New Haircuts

Today was half days so while Hayley was in preschool, I took Sydney out to lunch and drove her to Kid's Kuts in Gresham to get her haircut (Hayley had her special date there on Friday). They always come back feeling like pampered princesses, but this time much to their delight the gal snuck in some glittery goodness when Mom wasn't looking. Sydney walked around all night trying to make sure none of it would shake out. Love this place! We can usually wash it once without removing the rubberbands so we get many days of enjoyment with it afterwards.




I may be biased, but I think I was blessed with the most beautiful girls! Don't they look so grown up?! They had very definite ideas about how they should pose. Well, I'm off to enjoy at least part of a movie in my cozy bed (Yoshi's on business so it's a rare treat for me to watch late night TV in bed). :)

A Late Valentine's Day Share

I have become completely hooked on the idea of these little treat bags. I made a handful of them for the girl's teachers (and one for Yoshi) in just over an hour using up old Paper scraps...


Then I made a couple more to surprise Sydney and Hayley with on Valentine's Morning...

I can totally see myself wanting to make these for all kinds of occasions (Easter, Halloween surprises for the neighbors, etc). I kinda wish I would have thought to make these years ago for co-worker's birthdays. It's like a card and small present all wrapped into one. Would even be cute to put a couple home-made cookies into. Anyway, needless to say I think they are my new favorite, quick and easy project! :)

A Quick and Simple Birthday Card

This is just a super quick, simple card I made for my girlfriend's birthday who loves all things Heidi Swapp. I had so much fun shopping for a matching gift of scrapbook embellishments in the same theme!




Off to watch the Good Wife. Love that show! :)

A simple set of Children's Get Well Cards

I am in love with Jennifer McGuire's blog. I am convinced if I lived in Ohio we would be great pals (LOL). Well, she has this awesome card drive for sick children who need some cheer in their lives so I finally got around to making some cards to send over to her. Check out her blog and card drive at www.jennifermcguireink.com




The insides say "Owls you feeling today?" and then a personal message to them.

Thanks for stopping by. Off to make some more cards. :)

Knee Deep in Valentine's Day Cards

Well, right around Christmas I was officially overcome with a cardmaking obsession. Honestly I've never really had a passion for making cards, but at the last minute our Church decided to have a craft bazar and I thought it might be fun to make cards to sell. Well, it didn't take long for me to realize I wouldn't have enough made in time so I sat this year out. BUT, for next year I thought if I could make about a dozen each month I would be ready without too much panic come next December. Apparently it turns out I'm not capable of doing anything half way so I have been in a word OBSESSED (so much so that I was overtaken with an idea for Christmas cards so now I have finished my cards for next year--Woo-Hoo!) Anyway, I recently came to the conclusion that I will have way too many cards to sell in a 1-day Bazar so yesterday I sat down and opened a "store" at Etsy and I sold my first card this morning. :D

You can view my store front at http://www.etsy.com/shop/snippetsbymendi

Here are a few of my favorites that I produced assembly line style this week:

Supplies: Hero Arts Stamps (Cupcake/Polka-dots), CK Puppy Love Font, Copic Markers, Stickles & Diamond Glaze.

Supplies: Hero Arts Stamp, Copic Markers, American Crafts Paper, Fiskars Border Punch, Stickles, Diamond Glaze.

Supplies: Hero Arts Stamps (Hugs & Kisses, Birds & Stripes), Versafine Ink, Stickles, BoBunny Paper.

I am completely in love with Hero Arts new stamps! I have a mile long wish list. I bought these birdies on an impulse buy yesterday. They weren't even on my list, but when I saw them this card idea popped into my head. I also treated myself to this striped background which I saw in their catalog can be turned into checks just by stamping it in two directions. So clever!

The Copic Markers were one of my Christmas presents to myself. They're a bit on the expensive side, but I'm head over heals in love (and I'm actually using them vs. collecting them). If you haven't heard of Copic Markers I would highly recommend checking them out. Here are a few of my favorite websites I found on them:

This is just a good general question and answer website: http://debbiedesigns.typepad.com/muse_and_amuse/FAQs_on_Copic_Markers.html

Here's the cheapest place to buy them and they offer free shipping on Sketch Marker purchases over $100: http://www.carpediemstore.com/listCategoriesAndProducts.asp?idCategory=24

Here's a great website who also sells them and her color recommendations are awesome: http://www.ellenhutson.com/servlet/the-971/COPIC-Sketch-Marker-Sets/Detail

I like this site's color recommendations too: http://www.papertreyink.com/acc_copics_sketchmarkers.html

Here's a cool website that did a test using the markers with different inks and papers: http://ilikemarkers.blogspot.com/search/label/paper

Happy Crafting! :)

A Long Overdue Update

I'm seriously sheepish that it has taken me 4 months to update this blog with a new post. I'll try my best to touch on a few of the highlights of each month...

