Life Gets in the Way....

Hello again! How was your Christmas and New Year's celebrations? Mine were crazy, busy, exciting and worry-some (is that a word?). First, let me apologize for not updating my blog for so long. I had so many cards and other projects to share, but that went by the way-side after the morning of the 23rd. I received a TEXT (yes, please remember that part) from my youngest brother at 5:00 in the morning that my mom had been hospitalized on the MORNING OF THE 22ND. He said that she "wasn't doing too well" and that I needed to get there. Now I had a *few* reactions to this:

#1- OMG, please let her be OK and let me get there now
#2- Wait, did he say *reading text back s.l.o.w.l.y.* "she's been in there since yesterday morning..."???
#3- Why am I receiving a TEXT instead of a phone call
#4- Why didn't my step-dad call me?

So after I got over my initial what.the.hell calm reaction I notified my boss of what was going on, called RJ's daycare, packed our bags and loaded my truck with everyone's Christmas gifts. Long story short, my mom has recovered and is back to her usual self. Which includes riding her Harley and her Suzuki sportbike.....yea, she's more adventurous than I am! She did have to spend Christmas day in the hospital (which she was NOT happy about), but was released the next day. As for my brother and my step-dad, they are still on my 'list'!

Now, Christmas day was CA-RA-ZEE!! RJ was SO excited for Santa to come. I don't think he fell asleep until 12:00AM. My Dad Santa made sure to bring him the "big, big truck" that he kept asking for. Along with another gazillion gifts. Grandparents don't listen when you tell them not to over-do it....gotta love em. Santa also brought me what I really wanted and was *sure* I would not get:

My hubby got me a Nikon D3000!! I've wanted a dslr camera for a while now, but couldn't justify the cost. Especially since I'm just a crafty mom who wants to take better pictures of my family and my creations. I didn't even take it out of the box until 2 days ago! I snapped a few 'test' shots and I LOVE this camera :-) Of course, I'm using it in 'auto' mode but it is still amazing! Kinda makes me wonder why I didn't take the plunge sooner...

We are in the middle of de-cluttering and re-organizing our home and we started in the garage. I have snapped some 'before' pics and will share them at a later time with the 'after' pics. I also *stole* an hour from the project yesterday to work on a Valentine's Day card idea that's been bouncing around in my head. I'll share it once I'm done.....whenever that happens. For now, it's back to packing away Christmas decorations and clearing out the garage.

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Happy Monday

Happy Monday morning all! This morning I woke up to a frigid 30 degrees outside...NOT FUN! Hey, I'm a Florida girl and we don't like anything below 60. I wanted to post pictures of some of what I've been working on the past few days. I needed to find gifts for some of my friends that I work with and found the perfect idea while browsing the blogs & message boards on Friday.....Post-it Note holders. I decided to also make matching notepads for each of them. Here's the final product:

Supplies:

Patterned Paper: K&Co Wild Raspberry

Cardstock: Recollections

Stamps: Hero Arts- Write Your Own and Just a Note

Embellishments: Prima- flowers

Tools: Cricut- Opposites Attract cartridge & Design Studio; Spellbinders- Labels 8; Martha Stewart- 3-in-1 butterfly punch; Fiskars- Scallop Sentiment border punch; EK Success- corner rounder; Ranger- distress ink; stash- grosgrain ribbon & buttons

Misc.- 5x7 acrylic picture frames, foam notepads & standard Post-It Note pads

I had everything I needed on-hand, with the exception of the frames & notepads. In all, it cost me $8 to put these together! I delivered them this morning and the recipients LOVED them :-) I'm off to the Post Office to ship some Christmas kits and my brother's Christmas gift. He lives in Las Vegas and won't be joining us for the holidays this year :-(

Have a great Monday and Thanks for stopping by!

Happy 50th Birthday Dad and the Countdown to Christmas

*my grandfather (left) and my dad (right) walking me down the aisle*

So today is my Dad's 50th birthday! Of course I had to call and hassle him about it first thing this morning :-) We love to play jokes on each other and give each other the craziest cards for holidays & birthdays. I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to do with his card this year.....any thoughts? It really needs to be special! I have his gag gift already. It involves Senior Bingo at the retirement community close to his home! I can't wait until he opens it. I just have to make sure I've secured my Christmas gift first :-)

So, are you all ready for the holiday? I am! I completed my shopping list weeks ago and last week I picked up all of my gift cards and a few extra gifts for those little (and big) people that I may have forgotten. I always pick up a few body creams and shower gels from Bath & Body Works and a few $5 kids toys just in case I overlooked someone. If I have any leftover I just save them for upcoming kids birthday parties or baby/bridal showers.

