Natalie Frame

Thought I would share the frame that I made for sil and bil. I made the frame and then added the photo once I got one of her. The frame was originally dark brown, so I just spray painted it white.
I went to Michaels the other day to look for those Prima rhinestone and pearl swirls they had and of course now they don't have any...since I was looking for them. So I decided to not put them on there. I was actually afraid it would make it too busy, but still wanted to try. Guess the decision was made for me. I stapled the ribbon to the back and tied it in a big bow on the top. Pretty simple, but still cute I think. The tag on the side has her name and all her birth info. The swirl frame with her initial is a quickutz silhouette download shape. I just sized it so the outside was the size I wanted. I wanted the picture to be a little smaller than the frame so you can see right through to the wall. I glued it all on a piece of thin acrylic cut down to size. Then the frame is on top to protect it all.

Back to School Photos

The kids went back to school today. Of course even though they greatly protested I still had to take first day pictures.
I made them breakfast to start the day off well. I made eggs, fried hot dogs and orange glazed cinnamon rolls. It was a pretty good breakfast if I do say so myself.
Marcus doesn't have a first period, so he didn't have to be there until 9:35 this morning. He gets out at 3 pm.
Ryan is on a home schooling program until January. He came home and did all his work really well.

I will share the frame that I made my sil when we get home from picking up Marcus.

Natalie Kaylin

Just wanted to share pictures of our new neice Natalie Kaylin.

:)

She was born on Tuesday the 18th.

I got these picture on Saturday night.

I would love to do some scrapbooking tonight, but darn it I am so stinking hot. The air is taking forever today to cool down the house. UGH!!!

We were really busy today. We took Ryan to my moms so he could go on his birthday lunch date with her. Then we had a doctors appointment for Caleb. Then we went to the indoor swapmeet. Then we went to the mall. We had lunch there. Taco Bell and Hot Dog on a Stick were what me and the kids had. Then we shopped with no such luck. Then my mom brought Ryan to the mall. Ryan got a new skateboard with his birthday money. Then we went back to the indoor swapmeet to get the original jeans we saw (they were the cheapest of the day). Then we ran by Jacob's moms house and Ryan ran in to get his birthday gift from her. Then we went to the grocerry store. We stopped by home and picked up the propane tank and had it filled. Then we came home and I started the laundry and loaded the dishwasher. My feet hurt today. Jacob is bbqing steaks for dinner when he gets home from work. YUM!

School starts Wednesday. They are having movie night already on Friday night and then there is a field trip on Monday already. I am tired just thinking about it all. Plus I have a doctors appointment on Thursday and next Monday and blood work to get done.

How does your garden grow?

Man O Man. We went to Jack in the box this evening for some milkshakes and I should not have let Caleb drink the half of his that I let him drink because now he is hyper city. That combined with the almost 3 hour nap he took today. It is bed time, not jump on the bed time. I thought it would be a nice end of summer treat, but boy I didn't think of the end results. Oh well.

Thought I would share my layout that I did the other day.

Organizing

So my mom just says that I am nesting WAY early. lol. I have been wanting to go through a bunch of stuff around the house and just organize it all. Finally I am getting around to most of it.
My list of things to clean/organize/purge/go through include:

(red means is done already)

go through kitchen cabinets including
*tupperware
*pots and pans
*baby cups
*old dishes we don't use anymore
*cups and glasses
*under the kitchen sink

our closet
my scrapbook closet
my scrapbook desk
under our bed
the older boys closet and dresser
the babies closet
the babies dresser
the babies room in general
clean up and organize the garage
the hall closet
3 cabinets in the living room
backyard
the linen closet
under our bathroom sink
under the other bathroom sink
move the large pictures to a different wall in the living room
hang the shelves in the living room
go through old cookbooks
go through the 4 drawers on our nightstands

