What a crazy NYE it has turned out to be so far in St. Louis! Who would have thought that we would have 65 degree weather with tornadoes at the end of December? Emily and I went out to West County Mall today, just getting some returns taken care of, minding our own, when all of sudden we notice there are mall cops everywhere and stores are closing. We sprinted to get our last return made before the mall announced that everyone needed to take cover on the lower floor of the mall. Of course we complied but it always amazes me the people who just stand there, or think that those type of announcements do not apply to them. The teacher in me just wants to grab those people by the ear and lead them down the stairs to safety.

Besides the crazy weather in St. Louis it has been pretty low key around my house for the past couple of days because I have been really sick, some kind of respiratory infection. It does not feel good. My head feels about 2 sizes too big, my eyes feel like they are going to bulge out when I bend over, I can't stop blowing my nose, and I have no sense of taste or smell. That last one is kind of crazy...at least it is temporary (I hope) It really is no fun eating or drinking anything when you can't taste it. I sprayed my new perfume today...nothing. The good thing about this sickness is that I haven't smoked a cigarette in a couple of days, I even drove 30 minutes today and didn't even think about lighting a cigarette. Go me!

Since it is NYE I was thinking about making some resolutions but really I just want to set some goals for 2011.

Goal #1: Complete 15 hours of coursework towards my Master's Degree (I am on track to do this but it took me awhile to get my Spring classes registered...I have to remember the end result when $2000 is coming out of my bank account!)

Goal #2: Move more, eat less. I am in charge of a healthy living program at work in the new year so I am hoping that I can get back into some kind of shape. With my current sickness it has been hard to even walk up the stairs without getting winded, but as soon as I am better I am going to go back to the gym and play by new Zumba game. The goal is to workout 4 times a week for at least 30 minutes. Very attainable.

Goal #3: Save more money/ pay down my bills faster. The real goal here is to save enough to buy a house but I still don't feel confident in doing that myself yet. So the goal will remain to save 30% of my pay every month and limit the shopping, even when everything seems so cute at the store!

Goal #4: Blog more. This past month I have really enjoyed sharing my crafts and other ideas. My goal is to take more time to document my life, through words and pictures. I have to remember to enjoy this time that seems to be passing by more and more quickly.

Hope you all have a wonderful evening tonight and remember to be careful...no drinking and driving! We are headed to our friend Ashley and Derek's house for a pajama jam, so I am sure so fun pics will follow.

Happy New Year!

Ah, another week of winter break, the perfect time to explore my new "3 Birds on Parade" cartridge that I got for Christmas. I wanted this cartridge because I thought all the little birds were cute and it had whimsy, plus I thought I could make some cute bulletin boards at school.

My friend, Ashley has a birthday tomorrow so I thought I would make her a card.


 I used Bo Bunny paper to make a 5.5" x 5.5" card and then cut out the "party" bird at 4". All layers were used and cut at 4" as well. I embossed the body layer with my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder. In the the picture it looks like there is a haze around the birdie but that is actually a shadow cut (again at 4") in a silver metallic paper. I needed something to separate all the green!


The inside was the phrase that went with the bird, I really like the font. I inked the edges of the white shadow cut, but as you might be able to tell, it got a little messy but I wasn't too worried about it.

I plan on making more school related things with this cartridge...even though were the bears, not the birds, hah!

Merry Christmas all! Just wanted to wish everyone happiness today as they are with their families.


I'll take some pictures later, we are off to Chris' parents for dinner...lasagna!

This evening I am attending a cocktail party at a girlfriend's house and thought it might be nice to bring her a hostess gift. I know...I feel so adult, long gone are the days of showing up with just a case of beer. And I am proud to say my idea was all my own! I bought an inexpensive bottle (under $10) and removed the labels by soaking the bottle in hot water.



Over Thanksgiving I brought the Tie the Knot cartridge which has an awesome monogram feature. Using my DesignStudio I welded together the hostess' initials

 Then I cut out the mongram onto white vinyl so it would stick to the wine bottle. I used the Provocraft brand and got it from Wal-Mart, cheap and easy! This was my first time cutting vinyl so I thought it would be a little harder but to my surprise it was just as easy as cutting paper. I followed the directions that came with the package of vinyl, setting my blade depth to 6 and pressure to 2. It was so easy!


After the Cricut did its' job I removed the excess vinyl and left the actual cut on the backing. Since the vinyl works like a sticker it is important to leave it on the backing until you are ready to use it. Now, Provocraft makes transfer tape that takes your cut from the backing to your project without any fuss, but I didn't feel like spending another $10 so off to Google I went to find an alternative and wouldn't you know it,YouTube user nancy10nl suggested painter's tape. Well, I had a roll of that lying on the kitchen table (no really, I did!) and it worked just like transfer tape.



