Friday is here!

So we've been very busy this week, and I thought things would slow down! NOT! I'm almost completely working from the studio now just minimal remains in the dining room. We had to eat there for Thanksgiving so what's there is small and is coming up here bit by bit. I made sure to take the table cloths off the table after Wed. and bring most everything upstairs and put it away. That's how it started last time things would go down for Scrap Night and never come back up until almost everything was downstairs. YIKES So I've been super productive in the studio this week. 13 Cards, 4 layouts and 3 Christmas ornaments well the ornaments need some detail (I'm not sure what?) But as soon as I figure it out their done too!

I've also been able to complete a lot of Christmas shopping(online of course) and even order myself a new vacuum cleaner for $29 can you believe? It came today I just put it together and I'm going to go give it a try in a minute!

Last night Cris came and stayed last night he has a job up here and driving back to IN is just too much during rush hour. The girls were THRILLED Uncle Cris is their favorite. He helped Em with homework and played battle ship with them. Downside they cried when it was time for bed! BUMMER!

Tonight is the Multi-Cultural event at Em's school! It's always fun! And very crowded and very hot and stuffy! SHORT SLEEVES I always forget because it's so cold outside.

So anyway that's about it. Here is a completed layout! It uses Magistical Memories chipboard, Hambly paper, some Rusty Pickle paper, the flowers are Prima and the label is Martha Stewart. The pics are dark sorry this was inside the pet store. Have a great night I'm going to try out my vacuum! Have a great night!

Flower Card Feature

It's Monday once again. Today's linnecards feature is flowers. The designers have created cards using flowers! They are oh so pretty your going to have to run and check out the gallery. Also be sure to check out all the cards and projects everyone being completed from the challenges on the message board. The productivity is amazing and inspiring!

Here I used the Making Memories St. Nick kit in the store adding stamps by Basic Grey, Stickles a metal rimmed tag and ribbon. Dave really liked it he gave it a 10! He usually says things like look more glitter etc.

Gotta go be productive today! Lots of laundry and stuff to do! Anyway have a great Monday!

Did everyone have a great Holiday?

We did! Lots of food and Family. Wednesday we cooked and Willie the bird arrived from California. Thursday more cooking and Marilyn, Bob and Stephen came over we then of course ate and ate. Emily loved the turkey leg hense the picture! We did get to stop and watch Ray Rayner, Garfield Goose and Bozo on WGN there was a 2hr special which included these and Suzy Snowflake, Hardrock, Cocoa and Joe and the original Frosty. The kids enjoyed this but Dave and I just kept saying remember that and remember that it was very nostalgic. Friday we took the girls to see the Nutcracker and out to lunch. They were enthralled with the show. We met Paula and Olivia at Michael's and brought Olivia home for a sleepover. Then we basically didn't see the kids again unless they were hungry they played and played and played! Saturday afternoon Paula came and picked up Olivia and the girls and I watched some holiday movies and they crafted.

So all in all it was a great holiday weekend quiet at home for the most part and fun!

Dolphin Tracking, Ribbon & Punces

We're members of the local zoo so we get all these fun emails and projects from them for the kids. One of the girls favorite animals are the Dolphins! Anyway there is a study going on about the Dolphin's movement! The girls love checking it out daily to see if Betty the Dolphin and her calf have moved and where they are headed. It also helps with Emily's geography lessons. Go and take a look at Betty's movement, currently through the Gulf of Mexico. http://czsdolphins.blogspot.com/

So I'm still organizing my room but I have to say most everything is in the room now. It's just a matter of finding space for it and being able to find it when I need it! I'm excited Dave and I were discussing how to store these large punches and discovered I could lay them sideways on my ribbon wall. Well all but the GIGA punches. If the poles were about 1/2 and in more apart they would fit, I don't want to ruin the paint though. So they just sit on the little fridge under the ribbon storage. Right next to my basket of embellishment tins. I know it looks kinda messy but all of my ribbon is right here and I can see it at a glance. Now if I could just stop buying ribbon I could clean it up a bit! Ok so maybe that's not going to happen? We all need dreams and goals though! HA!!!!!

Monday Artwork

This is my Feature Challenge for linnecards this week. We were supposed to use Heidi Grace. I chose Jolly & Bright and made the Trees and label out of it. I cute out the candy canes and lollipops from a patterned sheet itself. The base is hard to see but it's Sugar Coated Doodlebug Cardstock Turquoise, Pink and Green. Once everything was tacked down I added Liquid Applique and heat it so it poofed! Then of course I added glitter and rhinestones because well you can never have enough sparkle! Be sure to check out the entire gallery to see what everyone did! Sorry for the bad photo I didn't want to scan it for fear of squishing the snow!

Have a great day!

Quiet Weekend

Friday we did our Open House at Paula's. It was a lot of fun! I still have to share the pics cleaning up the huge mess making space for them though!

