Gone Overboard!

Moving?

2010-03-25T20:32:00.000-07:00

Hi all, I've been working hard at a new blog that is actually under my name, if you are not redirected automatically, please visit me at Brenda in Sunny So Cal. Please re-register for your e-mail feed.

Paper Basket on the stairs

2009-12-30T15:15:00.000-08:00

I have not done a Works for me Wednesday post in a while, so here's one before the year is over...

I wish I had the budget to take the Organizing 101 workshop at Simplfy 101, untill then, I keep this basket on my steps, the incoming mail, school papers, notes, receipts go in it during the week and on Sat. AM with coffee in hand I tackle it, that way I only deal with paperwork once a week.

Here's to an organized and sane New Year!

5/14/2003 - 12/10/2009

2009-12-22T13:35:00.000-08:00

R.I.P Canon S2IS

I love thee, we shared happy times and bad times, I will miss you forever.

This was the first camera I picked on my own, this was also the best camera I've had so far, great picture quality, even though a bridge camera, I had full manual capabilities, short of exchanging lenses.... love every second and every shot, the models that have come after have not gotten as good reviews, so we'll see what do I replace you with, you will be missed....

On the Eight Night of Hanukkah...

2009-12-18T11:17:00.000-08:00

we built a janukiah...

and yes a Menorah is 7 arms, a janukiah is 9....

This project as of today is still in progress, my goal is to have this one made by our 3 year old, my eldest made one when he was in preschool, and now is the little one's turn -easier said than done-.

I got the tiny pots at the craft store, on the woodcrafting section, 8 small, 1 a bit larger...
Craft paint in your choice of colors, brushes and a 14" wood ruler (not shown)

Paint the little pots, in your choice of colors, paint the ruler too. With your glue gun or rubber cement (you want the bond to last your kid's lifetime, my mom still has the ones I made at school every year) adhere the pots to the ruler then melt the wax of one candle (or a stick of hot glue from the gun) inside the tallest (shamesh) pot, so the candle sits higher than the others.

Enjoy! and Happy Holidays to all....

On the seventh night of Hanukkah...

2009-12-17T16:42:00.000-08:00

We made a latke plate...

Sorry no picture today, the cell's battery died and it is charging....
On my first year of marriage, I went to a paint your own ceramics place and made a nice large platter for latkes, we use it every year and it is a reminder of our life together.
As a bonus, here's my very rudimentary eggless latke recipe:

5 potatoes
3 tbs of flour
salt and pepper to taste (and really, taste the mix, if it doesn't taste salty it will not have flavor)
Enough oil for frying

In a skillet, add enough oil to cover a latke and set to medium heat. Shred the potatoes, add the flour, salt and pepper, mix together, grab a small ammount into your palm and squeeze out as much liquid as possible, and place in the hot oil.
Oppossite to popular beleif, the potatoe does not need eggs to keep it together, just squeeze the water out and it will work....

Enjoy!

On the sixth night of Hanukkah....

2009-12-16T15:05:00.000-08:00

We took all the books out....

Ths one couldn't get more simple, all the hanukah books in a basket next to the fire place ready to cuddle up and read....

On the fifth Night of Hanukkah...

2009-12-15T14:58:00.000-08:00

we made another sign....

What you need:

search for a Hebrew font online and upload to your computer, in your word processing program, or better yet your die cut machine program, write your sentiment, then either print and cut, or just cut the letters, use the negative part of the letter as a stencil.

Go to your local hardware store and get them to cut a 4 x 2 in your preferred size -HINT: my local store was kind enough to give the wood for free since I agree to take the wood that was actually for shipping the real wood they sell, the pallet sections-.

I painted the wood blue and then stencilled the words and shapes in silver.

On the fourth night of Hanukkah......

