Scrapbooking

What a wonderful day today has been so far!
I woke up early, went to the store to get some coffee and breakfast, then relaxed with a fabulous book (The Thornbirds), cleaned the kitchen, went for a long walk with Missy, and then did some scrapbook pages.

Happy New Year! I had some cute swirly stickers for a few years that I didn't know what do do with and figured using them for a New Years page would be perfect. I used cute polka-dotted sheet with scraps of construction paper as backing for the photos. Very quick and easy to do.

I have quite a few photos of myself and my neice, there are big gaps of time between them (as evident by my hair style/colors!), but I liked the way this turned out. I used various stickers I had lying around.

I created this page, and like the way it turned out, so I added a photo of me and Chris. It's a Christmas picture, but the page has nothing to do with Christmas, I just liked all the reds together. The top flower, which I put on a piece of ribbon, is something I made, is from scraps of old material. Very cute, I'm happy with the way it turned out!

Checking In

What an odd past week or so...we've had a lot going on, and it seems to never change: there is always something! We've gotten good news and bad news, but that's the way it goes. I am always very thankful for the good news!
Have currently been checking around the area for after-school programs and daycare for the little one. We have a meeting tonight with one I found (she was actually referred to me) who sounds great so far.
Chris and I have been trying to really work on things between us, and with his kids to really make ourselves a little family. We seem to be progressing in the right direction, there is still a lot of growing and learning we both have to do.
He's been encouraging me since the moment we started our relationship to not "sweat the small stuff." I've been trying really hard, not sure if my progress shows or not, but it's a constant struggle!
I've found that a lot of prayer works. I find myself praying incessantly throughout the day on some days, other days random yet helpful scriptures pop into my head. Today, it's part of Psalms 71:5, NLT: O Lord, you alone are my hope.
It's coming down to it that I may be inheriting three amazing children sometime soon, I'll make an official announcement once it's officially official (like that?), and have been told many, many times that life as I knew it will never be the same. Life as I knew it hasn't been the same as of May 2009, so bring it!! Blessings to you all!

Sushi

I just had some for lunch and it was delicious.

Life is Hard but God is Good

Hello everyone out there!
I'm just checking in - Chris and I made it home safely from the airport. It wasn't a foggy night as weather.com predicted, which was good. I would have loved to have gone to Germany with him, he's going again in August. If I can get everything together (passport, money, time off) then maybe I can go! That would be lovely. I would ADORE to go with him to Virginia in April, but alas, that will not work as I cannot take any time off as I'll be in the office alone for a few months. I'm VERY bummed out about it, but he gets to take trips all the time, so one of them I can go with him on!

It's been very busy and eventful since Chris has been back...a lot of unfortunate financial drama, church research, sleep depravation, etc. But however hard life is, God is still good! Can I get an Amen?

Hope you all have a blessed day...think of Him.

Finally!

Just got off the phone with Chris as his plane was pulling in at D.C. He's on his way home! In just a few more hours I have to head out to pick him up at the airport, can't wait to see him. Have missed him so much.
Also been watching Army Wives Season 1, really good show. Talked to Chris about it and now he wants to watch them with me, how cute is that? :o)
Hope you all have a blessed, marvelous day, God bless!!


xoxo
Miss Irish

Beautiful...

I'm sorry but I can't figure out how to post a video from online as I am unable to copy and paste directly on here.
So, to listen to a beautiful song by the lovely Ms. Kathy Troccoli, please go to youtube.com, then type in her name and "Help Me God."
Enjoy the song. That is my blessing to you today.

