Consider the Lilies

Spooky Banner Class!

2012-08-23T19:04:00.000-06:00

UPDATE: I've rescheduled this class for Sunday, October 21st. Please join me!!

For the past few years I've taught a hugely popular class at a local craft store and we've made Christmas banners that say "Joy" on them. I call it the "Joy Banner Class". Everyone who sees the banners absolutely LOVES them and I get a lot of requests for that class. I'm going to do a series of seasonal banner classes and I'm SO excited about these classes! The first one will be in October and will be for Halloween. Thus the Spooky Banner Class title. Then we'll do the JOY banner in November. We'll take December off since it's always so crazy for everyone and pick back up in January with a LOVE banner for Valentine's Day. In March we'll do a spring banner (not sure yet what it's going to say - SPRING or some other "springy" word, lol!) and in May we'll do a USA banner for 4th of July. At the end, if you attend all 6 classes you'll have 6 beautiful banners to display in your home nearly year-round! Each banner will be designed a little differently, different sizes and shapes and, of course, colors. But best of all - they're completely customizable! From the papers I provide you'll get to choose your favorite and then you'll also get to choose coordinating accessories so every banner will be different and made exactly the way YOU want. The price is $20 for each banner, and if you attend 3 classes you get $5 off the third. And even better, if you bring a friend who hasn't stamped with us in the past year, you both get $5 off the class fee! So, do you want to see what the Spooky Banner looks like?

Space will be limited, so be sure to call or email me today to reserve your spot. The class is on Sunday, October 21st at 2 p.m. at my house. You can click the "Email Me" button just under my picture in the right hand column or you can RSVP by finding the event on the calendar on my demonstrator website.

If you can't live without a banner but can't make it to my class, I'll sell you a pre-cut kit with everything you need to assemble your banner at home for the same price. Just Ask!

Fitting Occasion Floral District Birthday

2012-08-21T14:51:00.000-06:00

I'm back to share another card from my Stamper's Club last month. I feel like every card I make lately uses the Floral District Designer Series Paper, but I love so many of the patterns in that paper! This one uses the fun Rose Red and Tangerine Tango floral pattern paper and another coordinating pattern in Rose Red. I added a few accents in Rose Red and Tangerine Tango from the stamp set along with some of the fabulous Silver Glimmer Paper. I can't get enough of that stuff! I think this would also be cute if you used the new 1-1/4" scalloped circle punch from the holiday mini for the silver piece. I may have to make another one to try that out. When I designed the card I didn't have that punch so we had to settle for a plain circle. boo. Anyway, hope you like it!

A Fitting Occasion	Floral District DSP	Curly Label Punch	Modern Label Punch	1-1/4" Circle Punch
1" Circle Punch	Stampin Write Markers - Brights Collection	Stampin Write Markers - Subtles Collection	Tangerine Tango Classic Stampin' Pad	Rose Red Classic Stampin' Pad
Whisper White 8-1/2X11 Card Stock	Tangerine Tango 8-1/2X11 Card Stock	8-1/2x11 Rose Red Card Stock	Silver Glimmer Paper

InLinkz.com

Natural Butterflies

2012-08-14T14:47:00.000-06:00

This is another card we made at my Stamper's Club meeting last month. I was surprised to realize when I finished this card that there is NO stamping on it. Still I love it. And I especially love the Natural Composition Specialty paper with the embossing on it. It lends such an elegance to any card. My Stamper's Club meets during the 2nd week of every month. Cost is $10 for the projects or FREE for club members and anyone who places an order of $30 or more. I'd love for you to join us!

Natural Composition Specialty DSP	First Edition Specialty DSP	Beautiful Wings Embosslit	Very Vanilla Seam Binding	Little Leaves Sizzlit
Scallop Trim Border Punch	Basic Pearls Jewel Accents	Very Vanilla 8-1/2x11 Card Stock	Old Olive 8-1/2x11 Card Stock	Wisteria Wonder 8-1/2x11 Card Stock
Elegant Eggplant 8-1/2x11 Card Stock

InLinkz.com

Laundry Room Reveal

2012-08-11T16:20:00.000-06:00

I was paging back through some of my old blog posts and was embarrassed to see that I posted pictures of my laundry room in the "before" state but never shared the "after" pictures. Here's a link back to the before post, but I warn you, it's not for the faint of heart. I do have to admit that these pictures were taken before the kids moved back in with all of their stuff, but at least you can see there is more room and places for them to PUT their stuff. But it's not always this clean. Promise. Anyway, hope you like it. I sure do!

