Parents Day Challenge - Are You Up For It? :)

Thank you for joining us here at Craft Lovin Challenge Blog

 

Our Challenge for the next two weeks is 
 

Parents Day

Begins July 13th

Ends July 26th @ noon

How To Play

Winners Found Here
will be post on 27th

Sponsoring is

Tabitha's Designs

Winners choice of 1 digi pack:)

Hope you all like commenting because

3 blogs listed in this post, will have a random comment winner at the end of the challenge. 

Each winner will get their choice of 

1 Digi Paper Pack from 

Tabitha's Designs

You will not know what blogs it 

will be so happy commenting:)

 

Also, for those that have my papers and or 

digi stamps you have an extra chance

at winning a prize if you use them in the challenge:)

Put a "7" at the end of your name please:)

For this challenge, I used Tabitha's Basics Brights digital paper pack, which you can find here. As many of you can probably relate, I'm a "pinner" and found some great parenting quotes to include on my layout. This challenge was also coupled with a quote challenge at Two Broke Girls Challenges - and will be linked up to Unity Stamp Co's "Friends with Flair" Friday.

Patterned paper (Crate Paper [background], Tabitha's Designs), white cardstock (The Paper Co), twine (Martha Stewart), brads (Making Memories and Joann's), flower jelly sticker (Me & My Big Ideas), "Family" buttons (Joann's), glue dots, distress ink (Tim Holtz - Tumbled Glass), stamp (Unity Stamp Co)

Here's a Christmas card to make you feel a bit cooler in hot July. I used Sweet Christmas Wishes from Unity Stamp Co, along with some cool red, white, and blue papers for both last week's Cocoa Creations challenge and 2 Broke Girls Challenge "Mini-Treats Card Challenge".

Patterned papers (Echo Park), cardstock (Bazzill & Crafters Companion), brads (Making Memories), Stickes (Platinum), markers (Spectrum Noir, Distress Ink (Tim Holtz - Tumbled Glass), ink (Memories, Inc), stamps (Unity Stamp Co)

 

Patterned papers, diecut stickers (Echo Park - Paradise Beach), bling alphabet stickers (Making Memories),
marker (American Crafts), washi tape (Pick Your Plum)

And here is my Cocoa Creations entry for this week - using washi tape. I decided to couple it with 2 Broke Girls' Word Challenge ("Sunkissed"). As you can see, I had some serious fussy cutting fun!

And guess what! The girls chose to go to the Prima Marketing outlet, instead of the waterpark today! Yes, they do enjoy shopping with their allowance money. They had a blast! It was so nice to shop leisurely (versus grabbing things frantically, before somebody else snagged them) and under a roof (it used to be held outside and wow, it's mighty hot here in July!)

So here are the girls at the front of the store... what you can't tell (I should have taken pictures while I shopped, I know, but I was distracted) is that there are several aisles of boxes. Those two you see in the back right are the $0.99 aisles. The girls were happy, they purchased quite a few pendants there (yes, manufactured by Prima!).

 

I love these paper dresses! I need to find myself one of these wire mannequins so I can build one!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog - hope you all have a crafty weekend!

Challenge #30 and an Enabler Alert!

12x12 Authentique "Blissful" aper, AC mini brads, MM pewter brads, Crop-A-Dile; tacky glue, googly eyes

Challenge #30 this week at CC was to create a 3-D embellishment or project. I decided to break open some "new" paper and make a movable 3D snake. Do you remember those cheap plastic snakes you had as a kid, that would sway back and forth if you held it by the tail? Basically, it's that - just made out of paper and brads. This Authentique paper was great for this project, because it's such high quality and very thick. I found a picture of some directions here on pinterest, but wasn't sure what was going on at the tail-end (literally), so I made up my own. The picture on the left was photographed at dusk (high ISO, no flash) while the one on the right is with flash - so you can see the nice colors of this paper.

And looky here! Time for another warehouse sale! You're probably all swimming in embellishments, but the one I went to (about 5 years ago) had rockin' prices on albums (which are good quality). It's too bad they can't have a warehouse sale on the same day as Sizzix, so I'd only have to drive out there once!

