Life's a Picnic

My kids are officially done with one-fourth of the school year already! They finished up the first quarter on Wednesday before they got out for MEA. (The state teacher inservice break in Minnesota) It's been a pretty uneventful break for them so far. Yesterday they went and helped my dad with his pigs and today I'll probably bring them in for the annual Firemen's movie. Every year the firemen in town host an older movie at our historic movie theater as part of their fundraising. This year is Madagascar 3, which the kids haven't seen yet. The youngest one went to the in-laws on Wed when my father-in-law dropped off the tractor for us before the snow starts flying again. (I'm not looking forward to the cold and the snow. :P )

I have a confession to make...I have become an HGTV and DIY addict! :O I used to make fun of my mom for watching it all the time when I lived at home and now I'm doing the same. (hanging my head in shame) I'm not entirely on my own in this addiction either. Paul and Hunter also will watch it with me. We like watching Mike Holmes, Love it or List It, Property Brothers, Buying & Selling, Renovation Realities and Sweat Equity  the most. Some of those people on those shows are so funny! lol. I don't know if it's the fact that I want to remodel our house so badly that I have gotten hooked on it or some other unknown reason, but my television inevitably finds it way to one of those two channels at some point in the day. (ok I also admit that I seem to get hooked on things when I have certain things going on in my life, such as when I was pregnant with my kids I watch a lot of A Baby Story and when my sister got engaged it was Bridezillas and David Tuterra.) We have had plans to redo this house since my husband bought it 13 1/2 years ago, but lately I have really wanted to get started on it.

I have spent countless hours drawing and redrawing plans for this house over the years, but I think I have finally gotten extremely close to how we (read I ;) ) want it. One of my favorite websites lately has been http://www.houzz.com/. It's kind of like pinterest for home ideas. There are some really neat rooms on there and it's really helped me start to visualize how I want to do this house. :)  One of the things we really liked when we bought this acreage was that it has a great view of the Blue Mounds (our local state park and quarry). Earlier this summer we had looked at moving a house out here and putting it so it had a great view of the Mounds out the back windows. Unfortunately that deal kind of fell through when I broke my ankle, but it put even more ideas in my head about this house. lol. ;)

Tomorrow everyone is coming over to help put steel on the roof of our barn to help keep it dry for the rabbits. Found out this week just how wet it can get in there. It rained about all day yesterday, which was actually a welcomed sight since it hasn't rained much here all year. We had the worst drought since 1938. In the 13 1/2 years since we have lived here, we have done more work to the outside of the acreage in the last few months that we have ever before. It feels kind of refreshing and boy does our yard look different. We took a couple of outside buildings down in anticipation of moving that house out here, but it wasn't all for nothing, because that means we can now just move this house over a little bit when we finally get to working on it (and finally put a full basement under it.). I'm hoping the fixing up bug continues and we can get a few more little things done INSIDE the house. :) Was hoping we would be able to raise the roof on part of the house before we put shingles on it this fall yet so the girls could get separate rooms, but unfortunately that isn't going to happen.

Alright enough about all that and on to my new goodies for this week! I have a new mini kit in my A Year in Pictures series for you today. :) Don't forget it's 20% off through Sunday.



Check out what my CT and the SM CT did with this kit!











This month's featured kit is Fall's Fanciful Colors. It is 25% off through October 31! Don't forget to grab the matching free alpha in the previous blog post.



Until next time...Happy Scrapping!

Fall's Fanciful Colors and a Freebie

I can finally start putting weight on my foot! :) I went in for another follow up on my ankle on Monday and the doctor gave me the go ahead to start trying to walk. I have to go to physical therapy 2-3 times to work on it. It's going to take me a while longer than I had planned for me to be able to walk without crutches or the boot. I've made good progress though so far. I was able to put pretty much all my weight on it yesterday at physical therapy. My heel is pretty painful yet though when I try to walk.

I have to say though that going to Michaella's volleyball games on crutches is much easier than with the scooter. We stayed busy with all her games last week. She had 3 of them! This week she only had one, so that was a nice break. She only has 2 more before the season is done. It has gone by very fast. She has improved so much since the start of the season. I've been a bad mom though and haven't taken a single picture. :O I should just try to take her camera with me to her last couple games since it's so much easier for me to carry right now. It would definitely be easier than trying to take my big camera bag.

