T stands for Tuesday

Hello and Happy T stands for Tuesday! I have a new mug to share with you today, a Valentine gift to myself. Got it for a dollar the day after Valentines, YAY!! I'm packing away the decorations today and bringing out either St. Patrick's Day goodies or might just jump into spring, maybe that will make spring hurry and get here. So how was your week? Mine has been good, everyone is healthy and trying to stay warm. The temps went up a little finally and we got to see grass over the weekend, YIPPEEE!! Summer and I even went to the track and walked, DOUBLE YIPPEE!! Sadly the snow started the next day and is still here today so no track. The kids got another snow day last week so that is 5 days we have to make up in June, YUCK!! Hoping that reallllly will be the last one.

 

Last week I stumbled upon something new,  Artist Trading Cards (ATC)  I have seen some and heard about it but that was it. I found a new friend thru my Instagram on my cell and couldn't resist wanting to join in. I spent the weekend making some ATC and meeting others and trading with them. So excited and was so fun to make them. Thankfully I remembered to take a picture of them before mailing them off. Will try to keep doing that so I can share them here with you.

I just realized I didn't take a picture of them all, forgot my second batch of them, this is the first batch. Since purging my craft space I have limited supplies so I was glad to find these to work with. I had no idea the detail work into these. I had to sign all the backs and date them all and write a note and envelopes out and put a few goodies in each one. It's like Christmas in the mail, YAY!! I had so much fun and will be making more today. Have any of you made these before? Would love to hear any tips or stories of yours. I actually have two that live here in Ohio with me, YAY!!

look at that pretty sky and sunrise starting, YAY!!

Here the little ones playing outside with Sam and his friend. It was so nice to get them out for once. This winter has been too cold for even Sam to go out. They had so much fun.

Here they are listening to the songs from FROZEN with Renee. Little Colt now sings the Let it Go song over and over again. It is the CUTEST thing ever! Sienna sings her church songs all the time so it was so sweet to hear little Colt singing this time. Renee loves them too.

 

I have a special request today,  Sienna and Colt's dad is having brain surgery on March 12th, to remove a tumor. Would you please keep him in your prayers. Prayers for surgery to go well and that they can get all of it out and for a good recovery afterwards. A special prayer too for the little ones, Sienna especially, she is a daddy's girl and I know this is going to hard and confusing for her. Thank you so much for your prayers and good wishes, means a lot to me and this amazing sweet family.

 

Thank you for visiting today and I can't wait to see what you are sharing today.

 

Thank you Elizabeth for hosting us today. Have a great week everyone!

It's Time for T on Tuesday

Hello and Happy Tuesday! I can't believe it's been a week already, this was a busy and fast week. I'm happy to be joining in with Elizabeth  where we share our choice of cup/beverage and other fun stuff each Tuesday. It was fun for me to visit all of you last week, thank you so much for your visits and nice comments on my teacup and heart book papers I've been doing. Still going strong on them.

 

The above ones are from the very beginning of this project. On the first day of starting my plan was to do random sketches daily then I decided on the 2nd day to make each month a theme month. So here were my first 6 days of the project. You can click on the image to see better. I'm using this as my cup for this post. I kinda miss drawing these and might have to add this in again later in the year.

 

Just want to share that school just got canceled for us today, I'm thankful for that, means I can stay in and out of this yucky blowing snow we are having. It's also great since now I have time to write this blog post which I had planned on doing tonight. Can't remember the last time we had grass, really missing it and can't wait for the snow to go away. 

I surprised the kids on Valentines and had the table dressed up and surprise bears with candy for them. The girls were sooooo HAPPY about this. Sam was happy too but the girls really liked that I thought of them and did this. I love the polka-dots and seeing the table clean and pretty. We had no plans for that night, Sam went to the school dance then brought a friend back to sleep over, Summer went to church camp and LOVED it. With just Renee at home we settled in and watched a movie she's seen but we hadn't, White House Down. Have any of you seen this? WOW, it was a good, action packed and so sad. I loved it and so did Rich! It was the perfect Valentines Day.

