Weekend Ramblings and a Cross Stitch

Monday, February 25, 2013

Hi everyone!

Hope you had a lovely weekend! As much as my husband hates to hear it, I had a great weekend! lol Him and the kiddo are sunning it up in Florida (which isn't  bad way to spend your pre-spring vacation) and I'm at home looking after the 4-legged family members. On Saturday, I woke up on my own free will, ate breakfast while reading the online news at my leisure. Then I headed out to run some errands and to take my first Pump It! class at the YMCA. Holy cow am I (still) sore today! We did some weight training and cardio work and my arm muscles feel bruised! lol  Then in the evening, I made a couple of cards.

I also started cutting up some fabric for a mini quilt that I'm making my my little girl's American Girl doll bed. We found an old canopy bed at an antique store a month ago, and I thought a cute little quilt would look so darling on it! I should have the pattern done by the end of the week, so I'll share it with you then.

Remember how I said I had stayed up into the wee hours of the mornings working on a cross stitch I had just picked up? A few of you had asked to see it when I was done, so here it is!

Isn't it cute?! The design is by Little House Needleworks and it's the first in a 12 month series of sheep-themed ornaments that I am IN LOVE witth! I'm planning on finishing them just like the company suggests, so I can hang them on my Christmas tree this year. I've already ordered February's pattern and can't WAIT to get my hands on it! I suspect I'll have a few more late nights in my future! lol

Because I'm the gluten for punishment that I am, I went back to the YMCA yesterday to take my first every yoga class! But unfortunately they had already started before I got there, so I did some treadmill work instead and burned 400 calories too! Woohoo! I'm not sure what's gotten into me because I also signed myself up for a spinning class this morning!! At 5:45am!! I think all this free time has gone to my head! lol Hopefully I'm not too sore tomorrow....what was I thinking?! 

I'll be back tomorrow with another Tuesday Morning Sketch card, so I hope you can pop in again then!

Take care!

Sandra

A Dirty Little Secret!

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Good Morning everyone! I've been keeping a dirty little secret for a while now. But it's time to spill the beans - I'm one of the newest Dirty Girls over at Splitcoastampers!!

I can honestly say that I never, ever thought that I would be chosen from all the wonderfully talented ladies on this site. In fact, it was the furthest thing from my mind when Lydia called me, but it happened and I am so excited and honored to be included in this wonderful group! The next six months are going to be busy and fast-paced...I hope you will come along for the ride!

I couldn't think of a better set to use to commemorate my new position than this fun set from There She Goes! It's called Loads of Fun and even though it's got a lot to do with the most mundane, thankless job in the world, there are some tongue-in-cheek sentiments in this set that I like...like this one!

When I made this card a week ago (yes, I was ahead of the game at that point!), I spied fellow Dirty Girl, Jen Shultz's sketch #37 on her blog, Deconstructing Jen. It was the perfect layout for this itty bitty underpants stamp! But it wasn't going to be just any old pair of undies - I had to dress them up a bit! I colored them in with my Black Soot Distress Ink, then added white polka dots with a white gel pen. Then I added some aptly named Frosted Lace Stickles to the lace on the image. Next, I cut out the image and mounted it on another piece of Strathmore Bristol Vellum cardstock (which I use to stamp all my images on) that I cut out with PTI's Fillable Frames #10 die. Then I used Antique Linen and Tea Dye Distress Ink to sponge the edges of the frame. The strip of patterned paper is a piece from Die Cuts With A View's La Creme Matstock collection that I matted with some black cardstock and trimmed the edges with my tiny scalloped decorative scissors. After that, it was just a matter of layering it all and tucking some feminine lace underneath it all.

Thanks so much for popping in today! Before I go, I thought I'd share a conversation I had with my little girl while making this card...

Syd: "Mama! Are those undies?"
Me: "Yes they are."
Syd: "Is that a baby birthday card?"
Me: "No. It's sort of a romantic card, for Valentines Day."
Syd: "Undies are NOT romantic Mama!"
Me: "Well, not all of them are honey."


See you tomorrow!

Supplies
Stamps: There She Goes 'Loads of Fun'
Inks: StazOn 'Jet Black', Distress Inks 'Antique Linen, Tea Dye, Vintage Photo and Black Soot'
Papers: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Bazzil Basics - Vanilla Cream, Black Cardstock, PP - DCWV La Creme Matstock Collection
Access: PTI Fillable Frames #10, Fiskars Decorative Scissors, Lace - Joann's, Kaisercrafts Adhesive Pearls - Mango, Tim Holtz Edge Distresser, Sponges, Machine Stitching, Dimensionals

MIA...for good reason!

Monday, March 7, 2011

Good Morning Sweet Peeps!

