My New Toy...

I have owned an original Cricut for many many years. And while I love it, the allure of the new bright shiny Cricut Explore Air 2 was more than I could handle.

I tinkered around for a little while. Made a quick card and personalized my favorite coffee mug.

I can't wait to spend more time creating fun things.

Hmmm...

As my kiddos like to say "I got nothing"!

Throughout the day I think about things I could and should blog about, but never seem to pull the whole thought together. Probably because I jump to the next topic in my brain.

I thought about posting a list of goals for 2011...but that seems to set me up for feeling like a failure when I don't achieve all the goals.

One goal I absolutely MUST achieve in the early part of 2011 is to become more technologically savvy. I am working on building a web-site through WordPress and feel totally lost. There seems to be this stigma (at least in my mind) that if I spend 4, 5 or 6 hours on the computer that I have wasted my day.

Anyhoo...I need to go do something more constructive than ramble here on my blog. If you would like to watch the evolution of my web-site the URL is http://www.mjbusinesssolutions.com/ and if you have any suggestions or tips on how to learn all this techno mumbo jumbo I am all ears.

Have a great day and as Peggy says...count your Blessings every single day!!!

Wow, now that's a giveaway...

I new gadget! I know you think you don't have room, or you already have a machine that does that...but the Silhouette is totally amazing...and they're giving one away!  Check out Little Birdie Secrets for the details.  This Wednesday is the last day...so hurry.  Good Luck!

Organization...ahhhhh

A beautiful friend of mine (thanks Ma) invited us to her lovely home yesterday to craft.  She has extended an invite before, but I was never able to accept.  My daughter, Mom and myself arrived a little before lunch yesterday. 

When she opened the door we were greated by her gentle giant, Brody.  Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of Brody.  He is the size of a large laborador but with the colorings of a border collie, with soft fur to match.  He immediately took a liking to my daughter...probably because she plopped herself down in the doorway and began petting him...and didn't stop for the next 20 minutes.

Lana gave me the grand tour of her home...absolutely beautiful!  Simple, clean, very welcoming!  Lana is very very creative.  Example, in her master bath she bought two fabric shower curtains so she would have enough to make the style of shower curtain SHE wanted plus matching curtains for the windows.  She made the quilt/bedspread for her bed, so pretty.  Also inside her entry way is an old-fashioned crank phonograph player, and it still works!

I love everything country and her house is right up my alley! Everything matched, was clean and put away and it was sprinkled with antiques...what's not to love!

Now I have to tell you my favorite part aka le pista resistance'!!!  Her crafting room!  So organized and functional.  I guess this is the feeling people had when the Beatles came to town.  I want my entire world THIS organized!!   Not only did everything have a place, it was in its place, labeled and still looked inviting...not utilitarian.  I was so inspired I didn't make a single card but I cleaned out and sorted my scrap paper box...yeah!  I think the thing that most impressed me was while she purchases everyday things from the store for storage and/or decoration she alters them to work the best in her situation (take the 2 shower curtains for example).

Her craft room is probably 10 x 12' and the amount of crafting material and tools that are not only stored, but easily accessible in her room...WOW!  I could go on and on (obviously)...I didn't even tell you about her creations adorning the walls in her basement aka friend crafting studio. 

Lana and my Mom are both wonderful, crafty women...if you would like to check out their blogs just click on their names.  I hope you are inspired, just as I am.  Right now I'm going to go through a few more (of many many) magazines to pull out the articles I NEED and pitch the ones I don't.  Happy Organizing!!!

Stitches in time...

As many know I have many many interests; paper crafting, baking/cooking, reading, animals, family and so on.  Life is so short, shouldn't we try to enjoy as many "things" as we can?!  I used to sew alot when the kids were smaller.  I enjoyed home decor mostly.  Made all the curtains in my living room (there are 7 reg. size and 2 small ones), small lap quilts, speaker covers...things like that.  Also made a few outfits for Mo, some PJs for the family one year, too.

My sewing machine has been closed up in its cabinet for a few years now.  All I sew lately are buttons.  Kinda miss it actually.  My blog following list reflects my many interests.  This morning I happened on one who decided to turn her passion for creating into a business...as many women (and men) have done.  After all they say if your passionate about what you do, you'll never "work" a day in your life.  She has a great giveaway going so if you're curious why don't you stop over at the Princess' Blog  I'm planning on buying the Old Blue Eyes pin...very pretty!

Have a wonderful day everyone...take time to enjoy something your passionate about today, we never know what tomorrow will bring.

Tax season is over...yeah!!!

This tax season has been one of the toughest I've been through.  Not sure if it's because so many people either owed or were not getting back as much as they were hoping or if it's because I did over 200 returns in about two months plus all of my regular work.  No matter what the reason I am sooo glad it's over.  Still have to get the returns done who filed extensions, but at least I can breath for a bit. 

After cleaning up the dinner dishes and getting a load of clothes going I felt I had earned some time to craft.  I straightened my area a bit and was surprised once I got started how many things I got done in a relatively short amount of time (about 4 hours). 

