a job! The important thing is that she is back in Minnesota and although I enjoyed getting to know more about Oregon over the past 4 years I'm so glad that she came home.

Here's a final photo - Emily with some of her friends. It was very windy and there were parents, grandparents and friends all around with cameras so it's not the best photo but it is a clear reminder of the event and we will look at it and remember all of the fun we had.

Next post - the long drive home . . . in a U-Haul.

Miss me?

2011-05-30T20:54:00.000-05:00

Happy Memorial Day!

So, did you miss me? I realize it's been a really long time since I last posted and I do apologize for that. I have been crazy busy, which I'll talk about later this week. I'm back now though!

Today was HOT and MUGGY here in Minnesota. Lucky for me I finished up my yard work yesterday and had all day today to craft, which I do in the nice, cool basement. I spent the day working on graduation cards (and laundry and groceries and other odds & ends) and got a nice little stack done.

I guess there are actually four stacks, right? There are a total of 32 cards done and I'm not sure how many more I'll need to make but I have lots of that 2011 paper so I'm definitely going to make more cards! Actually when I bought that paper I made sure that the other side was something I could use on other projects and it is - black and white polka dots that will definitely work for another project.

My next post will fill you in on what I've been up to and what's in the works.

Craft project gone wrong.

2011-05-09T19:58:00.000-05:00

Before I had the notepad idea (shown in my previous post) I thought I would cross stitch music notes and then put them in small wooden hoops to give as gifts.

I started by finding a music note online, copying and pasting it into word, then sizing it and printing it out.

Next I used some graph paper and traced around the music note and then filled it in with x's to make a cross stitch pattern.

I made a couple of mistakes with this project:

First I assumed that one x on the graph paper could be one cross stitch. Because I chose 18 count Aida cloth (very small squares) following the pattern exactly would have meant that my finished product was one very, very small music note.

Second, once I realized this was a problem I tried to "wing it" and just make up the pattern as I went. Not a good plan! I should have re-done my pattern rather than trying to guess.

My third and final mistake was thinking this was ever a good idea! In the end I decided it just wasn't that cute, so I scrapped the project and moved on to Idea #2, personalized notepads. I think that was the right decision!

It's hard to give up on an idea, but sometimes it's just the right thing to do. How about you? Have you ever started a project and realized it was not a good idea? Share your story in the comments so we can all learn from each other!

New craft project

2011-05-01T14:09:00.001-05:00

I was asked to make a small gift for three ladies - there weren't any restrictions on what I should make except that they should be approximately $5. I could have made a few cards for each recipient, but I was in the mood to try something new so I decided to try making paper pads. The photo above shows the finished product!

Making these little paper pads was really quick and easy and I think I'll make some more using left over patterned paper. I made them at night so couldn't photograph the process, but I recreated the steps in order to show them to you.

If you want to make personalized paper pads like I did here the first thing you will need to do is come up with a design. I made my template in Microsoft Word; you could use power point or Photoshop too. I'm still learning Photoshop so didn't use it for this project but I think it would work great.

Once I had my design I made copied and pasted it so that it appeared twice at the top of the page, then I ran the paper through the printer with the other end first so that I ended up with the design on the page 4 times. Next you could print as many copies as you want, but since I wanted 40 and I didn't want to use all of my printer ink I photocopied them. If you do this you want to make sure you get nice, clean copies. Once I had all of my copies I used my paper trimmer to cut each sheet into 4 equal pieces.

Next I cut chipboard to match the size of my paper pieces to use as the back of the paper pack to make it sturdier.

Once I had each paper pack complete with the back piece I used binder chips to hold each pad together. I folded some scrap paper to go under each binder clip so that the clips didn't leave any marks. I put one binder clip near the top of the paper pad on each side.

Next it was time to add the adhesive to hold the whole thing together. I used Pad/Book Compound which I found at a craft store. I poured some of the compound onto a paper plate and used a foam brush to brush the compound across the top of each paper pad. I applied the compound liberally and I brushed some on the front and back (just along the top) of each pad as well. I set the pads on the edge of the counter to dry leaving the top portion hanging off the edge of the counter.

Once the compound was mostly dry I laid the pads on the counter, covered them with wax paper and then laid heavy books on top to keep the notepads flat as they finished drying. I let them dry over night, and then in the morning I peeled off the top sheet of each paper pad since they had some of the compound on them.

Once each paper pad was ready I put them in some cute little gift bags, added some tissue paper and then tied a small tag that said "thank you" on each bag.

This was a fun project that I will definitely try again!

A to Q

2011-04-28T18:36:00.001-05:00

Q: Did the employee give me the tin?

A: No. I might have hinted to her that I liked it but no, I didn't get the tin.

Dang.

Shopping.

2011-04-26T18:17:00.000-05:00

As a Human Resources Manager at my day job I have a variety of duties including processing payroll, managing benefits and all things related to employee policies and records including ensuring that employees are recognized on their anniversary with the company. Over the years we have given a variety of gifts for years of service and we currently give a $20 gift card to employees every year (they have a choice of a variety of stores) and then we give additional gifts at 5 year intervals.

5 years = company t-shirt
10 years = company sweatshirt
15 years = watch
20+ years = catalog chose a gift

Somehow I ended up responsible for picking out and purchasing the watches, probably because everyone knows I love to shop. Not really; I hate it! It's very nerve racking to pick out such a personal item, especially because we have our company name engraved on the back of the watch along with "15 years". In other words, the watch cannot be returned. The good news is that we usually have 1 or maybe 2 employees with 15 year anniversaries so I don't have to buy too many watches each year.

I recently picked out a watch for an employee and it came in the tin pictured above. Here's another look:

How stinkin' cute is that? The watch was very nice as well, but I really wanted the tin!

The worst part of this whole story is that when I had my 5 and 10 year anniversary we didn't give the current gifts so I didn't get a t-shirt or sweatshirt. I think I got a tin of popcorn . . . I love popcorn but I would have rather had one of those shirts! I did get a watch, and I'm quickly approaching my 20 year anniversary (how did that happen??!!) so I will get to pick a gift out of a catalog, which will be fun!

Easter wishes.

2011-04-24T10:27:00.001-05:00

All this banana cream pie needs is some whipped cream!

Happy Easter!

about patterns.

2011-04-22T21:19:00.001-05:00

As a crafter I tend to see patterns everywhere I look, which is both a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because things that other people look at and see trash, I see treasure. It's a curse because I have a LOT of treasures! It's really hard to throw things away when you think of them as potential projects.

That's what happened to me on Monday. We were short staffed at work so I volunteered to help open the mail, which on Mondays is a very big job. I ended up with a huge stack of envelopes to open and almost all of them which checks that came in security envelopes.

I don't know if you've noticed, but security envelopes have come a long way baby! As I open the envelopes I kept noticing that the insides of the envelopes were actually very pretty and I was surprised at the variety of colors and patterns. Next thing I knew I was carefully setting them aside and even went so far as to remove some from the trash.

I brought them home and carefully cut open the envelopes and then refolded them so that the pretty insides were now on the outside.

I ended up with quite a stack. The best news is that if the project in my head turns out as well as I think it might I know where I can get an endless supply of additional envelopes!

So, now you are wondering what I plan to do with them, right? I have an idea for a mini album, and I'm talking really mini. I recently bought a book about Japanese book binding, and I think that would be a great way to bind this little album. The book is from a great Etsy seller, Erinzam, and its a beautiful book full of 128 binding projects.

I just got the book yesterday so I haven't had a lot of time to study it yet, but I hope to do so over the next several days and then I'll try out one of the many binding techniques. Of course I will show you how it turns out, so stay tuned!

Attention all bird watchers (you know who you are!)

2011-04-19T18:29:00.001-05:00

I'm excited to announce that I just listed a new mini album in my Etsy shop called, The Birds. It's a mini album made from the pages of a vintage (1964) bird watching book. The illustrations in the book are awesome and when I saw it I just knew it would make a great mini album.

The cover of the album, shown here, is a page from the book showing one of the great illustrations and featuring a hand stitched bird. The page has been mounted on a piece of chipboard to make it sturdy enough to be the album cover.

Like my other mini albums this one comes with an embellishment set. This set includes some tags, playing cards, and button embellishments all featuring birds. There are also two handmade quote bubbles, a journaling card from October Afternoon and a paper bird from Martha Steward crafts.

I gave one of the albums to a friend of mine for her birthday because she is definitely a bird watcher! She has started adding photos and embellishments to her album and it's super cute!

There are only two albums available, so if you are interested you should not delay!

another painting project.

2011-04-15T20:20:00.001-05:00

I recently purchased a piece of pegboard to hang in my craft space in my on-going effort to make better use of my space. I had planned to paint it a nice, safe color that would blend in with the room but my friends (who are awesome by the way) convinced me to make it a fun, inspirational color. So I did.

My first thought was yellow, because that is my favorite color. However, when I thought about it some more I realized that when it comes to crafting I tend to pick this pretty teal color over and over again! So I went to Wal*Mart and bought a can of paint in this fun color.

Because it's not warm enought to paint outside I set up a painting area in the basement. I put each end of the pegboard on a box to get it up off the floor and then I started painting! I painted two coats to make sure there was good coverage and it's been drying for a couple of weeks. Now I just need to figure out how to hang it on the wall and I'll be in business!

It was a crafty weekend.

2011-04-12T20:06:00.000-05:00

I am really lucky. I had the opportunity to spend last weekend with 6 other women doing crafts. Not just a regular weekend either - a Thursday night to Sunday night weekend. It was grand.

This is a bi-annual event - every April and November a group of us go to Northern Minnesota for a crafty weekend. The number of attendees varies - we have jobs, kids, extended family. There are sporting events, weddings, work, life - that sometimes get in our way, but we all do our best to block off these two weekends so that we can spend them together.

This particular weekend was especially impressive because all seven of us were able to go! That was a record number for us and we had to do a little revamping to all fit in the space but we did it and we had a great time.

Everyone else in the group scrapbooks while I work on other projects, which usually involves mini albums and/or cards, usually for my shop. This past weekend I made birthday party invitations for a sweet little boy that is about to turn one. I also made some cards and tags and then I put together three copies of The Office, a mini album for sale in my Etsy shop. I've already given the invitations away but here are a few photos of projects I worked on.

Birthday cards

Birthday Tags

The Office

I finished a few other projects too, and still managed to spend time visiting with friends, eating wonderful food, and I even got a few hours of sleep!

I hope your weekend was productive, fun, relaxing and full of good things.

Inside the Guest Book

2011-04-06T22:35:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned in my last post the Guest Book that I recently made to be used at 2 different bridal showers was made using a BoBunny Bare Naked Album. The album was 6" x 6" and contained a number of pages, some that had spaces for the guests to sign and some that contained pictures of the bride and groom as they were growing up.

This Guest Book was a custom order, and although I know the mother of the groom I don't know either the bride or groom so when I got their photos I wasn't sure how to go about using them. Should I use quotes about love and marriage? Should I do pages with them separately? Should I ask for more information about the couple to use in the book? Hmm, lots of questions!

