Those Things Could KILL You

I'm not sure if anyone is still keeping track of me or not. I haven't been very consistent about posting to my blog lately. I am hard at work creating things for Christmas but I can't share any of them just yet. I don't want to spoil the surprise, you know. I did make a soda box for my sweet little friend Shelby who has to have surgery on her knee tomorrow. She was doing squats in her high school weight class and tore up her knee. I'll have to remember that the next time I get the crazy idea to do some squats. And I'm WAY older than her so it wouldn't take me too much effort to convince myself that squats could actually KILL me. I mean, it COULD happen. As if I needed another excuse to NOT do squats. Thank you Shelby! I was working on one of my other Christmas projects and thinking about poor Shelby and had My Mind's Eye "Penny Lane" paper sitting on my desk and it reminded me of Shelby's bright, sweet personality and I knew that I had to take a break from all of my frenzied Christmas work to make a little care package to help cheer her up during her recovery.

This started out as a Stewart's Orange Cream Soda box. I removed two of the soda's and used the front to put some Skittles, Rolos, and Kisses. I also decorated two straws to look like flowers. I mean how can sipping orange soda with decorated straws make you not feel better. I'm thinking that I should make myself one just for that very purpose. It makes me happy just thinking about it.
I decorated the bottles with more paper, ribbon, and Making Memories letter stickers. I love how they turned out. Hopefully, Miss Shelby can drink her orange soda out of her cute bottle, with her fancy straw and remember that I love her very much.
Well, I'm off to my desk to get back to work on all of my Christmas projects. But I thought I would share my little diversion with you all. The only snag is that I now have leftover Rolos, Kisses, Skittles, and Orange Cream Soda sitting on my desk, but if I eat them, I will have to do squats...and those things could kill you, I tell you. Hopefully I will have a few more things to share soon. Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work I go. I'd whistle now but I have never been able to whistle. How's that for a little known random fact about me.

Where is My Project Time?

For the life of me I can't understand where all of my project time has gone. Well, that's not exactly true, I have been crazy busy making palm trees for Cub Scouts, working on art displays for our FAME class at my daughter's school, cooking, cleaning, working the city election and fitting in Halloween somewhere in there. I also had a little glitch in my wisdom tooth extraction that I have been dealing with. I have finally finished the last of my antibiotics (again) so hopefully I am on the mend. Needless to say, not much has been going on that is post worthy here. I've been doing a few Zentangles and sketches but that's about it and I am feeling it! Need some project time! The Zentangles have been fun though, and my daughter has joined in with them. If you don't know what a Zentangle is you can find lots of examples HERE and a great little tutorial HERE . They are a relaxing way to do some mindless creativity. They look very complicated but they are so simple. Even people who think they are not creative (don't believe that, by the way) can make amazing Zentangles. Break out the paper and pen and give it a try.



A while back, creativemomma left the sweetest award for me on her blog. She is one talented girl and you should definately check out her fun challenges, so I am truly honored to get an award from her. And I have to apologize big time for taking so long to get this posted. I printed out the questions the very day she left them so I could work on them and this is the first time I have been able to get them posted. Thank you so much for the award especially since I have been such a bad blogger lately. As part of the award I needed to answer the following questions:
1. Where is your cell phone? Honestly, my cell phone is in my purse but it's pretty useless since the battery has been dead for at least a week.
2. Hair? Brown, fine and annoying
3. Mother? Idaho
4. Father? Idaho
5. Favorite food? Lemon bars
6. Dream last night? I almost never remember any of my dreams but that's pretty much how most things go for me. If I don't write it down, I won't remember it.
7. Favorite drink? Orange Sunkist but I haven't had one in a LONG time.
8. Your dream/goal? To have my kids tell me I was a good mom when they are old AND to make a living doing something I love.
9. What room are you in? My bedroom.
10. Hobby? Not sure I could choose just one. Anything creative.
11. Fear? Failure
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? I hope I am here, only more organized.
13. Where were you last night? Home
14. Something you aren't? Swimsuit model
15. Muffins? Blueberry or orange
16. Wish list item? My own studio
17. Where did you grow up? Idaho
18. Last thing you did? Made my son a peanut butter sandwich. That kid could eat his weight in peanut butter sandwiches.
19. What are you wearing? My mom uniform (jeans and t-shirt)
20. Your TV? It's on Disney.
21. Your pets? None.
22. Friends? I have many good friends and only one Jenny.
23. Your life? I have a nutty, busy, good life.
24. Your mood? Anxious, which is how I get when I haven't worked on a project in a while. Should take a hint and just forget all of my need to's and do some want to's.
25. Missing someone? Yep. My brother who is in Iraq right now. He is so much fun to have around. Even when he's not deployed he lives halfway across the country but we can talk to him more at least.
26. Vehicle? Chrysler Concorde. I love that car. I hope it lasts me at least another year.
27. Something you're not wearing? Makeup, some days are like that. Hope no one decides to come over and no, that's not a challenge!
28. Favorite store? Do I have to pick just one?!! Michaels, Roberts, Porters for project stuff. Albertson's for coupons. Always seem to be at Wal-Mart but NOT because it is my favorite.
29. Favorite color? I LOVE fuschia. I have a '68 VW Beetle that is hot pink. Hot pink makes my heart HAPPY!
30. When was the last time you laughed? Earlier today.
31. Last time you cried? It's been awhile, I'm probably due for a good cry but it sure gives me a headache.
32. Best friend? You know who you are.
33. One place you go over and over? The grocery store. ARGH!!! Has to do with what I said about forgetting anything that's not written down.
34. Facebook? Yes, but only recently. I'm still trying to get the hang of it.
35. Favorite place to eat? Carino's. I do love some good Italian.

