More Snow Day pics!

Just wanted to share what we did on our snow day...

A big, red (pink?) heart,



a snow bunny,



and...snow cones. (those were Em's idea!)



And where are the older two children? Absent from the snow, for certain. They did not participate in the revelry of the snow. They were happy to hang out inside where it was warm and DRY. This snow was so wet! It wasn't staying warm that was a problem, it was trying to stay dry.

But Em and I had fun.

Today, Buttercup went in for her spay surgery. Wow! She's six months already. It's quieter around here this morning without her playing and running around.







Aw, enough cuteness.

What's the opposite of cute? How about cleaning the fridge -shudder-. Ugh, well it's just gotta be done. Maybe I'll just have to look at puppy pics when I'm done.

Buttercup is suppose to ready to be picked up between 3-5. She'll need some down time to recover but I know the kids (and I) will be ready to have her back!

Snow day!

So far today we have received 7.3 inches of snow. The record is 7.8 inches. It's still snowing. Who knows? Maybe we'll break the record!




These are kinda wimpy pictures but they do show the accumulation. We do not get snow in North Texas that often. Not every winter. Not every other winter. Just...sometimes. And this is our third snow this season.



Today wasn't a "snow day" at school. The temperature never dropped below freezing, despite the snow accumulating on unpaved surfaces. The roads were slushy, but not frozen. But that will change tonight. It is suppose to freeze tonight. Slush will become ice and tomorrow, school is on a two-hour start delay. The kids are happy for that though they'd prefer the whole day off!

Those snow days are fun--but you always have to make them up.

Sign me up!

Sign me up for the Jelly Roll Quilt-A-Long!

Moose-On-The-Porch Quilts is hosting this fun event! I have a jelly roll of Sandy Gervais "Crazy 8" so maybe that will be the new project! Mrs. D has signed up too, so we'll see if we can get together to work on it. That'd be fun!

I tried to find a picture of the "Crazy 8" but it came out last June and I'm not finding the jelly roll online. Perhaps you saw it around Christmas? Or before? It is a Christmas design and very fun!

Wish me luck!

Masterpiece Theater...uh. Theatre

I've enjoyed watching Return to Cranford on Masterpiece Theatre. Did you see the first Cranford series? The characters of Miss, Matty, Miss Pole, and Mrs. Forrester are charming, adorable, full of life!

If you follow the link above you can actually view the series online, for a limited time.

This series makes me laugh and smile and then throw my hands up in despair when then kill off another character! But finally, just finally, they killed off a person that was less-than-stellar in character! Whew!

And, in the end, Love Prevails. Doesn't that always make a girl happy?

And here's a face that makes me smile!



The puppy is doing better on house training. Finally!

I took the little tyke out every two hours when we first got her. And it was during the cold snap! And still, I'd take her and as soon as she got in the house, she would go. Little twerp.

So I gave up with the schedule. I started letting her run with the Big Dogs. And, I think she's finally getting it! She has her soft bed back in her crate as she has finally stopped peeing in her crate and she's getting a little bit more freedom around the house. Good job, Buttercup!

Brady and Buttercup enjoy a good wrestlin' match every day. Brady is so much bigger but he's very easy with her, no matter how ferocious he looks! He lays on his back and lets Buttercup be the upright wrestler.






It's pretty entertaining.

Just Something I Actually Made

I have completed a project! I'm pretty excited!

It's a birthday present for my friend Christy. And I was inspired by a project I saw on Just Something I Made and I thought that Christy would like the vintage, garden graphics. We both share a love of gardening and an appreciation for vintage.

So I made two tote bags using graphics from Just Something I Made. And the program I used to put it all together? Printmaster V 17.0. Yes, an older version card program. And you know, it worked.

The card program does have it's limits, and you can see by the fonts used in the final product. I'm not very adept at manipulating them with this program, but it still turned out cute. I'm not complaining!

I used Tailor Iron-On Art-Wear for this project. This particular iron-on does not require that you mirror the image. I hadn't tried this brand before using it on this project. I actually bought a pack of plain totes and the iron-ons at Walmart.

For the first bag, I basically tried to copy the Cathe Holden design.

And it turned out thus:



And I struck out on my own design bent for the second bag. First I printed it in all black:



but I thought it was too dark. You couldn't really see the detail in the cucumber graphic. Very dark.

So I tried some color. And changed the drop-down shadows to grey.



I like green! I like it!



I think you can see more detail in the cucumber graphic and it's not just a solid black. Cool!

The iron-on process was simple.
1)Print out your design, not mirrored, just regular.
2)Iron the wrinkles out of the project you want to apply the iron-on to.
3)Lay a pillow case on a flat, hard surface (I used the kitchen table).
4)Make sure the iron is steam-free.
5)Place the included parchment paper over the iron-on.
6)Apply straight, steady pressure, don't slide the iron. Let the ironed area cool for 2 minutes.
7)Remove parchment.

It was fairly straight forward but the included parchment was TOO SMALL! It didn't cover the design surface and left some edges exposed to the iron. They melted!




I consoled myself and convinced myself that it's not too bad. Maybe even vintage-like?

But this was the first bag made. Did I learn from this mishap? This mistake? NOOOOO--I had to have a go at using the same piece of parchment paper and ruin the 2nd bag.

I thought I would just iron half the design at a time. I decided this at 11 p.m. At night. And my large iron did not just want to iron a half at a time; it wanted to iron just a bit more. And the 2nd bag (not pictured here) melted. Big holes in half of the design. I decided it was time to quit and went to bed!

But the next day I gave it another shot.

Soooo, after experiencing a too-small-piece-of-parchment with not one, but TWO bags, I finally realized that something needed to change (I'm not the speediest of learners sometimes). I decided to use my own parchment paper. Genius!



Remember when parchment paper was hard to find? Well, I mean, Walmart didn't carry it? But Martha Stewart changed all that. Thank you Martha! When she showed how she used it in baking and cooking in her earlier shows, the demand went up, and now, now...Walmart is a purveyor of parchment paper. Thank you Walmart!

The 2nd bag turned out great! No ragged edges! No holes! So remember--USE YOUR OWN PARCHMENT!

And finally, we present,

Bag 1 (with "vintage" edges)



and Bag 2.



Happy Birthday Christy! I hope you like your gift! XOXO

Mrs. D is having a Giveaway!

Over at Diva Buzz, my friend Mrs. D is having a giveaway! She makes fun, beautiful, and colorful jewelry. Check out her blog for a chance to win:

this;



this;



or this!



What a fun way to start the New Year!

Thanks Randi-Sue!

Christmas Greetings!

Finally! It's the last day of school before the Christmas break and it's starting to feel like Christmas! My kids are pumped. They have been doing tons of homework every night and they're excited about Christmas and about getting a break from homework!

I took DD2 to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular featuring the Rockettes last night and it was...Spectacular! It was a wonderful show and we had a lovely time!




The costumes, the sets, the dancing were all amazing.

I didn't know what to expect from the show--a lot of high kicks of course, but how many kicks can make up a show? It definitely wasn't overdone.

One of my favorite numbers was the 24 (25?) dancing Santas. Imagine a large, group of Santas, all dressed alike in bright red and white costumes. Now imageine them dancing in perfect precision on a mat black background. So striking! And the choreography was just fun, fun, fun!
I would definitely recommend this show as a fun, family outing.

Here's a lovely vintage graphic from Cyndy's site -- Bon Secours Orphange. You can see the other lovely e-cards she has posted and check out information for Bon Secours. Take a moment and drop by!