I have a new favorite store

I usually don't blog on Sundays, but Rob and I had a date night last night and I just felt compelled to write about it! Now, most of you are probably very familiar with Ikea. I had never been there before, and the closest one we have to us is about an hour north of here. My parents took the kids overnight and we had a little adventure!

I couldn't even believe the outside of the store...it makes such a bold statement, with that blue and yellow. Then once you get inside, they take you on this little tour and weave you all through the store. I felt like I was in a maze or something. Their displays are really well put together, and I'm convinced this is way their products sell so well.

We ended up with a few things:

Rainbow colored plastic bowls and little plates for the girls...

A little table and chair, which I've been wanting to get for a long time now...

And finally, a chair for my "office" LOL. Mine has an off-white, washable cover...nice!



Anyway, I know it seems silly to post these things on here, but since it was the first time we were ever there, I wanted to remember it. :-)

After shopping, we had a yummy Mexican dinner, and then drove over to Ann Arbor, just to people watch. They had just had graduation earlier in the day, there weren't too many people around, but it was still fun. We sat in a local coffee shop, right next to the window, and I tried to smile at people walking by to see how many of them would smile or nod back. Much to my dismay, only a few responded. The fellow at the next table decided to join in (he was this cute little Asian dude with the biggest smile I've seen in a while) and started commenting on the pedestrians. It was such a hoot!

Rob borrowed a log splitter from the neighbor and is finally getting to work on the monstrous pile of logs that is still in our front yard. The tree was cut down in November, I think? At least the wood is nice and dried out now. There will be lots of outdoor fires in the backyard this summer.

Speaking of fires...

This is how we spend many spring and summer evenings at our house. It's so much better than TV! Don't my girls have such sweet little toes? I made this one for the Weeds and Wildflowers CT call. I hope I make it!

I love sunshine :-)

Ah, sunshine. If you live in an area where it's sunny most of the time, you probably don't appreciate it like I do. Around here in NW Ohio, I think just over half of our day shave actual sunshine. So, when the sun comes out, it's just awesome!

Today is one of those gorgeous spring days that we long for all winter. The kind of day where you just feel good about life in general, and wonder bad things can happen. It's a bit eerie to know that it looked just like this in NYC on 9/11, and now with the terrible events at Virgina Tech this week, there is such a disconnect between peace and horror. It doesn't seem fair that I can be sitting here enjoying this day, while so many families are suffering to a degree that I can't imagine. They have been in my prayers all week.

On a lighter note, I called Rob and asked if he could take the afternoon off. He worked so much last week on that virus problem (40 hours in 4 days) that I think he could use a break. Besides, I just miss him sometimes and want to hang out, like we used to. :-)

I can't think of anything else to write, so I think I'll sign off. Have a great weekend!

Another Wednesday

It's a kind of blah day here, overcast and chilly. Yesterday was so gorgeous...sunny and about 55 degrees. The girls had school in the morning, and then we headed out to the park in the afternoon. Things got pretty crazy there after school let out, so then we headed to my favorite produce market, Monnette's, to get some HEALTHY food.

Can I just say, as an aside, that there are a lot of complete idiot parents at a playground? There were quite a few sitting around smoking, talking on their cell phones and generally ignoring their kids. One kid was even taking his dog, who was on a leash, down the slide! I should have snapped a picture but didn't want to seem obvious.

I did get a bunch of cool nature photos, which I'm going to use for textures, etc. Fun fun!

Okay, back to the healthy food business. We are *trying* to start eating more natural food around here...some organic things, soy and rice milk, and generally nothing with added color or preservatives. Let me tell ya...it's a challenge, especially do to on a budget! After getting our fresh produce, I made a yummy dinner that was really well received by the whole family - Thai Pork Burritos. I used ground turkey instead and it was delicious!

After dinner I ventured out to the natural foods store in town. We are making our own bread too, and Rob wanted all kinds of wacky things. Here's my grocery list, which set me back over $100 - ouch!!

Soy milk
Rice milk (which is quite tasty, I've discovered!)
Almond butter (a treat for me and the girls)
Toasted almonds
Organic cereal
Rye flour
Gluten flour
Date sugar
Cane sugar
Soy yogurt
Water buffalo milk yogurt (I know, I know, but it made me laugh!!)
Arthur shaped mac and cheese
Kid's vitamins
Frozen spinach and garlic pizza
Burt's Bees orange facial cleanser (mmmm, it smells sooo good)
Mothering magazine

And...

Are you ready?

ONE WHOLE FROZEN CHICKEN!!!

Now, if you know me IRL, you know that I am tragically afraid of touching chickens, turkeys or most other raw meats. But, free range chicken is so expensive that I decided to buck up and by the darn thing, roast it, and then maybe it won't be so gross to touch. However, somehow the chicken got left at the store! Oh darn, I'm so upset [insert sarcastic snicker here]. They did call me and will be crediting my store card. So, I got out of it this time...

~~ Contest Winner! ~~
Okay, enough about chickens. We have a winner! Muka received my Cosmic Wonders Paper Pack after leaving a comment and being randomly chosen. Enjoy Muka!

~~ New Products ~~
I just finished up another set of templates...Rectangle Quickies Power Pack 2 and
Square Quickies Power Pack 2. They are on sale right now at PDW for just $3.50!

Cosmic Wonders freebie

I just put a really fun and funky new paper pack in my store at Plain Digital Wrapper. I think this is my all-time favorite product I've ever made! Just click the preview to check it out in the store.


Here are a couple of layouts using this paper pack. The first one was created by the fabulous Jessica Bolton. Be sure to check out her awesome store at Scrapbook Graphics!