I hope your weekend was perfectly relaxing! We spent ours visiting a few antique stores in the area. I found some awesome pieces we've been after for our bathroom makeover! One was a small silver dish to put my soap in and a decorative door knob back plate to dress up a very ornate door knob we found in the shed of our house. I'm going to piece them together and use it for a hand towel hook/holder! It's a little unusual, I know but when you live in a 1890's farmhouse, a little unusual goes a long way. :) I also managed to find an old apple tree ladder. Can you guess what I'm going to use it for? Did you guess for my bath towels? Then you guessed right! The Man and I gave it a good sanding and stained it so that it matched some of the other wood pieces we have in the bathroom. I spent Sunday sewing a shower curtain which I didn't quite finish since I decided to add some ruffles to the top of them, but ran out of fabric! Bugger.

I promise I'll share photos with you next Monday! We're waiting on a light fixture we ordered online to come in and once that's up, the room will look more complete. The only things that still need doing in there, but we're saving our pennies for, are new faucets for the sink and bathtub. The sink has chrome ones which don't match and the tub fixtures have been broken since we bought the house. I'd also love to add crown molding to the room, but since it's not needed to 'finish' the room, it can wait. I am a patient woman. :)

Anyway, long story short, all these little projects around our house is why I haven't been making any cards lately. Some of you may have noticed that I (temporarily) stepped down from the There She Goes team. Even though it pained me to do so, I had to in order to free up more time to work on our house. So over the next handful of months, I will be MIA on my blog a bit. In between projects, I will no doubt be coloring up images and making cards for them to adorn. :) I hope you all understand my short absence and can hold on until the fall when I hope to be back sharing lots of cards with you again! In the meantime, I will pop in updating you on our progress and maybe even an Etsy Friday Find with you all!

Until then, here's a little photo of the place we're starting to call home.

(((hugs)))
Sandra

Happy Australia Day!!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Hello sweet friends!

As you can probably guess, today is Australia Day. For all my American and overseas friends, this is our version of Independence Day...sort of. Australia is still a Commonwealth of Great Britian, but today is the day Australia was first settled by the English in 1788. For Australians today, it means enjoying the day with family and friends and a few fireworks!

In the spirit of this national holiday, I'm sharing a few of my favorite Australian songs with you!

A Home Among The Gum Trees

I Still Call Australia Home

We Are Australian

Waltzing Matilda

Have a good one where ever you are today!

Etsy Friday Finds... and a Trick or Treater!

Friday, October 29, 2010

TGIF! I'm excited about this weekend since it's officially moving day tomorrow (even though we've been in and out of the house all week) but I have reservations since moving it's my least favorite thing to do. But the benefits far outweigh the cons, so I'm just going to grit my teeth and get it done!

Anyway, so just in case we don't have our cable and internet hooked up in time, I've scheduled a bunch of posts for next week (including Claudia & Company sneak peeks and the BIG release happening next Friday!), so fingers crossed Blogger behaves itself and everything posts when it's supposed to! :)

So, in honor of our pending move and Halloween on Sunday, here's a few of my favorite finds on Etsy this week!


Isabella's Art
Wouldn't these look great propped up in a milk glass vase?? Awesome workmanship!








Corso Studio
I am addicted to the True Blood series and this bracelet is calling my name! Oh baby! ;)





Purrple Turtle
Such a cute charm! I'd wear on a pandora bracelet!









Yellow Bug Boutique
What can I say, but.......AWESOME!!!

I forgot to share with you a couple of pictures of Syd in her Halloween costume! We finally convinced her to go with something else other than her original idea of a bride (something about a child bride gave me the heebie jeebies!).

A shy Alice In Wonderland!

(One of the guys I work with took this shot - awesome isn't it?!)

Twice In One Week?!?

Friday, October 1, 2010

Can you believe it?! Two teeth in one week!!

Only, this one wasn't pulled out.

I accidently caught this one on the washcloth I was using to wipe Sydney's face clean! It fell onto the floor with Syd and I looking on in shock! LOL I felt SO BAD, but Syd took it in her stride and said "It's ok Mama." *sigh* Love that girl!

PS. The Tooth Fairy hasn't visited yet....Syd wrote a note begging the Fairy not to take it! But, I think the Tooth Fairy will be writing back tonight convincing her otherwise! hahahaha

PPS. As of this morning...the tooth is MISSING!! Apparently Syd wanted to 'keep it safe' and took it out of the box and slept with it last night! Who does that?!?

The Tooth Fairy Was Here!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

So something BIG happened that I've been dying to share with you! On Sunday night, my Little Ray of Sunshine lost her first tooth!


Soooo exciting, right?! We've been at her to wiggle and jiggle that tooth for about a month now, and last night her daddy convinced her it was time to pull that sucker out! The first tug made it bleed and that shocked her because she started crying - poor baby. We probably wouldn't have pushed it any further, but that tooth now lay horizontal instead of looking up at the sky! LOL So we convinced her to give it one more tug - which did the trick!

