I've failed, so I'm giving away!!!!!

I didn't get the last of the ornaments done. *sniff* Between me being sick, my kids being sick, and this wonderful thing called Christmas, it just didn't happen. I feel like a butt.

A few things have changed here over the holidays. I've decided how much I really love crocheting and painting. I've realized how much more gets done when I'm not on the computer all day. I've realized I can actually help people.

My New Years Resolution is to donate 10% of my crafting time to charities. I already started my first preemie/stillborn blanket to be donated. I think it's been my favorite project for a while. I hope that it can bring somebody comfort and peace. Would you like to join me?  It doesn't have to be a blanket, it could be as simple as a hat. Here are a bunch of links

Next order of business, some of you know that I would like to start a yearly project. I want to work on one holiday for the entire year. For each holiday, I'd like an afghan, a pillow, 6 crochet cupcakes, pot holders, and whatever else I can do for that holiday. I'd LOOOOVE for you to join me!!

First we have to decide which holiday to do this year
1)Halloween
2) Independence Day
3) Christmas

Please vote in the comments. If you have links, projects, or ideas for any of them, feel free to include that in your comment. I'm even doing a givaway. Whichever project gets the most votes, I will take the names of all the people who voted for that one, put them into a hat, draw out a name and send you a hand painted calendar!!!! (Pics to come soon in what will be a very large photo update)

Merry Christmas!!!!

Today's the day! What a great Christmas season this has been. We have been more than blessed. I hope this coming year to serve others as much as possible to pay what has done for me forward.

As for the ornaments. tomorrow is our "relax" day so I'll finish posting the ones I have done then. I'll also finish the last couple done (thanks Vanessa!)

Stupid Germs

Ok, I have like 4 ornaments to post, but I haven't done one tonight or last night because I"m fighting SOMEthing. I don't even know what it is, but I might go to the Dr. tomorrow. This is NOT the time to be sick. It's totally interfering w/ my schedule!!!

Don't Fret!

I will have more ornaments posted soon. I just have to upload the pics. And then i have a bunch of pics to edit as well. For some reason it's been busy lately. Oh wait! I know why.... CHRISTMAS IS LESS THAN A WEEK AWAY!! I'm SO unbelievably excited!!!

For now, I'll leave you with these pics....

Yes, this is my daughter. LOL

And my whole family (THANK YOU ABBY!)


Cute!!


(I haven't flipped it, sorry)

I believe in Santa Clause

His helpers stopped by today and left some gifts for our family. If they read this, THANK YOU!!! It means a whole lot to me and my family. More than the gifts themselves, I'm honored that someone thought about our family and took the time and effort to do this. You are truly an example to me and I hope one day to pay it forward!

Here are ornaments from the past few days:

Sorry again for the sucky close ups. Maybe I should stand far away and zoom.

Thank you Caitlin!!!

Your box more than made my day!!!!

I'm in love. The scissors are so stinkin cute. I LOOOVE the note paper! ANd I can't wiat to try the new yarn. The Red Heart yarn is SO my fav color! I mad e a bag for my niece in the super bright one and was kind of jealous, but now I can make one for me too! And I can't wait to try the hot cocoa!

A gift/craft for you

Tired of getting address books that you never use because you don't have any stamps and it's so much easier to get a hold of a person online anyway? Here's your answer.....

FLOPPY DISK WEB ADDRESS BOOKS!!!!
You'll need:
2 floppy disks (with the hole things at top)
Printer
Paper
Hole Punch
2 book rings

Print out as many of the following pages as you'd like

 

click on each individual page, right click and save as.

Cut them all out. They should measure 3 1/2" x 3 1/2". Place them in a nice stack. Put one floppy disk on top and trace the square holes. Remove disk and use hole punch (preferably the small scrapbooky ones that don't do gargantuan holes) where you've traced.  Put stack of paper on one disk, top with another. Put one book  ring through each set of holes. Vwahlah!

(I'll post pics after I get to Office Max to pick up my book rings. Right now mine are held together w/ paper clips- not so cute)

Dec 12

Last night I went to a Tooele Mommies party. It was so much fun! It was an ornament swap.  I didn't make an ornament since I knew I'd be coming home with a new ornament anyway. This is it:

Gorgeous, huh?!

Tonight I made this: I got the idea from GEEKWARE (again, because they rock)

Now I really want to make a set of keyboard magnets. How cute would that be?!

Charge!!!