As usual, I let all of this bounce around in my brain waiting for inspiration to strike. I find that I often do a lot of thinking about projects before I actually begin and usually that just ends with me having more questions that answers. I finally decided to just sit down with the photos and really look at them and a funny thing happened. I was able to find photos of the bride and groom doing similar things, even though this was when they were little kids and way before they fell in love. Once I realized that the book just fell into place and I decided to match up the photos and let them speak for themselves. Here are the pages. As before, please note that I took the pages out of the book to photograph them and each page is leaning against the open book.

little kids with big smiles

sitting on a big, plush couch

dress up time!

each of them with their sisters

snuggling with a friend

standing and smiling

outdoors

One other page that I did in this book was to create a calendar with the date of the upcoming wedding circled. It took a bit of trial and error to get this to the correct size! I used an Excel spreadsheet to lay out the calendar and it serves as a title page of sorts.

This was a fun little book and I hope that it works well and is a keepsake for this cute couple.

Guest Book

2011-04-03T19:58:00.001-05:00

I finally spent some time crafting this weekend - it's been so long since I've actually worked on a project!

I recently had a custom order for a guest book to be used at two bridal showers. I always struggle a bit with guest books because there's the usefulness factor vs the cuteness factor. If I could just make it cute than I would do it one way, but since it needs to be both cute and useful I struggle with the basic design.

For this book I decided to use a Bare Naked Binder from BoBunny. It turned out to be a great choice and I think I'll pick up a few more so I have them on hand for future orders. If you aren't familiar with this binder it's made of heavy chipboard; the binder itself is chipboard with a fabric strip on one side. Inside are binder rings that open and it comes with 6 chipboard pages. I also had an extra page pack and I used a few of those too.

Here's the cover of the album - I covered the chipboard portion with patterned paper and then added a ribbon just for fun. You can see the fabric strip I referred to on the left side.

The couple had such a cute engagement photo that I had to use it on the front cover. I did tack the ribbon down with adhesive just to make sure it stayed in place.

Next I had to decide how the guests would sign the book. As a host I enjoy having the guests write a little note along with their name, and I'm ok with them writing here and there rather than in a row. However, as a guest I like lines to write on and I just want to write my name because there's too much pressure to come up with something clever to say! For this book I did a poll to see what other people like and the response was overwhelming that they prefer to write on a line. I'll be honest here . . . I only polled one person (thanks Mom!). So now I needed to figure out how to provide lines for the guests. Here's what I came up with.

note: I took the page out of the book for the picture and it's just leaning on the inside of the book.

I used Ali Edward's font to write Guests and somehow managed to get it to print right where I wanted it! That took a few trys. The paper I used is called Booknote and it's from BasicGrey. Love this paper! It does have lines, yet they are kind of soft lines so you could use it however you wish.

Because this guest book will be used at more than one shower I made six pages like this. They are all on the front side of a page, and then I decorated the back side of each page using photos of the bride and groom as they were growing up. I'll show you those pages in my next post!

Looks can be deceiving.

2011-03-31T17:22:00.001-05:00

These are my front steps, and they look perfectly safe, right? Maybe a little wet?

That's what I thought on Sunday when I came out the front door, took a few steps and then fell took a tumble because it turns out these innocent looking steps were covered in a thin layer of glare ice. See that snow on the left? Yep, still winter here in Minnesota.

It happened quickly and I don't know exactly what my reaction was but I'm guessing that I tried to save myself with my arms and here's my proof:

That's a photo of my left arm, taken today, four days after my little accident. Funny thing is that that arm doesn't hurt at all, but my right arm is killing me!

And - the worst news - I broke a nail. I know.

My right arm had just recovered from a weekend long painting extravaganza that left it downright paralized - as in moving it at all hurt! By Friday it was feeling pretty good, Saturday even better, and then Sunday I fell and really did something bad to my poor arm.

I'm not too good about going to the doctor (I'll be fine) and even worse about taking medicine (really, I'll be fine) but by Tuesday there I was getting an x-ray at the local clinic.

The good news is that nothing is broken and I was given a prescription which I am actually taking.

It really helps with the pain and swelling, and there was swelling right down to my fingers. That is not good news for a hand model! So I'm taking the pills and they make me really tired but I would much rather deal with that than the pain I had.

So, not much crafting going on here. I've spent the week "resting" my arm and trying to get it back in working order. I do have a guest book order that I need to finish this weekend, and I'll post pictures next week.

Be careful out there!

New desk

2011-03-26T13:26:00.001-05:00

I've talked before about how much I love my Cricut, and the only negative about using it is the desk that it sat on. The desk was small, so the Cricut took up most of the space leaving very little room to lay out the Cricut mat. Also, the surface of the desk was slanted and because the desk wasn't very tall I spent a lot of time bent over, which is not very good for my back.

Yesterday I found an old desk at a local store that I thought would be perfect! I bought it for $40, and the owner of the shop delivered it for me which was great since it didn't fit in my car. I hired my friend's big strong boys and they came over last night and carried the desk into the house and down to the basement to my craft area.

The desk works ever better than I expected! It's long enough to give me some room to work, it has drawers to hold some of my supplies and one end has shelves which can hold even more stuff! Here are a few more photos of the desk.

This is the back side of the desk, nicely painted which is good since it can be seen from the rest of the family room.

And here are the open shelves, which you can see I've already filled with pretty things!

My goals is to not put anything under the desk because I had things stored under the old desk and I never used them because I kind of forgot what was under there.

I have quite a mess in the entire family room right now since I've been moving things around so I better get back to work. Hope you are having a fun, productive Saturday!

Painting

2011-03-22T18:22:00.000-05:00

I spent the weekend painting my bedroom, going from white to green. I prepared the room and painted the first coat on Saturday and then did a second coat on Sunday.

Here are a couple of BEFORE pictures:

As you can see this is after I moved all of the big furniture to the middle of the room. The white was boring and I wanted to add some color to make it a bit more interesting. I chose a green color that I would call Sage Green - it may look different on your monitor.

Here are a few AFTER photos:

I realize these two pictures look different but it's just how the light was hitting the room. I think the 2nd photo shows the color better.

I still need to hang a few things on the walls but it's nice to have it clean and painted. I found a few different wall hangings on Etsy that I think would look good in the room so I need to make a decision about what I want on the walls and get the room finished.

It was a lot of work but well worth it!

this is war.

2011-03-21T18:33:00.000-05:00

For those of you following along with my battle against a mouse, here's the latest installment.

Today I came home and saw this:

That's my daughter's car, which is parked in the garage while she is off at college. When I first saw this I thought that a mouse (or entire Army of mice) had eaten her car seats and this was the stuffing coming out of the door. There was no way I was going to look in the car . . . I just went in the house and started wondering where she could get another car since this one would certainly be wrecked.

Luckily for me my brother stopped over. I pointed this out to him and he casually opened the car door. I ran for the steps, sure that at least one mouse, if not 100, would come falling out. Instead . . . nothing happened! He showed me that the car seat was still intact and said it didn't smell like mouse in the car so he doesn't think there's one in there. He said that what's on the garage floor and sticking out of the door is insallation, most likely from a house. There's no insallation in the garage, so I don't know where it came from but I'm thrilled to learn that her car is ok.

I have moved the dog back outside to his kennel since it has warmed up, so I think I'll set a new trap and see what happens.

To be continued . . .

Bird Tags

2011-03-17T17:47:00.000-05:00

I recently needed to attend event where I knew there would be some downtime, so I packed up a project to do on the road.

I began with the following:

pages from an old bird watcher's book
shipping tags
vellum shipping tag shape
scissors
adhesive

My goal was to cut out pictures of various birds and use them to make gift tags. In order to see the pictures as I cut I copied the shape of a shipping tag onto vellum and cut out a vellum tag. That way I could line up the tag and the picture and not have to worry about cutting off a wing or a beak.

After cutting out the pictures I used my adhesive to attach the pictures to shipping tags. The pages from the book are thin so I wanted to attach them to tags to give them some strength.

Here are the tags after I completed those two steps:

Next I plan to punch holes at the top of each tag using the shipping tag as a guide; then I'll add some coordinating ribbon. Then I plan to cut out some more tag shapes using the word portions of the book. Last I'll add a sentiment - Happy Birthday, Thank You and Thinking of You - for that I will use rub ons.

Once these are complete they will be perfect to use with gifts - hanging from a gift bag or attached to a wrapped gift. They would also work well tied on to a wrapped food item, such as banana bread.

I have a custom order for these tags but once that is done I think I'll make some more and list them in my Etsy shop. I also have a bird mini album to finish and list in the shop.

Spring is here! Time for the birds to return from the south and time for bird watchers to document their return. The bird mini album is a perfect place to document Spring. I'll post here as soon as they are listed so stay tuned!

I'm going to call the mouse Charlie because he is winning.

2011-03-13T13:05:00.000-05:00

Hi, I'm Nancy and I'm TERRIFIED of mice. Seriously terrified.

Last night I was out in the garage waiting for the dog, who was outside doing his thing. I heard a noise near a box and instantly knew there was a mouse hiding in, behind or under the box. I got the dog back in for protection (?) and then kicked the box. I'm not sure what I thought would happen, but what did happen is that a mouse came out from under the box! I screamed like a little girl and ran for higher ground (the steps). The dog . . . he can't hear a thing so he didn't know I'm was screaming bloody murder and he never saw the mouse so he was absolutely no help. I went back in the house where I was safe.

Mouse 1, Nancy 0.

Today I got up the courage to set one of those fancy new mousetraps - the kind that traps the offender inside so that people like me don't have to see anything once it is caught. I put some peanut butter in the trap and set it in the garage near the box where I saw the mouse last night. About an hour later I went out to check the trap and this is what I saw:

So the dog can't hear anything but his sense of smell is still intact. He must have smelled the peanut butter and was willing to destroy the plastic mouse trap to get at it. I guess next time I'll have to put the mouse trap somewhere the the dog can't get at it!

Mouse 2, Nancy 0

To be continued . . .

Spring Ahead

2011-03-09T18:04:00.000-06:00

It's been a long, hard winter here in Minnesota and I think everyone is ready for all of the snow to melt and for Spring to arrive! Our average high temperature is 30 degrees now, which may seem cold if you live in a warmer climate but after some of the cold temperatures we have seen it sounds WARM.

When you live in the land of snow you have to be thankful for snowplow drivers. They are often out in the middle of the night getting the roads ready for everyone that needs to get somewhere in the morning and I'm sure it is a thankless job much of the time. As a homeowner it can be frustrating when a snowplow comes by and leaves a ton of snow at the end of the driveway that you just finished plowing. If you are really lucky the big plow will come by and leave you a present like the one I got the other day.

Now that is a snowball!

Speaking of Spring, it must be almost here because I went into my bedroom the other day to take the sheets off the bed to wash and the next thing I knew my room looked like this.

While I was taking the sheets off the bed I noticed there was a storage tub under the bed and when I pulled it out it was covered in dust. One thing led to another and pretty soon my entire room was torn apart and I was cleaning everything! You can see there's a can of paint in the photo because painting the room is on my to-do list. There's nothing like a bit of Spring cleaning to make a person feel productive!

Maybe this weekend I'll actually spend some time crafting! I have several projects in mind.

Craft Storage

2011-03-02T20:46:00.000-06:00

I have been searching for a while for a big armoire to hold a whole bunch of craft supplies so that I can be more organized and get stuff up off the floor. I've looked at old and new, online and in stores, and have had a hard time finding just what I want. I had come to the conclusion that most likely I would need to have the inside reconfigured to fit my needs if I ever did find an armoire.

