Our Christmas Anniversary!!!

Good morning!! Today is our 13th wedding Anniversary....Happy Anniversary Chris!! I can't believe we have been married for 13 years already....feels like just yesterday! We had a beautiful December wedding with our reception in a beautiful place right on the ocean! We just had a wonderful day with family and friends!
Today has been flurrying on and off, just like it did on our wedding day....I love it!!! My husband and I are going to go to lunch at a nice restaurant in town today while the kids are in school and then I am making Chris' favorite dinner tonight....stuffed peppers....I also got a little ice cream cake because my son asked me to pick one up for him as his gift.....how cute is that!!!


This is me on my wedding day at my parents house!

Here is my husband and I outside of the Church....officially married!!!

I love my husband more today than I ever thought possible. He is a hard working, supportive, loving husband and he is truly my "girlfriend"....we laugh all the time when I tell him that. I can tell him anything at any time and he just listens and gabs right back to me....like we are "girlfriends"....I love it!!! I love you Chris!!!

Well, sorry the pics aren't the best...they are pictures of pics because my scanner isn't working...but I just wanted to "post to my on line diary"!!!

I hope you all have a wonderful day...and stay warm no matter where you are, because it is a bit chilly willy here!!!

"JOLLY" gift tags!

I was lucky enough to grab the Jolly Holidays cartridge at Walmart on black Friday!! I don't have any other cartridges that feature all Christmas/winter images, so I was thrilled to get my hands on this Jolly cartridge!

I took my 6 year old daughter to see the movie Tangled this afternoon....what a cute movie, we both really loved it!

I made these cute tags after we got home from the movie! The girls gifts are going to be wrapped in pink and green this year, so I made the tags to coordinate!

The tags were cut using DCWV Secret Santa paper stack and I used tulle and of course a little bling using the i rock! The mittens were cut at 1 1/2" with the tag at 2 1/4", the snowgirl was cut at 2" with the tag at 3" and the stocking was cut at 2 1/2" with the tag at 2 1/4"! I probably could go a bit larger on the tags, but this was my first attempt! This cartridge is just so cute and I think the kids will get such a kick out of some of the "jolly" images!

Gobble Gobble!!

Happy Thanksgiving!! I hope you all have a blessed day with family and friends!!

I am thankful for so many things that I wouldn't want to bore you with, so I will just say this: I am truly thankful for a supportive, caring and loving husband who is my best friend, my beautiful children who are healthy and bring joy to my life every day, having a hobby that brings myself and my family joy........and might I add, my Mom for cooking this Thanksgiving...lol!!!!

I want to share with you my creations for today....not only did I make the sparkling cider look pretty, but I also made a cornucopia and decorated a pie!! Thanks to the cricut circle blog for sharing such wonderful creations that we (I) can scraplift!!!

Here is a pumpkin pie that i decorated:

I bought the pie and used pie crust for the pumpkins and leaves....I used MS seasonal for the pumpkin and DC for the leaves!

Might I add that I have not been successful with the cake machine up until this point....I was feeling a bit guilty that I bought it, couldn't get it to cut and didn't have the patience to figure it out. Well, today all of those thoughts disappeared....I am in love!!! Yes, it is a lot of work, but so well worth it....I even got the whole family to pitch in willingly. They cut, colored and sugared!!! I am truly blessed!!

Here is the cornucopia!

Well, it was fairly easy to do, but I had a problem getting the foil out of the cornucopia, so it is still in there....lol!!! I didn't want to destroy such a beautiful creation....we will just eat around the foil....lol!!! I had so much fun with this project, thanks to Kristen from the CC blog! I used vines, pumpkins and leaves, colored them with wilton cake colors and sprinkled with chunky sugar! My family loved helping with this and we were all so proud of our beautiful creation! Can't wait for my Mom and Dad to see it tomorrow.....and even more..dig into it, yummy!!!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

Spruced Up Sparkling Cider!!

Hi there!

Just wanted to jump on real quick today to share this project with you! I made it today for the kids for Thanksgiving. We are going to my Parents house for dinner tomorrow and we are bringing this, a pumpkin pie and we are in the process of making a cornucopia....fingers crossed it will turn out ok!!!! I got this idea from Kristen on the cricut circle blog and just made it into a simple version!!! So, thank you Kristen for the idea!

