Christmas Cards...

Tonight I managed to make a few Christmas cards as I realized that the holiday will be here before I know it!! So Here are the two cards that I am going to be sending out this year. I like the top one much better as it is embossed with the cuttlebug but I cannot see myself making a bunch of that card. I decided when I was at the Fiskars sale that I should pick out some paper for my Christmas cards so I could get a bunch of one pattern so I managed to find two that I liked. They are have shiney circles and sparkles too which you can see in the photo below on the left portion of the card.

I cannot believe that this is my third post in one day. I cannot seem to post once a week most of the time and today I get on here three times. Wow...I hope I can keep this up!!

are you ready for this??

Okay...here goes.

As I promised before, I said I would post pics of the Fiskars sale that I attended. OMG I just went through everything to take photos and it took me forever to get it all out on the table and I didn't even get pictures of everything. I have a stack of paper that is 6 inches high and I figured it would be rather difficult to take a pic of that since its just a stack of paper. Most of the papers are Heidi Grace papers and I LOVE them!! Some of them are shimmery, glittery, and even flocked. Many of these papers I could purchase in a store for $1.00 or more per sheet and I got 105 sheets for $6.00. WHAT A DEAL!! Basically they had everything pre-packaged in sample kits so you got one of everything in the rub-on line or papers. I got a bunch of stuff I probably won't ever use but it came with so much that I will! Here are some of the pics I took...

So here is a photo of most of what I got...it is hard to see but there is a lot there. There are bags of rub-ons and the bags had over 20 different sheets in them for anywhere from $2.00-$4.00. Paper trimmers were $3.00 for an opened one and $5.00 for one in the package. I also got my mom a large rotary trimmer for $10 and they are usually around $70. Opened punches were $1.00 so I got some border punches and 5 squeeze punches. Can't go wrong for $1.00! I did also get a package of 6 small squeeze punches for $5.00. Well they were selling them for $5.00 but when I got up to the register with my stuff I didn't have any idea as to how much my total would be so I told the guy that I had decided that I didn't want a couple things in my boxes and I help up the package of punches and he asked if I would take them if they were free. I about fell on the floor. I said "Are you serious?" and he said...sure just put them in the box. Then he whispered..."I would rather give them to you free than have to go put them back out there again." I thanked him and let him keep adding up my stuff.

Here is a box that cost me $15.00. Now I know you can't see what is in it but it has 96 different Heidi Grace stickers, alphabets, and embellishments. Basically it is one of everything from all of the Heidi Grace lines from this year. What an amazing deal!! Below is a pic of what is in the box...

Here is the contents of one of my $4.00 bags of rub-ons. Ranged anywhere from letters to holiday stuff.

I also got a bunch of other things such as extra cutting blades, 2 large cutting mats, some fiskars templates for the Ultra Shape Express, adhesive, pop-up dots, and more. I had so much fun and could not believe that I left there with only spending $125.00. When I got home and showed my mom...she was upset that I hadn't purchased much for her. She ended up buying $25.00 of the stuff from me so I only spend $100.00! So yes, all of what is pictured above plus more for ONLY ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS!!! Oh what a day it was! It was an early Merry Christmas to ME!

snowy days...

So today I look outside and am not ready to venture out anytime soon. IT IS SNOWING!!! Well I was already outside early this morning to run to Target. I hate having to run to the pharmacy and I needed the prescription TODAY! I decided to choose Target over Walgreens when my prescription was super expensive and realized that Walgreens is not the place to go unless you absolutely have to. So now I have my stuff at Target and not going to their pharmacy before, we showed up at 6:10 pm yesterday which was Saturday to find out that the pharmacy closes at 6:00 pm. So we had to run out again this morning just because I needed it today. Yuck!! I hate it when things happen like that. So we drug the whole family out this morning in the freezing cold because Nathan decided that we should go grocery shopping too. Well we were back by 10:30 so we didn't waste too much of our day.

