September CTMH Blog Hop

Welcome to our Close To My Heart Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! We will be featuring September's SOTM, which is Treasures, a set of 13 stamps. If you have come here from Judy's Blog, you are on the right path!

This month we have 69 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this month's SOTM and other great CTMH products on their blogs. This is simple to do - just click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move to the next one! Here we go!




Now "Hop" on over to Leisa's Blog to see her work! Be sure to visit all the Consultants at their Blogs to get some great crafting ideas and other fun ideas! Remember, the Treasures SOTM is only available until September 30th! Click here to see how you can get this stamp set at a discount or even free!

If you get lost on the hop or find links that aren't working, click HERE for a complete list of participating blogs.

Marathon

Kenny did it! He completed his frist marathon. This summer he has been training and anticipating it. Saturday morning he set out on his marathon journey through the Northwest Trail Runs organization. The marathon took place in Redmond at the Watershed Preserve. I think he was most excited about the weather he had for the run. Not to hot or to cold. Kenny completed the race in 4 hours and 14 minutes coming in 4th place. Now he is trying to decide if he wants to do it again!?!

Here Shane is signing to me that he is "waiting" for Daddy.

Coming around the final corner...our first glimpse of the marathoner.


Shane is super exited to see Daddy finish!!

Small Dry Erase Board

I made this 8x10 dry erase board for our home office. Kenny really wanted something, so I wiped this out and tried to make it more masculine. I love how this frame has great edge to it that you can just lay the marker right on it.

Priceless

$5 sand box bought while on a road trip,

Free sand from Craig's List,

A happy 2-year old: priceless

18-page Scrapbooking Workshop

Saturday, October 10^th 6:30-9:30
Do you have tons of fun summer pictures just sitting on your memory waiting to be put onto a scrapbook page? Or did you go on a fun vacation recently and want to remember all those great memories? Maybe you feel “far behind” in your scrapbooking and just don’t know where to start again? I have the solution for you. This 18 page scrapbooking workshop will solve all those problems and more. I used my pages to showcase all the fun summer events we have done this year. You can use the pages as individual events, like I did, or use the pages for one overall event.
You pick out any Close To My Heart Level 2 paper packet. I’ll cut up all the pieces you’ll need. Then you get to put them together with my help during the workshop, add pictures, any titles, journaling and embellishments you would like to your pages.

Workshop includes:

Level 2 Paper Packet, Cardstock Packet of 24 sheets, Stickease (optional)

Cost: $27 (with optional Stickease $33) That is a whooping $1.50 per page!

Weekend Get-Away.

This weekend we went camping at Lake Chelan. We stayed the Lake Chelan State Park right on the lake. On the way home we stopped off to visit Leavenworth. It was our first trip to both places. I loved Lake Chelan. The state park we camped at was great. There was a sandy beach and roped off area to swim in and a great playground. The sites weren't very private, so we had some noise issues, but that is pretty typical for camping. We roasted hot dogs and ate s'mores. I just love cuddling in for the night in a sleeping bag in a tent. Shane started the night in his pack-n-play and ended up with us in our sleeping bag as cozy and warm together.

Shane did great "swimming" in the water. He got up to just about his armpits. He would "swim" up to shore...which was more like crawling on his knees. He got his face in the water quite a few times and didn't freak out. I was dying to get in the water, but for some reason decided to not pack my swimsuit. Next time, I guess.



Leavenworth was really cute. We could have done some more shop browsing, but that just didn't seem to be a favorite activity for a toddler boy. Instead we went to a putting green and did some golfing. Shane had a blast. It was 18 holes and we ended up skipping ahead and doing about 10 of them. On hole 17 he threw down his golf club, signed all done and then signed eat. Off to pizza for lunch we went. Then home to the doggies.

Shane was undercover from the sun.





Probably one of them most memorable moments on the trip was about 45 minutes into the drive. Kenny wanted to stop off and look at some waterfalls. We were driving down a residential area, when we drove past a garage sale with tons of kid toys. I saw a turtle sand box out front (we've been looking for one for cheap all summer). I quickly asked Kenny if he thought it would fit in the car, he replied he thought it might. We pulled over, I jumped out and asked the lady how much.....$5!!! We'll take it....if it fits! It did, so we went camping with a sand box, which actually came in handy during the evening down time. You can see it in the top picture of our camp site.

This Week in the Life of Shane.

