Silver pool of light

I've Moved...

2011-06-08T02:16:00.000-04:00

and renamed my blog.
Come see me here: http://adetailorientedlife.blogspot.com/

Reflecting on gratitude & a blog hop

2011-02-28T12:31:00.011-05:00

What a wild ride the past few weeks have been... If you're here for the Counterfeit Kit blog hop, keep reading...

My son Ryan had a bad concussion after colliding with a buddy in gym class. He became very confused and crazy about an hour after returning to class. He didn't recognize me or his brother. He had to be taken via ambulance with lights flashing and sirens screaming. All the while, I tried to comfort him and keep my mind from thinking about how bad it could be. I truly feared some terrible scenarios of brain surgery or worse. Afer cat scans and hospital transfers, it was determined he would be fine. There was no fracture, or bleeding or even swelling. Being told he was going to be fine let me relax. When you're a nurse, it isn't always good, because you know too much. I am so grateful to God that he let my boy be fine. That I have the opportunity to make sure he knows every day how much I love him.

One of my team mates at Coordinates Collections was not that lucky this past week. Her seven year old son, also named Ryan, lost his battle to leukemia. I am so devastated for her and her family. And I am reminded how close I felt to being in the position of losing a child. It's a parent's worst nightmare.

Ryan's favorite color was red, so we at Coordinates Collections wore red on Friday in a show of support as he was laid to rest. I was scrapping with papers from my counterfeit kit - which has a lot of red. I found myself thinking of him as I shuffled papers and looked at the sketch. This is what came together very quickly when I gave into my thoughts, and I will be mailing it to Kim to keep:

At first I thought maybe this wouldn't be a good layout to post for the blog hop, but changed my mind. Why? To remind people to stop today and give an extra hug or smile to their family and friends. To stop sweating the small stuff and just BE, and enjoy sweet moments.

By the way, this is the sketch I was inspired by:

So now go hop to Crystal's blog and be inspired. Hope you have a good week.

Love & stuff

2011-02-16T00:38:00.016-05:00

I had a nice Valentine's day here with my family.

My mother-in-law sent us a box filled with the most amazing brownies, blondies and Snickerdoodle bars. I've asked for the recipes, and I'll share them when I get them.

Mike surprised me with flowers, chocolate, and cooked a lovely dinner for us. All of which he did after working all day, going to C's basketball game, and running errands for me on the way home. I'm the luckiest girl. Ever.

Of all the kids, Tommy was the most excited to give and receive Valentine's this year. I wish I could say that he passed out homemade cards, but he went with Toy Story 3 valentines that came in a little mailbox box. He made this for me at school. So cute.

It's my turn this week to post a challenge at How Much Is Too Much? In honor of Valentine's Day, we challenge you to create a page with mainly brown and red, flowers, an arrow, 2 photos and 14 hearts. Hope you'll play along and link up your project!

Here's mine:

The thing that's really cool about this layout - I made it with a "kit" I put together for myself, shopping from my stash. I was really inspired by this new challenge blog, called Counterfeit Kit Challenge. This is what the site is about:"

If you have ever browsed through those great monthly scrapbook kit clubs and admired their beautiful kits...but knew you needed more supplies, like a "hole in the head"...you know who you are (you're the one with TONS of supplies and
embellishments in your ever growing scrapbook stash)...this challenge is for you!

On the 5th of every month here at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog, we
will choose a kit from a popular kit club (for inspiration) and challenge
you to create a "counterfeit kit", using just the supplies you already own.
And to be fair, just in case you need the "inspiration" kit, we will only
feature current club kits, because we're nice like that! "

The inspiration kit and add ons were these, from Scraps of Darkness:

So here's what I put together:

Some closeups:

You would not believe how much fun I had planning this kit... I set out with the brown red color scheme in mind, and went from there. I got a real homespun vibe from the Jenni Bowlin papers, so I went with that. I rummaged through new stuff and old, and put together a mix of Kraft, red and brown. My embellishments were chosen for texture and theme - home, family, love. The canvas tags are around 7 years old! The colorwash has been in my stash at least five, and had only been used once. The Maya Road doilies are recent, as are the Making Memories Reverie & Hambly papers. Everything else is pretty much in between. How do you think I did?

I'm looking forward to playing along with the mini challenges there, and making a bunch more projects with my counterfeit kit. There's a DT Call going on there too. I'm thinking about going for it, since it would be an amazing way to get some of my big stash used up. Hmm.

Well, it's late here, so I'm off to snooze.

Peace.

2011-02-12T02:30:00.021-05:00

Another couple of busy days have flown by.

Jimmy made his first reconciliation. He chose to go face to face with Father Dennis, who is very kind and patient.

My dad is gearing up for the next step in his treatments. There's been a lot of discussion as to how things will proceed. As it stands now, he will be having a liver resection at Mt. Sinai in NYC. Dad really likes and trusts the surgeon there. However, if he is to change over to a special type of chemo that goes directly into the liver, he will have to go to Sloan Kettering. We've spent a lot of time on the phone, calling around to different places to see if anyone more local could help him, but with no luck.

I have been scrapping more since I've been home. One of my favorite manufacturers these days is Echo Park. I love the playful colors, fonts and patterns in every collection. The Little Boy collection is part of one of this month's kits at Coordinates Collections, along with some American Crafts and Maya Road. This line was made for me. There is not a picture that wouldn't work with this color palette.

Here are my February projects with the Blue Skies kit and add ons:

We're still buried up to our eyeballs in snow. Here are a few pictures of what it looks like at our house:

This is the pile of snow blocking my front steps. Much of this is snow that Mike had to shovel off the roof. See how tall it is? Tommy can almost touch the roof:

The snow is almost up to Mike's waist in the backyard:

Crazy, isn't it? I wonder when it will all thaw...

Weekend Wrap-Up & Some new pages

2011-02-06T22:53:00.013-05:00

The past few days have been a blur.
Here's some of the highlights...

Friday 2/4/11 On the Road
After dropping the kids off to school, I drove to the Stamford train station, planning to catch either the 10:14 or 10:17 into NYC. I knew I was cutting it close, due to a disabled vehicle just south of Waterbury. The train chugged away as I ran to the platform. Crap. I was going to miss meeting up with my parents at Grand Central.

The next train left 15 minutes later, and I was back on track. I needed a few minutes to get my bearings when I exited the station, so I walked for a few blocks then hopped into a cab to Mt Sinai.

The reason we were there - to meet with a liver surgeon for my dad.

After meeting with him, he sent Dad for a CT scan and labwork. It was amazing to be able to do all the things in one building, all in the same day. So unlike the way my father's care has been managed in Poughkeepsie. More than five hours later, we left with a date for surgery.

A liver resection on March 8th, which is Mike's birthday.

We stumbled out of the building exhausted, but upbeat. It took a while to flag a cab, since it was a Friday evening.
I got home after 10pm.
Looonnnnngggggggg Day.

Saturday 2/5/11
Brenna is better after her stomach virus, and anxious to play at her JV Basketball Tournament.
The whole family goes, to cheer her on to victory.
She was intense, and focused on playing hard.
Here she is strategizing with some teammates:

and going for a free throw:

After, I spend the rest of the day scrapping, while hanging out with the kids.
It's my parents 46th wedding anniversary.
Fun Day

Sunday 2/6/11 Superbowl Sunday:
Scout Sunday. Father talks about role of family in society, in the church, and questions why some view big families as a problem to be avoided. I am captivated and uplifted.
We head home and fold 4 loads of laundry together. Many hands make light work after all...
A menu of nachos, taquitos, chicken wings and hot oven grinders for our little party at home. The kids are excited.

Did you spot Mike, rocking his new goatee? It was so fun to watch the game and halftime show on our new TV. :0)

I promised some new pages, and here they are...

I created these during the crop at Coordinates Collections last weekend...

Some details...

And this old photo of Colin & Bren - were they really this little once?

Thanks for stopping by!

2011 RESTORE

2011-01-31T01:23:00.008-05:00

Well, another year is underway. Each night, I've thought about my neglected blog and wondered what profound thing I should say for my first post of the year. I know many scrappers have chosen their OLW for the year. I stewed on the idea for a while, and nothing surfaced in my brain.
Until the other day.

While surfing around the web, I came across an amazing website - the Brave Girls Club website. The message and the images really got me thinking. The colors were cheerful and bright, with inspiring stories and creative ingenuity.

That's when it occured to me...
My one little word should be:

RESTORE

and so there it is!(Said with a little bit of a flourish, LOL).

I want to restore...

*my health
*my sense of hope & aspirations
*financial security
*organization at home
*my physical appearance
*my creative freedom

Now this is a tall order, but I've already begun working on all of these items behind the scenes.
My birthday is in December, close to New Year's and a time that I always begin reflecting on my progress in this world.

So I began to think about what needed attention in my life.

I know it will be an ongoing process, but that's what the word means to me. It takes time to restore things to their original conditions. To sand out the rough spots. To bang out the dents. To refresh and revitalize.

I want to surround myself in happy, and to not be such a worrier.

I scrapped a layout that I think reflected my outlook for 2011:

About this layout...

First, this is a rare picture of me. I always make excuses to not be in pictures, like I'm too fat, or
I have no makeup on. Yadda yadda. But I didn't think about any of that when my BIL snapped this picture.
And I'm laughing. I am genuinely happy there. Mike is by my side.
The layout, it has lots of pink. Which makes me happy. And flowers, and frills.
I'm a girlie girl at heart, but seldom let that side of me show.
It has a bird, flying free. Unburdened. The sky's the limit.
It mixed my old and new supplies. It's okay to mix them up and pile them on. To be a bit arsty.
It represents the ideas I have for what to restore in my life.

Happy Belated New Year.

Best Creation Holiday Blog Hop!

2010-11-29T03:00:00.002-05:00

It's our first blog hop at Best Creation today. We're so excited to show you lots of projects for the upcoming holiday. We are giving one lucky person a chance to win $100 of Best Creation products, and a second person a chance to win our Valentine collection of papers and stickers. How great is that?!

So here's how it works... Start at the Best Creation, Inc. Blog. We have 13 stops, so leave a comment at each blog as you hop along to collect the letters of our secret word. When you are done, leave a comment on the Best Creation blog AND email the word(s) to teresa@bestcreation.us.

