Princess Birthday Card

Happy Sunday, Everyone! :^)  I hope you all are having a great weekend. It's a chilly, windy 37 degrees here but at least the sunshine has been out all morning. I am still on my organizing kick this month... I cleaned out and reorganized the one cupboard in the kitchen that tends to always get the messiest, threw out old bottles of nail polish and reorganized my "manicure" basket. I've been slacking on doing my nails in recent years, so I thought that this year I'll try to make an effort to do my nails more so they look nice. We'll see how that  goes. I bought a couple really nice 3-shelf bookshelves at Ollie's for a great deal - one for my scrapbook room and one for B.'s room. I had my husband help me rearrange B's bedroom furniture yesterday afternoon, first time in seven years that we've done this. She has a queen-sized bed, so we don't have many options in there. But now she's gained a ton of floor space and it doesn't look cluttered like before. Did some serious vacuuming & cleaning in there (still in the process of getting all her stuff out of our room and back into her room, and getting rid of  even more stuff), gonna make a trip up to Ikea later on this afternoon and hopefully get her something to organize her toys a bit better. Annnnnd I reorganized my stamps, stickers and other misc. embellishments into these containers.....

Now when I want to make something birthday-related, Halloween, Christmas or whatever and I need stamps or embellishments - all my stamps, stickers, rub-ons, chipboard, ribbon, etc. is altogether in one place (well for the most part - brads are still being stored in my CraftMates containers).

I'd show you how my scrapbook space looks with the new bookshelf, but I decided to make a card for B's friend who's having a bowling birthday party this afternoon and it's a little messy in there right now, so maybe another time....

I made the "binder project" for the Cricut Sweet Treats cartridge. And I think it turned out really cute! I used my Martha Stewart scoreboard to make the envelope. I hope B's friend likes it. We got her a Claire's gift card and a pair of cute earrings. All the girls that age love Claire's. Well I better get moving here.

Thanks for stoppin' by and I hope you all have a great week! :^)

What Really Matters...

It's been quite a week here. B. got sick with strep throat and missed a couple days of school. She's been on an antibiotic and is doing better now. My mother & father-in-law's dog passed away yesterday at the vet's. :( It won't be the same going to their house and not getting greeted by Nina. She was a really sweet dog. She's been around since before B. was born and she just loved her too as we all did. This pic was taken recently on Christmas Day. We sure will miss our sweet Nina...

 We got our first snow "storm" of the season and the kids had their first 2-hour delay of the school year today. We didn't get a lot of snow, but yet enough to make the roads bad in some areas. And it's been freezin' cold & really windy all day. They were going to have an 80's dance this evening at the school but it got cancelled.

Other than that, something else happened this week that has me feeling sad and worried... my friend found out today that she has cervical cancer. :(  She goes in for a hysterectomy at some point and possible chemo. Her daughter has gone to school with my daughter since kindergarten. Although they weren't in the same class together until first grade. She is one of the nicest, sweetest people I know and my heart just breaks for her. I hope and pray that they get all the cancer and that she will be ok and that we'll all be sitting there together when our daughters graduate someday. The thing that scares me is she wouldn't go to the doctor for a really really long time - about seven years to get her yearly pap until she recently started having problems. I guess she didn't realize how important that yearly test is. :(

All this has made me put a lot of things in my life that have been bothering me into perspective. What's really important. Sometimes we get caught up in the petty things or the things or situations we can't change and waste so much energy and time thinking about it. When what we should be doing is living in the moment with our family and those who do love us. Because when it comes down to it, nothing else really matters. I'll never forget the way my friend looked at her daughter when she picked her up at school the other day after having her biopsy before she got her results. I can't even imagine what she's going through right now. No, we're not particularly close, but I can't help but feel concern for her and her family after knowing her and talking with her all these years while waiting to pick our children up from school. Our kids are growing up together. She just has to be ok.....

