Help [ME] Ronda

dear ronda

 

I remember you saying in your "No More Excuses" mini that you would clean up after yourself.  What happen to that?  I can't see the desk anymore.  Shoving stuff to the sides so you can create doesn't constitute cleaning up.  The adhesive keeps playing hide & seek under tons of stuff.  You know there is one bottle of mist missing because thank goodness your shelves seem to be immune to this mess.  Is that paint on the floor?  You wouldn't have to paint on the floor if you would clean the desk up.  And while we are talking about the floor, it might be helpful if you could actually walk into the room.  Stepping on little bits & pieces isn't fun.  Promise me you will clean it up before your next batch of creating.

With love,

Me

Ali's Favorite Products

Cocoa Daisy has just revealed Ali Edward's kit for this year.  You don't want to miss out on this beautiful kit.  It is focused around Ali's love for letters & numbers.  It is so beautiful and so much fun.

Ali designed the Cocoa Daisy exclusive stamp and journaling cards.  And as with past kits, because there are so many great products that Ali wants to include, it will be a much larger kit than our regular monthly kit and will retail for $47.50.  Subscriptions can be purchased in advance at Cocoa Daisy and subscribers will be guaranteed a kit.   Learn more about subscriptions HERE.  The kit will go on sale to the general public on September 3rd at 12 PDT. 

Update:  Just wanted to mention that with a 3 month subscription the price of the kit is $45.50 and with a 6 month subscription it is $44.50.  Each subsequent month is less $2 for the 3 month and $3 for the six month.

you're beautiful....

Word Up over at One Little Word.  My word.  Beauty.  I love the quote I have up over there. 

The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes. If you foolishly ignore beauty, you will soon find yourself without it. Your life will be impoverished. But if you invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life. Frank Lloyd Wright

Life is truly beautiful.  I want to see it and live it every day.  I told you i am starting to come out of my fog and slowly rebuilding myself.  Part of that is seeing all the beautiful things in my life.  Sometimes you have to go through the darkness to see the light.

I love to play.  I love to get my hands dirty.  This is one of those layouts that makes me giggle as it is coming together.  I get so excited just by creating.  Love that feeling.

Here's how this layout came together.  I love the new Jillibean Soup paper.  The kraft lines are so amazing: Talk Soup & Soup Staples

I grabbed some bubble wrap and painted it with some white paint.  I just flip it over and gentle pressed it into the paper.

This butterfly was done just like the amazing, the talented, Dina Wakley.  She has this awesome tutorial up at Maya Road.  The only difference is mine is a butterfly and i used Glimmering Mists, Frozen Lake, Riptide, & Key Lime Pie. 

To get the splatters, I watered down some acrylic paint.  I took an old tooth brush and "flicked" the paint onto the pattern paper.  I warn you it gets messy.  But that's the fun part!  So cover up any surface you want to keep clean.  I hope you try it out and just play!

 

and this little layout was from a crop i went to last weekend with a bunch of Colorado & Wyoming Girls.  So much fun hanging with them.  Some New Hambly on the layout.  Love the clear butterfly stickers!  The Script is a Purple Onion Stamp called Late 1800's.  The name alone made me want it!!

you know i love you...

Shattered

seriously??

Yes that is my sliding glass door.  This weekend it was really hot here, well for Denver.  98 F (37 C).  It is a double pane door and the outside pane shattered.  Completely...as seen in that box above.  The inside one is ok.  No rocks, no bbs, just the hot sun beating down on our door.  We had the builders come look at the door and they are 99 % sure the door comes with a lifetime warranty.  Thank Goodness!

I was in the kitchen most of the day today.  Are ya shock? No, me neither.  Making cookies, cooking soup, preparing dinner, etc.  I grilled some Salmon, plus some shrimp on skewers for dinner.  I went to turn the skewers over with a tong.  It started slipping and what do i do?  Grab it with my left hand and burnt a nice ring mark into left index & thumb.  OUCH!

I think maybe tomorrow i will stick to scrapping. ;)

sew inspired....

been sewing lately...

Lexi's birthday present was a new school bag, Amy Butler's Birdie Sling.  It is her third school bag, plus i made ones for Kayla & Logan (her friends).  

I love going to the fabric store.  So many colors.  So many great patterns.  Check that one out.  It makes me happy.  I have my favorites designers:

• Alexander Henry
  
• Amy Butler
• Heather Bailey
• Erin McMorris

but honestly I like browsing through the fabric.   It just makes me want to create.

I mean there is so much eye candy in one little store.  How adorable are those buttons?

Next up on my list is Amy Butler's Frenchy Bag.  Two of them.  And one is actually for me! 

need more crafty inspiration, check out this site.  Be warn, you will be there for a while ;)

Future Girl Crafts

Bits of Love, sewn together just for you..

Do you hear that?

Neither do i?

Is it wrong to enjoy the silence in my house?  Both kids are at school today.  And I got to relax.  No kids whining at me their bored.  No running around like crazy for them.  Just me & my House.  and Emily.  Adult playtime. Sigh.  I am happy.

Lexi loved CSU.  She has always wanted to be a Vet.  CSU happens to be ranked 2nd best Vet school in the US.  It was good to see the campus & the town.  We hooked up with Drew, a cousin, & Sara, Andrew's aunt and had lunch together.  It was a good visit.

Some Daily inspiration over at Cocoa Daisy.  The month of August has been dedicated to a Book of Me.  Need some inspiration, come & hang out at the Message Board.  

