After the tree is gone....

...it's time for snow!! We found this adorable snowman at a Hallmark store after Christmas. Isn't he so cute!! Now, the snowflake lights are LED lights. Kinda burns a hole in your retina if you look at them too long. I really don't like the way the string of snowflakes looks on the banister but I'm not sure what else to do w/it. I'd like to get some sort of garland & then drape it so the flakes don't stick out so much. But, it's lights & lights make me happy!!!

Well, I didn't manage a 2nd post.

I put a TON of stuff on eBay this afternoon. After that & dinner & catching up at the Shack, I didn't have time or anything intersting here. Sorry. No decent pic either. I'm feeling a little bit like a failure. It was such an easy resolution, why couldn't I keep it up??

I'll re-evaluate & decide if I will keep on plugging away or give up & let it go.

Ooops, How Did I Miss Yesterday???

Wow! I spent all day thinking I had posted and I guess I didn't. Wow, that resolution didn't last long. Well, I guess I'll make up for it w/2 posts today.

Yesterday was laundry day. I got my fancy new LG Front Loader washer. It's pretty but, I'm afraid that might be all it is. I'm not sure I'm thrilled with it. I think I'll have to buy the HE soap to see if that make it all better.

Pros: LARGE capacity, detergent/softener/bleach dispenser that can be CLEANED (one of the problems w/my old washer was that it was FILTHY!!) and clearly, the cat likes it!

Cons: LONG wash times (48 minutes for an average load. Don't ask how long for a "sanitized" load!!) and even when I added MORE time for "stain cycle" the wussy stains on shirts didn't come out. I had to pre-treat, run it again & then the did come out, same as my old washer. The rest of the problems are user error or at least user ignorance: how much soap? how much softener, how big a load can fit into the dryer??

I was not able to purchase a new dryer ('cause the old one still works FINE) so now I'm worried that the giant loads I can wash in the washer are going to KILL my dryer. Although, I'm sure the dryer is just going to die of embarrassment as it looks so OLD compared to the washer. Poor dryer. It's 20yo (the washer was only 8) and still running like a champ. A champ that has had the snot beat out of it a couple too many times!

Anyway, I'm going to go today & buy the HE soap. Then, I will be confident that I'm putting enough soap in it. I'll learn to live w/the long cycles 'cause one day I'll be able to get the fancy pants dryer & it'll all balance out. The stained clothes are a rarity so I can deal w/that. I am REALLY HAPPY to have the washer & to be able to wash clothes when I want. I never realized how important that was until it was gone.

As soon as I posted this, I saw this cartoon. Thought it was appropriate. Although my kids, who had a snow day yesterday, pretty much kept themselves busy while I did all the laundry. I sure hope you can click on it & make it bigger!!

What a mess!!

Hmmm, is this table a metaphor for my life?? This is my scrap/stamp table. Sad, huh?? Needless to say, I have not worked on anything for a few days. So much for my resolve to clean up after my projects. On the plus side, all the Christmas stuff is down & put away. Well, almost all. I realized that my lighted garland is still up (and lit & pretty!) I'll take it & the C'mas cards down later (today, this week, this month??) Scott put all the snowflake lights up (I'll take pics later) and I got almost all the snowmen out. But, for now, I have to do laundry!! My new washer FINALLY got here. I'm on load #2.

January 4th, post Christmas blues

All day yesterday was spent taking down the Christmas tree. Everything except 2.5 hours spent w/my older brother (Wayne) while he took apart my computer (literally!) to get a tiny media card out of it (I was the one who stuck it in, not one of the kids!)

Anyway, back to Christmas. I hate taking down the decoartions. Really, really HATE it!! The house is plain w/o them. I have trees in all the bedrooms, candles, garland & wall art in the bathrooms, things on the doors & bubbly, glittery nightlights in the kitchen & bathrooms. It is all so GONE when it's gone!!

So, today: the upstairs tree comes down and I clean out Nick's toy drawer. That boy wants to save EVERY Happy Meal toy that ever makes it into this house! I told him to do it but we'll have to wait & see what he actually REMOVES from the room. Then I'll go thru it again. After that, we'll make a run to Goodwill!

Back to my computer. My brother took the whole thing apart & still could not get to the card reader to remove the media card. So, after he left, I was messing around with it & got the card out!! Yea me! Unfortunately, all the messing w/the card reader messed it up so it still doesn't work. Oh well, back to the USB cable!

Eventually, I'll take pics of my ATCs!

January 3rd, the resolution falls???