Ok, my batteries are charged. I have pics of all 3 ornaments. I am going to put them in date order, which, ironically, is the order I like them in!

This one, the idea was good; hang a nail on your tree to remind you of Christ, but the pulling it off, not so much!

The next, was supposed to look like ribbon candy. Why, oh why, then, didn't I think of using.... RIBBON!?!?! I used paper. Paper, pipe cleaner, beads, and a hole punch

Last, but CERTAINLY not least, is my "ornament wreath ornament." I LOOOOOVE ornament wreaths. I will have one one of these years, I promise!!! For tonights, I did it in mini. I took a round, broken piece of jewelry that I had in a stash of "this looks promising" and hot glued some beads from a broken bracelet of Juliana's, added in a few pearls, and vwalah!


You'd never know I was a photographer by my pics. Apparently I still have yet to master macro and super macro mode, lol. At least you get the general idea.

Charging

My batteries are charging, so tomorrow you'll have pics of today and yesterday's ornaments. Today's was  cute! I may do it again using actual ribbon (it's ribbon candy looking)

I am NOT slacking!

I did make an ornament tonight, but it's hideous. Plus the batteries on my camera are dead. So tomorrow I will post 2 cute ones instead. hehehe, is that cheating?

Dec 7

Pearl Harbor Day! So I used Pearls (fake ones)

Just one more

rubber band by CriandoKits_kitcolorido (that's the kit name)
brushes by Obsidian Dawn
The rest are a collaborative effort between me & PSE 7

OH dear, look what's happening

I had to make some CHRISTMAS notepapers! Again, 4 version. These trees ARE made by me- mostly. The swirls are brushes by Obsidian Dawn.

Christmas Trees Color:

Green Variated Christmas Trees

Green Christmas Trees

Black and White Christmas Trees

Free Paisley Paper Printable

I have been much inspired lately by Tricia-Rennea, who draws ALL of  her stuff by hand. It's amazing amd adorable. Unfortunately, I am not as blessed w/ a pen. I can, however, work my way around photo shop a decent amount. So.... using a font called Paisley, I created some note paper for you. This is 8x10 paper. Click on the image to see it full sized, then right click and save image. Enjoy, there are 4 variations

Paisley #1 Teal and Blue

Paisley #2  Teal and Brown w/ smaller lines

Paisley #3 Semi Colored

Paisley #4 Black and White

A new Value!!

Ok, so I am SO excited right now!!! I just found out that the Church is adding a new Value to the Young Women's theme and Personal Progress. Now we have EIGHT Values instead of 7. The new value is VIRTUE and the color is gold. Because I'm excited, I typed up the new theme to be printed out. Everything is the same except for the addition of "and virtue". THe big change comes when we get the new personal progress books. There will be value goals for Virtue in addition to hte other 7 in existence.
I didn't make it frou frou at the time"

The color is gold and that makes me happy, too. Anyway, just thought I'd share!

Dec 6

Played w/ Felt and embroidery today. I want to do some great embroidery, but I have a few other things I need to finish, so no can do (tonight, anyway).

Dec 5

I have THREE ornaments tonight! No, don't think I did them all today. I started all three of them last night while waiting for the snowflake to starch. I put the finishing touches on them today and figured, hey! That works for today!

I am really happy with the first reindeer, but not so much the spoon. The inspiration ones HERE on flickr are GORGEOUS and mine just..... it's ok. And that's fine normally, but when you PICTURE gorgeous and get ok, it's a bit of a let down. The reindeer, though... I LOVE! They are lightbulbs from my bathroom lights that burnt out. LOOOVE them!!

Dec 4

I fixed the picture!

Snow

I think this is the first time I've ever been excited about snow (as an adult anyway). I've never been a big fan of winter. I don't like having to hide all my clothes, I don't have a cute coat (yes, I KNOW it's lame, but still!), and I can't just send my kids outside.

However, this year..... Heavenly Father blessed us with a nice "warm" November. Most days it was  around 55*. The sun was shining, weather was GREAT!Crisp, but not bitter. I think that's why I'm ok, even grateful for the snow today. I've had my turn with my nice weather. It's (hopefully) not going to be an entire 6 months of snow like last year. I even SMILED when I saw the snow. Normally I cry, lol. So, on that note...

HAPPY SNOW DAY! I think I'll make a snowflake ornament today. Perhaps I'll even have my kids cut paper snowflakes for our windows

Here is a match game I made. Print 2 on cardstock .

