Wow, where has the time gone?

How long has it been exactly? Sheesh, too long! I hope I didn't lose EVERYONE that used to stop by and read my blog. I have a lot to catch you all up on... a lot... but I really don't have time to let you all know right now! I PROMISE that I'll be back soon and let you know what's been going on in my life. In the meantime, here is the last project that I completed:I made this little date book for my friend about 3 months ago. It's one of those agenda books that starts in August and goes though the school year rather than the calendar year. I used Creeper Crew Thursday and various metal embellishments that had on hand. Okay, so I have to run off to work now. I PROMISE I'll be back later!

Amy's Candy!

Hello there friends! So, it's been over a month and I have not gotten crafty AT ALL! I am really hoping that my mojo comes back soon, I miss my crafting table, copics and stamps! School Starts in just over a week, and I'm cleaning out/organizing my stamping stuff and getting "back to basics". Hopefully those things will help me get back into the crafty mood and inspire me!

In the meantime, let me show you something that is truly inspirational:AND....
Doesn't that look WONDERFUL??? Amy from 1000 Sheets of Paper is celebrating her blogaversary AND cutting into 1000 sheets of paper! Head over to her blog and check it out! You could win some of this deliciousness!

I'm getting my life in order...

Hello there! So, as my title says, I'm getting my life in order. Since we moved into our new, smaller house, I have felt unorganized, crowded, claustrophobic and just plain frustrated. Slowly but surely I am putting things in their places and eliminating unnecessary things. This isn't just about our "stuff" though, it's also about people, emotions, and priorities as well. A lot of things have changed in our lives over the past few months and we need to be able to keep our heads up, looking ahead, and progressing positively. Don't get me wrong, things are not bad! The family and I are doing well, there are just things that can be improved. For example, in the last two weeks alone, Angel has started actively potty training, I've gone back to work after a short "stay-cation", the boys are going to a summer program at school, David is transitioning for the NCO Academy and then a new position at work, I've lost my Abuelita, David's father passed away the day after Abuelita, and more... Can you see why I feel like we need a little more ORDER in our lives? haha! So I'm moving forward. I will be starting with ME, because I can't change the world without changing myself first, right? Or something like that. There are things in my life that I love to do, like blog and craft and read, but I have been neglecting those things. Also, I love to play with my kids... but I don't actually play with them nearly enough. Another thing, and probably the biggest, hardest change... I am not nearly as close to God as I used to be and want to be. I plan on doing something about that! I plan on changing up my blog just a bit... I will still be posting my crafty stuff, but I am hoping to include more things about me, the kids, our family and life in general. I want to be held accountable for my progress (or lack of progress) and I feel like maybe putting it on my blog will be a good thing to help with that. We'll see how it goes.

If you are a regular reader, I hope you'll stick around! Until next time, be blessed!

Love Card

Just for the fun of it, I decided to use one of my Cheeky Cherry girls and make a Love card. I copied the sketch from one of Amy's cards but flipped it so the sentiment is on the right and the image is on the left.

It has felt so good to get back to crafting, but it seems that my crafting has turned into a weekend hobby instead of daily like it used to be. Not sure why... but as long as I get to craft sometime, I'll take it! I've gotta run so I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Ciao!

Quick Post

Hey all! I'm about to head off to work after 2 weeks off! It's going to be a busy couple of days but I wanted to post something in case I don't get a chance to pop back on here for a few days. I was able to participate in another TGF challenge! I made this scrapbook page for the Saturday Sketch over on Club Anya & Friends:I bought a scrapbook kit and finally decided to start making the pages for it! The album is travel themed, and I want to scrap the pictures from our Greek cruise. Just imagine a picture of me and the kids in front of our cruise ship on that blank panel on the page!

OK, I have to run off now and finish getting ready for the day! Until next time, be blessed!

Happy Independence Day!