Today I'd like to share a couple of projects I made with the Winter Wonderful line.

First is a home decor item. I created this wall / door hanging with a piece of acrylic.

You can create a frosty edging to the acrylic by rubbing a white Stazon ink pad along the edges. Layering paper on top of and beneath the the acrylic adds extra dimension. A pleated paper ruffle border and some jingle bells finishes the project nicely, don't you think? Products Used: ESG005, EC005, GP432, GP437, MSS025, GCS012

Next up is a layout with the Winter Wonderful line:

I began by misting my cardstock base. I used 2 different colors of glitter cardstock here. The big snowflake was die cut with an Accucut machine. Products used: GP440, GP437, GP433, ESG005, EC005, GCS012, GCS009

So what do you think? Leave a comment for me!
My letter for the blog hop is the letter "E".

Now you're off to visit Kim Holmes' blog... Have fun!

Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T01:23:00.013-05:00

It hardly seems possible to me that the holiday season is upon us. Time just flies by me these days.
I spent almost every waking moment the past few days getting ready for Thanksgiving, and now it is over.

We hosted this year. I cooked for 16 people. Mike had to work this year, so dinner was to be served early. I decided we'd roast a couple of turkey breasts to have everything done in time. When the turkeys came out and the sides went in, Mike accidently put in two pans of potatoes and no stuffing. So dinner was put on hold, and Mike ate a quick plate before leaving for work. Oh well, everything was yummy and worth the wait.

After working so hard, I treated myself to a little creative time.

As I played with my December DT kit for Coordinates Collections, I realized I never shared my November projects. The kits this month are:

Festive Feast:

Just Dessert:

Aren't they both beautiful?
I designed with Just Dessert this month. The Pink Paislee Anthology papers are a blast to work with. I used a variety of alcohol and distress inks to create this layout:

I so loved the feminine feel to the My Minds Eye products.

Hope you had a wonderful holiday!

2010-11-20T01:30:00.002-05:00

Hello, my poor neglected blog.

Where have I been, you ask? Well, let me tell you...

Caught in a whirlwind of soccer games, football games, practices, dance lessons.
Homework and housework and paperwork.
Medical tests and flu shots.
Broken computer, broken well pump, 3 birthdays.
Apple picking, pumpkin picking, trick or treating.
Trying to fit in some scrapbooking and sleeping in between.

How's that for a crazy month?

Here's some pictures from our October happenings...

and here's a few of the projects I made:

From Coordinates Collections Black Magic kit:

Stay tuned, because there's some fun happenings in the works at Best Creation, Inc, and Coordinates Collections!

Toot!!

2010-09-23T10:10:00.003-04:00

I've been keeping a secret the past several days...

I came across this awesome website, Coordinates Collections ,
a few weeks back. Since they were having a design team call, I decided to stick around. What a great kit club!

Each month, there are two kits to choose from, along with embellishment add ons. There is oodles of inspiration, like sketches, videos, contests and tutorials.
And there's lots more good things coming soon.

I was thrilled when Jamie emailed me and asked me to join her team.

I hope you'll stop by the forum, where I'll be the Forum Coordinator.
Be on the lookout on the blog, where I'll be posting a tutorial every month.

Have a great day!

Playing Catch Up

2010-09-18T23:20:00.009-04:00

So much for my blog plans the past week.
My road of life took me on a few detours.
Mostly busy stuff with the family, but all things that needed my attention.

Then I pulled my back out at work this week, trying to put panties on a plus sized patient who was still pretty numb from her spinal. I am sore and stiff and have learned that 800mg of Motrin makes me fall asleep!

Ah well, what can I say?

I have some scrappy projects to share:

First up is my first DT work for Best Creation,Inc. This is the Autumn Splendor line which is absolutely gorgeous:

I glimmer misted some aida cloth from my cross stiching days. If you pull a few threads from the edges, it creates a cool fringe. Then I stitched a quick border with DMC floss and beads. I was happy with the texture it added to the page.

Here's a sneak peak of my next layout with the Trick or Treat line:

Til next time...

Two Page Tuesday

2010-09-07T03:18:00.002-04:00

When I started out scrapping, I always made 2 page layouts.

As my style evolved, I fell in love with single pagers and consciously tried to copy the layouts I saw in magazines.
I learned principles of page design and techniques to add pizzazz to my layouts.
Single page layouts were all I made.
Two page spreads were viewed as challenges on the message boards I frequented.

Fast forward seven years.

I began teaching an occasional class at my LSS, New England Scrapbook Co.
The customers there are mostly a two page creators.
This has challenged me to relearn how to scrap 12 x 24 while retaining my style.

The result?

I've become infatuated once again with double page spreads. These days, I'm on a mission to inspire others to give it a try.
Let's face it, we all have a LOT of pictures to scrap.
And you can fit more in the bigger space.

Here's a look at a couple of my 2 pagers:

I'll be posting more 2 pagers next Tuesday!

How Much is Too Much Monday

2010-09-06T21:08:00.007-04:00

Happy Labor Day!

I worked this weekend, so it was no big holiday for me. It's okay, though, because holiday pay is SUH-weet! Mike and I celebrated our 15 year wedding anniversary on Friday. We had a date planned for lunch, but Bren was sick and needed to go to the doctor.

I can't believe summer is over. My older kids are back in school and my little guy starts Kindergarten in the morning. We did a lot of fun things, but there were still more I wish we could have fit in, like more days swimming at the lake, or going to a drive in movie.

Did you know the challenge blog, How Much is Too Much? posts a new challenge each Monday ?

This week's challenge is to pick a shape and use it 10 times on your layout and to use the name of your shape in your title. Here is mine:

So I cheated a bit on my title - I figured a heart symbolizes love, so I went with that. The clear letters are Bo Bunny acrylic that I outlined with a marker.

I really enjoy mixing new product with old. The paper doily is by Martha Stewart. I love how the felt Dear Lizzy embellishment looks layered on top.

Here's a couple of layouts from recent challenge that I hadn't blogged yet:

Well, it's off to sleep for me - I've been awake for almost 29 hours! Gotta be well rested for Tommy's big day tomorrow.

We came, we saw, we left tired and happy...

2010-08-31T01:24:00.023-04:00

When summer draws to an end, and school is about to begin, we celebrate with a family fun day.The past several years, it has been a trip to Lake Compounce, a local amusement park.

This year, we decided to try something different.
The kids had never been to New York City, so we decided to go for a day trip.

We figured they were old enough for us to finally attempt it.

It was their first train trip. We left for the day from:

We went to mass here:

St. Patrick's is one of the most beautiful churches with the most amazing architecture. You could spend all day there taking in all the details.

Then walked down 5Th Avenue and saw things like this:

Then we went into FAO Schwarz and played a bit:

We snacked on these as we walked. Honey roasted mixed nuts. Yummmm.....Colin thought they should make an air freshener with that scent, LOL.

I used to love to look at all the flowers in these corner markets when I lived in NYC.

Then we walked through Central Park:

to get here:

The kids had a blast looking for things from the movie, Night at the Museum:

and Brenna even brought some gum-gum to give to a dumb-dumb:

Then we hopped in a couple of cabs (note the plural here - 7 people can't fit in one NYC taxi)
to go to dinner here:

I had THE best dinner of Bolognese meatballs over the creamiest of polentas:

And there were delicious ice cream sandwiches made with amazing homemade cookies or brownies for dessert.

After dinner, it was back to the train station for a long ride home.

The kids had a blast and can't wait to do it again.

Me too.

Somebody pinch me!

2010-08-25T13:41:00.005-04:00

Seriously.
I was so excited this morning to see my name on the list of new Design Team members at Best Creation, Inc. !
I actually let out a shriek of delight. My kids came running, thinking I had seen a giant bug. LOL.

I am looking forward with the entire team, but wanted to give a special shout out to Tracey Taylor, Julie Walton, and Jona Saavedra, who I have known via the online scrapping community for years.

I can't wait to get started!

Summer's winding down...

2010-08-17T02:26:00.010-04:00

...and fall is approaching quickly here.
Some trees are changing colors already.
Some leaves are falling down in my yard.
Acorns are dropping on my deck.
We've begun back to school shopping.
Colin & Ryan started football practices.
It's crazy how fast time flies anymore.

I managed to get a ton of scrapping done this past week.
We had our employee crop at NESC last weekend.
Then I learned about the Best Creations DT Call on Thursday morning.
ACK! The call ended Saturday. It meant a tight deadline for me, but I think I rocked out some decent projects. If you haven't tried working with their patterned papers, then you're missing out! They are a nice weight, with patterns on both sides of most of them. One side always has the most gorgeous sparkly designs. Luckily, NESC carries a great selection so I chose my stuff and got busy!

First up is the layout I made for my Best Creations submission, using the Surf's Up line:

I especially loved the wave paper and wanted to feature it, so I cut out portions of the waves and popped them up in places to add some movement.

I was inspired by Duff of Cake Boss fame to make a paper wedding cake. The papers of the Mr. & Mrs. line are so elegant!! I fashioned my design after a picture a scrappy friend showed me of her daughter's wedding cake. I crafted the majority of the flowers in the cascade. If I had more time, I would've added more flowers to the top of the cake, but alas, I ran out of the yellow paper...

The last requirement was card. Cards are harder for me, but I think this one turned out to be pretty:

I hope they like they see. Keeping my fingers crossed...

Creative Overload (part 2)

2010-08-03T09:44:00.001-04:00

More projects to share, as promised.

A few weeks back, my LSS, New England Scrapbook Company, asked me to create a few samples with their VIP pack from Reminisce. I was given the Bubby collection. So many possibilities for these products. Beach, pool, aquarium...I chose to go the bath route.

I decided to spare my kids the embarrassment of having bath pictures hanging in the store, so I just used mats. I'll add the tubby pictures when I get the pages back.

For the boy page, I painted embossed Bazzill cardstock with blue Glimmer Mist. Then I realized that the fish were blending into the background, so I added some black outlining.

For the girl page... I created an underwater scene. I fell in love with this cute little octopus. I embellished her suction cups with buttons.