Dec 3

I decided to try my hand at making something from an old sweater. I decided to do the sweater cupcake. It turned out ok.....

Questionairre snag

I borrowed this from Felt Like Knitting- a blog I found today. You can borrow it too! But link back, I wnat to read other people's answers.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?  both. But mostly gift bags. I like to make all the tissue paper extra pretty!!
   
   


2. Real tree or Artificial?  Artificial
   
   


3. When do you put up the tree?  I used to say that I wanted to do it on Dec 1 every year because Roger proposed on Dec 1 with Christmas ornaments (there were 6 of them. They said, "Robyn will you marry me? Love, Roger" Love, Roger was on one ornament and it was a heart, not love) but that has yet to happen. This year we did it the Sun after Thanksgiving.
   
   


4. When do you take the tree down?  WHenever
   
   


5. Do you like eggnog?  yes, but the non-alcoholic kind
   
   


6. Favorite gift received as a child?  My 49ers blanket, or maybe it was when I got a game.
   
   


7. Hardest person to buy for?  I don't buy many presents, I make most of them. I can't think of anyone that's difficult
   
   


8. Easiest person to buy for? my kids.
   
   


9. Do you have a nativity scene? One, and it's pretty, but I really REALLY want to crochet this cute one the kids could play with
   
   


10. Mail or email Christmas cards?  both
    
    


11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Well, it wasn't a BAD gift, but when I was in YW, we picked names and I got my secret sister this notepad thing, which I thought was so cool. Then we got to the party and never showed. Turns out she had my name as well. So I got my own gift. Like I said, the gift was cool, it was being neglected that kinda sucked.
    
    


12. Favorite Christmas Movie?  While You Were Sleeping, which isn't technically a Christmas movie. But it has Christmas stuff in it. And Harry Potter, too!
    
    


13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?  I start shopping and making things in January.
    
    


14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?  Depends on your definition of recycle- given the same gift to someone else in the same form? No. Oh wait, I lied. I'm doing that this year. last year I gave Juliana a canopy for over her bed and she was scared of it. SO I"m giving it to her again this year.
    
    


15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?  Peanut Clusters, Homemade Peanut Butter Cups, Truffles
    
    


16. Lights on the tree?  is this a yes or no question or a preference question? Right now we have little white ones. I'd like the CIRCLE colored ones, they're cute. As long as they're not blinking, I'm fine. I HATE blinking lights. SUper pet peeve of mine.
    
    


17. Favorite Christmas song?  Totally hypocritcal- I hate it when people leave Christ out of Christmas, but my fav song is Santa Baby. Followed VERY closely by Far, Far Away on Judea's Plains
    
    


18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?  both. I like staying home, though
    
    


19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?  nope
    
    


20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?  family gifts at our family party on eve. The rest in the AM
    
    


21. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?  too many good deals, not enough money to take advantage of them
    
    


22. Favorite ornament theme or color? I did gold for a while because of Roger's ornaments, but since 2 of them broke (they now say "Robyn, will you marry") I am torn. I like the idea of purple at Christmas. Don't know why....
    
    


23. What do you want for Christmas this year? Stamps, MY stationary, chocolate, and in dream world, a Magic Bullet.....

Dec 2

I made two ornaments. One of them, I didn't bother to measure, so it turned out like crap.

So...... I found this one at Geekware and LOVED it. My dad gave me a whole thing full of disks today, so I get to play!!


Also, yesterday I started an advent calendar for Roger. It looks pretty on my wall. I first saw the idea on One Pretty Thing, which had a link to print the numbers from Design*Sponge/d.Sharp Journal, then put them on envelopes (thanks Sarah!). I was originally going to use paper clips and tie a ribbon on the paper clips, but, naturally couldn't find my box of paper clips and was in a time crunch. JUST after I finished punching all the holes.... I found 'em.

On a very random note, because I'm browsing websites, blogs, and all manner of coolness while I'm writing this, I saw THIS at d.Sharp Journal and thought.... HMMMM... What happens if I tape together wrapping paper scraps? Might be kinda cute, eh?

Dec 1

Happy beginning of the Ornament Advent!! I finished my first ornament today. The body is made of felt, the face, buttons, and initials are embroidered on. I embroidered the edges. I crocheted the scarf and hanger. I'll end up w/ 3 of these total. Whether they will count for today's remains to be seen. I can't wait to post YOUR ornaments!!