This week has really been starting to feel more and more like fall. The afternoons have been nice and warm, while over night it has gotten down to freezing a couple of times already. The furnace even kicked in last weekend. It's so hard to decide what to have the kids wear to school in the morning, so we they have been going in layers of clothing, which leads to more laundry. I have to say I had been enjoying my little break of not having to do all the extra laundry. :) It was almost impossible for me to get my knee scooter by the washer and dryer so Paul and the kids have been having to do it all. (Though I did still have to fold it.) Now I can kind of get to the washer and dryer and have my little helper use a clothes basket to bring the laundry to the family room for me to fold.

The cooler weather has also made me feel inspired to bring you a new fall kit! :) Fall's Fanciful Colors is inspired by all the gorgeous colors that the leaves start to change to during this time of year. It also was inspired by our trip to the pumpkin patch two years ago. Kailee was such a cutie running around picking out her pumpkin (and then trying to lift it. :) ).





Love the way this kit turned out and it's going to be perfect to scrap those great memories we made that day. Don't forget all new releases at ScrapMatters are 20% off through Sunday.



Here's one of the pages I have scrapped of those pumpkin patch pictures so far using this fun kit. Can't wait to work on some more.



Make sure to stop by ScrapMatters starting Monday for the new daily download. Here is a little sneak peek of the kit you will get FREE if you stop by and grab the pieces each day. The first one will go up at 12 am EDT on October 1. Don't miss it!



Not only do we have this awesome daily download starting on Monday, but the new designers from our recent call will also be revealed! Want a little peek at the goodness they are bringing to the store? Check this out!



So many exciting things happening and they are only going to get better! :)


I also have a coordinating freebie alpha for you today! :)



You can download it here.


Until next time... Happy Scrapping!

Zoo Crew

Wow this past week has gone by fast!

Kailee started preschool this week. Hard to believe my baby is growing up so fast! She has been asking every day about since the kids started school if she got to go, too. When she found out she was finally going to get to go on Tues. she was so excited. Thankfully my mom was able to bring us. It was kind of like an open house this week. She got to see the room, meet the teacher and the other kids in her class, and do some of the activities she would do on a normal day. She will only be going one day a week this year because I found out that I wouldn't be teaching preschool myself until it was too late to get her signed up for the other preschools in town. I had planned on taking her with me. This works out though because she will be able to ride the bus home with the kids after school now, too.

I'm back this week with another fun new release! This was such a fun kit to create. I have so many zoo pictures to scrap, but it seems that never enough kits. So my solution... make my own. My parents give my family an annual pass to our local zoo every year for Christmas. We make pretty good use of it, too. My kids love going to the zoo and seeing all the animals. Whenever we go on vacation we check to see if there are is a zoo in the area to see. We have seen some really nice zoos over the years. This kit grew into an entire collection! Check it out! Don't forget it's 20% off through Sunday.









If you just have to have everything, grab the bundle and SAVE!



Check out all the awesome layouts my CT and the SM CT created with this collection.













Until next time...Happy Scrapping!

Butterfly Garden

The last few weekends Paul and the kids, along with help from both our families, have been working on cleaning up our acreage a bit. They started by taking down an old chicken coop that we had up by our house. We have been talking about doing it for quite some time now, but just never really got to it. While they were taking the walls down, the one just fell over from them pushing on it, so it was definitely time for it to go. The other building that they took down we hadn't planned on taking it down. We were going to use it to house the rabbits, but when they got it cleaned out Paul decided that it wasn't in good enough shape for that. The floor was very warped and we were worried that if we tried to move it closer to the barn the floor would fall out. So that meant it was coming down too. We also had three old and not very nice looking trees down in our pasture that got cut down finally. The yard looks so different and much more open now. They also worked on cleaning out our barn, so we can eventually move our bunnies out there. (I forgot to mention we are now up to FOUR bunnies-2 males and 2 females.) We have gotten a few cages from my brother's farm and picked the kids' grandparents up a few other ones at an auction a few weeks ago. Now we just need to get everything set up out there for them.

School has been in full swing now for the last three weeks and I think we have settled into our routine pretty good for right now. Michaella started junior high volleyball practice last week and had her first game yesterday. They won 1 out of 3 games, but the two they lost were pretty close. Next week she has two games. With me not being able to drive it has been a bit of a challenge to figure out how she was going to get home, but between my family and her being able to walk to a friend's house until Paul gets home we have been managing to figure it out. Thankfully my family lives fairly close and is willing to help us out. I have to say that not being able to drive has been one of the biggest challenges of having me being laid up. I have had to rely on everyone else to get the kids and I where ever we need to go. I'm hoping it's not too much longer before I have the go ahead to drive again.

