last day of school and some gifts

Been slacking in posting some gifts I have made. Time to catch up... I made these two gift card holders for Kira's Girl Scout troop leaders. Love these ladies. And the papers and flowers were so wonderfully fun. I tried to use green since Kira is a Junior and wears a green vest. Had fun with these and they were appreciated.

This was a gift card holder for my Alien friend. If you look closely you can see one of her cousins right below the flower/ belt. Yummy greens on this one. Very happy with how this turned out.

Here is the card I sent to the above mentioned Alien. The paper is from the All About Boys DCWV stack. So perfect for all those extra terrestrials in our lives. Okay... I only have one, but she is pretty darn special. Love the purple and green on this. Used my Nesties for the pop dotted circle and the alien guy was just begging to be cut out of the paper to travel.

Yesterday was the last day of school for Kira! No more fourth grade for us... we are headed into 5th. Mr. Jones will be her teacher. I am very happy with this. And I think it will be great for her to have a male teacher before heading off to middle school.

Took the kids to McDonald's to celebrate the end of school. Plus it worked out since they have Pokemon toys and cards. We had a play date with Kira's friend Maggie which was great. They had a fun time since the rain came tumbling down shortly after we got home from lunch.

Here comes our summer. Hoping to be able to post some more creations shortly. Busy weekend coming up for us so if you don't hear from me... I'll be back soon!! Enjoy!

project done!

Okay... it is not pretty. I never claimed it would be but some people (named Alien) insisted on seeing this half wall before the wood was added. She'll be sorry she asked for it, but here it is!

It is in our entry way. The one we use all the time. We had to do some patching from having gates up when Alex was a little one and getting into EVERYTHING!! Yes it has been awhile since that time, but I am nothing but slow sometimes!! At least the holes are patched and the wall has been primed and now is ready to be painted. See some things happen!!

Our couch is on the other side of this wall, which you will see in the next picture.

Ta- da! Hubby brought in his 'toy' and nailed everything down today. Toy = some manly tool that makes a lot of noise and he likes it. LOL Once the wall gets painted, it will look down right neato! The lamp will not be up there, but the table still needs to be inside for a day so that it's dry. Yup, that's the sad little table that has lived it's life naked in my house but now has a new lease on life. The top is a bit stained as it has been around for 5 years with no protection on it. It makes it look loved. At least that's the story I'm sticking to.

Anywho... that's my half wall with the wood all installed. And a clean couch!! Since we were working there, I tore apart the couch and got rid of all the extra cheerios that somehow always land under the cushions. I do it a few times a year yet it always needs it!! Strange how that works.

Yesterday we went out and I brought my camera to show my twin Tania the lillies that she gave to me a few years back! They are coming up nicely. They are the three little spots of green in the rocks. Two on the right and one on the left. They are growing in number every year. I am very excited about them. The wind thing is from MIL's store and has a ladybug on the other side. My planter needs some new plants for this year but it's too darn cold to do anything right now. And I need to de-leaf that area in a big way.

Oh yeah... don't look at the deck and it's partly stained self. That is a project I WILL COMPLETE THIS YEAR!! I've only been working on it since 2008! I get a bit further every year. Never mind that the deck itself is 16X20! or is it 18X20? Either way it's a beast! Next deck I am building will be stained first and then assembled. I am not doing this again!

I've been scrapping a bit today. After the wall and the cleaning. Need to journal and I'll have another couple of pages done!! woohoo... go me!

Have a super weekend!

happy st patricks day to everyone

And a Happy Birthday to my best Alien bud. Figured I would get use to your new birthday!! Hope it was a good one.

Anywho... here are the kiddos all dressed in their greenish best for the day. Aren't they just the cutest?? Let me tell you... looks can be deceiving! ;) And I must mention how much I simply adore my little lady in her skirts with leggings! She has legs I would kill for! Not sure where they came from, but I'm glad she got them! You can't see it that great, but she wore her hair accessory!! And it looks like my lamp is tipped a bit. Need to check that later!

