Birthday Presents

As promised in an earlier post, I had/have a few crafty projects going on at once and need to post on them!  My first one will be on my latest birthday presents that I spiffed up a bit using my silhouette.  Now, to tell the truth I took my laptop to Ocean City with me on vacation hoping to 'design' my idea and have it ready to cut when I got home.  Could life get any easier?  Nah!  BUT my laptop, the ToSHITa, Toshiba, which has my silhouette software on it bit the dust.  AGAIN!  URGH!  When we got back from vaca the hubby wiped it clean and said "NO INTERNET FOR YOU" until I have a chance to load the virus software (which is still not loaded).  WAH!!!!!!!!!  So I cried and went ahead on my first gift.  See, I lost ALL my silhouette downloads and all my custom fonts when he cleaned it up.  And I can not get those back without internet access. =(  But I did not let that detour me.  Using the fonts and designs preloaded I chugged along.  In comes the first gift.  A friend of mine daughter had a birthday last week.  I purchased a purple lap desk a while back with the intent of using vinyl to decorate and make it PURTY.  ;-)  Well, what I had in mind for design didn't work out because of the Toshiba, however this is the end result:

I was happy with it afterall.  I can just use my other 'idea' for the next lapdesk gift.  I am planning to give one to my niece, Katie, for Christmas.  =) 

Last week was my bestie's birthday.  That heffer took off and went to the beach!  ;-) I didn't get to spend time with her on her bday.  But I am GLAD she was having fun.  Nothing better than being at the Gulf!  Anyway, I am taking her out for a birthday dinner tonight so I had to get busy and whip out her gift 2!  I realized I could download the font files I wanted and use my little thum drive to load them without the internet.  So I downloaded a few and got to work.  I made her a water bottle just like the ones I posted here.  (Font Curlz)  I also had purchased some cute old navy flip flops earlier in the summer.  I threw them in a cute plastic container and whipped out some vinyl for it as well.  I will add something nice from the liquor/package store for her but here's the idea:

My husband has always lovingly called her "nancy pants" (he gives everyone odd nick-names), so I thought it'd be cute to put it on the container.  =)  This font was another free one I downloaded called "chachie".   I am REALLY loving it!   

I am loving using my silhouette for jazzing up gifts!  I've always loved the idea of getting personalized gifts so I hope that my friends and family are enjoying getting them.  They are sure to keep coming unless they tell me otherwise ;-)

What about all of you?  Have you been up to any crafty adventures lately?  I will be linking to my usual parties listed on the side bar so go check them out for some inspiration!  =)

Vacation Recovery

Ever need a vacation, to recover from your vacation???  That's what I'm feeling like!  I know you are thinking, well, you have been back for a week already, right?!  Yup.  Still not back into the swing.  Whew!
So coming up, after my recovery, I have a three crafty projects to share.  YES, I said three.  I have pics of one of them so I need to get it ready and post it.  I used my silhouette for a bday present.  =)  I love that thing!  The other two are so close to being finished I can taste it...but not quite there yet.  And they are SUPER DUPER easy peasy.  Have I said I am still not recovered from vacation, LOL!  Also I still have the last set of pics from our vacation to share.  My BIL's are going to kill me if I don't get these bad boys posted on FB (LOL!).  I STILL can not find the time to get them off the camera and edit so they can be posted.
Also we got a bed for the Lil' Cupcake.  I will be doing a post on her big girl bed soon.  =)  
So, stay tuned.  I have not given up on blogging.  I will be back sooner than later with some crafty posts and family posts to share.  Yall have a great day! 

Game Day Snack

I'm linking up with The Getts Times today for Game Day Food Bon Appetite Party! 




Today I'm sharing a Ranch Chex Mix Recipe!

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted 
• 9 cups Corn, Rice or Wheat Chex cereal (or combination) 
• 2 cups bite-size pretzel twists 
• 2 cups bite-size cheese crackers
• 1 package (1 oz size) ranch dressing mix 
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Heat oven to 250 F. In ungreased 13x9-inch pan, melt butter in oven. Stir in cereal, pretzels and crackers until evenly coated. Stir in dressing mix and cheese until evenly coated. Bake 10 minutes, stirring after 5 minutes. Spread on waxed paper or foil to cool, about 15 minutes. Store in airtight container.