There's a local store that opens one weekend each month and they sell repurposed furniture and household items. I have been looking there for the past few months but hadn't found anything as big as I wanted. Many of their items have been painted and I was open to that and just planned to repaint it if I found something I liked and the color wasn't right.

The store was open last weekend - meaning they opened on Thursday morning at 9 and were open on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. At 9:10 a.m. I got a call at work from my mom telling me to come quick because she thought they had the armoire I had been looking for. Luckily the store is just a few blocks from my office so I raced up there and she was right - it was perfect! Not only was it solid pine, which matches the woodwork in my basement where my craft supplies are, but the insides are set up as if I had planned it myself.

Here's the front of the armoire:

Pretty, right? It's in great shape and as you can see it's so tall it just fits in my basement. There's some detailing at the top but it's not too ornate.

Open the top two doors and you see this:

The top shelf pulls out and the middle shelf is just the perfect height to hold my paper holders. In this photo you can see that I have one paper holder in there just to make sure it works. The shelf is very sturdy and reimforced and shouldn't have any problem holding all of my paper.

Here's what you see when you open the bottom doors:

The top shelf on the left pulls out and there's a drawer on the top right.

The whole thing is set up perfectly, and tonight I'm working on filling it up!

More Mexico 2011

2011-03-01T19:24:00.000-06:00

One day while in Mexico we visited a little town called Bucerias. This is "old Mexico" with dirt streets and an open air market. We had awesome tacos at a pizza and sports bar called Yo Yo Mo. We also walked through the market and visited with the locals. I met the cutest little boy who walked up to me and said, "chicka?" which means girl in Spanish. He was selling little packs of chicklets gum and he couldn't have been more than 3 years old. I asked him how much and he held up five chubby little fingers (five pesos, approximately 50 cents). Of course I bought some and then I had my picture taken with him. So cute!

He appeared to be with his grandmother who was selling all kinds of things, but her grandson clearly stole the show. After our picture he dropped his little box full of gum so I helped him pick them up. He was adorable.

I loved this sign on the side of a building - inside you could buy groceries, beer and auto parts! Now that's a super market!

I loved this bike parked on the side of the road - it looks like a workhorse! I can't imagine that riding a bike was easy on those streets, which were made of large rocks mixed with dirt. Had to be a bumpy drive.

Back tomorrow with photos of my new armoire which will also be a workhorse storing many of my crafting supplies.

Mexico 2011

2011-02-27T10:54:00.001-06:00

Just one week ago today I came home from Mexico to a blinding snowstorm. My tan is fading but luckily I have some great photos so that my memories won't fade too! I'll share a few with you today.

Our trip this year was to Puerto Vallarta, which is on the Pacific Ocean. Our past trips have all been to the Riviera Maya which is on the Carribean Sea, so we had lots of new sights, sounds and experiences this trip.

We stayed at the Riu Palace Pacifico and it was beautiful. Here's a look at the hotel from the pool/ocean.

This hotel is 9 stories, and 8 of those floors are guest rooms. The bottom floor is the lobby, restaurants and shops. Our room was on the third floor with a partial ocean view. We were on the right as you look at this picture. The hotel was truly a palace - very elaborate and ornate.

We wandered up to the 8th floor and went out on the balcony to take some "arial" photos. The pool is huge, with a built up infinity pool in the middle. The beach was also large and there were mountains to the left and right.

This is a picture of the pool from one end. As you can see, there are loungers built right into the pool which was a great way to stay cool while catching some rays. They are made of tile but more comfortable than you might think.

Each and every day we saw beautiful sunsets from our balcony. We were usually in our room getting ready for dinner around sunset so we went back and forth between the bathroom and the balcony many times so that we wouldn't miss the sunset.

I have a few more pictures to share from Mexico and then I'll actually talk about crafts - more specifically, craft storage.

a great day.

2011-02-24T21:57:00.001-06:00

I have a new computer!

I have a new armoire!

It's a great day to be me.

Extreme Opposites

2011-02-22T16:55:00.000-06:00

I spent all of last week at a 5 star, all inclusive resort in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I can't even begin to tell you how much fun I had! I also can't show you any pictures since I'm having computer problems, but I will as soon as I can.

While I was basking in the sun the weather in Minnesota was very nice - in the 50's I hear. That's fine by me; I'm not one of those people that wishes for terrible weather at home while I am on vacation. What I didn't appreciate was that the nice, warm weather in Minnesota came to a screeching halt and turned into a blizzard on the day I arrived after my nice, relaxing vacation. Was that really necessary? In one day I experienced 80 degrees and sunny and then 25 degrees and horizontal, heavy snow.

I hope to have my computer fixed in the next couple of days and then I will post some pictures and regale you with long stories of my trip, full of inside jokes and "you had to be theres". Sound like a plan?

Owl Sighting

2011-02-05T09:40:00.001-06:00

Last Sunday I spent the day in my kitchen/dining room scrubbing walls and scraping wallpaper glue. It was a really, really long day. About 3 p.m. I was on my hands and knees in the dining room scrubbing the wall near the baseboard and I stood up to rinse out my rag. Imagine my surprise to look out the window and see a large, beautiful OWL looking at me! I've never seen an owl before and had no idea that one could be so beautiful.

Luckily I had my camera nearby since I've been documenting change in my life so I slowly reached for it and took these photos:

As you can see the owl was perched in a small branch in a tree just outside my kitchen. He (she?) had his back to me and had his head cranked all the way around. It really felt like he was looking right at me! My mom was in front of the kitchen window and he would turn his head all the way the other way to look at her, then back at me.

Here's a closer show so you can really see just how beautiful he was:

He sat there looking at us for just a couple of minutes and then flew away which gave us a chance to see just how big he was.

What a great moment! After a couple of long days full of hard work it was a great moment and I'm so thrilled that I got to see such a beautiful creature.

For the last few years owls, along with birds, cupcakes, fingerless gloves and cowls have been all the rage on Etsy and you can find lots of items featuring those things. I wasn't really on the bandwagon, but now I might just have an owl on every single thing I make. I'm a fan.

Edited to add: I just realized that One Little Word (OLW) has the same letters as OWL. I think it's a sign!

OLW Blog Hop!

2011-02-01T10:02:00.001-06:00

Welcome to the One Little Word Blog Hop!

As I mentioned in this post I am participating in Ali Edwards One Little Word class through BigPicture Classes. The idea behind the class is to chose a word (or let a word chose you) that will be significant to you over the course of this year, or maybe a word that you want to focus on and pay attention to or maybe even a word that keeps popping up even though you don't know why.

My word for 2011 is Change because I expect a lot of change to happen in 2011. As I mentioned in the earlier post, some examples of the change I'm anticipating are:

Change . . . painting, removing wallpaper, replacing light fixtures, etc.

Change . . . move more, eat less. Check out Cathy Zielske's blog to read more.

Change . . . my daughter is graduating from college in May and starting her adult life.

Change . . . now that college is paid for I'll have more change in my pocket!

Change . . . in how I manage and market my Etsy shop.

I have to admit that I haven't started the scrapbooking/creating portion of the class yet. I have an album and I have selected a paper pack that I'm going to use (The Linen Closet Stack from DCWV) but I haven't actually completed any of the prompts that Ali provided for January . . . and February is here! It's not that I'm not excited to get started or that I don't have any ideas, but one of my reasons for taking the class is to use the awesome instructions that Ali provides using Photoshop.

I just recently purchased Photoshop Elements, got a bad disk, returned it and now have my new program right here on my desk. However, I'm so busy with change that I don't have time to load the program! I want to load it when I have some time to dedicate to it, and that probably won't be until late February. I'm ok with that though; it's a year long class and I'll be able to catch up once I get started.

Speaking of change, I spent my entire weekend working on removing the wallpaper in my kitchen and getting the kitchen, living room and hallway ready for paint. I was lucky enough to have some girlfriends come over to help or I would still be working on it! Here is a before picture showing the wallpaper:

Ugh. I will not miss it one bit! The light fixture needs to go too but for now I'm concentrating on painting.

Here are a couple of pictures after the wallpaper was removed:

The kitchen

The dining area - the wall on the left is the one in the first picture. I don't usually have a Mickey Mouse tablecloth - that's just a blanket protecting the table.

And here's the living room with all of the furniture moved, waiting for paint:

A girl can hope.

2011-01-26T19:22:00.001-06:00

I hope that the next time I get my nails done - fingers and toes - they look this cute. Seriously.

photo by Skinny Laminx

Valentine Button Embellishments

2011-01-23T10:58:00.000-06:00

I just added a new item in my Etsy Shop - Valentine Button Embellishments. Similar to the other button embellishments in my shop, these would be perfect on scrapbook pages or cards. I use them ofen and they just add a little fun to your project.

Stop by my shop and check them out - hurry, Valentine's Day is right around the corner and there are just a few sets available.

Tanning

2011-01-20T18:00:00.003-06:00

It's about 1 million degrees below zero today here in Minnesota and it is supposed to be even colder over the next few days. Brrrr! The only good thing about that is that I have a tropical vacation planned so I can think ahead to sunshine, palm trees and warm weather.

Tonight I went tanning for the first time this year. I always tan for a while before a tropical vacation for a few reasons. For one thing it forces me to try on my swimsuit in advance rather than waiting to get to my location and finding out that the elastic is ripped, the bottoms are missing or the suit just plain doesn't fit. It's also good to get a bit of a base tan so that you don't burn on your vacation and spend the rest of the time searching for shade.

One thing I've never understood about tanning salons is that they provide towels and the "used towel" basket in the room is always full. Even when I get up to the maximum tanning minutes (which takes me forever!) I never get sweaty enough to need a towel. Today I finally figured out what the towels are for - covering the mirror! Duh! Why didn't I think of that before? There's nothing worse than seeing your pale, overweight self in a swimsuit and I personally think that putting a full length mirror in the room is just plain mean.

As you drive out of the parking lot at the tanning salon in my little town you see the fitness center right across the street. That's when you start to think you are being punked.

Ikea Do's and Don'ts

2011-01-19T19:12:00.000-06:00

After a recent visit to an Ikea store I came up with the following list of Do's and Don'ts.

DO

Do pay attention to where you park.
Do grab a bag as you enter. You might think you won't buy as much if you don't have a bag, but you might as well accept the fact that you are going to buy a lot (and why not when things are so cheap!).
Do pick out some kind of container along the way so that you have something to put all of your treasures in to carry them out to the car. Ikea doesn't provide bags (unless you buy them) so it really helps to have a container. You can find super cheap baskets, plastic containers, garbage cans, etc. You must need some type of container in some room of your home.
Do take your coat off (if you live in a cold climate and are wearing a winter jacket). You might not plan to stay long, but there's so much to look at that you will be there for a while. And if you are wearing your coat you will be hot.
Do park near a loading area if you plan to buy any big items.

DON'T

Don't go by yourself if you plan to buy anything big and/or heavy. Trick a friend or family member into going with you and use them for their muscle.
Don't lean against an item or block an aisle while you wait for your friend or family member. It's very possible that another customer actually wants to, you know, look at the item or walk through the aisle.
Don't cheat - just follow the line on the floor like a good little shopper. Cutting across an area to save a minute will most likely cause you to merge back into the herd right in front of someone. Very rude.
Don't go there planning to buy a bigger item without bringing measurements with you. You don't want to "eyeball" it and then end up returning it because it is the wrong size.
Don't try assembling any Ikea furniture if you are tired, in a bad mood or sober. It's a frustrating experience that requires a sunny outlook, a can do spirit and a drink. Or two.

