Buffalo Bill

Here's another card I entered in the State Fair Rubber Stamping division...any occasion. I used my Stampin' Up heat and stick powder over Versamark ink and then added different colors of Pearlex to the buffalo image from Stamp A Mania. I stamped the background with a Magenta background stamp in Very Vanilla Craft ink and then heat embossed with brown powder. I placed super sticky red tape along the bottom of the card and added mixed metal leafing (that stuff is so messy). Finished it off with three copper brads and some golden sheer ribbon.
Hope these posts are working and coming up on their own like I tried to set them up. We'll be back from camping by Sunday. Take care and have a great day!

Just me and you mom...

I hear that every day now and it makes my heart feel so full. Now that Tessa and Jakob are in school, it's just me and Aaron and spiderman. Smile. He'll just turn to me and say, "You be the mom, I'm spiderman." He sure fills my days. So here's a picture commemorating the heart warming "Me and You" days. (The little guy will be here all too soon and then you and me will be three)

Have a whale of a day!

Here's my birthday card entry for the state fair. I used a paint chip with water words on it and then had glittery seaweed coming out of two of the holes. I've got to run and submit my works but I'll come back later and post more details.

I sprayed the background with Olive Glimmer Mist first, then adhered the paint chip over that. I added the MM patterned paper and the polkadot ribbon and brads. Next, I hand cut out my seaweed and stuffed the punch outs with it. I stamped my image from Fishy Friends in black Stazon and then watercolored it in Pumpkin Pie and Tempting Turquoise inks. I then added a layer of opalescent glitter glue on the water parts and smeared around. Lastly, I drew lines of glitter on the seaweed and added Dazzling Diamonds glitter to make it pop. The shrimp and starfish stamps are from Crab & Company.

Oh and guess what I found out today, a little late? The lady from Creative Memories had a falling out with the State Fair and CM is no longer hosting the scrapbooking section. Ladies, our prayers have been answered. Next year baby, I'm back!

Have a great day. I'm off with the family to go camping this weekend. Taking a walk on the wild side.

Aaron's Sweet Lashes

Fun layout of my little baby boy, well, when he was a baby. I love these little epoxy squares. Traced and watercolored the title. Papers are Daisy D's and DCWV.

So, I was visiting Kristy's blog and she was talking about her State Fair entries and I had to get on my soap box about our darn State Fair (entries due Thursday-Sat). This is what I had to say to Kristy...

"You know what's not fair? It's not fair that you actually have good categories at your state fair and that the scrapbooking category is hosted by none other than Creative Memories (don't get me wrong I like CM for some things). So, why do you think this upsets me so, well, let me fill ya in on the details of submitting here in NM.

1. You are NOT allowed to use ANY embellies on your lo that might detract from it being archivally safe (it could fall off and ruin a picture you know).

2. You wouldn't dare try cool, crazy, new techniques on a lo, that's just NOT the CM way.

3. Pretty much as "out there" as the design substance gets is making your own die cut shapes, or putting red dots on the background paper for a chicken pox lo.

4. There's only three categories...celebration of an event, everyday, and heritage. So there you have it. I have entered many a lo in the State Fair and YES, unbelievably I have won a few ribbons and once I even won the purple best of show ribbon, but I'm tired of only choosing and submitting pages because they meet the CM criterian and not submitting MY favorite layouts. I'm done being a conformist.

I will, however, be entering things in the rubber stamping category: they love my crazy, artistic nature...they've never told me I couldn't do something on my own creations. ..I'm raging against the machine. Some year a local sb store might sponsor the category and I'll enter again, a girl can dream can't she."

Hugs,Misty

The above lo would NEVER win a ribbon from the State Fair judges because of the epoxy squares. Oh well, it's still one of my faves.

Poor Nie

I made this card for Stephanie Nielson who was in a plane crash with her husband last week in Arizona. The pilot, unfortunately did not make it, but Nie and her hubby are fighting hard. Here's a link if you'd like to send your well wishes. It's her sister's blog and you can find the hospital's address on the right side bar.

