Wednesday - Coupons, sales, work outs.

Wow has it been a crazy week. I started the work outs, have only lost about 3 pounds so far, weigh in again tomorrow. However, I am so totally sore I can hardly move. Am also having a little bit of a physical problem as well.

Not much happening on the craft front. Just haven't had the drive to do anything lately. I know it will come back soon though. My mom's place has this activity called "Chat & Do" a couple of times a month or so. In other words they do a lot of chatting and a little doing. The current project is a scrapbook to put in the reception area of the assisted living building. I got excited about this, thought this was something I could help with. My mind started thinking I could take my punches, Cricut, Sizzix, cutters and such to work on some pages. Well...that went poof, mom told me that they were cutting pictures out of magazines and pasting them to pages. In her words, "a whole lot of nothing" going on. To me it seems a little like grade school activities. I know that theses women have limited physical abilities, but it just seems that there should be more that could be offered to them. Since I have known them, the projects have been: decorations for their dining table, paper place mats, little frames from Popsicle sticks, the usual cut and color kids crafts. The one thing that was kind of interested that I heard about was some beaded holders that clip a napkin on much like a bib. I really wish there was something I could do, some idea to come up with, to help the ladies make something. Wonder if they have ever thought about making cards. I do know that a few of the women crochet, knit and sew for charity causes. Wonder if it would be to pushy to talk to the leader and suggest making cards to send to soldiers or vet homes.

Tonight, on TLC, we watched shows about extreme couponing. I would love to be able to walk in to the grocery store and buy $1,000 worth of groceries for $5.94 but I can tell you that for this area of the country it just isn't possible. Here is why.

1. The couponers in the show all mentioned that they has several sources for coupons. One lady dumpster dove for the coupon inserts. There is no place in this town that I would legally be allowed to go through the dumpsters. I could tell from the show that the lady was at a recycle spot, but the only recycle places we have are for profit so no one is allowed to take anything. Besides, they are not for paper any way.

2. Another person on the show buys extra papers for the coupons. Suggested one for each member of the household. Okay, that at least makes sense, except for one problem. Our local newspaper only puts the coupons in the subscription papers. The ones available to purchase at the store or in the machines never have the coupons in them. One of the narrator's comments was that one shopper purchased coupons from a clipping service for about $70 a month. THAT LITTLE POINT was not made, nor factored in to the ending total of what she bought. If you have a favorite web site for free coupons, let me know.

3. The next tip mentioned was to use store coupons which double and triple the value of the coupon. Not one store in this town will double much less triple the value of coupons. I do not understand how the one couponer was able to use her preferred customer card to double her coupons at Albertson's, we do have an Albertson's but that just never happens here, I have asked about it. Also mentioned was Kroger's and Safeway, which we don't have any of those stores either. Now shopping the loss leaders I understand, just would love to double a coupon from time to time at least.

4. Insane quantities these people bought. Just because I have a coupon for does not mean I need to buy it. I mean really, 154 candy bars, 1,500 deodorants, 100 cups of yogurts. Half of their house is used for housing their "products". Most have a supply that is equal to 2 or 3 years for their respective families. I don't know about you, but I am thinking WHY? Really, they do this every week, so you know that they are not using up their "products" as fast as they are bringing them in. Don't know about you, but I do not want to pop open a 2 year old yogurt cup. Looking at the stash of "products" the only thing I can think of is organized hoarding. The other thing that I noticed about this show, I guarantee you my local grocery store - even the warehouse type - is not going to 218 boxes of the same kind of pasta or 73 bottles of mustard on the shelf.

Also, I have never come across a coupon for produce, meat, or milk. In fact, most stores will exclude milk on most frequent buyer programs.

There was one shopper on the show that made total sense about it all. She has a family of 6 - three of which are teen age boys, something I am very experienced with having two of my own. She planned out the meals for a month. Checked the sale circulars for the loss leaders (that is the items that are really reduced, will actually be a loss for the store, with the purpose of bringing you in to the store and there by hoping that you will buy more) making the menus for the month based on these sales when possible. She made a list, bought only what she needed for the month's meals, checked the clearance bin for some extra savings, and she was done. Now, to me this makes total sense and is at least a realistic approach. One which I intend to get back to using. It really does work to cut your spending when you utilize this approach to it's fullest. It takes a bit of work to get it started, but once you get it going it becomes easier financially to take advantage of the loss leaders by stocking up on them when they hit. Sales run in cycles, have noticed that at the craft stores as well. So, if pasta is on sale this week, in another three or four months it will be back on sale. Unless you are going to eat pasta every meal for 90 to 95 days in a row, why bother. Of course, my view of this may be a bit jaded as I am in a constant battle with pantry weevils. They look like small maggots when they are in the larvae stage and eat through everything. They then turn in to small brown moths, which lay eggs that seem to melt in to every box and bag because I find them in my crackers, chips, pasta, rice, cake mixes, even in the Jello. Basically anything that is not in a hard plastic, glass, or metal container. I have a hard enough time keeping them out of a pantry of about 1 1/2 to 2 month supply, no way I am putting in a 2 year supply.

Okay, I am stopping there. Need to make sure I don't get started on any other soap boxes, at least not when I am this tired. Thanks for stopping by and come back again.

I have tried five times to get my response to the point in color. Everytime I get it looking like I want, as soon as I click publish, the color disappears.

New Stamps

So...I went on a little spending spree. OKAY...a big spending spree. Really I spent too much at one time and am feeling a tad bit guilty about it. But, I am determined to make up for it, and of course I am the only one that knows I did this. LOL I hit some great sales though, so it was justified and I didn't buy anything that I didn't really need.

