2012 February

How Do You Like Your Day To Begin?

I read an article the other day that said,

“Every day we wake up is a gift from God…so be thankful.”

I thought, “Wow, what an inspiring and insightful way to wake up to every morning!”

I woke up for 2 days in a row and prayed, “Oh Lord, thank you for the wonderful gift of TODAY.” This morning? Valentine’s morning? I DID NOT THINK THIS. First off, I didn’t sleep A WINK last night. What is with menopause that makes us ladies do this? I swear, it’s worse than when you first bring home that sweet baby who wakes you up every 1.5 hrs. (at least you are dead to the world for 1.5 hrs..) because their tummies are empty.

I’ve tried everything.

- Exercise √
- No flour, No sugar √
- Not eating before going to bed √
- Doing something relaxing before going to bed ie., hot bath, read, etc. √
- No caffeine √

Did I forget anything?

I woke up at 11am today (you have no idea how much I hate this) with 1/2 the day already gone (I have alot to do today), coughing a lung up (a bit of exaggeration..but it felt like it!), sore throat (yes, it’s baaaack) and a raging headache (Oh Lord, please help me be thankful for today). Not a good way to start Valentine’s Day (or any day).

On the flip side… (here comes the PollyAnna in me)… I had a lovely cup of coffee (from Startbuck’s) from my sweet baby girl, Morgan, on my nightstand (my hubby didn’t make coffee last night because I bought a Kuerig yesterday and I haven’t gotten it out of the box because we met my Mom and friends up at the casino last night, no I had no luck, and we didn’t get home until late….how’s this for a run-on sentence?), and my phone had a text from my other sweet daughter, Madison, wishing me a Happy Valentine’s Day. All I can say is, it’s a good thing it was Valentine’s Day (and I don’t hold down a 9-5 job..because I would have been fired by now) or my morning would have been shot to H—!

I dragged myself out of bed, sat down to my laptop, with my Starbucks coffee (I heated up in the micro) and proceeded to check all 121 emails…. have I told you how much I ♥ my emails? I ♥ to see what all of you AMAZING bloggers are up too. I ♥ seeing all the projects you have shared at the linky party. I ♥ seeing all of the comments you have left me (yes, all 9 of them – I’ll take what I can get). Without all of you, a Happy V-Day text, the Startbucks coffee and a kiss on the cheek from my hubby (at “O-Dark-Hundred… I forgot this one) my day would have sucked… BUT NOW, because of all of you bloggers and my family, I can say…

“Thank you Lord, for the gift of TODAY.”

Amen.

If you want a good laugh …. check out The Pioneer Woman’s Post.
I don’t know what I would have done if my day had started out like her’s!!!
YIKES!!!

Happy Valentine’s Day to All of YOU!!!!!

2 Comments

Welcome to Link Party #21 – “Turning the Daunting Into the Do-able”

Welcome to Link Party #21!
“Turning the Daunting Into the Do-able”

If you missed Link Party #20 Highlights,
CLICK HERE

I can’t wait to see what you are going to share this week!

Rules for the Party:

1. Please no Etsy Shops, Businesses, or Giveaways.
2. I’d love it if you followed me on Linky Follower! Leave me a comment so I know to follow you back.
3. Grab a button please and post anywhere on your blog.
4. Please link up something NEW that you have not shared before.
5. Most important – please visit someone else who has linked up and leave a kind comment.

NO VALENTINE LINK UPS PLEASE

10 Comments

Link Party #20 Highlights – “Turning the Daunting Into the Do-able”

There were some amazing projects shared this week!
I’m excited to show you my favorites!

Because there were so many awesome Valentine’s Day projects shared, I decided to do a separate post highlighting them. You can see them by clicking HERE.

Thanks again to all of you for supporting my link party. I hope that you leave here feeling inspired and come back often.

If you have a party that I don’t know about, will you please leave me a message and let me know so I can follow you back?

