Project Life for the New Year

I have just ordered my 2012 Album from Shutterfly! (I'm assuming nothing spectacular will happen in the next 24 hours). I designed the cover using Crystal Wilkerson's Hodge Podge collection.

Here are a couple of my favorite layouts for the year:

I am so excited to get started for 2013.  This year I am using Project Life Sea Foam edition.  I already love it! Happy New Year!

Project Life

This year instead of daily photographs, (which was stressful and time consuming), I am doing a monthly 2-page layout, and then adding extra pages for those events in which I have lots of pictures.  This is my layout for June.

Applique Pillow

 This summer I made an applique pillow for each of the boys.  They each picked out their own fabric and applique design.

 I used Heat N Bond to adhere the applique, and then then stitched around the design on my sewing machine.  Tutorial to follow! (Maybe)

A Story About A Casino

My dear husband was in San Diego (a whole other story) for a conference on our anniversary this year, so he decided to surprise me with an overnight stay at a casino resort when he got back.  He woke me up on a Monday morning and told me we're going on a trip.  I had recently heard that this particular casino had a wonderful steak restaurant and was looking forward to trying it out.

We dropped the kids off at Grandma's, and made the 3 hour trip.  We stopped at Dick's burgers on our way, because we always have to stop at Dick's. It was 10:00 am and I was not yet hungry. (Foreshadowing)

We got to the casino and proceeded to lose $50 in the first 20 minutes.  The husband was not a happy camper.  We played for another hour or so and I mentioned that I was hungry. The husband screamed- "Well I'm not ready for a steak dinner yet! Why didn't you eat at Dick's? I offered to get you a salad or something somewhere else!" Apparently, he thought that I meant that I was ready for our sit down meal that we had been looking forward to all day, which I was not. (He was also in a very pissy mood from all the losing we had been doing.) I was just letting him know that I needed to find a sandwich or something to tide me over.  So I yelled "I didn't want to eat Dick's! I hate Dick's, and I wasn't hungry yet!" It is at this point that we decided we should part ways for a little while. 

I did a little wandering around, where I discovered the steak restaurant that we had been looking forward to eating at was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.  Hmmm. Today is Monday. I went to the food court and got a sandwich. I tried to call the husband to see where he was. No cell service.

So, 4 hours in, and we have lost a nice chunk of money, we had gotten into a fight, the steak restaurant was closed, and I couldn't find my husband. Yay.

I spent the next 20 minutes wandering around trying to find him. I finally do and tell him that we will not be eating at the restaurant we had been planning on. We continued playing slots, and actually winning.  (I was particularly fond of the "Zeus" machine. On Mr. Zeus, I won $60. I eventually lost it all, but I choose not to dwell on that.)

I started getting tired of losing all of my money, so we checked into our hotel room, where I stayed and watched t.v., while the husband continued gambling. He came to get me around 7:30, so we could go eat. He wasn't done gambling.  We decided we would go to the buffet.  But he wasn't done gambling.  I looked at the menu and told him what our choices were. But he wasn't done gambling.

I finally drag him away from the Star Wars machine and go to the buffet, where the cashier is counting her till.  He asks "Can we still eat?" she says, "You have 10 minutes before they pull the food." He looks at me, I shrug my shoulders, and we go for it.

I have never eaten so fast in my life.  We literally ran through the buffet, unloaded our plates on the table, and immediately went back to get more. I didn't even look at what was on my plate until I sat down to eat.  I ended up with an extra large cinnamon roll, mashed potatoes and gravy, clam chowder and some shrimp. Wha?

We scarfed our food down and were done in 15 minutes. I went to bed. He wasn't done gambling.

I've been published!!!!

Check out my quilt on page 74 of the newest edition of Simply Homemade Baby!

http://northridgepublishing.com/store/display/simply-handmade-baby-2012

UPDATE: Now that I have gotten my quilt back from the publisher I can share a picture.

Fortune Cookie Tutorial

I made these candy filled fortune cookies for my son's class for Valentine's Day. I got the idea here but wanted to use patterned fabric instead of felt. This is how I did it.

For this Project you will need: 1 6"X6" piece of fabric for the outside, 1 6"X6" piece of fabric for the inside, a piece of Heat N Bond, a 5" piece of wire and a 6" diameter bowl for tracing.

After tracing your bowl onto the Heat N Bond, iron it on the wrong side of your lining fabric and cut out.

Peel the backing paper off, and center the wire in the middle of the circle.

Iron your outside fabric to the lining circle, and cut it even with the lining.

Fold the circle as shown.

Fill with candies and a message, and fold to look like a fortune cookie.

Replacement Head

I have the hardest time getting a picture where all of the boys are smiling and not goofing off. (Ellis. When I say "the boys" I mean Ellis.) I got one good shot of Ellis being semi normal, but the proportions were wrong for printing an 8X10. I would have to cut the boys legs off and I wasn't really feeling the amputation vibe.

This picture worked better for cropping to 8X10, but Ellis was being a Dorkasaurus Rex and was looking down, so I didn't want to print them off and give them as gifts.

Sooooo, I cut his head off and replaced it with the first one. Thank you Photoshop Elements for saving the day!

Now that I look at the pictures next to each other, I think I made his head too big. Oh well.