I am thinking there are more, but can't think of them right now.
So it was crazy how one thing started the other day. I went to Joanns and got a few things, mostly paper. Well I started organizing my desk, which made me change my paper storage (which I am always having an issue with) and now I am much happier with it. Which then caused me to move my desk to a different wall (well the kids moved it for me). Which made me clean and purge everything and completely clean out my scrpabook closet. This made me move my salvation army desk from the living room to our bedroom. Now I have my scrapbooking desk and then the SA desk with my printers and silhouette on and the laptop. I love the setup. So I cleaned it all that night except for 2 boxes I needed to go through. So I got up and did that the next morning. This caused me to go into our bathroom and completely clean out under the sink, the medicine cabinet and another cabinet we have in there. I took 2 bags to the trash. Then I came into the kitchen and spent another 2 1/2 hours organizing and purging it all. Tupperware, sippy cups, dishes, pots and pans...all of it. I then moved cabinets around and organized it all. Then under the sink as well. I found stuff under there I forgot we had.
Well last week I spent and entire day doing the babies room. I cleaned out the dresser and made 3 empty drawers for new baby stuff. I hung everything and cleaned out all their toys and books. The entire crib is filled with garage sale stuff (Caleb doesn't like to sleep in there. He likes to sleep with Jacob in his queen bed...which we want to get rid of from their room).
So then today we went through the big boys closet and dresser. We had to make room for new school clothes... well we definately got rid of much more than we will be buying lol. We took out 4 large garbage bags for garage sale stuff.
I so love the feeling of getting rid of "junk". It may not really be junk, but just stuff that is taking up space that we don't use or want or need anymore. I moved 2 large pictures in my living room and I am loving that.
I have done a new layout, but just haven't taken a picture yet. I made a frame for sil and the new baby as well. Will share maybe tomorrow.

More Cards

Really I don't know what has gotten into me. Cards are on my mind alot lately. So I made 2 more yesterday.

This first card was inspired by Nichol Magouirk (again lol ) HERE . I haven't decided if I am going to stamp in a sentiment the orange circle or not. Still deciding.

This is a giant card/hanger/tag thing. (Ya whatever that is). It turned out bigger than I thought it was going to, but I kinda like that it is bigger. My SIL was due yesterday, and so I wanted some kind of tag or card to attatch to the flowers or balloons that I get her for after she has her. I put the initial letter N on it because they are naming her Natalie. So me and her will have the same initials :) This is from the silhouette. I cut the flower tag 3 times. In white and then pink and then green. I just cut it apart and glued the colored pieces over the white pieces. On the back tag part I added the It's a girl title (also silhouette design) and cut that out. Then I removed the title and cut another back piece. I added pink cardstock behind the title and then glued that entire piece down to the full back piece. So that way you can't see the pink cardstock on the back. It is hard to tell in the picture but there is some white pearls over the entire thing too. I figured she could even hang this in the babies room later if she wanted. I wanted to make her a blanket too, but didn't get it done in time for her baby shower, but her grandma made her a beautiful one anyways. So I am thinking that I will still make her one, but a different style. I was going to make her a rag style quilt. But now I think I will get the fleece and make her the kind that you tie all the pieces together all around the blanket. Joanns has it on sale right now, buy one get one free. So we will see. Guess I need to get on that like right now though so I can have it for her when she has the baby. I am so excited I hope she has her soon.

Getting ready for all this back to school stuff. The kids really start on the 26th, but we have a meeting with their facilitator on Wednesday. We have a busy next few weeks coming up. We have the facilitatior meeting this Wednesday, Ryan's 15th birthday is Sunday the 23rd, Caleb has a doctors appointment on the 24th for these mole bump things on his inner thigh that he keeps saying hurt, we are going school clothes shopping on the 24th, I have no idea exactly what we are doing for Ryan's birthday. He doesn't really want a party so I was thinking we could let him bring 3 or 4 of his good friends and we would take them to this place here in town. It is called Monarch Family Fun Zone . They have miniature golf and lazer tag. Well I have one of those coupon books that if you buy a lazer tag game you get one free. For 20 minutes of lazer tag it is only $9.00. Then mini golf is only 3.50 or 4.50 a game depending if you go after 6 or before. I thought we could take the kids to pizza before and then take them there, and then get them ice cream after or something fun like that. We haven't decided exactly yet. Jacob has to work on Ryan's actual birthday, so we would have to do it either the Saturday before, or the day after, but we have alot to do that day. So I don't know yet.