2009-12-14T14:30:00.000-08:00

We hung the art work and holiday cards...
This looks so lovely, pictures don't do it justice.... This is also a great hit with the kids because they get to see and count all the holiday cards we get every day.
I take out thin rope made of natural material -I find it cheaper at the hardware store, than the craft store, they have them right there witht the nylon kind- several command hooks (I love those things), and a hole bunch of little clothes pins.
I place the hooks on the wall at whatever distance I like, string the rope around them, clip some of the kids artwork on the hooks (as to not show the not so atractive hooks) and clip more artwork and all the holiday cards we get on the string.

I actually make this in time for the halloween artwork and keep it out trough december, rotating to Thanksgiving and Hanukkah and holiday cards.

On the third night of Hanukkah....

2009-12-14T07:26:00.000-08:00

We accessorized the jars...
You have seen a picture of my jars decorated for Halloween here, for Hanukkah I also decorate them, here's a picture:

Now, I know for a fact that there's 204 dreidels on that jar, 200 small ones and four large ones, showing each of the letters. The jar in front of that has the Hanukkah gelt, I still need to place a candle inside to make it look fuller. The second picture shows a jar full of transparent and blue glass pebbles, since it is a daytime picture, you cant see it's lighted. I placed a few of those fake led votives in there and at night the light comes trough with a soft glow from the glass. (again sorry, the good camera died and I only have the cell phone for now...

PS, as an extra, behind the last jar, I have this very cool tall vase that sits on this table year round, we filled it up with fish tank gravel in white, and I always have some sort of branches (you know the fake or dried kind from any decor store) that change with the seasons...

On the second night of Hanukkah....

2009-12-12T14:15:00.000-08:00

We are talking pillows:
I made this last year they where quite simple: -I apologize for the poor photo quality, my camera died right after the banner picture and now I am left with only my crappy phone one-

All you need is this:

One of those beaded placemats from Home Goods or Ross, (because let's face it, who's gonna eat on those) a pillow form similar in size and shape to the place mat -zippered one is preferable but not necessary-, needle and thread to match.

The back of the placemat is lightly sewn to the beaded front, open one side of the backing, stuff your form in you might need to make it less full, that is why the zippered kind come in handy. With your needle and thread stitch the backing on to the beaded front and that is it, you are done!!!

On the First Night of Hanukkah....

2009-12-10T17:33:00.000-08:00

We hung the banner....

Yes it is in spanish, it says Happy Hanukkah, I made this last year as a surprise to DH because he tells me that his mom used to put that fake snow stuff on the dinning room window and write "Feliz Januca" with her finger on it, I really don't like the fake snow stuff so I made this and he loves it and so do the kids... For the non sewers out there I have made this instructions completely no sew, for those who sew you can easily figure out where the sewing goes.

Materials:

String cut to desired lenght of banner.
1.5 Yard Curdoroy Fabric ( I used a off white, but use your favorite)
1.5 Yard of Cotton or jersey fabric (blue in my case)
Wood Bead or other bead you like better
2 Yards double sided fussible (ask at your fabric store for the one use for aplique)
1 pack of seam fussible
1 piece of cardstock cut to 5.5 x 7.5 for ironing
Iron
Happy Hanukkah pdf printed.

Optional:

Sewing machine and thread
Buttons

Cut 13 curdoroy squares in 6" x 8.5" MAKE SURE TO KEEP THE FABRIC IN THE SAME DIRECTION SO THE PATTERN IS EVEN, place the cut cardboard and fold over the 2 side and the bottom seams pressing down. Once you have the creases formed, apply the fussible seam on the inside of the seams and press again. For the top seam, fold and place the fussible so that you make a loop to thread your string around. If you look on the picture bellow you can kinda see the loop next to the rightmost bead.

The final size of the back square is about 5"x7".

From the jersey or cotton fabric, cut 13 4"x6" squares.

Print the pdf file, cut around each letter, place on top of the remainder curdoroy so you can eyeball how much you will need MAKE SURE TO KEEP IT ALL LETTERS ON THE SAME DIRECTION SO THE CURDOROY MATCHES.

Iron the ammount of fabric needed to the double sided fussible, on the fussible side, place the letters BACKWARDS (mirror image) and trace them on.

