Makeup Monsters

And this isn't even their Halloween look!

Little m played with Little d's makeup the other day....

Then Little d had to get in on the fun....

Oh and here's the card I made for D's grandpa for tonight. El simple-oh. {All CTMH}

Off to get ready for our big dinner at IHOP.

Everyday Details

Here's one of those random bits and pieces posts.

Still waiting on the final closing on the construction loan. We're thinking it may be next week! I am so excited. We actually (thanks to my brother and his wife) caught a great deal on low-e windows at Lowe's this week. (energy efficient windows) We were able to buy 18 0f the 24 windows we need HALF PRICE! Isn't that awesome?!?

Tuesday I took Little d to the doctor regarding her tummy issues. We had tried lots of fiber, prunes, cutting back on milk, and nothing was solving the problem. Thankfully there is a no-taste powder called Miralax. She takes half a cap (about two and a half teaspoons) in 8 ounces of liquid a day and so far we are seeing some improvement. No more upset tummy and more pooping. I know TMI! But if you have a kid going through something like this I thought I would share and let you know that your doctor may have a solution! He also told me something surprising. Apples, carrots and bananas are foods that cause constipation. Bananas I knew, but the others I didn't. So there's that.

Little m. Is. Cutting. Four. Eye. Teeth. I was beginning to think she would never get those teeth and here they are showing up all at one time. Vampire teeth just in time for Halloween! She's doing well though. I had to give her Tylenol a couple of times for pain, but other than that, she's her usual self.

Tomorrow night we are going to IHOP to eat with the in-laws to celebrate D's grandpa's 96th birthday. Should be fun. Hope this time to get a table that doesn't slope.

Saturday will be trick or treat night. My mother in law made the cutest little witch costumes and I am excited to see them both dressed and ready to go---will take pictures of course!

Sunday is that Flea Market thing I've been preparing for. You should see the pegboard displays my dad made. Well, you will. I'll take pictures when everything is set up.

Morning sickness. Seems to be getting much better. I'm cleaning house again (sporadically) and even (gasp) cooking!

What a completely blessed life I have! Thank you all for stopping by! And thanks also for all the sweet comments--seriously you make my day! Oh and I forgot to say...I'm glad you like my little baby blinkie over there. I thought it was so cute when I saw it on another blog, but I was hoping it wouldn't creep anyone out. I figured if my five year old liked it, it was okay. ;)

A blog award!!

First a big old thank you to Sarah for awarding with this!

Apparently she likes my humor...poor girl, must not get out much. Also she probably doesn't know that her birthday card is still sitting on my kitchen counter waiting to be mailed. (It did get a stamp today, so, fingers-crossed, we're one step closer...)

The rules are this: I need to pass this award on to five people, post on their blog to let them know I left this award, and then I need to answer a list of questions in ONE word. Fun!

1. Where is your cell phone? purse

2. Your hair? on my head...oh wait not where is...and it's supposed to be one word, okay then...bent.

3. Your mother? lovely

4. Your father? brilliant

5. Your favorite food? chocolate

6. Your dream last night? forgotten

7. Your favorite drink? cherrycoke (hehehe I cheated)

8. Your dream/goal? construction

9. What room are you in? scrap

10. Your hobby? papercrafting

11. Your fear? sickness

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? rested

13. Where were you last night? home

14. Something that you aren't? hypocrit

15. Muffins? banananut (hehehe I cheated again)

16. Wish list item? house

17. Where did you grow up? Port O' Connor

18. Last thing you did? bathedgirls (cheater cheater pumpkin eater)

19. What are you wearing? sloppy

20. Your TV? off

21. Your Pets? imaginary

22. Friends? bestest

23. Your life? blessed

24. Your mood? content

25. Missing Someone? husband

26. vehicle? trailblazer

27. Something your not wearing? makeup

28. Your favorite store? hobbylobby (okay honestly I love Victoria's Secret or Bath and Body Works because I just feel pretty walking in those stores.)

29. Your favorite color? pink

30. When was the last time you laughed? today

31. Last time you cried? Monday

32. Your best friend? tough-y

33. One place that I go to over and over? upstairs

34. Facebook? yes

35. Favorite place to eat? Home!!

That was fun but oh to nominate five. Must do some math. I know you all love my math. Five people minus kids splashing water all over floor of bath equals three plus number of times I've had heartburn today equals five minus minutes until I must get kids out of bath so I don't miss Top Chef equals four!!