Hello! I hope you are all having a wonderful celebration today with your friends and family! Even if you aren't in the U.S.A., I hope your day is fabulous. Instead of just a regular Scenic Sunday post, I thought I'd give you a picture and a project. Oh, and Angel Baby says Hi!LOL, she's all about sticking out her tongue lately, HAHAHA! So, I recently discovered a new blog called Simplicity that has a weekly challenge called "One Layer Wednesdays". This is exactly what I've needed to get myself trying things that are a little different than what I usually do with my cards. This week's challenge was to make a patriotic card and this is what I came up with:
It was a little difficult for me to make this card. I don't have any stamps that are geared toward Independence day, so I had to come up with something! I colored a white felt sticker with a red copic marker, stamped the blue lines stamp from TGF's Spotlight stamp set, and used some stars from a SU! set then colored those in with red. I added glaze in the stars to make them a little shiny, and finally I added faux stitching with a blue marker all around the edges of the card. This card sounds simple, but it took me forever! I really wanted to stretch my abilities, try something different than my normal style, that way I can also enter this into the Raise The Bar challenge my blogging buddy, Joni has going on! I love her challenge blog, but I never participate! So with this card, I am entering two challenges! Woohoo! Speaking of Joni, her awesome daughter, Maali, just graduated Kindergarten and is about to have a birthday! In celebration of these momentous events, Joni is having a CANDY. Go to her blog and check it out! Okay, I'm off to celebrate the festivities with a movie, some live bands, and lots of fun to be topped off with FIREWORKS of course! Have a wonderful day on Independence! Be blessed!

Another project from the "vault"

Lol, not so much a "vault"... just my pictures file on my computer! So I had been itching to make a tissue holder for a looooooong time. I bought a bulk pack of tissues with the intentions of making tissue holders to give out to friends, but I never did. I bought the tissues about a year and a half ago, and still have about 12 packs! But back in April, I finally made a holder using a digi from TGF. I used Dressy Jeremy for the first time for this holder. The template for the holder came from somewhere online... if I find it again, I'll let you all know!
I also used papers from TGF and the ribbon from SU! The "hey you" sentiment is from a TGF stamp set as well, but I can not remember which one! I looked online and just can't seem to find it right now... hopefully I'll find it and I'll come back to edit later. I hope you all have a fantastic Independence Day weekend! I'll be back tomorrow with another Scenic Sunday post. Until then, be blessed!

Did I show you this?

Hey there my friends. I was going through some pictures of projects I have made, and there are a few things that I don't think I've shown you yet!I made this scrapbook page for the TGF Royal battle back in April (I think it was April). My team didn't use my layout, but I was quite happy with how it turned out, especially since I hadn't made a page in probably a year!
I used the colors from the photo for the layout. My dear blogging friend, Gabby, made Angel Baby this crochet bunny, with a beanie! She also made me this gray beanie, but Angel Baby wanted to wear it and looked awesome in it. Angel LOVES her bunny, and this was a picture showing that. I used stamps from TGF's Whimsical Greetings, Hello Go Round, and the first Hope and Grace stamp set. You can click on the pictures to see the project up close if you'd like. I hope you enjoy your Wednesday and I'll see you all soon!

Be blessed.

Fleur Anya with a sketch!

Hello there! I'm back for the THIRD day in a row! Woohoo! I really hope I can keep this up once I go back to work. I've been on a little summer vacation for the last week and I go back next week, so we'll see...During my little "hiatus" from stamping, I purchased a few stamps and Fleur Anya is one of them. I love how whimsical and spring-like she is! I decided to use the sketch from CA&F's Sketchy Saturday to make a card with Fleur Anya.
This card didn't start out as a bright summery card, but it turned out that way! I used some AWESOME glittery paper I got from my blogging buddy, Jenn Raff sent me after we competed together in the TGF Royal Battle. BTW, did I tell you all we won third place! WOOHOO! Jenn sent me a little package of papers, embellies, etc so I used what she sent. The hearts are stickers and the bigger one says "Best Friends Rock".

I wanted to use the glittery paper so that I could enter this into the Oh, Alice! Ch. 19 challenge for this week as well. I love the Oh, Alice! challenge blog but I haven't played yet. I figure NOW'S the TIME! If you haven't seen the challenge blog yet, you need to go over there and look at all the fabulousness. it will blow you away!

Okay, so it's movie time with the family. I'll see you all next time and until then, be blessed!

Scenic Sunday

These photos are NOT in order of the places we visited on the Greek Cruise... but they are fun to look at anyway! Enjoy! (captions are under pictures)Nana, Grandpa Bob and the kiddos in Mykonos
Us getting ready to ride the donkeys in Santorini.
Me and my boys in Athens. The Erechtheion is behind us!
My and my Mom in Ancona, Italy.
Hanging out at a Cafe in Corfu.
Walking around my town, Sacile, Italy.
Mom and Me in an Irish pub, drinking Croatian beer in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Me and my Angel baby at the Trieste Castle in Trieste, Italy.
And finally, a photo of the Parthenon from our tour bus.

I'm Baaaaaack!!!

Hi there friends! I know it's been a loooong time, and I apologize. My life got a little busy, and then I sort of lost my motivation to make cards. I finally got my mojo back today and inked up Shooter from The Greeting Farm. Shooter is one of the MANY stamps that I purchased during my "slump". I have quite a few stamps that have yet to be used, so you should be seeing new things from me!Here is a close up of Shooter:

Isn't she adorable?
I used the Farm Fresh Friday sketch from the Greeting Farm's Blog. This is the first card I've made in TWO months and so I needed the sketch to get me going.

