December 31, 2012

Happy New Year's Eve to everyone.  I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year's Eve and please remember to be safe.


See you in 2013!

Lulu

Five...

Five days to go....

My cards are in the mail. Shopping is 99% done.  Just have to finish the hubby from the kids. Cookies are just about done.  I have only one more cookie batch to make and that's Kolochies.  I'm estimating I will be ready on Sunday so I can rest on Christmas Eve and enjoy our wonderful family time.

Whew!

Lulu

Getting There

Happy Holidays!  Our Christmas decorations are all up. Our house looks so festive. I just need to finish up a few more things.....Christmas cookies, presents, Christmas cards.  Not much just a few...UGH!  Who am I kidding...I am so behind.  There just doesn't seem to be enough time.  Don't you just feel like you can use an extra week between now and Christmas?

We spent this past weekend celebrating a couple birthdays.  One was for my sister-in-law, L, she celebrated her 50th with a surprise party thrown by her husband, my brother-in-law.  L has always wanted a baby grand piano but could never afford it.  For this birthday her husband suggested instead of gifts to give her a donation for her piano.  When I heard that I knew I had the perfect card for her.

I received this piano and musical notes embellishment years ago in a scrapbook package and figured one day it would come to good use.  That time finally arrived.  I used my Cuttlebug to embellish the background and added the piano, notes, and final touch...some ribbon.

The next birthday celebrated was our good friend's mother, Mama M.  Mama M wanted to celebrate her birthday with family and friends at a sports bar watching our beloved Chicago Bears.  For her card I went cute.

Lulu

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband!  I love you very much.  It has been a very adventurous nineteen years.  I look forward to our future adventures together.

As you can tell today is my 19th wedding anniversary.  It's hard to believe 19 years...it has gone so fast.  We are at a point in our marriage where we don't really buy gifts for each other anymore.  Now don't get me wrong we do like spoiling each other with gifts but sometimes it's just UGH...what to get each other when there really isn't anything out there either one of us wants or that we wouldn't just go buy ourselves.  Well, this past weekend we stopped into our local Home Depot and while we were walking around we found these....

Aren't they just the cutest.  They are light up pink flamingo's dressed for Christmas.  I love pink flamingos!  My husband looked at me and said I'll buy those for you for our anniversary.  My answer...OK!  So these precious two are my anniversary present.  They fit perfectly in this little area of our landscaping.

I have the most thoughtful husband. :)

Lulu

Birthday Wishes!

Happy 6th Birthday A!!!

Weekend Recap

Whew....what a weekend.  I mentioned earlier that I had a head cold in full swing right before Thanksgiving as I got better it seemed others got worse.  J ended up with the flu on Wednesday.  She was better on Thanksgiving but still didn't have her full appetite back.  Then my husband woke up on Thanksgiving with stomach cramps. Now his main job on Thanksgiving is to take care of the turkey.  By the way, he's a great cook.  After getting the turkey in the oven we all told him to go upstairs and the kids and I would take care of everything else that needed to get done before our guests arrived.  About an hour later he came back downstairs showered and dressed.  Odd...right!  Turned out he had indigestion!  Yes, a belly full of gas!!!  It was hilarious.  So here I am thinking that all my guests can help me to get dinner on the table while my husband was upstairs puking his brains out and it turned out he just needed to go to the bathroom.  Too funny!!!!

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving weekend.  Ours was very relaxing and peaceful.  The boys watched football; NFL, college, & high school.  They were all on this weekend.  J cleaned her room, played video games, and worked on her xmas list.  I was on a cleaning spree.  I seem to get into the spring cleaning mode during the holidays.  I guess it's because you get new stuff for the holidays and you need to make room for it.  Makes sense to me. :)

Lulu

Countdown to Turkey Day!

Menu is done. Shopping is done. Head cold in full swing...UGH.  Nothing is worse than being sick when company is coming over.  MJ had a horrible head cold that started a couple weeks ago. Now it is my turn.  I'm trying to keep away from my husband and J so they don't catch it.  Someone has to be healthy on Thanksgiving.

