Shower & New Pics

Yesterday my sister-in-law and I threw a bridal shower for my future sister-in-law. It was a blast but a ton of work!! I was dead on my feet when I got back home, but it was a blast. Before leaving the house for the day, I had Jason take pictures of me in one of my new dresses. This is one I got off of ebay. :)

Job?

For a while now, I haven't been happy in the area where I work. Basically, it's not challenging to me, and I spend the majority of my days trying to look busy since I can get most of my tasks done right away in the morning. Some of the people that I work with, are great people and I enjoy them. Other ones are so "clique-y" and it drives me nuts. With all of the crap that goes on in the office, it seriously feels like we are back in high school. Granted, I know that no matter where I work, nothing is going to be perfect and in fact, some areas are going to be worse than where I am. With everything that has been going on lately, I've been thinking more and more and more about moving on.

With the talk of moving on, and leaving the area that I have been in for 4 years, I've been thinking a lot. Specifically about my happiness and what would make me happy. Now, I don't have a crystal ball or anything so I truly can't predict my happiness. But after a bunch of thinking, literally months and months, if I were in a perfect world, I would make the amount of money I am making now, but working part time. Sadly, this isn't a perfect world and we can't make it on a part time income. That makes me sad. Since I'm not able to look for a part time job, I've been scouring the job postings and seeing if anything interesting jumps out at me. I love to read and last year, I think it was in December, I found a county job, working at the library as a Library 1 or something like that. It sounded almost perfect for me, since I love to read. The job description basically was working part time helping people search and look up stuff and the other part time doing clerical work and updating the website. I thought about applying, but didn't. Looking back I regret it.

This past week, I've found two jobs of interest to me. Both of them have a higher base pay rate than what the job I'm doing now. One of them is a pharmacist assistant, which only requires a high school degree, which I obviously have, lol. I remember growing up and thinking I would work in a pharmacy like mom did. :) I also did take a TMA class back after high school, so I do have a bit of knowledge and it did interest me. But will this keep my interest?

The other job I found was for a CME Assistant. CME stands for Continuing Medical Education. Basically it's a glorified secretarial position, which is what I actually went to school for and it requires that degree. But I'm thinking that I don't want to be a secretary anymore. Granted, from the job description, this would be different, but kind of the same.....So I don't know.

Another part of me, wants to stop working completely and to start selling some of the crafty stuff that I make. But I'm scared to death that it will fail. I've been buying a bunch of stuff to alter/decorate and work on to get started here, but what if it doesn't sell? I know I'm not anymore talented than the next person, so why would anybody buy what I sell?

Basically I want a job that keeps me busy and is challenging. But also part of me is almost scared. What if I fail? What if I move into another area and things are worse there than in the area I'm currently working in? Plus I hate job interviews and I don't want to go through the whole interviewing process. I suck at interviews and speaking in front of people. I guess I need to do some more soul searching to figure out what exactly I want and what to do about it......I guess I need to make a decision.....

Apron

I decided to try my hand again at sewing. It has been years since I've attempted to sew!! The hardeset part was figuring out how to thread the bobbin, lol. The seam ripper and I got to be very good friends as well. I'm glad I had one on hand, lol. I am impressed with how it turned out, although there are many little mistakes. But I figured it doesn't matter, since it was made by me. I will admit that I'm very proud of myself for managing to make it.



Oh, and don't mind me in the pics. They were taken last night after work, about 9 p.m. after I finished the apron. I literally tossed my hair up with brushing it, and my face is all shiny, LOL. So don't look at me, look at the apron, lol.

As always, you can click on the pictures to make them bigger. :)

Artist? Talented? Creative?

