Card swap round 1, month 4

Leslie was our hostess for the last month of this round of the card kit swap. She included a variety of papers and embellishments in various themes (look! I remembered to take a picture of the kit!)

This first card isn't quite done. Everything you see is from the kit. I can't find the embellishments I want to add, but I don't, I'm sure I'll find something else to use in the stash.

Everything but the ribbon is from the kit in this next card. I cut out the words from the patterned paper and used it like the old MM Wordfetti.

I used my own card base in the next card (not that you can tell the difference from the white cardstock in the previous photo, lol). Notice a theme in my design? I think I need to branch out. I added the dots using Ranger enamel accents. I wish Ranger sold this is other colors or sold just the black separately. I'm sure I'll go through the black much faster than the white.

This last card is also all from the kit, except for the "celebrate" rubon from American Crafts. I had a heck of a time getting the rubon to stick. I'm not sure if it was because my rubon is so old or the texture/finish of the cardstock repelled the rubon. I would have gone to punched letters, but I was too lazy to dig out my

I think I need to make one more card so I can make use of the pink buttons Leslie included.

Since Leslie doesn't have a blog, I've included them here.

Here are Susan's cards. And Katie's cards. Stop by their blogs and leave them a little comment love.

We'll have some new swappers joining us for the next round and I'm busy putting together the kits. I didn't make my goal of not being the last to post my cards, but at least I did it before the end of the month.

One box gone

I made a trip to the post office yesterday to mail my cards to Operation Write Home. I didn't make as many as I had hoped so I only had 50 to send (that's over a year's worth of cardmaking). But at least I made one goal for the year. Maybe I can send another box before the end of the year.

Verification

Sorry to announce that I've added word verification to comments. I dislike having to decipher the codes and assume you do too. But there's been a ton of spam comments on my blog and I need to stop them somehow.

Operation Write Home Card Drive

One of my 2013 goals is to send a box of cards to Operation Write Home before the postage increase and OWH giving me a reminder:

Free download: Dave Ramsey's Guide to Budgeting

My first finance post of the new year...here's a free download to Dave Ramsey's Guide to Budgeting. I don't know if this download is always available or if this is a one-time offer, so if you're interested, I suggest downloading it now.1

Hello 2013!

Two thousand thirteen? Twenty thirteen? The bigger question is where did 2012 go? I'm not big on resolutions, goal setting, or making big plans for the year. I did have some career goals for last year and they fell by the wayside. No worries about work; they were personal career goals and had the potential for taking me in a different direction. I'm still mulling over what I want to do when I grow up.

I considered choosing One Little Word, getting a new planner (decided I didn't want to spend the $), and not saying anything publicly about this year's goals. But I think a little public accountability could be motivating, so here are my goals/ideas/hopes for 2013.

Blogging:

• Blog more often and more regularly.
• Blog more about finances. This is one of my secret passions and I think I need to bring it to the forefront.

Health:

• I still have the same pesky five pounds that I've been trying to lose for the past several years. At least it isn't ten, like some years. So I'd like to lose those last five, forever!
• Walk more often. Maybe I'll start walking at lunch again. Or maybe I can get Mr. Fix-It to walk with me after dinner. Of course, that means I'd have to get home at a decent hour, not 8:00 pm as happens all too often.
• Eat more fruit and vegetables. We probably don't eat enough fruit (we eat plenty of vegetables; today was a meat-free day) and I'd like to experiment with different vegetables.
•  Maybe join a gym? There is a women's-only boot camp down the street that looks interesting. Or go back to the yoga studio I used to attend. Of course, that means I'd have to find the time and money for either one.

Home and Finances:

• Save more $. Oh my. This could be a blog post or two or three by itself. More on that later.
• Live off the the SNAP allotment for a month. But I need to figure out what it would be first.
• Do another round of 100 things. Maybe even two.

Of course, there are several for scrapbooking/crafts:

• Send a box of cards to Operation Write Home before postage goes up later this month.
• Sell enough of my stash to pay for whatever I buy this year. Unfortunately, I'm off to a bad start since the LSS is having a clearance sale and I special ordered something for organization.
• Finish the wreath I started last month.
• Be a better swap hostess (don't the be last to finish and post my cards).
• Apply for a design team. I miss the comradery of being on a team and the push to create. I applied for a team last year and obviously didn't make it.
• Submit a card or layout for publication or contest. That might help with the previous bullet.

