Mystery Swap on Club CK

I joined a mystery box swap this month on Club CK and the box from my swap partner showed up today, here is what I posted about it on the Club CK site:

My package from Nichole arrive today and I could barely carry the box to the table...
 

Once I made it there, my daughter proceeded to help me open it and OH MY GOODNESS...we were flabbergasted at EVERYTHING inside!!!


Here's me trying to hold ALL of the paper and you can see from the table that the box was SUPER DUPER full (so full in fact that my daughter professed that we just had to eat dinner in the living room tonight...


and let me tell ya Nichole, if these faces don't work on convincing my hubs that we ABSOLUTELY NEED a dog, the dog quotes you put in there will!!!!


Thank you SO VERY MUCH for everything you managed to get it in there, HOLEY MOLEY it was stuffed!!  I loved doing this swap and am so glad that I got paired with Nichole, not only did I get all this good stuff but like Nichole said earlier, I too have gained a friend!!!
Ok, now off to PLAY!!!!

I got to meet Kelly Purkey at Scrappy Chic!!

I signed up for a mini album class being taught by Kelly Purkey (one of the awesome product designers for Studio Calico) at my favorite local scrapbook store, Scrappy Chic!!  I'm really loving creating mini albums these days and Kelly showed us masking techniques and binding with FabRips, I LOVE LOVE LOVE my little album, here are a couple pages from it:

I also got my pic taken with Kelly, I know...I know...I can be a bit stalkerish when it comes to meeting famous scrappy folks but she was super cool about it and didn't think I was weird at all!!!

Thanks for dropping by to check out my post and I hope you enjoy the rest of your Sunday!!



Some days you just happen to be in the right place at the right time!

Today, it happened to be about 3:00pm EST driving along Warren Rd...

In the words of Emily, "That was SO AWESOME!!!!"

I may have started something...

So I may have started something years ago by telling Emily that there's nothing better than feeling the wind through your hair; whether that be by running, riding your bike, riding with Papa on his motorcycle, driving with all the windows down in the car, sitting in the middle of the backyard or galloping through the fields on a horse...

 Well, today we may only experience the wind in our hair on the walk to and from the car; but Emily will be getting her first up close and personal "Introduction to Horses" at Wildwind Equestrian Center in South Lyon and she is so stinkin' excited!!  I sent a note with Sean to give her when he picked her up yesterday and she told me she was bouncing with excitement when she read it...

oops, I meant "You get to groom..."

Now, I don't foresee this turning into much (my pocketbook is hoping it doesn't...not just yet anyway!), but Em is excited to learn more about horses and having this class get her ready to go to the farm with Gramma Jones and help her take care of her horse Wyatt!!  More photos to come after our outing today!!!

Our adventure is over and what a day it was!  Em (and I) had a great time learning about how to groom horses and important things not to do...like run in the barn!  Em got a little scared when she first mounted but the tears quickly went away when she realized she was as brave as I told she was!!  Her horse's name was Peanut Butter and she was very gentle and Kristin (Em's teacher) was very patient but firm when Em was paying more attention to the barn cats than listening to her!!  It was a great couple of hours for us both and we realize that if this is something to pursue that we will need smooth soled boots!!

Using the shedding comb, Spring is coming!

Giving Peanut Butter a candy cane treat!

This answered Em's question of "how in the world am I going to get on Peanut Butter?"

Leap Day

So I read this great idea about making a Leap Day "time capsule" and I jumped on board!!  Here is what I came up with (proudly being held up by mine and Em's creations from Creatopia in Plymouth):

In the envelope I included copies of my Outlook calendar, some work stuff, the weather and these pics:

Leap Day 2008

Leap Day 2012

I'm going to put it right in my Project Life album and it will be so fun to come back to and look at each Leap Year!!

Canvas Transfer Project!!!

So I found this awesome blog yesterday (through Pinterest) and my girlfriend Michelle was looking around in there and she found this SUPER fun and easy project.

I couldn't wait to try it out so I grabbed a tiny canvas (2.5" x 2.5") and brought it and the other supplies I'd need to work this morning and got the prepping steps complete by 7:57am!!

I printed out this picture on cardstock:

and used Aleene's Instant Decoupage to adhere it to the canvas and set it aside to dry.  Since it was so tiny it was dry by lunch and I oh so excitedly started the wetting and peeling process!!  OH MY GOODNESS, do I love this little project!!!  Here it is hanging on my cube wall to finish drying:

When I had finished peeling the paper off and was left with the mirror image...I admit, I was in LOVE.  The canvas I used was white so it needed a bit of distressing.  I used a tea bag (my girlfriend Karen's tip) and coffee grounds (Michelle's tip) to rub on the edges and here it is up close:

OH MY GOLLY, I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS PROJECT AND CAN'T WAIT TO DO MORE!!  I am so glad that Michelle was looking on Elsie Larson's blog, "a beautiful mess" and found this!!  Thanks Michelle!!

Whooo Hooo, the Entertainment Center is complete!

As I had to cancel all of my planned festivities for Friday and Saturday (I had pink eye of the bacterial nature), I decided to make good use of the time at home, not only did I read 51 of the 88 chapters in Lee Child's book "The Affair", Emily and I finished the entertainment center project!  We did this Saturday night while Sean was out at a birthday party for a friend and VOILA, here it is: (the pic seems a bit distorted-pay no never mind to that!)

Em and I even brought the games out and put those over on the left side and now they are out in the open, no more pulling out the step ladder to get them out of the top of Em's closet!  We even played 2 games of Littlest Pet Shop Hideaway Haven when we finished!  The blankets now have a nice home over there on the right side too!  I'm doing a little happy dance now that this is complete!!


Sunday night we decided to try our hand at making melted crayon hearts and by golly they turned out AWESOME!! I found the idea on Pinterest ( but I forgot to repin or like it and now I cannot find it so here is another very similar recipe: http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/crayon-hearts-671639/

Here is our project (using a silicone heart muffin tray from the dollar bin at Target:

 Sean and Em peeled the papers off the crayons...

 I put about 2 Tbsp in each cup and baked at 230 degrees for 15 minutes...

Let cool...I got impatient and stuck them in the freezer for about 30 minutes, popped them out and they are so stinkin' cool!!  Em cannot wait for her Valentine's party at school to give them to everyone!  We'll be peeling and cutting more crayons tonight, Em pulled out her gazillion used crayons so we'll have plenty now!