Ordinary Life and Scrapbooking

2010 Holiday card

2010-10-24T22:19:00.001-04:00

Shiny Happy Smiles Christmas

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Two new layouts

2009-07-26T07:37:00.003-04:00

I'm not a very good blogger. I thought I'd share two layouts I did last night. Both are 8.5 x 11 and both are about my daughter.

This one is about the cute umbrella my mom bought for her.

For this layout, I found some cheesy cupcake stickers I had. They worked with the story and the colors, so I used them. Easy and fast layout!

Hey, Aunt Carolyn, Don't I Look Cute in the Outfit You Gave Me? and Bendaroos

2009-04-26T14:25:00.006-04:00

It's finally warm enough to wear all the cute summer clothes that we have been stockpiling during the winter months. Today my daughter wore the cutest brown, pink and orange outfit that her aunt gave her for her birthday. I found the cutest shoes to match at the Carter's store for $3.99. Look at the adorable little miss! She even let me put barrettes in her hair which is completely unusual.

And recently we've been copying from Amy Bell and family and having fun with Bendaroos. Her blog post made me decide I should just break down and buy some since my son has been asking for them since last November. You should check out her etsy shop! So, thanks, Amy for inspiring hours of fun at our house. By the way, the box says that they don't take paint off the walls. Well, that's not exactly true.

Bendaroo tiara and sunglasses.

Bendaroo cowboy.

Bendaroo castle with knights in battle. And, yes, this is the wall where there's a little less paint than before I spent $19.99 on the Bendaroos. Oh, well. The child had so much fun and got seriously creative, so it was worth it.

Tagged by Lain! 7 x 7

2009-04-11T15:49:00.004-04:00

I missed a tag from Lain Ehmann on April 2nd. Better late than never. I had to go to my seventh photo folder and select the seventh photo and post it here:
It's a picture of my son from last April. He was making a boat with his father. My dad had gathered a bunch of wood to make stuff with Jack and my mom gave us some when we were cleaning out Dad's stuff after he died.

I edited to pull the picture since I realized it had some info in it I didn't really want on the internet. For some reason, I can't crop it out. I'll try again!

Egg Hunt

2009-04-11T15:38:00.004-04:00

We went to an egg hunt at my Grandma's apartment complex this morning. Kate was excited because she had seen Dora's egg hunt on TV. She only managed to get a couple of eggs. It was over in about 30 seconds. Guess one kid in the 3 and under category got most of them. Jack, on the other hand, did pretty well. He found 10 eggs.

Happy Easter!

My little Irish kiddos

2009-03-19T15:17:00.001-04:00

Here's a picture from St. Patrick's Day. Both in their green!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2009-03-17T21:48:00.002-04:00

I took pictures of the kids wearing their green this morning, but I'm too tired to download and post them. Maybe later this week. Anyway, we had St. Patrick's Day plates at breakfast this morning and wore green today. It was so nice here that we played outside after school and after I picked Kate up from day care. Since I didn't have dinner ready when Daddy got home, we went to Paradise. They had yummy green sugar cookies to sample. The kids ate about 3 each! I enjoyed the St. Pat's Day reuben and potato soup. Not healthy but yum! Hope you had a great St. Patrick's Day!

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

2009-03-02T13:11:00.004-05:00

If you have visited Google today, you saw the image above. Today is Dr. Seuss' 105th birthday. I love Dr. Seuss! He did while I was in college and I totally remember that day. I have to say that I analyzed the political content of Green Eggs and Ham for the Politics and Literature class I took as an undergrad. It's an anti-prejudice message as I am sure you figured out.

For today's celebration, my son's class brought a pillow, blanket and book to school so that they could read a little on Dr. Seuss' birthday. My son took Green Eggs and Ham.

My favorite Seuss stories:
Green Eggs and Ham
How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
My Many Colored Days
There's a Wocket in My Pocket!
The Zax and The Sneetches from The Sneetches and Other Stories
Horton Hears a Who!
Horton Hatches the Egg
Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?
The Foot Book
Oh, the Places You'll Go!
The Cat in the Hat

For the record, I like the new movie Horton Hears a Who. I think it's a good adaptation. I, however, do not approve of the remake of the Grinch or the Cat in the Hat. I'm a purist for those. Only the original cartoons will do.

What are you doing to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday?

Layout a Day Layout Progress

2009-02-27T06:14:00.009-05:00

Well, it's day 27 and I have created 27 layouts. One more and the 28-day Layout a Day Challenge is complete. I wanted to share some of my creations with you. I've been having a blast completing the layouts for the challenge and working on stuff for my Big Picture Scrapbooking Seasonal Scrapbooking class taught by May Flaum.

Jack loves Star Wars features some pictures of my son with his Star Wars toys. He got a lot of Star Wars stuff for Christmas. He's obsessed!

Swim is for my BPS class and is based on a May Flaum sketch. We have fun going to the pool in the summer.