 And voila! I have my very own, personalized hostess gift in under 30 minutes! I can see me making more of these for quick gifts to give.

 
 Well, off to go get ready for my party, back with more soon!

I made it, card #10!  And this was the fastest one I have made yet. I sat down today and cut out one of the trees from Jolly Holiday at 4" and then used my Divine Swirls Cuttlebug folder to add the swirls on the tree. While I don't actually have a Cuttlebug, I still achieve the same effect with a rolling pin and a spray bottle of water. I then used red glitter glue to add some sparkle to the ornaments...yes, more glitter.



While everything was drying I stamped around the edges of a 5 x 5 pieces of deep red cardstock and added some DCWV gold glitter paper. I really like the DCWV brand of glitter cardstock because the glitter doesn't fall off everywhere like some of the papers I have bought before. And while you can't see it, on the inside of the card I stamped "Merry Christmas"



Now I just have to sign and mail these guys off. How fun!

I currently have commandeered my downstairs dining table as a craft station since Thanksgiving...it has been nice having all of my stuff out so I can just go create something when I feel like it. However, this is also where we setup the present wrapping station which my mother informed me needs to happen very soon. So my crafts go back to the laundry room where hopefully I can find enough room to keep everything out that I need.

Paper crafts still on the agenda include 2 gift bags and and more gift tags for all of my packages that I plan on wrapping. More to come!

It has been below 30 degrees the past couple of nights and I had to break out the gloves and scarf this week so I felt some inspiration for a winter themed card. I cut these adorable mittens from my new Winter Woodland cartridge that has tons of winter and holiday shapes and word art.



I cut the mittens at 3" and used some glitter paper to add the snowflake layers. I don't know if you can tell but I inked the edges of the mittens and the green cardstock. There is also some faux stitching around the edges that I did with a white Gelly Roll pen.


I think the inside is my favorite. The "Brrrr" was cut at 1" from the same cartridge. This card was so simple to make, once I had everything cut it was about 15 minutes for assembly.

Only one more card till I reach my goal for this season, be back with more!

If you can't tell yet...I. Love. Glitter. Really, you can't go wrong with a little sparkle added to just about anything. So I give you two new cards using some beautiful DCWV Glitter paper, the first, a white poinsettia. How do you say "poinsettia"? I say "poin-sett-uh" but the website where I saw this glittery little number kept saying "poin-sett-ee-uh" and it bothered me just a little! How I wish I could give credit to the website where I found this but I forgot to bookmark the link, I sorry!

In 45 minutes, we begin the last month of 2010...another year has almost passed. It is only logical that I begin to reflect on the events of this past year and all's I can say that there was a lot that happened; I had some great times and also some bad times. This was probably my most difficult year in a long time...it is hard for me to write that last line because I am a generally happy person, I see the positive in most things but I can say whole - heartedly that I was definitely tested many times throughout this year. I look forward to 2011 being a year of growth and hopefully a little less stressful than 2010.

Do you like my December sign above? I made it for the bulletin board at school using my new Winter Woodland cartridge that I scored 60% at Michael's on Thanksgiving night. I am definitely getting better at layering my shadow cuts. I also cut out the cutest wintery house to put on the board too but I want to wait 'til I am all finished with the entire scene I am making before I post it.

This weekend I hope to finish up making the rest of my Christmas cards to send out on Monday. After my craft extravaganza last weekend I am getting a little quicker with the creative process. I do hope to finish up my Christmas shopping this weekend...I did quite a bit yesterday with Cyber Monday but nothing crazy. Is anyone asking for anything special this year? I was surprised that I was able to come up with a few things that I wanted..usually I struggle with putting a list together. Of course I always want clothes but I doubt anyone would be brave enough to pick out some for me. Something on my list that I really want is a the new Zumba Fitness Wii game. I love to Zumba but is so hard to get to the gym, I think this would be the perfect thing to have at home. So hint, hint, wink, wink, nudge, nudge to any family members reading :)

Let's hope for some snow this weekend, it would be the perfect way to start out December!

Alright, I believe this is the last project that I can squeeze into my Thanksgiving break.

I saw these beautiful ornaments on Everyday Cricut. They were super simple to make and rather inexpensive as well, I bought a 4 pack of glass ornaments at Michael's 50% off (they ended up being about $2.50) and glitter for .99 cents Although I should have used really fine glitter for better results. Martha Stewart Crafts make a great fine glitter but it is a little expensive...$4.99 for a small container (More than I want to pay for glitter!) And then I purchased the Pledge floor cleaner from Home Depot for $8, I had no choice by to buy a really big bottle and I used about an ounce of it to make 4 ornaments.