My husband worked really hard on a lot of what we did - he moved all of the plumbing and electrical, the duct work for the dryer and drains and hook-ups for the washer, and the ceiling fan. He tore out the sub-floor and assembled and hung all of the cabinets. He also designed and installed all of the board and batten to my exacting specifications. *grin* I wanted enough hooks so that the boys can hang all of their jackets - winter, rain, windbreaker, sweatshirts, etc. - and their backpacks and swim bags so that there's no excuse for anything to be on the floor. My vision was that the top hooks would be for jackets and sweatshirts and the like and the bottom hooks would be for backpacks. So far it's about 50/50 on whether things get hung up, but I don't think it's because there isn't a place for everything. So they have no excuses.

I've included some links below to as many of the materials as I could find/remember. If you have questions, just shoot me a comment. And if you like the links, let me know that too, it's something new I'm trying and I can't wait to include the links on a crafty project. I love being able to click right over to the products if I'm curious about something I see. I hope you like that too.

We purchased all of the cabinets from IKEA. They're an engineering marvel. All of the drawers and cabinet doors have soft closure mechanisms and I want them on every drawer and cabinet in my entire home. They're awesome.

I tried to find the floor tile online, but I don't know the name of it. It's black or dark dark grey ceramic tile and I love how it turned out. Laying the floor tile is one of the few jobs we (Mike) didn't do.

I checked into matching the countertop to our kitchen but it was ridiculously expensive. Instead I was able to find a remnant that fit what we needed and was less than $500. Our kitchen has Quartz, but the laundry room counter is granite.

So, it's been finished for about 9 months and I absolutely love everything about it. I have more storage in the upper cabinets and drawers. I'm kind of a "A place for everything and everything in its place" person and this suits my OCD tendencies perfectly. Oh and the sink is *just* big enough to fit my dog, which was another requirement. Lol. He hates it in there now. Ha!

Well, thanks for stopping by and thanks to those of you who took time to leave me a comment. My club was this week and we made some super fun cards so I'll be back to share some crafty goodness soon.

Paint	Base Cabinets	Upper Cabinets	Over Refrigerator Cabinet	Sink Cabinet
Handles	Upper Hooks	Lower Hooks	Stainless Undermount Sink	Light Fixture
Granite	Kenmore Elite Dryer	Kenmore Elite HE Washer

InLinkz.com

$.99 Fabric Clearance!!

2012-08-09T16:52:00.000-06:00

Stampin' Up! announced yesterday that they're releasing some of their most popular fabric bundles on the clearance rack for $.99! Each piece is a little bigger than a typical fat quarter and you get 3 in each package, so be sure to use this opportunity to stock up on your favorites! Quantities are limited, so be sure to call or email me today with your wish list. Or you can order directly from my website!

Reason to Smile

2012-08-08T13:59:00.003-06:00

My goal when I started blogging again was to at least get my club projects up every month. If I can do that, I'm going to consider it success. I know there are a lot more prolific bloggers out there, but I need to start with baby steps. In July Stampin' Up! had a promotion where you could purchase the Reason to Smile stamp set for $5 with an order of $50 or more, so I wanted to make a card using that set. So here's the card we made:

We embossed the flower from Reason to Smile onto watercolor paper using black embossing powder and then colored in the parts of each flower with markers. Then we used the Aqua Painters to blend the ink for a water-colored look. We finished it off by stamping the sentiment from Loving Thoughts onto Crumb Cake card stock and adding some 1/2" scalloped dots ribbon.