Cut arround the letters
Fussible side down, press the letters to the cotton fabric.
Cut 13 pieces of fussible to a 3.75"x5.75" square and adhere to the blue fabric.
Then press the blue fabric fussible side down to the curdoroy fabric.
At this point, you can add the buttons to each corner of the blue fabric, and, if you are a sewer, you can also zig zag arount the blue square.
Once this is done you just have to thread your fabrric and beads trough the string, make loops and knotsa on both ends and hang.
Good Luck!

Hanukkah is here!!!

2009-12-10T17:20:00.000-08:00

O.k, so the first night is until tomorrow and so in honnor of the festivity, I am challenging myself to make a daily post with a Hanukkah project for all to enjoy. I will show you my Hanukkah decor and several tutorials, I will throw in a kids craft or two... and yes, I am crazy to think I can actually keep up with a daily post while making latkes every -yes every- night and attending or hosting 10 yes, TEN parties in 8 nights.....

Jag Shameaj

Computer wowes

2009-11-16T16:36:00.000-08:00

I hope I spelled that right, my main computer (the one with all the pics on it) its finally being re-formatted (don't worry, backups where done in triplicate) I am starting from scratch!!!! I want to install the system from 0 since it never worked properly and I have constantly gotten error messages since brand new. So by the end of the week I should have a better post and a new project to match plus an update on the newest class I am taking over at BPS....

Counter

2009-10-25T18:20:00.000-07:00

The Widgipedia gallery
requires Adobe Flash
Player 7 or higher.

To view it, click here
to get the latest
Adobe Flash Player.

Halloween Decor -Interior

2009-10-23T09:19:00.000-07:00

Hi All, so I finally had time to clean the house after the Halloween tornado exploded and I got some eye candy for you....

This plate sits in my kitchen eat in area, the words where cut with my cricut machine and then ran trough the repositionable adhesive on the Xyron.

The jars are a little different from last year, the large one that fit the skeleton broke so this is this year's version, the candy corn, some eyeballs, and a ribbon one.

These are a new adition to my decor, while working on an album for my in-laws, I found several pics of people in costume, turned them into black and white and place them in the frames, the Boo in the back are also from the cricut, these where cut on white construction paper and painted green (Making Memories Honeydew) than white around the edges, the background paper is from Die Cuts with a view Fall pack circa 2003 I think.

These I just love! Usually the Bears just sit on the couch, but I decided to make a whole arrangement around them this year, the little chair is actually my "new page" display for the new scraproom I keep finishing, the basket was originally pale yellow, came from an Edible Arrangement we received for the High Holidays, got a few coats of mate black from Krylon.

This one does not picture as cool as it looks. This is all the Halloween art I have from the kids school projects on a clothes line in the downstairs hallway, up close it looks great! Come thanksgiving, I'll take the spooky stuff out and place the turkey handprints I have, and then in December it will become the spot for all those new year's cards...

Hope you like, I still have a few more things to show, but it needs to be night time for me to take a great shot, and of course the outdoor decor which shold be great this year, so at least 2 more Halloween posts...

Halloween decor projects:

2009-10-05T14:04:00.000-07:00

I want to add some decorations to my halloween crazyness this year:

1. Candle bracelet (a wreath to go around a pillar candle)
2. Black, vases
3. Ribbons on jars
4. Switch around the family pics.
5. more and more spiders gallore outside.... I think my family is growing tired of the spider crazy, so this year, we go BIG and probably retire them for a few years....

I will make sure to place pictures and tutorials of most of these...

Halloween Colors

2009-10-03T14:50:00.000-07:00

Halloween is here!, well, at least halloeen decor time.
I have lots of projects planned, with a tutorial or two, but today, I am starting by changing the colors on the blog.

Stay in touch it will be fun!

Where have I been

2009-08-17T17:26:00.001-07:00

I have not been on vacation I am sorry to say, also, I have not been getting stuff done, I have been having a lazy summer and I hope now it stops, I am posting this so I am accountable to someone out there about finishing things up, because let's face it, I ain't doing it for my husband...

