Help [ME] Ronda

Randomness 13

because this post is hodgepodge randomness

& i love the number 13.

sweet summer time filled with activities and yummy treats

it's late but I just can't sleep so I decided to update the blog and answer long overdo emails

the pups are snoring next to me, they are so darn cute

Lexi is visiting her best friend in the Cincinnati area, love that the distance doesn't make a difference

took the kids to the zoo with my brother Greg & his kids, plus lexi's boyfriend and younger sister

Anthony got to stay with Aunt Vicky & cousins in Minnesota, so happy he got to spend time with the relatives

Andy was supposed to be home but is stuck in Billings, Montana...I am growing weary of these 5 day trips but I can't complain too much, a job is a job

evenings like this are yet another reason I love living in Colorado, check out the reflection of the mountains on the clouds

cried today at the fabric store as Parker explained to the lady cutting our fabric that his mom died... she gave us both hugs

still going to therapy and it is helping, lots to work thru...one day at a time

4 kids at various ages takes a lot of work, especially when they get bored

at least they are easy to please with some baked goodies, a boston cream cupcake (recipe here)

had an afternoon date earlier this week with the hubby, time together without the kids..most important

put a little tutorial up at OLW on how to create those Hambly Pendants

got to chat with one of my best friends, e, for a while... I really needed that

moments like these warm my heart, love watching the kids play in the cul-de-sac

so how's your summer?

Summer Loving, had me a blast.....

sew what & other goodness

we have been on a reduction cycle in our house.  By reducing I mean, clean out what we don't use but find some way to recycle or reuse it.  you know, the whole 3 R deal.  Actually I think it should be the 5 Rs.... Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Recyle, & Repurpose.  So what do old bed sheets & pillow cases have to do with this?  Trying to clean up my linen closet.  Had lots of old & mismatched sheets & pillow cases.  On a separate thought, I have been wanting to get rid of the paper napkins we use in our house....see where I am going with this?  I have a front load washer so I know I won't have too much of an increase in water usage.  However I didn't want  to go out & buy enough napkins to use.  That's where the old bedsheets & pillow cases came into play.  And turned into....

Other goodness & inspiration....

FREE photo editing: Frames & Special effects by Jessica Sprague....

a cool design site that I love trolling thru... Avant-Garde

think these are so cool...Waste Not Saks

picked up some library books & a magazine, Stitch  (go there for some cool patterns)

Karla has some freebies...Freebie 1 and Freebie 2, check them out

masters are still blogging over at Memory Makers

sending you love.....

did you hear?

Cocoa Daisy has just open up a Design Team call!  Let me tell you that I truly love working for Tricia & Cocoa Daisy. 

Cocoa Daisy is looking to add two very talented, creative and motivated scrapbook artists to join our design team, the Daisy Divas. Our design team is made up of dedicated scrapbookers with the ability to create stunning layouts and projects using products in unique and unexpected ways. We are looking for design team members who will be very present on the Cocoa Daisy site (both on the message board and in the gallery) and will actively promote the site elsewhere.

For more details, click here COCOA DAISY DT CALL

July's kit, Rhubarb Pie, sneak is up.  Just love this bright & cheery kit.  Thought I would share some of my own sneaks with you.

So are you interested in joining our team?  What are you waiting on?  Get over there and join in on the fun!!!

Hambly Needle Holders

and the winners are:

13	4	1	10	22	19	7


That's 7 winners of some adorable holders. so if my calculations are correct:


jeanie nieva |June 11, 2009 at 12:02 AM

Posted by: polinka | June 11, 2009 at 01:59 AM

Posted by: Jude | June 11, 2009 at 04:38 AM

Posted by: Gale | June 11, 2009 at 08:42 AM

Posted by: Bree | June 11, 2009 at 03:25 PM

Posted by: Alicia Sharp | June 13, 2009 at 12:23 PM

Posted by: mandykoeppen | June 14, 2009 at 07:46 PM

Congrats ladies.  Send me your addys to my email.