Tessa's First Day of Kindergarten and Our newest family member

Well, it's official. I now have two kiddos in school. Tessa was so excited yesterday about going to school that she couldn't quit saying how excited she was. She was also happy to be wearing the outfit that she bought with her birthday gift card from Sarah. I was happy that I found the back pack and matching lunch bag at a thrift store last year for a whopping $2.99. It was a big suprise for her to get those! I think she forgot to brush her teeth this morning, oops. For lunch today she'll be eating sugar snap peas, watermelon, a ham and cheese sandwich on whole wheat and a pepperidge farm jelly cookie. Her teacher is Mrs. Ebler and she seems very nice. Some how, Tessa scored high at screening (not my doing, I worked WAY less with her than I did with Jakob, she just picks things up more easily...maybe it's being a girl) and is in the advanced reading with Mrs. Bradley (the dreaded teacher, Jakob had her for homeroom in K, ugh, I wish I never had to see her again). Thanks to Shelby for these adorable shoes Tessa wore today. Aaron was being very silly this morning and just wanted to come home and have his OWN snack. This is what happens when your seven year old tries to take a picture of mommy and Tessa...thanks for remaining on spot Tess! Hey big girl...off you go! And, as promised here is the newest addition to our family. We just adopted him from some people that bought a Labrador and I guess they didn't get along, you know, the whole, dog eat rabbit thing. His name is Oreo and he's 3 1/2 years old. Super sweet and LOVES that the kids want to cuddle him and hold him and squeeze him and love him forever. He does have a dry patch of skin I noticed, praying it's nothing more serious than fur mites that will go away once kitten wash is applied. He's a sweet guy.

Baby Announcements

So, I figured I'd better get my booty in gear and make the baby boys birth announcements... well, the fronts of them anyways. I will print the info in blank cards when he arrives and then attach the fronts. I feel good about having at least this in order. A big thanks to Kristy for the "boy tape" it went perfectly here.
Yesterday, I finally made it to take the hospital tour. It's been over three years since I had Aaron and I really did need a refresher, plus, the hospital has been through some remodeling. I'm glad I went because I feel more confident about having me time with my baby right after he's born. She said that they should give us a good HOUR of bonding time before they even weigh him or do any of that other poking and proding. I was suprised by that, but happy because that's what I really wanted. I always thought they HAD to do all that stuff right away, but that's really not the case. I'm getting excited and scared...it hit me like a ton of bricks when I saw those little bundles in the nursery...I'm going to have one of those in a couple of weeks!!!! SHOCK, cry, gulp. The world stood still for a moment. AND although it's pretty late in the game I just might hire myself a doula...I've been debating it for a while...but the lady who gave the tour yesterday is a doula and she was amazing. Travis is a great help, but for my last child it would be nice to have the expert help of a doula...make the birth that much better.
Travis volunteered at the Bishop's storehouse yesterday and also picked us up some more quick oats and regular oats. I was looking at this index card of how many pounds of grains you need per person per year for your food storage and HOLY SMACKEREL-400lbs. Between the five of us, well you do the math. Where do I put it all? Right now I have the leaning tower of food storage boxes in my dining room next to my china cabinet...looks so stylish. UGH!
I hope you all have a wonderful Sabbath day and take care.

What I've been Reading...Blessings Rain Down On Me!

I feel SO, SO, SO blessed. I "met" a wonderful gal online and she asked me if I'd like a CTMH stamp set she got because she doesn't really stamp...now how could I pass up that offer...I jumped for joy and said yes demurely. Heehee. Then the other day this box arrives in the mail and my jaw just dropped. Even Travis was blown away by miss Kristy's generosity. Thank you, thank you, thank you! You know when you just click with some people well that's how it is and I just wish she lived closer so we could do scrappy things together and talk about our Aaron's and our Tessa's. Have a great day everyone! Isn't her card so cute?

