No such thing

So last night we went to Le Cedre (which is my favorite restaurant) for dinner for my birthday.

Here's Blaise and I:Yes, I'm wearing the scarf I painted as a headband. I don't wear scarves normally, so this is what I chose to do with it, especially since I trimmed my own bangs too short:). And yes, that is red wine, which I gave up for Lent (along with Diet Coke, which has been KILLING me) but it WAS my birthday! It kind of sucks when your birthday always falls during Lent.

But my crafty stuff recently has been these:

I've been listening to CraftyPod and she mentioned paper beads, so I just had to find out how to do that. Not that I'm that into beads (I do have a few from my time in Ghana, but I don't do anything with them - they sit in my stash waiting to find their purpose), but I thought that it would be something interesting to do while I watch 3 boys play in the bathtub (so that they don't kill themselves). I am totally into paper though, so this works for me! And, they're very cool ('cause they're super lightweight) on layouts and cards, so win-win!

Back in Warsaw!

Hey! I arrived in Warsaw yesterday and have about a billion things to do. I did my first layout of the L.O.A.D. challenge last night when I was exhausted, but I'm in the running now! Here's the layout:

I have two chapters to read and an assignment to do, have to go grocery shopping (we made do on Eggo waffles and hot pockets last night), unpack and pick up Dylan and the boys from the airport.

We were supposed to come in on Sunday, but our flight to Chicago was delayed too long to let us make the connection with the one flight that goes to Warsaw. We were rescheduled for the next day, but that flight was canceled. They told us they couldn't get us out until Wednesday but were finally able to find us a Lufthansa flight on Tuesday. Dylan and the boys were supposed to leave on Tuesday but their flight to Chicago was delayed (after they had actually loaded everyone on the plane and closed the doors!) and they were rescheduled for Wednesday. Dylan got them to give him enough time to make the connection in case the flight was delayed, but then wound up being stuck in Chicago for 7 hours...no delays. It was just crazy.

So other than the being stuck for 4 days and getting behind on everything back here, our vacation was very nice. And because idle hands are the Devil's playground here's what I did while I was on vacation:

These are tote bags made from plastic grocery bags. The yellow striped one is for Dylan's grandmother as she gave me all the bags to make it and she really liked the yellow. The other one is the first one I made. They're super easy to make and this is how I finally learned to crochet. You can find instructions here. It was the first time I was able to actually see the stitches. Now I've started on a scarf for Seth (from actual yarn, not plastic bags:).

And Amy has tagged me (twice!) in the time that I was gone, so I still have that to blog:)...I'm getting there;).

Crafty things

So today I have for you some crafty things:

Toby's teacher is Polish and she has lived in the States before. At Toby's birthday party, I brought cupcakes and she LOVED them. She proceeded to tell me that she LOVES brownies and wanted to know if I had a good recipe, and she also used to eat LOTS of chocolate chip cookies. They don't have chocolate chips in Poland (we brought them with us) and brownies are a totally American dessert. Anyway, that gave me an idea for her Christmas present.

I created the bag from a brown paper lunch bag, and embellished it, and I lined it with wax paper and filled it with chocolate chip cookies (from my grandmother's , Neslee Toolouse - 5 points for the reference, recipe). Oh, and Ula is her name...just to clarify.

Then there's the brownies in a jar:
This is just a brownie recipe from allrecipes.com using ingredients that can be found easily in Warsaw. If she likes the mix, I will pass on the recipe to her. (And please ignore my messy table...all that Christmas wrapping and cleaning.)

And this is going to be my last blog post, probably of this year. I'll blog about my trip when I get back, but I still can't tell y'all about it. I should be back to blogging by the 7th so check back (but I could feasibly be back sooner).

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Gone digi...

Okay, so I made that digital page of Toby and I enjoyed it but, like I said in that post, I didn't think I could go totally digi...

Umm, so I made this:




I don't think I'm all that addicted, but I've been watching the photoshop elements podcast with Corey Barker and I'm learning a tremendous amount (video podcasts are awesome for me 'cause I watch them when I lay down with Toby for his nap). I have photoshop elements 6.0 (free trial version right now) and we also have photoshop. Photoshop elements is a little more user friendly than photoshop (but it's still photoshop so if you don't understand photoshop, you will have to take classes...it's like the difference between needing a Master's degree in Photoshop and a Bachelor's in Photoshop elements).

Anyway, my point is that I've gotten really interested in digital now that I know how to use photoshop elements. So I guess I'll be getting elements for Christmas...

Oh and one last thing...go elf yourself...and have fun doing it!:)

Thank you (Dziekuje) cards

Here's the set of "thank you" (or actually Dziekuje) cards that Seth and I made for his teacher. He has two teachers, Iza and Edyta, so this is just the set for Iza. I'll add another picture when I finish Edyta's.

I was again inspired by Lain over at ScrapHappy. She's been posting these Christmas countdown projects that are cute. I had Seth draw a picture of Iza and write her name (he wrote Isa, but it's really Iza -eezah) and then I followed Lain's directions almost to the T. I only added Dzieki (sorry for the no e hook I don't have that ability in blogger as it's not Polish blogger) and Dziekuje (literally: I thank) from the printer because I don't have any rubons that are Polish...there's no scrapbook stores here.

So enjoy! I'll have to do some for Ula and Brana (Toby's teachers) too!