It is absolutely freezing out.  When I drove Colin to the bus stop this morning it was only 7 degrees.  I not a fan of bitterly cold weather, but what else can I do.  Instead of focusing on the cold I decided to focus on spring flowers and added a few butterflies to my card that were left over from my post on Tuesday.

I found a fabulous color challenge from Embellish Magazinein Google Reader yesterday.  The colors were Kraft, Brown and Purple.  I chose to use Kraft, Soft Suede and Rich Razzleberry.  I think they are just gorgeous together.  I combined the colors with the Sketch Challenge on SCS and it all fell together.  I did a great job sticking to the colors until I realized I had all of these Taken with Teal and Real Red butterflies sitting right on my table being neglected since Tuesday.  Therefore I picked a few up and added them with mini glue dots onto my card.  I think they compliment the main color challenge perfectly.

Well Evan is asking me to set up the Wii and play with him.  It’s too cold to go out so maybe playing and moving around will help me warm up a bit. 

Stamps: Sweetheart
Paper: Kraft, Soft Suede, Razzleberry Lemonade dsp, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White, Taken with Teal, Real Red
Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive
Accessories: Beautiful Wings embosslit, Big Shot, Soft Suede Polka Dot ribbon, mini glue dots

Growing up I remember playing with Russian stacking dolls all of the time.  It was always so much fun opening them all up and discovering what was inside of them.  Each doll was usually decorated in the same fashion with the tiny details getting smaller and smaller on each doll until you got to the last one which was always too tiny to open up and hold anything inside.  I think my parents still have a set of dolls in their house, although it’s been years since I’ve played with it. 

Stampin’ Up! recently opened up a forum for their demonstrators and there have been a few challenges that started, one of them being a Featured Stamper challenge.  I chose a card by Wendy Weixler to case.  I chose to stick with the layout and kept the ribbon placement, but I changed the colors to work with the color challenge on SCS, changed the stamp sets and added paper piercing.  The colors are Melon Mambo, Pretty in Pink and Blush Blossom.  I don’t think I’d have ever put this combination together myself, but I’m glad I forced myself to use it because I love the results.  The main image panel uses two Occasions Mini sets My Matryoshka and Well Scripted.  It’s hard to tell in the photo but the Blush Blossom layer is stamped with the Vintage Labels Sale-a-Bration stamp set in Blush Blossom ink.  I used my AquaPainter and many inks to watercolor in my image.  I’ve listed them all in the supplies.

Stamps: My Matryoshka, Vintage Labels, Well Scripted
Paper: Melon Mambo, Pretty in Pink, Blush Blossom, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Gray, Blush Blossom, Pretty in Pink, Old Olive, Always Artichoke, Sahara Sand, Soft Suede, Melon Mambo
Accessories: AquaPainter, Mat pack, dimensionals, Pretty in Pink Taffeta Ribbon
Techniques: Watercoloring

Today is weigh in day.  I am happy to report that I lost my first 10 lbs, in fact this week I lost 3.6 for a total of 11.8 lbs and even lost 5% of my body weight.  I’m not aiming to lose 10% and I’m less than 10 lbs away from that goal.  I’ve been eating my daily points but this week I barely touched my extra weekly points.  I was surprised to have done so well since I sort of slacked off this weekend and didn’t really track as consistently as I had been.  I even ate out at Friday’s and had pie with my dinner when we were celebrating birthdays.  I think I’m just making healthier choices when I eat and I’m never starving.  I’m opting to fill up on fresh fruits and veggies before I snack on anything else.  I don’t feel deprived and I don’t feel like I’m on a diet.  When I get hungry in the afternoon I’ve been reaching for a cup of coffee instead of a snack because it’s been so cold here I need something to warm me up and I find myself satisfied after I have it.  If I have a snack I measure it out into a bowl before I eat it.  I’m able to wear two pairs of jeans that I haven’t worn since before Colin was born and I’m throwing out my big baggy ones so that I don’t get too comfortable in them.  I do think the biggest thing that is helping me along is the accountablity, and ever since I posted here on my blog I have a lot of you e-mailing or posting a comment asking how I am doing and I love that support so thank you for it!  I hope the rest of you on similar journeys are doing well too.