Stardust, Neil Gaiman
Book Club
My Grade: B
Super different from the movie it was based on, author tried to end tie up the story way too quickly, I wouldn't have minded 50 more pages if it would have explained things a little better

Savannah from Savannah, Denise Hildreth
Book Club
My Grade: B+
About an angst filled graduate determined to make her own way in the world not off of her beauty queen mother. Personally I thought it was a little boring

Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer
For kicks and because I'm obsessed
My Grade: A-
Last book in the Twilight series. Missed the romantic tension between Bella and Edward that was present in the three prior books. Cool that Bella becomes the super heroine. Not my fav of the series, but I felt the same about the last book of Harry Potter. Not a super page turner for me like the others but enjoyable.

The Giver, Lois Lowry
My Book Club Pick
My Grade: A
Young adult and loved the way the author's "voice" read. Ending a little ambiguous but I will read Messenger soon.

Walkabout, James Vance Marshall
For kicks
My Grade: B-
Odd ending and talks A LOT about native birds of the Australian outback...so much so that I think it distracted from the tale at hand. I kept thinking, "is this a book about survival or a bird watchers book?" Overall an okay read

Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt
For kicks
My grade: B
What is it with these books and their endings. I wanted to know what Jesse thought, I wanted to see him meet up with Winnie again. Great symbolism with the toad, but not enough to push this story over the "B" range for me.

Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson
For kicks
My grade: A-
Good story about the horrors of a high school first year but a little hard to believe that EVERY friend would hate her so much for calling 911 on the party. Overkill on that part...loved the art teacher character...hated the parents. Overall a pretty good read.

Maximum Ride The Final Warning, James Patterson
Because I thought is WAS the LAST book in the series...NOT!
My Grade: D
Don't even bother reading this book, what a waste of time! Doesn't even fit in with the series, no character development...save the planet...oh please...when did this series become a political action committee on the environment. UGH! ( I take care of the planet, but this book was like a bait and switch). HORRIBLE. I do, however, recommend the first book, Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment, for young readers. It's a great story line. Even the second and third are pretty okay.

The Tiger Rising, Kate DiCamillo
For Kicks
My Grade: A
A sad story but a decent read. I really felt for the children in this book.

Fly away flutter by.

I made this card for a dear friend. I hope she enjoyed it. Stamps are Inkadinkado in Pumpkin Pie ink. I've got to run to a book club meeting. Toodoloo.
Have a great day.

Thanks Nat...I almost peed my pants!

So thanks to my friend Natalie, I stumbled across this blog called Cake Wrecks...pretty funny stuff...but this particular post really did MAKE ME LAUGH 'TIL I CRIED. My kids were all looking at me like I was a crazy nut. I needed a good laugh. It's a bit crude, but that's truly not the funny part, it's the way the guy tells the story abou the cake below the picture. Oh my word. Please enjoy.
FIREMAN CAKE STORY

Eggplant Parmigiana

So mine doesn't truly look like this, I borrowed the image from Bobby Flay. Smile. I'm just going to go through and tell you where I've changed the recipe around and hopefully you'll get the gist of it.
Olive Oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1 med onion
2 16 oz cans of diced tomatoes or fresh if you'd like
1/2 tsp of oregano
1/2 tsp of basil (I used fresh from my garden)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 eggs ( I needed three)
1 lg eggplant ( I used 2 medium) sliced into 1/4 inch slices
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1 8 oz package of mozarella cheese sliced into 1/4 inch slices (who do they think they're kidding?!?! I used a pound to do my two layers)
CRUSTING for EGGPLANT
1 cup dried bread crumbs (THIS IS NOT ENOUGH BREAD CRUMBS, however, I have always used crushed Ritz or Townhouse crackers, just put them in the blender and whalah! I'd say about two sleeves would cover this much eggplant. I like an even coating)
I also add some Italian seasoning, onion powder, and salt to my crusting mixture.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Dip each slice of eggplant into eggs and then coat with crumbs. Place on olive oiled cookie sheet and bake until golden brown in places on top (make sure it's tender. I like to turn my eggplant slices midway and cook for approx 10-15 minutes total).

Meanwhile, saute onions and garlic in a pan with a little olive oil. When onions are limp, add tomatoes, salt, pepper, oregano and basil. Simmer this until eggplant is done roasting.