I don't have anything crafty to share this morning. I just wanted to post something since it's been so long. I'll be back later today to share what I've been working on along with the list of goodies I'll be including in my Christmas tins this year.

Thanks for stopping by :-)

'To-do' List & Holiday Tags

Hi! It's Tuesday and I'm already looking forward to the weekend. How sad is that? I have a lot to get done this week. These are some of the things on my 'to do' list:

• pickup Christmas gift cards for 6 people
• pickup girls boots from Old Navy (they're on sale this week)
• decide on & make a 'killer' appetizer for the office Christmas party contest on Friday
• finish at least two (out of four) of the Christmas gift albums I'm making for RJ's grandparents....AUGH :-(
• finish my Christmas cards and get them packaged for the post office
• pickup Mr. R's BIG gift.....boys & their toys!
• try to catchup on my 'December Daily' album (why did I start this again?)

Before I pass out from exhaustion I wanted to share some Christmas tags I made over the weekend. I'd never really made tags before but I have some special handmade gifts to pass out this year and the standard store-brought tag just isn't gonna cut it. Here are my first tags:

Supplies:

Paper: Recollections & Paper Studio
Stamps: Hero Arts- Sparkle Clear: Gift for You, Antique Flower Background and Flourish Background; Recollections- Santa
Embellishments: Making Memories- elastic cord; American Crafts- eyelet
Tools: Spellbinders- Labels 8 & large rectangle; Copic markers; Ranger- distress ink; Versamark; white embossing powder

Supplies:

Paper: Recollections & Paper Studio
Stamps: Hero Arts- Sparkle Clear: Gift for You & Dots and Flowers; Recollections- Reindeer
Embellishments: DMC- floss; Making Memories- eyelet
Tools: Spellbinders- Labels 1; Copic markers; Ranger- distress ink; Versamark; white embossing powder

Hopefully, I'll be able to cross some of my crafty 'to do' list off tonight and will have more to share. Thanks for stopping by :-)

Embellish Magazine & 2S4Y Challenges

Hello again! I'm back with my second post of the day. My Gators aren't looking so good right now so I've walked away from the television for the time being :-( I had so much fun with the Embellish Leaves, Acorns & Pine Cone Color Challenge that I decided to make another entry this morning! If you missed my first entry, you can see it here. This time I decided to use Laura's Sketch 40, the current sketch challenge over at 2 Sketches for You. Here are the challenge images:




and here's my card:

Supplies:

Paper: Recollections & DCWV
Stamps: Hero Arts- A Million Thanks; PTI- In Bloom
Embellishments: Target- ribbon; Making Memories- eyelet; stash- twine

Tools: Spellbinders- Labels 3; Cricut Expression-Doodlecharms & Lyrical Letters; Fiskars- scallop border punch; Cuttlebug- Swiss Dot embossing folder; WRMK- Big Bite

I found the ribbon in my stash and fit the Embellish Magazine challenge perfectly! I picked it up at Target some time last year and had completely forgotten about it. I'm feeling pretty creative tonight so I'll be up working all night on my other projects. Maybe I should start scheduling some posts.......hmm

Thanks for stopping by :-)

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 :-)

Peace

Happy Hump Day! How's your post-Thanksgiving week going thus far? I've been super busy with work and putting out Christmas decorations. Did you all join in on the Black Friday madness? I did! It's a tradition for me and my family. I usually have my list of must-gets and a map of the stores I want to visit laid out at least a week in advance. Typically I'm back home by 8:00AM or eating breakfast at the local Cracker Barrel. Here's the list of items I scored:

• Three 600-t.c. sheet sets
• 32in LCD HDTV
• 4 Cricut cartridges
• 4 Wii games & 4 accessories
  
• KitchenAid stand mixer
• Pyrex 14pc. bake-n-store set
• 3 pairs of boots

I made it home by 10:30AM after starting my day at 3:00AM. Overall, this year's experience was a good one. All of the shoppers that I encountered were well-behaved and the retailers operated efficiently :-) Our tree is up & decorated. I've wrapped all but 6 gifts and I only have 4 more items to purchase! I should be done with my shopping this weekend.....YEA!!!

Shopping aside, I did manage to get a card completed last night for two challenges, Caardvarks Micro Color Challenge and Mojo Monday Sketch 115:

Supplies:

Paper: Recollections (white, pink & turquoise), Paper Studio (aqua) & My Minds Eye (stripe)

Embellishments: Studio G, Recollections & Hero Arts- stamps; Making Memories- eyelet; Stickles; Copic markers; stash- ribbon

Tools: Nestabilities- diecuts; Crop-a-dile Big Bite

Thanks for stopping by :-)