New Crop Dates!!

Oh it's that time of year again, time to start having "Croppin' for Cougar" events. Yep every year I host 3 to 4 12 hour crops as fundraisers for Garden City Public schools. This years dates are: Jan 24th for the Girls XC team, March 21st for Project Graduation and May 9th to raise funds for a new Track. Our Superintendent is a close friend and when she asked I just couldn't say no.

All events run from 9 to 9 and are held in the Garden City H.S. Cafeteria. Cost is $35 a person. I can seat 80 croppers with comfort at big round tables. You get lots of elbow room. Oh and I have some buddies who are vendors that come and set up tables and run make-n-takes. I also have a very large Sizzix diecut station for you to use all day. I promise to feed you well and supply beverages all day. We also run a raffle table with some pretty fantastic baskets for you to try and win.

You need to gather a couple friends and come join us for a day away with the girls. Yes you do deserve it. Tell hubby it's your turn.

Hope to see you there. And spread the word. We have a great time.

Thanks,

Cindy

A gift for Kaiti...shhhh

And what's a girl to do when her Sister emails her 3 days before Christmas and asks "do you have time to make a Layout for me?" A real scrapbooker says "Yes I do!" Kaiti wrote this awesome poem for Lit class and it was screaming out to be put on a layout. So here it is:





The best part was when Kaiti called me at 12:30 last night to say she LOVED the layout and was thrilled I had done this for her. She was pretty cute late last night. Makes you feel good. I had a good time doing this LO, something a little different for me.

Merry Christmas Everyone.

In the Mail! Feeling good.

Well last night I was really productive. I took the boy to hockey practice and while there I addressed all my Christmas cards. Done! Stamps go on and they are in the mail. This years card features 2 photos from our trip to Wisconsin this past summer. We were on our way home and spent the night in St.Ignance in a little campground, that had a view of the bridge. We went for a walk down by the water and took these shots. We look like we were having a really good time but in reality we were being eatten alive by misquitos. We were laughing and trying to get the heck out of there and back into the safety of our camper. I had to include a shot of our newest family member, Spencer. So he's in one photo. And then just a cute shot of "B".



I love getting Christmas photo cards from our friends. It lets us see how everyone is growing up and maybe what they did that year. For some of our family and friends our card is the one time of year they see us. I wish I could write one of those funny Christmas letters but alas it's not in me. There's still time you can get yours out today.

AMR blog challenge

Well thank you Heather. She challenged us on the AMR blog to do a Christmas past LO. I recently picked up a Basic Gray Christmas pad, so I picked out 2 papers I liked and went for it. I found a group of 1968 Christmas photos in the photo box I swiped from my Parents house at Thanksgiving. Enter the scanner and instant photos. I actually put this together in about 2 hrs, including scanning and printing. I'm pretty sure it's 1968 but I could be wrong.


I added a journaling tag with some prima flowers and a brad. I decided to keep with the older looking theme and inked the edges of all the papers and tag. My title is a Making Memories rub on. Layout complete.



I'm hoping to be crafty again in the next few days. The December Daily Album is still in the works. It's not too late to catch up and get it done.

Cozy Sunday Night

Well we had a very chilly Sunday here. Rob and Brendan had to get the snow blower out and clean off the drive. They took Spencer out with them and when they finished they let him run a bit. He loves to take off into the neighbors yard then play chase when it's time to come in. Brendan finally caught him and dragged him in by the collar. He likes the snow. I can't wait till it reaches his belly and then watch him run in it.

Brendan had a lazy day. Spent most of it right here on his couch. He did find enough energy to go to Hockey practice. But after a hot shower and Chinese he was ready to veg again.

Rob's idea of a chilly sunday night is to light a fire. Our first one of the season. There's nothing like a fire and a funny movie. We watched Anchor Man and laughed so hard we cried. This is one of the few things we look forward to when winter arrives. Cozy fires and a good movie. But I could live with just the movie and NO freezing cold weather.

It's Friday!

