Crafty overload day 1

Once I got myself going on Saturday I had a very crafty day. I have five craft projects completed. So starting today and for the next 4 days I'm going to give you one project at a time. First I have a Dollar Tree sign that I made over.

I was going to show you a before picture but I couldn't find one.

I took the front panel off. I covered the back piece with some Buffalo plaid vinyl and then I grunged it up just a little bit because I like that look. I glued the front piece back on, also grunging that up. I finished it off with a bow

Where to begin

Thanks to a very stressful Friday at work and a very crafty day Saturday I find myself with lots of things to blog about. I suppose I'll start with Friday. This will pretty much also answer the question as to how my talk with new boss went.

Maybe I went a little too far with things but let me explain what happened. I got to work on Friday morning and saw that the new schedule was hanging up. There was a new cashier listed. It was a previous employee. More specifically she was a previous employee who old boss told me I could fire. Not only was she the most irresponsible employee we have ever had but she also called me an effing "C" word when I tried to talk to her about being late. So anyway when I see that she is on the schedule, she's scheduled for the same hours that I am there, and finally that my hours had been cut I blew a gasket. I packed up all my personal belongings and stuck the box in my vehicle

When new boss got in, we had words. He failed to see how insulting it was for him to bring back that employee. In the afternoon we had our staff meeting and from my perspective it was more about him being mad at me than it was anything else. At that point he was still insisting that he was going to rehire this girl because he didn't see the problem because she was up front and I was in the back. Plus we need more people. My mind was set. If she was coming back I was going to be searching for a new job. Thanks to another long time employee, that's not going to happen. She talked him out of bringing her back. For now things have calmed down but nothing has really changed. 

say what

I started my Saturday morning as usual, reading blogs. I had commented on one of them that it had been snowing here on Friday but there had been no accumulation. Shortly after that I went upstairs to get another cup of coffee. I looked out the living room window. Say what?

I looked at the kitchen window. Say what?

So much for it not sticking. The good news is by midday most of it was gone

A Saint Patrick's Day card

It's been a while since I've made any cards. I decided I would make a Saint Patrick's Day card for Presley. My plan is to frequently send her happy mail. For February I sent the Valentine, so for March I'm sending this card. It folds flat for mailing . 

 

And when you pull it out of the envelope it pops up

 

And here is the inside

A little crafting

The guy from work who gave me his Copenhagen cans has been feeding me a steady supply. I suppose I could tell him I don't need anymore but I keep taking them. I ran out of the tube socks that I was tea dying so I thought I would try something different. I purchased these pink fuzzy socks from Dollar Tree and thought I would give these a try.

 I wasn't sure how it was going to end up looking with the white toe part of it instead of it being a solid pink sock. I think it's rather cute though. I don't care for the ears as much but maybe if I play around with them a little bit I'll like it better. I had a pack of the felt flowers so I used that instead of a bow. As I'm looking at the picture I'm noticing how crooked her nose is. OOPS!!

Feeding an addiction

When it comes to crafting supplies my biggest weakness is paper. I seem to have a complete and total obsession with paper. When I saw these paper crafting kits I just couldn't pass them up. How could I resist that price

I also bought this paper pad which I didn't need but again couldn't resist the price

Another update on Brad. He went home Monday evening. He was very happy to be home and get a shower. When I talked to him on Tuesday he said he was doing ok but his left leg is still hurting. He has a doctor appointment on Thursday and hopefully he'll get some answers.

To Anni, I think the leprechaun with the bird came from Hobby Lobby.

Backtracking to the fun part

Let's go back a little bit and I'll talk about the fun part of last Saturday. I spent way more money than I should have but I had fun and I did get some cute things. I bought several Easter decorations but I'll wait to show them until we're closer to that holiday. I also bought a couple things for St Patrick's Day that I couldn't resist.

There was also a wood tag with a shamrock on it but I forgot to take a picture of that. So that I have more blog material I'm stretching this out a bit. Tomorrow I'll show you what I bought because I couldn't resist the price.

