Margarita, Anyone?

I must have margaritas on the brain. All of my stationery gifts have been of the key lime color! This is what Mac took to school for part of his teacher gift:

LOVE the blue and green combo, super cute and summery!

It's Friday, hooray! School is out and summer can begin! The winner of the flag note pad is...

Andrea! (all follower names have gone into a hat to be drawn out by one of my kiddos for prizes from here on.)

Please send me your addy and personalizing information for your own flag note pad. Profumo@bellsouth.net

Congrats!

It's been a busy couple of days, and there is no hope of catching up on projects and rest this weekend because it will be just as busy. Here's to a lazy upcoming week!

*And one last thing... I LOVE my new printer. I got all the kinks worked out and it is great!

Fishing Widow (again)

Stephen is gone fishin', again. This time a bit longer than last, 2 days longer. I could be bitter and feel sorry for myself, but I choose to be joyful. Joyful, you ask? YES! As Stephen would sing: "Always look on the bright side of life... do-do-do-do!" So, for the next four days, I will have less laundry, cooking and cleaning up to do! My evenings will be quietly spent watching T.V. or doing crafts, and I will get a restful nights sleep without the running man flipping like a fish in bed. Yes! I choose to be positive and happy that my husband is having a great time with the boys fishing, again.

The kids and I actually have a really fun week planned. There is something going on every evening and we are going to celebrate Mac's last day Friday with lunch out and ice cream. Cookouts with friends and family, soccer games, the pool... summer has started!

Here was a quick craft I did the other day:

I bought one of those dollar wood frames at Michael's and painted it off white. Then, I brushed a quick layer of brown paint on and before it dried all the way, I rubbed a bit off to make it look a little weathered. Then, using tacky glue, I attached one of my felt flowers I made (my desk is overflowing with them!)

This one is for my fab friend, Emily. The picture I used is one of us at dinner after the track on Oaks Day. This craft might be a quick, cute teacher gift!

*Did you sign up to Follow this blog? If not, hurry up! I will draw a name on Friday to win the flag note pad. Enjoy the night... I know I will!

41 Never looked so good...

Happy Birthday to my husband, Stephen. I'm pretty sure all your birthday wishes came true when you married me, then you got 3 more bonus wishes granted when we were blessed with our 3 beauties: Mac, Anna & Elan.

A few things Stephen has taught me:

Showers are overrated

Everything is more fun when beer is involved

Going fishing might put food on the table and tournaments might put money in the wallet

Cleaning the house is a waste of time... it's just going to get dirty again

His way of solving the overly abundant laundry in our house: buy a bigger hamper

Commercials on T.V. is the cue to switch to another channel to see what's going on

There is always a BRIGHTER side to situations

Less actually is more

Making a joke will always lighten a tense moment, and he never runs out of something to say

I love you honey, and all you're wonderful qualities too! You are my rock and I'm still your number one fan. You're a keeper, Happy Birthday!

Happy Memorial Day + Giveaway!

This is my flag note pad. Very patriotic and great for summertime notes. Want one? I am giving away a flag note pad that measures 5.5x7.5 inches and has 80 sheets of note paper. It will go to one of you! All you have to do is sign up to follow this blog (click on "follow" to the right and it will prompt you from there on what to do.) If you are already a follower, your name is already in the hat, so good luck! My note pads have been super popular and a great gift item. There are lots of designs to choose from! Some of you already know about Paper Doll Stationery, but for those of you who don't, check it out here:

http://www.paperdollstationery.com/

I have made stationery and invitations under the Paper Doll Stationery name for about 8 years now. I realize some of you aren't "crafty" or don't scrapbook, so I am going to add to my blog with new stationery designs and giveaways. It should be fun!

Enjoy the evening and the start to summer, Happy Memorial Day!