Another Wintery Thank You Card

I swear I am not really a "cardmaker" but I just had to make another thank you card after receiving a very kind, heartfelt letter from my sister-in-law, S. yesterday. I don't post a whole lot about my personal life on here - except for a few happy, positive things. And my life really is a good one for the most part and I try to stay focused on the positive things like a happy marriage, our child, our life and the family that I do have including my in-laws. However,  I come from a family with a lot of problems (and that's putting it lightly) and that tends to bring me down at times if I let it. Like I said in a previous post, the holidays are sometimes hard for me because of this. My very intuitive sister-in-law picked up on this over the holidays when I very briefly mentioned something and she took the time to reach out to me in her letter. I am truly touched and wanted to show my appreciation by making her a thank you card in return.....

Supplies used: Cricut Winter Woodland cartridge for big red snowflake (cut at 4"), DCWV card base and glittery patterned paper, Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder, Tim Holtz sanding grip, Sizzix Tim Holtz tags & tabs die (I cut off 1/2" from the bottom of the tag & have it on dimensional adhesive), Fired Brick & Antique Linen distress inks, Jenni Bowlin Spiced Tin dye ink, Imaginisce snowman stamp, "Thank you" is from a Fiskars set, Corner Chomper corner rounder, Stickles, bling, bakers twine, eyelet, and a button.

I hope she likes it as much as I enjoyed creating it for her.

Have a good night and thanks for stoppin' by to take a look at my card.  :^)

Punch Organization / Storage

It is freezing out there and it sure feels like January. My husband got caught in a "white out" on the interstate on his way to a job yesterday morning. Scary stuff. Thankfully he got there ok. He's coming back tonight and I'm making salsa chicken and rice for dinner. If you haven't figured it out by now, I really love my rice cooker. Got it at Ollie's Bargain Outlet for a good price this past spring and use it quite often.

Anyhoo - I've been on an organizing kick again this past week. Right before New Year's, I completely cleaned out the hall coat closet top to bottom. I sent B. into her room with a garbage bag and told her to put the clothes that no longer fit her and anything else she no longer wants in it so I can donate them to Goodwill. She came out with one bag and I got 2-1/2 other full bags of coats and other items from the closet. It feels good to get rid of stuff we're no longer using and let someone else get some use out of it. I decided to solve the problem of hats, gloves and scarves being either thrown in the top of the closet or falling to the floor where the shoes are and got an over-the-door shoe organizer from Wal-Mart to put all those types of winter items in. Problem solved and I wonder why I didn't think of this years ago....

I just got the Sequence board game in the top of the closet today. Snagged the last one they had at K-Mart. We play this every New Year's Eve along with "Catch Phrase" (my all-time favorite game) up at my in-laws. B. loves playing it as well, so I thought I would get it so we can play together when we have some free time. It's a fun game for both adults and kids. I also got some pretty black and ivory hats and scarves with bling on them on clearance 60% off while I was there at K-Mart. The black's for me and B. can have the ivory if she wants. Just some nice neutral colors to go with anything really. I love how the shoe organizer keeps all of our winter accessories neat, tidy and in plain view making it easy to find whatever we're looking for.

I have been keeping the majority of my border and other large basic shape punches in a shoe organizer on the inside of the closet door in the room that I scrapbook in for quite some time now. The problem was I was outgrowing it with all the deep-edge and seasonal punches I had gotten in the past year or so. And so it was time to re-organize my punches once again. I bought an extra over-the-door shoe organizer like the one pictured above at Wal-Mart for around $6 for my punches, but once I had all my punches in it, I couldn't get the door to shut because of how the hooks that go over the door are. So I took it back and got one over at K-Mart instead and it works like a charm. No problems with the hooks not letting the door close at all...

So what you see above is the organizer that hangs on the outside of the closet door in my scrapping room. I have most all of my basic everyday border punches along with Martha Stewart punch-around -the-page punch sets in there. These are the border punches I use the most throughout the year. We'll get to seasonal and another type of border punch here in a minute.

