Black Friday Shopping List

I've been gearing up for BF since November 27th of last year!!!  LOVE IT!!!  Mostly because I get to spend 15 straight hours with my bff but I also love the rush of a good bargain!  I've been getting emails for the past month ... here's a scrapper's recap of some good deals ... let me know if you hear of any too!

Walmart ad ... starting at 10 p.m. Thursday & all day Friday

Michaels ...

And Saturday ... Isis containers!!!!

Joanns ... not impressed but love the 9.99 tote for paper ...

haven't seen anything from Hobby Lobby or AC Moore yet ... for all other ads to satisfy your shopping urge, check out Black Friday

Arg....

Made this cute little ditty for Ange's friend who was having a pirate birthday party.  Easy peasy cuts!  Used the Birthday Bash cart - fav!!!  I actually cut the card out which I usually don't do.  I used some Tim Holtz distressed pattern paper - love that stuff!  Starts out kraft color but has a lot distress images on it, kinda like clear embossed.  Add as much or little color as you want - makes it look realy mappy!!

Acorn Masterpiece

I know my hub loved these but in the back of his little mind I heard him saying 'she's got too much time on her hands!'
Might have to make these again for Thanksgiving!

I used the new air bubble kisses and they are YUMMY!  I used caramel frosting to attach the mini nilla wafers.  They were awesomely tastely!

Command Strips Redeemed

Ok, so you've been reading about my frustration with 3M Command strips for a while now.  I have to say they have redeemed themselves!  I was so disappointed when my genius idea for a photo wall could not come to fruition.  I received my packed of new velcro strips from 3M and they are looking mah-va-lous!  They've been up for about a month now and haven't fallen AT ALL!

It isn't the original arrangement but it will work for a few weeks until I come up with something for the holidays!! 

One note:  the regular strips that come with the hooks would not hold the plates so I had to attach two of the velcro strips and they work perfectly!

Glo-much fun!

For the longest time Ange was planning on being a vampire for Halloween.  Even bought the fangs.  I don't know if it was a Twilight revival or what.  I didn't love the idea but long gone are the days of dressing her in jumpers and tights so I choose my battles.  They all turn at some point and she changed her mind at the last minute, like the day before Halloween!  I knew after seeing all the dance competitions on tv over the summer the rage was going to be lighted Halloween costumes.  That's the new plan 'she' thought of!  She wore black sweats (since there was still snow on the ground) and I attached glow sticks all over.  I'm not going to tell you how I did it because half way down the street I was reattaching and picking up her pieces so it wasn't the best method.  I found a glow ball at the dollar store and she wore that over her head.  The whole costume was less than $5!  When people asked she said she was a stick figure.  She got rave reviews and lots of extra candy ...

This picture was taken in my laundry because it was so dark.  The ones outside didn't turn out so great because of the street lights but this gives the idea.  Yes, we had to 'glow' and decorate her treat bag too!

One house was uber creativeand painted their snow balls orange with a face and put candles in them.  If we only had snow every Halloween ... not wishing for that one!

Happy Halloween!!

My 'spirit' is ghostly.  Meaning it's invisible.  Meaning it doesn't exist!  The spook has not spoken to me yet ... I was focused on getting Ange ready for her weekend away that didn't happen, my upcoming crop, and let's see, what other excuses do I have?  Oh yeah, they changed the date and didn't tell me?  No, that won't work.  I literally have two huge honkin tubs of Halloween decor and didn't even crack them open this year.   

I had to run some errands when I realized I needed to make it fun for Ange.  I gave myself until 2/230 to clean out my basement.  I was starting to get into crop mode and needed to find supplies that were stowed downstairs. 

