Can't you just SMELL the cookies?

This has been such a NICE and relaxing week. ::sigh:: Such a nice change from the last couple of weeks. Time to make cards, time to enjoy my sweetie now that he is better, and time to just enjoy the fall.

Today I decided that we were going to make cookies. Noah LOVED it! He was SUCH an awesome helper! He must get his cooking gene from his Daddy. He did a great job dumping ingredients, and mixing. He was not thrilled with the gooey texture, so mommy finished up the cookies and actually baked them. I think his favorite part was a toss up between eating the M & M morsels and eating the finished cookies!

Noah is almost completly back on track with his potty training after being so sick. 3 days running he has stayed dry until around 6:30 pm, which, when he gets tired its hard for him to remember to tell me, but I think that's a HUGE victory for us! YAY!

I have also been uber busy making cards! YAY! I have missed creating. Most of them are pretty simple, but just haveing that outlet is good enough for me!

This card was made for a "Just because" kind of sketch over in the cute critters club on CM. I was inspired, but didn't use a cute critter. I honestly have NO clue where this cupcake image came from. It could be Razberrywhine...I don't really know. The paper is from K and Company.

These cards were made with images that I received from....a lady over on....CMMs....I think. It was either Toothy, or another lady. I submitted the pink one for our challenge this week which required paper piercing (not piecing, lol) and a season theme. I chose fall. Feeling it this week with the cool temps and low humidity. LOVING it!! The blue one was just cause. The paper was from Heathermom8 on CMMs. Not sure of the brand. I loved it, though.

THIS card was made for the Wednesday sketh challenge over on Cute Critters posted by Heathermom8. I received this set of images from Shoegal90045 (Shemaine) and the paper is from Heather (again, lol). I don't think I use anything of my own anymore! How bad is that? HA! I love image swapping! It saves so much time and money and I don't have to drag out as many supplies. YAY! Which means I can craft while little hands are "helping" without too much of a hassel.

Well? There you have it! Just another week in the day of a mama in love with her lil man and obsessed with paper and coloring! HAHAHA!

Busy, busy!

YAY! So we are finally well! Noah was released on Tuesday to return to normal oudoor, hyperactivities. YAY! Freedom! I swear he and I both were about to climb the walls!

The weather here has been bordering on wonderful. A couple of warm days, but for the most part, beautiful! Sunshine, crystal blue skies and a refreshing breeze. Ahhh....still warm enough for shorts and popsicles, though. =0) Noah's fave part of being outside other than swinging.

I had a picture to put in this slot, but apparently Blogger hates it, so just imagine my cutee eating an orange popsicle in his favorite Nemo shirt, lol!

Today we were outside and I thought it was time to start doing some projects with him during the week. He is learning is numbers. He has 1-5 perfect (most of the time, lol) and he is working on 6-10. Almost there~But I thought a learning art project would be fun too. This one started out as doing leaf rubbings, but Noah was unimpressed, so out came the glue and he made this leaf collage for Daddy. See his signature on the top?

I have been working on a few projects myself this week. I was thrilled to learn that I had won CMMs create your own sketch challenge, hosted by my trusty sidekick Razberrywhine (diane). Here is the sketch, and then the card that I created using it. I am not impressed completely...something is off, but eh, not bad for a late-night venture. The bella is called "Merry Bella" and I received her in one of the many swaps that I did recently. I cut the ovals and circles with my trusty cricut.

I made this cute lil Riley moose card with another image I received in the same swap mentioned above. Not sure what this cutee is called, and I know the card is simple but when you are mass producing Christmas Cards, simple is best IMO.

I made this House Mouse envelope card this morning for a swap in Heather's Cute Critter's Club. Hope whoever ends up with it loves it! I have stuffed it with goodies, and then added some papers for the large envie it takes to send these. Enjoy, whoever!! (we have not been assigned names yet). I received this image from a lady in CMMs...I think her name was Tracy...I am SO BAD...I can't rememeber...TOO MANY SWAPS!!!

So this weekend I am going to shoot a Women's Retreat for my conference. I am hoping these new batteries DH bought hold out. We have always used Sony batteries, and we just got some new ones, and the charger does not seem to be working so well...and not much life in the batteries...so cross everything you have for me! Hoping to get some good shots this weekend!!!

Just feelin crafty.

"Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas" (she says in mid September?)

