Selling Our Home

It sure looks like I have been too busy for my blog and it sure is true. We put our house on the market a few weeks ago and if anyone has sold a home.....then you know how much work goes into getting it ready. I donated car loads to Goodwill while cleaning closets, drawers and just de-cluttering! Trying to keep my craft room clean and organized has been another challenge but I have been working on some projects which I hope to show you later this week.

We were lucky that the middle of March when Kevin had vacation, we had wonderful weather in the 60's. So we got all the yard raked and cleaned up from the dreary winter. Last week we actually had a few days near 80 so I have yellow daffodils blooming and purple crocus too! Hopefully after yesterday and todays rain, everything will be green as so much is already up in the flower beds. Pretty early for Wisconsin as we have had snow storms in April many times but what the heck I will take it! We even woke up one morning last week to find 2 ducks swimming(not the greatest picture as we haven't started up the pond yet) in our pond!

We get asked every day why we are selling our beautiful home. We moved here to Stevens Point about 8 years ago and have done so much inside and out. We have hand painted murals in the kitchen, bathroom and of course out by the indoor swimming pool. We were so lucky to find a budding artist at the University to do that all. Anyone following my blog have seen all the gorgeous pictures of my gardens with the small pond and waterfall............that I will really miss!We have put on a new roof, new garage doors and did just about everything I can think of too.....we are hoping our next home will have all that stuff done so all we will have to do is put our personal touch on it and start some new gardens.

The downsize of this house is that it is 3400 feet which is way too big for just 2 people (and allot to clean). We had hoped when moving up here that the kids would come up with their little ones to visit and take advantage of the pool but they have such busy lives and they are over 2 hours away so it is pretty rare that they get up here. It also is a quad level home which means there are always steps (8 to most levels) to go up and down. At first we thought this is a breeze after living in a loft above my business in downtown Watertown as that place must have had at least 25 steps going up from street level but as the years have gone by both Kevin & I are feeling it in our knees. That is the real reason why we are selling now. We are hoping someone will want to take advantage of the first time home buyers credit etc which does end at the end of this month. In this economy and our part of Wisconsin, this home is a "steal" going only for $179,000 and that includes a double lot with a sprinkler system too. If we were near Madison or Milwaukee...........a house this size with the pool and sauna would go for at least $250,000 but we are hoping to find another house that we can put our love into and also enjoy as much as we have this one. You can find the listing on Coldwellhomes.com and the i.d. # is SP26Z.

We will miss our neighborhood, it is awesome, and all our nice neighbors. We are hoping to find a nice ranch home out in the country with a little land and maybe if we are really lucky on some water so we can fish too! Not going to look too hard until we have some serious nibbles on this place. Never been good at the waiting game but some things just are out of my control.

My Valentine Project

Last month I got a wonderful gift in the mail from a secret sister for Christmas. It was a kit from Paisley and Polka Dots that was called You hold the ticket to my heart. I've seen their kits online and often drooled over them but never took that splurge to buy one for myself. Needless to say I was tickled pink and couldn't wait to start as it would be a present for my husband.

First of all the most amazing part is that this kit comes in separate plastic bags where every piece for that page is sorted and pre cut. The instructions were flawless and came with pictures that were numbered so you knew which piece to put on first etc. Talk about taking out the part we all dislike the most.........cutting........especially for these hearts that had scalloped edges. Oh my that would have been fun! Actually all I needed to complete this project was glue, stapler and some pop dots.

I started off by inking all the edges of all the pieces with a stain ( I used a walnut color). After letting that dry I started working on the title page. I'm not sure if I would have chosen all the different patterns of papers to use together but the end result was great. I loved the crocheted heart in the middle and using the stick pin too. I added the key with a tag gun.

The back of the title page ended up having room for a picture plus the Love notes place to write on. In between this page and the next there was a smaller chipboard heart and on one side you could list the 10 things I love most about you and journaling available on the other side too. I liked the way these smaller hearts were between the full page hearts......gave it some dimension.

Page 2 has the picture of Kevin golfing on it since that is his big love in life besides bowling. Again look at all the different patterns mixed together yet the overall effect works! The back of this page had room for 2 pics and I used our wedding pictures. The little white plastic heart with the ribbons threaded through it was just the right thing to finish this page.

Again there was a smaller heart with both sides open for journaling between these pages but I didn't take a picture of that. Page 4 had a picture of Kevin bike riding with our granddaughter Allayah (another love of our life). Great use of a tag and ribbons on this page.

