halloween party invitation

Here is a verison of our annual Halloween party invite. All of the art came from Little Dreamer Designs and the card itself was created using PhotoShop CS2. The card was inspired by one I saw at Tiny Prints. Love their cards. I am having these printed as 5x7 photos and we will then take the hike through the neighborhood and put them in mailboxes. I am happy for a Saturday night Halloween!

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and the winner of the handmade envelopes is:

#8!

Kristen, if you check back on my blog, please send me your address and I will send these off. You can reach me at tkuethe1@gmail (d0t) com or leave a response on my blog.

Thanks for all the kind comments and interest. I just unearthed a Sesame Street Elmo book destined to become envelopes and some Disney books found in a closet here at home :)

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overcast skies

equal totally beautiful light for portriats. This is my lucky capture of the day. Wanna know how lucky?

I took this while we were outside in this:
And I am not exaggerating about overcast skies, heck, at times there was a slight drizzle.

And then back to the gym for a second game for Olivia in a basketball tourney. They won the first (against their classmates, a totally sweet victory!) and lost the second.

Here's my little #32 hustling. She's got some fresh moves. And shoes... Pin It

lunchbox notes freebie

I very simply made these by using an Avery business card template in MS Word and then typing each joke into a separate card slot. I printed these on card stock and just cut them apart - no measuring involved - these have a one day shelf life in my daughter's lunch box. I did a joke series earlier in the year, and she asked for more. Anyway, after I cut them apart, I put a Halloween sticker on the back of each. I bought these at the Dollar Tree.

I found the jokes at Yahoo. This site has really great, simple jokes and they are organized by category.

If you would like to print your own copy of the jokes, already formatted 10 per sheet, you can do that HERE. Cut them apart, add a sticker and they are ready for your favorite (or ONE of your favorite kids) kid's lunchbox or backpack.

If you do use them, I'd love to hear about it.

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recycling-upcycle-going green

Here is one of my efforts, a new one, that I happen to love. The above envelope was made from a library book purchased at a local thrift store for $1. I totally love this idea. I simply tore out each page, traced an envelope template and constructed beautiful note card envelopes from each page of the book.

From that, spawned this--gift tag envelopes, also using the same children's Christmas book.

Last night, I began to think of the 4 copies of Cook's Illustrated that my neighbor gave me (again, another very green idea) and instead of recycling or passing those on, I turned them into mini envelopes as well.

And guess what? The size is perfect for a gift card. PERFECT. So, if you like this idea, leave a comment and I will pick a random winner on Sunday 9/27. That person will receive 4 of the mini envelopes: 2 Christmas, and the 2 food ones shown. The one on the right actually shows a complete recipe for sauteed mushrooms. What foodie would not love to receive this?!

In case you would like to make some on your own, I just carefully peeled apart actual envelopes and used those for my template. It is a very simple craft with an impressive end result. I used a double sided tape dispenser to glue mine together but a glue stick would work as well. If you are interested in a very simple demonstration, check out this video by Amy Karol. My husband brought home a few blueprints for me to make more envelopes using that design. Maps are another great idea.

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komen-race for the cure-team shot

Here is a partial showing of our team: Teamin' for Nieman. The Fuze booth was taking these free photos and then passed out a magnet frame with a code so you could locate this online down the road. I did, and here it is. I know you are probably overwhelmed by our loveliness but just so you know, it was about 8:30 am. The t-shirts were provided by cincinnatirewards.com. If you are a Cincy local, check out their coupons.

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crossing things off of the endless to-do list...

I partially cleaned out the kitchen junk drawer, in order to locate a bag of soda pop lids and 12 pack box pieces. Our school is collecting those points at My Coke Rewards. I am not sure how quickly they add up or what the school will eventually earn, but I have a one Coke a day habit (on good days), and it might was well be used for good :) Earlier, I sat down and entered half of what I have collected, earning a whopping 28 points.

I paid all my bills online and entered the HUGE stack of receipts hanging out in my purse, into my check log. I realized the reason my water bill was only $6.71 last month was b/c a different payment (sewer?) got applied to it, causing a late notification to come on that. I always feel better when the error is not mine, or at least not completely mine!

While paying that stack of bills, I finally and for the first time ever, redeemed some credit card CASH BACK points. I will be receiving a $25 check in the mail. Yea. Go, me! (I have redeemed Delta Skymiles but nothing else).

