Pack Meeting

I have been so very busy this week, but haven't been able to finish a single thing.  Ever have one of those weeks?  This is definitely mine.

We did get to go to pack meeting Wed. night and had a blast.

Eli earned his Webelos Readyman Activity Badge

 and was recognized for his acheivement.  The topic for our Pack meeting was compassion.  Our fabulous Cub Master planned several activities above and beyond.  I thought some of you out there might be interested.

There was the blindfolded puzzle competition.  A scout and their dad (this isn't Eli's dad-we found a substitute since Scott was working)  tried to put a puzzle together blindfolded with the supportive shouts of instruction from fellow scouts.  This activity taught that we need to help each other, and when we have shortcomings, we can accept help from others to overcome.

Next was the hand-less face painting.  Eli got to paint his Webelos leader's face, lucky guy :0)

The only rule was they couldn't use their hands.  You can imagine how crazy the scouts were for this activity, also a lesson in compassion.

Here is Eli getting his ReadyMan...

And here is Eli getting the pin that comes with the ReadyMan.  

Our Cub Master put all the pins and beltloops inside of balloons and had the boys throw this...

"The Death Star" at the balloons to pop them.

That's my boy!  Popped it on the first try!!!

See, here's the pin :0)  Don't you just love the glop of paint on his forehead?

What a fun night.  The kids love it so much when their leaders take their job to the next level.

We really have been so lucky to have so many wonderful scout leaders.

I'd Like to Thank All The Little People...

Wow!  I am so totally excited to have received the Stylish blogger award from not one, but TWO fabulous bloggers out there!  Awesome!

I received this award many months ago, but I am relieved to find out 

that someone(s) still think I've got STYLE :0)

My first award came from Ashlee over at 

and the second award came from Vicki at 

Both of these ladies have CRAFT-RAGEOUS blogs packed with projects that will take you some time to take in.  Be sure to grab a cookie and your Diet Coke before you head on over there to take notes :0)

So to accept this award I have to... 

1-) Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award...
2-) Share 8 things about yourself...
3-) Award 8 recently discovered great bloggers... and
4-) Contact the blogger and tell them about the award...

(One award said 8, one said 15-
I am taking the 8 mainly because I am lazy  :0)

So, to tell you a little about myself...


1-I am an only child of 10


2-I have a passion for recycling furniture, sewing, crafting with cake and candy related materials, cardmaking (I haven't done in a while...hmmm), Woodworking, and any craft I can do with my kids.


3-I am a slave to variety!!!  If I can't change things up CONSTANTLY I go a little nuts.  Still trying to live down the furniture moving obsession of '98.


4-I rarely get to watch a TV show, but here are the shows I like...Scrubs, Psych, Chuck, Monk, Everybody Loves Raymond (just a little too close to home sometimes), Leverage, Eureka, and recently found and see my hubby (the engineer) in the show The Big Bang Theory-Yes, we are *nerds* and would die for a good nerdy show :0) I love, Love, LOVE King of Queens.  I know, it is off the air.  Don't make me start crying all over again.  I finally came to the conclusion that Doug and Deacon remind me of my brothers.  That and it just fits my sense of humor.  


5-I have a slight chocolate chip cookie addiction I am currently seeking counseling for.  Mom, I blame you!!!


6-I am passionately in LOVE with the music by artist Colbie Caillat!!!  I could, and do, listen to her music all day long, for months and months.  Haven't heard of her?  Go to Pandora online and give a little listen.  I love most of the artists on her channel.


7-I am the all time Speed Shopping Queen!  I pack so much into every day that when I hit the stores I have at least 10 on my list and spend less than 10 minutes in most (minus the checkout time-I can't be held accountable for the stores not moving as quickly as I would like :0)  I am not much of a rack wanderer.  If you are shopping with me you will want a water bottle, jogging shoes, and a walkie talkie.  Don't forget to pack a lunch because I will not stop until every location on my list is crossed off!!!


7-I tend to be a little attention deficit...you may have noticed with the way my blog projects are so completely random...wait, what were we talking about :0)  


8-One of my most vivid childhood memories was when we would get home from church and I would go down to my basement bedroom to change.  (Somewhere before 6th grade) I always ended up tap dancing in the laundry room (where my bathroom was) on the cement floor with my clickety church shoes still on and my slip up around my chest like a little dress.  I Loved Annie, you know, the little orphan Annie, so I had to try and dance like her in the movie.  I always wished my hair were like hers.  Annie was the first movie I think I went to the theater to see...at least the first I remember.  My mom took me there on a special date.  I put popcorn on my knee when they sang the part about popcorn on her knee...
If I had to put a number 9 it would be to warn you that I babble...


