happy day!

Yesterday was hubby's birthday. So I had the joy of making him a cake to celebrate with. Along with dinner!! The frosting was supposed to be red... turned out more pink and now it looks very orange in the picture! Since it was pink, I turned it into a Valentine themed cake complete with sprinkles. It worked and was good!!

Three candles... one for each of them to blow out! Worked well.

My Alien friend has started a challenge on her blog to play along with her while she creates an exploding box. I jumped right in and am having a blast. Posting what I have created so far to show her that I am playing and not fibbing. I do believe fibbing to an Alien involves probing which I do not wish to be subjected to!! There should be one more layer and then some amazing fun of embellishing this box. Very excited to see it completed!

I went to Michaels today to pick up a bone folder as I had broken my other one and am in need of it to do some cards... as well as the exploding box!! I had a 45% off coupon which was a lovely thing to have.

Then I went to Joanns with my defective Fiskars threading water border punch and it was easy peasy to get a new one! Showed them how defective it was, so I grabbed one off the shelf and I was on my way! oh happy happy day!! I have working tools again!

Off to watch some football coverage. Or check my eyelids for holes... not sure which one yet!!

waaaahhhh... my poor border punch

After getting very frustrated with my Fiskars Treading Water border punch, I decided to attack it with some aluminum foil to see if that would help with the cutting edge. It worked a bit but still was catching in the middle. That should not be happening.

So I grabbed another Fiskars border punch I have and checked it out from all angles and then went back to the problem punch. Yup... the metal piece is lower on one end than the other which makes for not a clean cut and lets it stick in the middle. Sometimes it doesn't even cut in the middle! No wonder I have not used this punch as much as I would like. Most of the time, I ended up cutting the border out by hand after punching it.

To all my scrapping buds out there... do you think Fiskars would do anything for me? I have had this punch for awhile and not used it much since it kept fighting with me, so I do not have a receipt. I know I got it at Joanns but like I said, I have no clue when. Over a year at least. Please let me know your thoughts. Thanks!!

snow day.... again

Man... I am done with winter. Sure hope that silly groundhog is right that spring is around the corner. But with all of this snow, I am afraid that we'll end up with the town flooding again. I hate winter!

Here's our picture of the day for today. Just a shot of the snow bank that seems to have grown overnight!

Close up of the kiddos at the top!!

How else would you get down?? Yup... on their hind ends. They did this a few (many) more times.

Heading to the swingset in the backyard. The snow was at Alex's waist. He had to follow Kira or risk being lost!

Me!! Have I mentioned how much I hate winter??

She seems to be enjoying the weather more than me!!

Yup... those are my clothes lines behind Alex!!

Ready to head down the 'slide' again. And look at that... she's as tall as the tree!!

Front of the house. Man... that's a lot of snow! And no... we don't use the front door!

I'd like to say I got a ton of scrapping done today. But nope... didn't. I tried to but kept getting distracted by the kiddos. Need to go finish making dinner so it ain't happening right now either. I think I can do more when the kids are at school!! But I am proud to say everyone had a warm breakfast and will eat great tonight for dinner. It was a free for all for lunch and snacks today.

On a side note... my bone folder broke! Man I am sad. It was the one in the Cricut tool kit. Nope I don't own a Cricut but love the tools so I picked one up years ago. Now I have to get a new bone folder. I miss it so much! Especially since I need to make a bunch of cards. geez. Maybe a trip to Michaels is in order for me later this week. :)

girl scout thinking day

This event is always a high light for Kira. Her troop really gets into it and dresses up in clothes from their country and they do reports and such to learn as much as they can about different places and cultures. They enjoy 'traveling' to the other countries and seeing what the other troops have learned. This year the theme was Fairy Tales and story telling. Kira's troop got India. I didn't get a picture of her with her scarf wrapped around but the outfit was so cute!!

Here she is with her BFF Michaela. They are both hams!! This was at pick up after their long day.

Me... I spent part of the morning at the Chorus/ Band Pancake breakfast at Applebee's. It was a good turn out. Hopefully they raised enough money for the field trip later this year. I know Kira would like that a lot. But since she couldn't be at two places at once. I did her time at the breakfast and she did the Thinking Day.

Looking for more snow to attack us this week. Both Tuesday and Wednesday. Have I mentioned, I am over winter?? Well I am.

so much fun

Yes! This is what I created with half of the pictures Alex and his classmates took yesterday at school! He was very good and shared his camera and they had a blast taking pictures. It's fun to see what they see and what is important to them. As you can see, the dog on the reading rug was popular!! He even managed to get a picture of me at drop off (purple coat with the red hat) and his teacher!! She is such a wonderful lady. You can bet your bottom dollar I am printing this up for her and for Alex to have. Love my budding photographer!!

sketch from Biddy Buddies

But first we'll start with what might be the picture of the day for today! Yes that is my family room. oh my... can you tell DH has been gone and I have let the kids take over?? We're gonna have some cleaning up to do later. The good news is most of it is pretty easy to get back to it's proper locations. Love Littlest Pet Shops!! Alex has his own collection as he kept trying to take Kira's. Much easier that way. LOL And she is really amazing in sharing her buildings with him.

On to the scrapping pages. I can't remember where Diana said she got the sketches from but I turned them. Guess I should have posted them here but it's okay... you can see and drool over my completed pages!! LOL

Here is the first page. It called for a 5X7 but I went for the gusto and used an 8X10. Every year I take the kids out into the front yard for some fun in the leaves pictures. This was 2009's. I have a frame that holds an 8X10 and two 5X7's which works out lovely as I can change it out at least once a year! And I hate to throw them away when they come out so here is the big one for all time!

I used the Fall Stack paper from some year. Maybe 2008? It's been awhile since I have bought a season stack. I distressed the edges of the mat. I also distressed the leaves running up the middle of the layout. They are prismatic flat stickers and a bit too shiny for the layout. Looks cool in person. The title is a rub on that I stickled. I also put a rub on in the corner of the picture (by Alex) and stickled that too. You can't see it very well in the picture but shows up nicely in real life.

Page two... the center embellishment is three circles pop dotted and distressed on the edges. I also put a rub on in the center and stickled it as well. Yes our photo shoots were a few different days, hence Alex in a heavy coat on this page. But all in the same time frame.

Thanks to Diana for posting the sketches and for inviting me to join her fun little blog group. It's nice to have other inspiration for my scrapping.

two hour delay

That's what I heard when I answered the phone this morning at 5am. Which told me that we had a snowfall but it wasn't too bad. Then again anything is too bad if I have to work with this machine. Today was my first time using it. And I hope it will be my last. It is a work out! I love my husband even more for doing this chore for us.

The happy student ready to go to class! Please excuse the shambles of a garage behind them. We need to empty it!!

Here's the snowbank now. I think a few days back I posted another picture of it.... not as tall as it is now. Nor as neat as it was. I am not a good snow blowing type of person. And by that time, I was pretty much over the whole being outside working in the driveway.

My little man by another of our snowbanks. This one isn't so big. But big enough!

Here he is happily eating his Nana Cookies! (see yesterday's post to find out about Nana Cookies) He has pretty much gotten through one package! I guess he really wanted them.

Sometimes he is just too darn silly for words... wonder where he is???

Oh there he is!! Cracks me up. He's hollering at me to find him and then gets mad at me when I do since he's been hollering!! I was trying to make some lunch at the time and didn't want to play games. Mommy was starving! I know bad me. We played more later to make up for it!