CASE-ing Sparkle

Over on Sparkle's blog this past week, she announced a contest over at The Greeting Farm where CASEing a card by one of the Crew could help that Crew Member earn a free stamp set. (The one who gets cased the most, wins a free set). I guess it could also earn the person who cases a chance for a spot on the Critter Crew. I thought it might be fun to help Sparkle win a free set and give me something specific to work on as I dip my toes back into card making waters. Here is my attempt. I'm a little rusty, but I think it looks decent.

I used Randy, who looks so sweet sniffing that little flower. He reminds me a little of the Little Rascals era (probably dating myself big time here) and so I tried for a vintage feel on the card. Randy is colored in with colored pencils and odorless mineral spirits. The flower and patches have just a little bit of prisma glitter for some bling. The papers I used are Linen Closet from DCWV, inked with some Twilight (CTMH) ink around the edges. The Prima flower has a vintage button center and is also inked with some Twilight ink to help make it pop.

Something I tried (on accident) is blending some blue and green pencil colors to get closer to the blues and greens in the paper. Not sure if you can even tell in the photo, but I can definitely see the blending of the colors in real life and I have to say it looks kind of neat.

Hope this helps, Sparkle!

Art Show Participants

The girls had Assessments yesterday and were only at school for an hour and a half. They each had artwork that was selected for display at a district art show at the college library. They asked if we could go check it out after assessments. But, of course! And I made sure to remember my camera!

These first four pictures are of the artwork displayed from just our school! Very cool! Their art teacher is very good. She's eclectic and creative and to me is the perfect person for the job. I've seen a lot of the artwork on display around the school. It was very neat to see it on display at the college.

Here's Amy's piece. Love it!

Doesn't she look proud?

And this is Jessica's piece.

Pointing out this part, which is popped up

Looking very proud, as she should!

The classes study a particular artist and then create a piece of art based on what they learned from that artist.

 It's a far cry from the art I created in elementary school! 

We didn't have specials classes like the kids do today. Art was usually creating some sort of craft for a gift. And don't get me started on PE...I'm convinced I dislike running based on the lack of it I got in school and then they'd make us do the presidential fitness test where we'd have to run a mile...with no training, essentially. I just about passed out every time. We'd have to do as many situps and pullups as we could in a minute. 

Ugh. Shudder. Sigh.

Then we went to the children's library and checked out some books and movies.

A fun time for sure!

Thanks for looking!

 

Fruit Salad...Yummy, Yummy...

Do you know what song that is from and/or who sings it? It's one of my favorite kiddie songs, to be honest. LOL

Anyway, Jessica found a recipe for fruit salad online and asked, ever so sweetly, if we could make it. I gathered the fruits the other day and we finally had a good block of time today to get it done....

We started out with all this...

Did a little (okay, a lot) of this...

I made sure they were super careful with the knives, I promise!

A little sneaky, sneaky of some fruit...

Because it's just too hard to resist...

Love a strawberry juice mustache, don't you?

Added some powdered sugar and the juice of two oranges and one lemon, and tossed it all together 

to get this!

They are so pleased with how it looked...

And were understanding when Mommy put the bowl into the fridge so all the juices could intermingle as they need to.

So let's get goofy! You can't tell in the picture of the two of them above that Amy was giving Jessica bunny fingers. Mommy framed it so you couldn't see it. So Amy gave them to herself. Silly bunny!

Then she and Jessica wanted a picture with the bunny ears...Amy's trying to hide...yeah, right!

Just cuz she's so cute!

And now we all wait and anticipate a yummy, yummy fruit salad for dessert tonight!

And, just in case you didn't know the reference to the song, it's

Fruit Salad

by 

The Wiggles

(there's actually a video of the song linked above if you really want to hear it).

*Ü*

Look At What I Found!

I got an idea this morning, but wasn't sure if I would be able to find the item I needed in the right size. I thought it would be neat to have a work surface that was separate from the shelf unit. That way I wouldn't have to fiddle with being on one side or the other of the shelf unit and making sure my knees would fit into the cabinet space. Well, due to the size of the cabinet doors I couldn't use something larger than 36 inches long or the door wouldn't be able to fully open. That's why I wasn't sure if I could find something that would work, that's not very big. But I went to look anyway, armed with my trusty tape measure. I could not believe my luck in finding something at the first thrift store I stopped into. 

