Besting the Bugs & Rocking the House

Each house has a story to tell. Right now the one I'm working on in the 'Post tells a story of neglect. As far as I know, it's only 18 or so years old and it was build by Habitat back in the day. We think that a couple of holes in the aluminum flashing along the very bottom by the slab compiled with a ongoing leak in the bathroom attracted the termites & gave them a way in. As the bug guy said, this was one yummy house and took photos. (If the bug guy takes photos, it's 'cause it's a doozie in case you are wondering.)

I happen to have the bug guy on speed dial. See, when we first got the house and after hauling out three dumpsters of trash and belongings, he then came in and treated for bedbugs and fleas. He promised that when we went back in with volunteers if I saw something crawling, even if that something was a half dead spider, he'd be over in a flash.

Right now this house we're working on has missing siding on a large part of the back and in fact is down to studs in many places as we chase termite damage around the three bedrooms. It's upsetting and frustrating that something that once was so lovingly built is damaged so. I'm imagining that it's a similar feeling a lot of people in the States are dealing with after the hurricanes and they have plaster board to rip out and ruined insulation.

Regardless we solder on. The new potential homeowner popped over for her first visit just the other day. I had prepared her and said that even though it looks like a hot mess, please have vision and faith that this will be an awesome house. I promised that at the end she will have a comfortable place full of light in those huge windows we're going to replace. I showed her the open kitchen layout we came up with and told her to pick colors for the cabinets and paint.

Some of the scars that house gave me aren't easy for me to forget. We had to evict the previous owner who begged for more time around Thanksgiving last year and then right before Christmas without any evidence of progress, we had to proceed. See, at Habitat you get a hand up, not a hand out. You still have to pay for your affordable mortgage and like the rest of the world, if you don't pay you don't get to stay. I'd have felt very badly, but it was four years since her divorce & ample time to get things straightened out. Still, we like to put people in houses, not take them away.

Needless to say I feel a little down when I walk though the house. It's still a bit smelly & not very lovable. Imagine my surprise when I walked into the bathroom yesterday and found a pretty painted rock. See one of my good friends brought her kids down to "rock the house" for the volunteers. I had forgotten a little person would notice that the tarp on the back of the house had a little gap in it and a little arm snuck one in. I had been leaving the rocks for others to find, but in the way of rocks, this one was for me to find...

Made my day and gave me hope! Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we build another home for a family!

CAPE COD 1st Day Layout

I'm really enjoying these little photo collages and making a nice wrap up page each day from our recent vacation. I'm actually almost done, which is a great feeling! We're entering the down hill slide into the holidays and it's time to get my 12 Tag on over at the Funkie Junkie! Before you know it, we will have snow here in NY!

Most of the pages I'm making have long strips for writing down journaling. This one has a huge popped title so I know it's the start of our Cape Cod trip. Can you see that I mounted a photo saying CAPE COD on a piece of corrugated cardboard?

I saw a cool magnet in a gift shop and wanted to use it as a title on a page so I just took a photo of it! The magnet itself was way too big...so this worked well!

I'll be back soon with enother page!

There's No Place Like Home

Having spent a chunk of last week away at a conference, I totally enjoyed a quiet Sunday at the house. To quote Dorothy, there is really no place like home, even if that means catching up on laundry and making an epic dinner as you are so tired of eating out.

Let's talk about home for a minute. I spent nearly two days in classes & networking learning about best practises, ways to improve the home for the homeowner, and mortgages. What we didn't touch on was what we are really providing. That came to me via a text message from our latest homeowner. I asked her how things were going and she said that she was nearly unpacked in the house and was getting ready to tackle the garage next.

See, we rehabbed a house from 1927 for her that had recently gone through a fire. Normally homeowners don't get a garage with a Habitat House or a fenced in yard.  I was pretty sure some time in January when we were running off generators and portable heaters that this house was going to kill me. Later, it was the cedar shakes in the heat of the summer. I can honestly say this house was NOT quick by a long shot, however we finally wrapped it up.