I bought some great new stamps. At least great for me. Still not exactly what I am looking for, but definitely a lot more usable than past choices. I am thinking that maybe I should try and unload some of my "poor choice" buys on Ebay, but part of me is positive that I will absolutely need what I get rid of two weeks after I do. Most of the stamps are all great for collage projects, but are great sizes for cards or ATC's. For some reason I am really hooked on vintage and collage style, so of course that is what I lean toward these days.

This card is another collage style card. The card is a green background, the next layer is a paper that I just fell in love with because of the colors and print design. I bought it for the opposite which is purple nautilus shells. Now why I wanted purple shells, no idea. Maybe needed purple for something and just picked up a few colors of purple, seem to remember a project with purple, at any rate, I turned it over and found the treasure of the other side. Kind of a vintage form of long hand script but with corral and jelly fish printed over it. Now I wish I had a few more sheets. Why can't I learn to buy more than one sheet of a design? At any rate, this is the card that came to be.

I stamped the image on one of the sheets I made from the alcohol inks. This particular sheet was one made by adding blending solution to clean the pad a bit. Kind of crazy, I figured with all the darker colors that totally blending them together would have mad a mud or brown color instead of the really interesting yellow and cream tones. I finished it off with a black frame from my Cricut then added some dimensional stickers that co-ordinate with a totally different paper stack and a little ribbon know that was ribbon I found in the clearance bin on this last spending spree.

I really like the end result, will have to do this a little more.

I have a couple of things I need to finish up for a swap and get them in the mail. Then I need to take a couple of days to do some housework around here. I think I will also do a little re-arranging in my craft room. I need to make a little more arm room and see if I can make things move a little easier. I don't really mind having to go up and down a step stool so often to get to things, figure at least it is a little exercise. But the constant moving around the room back and forth is just not working. I need to find a better set up for my computer so I can get it off the desk I use for my projects. That is the worst of the mess at the moment. I spread out the papers and cutter or stamps and ink, am working on something then inevitably need to pull up something on my computer so I have to move everything aside and make room for the laptop then move it out of the way to get back to the papers, well you get the idea.

The weather today is so gorgeous. I have the doors open, a window open and sunshine. In fact, it is so nice that I decided to cook supper outside. Albertson's has whole chickens on sale really cheap, so I bought a few. I am thinking beer but chicken for supper. Another grocery had red potatoes on sale so bought a few and will season them and bake them in the oven, or maybe put them on the grill with the chicken. I wanted to make a salad, but at 1.99 a head for lettuce, that will have to wait. Wow, the sign at the store stated a "severe shortage" on lettuce due to a freeze that destroyed crops. Stupid global warming.

Thanks for stopping by.

Friday Night

The sound of the rain coming down is soothing for a change. I am sure tomorrow is going to be mess weather wise. They are expecting snow down to 1,000 feet which is very rare for here even in dead winter. It also means that more than likely the roads out of town will be closed a while. It doesn't snow here in town, like ever, so for them to even forecast a chance of it is all the talk. At any rate, it is just pouring down. I think rain is still a hard concept for me since moving here. We moved here from West Texas and when it rained, you had drops of water or sheets of water pouring down. Now granted, it might not be raining across the street, I have watched it pour in the front yard and leave the back yard dry. But it was still rain drops. We moved to California and here the rains are more like a heavy mist. No true drops, is a little damp, but not much more. I mean really, is it truly rain if you can't hear it on the roof or against the window? I think not.

I really got on a roll the last couple of days. Where do I begin? My little craft room is half straightened so many papers, ribbons, glues, you know. I got the Cricut carts put back in their place, the Cricut up on the shelf and decided to post on the old blog spot. I have made 3 cards for one group's swap, 4 cards for another group's swap (still need to make one more for that set) and also made a replacement card for one of the group's hostess that was in need of some. It is a card called "Never Ending Card" and is just the coolest thing. I am sure you all already know about these, but go check it out if you aren't. I had never made one so was really fussing over the final card because I wanted to make sure of the quality before sending it out. But, I did good with it.

Here is the side story to that. We have two local scrapbook stores in town. The one I usually go to is literally only blocks from my house. That is where I have attended some classes and to buy the more specialty items that the general craft stores may not have. It is also the home of the classes I have been a bit ...put out with...lately. So, since I was headed to that side of town anyway, I thought I would just pop in that store and give the place a look over. First impression is the difference between Macy's and Walmart. Only the prices weren't much different. The staff was quite friendly as was one of the owners that was in the store putting an order together. Got started talking and she asked what my current project was, I told her about the card and that I had not made one before. She asked to see it, I showed it to her and next thing I know she was asking for my name and phone number to see if might be interested in teaching it to a class. OH MY GOSH! Guess the card is good to go at any rate. Now, I don't know if she will ever call me, but just the thought is pretty awesome for me. I did notice, that they must have the same phobia about handouts as the other store. There were signs up asking us to please not take photos of the class samples. I just don't understand this mentality that the directions are not meant to be shared. REALLY NOW, do you think that your little project is so special and only thought up by you? I may try one of their classes just to have some idea of how a different class would be held. I was overwhelmed by the amount of papers and flowers this store carries, disappointed in the amount of stamps and products. She carries no Flower Soft at all, I took her last paper distress tool, her last set of small sanders, and she is ordering some water pens so I can buy one. They are very pricey so may have to wait a bit on that. Sure wish I could find them somewhere cheaper.