Out with the old...

It's almost time to say good-bye to 2011! This is the one day of the year that the girls are allowed to stay up until midnight. They have been talking about watching the ball drop in NYC for several days now...
Have you made your resolutions yet? ;)

It was a beautiful day today, so we went walking around Cabazon (an outdoor outlet mall). I was feeling so much better today (for the first time in 2 days, I slept in my own bed with my leg NOT elevated) and wanted to get some exercise. I think I did pretty well, but I did poop myself out (my leg's tired and my armpits hurt!). I met another lady on crutches and chatted briefly with her - she was in a bit worse shape, having torn her ACL, meniscus AND her MCL (a ligament that's typically hard to tear, unless there's been some major impact). She was encouraging, though, and said I was doing pretty well if it was only 3-days post-op for me.

Tomorrow, I'm going to try and crutch around the neighborhood a couple of times. I heal faster with exercise and it makes me feel like I'm doing something to get better. PT exercises were much less painful today and I was able to flex my leg 90-degrees. Yay! :) I was also able to help make dinner tonight and wash some dishes, while puttering slowly around the kitchen without crutches. The scariest time was trying to shower without the brace - it makes you realize exactly how secure you feel with it on, and how terrifying (and easy) it would be to fall and rip the ACL again... gosh, would I be willing to go through the surgery again? I don't know...

When 98 Degrees No Longer Feels Hot

Look who's back! We just returned (today) from a week's vacation in Scottsdale, AZ. We've gone to this particular timeshare resort for the past several years, because it's very family-oriented and the girls have such a great time here. This was the first time we went in July and boy, was it hot! I think it was at least 108 degrees EVERY DAY.

So, every day (except one, when we heard it would be 111 degrees) was spent at the pool. Mika and Marika have very dark tans and even DaddyDude is darker than me. Why, you ask? I spent most of the time hiding under the shade of the cabana, dipping into the water every once in a great while. If I wasn't under the cabana, I was working out in the gym (no way was I exercising outside!).

Ah, here's that lovely cabana! It cost an arm and a leg to rent each day but it was worth it! Relatively speaking, too, it could have been worse - rentals at the hotel next door were almost double, so it almost felt like we were getting a bargain. Honestly, though - I don't know how anybody could tolerate a day at the pool, without some reliable shade. The girls did get sunburned still, despite repeated sunscreen application - more than once, somebody would start bawling about how their cheeks hurt. "Put more sunscreen on," we would say and then they would just wail some more, because touching their cheeks was painful.

A couple of times, the family participated in the cannonball contest. I'm pleased to report that Mika won on one day, while Marika won on another. I think they won based on form, because the bigger boys were certainly able to make a bigger splash! They won free Otter pops and Marika even got a tiny little plastic trophy, which she wanted to proudly display on her dresser back home...

On the last day, however, Mika had had enough. She actually developed an outer ear infection Wednesday night ("Swimmer's Ear") and refused to go into the water for most of the last day. Thursday night, she developed a fever, so she's not a very happy camper right now... but for the rest of us - it was a lovely vacation but it's nice to be back home, too. The local highs are near 100 but relatively to Arizona, it doesn't feel hot at all (to me!)...

Life had been pretty hectic before our vacation departure. Mika's All Stars softball season wound down right before we left (she missed the last two tournament games). What a season! Their (7U) team (composed of 7-8 year olds) were forced to play older (8U) teams (8-9 year olds) because no other teams their age signed up! For the older girls, they are used to kid-pitch and learning how to be selective about hitting. The learning curve was steep for our girls but during their last round of tournament games, they actually BEAT (crushed 'em!) two 8U teams! It was terribly exciting! What a great season for the girls!

Here's Mika batting... as I try to take a picture through gaps in the fence... she has skinny little stick arms, but she can hit the ball!

And in other news... my friend Holly joined the girls and I as we trekked over to our first Prima Warehouse sale. We got a little... lost... so it took 1.5 hours to get there (instead of the 45 min it took to return!). That turned out to be a good thing, because the sale was OUTDOORS and temperatures were near 100 degrees. The girls were great little helpers and were exceptionally patient.