Aren't they cute? :0)

Here is a picture of a circle journal layout I made recently. The theme was motherhood:

And finally, a layout I made for a challenge at How Much is Too Much? I used lots of Generation Z line from Little Yellow Bicycle. Perfect for these skateboarding pics.

Creative Overload!

2010-07-24T14:30:00.011-04:00

I've been busy creating the past few weeks, but hadn't shared any of my projects.

First off, I decided to try for a spot on the Pebbles Inc team.
Here are some of my submissions, which didn't photograph well when I made them. So I'm hoping someone from Pebbles might peek at my blog. (Keep your fingers crossed!)

Here's a layout from the Twitterpated line. I wanted to show that the colors could be used for a boy page. I loved how the colors showed the rosy glow of my son's face.
This week's Sketchy Thursday sketch inspired me to create this page:

I used this line to make my card. So many possibilities here!

Next up is some wall art I made using the Treehouse line. I just love the Chips and used a lot of them on this project:

This project was something very different for me. A friend at work was expecting her first grandaughter. She asked me to create an altered canvas for the baby's room. It was a big surface to work with, but she was thrilled with how it turned out.

The background was painted with acrylic paint, then spritzed with glimmer mist.
I used K & Co papers and lots of Jolee's and Martha Stewart stickers. Too cute!

Wow that's a lot of scrapping - Stay tuned for more tomorrow. Off to sleep since I'm working again tonight.

Peace!

A peaceful easy feeling

2010-07-16T23:42:00.006-04:00

I've got one.
A week of togetherness.
Catching up, laughing, a few tears.
Tons of pictures
It was a great week here in Ohio.

Here are some of my favorite moments...

Tomorrow we head back home.

It's about living LARGE

2010-07-14T23:58:00.001-04:00

This is a ride called MaXair at Cedar Point. The ring swings in a pendulum motion to a height of 140 feet. It reaches speeds of 70 mph. I am proud to say I rode it, despite my crazy fear of heights. It was such a rush. I just knew I had to do it when I saw a program about Cedar Heights on Burt the Conqueror.
I was crazy scared, but I knew I'd be mad at myself if I backed out. So I put on my big girl pants and went for it. So glad I did.

Another risk I recently took was to apply for a design team. I was feeling so out of the online scrapbook community. I was just thriled when Debbi Tehrani emailed me, asking me to join the How Much is Too Much? Challenge Blog team. There is such crazy talent on this team- I am so honored to be associated with them! I hope you'll stop by and check our challenges out.

Here is my layout for last week's challenge. I created this for New England Scrapbook Company, using the Retrobot line by Reiminisce.

This line is so fun, and perfect for a teen boy. I used the music note stickers like a banner, and framed Colin with names of his favorite artists. It should be interesting to look back on someday.

May: 2 weeks in...(a longish post)

2010-05-16T01:58:00.001-04:00

So I keep keepin' on. I can't believe how fast days go.
I blinked and half the month is gone.

The beginning of the month was filled with play practices and performances for Colin.
He landed a major part in his school's annual production. This year, it was a play called "The Book Report." The story was about a classroom of characters who are presenting their book reports. Colin played Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes fame) and Max (of Where the Wild Things Are). He was amazing, enthusiastic and his talent surprised many at the shool. I can't tell you how many people thought he was a "natural." Here he is with two of his best buds, also in the play.

Baseball season for Ryan and Jimmy is in full swing.
Speaking of swinging, here are some pics of Jimmy at bat.

It's his first year of coach pitch and batting has been a bit of a challenge for him. But he hangs in there and doesn't seem to get flustered. I worried he'd get discouraged because he tends to worry about making mistakes. Very type A. But he gets up to bat and just takes his missed swings in stride. Guess he's growing up. So proud of him.

Even prouder when he gets on base. Go buddy!

On the scrappy front..

Here is a page I created from the Noel Mignon kit I purchased. The story behind this page is that there were NO fish to be caught when we went to Schroon Lake. Well, just one. This sunfish that Jimmy brought in the first few minutes of fishing. Then nothing else for 2 days. That sunny must have been lonely, LOL.

The Crate Paper colors were just perfect for these pictures.

Tonight I posted the May challenge for New England Scrapbook Company.

The sample and sketch is for a 2 pager. When I began scrapping, I only did 2 pagers.
Over time, I evolved into a single page scrapper. It can be a challenge for me now to go back to 2 pagers. But I really had fun making this one. the design clicked for me. I'm looking forward to doing more.

The challenge criteria?
Use something green
Use something chipboard
Use a plant in some form (tree, leaf, flower)
Use something with wings
Use a die cut paper.

Be sure to drop off your entry at the store to be entered in the voting!

Really, Deb. Really?

2010-04-24T02:29:00.002-04:00

It's not like I haven't been having fun or crafting. I have stuff to share. I don't know why I don't force myself to sit down and blog more often.

We've settled into spring here the past few weeks. The kids had spring vacation last week. Lots of play dates and sleepovers with friends.
Activities have started back up.
Soccer and baseball practices. Opening day was today.
Play practices.
Time to figure out summer camp and other activities.
Heck, even fall activities. Sign ups for soccer and football started this week.
ACK! It's a kick in the pants to try to stay organized.

Lately, I've felt born again in scrapbooking. I've had tons of ideas swirling in my brain and can't wait to get them translated into projects.

Here are some pages that I made for challenges over at Timeless Daydreams.

This is my first 6x12 layout. That's me, in Kindergarten. I remember wearing that outfit. It was kinda groovy with a vest. And my hair was curly from rollers my mom put in my hair the night before. My bangs are crooked since Mom trimmed them in the bathroom. These are some of the little things I remember from that time in my life, and I tucked them into the Maya Road Kraft envie. Love them. Dug into my Sassafrass stash for this page. Much of
their stuff just has a 70s vibe for me.

Then I dug into my Webster's Pages and Prima stash to make this page.
Every now and again, it is fun to just do a girlie page, with flowers and fluff. :0)

Here are some pics from the weekend:

Have a great day!

2010-04-11T00:17:00.001-04:00

I discovered this today and decided it would be a great way to jump back into blogging...

The Simple Women's Daybook

so here are my entries...

FOR TODAY

Outside my window... is my vegetable garden to be. I spent some time raking it out this week, while Tommy and Harley played in the yard.

I am thinking... I need to take more pictures.

I am thankful for...getting holiday time tonight. It's goodto be home with my family at night. We played Uno and Monopoly together. It was fun!

From the kitchen... I want to make banana bread this week.

I am wearing... pajamas, fuzzy socks and a hoodie.

I am creating... just finished a layout for the March Madness competition at Timeless Daydreams.

I am going... to buy a bathroom scale this week.

I am reading... just started A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick.

I am hoping...that my brother-in-law, John (who underwent cancer surgery this week), will heal quickly and completely.

I am hearing... the radio in the kitchen. I love to have music on while I scrap.

Around the house...I'm trying to get rid of some of the clutter. Where did all this stuff come from, anyway?

One of my favorite things... this week is vanilla ice cream. The real deal. With just a hint of chocolate sauce.

A few plans for the rest of the week... Getting the cold weather clothes switched out for the warm weather ones and spend time with the kids who are on their April vacation this week.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

(image from Etsy)

Not enough hours in the day...

2010-03-15T01:25:00.001-04:00

I've been busy taking inventory of my surroundings lately. Seems as if a spring cleaning bug has bitten my butt. I'm a bit of a pack rat and am trying to simplify and declutter our surroundings these days.

I've been watching episodes of Clean House with the kids lately. We are astonished by the conditions people live in. There are some serious hoarders out there!! Then there was a garage sale at my local scrapbook store. I started trying to figure out what I'd be willing to part with. Well, I ran out of time and didn't get any of my stuff there to sell. I can't believe the amount of product I have. Or rather, forgot I had. I made a promise to myself to really start using up my supply stash.

I did go to the tag sale, however and was able to pick up some stuff that I was excited about.
While I was there, I browsed the new goodies too, and ended up getting these buttons in pink, red. orange and green. Oh how I love them!

I also picked up a few more sheets of BG Origins papers. Loving greens and yellows lately.

Some excitement at out house this weekend - Tommy lost his first tooth!

Not feeling it lately

2010-03-04T23:21:00.000-05:00

So I haven't been in the scrappy frame of mind lately. Not that I don't spend time drooling over pages and window shopping for hundreds of dollars of new supplies. That part is just fine. It's my creative mojo that has gone on hiatus for a while.
I get into these funks every so often - feeling like I can't create anything to live up to the ideas spinning around my brain. I have 3 unfinished pages and a mini album waiting to be completed. It's frustrating, but when I get this way, I just roll with it. I decided, as a result, to not bother applying for any of the amazing manufacturer DT calls that were posted the past few weeks. Going to focus instead, on creating for fun and submitting to some page calls.

I've been sick the past week. I guess it was some icky viral deal - sore throat, fever, runny nose, debilitating headache. Coming out of it, though, just in time to work the weekend again.

Spring is around the corner. You wouldn't know it for the amount of snow we have in our yard here. The kids had 3 snow days out of the past 8 school days.
Here are a few pictures of the fun:

Isn't that snow hippo cute? Colin cracks me up with his creativity.

Well, tomorrow is another day, and I 'm hoping to have something completed to share here.
Have a good one!

Are you a pack rat?

2010-02-23T13:35:00.001-05:00

I have to confess. I am. Not a compulsive hoarder, but I tend to want to have things to look back at.
Like old emails. I just deleted more than I will admit to, because it might make me look crazy.

And scrapbook stuff. I've been working from all the many scrap kits I've accumulated over the past year. I've discovered so many pretty things I forgot I had. There's a tag sale coming up soon too at my LSS. Gotta get to work doing some purging.

I have a zillion blogs saved to my favorites too. Here's a few I added recently:

Lollychops

Serendipity

Dear Lizzy

These are crafters whose make wants me want to say, "Be back later - gotta go scrap!" as soon as I see them. Love finding new inspiration.

Late night post

2010-02-23T01:04:00.002-05:00

This is my third night in a row off. I had big aspirations for all I wanted to accomplish .
Not as productive as I hoped, but still got a lot of important stuff done.