J&J is a picture of the boy and me after his Bobcat ceremony. I'm not in a lot of the scrapbook pages I do since I'm usually taking pictures so I did one of me and each of the kids to tell them that I love them. I love this picture with the goofy paint on our faces. I based this on a layout designed by Heather Bowser from the Feb/Mar issue of scrapbooks, etc.

K&J is a similar layout of me and my girl. I splurged and bought some Making Memories paper and embellishments and couldn't wait to use them. They are such fresh, spring colors!

My boy - Just wanted to tell my son what I love about him right now. Love the simple design and brown and teal together!

Kate my love is a layout telling my daughter what I love about her personality right now. Totally tried to "junk" this layout up with lots of hearts and love embellishments.

And finally, Unseasonably Warm is a layout about some warm weather we had last March. We got outside and enjoyed it!

Have a great day!

Bad news

2009-02-26T13:44:00.003-05:00

We knew it was coming, but the Obama administration's budget wants to eliminate the loan program that I work in. I work for a great non-profit that supports student's in FFELP program. The budget bill has a lot to go through before it gets into place, so I hope that the final budget ends up much different than what is proposed now.

What I don't get is that the current administration is trying to pump money into banks and car companies to keep them afloat but they are willing to eliminate an entire industry (the student loan industry) and all the jobs that are a part of it. Doesn't make sense to me.

Recent layouts

2009-02-10T06:21:00.007-05:00

Taking an online class right now and participating in a layout a day challenge, so I'm getting some pages done. Here are a few of them.

Easter 2008 - The kids with their Easter baskets.

Lucky - St. Patrick's Day 2008

Clownin' Around - The kids playing at the mall a few weeks ago.

Birthday Bling - My daughter and the necklaces she got for her birthday. She loves them!

Snow layout, facebook and turning 40

2009-02-05T06:16:00.006-05:00

This is a layout I did for my Big Picture Seasonal Scrapbooking class. I love its simplicity!

I joined Facebook just to be able to send a friend request to Cathy Zielske after her brilliant blog post about joining Facebook. She's an awesome scrapbooker and her blog cracks me up. Well, I haven't done much with Facebook, but it seems like it could be a huge time-waster. And while I've been tagged by scrappers for a few random facts, the 25 random facts on Facebook seems like a little bit much. This article completely cracked me up! Hopefully what I shared in my November 4th blog post isn't as goofy as some of these items.

A friend of mine forwarded me a link to this article that I had to share. I turn 40 in October and we've been discussing all the things that are going wrong as we age. You don't even what to hear my list of stuff, but I'm falling apart and I'm not even 40 yet! The nurse who prepped me for my Bravo PH study on Monday couldn't believe I was 39. She said she figured I was 32 or 33. I love her.

Be my valentine layout

2009-02-04T06:08:00.001-05:00

The glare on this is terrible. I totally need a working scanner! Anyway, wanted to share my latest page. It's my son filling out his valentines and making valentine cupcakes last year. It's inspired by a page May Flaum created for our Seasonal Scrapbooking class at Big Picture Scrapbooking.

LOAD and BPS Class Layout

2009-02-03T21:14:00.004-05:00

I'm participating in Lain Ehmann's LOAD (layout a day) right now and I'm also taking May Flaum's Seaonal Scrapbooking class at Big Picture Scrapbooking. This 2-page spread was made over a two day period (so I could count each page as a layout for LOAD -- sounds like cheating, but it's legal) and it is based on a layout from my class. Killed two birds with one layout! I love May's style. She talks about adding "junk" to your layouts. I have a lot of embellishments, but normally I don't use a lot on a layout. May's inspiration has me experimenting and out of my comfort zone. And Lain's LOAD challenge has given me my scrapping mojo back. Thanks Lain and May!

Banana Bread Recipe

2009-02-03T16:38:00.002-05:00

Banana (or zucchini) bread
3 eggs beaten (or egg beaters)
1 cup oil (or applesauce)
2 cups sugar
2 cups mashed banana (or grated zucchini)
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour (I use whole wheat)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 pinch allspice

Grease 2 loaf pans. Mix dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients. Mix well. Bake 1 hr at 325 degrees. I add some Pampered Chef cinnamon sprinkle to the tops before baking.

A foot of snow and yucky bananas

2009-01-28T14:38:00.008-05:00

This is the view from my back door. You can't really tell how deep it is, but it snowed about a foot in the last 24 hours. No school. Thank goodness it's sunny, though. Makes the snow not seem so bad. It's kind of pretty, but it's totally a hassle when it comes to getting around. They've done a nice job plowing the streets and my driveway is pretty clear. My husband kept up with it last night and this morning and I shoveled once after that. I've been trying to work from home, but now my work computer is not cooperating.

This picture shows the view of my driveway and better illustrates just how much snow is piled up out there! It also shows the big shadow that our house makes on our driveway. Even though the sun is out, it hardly touches my driveway and it never melts!

My son is at a neighbor's house playing. I drove him there, but I think that I'm walking to pick him up so that I don't take a chance getting stuck and so we can play out in the snow a little bit. It's pretty cold, but there's no wind now, so it's not too bad.

