No Art...but another Brain Dump post...

Hello there!

Yep, I'm still alive, but not being too creative in the cards/layout area. I am making Amy's socks, but there was a set back on that, too. I broke my knitting needle. Can you believe it? I wasn't too thrilled. I had said that I was trying a new pattern since I was kinda tired of just doing the knit stitch. I chose a pattern that didn't seem too difficult and in reality, it isn't, but I'm a tight knitter and doing the main part of the new stitch was tough because of the tension. And I was using a wooden needle. Sure enough, as I pulled the needle through to make the stitch, I felt the top part of the needle break. Ugh. I got on the computer and went to KnitPicks and ordered some needles that are not wooden (using birthday money I got from my dad). They are on their way. I'm trying another different pattern, but it doesn't require me trying to do a k3tog stitch (for the knitters out there) regularly. It's knitting and purling...simple and straightforward. LOL

I'm having a sort of a mental block about actually going out to the craft room right now. I'd much rather just stay in the house. Need to work on that.

Making progress with the household stuff. Yesterday I ended up cleaning up my laundry closet. I don't have a room, but a closet in our hallway, with bi-fold doors. Steve made shelves not long after we moved in and over time, a bunch of junk/stuff has accumulated on those shelves and it was one of those things that bugged me whenever I did laundry. So, I decided to take care of it. Steve and the girls were gone doing something (turns out they went to the Museum...I had been out looking for storage options for said shelves in laundry closet when they left) and it was quiet in the house. Let's just say, some stuff got put back into the garage, a bunch went to Goodwill and a huge trash bag is in the garbage can. I have a donations tub now, where I can put clothes that are no longer loved or outgrown and I can put my laundry stuff back on a shelf rather than on the dryer. I also vacuumed off and dusted the bi-fold doors. It looks much better now and I don't feel like stuff will fall on me when I open the doors. LOL

In keeping with the whole cleaning up theme...I discovered where Mr. Mouse has been hanging out recently (since I hadn't seen any evidence of him in the living room). Yep, the mouse is STILL in the house. Ugh. Anyway, I was cleaning up the great room (converted a long time ago two car garage). We had some stuff in there that really needed to head up to the attic, so I started gathering them up. One of the items is a rather large stuffed mouse. Oma, who cut the girls' hair, used to work for Safeway and she would bring home promotional stuff. We've inherited some of those items. This mouse is big...like bigger than Jessica, big. The girls played with it for a while and then it ended up getting hidden behind the couch. I decided it should get moved up to the attic. As I pulled it up, I saw the mouse jump out of it and run away. GREAT(lots of sarcasm in that great)! He (or more likely she) had managed to create a hole in the arm and was working on pulling the stuffing out to build a nest. That big mouse is now outside and the real mouse is still somewhere inside. Sigh...

And finally, I walked each day last week! On Thursday I walked for a little over 3 miles, or 11110 steps! Friday, it was 2.79 miles or 9830 steps. Hopefully I can keep it up and maybe do a little more. All told it was over 10 miles in 5 days. Yay, me! Although it did have a smidgen of a scare on Friday as I was on my way back home. I managed to step on a rock and started to fall in exactly the same way I fell last summer...on the same ankle even! I caught myself though and other than a slight twinge a time or two...all is fine. Whew! I've been SO careful to avoid pebbles and stuff, I'm surprised I didn't see the stone. Maybe I was too focused on getting to the house or on the song that was playing on my mp3 player...

I hope to do something creative today, even if it is just knitting. I'm also slightly hooked on those Sudoku puzzles...

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you have a Super Sunday!

Jessica's Socks and Cookies?

Happy Tuesday!

The girls had today off from school for a teacher inservice and I didn't necessarily want to take them somewhere like Chuck E. Cheese. And I also wanted to get a walk in, but how to do that with the girls? Hmmmm. First, we three took Buster for a walk around the neighborhood, that way the girls felt like they walked with me. Then I asked them if they would like to go to the "big park" and play while I walked on the path around the lake? They were ALL for that! Yay! So, we rode our bikes over there and I walked around the lake about 5 times and got about a mile or so logged in on my pedometer. I think it was somewhere around 6600 steps. It was a beautiful morning and there were several other walkers out as well. I didn't want to leave the girls alone too much, so I would go check on them after every lap. It worked out really well. Then we rode our bikes home. I think it maybe a little less than a mile to the park from our house. So even though I didn't get my full walk in, I sure feel good about what I did get done.

