My holiday fun

It's Labor Day weekend.  This is the weekend I think my kids look forward to because it is the first long weekend since school started.  Yes, selfish since they don't really understand what the holiday signifies, but real!  Me?  Well, I am looking forward to the weekend too.  Really I'm looking forward to not having to make lunches.  I hate making lunches for school.  They never, never want what you have for lunch.  They never eat what you pack.  I get it, but come on.  Give mom a break!  I am lucky that they do make their lunches most days (except the little guy).

On to the weekend.....I am teaching today at Scrapp n' Savvy.  This is my Pinterest inspired class and today it is called Clip and Dangle.  There are so many cute homemade pin boards and note boards on Pinterest.  It inspired me to make the religious ones that I posted a few months back but also these really cute picture clip boards.

There are so many possibilities.  I am planning on making a larger one to hold recipes while I work in the kitchen.  In the picture the cream stand holding the pictures is the "clip" and the cork ornaments is the "dangle".  The cork ornaments are all over Pinterest.  I have a dear friend who has been collecting corks for many, many years in hopes of doing some cute, fun project.  For now though, they are in a large box in her pantry.  Good for me.....I got to dig through and find cute corks for this project!  Yes, I know.  This sounds like the perfect excuse to open a bottle of vino with the girls.  All in the name of crafting!  I'll get to that this weekend!

I am praying for those in Louisiana and surrounding states hit by the hurricane.  How much water can they take?  My prayer seems a bit, well, selfish I guess.  You see, there is this scrapbook convention in Mandeville, Louisiana in 2 weeks.  Sits right on the north shore of Lake Ponchartrain.  Selfish.  I really want to go.  Have made kits to sale and everything.  New crop bag to take goodies in (it's been years since I have gone to a crop night).  Plans for what I can bring to crop.  Plans for a good bottle of wine with the girls at the end of a great crafting day.  So....prayers for those people.  They really need them.  But also prayers for those of us heading there for convention.  We need that time too.  And just think of the money we can pump into that local economy!  I'm prepared to do my part!

Well ladies.  I hope you have a great weekend.  Spend some time with family, craft, but mostly enjoy your time.  Check back next week for some new craftiness!

My heart skipped a little beat

I'm a mother.  No, more of a mom really.  No formality.  Just lots of love and fun.  I have this sixth sense when it comes to my kids.  A gut feeling I guess you might call it.  I think when you become a mother (by birth or adoption - you still become a mother) God drops this extra sense to you.  We like to joke that He gives us extra guardian angels that whisper to us mothers!  Somehow, someway a mother just knows.  So last night when the phone rang at 1130 pm I jumped.  Oh boy did I jump!

There has been some shuffling in our house recently.  The oldest went off to college and the vultures started moving!  Middle child took the oldest child's room, youngest child took the middle child's room, mom took the youngest child's room, etc....  There is still a designated room for the oldest don't worry!  But, this shifting has had one very pleasant outcome for me.  When the hubby starts snoring (which will happen since we live in the allergy capital of Texas!!!) I can move upstairs to a bed.  A real bed.  Not the sofa.  Not the floor.  It is pure heaven!!  Such was the case last night.

I had just drifted off to sleep when I heard the phone ring.  Of course, there was no phone upstairs.  By the time I stumbled downstairs, without my glasses, the phone had stopped.  Ugh!  Good thing we have caller id.  I just had this gut feeling it was the oldest child.  Sure enough!  As I called him back my nerves ramped up.  He didn't pick up immediately either.  Nerves ramped up some more.  Then when he does pick up he seems utterly confused as to why I'm calling him.  He butt-dialed me.  Really?  For heaven's sake lock the screen or something!  And then the lovely little guy says "oh, did I wake you?"  Really?????  It's late.  Late for me.  Now I'm awake.  Fully awake.  Had not spoken to him in what, 24 hours or more.  But he was off to play frisbee so he couldn't talk right now.  Frisbee.  At midnight.  Oh, how I remember those days!

It is an incredibly strange sensation to know that for 18 years I have been solely responsible for knowing everything about this child and now he is on his own.  He is an adult.  He makes his own choices and does not have to check in with me.  He is smart and very responsible but it is strange for me.  He has been gone a week now and I have limited myself to only a few closet crying sessions.  I have limited myself to a few calls and only for "important" things.  Texts, well, I have texted him more than once a day I admit.  But I am allowed to.....I'm his mom!

Needless to say but after my adrenaline rush of the phone episode I was awake.  Completely, not falling asleep anytime soon awake!  What would any good crafter do in this situation?  Yep, craft!  I have been working on projects for next quarters classes and still had some design issues.  Not anymore!  Midnight was good.  I worked out a few kinks in my plans, got the logistics of projects down, and simplified a rather hard project so I think I can put it on the list for next quarter.  Yeah!  Feeling good, tired, but good.

