Hoo Hoo Loves You?

My niece, Zoe, is about the cutest thing ever. Since she was born the kids and I have decided that her signature animal should be an owl since she's got big expressive eyes and she's super smart. Every holiday we give her something with an owl on it and it cracks me up because she calls them "hoo hoo's" (I almost wet my pants the first time she asked for her hoo hoo blanket!).

This is Zoe's valentine card. I cut out the A Muse papers using the Paisley cartridge on my Cricut. I just love the mixture of colors and patterns and plan to play around with this image some more. I used some black pearls on her eyes and they were the perfect touch!!

Snowman Soup

Did you think we'd never come back? We had an amazingly wonderful (and a bit exhausting) trip. Kayla came home with 2 gold and a bronze medals, lots of experiences and some new friends! We also came home to an extreme temperature change (18 degrees at home vs mid 90's in Brazil) and hit the ground running into the holidays!

I didn't get much craftiness in but I did manage to a make a couple dozen of these little snowman soups for some teachers and friends. The cute little cup is a Coluzzle template that I've had for quite some time and I don't know if you can even find it anymore (sorry). It was a bit labor intensive cutting each one out but so perfect, don't you think? I sure wish there was a die cut for a cup like this though. If anyone knows of one, please let me know because it's perfect for all sorts of things. This template is actually a box but I left the top off so I could fill it with bigger things. The snowman soup poem is from a make-n-take at the A Muse Shop last year.

We've had some cold temperatures here in the Pacific Northwest but so far, no snow to speak of.
I hope you all enjoyed your holidays and wish you all the best for the coming New Year!

Amazing Awaits........

That's the motto of the US Paralympic team and pretty much sums up how we're feeling right now. Tomorrow morning we'll fly to Washington DC to meet the rest of the US Paralympic team and staff and then fly to Rio de Janeiro to compete in the Short Course World Championships. 264 athletes from 31 countries and my baby girl is one of them!!! This picture was taken 2 years ago when she first qualified to swim in a Paralympic sanctioned meet. She was SO proud to pose in front of the sign! Now she's a member of this special team representing our country! To say I am proud is an understatement!

Please keep us in good thoughts and we travel to South America to attend this competition.

Amazing Awaits!

Look Mom, no braces!

Kayla got her braces off today! She's had them on less than a year and a half so we were amazed when Dr. Sullivan said she was done! We did some early intervention with palate expanders which really made a difference in the length of time she had to wear them.

Here she is in the orthodontist's office before:



and after:


She had a caramel apple tonight and tomorrow we are having corn on the cob! She's really looking forward to the gooey Halloween candy. Hmmm.......maybe I should've made the appointment AFTER Halloween!

Elegant Autumn

It's October in the Pacific Northwest and we've had some unusually sunny weather which makes the changing Fall colors even that much more spectacular! A Muse has a new release coming that is absolutely lovely and will give you the perfect excuse to do some crafting on those crisp Fall days. Here I'm giving you a little sneak peak of the Oak Leaf Flourish and a new Beautiful Autumn sentiment. The tree is from the Trees 1 Clear set embellished with Autumn Flower Soft (so fun!).

Be sure to check out the A Muse Blog and from there you can hop over to some of the Creative Team blogs to see some more of what's coming up!

I am teaching "Falling into the Holidays" at the A Muse shop on November 8th so be sure call and reserve your spot!

A Muse Challenge #8 No Coloring Zone

This is for the A Muse Challenge #8 No Coloring Zone. I used my new Fiskars webbing texture plate on a Blackberry notecard, then sanded the embossed parts so the white of the card came through. The spider is a Martha Stewart punch. I bent the legs a little, then popped it up on some extra thick foam squares to make it look spooky real! (for added effect you could flock or glitter it up!). I stamp the "Boo!" on a Paprika notecard and punched it out with my EKS Dog Tag punch, inked the edges up in black and there you have it.......no coloring required!

I can't wait to see what next month's challenge is. Is always so fun to play along!

Calendars for a cause

Have heard the news? The A Muse calendars have been released! This year proceeds from the sale of these calendars will go to benefit Water 1st. Water 1st's mission is to serve families in the poorest communities in the world as they implement community-managed projects that integrate water supply, sanitation, and health education. Please visit the A Muse blog for more information about this awesome project!

The calendars are a download and come in 4 different sizes. The great thing is that you can print them as many times as you need to! I have some great projects and gifts in mind but for now I used the new full size version to make a reading chart for my son. He's what some call a "reluctant reader". He can read but he doesn't really enjoy it and he often starts books and doesn't finish them. We are choosing a stamp to represent each book he reads and stamping each day that he reads to me for 30 minutes. He started out the school year with a Star Wars book so we used the Tiny Star stamp. Now he's reading "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh" so we are using Humphrey the Rat. I stamped "reading" at the top using the Barney Clear Alphabet set which is such a fun font. I really hope this helps to keep his interest and enables him to see his success. I LOVE to read and I really want him to also!

I apologize for the poor photo. I had a heck of a time trying to get a good picture and my main desktop computer is down which is where my good photo editing software lives. After much frustration I decided you'd get the idea though the photo wasn't that great.

I've updated my class schedule. My Fall classes are listed in my side bar to the right. Please call or visit the A Muse shop to register. You can also register online and while you're at it, donate to a great cause and download some fun calendars!