* Went to 2 of Colin's basketball games.
* Held a friend's sweet 3 week old baby.
* Cooked Fettucine Alfredo with Bren on Saturday night.
* Cooked Asian turkey burgers with Colin tonight.
(Didn't take pictures of eitehr - what was I thinking???)
Fettucine from a kids' cookbook - had cream cheese in it. Turned out awesome!
The turkey burgers tasted just like steamed dumplings from a chinese restaurant -delish!
* Went to Sunday Mass with the family and had a nice home cooked brunch with Mike and the kids.
* Realized I probably did mess up my shoulder when I fell down the front porch stairs a c ouple weeks back.
* Redid my farm on Farmville. ( I am so hopelessly addicted to Facebook, LOL).
* Started one layout and finished 2 others. (Still gotta get pictures of those.)
* Did 4 loads of laundry - one of which hung out on the clothesline in the sun today.
* Blazed a trail through the toys and crap on my scraproom / playroom floor.
* Taught Ryan how to play solitaire.
* Watched a movie with the kids.
* Had two longish conversations on the phone with my Mom and Dad, who I haven't been able to see since Christmas.
Miss them.
* Signed up for a date to teach my next class at NESC. (think One Page Wonders - Boy themed!)
* Was generally lazy, hung out time in front of the TV with the kids.

So overall, lots of quality stuff done.
Snowing here, so I bet the kids will be off from school again this morning.
Good times.

Thinking about...

2010-02-11T01:27:00.000-05:00

Applying for this DT call...

I just adore the CHA releases, especially Artsy Urban.

They have a fan page on Facebook too. Check it out!

Guilty as charged...

2010-02-10T00:32:00.000-05:00

Of blog neglect, that is.

I blinked and nearly a month has passed.

Mike is finally working. I am working. We're all adjusting to a different lifestyle.

Having five kids is busy.

Working third shift is tiring.
Working full time third shift with five kids is plain exhausting at times. :0)

Scrapping is certainly my therapy.

Here is a 2 pager I made for New England Scrapbook Co. It is the February Kit of the Month, for sale now. The colors of this page just reminded me of conversation hearts. Remember those?

Here is another page I made for a sketch challenge on SB.com. This was really a stretch for me, since white space is hard for me. But I had a blast with it and decided to dig into my ribbon stash to add a little interest:

I'm really liking the green cardstock background on both these layouts. I'm trying to use more cardstock these days.

I stopped by my LSS this evening. The girls were meeting with one of their reps, and I got to see all the new Graphic 45 lines in person. Psyched to say that the girls are ordering all of them. Can't wait.

Well, gotta catch some zzzzz's.

Peace.

This and that

2010-01-12T00:36:00.000-05:00

So it' s my last night off for a while (SIGH). I start my new schedule of (3) eight hour nights and one (12) hour night per week. I like working the shorter shifts. It lets me have a more normal daily routine. But it's one more day to work per week. I suppose there's no perfect solution, short of winning the lottery, LOL.

Mike is enjoying his new job. I need to get a picture of him in his tie, before the novelty wears off.

We're definitely 2 ships passing each other these days. Still working out the kinks. The who needs to be where and when. We're a good team together, though, so we'll work it out.

One of my resolutions was to scrap more. I've managed to get some done this week. One layout was for a sketch challenge over at Scrapbook.com. I'd just received my January Studio Calico kit.

That's the one indulgence I still have in our time of tightened budgets. So this month's kit has gorgeous patterned papers in a color palette I love, but seldom use - green, yellow and brown.

The flowers are made from Hambly rubons. I distressed the cut out images and layered them. I LOVE gold as an accent on my pages.

Here is a page I started anout a week ago and set aside. I finished it up the other evening. Remember my post about Jimmy and the Reindeer dust a couple weeks back?

I created my title by stippling foam thickers with silver stickles. I went back a few times to get the amount of sparkle I was after.

Well, it's getting late here and I'll be sorry tomorrow night if I don't get enough rest.

Have a good one!

Should be sleeping...

2010-01-07T00:30:00.000-05:00

I know I'm going to pay for it tomorrow, but I'm still awake. I'd planned to
scrap tonight, but just wasn't feeling it.

Today was Mike's first day back to work after 8 months of unemployment
So thankful that we will have 2 incomes again.

Did some scrapping the other night.
Here is a mini that I made for Midnight Oil Scrapbook Designs.
I'm sorry for the sideways photo. No matter how I resize it, it still uploads sideways. GRRR.
The photos are from New Years Day 2009. Tommy had such a blast sledding down the big hill at our area high school.

This is a Mini Flip album. The covers are acrylic and the pages are chipboard. After Brenna made her owl case, I decided I wanted to dig into this big bag of felt that I've had and not used.

I also used a variety of past Basic Grey winter lines.

To create the frosty covers, I swiped the edges of the acrylic with white opaque Staz On. Once dry, I spread some Rock Candy Stickles to the edge. I love how this looks.

Well, it's probably time to shove off - I don't want to be a zombie tomrorow night at work!

Quiet Day

2010-01-02T23:56:00.000-05:00

Most of the kids are still fighting off coughs and needed to stay in today. They did a good job entertaining themselves, though. Brenna broke in to a craft project kit she received for Christmas. It's a little felt owl that holds your cell phone or Ipod. I was so proud of her - shed never done any type of needlework before and jumped right in after I showed her the basics. She kept at it for several hours. :

Later, a Michael Jackson impersonator (aka Tommy) put on a show in my living room.
He changed into this outfit, used his brother's magician hat and the playstation microphone to moonwalk and sing to the song, "Bad." He was so funny and so intense.

Where does he come up with these ideas? Glad he did - it was way cute!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-02T00:44:00.000-05:00

I rang in the New Year by working two 12 hour nights in a row. I missed the ball dropping because I got busy and didn't know it until a patient came to the desk to say Happy New Year at 12:02am. I even took care of the New Year's mom and baby. They weren't the first born in the state, but the first at Hartford Hospital.
Been thinking about resolutions, and how I'd like to be in 2010.
I tend to avoid resolutions, since I always feel like I'm setting myself up to fail. But this year, I'm thinking of them more as mindsets:

1. I will choose to be happy:
It's been easy to wallow in worry and self pity this past year. I'm choosing to put a positive attitude forward whenever I feel stressed or burdened. I'm not going to let other people's negative energies bring me down.

2. Spend more time with God:
He is what carried us through this year. I've been reminded over and over this year that I am not alone. I feel more at peace when I make time to pray or attend Mass. I miss Sunday services at least once a month because of my work schedule. I'm going to try to make weekday Mass more often.

3. Take steps to improve my physical health:
I wake up sore and feeling old. I'll still be tired from my work schedule, but I'm going to eat healthier and increase my physical activity. I'm not setting a weight loss goal, just the goal to do be where ever it is that I feel GOOD. I won't say I'm going to the gym x days a week. Just that I'll choose to walk if I don't go to the gym.

4. Improve our financial health:
This one's more concrete. We've been waiting for Mike to return to work to start our financial makeover, Dave Ramsey style. This is going to bring me peace of mind, which will help me meet resolution#1.

5, Make time to scrap at least twice a week.
Being creative makes me happy. Plain and simple.It's my alone time. I spend most of my time taking care of others. Scrapping is my the time for myself. With the stressors of the past year, I put scrapping on hold. I really missed it.

So there it is: my plans for self improvement this year.
I think that there is nothing impossible to meet on this list. 2010 - Bring it on!

Christmas Reflections

2009-12-26T02:08:00.000-05:00

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Well, the gifts have all been opened, the kids OD'd on cookies, candy canes and anticipation. Now the house is quiet, still and pretty well turned upside down. Bits of wrapping paper, video game packages and little action figure dudes decorate my living room.

Overall, I'd rate it as a good holiday.

There were things I wanted to do for the holiday, but ran out of time.
One was baking nut roll, That's on my radar to do this week. The kids and I did get to make and decorate sugar and gingerbread cookies.

Jimmy had been given a bag of "Reindeer Dust" by one of the teacher aides at school. Containing oatmeal, cinnamon and glitter, it is designed to entice the reindeer to your house by appealing to his senses of sight and smell. He was very intent on sprinkling it around our backyard. I heard him saying, " I really hope this works."

This puzzled me, but it came out later that he was genuinely concerned this year that he would somehow not be on Santa's list. Poor kid, he's always been a worrier. So I bet him that Santa would not leave hm off his list. I have to remind him to pay up...

During our trip to Disney this year, we went to the Monster's Inc. Laugh Factory attraction. The Mike Wazowski picked my dad out of the audience to be "THAT" guy - the one to be picked on throughout the show. Dad was such a good sport and really got a kick out of it.

I embellished this little green frame from Target with Reminisce's Monster Collection to make this gift for him:

I packaged it with a plush from the Disney store. Dad really was thrilled.

Since my dad's diagnosis, I worry about each coming holiday being my last with him. I felt this fear even more so since his liver mets recurrence. It seemed to be on his mind more so too.
I'm so grateful he still felt well enough to celebrate with us in our traditional way and I'm so glad I was able to make him laugh.

The kids were pleased with their gifts as well:

Brenna wearing one of her new outfits:

Tommy nervously trying out his Power Wheels:

Jimmy with his guitar:

The big boys doing some gaming:

And last but not least, the annual holiday pajamas!

Speaking of holiday jammies, here is a page I made recently, using paper from Reminisce. These pictures are from 2 years ago. I can't believe how much the kids have grown since then! Looking forward to scrapping this years picture...:

I was even called and given holiday time for work tonight, just as I hoped. I had passed it up all year in hopes of being able to be home tonight.

I hope you all had a peaceful and blessed Christmas. May the joy and happiness you felt today stay with you throughout the new year.

Getting in the Christmas Spirit

2009-12-20T23:50:00.000-05:00

So I've had Christmas on the brain for months now.

A co-worker and I created our floor's charity tree for the Wadsworth Anthenuem Festoival of Trees. Our theme was SEA-sons Greetings and we started working on it in October. Our tree sold the first day of the festival and won second place for the People's Choice award.

Here are some of my favorite details from the tree:

This tree inspired me to translate the aquarium feel to a mini album.

I made this mini for my parent's Christmas gift:

I started with a gatefold acrylic album by Midnight Oil Scrapbook Designs.