I know it's been a while since I posted any fun crafty projects and maybe no one is even reading my blog anymore. I really do blog for myself, to keep track of fun things I make and exciting things that happen around here, but I'd love it if you would leave a comment if you stop by! I also have some fun classes in the works, so be sure to pop in again soon.

Stampin' Up! Lip Dub

2012-07-30T11:28:00.000-06:00

If my post from yesterday wasn't enough to get you excited about Stampin' Up! hopefully this video will do the trick. It's so fun and is a perfect representation of what a great company Stampin' Up! is to work for. Enjoy ~

It's Never Been Cheaper to Join the Stampin' Up! Fun!!!

2012-07-29T19:44:00.000-06:00

I came home from Stampin' Up! Convention last week so inspired that I wanted to get back to blogging. I thought about waiting until my anniversary of not blogging to start back up, but I just couldn't wait to share this post with you. I've already taken some pictures and hope to post some of the cards from my Stamper's Club meeting last month very soon.

I'm assuming that if you read my blog you either love Stampin' Up! or you love me. Lol! Hopefully some of you love both! :O) Well, for those of you who love Stampin' Up!, what if I told you that for less than $100 you could be a Demonstrator!! AND if you sign up during August, you would also receive an amazing exclusive Spooktacular Howl-O-Ween Painter's Tray Project Kit (pictured below) for FREE! This fun kit isn't offered anywhere else, so this is the only way to get your hands on one. If you sign up under me, I'll get one too and we'll make them together!!! NOTHING is better than stamping with friends!! So why would you want to be a demonstrator when you already have an amazing demonstrator - ME!!!???? Well, let me tell you . . .

Here are some of the amazing benefits Demonstrators receive:

While the $99 price tag is exciting in and of itself, one of the biggest perks of the new Starter Kit is its flexibility! If you love Stampin' Up! products, not only will you get a great deal on Starter Kit products that YOU get to choose yourself, but you'll also get a 20 percent discount on ALL Stampin' Up! products.
If you love stamping with friends, you also get FREE access to Stampin' Connection and invitations to Stampin' Up! events (like CONVENTION!)-not to mention the fantastic new friendships you'll forge and regular opportunities to get together and stamp. And members of my downline get to attend my club for half price!
If you can't get enough of the products and samples, you'll get sneak peeks and early access to new products, have access to discounted Title Benefits Bundles, Stampers' Showcase, and a FREE demonstrator magazine filled with beautiful photos and project ideas!

When I was new to stamping I was VERY tempted by the Demonstrator opportunity. But the one thing I couldn't get past was the minimum sales requirement. I kept thinking, "What if I can't do it?" "What if I don't have $300 in sales?" "What if I can't get anyone to come to my events?" "Then what will happen?" Well, you know what happens if you don't meet the sales requirement? Nothing! You go into pending for one month and you have the opportunity to make up your sales from the last quarter (plus a little from the current quarter to show you're serious) and if you don't make it, you drop. That's it. There's no "Stamping Police" who come to your house and take your stamps away. And you know what? If you drop, you can always sign up again later! And still for $99!! I was afraid to sign up because of the sales requirements, but do you know what happened? When I signed up I was excited. That excitement translated to my friends who booked parties, and I've NEVER been in pending. Not once in 8 years!

So, let's summarize the benefits of becoming a demonstrator:

$99 to become a Demonstrator.
Receive $125 in Stampin' Up! product of your choice with FREE shipping.
FREE Painter's Tray Project Kit if you sign up during August.
FREE demonstrator magazine filled with beautiful photos and project ideas.
Access to Demonstrator only events like Convention and Regional Seminars.
Access to Stampin' Connection - an exclusive Demonstrator website featuring thousands of project samples, forums, and other great resources.
No other purchases are required, but if you just can't help yourself, you'll receive 30% off your first order (placed within 45 days of your sign-up date) and 20% off every order after that.

You can run your business the way YOU want. You can sign up and never hold a party or workshop. You can order your favorite products at a 20% discount and that's it. OR you can jump in with both feet and earn money for your wish list or for your dream vacation, or anything in between. One of my favorite things about Stampin' Up! is that your business is whatever you make it! No matter what, the $99 starter kit is an amazing deal.