Ok so I never was going to want the silhouette and now it is my favorite toy. So before that I had the revolution and that was the only machine I was going to want too. Well now I have my eye on this . I really just want it for the embossing folders. WOW. They have some really great embossing folders. I am thinking this is what "Mr. Santa" might have to get me for Christmas. :)

I have a few things to do around the house today, and a few errands to run...so I guess I better get my butt off this computer lol.

Cards.

Ok truth be told, I am just not that into making cards. I mean I do make them, but I really struggle with them. I don't know why, I just do. But every now and then I just totally get into making them. I always want to "stock up" on cards so that I have a bunch on hand for birthdays and what not. However it just never happens. Until last night. I don't know what got into me, I just had this urge to make some cards. I guess it was that I was just playing with some of my embossing powders and stuff and it just came together. I like the way they came out though. I made the purple one first, and then the masqueline one. There are a few men birthdays coming up around here (Ryan will be 15 on the 23rd and Daddy Jacob will be turning another year older in September). I guess I always had this notion that the cards I made had to be traditional 4x6 card size. Well I made these smaller and I think I really enjoy the smaller size. I have some more ideas, and some ideas I am lifting as well.
Well here are the cards

You can't tell on this picture, but the design next to the happy are some birthday candles. It is embossed with opaque silver powder, and has a nice shine to it.

One thing I am liking with my white embossing powder is sprinkling a little all over the surface and then heat setting it. It looks like white paint spatters. I really like it.
Oh I embossed the back of my cell phone too, but forgot to take a picture of it. I will share that later.
Cleaned up most of the house already, kids did their bathroom. I did the dishes and cleaned the kitchen. I started and switched another load of laundry...now a few loads are waiting to be folded on the couch, which the kids are playing on. I can't vacuum yet becuase last night was Jacob's last night on graveyard so he is asleep right now. So when he wakes up a bit later I will vacuum and clean up our room and clean our bathroom. It is a bit warm in the house right now anyways and I am refusing to use our air conditioner because it isn't working exactly right and the bill that we just got is a large $404.00. OUCH!!!! So I am refusing to use it. I am just keeping all the blinds shut and it isn't too bad, but warmer than we are used to. For a few days the weather was so nice and we didn't need the air, but I think the heat is creaping back in there. Darn it.

Dry Erase Calendar

I have always loved this dry erase clear calendar I keep seeing at Joanns. (Which I can't find online right now). Well then I saw THIS on Jennifer Priests blog .

Then it totally hit me... I can make one too. The thing I didn't like about the Joann's one was that it was just clear, so you would just see the wall behind it, and my walls are on the darker side, so I figured it would be hard to read, and it was a bigger size as well, I want to say a 16x20?? size maybe. Oh and it was $40.00. So as soon as I read Jennifer's post my brain started to have all these ideas. I was originally going to use a 12x12 scrapbook frame. However when I went to Michaels yesterday they only had them in red, and I didn't really like how skinny the frame was, and how deep it was. I wanted something flatter for my idea. So for the same price of $9.99 (then I used my 40% off coupon) I got this Black 11x14 frame. It was EXACTLY what I wanted, the right thickness, color and I really wanted the bigger size. Since there are so many of us, and I am always writing myself notes on the calander, the size was perfect.

Well then I don't have paper that is 14 inches long...so I thought about it and the inside liner that came in the frame got flipped over and that is what I printed my calander on. I was going to make it fit across the entire page, but it wasn't printing correctly, so I printed it like it is. I was going to trim it all up, but I ended up liking the extra space, for those notes I am always writing to myself. Then I just added a strip of creamish and redish pp to the top and it was that simple for the inside. So then it was just winging it from there. I bought the tiny mug hooks at walmart yesterday too, because that was part of my original idea.