Update on Brad. As of the time I'm writing this he's still in the hospital. Monday morning I sent him a text and he said that he was feeling a bit overwhelmed because it was all starting to hit him what happened. The MRI he had showed no signs of brain or tissue damage and there were no signs of blood clots. They think that he also had a psychological event on top of the stroke (from his PTSD). He went to a regular room on Sunday night after having a cat scan done. I never did hear what they found on that.

Saturday

 Saturday morning started off good. I got a slow start and then headed to Amanda's. She made breakfast and then we headed out for some shopping.

Hobby Lobby, Dollar Tree, Christmas Tree Shops, At Home were the store we hit. Then it was time to head home. I drove through the old neighborhood I grew up in and past the house my dad built. I wanted to stop but drove by. Conversation lead me to turn around and go back to pull in the driveway. I rang the bell and told the man who I was. He invited us in for a look. 

Then we were on the road again headed home. My phone rang and Amanda read the number which I said I didn't know. Then her phone rang and it was her dad. He wanted to talk to me. My son collapsed in his kitchen and he was taken to the hospital with a suspected stroke. He's 35. Will be 36 in June. Amanda and I turned around and headed to the hospital. 

We did go in and see him for a bit. He's talking. He said his left arm and left leg felt heavy and he couldn't lift them like he could the right side. They ran tests, did MRI and Sunday morning his wife texted to say a stroke was confirmed and there is also damage to c5 and c6 discs in his back. 

Right now that is all I know. I'll give updates when I know more.

Not what I expected.

 Amanda and I had our day out yesterday and it was a lot of fun. Of course it always is when we go out. Unfortunately there was an unexpected turn at the end. It was a much longer day than I had planned on and I'll tell you more about it tomorrow. 

Random

 The temperature was near 70 here on Wednesday. Friday it was 27 and snowing when I left work. This definitely sums it up.

I wanted to clarify something regarding my post yesterday. I wasn't bothered by the fact that Grace sent the comment correcting me about manicotti. I was actually glad she did because it gave me a subject for the post., Not to mention that I love Grace to death. Some of you may have agreed with Grace and some of you obviously didn't. Either way, it's all good. We don't all have to agree.

Today I'm heading out to Amanda's for breakfast and then we're off to Hobby Lobby. There will be other stops too. 

I had another sit down with new boss yesterday. I laid it on the line and flat out told him I'm no longer doing any of this extra stuff. My job title is bakery manager and I'm going to do bakery. No more of this opening the store, covering the office and having all the crap that no one else wants to do dumped on me. I said that I would finish the posted schedules but after that he'll need to schedule someone else to open on Sunday and Wednesday. Those are the two days a week that I've done double duty. We are also planning on having a staff meeting next Friday. We'll see how that goes.

And that my dear blog friends is all I've got for now.

I stand corrected

In my post the other day Grace left me  this comment:

Um, you don't stuff manicotti - manicotti are crepes not pasta and you fold them. I did a whole post about manicotti LOL If they were pasta tubes then what you stuffed were cannelloni. I know Americans don't know the difference even Italian-Americans often don't know the difference but manicotti are my favorite thing to eat (tho boring to make - making a bunch of crepes is tedious).

Well what I stuffed was this pasta labeled as manicotti. I guess Walmart isn't any more Italian than I am.

Does that make it an im"pasta"r?

Donna wanted to know where the picture of my dinner was. I forgot to take one the day I made it. Here instead is a picture of my leftovers. 

Whatever you want to call this stuff, it was delicious.

not sure why this is happening.

Yet another Blog has succumbed to an issue that I've been having with the blogs that I follow.

The first blog I had a problem with was handmade by amalia.  The next one was Connie at Crafty home Cottage then it was Donna from Made in Heaven. Most recently Ginny from Let your light shine has been added. If I try to go to these blogs on my phone or my tablet I have no problem it's just when I am on my desktop

These are being blocked by Norton. When you go to full report both are under the category of Phishing. I started going to the sites any way because I've never had problems with any of them before. 

My Monday craft

I got a bit of a slow start on my day off Monday but once I had some coffee in me I was ready to start the day. Not only did I bake those cupcakes but I also made stuffed manicotti. I did one small pan for my dinner that night and put two more small pans in the freezer for another day. I also managed to squeeze in a craft. 

