My first challenge

So since I had to make another card anyways I decided to find a sketch from a challenge so it would be a little bit more fun. This challenge is over at the Random Acts of Creativity blog and it is Sketchbook Saturday Challenge #7. Here is the sketch:

So I decided to use black cardstock for the card itself, We R Memory Keepers Promenade paper for the background color, some random Prima flowers I had laying around, and also some little bling jewels. I used a piece of blue scrap ribbon to put across the middle and I stamped the word Thanks! in Bahama blue by Memento Ink and I also heat embossed it. 

Here are all of my materials before I got started

And here is the final product

So stressed out!

So wedding planning and school is starting to officially stress me out. I'm so glad I will be on vacation all next week, I definitely need it. Well if you rember my previous post about reception locations I was telling you about our favorite location at Boone Hall Plantation. Well, I found out today they are booked all the way through June 2012. WOW I never realized I needed to start looking more than 13 months in advance but apparently I needed to start in November. Why so early you may ask? Well, I decided to start calling even more locations to go visit and every single one is booked up! I have called 16 places and I have found 2 that are available as of now, and one location had a temporary hold on our date so she said she would call the couple and see if they were still interested. I feel like I am going to have a breakdown I never thought it would be this difficult to reserve a wedding location. I will be calling more places but I'm just so discouraged. And on top of all that I have a final on Thursday that I have yet to start studying for and I just found out that I need to make yet another card for my clinical unit. Ugh so lets see 2 cards, study for test, find reception locations. Let's see if I can get this all done without freaking out.

So out of the multiple locations I called today here are the ones available:

Charleston National Golf Club

A view of the outside of the facility (Photo Credit: Kate McKinley Photography)

Here is the room we would be using (Photo Credit: Kate McKinley Photography)

What the room would look like with tables (Credit: Kate McKinley Photography)

It's not exactly what we were looking for but it is very pretty. We also found an availability at the SC Aquarium. They will be sending me more photo's than what is on their website so whenever I get those I will post away.

Thanks for everything

Yay, I finished my card for my clinical instructor and I guess I'm ok with how it turned out. I'm not used to making cards for guys except my fiance and I put bows and ribbons and flowers on a lot so this was a really tough challenge for me. But here are some pictures I hope everyone likes it :)

Here are all of my materials before I started. I probably sat here for a good hour just trying to figure out what I was going to do. Then I finally had an idea and then about three others.

 I thought at first that I wanted to add a strip of paper behind that had embossed lines on it but later decided I wasn't a fan of it at all. So I came up with another idea.. 

Getting rid of the lines and just keeping it plain was my next thought. But I really wasn't a fan of it either so you can tell I started to take my ink pad to the bottom right half of it. I decided to distress the edges to give it more of a masculine look like the yellow oval has.

Once I was finished with that I still wasn't happy so I decided the patterned paper needed some distress ink also. And this is the finished product and hopefully I don't change my mind on anything else to add.

Do you ever get those projects that you just can't seem to figure out what you really want it to look like? What do you end up doing?

New additions to the to do list

Well, I had planned on getting caught up on my to do list this weekend while I had nothing to do, but that wasn't the case. My fiance decided to come up and surprise me since we currently live an hour and a half away from each other until December. But I had planned on working on my cross stitch for a little bit and at least get the first bird close to being finished. I also needed to get the thank you card made for my clinical instructor. Well, I got my paper out and I sat and just stared for what seemed like forever. You see here is the problem, I'm not used to making cards for a guy, normally I make cute girly cards you know with bows and flowers. So that is my problem no bows and no flowers and probably no ribbon, so what am I supposed to do? I'm not sure yet but I better figure it out soon I have to give it to him on Thursday! Yikes, I better get to work. But before I get to telling you about my ever so slowly growing to do list I will show you the little progress I have made on my cross stitch.