So--I hereby duly nominate Lindsay, Kim, Leslie and Penny. Feel free to nominate as many as you want girls, I can't be counted on to do math as you clearly see!!

Such an exciting day {doctor visit}

First of all I have to say how excited I am that we got to hear the baby's heartbeat today with the regular old Doppler! I am not excited about the routine vaginal cultures they did, but the heartbeat made up for it! I feel like I can breath a little. I mean here I am 13 1/2 weeks and we heard the heartbeat. Now if I can just make it through cold and flu season without contracting H1N1 and dying--all will be awesome!

We ran a few errands. My mother in law is sewing little witch costumes (skirts and capes) for the girls and so we went to Target and bought little Halloween tees for them to wear. Then we went to the Halloween store and got spray for their hair and little toy brooms. Then we went to the insurance agency and signed the paperwork and wrote the check for the builder's risk insurance required for the construction loan. Fun Stuff.

All in the pouring rain. It's been so long since we had this much rain it actually shocked me every time we would leave a location and it was still raining.

And if you are bored with all my humdrum, here's a card I made last night. PLEASE, if you know a way to attach vellum without hardware, that doesn't show, feel free to pass that info along to me. Because I am clueless.

Hope you all are having a wonderful day! I know I am...I heard the heartbeat, did I mention?

Details: all CTMH unless noted

Paper: pink vellum from stash, white daisy cs

Ink: Hollyhock

Stamps: Happy Birthday, Fifth Avenue Floral (SU!)

Other: silver brads

Happy Birthday Sarah!

Okay so I'm a lame-o and missed Sarah's birthday. I really planned on making a card and posting it on my blog for her, but no, yesterday I made a birthday card and posted it for the craft fair. See? Lame-ohhhh.

Sarah is such a sweetheart. She somehow always finds something nice to say and offers a pick me up on days when you don't feel so up. She's the type of friend (and yes I count her as a friend--not just the facebook farmtown neighbor type) who makes those around her feel special. What a true gift! So Sarah, here's your card (a little late). I am so thankful to have "met" you through this bloggerville. If ever you make a trip to Texas you're welcome to visit!

And because my photo skills are sadly lacking, here's a second photo with daylight. All I wanted was to show the glitter on the paper, is that too much to ask? Anyway, Sarah if you email me your address I'll mail it to ya! My email is over there --------->

Details: all CTMH unless noted

Paper: colonial white cs, patterns (DCWV Nana's Nursery)

Ink: sweet leaf
Stamps: Happy Birthday, Star Struck

Other: bonding memories glue pen, prisma glitter, sheer ribbon (HL)

Hey There Cupcake

Who wants frosty glittery icing?!? Me too! This is a birthday card for the {all together now...} "craft fair!" I know I should just stop saying that because duh all the cards I'm making right now are going with me to the craft fair.

Which brings me to an interesting mix of emotions. On the one hand I am thrilled at the idea of people actually buying my cards (I've never sold them before) and also getting rid of this huge stash. On the other hand I have some sentimental attachment to some of my cards. Like the ones that won a challenge, or the one I did as a guest designer. I remember what kind of day I was having when I made a certain card or how hard or easy or pulling out my hair exasperating a card was to make. So I think it may be a little weird if someone buys one of those cards that have memories attached.

Or it's just all these pregnancy hormones making me wacky. Either way, should be fun!

Details: all CTMH unless noted

Paper: Daydream, white daisy cs

Ink: Lilac Mist, Blush

Stamps: Cupcake Sprinkles

Other: bonding memories glue pen and prisma glitter

Simple Card Set + Simple Kraft Cards

Some more craft fair work. First is a very simple set of four cards I did with Fringed Phrases and a vase image from Solo B. I didn't photograph the card individually because...well...they are almost all the exact same.

I got the idea (I'm sure from something I saw somewhere!) to stamp white on kraft cs. I loved the look of this plus I thought the simple images worked so well with these cards.

