My {Life}, My {Blog}

It's Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas!

I FINALLY got it in gear and put the Christmas decorations up.  Actually, it has been an extremely productive long weekend (I took Friday off).  I cleaned, swept, mopped, vacuumed, every room on the main floor Friday, then shopped and decorated ALL day Saturday.  Today, I put the finishing touches on the new items I made for decorations.  I am very pleased!

I am expecially pleased to have figured out a way to update my tree while still keeping the ornaments that they made as babies.  I really like how it turned out.

And with the lights out...

The fireplace/mantle area has the most new items.  I made both the pieces as well as the JOY candle set.  I have not put my village out for several years.  I could never find a place to put it.  I decided this year to put in on the floor in from of the fireplace (we have gas logs and it is still 70's here so I don't expect to use my fireplace that much!).  I really like having it out again.  So far, Blaze has only sniffed at it one time and not bothered it.  We will see as the season goes on.

That's all the new stuff this year.  Hope you are having a great holiday season.  Try not to stress too much.  I am still reminding myself of that!

A Card Round-up

June was the busiest month on record for me.  I have completely fallen slack in my posting.  Here is a card round-up of some of my latest cards.  I have taken a break from Mark's Finest Papers so I really want to go ahead and share the last of those with you. These are 3 of the last 4 cards that I did for them.  

I have really enjoyed working with them, but real life has gotten in the way.  Don't fret though, you can still catch me at Scraps of Color E:spire and at my new design team home Use Your Stuff, where my Wood Venere/Chipboard challenge is currently up.

Thanks for stopping by.

 

Testing the Waters

I haven't tried to post since the cyber attack on typepad. I saw a few friends who were able to get a post up, so I decided to test the waters.  Here are a few cards that I made during the month of April.  Where I took notes on what I used, I have included that.  Apparently I forgot to take notes on one of them.  Oops!

Strive for Excellence

papers: We R Memory Keepers For the Record; Stamp: Camellia from Marks Finest Papers and Stamps; Copic Markers: YR16/18, YG95/99; embossing powder: Zing.  Technique used: embossed outline with copic coloring

 

Bloom

Paper: We R Memory Keepers For the Record; Technique used: white outline embossing with Copic Coloring. (I did not write down the stamp on this one.)

Smile!

Paper: Echo Park This and  That; Cardstock: Bazzill and Recollection; Ribbon: stash; Stamp: Butterfly stamp from Lots of Words by Marks Finest Papers and Stamps; Envelop and liner are a cut file from the Silhouette Store

Thanks for stopping by!  Hopefully the Cyber Bullies are taken care of.  I have a few more projects to post also.

Sharing a Card and a Canvas

Today I am sharing a card I made for the MFP Speedy TV color challenge this week as well as a canvas I made for my laundry room.  The color scheme this week is black, gray and a color of your choice.  I chose pink.

I am still trying to figure out what my cardmaking "style" is.  This one is a little different for me.  Supplies here are nothing more than a stamp from Marks Finest Papers and cardstock with a touch of pink ribbon.

This canvas has been in the design process for about a week or so.  I designed the subway art a while ago, then bought the canvas and it sort of sat for a minute.  Since our office was closed for Mardi Gras, I decided to finish at least one of the unfinished projects I have designed in studio.  I kinda like how it turned out.  The frame is just black paint to help fill up the empty space from using a 20 x 20 canvas.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy New Year!

OK, so I know I'm a little late.  But January came in with the same flurry of activity that December left out with.  Thankfully, things are beginning to settle down into a routine again.  Today I want to share my "One Little Word" with you as well as a few projects that I did on New Years Day to further that word.

My word for 2014 is USE.  Last year I used the word CREATE and had probably the most creative year that I have experienced in many years.  This year, I want to continue that creativity and USE the things that I have before running to the store to buy.  I will never say that I plan to stop shopping, but I really want to use what I have first if I can.  I really would like to avoid having 3 R29 copic/markers/4 lime green sweaters/2 bottles of Cumin unopened in my cabinet.  Sooo... to help me along, I have purged my closet so that I can now see what I have when dressing.  I am also trying many new recipes to USE up some of the duplicate things I have in my pantry.  Creatively, I spent New Year's Day making several DIY storage projects to help me organize and then USE my supplies.  

Funny story, recently as I cleaned out an area of my scrappy haven, I found a cricut pen holder and a set of 12 gel pins that I bought in 2010 and NEVER used.  I don't even use a cricut any more and have given it to my daughter.  Thankfully, I found a reasonably priced pen holder for the silhouette that I can use with them.  I also grabbed the metallic pens from Silhouette while I was there.  This time, I plan to keep my pens front and center and actually USE them.  They have their own pen holder to help me out.  