So at work, people ask me to bring stuff in that I make and when they ask I do. So yesterday I brought in the 10 LO's I made at the retreat, some letters that I altered (very simply) and an invitation that I made. Now, all of the LO's and everything were very simple, I'm beginning to think that is my "style." Less is more. Although you couldn't tell that my looking at all my supplies, LOL. But anyway, back to the story. But everyone kept stopping by my desk, and telling me that I'm such a wonderful artist and that I inspire them. That I'm so talented and that I blow them away, that I'm so creative. I have such a hard time taking these compliments.

I don't believe that I am any of those things. Now if someone were to tell me that I was crafty, that is one compliment that I can take. I think truly believe that I'm crafty. But I truly don't believe that I'm anymore talented than the next person. I compare what I do to other people, either online or thinking back to the retreat, I'm not any of those things. How do I accept these compliments when I don't believe them? I've tried to brush them off and say, thanks, but I'm no more talented than the next person, and then they keep going on and on. So I've simply taken to smiling and telling them thank you. Should I be embracing this? If so, how should I do that? Should I just keep doing what I'm doing, smiling and not believe what they say?

Scrapbook in a weekend!

This is the book that I did in a weekend for a gal's retirement party at work. The party was on February 14, and their "theme" was white, red, and pink. The book is an 8x8 book. If the pics look a little squished, click on them to make them bigger. I had to manually enter the HTML code for all of them, since blogger sucks.

The tags on each page, each member of the department wrote sometime to the person who was retiring. The guest pages were pulled out and the guests signed them. The second to last page, they wanted left blank so she could add pictures. The very last page was a pocket so she could add more pictures, and I tucked in an invitation to the party.

More Guitar pictures

Here are more pics that were taken on January 20, 2007. :)

Picture

Have you ever taken a picture that takes your breath away? I seriously think this is one of the best pictures that I have ever taken. Or at very least, it is one my favorite. I finally uploaded a bunch of pictures tonight, and as I was going through them, this one took my breath away. BTW, expect more pics and entries soon. I have a ton that I want to share. :)

Been MIA

Well, don't panic, I'm still alive and well, just been really busy around here! Plus I've been boring, so I have not much to update on. I will give you a real update hopefully next week sometime. I need to finish packing for a scrapping retreat I'm going to this weekend. I stole this from another blog, and thought it looked fun. :) It's the "One Word Game"

This Moment: chilly
Your Shoes: half-on-half-off
Craving: chocolate
The State of Your Home: messy
Annoyed By: Whining
Noise In the Background: Music
Really Want To: home
Thinking About: packing
Smelling: nothing
Favorite Product In Office Supply Aisle: pens
Don't Ever Want To: forget
Your Eye Color: hazel
The Weather: icky
Have Never Tried: marathon
Think Everyone Should Try: new-music
Last Vacation Destination: South Dakota
The Last Thing You Had to Drink: water
Your Bad Habit: laziness
What You're Going To Do Now: lunch

Catch Up Post!

Well I've obviously failed at my photo a day for the month of January, lol. Well, let's not look at it as a failure, I got part of the month done, better than none. :)

My birthday was on January 24 and Jason took me to a *very* nice hotel, on Friday, January 26 and we went to the mall and Ikea. It was so much fun! We stayed at Hotel Sofitel. Wow. I want that bed and shower, LOL. Very upscale and elegant, not anything like the Days Inn's that we usually stay in, LOL. I'm hoping we can stay there again when Jason's brother gets married in April. The wedding is up in the cities somewhere, so I'm hoping it's close to the hotel and that we can afford it. :) Also for my birthday Jason got me the book "Created to be His Helpmeet." I've started to read it and really like it so far. I need to pick it back up again. I got sidetracked my a couple of other books I'm reading. I seriously have 3 books started right now.