Well, that's it. That's me in a nutshell. Thanks again creativemomma. You're so sweet. Hopefully I will be back before long with something new to show you.

It's Getting Pretty Scary Around Here

Well, I'm still looking like a chipmunk whose lost a bar brawl. So I'm a little scary looking myself. Actually kind of comical. Fortunately my face is a little less square shaped and I've been assured that I will feel much better soon. I took the opportunity this morning when I saw sunshine to finally take some pics of my haunted house project. The sun was I little too bright so some of the colors are washed out but I didn't want to miss a chance for sun. There hasn't been much of that lately around here. Hopefully you can see what it's all about.

It all started out as a couple of Huggies boxes I'd been saving from the diaper days for this project. I've been trying to get around to it since last Halloween. I formed the walls with the box pieces and then added roof tops and lengths of wooden fence. I spray painted the whole thing black and then added the details with some scrap paper I had and Mod Podge. The trees were cut from a pattern in last years Better Homes and Garden Halloween special magazine. I cut them out of chipboard and I only ruined one pair of scissors and had two giant bruises on my hands but I think that they are totally worth it. Such are the sacrifices.
The doorknob is a cool old button that I have had in my button jar for years. I knew I could find a use for it.

I hot glued the end of this wire to the back of the house and dangled a little bat from it. It kinda bobs around when you walk past it. It is a little over two feet tall and fits perfectly on my little table in the living room. When it was all done, I gave it a coat of clear glitter spray paint. I love it. The best part was that it only cost me two Huggies boxes, a can of black spray paint, hot glue sticks, scraps, wooden fence, and some glitter paint. I figure I spent about $5 for a super cute Halloween decoration for my small living room table. Wahoo! Speaking of the Better Homes and Gardens Halloween magazine, last years was awesome and I can't believe it, but they have managed to make this years just as great. You know how sometimes magazines just recycle last years ideas for the current magazine? Well, not BH&G. It is a must have. Their Halloween magazines are some of the few that I keep on my shelf because I refer to them over and over again. If you haven't seen it, it's worth checking out. Well, I'm off to take some more Advil and hopefully start looking less SCARY! BOO!

The Time Has Come

Well, I know that it has been awhile since I have posted anything. I haven't been just holding down the sofa, I just haven't been doing the kind of projects that I can (OK, won't) post. You see, I love art (in case you haven't noticed) and years ago before my daughter was born, I had the opportunity to take some private painting lessons with the fabulous Ruth Sauerbreit. I love watercolors but I'm still quite an amateur. But children are born and the brushes and paints get pushed to the back of the closet by the Play-Doh, pony beads, glitter glue, etc. but the love of my paints are always still in the back of my mind. Sometimes the really, really far back, but always still there. I have been working with them a little lately and practicing my sketching more but I'm still too self conscious to share. Maybe with a little more practice. Maybe. I just makes me happy.
I have been trying all week to finish a great Halloween project to share before tomorrow but the weather was awful and I couldn't spray the last coat of glitter and as much as I enjoy a little sparkle in my life, I don't think that spray painting glitter in the living room would be such a great idea. Therefore, I will have to leave you in suspense a little longer. It's turning out super cute though.
Why before tomorrow, you ask? Well, I am pretty meticulous about taking care of my teeth. I brush, I floss, I rinse. But there is one thing that I have never been able to bring myself to take care of and that is removing my wisdom teeth. They have been impacted for years but they don't bother me and I can think of approximately one million things that I would rather do, so I just haven't taken care of them. That all changed at my last cleaning. It was time for my full mouth x-ray and one look told me that one of my wisdom teeth was on the move. It is now parallel with my gums and the top of the tooth is into the roots of my other teeth. Oh, and all that moving has formed a cyst. Tomorrow morning I am going under the knife. I have been told that it will probably not be pretty. Can't hardly wait. Plus Saturday is World Card Making Day! I will be celebrating by holding bags of frozen peas to my face and watching Conference while heavily medicated. Not exactly the World Card Making Day of my dreams. So it will be a little longer before I have something new to share but my haunted house project is hopefully worth the wait. 'Til then, have a happy World Card Making Day and be sure to enjoy it for me too.

Happy Birthday Baby!

