Well we have less boxes around the house that need to be unpacked. The house is starting to feel like a home. I have so many projects that run through my head but I complete none of them. I have tried a "just do it" attitude. Now I sit here wondering "What will I do next?". Do I just clean, should I unpack a few more boxes, should I start a project? After Christmas we plan to redo the bathroom. My father has given us a whirlpool tub. I currently have a clawfoot tub. I have always wanted a clawfoot tub. They are so classic and elegant. Now that I have one I dislike it; it does feel elegant at all. It is raised up off of the floor so high, when stepping out of the tub you almost need a parachute because it is such a big step down onto the floor. The overflow valve is not hooked up, the shower curtain surrounding the tube is rigged in an ugly fashion and the shower head is not mounted. Not only that but there is not even flooring under the tub. The tub is sitting on floor joyces. As a matter of fact, the whole floor in the bathroom need to be replaced. I sure hope that we can do this all in one day. I do not want to have to go without a bathroom. Thank God for the second half bath that is down in the basement.

So we bought a house. It is a "Fixer-upper". I have always wanted to restore a house. I prefer older homes, they have such charm and history. Most people would think that this would be a joyous moment for me. Instead, I find myself crying on a daily basis. I have no carpentry skills. I am not a plumber. I am having a hard time cleaning this place; I am afraid of removing too much of the dirt for fear something might fall apart. I have way too much stuff that I have moved into the house, leaving mountains and mountians of boxes stacked high. I am so overwhelmed. What did I get myself into? I have loved ones that stop the crying; they keep telling me that it will be okay. One task at a time, one box at a time it gets better. I will try to post before and after pictures. That may be a task that is too much, perhaps it will all come together before I even realize that there is an after (or a before). Oh did I mention that we have no money. If I had money maybe everything would be okay. We can't even afford to make repairs, even if we did know how. For now I will go clean the windows in the living room. I hope the glass stays in the panes.

Teacher Gifts

I made these cute Candy Bar Sliders for the children to give to thier teachers on the first day of school. I got the idea from a youtube video. Thanks Dawn! When I figure out how to add links and videos I will feature it in my Fave. For now I can give you my version of the Recipe.

The video tutorial I got the idea from used Stamping Up materials but I used:

6 x 6 white cardstock

5 x 6 patterned paper

2 x 4 white cardstock

ribbon

stamps or other items to decorate with.

I scored the white cardstock at 1/4" and 3 1/4". I also did this for the patterned paper. Make sure to score the patterned paper on the 6" side not the 5" side. I then took the patterned paper and adhered it to the white cardstock aligning the score lines together. Next I creased the score lines. I then ran my atg along the outside of the 1/4 crease. At this point I wrapped the cardstock around fastening together. I decorated the 2 x 4 cardstock with an apple stamp and crayons. I figured it fit for the "back to school/teacher theme". Of course, it can be decorated to suit. Adhere the 2x4 piece to the wrapper. Next punch a hole; I just used a hand punch. Then I threaded the ribbon through. Finally slide the Hershy candy bar into the slider and ribbon. Tie the ribbon into a prettyful bow and make another person smile!

On another set that I did not take a picture of, I added a layer of red cardstock under the 2x4 white stamped cardstock. I also used my Martha Stewart Corner Punches. They looked extra fancy, I wish I had taken a picture of those to share.

Mad Katter Tea Party

This year we are having a Sweet 16 party for my daughter. It will be a mad hatter tea party taken from the Alice in Wonderland story. Her name is Kat, hence the name Mad Katter Tea Party. We booked a hall and a band. This is one of the decorations that I made. The hat is from A Childs First Year Cricut Cartridge. I inked the edges of the band on the hat and mad the 10/6 tag by hand. The hat pins are a wondedrful addition from my BFF using wire, beads and glue dots. She is so crafty! She also added the flowers and gems. I love her for so many reasons. Thanks Candy! She also told me that Hatters used to go crazy from all of the mercury that was in the materials used to make hats and that is where the phrase "mad as a hatter" came from. Who Knew!!??

I never did get a chance to show off all of my completed projects and goodies for my Journal Swap that I was in so long ago. I told you all I had alot of catching up to do. Thanks for looking. I will have to show the journal that I received as well.

So I have alot of catching up to do. I almost feel like I am typing in a freenzy right now. I was blocked from blogging or viewing other blogs while at work. Now before you start rolling your eyes, please understand that we are allowed to surf the internet. Without being able to explain, it's kinda encouraged as long as the content is work appropriate. I do have a lot of down time while on the job so this is when I do my blogging. I guess IT has been gracious and is allowing me to blog again and released the block.

I want to share some of the things I have been working on. First off, I want to show off my first blackberry cobbler. I have never made this before and I'm kinda proud of it. We all went and picked blackberries right off the bush. The boys had so much fun. They love going to Aunt Debbie's house to pick berries and collect eggs. The recipe was also compliments of Aunt Debbie. It is called a "creeping crust cobbler". Very easy, so easy even I could do it!