Follow these helpful hints and you will have a successful shopping trip! Feel free to leave additional suggestions in the comment section.

thinking ahead.

2011-01-15T11:13:00.000-06:00

I am, quite honestly, a procrastinator. I'm great at making lists and prioritizing things and getting them done before they have to be done, but barely. In other words, I'm always doing things at the very last minute to meet deadlines. I recognize it, I know I should change it, and maybe I will tomorrow . . .

In the meantime, don't be like me! Plan ahead! Shop early! Buy your Valentine mini album now!!

Note to self: work on being more subtle too.

Library Books

2011-01-13T17:53:00.000-06:00

There are a few new items in my Etsy shop and both items came from my purchase of books at our local library book sale. There were so many fun old books that I ended up buying an entire box full! I have taken a few of them apart and made some paper packs out of the old pages - perfect for a mini album, a handmade card or anything else you can think of!

The first paper pack is made from several children's books and also includes some game pieces:

I love these BINGO cards because of the great teal color. I have more but I'm kind of hoarding them!

Here's what one of the pages looks like:

All of the pages are in good condition; there may be a few marks but no large stains or tears. Some of them (as shown in this photo) are stamped with the name of the library.

The other paper pack is for the science geek - you know who you are! This paper pack is from a book of children's science experiments and you could either use the pages to make a mini album/art journal or you could actually do the experiments with your kids. Or both!

Here's a look at one of the pages:

I love the kids in the pictures - and the experiments sound kind of fun too!

Here's another page from the pack:

Both packs are available now and there are more new items to come!

Friday Favorites

2011-01-07T18:54:00.001-06:00

There are so many great items for sale on Etsy and if you have some spare time you can really have fun looking around. Today I decided to show you some of my favorites - check out these great shops!

1. http://www.etsy.com/shop/PilliPillihandmade

2. http://www.etsy.com/shop/GingersGirl

3. http://www.etsy.com/shop/RooksPaperScissors

4. http://www.etsy.com/shop/saturdayAMvintage

These are shops that I visit often because they always have interesting items. Be sure to click on the link and check them out!

Happy Friday! Hope the weekend is grand.

One Little Word

2011-01-05T20:55:00.005-06:00

I mentioned yesterday that I signed up for a year long class with Ali Edwards & Big Picture Classes. The class is called One Little Word and it's a concept that Ali created several years ago. There's a link to her blog over on the right and you can read about it there.

I signed up for the class for a few reasons:

I love Ali Edwards!
I've read about the concept and thought it sounded interesting
I need some practice with Photoshop Elements (a lot!)
I want to do some crafting that is just for me - most of the work I do is for my Etsy shop
I thought it would be fun to meet some new friends that share a passion for scrapbooking

The class will take place over the course of the entire year; each month Ali gives prompts (assignments) for the participants to complete. There is a supply list included but Ali encourages participants to use what they have on hand. She recommended an 8-1/2" x 11" album and it just so happens that I had just ordered one the day before - must be fate! She also recommended a specific set of divided page protectors and I did order them, but other than that I plan to use what I have on hand, which is plenty.

So far Ali has given a pre-class assignment which involved getting your supplies ready and choosing your word. My word for 2011 is:

There are several reasons that I chose this word - obviously I'm expecting change in 2011.

Change . . . painting, removing wallpaper, replacing light fixtures, etc.
Change . . . move more, eat less. Check out Cathy Zielske's blog to read more.
Change . . . my daughter is graduating from college in May and starting her adult life.
Change . . . now that college is paid for I'll have more change in my pocket!
Change . . . in how I manage and market my Etsy shop.

There could be other changes that I don't even know about - that's the fun part of this project.

Ali also gave the prompts for January and if this is any indication of how the year will be I'm even more excited! Her post included the prompts (3), the idea behind each prompt, an audio clip from Ali talking about the prompts and video clips with tutorials for using Photoshop Elements to complete the prompts. It is so thorough and so well done I can't even tell you! There's also a great message board where the participants can chat and share ideas (Ali chimes in too), and tomorrow night there's a live chat between Ali and the participants.

I'll share bits and pieces of the project throughout 2011. There's a link to the class over on the right if you are interested in joining the fun!

Hand Made Cards

2011-01-04T19:05:00.000-06:00

I've been busy making cards lately, and yet the cards I need this week (birthday and thank you) I do not have. Ugh. I took some pictures of some of my recent creations but if you read my last post you know that editing the photos so that I can share them with you is never easy. Ever. Tonight is no different than any other . . . waiting for Picnic to move from one screen to the next. Patience may be a virture but not one that I possess, so rather than sit here and wait I'm up and about, doing this and that, and pretty soon the night is over and I'm still working on editing photos!!

Rant over. When is that Photoshop software I ordered going to arrive??

So, hopefully I've set this up so that you aren't disappointed with the photos you are about to see. If I haven't been clear, they aren't good. But they are what I have and I want to share them with you!

The cards are all birthday cards, and there are more but honestly the pictures are too bad to share.

Ok, this picture isn't too bad. Like the new props? I love the blue, brown and green color combo on this card, and the message (eat cake) isn't bad either!

Make a wish. Let's see, I wish my photos were better! This card features adorable birthday hat paper (Scenic Route) and ribbon.

I saved the worst for last. This paper is actually orange and is much brighter and cuter in person. The card is simple and I love that about it. I also love the wire basket I bought recently at a cute local store. It works perfectly to hold completed cards.

Tomorrow I'm going to do a post about One Little Word, the class I enrolled in for 2011. The class is taught by the great Ali Edwards and already it's lots of fun. There's a link on the right if you want to check it out!

Photoshop Elements

2011-01-02T15:37:00.000-06:00

I've mentioned many times that editing photos is the bane of my existance, mostly because I don't have any photo editing software. I've been using Picnic, which is free online, but it's pretty basic and doesn't allow me to do many of the things I want to do. It's also incredibly slow.

Yesterday I made a bold move and ordered Photoshop Elements 9. I'm excited but also very nervous because I have never used it before and from what I understand there are few instructions included with the software and a pretty tough learning curve. There is a book available called The Missing Manual (aptly titled since, well, there isn't a manual with the software) but it's another $30 and I thought I'd give it a try before I incurred another expense. I'm hoping that I will install the software and it will be very intuitive. Ha!

Do you use Photoshop? Any tips?

One thing that encouraged me to order the software is that I enrolled in a year long Ali Edwards class called One Little Word, and she makes available different digital items - overlays, templates, etc. - and also provides tutorials for each item. Hopefully that will get me started and you will see much improved photos here on my blog and also in my Etsy shop. We'll see!

More about One Little Word in the days to come, including the word I chose for the year. Any guesses?

I'm excited about the class!

Como Park Arboretum

2011-01-01T11:21:00.002-06:00

On Christmas Day we visited the Como Park Arboretum in St. Paul, Minnesota for their annual Poinsettia show. WOW, talk about color! The Arboretum was filled with different types and colors of poinsettias and it was a beautiful sight.

It was a nice break from the WHITE snow outside and it was warm and humid in the Arboretum which was also a nice break from the Minnesota winter.

It was such a large, beautiful display of flowers that it took some time to take it all in.

There were also other rooms to explore and they were full of beautiful plants and folliage. Along the way there were signs giving some explanation about the plants:

There were also fountains and statues like this one:

But easily the highlight was this piece of art out in the hallway which, for 25 cents, would give you a personal message:

My daughter inserted a quarter and the carousel slowly spinned around until the man's hand came up and pointed to a word, which was the personal message that was promised. My daughter's word was hope. Very fun and unique!

Now Christmas is over and it's 2011! What do you think the new year holds for you? I have lots of plans for 2011, both personal and for my shop. More about that in the days to come.

Happy New Year!

Is it over already?

2010-12-26T21:28:00.000-06:00

So after all of that effort and planning it's over. Time to take it east, relax, reflect and plan ahead.

Yesterday morning I was listening to the news as I got ready for the day and heard them talking about the top news stories of 2010. I immediately thought, UGH. Now we have a whole week of lists: best of, worst of, blah, blah, blah! Then my daughter came upstairs and said, "I love all of these reviews of 2010". I had to chuckle since I had just had the opposite thought!

Whether you love it or hate it, it's the last week of the year and we are bound to hear lots of people reflecting on the year this week. I'm doing that as well, but also looking ahead to 2011 and I think it's going to be a great year!

Wrapping Station update

2010-12-18T09:43:00.000-06:00

As I mentioned in a previous post I am working on setting up a wrapping station so I have a place to wrap gifts and package Etsy orders. I want to have all of my wrapping and packaging supplies (boxes, tissue paper, wrapping paper, tape, ribbon, etc.) all in one place that's easy to get to and most of all organized.

I actually think Organization may be my word for 2011. More on that later.

My wrapping station is progressing slowly because I need a table and a few other things to really get going. Of course nothing is easy, because before I buy a table I start thinking that I'm not crazy about my craft table, so maybe I should use that for wrapping and get a new craft table, and on and on. Making decisions may not be one of my strengths.

One thing I did accomplish is to find a container to hold all of my wrapping paper. Tubes of wrapping paper can be such a pain to store, but I had an idea to find a tall circular container that would hold my paper and, of course, look cute. Suddenly an idea popped into my head - I happen to have a cream can that my mom gave me that is tall, circular and cute! I found it out in the garage, cleaned it up and wa-la! Wrapping paper holder!

I have 12 rolls of wrapping paper in there now and I think I could fit a few more.

Cute and functional. Now that's organization!

Snowflake Garland Tutorial

2010-12-15T17:57:00.001-06:00

Today I will give you my step by step process to make two strings of snowflake garland. I used mine to decorate my mantle, but I think they would also look cute decorating a window or in a child's room.

Supply List:

paper
scissors or Cricut
Mod Podge & paint brush (optional)
glitter (optional)
heat gun (optional)
string
needle

The first step is to cut out snowflakes in a variety of sizes. You could simply use a scissor to cut out the snowflakes, but I used my Cricut because it was quick and easy. I have the Accent Essentials Cricut cartridge that has a cute snowflake pattern, and if you are familiar with Cricut's you know that you can cut shapes in many different sizes. I decided to cut snowflakes in 4 sizes: 1", 2", 3" and 4"; I cut several of each size. I used white cardstock, but you could also use colored paper.

Here's my Cricut hard at work:

Once the Cricut was done cutting out my flakes I simply remove the mat and use the Cricut spatula to carefully remove the flakes from the mat. If you look closely you can see the various sizes of flakes all cut and ready to be removed:

Once the flakes were all removed from the cutting mat I had lots of cute snowflakes:

Next I decided to add some glitter to the snowflakes. I used Mod Podge which I spread on the individual flakes with a sponge-type brush, then sprinkled glitter on them.

At this point I remembered why I don't like working with glitter! What a mess! Luckily I had started with the large flakes and once those 4 were done I put the glitter away. The flakes with the glitter do sparkle, but you really only notice it if you are looking at it closely. I would recommend that you skip this step unless you just love glitter!