Here I am in line, wilting away. Checking out took about 45 min or so - it felt like forever, in the blazing sun, but at least everybody around me was very kind and friendly.

Okay, here's my haul. Items ranged anywhere from $0.50 per sheet of paper (I skipped those) to $1 for a packet of embellishments or stamps (or digital scrapbooking DVD), $2 for jars/boxes of flowers or box of stationery, $5 for that big paint bucket of huge flowers and $10 for that rack of flowers (flowers included!!!). When I finally got to checkout, it seemed like the cashiers further discounted things... I had been expecting to pay over $55 but ended up spending just $36. Retail value of everything probably would have been close to $120. The "e" bag and brads in the upper right corner were freebies and the big package of stamps (bottom left) must have been a Doorbuster, because they were only $1.

Holly heard from some other women there, that the same items had been presented at the previous warehouse sale (some 2 months earlier) so we decided that we would be willing to go to another warehouse sale but: (1) not for several more months and (2) it better be cooler!

Next on our list? Going to a Sizzix warehouse sale! :)

Other than that, I've been trying to make sure the girls are reading a lot (they are involved in the reading programs at two local libraries) but having plenty of time for fun. Our school PTA sold season passes to the local water park and we've been getting our money's worth by going several times a week for a couple of hours a day. Here's Ms. Mika doing their aquatic obstacle course... crossing a long rope (about 40-feet long) without falling into the water.

This park is also know for their water slides - the girls usually like to go together, which makes me feel better, too.

There's also a huge wading pool area for little kids. The water is cold, which is great!

The girls can also play mini golf with their passes. They had a lot of fun... until I made DaddyDude come and teach the girls proper "putt putt rules".

And last but not least, the girls also can do the "bumper boats". I was surprised that even Marika had no difficulty driving a boat all by herself and squiring water at people. :)

And I'll leave you now, with a picture of the neighborhood gang on July 4th. It's so nice to have good neighbors and good friends to hang out with!

It's been a good summer... it's difficult to believe that school begins in another 2.5 weeks... :)

Marika's Favorite Grocery Store

So what does a 4-year old know about grocery shopping? Usually, that it's boring, right? Marika's second-favorite store has little carts for little people. Her new favorite place is...


And why, might you ask? She just ADORES their sampling kitchen. And why not? She gets some juice and pretzels. Today, I also got to try their cheese-filled crumb coffee cake (Entenmann's). Mmmmmm... there's nothing like running a few miles every day to easily rationalize buying some coffee cake!

I love the store because it's never crowded, prices are really good, and there are certain items that the family loves - like fresh pizza dough, the rosemary focaccia with spicy jalopeno hummus (yum!) and the kids' new favorite: popcorn chicken (Michelle's recommendation). They also have smoked salmon for $0.99 (what a deal!), as well as my favorite Mexican soda.

On the way, we passed by that fire I mentioned in my last post. At this point, we were probably about 5 miles away from the fire. The newspaper say that that brush hasn't been burned since the 1880's, so basically... the fire is being fed really well. Hopefully they can contain the fire and save all structures and people.

Rumor has it that it will be an El Nino winter. As far as rain goes, this is excellent news! Howevever, you have to worry about potential mudslides if there are destructive fires...

If it's not earthquakes, it's some other natural disaster, right? *sigh*

Linnecards Card-Ability Challenge #6

It's time for another Card-Ability challenge at the Linnecards blog (http://www.linnecards.com/blog/archives/197). The sketch to use is LC011 and it's a fabuous one - lots of versatility for any occasion!

Supplies: cardstock (Bazzill), patterned paper (Bo Bunny double dot), epoxy stickers (Tile's Play), rub-ons (Heidi Grace - Sweetest Bug),
ink (Cateye chalk ink), flower (Bazzill), glue dots

I had some time recently to make another layout, commemorating Marika's trip to her favorite grocery store, where they have shopping carts perfectly sized for her! She even got to check out and pay (and yes, she did get to keep the change for her piggy bank!).