Posts are getting kinda skimpy, eh?

I know I have not been keeping up with my blog very well & I tend to lose people along the way because of that. I guess that's the price I pay for trying to get things accomplished around my house & outside when the weather turns warmer. I'd rather be outdoors any nice day...except when the mosquitoes are sooooooo bad that they're swarming around the doors just waiting to get sucked inside whenever it opens. We've had so much rain here in the past few weeks that the nearby dried up swamps are quite full now & we even have standing water in our back woods. At least the front woods are dried up now, but more rain is expected today with possible severe storms later on.

I do have a bit of crafting news to share though. Quite by surprise, I received this in the mail on Monday. Isn't that card on the front awesome?? No. It's not mine, but it sure is pretty!

I was so happy that Northridge Media decided to ship one copy of the current Cricut magazine out so we can see our projects that were published in a much more timely fashion, instead of having to wait several months AFTER it's been out on the market.

Here is MY page of Brooke in the magazine!! Would you believe that this is the very first project I ever worked on with a Cricut machine? It's true. I used the Expression machine at my local scrapbook store in my first year of being on their design team. I was SOLD!! It took a while to get one & I bought the Personal bug off a friend first, but I talked the DH into getting me one for Christmas less than 6 months later. I don't think I could craft without it now & as they say, the rest is history! hee hee....

I've been working on the suitcase project a little. I've been working on the coffee table project, a little - need more sanding and I'm working on recovering my glider rocker too. I've never refinished or recovered anything before, so these have been some interesting projects. I've come across some roadblocks in their completion, so it will still be a little while longer before they're done. I was hoping to get them done before I started on my nephew's graduation mini album & my own son's graduation party & going down to Indy to sign him up for college next month. So many things are happening so fast. Oh, and my daughter is home sick today.

And so, with that, I need to get started on something.

God Bless and have a great day!

A Card & that's it

Actually, I have been working on a number of different projects, but things have gotten a bit crazy around here. I made 2 cards, but forgot to take a picture of the first one that was a Sympathy card for my uncle & his daughter. My aunt Jennie passed away on Mother's Day, and it was quite unexpected, since she was only 51. Since they are Jehovah's Witnesses, the holiday isn't celebrated & so it won't have tragic memory attached to it for my cousin. My aunt was a great lady & just fun to be around & talk to. She made my husband feel right at home when we first got married & she would include him in card games at family gatherings like he's been there forever. She LOVED to cook & was very good at it too! Unfortunately, that was her downfall in the end. She would cook all the time & there was only 3 in their family, but she cooked like she was preparing for an army. I feel bad for their daughter & that her mother will never see her get married or her grandchildren.

Aunt Jennie was a wonderful lady & great person and she will be missed by so many of us.

Now about the other card.


It's not that great, but it's not that bad either. Simple. It was made for one of my other aunts. A year ago, she made my daughter a handmade teddy bear & I never got around to sending her a thank you card. Since we were all going to the same funeral, I figured I should get it done. I think this teddy bear cut on A Child's Year Cricut cartridge is one of my favorites. Maybe because it reminds me of the teddy bear I had as a child. I cut it from a raspberry colored flocked paper because I was looking from texture. Isn't that what teddy bears are for? Soft to the touch & cozy feeling? The "Thank You" is from the Storybook cartridge, I think?

I also made a couple of gifts, but I am not going to post them because I seen that there is a call for publication that they may fit in. So, we'll see at a later date. If I don't forget.

God bless & have a great day!

Garage Sale find

Before I went over to my friend's house to work on Staff Appreciation gifts on Thursday, she called me up & said there was a garage sale at one of the mansions if I wanted to check it out. I thought, hmmmm.... might be too pricey for my blood, but ya never know.

So I go & check it out, but it was mostly clothes with just a few odds & ends left. But. Over along the side was this coffee table. Looking kinda cool, but it required a closer look. And that's what I gave it too, a much closer look. The only thing wrong with this table was that the finish is a bit worn, but not even that bad really. no dings. no wobbly legs. solid wood. cool basket weave top. unique elongated octagon shape. best part? $5! Yep, that baby was MINE! I didn't even have $5 on me, but the lady was nice enough to hold it for me so I could go get some cash. She was willing to take a check, but at the price of those suckers, I don't want to waste one for just $5.