Feel free to nag me or ask for an update. I could use the push!

Card swap month 3 - Leslie's cards

Here are photos Leslie sent me for December's card swap:

And here's a close-up of each of them:

Thanks for playing and I can't wait to receive your card kit.

Card swap month 3

I'm finally posting my cards for December's card swap. (I'm a bad swap hostess since we're supposed to post our cards by the end of the month and I'm usually the last to post.) December's hostess was Katie and she sent an awesome batch of goodies. I finally remembered to take a picture before I tore into everything, unlike previous months.

See that yummy paper in the upper right corner? It was so pretty, I couldn't cut into it, but I hope to do it justice soon. I've got a few ideas floating in my head.

My first card was 95% from the kit. That crushed velvet ribbon is so pretty! The only addition was the rhinestones in the upper corner. Katie did include some that were the perfect size, but I decided I wanted them in color and then when I found these square ones in my stash, I liked how they played off of the grid pattern on the paper.

For my second card, I added the Prima flowers(that red flower looks pink in person, really!). I was going for a pseudo fireworks effect. The embossing was from a Quickutz die.

My last card (and favorite) was all from the kit except for the stamp, which is from Papertry Ink. I had a little trouble with the vellum butterfly sticker and ended up placing it on some cardstock and then cutting it out.

Here are Susan's cards. You can see the beautiful blue paper there.
Here are Katie's cards. Check out all those Spanish sayings. ¡bellísimo

It was another great month! January is the last month for this group. We should be getting our supplies from Leslie soon. I will be opening up the swap again in February and will have multiple groups if there is enough interest. Let me know and you'll get first crack at a spot.

Happy New Year!

This usually is the time when bloggers reflect on the past year and set new goals for the new year. And I've got lots of thoughts on both, but just haven't gotten around to putting them down in words. I'll just say that 2012 passed too quickly and I think I need be more mindful in 2013. And thankful. Thankful for you, my faithful blog readers (all six of you, lol), and thankful for good neighbors. They sent over these treats earlier today; they're filled with red bean paste, yummy!

My holiday attire

Merry Christmas!

I bought this hat at a discount store a few years ago and get compliments on it every year. Best 99 cents I ever spent!

Winter blooms

I'm fortunate to live in a temperate climate, so I have blooms year-round. The bearded iris is named "frequent flyer" and blooms three or four times a year. I paid quite a bit for one rhizome several years ago (I don't remember how much, but I remember being reluctant to spend the $), but it has paid for itself many times over. As for the roses, I clipped the buds to bring them inside before I do my annual pruning.

Creative Palette giveaway

Here's your chance to win some goodies from one of my favorite designers, Nancy Thomas. I've been a fan of hers since the Lifetime Moments days. She started a blog after LM closed and I've been able to continue to enjoy her creations. Here's a link to the giveaway.

Card swap, month 2

Susan was the hostess for November's card swap. She told us she stuffed the packages and she wasn't kidding! As usual, I forgot to take a photo of the goodies before I dug in, but Susan has a photo on her blog. Here's just a partial list of what she included:

• All kinds of embellishments including pearl beads, ribbon, flowers, and brads
• Library pocket (I never know what to do with these)
• Chatterbox Scrapbook Nails (these are "vintage" scrapbook embellishments)
• Slide mounts (as are these)
• Flower lace (loved this, even though I ended up not using it)
• KI Softie (loved this too)
• Scenic Route alphabet stickers
• Card bases and envelopes
• And some of my favorite paper from KI (their Color Theory paper from 2006) and Luxe Designs

This first card is my favorite.

I love, love, love the red paper (Luxe?), both the A and B sides. It is rare that I like both sides of a double-sided paper. The pearls were a pain to glue on. Normally, I'd have used Stickles or a Viva pen, but since pearls were included in the kit, I decided to go for it. The only part of card that I added was the black satin ribbon.

Card 2 and Card 3 are similar designs. Try as I might, I am a simple cardmaker. Maybe I need Scrapfest (an online crop challenge that Lifetime Moments used to sponsor) to encourage me.

The only parts not from the kit are one of the card bases and the black brads. When I looked for brads to use, I discovered that I have FOUR kinds of black mini brads: Lasting Impressions matte, Bazzil matte, JoAnn's, and one no-name brad. Yes, they are visibly different and I had to try them all (I ended up using the no-name brads). On the third card, I just trimmed the paper slightly to fit the card front and the design left a perfect space for the flowers (or I could have put a sentiment there). Those Chatterbox nails made nice flower centers.