I had some yucky bananas, so I whipped up a quick batch of banana bread. The recipe I have makes two loaves. We like the bread around here -- my daughter loves it -- so we go through two loaves pretty quickly. The house smells so good! If you want the recipe, let me know and I'll post it. It's really easy. Do you have a favorite bread recipe? If so, please share!

Latest layout - Ode to my Simple way of scrapping

2009-01-17T21:38:00.003-05:00

This layout titled "All tied up" was a quick one but I love how it turned out. It's made from just two pieces of cardstock -- the 12x12 background and a scrap for the photo mat -- two scraps of patterned paper, some ribbon, and letter stickers. I love it when all the elements come together just perfectly. I captured the memory of my son tying his shoes all by himself for the first time in under 30 minutes. And even though he wouldn't smile for the picture to commemorate the occasion, I love the layout anyway!

I start a BPS class next Thursday with May Flaum. I'm hoping it will get me in the scrapping mood. I haven't done much lately.

2nd Birthday and "Snow" Day

2009-01-17T21:03:00.003-05:00

It's hard to believe a week has passed already since we celebrated my daughter's birthday. She turned two last Sunday. She really liked the balloons and all the presents. I think the presents got a little overwhelming for her, but she had fun at her party. It was a good time with lots of family and friends. I really need to get the thank you notes done!

It was so cold here that school was cancelled on Friday. My son's best friend came over to play and we made hot chocolate. You can tell from the picture that I also did exciting stuff like empty the dishwasher. Actually, I worked most of the day in the office while they played. They had fun and it was nice for the day off to include a play date.

Looking forward to having time off on MLK day. Then back to work. Need to get running and working out again. Training starts soon!

Sad news in the scrapbooking world

2009-01-16T21:13:00.004-05:00

I know the economy is bad and lots of people have lost their jobs, so in the scheme of things, this isn't that bad. However, it's all related to the economy. A few months ago, my favorite local scrapbook store (and the last one in my area) went out of business. I felt at home there. I knew the people. It was one of my happy places. Now, my favorite scrapbooking Magazine, Simple Scrapbooks, is going to cease publication. Again, I felt at home with its philosophy and I felt like I knew the people. I guess all good things must come to an end. I have every issue ever published and I'll hang on to them. I hope that Creating Keepsakes really does incorporate the Simple philosophy into its content. Simple is really what got me into scrapbooking. I had done a few things prior to that after buying some stuff at a local scrapbook store that is long gone now. But Simple gave me the basics and then their philosophy inspired me to really stick with this hobby. So, I say good-bye, Simple. Glad I was along for the ride.

Holiday fun and mini project

2008-12-31T14:43:00.010-05:00

Here are a few pictures of the favorite presents from Santa. Star Wars for him and a kitchen for her.

And the little princess really likes her Little People castle. She calls the princess her "girlie." It's only six days after Christmas and the prince is missing already.

I've been trying to clean out the office and my scrap closet. I'm a slob and it's just amazing how truly messy I can make everything. Well, I took a little time out from cleaning to make two micro-mini albums with these cute little Bazzill chip board tag packs I purchased when my favorite LSS went out of business. Just really fun little books about what the kids like and do right now. Blue for him since it's his favorite color and pink for her since she loves pink (and so do I).

Halloween Princess Layout for BPS Class

2008-12-29T07:27:00.004-05:00

I'm taking May Flaum's Seasons class at BPS and wanted to share the Halloween Princess layout I did with the pre-class handout. I love May's style and she's such a fun and informative teacher. You should take the class! I love how my layout turned out! May's style is very different from what I normally do, so taking some of her classes has really helped me branch out. I love the results!

It's been a long time...

2008-12-08T21:28:00.007-05:00

since I've blogged. I am a bad blogger. So I thought I'd show you what we created at our house. Last week, we made a Wilton gingerbread tree. It turned out pretty cute considering I can't work one of those fancy icing bags.

Apparently, though, I have to stick my tongue out to use a spatula for icing. Not sure why that is.

Some of us just liked the sugary icing.

Monday night is my daughter's gymnastics night. I snapped a few pictures. This one is my favorite.

By the way, have you tried the Gingersnap Latte at Starbucks? I had a card for a free one. It's yummy. Little bits of crystalized ginger. Mmmmm. I would have another. The nutrition information confirmed that I shouldn't have one on a regular basis, but it's better if you make it non-fat. Best thing about it is that for every(STARBUCKS)RED EXCLUSIVE beverage purchased, Starbucks will contribute five cents to the Global Fund to invest in AIDS programs in Africa. They offer three RED EXCLUSIVE beverages -- Peppermint Mocha Twist, Gingersnap Latte and Espresso Truffle.

This is on my holiday wish list

2008-11-17T09:36:00.005-05:00

The fabulous Lain Ehmann has compiled her witty scrapbooking essays into a great little book. She's a great writer and she will have you laughing and saying, "That's totally true and I do that too!" You can preorder the book and also check out some exerpts. I'm telling you that this is a must-read for any scrapbooker.