Long story short, quick fix decorating ... I made a fun tablescape for her.  I knew she wanted tacos, our traditional Halloween meal.  Oh, and did I mention we didn't have her costume together yet?  If you're pits are sweating, you can relate to how I was feeling.  

spider web table cloth, blood red plates, sugar rimmed glasses, blood dripping candles; I cut  u one of those netty gauzy things and put on the chairs ..

one of those 'gowing' hands.  We have had this hand for like 15 years!  I put it in a zippy bag one year and it survived!  Looks great with a lettuce garnish

love the little s & p shakers!

It was fun.  Ange appreciated it!  One holiday down .. two more to go!

Brilliant Day

Ever have one of those days where you wake up telling yourself you are going to do something brilliant today?  I mean really brilliant, not locking your keys in your car brilliant.  I often have those thoughts but that's about as far as it gets!  But not today!  Waking up to a regular day, lots on my list of to-dos, not thinking I was going to be brilliant, but I was.  (getting a muscle cramp from patting myself on the back, I'll stop now) ...
To-do list for today was tidy master closet.  Well, there has been a thorn in my closet for just about as long has I've had the closet and I couldn't figure out what to do with it except look at it in disgust as it gets out of control.
I'm talking about the wrapping paper/gift bag tubs.  Okay, so you use some,  you get some.  Just stick the bag in there.  Buy them on clearance, stick them in there.  Get some more, cram 'em in there.  Just close the door and it will go away.  Not today folks.
Here is what I pulled out of the closet ...

I love the tote, it's long enough for the rolls and has two cute little bins on top for smaller stuff.  It's too tall for under the bed and I have to use my whole wing span to get it out of the closet, usually resulting in scraped knuckles and a few moans and curses. 

Well, what I came up with was briliant, BRILLIANT I tell ya!  I know somewhere, some blogger already came up with this idea but I'm claiming credit today.  

On top of all the wrapping paper, gift bags and tissue paper, I also hoard ribbon.  Hello, my name is Karen and I am addicted to ribbon.  There is a Offray ribbon outlet about an hour away so that's where I go when I need a fix.  

What I came up with was a solution for the paper and the ribbon.  The gift bags just needed to be organized, nothing exciting but looks great and forgot to take a picture.  I used three tension spring curtain rods in the tub, put my spools of ribbon on them and whhhhaaaa laaaa!!!  Problem solved!  I got the ribbon out of the two trash bags and one drawer and into the tote (and some back into the drawer, but neater) ...

before ....

Glorious after ...

The small bins still fit on top of the spools of ribbon which I used to hold supplies like tape, scissors and those pesky rolls of curling ribbon that start in the middle of the spool.  

Can I be done now!  Felt good to scratch that one!

Birthday Card

I am in the process of rethinking my scrap room, yet again!  That is a never ending issue!  I would love to get a wireless printer but that's not in the budget right now but I don't have a surface to put my laptop next to my printer and use it comfortably ... anyway ... I get stifled sometimes and have to just create something!  I pushed everything off my desk, kinda like they do in the movies when some one is going to make out on the desk, and just made a card.  Not as romantic as the make out scene but just as passionate ... yes, yes, stick it there, no, the other angle, twist it, that's right, right on top, yeah baby ... and scene ...

boy I really rummage thru the scraps for this one.  I am determined to start using more of them!  I used an icon from the Crafty Secrets scrap sheets, some of Time's ink for around the edges, Stampin Up punch for the torn page effect,  and some buttons for that vintage cuteness!

Just had to share ...

Two weeks ago my son and his girlfriend got a new puppy.  He's a chihuahua and they named it Captain.  At the time we didn't think it was the best name for him, just couldn't understand why he would pick that name when there were tons more that seemed to fit ... last week he jumped off their bed and broke his little paw ... so now the Captain has a peg leg ... just had to share!

Mantle Redo

So everything fell off my wall, wah, wah, wah!  It took me so long to figure the pictures, and paint the frames ... so disappointed.  But with disappointment comes opportunity, right?!?!?  I took the pix and added them to my mantlescape!  I like the way they turned out.  They didn't all fit but they work...