At any rate, like I said, I only have one more card to make and my March swaps are good to go as soon as the name for our swap partners are listed. The next card to make is another new technique, but will get to use a rubber stamp. I also need to go through my stash and find ten stamps that will give great stamped images to swap as well. Ten different stamps that is. I am up for the challenge though. I just pulled a bunch of acrylic butterfly stamps out of the dollar bin at Michael's. Also got some rather unique shoe images that I feel could be really fun to use as well. Even a purse to go with them. LOL Next week, I have cleaning and sorting all over the house to do, will have to take a little break from the papers and do a little laundry. I need to better sort my punches and do some playing with them. Don't won't them to have any hurt feelings, I know they are already feeling very left out.

I don't want to post the photos of the cards just yet, but will as soon as the partners have been announced and will know which one is going where. So, check back for the photos to come.

No More Classes

Yesterday was total disappointment. The class was just not what I had expected and feel like I just wasted money. Here's my thinking. When you pay for a class you are paying for the materials, the teacher and learning a new technique. The shop gave me a list of things to bring, like adhesives, heat set tool, cutters, pen and paper. The session was supposed to be from 10 - 1. I ended up leaving early, had just had enough. I will, in the future, be a little more thoughtful before choosing to take a class.

For this class, here is my opinion of what I got.

This is the single image I ended up with for a project. I used chalk technique for coloring it in. I have a piece of pink card stock that was given to us to make a card. I used my chalks, so, I spent $22 for the use of one rubber stamp, one piece of card stock, and one small set of acrylic stamps. They are button shaped. That is it.

I admit, that this is the third stamping of the image, the first one she had us color all in the same colors, in other words no shading or blending, to show us how flat it looked. I KNOW THAT, why do you think I am taking the class. Then she had us stamp a second image to practice the shading. I would really like to figure out how to use markers and blend them, but that was not part of this class. Then the third image was stamped and we used our new blending knowledge to make the image for our card. Great, I learned that chalks and colored pencils can be erased. She was amazed that my watercolor attempt made the paper soggy. DA? Water and card stock?

I should also back up and tell you that the first hour of the class was spent making a color wheel and her going on about the technical aspects of the colors, their hue, their tint, their properties, then telling us that she was getting too technical and too deep for us at this point. DO YOU THINK she could have decided that about thirty minutes earlier?

Well, you get the point. I am now more confused than ever about shading and blending. Everyone I have seen doing these techniques has always stated to do the lightest colors first, but she told us to color in the darkest areas first. So, I will go back to spending time watching the tutorials on You Tube and Splitcoaststampers. There are a few more forums, if you go to any for ideas and techniques please leave me the link in a comment so I can try them out too.

Now, on to more positive things. I posted earlier about the card making class. Here is what I made in that class.

I really enjoyed this last card as I love the watercolor effect. However, if you read my previous post, this is the card that she let us use a set of watercolors for the flowers that is no longer available to purchase. Why showcase or teach a product that we cannot buy and use again? I don't know, but at any rate, that is about how this teacher goes. Here is another example of how this class goes. She gave us these two cutouts of an apron.

She did have this done as an example, but she had done it as an invitation for tasting party. She gave us a brief run down on how she used the computer to print the info and then cut the apron afterwards, telling us to just take them and do what we want with them. By the way, the aprons were done with the Cricut and the Kitchen cart.

I went to Michael's yesterday and really hit on a tremendous sale. I finally found the "Woodless Colour Pencils" that were used in the demo for the "Black Velvet" technique. They have all their art pencils, pens, and paints on sale as well as canvas and drawing pads. I am going to go back today and see about some more water colour sets. I saw yesterday some water colour crayons that I want to check in to a little more. I think those would be great for making backgrounds. I also want to check in to some type of color that I can apply to give a pearl like finish.

Now, you decide. "Card Making" class, $15 and two hours, all materials are furnished, come home with 5 cards. I do believe that is a much better bang for my buck. Of course, it is always the same techniques. One water colour, one embossed, one distressed, one die cut, and one that is kind of a mix. At least this month's class had only one holiday themed card, in January every card was hearts and love. I joined some more swaps, so when the theme fits I will use some of these cards for that. I have a list of about 10 cards I want to make so will busy with that this week. I can't wait to play with the Black Velvet technique, alcohol inks, and some more water colour projects.

My cake decorating class is over. The next class is flower making, then gum paste. However, this current class was cancelled mid session and will be made up in May so I will wait until then to see about taking the flower classes, but at the moment am just not inclined to further invest in that hobby. I mean really, my goal is met, I learned enough to decorate for a family cake. You really need to just practice, like anything else, and honestly there isn't a one of us in this family needs the practice projects sitting around the house to eat.

Wow, with this laptop I got a love that "control + z" to recover lost text I am writing. I guess I am touching the mouse pad that is built in to the laptop as I will be just typing away and suddenly be on a totally different place in the page and deleted half of what I just typed. Unfortunately, it only works with what is written between automatic saves.

I need to check my mail, go to the grocery store, and make out my menu plan for this week at least. It really does work so much better to know what is going to be made. It also helps me to manage my time a little better as well. I am going to try and take advantage of the gadgets I have accumulated such as the pressure cooker and slow cooker to save time so I can keep working on my projects while I try to remember to keep some laundry going. The laundry doesn't win most of the time.

Check back in as I post my progress. Feel free to leave a comment, I love knowing that someone has read this.

Midweek Wednesday

Well the week is half over. It has been a bit crazy. Nothing unusual, but thought I should show a few things off. Last post I showed some cards I had made. It ended up that the one I made for "Travel" was actually the one I made for the "Free" swap. At least that worked out since the Free could be any technique and anything design I wanted to make.