Yesterday, yes, September 11th, was my baby's third birthday. I can't believe he is 3. He has grown so fast. It amazes me. He is such a great boy. A total smart alec (which I love) and loves to tease but he's just as sweet at can be. I just love that guy. He is totally obsessed with NASCAR. He can't recognize his numbers but he can tell you what 18, 24, 17 and all of the NASCAR cars. He'll say, "Number 24, Jeff Gordon." when he sees a 24 car. His favorite ("my guy") is number 18. He is sometimes the M&M car and sometimes the Interstate Battery car (these are the things mom's learn when they have a little NASCAR fan). Therefore, I had to make a car themed cake for Jake's birthday party.
Once again, I collaborated with my dad (also a NASCAR fan) on the details of a racing tire and once again, he came up with scale measurements for me. We are a dangerous pair I tell you. He also kept me in Pepsi all day since I hadn't had much sleep.

The car crossing the finish line is Jake's guy, #18 and Jeff Gordon is coming in second. I had to make a red car (mostly because I had a bunch of red gum paste and I didn't want to color more) and since I didn't particularly want the Budweiser car represented on my 3 year olds cake, I went with the Target car. It's not necessarily Jake's favorite (he still knows the name of the driver, though) but it was red. I know that many a kid has had a Budweiser car but I guess I'm just a prude. Three seems a little young to have "Budweiser" in your vocabulary. We had a little family barbeque to celebrate and we borrowed the Hot Wheels track that our friend built (the kids love that thing). I had my daughter hide 20 Hot Wheel cars around the yard and they had fun finding the cars and racing them on the track. My kids have a "mud pit" in the corner of our yard and while yesterday it was just a dirt pit the kids usually spend most of their time digging in it. Dirt and boxes, all a kid needs. Makes me wonder why we bought Jake toys for his birthday.

Last But Not Least

Well, this is finally it...the rest of the cards I made for my mom's birthday. I'm still astounded at the fact that I was able to get all of these done it just two trips to Jenny's. I'm usually pretty slow. Something about being too detail oriented (a fact that I have already confessed to in my piano cake post). And one trip was even cut short by my son throwing up. Maybe I'm getting faster. I did invest in a new CARDS mag just for some major inspiration though. How I love that magazine. It's crazy expensive but every now and then I just have to have a CARDS fix and I break down and buy it.
OK, while Jenny was on a Sonic run, she stopped at the dollar store and found these cool little paper flowers with the corsage pins in them. She picked them up and we both worked on finding the perfect use for them. We hated the funky green colored silk ivy leaves glued to the back of them so we cut them off and I needed the pin to point a different direction so I tugged it out of the glue but the flowers are super cute. The picture doesn't even do them justice. The brown patterned paper and the circle tag are Pink Paislee. The pink paper is really old Scenic Route. The ribbon is from American Crafts and the letter stickers (both kinds) are Making Memories. The leaves are just cut from scraps of Crate Paper, ran through a paper distresser and wadded up.

Lots of Scenic Route (blue dots and "Be Happy" chipboard). The graph paper is...you guessed it...Cosmo Cricket. The flowers are my own little design cut from Doodlebug's glitter paper. A little giant ric rac and jewels, of course and voila! Makes me want to be happy for some reason.

The other day when I was at the D.I., I found an old pattern for a swing coat. It hadn't even been taken out of the package. I bought it because I loved the vintage look and I figured that I could find a home for it. I made the flower out of the pattern. The pattern was so old that there was a name and address for Meg Carter on it so you could write to her with any questions or problems you had assembling your swing coat. The entire time I was working on this card I imagined how many letters Meg Carter received every day and what her life was like (probably pretty busy) and what she's up to now (if she's still alive). If you look really closely at the flower you can see "Carter" on one of the petals. I don't know why it was so fascinating but it was. Maybe because I miss the personal approach from back in the day. Meg Carter would be crazy to put her name and address to her desk at McCall pattern company on anything these days. Kinda sad. But that's just the way it goes I guess. Wow! Off on a tangent there. Back to the card...the patterned paper and tag are Cosmo Cricket and the letter stickers are Making Memories.

This card uses lots of my favorite flowers right now...you know the ones...from my pad by K&Co. How I love those things. There are actually 8 of them all stacked together to make these 3 flowers. The grass is also from that pad. The blue dots are Scenic Route again and the "Live Out Loud" tag is Pink Paislee.

This paper is more of the Abbey Road collection by My Mind's Eye. I used up quite a bit of that stuff on this project. The pink dots are one of my favorites. There is also more graph paper from Cosmo Cricket and the flowers are once again from my K&Co. pad. The rub on is Basic Grey. That cute brad is also Abbey Road. I spent more on that one package of Abbey Road brads than I think I have spent on brads before (at least in a really long time) but I am crazy in love with them. Ridiculously cute! They just make me happy! Hope you all are finding something in your day to make you happy too!