Another fun summer week for Shane and I. I must say though, yesterday I was ready to pull out my hair. Shane just didn't seem to be happy doing anything, oh, except watching cartoons. Which I put an end to after an hour of TV time. I really needed to get my creative Mommy hat on and figure how to entertain him. I walked into the laundry room where I have a stash of "emergency fun items". The shaving cream jumped right out at me. I grabbed it and took it outside to spray all over Shane's car and trike, so he could "paint". Then we added water so he could clean it off. Whew....I had a happy toddler on my hands for at least a few minutes!!

Check out his tongue. He started doing this a month ago. When ever he is working on something, like coloring or painting, even today when he was climbing stairs, he sticks his tongue out and moves it side to side. I asked him why he does it and he just shrugged his shoulders.
I found him sitting here singing songs to himself.
This morning we went to an open house at a place called Great Play in Redmond. It is "a unique new gym for kids." Shane had so much fun running around, climbing, chasing after Buddy the mascot on the walls, singing, dancing, jumping, swinging and sliding. It was a full hour of motor skill enjoyment. He didn't want to leave, which is really unusual for him. Normally 45 minutes into something he is ready to go home. I would totally recommend it. They have a few other locations in the states.

Delight In Everyday!

The Everyday Celebration card kit, designed exclusively for National Stamping Month by Close To My Heart, can be yours for FREE until September 30th.

• Purchase a minimum of $60 in stamp sets.
• Host a home gathering with minimum sales of $400.
• Sign up as a new Consultant.

You can also buy this card kit for $39.95. There are 16 cards in this kit. Which makes each card $2.50 each. Way cuter and cheaper then Hallmark!!

I put all 16 cards together in two sittings in the past week. You get instructions, D-sized stamp set, embellishments, paper and cards with envelopes. Everything you need to make these super cute cards. Click here for more information.

Trip to the Zoo.

We took Shane to the Woodland Park Zoo this morning. It had been quite awhile since he had been to the zoo. It was so much fun watching him be excited about the animals. We saw some really cool things today, too! Our first stop was the Gorillas. Man, are they so cool and so human like. He kept giggling at them. Next we got to see a Jaguar super close up. She was just laying there watching all of us. So beautiful.

Then we saw two bears sleeping. In this picture he is signing his version of bear.
The orangutans were having an morning snack.
We visited the Giraffes where we watched this guy pee for at least 3 minutes. I'm totally not kidding, seriously for 3 minutes. Kenny and I were really impressed.
Our last stop took us to the Lions. Where we watched this beautiful guy get to hot in the sun and decided to get up and move to the shade just feet away from us. He totally reminded us of Sadie when she is sunbathing and gets to hot.

And of course, Shane's favorite exhibit the traitor. Can't forget to have a ride on that!

Yellow Watermelon Surprise.

I cut open my first yellow watermelon this afternoon. And was greeted with this beautiful surprise on the inside.

I have no idea if all yellow watermelon have pretty little designs on the inside of them. I was worried at first that it may be over ripe, but it wasn't. Yummy, and sweet. I mixed it with some red watermelon and will be taking this colorful bowl of summer to a BBQ this afternoon. Now if only the weather would start acting like summer again.

Completed Craft Club Project.

I've finally completed the July Craft Club Project. I was waiting on more paper before I could get it done. Thanks to Julie for a wonderful project idea. We used a poster mailing tube cut into almost 2 inch pieces. This will hang in Shane's room. (Click on image for a larger view).

The next Craft Club will Saturday, September 26th at my house. If you are interested in attending let me know and I can get you details. I haven't totally decided on a project. There are a few ideas swirling in my head.

Supplies (all from Close To My Heart):
Stardust Paper Packet (featured colors Topiary , Bamboo and Moonstruck)
Stardust Stickease
Various Embellishments: buttons, chipboard, brads, rub-ons, sparkles

Week In Review.

It's been a quiet week around our house. Shane and I had this week off from work, so we hung out and tired to get a few fun things in. We also had some friends stay the night with us Wednesday. Jason was a college roommate of Kenny's. It was great seeing them. They now live in New Zealand, so it may be awhile before we'll be able to visit again.

Shane and I went to South 47 Farm yesterday. They have a great toddler program that has a different theme every week. He got to go on a hay ride, visit with some animals, make a sunflower necklace and pick two sunflowers.




Shane got his hair cut this week. I would have never guess how hard it has been to find someone who can cut it right and listen to what I ask them to do. He came out of it with close to 2 inches off, when I asked for barely 1/2 of an inch. Guess it will just have to grow back.

I've been working on a few projects, all of which haven't been completed. I hope to bring some of them to a close this weekend. Stay tuned for pictures.