I just adore Lain. She's exceptionally creative and she's very generous. She posts projects and shares step by step instructions. She fields scrapbooking questions. She podcasts. She makes scrapbooking fun. Let go of the guilt of being "behind" and scrap because you love it! And laugh at the things we scrapbookers do. Get yourself a copy of Snippets!

Truth be told -- it doesn't need to be on my wish list because I preordered it!

Swimming lessons, cute outfits, Cub Scouts and Veterans Day

2008-11-13T11:22:00.004-05:00

Saturday mornings this November, my son has swimming lessons, so here's a fun picture of the kids together before his lesson on November 8. We went to lessons and then to Sam's Club to pick up necessities like diapers and to get supersized snacks for hospitality at church on Sunday. The 2-bite brownie are so good!

Sunday we hosted hospitality at church and I worked in the nursery during the service. Our church has really grown this year, which is great. However, I needed to get one more package of brownie bites. I'll know for next time. After church, we went to my aunt and uncle's house. My brother was in from Ohio,my aunt and uncle from Chicago, and my cousin was here from California. It was fun to hang out with family. My daughter looked super cute for church and the family get together in this outfit I got from JC Penny's.

I took Monday off to do a little Christmas shopping with my friend. We had lunch and did some shopping. It was fun. After school we did some quick homework and then headed to my daughter's gymnastics class. We had dinner as a family at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants. After that, my son and I went to his Cub Scout Pack meeting. It was a crazy meeting that included the ceremony for his Bobcat badge. When we got home, I took some pictures of us with the paint on our faces.

And finally, Tuesday was Veteran's Day. My son insisted on wearing camo even though the tops and the bottoms didn't match. They had a program at school. Since it was yuck outside and we had been running around like crazy people since Saturday, we relaxed at home. My son enjoyed lounging and playing Playstation 2 FIFA 2009.

I've been tagged

2008-11-04T15:11:00.003-05:00

I've been tagged by Heather and I'm really surprised because I only thought a few family members looked at this blog. Here's 7 random things about me:

1. I waited 2 hours to vote this morning. I read part of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle while I was waiting.
2. I have a mini van and I absolutely love it. Seriously.
3. I have a crush on former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
4. When I brush my teeth, I wet the brush first. Then I put the toothpaste on. Then I have to wet the brush and toothpaste again. Weird, but it's how I do it.
5. I was crushed on Saturday when I found out my favorite LSS is closing. And it's the only one left in my area. All the rest are chains. I almost cried.
6. I like Diet Coke a lot. Not Diet Pepsi. Diet Coke.
7. Gone with the Wind used to be my favorite book. Thanks to the ScrapHappy Book Club, I read Water for Elephants. Now it's my favorite.

Soccer player and princess with a black eye

2008-10-31T21:13:00.005-04:00

My son was a soccer player for Halloween. He was really annoyed that I wanted to take a picture. He just wanted to go trick-or-treating.

My daughter was a princess. She went out trick-or-treating for a while, but came home to eat candy and help Grandma Janet and Grandma Marilyn pass out candy.

I think you can tell in this picture that she has a big old shiner. She got hit in the eye by a flying toy at day care today and she had a pretty swollen and cut up eye. She still looked pretty cute though.

I really tried to get the two of them to pose together. Quite frankly it wasn't that easy. With all the excitement of Halloween, neither of them wanted to stand still even for a minute.

Hope you had a great Halloween!

Happy Halloween Eve

2008-10-30T22:56:00.006-04:00

Doing some last minute pumpkin carving the night before Halloween. We had 5 pumpkins and had only carved one, so we were very busy carving this evening. The kids were cute and even posed for me while Daddy emptied out a pumpkin.

She smiled big like a jack-o-lantern for me. She calls them punk-a-lanterns. How cute is that?

And he liked to scoop out the pumpkin guts. He even took a picture of the inside of a pumpkin. Sort of weird looking from the angle at which he took the picture.

I did actually get one picture of them looking at me posing with the "punk-a-lantern." Mommy's need for a picture was directly competing with the kids' desire to watch television.

Hope you have a Happy Halloween tomorrow!

New layout for Recipes Class

2008-10-29T23:06:00.000-04:00

I'm not much of an embellishment user, so I was trying to follow May Flaum's journaling recipes (combining a few) and see what I could do. What do you think?

Next Season on Dancing With The Stars!!

2008-10-29T10:42:00.002-04:00

Now I'd watch this!

Yes, I am a dork

2008-10-27T21:48:00.002-04:00

I am my son's co-room mom and I needed to make a ballot box so that they can vote on the name of their new mascot. It gives the kids a chance to have an election too. Being a paper-crafter, I couldn't just leave a shoe box blank. Now, this isn't perfect. I didn't use the paper trimmer too much and I used a lot of scotch tape, but I think I did a decent job with a quick and dirty decorating job for the old Stride Rite box. Old scrapping supplies really do come in handy. But, after thinking about it, I think I might have dorked-out on it a bit.