I purchased these house shapes from Dollar Tree and they've been sitting a while waiting for me to decide what to do with them

Oops, looks like I forgot to rotate the picture. Oh well, you get the idea. So what I did was cut some vinyl for each of the houses. One has my house number, another the year that I moved into this house and the third a nice little saying. After the vinyl was cut and attached to each of the house shapes I then glued them to a large paint stick that I had cut to size

 I'm liking the way this turned out.

Happy Valentine's Day

Being single now, I don't always find much reason to celebrate Valentine's Day. However with that being said it was also my dad's birthday. Today he would have been 100 years old. 

I suppose another reason to celebrate the day is to share love with friends and family who are still with us.

So today I am sending you all hugs for Valentine's Day. I would send you kisses but apparently I'm fresh out

Whatever way you decide to celebrate today make sure to follow your heart.

It just might lead you to the cupcakes that I baked to share at work today. Unfortunately my oven is hard to control sometimes and some of them were a little burnt. I'm hoping I picked out all the ones with burnt bottoms. Oh and by the way I did frost these and added some Valentine sprinkles. You would think that I could do a little something more impressive since my occupation is baker.

something a little different

I had a customer ask if I was able to do peanut butter frosting on a cake. My answer was yes I can.

After I wrote The Happy 80th birthday we love you I decided that the we love you needed a little red heart on either side of it.

one more Valentine and random stuff

Thursday when I left work it was 60° out. It felt like a heatwave. Although I suppose to those of you who live in Florida you would have felt the chill. Friday the temperatures dropped again down into the twenties and low 30s. I am so ready for spring. 

Friday I came home from work and got my laundry done and did my taxes. That left my Saturday open to do whatever I wanted. What I wanted to do was go out and do some shopping. With the high prices of food lately I decided to make a trip to Aldi's. I haven't shopped there in a long time and that was one of my stops while I was out. Being a major cheapskate I won't say that they were extremely cheap but it was less expensive than shopping at Walmart. 

I have one last Valentine that I made. This one I put in the mail and sent to Presley

This was another one that was a print and cut. I found the image on clipart Library and uploaded it to design space. Then I created the front of the card. I attached this to a pink card base and that was that I hand wrote the word hello Valentine and drew a couple little hearts

cake topper

If you follow me on Facebook you may have already seen this. I posted it there so that the customer who ordered a cake for tomorrow could see it and let me know if she wanted it or not. The order is for a birthday cake with a football theme. I can do a football in frosting but I decided to play around on my day off and try something different. Using my Cricut machine I made a cake topper

The helmet is a print and cut image. I cut 3 of them and glued them together to make it more stable. The green background has 2 layers of white cardstock behind it to sandwich in the skewers and the goal posts. To make the goal posts I just cut 1/4" strips of white cardstock and then colored them with a metallic marker.

The customer already saw this and approved it so this will be going along with the cake which will just be frosted plain. I won't be able to put this on the cake because it won't fit in the container with it on. She'll be able to put this on when she gets it home.

The big reveal

Today I will reveal what I was making. I follow Burlap Kitchen on Facebook. She always has very clever and easy ideas. I couldn't resist this one. Since I don't use Copenhagen myself, I asked one of the guys at work who does what he does with his cans when they're empty. He was more than happy to supply me with some since he only throws them away. So are you ready for the big reveal? Here it is

First a close up.

Enough teasing. Here it is. Isn't it adorable?

Pay no attention to the bottom of this picture. Apparently I included the sleeve of my sweater which is not a part of this craft project. 

I had this post already to go and then I realized that I forgot to put the whiskers on him and his cute little pink cheeks. So here he is again this time finished

The lighting was obviously different when I took the final picture. He's not really this dark. His color looks more like the first two pictures.

what's cooking

This is what I have on my stove. Can you guess what I'm making?

 

Maybe this will help.

 

Still no clue? Come back tomorrow and I'll give you the answer.

Slimline Valentine

 This is the last of the Valentine cards. This is a slimline card that will fit in a no.10 envelope. I folded the card base, added some layers and then finished it off with some things I found in Cricut design space.

Another Valentine.

 I guess I'm kind of stuck on making Valentine cards at the moment. I made a simple 4.25" x 5.5" card using plain white cardstock. I added a craft paper with red hearts. Then I found a design I liked on Cricut's design space and I made it a print and cut. I put half of the design on the front of the card.

