Projects & News

First off, this is one of the projects I made for Karen Foster Design, made to be shown on the Home Shopping Network. We were instructed to make projects that show off the Scraparatus, this bag was hole punched and eyeleted to death. I wanted to show this particular project to you simple because the tote was purchased at the Dollar Tree, and I thought it was smashing. They had a bunch of different colors too, and for a buck? Really worth heading over to your Dollar Tree, especially if your kids are like mine, and gather eggs for the annual family Easter Egg Hunt with plastic sacks from the grocery store. We are classy like that. This year they might have these totes. Unless I need to turn in another altered project for someone else...

The next few projects were a departure from my comfort zone. They are vinyl projects available as a Silhouette download. When you buy the Silhouette, you gain access to downloads from Quickutz for purchase. They have recently branched into Home Decor with vinyl words and phrases and shapes. I got to play with ten of them. It was pretty fun, and I have to say, I have been looking at everything in my house differently. "Ooooh, I could put a quote on that clock!"

And I think I will print out a "WASH YOUR HANDS" to stick on the wall above the toilet. And maybe in the boy's bathroom "PAY ATTENTION, AIM."

Vinyl is fun. And addicting.
This turned out to be my favorite project. I cut the big monogram "W" in black vinyl, and then the "WADLEY" in white vinyl and layered them right on the front of the glass in the frame. Then I took out the backing, and hot-glued the glass into the frame. The vinyl looks like it is floating on the wall, there is a shadow behind it that looks pretty cool.

My cool new cookie jar. Jar came from that awful store. Ikea was out the day I was needing to buy the jar for this project. Don't be hatin', I went there out of necessity.

This last one was a frame I had in the closet. The inside size was larger than a 12x12 sheet of paper. I ended up cutting the 12x12 paper, and then machine zig-zag stitching the trimmed paper right to the cardboard photo backing. Then I tied the cardboard into the project using the same color photo corners. I thought it looked pretty cool. Then the vinyl that says "Our Family" and the swirly thingie are slapped on top of the glass in the frame. The paper and photos show underneath. I liked the wallet sized photos, and it will be easy to switch those out. Except for the one of Sam and I. That was painful. Sam refuses to smile. And my nine year old, Shayne took the photos. Sometimes we had heads, and sometimes we didn't. Shayne took about 58 pictures. This was the best I could salvage, and I doubt we will ever take another picture together again. That is probably the photo that will get dug up to use for our obituaries.

Speaking of obituaries...here is the news.

We are leaving Saturday night to go to Ecuador. With all the kids. To Ecuador.

Sam lived there for two years while he was serving a mission for our church. (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) He has always wanted to take us back to Ecuador to see the places he served in, the culture, the sights. Long story short, my parents are going, and asked Sam to come down with them and tour guide. If we are ever going to take the kids to Ecuador, this is ideal, to be able to take advantage of the extra adults with all the rug-rats.

We are going to give it a whirl.

Anyone who knows me, knows just how much I despise country music. No offense to those of you who like it, or love it. Different strokes for different folks, and all that. It makes me want to stab my eardrums with an ice pick.

However, this past week I heard the song by Tim McGraw called "Live like you were Dying" and really, that was my deciding factor. I like to plan, and over-plan, and make sure everything is *just right* to travel.

In the end, I don't want to regret missing out on opportunity to live.
So I have packing to do.
Be good 'til next weekend.