Layer: Eggplant to cover bottom of 9x13 pan (it's okay to overlap the eggplant), 1/2 tomato mixture, 1/2 parmesan, 1/2 mozarella slices. REPEAT (use up all the rest of your eggplant on this layer then top with every thing else that's left)

Bake in oven at 450 until cheese is golden...about 15-20 minutes

ENJOY! We sure did.

Make me smile color inspiration

I made this card for a someone who has recently blessed my life. You should check out KWerner's color inspiration this week! SWEET!
For some reason I feel drained today. I took Jakob to school and laid back down in my bed...so tired. Tessa and Aaron played army guys and about 45 minutes later Tessa came in to tell me that I had been asleep for "a long time". So I got up and put in a load of laundry. I probably just need to get to bed earlier tonight. I made a YUMMY eggplant parmigiana for dinner last night...recipe forthcoming. The kids didnt' even complain last night... Jakob had seconds and Tessa kept asking for more, more, more. I think the last time I made it I cut the eggplant too thick and the taste was a little overpowering. Have a great day!
Ruffled Bloom: Stampendous
Paper: Basic Grey
Punch: EK
Ink: Real Red, Basic Grey, Basic Black
Platinum Stickles
Silver bead

BTW you have to check out this link...GRID PAPER the possibilities are endless on what kind of cool grid papers you can create and use in your own scrappin. A tip though: don't print until after you've viewed your creation, that way you can go back and adjust line thicknesses and colors if you want to.
Hugs,
Misty

MOJO Monday 49

Julee Tillman's Mojo Monday Sketch is awesome. Splitcoast stampers keeps deleting it from my gallery there so I thought I'd post my entry here.

Jakob's First Day of Second Grade!

It was so super foggy this morning. I had a hard time with fuzzy shots. Oh well, he's off and at his first day of second grade. Oh, how I will miss him, well, maybe not the picking on the little brother thing, but it's only a half day so we'll see him soon enough. He practically jumped out of bed this morning when I went in to wake him up, so cute. He'll have a ham sandwich on whole wheat with fresh mozarella cheese, lettuce from our garden and tomato; raw almonds, yogurt covered pretzels and a peach sliced to perfection for his lunch. He'll probably end up getting chocolate milk though, sneaker. He wore his brand new IRON MAN shirt that he's been waiting two weeks to wear and he told me he wants to wear it again tomorrow, ummm, how to explain that one. New shoes which will most likely need to be replaced in three months- living in the "country" does that- or maybe it's just boys in general. Again he's sitting at the back of the classroom because he's so tall...I wonder if this is a sign of what will always be. Tessa cried AGAIN because she didn't want to leave him. I made her give him a hug and pulled her away with promises that she'll be starting Kindergarten on Monday and will be able to stay. I can't believe how red his hair looks in this picture!

Get to work little guy!

RAK from Kim

I'm so excited to say that I received this little jewel from a super sweet gal I "met" online. These goodies traveled all the way from South Africa!!!! I love the card, especially cuz it has orange in it and that's my fave. I am going to make up some sweet thangs with these primo products. Thanks Kim!!!!! You ROCK!

Tessa's Hair

I did a very bad and ugly and devastating thing this morning...I accidentally reformatted my CF card and lost the pictures I had taken of Tessa getting her hair cut on Friday. I was so bummed but luckily I didn't lose much more than that. Almost everything else had been downloaded. She loves her "new hair". I'm happy for her and for me because it will be a lot easier for me on school mornings...coming up soon.
I'm off to run errands.
Have a great day.
Made this super simple thank you card for the lady that cut our hair. She's so sweet. Love her.

Yard work is for the birds...

Well, I'm almost all the way done with the project I started two days ago...my back is killing me as are my shoulders and ribs. I feel AWESOME. Ugh. Sarcasm. My body feels like it went through the ringer but I do feel really good about getting things done outside. We have three acres of high desert weeds SMILE, but we're working on it. Landscaping out here means doing a little bit at a time and trying to plant things that will survive the pretty hot summers and really snowy winters (the snow does melt fast though). We've had a ton of rain and the weather has been super for working out doors. My dh, bless his heart, mowed about an acre and a half with his push mower today. After which he informed me once again that we need a riding mower...I KNOW! Anyone got a couple thousand laying around? Just kidding.
So, I'm beat and I haven't had time to do anything crafty or scrappy, but I did make this card a few days ago for the store. Remember, I was on my masking kick. I suppose it'll do. I love ORANGE PEEL STICKLES! YUMMMO!

