New Cartridge!

Since Provo Craft introduced the Cupcake Wrapper cartridge, I've been DYING to get it. It's available at Wal-Mart for $39. It killed me to pay that much since I can get the cartridges with all the features on-line for $35 after they've been around for a while. However, I HAD to have this cartridge for my daughter's birthday. I chose the gift box wrapper and the stars topper. The best part? She LOVED the finished product! Makes all the work so worth it. A couple of years ago I bought the cupcake tier at Hobby Lobby with my 40% off coupon. I was afraid the cupcakes wouldn't fit on the tiers with the wrappers, but with a little persuasion, they looked great! Bonus -when I lit the candles I didn't start the cupcake above it on fire, so the house is still intact.

Gotta get the close-ups in.

Slightly different angle.

My husband thought I was nuts to put all that work into the cupcakes, but I'm definitely going to do it again. I LOVE the way it turned out. Thanks for looking!

Good job!

What did I do this past weekend? My brother Eric and I did some landscaping for my Mom. She had the windows in her basement replaced last year. To do that, the window wells had to be taken out which really tore up the yard. Eric put the wells back in a week or two ago, but the yard still needed to be put back together. I don't have a "before" picture, but it wasn't good. The grade was off and Mom actually got some water in the basement through one of the windows a couple of weeks ago. She was lucky and didn't suffer any damage, thank goodness. Below are the "after" pictures. Once we get some bushes and flowers in, and let's hope the grass seed takes off, I think it will look great!



Has anyone else started to work out to lose weight? I started about a month ago. I lost 5 pounds in about 2 1/2 weeks in the beginning. However, I've actually gained some of that back even though I've been doing Weight Watches AND exercising. How disheartening is that? I'm hoping that it's because I'm building muscle. I've heard that muscle weighs more than fat. I think my clothes are fitting more losely around the waist and hips, so I'm going with the loss of fat, gain of muscle theory. If you have any insight, I'm all ears!

Jill

Last minute

My daughter's birthday is coming up this month. I've been asking for several weeks if she'd like to have a party with some friends this year, go up to our camper for the weekend, or just lay low this year. She kept shrugging her shoulders and saying, "I don't know" incoherently as only a teenager can do. Then Wednesday she said why aren't we doing anything for a party for her birthday this year? As all parents of teenagers know, it doesn't pay to remind her you've asked several times what she wanted to do without a definite answer. So now we've got to kick it into high gear. I found out she wanted a beach theme, so I pulled several of my Cricut cartridges for her to look at to find out what kind of look she wanted. She made it perfectly (can you say crystal) clear it couldn't look baby-ish. I finally came to my Everyday Paper Doll cartridge and hit pay dirt. I drew up a design that night. Thursday I took a couple of hours to cut everything and put it together. This morning they got mailed with 12 days to party time. AND she likes the way they look. As my daughter would say, "I'm gooooooooood!"

Here's the front. You can see there is no "baby-ish" stuff on it. All teenager approved colors. I used my Cuttlebug to emboss the sun and sand. Adds a little something something, don't you think?

I popped up the sand castle after chalking the edges to make it stand out against the sand underneath.

Love the dancing crabs across the top. The stamp is from one of my Stampin' Up sets. The info stamp was one I got from my Aunt Dot after she passed away. I think we had the same taste in stamps.

Well, I'm very happy with the way it turned out. But, most importantly, Alyssa is happy with them. Now, on to the party planning. Should be fun - yeah, right!

Jill

Just enjoying the garden

Instead of being unhappy with the bumper crop of mosquitoes, I've decided to be happy with how well my garden is doing. There are issues with it, but today I'm going to be very positive. For instance, my husband and I constructed the fountain and round flagstone patio together about seven years ago. It turned out perfect. I have issues getting anything in pots to grow on the fountain because it's extremely hot on the stones, but I have some ideas for next year that don't care how hot it is.

Here's another awesome thing in my garden this year. My sweet corn is about ten feet tall! My corn has never been that tall. The saying is "knee high by the Fourth of July", but mine was almost as tall as me by that time! Love it!

Don built a pergola for me several years ago. Two years ago I planted a grape vine on it for a little height in my garden. We got a few grape bunches last year, but this year is unbelievable! Can't wait till these purple Concord grapes are ready to eat.

In the back garden, this Turk's Turban is doing well. This morning we had evidence of deer, so I hope they don't start eating the pumpkins and gourds.

The purple cone flowers are almost a weed again this year. It's a good thing I love them!

I planted several rows of zinnias in my cutting garden this year. The next couple of pictures show some of the colors. I love zinnias - there so happy looking!



Take time to enjoy August. Summer is on the downside of the hill. Even though the rain and hot weather have brought those nasty biting insects, drench yourself in the bug spray and take a close look at all the green before it's gone.
Jill