Break out and enjoy while Yelling WAR EAGLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OR

Go-OOOOOOOOOOOOOO  GIANTS!!!! 

God Gave Me You

We should all feel lucky to have love.  Love of our spouse and love of our children.  At some point in my life I longed for them both.  This song just reminds me of how much God loves us and does give us the desires of our hearts.  =)  Have a good afternoon y'all!

Ocean City Part II

Here are a few more vacation pics.  I still have to get some off of my point and shoot camera.  It has the ones of me and the hubster together.  ;-)  Had a BLAST!  Thoroughly enjoyed the visit with family =)

Obviously we were not dressed for family shots but this is about as good as it got.  LOL!

The Princess

My Lil' Cupcake having LOADS of fun

The Hubby and his 2 younger Brothers

More Boogie Boarding Shots

Hope y'all are having a great week!  I'm super busy.  Trying to remember to breath.  LOL!  Oh, vacation, you were SO much fun while you lasted.  We must meet again and soon!

Day 1: Ocean City Vaca

We are having a blast in Ocean City.  I took lots of pics on day 1.  Gotta get the camera back out soon!  =)

Hubby Boogie Boarding

Mimi and her girls

Youngest BIL boogie boarding

My hottie

BIL and his super sweet and cute girlfriend

Hope yall are having a great Wednesday! 

Be back soon!

We are vacationing with family.  We just arrived last night. In the last two weeks I've been running around trying to get all my responsibilites at work done and get us packed and keep my house clean enough to show. lol! So lack of posting because we are so busy. It's so worth it now. Ok, I'm out, we are getting ready to head to the beach! =)  I'll catch up with you guys later ;o)

Wedding Gift (more vinyl!)

So I mentioned in my last post that I was planning to make a gift to take to a reception.  The invitation said 'no gifts please' but I hate to show up empty handed.  So, I decided to make something for the lovely couple.  =)  I've seen the idea of making coasters ALL over in blogland.  I could not tell you where I originally saw this idea.  I've mainly seen them mod podge with scrapbook paper and then initials or names on them.  I decided to go with a more classic look for these.  I started out with a (set of) blank tile(s) from Lowes. 

I cut out a "S" and "Est. 2010" in black vinyl and applied.  (this pic was taken before I sprayed on the gloss clear acrylic coating for protection, but they look the same)  They look like this:

I still have to run to hobby lobby tomorrow and pick up some flat round corking to stick to the back, but I played around with some ribbon and plan to present the gift like this (except my tiles will be straight, I am just that anal picky.)

Like I said, not my original idea. And frankly, I've seen them so much I have no clue whose orginal idea it is....but it's a goodie, that's fo' sho!   =)

Hope you all like them!  I am linking up to all the applicable parties on my side bar!  I love going to them for inspiration!!!

She's 3

Our Little Missy Princess is 3, make that 3 and a half actually.  She is such a sweetie pie.  She loves to sing.  When you think she isn't listening much to the music that's opening to a cartoon she has watched one time...just play that cartoon the next week and she will repeat the opening song word for word.  Sharp as a tack!  By the way, I'm referring to what has become her FAV cartoon.  Strawberry shortcake!  "That girl's so sweet just like her name Straw-b-b-b-berry Strawberry Shortcake"  Uh-hum.  Sorry, it's an addictive tune.  LOL!  So the princess, she likes to color and draw.  She often asks me to help her color in the lines now or to 'draw' her name.  And many times she will mother our lil' cupcake.  Taking care of any need or making certain I do if she *thinks* it is being over looked.  She is an awesome big sister.  BUT occasionally she gets annoyed with her "baby" as she calls her.  If the Lil' Cupcake gets to curious about some current toy that the Princess is playing with, like say, a hula-hoop.  All heck can break loose.  And we will see things like this:

    Or this:

But soon, very soon she ends up like this:

I think it must be a symptom of her age that she cries so easily.  She is ultra dramatic.  Just the other night I told her no powdered donuts because we were literally going to eat dinner in like 5 minutes.  The water works POURED down.  You'd have thought I told her she was going to bed without dinner!  LOL.   She is my sweet girl though.  She is so sensative and also takes direction fairly easily.  For punishment we send her to her room and have her sit on her bed for a while.  She typically has the waterworks dried up before we get back to her room (which is minutes).  Anyway, we are getting ready for a LONG roadtrip to get to have a vacation.  We've promised her a Pillow Pet (as seen on tv, yah, thanks Saturday morning cartoons!).  The pillow pet comes with a cost...she has to try to be on her best behavior.  I picked one up for both girls the other night at Walgreens.  Did you know they carry As seen on TV stuff?  I got this one for the Princess (it was the one she was requesting):

and this one for the Lil' Cupcake:

I think they will keep them occupied for short spurts of time during our FOURTEEN hour drive coming up.  If you disagree please just don't tell me.  LOL!   (And no we are not going to Disney World for this vacation.  But this should prepare us as to whether or not we want to fly when we do end up making that happen.  LOL) 

And here is one more set of pics from my Dad's bday week to share:

I have some crafty things coming up to show you soon.  Yes, you guessed it....more vinyl.  I picked up a little something to make for the girls to use during our upcoming roadtrip.  I also have a wedding reception to go to for a very dear friend.  The invitation says "no gifts please".  I plan to make a 'little' something to take.  I'm sure it's nothing new to those who have been around blog world but it will be my first try at it.  I hate to show up empty handed.  Anyway, I will post on those soon so stick around!  ;-)  I hope you all have a wonderful Friday!!!

Vinyl Again?

I've been using vinyl like CRAZY in my crafts for the last two weeks! I have one more post to share with yall on what I've been creating using my silhouette. I actually meant to get this post up sooner, but here goes.
I mentioned in earlier posts that my dad's bday last week!  I grabbed a shirt for him (his usual gift) and then thought I wanted to do something a little special. I decided that I'd ask him what his favorite Bible verse was and create something for him to hang on his wall. He quickly responded with Phillipians 4:3 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me"
So what did I come up with? I ran across ax 11x14 simple black frame at the local dollar store for less than $10. I removed the back and paper filling and replaced that with ribbon and scrapbook paper that I already had on hand. Next I used my Silhouette SD to create the words of the Bible verse using different fonts. That's the joy of a silhouette SD. Fonts cost you NOTHING, NADDA, ZIP! If it's available for free download as a font, you can have it! =) I went with black vinyl and cut out the words and applied them directly to the glass. With a little creativity using the fonts and size of the wording I wanted to emphasize, here is what I came up with:

What do you think? My dad loved it. I can't wait for him to get home and hang it up so that he can read that verse everytime he walks by. =)  Oh, and I also made him a coconut cake.  It's his favorite. 

Are you wondering if this is the end of my vinyl posting? Nah, you know it's not! I have some heat transfer vinyl ideas just brewing in the back of my head. The only thing is those projects will likely take up more time! I will have to work hard to find some so that I can get to work and show you all what kind of fun that can be 2!  Maybe after my vacation which isn't for 2 more weeks. 

I am linking to the applicable parties on my side bar this week =)

She ate what???

Thursday the Lil' Cupcake turned 19 months. 