If you think you're interested in joining my Stampin' Up! team, email me at britineyj {at} gmail {dot} com or click here to access my Stampin' Up! Website. From there you can click "Join the Fun" to sign up between August 1st and August 31st if you want the fun Painter's Tray Kit. I'd love to help you get your Stampin' Up! business started.

Art Wall & Summer Fun

2011-08-15T14:11:00.003-06:00

I promised you all an update after I hung the wire art hangers I got from Ikea. I only got 2 packages of clips and wished I had more, but overall I'm thrilled with how it turned out. On my next trip I'll pick up a few more clips. Be sure and let me know what you think!

The kids helped me pick out their favorite pieces of art. I have all of their art folders from all of their school years, so it was fun for us to look back through them. If/when I get more clips, I'll probably add a couple more pieces of art and change things around a bit. For now, I'm happy with it, and happy that some of the kids' art is on display.

Here are a couple other things that have been keeping us busy. We took a trip to Lagoon (a small amusement park outside Salt Lake City, Utah.) The kids had fun and we survived the heat! Here are a few pictures. If you want to see anything better, just click on the picture to enlarge it.

Lagoon has a super old wooden roller coaster. The kids didn't believe us when we told them it was probably 50 years old and then we saw this poster that said it was built in 1921!!

We were planning to head home Saturday morning (it's about a 5-hour drive from Salt Lake to Boise) but my cousin got us some VIP passes to Park City, so we headed up there and had a BLAST!

The kids did the bungee-trampolines (I'm making that name up. I have no idea what they're called!) and we all did the alpine coaster and alpine slide. Mike and I also did the zip-line, but the kids didn't weigh enough. We had a terrific time up there.

A week later, I took the boys down to spend a few days with my dad and step-mom in Idaho Falls. The raspberries were on, so the boys spent some quality time with my dad in what we like to call "The Raspberry Jungle" because the canes are taller than all of them. Dad included! They also helped my dad pick all of the cherries off his little tree. I can't believe how many cherries were on that tree! We got to bring home some of the fruits of our labor. Yum!

I didn't get any pictures of the boys in the raspberries this year, but here are a couple from a few years ago to give you an idea of why we call it the "Raspberry Jungle."

And here are a few pictures of the boys picking cherries with my dad.

Grandpa gave the boys a lesson on proper cherry-picking technique. Pull up and leave the stems on!

I'll be back in a few days to share some cards.

Baby Shower Gifts

2011-08-10T12:00:00.000-06:00

My little sister had another baby in May. She's my second niece and her name is Catherine Jane. It's all I can do to not steal her every time I see her. She's delish. Here's a picture from just a couple of weeks ago. I think the only person who wants to steal her as much as I do is Mason.

Well, in preparation for my sister's baby shower, I got my craft on and made some super cute things for this little angel. Let's take a peek, shall we? Don't die from the cuteness!

I think she's already outgrown the little yellow hat, but the other two and the booties she'll have to grow into. All of these projects turned out so cute. I can't wait to see them all on her!

Another project completed

2011-08-05T15:40:00.002-06:00

Another project that has kept me busy around the house was a little "Sprucing Up" in our basement. We updated the paint and furniture for not a lot of money, but it sure made a big difference in how it looks! Check it out for yourself! Before:

Ok. Embarrassing. What a mess! It actually gets much much worse than that on a regular basis since the only time I go down there is to get into my craft room. Whew! Look away. Here's how it looks now.

Much better, although part of it is just because the garbage is picked up off the floor!! We still have a couple of small changes we're going to make down there, and this week when I was in Salt Lake I made a trip to Draper to hit IKEA. I got these and these and Mike's going to install them tonight. Then I'm going to use them to hang my kids' artwork on the walls. That should make it look even better. I'll try to remember to post an update with the art on the walls.

ETA: Click here to see an update on the Art Wall!