This is the card I had made for the "Free" swap. Used the Cricut. Since I still had the Cricut out and set up when I realized my mess up with the cards. Since I needed a "travel" card, I came up with this idea when looking through my stash of papers I saw the atlas map.

I think it is pretty good. I just hope that people I swap with aren't disappointed. I have gotten two of the three swaps I joined. Really wonderful cards.

Here they are.

This is the "Free" swap I received from Carol. Blue is my favorite color, all shades of blue, I just like blue. It is a very nice card and I am so happy to have it.

This is the "travel" swap I received from Betty. It is really amazing and creative. I only wish the scan showed the details closer. The image is actually like four cut in different ways and to make the car dimensional.

Now, in the March swap, the technique is called Black Velvet. You can see the technique demo here. Her card looks amazing, and the technique is pretty easy, the only problem I have had with trying it was finding all the supplies. I was unable to find the low odor solvent calls Sansodor but on some message boards it was discussed that a few other solvents could be used. I bought some stuff called Turpenoid which is the least hazardous according to the web anyway. The other problem I had was with finding coloured pencils. I did not want to spend $30 to buy pencils to try out a technique I didn't know if I would even like, or be able to do. At any rate, there were several different types of coloured pencils, pastel pencils, watercolour pencils, it is very confusing. I did know that somewhere I read or heard to make sure that I didn't use the colored pencils that are bought for kids to use in school. I have to admit, I tried some crayola brand colored pencils because there were a lot more colors and I already had them. The coloring part went pretty well, except for using half a pencil for one rose, not being able to sharpen them very well and I kept breaking the lead. Only on certain colors though. Not sure if it was the way I was coloring or if it was the solvent making it too soft. At any rate I bought some pencils from Michael's which held up much better. However, on the video her box clearly states that they are woodless coloured pencils. That is not what was available at Michael's. I have no idea what woodless pencils are. Finally, you are supposed to spray a fixative to the final project. My stamping of the roses looked awesome until I sprayed it. After it sputtered on, leaving splotches, I took a second look at the can and found out I had bought spray adhesive, not fixative. About the stamping, the demo suggest using large stamps with a simple design. That is what I looked for when choosing my stamps. However, I had one stamp of lady laying in some flowers that I figured would be too detailed but was very surprised at how wonderful it came out. Here are my efforts from today at learning this technique.

This is the first one. When I sprayed it, the red in the roses disappeared. Really weird there. Also, the pink rose turned streaky.

These are two I did using the same stamp. It is the same technique, except that I decided to see what a little Perfect Pearls by Ranger would look like. That would be the one on top. I think she looks kind of neat in a vintage kind of way. Actually she kind of reminds me of one of the women on the show Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, takes place during early Rome or gladiator years. I am so hooked on that show. I scanned them together, but they are actually two separate pieces.

I did these flowers and am still undecided about them. Strange thing is they look totally different now than they did when I worked them this morning. I need to learn to color the way the lady doing the demo does. Her flowers look like flowers, not like a crayon box threw up.

I came across this stamp and thought it had some promise. I really like the way it turned out. I will have to go to Michael's next week and buy a bigger set of pencils, I bought the one that has like 12 and the colors are very limited so now I will go for a bigger assortment. I REALLY need variety. Especially with this technique because there are quite a few colors that just do not show up on black. I also learned that I need a better pencil sharpener.

Today I got to go to the doctor with my daughter-in-law, all I can say is WOW has ultrasound come a long way. It was so incredible to sit and watch the little baby just bouncing around. Literally, bouncing around. Looked like it was pushing off the bottom and then floating back down, then doing it all again. Truly was affirmation that God is awesome and in charge.

Tomorrow is another class I am taking at the local scrapbooking store. It is a class for card making. Actually it more like a club, there is a class each month, she gives you a card to make using 5 different techniques. I like taking the class to learn and practice new and different techniques. It makes me complete something at any rate.

Now, hubby wants to head out camping for the week end. While I would really like to play on my quad again, we are under a winter storm watch. Where we plan to go is in the dessert, we will be fine no matter what the weather so not really worried about that, but we have to go over a set of mountains to get there and back home, which will close if they get the snow they are expecting. Plus my youngest daughter J. is going out of town with the church youth and I really hate being out of touch while she is out of town.

Thanks for dropping by and check back in to see more projects as I finish them.

Lost Post

Well, I lost some postings it would seem. I know I posted after the 5th. Leave it to me to do that. Well, to show you what I have been up to I will just post all the photos and go from there.

This is from the class I took. Ink Boot Camp. We made a page for each of the techniques she showed up. Jenn Starr was wonderful and I actually had a great time and learned a lot.

This is the Distressed and Spritz techniques.

This is done with pigment inks.

This is the alcohol technique done on glossy or photo paper. I think it is my favorite from the class. I made the mottled background. I also went and picked out five colors to start with and all that goes with it. I already have several ideas for cards and such using this method along with some other mediums.

I am involved in my first card swap with a an internet group. The group is Card Crafts on Yahoo. They are a great group with great ideas. Some one on the group had posted about this video for making a pop up card with balloons. You can go here to see it. I used her idea and came up with this card for a "Travel" themed card.
The front is done with chipboard and ribbon sayings and a stamped image I colored and cut out then attached with foam dots for a dimensional look. The person this card is going to likes to visit California and Disneyland. I was really happy to find the paper with a palm tree image to use for this.

The inside is done with a Mickey Mouse punch to make balloons and with a small font I stamped the word Mickey on the balloons. A sheet of Disney paper had a border so I trimmed it off and used it for the bottom of the balloons. I used an acetate sheet to make the sticks of the balloon, but I think my sheet was way thicker than it needed to be. I know, I will be making some more of these, they are just too fun.

