It's Too Cold. It's Too Hot.

I wish the weather would make up it's mind. Last Thursday (4 days ago) it was snowing like crazy and freezing cold. The weekend was perfect, it was so beautiful. Today it got up to 90 degrees!! What is going on?? I personally thought it was way too hot today and I really am not ready for summer (even though that phrase came out of my mouth everyday during the winter). I think if it were between 60 and 70 degrees year round, I'd be happy!! However that is far from what happens in Pa! Then as I attempted to turn on the AC on in my car, it didn't get cool. So, right up to the mechanic it went because 'I don't do no air conditioning'!! And of course, it can't be a simple belt or something fairly cheap, it's the compressor. And that costs $550. Yeah.

As I was lounging around yesterday trying to get better for the up coming week, I caught a marathon of the show 'sweat equity' on DIY. It got me so motivated (after about 8 shows) to get something done in the house. So we made an incredibly impulsive trip to Walmart on an unbelievably small budget and I decided to paint and redo Mason's room. He picked the paint and the theme (SpongeBob, if you can't tell!!) and while he was at school I was going to get the room done. Thankfully, Jason got home from work early because I would have never gotten all of it done by 3:30. Jason also came up with the 'bubbles on the wall' idea and I thought they turned out awesome! I just cut sponges in a circle in two different sizes and then just stamped them at random. Mason has a very, very small room, so I didn't want to clutter it with any extra stuff, so I worked with what we had. I painted this brown dresser in SpongeBob colors, I won't even tell you where I got this dresser (ok, yes, I will, someone was throwing it away and we (I mean Jason) picked it up and we sped off!! But I have gotten so much use out of it and it is very durable, so I am happy that we have it.). But enough rambling, here are the pictures:





I got a plain corkboard and just spray painted it the same color as the dresser drawers:



So, I don't know how long Mason will be into the whole SpongeBob thing, but the room is here to stay for awhile! I like it and the look on his face when he saw it made the whole day worth while. Even though painting in 90 degree weather is not my thing!

Ugggg...Sick Again.

I hate to feel any kind of sickness and this is twice in about a month. I am achy and have a sore throat. I'm trying to fight off the cough, I think that is the worst, the coughing that feels so uncontrollable and it hurts so bad. So, I have been lounging around even though I have a ton of things to do. Jason has been a great 'caretaker', (perhaps I'm milking it a little??) he's made me toast and hot tea and gotten me anything I need from the store (even my favorite scrapbook magazine!). Hopefully this will end soon (the cold/sickness thingy, not Jason waiting on me hand and foot!!).

I made this mini book for Mason's student teacher who was leaving last week. I had all the kids write a nice thing about her and then I placed them all together in this book. I don't know where I got this small scrapbook, I found it lying around in one of the many boxes in my scrap room, but it was perfect for this project! It also had a price tag on it for $1! Can't beat that. See, I always buy cheap things because I might need them for something later!! I used crackle paint on the front and back and then distress inked it. There were a total of about 10 pages. Some of the kids wrote on both sides of the paper which posed a challenge. So for those I cut a transparency to fit and then just put them between the regular pages and there you have it, you can see both sides!! I actually think that it made it look better, it gave it more interest. The student teacher really liked it!





I love to make things for Mason's teachers (Christmas gifts, Easter, last day of school type things) and so far Mason has had all women teachers. In 4th grade there is a male teacher--WHAT am I going to do??? I really can't make him a flower pot or a cookie sheet calendar! I guess I'll have to cross that bridge when I get to it, but really, that's not going to be any fun!

Here is a little tin cup that I got at the flea market last week. I painted it and added some pearls and glued the little tag on it. I had these beautiful Hyacinths growing outside and they are so top heavy that they both snapped at the bottom. So, I brought them inside and put them up in my room and the smell was amazing! This has to be my favorite flower.

[Happy Earth Day!]

I plan to see the Earth movie this weekend, it's going to be amazing. I love those little nature/documentary films. It should be a good time. I am hoping I can get all of our company this weekend to join us on Friday night. Sounds like fun to me!

I wanted to update on the story of Apollo, the missing dog whose owner was in a tragic accident and died. After a long week they found Apollo alive and well (a porcupine needle in his nose and walking with a limp, but still overall pretty healthy). It made my day when I heard the news on Monday. People as far as Maryland were searching for him. I am am very thankful for all the volunteers who spent their days searching for him. A happy ending to a very sad story.

Well, I'm off to get some cleaning done. I made a mini scrapbook for Mason's student teacher. Today is her last day and the kids really liked her, so I had them all write down something special for her on a small piece of paper and then I put them all together in a book. I'll post the pics as soon as I upload them to the computer!