Really, though, I am excited about the election and about my son learning about elections. After all, I do have a political science degree and I had planned at one time to work in politics and government. I just never did. That doesn't mean I don't get into it a little bit. Anyway, I hope you exercise your right to vote. And I'm glad I found a use for old dot letters!

Recently we've been busy

2008-10-22T21:03:00.011-04:00

Since my last post, we've been very busy finishing the soccer season, starting gymnastics, going to parent-teacher conferences and doing our daily routine. We also had our first Cub Scout outing. We even managed to carve a jack-o-lantern. We need to get busy because I think we still have four more pumpkins to carve.

I went on my son's classroom field trip last Friday. The weather was perfect and the kids had a lot of fun. I was exhausted afterwards.

While my daughter napped on Saturday, my son and I made a Holloween castle from a pre-made cookie kit I bought at Wal-mart for around $10. We usually make one at Christmas, and this was fun to do. Boy, is black icing really gross, though. I got it everywhere and it's hard to wash off.

And not to leave my daughter out, I wanted to post a funny picture of her. We have a Melissa and Doug wooden shoe for learning to tie shoes. She decided to wear it. This is her cheesy smile. She's a character.

I've even managed to do a few layouts. This one is titled, "Big George," which is what my daughter calls our backyard. I was experimenting with various size pieces of patterned paper. I'm taking May Flaum's recipes class at Big Picture Scrapbooking right now.

I also did one with paper scraps about the kids loving to each chocolate kisses. My daughter calls it "cho-loc-late." It was also for my class.

Be present

2008-10-07T23:07:00.008-04:00

I get very caught up in the busyness of life and sometimes days are just a blur. Most of my days are hectic days, racing from one place to the next. And so I took Stacy Julian's challenge to make myself a present.

She says it best on her blog entry, "We and our surroundings are constantly changing (even when you don't see it or believe it) and this little challenge/project is designed to STOP you, in the throws of your busyness and show you in an instant ALL that have and can choose to be grateful for -- ALL that is here NOW and very likely fleeting..."

So I froze October 2, 2008. I took pictures here and there during the day and then uploaded them to be printed. I did this project quite simply in a mini-album from Close to My Heart with some patterned paper from Scenic Route, a black pen, and some stickers from Sweetwater. Nothing fancy. I wrote right on the page protectors with a Slickwriter and just cropped the pictures to fit into the little page protectors. I did this in about 40 minutes. I'd encourage you to do it too. Life goes by really fast. This will be a project to treasure forever.

And since the economy is not that great, I did it all with stuff I had on hand. The paper was from scraps and I've had the mini book for a year and a half. You can do a lot with your stash!

Anniversary, birthday and some new layouts

2008-10-07T21:36:00.003-04:00

Saturday was our 11th anniversary. Chris sent me these beautiful fall flowers and we went out to a new restaurant at the new mall by our house. We had a great meal and it was nice to have dinner as a couple.

I turned 39 today. It's weird. I can't really believe I'll be 40 in 365 days. Time does fly! It was a pretty good day. The kids and I had a good morning and work was good. Then we all went out to dinner. Chris and the kids got me a pink I-pod Shuffle. So cute! Kate was good until the end. Then we had to leave because she was screaming. Oh, well. She had a rough day. She fell and got a nasty scrape at day care today. Oh, and Jack stayed on green today! I even got to do a scrapbook page tonight. I had a really great birthday!

I'm taking the Recipes class at Big Picture and I'm taking Red Letter Days too. This layout did double-duty for both classes. It was for the personality revealed assignment in Red Letter and Recipe 1 in the Recipes class.

This is the other layout I did recently for the personality revealed assignment in the Big Picture Red Letter class.

If you are in the market for a scrapbooking class, I highly recommend Big Picture Scrapbooking. See the link over on the right.

Making stuff is fun for everyone

2008-10-04T15:18:00.004-04:00

After seeing the cool "fright night" sign I had made, my son wanted to get in the act too. So we gathered supplies after school the other day and he made this adorable welcome sign for Halloween.

And I promised to show you my cute vintage jars. Here they are. They are now filled with Hershey's kisses (cha-loc-late as my daughter says), twixit clips, and Splenda packets. I love them. They match the green in my kitchen curtains perfectly!

Making stuff makes me feel better

2008-10-01T21:57:00.004-04:00

I mentioned before that Jack, Kate, Chris and I all had rough days today. Well, we did. But we ended the day laughing and playing on our bed as a family before bath. It was fun. Made me thankful that we have each other.

After the kids went to bed and I checked my work email, I decided I'd finish the project inspired by the great Lain Ehmann. Did you know she has a book coming out? It's called Snippets and you should check it out. She's hilarious and she's a scrapper. Her essays are so true and funny! I'll let you know when you can pre-order.

Rough day

2008-10-01T21:17:00.001-04:00

All I can say is that everyone in my family had a rough day today. Hoping October 2 is much better for us!

