Ideas!

Like most of you, I {heart}Pinterest!  Today, I was scrolling through and found some cute ideas for organizing your craft supplies and thought I'd share.

Isn't this great?  It's an oatmeal container turned into a ribbon storage container.  You can find it here.  I don't have room on my tiny desk for this, but when I move into a bigger place, I will have a craft room.  I can just imagine these all lined up on a shelf....covered of course in various shades of pink paper.  Maybe even shades of blush and bashful.  (If you don't recognize that, it's from one of the best movies ever, Steel Magnolias!)

I love this scrap storage, don't you?  I have mine in this crazy plastic accordion file and it's a mess!  When I have more space, this is my plan.  Go here to see her entire post.

Oh how lovely!  All that paper makes me drool.  Love it!  Check it out here.

Isn't this super duper cool?  I love it! It reminds of Martha Stewart's armoire she had on her show one time.  I have always wanted one!  You can find it here.

I am always looking for great new ways to organize my crafting space.  If you have ideas, I'd love to hear them!

Blessings,

Cheryl

Candles!

Good morning to you all! I hope your Tuesday is going well so far.  Before I get to the card, I would like to say THANKS to all of you for your kind comments and responses to my post about my weight loss efforts.  It's great to hear from others and know I'm not alone in this struggle.  My heart was happy hearing from you guys!

Rainbow!

"And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down.  Without the rain, there would be no rainbows."

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

A couple of things...

First of all, let me say thanks for all the nice comments about my flower made using ovals.  You all are so sweet!  It just gives me the warm fuzzies to read your comments.  =)  I had several questions on how I assembled the flower, so I will be working on a tutorial this weekend and hope to have that up soon for you guys.  If you're not sure what I'm talking about, it's the card from this post.

Warning - The next section has nothing to do with paper or cards, so if you're not interested, please feel free to stop reading now!

I wanted to share something personal with you.  Recently, I've started back on the Weight Watchers program.  Let me stop here and and say, if you are someone who doesn't have to battle with the scale, you are very blessed!  And I'm totally envious!  I was not born with the "skinny gene" or whatever you'd like to call it.  It's always been a struggle for me and the last few years, I haven't fought it very well at all. Until recently, I had stuck my head in the sand over this out of embarrassment, shame, guilt and disgust with myself. 

For most of my adult life, I've hated the way I look and feel.  I've tried a gazillion ways to lose weight (can anyone say cabbage soup?  I can't even eat cabbage now without gagging!) and have been successful for a short period of time.  It's embarrassing to admit all the silly things I've tried in hope of reaching that seemingly unattainable goal.  A few months ago, after trying to find some new pants and being unhappy with every pair I tried on, I had a meltdown in the car in the parking lot.  My husband and I sat there and had a long talk and I think for the first time - out loud - I admitted just how I really felt about this weight thing.  I know my husband, family and friends love me and accept me for what I am, but I had never trusted them with my feelings on this issue.  I have a type A personality and this has been the one thing that I've completely failed at, every time I've tried, and that's really hard to accept.  So....after my meltdown, I've come to a few conclusions...

1) I am not a diet.  I want to change my lifestyle.  Forever.  If it's not forever, I'll go back to the same habits and be in the same boat I'm in now.  When I say "DIET", I swear to you I automatically want everything I can't have!  Do you have that problem?  I know that the main things that got me here are Dr. Pepper (Oh, sweet nectar of heaven) and snacks instead of regular meals (I don't really like grown up food - give me some Goldfish crackers and I'm happy).  Instead of thinking "I can't have that until I'm off this diet", I now think "I can have that occasionally so I don't sabotage the other days".  It's all in how you think about it.  I have good days and bad days.  Today is a rough one! 

2) Being a failure goes right along with being a human.  We have all failed many times in our lives.  And as much as I love for things to be perfect (Hello, Type A!), I am not nor will I ever be perfect.  I now believe the reason for my failures in the past is because I see things very black and white and it's all or nothing for me.  When I've messed up before, I just quit because I failed.  No more of that for me!  I say this through clenched teeth.....It's OK to mess up!  You just have to get back up and keep going.

3)  Sharing my struggles with others is pretty therapeutic.  In my efforts to not burden others with my problems/failures/issues, I've kept alot inside that needed to come out!  I will no longer do that.  I decided yesterday that I'm going to keep a journal through this process.  I am not much of a writer, but now I'm thinking it may really help.  We'll see.

4)  I have to learn to accept me for who I am.  I am not very fond of myself.  I never have been.  I tend to worry so much about perfection that I am super critical of everything I do and I try to please everyone.  I will never please everyone.  NEVER.  And it's OK to be me, with all of my faults and quirkiness (there's plenty of that!).  I am learning, slowly, that God made me the way I am for a reason and it's quite an insult to him to complain about myself all the time!