I love the snow...it makes it look so pretty outside and I want to go out and play in it with the kids. But today I think I will stay inside and try to clean up my scrapbook room. Last night I sat on the couch and went through all 600 photos that I just got in the mail yesterday. YES, I said 600! I am all ready for the crop that I am attending on Dec. 13th. I got the photos back and I also ordered my new ATG adhesive gun yesterday with plenty of adhesive to last awhile! Now I have to go begin getting things ready because I want to be organized this time when I go. I also want to take a picture of my awesome purchase from Friday afternoon! OGM you won't believe it. Fiskars in Wausau had a huge warehouse sale and I got a TON of stuff...and I mean a ton for really cheap! I will try to take a photo of everything that post later!!

Gotta go get some crafty stuff done!!

Oh what a model...

So grandma bought Jaidyn a dress to wear for Christmas and she loved trying it on to see if it fit but wouldn't stand up for us to see. What a silly girl she was being.

Here I finally got her to stand up and pose for a picture. You can see her little boots that I bought her the other day too. So cute! The only problem is that this dress fit her yesterday when we tried it on but we are affraid that in 27 days...she will not fit into it any longer. What a bummer!!! Now we have to look for another dress and take this one back. Apparently there were no sizes bigger than this one at the store where grandma bought it. Isn't that how things always work...

Jaidyn loves to get her picture taken and here she is blowing grandma a kiss.

At Thanksgiving we tried to get a picture taken of all of us for our Christmas card...wow that was a chore. This is the best one and I am not satisfied. I don't know how many Christmas cards I am sending out this year but I would still like a good photo in it. Maybe I can just get a picture of the kids or something to put in it. It is always nice to share the little ones so people can see how big they are getting and hang their pictures on the fridge...oh the christmas season is upon us!

A really random blog post today...oh well! At least I have updated more frequently in the past couple days! More to come...

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Well Jaidyn is down for her nap, the floors are cleaner than before because of Nathan and I just finished cleaning the bathroom. I hate cleaning showers!! Anyways...it is a good day filled with Thanks and we will be heading over to my brother's house later this afternoon for dinner. My parents are going to go to his house later to start the turkey and then we will all be together to eat this evening. I can't wait because I have been craving turkey for the past week. Sounds SO yummy!

My little tyke Jaidyn has been sort of strange lately. SO much fun but somewhat crabby and not sleeping well....those darn teeth. She is getting two teeth right now and they are getting more pointed near the skin. I just want them to poke through! I am also waiting for more words to pop out of her mouth. All we ever get is "GRANDPA," but that is cute too. Well I am off to shower and get ready for the day. Gotta get a little lunch since I want to save room for oh so much turkey later!!

I hope everyone's day is a GREAT one!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

CTMH

As many of you already know, I am a Close To My Heart consultant and we can now advertise our businesses on our personal blogs. I am so excited about that because I can finally share things that are going on and share my website. There is a new catalog coming out in a month or so and I am so excited to get on in my hands. I will have to post a photo of the new idea book cover as soon as I get one. I can't wait to see the new products. I saw a sneak peak today online from someone who already got their catalogs and the stuff looks pretty nice! If you would like to check out CTMH you can go to my website at www.stacieschultz.myctmh.com and see the products we offer and even order online. Let me know if you are interested in getting a new catalog when they come out!

OH SO BIG!

So I am finally done with my teaching in Chippea Falls and back working at Down Memory Lane three days a week. It is great to be able to have Mondays and Fridays off to spend with my lovely daughter. Right now she is SO much fun to play with. She is running around like crazy and being a silly little girl. I am just waiting for her to start talking. She loves GRANDPA and yells his name ALL THE TIME!!! We spent the weekend at my parent's house this past weekend as my husband went hunting up north. Jaidyn spent the whole weekend running after grandpa and yelling his name. Other than that...she doesn't say anything. She used to say "mama" and "dada" but not very often anymore. We are trying to teach her to shake her head "YES" instead of always shaking it "NO." She is pretty funny. She loves to stand ON things and crawl on the couch. I just cannot believe how big she is getting. I remember two years ago at this time I was so excited to tell my parents we were expecting on Thanksgiving. Now we just get to enjoy her.

my latest project

Ok well I guess at this point I will have to leave this photo on its side since I have no idea why I have uploaded it three times and it comes up this way each time. Frustrations set in since I have better things to do than sit here to try to figure out why when a photo is horizontal before uploading why it comes up vertical. CRAZY!! So here is a layout I did with the sketch from a class I did awhile back online but never got around to doing the layouts and it was also the same layout that Down Memory Lane had for their Challenge this month. I did take my layout into the store but of course since I am still employed there, I could not have mine in the competition. It is on display in the store by the cute Crate Papers that I used in my layout.

