Hawtness & Coolness

It's Turkey Day here in the States. Of course it doesn't FEEL like Thanksgiving with the recent snow we just got. Shirley the best next door neighbor ever captured these images from our trails. She was lucky to get out in it. I was quite jealous since my foray into the snow was to shovel off the deck with the two small people. By the time I was done with that, it was back to work! Free work out though.

Thanksgiving here means lots of good food to eat and then of course a mandatory nap later to rest up after all that eating. And some thankfulness and football. ;-)

I just wanted to pop in and share something I found on a recent google search which surprised me quite a lot.

I was looking for a vintage looking Thanksgiving image and ran across four or five really odd images.

They were old, racy, pin-up ads from way before I was born. This post does a good job of showing quite a few. My favorite of course is the lady dressed up like a pilgrim with no shirt but just that white flappy thing. No not really. Bathing suits and turkeys do not really go well together.

Anyhow, I thought I'd pop in and share before Over the River and Through the Woods It's off to Grandmother's House we go for dinner.

Have a good one!

Still Awesome Friends Layout for Marilyn

I had to make this page to celebrate a friendship my Father in Law has had since he was LITTLE!

He lived next door to Marilyn when he was a kid and they still hang out now as BIG PEOPLE!

Marilyn has always been a really great friend to our family and when she visited recently, she brought me this photo of her and my FIL from when they were little!

 I scanned it in so I still have the original. I think I'll send this page to Marilyn for her scrapbook. Left her lots of room for journaling. She has the prettiest handwriting.

Hope she likes the gold accents and accordion blooms! Those little gold twigs are from our woods and some I spray painted gold the other day. I do love how they pop against the blues and the greens.

Hope you like it Marilyn!

Happy Hump Day!

Love Cards for Fun

Darn cards kept getting blown over when I was taking photos of them! And yes, that is real snow! Brrrrr!

I had some snippets of card stock at the very bottom of a kit that I was trying to use up, so made a few cards. Also, the gold embellishments were so pretty! ;-)

They are a bit early, but it's always nice to tell someone that you love them!

I am not usually a card maker, but once in a while I get in the mood....

Just like accordion blooms....I made a pile so you will be seeing those for the next five posts or so!

Happy Tuesday!

The Flag Layout for THE CUTTING CAFE: Subtitle BAD MOM!

How fantastic is that huge tree?

Can you believe it was a little tiny tree that was part of a cutting file for a Halloween treat box?

I actually cut it out of cream colored cardstock but added a variety of inks and mists to make it painted up like this. It shimmers in real life! ;-)

Check it out at THE CUTTING CAFE. Regina has all kinds of fun things over there.

I have made those milk carton treat boxes before, check them out here. They are also a blast!

I have also had bottle caps on my brain for the past couple of days.

See the latest challenge up over at Scrap For Help involves bottle caps. I LOVE these Angry Orchard Hard Cider tops and thought they fit well with my page on climbing our apple tree.

Here is a close up of my accordion bloom bottle cap flower. Loved pairing those up together and then adding those pearls on a wire I just found recently at the local flower shop. SO pretty.

See, this girl can still CLIMB the tree, however I was glad for some help coming down. Hence the "Service Please Sign" I was challenged to use on a scrapbook page that was acquired recently during a hotel stay.

See the kids were playing capture the flag for Luke's 11th Birthday. Lexi was recruited for playing to make the teams even. She also runs fast. ;-)

She was a good sport, even tackling a pine tree to get a flag. She was less of a good sport when I waited until no one was paying attention and captured the flag that was tied at the top of one of our apple trees. Since it was her idea, she was a bit miffed.

I didn't have a chance to get down before she pulled my boots off my feet, the meanie!

One last side view of my page!

Hope your Monday is FANTASTIC! ;-)

Wise Guys Layout

There is always a story behind a page isn't there.....

So a while ago we started planning Luke's birthday party.