After that, just like a typical kid, she was completely fascinated with the hole that now lives where the tooth was once was. :) Even to the point where, in the wee hours of Monday morning, she woke me up to tell me that the hole had stopped bleeding! (It had already stopped before she went to bed, but apparently she had forgotten that!) Hahaha

Anyway, just had to share that. :) Thanks for popping in!

There's A Sale Going On!

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

If you love stamps by The Greeting Farm, Just Rite Stamps, Gillian Roberts, Stampavi, Sarah Kay, Claudia & Company and Unity, and lots of embellishments and paper pads, then you need to RUN, yes RUN over to

Die Cuts R Us

Claudia is having a CRAZY 'Getting Ready for CHA' sale and tons of things are 40% off! I went shopping in her store twice last week (shhh, don't tell hubby!) and even I couldn't resist buying a few more things this week!

Hurry!! You won't believe the deals!

My Baby Turns Five Today!

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Five years ago today a little ray of sunshine entered our world... and changed us forever.

And we wouldn't have it any other way.

Happy Birthday Sydney!

Mummy and Daddy love you very much!

Syd got a big kid's bike for her birthday, a pillow pet and as a bonus, a sleep over at her Narnie's place tonight. Why? Because bad mama forgot her baby's birthday when she bought tickets online for Eclipse last month! What a baaaad mama!

(PS. I'll show you the card I made for her on Friday!)

Not a single card!

Monday, April 26, 2010

Hello peeps!

Well, as the title of my post states, I managed to not make a single card this whole weekend. And I feel bad about it....just a little bit! ;)

The Man and the little ray of sunshine decided to take a long overdue and impromtu weekend away to Kittery and Ogunquit, Maine. We woke up and decided Saturday morning and we were gone by 9am!

Just being by the water and smelling the salty air was sooooo great and rejuvenating! We poked around the quaint little town of Ogunquit and shopped at a few outlets in Kittery. But the best part about it was getting out of our little apartment and having some new scenery around us. It was exactly what we all needed. :)

So thank you for popping in, and I'm sorry I don't have anything to show you, but I promise, if you stop by tomorrow, I'll have something for you to see. =)

Big hugs!!

Ah-hem! This is a public service announcement!

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Hi ladies!

(Please scroll down for my TSG Domestic Goddess Blog Hop post!! Thanks so much!)

just wanted to stop in again to let everyone know that Claudia @ DieCutsRUs is expecting more of that YUMMY new October Afternoon paper (Fly A Kite and Thrift Shop) to come in tomorrow, so if you missed out last week and still want to get those pads for a UNBELIEVEABLY CRAZY price of $5.95.......then click that mouse like you've never clicked it before girls...before they disappear for a second time!! :D

(Oh, and while you're there, you might want to check out those A-DORABLE Puddle Jumper stamps too!)

Hi Ho, Hi Ho...It's Off To Work I Go!

Monday, January 25, 2010

Good Morning!

By the time this posts, I'll in orientation on the first day of my new job. I'm pretty excited about this opportunity, so I can't wait to get started! I'll let you all know how it goes tomorrow, but for today, I just wanted to let you know what's happening this week.

THERE SHE GOES

Starting Wednesday, the There She Goes Trendsetters will be showing you sneak peeks with some fun blog hops of the new sets being released this Saturday. And I think you'll want to check them all out because they are really fun this month!! :) Saturday night is the release party happening over at the There She Goes forum. You could win one or all of this month's sets by playing along in the blog hop and by just turning up to the release party!

THE GREETING FARM

And if that wasn't enough, starting this Thursday, the Farmers from The Greeting Farm, as well as us Crafty Critter Crew, will be showing you sneak peeks of the sets that are being released February 1st! So hold onto your set everyone! It's going to be a wild ride this week! :)

Sorry for the lack of card today, but don't worry! I'll have plenty for you to see this week! ;)

Toodles!

Mini Watercoloring Tutorial

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Wanna see this card in full and a mini watercoloring tutorial??

Check out today's Wednesday Trend over at There She Goes!

No Card But A Funny Conversation...

Thursday, December 3, 2009

I didn't do much prep work this weekend to get a card made for today, but I really wanted to share a conversation that happened yesterday on the way to daycare and work between Syd and I.

Syd has been addicted to the Mama Mia movie lately and we bought ABBA's greatest hits so we could listen to them in the car on the way to school in the mornings. Usually I have to fight to get to sing the choruses because little Miss Songstress doesn't appreciate sharing the limelight, so yesterday's conversation went something like this...

Me: *singing to Emotions* #"Don't got sharing your emoooooootions,..."# as I turn my head to see Syd's reaction
Syd: Says nothing except she signs the word 'Stop'!
Me: Huh?! "Excuse me?! I am allowed to sing the song too ya know!"
Syd: "Sorry Mama."
Me: #"Lay all your love on meeeeeeeeeee"# as I turn to see her reaction again...
Syd: "Mama. I love you, but you can't sing."