My first crafty moment of the week came out of frustration for being OVER being sick. This has been a terrible cold. Noah has a cold AND walking pneumonia and seems to be hovering about the same still, but is loaded with energy. Mommy, on the other hand...is feeling the same as well as sleep deprived and weak and puny....hmmm....bad combo.

Anyway, Heather over on Cute Critters on Cafe Mom had a "TOP SECRET" challenge and sent the participants paper and images and embellishments, but no one knew what anyone else got. It was so fun! So, I finally broke down and said, "I AM going to make this card, puny or not!" Here was my outcome. It is a shaker card. I used transparency because I do not have acetate. The beads are clear/white and yellow stars to match the bear's stars. Thanks for the challenge Heather!

These next things are Christmas Gifts for my Aunt. She has been a nurse all of her adult life, so I hope she likes Nurse Nellie To The Rescue. (A Bella stamp, image compliments of JSPARA...I think). I made the notecard holder from a tutorial from Score It...Here is the link. The notecards I made as flat as I could to fit four, but really, it holds 2 comfortably. I think that the paper is American Craft. I could be mistaken. The multi colored paper was from Toothy, my last Secret Sis.

I also made this matching notebook for her.

And there you have it! Just a few things! I hope to do more today or this evening, but time will tell!

Trying new things

Well, yesterday I started a MySpace for my photography. I am also going to try and do some advertising on Craigslist. I am hoping to get some business to help pay for DH a new-to-us car. I am also selling my wedding dress if anyone is interested or knows someone who needs a size 2/4 dress! Still in style! Selling it cheap! DH is trying to sell his rappeling and climbing equipment. I am hoping and praying that someone wants it! We are also thinking we can get about 500 out of his car for parts and such. He is also going to cash out part of his PTO hours. Hopefully that will get us a decent vehicle downpayment.

I also have been working on getting to know the manual features on my camera. Until now I have shot strictly with the custom automatic features, but if I ever expect to upgrade and get a DSLR, I need to get to know what I am doing with these features. Here are a couple of practice shots. CC?

Sunday, I made a couple of cards as well as another altered notebook. The cards were made with Bella images that I received in a Splitcoaststampers swap. I LOVE them!

This first card is made with "Cruisahbella". I used Glassy Accents on the windshield and on the side of the car door. I used Crayola glitter glue on the flowers, and watercolor pencils to color the image itself.

The second card was made with "Snowbunny Bella." When I first saw this image the first thing I thought was, GLITTER!!! SHE NEEDS GLITTER! So glitter, I used! The bling-y flowers are from the JoAnns 1 dollar bin! The white fiber, from a long-ago swap.

This notebook was made for me to put my Splitcoaststampers ideas, my Dawn ideas and sketches down all in one place so that I am not at the mercy of a computer! I HATE being glued to this thing if I am trying to make a card. This is stamping bella, also from a splitcoast stampers swap. In this picture the notebook was not complete, just for the record.

I am hoping to get to the challenges over in Card Makin Mamas today. They are looking great. I got RAKd some BEAUTIFUL paper and flowers from Raz yesterday and I am thinking they would be GREAT for her sketch challenge. I am starting to get sick, though, and that usually zaps my crative mojo....::crosses fingers::

Blissfully Distracted

Well? What can I say? Life is FULL of surprises and distractions!

This last week I was in a grumpy mood, so I decided not to make you all suffer with my ramblings. The one thing that I WILL grouch about (okay, well, maybe a few things) is the gas prices. Seriously? The media needs to get ahold of themselves and shut their mouths. If it were not for the media speculating about gas shortages, we would not be in the mess we are in.

Here in Tennessee we went from like a 1 year low on gas prices (3.54 and cheaper in some places) to 4 bucks and up in just a few hours? Tell me that is not price gouging. People panicked and by yesterday evening we were completely out of gas in Hendersonville. The media drives people to be rediculous, and they must be stopped. I am very disappointed in our government officials that they allow that type of thing to happen. Yes, we have freedom of press, but we do NOT have the right to mess with people's heads and LIE...

Okay, that aside...DH's car is on its last leg and I am SO worried about money. We have never been in this position before...We are still paying off my car from 2 years ago when my other car was on the fritz and not worth fixing....still have 1500 to go on that one....at this rate we are never going to get a home of our own...much less a scrapbooking room, LOL~It is very heavy on DHs heart...he works so hard and has nothing to show for it that is his and it makes me sad for him. We are doing everything "right" and actually have NO debt other than my car, which was a loan to build credit, but its SO tempting to just go into debt....but then, not really.