So, we got to go on a real live date tonight. We went to eat at this amazing cafe. The food is so good there and Travis loved it all. We were going to see a movie, but I just couldn't fathom sitting through 2 hours and 40 minutes of Batman when my body just wants it's bed...so we went to Home Depot instead and tried to pick out some landscaping rock for the front. I also got myself a stylin' new pair of gardening gloves since my last pair is spent. Well, I'm off to finish my Sunday School lesson, take care and have a super night.

Back to scrappin'

I would really like to get this summer's vacation scrapped and finito by the time this bambino is here. That means I'd better get my bum in gear. I decided to use a K&I memories theme papers so it would make it easier to coordinate and I might actually finish if I don't have to spend a hour pickin' out my papers.

This lo is of my little guy havin' a blast on the beach. Gotta love those shades that his Aunt Clory gave him. Too cool.

I just love taking pictures of my dh walking with the kiddos, warms the cockles of my heart (btw, what are heart cockles anyway?) I accidentally dropped the stamp on this one and hd to make do, oh well, I just have to tell Kim that, yes, sometimes doing artsy stuff messes up my layouts, live and learn...live and learn.

Workin' in the yard today, anyone wanna come over and help?!?!? Didn't think so.

Take care and have a great day!

Keep on Rollin'

A manly card for a manly man?!?! I don't know. It's for the store. The images are from Inkadinkado. I colored in with Zig Markers.

So, I went out to the garden to take pictures and it just looks like a jungle. When it was first watered some of our seeds moved down slope and so we ended up with carrots and lettuce ALL over the place.

Things are doing well though. We've got pumpkins, squash, ONIONS, chives, LETTUCE, CORN, carrots, peppers, maybe an eggplant, cucumbers and some watermelon.

Make a Wish...my wish is for him to get rid a dis...

Just a card for the store. Pun Fun stamp set with Whimsy wheel in the background. Make a wish is from the So Many Sayings set. Bird is colored in with Real Red, Cameo Coral, and Tempting Turquoise inks. Whimsy is wheeled in Cameo Coral ink. Papers are American Crafts, CK and Daisy D's.

I had a question about the "Wheat" stamp image from a couple of posts ago. It's from a HERO ARTS set of stamps called Woodland Leaves and Grasses.

Went to the doctor today and and baby is growing great. His heartbeat sounds like a racehorse. Love hearing that. Not to mention that he kicks like a racehorse!

PS I need some help with my wonderful husband, he thinks he's got the greatest facial hair going on. When I recently downloaded the pictures from my camera there were three of him with various "hair dos". How do I get him to see that this is a HAIR DON'T. I am so over his bushy goatee.

Anyways, I'm just hormonal so you just have a great day.

Under de sea...

I was just having a little bit of fun with my daughter's CuttleKid machine. I don't know what sentiment to use for this card yet, but I was thinking about, "Have a snappy birthday" and adding a party hat to the crab, just like the SU set. I just die cut the images in various patterned papers and then added some dazzling diamonds glitter.

Inspired

Thanks to Jenn over at Stamp your Heart Out for inspiring me today. She had such a lovely design which was also inspired by someone else. Believe it or not this is the first card I've ever masked off. It was fun.
I ended up using my 40% off coupon to buy a circle punch. WHOO HOO. Nothing exciting I know but they are always handy to have around. I'm going to try and scrap some more today but I want to take a walk with the family too. Take care and have a great day!

Beach Fun With Tessa

This is a two page lo but I'm still finishing up the journaling on the other page. I'm trying to get a lot of my vacation pics onto paper. It's really hard to decide how they should be ordered so I went with...here's a couple of pages of Tessa...a couple of Jakob...a couple of Aaron... the cousins...the campsite. So on and so forth. I think my header page will be random images that don't fit with a particular "theme".