I used Kraft paper from Stampin' Up for the card base, retired ribbon from SU as well as the brad to hold the ribbon on. The rust colored paper is from Crate Paper and the plaid patterned paper is October Afternoon.

One of the things that helped me get my mojo back was a card that I got in the mail a couple days ago. Guess what kind of card it was... a CHRISTMAS CARD!!! I couldn't believe it when I saw it in my mailbox. First I thought, "Why is Amy Young sending me a card?" Then I noticed the postage stamp... then I looked at the date stamped onto the front of the envelope and noticed the date... DECEMBER 4th, 2009!!! What the Heck?!?

Sure enough, when I opened the envelope, this gorgeous card was inside:

I double checked the postage, even asked the person at the package pickup window if I was seeing things but sure enough, it was from DECEMBER! The person at the window said "musta been lost somewhere" ROFL! You think?

Regardless, it was a wonderful surprise to get. I LOVE the detail Amy puts into her cards! Here you can see the the glitter on the Fairy's wings and the cool embossing on the sentiment.

In the next picture you can see the gorgeous liquid pearls on her dress, and the glitter all around the edges of the card.

Thank you so much Amy! I love the card!

Well, I'm signing off for the night. Hopefully I'll get another card done tomorrow... Although, I owe you all a TON of Scenic Sunday posts... and I did go on a cruise to Greece! Come back tomorrow to see a few pictures. Until then, be blessed!

It's been a loooooong time...

But I'm still here! I have moved, been on vacation (GREECE!), and been a single parent during the last month or so (DH went on a TDY)... but life is finally slowing down and I'll have more time to spend on my dear blog soon. Have I lost you all? I hope not! I promise I'll be back SOON with pictures! I haven't made ANYTHING crafty since I made that party set for the TGF Royal Battle, but I will soon, I hope. Oh, BTW, we won 3rd place!!! THANK YOU to everyone who supported us and voted! Off to do laundry now, see you all soon!

Less than an hour left!

ACK! I'm so nervous! I'm on pins and needles about this Royal Battle! We are in third place right now and SO CLOSE to second, it's killing me! We need lots of last minute votes! For more info, see my previous entry. I have to go bake cookies now, ACK!

It's the FINAL week!!!

WE MADE IT!!! The Time Travelers made it to Week 5 of the TGF Royal Battle! Now we need YOU to go to the TGF blog and vote for us! I can't believe we are actually one of the semi-finalists. Now the pressure is REALLY on because I made our project for this week! ACK! Talk about pressure!!!This week we were tasked to make a girl/boy project so I made party stuff! I used the Wonderland stamp set to make an Alice set and a Hatter set.
I used lots of polka dots and red for Alice and lots of polka dots and green for Hatter.
I made a card, a party blower, a party hat and a party tin! I hope you all love it and will go to the TGF Blog to vote for us! The voting is a little different this time. This week there will only be voting for ONE DAY!!! TODAY!!!! And you have to go to the TGF Blog and vote in the poll on the side panel of the blog. I will link up the blog post as soon as it's there. EDITED: I added the links! Please go vote for the Time Travelers project! I really don't want to let my team down. They've all done such an AMAZING job getting us to this point! I hope I can make them proud.

TGF Royal Battle Week 4!!!

Hey there Friends! My team has made it to the FOURTH week of the TGF Royal Battle!!! I am so excited about this! This week our challenge was to make a candy holder... Well, if you've been reading my blog for a little while, then you'll know that I love to make candy holders, so I was all pumped to make the challenge for this week, but... we're moving! And it just was not going to happen! So Marley stepped up and made this AMAZING lollipop holder: I could not have made a better candy project, it was meant to be for Marley to make the entry this week! So, if you want to support our team, the Time Travellers, please go to this link: http://www.tgfllc.com/galleria/showphoto.php?photo=13811 and vote for our project! If we make it to the next, and FINAL round, then it will finally be my turn to make our project. I can't tell you how nervous that makes me! Especially since, at this moment, half my stamp room is in boxes in my new garage, and the other half is at my old house! AGH!!! But I am up for the challenge and I want us to make it!!! lease go and vote for us. Remember, you have to register in the Galleria to be able to vote, and you can only vote for ONE project this week!
Thanks friends!

