Inspired by Wendy

Well looky what I made last week......


Oh man was this thing super fun and easy. Basically you cut a ton of flannel squares, make a sandwich out of them, sew an X on each square, sew the squares together, fringe the edges, and wash. I worked on the blanket for 2 nights during the week, the better part of Saturday, and Sunday morning....I just love the way it came out. All thanks to the information and help from Wendy.

The blanket measures 4' wide by 5' long. It is 3 layers of flannel and very heavy....this would really keep you warm and cozy on a cold winter day. Just perfect for a lap blanket.

This is a close up of a few squares so you can see more of the details.

I had so much fun making this one that my plan is to make two more of lighter weight cotton for spring type blankets (or when DH has the air conditioning too hight for me). I'll probably make a few more for gifts as I know a few people who these would be perfect for

Thanks again to my wonderful friend Wendy for the inspiration....now you created a rag quilting monster.

Hello again...

Once again I return after some serious blog neglect.

There just has not been much to blog about lately. Work has once again been consuming the majority of my time....and that is certainly not fun to blog about.

On the house front we started the major remodeling of my bathroom about 3 weeks ago. It is going much slower than I had hoped and that the contractor told us at the start. The good news is, as of last week the tub and tile were all in and it is starting to look like a bathroom again. I'm really happy with the way the tile came out....now I'm just getting anxious for the project to finish. My guess is the end of next week.

DH and I are heading to El Paso tomorrow after work. We will spend a few days visiting his mom and eating some fantastic Mexican food. It has been quite a while since we have been down that way. It's always a boring trip as there is very little to do down there, but I am looking forward to the food.

The best news is that all of my annual reviews for work have been written and delivered. This is always a huge time sink....but this year it wasn't very bad at all.

Crafting wise I have not done much of anything in over a month. With some many people in and out of the house for the remodel I just haven't been in the mood to craft. I don't seem to craft much when my routines are broken....so I hope to get back to having some fun in my room next week.

So if is actually still reading this I really appreciate you stopping by. -Missy

Super Fat Tuesday!!!

Well it's both Fat Tuesday and more importantly Super Tuesday. So if you are in a state with a primary today, don't forget to get out and vote.

For the first time in a long while I was excited by more than one candidate on the ticket. Over the past few months I have gone back and forth on who should get the vote. My problem is when I listen to my head I decide one way, but when I listen to my heart I go another way. To be honest I will be happy with either Hilary or Barack, but like everybody who votes I had to pick just one.

To my head Hilary represents most of my values and has a lengthy resume of experience. To my heart Barack represents hope and enthusiasm. But the question is which one do I want to see as our president.

It did both my head and heart well last week when the two shared the stage in a debate. They looked very much like running mates - a dream ticket IMO. I only hope that the one who does not get the nomination will consider the runner up prize and join the ticket.

Being an engineer I almost always follow my head....and this seems to be no different. I took the approach that I often do when hiring people into leadership positions at work. It is often a better choice to go with someone with experience and a few battle scars then to go with the new college graduate. With experience usually comes some known weaknesses, but those can often be off set by the strength of experience. While there is a chance the new college graduate may be a great leader, a little experience never hurts. If he/she is born to be a great leader that strength will be with them throughout their career.

So with that logic, I cast my vote this morning. My ideal outcome would be that Hilary wins the nomination and Barack agrees to be her running mate. With 8 years of experience in the VP office I have no doubt where I would cast my vote in 2016.

It really shouldn't be this hard....

to update a silly little blog at a reasonable frequency, but lately I just can't seem to find the 2 minutes it takes. I know that is really lame as I am on the computer everyday....

With CHA less than a week away I'm getting pretty excited for my trip to Anaheim. I'm taking DH with me so we can have some fun when I am not at the show. I am looking forward to seeing some friends that I haven't seen in person for well over a year!!!! Woo Hoo.

Work is still keeping me busy from morning till night. A few months ago we started probably the biggest project I have ever been responsible for and it's quite challenging....to say the least. The bad news is that this project is going to stretch until the end of 2009, so I need to figure out a way to get balance back in my life. Working crazy for a few months is expected, but working crazy for two years is not good!!!

The good news is that I have been making the most out of the little free time I have. I've been cardmaking, scrapping, and sewing and have learned to be more efficient with my time. Here is one of my latest pages of my beautiful niece....isn't she getting big (and this was taken last summer).

