Fantabulous Cricut Challenge #173 -- Cool Treats

Today I'm taking a break from the wedding recaps to do a little scrapbooking!  When I have a few minutes, I love to see what's going on over at the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge blog!  This week's challenge was to make anything with a "cool treat" so I headed up to my scrapbook room and dug through some pics until I found something with ice cream!!  I kept coming across DQ ice cream cakes (a family favorite) but couldn't find any Cricut cuts to go with it and then I remembered this fun pic of Henderson eating dog ice cream!  This is totally unlike me to scrapbook something so out of order, but hey, when you're 3+ years behind what's it really matter right?!

The page is actually an 8x10 and will go in a horizontal Project Life page protector.  The ice cream sundae is cut from the Sweet Treats cartridge and then I used my CuttleBug to emboss the dish.  Eventually I'll add the date to the page (when I figure out what it was!!).  

And.. ironically enough, today is Henderson's 4th birthday!  This big guy brings so much joy to us and makes our family complete.  He and Mason were such good sports for this little photo shoot earlier tonight!!  

Thursday happenins

Where has this week gone?  Too bad it's not Friday yet, I'm ready for a low-key, pj-wearin', stay-at-home kind weekend!  Monday night I threw the turkeys and pumpkins back in their storage totes in the basement and drug out the remaining Christmas decor.  I have a love of putting seasonal garland on my stair banister.. it just screams holidays.  One of the things I wanted in my house during the search was the wrought iron rungs .. and I got it :)  Here's the staircase "undecorated:" 

Looking festive for fall

 

Ready for Santa

Tuesday night I tackled putting the Christmas decor outside - nothing fancy, just a prelit wreath on the door and a few prelit trees in urns on either side of the entrance.  I have wreaths for the windows but I'm not sure I have the energy this year!  Maybe this weekend?? 

 

Mason nappin' in the garland

 

 

 

 

 

While I was working on the lights I decided I had better tackle some laundry, so I rounded it up.. and made a heap in the keeping room...and sorted it.. into 12 LOADS!  We do have quite a bit of additional linens given the guests for Thanksgiving, but sheeeesh, that's a LOT of laundry.  Wish me luck.  It's 2 days later and I still have 3 loads to go.

 

 

 

Thanksgiving so soon??

How is it possible that Thanksgiving is only 3 short days away?!  Where did this year go?  I am really looking forward to my parents and grandma coming down for a few days!  Plus, I get to meet my new "sister" as my mom likes to call her... she finally got a new puppy!  Her name is Ginger and she's an apricot teacup poodle - she's 3 months old and 1.9 lbs.  I can't wait to see that little ball of fur!!  Here's some of the pics Mom's sent of her.. we Facetime every night :-)

 

This is one of my favorites!  Ginger snuggled down in between all of her "babies" and mom covered them all up for a nap.

 

I had a pretty mellow weekend.  Adam worked over 100 hours from Sunday-Saturday.. he's basically working for free at this point!  It's a shame he doesn't get paid overtime, he would have made a nice chunk of change, that boy is way to dedicated to his job, but I suppose that's part of the reason I love him!  That being said, I was single-moming it with the furbabies.  We've discovered that Mason likes to sleep on Henderson's blanket with him at night, so sweet! 

I had to take this picture of Henderson while Adam was at work.  Henderson willing put himself in his crate and was just giving me the most pathetic expression.  He looked so heart broken.

Who me, spoiled?

 ...and a couple quick cards!  I made the ballerina birthday card for a co-worker's daughter that turned 4.  She started dance lessons this fall so I also got her a cute little leotard. 

 I made myself do something other than "pink" for these shoe birthday cards.  I like the different color scheme! 



My little buddies

Here's some sweet pictures I captured of my furbabies over the weekend.  My cats LOVE to be in my scrapbook room with me because there's so much they can get into, I love when they wear themselves out and nap in empty baskets.  I buy them so many blankets and cat beds but no, they prefer boxes and baskets!  I especially love the picture of Mason and Henderson - Henderson gets covered up every night by his duck blanket and I caught Mason snuggling up to him, he's even started making this a habit!

Trixie started out in Henderson's bed...

THEN she really got comfy...

Then... Mason kicked her out because she looked so comfy

Happy Birthday Furbabies!

August is a fun month around the house for Adam and me because it's all 3 of the animals' birthdays!  As many of you know, we are crazy about our furbabies.  It's so hard to believe the cats are already 3 (August 4th) and Henderson is now 2 (August 14th)!  Where does the time go?!  I can't imagine when it's kids that are growing up that fast how hard it must be on parents!!!

I am thankful everyday that I have my little adorable cats - no matter how annoying they are at 4am every morning when they are wanting to be pet.  They both have such distinctive purr-sonalities (haha).  Mason is my curious George, happy-to-meet everybody, will talk to strangers, playful, sweet, loving, handsome, wonderful little boy.  Trixie is all about her momma and daddy and basically wants nothing to do with anyone else - including Mr. Henderson who has a huge crush on her.  She is the softest, fluffiest cat ever and has plenty of her own sweet moments.  If someone comes to the house you can guarantee you won't see Trixie for several hours, even after they have left.  She is very uneasy around new people and loud noises.