First Day of School Blues

Well, it's official, summer is really over. Today is my daughter's first day back to school. The big 3rd grade. I hear all of the time from mom's who are so happy to have their kids back in school and I just don't get it. It makes about as much sense to me as women who say they love being pregnant. It just doesn't register with me. I LOVE having my kids at home. We just have a great time together. Granted maybe I'll feel differently when they are teenagers but for now, I miss my girl. I have one more year before my son goes off to preschool so he and I are on our own. I will try to enjoy every minute of it. And to top it all off, it is a rainy day here today and I'm on my way to get my teeth cleaned. How's that for a big WAHOO! OK. Enough whining for now. Here's a few more of my mom's cards that I have to share with you. Still on the lookout for some 6x6 envelopes though. Right there on my to do list for the day.
This uses mostly Scenic Route stuff. The graph paper is Cosmo Cricket. And the rest is from my scraps.

Well, looky here, more Cosmo Cricket graph paper. It is my new white dots. Can't seem to stop using it. The pink dot paper is My Mind's Eye, Abbey Road and the blue dots are Fancy Pants. Scraps for everything else. The large pink glitter letters are American Crafts and the small glitter letters are Making Memories.

The cute pink paper is from Cosmo Cricket's Girl Friday line. I love that line (the graph paper I'm always using is too). The turquoise dots and red strip are My Mind's Eye. The paper frill is from Bazzill and the flowers are mostly from my favorite K&Co. flower pad. The letter stickers are American Crafts. And the jewel strip are Heidi Swapp.

If this card looks familiar then you are a reader of CARDS magazine. This is a direct scraplift of the card on the cover of the September issue by Kandis Smith. I love her card and I wanted to make one too. The paper for this are from Cosmo Cricket. The round sticker is from Making Memories. The chipboard letters are Heidi Swapp. The cherries are my own design using the Cosmo Cricket ones for inspiration. I cut them out of Doodlebug glitter paper. That vintage red and white label is from Jenny's Granny. Granny was the sweetest, happiest, never have anything bad to say, woman and Jenny ended up with these little labels from Granny's things. She shared a few and they went perfect with this card. I remember Granny whey I see them. The rub-ons on the label are American Crafts. I love this card even though it's not very original to myself.

This card uses mostly Abbey Road paper from My Mind's Eye. That little brad is from that collection too. The glitter letters are American Crafts. The flower was made from the Stampin' Up scallop circle punch and other random circles cut from my scraps.

I think that there are a few more cards to share later. For now I must head out to the dentist, library, grocery store (Albertson's double coupons to burn), and a few thousand other places. Hope you all have a great day.

Opening A Can Of Worms

Recently I attended a 4 day Cub Scout Leader training called Akela's Trail. Somehow I have found myself a Cub Scout Leader. I heard the gasps and I'm offended. Anywhoooo, I had the most wonderful people in my den (Go Red Den!) and had a great time. Well as great a time as one can have sleeping in a tent during thunderstorms, being eaten alive by mosquitos (Can you say West Nile? They loved my OFF! almost as much as they enjoyed my blood.), and sleep deprivation. It's not that I can't camp. In fact, I'm really pretty good at it. I even love the great outdoors, it's just not the sleepovers that I'm in to that much. It's hard for me to sleep with my head slightly downhill (no matter which direction I sleep in, how is that possible?) and a rock in the small of my back while thinking of my perfectly nice bed at home. Well, I guess I'll stop whining and get to the point. At Akela's Trail we set some goals to improve our dens and packs when we get home. They call them Paw Prints. One of mine was to take care of this catastrophe...

This beautiful disaster is called the Cub Scout Closet at the church. No one dared to open it because it would cause a small avalanche. We would do rock, paper, scissors to see who had to open it to get the flag out for flag ceremony. OK, maybe that's a slight exaggeration but truthfully the den leaders never used any of this stuff because who even knows what's in there. My goal was to find out exactly what was in there, save the useful stuff and get rid of the rest. I also was to make a list of all of the treasures in there for the den leaders to use. So I felt brave a couple of weeks ago and emptied the whole thing....

...turns out there was even a small child in there (I kept him). No really these are my two "helpers" in this endeavor. We found all kinds of things and my "helpers" thought that the Scout closet was a gold mine. They ended up bringing home more "treasures" than I had hoped so I've been secretly throwing those away for the past couple of weeks (you moms know what I'm talking about). We found all kinds of really "great" stuff and some that made us really scratch our heads. Here are two of my personal favorites...

I realize that the picture isn't really clear but what I'm holding in my hand is a bottle of "Sweet Citrus Body Spray". Now I haven't been in Scouts that long but for the life of me I can't figure out what could possibly have happened to land this treasure in the Cub Scout closet. I have imagined some reasons but it is in fact a mystery. And then there is this little number....

