I feel like I've been neglecting my blog lately :( But the truth is, I haven't been able to do much crafting at all lately...I haven't been good at "making time" like I should be. I really hope to get things all worked out this week though. My birthday is this Saturday :) and definitely want to spend some time crafting during my birthday week :)

We went to visit Tomio's dad over the weekend for his birthday. It's a little far, but the kids are used to the trip. Miss Emma doesn't seem to like staying in the car for that long though, because last time and this time she decided to throw up all over herself....and me. I had a change of clothes for her, but not me. It turned out ok though. We pass by this really cool used clothes store on the way, so we stopped there. We could have just gotten a really cheap shirt for me to wear, but Tomio said we might as well get something nice. So he got me this great Aber Crombie and Fitch hoodie :) Heehee--guess getting puked on isn't so bad after all :)

Besides, how can you be upset with someone this cute anyway?!

Thanks for popping by! I hope you are ready for a new week to start! I'm trying to be :)

Papertrey Blog Hop

I really didn't expect to get to participate this time around. After Tomio and Leah finally got over the flue, I ended up with it. But I was SO happy that I got better in time to actually make something. The problem for me is, I don't have any sets that haven't seen ink yet. And while I DO have couple of sets that are collecting

 dust(!), there is a reason for that....I have couple of sets that I haven't ever gotten to work well for me. One of those was Heart Prints. So I challenged myself to use it. And this what I made:

I also used some scarlet jewel, which I really haven't used in ages either. I did use my go-to woodgrain background, but that's ok since I combined it with my "dusty" set, right? I also finally got my sewing machine to cooperate again :) yay!

Thanks so much stopping by! I hope you are enjoying the "hop" :) I'm just glad I got to create something this week :)

still here...

Well here we all are, still at home. Tomio is still home with the flu. He is doing tons better now, but still not supposed to go to work. Nana and I hauled all the kids to the doctor yesterday to see how they were doing. The boys are fine, but poor Leah has the flu too. I could tell she just wasn't her normal self. So glad to get her some medicine right away . Now she gets to stay in the "sick room" with Daddy and read books all day. Miss Emma doesn't have the flu, but she does have a persistent cough like before, so she has some medicine too. Fortunately she likes it and actually asks for more when I give it to her :) It also makes her sleepy, which isn't necessarily a bad thing :)

I have another card I made when I was just playing with my stamps the other day.  I really like all the dies that are available to match stamps lately. I loved diecutting before I got obsessed with stamping, so combining the  two is perfect for me :) I just got the spiral notebook die and the mug die. I *love* this Warm Happiness and Warm Happiness Too stamp sets. And now that they have the matching dies, I like using them even more :)  Almost makes me want to take up drinking coffee...But then I figure, I already get plenty of caffeine from my coke, I don't need to make an effort to add another addiction....heehee.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you are having a healthy week :)

things

to work on. I think I let little things upset me too much. I guess it's a good thing that something as little as Tomio bringing home eclairs for me can make me SO happy :) But I don't think it's all  that great that something like my computer not re
ading my SD card can make me want to cry... I don't assume I'm normal  or anything. I'm guessing the majority of women like me aren't so wishy-washy. As you may have figured out, my laptop was having trouble reading my SD picture card. But I did get it to work, and all is well with the world again :) Actually, it's not all well. Tomio has THE FLU. Ok, I'll warn you that I'm about to go off on a tangent now, feel free to scroll down to see the card if you prefer :) Anyway, Tomio has the flu, so he's holed up in our bedroom. I've tried disinfect everything and keep his germs away from the kids. Now, is just me, or do we seem to make a much bigger deal about catching things than when we were little? I remember getting sick when I was a kid and while no one tried to catch it or anything, it didn't send anyone else in to a panic that they were going to get it to. But nowadays, it seems as though everything is such a big deal....I don't know, just something I was noticing....As a general rule, I don't really believe in worrying about, well, anything. No use borrowing, trouble, right? Ok, tangent over :) Since Tomio is sick now, though, and that essentially means I have 5 kids to take care of :), I might not get to post as much as I like for the next week or so.....in case you started to wonder where I was....