This is a view from the side to show the pop up effect a little more.











The theme for the next card is "Letter B". The card has to have an animal, flower, food or color to represent the letter. I think I accomplished it.





I used my Cricut cutter for this one. The pop up spring is made by punching a circle then cutting it in a spiral. I used my School Book Plantin cartridge to cut the circle so I could make it the correct size. The letters on the front and the word on the inside was done with the Lovely Floral cartridge. I cut the butterflies for the pop up out of some printed paper I had. I will make this type of card again, but will cut the spiral a little tighter and will pay a little more attention to the positioning of the start of the spiral. I have one more card to make for the swap, it is a free theme, so can do what ever I want. I bought some Flower Soft stuff to try making a card with a tree on it. Will see how that goes this afternoon.

Well that is all for now. I am off to have lunch with my mom. Today is my birthday and she is taking me out. The local quilt shop sent me a newsletter that showed some new fabric they got in that has little cakes all over it. Just can't pass it up and will get a little bit to make an apron for my cake class out of it. I have been sick so didn't make the class this week, I put the cake layers in the freezer until I am ready to work on them. Next week I have to take cupcakes.

Tomorrow is bowling and now that my new eyes finally got here am hoping that I will be able to see the arrows better. Maybe bowl a better game. Although, if I can just bowl as well as I did Saturday I will be happy. Hubby is off tomorrow so maybe he will go with me.

Thanks for stopping in and drop in anytime.

Ready to Rest

I am so ready for a rest...just can't get it.

First, the cake decorating saga. For my Wilton Basic Cake Decorating class I made a practice cake this week. Lemon cake with raspberry filling. My drop flowers were just awful, my roses show a little bit of promise and with practice may get those figured out, the leaves were pretty decent, but my scroll/squiggle was dead on. Over all, think it turned out pretty well.

For Lesson 2 I have to make another cake and ice it to take to class Tuesday where we will decorate it. Going to learn to use piping gel to transfer a pattern to the cake. A cupcake design will be on the top of the cake. The last thing we need around this house is a flood of cakes sitting around. So...this flower cake (and let me mention that we have not had the class on flowers yet) went to the Ink Boot Camp workshop, about half of it was eaten. Then my mom's place is finally back to normal after the quarantine measures from the flu outbreak so her little group got together for a hot game of rummy cube so I took the rest of the cake up to them. WOW did they hit that. Not a crumb left. YEAH, that is just what I wanted. I admit, I did have one thin slice just so I could taste it, to know how it turned out. Now, Tuesday's cake will be taken to the bible study group on Wednesday morning. May just make a third cake on Wednesday, a red velvet cake with cream cheese filling, and decorate it up for my birthday. I always have red velvet cake for my birthday.

Ink Boot Camp with Jenn Starr for Tim Holtz products. What is there to say? The class was one of the best attended and best organized that I have attended. Jenn is a great educator and did a phenomenal job of show casing the products. The ink techniques we went through were dye, pigment, alcohol, archival, distress, color wash, masking, embossing and then some. Even showed us how to use embossing ink and etch some glass. Later this week I will photograph the technique pages we made. The watercolor technique was quite interesting to me, but the alcohol inks were I think my favorite. They dry quick and the colors are so rich. I think embossing is still my favorite thing to do, but this class gave me some great techniques to use with the embossing to really make it pop. I also think that my new favorite inks are the Distress Ink's and will probably begin investing in all the colors of that line. I must say, the other ladies that took the class were all so friendly as well. A complete turn around from the way the crops have all gone. Now, to make some time to play with some stamping projects. I may just have to use that alcohol ink stuff for Easter cards. Maybe some Easter scrapbook pages. Those glimmer sprays were messy but a lot of fun as well and gave a really nice shimmer result. Monday night is the long awaited Cricut class. Thursday is an ATC class, will be a monthly class, but think I may wait until next month to do that as Mom is taking me to lunch that day for my birthday, going to the Elephant Bar.

Today I also made up the bowling league game I missed yesterday. I have to say that I am rather pleased with the out come and hope I do as well next Friday. Bowled my best game in a long time. Only a 129, but that sure beats the 58 from last week. Am thinking I should get J. a pair of bowling shoes so she can go with me more often.

Well, I am off to eat my chicken pot pie and try to figure out what I will cook for the next two weeks at least. We get paid on Monday and I will be grocery shopping on Monday or Tuesday. Of course tomorrow is the great Super Bowl so know that will be going on, may just spend that time on the computer or pull out some stamps and play a bit. Yes, I do think that may be the ticket after all.

Thanks for dropping by and come back soon.

February already.

Well, it is already February. Sure has been strange with out a computer and I have been so busy.

I have made some more cards, just playing around a bit.

I used my Sizzix stuff to make this Christmas card. I didn't finish it out because I knew I wouldn't be using it. I cut the cold textured paper out going the wrong way which made the sleigh the wrong way. I had already made Santa, so if I actually put him in the sleigh he would be standing up backwards in it. I know that I could have easily changed it around and made it work, but it was a practice piece. The letters were done with the Cricut, trying to master the shadow feature. The sleigh is a pop up and it actually works rather well. I will be making more of them. However, I found a die cut for a pop up beach chair on clearance at the Sizzix Outlet so will be making it next. I am thinking maybe use it with some flip flops and a sandcastle and might just make that Christmas cards (you know, from California beaches?) to send to all the family. It is a thought. Some more of the Cricut play time, I made this birthday card.
I saw the design in a magazine or somewhere, just changed up the papers a bit and made it a "birthday" sentiment instead of a "thinking of you" one. I think it turned out pretty cute.