Our latest project is the laundry room. Here's the before:

It was driving me absolutely bonkers that I could never get through the room because of all of the coats and backpacks and shoes and laundry, so our plan is to stack up the washer and dryer and move them into the far corner on the same wall where they are now. Then put floor-to-ceiling cabinets along the wall where the washer & dryer are now. We sold the bench & cubby unit on Craig's List, tore out the floor, stripped the wall paper, and here's how it looks now.

And my husband regularly looks like this:

Progress is slow, but I have hope. As with any project, things keep coming up. Things besides the kids and swim team and camping and swim meets and summer and spring and winter and fall. Things like the fact that the only access to our crawl space is behind the cabinets in my craft room. See:

That means that any time we need to access the crawl space I have to empty out the cabinet and move everything off my desk so we can tear down the cabinet. And then when we're done in there I have to completely re-assemble my craft room. With moving the washer and dryer we're going to have to move the plumbing and electrical and knew we'd need to have easier access to the crawl space, which resulted in this:

Yes. We cut a hole in the floor of our house and moved the crawl space access to the floor of the closet in our office. It doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but it was a project the took us two days to finish. Two days of Mike in the crawl space yelling at me, and me in the office yelling down at him. Not yelling AT each other, but yelling was the only way we could hear each other! Here's how it looks now:

Well, it mostly looks like that. All of the stuff is back in the closet, so you can't see the floor, but under it all I know it looks like this. And no matter how much stuff we pile in there, it's always going to be easier to move than completely disassembling my craft room. Nice, huh? My husband is a bit of a stud muffin. I swear the man can do a.ny.thing. So, now that we have easier access to the crawl space, AND the laundry room is stripped down to bare walls and subfloor, all we need now is time. And if you think I don't have enough time for blogging, you should see where the laundry room reno is on the list. I will say that every sliver I get in my feet from the bare subfloor moves it a little further up on the list. I'll be sure to post pics when it's done, or at least as we make progress. Here's what I'm hoping for when we're done.

Maybe a little brighter, but something along those lines.

Christmas Tree Skirt

2011-08-03T12:00:00.000-06:00

I've been working on making a new Christmas Tree skirt for about the last 400 years. I got the skirt itself finished the year I started and then had brain block on how to finish the outside edge. And so it sat. And sat. And sat. For about 5 years. This year I was determined I was NOT putting up my tree until the new skirt was finished. As luck would have it, a friend of mine started working at my favorite quilting store this year. So I dropped in and pleaded for her to help me. Well, in just a few minutes she was able to get me going again and I finished my skirt and it was beautiful under my tree this year. Here's how it turned out.

Posh Pillowcases

2011-07-29T12:00:00.000-06:00

I think the thing that got me so excited to make display samples this year was that I did a LOT of sewing, crochet, and general crafting for Christmas gifts last year. Although I realize it's almost time to start thinking about Christmas for this year, maybe that means its a good time to give you some ideas you could start on now. I'm going to show you some of the projects I made last year for gifts.

The first project was pillowcases. I saw these fancy pillow cases online and made a BUNCH for gifts for all my family this year. Hope you like them.

Convention Displays - Spice Cake

2011-07-26T12:00:00.000-06:00

Here are the display items I made for the Convention display boards using the new Spice Cake fabric from the upcoming Holiday Mini Catalog. I think this was my favorite fabric! The first project is an apron.

I used the Big Shot Fabric Adhesive roll and the Tasteful Trim die to add the ric-rack accent to the pocket.

Here's how it looks on.

I also made matching pot holders and dish towels.

This whole set of projects turned out so darling. Well, I hope you've enjoyed a peek at my projects. These are the last of my Convention display samples. Hopefully I can stay on this roll and keep posting, but I'm not making any promises! If you stop by, please leave a comment! I'd love to know you were here.

Convention Displays - Holly Berry Bouquet

2011-07-25T12:00:00.017-06:00

Here are some pictures of the Convention display samples I made using the new Holly Berry Bouquet fabric from the upcoming Holiday Mini Catalog. This fabric is so beautiful and I was overwhelmed with the possibilities of what I could make. I finally decided to make a Christmas table runner and it turned out so beautifully! Here's the full table runner. It was about 45" long. Hopefully you can see that I quilted it.

