Birthday... The easy way!!

This year there was no extravagant craziness for my daughter's birthday gathering. But I still put my frugal crafty spin on it.

They painted this pumpkin candle holders for $1 each and took them home. I also made pumpkin placemats with my YourStory. To save my table from paint and as another party favor gift.

They had a lovely time and took home decorations for the season!!!!

Thank God for Sundays

Im feeling weak in the knees for adding to my stash so it is a great thing that Hobby Lobby is closed on Sundays. To help me cope my good friend shared a couple of sheets of cute paper with me from her All About Boys DCWV stack. I don't have a boy but the paper with the lightbulbs would be perfect for the science camp layout.

Which leads me to Thrifty Tip #1: share with a friend. Shop the mat stack sales with a friend. Don't buy the same stacks and when u are finished with that theme, switch stacks. Sure some of the paper is missing but it's like having new product in your home and it cost you nothing!!! Awesome huh?$?

On a side note, I made these awesome cupcAkes for a friends get together today. They are as. Yummy as the look

No Spending- Day 1

Hey y'all!!

I Was forced to go into Joann Fabrics with some coworkers today. I only purchased a pack of dcwv paper for my neighbor (we don't have that kind in our town and her daughter is a huge Twilight fan) and an apple door hanger for her teacher. It was $6.99 and 70% off!! I thought it would make a cute Christmas gift for her teacher along with some handmade stationary. (more to come on that later).

The point is: I didn't spend any money on my scrap stash!! Hurray me!!

No more shopping!!

Hello!!! My name is Jessica and I am a scrapbooking supply addict. I have enough materials in my home to have a scrap room and fill it up and for a single mother with increasing responsibilities and $0 in my savings account, I have realized that this must stop!! Why do I have a store in my home when I should only have necessary supplies and an 100 or less stash of varying paper???

So from today on I am hereby on a scrapbook spending freeze until January 1st, 2012. (with the exception of photos purchased with coupon or adhesive when I have run out (which is unlikely to happen). This includes no Black Friday, after Christmas sales, or Cricut cartridges.

During this time. I will try to post a weekly "frugal- stash using- $$ saving" idea or project. I hope whoever reads this will find this grand experiment /torture interesting and enlightening.

Let the saving begin!!!

Digital Layout

Hey y'all,

I don't know about you but it has definitely been a Manic Monday!!!  But instead of complaining I decided to share the only thing that went right today... a layout!!!

Isn't that awesome, and it only took about 15 minutes using my Creative Memories Storybook Software!!

Little known factoid:  I'm actually a CM consultant (ID#38443543) and we are having a monster sale on ALL of our digital products!!  If you are interested, you can order online anytime at http://www.mycmsite.com/sites/jesshdiame . 

I'm plan to start having more pics of projects and what not's in the future, so stay tuned!!!  Thanks for stopping by!!!

By the way,  the cake mix brownies were pretty good.  I'll definitely use my 8x10 pan instead of my 9x13 next time.  Although they were moist, I like my brownie a little on the THICKER side... kinda like me!!  :-)

Rough Day Dinner

I know that this blog is originally about crafting, but it's about love too. As a Southern woman, I express my love through food. I love food and feeding my friends and family and the food I fix often reflects my many moods. Sometimes, I get frustrated that it's just me and my daughter because I'll a whole bunch of stuff and we just can't eat it all.

Anyway, today has been a rough one. I accomplished my Couch 2 5k goal (Week 5 Day 2) and weighed 2 pounds lighter than I before vacation (that was really a shocker) so that was exciting!! The rest of the was tedious, awkward, and frustrating. Except for my impromptu lunch with my bestie because I left my sack lunch sitting on the kitchen table... thanks B.

I'm tired, my baby is tired, so we feast on my Quickie Spaghetti and Meatballs (would have a side salad, but we are out of lettuce). Quickie Spaghetti is simply frozen meatballs, your favorite premade sauce, 1 can of diced tomatoes and whole wheat noodles. (Gotta get some extra veggies in there, I'm just glad she eats them)

For dessert (Sira's back to school snack) we are having Cake Mix Brownies. I've never tried these before and I got the recipe from the pattie cake blog. (thank you) We're gonna try this with the dark chocolate fudge from duncan hines. Either Sira or my trash can will be devour them!!

I'm Big TIME Now!!!

After months of deliberation I have decided to become a Creative Memories Consultant...again.  But I doubt you could really count that ill fated feeble attempt to "be my own boss".  Let's just say, as a single mother, it's pretty tough getting yourself in a career patterrn that you love, let alone two!! especially while you are working on certifications, fighting for a promotion, and living with a toddling night walker who thinks 11 pm is a perfectly legitimate bedtime for EVERYONE!!!

Anywho...  now that I have the promotion in my "day job" that I desired and my "darling" toddler has mature to a DARLING 5 year old who can't keep her eyes open after 8 p.m. most of the week, I figured it was time to take the plunge back into my home based business. 

But why you say?  That answer is fairly simple.  I LOVE scrapbooking!!!  I've been putting my pictures in albums since I was a teen in the 90's.  As my marriage fell apart shortly after my daughter's birth, I could always put pen and photo and adhesive and sticker to paper, to relieve the insanity that was my topsy-turvy life.  And a Creative Memories crop at a church in Jacksonville Alabama in 2004 is where I started transforming photo allbums and journals into bonafided scrapbooks.

Now that I am right-side up (most days),  I feel the overwhelming urge to share this gift that God has blessed me with as many as I can.  I wish that others would see that scrapbooking is not an elitist hobby, it is preserving memories of your life and those you love.  And no matter who you are, your memories are definitely worth preserving. 

So if anyone reading this wished to check out the Creative Memories catalog, book an event, or place an order, please check out my website at www.mycmsite.com/sites/jesshdiame  and my consultant ID # is 38443543.

Thank y'all!!!