2018 goals check-in February

You can read more details about my goals HERE and how I did in January HERE

1. 2018 in 2018 Decluttering Challenge...
I have decluttered 1190/2018 items from my home

2. 40 bags in 40 days...this challenge runs from Feb 14 -  March 31

so far...4 small bags (grocery bag sized), 15 large (big black bag size), 3 trash (which for us is a feed sack)

*total to date: 15/40

3. Create 365 cards...
I created 10 cards this month 
*total to date: 42/365

4. Try 2 new recipes/month...
6. Smashed Brussels Sprouts
7. Cream Cheese and Bacon Chicken Rolls
8. Sugar Cookie Bars

*total to date: 8/24


5. Read 25 books...
4. Set Free by George Michael Loughmueller (do not recommend this book)
5. Going Home by Wanda Brunstetter
6-11. Amish Millionaire Series books 1-6 by Wanda Brunstetter & Jean Brunstetter
12. Unmarried by Julie Frankland

total to date: 12/25


6. Put items on Buy/Sell/Trade...still haven't gotten the nerve to do this, BUT my DIL said she would help me. my goal for Mar is to take pics of what i want to sell and write up details about them and then maybe i can actually report for March that this got done.

7. Completely decluttering and organizing my creative space. 
slowly working on this as I work on the rest of the house as well

8. Create/Design/Etc 2 pinned items/month that are not food related...
*printed these and tied to goodie bags for my youth group kids

total to date: 4/24

9. Twelve RAK's for the year...if you are unfamiliar with RAK, it stands for Random Acts of Kindness.
*had 2 friends over for a birthday coffee (one of theirs, not mine) and sent orange rolls home with both of them for them and their family
*made Valentine goodie bags for 16 youth group kids
*took treats in for senior center coffee drinkers

**total to date: 6/12

Another Yappy Birthday

I'm popping in to share another Yappy Birthday card with you using the Animal Friends Printable Set from Cutting Cafe.

This time I rearranged the sentiment to make it a long one.

Regina is offering Animal Friends Printable Set for only .99 today through Friday. You have to click on the link below to get the special. If it isn't working yet, she doesn't have her post live yet, so check back.

Animal Friends Printable Set

Yappy Birthday

Regina over at the Cutting Cafe has a new animal digital stamp set; Animal Friends Printable Set and this is our challenge for this week. The set comes with several animals and coordinating sentiment. I chose to make a card using the dog image. I had some dog designer paper that was perfect for this image.

Thank you for stopping by and be sure to visit the Cutting Cafe Blog tomorrow to see the design team's projects in which you can leave a comment to be entered into a drawing to win 3 FREE sets of your choice from the online store.

XOXO Pillow

Hello from very cold, wintery, snowy Nebraska! I hope that where ever you are, you are staying warm. Our poor heater has been running non-stop with how cold it is here.

One thing I like to do in the winter time is sew/quilt/embroider/crochet; any kind of hand work. Just seems to be the perfect time to work on these projects.

So the project I am sharing with you for this week's Cutting Cafe challenge is just such a project. One of the fun things for me with svg cutting files is that you can take a design and enlarge/shrink/stretch/scrunch it to fit what you need it to do. You get more for your money this way and you all know I'm about being frugal.

This week the design team is sharing projects with a Valentine/Love theme. I chose Regina's XOXO WORD SHAPED CARD to create this pillow. I enlarged the layered top letters to the size I wanted and cut out one X and one ♥. (the heart is the little tiny one you see in the file as an accent. I just enlarged it to the same size as the X) 

Then I traced them twice on a fusible web and ironed on my selected fabrics. Each letter was then hand-stitched to muslin and then sewed with a border and made into a pillow.

Thank you for stopping by and be sure to visit the Cutting Cafe Blog tomorrow to see the design team's projects in which you can leave a comment to be entered into a drawing to win 3 FREE sets of your choice from the online store.

Valentine Themed RAK

I recently made some Valentine themed goodies to send to someone. I didn't want to post them on my blog until she had received them, so in case she was reading my blog, it would be a surprise. She has received it, so I can now post what I sent.

First I created a stuffed paper bag. I had made a few of these for the first time at Halloween, had planned to make some Christmas ones, but that didn't happen, so was glad for a chance to make a Valentine one and I'm hoping to get a couple more made.

 a close up of the front...it's hard to tell, but I added glossy accents to the "14", so it is shiny and raised

this card was created with a free digital image

the tag on the left has 6 different washi tapes wrapped around it. The cello bag has some vintage buttons and stamped Valentine tickets. I made the altered clothespin and the "Happy Valentine's Day" poke is for cupcakes and I just used as a decor piece.

Hershey bar cover

Pencil box...instructions can be found HERE

 you've already seen this on my blog, but I mailed this mailbox  filled with pink starbursts

Tea Time Box:
box: Teabag-Scallops Design ID #28912 -www.silhouettedesignstore.com

washi: misc in my stash

“tea time”: Tea Box Holder Template and Cutting File
heart: came from the punch out of a heart border punch. I added Glossy Accents to it
reinforcer: made myself with hole punches

because sprinkles make everything fun 😍 free printable that I resized HERE

hand crocheted dish cloth by me. "just because" from Cutting Cafe

  

chunky notepad from Target $ Spot; tag made from Cutting Cafe's Tea Box Holder

 Raspberry filled Hostess Cupcake

Frugal Friday 2-2-18

**gift cards earned through swagbucks and Bing

**coupon for free chicken sandwich

**steak 1.99/pkg (not lb)

**cube steak .99/pkg

**had a RAK pkg I wanted to send and was able to make almost everything from my stash. I did buy some yarn that was marked down at Walmart to crochet a dishcloth.

the most frugal thing we've done is stay home...mostly due to illness and weather. there was a challenge online to only eat what you have in your pantry for 2 weeks. that was pretty easy to do.

Book Review: Set Free

This is a hard book review for me. I don't like posting negative reviews, but there was nothing about this book that I liked.

Set Free by George Michael Loughmueller is the first Amish book I have read that I didn't like...at all. I realize this story as well as most of the others I've read are fiction, but this wasn't even realistic in any way.

This is the first book in the Karsten Field Triology. It starts out and moves very fast...Allan Howarth is unhappy with his life (he is not Amish), finds out a former teacher leaves him a cabin in an Amish community...a man that left the Amish, within 3 days moving his family there he is baptized to prove he is serious about being Amish. Told by the Amish that his marriage isn't considered real since he is going to be Amish and his wife wants nothing to do with it and encourage them to divorce. Wife and son leave, daughter stays. Oh and daughter was posing in bikinis for a modeling agency right before they move there and in 3 days decides she wants to be Amish?!! WHAT:????!!!

So he falls in love with school teacher, gets married, has another kid. This story just blew my mind. I didn't like it within the first page or two, but I was contacted by Mr. Loughmueller's publisher asking if I would read it and leave a review, so it's really sad that I have a negative review.

I don't know if it's because I've read so many Amish books, both fiction and non-fiction ...of those that have left the Amish faith as well as currently read a blog of one who left, because I've read about the Amish and what they believe, have talked to one who left the Amish, been  to and lived in the surrounding area of the Amish and even been to one Amish family for a Thanksgiving meal; that made this so unbelievable and no way would any of the things portrayed in this book every happen, or what.

I can't imagine picking up this book knowing very little to nothing about the Amish that it would seem even remotely realistic...as realistic as fiction can be. I would not recommend this book at all.

I received a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.