So I added some wide ribbon, and kraft color twine and made a bow. I glue dotted two buttons together, and added that to the middle of the bow. Then I screwed in the hooks. I had a different idea for the tags for the months and year, but ended up going with this one and I love it alot. I just cut the back part in black, and the inside part in the pp I used inside the frame. On the silhouette software, I typed the word inside the frame so that it would just cut out the word and the black would show through. That way I didn't have to glue on all those individual letters. Then I punched out some holes and tied some of the thin twine on the tags and then hooked them on the hooks.

I only had a black dry erase marker, but I want to get some colored ones like Jennifer did (you know for my color coded calanders lol). I saw some at Michaels, but thought I might find some cheaper ones at Walmart, and forgot to even look.

So here it is.... My version.....

(Please pay no attention to my kitchen cabinets that are not done getting painted yet)

Now I searched all over Walmart for some magnet sheets, and couldn't find it anywhere. Everyone kept sending me to different departments after I searched everywhere myself. So I gave up. I had some little magnets that were flat at home on the fridge (something the kids had). So I cut them up and super glued them to the back of the frame. I wanted to hang it on my fridge. However, I don't think the magnets were strong enough, because it all just slides down the front of the fridge. So if I can't find a stronger magnet, then I am going to do like Jennifer did and staple gun another ribbon to the top, and then get a strong hook magnet and just hang it that way to the front of the fridge. I can't wait to get the colored markers and color code everything on it. :)

I think that this is going to be the gift that I make as my handmade Christmas gift for my side of the family. I will just make each one to match each persons decor. I think I will only have to spray paint 2 of the frames. :) It was so quick and easy to make too. And it is cheap to make as well, but doesn't look cheaply made. The paper is cheap, the frame came to about $6.00. Ribbon is pretty inexpensive, although I did see the green one in the Christmas section at Michaels that I want to use for my brothers and it was $7.00 a roll, so gotta love those coupons. If I start now and make one a week, I will be done with all 6 way before Christmas. I might end up making 8 though. I wasn't going to make my cousins each one, by why not. One has a son in school and sports, and one has a busy job so they could both use it. I am thinking I will just buy one dry erase marker for each person too, and cover it in pp that matches their calendar. Then I will attach the dry erase marker to some more twine and attach that to the calendar. Man I am so excited to do these for everyone for Christmas. :)

Cleaning and organizing

I spent most of yesterday cleaning out the little ones bedroom. OH MY GOSH it was a mess. Ok I clean up mostly everysingle day. However I have slacked on their room lately, since I just get so frustrated that I clean it and 10 minutes later it looks the same or worse than when I cleaned it. So 2 days ago they were in their playing, being pretty quiet which should have been my first clue that something was going on. They got into the dresser and took out all the clothes and misc stuff in 2 drawers, took all the clothes off the hangers in the closet (and I mean ALL), and took and entire bottle of baby powder and it ended up all over said clothes and books, and toys that were on the floor. I was dreading going in there and cleaning it all up. So I had to wash all the clothes. I moved the crib (that Caleb doesn't sleep in, but there is no point in taking it down now) to a different wall, I cleaned out all the dresser drawers, the entire closet. We took 3 stuffed trash bags to the trash plus a few other large items. I have the entire crib full of stuff, as in old toys they don't play with, old stuffed animals, old chairs, old clothes that don't fit, a diaper pale...etc of stuff for the garage sale I want to have sometime soon.
I was going to go to Kmart and put the bunk bed that they have on layaway, but I am thinking that if we have a garage sale in the next month or so, then whatever money we get from that I will just put towards the bunk bed. The bunk bed is only 179.99. So depending on how much we make I might just be able to pay the difference and buy the bunk bed right then.
I am going through so many things in our house for a garage sale because I am so tired of having clutter around here. The next mission is our closet in our room. Oh boy is it out of control. So I have an out of control amount of laundry to now catch up on...just what I love...NOT. So since I did that all day yesterday, and it was Jacob's day off I didn't get any scrapbooking done. Maybe this weekend.