I thought I would give you a little close-up shot of the butterflies on the layout. I actually cut four butterflies out of the backgroud paper before assembling the layout. I planned everything out so I could cut out the butterflies yet cover up that area with some of the strips of paper that I added to the page. It was super easy and then I didn't have to search for embellishments to go with the theme. I also bent up their wings a bit and then put some foam pop-up dots under them so they would stand out.

Onto other things in life...

So I have been busy teaching those lovely elementary school students and of course I knew it would happen, I got sick. I got a nasty sore throat for 24 hours which soon turned into a head cold with painful sinus troubles. And as we all know as parents that sometimes when we are sick we don't get any time to rest or time to ourselves. On Thursday night Nathan had to work late and I was stuck watching Jaidyn. This was when I was at my sickest point...if that is a word. Noah went to his mom's house this weekend so I thought for sure that Nathan and I could get a babysitter on Saturday and we could go golfing or to a movie or something. Well that did not happen as Friday night Jaidyn did not sleep more than 30 to 45 minutes at a time. I seriously saw the clock once an hour all night long. That was totally draining and we all felt yucky. Nathan is still not used to the coolers at work now that he delivers for General Beer and I was already sick. So with daddy have 101 temperature, mommy sneezy and coughing, now Jaidyn has a terrible runny nose and won't sleep. We kept waking up to her screaming. We slept on the couch, we stood by her crib, we rubbed her back...nothing seemed to work. We did finally run to Wallgreens and get her some Benadryl so her nose isn't so runny and that has helped. Now daddy is doing ok, mommy still feels yucky and Jaidyn is also doing ok. She is finally sleeping better but is exhausted from lack of sleep. She did finally take a 2 hour nap earlier today... THANK GOODNESS!

Here is my little, rednosed, sweetheart posing for the camera this morning. As I went to get the camera from the kitchen to upload a picture of the layout that I had created she stook in the doorway giggling and smiling for me to take her photo. She learned how to do this at Grandma's house when she was standing on one of Noah's toys that she knew she should not have been. She has a nasty red nose from all of the wiping and runny nose.

Jaidyn is getting big!

Well all is pretty good here. I know I have not taken much time lately to post because I have started teaching in Chippewa Falls until November. Last week I was exhausted to the point of sleeping at 7:00 p.m. I was at least able to get back up at 10:00 p.m. to go to bed. I just could not believe how hard it was for me to stay awake last week. But the first week of school is done and things are getting better. The kids are LOUD and cannot sit and listen but at the end of the day things are still ok. That tells me that teaching is still a good job for me! School must have taken a toll on Noah last week as well. Noah missed school today (his fourth day of Kindergarten) because he had a fever. Of course he went to his mom's house last weekend and got sick there. He is doing just fine now and will be going back to school tomorrow. He says he loves school - which is great!!!! He always is glad to see me when I pick him up each day. I can tell that a whole day of school gets long and tiring for the little guy.

Well since Jaidyn was 14 months on Sunday, I finally decided to take her to get her one year pictures done. She did good but it is hard to get a 14 month old to cooperate!!! She was standing on a table and the lady expected her to stand there and not fall off.....like RIIIGHT! Jaidyn did fine. Here are a few pics of the cute little tyke....

Jaidyn is doing well and getting herself into plenty of trouble. I stopped into Down Memory Lane a couple weeks ago and she got into so many things. It is nothing like before when I could take her into a store and she would sit on the floor. Now she is RUNNING around, literally, and touching everything. She loves the garbage the most at home and loves to open and close everything. I think she enjoys driving daddy and mommy crazy. When the two of us are home together, she gets into everything but when she in home with just mommy or just daddy she plays just fine. It is the craziest thing!! She is so precious and so much fun to play with. I really miss playing with her on my days off since I now have none for awhile. But all is good and Thursday I have my first class to teach at Down Memory Lane since I started teaching and someone excited about getting back to that. It shall be fun!

