Time for a

vacation. It's a shorter one but a vacation none the less. Plan B did not work out because they are booked on the weekends. So we are setting up camp close to home until hubby gets the boat trailer rewired. It's okay, we live near a lake and plan on taking it out here. Next month hopefully we can do a longer camp at our favorite lake about an hour and a half from home. Anyway, we'll be out until mid next week.

I've been a little crafty this week.



This is a hat box I decorated to match my craft area.



And this is a gift tag and card I made to coordinate for a gift set.

Switching to another subject... You gotta try these!



I bought a couple boxes in June to use this summer since the prices of everything are going up up up and we would be home a lot. I can't say enough great things about them. Everything really does last longer and there is less that goes to waste. There are 20 bags for $9.99. They are reuseable so one bag is probably enough... :)

The last three days it has teetered at 100 degrees. The weather is so wonky. Last weekend it was raining. I been out every morning and night to do yard work this week. The yard is shaping up but boy is it humid. It really zaps your energy. Now if it were in the upper 70's or lower 80's I'd love it.

Thanks for stopping in. I hope you are all having a fantastic summer and staying safe and cool! Bye!

Trying it again

Blogger is still giving me problems. But I keep trying. So what's up with it? When I first started with blogger I had a lot of problems but they made some upgrades and I that seemed to do the trick for me. But lately, its back to square one.

Moving on... How was everyone's fourth? I hope you all had loads of fun! Earlier in the week we bought Boom Blox for the Wii. We stuck around home - had a friendly Boom Blox competition, a BBQ, and set off some fireworks. Here's some pics of our favorite fountains this year...







Speaking of the fourth... here's a lo from last year that I scrapped last week-



So are there any other Jane Austen fans here with me? I found P&P audiobook (unabridged)on i-tunes this week for under $8. I couldn't believe the price. (My dear hubby is on the road A LOT so only does audio books. He spends $8. to rent them so I know that this is a good deal!) I thought it would be great to listen to on my i-pod when out for my walks. :)

Last week darling daughter and I were working on sewing projects. She finished her blanket yesterday and I got the skirting sewn and up on my craft table. Both projects turned out great. I'll have to take some pics to share next post. Darling daughter got a little impatient during this project because she thought it was something she could sit down and do in an hour. lol! I was really proud of her though because she stuck with it and worked on it all week long.

I'm hoping this post will go up without a hitch. Here's the lo I couldn't post last time. Darling daughters school field trip-



We pulled the boat out last week and cleaned it up. Thursday we were going to take it out on the water, however, dear hubby found that the lights on the trailer were not working. He spent the afternoon trying to find the problem without luck. Poor guy... we are going camping later this coming week and I think its going to be without the boat at this point. We usually spend so much time on the boat in the summer but this year we haven't even been on the water yet. Things don't always go as we plan, right?!? It'll be okay... We're hoping to get in to the campground we used to stay in before the boat. We always enjoyed that campground and its just down the road from the other. Let's hope plan B works out for us. :)

Well, I'm home for the weekend all alone. I have housework to do and then I'm hoping to do some hybrid projects. I really should be doing some yard work but today I'm saved by the rain. Yay! lol!

Thanks for visiting! I hope you all have a super weekend!

Darn blogger

is totally acting up again. It hasn't been letting me log in, now I can navigate to create new post but am unable to upload images as it would seem. Grrr!

Other than that, what a wonderful week we are having. The new kittens are growing like weeds. Yesterday we actually "lost" them, twice. First time they had managed to crawl up under our entertainment center and get wedged into a drawer between the DVD's and the drawer above... I don't think they will be attempting that stunt again. The second time we couldn't find one. In the end, after much panic, we found him squeezed into a gap under my desk. I have my all in one printer,scanner, copy maching thing on a shelf by my knees. There is a 3" gap or so between the top of the machine and the underside of the desktop. He was curled up sleeping on the scanner. Silly kitten!

We have been talking about pulling the boat out of storage for months now but the weather wasn't good enough, the battery was dead, Dear hubby didn't have the time in the last couple of weeks on his days off, etc... Yesterday, he put a new battery in and pulled in out of the garage. We cleaned it up and got it ready to wax on the next bright and sunny day. Even though we didn't get it out on the water, it felt so good to get it ready.

Slowly but surely the project list I had for around the house is getting finished. Yesterday repainted the doors and trim in my bedroom which really freshened it up. I went to the fabric store earlier this week and bought some stuff to make throw pillows for my bed and to add some skirting around my craft tables that are in there. That's actually what I plan on finishing up today. Darling daughter came with me and picked out some fabric to make a throw blanket. It should be a nice girls day today with the sewing machines a going.

On to scrappy news... It was my turn to post on the Digi Chick blog and so I did a tutorial on a flip book. It's a lot of fun. If you are interested in trying it, you can go here- http://www.thedigichick.com/blog/wordpress/ to join in. (sorry you'll have to go this route because blogger won't link at the moment either)

Sunday I was thrilled to learn that the candle sleeve I made was going to be a featured here- http://scrapbookdimensions.ning.com/

I created one lo which I'll have to share in the next post when I am able to upload images. It was a fun one of darling daughters class field trip to the museum of flight last month.

