Miss Amy's New 'Doo

Our neighbor cuts our hair. It's fabulous really. She's from Germany and was a hairdresser there before moving to the States. Anyway, she started wanting to cut our hair as a thank you for my watching their house when they go out of town. Pretty cool deal, huh? Well, for the past month or so, she keeps talking to me about Amy's hair. She wasn't happy about it at all. To her it looked stringy and straggly. The ends were super duper thin. Well, yesterday was the day to finally do something about it. Amy was up for it, so across the street we went.

To give you a refresher, here she is on the first day of school:

 And her she is now! Wow, what a difference, huh?!

She is quite happy with it and I think it looks adorable. It really "fits" her personality.  I'm not sure how dad feels about it (Guys with their thing for long hair, you know, and I'll never have long hair). Jessica likes it, but says she wouldn't cut her hair like this. I think it looks so much healthier. Oma told me she thinks the super thin hair was baby hair and now it's cut off. Sounds reasonable to me. 

I'll have some cards to share soon. I agreed to make the birthday cards for the staff at our school and the first batch is just about done.

Also, Erin G is in town today and should be arriving soon for a quick visit. Yay!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you are having a great week.

Haunted House WIP

Wow! Thanks so much for all the great comments you've left on my post yesterday. Gosh, it's great to know that you are still there and willing to encourage me after I've been MIA for so long. Thanks!

The card you all liked so well is one I saw wayyyyyy back in July and you can find it here (yep, I pretty much copied it). The other card is from the Hero Arts blog and I really liked the look of the embossing and then coloring/painting in the Perfect Pearls. It's from June...and you can find it here. Glad to have the credits taken care of for those cards.

I have to share that my hmmmmm....2 year or so wait for a particular tool is finally over and I'm thrilled (although my hubby isn't) to pieces. It went on sale at Hobby Lobby last week for an incredibly good price and I also had a Visa gift card in my wallet for $35, which I applied to my purchase, making the out of pocket cost that much better. What tool is it? Well, if you know me at all, I've mentioned a time or two (or three or four) that I wanted a Cricut Expression. And now I own one! Yippeeeee!

And I finally was able to make a project that is larger than 5.5 inches....in this case, the 3-D Haunted House on the Happy Hauntings cartridge. *Ü* Wanna see? I put in my title that it's a wip (work in progress) because I think I want to add some details to it, but am not sure. In the meantime, here it is put together (cut at 7 inches) I took a bunch of photos....

 Jessica made the witch's broom you see on the stoop. Cute, eh?

Really, it wasn't all that hard to do, just took some time and patience. I cut all the pieces out one day & started putting it together and then finished putting it together a second day. I used textured cardstock from Hobby Lobby (black) and some Co'ordinations cardstock (yellow). 

I think it needs a little more oomph, and am toying with the idea of adding some detail to it. What do you think?

The girls saw me working on this and wanted to make something, too, so Jessica picked out a witch and Amy the bat and I walked them through how to cut the pieces and put them together.

Fun, huh? They were quite tickled.

Today I had a little extra time that the girls were at school because Amy is in Choir again (92 kids in it this year) and Jessica joined the Jumprope club (61 kids) so they are both at school and extra hour on Tuesdays. I'm working on a few things during that extra time. Hopefully I'll have something to show for it soon.

Thanks ever so much for stopping by! I hope you are having a great week so far.

Hello Out There!

Well, hello to those who may still be checking in here!

I am still alive and kicking. Yay! I last posted in June...my goodness! Right after summer break started and now the girls are back in school. LOL We had a great summer together.

Amy's in 5th grade this year

Jessica is in 3rd grade.

Both girls are thrilled with their teachers and enjoying being back in school.

I'm trying to work my way back to trying to be creative.

Here are a couple of cards I've done over the past few weeks.

Both cards are pretty much copied from cards I've seen on blogs. Although at the moment, I can't tell you which blog. 

Unfortunately for me, I was a bit frustrated after completing each of these. They took longer than I anticipated and the process felt frustrating. I must be really rusty at creating, huh?

I don't know how consistently I will be able to create, but when I have something to share, I'll pop back in.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you have a great day!

Sum, Sum, Summertime...

Ooooooh weeeee, been just about a month since I last posted. Guess you can tell that blogging hasn't been high on the priority list these days, huh? And, for a while, when I attempted to add comments to the blogs I read, I couldn't for some reason or another, so I've taken to just reading all the blogs I subscribe to. Hopefully, that gives those who may be wondering a heads up on the lack of comments from me.

I have to share that I have absolutely ZERO creative mojo these days. None, nada, zilch. Don't know where it went, but wherever it is, it's hiding real well. As an example, I am trying really hard to crochet a baby blanket for a friend. I've already made a few from this pattern booklet and the patterns aren't hard. My plan was to have it done last week. (I started it around Memorial weekend) No mojo meant I didn't get that goal reached. I didn't even have the body done. So, there went that idea. The edging of this blanket is relatively easy, but I had to evenly space 119 single crochet stitches along the long sides of the blanket and 83 stitches along the short sides. No mojo meant that it was incredibly frustrating to figure out how to evenly space the stitches, and it took wayyyy longer than it should have. And once that was done, no mojo meant that the next few edging rows, which are incredibly easy  normally (basically a single crochet and a chain 5), have been pulled out a couple of times now because I made a silly mistake. At this rate, I'll be lucky to have it done by the end of summer break!

Since there are no creative efforts to share, I thought I'd share some pictures...

Playing in a new sprinkler thingamabob.  

Our backyard may actually be too small for how far this goofy thing sprays water. Some sprinkles got into the open door to the house!

Summer Break as started.

*Ü*

Jessica helping Daddy with the deck re-do. 

The deck pictures were taken on June 1st.

