PTI Goodness... and Some Stitching Badness

My PTI prize package arrived yesterday - it was like Christmas came again!  The gals at ScrapStreet have a "swap meet" challenge going.  I was inspired by this image that KT posted:

I love the combination of kraft, cream, dark brown accents and pastels.  And you *know* I had to play with my new PTI goodies, so I created these baby announcement cards using PTI's Pretty Pastels paper and the Baby Button Bits stamp set.  I have a friend who's due in February, so the timing was perfect.

Each bear and button is color-coordinated with the strip of paper at the top of the card.  The materials were:  paper, stamps, buttons: Papertrey Ink; kraft: Stampin' Up!;cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper, The Paper Company; ink: Ranger; tools: Cuttlebug (ProvoCraft); dies: Spellbinders; adhesive: Scotch, Glue Dots.

On Friday night/Saturday we got 5" of snow and sleet.  The kids had a ball playing outside yesterday.  Until they started playing with sticks.  Matthew ended up accidentally hitting Jeremy with one, slicing his cheek open.  The cut was deep and had jagged edges, so I took him to the ER for stitches.  Luckily, the roads were better than they usually are in NC when it snows, and I was able to get there and home just fine.  It was not fun to have to mummify him to keep him still during the stitching.  Three of us were needed to hold him down, in addition to the wrapping.  Once he realized that the anesthetic was working, he finally relaxed and we were able to leave very shortly thereafter.  He won't let me take a picture of it yet, but I will.  The stitches won't come out until Thursday.

Both he and Matthew had already had endless lectures about swinging sticks around.  Hopefully this will finally have taught them a lesson.

Poppy thanks and small changes

Over the weekend I got a little time in my craft room.  I pulled out the scrap paper files and decided to make a bunch of thank you cards using only scraps.  I had this great poppy paper, with 2" squares of poppies (buds, full flowers, leaves only) printed on it.  I cut them all out, inked the edges and adhered them directly to the cream-colored card base.  (I had enough to make 9 cards.) Then I stamped "thank you" on them using a sentiment from PTI's Vintage Picnic set.  It still looked a little plain, and I wanted to make it a bit more elegant but still keep it simple.  So I added two scored lines above and below the row of poppy squares.  I really like the way they came out.

We all know that January is all about resolutions and fresh starts.  I generally don't make resolutions, as I've found that if I decide to make big sweeping changes to my life that I fail.  Usually miserably.  Especially if the resolution had to do with weight loss. But in March of last year, I decided to make small changes, one at a time, and try to incorporate it into my routine, and see what would happen.  When I felt comfortable with it, I'd add a new one.

So last March, I changed my breakfast to a protein-fruit smoothie (usually 2 fruits [whatever was on hand], milk and protein powder).  And felt fuller in the mornings and found that the hungry horrors that hit me in the late morning largely disappeared.

In October I gave up diet Coke.  May not seem like a big deal to most of you, but I was drinking a solid 2L (or more) a day.  It went way better than I had expected, with very few headaches.  And haven't had any diet Coke in the house since then.

By mid-year, I decided that I really need to incorporate some form of exercise into my life.  Yup, there it is - the dreaded "e" word.  Going to the gym was out - I know I'd never go.  I waffled for months over whether to get a treadmill or not.  (You know - would I actually use it or would it just become a glorified place to hang clothes.)  By the end of the year, I'd lost 15 pounds - despite not having begun to exercise.

After Christmas I decided to get that treadmill.  Ryan and I looked online for a used one and found it on Craig's list.  He and a neighbor picked it up last night and wrestled it up the stairs to the guest room. I did a 25-minute walk on it today.  A friend pointed me to a site that gave me some info on working into running.  We'll see how it works into my routine.  But it's a start.

Apparently I'm Ancient

Matthew is 7 and in first grade. Part of his English homework is to write a specified number of sentences using the spelling words of the week.  He came running into my office a few minutes ago, delighted to read his sentences out loud to me.  And I nearly spit my drink all over the keyboard when he read:

"I hope my brother lives to be 20 years old."

Oh, to be young enough to think that 20 is old!  He must think Ryan and I are ancient.  Who knows what he thinks of the grandpeeps!

Congratulations and Thanks!

My friend, Stacey Michaud, found out recently that she made the Pink Paislee design team.  If you follow Stacey's work, or take a look at her blog (linked above), you'll see that she does amazing, intricately layered layouts with an emphasis on journaling.  She also does a lot of intricate hand cutting.  Her work is always inspiring to me.  And a little bit discouraging as well, because I often have the exact same papers and goodies that she has and yet my pages with it, while not horrible, just don't have that flair that I've come to expect from Stacey.

To celebrate, the gals at ScrapStreet issued the "Stacey Challenge", with the idea to go make something with Pink Paislee products to help Stacey celebrate her new DT role.

So I pulled out my Pink Paislee, and my Everyday Button Bits stamp set from Papertrey Ink, and made this cute, spring-like card.  It's being mailed tomorrow to thank my mother-in-law and father-in-law not only for all the gifts they gave this Christmas, but also for the time they spent here, sharing themselves with us and the boys.  Since we live so far from our families, it is wonderful to have them visit often enough that they and the boys know each other well enough to tease and play and giggle together. 

Winner, Winner...

...but not a chicken dinner! 

I discovered Papertrey Ink (PTI) late last summer, and fell in love with their products, particularly their acrylic stamp sets and templates.  You've seen the gift house that I made from the Home Made template.  And though I haven't posted a picture of them yet, for the holidays I made over 20 notepads for various teachers, friends and family members using the "Take Note" stamp set and their ingenious 2.5x8 inch notepads.

PTI releases new stamp sets and other goodies every month.  And has a big party on the release night.  All you have to do is comment on the blog post about the giveaway and you are eligible to win.  Last night, by some miracle, my name was the one pulled from the electronic hat.

So, what did I win?  The whole collection of new stamps and paper!  I won the "I Want It All" prize from PTI.  For this release, it was 8 stamp sets and a paper pad.  The sets are just super, and I've been drooling over two of them in particular:  Through the Trees and Baby Button Bits. There are several sentiment sets, and journaling set, and a through-the-year sentiment and images set.

Now to find some time to do a bit of cardmaking and scrapping again...  I have a thank you card to prepare.