Where does the time go?

It's been awhile needless to say. I have lots to share. We as a family have decided to raise Chickens!! Going with the theme of trying to grow/gather our own food we thought chickens would be a good step. We are on an ongoing effort to try to go as completely organic as possible. There is so much bad stuff in eggs that we don't know about. Watch the movie Food Inc. and you'll feel the same.... We have also purchased some grass fed free range beef from a local farmer up the road no less. Joe hunts so we do have all of our own venison as well. We eat lots of veggies out of our freezer from last gardening season (which is here soon). So it all begins.....

Here is a picture of the chicks. If you have a slight urge to do it, do it raise your own. You'll be surprised. A good online source is http://www.backyardchickens.com/. It has an overwhelming amount of knowledge. Chickens were also on my latest issue of Organic Gardening. Who knew I was so vogue.

Next subject: Garden season is upon us! YeeaH! (said in a Lil Jon voice) I have been busy fixing my garden signs from last year. I made my Mom and MIL some for Mothers Day. I also had to make new ones for the additional stuff I am growing this year.

Here are those:

I made them using my Cricut Lyrical Letters Cart, mostly. Aren't they Cute!! My gardens is going to be so sheik.

So far I have planted:

Lettuce

Sugar Snap Peas

Kohlrabi Purple variety

Rainbow Carrots

Carrots

Red Potatoes

Yukon Gold Potatoes

Red Hamburger Onions

Candy Onions

Cantaloupe

Zucchini

All seeds of course. Too cold yet for plants. I am hoping by next week.....

Well hopefully I will post more often. Been so busy between going to Walt Disney World, Lucas making his First Communion, Baseball and Softball seasons starting, Girl Scouts ending, Gardening season starting; I've been NUTS.

Hope all is well. And watch Food Inc. You won't be sorry.

:o)

St. Patty's Day Cards

A few new cards... I am part Irish so I need to make some St. Patty's Day Cards. I am trying to use up some scrap paper, no better way than to make cards. I also want to use my new Copic Markers!! Love Them!

The middle of this card is a sticker I had left over and the bottom shamrock is colored with Copics an cut out. I used pop dots for some dimension although you can't see it.

Another Shamrock that I colored with my Copics. Used the Mini Monograms Cricut Cartridge and cut it out with my Cricut for the scalloped square behind the shamrock.

Used a sticker tag and mounted it on paper to pop it. Same colored shamrock cut out. Used pop dots to add dimension.

Here is my Favorite card. Since I got sick of using the only St. Patty's Day stamp I had I printed out a digi stamp (free coloring pages) and colored it with my Copic Markers. Isn't he awesome. Added some bling, and presto.

Happy St. Patty's Day....

a few Valentine's

Here are a few cards I made for Valentine's Day.

I am totally into Owls.....

This one is my new stamp from Stampin' Up!!! So cute. I placed my first order for some Stampin' Up and got my stuff in! yesterday!! Whoo Hoo! I also bought my first set of Copic Markers. I love them. I am sad I waited so long. They are so nice to blend colors. I am not really sure what I am doing but it is so fun anyway. I also used my new Cricut Cartridge Mini Monograms to make the scalloped pieces behind the stamps to add dimension.

Happy Valentine's day.

2 new cards

Here is a card I did for my daughter's B-day. She already opened it so it is smudgy. I used the Hannah Montana guitar (thanks Jen!) file I got from a friend. I used Wild Card cartridge for the "Wish" using my Cricut. I punched the stars using my Fiskars punches.

Here is a "puppy" card I did for my Niece's Birthday. She is 3 and LOVES puppies. I found this one and made it in SCAL. It was on Mardenz blog. I had some heart puppy paper in my scraps. You probably can't tell by the photo but I glittered the Happy Birthday that I stamped.

I found this cute saying in a stamp, I couldn't resist for the inside of the card. I also used my Fiskars punch for the bottom of the card.