When I paid my Old Navy bill, I found a $10 cash back coupon in there. Suddenly, I don't feel quite as broke as I did when I woke up this morning.

And I will end with this. Shelby and I walked up to the bus and all of sudden, Skipper's collar literally just fell off from around his neck and he took off racing down the road like a thoroughbread. For at least 10 seconds, I just stood there motionless. My mind was just going through the scenarios of 1)him being hit by a car and/or 2) the impossibility of catching the little booger. We can rarely catch him in the confines of our own yard, much less for him to be running free! By some miracle, he came back to the bus stop without much coaxing and Shelby reached down and grabbed him. It was nothing short of a miracle. I really cannot express my happiness as I was figuring I'd be out running through the neighborhood for a good hour after she left for school.

I guess now I understand why my husband refers to him as a pain in the *ss.

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my stars of the week

First, Miss Shelby!

Next, Miss Olivia.

Last, me and Olivia dining in the shcool cafeteria. Picture taken by her sweet friend Lilly sitting across from us. And although it appears I am drinking at 2 liter of Coke, that really is a 16 oz bottle. I have felt so BLAH today, maybe a 2 liter is not a bad idea...

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a quest to print digital photos

So the Hard Drive crash has left me sort of panicked. I was SO GOOD about printing my photos even after I started making digital scrapbook pages. But this week has shown me, I pretty much have not done that for a whole year. Both girls are "stars of the week" in their classroom and needed to take photos in to show. Well, we ended up printing a good number of them right off my printer. Not good quality and it certainly does not make good economic sense.

So, in an effort to protect a few of these gems, I have started uploading a nice handful from each month. I am putting everything in the same album over at Costco and it will be safe there and once I have worked backwards from August 2009-December 2008, I will place an order. That way, I will have a selection on hand for projects and at least that many that can be held in hand, versus living on a hard drive.

Walking through memory lane....Shelby on her first day of school last year.

Olivia on her first day last year (wowsa, what is up with that hair?!)

Some driveway fun from May.

And, one of my famed (er, not so much) self portraits.

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today, what i love...

the park with Shelby before school
the Dollar Tree (4 items on my list yet $44 dollars later?!)
an afternoon with NO after school activities on the calendar
a McDonald's Coke (even if they are regular price now, not $1 for any size)
being part of a Business Expo planning committee for a local Chamber of Commerce
a quiet puppy curled up in his dog bed
grilled chicken on tonight's dinner menu and corn on the cob if I choose to go get some
online banking
the new bus stop, conveniently situated at the end of my short street Pin It

flickr favorites

1. Hexagon Floorcushion, 2. little school quilt., 3. water bottle holder, 4. Refillable Sketchbook / Journal, 5. Arcadia Quilt, 6. Mini Quilt Finished, 7. yellow and grey table runner, 8. Quilt top - done, 9. motto, 10. custom banners 007, 11. Baby boy quilt, 12. scrap 9 patch, 13. Finished ORBC Quilt #2!, 14. Basted - Front, 15. Modern Baby Quilt, 16. hoot, 17. Minha favorita =), 18. Woodland Bloom Quilt, 19. Quilt backing?, 20. IMG_3283, 21. market bag, 22. modified coin quilts, 23. abby_front, 24. Freedom Pennant, 25. beach pillow, 26. A string bag for a little girl, 27. Mini Quilt Monday :: Yellow Edition, 28. Wonderland sewing machine cozy, 29. In the shop, 30. Ruby, Violette, Tangerene - owl pincushions., 31. Dream Big Quilted Notebook, 32. Composition Notebook, 33. close-up headboard cover, 34. A Child's Wall Tote, 35. Gnome and Mushroom Doll Quilt, 36. YIP 365.65 :: Inside Out Mini Monday

It is not hard to see what has captured my attention lately: sewing, namely quilting. I LOVE the free and fabulous inspiration available on Flickr. I am lucky to have favorites still saved there, and on a few other places where my "history" was saved online, versus on my own hard drive which died a few weeks ago. That info has still not been retrieved. Sigh. I have returned to an up and running status pretty quickly but I do take a deep breath every so often when I remember something great that was on there. Something I am not going to be able to find again. Insert PSA: Please back up your computer data!

To make a mosaic like the one I have shown, go to Big Huge Labs. Cool tools for free! And to view one of my favorites larger, click on the corresponding number listed below the photos. Pin It

a weekend recap..

In photos...sorta.

