Still Hurting

This summer we had to give our dog, Spike, up for "adoption". We were living with Jared's family and he was making horrible messes (we'll leave it at that). We found a family to take him in who would love and care for him but it was still hard on our whole family. Emily took it the hardest, which is surprising bc she always seemed to be bugged by him. I guess it was one of those "love-hate relationships" bc the day he left she lost it. I created this LO using a Dec Page Map and in honor of the new Gutter Girlz prompt (to use the idea/phrase "Still Hurting" and sewing/pins, etc). Because of all of my Christmas gifts I have been working on, this is my first LO in months. It felt SOOOOO good to get back to actual scrapbooking!! Now just 1,000,000 pictures left to scrap!! ;o)



here is where I encorporated the pin and the phrase:


the journaling says "Emily took it the hardest when we had to say goodbye to Spike. She cried for what felt like hours. My heart broke as I tried to explain why he had to leave. I hope one day she will forgive us. Oct '08"

Celebrate Good Times

This is just a fun, quick card I put together for a friend...

Congratulations Julie!

My girls drew a name and the winner of the Starbucks 100th post RAK is... Julie M! Congrats Julie! Send me your address and I will get it in the mail to you asap. :o)

Happy Birthday Shane!

My cousin Shane is turning 21 today. It will be late but I wanted to make him a Birthday card. I used some new scrappy stuff I got from Adrienne and Janna for Christmas (thank you!!). It's simple and fun but I love it. I especially love that it's not square! :o)
I used a sketch from 2s4u as a rough baseline:

And here it is:

Hope he likes it as much as I do! :o)

For those of you who pray...

Jared and I are firm believers in the Lord. Prayer is important to us and important in our walk with God. We believe strongly that prayers are heard and answered. So if you pray, please take a moment to quietly lift my mom up. My sisters called tonight. My mom is in the ICU. There is a large sack of fluid around her heart (the doctors said it was about the size of a basketball) which is pressing against her heart and lungs. Her body is fighting to function and the doctors have given her medicine to help the fluid decrease. If it doesn't they will have to intibate (sp?) her. As of right now she is still talking and able to get out of bed to use the restroom so those are good signs. Unforunately, she is in tired (in every sense of the word) and not feeling much like fighting to get better. I would ask that you would pray for strength and healing. Also pray for strength and wisdom for my sisters as they are making decisions. Pray for peace as Jared and I wait anxiously by the phone, thousands of miles away. Pray that the doctors are patient and thorough and that God would bless their hands and minds as they heal my mom. She is obviously a very (very) important person in my life and in so many others'. When I have more news (actual news) I will add an update. Thank You.

My wonderful mom, Terry, whom I adore.

EDIT: My mom is now out of the ICU. She is having "pulminary adeema with resperatory distress". Which means her heart is swollen bc of extra fluid. The medicine seems to be working but we haven't heard the test results yet. More info to follow...

Santa and Rudolph Card

I typically don't like to do one card for two challenges (I think it actually makes it harder if you try to adhere to too many guidelines just for the sake of a challenge) but this card just kind of developed into something wonderful that fit the two challenge's "rules".

The first challenge is for Caardvarks. Their theme this month was to use Core Concepts Cardstock and make a card with no patterned paper. This card is made 100% out of plain cardstock. The little white snowflakes were doodled by hand. Each and every piece of Santa and Rudolph were cut by hand and pieced together. I LOVE how it turned out!!

The second challenge is for Card-A-Licious. Their theme this week is to make a card using an iconic Christmas picture. Really, what could be more iconic than Santa and Rudolph?? My very favorite part is the big, red gem for Rudolph's nose!!



I am so tickled with this card. It makes me smile just looking at it!! Fingers crossed about the two challenges. :o)

** Sorry all of my pics are so washed out. I am not sure WHAT is going on with my camera!?!? **

Aaargh!

