Look what I did today

After DJ's ball game (see the previous post below for details), we came home, ate lunch, and then he was off to a birthday party. It was supposed to be a pool party, but the weather didn't want to cooperate. DJ has only been to a few birthday parties that weren't for family members or close family friends. This party was for a girl in his class, MacKinzie. These parties make me nervous for no reason other than the gift. When the party is for a family member or close friend, it's no big deal to ask what the birthday boy or girl wants, but when it is for someone you don't know so well, it is awkward for me to ask the parents what he or she might want and might be awkward for the parents to give an answer as well. That's why, in addition to the fact that we have WAY too many toys, at DJ's last birthday party, we asked everyone to bring a book to donate to Appalachian Helping Hands instead of bringing a gift.

So we had to give MacKinzie something. When he was invited to another little girl's birthday party last spring, I applied a rub-on to a mirror. It turned out cute, but it didn't seem to be enough. I have more of the mirrors and more rub-ons, but I have been obsessing over what I could do to add to it. On the way home from the T-ball game the idea finally came.

I added a ribbon to the top to hang it with and then a bow holder to the bottom. I had some alligator clip barrettes I had bought a while back to alter with chipboard, but due to the limited time I had between the game and the party, I just added the barrettes unaltered. I was very pleased with the final product. And the Pink Pirouette stripped grosgrain ribbon matched perfectly. I did up a cute bag topper and tag using more Pink Pirouette and rub-ons, but I didn't get to take a picture of it before it walked out the door. ;)

After the boys left for the party, AJ watched a Strawberry Shortcake video we rented for her, and I went to work on this candy jar. I completely copied this idea from a demonstration/display at Convention. The "Spooky" spider is one of our new Décor Elements. Phase 2 will be available for purchase beginning October 1, but this design, in three sizes and two colors is available now.

This candy jar is enormous! Here is another picture with almost 3 lbs of chocolate inside. I didn't take any of the poly-fil out, just threw the candy on top. The one at Convention was this same size, and theirs was about as full only there was just candy inside!

Sweet wishes!

Take me out to the ball game!

It was wet, chilly, and a muddy mess, but DJ had his second T-ball game of the season this morning. On Saturdays they schedule the games a little further apart than during the week nights, so they got to play all 3 innings. Here's my all star coming into third.

He played pitcher the first inning, short stop the second, and out field the third. Of course in T-ball they don't actually pitch the ball, so he's waiting to make that game winning play at the plate (see the video and description below).
And AJ was ready to step in if a DH was needed. ;)
I got a few videos with my digi camera. Maybe next time we'll take the video camera, but for now this will have to do. Here's the end of the first inning. I'll explain that when the last batter bats, they let everyone on base run home. They don't keep track of runs or outs, so the pitcher stands there and tries to tag the runners before they get home. It's really funny to watch. One inning one of our runners started down the third base line, and then ran right into the dugout without going all the way to home plate. The pitcher from the other team followed him into our dugout to tag him out, and then the next runner was able to score.

Sweet wishes!

A Must See

DJ was supposed to have his second T-ball game tonight, but it got rained out. :( So we went out to dinner and rented some movies. We were pretty sure someone had told us that the movie Nim's Island was a good one (might have been my SIL, Leeann). We decided to give it a try, and for a family movie, it was terrific! There are a lot of movies out there, even rated G ones, that have a phrase here or there or a scene somewhere that just doesn't sit right with me. This movie was just wholesome. I haven't read the book, though I'm sure it is great too. But even from great books often come not-so-great movies. So for those of you who are looking for a great movie, Hallmark storyish without all the cheesiness, go rent Nim's Island.

Sweet wishes!

Thinkin' Pink in September

Hi again! No entries for over a week, and then two in one day. What can I say? It's the 25th of the month, and I just wasn't going to miss my new monthly blog feature on the second month of it's existence! So if you haven't already, it's time to do your monthly SBE (self breast exam). If you've already done it, GREAT! If not, get checking! Either way, be the first to post a comment to THIS blog entry to let me know your breasts have been self-examined, and you'll win this card, blank inside, with a coordinating envelope that you can send to someone you care about.

Remember that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. But even before then, let's see if we can help thebreastcancersite reach their September goal of 10 million clicks. Just follow this link: Click to Give, and then click on the pink "Click here to give-it's FREE!" box. Hurry, there are only 5 days left!!!!!

I used yesterday's sketch challenge from Splitcoaststampers for the layout of the card. Click here to see the details of the challenge and the actual sketch. I didn't look at the samples until after I made my card, so mine is super simple. The colors are Basic Gray, Pink Pirouette, and Pretty in Pink. Anyway, if you like it, go check your chest and post a comment. Good luck everyone!