Long Days and Short Nights are all I see now...

New adventures...

I know I have talked to a few people lately about my new adventure but not many. I figure now is the time to let everyone know what I will be doing for the next couple of months so if you go into Down Memory Lane, you will not see me. As of a couple weeks ago I accepted a Long-term Teaching position in Chippewa Falls and will be teaching Elementary Art. The girl I will be filling in for just had twin girls and plans to be out until November 14th. That is the special day that I will be done teaching and hopefully making my way back to Down Memory Lane. Yesterday was my last day at DML and it was somewhat of a sad day yet a day to look at the future as well. I am glad I am getting this opportunity but I am going to miss the scrapbook store. I love working there and teaching my classes. I am however, going to try to keep teaching classes at DML throughout my teaching in Chippewa. I have already designed most of the cards for the next three months so I am able to just come in and teach the classes without much preparation during that time. I also am looking forward to making my way back to Down Memory Lane when I finish teaching but I am just so glad that I am getting this experience at the elementary level. I will greatly miss the people that I work with at Down Memory Lane and all of the customers. It is hard to leave a place where I know so many people. Some days of work, I would know every customer that walked through the door and others I wouldn't know a single person. It is so fun to see the people that walk through that door to shop. It is a fun place to be and as I mentioned previously...I can't wait to go back. As we all know, time goes by too quickly so before I know it, November will be here and I will be saying goodbye to all of the little kiddies in Chippewa and making my way back to the scrapbook scene. I will have to post a photo of come cards that I plan to do in September as well. Photo to come...

Surprises are always fun!!

So as many of you know, I am a Certified Fiskars Demonstrator and have recently joined a Yahoo group that was just created for our group. Well I am a member of about 4 different Yahoo groups so I get many e-mails daily from the groups letting me know everything that has gone through the group and it gets somewhat boring but I usually browse through them. Well the last two for the CFD group I had not looked at because the group is just starting and the posts are always the same "Hello" messages. For some reason this morning when I did my e-mail check, I decided to look at yesterday's e-mail. As I browsed down through the e-mail all of the sudden it mentioned a surprise prize give-away and it said it was going out the some random new additions to the group and as I read I thought I had to go somewhere to sign up for this prize but as I clicked the mouse one last time I saw the first three winners and MY NAME WAS ON THE LIST!!! It said Stacie S. from Eau Clair, WI...lol. I love how people always spell Eau Claire incorrectly! But at any rate...I am going to be getting a surprise package from Fiskars and I am so excited. I will be watching my doorstep everyday for my prize!! I will have to post more when I get it.

Why is it that good days often times don't end good...

So the weekend started out someone poorly when Noah's mom called and said she would not be taking Noah AGAIN. It will be 6 weeks again since she has seen him since she did not take him the last time he was suppose to go. Might I add, he has been without shoes for 6 weeks as well since the shoes that she had bought him were "lost" at her house and he came home with flip flops on. Now you tell me how lovely it is for a 5 year old to be wearing flip flops for 6 weeks straight. So you might say..."why don't you go buy him some new shoes..." Well we figured that he would have been back to her house two weeks after he had come home with the flip flops. So we decided since Noah cried for 30 minutes straight about not getting to go to his mom's house that we would take him to McDonalds to play. That went well! Then we decided that Saturday would be a good day to take off for a trip to the Zoo. Saturday morning came and yes, we did decide to take a little trip and off we went. But of course one thing had to cramp out day...Noah had no shoes. So off to Shopko we were just so he could have shoes to go to the Zoo. Got the shoes and we were off. So I have not been to the Como Zoo since I was little and when we got there I had never seen so many people and so many cars. We ended up parking down some residential street and walking a ways but we finally got there. We had a good time seeing all of the nice animals...I will have to post some of my giraffe photos. He was an interesting creature!! So we were at the Zoo for about two hours and Jaidyn seemed fine. I did notice that she was getting a little warm and gave her some tylenol, figuring it was her teeth. So off we were to the car at the end of our Zoo excursion.

