just jess

writing my paper. I only need 20 pages of critical reflection and have less than a week left to do it. And my grad school acceptance depends on it.

i should also be cleaning my house. It's a real mess and I mean *real* mess. Some things are growing in here (and I don't mean the kids!)

But instead I'm doing important stuff like harvesting my potato crops in Farmville, updating my blog (that no one reads), and finding cool stuff on etsy and kiiji just because it's fun and not because I need to buy anything else for this too full house.

I need a procrastination intervention!

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It was a productive weekend. Homemade lip balms,scrapbooking, and well- everything except my 20 page paper.

Here is my third challenge for Mission to Create. I used 3 of the 5 prompts this time: 1) Sketch 2) Pink 3) buttons. I'm so glad I got these sweet photos scrapped!



And here's 2 more from my crop night on Friday...





I just love the Walmart parking lot shot. I'm so glad I insisted on bringing the camera even though hubby thought I had lost my marbles. Of course I've lost my marbles!

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The best part too- the homemade stuff!

I finally finished my Karen Foster advent calendar for the kiddos. Not nearly as fancy smancy as some of the ones I've seen but I know they will love this thing(especially when they realize it will be full of lil things for them). I love starting new traditions with my kids. I wonder what I can put in it when they are 21 and 24? [insert rolling eyes smiley]



You can't tell from the pic but there are A LOT of stickles on there. I <3 stickles! Need to still figure out what I can put in it for baby that she won't want to swallow and choke to death on. But for the boys I picked up micro cars- they don't make Micro Machines anymore so the good santa that I am I searched kijiji, drove to the other side of the city, and picked up a $4 lil bucket full! Santa is really liking kijiji this year (and no santa is not 100% sure how to spell it ;)

I've also been making Christmas presents.Here is something I'm really proud of.....



My first batch of lip balms (vanilla)! Aren't they soo cool? The recipe (flavoring, beeswax, sweet almond oil, cocoa butter, coconut oil, vitamen E oil) was super easy too- I will definitely be making more (okay I am going to make a dozen orange creamsicle before bed!) I also picked up a digital kitchen scale to try my hand at soap (lye)- stay tuned to see if/ when I manage to burn myself or others in the family. :P It'll be the Christmas everyone remembers because their skin was red and raw from their new soap.

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Okay I have to post this project from last weeekend because well, it's the coolest thing we have ever done and it so deserves it's own blog post. In fact it was so cool and amazing that, at the end of the day before bed, my little guy SOBBED in my arms when it to be taken apart.

Yes kids sobbing shouldn't be a happy thing but it made it all worth it.

It started with this post from a crazy, amazing mom who is now on my blog stalking list.

And here's what we did.

First using recylables including a pizza box with a pyrex dish cut into it and lots of tin foil (I ended hot gluing some of the boxes and tinfoil together which helped make it a solid unit)



And a million homemade playdough batches later and it became this:



We went rock hunting, found bugs and spiders at the dollar store (perfect timing with Halloween, used lego plants and bushes and snakes and sharks. The ferns and plants were another dollar store find. The lake was a hit, especially with the baby and the blue food color made it that much cooler. It got pretty slimey at the end of the day but everything stayed together pretty well.



Did I mention LOTS of homemade playdough batches?



And the coolest part yet that made the boys FREAK



Daddy got in on the fun too :) Daddys pretty cool but not as cool as mommy.

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Okay here is my mission #2 for Mission to Create. I used 4 of the 5 prompts only this time because I didn't have any cork but now I need some- does that count? I used green, purple, and orange/ halloween/ stamping/ wallet sized pic. This was super fun to throw together while watching Dexter! lol



We got *really* messy today painting pumpkins. Here is my favorite artsy (yeah right, I do try though) shot. I love the little feet.

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I found some older pics that I hadn't scrapped yet (amazing I know). Awww look how lil she is!

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It's been awhile since I deleted my blog but I'm back! It'll probably take some time to personalize everything but that's part of the fun right?

So to start it off here's a new lo for a great new challenge site- Mission to Create (and isn't something scrap happy always a good thing to start a blog off with?) http://missiontocreate.blogspot.com/

I used all 4 items: challenge sketch, stickles (chipboard circles), 6 word title, & 3 different pp manufacturers!

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