Right Now, February

*photo by Kimberly Campbell*

It's time for another installment of "Right Now" - documented 2/19/14

• feeling:  a little frazzled
• on the to do list: deliver Girl Scout Cookies
• my guilty pleasure:  Carnivale Cake K-Cups from Community Coffee
• favorites: my cowboy boots
• dreaming about: my new fridge - coming Tuesday!!
• grateful for: paychecks, paid bills...simple stuff

You can find the pages to make your own album on Monika Wright's blog. Read all about it here.  

Birthday card for Harrison

Yes! I am really posting twice in one day!! I think twice in about 2.5 hours, actually.

It's another card for a PTI challenge (scroll to the bottom of this post to see all the options).  This one involves using a "recipe" that contains a color scheme and another "recipe" that contains a sketch.  I chose the color scheme inspired by Dawn McVey -- blues and greens:  Ripe Avocado, New Leaf, Hawaiian Shores, Aqua Mist and Classic Kraft.  I chose the last sketch.

You know, I often make all these excuses about how I'm too busy to craft. However, I've worked over 50 hours this week...and I've made eight cards, too! (four for challenges, four Valentines...granted I didn't go to bed until 2:00 this morning because I was working on the Valentines). I need to cut it with the excuses. Usually the real reason I don't craft is because I know it means getting everything out.  Honestly, I dread the thought of getting it all out and making a huge mess (see last post). But, I do enjoy it once I get it done.  

I made this for Harrison's birthday tomorrow. He loves blue and green so I'm hopeful he will like it. I can't believe my baby is six!! Oh these years have flown!

Supplies are all PTI unless otherwise indicated:
     Stamps: 2012 Birthday Tags; I Only Have Eyes for You (Simon Says Stamp...faux stitching)
     Paper: Aqua Mist, New Leaf and Classic Kraft cardstock; Hawaiian Shores Bitty Dot patterned paper
     Ink: Memento Bamboo Leaves (closest I have to RA)

Birthday Card and Envelope

So, this is the mess I make when I'm crafting - actually, this is picked up some. I get antsy when the chopping block looks like this. My OCD goes into overdrive. It's hard being Monk-ish. :) Actually, as I look at that now - that's cleaned up A LOT! But anyway, that's not what I'm here to share.







It's another challenge for the PTI 7th anniversary. The challenge today was to make a card with a coordinating envelope.  I have a friend who recently had a birthday and I still haven't given her a card. I decided this would be my chance to remedy that.  I've been wanting to try the chalkboard technique and, again, here is my chance to try it.

I'm pleased with this little set and I hope my friend will like it. It was fun to do and I'll be doing it again, I'm sure. 

Supplies are Papertrey Ink unless stated otherwise:

Stamps: 2012 Birthday Tags, Boutique Borders: Birthday, Movers & Shakers Sentiments, Sketched Shapes, Stylish Sentiments:  Birthday
Cardstock: Pure Poppy, True Black
Ink: Versamark; Versafine Onyx (both Tsukineko); Pure Poppy (PTI)
Other: White embossing powder (Stampendous), Chalk marker (Uchida), Ladybug baker's twine (Bakers Stock); Limitless Layers: 2.25" Ovals dies (PTI); Button (PTI)

Flip Flops

I know! How in the world can I be talking about flip flops when it is eleventy-billion-degrees below zero in half of the country?! Winter Storm Olaf. Let It Go. FROZEN. Have you not been outside? Have you not been to the movies?! Hahahaha. I know, right?  (by the way, Frozen totally had me in tears five minutes into the movie) ANYWAY.

You know the PTI 7th Anniversary gig is going on right now. The challenge today was "Building Blocks". Roll a die nine times. Each roll, visit a design team member's blog and get your "block" for building your card.

So, apparently 1 is my "lucky number" - I rolled it four times!  Nichole stated that if you didn't have a particular supply, you could roll again.  Well, that last 6 required seam binding. I have none. So, I rolled again and got a 3. 3=embroidery floss. Dude, I have floss out the wazoo!! But my color combination sent me over. the. edge. Hawaiian Shores. Raspberry Fizz. Melon Berry. With Vintage Cream as my neutral.  Make a friendship card using generational stamping, brads and embroidery floss.