On the inside of the closet door I have my first shoe organizer I bought a long time ago at Wal-Mart. They don't sell it anymore unfortunately (at least not here they don't). I love this organizer because the pockets are nice and deep and can hold several of the smaller shape or border punches in each pocket depending on the punch...

And so, as you can see, this is where all my larger basic shape punches go. We have butterflies, clouds, a dragonfly, circles, squares, flowers, a star, hearts and some other misc. everyday stuff like a crown, leaf, photo corners and cupcake.

I wish all my punches could be like the EK Success Slimline punches. They take up hardly any room at all and I'm able to store quite a few in a small Sterilite box. If you live near a JoAnn's and love border punches (like I obviously do) - they have quite a few of the deep-edge ones on clearance right now for $8.97. I got some over the weekend and with an extra 15% off coupon. Only one of them is pictured in the box though (flower chain)....

And, finally, we have seasonal punches. I store these in a couple deep drawers in a Sterilite unit. This first picture shows mostly my snowflake and Christmas punches with the exception of one Halloween punch (deep-edge spiderweb trim) way in the back...

That whole front row, the punch to the side and the two bigger punches in the middle are all snowflakes or snowflake borders. love. And, yes, these are all Martha Stewart. Even the elusive MS Branch punch is in there. :)

And, lastly, we have the bottom drawer where I not only store extra adhesive and blades for my trimmer, but also (mostly) my autumn and Halloween punches as well. With the exception of the two (obviously) Christmas ones that I just snagged at JoAnn's 70% off. Score! The great big Halloween one I got for cheap at Ollie's a long time ago...

So this is what works for me and hopefully I've inspired you to go organize something. lol!

Have a good evening and thanks for stoppin' by...

Welcome 2012!!

The holidays are over, the Christmas trees all came down yesterday on New Years like they do every year. And things are getting back to normal. There's actually been some snowflakes out there today and we have a dusting of snow on the ground.  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year. We sure did. We enjoyed visiting with my husband's family during the holidays and my aunt and uncle came down and spent the day with us a couple days after Christmas. They brought us a delicious homemade "Fruit of the Forest" pie that they picked up on the way here from White House Fruit Farm.  It had like five different kinds of fruit in it including rhubarb,  apples, strawberries, red raspberries and blackberries. And we all enjoyed it while having our morning coffee that day....

I've never been there, but it looks like a neat place to go to if we're ever in that area and the pie was really delicious. Yum!

B. goes back to school tomorrow bright 'n early for choir practice first thing in the morning. They are practicing singing the national anthem for an upcoming local hockey game they'll be going to soon. I made a pork roast and sauerkraut yesterday and so we'll be having that again today. All I need to do is make more mashed potatoes to go with it. So it's a pretty relaxing day here today. Which is nice. I need to run out and pick up a few groceries and mail out this thank you card I made earlier this afternoon...

I'm not a big card maker but I do make them when I need to. This is for my husband's cousin and her husband. She left a very nice personalized Christmas gift on our front porch last week and I thought it deserved a homemade thank you. We absolutely love it and look forward to displaying it in our home in the years to come. What a thoughtful gift. Actually, I was gonna pick up a card the other day but then B. said "with all your craftiness you can just make them one". She was hungry and couldn't wait to get to Subway. lol! But I figured she was right. :^)  The snowflake was made with my Martha Stewart Himalayan snowflake punch. I did some embossing in the background with a couple Cuttlebug embossing folders and did some sanding. The "thanks" comes from a Cuttlebug die I got out at Big Lots a long time ago. Then a 2" circle punch and scallop circle cut out on the Cricut with the Mini Monograms cartridge. A border punch, some stickles, bling, baker's twine and  tada!... a thank you card from the heart.

Hope you all have a great week ahead and thanks, as always, for stoppin' by! :^)