Happy New Years!!!!

Hope everyone has a wonderful New Year filled with happiness!

Well, Christmas is over!

I guess it's been a while since I've posted.

Christmas is over, at least for most of us.

My family will be celebrating Christmas 

on New Year's Day because of work schedules.

I made some tags for gifts today, took me all day long 

to make these.

 Of course, I did clean up (er, rearrange )

my sewing room too. Watched the TV series of Pride and Prejudice

with Colin Firth and did 6 loads laundry.

Whew! Now I'm tired.

But I did enjoy the TV series a whole lot, if you get

a chance to watch it (via Netflix) I would recommend it.

Tags:

I used the Tags, Bags, Boxes and More cartridge 

for the tag shape, at 5 inches.

I think the Reindeer, Create a Critter cartridge, was at 3 1/2 inches.

The candy cane was on the Simply Charmed cartridge, and I used

the flip feature for one of the candy canes.

I don't remember the rest. 

I've tried to use only scraps for these and hope to make 

some more tomorrow before I go to work. I guess

I'm getting ready for next year already! :) LOL!

Tomorrow it's back to work and I hear we are to get a lot of snow.

We've been very lucky so far with no snow this year, and I'm glad of that.

But I guess it has to snow sooner or later, so we might as well get it over with.

Happy Halloween!

Finally, we get to use the new driveway! Yeah!!!!!

Today I was able to finally park in the garage again, boy have I missed that! I love having a brand

spanking new driveway to drive on. And better yet with all the rain we've had I've enjoyed not

having to clean up water in the basement. We were so lucky to not have a wet basement for years so when we did get water for a couple of years it was sooooo annoying. Every time I heard we were going to get rain I cringed, worried about getting a little water in the basement. All in all some people would get more that we ever did, even next door to us got buckets of water where we would only get enough to wet my little rugs in the laundry room. So I shouldn't complain, it was only a nuisance. 

The driveway had really dropped so that the step into the house was a real pain especially in the winter with the snow and ice. Now it is much more comfortable to just step into the house.

Joe has his little driveway for his big truck, which is almost too big to fit into the garage. Now he can park it to the side.

The sidewalk to the front steps angles a little, it used to be a step up from the driveway to the little sidewalk. We still have to fix up the bricks around the little garden on the right, but Joe has already planted the tulip bulbs on the left. It really isn't big enough to add a brick border to this area.

Finally! a driveway!

This morning the guys came and put the concrete in the driveway! It is so great to see the driveway almost finished. They said that we can walk on it tonight! but can't drive on it until next Tuesday!
I went out and did a little shopping and when I came home a little after noon they were almost done.

Still have to brush the top and do the finish here in the back. Clean up is always fun isn't it? LOL!

Joe will be very happy to finally have his little driveway for the truck. I think he's wanted one for about 25 years! :) Think I can talk him into planting flowers on the edge of the driveway? LOL!!!! If I did I think he'd pull his hair out!!!!!!! LOL!

Today he is just watching the work get done. Enjoying the process.

He's worked hard enough to get to this point.

:)

Work continues on the driveway, though it did slow down a little with the rain. Today I hope they get to finish up the removal of the driveway and finish framing in for the new one. It is supposed to rain all day today so we are lucky that it's been dry so far.

Button pumpkin

I finished the button pumpkin yesterday. I went out and bought an electric staple gun as we only have a manuel one. There is no way I could have done this without the electric one! You should have seen me jump when I put the first staple in! LOL! Scared me a lot and I think I hit my head on the ceiling when I jumped! HaHa!!!!!

Anyway, I got used to it and managed to finish it up. I did have to take out some staples and redo them as I went along, there is learning curve to using the gun. But I am glad I have it and will be able to use it again, got to justify the purchase! :)

Joe and the guys are still waterproofing the house. He is just amazing with all the stuff he does. There are many younger guys who can't keep up with him!

He was the "gopher" for the guys Monday.