Here is another item of fun I needed my glue gun for... pinwheels!! oh my so fun to make, I couldn't stop! Of course it would have been easier to make them if I had used two sided paper but I like a challenge so I glued two pieces of paper together!! Nothing is simple with me! I got the idea and instructions from the Scrapbooks etc April 2011 edition page 30. I had to glue the wooden skewers to the pinwheels. I didn't need them to spin, less chance of little hands getting to them if they don't move!!

I picked up the pails at Target in the $1 spot. The material ribbons are from the very large stash I acquired from my mom's fabric closet on our last trip to Syracuse. We released much fabric that day to a better place. Which equals more room at my parents place. The flowers on the one bucket are made from some ribbon I had on hand. Found a YouTube video for them which was pretty darn simple to do!! Love videos that make me feel like I am a genius cuz I can do things!! The flowered flower (single one on the left pail) is made from material. I made it the same way as the ribbon ones. The grass is from an old Easter basket. We have a few for me to choose from. I went with purple. Love purple!!

Close up of a couple of the pinwheels.

The rest of the mantel. The bunnies are those plaster kits that you paint. My mom did them. When Kira saw them at her house, she fell in love with them and had to have them. I think my mom just wanted them out of her house!! So here they are!

For Christmas I filled these containers with cheapie ornaments, for Easter we use extra eggs. Yes I am a pack rat and yes I do save pretty much everything! Not sure why I save them as the Easter Bunny brings us new ones every year. Someday I'll release things.

Last little bit of decoration on the piano. More plastic eggs. Hope the kids don't get too confused on Easter morning and try to tear apart my decorations looking for their eggs!! LOL The tall jar was once used as a spaghetti holder, then it held my rice, now it is a decoration. See... I do not throw things away!!

Thanks for peeking at my decorations. Hoping I can find a couple other things I thought I had. Need to check out the loft again. So sad that I take better care of my Christmas stuff than the other holidays and I have a ton of stuff for all the holidays!! I need to work on that. Spring cleaning project!! Anyone up to help???

To my dear sweet Alien!! I received a large envelope from you today. You are too generous and so sweet!! Love the Hoops and Yoyo Valentines! I did not see them but glad they are now mine!! That ribbon rocks! Thank you for the Swiss dots embossing folder... kiss kiss!!! And the card... love the card!! I need to make me one like that as I have a new border punch... it's leaves!! I cannot wait to use it. As well as butterfly punches!! I see leaves and butterflies in my future. Thanks for the enabling... and for the goodies. Love you!!

because my Alien wants to know...

This post is for her. Squishy kind of Alien hugs going to her and her amazing family.

Okay... my to do list (impending project, over my head project, what was I thinking project) is to create a basket of paper goodies for the PTA basket raffle that we have every year for our Turn Off TV week. The baskets are wonderful and so clever. They also bring in some serious money to help the PTA.

My thought this year was to make up a ton of greeting cards, some gift card holders and a few of the 2-5-7-10 boxes. I was thinking I should also make up a paper bag album or a CD album with a spring/ Easter theme and possibly some post it note covers and maybe an altered jar for a pen/ pencil holder. Every time I start to think about it, the list of items gets larger and I have started NOTHING!! Not a single thing. Which is stressing me out. I need to stop working on my Sea World album and focus on this project.

Yes that is what I will do. I am going to finish up this one layout that is staring at me. It needs a title and some journaling. Then I shall start that project. I don't want to rush through the items but March 7th is coming quickly! No really it is. Honest.

Thanks for the pep talk Alien! I knew I could count on you to nudge me in the right direction. I guess I am sorta working on some things as my exploding box may be included in this basket. If it turns out halfway decent. Right now it is buried under a ton of things on my desk. I need to dig it out and work on it.

Right after this layout of the penguins!!