Lexi pretty much told us what she wanted for her party, which was not the case with this one.

I guess we could have skipped all the discussion and went with the the theory that five boys just want to play!

So, my kids have assigned vacuuming chores on the weekends. That way they know what goes into keeping a clean house and what makes a house dirty.

It was a proud moment when Luke told his four friends to take their shoes off at the door upon their arrival.

However, the house was not to stay clean for long.

In a fit of madness, THE MAN and I decided to take six perfectly clean kids on a wagon ride around the trails. The first five minutes of the ride erupted in giggles as we crossed the first wet area in the field and they got splattered.

Encouraged, THE MAN decided to take them over the back trail.

We soon realized our folly.

Boys are mud magnets. And then we got stuck.

We had to unload them in the swamp to get the 4-Wheeler out!

Thankfully most of them were wearing actual boots...

Of course shifting the 4 Wheeler down for optimal mud splattering when we were heading down over the second creek crossing might have also not been a good thing....

A twenty minute ride resulted in a load of laundry, small boys running around just in shorts, and dirt EVERYWHERE. The problem was there weren't any clean people as the adults in charge were also covered.

NOW keep in mind that although some of the kids at the party were from the country and used to the mud, some had never ever been that dirty before.

Of course it did not help Tommy was putting mud on everyone's head. I knew he was since I was watching from the back of the 4-Wheeler, but was laughing too hard really to be at all helpful.

A little mud is always good for a kid, makes them grow better I think...hope the parents thought so too when they came to pick up kids and I was digging clothes out of the laundry basket still pretty damp...

Anyhow, we are mud-sliding into Friday now!

Have a good one!

P.S. that orange ribbon is from the rocket that caught on fire during our birthday rocket launch, but that is a story for another day. ;-)

My Patric Page for Fun

I do love sunny days even if the glittery decks are really cold on the stocking feet! ;-)

Just popping in with a little Hump Day post and a recent photo of Miss Patti, our dog. 

Since Lexi traded me her cat for my dog (don't ask, since the animals rarely do what we'd like them to do anyhow, it was more in name) she has decided to rename Miss Patti. 

Patric is what she calls her. It sounds like PA-TREEEEECE the way Lexi says it. She says it's spelled just like Patricia minus the ia. Seems like it should have an e....She says it with a bit of an accent. The dog doesn't care if she also hears the sound of a bouncing tennis ball....

I though it fit this rather regal photo of Patti. Plus you can see see those pretty fall leaves floating around the lawn from a few weeks back...they were all frost covered this morning!

Loving dotty paper, drips of ink, and perfect pearls in the center at the moment. 

Of course, I always love a nice staple!

Hope you are having a fine middle of the week!

Be Thankful for the Little Things for THE CUTTING CAFE

Had so much fun putting this embroidery hoop together with some burlap sprayed in gold on the edges.

I had to make something special to showcase this lovely digital stamp from THE CUTTING CAFE.

It's from the SO THANKFUL CIRCLE WORD PRINTABLE STAMP SET and really made me happy all inked up and cut in a scallop. 

I also printed out a vintage postcard for the center so I could use it as a frame. 

Believe it or not, I have a can lid behind the whole thing so there is dimension just like a real frame. 

I used dimensional modge podge along the stamp and also added a light gold glitter. You can see it just a wee bit here. 

See the fairy peeking out over at the turkey? That was a little tag I made to go behind it all. 

I also wanted to show case the gold lace from Tresors de Luxe that I got off etsy. That gold lace caught my eye as did that lovely rich velvet flower with the gems! So pretty! They also sell those pink roses that have just a splash of gold. Very awesome!

Think I will bring this with me when I come visit my parents at Thanksgiving!

San Pedro Cusco Market Layout for Scrap For Help

One of my favorite parts of Peru was visiting the markets. We don't have fresh produce like this at all! It was amazing!