Lulu

Prep for Turkey Day

Thanksgiving is always a good time at our house.  We are the house where everyone who will be alone come to.  I don't have a big family and my parents have passed on so every year for Thanksgiving my brother and his family come to our house.  It always works out because his wife's family always celebrates Thanksgiving the Saturday after.  And this way we get turkey leftovers and my brother gets turkey leftovers after his wife's family goes to his house.  We also have had a couple of friends who have gone through a divorce in past years, their families are all out of town, so they come to our house to hang out for the day.  Football, turkey, family, and friends...what could be better.

Needless to say I will be spending the next week getting ready.  I don't think the cleaning will be to bad.  I've been keeping up with the household chores so I might be okay this year.  But the fun part is the baking.  We haven't done our menu yet (should be done tonight) but J is already starting to plan the dessert menu.  She has circle pretzels with chocolate and M&Ms on the top of her list!

Tonight's project is menu and start the shopping list.


Lulu

Scentsy Party Thank You's

A couple of weeks ago I hosted my first Scentsy party.  My neighbor became a Scentsy consultant and I told her I would hold a party to help her with your business.  Had a good turnout.  Sold over $500 worth of products.  I had never heard of Scentsy until she started her business.  Which is so unusual because I used to work at the corporate offices of The Pampered Chef. So I knew almost all of the direct selling companies.  But I have to say I love Scentsy.  Their warmers are so cute.  If you get a chance check them out and/or host a party!

As a thank you for my friends and family that placed an order I made these thank you cards to put in each of their packages.  I made them 3x3 and used my Cuttlebug to emboss the top half.  I figured out that I can put half of the paper in the embossing folder and let the other half dangle out.  That way the part I was going to write on inside won't have the embossing. 

Aren't they cute?

Lulu

Back to My Scrapbook

I did it....I'm so excited.  I started back up with my scrapbooking.  With our lives so crazy it's been hard to just sit and work on my scrapbook pages.  Especially since there is a lot more to it than just throwing some pictures on a page and gluing.  I put alot of thought into my pages and how I want the overall design to look. 

I started the other night working on our camping trip we took a couple months back.  Here is a picture of my work-in-progress....

Nothing is permanent yet.  After I laid this out I realized it's too busy.  I think I'm just going to add a few more pages.  I still have more pictures that aren't even laid out on these two pages.  My original thoughts were to make a small scrapbook of our camping trip but my daughter insisted that the trip should go in our "family" album and not be by itself.  So needless to say it is going in the family album.

Lulu

Headache already :(

I can't believe I already have a headache and it not even 9 am.  Of course it already started.  The attacks.  Last I looked we live in a society where everyone has a right to their own opinion but when people start attacking people verbally for what they believe or feel is right for them it turns into a war.   I'm sorry but I have my rights and I can vote for whoever I want and if you don't like it too bad.  You have no right to attack me and my beliefs!  Needless to say it is going to be a long day.

I'm sorry to vent. But right now it's all I can do not to scream at the people I work with to leave me alone.  I want to think that they are just venting their views but so far this morning their vents seem more like personal attacks on me rather than political issues.

I just need to keep reminding myself that these people are just co-workers and it will be okay.  It'll be okay. It'll be okay. 

:)

Lulu

Time to Vote!

This is it.  Time to vote. 

MJ is starting to get interested in the voting process.  He told me the other day that he will be voting in the next presidential election.  He'll be old enough for the next election.  He was even asking me questions about my procedure and what I did to decide on who I was going to vote for.  It's nice to see him getting interested in this process.  J on the other hand is just happy she doesn't have school today.  Our schools are closed today for election day because all of our schools are polling places.

I'm off!

Lulu

Wow, it's been two weeks since I was on my blog.  It has been a crazy two weeks.  Halloween went well.  We all had alot of fun.  So many kids came up to our house and told my husband that our house looked "awesome".  That made him feel so good.  We go all out for Halloween and Christmas.  I like to say at Christmas planes can land at our house that's how lit up it is. :)

MJ was sick for a few days had himself a head cold. So I kept him home from school which meant no football.  His team is in the playoffs.  Next game this weekend.  This one will be a tough one.

J starts basketball tonight.  She is very excited.  It's a more competitive league that just the in-house program.  I'm just looking forward to being indoors...it's getting cold here in Illinois.