From my Flickr group, I have found four awesome inspirations (I found a whole lot more than that, but I've decided to only post 4 a day as to not overwhelm y'all). One of them didn't show up, but I hope you'll see her cute  Clothespin Carolers on Flickr.

1. Not available, 2. Little Bird Tree Decoration (Red Flower), 3. 12_06 ornaments from felted sweaters, 4. Domino pendants! - closeup

YW in Excellence

Tonight was our Young Women in Excellence program. It's where the Young Women present the programs they've been working on for personal progress. Personal Progress is a program the girls have the choice to do. The purpose is to bring them closer to Heavenly Father. I am actually doing it too. When I was in YW the program was a little different. It used to take all 6 years and have one big project. Now, you can do it in as little as a year, but each of the goals are more personal. For example, the one I'm working on right now is praying morning and evening for 3 weeks, it has a few scriptures to read, and you're supposed to record in your journal about your experience. I've always said my prayers at night, and a lot during the day, but making an extra effort in the morning has made so much difference in my life. I feel like I've been a better mother and a better wife. Receiving answers to my prayers has been a lot easier than it used to be. Just doing this ONE goal has helped me realize my Heavenly Father's love for me. I didn't always feel that way. I remember when Xander would wake up a lot in the middle of the night and just cry and fuss and I would pray so hard to let him sleep, then think that Heavenly Father didn't care about my sleep. Then I would remember how blessed I am. I mean, some of the pioneers  had it SO hard. They would have 12 children, but only have 4 or 5 live past the age of 2. ANd here I was complaining about a lously nights sleep.
I've since learned how deeply He loves me. Do you realize that if I were the only person on the face of the planet, He still would have sent Christ to earth. And Christ loves me so much, that even if they didn't think I'd ever repent, He still would have suffered and died for me. That is pretty powerful. I know that life isn't easy and that we go through a ton of pain, some more than others, but I know that we don't always understand the reasons. "There must needs be oposition in all things." We can't know joy if we've never experienced pain. We can't be happy if we've never felt sad. We can't appreciate health if we haven't been sick. I'm not saying that every sickness is going to be healed in this life. But I believe that  He wants us to return to him. I know that I can be with my family for eternity if we live the way we should. That brings me so much comfort. It helps me through my hardest times.
I didn't mean to go off on a tangent, I just have been thinking about this a lot lately.
Oh, I almost forgot, our theme tonight was COLOR ME BEAUTIFUL, so I made the girls a coloring book and we covered little boxes of crayons for them. Here is a sampling of the color pages.

You can find the images HERE on Bebo

 (though you do have to go look through the images for them).

OR, Green Jello and Carrots 

 

 

has a WAY cute set of clipart that you might be able to use for sale.

Have fun!!

It's true

BYU lost the game tonight. It makes me sad because of the way it was played. It wasn't even fun to watch.

Adventures in Advents

So, after seeing My Little Mochi's pocket Advent calendar on one pretty thing, I've been entranced by the idea of getting my kids to stop asking "Is Christmas today?" like my kids do. So I decided to make one of the gum ones for Xander, though mine didn't turn out as cute. (post pic later). For Jules, I found a decorative Christmas tree that I'm sticking 24 dum-dums in. Then last night, while falling asleep, I thought of a genius idea for myself.... An ornament advent! I will make one ornament each day from Dec1-Christmas Eve. No 2 the same. You can bet  I'll be getting most of the ideas from O.P.T. Anyone caring to join me, I'd LOOOOOVE to have you post your pics on my Flickr group! Ones that catch my eye or inspire me will be showcased here on my blog!

Oh, Roger had another cool advent calendar idea- use egg cartons, put a little toy in each spot (you need two), cover with thin tissue paper, write numbers on, tada- something to punch through.

Go BYU!

I have been creating!

First and Foremost, because of the BIG GAME on Saturday, I made a BYU Paisley Coloring Page for everyone!!!

Next, here is a hat/purse set I made for my niece

And a few days ago, I posted a link to THIS notebook tutorial. WELL...... I made one!!

Also from Design Sponge, I am thinking about making THIS for a funky gift!

Oh no!