Why, pray tell, would this be in the Cub Scout closet? The picture actually makes this thing look more beautiful than it really is in real life (and that's not saying much). It is not in any way attractive nor can I visualize it sitting in the middle of the table at den meeting. I also can't imagine that there is a belt loop, badge or pin in Cub Scouts for floral arranging. Plus, even if there is, I bet our Cubs could really do better than this. Our Cubs rock! Now, I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad but if there is another one of these around and it happens to be in the center of your dining room table...run, do not walk to the nearest trash can immediately. This thing can cause all kinds of unnecessary head spinning and even convulsions. Well, after an entire Saturday of wading through each and every item in that mess and filling the church's dumpster (don't tell anybody, people start to panic when you begin throwing junk away)and one trip to Walmart for bins, this is what I left for the den leaders to find the next Sunday when I showed it to them at our meeting and presented them with their list of items left in there...

There were gasps and comments like, "Hey, I didn't know there was shower curtain pins in there." (I actually didn't know they were called that, thank goodness they were still in the package.) I also made a very nice plea (or threat, whatever you want to call it) that it stay this way for at least a month. They seemed receptive. Now why do I post this transformation on my blog you ask? Well, two reasons, 1) I post my projects here and this was one big project! and 2) and really this is the real reason, I can't seem to get my pictures to load right on my e-mail and I need to share my Paw Print success with the GREATEST den leader EVER! H.S. is the most amazing scout grandma and I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to be in her den for 4 days. We really did have the best den. Love you guys. And for anyone else who has had to muddle through my Scout Closet story, thanks for humoring me and I'll be back soon with some more cards to share.

What?!!!

Okay. Given all the information that I wrote in my previous post about my love of the handy tape measure, this little story would seem unbelievable, but alas, it is all too true. Imagine a crazy powdered sugar covered woman finishing a cake for a party at 6:30 p.m. at approximately 5:30 p.m. It takes about 30 minutes to drive to the party therefore leaving me with 30 minutes to get in the tub and wash off the sticky, as well as put these sweet little cards in their box with the envelopes and tie the bow. Yikes! I raced through my bath, put on my makeup, combed through my hair and let it dry a bit while I put together my mom's gift. Imagine my surprise when I put the envelopes in the box with the cards and realized that they were 1" too small. That's right, I didn't measure my envelopes before I made all of these cards. I thought that I remembered the size but nope, apparently I remembered wrong. Yeesh! Honestly, I was so grateful to not have the glitch of the day be something regarding the cake that I just stood there and laughed. Oh and hit my head while saying, "Duh". I'm hoping and praying that I can find some 6x6" envelopes here in my area today or else I will have to order them on the internet. Which means for my mom, Happy Birthday, hope you love your cards, too bad you can't use them for 10-14 days. Oh brother.

Most of this paper and the little brad is the darling Abbey Road collection from My Mind's Eye, with a little Cosmo Cricket thrown in. The rub-ons are old Heidi Grace I've had FOREVER. The bird is based on the Abbey Road bird but theirs was too big so I had to make my own.

The grid paper is Pink Paisley and all of the dot paper is Fancy Pants. The chipboard letters are from Basic Grey and the letter stickers are Making Memories.

Black dots are Fancy Pants. Red dots are Cosmo Cricket. The flowers are from the greatest little die cut pad from K & Co. I found it at Michaels. It is an entire paper pad of cute flowers that I always seem to be layering together lately. Love that thing. I can't remember the green scallops right off the top of my head but if you're crazy about them and you really must know, I'm sure I could get back to you on that. Once again, the letter stickers are Making Memories.

The paisley, stripes and flower center are We R Memory Keepers. I love those colors. The dots are Fancy Pants. The pink flower is from Imaginisce and the green scallop circle was made with the Stampin' Up punch. The rub-on is Basic Grey. The jewel brad is from my vast collection.

These are more of the flowers from my K & Co. pad. Aren't they so great! The stripey scallop along the side is from My Mind's Eye. The dots are Fancy Pants. The chipboard is from Making Memories but I covered it with Cosmo Cricket's grid paper. The glitter chipboard letters are American Crafts. The brown striped paper is from the same folks who made the green scallops above. The same thing applies. If it keeps you up all night thinking about who makes that, I will happily dig through my scrap bin and find out for you. Just drop me a line. I totally understand laying awake at night trying to figure out things that bug me. Maybe that's why I feel so tired today. Or maybe it's because I took my daughter on a little adventure yesterday before school starts. She's a little rock hound. She's always finding pretty rocks and saving them. And I'm always finding them in the washing machine. So I took her to Spencer Opal Mines. They have a little mini mine there that you can dig in and break rocks open with your hammer to look for opals. They haul dump truck loads in from the actual mine and you pay to dig around in the piles. It's just right behind their store/restaraunt. We had a great time. We met a sweet couple from Michigan. We were the only 4 people digging yesterday, so it was pretty nice. We had a little lunch in the restaraunt and my daughter did a little shopping in the shiny rock department. It's a pretty fun little mini adventure if you have some desire to hunt for sparkly rocks or kids with that desire. Plus, they have "real" fries (fresh cut) and their specialty burger called the "triplet" (named after their opals) was pretty dang hard to beat. Oh and one more thing....fry sauce! Sweet! Nothing better than "real" fries and fry sauce for this Idaho girl. Oh happy day!

