Neater, Now...

Just to show you that I did do what I said I was going to do. 

*Ü*

The books are library books. The tins hold knitting needles and lace. And you can see the power supply we borrowed from Susi (which needs to get back to her hubby soon)

Looks a smidge better, wouldn't you say? LOL

I'm currently making a whole bunch of these and

I can't wait to see how this project comes together.

I also just got a phone call from Amy's teacher. No uh-ohs, she just wanted to share with us her thanks for our support during the CSAP testing. She said Amy worked really hard and she appreciated it. Gotta love those phone calls.

Tomorrow the kids get a pizza party to celebrate. 

Yay!

*Ü*

Finally, I've been neatening things up on my blog a bit. I've added a page or two and edited my blog links. Right now I just have my friends' blogs listed. I don't know if I'll add any other types of blogs I read. 

On one of the pages I linked up a few of the blog parties I visit each week, these all happen to occur on Wednesday.

That is all!

Have a good one!

This 'n That

Hi there! I hope the weather where you are is as gorgeous as it is here! We could flirt with 70 degrees today! I'm enjoying it while I can, because there is rain, snow and temps in the 30s predicted for Friday and Saturday. The roller coaster that is Mother Nature is ready to roll, hop on board! LOL

***Warning***Lots of picture sharing today...

I have really, really wanted to do something crafty this week, but as yet haven't been able to. Being sick last week put me behind on things around the house I wanted to get done and I'm just about caught up, so hopefully soon!

With the nice weather, I'm motivated to do some extra cleaning and that's what I worked on yesterday. I actually cleaned our fireplace, like trying to scrub the soot off the glass panes and off the hearth stone, and even some of the brick facing. Yeah, I'm nutzo, I know. But it was looking rather grimy and yucky. And because I'm proud of the effort, I'll share...LOL

Sorry for a bit of glare, but it was fuzzy without the flash on. And I thought, while I'm at it, I'll share my mantle (mantel? neither spelling looks right, but spell check isn't getting hot and bothered, so pick the right one)

This is as much as would fit in the frame. I'm thinking the wall behind it is pretty bare, but I don't know what to put up there. Sigh...

Here's the left side. The white pieces and sequined butterfly box were found at the thrift store.

I finally printed off a picture of my sweet Sarah to have alongside the photo of sweet Critter.

Those glass pieces? Dollar Tree! Well, I bought two candlesticks and two vases and glued them together using E6000 glue. I'm gonna put something in 'em, just haven't decided what yet. The clock is from my friend Kelly and I just love it.

The other side. Found the candlestick at the thrift store and I loved the shape, so I bought it. We have the pawprints of the cat and dog along with their tins up there. The stone is a geode (I think that is what they are called). Steve brought the stones home from a trip and the girls broke them open. The other pieces are next to the spider plant.

Next to the fireplace is my computer desk. And this is what it has looked like. Prettttttty dang scary if you ask me. LOL

Lots o' junk, that is for sure. Guess what else I worked on yesterday...And now it looks like this...

Which is an improvement, no?

But in the interest of being REAL here...

I still gotta go through this! LOL

 But, before I tackle this, I went out this morning to buy a dishwasher. Yep, our dishwasher is messing with our dishes too much. Um, I don't even know how old it is...as it was here when we moved in in 1996. Granted, I didn't use it too much for several years because I preferred to just do the dishes to get 'em done and put away, but up until recently, it's done a mighty fine job. So, anyway, I bought it, but can't get it until tomorrow morning. BUT...while I was out, I had a niggly feeling to go to the thrift store. So I did. And I'm happy I did.

I found this book, one I'd heard about many months ago and tried to find at either the library or book store. Sometimes being patient pays off. 

And sometimes you just find neat stuff.

Like this.

Oh wait...you can't hardly see it.

Let's try this...

There was no tag on it, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask how much at the register.

How about...$1.99? 

Works for me! 