Cardstock:DCWV

Patterned Paper: K&I Memories

Glitter: Platinum Stickles

Alphabet: Stampin' Up Jumbo Outline alpha filled in with a water brush and ink and stickles added over top.

I still feel that this page needs a little somethin' extra...we'll see.

My dh has a work picnic today and so I've got to get ready and head out to that and I was planning on actually using my 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby today.

You @ 5 & Creamy Chicken Anyone?

This is little miss priss, Tessa, she turned five in April and I wanted to document some of her favs at this time in her young life. I love how she always strikes a pose for the camera or as soon as she sees the lens she SMILES!
Polka and flower paper are CK. I used my giant edged scissors to make the pinking edge around the main image. I inked the edges with Choco Chip ink. Alpha letters and ribbon are from American Crafts. Flower stamps are Stampin' up with punched circles added over top. The journaling circle is from See D's stamps, also stamped in CC ink. I paper pierced holes in a swirly design under the "5" which is from K&I Memories alphabet soup. I think that's it!

This feeds my family of five and THEN SOME.

RECIPE: Easy peasy in the crock pot. Put one stick of butter, four chicken breasts cut into bite sized pieces and two packets of Italian dressing mix (the dry mix to make your own Italian dressing, I used Good Seasons) in your crock pot on high for two to three hours (this is good to do while your at church). Meanwhile leave two 8oz packages of cream cheese ( I used reduced fat) on the counter to soften. After you see that chicken is cooked OR when you get home, remove the chicken from the crock pot and add in the cream cheese and two cans of cream of chicken soup. Stir 'til smooth. Add chicken back in and cook for however long you want to on low or for and hour or two on high. Serve over rice and I SWEAR no one will be disappointed. Great for gatherings or as a comfort food. This is one of my husbands and kids favorites, not one little piece of rice is left on their plates.

Have a great day!

Popped- 34 weeks

I feel like I've popped...it's getting so hard just to get out of my own darn bed these days. Not to mention I feel like my bum is a mile wide. SIX more weeks of growing...CAN I DO IT? Ugh. This little boy is certainly worth it, well, he'd better be,.smiles. Gosh, I need a hair cut...and soon. Thursday is registration for school, my two oldest will be on their way to second grade and kindergarten respectively. Crazy how fast the ride of life can roll at times. Everything is coming together though, school supplies a couple of new things to wear. I'm wondering if I will ever fit back into my size 6's after this bambino...hehehe.

I still haven't gotten my copy of Breaking Dawn yet...I'm trying to be real patient with Amazon. I guess that's enough rambling for today. I've got a baby shower tomorrow morning and a follow up appt for me in the pm...but I do have a super cute card to post as well as some vaction layouts I've finished up. Take care and have a super day. Ooh and had yummy (evil) creamy chicken with rice for dinner tonight. I will post the recipe soon. So easy and SO GOOD!

One more Wedding...

I've got one more wedding to attend this summer and hopefully the craziness will be over. I wanted to do something summery and upbeat with this one. I love my Jumbo Outline Alphabet. Flower is cut from Heidi Grace papers. Flocked paper from Costco. I used my waterbrush to fill in the letters with Taken with Teal, River Rock, and Pumpkin Pie inks by Stampin' Up! I want to WEAR these colors every day!

I hope to go on the hospital tour tomorrow morning but I might have to wait until next week...we'll see...time is slippin' by.

Have a super one.

Misty

Sprinkled with Love

Good morning everyone! I just wanted to get up on the right side of the bed this morning. I only woke up twice to pee last night. Sorry, TMI. I received this image from Jill a while ago and decided to use it for another wedding card. My SU order came in yesterday and with it my So Swirly wheel which I used for the background in Whisper White ink and over the image in River Rock ink. I used my water brush to color in the image with Taken with Teal ink and Old Olive ink. The button is from FooFaLa. Today begins the tax free weekend for buying school supplies, clothing and gadgets. Do you think it will be a madhouse? I'm sure it will be. I need to go to Costco, get some dog food and get some other assorted goodies. Have a great day.