Pampered Chef, dress up and green

2008-09-24T21:05:00.009-04:00

Last night I had a Pampered Chef party. Five people -- friends and family -- came. Even though it was small, we had a lot of fun. The last few years my annual fall party has been packed, but this year it was more low key. I love their products and the recipe for mini cheeseburgers was great! Such a cute idea for a snack to have while watching a football or basketball game on TV.

My girlfriend brought over some of her daughter's clothes and shoes for Kate when she came to the party last night. Kate and I went through them today and Kate played dress up. It was way too cute!

I also bought the prettiest vintage ballerina paintings for Kate's room from this adorable woman in my neighborhood. I also got some cool vintage pyrex canisters. I'll have to take pictures and post them. You can get some cool vintage finds at her store Stinky Toes Designs. Seriously cute stuff. You should check it out!

And on the green front...Jack has had 3 this week and had 4 last week. He's doing much better. I'm so proud! And much like his father, he's getting really good at holding out the camera and taking pictures. Here's one from Monday night while we were reading books before bed.

Yesterday and Today

2008-09-17T21:14:00.009-04:00

Today started like any normal day. I got up and got ready and then ate breakfast. I started to pack lunches before the kids got up to eat and get ready for school and day care.

After Kate was dressed, she decided to read Brown Bear, Brown Bear to herself. It's so cute. She can name all of the animals.

Jack stayed on green again today! I'm so proud. Jack's best friend came over after school to play and Chris took them to a local soccer game. Since I don't have his friend's mother's permission to post his picture, this one works perfectly because you can't see his face. My son is in the way.

Yesterday was a beautiful day too, so we met a friend of mine and her son at the park after dinner. Jack played soccer and Kate wanted to swing. I am loving this weather we are having!

I need to scrap tonight. I'm working on my 30 Day Hath September book for my Big Picture Scrapbooking online class.

Very windy Sunday and a mini album

2008-09-14T16:51:00.012-04:00

It's really windy here today and our brand new trees are blowing over. They were just planted yesterday. Hopefully, they'll be okay.

I wanted to share a cute little mini album that I made this weekend. I was inspired by Lain Ehmann and her Mini-Album Mondays and the new Simple Scrapbooks Mini Albums in an Evening.

I used the cutest October Afternoon mini album. It's scalloped chipboard with ledger paper scallops for the inner pages held together with a binder ring. I added some My Mind's Eye paper I had leftover and used Making Memories brads, letter stickers and mailbox letter. From KI Memories, I used felt flowers and brads. I used a Basic Grey chipboard letter and Craft Smart acrylic paint for the letter and the album front and back covers. The ribbon is from Offrey. The big brad is Bazzill. I also used some Heidi Swapp journaling spots and Ranger Distressing Ink. It turned out so cute (if I do say so myself!) Here are some of the interior pages.

We went to the Children's Museum today. So much for getting a good family picture. Maybe next time.

T.G.I.F.

2008-09-05T22:49:00.006-04:00

Here are some things that make me happy on this Friday.
1. The above layout I did for Lain's 30-minute Thursday challenge. I just love how it turned out. The patterned paper makes me happy and the kids and I had fun that night eating popsicles. Good memories!
2. Projects at work are coming together.
3. $5 flowers from Kroger. I had to run in and get some skim milk, so I picked up this pretty little bouquet in fall colors.

4. While at Kroger, I also saw the Simple Scrapbooks Mini Albums in an Evening special issue I had been wanting. It's all mine now!

5. Being able to watch some good music on digital cable with my husband after the kids were in bed. Dave Matthews Band, Widespread Panic, Gomez, The Police, John Mayer, the Killers. Good stuff.

Hope you have a good weekend.

It feels like a Tuesday

2008-09-03T21:18:00.005-04:00

Although it's a Wednesday, but short weeks mess me up when the holiday is on a Monday.

I had a doctor's appointment this morning and then Jack did this afternoon. In the waiting room, we found a book about the Lion King stage play. I'm so excited about seeing it with him. My mom and I are taking him in November. I think he'll love it.

We went to our favorite pizza place for dinner and he felt like he had to show me he could hold both of the kids because I was having trouble carrying Kate, my over-stuffed purse, the diaper bag, and the plastic thing we use for Kate a restarants. Pretty funny seeing him handle them both together.

And I've been doing some scrapping for my Have More Fun Big Picture class. We are scrapping a 6 x 12 page each day this month. Our focus is being in the moment. Here are some of my pages so far.

No soccer game

2008-09-02T22:16:00.004-04:00

Our first soccer game was today, but it lasted all of five minutes. There was lightening and they had to call the game to be safe. Jack was pretty upset. He loves to play. Hopefully our Saturday game will actually happen!

And Kate decided she'd show off her fine motor skills. She can buckle the car seat when I unbuckle her to take her out. I don't mind that she can buckle it, but I sure hope she never figures out how to open it! She kept unbuckling her high chair seat strap when we were out to eat last night. It was a little less complicated. Still, the child is going to give me a heart attack.