*Ü*

The Dollar Tree is right next door to the thrift store and I popped in and got the flowers to use for now. You can see the rest of the bunch on the mantle/mantel.

Now that mess is calling to me, so I'd best shut it up take care of it before I have to go get the girls from school.

Hope you have a great day! Thanks for stopping by!

Colored Digital Image...1st Attempt

A long time ago, Kim from Clearly Inspired, shared how she colored an image with Photoshop Elements. You can see that post here. In her post is a link to a video tutorial created by Susanna Boyd on how she did the technique. It's been in the back of my mind to try my hand at it ever since (yep a long time).  I thought I'd try my hand at it. This is the result of my attempt. I can see I need lots of practice, but I don't think it's too bad for a first effort.

My image is from Fred She Said.

Thanks, Kim for sharing this! I think it could be a lot of fun!

Piggie #2~Digi Layout

Hi there!

Thanks so much for all the great comments on my recent crafty efforts. Looks like that wreath was a big hit! *Ü* If you decide to make one, will you please let me know so I can see your handiwork?

Yesterday was a gloriously spring-like day, sunny and in the low 60s. Today...not so much! LOL It's about 20 degrees cooler and overcast. Mother Nature sure likes to tease, because it snowed some and rained some, too! But she's going to be nice this upcoming week, I hear. 

I was thinking I might do some cleaning up around here, but the drastic change in weather put a damper on that mood. LOL I haven't digi scrapped in a good long while, so I decided to work on a layout. Well, first, I unzipped a bunch of files and started tagging them, but quit that so I could actually play. Here's what I ended up with:

I knew I wanted to use a piggie image and thankfully found a couple in my digi stash. I worked the rest of the layout around that cute quilted pig. I'm pretty pleased with the result. Jessica saw me working on this and helped me with the journaling.

I used a Becky Fleck template for this one. She has that Page Maps templates site and authored a book by the same name. I have the book and when she offered digital templates to go along with some of the templates in her book, I bought them. This template is one of those. It goes along with pp 82-83 in the Page Maps book.

I found the pig in Funny Farm, which is a NitwitCollections kit  and used the papers and elements from that kit as well, although I recolored a few of them to work with the layout. Speaking of Mary Fran, she has a blog now! I'm sure you know that makes me do a happy dance, right? *Ü*

The font is Whitehall 1212 I also used the number symbol in Ali's Font and I can't remember which font helped me make the number 2 (sorry)

I can't believe the day is almost over already. Guess I'd better close for now and finish up supper.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you have a great start to your week!

Thanks So Much Kari!

Kari has a blog called Kari's Scrappin' Corner. She is a sweetheart who creates fun projects and shares about her life. She has a definite joy for life and it shows in every post. She was kind enough to give me these two blog awards, and I appreciate her thinking of me so much.

I'm pretty much an open book here, 

so I don't think I could add anything really that you don't already know about me and what makes me happy.

 *Ü*

I've got so many blogs in my Reader, it's too difficult to pinpoint a few, so 

I'll skip passing this along to anyone specific. 

To me, you are all VERY sweet and beautiful 

and I'm grateful you stop by to read what I share.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Hugs!

Feeling Better and Gettin' Crafty!

Hi there!

It's been a few days since I last posted and I wanted to reassure you that my stomach bug moved through fast and furious. I was feeling a lot better by Wednesday, but was behind on things I wanted/needed to get done, so I caught up on those. I fully planned on posting yesterday, but had a slight detour in my plans due to estimates we are getting on upgrading our electrical panel and furnace. I called to make an appointment to find out the guys could actually come about an hour later. That took up time I planned on using to finish up the projects I've been working on. No decisions have been made on what which company we will go with as the prices between the two estimates we've gotten so far are so extreme from one another that Steve wants another estimate to see if there is a happy medium.