Granted, it's not really pretty or anything, but I think I might be able to dress up the sides or something if I really wanted. This desk/work surface was actually LESS than 36 inches long and...it was on clearance for $6.99! Works for me! I knew it was a little wobbly, but figured I could tighten the screws and it'd be fine. I actually needed to replace a few in the legs to ones that were longer, so the screw would have something to dig into (had some in the laundry closet right outside the room). A clean up with multi-purpose Windex helped quite a bit. I suspect hubby won't really like it (more clutter), but I sure do. AND I don't need to pull in another chair. The one we have in there is too short for me to use at the cabinet, but it'll work just fine if I sit here. Yay!

Did you happen to notice that lamp? That was my other lucky find at the same thrift store. The lamp base was the color tag that would be 50% off today, so I got it for $3.50! I fell in love with the spindle shape and that white dish at the bottom (it's all one piece). I picked up a plain white shade that I could probably dress up (while it wasn't a sale color, I figured I did well for the other two items, it'd be okay to pay the full price...LOL)  Check it out!

Unfortunately I couldn't put it to use today. The girls are off from school for the next few days, so it may have to wait until sometime next week before I can actually try out my new work area.

If you have any ideas on how to dress these up or if I should leave well enough alone, be sure to let me know!

Moving In *Ü*

Since the tub is now caulked and the house is fairly clean, I thought I would tackle the spare room, where my new crafty shelf unit lives. I took some pictures of what it looked like after I cleared out the desk I gave to Amy and Jessica and after I had to clear out the floor of the entry closet so Steve could get to the back of the tub.  Brace yourself, because it sure isn't pretty!

ARGGGHHHHH!

The paints you see are from my tole painting days. I don't know if they are any good anymore, but it seems like so much to get rid of, so I put them back in the closet where I have been storing them all these years.

When I've gotten a few minutes here and there, I've been slowly working on clearing out the items from the desk that I no longer needed or wanted. Yesterday I had a decent chunk of time and got a lot of it done. I have a big bag of trash and a big bag of donations...Yay!

This morning, I reloaded the entry closet with the items that belong in there.

And then I started bring in some items from the garage to have in the house. I'm not bringing in everything as there is not enough room, but I've tried selecting supplies/tools I use most frequently, or want to use more often in my crafting.

This is as far as I got today. I've got my acrylic blocks in the big wicker drawer in that shelf unit. Another drawer has ink pads like Versamark or those I own that are not CTMH. The other drawer is waiting for an idea of how to use it most effectively. I am seriously thinking of finding a new way to store the Cricut cartridges. Those boxes take up a lot of space! For now you can see where my work area will be. I thought about moving it to the other end, to be closer to those drawers, but I would need an extension cord or power strip to plug in the light. I want to put some embellishments in the glass jars (maybe buttons?) to have  pretty looking (and hopefully not too cluttered looking)storage.

Here you can see how my cardstock and smaller pads of pattern paper fit. That they all fit in there thrills me! I have to figure out something for the larger 12 x 12 pattern paper stacks I own. Maybe another paper holder or two when they go on sale will be able to hold the ones I really want to use.

This is the side where I'll be sitting. For now it's got sewing/crafty stuff in it (and not too neatly). I need to come up with some storage ideas here.

That's as much as I was able to get done before I had to get the girls from school. I'm hoping to be able to work on a card or two soon!

Thanks for stopping by. I did end up calling about the dogs that are barking so much. They were out super early this morning (like around 5am when I got up and let our dog out, so I got serenaded by their barking straightaway). The owners must be home from work today as they have been inside a lot or outside with him while he's been out there. I thought about saying something again, but chickened out. Animal Control is going to give/send them a notice about it. We'll see if it helps. I just feel really bad about complaining so soon. I'm probably getting the reputation of a cranky old lady who can't stand barking dogs. LOL 

Anyway, hope you've had a good day!

*Ü*

Oh, Joy! (not)

I have neglected to share with you that the two dogs who used to bark incessantly are gone! Yes, G O N E! They've been gone for about a month or so.