Oh yea...I got my Cuttlebug!!!!  I went and purchased the thank you embossing folder.  I used it for some thank you cards I wanted to make.  Here is a picture of how they turned out....

I made these at 4.25 x 5.5 with plain cardstock paper.  I used light blue paper for the base and a darker shade of blue for the embossing.  So cute!

LuLu

So Ready for the Weekend!

My Cuttlebug is in!  I am so excited.  My husband is picking it up today and having the kids wrap it and give it to me on Saturday.  We are going out for dinner for my birthday and then coming home for cake.  I can't wait!!!!  And last night I saw the Michael's ad for next week and the Cuttlebug stuff is on sale, 40% off, woohoo!  Going shopping next week. :)

This weekend we are digging the Halloween decorations out of the attic.  We are a little behind with our decorating this year but it probably was for the best.  We always put together a cemetery in our front yard and last week we had 50 mph winds.  Our cemetery would have been demolished.  I'll post some pics once we are done.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Lulu

Update...

Well it has been a crazy week since I was last on my blog.  Here is a little update....

Skunk - the skunk is gone :)  It appears he was not living under our shed but was just hanging around our yard.  He has been trapped and is now off to a better place.

Speaking of better places...my best friend growing up her mother has passed on.  She had been sick for many many years. This past year she has been unable to walk and has spent most of the year in and out of the hospital.  She took a drastic turn for the worse a couple weeks ago. And the doctors said there was nothing left they could do.  She passed away last Tuesday.  Her service was over the weekend.  It was nice to see my friend and her family again as we haven't seen each other in over 10 years but very sad as her mom was like a second mom to me.  But I know she is feeling much better now and running around like crazy up in heaven!  God Bless you Mrs. H.

This past weekend was also my birthday and a family reunion.  And believe it or not I actually had some time to craft.  I made a few birthday cards for family and friends who also share an October birthday with me.  Here are the cards I made....

For my birthday my kids and husband bought me a Cuttlebug.  Well, I have a picture of the Cuttlebug...the store was out of them so they are waiting for it to be delivered but just knowing it's coming has me so excited.  I've seen so many people using it on their crafts and I love how the pictures turn out with the embossing.  Even as I look at the pictures above I can't help but think how nice the background would look if it was embossed.  I can't wait for my Cuttlebug to arrive!

I think that's it for my update.  I can't think of anything else.  Hope everyone has a great rest of the day! 

Talk to you soon!

Lulu

To My Other Mom

 

 

Sadly missed along life's way,

quietly remembered every day...

No longer in our life to share,

but in our hearts, you're always there

 

 

 

 

Lulu

Skunked!

I was so looking forward to the weekend...Well my Friday did not end as good as expected. Our dog got skunked.  And I didn't realize he was skunked until he came into the house. If you've ever had to deal with a skunked dog it is not fun. I bathed him right away but it was too late the smell was in the house...UGH!  So I spent all weekend washing everything, spraying Febreeze, and burning candles.  We were out of the house most of the weekend for softball so the limited amount of time I had at home was non-stop cleaning.  I just have to say I hate skunks.

And to add to it...my husband thinks the skunk is living under our shed and he came out the same time the dog was outside.  So now we are trying to find out if it is living under the shed and trying to get rid of it.  He blocked up the holes Saturday night so hopefully that does it.  But for now I am taking the dog out front before bed so he doesn't get skunked again.

I need a weekend to recuperate from my weekend. :)

Lulu

Team Spirit!

Happy Friday Everyone!

It's going to be nice weekend here in Illinois. We have a softball tournament this weekend so it will be nice not to be sitting in the cold.  Considering we sat in it last weekend and the hubby got sick. Came down with a head cold.  We are all trying to stay away from him so we don't catch it.

Usually as long as the weather is good we take our dog with us to the kids' sporting events.  He was the only one who didn't have any spirit wear for J's softball team. So I created this....

It's a white bandanna with purple (iron-on) lettering.  You can't see it in the picture but at the bottom under 11 is our last name.  I also have a purple bandanna I want to do the same thing to but with white lettering.  I have to find white iron-ons.  Can't seem to find them anywhere.  They have to be somewhere or where else is everyone getting the white lettering from????