This week is full of fun things. I had made a cake over the weekend for my sweet daughter-in-law for her birthday.

The cake was a spiced rum cake with a pineapple cream cheese filling. Iced with a vanilla butter cream icing and decorated with chocolate almond butter cream. The chocolate was a tad bit on the sweet side, okay way over on the sweet side, but it was good to eat. I decided it was time to take a cake decorating class, so signed up and it started yesterday. I had a good time there, it really wasn't very expensive, and it is for four weeks. This week we decorated cookies with the star tip, next week we decorate a cake. I have always wanted to take the Wilton class, but never lived close enough to a place that offered it. I figure if nothing else, I can have fun decorating cakes and cupcakes for church, for my mom's bunch, for birthday parties and family get togethers. This is the Basic Cake Decorating 101 class, I also want to take the fondant and gum paste classes as well.

I already posted about the class I will be taking on Friday with Jenn Starr called Ink Boot Camp. I am really looking forward to that. Also on the paper craft front, I am planning on participating in some card exchanges through an internet group I belong to. Some one very dear to me had posted photos of journal type book she created for herself, chronicling the past year, to her blog. I was so inspired that I went out and found just the right calendar to take apart and use for my own. A couple of pages for each month, the dates entered for special times on the calendar and some photos of the events. I am making mine a little larger than hers, am using 8 1/2 x 11 size pages to give me a little more room, plus I wanted to put it in a binder. January was full of new things for me, so it will be fun to keep it up through the year. I have some others I need to work on as well, but the 2011 year will be top on the list.

I am working on three different computers today. The desktop is where the photos were for this post, so had to come in here once more to use that one. I have my brand new lap top up and going, installing my printer and wireless info and such on it. I am thinking ahead and have created a restore point on a flash drive for future reference. My sweet hubby bought it for me last night as a birthday gift. My old lap top is totally beyond help it is so infected with different types of virus. However, I will be turning it on and seeing if I can navigate through the little buggers to pull some photos and documents off.

Dinner tonight will be simple, as I am trying out my new toy. The electric Pressure Cooker arrived and can't wait to try it out. I need to run to the store for some dry beans and am making beans, then making some ribs. However, since I am feeling so nasty with this head cold, may just skip the beans tonight. I dare say that by the end of the week I should be back on track with posting menu plans as well. I need to clean up my work room from all my paper play so I can actually function.

Well, it is time for lunch so I am off to find some and to see how the lap top is doing.

Finally Friday

It is finally Friday. Has certainly been a weird week, but an okay week. Here is a little wrap up.

The menu plan was followed half the time, which beats the previous weeks where it was only a day or two. Things just happen that makes you have to adapt a bit. Like on Wed. when hubby unexpectedly pulled in to a local Mexican food place on the way home from Walmart. Then last night, Miss J went to a friends house to eat so hubby said he would just eat a bowl of cereal, I didn't argue with. Now tonight he said he would take me out since he is going to be gone all week. I have pork chops that have been thawed since Wednesday late, so will for sure make those tomorrow.

I already posted about my sick computer, I guess I will let it go to sleep a while and put it up in the closet until we figure out what to do about it. I can use the desk top, so it isn't like I am with out a computer, but I will for sure be moving things around this week so I can get the printer/scanner in the same room with the computer. Especially if I plan to print out any photos for some scrapbook projects I have going. I would like to move it in to the craft room, but that won't work as the router is set up in our bedroom and the internet cable to that room doesn't work. I will however, figure some way to make it work.

Speaking of scrapbooking, I had great time at a card making class yesterday. She has the class each month and makes themed cards for it. This month was valentine cards. Here are mine.

These were fun little cards that used a couple of different techniques. You can't really tell by the photo, but the red heart with the little silk flowers has tulle netting behind the heart to make it stand out. Here is a closer view.

With all the dry embossing and distressed edges I think that this was my favorite to make. Now I am wanting to take another class on Tues. that teaches making paper flowers. I would love to learn, but wonder if I would really make them enough to justify the cost of the class. They are so beautiful, but very bulky in my opinion for adding on to scrapbook pages or a card. The new year is bringing so many classes at the store that I think there are other classes I would get more benefit from. There are a couple of classes that are more of a club than a class and they meet each month. I think I am going to join a couple of those each month as I will really learn a lot from them and it will keep me in the mood to work on things. The two I am thinking about are the Cricut club, which is pretty much a sure thing since not only do I learn what all the Cricut can do, but I get a discounted rate on using the store's cartridges. The other is a stamping club and since I really love stamping the most, I think that would be a great one as well as getting a stamp each month.

Guess that is it for today. I am going to go grab a bite to eat and then see what I can find to work on in my craft den. If I could find my red cards with the envelopes I would start making some Christmas cards and maybe complete them by November to send out. I have an idea for a Valentine card, which will just be for decoration, so may see what I can do about making that happen.

Drop back in to see me any time.

Electric Pressure Cooker

Isn't it funny how a set of letters or a word can be the same spelling but totally different meaning based on the context.

For instance...PC

To me that always meant personal computer. Now that I am walking down some different roads I have learned that it also means Pressure Cooker and Pampered Chef.

Enough of a diversion there. Last night was my second experiment with the electrical Pressure Cooker that I had purchased. I cooked a small roast. Funny, hubby came in and saw me getting ready to brown it and commented that it was a really big roast. He has no clue as to how much they shrink when cooked. Our son G happened by, told me about his phone emergency (he dropped it in the toilet) saw the food and decided to stay long enough to eat. Weren't we so privileged? (Okay, see the huge sarcastic look in my eyes as they roll when I say that) At any rate, there was four of us for dinner. Now remember, I haven't bought groceries, my menu plan was based on what I had on hand. So, I rummaged through the pantry and found a lonely package of instant mashed potatoes, a jar of beef gravy, then made a salad to go with it all. Had some rolls left over from New Year's as well. I will be buying groceries soon, today is payday, but since I strayed from the meal plan will be able to take my time going shopping.

