New addition to our family!

So my family began after my husband proposed. I moved into my own apartment with no roommates after we got engaged and realized that living alone was not going to be easy. So while he had asked about getting a dog it wasn't until he went out of town that I went looking. We got a minature schnauzer, named her Georgia since Bush was running for president at the time. Anyway, she was born with a hole in her heart and three years ago she just couldn't live a full life anymore. Luckily about a year or more before her time, we had added a second schnauzer. Jasper is his name, he came into my heart at a time that I did not know if I would ever heal from a miscarriage, even though we just barely expecting again. Jasper was the fury love that helped me heal. Georgia trained him and some how passed on her great attributes to him. And yet he has a unique soul and he loves to talk to us. So we have been talking about adding another dog for Jasper to have someone to play with. However since my other minature schnauzers never stayed true and averaged a weight of 27 lbs. I wanted something smaller and more of a lap dog. Hubby didn't like what I was wanting. But Saturday, the right information found me and I went to check it out. Then got the family to go with me and take a look at two litters of true akc minature schnauzers. I was happy to get another salt and pepper, but my husband wanted to do something a little more unique. So we came home with the runt of the champagne schnauzer's litter. So this is Einstein, 7 wks old, weighing in at 2.3 lbs, and he will be eventually be white.

So this is Einstein!

This is our youngest of three. Lauren is four and calls him, her "little Einstein"

As you can tell, he is adapting and we have survived two nights with being woken up every two hours to potty. Yes much like a baby all over again.
Although, my hubby has promoted to Captain with the Police department, he has been moved to the midnight shift, so it looks like I will be taking on puppy shifts at night here. Last night he came home at about 4 am for his lunch break which was great timing. Einstein wanted to play and not sleep. So I handed him over and went back to sleep. Jasper is loving the pup, just wishes he was bigger now so they could really play together.

So the next post will be a project that I am working on. I am making chore card for my boys who are 10 and 8. A few chores that are required and others that can be done to earn extra allowances, but with a limit so not to drain my wallet. I will finish that project up and post it.

Take care, stay cool, and have fun crafting!

Update on the E2 return

Okay, so much for the wordy posts. But had to tell you how my second phone call went with Provocraft about the second extra machine. They found it amusing with what was happening. Apologized, emailed a paid packing label. And to compensate me, I was able to pick one cartridge that I have been wanting. Well, I was so excited. So Everyday Pop Up was the choice and now I am so intimidated by this cartridge. Anyway, I also had to talk to them about a cartridge for my imagine that would now work and since the ebay store would not return my email regarding to it no working. They said they take care of that and would be sending out a new Kate's Kitchen. Advice, check all cartridges as soon as you get them to make sure they are working. This was a first for me. The story continues, so the box shows up with the cartridges and open it up and find Nursery tails and everyday pop up. Yet the packing slip reads Kate's Kitchen. So another phone call. I felt silly for having to call once a week here. Yet again, they were wonderful and are sending the correct cartridge this time and allowing me to keep the Nursery Tails, which I am now looking for someone who wants it. So I am waiting again for Kate's Kitchen. For all the times I have had to call Provocraft, they have been more then wonderful everytime. I know some people have complaints but I think everyone has to remember that they are human too. So a Big thanks to Ashley and Ben at Provocraft customer service. Great JOB!

Something Strange that happened, Happened again!

First up, yes I am getting ready to get crafty again. Things have somewhat settled and just having to get ready for hubby working the midnight shift again.

Yes that something strange happened again. Somehow, on the same day they received the one I shipped back to Provocraft. Another was shipped to me again. And since I was out of town, I was reviewing the caller id and apparently Provocraft even called here while I was gone. So come Monday, I will be calling Provocraft again, trying to trace this machine. But I also encountered another problem recently with an Imagine Cartridge. Kate's Kitchen could not be read on either my imagine or my E2, bummer. But I have faith that it will get fixed. Just sadly I didn't check it out when I purchased it since I have never had that happen before. So warning,check to make sure your cartridges work.

Also discovered something interesting. I was linking up my imagine cartridges to my gypsy by way of the E2, yes you can. I gave it a try while packing to go out of town with hopes that I wouldn't have to drag my imagine out of the closet. Yes, its in a closet, I don't trust a little 4 year old girl.

