Guess who had a birthday this past weekend??
Kelly turned 7! Seven years since the day she was born. Sigh.
In some ways it all goes so fast and in others you can't wait for them to grow out of the next phase.

We threw a family party for the birthday girl and she got plenty of goodies. Movies, clothes, toys and a cd player.

We capped it all off by going into the back yard and spraying silly string on each other.
Toward the end of the silly string war Rob was the biggest casualty.
Mom decided to go all out in the cake department this time and Kelly got the cool castle cake. Of course I've always been partial to cakes with figures because I used to collect them, and the kids like to play with them.

So pre birthday party we stopped by Sonic to have a bite of lunch. Took us forever to decide what to order and when we finally pushed the button to place our order, they never answered!!



Rob and I finally decided to just go home and make lunch, we didn't need to spend the money.
(On a side note, they didn't answer the lady next to us either and she left too. It was probably faulty boxes but in the long run it worked in our favor, by saving money)

So my mojo came back. I have almost completed one gift and I'm off in a few to go buy the backing to the next gift.
I'm enjoying quilting, but I have other projects that I need to work on also.
Some I should be able to post pictures for.
Last night was girl scouts and again Kelly had a great time.
On Monday we picked up her vest and patches so last night before meeting I snapped a couple of pictures of her. She has grown and changed so much since school started this year. More confident, more into her own. I'm very proud of her, and I tell her so.
Can you believe she pulled out another tooth?
It was a bit wiggly Sunday night by Monday when I picked her up from school that tooth was history!
The tooth fairy dropped off a couple of bucks to her which she promptly put in her crayon bank.
I swear this kid has more money than I do just by loosing teeth!

Kelly has started to inspect Wyatt's teeth for any loose ones. Lord help him if he lets his sister get in there.

Off to the quilt store and then JoAnns!

*Carrie*

Have you seen my mojo??
Seriously, My creative spirit? My happiness at making things?
I lost it and would like it back please.

I think there are three factors why my mojo has run away.
1. a comment my mil made that hurt
2. my kids' rooms and my scraproom are messy, so everything (to me) is messy. (I'm finding I can't scrap or sew if things are messy)
3. Even if my scraproom was clean, there still isn't enough room to spread out.

And chocolate is not helping in this matter right now. Sigh.
It's just one of those funky off days.

Now in more happy news; my fabric order showed up yesterday and I'm excited about how fast it shipped. it's all so cute.
I need to go buy some thread but hopefully this weekend I can start to work on my gifts.
I should be done fairly quickly if I have the time and money to do so.
First I need to celebrate my oldest daughters 7th birthday!!
It's going to be a quiet family affair but I'll still take plenty of pictures!

Last night I was working on making Christmas cards with my cricut and my diecuts weren't working for me and I got to wondering what I could do to make them "pop".

I had planned to bring some cards to put together and some quilting to stitch for our Womens Craft night tomorrow. But those darn cards and the comment that was made have slapped me upside the head and called me Shirley.
So I guess my funk is also a state of contemplating.
Just typing this out is making me feel better.
Maybe once the yahoo's come home from school I can try to create again, or maybe I'll continue cleaning.
*Carrie*

My first quilted project is almost finished. Does anyone know of a fun way to whip stitch??
I have gotten the top and part of one side of the binding done, but that is a project I will do while listening to the tv at night.
I have two other practice Christmas pieces that I will quilt and start binding today.
If all goes well I will continue onto my biggest project yet.

Want to take a small peek??
Here are 8 of the 40 strips for a baby quilt for Chelsea. This is called a honey bun, which is 1.5" pre-cut strips that I plan on having fun with.

I undid the bun and laid all the pieces out and then sorted for a pleasing look.
Now, because I have no memory I took pictures of each group to reference later.
I then folded each section up and laid them across my cutting mat then I step away to use the bathroom.


This is what I had when I got back.

Can you guess what little munchkin got a hold of my strips?

Can you imagine how thankful I was that I took pictures of each set of strips??
I have sewn all together 3 of the five group sets.
I'll show you the pretties later.

Joanns is having a coupon commotion and national sewing month sale and I finally found the sizzix embossing folder sets.
I will admit I did pick up a couple of sets and there were a couple of sets out of stock that I can't wait to see what they look like.
One set, the damask I already can vision a Christmas card with. hmmm.