I just finished up my latest crafty efforts and wanted to share with you. You might remember a week or so ago I wrote that I wanted to crochet some egg motifs to make a garland/swag for the porch. I wasn't sure if I would use worsted weight yarn or thread crochet. Well, I made one egg with the thread crochet and it came out so tiny, I nixed that idea right away. So, I crocheted 20 eggs in 5 different colors. Before the guys showed up I was working on putting up the swag and discovered that what I feared might happen did. The eggs are too large/heavy to work the way I originally planned. So I had to switch to Plan B, only I didn't have a Plan B! LOL I fiddled and futzed for awhile yesterday and then gave up for the day. This morning I had an idea to try a roll of tulle and after lots more fiddling and futzing, I'm happy with the results. Whew, a lot of jabber, but it's been a few days and I feel sort of chatty. LOL So, here's what I ended up with:

Jeanne Tomshack 2010

Jeanne Tomshack 2010

Jeanne Tomshack 2010

I first tried attaching the eggs to each other using white organdy ribbon, but it just didn't look all that great. I ended up cutting a long length of the tulle and tying it around the top of the post. I let it fall and tied it again behind the railing. Then I used straight pins to just pin the eggs to the tulle. I was a little concerned that the weight of the eggs would drag the tulle down, so I tied another piece behind the yellow eggs (which was about halfway). They float a little in the breeze and look nice, I think. Then I attempted to use the rest of the eggs to create a garland of sorts on the railing. I tried tying them in all sorts of ways and even took a quick trip to the Dollar Tree and Michaels for an inexpensive green, leafy garland. I found a couple at Michaels but they weren't on sale and I guess Michaels now only allows you to use one coupon per day. They used to let you use a Michaels and a Joann's/Hobby Lobby one at the same time. It irked me that they changed the policy, so I passed on getting them. I tied them in a different way when I got home and thought it looked decent. I have four extra eggs that I'm not sure what to do with, but that's okay.

On that quick trip to the Dollar Tree, I found this:

Jeanne Tomshack 2010

And a roll of ribbon, so the trip wasn't in vain. LOL

After I got back and finished fiddling with these eggs, I started fiddling with some different eggs! I saw this idea on a blog (of course) but now I can't find the particular blog I found it on. So, I did a search and found this site which explains how to do the project the way that the gal did on the blog I can't find now. I took the idea and did my own thing as you can see here:

Jeanne Tomshack 2010

The directions say to use a piece of cardboard. I had a foam wreath from the Dollar Tree handy(and not a good sized piece of cardboard), so I decided to use the wreath form instead. The eggs I got at the Dollar Tree (18 in a package, I bought 3 pkgs). I hadn't finished hot gluing the eggs on at this point in the picture. I added some to the inner part of the wreath and glued a bunch sticking out from these two rows. I used a low heat glue gun, one of those small ones and a bunch of glue sticks. After I was done with that, I started adding some crinkled paper shreds that I had in my stash. I just grabbed a little wad, add some glue and stuck it down with either my fingers or the flat end of a pen. A little ribbon bow here and some trimming there when all was done and I ended up with this:

Jeanne Tomshack 2010

Which I put here:

Jeanne Tomshack 2010

And it makes me smile to look at my porch.

*Ü*

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you have a fantastic Friday! Thanks, too, for all your wonderful support when I was feeling puny. Oh, and for agreeing that Jessica made a pretty darn cute Piggy #2 in her Three Piggy Opera performance. 

I Didn't Know MOMS Could Get Sick!

Oh yes, Grasshopper, they can and this one has. (This comment was from Jessica) Woke up at about 2am Monday morning and got sick, sick, sick. I've been pretty much flat on the couch since with a low grade fever that threatens to climb and body aches all over. Sigh. Thankfully the trips to the porcelain goddess seem to be lessening now and hopefully I'll be right as rain soon. But I wanted to let you know in case you notice I'm not around much (or commenting much).

However, being sick could NOT keep me away from seeing Jessica's class performance of the Three Piggy Opera. I just kept off to the side away from everyone else. She was so cute!

Okay, that's it from me today. Hope your week is off to a great start!