10.31.06
Posted in Paper Crafts at 7:26 am by PaperDesigns
I’m loving the new holiday papers this year. This paper (for the card) is two sided cardstock – perfect for cards!!! Just cut the 12″ sheet in half – and you get 2 6″ cards. Green Sneakers makes a 6″ envelope template for the cards – so I’m all ready to go on my Christmas design. I just use lots of the new papers! I just picked up Dasher and Fruitcake yesterday – so I’ll be ready to make lots more today!!
I made the JOY letters using the Perfect Letters Article Technique and a cool hexagon punch from Creative Memories.
The letters themselves are from stamps from Walmart (not printed on the computer). The technique can be used either way.
I know I’ve been hinting at BIG THINGS, and the announcement is about to made later today or early tomorrow morning. I’m so excited! This is the beginning of seeing my dreams come to fruition. I’ve posted a lot about wanting a “little something for myself” – wanting my freelance business to work out – and I just got my first big gig!
The blog challenge is about Halloween Movies – and I gotta tell you, I just can’t do it. I can’t watch any of them. I haven’t the nerves. Plus, there were all those years where I was home alone with the children, and it was hard enough to sleep at night without scary nightmares! There were a lot of death threats against the soldiers and their families in my husband’s unit. I don’t think the enemy was well organized enough to actually find us – but we had to take all of our unit stickers off the cars. We couldn’t wear any of the shirts/sweatshirts - or anything that associated us to the unit. You see why I never needed Halloween movies to give me a fright!!
We love Halloween – just not the scary side of it. I’ll post pictures our Halloween House (thanks to DH), he just loves ‘doing the outside big’. Parents stop and tell me – “my children always ask us to drive home past your house – Stop at the Halloween House, Mommy!”
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10.29.06
Posted in Paper Crafts at 9:44 am by PaperDesigns
And these are just my pens.
I keep reading about people who say they officially recognize that they have too many scrapbooking supplies – and I’ve heard people tell me that I have too many. BUT – I don’t see it. I just can’t help but think that I don’t have enough. I’ve posted about my contractor woes, and how I can’t wait to have the art studio built – but I know when it is – the stuff I have isn’t even going to fill the storage space – not even a fraction of it. RIght now, it’s taking over the library, but there will come a day – when there is a place for everything and everything in its place – and it won’t look like I’m obsessed. I am obsessed – it just won’t look like it!
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10.28.06
Posted in Paper Crafts at 11:55 am by PaperDesigns
Ask anyone who has been working out and diligently following Weight Watchers and most of them will tell you they ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO THANKSGIVING! Just thinking about the great food and good times with friends is enough to make me happy! We have some wonderful friends who invite us to their house for Thanksgiving. I love to cook and bake, so I love to pack the car with as much food as I can and bring it along. This is the one time of year where I can make “too much” and not feel the least bit guilty! So what are we going to have:
Well, I’ll bring a big veggie tray with dips and she’ll have a cheese and cracker tray out and ready to begin with! There’ll be anything and everything you want to drink. Then we’ll have turkey (of course), 2 or 3 kinds of stuffing, noodles, gravy, fresh bread, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes (prepared two different ways), and possibly mashed potatoes. Now, when we feel like we could eat again, we’ll have dessert. Apple, Pumpkin, and Cherry Pies (homemade), cupcakes (kids favorite), and lemon bars. Coffee and more!!
My dilemma this year is whether or not it would be polite to bring this Beverage Fountain (I just couldn’t help myself – I had to have it!). I’m going to someone else’s house – does she really want this monster fountain set up on her kitchen Island? But it has a light show, and I think the kids would love it…. I emailed my friend and let her decide!
Sweet Potatoes – To avoid a fight – I just make them both ways!
Sweet Potatoes – heated through and 5 minutes before serving – top with mini marshmallows and let melt.
Sweet Potatoes – in casserole dish – with peeled, cored, chopped apples, maple syrup, cinnamon, nutmeg, dried orange peel, and pecans. Heat through, serve hot!
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10.27.06
Posted in Paper Crafts at 6:28 am by PaperDesigns
I don’t know how it happened, there was no discussion, no debate, no agreement, it just turned out this way. I married a man who came from a family who did Christmas in a big way. It didn’t matter if it was a good year or a bad year (financially) there were always tons of presents under the tree. I came from the same kind of family – I remember waking up Christmas morning and seeing presents stacked taller than I was. So when our first child was born, we both expected we would put lots of presents under that tree – and now (our son’s 18th Christmas) – things are exactly the same. Of course, he’s almost 6 feet tall, so we can’t actually stack them taller than he is – we tried – they’d all fall over. But they take up a room – it takes an hour of opening presents to just get enough room to find a seat.
The blog challenge: describe your gift wrapping style. We wrap all of these presents on Christmas eve after the kids go to bed…. These presents are NOT wrapped with style, but by two exhausted (loving) parents late at night – usually laughing, but trying to keep it down.
When I wrap gifts for neighbors or friends, I do try to give it the Martha Stewart touch. Presentation being a part of the gift itself. I make the card and envelope, a matching tag, and I may even make the wrapping paper. The gifts themselves are inevitably homemade – and the recipient knows that there is a lot of love and warm wishes wrapped into the present.
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10.26.06
Posted in Paper Crafts at 7:03 am by PaperDesigns
The Blog challenge: If I could open any door…. ANY DOOR??? I’d like to open this one!!
No, I don’t want to be First Lady. I just want to go visit. I love history and gorgeous architecture. I’ve travelled all over looking at buildings that are really works of art. I’d like to see the beauty that lies within these doors! (At Christmas time would be nice, too. I suppose that might be asking too much!)