Before I go I do want to give a shout out for great Customer Service. I placed an order for fabric at http://www.crazyquiltgirlfabricshop.com/ and not only does she have fantastic prices but she emailed me to let me know that my product fit in a smaller box and she was refunding part of my shipping cost.
How cool is that. I saved $5.00.
I have spread the word to all my crafting friends, I will definitely be going back.

*Carrie*

Oh I'm in trouble.


With my family's enabling I have been going quilt crazy. Thanks to my friend Debbie whom has introduced me to charms packs, which led me to google on the net and find the Moda bake shop, http://www.modabakeshop.com/ , where you find the best patterns and ideas.


I have highlighted this fabric because I just ordered it to make my a baby quilt for my soon to arrive niece.


So now I'm waiting on fabric. What do you think of this for a table runner?? Crazy bright huh?



One thing that clicked for me while I was learning about this Moda company was that a while ago I heard that Basic grey scrapbook paper was turned into a fabric line.



Well Moda is the company that makes it.



They carry, sultry, eva, figgy pudding and coming in January is blush.


I have plans brewing in my head. Scary thought.


So in a nut shell I have chained myself to my sewing machine piecing things together.



Now I just need to learn to bind and quilt it. hehehehe

Christmas is going to be very homemade. I have a list of what is being made for each family. Some of those ideas came from the cricut message board. Talk about inspiring.

I have started planning out my Christmas cards. I'm going to make 6 sets of 10 cards. Plenty of variety and I will probably not get bored doing it.

I had also seen a Happy Halloween banner at two peas last year that I'm going to be recreating soon with foamy pumpkins, blackletter solutions cart and ribbons galore.
Our family loves Halloween.

I am not leaving my scrappy world! I'm just branching out and learning new things. I am becoming the creative person I have always wanted to be.
I feel so dang jazzed.
Now will this feeling continue while I go clean my scraproom??
*Carrie*

Wyatt's teacher, Ms. Svetlana says to me this morning that toward the end of yesterday all the kids began to get tired and Wyatt was no exception. He had the little girl next to him doing his work for him!!
Ms. Svetlana and her aide Ms. Trudi said they watched as Wyatt told the little girl what to color and where. Both ladies got a chuckle out of it but said that Wyatt needs to do his own work.
Obviously.
Kindergarten and the boy is already sweet talking the girls into doing his work. He knows how to do all this stuff, lazy kid or brilliant?
One of the mom's said he had the makings of a politician. Yikes!
*Carrie*

Life has as usual been crazy so I'm gonna post on what we have been up to backwards.
They say variety is the spice of life right?

Yesterday I started to learn how to quilt! I am very excited because this is something I have wanted to learn for several years.
We are beginning with a table runner which is the perfect project for me.
It is also something easy enough that I can make one for each of my family members for Christmas.
Since this is my first quilt project I decided to use some fabric I already had been hoarding.
See once upon a time I wanted to make table cloths for every holiday season. I bought fabric for St. Patty's day, Valentines, Easter and a bit of Christmas. It's all been sitting in a bin waiting.
Well wait no more! I'm happy to be using my stash and accomplishing a goal that I have had for a long time.
So next Monday we will finish with the backing and batting, binding. EEEEEE so excited.


!I'm a big kid now!
Chelsea has figured out how to climb up and sit at the desk like her brother and sister.
She was so proud of herself that she didn't want to get down when it was time for dinner

Chelsea is just growing and discovering things so quickly. She is astounding me left and right. My baby is not so much a baby any more.
We, well she, is now eating more adult food and trying to climb up on the furniture. Learning so many new words and is very stubborn and opinionated.
If Chelsea doesn't like what you tell her she will just start babbling and has been known to smack you for it. Believe me we are working on the smacking part.

Now for the big news....well sorta.....Warning*** put on your sunglasses!!

Kelly has half way moved back into her room!
Rob still needs to put down base boards and some trim and we need to do some decorating but it's now in a livable condition.
With Robs moms help I sewed the curtains for her window and they are now up, sorry no picture.

Kelly's attitude since she moved back in has her on the verge of losing her "new" room. I'm about at my wit's end with my first born, she is yelling at everybody, won't let Chelsea even in her room. To top it off, she has reverted to her messy self and her room was becoming a clothes strewn mess.
All that's in her room is the bed and dresser!!

