Sad Face

I am struggling with emotions right now. A very dear friend of mine is going on vacation for six months and is not sure if she will be moving back to the area upon return to the states. I will miss her like CRAZY and don't want her to go. She is my pole dancing, scrapping, and going out pal. If I need to chat about something bothering me, she is always there....but at the same time...she will have SUCH A BLAST! I'm very excited for her but sad for myself. :(

Here is the card that I made for her:

Inside the card in big letters it says, "Already." I found inspiration on twopeasinabucket.com. They post a sort of "how to" video tutorial every Friday. All the projects are all super cute. Anywho, i'm going to focus and the excitement I feel for Brenna instead of how much i'll miss her. Happy Hump Day!

Projects

Soooo, I made a card for a friend that I am pretty stoked on. I took a great picture of it and was all excited to post it when BAM! A thought comes into my head...If I post the picture on my blog then my friend will see the card BEFORE I actually give it to her. haha Not good. So, no picture of that card today. But, I have other pics to post:

This is the first artichoke off our plants! I was waiting for those puppy's to grow like a kid waiting for Santa on Christmas! I love love love artichokes and am very pleased that we have some growing now.

The start of our new picnic bench! Isn't it cool? Ralph has been working hard on this project in the cold and rainy weather. He is so darn handy. In conclusion, I cannot take any credit for the artichokes or picnic table. Those were all Ralph. Thought i'd share anyway!

Spring!

Spring is here! Yeah it's raining, cold, and windy...but still spring! Time for my fall/winter centerpiece to say goodbye. I was looking at inspiration for a spring themed centerpiece and found this beauty:

Isn't it cute?! Mine probably won't end up being quite like this, but I like the moss, nest, and glass cover thingy. I also saw some cute candles made with wax poured into some dyed eggshells. So, this is my next mission. 

Done!

I am officially DONE with the tags for the tag swap I signed up for! I am very pleased with how they turned out (thanks for the help Andi!). 

The swap rules said that each tag had to be the same, but I did make some changes from one to the next. I used the same techniques, colors, and layout on each one, but I changed the color. I hope the swap host doesn't get mad at me! So, that is one project down with a million to go. Also, over the weekend, I realized that I have a problem:

What the heck am I going to do with all these things?! I need to get back into making layouts for my scrapbooks. I have been held back by a lack of printed photos. I'll have to search for some change so I can print some at CVS. Happy Sunday!

Funky Dream

So I have been following my cousin's blog for awhile now (kiwifreckles.com) and she has the CUTEST stuff on there from headbands to furniture...and it is has been making me so jealous! It is such a great and inspirational blog.  I saw the post of her house and had immediate inspiration for mine, but i'm broke, so it will have to wait. Anyway, after thinking about all those cute items in her posts I had a dream about a cabinet. I know, it is just plain ridiculous, but it happened. I dreamt about this beautiful cabinet that Ralph and I had in our living room.

It looked very similar to this one, but it was a little more distressed. I want one like it sooo bad now! Oh well, someday i'll properly decorate. So, any one else dream of weird things?

Homemade Embellishments

Today was a day for Adele Sophomore's "Rolling in the Deep." I had it on replay while I was cleaning. I just needed to hear her belt it out for awhile. On another note, in an effort to save money I made some handmade embellishments for my shadow box project. 

Here is the side of the shadow box with the embellishments. I made the flowers, heart with lock, keys, and little hearts. I stole sampled some paint cards from Home Depot and used them here. The cut the heart out of that material and the lock. I used metal brads to secure the lock on the heart. They keys are also made out of that material. The blue key hiding behind the blue and white flower is just a blue paint card. The white key with black riding at the top with ribbon on it is a white paint card that I covered with tissue tape. Then I ran it through the die cutting machine. The little hearts are the scraps from the key. 