Today is the last class I teach for the vintage beach suitcase.  I can hardly wait.  This one has been so much fun.  I love watching the ladies transform the parts to make their own suitcase.  The look of accomplishment on their face is wonderful.  I am planning another suitcase for Christmas and I think it will be adorable.  Tune in for pics of that closer to Christmas.  After class I am headed to my grandparents.  They are in their 90's.  Amazing.  I am hoping to see my newest baby cousin as they will be in town today.  I find I really enjoy visiting with my grandparents now.  I love hearing all the stories of them growing up.  Just mind boggling the things they have done, have seen.

It's going to be a great day.  Even though my heart skipped a little beat late last night, I know today will be great.  Family and crafting - yeah!  Hope your day is special too.

Ah, the good old days

This weekend was one of those emotional roller coaster kinds.  The hubby and I delivered our first born to COLLEGE!  Oh man.  Talk about emotions.

To start with, it is an 8 hour drive (maybe a bit more with snack stops).  We left early Saturday morning.  Just hubby, college child, and myself.  All the others stayed at the house.  My little man has been crying for 2 weeks just because he is going to miss his big brother.  That alone has put me on tear alert.  Like I needed an excuse!  I mean really.....I'm going to miss his big brother too!  Anyway, after the day long drive we finally arrived.  A friend told me that sometimes they let the kids move in the night before but that is "unofficial" and we just have to show up.  Armed with that tidbit of info I suggested that we drive by his dorm to just take a look.  Yep.  Won the lottery on that one!!!  No lines.  Parked right in front of building.  Unloaded all the stuff.  Got first pick of beds in the tiny room.  College kid got first taste of what life will be without mom and maybe a bit of vice versa.

I think the last sentence there is important.  I tend to be a crier.  I cry when I'm happy, when I'm sad, when others are happy, when others are sad, well, you get the picture.  I cry.  It's me; just who I am.  My mom is this way too.  So, I have been trying very hard to focus on all the positives.  I don't want the boy to think his momma is going to cry the whole time he is gone (or at least he doesn't need to know that!)  I think that the unloading of all the stuff then having the evening and the next morning to just chill with him was the absolute best thing ever.  I was not stressed about having to battle the lines of students or chaos that happens on move in weekend.  It was nice.  Also, having had a good look at the room we realized a few little things we had not brought with us so there was time Sunday morning to pick them up.

So, sometime around noon yesterday, we left.  Left my beautiful baby boy at college.  I shed a few tears but managed to keep my composure for the most part.  Last night, alone in my closet, is a different matter entirely!  This is an amazing time for him I know but I sure am going to miss him.  He is an incredible person that brings rays of sunshine to our home.  Hubby and I fondly remembered some of our college days.  He brought up that our boy has some opportunities that we did not.  Neither of us lived on campus.  I was really glad to hear hubby say that it is good for him to live on campus because I really pushed for that.  Being so far from home, I felt he needed to right in the middle of it all.  I enjoyed that wonderful conversation with the hubby.  It made me feel like I pushed for the right thing.  Now home to the wonderful 4 rays of sunshine that are there:  the amazing HS senior that nothing is to big of a challenge for, the big hearted HS junior who always has a dazzling smile and laugh for everyone, the 8th grader who is ready to challenge the world with brains and beauty, and of course my little man....the precocious one of the bunch.  Is he 9 or 19?  Always has a funny response that is way beyond his little years and always has a hug for his momma!

On to this week.  For those of you who missed it, I am holding another beach suitcase class this Saturday at Scrap n' Savvy.  This wonderful mini album has tons of stuff.  You can see the other pics of the album in the last post.  I was totally impressed with the ladies in my last class....they did wonderfully!  There are  quite a few steps on this one.  Their suitcases turned out beautifully.  Could not have asked for more.


This week I will be working on projects for next quarter.  I am excited about a few of them already.  The others need to completely "gel" in my mind.  This is one of my favorite parts.  I have an idea in my head and now need to turn it into something that people will want to make.  I have had a few flops but mostly manage to have projects that people like.  The beach suitcase was a homerun.  Here's hoping I can have another one!

There are so many new things on the market now.  CHA was a few weeks ago and now all those new items that were introduced are making their way into the stores.  Keep your mouse ready.....I will be playing with a few and naturally will share with you this week.  Since my kids are back in school I plan to be better with posting here (adding videos maybe?!)

I would love to see your favorite project that you have made.  Share a link to it in the comment section. Have a great day everyone.