Kailee is getting so excited. She gets to start preschool this Tuesday! She has been asking just about everyday since the kids started if she gets to go that day too. She is only going to be going one day a week this year because I wasn't able to get her signed up in time to go to the other preschool programs in time. I had planned on taking her with me, but since they are doing that program this year that plan didn't work and it was too late to get her signed up for one in town here. It's hard to believe she is old enough to start school already! My baby is growing up.

Ok, enough with the sappy and on to the fun! :) I have a new release at ScrapMatters this week. Some of you might recognize it as my part of last August's blog train. I've revamped it a bit and added some additional embellishments. Butterfly Garden was inspired by late summer days with the bright colored flowers and all the butterflies fluttering around, especially the Monarch butterfly.



Here are a couple layouts using Butterfly Garden by my CT and the SM CT.




Don't forget that ScrapMatters is still taking applications for their Designer Call if you have gotten you application in yet!

Until next time...Happy Scrapping!

Playing Catch-up

It seems this summer I just can't catch much of a break (a bit of foreshadowing here.). :P As I mentioned last time I posted I was going to be spending that week getting ready for my little sister's wedding. That Wednesday as soon as I got off work I went to my grandparents' house to work on the cupcakes and cake for her wedding. Thankfully we had a lot of help. Not only were my mom, grandma and sister there, but we also had my sister's future mother-in-law, our Bolivian sister, her sister and mom helping. It still took me until about midnight to get everything done. We made 23 1/2 dozen cupcakes! :O Half of them were white velvet with a vanilla buttercream decorated with ivory pearls. The other half were chocolate fudge with a cheesecake mousse filling topped with a vanilla buttercream and sprinkled with purple disco dust. I heard there were rave reviews on them! :) After showing a few of them how to do the frosting swirl on top it was time for me to start working on the cake. I had a lot of first working on this cake. It was my first time working with cake dummies, doing a square cake, painting with luster dust and using an impression mat. Check it out... (the feathers on and under it are from my brother's peacock, too!) 

Photo courtesy of Sara Dawn Photography. 

Thursday night was her rehearsal. We thought all the hiccups were behind us finally since the next day was the wedding. Little did we know I was about to have the biggest one of the entire event that night. :( We had had troubles getting her invites done since I was without my computer for so long. The pastor they originally had planned on doing the ceremony wrote down the wrong date and was on vacation. I ran out of ink while printing the front of the programs and was going to have to finish printing them that night when I got home (hadn't had time to pick up ink anywhere before that). The guys' outfits didn't show up until Wed afternoon and quite a few of them were the wrong size and they didn't know if they could get the right ones there in time. Plus just a few other little things here and there. Rehearsal went great and everyone was looking forward to the next day. After having the rehearsal dinner, I helped get some of the decorations up in the church and then we decided we better get home so the kids could get to bed and not be so tired for the next day. Paul and the older two had headed out already and I was finishing up a couple last minute things. I was carrying Kailee out to the car because she was starting to get tired. There was a set of steps that we had to go down to get to the car parked out on the street. Unfortunately the motion light outside the church didn't turn on and while I was going down them I thought I was on the last step but I wasn't. I went down, but managed to keep Kailee from getting hurt. I on the other hand was not quite as lucky. :( As soon as I hit the ground I knew I was hurt bad. I called for Paul telling that I had broke my leg. He sent Michaella into the church to tell them to call for an ambulance. I was in so much pain. I was still sitting there holding my leg off the ground because my foot was hanging at a ninety degree angle from my leg. The local rescue squad came but unfortunately they couldn't give me anything for the pain. I had to wait for the ambulance to come and transport me to the closest hospital. Once there they gave me pain killers that knocked me out because they had to put my ankle back into place since it was dislocated and set my leg because it was broke in 4 places. From there I was transported to one of the large hospitals in our area where I had surgery the next afternoon to put in a couple plates and screws. This also meant that I was unable to go to my sister's wedding. :( I was just coming out of the anesthesia shortly before the wedding started. They had set up a computer in the back of the church and my dad had run a laptop to the hospital so I could watch it over Skype. I remember talking to my sister and my kids and then the music before the wedding started, but after that I don't remember seeing any of it. I got out of the hospital that Sunday.

Paul hadn't used his week of vacation yet this year so he took that first week off so he could stay home and help me get around a bit. That first week was pretty rough. I'm still not able to put any weight on my foot for at least another three weeks and the pain comes and goes yet. I have felt like doing absolutely nothing the last three weeks, which is probably good since I really can't do a whole lot yet either.

I have had a couple new releases since I last posted that I haven't had a chance to show you. First up is this fun collab I did with Jady Day Studio and Down This Road Designs. I was so excited to get a chance to work with these fabulous ladies! Love the way this kit turned out! You can find it under the Twice as Nice Collab category at ScrapMatters.