Feature My Fave

I have this idea. I spend so much time reading everyone elses blogs that I often neglect mine. Sometimes I really don't have anything to blog about. I worked all weekend and really can't talk about much when it comes to that. Boy I sure did have a chance to get lost in blog land (life is tough, I know). So my idea is to feature a favorite blog. I may even feature my favorite you tube videos also. I am still trying how to do that (any tips would be appreciated). So when I see something that I just love I will share it here with you. Some things may be specifically in mind for my sister. She too is an artistic genius.

Speaking of my sister and her artistic ability, I think I will make her my first feature.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/MaryWells

Accountable

Well I posted a few To-Do items that had to be done. I wish that I was able to come back with all my tasks complete but I am afraid that I cannot. I did get half of the four things done. That counts for something right? I mailed my package off, and I spoke with the insurance company. I may not have made any more tea bag holders or had a chance to upload any pictures but I did grill out and had my BFF and her family over both nights off. I also went on nice log evening walks both nights too. I think I balanced the scale pretty good. I have a slightly large family and most of my friends do too. That makes for a lot of kids and adults in one place. I love it!

Oh but I did get my Martha Stewart punches in the mail today. Wouldn't ya figure I would get them in on a day that I have to return to work. I did take them out of the box and play for a tiny bit but I really wish that I could use them tonight. I have to work the entire weekend too so I will have to let them sit for several days before I can use them. I guess I have a few things to look forward to and I don't have to make a new To-Do list

My To-Do List for Tomorrow

I am putting it in print so I will have to hold my self accountable.
1. Take package to post office.
2. Upload Photos to Blog (of journals, tea bag holders and recent layouts)
3. Make more tea bag holders.
4. Call insurance company.

I have a package that was suppose to be mailed out weeks ago. I am so embarrassed that I will not even go into detail as to what it is for, where it is going or what it is. I have some picutes that I want to upload but never have. I have pictures stored in three different locations which can make it tricky at times to stay organized. I am making tea bag holders for my daughters Mad Katter Tea Party. I borrowed the idea from a you tube. They will make great party favors. As far as the insurance company, well that has been put off for way too long. I sometimes think that the more you put something off, the importance becomes less as time goes by.

Way Too Easy

So this is going to be a long story; here goes. Sometimes I will let the children sleep on the couch and fall asleep watching television. It used to work but it seems that anymore they will stay awake and watch movie after movie. We have resorted to turning on the food network so they dont't get as much excitement and will fall asleep easier. My little darling was fascinated by the food network the other night and I could see that he was never going to fall asleep so I changed it to the HSN.

Low and behold you will never guess what was on. Scrapbooking. That's right ladies and gentlemen, by a stroke of pure luck I managed to catch the Premier release of the Martha Stewart Cricut Cake and her new cartridges. During this time they also displayed some wonderful punch sets. Did you know that with Comcast cable all I had to do was hit "ok" to shop. I did not have to trouble myself with filling out any information; I did not even have to dig around for my debit card. It was really that easy; all I had to do was click "ok" to shop. It is almost scary how easy it is. I never ever in my life thought that I would become a HSN shopper.

I have to confess that this is the second time I have purchased something from HSN. Of course it was scrapbook related too. I will have to say that almost everytime I scrapbook or paper craft I use all items purchased from HSN. I also did some price checking and found that I got a pretty good deal. Some stuff is way overpriced. Especially with so many web stores that offer great deals. Making purchases is just way too easy.

Cricut Cuts

I made a couple of cuts on my cricut to send out to another person from the Cricut message board. I have glitter everywhere now since I used glitter paper. My darling even has specks of glitter in his beard. XD

My Creative Corner

I would like to invite everyone to see my little creative corner. I used to have an entire room all to myself but I felt so secluded from everyone else in the house. Some people might like that sort of thing but I like to be approachable for my family. So for now this is where I play with scissors!

Journal swap

I would like to share a picture of the handmade Journals that I made for my swap buddy from the Cricut message board. I have already posted a sneek peek; now that it has already has been shipped I can share.

Vacation

Wow I guess I have really neglected my blog. I have been on vacation for quite some time. I must say that it feels nice to be able to sit at home and enjoy my house. I like visiting places and enjoy taking my family to different places. I am not sure that they appreciate it fully though. We went to Chicago and walked clear from the Water Tower Mall to Millinium Park. We ate at the Rain Forest Cafe and visited The American Girl store. We spent a day at Adler Planitarium also. We also went to JellyStone Campground in Eureka Mo and Six Flags. I like the cabins that we rent there. They are fully equiped which makes it easy for me. Some of the kids even had a chance to pick eggs from the hen house and ride the tractor at a relatives farm. I will have to post some pictures on my facebook. Maybe I can post some here too. Any one interested in seeing vacation pictures?