And Thursday the Lil' Cupcake gave Mommy a BIG scare!  It was 9:15 in the morning.  I was having my mid year review with my boss.  A co-worker peeked over the window in his door as my bosses phone was ringing and said "Robin needs to take that call".  It is kind of a blur because I don't think it dawned on me that the call was for me until my boss handed me the phone. It was our daycare director.  She said "First of all, we think Lil' Cupcake is ok.  She swallowed a rock on the playground.  Her face turned red and we turned her over and patted her back.  We were unable to dislodge the rock so we immediately gave her water.  After the water she was no longer red and was breathing."  At that point she said they felt like she was a little wheezy  and wanted to know if I wanted them to call an ambulance or come to check her out or what would I like to do.  Well, that scared me to death.  I asked if she was red or purple or any signs of lack of Oxygen and they said no that the only thing was they were worried the rock might be causing her to wheeze.  I ran out of the office and sped off to check on her.  In route I called the hubby and he contacted our pediatrician to see what he recommended.  As he was calling our pediatrician I was calling my mother and crying.  My mom works near the daycare and my office so she was off and running to the daycare as well.  When I arrived they had the Lil' Cupcake in the office and were loving on her and keeping a watchful eye on her.  She was SO sleepy.  My mom met me at the daycare.  Some of the teachers later told me that she came into the parking lot on 2 wheels.  Yep, that's our Gigi.  She rode with us in route to the Pediatrician to keep an eye on the Cupcake while I drove.  Our pediatrician, Dr. Jain, checked her all out and gave us a thumbs up.  For good measure he wanted us to go to the hospital for an xray to be sure there was nothing lodged in between her esophagus and stomach (that's the smallest part of your GI tract).  A few hours later we spoke with him and got the results....everything was NORMAL!  He said she'd pass it in a day or so!  YUCK! 

So what else is Lil' Cupcake up to besides eating rocks at 19 months? 

• She loves to read.  Her favorite two books are "Berry Sweet Baby Kisses" (strawberry shortcake) and "Colors" (very colorful book with illustrations for various colors)
• She LOVES to dance and sing!  She does her very best to sing her ABC's and I believe when she can say each letter of the alphabet more clearly we will confirm she knows them all!
• She loves Barney, Yo Gabba Gabba, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  She will break out and dance to them anytime there is a song.  She also sings along with them. She sings the Barney song (I love you) as best as she can even without the DVD playing. 
• She is eating any and everything as you can see from this post.  LOL.  She LOVES bananas! 
• She is a very loving little girl that gives lots of hugs and kisses, but only when SHE wants to give them.
• She still fights hard at bedtime.  She knew from a very early age that if she lies still for a few minutes she is zonked out!
• She loves baby dolls and stuffed animals.  She plays with them and gives them lots of love.
• She calls just about everyone Mimi!  (Except myself, her daddy and sister)  I think she misses her Mimi very much. 
• She loves to talk on the phone!  Just this week she talked for 10 minutes or longer (may have been 50% gibberish) on the phone with her Uncle Josh and her Mimi.  (That is 10 minutes each phone call)
• She loves to run from us.  If we are coming to take the phone back for instance, she will get this mischievous look in her eye and turn around and make a mad dash the opposite direction.  LOL!

I can not imagine my life without the Lil' Cupcake's beautiful smile and giggles each day. 

She and her "sissie" (as she calls her) love each other so much.  It brings me so much joy to see them playing together and taking care of one another by sharing and hugging. 

Wordless Wednesday

(disclaimer: this was daddy daughter night so I had nothing to do with the mismatched pj's, but I think the pic is 2 cute)

Vinyl Love to the Rescue!

My dad called me on Friday afternoon to tell me that my two of my cousins, who together have FOUR children, were having a joint birthday party.  Fun right?  Well, the party was SATURDAY!!!!!  They do this to me EVERY year.  And EVERY year I am so shocked and caught off guard!  You'd think I would learn by now, LOL!  So, I was frantically trying to figure out what to give these kiddos for their birthday.  Also trying to figure out was there ANYTHING in my stash of 'potential gifts' that I could use.  We were super busy getting ready for an open house on Sunday and I did not have time to go running all over town for last minute gifts.  Low and behold, my silhouette came to the rescue again!  I found some water bottles on the cheap a while back and stocked up on them.  My intention was making teachers gifts and adorning them with vinyl.  However, for ages 10ish-14ish, I figured that'd work just fine.  Feast your eyes on my finished products:

The two girlies got polka dots on theirs.  I decided after lots of thought to just leave the boys with their initial on them.  I didn't want anything to look to cheesy or girlie for them.  ;-)  My dad's bday is this week and I am hoping to get his cake made tonight and a special project for him also using my silhouette.  I will post it next!
Here are a couple of pics of the fresh flowers I put out for our open house.  I wish I could have them sitting out all the time!  =)

Hope everyone had a fun weekend!

*Added: I will link up this post to all my parties on the side bar =)