I decided to use my heat gun to set the glitter so I didn't end up with glitter everywhere:

The last step was to string the garland. I used one strand of red DMC floss, but you could also use baker's twine, fishing line or any string.

I sewed through one of the larger areas of paper on each flake so that they wouldn't rip. I went through the top and botton to keep them hanging straight. Once I had each flake strung I tied the floss with a loop at the end so that I could hand it on my hook.

My favorite thing about these two strings of garland is that they gently spin, especially when there's heat coming from the fireplace.

This was a fun, easy project - give it a try!

Snowflakes inside and out!

2010-12-14T20:56:00.000-06:00

We had quite a winter storm over the weekend here in Minnesota with over a foot of snow. You would think that I would have seen enough snowflakes to last me a lifetime, but instead I made some of my own!

One of the best things about having a fireplace is having a mantle where I can hang our Christmas stockings. You are probably familiar with the different types of decorations you can get to hang your stockings on so that you don't have to pound nails into your mantle. There are all different types of figurines or letters that spell out a variety of words such as Joy, Peace and other messages appropriate for the Christmas season.

One problem with choosing a word rather than a figurine is that you may end up with more letters than stockings, and it looks kind of silly to have empty hangers. I chose the word P-E-A-C-E but I only have three stockings to hang. Rather than having empty hangers I decided to make snowflake garlands to hang and add some interest to the mantle.

Here's my mantle before:

And here's my mantle after, with the addition of two snowflake garlands:

Just adds a little something, don't you think?

Tomorrow I'll give you a step by step tutorial to make your own snowflake garland! Everyone needs some snowflakes during the holiday season!

Once upon a time . . .

2010-12-13T18:24:00.001-06:00

Once upon a time, many years ago, a dear friend gave me a Christmas present with this note:

The note reads: This gift is against my better judgement, but I'm giving it to you anyway! When ~~you kill~~ I mean when the plant dies on it's own this way cute pot can stay in your home with fake greens, candy or something! Happy Holidays!

Did you get that not so subtle message? The way I read it there was no confidence that I could actually keep the plant alive. How rude! Well, I'm proud to show you a picture of the plant, and remember that this is several years after I received it.

Looking pretty darn healthy, don't you think? And no, I did not replace the plant. This is the original plant that was given to me. What a green thumb I have! I have no idea why this dear friend (that's you Peggy!) would think I couldn't do it. Ok, that's not exactly true! I don't typically do well with plants but give me a challenge like that and I will keep it alive!

She was right about one thing - the pot is super cute!!

The cute pot and the thriving plant live on my kitchen counter and definitely brighten the space.

Love it!

Torn between two seasons

2010-12-12T11:58:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I was having a bit of an identity crisis because I was torn between two seasons!

On my kitchen table it was still fall:

But in my living room it was Christmas:

Sorry for the terrible pictures - I'm not sure why they are turned out so bad! Anyway, I managed to get the house decorated for Christmas last night so now I'm living in one season instead of two! YAY me!

Recent craft projects

2010-12-11T12:49:00.000-06:00

I have been busy crafting the past few weeks and I've been having so much fun! I made several Christmas gift bags for a custom order; 6 each in two designs. Here are the bags:

This snowflake bag was made using pretty Christmas paper and snowflakes cut out of white paper using my Cricut. I also used my paper punch to make a scallop edging on the red paper.

To make this bag I also used my Cricut to cut out the letters for the word "sing". I used music note paper - actual patterned paper not the vintage sheet music that I have. I found out that the vintage paper sticks to the Cricut cutting mat and rips when you try to remove it, so using patterned paper was a much better idea. I typed the words "heaven & nature" and printed them on yellow patterned paper and than I sewed a red button for the dot on the i.

The Christmas trees were white when I bought them and I painted them green with a brown trunk:

It was a good project to do while watching a football game! Here are the trees once they dried:

I've also been making cards. I only have one photographed so far; here it is:

For this card I used a couple of stamps from a birthday set, and of course I used my Cricut to cut out the title block. Love my Cricut!

I have a few more cards to show you and a few more to make. Watch for more photos tomorrow!

Snow, Snow, Go Away!

2010-12-07T18:28:00.001-06:00

Here in Minnesota we had quite a snowstorm over the weekend which means that I spent a few hours shoveling when I really wanted to be crafting!

This is what my driveway looked like when I started shoveling at 8:15 am on Saturday:

You might wonder why I was up and out shoveling so early in the morning - on a Saturday! Well, there was a method to my madness. I figured that all of the people that have plows on their trucks would be out bright and early plowing out driveways and parking lots, so my chances of having someone feel sorry for me out shoveling and coming to plow me out was much higher in the morning than in the afternoon. See, makes sense, right?

This is how deep the snow was - we got 8 - 10":

I know! In case you are wondering, I held my camera down near the ground in order to get this shot because I figured it would be dramatic. It worked!

Along with my camera I had the other tools of the trade:

Yep, a shovel and a cup of hot coffee. That, along with a camera, is all a girl needs.

I shoveled and shoveled, and every now and then I would wave my arms in the air trying to attract attention. When that didn't work I tried laying down on the driveway pretending to be dead, and then I tried tying a white towel to the end of my shovel and waving that in the air. Nothing worked . . . so I just kept shoveling. I was nearly done, just a few feet from the road (and the big, icky, hard as rock chunks of snow the snowplow leaves behind) when my knight in shining armor - also known as my mom - stopped over. We chatted for a minute and then she drove in to town, tracked down a good friend of mine that was out with his plow and sent him over to help me. He cleared out the end of the driveway (thanks Darrin!) and then I just had to do the sidewalk, a path to the dog and then the dog's kennel.

Here's the driveway, all done!

And here's the finished sidewalk:

My last task was to shovel around the mailbox, because the mailman really doesn't like it when he can't reach the box, and we all know how important mail is! I was across the road working on that when a man drove up on a tractor - turns out it was one of my bus drivers from way back when! Gotta love living in a small town! He yelled, "let me do that for you. I hate to see an old lady work so hard.". Huh! Oh well, I wasn't going to argue because by that time I was kind of tired and ready to quit.

Once all of my shoveling was done it was time for some crafts. I'll post a few craft photos tomorrow.

NOTE: I didn't really take any of those drastic measures to get help, but now that I've thought of them I might try them next time.

So much stuff!

2010-11-28T10:53:00.000-06:00

I had an 8 year old friend over yesterday to do crafts! Her classroom is having a Christmas sale and each student is making handmade items to sell. All of the proceeds from the sale will be given to our local food shelf, so it's a great cause and it gets kids doing crafts! It was so much fun crafting with Camryn; at first she was kind of shy and unsure of herself but it didn't take her long to get in the groove. She wanted to make cards and her goal was to make 50 cards that she could sell in sets of 2. Initially she wanted to make 50 different cards, but I convinced her to make some duplicates so that we could get them all done this month!!

We worked from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and we didn't even stop for lunch! I offered her hot chocolate but she was determined to get her cards made so we just kept working. We met the goal and she went home with 50 handmade cards packaged in clear poly sleeves in sets of two. She wrote (in cursive, which she just learned) her name on the back of each card. She was so much fun to work with and it was a great way to spend a Saturday.

At one point Camryn looked around and said, "wow, your whole basement is full of stuff for crafting". She was clearly impressed! She's right, I have a lot of stuff and I continue my quest to make it as organized as possible. I'm in search of a tall armoire that I could use to hold my HUGE paper supply and maybe a few other things too.

One thing I did recently purchase is this tiered shelf which is not only functional but super cute!

The picture isn't the greatest but you can get the idea. In the bottom shelf I have paper flowers, my inspiration jar of ribbon and, just for fun, a decorative thread spool with the words "sweet moments".

The middle shelf holds extra ribbon and twine, and, just for fun, vintage Bingo cards.

The top shelf holds small paper packs and little jars of buttons. Just for fun I attached a tag with the message "so thankful" using a tiny little clothespin.

The shelf is a dark red color and I'm so happy I bought it!

Speaking of stuff, I bought some more buttons:

I know, that's a lot of buttons! I couldn't pass up this deal though - my favorite brand of buttons (Fancy Pants) for super cheap!!

I have a custom order to get done today so I better get to work.

It's all about the pumpkin pie . . . and giving thanks

2010-11-24T20:24:00.001-06:00

If you are like me you don't have to think very long to come up with an impressive list of things you are thankful for. Family, great friends, good health, etc.

I also don't have to look far to see things I'm thankful for. For instance, every time I look at my kitchen windowsill I see this:

At a glance I see salt & pepper shakers and glass birds. So what, right? But it's not the things I'm thankful for (although they are stinkin' cute!!) it's the memories behind the things that makes them so special.

The salt & pepper shakers sat on my Grandpa Olaf's stove in his cute little green house on Trott Avenue. Not a big deal at the time; I'm sure there were many times I just walked right by without really looking at them. But they were there, and I remember them being there, and looking at them now brings me right back to his little kitchen with the trap door down to the basement. And I can hear my mom playing piano and my Papa Olaf playing the violin; I could hear them even if I took the super steep steps up to the attic where we were allowed to write on the walls. And we did. Cousins from Texas and Colorado would leave messages for us and each other. There was a box of crayons up there and we spent lots of time writing to each other. What a special memory for all of us.

The little glass birds were perched on the window sill by the table in Nana & Papa's kitchen. We sat at that table having coffee and visiting or maybe doing a craft project if the men were busy out in the barn. The birds were always there, right along with the smell of coffee and a wonderful, hot meal cooking in the oven. The birds were there when my brothers and I spent the night; right there while Nana made us chocolate malts - one for me and two for the boys if they wanted another one (I was never offered seconds). The birds were there when I heard Nana & Papa's radio come on in their bedroom early each morning; WCCO's farm report was my clue that they were awake and I would go and crawl in bed with them and feel pretty darn special.

So as you celebrate Thanksgiving, hopefully with family or really good friends, it's ok to be thankful for the things in your life, because chances are it's not the things at all, but the memories those things hold.

Happy Thanksgiving.

May your day be filled with good people, good food and good memories. I know that mine will.

Organization.

2010-11-21T18:05:00.001-06:00

On the list of favorite things organization is a close second to paper. I love to organize and I love having everything in it's place. I spent the weekend cleaning and organizing the house, and I made some major accomplishments.

One of my projects was to clean out my "idea book". As I look through scrapbooking magazines I typically tear out pages that show projects I like I store them in page protectors in a 3 ring binder. I've been collecting ideas for years and my book was simply out of control! I spent part of my afternoon going through the book discarding pages that no longer interested me and adding from a stack of pages that had piled up for the past several months. When it was all over I had a lot less content in my book but they are all ideas that I'd like to put to use. Love that!

Here's another project I accomplished - this one took a lot less time! There's a portion of my basement that is unfinished and used for storage. I had an idea to make a wrapping station both for gifts and also for packing Etsy orders. The section of the storage room where I plan to make this wrapping station has a light with a short little pull chain which required me to stand on a chair in order to turn on the light. I decided to make a pullcord so that I could turn on the light easily, and of course it had to be cute! I simply tied some ribbon to the short chain and attached a pine cone to the ribbon. Simple and cute! I need a few things, like a table, before I can set up the wrapping station but I will share photos when it's done, hopefully in time for Christmas wrapping!