I went to the library and picked up these books for 50 cents ... I know somewhere there's a tutorial on how to make them a little creepier looking ... I have know idea what they are about, just black spines and kinda spooky titles.  Of course the hubby got excited about the Carl Sagan book ...yeah, umm, I was thinking of you when I bought it ... The gourds are from my garden, they have rotted yet!  

needs something in the middle, I'm working on that!

In the meantime, I saw a solution to the wall collage problem.  Instead of using the command strips (which, by the way,  haven't received yet) I might do something like this ... saw it on Pinterest ...

Halloween Layout

Michaels has been getting a lot of Tim Holtz halloweeny scrap stuff in lately and I'm loving it!  I am teaching a Halloween class and made this layout using his halloween paper pack.  His papers are soooo cool!  Ordinarily I would walk right by this brown pad and not give it a second glance but because it was recommended for this class, I had to indulge.  It has embossing detail all over it and when you use his inks, it turns out so neat.

So the paper is a thick, kraft color.  I used a white gel pen to highlight some of the skeleton's bones ...

 then I flipped one of the pages to use the back for the facing page.  I cut out some of the letters in one of the collage pages and popped every other one to give it dimension.  I only used two inks on this whole spread!  They way they blend together it gives it such an eerie look!  I also used his Goosebump spray for the dots on the solid brown, torn background.  I used Martha's iron fence punch to create the border on the bottom of the dark brown.

Check out this paper pack when you get the chance!  You will be amazed at what you don't see!!!  Just like ghosts hiding! 

Linking to:  Made it Myself Mondays,

Mantle Masterpiece

Fall always brings a happy smile to my face!  It takes me back to my childhood.  I always enjoyed the beginning of the school year.  My favorite outfit is shorts with a sweatshirt, so cozy!!!  And to my college days in New England.  That feeling of independence and in control of my future while sipping hot chocolate in the library.  Ahh, the good ol' days.  Now my future is spelled out on a to do list and menu planner!  But I still love it!  Wouldn't have it any other way.
So when I climbed up in the attic to get down my fall lovelies, I dug a little deeper to find some pix of my old dorm rooms.  My have to do a project with them.  The old 4x4 shots taken with my 110 film camera.
I like to decorate in 'fall' first before Halloween.  Hubby hates the rush of pending cold weather so I have to ease him into the season.  Here was my first take on the mantle and hearth area:

Okay, I have a hootie obsession.  I love the little wire hoot I picked up at Hobby Lobby.  The half lamp looking thing is a lamp I picked up at Goodwill for 75 cents!!!  Love those color days!  I need to find a shade for it then I'll really show it off!!!  I love my pumpkins.  I painted the boo on one side so that I can flip them over after Halloween.

After painting my family room in the spring, my vision was to have a 'photo wall' like all the great bloggers are showing.  It took me a while to figure out what pictures I wanted to use so when fall rolled around, I decided to use some fun fall shots.  I hung them with my now not-so-favorite command strips... here's how the wall looked after about a week ...

WAHHHH!!!  I sent an email and called 3M.  The sad part is my dad worked for 3M his whole career and I love these strips!!!  They just would not stick!  They are supposedly sending a different kind of strip so we'll put those to the test!  

In the meantime, I combined my fall pix with my mantle ... those pix will come tomorrow!  I love how my shots are turning out with my new Sony!  What do you think?!?!?!  Any advice or tips??

Recipe Masterpiece

Now that I am on the way to getting my life in order, I have to get my dinner schedule worked out.  With all the activities that Ange has going on, I need to stay on top of meals.  I was on Allrecipes.com where I could save my recipes to a recipe box and then move them to a weekly meal planner.  That seemed to work but there are soooo many great recipes on the web I didn't want to be limited to the one site.  Then I found Ziplist.  This site is awesome!  You can add a link to your bookmark bar and you can instantly copy any recipe from any site or blog into your ziplist recipe box.  If you have an iphone, you can even take your shopping list with you on the go!