I finished Jessica's socks last night! Yay! I'll show those in a minute, but Amy's been asking me for the past few days if we could make cookies. Today seemed a perfect day to do that. We followed a recipe out of a crafts book I got Amy years ago. She pores over that thing and oftentimes wants to do an activity from it. Anyway, the recipe called for castor sugar. HUH? What the heck is THAT? A quick check on Google informed me it's a superfine sugar that dissolves almost instantly. Since we were low on sugar anyway and planning a quick trip to Walmart to get that and a couple of movies the girls wanted to buy with their own money, I figured I'd see if they carried it. Nope. But a website said you could grind regular sugar in the blender or food processor and use it for castor sugar. Okay fine. Did that.

Had to take a couple of pictures to commemorate our cookie making.

They loved wearing the aprons that Auntie Kelly got for them one Christmas. Jessica's lips are blue because she had a Blue Coconut slushie from Sonic. (I didn't buy it, one of the gals there likes the girls so much, she oftentimes gives them one, isn't that nice?)

So we got the dough mixed and then it was time to roll it out for cutting out cookie shapes. Um, what a pain in the patootie it was. We followed the recipe exactly, but I couldn't believe how sticky the dough was. We floured and rolled and cut and when I tried to lift the dough onto the cookie sheet, it would break or get misshapen. I tell you, for a so called simple kids' activity, it sure wasn't easy! LOL The girls were great sports about it and still had fun, so I call it a success even if the cookie shapes were a little funny.

And now for Jessica's socks. She was so excited to see them finished when she got up this morning, she immediately pulled them on (and I heaved an inner sigh of relief that they actually fit)! I'm also relieved to report that the laddering problem I had with my socks doesn't seem to have been repeated with this pair. Yay. I have an idea as to why...but first, take a looksee...

I can't remember if I told you about my trying another new to me technique for knitting socks. For my pair, I used two circular needles, following a book I borrowed from the library. I found a book at Joann's that shows how to do the two socks at the same time, but with ONE long circular needle! This really appealed to me because I was having trouble finding the sizes I needed (unless I ordered them online) and following this technique, I'd only have to buy one needle as opposed to two for the sizes I didn't already have. Does that make sense? Anyway...I think this technique really helped me get a better handle on pulling the yarn tightly when I needed to, and it didn't seem to pull as much when one of the socks was resting while I worked on the other.

Now I'm starting a pair for Amy, but I'm going to venture out a bit to use a pattern that has more texture than just the knit stitch I used on Jessica's. Oh I know, I'm probably setting myself up for having to make that same pair for Jessica, but I'm getting a tad bored of just doing the knit stitch, I'd like a little variety to keep it interesting.

That's it from me today. Thanks so much for stopping by. I sure hope your Tuesday has been terrific!

Happy Monday to you. Hope you've had a great day. I took the girls to the outdoor pool for a few hours as today was the last day they'll be open for the season. Thankfully, the weather cooperated! The girls had a blast and I got to work some more on Jessica's socks (I'm on the toes now...won't be long).

This picture of Buster was taken on the day hike that Steve and the girls went on on Saturday. I guess Buster was so hot after the trek, he walked straight into the water and plopped down for a while. I can just imagine him thinking...What?! It feels goooooood! It makes me smile to look at it.

As does this photo of the girls looking through one of my photo albums. They've re-discovered them and Amy takes great pride in reading my journaling. They really enjoy looking through what I've done and have also said I really need to do more pages! (Oops, guess I'd better get some of the layouts that are living on my computer printed out)
Other than the card I showed you, I've not been in my craft room this weekend. I have been pretty domestic, though. I changed sheets yesterday, did the grocery shopping and even washed both cars! I was pooped when it was all said and done, that's for sure, but it felt good to get the stuff accomplished.

I walked on Friday (can't remember if I mentioned that) and decided to go ahead and walk this morning, since Steve was home. I went 2.73 miles in just over an hour and took 9642 steps! Wow! I am pleased at that. My shins were a little sore when I started, but by the end of the walk, they were just fine, thank goodness.

Not too much else to report right now. Thanks ever so much for stopping by. Hope you have a great start to your week!

First Day, First Grade-digi layout

I decided to work on another layout this afternoon. The family came home a little earlier than I expected, but they had fun on their hike. The girls were content to relax in front of the tv for a bit, so I kept working on the layout. I tried my hand at recoloring some of the elements to better match the colors in the photos. I'm not 100% convinced I hit the mark, but I still think it looks okay.