This lady in the San Pedro Market in Cusco gave us a knife demonstration. She could slice veggies faster than a food processor!

I recall one young lady showing us prepackaged veggies that she had ready for lady shoppers who didn't cut their own up. She said it with a smidge of disdain as if these ladies were cheating their family! ;-)

I had a giggle...us Americans cheat on all kinds of food preparation all the time, it's called FAST FOOD.

I used a bottle cap on the top of this page for some decoration. I did smash it first in my Big Shot. Liked the lemon on a page about food. :-) Also works nicely with the bottle cap requirement over at Scrap For Help!

Not a lot of things needed to decorate on this page, but I did use some chippy pieces from Lizzy Hill under my flowers.

Slowly wrapping up my Peru Albums.

I am anxious though as it's been over a year!

Happy Monday!

Of Mice and Cats

reposted last year's mouse story to make myself feel better...

in hopes that the trauma of the day's events would be erased...

THAT did not work so decided to tell you all about the mouse drama instead....

I was pretty convinced it was going to be a rough day when I dumped my entire cup of coffee down my night stand and onto the floor. THE MAN took sympathy on my sobs, handed me a towel, and went back downstairs to get me another cup.

The day starts at 5:30 am at my house and it was not far past that early hour.

A while later I was moving the laundry basket and realized that the cat had cornered a mouse.

The cat has numerous odd behaviors for things like flies, lint, legos, and hair bands. Since a mouse in the house is kinda rare, it was unexpected on my part. I didn't take it well, dumped the laundry in my arms and started shrieking.

BRING ME SOMETHING ANYTHING NOW! GET DADDY THERE IS A MOUSE.

MFER!

Luke brought me a fly swatter and Lexi brought me my nice green antique ceramic bowl. Perhaps for throwing at the mouse? It was unclear.

Meanwhile the mouse went invisible.

THE MAN leaned over the the top of the stairs and suggested that I leave it for the cat.

He reasoned calmly from afar. HONEY, the last time we had a mouse in the house, you and I went on the warpath and broke things. Just leave it. The cat needs something to do today anyhow.

Hours later the cat starts yowling.

My over active imagination has the mouse ripped apart and bleeding on my new chair.

I investigate.

The cat is still staring at the same place from hours earlier. So I get on my tummy and start messing around with the heating duct.

My over active imagination now has the mouse flying out and running up my face....

Found the little booger smooshed into the smallest little spot and use my sweatshirt over my hand to push him out...

Of course, he is now freely running down my hall way.

Thankfully my oldest had thought to keep her door shut therefore room mouse free, so I am able to pounce on the mouse and wrap it my sweatshirt covered hand.

I run for the back door and throw the mouse like a football onto our snow covered grass.

I watch him run off unharmed squeeking loudly to his friends...hey, there is this awesome house and I know a way in....plus the cat is such a wuss....

The cat continues to protest the loss of his new toy for another half hour until he has to nap from the morning's adventures.

I don't want a nap, but the rest of the day off.....touching live mouse must equate to mental health day....

A Mouse Mobile and House of Mouse: REPOST from 2012 due to Mouse Incident

So, the other day at work, I was minding my own business on a conference call discussing what survey we had to do the following week when I got the following text messages:

Designer 1: OMG there were mice living in Micah's golf bag and they got out in his truck

and then several minutes later.....

Designer 2:  Micah just called to talk about my project on his way to that golf event. He figured out that his golf clubs had a nest of mice that are now lose in his truck. (Mind you, this is our company truck) In the middle of taking to me he said M-fer there are mice loose in my truck and started smashing stuff while driving. How am I suppose to take anything he said seriously?

Now, this is my day to day. I kid you NOT. I honestly think we could make more money filming a reality show vs actual work.

Of course, being on a conference call with the rest of my company, I shared that valuable piece of news with everyone else in particular other guys golfing with Micah. Something that noteworthy needs sharing. Besides, his golf game obviously stinks if mice have enough time to nest in his bag....