Here is the key on the top left. I am going to print a picture of Ralph and I tomorrow after I get some cash. : ) The picture will go on the bottom right of the shadow box. I will post the finish product once complete. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Too productive

Yesterday I was too productive so now i'm sore and tired. Therefore, today I will probably not be as productive. I had fun though and did things that I haven't in a long time! I went horseback riding! Isn't that awesome? I haven't done it in years and I realized how much I miss it. I have a love/hate relationship with horses. I love to ride and think they are beautiful, at the same time, they can be little brats. When I would ride in a group all the horses just wanted to nip each other's butts all the time. Not so nice, right?! Anyway, my experience riding this girl was awesome:

After riding I was totally pooped and had worked up quite an appetite. But, I am also trying to eat healthy. Kind of a pickle, no? So, I bought some delicious raw milk, coconut milk, and organic strawberries and made a smoothie/milkshake! It was pretty yummy, but I was lacking vanilla ice cream. That would have been much better, but less healthy. So, raw milk is highly controversial. What are your thoughts?

I MUST study today, there is no getting around it. I might start off with studying so that I can't weasel out of it later. But after that, i'm gonna get scrappy! Maybe i'll display whatever I create here tomorrow.

My "sister"

I picked Penny out of a group of puppies when I was 10 years old. While all the other puppies played she stood by my side wanting love. She was calm and sweet, a lover of everyone. She was the queen of the park, sitting on the lawn looking on across the street at the people and dogs strolling around. Dad walked her around the park faithfully every night. She had such fun getting her exercise, sniffing along, and being with Dad. She just wanted to give love and be loved. She was a blessing to so many. I will always love and never forget my blonde "sister." 

SOoOoo Tired!

I have been very, very tired lately but still unable to sleep! So, I decided to have a little medicine last night:

2008 Pinot Noir! Not really medicine, but a half glass helped me get right to sleep! Now if I can only get my dog to stop waking me in the middle of the night...

So while I was drinking my wine last night I checked Tim Holtz' blog and was SO excited to see his latest post:

(These tags are creations of Tim Holtz and he holds the rights to the photo. Not me! The picture is not being used for commercial purposes in any way! [Just making sure I don't get sued.]) 

So, I have to say that the one with the plane on it is sooo beautiful! I love the map stamp that he used. I wasn't planning on getting any stamps from the new collection, but I perhaps have changed my mind. The butterflies are also pretty magnificent. Love the way he used packaging to make them 3D. He thinks of everything, no?

This is my current project (at least one of them) and it is a shadow box. I have used Distress Ink and Grungeboard along with the paper. I will add a picture and some flowers. I would like to order the Tim Holtz die with the flowers-can't remember the name-with grungeboard and glimmer mist. But, I can't afford any of that right now. It will have to wait!

Here is a close up. I might put the picture in the big red open space or on the other side of the page. I'm not sure. Anyway, thanks for stopping by!

coeur à crêpes

So this morning I was making pancakes and I got the genius idea to make one in the shape of a heart. "I will make one, take a picture, and put it on my blog. That way everyone can see how skilled I am," I imagined. haha But then my pancake came out like this: 

Not exactly impressive, is it? haha 

Next item, I signed up to do a swap on scrapbook.com and i'm in the tag group (of course). I'm trying to figure out what style tag I should do. I need some help deciding. Here are a few options:

So please comment and let me know which style of tag I should make for everyone in my group! You can't really tell, but the tag second from the left is embossed. So, it is actually textured, not just stamped. Anyway, thanks everyone!

Once again...

I am blogging! Welcome readers! (Readers? Where are you? Hello?) I will now be posting pictures of my projects here among other things. My goal is to document the crafty part of my life while keeping it interesting for any potential readers. My first assignment on the to-do list is to introduce you to my craft space: 

This is my desk where aaaall the magic happens. If you have received a card, scrapbook page, bookmark, or any other project from me...it was made here. It is usually a little messy : / What can I say?

These are my handy-dandy craft bins that were donated by Amanda Kline a.k.a Shellz. I have my Big Shot, sticker maker, and scrapbooks atop. I really need some more storage and i'm thinking about hitting up the thrift shops around here. Moving on to the next item on the agenda...some new projects I completed:

I just love love love the Tim Holtz "the journey awakens the soul" stamp. I had it for months before I tried it out and now I want to stamp EVERYTHING with it. I used Distress Inks (Wild Honey and Fired Brick), a mini mister for the water drops, and another Tim Holtz stamp for the birds. This is one of my favorite tags because of the cheery colors. How is that for a first post? Thanks for checking out my blog. : )