crafting while it snows!

Yup it has been snowing all day...........little white flakes that could add up to be 1 to 3 inches. Doesn't seem quite right for October 12th does it? Course it will all be gone tomorrow but still made a nice day to say inside and be crafty!

I spent hours making a birthday card for my granddaughter Allayah who will turn 8 on the 24th. Knowing we wouldn't be seeing or talking to her this month I wanted it to be extra special. The felt frame on the front blends so perfect with the picture I took of her in our gardens back in August. I love the beading in the flowers and even the cake and present are made of felt.

On the top half of the inside I filled it with butterfly kisses and each butterfly is prettier then the next. On the bottom half I used my Cuttlebug folder and in the middle of it used a happy birthday rub on. I used my glitter pens to make this look special plus I remember how much Allayah liked using them and I think she will recognize it too! I enjoy making special cards for special people and hope they will be treasured for many years.

I also made my brother a birthday card and what was unique about it is that I used samples from a wallpaper book. I like the crackled aged look to this lighthouse envelope. I used the coordinating paper to make the card and on the inside I found a sweet picture of a girl on a beach which is so appropriate since I am his only sister. So next time you are near a paint store stop and see if they have any "old" sample books...........the best part is they are FREE and now you have another ideal of what to do with them. I have also used them to make frames which is fun.

As much fun as I had crafting today..........it is almost 3pm so I better get something constructive done around the house too! Thank goodness I made a nice turkey yesterday and fresh apple crisp so I don't think Kevin will mind leftovers tonite especially since he has to rush out to bowl.

I'll try to post again this week before we head out to warmer weather this week-end!

48 pages in 8 days!

8 days ago I booked a trip for my husband Kevin & I to go out to Arizona by my mom. It is Kevin's last week of vacation for the year and he normally needs some time to regroup before the hustle and bustle of the holidays start..........at his job that is! Right now he has been working some 12 hour days and comes home just beat so we leave next Saturday on his birthday and will spend 6 days where it is nice and warm.

Kevin shares his birthday with my oldest brother Norm so my mom is planning a little get together that night at a local Italian restaurant for us all to celebrate. When my brother was here visiting earlier this summer he left his 2 photo albums with me and said it would be nice if I would make him a scrapbook like I did for our other brother Andy. I sorted through some of the photos but that was as far as I got since my gardens keep me pretty busy during the summer and of course there was also just the big warehouse sale.

Needless to say, the same day I got our flights booked, I started Norm's album and I have been working on it non stop (well at least the days that I wasn't fighting some dental problems). I found this neat album in blue jean material and it even has a pocket on the front. I spelled out his name in brads........kewl huh?

I think the hardest part doing 48 pages was finding paper to match......especially stuff that wasn't "girlish" with flowers etc. Also working with pictures that were 40 to 50 years old..........lot of them in black and white. I won't bore you with many pictures but here are a few. This page was of his 8th grade graduation and I used Hannah's Story line.

I loved finding pictures of both of our grandma's and we had a special name for them too. Grandma Close just lived a few blocks away in Milwaukee whereas Grandma Faraway lived all the way across the city LOL! Here was the one chance for me to use some prima flowers.

I did a page on each of my brothers and spelled their names out in foil trimmed Cloud 9 letters. Simple but sweet. I also did one of both my folks. I am going to bring along a pen in case he would like me to add some journaling but there sure are allot of pictures and memories in this 48 page album I made him. I know it will be something for him to treasure no matter where he moves to or ends up in life. I just wouldn't recommend trying to do it in 8 days!

Computer problems???

I love computers..........when they are working..........when they are not .......... it's a headache! I was smart enuf this time when we bought our Gateway to take out the protection plan so I gave them a call last week to tell them I was having problems with my wireless mouse. I put batteries in and within a few hours it was telling me I needed new batteries.........hmmm something not quite right with that huh?

So while discussing this with the tech guy, I mentioned that the computer froze allot & I couldn't do ctrl, alt, delete to reboot it either. So it was decided that they would need to take my computer back to how it first came to me.........in other words erasing the hard drive. When I heard that I got scared knowing how many pictures etc I have that I would not want to lose. So it was off to Staples to buy an external hard drive. I was lucky enough to have a clerk who knew the pro's and con's of each type and I walked away buying one that I feel will meet my needs.

It wasn't hard to hook up and only took 30 minutes to backup all my stuff then came the hard part of getting on the phone with the tech guy again and re-doing the hard drive. I spent most of yesterday afternoon & evening re-installing programs and of course my anti virus protection. Today I am trying to find some things that don't seem to be there and the one thing I really miss that I didn't think of copying was my favorite's list. Every morning I would get up and there were a number of sites I checked out daily for deals etc and now I don't have their websites and it will take time for me to remember who they were too LOL! I also have some different things on my screen that weren't there before. Why oh why do they not give you manuals with computers? I love reading, high lighting and taking notes rather then going online and trying to find what I'm looking for in an online manual.

The good news is I haven't had any problems in the past 24 hours besides my computer going to sleep and me not knowing how to wake it up?? But I will learn again and soon things will be back to normal.

I hope in my next blog I will have some pictures of the scrapbook that I am making for my oldest brother Norm's birthday which is in less then 2 weeks.

Back to watching the Packers play the Vikings..........GO PACK GO!!!