Okay, onto more FUN things! This morning I was the lucky recipiant of a call from Heather (Toothy) from Cafe Mom and she said she was on her way down to my neck of the woods and wanted to meet up. WOOHOO! She and Jack safely arrived and we had so much fun chatting. I wish that I had more room in this stinkin house. It would have been great to get to carding, but we did stamp a bit. She is a sweetie and Noah and Jack actually got along really well. YAY! DH was a big help with the boys and we got to chat all afernoon! (Hope your DH doesn't notice the scratches on his car, Toothy! LOL)

While Toothy was on her way down I worked on this gift card holder for Elizabeth (Noah's little buddy) who is going to turn 2 soon. Since they moved away a gift card was def the way to go. I was not going to use this image, but the fairy was too large and didn't look good. Its simple, but hey! She's TWO, right? LOL! The image is Penny Black and I received it in a swap awhile ago. The paper is American Craft.


Last Thursday I did a photoshoot with a sweet lil man named Ethan. His mom and I (Kelly) are friends, and Noah LOVES Ethan to death. We wanted to do a shoot with them together....yeeeahh...Noah didn't cooperate so much...so here is my fave Ethan shot:

AND...the best of Noah???

Alright, and since I asked SO many stinking questions about the post it holders, here are the two that I did the other day. I am awaiting some images to do some others, but I really like the sunflower one, but not so much the hedgehog. It was not the right image for the colors and paper, but Terrfically Tacky lives up to its name, sooooo...yeah, LOL. Thanks for the advice and tips!

Could it be? My creative Mojo?

Hi ladies! I am hoping you have been having a wonderful weekend.

I finally have managed to work on a few projects this week. I am falling behind on my son's second year scrapbook. I would like to have it done by his birthday like I did last year (okay, I still have like 4 pages that need to be added to that one) so that I can pass it around at his party. That was a neat addition last year. Here is the page I worked on the other day. Nothing special or blingy about it, but I love the "splash" of colors!

I made this card on Friday night. I received the "Bikahbella" image from a friend over on Card Makin Mamas. She was kind enough to share her overstock of images with a few of us. YAY! Gotta love those Bellas! This card did NOT turn out the way I had hoped, but it works. I am sending it to Heather's daughter Hannah. She has been feeling bad this week and I hope it makes her smile!

Yesterday, the Christmas bug bit me. Much earlier than usual. I am kind of a scrooge when it comes to Christmas and family...Christmas is not always the...um....smoothest time of year in my mom's family, so I guess scrooginess just comes with the territory. That being said, I decided that with our smaller finances this year that I would make as many gifts as I can, and make them useful for the family member. My aunt, in particular LOVES Christmas. She has several Christmas trees, and lots of decor. She talks about it forever! So, I made her this altered clipboard countown to Christmas. The numbers have velcro dots on the back so that they can be changed each day. If I had had my wits about me I would have laminated the numbers....BUT I didn't think about it soooo.... here you go!

Yesterday I took Noah to the park. We had to go to the not-so-fun park and Noah was cranky and still a little sick anyway, but he ended up having fun on their slide. Its tall and fast. He had a blast! (lookie there! I am a poet and didn't know it...) Anyway, he went to bed EARLY after that. He ran himself RAGGED! Yay!

I have been MIA!

Well, ladies? I am back! I have been MIA, but for a good cause! Another of my BFFs came to visit me for a few days. It was SOOO nice! I was HUGE the last time she saw me, LOL! About 7 1/2 months....8 months pregnant and was put on bedrest the day after she arrived. Not much fun, right?

So this time around we had a lot of fun! I didn't realize how much I missed her. I also didn't realize that it had been about 2 years!!! Oh, the catching up we had to do! We talked, and watched movies and even got to go shopping! WOOHOO!

Yesterday was her last day here and we all went to The Streets at Indian Lake and had some Marble Slab icecream (my first EVER! OH, so good!) I had strawberry cheesecake with FRESH strawberries! It was OH SO YUMMY! Noah enjoyed sharing with us too!

After we had icecream, we went outside to the fountains and splashed and played. I was NOT planning to get wet, but Noah needed reassurance, so I did what any mommy would do and jumped right in! After that, Noah was fine! He splashed and played like a pro! (as long as mommy was right there, LOL)

It was a great Holiday weekend! Off to iron!