We then decided since we were in St. Paul that we might just as well make a trip to the Mall of American since Noah had never been there. So we drove over there so we could take Noah to the Build a Bear Workshop. Basically the mall was a good time but I noticed that Jaidyn was acting kind of quiet but we thought she was tired as she had not gotten her afternoon nap. So after the Build A Bear and both kids getting an animal, we went to a few more stores, including Archivers and then were on our way home.

On the way home we stopped in Hudson to eat some dinner and boy was that an experience!!! At this point Jaidyn was acting normal, being her silly self and eating and drinking fine so we thought it was ok to stop to eat. Before our food came we noticed that Jaidyn needed a diaper change...and boy did she ever. Nate took her outside to change her in the van and ended up calling me on my cell phone telling me to get outside right away because she was dirty all over and he had no diapers left. So the spectacular mother that I am, left Noah inside and ran out to help Nathan. Jaidyn is standing outside scared to death, naked, and bawling. Nathan is trying not to get sick and clean her up. Once we finally got her cleaned up, I had to take her inside with a onsie half on and a blanket wrapped around her bottom. At this point Noah was already chowing down on his Mac N Cheese and our food was cold. So needless to say, when Nathan got back with diapers we didn't have much for appetites but ate as much as we could. On our way home Jaidyn slept but we could see that she was a little uncomfortable and was lay her head funny and tilting her head really far back in her carseat as she slept. As we were nearing Eau Claire she kept waking up crying and you could tell she was in pain and when I tried to take her out of her carseat at home she cried as it hurt when I moved her. So we got her inside and she had a temp. of 104. Nate started to freak out and we got her in the tub, which actually did nothing for her temp. I called my parents...and by this time it is 9:00 p.m so she could see if my brother was around to watch Noah for the night incase we decided to take Noah to the Emergency Room. Well that didnt last long and Nate said we had to take her in. So at 9:15 we were on our way with Noah in his PJ's. When we got there the nurse said that Jaidyn did not have a fever which made Nate mad. As we got her into a room and was getting checked out her fever rose again to 102. She got checked out by the doctor who said she looked fine. She was definately not herself though. She layed on the hospital bed and didnt even try to get up. She was definately exhausted. So we sat in the ER until midnight when they finally released her. She did have a bad urine test so they thought she had a urinary tract infection and sent us to Walgreens to get a perscription filled. They then took another urine sample so they could test it again to see if it was the same. On Sunday the test had come back negative and so is apparently fine. But she still had her temp. throughout Sunday but the doctor said it must be something viral. That was so scary when we were rushing her to the emergency room. I just wanted to hold her tight and not let her go. Now that Monday is here and we got to rest up on Sunday, I hope the week starts off better.

new blog background

I came across this website http://www.thecutestblogontheblock.com/ today as I was blog surfing and thought it was time to dress up my blog. I have wanted to create my own blog header but just have not had time lately as summer has been so busy. I think this background will do for awhile and I will see what I can come up with in my header designing.

Dell Inspiron

Alright!!! So a Dell it is. I was so excited when I called Best Buy on Thursday after work to find out that I could indeed go in and pick out a NEW COMPUTER. It is somewhat strange however that I am the one that called them yet again to find out the details on the computer. Maybe it is because I was just always one step ahead of them and waiting waiting waiting for updates. So Nate and I went to Best Buy last night to pick something out and instead of explaining the entire story here (and they are never pleasant experiences!!!) I will just spare the details and say that 2 hours later I had finally picked out somthing that I was happy with. I really wanted to get the RED Gateway but I could tell that Nate wanted me to get the Dell. And it was someone stupid to choose the RED Gateway over the Dell because the Dell has double the hard drive. This computer is a ton better than the one it is replacing but that is the good thing for everything I have had to go through with the last one. Now I will hopefully be able to update on a more regular basis here!!

update...