Fall is here

It has been a busy week packing and shipping out boxes of Fiskar goodies to my friends which is why I haven't been on the computer much. Plus the weather has changed and we had one night with a frost and the next night with a freeze. Some of my flowers survived but most took a big hit between that and the HIGH winds we had one day. The wind tore the rest of my canopy on my swing right off (earlier storm started it) and also pulled out my gorgeous butterfly screen that I had in my garden so you can imagine how strong those winds were. All the really tall spider plants were also destroyed. But you know we had a nice September with temps in the 70's and it couldn't last forever.

The temps now are only in the 50's and we are finally getting the rain that I have been waiting patiently for weeks. It is in the forecast for most of the next week so it will be a good time to be doing some inside stuff this week. Luckily we have all that wood stacked and stored as we do have our wood stove going right now!

My favorite part of fall is waiting for the leaves to change. I love taking a long drive just to see all the gorgeous colors at this time of the year. Normally we do it this week-end when we take a drive to Eagle River for their annual Cranberry Fest but if it's going to rain and be in the low 50's I think I can skip this fun craft show this year.

Have a great week-end all and enjoy the beginning of fall!

The warehouse sale

ok so I don't know the secret to adding lots of pictures to this blog and moving them to where I want them so I started a new post about the sale. If anyone does have a secret to this and wants to share it with me............that would be awesome! This is the picture of all the boxes on my dining room table just after we got home.

So this is a big warehouse with aisles of pallets and boxes and basically you just go up and down picking up what you want and putting it in empty boxes on your cart. If you were not lucky enuf to get a cart you have to push the boxes along the cement floors. As you can see I have my cart kinda full.

Then you stand in a very LONG line that snakes up and down the aisles until you get to the checkout. Good thing is you can shop the aisles as you walk up and down them............bad thing is that somehow the lines got mixed up and were merging together.............the lucky ones got through allot faster then us. They didn't realize this problem until we had been in line for TWO hours. So there were some crabby shoppers and people cutting in line...........that part I could do without.

We didn't get home until almost 4pm (thank goodness Jen ran out and brought back McDonalds for all of us).........did I say Thank you JEN!!!!

These pictures are after it is all separated by the line like Kimberely Polosum, Ink by Steph, Cloud 9 etc. Lots of cute scissors, stencils, some albums, trimmers too.

Now comes the fun part of deciding what to keep, who I bought for, where am I sending it etc.

The day after

The last few days seemed to fly right by. My Fiskateer friends arrived Wednesday around 5 and after a quick tour of my home & the gardens the pizza had arrived and so had Ashani (another gal from Illinois) and Jen. We ate & chatted and got right down to some crafty business.

Kimberlee was the speedy one of our bunch so no she's not bored.....maybe a little tired after a long day of driving and touring the Fiskars headquarters in Madison.....she is just waiting patiently for the bracelets to dry and us to finish up.

Merlene brought some wooden bracelets along so we painted them green & orange (Fiskar colors) and then embellished them with bling, buttons, etc.

Ashani brought along a make n take earring project since she makes and designs jewelry. She had cute orange & green beads and the little scissors we cut out of that shrinky dink plastic & then shrunk in my toaster oven. They turned out so cute & original too!

In between these two projects we tye dyed t-shirts (my very 1st time). It was a little messy but actually kinda fun and they each turned out so different. Betsy then used her Cricut to cut out our names, Fiskateer numbers & a pair of scissors for the back of the shirt (we stenciled that on with paint). Between all these projects and just gabbing away it was after midnite before we went to bed.

We all got up with Kevin around 5am so that we could leave for the warehouse sale by 6:30am.

It didn't start until 9 but there were already 8 to 10 people there in front of us. The reason we go early to these sales is not only to get the special item that is limited (like Fiskar tree branch trimmers for $20....normally $70) but also cuz they only have so many carts available to use and the way I shop I need a big cart! Yes they do sell garden tools along with the crafty stuff and scissors galore! Here's a picture of us all decked out in our crafty projects waiting a the warehouse for it to open.

Tomorrow or later tonite I will post again with pictures of the sale & all my goodies I got!

Company Coming

Thursday is the BIG warehouse sale at Fiskars in Wausau. On Wednesday some out of state Fiskateers will be arriving at my house to spend the night so that we can go bright and early in the morning to the sale. A pool/pizza party is planned for that night and some local gals might pop in. Plans are in the making for doing some tye dyed shirts to wear to the sale and some beading. Of course majority of the time will be chatting since most of these women I have only met online. Isn't it great that the internet can connect people from all over the world just by their interest or passion of crafting?

Course with 6 overnight guests..........guess what I have been doing for the past week or so? You guessed it CLEANING! I also wanted to be able to show off my gorgeous gardens that are still in full bloom since our temps are still in the 70's. How bizarre is that for middle of September? We have lacked rain for the past 3 weeks so watering is must and does take a few hours to do all my gardens and the lawn. We do have an inground sprinkler system but it only covers so much.

My hibiscus (red) finally opened up last week since it is only 1 year old. I forgot how huge the flowers were! Also my butterfly bush which I cut down to the ground in the spring is now over 6 feet tall............flowering and attracting butterflies! I did find a plant that I don't remember planting and I believe it is a chinese lantern plant..........here is a picture of one of the orange

lanterns.

By the way thanks for all the names that you came up with............winner drawn was Maxine...Congrats Maxine! I will get that out to you soon. Well back to cleaning!