The Mystery of an Organized Life

oh my where has time gone?!?!?  I lost my mojo when I lost my camera.  'Why do that, I can't share it with anyone', the little voice was telling  me.  'Don't bother, no one will see it' another little devil said.  'Take this time to get your act together' a manly voice said to me.  Okay, so I took the advice, got myself together (atleast 85% of the way there) and got a new camera!!!  Yeah!!  Little Sony, you complete me!  More on that later ...
As I was preparing for back to school and trying to collect myself, I discovered a little blog that might just help me do that ... The Project Girl.  She has a wonderful, printable chart for getting yourself organized and trying to stay on top of things!  Since it's so late in the year it was half price.  I'm not totally untechy but to make something look this good, I'm will to pay for it.  Since there's only a few WEEKS left of the year I only had to print out about a dozen sheets, as opposed to the entire year's worth.  As far as I'm comfortable exploring, the top part is open to add your to-dos and calendar schedules.  I played with the daily chores and you can adjust them to your needs as well.  I haven't had a chance to play with the weekly chores (I love most of them all) and the shopping list - I just write in my notes or other to-do's.

I told you it was pretty ... check it out for yourself.  She did make some changes from the 2010 version so who knows, there may be some changes for the upcoming year as well. 

I'm feeling better about my organized, especially with the holidays coming! I've also found a great online recipe box, I'll share that tomorrow ... right now I have to scratch 'finally update blog' off my list!!

Cushion Complete

You might remember a while back I posted about getting a coffee table at Goodwill and my plan was to make it into a bench.  Well, mission complete!  Yeah!  Finally!  I've envisioned it for weeks.  I sanded it, painted it and made this cushion.  I haven't recovered my camera so you have to deal with rotten pictures taken from the camera on my laptop.  I'll try to spell it out for you ... 

Here's the bench before ...

I painted it with the leftover hall and living room paint ... 

and covered the cushion with an awesome fabric I picked up at Joanns.  I had a enough to make a pillow, I can make another pillow too!  As  you can see, everyone enjoys it!!

Crop A Go - Go

Well since I can't post any of my pix I might as well share some that I found while surfing.  I somehow came across this idea and a light bulb just went off above my head!  While we were bulk trash diving a few weeks ago, Angela found an old case with alligator like trim on it.  She was going to use it for her American Girl Dolls but she NEVER plays with them any more.  I may have to claim it and do this ...

Wouldn't that be awesome to take to a crop???  I may have to hit Goodwill to see if I can find an old suitcase and make one for my fundraiser crop!!  Check out the how-to's here:

Amy Powers

Have a great weekend!  

Missing my Cannon

 Much to my heartbreak my faithful, yet bulky, camera has not surfaced.  My heart skipped a beat when I noticed an ad in the lost and found column of the newspaper.  All I saw was 'camera in bag' then when I picked myself up off the floor it said 'lost, purple bag, left on the top of car ...'  So I'm not the only one!  We should start a support group.  

I have several projects started, and even a few finished that I need to somehow get to you.  Here's my first attempt using the camera on my laptop.  The glare is from the light in the background and you can even kinda see me holding the card.  Have to come up with a better system!  

My daughter's going to a bday party this weekend and they are so into 'this' (in a granny voice) Invader Zim.  Who comes up with a character name like Gir???  And Zim??  The creators were probably sitting around their mahogany conference table drinking their redbull trying to see how many one syllable non words they could come up with.  Okay so I sit and stare at paper all.  And I let her watch the silly show.  

This is a really poor picture but I had to get you guys something!  I use a Bazzill cardstock for the background.  I loved the shiny dots.  This character just looks like he says 'oooh shiny' all the time.  I cut it out using SCAL and an svg from The Lady Wolf blog.  She has a lot of free school svg's up now.
The littering is actually done with a pattern paper.  It's hard to tell using my sophisticated camera techniques.  I did use shiny little Kaisercraft gems for the eyes if you couldn't tell.   The finger in the corner is all me.  I'm working on figuring out a good way to get the goods to you!!!

