Once upon a time, in a castle far, far away, there lived a Princess.

Her name was Lauren.

Her day to day life was more like that of a Cinderella.

She spent her day’s caring for the children, who fought and fussed. Then onto scrubbing the floors, and worse yet, chasing away rodent’s, that recently infested the Castle.

Whenever she got the chance, she would quietly escape to her stamp room, in the dungeon of the Castle. She would hope, that the children would not find her there, as she tried her best to complete this week’s blogger’s challenge. She needed to quickly re-create the layout of the Sympathy card on page 44 of the SU! Catalog.

Well what do you think?

This not only read’s like a story book (hahaha) but looks like the page of one, don’t you think?

When I saw this paper from the Aerial Collection of paper I got from Kim. I fell in LOVE with it, and knew I wanted to use it, but could not bare to cover it up with any layers.

Since it looked like a place for a Castle to hide, And I am not a “scenery” maker, I stamped my castle right onto the patterned paper, and it made it look just like a scene from a story book!

I used Spring Moss cardstock, along with guava textured card-stock, and Chocolate chip, for this card-which measure’s 4 1/2 X 5 1/2.

I colored the Castle with my Copic markers.

I wanted to re-create the flower’s that are on the paper, so I used my brown Copic marker to color the center’s of my Essentials flowers. I used cinnamonstickles for the flower center’s. I then cut apart the leaves of the green flowers, for leaves. I needed some smaller flower’s so I used my new SU! flower punch, and did the same on those.

The chocolate ribbon has a golden shimmer to it. I got it at Michaels. That corner needed “something”, so I felt that added a nice balance, without over-doing it

Sentiment is also from the Once Upon a Time set.

I loved making this card. It was so fun. I am having too much fun with that set. Im especially happy with the outcome of this card. The castle is perfect. Not too big, not too small, and easy to color. Just enough details. Love it. Hope you like it too.

Well, stay tuned, cause when I come back, I have some SUPER cool stuff to share.

See you then.

 Here mousey, mousey.

You cant tell a mouse tale without a mouse card- This is my card for my friend Paulette-who had to hear my dramatic stories and terror all week. Sorry Paulette.

PLEASE NOTE: What you are about to read is a true story about a mouse. There is a  photo of the CHASE but my husband said NOT to publish it. Who really wants to see a cat chasing a mouse anyway right. It gives me the heebie geebies.

While all events sound DRAMATIC, they are true. I am a DRAMATIC person when it comes to situations like this. I would make a great hidden video candidate.

A little background first.

 This is Lily-AKA mouse killer

Taking a break after this mornings “festivities”.

We became the proud owner of this STRAY cat, while on our honeymoon in Hawaii.

How does that happen? How do you get a cat while you are away? Well, lets share.

Lily kept coming around to our house while we were gone. Our mother’s took turns caring for our kids AND feeding this STRAY cat! Needless to say, by the time we returned home, we owned her!

She was pregnant, and full of fleas! YEAH! The pregnancy was a loss due to malnourishment. , from being a stray for so long.

So we took her in, cleaner her up, and got her fixed.

We also have to older cats who are 11. Brother and Sister. They have names, but since having kids they are referred to most as girl cat and boy cat! PATHETIC I know.

They are all de-clawed house cats. They NEVER go outside. Although Lily has “escaped” a few times. Being a stray she found her way back, when she was ready.

We knew we had “A” mouse, in the house, for about a week now. Hadn’t seen it, but knew.

When you have 3 cats, and 1 dog sitting in front of your kitchen stove ALL night, for HOURS, you KNOW “something” is under there.

Do I even want to consider there is MORE than ONE-Um, NO! I definitely do not. But since this day-Monday, when this story took place, we have caught—————ready for this———–EW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!——-15 MICE!!! YEAH! Im freaking! But I THINK/HOPE they are gone. I have never had this many EVER! What’s worse is we didn’t even know we had any till this incident.

Yes, I know! You are freaking out too right now, and yes I want to MOVE, and yes I check my shoes before I put them on! LOL! And NO I haven’t slept since Monday. At least not very well.

My house is clean-I dont want this story to sound like we live in the Ghetto and have food everywhere! I mean Im sure we have crumbs somewhere! LOL! You can’t have 3 kids and no hidden crumbs!