Image is link to the store.

Here are some of the great layouts the SM CT made with Fair Days.


Next up is this alpha that was part of the Mixed Matters grab bags that were released last week. This week it is now available in my store.


Image is link to the store.

Here is a layout by Melinda using this alpha with my Pretty as a Peacock kit.



ScrapMatters is having a Designer Call! This is the first time in over four years that this has happened. So if you have ever wanted to sell at ScrapMatters make sure to hurry and get your applications in. Image is linked to the blog with more details.



Until next time...Happy Scrapping!

ScrapMatters Birthday Blog Train

Welcome to the ScrapMatters Birthday Blog Train. ScrapMatters is turning 5 and it's time to celebrate! We have brought back some of the designers that have been at ScrapMatters in the past to have this rockin' reunion for you all month long. To kick things off we are having a store wide sale! Don't forget to stop by my Facebook fan page where you will find an All Access Pass with some extra savings, too!



BTW, you can get this awesome kit FREE with a $15 purchase.



And here's a little freebie from me with it.



Click on image to get download.

You probably came from Designs by CRK's blog and will now be headed to Crossbone Cuts' blog. Don't worry though if you loose your way, just head back over to the ScrapMatters blog to find the complete list.

Thanks for stopping by!

I finally have my laptop back!!! Actually I've had it for a couple weeks now but life has been pretty busy around here, so I haven't had much time to work on it. :P I have a lot to tell you about today, too.

My husband and I were lucky enough to go to the Indy Corn 250 race at the Iowa Speedway in Newton, IA on June 23. I'm not normally a race fan, but that was so much fun! My best friend in high school liked racing, so I would go with her some Friday nights to the local Stock and Sprint car races. This was so much better. We went through Paul's work. We got to sit in the Firestone hospitality tent (the first tent in the Hospitality Village), which was great because it kept us dry during one of the rain storms. Unfortunately we were not quite back from the bathroom before the second one started, so we ended up drenched. They had food and drinks for us throughout the day, too. We were also given a seat cushion, rain gear in a nice little zippered bag, hats, program, can cooler and a lanyard thing for our drink tickets and name tags (which as we were sitting there waiting for the rain to end I was trying to figure out how to change the black Firestone logo into a Mickey Mouse head. lol. The pouch is red, so I decided it would be neat to use the next time we make it to Disney. ;) ). We also had passes to go down to the pits and walk through there. That was really neat to get so close to the cars. One of the drivers (the one that won that night even!) was able to make it out to the Firestone tent and give a little talk. The main race started only about 1/2 hour late, but they pushed the Indy Lites to afterward instead of before. We didn't get to see the race though because everyone wanted to fight through the crowd and get back to the hotel instead of waiting. We had a great time though and if we had the opportunity to do it again we decided we definitely would.



The winner and one of his teammates! :)

Our big event for the month of July was our county fair, which was last weekend. This was the kids' first time showing any animals and they both did a great job. Hunter did a model rocket (blue) and showed his rabbit (blue). Michaella brought a photograph (blue), cookies (blue) and showed her rabbit (blue) and a cow/calf pair from my in-laws (blue). The exciting part of fair though was when Michaella won Grand Champion for Junior Showmanship with her rabbit.



Next up is my little sister's wedding next Friday. Then my kids have a week off yet before they head back to school. Even Kailee gets to go to school this year, and she is so excited! (I on the other hand am sad that she is getting to be that old already. :( ) Michaella will be playing Jr. High Volleyball this year so that will keep the schedule hopping through about October.

Now on to my scrapping news for this week! First up is my new release for this week. This is another mini kit that goes with my A Year in Pictures series. It's perfect for all the summer celebrations. Don't forget to grab it this weekend during the 40% off sale!



Check out what my CT and the SM CT did with it.


(Gayle)


(Melinda)


(Krista)


(Li)


(Li)

If you aren't busy tonight make sure to stop by ScrapMatters and join the chat. There will be prizes, freebie and a whole lot of fun!



Have you heard?! ScrapMatters is turning 5 and we are kicking off the party this weekend with a sale! Don't forget to stop by my Facebook fan page where you will find an All Access Pass with some extra savings!



Also there will be lots of fun things going on in the forums and chat room all weekend. Here is a schedule of all the events.



The fun doesn't stop there! We are going to be celebrating all month long! We have some great designers that have come back to join us for the month of August to help us celebrate, too, and we have lots of fun things planned with them as well. :)

Well that's all I have for today, but stop back tomorrow to catch the ScrapMatters blog train.

Until next time...Happy Scrappin!