Wednesday, May 29, 2013

The one thing no one will ever accomplish.

Any guesses? Time travel? No. Maybe hover boards? Nope. Bringing back the dinosaurs? Well... That actually seems kind of impossible but that's not what we're talking about here.
I've been thinking about this for a while now and I never really know how to sum up my thoughts on it. 
Love. It's the one thing that can make us or break us, they say. Why? Because its the one thing we truly EXPECT. If you love someone you expect to be loved in return, and when you aren't, you're crushed right? I'm not talking like he loves her she loves him mushy gushy stuff either. I'm talking about love. Love for a friend, love for a child, love for a parent, love for a pet, love for that person that prepaid your meal at the drive through window. I've always found I love more than I am loved. It just seems natural at this point. I love the people that leave me, even after they've left. But love can be accomplished you say, and that is very true. My theory on unconditional love, however, is that it will never be accomplished by a human being. It never can be, because humans have expectations, and therefore conditions. Everyone does, even you sitting there saying you don't. 
You may love someone even through a fight, a bad hair cut, a hurtful situation. You may say "nothing will make me stop loving you!" But that is a lie. Unconditional love is not something that can be given because of human expectations to receive love in return. 
Our need and want for love is actually the one thing standing in the way of getting the truest form of it. Isn't that twisted?
I think so.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Sister of a Nanny

My sister Kellee nannies these four kids that are both precious and a handful at the same time. Leia is 9, Aurea is 6, Aidan is 3 and little Landon is about 3 months. Like I said, they are precious but a handful. Landon fell asleep while I was holding him as vacuuming today. He likes the sound of the vacuum. We went and played at the park too. We played secret agent. Kellee had stolen all the cookies from the world and we had to get them back from her. Secret Agent Bagel(Aidan) Secret Agent Ice Cream (Leia) and Secret Agent Cupcake (myself) all worked together to get them back! I have to admit, I've never been much f a fan of kids, because I hate loud annoying noises and I don't like to wake up early, but lately I've really enjoyed hanging out with them. Maybe it's that it gives me something to do other than miss my hubby? Or maybe it's now that I'm married even though we won't be having kids for a while? But I love being able to act like a child and not be made fun of. It's nice not to be judged. So my advice for you is: if your spouse is deployed or you're missing someone of feeling down or judged, borrow your friends kids to play with for a while and they will take your mind off of things. And don't br afraid to let out your inner child. We all have one in there somewhere, right??

Random Craft

Found this shadow boxy thing on clearance. Cute project to do with children or by yourself. Very simple. Just find something cute for the bottom 3 squares and put a picture in the top and decorate with sharpie. 

Monday, May 6, 2013

For the far away loved one...

As some of you may know my husband, James, is currently deployed. I knew he probably didn't have any pictures of us except the ones on his phone and he definitely didn't have any wedding pictures of us. I wanted him to have some pictures to look at in case he missed hme or got lonely and I also wanted him to see some of our wedding pictures. I got a small album, I think it was 6x6 or something, and bought the paper size for the album as well. I just sort of played around and made random silly pages that I knew he would smile or laugh at. It turned out really cute and James loved it. It only took maybe 2 or so hours to put together too so its a great little project to send to military members overseas or even out of town love ones or friends. Hope you enjoy!























Card Crafting at It's Finest!

All 8 cards
I'm old fashion and would rather get a home made card via snail mail than an email, Facebook message, text message, etc. I just think it's more thoughtful and personal because it actually takes effort to write out a card or letter and put it in the mail. I've always loved creating my own cards and have come up with some really pretty (and not so pretty) cards. I saw on Pinterest (always) this great idea where you use your left over paper scraps from scrapbooking that are too small to do anything else with to make cards. I thought that idea was great because I hate wasting the little squares and rectangles of paper but never have anything to do with them. I put my own spin on the idea though because I wanted to be more original than that.

Card 1:Simple






 Basically youll want to adjust the size of your scraps to kind of fit together on the card somewhat like a puzzle piece with different shapes and colored papers and then use adhesive to secure them onto the card. For the easiest card with the scraps I simply just added a quote to one of the solid colored blocks.