I know most people get a mouse, here and there. We get them every year around this time. I think its due to our basement. We have to seal in some cracks in the foundation. We also live near the dam, and near some houses with fields.

ANYWAY-

OK THIS is the scenario I woke up to. MONDAY!!!!

NOAH: Screaming at the top of his lungs, and crying :MOMMY HELP ME !!  THERE IS A MOUSE!!! THE MOUSE JUST TRIED TO EAT ME AND BITE ME! MOMMY HELP! HELP! HELP!

(reality-it just ran across the floor near him)

ME: I fly out if bed to find Noah and Amber sitting on our dining table-Noah is crying hysterically, as he explains, the mouse ran across the floor, towards his feet, and under the video rocker.

I see our cat Lily sitting with her nose under the video rocker, tail flickering, and her swatting.

I JUMP as fast as I can on a chair next to the kids. I push the rocker forward a little-from the chair.

NOW I SEE the mouse! EEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am screaming, the kids are screaming. Noah is balling. I want to ball too-but can’t. Trying to be strong for the kids-but its not really working.

The mouse moves in an attempt to make it out from under the chair. Lily is nose to nose with the mouse.

I am FREAKING out, as bad as Noah.

The mouse is trying to bite the cat! I can see it lunging forward, and opening its mouth!  The cat keeps swatting it with both paws.

She pounces it and pounces it. It moves from the back of the rocker around to the front. Here is where I can see her going after the mouse.

After 10 minutes of swatting and pouncing I take a closer look. I think its actually dead.

 Um, yeah! I think Lily is thinking the same, sine she is now sitting and just swatting like “Hello! Little play toy……..are you going to move so I can chase you?”

 Um, NOPE! Not moving. It was curled up, and breathing shallowly. Poor thing. I felt bad.

Then the unthinkable! We moved the rocker,(carefully) and Lily dived forward, and grabbed the mouse IN HER MOUTH!!! I screamed! She ran. She began shaking her head violently. Then dropped it. Um yeah. Definitely dead.

Now what?

Well Daisy went to get it, so I realized “I” had to dispose of it PRONTO!

THAT in itself was a movie in the making. I grabbed a large dishtowel and quickly put it in the trash.

Later on I heard squeaking-YEAH! The mouse came back to life and was in the trash moving around! OMG!!! I opened all the doors quickly grabbed workers gloves, and ran out of the house as fast as I could-tossing the bag far into the back yard.

I needed a shower-I was SOOOOO grossed out.

Needless to say-not a good day.

After all this mouse commotion, Amber is NOT afraid of mice. She doesn’t understand the big deal, and says she likes them! She wants to be an animal Doctor like Daisy’s doctor.

OK WHERE did this kid come from? Noah cries at the thought of a mouse, as do I and she wants a closer look!

Here is her picture-of a dead mouse. I had to laugh that it was on its back, with a smile. Pretty good for a 3 year old! LOL! 

In case I didnt say-

I am petrified of mice. My fear began when I was little. I had a Hamster name Tinker. One day while cleaning his cage he got out of the “bucket”. My dad went to grab him off the counter, and he BIT my dad. I never picked up that hamster EVER again! I took care of him, but would not hold him, only pet him. He lived FIVE years!!! Anyway-after owning that hamster I have had BAD hamster/rodent dreams my whole life. My kids will NEVER own anything RODENT like-that includes BUNNIES. Sorry to the rodent lovers but I just CANT DEAL!

 I HATE mice so much so that while 9 months pregnant with Amber, I did my best to hop up on a counter when a mouse skittered along the cabinets in our kitchen. What a sight that was my my husband. He always tries to scare me when this stuff happens. He gets a few too many laughs.

LAST year, I went to lay down on the couch with Amber, and “something happened” I think I needed to get a blanket, as I moved the pillow ON THE COUCH a mouse went running along the cushion! Have you ever heard of a mouse on the furniture???? OMG! It was like brand new, and I didn’t think about thae fact mice could CLIMB!!!

 Do you realize I would have LAID NEXT TO A MOUSE!!! ALIVE????? OMG! I cannot tell you how I freaked out. I made my husband come home from work (he works an hour away).

That was just the worst.

Anyway, this is my sad gross story.

BLECH!

Ill be back later with a blog challenge, and tomorrow have a special post that I teamed up with Jen to do!