I'm a JUNKIE

THE SECOND PROMPT on GutterGirlz is UP!! Really had a TON of fun with this one!!
I took our prompt and created an altered item this time around. Using on of my thrifted shoes, and an idea I got from NANCY. I created using this for a starting point:

A lot of paint, some packaging later, and I had THIS!!

Created 100% from thrifted goodness. I love it. LOVE it.

© Rachel Whetzel Please do not use content or images without written permissions. Email Me

Schtuff

The DT challenge on Tally is coming to an end!! Get your votes in!!! 6 gals will be getting one of these.

Pretty rockin' self portrait if I do say so myself. I was gearing up for THE SHOWDOWN... like my war paint? :) Figured I'd better look great if I had to kick any ass or take any names...

My favorite thing after baths, besides wet hair.

And the things I've been up to...
Tomorrow... Tomorrow we'll be posting our SECOND prompt on the gutter girlz blog!! It was a TON of fun. I can't wait to get started on the NEXT one!! Can you BELIEVE we've had over 2500 hits in TWO WEEKS!?!?

© Rachel Whetzel Please do not use content or images without written permissions. Email Me

Vacation's Where I Wanna Be...

Vacation Bible School... That's where my boys have been for the last five mornings... and yesterday, as a grand finale of sorts, the kids put on a show in the evening to sing for their parents, all the songs they learned all week.
AND
There's food.
Yummy Barbecue food.
On the last day of VBS, the boys were supposed to dress up like tourists. SO of course we got ALLLLL decked out, and posed for some photos.
Seems that the tourists in THIS photo are a bit on the straight faced side... lol

I seriously have NO idea why they decided to go for the stern faces.
Macs came home with Hershey's kisses that last day, in a little kit. An "I'm sorry" kit. You got to give kisses to those you've hurt...
Apparently,
somewhere in the explaining of it all,
hitting was mentioned,
because when Macs got home with his kit,
he kept asking if he could hit us so he could give us a Hershey's kiss!! lol Poor Poor sweet Macs.... lol This is my BABY all getting big and things he didn't ask permission to do...

and THIS is what a satisfied tummy looks like.


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You don't Get To

When you stop talking to me, and return my house key in the mail with NO message or word as to WHY you've chosen to do so, and when you haven't tried to talk to me or explain your actions since that time 8 months ago... YOU DON'T GET TO walk up to me and decide it's OK to talk to me again. YOU DON'T GET TO pretend that you couldn't have

1. mailed me a letter and tried to talk that way
2. EMAILED me
3. called me
4. come to the house where you know I live

YOU DON'T GET TO say this is the "first chance you've had to talk to me"
Go blow your smoke somewhere else. Until you are ready to own up to the fact that what you did to me WAS WRONG,
I don't know you.
I don't WANT to know you.
If you REALLY wanted to talk to me and make things right, you have had MANY chances to do it. If you REALLY wanted anything OTHER than to save face in public, we would have talked BEFORE you decided to STOP talking to me. YOU chose to stop. YOU DON'T GET TO choose when you can start talking to me again. I can tell you right now, it's NOT at church. I can tell you right now it's NOT where I feel like you are just want to look like YOU did YOUR duty. I can tell right now, that YOU DON'T GET TO pretend like nothing ever happened. If you want me to be civil to you in public, pretend you don't know me. I'll do the same. I DECIDED that that's just about all I can handle. YOU don't get to decide. When you REALLY want to talk? When you REALLY want to talk to ME? When you are READY to say you're SORRY? You know were to find me. You know my number. Maybe THEN. I'll decide that my heart can handle you. Until then, YOU DON'T GET TO DECIDE.
You HEAR ME?!?

© Rachel Whetzel Please do not use content or images without written permissions. Email Me

Before and Afters

BEFORE:

There was an explosion in my creation station.
I'm not sure when it happened...
because I never HEARD it,
but I can assure you, the mess was GREAT.
It felt like it happened over night.
Maybe we have Explosion Gnomes in our house,
I
don't
know.
What I do know... is that in the process of moving the kittens to our garage, we got the garage cleaned.
In the process of cleaning the garage, we decided to change things up in the living room, so the kittens wouldn't hurt some of the furniture we had stored out in the garage.

so the living room got cleaned. THEN in the process of bringing some of that said furniture back into the living room, we had to clear out some things there. So we moved the hide a bed couch into Ian's bedroom because he likes sleeping on it, and what teen ager WOULDN'T love to have a couch in their room during the day?
Because he already HAD a bed, we then had to move that bed into the boy's room, and re assemble their bunk bed. FINALLY I was able to get to the kitchen and creation station, and I'm happy to report, that almost our whole HOUSE is clean now because of the explosion!!

AFTER:

So NOW, my station is ready for ACTION when the Saturday Rolls around, and the Cyber Crop starts on Tally!!

© Rachel Whetzel Please do not use content or images without written permissions. Email Me

Creative EXPLOSION

OK. First things FIRST. That elusive sneak peek that I've been promising... I've had it on Tally for a while, and a bit on Flickr... so here it is... Only 5 days until you can see the whole thing!! The things the other gals have made so far are PRETTY cool too!!

I knew when we first started talking about GutterGirlz in seriousness, that we had a good idea. I knew that we would have some gals who would be interested. I knew that. I had NO IDEA we would take off like WILD FIRE. I mean, OVER 2000 hits, wildfire. That's not counting clicking from the main page to other pages within the blog. Our counter can tell that it's still you, and doesn't count you unless you've been gone for a while. I'm just amazed. THANK YOU to all the girlz who "GOT" us, and have spread our site's link around!! All our traffic to date has been through word of mouth. ScrapScene announced us... (THANK YOU) SIStv gals posted, and visited!! TallyScrappers, and so many MANY other gals have linked to us and mentioned us on websites... Even in the UK! Thank you to each and everyone of you. I have tried to follow through on every comment that has been left at GutterGirlz.