This is a weird one, I know! My brother-in-law (Jon) and I have this "inside joke" about a guinea pirate. I am going to try to briefly explain it before I show you the picture:

When Jared and I first moved to Kansas we stayed with his family for a few months. One night Jon was watching South Park and I was at my desk (in the family room) doing homework. I had never watched South Park before so I wasn't paying much attention until I looked up and there were "guinea aliens" attacking the cartoon city! AAAHHHHH! Run!!! The funny part about it was that they were real guinea pigs (not cartoon) just sitting in the middle of the cartoon streets twitching their noses and not doing much of anything. And the little cartoon people were going nuts in panic. I don't know why but I found this really funny. At the end of the show the "bad guy" (animated) declared that he was the one who sent the guinea aliens to attack the city and the he himself was an alien. But, as he said, "I am the most feared of them all! A guinea pirate! AAARGH!". Oh my gosh, Jon and I found this hilarious!! He said "I wish I was a guinea pirate!" Wish granted! Now his nic-name is guinea pirate (shortened to GP recently) and it is an ongoing joke in our family.

So for Christmas I did my best with my paper-piecing skills and came up with a framed piece of "art" (in an 8x10 frame) for his new apartment. Here it is:


Most people think we are dumb for finding it so funny but what can I say... maybe you just had to be there?? LOL!!

Lucky # 100!

Here it is - my 100th post! To celebrate I am going to give out a fun little RAK to one lucky winner!

If anyone knows me they know I love two things: Scrapbooking and STARBUCKS! I am completely addicted to both! Today I went to Starbucks (YUM!) and picked up a fun RAK to give away:



This RAK includes a $5 Starbucks gift card in a knit holder (that doubles as an ornament), a Milk Chocolate bar and a tin of their Classic Mints (Spearmint flavor).

To win - leave a comment on my blog letting me know what your two favorite things are! On the 30th of December (sometime after 1pm my time) I will do a drawing and someone will get a yummy New Years present!! Hurry and get your comments in before I gobble it all up!!

*Gasp* a 4.0 !!

I just got my last test score and it's official.... I received a 4.0 GPA for this semester!! All A's baby!! I am so... speechless. But excited and proud and shocked and thankful. I couldn't have done this w/o Jared and his family and the complete support of my family. LOL - sounds like I am accepting an academy award or something!! :o) I am just so thrilled!!

BTW - this is my 99th post so in honor of #100 it will be a RAK giveaway! I will head to the store early next week and pick up some goodies. If I have anything to post before then I will add it to this one so that I reserve the 100th spot for some fun!! Check back soon!! :o)

"A" number 2 and "A" number 3

It's official!! I received an "A" in Public Speaking and "Entrepreneurship"!! Add this to my "A" in my Acct 260 class and I have THREE!! Yay! I have one final left tomorrow in my International Business class. I did the math and I need to get a 75 or higher in order to get an "A" in that class. It sounds totally attainable but I don't want to psych myself out, either. I'll let you know how it goes!!

Wow - what a Tuesday!

Today was WEIRD. Everything seemed to go wrong but it turned out being a great day!

I woke up to a very stiff very sore ankle. It is quite large as well. But it's just sore. I think I just twisted it. I am trying to baby it a bit and give it a chance to heal. We'll go from there. But it made me nervous because I had to go to campus today for a final and Wichita State is LARGE so if I didn't get a good parking spot it could be a hike to class.

I finally convinced myself to get out of bed (trust me, it was a struggle!) and Kayla announced "There's snow outside!". It snowed and snowed and snowed while we were sleeping!! When it snowed last time it turned to ice and so that made me even more worried about driving. But I got Emily dropped off ok and headed back to the house with Kayla to study for my final (in Public Speaking). I decided to study by typing an outline of each chapter - all 18 chapters and 500+ pages! I had 11 pages of typed notes and no time left to read over them!! LOL. I took Kayla to school and hurried to my class. It usually only takes 25 minutes to get there (minus parking which has been known to take another 20) but today it took me almost an hour!! I slid in to my seat with 1 minute to spare -phew!! It is amazing how well you can do on a test when you actually study!! The test went really smoothly and I left chipper. It also helped that I got a great parking spot just outside of the building our test was in.