Yesterday he had to "paint" the walls with the

tar. He was a mess when he was done! :)

Then he had to shovel the gravel and dump it into the hole to cover the drain pipes.

Then later I found him digging over the dirt in the garden, by hand!

I'm tired just watching him!

:)

Fall! the best time of the year

Today I had the day off and so did  my son. He was able to spend the day with me and took me several places I don't normally go. It was a beautiful afternoon, sunny and warm. A little too warm for pumpkin picking, but much better than last week when we had a downpour every day!

We went to the AT&T store to get my phone fixed, then off to the Apple Store to get my power cord replaced, then lunch at the nearby Cheesecake Factory. After that he drove out to the Patterson's Apple Farm. I wanted to get some pumpkins for the porch and he wanted to get some corn stalks and a few extra large pumpkins for his porch. I wanted to get some mums in pots too. They had only a small amount of pumpkins for sale, which were too small for Anthony. He wanted large! :) We were unable to get any corn stalks and the flowers they had were too expensive. I can get a better price at work.

But we got some apples. I hope to make a pie if I feel like cooking tonight. Anthony was pleased to get a couple of Carmel apples for he and Liz. 

It was fun driving around and enjoying the colors of the trees. I don't get out on the road too much, just go from home to work and work to home. :( Lol!!

Hope you had a beautiful fall day too!

Well, I guess it's been awhile since I've posted! LOL!

Not much happening around here.

I have been making some cards and playing with 

my Cricut Expression, which I love doing.

Made a small note pad with this cute little girl on the front.

I even gave this little girl a manicure with cute nail polish!

I made a going away present for someone

at work.

The little purse held some Hershey Nuggets 

and the notepad held some post it notes.

Today I made a card for no reason at all, 

just enjoyed playing with the paper, 

and my new Tim Holtz die cut.

I also started making a pumpkin decoration for the living room.

I sewed lots of buttons on a piece of linen and will 

put it on a square artist's canvas sometime later this week.

I saw this project somewhere in the blogs I read and 

thought it was a great idea. Since Joe can't find the

Halloween/Fall decorations in the attic I decided

to try to make a few. LOL!

Tomorrow I have the morning off, 

I'll have the entire morning to play again! :)

37 years ago..........

I made this card for my husband, today is our 37th

wedding anniversary.

Fortunately for me, it does not seem like we've been

married for that long. I've been very lucky to have chosen

such a wonderful guy to be my husband.

Thanks, Joe.

Love you.

Finished Anthony's layout page

Today I was able to finish Anthony's page,

I just changed the placement of some of the

elements, and added a another circle group.

I think it turned out pretty good

and both pages look good together in the book.

Now to my next page.

:)

Finished one layout

I came home after work ready to work on these layouts.

I'd been thinking of what do with them most of the day.

:)

So after having some soup and 

loading the washing machine I started inking 

and playing with the circles.

 I changed my mind many times and ended

up making more circles in different sizes. :)

Finally, I told myself not to stress out about it and to just finish it. 

To use my instinct.

So this is what I finally glued down,

no changing of my mind now! :)

Simple and not clogged with stuff. 

Maybe for other pages, 

but not this one.

I decided to use smaller circles and not as many as I had originally intended.

Then I found some ribbon that would work with the colors in the layout.

I also decided to make the D in Daniel larger. This seemed to work out better.

So voila!

Time to glue and finish it

It is now in my scrapbook waiting for Anthony's page to join it. 

I haven't finished this page yet. I ran out of time 

and will have to finish it tomorrow after work.

I still might add another circle.

Gotta think about it.

Later,

Mary Jane

Started a new scrapbook page

I decided it's time for me to start doing some of the

scrapbook pages I've been wanting to do. The thing that

has been holding me back is that I don't have that many 

"good" photos. I took pictures back when we had 24 or 36 to the roll

and we got what we got. I didn't know if I cut off anyone's head until

I got the photos back from being processed. I would have to pay for those shots

that were blurry or off center. I have never taken any classes on how to take 

photos or had a really good camera, and with 3 kids we sometimes had to 

wait a long time before we got the photos developed.