I'm trying to decided if I want to just stain the top & paint the rest or do a 2-tone with the design on the top. Whaddya think?

If I were Miss Mustard Seed, I'm sure I'd know the best look for this table, but I'm not, so I'm kinda at a standstill with it.

My plan is to sell it, but the DH kinda has his eye on it, so who knows where it will actually end up? I could be happy either way. ;-)

Today, I've been working on getting my stuff prepared to ship off for the Cricut magazine pub (they don't give you a whole lot of time to get it shipped out with all the stuff they want). I also started working on the suitcase project. I can't dawdle on this stuff too long, DH & I are going out tonight for his birthday.

And with that note...
God Bless & have a great day!

Pub News! + long post, kinda pick heavy

I don't know if I'm starting to become one of the Cricut Magazine's Vinyl regulars or what ;-), but I've had FOUR vinyl projects accepted for the September issue!! Waaa Hooo!!!

I hope I can get them all in one of those Flat Rate boxes, because otherwise it's gonna be heavy & expensive. I had a 12x12 tile, a ceramic plate & a glass cutting board accepted along with a set of 4 mini hand soap bottles. I submitted other non-vinyl projects, but they didn't get accepted. One is a little mirror, so maybe I'll try to submit it to Papercrafts & see where that gets me. Probably like all the other times I've tried...no call. If not, then I'll be posting it here on my blog.

I have been crafting a lot this week, but it's been for teacher/staff appreciation week at my daughter's school & I'm not doing them at my own home so I don't take pictures. She found lots of really cute ideas like making a pencil from Rolos & a Hershey's Kiss, A treatbag of M&M's with an owl head topper, a Smore's kit in a baggie, a pieced branch picture with the leaves being the kids fingerprints as well as the little birds, butterflies & a catepillar. That's what we're working on today. I think I'm missing something, but can't recall at the moment what it might be. We're already working on ideas for next fall. That might be a little crazy for me, since that's when my craft shows & 2 birthday's are.

Here examples of what we made. These are where she got the inspiration from, NOT OUR actual projects.

Rolo Pencils - our version had a happy face stamped on the apple & baker's twine to tie the tag on. We used silver kisses for the "lead" portion instead of the gold too.













Owl Baggie Toppers - our owls were light pink & dk. pink with little primitive shaped hearts for the beak. I think I mostly used the Accent Essentials cartridge for this, but not 100% positive on that.







We Need SMORE people like you (this was Staff Appreciation, not just teachers) - our version had kraft paper backing with the bark looking embossing on it & a scalloped border punched at the bottom with a red, green or blue & white gingham for the label with rounded corners.



Fingerprint art - for our version I cut out a branch from my cricut & TONS - like 450 (.80 sized) ovals for the kids to put their fingerprints on to create the leaves, birds, & we're adding a butterfly & a caterpillar to ours, since most classes have over 25 students per class. I hope to get a picture of the one for my daughter's teacher.

On a different note for today, we finally have our new roof completed & the guys are just finishing up the loose ends & doing a repair on our ceiling where one of them slipped & their foot came through out ceiling - oops! It's not a big deal, since we had to replace a section of the ceiling from the leak damage anyway. We just hope that it holds up better than the last new roof we had done just 5 years ago & it started leaking in the 2nd year. No, we were NOT having those people back to attempt to fix anything ever again for us. The crew that's doing our roof(s) this time seem very knowledgeable about what they do & they're Amish. So now I have finally been able to get the 3 buckets, one large tote & towels with trashbags under them, out of my family room & the nasty 2 ft. long stained part of the ceiling will be gone too. YAY!!! I just have to shampoo the carpet to get rid of the light water splashes. Finally....*sigh*

So, if you've hung out here for the duration of the post, THANKS!! Perhaps if you've needed some student or teacher gifty inspiration, maybe you've found some here.

God Bless & have a great day!