One would think I would have shared this with you, much earlier, with jumps for joy! I would have LOVED to have done that. Yes, I would! But, alas, I cannot. For you see, those dogs are gone, but some new dogs have been moved in. The house behind us has new renters. New renters who have two dogs. They have two dogs who bark. Yes, they do! They bark every single time we open the door to let our dog out. Or when the girls are in the back yard. Or when Steve goes out there to grill and mow the lawn. They bark if I have the door open to let in some fresh air and they hear me in my house. And just for grins and giggles, sometimes there are other dogs that come to visit...who also bark. And last night, they decided to leave those dogs outside...all. night. long. Sigh...Steve thinks I need to make a phone call, but honestly, I don't really want to start this all over again. 


On the flip side, they do pay way more attention to these dogs than the previous people did. I see the guys out there fairly often. And at night, they like to have bonfires in their grill. The first time I saw that, I was fearful they'd burn down their house...or maybe ours, but they keep it contained. I was all friendly with them one of the times they were outside and told them how much the previous dogs barked. I also mentioned their dogs barked whenever we went outside. They seemed like they would be on top of it, but if they are at work all day, they don't hear it. Me thinks I'm gonna have to be a bad guy and see if I can't talk to them about it (again) over the fence. Or learn to tune out constant barking once and for all.


What are the odds that when the other barkers left, new barkers would be moved in? 



I swear, I'm not a super picky person. I totally get that dogs bark. But barking like this...I don't know which is worse...incessant barking or barking when you are simply trying to live your life. 


If there is some lesson I'm supposed to learn, I wish I knew what it was. Patience? How to use ear plugs? Tolerance? I dunno. Oh joy.

Happy iNSD! (and other schtuff)

In case you didn't know, today, the first Saturday in May, is interNational Scrapbooking Day! Which means a day full of activities online and in some stores celebrating scrapbooking, both traditional and digital. Some online stores started sales yesterday and others will hold them all through the weekend. I've done my shopping and have been downloading my new goodies.

Not necessarily in honor of this event, I've been working on  a layout of Jessica at Build A Bear. I did manage to get it done last night and figured this is a great day to share it.

Please excuse the quality of the photos. We had to be at the Mall at a certain time and we were rushing to finish up dinner and get going. I realized about half way there, in the rush, I forgot my camera! 

(hanging head in shame)

I took these pictures with the camera on my phone and had a dickens of a time getting them off the phone and onto my computer so I could use them.

I used a template created by Cindy Schneider (set 34) over at Sweet Shoppe Designs as the base and all of the papers are from NitwitCollections Never Not kit and add-ons.

*****

I just have to say, sometimes being cheap (frugal, thrifty, whatever) can bite you in the butt. This is the case with the phone I selected when I upgraded back in January. I discovered I got some bad information from the salesperson who sold me the phone. I was told I could use a USB cable to transfer the photos I take on the phone to the computer. I wanted to do this because Steve and I don't text, nor do we want to. This would be a way around using messages to get the photos off the phone. I just found out from the maker of the phone that you cannot use the USB cable to do this at least not on the phone I have. No amount of talking to the store where I got the phone or the cell phone company I use would result in my being able to get a different phone because I am outside the buyer's remorse period. It doesn't matter I guess that I have gotten misinformation all along on the journey to finding out about the cable. Too bad, so sad is the attitude. So, I have a camera on my phone that can take pictures and IF I wanted to buy a messaging plan, that's the only way to transfer the pictures off of it. Sigh. And I can't get another upgrade for two years. 

The tub is ready to be re-caulked! Yay!

And, while we didn't have to buy a new surround for the tub, it turns out we have to fork out some money anyway. The van is in the repair shop as I type getting the water pump replaced. UGH! I guess we were destined to shell out some cash no matter what.

To end on a happy note, Amy had a Brownie sleepover last night. They were going to make a dinner (for a Try-It badge) and create crafts. When I picked her up this morning, she was waiting in line for the face painter they had come (maybe a friend of the hostess?) to give her a tattoo on her arm.

Check it out!

The butterfly on her face (which you know is what I am partial to) was painted by another Brownie. What you can't really see in the photo is the glitter on the butterfly OR the dragon.

She had a GREAT time!

That is priceless.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you have a happy, scrappy weekend!