Her bed set is the Little Miss Mismatched from JcPenney.
It a crazy type of cool and we both love it.
One very noticeable difference with Kelly is that we used to NEVER shut her door. If her door was closed and she was inside she totally freaked out and would cry until the door was opened. Now she keeps her door closed all the time and even sleeps with the door closed.
I have no idea what happened for this changed but I just chalk it up to my daughter growing up on me and getting near those tween years. eeek!
What else?? Still out storm shooting but no luck, I've been reading up on different techniques and places to go shoot. I'm gonna work on my photography because I want to enter the Arizona Highways photo contest, broaden my horizons so to speak :)
I've been going through some older Sunset and Arizona Highways magazines for places to go and things to try in and around Tucson that are family friendly.
It's sad to say that it has taken me 16 years to truly appreciate where I live. Now I want to take off and go explore.
Have you really looked at your town lately??
*Carrie*

Kelly- Mom, I know what 10 + 10 is. (she is looking at her hands)
Me- looking at her expectantly
Kelly- 21
Me- HUH? Try again
Kelly- 20???

She seemed so proud of herself until I told her to try again.






*Carrie*

Look at that sweetheart.
You would think by her pose that I was playing either really bad rap or listening to the fat lady at the opera.
Actually you would be wrong on both accounts.
The house was quiet and I was scrolling through some blogs. I happen to turn and see how Chel's nap was going when I saw this.
How could I resist?

This is one of those moments while precious and cute will fade to oblivion because I no longer have the brain cells to retain the memory. Sigh..
I must protest to God right now...if the experts are correct, WHY do women lose 10% of their brain cells with each pregnancy.
With everything we are to remember why not INCREASE our brain cells by 10% with each pregnancy.
Hello God?? Jesus can you pass this question on?
((Obviously this cannot be true otherwise women like Michelle Duggar, with 19 children, would be a blubbering basket cases, and that is not the truth))
I don't know if anyone remembers, and it's been a very long time ago, do you remember the movie Flash Gordon??
I believe there was this scene where they hook a machine up to somebody (maybe Flash) and watch all his memories in reverse.
That might be pretty cool.
Granted there are some things I would like to glance over but for the most part there is so much I wish I could remember, people, feelings, dates and places.
Because each one of those little moments has helped shaped the person I have become.

Granted from now until the scientists unlock the "secrets of the mind" I have this blog to store some of my memories.
You have been warned.

*Carrie*

The best September storm (so far)

Last night was an answer to prayer. I asked for a great lightning storm and the opportunity to get multiple lightning shots.

God and mother nature delivered.

All of these shots are from different directions around the city.

None of them have been cropped or altered in photoshop.

I know I can't cover my home in just these type of photos so the idea I had earlier about a lightning scrapbook is looking even better.
(photo 1) looking west across the city






(photo 2) looking northwest across the city

(photo 3) also looking northwest

(photo 4) look out east at the Rincon mountains

(photo 5) same direction east

(photo 6) same as 4+5

(photo 7) looking west - getting closer to me

(photo 8) looking northeast. Scared the crap out of me and I got back into my truck.
(photo 9) I headed south to try and get out of the rain but it wasn't to be. I decided to have fun and see what I could get out the rain spattered window.

This bad boy showed up.

After this I headed back toward home. I got one more with the airplane graveyard in the foreground but it didn't turn out. Maybe some other time.

I actually have about 12-18 photos with lightning in them but these were the best.

thanks for looking!!

*Carrie*

The monsoon season is winding down for here in Tucson but it seems the southern cities are just hopping.

Last night we went on a little jaunt to check out the light show. I thought that the storm was heading into town but it slowly crept away.

Toward the end I decided to let my camera stay open to see what I would get. This is my best shot.

The hard part about leaving the shutter open is that it takes the camera that much longer to process the image. Example; I normally leave my camera open about twenty seconds. When I close the shutter the image processes fast. This time I left the shutter open about 2 minutes, and it takes another two minutes for it to process. Imagine all the shots you could miss!

Since the lightning was sporadic I decided to see what I could get. The next shot I left open about 4 minutes and it is too bright. See example below.



I left the shutter open that long and all I got was three lousy strikes (remember the T-shirt)
Anywhoo tonight the weatherman's predicting 60% chance of rain. We'll see.
Oh and you wanna hear what Rob said to me last night?
I was getting the tripod ready and he said,"You really need two cameras". This is because the action was in two places. It has happened before and he has made the same comment.
I love that my hubby is supportive and I know if things were better he would gladly get me a second camera body. Major points for that.
I am just fascinated by the awesome beauty that is lightning. I know to be careful and I am but it floors me every time.
When Rob and I were first married we would grab dinner and go watch the lightning show like a person would go watch fireworks. Oh and the sunset that can come with storm are usually gorgeous.
Sorry, I'm beginning to sound like a broken record.