My favorite

Who says you can't choose a favorite?  People do it every day.  I mean, it's not like I'm choosing between my children or anything.  What am I talking about you ask?  Well, let me show you...

 This is my next class project.  It is a vintage suitcase that holds a few little surprises inside.

 The outside is distressed and has a few little touches to lend a vintage flair to it.  Notice the lock on the front and the key dangling from the handle?

 Ooh la la!!!  This is the inside.  The right side has a shelf that holds some beachside keepsakes...a couple seashells, a miniature tropical painting, some sea glass, fish netting, and more.  The left side holds a mini album!  I was amazed when I completed the album to see how many pics I could actually put in it!

This is a closeup of the inside of the mini album (of course with a pic of my little guy!).

Now do you see why this is possibly my most favorite project ever?  I absolutely love the way it turned out!!!  I love the paper collection (Authentique's Fresh collection) and especially all the little things that make it look like a real suitcase.  When you see it closed and sitting on a table you really think it is a small suitcase!

I don't know about you but sometimes when I am working on a project I have misgivings about how it is looking.  Many times I don't even like what I have done until I see the whole thing completed.  Other times I love bits and pieces of what I am working on but then like the whole thing in the end.  There is just something about this one that I really loved all the way through.  It was a process of finding all the right elements (and the miniature hinges and latches were the most time consuming to find!) and making sure they fit the image I had in my mind.

This is my next class at Scrapp n' Savvy.  I will teach two sessions for this project and the first is this coming Monday.  Interested?  Go to the link and sign up!  I would love to see you there.  Don't live here?  Leave me a comment and I can get a kit to you.

I hope you love this little beauty as much as I do.  I'm off.....I have 5 little favorites to get moving.  School starts in 5 days!!! Can't believe summer is already over for us.  Looking forward to having some structure to my day but not looking forward to having kids gone all day.  It's always a catch 22!

Be inspired today.  Leave me a comment and let me know what you think of the suitcase.

The lazy days of summer

Whoever penned "the lazy days of summer" clearly did not have children!  I mean really.  All of you ladies out there with kids at home for the summer know it is anything other than lazy!  I rank this time of the year right up there with the Christmas crazies.  You know what I mean.

I think I spend more time during the summer driving people places or trying to get them into doctor's offices than any other time of the year.  My husband does not understand why I won't cancel the doctor's appointment so we can go to the beachhouse.  I know he doesn't understand when I tell him that I have waited 3 months for this appointment and cancelling will cost us moola and major time!   Ah, oh well.  The joy of motherhood.

We spent last week with my son completing orientation for COLLEGE!  Man do I feel old!  I took all the kiddos so they could see family while I got oriented for college.  I mean, while my son got oriented for college.  Yeah.  You read that right.  There was just as much stuff for the parents as the students!  My favorite part?  The part where the university carefully explains, like 50 times, that no matter how much money you are giving them, how much money you are giving your child to go to the university and live, or how much money you are now in debt to the university that the said university will not be able to talk to you regarding any part of your child's college life!  Period.  End of story.  Oh and by the way there is this little form called a FERPA that IF your child signs (not you) then the university can answer your questions.  Got that?  Yeah.  Basically, the hubby and I will continue to fund the son's life (ie, college) and the university will not tell us anything unless the son decides he wants them to.  OH MAN!!!!  That was a tough one to swallow!  I heard a bunch of shouting and arguing over that one!  Many, many parents and students seriously had meltdowns about that one.  My silver lining?  The fact that my son happily completed the form, looked at me and said "why wouldn't I want you to know what I'm doing here?".  Oh, how I love that child!  I will say it again.....I am so lucky to have good kids!

I enjoyed my time with all my kiddos this past week.  It is amazing what kind of things get discussed when you are trapped in the car with no phone signal for hours at a time!  Oh, quality time!  I feel very connected right now!  Back to reality......this week will be crazy.  I have some of the kids back to school next week so it is crunch time to get everything ready for them.

Scrapbooking?  I do have a class this Saturday.  It is my Inspired by Pinterest class and I will teach how to make several different kinds of pendants using scrapbooking materials.

These are some of them.  I especially like the top one.  I made it months ago, inspired by pinterest of course, and just love it.  If you are in the area, call the shop and come to the class!  It will be loads of fun.  Go to Scrapp n' Savvy website to register.

Ok.  I have to run.  There are children that have to be places!!  Really?  Aaagh.....school starts in a week!  Enjoy your day.

And the rain came down, down, down

For the last few days the Winnie the Pooh song "and the rain came down, down, down" has been humming through my head.  It has rained a phenomenal amount at my house.  I think last Thursday alone we had almost 12 inches.  That day made national news.  We have had drought conditions and fires this last year but it seems like this is now completely turned and we are flooded!  I'm not complaining.  I LOVE the rain.  I do feel bad for those who got flooded though.

