Medusa and the Country Gal

Since my daughter developed her own mind and personality, and is no longer led by her Mother's taste in costumy cuteness, she has come up with some great ideas on her own :) Last year she was a "fuzzy dice" (or die).

She conceptualize and I helped make it happen.

This year we got a really late start due to illness (specifically mine) and only had a week to get it together! I had one day to sew and one day to find what we needed and put it all together.

Any guesses?

Does this help?

She is Medusa...so don't look her in the eye!

Such a beautiful Medusa!

She doesn't look quite as evil as we would have liked, maybe some black lipstick would help.

Bigger more flexible snakes would have helped but there were none to be found. These were in the party favor section at the party store. You would think that you could find them anywhere at Halloween. Not!

Here she is with Olivia (the farm girl) before going to a costume party.

I have to work on Halloween, hoping to find someone to do her hair for her before trick or treating.

Hope you have a hauntingly happy, treat filled Halloween!



My Poor Car...

Some may remember last Christmas that I had my  1st run in (pun intended) with a deer. Unfortunately on the interstate while doing 75mph. I was pretty rattled and let's just say the deer didn't make it. This is the resulting damage. Can you believe they didn't total it!? I can't remember the exact amount but it was close to the amount needed to do so :(

Started with a piece of Core'dinations cardstock and sanded it to tone down the yellow, then stamped on pearlescent paint with some bubble wrap to represent snow.

Used the Cricut cartridge " Joys of the Season" for the glitter snowflakes. Crate Paper patterned paper.

I'm not sure I'm in love with the brackets, what do you think? Should they stay or should they go?

Used another lovely http://www.sketchsupport.com/ sketch.

Mimi turned 13 yesterday and I had to work :( Thankfully Daddy picked up the slack, She received her 1st cell phone and an I Tunes card. Mommy picked her up some cute earrings to wear with her Halloween costume. Pics of which will be coming soon!

Thanks for stopping, off to babyland :)

I'm Gonna Tell Daddy!

That is what Matthew said to me when I was punishing him for one of many infractions, I'm sure. Can't remember all the details but when I came across this photo it jogged my pitiful memory. I love how the light is catching him in the face. I was at a crop a couple of Saturdays ago and said I wanted to get more than one layout done in 12 hours (sadly that is all I get done most of the time). So simplicity was a must.

Did you know there is a website that you can look up all the Cricut cartridge images on? Me either. It's called http://www.mycutsearch.com/ . One of the gals at the crop had a gypsy and was able to look up which cartridges had an umbrella on them. Quite a few, surprisingly enough. This one (umbrella) on the Paisley cartridge was perfect!

I modified it just a little by cutting two of the umbrella tops and then cutting one to make it have two patterns. Clear as mud, right. The original just had score lines on it. Traced a light line and then cut out on the lines to recreate the curve. Love that the shadow has a cute scalloped edge.

The raindrops are from the "A Child's Year" cartridge.

I could seriously have this Bazzill Dotted Swiss in every color, I love it so much :)

Nikki Sivils patterned paper and stickers.

Where has the time gone? He is 15 now!

A little update on the chronically sick. Bladder infection and Mono test, that's all I'm gonna say.

I'll try to be a better blogger next month. Plenty of posts to come since I have a backlog of layouts to post :)

Have a great week!

Homecoming and Enough Already!

First a cold, then strep throat, and finally (if that wasn't enough), stomach flu! After a trip to the ER for a couple of liters of fluid and a bunch of anti nausea meds, I finally felt like I was going to live. The last 6 weeks have been tough on me :} My husband and teens have to this point been spared except for Matthew's bout of Tonsillitis. Let's hope it stays that way!

Last Friday, before all the sickness started, was Homecoming. Homecoming (for those not familiar) is a celebration including spirit week, a parade, bratwurst tent, float building, crowning of the new Homecoming Princess, Prince, Queen, and King, and culminating with a dance for the high schoolers. Many Alumni return to socialize with friends and revisit their glory days :)

Unfortunately the weather forecast was grim. It began to sprinkle off & on during the parade.

Mimi was ready in her new Sock Monkey hat :)

The band played a rousing rendition of the fight song!

Beautiful flags...and Madison :)

The JV football team and my son with his goofy grin.

Noah throws candy and cheeses it up!

Mr. & Miss Hartford

The Senior float

Off With Their Heads!

JV Cheerleaders

Not sure about this one :) Can you believe I didn't get a picture of the Freshman float! My own son's class (bad Mom)! He swears it was there but I have my doubts. If anyone has a pic, I'd love to see it :)

Varsity Cheerleaders

Wind, rain, & thunderstorms were all predicted and we had a little of everything including something extra...hail! Here is the beautiful sunset prior to the rain.

