Frenzy Week...Lots of stuff to do!

The end of summer is truly here.. The teachers are back to school and the kids will be shortly.. Which means I am in panic mode trying to get everything ready! We settled into our new offices over a week ago and mine still isn't looking too pretty! Oh well I need to pick my battles and beauty will have to lose to functional as of now... Not for too long though since I will go mad working in those conditions!

I will miss the quiet that the school gives during summer! (yes some of us do work during the summer at a school! not all of us get summers off!) The bustling halls aren't all bad though. It will be nice to see other faces once again! So we have the start of the school year and then the start of football as well.. quite the busy week! Unfortunately I won't be going to cheer on our Badgers this Thurs, I am sure hubby will enjoy seeing the game with his dad more then with me anyways!

On top of all that fun.. I just submitted to another company's design team call.. Glad I printed off the questions this morning to look at otherwise I would have missed the deadline... I somehow thought I had an extra day! Oops! Then I am going to try and work on the other company who's deadline is in a few days.. I am persistent or crazy! Gotta try you never know when you might get a chance! Well here is an extra layout I ended up with after I got all my projects done for tonight!

Happy Creating and I hope everyone's back to school goes smoothly!

Check out American Crafts Facebook Challenge!

So all of you in Facebook world you should stop by and check out American Crafts on Facebook. Like their page and then you can vote for their facebook challenges that they have every other week. I have entered a layout in this week's vacation challenge. Go check it out:

American Crafts Facebook Challenge

It would be great if you voted for my layout. This is the one I posted:

I used their campy trails line, It was really fun to use.  I really love their lines. Here is another layout I made as well. Happy Creating!

So if you are an American Crafts fan which new line is your favorite from their release at CHA?

Drop me a line and let me know!

Sunny Sunshine.. I want to bottle you up!

Nothing better then the perfect day. Great day to have the windows open and have a breeze brush through the house. Perfect temperature and the sun was out nearly all day! What more can you want let alone this perfect day happened on a weekend too! Its days like this that I wish I could bottle it up and use it on those not so perfect days!

So I got some stuff done. I completed a card and a layout for my next design team submission I even have an idea for the project as well so I am off to a good start! I submitted a layout for the American Crafts Facebook challenge that starts tomorrow. The theme is vacation.

Here is my layout:

This is of the trip we took last year to Door County. Pictures taken at Peninsula State Park. That place is so gorgeous in the fall. I would love it if you could all take the time to vote! You have to become a friend of American Crafts on Facebook and then like my layout to vote. Pretty simple!

Here is another layout I have recently done. This layout I used all Pebbles items: I actually had a lot of fun creating this layout! I love how simple it is but how well it all came together.

I hope you all enjoyed the weekend and that your week goes by quickly! Happy Creating!

Busy Week.. is now over time to enjoy the weekend!

This week was crazy! This time of year is a crazy time to work at a school! It doesn't help that this year we did a bunch of remodeling as well so we are just now getting into our new offices and trying to get settled in! My office still looks like a mess! But that is Monday's headache and I am going to enjoy the weekend!

I get to go pick up our new car today, which I am totally excited about and then we get to go out and do some shopping and out for lunch! I can't wait to see what the scrap stores have in new! I have to get a few more things to finish projects for yet another design team... All I can do though is keep trying! I also will have a layout that will be up on the American Crafts facebook challenge on Monday too.. So if you can please vote for my layout. I will post the link here on Monday. In the mean time here is another layout I had completed earlier this month.. ( and I haven't forgotten the disney layout I had started to put together either.. watch for how that turns out as well! )

HAPPY WEEKEND EVERYONE!!!

Crazed Chaos!

So this week has been a long one and we are barely half done! With Sept 1st looming, there is lots to be done at school in preparation of everyone returning.. Trying to get offices set up so you can once again be functional and settled all with the looming first day of registration as well.. Wish us luck! On to less stressful things..  Here is a couple cards I had created. One is a birthday one that uses American Craft items and the other is a baby girl card that uses all Pebbles items.

I hope everyone else is less crazed with the start of the school year or with sending little ones off to school! On the other hand I can't wait to go buy some cool school supplies for my desk!
Happy Creating!

Something Sweet to end the Weekend!-Cupcakes!

So I had picked up this cupcake recipe book some time ago and I made one of the recipes today! Yummy!! If you want something different then your usual yellow, choc or white cupcake I got a recipe for you..

Snicker Doodle Cupcakes with Brown sugar cream cheese frosting:

Preheat oven to 350

Ingredients for cupcakes:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 cup unsalted butter (room temp)
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs (room temp)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups milk

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. In mixing bowl sift together both flours, baking soda, salt and cinnamon

3. In large mixing bowl, with an electric mixer on Medium, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, beating until each is combined, scrap sides of bowl as necessary. Beat in Vanilla. Reduce speed. Add flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with milk, beat until completely combined.

4. Divide batter  between lined muffin tins, fill about 3/4 full. Bake until toothpick inserted in centers come out clean.. About 20 minutes per recipe ( for me I baked with my convection mode it took about 25 minutes I may have filled a little fuller though too!) Remove from oven and transfer them to wire racks to cool.

Now on to the frosting!

You will need 1/2 cup unsalted softened butter
8 oz of cream cheese room temp
1 cup light brown sugar

In a medium bowl use electric mixer on medium speed beat all ingredients till creamy and smooth. Use immediately or refrigerate in airtight container for up to 3 days. If you did not use immediately bring to room temp and beat on low till smooth and creamy.