Mystery: Where oh where are you camera?

Missing:  beloved family member Cannon Sureshot.  Three years young.  Wearing a black camera bag.  Distinguishing features:  memory card is taped together, batteries are rechargeable, pictures of girl kissing whale on memory card.  Last seen in the vicinity of Michaels in Westminster but could be anywhere thanks to the dark corners of my mind.  I used to curse that big lens and bulky bag but would retract any previous misgivings for my baby back in one piece.  Please contact me if you have seen her.

Mystery Gourd

Yeah!  After a week of being away from my garden I can harvest something!  I was hoping to come home to some red tomatoes but they are still green.  I picked these beans, blanched them (I always think about the Golden Girls when I use that word) and froze them for later use.  Now, this gourd!  I need help from some garden girls to tell me what to do with this one!  I just love how it turned out but do I dry it for decor?  Cut it and eat it?  How?  Help me out ladies, let me know what you'd do!!!

Well I stayed up late Saturday night watching the crazy gals at My Pink Stamper but I didn't make the design team .... this time!  I'll keep trying!  Thanks for all of your great comments and encouragement!  I appreciate you guys!!!  

Texas is the Bestest

Just got back from spending the week in Texas.  Best week ever.  Hubby was visiting for work so we tagged along.  We have friends that just moved there so they generously volunteered to be out chauffeurs for the week.  They are such an awesome couple, treated us like royalty!  I cannot wait to scrap these pix!  All 562 of them!  Here's the rundown for the week:

Monday:  We walked to the Alamo from our hotel, must've walked for miles that day!  It was hot but not totally unbearable ... only 101!  Walked to the Tower of Americas and walked the Riverwalk.  It was a long day after getting up at 4 a.m.
Tuesday:  Our friends took Ange and I to the Natural Bridge Caverns which was amazing.  Ange loves her rocks and she got her fill there!  We then went to a drive thru animal preserve.  It actually rained while we were there, they are in a severe drought so naturally Ange thought she brought the rain with her for them.  A little more Riverwalk and dinner with some great friends.
Wednesday:  Seaworld.  If you remember, we granted Ange's wish to swim with the whales for her birthday so she was beside herself all day!  Another long day, eating dinner at 9:30!!!  But hey, it's vacation.  We had a wonderful time and Ange is going to be a marine biologist and work at Seaworld.  Go or it sister!
Thursday:  Tourist attractions, missions, Mexican Market and a little swimming to cool off while the boys played golf.  Really!  In 100+ degrees.  There was a breeze so they claim it wasn't hot.  We gave Zinc her treat bag and she loved it!
Friday:  Travel home.  The flight was great, a little long but we managed.  We left Texas where it was a nice 93 degrees and landed in 104 Baltimore!  It was cooler in Texas the whole week!  It was an awesome trip and can't thank hubby enough for letting us go especially when this was supposed to be the summer without a vacation due to our remodel.  It was awesome!

Pink Stamper Design Team

I cannot believe I am leaving for vaca tomorrow and all I can think about is the My Pink Stamper's design call!  Wasn't going, thought I should pack then had an idea at the last minute, like usual!  We are visiting some friends and they have a cat.  I am being mentored by the gift master herself and I know she would not show up empty handed so I picked up a few kitty treats.  Can't just give present them in the Target bag, although the cat would like that just as much!  So, using the colors Robyn selected for the challenge, I whipped up a gift bag instead of rolling my undies and packing my shampoo.  I think the kitty will like it!  Hope you do too wink, wink, purr, purr!

I used:

Hello Kitty Cart for the kitty

Car Decals for the letters

Bazzill solid cardstock

Pattern paper from Kaiser

Random Ribbon and gift bag

Mystery: Why wait?