Hawaiian Shores & Raspberry Fizz - okay. Bright. But fun. Okay. Then, MELON BERRY?!  Melon Berry?! With Raspberry Fizz?! Are you kidding me?! I thought about rerolling. But the fun is trying to have a Tim Gunn Moment and "Make it work!"  So then I thought, "Oh, I can use generational stamping to make the blue and pink softer to work a little better with the Melon Berry."  I decided I could use Flippin' Out - two pairs of flip flops, one each in the bright colors with Melon Berry straps. That would work - and be cute. But how am I going to work in brads and floss? The more I stared at my "rolled" sketch, the more I kept thinking about Nichole Heady's adorable card introducing the set Flippin' Out set (see it here). She had that little strip of cardstock with the floss fringe. Bazinga!!  Still had no idea what in the world I was going to do with brads - other than be married to one (with an uppercase B). OR how I was going to use generational stamping. Then I realized what I could do -- little flowers scattered around my flip flops were stamped using the generational stamping. And, tada, brads make perfect little flower centers.  Personally, I think life is better in cowgirl boots - but flip flops run a close second!

Supplies (are Papertrey Ink unless otherwise specified):
     Stamps:  Flippin' Out
     Ink: Raspberry Fizz, Hawaiian Shores, Melon Berry
     Cardstock: Melon Berry, Vintage Cream, Hawaiian Shores
     Other:  Stamps of Life (I think they're Chocolate...but I won them in a goodie box so I'm not sure and they aren't labeled -- they look more brown than black); DMC floss 958 and 3778
     

Right Now Cover

As you may know (or not), I have been doing the "right now" journaling for a mini album. The journaling pages have come from Monika Wright at I Love It All.

Now that I have a Cinch, I'm ready to bind it and make the mini album. Here is my cover:

After I painted the chipboard letters and then stamped them with Sketched Shapes in Pure Poppy. When you see them in person, you see the squiggly lines on the letters.  I'm linking this to the Papertrey Ink 7th anniversary celebration challenge calling us to show a project with stripes. Chevron stripes, stripes in the "wood floor" patterned paper.  Stripes of stamping. Stripey. Stripey. Stripey. I love stripes! And...you know I love the red, white and blue color scheme. :) I'll show the back cover later. I need to break out the Cinch and bind it. I'm pretty pleased. 

Supplies:

     Paper: On the Bright Side-Collection One (My Mind's Eye)
     Chipboard: a cereal box saved from the recycling bin ;); letters (Paper Studio, Hobby Lobby)
     Stamps:  Sketched Shapes (Papertrey Ink)
     Ink:  Pure Poppy, Enchanted Evening (PTI)
     Other:  Paint - Claudine Hellmuth Studio "Blank Canvas" (Ranger); Ribbon - red saddlestitch (stash)
    

Hello, the card

Today, the PTI challenge from Nichole Heady was to create a card with a large word as the focal point. I knew immediately what I wanted to do! Several weeks ago, I was filing some scraps of red and white striped paper from a nautical paper pad and I decided then I needed to put it on some navy cardstock to make a fun card (and you know how I love red, white and blue...if you don't, well, now you do).

Our card must use at least one PTI product. I got that part covered!  Here's my happy little hello card. Going to write a note to a friend...

As you can see, my Project Life cards served as a "holder" I really should invest in something more attractive there, ya think? Hey, I'm trying to get this photographed, the picture cropped and uploaded before the deadline. I'm racing in at the last minute!

Supplies are from PTI unless otherwise indicated:
    Stamps: Background Basics: Newsprint
    Die: Wonderful Words: Hello
    Cardstock: White, Nantucket Paper Pad (both by Recollections, Michael's), Pure Poppy, Enchanted Evening
    Ink: Enchanted Evening

Snowy Day Fun and Crafting

So, we got about 3" of snow which was pretty interesting as Brad and I had a date - took us 30 minutes to make what is usually a 10 minute drive home. It was beautiful. And we're supposed to get about 6" more Monday night. You know, it doesn't snow much in Central Arkansas - so there's been a massive run on bread, milk and toilet paper. ;)

The kids had a blast playing outside - well, three of my four did. Nin stayed inside and Rainbow Loomed.