As you can tell I haven't made much progress. But now to what I have added which I may be crazy for. So now instead of making one card I am making two cards. And yes I would like them both finished by Tuesday, so that only leaves me today and Monday. Why by Tuesday for the second card? Well it is going to my grandma and it is an Easter card, and since Easter is Sunday I want to make sure she will get it by then. As for my other projects I have in mind, they would include sewing on a sewing machine which if you read in a previous post I still don't have. But I am going out today and browsing to see which one I like the best then I can come home and read up on it a little. But once I do get that beautiful new machine I will be making a dog bed cover, a baby blanket for our friends baby who's birthday is coming up so we figured a nice blanket and a toy, oh and also a blanket to put on my couch for those lazy day naps, hmm lets see what else oh yeah! I saw this really nifty scrap holder bag while I was looking through magazines last night, it lays across the table and has a pouch that hangs off the table that holds the fabric scraps, it also has a place to hold safety pins and needles. But I do believe that is all for my adding list other than working on wedding plans, so I will be back to show you my top contenders for my sewing machine.

So do you find yourself adding to the to do list before you finish anything off of it like I do?

So much to do!

I never finish a project before I decide on starting another one. So since I had a break from school work tonight I decided to work on some of my many unfinished projects. But as I sat down to do them I realized I had way to many than I should. Going to school full time and planning a wedding should be enough to occupy my time, but no I decided to work on a cross stitch design for my FMIL (future mother in law) and also a thank you card for my clinical instructor. I've also been trying to find a sewing machine that I like so hopefully I can have a quilt made by the time my fiance and I buy a townhouse in November. So the cross stitch project I started on about a month and a half ago and just really haven't been in the mood to work on it. So today I decided I would work on it a bit and here is where I'm at and how far I have to go. 

So I haven't gotten far and it sort of looks like a kangaroo but no it is a bird haha I promise

This is what it will look like when it is finished. I bought it from Michael's and it is the Winter Cardinals designed by Marc Hanson and Dimensions makes this kit of pattern, thread, and Aida cotton material

Now, as far as the wedding planning goes, we know we are having it in Charleston, SC but still have yet to decide on the ceremony and reception locations. We know we want it to be on the beach but we aren't sure which one, it will probably depend on where the reception will be at. We have the photographer choices narrowed down to two Carmen Ash Photography and also Richard Bell Photography. We love both of their photos and we will meet with them in two weeks so I will have an update later on as to which we ended up going with. As far as reception options we only have one option because we can't decide which others we want to visit. Our favorite right now is Boone Hall Plantation.

(credit: this is my own photo)

This could be where we have some of our photos taken in between the ceremony and reception

(credit: own personal photo)

The gorgeous avenue of the oaks on the way up to the plantation house

(credit: my own photo)

This is the dock house where the actual reception would take place. It is rather large inside and we are only planning on about 30 guests max showing up, so there would be a lot of extra space but I think it would still be ok.

(credit: Richard Bell Photography)

This is the back side of the dock house where we would set our tables up at.

I have decided I would leave making the card until either tomorrow or sometime this weekend. But I will make sure to take pictures before of all my materials and after it's finished.

Tough Decisions

Wow, so remember when I said in my welcome post that choosing my blog name was a tough decision. Well, I never realized choosing a design for my blog would be even harder. I have spent the majority of the day trying out different designs but nothing has really felt like it was what I really wanted. So I have decided that I will stick with one for now that I like, until I have the time to make my own. Crossing my fingers that I will succeed and not fail horribly. I guess my next step is getting followers so I can have people to talk to.

Welcome! Let's try this one more time

Well I finally decided to cave in and give this blog thing another go. I've been reading blogs for a while now and figured I might as well try to make my own once again. You see, this will be my third shot, yes my third. The first ended quite suddenly seeing as I could never remember what my login name was. So I decided it obviously wasn't for me, then later decided I would try again. That blog, well you can imagine ended not long after. I'm so bad with remembering to blog that I come back months later and realize I have no idea what my password even is. So, since the saying goes third times a charm, let's hope I make this one last for a while.

One of the most dreaded tasks for starting up this blog was the title, man did I throw out some crazy names that either made no sense at all or were already taken. Then with some help from a friend this lovely name was born. I knew I wanted it to include creations or something to that affect seeing as I love crafts and enjoy making so many things that I will be posting on from time to time. The other half just seemed to come randomly, but now that I think about it, it's kind of ironic. Like I mentioned before this is my third try at a blog and like the saying, third times a charm, well that's where the word charm comes into play. Southern just fits all too perfectly, I'm from the southern parts of WV which is still considered a southern state, so I am a southerner to some. I love the south and will be moving even further south this December to South Carolina. So now that I think about it this name does fit me quite perfectly.