Today I am still waiting to hear back from Best Buy on my computer. As of Tuesday night they had no updates and they guy that I talked to on the phone seemed to not be telling me everything as he had to put me on hold for awhile to "figure things out." I think I actually knew more than he did! Anyways...I have to call there again today and I also called Regis yesterday as I am still waiting to hear on the job...the one that I REALLY WANT!!!!! So I called there on Wednesday morning which was a week after my interview but I could not get ahold of anyone. I cannot believe that no one was around but I guess it is summer. So I am going to try again this morning to see if I can reach anyone. I am getting excited about Friday as well! I am making yet another trip to Archivers for a Clear Cards class this time. I will have to post photos of my clear acrylic album that I made there two weeks ago...I just have to get my computer back so I can get the photos printed that I need for the album. So once I get back with the cards I will post those too. So lets hope for a good update tonight when I get home from work or from my card class at the store tonight. Keeping my fingers crossed!! update to come :)

Hectic lives we all live...

So today starts my BUSY week of Noah going to the eye doctor and dentist before Kindergarten starts. I just hope he cooperates. Life has been a little frustrating lately as I usually spend numerous hours a week sitting at my computer searching for fun things and surfing through blog upon blog. Well the past four weeks have not been so exciting on that end. My computer had to be sent in yet again to Gateway as it was not charging again. I had also been dealing with the issue for at least a month prior to taking it in. So I took it in, it was shipped out, three weeks later still no word. Finally I got ahold of a NICE guy for once at the GeekSquad and he told me it would be in the next day. So I went to pick it up and took it home to see that it was not working properly again. I wanted to SCREAM!!! I took it back in that same day and they sent it out AGAIN! I am so frustrated with this...I cannot believe they haven't already replaced the computer. This is the fourth time it has been sent in so the guy said that most likely...like 99% of the time they will just replace the entire computer for me. I am eagerly waiting a good news call this week!! I HOPE!

In other news, I am waiting to hear back from yet another interview from last week. I was a little bummed about the idea of working at Regis here in Eau Claire but as of last Wednesday morning (when I had my interview) I have been super excited about it. I am just waiting for the call - hopefully a good one this time and not another one of those disappointing calls like I have already had four of this summer. It is so discouraging when they call you and said that they have offered the job to someone else. I would REALLY REALLY like this job at Regis. It would be a lot of work but I already have the middle school stuff all repared and would be set with that. The high school aspect it what I would have to prepare. I don't know how many times I have told my husband in the past few days how bad I want this job! The great thing about Regis is that Jaidyn would be able to go to work with me and stay at the Daycare center there. That would be perfect because we have not started looking for anything for her yet. That is usually a long drawn-out process! Scary for my baby!! I am also so excited yet scared to think that at some point I will have to quit at the Scrapbook Store. That thought scares me as I have worked there for awhile and totally love it.

Since I have been rambling on and on about my silly personal issues, here is a frame that I created last night for a Close To My Heart meeting that I am attending this week. I am teaching the creative training and was asked to show everyone how I make my frames. They are so fun and easy! I used all CTMH products on this frame.


And I have to make another trip to Michael's today as I noticed last night that I only have one frame left. These frames are very cheap as well - you can't beat $1.00!

Today I also have to work on a swap that I am doing for the CTMH meeting as well. It is a 12 x 12 layout from the Reflections book that CTMH sells. I am kindof struggling with it but I just have to sit and DO IT so I don't end up waiting until 8:00 Tuesday night trying to create 7 of them! I will try to post a photo of the layout when it gets done...tonight I hope! :)

We grow up so fast...

I cannot believe that a year has already passed since I had baby Jaidyn. Today is her Birthday!! It is so much fun sitting around the house with her today watching her grow. I love spending Mondays and Fridays with her to see all of her little quirks. She is getting so big and jabbering up a storm. I am sad that I cannot post pictures because my computer is at Best Buy AGAIN as it is not working properly again. I now have to use the old reliable Toshiba but it will not read my memory stick from my camera for some reason. I will post photos as soon as Best Buy gets my computer back to me. I have not even gotten the chance to look at the photos from Jaidyn's party up close yet as I can only see them on the camera. Be Back Soon with photos I hope!