Saturday the kiddos just hung out did some face painting. I worked on my studio and my dining room as I had migrated so much stuff down there I was purchasing storage pieces for the DR. YIKES! I have to make it all fit back in here! That's my current project. My DR currently looks like a hurricane from a paper scraps company ripped through it! Gotta get it straightened out by tomorrow have a stamp class! Yikes! Dave is a bit under the weather he has a tooth ache or something it was his tooth his stomach his tooth. He's probably sick from the headache.

Today more cleaning and a couple of hours of dance rehearsal. We only have 2 more weeks until our performance and no classes this week, all of our practice is on our own. Luckily one of the members of our class works there and has a key to our room so we can go when she is there! Phew! The kids went out in the cold to play today at least the rain stopped! I told them to dress warm. Abbi wore black leggings, ballet skirt, midriff dance tank top winter coat and boots. She was back in, in less than 10 minutes crying! Mommy had to dress her! Then later they were full of cuteness! I was upstairs working on my DT assignments and listening to them play inside. Camp out in their closet. They kept saying BFFL then Best Friends For Life! It's soooo stinkin cute I can hardly stand it! Then when they had moved on to a game where you toss a toy into a bucket I overheard Emily saying sis sis you do it like this! How sweet I've never heard them call each other sis before! Then they moved on to some dog game that required howling and left me searching out the window for the wounded dog! HA! It's always fun here!

Hope you had a great weekend!

I shouldn't be here!

I should be working today is my last day of prep for the Open House tonight! YIKES! I'm no where near done! After I'm finished I will take some pics and share but I have to finish first! HA

Anyway last night we took Dianne out to celebrate her BELATEDDDDDDD Birthday! She spent her Birthday and Anniversary in Jim's hospital room so we had to wait until everything calmed down! We had fun laughing and eating pie and just being out! HAPPY HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY! We really aren't the suckiest friends ever I swear! I made this card for her using an Elzybells stamp and of course glitter!

I did take time yesterday to go to the grocery store initially to get lunch since I don't have a lot of time for cooking. But I ended up getting just about everything for our Thanksgiving dinner. I still need just a few things. I ordered a couple of pies from Fresh Market and I have to get the stuff to make the pecan pie but other than that I think I'm ready. WOO HOO!

Bad news......Last night Paula had to miss our little outing my BIL called her when she was on her way to tell her my oldest nephew(22) could barely walk he had been sick with what they thought was the flu for a couple of days. Turns out his appendix had burst and he had to have it removed last night. YIKES! He'll be in the Hospital for a few days. Very Scary!

Good news.....Emily got a Whiteley Eye(I?) yesterday. I'm not really sure which it is. She is very excited. This means she gets to do some sort of game thing this afternoon. I so don't get all this stuff my explinations come from a 7yr old! All I really know is it's the opposite of a Reputation Matters which apparently means you done something horribly wrong like last week the Student of The Week(can't remember her name?) held up her middle finger to Em's very best friend she was very upset. But that student got a Reputation Matters and I had to hear all about it. With her father standing behind her pointing the finger at me because I do it to him all the time! Luckily I don't think my kiddos have seen me but now I know she at least knows it's very bad. Note to self Gotta Stop Doing That!

So that's it here today gotta go downstairs and get to work some more Abbi is helping me and she is desperate to tape some poems on to the back of some tags I just finished!

Oh Baby it's Chilly Outside

Ok not terribly cold yet but getting very chilly! My throat clearing is coming to an end I think. Phew! I was starting to annoy myself I'm sure those around me couldn't stand it!

Yesterday was Family Night at Abbi's school! She's too cute she said "Come ON I'm going to show you around"! We all chuckled she really just showed us the kitchen in the back corner of the room. No worries Emily had preschool 2 years in the same room and this is Abbi's second year. Luckily for Em a few of her pals from school were there to hang out with and talk to. Mommy did make a faux pas apparently. One of the boys from Em's preschool that has been in every class she's had since she was 3 used to be called Yo Yo I only know him as that from when he was 3. I asked him to help pick up a puzzle he was playing with and everyone laughed when I called him Yo Yo! He's older now his name is Yohiro don't you know! YIKES!

Dance rehearsals are coming along only 2 more practices before the Tree Lighting Celebration. I have to find Em a Holiday dress!
And since I'm cold here is a snowy card for you. Stamped justjohanna's Candy Cane Tree on leftover Christmas wrap from last year and cut it out. The snowman is Cuttlebug and the rhinestone snowflakes came out of a kit. I used a shimmer pen to do the details.

Stay warm have a great day!

Monday Monday!

For linnecards today we had a sketch feature.

I used Making Memories Deck The Halls paper and a Sizzix Die along with some smaller Cuttlebug dies and embossing plates. Had to break out the metallic paper for shine and of course some stickles for sparkle! Be sure to head over to the gallery and check out everyone else's take on the sketch they are all beautiful!