/Weekend Of Awesomeness/

This weekend I planned to go to my local scrap shop because they were having their 'supply switcharoo', AKA 'the yard sale of awesomeness'! Customers buy a space on the table for $5 and then sell all their old scrap stuff for rock bottom prices. There were 21 vendors this time, the most ever. It was great, you have to get in early to get the best stuff and as the 9am hour rolls up it gets so crowded you can hardly move! I got some really great stuff. A woman must have been clearing out all of her 7 gypsies stuff because I grabbed a ton of it. I love 7 gypsies product, but it is hard to find in the stores here. So, long story short, I got a lot of high quality scrapbooking items for $34!! I was so excited to come home and go through all of it!

Then this morning we got up bright and early to go to the flea market. There were not as many vendors as years past, but it still was a good time. I always like to find old things (stamps, books, etc.) that are interesting to look at or to use in a crafty way. I also hate when the vendors think that because it is old, it should be expensive! I was pleasantly surprised to find a lot of really cool old items for very cheap. I found these old matchbook covers of some local places, as well as some from far away. Some still had the matches in them!! I also found some old photographs, small calendars from the early to mid 1900's, thread on wooden spools, and just an assortment of things from back in the day, you know, when they made things to last. Here are a few of my favorites:





Then there was an estate sale auctioneer there that was selling everything for $1. I so wish I would have gone to that one first, but oh well! I did, however, get a nice wooden box that contained a wok, I really just wanted the box, so I took the wok out.



Funny, huh?? A cat in a wok box!


I also got a nice tray, upon closer inspection, I think I am going to leave it as is. Just clean it up a bit because it is very sturdy and would make a nice plant stand or something!



Finally these trays with this cool bicycle poster on them:



I hope it doesn't say anything strange on them! I did take French, but I can't read that!! So, in my efforts to simplify my life, I just bring more clutter!! But I will be able to use all of it (so I keep telling myself!)

.Sometimes Things Don't Make Sense.

*Warning: This post is going to be deep.

I know that life is a game of faith, chance, and uncertainty, but some recent local events have really made me think. The first one happened about 2 weeks ago. A man went into a local Subway restaurant and killed a 19 year old high school student who had his whole life ahead of him. He then shot another employee and fled the scene. After leaving the Subway, he shot and killed a 64 year old man who was just out getting his mail. For the whole story, click here. Imagine going to work or simply going to get your mail and never seeing another day. I can't seem to wrap my head around all this senseless crime. This next story is just heartbreaking. On Monday, a 23 year old Marine was traveling back to North Carolina after visiting his family for Easter. He was in a horrible car accident that took his life the following day. This is a person who served two overseas deployments and was an outstanding Marine and a car crash ends his life. It doesn't end there. He had his dog with him and the dog survived the car crash, but is now missing. Volunteers have been out searching for him and he has been spotted, but no one can catch him. This is the only thing the family has to hold onto. It just breaks my heart to think how scared this poor dog is. Click here for the whole story.

I guess you just never know when your time is up. I guess the saying,"Live life to the fullest" is pretty accurate. Love the ones you're with and don't take anything for granted.

Sorry about the Debbie Downer post, but it made me feel better!

---->Yummy<----

I bought a bag of 15 bean soup the other day and as soon as my big batch of veggie soup was gone (I'm convinced it helped me get over my cold sooner!) I planned on making this. Too bad I didn't think of this last night, to soak the beans, but it only (only!) takes 8 hours for them to soak. So, they are soaking right now and at around 4 o'clock I'm going to start boiling the beans. The recipe on the bag calls for '1 1/4 pound ham hock' D.I.S.G.U.S.T.I.N.G!! Even if I ate meat, how appetizing does a 'ham hock' sound?? What the heck is a ham hock, anyway??** I really don't want to know. Anyway, the seasoning packet that came with it was ham flavored, but there was nothing listed in the ingredients that made it non-vegetarian, but I simply could not have a ham flavored soup, I think that would make me sick! I'm going to throw in some tomatoes, onions, garlic, peppers (green and hot), carrots, celery and corn. I'm thinking of adding some diced potatoes, but I don't know if that would make it too starchy. I also have some soup seasoning to give it more flavor. Yummy!

Here are a couple more of those t-shirts that I found hilarious!






OH YEAH!! TONIGHT @ 9pm!!



**I am SO sorry that I googled ham hock, BTW.

(Un)Happy Tax Day!

I really don't fret too much about tax day, however, I also don't deal with half of the ridiculous tax stuff my parents have to deal with. It's unbelievable the stuff you have to deal with when you own companies the size that they do.

I was working on this today, and I have to say, I was not expecting it to turn out as well as it did! I love to just have a small idea in my head and then just let the creativeness flow! I did all of this on some scrap cardboard that I kept from an item that I bought on eBay awhile ago.