Back to the PC. I followed a popular recipe from my internet group, followed the limited directions for operation as well. Again, it took two cycles to cook. The roast tasted good, but could have cooked a little longer. Just about the time I finish eating, I am thinking what am I doing using this gadget if it is going only be about 10 minutes quicker than cooking it in the oven. I cleaned the kitchen and sat down and found some info on the web about this particular cooker. One comment was made about the difficulty sealing the lid and that it blocked the pressure rod. Due to the handle design, I had some reservations about how long before it broke. However, when I had cleaned the cooker back up, I did investigate and found that my lid is locking to seal, but is blocking the pressure rod. So...back it goes to the store and I will get a different model later on.

Mom's house finally sold and the final contract was sent to her yesterday for signing. It was some kind of ordeal to be sure to get that thing signed. At any rate, I am pleased that in between the trips to mom's I was able to get that nasty spice cabinet cleaned out. It was stuffed to the hilt with all kinds of spices and herbs. Many of which I have had since my first years of marriage, almost 30 years. I know they don't spoil, but at some point am sure they loose their flavor. I knew they were old because they were little tin boxes and the bottoms still had the grocery tag on them, from before scanning days. Yes Virgina a little plastic gun was used to stamp a price then attach it to the product. I had a large tin of Marjoram, barely any used out of it, I have never cooked any dish that called for it. At any rate, anything old, showed and expiration date that was expired, all thrown out. I cleaned out the cabinet shelves and put down new liner paper as well. OH IT LOOKS SO NICE! And I can actually find what I am looking for. Today I will start on the freezer and pantry. It is pay day so am ordering in pizza tonight. Shhh, don't tell hubby until it is already here. LOL

This is before.







This is after.











Well, I am off to do some household chores. Oh, can't forget, I am got my steamer. Looks great and it had really great reviews for this model from those that purchased it. Next week will have some tamales and try it out. When I buy groceries, am getting ingredients to try and make my own tamales and well as flour tortillas. Guess I need to cook a pork roast for dinner one night and then pull and shred the left overs for the tamales. Also, my mom is getting me a Kitchenaid mixer. I am making payments for it, but there is a huge sale on one I like so I can get it while it is on sale. Was putting some things away in the garage earlier and spotted a pasta maker I bought and never used. Something about mixing everything on the counter that really grosses me out, but it is something I have wanted to try. If I like it, there is an attachment for the mixer I can buy separately. I always wanted an electric one to save my arm from mixing and rolling, but the machine bought was very cheap and I can use it later on for other things as well.

Schwan man is coming on Monday. I don't buy much, but do buy things that I would never make from scratch or things I want to try to see if I like them. I am always careful and set my limit before I order and never go over. Poor guy will not be getting rich off of us. I am looking forward to trying a gnocchi dish created on the show Top Chef. I love dumplings in all forms, so know that I will probably like it. However, have been waiting for the right time to try it. My problem with cooking cheap around here, I mean frugally, is that my bunch doesn't much care for pastas or rice. Leaves out a lot of possibilities. I have two weeks this month that hubby will be gone so can try some new dishes and eat some fish.

I almost forgot, I also went yesterday and signed up for two little classes at the scrapbook store. Both are next week while hubby is gone. The first class is a Cricut class, she will show me all the features on my machine and teach me to use it. The store also has a Cricut club that meets once a month and they have over a hundred cartridges that I can take my machine to the store and rent the cartridge out to make cut outs. I think that is just amazing because I can try one out and decide if I will use it enough to buy it. Thankfully, our Walmart carries the cartridges at a much cheaper cost than the craft stores, but they don't carry some of the specialty ones or the retired ones. Then, on Saturday they are having a crop and bunco night. I paid for J to go with me and she is so excited. We play bunco up at mom's place with the ladies, and really have fun with it. I have however, in order not to be overwhelmed as I usually do to myself at crops, am only taking tools, photos, and plan on finishing up a couple of projects in progress plus I really want to try out some of those cartridges. I won't let myself dive into the crafts until I have this whole house cleaned up. I tend to get focused in one thing and want to do only that. I have a couple of sewing projects to finish up as well, but I am really ready to make a few pages and really want to make some cards. I have all these supplies that really need to be used. There is a card making class and a flower making class later in the month that I want to take as well.

Drop in again and have a great weekend.

Short post - room is done

Just a short post, it is late and am ready to take a soak and get some sleep. I am so happy I finished setting up my sewing room today.

This is the before photos.

This is wall one. This is the wall with the closets. This is a view of some of the wallpaper left still to remove. Apparently it strips in layers. I have come to a major decision about wallpaper, no more is ever...and I do mean no more ever...is allowed on my walls. That goes for stickers and scotch tape as well.

Now then, after removing all that wallpaper and painting and shampooing carpet, my sewing/craft room is all set up. At least ready to be used that is, still have some things packed away that need to be brought out, am still hunting the thread rack, but the next job is cleaning the bedroom up and making the changes I want in there.

Thought you might enjoy the after photos to see the end result.
This is the view as you walk in. That was my dad's chair there in the corner.

This is a view of my shelves that I brought in from the bedroom with all my scrapbooking, stamping, and bead supplies. The famous Cricut is there with all the cartridges and you can't see it, but the bottom shelf is full of my Sizzix stash.

