My first onesie project...

A dear friend's daughter is about to have a baby making my friend a grandmother for the first time.  How weird is that?  My friends are becoming grandmothers.  I guess that really is the signal that I'm too old to become a mom.  Anyhow...I've had this idea about making a onesie for a while and this is the first opportunity to try it out and to try out the heat transfer and rhinestone template materials from Silhouette.  A while back, I bought a great deal on Plum District for Silhouette products.  I ordered heat transfer material, rhinestone template materials and a bunch of rhinestones. It's all sat in the box since the end of July, until now.  I must admit, like anytime I try something new, I was a little intimidated, but then I've been using my Irock for what seems like years and the rhinestones, well aren't they just a bigger form of the Irock? 

So I started with the sweet pea design I had downloaded from Silhouette quite some time back.  I was surprised at how easy the template cut and how easily all the rhinestones were to drop into place.  So now, on to the heat transfer material... well, the video that came in the kit made it look all so easy, but didn't quite explain it very well (well, let's be honest, there were no words spoken on the video and the few printed words in the video didn't answer important questions, such as what setting on the iron?  Neither did the little booklet).  So I cut out my design using the most important piece of information I learned in the video - reversing the text... 

The I ironed... and ironed... and ironed.  Apparently the setting on the iron has to be quite high and I really had to push down firmly on the piece to get the letters to transfer (then had to fix a little boo boo where two of the rhinestones moved).  Once I pulled off the sheeting and pressed the letters one more time (oh and fixed the boo boo where two of the rhinestones moved), I stood back to admire my finished project.  Super cute!
 

And speaking of super cute, how cute was my snoopervisor today when I was shucking the corn to can? 



 

Of course, it wasn't long before he was distracted by the fact that Chewie found the canner box and, well where's there's a box, there's a cat in our household...

 



But with a little patience, and after surviving a little scare when he knocked the box over, he claimed his rightful place.

A little bit of fun

I"m back! After a crazy week getting ready to leave and an equally crazy week at a conference in Phoenix (Scottsdale) Arizona, I'm so happy to be home. I've had three whole days to get settled back in and I loved every one of them. Friday was my day to myself to get my house clean, take care of some errands and get things back in order. I didn't get any crafting done that day, but I did get a lot of baking done with a couple loaves of banana bread (thankfully hubby didn't toss the bananas while I was gone), homemade granola and some meatloaf and a whole week of meals planned in advance (love that!). Then Saturday, hubby and I spent a great day with my parents. Mom and I checked out the warehouse sale by Boxer and I spent a lot (!) of money on some great scrapbooking supplies. Then we had a great lunch and it was off to IKEA. I haven't been to the one they built near us and it was huge! Amazingly I restrained myself from buying all new furniture for my craft room, but I'm plotting (ha ha). Then today, I finally had some time to simply play in my room. I finished sewing on the buttons on a baby sweater I made a while back for a co-worker's new baby. Now that he's back from family leave, I can give it to him, but I needed a card. I found a super cute one for the Cameo.

I used all my scraps again and ran the white background through the Sizzix Big Kick with an embossing folder for a little more texture. Quick, easy and perfect to go with the little sweater.

Oh, and I just have to share this adorable shot of Smoke and Chewie that I snapped today. It's rare that they are so close on the same post. Well, I'm off to bed since it's back to the office tomorrow for another crazy, busy week. Hopefully it will also be very productive!

My first cut...

Well, not really, more like my third, but let me start at the beginning. Believe it or not, I've had my Silhouette Cameo for an entire week, but didn't take it out of the box until today. I forced myself to finish up a few projects and Christmas tasks I was working on before I would let myself get it out of the box because I knew once I had it set up, I would want to play. But now the big tasks are done. The wrapping is done. The meat is bought and Matt's already "test smoked" a bird. The cards are all mailed. A few have even come back - if you didn't get yours, here it is (Although the picture doesn't do it justice because the white is hand flocked paper to look like the fur on the suit, the black is shiny to look like patent leather and the the gold is shiny like a real gold buckle. The holly has texture, the stickles add that special bling and the sentiment is hand-stamped and hand colored.): But now that I'm ready for the holiday but for a little cooking and cleaning (neither of which I can do right now - there's no sense cleaning this house with the cats until the last minute), it was time to open the box. I barely had it out of the box and the cats were playing... with the box that is...