First, one set of grandparents "scored" a basketball hoop at garage sale and with some DIY love from one Grandpa and one Dad, it is in full working order. Miss Olivia can make baskets pretty readily at 9ft, she still struggles with 10. If determination is the name of the game, then she is all set.

This is a snapshot of her version of the Ickey Shuffle--a little post basket celebration. I actually caught more of this on a video clip.

Next, our dog Skipper received a much needed haircut. He looks like a totally different pup-a-roo. The Petsmart groomers said he was so well behaved that he slept during the end of his appointment. If only some of that behavior would happen at home...

Yesterday (Saturday) I participated in Race for the Cure. Wow, such a powerful thing to be part of. The bad news, I charged my camera battery all night only to forget to place it back in the camera. I had the camera along with me, but no battery. It is a true shame too b/c it was gorgeous weather, a lovely walking tour of our city, AND seeing the estimated 15 million people, mostly dressed in pink moving as a vast sea, was something I would have loved to have captured. I hope to land some photos on line but so far, no luck.

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handmade BOO! banner with freebie...

(click photo to view larger)

The final destination will likely be my mantle, but today I photographed it outside on my deck fence. Each pennant measures 5x7 and the ties on each end are about 24 inches. I cut out the exclamation point freehand but if you would like to download the BOO printed in reverse, already sized for this project, click HERE for a free download.

I might be making a small stack of something very similar (perhaps in more of a Christmas greeting...) for an upcoming gift exchange with my best girlfriends. I have one of those complete too but I don't want to give it away by showing them here. I think our celebration date is in October so I will share once they have been given.

If you have questions on this banner, leave a comment and I will respond. By the way, my new sewing machine appliques around those letters like a dream :) Pin It

#32-basketball player extraordinaire

My heart just about jumps out of my body when she gets her hands on the ball! She is trying so hard that it just melts me.

I know very little about the game so my cheering is very generic but that does not stop me. I like to yell. The game was really exciting, even if it was a loss. If any of you (all of you?!) could cross your fingers that Olivia will soon make a basket, it would sure mean a lot. And by basket, I mean even if it were to go in during practice, that would be big...for her.

Oh and a little funny. Every time Olivia got the ball, she immediately passed it as quickly as she could. It was like a game of hot potato.

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good food

Over the weekend, I tried out a few new recipes. These cookies are by far, the best cookie I have ever made from scratch: Ultimate Chocolate Chunk Cookies. I think the "break and bake" variety are great and I can say with certainty that these are worth the effort, they are that good! The recipe is here.

I have slowly been going through 3 years of my Every Day with Rachael Ray magazines and tearing out my dog-eared recipes in order to save space on my cookbook shelf and in an effort to reuse and recycle ( I am gifting these to my cooking niece Kacie!). During this little project, I have run across many delicious recipes that I want to try. The first one I made? Ham and Swiss toasts. (The RR photo only shows the soup, sorry!) It surely does not get any easier than this! It makes a lot so I just had a 1/4 of one re-heated for lunch alongside a salad. I did not make the soup as it is not quite soup weather yet. I will make these again and I think they'd make a great appetizer and one that would travel easily to some one's home. Pin It

back to regularly scheduled programming...

How about I show some people pictures from last week's farm trip just like I promised?

My week has been so hectic. Computer woes just plain get you down. And you do not realize all the treasures you had stowed on the old one, until you are trying to effectively use, and add back, to the new one. I am grateful just to have a computer up and running. I want to say again: BACK UP your files. TODAY. My saving grace was that my photos were elsewhere but I need to attack the big task of safeguarding those too.

As always, instead of doing what truly needs to be done, last night I took a mini mental vacation and began sewing some gifts for friends for an upcoming gift exchange. If time (and children) allow today, I may make something Halloween-ish for myself.

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yea, so this is my life...

Mine crashed and burned earlier today. I am posting this (clumsily) from my husband's much older laptop.
The good news: all my photos and digital scrapbooking goods and pages are on an external HD.
The bad news: all my data, documents, both personal and professional are on the computer's HD

The IT guy where I work (big shout out to Rob!) is replacing the HD tomorrow and fingers crossed, maybe recovering data. And don't go asking about backup b/c nope, I got none.

Please, bring on a miracle tomorrow! Pin It

project 365: july pages complete

(click photo to view larger)

Still leaving me one month behind as the calendar page turned to September today, meaning, August is ready to be designed. Tomorrow, I will share some more photos from our farm trip.

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