I used a ton of Tim Holtz product, Prima Flowers, buttons that were sewn on, chipboard, grungeboard, stamped butterfly on vintage paper (a book from 1945!), crystals and just some scraps here and there.

I was bored today, so I clicked on an advertisement on myspace and found these t-shirt:

When Milk Goes Bad:



Let's Go Eat Some Pie:




And, of course, an animal rights message:



There were quite a few that were really funny, so I'll post some more in the future.

Ghost Hunters TONIGHT!! And then on Friday Prison Break starts up again (the final 5 episodes!!) I love that show, I'm going to really miss it once it's over, but really, how much more can they really do?

*Plumbing & Ranting & Stamping, Oh My*

I have discovered what I want to be when I grow up. A plumber. It may not be the most glamorous job, but it sure does pay well (here's plan B: I have Jason become a plumber, yeah.... that's now plan A). Anyway, we had a little issue with the kitchen sink/dishwasher/washing machine pipes. We thought it was a clog, so we used the Drain-O Max stuff for kitchens without success. I made a little call to Roto Rooter (this was at 6pm, after hours) and I was hoping that they would send these guys out:




But all I got was a quote for $235 JUST TO RING THE DOORBELL!! No thanks! So, I found a local plumber that will kindly only charge me $90 to make the house call! Unbelievable. Not saying that plumbers don't earn their money, but WOW, is that ever a steep price to pay (and it's not even a big job!).

Next up is just a little pointless ranting, but it drives me CRAZY when people are parked right next to (I mean literally RIGHT next to) a cart return and they leave their cart in the parking spot, then drive away and make it someone else's problem. How lazy can a person be? I can totally understand if it's a person with a disability or maybe there is not a cart return in sight, or extremely bad weather, but give me a break. Take that extra two seconds of your day to place the cart where it goes. I'm done, yes, I feel better!

Here is another project that I did using the wonderful butterfly stamps that I bought:

This is the before (I got this at the thrift store for .79):



I love butterfly displays (without the cruelty!):



I stamped the butterfly and then used clear/glittery embossing power and I love how it turned out! Then I just kept adding the crystals until I thought it looked complete! That's all for now!

[[Happy Easter]]

I wish that I could decorate eggs like that! I had a teacher in 9th grade that brought in all the supplies to make these beautiful eggs (she was amazing at it) and attempted to teach us. She made it seem so easy, obviously she had years of experience. I tried and it was a horrible mess! I would love to retry this art because the designs are breathtaking.

On a much smaller scale than the Ukrainian eggs, I picked up a package of the Star Wars egg dying kit! Very classy! However, the eggs turned out pretty:



The Star Wars kit included a nice little decorative 'ship' (I have NO idea what it was called, I am very far from a Star Wars fan), but surprise, surprise, it didn't stick to the egg. So when life gives you an unsticky Star Wars decoration, take it and run with it:




The Easter Bunny made an appearance! Here is Mason's Easter basket








We are going to the movies this afternoon to see Hotel For Dogs, I can't wait! It was a toss up between that and Paul Blart Mall Cop, which i think I'll wait until that one comes out on DVD to see, I think Kevin James is so hilarious!

Happy Easter!

*Time To Stamp*

Just FYI, I am on this 'no caffeine' kick right now and I would do just about anything for a diet mountain dew right now, just thought I would put that out there.

Now back to the original post. I went to Michael's today to pick up some stamping items and discovered a whole new untapped area of the craft store! I have to admit, no matter how hard I try, I can't find wooden block stamps that I like. But the clear stamps are a whole different story. I have quite a few of the clear letter stamps, but that's about it. From Tim Holtz to Marta Stewart to the cheapie dollar ones, I see potential in all of them. Then I got my bag full of goodies and as soon as I got home, I got to work. I made some cards for Easter (yes, it is late!) and some just to say 'hi'. Here they are:

This first one I stamped the butterfly then chalked it, inked it and topped it off with some Tim Holtz crackle finish sewed some buttons on, pulled it all together and called it a day!



This one here I printed out a bunny picture and then chalked the bunny, used Tim Holtz crackle paint on the egg, distressed it a little and came up with this:



This one is so simple, all I did was stamp the bird and added stamped letters to textured cardstock and put it on decorative edged paper cut to fit the card and here it is:




Ok, this next one, I LOVE! I just thought it was so cute and funny! Ready?
Here's to all my Peeps:







Like it??!

I am hoping to get a post in on Sunday, if not have a wonderful Easter, everyone!

.Funny.