By Tracy Blankenship, who gives away the coolest freebies ever!




And here is one I did:


Now, for the freebie. I had an extra paper that wouldn't fit neatly into my preview (LOL!), so I thought it would make a great freebie. Please leave me some love if you download. :-)

Everyone who leaves a comment before Wednesday, April 18 at 12:00am will be entered into a drawing to win the paper pack for FREE! I will post the winner here sometime Wednesday afternoon. Be sure to PUT YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS IN YOUR COMMENT so I know how to find you. :-)

DOWNLOAD HERE

Enjoy!

A very long Saturday

Today has been a really long day. Rob had to work today, to continue rebuilding all the stuff he lost when that virus took the network down at school on Thursday. I wish I could understand why someone would want to spend their time writing a program that could be so destructive. If these people would put that knowledge to good use, they could make a lot of money!

We are supposed to go to a hockey game tonight, but I'm not really in the mood.

The girls did some cool art projects today to pass the time. This morning we painted with the new paint we got last night, and this afternoon we made flowers:


Did you ever make these as a kid? You take wax paper, shave crayons onto it, put another piece of wax paper on top, and then put a cool iron on top to melt the wax. They look cool in a window, because the sunlight (or at least daylight, in this case!) comes through. It is a bit messy, but no matter. One tip though...don't do this on a vinyl tablecloth, because it's easy to melt a hole in it, like I just did! LOL

I tried out a different kind of scrapping style last night:

Credits:
3 Slide Frames by Doris Castle, from True Love
Distressed frame by Jessica Bolton, from Home Life
Background paper by Lisa Whitney, from Easter Sweets
Flower Hook-Ups by Donna Rafferty
Dotted ribbon by Michelle Coleman
Pink trim by Bren Boone, from Hip Chick
White stitches and embroidered alpha by Toni Berman
Hand Stamped Alpha by Michelle Coleman
Paint splatters and painted frame by Doris Castle, from Art Strokes

This will end up being a two page layout. It was fun to make though!

Okay, I guess I should go take a shower, and the girls need a bath too. :-)

Another digi student :-)

It has been my goal of late to try to get a couple people I know IRL to start digiscrapping. And guess what? It worked! Yesterday my good buddy Carrie brought her kids over to play with the girls, and she brought along her picture card from her camera. Check out her first digi layout ever!

Credits: Template by me, Home Life by Jessica Bolton, available at SBG, Fonts: Michelle Marker, Old English

I'm so excited to get someone else "addicted"! LOL

The girls had spring break this week, which doesn't amount to much since they are only in school two mornings a week, but it's enough to change the routine. Rob took the day off Tuesday and we went to The Butterfly House...it's so cool there!

Credits: Paper, frames, binder clip, bow, star brads and journaling
paper from Toni Berman's Debutante kit, available at [url=http://www.mydigitalmuse.com/boutique/product.php?productid=417&cat=0&page=1]My Digital Muse[/url]
and [url=http://toniberman.com/shoppe/index.php?main_page=product_dnld_info&products_id=60]Toni Berman Designs[/url]
Painted butterfly by Michelle Coleman
Clay butterfly by Amy Knepper
Silk butterflies by Christina Bartholomew and Eve Recinella

Rob had a very late night last night. The church/school network got a virus yesterday afternoon, and he was there trying to get it up and running until 4:30am (with the exception of a one hour break at home). I feel so bad for him, because he had to get up and go back in this morning. No rest for the weary. But at least he was able to get it working. Sometimes those viruses can destroy entire systems.

I don't think we have much planned for this weekend. Rob is going to a hockey game tonight, and we are supposed to go together to a game tomorrow night (it's playoff season for the Toledo Storm). In our former life (before kids, that is!) we had season tickets to the games, and Rob was the webmaster for the team for a season. Ah, the good old days.

Well, we are off to go to the natural foods store in pursuit of some rice milk and soy milk. Gretchen has been experiencing tummy aches after just about every meal, so I'm wondering if it could be a dairy/lactose problem. Maybe this will help her constant attitude/behavior issues? We can hope!

Have a great weekend everyone!

I'm still here!

It's been close to a month since I've blogged. And now I can, because I finally finished a huge project I've been working for almost that whole time. But more about that later...

Spring has arrived here in Ohio, at least briefly. Monday and Tuesday it was 70-75 degrees, and then Wednesday hit and it was back to winter-like temps. But we did get outside those warm days and I got some great pics.

Is this a pose, or what? Gretchen sure knows how to work the camera!

And here's Heidi. Notice how she is standing? I guess all those ballet classes are starting to sink in! LOL

A couple of weeks ago, Rob was out of town for almost a week for a basketball tournament. We tried to plan lots of things to do to keep ourselves busy, since my parents were in Florida at the same time!

The girls got to meet Ronald himself on a lunch outing with my Grandma. Heidi decided that he must be real, since his feet are so big...that makes him a real clown. LOL

Then back at Grandma's place, we built a giant tower with her blocks. Now, these blocks are probably 60+ years old. My dad and aunt had them as kids, and I used to play with them too. Grandma still gets a big kick out of watching us build towers.

The project I mentioned earlier is the school yearbook for Rob's school. I can't show you here, since some of the kids' parents don't want their photos posted on the web, but let me tell you...it was a HUGE job. We ended up having 55 pages total, and I designed each and every one. We did have a group of kids helping out. They were great with Photoshop, but I didn't have as much time as I wanted to really teach it to them properly. Hopefully next year, now that I know what I'm doing, we can make an even better book!

Okay, I'm signing off now and getting to bed. Too many nights of 2:30am bedtimes lately. Later!