A Couple of More Pool Layouts...

Hey there! Breakfast was yummy. After I did my grocery shopping, guess where the girls and I went today...the pool! Big surprise, huh? LOLWe picked up a couple of new tubes on clearance yesterday after the girls played with the ones some kids were willing to share. The mom told me where to find them. She was super appreciative of the hand pump I had in my bag, because she was trying to blow a couple of them up herself. Steve had thrown it into my bag before we leftjust in case our dollar store ones sprung a leak. Anyway, the girls wanted to try out their new bright pink "floaties" today. I didn't bring my camera this time, but after we got home, I finished up the layouts I had started yesterday.

I used the same kit as yesterday's to keep the flow going. The templates are also from Kay Miller Designs. I did recolor a couple of things though. The blue paper was originally pink and the button was originally orange. Love that I can change the color to better work with the layout.

Not a lot of journaling because I think they pretty much speak for themselves. You can see Jessica on the borrowed floatie. Picture the same thing, only in pink. LOL

Now it's time to start supper. We are having tacos tonight. Yum! I am so appreciative that Amy helps me by chopping up the tomatoes and puts the taco shells on a baking sheet to warm up. Makes quick work of getting tacos ready to eat.

Hope you have a great start to your week~thanks so much for taking a few minutes to see what we've been up to.

Around the House...

Hello there! While I am hoping to get some crafty time today, I thought I'd show you a couple of this *growing* around the house these days.

While I guess I don't like spiders, I'm not freaked out by them. I can smoosh them with no problem. I'm always fascinated by the webs they create and we've been privvy to one rather large one being built by a persistent spider on our carport. He (she?) first built one in a different corner earlier in the week, but we had a gully washer of a thunderstorm and Steve was trying to clear out the gutters so the water would flow out better. In doing so, he managed to destroy the first web. This guy (gal?) wasn't to be deterred from building a web in the same general vicinity and got to work right away spinning another, even larger one. These are my attempts to capture what it looks like. You may have to click on the photos to make them larger to "see" it.

Pretty cool, huh? Well, I'm glad I got these anyway...

Here's a plant or two or three or four that Steve has grown. I might have mentioned a while ago there was this plant growing in a neighbor's front yard that Steve was very enamored with. He would try to get the seeds from the plant and grow them, no luck. He'd try to see if he could get a runner and start it that way. No luck. He put his computer searching skills to work and found the plant name online (I don't know what it is, sorry). To his delight, he actually found the plant last year. He planted it in a pot and nurtured it in the house over the winter. (which actually means, I watered it along with the other houseplants, but doesn't the description sound better?) When the weather warmed up this spring, he put the pot on our deck and waited to see what would happen. It apparently was pretty happy with the loving care (ie watering) it got over the winter and enjoyed the sunlight it received on the deck. We are starting to get blooms now and I thought I'd better capture one while I could. LOL It is rather pretty, don't you think. I think Steve gets a bigger kick out of the fact that the bloom is some sort of opiate or hallucenogenic I believe. LOL He has planted portions of this beauty all around, but the one in the pot has taken off the most.

Lots more blooms in the wings!
And this is a quick shot of my erm...garden. LOL I haven't spent much time out here keeping it in check, but I rather like the sort of wild look, too.

Thanks for stopping by. Breakfast is ready and I must go eat. LOL

Amy on Her Floatie~Digi Layout

Happy Saturday to you! I did something creative today...yay! Of course, this was after I took the girls to the pool. LOL I actually had my camera in my purse this time and managed to capture some fun moments.

(Credits: Kay Miller Template Collection 12, Summer Splash Kit and Add Ons from NitwitCollections and Pea Tracy font).

This was the first time I had my camera with me, and also the first time the girls remembered to bring floaties. Amy had so much fun trying to keep afloat on her little Strawberry Shortcake Dollar Store ring. I took one of Jess on her frog, but it's way too blurry to use, darn. I have some other pictures and a couple of more layouts in the works already and will post them when I can get them finished.

Sandy and Jeff had to leave really early on Thursday morning as Jeff's mom had some complications from her illness (pre-leukemia something or other I believe Sandy said) and they needed to get back. It was fun spending the few days we had with them. I took the girls to the city pool (the one with the slides) in the afternoon (no pictures though). Yesterday, Steve finished off his week long vacation and we decided to go to Heritage Square, which now has an amusement park. The girls had fun riding some of the rides they offered. We didn't do all the offerings, but it was fun for the girls none the less. Heritage Square's chapel is where Steve and I got married 13 years ago (as of July 20th). Although I saw the last time we were there that the chapel had been turned into a store. Not sure if that's changed again as we didn't check it out, we spent our time in the amusement park area.