Thanks so much for stopping by. -Missy

Still getting back into the swing of things

It's hard to believe how slow a work day goes and how fast a vacation day goes....just doesn't seem fair. I'm back to work and still feeling guilty about all those little things I "planned" to do but didn't get to during the break. The good news is the main reason why I didn't get to all my planned stuff is because I got distracted by other fun.

With the exception of a few cards I did for an assignment, I took a little break from papercrafting and ventured into other crafts. I tried my hand at loom knitting, sewing, and before the holiday's I tried to use up some of my ribbon stash by making some styrofoam trees. Wanna see?

Even though it's been a few days of being back to work I am still having trouble getting into the swing of things. It's probably because I have more material sitting in my scraproom just waiting to be sewn into those little bags.....aren't they cute?

I'm hoping to post again real soon with my 2008 goals and objectives!!!

Thanks for stopping by.

Where does the time go....

In looking at my blog I realized that it has been almost two months since my last post. Yikes even for me that's bad. Sometimes I really wonder where the time goes.

Right after my last post I got busy crating for a holiday craft fair. Then I decided that I would also try selling cards and crafts at our local farmers market. That actually went really well and I am for sure going to do that again once we get past the rainy season. The prep for these events was so much fun and I finally got a chance to use all my great SB supplies on lots of cool home decor type items.

My day job has been keeping me quite busy as well. I have way less time for internet lurking than I would like....but being busy sure helps the days go quickly. Yesterday I was in the office before 7am and didn't leave until after 7pm....on my way home I realized I was starving because I skipped lunch. So being busy at work is not all bad.....but I'm sure looking forward to the break.

Chirstmas is in full swing at my house. This year is the first year ever that I will actually spend Christmas in my own house. For the past 14 years since I graduated college I have travelled over Christmas to either my mom's house or Jim's mom's. So this is a big year for me as I will finally be in my own house. We put up our first real tree two weeks ago, I have decorations all over the house, and best of all we hung lights outside. On Sunday Jim and I took a drive throught our neighborhood to see all the lights. I am amazed at how many people put up lights and how many people go totally crazy with lights everywhere. We didn't get crazy or anything, but the house holds it's own in the neighborhood.

All of my boxes and cards have gone postal and I have just one or two small items left to pick up for Jim. I plan on wrapping the rest of his gifts tonight and maybe tomorrow...then it will be time to relax and wait for the big day. While I never go shopping the day after thanksgiving, I do love to shop on the day after Christmas....so it will be up to San Francisco for us.

Just in case I don't get another update in before the holiday I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and happy New Year.

Christmas Crafts

Back in July I created several projects for a special magazine issue for Christmas:Cards and Crafts for Christmas that I have been dying to share. I just had an absolute blast with this project and crafting for Christmas in the summer was so much fun. So I thought I would share some of my favorites:

SWEET!!! My blogger seems to be back up allowing me to post pictures. So I thought I would share some recent pages I did for an assignment where I was demonstrating different techniques to frame a photo.

This is one of my DH with his guitar. I found this very cool cement wall in a grade school near by. I used the urban acid action on the photo ans was quite happy with how it turned out.

This is a photo of my niece that my brother took last fall. The entire photo shoot was fantastic and she just look so precious with her little boots and red nose

This one is pictures of me that DH took a few months ago. The page looks crooked but IRL it's straight. I just love these new Daisy Bucket papers and embellies (on both this layout and the one above)

Now that I got the ability to post pictures back I will be back soon to post more. Thanks so much for looking. -Missy

Same ole same ole

Well it's been a while since I updated and I was starting to feel guilty. I'm still having trouble with blogger not giving me the wysiwyg options in formatting my notes. So I can't format any text or attach any pictures. So at the moment I am really thinking about moving over to typepad becuase my blog seems way too dull without the ability to share pictures.

After a week of jury duty (that was actually quite interesting) I have been back at work and the status quo. I have been so busy at work I don't have much time for anything else. We are just getting started on a major project that will last until the middle of 2009. This project will be a huge resourse drain on my team from now until it is completed....so I am trying to get myself and my team ready for the new work load.