Henderson is our big 95 pound baby boy.  He and Trixie are very similar in that they don't like strangers!  Henderson can bark with the best of them but luckily, he doesn't bark much.  He doesn't like to be pet by strangers (or looked at) and is very uneasy in new places.  He is so sweet, handsome and playful.  We love to watch Henderson run around like a crazy dog in his big fenced yard, especially when he does his crazy rolls. 

   

 

 

 

Scrapbook Mojo

Now that I'm somewhat settled in my new house I'm trying to get my "scrapbook mojo" back!  It seems like if I go a while without doing anything "creative" it takes me FOREVER to get back into the swing of it.  Once I get going though, watch out! :-)  For several months in LA, I was working just on my trip to Europe.  Did I mention that I took over 1000 pictures while I was there?!?  Plus, I keep all the ticket stubs, plane tickets, papers of info, etc to add in with the pictures so I have the history of everything and whatnot.  Well, on that book I have done Milan, Asolo, Cinque Terra, more Asolo, Florence, Pisa and Lucca.  I had to take a break after that because I was getting burnt out on Europe and history!!  But that alone has already filled up more than 4 12X12 scrapbooks!  So, I decided to switch to something "easier" and more playful.. the cat's scrapbook!  (I warned you I was a crazy cat lady.)  Last night I finally started to get back into their pictures and made a little progress! 

Here's some pictures of the first part of the book (these were done while I was still in LA), enjoy!

Check out this funny little video... this is what sleeping with Mason is like!

"If you want to see the sunshine you have to weather the storm."

This weekend was such a welcome after everything that’s been going on.  Adam came up on Wednesday evening because he had an interview here Thursday and Friday (yah!) so we got to see each other for a few extra days in addition to the weekend.  We had lots to do to get ready for the weekend because we were having company!!!  Adam’s sister Jess and her 2 girls and his brother Jon and fiancé were flying to FL and decided to have a stop over with us Friday night.  I put Adam to work putting together a couple bar stools before they got here which look great in the kitchen!  We hit up the grocery store Thursday evening and got a ton of food because Adam thought everyone was staying until Sunday but we quickly found out that wasn’t the case (after we had stocked the pantry).  Oh well, more food for us! 

We picked everyone up at the airport around 7pm and came back to the house.  I had decided to start dinner before we left for the airport and it was ready by the time we got back.  Timing worked out perfect because they ended up getting in about an hour later than we thought they would and were hungry when they arrived.  I had made a big pot of my Grandma Panashy’s Macaroni and Tomato soup and it seemed to be a hit.  Well, for everyone but his nieces and I think it was too spicy for them so they had tacos.  We could barely keep his nieces at the table because they LOVED playing with Mason and snuggling with Henderson.  Mason hasn’t gotten that much exercise in a while.  He definitely slept good Friday night.  We had a good time entertaining our guests and just hanging out at the house.  Brooklyn and Sidney got to be the first ones to make something in my scrapbook room too.  They each wanted to make a card with my Cricut and Cuddlebug.  They said my scrapbook room looked like Michaels haha 

Saturday morning we made eggs, bacon and toast and then headed downtown to the Chattanooga Aquarium.  The Aquarium was fun and brought back good memories for Adam and me.  That’s where we went on our first date when he came to see me for the first time in TN in 2009.  It was funny because the whole time we were at the aquarium I was looking for the penguins and we NEVER saw them.  We went thru the whole building and nothing!  A couple weeks later I was talking to someone at work and told them how disappointed I was that they had penguins on their advertisements but then there weren’t any at the aquarium.. she was like, “Wait – did you go in BOTH buildings?”  So, alas, Adam and I had missed the whole second building of sea creatures the first time we went.

Adam and me with his niece Sidney

Big ol' crab!

Hello Mr. Otter

Some of the Grays :-)

After the aquarium we had to head back to the airport because they wanted to take off close to noon to continue on to Florida.  Adam and I headed back home and he surprised me with a Dairy Queen ice cream cake for my birthday (it’s next week but we won’t get to see each other).  It was so yummy and the perfect treat for the rest of the weekend. 

Happy early Birthday to me!

 Last weekend when I was in Princeton, mom gave me here Wii!  Adam hooked it up and we spent a couple hours playing Mario Kart and Wii Fit.  Oh, and we had a couple battles with Wii Sports.  (I beat him in bowling and baseball and then to get even he knocked me out in boxing.)      

Sunday morning we decided to head over to one of the TN State Parks for a little hiking with Henderson.  At the exit there’s a sign for Harrison Bay State Park so I’d wanted to check it out.  It was probably 15 miles off the exit and really pretty – especially Sunday when it was gorgeous weather anyway.  We had about a 4-mile hike to the bottom of the trail and back.  Henderson was so funny jumping over the tree stumps and wading out into the water.  We were the only ones on the trail which made it even better, especially for Henderson who isn’t a big fan of strangers. 

Beautiful day with my sunshine :)

Part of the late at Harrison Bay State Park

My boys

Jump, Henderson!

After Harrison Bay, Adam wanted to show me a lake he had found while hiking the new trails at the new Volkswagon Plant so we headed over there for some more physical fitness fun.  Two miles later we were walked out and headed back home for some more Wii madness.

I made tacos for lunch (luckily we had more than enough since we had bought enough for 8!) and we spent the rest of the afternoon just lounging and hanging out with our critters.

Bad Mason.. no matter what I do he won't stop climbing :-(

Got my stick!  Let's go!

Double Trouble

Princess Trixie