Are you sure it's already October?

I could have sworn we just started September. But since it's already October, it means that I need to get my butt in gear and start finishing up the 5 sets of cards that I'm donating as door prizes for my dad's fishing club banquet on the 15th. Then I have 15 - 20 sets that I need to donate to my church for their mini bazaar at the end of the month. I haven't even started on that last one yet. Oy. Procrastination is obviously a strong point of mine. XD

Anyway, for the banquet, my mom suggested I not put any wording or anything on the cards so they can be used for anything. I was originally going to make two thank you cards, two birthday, and two just because but I guess she's right. 

So these are two of the different cards I made. They're not completely done. They still look unfinished to me. I have to figure out something else to put where I was going to put the wording. But my mom's friend said I need to make them really simple since a lot of the ladies that are going to be there don't like fussy cards. LoL. So I just colored in a couple of stamped images from my cute little Sister Stamp stamps and glued them onto the card. Simple enough? XD

I have a set with one more Sister Stamp but that's not going to be finished until more than likely tomorrow so I'll show you that when I finish coloring them all in. 

I have to get to work. It's going to be a long day. I work until 5 and then we have a store meeting and then I have another meeting. Plus I still need to do my test for one of my classes by 1155 tonight! Oh boy. 

See you later!!

Shirley Temple Cupcakes!

Today I was just checking my Blogger Dashboard to see if there were any new posts on any of the blogs I follow and something caught my eye:  Shirley Temple Cupcakes! I clicked and clicked and finally got to the recipe and saw that I had the majority of the ingredients already in my kitchen! Yay! There were just a couple more things that I needed to pick up since I wasn't quite sure my mom would be too happy if I used up the rest of hers.

A little while ago the first batch came out of the oven, I tossed one in the freezer to cool so I could eat it, slapped some frosting on it and TA-DA!!! Of course, they're totally not as pretty as the ones that were on the site I got the recipe from but they taste super yummy! (And yes, I do say that about most cupcakes. XD) The only problem I had was that they didn't taste enough like cherries. *sigh* Oh well.

You can find the recipe for these cute cupcakes here. Hope you give them a try!

See you soon!!

~Jeni

AHHHH! Going Back to School!!!

Apparently, this is another non-crafty post. LoL. Well, it's kinda crafty. Creative anyway. You'll see why later.
Ever since January, I've been attempting to pay back my student loans that resulted with me earning two bachelors degrees from UH-Hilo. I've quickly learned, however, that if you have credit card debt that you're trying to pay off at the same time and only have a part time job, this not exactly the best situation to be in. So, I made the decision to go back to school. I've always wanted to learn more anyway. Since I used up all my financial aid eligibility at the university, I applied at Hawaii Community College and was accepted in May. The next step was financial aid. Due to some missteps I took about 10 years ago, I've had to jump through hoops to get them to approve my award. It still hasn't been finalized but it's looking good...I think.
My initial major was Hospitality, but I'm not sure that's the best course for me because I'm not planning on working at a hotel, so when I met with an academic counselor yesterday, we went over my options and the one that we decided on (because I refused to accept her suggestion of not going back to school at all) is that I change my major if financial aid allows it to....Digital Media Arts on the Graphics Track. So that means I'll be working on computer graphics and stuff. It sounds totally interesting and something that I think I might be able to do. We'll see.
I'm really really exciting about this and I'm hoping things will work out. As for crafting, well...I'm sure I'll be able to find time to work on new things. This weekend may be a good time to go rearrange the craft room. And maybe get distracted a little and work on some projects. :D

See you soon!

Ocean-Themed Baby Shower!

Okay, so I'm FINALLY getting the pictures from the baby shower up. I know it only took me like, months. But the shower was last weekend and I finally figured out how to transfer the pictures from my phone to my computer without having to e-mail them to myself one by one, so here we go! (These are in no particular order because blogger is being a pain and not letting me move pictures around tonight.)

Love My Create A Critter Cartridge!

When I first got my Cricut, I knew I HAD to get the Create a Critter cartridge. I knew it had the same sea creatures that I had used on the invitations for the baby shower and there were just so many cute animals that I needed it.
Well, it's been put to good use so far. Here's a sneak peek at the creatures that I put together for the guest book for the shower:

I colored the eyes and smiles in with black Stickles because it was becoming a pain in the neck to punch out all the little pieces. The actual pages will be posted after the shower. I don't want the parents to be accidentally wandering onto here and seeing it before then. I think they've been hunting for clues for everything. LoL.

I also used the Doodlecuts cartridge to cut out some really cute ducks. Or chicks. Whatever they are, they're really cute.

Tonight's project is freezer paper stenciling. OMG. So easy and so much fun. Pictures to come soon. The only picture I have is on my phone and my phone is in the kitchen on the other side of the house. No room in my craft room for stenciling so I have to do it in the kitchen. Can't wait for you to see it!

Long time no blog! LoL. I've been meaning to post, but there's just been so much going on that when I finally get a day to just do nothing, I do exactly that...nothing. XD

I've been meaning to post the invitation to the baby shower I've been planning with my mom, but recently found out that someone copied my design and started selling it on etsy. It wasn't the exact design but it was definitely close enough that I had to contact the seller and ask nicely that she take it down because it's covered by an intellectual copyright. Normally, I wouldn't care if someone copied my design for their own personal use, but this person was selling it. To me, that made it different. I will post it up soon, though. I think next week, after the shower, I'll just do one long post with pictures of everything, from the decorations to the favors. I've pretty much had my glue-stick-covered fingers in everything. My poor Cricut is getting a workout right from the box.

No pictures in today's post, but lots of other stuff to share with all of you. Besides prepping for the baby shower, I've also been prepping for Hilo Ben Franklin's Paper Party & Family Fun Day tomorrow. I was asked to take over the cupcake decorating table (since the associate who was taking care of it moved last month) and also to do a cake pop make n take. Of course, me, being the procrastinator that I am, waited until today to actually start anything so I just finished baking two batches of cupcakes (if we run out, oh well too bad. That's all I was told to make) and one 9x13 cake. I still have to crumble the cake, mix it with frosting and make the cake balls for the cake pops and tomorrow morning I guess I'll make the frosting for the cupcakes. I also have a list of stuff that I need to take with me tomorrow and I still need to start getting that all together. Hopefully it'll go off relatively without a hitch because a lot of people have told me they're coming for the cake pop make n take. Oh dear. No pressure, right?
One exciting thing, though, is that Hilo finally got a Target. It opened the other day and I've already been there four times. LoL. The dollar section is awesome and I found a ton of stickers, paper, and embellishments there. There were even these little card kits. I bought a whole bunch of stuff and wanted to buy more today, but decided to limit myself since I don't know when I'll get around to actually using everything.

My contacts are making my eyes all dry. I think it's time to go take them out and go finish prepping for tomorrow. If I finish that early enough, I may have time to go back down to my craft room and work on some stuff before bedtime. If I can stay awake that long.

I promise I'll post again soon. Maybe I'll have pictures next time. LoL.

~Jeni

HARRY POTTER!!!

And it is over. And I am sad. But the movie was EPIC! I can't believe it's been over 11 years since I read the first book. And now we have come to the end of the journey. No more books. No more movies.
I'll write a more coherent post tomorrow after work. This is just kind of rambling because I'm not sleepy yet. LoL. Bed time.