Also Up over there is a little stitching tutorial by me.  I wanted to show you how to do a little more complicated stitches. 

Did you get the Cocoa Daisy newsletter?  Ali Edwards is back and you have a chance to win a kit!  Go here for all the details.  You won't want to miss out on this kit.  It is such a great kit!  But my lips are sealed!

Did I ever show you the rest of my Fancy Pants CHA stuff?

Rough & Tough Boy Line.  I love the colors.  Finally a boy line that can be for a teen. 

Trick or Treat Line.. with a mixed media album.  I have been dying to use that tree.  So happy it ended up there. 

 

Little Sprout Line.  I love this Mobile.  I saw this line and wanted to create something for a boy (the growth chart) and something girlie (this mobile).  I asked Anthony for some fishing line.  I grabbed some of the Fancy Felt pieces and some beads.  It was so much fun to create.

Sweet Love

me, myself, & I, sometimes we

I must take time for myself every once & awhile, Self care before Self Destruct

I miss her & there will always be an open wound there but life is moving forward and each day brings something new.. i can see that now

My arms & legs are sore from exercising... hmm guess that tells you i need to up the physical activity

My house is really clean minus one room...any guesses?  Let me give you a hint, it has lots of paper, ribbons, spray inks, and bits & pieces laying around

 

I think the only thing Colorado is lacking is the beach but check out that killer sunset

We are doing a cheesy tourist event this weekend, eating at Casa Bonita with the Youth Group from Church.. cliff divers, cave dwellings, and so-so food

I have realized that sometimes you have to be lost to find yourself again

I have some sewing projects to complete that make me happy & excited

one of my best friends is MIA... if you see her, tell her i called

the other one left me to go on vacay...how dare her ;) Now who am I going to chat with? 

i am on my way back to finding me again... KL do you have any pointers?  Can you lend me a map?  and send the photobooth photos with that map, would ya?

i need to let my protective walls down once in while

we are going to look at CSU on Monday for Lexi.  One of the many universities to check out.  She starts apply next year.

i love just looking here.. 

i am fighting a sinus infection & saline rinses are no fun

My toes look pretty with the pedicure

OLW times 2

Word Up over at OLW.  Gudrun's word. PLAY.  Won't you play with us??

I had this picture on my desk for the longest time.  I just love the look on Finn, the nephew's face.  He is really into play and we pretend all the time.  I love watching his imagination flourish.  So that's where I took this layout, more about recognizing it is good to play.  To let go of all those things weighing us down and just play.

 

I used my August Cocoa Daisy kit.  Just love all the fun items in there.  I decided to play around with some inks & mists.  The edges are inked with my favorite go to ink, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Walnut! 

I also wanted to revisit my SWEET album.  I really want to show you the interior pages.  What is cool about this album from Evalicious is that not only does she sell the fabric kit with tutorial but you can just purchase the tutorial by itself.  A great option if you have your own fabric you want to use.  So here's a look at my pages (click on images to make them larger:

 

 

 

Love to you, you, & you

So much scrappy..

where to start?

Cocoa Daisy.....

 

August kit.  Blue Skies from American Crafts, right from CHA. 

and my creations...

more to come.  You can check out close ups here.

Fancy Pants Designer Spotlight....Me

and a layout using one of my favorite products, Bag-o-Tags. 

Kenner Road

A little tutorial from me up over at the blog using the Scarborough Fair Kit.  You can make this cute mini album that pockets your favorite summer recipes.  Keep it for yourself or give it as a gift.

Spread some love...

Burned Out....

literally & figuratively

 

an unusual summer presented us this year with lots of storms in Colorado.  We don't usually have lightening storms.  I made the kids get inside when we saw this approaching.  Looking out the kitchen, I saw & heard the lightening strike at the same time.  It was that close.  The next one was even closer, it struck in our yard.  It shook the house, set off the house alarm that wasn't set plus some smoke detectors, and pretty much freaked us all out.  It turns out, it also fried our router for the internet.  Plus it hit some other systems but blessedly we got them back working.  The Router didn't survived so we were without internet for a few days.  I was ok with that.

While i hate letting people down, i was beginning to feel fried myself.  Going, Going, Going... until i just couldn't go anymore...

We promised the boys birthday celebrations before they left.  We wanted our chance to be with them for their birthdays.  Since this isn't possible, we had little celebrations with their favorite meals & of course presents.  PMan (Parker) wanted homemade pizza. 

Jake wanted a sushi night.   While I love sushi night, it is a lot of prep work.  But i wanted him to have the best night here.  He totally loved it.  The boys are back home, they left of Sunday morning.  I loved having them here for the last two & a half months but i totally & completely admit... I am T I R E D, tired.  It takes a lot of work to take care of  4 kids full time, especially when you are a "single" parent half the time. 

Sunday night we had family over to celebrate our kids birthdays.  Lexi & Anthony were born three years & two days apart.   They used to hate joint celebrations.  Now they really do love it, at least for family ones.  I don't know if you can see in the photo but they are holding hands as they blow out their candles.  That brings tears to my eyes.

Yesterday was Lexi's actual birthday.  We had some mom & me time with pedicures.  Next the boys joined us for Lunch and then time together as a family.  Lexi said it was the best birthday she ever had.  Considering that her 16th was spent with just the family, I think that's quite a compliment. 

Next up, Little Dude turns 13 tomorrow.