Popsicles make it all better

2008-08-26T21:29:00.003-04:00

I'm loving the weather now that it's a little cooler in the morning and evening. I really love fall and its starting to feel more like it. I'm loving all the Halloween costumes and sweaters in the stores now. I feel like fall is more of a beginning to the year rather than an end. Spring feels like and end to me -- the end of winter. I do know, however, that fall means that summer is over. And once it's not horribly hot, I do really enjoy summertime activities.

Like the ice cream man in your neighborhood. Although Jack had a yellow today, I bought him a popsicle from the ice cream man. His behavior was so good after school and through dinner. He did a great job doing a PowerPoint to study his challenge list spelling words. And I know I'm not winning any mother-of-the-year awards for allowing him to have candy corn after dinner and then letting him have a popsicle, but sometimes you just have to enjoy the moment. So that's what we did. The three of us had popsicles on the front porch.

Now, there's only the cute ones in the picture. I had my mini bomb pop while I was taking their pictures. They ate just enough of the popsicles to allow me to snap a few pictures. We put the rest of his in the freezer and threw hers away. Thank goodness all the red stuff washed off her face and hands in the bath! Just wiping her with a wet towel afterwards didn't quite cut it.

So, we enjoyed a little bit more of summer today before it's gone. Popsicles, bubbles, chalk, soccer in the backyard, and a walk. I'm loving that it's not so hot, and I'm looking forward to pumpkins, Halloween, football, sweaters...

Great Monday except for the bite and toddler crabiness

2008-08-25T21:26:00.005-04:00

I had to wake the kids up this morning because both were sleepy heads. However, breakfast went well. Jack finished his check list. We made it to the bus on time. I made it to work.

Work is very busy right now. I have taken on an additional product and my existing product has lots of changes due to new legislation that was signed by the President over a week ago. Craziness!

Anyway, Jack stayed on green today and we studied his challenge list of spelling words. Kate was bitten at day care, though, and it's a pretty nasty bite. It's going to be a big bruise. Then she was crabby at soccer practice, but I think that might have been my fault. The playground equipment on the school grounds is way too big for her. I let her play for a while, but I took her back to the fields when things started to get a little to scary for me.

All in all, it was a good start to the week. I just hope her leg doesn't hurt too much. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he'll stay on green all week.

Sad news

2008-08-20T12:55:00.004-04:00

I am a huge fan of the Dave Matthews Band. Sadly, LeRoi Moore, the saxophone player for the Dave Matthews Band, passed away from injuries related to an ATV accident he had in June.

I saw him play live with DMB 16 times. He was not on the tour this summer due to his accident.

My thoughts and prayers are with the band and LeRoi's family. He will be missed.

We made it through the first week of school

2008-08-18T21:05:00.005-04:00

I'd like to say that we had an entirely "green" week (and those of you with kids in school or day care know what I mean by green), but we didn't. On Wednesday, one of Jack's classmates hit J. with his lunch box while they were waiting in line for lunch. So, my son hit him with his lunch box. That means yellow. And then on Thursday, J. was tipping his chair back. He received a warning from the teacher. Later he did it again and his chair fell over. Luckily, he wasn't hurt, but it earned him a yellow. After being "unplugged" both afternoons, he managed a green on Friday. And the good news was today was green too!

Little man brought home a book he made about himself today. Great drawings in it!
My favorite color is blue.
My eyes are blue.
My hair is brown.
He drew a picture of our family and our house.
My favorite food is pizza (spelled pesu).
My favorite ice cream is chocolate (spelled chocle).
I like to play out side (with the "d" in side backwards, so it's outsibe).

I love that I was able to cut my work schedule back so that I can spend more time with the kids in the morning and afternoon. I can get my son on the bus and then head to work. While I was making the kids breakfast this morning, I snapped this picture of them reading together. So cute! It's nice to have a little extra time so that we aren't rushing and the kids can share special moments like this.

We had another soccer practice tonight. K. had fun sitting in her little chair and playing with her mini soccer ball.

It's going to be a busy week. We have meet the teacher night this week, J. has a playdate with his best friend, and the kids and I are going to my friends house for dinner on Friday. Plus, we need to get some pool time in before it closes for the summer. I'd like to get some scrapping done, but the scrapping closet is a mess! I have to clean first.

Hope you have a good week!

Busy, busy, busy - birthday parties, end of summer, start of school

2008-08-11T21:56:00.006-04:00

It has been a while since I've posted. Not much on the scrapbooking front. I've got to get my scrap closet cleaned out so I can catch up on projects! We have been very busy the last few weeks.

We celebrated the boy's 7th birthday with a Spiderman-themed birthday party at our house.

Eating ice cream gave K. something to smile about! It's kind of a scary smile, though.

Then we had a Star Wars-themed party for his friends from school at a local arcade. Nothing beats a cake with black icing!

We took a day off to go to the fair. We found out that a boy donkey is called a "jack" and this farm had a jack for sale, so we had to get his picture with the sign!! You can tell that he is thrilled.

And finally, today was the first day of first grade. He looked so grown up and was very excited to go to school.