Here's a close-up of the details and the quilting. The center section was left un-quilted.

And here it is on display at convention. The folded it up, so it looked more like a placemat.

Convention Displays - Beau Chateau

2011-07-24T12:00:00.015-06:00

Here are the pictures of my Convention display samples with the Beau Chateau fabrics. I think this was my favorite sample and the one I'm saddest that I won't get back! I guess that just means I'll have to make another one to keep. Along with my elephant and craft tote. And all the other projects!!

This project is a reversible purse. I absolutely loved how it turned out. I used the rooster fabric on one side and the blue fabric with the floral pattern from the Elements of Style stamp set on the other side. On the rooster side of the bag I made two fabric yo-yos for the closure as you can see in the next picture.

Here it is on the display board at convention. It's on the bottom right.

Convention Displays - Deck the Halls

2011-07-23T12:00:00.000-06:00

Here are the pictures of my Convention display samples using the Deck the Halls fabrics. I made a "Merry Christmas" banner using the new Perfect Pennants die.

I cut the large and small pennants from two of the fabrics and the medium pennant from muslin. Then I layered them and attached it to twill tape by stitching along the top. For the letters, I didn't have any fabric that was close to Cherry Cobbler color, so I ironed the Big Shot Adhesive Roll material onto a strip of Cherry Cobbler card stock and then cut the letters out with my Billboard Alphabet die and Big Shot. Then I ironed the letters onto the pennants. Worked like a charm and it turned out super cute! I stitched a jingle bell onto the point of each pennant and tied it with Artichoke Seam Binding.

Here it is on display at Convention:

Another Elephant and Craft Tote

2011-07-22T12:00:00.000-06:00

After I hit "publish" on yesterday's post I was wondering if I ever showed you the other elephant and craft tote I made last year. My BFF's birthday is usually around convention (it was Tuesday this week!) and last year I took these to convention with me to give her as a birthday gift. These are identical to what I showed yesterday, but with different fabrics. Of course, right AFTER I gave these to her, SU! announced they were going to start carrying fabric, which means hers aren't made from SU! fabrics.

Convention Displays - Sweet Stitches

2011-07-21T12:00:00.000-06:00

Here are the projects I made for the Convention display boards using the Sweet Stitches fabrics. My first project was an elephant pincushion. He's SOOO cute!!

I also made a matching craft tote. I love these! Of course I don't have an elephant or a craft tote. What is it they say about the cobbler's kids?

And here they are on display at convention. Sadly, my elephant was falling through the wire shelf! I wanted so badly to rescue him.

Convention Displays - Candy Cane Christmas & Springtime Vintage

2011-07-20T12:00:00.000-06:00

Here are the pictures of the Convention display samples I made using the Candy Cane Christmas and Springtime Vintage fabrics. I'm combining these two fabrics since the projects were on the same board at Convention. First, Candy Cane Christmas fabric buckets:

I used the Fabric Adhesive Roll to cut out the butterflies and letters with my Big Shot and then ironed them onto the projects before assembling them. The fabric adhesive roll is super versatile and makes it easy to add fun accents to your projects.

For this project I used some frames I had on hand and my dear, sweet, helpful, darling husband painted them white for me. Then I put the fabric in the frames behind the glass, along with some die-cut letters in coordinating colors. Then you can use a dry-erase marker or water-soluble marker to write on the glass like a dry-erase board. These would be darling in someone's craft room!

And here are the projects on display at Convention. The buckets are at the bottom on the left and the memo boards are on the top shelf.

Convention Displays - Flirtatious

2011-07-19T12:00:00.001-06:00

Here's the project I made for the convention display boards using the Flirtatious fabric.

I made this cute top for the display boards, but when I got to convention it wasn't on display. I was disappointed because I thought it turned out so darling! I happened to mention it to the gal who coordinated the displays this year and she told me to check in the VIP lounge. Well, sure enough! It was there. I'm sorry not everyone at convention got to see it, but here's a picture of it on display:

Hope you like it!