Ok, now on to the card :) I played with some of my new stamps. It was so fun! I love just playing with my stamping stuff. These pretty, pretty flowers are from Waltzing Mouse Stamps. They were just what I was wanting, some pretty flowers that would be fun to color and use as outlines. I used Fine Linen cs for the base and stamped the outlines in Old Paper distress ink. I colored the leaf and flower with my copics. The tag and sentiment are from Verve. I thought they went really well with the look of flowers :) I'm kinds of obsessed with tags and labels with matching dies lately, and I really like ones from Verve. Really simple to use and just so pretty :) Well, that's it for today.So glad you stopped by. Hope you are having a fun week :)

my room :)

Well, I guess it is taking me a little longer to get back into my regular schedule of doing things than I thought. In some ways  I feel like I am back and things are running smoothly, but in others, I just don't seem to have them under control. But I am working on it. You'd think being a SAHM I wouldn't have such a hard time. I'm thinking I might need to work out my schedules for me and the kids a little more....I also think the key for ME, is not to get caught in a spiral of letting things not go well. I need to just start doing SOMETHING and it helps turn things around. Anyway, I didn't make any cards yesterday, but I did work on my scrapping/stamping room :) I feel so blessed to have a my scrapping room even though space is so precious here in Japanese houses. Tomio knew how important it was for me though and I'm so glad :) It's always a work in progress though, because I keep trying new ways of arranging and storing things to make work well for me. I like how it is right now :)(I'm going to apologize right now for the not-so-great pictures. I couldn't get very good ones, but I still wanted to show what it looked like.)

I pretty much have it done is pink and red. I covered my two baskets for keeping my stamps in some pink fabric I had so that they would match :)

The desk and shelves are from Ikea. What I actually worked on yesterday was covering the desk with the plastic and the papers under it. I was so happy with how it turned out and seemed to pull all the other red and pink things together. I just used some pf my favorite Valentine's papers from K& Co and then some butterflies (of course).  I can add pictures or change them all later if I want :)

This is where I keep most of my papers. Not all, because they wouldn't fit :) But my most used ones go in here. I have some inks and most used dies in the top drawer. I LOVE my Big Shot. And it makes me even happier that is matches everything else heehee :)

And this is the shelf above my desk. It has more inks, and my non-Papertrey Ink buttons and ribbons.  I store all of my Papertrey Ink and  buttons and ribbons on the shelf you can just see in the bottom right corner of this  photo. I love, LOVE it. This room is right off of our living room, so I can just pop in and make a little something when I want. I also pass by it several times a day, reminding me how much I want to :)

Thanks for popping in today!! I hope you are enjoying your weekend!!

taking the time.

I love taking pictures. It started especially loving it after I started scrapbooking and I wanted to take more amd more pictures to put on my pages. Usually I take a couple hundred photos a month, if not more :) Not all of them get kept, and even fewer get printed, but I enjoy it. But lately, I just hadn't been taking the time. I think it was because I just was feeling overwhelmed with everything, and then of course things like that are the first things to get pushed back. And I would figure I take enough that I don't need to worry about it. But this morning, I saw Emma being so cute and thought, Oh! I should take some pictures. And I did. Of course it didn't take that long really. I had so much fun though. I didn't get any masterpieces or anything, but I still had fun. It reminded me how important it is to take the time to do things that I enjoy. Sometimes it's easy forget that. But once I took the time to do something fun, I was so much more ready to face all the laundry I had to hang out and the dust bunnies under the bed :) I'm so blessed to get to stay home every day with my kids, and I really want to be sure to find joy in each day.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you take time to enjoy your day :)

Let's see if this works now....

Ok. :) I fiddled with several things on my computer and finally got it cooperate. Yay! This is a card I made a couple weeks ago. I used some of my favorite Unity stamps :) I love these silhouette flowers! Unity is having a free shipping sale all through January, by the way. Even of international orders! I already took advantage of it :) I stamped the text background in versamark first, then the flowers in walnut stain distress ink. I distressed the edges of the green panel before adhering it down. I punched the butterfly out of some acetate and ran the edges through my stazon ink pad. Finished off with some gems and machine stitching. I opted for no sentiment on the outside this time.