So, the summer fun continues. Yay! *Ü*

The girls go back to school on the 19th. I just got the community newsletter and already have a list of days that they don't go to school! Goodness, they have something like 5 days off by September 18th, I think. Two days are set aside for Assessment (meaning the girls go only during their appointed time one day for like an hour to an hour and a half max). One day off is for Labor Day, they have the Tuesday after Labor Day off (don't know why) and September 18th is a District Wide inservice day. Oh my! LOL

Hope you are having a great Saturday and that the rest of your weekend is full of summer fun!

Screeeeeeech.....

Stopping by real quick to let you know I haven't completely fallen off the face of the blogosphere!

Summer weather has decided to make a comeback after a week or so of very cool temps and rain, so I've been taking the girls to the local pool for swim time almost every day. Hey, they cool off and it's cheap entertainment. I sit under the umbrella and work on whatever handwork I've got going, so I think it's a win-win. *Ü* (even though I've not made it out to my craft room at all recently)

Then yesterday afternoon, Steve's sister, Sandy and her hubby, Jeff rolled into town on their motorcycle. They live in Sioux Falls and went to Sturgis (a big motorcycle rally) for a couple of days and took a huge detour to come visit us for a few days. If all goes well, they will head back to the rally for a few more days after they leave here and then they'll head home. It was really iffy that they would even come our way as Jeff's mom is ill, but she told them they should follow their vacation plans.

So, after a yummy breakfast at Gunther Toody's this morning, we took them to...can you guess? No...not miniature golfing...but to Bass Pro Shop (to see the huge kittycat fish) and then the Museum of Nature and Science. We didn't get tickets for Expedition Health as open times were too late in the afternoon, but we managed to have a good time showing them around the museum anyway. LOL

Before all that happened, you would not believe who was willing to take a quick spin on Jeff's motorcycle this morning. You might be surprised....take a peek...

Amy apparently said, No way! But Jess was game. She said it was a little bit scary, but a lot of fun, too.

So, that's the in a nutshell update to let you know all is well and good, just a tad busy. Hope to see you again soon, but in the meantime, thanks for your patience as this thing called Life keeps me hopping.

Drive By Post...

Happy Wednesday to you! It's Wednesday already? Yikes! LOL I've got no artwork to share, but thought I'd pop in anyway to say hi!

I can safely say this summer has been quite enjoyable and we still have about 3 1/2 weeks or so until the girls head back to school. I think this has been one of the best times I've spent with my girls. I love it!

On Sunday I was in a "mood" and didn't head out to my craft room. Could have been PMS or just that I needed some downtime after working so hard on getting the room set up. I headed to the bookstore instead and enjoyed looking at various titles. When I'm feeling "moody" this seems to help me work through it. I have been reading a bit more (various subjects) and enjoying it. One of the books I read (I've had the book for a long time, just haven't taken the time to read it) was about organizing (something I aspire to be and haven't quite gotten there). I like to read different titles on the subject and usually find a nugget or two that inspires me. I also like reading in front of the girls so they can see Mommy practices what she preaches! (well, I don't preach, but you know what I mean). Anyway, as the start of the school year approaches, I keep going through in my mind some of the things I'd like to accomplish during the day while the girls are in school. I am looking forward to working on establishing more habits that will help me feel better organized. So, reading this book motivated me a bit.

So much so, in fact, that yesterday, I made a deal with the girls. Their room is a mess. No way around that fact. The girls share a room and that means double the amount of "schtuff" crammed in there. Add to that, they are reluctant to part with things. Well, I go in and clean it up, but then they don't have anything vested in the upkeep. So I decided to entice them to help me out (okay...maybe it was a bribe...whatever). I told them if they gave me a couple of hours in the room, with no griping or complaining and if they gave a good faith effort to give up some things, then I'd take them to do something they wanted to do. They wanted to go minature golfing again. So that was our deal. And before we started I asked them how the room made them feel, what they'd like to DO in there and what they would need to do to get to that point. All this really seemed to motivate them!

It took the better part of the day and two quick trips to Goodwill, but you can SEE the floor right now and everything is picked up off of it! Yay! I was impressed at how well they were able to part with some items that were just taking up space. While we didn't get through every single little thing, we managed to plow through a good chunk of the room and did I say...I made two trips to Goodwill to donate? (it helps that the Goodwill opened up a huge store and donation center about 5 minutes from our house? LOVE that-makes it quick and easy to drop off items before you have a chance to second guess your decisions-LOL).

I think it also helped that a cold front moved through the state and it was cloudy and only in the low 70s (if that). So it wasn't an unbearable task either. And the girls and I DID get to the miniature golf course and had a blast playing for an hour or so.