Hope everyone has a good weekend! And...GO TWISTERS!

Lulu

Monday already!

We've been busy since Wednesday so I haven't had a chance to update my blog and it's Monday.  In a recap...

Survivor - always good

Football friday night - MJ played fabulous. He made 3 out of 4 touchdowns.  One was a pick 6 - which I now know is an interception for a touchdown.

Softball tournament all weekend - J did great. She's been in a slump but appeared to finally be over it because she was finding the gaps with her batting and she was catcher all weekend.  She took 3 girls out stealing 2nd, 1 out trying to leave first, and 3 girls out catching their foul balls.

Whew....

And now it is Monday and I get to fold laundry while watching all my new shows tonight.  Looking forward to those CBS comedies I mentioned before.  And I heard a rumor that this is the last season for HIMYM...so we may finally get to figure out who the mother is.  We all have our guesses in our house.

Have a great evening!

Lulu

BLT'S & SURVIVOR

I am so excited.  Survivor starts up another season tonight.  I am a HUGE survivor fan.  I have watched it from the very first episode (my goodness that has to be over 11 or 12 years ago).  I have to say I'm not one for all of these reality shows but I LOVE survivor.  It's the one reality show I watch no matter what.  And who could resist that cutie pututie Jeff Probst.  Love the dimples. :)

So for dinner it is going to be quick and easy so I can be ready at 7pm CST to flip to CBS...you would think this was a promo...haha. BLT's and french fries...yummy.

I can't wait!!!!!

After tonight my next craze will be on Monday when the new season of the CBS comedies begin.  I am also a huge fan of HIMYM (for those that don't know it's How I Met Your Mother), Mike and Molly, and Hawaii Five-O.  Now I am going to show my age because I do remember the original Hawaii Five-O.  I like the new one much better probably because I am older now.  Didn't care for it back in the day.

Well, I'm off.  Hope everyone enjoys their evening! 

Lulu

P.S...Watch Survivor!!!!

Wow, It's been awhile...

What can I say but life happens.  We hit a rough patch and trying to get over it had made me feel very depressed and not in the mood to blog.  I was just trying to get through each day...one day at a time. But that little candle at the end of the tunnel is now a bright light and I am so grateful to God for answering our prayers and taking care of us. Sometimes I think we forget he is there guiding us...I know I do and I just have to go back and remember that he is with me and taking care of me and my family.

Ok...enough of the sad stuff...Like I said bright light now...Much better obviously I'm blogging again :)

I even made a card for our neighbor's son who graduated college.  I just love the "Happy Graduation" cricut cartridge.  I have used it so much I have to say I think it is my favorite.  Here is a pix of the card I made...

So far all of my cards are very very simple (due to time constraints).  I would like to try making more dynamic cards.  New item on the to-do list...ha ha ha.

Enjoy the rest of the day!

Lulu

Our internet and cable our back up and running!  And kudos to our wonderful service tech from comcast who spent nearly four hours fixing it.  We lost our internet connection completely out of the blue.  One day it worked next day nothing.  Two days later our cable connection on the second floor (same floor as the computer) went out. No tv in the bedrooms. :(   Comcast was at our house last night and we needed to have everything re-wired including the connection from our house to the main comcast box in our yard.  It appears that our wiring was so old that it couldn't handle the new HD and high speed internet connections.  But now everything is right in the world...haha!  I'm sure the kids will be hogging the computer after school today....you know you can't go days without u-tube and i-tunes. :)

On a good note because the service tech had to go into the attic through our master bedroom I will get to do a deep cleaning of our room.  We had to kinda throw everything out of his way so our room is a disaster area at the moment.  I think tonight after dinner I will start attacking it.  It desperately needs a good cleaning.

Enjoy the day!

Lulu

FOOTBALL!

It's Friday!!!  And the highschool football season starts TODAY!  MJ has his first game of the season tonight.  So exciting...I do enjoy watching him play. He might even quarterback a little this game.  It's been a couple years since he played quarterback.  Got burnt out from it so he is looking forward to doing it again.