Sweet wishes!

A Bad Blogging month!

Hey everybody. Long time, no type! We've been having computer issues. One of the hard drives on our desktop is on it's last leg. Michael and I have spent many hours over the past several days trying to copy files that we need from the one drive to another, and it has been one issue after another. First we couldn't burn CDs, then the drives wouldn't recognize each other, and there are still some files that are being super stubborn.

It all started when I noticed that I am showing up on the "Live Traffic Feed" of blogs as Bluefield, West Virginia. I'm not that familiar with Bluefield, WV, but apparently it is about 3 hours away. Anyway, I thought I'd shut down the computer and see if that "fixed" the problem. (My friend Beth over at Stamp Me A Rainbow shuts down her computer every night and every day she appears on the traffic feed as a different location, but they are all like 20 minutes or less from where she lives.) Anyway, when I went to restart the computer, it took over 2 hours to reboot, and Michael decided/discovered? it was the hard drive.

I'm still showing up as Bluefield, WV, so if anyone has any insight on why that might be, it would be appreciated. I know I'm not the only one with these awful computer problems either. Beth had a virus on her computer, and last time I checked my SIL's blog, The Bond Between Us, she mentioned that they were without any internet access at their place. YIKES! I hope this craziness ends soon, for all of us!

I'm blogging from my laptop tonight, which I didn't think of doing until today (duh, well, plus I've been busy), so if the hard drive issues don't get resolved soon, I'll become good buddies with this piece of machinery, I suppose.

Sweet wishes!

A FUNNY story

I apologize in advance if this is TMI for some of you, but it was way too funny not to share. DJ and I were "working" on the computer when Michael got home today. DJ ran to greet him. One of Michael's tasks before returning home was to pick up some feminine hygiene products of the Tampax variety. For whatever reason, Michael hands the box to DJ to bring to me. Now said hygiene products were wrapped in yellow wrappers, and there was a cellophane window where they could be seen. DJ comes running in with the box and tells me it's cheese. I assured him it was not, and fortunately when he asked what it was and I told him, "just something for Mommy," he was okay with that answer and didn't pursue any further. However, it took me a while to figure out why on earth he said it was cheese. I finally realized that the only information that has been deposited into his bank of knowledge even remotely close to tampons in yellow wrappers is string cheese. I laughed out loud. I hope you did too. ;)

Sweet wishes!

ps. Blogger is still not letting me post pictures. >:[

Confessions of a Jigsaw addict

So the real reason I haven't been updating my blog lately is because I've been obsessed with completing a 1000 piece puzzle. Michael and I finally finished it tonight, and I had every intention of sharing it with you, but Blogger had different plans (it is refusing to let me post comments on other blogs or upload pictures to my own...I wonder if it will actually post this update?).

Anyway, I had a wonderful weekend at the WELCA convention. I ended up being the delegate from our church because the lady who was supposed to be our delegate was in a bicycle accident about a month ago, and though she is doing okay and was at the convention too, she didn't think she would be able to sit long enough to fulfill her delegate duties. The convention was held at the beautiful Fall Creek Falls State Park. There were some special activities for "young women" ages 14-35 that I was able to participate in, and I made some wonderful new friends! I can't wait to get up to Johnson City to see my friend Kristie and meet her husband.

I didn't get anymore guesses about those mystery veggies, so I guess I'll just have to tell you what they are. I had someone guess pumpkins, someone guess tomatoes, and someone say they looked like apples, but they are lemon cucumbers. Here is the description from Cook's Thesaurus, "lemon cucumber~This versatile cucumber is sweet and flavorful, and doesn't have much of the chemical that makes other cucumbers bitter and hard to digest. Though it's often served raw, it's also a good pickling cucumber." They were very yummy. Michael doesn't like cucumbers, but he liked these. And when I was preparing them for dinner, I asked DJ to guess what they were, and he knew it was a cucumber the second I put it in his mouth, so they do taste like cucumbers, just sweeter or milder or something. They're good.

One last thing for tonight. DJ had his first T-ball game last night! The kids had a great time! There was an announcer calling the game and another one saying the kids names when they got up to bat. They played two innings, and the rule is that they bat through the 10 player line-up each at bat, and they don't count outs or keep score. I took tons of pictures, but I used my *film* camera {gasp!}, so I don't have any to share right now.

I promise I will get back on task tomorrow. Thank goodness that silly puzzle is finally done!

Sweet wishes!

Gone for a few days

Hey everybody! I am leaving for the Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (WELCA) Southeastern Synod convention in 5 minutes. I'll be back on Sunday. I'll reveal the mystery of the strange veggies when I return. Until then, happy pondering. And please visit the breastcancersite.com and click to help them "Reach for the stars!"