I was off on January 24-26 and on January 25 I did some baking. I received some Amish Friendship Bread starter, and had already split it once and had no idea who I would give the other starters to, so I decided that I would just bake it all up. I had 10 loaves of bread! WOW, that is a ton of bread, LOL. The freezer is well stocked with 5 varieties of snack breads, plus the one loaf left over from before. :)

Speaking of baking, I'm still baking our own bread! I'm so proud of myself that I have kept with it. Granted it's not that hard to do since I'm blessed with a bread machine, but for the longest time I never used it. I'm making two different kinds, the Crust Cuban for me, and the Softest Ever Bread for Jason. About every week to week and a half I'm making bread, but it's all good and it smells delish when it's cooking, love that bread.

I'm still on the search for an Apron. I'm seriously considering making myself one and also making curtains for my scrapbooking room. It seems like all of the curtains I'm falling in love with are so expensive, and I don't need or want anything expensive. Plus it would put my sewing machine to good use. Ma, I want to go through the patterns that I brought up to you. I'm going to borrow a couple of them back, LOL. I'm pretty sure I have a curtain pattern and maybe even an apron one. :) Don't worry I don't take back any of the fabric I gave you, LOL.

Since I'm still on the topic of sewing, I just read a book called "Wedding Ring" (can't remember the author right now, it escapes me) and that book really has inspired me to try to quilt. I am going to try to make a quilt, even though I can't figure out how to thread my sewing machine right now, LOL. I'm going to find a very basic, easy pattern I like, buy some fabric (when it's on sale at Hobby Lobby of course) and make a quilt. I hope it turns out. But I don't know when I'm going to start that, lol.

After seeing what some of these people are knitting on 2peas, I want to knit. But I was hopeless at crocheting, so I don't think I'm a good fit for that, LOL. All I managed to learn how to do was the chain stitch.

I was reading the Biblical Womanhood blog and they Crystal had an anti procrastination list going, of things to accomplish that she has been putting off. Following her lead, I'm starting a list. There are a million things I could put on there, but I'm going try to keep it simple.

Amber's Anti-Procrastination List
-Finish off a CJ book that I've had for too long.
-Start going through my scrapbook area. Fill at least one paper box of things to go. (had to make this one measurable. :))
-Make hearts for retirement party at work
-Make scrapbook for retirement party at work
-Submit pictures to ScrapSubmit
-Do at least 4 LO's in February for me. Not to give away.
-Look into starting my own business.
-Create budget.
-Read Creating to Be His Helpmeet.
-Get all my Stampin' Up orders delivered.

Ok, that's long enough. :)

While I was typing that I realized that I needed to deep clean each room of the house. I deep cleaned the bathroom last Sunday and boy does it look great! I hate cleaning and tend not to do it. But on Sunday I scrubbed the walls, the ceiling, washed the window, mirrors, scrubbed the floorboards, the floor, the tub, sink, went through everything on the few shelves we have and organized it all. It took much longer than it should have, but boy does it look great for an old bathroom. :) I think the next room that I'm going to tackle is the kitchen. That room I'm going to break it down though, since it's bigger. Do it in chunks I believe. Make it seem more manageable to me.

Well this was an epic length catch up post and I'm sure that you are bored by now and that your cup of coffee and snack are long gone, so I'm going to end this. :) I'm going to try harder to update more so I don't have to have epic length posts, lol. :)

Essentials

In the Ali Edwards Life Artist News letter, Ali asked us what our essentials were for scrapbooking. Here are mine, in no particular order. :)

Pictures & Memories. What would you scrap if you didn't have pictures and memories? Those two are necessities in my world anyway! :)

Camera. I love my camera. I have a Canon IS 2. Now I want a camera that is small enough to carry around in my purse. But I'm dreaming on that one, LOL.

Textured cardstock. I tend to reach for my black and white staples more than anything, I love that I can buy a huge pack of black & white from Hobby Lobby for cheap. :) I could honestly get by with only cardstock and still scrap. I'm sorta patterned paper challenged, although that doesn't keep me from buying loads of PP. :)

Black Pen, Pencil, and Extra Fine Sharpie. The black pen, I have two of them for journaling. I honestly don't use them on every LO that I do, but I love how they write. The brand name of them escapes me at the moment. The Pen is for making lines on the paper I'm cutting. I can't cut straight without a line, LOL. The Extra Fine Sharpie is for marking on my ruler. I'm awful with measurements and do much better when I mark on my ruler.