During the long wait as we rehabbed everything, we had a couple of days working on the overgrown backyard that was full of pretty rose bushes. I was heartbroken we had to cut out so much. Interestingly enough, the other day I was in her backyard and the roses are growing back. Kinda like her house.

Anyhow, back to her text message. I asked our new homeowner if her Mom and Dad liked her house. She said they really did and that her Dad was going to built a special removable ramp to get her Mom into the house. She also was put in charge of hosting Thanksgiving Dinner. This is the kind of thing that I totally needed to hear. Made all that work worthwhile. We created a space for family and that's pretty freaking cool.

Poconos Layout for THE CUTTING CAFE using the Vintage Boot File

Really loved this Vintage Boot I created for THE CUTTING CAFE. In fact, I knew I had the perfect page for it when I spotted it. It was really quite simple to assemble, once I cut out the pieces. It's meant to be a card, but here it's a really pretty embellishment.

I cut out all the pieces to the file as I wanted the boot to have dimension. I pop dotted the pieces and added the last piece that I inked up and stamped with a pretty lace image. The little lace buttons were in my stash and I added lots of flowers by the boot to accent it.

This page was really all about using up some scraps and talking about the last camping trip of the season. Both kids had commitments, so we went by ourselves and discovered how quiet it was and how much room we had minus two kids and a dog. It was very relaxing, except for keeping track of the kids!

Happy Thursday!

Sun Shine & Good Times Layout from Cape Cod (Day 2)

Plugging away on making pages from our recent Cape Cod trip. I'm really finding that I'm enjoying the collages provided by Google Photo. I just figure out which photos I want and make a collage. That way I don't end up with five trillion pages from one week! It works to sumorize one day and unless I have a really special photo or two, helps to get the layouts all scrapped.

The backgrounds I actually made WHILE camping, so they all have a similar look. This is a good thing as they will all be hanging out together in my book...see, almost looks like I meant to make a double page spread!

I specifically bought some matching flowers so they layouts from this trip will all jive. I've been enjoying some new blooms! Funny what a little shopping does for one! Happy Shopping Dance!

I'll be back soon with Day One from our trip!

Wince Worthy Plastic Doilies & a Giveaway

Had a little stroll through ReStore the other day. Was pretty pumped about finding these really pretty yellow roses in a baggie, some little penguins that will be cute on a winter card, cool shimmer dove & heart confetti for shaker cards, and a little woodsy humming bird. Randomly, I was also excited about these really ugly plastic doiles, but let me tell you why...

These plastic doilies in the wild are really a monstrosity. Here they look all innocent, but I assure you that before I pulled all the foliage off they were quite hideous. I like them for two reasons. They work awesome for mixed media as they are really heavy duty. In fact, it's not my first time finding them. Back then I had a stack that I shared with friends and kept a couple of myself. Here's a layout from 2013 where I used plaster and then inked it up when it was dry.

I also used the plastic vintage looking foliage on Christmas cards.

Since I'm quite set on plastic doilies myself, I have three vintage plastic doilies up for grabs!!! I am keeping the foliage as that Christmas card season is sneaking up on us and it's kinda flat like, so good for posting.

First three peeps to message me will get their very own freshly washed Wince Worthy plastic doily, which is worth it's weigh in gold as a crafting supply!

Happy Happy!

12 Tags of Christmas Prep for the Funkie Junkie

So, I don't know about you, but every year the Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Chrismas sneaks up on me. I feel the same way about all the major holidays that happen at the end of the year too, like Christmas and Thanksgiving. I tell myself it's like getting upset it's winter again since that is what happens here in December.

Last year Linda started making her tags around the end of this month. I know, I just went and checked. In an effort to actually start these tags ON TIME, I started thinking about what I'm going to make in January, as in last January. I also recently conned talked my friend Lisa into playing too. She's going to use this fancy smancy golf ball holder. Hopefully I'll send it to her soon. I'm using little glass jars because I got the green and gold ones on clearance and they are super pretty. I think I'll do small ones first and work up to bigger ones with something built on top in 3-D. Having a plan now is a really good thing since I'm a couple of jars short and I will need a little time to eat an entire jar of artichoke hearts. Can't rush that.

