They're Out To Get You

Fat cells, I mean. The ones you've lost and you think are gone for good? Nope. They're still hanging around invisibly, wreaking havoc in your world whenever they catch you in a moment of weakness. Case in point:I've lost 32 pounds since last Fall. I go to the gym 5 days a week, and Weight Watchers once a week. This weekend, I fell off the wagon. No gym from Friday - Monday. Eating everything in sight. Stuff I haven't had in months and months. Chicken wings, raw fries dipped in ranch, ridiculous stuff. Today I wake up with a new resolve. I have a nutritionally balanced, low calorie breakfast and head into the gym. Great workout. Feeling good.

................and this is when it happens.

I go to the bank to make a deposit, and there, on the counter in front of me

...............................wait for it.............................

No, not those benign lollipops, but a bowl of REESE'S PEANUT BUTTER CUPS! Not the little ones - the full size mama jammas.

..........must.........not...........look...........at..........peanut........butter..........cups.

I am now shaking and starting to break out in a cold sweat that has nothing to do with my workout at at the gym.I make the deposit and run for my life.

Next stop - the grocery store. Produce department - safe haven for the calorie conscious. I breathe a sigh of relief and start tossing stuff in the cart. Some celery, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots.... some hummus in the deli department, some cottage cheese in the dairy department.

That's when I see the sign."ICE CREAM - BUY 2, GET 3 FREE!!!"

Are you kidding me? I race-walk the cart safely past the ice cream display and head for the checkout counter. Whew. Safe at home plate! Or not. The cashier rings me up, and my receipt prints out, along with a handful of coupons. I glance at the one on the top of the stack - $1.00 off Starbucks Ice Cream. Arrgh!!! I tell the cashier about my narrow escape in the ice cream aisle and we both laugh. Just then, the machine spits out another coupon. For Little Debbie cakes.

It's the fat cells. They miss me and they want me back. I can hear them now, whispering "c'mon..... step back over to the dark side..... it's so delicious over here...."

For today, at least, my answer is "Get lost!". But I know they'll be back.

Sweet Easter Project

If you haven't already visited Mary Rudakas and Leo Kowal's site - www.svgcuts.com/blog , you need to! They have amazing files to cut with your Cricut and SCAL. My latest favorite is this adorable bunny house. There are two great tutorials on the site that will walk you though the cutting and assembly of the entire project. The files cut beautifully, and the instructions are foolproof. Best of all? Free samples! Hop on over and check them out.

Love is in the air!

My DD gave her boyfriend this Love book for Valentine's Day, including pictures of the two of them on it's pages. She elected not to tie the spine with ribbons, as she thought it might make the book a little too girly.

Want to make one? I've already done the "hard" part, so you can just download the file and go to town with your Cricut and Sure Cuts A Lot. Click HERE to download the zipped files.

Want to learn to make your own word books? Click HERE and you'll find a great video tutorial on creating word books in Inkscape.

Don't have Inkscape? Click HERE to download it free.

Don't have SCAL? Click HERE to purchase or to find out more.

Links, links, links

I've spent next to NO time creating svgs lately, because I've been finding so many fabulous ones already out there, generously shared by other bloggers. Here are some of my favorites:

If you download from these sites, please be sweet and leave the designer a comment. This is truly a labor of love, so give a little love back.

http://etceteraetcetera.wordpress.com/
http://dan99.blogspot.com/
http://dscrapbookingroom.blogspot.com/

I'd also love to hear what your favorite sources of svg or cut files are - leave me a comment and let me know!

Happy Heart Day

We had a fabulous Valentine's Day. My DH sent me white roses (which I carried on our wedding day) with a note that said "To my wonderful bride..." How amazing that he still feels that way after eleven years.

Dinner was a fondue feast! We had cheese fondue to start, chicken and steak with fettucine alfredo as a main course, and yummy bittersweet chocolate fondue for dessert. Here's a peek at what we dipped. You can't see them, but there are strawberries and pretzels on the bottom tier.

Valentine Treat Bags

Valentine's Day is one of those days when most folks go out for a romantic dinner. Not us. We'd much rather stay in and create our own fun. This year, our daughter Katherine has invited her boyfriend Colby to have dinner with us.

We've decided to repeat what we did last year, since we all loved it - Fondue Night. We'll have cheese fondue with apple and bread dippers to start, and then steaks and chicken and a tossed salad. For dessert, the fondue returns - this time with chocolate. We'll dip cheesecake, strawberries, marshmallows covered with crushed Oreo cookies and whatever else we can think of.

Katherine asked me if I would do a special table decoration for that night like I did last year. Isn't it great when your kids notice the effort you put forth to make things special? One of the items for the table will be these treat bags. I first got the idea at stamp club this month, and changed it up just a bit to fit the stamps I had. The project uses the Sizzix Top Note die, which I absolutely love. Inside each treat bag is a cello bag filled with goodies. Some are Valentine gum balls, and some are Hershey and Reese's hearts. Yum!

You say it's your bird day....

Recently, a friend sent me a link to the Maya Road Design team site. On it, I found an adorable Valentine project. You can view the original by clicking on this link. My version is shown here. I don't own all (or possibly any) of the supplies they used, but I was inspired to make my own version, which I'll share with you.

Of course I used my Cricut. The heart is from the Doodlecharms cartridge. The bird is my own design. I did a rough sketch of the one on the Maya Road site, and using Inkscape created an .svg file to use with Sure Cuts A Lot. I liked it so much that I did a couple of variations of the bird as well. You can download the files here. The usual restrictions apply - please leave me a comment if you download, and please do not share the files on any bulletin boards or groups. Instead, please post a link to this blog so that others may visit.

All stamps used are from Stampin' Up. Alpha stickers are from Karen Foster Design.