Paper Trimmer. I'm currently using a Provo Craft trimmer and I love it. It was the best money I spent. I got it at Hobby Lobby using a 40% off coupon. It was normally $6.99. ;) I absolutely love it! And of course it's pink and green and can't go wrong with that cutting combination.

Ruler. I always use one of my color plastic rulers. They are transparent and I *love* them. I think I have 4 of them. Picked them up at the $1 store, they were 3 for $1. :) And of course I can write on them with my Sharpie and when I'm done, just wipe the marker off with an alcohol wipe. If you do that, just don't wipe off the bottom of the ruler where the actual measurements are. They tend to disappear. (Don't ask me how I know that. ;))

X-acto Knife. I just this for *everything*. I honestly don't think I could scrap if I didn't have my trusty little knife with a blade in in. Oh, a tip on those, don't try to catch it if it falls off the table. Especially if the cap is off.

Bone Folder. I use this when I'm making cards or anything that needs a crease! I paid $5 for mine, and it is *so* worth the money. It comes in really handy when you are folding paper for 100 Christmas Cards to send out.

Baby wipes. I use these all the time. I buy the Pampers, unscented ones, because they are cheaper than the store brand ones when I have a coupon. Plus I get more of them. :) I've started to just buy the refill packs. I was thinking I should alter my wipe container too. That way it will look pretty sitting on my desk. I tend to use a lot of Mod Podge when altering stuff, or my inks and I'm not a neat person at all when I scrap. They are so handy to use to use to clean up messes, or if you accidentally set your elbow on your Mod Podge brush. ;)

Adhesives. I think I have an adhesive addiction problem. I have a whole basket FULL of adhesives. It's kinda comical how many I have. If I had to narrow it down, I would go for my Tombow Mono Adhesive Runner, UHU liquid glue and of course, Mod Podge.
Rub-ons. I seriously think I use rubons on every LO I do. I use those so much more than stickers. I love them. Once again, I have a huge basket full, LOL.

What are your essentials for your hobby? If you take this challenge, link me to your blog! :)

My Love!

Here is my lovely husband. :) I don't think he was in the mood to have his picture taken though, lol, he was trying to clean up the kitchen. :) Great timing I have, right? ;)

I'm so lucky

I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful husband. Last night I came in the door and there were a dozen pink roses sitting on the table in a vase for me! No reason, just because. Isn't he so sweet? I've never dreamed I'd have such a wonderful husband. I am so blessed.

January 9, 2007 Picture

Last night (January 9) I took a class at the LSS for beginning digital photography and learned quite a bit! Granted, some if it was very basic, but it was well worth the $13.50 I spent. :) Here are some of what I learned.

• Hold the shutter half down to focus on what you want to take the picture of, then when you take the picture, EXHALE. When you exhale, it steadies the picture and the picture turns out better.


• Don't use Zoom as often as you think you should. Use your feet first. Move closer to your subjet rather than use the zoom, if possible. You also become more involved in your pictures that way. The more you zoom in, 75% less light gets through the lens, and the flash is less effective. The pictures turn out darker. The more you zoom, the higher chance you have of pictures being blurry beause you must hold the camera steadier while shooting.


• Make sure that your settings are on the highest Megapixle on your camera and on superfine. Yes, your memory card holds fewer pictures, but the quality is MUCH better.


• Use your flash on EVERY picture you take with people smiling. Even if it's outside and sunny, the pictures turn out better.


• If you have your camera on Auto, it makes all the decisions for you. Jeff (our instructor) had us turn our camera to "P" beause we have more options for flash and exposure and to leave it there for 2-3 months. Notice the difference in your pictures.