Ok, remeber when I said I was gonna take a pic a day & journal. Well, I failed already. I MEANT to take pics of Scott taking down the outside lights yesterday but, I didn't. I could give a dozen valid reasons but, that defeats the whole purpose, right??? I mean, technically, I DID take a pic of the ugly green ornament but, that's not what the whole project was about, right??

So, this morning, I got up early & took this pic. I think it'll work for my journalling about my feelings about the end of Christmas. I wish I could take artsy pics. I know this could look so much better but.... Oh well. I have half my C'mas stuff down: downstairs tree is down & most of the downstairs decor is down. Unfortunately, none of the "normal' stuff is up nor is any of the Snowman stuff up. I could do it tonite or look for the stamp sets I wanted to put on eBay or work on a swap or watch TV & go to bed early (gotta get ready for back to school! ICK!)

Not a new photo but, I wanted to share

I like to give the kids' teachers ornaments for Christmas. I had an idea about the ornament I wanted to make this year but time got away from me. I saw some BEAUTIFUL ornaments on Laura's blog and they look like something I could manage. How wrong I was.

I thought I followed Laura's directions exactly. They aren't hard directions? What could I be doing wrong. Well, I think I figured out the problem. It was 2 fold: I was draining them too long & was using semi-icky glitter. I had the MS coarse glitter & it was just too coarse & not sparkly enough. This picture does not show how truly UGLY this ornament is!!!

I decided to try again. This time, I could only find HUGE ornaments at Michael's, all the little ones were taken by people who planned ahead better & knew what they were doing! Oh well. I used Cool Caribbean reinker (I only have brown reinkers for some reason. Weird. I bought Cool Caribbean, True Thyme & whatever the reddish In color was at that time. This was before I started boycotting In Colors!) and my ultrafine glitters in colors. Here is the weird thing; the color of the ink is not that important; it's the color of the glitter that effects the color of the ornament!! (The pink was done w/Pretty in Pink ink)

I used pink glitter w/CC and it came out more of a true blue. I used light blue glitter and it turned out light blue. I used gold glitter & somehow, it gave a greenish gold tint to the ornament. When I ran out of the gold, I used dark green. WHOA, that turned out a dark, Dark, DARK green ornament!! I think if you click the pics below, you might get a better picture of what the colors look like.

So, if you decide to try this next year, here are a few tips:

1) use a waxy or plastic drink cup to drain them in. You will be able to reuse the ink (if you use one color of ink anyway) cause the ink will just pour right out of the cup. If you use the 3oz PAPER b/r cups, the ink soaks thru.
2) Drain the ornaments for 10 min or less!! But, before you turn the ornament back over, wipe the "mouth" of it off so it doesn't drain back into the ornament & make the glitter glob.
3) Experiment w/different colors of glitter. I'm dying to try a brown ink w/a gold or red glitter to see what happens!! (When does Michael's restock their ornaments?? Mine is COMPLETELY out now!)

I guess it's time to take the trees & the other decorations down now. :( I hate this day!! But, I bought a cool, big light up snow man & I can't wait to get him & the rest of my snow stuff out!! My upstairs tree is mostly snowmen: can't I leave it up til Valentines????

Isn't Jan 1 the GREATEST!!!

It's so easy to keep your resolutions!! Here's a photo & a post. Woohoo!

Today was a nice quiet day. Scott & I are both sick but we did manage to make it to midnight last night. The kids watched the fireworks, I went to bed, Scott filled the humidifier to have in our room. I don't think an humidifier does much good but a) he likes it & 2) it drowns out a little bit of his snoring.

Got up, got a shower (something you take for granted on a "normal" day but since I've been sick, it's been a every 3rd day luxury!), worked on some ATCs (pics tomorrow maybe?).

Last year, on NYD, we went to see Night at the Museum. The kids have decided that it's a tradition now. Well, what's playing? Benjamin Button, nah. Valkyrie, Scott wants to see this but, come on, the kids are 12 & 14. Plus, I know how it ends! Nah! Marley & Me, fine by me but dd REFUSES to see it. I guess that leaves Bedtime Stories.

Why is this boy such a goof?? Oh yeah, I'm his Mom!

Not a huge Adam Sandler fan but it was a fine show & a good way to spend an cold afternoon! Before the opening credits both kids had a tiny bout of Montezuma's revenge & ran to the b/r. Nick actually missed the first few minutes of the show. But, they both bounced back & refused to eat anymore popcorn. More for me & Scott, right?? No, I kicked the dang thing over about 10 minutes into the movie. When will they make theaters for us plus-size movie goers?? I know my tushie is big but please give me enough room for my feet & the bath-tub size of popcorn (ah, now I know how my tushie got big!!)

Home again, left over Imo's pizza for dinner (YUM!!), watched a little tv, worked a little more on ATCs (don't you LOVE Changito!! Isn't he/she just perfect for paper piecing??)