Now the following day, despite my attempts to alert my company to avoid riding in the Mouse Mobile, they all get in his truck to go to a company function.

Surveyors are a stoic bunch typically with quiet dispositions unless of course you are the big dude stuck in the very back of the Suburban and a mice runs up your arm. I really felt for that guy. They said he screamed like a girl.

So, this weekend, THE MAN decided we needed to get our wood all stacked and ready for winter, since snow flakes will be flying any day now.

I offered to help since I have a free membership for life at the Gym of Pratt.

I grabbed a nice hollow piece of wood and out popped a mouse.

I screamed like a girl myself and then started bellowing a war cry. It's a damn good thing that mouse ran like his life depended on it as I was out for blood. He managed to allude me in a pile of unstacked of wood. Of course, THE MAN stopped the wood splitter to watch his wife lose it.

This morning he promised if we finished stacking the pile I'd find my mouse and would get a second wack at it.

He lied. I knew that mouse had long since moved on to bigger and better places to live. He is living in our wood pile waiting for me to wake him up during the winter while feeding the boiler. I am sure I will scream like a girl, drop a piece of wood on my foot perhaps even saying bad words. Oh the things to look forward to in a few months...

Happy Monday!

Cake Curses and Birthdays

So being a typical Pratt male, I finally extracted birthday plans from my son earlier this week. Not like my daughter who started planning the 2013 bash in 2012.

I had kinda forgotten about treats at school since 5th grade here involves switching classes and is Middle School.

He mentioned something say like Monday night and I forgot to call and order a cake until yesterday at noon.

Since birthday cake needed to go to school today, I was cutting it a bit close. Cake pun.

Not sure if the lady on the phone misheard me, but we ended up with half a sheet cake. It was friggin

HUGE! ;-)

I would have argued but the lady baked me a cake in four hours! 

I have NO IDEA what 25 kids will do with slices of cake that big.....and I'd feel bad but it's not our fault.

The CAKE CURSE has struck again.

It goes all the way back to my wedding cake...and recently struck most horribly in the LUCK CAKE FIASCO of 2011.

Of course too much cake isn't a bad thing unless you are a worried Mom about a possible grumpy teacher. I am hoping someone makes her aware that we are under a cake curse and she is lucky there is one at all. It's not like they spelled his name wrong this year too. (yes I deliberately used the word Luck there...to be punny)

Since the cake was GIANT, I had to drop the kids off to school with it. Got a texted photo from my daughter. She likes to play around with photo editing on her phone so I was trying to figure out what she wrote on the bottom of the photo.


Turns out it was on the cake box...so I made sure to crop it so I could read it...

Did just get an update on the GIANT CAKE. My boy told the teacher to share it with her teacher friends...and that my friends is why we call him a bit of a brown nose. In Spain referred to as an eye licker...

Have a good one where ever you are! Happy 11th Luke or Luck!

Hitching a Ride for ScrapFriends

It really is a fabulous sketch. The feathers called me in and then the dots...

You can ALWAYS count on ScrapFriends for sketch that is not average which usually results in a page that is far from average! ;-) (kinda like me giggle!)

Also kinda like today. Snow wayyyyyy before I was ready so NOT your average day.

I managed to grump about it most of the morning until THE MAN pointed out it is quite possibly the end of allergies finally for all of us.

Plus, my lovely photo taking deck is now out of order...unless you come up with plan b!

Wait...did that give you Aussie girls a 'lil chill?  How about this photo?

I got wool socks on...I'm not cold! Just have also not put the sandals away either....I am a FASHIONISTA! so there!

My favorite part is of course the layers and inked up feathers, and flowers....and a photo of my Lexi hitching a ride on the wagon with her friends on her birthday across the creek.

They had quite a fun little hike, but it's always nice to not get your feet wet! ;-)

Happy Tuesday!