Another update, I made it to the Greatest Scrapbooking Convention in Arlington, bad news was my classes were sold out so I sat in line to go into the exhibit hall. I saw a few from the Stampede. Walked around the hall at least 5 times making up my mind what I had to have. Found some hilarious stamps for upcoming cards! So hang in there and stay cool.

Something Strange happened to me..

Last week, I opened my door to find a package on my door step. What was it? Another cricut expression 2. I got mine on hsn, and this one had me really scratching my head. I looked at all my accounts and there was no strange purchase or charge for this machine. So I called Cricut customer help to track it down. I was hoping that maybe I won it and never got the notice on it. Which could happen, my spam box is over protective.

Anyway, it took this nice girl on the other end named Ashley some work to figure out where this machine came from. She finally came up with an explaination. It was sent out of their replacement warehouse... But yet I never requested a replacement. Last time I ever called was in September with my imagine arrived missing a cartridge from a box. Anyway, she thanked me over and over for being an honest person and calling. So now I have to print out a prepaid fed ex label and attach it to the cricut then drop off at a fed ex location. So that's on my to do list this week. You know I would have really liked to hear that I won it off of one of the many blogs I entered. But I had to know for sure, I didn't want to be charged for a second machine. I had a person in mind that I was thinking I could sell it to at a great deal. She thought that was a cool plan too. Oh well, so I will say goodbye to this cricut expression 2, that found it's way from Utah to Texas for some odd reason. I love winning things, drives my hubby crazy, he tells me I need to play the lottery more.

Thanks for reading...

My daughter's birthday cake..

Okay, have to show this one off. I tried using that prepackaged fondant last year with no success and besides that the taste was ... I can't say anything nice. So I don't have the cricut cake, but kept reading about others making their fondants from marshmellows. And so I googled and found one to work. I used strawberry marshmellows in the pink fondant and with a touch of food coloring gel to pop the color.

And I made white marshmellow fondant as well. I wish I had taken a picture of the cake after we had cut into it, because I made a checker board cake. One that you use two batters and a insert in the pan, alternating. It turned out great. Strawberry and Vanilla cake on the inside. My inspiration was her theme, Minnie's bow. I think the parents were the ones that really ate up the cake. After the party was over, my daughter took a fork directly to the cake and really enjoyed it. This is the first cake in my house that didn't make it thru the weekend. We are not big cake eaters, especially with three birthdays in June just in my family. But you know, the cricut cake might have to go on my list to have someday. I don't need the big one, but maybe the mini would be perfect.

Love when the cricut helps with those big assignments!

So for busy work, my fourth grader had a book report due two weeks before school ends. He has to make a poster of his favorite book he read this school year, along with a summary that would make his classmates want to ready the book.

Okay, so here is where mommmy gets into trouble. I truly realize that I won't be able to do this much longer. I drew the characters and my son colored them in. We worked out thoughts of how we thought each character might look.

But we used the cricut for the lettering. Taught my son how to remove the letters from the sticky mat. We used one font fromt Happy Hauntings and I believe the other font is the cricut alphabet font built into the Cricut expression 2.

After all was done, my son had a poster to be very excited about. And no I don't know what grade he made on it yet.

Bowling Belated Birthday Card

So my oldest has been invited to a "I got good grades/Belated Birthday Bowling Party." Whew, that was a overload. So we are down to the last two half days of school. This party is great timing. Keeps my son occupied for an afternoon after school gets out at noon. Did you catch all that? Anyway, that have requested no presents. But hey I have to at least send a card.

So I knew it had to be bowling theme. Which means I used Nifty Fifty cartridge. I pulled paper from the Celebration stack from DCWV. And some accent color paper that was in my stack. I actually cut the pin's bands out of white and just colored it a color with my bic markers to match the paper. The card measures 5.25" x 7.25" Since this is for a girl in his class, can't go over board with it.

The inside still from the same cartridge. And again just cut the phrase out of black and white. Where you see color, well you guess it, I colored it in. What a time saver it is, especially for small details. And with the bic 36 colors, its easy to find something that cordinates.

Hope you enjoyed it! I am ready for summer in a few ways, like time to craft, but other ways I am not ready to play referee all summer... Ever feel like that?