This shows my blue wall. Had to play with the colors a bit. I like the mountains and the beach, so ended up using the colors of the ocean I guess. Sand colored walls, blue wall, then green trim and on the closet doors. Doubt it would win any designer type awards, but it works for me. So nice and calm in there. The thing, I repurposed a lot of storage containers and such so it only big expense was the paint.

And, back to the beginning, but this shots shows off the green doors a little.

Hope you enjoyed the tour. I hear that bath calling my name.

Great Day

Today was a great day. I started out as tired as when I went to bed, sore from all the redecorating and moving things about, then started out on some errands.

I took a large bag of clothes to a consignment shop to try and sell them. They took two shirts. Out of all the name brand clothes which was mostly jeans, they took two shirts. First thing that happened was that out of one pair of jeans fell a baby spider. I mean tiny. I have no idea how that happened, I washed the whole bag of clothes. So, after that dismal start, I went to JoAnn's and hit a marvelous sale. Shadow box photo frames (well all photo frames) were 60% off. I still have each outfit from each of my children's baptism. We are Lutheran so they were all four infant baptism. At any rate, I have for years thought it would be so wonderful to frame each outfit to hang on the wall. Just never really got around to it and honestly, the outfits are stashed away in all different directions. Now that I am going to have a sewing room all for myself, I am determined to hang some of my prizes as art work. The outfits being one, some Dresden plate quilt blocks made by my aunt in the late 30's are another. I have some needle craft projects that I plan to finally finish and hang as well. At any rate, the original price of the frames was actually less than I was anticipating, but seeing the sale sign I just went ahead and bought four of them, one for each child's outfit. Also, found some cute wooden words to paint and hang on the wall that were in the clearance bin for less than a dollar. Of course, I also found the sign that said the Butterick patterns were on sale for $1.99 each. Good thing that since I have been invaded by the sewing bug that most of the patterns were sold out. I can remember in my younger days dumpster diving the fabric stores on days they discontinued the patterns. Only the envelope is sent back, the tissue pattern and directions was tossed. I would come home with huge black trash sacks full of patterns, grab some tea and sit down to go through them picking out what I could use, then tossing all the others. Those were the days. Thinking of the past, last night I was reading over some blog postings regarding vintage sewing. I love looking at what people come up with. They were just awesome. I am envious of these seamstresses that can get those dress patterns for a quarter at garage sales and then make the pattern fit them. I am hopeless at altering a pattern. Realize, back then, women were smaller. Limited under garments tending to make a woman's bust a little differently shaped as well. I am small on top, large waist, large hips and doubt that anyone even visualized some of the plus sizes we have today. While I am not as large as I was, still working on that as well, I am definitely not a size 6 from the 30's or 40's era. Not sure I was ever a size 6. LOL Any way, I took the plunge today and bought a Butterick pattern that is called a "retro" because it is style inspired from 1947, at least I think that is what the 47 means.
I think it just lovely. Nice and cool for summer, a jacket for cooler weather or in my case modesty in church. I just can't stand my bare shoulders being seen. The pattern is such a clean, simple, classy style that I am really excited to have it in the "to do" box. I also can't help but wonder what some of those ladies would have thought of some of today's fabrics. Am even pretty certain just which fabric I will use from my stash as well, just have to make sure there is enough of it. Feel there is since that piece was bought to make pants, skirt, and top and that particular fabric also happens to be 60 inch wide. Thinking ahead to Christmas, I bought a baby boy pattern and plan to make a whole little wardrobe for the new grandson. It will be fun making the clothes and any one that has had children will agree that by the time they are about six months all the gifts from the shower and well wishers will all be too small for the quickly growing baby. All in all, JoAnn's was a great shopping trip.

Next, I went to Walmart. I posted previously about the work we have been doing in youngest daughter's room. I had decided that I would use my Cricut to cut out her name and then attach it to the wall over her closet. That plan changed as we found a better spot to put her name and would make larger letters. I have one font. That font would be wonderful, but thought I would use it as an excuse to add to my cartridges. After all, it was just one and Walmart carries them at a price that is really good. I had the font all picked out, so I thought. As I was standing there, looking over the script styled font to make sure that it was the one I would buy, after all, I was about to spend $40 and could only pick one, I ran in to the lady that works the scrap craft area. She told me that the ones on the other side could be discounted and asked me how many I would buy if she did. I told her it depended on the final price. OH MY GOSH, I came home with 7 cartridges. She had marked them down to $5 each because they were considered out of date. Heck I didn't care about how current they were and ended up with some great cartridges, four of which are fonts, one of which has a princess crown (baby daughter is her daddy's princess you see) and of course will be the choice for the name. I had two Cricuts, gave the smaller one to my oldest daughter who is a teacher. So, at this great price, I figured I would grab a couple of them for her as Christmas gifts. For her I got the Sports Mania (all kinds of sports shapes and words - good for her bulletin board and the scrapbook she is making for oldest son and will make for the son due this month) and Opposites Attract (a font that looks like cursive writing). For myself, I bought fonts called Jubilee, Alphalicious, Opposites Attract (had to keep one for me too) and Calligraphy along with another one named Graphically Speaking which has all kinds of great shapes not to mention the great butterfly. Since I was still $5 ahead of what I had planned to spend, I bought some extra blades. Wish I could have gotten the tool kit on sale. LOL

Oh yeah, and at Sam's Club I came across this package of Rum Fruit Punch, already has the rum in it and a little spicket on the package. It is a bit strong, but taste wonderful. I know, it really isn't as strong as I think, when it comes to alcohol I am a total lightweight.