The results:
Tomorrow is back to school time and I have a lot of planning to do...a week's worth of lessons as well as grades to import. I will have to put the crafts on hold for just a short time but I will be back with more!

I got up this morning and kept working on my cards and I have to say I am quite impressed with myself...I even designed two that were originals.

First off was this little gal...isn't she cute? I plan on making her into a tag as well by attaching some ribbon to her back. Although she is missing part of her shoe, she still turned out well for one of my first layered cuts. I am loving the new Cricut Lite Jolly Holiday cartridge that I got from Wal-Mart, however it is going to take me awhile to master these multi-layer designs. Having long nails and intricate, small pieces to glue down have made things quite difficult...luckily I had an old pair of tweezers that are helping me with the really small bits.



The tweezers were necessary for this little guy...again, how stinkin' cute? This was actually really simple to make once I cut out all the pieces, which I have figured out, that putting all my paper on the Cricut mat at one time really makes things go a lot faster.

This was a design that I saw over at Courtney Lane Designs however hers' looks a lot better :) I didn't have the cute papertrey ink paper like she did so I improvised with my swirly paper from KI Memories. Look! I tied a bow....on paper! It was pretty thrilling!


This was one of my original designs from today... a wreath from Jolly Holiday. I used all the layers except for the base, then embellished with some red glitter glue and and another ribbon (both found in the $1 bin at Michael's!)

And now one I am most proud of...another original design. The snowflakes that I used for this card I actually cut out yesterday and ended up not using so this card took even less time to make since I cut the blue and white pieces by hand and added the ribbon. I love the gem in the center and sequins I added at the corners...I pretty much love anything sparkly.



 Don't you love how you can see my messy workspace in the background?  It is amazing that a card actually comes together with the mess I keep on the table.

Hopefully, I will be back soon with another 5 cards (remember, my goal was 10!)  Unfortunately my Thanksgiving break comes to an end tomorrow...back to the grind. Although, only a short 25 days until Winter Break!

Oh goodness....after the turkey daze settled last night I decided that it would be a great time to start crafting and I really haven't stopped. After hitting the Thanksgiving sale at Michael's, I loaded up on plenty of paper, glitter, ribbons, and God knows what else to make crafts until the cows come home (or at least until Christmas).

So I begin with some gift tags.

I decided this year I would not only adorn my packages with fancy bows (like usual) they would also come accompanied with a handmade gift tag.
I got a new Cricut cartridge (after standing in line for an hour to check out at Wal-Mart last night at midnight) called Jolly Holiday. It had a cute little tag cutout so I just went to town. I made about 8 of these in an hour, just slapping them together. I also purchased these cute stamps from Michaels with a 50% off coupon (yea!)

Then I decided I should make all of my Christmas cards too. I really have some lofty goals for the 2 remaining days of my Thanksgiving break!

So I give you my first attempt:



The  pictures made the background look super dark but I think it turned out pretty well. I cut everything using my Cricut and did some stamping on the inside of the card where I plan to put my sentiment.

The plan for right now is to make 10 different cards...but I can see my self replicating this one, it is just so sparkly...LOVE it!

How I wish these design ideas were all my own but I simply can't take credit. I received inspiration from Busy with the Cricky as well as Everyday Cricut for both of these projects. The ladies that run these blogs are awesome and should bottle their creative juices and sell it...they'd make a killing.

I am an avid reader of many magazines, one being US Weekly. I love the "25 Things You May Not Know About..." article they run each week with a different celebrity, so I thought it might be fun if I give it a try, here goes!

1. I have a fear of balloons popping.

2. I like to collect things, over the years I have collected ink pens, beanie babies, and "Got Milk" print ads (all grade school collections.

3. I have always wanted to learn how to play the steel guitar.

4. Actually, if I had genie grant me one wish, it would be to be able to play any musical instrument (and sing) as good as a professional without any lessons. I figure I could use that kind of talent in a lucrative way.

5. I hate lettuce.

6. My dream profession (at the moment) would be a professional scrapbooker.

7. I won a "Most Beautiful Baby" contest in 1986.

8. My sisters and I can have an entire discussion in movie quotes.

9. I have worked as a food expediter, sales representative, grocery story cashier, bra fitter and now currently, a 6th grade teacher.

10. John Mayer is my favorite musical artist and I have seen him in concert 4 times. That man knows how to play a guitar and I think he is hilarious.

11. My 7th grade English teacher told me I would grow up to be the voice of a cartoon character. I am kind of sad that hasn't happened.