And the other half of the design on the inside of the card.

This one is for those of us that are single on Valentine's Day.

Second try

 So today I have the card that I redid. As I said yesterday, this time I skipped the embossing. I found a snoopy image on Clipart-library.com and used that for this card. I uploaded the image to Cricut design space and then did a print and cut. I did the same with the hello Valentine. Like I also said yesterday, I had some operator errors when doing the print and cut. I neglected to attach some items so they didn't cut in the correct spot on my cardstock. That meant that I had something cut through the hello Valentine. I didn't want to throw it away so I glued all the pieces together onto the card. You can tell if you look real close but it looks good enough.

Failure vs success

 I had a nice day off yesterday. Aside from doing laundry, I spent most of the day playing. I  would say that I had more failures than successes but I had fun and that's what counts.

I had seen a technique that I wanted to try. You use plastic wrap and you can fuse either napkins or tissue paper to regular cardstock and envelopes. I did the envelope first and it turned out pretty well. The card was good but I used a check tissue paper and it was crooked. Then I thought I would try and emboss to give it some texture. It ended up warping the paper.

Here you can see the back of the envelope. The flap is covered in the tissue paper.

I did another card and skipped the embossing and it worked out much better. I'll save that card for another post.

I also did some print and cut projects on my Cricut. Or maybe I should say I attempted to do some print and cut projects. Those were full of operator error. Live and learn.

going into hibernation

I had planned on doing a Walmart run after work yesterday. Once I got out to my car and saw what the roads were looking like I changed my mind and stopped at Dollar General which is just up the street from my house. I wasn't able to get everything I needed but I did pick up dog food which was at the top of my list. It is really cold here right now and this is what my phone said last night.

It actually might not be very accurate because when I was texting with Amanda last night she was saying that it was 9° with a real feel of -8. With temperatures like this I can guarantee you that I will be spending my day off today hibernating

Long winter's nap

 Came home from work yesterday and must have been in need of a long winter's nap. I sat down on the couch and in no time I was sleeping. The worst though was the night before I was sitting up on the edge of the seat (not leaning back against the back of the couch) and fell asleep while I was sitting there. Luckily I didn't fall over.

I read that we're supposed to get some bitter cold wind chills through today. I'm hoping that they are wrong. It also said that there would be snow to go along with it. I need to make a dog food run and I know I won't want to go out if it's snowing.

Keeping it short today because there just isn't much to talk about.

thing one two and three

Thing one.

Every morning I put my apron, phone, and glasses all together on the counter so I don't forget them when I go to work. Yesterday when I was getting ready to leave I put them all in my purse and went out to the car. I had a couple minutes to let the car warm up and the window defrost so I went to pull my phone out of my purse. It wasn't there. I ran back in the house twice trying to find it and couldn't find it anywhere. I finally decided just to go to work without it. When I got to work I dumped my entire purse out and there at the bottom, was my phone. Glad I found it but it was frustrating trying to find it and running back and forth from house to car.

Thing Two.

I got to work and went inside. Just like every other morning I went to turn off the alarm. I put the code in and got invalid pin. I tried the code five times before it actually went through. I was beginning to worry that the police were going to show up while I was trying to turn the alarm off.

Thing three.

On Tuesday a woman called to order a cake for that day. I told her that my schedule was too tight and I didn't have time to do a cake for that day. She asked if she could order it for the following morning which was Wednesday morning. I said yes that would be fine and she ordered it for 9:00 a.m.. Wednesday morning after frying donuts I did the cake that she ordered. I just finished it and was getting ready to put the price tag on and she called to cancel. She said I hope you didn't already do it. I told her, yes, I just finished it. She said she was sorry and did offer to come and get it any way but I told her no, I would cut it and put out pieces for sale. It was just annoying because she called between 7:30 and 8:00. Did she really think I wouldn't have done it by then?

Thankfully, Thing 1 2 and 3 we're not followed by thing 4.

Oh and before I forget, Happy ground hogs day.

all in a day's work

I got to work yesterday and found a cake order hanging on my table. It's been a while since I've had to do a cake. Nothing special but here it is.