On to the highlights for this week!

Becky …From Generation to Generation created this beautiful Journal.

She covered it with a piece of embroidery that had been a family heirloom.
Becky has a tutorial for making the journal on her blog.

Miss Kitty from Miss Kopy Kat made these beautiful Terrariums.

She has an easy to follow tutorial showing how to make them.
What a great way to bring the outside in during the winter months.

Cassity from Remodelholic made these yummy, quick Chocolate and Peanut Butter Cheerio Treats.

They have extra fiber in them!
That means they are calorie free, right?

Shari from Turnstyle Vogue made this too cute sign for her son’s bathroom.

This is THE BEST!!!!
My daughter-in-law is getting one of these signs.
She has 4 boys and you should see that bathroom!
She makes THEM clean it all the time.

Maysem from Ode To Inspiration planned this adorable Home Depot Birthday Party for her nephew.

The cutest!!!
I didn’t realize that Home Depot was going into the party business!!!
Did you?

Jenn from The REAL Housewives of Riverton sewed this adorable Knot Dress and Ruffled Pants for her daughter.

She says it’s “over the top”!
I ♥ “over the top” for little girls.
Miss Missy looks fabulous! Love the ruffles on the pant legs.

Next up is a fabulous vegetarian sandwich..Roasted Portobello Sliders, that Andrea from The Cottage Market made.

Delicious! I love portobello mushrooms.

Janet from Culde-Sac-Chic built this End Table Kennel for her 2 little dogs.

Fabulous idea!
So much better than those big wire crates!!!

Catherine from Freddie and Petunia made this AMAZING Jewelry Wall Box.

Love the way the necklaces go inside and the earrings go on the outside.

Is this an amazing jewelry box or what?
It reminds me of one of those safes you see in the movies!!!

Heather from a DIY Kinda Girl made this awesome Rustic Winter Wreath.

Looks so pretty on her red front door.

If you were featured and you don’t have a Project Queen Feature Button,
I’d love it if you grabbed one.

See you at Link Party #21!

5 Comments

Valentine’s Day Highlights – Link Party #20

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!!!!

I’ve decided to do a 2nd Valentine’s Day Highlight Party from Link Party #20.

If you’d like to see the 1st Valentine’s Day Highlight Party, click HERE.
If you’d like to see the collage I made with all of the Valentine Projects that was shared this past week,
click HERE.

The normally scheduled Link Party #20 Highlights will be posted tomorrow night (Monday) as they always are, along with #21 Link Party).

I’m so thankful for all you who have shared your ♥ Day Projects. I’m living vicariously through you because I have not made one single thing for ♥ Day and it’s one of my favorite holidays! The past three weeks have been tough with my sweet mother-in-law passing away and then coming down with the CRUD. Ugh. I’ve had a sore throat for almost 10 days. Antibiotics are finally kicking in.

I tried to choose projects that were original…okay besides the sweets. I love cupcakes…and they are really cute .

~~I’m going to let the pictures speak for themselves.~~
I always try to just list the highlights, but I can’t keep my mouth shut!!!!

Renee’ from CoCo Mi’s Un-Necessary Necessities (a tongue twister!) made these beautiful Pink Champagne Cupcakes.

They are sooo fluffy. My cupcakes NEVER look like this.
Renee’ what is your secret?

Bethany from Pitter and Glink made this adorable Chevron Frame.

I love the sparkle and how she wrapped embroidery floss around the nails to make the heart.
Clever girl Ms. Bethany!

Cassity from Remodelholic changed the look of her Hutch for Valentine’s Day…

just by adding some wrapping paper to the back of it.
So simple!!!

Maysem from Ode To Inspiration made these gorgeous Valentine’s Day Cookies.

She has a great tutorial on how to make them.

Pat from Pat’s Pink Apron shared these festive Valentine’s Day Napkin Rings/Holders.

She has the tutorial on her blog.
Love the tulle!