Scenic Sunday

Hello my friends! I haven't done a Scenic Sunday in awhile so I thought I'd pop on here real quick and post some pics for ya!Spring is here in Northern Italy! My Narcissus are blooming, and I'm hoping to transplant them into a pot so I can take them to our new house... without killing them! Here is a sunny pic of my 2 younger kiddos playing on the slide:
Ashton has his "Popeye" look and Angel baby is wearing an adorable hat that my fabulous blogging buddy, Gabby, made! Here is another pic of my Narcissus:
Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday! I'm off to pack some more!

Girl's Rock!

Hey there friends! Sorry about my absence this last week, but we've been moving and things have been pretty crazy here! We're just moving into a different house, cuz we want to and we can! So why not take advantage of it, right? Ok, so I'm supposed to be somewhere right now and I'm running behind so my post is going to be super quick. Remember the easel card I made for the first Royal Battle Challenge? Well, I knew I'd seen them on drawer boxes, and I found the template! I will share the link later but here is something I made with the template:I love the color combo of pink and grey! This fun little thing is going to a friend of mine with some candy in the drawer, lol. I made this for the Gettin' Punky With It challenge on Club Anya and Friends. Yes, it is the sketch from a FFF challenge a week or so ago, but I didn't make it in time for that challenge, just used the awesome sketch because I love it! I think that sketch will be one of my go-to sketches that I'll put in my sketch book. Alrighty, I just got a phone call and I'm super behind now! Gotta run! See ya later!

Royal Battle Coraline Entry!

First off, HAPPY EASTER!!! I hope your Easter Sunday is a blessed one! We're not doing much today, just a little egg hunt for the kiddos. It's the first year that Angel Baby will be able to RUN for the eggs, so we're looking forward to watching her do that!

Like I was telling you all yesterday, it's week 2 of the Royal Battle over on the Greeting Farm blog. Our team, the Time Travelers has entered a card made by our Superb teammate, Suzi. Here is her amazing Coraline inspired card:

Isn't it amazing?!? I love all the detail she put into the card! The buttons, the key, the moon, the front walkway to the house!!! Wow! So we're hoping to get enough votes to continue on in the Royal Battle. Can you help us out? All you need to do is go to the Galleria HERE and vote for our card! If you aren't registered for the galleria, it's super simple to do and we would REALLY appreciate it! This is just the second battle challenge, but the competition is tough! Every vote counts!

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today. Now I need to find the charger for my camera so I can take pictures of our egg hunt today!

HAPPY EASTER BLOG BUDDIES!!!

Royal Battle 2 and Anyone For Anya

Hello! It's Saturday, are you enjoying your weekend? We've had a pretty relaxed day so far, with lots of playing outside. Tomorrow is Easter and while we don't have any huge plans, it should be a nice day as well. As long as the weather cooperates that is! So it's week 2 in the Royal Battle of the Design Teams on The Greeting Farm Blog and our team, the Time Travelers has decided on a fantastic card to enter this week! It's not my card, lol, but it is amazing and I love it! I'll post that one tomorrow, but in the meantime I thought I'd show you my card. I altered Oliver and Amelia to make my Angel Baby:Angel loves playing with her big brothers, so she's somewhat of a tomboy! She has these little dino toys and when she plays with them she makes a "ROAR!" and looks so cute. So she inspired me for the 2nd battle challenge. We were challenged to make an easel card:
This was my first attempt at making an easel card, and although I've seen them all over blog-land I haven't actually made one until now. I love the different fold and I know I'll be making more! I have several ideas floating around in my head about this fold, so expect to see some more easel cards from me soon! Also, I used the wonderful sketch from this weeks Anyone For Anya challenge. It was just the right sketch for this card, even though I left out the one element off the middle of the card. Alrighty then, I need to head out the door to a bbq, so I hope you all have a great night and I'll see you in the comments section! ;)

It's April!

Hey there friends! Can you believe that it's already APRIL??? Wow, this year is flying by. Soon the kids will be out of school for summer break! Sheesh!

Today I have a sweet card to show you. I made this for the March Aloha RAK I participated in. I just hope my recipient doesn't see it here and spoil the surprise! I used Amy's Sweet November Fairy, Tangle Gobblinshimmer:
I was going for a soft color scheme and hopefully that was accomplished. I wanted this card to coordinate with the Fairy Calendar I made so I used the same papers. I sent both this card and the calendar for the RAK.
I also wanted to do something a bit different with the card fold so I just made it sort of like a gate card. The ribbon slides off to open the card and reveal the little message:
The sentiment is from The Greeting Farm's Whimsical Wishes stamp set (can't find it on the site right now, sorry! Must be out of stock). This card turned out really sweet, considering I didn't have any idea what I was going to do when I started! I hope my RAK partner likes it when she gets it! And now, just for fun, here's a pic of Angel Baby hanging out on Daddy's dirt bike:
Yup, the bike is in my HOUSE! LOL! We don't have a garage (yet... more about that later) so DH had to rebuild his bike in the house... he decided he likes the way it looks, so it is now part of the living room decor. Well, for another week or so, then it's going to be put in a garage... but like I said, more about that later! Heehee!