What have you been up to?

In my arms layout

2008-07-28T21:32:00.003-04:00

I finally (almost) finished the layout that goes with the song lyrics in my prior post. I still need to mount it on a 12x12 sheet of brown cardstock and frame it in its shadow box frame, but I need to make a run to the store and I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to do that. I like how it's turned out so far. I'll post the final version whenever it's finished.

I also thought I'd post another fairly recent layout. I love brown and pink together!

Working on a layout

2008-07-26T13:25:00.003-04:00

I am working on a layout with a favorite picture of me and my daughter. I can't get the printer to cooperate, so I'm handwriting the lyrics. I'll share the lyrics now and the layout when it's finished. I found this song in Heidi Grace's blog.

Your baby blues, so full of wonder
Your curly cues, your contagious smile
And as I watch you, start to grow up,
All I can do is hold you tight

Knowing clouds will rage
And storms will race in, but you will be safe in my arms
Rains will pour down, waves will crash around
But you will be safe in my arms

Story books full of fairy tales
Of kings and queens, and the bluest skies
My heart is torn just knowing
Someday you'll see the truth from lies

When clouds will rage
And storms will race in, but you will be safe in my arms
Rains will pour down, waves will crash around
But you will be safe in my arms

Castles they might crumble
Dreams may not come true
But you are never all alone
Because I will always, always love you

When clouds will rage
And storms will race in, but you will be safe in my arms
Rains will pour down, waves will crash around
But you will be safe in my arms, in my arms.

Plumb, songwriters: matthew bronweele, tiffany arbuckle, jeremy bose

Freedom Friday Have More Fun Layout

2008-07-22T22:24:00.002-04:00

I did this layout for the Freedom Friday project in my Have More Fun class at Big Picture. I love that I'm using up lots of scraps and stuff from my stash. I absolutely love this picture of my kids. I took it before church one Sunday morning.

30-Minute Layout and Funday Monday

2008-07-21T21:48:00.005-04:00

My boy started computer camp this week. Just one more week of camp, then a week off, and then school starts. Summer has gone by fast.

And speaking of summer...it's not summer without going to Verizon Wireless Music Center and seeing the Dave Matthews Band. We're going this Saturday.

For Lain's 30-Minute Thursday challenge, she asked us to use our favorite song. I created this layout really quickly requesting that they play my favorite song "Dancing Nancies." I cheated a little. There's space for journaling about the concert, but I haven't gone yet, so I'll fill that out later. I also have a pocket for the ticket stubs all ready to go!

I also completed the Funday Monday project in the class I'm taking at Big Picture Scrapbooking . I found some Christmas pictures from 2003 when the little guy was two. He's such a big guy now. It was fun to go back and see how small he looked. I'm looking forward to Kate this Christmas. She will be just a few months younger than he was in 2003.

Have More Fun

2008-07-18T13:15:00.000-04:00

I'm taking Stacy Julian's Have More Fun class online at Big Picture Scrapbooking and I'm telling you that I am having fun. The layout of my son's summer camp adventure was a blast to create. No paper trimmer used. And I cut out the picture. I don't think I've done that in 10 years! I love how it turned out! And Stacy posted a nice comment on it in the gallery, so that was really cool!

And speaking of summer camp...Jack is creating too. He just finished up a week of summer camp that focused on art projects. They had an art show today and here he is showing me what he made. He did a great job on all of his projects. He's very creative and he really likes to make things, so this camp was a perfect match for him. It was also a good change from the week of basketball camp he had just participated in.

The 80's

2008-07-16T22:54:00.000-04:00

I finally did Lain's challenge to scrap something from the teen years. What could be more embarrassing than prom?

I totally had the Jessica McClintock thing going in 1986. Very pale pink, with rosettes and lace. Uck. What was I thinking? I checked out her website and her style has changed a lot too! I finally got an awesome dress my senior year. I look back on that one and I'm not embarrassed. Maybe I should be, but I'm not.

Need to start blogging

2008-07-16T11:41:00.000-04:00

I opened this account a long time ago and I haven't used it. I think I'm going to start using it as a way to journal for scrapbooking. I'm terrible about writing things down and then I can't remember them later. So, more to come...

In the meantime, I thought I'd share some links to some cool sites I have found.
Cute handmade stuff on etsy - http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5334736
Great site for guilt-free recipes - http://www.hungry-girl.com/
Free digital templates - http://www.ikeagoddess.blogspot.com/

I also thought I'd post some recent pages as well. This one titled "Loopy" was created for an online class I enrolled in at Big Picture Scrapbooking. The class is called Conversations and Nic Howard is the instructor. It's all about how my son had to have some cavities filled and he had nitrous oxide during the procedures. Because of the nitrous he felt a little weird and when it came time to pick out a treat from the dentist's treasure box, he said that "It's hard to pick good when you're all loopy."

To be fair, I'm posting one of the girl too. It was for one of Lain Ehmann's 30-Minute Thursday challenges. She always has fun challenges on her ScrapHappy blog!