Wednesday, October 12, 2011

The reason I started blogging again

What is this? It's the reason I started blogging again. My dear sweet Hottie made this for me. It's a light box to put my cards in and get better pictures. I need to learn how to decorate it up a little, but I just love how much better the pictures come out. He also taught me how to use some basic computer "fixes" to take out all the yellow and sharpen the images.

I have received several messages from people encouraging me to continue with my blogging or asking me if anything is wrong because I have not blogged in forever. Thank you so much for those, they mean the world to me.

Work hours have changed up a bit too, so now I have a day during the week, sometimes, to upload and blog. Sorry about the massive uploading today, but I have a feeling my uploads are going to be in fits and starts, lol. What with the new camping and all lol (see several blog posts down). So keep checking in, you never know where life will take me next! lol.

Thank You Debbie

Several weeks ago, I won blog candy from Scrappin my heart out. And I didn't want to touch it until I had a chance to take a picture and blog about it. lol. Debbie not only drew my name, but she also sought me out on Splitcoast Stampers and sent me a private message letting me know I won. I happened to be on a long weekend vacation with my family and picked up the message on my phone. Whooo Hooo! It made that time that much sweeter. Thank you Debbie! I love this CTMH scrap kit and now that I have posted it, I can't wait to use it. Love all the papers, the ribbon, the mini brads and matching pearls and my new favorite love....chipboard!

Thank You My Favorite Things

I won a blog hop on the last My Favorite Things blog hop and I haven't quite figured out how to navigate their new website. So my prize did not get deducted from my total. They were not able to fix that part, but they did throw in this adorable stamp in my order and I LOVE IT! And amazingly, I do not have it. lol.

I have been so lucky and blessed the past 6 months with blog hopping, prizes and blog candy, that I just felt the need to blog about it and thank each one individually.

Thank You Michelle

I recently won this blog prize from Stamps, Paper, Scissors, and Donkey Smiles blog. And my response won in the random drawing. WHOOT! Thank you Michelle, I love them all! And your card is so adorable, this pic does not do it justice.

Thank You to "There She Goes"

Thank You "There She Goes"! Not only did I win the adorable sailor boy stamp set, but I also ordered some cute stamps recently and there was a glitch in the system and my order was frozen in time for a few weeks. But after I emailed Jessica, the owner, not only did she send out my stamps that were then available with free shipping, but she also sent me the one that wasn't available (when it became available) absolutely free! Now who does that these days?

I don't know about you all, but I LOVE stamping and crafting and it is my "fun" time. So when things get all hassled up, it is no longer fun and then I usually give up on that and find something else that is fun. And it tends to bother me more than the ordinary stuff in life would because I don't have that much time for fun-me-time. So when someone does something above and beyond I am so touched and grateful and I find it so worth blogging about, lol. So I hope everyone will go to "There She Goes" website and buy a bunch of her adorable stamps. And if you are reluctant to buy on line, I would say this one is definitely worth the chance.

Thank you Stampalicious!

Thank You Stampalicous for the free stamps and prizes from your blog hop. I loved winning money off my stamp choices. These are so adorable and there are so many more, so many more to get. lol.

Thank You Riley!

This is not the stamp I won, lol. But I did win a Riley stamp from their blog hop before last and I wanted to say thanks to the folks at Riley Stamps. Love these little moose folks. I also really enjoy blog hopping and prizes!

Cub Scout camping in Pine Mountain - The Jumpy House
















Have you ever taken your kids to the jumpy houses? They love it. The highlight of our camping trip was our jumpy house. We have a brand new tent. The last one leaked and was so miserable, I demanded a deluxe version. So Joe found us a fabulous tent and it even HAD a privacy screen. That was destroyed in mere moments. lol. Joe put up the tent and blew up the mattresses and I threw in the pillows and the kids discovered their new favorite jumpy tent. I think we had 10 kids in there at one point. Jumping, pillow fighting, hiding, laughing. From the outside, you could see shapes of arms, legs, heads, all bulging out the sides. For a while there I was not sure if we would actually have a tent by night fall. But how do you stop such a great time? You don't. We didn't. Instead, we were grateful we still had all four sides intact and no rips, except for that privacy screen. Joe added air before bedtime and I made the beds just before we got in them. They had a blast!

Now this was quite a day, we drove to the Ranch in the morning, drove to the campsite in late afternoon and set up, did the jumpy house, collected pine cones and sticks for the campsite fire, the kids played and explored. We ate dinner outside, hot dogs, hamburgers, Frito chili boats. We had a night time campfire site and all the boys sat around and told spooky stories. Like the gossip game, where one starts the story and then the next one adds to it and so on. Jeep is a natural born story teller and Reed was just as happy to participate. One story started off with a scary bunny, and Reed's part was, "And then the bunny jumped into the camp fire until there was nothing left but bones and a brain....." Of course with this age group of boys, no story is complete with out the poops and the farts. lol. And then there were smores! I love smores!

And then I got cranky. Hot all day, now cold, and dog tired. All boys in bed. They were asleep within moments. But oh, if only Reed would have stayed asleep. He burrows up and out of his sleeping bag, gets cold and then cries out. It was 35 degree's out there at night. We were not expecting it to get that cold. Joe and I had one sleeping bag and two blankets on top. I felt like our pillows froze at some point. But you know, you burrow in and eventually exhaustion will take over right? Not if you have to get up 6 or 7 times to get Reed back into the sleeping bag. neither one of us slept. I finally put Reed into bed with us, which left no room for "us" and I sat on the edge of my blow up mattress peeking out the tent window at the mess hall. Looking for any signs of life other than the coyotes howling. At 5:35 a.m. I saw shadows in the mess hall. Not caring about the coyotes, (I would pity them for crossing me at this point), or what those shadows were, I bolted out the tent door and headed straight to the mess hall. Where there were two men with all the burners on and A POT OF COFFEE!!!!! Whoooo Hooooo!!!!