Page 5 has a picture of Kevin doing some landscaping in our yard. I think when he first started doing it..........it was a job but as time went on and we developed more gardens it became more of a passion for him that he enjoyed. The stamps on this page were part of the rub-ons that came with the kit too!

Another smaller heart again between pages that weren't pictured here and then the final page has a picture of us on it with a Happy Valentine's day tag, be mine and SWAK rub on. I was totally impressed with this kit and this was the first one I had seen from them and probably one of the best gifts I had ever gotten from a secret sister. When I gave it to Kevin he was in awe ............he loved it and could see how much work went into it. I'm sure it is something he will treasure for years to come.

Vinyl Wall Art

A few weeks ago I went down to Watertown and spent a few days at my son's house hoping to have a little time with him since I hadn't seen him in almost 6 months. Well when I arrived Todd was busy cutting wood for his outdoor wood burner that heats his house (a necessary thing to do on a day off) so I spent the afternoon with his wife Justin doing some things around the house. Here's a picture of Justin filling the burner with wood. Amazing how much heat you can get out of these little things outside. Very popular especially if you live in the country and have access to wood on your land.

You know how we all have those little projects that we mean to get around to or ones that take 2 people to do. Well she had bought some of those vinyl wall sayings so we got busy working on putting them up. They were not as easy as they looked especially when trying to remove them from the backing. The hardest part though was once you got them up on the wall you then had to remove the other backing while making sure they stuck to the wall. This first one was the easiest and we did it in her kitchen area..........cute huh?

The bathroom turned out to be the hardest. Not sure if it was the texture of the wall, the paint used or the intricate pieces of these branches. But good thing we didn't start here or I would have quit. Their new bathroom is done all in black and white so these words above the bathtub really made a statement and looked so very nice! Imagine how pretty it will look when she has candles in those holders all lit up and she is sitting in her jacuzzi tub.

Unfortunately that evening Todd got a call from his boss and had another semi load to drive in the morning so we didn't get to spend much time together. The next morning he was off on the road by 6am so that morning Justin & I went to the Johnson Creek outlet mall and Berres Brothers coffee outlet. Before I headed back up north we stopped at her mom's and put up 2 more vinyl wall swags. They turned out awesome though it was hard job working above your head as your arms got so tired. Projects like these are best done with a friend or family!

Vinyl wall sayings are something you can make with your Cricut or you can now buy them just about anywhere at Micheals or even Kohl's. No limit to what you can create with your imagination!

Going back to school

I'm one of those people that love learning new things and actually enjoyed school. Today I just signed up for a 6 week class at the University of Stevens Point for digital photography. It's on Monday nights from 6:30 to 8pm which works out great since that is when my husband is bowling in mens league. Also I am quite fortunate to live only a mile or so from the campus.

I just got a new Nikon Coolpix camera (S570) right before Christmas. It has 12 megapixels, 5x zoom and what I really like is the 2.7 LCD screen. My last Nikon had a much smaller screen. It's a nice small size which is what I need as I love to carry it with me at all times either in my purse or pocket. My last Nikon took great pictures and I just passed it on to my brother in Texas who I'm sure will be taking lots of pictures during his travels.

As a scrapbooker I know how important good pictures are for my books and layouts. Hopefully this class will teach me some of the settings and tricks to taking the best pictures that I can. It doesn't start until March 1st but when it does I will be sure to share any neat things I learn.

Organizing your scrap room

Doesn't it seem that when January comes around everyone is thinking of doing some organizing and even the stores are pushing all kinds of pretty baskets & bins to organize your "stuff" in. Well I got the bug too but mine came for a different reason. Kevin came home with a nice wooden tv entertainment center and he thought I could use it in my craft room. Well you know what that meant...................re-organizing everything. The end result turned out really nice so I thought I would share a few of my pictures and tricks that I use.

This is my nice sunny room that I share with the washer & dryer (that way I can work while I scrap). It is in the south east corner of the house with windows on 2 sides so I enjoy the time I spend in there. It also has an attached bathroom and a nice small tv on my desk. Lots of cabinets and storage everywhere. I have a large oak desk and that nice big table under the window but when I'm working on a project the space gets used up quite quickly!

Of course I am like just about everyone else and store my buttons and flowers in jars by colors. I have 2 shelves on my desk which hold jars of flowers so not only organized but pretty. I learned my lesson from having all of them lined up on the shelf under the window when the shelf came loose and everything fell. Those jars add quite abit of weight. Now those shelves hold and display many of my stamps.