For this layout I used this template by Linda Roos of In The Making Design. I've subscribed to her blog since I sort of got to know Linda when I was taking Jessica Sprague's classes. She has a very beautiful, clean and elegant style. Thanks for the template freebie, Linda! I also wanted a chalk type of font, but didn't have one in my stash, at least not one I could find. LOL So I did a quick google search and found this one on Fontspace. I really like how it looks on the chalkboard element and in the title and it was free! Whoo hoo!

I used a lined paper from It's Elementary by Dani Mogstad (SweetShoppeDesigns) and slightly recolored it. The chalkboard is from the same kit. The rest of the layout uses elements from School Rules by Kay Miller, which I got back when she was designing for SweetShoppe. The Shoppe is down at the moment, but you can find Kay's kit on her site here. I think she moved them to her own shop after she stepped down from SSD. I recolored two of the buttons and the crayon paper, but the rest of the elements are in their original form.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Thankful Heart and a Card!

Now that I've got the mouse rant done, I can move onto a much more pleasant subject...sharing goodness! Although I have to say, I sort of regret cleaning the windows and screens...since this all started AFTER I cleaned them. Sheesh, I guess I should have left well enough alone.

I got a complete day brightener in the midst of my living room clean up the other day. Kathi sent me the loveliest of presents, a basket full of goodies! I feel so special! If you follow her blog, you've most likely seen this butterfly card she posted. Well that gorgeous card is MINE...all mine! Aren't you jealous? LOL I was doing the whole giddy girly dance as I checked out all the goodness she had stashed in the basket.

And I cannot take a picture to do this piece justice at all. It's a prism with butterflies and flowers on the inside. I have NO clue how something like this gets created, but it's just gorgeous.

The girls absolutely LOVE looking at this from all angles (as do I) because the colors change depending on how you look at it. I tried to capture it here, but not sure I succeeded. I had to clean off the little girl fingerprints before I could take a picture. LOL

Part of Kathi's lovely gift was a little packet of stamped images. Oh how I love the images she shared. So much I just HAD to head out to my craft room and color one up. I also used some of the designer paper (which I think is DCWV's new Indian Summer stack) she included. I don't remember this little girl's name, but isn't she adorable?? Even though she doesn't wear glasses, this one totally makes me think of Amy.

I used my pencils and oms to color in the image, Oval and Scallop oval Nestabilities as well as a Martha Stewart border punch. The Orange Organdy ribbon is from CTMH.

Thank you SO much for all the goodies, Kathi! You sure made me feel extra special and helped extend my birthday.

I've got to take pictures of the cards I've received, I'm so blessed with wonderful friends.

Steve and the girls went on a day hike today with Dave. Buster went too and is sure to mess up his newly aquired 'do. Oh well, Steve'll have to give him a bath. I have SO many projects I want to work on, I was almost frozen with not knowing what to do first. But the card won out. We'll see what else gets done.

And finally...I got a pedometer with some birthday money one of my brothers sent me. I got one that not only measures the number of steps you take, but the distance traveled and the calories burned. I walked Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, but didn't get the pedometer until Thursday morning, so I only know for sure that I walked 2.18 miles on Thursday (7700+ steps) and 2.14 miles on Friday (too bad I had to pee...I might have walked longer). I walked pretty much the same distance on Wednesday. I discovered a radio station I listen to now has a 2 hour commercial free block of music, so I am trying to time my walks during that time. That is, until I figure out how to record some of my CDs onto the mp3 player I'm using. I think that's not too bad for starters. I am usually walk for about an hour. Feels good no matter what!

That's it from me for now. Hope you have an awesome long weekend (if you are in the US-It's Labor Day on Monday for those not in the US). I may be back at some point!

They're Back...UGH!

The other night I was watching tv and working on Jessica's socks when out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw "something" by the window. Nah....I thought to myself, I didn't see anything, but I kept looking over to where I thought I saw something and kept reassuring myself that nope, I didn't see anything at all. Denial is a good thing sometimes, right? It's still warm out! It's too early! Denial was dashed when I saw the something I thought I didn't see scamper across the floor. Crud. A mouse! UGH. Yes, a mouse came into the house and I'm pretty sure I saw the dang thing climb in through the window screen. Sigh...remember earlier this summer when I said we had a squirrel chew through our screens? Well, the not so bright, I don't want to deal with it, "solution" was to close the windows. Only, I really like fresh air, especially in the summer time. So, the window in the living room was kept open. I figured we are too active during the day to have anything crawl in. That theory is well and good...during the day. Not so much at night, when it's quiet and I neglected to close the windows. So, out came the traps once again.