Just had to share these cuties. They both went and saw the movie Frozen, which I had seen too. They LOVE the music just as much as I do. The songs are on my playlist and they keep asking to listen to it. I love this picture and how much they enjoy hearing the music. They will be here today and I'm sure we will be a lot of listening to it again.

here is the second half of my hearts. Sorry it's cut off on the left side, didn't realize that till I uploaded. That first one is my favorite, it says PEACE. Click on them to see better.

 

That's it for today, time for me to go get ready for the little ones coming over today. Will be a loud and kid filled house now. I'm looking forward to it, missed the little ones. Stay warm and safe if your in the snow like me and stay cool for my faraway friends. Thanks so much for your visit.

 

Thanks again Elizabeth for hosting us on Tuesday's, so happy I can share again this week. Stop by and say hello and see what others are sharing today at Elizabeth's

PROJECT LIFE CATCH UP

Hello and Happy Valentines Day!! I want to say a big THANK YOU for the visits this week and your nice comments on my pictures and book papers. Today I'm sharing some Project Life pages with you, FINALLY!! These pages were done except for the journaling on them. Last month was so crazy I did good just to get pictures each week and stick them in the album. Yesterday, I made myself sit for over an hour and did all the writing and finishing up. Still have to finish last week's then will post it along with this with this week when it's done. I'm also trying something new some weeks with my PL, I want to mix it up this year. Will explain it as those weeks come up.

 

First, I want to share the beautiful art Sienna made me this week. OMG this girl loves art and is so creative and free when creating. I want to be like that, don't like that inner critic that comes out. The one on the right I especially love, her flowers are so sweet. The left one was made with deep concentration and her tongue peeking out just a  bit, LOVE THAT ABOUT HER!!

here is the first week in January, using a lot of the Midnight Kit, LOVE IT. I'm going to include close-ups of all the weeks, since my pictures are working again, YIPPEE!!!

sorry for the glare, didn't realize it till the last week's and didn't have time to retake pictures

here is week 2, I used Midnight on the left and Honey on the right

I love this side, a mix of fun and artwork

It was nice to bring out some bright colored cards in these winter days we are having. I have a better picture of the bottom right one, will be reprinting and putting it in here.

Here is week 3, this is where I've changed it a little

Again, sorry for the glare. This week was when I got sick and cleaned up my craft space

This side is what I changed up a bit. I started rethinking my format and journaling. Found inspiration in Tracey's new format of PL by adding journal sheets to the week and inspired to make each pocket like it's own layout. I did this on the bottom two pictures, I like that the writing is right there with the pictures. It does take more time and stresses me a little. I like it though and did it again the next week.

I love this weeks pages, week 4 already!

There is another new thing I'm going to do too. Usually the top left card has the title/date card there. I'm going to use a picture from our week instead, inspired by a new blog friend who made the PL Dream Team this year. For this week, it's a picture at floor level of the kids playing a game, LOVE IT!! I used a date stamp on the photo, love this too! Each picture has some writing on it, YAY, really enjoyed putting these together. I also bought some new stamps from Michaels that I used a lot on this weeks pages. Hoping to stay on track with the extra work it takes now but will go simple on busy weeks. The Midnight kit really works well for this because of all the white clean look of the cards which I LOVE about this kit. Might have to go pick up a second one.

This side I went a little simple but enjoyed it and LOVE these pictures. The top one is cut off a little, that is Lucky laying in the sun, so cute!! These pictures are all from one day, love doing this.

 

I'm so glad I did these now and don't have to worry about catching up on them later. I realized after Christmas how many pages I have left either blank or didn't fill in the journal cards in my other albums over the years. I'm ok with it though, some weeks are like that and I have TONS that are done and tell the story with just pictures too.

I want to say a big THANK YOU for Michelle at Inspiration Everywhere who is finishing up her projects from last year and posting them on Friday's. I know others who are getting their unfinished projects done this year, so fun that we can all do it together and keep motivated this way.

Forgot to mention, remember you can click on these images to see better.

