Just for You

Hello! Happy Monday:)  Just got home from a great family vacation in Keystone, CO.  We had a great time but boy was it cold.  My ski-loving son and husband didn't seem to mind, though!  It might take me a few days to thaw!

Here is a cute greeting using My Favorite Things Friends Forever:

I cannot wait to make some more cards with this set....but first, to the grocery store:)

Thanks for stopping by!
Cammie

Where you been??

Hello!  Yep--I have been away. My husband and I spent 6 lovely days in Cabo and it was such a great reprieve from the cold winter weather.  We enjoyed every minute.  

Thank you so much for the lovely comments from the Gina K hop.  I know a few people have sent me emails or asked questions and I will get to them asap. 

In the meantime, here are a few pictures from our trip.  The first is our view from our hotel:

This picture is from our night "whale watching cruise" (no whales sighted):

From same cruise--(just before the rocking of the boat made me ill :(

As soon as we got back, my son had his final games of his basketball season and I made the coaches' gifts from the team.  I used some SRM stickers to create the card that houses the gift card for each coach.  In addition, I used some SRM stickers (basketball, 4, [2013]) to jazz up the team photo that we presented with the gift. 

I hope you all had a great week!  I will be back soon with some projects to share!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

For the Run of It

This is a non-craft related post so if you don't want to hear my blabbering....just skip over it :)  

Today, I participated in my first 5K race in about 3 years.   I used to race a lot before my last two children were born (competing often in 5Ks, 10Ks, 10 mile races and even a marathon).  My husband and I would compete with each other to see who could win the most medals!  But, I stopped running a lot when life got so busy with numerous military moves and lack of energy and drive----what I assume I can attribute to an autoimmune disease (Hashimoto's Thyroiditis) that zapped me of my energy to run consistently.

In May, after years of battling chronic fatigue and a goiter, I was sent to an endocrinologist who put me on medication after the blood tests confirmed that my thyroid was attacking itself.  By my symptoms and visible appearance, she presumed that my thyroid has been sluggish or ineffective for years. 

After a just a month of medication, I had lost some of the unexplainable weight gain (particularly in my neck and face) and felt so much better.  With the increase of energy, I could run a lot more regularly (like the good ole days)!  And....I realized how much I missed it.  Running had become mundane and I really tried to find excuses to go to the gym or hit the sidewalks.  Feeling exhausted so often made me dread my workout days.  Not anymore...I cherish my runs and love the time to myself to unwind and just think about things.   Some days I run fast, some days I run slower...but the important thing is that I run.

A few weeks ago, I decided to register for a 5K race to keep me motivated.  That race was this morning.

I was super lucky---the weather here has been crazy lately but this morning it was beautiful---the sun was shining and at race start it was 78 degrees.  (Perfect!)

Before I left, I insisted that my husband and kids NOT come to the race. It was only a mile away but I really did not want to have any pressure to do well and if I did have to stop or ran slower than I usually did....I didn't want to disappoint anyone but myself.   It was too long since I had done this so I didn't know what to expect.

Well, he ended up bringing my two youngest (the oldest is spending the week with her dad.) I didn't know they were there until after I ran through the finish line.  It was so fun to have them see me doing something that was such a big part of my life before they were born.  And, they were pretty impressed to see their mom in a race.  They didn't care how fast or slow I was...just loved seeing me do it!

My son (a TOTAL details person) ran up to me and said "Mom, you were the fourth woman and the 20th finisher overall.....I counted!" Ha!  He expressed an interest in trying to run a race soon as well :)

Although, the race field was not super competitive or large,  it was good enough for me.  I was thrilled with my finish* and was just happy to finish feeling good.

Here is my medal---2nd place in Female 31-40 age group. (Yep, even though I finished 4th overall for women, the third place finisher was also in my age group...drats! )  I am really proud of this one because I could not have done this just a few months ago.

After the race.  (Thank goodness this is not a scratch-and-sniff picture! SWEATY!)

 

*For my running friends out there, here are my official race details.

Finish time:  23:35 (7:35 min/mile pace) ; 4th place female overall; 20/150 overall finish; 2nd place female 31-40 age group.

Off to put my feet up for awhile and watch some Olympics!  Thanks for stopping by!

Aloha!

We have just returned from an 11 day Hawaiian adventure.  It was so wonderful to take my kids to see all the beautiful sites of Hawaii.  We stayed on the Big Island for 5 days and then headed to Maui for the final part of our trip.  We took lots of hikes, walked the Volcanoes National Park, ziplined in Maui, went snorkeling, went to a luau, toured Mac nut farms, saw waterfalls, black sand beaches, mountains and spent a lot of time in the pools and beaches.
We all had a blast--and we are taking our time adjusting back to east coast time :) Luckily, it is the summer so we have some flexibility to do so.

