Two New Layouts

I went to a crop yesterday and only got two layouts done because I was too busy talking with a couple of the ladies I haven't seen for about a year. It was fun though! Here are the layouts I did.

Simple Stories Kit

I received my Memory Works order, which is the Simple Stories kit. I think I'm going to like this just to put a quick scrapbook together. The page protectors, most of which have places to hold 4x6 photos, will be easy to use. The kit also came with page elements, such as titles and journal boxes. This will be perfect for when I feel like I have scrappers block.

You should check this out. If interested in buying, please let me know.

Valentine's Day Cards

I spent this weekend making Valentine's Day cards for an exchange I'm participating in on the CKMB. Here are the cards I made. Sorry about the spacing, but the scans added extra spacing.

Club CK

I just signed up today for a premium membership for Club CK, and it sure looks like the mb is going to be a fun place again! It is so much better than the last "improved" mb. I have a hard time pulling myself away from its. You should come and check it out.

Thursday, January 14th

I got a pleasant surpise when I got in my car for work this morning. Beth left me two messages on my windows. Here are the pictures.

Also, today is Lawrence's 16th birthday. I sure wish he lived near us so we could celebrate with him.

I also wanted to add some scrapbooking things to this post, so here pictures of the Hello Kitty I cut from the Hello Kitty Greetings Cricut cartridge and SpongeBob Squarepants that I cut from the SpongeBob Squarepants Cricut cartridge. SpongeBob was kind of hard to assemble since some of the layers were small.

Evening Plans

Since there really isn't anything on TV tonight, I think I'm going to spend the evening with my Cricut E. I need to make some Valentine's Day cards, as well as a Get Well card. Beth will be home, so I won't have to worry about watching Ethan. It's going to be nice to be able to spend an evening crafting!

Another Monday

I really dread Mondays. It seems like the weekend goes too fast and it's time to head back to work. At least today didn't go by as slow as most Mondays.

I'm getting ready to get my Cricut E out and do some cutting.

Snow

Yesterday was our first snow storm of the year. I was hoping it would snow enough so I could stay home today and do some things on my Cricut. I don't plan to go anywhere this weekend, so maybe I'll have time to pull out my Cricut and do some scrapping.

It Was A Nice Christmas

Russ & Kate did make it home after a two day delay in Washigton D.C. They arrived on Monday, December 21st, instead of Saturday. At least they were able to be here for Christmas.

Beth and I made four types of cookies: chocolate chip, cut out sugar cookies, Reese's peanut butter cookies and M&M cookies. Ethan likes every one of them.

Everyone liked their presents! That makes it nice since there are no gifts that need returned.

Christmas Will Be Here Soon!

I can't believe that this time in 2 weeks, Christmas will be over. I'm not even ready yet! We were going to put the tree up today, but Beth got called in to work. We'll put the tree up tomorrow. We are also going to try to start baking cookies tomorrow as well.

We're all excited that Russ & Kate will be home on the 20th! It will be nice to see them again.

I'll be doing a lot of shopping this week. I'll be getting my bonus on Monday, then look out stores! It will be nice to finally be able to get all my shopping done.

Busy, Busy Weekend

This past weekend was a very busy one! I went to Sauders for a weekend crop on Friday and Saturday. I met Wendy and Sheila at Chili's at Spring Meadows at 9 a.m. on Friday and then we headed to Wauseon to hit Walmart and get breakfast. After breakfast, we headed to Sauders to start scrapping! They served a burrito/taco buffet for dinner, with a wonderful Chocolate Fluff dessert. Michelle from Wisconsin joined us about 4 p.m. We scrapped until almost 2 a.m.

Saturday morning we got up about 8 a.m., had breakfast and headed back to scrap some more. We went to The Barn for lunch, and I was stuffed! I used my Gypsy for every single thing I did. It sure is so much easier to cut things on the Cricut using my Gypsy! I left to head home about 4:30 p.m. so I could get home to start getting stuff done for Ethan's birthday party on Sunday.

Ethan's birthday party was at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday. It was a cool day, so we had to be in the house. It was a little crowded, but Ethan had fun. We grilled hot dogs on the grill, had potato salad, macaroni & cheese and chips & dip. I decorated a SpongeBob Square Pants cake and Beth made cupcakes. We served vanilla ice cream squares with the cake / cupcakes.