I am now a Certified FISKARS Demonstrator!

Today I went to St. Paul to The Scrapbook Shop and became certified. I can now give demonstrations of Fiskars tools. It was so much fun to meet one of the Lead Fiskateers, May Flaum and to spend two hours learning about many of the Fiskars tools. This is May...as she is talking of course, but still a shot of her.

I already made a list of a few tools that I just have to add to my scrapbook stash. And of course, since I was in St. Paul, I had to stop at Archiver's and I managed to pick up a Stamp Press which I am excited to try out with some of my stamps. I used it today and it was so handy. I will have to post photos of the stamp press incase you are unsure of what it is and them of something that I create with it. I can't wait to get creative!! Last night, when getting some things ready to go to St. Paul today, I decided to decorate a tin and notepad to take along today. I used my favorite Salsa Line of Junkitz paper that I bought over a year ago but had never used. I always thought the papers were so much fun but had NO idea what I was going to use them for. Well last night I found the perfect project. My tin is so bright and fun!! I just love that I can take this tin with me and always have a notepad and a pen right inside.

Here is the front with my name on it so no one else mistakes it for their own. :)

Here is the inside...there is actually a pocket on the inside of the cover to hold little notes as well.

I also created a Post-It Coaster hanger out of the Junitz Salsa line as well. I used the dot paper and then stamped in the bottom right corner of each sticky note in the pad. I did also decorate the binder clip that holds the Post-Its on as well. (sorry this photo is a little dark!)

A few cards...it's about time.

So the Open House is done and gone so I have had a little more time on my hands in the past couple days after the T-Ball games and taking care of a 10 month old. She is crawling, getting more teeth, and standing up to almost anything so she is becoming a handful. My husband has been busy lately with trying to get some things done at home for work...boy was I glad that it was him putting little red letter stickers on metal plates and not me!! I guess that is why he is so valuable at work. Anyways...I finally got some time to create some fun things. I have been wanting to use my cuttlebug more to create some cards and I had been waiting to get a new cutting mat because mine was terribly warped. I could hardly even get it through the cuttlebug and did not want to break it. I also finally got the Swiss Dots embossing folder which I used at work yesterday and totally LOVE it! So, I have been going around printing off cards that I like and want to scraplift so here are a couple of them. The problem is that I can't which blog I got them from but here goes.

This one actually was my own creation but I saw something similar with layering two different colors over the top when you emboss so I had to try it.

This card I had seen on a blog and loved it. I am not totally sure that I like the one I created althrough it is almost identical. I tried to find some Close To My Heart stamps that would give the same effect and I think I managed that but the colors are not the same and the colors are what stood out to me. The card was actually red and orange but I think their colors went better together. These colors (CTMH autumn terricotta and cranberry) just don't give the card the same effect. I might have to search the blogs again for this card to see if I can find it to get the exact colors they used.

Well that is all for now. I do have another card to share but I think I will save that for next time.

Too Long!!

It has been way too long since I posted last so I had to force myself to get back on here and get something done. I am still planning to have my Close To My Heart Open House but I have changed the dates to Friday, May 16th and Saturday, May 17th. I have been busy with too many things lately so I haven't had much time on the computer. We had Kindergarten orientation last night and Noah's first T-Ball practice which took place in the rain! Oh how life gets busy. More to come soon...

Here is a sneak peak of the cover of the new Summer 2008 Close To My Heart idea book. I cannot wait to show this one to my customers. It is so much fun to see all of the new stuff and I have already ordered a larger order to have in time for my open house so all of you can see some of the products in person. It will be so much fun. And, if you came to my open house last May you know that the door prizes are great too! Save the Date...MAY 3RD!!!

A couple new creations...

It has been a little while since I have posted due to being so busy lately. I just bought some new cuttlebug stuff so I am excited to get time to work with all of it. Then Cricut cartridges are on sale this week at Michael's so I had to go there and bought three...yes THREE...cartridges. You can't beat $39.99 for Cricut cartridges! Now I have so many fun things to use that I could sit down for hours to use all of the fun new things that I have. I also put in a new order for Close To My Heart to get a bunch of the new papers and things from the new catalog that comes out on May 1st! Watch for more information about my upcoming OPEN HOUSE that I plan to have on May 3rd which is National Scrapbook Day. I have taken a little bit of time to create a few things...