Ok, here is the item that I bought at the Goodwill today:



I was walking down the aisle and this caught my eye (I wonder why), it's not everyday that you see something like this at the thrift store! I picked it up to get a closer look (I thought for sure this was an art project gone wrong) and on the bottom was :

'Bowl of Matzo Ball Soup'
Retail: $64.95
Sale: $44.95

WHO, I mean WHO, would pay $65 or even $45 dollars for this thing!! So, in a moment of a cross between, "WOW" and "I wonder if I could sell this on eBay", I decided to buy it, I mean it was only two bucks! So, I did some research on the manufacturer (Jeremy's Place, NYC) and discovered a plethora of fake food!! It was certainly good for a laugh! My friend Amber is dating a Jewish guy, so I think that I am going to pass this along, as I think they will both get a kick out of it.

I made some more planters. I am going to give them as Easter gifts with pretty Spring flowers in them. The one's below are going to Mason's teacher and Sandy, the owner of the scrapbook store that I love and who is SO generous with all her goodies! I haven't been there in a while, so I miss talking to her and I think that she will like it!

I'm feeling a bit under the weather today. I managed to NOT get sick while Jason and Mason were, but sure enough, I caught it. So, I made a big batch of veggie soup and I am getting ready to make some hot tea and then relax. While checking some of my favorite sites I found this:



I just love the LOL cats!

Then I was flipping through this food blog and found these:






source

I thought that was too funny! I also have a really funny story (ok, I think it is, anyway) about an item I bought at the Goodwill this morning, but I want to get a picture of it first.

Next up, you have to check out this link, her cards are AMAZING! She's also giving away a pretty nifty prize, too! That's all I've got. I'm going to snuggle up on the couch with some hot tea and catch The People's Court!

Crazy Saturday.

I had a lot to do today. Today is my Mom's and Amber's birthday. I made my Mom yellow cake with chocolate icing (in cupcake form) and I also got her this really cool old wooden tool box that was painted and I filled it with flowers. I went to the Craft Fair today and I got her a really pretty stained glass mirror. I think that she'll like it. I also made her this card, but after about 100 pictures I still couldn't get a good one (did I mention that I need a new camera?), but here it is anyway:



It looks really nice in person! For some reason my camera doesn't like everyone to see what things really look like, but whatever.

Back to the craft fair. I was hoping for more, but it seems that all people sell are those country crafts (stars, bears, candles, etc.), plastic canvas (WHO buys that??) and jewelry (it's really nice handmade jewelry, but nothing unique). It's the same old, same old. I was hoping for something interesting that would make me really WANT to buy it. Nope. Even the stained glass mirror that I bought my Mom, I could have made, I used to do the stained glass/tile stuff all the time. I guess that I was just disappointed that there wasn't more unique items to look at. On top of all the stuff that I had planned for the day, I found a yard sale ad in the paper and thought that I could swing that, too. So at 8am Mason and I got up and ventured over to the yard sale. It was freezing outside. However, a true junk freak like myself can tough it out. It wasn't that great, but I did pick up a few items to alter and also a brand new pizza slicer for .25!

Now onto the rest of the day. Mason had swimming lessons this morning and then went to his friend Cody's house for an Easter party. It was a lot of fun, a ton of kids were there and Cody's parents hid 1000 plastic eggs in the woods for them to find! How crazy is that, 1000 eggs!! It was really chilly and windy, but other than that it was a lot of fun. Here is my favorite picture of the day:



The picture just looks so peaceful and the view from their house was amazing. It kind of made me miss the old days of living in the country (only for a few short minutes, though!).

I ended up buying some more of those planters that I showed in a former post, I plan on altering them and giving them as Easter flower planters, here's one:



While cleaning out the game closet a while ago I found this old piece of really hard cardboard that was apparently used to separate game pieces (I have no idea what game it came from) but it was in such good condition, I decided to keep it.




Then I painted it, distressed it, inked it and added some tiny pieces of stained glass and framed a painting of Van Gogh's from a book that I have:




That's all I've got right now, I am going to enjoy the rest of my afternoon, eat Subway for dinner and then upstairs to my scrap room and get some stuff done! Oh, and don't forget COPS and America's Most Wanted!

[Was I Ever Bummed Out]

Last night I watched the final episode of ER. I purposely didn't google any info on the last episode or watch any entertainment news about it because I thought for sure that the show was going to go out with a 'bang'. I didn't want to read any spoilers. Even though I had not caught the show in years, I used to be an avid watcher back in the day. The commercials said that all the 'crew' would be there for the final episode. So, even though this ran well into my bedtime, I fought through it so that I could see George Clooney. I waited and waited and waited. At around 10:50 I was starting to think that I wasn't going to see Dr. Doug Ross. I was right. The episode was good, don't get me wrong, but it just didn't 'feel' like it was over. It just seemed like another weekly show that I used to watch. Now, I don't know what George Clooney is up to nowadays, but surely he could have made an appearance on a show that he had such a huge part in. Oh well.