Now, I realize that most of you follow my blog to see cards and paper crafts, and not hear about my weight issues.  I promise to not burden you with this very often.  I just wanted to share so that those of you out there with the same struggle will know that you're not alone - I'm here with ya!  I hadn't intended on rambling on forever, so I apologize that this is so lengthy!  If any of you are on a similar journey, I would love to hear your thoughts, tips, tricks or just ramblings. 

Have a blessed day!

Cheryl



Grown Up Card



So, I’m 36 years old and a lot of the time I still don’t feel like a grown up.  Sometimes I think it’s because I don’t have kids or because I enjoy silly things or because I still love pink, sparkly things!  Either way, I certainly don’t feel like I’m in my mid-thirties (saying that sends shivers down my spine….too close to 40!).  When I finished this card, I looked at it and thought “Wow, that looks very grown up for me!”.  I don’t know why exactly but it seems sophisticated and serious and all grown up.  What do you think?

Birthday Book

Happy, Happy Monday!  Today I want to share a book I made to keep track of birthdays.  I sent out cards to friends and family and to the kids in my class at church on their birthdays.  Last year, I had this tattered list that I kept in my desk and I decided I was sick of looking at that junky piece of paper, so I wanted to make a book.

I bought a bind-it-all last year after months of debating whether I wanted to spend the money or not.  I used it a lot last summer and then went through a spell where I didn’t touch it.  I figured I’d try to make my first book.  Here’s what I came up with...

Flowers...again

Do you ever get sick of seeing my cards with flowers on them?  I. Can't. Help. Myself.  (If you love "You've Got Mail" like I do, you'll recognize that line...punctuation included)  Anyway, I have yet another card to share with a flower on it.  I love those flowers, I tell ya.

Inking Tip

Is anyone else ready for the weekend?  It's been one of those days and I just need to get out of here (work) and start my weekend!  I really like my job but there are some not-so-great situations right now that just make me want to stay home.  Come on weekend!

I wanted to share a quick tip with you today that I discovered in the wonderful world of Pinterest.  Some of you may already do this, but it was news to me!  I really like the look of inking my Cricut cuts and the edges of my cards, but it's always messy.  I've been too cheap to invest in the little dauber things, so I've been using the wedge makeup sponges and cutting them into smaller pieces.

The problem with these is that it gets all over my fingers and me no likey that!  I saw an idea to use the little eyeshadow sponges instead, so I got some.  Can I say fab-u-lous?  They work like a dream. (in my humble opinion)  And they're super cheap!  I also found that because of their size, they are great for getting in the nooks and crannies of your cuts.  I got a small pack at Walmart, but found a better deal on Amazon here:

You can get 20 of them for $1.99.  What a bargain!  =)

Hopefully this will help some of you keep your fingers nice and clear of ink.  Have a great Friday!

Blessings,

Cheryl

A little late...

I opened up my email today and found a hilarious link from my dad and had to share with you all.  I know it's past Valentine's Day, but these cards are great.  Kudos to the creative genius that designed them!

Kinda sick...but funny!

I think this is my favorite.  It made me laugh out loud sitting at my desk in my quiet office at work.

Can't you feel the romance when you read this one?

Girl, You know it's true...It takes me back to stirrup pants, big, long sweaters and tall bangs!

There are several more. You can see them all here.  Thanks, dad, for the great laugh!

Blessings,
Cheryl

Back to Normal...

Happy Wednesday!  I feel like it's been forever since I've been around here.  What a busy, busy past few days!  As I mentioned in my previous post, we had been preparing for a big dinner at church on Monday night.  We worked all day Saturday decorating, then worked all day Monday cooking.  I thought it turned out to be a fabulous evening and the dinner got great reviews!  I also have to mention that I have the best pals in the world at church - everyone pitched in and worked until exhaustion to make sure things were just right.  I took Tuesday off to recuperate and now I'm back to normal life, I think.  =) 

I have a bunch of cards to share with you so let's get to the first one...

Busy, Busy, Busy!

For the last few weeks, we’ve been working on planning a big dinner that’s held annually at our church.  My bestie (my hubby told me that’s what I should call her after he heard it on The Big Bang Theory) and I plan the dinner and décor and oversee the preparations.  I really enjoy it, but it’s super time consuming and certainly makes us work hard!  We have fabulous volunteers that work very hard to make it a success and it’s worth all the hard work.  Since I’ve been working on that for a few weeks, and the dinner is next Monday, I will not be spotlighting a cartridge of the month for February.  I have had no time to craft…and I’m having withdrawals!

Monday...again?

What is it about Mondays that just make you want to stay in bed?  Sundays are really busy for me with my duties at church, so I think I need Monday to recuperate from my weekend!  Oh well....life doesn't work that way, does it?  Gotta go to work if I want to get paid...and eat...and have electricity...and all those other fun things.  Moving on....

I {heart} Valentines Day!

 Happy Thursday!  I hope you're all having a good morning so far.  I finally have something to share with you guys.  It seems like it's been forever!  Thanks to all of you for your kind wishes for me to get better - I am!