This final card uses the KI Theory that I mentioned earlier. How much do I like this paper? As the last LSS trash to treasures sale, I bought a few sheets of this paper to add to my stash (I don't have much of the paper; I didn't buy any when it first came out). I added the card base and stamped sentiment to this card.

Check out what the other ladies made:
Leslie's cards
Katie's cards
Susan's cards

Susan gave us sooo many goodies, I'm sure I could make a dozen more cards. Thanks Susan! I heard that Katie's kit is on its way to us. I can't wait!

Card swap, month 2, Leslie's cards

Leslie is part of our card swap, but doesn't have a blog so I've volunteered to post her cards for her here.

All of her cards have extra touches like lots of inking (which doesn't show up very well in the photos, unfortunately) or stamping.

This card has a fun surprise inside:

Here's a cute little "Hello" card:

And a romantic wedding card:

Susan, November's swap hostess, challenged us to do a layout with the leftovers, and Leslie rose to the challenge:

And you get a bonus! Leslie's daughter, J, wanted to get in on the action so Leslie sent along her creations:

Thanks for playing along Leslie and J!

You never know what life will bring

I took a quick trip back to the homestead to do my usual fall house prep of cleaning the house gutters, doing a bit of yardwork, and putting gas in my mom's car. Well, the last wasn't fall prep, but I'm the only person to put gas in her car this year, which tells you how little she drives since I've only been up there three times. My hope is that if she knows the gutters are clean, she won't be climbing up the ladder to clean them herself.

When I got back to the office (keep in mind, this trip was just a long weekend trip), I got some bad news about a coworker. She had been having some headaches and vision problems, so she went to the doctor and then to an ophthalmologist, who immediately sent her for some tests. It turns out, she had a brain tumor and was scheduled for a 2-part surgery. News like this makes you want to hold your loved ones a little tighter, makes you want to live life a little fuller. Keep that in mind as you go about your evening/day/week.

The surgery was a success and she's recuperating at home. We missed the chance to send flowers to the hospital (and weren't sure if ICU would allow them anyway) so instead, we took up a collection to buy some grocery and restaurant cards. Hopefully, they will make life a little easier for her family. Somehow, I ended up volunteering to organize the collection and shopping, which means I had to make a card too.

Supplies: Creative Imagination patterned paper, Bazzill Bling cardstock, Viva Pearl Pen, misc. fibers. 
Tools: EK Success punch, Papertrey Ink stamp

Card swap, month 1

It is time for the big card reveal from the first month's card swap. As it turns out, putting together a kit is more work than I expected. I kept changing my mind about what card bases to use and which patterned papers to include. I should have included more (and meant to), but with my craft supplies spread out all over the house, I forgot to include a few things.

You can see some of the original kit here. I meant to take a photo of the full kit, but forgot. The kit included:

2 5.5x8.5 sheets of Bazzill cardstock
2 DCWV card bases
1/2 sheet of 12x12 patterned paper
6x6 sheet of patterned paper
ribbons, fiber, buttons, brads, flowers

Here's a link to Susan's cards. I like how she mixed the card bases and patterned paper in ways I hadn't thought of.

Leslie doesn't have a blog so she sent me a photo of her cards. She has waaaaay more patience than I do to fussy cut the tree and leaves. And the present pyramid is super cute!

 Katie posted her cards on her blog. Check out the owls and leaves she made.

Here are my cards. I really like this first card. I used a border punch on the card base and then added a strip from another card base. I die cut "Celebrate" from the Bazzill and added the brads. I thought it was a little plain so I added some fiber from my stash. (I'm finally using the fibers from my stash. I don't really use fiber on my scrapbook pages, but I'm really liking them on my cards.)

Everything on this next card is from the kit. I again used my border punch and added a strip from the Bazzill to lengthen the card front. Just a few flowers with the brad centers and this could be a hello, celebrate, or any occasion card.

 Finally, a fall card with one of the patterned papers, ribbons, and button from the kit. I used some cardstock from my stash for the card base and inked up the edges.

 

Yep, I admit I didn't use the Christmas paper or red fiber. I've got two card ideas in my head, but they're not coming together. If they do, I'll update this post.