And this one IRONICALLY I forgot to photograph before I put it in the package so I thought I would just show you these clear bags that I'm using.

Here's the back. The little foldover adhesive tab is awesome. You can unpeel it and re-stick it!

So while I'm showing you packaging...here's the little clear boxes that I am putting the card sets in. They are really sharp looking. They ship flat and you just fold them into boxes. I opted to get hanging packaging and then sweet talk my dad into building me a peg board display. Oh yes I will take pictures of the whole set up!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Finally!! Not politics as usual!!

Finally finally finally!! The other media outlets are finally raising a stink about the White House treatment of Fox News. The White House was not going to allow Fox to interview the pay czar, but the other news outlets in the pool said if Fox couldn't interview than the rest of them would not interview him either!

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/23/white-house-loses-bid-exclude-fox-news-pay-czar-interview/

I am so glad to see people standing up for the constitutional right to free speech! It's about time the press took this seriously! Okay off my soapbox--with a smile on my face!

Welcome Baby Cards

More craft fair cards. I know I should be making birthday cards but I had a hankering to make baby cards!

This first one is one of my least fave of the group.

Here's a near duplicate with some distressing (just for you Penny!)

Here's a green one I think will work for gender-neutral.

And here's my favorite--pink! With lace!

I made two of each. You can knock out a lot of cards that way. The pile going to the craft fair is getting higher and higher. I think I'm over seventy cards now.

Inks and Stamps are CTMH but paper and ribbons are mostly from my stash.

Oh and here's something fun. I swear (and I know all the books say it's too soon) that I've been feeling the baby move. I am pretty in touch with my intestines (thank you IBS) so I can differentiate between gas bubbles or not. I have to be sitting a certain way, but I swear that's what it is.

Thanks for stopping by!

Gold Embossed Manger Christmas Card

Wow. Catchy title.

Anyway-this is a card I pulled together pretty fast. I think I might do a couple more for the craft fair. I've never used gold embossing powder before. I love the way it turned out. I didn't want to screw it up by coloring in the image even though I really do want to see what that would look like...we'll see.

Details: CTMH unless noted

Paper: colonial wht cs, juniper cs, patterned paper (K&Co)

Ink: versamark, juniper

Stamps: Christmas Story

Other: edge distressor, gold ep (HL) cream ribbon (HL)

Lights, Camera....Action?

I decided to start researching light fixtures. Again. I looked all over the net when we were first planning on building and decided on finishes, fixtures, prices etc, of our dream home. But when things got put on hold it was all just too painful to think about so I stopped the planning/daydreaming stuff. It was like a book I put back on the shelf and never looked at again.

But now of course...I need to start again. Take the book off the shelf, dust it off and see what aspects of planning still apply. My tastes are still the same so the style is the same. But now I am trying to do things even cheaper than before.

The first thing I wanted to look at was lighting. I wanted to start small and simple. Then work my way up to the big stuff like stove tops and fireplaces.

So there is a long-running joke between my husband and I about light fixtures. You know those ceiling mounted lights that you find in closets and hallways? Like this:

Well I think we will need about seven of those types of lights give or take. So nothing to expensive of course. And NO NIPPLES. That's right. Look at that light again. I hate that little nipple they put on it. Just go google ceiling mounted light fixtures and you too can browse ALL the different types of nipples they make. Geez! I mean I think some of them are actual molds of actual boobs!!

So here's more of what we'll be using. That's right...no nipples here people...nothing to see.

When I asked D the other day in Lowe's if those lights with the nipples didn't just irk the pee out of him, he responded "well no, but you know how I feel about boobs..."

Huh. Trust me. No nipple lights in the new house. ;) {Oh ps go back and read the title of my post...it's funny right? Action? Get it? Stop!}

Birthday Card Set

Really nothing special here. I wanted to create a four card set for the craft fair that I could sell as an assorted birthday set. I made two of each of these, so now I have two sets out of the way. (Really loving that CLEAR BAGS DOT COM--super cute packaging there.)

These are all CTMH. Pretty simple, like I said nothing too special.

All are stamped with Happy Birthday on the inside.

Thanks for stopping by!

Caramel Apples

Yesterday I did something a little ridiculous. I made caramel apples. With chocolate and pecans.