Yesterday was a day marked with a lot of wasted time. Colin and Evan both had school and I had a Dr. appointment early in the morning. I didn’t have enough time to go back home before the appointment but there was nothing to do where I was. Roger and I sat in the bank parking lot waiting for it to open. Colin and Evan combined Piggy Banks to pay us for half of a DS game so we had over $15 in change to cash in. Then it was more time waiting in a waiting room and then more time waiting for Evan to get out of school since again there wasn’t enough time to drive home.   Colin then had his eye appointment and we came to find out that the place made his bifocals incorrectly and we had to go to the place we had them made with a note from his Dr. telling them that they didn’t follow the original prescription.  Luckily they didn’t hurt his vision and in fact he can start patching only every other day.  The place is going to replace his lenses for free, which they should since they didn’t make them right in the first place.  By the time we finally got home it was dinner time.  I did get one big project finalized but you’ll have to wait a few days to see that one. 

I got a big box of Stampin’ Up! stuff yesterday!  The first thing I had to play with was my Beautiful Wings Embosslit for the Big Shot.  I combined two challenges for this card, the Color Q color challenge and the CPS Sketch Challenge.  The base of my card is Bashful Blue and is layered with a Taken with Teal strip punched with the Scallop Trim Border Punch and then layered with Whisper White.  I stamped the Picture This sentiment in Bashful Blue and Real Red.  I then added my Real Red and Taken with Teal butterflies and Basic Black satin ribbon.  It’s a super simple card, but that’s the best way to get started when you haven’t stamped for a few days. 

So much for our warm weather that got rid of all of our snow.  Yesterday was super cold and snowy and we now have more snow on the ground.  It’s a good day to stay in and stamp so I’m headed back to my supplies.

Stamps: Picture This
Paper: Bashful Blue, Taken with Teal, Whisper White, Real Red
Ink: Bashful Blue and Real Red Stampin’ Write Markers
Accessories: Scallop Trim Border Punch, Basic Black Satin Ribbon, Beautiful Wings Embosslit, Big Shot

I don’t know about you, but where we live in Illinois the weather the last two days has been so cold and dreary and full of freezing rain that I don’t want to do anything but curl up with a warm afghan and watch mindless shows on TV.  After I finished a million things yesterday that’s what I did.  I’m sorry I didn’t get to post, but when it’s so cold and dreary I have no creative energy what so ever.  Today it’s warming up a bit and by Sunday we are supposed to see a high of 47!  I can’t wait!

Since I was such a slacker yesterday I combined two challenges and stamped this card with a new to me stamp set.  I’ve wanted Nursery Necessities forever and finally got it!  I combined the Color Challenge on SCS which was Bashful Blue, Soft Suede and Ruby Red and added in a splash of Crushed Curry.  The sketch is the Mojo Monday sketch for this week.  The tag opens up and says Welcome Little One and has the elephant and bird stamped on the inside.  However, it’s so hard to get it photographed nicely so you’ll have to imagine what it looks like. 

This is a big weekend so I probably won’t get to post.  Colin has his Pinewood Derby race tomorrow and he’s super excited about it.  We drop off the car tonight and then the races are tomorrow.  He’s loving being a Cub Scout.  Plus he’s all excited because he lost a tooth last night and his top two teeth are loose too.  The tooth fairy is going to be here a lot in the next week or so.  We’ll see how long it takes him to work his top two teeth out.  I didn’t even know they were loose until we went to the dentist on Tuesday.

I hope you have a fabulous weekend.  I have plans to work ahead and get a few posts ready for next week so that I’m not scrambling at the last minute like I have been lately.

If you have been trying to find a way to make a difference and help out the people of Haiti, here is your chance to do it.

On January 12, 2010 a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti, leaving in its wake devastation so overwhelming that the Haitian people and their leaders can only look for help from the outside to cope.

From now until February 28, 2010, $2 from every I {Heart} Hearts stamp set will be donated to the American Red Cross’ Haiti Relif and Development Fund. The Red Cross is already well-established in Haiti, and this money will be used to provide immediate relief and long-term support through supplies, technical assistance and other support to help those in need.

Can you believe that yesterday I got to stamp not one but two cards? I was excited about that because it meant that I didn’t have to rush home to get something stamped after my Dr. appointment. Again I combined 2 challenges. I used Mercy’s Sketch challenge and the ColorQ challenge.   The colors were Melon Mambo, Bravo Burgundy, Pretty in Pink, Pumpkin Pie and Whisper White.  Now that was a challenge because Bravo Burgundy is a color I almost never use and to pair it with Pumpkin Pie gave me a few concerns.  However I was able to come up with a card that I love using a few new goodies I received late last week.  The base of the card is Melon Mambo and is layered with Whisper White and a Pumpkin Pie piece of dsp from the Sweet Pea pad.  My main image layer is Bravo Burgundy and Whisper White.  I then added the Melon Mambo bird with a Pretty in Pink wing.  I painted on the eye with Frost White Shimmer Paint and added the branch out of Chocolate Chip and Old Olive.  The sentiment from Well Scripted is stamped in Bravo Burgundy.  I finished the card off with a Bravo Burgundy grosgrain ribbon and some Sweet Pea Felt embellishments.