Just watch...

Race Car Cake

2009-07-23T22:24:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've been off, the last month has seen 3 birthdays in our family so I have been terribly busy, but I come bearing gifts so all should be forgiven soon.
For the first of the 3 birthdays, which was Mr. Overboard's my eldest decided a race car cake should be made, after much searching online, I could not find instructions to make it, lots of inspirations yes, just do a google images search and you will find thousands of them, but no instructions ....

So after much consideration and planning, I made the cake and a tutorial to boot!

Now to keep things simple, the tutorial is available in pdf for your downlading convinence, you are allowed to use and redistribute as long as propper credit is due...

Here's the picture of the finished product, Enjoy!

Here are the instructions. I had to lower picture quality to keep the file size small, so sorry about that...

Simplify 101 Finish it Friday Game

2009-06-14T09:39:00.000-07:00

I want to thank Abby Garvey over at the Simplify 101 Blog for issuing the Finish it Friday game/challenge, I decided this was the weekend to finish my "memorabilia Notebook" from my LOM Class over at Big Picture (you got to take this class!). Here's a picture of my finished binder full with all the important "stuff" I want to some day put into a scrapbook page...

By Finishing this product, I was able to free up an Iris box so I could finish this other project:

Yes, that is all of my card stock separated by color, green, blue and brown get a box each b/c I have boys after all, there's one box for the Neutral background colors (black, white, gray and craft), and the just emptied box holds shades of yellow to red.

As a bonus project I finished this:

These are all of the Birthday cards from each of my kids birthday parties AND Baby Showers/Birth/Briz separated into bags and labeled, I am still not sure what I will do (if any) with this, but I am happy they are sorted somewhere.

PS: the ones from our wedding are there too...

This all brings me one step closer to finish the BIG HUGE OFFICE/PLAYROOM redo I've been working on to be posted soon...

Star Wars Party Help

2009-06-09T12:07:00.000-07:00

#1 decided his BP will be a pool party Star Wars, and although I could leave it as a pool party with Star Wars Invites and favors, this of course its not enough, so I have scoured the net in search of ideas, but I can not find water themed games of the Star Wars kind, except for the one post at birthdaypartyideas.com, there's something promissing about snowballs and a pool and Jedi trining but no specific details so I hope that some of you might have one.

Covering Paper Mache Letters in Fabric

2009-06-04T10:03:00.000-07:00

I started this project, that now I called the "Longest A" when my little one was born, now almost 3 years later (and now that he shares a room) I am finally finishing it... for the playroom (more on that truly overboard project to come).

This is the letter A, covered in the same fabric as the nursery bedding.

At first this seemed so simple and easy, you glue the fabric to the letter, It really woud have been easier to either paint the A on the wall or made the shape in fabric and stuff it with batting, but I really like the style of a clean type and did not wante to rouin the color on the wall which can not be matched since it is a layered effect. So I dove right in, painted the A in white, spraying the glue and placing the fabric, then this is where I got stumped:

The Corner, as you can se the A has an intricate corner, so after several hours, of tring to pleat, and fold and Wrap, I gave up, I took the A out several times after with no luck until just lask week,

Heres the Tutorial:

Cut two strips of fabric wide enough to ver the sides of the letter (this would be the depth of the letter). Using white (not spray) glue, cover the sides of the letter, if it helps, use a thumb tack to hold the fabric in place at your starting point. You need to do this in all sides inside and outside of the letter except front and back.
Once the paint has dried, place glue on the front of the letter and cover with the larger piece of fabric, wait until it is dry. MAKE SURTE TO ONLY GLUE IT ON THE FRONT FACE.

On the outward angle corners (Like the top of the A, se first picture), make fold like wrapping a present, on the Inside Looking corners, you need to make a slit to be able to fold the fabric properly once you make the slit, fold the fabric inwards and join it. As you can see, the layer of fabric from the first step is covering the gap.