Sneek Peek

This is a sneek peek of an altered journal I completed for a swap from the Cricut message board. I did not get as much done like I wanted to today and I don't see that happening tomorrow either. I guess every little bit helps. I hope you enjoy the sneek peek. Oh it is so hard for me to not show the whole thing.

More Accomplishments

LOL I am so glad that no one points out my typos and grammatical errors. At one time in my life I was a spelling/writting whiz. Now...eh I'm just so excited about scrapping and blogging not to mention the fact that I have an insane schedule, that I make mistakes and do not really proof read properly. Another thing is, is that I have these wicked long manicured nails that it can make it tricky to type at times.

I have completed more accomplishments. I really took a huge dent out of my organization tasks. Sometimes I just have to tear into some projects and it can leave things in a mess. Other times I am just so busy, whether I am having fun or working hard I'm just always doing something. I really try to make it a point to spend my days at home doing things together as a family. I like to take the kids to places that are fun and new. The last couple of times that I had off, I feel like more things got accomplished.

One thing that I accomplished besides the boring tedious hard task of organizing is an element of my journal swap that I have joined. I altered a spiral comp book using my Cricut and Cuttlebug. I can't go into alot of detail at the moment in case my swap partner reads my blog by any chance. I want it to be a surprise. I have a couple of more things that I want to add to the project. I'm just all smiles because I got one part of it finished. My boyfriend was present and gave some pretty good ideas. I have to give him a little bit of credit here. He says that he is not creative but he really does come up with great ideas.

Oh oh oh and I also bought a bike. It is an oldie! Classic Schwinn from the 60's. Purple, fenders; the only thing missing is a basket and bell. I have not had a chance to ride it yet but first chance you can bet I will be pedeling away on my cruiser.

I am getting excited about this summer. There are so many things that I want to do. I am getting excited about my upcoming days off. Hopefully I can get some pictures posted for you all to see! Oh yeah I'm also excited about upcoming vacations that are in my near future.

Accomplished

I got some things accomplished over my last two days off. I managed to get my daughter to a doctors appointment and filled her prescription. I spoke with two schools in reguard to some teenaged education issues. I managed to spend movie time with the boys without falling asleep halfway through the movie. I managed to kill zombies with my oldest son. We make a great team when it comes to defending ourselves against the infected. I took the entire family out for Chinese dinner one night and ordered pizza the next night for dinner. I ran to the post office and mailed my swap cuts off. This was a Must Do; I did not want to get my stuff mailed out too late and be called a "Flaker" on my favorite message board. I even managed to re-arrange my bedroom/office/scraproom.
To some people this may seem like a pretty light couple of days but for me that is alot of tasks complete. I feel very accomplished. I have a very hard time staying awake through an entire movie. It does not matter how good the movie is or how much I wanted to see it; I'm falling asleep almost everytime. It has been a long time since I got a chance to spend time playing video games with my son. He is a game fanatic so I try to do the things that he likes to do. It's also nice that I spent time with my teen daughter and we had no arguements. Sometimes not disagreeing with a teen female can be a rare occurance. I also took alot of time totally reorganizing my bedroom. I really do have too much stuff crammed into one room. I don't know about anyone else but sometimes when I clean I make an even bigger mess than what I started with. I also have really heavy furniture. I still have to do some more organizing but that will have to wait until this weekend is over with. I will be working this entire weekend. You won't hear me complaining though; I feel accomplished.

No matter what, I'm pretty sure I will be okay

I am going to keep that in mind right now. I have a lot of things on my mind right now. I just need to keep telling myself that no matter what I will be okay. I have dealt with worse. I have a great support system. I will be okay!

She works hard for the money so you better treat her right

I am so thankful that God has provided me with a good job. It is not the best job but it is not labor intensive, it pays decent and the benefits are decent. I must say that working all of this overtime is making me feel guilty and exhausted. It is just too hard to walk away from the money...we could really use it around our house. Of course Im sure that every household is like that. I have never met anyone that said they had too much money. If you ever run across that person though, please send them my way. Until then I guess I will just be happy that the good lord not only provided me with a good job, but he is also providing me with the chance to work overtime and have a little extra money. I really would rather be at home hanging out with my beautiful family right now though. I miss my kids. I could be scrapbooking right now instead of hanging out on scrapbook sites. "Sigh" I have so many things on my mind right now.........I need to just focus on the positive and be thankful

Disney Swap Characters

This is what I am mailing off for a Disney Swap from the Cricut.com message board. I sure hope that I did this right. I really don't have alot of time open to do things like this so when there is something that does not go exactly as planned.....well I'm sure I don't have to tell you. I think that we all face the same issues in life. Okay here goes...let's see what happens.