So, yes, the 12 Jars of Christmas will start posting before you know it!

Let's have a little look back over the years as this will be my sixth year participating.  (I've also never won the prize drawing at the end, so maybe this year it will be me!) Please keep your toes crossed. 

Let's see....back in 2012 I decorated the top of Herb Ox containers.
Then in 2013 I altered a sample box. 

In 2014 I made icicles.

In 2015 I decorated punch cups. 

Last year I decorated Jello Molds. 

Yikes! I'm almost ready to even start Christmas cards! I'm getting all excited! 

Wish me luck! 

BEST DAY Layout from Cape Cod

We spent about a week recently camping in Cape Cod in the town of Bourne. Really loved the campground, which was super relaxing and nicely kept. THE MAN who was feeling a bit ill at the start of our trip having recently gotten over a summer cold declared that the kids would create the schedule. This was an epic idea.

Randomly wandering around on the first day we found some epic pizza rolls for lunch, a pretty little beach that was far from the maddening crowd, met some cool little crabs, and had a moon pie for dessert. We focused on having lunch out which is always the cheaper meal with dinner back at the camper & a campfire.

The background for this photo collage happened to be one I had made while we were in Cape Cod. In fact, I was so pleased how the roses in the paper corresponded to the rose from the beach. So pretty!

And because it's always nice to see a cool little crab, I'll leave you with a video!

A Little Fall on a Sunday

As far as I can tell, camping season is over. I always tell myself that once school has started and it gets a little colder that we still have good weekends left....but then things speed up and a month later we end up winterizing the camper and saying good bye to campfires and scrapbooking on a picnic table. 

This summer wasn't conventional by a long shot anyhow.  It seemed like we had even less summer than normal! The oldest had a job at the Corning Museum of Glass. She drove herself to work, bought (or packed) her own lunch/dinner, got herself home, stopped at the library and basically was Mistress of her Own Destiny. The boy spent as many days as he could up on the Hill getting as many glider flights under his belt as possible in order to earn up the ability to fly solo. When he wasn't there, he spent two weeks at STEM which is a Science & Tech school that he applied for. They are selective on how many kids they take, with the caveat that you must go for two weeks during summer break. I was proud as hell when he was accepted and also super pleased he didn't complain about having to lose some of his valuable summer.  

I personally never thought the kids would camp as much as they did with us this summer, but for the most part they were with us, even for a week in Cape Cod. This makes my heart happy and in fact today I made quite a pretty layout of some recent photos. So beautiful and happy, those kids of mine!

Of course all that traveling made crafting a bit hard. I was asked what I was doing today on this rather cool and sunny Sunday and my answer was healing my soul in my office with some paper. Nobody even questioned it as they were probably tired of watching me pull out a small bag of paper and work on a picnic table. As much fun as it is to work from a kit, it's also nice to have all your STUFF right at your finger tips. 

So far today has involved some spray paint, hot glue, a layout, and lots and lots of catching up. Throw in a couple of load of laundry between chillaxing because well, well we do need clean clothes...I did also managed to put away these cards I had made on my last camping trip. I used the very last bits up of a couple of kits I had been playing with all summer. They are FLAT too, so I can mail them easily...also used up some pretty fall stuff I had been hoarding! This is a good thing! 

And last but not least....I am giving away my candlesticks & a cutting file from a HOP last week....are you ready?

Diane YOU are the winner! I'll send you out the cutting file and the candlesticks just as soon as I get your email and home addy! Happy Winner Dance!

The Second in a Double Page Spread

Hello! If you landed here looking for a hop, click back one page and check out my candle sticks here for THE CUTTING CAFE. If not, read on!

I deliberately didn't have the first in my double page spread at hand. My first Encampment layout had taken advantage of a very piece of vintage air plane paper I had and I always have to scrounge to find red, white and blue paper so I knew it wasn't going to match at the start.

What I did have was a really cool photo of Luke's Hotel Squadron that I could print out really big and the ability to make another flower like the ones I used on the past page. Dug around to find some more red, white and blue paper and I gave it a whirl.