Not much else going on this weekend.  I've been srapbooking our camping trip so I'm looking forward to working on that this weekend.  And I need to get the hubby to clean the pool.  The usual household chores...ugh.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Lulu

Please ignore Donation button!

I have some family members & friends that want to do a sponsorship to my daughter's softball team so I directed them to my blog and attached our teams "donation" button for them to complete the sponsorship.

Unless....you have a company that would like to sponsor a 13U girls travel softball team...please go ahead and click on "Donate".  :)

Otherwise just ignore it.  Once they process their sponsorship I am going to remove the button. 

Thanks and have a great day!

Lulu

My crabby day :(

It must be "PMS" time for me cause boy am I crabby.  It really hit me hard last night when I got home from work.  Anything and Everything bothered me.  I then realized that I had a touch of crabbiness on Sunday afternoon. And I can't stop eating.  As I write this I am snacking on caramel popcorn and it's not even lunchtime yet.  Ok...I give in it's that time. 

I try really hard to catch myself when I'm crabby to warn my husband and kids.  I tell the kids that it's okay to be crabby just admit it.  It happens to everyone.  We all have happy, sad, and crabby days.  Just say "Hey look I'm felling this way today.  No real reason for it. Just am." And guess what...we take that into account and we will leave you alone.  Otherwise you get the "what's wrong" question over and over and over again until you just explode.  And guess what....YOUR CRABBY!

Don't you just hate it when that happens!  Hehehe!!!

Well, I hope everyone out in the blog world is having a good Tuesday! 

Talk to you soon!

Lulu

Back to Reality!

School is back in session! I took some time off of work last week to get the kids back to school and enjoy the peace and quiet in the house.  I do love this time of year.  J started middle school and MJ is now a sophomore in high school.  J came home from school on the first day and loves being in middle school. She loves having a locker and changing classes.  She is also looking forward to joining Drama Club.  She is my drama queen. HAHA!

MJ, well what can I say, he is in his complaining phase. He claims none of his friends are in his classes and he doesn't get to sleep in anymore.  Teenagers....UGH!!!  He is playing football again this year so he is enjoying that and he is happy that all of his classes are right by his locker so he doesn't have to carry numerous books all over the school.  Again...teenagers...UGH!!!

Last weekend we went camping in Apple Canyon Lake with friends for the last summer vacation trip.  It was alot of fun and the weather was perfect.  It has finally cooled off here in Illinois. We have spent most of this summer in a heat wave and drought. Our poor grass looks so dead.  But the weekend was perfect.  Our friends have a pontoon boat so we went on the lake for the day and went tubing and just relaxed.  It was great spending some time away together with friends!

The Girls!

MJ tubing!

Our guard dog...Smokie!

Have a great day!

Lulu

Wow August has begun!

I can not believe that it is already August 1st.  This summer has just flown by.  The kids go back to school in a couple of weeks and we still have so much to do.  We haven't even started school shopping yet..ugh!  I only say "ugh" because July was such a black cloud month for us.  I am happy that it is August for that reason...I'm hoping that the horrible black cloud that was over our family is gone...knock on wood.  Have you ever had one of those periods of time where just everything went wrong and it seemed like things just wouldn't get better and the hole you were in had no sign of light...that's how July was.  I do thank God for watching over us in July (it was that bad) and keeping my family safe.  I know that God and a lot of positive energy will make August a great month!

LuLu

WOW!!!  It has been one crazy month.

J's team went to the State Championship and WON!!!!  That was a crazy weekend.  We were in a heat wave with temps going over 100.  Those poor girls were so hot but luckily they kept drinking water and no one got sick from the heat.

Next...onto Nationals.  J's team ended in 5th place in Nationals!  Out of 60 teams they placed 5th!  GREAT JOB to the entire team.  They played phenomenal!!!!  I am so proud of J.  This was her first year on a travel team and to go to Nationals is such an accomplishment.  On another great note they were ranked #1 in our state prior to going to Nationals. 

Previously I mentioned about gift bags we had to put together to give away to another team at Nationals.  I decided to do a koozie. I found purple koozies at Michael's and then used white vinyl for the lettering.

(This koozie is purple but for some reason my camera flash is making it look blue.)