So, while I do not have project to share today...I did want to share a picture from our trip:

 

This was taken on the Big island at a luau.  The kids loved it.  The fire thrower was an especially good one so they were all enthralled with his performance.

I am working to get caught up on laundry, house work, etc.  We are throwing my daughter a sweet 16 party this weekend and then I will be back to share some projects with you :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Baby Ensemble

Hello!  My husband and I left yesterday and are now in San Diego enjoying a quick vacation. My parents are watching the kiddos :) Wishing them lots of luck as this was one of the last little stunts my teenager hit me with before leaving:

Yes. That is my refrigerator. I am sure she wasn't talking about me----Sigh!

Just popping in to share that I have a project on the SRM Stickers blog.  Here is a peek at it but you are gonna have to head on over there to see the details and more pictures :)

ETA:  The animals were cut using my Silhouette and some Lori Whitlock animal files! Adorable:) 

Thanks for stopping by!

Thought I "wood" share.....

Hello!  Just wanted to share this little project I made for my daughter, Lauren.  I purchased some wood from Lowe's and made a bed for her American girl doll.   I made the pillow (Laura Ashley fabric) and used an old lace pillowcase to create a sheet for it.   Just thought I "wood" share :P

 And yes, my paper crafting supplies came in handy even when making this wood crafting project.  After I made the bed, I used some Helmar 450 Quick Dry to adhere some lace along the edge of the bed.  Just thought it added a little "pretty, dainty" to the bed.  Lauren loves it.  She could hardly wait for me to finish taking the picture so she could steal it away. Success!

Thanks for stopping by!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Hello! Today I am signing off for a bit---my kids will be off from school all next week and we will be celebrating the holidays with family and friends. I always try to take this week off to just enjoy the holidays!
Here is a quick Christmas card I created using Bella Blvd paper and Helmar Quick-Fix Adhesive Runner:

And....here is the fleece owl tooth fairy pillow I made for my youngest (I mentioned it in my previous post.) The front section is a pocket that she can put her tooth in and put it on her pillow. (REALLY hoping this helps the tooth fairy in instances where she cannot find the stinkin tooth under the pillow. Just thinking that probably happens often. Not sure!) Again, I used the My Favorite Things Hearts a Plenty die to cut out the heart:

Most of all----Wishing you a very Merry Christmas from my family to yours!!! >

...and....we cannot forget the new addition to our family, Timmy! (Timmy is actually a Tammy---we just found out at a recent trip to the vet but we haven't decided on a new name yet so poor Tammy is still being called Timmy!)

I hope your holidays are wonderful. Enjoy the time with family and friends. I will see you back here in January---LOTS of fun things planned and might even add some video tutorials to the mix this year!!!

Happy New Year!
Thanks for stopping by!

Witch Hat (times 2!)

All finished! Lauren finished up her witch's hat this morning so we took pictures of them and here they are:
Here is my hat: I painted the hat with black paint and then covered the rim with patterned paper from Echo Park Paper- the Apothecary Emporium. I added some folded paper around the rim and then attached a strip of patterned paper around the cone part and used a label, with a fan behind it. I added some bling on the label, some ribbon and glitter. I layered another label behind it for a shadow effect.

Here is Lauren's Hat (It is pretty tall with all the fun stuff she shoved in the top of it. lol!)

I think she did a great job. Her hat is sitting in the middle of our kitchen island. I love that she picked this project. So fun!

Thanks for stopping by!

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Hi! Life has been going too fast these days. We are in week three of school and the kids are doing well. Activities and sports are picking up and we are pretty busy running around. Lauren is in afternoon kindergarten so she is my sidekick for most of the day. Today we had to run to Michael's to pick up a plain white tee shirt for school and we saw these paper machie witch hats. Lauren was adamant that we get one to decorate.....then, she paused and said,
"Well, you better get me one and you one because I want to do mine myself." Love that!

We worked on them today and I will hopefully get a picture of them tomorrow and post them. Mine is already finished and Lauren assured me (gently) that hers was going to be waayyy better! I love that she loves doing this stuff. Not really sure what we will do with two decorated witch hats......but we are having fun!!

Thanks for stopping by!

A Hill Makeover

Hello! Hope you had a great weekend. We are keeping all those who are recovering from the effects of the hurricane in our prayers. We did not even get a drop of rain...a little too far from the coast.