Happy Birthday To You!

Today is my mom's birthday and my dad and I have been working on a BIG project for her this week. It all started about a week ago. My dad came over and asked me if I would have time to make a cake for my mom's birthday. Of course I said, "Sure". Then he says, "I was thinking it would be cool to make a grand piano cake." I said, "Yeah, I could probably figure that out. I'd need some kind of base though." "I can probably come up with a base for it", he says. Okay, then. I leave the next day for Jenny's house to spend most of the week before my daughter starts school again and we can't stay at Jenny's. I thought about how to make a piano cake but I wasn't too concerned. Mostly I was concentrating on making my mom some more cards for her gift. Then I came home and my dad comes over to show me the base he has been working on. He has reference photos and he found the measurements for a Steinway on the internet (I didn't know my dad used the internet except to swear at the occasional attempt at an e-mail). He used his work calculator (he's a construction estimator) and came up with an EXACT scale for a Steinway. Here I should just add that we are a dangerous pair. I got my over attention to detail from my dad and so together we start heading into minutiae. Once when I helped him set up the Halloween party at the church, he and I actually used a tape measure to ensure that the tables were spaced evenly (54" apart, just so you know). That's when I started to get a little nervous and worried about how this cake was going to turn out. Later that day, he called me and informed me that he went to the music store with his trusty tape measure (what would we do without those things) and measured how deep a grand piano is and, using his calculator came to the conclusion that the box of the piano, where the cake actually is, needed to be 2 and 1/8" high (don't forget the eighth). I just love that guy! Well, he made me the most beautiful cake stand that could be imagined and after a solid 11 hours of work (yes, the cake was 10 minutes late to it's own party) this is what we came up with.

A little F.Y.I. for you. That cake is exactly 2 1/8" inches high. Guess how I know. When I made the first layer, it measured 1" so I stacked on the second layer and measured it. It was 3" tall. What?!!! I then used my tape measure (keep it in my purse, you know) and placed toothpicks all the way around the cake at 2 1/8" then using the toothpicks as a guide, I cut off the extra 7/8". I need help, I know but I fully expected my dad to break out his tape measure and check it for me. He didn't (probably because he can eyeball to the nearest 1/8", he's got skills, I tell you).

Yes, that is a part of the actual music for "Happy Birthday To You." Painted it on with a toothpick. Minutiae I tell you, minutiae. I'm so glad to be my father's daughter. Much of my creativity comes from my attention to detail. I have the best parents EVER. My mom loved her cake and didn't have the heart to cut it even though the inside contained the most fabulous White Chocolate Lemon Poundcake ever. I just LOVE that recipe. One of these days, I should post it. And lest you think that I have given up on cards to spend time with the baked goods. Here's one of the cards I made for my mom. There are seventeen total so you'll have to wait a while to see the rest. I worked at a feverish pace while I was staying at Jenny's so I didn't keep real great track of all the different products I used but if there is something that you would like to know about, just drop me a line and I will get back to you. Well that's all of my adventures for the last couple of weeks.
Finally, one more Happy Birthday to the coolest mom. She absolutely amazes me. I want to be just like her when I grow up.

Bad Blogger, Bad, Bad, Bad

Ok, so I can't believe that it has really been almost a month since I have updated my blog. Summer has really thrown me for a loop. Schedules and plans have gone completely out the window. It's been a crazy summer here for us. I have done a few cards and things but I just haven't found a minute to take pictures. It seems the only times I can fit pictures in are early in the morning or late at night. Bad light makes for some bad pictures. Here's something that I made this week for my daughter's 8th birthday. The "A" cake topper was made from gum paste and the rest of the cake was done with fondant. My daughter is really into Littlest Pet Shop so she chose a few of her favorites and I tried my best to duplicate them in fondant. I know that it is possible to just attach the actual pets onto the cake but I just wanted to see if I could do it. I love a challenge and plus non-food decorations on cakes kind of bug me. Can anyone say Cakewrecks ? That blog brings much laughter into my day. If you've never looked at it, you should. Cupcake cakes and non-food decorations are also annoying to others it turns out. It's nice not to be alone in my silly peeves.
Besides it made for much fun for my nephew. He had a great time switching heads with the cat and the bird and then just eating the cats head. You sure can't do that with actual Littlest Pet Shop toys. Boys...I don't know if I'll ever get them but they sure make me laugh in the meantime.

Lucky Girl

Well, a while back one of my most fav designers, Linda Albrecht had a little giveaway on her blog and I ended up being chosen to receive this BEAUTIFUL piece that she made. It came in the mail this week and immediately found its way on the wall right inside my front door. It's a nice little reminder on my way out the door to "Do Much Good". I love it!
I love Linda's designs. Everything is glittery and sparkly and shabby. She is most incredible and I'm thrilled to have one of her designs in my home. Thank you Linda! (I took these photos from Linda's blog.) You have got to check her blog out. You will LOVE her too.
I also have been doing a few things but haven't had a minute to photograph them. I've even done a couple of 2S4Y challenges but didn't get them posted. Sad, I know, but summer has been pretty crazy around here. Thought I'd take a minute and share my good fortune with you all though.

