New blog!

OK - because of issues at my previous blog with posting pictures I have decided to make my home here at blogger. This blog will be about the everyday life of a stampin, workin', tryin' to save money, love to cook mom.
The boys (esp. Gage) were being so loud last night! I took some much needed therapy time and made two bible verse cards for the divine design challenge at splitcoaststampers.com. I just discovered this challenge and it started in Jan. So, these are my Jan. and Feb. cards. We post for the challenge on the 8th of every month, so I will have to try to get caught up this week.

This cute little knight is from doodle factory's fairy tale set. His little lion shield made me think of david in the lion's den, but then I came across this verse and decided to use it.
I stamped the knight on Georgia Pacific cardstock and colored him with copics. I used real red, basic black and marigold morning cardstock for the card. I inked the edges of the real red with real red ink. I inked the edges of the marigold morning layer and the sentiment with marigold morning and then pumpkin pie. Adding the pumpkin pie really seemed to add alot of pop. Finally, I finished with dots ala markie's mom from splitcoast. Since I copied her style one time and used the little dots, I find it hard not to finish off a card this way!

This cute little girl is the gorilla from high hopes. I used her because of her strength - added a heart and her soul - well, just look at that happy smile! I had a lot of fun doing this - I really like this little gorilla.
I stamped her on Georgia Pacific cardstock and colored her with warm grey copics. I added the ground with copics and a stamp from stampin' up's watercolor mini's. I sponged on the sky using a scrap of a scallop oval, to look like clouds. Then I cut her out with my circle cutter and leveled off the bottom. I made the real red layer the same way. Then I adhered them both to wild wasabi (my absolute fave color, btw) and used my scallop scissors to finish off the circle. Next I mounted the verse on real red and wild wasabi and stuck it all down on this purple bazzill (sorry, I don't know all the bazzill color names) and drew a border with my black pen.

So, there's my stampin' part of the blog for the day. Now on to the money savin' part. I have been going absolutely crazy spending money lately on stamps. I rounded out my copic collection with the last two sets I needed, bought a set of nestabilities and numerous new stamps. Plus, I bought supplies to unmount my stamps so I would have more room in my craft room. I haven't gotten to this project yet, but hope to do it this weekend. At any rate, I have been way too careless about spending money lately. So, I am putting myself on a spending freeze. My friend Dina is in the same boat, so we're going to do it together and I will have someone to be accountable to for my actions. I did a spending freeze last year about this time after a similar binge and I lasted firm (meaning no spending on anything unnecessary) for a couple of months. I didn't spend much on extras after that until around Novemeber. So, hopefully this will help me get under control again. My plan is to start brown bagging to the office more often. I need to get to the store. I've had a very hectic week and haven't had a chance yet, so haven't brown bagged yet, but have been trying to eat cheaper anyway. I do have a grocery list made and my menus made up for the up coming week. That's another way I save money - I menu plan, so I will post my menus here when I make them on Wednesday. Here are this weeks:

Thursday: Foreman Grill Brats, chips, corn on the cob (brought to me, by my wonderful dad), pineapple and baked beans

Friday: Fajita Pizza

Saturday: Crockpot Sticky Roast Chicken, sweet potatoes, rolls

Sunday: Huntington Chicken (with leftover roast chicken)

Monday: Gage's night to cook - Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, broccoli

Tuesday: Biscuits and ham gravy, fruit

Wednesday: Chimichangas

Thursday: Schnitzel, fried potatoes, crock pot corn

Friday: Crock pot Cola BBQ Chicken, corn on the cob, strawberries

Baking (These are various things I will bake on the weekend or throughout the week for breakfasts, snacks and desserts): Blueberry bread, Lemon bars, killer brownies, rasin bread and wheat bread.

Breakfasts: Blueberry bread, eggs, bacon, toast, yogurt, omelet (ham and cheese), leftover biscuits and gravy from Tuesday's dinner and cinnamon rolls.

Lunches: ham salad sandwich, fajitas (fix extra on Friday), chicken salad (from leftover roast chicken), leftover Huntington Chicken and meat loaf sandwich.

Whew - this was a LONG entry, what with 2 stampin' projects to post and my menus. If you want recipes for any of the dishes listed just leave me a comment and I'll try to get them posted. I'm going to try to get the Sticky Chicken recipe posted this week, just because it's super easy, simple, delicious and you can make a million things from it.