I used alcohol ink along the outside of the pages. Then I got busy with papers and stickers from Reminisce's Under the Sea line. Some pages have double sided paper, some are clear. The fun part was to add embellishments in front of and behind the acrylic pages. This added a lot of dimension.

I'm so pleased with how it turned out. The pictures don't do the album justice though. I think my folks will love it. Now I have to scrap my pictures of the Sea Christmas tree!

2009-12-17T02:54:00.000-05:00

Another late night- why do I always feel the urge to blog in the wee hours?

I'm an all or nothing type of gal - if I'm blogging, that means I have lots to talk about.
If I don't blog, it's likely that I don't feel witty or interesting.

Tonight I feel chatty.

Let's start with the best news in a long time...

My husband has finally found a job!
I'm so excited for him and us. He's been out of work for seven months. Looking forward to moving forward and closing this chapter of our life. It will be the first time in 13 years that we will both be working full time. It's going to be a little crazy, I bet. But we're an amazing team, so I know we'll adjust quickly. Looking forward to having a little breathing room with our finances too. We've learned a lot of lessons about what REALLY matters.

Another change to talk about...

After a lot of soul searching, Dolores and I have decided to end the Dreamgirls Challenge blog.

We both have faced many personal challenges the past several months. As much as we loved working with our amazing team and sharing inspiration, we realized we both needed to refocus our energies in other directions. Thank you to all who participated .

I'll be teaching a mini album class at New England Scrapbook Company on January 4th.

"A Season to Remember" will give you a chance to scrap soome of those many photos you're sure to take this holiday season. It features yummy Ki Memories products in a mix of non-traditional colors. Here are some sneak peeks of what you'll be making:

So if you'd like to join me, call the store at (860)693-9197 to sign up.

2009-12-04T02:59:00.000-05:00

Snacking on some chocolate drizzled caramel corn as I type. Pure heaven in my mouth. And probably pure inches to my hips, but let's not think about that... ;0)

Can you believe that Christmas is only 3 weeks away? YIKES! I haven't even thought about what I might be shopping for. No tree up or lights outside yet. I haven't baked one cookie yet.
But it always gets done so I'm not going to get stressed out about it. I've been working with holiday pictures and papers lately, so I'm definitely getting some cheer.

Let me tell you about an exciting venture my friends Dolores and Michelle have started. Timeless Daydreams is a new kit club that has launched their debut kit this week. At $35.99, this kit, featuring Pink Paislee, is chock full of yummy embellishments, especially lots of pretty bling from Prima.

I feel so honored that they asked me to design for their debut kit. My brain was spinning with possibilites when I opened my box.
So without further ado, here are my projects:

Check out the little tree - it's embellished with Prima pearls!

I fell in love with the beautiful Prima birds and crystal spray in the kit. I created a shadow box from old wooden candy packaging and added some faux greenery.
This is on display in my living room.

I made this ornament from an empty ribbon spool. I added a few items from my stash, like the lace, twine and jingle bell. It will be on display at my LSS (New England Scrapbook Co.) on the employee Christmas tree.

I decided it would be fun to embellish the back side of the spool as well.

I have one more layout to post, but I need to re-take the photo since there wasn't enough natural light and it doesn't do the page justice.

Take a minute to join the Facebook Fan Page and see the other projects created by Dolores, Tanisha & Cristal. Then go purchase your kit because there are limited quantities and you NEED to get this one!

Earth to Debbie...

2009-11-25T01:40:00.001-05:00

Come in, Debbie!
Yes, my blog has been off the radar for a while.

Life happened.
I went back to work full time and needed to shift gears for a while. Had to figure out how to balance supporting five kids with my need for "me" time.

I stepped back and took a creative hiatus. But I found I miss it too much. So I'm wading back in, testing the waters.

So stay tuned - I'll have some new stuff to share soon!

It's August already!

2009-08-03T23:35:00.000-04:00

Can you believe it?
Here in New England, it's been the rainiest summer I can remember. The kids are finally able to get outside and it's time to go back. Hardly seems fair.

The good thing about the start of a new month is new kit releases!

This month I designed with Kit 2 from Treasured Scrapbooking:

This kit features a mix of Jenni Bowlin, American Crafts & Little Yellow Bicycle products. Just beautiful! Here's my first layout:

I also used this layout for the current Dreamgirls challenge, which is to use wings, paint and glitter on your page. Easy, right?

Speaking of Dreamgirls, our sponsor for this challenge is I Am A Scrapaholic.
Here is my first layout with this yummy kit:

Hope you're enjoying your last days of summer!

A few days of R & R...

2009-07-29T02:21:00.000-04:00

Home today after spending a few days in upstate NY.
My parents had rented a house on Schroon Lake with my aunt and uncle,and invited us up for a few days.
It was wonderful.
Reconnected with my aunt and uncle, who I hadn't seen in years.
The kids loved the water, the sunshine and family time.
Just what the doctor ordered.

Here are some pictures from the trip:

Actually, I took a LOT more pics, but these are my favorites of what I've gone through so far.

Scrapped some tonight with my August Treasured Scrapbooking kit. I just might post a sneaky peek sometime soon. Love this kit - be sure to check out the debut on the first.

Well, it's getting pretty late here - goodnight!

Dear Bo Bunny...

2009-07-26T08:35:00.000-04:00

I have a confession to make...

I am hopelessly infatuated with your products. I have been blissfully creating for your design team call. I have been daydreaming about the 2009 Summer Releases.

I want to be on your team so much that I've stayed up even later than is usual for me to work on my submissions.

I want to be on your tem so much I can taste it.

Here are the projects I submitted for the call:

The cute little cupcake is a stamp from my stash. I loved the bright cheery colors of the Birthday papers. I could made 20 more cards with it!

The Grease Monkey line was perfect for these Go Kart pictures. All the coordinating embellies made it easy to make an album. I ran the acrylic letters through my xyron and then glittered them.

Here are some extra projects I made since my mojo was working!

Honestly, I could have scrapped a zillion more projects but ran out of time.

I hope you like what you see!

2009-07-20T03:04:00.000-04:00

Not much happenening here tonight.
Colin left today for a week at Boy Scout Camp.
I miss him already.

He called home tonight just to say goodnight. I know part of the reason he does it is because I expect him to. But what's cool is that he doesn't seem to mind talking on the phone to me. It doesn't embarrass him if his buddies know he's on the phone with Mom. That makes me so happy. Life with a teenager can be challenging at times, but he's a good kid and I'm so grateful the lines of communication are very much open.

So I want to share my July kit creations from Scrap for a Cure. This kit was so much fun, with lots of whimsical elements.

For this mini album, I cut up the sheet music in the kit to make pages in the album.
I used MOSD acrylic covers for the outside. Love how it turned out:

Take a moment to stop by SFAC. We're excited to welcome Leslie Ashe & Deanna Kroll to the design team!
I'm taking the month of August off from SFAC, but just know these ladies will rock the kit!

Get ready!

2009-07-18T01:21:00.000-04:00

For the Treasured Hunt at Treasured Scrapbooking!
What is it, you ask? Only our biggest contest of the year! Here's the deets:

This will be a six week contest. To enter, upload your very best layout into the Treasured Hunt gallery-Eligibility Entries category by 9pm (EST) Friday July 31st. The Design Team will vote and the top 25 entries will move on to compete in the contest. Following is the timeline of the contest:

Eligibility Round - deadline Friday, July 31th - 9pm (EST)
Sun Aug 2 - 25 contestants announced

1st round
Tues Aug 4- 1st challenge announced
Mon Aug 10 - deadline to upload entries (9pm EST)

2nd round
Tue Aug 11 - announcement of 20 contestants moving on/2nd challenge posted
Mon Aug 17 - deadline to upload entries (9pm EST)

3rd round
Tue Aug 18 - announcement of 15 contestants moving on/3rd challenge posted
Mon Aug 24 - deadline to upload entries (9pm EST)

4th round
Tue Aug 25 - announcement of 10 contestants moving on/4th challenge posted
Mon Aug 31 - deadline to upload entries (9pm EST)

5th round
Tue Sep 1 - announcement of 5 contestants moving on/5th challenge posted
Mon Sep 7- deadline to upload entries (9pm EST)

6th round
Tue Sep 8 - announcement of 3 contestants moving on/6th and final challenge posted
Mon Sep 14- deadline to upload entries (9pm EST)

WINNER ANNOUNCED - on or before September 17

After the 25 contestants are chosen, weekly challenges will be posted on Tuesdays and entries must be posted in the appropriate challenge gallery by the following Monday at 9pm (EST).

Pages will be judged on photography, creativity, originality, relativity to challenge theme and overall design. Winners for each round will be determined by the Design Team and myself.

Please pay close attention to the requirements of each challenge! Ask questions if you need clarification! Any deviation from the challenge requirements listed will result in disqualification. This is only to be fair to those who follow all of the requirements. We ask that all entries be posted only to the Treasured Scrapbooking gallery until the end of the contest or elimination.

PRIZES!! (Now to the good part!)
GRAND PRIZE: Prize Package worth over $250 of scrapbooking supplies and a $50 gift certificate to the Treasured Scrapbooking store!!

2nd prize: $40 Treasured Scrapbooking Gift Certificate

3rd prize: $25 Treasured Scrapbooking Gift Certificate

You must be an active member of TS to participate in the contest. Don't worry newbies...this doesn't eliminate you...as long as you actively participate in the forum/gallery once you join, you're good to go!!

Doesn't this sound like a blast?!? Hurry over!

Speaking of Treasured Scrapbooking - here are my projects using the July kits:

For the Treasured Hunt at Treasured Scrapbooking!!

Don't even ask me why...

2009-07-09T03:34:00.000-04:00

I'm still awake at 3:34am.
It's ridiculous, I know. It's my transition day. I'm always messed up for a day after I work a couple of nights in a row. So I slept from noon til 9pm. I wanted to get up earlier to be part of the family unit. Mike sent each of the kids up at dinner time to see if I'd wake up. I sent each one of them away, because my bed was just WAY too comfortable.
That's why I'm awake now.

Been scrapping with this kit:

It's from IAAS, and it's probably one of my favorites. I sill need to do some journaling and snap pictures of the projects I've done so far. You NEED to get this one.