First I started with wonderful smelling green apples clean and dry AND room temperature.

Then I melted the 14-oz bag of Kraft caramels with 2 tablespoons of water over medium heat. The bag of caramels included five popsicle sticks, but I of course dropped two on the floor and had to use wooden skewers for two of the apples. I dipped the apples into the melted caramel, but it isn't that easy. So I used a spoon to help spoon it over the apples.

Oh and in case you were wondering what to do with the leftover caramel on the spoon, Little d and Little m have the perfect suggestion...

The directions on the bag say to put on greased wax paper, but next time I'll grease a cookie sheet, because they stuck to the wax paper and we had to pick it off the bottom. Following the directions I put them in the fridge for an hour. That's where the directions left off.

So my mom and I got creative. When I took the caramel apples out of the fridge, they were still sticky so mom pressed some chopped pecans into the caramel...

Then I melted some chocolate bark and spooned it over the apples. The chocolate didn't cover well because when it hit the still cold apples it began cooling. So I really had to spoon alot onto the apples to cover them. Finally I melted some white candy bark and put it in a piping bag to drizzle it over the apples. And then I thought they just didn't look finished so I did the same to the leftover chocolate bark and drizzled it over the apples to finish.

They turned out really delicious!

Good thing I only made five. I've already given away three!

Nothing from me today

So I thought I would share a blog I just stumbled across with some beautifully detailed 'exploding boxes'. HERE's the site. She does amazing detail work. Scroll through and enjoy.

Cinema Challenge {and plenty more craft fair stuff}

First up is my submission for the Cinema Saturday Challenge. The requirement was to use a crown in your project and when I pulled this paper from my stash I knew it was perfect.

Their movie this week was Elizabeth. (Either one) I didn't see the latest yet, but I did see the other one....a while back. I do remember that the Queen was quite her own person. So the sentiment "Be Yourself, everyone else is taken," seemed to fit the bill. I love making these DVD tins. (Not my original idea--I've seen them all over the web.)

They make really cute gifts and I'm hoping they will be popular at the craft fair I'm participating in. Perfect Day papers....

I decided to do some with a little decorated magnet in them. Key to my Heart papers...

One for Christmas lists. Evensong Creative Basic papers...

One for keeping score. This paper is not CTMH...

I've made several of each design. I've been a busy worker bee today. Time for a break! Thanks for stopping by!

(Most supplies from CTMH) You can find the DVD tins at THIS page.

More dry erase frames

I'm like a dog with a bone. I am working feverishly (ha) to finish enough stuff for this craft fair that's coming up November first. This is the last of the frames that I bought. Not sure if I'll try to get anymore. I heard the dollar store has some cute ones...will definitely try that before heading back to Hobby Lobby...

On this first one I wrote on it in case you were wondering what they look like when they are being used as a dry erase board. Also-this is my favorite one!

I wanted to make a Christmas one, but I'm not to thrilled with this. I also thought people would say "yeah but what do you do with it after Christmas?"

Voila!! It's reversible....

I saw this frame and thought 'well it is out in the country, they probably like cow prints there...' Although picking a paper to use with it proved challenging!

I originally wanted to do this one as a kitchen-themed one. Not sure I really like the end result...

More craft fair stuff...

Wow again with the two posts in one day!

Here are a couple of more cookie sheets and as you can tell the ol' mojo is getting thin with the whole cookie sheet deal.

So moving on to a new project. Again not my original idea, but I just LOVE it. You decorate a picture frame and then use it as a dry erase board. I bought the black dry erase markers to go with these frames.

This one is my favorite so far... Here's something I've found. You can make perfect-looking beach by sanding textured Bamboo cardstock so a little white shows through. Then use your stipple brush to pounce on some Desert Sand and Chocolate inks. It looks really good in real life!

For the next one (that says Bon Appetit) I thought I might write "tonight's menu" on it to give people an idea of how to use it.

Here's a bonus cute picture. Little m played for almost an hour with Little d's makeup. Cute, huh? I definitely have some girly girls here. PS that's Moo in the background...I think he was coloring.

Almost all supplies are CTMH. If you have any questions leave them in the comments and I'll answer them in the comments, or you can email me, it's over there------->