Not bad.  I like the way they turned out. :)

MJ also finished his baseball season.  Now everyone has about 2 weeks off before football and fall softball starts.  And in one month school starts. Whew...seems like they just ended the school year and we are already going back.  It has been a crazy summer!!!!

Lulu

National's Mission

I am so looking forward to a great weekend.  I am on a mission.  J's team is headed to Nationals and our team is putting together gift bags to hand out to another team. Each family is asked to contribute to the bag. So I came up with either a koozie or a water bottle.  I was thinking I could take some vinyl and using my Cricut (of course) cut something to put on the koozie or water bottle.  Like "USSSA 2012" or "Nationals 2012". My mission is to find a koozie or water bottle that I like and that is not horribly expensive as I have to do 11 of them.  If I could find purple that would be great because our team color is purple and then I can use white vinyl.  Great idea...right??? I thought so :)

And thanks to Robyn at My Pink Stamper I think I might put together a special "bag" for my daughter only.  Something special to reward her for making it to Nationals. Robyn put together a special tin to give to her daughters at camp and I thought it was a great idea! If I can pull it off I would like to do one for each of the girls but again that's 11 girls..we'll have to see how our finances are. And how extravagent I go. :)

Lulu

Good Afternoon!

The weekend is getting closer. Always a good thing.  This week has been dragging. I really don't know why but it sure feels like Friday will just never get here.

J had another birthday party to attend so I created this cute little card for the birthday girl.  Of course using my Cricut!  I accidentally folded the paper in the wrong spot so to fix it I used a pair of edging scissors to make the bottom look fancy.  Worked out pretty well.

Lulu

B's birthday card

Another update...I made this card for my grand-nephew's birthday.  He loves hockey and his team color was blue this year. He turned 6.  I used my sports mania cartridge for cricut.  That cartridge is getting so much use :)

Lulu

Happy Father's Day!

Wanted to take a minute and wish all the father's out there a Happy Father's Day! 

And to my wonderful hubby a HAPPY FATHER'S DAY WEEKEND! Yes, he get's the whole weekend.  We spoil him way too much.

Lulu

To Do List

Today is a day of crossing items off of my to-do list.  I get to cross off hot tub repaired & minivan fixed. Yea!  It has been a year of repairing everything.  Yesterday our hot tub repairman came and fixed our leak in our hot tub. Unfortunately he doesn't repair pool leaks...there is a hole in our pool liner we just can't seem to find. Now I am on the hunt for someone who can find the holes and repair them.  With everything that has to get fixed I really don't want to have to buy a new pool liner right now.  Pool liner is at the bottom of the list.
Also today, I should (keep fingers crossed) get my minivan back. I have been leaking engine coolant. I do have to say I do like my mechanic. He offered to pay for my rental car while they fix my van because I had to wait so long for the parts to come in.  Thanks P! 
Next on the list is my husband's truck.  The ball joints are loose.  Ugh...when it rains it pours, right!

Lulu

Good Morning!

I mentioned in a previous post that I have been crafting alot but not posting on my blog. So today, I am going to post what I did for Easter.

I created this butterfly box as a gift holder for nail polish. 

This little gift bag was for MJ for his easter candy. It ended up only measuring about 5 inches tall. Not quite the size I wanted - was looking for something bigger.  I need to get myself the 12x24 mat. But it still turned out really cute.

This gift bag was for my granddaughter and held all her Easter goodies.

Have a good day!

Lulu

Love My New Look!

I love the beach so when I saw this template I just had to have it.  For the past couple of days I have been working on updating my blog.  Needless to say I am not a computer guru.  I know some basic information about creating things on the computer other than that I am clueless.  If I have a program or directions I can follow that but designing codes and platforms...I'm lost.  I found this great website www.thecutestblogontheblock.com and they have so many different templates for blogs. They have banners, buttons, all sorts of things for blogs.  That's where I found my beach scene. Check them out.  Thank you cutest blog on the block!

Lulu

Playing around!

Forgive me today...I am playing around with a new picture for my blog. And still learning alot about computers and codes. So it may look a little off but I am in the process of fixing it.

Thanks!

Lulu

Happy Friday!!!