And who made this 4 year old an Idol judge?!?!?

Happy Halloween!

Saturday, October 31, 2009

I wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Halloween today!

There's lots of excitement in our house right now. Syd is looking forward to trick or treating with her cousin later this evening and The Man and I are looking forward to raiding her stash after she goes to bed tonight! LMBO! What?!? You know you all do it too! :D

Because this is one my favorite holidays (it really is strange to call it a holiday...) and I couldn't let it pass without posting one last Halloween card!

Mice aren't that spooky...unless of course you don't like mice! Thankfully I haven't run into one in a few years, so I forget if I mind them or not. But this one is a cutie patootie! Her name's Penny and she's a digi stamp from The Greeting Farm.

I'll post a few pics of Syd in her Halloween outfit tomorrow...she's going as a Princess Witch this year...you'll see what I mean when I show you the photos! LOL

Happy Halloween everyone!

(Don't forget The Greeting Farm VSN tomorrow starting at 7pm CST in the PaperCraft Forum!! See you all there!)

Supplies
Stamps: The Greeting Farm 'Penny Witch - digi' and Whipper Snapper 'Spooky Expressions'
Inks: Going Gray, Pretty In Pink, Sahara Sand, Perfect Plum, Morning Marigold, Pumpkin Pie, Really Rust, Distress Inks 'Peeled Paint and Black Soot'
Papers: Georgia Pacific, Bazzil Basics, PP - Basic Grey 'Eerie Collection'
Access: Ribbon, Foof-Fa-La Button, Twine, Machine Stitching, Sponging, Dimensionals

Wanna win some Doodle Factory blog candy?!

Sunday, July 26, 2009

If you love funny stamps/cards like I do, you HAVE to check out the new Doodle Factory stamps being released this week from Starving Artistamps!! They totally cracked me up when I saw them!

Me likey! :) And I'm not ashamed to say that I'd LOOOOOOOOOOVE to win them! hahaha Tracey and the Starving Artistamps are giving away all 4 sets as blog candy and you have today and tomorrow only to spread the word and have the chance to win them! You can check out the info....HERE.

Have a great night!

Pssst! There's She Sales!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Because Jessica sold out of her new releases this month, There She Goes is having a sale!!

From today, July 16th through July 25th you can receive 15% off of your entire purchase at the There She Goes website by entering the coupon code july09 in your shopping cart prior to check out.

Jess has also discounted the price of the TSG Double Stamp Scrubber! I absolutely love my scrubber and use it every single time I stamp and now you can get one of your own for only $7.00! These prices are only good while supplies last :)

Just a teaser...

Friday, July 10, 2009

Wooohooo!! It's finally Friday!

It's supposed to be gorgeous too today....and I have to work :( Bugger.

I was going to show you a card I made for the Hanna Stamps challenge today, but it turned out less than stellar and I wasn't comfortable showing you an awful card. It's probably because I was trying to make it manly, and well....I can't do manly cards all that well. Had it not been so late last night, I probably would have attempted another one, but I was knackered and needed some sleep! Hanna Girl Nikki Fairbairn is hosting today's Hanna challenge, and I really wanted to play, so I'll get my mojo flowing over the weekend and show you a redux card on Monday. Sound good?

Since I feel bad not showing you anything today, here's a sneak peek at an image I colored up yesterday....


It's from the Whipper Snapper new releases and he's "beary" cute!! Sorry for the tease, but he hasn't made it to a complete card yet, so I'll finish putting him on a card and you can see him next week!

Have a fabulous weekend, whatever it is that you're doing! And I hope you get to stamp a little. :D

TSG Week In Review

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Ever wanted to receive a card from a Trendsetter??

Well, you can! Every Sunday on the There She Goes blog, Jessica has a 'Week In Review', where she posts a stack of cards created during the week by her inky and fabulous Trendsetters and you get a chance to win your favorite just by leaving a comment!

On Monday, Jessica draws a random winner. So head over there now and pick your favorite! :D

A special announcement!

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Hi Everyone!

I've been a good girl and kept super quiet about this....but now I can let the cat out of the bag! (Don't worry - no actual cats were harmed during this fit of excitement!)

I'm going to be July's Guest Trendsetter for There She Goes!!

I'm so excited to be stamping along side owner Jessica Knutsen and her inky and fabulous Trendsetters this coming month! They're such a talented group of ladies. It's like a who's who of SCS! And you should see the stamps we'll be showcasing this week!! Eek!

Oh, but I can't show them to you until tomorrow! ;) I guess you'll have to come on back to see what I mean. *insert evil laugh here* hehehe

Have a fabulous day!!