This is a cut file from the silhouette online store.  I am still playing around with a way to display the gel pens I found.  I think cheap pencil holders from the dollar tree are going to be mysolution.  I am thinking I can put the pencil holders in the slots to take up space, then drop a gel pen in that.  I will let you know what I decide.

I also needed a place to store my photos.  I have been trying to actually print out the photos from my phone and camera so that I have them available when I get ready to scrapbook.  This strategy has worked really well for me over the last year.  But it looked really messy since I just stacked the photos up on top of my desk in no particular order.  These boxes will help me sort and store photos neatly until I am ready to use them.

So, what is your one little word and how are you going about implementing it this year.

My New Ikea Desk

For a while now, well every since I tore the labrum in my hip, I have wanted a desk that allowed me to sit or stand depending on how my back and hip felt.  I have one of those at work and it works wonders for reducing pain.  I did hours of research on  these desks and quickly realized two things.  First, I could not afford the Pottery Barn version which I think is up to about $1100 now.  Secondly, the easiest way to get the same look was to buy the expedits, furniture legs and tabletop from Ikea and build it muself, ie:  have it done for me :-) .  So...last weekend we were in Atlanta for a family reunion and I took the opportunity to go to Ikea and get the parts I needed for my desk.  Well, it has been put together now and I worked at it for 4 or 5 hours today with no pain.  WooHoo!!!!

I LOVE this desk.  I followed the instructions on THIS blog.  Be sure that you take the exact product listings with you when you get to Ikea (I didn't and we almost couldn't find the right table top!).  Also, the guy who put it together for me said that the instructions were very easy to follow.  Also, I didn't buy the baskets at Ikea.  I was pushing my luck with DH hunting down the right tabletop, so I waited until I got home to look for them.  I found perfectly sized ones at Target for significantly less than the ones at Ikea.

Here are a few shots of the rest of the room.  I should have cleaned up, but I didn't.  I was ready to get my scrap on!  Here is a shot of my general embellishment storage.

And behind my desk is my paper/vinyl/book storage.  I eventually plan to do expedit bookcases in this area also now that I have seen the quality of them.  

These last two are of the table and overhead shelving that I use for my printer/silhouette and most used product/supplies.

Thanks for stopping by.  Ok, now I am headed back up to look at my desk again.  

 

A New Dishcloth

I went to knit night tonight to hang out with my girls.  I finished up a new dishcloth.  I could seriously get addicted to these.  They are soooo fast.

While I was there, I cast another one on my knook.  I knook pretty slowly, especially since this one has purl rows in it too.  We will see how long it takes. This will be my first time doing a purl row, so it could be forever. 

A Very Productive Weekend

I spent all day Saturday scrapping with my Scrapping Sistahs.  Turned out to be a VERY productive Saturday for me.  I did this layout, practicing some of the layering techniques I learned at CKC and practicing controlled ink droplets with all that ink I have invested in.

I also worked on some vinyl artwork for my formal living room.  I LOVE these and can't wait until I get them framed.  

And a second one.  I plan to hang them next to each other to take up a large chunk of wall space.

And the best part is, the weekend is not over.  If all goes well tonight (and I don't get distracted before I finish the housework/laundry), I will be up in the crafty palace tomorrow after grilling all my meats.  

Have a great Memorial day tomorrow and thanks for stopping buy.

A New Look!

OK, so boredom has set in and I am playing around with my blog for entertainment.  I changed the look of it, and will be changing out the content at the side bar as I go along.  I kinda like the new look.  Much cleaner looking than the last one.

I also have been just a little crafty.  I went to CKC to celebrate National Scrapbook Day and made a my Mother's day Cards while cropping there.  Then I accidentally posted a preview in a facebook group that was not a closed group and my Mom saw the preview.  Welp...I learned my lesson from that and have waited until Mother's day was officially over to post the full view.  I LOVE this image.  Need to color myself one.

I also made some personalized gift bags from the reuseable shopping bags.  I love these things.   They make great project bags.

And last but not least, I have to brag on my peeps.  They did really good this year.  DH drove all over the city looking for the 2013 Mother's day bead.  He found it and I was sooo excited!  The kiddos also gave me a cute picture frame for my office.  Now to get them to pose for a new family portrait to put in it.

That's all for me today.  Off to see how this post looks, so I can determine what to take out/add to the  blog.

Operation Write Home

I have been looking for a home for my handmade cards for a while.  I ran across a post on the Cricut.com board looking for cards for soldiers.  I didn't have many A2 cards, so I made a couple to go with what I have.  I tried a new technique on the cameo for these.  I traced my digi stamps, printed them through the cameo, colored and then cut out on the cameo.  I LOVE THIS TECHNIQUE!!!  I could hug whoever came up with it.

These are the older ones I an sending also.

 

Now that Blazey has a play area in the scrap space to keep him confined, I will be doing more for OWH.  Thanks for stopping by.