As for those Pendants & Canvases look for some tutorials soon.  The Pendant tutorial will be posted on Wednesday (June 24th) over at OLW.  The Canvas one will be posted here soon.  In the meantime, I thought I would post two more pendants/necklaces.  I am such a tease.....

it's all GOOD

Word up over at OLW.  Jessi's word. Despite her words, I don't get carried away with the glimmering mists.... ok maybe just a little.  I had so many ideas but in the end it came down to this.  A summer journal of sorts.  I can't wait to show you the inside either.  I have ideas for it for the rest of summer.  But let's take a peek into it shall we?

I am going to show you how I created the outside of the album.  The pictures were taken at night & I came up with the title on the fly with left over chipboard letters so forgive me. 

Ok Let's go...

My supplies include Gesso, Heavy Molding Paste, Chipboard, paintbrushes, paint, chipboard letters, pen, & hole punch.  I painted the chipboard with Gesso to prep it. 

Next is play time.  Remember before glue sticks we had paste in the classrooms.  This is exactly what this is like, but really thick and so much fun to play with for all kinds of art projects.  Smear the paste all over your chipboard background.  Make sure you have your chipboard letters ready to go because the paste tends to dry quickly.

You can see I applied a thick layer.  Next I took my chipboard letters and smooshed them into the paste.  My title goes in first. 

Next start adding in the chipboard pieces all around your title.  I like to turn them upside down, backwards, etc for just that little twist. 

Next I put a layer of Gesso on the pieces, making sure I got into the nooks & crannies of the letters.  After that dried, I went back in with my final paint color.  On this album yellow, on the above album I used white paint. 

Next do something to make your title stand out.  You can outline it with a pen, paint it a different color, or you could choose not to accent it and just let it sit there in the background.

RAK winners coming soon...

Until then, Love

this & that

spent the last few days cleaning & prepping the house for the nephews.  It felt good to deep clean the house but how can one boy create such a mess in a bathroom?

which has spurred some home decor things I want to tackle, painting a guest bedroom & sewing some draperies

firing up the grill lately, Moroccan spice kebabs...yum

honored to be a guest Designer at Scrap in Japan.  The Japanese scrappers are so very talented!  Go check out their work, it will simply amaze you!

watched some funnel clouds out my window...scary.  In fact we have had a lot of thunderstorms lately and seems to be an afternoon occurrence (Emily has some pictures here)

Speaking of Emily, she invited me to a crop this past weekend and had a blast & met some new people, thanks friend

been baking a lot, blueberry pie one day, berry crisp the next.  Gave the left blueberry pie to the in-laws because I would eat it all.  The berry crisp was Andy's request & it seems that is his favorite.  Silly me thought it was Chocolate pie.  He accused me of holding out on him because this was the first time i made it. 

had lots of fun family time this week, board games on day, the movies the next.  My kind of time

Cocoa Daisy has some special things this month.  Subscribers on record as of June 15th will not only receive extra, exclusive journaling spots with their kits, they will also be entered to win a summer of Christine's Project kits! That's a free one for June, July and August.  And trust me those are awesome kits!

love my lens... the clarity on those pictures is just astounding

got some green ideas for you, as well as some gift ideas.  Christmas is on my mind...dude I am so ahead this year.

this little frame is on it's way to E and big O.  Designed for Fancy Pants, made with love for my friend. 

Ti Amo Ancora

I smell Vanilla...

I admit, I have been bursting to tell you....because DUDE it's HAMBLY!!!!  I was so excited when Allison asked me, I almost peed my pants.  so love HAMBLY!  One of my favorite companies in this incredible industry.  Screenprints, how brilliant.  In bright colors & bold designs.  I'm there!

Wanna see some more?  You can check out the blog post here.  or my Guest DT gallery here. 

Do you want some Hambly too?  Hambly is giving away some goodness for leaving a comment on my little post over there.  And if you don't know already, Hambly is VERY generous!

