Celebrate. Remember. Fight Back. A RFL display.

Ah YESSSSS!!!! The sound of the Cricut. It had been farrrrrr tooooo long since I had that sound. If you are one that creates using a Cricut you know there is some sweetness to the sound of it cutting.

You can almost hear it can't you?? Like I said, it had been way too long since the "buzz" of creativity had been heard. Those long overdue cuts were being made on purple glitter paper. Plenty to smile about there.

There are three pieces to relay. Celebrate. Remember. Fight Back. Maybe it is the teacher in me, maybe it is just how my brain is programmed, but I wanted, okay I needed an information table at the dart tournament. The table had all the necessary forms for many things, but my information needed something that would get your attention. Off to the store we went for one of those tri-fold display thingers.

Aw, yes!!! Purple and silver glitter paper and cupcakes. You have to smile at that.

Yes, yes, it isn't straight, but this was a picture taken and sent off for "what do you think?" purposes.

Getting closer.

The tri-fold display was perfect.

I had three parts I wanted to touch on and it had three sections.

Getting closer yet. All the pieces have been adhered.

Now we just need to get the center section figured out.

This may or may not have been on the table for a couple days as I tried to figure it all out.

PROJECT COMPLETE!

I used some of our luminaria bags for the "remember" piece.

I had battery operated tea lights in each one.

Plantin Schoolbook and Stand and Salute were the cartridges I used for the cuts!

I think it turned out pretty cool!

Thanks for stopping by.

Until next time...xoxoxo

Just a Small Town Girl

(i need to learn how to do one of those signature things!!! ;) )

A Pirates Birthday Party

Hey Everyone!!!! One of the last projects I worked on before moving a year ago was a pirate birthday party. This party wasn't quite as in depth as some of the others I have worked on. I didn't make the invitations for this party, but I did make some of the decorations.

I don't have the sizes for any of these cuts, but I did use the Pirates and Mermaids Cricut cartridge. I can tell you some of the pieces were a real pain and you really wouldn't want to cut them at a very small size. Always remember the devil is in the details when making Cricut cuts. The more intricate the cut....the more of a pain it will be to get off your sheet and put together! This is definitely an instance of bigger is better!!! ;)

My girlfriend asked if I would go with the same concept as the year before when we did the CARS BIRTHDAY PARTY . We went and bought some more buckets and set the Cricut to cutting. We also went and bought some gold and silver bead necklaces and gold coins.

 The pirate cuts were definitely fun! I think some of them would be way cool cut much larger. It is also things like this that make me really miss teaching. There would be some really awesome bulletin boards!

 We used a combination of Cricut cuts and pirate themed stickers to bring the whole thing together!

You can't really have buckets, and pirates, and pirate booty without having some "rope" can you? Not in my world, so I took some jute and wrapped it around the buckets to help some depth and texture to the finished product!

Of course they were a hit!!! I am very much looking forward to getting back into this creative part of my being and working on projects like this again. Writing this blog post is my break from rearranging the room that I have claimed as my space. Poor Small Town Guy. I don't think he had any idea what happened when all those boxes were moved into this room. He wouldn't change any of it though. I am rearranging a little though so he can be in here too. Space is at a premium for the time being. He plays guitar. My stuff has literally taken over the entire room. I have been working to get my stuff off the other desk, so he can move some of his equipment in here. I can share, especially with him!

I can see my stuff, including my keyboard and monitor. I have started blogging and I have a whole list of things I want to talk about! I have also been scrapbooking. We will get there. I look forward to it!

I promise the posts will get more interesting as we go. I just need to readjust to being in blog land again. I have for sure missed you and your sweet pick me up comments. A special thank you to those of you that have checked on me by email. Bloggers rock!!!!!

Do you have any little pirates in your world that you have made party supplies for??

Hugs and best wishes from my small town to wherever you are in the world!