Steve looked around the living room the first night and I think we saw it run along the baseboards toward our bookshelves. Didn't catch it. Then he asked where the duct tape was that he had out on the counter. Yes...he used duct tape to cover the hole! (good thinking, right...**tapping and nodding her head**) There might have even been me standing on one of the girls' chairs for a little bit. Steve said I looked ridiculous and to get down. Well, I didn't want it to run across my feet should we scare it out into the open. Sheesh, at least I didn't scream. Just cursed.

The second night, I saw it again...dang! Stupid little critter. THEN and you are not going to believe this...I didn't! I was working on those socks again (with my feet up on the couch, thank you very much) and looked up to see a mouse climbing UP THE SCREEN (on the outside, not on the inside-thank goodness)!!! That dang thing was looking for a way in. Grrrrr....I'll bet the first one announced to his little mouse buddies...I'm in! I'm in...c'mon! Looked at my traps the next morning...still nothing.

Then I looked at the duct taped hole in the screen and saw another bitty hole or two, with the piece of screen on the inside! The little sucker chewed through the screen next to the duct tape. Argghhhh! Up went another piece of duct tape (not such a bright solution after all, huh?). But we are smart now...we are closing the window at night, ha! Well, it must be a determined critter because just a bit ago I looked again and there is ANOTHER hole in the screen! Here...see for yourself. Guess what's on the honey do list for this weekend?

The big hole is courtesy of the squirrel who must have broadcast to the other critters that this house was easy pickins'. You can see to the left of that big hole the new ones from the other day (that are duct taped) and where there is no tape is the one from last night apparently. It's either change the screen or block out the light with the duct tape, I guess.

So, in light of this, I've had to do another clean up and clean out of the living room. I hadn't moved too much back onto the bookshelves thankfully, but I had a lot of yarn hanging around. So I had to box that up. Then I had to clean up all the little poopies they leave. I had to turn over the couch and the chair and vacuum out any stray crumbs and make sure they hadn't chewed holes into them. The whole time I was doing this I was yelling at it to get the &^%$ out of my house. I haven't seen evidence of it since the clean up, so I am hoping the bugger slipped back outside at some point unnoticed and thought he could just saunter back in as he pleased. Either that, or he's moved to another part of the house that I don't know about yet. Please, please, please let it be the former!

Sigh...and to add insult to this...both the dog and the cat were awake and in the living room when I saw the mouse the first time. Do you think they cared in the least? Noooooo...they just wondered why I was acting like a dork.

How To Lose 20 Lbs Without Trying...

Hello there!

First off, I would like you thank you for the warm and happy birthday wishes. They mean a great deal to me. The girls has assessments that day, so I took them to school for an hour and a half and then I took them to Chuck E. Cheese and let them play for a couple of hours. Once home again, I fielded kids (as in neighbors' and my own) and birthday phone calls the rest of the afternoon. Steve took us out to dinner at Sweet Tomatoes. Yum

Now about my post title...sadly this isn't a fix for humans, but for dogs, particularly our dog, Buster. He is a Lhaso Apso/Cocker Spaniel mix (we think-got him from the animal shelter) and his hair grows out, not down (much like my own hair...I feel for you buddy). Every 3 or 4 months we take him to get groomed. Every time I think I should take a picture of him before and after. I think this usually just after I drop him off at the groomer. LOL Today, my brain was working well for some reason (maybe it was the hour long brisk walk I took that got the brain cells moving) and I remembered to do a before shot and an after shot so you can see the dramatic difference it makes to have Buster groomed.

Here he is doing his best to look like a Brillo pad.

Don't you just love the Veronica Lake, hair over one eye look? Oh her it might look sexy, on him...not so much.

And here's what he looks like when all that hair is gone!

***Poof!***

20 pounds gone and he didn't have to break a sweat! Lucky dog!

You can tell he feels lighter too...look at that million dollar smile!

That face is what got me when I saw him at the shelter...who could resist??

Thanks for stopping by and again thanks for the well wishes. You all are the best and sure know how to make this 44 year old gal feel special.

*Ü*