First I put together a couple cards using "pictures" I had stamped at my Mom's.

The first image is of these adorable little bees...they look drunk to me...hehe.  But either way their still so cute.  I'm sorry I don't know the maker of the stamp.  I added a strip of CM paper ribbon on top of yellow to bring it all together.  Simple, but that's me!

This little girls is so cute! I wanna say she's a Nelli, but I'm not sure.  At one of my Mom's get togethers Terri brought some paper to share. This spring inspired background paper was one of my choices (thank you Terri).  I added some paper posies from CM and used Crystal Accent for the first time to accent the center.

Next I thought I should do some scrapbooking (my first love).  So I pulled out some pictures from my son's 10th birthday party.  As usual I had more pictures than space. After some decisions and cropping I still needed more room.  So I decided to add a 7x7 page to the edge of my 12x12...I think it's kinda cool.  As you can see I'm a rather plain crafter.  I tend to be a logical thinker and like my pages to be about the pictures.  While I certainly love to look at pages and cards with lots of beautiful elements I am not able to do that.  It requires to much thinking and takes the fun out of it for me...so plain it is.

Lastely, I made this super cool bow.  It's easier to make than it looks.  The directions called for using old magazines, but since I was crafting I decided to use designer paper to make my designer bow. Even if your not interested in learning how to make it check out the link...her blog has some neat stuff.  A little something for everyone I think.

OK, now I'm tired!  Sure did feel good to craft a little though.  Thanks for stopping by...

Now that's Blog candy...

This is my first attempt at linking for blog candy. If you scrapbook or rubber stamp...you have to check this out! http://priscillastyles.blogspot.com/

Good Luck!!!

Blog candy...

Here is a link for an amazing opportunity to win some great paper crafting goodies. Her blog is amazing as well...enjoy looking around.

http://passionforcrafts.blogspot.com/2009/04/blogoversary-candy.html

Crafty time...

I have been working a lot lately with W-2s, quarterlies, etc...both at work and with my own clients. So after I finished one of my clients year end paperwork (still have 2 to go) I decided to spend some time crafting. My Mom gave me 2 nestabilities sets and I really wanted to try them.

I love coffee! I don't think it's so much the taste, unless your talking about a Cafe' Mocha, as it is what it symbolizes. When you grab a cup of coffee it's usually an excuse to relax, if only for a moment or two. My girlfriend, Tammi, and I used to enjoy coffee in the morning when our kids were little, while we'd catch up on the gossip and gripe about our hubby's. I think my favorite time is in the morning of what you know is going to be a hot summer day but the air is just cool enough to sit outside, read the morning paper and sip a cup 'o java. On the card I used my square nestabilities and my house mouse stamp. Don't you just love those little guys? Too bad they weren't so loveable in real life!

Hard to believe Valentine's Day is almost here. I had some striped paper in my scrap box that seemed to say Valentines's. When I was a little girl I used to cut out hearts and snowflakes...they were my favorites...ooops forgot about the paper chains. [Didn't you love those paper chains Mom?!] I used the Loads of Love stamp set from SU. I just colored both images with my Prisma penciles I got for Christmas. I'm not a fancy scrapper/card maker...but then again I'm not a fancy person.

Thanks for stoppin' by my blog. I hope you and your family are feeling well and surviving the financial crunch our beloved country is in. God Bless!!

Baby, it's cold outside...

It's sooo cold outside this weekend. Mom helped me get revved up for the holidays when we went Christmas shoppping on Friday. I haven't done anything except buy a few gifts on "Black Friday", amazing huh...it's what the 7th of December?! So I told the kids we were going to get our Christmas cards made this weekend. So we drug everything to the kitchen table and in between the pancake breakfast at the church, a "quick" trip to WV and church service this morning I think we succeeded. Granted, it just dawned on me all of the things I didn't get done...check register for attorney, treasurers report for band boosters, just to name a couple...and Jon's band concert is tomorrow and my band booster meeting is Tuesday...but my cards are done!!! We made lots of cards, some money/gift card holders and even some tags. We had a good time singing carols and just being together. I guess I should make a list so I can keep everything straight.

By the way, does anyone know where I can pick up a couple extra hours?! haha

Card #2

This was so easy! Why does it seem soooo simple sometimes and other times I stare at the blank card wondering where to begin. I put this one together while the potatoes were cooking for dinner. Maybe it helps that it's been an amazing day. I worked from home so I was able to spend extra time with my precious son. It was very breazy today which afforded me the opportunity to dry most of my clothes on the line....how I love to do that. And I ended the evening canning 15 pints of yellow string beans. What a GREAT DAY!!!!

Bella in Boots...

Here's my first uploaded card to my gallery at Splitcoaststampers.com. The first time I saw these Bella stamps I fell in love with them. There are Bellas for every walk of life...even men.

I used waxed paper resist for the green triangles and just colored the Bella and matted her in black.

It's very hot and humid here today I guess that's why I wanted to think about the coolness of winter.