EARLY JULY
After we got back from Japan I took this awesome online 9-week FREE class called "Thinking Inking" by Jennifer McGuire over at twopeasinabucket.com. She completely opened my eyes to a whole new world of stamping, inking and painting on my projects. Here are a few of my favorites that I made practicing the techniques covered:

Faux Watercoloring with Distress Inks
Playing with Ranger's Crackle Paints

More Crackle Paints and Diamond Glaze

Alcohol Inks (butterfly cut with Silhouette Machine)

Dripping Alcohol Inks

Alcohol inks on clear tag/ Stamped Flourish with Stazon

Applied Rub-ons on clear plastic Heart and then applying alcohol Inks

Heat Emboss and Crayon Resist with Distress Inks

Heat Embossed Resist with Distress Inks

For anyone who loves to dabble in anything crafty I highly recommend popping on over at 2peas to check out her class or doing a search for "Jennifer McGuire" on you-tube. She's so talented and fun to watch!

Camping at Honeyman State Park- July 23~26

Moriah's Brother-in-law brought his ATV and Moriah and I rode together. This picture of us was taken just as our tires lifted on off the ground and we were screaming our heads off. So fun!



Daria being goofy in Moriah's tiny RV tub...

Enjoying some Smores


Hittin' the Beach...






LATE JULY & ALL OF AUGUST
I was busy preparing an insane number of auctions for the Back-to-school shopping rush. In fact it was my largest undertaking in my history with Ebay with over 1200 items. Needless to say my August was spent being overwhelmed with trying to keep up and very little sleep inbetween. Here's a photo of some of the chaos in early August (this is actually before I added in about 10 more bags from the garage). LOL.



SEPTEMBER
Around labor day Hayley, Yoshi and I came down with symptoms similar to the swine flu without perhaps the severity (like my fever only lasted for 2 days vs. 1 week), but it was followed with a month of feeling generally cruddy. It took all of us awhile to get over it, but with the abuse I had been putting my body through for 6 straight weeks, I think it hit me harder.

Sydney's First day of Third Grade:




Hayley's first day of Preschool:




A few pictures from Sydney's 9th Birthday (a slumber party):






OCTOBER
After 3 years of gaining weight and honestly being a bit embarrassed to face my doctor I finally made an appointment with her and I'm so glad I did! To my delight she diagonosed me with Hypothyroidism and prescribed me some much needed medication. I have been so relieved to know the cause of for my fatique, dry skin, hair loss and extra weight! Woo-Hoo!!! Sadly I'm still waiting on some results but she said it could be 6 months before I feel the effects so I'm holding my breath and crossing my fingers. LOL! :)

A Visit to Lee Farms on October 11th


Some pictures from Hayley's 4th Birthday Party on October 17th


The girls dressed up as matching "Poodle Girls" from the 1950's for Halloween and Sydney's friend, Emily was Hannah Montanna.




NOVEMBER
My month has been spent making Christmas cards, selling Holiday Dresses and pajamas on Ebay and just kicking back enjoying our new Netflix subscription. I have fallen in love with Ally McBeal all over again. Man, I forgot what a good show that was! And being able to watch movies and TV series instantly on my TV (with that magic ROKU box) all for the bargain price of $8.99 a month has made me a huge fan of theirs! I've been trying to talk Yoshi into turning off our dish for a month to see if we miss it, but funny enough he's doesn't want to live without it now (funny because I had to beg him to get it in the first place when we moved here).

Well that just about brings us up to date. I love hearing from you so make sure to leave a comment to say Hi. :)

Page Maps Blog July Challenge

Here's my take on this month's Page Maps Blog Challenge:

It's based on this wonderful sketch designed by Becky Fleck found at her website: www.pagemaps.com


Flower Stickers, Buttons, Paint by Making Memories, Flourish Stamps by Autumn Leaves, Patterned paper by Pebbles, Flower and Cardstock by Bazzill, alpha diecuts by Sizzix.

Thanks for peeking! :)