By the way, I don't like my new printer. Uploading photos into the correct folder on my computer is a nightmare. And the Adobe software it came with didn't come with good instructions. It will be weeks before I get the hang of it, so I'm bringing back my old printer for photo purposes and using the new one for stationery printing.

A glorious new printer?

I have cursed my HP Photosmart printer more than a hundred times, especially during the holiday season trying to get out stationery orders. Stephen would sometimes come in a say, "What is wrong in here?!" I mean seriously, I would sound a little tiny bit like a sailor. I keep threating that I'm going to get a new printer that won't jam every single piece of cardstock I thread through it. Well, today I headed in to my local office supply store to get a couple ink cartridges for my crappy printer and get a couple of note pads glued together when low and behold... "Ahhhh!" I see a yellow light with a wonderful glow... it's a glorious printer and it's marked down from $300 to $110. It's one I've drooled over online before on the Epson site. It prints up to 13x19 inches and the paper feeds from the top. This baby will be able to print 12x12 scrapbook pages, and all of my stationery needs. It even comes with 2 warranties.

Behold the Epson 1400 Wide Format Printer:

Print 13" x 19" enlargements fast
Amazing color and detail with Claria™ Hi-Definition Ink
Automatic color and lighting correction for better photos
Direct printing onto ink jet printable CDs/DVDs
Photos that last up to 98 years under glass and 200 years in a photo album1
4" x 6" photos in as fast as 46 seconds; 8" x 10" in as fast as 1 min 51 sec1
Six sensible individual, high-capacity ink cartridges

So, personally, I think the correct economical choice would be not to spend $50 on new ink cartridges for the crappy printer, but to shell out $60 more and get this awesome printer that already has the ink included. Hmm... time is a waistin', what do you think?

Calgon, take me away...

My children are wonderful, but also very demanding and time consuming. Elan always needs something. I play pretend with Anna for 8 out of 12 hours of the day, and she is always some type of animal or princess and I am her "pretend" mom. Mac is a laundry machines worst nightmare wearing at least 3 outfits a day. The pretend play and endless laundry are tiring enough, but then there are days like today. Days that I feel like the only words that come out of my mouth are:

"NO!"

"Stop!"

"Yes?!"

"What?"

"Anna!"

"Shhh..."

"Do you need to go to time-out?"

"SHUT THE DOOR!"

Ugh... today has been exhausting. If I had a dime for every time I said "no" or "stop", I am certain I would be a millionaire.

This is me.

Yesterday, I got quite a bit accomplished. So, I rewarded myself with pure craft time after the kids went to bed. Stephen was fishing, so the house was nice and quiet. I finished Anna's gifts for her teachers and this layout to begin mine and Stephen's scrapbook.

The journaling reads:

At 33, I am peace with myself. I know who I am and what I like and don't like. In the past 3 years, I have changed- for the better! I am more patient, understanding, a better wife, mother and friend. I try not to expect too much from others and give of myself as much as I can. I have learned to be happy with what I have, to respect myself, speak openly and say no.

I am 33 and I love who I have become.

*Notice the cute felt bird and darling buttons? They are from Tessa Ann's Etsy shop! You can visit her here: http://www.tessaann.etsy.com/

And today... I got busted. I ran a red light. Totally on accident, I swear. I was almost home with Anna and Elan in the back seat and Wrigley riding up front with me. I turned around to check Elan, he was passed out asleep, and when I turned back around, I realized I was under a red light AND a police officer at the corner already had her lights and siren on (as if I was going to out run her). Anyway, she wasn't very pleasant. My license was expired by 6 days (I didn't know it) and Stephen had taken out my registration this morning to renew my tags. You could tell she had had it with me, my fat dog and hot children before she returned back to her fancy cruiser. When she did return to my car, ticket in hand, she proceeds to say, "Technically, I should take you to jail since your license is expired." Well, technically, she didn't. The good news? I only got fined $20. Not including court costs and a new, gorgeous photo of myself on a Bluegrass State drivers license.