busy bein'... well... BUSY.

long work week, folks. sorry if i've kept you all (all 16 of you, that is!) in the dark this week. i HAVE managed to find a bit of time to get crafty, but mostly i've been working my patootie off, and getting Miss Ophelia ready for surgery today. let me rephrase that - getting MYSELF ready, mentally, for Miss O's surgery today. we dropped her off at 8 am and i'm waiting to hear back about the x-rays, and whether or not they're going to remove the cyst(s). i'm a little antsy at the moment, and haven't been able to concentrate very well with work stuff this morning. i just wish they'd call...

at any rate, it's crop week in my CafeMom group, and i've put together a few little projects for the challenges. our theme this week is Picnic/Cookout, and all of the challenges are related to food or grilling or picnicky-type activities and such.

so let's see... here's what little me "cooked up" for the "fry-daddy" challenge, which was to have a SUN on your project, to follow the sketch provided, and to incorporate a cooking-related word onto it as well:



we're also playing Scrappy Scrabble, where you combine elements assigned to letters and get points for the letter value when you make words... the words themselves have to somehow be represented by an image or object, or appear directly on the project. my words were WATERMELON (for 15 points):



and BASKET (for 12 points):



we've been having fun with a relay race, too - with lots of different games incorportated into the event! our first lap was the potato sack race, for which i created the little Penny Black mouse card in my previous post... i haven't been able to play any other laps, but hopefully i'll still have time to catch up!

there's also a game of horseshoes going on! for this challenge, anything goes, but the word or an image of horseshoes has to be on the project:





(i'm actually kind of disappointed at the photos of the 'shoes, because i used silvery metallic cardstock and cut these babies out by hand, and you can't remotely see how cool the paper looks)

and what's a picnic without BUGS? or, more specifically, BEES?! this project can be only black, white and yellow, and we were given a sketch to follow. OH, and a bee, or the WORD "bee" must be present. i loves me the Kettos, and this one was perfect (she just needed a little alteration):



last, but certainly not least, CONDIMENTS! mustard, relish, pickles, onions, and HOLD THE KETCHUP! this challenge required three RED things (but not all the same kinds of things - in my case, red paper, red string on the tag, and red... um... "paint"), and some allusion to, or direct reference to KETCHUP! what do you think?



i was quite pleased with this one! we're having a ton of fun with this picnic crop, and what a great way to wrap up the summer! hopefully i can still squeeze a few more challenges into my weekend, as i'll be home tending to my kitty cat tonight and at least all day tomorrow.

and we've made it to another friday, thank goodness! two more weeks left of summer for my boys, and i'll get some peace and quiet in the house again. but now we have some clothes shopping to get out of the way, and a scrummy cheesesteak place to find this weekend (we saw it on the food network!) - can't wait! my stomach is growling just thinking about it! :)