The Junior Band holds the flag for the National Anthem

Our last little bit of blue sky before it started raining :(  Rain delay for 1 hour due to lightning = very antsy kids! They finally resumed the game but played the last 3 quarters continuously and did the coronations after the game. This Mom was too tired and had to work the next day so she went home!

My one pitiful football photo. The lighting was terrible and my attention kept wandering...what can I say?! They won 62-0

Superfan Julia :}}

After the storm

Waiting for the next touchdown

We saw lots of fireworks, after every touchdown and a finale at the end! Unfortunately my pics are all blurry.

Time to go home with my favorite flute player :) Matthew was off to the dance. I can safely say a good time was had by all (except for the opposing team, sorry guys)!

We Love Pumpkins!

What's not to love about Fall (except that it precedes winter)? Crisp nights, football, leaf piles, beautiful saturated colors, juicy apples, Halloween, and of course...pumpkins! We love going our favorite local farmer "Big Dan's" and picking out fall produce. Not only does he have all the traditional goodies but he has apple cider and caramel apples too! YUM!

Pulled these photos from the archives (Rubbermaid boxes in my closet), whipped up these adorable pumpkins with the "Simply Charmed" cartridge and the banner with "Birthday Bash".

Inspired by another fabulous Sketch Support sketch!

 Used the "Base Camp" cartridge for the title and "Straight From the Nest" for the tree. I'm in love with the little crows :)

Foam dots, pearls and Stickles used to dress up the pumpkins.

Super busy week ahead. 2 volleyball games and a tournament on Saturday, football game on Thursday, Homecoming on Friday, on call Wednesday, and I'm sure I've forgotten something. Oh yeah, work!

Still nursing a sore throat, but life goes on... Busy today at work and will be again tomorrow! Off to get a good nights' sleep. Sweet dreams :)

Emoticon Cookies

Finished this layout last weekend between the germ fest here at my house :0

Just saying the word "Emoticon" sounds weird to me :)  Mariel was trying to come up with a new frosting idea for my famous sugar cookies (yes, they are famous right here in Hartford MI and Saint Joseph MI too!). Instead of our traditional treatment, she suggested smiley faces and that reminded me of the cute little emoticon stickers I'd picked up and tucked away in my stash.

My lovely SIL called me from Traverse City last week to share her good fortune. She found a boatload of Cricut cartridges at Menard's for $14.99 ea. She snagged Ashlyn's Alphabet and  Graphically Speaking for me! As I leafed through the booklet I knew I wanted to use this frame on a layout.

Be back next fall :)

The colors of her t-shirt dictated the color scheme of grey, pink, and yellow. Not an easy combo, I might add.

The Emoticons were too small by themselves. Remedied by layering circles and popping up.

It didn't feel girly enough...added a sprinkle of sequins :)

Is a layout complete without some Thickers?

Doesn't this little flower make you want to smile? Come on, admit it :P

Consider yourselves lucky that I am keeping my fiery red throat and hacking cough away from all, friends & patients alike.  Hope you've avoided the plague so far!

Welcome To My Germ Infested House!

OK, I'm done! Done with all these germs and sickness. Grrr. Two weeks ago the kiddos came home with a cold and graciously shared it with me. All is good, I'm over it in a week of snot filled tissues. Fast forward a week... Now Matthew is sick. A trip to the Dr. reveals severe Tonsillitis an ear infection and Conjunctivitis. Here we go with the steroids, ear drops, eye drops and antibiotics. One day with said sick teenager and I wanted to jump off a cliff!

So I went to a crop in Niles on Saturday for some social interaction (of which I have none, unless you count football and volleyball games) and nose started feeling stuffy and throat scratchy on the way home. Woke up Sunday feeling yucky, yea!

Up at 5am for work on Monday, dragging big time. Did not want to call in to work as I'd missed 2 days with the 1st cold 2 weeks ago. Here's where it went to hell in a handbasket! Cough, cough, hack, hack, my throat feels like it has a giant lump stuck to the back. Brushing teeth and now I feel like I can't swallow! To spare you the description...the charge nurse could hear me "ralphing" my guts out in the background as my hubby told them I couldn't make it :(

A trip to the doctor and $25 later. Diagnosis: Strep Throat and Sinusitis. My diagnosis: miserable. So that's why my blog and scrappy life have been neglected! Now Mariel is complaining of a sore throat and headache. Here we go again!

Do they have a germicide that you can pipe through your ventilation system???