Good morning everyone!  It's finally Friday.  I am so ready for the weekend.  Last night I whipped up a couple of cards that I needed.  One was for a graduation and one was for a birthday.  I did both cards at 4.25 x 5.5.  And both are very simple.  I like quick and easy.  And I'm still so new to card making that it took me a couple of hours just to do these two.  I have the hardest time picking the colors I want to use.  That's what seems to take the longest for me.

This is the graduation card.  Boy I need to work on my picture taking skills with my phone.  The card is beige with a gray background.  The school's colors are blue and white so I used a blue background for the banner with white on top.  And I used blue ribbon to accent it.  This was used with the Happy Graduation cartridge for my Cricut.

This is a picture of the birthday card I did.  The card is for my son's best friend.  They play football together so I did his card in their school's football colors.  The card is white cardstock with a gray background.  The helmet I cut using my Cricut and Sport Mania cartridge.  The helmet is black and light brown cardstock.  The stars were made in the same color as the helmet using a star punch.  I then stamped "happy birthday" inside the card.  I'm starting to really enjoy stamping.  But I am wondering is there a good way to clean the stamps after use?  Any suggestions?

Lulu

Well, it's Wednesday but feels like Thursday.  This is totally going to screw me up.  I am so ready for the weekend!  My house is slowly but surely getting back into shape again.  And our pool is clean...you should have seen it after the winter.  I swear it looked like a swamp.  That was the worst it ever looked.  We have been very lucky after each winter that it still looks good when we open it.  This year...UGH..I even had ducks swimming around in it.  We think they were going to try and make a home there.  The poor dog would just circle the pool trying to get to the ducks - he hates water so he would not dare jump in.  But happy to say after much cleaning and draining the pool looks good again and in perfect time it is going to be in the 90's this weekend.

I made cupcakes recently and I tried the new Duncan Hines Frosting Creations.  MJ loves cinnamon rolls so when I saw a commercial for this frosting mix and one of the flavors was cinnamon roll I had to try it.  At the same time I found a recipe for cooked frosting.  I have been trying to find a recipe for homemade frosting that doesn't consist of lard. So I made a batch of cupcakes (just used a Pillsbury box) and did half of them in cinnamon roll frosting and the other half in the cooked frosting.  Needless to say both were hits!!!!  Here are pictures of my creations....

This top batch is the cinnamon roll frosting.

The bottom row is the cooked frosting. Tasted like whipped cream.

I even got the 7yr old seal of approval - my great-nephew was spending the weekend with us and I let him and our neighbor's two boys who are 6 & 4 years old have one of each frosting and I was informed that "These are the best cupcakes EVER".  Always a good idea to have guinea pigs around when trying something new.  Oh, yea MJ liked the cinnamon frosting ones and J liked the cooked frosting ones.

Enjoy the rest of the day!

Lulu



Oh how I have missed my blog!

I'm slowly getting back to my blog.  I have missed it terribly.  Our family has been so busy that I just have not had any opportunity to get to my blog.  Surprisingly though I have been crafting.  I have a number of projects I've completed and I have pictures of (that's amazing since I always forget). I just have to upload those pictures on to my computer.  I have been making a lot of cards lately - lots of birthday parties.  And graduations are coming up so this week I have a couple of graduation cards to make.

But first I have to vacuum my house.  The dog's hair is everywhere.  I think I can make another dog out of all the hair he has lost and I have barely been home to pull out the vacuum.  I have this week off from the sports so it is catch up week around the house.

Lulu

Party Pak Basket

I have my basket put together for J's team fundraiser this weekend.  We went with a Margarita/Corona & glasses basket.  After I put the basket all together I realized I never took a picture of the glasses I etched. UGH!!!

I'm hoping you can somewhat see them.  I took two margarita glasses and two beer glasses and etched them with the word "Twisters".  I used the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge on my Cricut, black vinyl that I purchased from ExpressionsVinyl.com, and Armor Etch.  I did the letters at 1.25 inches.



The margarita glasses are on the end with the beer glases in the midde.

 I originally was going to use purple vinyl to decorate the margarita glasses but my husband really wanted them etched.  He is really enjoying that etched look.  Here's a picture of the entire basket...