Thank you Susan, Katie, and Leslie for participating and I can't wait to see what's in Susan's kit!

$4.49

That's 40 cents more than a week ago. Ouch!

ISO Card makers

I'm putting together a little card kit exchange swap. This may be a different from other swaps you've been in. Each month, one of you will be a hostess. You'll put together a mini card kit and send it to each of the participants. Feel free to shop from your stash (we all have one, right?). The kit does not have to contain the latest and greatest, just good quality items.

Each participant should post their cards before the end of the month, when we can all admire your creativity. If you don't have a blog, you can send a photo of your cards to me and I'll post it here.

I've started to put together the first kit and would love to mail it out on Monday to you. If you're interested, you can let me know in the comments or e-mail me. I'd like to keep this swap small (4 to 6 participants including me) so it isn't too expensive with supplies and postage.

Guidelines:

• Hostess sends out card kits by the 1st of the month.
• Swap participants post cards before the end of the month (maybe I'll figure out the Mr. Linky thingie or some other way we can share).
• Each kit should contain enough supplies to make 3-4 cards. You can include envelopes, but it isn't necessary. I'm not sure how much they'll add to the postage costs.
• Supplies can be from your stash, but kits should be all the same (or the same as possible). For example, don't include blue twine in one kit and pink ribbon in another.
• Include both paper and embellishments. 
• At the end of 4 (or 5 or 6 months), I'll start another swap.

I'd love to have you join in!

Food storage

I'm trying to increase my glass storage containers because I think they are a better storage medium. They don't absorb odors or release toxins like plastic does. My mom used glass jars to store dried goods for years and I'm convinced food stays fresher in glass than plastic. I'm not giving up my beloved Tupperware yet, baby steps people, but if anyone is interested in purchasing part of my collection (I have a huge box of new Tupperware from when I was addicted to it, plus used stuff in excellent condition), let me know. Modular Mates anyone?

I've been saving glass jars and have found fewer and fewer foods come in jars, peanut butter and mayo to name two. Makes me sad that plastics are taking over.

One place I want to replace (some) plastic is the freezer. I had read that you can freeze regular glass jars as long as you don't fill them full so there is room for expansion.But that made me nervous. So I purchased some canning jars for the freezer, on sale and with a coupon, of course. I plan to use these to freeze fresh tomatoes, soups, marinara sauce, and stock. I did buy plastic lids because I thought they would be more leak proof. We'll see. Here's the first test: chopped toms from the garden. I like to freeze them when I have too many to use. The jar was the perfect size!

Kale

After a difficult start, I was finally able to harvest some kale. The first few seedlings were devoured by caterpillars, which was making me rethink the whole pesticide avoidance thing. I was picking teeny tiny caterpillars off by hand (gross!) because the little suckers wouldn't wash off. But I kept replanting (good thing seeds are relatively cheap) and finally had some success.

My schedule is such that I do most of my gardening on the weekends. Some days, I leave for work when it's dark and some days I get some after dark (and some not-so-good days, both), so I harvest when I can, even if I don't know what I'm going to do with it. I had a decent sized batch, but didn't know what to do with it, so I decided to blanch and freeze the leaves to use in the future. This was way more work than I anticipated and I'm not sure if I'm going to do it again. I ended up with 2 quart size baggies.

Here's my method for removing the leaves from the stems. Many websites suggest cutting the stem off the, which is pretty easy. I prefer to tear the leaves off, which is even easier. You can then tear leaves into whatever size pieces you want.

What to do with the stems? I baked them with some parmesan cheese and a bit of oil like this recipe from Kayln's Kitchen. I should have parboiled the stems first. I forgot that kale stems are tougher than Swiss chard stems so the dish ended up tasty, but chewy.

Help! I need to evict my new roommates

I'm sure you've had them. Roommates you can't get along with. They have no respect for your belongings. They eat your food. Leave a mess. Are constantly bothering you. Just when you think they've agreed to the house rules, they're back annoying you.

I didn't invite these roommates in. They just snuck in one night and moved in on their own about a month ago. Despite my best efforts, I just can't convince them to leave. Yep, we've been invaded by ants. We have found them in EVERY room in the house. We've tried bait, we've tried all kinds of insecticide, we've tried the honey/borax treat. They just keep coming back and I'm pretty sure they are bringing all their relatives too and are living in the walls of the house.

I'm open to suggestions. On the plus side, my counters have never been cleaner.