Holy Housecleaning Blogwoman!!!

I figured since I missed Tackle it Tuesday on Tuesday and I always love Tackling something, I will just make it Tackle it Thursday instead :o)
I have a whole mountain of clean dishes now...

And I actually (finally) tackled my refrigerator and freezer...
WARNING THE FOLLOWING MAY BE DISTIRBING TO SEE...

there was old melted popsicle in my freezer, and plenty of other old spills in my fridge

I am so excited, my food has a nice clean home again. I am sure my sister-in-law who has the middle shelf will appreciate her food having a better home also :o)

Wordless Wednesday

She's Deflated!!!

Have you noticed the woman on the Columbia Tristar logo has gotten thinner?! I found pics online, take a look... the first one is from the 1980's and the second is the most recent.

Whatever happened to the average woman being beautiful? I hate seeing woman around me today so focused on how they look. It makes me so sad to see them fixing themselves on the outside, but deteriorating on the inside.
I have been re-learning recently that "Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised." Proverbs 31:30

I know that I too am guilty with caring too much about the outside than the in... I don't know about you but I would like to be praised, not lied to or mislead with my own looks.
Join with me ladies, check your heart to see if Satan is deceiving you. If he is getting you to give more time and attention to taking care of your body than the time and attention you are giving to the Lord, then you are being mislead! Take your thoughts and your time captive and determine to commit your WHOLE self back to the Lord.  

Here is something that really touched my heart and showed me how much Satan really has a hand in distracting us women...

Happy Memorial Day

My family had a wonderful day! We have a new church home and that church had a Memorial Day picnic we went to! It has been exciting to be so loved and welcomed right into the family. I can't wait to see all that God has in store for us there. Here are some pictures of our day today, it was so much fun!

I tackled the Backyard!

First of all let me say I have lived here for 6 years and I have always HATED my yard as long as I have been here. It was always easy to be lazy and blame it on a lack of money to do such a big job. But now I am tired of all the complaining and I am ready to clean up so me and my kids can go outside!!!

Even if it is still never a real lawn, it will be clean dirt without WEEDS EVERYWHERE!!!

My before shot is actually the other side of the backyard that I have not finished yet, and the after photo is the side I planned on finishing today, and I really got it done!!! Thanks to a good friend of mine who came over and helped when I called her all frustrated and angry (yes still struggling, but I am figuring out what helps).

Notice how happy my daughter is in the after shot!!! It's totally all worth it for a photos like that! I also have a picture of my hubby playing with my son....

I want to say a HUGE thank you to 5 minutes 4 mom to encourage me every week to get something tackled, life has changed since tackling things with you gals... thank you for your obedience in the form of a blog :o).

Random Drawing

Okay ladies, I did a random drawing with all of the left over prizes from the party.

I wanted to say thank you for coming. It blessed me very much to be able to serve you all in such a fun way.  I was extremely happy to see and hear how many of you made new friends and that you had a GREAT time :o)

Here's the list of drawing winners!

• Carey - A Care Package for Chocoholics from BerryMorins Bits and Tips
• Lola - Vintage Goodies Scrap Pack from 7ValleysHomeschool
• Summer - The Happy Scrapper by Aby Garvey
• Rae - 5x7 dog themed mini book kit by Making Memories
• Tasra - 12x12 Sam page kit by Making Memories
• Heidi - Praying God's Word by Beth Moore
• Lisa - Falling in Love with Prayer by Mike Macintosh
• Haley - A Woman's Walk with God by Elizabeth George
• Jan - Your Baby's First Year by Glade B. Curtis and Judith Schuler
• Tamara - Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp
• Kim - The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom with Mr & Mrs Sherrill
• Sandie - Fussy Purple Slippers from Mervyn's

We had a Party

And it's now over, but you can still look at all the fun we had!!! :o)........

#1 Our first game all the early risers shared (on their blog) the best sleepy photo they had, I had a tie between my two little ones...

• The winner of this game is Wendy for the Mini Accordion album tin by K & Company!!! Thanks for sharing Miss Wendy :o)

#2 Veteran Blogger game... bloggers left me comments or emails letting me know the date of their first blog entry, mine is HERE, the oldest "veteran" won.

• Our participating "Veteran Blogger" is Karla who has been blogging since March 15, 2006 and she wins the Beginner ScrapPack donated by Haley at Quiet Romance. Congrats Karla!!

#3 A Real Women?... this game was dedicated to Tasra with Real Women Scrap I love boasting that I am a real women quoted in my friend Tasra's book I even won a game on her blog back in November for the "precarious balancing act" in my fridge... well to prove that I can keep it real I shared my most hated yet very real photo of my front yard!!!

Then I had others share a photo of something around their house that showed me they could also keep it real.

• The FlipFlop Moma was the only one to share a "Real" photo so she is our winner of the CourtYard Memory Building PageKit by ChatterBox.

#4 Share your first layout ever... I was sharing my first layout with a friend of mine just the other day, I was telling her that I wished I had a scrapbook mentor in the beginning to tell me not to start scrapbooking with such important photos. Oye! my wedding should have been scrapped AFTER I figured out what I was doing, and after I was comfortable, after I knew what NOT to do!

But my husband (being the sweetie that he is) tells me he likes it because it shows who I was right when we were married, an 18 year old still trying to grow roots, it's nice to find the positive in the negative. And I like that my husband likes it.

I had others share their first layout, post a photo or scanned image on their blog and share why they like it. Here's mine...

We had two winners for this game because I was just happy to see them participate. It's always refreshing to look back and see how much we have grown isn't it?

• Living for God wins the Hot Fudge Scrapbooking kit donated by Tamara
• Karla wins When Couples pray by David & Jan Stoop

#5 a Scrapping Servant?... now we shared a layout that shows you serving, or a story of you serving through scrapbooking such as the time I shared of me doing a memorial album for my friend's late wife Lila. If you wanna see it is HERE.