Ribbon is another problem and I do have a few jars of certain types but the majority I have found that if I hang it...............I see it and I use it. So I used one of those hanging tiered baskets that some people use for fruit. On the bottom basket I threaded the ribbons by color into all the little spaces of the weaved basket. I keep some extra rolls in the basket and colorful clips are all along the edge. I know they sell things out there for ribbon but why spend money when you might have something at home that will work just as well? Plus it is so pretty!

Just like my "clip it up"................no it's not the one you can spend some big bucks on......this was found at a resale shop for just a few dollars and I think at one time it might have been a jewelry display or some merchandise display. I did buy the clip ups and now have all kinds of things organized on here from my bling to stickers etc. It was big but fit in nicely where the tv should have been. My Cricut fit above it and all my cartridges on one of the shelves. The 2 spots on the bottom with doors hold my sewing machine and the other side has all my empty scrapbook albums. The drawer holds all the page protectors. I hate to admit that the spot below my cartridges is kits and projects waiting to be used or finished. Now you can see why I will not be shopping at Michael's for awhile. This year I will use what I have. Who would have thought that this Saunders entertainment stand would have worked so nicely for all my scrapping stuff.

I never feel like the time I spend cleaning and organizing is wasted as I usually find something I forgot I had or I pull aside things needed for a project that I'm working on. Like this past week I was making a scrapbook for my brother for his birthday so during my cleaning time I was finding family related items, hunting embellishments etc. It obviously helped as I finished his album yesterday and his birthday is still a month away! I will end this blog with 2 pages from his album. With as cold as it has been here in Wisconsin.............I have not been out all week and I enjoy spending the sunny mornings in my room!

Glimmer Mist Class

Last night Jen & I drove to Appleton for a class in the glimmer mist. It was supposed to be 3 hours but probably was only around 2 and during that time we made the above book. Jen has used the mist before but even tho I got a bottle for Christmas I hadn't tried it. I watched a video on the computer last week and did have some thoughts on how it worked.

There was only 8 of us in the class (2 at a table) and this is the back of the book we made. The instructor didn't seem overly familiar with the product especially when I mentioned using the brayer over the screen with a piece of paper towel. On this back page I used a borrowed screen which was actually bigger then the page itself. I really liked that look.

She did show us a few things like how to mix the glimmer stuff on the bottom of the bottle. We used kind of an open box to spray the items that Archivers sold for $5 but I thing any type of box at home would work well without spending that additional money. The class came with 3 small bottles of different color mists so it's nice to come home with something to play with.

We also got a small screen which you will see used on some of the pages here so that will be nice to have. The page above it was used on both of the corners. Unfortunately the selection of screens was very limited and I was hoping to either find the gate screen or possibly some type of swirl. Didn't want the halloween ones or to start off with birds and butterflies. Maybe later but not when I'm still at the experimenting stage.

I have included pictures of most of the pages of the album we made. Noticed how it had some really neat embossed images like the clock and the suitcase. We actually used some Ranger ink on those to make them stand out so nicely.

I should have waited till I had pictures inside and the whole album finished but maybe that will motivate me to finish it and post those results. It was a fun class and of course we got to do some shopping afterwards as this is the closest Archivers and it is an hour away. If it was closer I'm sure we would be taking more classes as it is always fun to see how a new product works and what you can do with it.

Farmville

8 days ago, I would have given you a blank look if you would have mentioned Farmville on Facebook but today it is a different story. On New Years day when we went down to visit my son Travis, we saw both him and his girlfriend Jamie playing a farming game on their computer. We asked a few questions and watched them plant and harvest crops. I walked away saying.......I just don't get it. Plus it looked like it could be time consuming.

Well last Saturday night Kevin went and started Farmville on our computer. On our way to bowling I insisted he call Travis to tell him that I didn't do it. Sunday I kinda looked on as I watched Kevin plant some crops and harvest them. Monday when he was at work I thought I better keep an eye on things and harvest stuff etc. And that's how it all started..........next you know I was collecting chickens, eggs, horses and trying to earn points to get to the next level. Here it is ONE week later and I am at level 20. I have 4 penguins, 2 horses, 2 goats,2 sheep, 6 cows, 3 kittys, 58 chickens and 17 calves. Ooops forgot that 1 pig and the 2 ducks. These were all gifts that I received or presents from eggs that I hatched.

I started out planting strawberries and have worked my way up to grapes. I still don't know all the secrets of this game and when I visit other farms I am amazed at all the buildings and how pretty their farms are. Speaking of other farms I am looking for neighbors so if you are playing this game too and want to add me as your neighbor I would be happy to come over and feed your chickens and fertilize your fields.