I have to give credit where credit is due: this is from the great cupcake book from NordicWare. I am sure you will be seeing or hearing of even more yummy recipes as the year goes on since there are 50 recipes!

I hope you all enjoy!!

Step 2 for layout creation!

I apologize but the gorgeous weather we had this week really made me neglect the project I started! Today I put the nose to the grindstone and did the next step in completing my layout. Plus I started my next design team submission since I haven't heard anything as of yet from the other two.

So when I have the placement of how and what pictures, I next look for all the pretties to go with it! So next I go shopping in my own scrapbook store.. umm I mean room! Since our Disney Trip is a bigger project I have been setting items aside to do this project from some time. As you can see by the items I had gathered I am a hoarder of all things new and old! to help me narrow down what paper I am going to use I usually look at my pics for inspiration. I try to pull out colors that are in the pics to help everything flow when its put together. After I have papers pulled I then go looking through all my various embellishments. I  usually pull an assortment anything from buttons to ribbon to chipboard since at this point I am still not sure  how it will all shape up. Since I have everything organized by travel it helps me pull things quickly. I also of course look at my everyday just in case I have the perfect embellishment hiding in there! So here is some pics of what I have pulled to do my layout. As I said I have some oldie but goodies pattern papers and some newer items as well! When I think of Disney my mind automatically goes to colorful cheerful items so here is my inspiration I am going to pull from to complete my layout this weekend! I Hope everyone has a great Friday!! Happy Creating!

Beautiful Weather!

Finally we have some awesome weather! I got a bit distracted today due to the weather and was enjoying having the windows open and daydreaming! Sorry! ITs been quite some time that its been decent out so I had to soak it in! Have a good night everyone!

The view from my window in my scrap room.. How can you ignore that! Total daydreaming weather!

Where to begin...

So the question is this week, how do you all begin your scrappy projects... are you the type that can just throw everything together in a blink of an eye, do you start with a new product or a cute pic, are you sequential in your scrapping?? How do you start??

Here is how I start and sometimes hold steady for some time!

I always start with my pictures if its a big project... Sometimes though I get a picture that I just love and have to scrap ASAP! But the majority of the time I start with the pics... I figure which ones will work together and then I start  moving them around on the two pages... Once I have a basic layout figured out then that is when I go shopping in my supplies to find the perfect paper and embellishments to go with it.. This way I know how much room I have to decorate or to work with... Sometimes I have to lay out the pics and it sits like that for a day to make sure that is the way I want them arranged... Back in the day I did too much rushing and just glued things down right away and then felt stuck, so now I take my time in deciding. I really love my Basic Grey magnetic mat. It keeps everything right in its place!

This week I am going to show you how this layout progresses step by step.. especially since this one has been laying like this for more then a day now! It needs to be dolled up!

Let me know how you begin a project in a comment! Happy Creating!

Next room is...

Tonight we will explore the living room. This room has gotten an extra furniture piece since we took the picture so the room is arranged a little differently. This room is the most cozy rooms in the entire house and I love that is open to the kitchen so you can  listen to the news during preparing for dinner or during clean up. I think as a bonus I will add the pics of the main bathroom as well since I think I may have some other projects to share later on this weekend.  I am kind of  bummed that its all ready August.. the summer flies by way too quickly which leaves me with only one more half day friday before the start of the school year.. I love having my half day Fridays to create and play in my scrap room!!

I hope everyone has an enjoyable weekend! What does everyone have planned?

And yes Otis is my little model who had to follow me from room to room and pose in each picture! If only he was still that little!

The next room is ????

So yesterday I showed you the kitchen today I will show you a couple pics of how our bedroom turned out. I used one of my favorite colors even though its a color most wouldn't think of for a bedroom. I really love how it turned out and my husband actually likes it too! What more can I ask for?? My inspiration for the color was a bedspread that I saw at Target... That is kind of how I put all of the house together when we were building, I would find an inspiration piece for the room and go off of that! So without further ado here is the bedroom in Valspar Bear Claw.  I like picking things that are the unexpected!

I seem to have a lot more traffic today checking out my blog, leave me a comment or better yet become a follower.. If you like scrapbooking, crafts, decorating and crazy pups this blog is for you!

House vs Home

So what makes a house a become a home??

We have been in our house now 8mths.. It literally feels just like we moved in... maybe that's due to the fact that there are still some boxes that need to be explored! It amazes me how much things evolve and change and you don't even realize its happening. I had taken some pics of the house awhile back maybe in February and it amazes me how much has changed in the time since I have taken them. I think that all has to do in the process of making a house now a home! Its adding those small personal touches, all those fun things like pictures, vases, frames, mirrors those little things make such a big difference. I will share these pics, but I am now motivated to go around and take some more updated pics!

I wanted to share these pics since I know a lot of people who were following my facebook page during construction watched us post pics of materials and colors and other odds and ends and not many have actually seen the finished product. I don't have every room photographed as of now but I will work on that! For tonight I am going to share with you are kitchen area. I was really excited how this turned out. Its so hard when you pick everything out on its own especially since I am a very visual person! I hope you like it!

I take as much pride in the putting together of our home as I do in my other creative outlets. I hope you enjoy what we have created here at home. I will share some of the other rooms as the week goes on. Happy Creating!