This weekend we will be painting Kelly's room a Watermelon Pink.
Hey, she picked it out!
And I'm secretly excited to see how it's going to turn out.
Originally Kelly wanted a pretty turquoise called Sweet Rhapsody but she changed her mind and kept telling everyone she was going to have a pink room.
Rob and I will hopefully be installing her flooring too. What was suppose to be a week project has turned into about a month.
That's life right?

I'm to the point I just want my scrapping room back.
Kelly turns seven this month and wants a Ariel birthday. Thankfully I have the Disney princess carts and I can do some cool stuff but I need my room! I'm running out of time!!! Cupcake toppers, decor, banners.
When Kelly was three she had a Ariel birthday and I saved most of the stuff so I'll pull it back out but I want to add some touches to it.
I get all excited about birthday decor.
HHmmmm....birthday party planner......hhmmmm.....
Naw, then I would have to work every weekend.
Have a great weekend!
*Carrie*

Canon EOS 7D Hands-on Preview: 1. Introduction: Digital Photography Review

Ohh, I think I've found something I would love to grow with. (I think I might add it to my want list)

Now I will wait and see what everyone who buys it first will say but the reviews so far are fantastic. I've been wanting to move up my camera and maybe this will be my next baby.
The cost is reasonable too. $1700 with just the body.
I had been lusting over the Canon 5D mark II but I've read that even though the 7D is not a full frame it is better than the 5D. hmmmm... need to do more research. Is full frame that important??
I have spent most of this morning reading photograpy articles and getting inspired when I saw the article for the new Canon.
Why did I have to pick two of the most expensive hobbies??
The one thing that consistently goes through my mind is that I can teach my children both hobbies and to grow with them on both. (or am I looking through rose colored glasses?)

Canon EOS 7D Hands-on Preview: 1. Introduction: Digital Photography Review

*Carrie*

I can't believe it is Wednesday already.
On one hand I'm very happy that it is Wednesday but on the other hand I feel like I have accomplished nothing.
Creatively my brain is on rapid fire and I don't have the time or the space to spread out and mass produce.
Emotionally and physically I feel so spent and drained of my last drop that I'm falling asleep at 8:30 at night.
Life has been so not my norm that I only took 15 pictures of the flowers that Rob bought me for my birthday. :)
I think this has been one of the most beautiful bouquets that I have ever received.
(Me and my little man)

Last Friday the ladies and myself set up to start crafting on Mondays. This past Monday I brought a TON of my stuff so that we can begin making Christmas cards. I only got 4 done. Now I want to set up for mass production and crank those cards out.

In about two weeks I'm going to learn how to quilt a table runner. This is something that I have wanted to do for years. I have most of the fabric I just need to get the rest of the supply list. This might be what everyone receives for Christmas gifts this year. hmmm.
My goal for this past year has been to be more creative. To become the person God is leading me to be. For me that is to let my passion take flight, whether that is photography or scrapbooking/cardmaking. So starting last fall I began my Artist's Way creative journey. You can find these books at Amazon if your curious.
For some people it seems its easy for them to create, for others it's a struggle. I'm known to be a procrastinator but in reality it is fear that holds me back, from what besides rejection I don't know. Rejection is probably enough to hold most people back.
A year later being creative is easier for me but I believe I'm ready to push some boundaries. Now my issue is time management and financial. Having a 14month wiggle worm and just trying to stay up on housework, namely picking up after my mini tornado, leaves crafting to nap time, if that.

So I previously said that part of my current issue is financial, so I have begun making a list of wants and thanks to the ladies from the cricut message board I have found about a thousand dollars worth of Stampin Up stuff I would love to get. At the top of that list is the ticket corner punch and the white ink pad.
Now, I would like to switch over all my ink pads but it will take time.
Ooohh and the markers ooohh.
I also believe they have the best stamps around. Compared to CTMH where I found maybe a hundred dollars worth of stamps.
Next on my list is my ever favorite: pattern paper. There are too many to name but I have my eye on several brands of Halloween and Christmas paper.
Next is cuttlebug folders, dang it I'm the only person in my group that doesn't have these yet. I'm the one that told them about the cuttlebug and the new folders! How does that figure??!!
Last but not least are my loves, my cricut cartridges. Thanks to others creativity I have seen stuff that makes me want some carts that I had previously looked over.
All in good time.
I have a list and when I can I check something off of it.
It is something to look forward to. :)

*Carrie*