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10.25.06
Posted in Paper Crafts at 8:39 am by PaperDesigns
There are a lot of family jokes (at my expense) about ‘the other tree’. We have a traditional Christmas Tree, with all of the ornaments from the kids, the dated ornaments, and the colored lights. But I put up a ‘designer tree’, and my family just doesn’t understand why I love it, why I need it. But one year, things were very different, and I needed something to brighten my Holidays.
After Sep 11, 2001 (actually by nightfall that day) we knew DH was deploying immediately, by 15 Sep he was gone to the Middle East. The country was still in shock, we were still in shock, the post was on lock down (tanks guarding our schools, and attack helicopters patrolling constantly) – and DH was gone to fight an unorganized fanatical enemy. This would be different than any war that has come before, and we were very worried.
We knew he wasn’t going to be home for Christmas, and I had to do everything in my power to stay upbeat and bright for the children. They had enough on their minds, they needed a cheerful Holiday. So I bought a tree, and all the decorations and lights (white) and I made it to my favorite color scheme (gold, mauve and creme). I loved to just look at it and regroup and refresh just sitting there – looking at that tree…. and we all made it through! He came home (injured but safe) in April (just in time to deploy to Iraq – but that’s another story).
And still, to this day, I set up that tree, and I make it as beautiful as I can. And (as posted in an earlier post Getting Ready For Christmas about drinking tea and looking at it) – It still has the power to calm and refresh me, to make me feel the beauty of Christmas – to remind me how great He is.
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10.24.06
Posted in Paper Crafts at 6:53 am by PaperDesigns
One of the Christmas Cards I made for holidays. I’m glad I’m getting a jump on the season – otherwise I’d be left buying them. It always gets too busy later on – anytime after Halloween!
The Blog Challenge: what did I do as a kid that I don’t do anymore….
This took a lot of thought. I thought about playing with the neighbor kids, and then realized I just “played” all day Saturday with the neighbors at a crop. Kids draw, paint, and do kids crafts – I have turned that into a profession. Kids run and jump and get exercise – I go to the gym 4-5 days a week. Then it hit me – I don’t argue with my parents anymore. I used to…. I remember screaming like a banshee. I’d fight over every little perceived injustice. It didn’t help when my mother would say “life isn’t fair”. But one day (much much later) I grew up. I think I was into my 30s, when I realized “I’m my own person now, with my own family – they can think what they will, say what they will – it doesn’t affect me”. When I finally accepted me for who I am, I was able to accept them for who they are – and now when they say terribly wrong or insulting things – I just smile – because it just doesn’t matter!
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10.23.06
Posted in Paper Crafts at 6:17 am by PaperDesigns
Apple Sauce and Apple Pie Filling – yum!
Everyone I know can tell you the same similar story – contract/builder woes. I just blogged the whole story and then deleted it – it looks like bad Karma – and I need positive thinking. I need to believe that my downstairs will get finished, that we will have a family area for the children and that the art studio will finally allow me to move out of the library and into an organized space to work in! We also need a pantry to store our canned goods in! We keep making more. Please, Please, Please, Santa Baby……….
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10.22.06
Posted in Paper Crafts at 8:29 am by PaperDesigns
Yesterday I went to an all day crop with some wonderful friends (who all happen to be neighbors as well). It was a great time. I attempted to get my Christmas cards made….. Funny how it is – without a plan for each card – it does take longer. I usually sketch out all my designs first, and then make the card – and I’m always surprised at how closely my card matches my sketch! (I don’t know why that surprises – it just does – maybe I always sketch a "loose" interpretation, and then it becomes a concrete creation). But I went with all my paper, and embellishments to make the cards, and I did get a dozen completed – inside and out – but without a plan, it just takes longer.
I saw someone there putting together cards from the pieces she had precut, and her cards were predesigned and all she had left to do was adhere the pieces on. Now that’s the way to go if you’ve got A LOT of cards to make. I’m considering using the Stamp Press to create a card layout – stamp the front of the card 20 times – and color each one in differently. Maybe that’ll work!
The blog challenge is on what really bugs me – and honestly, I had to let all the little things go years ago – or I wouldn’t make it through my day. I suppose one thing that bothers me more than most other people is the prejudice and mistreatment of handicapped children. Yeah, that really does bug me.
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10.21.06
Posted in Paper Crafts at 6:12 am by PaperDesigns
Do you have friends with straight hair – really straight hair – and they want a perm? And then you know others who have naturally curly hair – and they straighten it every morning!! I know tall people who wish they were shorter and short people who would kill to be taller….. Isn’t that the way of it?!
When you’re in the military (especially if you live on post or base) you don’t really notice that you aren’t like everyone else. But you know that your life is different. You have civilian friends who grew up in one town, are living there, and will someday be buried there – and you haven’t lived in the same town for more than 2 years at a time! There’s no "roots" where you come from. When people ask my children "where are you from" – my son answers "Germany" – and, of course, people then expect him to be German. (Which I guess, technically he is – because everyone born in Germany retains dual citizenship until they are 18 and then they have to choose). But my baby (now 17) is not German. And my daughter will respond by saying she’s from Kentucky. And true, she was born there on a military post, but we’re not Kentuckians.
As a SAHM, my life had many simularities to other SAHMs, except that a lot of Dad’s aren’t gone 8 months out of the year – and they aren’t usually in a combat zone. DH recently retired from the military and has a civilian type job – with regular hours, and it’s funny how much he likes it, because, as he says, even on bad days – no one is shooting at him!
But, even though, I guess, we were kind of unique compared to other families I know, we just want to be "normal". I’m trying to let our ‘military service days’ rest (with proud memories) and fit in to our "normal" neighborhood and lifestyle. The ironic part – there’s someone out there, sick of "normal" looking for something "unique" – who knows, he/she may even join the Army! That’s what I did, when I was looking to be unique, back when I was normal.
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