• Warn people what the camera is going to do when using the flash. That way they can be prepared for it. The flash works only between 10-12 feet. Anything over that use your feet and move closer to your subject.


• Make sure you focus between the eyes of the subject. If the eyes are in focus, the picture will look in focus. If the eyes are not in focus, the picture will not look in focus.


• Other reasons for using the flash, is to illuminate the subject, even out the shadow and make sure the flash on your camera goes toward where the shadow is. It elimiates the shadow. The flash also balances the color out in artifical lighting. The flash also makes the background darker, and focuses on the subject.


• Don't use the flash on reflected surfaces that you can't avoid, of if the subject is out of range. (Use your feet, move closer to the subject and use the flash)


• ALWAYS use the strap on your camera.


• Say that you are going to shoot on 3, but really shoot on 2. Much better pictures that way. If your subject realizes what you are doing, start shooting on 3 then.


• Shoot loose! Don't zoom in to get a close picture. You have megapixles to spare, so shoot loose and don't zoom as much. You can always crop more, but you can't un-zoom after the picture is taken!


• Use the rule of thirds when taking pictures. Think tic-tac-toe. The pictures are much more visually pleasing, and if you watch TV, or look at ads or anything, the majority of the pictures are taken using the rule of thirds.


• He suggested not using places like Target, Sam's, and Wal-Mart to print your pictures. The quality is not consitent and his sister has pictures that are 5-10 years old that she had printed at Sam's or Wal-Mart and he has pictures that he printed at Ritz and Proex and his pictures are not faded and hers are. He showed examples of this, and after seeing the examples, I will only get my pictures printed at quality photo places even though it is more expensive. At Ritz he said you can pre-pay for 300-500 prints at 19 cents a print for 4x6's and you can pre-pay for 50 5x7's at 79 cents a print. Not that much more and you can ensure that the quality is consistent and they will not fade.


• He also said that the point & shoot cameras last only about 5 years, the Canon SLR calendars 10 years, and the Nikon SLR cameras about 15 years. I thought that was interesting.


• He also suggested in investing in a quality 1 GB or higher memory card. He said that some brands would be Lexar, Panisonic, San Disk Ultra 2 or 3. Any card that is made in Japan is decent, but if you have any cards made in China re-invest. Your memories are worth it.


• He also said that if you accidentally reformat or delete pictures off your card that you want. DO NOT take any more pictures using the card. For every 1 picture that you take, an additional 20 are lost. You can bring your card into a high quality photo shop and they should be able to recover the information for you. Jeff said that he can recover generally 95% of all the pictures.


• We also went over some settings. Macro (generally the flower icon) is used for close up pictures. For Night settings, the shutter stays open longer, so make a 4x4 inch beanbag to use as a "tri-pod" to stabalize the camera. The mountain setting is the setting that you use to take a picture on what's outside rather than inside, generally through class. Also, when taking a picture through glass, angle the camera, and that will help the picture turn out better.

I hope that some of these tips that I learned at my class help you. I know they did me! Especially since I'm doing the photo a day. Oh, speaking of photo a day, I was playing around with my camera a bit in class, and took that picture. I thought it turned out neat. :)

January 8, 2007 Photo

Who needs coffee in the morning when you got Halo2? ;) I got all ready for work today and played a couple games before work. Jason thought that I looked cute and snapped a pic. :)

January 7, 2006

Here is my photo a day from January 7. Nothing like a bubble bath and a good book to end a day. :)

January 6, 2007 Pictures

Here are my photo a day pics from January 6! Playing Halo2! :)

Photo a day

Yes, I'm a day late in posting it, but oh well, LOL.

Scrappy Chic is back up!

Scrappy Chic appears to be back up. According to the hosting company our server crashed, and they moved it to another server, but the database wasn't synched properly, and then they had to implement other fixes as well. They said that they currently only notify customers of scheduled maintenance and down time, but hope to find a way to implement a way to let the owners know if something unexpected happens. Anyway, it appears we are back up and running again!!