So, here is a bottle of sparkling cider that I spruced up with some cricut cuts and ribbon! I used Designer's Calendar for the leaves cut out at 3", the tag is from Plantin Schoolbook cut at 3", the Harvest blessings was cut from the Thanksgiving cartridge at 2"...I forget where I cut the acorn from because I cut a bunch for the kids last week...lol!!!

I embossed the leaves with divine swirls and then used chunky glitter on them! I also quilled a flower with the cuttlebug quilling daisy kit. I added glitter to one of the flowers, also!

I just love how this turned out and will make these as gifts next year for Thanksgiving!!!

I hope to jump on again later to share my cornucopia that I am making out of pie crust with the cricut cake machine! Another idea that I got of the cricut circle blog.....my home away from home!!! I hope you all have a fun, safe and delicious Thanksgiving with your Families!!!

SNOW much fun!!!

Good afternoon friends!! I have had a lazy day around here today, but wanted to jump on and share these adorable ornaments! I had a vision of these one night and jumped out of bed to sketch it out! I know, I know....but it's not like any of you have never done that before...LOL!!! I am so pleased with how these adorable snowman and snowgirl ornaments turned out! I am entering the snowgirl into a cricut circle ornament challenge! The challenge was what got my wheels turning and the snowman was the first one to be complete, but I couldn't just make a snowman....I had to make a snowgirl version for my daughter. I changed the hat and loved working with pinks and blue for hers! I used the cuttlebug polka dots embossing folder...to make it look "snowy" of course! The snowman was cut from Doodle Charms and cut at 5 1/2 inches using the blackout feature...cut twice! The presents were also cut from DC at 1 1/4 inches. The snowgirl hat and the snowflakes were cut using Winter Woodland cartridge. The hat was cut at 6 1/4 inches and the snowflake at 2 inches! I cut a circle out of the belly and adhered a photo to the back of the top layer, then used pop dots to adhere the two snowmen together and give it a little dimension! I punched a hole and added some white elastic cord to hang from the tree! The kids just absolutely love them and can't wait to decorate the tree this year!!

Give Thanks Card!

Here is a card that I made for the Cricut Circle weekly challenge....the challenge was to use a bird, at least 2 cricut cuts and stitching! I cut the turkey from Celebrate with Flourish and the thanks from Storybook, I hand stitched the X's, embossed the background with Seeing Spots and I made the pleated flower! I had originally planned on making some cuttlebug quilled flowers, but I didn't have one of the plates...I had them sent Fed Ex on Firday and would you believe....they came today about an hour after I finished this card!!!!! So, tonight I will be quilling in my jammies watching tv...yay!!! Hope you like this card and have a good night!
~Jeannine

Sprinkled With Fun!

This has to be my all time favorite layout!! I love how this turned out! This is for the weekly challenge over on the cricut circle blog. This is the first challenge that I have participated in so far because I have been so busy and I am glad that I made time to enter! It was a sketch challenge this week so that made it much easier for me! I used the Sweet Treats cartridge for all 3 cuts....the ice cream cone is 5 1/2", the title is 3 1/4" and the crown is 2". I embossed the cone with diamonds and added some i rock gems to make it look like sprinkles and I couldn't resist using bling on this layout!! I also used a Martha Stewart punch called cherish and it is a punch around the page! Every time I walk past this layout, it just makes me smile!!!

Harvest Blessings Layout!

Good afternoon! I have been busy all morning with Dr. appointments and am glad to be home! My daughter is home today, she had a Dr. appointment this morning after mine and we found out that she has allergies, so we are just sitting on the couch watching cartoons! She also has been complaining of her eye getting blurry at school, so she is going for an eye exam on Monday night!
So here is a quick layout that I made last night using the Thanskgiving seasonal cartridge that I recently won! I was getting a little frustrated with some of the cuts....I was cutting them at 1 or 2 inches and they were tiny and not cutting nice at all. I have found that it is easier (with this cartrdidge) to cut most of the images larger than 3 inches! Anyway, it is just a simple layout for our Thanksgiving dinner picture! I cut the pilgrim silhoutte at 3 inches, the harvest blessings at 3" and the indian corn at 3 1/2 ". I used some Bazzill cardstock and some of the apple cider paper and ribbon. I used pop dots for the photo, the corn and the pilgrim. How cute is that pumpkin border???? I love it...it is a EK punch that my friend sent me called pumpkin chain. I just love it, it was the perfect accent for this layout! As simple as this layout is, I was happy to be scrapping again! I may go start another quick layout while my daughter is resting!