Sweet wishes!

God Bless the USA!

On this day, September 11, 2008, we remember.

I cannot figure out how to put a YouTube video on my blog (I might not be able to if it's not my video). But please view this: God Bless the USA - Lee Greenwood posted by Fuzzy700 © 2008 YouTube, LLC. And may God bless and continue to be with the families of all the victims who died on 9/11/2001.

Sweet wishes!

Survey says...

Congratulations, Heather, that lovely bug IS a Dobson Fly. I am so sorry that you probably have encountered at least one such bug to know what it is. However, we were first given it's nick name of "grampus." And in doing my own research, when you look up the word grampus you find that word is another name for orca whales, some kind of dolphin, several naval vessels, and much more, but not a bug. So then I looked up grampus insect, and it ended up taking me a while to find the Dobson Fly's official name. I also stumbled across a picture of this thing's beautiful larvae, the Hellgrammite. I hope I don't ever experience one of those things! They look worse than the parents! Mystery solved.

Now for the veggies. They are very common vegetables, though not this version of them. These take their name from their color and size. I'll give a few more days on them before I give the answer.

In the meantime, don't forget to head over to thebreastcancersite.com every day and help them reach their goal of 1 million clicks for September. I've recently added a button over on my sidebar that you can click to go to their "click daily" page. I thank you, on their behalf, for your support!

Sweet wishes!

What in the world is THAT?!?

I have been doing some stamping, but it is for a swap that I am participating in, and I don't want anyone stumbling across the card on here before they receive it through the swap, so I'll post my cards once I receive my set of swaps.

I have been neglecting my blog over the past few days, though, so I felt I should post something. I'm actually posting two somethings, and your job is to figure out what they are. If you are a local and are very familiar with these two items, please don't give it away, but feel free to post clues in the comments if you'd like.

These little beauties were my second agricultural eye-opener since moving here. The first was yellow watermelon. I had never seen or heard of such a thing and thought I had pineapple on my plate until I put it in my mouth. Apparently others in my social circle outside of East Tennessee have at least heard of yellow watermelon, but had failed to clue me in on its existence. So these things in the picture to the left are edible. To put them in proportion, the largest one is about 2 1/2" in diameter. The smallest were 1". Any guesses?

And then there was this visitor that Michael ran into a few weeks ago. Now prior to my blogging days we had other insanely large bug encounters. A Hickory Horned Devil and Rhinoceros Beetle to name a few. This guy was at least 4" tip to tip. He hung around on our screen door the whole day, and when all was said and done, we found out he would have made great fishing bait. Who knew??? (And who'd be baiting my hook? Certainly not me!) Anyone have a clue what he is?

We do know what both of these things are, I'm just testing your IQ, and enlightening you on their existence, so when you put a bite of yellow watermelon in your mouth, you won't think it's pineapple. ;)

Sweet wishes!

Another day, another challenge

Yesterday I posted my creation for Kristina Werner's color inspiration challenge. I also made a card for Beate's Be Inspired Challenge #21 from Tuesday. Here is the inspiration picture:

I was inspired by the colors: I saw Always Artichoke, So Saffron, and Tangerine Tango, on the Whisper White and Kraft background. My layout was inspired by the stack of books along the left side of the table. The different sizes and shades of greens and yellows made this idea pop into my head almost immediately.
Sweet wishes!

Reach for the stars this September

Thebreastcancersite.com has a new campaign this month. They are trying to reach 10 million clicks during September in order to provide an additional 100 free mamograms. Join me in clicking every day!

Sweet wishes!

DJ's first T-ball practice

So I originally posted my previous entry (KWerner's color inspiration #21) as I was running out the door to take DJ to his first ever T-ball practice. I've edited the post now, but I had to put up some pictures from the practice. He did AWESOME! Here he is running the bases. Yes, that's Michael waiting for him at 2nd. He's helping out with the practices. There is a coach and an assistant coach, so I don't think he'll be helping during the games, but both my boys had a great time out there tonight!

Later they practiced fielding the ball. DJ didn't let a single ball get by him over at 2nd. He even got some of the hits that were intended for the outfielders. He also did a pretty good job of getting the ball to the first baseman when necessary.
Look out Jeff Francoeur and Brian McCann! DJ is on his way to the majors!


Sweet wishes!

KWerner's color inspiration #21

Today I decided to check out some other blogs and do a few challenges. Here is the first card I made for Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration #21. The inspiration piece was a shoe add from Old Navy, and the colors were Pacific Point, Kiwi Kiss, Rose Red, Regal Rose, & Whisper White.
If I had the All Scallops stamp set, the border along the right side of the panel would have been super simple, but I don't have that set. So I ended up using the same stamp that I used for the main images and stamped it in a straight line using my SAMJ. A little time consuming, but the plain card front needed something, and I think this worked out just swell.