Welcome to Crazytown...Population 4

Oh my, what a crazy day. I am still in the throws of potty training. Some people (my son) are so stubborn. I also have been working on my nephew's monkey cake. Monday cakes are hard because I don't have a chance to get a head start on Sunday and Saturday is too early to start baking (stale cake, yuck!) so it all has to be done on Monday. I woke up early and had a nice easy run. It was absolutely beautiful outside this morning. I had a relaxing 2 miles to do today and enjoyed every minute of it. I came home and started the laundry and began baking cakes. This monkey is two 9x13 cakes laid out end to end and then carved. So he's really tall. I made the pattern based on a monkey I designed for my daughters 5th birthday party invitations a few years ago. The cake board, tree branch and leaves are made from rolled marshmallow fondant. I like to make my own fondant because the store bought kind tastes awful. Plus it's easy to make and TONS cheaper. Just a bag of marshmallows, a bag of powdered sugar, and some water. Everything else is buttercream.
This monkey's face reminds me of my nephew. He is most hilarious. So a BIG happy birthday to Drew. I just love that kid. Well, now that birthday season is pretty much wrapped up, I hope to be able to play with my paper stash. I've been having withdrawls.

Ghiradelli Box

Yes, once again, I have MIA. I haven't quite found myself into a groove this summer. The kids and I are just sort of flying by the seat of our pants. And speaking of pants...most of my time has been spent in the joys of potty training my son. It's amazing how that can take over one's life. June is a very busy month in our family. We have lots of birthdays and they run on consecutive days. I have been making birthday cakes for my nephews and working on projects for Father's Day and my dad's birthday. Speaking of projects...I made this little box for my grandpa for Father's day. I designed this little box that holds a large Ghiradelli chocolate bar that I found at the WM (Walmart). They come already in a box but I needed a cuter one, of course. The paper is some that I have had in my scraps for a while. It's We R Memory Keepers. Both of the letter sticker designs are Making Memories. I'm not sure I could go on if they stopped making glitter letter stickers. The star is just one that I cut myself. Maybe if anyone is interested, I would do a little tutorial on how to make the box. It makes a great little gift. Let me know.
Well, I'm off to work on yet another cake. This time it's a monkey for my nephew's birthday tomorrow. Hopefully I can take a few pictures before it gets eaten. Have a good one.

Running, Teachers, and Skunk Cakes?

I know, I know, I have MIA lately on the blog front. This has been a pretty crazy few weeks and I have let my blog slide. I have so much to share today about all of the things that I have been up to. First off, is a little project I made for my daughter's teacher on the last day of school. How I wish she could just go right to 3rd grade with my daughter. I absolutely have loved Mrs. Walker and I wanted to make her a little thank you something. When I saw THIS post by Danni I knew that I had to totally steal her apple idea. Miss Danni is just amazing. I noticed that she made the top 20 today at 2S4Y. Let me just say, she is so deserving. Her teacher gifts are awesome. So here's my version of her cute apple.

Isn't she so smart? Mine uses Cosmo Cricket, Creative Cafe, and my immense scrap collection. The "thanks" is a Making Memories "looking glass" sticker. I have the cardmaking "looking glass" stickers and let me just say....I love them all. Usually there are at least a few stickers in a set that you know right away you will NEVER use. I can honestly say that I will have no trouble finding just the right homes for each and every sticker in that package. LOVE THEM! (Did I already mention that?)

After we got the last day of school finished up, we then had the last soccer game of the season for my daughter's team. When they received their uniforms, they were purple with a black and white vertical stripe running right through the middle. This stripe inspired the girls to name their team the "Purple Skunks". The coach was having a end of the year party and wanted to get a cake or something for the celebration but not too many bakeries have requests for skunks on their cakes so I said that I could probably figure out a skunk cake. At first I was going to make a sculpted 3D skunk, but then I realized nearly the entire thing would be coated in black frosting. Not only is black frosting disgusting as far as taste goes but it also turns your lips, tongue, and teeth a lovely rotting flesh color. So I decided to go with a half sheet cake with a picture of a skunk playing soccer. Much less black frosting. So here she is my "Purple Skunk" cake.Probably won't make it into a Food Network cake challenge but the girls loved it and it does look like a skunk. They were excited to be able to say that they ate skunk for dessert. I mean, how often can you say that?