Jen

HEY!!! I hope some of you reading this are some of my "long lost blog friends" from my old blog Creating With The J's!! New friends, or old ones, WELCOME to everyone!!!

I haven't blogged since December. There were some life changes, hence the new blog! I am back. It may be hit or miss at first, because there are still some pretty big details, ok, one really big detail, that needs to be worked out. I will get there. At this point, most of the things that lead to blog posts, well it is all in storage. Hopefully those days are numbered.

I did decide on the new blog name though and have finally figured out this first post! The blog name came pretty easy once I sat down and got serious about it! This first post, we've gone round and round!

I AM a small town girl. I am a small town girl that has moved back home to the small town(s) that I grew up in and around. There truly is no place like home! For those of you that are coming over from The J's, yes, I came home by myself. All those neat projects and hours of hard work have been left behind. Moving on and moving forward, means finding more walls and yard space to transform right???? I am hopeful of such.

I, in no way, considered where I lived before now to be the big city, that was always Pittsburgh or Cleveland. However!!!! Having been home for awhile now, it was the big city compared to here. There is something refreshing and promising about small town stores and it really is quite sad to watch them struggle to keep up with "progress."

Coming home means I get to enjoy things that I have missed out on for way too many years. Yes, that choice has been mine, but boy do I have a list of things I intend to do this year -- things I haven't done in awhile!

This means I can spend time with my nieces and nephews, something I have definitely missed doing.

They are crazy, but then again, aren't we all????!!!!????!!!!

I also get to spend time with the rest of my family.

I have contemplated sharing pictures, but all the pictures would be older. Believe it or not, my camera hasn't taken a single picture in over a month. I guess it is time to fix that problem!!!

I am closer to most everyone in my immediate family. While I am closer to my Mom she is still a couple hours away, but that drive time has been shortened. My Dad, my Grandparents, (step)Sister and other members of my extended family are all nearby, as well as some friends.

I do have a crazy commute to and from work, but my boss is cool and we have worked something out so it isn't as bad as it could be! That means I still get to see all my crazy friends once or twice a week or every other week. It also means, that when I need something from a store I don't have here, I can just make plans to get it while I am in "the big town" for work.

Cleveland and Pittsburgh are no longer my big cities. My big cities are now Erie and Buffalo. My Mom is in Buffalo. There is a Hobby Lobby in both towns so I am good, once I have driven AT LEAST an hour to get there!! Here's to hoping I don't get up some Sunday morning and decide it is a good day for a drive to go to Hobby Lobby, driving an hour or two only to get there to be reminded they are closed on Sunday would be a whole lot different than driving 15 minutes.

I was going to share my "bucket list" of things to do this year, but perhaps that will be a post all its own and one we can revisit often.

We will still have plenty of paper crafting going on around here, and all those cookbooks still need blogged about. I just need to get it all out of storage!

I will leave you with a few more pictures and a couple links back to the old blog just so you can see what will be coming this way!!!

Coming home means no more driving long distances on snowy roads to be home for the holidays!!

This picture has good roads, but just think of driving through an area like that and the roads are snow and ice covered. Yep, that is definitely one thing I won't miss!!

This is the view of the "extended back yard" at my Dad's.

Definitely a good view to come home to!!

If you are coming over from The J's, Moon Pie Magic Mondays will be coming back!

I am going to rerun the first couple here so everyone is on the same page, and that will help with not having my stuff. :)

Here is the link to a family recipe. The story of where all the recipes came from can be found here.

With St. Patrick's Day approaching here is a link to last year's St. Patrick's Day Cards.

And here is a link to a Cricut Project.

That is all for now!

Thanks so much for stopping in. I am glad you stopped by and hope you will follow me and share me with your friends. I am still contemplating whether or not I want to do a facebook page associated with the blog. I guess time will tell and we will just take this one step at a time.

There are plenty of good things to come, both here and in life!!

Have a great day everyone!!!

Hugs ~ Just a Small Town Girl (Jen)