I created today too!! I THINK (and I could totally be wrong...)
that I'm done with my projects that I've signed up for!! Got the Summer Banners in the mail, got the Cocktail Swap cards in the mail, got my card assignment for Tally done this month, got my ATC's for various people I've asked to trade with completed... got my gutter girl project finished... I think (and again, could be TOTALLY wrong) that I'm done with things until... OH YEAH...
Until this weekend!! Because we are having a CYBER CROP at Tally from Sat until Monday (really Tuesday morning) at midnight!! That's when the NEW design team will be finished being picked!! We'll be having games and chatting it up ESPECIALLY on Monday, because THAT's the night we'll all be waiting to see WHO will be the next six people to take on the designer spots!!
SO. Back to the projects I have to share!! The card assignment I did today! Used the Shaving Cream technique for the ice cream scoops, and a coffee sleeve fro the cone! I really like the way this came out. I'm liking cards more and more every day!!

ATC's that I made...

Here's where the explosion part comes in... As you can see, my creation station exploded, and I was forced to create on top of all this... lol I mean, really!?!? You can't even SEE my sewing machine!! It's pretty bad. That's probably what I should work on next. Ya think?

Played around with some self portraits the other day, and this is one of my faves.

If you've read this far, and I haven't lost you yet, THANK YOU for sticking with my BOOK today!! I guess I had more to talk about than I thought I did. Thanks for stopping in!!

© Rachel Whetzel Please do not use content or images without written permissions. Email Me

Messy Mouth

I mean, really. WHAT IS NOT TO LOVE about that face!?!? It's just about the cutest messy face ever. I don't care WHAT kind of bias you call me. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

We went to the store like that too. I like it THAT much. ;)

Been busy getting some crafty things finished!! Will be working on some ATC's today. Got a sneak peak ready for you from the next Gutter Girlz prompt. I'll share THAT later... or maybe TOMORROW... Bwahahahahaha
I'm also getting ready for TallyScrapper's NEXT design team!! If you're thinking about trying for it, DO IT!! It's not too late. I promise.

© Rachel Whetzel Please do not use content or images without written permissions. Email Me

Funky Flowers and a Swap on it's way!

One of my rose bushes seems to be flowering TWO centers at a time!! Thought I would share... it was a fun photo for me.
In other news, I'm getting the SUMMER banners ready!! Here's on of the ones on it's way out the door this afternoon!!



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Scrap Challenges and Thrifting!!

Made this page for three challenges!! One on Tally, to use "oldschool" things on a layout, and also from Tally, a challenge from Breann to scrap about how Macs got his name. AND the title... THE FIRST TIME was from Dream Girls Challenge Blog. LOVE the way it all came together.

AND some MAJOR thrifty goodness!! Got quite a cool haul of goodies yesterday!! I think I'll be making some vintage ephemera kits soon for my etsy shop.


© Rachel Whetzel Please do not use content or images without written permissions. Email Me

He's Baaaaaack!!

Today, Travis got released from light duty with NO restrictions!!
For some reason, I thought that he would finish the day out, and talk to his advisor about resuming his shift, and then he would start on his next shift day, back on patrol.
I went and cleaned houses, and in between cleaning, came back to the house for a moment...
Why is there a patrol car in front of the house?
Why is Travis' truck in the driveway?
I went inside, and there was Travis.
Three hours left.
THREE, people.
He had THREE HOURS left in his "light duty" shift and here he was.
Getting his gear on.
Couldn't WAIT to get out of the office...
lol
Of course I took pictures.




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Strawberry Fields...

We spent Monday night and yesterday with friends and family... on our way FROM said friends and TO said family, we stopped to pick STRAWBERRIES...
OH
MY
HEAVEN...
I miss that so much.
Of course...
what every 4.5 year old NEEDS when they pick berries, is a bucket and a TEDDY BEAR.
Just looking at these photos makes me happy...

and
HOLY MOTHER OF BLOG HITS!!
As I type this, just three days after launching GutterGirlz, we have had
907
NINE HUNDRED AND SEVEN
hits!! Our counter doesn't count EVERY hit either. It can tell what hits are visits within a visit, and won't recount those.
WOW.


© Rachel Whetzel Please do not use content or images without written permissions. Email Me

Take me to the Kittens!!!

First, I have to say WOW.
GutterGirlz went live yesterday, and I am THRILLED to report, that our hit counter has MORE than DOUBLED in ONE DAY!!! That's just AWESOME. Thanks to EVERYONE who has visited!!
In OTHER news...
Josh's friend has a momma cat with kittens. We have been planning to take one since they were born, and have been waiting until they were ready to take ours home. They were finally READY, but I was having trouble deciding WHICH ONE of two boys would be best for us. In the end, we ended up deciding not to take one after all.




We
took

That's right...
two.
:)
The one with lots of white is Otis.
The one looking at you from the bottom is Surge.
Macs named Surge...
If we had been THINKING...
We wouldn't have let him.
Because it would have been really COOL to have Doobie (or Rat Terrier mix)
and Kilo...
::sigh::
They are the sweetest little brother kittens EVER. I love them. They couldn't have come at a better time. I know Ian will be happy to have someone to snuggle for a few weeks when he gets home.

AND!!!!
I have ANOTHER picture EXPLORED on Flickr!!


© Rachel Whetzel Please do not use content or images without written permissions. Email Me