12. I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at age 15.

13.I could shop at Target every day of the week, I could shop anywhere every day of the week.

14. I will try any mascara once, my current favorite is Revlon's GrowLuscious mascara although DiorShow Blackout is my all-time favorite.

15. This post has taken me over an hour to compose.

16. I have never sang karoke but dream about doing it often.

17. My boyfriend and I met when we were both presidents of our sorority/fraternity in college.

18. I've never gotten a professional massage and I have had a gift certificate to get one in my purse for 3 years.

19. Christmas is my favorite holiday, I listen to some Christmas music throughout the year.

20. Tiny holes grouped together freak me out (think like a honeycomb or the toothpaste commercial where they zoom in on a tooth at a microscopic level). It just makes my skin crawl.

21. I have a birthmark shaped like Australia.

22. I love Jack in the Box $1 Funnel Cakes.

23. I am a fast reader (especially when I am interested in the topic) When I do read books I can finish them in a couple of hours.

24. I've never read the Harry Potter or Twilight series.

25. I cried and called in sick to work when my computer's hard drive crashed.

to sleep more in the afternoon than you do at night.

to fake just washed hair with dry shampoo (best invention ever!)

to shop just because you have a coupon.

to start your Christmas wish list in September.

It's October already, this year has just about flown by, before you know it, Christmas and NYE will be knocking at our door. I have to say that autumn is quickly become my second favorite time of year (behind summer of course, you just can't beat a three month vacation!) Especially the smells...I love the smell of autumn evenings, there is a crispness in the air that you can just smell. After the sun goes down, I just want to sit outside in a hoodie and light a fire. The smell of a bonfire is just about one of the best scents in the world, that, and pumpkin. I also love dressing a little warmer, cozy sweaters, my Crocs with the fuzzy lining, makes me warm just thinking about it.

Bath & Body Works has this awesome scented pumpkin candle that has been burning in my room for the past couple of nights. It's like autumn in a jar
I just bought this sweater from The Limited, pretty much is going to be my autumn go-to sweater.
Here I am talking all about being warm and cozy and it has been over 80 degrees the past couple of days. I am in no hurry for cold, but I'm ready to be warm and cozy on a full-time basis...til about March. It makes me a little nervous that having this mild of weather now is going to make for a bear of a winter, like 20 inches of snowfall or something crazy.

It's back to school time...and in more ways than one. I just began my 3rd year of teaching AND the 1st class of my MASTER'S degree. Holy moly...I never thought I would get it started, but here I am in class 1 of 10 of Mizzou's Ed. Tech program. I am really excited but a little nervous at the same time, I am just hoping that I won't feel too overwhelmed. My hope is that I finish my degree in two years and can move over on the salary schedule the next two years. Now I just have to decide on whether or not I want to pursue my Specialist degree once I am finished. It makes the most sense considering I would make more money but it would be another 30 hours of course work...something I am too excited about right now.

Everything in my classroom is going well for right now. It has been quite an adjustment with my new class, they are their own special bunch. It is neat how each class has their own personality, last year my 6th graders were more outgoing and social, this year they are a little more quiet, not quite ready to open up. I am sure that will wear off very soon once they start feeling comfortable. I am also experiencing some new challenges this year, I have 3 students that are deaf/hard hearing and one student that is physically disabled. My classroom environment and teaching style now have to adapt to these new little guys but I feel it is always for the better. I wanted to take some pictures but I keep forgetting to...I did make some sweet new crafts using my Cricut that I have gotten some compliments on. Hopefully over the next couple of years I will develop a classroom style all of my own. Sometimes I have trouble being completely original...other people just have such great ideas!

I love August, it is by far my favorite month. I celebrate my birthday, I go back to school, it is the beginning of new beginnings. A new age, a new school year...I get that awesome fresh start feeling annually and I think it something I will always look forward to.

Plus, shopping in August is fantastic. I get birthday coupons from my favorite stores and school supplies are on sale. I am kind of bummed this year that I don't need as many school supplies...I did buy new markers (which kudos go to Crayola for now making only recycled plastic barreled markers) and I got some Post-Its (you can never have too many of those.)

Speaking of shopping it is about the only thing I want to do lately...I have been coveting a few online items lately, such as this Old Navy trench. It comes in a lot of other colors but I think I want to stick with the classic beige, only 49.50.


And the shoes at Target right now have got me swooning. I am not normally that much of a shoe person, it takes a lot for me to buy a pair but I am obsessed with this fall's mid-calf boots. The picture below isn't the exact pair I saw in the store but they are the general style. I love the color...cognac.