And Joe and I survived another cub scout camping trip. We, who agreed when we first met that camping was the last thing either of us ever wanted to do, have survived and are planning for the next one. lol. I love all the pictures Joe took on this trip and am sorry I didn't snag the camera and get some shots of him too. Next time.....see planning already.

Camping Trip at the Ranch - Dirt Skiing

















Dirt skiing is a popular sport. This is Reed's turn and he had a ball. I think Jeep had more fun pulling and organizing. Reed loves Jeep and this picture captures a familiar site. I hope they are always close. They sure do have fun together. I think the Cub Scouts has been the best thing for Jeep and a great way to include Reed in on the fun. I am so thankful we had this opportunity and a great weekend together.

Camping Trip at the Ranch - Tree Climbing
















Tree climbing. There are actually rules to tree climbing! lol. Who knew? For beginners, it's a 3 point system. Always have three points on a branch, two legs and one hand, two hands and one foot, etc. I think all the boys loved this. They learned to stay close to the trunk of the tree and about how to test for dead branches. I loved the safety tips in all these activities.

Camping Trip at the Ranch - Rock Bowling

















A pile of rocks, draw the line in the sand with a rope, stack up some carved out bowling pins and you have Rock Bowling! Well you know how much fun it is to throw rocks right? This was Reed's favorite activity and he was GOOD at it. He is much younger and much smaller than the rest of the crowd. But he picked up that rock with purpose and he knocked over more rocks than anyone is his little group. Jeep also had a lot of fun with this activity and knocked over quite a few pins himself. He loved the competition between all the groups.

Camping Trip at the Ranch - Archery

















Archery is over rated! lol. These guys tried as hard as they could but to draw back a real bow takes a lot of muscle. Still, they learned all about it and a lot of GOOD safety tips. Once I gave Reed a snack, he was a lot more agreeable to try this out. Thank God for little baggies of cheese crackers and some water.

Camping Trip at the Ranch - Sling Shots

















One of the activities at the Ranch was learning how to use a sling shot. Not as easy as it looks! This frustrated both of the boys because they wanted to be able to hit that target right off. Oh the concentration of it all! I'm there giving pointers like I know what I'm talking about, lol. Oh but they are so much fun to watch.

Camping Trip at the Ranch - Horses

















This last weekend we took the boys camping with the cub scouts. One of the things we did was stop at a ranch for quite a few activities. Jeep's favorite of all was the horseback riding. Reed would not brush the horse, get on the horse, or get near the horse until he was finally persuaded enough to feed the horse. And as long as that horse was in a cage, he felt much better about it.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Holly Ester's Tasty Toffeebread (tm)





Oh I am so excited! I got my package of Holly Ester's Tasty Toffeebread tm in today from New Mexico. My Sister is a chef and she is extraordinary when it comes to yummy things. She created Toffeebread tm and decided to package and sell it. She called me a couple, yes a couple, weeks ago and asked me if she could use my picture and name on her labels. I am so flattered. So no, you are not seeing double, lol, that is me. And is my name really Holly Ester? Well it is now, lol.

I have to tell you, it is seriously a good thing my sister is making this in New Mexico and no where in California, lol. I would drive hours and hours for this little goodie. lol. Luckily, I do not have to. And neither do you. We can order it on line!!!! YES. My personal fav is the Pink Salt and if you chose this as an affordable Christmas Gift for someone, make sure you buy yourself a bag or two, otherwise they might just end up getting the empty bag, lol, it's really that good. Other flavors are the black pepper and sage blossom. Sister recommends the black pepper with cheese. So of course I had to try it, and it was so good.......

How Good Was It?
.....I only intended to taste one of each peice before I got to photograph this and upload. Unfortunatly the Pink Salt is almost gone. Not so much for the picture sake, but mine, lol. And half the Sage Blossom and Black Pepper are gone too, lol. And okay, now we need to get more cheese too. lol. This is the best thing I have eaten in quite a while. It's like cookie crack, lol. So if you would like to treat a family member or friend (AND you too!) to a tasty Holiday Season, go to:

Toffeebread@gmail.com or
http://www.hollyesters.com/ website now up and running!

Very soon I am going to have a Toffeebread tm badge on the right to just click on to order...... so easy peasy.

New business, great gals, you will love it and when you do taste it and love it, tell everyone you know!

Thanks for much for your support.

Holly.....AKA KopyKat.....AKA Holly Ester

Friday, October 7, 2011

Jana's Baby Board Book

I recently took this baby board book class at Simply Scrapbooks here locally. Jana has such great designs and ideas. Even I am amazed I got this done in 3 hours. But it helps having everything cut out and organized for you, lol. I loved this and once I got the picture in it, it just came to life. This one is going to my daughter with pictures I have of my grandson.








Jana's Summer Wall Hanging

I took a wall hanging chipboard class. This is my first Chipboard project and I fell in LOVE! This is super easy and the whole time I saw them displayed in the store, I was certain it was REALLY difficult and that I couldn't do one..... So glad I went ahead and took the class.






Cheri's Wicked chipboard book part 2










Cheri's Wicked Chipboard Book











Cheri saw the composition book that Sylvia designed and came up with her own version of a chipboard book that is too awesome not to share. And yes, I have to come up with my own version of this one too. lol. This Graphic 45 paper is too much fun and I have discovered the joys of chipboard books.