I stayed inside and did laundry, blog surfed and crafted. Papertrey Ink is having their 7th anniversary festivities and the challenge today was to make a 3x4 "Monthly Moments Trading Card" in honor of their new product release "Monthly Moments."  I decided that since I was caught up on housework, I'd participae in the challenge! Heather Nichols is the designer of the line and this month, the journaling cards will have a color scheme of Smokey Shadow (dark grey), Classic Kraft (think "paper bag brown"), Scarlet Jewel (a lovely wine color) and Hibiscus Burst (vibrant pink). I decided to use that color scheme on my card, too.

I used Pretty Peonies (the 2012 PTI anniversary set) and put it on one of my "Midnight" Project Life core kit journaling cards. Can't wait to use this in my album with the February Monthly Moments set! :)

Supplies - all from Papertrey Ink unless otherwise specified

     Stamps and dies: Pretty Peonies 

     Ink: Smokey Shadow, Scarlet Jewel, Hibiscus Burst, Classic Kraft, Fine Linen
     Cardstock: Recollections (Michael's); 3x4 journaling card Midnight core kit (Project Life)

Weekly Household Planner

The week after Christmas, several of my friends posted a link on Facebook to this planner from The Confident Mom.  (ugh, I hate trying to edit a post from both my phone and my computer - just FYI, it is impossible!)  I knew that something needed to happen. My Household Management Schedule - which was laminated and hanging on my fridge - wasn't working for us. It just seemed overwhelming, even though things were broken down into daily, weekly, monthly and periodic tasks.

When I looked at this weekly planner online, I thought it was something that might work for us. I had no idea how incredibly helpful it would be!! We have been using it for five weeks (we are in week 6) and it has radically changed how we (kids and I) look at - and do -  our housekeeping tasks.

I heartily recommend this planner! She has two versions you can download: the blank one and the "Just Tell Me What to Do" version. I downloaded them both, but had a hunch I'd be using the "Just Tell Me What to Do" version - and I do. :) The nice thing is, even the Tell Me version is customize-able.  Now, if you want to insert a weekly task, or if you want to add something to the daily tasks or you want to remove something -- you have to do it for every week. But, Ctrl+F (on Windows) makes it easy to find and edit.  Because of that, I recommend printing out two to four weeks, see how you use it and how it would best be modified to fit your family and homemaking "quirks" (we've all got 'em!) then edit the rest of the year, print those and bind them. 

  

As an example of how I used my housekeeping quirks and the specifics of my home to update my planner, I deleted all references to the "2nd floor". The Shoe only has one floor. Also, I have to sweep my kitchen floor at least once a day. I usually sweep it two or three times a day. Sometimes I sweep it before I go to bed and then sweep it again first thing in the morning. OCD much? ;) So, I added "Sweep Kitchen Floor" to my daily tasks. Yes, I know to do it - but having a checkbox for it helps guide me and my kids.

The kids look at the tasks each day and ask "what job can I do, today?" I was concerned that the "new" of this planner would wear off in a couple of weeks for all of us - but so far it hasn't. We are all more motivated than ever.  I find the public areas of the house stay more tidy, laundry is caught up which makes my bedroom and bathroom (laundry staging central) more tidy...I just wish I could figure out what needs to happen to make the kids' bathroom and bedrooms stay picked up!! :) Fairy, perhaps? 

Anyway, I know household management is often a struggle - even for those whose jobs are solely their home and family - so I wanted to throw this resource out there for everyone to check out. I think it is worth it. It is worth the ink to print it. It is worth the cost to have it bound. I highly, highly recommend it. If she goes back to selling this in the future (apparently it was a product she used to sell), I will buy it. Seriously. For our family, it is worth it. 

Right Now

It's (past) time again for my January "Right Now". I printed the template from Monica Wright's blog, "I Love it All."  You can find it here.  

My January 2014 "Right Now" was documented January 23 - as we got slammed with Influenza A.
Feeling: A little excited, a little apprehensive
On the to do list: go to Target pharmacy, get Tamiflu
My Guilty Pleasure: Girl Scout Cookie Creamer - Thin Mint
Favorites: My ESPN Fantasy Football hoodie {side note, I'm wearing it now, too. It one of those things that I wash and put on almost as soon as it comes out of the dryer}
Dreaming about: Everyone being well - the kids have Influenza A {side note 2: I got it later that night and wanted to DIE!!}
Grateful for: texts from praying friends.   {side note 3: those texts were such an encouragement to me as I "circled the drain"}