They were quite excited to show their dad when he got home from work. Now to work on keeping it this way...hopefully! That's gonna require effort on my part to establish a better pick up routine. Baby steps, right?

So that's what we've been up to, in addition to our usual activities.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope your week is productive and happy!

Photo Editing Link...

Dang, I knew there was something else I wanted to share. That's what being distracted gets me.

You may have noticed my photos look a bit different. I came across a photo editing tutorial on Splitcoast the other day, and decided to try her tips for myself. You need Photoshop Elements or something similar to do this, but it may be worth a look see. Let me know what you think.

Here's the tutorial on Splitcoast. It's spread over a few posts in the thread.

Okay...I'm really done now. Ha, ha!

Three Cards to Share Today...

Hi again!

Dinner's done so I can work on posting today's creations. Boy! It sure felt good to do some creating. This may get long and full of links, so make sure you are comfy if you want to read it all. Or just skip to the photos, if you'd rather. LOL

Amy went horseback riding, up in Estes Park today, with her Brownie Troop. She had a great time! She said her horse, Mason, pooped, peed and tooted a lot. The troop paid for the girls (including lunch), but if we wanted to go it was $35 a piece. Because of that and I want her to learn to be independent and learn to behave well away from us, I opted not to go. Steve took Jessica out for a couple of hours, too, so I had some quality time to play. Yay!

This is the third card I made today, but I decided to share it first. I pretty much cased this lovely card by Joanne of Mainly Flowers. I loved those little flowers with the pearls on them.

I didn't have the tiny flowers, but I have a small flower punch so I used that and I used a large balled stylus to rub the center and make the petals pop up a bit. They are adhered with glue dots. I didn't have a true vine type of stamp, so I improvised with this border stamp from the All About Borders stamp set by Inkadinkado. It's stamped with Sweet Leaf ink. The striped paper is from DCWV's Spring Matstack and the scalloped edge is from EK Success. Happy Birthday is stamped in Sweet Leaf and is from CTMH's Happy Birthday stamp set. I really like how it came out even though I decided not to add the ribbon like Joanne used.

This next card is cased from this one by Bonnie of The Lucky Clucker.
Hopefully, it's not too hard to see that I used my Cuttlebug to emboss an acetate card. I got the clear cards from Archiver's a long time ago and came across the package during the move. I don't know if they even carry them anymore. I used Basic Grey's new Lemonade 6x6 pad, Kiwi and Vineyard Berry cardstock (both CTMH). My Fiskar's scallop punch provided the edge. The flowers were a find at Michaels in the Designer's Corner. They are Prima flowers from the Nursery Collection. I think the store is clearancing them out now, though. The ribbon is American Crafts and the stamp set is Birthday Basics by Papertrey Ink.
One has to be a smidge creative to create a space for the sentiment inside. I used a scrap piece of the same paper and cut it just a tad smaller than the front piece, so it wouldn't show when the card is closed.

It wasn't hard to emboss the acetate, but I found the card wants to curl after you do it. There may be a better way to avoid that, but I just rolled it in the opposite direction to try to straighten it a bit.

My final card is from a find I discovered on the internet a week or so ago from Stamping Mutt. Because I am so loving the digital stamps, I was tickled to see this resource list for digital sites. Anyway...if you scroll down toward the bottom of the list, you will see this Sarah Kay link for free printable coloring pages! Granted there aren't a ton of them, but enough to satisfy my urge to color Sarah Kay images. Here's my first attempt.
I am absolutely thrilled at how this card turned out! I used that same Basic Grey Lemonade pad (as in the previous card above) for the paper and that helped me decide which colors to use. I colored it with Kohinoor and Prismacolor pencils and oms (odorless mineral spirits). The background is also colored and blended with pencils and oms. My recently purchased and clearance priced EK Success border punch called GH Petals (found at Michaels) added a nice touch. The flowers are Prima, the glittered brads are Paper Studio (from Hobby Lobby) with jewelry spacers (Hobby Lobby again), and the dangly flower is from Michaels. I feel a smidge like Sparkle in my creation of this card! *Ü*

I did a little bit on the inside, too, as you can see.

Whew...while typing this post I got interrupted by two phone calls from Steve. He and the girls took the bike trailer (with Buster in it) and rode their bikes over to the dog park (remember where I dumped those mice near the girls' school??). On the way home, they were caught in a downpour, so the second call was for me to come and get them. It took two trips! Where it was pouring rain over there, just a few blocks away at our house it wasn't raining hard at all. LOL Then I had to help make Amy's bed so she could go to sleep in comfort tonight.

I think I'm done...if you got this far, thanks for sticking with me! Hope you have a great rest of your weekend!