As far as my blog suggestions, I have favorites.  You can check them out in the tabs at the top of my page.  But I wanted to tell you about a couple blogs I have found recently.  Some made the list for the whole blog, some because I found a post I particularly loved.  

Angela Yosten-sewing/quilting

Made By Nicole-for her newspaper flower tutorial

Balzer Designs-for her newspaper flower tutorial

Adornments by Lisa-Has some very amazing photo books

Simply Vintage Girl-Stunning!!!  Photos and blog design

April Showers Blog Design-Can you tell I want to change up my blog :0)

ilblogdimadis-In Italian, but the coolest blog and she did it herself!!!

Me And Madeline-Beautiful quilts and cute little girl dresses

Life-n-Reflection-Fabulous Photos

The Pioneer Woman-I really LOVE this gal-She reminds me of who I really am

Holly Mathis Interiors-Amazing!  I am actually totally in love with the knotted quilt shown in the third photo down.  Gotta Do!!!

Thank you again for the award,

 and thank you for coming back even though I am a little 

*CraZY*

Photo Madness

Well I am officially ADDICTED!!!  

I told Madison today that all I can think about is taking pictures.  When I finally get out the door with the camera, no matter how long we are at it, all I want is to take more when it's over. It was just so much fun to throw our plans out the window this afternoon.  While Scott was at a meeting the kids and I hit the dirt road just to see where we'd end up.   

We really had a blast shooting it up at this tree.  Yep, that is about it for these here parts :0)

The trees here are different than any other place we have lived.  The trunks are completely green (this variety of tree anyway).  Every stretch of road in the farm lands has one or two that have popped up along the irrigation canals (only chance for water).

Yeah, getting all three children to look at me at the same time has been a little frustrating.  You would think that the 2yr old was the worst...not so!  Eli was staring in some strange direction more times than Emmalee.

Besides being obsessed with working on my photo skills, I have been very homesick for country life.  

We have some farmland here in our little Arizona town (who knew), but no big barns or huge Victorian farm houses.  There aren't very many old tractors just sitting around.  The sun kills everything!  I can't even find a wooden fence.  Here is what I did find...

Barbed wire and aluminum.  I still love the shot!  

I have been a little stressed out by photoshop.  In the past all my photos were edited with Creative Memories Memory Manager program.  I love that program, but Scott go Photoshop Elements 9 with his new computer and I am having a hard time transitioning.  I am sure it is because there are just so many bells and whistles, but I am totally dumbfound the minute I open the program.   I have had so little time to learn photoshop and I get so frustrated when I open the darn program and can't just edit away.  Anyway, I hit YouTube on Friday and watched tutorials on masking and layers.  This fence post was the product of my experimenting.   

We managed to find an owl nest.  That hole next to the owl is the nest, go figure.  I guess I always thought owls lived in trees.  I tried to boost this picture, but apparently the owl was made to blend in with the sand :0)

We did manage to find this crazy pile of tires out in the middle of nowhere.  Big ones, little ones, tires full of rocks.  Fat ones, skinny ones, even tires with chicken pocks... Bet you don't know what jingle that is from :0)  Think 80's...

Anyway, loving the camera.  I just found my aperture wheel and am delighted!!! 

I really have had so much fun shooting everything in sight and trying different setting that I keep trying to think of who else I could bug with my new hobby.  What friend would let me experiment on their family...Hmmmm...

Anyway, I will post all the links and sites I have found with photography tips in another post, but really the most helpful was ThePioneerWoman.com.  Check that out and Have A Great Weekend!!!

Baby Shower In A Box

My little sister Kira is having her baby shower this weekend.  I was so sad we couldn't come to help that I decided to send her a

Baby Shower In A Box

You have to know that Kira is as crazy and youthful as they come, so a regular pastel-ie baby shower would not do for her or her baby girl.

Here is what I came up with today...

Two handled boxes turned floral center piece.  I found these cute boxes at Micheal's for $3 each.  They had brown writing on them that said spring.  I painted over that and filled them with my tinted flowers.  I loved the butterflies so they had to go along too. I wanted a little extra wildness, so I added zebra and leopard print gems to the centers of the flowers.  

I also got two of these wooden trays at Michael's, same sale, for candy and favors.  Same thing, painted over the "Spring" and filled with goodies.

I saw these blocks last year somewhere and loved the idea.  I made one set for a friend, but of course, never got a picture.  That right there screams DO-OVER!!!

I cut new blocks, had slaves paint them black, then modge podged the scrapbook paper and photos on them.  We only ended up with photos from our side of the family, so Baby Daddy will have to get his  family photos later.  For now, the blocks will serve as decorations.

I put photos on 2 sides leaving plenty of sides for add-ons later by mommy-to-be.