WOW I'm Seasonally Confused!

Woke up this morning to the most FALL looking day here! It just the right grey with rain and leaves everywhere in all different colors! It seems like Fall took forever here? Maybe it's just me?

Either way I'm on to Christmas. Every night at my table working on projects for the Holidays. Luckily we have a station here playing Holiday music already to keep me in the mood when I'd like nothing more than to go out and arrange gourds! So here are a couple of creations from last night.

So the stamp Candycane Tree is justjohanna it's one of my favorites I've been using it for all Holiday's just changing the colors I stamp in. I just glittered all the white area's here thus the run must be more careful at 2am.

These are large Hershey Bars covered with Basic Grey Dasher the ribbon is Stampin Up the stamp is Hampton Art Stamps and the bird is my new robin punch from McGill. Then glitter glitter the bird and the stamp! I printed and added the Christmas Fudge poem.

So beyond all this. Emily reached her AR goal on Thursday so Friday she got to go out for dinner wherever she wanted. She being 7 chose McDonald's stipulating she would get Ice Cream as well! Friday was also my Stamp Class that was lots of fun! Saturday was just an around the house day Dave cleaned out the garage. We all watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas last night on TV. Seems a bit early but it came on right before the Wizard of Oz and the girls were dying to see that.

Dave and I later watched Wild Hogs and then he wanted to watch the bonus feature "how to get your wife to let you buy a motorcycle". I'm not sure why? He just came home with one, that seemed to work for him? HA I know he's probably reading this so I gotta say, in his defense, he owned one when we met and traded it in for a bigger louder model! Anyway none of this guys techniques(on the DVD) would work anyway I think just coming home with one is a better idea! Changes the discussion from can I to why did you! For me the Peter Fonda bit cracked me up. The movie was cute! Glad we didn't see it at the movies though!

Have a great day!

Picture Catch Up

So I suppose these are in reverse order of how they happened and I have no pics from Nashville as I was rather ill and Dave was off at playing WAR with his friends. I've narrowed down the pictures from 300 to these! YIKES! At least I can take them off the camera now that I've downloaded them! Tomorrow pics of actual projects going on here!

The end!
The Zoo with Julia and Family!

You can see it in full color here.

Dave's FLAMING pumpkin

Trick Or Treat

Emily Parade

Abbi Parade

My completed cupcakes
Dave's Work in Progress

ANIMALS

Abbi refusing to pose with pumpkins

Samantha's B-day Lincoln Park Zoo

So Excited!

Toilet Paper and Rain Don't Mix

House TP'd

Cheering a High School Game

Well it hasn't been a MONTH yet!

DON'T LOOK AT ME THAT WAY!!!!

Ok so I've been MIA what else is new. DH is out of work again! UGH we knew it was coming but it's still hard. He was home every day until today! He's doing a contract job! Then lets see....... We went on Vacation to TN to see Mom for her Birthday! It was very LOVELY we had a good time. I was a bit sick most of the time but other than that we had a perfect time! It was nice to take our mind off of things for a bit and the girls got to meet the new Puppy! OMG she is too cute! We came home to Halloween I made tons of cupcakes with licorice and chocolate webs on them for Em's class. We got to go to both girls parades and take pictures. Then we trick or treated on a perfect night cool but not oh so freezing! After that we recovered then last weekend we went to the Zoo with one of Emily's friends and her family it was fun and again a perfect day. That night however the girls came down with the ICK it only lasted 24 hours for them at least! Randi had her Open House on Sunday then we did some cleaning in her office! It was nice to be out of the sick house for the afternoon! They were ready to get back too it by Tuesday. I had to write and article on the 2nd grade teachers that turned out so well I was in tears! Ok so I'm the only one that read it probably but I'm pleased. Next month 3rd grade! I helped Randi out at a Benefit Bazaar on Tuesday all day and Dave ran around wih the girls. I've started working on my Holiday Open House crafties. Got quite a bit done last night and today! Butttttt I have to work on stamp class now so brief break then back to it! Em and I have been practicing our Tap we are preforming at the Tree Lighting Bash at the park district in a few weeks. YIKES we both just learned the end of our dances! FINGERS CROSSED PEOPLE! Miss Judy our instructor says I look worried! DUH! She swears we look like the ROCKET'S(sp?) she likes to make us do line kicks! She needs new glasses I think! HA

Anyway I have tons of pictures on my camera to share you have got to see Dave's FLAMING pumpkin and the cupcakes and the Halloween costumes and the zoo and and and! I will do that tonight while I'm stamping and cutting for tomorrows class!

So I'm very sorry but I very much missed my blogging! I'm home for the Holiday Season so I'll be here the whole time sharing my progress! Have a great evening!