Other than that, I have been running. Training that is. By the way, when I say running, it really is more of a slow jog, the word running just makes me feel better. I ran with my sister and brother this weekend in the Teton Dam Marathon. They did the half and I did the 5K (I'm not totally insane.) It was a hard run. The starting line for my race had you facing a killer hill and it just kept right on going up for the first mile and three-quarters. I was a lot concerned because where I train at home is pretty flat and I have been not feeling myself lately and my training was more of a struggle than usual. It was making me crazy and I even had them run a few tests at the doctor's office. They even asked me if I was pregnant (not only NO...). And all of my results were pretty normal (exasperating!), so I was worried standing at the bottom of that hill waiting to start. The run was a benefit for Cystic Fibrosis and a good friend of ours, Perrin Campbell, died about 10 years ago from that disease. So we had some "Team Perrin" shirts printed up for us to wear for this race. Perrin loved baseball and basketball but running is pretty impossible when your lungs are continuously "gunked" up. He always played baseball by using a designated runner. He would hit and field but someone else would run the bases for him. So on the back of our shirts we printed "Designated Runner" and his number "32" and his nickname "Pee Wee". They turned out great even though we made them "Laker" yellow (Perrin's team, he even met Magic and had a pair of his shoes). One thing was for sure, you could definately see us coming. It's hard to blend into the crowd in "Laker" yellow. How I miss Perrin. He was so much fun. He just became a part of our family. He's crazy cool! Since we were running for Perrin, there was no way I was going to let myself lie down on the side of the road and just let the ambulance pick me up. I was finishing that race! If Perrin could go through all of the stuff he had to go through just to make it through a day, by darn, I wasn't going to let some MONSTER hill get in my way. The beauty of hills is that "what goes up, must come down" and I was able to catch up my time on the downside. I ended up finishing better than my best training time which I can only attribute to divine intervention. I know I had help.Here is my sister Jessie running along. My BFF Jenny just happened to see her running along and took this picture. I mean, how can you miss someone running along in a "Laker" yellow shirt? She looks so happy but she is actually feeling pretty miserable. She had a nasty sinus infection and the antibiotics made her sick. Jessie is a crazy fast runner and had been training for a long time for this run and finished in just over 2 hours. Not her personal best, which she always tries to beat but amazing to me nonetheless. 13 miles in 2 hours is pretty dang good and normally she would have left my brother in the dust but he came in at about 1:55. Both of them are so cool and we had a fascinating early morning conversation on the drive to the race. Hilarious. When you come from a family of smart alecs, riding in car together for any length of time is NEVER boring.

We have another little race this weekend too so I had better get to bed so I can get up early to run (jog, whatever). I have a few more pieces of good news I would like to share but I think that I will just have to update later.

2S4Y and Raspberry Suite Challenges

Just have a couple of cards to post today. First up is a card I finished for Dawn McVey's Raspberry Suite challenge. This is the first time I have played along with Dawn's color challenges. Dawn is famous for her color choices and I have loved all of her color challenge colors but I usually don't get the card done in time to post it. I just use her palette. But this time I was determined to post my card and play along.
I love these colors together. The patterned paper is Bo Bunny, Fancy Pants, My Mind's Eye, Crate Paper and the embossed white cardstock is Doodlebug. The flowers are from Prima. The trim is American Crafts and the letter stickers are Making Memories.

I liked the colors from Dawn's color challenge so much that I just kept using them for my card for 2S4Y this week. This is based on Laura's sketch and uses a little bit of everything. The patterned paper is Making Memories, Fancy Pants, Bo Bunny, The Paper Company, and Doodlebug. The cardstock tag is Colorbok. The flourish rub-on is Heidi Grace and the letter rub-ons are American Crafts. The button is SEI. The letter stickers are Making Memories and the ribbon is American Crafts. I sanded and inked all the edges with Tim Holtz ink. I hope you like them. Such great colors. Thank you Dawn for the colors and thank you Laura for the sketch. I love them both. I had better get this posted before I miss another deadline for Raspberry Suite. Be back soon.

You're So "Tweet"

Happy Spring! At least today finally feels like we might get a little spring before the final snow storm of the year comes. But not to worry, it usually arrives right after I get my garden planted and that hasn't happened yet, so we're safe.
I have been busy clearing off my desk after the Mother's Day marathon of projects and so it was looking so clean, I just had to do something about that. My friend Chris had a little giveaway on to celebrate her 200th post on her blog and I ended up winning. I'm so excited. It is a great excuse for us to get together and I decided that I needed to make it more of a swap, so I made this little birdhouse box filled with Clodhoppers for her. It's sad that we live so close to each other but life is so busy that we have to come up with an excuse to get together. Hopefully we can get together for lunch and catch up.
How cute is this little birdhouse box. It is a pattern designed by Nichole Heady. You can find it HERE on her blog. I loved the pattern and I dressed it up with My Mind's Eye, Penny Lane collection.

The bird is my own design and the letter stickers and glitter heart sticker are Making Memories. I also managed to trash my desk again in the making of this project. My creative mind seems to need a little chaos in the work area. Either that or I am a walking tornado with paper. So I'm off to clear off my desk once again but I have to say, this little birdhouse was worth it. I think I'll have to make a few more. I love it. Thank you Nichole and thank you Chris! I'll see you soon.