Mr. Jabez

I am currently reading the book entitled "The Prayer of Jabez." What a wonderful book with a powerful message.
I encourage you to go out and purchase your own copy, so I won't divulge too much into it right now. I usually read a chapter of the Bible before I head to work in the morning, sometimes all I have the time for is a few verses. I'm in Psalms right now, so one verse is enough to chew on all day!
I've just been feeling really down and stressed out lately. I made myself have a bad day because all I could do was worry and fret about things not being done. Things not going my way. Once I got in the car to drive home at the end of the day, a song I heard long ago in church ran through my head - I still can't get rid of it. It's called "My Life is in Your Hands" and it goes a little like this, "My life is in Your hands. And though I may not see clearly, I will lift my voice and sing, Because Your love does amazing things! Lord I know my life is in Your hands!" I know I should worry about nothing and pray about everything, and I promise I'm trying...but this song really got me grounded and I sort of chastised myself - I know that I'm not in control. Whatever comes my way, or in the way of those I love, God is in control. God knows what will happen before we do.
So, I needed more uplifting and started to read the book again, and went to the verse in my Bible. Look it up: 1 Chronicles 4:10.
Claim it. Claim your blessings as Jabez did. Claim your blessings as I do. This verse is in my heart, his prayer is my own. And guess what? I'm so at peace...I'm so calm...because I am loved, and thankfully, NOT in control.
God's blessings to you!

Feelin' Crafty...

Since I was feeling so crafty this weekend, I did a few more crafts besides my wreath. Take this simple grey sweater...I love it, have had it for a few years, but it's so boring and plain - not my style. I had this bow attached to a belt that's too small, and too hard to wear with this as it rolls around and you can't see the bow properly, no matter what outfit I wear it with - Viola. I put the two together, then wore the sweater with a pair of black slacks to work and I was very cute indeed! :o) The sweater is now more my style.

I love to wear cute headbands in my hair, so I made another one, this time with material scraps I had lying around. I drew a flower outline, then cut it out. The bottom two pieces are the same size, I just twisted them around so they didn't lay exactly against each other as a pattern. The top sparklies are a part of a vintage dress I bought but never wore. Three of my favorite things together in one: pink, animal-print and sparkly things! :o)

Videos...

I'm new to actually having videos to upload, let's see if this works! I love these two videos, it's of my girls "boxing" on the Wii, and of Chris and his brother playing the same game...if this works, I"m posting videos all the time!!

xoxo

More Pages

This is a page I made for Miss Zina. She's a beautiful girl with such a sweet smile - and quite a little poser! :o) I added the cute little fashionista and hand-bag at the top due to Zina's little budding fashion sense.

My sweet little Busy Liz. I kept this page simple, I used brown and pinks and then added a little faux bow in her hair. Cute, no?

This is another page I really like. I love the paper and decided to use this picture because it's so cute, Liz proud of her puzzle, but the blue of the puzzle match and make the blues of the page pop.

This is a nice, clean and simple sheet. I cut half a page and glued it to this page to split the pattern and make it simple. I love this photo - it's my heritage!

Scrapbook pages

I have been scrapbooking for the past hour - making new pages and going through printed pictures to add to pages already made.


For this I used a striped page as a fun background and added polka-dotted strips to make it fun and really stand out. I just added two stickers to balance it out and added a picture of the girls doing a "dog pile" on top of Chris, and one of me and the girls after Zina did my hair in silly pigtails for Family Fun.

I just added a few cute stickers with different colored paper cut out. You will see that I like a pattern complete opposite of my main page to add to bring it together. The challenge is finding stickers or a picture to bring all the different colors and patterns together. For this one, I used a picture of the girls playing.

I like this page a lot. I hand sewed thread through the buttons to give it a more unique and actual look. I decided on a picture I found of me, my mom, grandma, great grandma, sister and neice.

This is an adorable picture of my neice when she was younger. The "old-time" look of the photo is nice, I wanted to add something to make it pop and give color, so I added a sunflower picture I took out of a photo frame, and an faux dried sunflower. My journaling reads "Only her smile can make a sunflower bloom"

Love this page I did for Missy, I just need to add one more picture on the right. I used dog bone brads I bought a long time ago, and some stickers my boyfriend got me. Again, different patterns but same color scheme.

Sims

Yes, I am a Sims nerd. Am playing it right now...anyone got any hints/tips?

Fun Wreath

Feeling crafty today, I saw a cute idea online on how to make your own homemade wreaths.
My boyfriend's son made a cute wreath with a bow for Christmas that we had hung on the front door. I loved coming home to a cute wreath on the door, and I think it sets the tone on the house inside, wouldn't you agree?
So I decided to make a wreath, using the same garland. I like to reuse and recycle items, this worked out perfectly!
I hope this inspires you to make your own lovely wreath for your front door...and share your ideas with me!