Our new home sits kinda close to a small meandering creek.  Very rarely does the water level even move!  At the time we chose our lot we decided that even though the lots that back to the retention ponds are lovely (with all that green space and the "no one behind us" feature) there may at some time be enough water to fill them.  I just did not want to worry about that!  Boy am I happy about that choice!

These are pics of the said retention ponds.  I was standing at the top in what would have been our backyard.  As you can see they are full!  I can't even begin to tell you how deep they are....maybe 15 feet.  They are huge though.  What you can't see in this pic is that the little sleepy creek is just behind that line of trees.  By Friday morning the water had risen more and that sleepy little creek had become one with our ponds!  The trees looked like they were growing from water!  All around us roads were closed due to high water.  Water that was 12 inches deep and sometimes deeper.  And the rain continued.

The kids and I had a great time looking at all the water in the ponds.  Oh, and the bullfrogs.  Tons and tons of bullfrogs.  Our neighborhood pool became the bullfrog spa retreat!  They were swimming, lounging, and singing away!  It has taken several days for the water to recede.  Thankfully I think most of the flooding in other areas has also gone down but the clean up is left.

So, what is one to do when it rains all day for several days?  I have read 2 books (wonderful!!!), watched numerous movies, and crafted!  Last week I won a blog hop from Clear Scraps and received a wonderful packet full of Clear Scrap albums, cards, inks from Tsukineko, stamps from Stampendous (it was a co-blog hop with Stampendous), and a bunch of other treasures from Stampendous.  So, I pulled out some stuff and this is what I made:

I must have Christmas on my mind.  I had some of the Bo Bunny Snowfall collection left from last Christmas.  And I won the mixable 8 x 8 album from Clear Scraps.  This was sooooo much fun.  I love working with acrylic and this little album had 3 pages of it!  I wanted to be able to see the next pages through the acrylic so I keep it simple.  I used opaque white ink and stamped snowflakes all over the cover, added some sparkle, trimmed the edge with sparkle, and let it all dry.  Then I added a vellum mini envelope and tags, and of course embellished it all.  

I am also showing you my "clothesline" tags.  I made tags of all sizes and attached them to the page to crete a clothesline look.  There is a ton of pic and journaling space here.  And lastly, I added an envelope that I embellished.  I cut the flap off and made a new one of some scrap material I had.  Love the soft look of it.  I like to put envelopes in my albums so I can through extra pics in.  The back cover is acrylic so I adhered the glittered paper to the back.  Made a nice effect of seeing the glitter from the top.

This was so much fun to make.  I love the colors of this paper and the album is a great size.  Check out the Stampendous blog.  There are some great inspiration pieces there.  And if you haven't seen the new Clear Scrap stuff go to their website.  The new clear cards are adorable!

Well, children are getting up; wanting to eat.  It's that whole summer thing again!  I'll leave with this:  what do you like to do when it rains?  Let me know.........

Christmas in July

Christmas.  It's only 6 months away!  I know people who have already completed their Christmas shopping for this year.  Really?!?!  I was one of those people.  I had my shopping completed by Thanksgiving.  I always had some presents that I purchased on the after Christmas sales.  Then I got married, and had children, and became broke!  TeeHee.

I am a planner by nature.  I like to know what I can expect so I can have backup plans.  Christmas is a BIG deal.  It is by far my favorite holiday and I like things to be in place!  Fast forward 20 years from the time when I was that organized.  I now have children, 5 of them.  Oh, and I have a hubby who likes to do all the shopping on Christmas Eve.  Yeah.  Don't like that so much.  So, I try to do what I can before Christmas arrives.

Enter Christmas in July.  Christmas cards to make.  Cookie recipes to gather.  Lists begin.

Are you that person who likes to craft Christmas in July too?  Well, I thought I would share a few of my Christmas class ideas with you today.  First up is a glass snowman.  I saw something similar on pinterest in a miniature version.

I made the big one first and he's about 15 inches tall.  There are loads of details.  Then I got the snow bug and made a family for him with a variety of bottles that I had hanging around (old jelly jar, spaghetti jar, etc....).  I really love my snowmen!

And secondly I want to share the cover of a mini album I made.  It is made from a raw canvas mini album and has canvas pockets in it.  Loads of room in it for pictures.  I used the Authentique new vintage Christmas papers called Festive for the inside, a Tim Holtz hitch on the cover, and some other wonderful detailed embellishments throughout.

Let me know:  are you a Christmas in July person?  or a Christmas Eve person?

Have a wonderful day!