Here's a project that clearly is not done, but I have big plans! There used to be an aquarium in the wall - it actually was on the other side of this wall and visible from my craft area and family room. The aquarium is gone and in it's place is a piece of sheetrock. At first I planned to hire someone to sand and tape this section of wall, but then I had another idea! I'm going to get a piece of pegboard and paint it a fun color and then hang it over this section of wall. On the pegboard I can hang hooks to hold some of my scrapbooking supplies. This is part of a larger project of revamping my craft place. Also on the list is a tall, narrow bookshelf which will fit nicely in a corner next to my computer desk and an armoire with adjustable shelves to hold lots and lots of supplies! I've really outgrown my craft space with my current storage solutions, but with the pegboard, bookshelf and armoire I'll have a nice, neatly organized space and I know I'll accomplish more once I'm organized.

There are several more projects I completed that I didn't photograph, like rearranging the family room furniture, moving my ironing board to a new location complete with a hanging bar for clothes that are either drying or ready to iron, reorganizing the garage so that I can get my daughter's car in for the winter and cleaning and organizing my laundry room. I haven't left the house since Friday night and I love weekends like that!

I hope your weekend was productive, relaxing, fun and stressless, just like mine!

Around here.

2010-11-02T18:50:00.000-05:00

I have to admit I haven't been doing much crafting lately, and at the risk of sounding like Jennifer Grey (is she whiny or is it just me??) I have a lot going on in my life right now and crafting has taken a back seat. However, a few special occasions have come up that have required a card so that has gotten me back to my craft table for a bit at least. Can you imagine buying a card? Uff da.

A dear friend of our family passed away at the age of 95 recently. I made this card, which says "with sincere sympathy" on the inside. There's really nothing on the front to indicate that it's a sympathy card but I was ok with that. The woman was a bright, warm, loving person so I thought this paper fit her perfectly.

My brother (older I might add) turned 49 recently and I wanted a man's man kind of card for him. I created this card which I thought looked kind of like a tin shed, the kind of place a guy might want to hang out. It's rough and tough, complete with brads that look like screws.

Again, not to sound like Jennifer Grey (you know, the one no one puts in a corner?) but I'm really not sure what to do about my Etsy shop right now. Although I've had lots of local support my Etsy sales, well, there aren't any. I was advertising on Ali Edwards blog but she did a site redesign and raised her prices to the point that's there just not a good ROI (that's return on investment to you non-business types!) when you aren't getting any sales. I'm thinking I'll spend the rest of 2010 coming up with a strategy for my shop, which could include other advertising, working on getting published, or maybe just calling it quits.

I have learned so much since I started my shop in 2008 but really, I'm just not getting enough sales for the time and effort that is required. Having said that, I can't say I've put a lot of effort into my shop lately so I really don't know that I've given it a fair chance. Like I said, I'm going to spend some time rethinking the whole thing and either it's going to be bigger and better than ever or it's going to run it's course.

For now, here's a little incentive for all of you blog readers. I made this tag using some of my extra paper and I'll include it with the next order from my shop along with 10% off one item. This is a first come, first served, one sale deal so don't dally! The discount will be refunded to you through PayPal.

I'll keep you posted on my plans, so keep coming back to get the latest news! If there's something you'd really like to see in my shop feel free to leave a comment here - I'm always open to suggestions!

Parking Ticket

2010-10-30T10:52:00.001-05:00

One more little mistake we made on our trip to Oregon was to park in Portland and not really read the signs. We parked near Voo Doo Donuts, which wasn't where we were going but just happened to be down the street.

If you aren't familiar with Voo Doo Donuts I'm not sure how to explain it to you . . . it's a little donut shop with very strange donuts that is very popular. My daughter and I went there once and it was very interesting to say the least! Anyway, it's so popular that when we drove by there was a line about 2 blocks long so we were looking at that and not paying attention to where we were parking.

We went and got some coffee and then walked around Portland which provides plenty of great people watching. We saw several people singing and playing instruments on the street and this guy was our favorite:

He made some amazing music with those plastic pails and he was such a happy guy! We threw a couple bucks in his pail so we could take his picture.

After all that fun we made our way back to our car and drove away and it wasn't until we were speeding down the interstate that we noticed something small and gold flapping in the breeze unter the windshield wiper. Worried that it might blow away we took the next exit, examined the small gold thing and came to the realization that you could now go to any Oregon Post Office and see our photos on the Most Wanted list. Ok, it wasn't that serious but we did have a parking ticket. Because we didn't notice it until we were far from our parking spot we still don't really know why we got a ticket, but evidently we did something against the rules.

In crafty news I do have a few photos to share with you and I'll get to that very soon! Right now I need to write a check to the Portland Parking Tag office for $40!

Airport crafts!

2010-10-24T11:50:00.000-05:00

What do you do when you have 6 hours to wait at an airport? Crafts of course!

As I mentioned in my last post my mom and I missed our flight from Seattle to Minneapolis and we had to wait 24 hours for the next flight. I should give a little shoutout to Sun Country Airlines, because they allowed us to take the next flight with no change fees and they also waived our bag fees, so that saved us $50. The hotel we stayed at cost us $100, so our really silly mistake ended up costing us about $50. And 24 hours.

My mom was hosting a group of ladies at her house at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, and since we wouldn't get home until 1 a.m. on Tuesday due to our really silly mistake she would barely have time to get her house ready, much less make any food. Luckily we both have wonderful friends, and they stepped up and offered to make the food for her so that she would have one less thing to worry about.

Since we had 6 hours to wait at the airport after we checked out of our hotel we did some shopping and she found some little gifts for the two friends that were helping her out (both named Shari, although spelled two different ways!). The gifts came in cute little bags, but she wanted a thank you tag for each one so we set out to find some items we could use to make tags. Might as well craft, right? We hoped to find luggage tags but ended up using the brown paper that our treats came in. I used the receipt as the "string" to tie the tags to the bags and mom bought some crayons to use to decorate the tags. It was fun, forced us to be creative and used up some of the time we were spending at the airport. Here are the tags and my "work station":

We had a great trip before our really silly mistake and if you haven't been to Oregon I would highly recommend a trip. It's such a beautiful state and the colors were almost at peak when we were there.

We went on a covered bridge driving tour in southern Oregon and although we were disappointed to find out that only one of the bridges was still being used we still enjoyed the beauty of each bridge. Here's one of the bridges:

We also enjoyed our time walking around my daughter's college campus which is very beautiful. Here's a picture of my daughter and I standing by a stream that runs throught the campus:

Then there's the Oregon coast, you know, the one that was so beautiful that we missed our flight? Here's a photo of one of the many beautiful sights we saw:

I really haven't done any crafting since we got back because I have been exhausted! I am working on a few things today so I'll have a few photos for you very soon.

Have you ever . . .

2010-10-19T11:24:00.000-05:00

missed a flight because you had to have lunch? I can now say that I have!

My mom and I flew to Seattle and drove to Oregon to visit my daughter in college. Our flight back home left Seattle at 6:15 p.m. on Monday evening so we decided to take the scenic drive along the Oregon coast back to Seattle rather than taking the quicker route on the Interstate. We loved the drive and had lots of fun taking in the scenery.

We got to Cannon Beach, OR and stopped at the Information Center to ask how long we should plan to reach Seattle. The very nice lady said it would take about 4 hours. This was at 1 p.m. Had we been thinking we should have realized that we needed to head for the airport so we would have time to return our rental car and catch our flight.

Instead we decided to have lunch! There was a great place in town with fish & chips which sounded great, so we had lunch. Yes we did!

Then we drove around town a bit and took pictures, and then we started for the airport. By that time it was 2 p.m.

Long story short, we missed our flight. Yep, we missed our flight so we could have lunch.

The good news is that Sun Country will allow us to fly standby on their next flight to Minnesota. The bad news is that the next flight is 6:15 p.m. on Tuesday!!

We spent the night in Seattle - Stranded in Seattle actually. Now we have the whole day to get to the airport to catch the next flight. We have to check out of our hotel at noon, so we'll definitely catch the next flight.

Unless, of course, we hear about a great lunch spot!!!

Inspiration

2010-10-13T18:39:00.000-05:00

Photo courtesy of AFP

Last night my television was tuned to CNN as I watched the Chilean mine rescue, which continues at this moment. Did you watch? Talk about inspiring! If you aren't up to speed on the story or if you haven't seen any of the images I really encourage you to do a quick internet search and see for yourself.

The coordination involved in the rescue, both above ground and below was simply amazing. The 33 miners that have been trapped for 69 days have been involved in their rescue since Day 1, documenting their journey and doing every task they were assigned, including piling up rocks for the rescue tube to rest on when it arrived in the mine.

The spirits of these men? Simply inspiring. Not only have they managed to stay alive and work together as a team, every video clip of them that I have seen has shown smiling men, often singing the national anthem.

The President of Chili has been at the site for each and every rescue, welcoming the families of the miners as they arrive and greeting each miner like a long, lost friend. I don't know anything about him, but he has certainly impressed me through this ordeal.

Oh. I dont' know what else to say. I'm so inspired!!!

Fall Thank You Card

2010-10-05T19:24:00.000-05:00

Sticking with the fall theme, below is a thank you card that I made today featuring the cutest apple paper and a die cut apple. Have I mentioned lately how much I love my Cricut??

I used my Cricut to cut both layers of the apple (3" and 3.25") and the flower. I used a rub on for the words and I used the pinking blade on my paper cutter for the green strip. All in all it took me about half an hour to make six cards like this, but don't tell anyone! We'll let them think it took hours. No, days. K?

Fall nature walk

2010-10-02T10:26:00.000-05:00

Don't you just love fall?

There's a chill in the air, yet the sunshine feels so nice and warm.
There's football on tv and at local high schools, yet the World Series is right around the corner.
The leaves are multi colored and vibrant, yet the summer flowers continue to bloom.

Yes, fall is an awesome season!

Every day when I wake up I look out the window and see this beautiful tree.

It's even more beautiful when the morning sun is hitting the tree; this photo was taken in the evening.

Last night I took the dog on a nature walk through a local park that's just behind our house. Oh, the sites I saw! Be prepared for lots of photos because it was hard to narrow down the choices.

Walking on the path before you even enter the park you see this row of trees. They are awesome in the spring too!

Then you enter the park through this opening in the trees. You can just tell there's something great on the other side!

The park is a county park with a steep hill, several picnic areas, a ball park and a lake. Here are just some of the sights I saw.

It was a great walk, and I'm excited because my mom and I are heading to another nearby county park for another nature walk this afternoon. I'm sure I'll end up taking more photos, so I may just need to make another Fall Mini Album to hold them all!

As I headed back home I took this shot of the sunshine through the trees. Maybe I missed my calling and I should have been a nature photographer!! Ha ha!

Enjoy this fall day!

Congrats to the giveaway winner!

2010-09-26T18:07:00.000-05:00

Thanks to each and every one of you that participated in the Fall Mini Album giveaway! It's fun to hear which of my products caught your eye!

I'm excited to announce that the winner is . . . CraftyGiveaways who said, "I like the Love Ya, Mean It Mini Album Kit!". That has been very popular and I'm so glad that you like it! I'll be contacting you using the email you provided so that I can get your address and ship the Fall Mini Album to you. Thanks again for participating!