Busy weekend here at the Turner ranch.  Busy Birthday weekend.  If you didn't know, now-a-days, as opposed to the 'olden days' when I was a kid, birthdays are celebrated for days on end.  Friday is Ange's 11th birthday.  i knew it was coming for about 364 days now but just got the brilliant idea for the theme THIS MORNING!  I do this to myself all the freakin time!  Why?!?!?  Am I better under pressure?  Wouldn't I like to go to be on time the night before?  Do I not blog surf for hours researching ideas?  Am I just the best procrastinator??  yes, yes, yes, YES!!!  using my Samantha tone.
Ange wants to swim with the belugas when we go to Texas so thinking, thinking, thinking, oh let's do an aquatic theme.  Duh!!!  So off to Walmart I go 8 hours before her party to pick up aquatic items.  I got sweedish fish, licorice (sea anemones), carmel popcorn for barnacles, bull's eye candy for life rings (after you eat the middle out), ruffle chips for life rafts, wasabi mix for pirate booty, regular goldfish crackers, etc.  We pulled the table scape off using some shells and driftwood we collected during a recent park visit and some creatures she won at the carnival last week.  She wanted to make the signs for each label and they turned out cute with her touch added to them ... I didn't have time to search in the 100 degree attic for my netting but nobody noticed it was missing.  That was about it for theme.  I had a bff's daughter's grad party to go to in the afternoon so I did what I could in the short hours I had to pull it out of my butt.  Here's a few pix of the table scape ...

goldfish crackers and sweedish fish

rafts, sea anemones and eels

The barnacles and life rings.  

Birthday Girl

Isn't it fun embarrassing our kids!  Just because it's their birthday doesn't give them the day off!  I've either made Ange a pin or a t'shirt for her to wear on her birthdays.  Why should this year be any different?  We took her and two of her friends to Cape May, NJ for her birthday.  She's been whining about going thru beach withdraw because the last few vacas have been to lakes.  So she got the beach for a day.  Hopefully that will satisfy her wave craving.  When I picked up the tees from Michaels they had glitter iron on paper.  Had a thought that I could Cricut designs for them but had a hard time getting the sheets to stick to the mat.  I was able to cut out some bigger letters though.  BBF was for Best Birthday Friend.  Thought the candles looked good for 11.  Couldn't just embarrass her though ...

Whale of a Card

Because of the aquatic theme birthday and the swimming with the belugas ... I made Ange a whale of a card if I do say so myself!  I used the Birthday Bash cart and cut a few different phrases out and pieced them together and the whale was from Gypsy Wanderings as well.  Thank you Gypsy!  The paper was from the Nantucket DCWV packet.  My new fav!  The whale is embossed with glitter!  The red/white stripes are also embossed and glittery.  I just added the dashes on the outside.  Probably should've shadowed 'birthday' but haven't mastered the welding yet!

Embellish Mag

Because I Give a Hoot

Bff's was having a grad party for her daughter so I wanted to make her a card.  Although we are in the midst of the homeliest card contest (rules below) I decided to make her a real card using some real stuff.  I used the owl punch from Stampin Up and some random cardstock from my stash, probably Bazzill because that's pretty much all I use.  Her high school colors were red and black but nooo she wanted her party to be her college college of purple and gold.  Took a few minutes and waited til the last possible minute but turned out cute ...

added this to the inside cover ...


Thanks to Terry over at Going Over the Edge for inspiration!

Here's the deal on the homeliest card contest ... between my bff and I we have tons of scrap stuff but not tons of time to play.  Well, for her daughter's birthday card (the one I made the rooster card for) she ran out of time and drew a stick figure on a piece of white cardstock.  I retaliated by sending a torn piece of notebook paper with something scribbled on ... and so it begins ... here are the rules:

1.  run out of time to make a proper card

2.  stare at all of your stash but use none of it

3.  double score for being late

4.  mis-spell the recipients name

5.  don't put enough postage on it so they'll really have to pay for it!

It's just something silly we do to amuse ourselves.  We don't have enough play dates to get together so we have to make up little games!  

Partying with:

Made it Myself Mondays