Stampin' Up! Convention Display Samples

2011-07-18T11:17:00.000-06:00

I got SO much flack at Convention this week about the fact that my blog still had pictures from Thanksgiving! Ok! Enough already, people! My life is BUSY!! Although I regularly take pictures with the intention of posting them here, life gets in the way and then 6 months have gone by.

Anyhoo. I do want to share with you some exciting news. For those of you who don't know, I was selected by Stampin' Up! to create display samples for convention this year. At Stampin' Up! Regionals in Boise this year, I approached Donna Griffith (from SU!) and told her I'd be willing to create some sewing samples if they needed any help. She took my business card and I got an email from SU! the next week asking me for some pictures of sewing projects I've done. I sent them some pictures and they asked me to do samples! Woo Hoo! So over the next week or two I'll post a different sample every day. I got to make samples with ALL of the fabric, so I think there are about 15 samples. I'll group them by fabric type so I don't keep you waiting quite so long. I'm certain the anticipation is killing you. Right? And since I just got back from convention, I'll include pictures of my projects on the display boards.

The first samples I'm going to share use the Timeless Portrait fabric. I made a reversible vest and matching bow tie and a party dress.

And here they are on display at convention! It makes me so happy to see my stuff on display. It's all I can do not to stand there and point out my projects to everyone! He he he he. People get annoyed when I do that. Go figure.

I hope you liked these projects. I'll be back tomorrow to show you the next set.

Thanksgiving Break

2011-01-09T12:00:00.011-07:00

In an effort to cut costs, the school district increased the kids' Thanksgiving Break from 2 1/2 days to 5 days this year. That meant we had a full week and two weekends to hang out, so we hit the road and drove to Pocatello, ID, to visit my in-laws. Oh yes. We know how to live it up! We left on Friday before Thanksgiving when the kids got out of school. We had nice dry roads on the way down, but the next day we woke up to this:

It was a winter wonderland and it snowed all day on Saturday. The kids spent a little time playing in it, but we weren't really prepared for so much snow and I didn't think to bring their snow pants, so they got really wet. And cold. Thankfully we did have gloves and hats.

As you can see, I was unwilling to leave the comfort of the house to get any real pictures of them in the snow. I'm not crazy after all. :O)

There's only so much entertainment to be gleaned from a snowstorm when you have no snow pants, so we loaded everyone up and hit the local kid-haunt. I can't remember the name of the place, but it was similar to Wahooz in Boise. The kids played arcade games and miniature golf and then cashed in their tickets for a pile of junk that we got to haul home. Fun times.

They did have fun though and it did get them and us out of the house for a few hours. All in all, I count it as a successful day. The next day was Sunday and the forecast was for more snow, but we had to get home so Mike could be to work on Monday. Here's how things looked on the way home.

Not great. We white knuckled it home and arrived safely, but it took a little longer than normal. As I'm sure you can imagine.

We've had such a strange Fall this year. The weather got so cold so fast that the trees didn't drop their leaves. So the next day this is what our yard looked like. We still had a LOT of leaves to rake, IF they'd ever drop off the trees!!

I absolutely love this tree and the color it provides in the Fall. I was afraid some of the branches would break off from the weight of the snow and the leaves. I'm somewhat happy to report that at press time all of the leaves are finally off the tree and the city was nice enough to pick them up with the Christmas trees this year (since we completely missed the curbside leaf pick up this year). We weren't the only ones with New Year's leaf bags. We had 3 or 4 bags of leaves to put out this week but I think our neighbors had 8 or 10! This wasn't the only excitement in the Slaughter House over Thanksgiving Break. I'll be back with more of the breath-taking play by play soon. Promise.

Christmas Bulb Wreath

2011-01-07T12:00:00.002-07:00

I'm pretty sure that all of these Christmas Idea posts would have been much more helpful to all of you before Christmas. You'll just have to bookmark them and pull them out in September! :O) I'm going to just go ahead and admit right here on the internet that I read WAY too many blogs. I think I like looking for inspiration more than I like using that inspiration to do fun things. Call me crazy. Anyway, I almost always use the inspiring blogs I read as a jumping off point for things I do. Call me lazy. So I when I say in every blog post that I found the idea on someone's blog, you can bet your bottom dollar it's true. And you can even know that even if I don't say that, I still probably found it on someone's blog. It's just the way it is. Well, I first saw this idea here. Then I saw it here. And they both saw it here. After a while, resistance was futile. So I started with these ornaments.