Well, thanks so much for stopping by again :) Happy Wednesday!!

hello...

Hello there :) I didn't really plan on taking such a long break from blogging. But I think I just needed a break. We've been slowly getting back into the school thing again. Some good days, and some not so much.  I really have to teach each one of them so differently. What might work for Leah, usually will not work for Rhys. So I just work things out as I go sometimes. Levi catches on to things really well, but he has this thing for not wanting to listen...Anyway, I still try to remember to have some fun while we learn too :) I did a little bit of crafting this past week, but not as much as I'd like. I'm planning on adding participating in at least one challenge a week to my list of things I want to do this year. I several that I look at, so I should just choose one :)

Well, I'm really sorry this is another pictureless post :( blogger seems not to be liking me right now and will not let me add any pictures at all :(   I even had a card to share. I promise I'll come back and share it as I can.

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope your week is going well.

a little more Christmas

I usually have a few more Christmas cards, tags and layouts even after Christmas that I like to share. I figure you can never really have too much Christmas,right? (I'm posting from my *new* laptop, by the way, and I'm practically giddy with how fun it it lol)  I didn't have this fun set before Christmas, so I wanted to get some use out of it now :) I went with a really simple card, without any coloring. Isn't this the cutest tree?! This was the first set I ever got from Waltzing Mouse, but I am in love :) Lots of fun images and very easy to use. And I have to say, because this is always a big deal to me as someone who doesn't live in the States, that their shipping is GREAT.  You can get free shipping anywhere in the world. I love that they value overseas customers. Anyway, I just added some fun rhinestones and added tag using some of the sentiments from the set. Oh and I used one of my favorite border punches too.

Tomio went back to work today, and the kids all started school again. We took it slow since I knew they would all still be in vacation mode :)Best to ease into things. It didn't go too bad though, so yay :) And Miss Emma hasn't even watched any Blue's Clues either :)
Thanks for stopping by! I hope you are managing to ease back into things :)

good intentions....

So Miss Emma is addicted to Blue's Clues. She's only 18 months of course, so her obsession only goes so far, but still...it goes against my good intentions. See,  I read this article in a magazine back when I was pregnant with Miss Emma. Back when I could barely think of moving because of morning sickness and I was staying with my mom, who happens to have ALOT of magazines...Anyway, it was talking about how good it was to limit the time your kids watch TV. Of course at the time, I was ever-so-grateful to have the tv to entertain my kids while I was wallowing, but I remember thinking yeah, I would like to do that when I'm feeling better... It ended up taking awhile, quite awhile, but after things settled down in our new house, school routine and with Miss Emma joining us, I worked out a system of only being able to watch as many shows as marbles you had. It worked really well, and after keeping it up for a bit,  they all got where they usually didn't even use up their marbles. Which was really big for Levi. So I was pretty proud of myself. But then Emma started going through this clingy phase.  And by clingy phase, I mean clingy phase for a baby that was already very....mama-dependent :) That's when I discovered how much she enjoys Blue's Clues and how long it will keep her entertained.  I've decided to let her watch though, despited my good intentions. I need some time where I can get a few things done. I think I was being a little defensive about it(not that anyone actually commented, just inside my head heehee). But I decided I was glad that I found a way to get a little time where I could get a few things done. And at least it's a little educational,right?! Anyway, I decided to add "being real" to the things I wanted to do this year. I can only handle so much, and I need the Lord for the rest, you know?

Well, I pretty much always think every blog post needs a picture. But I can't today. You see, I'm posting from my new laptop!! heehee :) I just got this afternoon and there are no pictures on it yet. But I couldn't resist. It was part of my Christmas present from Tomio :) I love it!
Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you are having a wonderful new year. We have just a couple days left before Tomio has to go back to work.