The excitement for my day today was this:

This is Ryan. He took a spill off his bike today and fell onto his hand. I heard the shrieks from through the open window. Now, lest I sound like a mean mommy, I didn't react right away. You see, Ryan has a tendency to um, shall we say...
embellish...
his injuries. But I could see his hand swelling up as he walked in . So off we went to get xrays. Thankfully, the doc didn't think it was broken. He didn't see anything obvious on the xrays, but he said it can be hard to see on kids sometimes. So he put on this splint and told us to come back in a week.

This is the same doctor who put a cast on Tommy just last week.
He said he thoght I looked familiar...

Tommy was draping himself over one of those big bouncy balls from Target the other weekend. I guess the ball rolled forward and he jammed his hand as he fell.
He fractured his radius. Poor kid is tough. While he cried initally, he moved it and used it for 36 hours before really showing any real pain.

So now they're like a pair of bookends!

Stay tuned, I'll be blogging more in the next few days to share some projects and a toot!

Seeking Balance

2009-06-20T03:05:00.001-04:00

Well, the month of June has just whizzed by me.
I'm still getting used to working full time. Being away from home more.
Missing the kids. Giving the majority of the household mangagement over to Mike.
It's a change, after working part time for 12 years.
It's all good. But it does feel weird at times.
Mike loves it and is really quite good at it. I'm very lucky that I'm married to a man who isn't headstrong about traditional gender roles.
So now I bring home the bacon.

The kids finished school today. I missed picking them up and taking pictures because I had to sleep. I picked up some OT last night and was stupid tired when I came home. The kids asked Mike if he had brought the camera. Which he had not. We'll have to brainwash him to remember the photo opps, LOL.

This week I faced some family stressors. My mom had called me on Monday, very upset that my dad's bloodwork (that is supposed to help gage how his cancer is doing) had changed for the worse. He had to go for a CT scan and face possible chemo changes. So off I went to New York to be with them for the doctor appointment.
Thank God, it was a false alarm. The doctor couldn't really account for why the labwork was wonky, buy the pictures were good. Did you know that the average patient doesn't remember 80% of what their doctor tells them? That's what his oncologist said. I believe that. That's why I always try to be there when they're having big discussions about treatments. I'm lucky to have been able to rearrange my work schedule to get there.

So let's share some scrappy stuff!

Here are a couple of layouts from the June IAAS kit. It features Chatterbox papers and lots of gorgeous embellishments by Prima, 7 Gypsies, Kaiser rub ons and yummy Glimmer Mist.

Well, it's late here, so I'm shoving off. Hope you have a great weekend!

Back from the blue screen of death...

2009-06-06T00:22:00.000-04:00

My computer started coughing and sputtering a few weeks back. Doing strange things. Until suddenly, there was nothing more than the blue screen when I turned it on. My poor desktop had a bunch of nasty viruses. I opened up the phone book and chose a name of a repairman who looked reputable. Big mistake. This man proceeded to hold my computer hostage for a week, not returning my calls and when he finally had it done, proceeded to charge me $200 more than his original quote. So let me just tell you, it was an ugly conversation that ensued. But here I am, finally back on line. If you live in CT, be sure to email me before using any repair people in the Torrington area. I'll be happy to tell you the name of my bad experience.

Anyhoo... being without a computer afforded me the opportunity to do other things. I read a couple of books. I planted a vegetable garden with my kids. I worked on organizing my scrap supplies. I returned to work full time. I fought off a miserable sinus thing and laryngitis. I taught a class at my LSS. I stayed busy.

I missed the June first debuts of my DT reveals though and am still catching up. Most of the pictures I scrap frome were on my computer (none of them were lost, luckily). So this forced me to delve into the boxes of traditional film camera pictures I have. I avoid these, since I never feel like they look as good as my digital shots.

Here is a layout I made with Kit #2 at Treasured Scrapbooking:

I pregnant with Jimmy, (who is now 6) in this picture. Didn't Brenna look so cute in her butterfly sunglasses?

This kit is just yummy, filled with lots of paper...

That's the first of my DT reveals. Stay tuned for my Scrap for a Cure projects this weekend.

So that's my story, in case you've been wondering where I've been. If I owe you an email reply, bear with me - I have MANY to read and go through.
Have a great weekend!

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-11T00:37:00.001-04:00

Hope that you all had a wonderful day with your families today.
My son Ryan made his first Holy Communion today. Here is a shot of my handsome little man:

Here are some other shots of our day.

Here's the whole gang:

My parents (on the left) with Mike's folks (on the right):

A picture of me and Ryan:

And my hubby with RJ. Don't my guys look so handsome?

Today's a good day to share a page I made for the current Dreamgirls challenge with this month's Treasured Scrapbooking kit:

Have a good one!

Feeling better lately

2009-04-27T23:48:00.001-04:00

Spring has sprung here in New England. The sun has been shining, the daffodils are blooming and it's hard to stay in a funk when the world feels new. Thank you to all my friends for the well wishes during this difficult time. My hubby has been on a few different interviews and hopefully will be hearing something soon.

I am waiting to hear when my official start date for full time will be at my current job. There are two of us waiting for a position. And only one approved at this point.
But I am blessed to work with a kind woman, one who is willing to let me take the full time position ahead of her, because she knows how much we need it. Not everyone is that selfless. I get choked up thinking about it. Heaven holds a special place for people like her.

It has been unseasonably warm here the past few days, reaching highs in the 90s!
The other day I packed a picnic lunch and took Tommy down to the local lake. Of course I brought my camera along. We had a great time playing in the sand.

Then we went to the playground, where there is this "rock climbing" wall. Tommy cracked me up because he was yodeling to himself as he climbed up the ladder. Where does he come up with this stuff?

I've been scrapping and finally feeling like I've done a few things worth sharing.

First are a few layouts for I Am a Scrapaholic:

The Crate Papers and the embellishments in this kit are just delicious. Here's a few sneaks of another page:

Don't forget, Dreamgirls has moved!
Here is my layout for the current challenge:

Hope you'll come check us out!
Getting late here, so I'm shoving off.

When life hands you lemons...

2009-04-08T01:37:00.001-04:00

I've been handed a lot of lemons lately. I'm doing my best to make some lemonade.
That's why I haven't blogged lately.

Just before we left for vacation, my husband learned he will lose his job at the end of this month. We didn't see it coming and we're still sorting out what we're doing next. We kept it secret from my parents and the kids and put on our game faces. We had a wonderful time, put life on hold for a week. But since we've been back, reality came knocking.

The uncertainty has been weighing heavily on my mind and I know I haven't been myself.

As a result, my creative mojo has gone on hiatus the past several weeks. I've spent a lot of time reading and just lurking around on the computer to let my brain just rest a bit. I've sat out the past few Dreamgirls challenges and taken some time off from some MOSD. Thank you to my team mates there for being so supportive.

Well, it's late here - I worked the evening shift and needed to just decompress for a while. Stay tuned for some DT projects, coming soon.

I'm back!

2009-03-28T16:15:00.001-04:00

I know it's been forever since I've blogged. This month has been a frenzy of activity with our trip to Disney World in Florida. I have TONS of pictures to share from our vacation, but I'm going to save them for another post.

Today, I want to share some sneak peeks with you from the upcoming April Scrap for a Cure kit.

Here's a sneak of the kit:

and here's a sneak of one of my pages with the kit:

If you want to see more sneak peeks, hop on over to the rest of the SFAC DT blogs. We are all posting some awesome previews of what's to come...

Do you feel Lucky?

2009-03-03T23:12:00.000-05:00

Well, do you punk? Heh-heh, just kidding! Don't mind the Dirty Harry reference.

Lucky is the name of the March kit over at Scrap for a Cure.

The kit is so full of amazing products! New My Little Shoebox, Cosmo Cricket, Bella Blvd, Crate Paper, and gorgeous embellishments. Hurry over and get one, because it's a steal at $30!

Here are some of the layouts I created with mine...

American Crafts Love

2009-02-26T19:37:00.001-05:00

Check this out!!!

Studio Blog

Dreamgirls challenge blog was mentioned on American Crafts Studio Blog!
How cool is that? There's still time left to do the current challenge:
Create a page that features 80% American Crafts products, uses a flourish and a heart. The prize is a fabulous bunch of American Crafts goodies. So whadda you waiting for? :0)

Here's my page - my flight home from CHA was delayed, so I had time to kill. I sat outside and soaked up the last bit of warmth and sunshine. I snapped a bunch of pictures just to occupy myself.

Good thing I enjoyed the sun, because I flew home that night to a car covered with 4 inches of ice! Worse yet, the airline had lost my suitcase that had my coat and gloves in it. Grrr. Needless to say, I didn't take any pictures of that.

Gonna go to sleep early tonight. I'm just exhausted. Have a good one, everyone!

Catching up

2009-02-25T23:32:00.000-05:00

Look what amazing yumminess I found this week in Stop & Shop:

You remember Girl Scout Samoa cookies, right? Caramel, coconut, chocolate? Well this is vanilla ice cream mixed with bits of samoa cookies and fudge. Pure heaven and it's going right to my hips as I type.

So February is flying by, isn't it?
We survived the kids' weeklong winter vacation.
The weather's been still so cold and crummy here.
I'm SO ready for spring. It won't be long now, though.
We're heading to Disney World with my parents in two weeks.
Warm weather is just 14 days away.
I'm dreading packing for 7 people.
The kids are getting excited. Three of them have never been on a plane.
The other two were too young to remember the experience.

February was my first month designing with an I Am A Scrapaholic kit.
It features a variety of papers from Jillibean Soup, along with goodies like paint, an acrylic stamp, and super fun Candy Dots from Pebbles Inc.
Here's what I made:

Have a great night, everyone!

Blessed

2009-02-13T22:53:00.000-05:00

This is how I'm feeling. Two years ago today, my dad had his cancer surgery. It was an awful day for so many reasons. We were just getting on the roller coaster of being diagnosed and getting a poor prognosis. Colon cancer with liver mets. Seven visible spots on the liver with likely many more not big enough to be seen on MRI.

I was so afraid that I was going to lose him. Every moment suddenly became even more precious, and I couldn't look at him without fighting back tears thinking that he might be taken from me soon.