I made another sucker stand.  The butterfly is a nice touch, don't you think?  

The suckers were purchased at Michael's, with coupon of course. They come 24 in a box for around $15 full price I think. 

I forced Mr. SewCakeMaker to break out the Silhouette manual while I ran around like crazy trying to get this ready to mail.  I love the Silhouette by the way!  He designed, printed, and cut these babies out in like an hour.   Yes, the teeny tiny holes are cut out-Thank You Silhouette!!!

The mini scallop circles are like tiny doilies!  Cute, but I had to use a toothpick to punch the holes out that decided not to come out on their own.  Next time we will skip the doilie effect.

Here is an over the top Name Sign. 

I so love this shape!!!  I ran out of time so simply sent it along.  After baby is here I will attach the ribbons for hair bows out the bottom.

I get distracted easily.  Can you tell?

Flowers seemed like such a natural direction to take this sign.  I threw three different types of flowers on there for variety and change in texture.  The feathers...well, I just couldn't help myself.  I have been feeling very vintage lately :0) 

I also threw a pile of tissue paper flowers in the box.  I pulled this one open to show how it will look, but the rest I left collapsed like this...

Last but not least, I made...You guessed it!

A Pennant Banner! 

What occasion would be complete without a pennant banner?  Really, name one!

There you have it.  Baby Shower in a Box.  The decorations at least.

You guys are on your own with the food :0)

Happy Shower!

Emmalee's Goopy Stuff Disclaimer

Sooooooooooooooooooo...

Goopy Stuff is not for the hair :0)

I had the two 2 yr olds sitting at the kitchen table playing with the goopy stuff, Madison across the room at her computer doing school stuff.  After a while, I made a quick trip to the bathroom.  You should know already that I am not one to dilly dally, not even in the loo.  Madison came to get me and said that Emmalee got Goopy Stuff in her hair...

I NEVER IMAGINED IT WOULD BE 

SOOOOOO MUCH!!!

Mads said Little Man put some in his hair, so Emmalee put some in hers.  Sad thing is, Little Man's hair is 1 inch long, Emmalee's is 8 inches!!! 

Slowly, patch by patch, by hand at first, then with her comb, I scrapped the gunk out of her hair.  She now needs Rogaine for Toddlers :0)  But I am fairly certain there will be absolutely no goopy stuff on the head 

EVER AGAIN!!!

A nice rinse with plain water and she was as good as new.  I so wanted to call my mom.  I might have had a piece of gum or two in my hair, but Emmalee SO WINS!

Baby Shower in a Box coming up next...after I put myself in time-out for a while :0)

Oh My Heck, Oobleck!!!

I am sure you have played with Oobleck at some point or another in your lifetime.  We saw the official instructions on the About.com site while looking for new Kitchen Science Experiments.  It would have done us good to refresh…but who has time for that!  Here is what we did…

One box of cornstarch.  This is a cheap form of entertainment because the cornstarch is the only purchase involved and it costs less than a dollar!  According to the instructions we did not read, you should add one part water, 1.5 to 2 parts cornstarch.  We did it one for one.  It didn’t work.  We would have given up then, but this morning I saw that the extra water had separated from the starch in the bowl.  See, it pays to be a terrible house keeper!  We poured the extra water out and away we went! 

Emmalee decided to grab the cup and pour the water in before anyone realized what she was doing :0)  That is kind of how all our days go…Emmalee making a decision and the rest of us scrambling to stop her a few moments too late, busy little girl. 

Have a pudgy little set of hands give it a stir.  Do understand that you will have a hard time stirring this solution.  It is like quicksand, the more you stir things up the more resistance it has.  

Once it is mixed you will find you can hit it hard with your fist and it acts like a brick wall.  On the other hand, if you put your fingers into it gently, they will sink to the bottom.

It was fun to plop a pile on the counter and push it around.  If you push on it, it becomes a solid, but when the pressure is released, you guessed it, liquid again!  

Did I mention that Eli jumps in up to his elbows when he finds something fun to do :0)

*Drip*Drip*Drip*

So if you grab a handful...slowly...you can squeeze it in your fist to form a snowball, however, if you stop squeezing it turns instantly to a gooey syrup and drips right through your fingers.

The kids loved this do-over so much I wasn’t sure if my kitchen would survive.   

I didn’t mind too much because those kids were entertained for over an hour, even Emmalee!  We had to remove her from the crime scene at dinnertime because she wasn’t about to leave on her own. 

I have to say that this has been the biggest mess of all of our experiments, but it was probably the most entertaining.  I couldn't keep my own hands out of the bowl.  

I have even more to show you but will have to wait until tomorrow, so for now,

Happy Crafting!!!