My One Word for 2011

Did you make a resolution on New Year's Day? If so, have you stuck with it? Like many, I've usually broken my resolution by this time in January in the past. But this year is different.
I was recently listening to my favorite radio station,
K-Love ,where the Morning Show's Lisa and Eric were challenging their listeners to chose ONE word for the year instead of a resolution.

Myoneword.org says this:

"The challenge is simple: lose the long list of changes you want to make this year and instead pick ONE WORD. This process provides clarity by taking all of your big plans for life change and narrowing them down into a single thing. One word focuses on your character and creates a vision for your future."

I thought this was a very good idea for me since I'm just not successful at the resolution thing. So, I thought very carefully and chose my word for 2011:

TRUST

Last year had many speed bumps for me, or maybe better termed as road blocks. I believe that those road blocks would have been easier to bear if I had my trust where it belongs - in God.

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding." Proverbs 3:5

To put this word in front of me every day so I work on my trusting the Lord with all my heart, I created this banner:

It is now hanging in my home office - my "happy place" where I spend most of my time. The hope is that when I come into this room each day, I look at it, reflect upon where I'm at in my walk with God, and continue to get stronger in that goal.

On to the crafty part. I used patterned paper from the Die Cuts With a View Stack 6, white and blue cardstock, light blue ribbon, Cricut Birthday Bash cartridge for the banner pieces, and Cindy Loo for the letters.

I really do love it! It was fun to make and I hope it serves its intended purpose. Now go jump over to myoneword.org and pick your word for 2011!

Have a great weekend all!!

I Survived the Ice Skating Birthday Party!!!

I SURVIVED!! I survived the 80s-themed ice skating party with 14, YES 14, pre-teen girls!!!!! The party turned out great thankfully, but I'm pretty happy it is behind us. Not that those adorable pre-teens were that much work, but I've been extremely busy at my job so being able to check something off my list is a very good thing lately.

I didn't go as crazy as I originally wanted to with crafty things for the party, but I'm glad I didn't. The party room we had at the rink was already decorated like to the max! I did make favor bags and a great CD filled with all 80s girl band songs, though. We even had the rink play those tunes during the cosmic skate!

I really wanted to utilize a fun holder from one of my Cricut cartridges, but the items that needed to go into the favor were rather big and heavy: the legwarmers, the beads, the pretend microphone, the BRB Banana anti-bac (my daughter had to tell me what the BRB stood for- that was a "duh!" moment), and the container of 15 glow bracelets. So I thought saving time & money and having something durable like a standard white gift bag would be best.

I decorated the bags with each girl's name done in the Neon 80s font and Winter Woodland ice skates to match the invitation (see invitation HERE). I also tied on cute new ribbons from Michael's Fit To Be Tied Collection. Like totally awesome! Fer Sure!!

This is what the cosmic skate looked like. Pretty fun, huh? Another successful kid birthday party conquered-YES! Have a good week everyone!!

A Birthday Cake Card for a Cake Gift

My oldest daughter wanted the Cricut Cake Mini machine for her birthday, so what type of card would go with such a gift? A birthday cake card, of course!

This card was made using the Sweet Treats cartridge (one of my faves!) and the Party Hearty stamp set from Stampin' Up. I stickled this card up but good! The candles and all of the "frosting" were blinged up with Stickles. The curly frosting reminds me of those Hostess Cupcakes I so enjoyed when I was young - right up there with Twinkies, Ho Hos and Ding Dongs! Ahhh the sugar!!!

And did my daughter take the cake? Oh yes she did - along with the Birthday Cakes cartridge, the Holiday Cakes cartridge, the Martha Stewart Seasonal Cake Art cartridge, the Cricut Cake tool kit, an apron, and some frosting sheets! And the bonus for me is that I can use those cartridges in my Cricut - YES! She's suppose to make her Dad's birthday cake later this weekend, so hopefully I can post that soon to show off her new found Cricut Cake skills! Gotta love it when your kids want to share your crafting passion, too!

Have a good weekend everyone!

Like totally tubular!!

Phew! I survived the holidays!! How did you all do?

This is where I welcomed the New Year:

Isn't this just BEAUTIFUL? We arrived to Colorado with no snow on the ground, but woke up towards the end of our week to this beautiful scene! It almost looks like a painting, but I swear this is the actual view from the deck of the house we stayed at near Pike's Peak. I so want to move there!!

But again, back to reality. In addition to getting back into the usual routine this week, my oldest daughter's birthday was on Tuesday. So goodbye holidays, hello birthday season! Yes, I have many birthdays to celebrate in my family this month starting with this one.

My daughter has been slow to choose what she wants to do with her friends to celebrate her birthday despite me asking for a couple of months. While in Colorado last week, we went ice skating. This is an activity that my girls took lessons for when they were little, but just haven't kept up. So when we were going with family to the rink, my girls were a bit nervous. It turned out, though, that it was like riding a bicycle for them - they got right back into it and LOVED it! This prompted my oldest to want an ice skating birthday party. Soooo, let the planning begin!!

As an added bonus, the rink has a special 80s night on the day we chose for the party. Isn't that totally TUBULAR?? Bring on Cyndi Lauper, The Go-Gos, Joan Jett, etc.!

Here is the invitation:

The ice skate die cuts (with Stickles bling) are from the Cricut Winter Woodland cartridge and the font is Neon 80s downloaded from http://www.dafont.com/. I ordered light blue, hot pink, and black striped legwarmers (like for sure!!) from a party store for all of the invited guests, so that's where I got the color scheme for the invitation.

If any of you FABULOUSLY talented bloggers have any ideas for this party, please leave a comment or email me! I would welcome them all! I need to think in terms of cupcake decorations, banners, favors (already planning to make a 80s CD as part of the favor), a short activity in the party room, etc. Thank you in advance!!

Have a great weekend everyone!!