I got them at Target for $15 for all of them. They're plastic, which is nice, except I think the tops on the plastic ones break easier than the metal tops on the glass bulbs. I may have to try a wreath with glass bulbs and see if it's easier. Although the plastic tops are on pretty tight, I did follow the directions and put a dab of hot glue on each one, just to be sure. The issues I had weren't with the tops popping off the bulbs, it was more with the plastic tops breaking where the wire went through. It wasn't a huge deal. I'd just hot glue the bulbs back where I wanted them and they were fine. Anyway, here's the end result.

I loved that some of the bulbs had glitter on them and some of the smaller ones had glitter dots and stripes on them. Doesn't it look cute on my craft room floor? Because I can't believe I didn't get one single picture of it up in my house! Ack! I'll have to take a picture next year since it's all packed away till next year. When I went back and looked at the inspiration wreaths again I love love love the ones with the muted tones and pink in them. I'll have to keep an eye out for some ornaments in those colors. It's hard to find something amazing that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I did tie a big red bow on the top of mine and I just used the hanger hook to hang it from. DH put a nail in the top of the molding above the window in the kitchen and it hung nicely from the hanger hook.

When I was in the process of finishing up my wreath, I had to take a break to work on this:

Isn't he adorable!?! As part of the curriculum in 3rd grade, the kids do a lesson on immigration. As part of that lesson, they have to research their heritage and make a clothespin figure to represent someone from their family. Then they give their little person a name and write a story about how they came to America. Mason decided to do his project on our American Indian heritage and so we worked on this little Indian man. I think he called him Straight Arrow or something equally adorable. I "helped" Mason make his clothes, headdress, bow and little quiver full of arrows. It was a fun project and Mason was so proud of how he turned out!

All of the little people were on display in the classroom for a week or two. Some of the stories were so touching. One little girl who was adopted from China made the most beautiful doll and her story made me cry. It was a great lesson for all of them to learn about where everyone came from. At the end of the week they wrap things up with an immigration simulation. They have to pretend they're on a boat in steerage and eat dry crackers as they sail to Ellis Island. At the end some of them are too "sick" with fake diseases to be admitted to the US. The teachers are careful to choose kids who won't be too upset by the disappointment, but it's a good lesson for all of the kids and they have a blast.

Christmas Planner

2011-01-05T12:00:00.004-07:00

A while back I saw a project someone had done and I just couldn't stop thinking about it. I'm a bit of a planner/listmaker/organizer type and my mind was just spinning with all of the possibilities. So here's what I came up with.

I basically followed the instructions from the site where I got the idea. I used some old Basic Grey paper that I've been ~~hoarding~~ saving for something special. I really liked the bird on the front cover, but then it ended up getting covered up by the circles. I sponged all of the edges of the paper with Basic Black classic ink and I tied a black grosgrain ribbon around the spine. The inspiration site recommended tying the book shut to protect it from curious little eyes. I didn't want the tie to smash the labels on the edge, so I used threats instead.

I basically told the kids that if they looked in my planner, Santa wouldn't come. That was enough to keep prying eyes away. :O) The tabs I used are Lists, Calendar, Cards, Menu, To Do, and Gifts. I had two extra tabs. I may end up using those for lists because my Lists section almost filled up this year. It's a sickness. The tabs are just scraps of the same patterned paper that I punched out with a 1 1/4" square punch and then folded in half. I stapled them onto 3 sheets of paper so they'd be less likely to tear and I left 10 pages between each tab.

I also put manilla envelopes inside the front and back covers for receipts and coupons. I didn't put the year on the front of mine. That way I can use it for several years. I'm not sure where I'm going to keep this, but I do know that I'll probably use it to jot down gift ideas all year long. It got a LOT of use in the past couple of months!