Yet another Scrappy Chic update

SC is having problems again. Sometimes you are able to access it, but right now I'm forbidden from it. The hosting company has been contacted. Both Jason and I are very frustrated by all of the problems, and apologize for the inconvenience.

Scrappy Chic

Is back up again! YAY! Hope you all didn't go through too many withdrawals. ;)

Update on Scrappy Chic

Just got this email from the hosting company. :)

Hello.We are experiencing a problem with the server where your account is located. Sowe decided to install a new box and now all accounts are being restored on it.Please wait and your website will be accessible soon. I am sorry for the inconveniences.-- Thank you

I hope it will be back up soon! :)

Not a good start to the day & Scrappy Chic

Yup, that is my photo for the day. Let me explain.

This morning I went through my normal routine. Up at 5:30, make a stop in the bathroom, grab a water, and my laptop, sit down in front of the TV to watch the news and check my boards/emails. Realized Scrappy Chic was still down, and tried to find the login information to contact the hosting company. Couldn't find it, so I got up and went to shower.

Showered, did my make up, and started making breakfast. Next thing I know I was in the dark. All that was left on was the stove and phone. I tried to call Jason, and finally got a hold of him and he came to my rescue and realized that a fuse was blown and fixed it for me. What a great start to the day, I'm not feeling that good to begin with and then I'm in the dark, LOL.

Anyway, Jason contacted the hosting company for Scrappy Chic and hopefully it will be up again soon.

Pizza!

This was supper tonight. :) Nothing too exciting.

















I think I'm going to go scrap again now! I'm determined to scrap more this year and so far I've scrapped or made cards each day this year, except for the first. That is good for me. :)

Digi Scrappin'

Here is day 2! Who said you can't make a mess Digi Scrappin'? LOL, ok I admit some of the mess is left over from making cards last night. :)

Plus a bonus. My first ever digi LO! :)

Baking & Decorating Pics

So in my quest to be a better wife, here are some things I made last Friday & Saturday. :)

Bread :)

Digging right in, of course. ;) The bread was good, not crumbly or anything, but it got a little too crispy for Jason's liking. After this loaf is gone I'm going to try another recipe to see if that turns out better. :) The recipe was one of Maggies. :)


I also made homemade biscuits and gravy for supper. I used the recipe that Chele posted for biscuits. DELISH!!! I have never made homemade biscuits before, only the ones out of a can. We will never be buying biscuits again!






And finally, the cake. Turned out MUCH better than my first attempt. Jason was impressed. I will be making more and getting better. Still plently of room for improvement though. :)

Photo a Day

On a couple of the other blogs I follow, they do a photo a day. I'm going to try to do that for January. :)

Today's picture:
For Christmas Jason gave me a *huge* set of Lincoln logs. I remember playing with these when I was a kid, at Toby and Katie's house. This morning I just had to play with them. I had a blast. :) Nothing like going back to your childhood. :)

Projects

Sometime in December I made a pet sympathy card for a co-worker who had to put her cat down. Now me, I'm not a big pet person, but I do know that a loss is a loss, it doesn't matter if it's a pet or person. A couple of people were kind of ribbing on her about how upset she was and I felt so bad. So I made her this very simple pet card to show her that I care. I was kinda at a loss, but I think it turned out cute. :)

Speaking of at work, I have a corner desk, that basically looks into a corner, but I have a door right there too. But when I'm looking at my computer, behind the monitor there is a bulletin board. It was a plain ugly board and we typically don't put anything up there except for a calendar and the birthday list. But that's it. I thought I would make it bright and cheery. I cut up 12, 6" squares and put them on the board. I like it. Every time I look up I smile and it makes me happy. I thought it turned out pretty good even though I messed up the pattern, LOL. :) Everyone that has noticed it seems to like it as well, except for one person who said it was a waste of time.....first, off it's absolutely dead in the office and if it makes you happy, nothing is a waste of time! At least that is my thinking on it. :) Anyway, here is a picture of the board. Yes, it is lacking a calendar right now, I'm bringing in my "Office" calendar on Tuesday. That will make me ever more happy. :D Here is picture of the board. Sorry for the crappy quality, I took it with my camera phone. :)