Well just a little something to get our friday going. I found this little cutie at Jo's for half off. I think I paid $6 for it. I just fell in love with the little truck and tree. It reminded me of one of my favorite stamps from SU. Truly I'm a pick-up truck woman at heart.

Well being that it's Friday I must be getting ready to head to the Ice Rink. And that is true. Today's game is in Burton, just east of Flint. It will take us about 90 minutes to get there with traffic. It should be exciting. We played this team twice last weekend and lost 2 but with lots of excitement both on and off the ice. I missed it all as I was Up North but I'll recap it for you. It seems one of our little lovelies trip a kid behind the play, the ref's missed it, and their Coach went ballistic. He got booted from the game and took the action verbally around the end of the rink. Well he got into it with a couple of our parents and a fist fight started. From what I'm told about 20 people were involved and the cops were called. It even involved 2 Mom's, the Mom from our team decked the other lady. The cops saw everything on the security tapes. 20 tickets were issued and our Mom had assault & battery charges filed against her. Craziness!! The next night we played there and the cops were on hand just in case. I can't wait to see what happens tonight.

My god I love hockey! Have a great weekend. I'll let ya know if there's any excitement.

Just a little pick me up.

Well today I'm feeling like crap. I should be finishing some scrapbook pgs for a friend and sewing nameplates on jerseys, but alas I'm sitting on the couch. My face feels like it's going to explode and the Kleenex box is now only half full. So I took a couple pics of my favorite Christmas decoration. I put it up today. I'm hoping it makes me feel better. I made this about 12 years ago. It was one of those multi year projects.



It's all in the details. Santa holding a branch with gold lamay stars. His mitten covered hand pulls a tree. While his sleeves and coat are trimmed in white fur.



The border is little Christmas trees all machine quilted about the edges. Time consuming but one of our favorite Holiday decorations.




Well this post is making me feel a little better. Maybe it's time to hit the shower and get some work done. More holiday decorations to follow.

Just for Kaiti

So today I worked on a 2 yr old wall hanging. No I haven't finished it. Who are you kidding. I'm realistic, it may take me 2 more years. I think I'll take it home and mess around with it. My Mom would be amazed it I actually finished it. This is the reason I scrapbook instead of quilt. Quilting projects take too long.

We also started our christmas pants. Kaiti and I both bought fun Christmas fleece at Jo's Wednesday night. We or let me say I, cut hers out and stitched them together.




Our favorite part of the pants is the zipped pocket. They fit her great, I hope mine fit as well.



I love our crafty post Thanksgiving adventures. This year it was all about fabric. My Sister Debbie finished new curtains for her kitchen. They are awesome. Great job Biffy.

Black Friday Shopping!!

Ahh a successful shopping excursion. See what happens when your at Wally World by 5:20am, you get your Cricut Expression!! Yeah!! We really did well. We came home with 30 movies (all between $2 and $13), 3 2gb SD cards, 6 4gb flash drives, 1 $49 printer, 1 Wii Rock Band game, a variety of clothes and misc. other things. Me, I'm just about done with my shopping, my Mom's just about done and my sister Debbie: who knows. Kaiti went but didn't make it...she fell asleep on the way to Kohls (40 min drive) and slept till we finished at Old Navy. We finished with a quick trip into JC Penny in Downtown Petoskey. Isn't it a pretty place?




It snowed most of the day. Sometimes really heavy. The trees were loaded and so pretty. I snapped a few pics off while driving just so I could share.



Tomorrow is a craft day here. We never made it to Jo's today. First time ever. Of course we went Wednesday night and saved $103 with coupons and sale items. We're such good shoppers. I started working on a wall hanging I began 2yrs ago. It might take another 2yrs to finish but we'll see what I accomplish tomorrow. Here's a peak:



Yes I have started to use a blanket stitch to attach the applique to the block. And now my neck hurts from leaning over and guiding around all the curves. I need advil and pumpkin pie. Later

GOBBLE, GOBBLE!

Well who doesn't like to eat. We certainly do. Patsy was up early and had the bird in the oven by 9. Good girl. When fully loaded our table was a sight to be seen.