Our participating Scrapping Servant was Terri for the beautiful story about her friend, be sure to read it! Terri is winning the 6x6 accordian album from All My Memories.

#6 Share the link love game... I had everyone Mingle :o) ...and they kept a list of who they visited in a blog post.

After hearing all of the comments for this game I was so excited that we really did seem to get to know each other, I was blessed to say there should be many winners but I had to choose Rae... she will be winning the Wedding Altered Paint Can created by yours truely.

Help your Scrapping Servant...

Send me an email telling me what your most favorite and least favorite things are about my blog, be truthful, I only hope to improve upon the craziness I have designed.

Thank you all for blessing and helping me with your compliments and suggestions.

Oh!!! I almost forgot, I would like to give Jess @ Scrapbook Ideas a prize for the generousity of her time to create the digital kit just for us!!! She will be receiving the Love Ya Bunches stamp set donated by Wendy :o)

And here's your party favor from Scrapbook Ideas...

I asked you all to get creative with it :o) Well I would like to reward Heidi for doing a beautiful job with this digital kit, by giving her the $10 gift certificate at Making Scrapbooks!! Enjoy!

2 Happy Children = 1 Happy Mommy

Happy Belated Mother's Day to all you Mommy's out there.

I am running late on everything lately... I have been going through a bit of spiritual warfare with anxiety, anger and depression, it's totally not been fun. I figured the culprits are not getting out of my house enough and not enough exercise which means too much energy... so I have been riding my bike on it's trainer and I have been going for walks just to get out... I only hope I can keep up the motivation.

My latest Layout

I made this layout for my friend Andrea who owns an AWESOME scrapbooking studio in Town. She asked me to make a "bio" layout for her to hang in her studio window and to put on her website. It was a lot of fun.

I cut my name out with an exacto knife to make it look like my own writing, even though I own a cricut that could cut it for me, lol.

One of my newest things I love to do is print my journaling on vellum and pick favorite words to put chalk on the back of. I also like to ink the edges using a make-up sponge to give it a softer look than straight ink.

The little jewel flowers here are from Close to My Heart :o)

And these little clips came to me generously from Making Memories as a Happy Valentine's Day thank you for visiting their blog :o)

8 Things about Me

I've been tagged by Sally Bradley... she wants me to share 8 random facts/habits about myself... well here they are...

1. I have never flown on an airplane.
2. I have an identical twin in heaven, she died at 7 months old.
3. I love the smell of newborn babies, I even love to smell their breath :o)
4. I miss dancing, I danced jazz, modern, tap, and ballet for 5 years.
5. I am half Latvian from my Mommy's side.
6. Here's an embarrassing one (shhhhh!) I can still be found sucking my thumb in my sleep... unintentionally of coarse :o)
7. I have a fish tank with a fish the size of my head in it!
8. After six years of marriage I am still addicted to the man I call Joshie :o)

I also have to tag eight other people and give them the rules.

So Tasra, Jess, Aby, Karla, Rae, Wendy, Atasha, and Jewlsntexas here they are...

1. When you are tagged you must write a blog post sharing 8 random facts/habits about yourself.
2. At the end of your post you need to tag 8 people and post their names with links.
3. Don't forget to leave them a comment to tell them they're tagged, and to read your blog for instructions.

Just Sharing

Every time my daughter walks into the bathroom when I am in there (I know T.M.I.) she asks me to read this poem that is in a cute picture frame she likes to look at... I love that she asks because it is always such a good reminder to me, especially lately since I have been so busy.

The Difference

I got up early one morning and rushed right into the day;

I had so much to accomplish that I didn't have time to pray.

Problems just tumbled about me, and heavier came each task.

"Why doesn't God help me?" I wondered. He answered, "You didn't ask."

I wanted to see joy and beauty. But the day toiled on gray and bleak;

I wondered why God didn't show me. He said, "But you didn't seek."

I tried to come into God's presence; I tried every key in the lock.

God gently and lovingly chided, "My child, you didn't knock."

I woke up early this morning, and paused before entering the day;

I had so much to accomplish that I had to take time to pray.

Altered Frappuccino Box & Bottles

This is a fun and very quick set of instructions ladies... great for gifts!

1. Purchase your preferred flavor of frappuccinos. Then you can choose to drink them, clean the bottles, alter the bottles and fill them with goodies. Or you can simply alter the box and leave the bottles as is for someone else to enjoy.

*I will have my altered box (frappuccinos included) as a give away at my church crop. And separate altered bottles are going to be filled with different scrapping goodies such as metal letters, flowers, buttons and chipboard. Then ladies at the crop will have to guess how many pieces are in the bottles... whoever guesses closest to what I counted will win that bottle. :o)

2. Pick your paper and your embellishments.

* I chose Gabardine paper from Basic Grey's Urban Couture line, I also planned to use logos from Starbucks cups and coffee beans.

3. Cut two sheets of paper to 5" x 10 1/8"

4. Temporarily stick one side of your paper down and trace the inside of your box onto the paper.

*Use one paper to help you cut the other.

5. Then cut four 2" x 8 3/4" strips to go on your bottles.

6. Ink the edges of your paper to give your project a more completed look.

7. Adhere the paper to your bottles by wrapping the paper around the bottle and gluing the two end edges together... no gluing to the bottle is necessary.

8. Adhere the paper to your box... matching the top edge, because if the bottom edge doesn't match up it will be less noticeable than the top.

9. Embellish as you wish.

*If you choose to use coffee beans I found that hot glue was the best thing to stick them on with, since they are greasy little suckers.

This only took me a couple hours from start to finish including notes and pics for you, so please don't be discouraged this is an easy one.