For those of you who are interested, here are the hill pictures I promised. Last week we embarked on the huge job of transforming the gigantic hill in our background. This is what the backyard looked like when we looked at the house to buy it (March): By the time we moved in (June), the hill had weeds covering it. The weeds were all grown over tarp so the first job (and the worst job) was removing the weeds, dirt AND tarp.

We spent last week figuring out what we wanted to do with the hill and shopping for supplies. We re-weeded the hill and then planted juniper (to hopefully spread and cover the hill in the next few years), heather and a few bushes.

My husband installed the steps and the small wall that will be a large planting area....eventually. That area that has the steps is terraced so we will put a bench there for a sitting area.

Right now our main priority was to get the hill cleaned up, planted and mulched. We will finish up the cosmetic stuff (bench, the addition of two bushes at the top of the steps to hide top supports, etc. in a few weeks.

But for now.....we are taking a little break. It was a lot of hard work to haul mulch up the hill in a wheelbarrow 70 gazillion times and I need time to forget :) !

ETA: (after a question about it!) We have a small yard with a stone patio right outside our back door. Then this hill. There are stone steps on the right side of the hill (which are not pictured but I will include when we finish up the hill.) Those steps go up to the second part of our yard....which has the playgrounds, fort, basketball, etc. There are woods behind that.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Fond Farewell....

It is time....

Time to say goodbye (at least for awhile).
My family is gearing up for our LAST move...we will be all packed and ready to go by the end of the month and so I need to put the craft stuff away and close down the blog for awhile. There are so many emotions right now.....

I *think* I will be back. I cannot imagine my life without making some sort of paper crafting project. But...I have no idea in what capacity that will be yet.
The next few months will give me the time to get situated, spend time with my family and get the kids settled in their new home and life. It will also give me time to reflect on where I want this to go...if anywhere.

Right now, I am excited about the lack of pressure and deadlines. I am excited to have nothing I HAVE to do. I am excited to be removed from the cattiness that has marred some of the joy I once felt to just create.

I am also excited about THIS----->
Three years ago my first card was published. I will NEVER forget the joy and sense of accomplishment I felt when getting that email while on vacation.

This month the new Card Creations Magazine goes on sale and I am DELIGHTED that one of my cards was chosen for the cover. It is the "Missing You" map card on the bottom right. I have only had one other card on a magazine cover before and it was itty bitty so this is special. I am sure I will frame it. Yep.......this is the perfect place to stop and take a breath.....

Thank you so much for all of your support and kindness over the years. I hope to be back.....if/when the time is right.

xo

Just breathe....

----> this was my advice to myself this week.

I do not like change. Never have and never will. So moving SIX times in almost 10 years of marriage was not the life I envisioned for myself. Don't get me wrong---being in the army has been a great experience. We have been so many places and met fabulous life-time friends along the way. But it has also been tough.

My husband and I just returned from a trip to Pennsylvania to buy a house.... A house that we plan to move into in just a little over two months and a house we plan to stay in for the foreseeable future. We had several days to accomplish our goal and actually put a bid on a house at one point that we both really liked and it was in the school district I really wanted my kids to be in. But, our bid ended up causing a bidding war between us an another couple who had put in a much lower bid a few days earlier.

At that point, they came back higher and we just walked. After all, there were a few things that made us reticent about the property. Going back to the drawing board after that excitement and after already putting in a contract late the previous night was not easy. We did have another house that I really liked but my husband was not as excited about at first. After another visit, he came around a bit. The only thing problem with it (in my mind) was that the two car garage was a tight fit. But everything else was perfect.

And....this is the house we eventually settled on. We are back home now and the reality of the move has set in. My kids flip from being excited to lamenting that "I have 50 friends here and none there and now I have to leave my 50 friends here." Although this made me laugh, it also made me painfully aware at how difficult the next few months will be.

Changing homes.

Changing states.

Changing climates.

Changing schools.

Leaving friends.

Leaving comfort.

We will get through it. We always do. After all....we all have each other AND we are moving close to my little sister, which will be so much fun to have family close by.

...just breathe!

Miss Me?

...you don't have to answer that!

Sorry for the lack of blogging---Life has been getting in the way this week:
1. My son had his first baseball tournament (two games on Saturday and one on Sunday)
2. My mother-in-law came for a visit
3. We found out last Wednesday that someone wanted to come see our house (from out of town) and were asked by our realtor if we could have it ready by Saturday
4. (In case #3 was confusing) We are moving and JUST put our house on the market (two weeks earlier than originally planned)
5. My son had a fever and was sick right after his Sunday game
6. We had two showings in the first two days our house was on the market
7. My son has been out of school since Monday so I am trying to keep him caught up at home (btw....Teachers do NOT earn enough money)
8. So....things have been busy :)

I did sneak in a little play time last week. (Just an hour or so in front of the TV). I HAD to play with the Little Girl line from Echo Park (esp. since I now have their newest lines sitting here.)