On the scrapping front I haven't been very active in the past few weeks. I struggled to get some assignments done this weekend but haven't made much progress on anything else. I still have a few more things to make for assignments and then it will be back to fun cardmaking for the craft faire I am doing next month. I have actually had a blast making cards and ornaments for the faire so I hope it goes well. Tomorrow I have to go and get a resellers permit for the faire....so keep your fingers crossed that I don't run into any issues with that.

Not much else going on. Please tell the blogger Gods that I need my wysiwyg window back - nothing on my end has changed so I don't know what the problem is.

Memory Trends and More

Time sure does go by fast when your on vacation. I got back from Memory Trends on Sunday and have been playing catch up at work ever since.

MT was very small and quiet this year. As someone who was walking the floor this was great. The booths were fairly empty and there was plenty of time to look at all the new goodies and ask questions. As a vendor I'm sure it was disappointing being so slow. There was very little that was new just for MT, but since I didn't go to CHA-S there were some things I hadn't seen yet. This will probably be my last MT, but I'm still gald I went for a little while.

With the show being so slow I had a lot more time for seeing Vegas. I dragged DH with me this year and we walked to virtually every hotel on the strip. We did a lot of shopping and saw several shows but by far the most exciting night was watching the Cirque Beatles show. It was just fantastic....even picked me up a $40 T-shirt to remember the night.

Work has been kicking my butt this week. I'm trying to catch up from the days I missed last week and just got a HUGE project to lead for the next 9 months. With my work hours being so long I haven't really scrapped much of anything since getting back from Vegas. I finished a few cards I was working on and that's about all. I have 2 DT assignments that have to be mailed no later than Monday....so that will probably consume most of my weekend.

So just another day and a half for my much needed weekend...even if I have to work a bit.

Silly blogger still wont give me my wysisyg buttons for composing new posts...so I can't edit the format or attach pictures. Very strange.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

On my way to Memory Trends

Well blogger still wont let me post pictures. My formatting tool bar has vanished from my "create" new post window....so I have no way of formatting or adding pictures.

I made my reservations for Vegas several months ago to make sure I got a good airfare and hotel rate. Since that time the wind has blown out of the sails of Memory Trends. Most of the companies that I am interested in seeing will not be there. I'm sure that Making Memories, American Crafts, and May Arts will provide some good eye candy but nothing like past years.

But it's not all bad news. I just found out that Ginger is going to the show as well!!!! Woo Hoo. That will be fantastic to meet up her for a little while. We already have plans for an extra look at the Quickutz and Ameircan Crafts booths...I'm sure those of you who have been to shows know what I'm talking about. Hehehe.

I'm expecting the highlight of the trip to be the Thrusday night Cirque "love" show - beatles themed. DH and I have wanted to see this show since it came out last year. We got great tickets and are both very excited about going.

The trip also gives me 3 days away from work. Lately that have been a very very good thing.

So all-in-all it should be a fun little trip filled with some good time. The show may not be great but I'm for sure going to make the best out of my trip.

So how was your weekend?

Mine was great. DH and I had virtually nothing planned and did very little in the way of typical weekend chores. Saturday early afternoon we took a ride to Mountain View for a very cool craft faire. There were so many fantastic booths to look at. After eating some good junk food and looking around we picked up a new set of wind chimes and a very cool wind catcher decoration.

Last week I decided to rent a table at this years Christmas craft show in my local town to sell handmade greeting cards and ornaments - this is a very small annual show. I am planning to make a variety of cards focused on Christmas, Birthday, Thank You, Baby, and General Greetings. This weekend I pulled out all my Chirstmas paper and embellies (some really old stuff - like the Metal MM Charms from 4 years ago) and started on the Christmas cards. My scraproom is a total disaster but I did make 10 styles of Christmas cards with 5-6 cards in each style. It felt great to work that fast. All the cards were based on designs I had already made for DT assignments so I was basically just lifting myself. I was so much fun!!!

In other good news the special issue Cards and Crafts for Chirstmas book came out last week and my advent calendar is the main picture on the cover. I was so excited as this is the first advent calendar I have ever made.

Blogger is being unfriendly this morning so I can't post a link or any photots so I will try to come back soon and post some of my favorites from this issue.

A few more pages

Two more pages that I did recently. The first one is of my youngest niece taken a few months ago. She is just over 2 and loves to pick up and touch everything. The second page is my other niece who was posing for me during our Arizona trip. She was just adorable playing with her hat.