Step Cards for THE CUTTING CAFE

Sometimes when you are on a design team, you are assigned something that scares you a bit.

First off, the assignment included the word CARD.

The example looked adorable, but still.....the first word was STEP....

(have never ever considered myself a cardmaker......)

Grabbed some card stock and the cutting file and cut two out.

Stared at them for quite a long while all creamy and blank....folded and ready for use.

I grabbed a kit I had full of smaller scraps and started adding paper. Figured I had to at least make an attempt....

Fairly quickly I realized the engineering marvel of STEP CARDS.

YOU CAN LOAD THEM UP A LOT and they still stand up.

I am so glad Regina & THE CUTTING CAFE are around to bring me out of my comfort zone!

AND, they also still fold flat!

I was pretty impressed with myself after I made a bunch of handmade flowers, coppery shimmery leaves, and some copper framed sentiments.

The leaves are also from THE CUTTING CAFE and came from the Welcome Fall printable stamp set. I just turned them into a cutting file.

This photo shows the shimmer and color variations on the leaves. They started out as cream cardstock and were added into the cutting file when I cut the cards out to save paper.

One more close up. I really got the hang of rolling the flowers by this card....

If you have never tried a step card, I can honestly say I'd give it a try. It's much easier than I ever thought and a LOT of fun!

Happy Monday!

Put A Lid On It

A while back I was making lunches in the wee hours of the morning and I tried to open some Chef Raviolis to put in my daughter's Thermos.

Notice the one in the image below has a PULL TOP. Our store does not SELL THOSE. Grrrrrr!

No matter what I did, I could NOT get the can open with my lame old can opener and proceed to get extremely grumpy over the whole process. May have said something snotty about how difficult my life was and just might have called the can a piece of steaming pile of poo. (please insert adult version of that phrase)

You would THINK getting sideways at 6 am might have taught me a lesson.

But no it is nearly two months later and I finally threw the old can opener away. One of the handles fell off which was the last straw.

It's like somehow I thought it would FIX ITSELF in the drawer.

Technically since the damn thing cost a small fortune several years ago and probably has a life time warranty, I may have wasted money...but not all is lost.

Who says a new can opener cannot buy happiness?

So the fine folks at OXO also included a can rim with my new can opener so I could feel for myself how amazingly smooth the edge was. Since I had already ripped open the box from Amazon and torn open all the plastic packaging, it was a bit after the fact.

I stared at that little round metal lid for a whole minute contemplating uses before opening my can of tuna for lunch.

As the label for the tuna can fell off in my hand as I rinsed the whole can & lid for recycling, I had an epiphany.

They are kinda cute little metal cans that should have little glass knobs and pretty flowers....

Stay tuned...I have plans for some spray paint, paper, modge podge dimensional glue, and some flowers...

Fun times await...

Now to get out the fishy smell......

LESSology Toy Story Challenge

THE MAN shook his head when he helped assemble this project.

He may have had his doubts, but he was the smart person who pointed out the vintage second hand store camera had a inset that I could use to bolt all these items together. For that, he is a rock star!

You can see all the layers here.

I used a metal clock face which already had a hole in it, drilled a hole through the marble base which was originally a cutting board and also drilled a hole through the number three wood block.

You can see the little block here sitting on top of a rusty gold hose handle.

I was gifted that block by Connie Mercer from Crafty Goodies so I was glad to put it into good use.

It fits in so nicely with our latest challenge over at LESSology! Using a toy for our challenge!

This project is a little affirmation sculpture.

Us women seem to be so hard on ourselves. We aren't pretty enough or thin enough or smart enough...my little camera tells you that YOU ARE GORGEOUS! You just have to believe it!

Thanks for the chippy Lizzy Hill who is our newest teamie over at LESSology!

Really enjoyed making this project and I'm sure you will too! I can't wait to see what you come up with!

YOU ARE GORGEOUS!