Stamps: Well Scripted
Paper: Melon Mambo, Whisper White, Sweet Pea dsp, Bravo Burgundy, Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive
Ink: Bravo Burgundy
Accessories: Bird on a Branch punch, scallop trim border punch, Bravo Burgundy grosgrain, sweet pea stitched felt, glue dots, dimensionals

Today is also weigh in day and I’m happy to say I’ve been continuing on a good path.  This week I lost 1.8 lbs for a total of 8.2.  That puts me only 2 lbs away from my 1st weight loss goal.  Of course I have more to set.  This past week I decided to start a new fitness program.  I can’t stick to one for long, but I started the Couch to 5K for the next 10 weeks.  Yesterday I did a 5 minute warm up on the treadmill.  My average walking speed is 3.7 mph and would then jog for 2 minutes at 4.3 mph and walk for 1 1/2 at 3.7 mph.  I’ll do that 3 times this week, with a day in between each treadmill session.  Next week I’ll jog for 2 1/2 minutes and walk for 1 1/2 minutes, each week adding another 30 seconds to my jogging time.  I am by no means a runner.  In fact I’ve always hated it, but when I’m done with my time on the treadmill I feel fantastic.  I normally put in 30 minutes each session.  On days I don’t use the treadmill I’ve been doing 15 minutes of cardio and 15 minutes of strength training.

I hope all of you out there that are looking at making 2010 the year for you and your weight loss are doing great too.  I really love to hear how you are all doing as it helps keep me motivated to keep plugging along in my journey.

I want to thank you all for the advice and support you gave me over my post last week regarding our cat. We made the appointment to take him in and when it came down to it we couldn’t do it. Instead we’ve been monitoring his whereabouts in the house and making sure that bedroom doors are closed and he can’t get into them if we aren’t here.  I don’t know if we’ve made the right decision or not, but we’ll see how things go.  He was the first animal that Roger and I adopted together.  I came into the relationship with a dog and then we adopted Figaro, our loving yet naughty cat.  The kids were heartbroken with our telling them that he’d have to find another place to live, and I was heartbroken thinking of what we were going to do with him.  It’s been a long time since I’ve had to put a pet down, about 13 years, and she was suffering from a rare bone cancer in her skull.  It’s a hard decision to make and one I can’t make lightly.  So for now, I’m hoping Figaro behaves and can stay with us for a few more years.  He still has some left.

Today I got to stamp.  I combined the Clean and Simple Challenge of using Teal, white and another color.  I chose Old Olive and then threw in some Soft Suede, so I sort of cheated on that one.  I paired it up with the 2 Sketches for You sketch.  I had just gotten the Sale-a-Bration set Good Neighbors and it hadn’t seen ink yet and used my Occasions Mini set Well Scripted, it’s my favorite sentiment set from the mini.  I’m loving the new Clear Mount sets!  They are so easy to line up.

This week you are likely to see a lot of Birthday cards.  Every year I donate a basket of handstamped cards to the silent auction for Aquinas Catholic Academy.  I got my cards in the box and sorted out and realized I either used or sold all of my Birthday cards over the last few months.  Therefore I need to fill in a few holes of missing occasions, wrap the box up and send it off to the auction.  I also have to get our class basket over too, but it weighs a ton. 

Tomorrow is weigh in day, I have a Dr. appointment and hopefully after that I’ll have a chance to post.  See you then!

I’ve mentioned on here before that we have 2 cats. One of them gives us problems every once in a while and has been on Valium for 4 years now. For some reason he likes to punish us by forgetting how to use his litter box and he targets beds. We’ve tried everything, from different drugs, different litter boxes, sprays to relax him, special prescription food and hundreds and hundreds of ideas and products over the last 4 years. It’s gotten to the point where I can’t have him ruining our house and beds and he’s not an outdoor cat so I don’t know what else to do. I called the No Kill shelter here in town and they can’t take him. The chances of a 10 year old cat, who likes to pee outside of his litter box being adopted before the kill shelter adopts him is fairly slim. It looks like we are going to have to put him down on Monday. The worst part of it is that he is such a gentle and loving cat, but he has behavioral issues. He will let the boys carry him around and love on him and doesn’t get upset at anything they do. It looks like this weekend we will have to prepare Colin and Evan to say goodbye to him. I don’t know what else to do. Needless to say I haven’t felt like stamping since he decided to punish us again today and I’ve had to make some difficult decisions. I do have my November 2010 and December 2010 calendar pages to share with you. The November page is in celebration of Evan’s birthday. He picked out his cake pan and the colors he wanted and ended up with quite a vibrant cake.