It contains one Margarita mix, twelve bottles of Corona, two Margarita glasses, and two beer glasses.  I might have to buy raffle tickets and try to win my basket back. :)

Oh no...nose is broke!

Update on what's been going on in our house...As most know I have two kids that are very sport active.  MJ (my son) went to baseball tryouts at school monday night and thirty minutes into the tryout he lost sight of the ball and was hit in the face.  Blood everywhere.  Dad and I got the call and headed to the school to pick him up and take him to the hospital.  Needless to say the nose is broken.  He is doing really good.  Just looks like he was in a nasty fist fight.  He has a doctor's appointment today with an ENT where we will find out if it healing straight or if they have to "set" it.  On a good note...he made the baseball team!

We had a good weekend celebrating birthdays.  Our friends came over and we had a great dinner and jumbo cinnamon rolls for dessert.  YUMMY!!!  And of course put a candle in the rolls and sang happy birthday to everyone.

I haven't hit the craft table this week with everything going on but this weekend I will be etching beer glasses and using vinyl on margarita glasses.  J's (my daughter) softball team is doing a fundraiser and I am putting together a basket for the raffle.  I am going to etch the beer glasses with her team name and since margarita glasses have less space on them for etching I think I am going to use vinyl on those.  I'll take a pix when they are done.

That's it for now.  Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Lulu

My apologies...

I am so sorry if I am following your blog again.  I changed my email address on my blog which apparantly is a big no-no in the blogger world.  Then I went and deactivated the old address and lost everything...UGH!  I can log into my blog and do posts but I lost everyone that I was following.  So I am starting over again and you will see my beautiful Scrooge McDuck (and who wouldn't want a money bin!!!) pix again. 

Just testing

Okay, so I am working on changing some things to my blog and I am having some difficulty to it.  Didn't think it would be that hard to change email addresses but I guess it is.  So I apologize if anyone gets odd messages from me :)

Lil Lulu

Still Here!

I'm still here.  I've been doing scrapbook pages since Valentine's Day.  It feels so good to get back to my scrapbooks.  It's been awhile.  This weekend we are celebrating birthdays with friends.  We are doing four birthdays at once.  It should be alot of fun!  The hardest part we are having is trying to decide on what dessert. Birthday cake just won't do with this group...haha!

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope everyone has a wonderful February 14th!  I have been on a goodie bag kick lately.  I am just having so much fun making these things.  Below is a picture of one of the goodie bags I made for my daughter's class for their Valentine's Day party.  I'm already making plans for St. Patrick's Day goodie bags...hehe!

J's Birthday goodies

It was my daughter's birthday on Saturday so Friday she took these goodies bags to school for her class.  Her school does not allow edible birthday treats anymore due to allergies so we came up with mechanical pencils and a little notepad.  J said they were a big hit.  She said that her teacher was really impressed with the look of the goodie bag...I just love my cricut!!!

Now we are spending this week doing ones for Valentine's Day.  Her school is having their class parties on Friday, Feb 10th...Why??? Who knows!  So we will be busy in the evenings.  J helps for a little until she gets tired of putting together 27 cricut cut pieces.  She is my stamper though.  She does enjoy stamping the bags and putting the goodies in the bags.

January 20, 2012

I started this blog because I was wanted an area where I can share my craft ideas and my going ons of my family with other moms out there.  I've realized that my crafting time is not very rare it is just my documenting of my crafting is rare.  Not used to it I guess.  I was trying to think of the last time I actually sat down and did some crafting which seems like forever but really it was just a couple days ago. I don't need to sit at a table to craft...I was actually at my kitchen counter when I was making kolachkies for my family that i thought I craft all the time.  I just don't paper craft alot.  I love to bake and that to me is crafting also.  Here I was getting sad because I've been neglecting my cricut but actually I've been busy baking cookies, cakes, and goodies since new year's.  My son's birthday is in early January so I baked for him. And in Illinois the best time to bake is when it is freezing outside which is January and February.  My daughter's birthday is in early February so I'll be baking for her and then comes Valentine's day which I always make something special for the hubby.  So, I guess I have been busy...who would've guessed :)

2012 IS HERE!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!