But first I had to figure where I was going to put it. Last night I found the inspiration. I cleaned out a cubby that held layout sketch books, kits and new frames and put my Expression in there so that I could have the prime spot for the Cameo. Only problem: the cord for the Cameo isn't that long and wouldn't reach my computer. So I flipped them and put the E back into it's old place and that worked perfectly (don't you love my kitty cover for the E? I'll have to design something for the Cameo to match): (Yes I am just a little too "label maker" happy. If it isn't used up immediately, it gets a label)... I loaded the software, watched the little video, read a bit of the manual and decided to try the "print and cut" feature first. It's one of the things that most intrigued me about the Cameo. I picked a stock butterfly picture already loaded in the software, printed it out my computer, loaded the Cameo and cut it out. Well, it went through the cut motions, but it didn't cut. Hmm... I checked a few things and tried it again. Still didn't cut. Finally I realized I didn't have the blade inserted all the way. Well duh... Third time was the charm. It cut beautifully, even on my cheap copier paper. The mat was a dream to work with compared to the pain in the @$$ ones from Cricut. At first I was worried because I didn't think about it being a new mat. I would never use thin copier paper with a new Cricut mat. I know I would get a ripped up mess that wasn't very usable and would be a pain in the rear to clean off the mat. But even the thin copier paper released like a charm off the Cameo mat (well except for the fact that I'm not very good with a spatula and used a little too much pressure since I'm used to fighting with the Cricut mats). I am absolutely stunned but how easy the mat was to work with and how nicely it released the image. Now I'm just curious to see how long the mat lasts. But, I am soooooo excited. I can't wait to learn more.

But first, I have to do some more reading on how to use it.

Amazing day...

I had been thinking for days about things that absolutely needed to be done today: pick the peas, pick the last of the raspberries, pick the blueberries, pick the zucchini (well, you get the picture). So this morning when I couldn't go back to sleep, I just got up. I went outside and it was glorious. The neighborhood was so still and the morning was cool, but not cold. It was really nice just being out there. It wasn't long before dear hubby came to join me and we made pretty quick work of the picking and a little weeding. Well, two hours worth. But we also watched the furballs having a ball running all over their yard. Smoke and Tigger did a little tree climbing, but we only got pictures of Tigger in the tree (don't worry, they are small trees, no kitty was harmed in the making of this blog post). Eventually they all tired and found their own places to rest for a bit. Chewie picked the top the rail on the deck.Smoke found his favorite hiding, ready to pounce "resting" place in the flowers under the deck:Cha-Ching was in his "no hoomans can get me here" and don't you dare get too close or I'll run resting place. I swear that cat is the most beautiful apple faced seal point but he is the least photogenic cat I've ever seen with Tigger running a close second. Eventually even ADHD kitty, err Tigger, decided it was time to rest too and found a comfy(?) place in the barkdust.While watching the furballs cavort, I finished picking the blueberries and said for about the 100th time that I was going to pull out the one blueberry bush that I don't think has grown an inch in five years and looks half-dead. Of course, I say this every year so I mentioned to dear hubby that I wanted to go get a new bush. He said we'd have to wait until next year when the stores will have them again, but I protested that Al's would have one and since we were planning a drive a little while later over to Silver Creek Falls, why not head that way afterward? He didn't seem to keen on the idea. Maybe it's that I also mentioned wanting to pull out "the beast" in the front yard and the peach tree that didn't have so much as a single peach this year...

Any how... a quick shower later, we piled into the truck and took off to tour the campground at Silver Creek Falls. It seems that we always camp at the same places every year so we've decided to look at some other options. This one is not too far away but is always booked solid. Now I know why. It's a really nice park. There's great walking and hiking trails. Many of the campsites are very private. I love it, oh and the falls are stunning too. Here's the north fall from a viewpoint during our drive: So we were driving on the backroads when I just could not believe my eyes. There were these entire fields of flowers. No, this is not photoshopped, this is an actual picture (well minus the big old sign that says private property and not to stop and no trespassing)... Honestly, I didn't pick a one and I really only stood on the edge of the road to get the picture of these bachelor buttons, African daisies and California poppies. So then we drove through Silverton and hubby pointed out where he went to grade school and floated milk carton boats down a drainage ditch in the summertime. Doesn't that sound like something every grade school boy would do? Now for my favorite part... We stopped to get Oktoberfest sausages. I love Oktoberfest. So sad that I won't get to go this year, but this is the next best thing...Then it was off to Woodburn! I didn't turn him off with all my talk of pulling out trees and vines and such. On the way, we saw another field of flowers. It wasn't quite as stunning as the first, but still quite remarkable. I often forget just how much we grow here in the valley until we go for a drive on the backroads. It really is stunning. So now we are back home and I'm going to try my hand at making a Kusudama flower, well right after I go eat the garlic chicken that hubby was cooking. Here's a shot of it browning in the skillet before he pops it in the oven. Yes, those are whole cloves of garlic and I have the most amazing just baked french bread to spread those on. Yummo!

What a weekend!