Looking forward to 2007

During the latter part of a year, it starts to feel a bit claustrophobic. Everything caving in on you, coming to an end. So many projects and things to do, and not enough time to do them. It seems to me that after Christmas passes, things slow down, calm down. A whole new fresh start. I love it. A year coming to an end, a new year with a clean slate.

I'm typically not one to make New Year's resolutions, but this year I am. I am determined to make a change for the better. Here are the resolutions that I posted on Scrappy Chic.

-Decultter.
-Work towards being completely debt free.
-Keep the money that we put in savings in there.
-Start a retirement plan.
-Aim towards working part time.
-Be more thankful for what I have rather than looking at what I don't have. (Essentially be more positive)
-Be more creative and scrapbook more.
-Continue my weight loss journey.
-Make more from scratch. Or should I say attempt to make foods from scratch? LOL. Bread is number one on my list. :)


Now, Denise and Laurie have talked about Mrs. Catherine, and her challenge that she posted. Here is a link to the Mrs. Catherine's Blog. http://www.xanga.com/MrsCatherine/558980602/new-year-new-set-of-challenges--learning-something-new.html

So here are three things that I want to learn how to do in my home that I haven't done yet.

1. Declutter, simplify, organize.
At work people tell me that I am so organized. And there I am. At home, I am to a certain extent, but I know I can do much better. This year I am going to do that. :)

2. Cook from scratch.
Now, Jason and I have been doing this, and I have certain foods that I can make from scratch, and since starting my weight loss journey we have done this more, but I need to learn how to cook healthy meals. I think my first task will be to make bread and rolls. There have been some wonderful recipes posted on Scrappy Chic, so I'm going to try those. I am going to make good use out of that bread machine that Jason and I got for a wedding gift. :)

3. Work towards being debt free.
Jason and I started on this, and did great, but now we need to continue to do it and stick with it. That means limiting eating out (more expensive now since we don't do fast food) and meal planning.

Now I'm going to to a fourth one as well :P

4. Be a more Godly woman.
Let's just say that I have never really followed the His word, and have realized that I need Him in my life. I want to be a wife that Jason will be proud of, increase my homemaking skills and I know that I can't do it on my own, I need Him in my life and to follow His word. Doing so will only make me a better person. :)

Cake Decorating

Growing up, I remember Ma decorating cakes and me "helping" her. Or should I say begging to make a mess out of frosting. ;) I remember helping Ma mix up and color frostings and begging her to let me "practice" my writing on a sheet of wax paper. Flipping through the Wilton books she had. Ma was an amazing cake decorator. I'm sure if she pulled out her cake decorating stuff, she could still whip up a beaultiful cake.

Beginning of December I seen a cake in the Kraft Food & Family magazine, that was looked like a Christmas Ornament. I decided to attempt to make it, and had a ton of fun while doing it. The cake didn't turn out the best, but I had a blast. That's what it's all about, isn't it?

Here's a picture of the cake. :)

At work, I got a gift card for $110 to use wherever I want, but I have to spend it on me. My first thought was to put it towards a wide format printer or to spend it on scrapping supplies. Now, I know that scrapping supplies don't have an expiration date, but I have so many, it is starting to get overwhelming. I need to stop buying and start using them up. So I decided to spend some of the money on cake decoarting supplies. Sure enough Hobby Lobby had a coupon for 40% off all Wilton Products. So off Jason and I went. I ended up getting quite a bit of stuff for about $80. I do need to go back and pick up some other things that I now want after reading my Wilton course books!! So I think I am going back to pick up some more stuff. :) I guess you can say that I now have a new hobby...Cake Decorating. Now let's see how good I can become. :)