Emily from 52 Mantels made these cookies titled “Kiss My Pie”.

Aren’t they amazing looking?
These would be so simple to whip up for ♥ Day.

Doreen from Altered Artworks made this awesome “You Had Me At Hello” framed gift for her hubby.

No pink, red or sparkly stuff here folks. This is for her MAN.
He’s gonna ♥ it.

Kirsten from The Sweet Swiper made these cute, cute, cute Strawberry Milk Whoopie Pies.

My grandchildren would love these!

Roberta from A Little Bit Of Everything crocheted this adorable Valentine Bear Hat.

It started with a bear hat that she crocheted and then she made the hearts and pinned them on.
Can’t you just picture a little face with fat cheeks wearing this hat?

Alyssa from Alyssabeth’s made a Framed Paper Rose Valentine.

So shabby chic!
I love the checkered tray in the background too!!

Jenn from The REAL Housewives of Riverton made these oh soooo yummy looking Snicker Cupcakes.

Oh goodness these look good.
She has the recipe and step-by-step instructions on her blog.

Stephanie from The Lady With the Red Rocker made A Love Quote On Canvas.

Love this idea!
Stephanie has an easy to follow tutorial on her blog.

If you were featured, I’d love it if you grabbed a button!

See you tomorrow night!

9 Comments

Digital Collage Tutorial

No pitty party goin’ on here today! LOOK WHAT I MADE!!!

Guess what? I DID IT ALL BY MYSELF?

Don’t believe me? Well I’m going to show you how. This is soooo simple. If I can do it, YOU can do it and some of you out there will be able to do AMAZING things…. I’m not going to think about that because I’m tootin’ my own horn right now!!! ha!

As you all know, our beloved Picnik is being pulled right out from under us bloggers…. I grumbled for a few days and then MOVED ON… okay, I’m still grumbling a little bit. I have found that Phixr, Ipiccy and Befunky are as easy to work with as Picnik. Hooray! BUT, the problem is trying to find one that is easy to make a collage with.

Phixr does have the ability to make a collage, but I couldn’t figure it out for the life of me. If anyone can do it, my hat’s off to you and please share with us!

Ipiccy as of today does not offer the tools to make a collage.

Befunky does offer the tools to make a collage but only on Facebook. What is with that??? If they can offer it on FB, why can’t they offer it on their website? I’m sorry, but it must be a MAN over there making up all those codes (or whatever they do). Geez, and I like men, but I don’t like him!!! I thought that was going to be the answer to Picnik… Befunky! It’s got some great tools.

Let me introduce you to SHAPE COLLAGE. It is soooo easy to work with. You can make your pics into several different shapes (or make your own) and it even gives you the choice to make your collage into a letter. It’s pretty cool!

Made by Shape Collage (not me)

1. Download Shape Collage. I saved it to my Desktop.

2. This window will come up. Click on the (+) in the bottom left hand corner. Sorry I didn’t know how to draw a line.

3. I saved all of my valentine’s photos in my documents file. You can click one at a time OR you can highlight the files that you would like to upload to your collage. The screen below shows you how I highlighted my saved pictures.

I had already saved them as a JPEG and edited them in Phixr. When I saved them, I started all of the file names with V so it was very simple to highlight all of them in Shape Collage and load them all up at once! (I didn’t even plan that part).

5. Once they load into Shape Collage it will look like the above screen. All of your pictures will be there and it tells you how many pictures you uploaded (mine was 9 photos). It’s on the bottom left side – right next to “Clear List”.

6. Now you need to decide what shape you would like to have your collage in. Your choices are on the above screen, right side on the top.

7. Click on PREVIEW (which is in the middle of the above screen on the bottom). This enables you to see your pictures in the shape that you selected. There are more selections on the above right hand screen. I did a little bit of photo spacing, but didn’t use any of the other selections.

