New Creations on the way.

In  2009, I shared how my husband made me a craft table and we re-organized my studio, which used to be our dinning room.

Well, this is what it looks like when I am working on 4 projects at the same time. I can see you cringing. :)

I know what you are thinking "How the heck does she find the projects she is working on?"

Let me tell you, it's a battle, but that is the only space I have to work with and I like to spread out. So, at times, I have to lift stuff out of the way to find the stamps or chipboards I am working with.

But I can't complain... I got to be thankful for what I got now, praying and waiting for my big studio with lots of windows and natural light, a central island and lots of working space around the room.

Anyway, the other day I was browsing Two Peas in a Bucket website and found this project. I thought it was the cutest and smartest thing ever, so I decided to make me one. I had just placed an order with Two peas and when I got my box, guess what? 

 There was a cardboard sheet in there, so I cut it into pieces and began working on it. Here is a close up of the album in process.

If you would like to know the artist behind this awesome album check her blog HERE. 

Here is the new Martha Stewart Swirling Lace Punch Set I bought and some of my digital vintage images that I use on my cards.

Besides the cardboard album, I am working on 3 vintage baby chipboard albums. So this post is just to let you know that I am still scrapping. You might have stopped by recently and read about homeschooling, reading and putting children to bed and thought what happened to all the vintage projects. Well, we are still working on those too besides changing diapers, putting babies to bed and cooking dinner. Yeah, I am a full time scrappin' Mom!!!

Ah, if you are considering making a Scrapbook Wedding Album on a Budget do check out this post!  I will, also, soon post on the foods I ate to help me lose 20 pounds. Follow me or subscribe to my blog to be notified of when I post. :)

Have a blessed weekend and thanks for stopping by!!! :)

Tereza

How to get your children to bed.

A few months back we were having a hard time getting our DD7 to fall asleep at the same bedtime as her younger siblings. So we arrived at a compromise and purchased a small lamp for her bed and she can now stay up and read for an hour before falling asleep.

Then we hit another bump on this road, when she got bored with the books we had available at home. Although we borrow about 30 books every 2 weeks from the library, from time to time, my DD7 can find that she has read everything.

The solution was to let her borrow my Kindle. My husband purchased it for me last September and I used it for a few days until we found out that we could upload free books that DD7 was reading. She was reading The Secret Garden, the Velveteen Rabbit, Aesop's Fables and more. All those and many more can be uploaded for free or $0.99 on the Kindle. Then she carries the little flat device to her bed and reads to her heart content.

I can tell you that the Kindle is no longer mine. I have gone back to purchasing real books since the Kindle sleeps on my DD7 bed next to her other stuffed animals and favorite toys and magazines.

My personal opinion: The Kindle is very easy to operate, any child that can use a cell phone, laptop or computer game can use the Kindle. There are safety features where you can turn the wireless connection off and they cannot download anything to the Kindle. There is also the feature to open folders and file the books accordingly. Our DD7 has her own folder which she knows all books there are safe for her to read. All other folders are off limits. Although the Kindle displays only in black and white, the illustrations are still gorgeous and very entertaining to a child.

If you have someone that loves to read, or is learning to read (the Kindle has a feature that will read the book to you in a male or female voice) the Kindle is the perfect gift to jump start or encourage your beginner or avid reader. It also has a dictionary and many other features like changing the size of the font, displaying the book vertically or horizontally, bookmarking, highlighting and more. Just figuring out all the features it has can be very entertaining if you are a computer Wyzard like my DH.

I hope it helps get your child to bed... it has helped mine. :)

Tereza

The Thrifty Scrapper: How to make a Scrapbook Wedding Album

A while back I shared about the Scrapbook Wedding Album that I made on a budget. We used a Martha Stewart Wedding kit that my sister in law had previously purchased at Walmart. I think she paid less than $20.00 for it. It was on sale. On that previous post, on the link above, I shared some of the pages with the bride's wedding photos on them.

As promised, below you can see the video where I share all 20 pages before they were delivered to the bride. In the video, I share what I used and how we cut corners and used what we had on hand. Please excuse my fidgeting with the camera, blinds and pages, as well as the children's noise in the background. I have a busy household. :)

I hope to inspire you to think outside the box and that even if you don't have the money, you can still make beautiful creations and memorable keepsakes! Enjoy!




How have you creatively used your own resources lately?

Have a blessed week, :)

Tereza

oh, the little things....

I am expecting guests this evening. They will stay until next Monday... they have come from 5,000 miles away and I haven't seen them in 5 years. It's a good thing they are coming.

So I have been cleaning. You know those things that you don't clean everyday? yes, those....


I have 3 children between 8 and 3 years old and they help out in the kitchen a lot. My 3 y.o. loves to cook and watch and help out. She says,  "Momma, I help you?" I want to say "No. Let me do it by myself. It's faster and cleaner." but how can I?? So she helps and most of the time I try to enjoy it instead of worrying about the mess.

As I was cleaning the kitchen cabinets and drawers' hardware, I saw some tiny fingerprints everywhere. The places that used to be touched by me only... now have children sticky fingerprints all over them. The utensils drawer had juice spill all over it. The drawer that holds the place mats had dirt all over it. I got helpers now that set the table for us. They clean up, they chop up vegetables, they help make salad. They spill pancake batter while Daddy fixes breakfast. They lick spoons and bowls. Places where I usually don't clean because I am too busy teaching, cooking, doing laundry, vacuuming, playing with the children...

Oh, all these little sticky fingerprints... the guests won't see them because I wiped them away, but they will be forever in my memories. :)

Have a great weekend, :)

Tereza

I lost 20 pounds!!!!

Beginning in October to mid November of last year, my husband and I changed our eating habits. We have lost 20 pounds each!!! I am wearing clothes that I haven't been able to put on in 6 years.

Let me share a bit more of myself so you can see where I started. I have 4 children, they were all born in the last 8 years. I weighed 224 pounds at 5'6" high when I became pregnant with my first baby. I have never been skinny. My lowest weigh was probably 150 pounds when I was 15 years old. But if you look at my photos of when I was a child, or a teenager you wouldn't say I was overweight or obese. Take a look at the photo above.  I am the little girl on your left at around 8 years old.

After my first daughter was born I was able to lose pretty much all the weight except for 10 pounds and that's how it went with each pregnancy. My husband is a meat and cookie eater and with 4 kids it's easy to turn that into an everyday habit. I love fruits and vegetables and also anything that is creamy, sweet and fattening, i.e. ice cream, fettuccine Alfredo, cheese, chocolate mousse... you get the idea. :)

Recently, I found this website where I bought my DD7 some cool adventure books about a homeschooling family. The author is a vegetarian and that got me thinking. Then as I read her blog I found this doctor and what he said made a lot of sense.

For about 5 years of my life, during my college years, I was a vegetarian. I remember losing a lot of weight just eating a lot of high fiber, complex carbohydrates like beans, whole wheat cookies, brown rice, vegetables and fruit and keeping it off. I remember having lots of energy and no health problems.

Then I read Wendy's book, and I made a re-evaluation of myself and my life. I realized I needed to adapt and make whatever eating habits I take on work for me. I have tried many different diets throughout my life: Weigh Watchers, the Zone diet, the South beach diet, fasting, juice diets, portion control diets, diet pills... From these experiences I learned a few things about myself:

1) I don't like to count calories or do portion control. Right now with 4 children I just don't have the time. Before children, I would become obsessed with the numbers and the journaling. All I could think of all day was what I could eat, how much of it and then the next meal, the next day, how much that would add up to... it was crazy! So no! that did not work for me.

2) I don't like food restriction. I love fruits and vegetables, I don't have a problem including them in my diet. I do have a problem with being without a certain food or dish I like for a long time. I need to take a break of depriving myself.

3) I like meats but not that much that I could go on a protein diet only. I also don't think that is the healthiest lifestyle ever. I love my carbohydrates... the more complex they are the better: brown rice, beans, whole wheat pasta, legumes and more. I really don't care for white bread or even potatoes that much.

4) I breastfeed all my children for at least 2 years and get pregnant that often too, so I need a healthy diet with variety.I also need a diet that would work on the go, with children, at home, at a restaurant ... you get the picture. :)

5) The last diet I went on was just before I became pregnant with my first baby. I was doing Weight Watchers and I lost 10 pounds in 6 weeks. And then for 2 weeks I wouldn't lose anything. I didn't gain any weight either but I was not losing although I was doing the diet obsessively and exercising. That's when I found out I was pregnant.

So with that data, I suggested to my husband that we do an experiment. From Monday to Friday we would eat only fruits and vegetables, complex carbohydrates but no sugar, or any processed food whatsoever. We would also cut off meat. There would be NO portion control which would mean we could eat as much as we wanted. On Saturday and Sunday we could eat anything we wanted. Everything that had been off our menus could be enjoyed on the weekends. Within 6 weeks we both lost 20 pounds each.

I will share in my next post some of our actual menus. And how my husband and I were able to make it a lifestyle and cook for the whole family. :)

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor or a nutritionist. This post has informational content only and it describes my personal experience. Please consult your physician when deciding to diet and exercise.

Have you ever gone on a diet before? What results did you have?

Be blessed,

Tereza

Thrifty Thursday: how to function with a fussy baby!

Baby is teething. We had a fussy night and I never got to the computer to publish my Thrifty Thursday post.

So I am sharing with you a post I did a while back about how to re-purpose your old stamps. If you haven't seen the post yet, then this is your change to and also to subscribe to my blog or follow me to keep up with Thrifty Thursday where I share techniques to re-vamp your art using what you already have at home. No new purchases necessary!!!

If you have already seen the post, I say go check it out again anyway, it might get you out of a rut, if you are stuck for creativity. Or it might remind you of some great stamps you have stocked away that you haven't used in a while. So here it is:

NEW STAMPS USING YOUR OLD STAMPS

 ok, back to taking care of baby. :)

Be blessed,

Tereza

Hoping to inspire you...

 Hi everyone,

here are a few of the cards that I made these past couple of weeks to send to OperationWriteHome. Because of my busy life at home, I haven't been as active listing and selling my cards and scrapbook layouts on Etsy. Although I am still available for custom orders (Email me anytime) I have reduced the amount of time I am spending listing items in my shop. So if you find anything on my blog that you are interested in, just email me, I will be happy to duplicate or re-create something for you.

 However it's difficult not to create at all, because I am such a creative spirit and I really need an outlet to express myself. So making these cards for our heroes to use is really refreshing.  I cannot resist and play with some of the digital things available on line. These beautiful silhouettes were found HERE. ArtCult is one of my favorites shops to purchase digital collages.

 I have also used a new technique for me. I have stamped on pages of old books and then cut out the images. Those stamped frames are from Prima and I just love how they look stamped and cut out. I have a few more sets of Prima stamps that I definitely need to use this technique on, so be sure to subscribe to my blog to see what I have coming up.

I also found Crescendoh Stamps!!! Oh, my!! I love to stitch or sew my cards and layouts, but sometimes it is just not possible. I have a baby sleeping, or my machine is acting up or I don't have enough time or the right thread. So when I found these stamps that look like stitches I just jumped for joy and purchased both of them. Doesn't that look great? Oh, it makes my heart soooo happy!! You can find the stamps I used HERE and HERE.

While browsing the Crescendoh blog I saw this post with these adorable cards and it inspired me to create these darling ones to your left. Aren't they adorable?! 

I hope to make some little girls day when she receives these in the mail from her Daddy or Mommy. :)

The little girl is a Sarah Kay stamp that you can find HERE. Besides stamping the image on a page of an old book, I water colored it and cut it out. I also water colored the background and doodled a border around it. Cut out some strips of gorgeous scrapbook scraps and used my Cynthia Shaffer's stamps on them.

This is another batch of cards that I made using digital papers and my first purchased stamps at PaperTrey Ink. You PaperTrey Ink fans out there, can you see the stamps I used?

Now to finish this sharing session, I think these on your left are my favorites.

I used my favorite scraps of my most precious favorite scrapbook collections: K&Co., Daisy D's, Websters' Pages, Basic Grey. Can you spot them? When I fall in love with a collection I have a hard time throwing away the little scraps, so I hold on to them until I can make little quilted cards. I used the Crescendoh and PaperTrey Ink stamps again. I think I will be stamping everything with them. :)


The heart is just some acrylic paint on bubble wrap stamped on pages from an old book. I talked about this technique in my last Thrifty Thursday. My husband thought that these cards were too busy. I loved them, mainly because I had so much fun making them and they are so colorful. What do you think?

Ooh, did I wear you out? I hope you had fun checking out my latest creations and get inspired to donate some of your time to brighten someone else's lives.  How do you give back from the abundance you have in your life?

Let me know you stopped by and tell what you think. You don't have to leave a comment if you don't have time, but do tell what you think by checking one of the REACTIONS boxes below. Thanks so much and be blessed, :)

Tereza

Happy New Year!

Last night was awesome. Nothing major... we ate left overs, played with the children, I got to make a bunch of new cards for OperationWriteHome and play with some really cool stamps. I began reading "Uncle Sam's Plantation: How Big Government Enslaves America's Poor and What We Can Do About It, Revised and Updated Edition".

In the midst of all, I heard Jesus say to me "Whatever you need, I am." How cool is that? :)

Are you making New Year's resolutions? I haven't made any in years, actually since I've been married. I don't feel the need to. They never occur to me anymore. Funny, huh?

Now, if you are a resolutions type of person and losing weight is one of them, I will share in another post what has helped me lose 20 pounds.

Have a great year...this will be an awesome one!! Write that down!!! :)

Be blessed,

Tereza