Ahh I just love carrots in brownsugar and butter, mashed potatoes and gravy,



stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls with butter,greenbean casserole, cranberry sauce,



and to finish it all off a little jello-marshmello salad.



This holiday is all about food and family. We shared our table with my Aunt Tootie, Uncle Doug and cousin Keith. I am truly thankful for my family. Enjoy yours today. Tomorrow we shop at 5am.

My fingers are tired...

I've spent 2 days sewing name plates and league patches on 21 hockey jerseys. I am unable to count the number of times I stabbed myself with a pin. I do know that I bled more then once yesterday. I think if given a choice I'd sew the patches and skip the name plates, they were a pain as the fabric of the jerseys is slinky. I certainly hope my hockey team appreciates all the time and blood it took to do this for them. My poor captain has been begging to have his "C" put on his jersey. So Corey this "C's" for you! He's a great Captain, Coach couldn't have picked a better guy.


I'm so glad to be done with the black jerseys. I can hardly wait to do the whites. Now that this project is finished I can get on to more crafty adventures.

Tomorrow I head North with my sister Debbie and niece Kaiti to spend Turkey Day with my Parental Units.

Blog Candy Alert!

Oh my! One of my AMR buddies posted this link for a blog candy give away. Awesome stuff. Heres what shes giving;



To enter you just need to go to her blog: http://passionforcrafts.blogspot.com/ and follow the instructions. I did will you? I hope I win. Wish me luck! Thanks.

Birthday Boy!

Well yesterday was my son Brendan's 11th Birthday. Where has the time gone. He had a pretty quiet birthday. I bought him his favorite lunch, subway 6" turkey on white with mayo. I can tell he's growing up, he's added cheese to his sandwich. Being the good Mom I am I took him chocolate chip cookies to school for a snack with his friends.

We took him to dinner, his choice, Red Robin of course. We've been going there for years now. He likes the birthday song they sing you. Goofy kid. We had lots of family join us, Mr & Mrs Phillips, Aunt Debbie, Uncle Dave, Kaiti, Derek, Aunt Teresa, Margaret, and Andrew. He made out with cards, cash and a gift card to Toys R Us. Which he promptly spent on the way home. We gave him his gift last week so he could use it on the road trip, a blue Ipod nano. Then when he got home Marybeth was there and she gave him a goody bag full of Pixie sticks and Wall-E. Not a bad day.

I love this picture of him. My friend Lindsay took it over the weekend, while he was skating in Fairview. I can't wait to scrap this one. He shares his special day with my Mom. When you have child #9 and there's 2 more on the way, you have to do it in a lasting way. She'll never forget his birthday. So Happy Birthday to Mom too.

Long Road Trip!

Well our first long road trip is now behind us. We played 2 games in Chicago (lost both) and then jumped on the bus at 5am sunday morning to head to Fairview Ill., just outside St. Louis, for game 3. What a game it was. We played our best game of the weekend and won in a shoot out. The trip went smoothly. We had no issues in the hotel, drunk parents don't count, we are not responsible for them. We had well behaved boys in the restaurants and a very clean bus the whole trip. I don't think we'll being eatting at a Texas Corral again, we had 4 kids become sick and throw-up on their chicken, one of those kids was Brendan. We had a couple injuries and a couple EJ's that resulted in players having to sit a game but thats all a part of hockey.



Brendan had a blast. He got to know the guys and become comfortable with them. When we arrived at the rink in Fairview we had about an hour and a half till warmups. The ice was empty so we asked if Brendan could skate. The guy gave us some skates in his size, he borrowed gloves and a stick from Kurtis and off he went. He entertained everyone with his Charlie Conway immatation (from the Mighty Ducks). Circle the puck twice, kick it with your foot, triple deek and shoot. He scored and showed off his victory dance. Great way to hype everyone up before the game.



