Happy Saturday & a Couple of Challenges

Happy Saturday!! I love the weekend because it means more crafting time for me and no work :-) This weekend I'm planning on being especially productive because my little guy is spending the weekend with his Godmother. Gotta love that. Plus it's SEC Championship weekend and I FULLY expect my Gators to put a beatdown on the Crimson Tide. Mister R is watching the game with some of his friends at the local barbershop.....don't ask, just go with it :-) The guys asked that I make them some of my double-baked, shrimp-stuffed potatoes so I'll be running off to the grocery store to pickup my supplies in a few. I'll try to remember to take a pic and post it later.

Before I go, let me share a card I finished this morning. I love participating in the various papercrafting challenges found on the web. I don't always have time to participate every week, but I do keep up with them and try to complete them when I have some free time. Over at the Embellish Magazine blog, they are challenging you to complete a project using a color combo & some seasonal items. To be really efficient and complete as many challenges as possible this weekend, I coupled the Embellish Leaves, Acorns & Pine Cones Color Challenge with the current sketch challenge at the CPS blog. Here are the challenge images:



and here is my card:




I didn't have any stamps that contained all of the seasonal images required for the Embellish Magazine challenge, so I decided to put my Cricut Expression to use! Here are the details:

Supplies:

Paper: Recollections & DCWV
Stamps: Hero Arts- A Million Thanks; PTI- Vintage Labels & In Bloom
Embellishments: stash- twine

Tools: Spellbinders- Labels 1; Cricut Expression-Doodlecharms & Lyrical Letters; Cuttlebug- embossing folders; EK Success- corner rounder

I'm working on other projects that I hope to complete today, so I may be back for a second post!

Thanks for stopping by :-)

quick post...........restaurant deal

Someone posted a great deal on my fave message board that I thought I'd pass along for anybody who happens to stop by my blog. You can purchase $25 gift certificates to local restaurants for $3 at Restaurant.com. Just input your zip code and set your search parameters. Once you're done adding to your shopping cart, input the discount code: PREZ. This will take 70% off of your purchase. I'm not sure how long this discount code will last, so you may want to hurry. I've purchased $100 worth at $12 for a few restaurants that Mr. R and I have been wanting to try. Good luck!

weekday recap, a lil' football and a lil' card making

So what did you do with yourself this weekend? I spent most of yesterday re-organizing the garage and purging (yet again!) some clothes and shoes. I'm trying really hard to only keep things that I use. I've found that my life is much less stressful when things are decluttered, organized and in their respective proper places.

Now today is somewhat different. I'm spending the better part of my morning completing work for Mr. R's business. Did I mention that we're small business owners? Probably not.....anyhoo. I have handled the admin/HR portion of the home healthcare business since it's establishment 1 and a half years ago. I try to support him as best I can and making sure all employment guidelines are being followed is my way of doing that. Of course this is free of charge (as best he can tell), but here lately it has begun to interfere with my day job.....you know, the one I actually earn a salary for doing. So, I've decided to set office hours for the homehealth business. This week was the trial run and everything went pretty well. Aside from one of the employees thinking it was okay to yell at me because her trifflin' tail submitted a direct deposit form for an account that her bank closed! In her words "I went in to close my savings and they closed both accounts." Now yall know that heifa knew that was a lie when it left her lips! So she got a "Mmm hmm. Well per the authorization form you signed, you will be responsible for the $35 rejection fee." That's when the yelling started and that's when I had to remind her that this is a business and her place of employment so she *might* wanna lower her tone! We'll see how my evening and weekend schedule works going forward. I'll keep you posted.

So, what am I doing with the rest of my day.......preparing for Super Bowl XLIII of course! We've invited over a few friends so I have plenty to keep me busy before the first guest arrives around 6:00. I'm not making the wide variety of food that I normally do. I have my eye on a dvd/navigation system for my truck and I was not about to drop $300 to feed this group! Here's what I have on the menu:

• Wings (honey BBQ, mild buffalo & teriyaki)
• Fried fish sandwiches
• Spicy Spinach, Artichoke & Shrimp Dip
• Seafood Pasta Salad
• Fruit Salad
• "No Yo Mama's Banana Pudding" (this is a Paula Deen recipe & it's the best I've ever had!)

I was also able to get a lil' card making done this week. Here are some Valentine's Day cards I was able to finish for my friends:

After today, it's back to the grind. I hope you all have a fun, productive and stress-free week :-)!

Scrappin' the time away

Okay, so I didn't keep my 1 post/1 week resolution.....but, who's noticing anyway? Moving on......

Before my weekend crop, I hadn't enjoyed my hobby for at least 3 months. The holiday season was a very busy one for me with work and family, so I didn't have time or the motivation to set aside time to scrap. I'm participating in a few challenges over at Two Peas in a Bucket so I have plenty of inspiration to draw from. Here are some of the layouts I've completed:

My little cousin and her new hubby. There's nothing like young love.

RJ riding his favorite gift from Santa (aka, Granny) this year. This bike is all he talks about.

8 things that defined my 2008

I've really been enjoying my hobby more lately. I think it has something to do with my favorite Christmas present.....the Cricut Expression! I love this thing for it's versatility and it's no-fuss approach to diecutting. I've also been trying to use up some of my stash instead of hoarding all the cute stuff that finds it's way into my shopping cart. So far, it's been exciting to see the supplies actually get used for it's intended purpose.

That's all for now. Tomorrow we're heading to an out-of-the way seafood restaurant. I haven't been there in 6 years, but I distinctly remember it being some of the best food I've ever tasted. I'll post updates at a later time :-)