Yesterday I went digi shopping. I wanted to share because I was shopping over at christinareneedesigns.net. She is one of the sweetest people by the way and such a talented designer. She has a bunch of new products out AND they are on SALE! I bought a bunch of her new stuff which I would happily link if I could. Trust me, you need to stop it and give a looksee yourself!

You all have a great rest of the week! Thanks for stopping in. Hopefully blogger will be more cooperative on my next post. :)

Seeing double?

No you are not. Thursday school got out and we were watching that paper for kitten ads. No kitties Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and then BINGO! Sunday morning daughter got up and said she was going to check. I said I didn't think they ran NEW ads on Sunday but boy was I wrong. Good thing she checked. So on Father's day we went and picked up these little guys.

It is hard to believe that school has been out a week already. We are SO enjoying ourselves. I've been getting the house organized and lots of yard work done. Yesterday darling daughter and I went out shopping. We went to the mall and I bought some books. So many people have been posting rave reviews about the Twilight books that I decided buy them for my summer reading. And on a total side note: they filmed this movie an hour from where we live. One of the ladies I work with, her daughter was an extra in the filming. Kinda cool. It should be cool to watch when it comes out in December.

There has been a little crafting going on here. I made one lo and two projects since my last post.

I need to say a little about the kit I used in this lo before I post. This is created with a charity kit in which all proceeds go to Laurie Garza. She is a fellow scrapbooker her lost her husband suddenly last month. Twenty-five wonderful designers came together and created this lovely and gynormous kit to help her and her family. If you are interested, Celebration of Life is for sale at the shabby pickle.



Here's a candle sleeve-



With 5 puppy dogs who lurve treats, I repurposed a Kleenex box-



With some time off, I plan to post on the good ol' blog more often. I was playing with the flair buttons the other day and some of those are so funny. I'll use those as inspiration for some more interesting blog posts this summer. It is a summer I have dedicated to working on ME. Would you like to know more of what make me tick? Lol!

Thanks for dropping in! Have a great one!

hit and run

not an accident... I'm just posting a quickie here.

Don't worry its a happy post. :)

1. Today, at 10:30, I will be officially on SUMMER BREAK
(after a rough and tumbly year, I just can't wait to say goodbye there) and hello to summer!

2. I forgot to share some news last post that was the other highlight this week - looky here - that's my picture frame in the slide show. I was tickled pink! (When you are done looking at the slideshow, feel free to look around. This is a great site!!! If you register I'll hook you up on my friends list! Just let me know. :) )

Howdy!

Did that sound chipper? I was trying really hard to sound chipper.

Actually I'm having kind of a bad day. Darling daughters teacher had a stray momma cat that had a litter and abandon the babies. She asked some of her students if they would like a kitten. DD took one earlier this week. Now mind you these kittens were only 5 weeks-ish old and had been without momma for a week or so prior to that. Anyway... this kitten came into the family with a bang. It was adorable and had a darling personality. She seemed to be a real scrapper of a cat. Needless to say, we just fell in love with "Cali" over the last few days. This morning I woke and found her dead. My daughter was away overnight which I'm thankful for, but I called her and we cried on the phone together. I know that these things happen but its so sad when they do.

Prior to today, I've been a scrapping. I've just been having a great time with the goods from TDC since I joined the team. Here's what I worked on. These are all of events since the last post too.

Apple-



Track Districts-



Ants-



The first two lo's are from dear son's Districts. He ran and did the long jump. It was really pretty exciting to watch him. He did so great especially for this being his first year too. And while we were there on the stands, darling daughter grabbed the camera and took a bunch of pics. So of course I took that opportunity to use some of those too. It's really special to see yourself through your childs eyes. And boy am I lucky that she loves me so!

Last Saturday dear son was away at a birthday party so darling daughter had a friend over. They had a great time. We are talking- ant hunting, butterfly catching, trampoline playing, 4 wheeler riding good old time. Oh and did I mention there were popcicles involved too. It's so wonderful when they take that time to go do outside activities. It really was a great day and I was snapping pics along the way!

School is almost out in our neck of the woods. This last week I've been scrambling to wind things up at work during the day and in the evenings helping the kids with their end of the year projects and reports. I think we got the last one turned in Friday and so it should be smooth sailing this week.

In the past few weeks I've really been evaluating myself and more importantly my time. I'm one of those people who give and give and give. I'm am completely involved in my kids lives. I give a 150% at work to my students. I rarely ever say no to anything that involves me helping out at school functions and activities. Same goes with my friends and their children. Literally! They all call me mom! I do know how to say no... after much thought, I think I need to start doing so. I have very little time for me. I feel so selfish when I say that, but I know its important for even us mom's to have time for ourselves. So this week I am determined to finish up work/school and turn a new leaf. I will start making myself important in my decision making. That is what I am going to work on this summer break. ME.

Sorry to open here with such a downer. It's just been a sad day. Thanks so much for checking in on me. I hope it's bright and sunny where you are and you are enjoying every minute of it! Have a good one!