The care he received in the hospital was horrific that day. I was so afraid to leave him, because I saw how little attention anyone was paying to him. His pain medicine pump wasn't working immediately after surgery. It took a few hours before anyone believed him that he wasn't getting any relief. He was dehydrated and no one considered that was why his heart was beating so fast. He was transferred to an ICU stepdown bed and no one even checked him for two hours after he was there. None of the right things happened until I begged the oncoming night shift nurse to call the surgeon. The lack of attention to detail made me embarrassed to be a nurse.

But here we are two years later, and he is still fighting hard. Lord knows it hasn't been an easy road for him or my mom, but he's still here. He has good weeks and bad weeks and lives his life around his chemo schedule. He's amazed everyone, including his doctors, at his endurance for the chemo that he'll likely remain on the rest of his life. If you didn't know him, you'd probably never realize he is a cancer patient. Here is a picture of him with my sister and me, taken on Thanksgiving:

Dad,I'm amazed by your strength and sheer will to battle this disease.
I pray that you'll stay strong and keep fighting for a long time to come.
Love you.

Hump Day

2009-02-11T20:56:00.000-05:00

Crabby.

This is me today. I can't put my finger on any particular reason, but I'm just feeling like a crab today. The kids were rambunctious and bickering, which definitely elevated my grump o' meter. I've been getting a taste of what life will be like with a house full of adolescents. C & B seem to challenge everything I say. I know this is normal, but it can be exhausting. Add a spirited four year old into the mix and it's no wonder I'm seeing more grays in my hair lately. Oh well, some days are just that way, I guess.

I started reading Eclipse this week. I needed an Edward & Bella fix, having finished New Moon right after getting home from California. I swear, I get lost in this series. I'm glad this book is long!

So let's see, what kind of scrappy stuff do I have to share tonight?

Hmm, well, here is a mini I made for the MOSD booth at CHA. It is a Build a Book Perfect Shapes album. There are 18 different shaped chipboard pages available, so I was able to combine the shapes of the pages I wanted to use. I also used my February DT kit (kit #1)from Treasured Scrapbooking to make this mini. The kit is full of beautiful Little Yellow Bicycle and Teresa Collins goodies.

I masked the letters and heat embossed silver embossing powder for the title. The covers were colored with alcohol inks that I repetitively swirled.

Speaking of Treasured Scrapbooking, here is my Feb challenge LO, using Kit #2:

My challenge is inspired by traditional Valentine's gifts - use the color brown (for chocolate), bling, flowers (a dozen) and lace (for lingerie, wink - wink!)

Well, I probably should go get some sleep so I'm not crabby girl tommorrow, LOL!

Back in the Saddle

2009-02-06T01:05:00.000-05:00

So it took me a bit longer than I expected to recover from my trip to California. I came home and became sick. Add the time change, the jet lag and trying to catch up with my kids and hubby. But I'm back in the saddle now.

It's a new month, which means that I have lots of new scrap stuff to share. Tonight I wnat to show you the new kit at Scrap for a Cure, called Vintage Flair. Let me tell you, this kit is filled with yumminess.

My husband has a scrapbook made by his sweet grandmother about 15 years ago, filled with old family photos. It's a beautiful album with precious history, but it's in magnetic peel back pages. I've been planning to relocate the pics, complete with the captions to a more archival environment. The vintage pretties in the SFAC kit worked perfectly!

This first page is my husband when he was 1.5 years old!

This next page is my in-laws on their wedding day:

I found a tutorial on Tammy Kay's blog on how to make the damask flower. I used the lace in the kit to create a rosette to layer on top of the bloom:

The kit is equally usable with newer photos too. Here is my Ryan at his cousin's wedding - didn't he looks so handsome? He's gonna be a lady killer some day!

And last, but not least, is my silly boy, Jimmy. These pictures of him just crack me up!

Speaking of Scrap for a Cure, there are some pretty exciting things coming soon, so come register on the board and say hello!

Home Again

2009-01-30T20:20:00.000-05:00

This is the sign that was sitting on the kitchen table, waiting for me when I arrived home at 3:30 am! I couldn't think of anything better to come home to.

So much to tell you about CHA...

Let's start with the reason I was there - to work the booth at Midnight Oil Scrapbook Designs.
I was picked up at the airport by one of the owners, Christy. She got a kick out of my obsession with the palm trees and we chatted for hours. At her house, I met her hubby, Anthony, and her sister in law, Ana. They were all wonderful people who made me feel very welcome. Later that evening, the other MOSD owner, Ali, and DT coordinator, Shannon, arrived and we stayed up til the wee hours of the morning getting acquainted.

We were up bright and early to set up our booth, which I must say looked amazing!

I even gave the grand tour to Brittany Beattie from Creating Keepsakes. It was exciting to be one of the new vendors and our booth attracted a lot of visitors, who did the make and takes and ordered lots of product.

It was so much fun meeting all the people who came through our booth. I was happily surprised by the gang from Scrap for a Cure (Diana, Patti and Anne). We had a chance to go out to dinner with Suzy West and Erin Yamabe from My Little Shoebox. It was a great evening. I laughed and laughed. I wish I could see all these wonderful ladies on a regular basis.

Another surprise visitor was my girl, Eva, from Treasured Scrapbooking. She is every bit as sweet in real life. She even brought some of her gorgeous cards for me to see, and all I can say is wow. The girl's got talent!

Well, still getting over to the time changes, so that's all for tonight!

2009-01-19T00:21:00.000-05:00

My friend, Vanna, passed this award to me. I always smile when I read her blog. Thank you my dear!

So I am now supposed to answer the following questions with a one word answer:

1. Where is your cell phone? kitchen
2. Where is your significant other? couch
3. Your hair color? brown
4. Your mother? reliable
5. Your father? strong
6. Your favorite thing? chocolate
7. Your dream last night? don't remember
8. Your dream/goal? debtfree
9. The room you’re in? chilly
10. Your hobby? scrapping
11. Your fear? heights
12. Where do you want to be in six years? here
13. Where were you last night? work
14. What you’re not? sleeping
15. One of your wish list items? paper
16. Where you grew up? new york
17. The last thing you did? eat
18. What are you wearing? PJ's
19. Your TV? news
20. Your pet? Harley
21. Your computer? on
22. Your mood? blah
23. Missing someone? nope
24. Your car? minivan
25. Something you’re not wearing? shoes
26. Favorite store? Kohls
27. Your Summer? quiet
28. Love someone? totally
29. Your favorite color? pink
30. When is the last time you laughed? earlier
31. Last time you cried? unsure

So now I am supposed to pass this award along to 3 worthy people... who to pick? There are so many I love to stalk.

First is my girl, Dolores. She has this way of brightening my day every time I talk to her.

Second, is Marcie. Not only is her blog just so pretty, but she is just so talented!

Last, but not least, is Sophia. She has been such a wonderful addition to the Dreamgirls team and is so upbeat.

Speaking of Dreamgirls... challenge 20 is up, and it's a good one! Create a LO using the prompt. "I'm not," use your older stash (c'mon - you know you have plenty!), and to feature some paper tearing. Our sponsor for this challenge is Label Tulip. The prize is one gorgeous kit - so get busy!
I had to sit this challenge out because I've been busy getting ready for CHA, but the DT created some amazing inspo. Check it out!

I taught 2 classes over the past week at my LSS, New England Scrapbook Company. The first was an all day mini album class to create this combo chipboard/ acrylic album.

It featured a Tinkering Ink Peek-a-boo album, papers by GCD, Flair and 3 Bugs, plus lots of Glimmer Mist, some Hambly, and a variety of techniques. Given all the snow we've had in our area lately, the timing was perfect!

We had a wonderful group of scrappers in the class and I think we all had a great time! Well, it's getting late here and I still have a project to finish up, so ciao for now!

Time flies

2009-01-14T11:34:00.001-05:00

Wow, time flies when you've been busy scrapping!
Not a lot of time to post right now, but I wanted to tell you about something really cool. Check out Ali Edwards' blog today.
She is giving away one of the yummy kits from Scrap for a Cure! All you need to do is leave a comment about how you celebrate Valentine's Day. Check it out!
Gotta run, but will be back to blog more later!

Some Sneaky Peeks

2009-01-06T23:55:00.000-05:00

I've been happily playing with the January kit from Scrap for a Cure. It is filled with lots of beautiful paper and embellies. Wanna see a few peeks?

Good stuff, right?
Well, the full reveal is scheduled for this weekend, along with a Launch Party to celebrate the revamped website. There's going to be lots of challenges, games, and tons of fun. Join us and bring a friend along with you!

Dreamgirls has a new challenge up -
Create a layout that is black and white, with a handmade embellishment that is the only additional color. Oh, and you must use the word "new" somewhere in the title or journaling. Here's my page - I stamped the clock and backed it with some Jenni Bowlin crepe paper:
Hope you'll play along!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-03T19:37:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I know, I'm a few days late. But better late than never, right?
So I'm gonna do the whole resolution thing now...

1. Eat healthier
2. Drink more water
3. Exercise 3x/week
4. Pay down our debt
5. Keep count of how many scrappy projects I make this year.
6. Start submitting my work to mags on regular basis
7. Declutter my basement
8. Organize my scrap space and keep it in workable condition.

So how am I doing three days into the year? Not too bad, considering I had a sleepover with 10 kids running around my house and seem to have a sinus infection.

I've definitely made better food choices. I've increased my water consumption. Sudafed makes me pretty thirsty! No real exercise, unless you count the Wii Fit my son got for Christmas.

Speaking of Wii - you can create a little version of yourself (called a Mii) to play the games on Wii Fit. So I spent time making a pretty good semblance of myself. Then I had to hop on the balance board. Well, my mii suddenly became quite round and full figured. OUCH! Talk about a reality check! Even the video game tells me I'm fat! Guess I better work on resolution #3 some more.