A SPOOKTACULAR HALLOWEEN!!!!

Happy Halloweeeeeeennnn!!!! BOO!!

Here is a "Spooky" Halloween banner that my son and I made! I cut the banner using my cricut and Country Life cartridge and added a drippy goo border to the tops using the MS punch. I added some eyelets to make it sturdy and used ribbons (from the $ bin at target) to tie them together! We made the pleated flowers using the MS scoreboard and some hot glue....my son loved the hot glue gun and was very careful with it! I cut the cauldron, the potion bottle and the skeleton using the cricut October 31st cartridge. We just used some odds and ends spooky things that we had in our Halloween bucket. The acetate cuts are from recolections and were a great touch to our Spooky banner! We love how it turned out and it looks great in our living room!!

Here are my "SPOOKY" children this year at the Halloween parade and trick or treating in town!

This is Christopher's pumpkin that he carved by himself using a template......I think it turned out great....and looks just as spooky as he does in his costume!!

This is Samantha's pumpkin that we did together, we chose a not so scary pumpkin face and I think it looks great!!!

As we were carving the pumpkins this year....I remembered why we didn't do it last year....what a gooey mess! It really is fun though!

Here is an owl that Christopher made at his class halloween party....the cutest owl ever! The parent who chose this craft deserves so much credit...she hand cut all the pieces for this and had to cut enough for 22 kids! I think it is just adorable!!

I hope everyone had a fabulous day full of tricks and treats.....maybe not so much on the tricks, but I for one will be enjoying a treat or two when the kids go to bed.....lol!!!

Gone For So Long!!!

I feel like I have been MIA....well I guess I have, I can't believe it has been over 3 weeks since my last post and Halloween is almost here!

I have been busy decluttering my house and trying to go through so much stuff and donate what we don't use! It is a HUGE task! I have been going to bed at 8 pm with the kids....lol!

We just went to Pennsylvania with the kids for the Cricut Circle Meet up in Valley Forge! It was so nice to meet so many familiar faces. We traded calling cards and ribbons and flowers, so much fun! After the meet up we went to the National Park and the kids got to walk and make friends and then we went to eat lunch! It was a great day! Oh, and I won at the meet up!! I won a set of the 3 Seasonal Cartridges.....Thanksgiving, Christmas Cards and Christmas Village! I was super excited and can't wait to play with them!

Here is my calling card that I made using the Cindy Loo Cartridge!

Here we are in the Valley Forge National Park....it was such a beautiful day!

I have a few more pictures to share from a Halloween Party that the kids went to at a local pumpkin patch...My daughter is a witch..who didn't like her eye makeup, but I thought it was cute and my 9 year old son didn't dress up, but wore a skeleton sweatshirt!

I hope to be able to get back into crafting soon and play with those new cartridges! Have a wonderful day!

Happy Birthday Tiger!!

Well, I know it is late in the day to post this, but I promise I have a good reason! I want to wish my wonderful Husband Chris a very Happy Birthday!!!!! He is 39 today....just so you know I am a lot younger...heehee!! I keep teasing him that this is his last year in his 30's!!

I made him a cute card...I wanted to keep it cute and silly, so I made him a Tiger shaped card using CAC and my Gypsy...the inside says Happy Birthday Tiger!!!!

I have been adding googlie eyes to almost everything lately, I think they are a cute touch! So, this card started my whole shaped card craze. I spent a late night on my Gypsy, just designing some shaped cards....I still have not cut them all out, but I have 2 others to share with you!