It's been such a fun weekend. Friday night, the hubby took me on a date to see Xmen: First Class. It was good, but it drug in some places. When I have time to start thinking about things about the movie, such as how Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick really do go together as a couple, and if January Jones was pregnant when they were filming this or that came after, you know that they didn't do quite a good enough job.

Then yesterday morning we got up at the time we normally get up for work (no sleeping in, boo), but that was to meet Mom and Dad for breakfast. Then hubby, Dad and I took the boat out fishing. It was about a twelve hour jaunt. They (because I drove the boat all day and hardly ever touched a pole, let alone had the privilege of reeling one in) caught as many as they threw back and we still reached our limit. Those fish are already on their way to the neighbor's smoker, but boy was I tired today.

And speaking of smoke, today I got to play in my craft room (after I cleaned it up) because it's close to the laundry room and I spent a good portion of the day working on the laundry. I've been working on the same page for nearly a week. I "finished" it, but it still doesn't look quite right. So I set it aside to work on another project I've had in mind for a while: replacing my old 20 bumper sticker that we bought at Fontana back in 2007. So it still says Tony Stewart, even though that hasn't been his number for quite some time now. Unfortunately when we went to the race in 2009, they didn't have a bumper sticker (or maybe it was they didn't have one I liked). Anyway, at the Creating Keepsakes Convention (back in February!!!!), I got the idea to cut my own out of vinyl. So today, I searched the Internet high and low for the Clarendon Italic font, which I'm pretty sure is the one for the 14. Well, the only places I could find it wanted over $20 for it. Sorry guys, I'm a cheapskate so that wasn't going to work. So I did a Google Image search and found this one I liked that had the 14 and his nickname Smoke at the bottom. I really liked and the image imported into SCAL beautifully. I was all ready to cut when I flipped back to it for a second and realized that it's a bumper sticker that they are selling now. Well, if I'm going to cut this thing myself, then I want it to be custom, not just something any old person could buy off the web.

So then I flipped over to Tony Stewart's web page and saw that the website had this cool image of the 14 in a circle with flames coming out either side. Now that was cool, but it was in a place where you only get to see it for about two seconds every 20 seconds or so, and you can't copy it. So I grabbed my camera and snapped a picture so I would have a reference point. I started building it myself: number 14 in white taken from first project, check, outline number in black, check, red circle outlined by white circle, check, circle sized so that the letters are just as big as the outline, check. Okay so now flames. Well, since I couldn't grab the image, I was going to have to come up with flames on my own. So back to Google Images. I found some I liked and played with them for a while, but it wasn't quite right. Then I found the half-circle of flames and immediately knew that my image wasn't going to look like the one on the web page, because these flames sparked a new image in my mind of the flames cupping the number. But even then, I knew that I needed something more on the flames. So I went back to the original image I had started with and grabbed the name Smoke and plopped it on top of the solid part of the flames, added a black outline to the name and knew it was perfect. Now this is no bumper sticker. It's my new, original, car tattoo:

A few cuts later, a little cleaning of the back window and on it went. Unfortunately, it was already starting to get dark outside, but I still think the picture came out pretty good.

Silly Seals layout and Smoke behaves

Shockingly, Smoke was the good one today. But maybe that was because he got the top spot on the kitty tower. But I couldn't resist snapping this picture of him with his pretty pink boa. Although he didn't seem to happy about it.

Meanwhile I finished my third layout of the day. Third! And the laundry's almost done too. It's been a productive day despite Chewie's demands for attention.

So this double page layout was inspired by a sketch in the February 2011 Pagemaps. I used cardstock from the DCWV Pastel stack and patterned paper from My Mind's Eye Delightful pad. The seals and scattered words and bubbles were from Creative Imaginations. The seal brads are from Eyelet Outlet.

Guest bedroom

The guest bedroom is pretty much done now except for a couple of things. I have a desk that I need to refinish and I have to make some decisions about what do do for the wall art on the big wall. But at least the room is clean, put together and usable. Oh, and I'm not really happy with this artwork. It still needs something more because it looks awfully empty.

I also realized that Chewie kind of became my inspiration with the grey and white fur, pink collar and the black of pupils. Of course, the cats had to check it out. Tigger checked out under the bed.

Smoke and Chewie checked out the view. Oh, and the bed too:

So one of these days...