I really envy the families today who can instantly see that Cousin George's head

was cut off and then take the photo over.

Any way, I have chosen a few to do some pages to get me started. (After all

I have some 30 years of photos to sort through!)

I chose about 10 and will concentrate on those and then when I get those done,

I'll choose 10 more. So in about 10 years I might be finished.

So for my first I chose two photos of my sons that I took at 

Strawberry Pond, located at a local park near us. They were

still young enough, in elementary school,

 to handle mom telling them where to stand and to let me take 

quite a few shots of them. These are two that I really liked, though

I wish the shadows weren't on their faces.

The paper is some I've had for years and only have these two pieces

left. So I can't cut them up until I know for sure what I'm going to

do for the layout. I love these colors together, they go great with 

Anthony's sweater. 

I've only been able to cut out some circles today, and will try to make some "stripes" tomorrow. 

It is still a work in progress, and I'm trying to figure out if I have any elements I can use in the layouts.

I don't want to buy anything.

The letters for the names have only been cut out in white card stock to give me an idea of the size of 

letters I want to use. I have a feeling that Anthony's name will be in the dark blue, but haven't decided

what color Daniels name will be. I'm partial to the dark brown but we will see.

I was so excited to get this far on the project today I was almost late for work.

And I really don't want to go to work tomorrow, I'd much rather stay home and finish this up! LOL!!!!

So maybe it won't take me 10 years to finish up my scrap booking all the photos I have.

I'll try to post my progress tomorrow night. 

Easter basket

Today I worked on making this Easter basket. I just love it!

I don't have any Easter grass to put in it yet, will have to pick some up.

It is small, just the perfect size for some candy and a couple

of decorated eggs.

Now all I need is some little people to make these for!

The paper is really pretty, I didn't want to cut into it. I have

one more sheet of this, wish I had bought 10 sheets of this paper! :)

Today was a really beautiful day, wish we had days like this everyday!

Hope you got to enjoy it too!

Later,

Mary Jane

:)

Still here!

Well, I'm still here. Haven't been too busy

 but I guess I was too busy to update 

the blog. 

I have been working on the Recipe book and 

I've finished it except for adding

more recipes.

 I've added a few,

but still have more to print out.

I did a video of the book for my mom and sister, using my phone.

One thing I learned is that I'm terrible at doing videos! LOL!!!

I had a great time doing the book though and hope to do more books soon.

Watching the YouTube videos have helped me learn some new (to me) 

techniques. One I saw recently was an easel card. 

I decided to try it, using the twisted easel card method.

This is what I came up with. I love it!

I had to do parts of it over twice cause of ink smears, wrong color choices and

badly cut papers. LOL!!! 

Thank goodness I don't make a living doing this! It takes me forever to get

a card made and ready to go.

Most paper craft blogs list where the papers and 

all the stuff came from. Mine just came from my 

"stash". I don't know any company names for most of

the stuff. 

I do know I used the Cricut  cartridge "Country Life".

One of my favorite cartridges, though I haven't used

it too much. I'm still a beginner at this! 

I only got my Cricut in January.

I think the butterfly punch I used is a Martha Stewart punch.

Ready to see what else I can make!
Later,
Mary Jane
:)

Time flies when you are having fun!

I haven't been doing very much quilting lately. Can hardly get to 

the sewing machine! LOL!

My sewing room is a mess with all the stuff I've been using to make

 cards for next Christmas

and I've started making my first album for recipes.

It's very slow going for me as 

I really don't know what I'm doing.

I'm watching a lot of videos on line,

learning lots of techniques and watching in

amazement at some of the things people are 

making.

Anyway, this is what I've made so far.

These pages have been greatly influenced by searching lots of images

on Google. 

Don't have a clue how I'll do the next one, but I'm having lots of fun

working on this.