So, my reason for posting so late is that our new washer and dryer were delivered today with my hubby was out...I hate being alone for deliveries. So, it was terrential rain the minute that they pulled into the driveway....I opened the garage door and they took the old and I mean old washer and dryer out...they were dragging it on the floor and I was starting to get irritated. Then in came the new washer and dryer...the man told me to stay back ( I wanted to be in there to make sure that they were ok, but I moved and all I heard was banging and clashing. I gritted my teeth and went back in. I was wiping the side of the washer because it was soaked from the rain and it was going to be up against the dryer....the man said, " Maam, I don't have time for you to be doing that, I have a lot of stops to make in a short time!" I said, well, surely you have 5 seconds to spare so I can wipe this down and I did. I was not happy with them. The w& d stick so far out from the wall and I was disappointed, they were not flush with the wall because of the dryer vent!

My laundry room is small and they took up the whole room with very little space. So the men leave and I was ticked off and then I continued to mop the floor and vac again. I wiped down the other side of the washer and there was a 3 inch gash with metal showing and I wanted to be sick. The dryer also had a gash and the pedestools that they are on were banged up. I was pissed!!!!! Then the school nurse calls and tells me that my son had to picked up because he had a sore throat.....please. So I run down to the school and pick him up, he didn't feel well, he is getting a cold. When we get home, my son notices that the washer box was thrown on the gutter and came disconnected and the rain was running into the driveway.....I was again not happy! So, when my Dh came home I showed him while I was in tears and he called the store and we are getting a new washer and dryer within 2 weeks. It was just unacceptable, if I had caused the scratches then I would live with it, but these guys were careless and in a rush!

So that is my excuse....we are now at my parents house and my Mommy cooked Chris' favorite meal, pot roast and mashed potatoes, yummy!!!!!

So with all of that being said.....here is my new huge washer and dryer.....

As you can see, they are almost as big as my 9 year old son.......does he look sick to you?????? He was quite fine when he came home!

Here is a simple shaped card, using the pumpkin from CAC, this is for my little 1 year old niece...inside says...lil punkin!!

And...here is my turkey card also for my nieces...now that they live in North Carolina, I send them cards all the time and they just love them!!! This turkey is also from CAC, just a perfect cartridge for making shaped cards with your gypsy!! I love how this turned out, I used polka dots for the hat and divine swirls for the feathers and of course added some googlie eyes! The front says gobble and the inside says gobble! I think my nieces will just love this card for Thanksgiving!!!

Tweet as Pie!

Here is a card that I made for one of Robyn's challenges over at My Pink Stamper...she is ussuing challenges and giveaways for reaching over one million visitors...congratulations Robyn!! So, for this challenge we had to use a bird! I thought this would be a cute idea for a thank you card, which I need to send to a friend!
The bird is from Serenade, the pie is from Country Life and the label is from Lacy Labels. All of the papers are from Basic Grey nook and pantry line! I used a black thin calligraphy pen to write the Tweet as Pie!

Happy Birthday Christopher!!!

Yesterday was my little or should I say big boy's Birthday!!! Happy Birthday Buddy!! I can't believe he is 9 years old already, seriously, doesn't it just fly by!?!?! I had such a busy day that I couldn't post yesterday. I asked him what he wanted to eat for his birthday dinner and he made the menu....chicken cutlets, garlic mashed potatoes, butter noodles and asparagus!! So that is what I made him and the family for dinner. We had my parents over for dinner and cake! Christopher opened his presents in the morning before school and loved them...he got a few lego streetz racing sets. I felt bad because he didn't have time to play, but these things have to be built and between the two of us it will probably take days to assemble...lol!!

So we dropped off cupcakes for school, I was going to make little gum paste geckos for the top of the cupcakes, but it was getting late and the gum paste was not cooperating and it was not cutting nice. Finally at 11:15, I gave up and decided to just make some gecko cupcake toppers. My son wanted geckos...he was going to get geckos. I ran down and started punching the scallops and cut out 25 geckos using the auto fill feature on the E and the LAB cartridge. Then got out my glue gun and started gluing it all together! I think they turned out adorable and the kids loved them at school!!

