Birthday Calendar

My latest project was this birthday calendar. It is never outdated! When someone is born, all I have to do is add their name, and that's it. I won't have to make another one forever,.. unless I want to :) I made one of these for Marcus' Grandma a few years ago, and have wanted one since. Now that I have started digital scrapbooking, I decided to try and make one of these calendars digitally as well. I loved making this :) I'm pretty much addicted to digital scrapbooking now.

Snowman Greenhouse

This was all my Dad's idea. He's a genius! We are lucky enough to live in the desert and still have tomato plants. It was finally starting to get cold Thanksgiving weekend, so he decided his tomato plants needed a snowman greenhouse. Here is what it is made out of:

- 1 string of white lights to wrap around the tomato cage to light Mr. Frosty up
- A a sheet of plastic (like a painter's tarp or clear visqueen) that will fit both up ways and around the tomato cage.
- A scarf
- Twigs for arms
-Felt for the eyes, mouth and buttons. T pins are holding them in place so we can use them again next year.
- A hat held on by 2 pieces of wire in case the wind blows.
- A real carrot for the nose. I don't recommend this. It's a very sad looking nose now.
- There is an O shaped piece of wood in the middle of the bottom "snowball". The inside fits nicely around the tomato cage, and is about 3"wide. It helps make the bottom "snowball" bigger than the others.

Our Attempts at Creativity

So, Marcus and I, yes, both of us together, have been trying to be creative! He's such a good husband! Our first attempt was on Thursday. It was my brother, Ren's, birthday. I asked Marcus if he would go to the store and buy some stuff to make cupcakes in ice cream cones, because they are so much better than regular cupcakes. I also said, if you want you can make them to! *wink wink* So I get home and the batter is already, but no cupcakes yet. He showed me the stuff he got. He got FuNfEtTi batter and frosting, so "Ren could re-live his childhood"(or something to that effect) was his reasoning. Then he got cones and waffle bowls. We decided since it was Ren's day, he should get the BIGGEST and best cupcake, so we made his in a waffle bowl and the others in cones. Amazingly, it turned out great! Ren said the cupcake was good, but the bowl got soft in the middle. HAPPY BIRTHDAY REN!

Our next 2 attempts were with pictures hanging on the wall. We stole both of them from sisters-in-law. Sorry, but they were such good ideas! I couldn't help myself.

Liz, my sister-in-law, was telling me how she was going to hang her marriage license, the proclamation and a picture of her and Pace at the temple on the wall all together. What a great idea! When we got married, the sealer gave us all those things, minus our picture, and so I decided they could all go together like she planned! Here's how it turned out. It took me FOREVER to decide how to hang them. I'm anal like that about somethings.

We went to Mike and Becky's house for dinner one night, and she showed me this shelf and picture frames that Mike made her just out of wood, and they look like she bought at Tai Pan or Krumpets or something. A few days later I was looking for picture frames to hang a big picture of us in, and one of each of us on the side, so 3 total. Everwhere I looked, the big frames that I wanted were close to $100. I just about died. I'm cheap, and don't enjoy spending tons of money on stuff. So... *DING* the lightbulb went off in my head, and I realized I could make picture frames just like Becky did, that look like the simple frames I wanted for MUCH cheaper! So we got the big frame done, and have to work on the two smaller ones now, but I wanted to post how the first one turned out. I was excited! Amazingly, Marcus was into doing this stuff just as much as I was. He definitely isn't your typical guy. He does love his Fantasy Football (GO Spongemonkeys!), ESPN, and Tiger Woods Golf '09, but he also likes doing things with me that are crafty. It's so great! I try to be into the things that he likes, and I've learned a lot. I can tolerate them for a few hours, then it's time to do something productive!