Sweet wishes!

I got some more scrapbooking done

Leave it to me to use a workshop as an excuse to FINALLY scrapbook my 2 1/2-yr-old's first layout. I'm sitting here rolling my eyes at myself for the foolishness of it all. Anyway, last night I had a great workshop for a wonderful lady named Phyllis. She and her guests were a captive audience, and I think everyone had a very fun time.

Somewhat recently I have changed my workshops from being a demonstration with one Make-N-Take (MNT) to being Totally Hands On (THO). The way I used to do it was that I would demonstrate a card, a scrapbook page, and a 3D item, and then a 4th project, usually another card, that would be the MNT. At THO workshops, guests make everything I demonstrate, so I've been keeping all the projects a little simpler, and doing a total of three projects. The trend has been to do two cards and a scrapbook "element."

At convention, one of the main stage presenters gave the idea of offering a 6x6 scrapbook page OR a 3x6 card for those less inclined to scrapbook using the same elements, to save prep time. Yesterday was the first time I tried this idea, and I think it worked well, and pleased all audiences. The original idea was CASEd from this card by leslieflo, but I had to tweak it a little, well a lot to transform it into something that would work. Here is the 3x6 card option:
And here, using the same elements, is the 6x6 page layout. Pages always look prettier with pictures. :)
Another thing I learned at convention, well, really I was reminded of it, because I had heard the idea before, but this time it actually sunk in...in two parts...was (part one) to take the 6x6 page and show how it could stand on its own, be an element on an 8 1/2 x 11 page, and then add the 8 1/2 x 11 page to a 12x12 page. And part two, if I do all of this in preparation for my workshops, I get my own scrapbooking done at the same time!!!!! So here's the completed 12x12 page.
I used the Snow Swirled stamp set here, and you can see in the lower right corner of the 8 1/2 x 11 page that it coordinates with our Snow Blossom and Scallop Circle punches. This set is also on sale through September 30, and I will be doing a preorder class featuring the Snow Swirled stamp set in October. Please RSVP by Sept. 30, if you would like to attend the class or order the Stamps In The Mail kit.

It's a little difficult to see, but along the right side of this page I stamped the tree image repeatedly, flip-flopping it each time. I used my stamp-a-ma-jig to get the edges all lined up. It was a little time consuming, but it looks great in person, and it ties the whole page together so well.

Sweet wishes!

Post #100~Back to Biltmore

Wahoo! This is my 100th post. I was so excited until I went to upload my pictures. And now I have a confession to make. I JUST NOW figured out how to upload more than one picture at a time. Obviously in previous posts I've added many, but I've always added them one at a time. It also took me a while to realize that if I clicked and dragged the pictures where I wanted them to go, then you couldn't click on the picture to see it larger. After I figured that out (with Beth's help), I began uploading them individually in reverse order. I just saw the "Add another picture" button, so now I can upload up to 5 pictures at a time...in the correct order. If I want to upload more than 5 pics, then I still have to do my groups in reverse order, but the main point is that I'm going to save a lot of time from here on out. And it only took me 100 posts to get there.

So today we went to the Biltmore Estate again. One of my very first posts was about a trip we took back in May. We have 12-month passes, so it was time to go again. When we got there, we walked up the long hill to the statue of Diana.
What goes up must come down, and what better way to get down a hill?
The main reason I wanted to go to the Estate was to see the flower carpet on the South Terrace. There were bees swarming all around the pink flowers on the edge here, and AJ was fascinated. I could NOT get her to look at the camera, so I finally said, "There's something on my head." That explains their expressions...but hey, they were looking.
Then my friend was faced with the same challenge, to get us all to look at the camera while she took a picture with the flower carpet and Biltmore House in the background.
Next we went down to the Spring Garden, where we stopped to smell the roses. Well, AJ smelled everything, to the dismay of a few now petal-less plants.
And we discovered that men and women have a totally different sense of smell. The roses the girls liked the best, the boys thought stunk, and the ones the boys liked, the girls thought were mediocre. Here's one that DJ was not so fond of.
Yes, if we had held the leaf down to the ground, it was the size of AJ, but this is a stinkin' cute picture!
Then we visited the koi in the Italian Garden. They had just been fed and were very active.
Finally, after an ice cream break and a partial walk through the house (mainly just the basement because the kids are usually exhausted by the time we get down there when we go through the whole house), AJ did her "traditional" pose with the lion. Now to just convince her this is not a tiger. Oh well, it's a big cat, it roars, and we see it at the zoo...I'll give her partial credit...she is just 2 1/2.
Sweet wishes!