I noticed that on both pages I didn't bother with a title. I let the photos and journalling do the talking. I think it's because I had to use a lot of photos to tell the story and it was already pretty busy. Red is a hard color for me to scrap for some reason, kinda like purple for some reason so I 'm happy to have this one done and dusted!

Well, I am jetting off! I have to work today painting a Habitat House with a group! Which is red...incidentally! Lucky for me I don't have that trouble with paint.

Flower Sticks for THE CUTTING CAFE

Happy Bloggy Hop Day! Welcome to the Cutting Cafe’s Blog Hop where we are doing something completely different! Each of the ladies on the team are giving away the very set(s) that we used to create our projects. I am ALSO giving away these candle sticks! Double BAM cool!

Check out these flowers! You can easily make them yourself using Regina's Paper Flower Template. With any luck, I'll be giving you the set to try yourself. You will also have my set of candle sticks to enjoy! If you would like to win this cutting file set and my candlesticks, just leave me a comment letting me know what you think about my project. I will be drawing one winner this coming Sunday and will get the candles out to you shortly there after!

Since you are hopping, I'll make this short and sweet:

With any luck, you came from Lisa's Blog. You should be traveling next to my DT sista Keri who will also have a fun project and set you can win.

If you get lost in the hop, you can view the participants below. Be sure to visit each blog for a
chance to win!

Regina Easter

Sheryl Wilder

Robyn Herndon Weatherspoon

Tmika Plair O'Neal

Audrey Perteete Long

Patti J. Gilliam

Chauntelle Lee

Kim Venezia

Deb Peterson Rauch

María Pilar

Shanta Newby Shtanah

Diane Hover

Lisa Reynolds Bzibziak

Lisa Snowdy

Mitra Pratt which is HERE!

Keri Weaver Parish

Maria Luisa

Tina Day Goodwin

Regina Cooper Bailey

Fernweh: Layout for Another Freaking Scrappy

The challenge this month over at Another Freaking Scrappy is to use purple! Wow, not a color I have a lot of in my scrap paper! Good thing I had a print that I made for an art project for Lexi that was ready for a page! I had it in my too good to throw out stash. Even had the moon and shimmer spray so worked well for this Eclipse page!

I even used a pair of the glasses the kids got when they went up to the observatory at Corning Community College. Made me happy as it had that really cool graphic and also the date! Was a really low key day for them just watching the eclipse, but Megan brought little planes to play with which helped the time pass!

I had to use a lot of staples to get the top paper to stay on the bottom glitter paper. Did finally get it all to work. Love that glitter paper!

Well, hope you get a chance to pull out some purple and have a play! Nice time to get some of that stash on a page and used up!

Happy Saturday!

Throw Back Thursday on Friday

Goodness I came home dog tired! Meant to post this yesterday, but the boy had to get some volunteer hours so I had a ride along at work. Of course, it was a rainy day which is why he picked it. Can't fly too well up at Harris Hill in the rain. I ran him everywhere so he had a good flavor of what I do at work. He didn't like parts of it. ;-) Other parts (lunch) weren't so bad.

He asked me a couple of days ago to dig up this page for him. Luke is writing an essay to get into Flight School next year and wanted to see when he was up in a plane first. Turns out (this was a birthday page for Lexi) that it was pretty easy to tell he was five. Shout out to journaling!

While driving around to various house sites, he showed me this photo he got sent to him from the day before. You can tell he's loving it! Yes, he's flying the glider. At 14 no less.

I noticed on this page of mine that is around nine years old that I made this really cool chipboard title complete with a little compass in the o and with a chipboard heart with wings. This makes me miss all things chippy...it's funny how things change and those aren't really in "style" at the moment.

Neither are those little ohhhh what did we call them that you had to punch carefully as they were metal...eyelets? They are super cute on here though. When did I stop using those? OR better yet, stop using those awesome jolees trees....This is also back in the day when I bought more things to use on a specific page vs. just hunting around to see what I had that I could upcycle.

Anyhow, I'll be back soon with another flying page. Trying to get my posts caught up from this week!