The first image is a card that I made from my new cuttlebug combo dies that I got at Down Memory Lane. These are so much fun but a little bigger than I had thought they would be. This card is actually 6x6 and is made out of Close To My Heart cardstock. I sanded the cardstock to give it that distressed look.


My next image is a little purse that I created a template for using two pieces of 12x12 cardstock...again Close To My Heart. I random stamped the Watermelon cardstock and then sanded it to distress it. I then used my colluzle to create the handles and glued it all together. This was a fun project once I got the template all worked out. I plan to make some of these as door prizes for upcoming events.

A few layouts...

So I have finally gotten a few things done. Well not completely finished but close enough to post here. I still have to add a few little things here and there to these layouts and finish up some final touches on the frame but otherwise they look good.

This is one of Jaidyn's 6 month photos that we got done at Target. There is another side to this layout to come but has not been started yet.

I will have to take another photo of this layout laying side-by-side so it looks better. I am still trying to think of what I can put for a title for this layout because I would like to save the "cutie patootie" for a different layout. I have to come up with someone or journaling dealing with her playing in the clothes basket.



This frame was a kit that I purchased a few weeks ago at Archivers. I love the rub-ons on this frame. I decided to keep off the journaling that I replaced with the large pink flower at the bottom left corner. Just not sure if I really like that huge flower.

Sympathy Cards

So I found out this week that an old friend lost his grandfather so I had to make him a card and one for his family. I have never made sympathy cards before but I think they turned out ok. It is a good thing that I have so many stamps because I was able to find a Thinking of You stamp.

So here they are...somewhat simple yet nice.

This one I used the Close to my Heart Silhouette Papers and some diecuts done with my Cricuit.

On this card I used the Close To My Heart Simple Pleasures Paper Pack. Ok for a man I hope even though I put a flower on it!

Now back to basket making. I already made one and am off to make one more. I now have made green, pink, lavendar, and peach baskets and am off to make a blue one.

We have some Easter plans so I plan to be back Sunday evening...

Happy Easter!!

Baskets, baskets, and more baskets

Here are two baskets that I have done for my husband to give to the ladies where he works. He always wants to show off the things that I do. I have a third one done that is green but that was is on display at Down Memory Lane. I still have two or three of these to make for him to take to work and they take me about 1 and a half to 2 hours to finish. I don't know where I will find the time to get these done before Friday. I also have two sympathy cards to make since I just heard that an old friend's grandpa passed away on Monday. I have never made a sympathy card so I will have to post those when I finish them tomorrow night along with the two other baskets. Oh what work I go through for my husband!!

First Haircut!!!

Ok, ok...I know this really is nothing to do with stamping or scrapping but can't you just see the pages coming out of these photos. Yesterday Jaidyn got her first haircut. A friend of the family decided that she would cut Jaidyn's hair and it is super cute. Finally her little locks do not flop in her eyes and we finally cut off all of the long stragglers that she had in the back that looked rather funny. So here she is.....

Before...

And After...

She did such an amazing job!!!

Now I just have to get some scrapping done!

Another try...

Alright, I am going to give this another try. My goal, once again, is to update my blog more than onces every two weeks. I have been really busy lately and cannot wait to have some free time to myself so I can create some fun things. This week I am teaching three classes at Down Memory Lane so I am hoping to post photos of those projects soon.


Below is a photo of a Bo Bunny "BABY" album that I finally made for Jaidyn. I will post more photos of this project at a later date.

Lost Computer

Best Buy lost my computer....more to come later.

Let the fun begin...

I am going to venture into the blogging world and take a stab at this. We will see how good I am at keeping up with my blog. It is my goal to post a couple times a week at least and to add artwork as much as possible. In the future, I plan to challange myself to create on a daily basis and post often as well. So we will see. LET THE FUN BEGIN...make it a memory!