Last night I made lots and lots of cards to be sold at a fundraiser today. My original plan was to make several sets of the same card, but then I saw my big pile of scrap paper that needed to be filed and decided to make individual cards using some of my scraps. It was fun to just pick some paper and make a card - very relaxing.

I'm still working to finish aChristmas Mini Album so I can get it listed in my shop. I'll be sure to post photos once it's ready.

Fall Mini Album and a Giveaway!!

2010-09-20T18:18:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I listed this sweet new Fall Mini Album in my Etsy shop. It's mini indeed, just 4" x 6" and so easy to complete with the items included in the kit. I used the album to scrapbook some (old) Halloween photos that I've had in my "to scrapbook" pile for years! It felt great to get them into an album and I completed it, start to finish, in a couple of hours. Love that! You could probably do it much more quickly if you aren't as indecisive as me!!

Here's one of the completed pages in my album:

The paper, stickers and ribbon are all included in the kit. This picture is my daughter, who is now 21!! Told you the photos were old! Her dog was a cow that year . . .

Here's a look at the items included in the kit:

You can see all of my completed pages by visiting my Flickr - there's a link over on the right hand side of this page.

In celebration of fall, I think it's time for a Giveaway!! In order to enter, please visit my Etsy shop and take a look around and then come back here and comment on your favorite item listed in my shop.

Comments will be open until Sunday, September 26th at 6 p.m. CST. I'll draw one winner from the entrants and post the winner's name here shortly after that. Sound good? Tell everyone you know! In fact, if you Twitter, blog or Facebook about the contest you'll get "extra credit"! (you can copy and paste a product image in your post with a link to my shop). Each mention counts as another entry in the contest for you; just post an additional comment for each time you "talk" about the contest; limit of 4 entries per person please.

Fall Gift Bags

2010-09-19T08:10:00.000-05:00

I recently had an order for a set of fall themed gift bags with some handmade goodies inside. I found the cutest bags at a local store; it may be hard to tell in this photo but they are kraft bags with gray stripes. Love! I simply added some fabric leaves and some ribbon to finish the bags. In this photo you may notice an apple cutout, but in the end I decided that the apple was hard to see and I liked it better with just the leaves and ribbon.

Inside each bag I included 3 cards and 2 gift tags as shown here:

Once I was all done I ended up making a few modifications to the bags, removing the apple as I mentioned and adding a title block that said, "Celebrating 50 years of Friendship".

One of the best parts of making multiples of any item is lining them all up when you are done. Such a sense of accomplishment!

I should mention that I'm not real happy with the quality of any of these photos. The sun wasn't cooperating so they aren't the best, but I had to give them away so wanted to get photos taken regardless of the natural light available.

I spent the day yesterday making some new things for my Etsy shop. Today I plan to photograph and list 3 new items including a travel themed mini album, a fall mini album. The third item isn't done yet but it's a Christmas themed mini album. I really hope we have a nice sunny day today so I can get some great photos.

On my craft table right now

2010-09-12T11:05:00.002-05:00

If you stopped by my house this weekend you would find me very busy at my craft table working on a number of customer orders. I've completed an order for Confirmation invitations and I'm currently working on assembling a batch of thank you cards, which are pictured here. It's always nice to get to this stage in the process - the design is set, all of the pieces are cut out and now it's just a matter of putting them all together.

The next order I need to work on is one I'm really looking forward to - a set of decorated gift bags filled with a variety of cards and tags. I found some really cute kraft bags with grey stripes and I have a plan in place for decorating them in a fall theme. I'll post pictures once I get them done.

I'm also working on Christmas gift tags (yikes!) and some bags decorated with a Christmas theme. I love having projects!

I definitely haven't done much crafting over the summer and now that fall is here I'm looking forward to spending more time adding items to my Etsy shop. I will be sure to let you know each time I add a new item, and feel free to check out my shop now where you'll find a variety of items ready to go.

I just might be a feminist . . .

2010-09-08T21:22:00.000-05:00

World English Dictionary

feminist (ˈfɛmɪnɪst) — n

1. a person who advocates equal rights for women — adj

2. of, relating to, or advocating feminism

I'm not big on labels and certainly don't feel any need to label myself, but it occured to me today that if I were to label myself I might have to call myself a feminist. Is that bad?

Today I went to get new tabs for my license plates on my car; they were actually due by August 30th but I was under the impression that you have 10 days past the due date before you were officially late. As usual I procrastinated to Day 8 of my 10 day grace period, only to find out that the whole grace period thing is a myth. Good thing I don't drive far to work and even better that I rarely see the police!

Living in a small town we don't have the long lines at the DMV that I hear about from city dwellers, meaning that if we end up SECOND in line we get irritated. As I was crossing the street to enter the DMV a man literally ran from his vehicle to enter ahead of me. So much for chivalry! So there I was, SECOND in line and none too happy about it. When it was finally (see what I mean?) my turn I was informed that this is the year I get not only tabs but new plates as well. YAY me! Not really, but I'm trying to stay positive.

Anyway, as the woman hands me my shiny new plates she says, "now you can have your husband put these on for you". If thought bubbles were visible mine would have said, "Excuse me?" Since I figured she couldn't read my mind I opted for a cold, hard stare as I spit out the words, "Actually I think I can do it myself" to which she replied, "oh". I can only imagine what her thought bubble might have said. That's when it occurred to me that I just might be a feminist.

These types of experiences always irritate me! For years as a single woman I went to the same Accountant to have my taxes done. The file had my name on it of course. Then I got married and the next time I went in the file only had my husband's name on it. When questioned, the woman gave me the old "that's the way we've always done it" speech which didn't help at all. Then when it was time to sign our return I learned that my husband was to sign on the line for the taxpayer and I was simply the taxpayer's spouse. Excuse me? I mentioned to the woman at the counter that I sort of considered myself the taxpayer since I pay the bills, file all of the tax paperwork and spent a few hours preparing for the appointment while my husband simply tagged along to the appointment. I let her hem and haw for a bit (can you imagine her thought bubble?) and then I just signed where they had typed my name. Ok fine, I did the cold, hard stare bit too if you must know.

Last night I bought two 40 pound bags of softener salt, carried them into my house and down to the basement and then lifted them up and emptied them into the softener. Last week I fashioned a ramp out of two boards and loaded our lawn mower into the trunk of my car so that I could take it to be repaired. I do these types of things while making sure to follow my motto, "don't break a sweat or a nail". However, the world just assumes that women need a man to do everything for them, and it never fails to irritate me.

I got my new plates on my car, and now I'm off to burn a few bras.

Let's Party!!

2010-08-29T21:27:00.000-05:00

We had a party today to celebrate my mom's birthday - it was a Mexican fiesta! Lots of fun, food and drink.

Don't you love our vintage blender? It's been around for a while and still works great. It's so old that the pitcher is actually glass! I love the font on the front panel and the little stars in the background. Pure vintage!

Left Handed

2010-08-26T18:24:00.000-05:00

I mentioned in this post that I wish I was left handed. I've always had this wish, and I'm not sure why. It could be because one of my favorite aunts is left handed, or maybe because one of my favorite high school teachers was left handed. I remember sitting in class watching my teacher write on the chalk board and thinking that it just looked like more fun to write with your left hand. For whatever reason it's always there in the back of my mind. Sometimes I'll be in a meeting and rather than doodling like a normal person might I practice writing with my left hand. I should mention that I'm terrible at it - but I keep trying.

Today I traveled to Minneapolis for a morning meeting and I had plans to go to lunch after the meeting with one of the attendees. Unfortunately she wasn't able to attend at the last minute so there went my lunch plans. Rather than wandering around downtown Minneapolis in my high heels I decided to hit the road and stop to eat somewhere along the way - it's about an hour drive back to my little town. I ended up at an Applebees about half way home, and I settled into my booth and waited for my lunch to arrive.

A group of 8 businessmen arrived and sat at a table on the other side of a half wall that separated their table from my booth. As they chose their seats one of the men asked if he could be at the end of the table because he is left handed. That got my interest and I spent the rest of my time at Applebees eavesdropping on a group of men talk about being left handed. I am so easily entertained!

It turns out that 6 of the 8 men were left handed! Oh my! One of the men, whom I'm guessing was the boss, said that he tries to only hire left handed employees. I'm not sure how the two righties felt about that. Anyway, he explained that it's a right handed world and to be left handed you need to be creative and persevering. Huh! He said that when he interviews potential employees he always has them sign something so he can find out if they are left or right handed. They had quite a lengthy conversation and I was entertained while I ate my lunch.

For those of you concerned about discrimination do not be alarmed. Being right or left handed is not a protected class, so it's fine to make your hiring decisions based on that alone. Not something I would recommend, but perfectly legal. Spoken like a true Human Resources professional, right? Yep, that's my day job.

Are you left handed? If not, do you wish you were?

New items listed for fall

2010-08-21T11:25:00.000-05:00

Today I listed some new items for fall. They aren't totally new as I did sell a few sets of each of these items last fall, but I'm calling them new because they haven't been listed for the past several months and also because I have taken all new photos.

The first "new" item is a set of So Thankful tags, shown above. These tags were very popular last year and this is my last set. I need to look for some fall paper so that I can make additional sets - that's on my to do list. I think these tags would work great on Thanksgiving Day; put one on each place setting and ask your guest to write down what they are thankful for, and then have everyone share their lists. They would also work well as gift tags or as thank you cards. So many uses!

The second "new" item is a set of fall photo tags. These are pictures that I took at a Minnesota farm and include pictures of pumpkins and chickens. Oh for cute! These tags were popular last year too and again, this is my last set. The sad news is that when my computer crashed a few months ago I lost these photos, so I really can't make any more of these.

You may notice that I used props in these photos - the same props for each item. The pumpkin is actually part of a gift for a friend (hopefully she doesn't notice!) and the "thingy" holding each item is called a flower frog. I guess these frogs used to be used by florists in the bottom of containers to arrange flowers . . . now they work great to hold items for photos! I bought this from one of my favorite Etsy shops (Saturday Morning Vintage) and I was excited to use it this morning.

I previously declared this YARD DAY with plans to do some weeding and trimming. It's hot and MUGGY today so I'm kind of wishing I hadn't made the declaration . . . but I think I'll head out and get it done so I can come back in the house and do some crafting! I need to make a birthday card for a party tomorrow and also 20 thank you cards to fill an order I received. Hope your Saturday is full of fun!

Another type of Scarecrow

2010-08-19T17:53:00.000-05:00

At my day job as a Human Resources Manager I'm lucky enough to have an office along an outside wall, which means that I also have a window. YAY me! On Tuesday I was working away, minding my own business when I started hearing a tap, tap, tapping on the wall of my office - luckily on the outside of the building. The tapping went on and on and on! I realized it must be a bird chipping away at the stucco which I figured was not a good thing.

I called our Maintenance man and he went outside to check it out. He came back in to report that there was a bird out there and it had pecked a pretty deep hole into the side of the wall. Again, not a good thing. He vowed to take care of the problem and disappeared to the back of the building. This man has quite a shop back there filled with all sorts of gadgets so I was curious to see what he would find to keep the bird away.

He came back a few minutes later with a drawing of a cat. Not even kidding. Here's the drawing:

He went outside and tacked it to the building - as you can see here he used push pins. Here's a shot of the picture tacked to the side of the building right outside my window:

As you can imagine, this has become the talk of the company, if not the town. That afternoon one of our employees called me to say that she had been on a walk during her break and she asked me so sincerely, "do you know that there's a drawing of a cat right outside your window?". She had no idea of the story behind the drawing and thought someone put it there as a prank. I explained the situation and got quite a laugh from her.