Christmas Box

This looks like a simple box. To me this cream and gold colored box means Christmas. For as long as I can remember that box contained *my* Christmas ornaments. Each year Ma buys us or we pick out a new ornament for the year. This box contains so many ornaments...everything from my first Christmas Ornament to one that Grandma Nelson made me that has my picture in it, to various homemade ones. You can see a peek of a dixie cup bell ornament that I made in school. I love my box of ornaments and it just means happiness to me. :)

Now in other news, this is my new Nativity Set that I picked up at Hobby Lobby. I love it!

You can click on either image to see the pictures larger. :)

ABC Tag :)

ABC Tag
A - Available or single: Married!
B - Best friend: Jason :)
C - Cake or pie: Chocolate cake or pumpkin pie. Or pumpkin cake muffins. Best of both worlds. :)
D - Drink of choice: Water or Tazo Awake Tea
E - Essential item you use everyday: Glasses! I can't see *anything* without them. Yes, that is true, just ask Jason if he has ever moved them while I'm in the shower. ;)
F - Favorite color: Pink and black!
G - Gummy bears or worms: Bears.
H - Hometown: Kerick, MN or Finlayson, MN
I - Indulgence: Dove Dark Chocolate.
J - January or February: January, my birthday month and a wind down after Christmas. :)
K - Kids & names: Don't have any kids yet.
L - Life is incomplete without? My family and laughter!
M - Marriage date: 08.02.03
N - Number of siblings: 2 sisters.
O - Oranges or apples: Apples, granny smith. Although I do like oranges too. :)
P - Phobias or fears: Someone I know dieing and our house being broke into when Jason is at work.
Q - Fave quote: "Scrapbooking supplies have no expiration dates." or something to that effect...Stacy Julian. ;)
R - Reasons to smile: I have the most wonderful husband and Christmas is coming!
S - Season: Fall and Spring. Mild temperatures and beautiful sunshiney days. (Yes, sunshiney is a word in my book. :P)
T - Tag 3 or 4 people: Whoever wants to! Someone better. ;)
U - Unknown fact about me: Hmmm....I think I'm pretty open, I don't know if I have one. If I think of one, I will edit my post. :)
V- Vegetable you don't like: Asparagus
W - Worst habit: Not exercising.
X - Xrays: Never had any.
Y - Your fave food: Jason's grilled buffalo burgers. YUMMY!
Z - Zodiac sign: Aquarious

Scrappy Chic

To address the anonymous commenter on my blog, who said,

"Is ScrappyChic turning into an in your face religious message board?"

The majority of the members on Scrappy Chic came from Mama Central, which was a religious, Christian Mom's board that covered many of the same topics that we do now. When Mama Central went down, I had the Scrappy Chic domain and hosting sitting there unused and essentially re-opened Mama Central under the Scrappy Chic name and continued to keep the hosting and domain name up. I contacted as many members of the original Mama Central group that I could because I couldn't imagine not having a place to meet and talk to with all of these wonderful ladies. Most of the same forums remain the same and a couple have been added. But essentially most of us came from Mama Central, meaning that when you joined Scrappy Chic, you should have realized that it was a board with religious roots.

I know that I am not the best Christian in the world, and have struggled with God. At one point I have even questioned his existence, but I know that I am a Christian and a believer. I may not go to church, or read the bible daily, but I am a Christian, and God impacts my life greatly and all of the ladies here are inspiring me to be a better person. A better wife. And inspiring me to live through God's word. Being able to talk about God and church is freedom of speech. There is no way I am going to stop the religious posts on Scrappy Chic. Why would I want to stop members from posting inspiring posts or their thoughts and beliefs? If you do not like what is posted on the board or find offense to what is posted on the board, post away there. The topics on the board are always open for a respectful debate.

Amber