The ride home was soooo long. It's about 9 hours. We arrived back in Plymouth at 2:15am to find our cars covered in snow and ice. Burrrr After unloading the bus and dropping Lindsay off we arrived home at 3. Brendan died quickly, me well it took a bit. We woke up at 11:15 monday morning. Just enough time for Brendan to eat and go to school for the afternoon. Just think we only have to make 2 more of these trips. February is gonna suck.

A Layout finished!

It always feels good to finish a layout. This one has been on my desk for a week. I'm not sure why, all it needed was journaling. A couple quick lines and "wahlaa" done. I think my son really enjoyed playing flag football this year. It was something new and fit into our schedule perfectly. He only played defense but thats ok. He made a couple key plays during the season and hopefully learned enough that next year he can play a bigger role. His team did very well. They finished 2nd in regular season and were scored upon in the closing minute of championship game. They lost by 5 points. A real bummer. But many good memories. His next adventure is basketball. Hopefully they have a similar schedule and it won't conflict with hockey.

Well I'm off for the weekend to Chicago. The Ice Dogs have a 3 game road trip. I hope we play well. Wish us luck.

What happened to my desk??

I sat down to make 2 quick cards and this is what happened to my work surface. I craft bomb exploded! Holey moley how does it happen so fast? Thank God it only took a minute to clean back up.



So today I created 2 really cute birthday cards for two of my favorite people. They also happen to be born on the same day. Look at that. The first one is for my Mom. I used a sketch from the Cuttlebug challenge blog. Loving the patch work quilt pattern on the bottom. It reminds me of Patsy "the Quilter".



This card it for my kid, Brendan. He will turn 11 on Tuesday. Where did the time go? We are giving him his gift tonight. He gets a "blue" ipod nano. Lucky Boy! His old MP3 player won't sync with the computer any more, much to Mom's dismay, nor will it hold the music. It keeps crashing and all the music is "Poof" gone.



I'm so proud of myself. I do not consider myself a card maker, but these were so fun to make. I think I will be making many more in the future.

Happy Crafting!

Crop till you Drop Make-n-take

Kelly gave me the task of creating a layout for this past weekends Crop till you Drop event at the Scrapbook Zone. She said use the Reminise Fall paper line and some cardstock and go for it. So While at work on wednesday I did. This is what I came up with. I had fun with the cricut and my 12x12 printer at home to create the title.



So when I got home and looked at my photos, I decided I needed 2 more photo mats. Well when that happens you must edit your layout. I bumped the big mat to 5x7 and added 2 more 3x3 mats. I had some great photos to use that I'd taken last week on one of those Indian Summer days. I went to work the long way and drove down Hines Drive. Beautiful day, great photos at Nankin Mills. Here's my version of the layout.



I will miss those last few warm days. It looks like winters here already as it's been snow flurrying all day. I'm already looking forward to Easter.

Kaiti's challenge LO

I found a website called "Kids can Scrap" It's a challenge blog for kids that scrapbook. So after we went to see HS Musical 3 we thought Kaiti should give it a try. She found some photos she wanted to use, paper and dove right in. Here's what she created. (Just to clarify things Kaiti is my 12 yr old Niece.)
I love it. She did a great job. The pattern paper was some sale paper I picked up at the store this summer and die cut myself. She wrote about herself and added a poem. Here is her Journaling:

Hi I’m Kaiti and I am a 12 year old girl. I love theater singing and acting I am currently in Westside story Grease and Sussical jr. I am a very outgoing adventures and young spirited girl. I love my friends and of course my computer. Scrapooking with my aunt is fun. (She has all the good stuff). I also love writing. My teachers and friends say I’m really good at it. Here’s a poem: I hope you all like me. My family says I’m very funny. But don’t look me in the eye, or you’ll die of laughter on the inside.

I'm oh so proud of her. Her first scrapbook challenge layout. She wants to keep trying these as they are posted. Their we address is: www.kidscanscrap.com

A Christmas Wonderland!