The December page was super simple and easy. It’s a designer template made by Stampin’ Up! and all I had to do was put my photo in place.

I hope you all have a great weekend. I hope it’s not too much of a traumatic one here.

This morning I had every intention of stamping, but unfortunately I haven’t gotten into my stamp room yet. Colin has been making more and more friends when he’s in school and has been asking to play with them after school. He’s been talking about a neighborhood boy and inviting them over, but I have one rule. I need to know the parents and talk to the parents first. So yesterday Colin exchanged information with a friend and I spent the morning talking to his mom, which was very nice because I don’t get to have many adult conversations in real life. Most of them take place online, and while that is nice, it’s completely different to be able to hear the other person’s voice and have a conversation that way as opposed to typing it out. So that means today I’m going to share 2 more of my 2010 calendar pages.

This first page is from Colin’s 1st Tooth Fairy visit. He had a tooth come loose and he played with it so much it fell out a day later. He was excited to have the Tooth Fairy come and visit. He wanted a photo of the hole in his smile and Evan wanted to get in on the action.

The October page is obviously about our Halloween experience. Evan was Batman and Colin was Dan from Bakugan.  I think next year I’m going to buy Colin a costume that is one size bigger than he wears because after he bundled up his costume was way too short.  The end result was the same, they came home with lots of sugary sweets, so he didn’t seem to mind.  This was also the first year Colin seemed interested in carving a pumpkin and he wanted Sonic.  They found a pattern online and we got to carving.  I think we did a pretty good job and Colin was very proud of his pumpkin.  It received a lot of comments from the kids in the neighborhood too.

I can’t wait for this weekend.  We have 3 days off!  Both Colin and Evan have birthday parties to attend, Sunday the only thing we have is church and on Monday, Colin and his Cub Scout troop are going to check out a local radio station and see how it works behind the scenes.  I myself am planning to stamp a lot and get ahead on my projects.

I am happy to say I got Colin and Evan off to school and I sat down and stamped! I started with the Sketch Challenge from SCS.  The main focal image on the sketch was an oval and I now realize I need more Oval dies.  I have the Scallop Oval for the Big Shot so I changed the card into a 5 1/4″ square so that it would fit on the card.  I cut the main image layer out of Whisper White with the Big Shot Scallop Oval Die.  I then stamped Congratulations from Well Wishes in the center of the oval.  I then inked up the floral image from Thoughts & Prayers in Old Olive, Crushed Curry and Rose Red.  I stamped the main image twice and then sponged the edges of the oval with Soft Suede ink.  I added 2 vintage brads to the top and 2 to the bottom.  I then layered Thoroughly Modern designer series paper (a 4 7/8″ square) onto a 5″ square of Soft Suede Textured card stock.  I cut a piece of 1 3/4 X 4 7/8″ piece of Rose Red card stock and then used the Eyelet border punch on the bottom edge.  I tied on a Crushed Curry Polka Dot Bow, added my Latte button with Linen thread and then attached it all to a 5 1/4 X 10 1/2″ Kraft card stock base that was scored at 5 1/4″ to make a 5 1/4″ square card. 

I wanted to let you know that I’m having some computer issues.  The desktop where I do all of my photo editing is giving me issues.  The CPU usage is running in the 70 – 90% range for some reason.  It took me longer to get my photos downloaded and edited than it took to make the card.  I hope to have this resolved soon.  Otherwise I’m going to upgrade my photo editing software and install it on my laptop.  My old edition expired so I never got to re-install it on my laptop without purchasing a new copy.  I wanted to let you know this in case I post that it may take a day or so to get back up and running to where I can edit projects to post. 

Today is also weigh in day!  This week I lost a total of 3.6 lbs to bring my total to 6.4 lbs total.  I think that’s pretty good for 2 weeks!  I’m only 4 lbs away from my 1st goal of losing 5% of my starting weight.  In another 2 weeks I may just be there and then I’ll have to readjust my goals. 

Well it’s time to head back and pick up Evan.  I hope you have a fun and creative day.