After all of your corners are done, you can tackle the cut out sections (A,B,D,O,P,Q,R etc) have cutouts) For this, you wil make slits from the center of the void section to the corners , for the rounded parts, make slits every 1", tuck the raw edges in apply glue directly to the back side of the fabric and fold under towards the back side of your letter, again, the fabric you placed on the first step will help cover the gaps.
If you like for variety, You can add ribbon to the inside perimeter s of your letter , like I did, this added another layer of color and made it stand out some more.

Good luck, I hope that from my mistakes you can all do this in a cleaner and much faster manner.

Summer is Comming!

2009-05-04T08:33:00.001-07:00

This is what I found at Michael's last week

Now I am all up for decorating for the holidays, but 4th of July BEFORE graduation caps, that's like decorating for Valentine's after Thanksgiving...

Soon to arrive, the kid's new playroom!

The Family Room After

2009-04-18T15:28:00.000-07:00

This is how the room looks now, the mounstrous tv has been replaced by a flat panel mounted on our fireplace.

As you can see, we can now see out the windows on both sides of the room

Now I know this does not look like such a major task, but I have not shown you this:

This Little speakers hang from my ceiling every 4 feet or so around the perimeter of the room, there's a set for each corner, plus a set in the middle of each of the 4 walls for a grant total of 8 now imagine how many holes had to be made in the drywall to work around all the studs, there was about 2 holes in the wall per speaker, plus 1 on the ceiling per speaker plus the actual holes to mount the things = 32 holes in the drywall, this is a lot more than the 2 -3 holes tops I was promissed by both husband and electritian.

As if that was not enough, the fireplace is a slate front with brick back and apparently about 5" of cement so there was quite a lot of work to mount it on the fireplace plus make the piping to hide all cables so they could go behind all fo this and the wall, long story short, the wall you see to the right of the fireplace is half new drywall half old driywall fromt top to bottom... The simple drywall fix and self paint job ended up requiring a professional drywall repair and paint job that cost more than the TV that started this whole thing in the first place, and once it was done, DH said we need new couches... Now if just had the $$$ for that...

Editing Blogger Template

2009-04-13T15:31:00.000-07:00

O.K. so it has been driving me nuts that the paragraphs are not justified, so I have finally had the time to go into the html and made the changes, if you are like me and are anoyed by this, here's what I did to alter the MINIMA template... my changes are in red:

On Layout, go to Edit HTML then make sure to backup your current settings, after, click on the square to the right that says expand widget templates, then comes the fun part:
I know not everyone knows html so I am going to tell you what to look for, then you can paste the code I'll give you:

LOOK FOR:

*/
/* Use this with templates/template-twocol.html */

The corrections we'll be making are under this section, so anything before you can ignore now after this you will see something like this:

body {

scroll down until the following line:

#main-wrapper {
width: 560px;
float: $startSide;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE
sidebar float */
text-align: justify;
}

and this:

#sidebar-wrapper {
width: 220px;
float: $endSide;
word-wrap:
break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow:
hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
text-align: justify;
}

This is what justifed the text, just copy and paste the red text make sure to not forget the ; or you will get an error message.
VERY IMPORTANT: click on preview and make sure you like the display do not click on save until you are absolutely sure you are done

Feel free to leave a message in the comment section if you found this usefull or need help

The Family Room BEFORE

2009-04-13T14:38:00.000-07:00

O.k. I know I have promissed this, but I forgot to take pictures of the before, and I've been seeking all of my pictures digital and print for a before shot and still can not come up with one, so I had slapped some photoshop magic, (please be advised this are the 3 min. photoshop work, not the lengthy stuff I do for clients)

This room features 3 walls, and is cadycorner open to the kitchen. The main wall features a fireplace in the center, the previous owners, decided to cover the fireplace with old red bricks from a burned out building near their previous home, so they where in really bad shape, they had lots of black spots, still smelled like smoke, and whell, the house is Mediterranean in style, so when we purchased the place, the second thing we did (right after getting rid of the Pepto color flooring and carpet more on that soon..) was to cover this thing up, we selected a nice earth tone slate, but when we came back from work the day of the install we found this:

This is slate with purple, grays, mustasrds and greens on it, since we needed to move in the next day, and we had signed the line where it says we can't gurantee the colors on pallet, we had to keep it and work around it. To the left of the fireplace we have a window then corner and a plain wall, to the right, about 46" of wall space, then the next wall has about 6" the standard size french doors, the back opens to kitchen and hall...