We have a wonderful tradition in our family. Every year the first weekend in November the girls all get together to go shopping. We meet my Mom in Saginaw and spend 2 days shopping and eating and just hanging out. It's a blast. This year we changed it up a bit. We met in Frankenmuth at Bronners. Bronners is the Biggest Christmas store you'll ever see. I forget the exact size but truly it's huge. With the most wonderful displays. I took some pictures to share.


The details in each figure are marvelous. I took this one of the Bambi because it has tiny quilt patterns in it. Amazing. There was a whole group of figurines like this. The Artist has amazing talent.
I also found some statues that reminded me of my Mom. Here Mrs. Claus is quilting and Mr Claus is helping out, yep by taking a nap. Sounds like Virgil to me. lol


And this one was for me. Mrs. Claus is Scrapooking. MInd you it's the old fashion way, before we discovered what acid and lignin did to pictures but she'll learn. She's clipping pictures from a magazine.
One trip there every few years is just fine with me. The place was jam packed. We were only in there about an hour and in that time frame it filled up. You could barely turn around without bumping into someone. It was fun for a short time and then I needed to get out of there. So we were off to Bavarian Inn for lunch. Frankenmuth is also famous for its chicken dinners. But we did lunch, it's cheaper and just as filling.


Our girls had a good time. We even got them to pose for a group photo. Lauren's on the left, then Kaiti and Sam's on the right. Giggling and laughing the whole time. I really enjoy this tradition. It's one I hope we continue for years to come.

An Army of Gobblins

Halloween is always the kids favorite day of the year. Well it ranks right there with Christmas Day. This year he decided to be an Army Guy, imagine that. Face all camo'd up and everything. A quick trip ti Halloween USA netted 3 tubes of the right colors and we were off to hide the boy in Camo. He decided to start at home, headed out the door and found his buddy Ashton and his little brother Logan. Oh lucky me, their Mom offered to take B with them and I got to sit on the porch with Rob and Spencer and pass out candy at our house. We had very few kids this year. We live on a street with a lot of houses that don't turn on their lights so the kids skip our side of the street. So sad. It means I don't buy alot of candy. We headed to my sisiter Debbie's aout 8 a went out again over there. Derek kills me he put on his girl costume again. Blonde curley wig, jeans skirt and a tank top that read "you can't afford me". I almost cry every year, the kids too funny.

I'm glad it's over, now we move onto the best holiday of the year....Thanksgiving! It's all about food and family. I'm ready to head Up North and do a whole lot of nothing for 4 days.

Well Tuedsay is the big day. Elections! Thank God. I'm ready for the political adds and phone calls to STOP. Please go vote. If you don't you have no right to bitch for the next 4 years.

Crafty Night...

Oh what fun. I like to listen to the tv while I scrap. It keeps me company. But the cable outet in my room doesn't work. Well it didn't anyway, till this afternoon. The poor guy can about 2 and was here till 4. He had to crawl up in the attic...over the duct work....and thru the blown in insulation. Ya it took a while but it was worth it. We also go a digital box for the main tv, now we can do PPV. Brendan rented "Bill & Ted's excellent adventure" great movie.


My sister Debbie and her kids came over tonight. Derek had a project to finish and they needed my craft stash. It was fun, I should have taken a picture of his cereal box it was cute. But Kaiti and I had fun making ATC's. She didn't know what they were till I told her. She caught on quick. Made 2 of her own to trade with friends at school. She wants to come over soon and make some more. They're quick and easy, instant gratification. Heres what we did, Kaiti made the bottom 2.

I also worked on a challenge LO from the AMR board. It's called a BAM challenge, "a Book about me." Challenge #9 was to scrap your husband/significant other. I started here because I knew I had a couple good pictures laying around. These were from 4th of July 1999. Notice the small black fur ball in the right picture. Yes thats Magenta when she was just about 12 weeks old. She's no longer with us. She developed cancer this summer and had to be put to sleep. I've stumbled across a few photos of her lately, I miss her, she was a great dog! I have another LO half finished on my desk. Hoping to finish it Thursday. My cousin is coming tomorrow. I'll be busy. Aren't we cute in these photos?? So much younger and thinner/more hair. lol Gotta love the man!