New WordBook

I made a word book for my niece's birthday. I found some new chip board at JoAnn's. I used my Cricut and the deep housing and blade to cut the chip board. I used SCAL to design. It actually went pretty smooth. I was nervous on cutting the board it is pretty thick. I may scale down the thickness next time I get some. I didn't want to wreck my bug.

This is the last second last page "g". She loves puppies so I put a dog face on it.

Here is "i"

this is the back of the "a" page and the front of "i"

Here is back o "P" and front of "a". She is turning 3.

Front of book. I used my Bind it all for the binding and tied ribbons and made a cute dragonfly to embellish the page. Dragonfly came from the DoodleCharms cart. I used Plantin SchoolBook for all the photo mats.

Let me know what ya think!

Tootles...

Create Memories

I scrapped today. I did a layout which I haven't done in awhile. Need to get my butt in gear. Anyway I was in a fall mood so I did this picture of Em and Joe. Too Cute. I cut out the border with SCAL and I found the geese die cuts at a store. The bracket frame was cut with my Cricut using SCAL also. Simple and neat. I like how it turned out.

Saturday's Project

Here are 2 pictures from my last post about inspirational sayings. I did these 2 with my Cricut cutting the chocolate vinyl. I used SCAL for the font.

Saturdays project is the Countdown to Christmas Calendar from the Splitcoast Stampers website. I love how it turned out.
I used clear embossing powder, UV, on all of the numbers and the "day's til Christmas" title. If I do it again I will not emboss all the number, way to time consuming.
I have to add the ribbon to hang yet, but that is minimal. All of the little tins open up to put treats or little prizes in. I will find something in 3's for each of the kids to have when we open it up. I will be visiting the dollar store! To get directions to make go to this address: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/advent_calendar/

Let me know what ya think!

Shell

Friday's Weigh in results

So I lost 2.8 lbs according to my calculations which brings my total weight lost to 6.2 lbs!! Not bad for 6 weeks. I wish it were more but I am happy it isn't a gain. All the little pounds add up. This week we are supposed to talk to ourselves! I am worth it. I want to be healthy. I am proud of myself.

I made some inspirational sayings around the house this week with my cricut cutting vinyl. I put up You Create the very Best You, Kindness starts with me, Live Life beautifully. I will take pictures and post soon. I scraplifted the sayings from my exercise phenom Stacy! It totally fits with this weeks homework.

Thanks for stopping by.

Shell

Check in from Friday's Weigh In

Well things didn't go good. I gained +. 4 pounds. Yes I know it isn't much but I was really giving it my all this past week. I ate good and I exercised my butt off. I was exhausted. So needless to say I was upset to think that I gained this week. I am not going to fall off the wagon. I am going to stay positive and hope for a big loss next week. :O(

For the fun stuff:

I went to my first crop Saturday with my friend Jenny. It was so fun. It was by Creative Memories. I won 3 prizes and got a bunch of layouts done. I will photograph them and show to you soon. I have a few to finish up with my Cricut since I wasn't going to haul it. It was nice to scrap without interruptions. It was for 8 hours of scrappin fun!!

Tootles!

Ps. I made a eatbetteramerica recipe for beef stew in the slow cooker and a shrimp dish and they were delish for the weekend meals. Check out the website: eatbetteramerica.com. (courtesy of my life coach/exercise phenom Stacy Summers.)

I made some Christmas gift tags and I decorated a chipboard box to hold them and keep them organized. I love hand made gift tags but, what do you do with them? I put some pretty Christmassy paper on this box. I cut it out after I measured it with SCAL in the corresponding shapes. I glued it all on. It was my first one so I could have glued better. (sometimes pictures don't do justice.) I sanded the sides for a distressed look on the black. I cut out the tags using my cricut Doodlecharms cart for the Santa, and Plantin Schoolbook for the tags. I used stickles for the bling.

Uh Oh

A layout I did using my new fiskars circle/shape cutter. I cut out the photos with the oval stencil. I used plantin school book cartridge for the font, and cut it with my Cricut. I added a prima flower and made the oval frame with SCAL(sure cuts a lot) software. I added my new rain dots on the frame for a little extra bling.