So, for the last three days I've fielded questions about the drawing and we've all been having a lot of fun with it. The big question, of course, is whether or not the drawing is working.

Yes, it is. The bird has not been back!!

Shopping for shoes

2010-08-17T22:47:00.001-05:00

Be honest . . . are these the cutest shoes you have ever seen? I bought them last week and I think they are oh so cute! They are quite comfortable too, which is so important to me!

I also bought a new pair of walking shoes because the pair that I had were not that comfortable and if I'm going to keep up my new three mile per day routine I need good shoes. The down side of all this exercise (ugh!) is that it's very time consuming. By the time I work all day, go for a walk, feed and play with the dog and eat supper it's almost bedtime!

I have had some crafting time - I recently had an order for some Bridal Shower invitations. Now I need to make some matching thank yous - good thing I have orders to fill or I may not get any crafting done!

I do plan to get some things made this week, and I'll try to post some pictures and be a better blogger too.

Etsy Reading List

2010-08-08T11:53:00.000-05:00

I was so excited today to click on the Etsy Community page and see one of my items featured! I like to see what's going on in the forums, which is where I was headed today. I clicked on the Community Page and then clicked on the Forums tab just click, click, really fast. As the Community Page flashed before my eyes I thought I recognized one of my photos, so when I got to the Forums page I quick clicked back. Sure enough, there was my photo of my Library Pocket with Typewriter right there on the Community Page!

Any time you can get extra exposure on Etsy it's a good thing, and this is the first time one of my items has been featured by Etsy admin. The lesson I learned from this is that taking creative photos is definitely worth the extra time. I've mentioned before that taking photos is one of the hardest parts of listing an item on Etsy, simply because it's hard to get photos that accurately depict your item. You need to worry about lighting and clarity and you also want the image to be interesting.

I typically just take pictures of my items with a white background, but recently have started adding "props" to make the photos more interesting. In the case of this photo, I used books in the background, which made the picture suitable for an article about reading. YAY me!

I also want to congratulate my Etsy friend Andrea Rooks from RooksPaperScissors, who recently had one of her items pictured on Etsy's front page. YAY Andrea!

I'm a whiny walker

2010-08-05T18:42:00.000-05:00

I headed out for my walk tonight excited because it's a beautiful night with cooler temps and less humidity than we've had lately, but my good mood was short lived. Tonight, after several days of walking, my calves were killing me! Over the sound of my ipod I could hear my legs screaming, "what the heck is going on here!" I stopped to stretch a few times which didn't help one bit.

My legs loosened up after about 1-1/2 miles, but I have to admit that at the one mile mark if someone I knew had driven by I would have gladly accepted a ride home. Face it, I would have accepted a ride from someone that looked vaguely familiar. Luckily Christina Aguilara came on my ipod singing about being a fighter and I powered on and didn't have to risk my life riding home with a complete stranger.

I seriously considered cutting my walk short but I didn't - I finished all three miles and Bruce Springsteen brought me home with the 80's classic Born to Run, which clearly, I was not.

Etsy shopping

2010-08-04T20:54:00.000-05:00

I recently did some shopping on Etsy for an upcoming project, and the package arrived today. I purchased a few things from Ruby Floy and she has some creative packaging, and also a creative business card. Here's the package as it arrived (I covered my address):

She used two brown lunch bags as her packaging which I thought was really clever. Here's the back:

There's a cute little message stamped on the back, along with her shop name and web address. Inside I found these goodies:

For her business card she used a check blank which I thought was an interesting touch. I ordered some used library cards and some vintage playing cards with birds on the front - that's a hint at a project I'm planning to do soon. She also included a few old stamps and I'm sure I'll find a use for them.

Shopping on Etsy is fun because there are so many interesting, unique items to look at. The best part about making a purchase is seeing how creative people can be with their packaging and also to see if you get any extra goodies. Packages like this inspire me to be more creative when I ship off the items that I sell.

Walking 101

2010-08-03T21:52:00.000-05:00

Over the years I've done my share of walking for exercise, but I have to admit that it's been a while since I've been doing it routinely. I tend to be a talk radio kind of gal, so if you got in my car right now you would hear my favorite local talk radio station, not music. In the past I've used a radio headset and listened to talk radio while I walked. My biggest problem with that is that sometimes in order to get reception I had to walk with my head tilted at various angles - kind of a problem.

One of the blogs I read faithfully is Bits & Pieces which is written by Cathy Zielske, a scrapbooking guru. In January she adopted the moto "move more, eat less" and on her blog she chronicles her adventures walking, running, swimming and bicycling. She talks a lot about the music she listens to while she exercises and she got me thinking about buying an ipod.

While my daughter was home we went shopping and stopped in the Apple store to look at ipods. I was surprised to find that an ipod touch, which plays music and allows Internet connectivity was only $50 more than an ipod nano that only plays music. I didn't really plan to buy something that "fancy" but for the price difference it seemed to make sense. I bought the touch and started buying music and loading my cd's. Once I had a nice selection of music loaded on my ipod (including a walking playlist) I hit the road.

My current walking route is just shy of 3 miles and includes some beautiful sights. I drove the route to find out the distance and I brought my camera along to snap some pictures so that I could share them with you.

This ball park is near my house and although it was quiet when I took the photo it's actually a busy park!

There are many lakes near my house (it is the Land of 10,000 Lakes you know!); here's one of them:

This hill, known locally as Swede Mountain, is not on my current route but I'm working up to it! Uff da!

I do walk this hill at the end of my walk and it's challenging enough for now:

My walking playlist is still a work in progress; I'll share it once I have it just right. In the meantime, feel free to offer any suggestions you have for great songs . . . you know, songs with a good beat that are easy to walk to.

I should mention that for many years I was a majorette in marching band, where walking to the beat was required. That's what makes a good playlist so important . . . I cannot walk "off beat"!

The Visit

2010-07-23T20:22:00.000-05:00

My daughter has been home now for 9 days - 9 days out of a 10 day visit. She came home to visit family and friends, but the timing was based on the Baptism of my niece's baby boy because Emily (my daughter) is the baby's Godmother. The Baptism was last weekend and I snapped a few photos at church. Here's a picture of the Pastor, parents and Godparents; Emily is wearing the black and white dress holding the baby.

Emily isn't usually the first to volunteer to hold babies (that would be me!) but she did a great job. I love his little arm holding on to her!

Today I spent the day with Emily while she did laundry and packed. We even snuck in a walk, and a friend of hers came to visit; we had a nice day together! Later in the afternoon Grandma (my mom) came to say goodbye to Emily since she's leaving tomorrow. Here's a cute picture of Grandma and Emily:

And here's the sad truth; my daughter is heading back to Oregon. The good news is that she will be starting her senior year of college, so this will be the last year that she is so far away!

It has been great having her home and it will be sad to see her leave. I'm so proud of Emily for moving across the country to attend college and doing so well there, and I'm looking forward to having her move back to Minnesota once she graduates!

Summertime

2010-07-16T18:22:00.000-05:00

Yes, it's summertime in Minnesota and I have to admit that I haven't been crafting at all. I've been enjoying the beautiful weather, reading books, mowing the lawn. This week has been especially fun because my daughter is home from Oregon for 10 days so I'm spending as many minutes as I can with her, although her schedule is pretty full.

Since I don't have any crafty news for you I'd like to recommend a great blog for you to check out. My brother is on an amazing weight loss journey (down 103 pounds!) and he's blogging along the way. You can check it out here: http://bradjswenson.blogspot.com/

I have to admit that Big Brother started last week and that's been keeping me busy as well. I haven't spent too much time watching the live feeds (yet) but the show is on 3 times each week so it does keep a person busy.

I hope you are enjoying your summer!

We made up

2010-07-11T10:09:00.000-05:00

Mother Nature and I are back on speaking terms. After an extended rain shower yesterday morning the sky started to clear and it turned into a nice afternoon. The fam gathered at the lake and we spent the afternoon in the water having a great time. I was so happy that the day turned out well and I got to spend the afternoon hanging out and relaxing.

Late in the evening another storm system moved in and man, did it rain! Prior to the rain there was a beautiful sunset, but when I took pictures of it they turnd out really strange! I didn't have my flash on, so maybe that's why they look like this?

That's not how it looked in person, but kinda cool, right?

Today looks bright and sunny and windy . . . not sure what my plans are yet. I have book club tonight and I'm finished with the book so no pressure there. I may just sit out in the yard and read my current book (Eclipse, the third book in the Twilight series) or maybe I'll be crafty. We'll see.

Mother Nature is not my friend

2010-07-10T11:04:00.000-05:00

Warning! This is a rant against Mother Nature.

So, it's Saturday. I work at my day job Monday through Friday. Saturday and Sunday and my days off, and they are busy with projects around the house (cleaning, mowing the lawn, etc.), committments, and errands. Today is one of those rare Saturdays when I don't have any committments; nowhere that I have to be. I cleaned the house and mowed the lawn in the evenings this week because the forecast for the weekend was that Saturday would be hot and sunny, and Sunday would be rainy. I planned my weekend around that forecast, which was probably my first mistake.

My parents live on a lake just a few miles from me, and they had the day free too! So did my brother and sister-in-law! And my niece and her family! YAY us! A beautiful, sunny day that we could all spend on the lake, floating on air mattresses, swimming, even going for a ride on the pontoon. In other words, a perfect summer day in Minnesota.

By now you can probably guess where this story is going, right? I got up at 8:30 a.m. and it was sunny with a few clouds in the sky. I went outside and fed the dog, then got my daughter's bedding in the wash because she is coming home from Oregon on Wednesday. She loves sheets fresh from the clothesline so I thought I would get them washed and out on the line before I headed to the lake.

Minute by minute - I'm not even kidding - the clouds seemed to be taking over the sky. Does this look like a beautiful, sunny day to you?

Not terrible, but a bit worrisome. Then it got worse. See?

And then? Raindrops on the driveway.

Now I'm seriously irritated. As I type this I hear thunder and I see the trees outside blowing in the wind. Seriously? I have the radio on and they are still talking about a nice, hot day today, but the station is in the Twin Cities which is about 60 miles east. I would expect that in about half an hour their story will change and they will start talking about rain.

I'm irritated with Mother Nature. Would it be so wrong to have a nice day on a Saturday? Does all of the nice weather need to be Monday through Friday? Ugh.

Say what?

2010-07-07T21:22:00.000-05:00

I listed a new item in my Etsy shop over the weekend - Sayings Blocks. There are 5 blocks in the set, each with a different patterned paper backing and with a different saying. The sayings are:

much love

giggle

you're special

cutie

you make me happy

I also tried out some new photo backgrounds to add some interest to my photos, such as the colorful tins shown above the a computer keyboard shown here:

I also used a wooden crate as a background, both in the keyboard photo and in this one:

It was fun to be a bit creative with photos. I had an idea to make a clothesline and hang the Sayings Blocks on it with clothespins, but the ones I had were too big and kept flipping the Sayings Blocks upside down! It's still an idea I'd like to try, but I'll need some mini clothespins!

So, what do you think of these backgrounds? Do you have a favorite?