At some point it seemed like a great idea to paint the room a pale (baby) yellow, with some sponge treatment, so we did, we also had the biggest Big Screen Tv available circa 1998, the thing was nearly 4ft deep, we had it set up in the corner covering all of the 42" of wall and the double french doors from the next wall, this with the objective of avoiding the glare we where getting on the oposite corner.

The doors where covered with a 2 layer window treatment, tha back part was the blackout so the tv would not get all the glare, plus direct hit by the sun from the back. the front layer was a pocket courtain, the see trough kind that had the small pockets to hold decor in... And I decided to keep diferent flowers and leaves there. The courtain rod was crackeled silver color and the finials at oposite ends where purple glass balls (no kidding!).

Here's a rough picture:

The 36" of wall leftr after the window was used to howse the tv gadgets, the opossite large wall, had a sofa and side table

To make a long story short, I promissed hubby that when the brand of flat screen tv he HAD to have was at a certain price in the size he wanted that he could buy it, what I should have added was, let's make sure the country is not on a recession!

The today pictures to come at a later date....

Deodorizing a Sink

2009-04-07T21:36:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my first ever Works for Me Wednesday post

My tip is simple and most likely known by all but it is my trusty way of refreshing my kitchen sink.

Before guests come over or after cooking something with a strong odor, I run hot water on the kitchen sink, turn on the garbage disposal and throw half a lemon in it. The vapors from the water carry the smell through the kitchen and beyond.
There you have it, my very simple yet effective tip.

For more tips from far more experienced people please visit We are THAT Family, works for me Wednesday posts and links.

Cheap Photo Printing

2009-04-06T18:18:00.001-07:00

O.K. since I started my Library of Memories Class at BPS I've had to print hundreds of pictures that where stored in my hard drive waiting to be scrapped, so I have become obsessed with finding the best deals out there, and I've decided to share them with all of you here.

Ritz Camera stores (Not Online) have a 6 cent picture Tuesdays and Wednesdays, there rules and these might vary by store so call your local store for details, for a store locator visit RitzCamera.Com

Online, I've discovered a site that gives you 600 free 4x6 and 600 free 5x7 prints, several 8x10s, 3 8x8 photobooks and other products, go here.

Costco is always a great deal plus in store pick up makes it a snap...

Last if you just want to share pics with family but need the pravacy a blog, social networking site or picasa lacks, go to the Kodak Gallery site, this is wone of the nicest sharing sites available, the slideshow is so elegant and slick you will love it.

Extreme Basketball, Home Edition

2009-04-03T10:54:00.000-07:00

I guess going overboard with things runs in the family, let me explain...

I have a 2 year old who is basketball crazy, not ball crazy, basketball crazy, he has a 9-1 average on the 6ft high fisher price grow to pro hoop, he has a 2-10 average on our teenage neighbors full size hoop, pretty impressive considering that well, he is 2 and not even 42 inches tall, at this point we are hoping for college hoops scholarship....

In order to keep the peace I forgo my decor and style in several rooms to allow for his entertainmentp; at the end is his home too, so I have this in the back yard (it moves around depending on his highness whim
I have this in my family room

This in his old room soon to be the playroom

We play sock basketball with the hamper and I even allow throw the basketball over the screen in my bedroom

However, this has proven to be an insuficcient outlet for his "Hoop Dreams"; as I was busy with a project for my LOM class in the garage, I came back in to find this
Yes that is the lamp on my front entrance, Yes that is a basketball inside of it, Yes that was done by a 2 year old, NO it was not staged... and by some miracle, NO glass or bulb got damaged

Extreme, Yes

Wrong, Heck Yes

Impressive, You Bet.