Ladybug hunters

Here is my ladybug layout. I embossed the ladybugs with Red Glittery Embossing Tinsel. I love the look of the glittery ladybugs. I was originally just going to cut the red part of the ladybugs out of a bright red cardstock, but I didn't have a shade that was bright enough. Then I remembered that I had this red embossing powder. It adds just enough sparkle, without going over the top and looking too girly.

I am going to work on some more sketches and see if I can get some more layouts done. I am on a roll lately. I have been getting about 1 layout done every 2 or so days.

Things to think about.

I read many blogs daily (or at least close to daily), and Kerri Bradford's blog is one of them. Today she posted THIS . I love stuff like that. The old journals from our older generations in our families. I love to see how they lived and things like that. It really reminds us how good we have it now, how different things are now, how different the world is this day and age.

My grandma on my dads side was good about similar things like this. She wrote out her "life" in short sentences. Like in 19XX she started school, she started work and she wrote out her wages at that job and stuff like that. I loved reading that she made 25cents and hour. WOW!!! After she died I got really into family history and was working so hard on it, and then I got busy and then my dad died. Then I got really into scrapbooking. Now how I wish I had them to ask questions and learn family history stuff from them. My dad was one of six kids, I am sure there were tons of stories.

So after reading Kerri's blog post this morning I decided I wanted to start keeping a journal again. Even if I feel like it is boring now, it may one day be interesting to someone, if not only myself when I am older and look back on it. I do write tidbits of information on our calendar though. I don't know when I started doing it, but I just write little things on our monthly calendar...things like what we had for dinner that night, the weather, if we ran to Target, if we took Jacob lunch or dinner to work, the kids school schedules... It isn't the same things I write everyday, but just whatever I feel like writing that day. I love looking back years later at the calendar and reading what we did on different days in years past. However a few years ago all the old calendars got thrown out, without realizing it. Oh well there is nothing I can do about that now..but I am still doing it again. Right along in my color coded calendar. lol. But I think it would be nice to have it all together in a little journal as well.

So I am going to start...today. When better to start something, then right now.

You 4 Layout

I totally forgot that I did this layout, until the other day I was cleaning my desk and there it was in the pile of finished layouts to be put away. I took this picture on Easter, and it is my all time favorite of all 4 of the kids. Sometimes I get so caught up in using the pictures as they were, Easter pictures and I just don't use them in other ways like this, like I want to. I really like the way this layout came together too.

Well I am taking the kids swimming at my moms today, even though it was a bit cloudy yesterday and it seems that it is going to be that way again today. But oh well. Since there isn't much summertime left I want to squeeze in all those last minute things. I like summer, but fall is one of my favorite times of year. I love the cool crispness in the air, Thanksgiving, the colors...all that wonderful stuff. I told mom I would like to do Thanksgiving at our house this year, but I don't know if we would all fit. There will be 22 of us this year again...and our house isn't huge. But it is something that I have never done. However, I am thinking that maybe it will be a better idea to wait. I don't know. I just really wanted to do it. I know I will be very pregnant then as well, but that never stops me from doing things. I am pretty sure that little Jacob will still be in a cast at Thanksgiving as well. Depending if I can get any answers from CHOLA to tell me if the doctor is going to just call us and schedule the surgery, or if we have to go all the way down there to schedule it, then we will know when they are going to do the surgery. So who knows, we will just have to see what is going to happen.

I am hopefully going to finish up my ladybug layout today as well. I cut out these cute chubby ladybugs from my silhouette. However I didn't have the shade of red paper that I liked so I cut them from white, and then heat embossed them with some red tinsel glitter embossing powder and they turned out so cute. I am very pleased with the way that they layout is coming together.