Now, it's 9:30 & time to get the kids back into the school day bedtimes. I guess Nick's gonna get to stay up until 10 now like Becs. He was going at 9:30 but, since they both get up at the same time & leave at the same time (and Nick's almost always ready to go when we leave, unlike someone else who doesn't usually have shoes on, contacts in, hair combed, bed made, pretty much NOTHING done!), I guess it's only fair.

New Years Resolution

My hope for the new year (besides health, world peace & all the crap) is to update my blog daily!!! I need to get over the fact that I may not have crafts to share & just post. Even if no one out there ever reads any of it, I want it as a "journal" and to help me maybe get back into scrapbooking! I love the immediate gratification of a card but my first love was always scrapbooking.

So, on the order of Becky Higgins Project 365, I'm going to post something everyday. I hope to take a pic of something w/some sort of significance everyday. I don't know what in the world it might be but, I'm going to try. Now, having said that, I can't download any pics right now. I got a teeny, tiny media card stuck in my SD slot on my computer. I'll have to find my cord & download the "old fashioned way". LOL

Finally, the last of the Stamp Camp

Sorry it's taken me so long to finish this. These are the final 3 projects that we did at last weeks Stamp Camp.

I know the candy bar thing is not "new" but this was honestly the first time I had done one. I love the way the crimper "seals" the ends. Plus, this gingerbread man is TOO CUTE!!! We have used just about every image from this set (hostess set) and I know I NEED it!! But, the most amazing thing about this project is that after a really bad week that left NO CHOCOLATE anywhere in the house, this managed to survive. But, I guess now that I've shown the pic, I can EAT IT!!!!

The coolest thing about the bag is that it used a ballpoint GLUE pen!! I had never tried one of those before. It's pretty awesome! We were able to "draw" glue lines & then glitter them. This pen became my new MUST HAVE. Unfortunately, it's not from SU. I did find it at Archivers this weekend. LOVE IT!!!

And last, but surely not least, the album. First I want to say that I do NOT like this DSP. Orange & brown are NOT snow colors. They do not invoke feelings of winter, snow, Christmas or anything else this line is supposed to convey. But, the IDEA was TOO DARN CUTE!!! So simple, so quick (everything was pre-cut) and so WOW!!! I think my mom needs one of these for the school pics of the g'kids!

Now, to work on Christmas Cards. At least to come up with a DESIGN for the cards.

Sue's SU Stamp Camp

I felt today called for alliteration. My Florissant buddy Joan guilted me into going today: she wanted to go & had no one to go w/her (the rest of the Flo entourage was otherwise engaged) and since Sue was originally MY SU Demo, I felt I had to go. Boy am I glad I did!! We made 10 projects. Some will be posted in later days. It took us 5 hours & I'm a pretty speedy stamper!! Oh what fun we had!! Sue, you ROCK!!!!

Just an FYI, my buddy Joan LOVES to stamp a "hint" on the outside of the envie. When she does, I feel I have to also!

In addition to all this fun, I WON an attendance prize. Woohoo!!! This is what I chose. I'm going to try to convince DH I need to go to Sue's Stamp a Stack next week!!

How goofy is this?

Ok, Friday was Halloween & it was Crazy Sock Day at our school. Since I work behind the counter, no one could see how crazy my socks might have been. So, I had the brilliant idea to put the sock on my head.

Since I work with elementary students, I got lots of laughs & lots of questions about WHY there were socks on my head. And more than a few people wanted to know if I was supposed to be a puppy. To be fair, I felt like Goofy, the disney dog. (Although, I really felt GOOFY too!! LOL)

Happy Halloween!!!

My kids don't ToT anymore and we don't go to the parade (hate crowds & the long wait for it to start!) and I stopped handing out candy at my house (protest for the bus loads of kids that come to my neighborhood & don't LIVE HERE!!)

But, as an ode to the holiday, I made up these cute (I think they're cute) little goodies for my co-workers. In case you can't tell, there are Cheetos in the bags.

Maybe later, I'll post a pic of what I look like going to work today. Maybe. If it even "works"

Whoa, where have I been??

Wow, it's been a LONG time since I've posted here. Since the last time, my niece, me, my brother, my MIL & my son have all aged another year, my marriage hit the 19 year mark & the entire economy has upended. Hmmm, is that my fault for not posting?? Awesome responsibility there!! Clearly, I need to get back in the habit of posting.


As a start, here are more pics of the card & album I gave to Anna. Anna has worked w/me at East Elementary since I started there 3.5 years ago! She is a fabulous worker & a super-duper nice person! I'm really going to miss her!