It's actually very addicting and competitive but FUN! I have quite a few friends on there and some of my family so we are interacting in a new way. I've even found some of my crafting friends and fellow Fiskateers on there.............so if you are out there playing too........add me as your neighbor and send me some trees!

Creative Cafe Journal

I don't know about the rest of you but when I make or create things they are generally for other people. This time I made something for MYSELF!! I got this 3 ring binder journal kit last year and it is 8.5 x 10.25 so a nice size. Included were 12 photo pages (one for each month) and 72 journal pages. 12 of them were printed with calendar inserts which I had to stamp & decorate for the appropriate month.

I decided I wanted to use this book for my yearly journal. So the first thing I did was make each monthly calendar. Some of the months I was lucky enough to have appropriate numbers and decorations to use but the others well lucky I have lots of stash to use.

So for each month the first page would be a monthly calendar and then below it a space to record your dates to remember. It also came with tabs to put on the edge for each month too. The back of that page is all lined paper.....decorated with some embellishments....and ready for me to journal the things I want to remember.

The second page had the top section with little boxes where I plan to make notes of things I want to do that month and the bottom section was just lined for journaling. The opposite side of the page is lined on the top half for writing but the bottom half is a big box labeled "ideas & doodles".......how neat is that?

The third page is just lined on both sides for more journaling or notes. It was fun finding embellishments for every month to make every page "special". I love how my May gardening page turned out........don't you?

Last there was the photo insert page which will hold four pictures. I really like this because some pictures are not meant to be scrapped but they hold allot of memories for me. For example.......I have a neat picture of Travis & Kevin playing Wii last week-end early in the morning.

The book also came with a dozen various pockets to use but not sure what I can do with them yet. Maybe in my next blog I will post some pictures of these and you can give me your thoughts on what to do with them.

Since this book was for ME, I decided to use some of my favorite papers I have been saving to cover it with. I used Webster Pages........I just love them but actually hoard them as they are each prettier then the next. The paper I picked was so appropriate as it has a circle on it that says On This Day surrounded by the days of the month and the outside circle has all the months. I added a glittered blue bird and a butterfly and for a finishing touch a piece of green velvet ribbon. The picture of the front of the journal is at the beginning of this blog. On the back of the book I used the same paper but just added a rub on glitter saying.

I am really happy with the result and will enjoy using this all year. Almost would like to make this a yearly thing from now on..........guess I will have to see how long this Creative Cafe journal stays around.

Happy New Year!

Well they say better late then never so here I am to wish you all a happy and healthy new year filled with love and laughter. It kind of reminds me of my prayers every night when I pray that my sons are safe, healthy and loved.... something we can never get enough of. I used to end all our phone calls with "I love you" hoping that one time one son would say it back to me but that never happened and I kinda got the feeling that they hated hearing it so much so now I just say thanks for calling and talk to ya soon. I raised my boys with lots of hugs & I love you's but they didn't end up that way as adults which is kinda sad because the women in their life (including me) miss that stuff. I was very lucky to find a man (Kevin) who not only says those words daily but shows it ....... sometimes just little things like holding hands mean more then words.

Boy did I get off track............but I hope you all had a nice Christmas and New Years too. We've had some weather issues here around the holidays so ours was pretty quiet. New Years day we went down to Lake Mills and spent the night at my youngest son's house. We had so much fun on both days just spending time with Travis and Jamie playing Wii. I brought down a few of our games and our remotes but we really enjoyed playing his Monopoly game. There was so many different versions on that one disc and every round there was a chance of the winner turning into the loser so you just never gave up hope. Plus you never had to count out money and there was also little challenges every round that were fun. On Saturday my daughter in law Justin came over, picking up Alex along the way, and we got to try out my new game which was called Just Dance. Us gals and Alex thought it was a blast and you really got a workout doing it. Kevin & Travis had more fun watching us and laughing. We sat down to a nice ham dinner and before you knew it, it was time for Alex to go home and us to make that long drive home. It sure was a relaxing 2 days and I was quite impressed with all the work my son was doing in his house.

My job at Lands End as a personal shopper for Sears is just about over. I'm only scheduled for one day a week and often I get sent home early for work reduction. With our Wisconsin winters, I really don't mind staying home especially on days like this where it has been snowing all day. It's gonna be our first chance to try out our new snow blower that Travis found for us for Christmas.

I did get some scrapping done this week and did 3 layouts of Travis and Alex during the snowstorm they had last month. Thought I would end this blog with those pictures. Hopefully you will see me blogging more often now that I am home more.