Fun things

I don't know how I came across this but I so want this organizer/day planner. It's called a MOM AGENDA . I love that it has the regular calendar space and then it has room for you to write in up to 4 kids names and write in specific things for each of the kids. I don't want to pay the price of the bigger one, so the refill will do just fine for me. I can make my own cover for it. I love to stay organized and love writing everything in my little and big calenders each day/week and month. I color code everything in my purse calendar as well. I do it this way so at a glance I know what is going on weather it be a birthday/a bill due/an appointment or whatever. Here is how I do it. I just write what it is and then highlight it in a given color depending on what it is.

Birthday and Holidays = Pink

Bills Due = Yellow

Appointments = Lavendar

Jacob's work schedule and paydays = green

Anything school related for the kids (days off, testing, etc.) = blue

I have been like this since I was in high school. I used to color code my biology notes and so on. I am very much a visual learner and it was just my way of learning and retaining the information. So I guess it is just one of those things that never changed about me.

The next thing I wanted to share was my search engine. I don't use google. I use a site called SWAGBUCKS. As you search with them you are randomly given Swag Bucks and then with your bucks you can buy things. The last thing I got was a few Amazon.com egift cards. You just use the code and can purchase things on amazon. You can get gift cards from so many places too. You don't just have to get gift cards though. You can get physical things as well, all paid for with your swag bucks. It is basically like getting things for free. Who doesn't love FREE? Especially in this day and time. Check out the site SWAGBUCKS. It is so easy to sign up for. Check it out and start searching.

I am in love with this yogurt right now. I am not usually a huge fan of the thick yogurts, but this one is so yummy. It really is like eating a cinnamon roll. I go on spurts where I eat tons of yogurt and then I don't eat any. However since I am pregnant the milk is really good for me. Especially since I don't drink milk so they always tell me the more yogurt I can eat the better. I always get coupons for yoplait, so it always works out great. I had one with my ham sandwich for lunch and want another one already. I love it as a bedtime snack, or dessert. :) Yummy goodness right in my mouth.

With my amazon gift cards I ordered this book. I know it is an older book, but hey it was free. I love reading Nic Howards blog. She does beautiful work. Read it HERE . It should be here anyday...along with my Creating Keepsakes magazine.

I don't know about anyone else but I love a good reality tv show. I have been watching The Next Food Network Star . Now usually when I watch these kind of shows the person I like most usually ends up off before the end. Except this time. I liked Melissa from the very beginning and she WON last night. I liked her instantly because she is a mom of 4 young girls... and I have 4 boys. So I think that is what drew me to her first off, then I just really liked her. Her new shows starts next Sunday. I can't wait.

Well I think I am going to do some more sketches of some layouts I want to do.

It's going to be a long day.

I got up at 5am this morning to make Jacob breakfast before he had to go to work. Well for some strange reason, both of the little ones decided they needed to be awake as well. They are NEVER awake this early. I mean they get up early sometimes, but never that early. I don't know what their deal was this morning. So I definately see a nap in both their futures today, because it is only 7am and they are both cranky already. If they don't take a nap it is going to be a very long day. I am sitting here on the couch in the living room with them trying to get they to lay down now, while we are watching cartoons on the Disney Channel.

Breakfast was good. I made homemade McDonalds. We had sausage, egg, bacon and cheese bisquits. They were pretty good.

So here is a layout I did a while back, that I finally got a picture taken of. Actually there are two layouts. The first one is of Caleb at 2 years old. I made a huge list of many things about Caleb at this age. Some are things he likes to eat, sillly things he does, some are personality traits, some are just random tidbits of information. I finally got to use the Basic Grey Lime Ricky line. The colors are not the greatest in these pictures. I really need to start taking the pictures outside, but really I was being lazy this morning. lol.

Here is the second layout. This is my first silhouette layout. I was inspired by the layout of photos from HERE (Nichol Magouirk) . I am pretty happy with the layout. I just need to add the journaling. I am going to hand write it on the left side of the layout on the white distressed file folder. I just need to find a sharp pencil to draw the lines to write on.

I think I am going to need a nap today too. lol