I used the same wreath and gathered some items I already had in my house: dried flowers left over from making the girls' headbands, buttons, lace, ribbon, and I grabbed an old shirt I loved wearing all the time. I love the satin material, and it tied at the waist. I decided to cut the ties off to use them as my ribbon.

I wrapped the tie around the wreath, and tied it like a shoelace. I then used a hot glue gun to wrap the dangling tie and tuck it into the knot. This made a four -point bow. I had a smaller tie on the shirt I cut in half and hot glued then under the loops to dangle. I did them at seperate lengths, so as to give it a chic-messy look.

This is the end product. I glued a flower in the center of the bow I made, then for fun glued two faux leaves to the side to give the entire bow a flower effect. Simple and easy! It only took five minutes, and I used materials I had lying around the house. I looped a ribbon around the top to keep the peep hole free, so I can position the ribbon at any time I want - on top, more on the side, centered in the bottom...my choice! Hope you liked this, and I still love walking up to my door! :o)

xoxo

Miss Irish

Cleansing...

I'm doing the Master Cleanse (organic lemons, cayenne pepper, TONS of water and maple syrup). Say what you will, preach all you want, but I will so far swear by this. I'm on my fifth day, I've so far lost 5 pounds and lost 2 1/2 inches off my waist. I've been too busy to measure other things, so this is all as of yesterday.

I feel great! I went for a run yesterday and woke up this morning itching to jog, so I strapped up Missy, loaded myself down with sweatshirts and jackets (Brrr...it's cold at 6 a.m.!) and went out running. I feel great! I have energy, today I was told I'm "glowing" and I'm really happy. I can't wait to surprise Chris with his thinner girlfriend when I pick him up at the airport Saturday night!

Of course I'm going to keep posting and blogging my success and/or failures with this cleanse, so stay tuned!

Craft Table....finally!

I finally have a craft table!! It's not much to look at now, it is a work in progress. I'll post a blog at a later date to show you all the cute things I have to craft and scrapbook with.



This is basically it, my little corner by the water heater! The stackables on your left have stickers and lettering in the top shelf, and my scraps of paper in the middle. Bottom is empty for now, but I'm sure will fill up quickly!

Here's a close-up of a poster I got from an antique store a few years ago that I absolutely love. It used to be in my bedroom of the old house, but in the new house I'm trying to go simpler, cleaner, so it hangs out in my craft room now. I just love things from the '40's and '50's!! I'm a true vintage girl at heart.

This cute little shelf came from my mother's garage. I love the hooks it has at the bottom, that's where I hang some of my stickers and embelishments for scrapbooking. The two darling little dolls are birthday gifts from my mom years and years ago - I love them, they're so dainty and quaint. I'm 28, but yes, I still love dolls. The little creamer set came from my friend Jaimie, they actually belonged to her grandmother that passed away last year. Then there is my Irish Lucky Penny, and if I'm not mistaken, it was a gift from somebody, although I can't recall who at the moment.

Here's another little shelf, that's me and my amazing boyfriend who inspires me in literally everything I do, and I have a cute little jar of buttons. A candle used to be in that jar, but it's perfect size, so I scraped out the wax and my boyfriend cleaned it for me.

So there you have my crafting space. Wait for a post with more detail as to what cute stuff I have, I can't wait to show you!!

xoxo
Miss Irish

Germany

FINALLY heard from Chris while in Germany. I was expecting him to call when he landed there, but his phone wasn't working and he had yet to buy a calling card. My phone rang this mrning at about 9 a.m. (6 p.m. his time) and I was so happy to hear from him!
Poor guy sounds soooo tired and jetlagged, and it's pretty cold there! I miss him a lot. Didn't quite realize how much, either! I figured I would enjoy my alone time with peace and quiet. But I'd rather have Chris around. The work week should be better, considering I get home at 5 p.m., and only have a few hours to myself for the night, so I'm praying these two weeks go by quickly!
I will get my laptop back in about two more weeks, I will be using the house computer to upload some super cute scrapbook pages...stay tuned!!

xoxo
Miss Irish

One is the Loneliest Number

So Chris is gone to the airport...I miss him already! I laughed and cried the entire way home, thinking about all the funny thing's he has said and done, and just missing him! I pray he has a safe flight, lots of fun in Germany, and can't wait until he's home again!!!