Let's pit cherries!

Check out this idea for pitting cherries without a store-bought pitter.

New use for butterfly punch

Made this card at a Stampin' Up card club with Holly Van Dyne. Love this little poppy!

My white on white wedding or anniversary card

I saw this beautiful card on Pinterest and decided I had to CASE it. This is my version using pearlized white card stock, rose red and pretty in pink card stock from Stampin' Up, rose red ink, some skinny ribbon gifted from a friend, and a heart brad. I embossed a simple square frame and attached all of the pieces.

An old friend

My version of a simple punched card

I loved Sally's card, and altered it slightly for my version.

Food porn

On her blog "the domestic mama & the village cook" Michelle introduced me to food porn... Pictures of food that make you drool. Her example was melted cheese. She also talked about an interesting threesome between waffles, pancakes, and donuts, but I digress.

I was visiting her blog to find a recipe for a sinful flour-less cake that she claimed was like what would happen if brownies and fudge had a baby. I immediately ran to my kitchen and started throwing ingredients into a mixing bowl. With a description like that, wouldn't you?

Anyway, what came out of the oven smelled great but looking at it did not give me a food-gasm. She sprinkled hers with powdered sugar, but I have to admit brownies or cake sprinkled with powdered sugar takes me right back to elementary school - also not food-gasm inducing.

So back to the food porn... If naked doesn't do it for you maybe getting dressed up in something scandalous will, so I covered that sinful chocolate fudgy-brownie-baby cake in the most risqué thing I could think of, and bingo - drool!

So here's my version with brown sugar, coconut, pecan frosting (like you put on German chocolate cake).

Frankenstein any day of the year

Made this card originally as a Halloween card, but found my SU! stamp that goes on the inside of the card that makes it ok for any day of the year!

Looks simple and clean, but...

I couldn't wait to make a set of these. I just loved how simple and clean they looked. What a time consuming project it turned out to be!

My CASE

I really liked the look of this clean, simple birthday card. It was only after I had most of the pieces cut to make my version that I realized I don't have a flower punch similar to the one in the original card... In fact I don't have a flower single flower punch small enough to fit on the square that will also reach to the center of the square. I have a multi-flower punch but the flowers are grouped so closely together that I couldn't center a cut with that one either. I had to rethink. I like my version.

Back to the Beginning...

So the point of this was to have a place to document my life. I got this idea while watching "Scrapbook Memories" on BYU. One of the hosts said that we should take pictures of our lives every day for a month so we could truly see how special each day could be... that in looking for things to photograph we would find or create special moments. So I tried it, and have been taking my pictures almost every day, and I wanted a way to display it all, because I am not a scrapbooker (even though I wish I was). So this morning I went online to find out how to back-date posts so I could accurately show my month of photos. So, I started the blog yesterday, but today I'll go back to the beginning to show when this all really started.

So what's the point?

Why am I doing this? Well, I want a place where I can document my life, albeit fairly ordinary, because some extraordinary things do happen, and some ordinary things... well they can feel special too when you take the time to ponder them. I was a diary keeper as a kid, and after that I kept notes and letters and memorabilia from my teenage life, and I've journaled on and off since then. I've always dreamed of being a scrapbooker, but I'm just not. So this seems like a place where I can reflect, dream, and share so that every day feels like a special day! And as for my audience (my husband said "why are you doing this and who are you doing it for?") maybe just me, maybe not, I haven't decided yet. Maybe someday my ramblings on about everyday life might interest someone who wasn't born in the 70s, who didn't grow up during the 80s, someone who didn't fall in love during the 90s, or have to become a responsible adult in the 2000s, someone who thinks to himself, "What was life like when you were little?"...maybe this will be for those people someday...

Crocheting Again

I started crocheting again today. The local scrapbook store is willing to sell my crocheted flowers. I enjoy using these flowers on projects, but she never stocks any from any of the major companies, so one day I simply taught myself how to make them. Now, I am not a crocheter, my grandma taught me the basic chain stitch when I was a kid, but that's it, so to actually use that and begin crafting something, was pretty amazing. I taught myself how to make 6 different varieties of flowers (and some others along the way that I made once and then couldn't reproduce or that looked hideous in the end and I didn't want to reproduce!). I don't do it as a way to make money, just share my crafting passion!

So what made today a special day?

I started a blog! That's what. And if you have actually been reading this you might say, "no, you started it months ago (maybe even years ago - depends how much backdated material I decide to add)", but nope, today was the day it all really started.

Well now...

A few hours in and I'm feeling like I might actually be able to do this...maybe. Still feels a bit overwhelming, but it's amazing what a makeover a little color and some links can give a blank page.

Getting Started is scary!

I think I might be too old for this whole "blogging" thing... I'm not sure how it all works, but I'm going to give it a shot!