PS: I walked in as he was trying to throw the full size ball in there...

Hope this brightens your day, happy Friday

My $5 dollar challenge

2009-03-30T17:32:00.000-07:00

O.K. I hope it fits the bill, I have prepared something for the Five Dollar Challenge at Living with Lindsey and now its so late in the evening that I am not sure it will post on time or fully follow the rules, but that art is not up to me now, so here it goes:

With these from the dollar store:

And this from home:

I came up with this:

To make this, first melt and carve the center of the candle to fit the LED light, then place the LED upside down, this will make the on switch easier to access, and the light will blink towards the bottom of the candle, giving it that nice worn feeling.

Then you place sand on the vase, the candle in the center and arrange the shells in a pleasing manner.

BONUS PROJECT:

If you have some sand and shells leftover, and a spare picture frame, you can place the sand on the frame, the shells to the side and you have an instant Zen Garden (just grab a dowel or ani stick and make fun shapes with the sand, kids love this one....

Library Of Memories class

2009-03-21T16:22:00.000-07:00

AWESOME!!!!

That is all I have to say, sort of...

I am loving the class, it is time consuming and I have left a few things go off the side for this, but one of my goals this year is to get my pictures organized, if I don't start scrapbooking again, I don't care, I just want my pics ready so that when I have the time, it does not take forever to corral everything.

To all who do not know what this class is about, its the system developed by Stacy Julian at Big Picture Scrapbooking that will help you organize your pictures you can have more freedom with your scrapbooking, it will also help you find deeper stories that you might not see behind the events and find connections between unrelated picture. for more info, you can visit the BPS site or read Stacy's books.

Now on to the Library of Memories I am creating, in true Going Overboard fasion, I have decided on 12 x 12 WeR Memory Keepers Faux Leather Binders not only for the Layout Albums, but also for the 4x6 picture albums so they all match. Never mind that these are about $30 a pop and I'll probably have to buy about 20 of them (not all at the same time, money does not grow on trees arround here).... I guess I need to pay attention to the mail so I can intercept the CC bill before DH sees it and dies of a heart attack...

On the other hand, I have made my first ever digital layout for the class, here it is:

Hope you like it, I acutally loved making a digi, it is so nice to know no mistake is permanent and might need to be covered, I am so affraid of getting hooked on digis, I might have to have a computer surgically implanted to my body as it is....

I am working on other decor projects and I've been looking for pictures of the TV purchase that spun a family room trully overboard 1/2 redo (keeping tru with going overboard, no room is ever completed) so I should be posting more soon....

Too busy lately

2009-03-21T16:06:00.000-07:00

Sorry all, I was really good about posting for a while and then I got really busy with work and taking the Library of Memories class that I have had little or no time for blogging, but I am hopefully back in full swing this week....

In the meantime, I have been working on a $5 challenge over at Living with Lindsay, I hope I finish this project on time to do it, deadline is March 30th, if you want to see the rules, here they are:

Hanukahh door garland

2009-01-15T14:54:00.000-08:00

This garland is based on a HomeGoods Halloween find, but adapted to hanukkah,

here's the picture of the completed project sorry about the bad picture....

Here's a close up:

Here's what you need:

string of your choice

ribbon of your choice

10 XL Dreidles (I got mine at Target)

1 KidCraft Hanukkah Wooden Set (I purchased mine at Judaic Home through Amazon for $15, it usually retails for about 40)

17 Screw on hooks

First measure and cut yours string to the size garland you want, leave about 6 extra inches at the bottom for the shrinking and loop ends.
From the Hanukkah set, get the candles and attach the flames to them, then drill with the smallest bit available trough the candle and flame stem.

Twist in the hook making sure you have secured both the candle and flame (The flames come separate from the candle stick on the set, I am bad with glue so I just drilled through and used the hook to attach)
Repeat this step with all candles (there's 9 in the set, 1 per night plus a shamash)

Drill the stem or top of the dreidles and attach the hooks

At this point you need to decide the order of the colors for your candles,

Line candles and dreidels in order (i.e: dreidel, green candle, dreidel, yellow candle etc) DO NOT FORGET TO PLACE THE SHAMASH IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SEQUENCE.

