Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Normal or not?

Do you know that feeling when you have held your tongue about things and it has just boiled up? That is me at the moment....and I'm ready to start screaming. I know that we are not a typical family, afterall we have been married for 20 years. (To the same person.) We have 6 kids, not the average 2.5...still don't know how you have 1/2 a kid. I am a stay at home mom, not a 2 income family, and we homeschool. We have all of that going against us, and then we decided to build a farm. Who in their right mind does these things, anymore? We have made these choices all for different reasons and at different times in our lives. We chose daily to stay in love with each other.....that is why we are still together. We have chosen a large family....mainly because of me and my love of my children. As for a stay at home, being a military family for so many years it was the stability for the kids. (I'm very thankful that I have been able to do that.) As for homeschooling there are many different reasons, one being that I had my children to raise them, not for someone else too. The farm well that one is new and different. We want to be able to raise the majority of our food. We want to have a healthier lifestyle that is more active, which is required on a farm....and well it is fun to have the livestock, relaxing to work in the garden, and it gives us a sense of accomplishment when our dinner doesn't come from a store. This isn't a life for everyone that's for sure. That doesn't make it wrong. We struggle like everyone else in this world, but our life is what we have made it. We don't regret our choices. We may seem backwards, out of touch with reality, or that we have our priorities mixed up....but before anyone judges us maybe they should look at the bigger picture. It is frustrating to me that if we were both working, kids in schools, and struggling to stay together, keep up, and so on it wouldn't be given a second thought. I know that not everyone feels that way. I know not everyone who has a 2 income family is struggling with their marriage or children....it all comes down to the choices we make in our lives. Our choices have always been based on what is right for our family. If I need to work outside of the house I do, and will. If the farm for some reason doesn't work for us in the long run, then at least we have tried. I would rather have tried and failed, then to have never tried at all. Anyhow I'm just getting this all out so that I can let it go. I try not to judge others, and when I'm told how wrong that I am I wish that they would take a step back and look at themselves first. On a bright side, we've gained the last of our ewes to build our flock. Our chickens and turkeys are exploring our yard. I have a garden growing, and we've had some very beautiful days. The kids have finished school for the year and we are enjoying our summer. I hope that the rest of you are too...and thanks for listening to me rant.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Lollipop Love

Hey again....how's your summer going? Ours is just starting here in Alaska. This week at sweetsassydiva we are celebrating National Candy Month....for me that's 12 months out of the year. (Must be why I'm so sweet ;)) I have the perfect idea in mind for this week as soon as it came out. It took me a while to make it...and for it to come together in my brain...too much sugar I guess... but I finished it. My Mama sends her grandbabies these huge lollipops...that we were never allowed to have as kids...must be a grandma thing. My girls love it when they get a box in the mail from her because they know that they have all flavors of lollipops. So I decided a layout would be good to do with this one. I even had help putting this one together....starting them early ;) So here is the layout we came up with.... The paper is from DCWV pastel stack and sweet stack...and Colorblok textured cardstock. I used the plantin schoolbook cartridge for the letters. I welded thhe "I'm a SUCKER 4 a" on my gypsy. I found a lollipop cut on my Mickey and Friends however I wanted something a bit more so I decided to make my lollipops. I used dmc thread, 2 or 3 colors and twisted them together...and then wound them onto just a scrap sheet of paper. I used my glue runner to make a sticky surface...and then cut out around the edges. I cut a toothpick in half, colored it with a white marker....cut out a small square of saran wrap and there you have it...my own handmade lollipop. I cut out 3 (4.25x6.25) rectangles for pictures and a 4.25x4.25 square for either a 4x4 picture or a journal box. I added ribbon corners on each to add a little more color. Now all I need is to add the pictures of my sticky little girls. I hope that you are all enjoying summer!!!! Angie

Sunday, June 10, 2012

All About Dad

This week at Sweetsassydiva we are celebrating Dads. I'm very blessed to have such a wonderful man to be the "Dad" of my kids. He is amazing and I literally thank God for him every day. Making cards, layouts, or anything basically with a masculine feel is a challenge for me. It may have something to do with the fact that I have 5 daughters, and 1 poor boy surrounded by us. Pink and flowery just comes more natural. So for this card I started scouring magazines, websites and so on looking for something to scraplift. I mainly lifted the colors more so than anything. I chose blues, and stripes. They seemed "manly" enough ;) I layed everything out with my gypsy and got it all cut at one time. I used the calligraphy collection cartridge for my tags and for the "Happy Father's Day" and I used George and Basic Shapes for the "DAD" I used DCWV neutral stack (gray) for the card base, and the smaller tags (1 1/2 in), Latte stack for the striped frame,and white and black misc. scraps for the larger tag (1 3/4 in) I inked all edges of the base, striped paper and tags in dark blue. I layered my tags and centered the letters on them. I used small brads at the top for some extra color. (I don't have a paper piercing tool so I used my cricut tools...they work great) I used foam dots to raise the tags just a bit for added dimension. Then to finish the card I added my greeting on the inside. and the finished project looks like............. Thanks for stopping by. Make sure that you give all of the "Dad's" in your life a huge hug. They deserve them!