 

Joann's finally has Project Life now too, so this Sunday I'm headed to ours and hoping to get their new KIWI kit, looks bright and happy. Wish me luck they still have some when I get there!

 

Thanks so much for your visit and hope you enjoyed my catch up on PL with you. Have a wonderful weekend and stay warm/cool wherever you are. We have snow again today, YUCK!!

Sending you all lots of love and hugs today!!

T stands for Tuesday and snow and Teacups

Hello and HAPPY T DAY!! I'm so HAPPY to finally be joining in with you this week. As some of you know my blogger was giving me issues uploading pictures for a month now. Finally on Sunday it just started working again, no clue why/how it all happened but VERY happy to see it's working now. As you can see from the above picture it's snowy here and it's been this way for awhile now. This was from yesterday, we got a few more inches during the day. I just started shoveling when I took this. We do a lot of that now too,  this has also been the coldest winter in a long time. The kids have had more off days then on days due to the low temps. Sadly, they have to make them up at the end of the year. Hoping the rest of winter doesn't get quite as cold, not sure how much more we can take and all of us have cabin fever.  Ok, how about some more pictures now.... YAY!!

Lucky was outside with me too. The weather has been hard on her also, she lets us know if it's too cold and won't go out or just goes a little ways then right back in. So funny to see her walking thru the deep snow, can't even see her legs. I try to keep her in the same path to help but some days it just keeps snowing over it again. She's tired of the snow too I think and wants the grass again.

Renee turned 17 on Sunday, where does the time go!!!

Here is our heart project for this month. Remember my thankful leaves in November? This is almost the same thing, instead of being thankful we tell each other things we love about each other. We have to make one for everyone and try to do this daily. The door got filled up pretty fast, I have a pile that still needs taped up. The rest of the month we will spread the hearts all over the house, love this part. It's not to late to start this too, start today and keep it going all month with me. I save these for my Project Life also. So fun going back over and reading them, I get a kick seeing Rich do his, he never complains and enjoys doing these. YAY!! I've made some for Sienna and Colt too and they love it.

Of course I need my cup/beverage/mug picture for today. During January I joined a wonderful lady thru Instagram where she is doing a daily book paper sketch. She is doing a variety of them but I wanted a theme for each month. I love book paper and thought this would be so fun, she is doing this for the whole year. How cool it will be to see 365 book papers at the end, excited about this! Her plan is just to use this as a quick 5/10 minute sketch, love this too. I have mostly used my watercolors and a few with markers. Click on the image to see better, each one was made for a specific reason, not just for the sake of sketching. If you can't see one good enough let me know and I will repost it by itself. I will show you the other set next week. Now to show you this months' book papers, my theme is of course HEARTS!! 

Here are the first 10 of them, I love making them. It's so nice to have a different theme now, was running out of ideas for my cups. I'm sure this will happen again this month. Again, click on the image to see better and if you need a better picture let me know. Each of these were made for a specific reason too, I'm lucky either a color or an idea pops into my head before I fall asleep or as soon as I wake up. Will share these again when I have a group of 10.

 

Thanks so much for your visit today, am so happy to be joining in and sharing pictures with you. If you'd like to see more pretty snow pictures and my clean up craft space see the post below that I just did on Sunday.  There is some pretty handmade gifts I received too for Christmas.

 

Elizabeth, thanks so much for hosting us on Tuesday's. Not being able to post kept me away from the computer, this was good in a way but not as much fun to miss out. Can't wait to visit and say hello to everyone. Have a great day everyone, stay warm or cool wherever you live.

 

To see more T time posts for today please visit Elizabeth at Altered Book Lover

MY BLOG IS WORKING AGAIN, YIPPEEE, PICTURES FINALLY!!

Hello!! WOW, do you see that picture??!!! I think my blogger is working!! YAY, finally I can share pictures!! I'm so surprised and excited! Not sure what happened, I didn't do anything just came on to see if it would work and IT DID!! Well, I will just have to photo overload you today I guess, YAY!!