Wedding Card-Scrap Post

I made a wedding card today for a wedding we are attending tonight. I think it turned out nice. I used my cricut, wild card cartridge, my cuttlebug for embossing the cake. I stamped the saying on the inside too.

Back to School and a bit of Everything

Here is one more layout I did from Emillies First Birthday. I used SCAL and my Cricut for the font.

I got my first Cantaloupe and squash out of the garden. I can't wait to eat the Cantaloupe. We had some more Sweet Corn for supper on Sunday night too. It was great.

First day of school. Emillie is in 3rd grade and Lucas is in 2nd. Nick just wanted to be in the photo. Can't believe it was 39 degrees Monday morning. Yikes!! Gardening season is almost over.

I got Sure Cuts A Lot for my Cricut!!!

Due to the borrowing of Matt and his laptop I was able up re-update my firmware on my Cricut in order for me to purchase and download Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL) software. Now I shouldn't have to buy anymore font Cricut Cartridges. Yea!! or too many shape Cartridges since I can find most SVG files for FREE online. double YEA! YEA! (if you don't know or care what that is bear with me.)

I did some scrapping tonight since I feel caught up with the garden harvest for the most part. Although I think I heard the Sweet Corn calling me earlier this evening saying we need to get picked lady. At least some more of them do.. That is another day.

I have been dying to find anything wrestling for Lucas' wrestling photos. So Em and I went to Endless Creations on Saturday and found some paper and stickers and in the team colors too!

Nothing fancy just printed journaling on my PC and used matting and stickers. I think it is a good one.

This one I love too. More Stickers and I did a rub-on for the "Pin'Em" embellishment.

This is the one I use SCAL on for the First Time, pause for a moment with me..... The balloons I downloaded an svg. file and same for the font on the 1 yr. I outlined the balloons with my Prisma black pencil to try and give it more depth, (I need to get better at that.) There isn't too much on this one but it coordinates with her other 1st birthday layout. I think it turned out nice and you can shadow any font in SCAL. Cool Huh!?!

Let me know what you think.

A couple of Scrap Layouts

I managed to squeak in a couple of layouts too on Friday.

One is of Emillie's First Thanksgiving. I cut the turkey out with my Cricut using the Doodlecharms cart and the font is Lyrical letters with my Cricut. The second one is of Emillie's first Christmas. I used We R Memory Keepers stickers and Lyrical Letter Cart with my Cricut. I think they turned out nice. Let me know what you think.

:o)

A few new layouts today

It was a rainy day today finally we needed it. It also gave me a few opportunities to scrap. :o)

The font was Lyrical Letters and the bird is Wild Card Cart done with my Cricut. The paper is DCWV Stack 6.

No Cricut with this one but it is sure cute. I use a vellum quote and K&Company stickers.

This one I think is my favorite so far. I used K&Company paper, a Martha Stewart scallop punch for the boarder. I think it turned out nice.

I used my new cart Printing 101 with my Cricut for the font and Plantin Schoolbook for the tag, DCWV Stack 6 for the pattern paper.

I also picked 3 big zucchini's from the garden today and the tomatoes and sweet corn grew even taller. I am going to measure them with a ruler to see how high they really are. CRAZY...

Thanks to my Bro Matt for coming over to update my firmware in my Cricut. Yea! Now I need to get SCAL software (sure cuts a lot) I can't wait.

Take care!

2 new layouts

Here are 2 layouts I did the last couple days. I had so much fun at our BBQ/Crop with friends on Saturday.

This one I did with Lyrical Letters Cricut Cartridge in the Jumbo setting. The squares are cut out of Plantin Schoolbook Cart.

This one I did at our crop over the weekend using Jen's Cuttin Up Cricut cartridge for the font; and DoodleCharms for the ducky's. We had such a good time I can't wait for the next one.