2018 goals check-in April

You can read more details about my goals HERE and how I did in Jan, Feb and Mar

1. 2018 in 2018 Decluttering Challenge...
I have decluttered 1324/2018 items from my home

2. 40 bags in 40 days...this challenge ran from Feb 14 -  March 31, I did 32/40 bags. I am going to continue this challenge throughout the rest of the year.

*total to date: 34/40

3. Create 365 cards...
I created 18 cards this month (I'm a bit behind, but I made a whole bunch of card fronts, so if I can get those finished up in May, I might be back on track)
*total to date: 68/365

4. Try 2 new recipes/month...
9. Carrot Cake Cheesecake (made for Easter)
10. Instant Pot Easy Chicken Wings (a winner and I've made twice so far using my own sauces)
11. Cream Biscuits (okay, but won't make again)
12. Orange Rhubarb Muffins (very moist, but could barely taste the orange, so will add orange essential oil next time)
*total to date: 12/24

5. Read 25 books...
17. "Where the Fire Falls" by Karen Barnett
18. "Welcome Home: Our Family's Journey to Extreme Joy" by Kimberley Woodhouse (I read this during our power outage due to the blizzard. Really put things in perspective!)
19. "936 Pennies" by Erin Lynum

total to date: 19/25

6. Put items on Buy/Sell/Trade...still haven't done this

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...
made these using this and this tutorial and just combined some of the info from both.

total to date: 7/24

9. Twelve RAK's for the year...if you are unfamiliar with RAK, it stands for Random Acts of Kindness.

None for this month

**total to date: 9/12

Book Review: "Things I Never Told You"

Things I Never Told You by Beth Vogt is the story of how one family deals with death, esp the surviving twin losing her sister and the secrets she kept from the family (which isn't as dark and ominous as the back of the book makes it seem).

This story is told by each of the sisters telling it from their viewpoint. I was so confused at first as the author had them all intertwined and I had to keep going back to see who was "talking" and what was going on.

Adding to that stress is the oldest getting cancer. This brings them closer together where forgiveness and healing begin.

This was a bit of a hard read for me, but once I got going it was easier to figure out what was going on.

Tyndale House Publishers provided me with a complimentary copy of this book for my honest review.

Penguin Hot Cocoa Pocket

The Cutting Cafe Design Team had a "free" week this week, meaning we pick any file from the store to create with. I didn't know which direction to ask, so asked my team members to give me a letter, then a color, and then a number. The letter represented the name of the files I would choose from starting with that letter, the color was to use in my project and the number after having been given a letter, I counted down from the top to pick the file.

So I was given: P, blue, 17...I counted down 17 from all the files starting with P and landed on Penguin Shaped Card. Doesn't seem like the project to create with in April, but oddly enough, it snowed the night before I asked the design team to help me out AND we had a blizzard last week.

I sealed an envelope and then cut it down from the short side to create a pocket for a hot cocoa packet and fun straw. I also hand cut some white cardstock for snow. I'm hoping this is the last of the snow that I see until late this winter.

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.

Ribbon Spool Shaped Notepad

This week we have a fun challenge on Cutting Cafe. Regina challenged us all to make a notepad using any file from the Shaped Cards section. The hardest part of this challenge was which file to pick! I had so many ideas from looking through the shaped cards section. The idea was to basically make a front and back of your chosen design and then to cut several sheets of paper or cardstock for the filler.

Well, you know me...always thinking outside of the box. LOL

I decided to use the Ribbon Spool Set for my notepad cover.



Here is how I created it...
I resized the spool to fit to the size of my notepads from the Dollar Tree. The length is 5.25" and the inside spool width is 4". I cut 4 of the base pieces, 2 patterned paper to layer the front and the back (I didn't layer the inside as the notepad will be covering it up), 2 pieces for the middle of the spool and then I cut 2 base pieces for the pockets and cut them down to 3" tall, and 2 layering pieces to fit the inside pocket pieces. I also cut a piece of cardstock 2.5" x 3.25" for the spine. Along the 2.5" side I scored it at 1" and 1.5".

I layered the patterned paper to the front and back and inside "pocket" pieces. To the front only, I added rick rack  (and now I think I'm going to go back and add it to the back) and then typed and printed "sew I don't forget" and adhered that to the front as well.

To the second set of spool bases, I adhered adhesive to the bottom and sides only to create my pocket.

To the spine I adhered double side adhesive to both sides of the 1" ends.

I removed paper from the inside of the spine piece and adhered to the inside pieces.

here is what it looks like when you flip the inside over:

I removed the paper and centered a 24" piece of ribbon:

I forgot to take a picture of the next step: Adhere the front and back decorated spool pieces over the ribbon.

Next, trim off about .5" from the back of 2 paper pads. This keeps the end from sticking to the adhesive on the bottom of the pocket, plus makes the pad fit in better. I learned this trick from my YouTube friend Amber. I got the idea to make this notepad holder from her tutorial HERE.

Now insert the note pads in each pocket

Tie the ribbon ties and you have a cute notepad holder.

Note: there is space in the middle to add a pen, but I didn't have one that matched. I will buy one and add to it later.

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.

BFB Where the Fire Falls

I'm sad to say that this is my last review for Blogging for Books. They are no longer in business. I have enjoyed so many books and found new authors whose work I love through this program and will miss it for sure.

"Where the Fire Falls" by Karen Barnett is set in Yosemite National Park. Artist, Olivia Rutherford is commissioned to paint the park for a travel magazine. She isn't that excited about it, but needs the money to hide a secret. Clark Johnson is her guide with secrets of his own.

The author writes in such a way that you can almost see the park in your mind. The story was very captivating.

• More Info
• Author Bio

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.