 

I can finally share this picture above, which was a gift this past Christmas. My dear friend Linda in Australia made this and sent it to me. Can't tell you how much I love it, this made my heart VERY happy. I love this and even though it came after Christmas I left it on the table till just the other week when I had to put Valentine stuff up. I still have it right beside me though and am not ready to pack it away with my holiday stuff. Click on it to see better if you need to. I had no idea she was sending this to me, so it's extra special. My table looks so pretty with it too. I kept my table clean all thru the rest of December and January just to show this off.  So glad I could share this with you finally.

 

I'm not sure what to post since I wasn't prepared for it to work. Just going to put some random ones on here and have fun. Hoping it really is working and will post all of these!!

this is another gift I got from Tracey in Australia. These are the cutest sweetest little things. I was surprised by these too. I love them and have left them on my new bookcase and they make me smile when I see them. Won't be packing them away anytime soon either. I was so touched to get these from her and love happy mail surprises. Did I mention how cute they were?? LOVE!!

 

I sent these two ladies a Christmas card that had a snow scene on them since they don't get snow and little packs of Starbucks pumpkin coffee which they don't have in Australia either. Isn't happy mail and surprises fun. They both enjoyed it and loved the surprise.

here is the sunrise picture from exactly 31 days ago that I wanted to share with you. So happy I can share it now. We've had a lot of them lately, not many sunsets though. I love the gorgeous color!

Look how cute these two are, they make a little fort by surrounding themselves with larger toys then putting the small toys inside with them. This time they actually read books to themselves. Each fort is always different and they play in it differently. Sometimes they make the fort then run around and chase or dance instead of playing in the fort. They are the best cleaner uppers too, they will put these toys away so nicely and Sienna cleans them up just so and perfect.

here is my cleaned up craft space, YAY!! It's still doing pretty good and I love it. I'm hoping you will remember what a mess it was before. Don't want to look for the before shot but will try to share another time. I used to have two tables with piles on them and under them. Figured I should get rid of one table and get some organizers. Those are the white things next to my table. I cleaned off this table pretty well too. I hope to do more with this space but for now it's making me happy!

here is what it looks like most days now, SNOW AND MORE SNOW

this is from last Sunday. We woke up to the beautiful white snow that is just stunning and gorgeous everywhere. I love seeing the trees like this, so pretty everywhere. I looked out this window all day just to see this beautiful bush. Today it is snowing again but not the pretty kind like this one.

the backyard when it was finally warm enough to go out and enjoy it. I love the blue sky that day and seeing how pretty it was outside. This was right after my blog quit working. The kids finally had gone back to school and the house was all mine. It was so nice to just walk outside with Lucky and enjoy fresh air and then went back in and enjoyed the quiet house.

here is a little Valentine decoration. I used to have my snowman art from Susan here, don't worry just moved it onto my bookshelf for now. The art on the second shelf is something I made 2 years ago. Had so much fun making this and loved how it turned out. The frame on top is scrapbook paper I change out every season/holiday just for fun. My mom got me the mailboxes at Target 2 years ago.

Here is the BIRTHDAY GIRL a month ago today, she is 17 today!! Time has flown by with this one, not sure I'm ready for this last year and her going into adulthood. She loves her birthday and today has been a good day, not too exciting. It's snowing and freezing and we are staying inside. Had cake and presents already and will be making hamburgers soon per her dinner request.

 

Well, after looking at my pictures I didn't have a lot to share with you. Hope you enjoyed this PHOTO POST!! So happy it's working again, YAY!! Wish I could know why it wasn't and why it is now. So weird but as long as it's working again I'm happy!!

 

Will come back on Tuesday with a T Time Post, YIPPEEE!!!

Thank you to everyone who still visited and read thru my long word only posts, I appreciate it.

 

Nancy, missed you at church today, darn yucky weather. We had a nice class, missed you though! Stay warm my friend, it's been crazy with kids all week and looks like they will be missing more days again this week since the temps will be below zero again. I bet your happy to see pictures!!

 

Happy Sunday everyone!! Take care and stay warm or cool depending on where you live. HUGS!