I thought I would also join in the fun.  I have made a couple more of these needle holders above.  Want one?  Well leave a comment on this post to be entered into a RAK (Deadline June 16th).  !  I have 5 up for grabs...maybe more by the time this week is up. 

and just incase you are wondering about the title of this post, Hambly scents their screenprints with just a touch of vanilla!

Rocky Mountain High

I so get John Denver's Song.  It is unbelievable gorgeous here in Colorado.  These are some of the mountains I see out of my craftroom windows.  It was these mountains to which I escaped for a little retreat last week. 

We went & stayed a night at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park.  The same hotel I talked about in this post.  It's one thing to tour it, another to stay in it.  I can understand why it could be a little scary, the hotel is 100 years.  What astounds me is that this was The Stanley's summer home. 

We strolled around the town of Estes, walking in & out of stores like most tourists.  The Candy Store was amazing & filled with so many treats.  We felt like we were in Willy Wonka's.  Of course Lexi found a furry creature to pet.  She like the dog much better than the snake that slithered past her feet on his way to the creek. 

We also went for a scenic drive & hike in the Rocky Mountain National Park.  It was a beautiful day.  There were some elk taking a stroll in the park.  We didn't see many other creatures that day.  We had told the girls, Lexi & her friend Paige, to bring hiking shoes.  Of course they casually forgot and had on flip flops.  The one hike we did the path was covered in snow in some places still.  Not something easily crossed in flip-flops.  Silly girls. 

and in the end, I got some much needed downtime.  I accidently left my cell phone at home....maybe that was accidently on purpose.  We (Andy & I) sat out on the front porch of the Stanley and read, taking in the scenery.  It was the perfect retreat I needed.

saying YES, to me

 

Karla's Words (& Kody's) over at One Little Word.  ever since Denise wrote some incredibly powerful words for No, they have really stuck with me. 

Sometimes we need to say yes.  Sometimes we need to say no.  What are the things you want to say yes to by saying the simple word no?

combine that with a therapist telling me that it's self care or self destruct, I get the message.  Sometimes as parents we put ourselves down the list.  I am so guilty of this.  I make a list of things I want to accomplish.  Things come up, I shove myself down the list.   I sometimes never get to me.  We think we are being selfish if we take care of ourselves but wouldn't we want our kids to have time for themselves?  To do things for them and just enjoy that time?  So what are we teaching them if we aren't important enough to take time for ourselves?  Kids learn not only by words but by actions (modeling).   

 

The layout is filled with Hambly goodness.  Jessi told me I had to lay off the labels. So I moved on to frames.  There's a difference, right?  Me likey all those different Hambly frames.  And of course I had to play with some Glimmering Mists.  Will show you how to create that when I return home.  Did I tell you?

I am outta here for a couple days.  Unplugging.  Did this post last night to have it ready to post today.  Leaving town for a "local" mini getaway with the family.  I so need the rest.  I am tired & just need to step away for a bit.  Re-energize.  Will be back this weekend. 

love, always

Some things Fancy & a little tip...

Love the messiness of this layout.  I used the talented Karla Dudley's Photo brush on the picture before printing it out.  Grabbed some Daily Grind Fancy Pants papers & started cutting.  I love that the ribbon is just kind of thrown on there & stitched down.  I needed a place to journal so I broke out some paints & then journaled right on top. 

ok this picture totally cracks me up.  I believe she was saying something like, " Stop, enough with the camera."  And I must tell you that those are her eyes....they are really that blue.  I could get lost in them.  This is the On a Whimsy Line.  I love that line & those journal books are the bomb! 

and now my little tip.  I had been doing those little flowers for a while but the fabulous & uber talent Emily Pitts (who I love calling friend!) really blew me away with her tutorials over at the Studio Calico blog. 

Pleates

Pleated Flowers version 1

Pleated Flowers Version 2

Inspiring right?  I looked around for some Sassy Lassy paper edges but I had use mine already.  Dang, Dang, Dang.  Then an idea hit me.  Why not use my border punches to create the same effect?  So that's what I did on the "This Crazy life" layout above & on the "Baker" layout below.

Wuv, tru Wuv