Christopher's cake was another story....we had a debate in the store. I was going to cheat and use chocolate frosting in a can, but he kept saying that that isn't what he wanted. He said he wanted icing....well, isn't it the same thing? Apparently not....frosting is what you buy and icing is what Mommy makes....according to Christopher. So, I whipped up a batch of chocolate icing....chocolate buttercream frosting (recipe posted at bottom of post)!! He said it was the best cake he's ever had....gosh I love that little boy!!! I used the gumpaste to make 2 gecko cuts and I was pleased this time with how it turned out....I still need a ton of practice, but altogether pretty pleased!! We put some special cupcake sparklers in his cake, but only lit one at a time because I didn't want the house to burn down....Christopher was so excited, it was pretty cool. HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTOPHER....MY BIG 9 YEAR OLD!!!!!

Here is the recipe for the chocolate buttercream frosting...it is delicious and is enough to fill and frost an 8 or 10 inch cake!

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

2 lbs. confectioners sugar

2 cups white vegetable shortening (crisco)

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 tbsp meringue powder

5-7 tbsp. water

1 1/2 cups cocoa powder

American Girl!

Here is a layout that I made using a sketch from sketchabilities....unfortunately I was too late to enter it, but that is ok....I still love the sketch and the layout!!! It seems with the kids back to school and trying to get back itno routine, it is so hard to remember everything! So here is the layout that I made:

The first picture came out terrible...the colors are so off, so I am glad that I didn't enter it...lol!! I love how the heart looks like the heart on the outfits and their were buttons on the outfit too, so I put some buttons in the shape of the heart! I love these pictures of my daughter with her American Girl Kit....and looking at these pictures...I love my daughters toothless smile!!! I am glad that I got to play along and hope to continue playing at sketchabilities.....I love their sketches and it is a great way to get your mojo going!!!

She Adores Paris!!

The 'She' in the title would be my six year old daughter Samantha, who loves the Eiffel Tower and Paris and has learned some phrases in French. She has asked me to take her to Paris, but for now the answer is no...she won't fly anyway...lol!! I have bought her a few Paris t shirts and dresses, but I wanted to make her a t shirt! So, I designed this t shirt using the Gypsy the French Manor cartridge and some freezer paper. I love making these, they are so easy and come together so fast....I even went out and bought myself a new pink iron...lol!!! I used tulip fabric paints and the i rock to glam it up! I made a matching hair bow using tulle, ribbon, i rock and I used shrinky dink paper for the Eiffel Tower charm....I love it if I do say so myself, but most important Samantha loves it!!! I entered it into a contest, but was not a winner...but that is just A-Ok, because I was a winner in Samantha's book and that is what counts!!!

Back to School Smiles, Pictures and Projects!!

Today was the first day back to school for my kids...Samantha is a first grader and Christopher is a fourth grader!! Where does the time go, my goodness! We had an exciting morning of picking out the perfect outfit and brand new shoes, making lunches and talking! I could tell that Samantha was starting to get real nervous. We got some great pictures on the steps of the school and went in to find their class rooms! We brought Christopher up to meet his teacher and I kissed him and sent him to find his desk...he turned around, looked at me and started to cry....yes my BIG fourth grader is a mush, he said he was scared, poor baby. I kissed him and assured him that he was going to have a great day! Then we went back down to drop Samantha off and she wouldn't go in, then her friend looked up at me and he started to cry....so I brought them both in to meet their teacher! Samantha was so excited once she saw that she had her own desk with her name tag and a coloring work sheet in front of her. We kissed her goodbye and she seemed to be doing fine! Mom on the other hand left in tears with such an upset stomache..lol!! After a long summer of fun, it is time to get back into a routine and we are all looking foward to that! So here is a layout that I created to just stick their pictures in....I used Imaginisce apple cider paper and my cricut. Mickey font for the letters and Country Life for the apples!Here is my big first grader.....BTW...she is wearing her American Girl Kit outfit..she picked it out all by herself!
Here is my big fourth grader!! His taste is changing and he is gaining his own sense of style...he is not so much into polo shirts anymore, but he wanted to look nice for his first day of school!
The kids are so good to eachother and I know they will take care of eachother and smile when they pass by in the hall!My big first grader sitting at her very own desk with her work ready to go!