I have been wanting to scrap this special tradition that my youngest daughter and I had last year (when she was in pre-school). Here is a detail shot:
Here is the page-- Table for Two

These are pictures of my youngest enjoying our Friday ritual---- we would go play at the neighborhood park and then go to lunch at her favorite restaurant- McAllister's. It is the only time I ever saw her eat everything on her plate. It was our special time (because the rest of the weekend was spent taking her siblings to all their activities and social events.)

I miss those days and seriously consider pulling her out of kindergarten one Friday for one more trip :(

Anyway...sorry for the absence. I promise some super FUN things are coming. Things I am excited about and things YOU will be excited about too.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Back to neurotic cleaning :)

It was a No Good, Very Bad Day!

Hello! Hope you are enjoying your weekend.

Mine got off to a rocky start. Well, in the scheme of things...not a big deal. But the week was long and stressful and Friday .... well, read on!

As you know...we had our bathrooms scraped, re-textured and painted and some other repair work done. Well, we were really happy with the work and my husband asked the same crew to paint the top trim of our house.

HE picked the color (That is important to remember!)
I didn't like it, suggested another and he felt confident that his choice would work. I have been doing so much work on the inside of our home and was tired of making decisions so I relented (probably too easily!) and let him have his paint color. After all, it was JUST going to be on the top trim of the house.

My husband left for work on Friday and I was busy gutting my oldest daughter's room. I went outside at one point to move my car from the driveway and it was going well. The only paint I saw was on the top of the house.

I came out hours later to walk to the bus stop to get my kids and I almost fainted. Seriously.

While I like the coordinating color and the paint job....the only thing I can think of when i look at my house is that it looks like poo!

When my husband came home he was as surprised as I was. The more I looked at it the more it made me cry. (Not literally...I will go on record as not having shed one real tear on this mishap...not worth it.)

So, I figured I would share my poo colored house and story with you all just in case you need a laugh, a cry, or a "I am so glad that didn't happen to me" story.

Without further ado, I am proud to introduce my poo house to you: Jealous?

Here is a picture where you can see the color better (cause I KNOW you want to!)

Note the Beige on the garage door. Plan B is to change out the garage doors, shutters for a dark beige and the trim around the garage door a lighter beige. I am going to leave the top trim the poo color (for now) and see how it looks. It looks OK on the top of the house because of the shadows and it just looks darker up there in small quantities.

I will be sure to share pictures when it is de-poo-ed!

Hope you have a great day!!

What was I thinking????

....this is how I am spending my days....

We finally hired people to come and redo two of our bathrooms. My youngest child was a sweetie and peeled what we "thought" was the paint off of the downstairs bathroom wall. Well, it turns out that there were a few layers of wallpaper underneath the paint so that all had to be scraped off.

While we were at it...we figured we would have the upstairs hall bathroom redone. It was a really dark color and I never liked the finish but had not gotten around to repainting it. Oh, and why not add my oldest child's bedroom ceiling to the list? (The installer from the satellite company fell through her roof when he was accessing cables through the attic and my husband patched it but never completely fixed it.)

Sounds like a good idea, right?

Well, little did I know that it would all be done AT THE SAME TIME.

That is right---TWO out of order bathrooms and one bedroom that is out of order makes for fun times.

Now the kids either have to use the restroom downstairs in my stamp room (which has NEVER had so much traffic) OR our master bathroom.

And now I am REALLY REALLY REALLY hoping my son doesn't do his typical "sleep pee" tonight...or he might walk smack into one of those ladders :) (or, God forbid, pee on one of them!)

Here are the bathrooms now (and I will be sure to post pictures after they are finished!)

and...here is my daughter's bedroom ceiling. Ekk....

I hope to have a tutorial up very soon for a fun Heart FELT project.

Thanks for stopping by!

LOVE offering

Just had to share this little gem we found in my son's jacket. My husband had taken him to a different church right before Christmas (we have friends who go there) and Ben (8) apparently LOVED the service because he promised them an Offering of $32, 100! Luckily, it never made it into the basket.

(FYI....I blurred out all the address info, etc. for privacy purposes!)

Just in case you missed it----The January 2011 Issue of CardMaker Magazine is on sale now.

This issue is full of wonderful card making ideas. Here is a peek at a card I have in the issue:

Thanks for stopping by!

Thank YOU!

Happy Veterans Day!

To all those who have served,

who are currently serving,

and for those who gave the ultimate sacrifice....

Thank you.

From my family to yours.