I knew this day would come. I've been expecting it, dreading it, but doing nothing about it. And now it's here. I have very bad eating habits. VERY bad. I could have dessert for breakfast, lunch, snack, and dessert and not complain. The only time I have any real desire to eat real food is dinner. I knew it would cause me to gain weight, it's inevitable. I'm not exercising right now (I was told it would decrease milk production). I do try to do little things- like park at the far end of the parking lot so I have extra to walk, and stuff like that, but it's obviously not enough. When I woke up this morning and went into the bathroom, I looked in the mirror...... my face! I have gained weight in my face. FREAKED me out. Now I'm serious about doing better, but I don't know what all I CAN do. I know what NEEDS to be done, don't get me wrong. I know that I need to eat a good breakfast, decent lunch, fruits and veggies for snacks, no food after 8PM and exercise. I KNOW all that. But it's so much easier said than done. I don't have a whole lot of will-power and pretty much no extra money, so it's not like I can just go stock my fridge w/ fruits & veggies....

Please help! I mean, I know not very many people read this, but if any of you have the slightest suggestion, I'm asking you to PLEASE help me out....

Here or there?

I need opinions! I am starting a series of 7 Digi-scrap kits (One for each of the YW values). I have the first one done and want to post it for free. Should I do it here at this blog or at my old blog? The reason I ask about the old blog is because that is where I used to have almost daily new digi-scrap kits. I haven't done that for like a year, though, so I don't know if anybody actually checks it.....

Coloring Page 1

Ok, so I love to color! But I'm a little old for my kids' coloring books, plus they get boring with such huge areas to color. So I decided to make some using digital scrapbook stuff, brushes, and free clipart. If you would like details or would like to see proper credit on any of these specific pages, let me know, I'm happy to share. Thanks to all those w/ much better sketching talent than I have that have been willing to share their art!

Just click on it and it will open a page w/ the full size image on it. Expect a big hunkin majority of the pages to include paisley. :D
It's only 9 PM and my hubby is asleep on the couch, so I think we're going to retire upstairs. I have some crocheting to do. I'll post pics soon!

Another Christmas idea for hubby

So, I was just looking up date ideas because we might go out tonight and a couple of them will take some preparation, but be SO fun! So maybe I'll make him a date box. One of the dates, I'd like to go around town and take pics, kinda like a scavenger hunt. Then when we GO on the date, I can take pics of him in front of the places. If he doesn't get them all at once, it doesn't really matter much, does it?!

What's this? Me being domestic? *shock*

I made another, YES ANOTHER, yummy recipe tonight.

I call it Breakfast Lasagna
Ingredients:
 sausage
 salsa
 tortillas
 eggs
 milk
 cheese
 sour cream
Preheat oven to 350*
Cook sausage. Drain grease. Add salsa (to taste). Spread 1/3 of it in the bottom of a pan. Empty the rest into a big bowl. Put a layer of tortillas on top of that. Scramble some eggs (I made 2 8x8 pans, so I used an entire dozen eggs). Add milk as you scramble to make it stretch a little further. Spread half of the eggs on top of the tortilla. Add another 1/3 of the meat mixture, then another layer of tortillas. Mix remaining meat sauce and remaining eggs together. Put on top of tortilla layer. Add a layer of cheese. Put in oven 5-10 min, till cheese is melted. When serving, serve w/ sour cream. Green peppers would be yummy in the meat mixture too, but that all depends on how spicy your sausage is.

Enjoy!

Genius Cards

Ok, so here is my super genius idea that I'm so cranking out for my kids' friends Christmas gifts.

Memory games using the Cricut machine. No, I don't have one, and no, it's not 100% necessary, but that's a lot of cutting w/ out. Or you could use the big punches. Or die cut machines. Just to show you what i'm thinking, I'm making a non-cricut tut.

You'll need:

Punch of your choice

Various patterned paper

Solid Cardstock

Glue

Step 1:

Decide how many matches you want. This will depend on the age of the reciever. Let's, for sake of tutorial, say you want 3 matches. Punch out 6 pieces from the cardstock.

 

Step 2: Pick out three different patterned paper. Punch two shapes from each of the patterned papers. Note: if the punch, die cut, or whatever shape you're using isn't symmetrical, you need to make sure the cardstock is the same color on both sides or punch the patterned paper upside down.

 

Step 3: Glue the patterned paper to the cardstock

 

Now you have a set of memory cards! Cute, eh?!

Variations:

Use stickers instead of patterned paper (you can get a book of stickers that repeat themselves from the $ store)

Make marble magnets, but on the bottom of the magnets, place matching stickers. Now it's a memory game to go. Or to play on the fridge.