Here is a picture of the card I made for Ethan at my weekend crop. I used my Gypsy to cut out the bug (from the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge), balloon (from the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge) and the 2 (from the Don Juan cartridge). I used the Cuttlebug Happy Birthday embossing folder on the orange cardstock. All cardstock is Bazzill.

Final Week for Cartridge Giveaway

This is the final week for the cartridge giveaway over at www.cricut.com, where they are celebrating their 100th cartridge - Winter Woodland. Here is a link to the description of Winter Woodland: http://www.cricut.com/shopping/ProductDetails.aspx?id=361&s=1&sc=2

The boards over at www.cricut.com are always hopping, especially now that the Gypsy has been released. You should head on over, enter to win the cartridge and join in on all the fun!

Loving My Gypsy!

So I ended up buying the Gypsy when it was the Today's Special on HSN. I had been wavering back and forth, but once I saw the presentation, I was clicking to buy it. The 5 flex pays didn't hurt either.

Well, I FINALLY made my first cut, and here it is:

I cut the cupcake from Gypsy Wanderings. The Gypsy makes it so much easier to cut things because you line up the cardstock for all the different layers on the mat, and it all cuts at one time. I enjoyed cutting my the Cricut before, but this will make it even better!
Now I'm off to link all the cartridges to my Gypsy!

Week 4 of the Cricut Cartridge Giveaway

It's now the start of week 4 of the Cricut Cartridge Giveaway at www.cricut.com. This is in celebration of their 100th cartridge, Winter Woodland! Here is the link to the description of the cartridge: http://www.cricut.com/shopping/ProductDetails.aspx?id=361&s=1&sc=2

I sure would like to win this cartridge!

3rd Week of the Cricut Cartridge Giveaway

Over at http://www.cricut.com/ they are in the third week of the 100 cartridge giveaway. They are giving away 20 cartridges per week. Here is the link to the post on the message board: http://www.cricut.com/messageboard/tm.aspx?m=5316808

Here is a link to the description of the 100th cartridge: http://www.cricut.com/shopping/ProductDetails.aspx?id=361&s-1&sc-2

You should join us and try to win while you are there!

Reminder - Cricut Cartridge Giveaway

Just a reminder that over at www.cricut.com they are giving away 100 cartridges in celebration of releasing their 100th cartridge!

Please see my post below titled Cricut Cartridge Giveaway! for the link to the details of the 100th cartridge.

Hopy you join us on the message board at www.cricut.com

Made Ethan's Halloween Card

Last night I actually found time to get out my Cricut Expression and made Ethan's Halloween card. I used the Hello Kitty Greetings cartridge and the Martha Stewart Drippy Goo punch. I still have to put the sentiment on the inside, but here is the outside.

Cricut Cartridge Giveaway!

Provo Craft is celebrating their 100th Cricut cartridge by giving away 100 cartridges over the next five weeks! Here is the link to the post at cricut.com http://www.cricut.com/messageboard/tm.aspx?m=5248058&mpage=1

Also, here is a link showing the 100th cartridge - Winter Woodland http://www.cricut.com/shopping/ProductDetails.aspx?id=361&s=1&sc=2

Come on over to the Cricut.com message board and join the fun!

Nearing The End Of Summer

The summer sure has gone by fast! We've made plenty of trips to the zoo, so it was well worth the price of the membership. There will be plenty more trips there, especially for Little Boo right before Halloween.

In about a month and a half, Ethan will be 2! It sure doesn't seem like it. He's so much fun, and hasn't really started the terrible 2's yet.

The first picture below is Ethan at 22 months old and the second one is with his Mommy. All the other pictures are from our trip to the zoo on August 16th.

Toledo Zoo Visit Today

Larry, Beth, Ethan, Brad and I went to the Toledo Zoo today. We spent 5 hours there. We rode the train and saw Dad while he was working. Ethan really enjoyed the train ride because the animals along the train tracks were active today. The rest of the animals were pretty much sleeping. It was a very enjoyable day. Below are some pictures.