Well, that's it for today. Have a great first day of April and I'll see you all later!

Fat Tuesday on Wednesday!

Hey Hey Hey! Can you hear Fat Albert saying that? LOL! So, you all requested recipes along with the yummy food stuffs that I post, well, here's one for ya! It is SUPER simple to make, SUPER delicious, and messy too. I love yummy messy food! I first saw these on Bakerella's Blog, but I didn't want to get all fancy with them and put those adorable little shamrocks on them, so I just made the original ones. I was calling these Oreo Truffles, but my neighbor calls them Death By Oreo! Here they are naked:And here they are all covered in white chocolate!
Want to know how to make them??? HMMM??? Ok, so grab a package of Oreos (not double stuffed, just regular) and grab an 8oz block of cream cheese. Pulverize the Oreos until they are crumbs (I put them in a baggie and beat them with a spoon, but a food processor would probably work better and faster), combine the crumbs with super soft cream cheese (I put my cheese in the microwave for a bit to super soften it) and then form into balls. I ended up using my hands to combine the concoction, and it was fun and messy (and tasty too!). Then you'll want to melt some white chocolate bark or morsels (NO BARK AVAILABLE at my commissary! Boo!) and dip the balls in the chocolate. I ran out of chocolate as you can see on the upper left of the picture, but I figured a little chocolate on top was better than nothing. lol! Then just let your Death Balls harden! I had to put mine in the fridge to keep them out of the kids sight... once the children discovered these delicious things, they pretty much disappeared! Here is a close up of one of the Oreo Truffles that came out very pretty:
Bakerella made much nicer looking Truffles, but I'm not as talented as that fabulous lady so mine are just ok. If you try these, let me know how they work out! For better directions, click on the links above and Bakerella can explain MUCH better, and with pics! I hope you all have a Fabulous Fat Tuesday on Wednesday!

My Royal Battle #1 Card

Hey there friends! Did you all go vote for the Time Travelers' Card yesterday? I sure hope so! If not, you may still have time. Scroll on down and you can read all about it, and click on the links in yesterday's blog post. So, our team has decided that with each weekly challenge, we'll all make a card and then we'll choose amongst ourselves which card to actually enter into the challenge. This way we ALL get to participate, and choose our best chance of continuing on in the Royal Battle! For the first challenge, I looked through my papers to find something that seemed "retro" to me. I found some Scrabble paper, and it even had the right colors on it! Then I inked up Teacher Anya, altered her just a bit, and made this card:
I took off Anya's apple and opened her mouth. I thought she already looked sorta retro with her outfit and hairstyle. The card is simple, but I like the way it turned out anyway. Well, I hope you all have a Terrific Tuesday, and I'll see you all later!

It's a Royal Battle!

Hey there blog friends! There is a Royal Battle happening on the Farm right now! Stampers from all over the world are teaming up to challenge each other for the next five weeks. The Greeting Farm is having this Royal Battle and our first challenge was to make a retro card with a certain color scheme. My team, the Time Travelers, has entered this gorgeous card in the first challenge:Our teammate, Sony, made this wonderful card! The card has been posted in the TGF Galleria, and it needs VOTES! In order for our team to make it to the next round, we have to get VOTES! Anyone and everyone can vote, but you can only vote for 3 cards, and each team can NOT vote for their own entry. Here are some details on voting:

How to Vote

Hi, a quick response on how to vote. You must be registered to vote.

1. Go to http://thegreetingfarm.com/galleria/
2. Click on Register and fill out the form.
3. You will be sent confirmation info to your email and you must click the link to officially be activated. If for some reason you do not recieve it, just email me and I will manually activate your registry.
4. Once you are activated, go back to http://thegreetingfarm.com/galleria/ and login.
5. Once you are logged in, go to Contest/Challenges > TGF ROYAL BATTLE > Week 1
6. Vote for your top 3 choices. When you comment, that counts as your vote. So Comment on your top 3 choices.

ANYONE and EVERYONE can vote.

So, friends, will you please vote for us? Click HERE and you can register and vote! Or, if you already have a login for TGF's galleria, click HERE to vote! Please, please please? Thanks a ton, and I'll let you know how it turns out!