8. When you are satisfied with the way your pictures are layed out, click on CREATE (middle of screen on the bottom) and your pictures magically appear in the collage that you had layed out!

That’s it! Next you name it and upload it onto your hard drive.

I had so much fun using all of the valentine’s projects that people shared at my linky party this week! Wish I could have made it bigger!!

Oh, I should say that I loaded the jpeg collage image into Phixr and put a frame on it.

I should mentioned that this is a FREE program. There are some definite perks by paying the $40 – like not having their watermark on your collage!!!! There are a few more also – go check it out, make a collage and tell me what you think!

I would love to see everyone’s collages, so please share!

Monday:

Tuesday:

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

4 Comments

Do I Have A Choice?

(If you are looking for #20 Link Up Party click HERE)

Oh, Poop. I’ve been in denial all week about Google Friend Connect going away….I JUST got over the fact that Picnik will no longer be around…. can I just admit what is really bothering me? I HAVE TO LEARN YET ANOTHER TECHY THING!!! Ugh. I’m feeling pretty S-T-U-P-I-D these days. I still have not learned the navigation system on my new car (yes, it’s a luxury problem but it’s a PROBLEM…trust me), I’m scared of my Cameo Silhouette, and I can’t figure out how to make a freakin’ printable that everyone seems to just “whip up” in no time.

So, today I put my “big girl panties on” and jumped on the wagon with the NEW LINKY FOLLOWER which is replacing Google Friend Connect (so thankful there is something FREE that will replace it). Yup, did it all by myself and got that new widget code thing and put it in the right-hand column (see it? the one that says I only have 6 friends?). It’s right above the one with all the awesome faces that says I have 297 friends!!!! I’ve worked soooo hard for all your sweet faces and now I have to start all over again. Yes, I’m feeling sorry for myself.

If you want the How’s, When’s and Why’s of Linky Follower, head over to At The Picket Fence. Vanessa and Heather have put together a great post that will fill you in on all the Pro’s and Con’s of Linky Follower, how to join, how to put it on your blog, and a tutorial on how to use it! Thank you Picket Fence Ladies!

So with all of that being said, I’m hoping that you will follow me through Linky Followers. I want to see all of your 297 sweet faces again . If you are a reader (and not a Blogger) you can still follow me by Facebook, Pinterest, RSS Feed, or you can sign up by email (which is right above the new Linky Follower box). My new posts will be delivered right into your email! Simple as that.

Oh, and by the way… I’ve found that PHIXR is very much like Picnik. Not quite the same…but not a huge learning curve. Makes me a happy camper.

And lastly, did you hear about the latest and greatest Party Hop that is being hosted by It’s So Very Cheri for Linky Followers?

Head on over to her blog where she has all the details and you can join the hop too!!!!

If you choose to follow me, please leave me a comment so I can be sure to follow you back!!!

26 Comments

Valentine’s Day Games

I’m thrilled to welcome Lisa today. She is a guest blogger and party planner who knows how to throw everything from a nautically themed bachelorette party to a Super Mario birthday party.

Fall In Love With These Games On Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day has always been one of my favorite holidays. From the candy to the outrageously public displays of affection, I just can’t get enough of Feb. 14^th. Maybe that’s why I enjoy hosting Valentine’s Day parties so much. I usually like to have a few couples over and we play a game and have some drinks. These same ideas will work great whether you’re entertaining a group of 30-somethings or some children who are just developing their first crushes.

Valentine’s Bingo

What You Need: Heart-Shaped Bingo Cards, Valentine’s Day candies to use as markers (I like using the little Valentine’s Hearts with cheesy pick up lines on them) and prizes (candy is usually a good prize for kiddoes. If your audience is older, ask them to each bring a $10 item that can be given away as a prize).

Come up with a Valentine’s-inspired theme like Cupid and Arrows and use that as the template for your bingo cards. Write H-E-A-R-T across the top and fill in each square with words like love, chocolate, romance, candy, flowers, kiss, and hug. Take each letter and put it in a hat and do the same thing with the words, but put them in a separate hat.