Last night I had a really good crafting night. I finally got started on a new assignment for some altered items and had so much fun picking out products and coming up with ideas. When I scrapbook I spend so much time picking pictures and printing....but with non-photo altered items the entire process goes by so fast. I completed one project and started on a second one with just a few hours of crafting.

On the work front, yesterday was a really fun day. Our entire department had an off-site potluck picnic for the afternoon. It was a nice break from work to enjoy each others company and play a few games. I did realize that my kickball skills have decreased over the past 25 years.

Jim and I have plans to go to San Fran this weekend just to get out and about for a while. I'll probably take my camera and try to get a few shots. Nothing else major in the way of plans. I do plan to get some more crafting done and want to rearrange my small embellishment and prima flower storage....so we'll see how that goes.

Have a good weekend everybody.

Layouts from our Arizona Trip

Here are a couple of layouts I made with pictures from our Arizona trip in June. The top page is my niece playing at the waterpark we went to. They had this fountain that she just loved....I have no idea how her mom got her hair in those little pig tails but it was just so cute. I took that picture of my nephew from the balcony of our room - looking at how big he was really made me think about how quick he was growing up. What's funny is how different he looks now, just 8 weeks later, after he lost his front teeth.

So far this week is going so slow for me. Things at work are fairly slow this week, but I have a big presentation on Friday that will be sure to start some fireworks. Scrapwise I just finished up an assignment for SBM issue 26 and now I will move on to some altered projects for ScrapGenie this week....I have a few new ideas that should be fun to try out.

Not much else going on this week. I'll be back soon to share a few more pages from Arizona.

All I want for Christmas.....

...is my two front teeth. Ohhhhh my just look at him. All toothless, proud and very excited. So between having lost his two front teeth and starting kindergarten in a few weeks he is one happy guy. Aunt Missy loves you!!!

Just being silly

These two had Jim and I cracking up with all those faces. I took this shot as we were getting ready to leave for the waterpark during our Arizona trip in June. Everytime I turned around the camera the faces started....this was probably the funniest shot of the bunch. I had fun playing with some of my new Magistical Memories chipboard and some old MME paper that I got in the slab from Costco. Thanks for looking.

Missing posts

It appears that a few of my recent posts have gone missing. I hope that this post will help pop them out again. Very strange.

2 posts in 1 day

So I decided to break blog tradition and just share some random non-scrapping thoughts that I've been thinking about lately:

1. Obama vs. Clinton is a tough decision....but exciting and interesting.
2. My beloved Yankees had a good streak but are still 7 1/2 games behind Boston.
3. The difference between passing judgement and having an opinion is a very fine line.
4. I have no interest in Lindsay Lohan or the Tour De France.
5. I seriouly need a new job.
6. I miss Wendy.
7. Cherry Coke Zero is now my favorite soda.
8. I wish I had a british accent!
9. It's time for a new car but I don't know what to get.
10. My new front doors that we ordered in March are still not installed and I am getting very frustrated.

My fastest Layout ever

Well maybe not ever, but it's close. I got this Imaginise rub-on several weeks ago and just loved the colors in it. It's been sitting on my desk ever since I got it. Just seems like something else always gets in the way. Last night I decided it was time to make a layout with it, but I only had 30 minutes to scrap. In that 30 minutes I selected and printed the photo, created the layout, and scanned the image. If that is not my record it's pretty close to it.

This one's for my mom

My poor mom called me because she had no idea how to use these large Technique Tuesday chipboard shapes. Since I had the same set I made this quick page to give her an idea of what to do. I just love that my mom scrapbooks - without her phone call I probably would have just goofed off in my room and got nothing done. So she is quite motivational. Her next request is to see something using the doodlebug glitter chipboard.

I'm sort bummed that I am not in Chicago right now drooling over all the new goodies....I am so grateful to lifetime moments for having such a complete sneak peek forum for us to get a look at what's to come. The better news for me is that I have made my reservations for Memory Trends this September. DH is going to go with me and we are going to see the Circ Beatles show at the Mirage. So even if the MT show is slow I'll still have a good time in Vegas.

Other than that not much is going on with me. I have a friend from work coming over again this weekend for a little scrapping fun (she is new to scrapbooking but seems like it so far).