What Happened to July?!

I can't believe we are at the end of July already. It's been a busy month! Russ arrived on July 10th, Kate arrived on July 16th and Larry arrived on July 18th. We went to a Mud Hens game on July 20th. They actually won that night 4 - 2.

Russ and Kate left early in the morning on July 21st. Larry is still here and will be leaving on July 28th. We made sure we got pictures with Mom before Russ and Kate left. We also got a 5 generations picture.

Tomorrow Beth, Larry, Andy, Ethan and I will be going to the zoo. Here is a picture of Ethan at the zoo on July 3rd. He's wearing the Junior Zookeeper outfit Dad bought him and the hat I bought him that day.

Here is a picture of Beth and Ethan on July 4th! I can't believe I was able to get a picture with both of them looking at the camera and smiling. Usually Ethan will turn his head just as the picture is being snapped.

4th of July Weekend

We had a nice 4th of July. Beth had to work, so we had a cookout after she got home. We had hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, baked beans and macaroni & cheese. Later in the evening, we shot off fireworks. We put on a good show!

Today (Sunday), I was FINALLY able to finish Ethan's alphabet book. The album is an 8 x 8 Pioneer album. I put Colorbok chipboard letters, covered in Colorbok chipboard letter stickers, on the cover. The cardstock used for the base of the pages is by The Paper Company. I used the Zooballoo Cricut cartridge to cut all the animals and letters. The letters on the title page and end page were cut from adhesive-backed cardstock I bought from QVC, and all the other letters and animals were cut from Bazzill cardstock. The animals are attached on the outside of the page protectors with velcro so Ethan can take them off and put them back on. I used my YourStory machine to laminate the animals.

Weekend Went By Fast!

I can't believe it's Sunday night already! It's been such a busy weekend. Yesterday I watched Ethan while Beth was working. Then yesterday evening we went to the Shoreland Festival and then watched fireworks after that.

Today we went to the fireworks store in Michigan, Platos Closet, Menards, Lowe's and then finally home. We had leftover spaghetti for dinner.

At least this is a 4 day work week, since Friday is a holiday. I will then have a full work week the week after and then vacation the week after that. I'm really looking forward to having Russ and Larry home!

June Is A Busy Month!

June 10th was Mother's birthday, as well as Andy's 16th birthday! I'm glad I was able to get him a present he really wanted - a bigger hard drive for his XBox 360. We gave Mother money. After Mother and Andy opened their presents, we went to Bob Evans for dinner.

While Beth was outside, I decided to take pictures of Ethan and me. Here is one that I really like of the both of us. Look at the little devil posing!

On June 16th, the Toledo Zoo had an employee night. For this, the employees and their families got to see the new area that would be opening on the 19th. Ethan loved the goats, as you can tell by his face in the picture below.

On Father's Day, we set up Ethan's pool. Here he is sitting in it. He didn't even wait until he got his swimming trunks on! We had a cookout, and our menu was hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad and chips. It wasn't much, but after all the work we did that day, it was good.

Did A Little More Scrapping

Last night I worked some more on Ethan's alphabet album. I have one letter, an "a", that I need to recut because when I ran it through the Xyron, it flipped over and the adhesive is on the wrong side. I'm excited to be in the finishing stages of this project. Hopefully I can finish it tonight and post some pictures.

I plan to also make Ethan albums on counting and colors.

Giveaway On a Cool Blog

I saw a post on the CKMB for a giveaway on the Picture to Paper blog. Here is the link: http://picturetopaper.blogspot.com/ Look at the post titled Favorite Friday.

I looked around the blog and they have some really great projects. I've added it to the Places I Like To Visit.

Just thought I'd share with you.

Did Some Scrapping Over the Weekend

On Saturday night and all day Sunday, I used my Cricut and cut out all the animals and letters I need to make Ethan's alphabet album. Now I just have to trim cardstock down to 8x8, laminate the animals and then start assembling. I can't wait to get it done! I'll make sure to post pictures of the album here. Hopefully tonight I can do some work on it as well, but who knows if I'll have time. If not, I'll definitely work on it tomorrow night.

I also have to make birthday cards for Mother and Andy, since their birthday is next week.