Valentine’s Scavenger Hunt

For this game you’ll need paper, scissors, a marker and some sort of prize for the winning team. You’ll also need a partner in creating this game. Cut two hearts out of construction paper and write a message on it that covers nearly the entire heart. Something cutesy like “Valentine’s Day Is Best Spent With The Ones You Love” will work. Then cut up the hearts into the same number of pieces. Scatter these pieces all over the house (you scatter your pieces and your partner scatters the others, but make sure you don’t reveal where the pieces are hidden to your partner). Also include hints about how to find the next piece at each location. Once the guests arrive, divide them up into two evenly numbered teams and set off on the hunt. The first team who finds all the pieces and decodes the message on their heart wins the prize.

Thank you Lisa!

1 Comment

Link Party #19 Highlights – “Turning the Daunting Into the Do-able”

Thanks everyone for being patient with me while I mustered up the energy to post these highlights today! Boy, this is a bad, bad bug! I’m feeling very ♥’d with all of the get well wishes that have been sent today!

Here are a few of my favorites this week:

Jodi from Meaningful Mama made these adorable cards from her daughter’s art work.

BRILLIANT and so cute!

Alexandra from Talking Dollars and Cents shared this yummy Chocolate Eclair Cake.

The recipe is on her blog and looks VERY easy!

Micki from Confessions of an ADD Housewife created this adorable Dress Up Play Station out of an old media cabinet.

My girl’s would have loved this!

Kellie from The Pauper’s Castle refurbished an old Drop Leaf Table.

I love the art work that she added to it.

Chantelle from Mommy x 3 = Insanity created a What’s for Dinner Dry Erase Board….

on her whole refrigerator!!!!
You’ll have to head over to her blog to see how this works.

Jen from Fishsticks and Tiddlywinks rescued some old windows…

and made some window love ♥

…and lastly how about some eye candy? This was shared by a special friend, Andrea, from The Cottage Market.

Her 2012 goal was to organize her craft room.

Oh, how I wish I could visit Andrea in New Jersey!
I’d be happy sitting in this room and doing NOTHING!!! Just LOOKING!!!!

If you were featured and you don’t have a Project Queen Feature Button, you are most welcome to grab one.

I’d love it if you shared your projects with us this week!
Click HERE for Project Queen’s #20 Link Party that is LIVE now!

2 Comments

Welcome to Link Party #20 – “Turning the Daunting Into the Do-able”

Update: Highlights from Link Party #19 have been posted.

You can see them HERE.

ALERT!!! Highlights from Link Party #19 will be posted tomorrow….

I have the sick BUG (we are calling it “The Walter Plague” because everyone in our family that went to the funeral last week has it and has been on antibiotics)…I have NO personality and I’m soooo BUMMED because we had to cancel our Whistler trip (we were leaving tomorrow). Thank you everyone. I love looking at every single one of your projects.

Welcome to Project Queen’s #20 Link Party !

Rules for the Party:

1. Please no Etsy Shops, Businesses, or Giveaways.
2. Grab a button please and post anywhere on your blog.
3. Please link up something NEW that you have not shared before.
4. Most important – please visit someone else who has linked up and leave a kind comment.

Let’s get this party started! Show us how you turned something daunting into something DO-ABLE!

10 Comments

Valspar Aqua Glow In the Baby Nursery

Whew! Giada Rose’s nursery is painted (you can see my paint tips here)
Remember Annie’s inspiration?
Remember the before picture?

BEE-U-TI-FUL!!!
I’m lovin’ this!
Annie chose Lowe’s Valspar Aqua Glow for the walls and Grand Hotel Mackinac Blue for the ceiling.
Such a pretty combination.
Her chair is from Buy Buy Baby. It swivels, glides and rocks! (literally )