On June 8th...we have a gap!!!

On June 10th, the gap got bigger!

It was the strawberry that created the bigger gap. LOL

The girls and I are enjoying our summer break. So, for now, while the mojo is awol, I'm going to continue to enjoy this time with my girls and not stress about any lack of creating. 

So, if you don't see anything from me for a while, you know why. I hope you have a great summer with your family. 

Wow...It's Been A While...

It's definitely been longer than I thought it would be since I last posted. Anyone still out there? I guess I wouldn't blame you if you felt like moving on to other blogs. I have spent a lot of time working on the cross stitching projects and have made good progress. School's almost out and activities have ramped up before the last day which have taken up my time and finally, my computer has had some issues where I couldn't access the internet much. Topping it off, accessing from Steve's computer didn't work well either. Add that all together and I simply haven't been around much. Thankfully, the computer issue wasn't a virus or anything bad like that. I think a security program didn't like playing with the internet.

Thought maybe you'd like to see the project I spent so much time working on.

I hope you are doing well and enjoying your spring (or fall) as the case may be. 

Sweet & Sassy Girls

The girls and I had a Mommy/Daughter Date courtesy of Jessica's Brownie Troop. All I knew going into this was to go to a particular address (a 45 minute drive, give or take). I mistakenly thought it was a deal that included both moms and daughters, but when we got there, I quickly realized this was a place strictly for the younger girls. *Ü* The place is called Sweet & Sassy and must be a wanna-be fashionista's paradise. hee, hee. The girls got glammed up and put on a little fashion show.

 The girls were ushered to a back room where they put on a fancy dress of their choosing. They also got to select a nail polish. Here my girls are waiting for whatever will happen next...

 The girls started out sitting next to each other and then before I knew it, they were on opposite sides of the stage. LOL I got to do a lot of rushing back and forth to get pictures.

 Nails, first. Then hair!

 You may or may not be able to tell here, but after they Aqua Netted and teased the heck out of the hair, they sprayed on GLITTER! Then they added a glittery star.

 I could NOT resist taking this shot of a brother who was drug into the place. I'm sure it was the very last place HE wanted to be. 

(I think he's actually watching a video that was playing on a tv...but seriously, isn't this the funniest look, and oh so typical of a boy in a very girly place?)

 Jessica's turn!

 Here comes the glitter!

I don't think she minded a bit! 

 I think Miss Amy is pretty happy, too.

And the fashion show! Watch out Project Runway. 

***

The girls also got to dance to a couple of songs and form a human knot that they had to work together to get out of without letting go of each others' hands. (they earned a patch for their vests by doing this) 

Such a girly day, but both girls had a blast.

They were going to Olive Garden for lunch, but it was getting late, so we opted to leave and pick up lunch at Wendy's before making the trek back home.

I noticed that they had areas for hair cuts, and getting nails and pedicures done (like the big girls do). As we were leaving there was a party of girls who were just about to start with that. They got to don some pretty cute robes. There were areas for making your own lotion and even lip gloss. Oh my...kind of like Build A Bear, but for girls.

Guess who wants to go back?

*Ü*

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you enjoyed sharing this fun time with us.

Now I gotta get back to cross-stitching.

Hee, hee!

My Cute Alligator

Hi There!

Long time no see, right? I know...I've not been blogging and while still reading blogs, not always commenting. Nothing is wrong, just not doing much papercrafting these days. I figured I'd better pop in and say hey, just in case anyone was wondering.

Last night, Jessica's grade level did their musical play, A Froggy Day in Lindentown for the parents. It was adorable. It was about a bully and how the critters got the bully to stop being a bully. The songs were very sweet and the kids looked great. I took pictures and a few of them came out okay. I edited out the other kids pretty much.

Jessica had a speaking part and remembered her lines well. She also spoke very clearly so you could understand what she was saying. Yay! The kids were all different animals and the nurse for the school made each of them headbands to wear. They looked great. Anyway, it was fun to watch. Thanks for indulging my proud mama moment.

One of the reasons I've not been papercrafting is because I've started a few new counted cross stitch projects. I used to do a lot of cross stitching in years past, but I kind of dropped it after my mom passed away. She and I used to stitch together or we were planning our next projects together. It was hard to do after she was gone. But, as time has gone on I've done projects here and there (I recently made a birth record for Kathi's granddaughter) and I'm rediscovering how much I enjoy it. I think my mom would be happy to see me pick it up in earnest again (especially since I seem to have lost my mojo for crochet/knitting for the time being). 

So, anyway, Amy's teacher is going to have a baby over summer break and Jessica's teacher is going to get married and those events are ripe for fun stitching projects. I've been looking and looking for something to make for each of them and not having a whole lot of luck finding something I like. Well, I came upon my box of cross stitch patterns in our shed and went through them. Yay! I found projects I think would be great for these events. But, school's out next month! So, that means, if I want to get these done, I've got to stitch, stitch, stitch every spare minute I've got. And papercrafting has to take a back seat for the time being.

Here's what I've gotten done so far for Amy's teacher. It's called Recipe for a Happy Child.  I started this project last Thursday. And I found an 11 x 14 frame at the thrift store that I hope to use for it. That should give you an idea of the size of this one.  Most of the main stitching is done on the bottom half, which is what I'm working on now. Once I get that done, the words/lettering shouldn't take too long. And the project(s) I have in mind for Jessica's teacher aren't quite as large, so I'm hoping I haven't bitten off more than I can chew. I'm also waiting on another teacher to find out her "colors" so I know which will work best for her project. Wish me luck!

So, if you don't see me around much for the next month or so, I hope you'll be patient. I don't think that anyone would be all that interested in progress photos. If there's something I just have to share, I'll pop in and let you know.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you are having a good week!