Lemon Drop Layout for SATW

What a super cheerful mood board!

Why thanks to the fine peeps at Scrap Around the World, look at the fun challenge we have to play with!

It inspired me to pull this page together with some fun circles and scallops, not to mention some mists, inks, and pretty flowers.

It was a fairly cold morning when I took these photos and the frosty deck looked like sparkles.

So I did not redo the photos although there is quite a lot of shadow. ;-)

My favorite part of this page happened quite by accident...I call it glitter leather.

The other day, my glitter got clogged. Being a reasonable and patient person, I cut off the tip and squeezed really hard.

Yes, the clog dislodged and at least a third of the bottle ended up on the side of the trash can on the plastic bag where it dried to a nice little gold sculpture. When I peeled it off just for fun, I thought it might be cool to try to use.

So, there you have it, a fun pretty little page of my side lawn and my room with a little peek of a rainbow! The silo that you can see belongs to neighbor Joe, so I can't claim ownership of that!

Thanks Shirley for hook me up with that photo!

The title is from:    

Somewhere Over The Rainbow / What A Wonderful World

Somewhere over the rainbow

Way up high

And the dreams that you dreamed of

Once in a lullaby ii ii iii

Somewhere over the rainbow

Blue birds fly

And the dreams that you dreamed of

Dreams really do come true ooh ooooh

Someday I'll wish upon a star

Wake up where the clouds are far behind me ee ee eeh

Where trouble melts like lemon drops

And a little song by George Line to that talks about Lemon Drop (as in the drink) that amuses me every now and again. It is also cheerful!

Happy Hump Day Peeps!

THE CUTTING CAFE Treat Pizza Boxes

Regina came up with the coolest idea the other day. 

Pizza boxes! I do love Pizza! 

Check them out over at THE CUTTING CAFE. If you check back on Wednesday for the reveal & leave a comment, you may just win something from her store!

They are pretty slick. I cut four of these out with my cutter in short order.

Now, I must admit, I was getting really low on the clear acetate I used for the window, so made one oval. Which reminds me a whole lot more of a kleenex box....but I am sure the chocolate will taste the same! 

While I was cutting one, I folded & glued the first. Worked pretty slick!

Luke is fast approaching his 11th birthday so I thought it would be cool to have pizza treat boxes for your friends full of candy. 

Had to keep the little decorations really simple and manly, so channeled my inner Tim Holtz. 

I spray painted big washers and gears and just added an initial to each one.  

The actual tie on the boxes is sinew, so even THAT is manly! No bakers twine for my boy!

Hope your Monday is going well, ours is off to a cold frosty start!

Walls of Stone

The other day I stumbled across a little known alley way in Potsdam. Well, little known to me. The locals have their tricks on getting through town. Necessity to get from point a to point b during the rush hour of college kids heading to class or lunch or home.

Walls of Old Potsdam Sand Stone on either side framed it with some pretty ivy.

It reminded me of somewhere. Right as I was standing there I had a flash back to my trip to Peru.

Where rock walls have stood since Incan time and still exist mingling the old with the new.

Potsdam is the same way. Perhaps an old dry goods store, now selling college books, tattoos and pizza. Three staples for college life.

The workmanship of both impress me.

Long after our latest crop of graduates head off to new jobs, lives, and the future, these rocks will be standing weathering the long winters.

In Peru, earthquakes make the rocks dance, but not fall withstanding the test of time.

Scrapbookers stand with one foot in the past and one in the future. We feel most strongly the urge to preserve our day to day lives.

I imagine that will be our legacy for future generations. Some digital Archaeologist will sift past blog posts talking about flowers and paper to the meat of the subject.

What made these people tick. They will keep digging through words and photos to learn more. Our words will be our walls of stone.

I do believe though they might be eating a slice of pizza.

Linking up to Story Telling Sunday over at Sian's. I believe her town across the pond has walls of brick which are also standing the tests of time! ;-)