Take your string and fold it into a loop, then take the loop part through the hook. Make the loop section large enough to pass the candle or dreidle through it, this will make the knot that holds your piece in place.

Repeat the step with all the pieces trying to keep an even string distance from each knot. Once all the dreidles and candles are attach, you can loop and know the ends.

Cut your ribbon in equal size sections and make a bow in between each piece.

To hang, I used command strips and hooks on my wall and draped loosely.

Hope you enjoy! Let me know if you have questions the loop thing took a while to figure out.

Last of Halloween

2009-01-15T13:31:00.000-08:00

I almost forgot to show the last pictures of our Halloween jars...

Post Hanukkah

2009-01-14T19:49:00.000-08:00

So I was really bad the last few months and did not have time to make a post so I will back track with the few pictures I took of the decor and more ideas along with our Family room and kitchen update....... tomorrow, since I am already up stairs and the server is down stairs and not on so I can not upload any pictures.... Oh well, I tried....

More Halloween madness

2008-11-20T17:13:00.000-08:00

I only buy Martha's magazine once a year, and it is the Halloween issue, it is always full of ideas and over the top decor, One of my favorite Martha crafts of all times was her "bone tray" for Halloween, and this year I finally had a chance to make my own interpretation of it:

"Body in a Jar" here is how:

Materials:
glad press and seal wrap
plastic skeleton
spray adhesive
latex or plastic gloves
large plastic container rectangular with even depth works best.
small disposable cups for scooping glitter
super fine black glitter (about 2 large ones from the MS line at Michael's)
super fine silver glitter (about a third of a small one from the Martha line at Michael's)
wide opening glass jar

First, cover the area to be used with the glad press and seal wrap (trust me on this works better than paper you'll see why later.
pull apart the body parts and remove any metal stakes but keep the rings
detach neck from skull and trim neck bone to shoulder height
place all pieces inside jar to determine if trimming or sanding needs to be done, also write down in which order they go in (this will save you a lot of glittery mess later)
put on gloves
pour all of the black glitter into container and add silver glitter to taste, mix thoroughly to avoid color cluster
hold bone pieces by the rings or ring post, spray with adhesive and scoop and roll into glitter one by one (do not spray the bones and try to shake in a bag or container as the bones will glue themselves into the bag or container) repeat this step 2 or 3 times as necessary.
Let pieces dry for a few hours, while you clean up, now, your work surface should be pretty clean, so tear up the gladware wrap and use the sticky side to lift any excess glitter on you counters. (I told you glad wrap would be useful)
Place the pieces back into the jar and enjoy your new centerpiece.

Storage: after Halloween is done, get a plastic zipper jumbo bag and place the skeleton there, also, return any unused mixed glitter to the jar for future touch ups.

Here it is in all its glory!

2008-11-20T10:37:00.001-08:00

My beautiful orange challah with poppy seeds!

My 6 year old thought it was not real, my 5th grader goddaughter was wondering how, it was fabulous and flavorfull and we all had a great time!

Gone Overboard

2008-10-31T11:02:00.000-07:00

October 31st, 2008.
Haloween falls on Shabatt and this is the day that I officially realized I've gone overboard.
Sure I am always excited about Halloween, my favorite holiday by far, being Jewsih and from Mexico you don't get to celebrate and decorate and do all the fuss. But now that I live in the SoCal, I can officially celebrate Halloween and be Jewish and be proud of it.
You see, I love Shabatt, it is the one night a week when dinner is made from scratch (even the challah) and we all sit together and eat at the same time, sometimes just us sometimes with friends. but this year I get to combine my two favorites so for weeks I've dreamed about an beautifull orange Challah with popyseeds and today is the day!!!!!
So pictures will be uploaded soon along with te reaction from children and other adults who by the way have known I've gone overboard long ago.