For a friend...

It is always hard when your friends move away. When I was growing up, my dad was in the Navy and it was usually me who was moving. We lived in 7 different places before I was in 7th grade! I always had numerous pen pals and I guess that is where my fascination with stationary and cards began. Last month one of my best friends from college left the great state of Virginia for new opportunities in the also great state (not as great as Virginia, but who is??) of Ohio. I have made the card to send her along with a little box of goodies.

I also got lucky enough to have a business trip in Dayton, OH last week. Do you know how thrilled I was to learn that Dayton and Columbus are only and hour away?? Well, that sealed the travel deal for me and I pulled off the BIGGEST surprise by showing up on her doorstep. Her husband was in on the plan with me - but she had no idea. I loved it and got to spend almost 24 hours with them.

Here is the card I am sending:

I used a Stampin up! set (Branch Out) for the tree, bird & swing. The sentiment is from a Papertrey Ink's set (Boards & Beams).

I used SU! Read red, chocolate chip, black, and various shades of green for the colors. The button is also from Papertrey Ink's vintage

button collection.

My favorite part of the card is definitely the "rope" I used for the swing! I decided to try and use twine (also from Papertrey ink!) and using an embroidery needle was able to sew the twine on to look like rope! I really do like the way it turned out. What do you think?

Recycling at its craftiest!

I have to say, most crafters out there are natural recyclers! We save everything, always with the notion that one day I know I am going to use that again. Well, I also have 2 sons and boy do they grow out of clothes SO FAST. Everytime I am bagging things up to send out to Goodwill, I think - gosh this is nice stuff, how can I use this??

I finally found another way to recycle old jeans. I posted pictures of the jeans purse I made awhile back - here now is the Ohh la la Denim French Memo Board

SO, do you have any creative ideas on how to recycle your kids old clothes into beautiful craft projects??

Latest Creation

Months have gone by and I haven't posted any of the stuff I have been doing. This is the latest. Jon has finally grown out of his size 5's (yes, he is almost 8). So, instead of sending them off to good will, I cut them up and made purses out of them! This is the first one I have completed. When I showed Todd, he said that it is probably the best thing I have made. Here are a couple more shots...

What do you think? Cute, huh? Well the kids are fighting and the dog needs to pee - I better head out!

February has gotten me into the total organization mood - all those great mags that come out in January must have done it!

I have to take pictures of my new crafting space. It is almost where I want it to be. Just a couple more cabinets and I am good! Both the boys rooms have been re-organized and really look great. I am starting to get the home office together and I will post photos of everything once I am done.

I recently uploaded several old pictures to my facebook page - here is a really great one -

this is me and my big brother - circa 1970??

Anwyay, I will be better about posting. More to come soon.

New Year - time to try new things

OK - it has only been what, 7 months since I have posted...I am going to try and be better about that. We will see. I have many new things I am going to be using/trying this year -

I got a Cricut for Christmas. I hope to make some fun new projects with that.
I got a mini stepper for Christmas. Let's hope I can make my muffin top dissapear.

So far this break (yeah I took 2 weeks off of work!!!) I made curtains for the den, a cute little purse (pictures to come) from my 7yr old's old jeans, and I addressed birthday cards for everyone all the way through May!

Has anyone else out there tried Tastebook.com? I am going to be trying to create my own cookbook from all the recipe cards and written pieces of paper rolling around in my cabinet. It's pretty easy and I hope the results are as cool as they look.