Then I went to Hobby Lobby and a Christian book store for some holiday/wedding stuff (Jared's sister is getting married on Saturday and I am making her wedding cake). After that I went to the mall to pick up my LAST gift (YEP, I'M DONE!!) and a new top to wear to the rehearsal dinner.

When I got home I checked my grades and it is official: I got an A in my entrepreneurship class!! And I did the math and all I have to get is a 70% or higher on my final I took today and I have an A in that class, too!! WHOO HOO! God is good! I have one more final on Thursday (at 1pm in case ya wanna pray for me) so hopefully I can make it a clean sweep.

Then at home I watched The Biggest Loser finale and .... yay..... Michelle won! I was totally rooting for her!! I was sitting in my living room, by myself, clapping and cheering and crying and yipping for ALL of the contestants. Even the mean ones (ahem, vicky). I love that show!

My last little bit of good news is that I got a sale on my etsy shop. Fun! Oh! and we got a box of pesents in the mail from my dad (thanks papa don!).

I am working on a craft project that I am taking to Emily's class tomorrow. We are making bookmarks with ribbon/buttons/flowers. I made a couple samples, here's a sneak peak:



that's it for now - but the night's still young! lol

scrappy presents...

I made scrappy presents for my dad and sisters this year. I took pics before I mailed them but I can't post them yet. I don't think any of them really check my blog but just in case, I am going to hold off. I will post them after they open them, promise! One gift was using my new binding tool (see a few posts back) and I love it!

Have you made anything scrappy for Christmas gifts? I wanna see!!

I got hurt today...

I was volunteering at the girls' school in Emily's classroom. I have been going on Monday afternoons to help the kids with their site words. I have to sit on the floor and we do the flash cards one kid at a time. Well, my foot fell asleep. I tried to wake it up before i stood up and I thought I had but half way up my entire leg rolled and I fell HARD. I hurt my ankle, foot, leg, knee, hip and back. The teacher rushed over to try to help - I was mortified!! So I tried to play brave and told her I was ok although I seriously thought I had broke my ankle. But I figured if I could hobble to my car I must have just strained it. So I leave the school and before i even hit the parking lot I started bawling. I called my hubby who was very compassionate and then my mommy (yep, at 30 I still call my mom who is 1700 miles away!!). I considered going to the hospital but bc we are still "new" here I didn't know where one was. So I just drove home and hobbled onto the couch. Jared's brother picked the girls up from school (THANK YOU JON!) and dropped them off so I didn't have to leave the house again. It's several hours later and my back, hip, leg and knee are better but my ankle is seriously hurt. I feel so stupid and kinda miserable. I have to go to WSU tomorrow for a final so I hope it's feeling better by tomorrow. :o(

Christmas Pictures!

Here are some pictures from "Breakfast with Santa" this last weekend:



My kissing kiddos!



Talking to Santa after the pics were taken.



In front of the Christmas Tree at the Rec Center.





Kayla told Santa that she wanted "A Princess Bible
and a Barbie!". Shhh... don't tell her but she is getting both.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

My first "A".

Today was my second "final" (out of 4). This class was nice bc it is on a computer and gives you an immediate result. Which means I know my final grade for the class..... an A!!! YAY. So, one down- three to go. Keep you posted!! Erin

a new toy!

I bought a wonderful new scrappy tool today! It is a "Binding System" by Carla Crafts. It retailed for $29.95 as my LSS and the spiral rings for it are 3 for $5. Here is a teeny tiny picture of it:



and a listing for it online (with a description) HERE. And a videa tutorial HERE.

I made a mini-album with it tonight and it was awesome. So easy to use!!! I will post pics of that project soon... I promise!!

