Happy Valentine's Day

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!

Valentine Art

It is amazing to see how a child's imagination and creativity progresses as they leave their toddler years. We went from scribble to stick figures to full blown scenery. Recently Emma was creating and made this wonderful picture. Though basic, I loved the concept. I loved it so much I decided it should be framed.



I hope she and Abby will continue creating and using their imaginations to their fullest extent.

Valentine Decor

Been doing a little decorating. Had originally decorated with the snowflakes after taking down the Christmas Decorations but I realized the house needed some warmth, especially with the cold temps and snow.

The lanterns are from IKEA.




The framed subway art is from Dittle Dattle Blog (free printable). I added the hearts at the bottom. The 5x7 framed quote, "Love One Another" is from Becky Higgins (free printable).





The "Be Mine" garland is something I saw on a blog last year and didn't get the time to do it. I apologize that I can't give credit to the appropriate Blog.

The decorations are up and Love is in the air.

Spring is ALMOST here

Well a few weekends ago we had a warm weather teaser. We were riding bikes, playing in the yard, swinging and sliding, wearing flip flops and shorts. Unfortunately it was short lived. Since Saturday it has been cool and rainy. Monday night and this afternoon we had some heavy rain. But there is SPRING in our future. Tomorrow it is suppose to clear up and hit 60 degrees. By Easter we should be sunny and in the high 70's, possibly in the 80's. I think we will turn the corner this weekend and welcome SPRING.
In anticipation I have been decorating. A few weeks ago we all decorated a birdhouse (yes, even Sean). I have displayed the birdhouses in a "springy" way.
I hope everyone enjoys the weekend and wherever you are you have BEAUTIFUL weather and a blessed Easter.

See that little speck of green in the front middle??? That is a plastic grasshoper that has found a home in my decoration, thanks to Abby. He looks kinda cute in there :)

Cricut Wall Art

I got my Cricut for Mother's Day 2 years ago and instantly fell in love. I have the original.

Since then Cricut came out with a bigger and better version: Expression. Even though the Expression has capabilities mine doesn't have, I am very happy with my original. For those that don't know what a Cricut is here it is:

You can purchase different font and design cartridges.

I am always using my Cricut for scrapbooking but found some other uses. Not only can you cut paper but you can cut vinyl, contact paper and fabric (haven't tried the fabric yet). For Christmas I used the vinyl for wall art.

Then for Christmas gifts I used contact paper (yeah the stuff you used to line a drawer) to decorate plates.

After Christmas I took down the "Believe" and put this up. By the way the vinyl peels right off with no damage to the paint. When I peeled them off I put them on wax paper (not sure if they will hold up or stick next year but I saved them anyway).

Next I want to try and cut fabric. I'll let you know how that goes. Here are some links to Blogs with tips for using your Cricut:

Imperfectly Beautiful: cutting fabric

Imperfectly Beautiful: cutting fabric to then adhere to a wall

Imperfectly Beautiful: making your mat sticky again

I won

....a contest on 93.1 WPOC (country radio station) that I didn't even enter!!! How can that be you ask??? Well a wonderful person entered for me. Let me start at the beginning.

I was walking into work last Wednesday when my co-worker, Margie, called me on my cell to congratulate me for winning. I explained I had no idea what she was talking about. Margie told me that Laurie DeYoung from WPOC had just read a letter about my family and my scrapbook room. As soon as I got to my desk I went straight to WPOC's website. I saw an advertisement for a contest called: I'm not lying, I'm crafty because....". You needed to submit a 50 word essay. Well I didn't send anything in. After asking around another friend suggested that maybe my father's wife, Kay, may have done it. So next I called my Dad who confirmed that Kay did enter the contest on my behalf.

So I then learned I won lunch with Laurie DeYoung at Phillips on Sunday, along with the 9 other winners and their guests, and VIP admission to the Arts and Crafts Show (not sure what the exact name was) at the Baltimore Convention Center.

So on Sunday Kay and I attended this wonderful event. I had such a nice time hanging out with other crafty ladies, including a woman that Sean works with. Here are some pictures:

I want to thank Laurie DeYoung and WPOC for picking me and for such a nice time. I would also like to thank Kay for thinking of me and entering me into the contest.

Scrapbooking Room

This post is a little overdue. Some of my readers have visited my house and have seen this room, others have asked to see pictures. When we moved into our 4 bedroom house several years ago we quickly realized that the spare bedroom became a dumping ground for lots of miscellaneous items. To me is seemed like wasted space. Only one time in 3 years did someone spend the night and use it as a spare bedroom. So my bright idea was to make it into a scrapbooking room for me and the girls. As always Sean was a little skeptical of my idea. So September 2009 we got to work.

Here is BEFORE:

The walls were a Navy Blue. The room is small to begin with and the dark walls definitely made it seem smaller. There isn't a closet because the previous owner closed it off and opened the wall in the other bedroom to make a closet.

So after several layers of primer and a few layers of much brighter paint, here is the new room:

Of course I had lots of scrapbooking supplies and arts and craft supplies to fill the room.

When my scrapbooking stuff was in the basement I already had the drawer cabinets. Sean made a countertop to put on top and extended it around the wall so the girls had their own work space. We added wall cabinets and shelves. Now everything has a place.

The girls love the room and all the fun stuff they have to use to create. I love that we can all be in the room at the same time and all have our own space.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE my room. I love that I can find everything and it is all organized. The room gets quite messy sometimes but that is ok....proof we are enjoying and creating in our wonderful space.

Crocheting 101

On my long list of things I want to learn or do was crocheting. I have very vivid and fond memories of my mom crocheting when I was little. I remember pulling out the yarn for her and spreading it all over the floor. I never really had an interest until I got older and unfortunately I didn't have my mom here to teach me. But I am lucky to work with an amazingly crafty gal... Elisa. She scrapbooks, crochets, knits, plays multiple instruments and is a genius on the computer. Elisa was kind enough to have a lunchtime lesson. It took a while to get comfortable holding the needle and yarn all at the same time. I also figured out I am very stressed and it reflects in my crocheting!!! I tend to crochet very tight. I had to really pay attention to loosen up my stitches. My first project was a hat. It was suppose to be "one size fits all" however because I crochet SOOOO tight it ended up being SOOOO small I don't think it would fit on a newborn's head.
So I moved onto a new project: a scarf. It was a one skein scarf. It took about a week and I pulled out several rows before I was happy. Here is the finished scarf: