Wilton, are you looking for a new spokeswoman?

Ummm ... I think I have a problem. I have recently accumulated quite a bit of Wilton baking supplies. But it's not my fault. I have to make a princess castle birthday cake. No, not because Hannah begged me to. She could care less. Because I decided I HAD to make it. I am gearing up for the process. I have watched enough of those cake shows and Food Network Challenges to have this in the bag. I think. The plan as of now is to make the cakes tomorrow evening. Then Friday night I will begin the assembly. Haven't decided yet if I will assemble the whole thing here or put the finishing touches on the cake when we get to my dad's. I am just hoping and praying that after all the materials I have purchased, that I will be able to turn out a nice looking cake. You can see what the finished product is supposed to look like in the box there.

Step 1: tint fondant and cut out 300+ mini flowers

Step 2: after flowers dry, pipe a flower center into middle of each flower

Step 3: bake the cakes

Step 4: Attach dowels to towers with melted chocolate

Step 5: frost cakes and insert dowels

Step 6: stack cakes

Step 7: decorate cake with various colors of royal icing

That is the super simple breakdown. Some of the instructions read like a manual for assembling some sort of huge toy or something.

You can be absolutely 100% sure that if it looks OK, I will post 101 pictures of it on this blog. Hopefully I will remember to take some of my darling little 4 year old as well.

A peek at what I have been up to

Wish I could say it's been more scrapping but that is not the case. Life is hectic as usual. A good kind of hectic though. I did manage to pull away for a couple hours to work on some SGT Design Team projects. Here's one layout I busted out. It's growing on me. Wasn't sure about it at first. It features Bo Bunny's "Kitchen Spice" line. I just love the colors in this line and new it would work perfectly with Makaela's Halloween 2008 pictures. Is she not the cutest mermaid you ever saw?! (please excuse the colors being a little off ... the lighting was TERRIBLE!)

Vegas Baby!

So it's been a crazy past week or so. My birthday was on the 8th. To celebrate Joel and I hauled off to Vegas. I have the BEST husband ever. He knows me too well. Back in March he booked rooms for us at the Bellagio. I never would have done this for myself. Too impractical. Too much money. Well that was then. After this last weekend, I am not sure I can do Vegas the old way (cheap rooms, food, etc.) This was by far the best Vegas trip ever. We had a full view of the watershow and sat at our hotel window for hours on end just watching the water dance and listening to the coordinating music via the TV. So mesmerizing! I will share more pictures later, but for now I will leave you with these.

At the Bellagio pool. Did I mention best-husband-ever also rented us a cabana!

The view from our room during the day.

The view from our room during the night.

QuicKutz Club Project

So if you're reading this, chances are you linked up from SGT's blog. And if that's the case, you might have heard about the QuicKutz club. Well for the month of September, I was responsible for designing the project and here's what I came up with. It's a sweet little 3x3 chipboard booklet. There are 4 pages in all. It can be given as a sweet little gift. Or kept to showcase a few special photos. This project is so easy to make and can be recreated with any other papers out there. Think Christmas gifts -- pop a few photos, or quotes, or Christmas song lyrics in it. So if you're interested in learning how to make it, call the store and see if there's a spot for you.

Make your own letter stickers!

I posted this tip over at SGT as well, but I thought I would share here too. I haven't seen this anywhere else but I am positive I am not the first person to come up with this idea.

That being said ... I keep seeing all those teeny tiny letters floating around on people's layouts. They look so cute. Perfect for short little journaling places. They can say a location, a name, a date, etc. With two children, it's hard to get out and shop for supplies. And I am too impatient to order them off the interent and wait for them to arrive. Plus this economy has me focussing my money on smarter purchases. This all leads me to my creation. Do it yourself letter "stickers". In 5 minutes I had whipped up a set in black and brown.

How did I do it? I opened up Word. Set my font to Times New Roman at size 20. Then I typed rows of letters. A row of a's, a row of b's ... you get the idea.

Then using my handy dandy paper trimmer, I cut the rows of letters into strips. Now I have rows of letters in two colors. When I want a letter "sticker" I find the correct strip, cut off a letter and glue it to my project.

I am really excited about this idea. The possibilities appear to be endless. You can print out letters in any size of font or color. You can change the paper color. Vanilla would be a good paper color. You can ink them too!

September Projects for SGT

Just for you Susan ...

Here's a look at the September projects I did for Scrappin Good Times. Both feature American Crafts "Backyard" line. And both are showcasing the same event. One for each girl. They were so cute with this large amount of ladybugs Joel found while working in the yard one morning. Please excuse the terrible wardrobe both girls are in.

I got a lot of use out of my Silhouette on these projects. Pretty much all of the embellishments were made with it. If you don't know what it is, it's an electronic die cutting machine that hooks up to your computer. You can then print any font out in any size on pretty much any paper. It's made by QuicKutz. Not only does it cut fonts, but there's tons of places you can download shapes (as in my ladybugs, the vines, the flowers, etc.) I really love this machine!

Warning: Bipolar Post Ahead

Note: I originally began this post on 7/29/09. So the updates are from today, but everything else was from that date.

So do you want the good news first of the bad news?

I'll start with the good news. Or the good (happy) project I should say.

This first project is something that has been keeping me busy during the evening hours for the past week or two. The sad thing about this mini album is that I have had it in the works for over a year now! A friend of mine had twin boys back in August of 2008. I knew I wanted to make her an album and told her so, but with my having had Makaela in May, I informed her it would not be reaching her on time. Never did I imagine it would be their 1st birthday that they would be getting it. So rather than my typical baby albums, I have made this more of a little boy album to showcase all they are at age 1. I am putting it in the mail today. I hope she likes it. I think she'll be surprised when it arrives. (update: she got it and said she literally almost cried upon seeing it ... music to my ears)






I'll post more pictures in the coming days. I need to crop them so you can't see all the distracting elements of my kitchen.

Now for the bad news or project. Here it is:

Doesn't look bad right? Well, it's purpose is due to a very negative and sad circumstance. My stepmom has been diagnosed with Stage 4 Melanoma. It metastasized inside her on one of her ovaries. Basically this is not good. Just Google Melanoma and Ovary and you'll be crying a river, deep seeded in pessimism. Therefore, I have sworn off Google searches related to this cancer and am opting to be positive. There are bits of good news though. It's not in her brain, lungs, or bones. There are a couple of spots in her abdomen that they are assuming are infected lymph nodes. The course of treatment for this type of cancer is extreme and you supposedly only have one shot at the two treatments. So they are going to scan her again in mid-August to determine its aggressiveness. From there, they will determine their next action. So I was immediately inspired to make her something that she could see that would remind her how much me and my siblings all love her and are praying for her. (update: she had her oncologist appt today to read last week's scan and it has not spread but is growing = intense chemo beginning this Friday. She'll be in the hospital for 5 straight days receiving chemo, then home for 2 weeks. Then back to the hospital for 5 days of chemo and then home for 2 weeks. Then they do another CT scan to see if it's responded and to determine the next course of action.)

If you would all be so kind, I would appreciate it if you could add Nancy, my stepmom to your prayers. She's going to need them. She's only 46 and has only been a part of my family for the past 4 years. But she is a wonderful lady. So kind. So undeserving of this kind of illness. Not that I think that certain people are deserving of cancer, but I cannot yet see God's plan in this.

I feel a huge desire to say "F you Cancer!!!!!!!" It has touched my life in too many ways recently. My grandfather succumbed to pancreatic cancer a couple of years ago. Around the same time, my cousin was diagnosed with a serious brain tumor caused by a cancer typically found in young children the day before his second child was to be born (he made a MIRACULOUS recovery - Praise God!!!). One of my friend's cousins was taken down rapidly by cervical cancer, leaving behind three young children. I notice as I get older how different my outlook on this terrible disease has changed. When I was a lot younger and thought I was invincible and that I knew everything, I used to say, "We're all going to die of cancer someday anyways!" Ugh! To think how flippant I was about the whole thing. Very shameful. I guess that's one good thing about getting older. You grow in maturity, awareness, respect for life.

So I will continue to pray. For all of those who suffer from cancer and other often times incurable diseases. Thank you for taking the time to read this. Like I said earlier, any prayers for her recovery would be welcomed with open arms.

I'm still alive, I swear it!

Ugh! It's been so long since I have posted and I hate that. Especially because I check all the blogs I follow daily for new posts and get bugged/bummed when weeks pass before one shows up. Maybe that's why I never have time to post here. Because I am too busy checking out other people's blogs. Actually the real reason is that I have an iPhone and that we recently purchased a second computer thereby allowing the older one to be placed in my scraproom. What's the problem? I know! I have all this technology at my fingertips and my post numbers drop???? What the heck?

Though I love my iPhone I think the blame has to be placed with him. It's terribly easy to be technologically connected at ANY time of the day and to not be in front of an actual computer to do it. So to sit at the big computer and draft a post, upload pictures, and finalize it has become in an effort in my gotta-have-the-info-right-this-second world I am living in; actually that I have created for myself.

So I need to make a change. Dedicate myself to uploading pictures, finishing posts, and keeping up with my desired blog duties. I have two posts in draft form that I just need to finish. For one, I need to complete a project and then take pictures. The other, I just need to make sure it says what I want and that the pictures are in order. C'mon lady right?

So here's hoping I'll be back with some interesting posts soon.

Have a great week everyone in the meantime.

If you can help ...

A very good friend of mine, Roxanne Fitkowski, is doing the Challenge Walk MS: Southern California 2009 in a couple of weeks. It's a 3 day, 50 mile walk put on by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society to support research of Multiple Sclerosis as well as to help the families that suffer from it. She needs to raise $2500. As of last week she was only at $1000. We all know how difficult it is to raise money. Even when it's for a good cause. And with our economy being in the toilet right now, it's even more difficult. If you're able to give a little bit (even $10) it would be most appreciated by my friend and of course by me too. If she doesn't raise enough money, she won't be able to do the walk. Here is the link that will take you directly to her donation page.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. And thank you to those of you who will donate to this great cause.

Have a wonderful day.

~ Krista

My August Projects

Here's a quick post showing my design team layouts for Scrappin Good Times in San Dimas, CA. Did you know they turned 5 yesterday?! Crazy how time flies. I had a lot of fun with these layouts. Typical me waited til the very last minute to complete them so I feel fortunate that they came out as well as they did.

This first layout features We R Memory Keepers "White Out" line. You should be able to click on the image to get a bigger view. I used my QK Silhouette (love that machine!) for the title, the orange border at the bottom, and the flower embellishment on the right page. These pictures are of Makaela on her actual birthday. We were getting some sun while waiting for Daddy to get home from work. Her shirt says "Lemonade 25 cents" hence the title.


This layout uses the My Little Shoebox line called "Who's There". I really like this company. All of their papers seem to coordinate with each other. I added some stitching with my sewing machine on the right page to "beef up" the pattered paper a bit. Again I used my Silhouette to do the title. And I layered three different flowers (each a bit off center) to fill in some white space. In this layout Hannah got a lollipop she'd begged for (how can you not cave in on something so small?) and was enjoying it thoroughly.

Hopefully I will be back soon with some more projects. Some happy, one in particular not so happy.

Have a great weekend.