:o)

Have you tried this?

So, here's my attempt at a "tutorial". This is a little trick that I use to save $ by using my stash rather than buying new alphabet stickers. Have you seen those alphabet stickers that are teeny tiny and you line the little blocks up to spell out your phrase? You get lots in the package but it seems like I always use too many of a few letters then the set is sort of useless. So I created my own using my Creative Cafe rub-ons. Here's how:

Start with:
* A piece of scrap paper in a coordinating color
* Your rub-on (I love Creative Cafe rub-ons but any will do)
* Your rub-on tool
* A good pair of scissors
* Adhesive (Tombo works GREAT for this)

First, rub your image onto the scrap of paper. Then trim around the edge of the image so it creates a thin border. Next, apply adhesive to the back of the in-tact image:



Another tip: apply your rub-on to a piece of adhesive backed cardstock. Then you can skip the "adhesive" step.

Next, turn the image over and snip off the first letter:



and apply to your project. Continue snipping letters off and adhere them one at a time:





Continue this, spacing appropriately in between words, until your phrase is done:



and here is the card that I used it on:



I have used this technique before. I used the Creative Cafe rub-ons with the exact same technique (except I used the adhesive backed card stock rather than my Tombo) on this Christmas card:



On this card I printed a phrase on my computer then applied it one word at a time:



I like this technique because you can use what you already have (tons of rub-ons!) or make up something from scratch (using a really simple program like Word) to keep up with the latest scrappy trends for FREE!

I hope this tutorial inspires you to try this technique. And, please, let me know if you make a project using your own little "home-made" alphabet stickers!!

I'm crushing...

I love this pic!!



I had no idea that Jared could shoot so well! On Thanksgiving morning we (his dad, grandpa, brother, brother-in-law, uncle and cousin - oh, and me!) went shooting. We shot clay pigeons over his uncle's field in Morril, Kansas. Well, let's revise that. They shot clay pigeons, I shot clouds. LOL. But at least I tried it, right?? This is a pic I took of Jared while he was shooting. He was great!! He shot down like 6 in a row. He has told me how much he enjoys it but I haven't ever seen him (he hasn't shot a gun since before we were married .... more than 7 years ago!!). I am totally crushing on my tough guy. What a hottie!!

Unpacked!

well, at least my scrappy stuff is! I feel more settled now. :o) I had my own craft room in our last house but this house only has 3 bedrooms (and the girls won't share, I tried - lol) so we are improvising. Our living room is large so have a "corner" behind the sofa. I set up my desk and a few bookshelves. It is completely unsightly but I am "at home" now. I hesitated because I like to have our house always ready for company (even though we rarely get any, lol) but I figured, this is my home and I want to use it!! I'll take pics of my "corner" when I get a little more settled. Now I am looking forward to using all of my wonderful scrappy things again! I have a long list of projects I need to get done before Christmas so the pressure's on! But I have to budget my time (*SIGH*) because finals are coming up and I am determined to end with a 4.0 GPA this semester! So I will have to find a way to do both (hmmm, and kids and PTA and church and Christmas - eek!). LOL - wish me luck!!

baked out...

We are heading up to Jared's grandparents tonight to spend the Holiday with ALL of his family. Our contribution was desert. LOTS and LOTS of desert! I made the lemon ginger bundt that I posted instructions to on Saturday. I also made a loaf of banana bread (for breakfasts), a batch of fudge and two "triple chocolate pumpkin pies". I say two because I followed the directions exactly and ended up with two pies! She (Martha) must have a HUGE pie pan!! Or maybe it says it yields two?? I'll have to check on that.... lol. Two late now (pun intended)!

I hope you all have a very, very Happy Thanksgiving. God has been so amazing this past year and my family has lots to be thank full for. In the midst of yummy turkey, delicious pies and laughter with friends and family.... remember to take time to thank our Lord for all of the good things in our lives. God truly is good.