 If you are like me you probably order wayyyy too many pictures and don't have use for all of them. I often order wallet sized photos for scrapbooking and only use one and have multiples left over, so I pulled some of my wallets and replaced one of the paper scrap squares with one of my pictures just to add somewhat of a personal touch. This time I used more nature oriented photos but this would be great if you wanted a themed card too. For example, I have a picture of my dog Spook. If I wanted to make a pet or dog themed card in this way I could add some paw print stickers around his photo, maybe a dog house at the bottom, etc. I also have some wallets of my wedding photos. If you know anyone that has an anniversary soon this is a great idea. Add some anniversary stickers or maybe a quote from "their song" along with a picture from their wedding to create a personalized one of a kind anniversary card. Maybe I'll do some themed cards later but for now here are the two I did:

Card 2: Fun






I love the bumble bee picture I took and decided to create more of a fun upbeat style with bright colors and bold patterns.








Card 3: Elegant







This is my sister's cat, S'more. This is probably my favorite picture of her because her eyes are so blue and she looks so content and elegant. I put mostly light colored paper scraps with blue tones and simpler patterns to bring out her coloring. I added the red scrap to add some pop to the card.







Card 4: Natural






I had cut this out of a magazine a couple weeks ago because I thought it was pretty. I again used more blue tones to make it more elegant and natural looking, then added my magazine clipping on top.







Card 5: Diagonals








I had a scrap with just the corner cut off. I fount a bright pink scrap and made a replacement corner with it and then added some fun Washi tape for color. I then put a sticker quote that reads "What a wonderful world" diagonally.







Card 6: Ribbon (Front)



One of my co-workers and I have been brainstorming some ribbon crafts but havent come up with any brilliant ideas yet. This is my attempt at a ribbon card. I cut small holes into the bottom and weaved the ribbon through. I then added the bow on top of the ribbon with some glue dots. It looked a little plain so I put the diagonal ribbon at the top and added the word "Love"



Card 6: (Back)

I always browse the dollar section at Michael's when I go. Always. It's a bad addiction. Last time I was there I found these cards:
"You're a whoot!" Punny, but how often are you going to send someone a card that says that?? What kind of occasion do you send a card that says "You're a whoot!" for? Thats right, none. It random and awkward and weird, but I love owls and birds and thought they were cute. So, I cute that card up and made 2 better ones:
Card 7: Owl-tastic!



 If you suck at cutting or arent patient with cutting, this probably isnt the card you should make. I cut the tree out and, after carefully planning the colored paper scraps so the bird and owl could easily been seen, put the tree on top of the scraps. The tree was too short to fit on the card all the way so I cut out and added some flowers to the bottom to make it look like it was growing out of a hill or field. This one is probably my favorite.







Card 8: Still punny




I didnt want to waste the back the card since, afterall, this project is meant to use your paper scraps and not waste them, so I added some simple paper to the corners and taped te back down. Then, since I was feeling somewhat bad about hating on the whole "Youre a whoot!" thing, I went with another, better owl pun, "Owl you need is love." (Get it?) Punny, I know.








I got bored with my scrap choices but since this craft was really to save paper that may be wasted and not waste large sheets of paper I didn't want to cut a large piece of paper. I went to look in my paper box and one the the top sheets had fallen off of the paper pad.
 It was perfect for me to use since otherwise I would have just thrown it away. I'm sure you can pick out which patterns I used from it. Plus its kind of shiny instead of regular paper so the different textures make the cards more fun, in my opinion.

So there you have it. Get creative, have fun, and remember, it doesn't have to be perfect!!


Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Project Life:Weeks 1-3

So I'm a little behind at posting my project life stuff because I was a little behind at putting it together. I have it caught up though since I've been behind since I started due to the printer being out of ink for photos and me being lazy and not wanting to get them printed. Hopefully from this point on I'll do an update on it every week but no promises. I'm not even sure if I'm doing this whole project life thing right but I guess it is my project about my life so I can basically do it however I want. So, here ya go. Enjoy!