I'm going to learn to take before pictures. I thought I had a picture of the guest bedroom from "before," but either 1) I just dreamed about taking a picture of the room or 2) it's on my little purple camera that seems to have just disappeared. So the closest thing I have to a before picture is one after I had cleaned out the room except for the bed and one nightstand. But that's pretty much what it looks like (don't you just love the rose colored carpet I had to work around?):So yesterday I complained about the "one coat" and "high def" paint. It's hard to really show how poorly it covered but this picture sort of shows it. Look in the bottom middle of the page and you can see the light spots where the paint didn't cover well. Mind, you I really did try to cover it well. You can also see some of the "frog tape" I used on the windowsill. Tonight I pulled off just a little of the tape. We had a retirement celebration for a co-worker at a local pizza place and then came home to listen to the Hawks at their away game so I only had a little time to work in the room. So far, I have to say that the frog tape may just live up to what it says. Where it was really well patted down to make a solid seal, it seems to actually be coming up with a clean line. But we'll see how the rest goes. I just couldn't end tonight without a picture of one my chief snoopervisors:Smoke just doesn't seem to care that his fluffy ol' tail is right over my newly painted wall. I guess I should just be happy that the wall is Smoke-colored. I did notice that Chewie in fact did have paint in her tail. She wasn't too happy with me when I was more interested in removing it than petting her.

So I'm really tired again tonight, but if I can find the energy, I need to work on my wall art. But I'm thinking I'll just go crawl in bed instead.

Catnip Calamity

So I finally finished a big project I've been working on. I actually thought about not finishing it, but I knew that it would "haunt" me if I didn't. So now it's done and I can move on. But of course I have a headache tonight and don't feel all that good. It's this stupid Spring weather. Could it just stay sunny or stay rainy? Why does it have to keep fluctuating back and forth, driving my sinuses crazy?

So tonight I just cleaned up my craft room. I don't know about all of you out there but I am a messy crafter. I pretty much have to clean my room after every project. Now honestly, it doesn't take that long. I cleaned it up during the commercials of one episode of Glee (yes I am a Gleek), so that should tell you, it's a pretty simple task. Now I am ready to embark on some new projects and I have a few in mind, but they will have to wait for another day.

Over the weekend, we planted all the Spring flowers just in time for last night's frost. Again, stupid Spring weather, pick a temperature already! I cleaned off all the dropped potting soil, dirt, leaves and other stuff that builds up over the winter and was pretty happy with how it looked. So, of course, the furballs had to go investigate or snoopervise as I like to call it. So tonight, I'm checking my e-mail and posting about how happy I am to have won the gift certificate to Paper Zone (whoo hoo! still celebrating that one), when I hear this crash! I leave the craft room and the first thing I notice is that Smoke is cowering in a corner and won't look at me. So at least I know who the naughty kitty was (Notice the mark on his nose? That's not a mar on the photo, it's from "fighting" with Cha-Ching the other day). Now I just have to find out what he did. Fortunately, that didn't take long because I found this mess just outside the back door: Of course Smoke now is willing to come investigate the damage he caused and then Zoey has to come check it out too:

So that's when Matt tells me what happened. Matt was out playing with the fish in the pond when Smoke jumps from the railing onto the pot of catnip that has some how miraculously survived five cats and the winter. Of course, Smoke (the klutz) overestimates the security of the pot sitting on its stand or, perhaps under-estimates his considerable size and weight, and the whole thing comes crashing down. Fortunately I had another pot I decorated a while ago just ready for this such occurrence. To try to give the catnip a fair chance, Matt did some kitty-proofing. Given the fact that Matt's managed to kitty-proof the backyard to somehow keep five furballs within the confines of our fenced backyard, I'm betting on the catnip making it.

With a bit more tweaking...

So tonight I decided to finish tweaking last night's layout. I added hand stitching to make the blocks look somewhat quilted together and button to finish off the corners of the central photo. It's shocking how long it takes to do a little hand stitching on the layout, but I'm really pleased with how it looks now. So here are side by side comparisons of last night (left) and the final (right). I probably spent the better part of two hours doing the hand stitching and the finishing the buttons off. Of course, that was with some minor interruptions to turn off the audio because I just couldn't stand to listen to the Winterhawks lose the opening game of the second round of the playoffs and start a new episode of Glee. Oh, and, of course, there were a few feline interruptions. Smoke came looking for a little love and some treats. Tigger took up residence in the spare craft room chair. I was cold this weekend and cuddled up in an afghan my mother-in-law made. I then left it on the spare chair and ever since Tigger's declared it as his own. Even Zoey came in to check things out tonight! She's a good looking girl for a 17-year-old!

Quilter tribute layout

So it seemed appropriate to go with a layout featuring blocks of patterns resembling a quilt for this page since my sister-in-law, Kim, made the gorgeous quilt covering our bed. I'm thinking about doing some hand sewing on the page to create stitches to make the papers look more tied together, but I'm getting tired (spent too much time fighting with the printer that didn't want to print my 4x6s), so I guess I'll leave it for tonight and see what I think tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I don't know what has gotten into Smoke. This normally very independent mancat has suddenly become a cuddler...