As far as scrappy stuff goes...
Several of my online friends posted their fave 8 projects of 2008. I thought this seemed like a great idea. So here it goes:

1. I have such fond memories of this day - and I had fun playing with cardboard and glimmer mist when I made this:

2. This is one of my fave pics from our Hawaii vacation a few years back. I adored the colors in this American Crafts papers:

3. I made this page for a contest - the challenge to use white space. This is a stretch for me, but I love how it turned out. I also think it was the springboard for me to use less as more on my pages:

4. I love scrapping girlie pics and making things look vintage - I love the texture the flowers & leaves added:

5. This picture just makes me smile. I made it for the Fancy Pants DT call -obviously I didn't make the team, but I'm lovin this page!

6. Another contest page - this one called for lots of layering and dimension:

7. I loved this picture of Jimmy - he spent the day wearing a superman cape and was so happy doing it:

8. Another contest LO - I was inspired by the Hambly rub ons to create this paper pieced tree:

Here's to a happy, healthy, productive 2009!

2008-12-30T02:03:00.000-05:00

So the holidays have come and gone - I'm slowly putting my house back together, purging old stuff to make room for new. I'm happy to have some new holiday decorations to put away, thanks to some DT projects.

For Midnight Oil Scrapbook Designs:
The first is a Christmas Countdown calendar I made with their Easel Mini Album, some extra acrylic pages and my Bind It All:

The next is an acrylic banner that looked pretty with the snowy theme of my tree:

For Treasured Scrapbooking:

This wall hanging was a plain wooden plaque from the local dollar store. I used watercolor pencils to color the sweet birds on the Jenni Bowlin paper included in the December kit. The crackle paint layered over some gold acrylic added some vintage holiday feel:

And a "Let it Snow" holiday banner that I made using some wooden snowflakes from M's. The closeup shows the wonderful sparkly effect the Mica flakes add:

Sadly, the snowflake banner was trampled by Tommy and Harley, so I'm gonna have to redo one of the flakes or just pitch it all togerher.

Here's a couple of pictures of a mini album I made for the holiday Bazaar raffle at my kids' school, using gorgeous Paper Loft papers available at New England Scrapbook Co.:

Looks like I've been busy, huh?
Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

It's the Holiday Season...

2008-12-20T15:17:00.001-05:00

And a whoop-di-do!
Sorry, for some reason that song is stuck in my brain today, LOL. I've been meaning to blog for the past couple of weeks, but kept putting it off. Not for lack of having something to blog about. I've got lots of news and projects to share. It's just that I was afraid it would turn into a monster post!

So let's see... my birthday came and went with the big ice storm on the 12th. We spent the day without power. Since our well and oil burner don't work without power, that meant we had no heat or running water. We spent most of the day bundled up in the living room around the fireplace. The kids had fun playing with legos and action figures. They were almost disappointed when the lights came back on. Ahh, to be young! For those of you that don't get to see ice storms, well they really can wreak destruction. Here's a young tree in my yard that was bent with the added weight:

But, the ice can make trees look like art too:

Let's see, I do have some scrappy stuff to share...
First, a toot! I was asked to join the Design Team at Scrap for a Cure. I've known for a while and have been patiently waitin to share! Diana and Patti put together an amazing mix of papers and embellies, always with beautiful trims and a fun vintage find. This month's kit is gorgeous - grab one to scrap all those holiday photos you'll be taking!

Here is my layout for the latest Dreamgirls challenge:

This challenge features a sketch by the talented Liz Qualman. The twists are to use a holidy song as your title and to add some glitter. I used Stickles on the holly berries and outlined my chipboard title with some Pink Paislee Pixie Sticks. Love how this turned out! Hope you'll get a moment to scrap a bit and play along with us.

Okay, so this post is getting a bit lengthy - still have tons to share, but tomorrow's another day, right? Until then...

Making a List

2008-12-03T23:23:00.000-05:00

Tonight I spent the evening helping the kids make their lists for Santa. We've been talking about scaling back, and not just for the financial reasons. A few years ago I heard or read this somewhere: that since Jesus only received 3 gifts on his birthday from the 3 Wise Men, then maybe we should too. If the Son of God received only a few gifts, why should we have so many? This line of reasoning made sense to me, and helps to bring the focus back to what the holiday is really about. So the kids made their list and really, compared to other years, didn't ask for the sun, moon and stars. I hope that they will be happy with less.

Mike brought the tree up today and we'll decorate it over the next several days. I can't believe how fast time seems to be going! I have the Christmas Story on tonight and am enjoying it as always.

Here is my layout for the latest Dreamgirls challenge - to scrap something (not someone) that you can't live without. The twists are to use paint and chipboard on your layout. I used the November Treasured Scrapbooking kit for my page:

The mug in this layout was a gift from the kids a few Mother's Days ago. I love it. It holds just the right amount of coffee. I'll wash it out before pulling a different mug out of my closet. It makes me smile. It reminds me that I'm blessed when I'm feeling tired and sorry for myself. It's truly a "must have" for me.

Starting to get a bit sleepy here, with a busy day ahead of me tomorrow, so I'm signing off. Goodnight!

December 1st!

2008-12-01T22:35:00.000-05:00

Can someone please tell me where November went? I'm still up to my eyeballs in fall photos and it's time to get out the holiday decorations already!

Anyway, I have lots to share today, starting with the reveal of the December kits over at Treasured Scrapbooking.

Here's the first page I made with the kit:

and here's another for my holiday music challenge:

Today was the start of the new DT term - you need to go check out the rest of the kit reveals - these girls are seriously talented!

Today we announced the new DT members at Dreamgirls. We were blown away with how many talented scrappers applied. We wish we could have chosen more! The new team will start with the December 15th challenge. So without further ado, here they are:

I'm really looking forward to working with these ladies. I hope you'll check us out!

Birthday Bonanza!

2008-11-17T01:55:00.001-05:00

If you know my family, you know that fall is an extra busy time of year for us. We celebrate 3 of my kids' b-days in November, following Ryan in October and with Colin on deck for December.
Here are some pictures:

This weekend was spent in a domestic flurry, since we have a tradition in our family that the birthday celebrant chooses dinner on their special day, and of course the cake.
Brenna chose homemade chicken noodle soup. She and I spent a lovely afternoon together, cooking. She is learning to chop veggies and did a great job. She definitely inherited her dad's love of cooking! Desert was a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting. YUMMO!

Saturday was Jimmy's birthday. He's had a lousy cold and spent a few days home from school with an ear infection. Well poor kid, this is just the type of thing that gets his asthma going. He spent the day miserable, needing a nebulizer treatment. He managed a smile before his cake and presents though. His cake was a Boston Cream Pie cake:

Both of these cakes are from this book - it makes box cake mixes into amazing deserts:

And since I never shared a pic of Tom Tom from his special day:

Lots more to share, but it's getting late here. Go check out Dreamgirls . We're fortunate to have Midnight Oil Scrapbook Designs sponsor us with TWO big prize packages! You won't want to miss this! While you're there, take a peek at our DT call - we're looking for a few new people to add to the team.

Talk to you all soon!

Rooty toot toot!

2008-11-10T11:45:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday everyone! How was your weekend?
I spent mine working, so I'm a bit pooped. I'm working tonight too, so I'm heading off to nap in a bit. But I'm so excited, I had to blog to share some good news from Leslie at Treasured Scrapbooking:

The new Design Team is (in no particular order):

returning from the previous DT:
Lisa (justlisa)
Michelle L. (alysmom)
Julie (juliesaddiction)
Shirley (Shirley)
Tracey (TraceyT)

and our new DT members:
Laura (laurajean)
Abbie (AbbieT)
Debbie (debbiefitz)
Cherrie (floridagirl)
Cristal (pinky)

I'm just thrilled to be part of this talented group of scrappers and can't wait to get started! Leslie puts together some gorgeous kits and is one all around sweet lady. Thanks Leslie for this opportunity!

Next, I need to share a non scrapbook related toot, for my son, Colin. Here he is with his report card:

And here is a closeup - check out these grades!

We're so proud of him. THe whole report card is amazing, but math has always been a challenge for him - so getting an "A" is a huge accomplishment. He was actually skipping with glee as he left the school building. I was so happy for him, I got all misty!

Anyway, I think I hear my bed calling me, so have a great day, everyone!

Fall is Whizzing By...

2008-11-04T02:20:00.000-05:00

Don'tcha think? The leaves have passed peak here, we've woken to frost several mornings, and the clock's been turned back.

My little Tom Tom celebrated his fourth birhday yesterday. He exclaimed, "Holy COW!" when he unwrapped his presents - a Shake and Go Batman plane and a Vtech Motion. I just wish I could pause time for a while so I could savor his little-ness a bit longer.

Halloween was low key and fun here. All of my kids changed their minds about what they wanted to dress up as.

Here is Colin, as a Demon Skateboarder, (note the matching Element hoodie - isn't that serendipitous?) with Ryan, as a skeleton:

Brenna switched from her planned Mummy costume to a hippy chick. Isn't she groovy?

Jimmy chose to be Black Spidey:

And Tommy, who swore he'd be Superman, changed his mind when he saw this alien costume. I'm glad he did, even if the mask only stayed on for pictures, hee-hee!

I had worked the night before and was absolutely exhausted. So putting on a bit of makeup seemed like a good idea. I added some past costume pieces and transformed myself into this:

Pretty scary, huh?

Dreamgirls challenge 15 is live. I used the song lyrics to the

song "B!tch" by Meredith Brooks as inspo for this page. The yellow and blue flower was made from glimmer misted cupcake wrappers:

You can hear the song on my playlist in the side bar. Come play along! Dolores put together an awesome prize package. Plus, a little bird told me there might be a DT Call coming soon, so you wouldn't want to miss it!

Still here!

2008-10-21T02:22:00.000-04:00

Oh my, I can't believe it's been so long since I posted! Been busy with the kids. Ryan turned 8 on Oct 7th. Here he is looking at his musical bday card. When you open it, you are treated to dogs barking to the tune of Happy Birthday, LOL!

He has always loved dogs, so this card was perfect for him. He is getting so big, but still has the sweetest little boy giggle. I could listen to him laugh all day long.

He had his first sleepover party, complete with make your own sundaes, Goosebumps movies and staying up late. All the boys had a great time. I spent the next day recovering with a good long nap. Ryan did too.

One afternoon we took a family walk along a local river, which was the basis of this layout:

Those black swirls along the flower cluster are Whirly Gigs Stick Ons by MOSD. Love them!

I have lots more pictures and updates to talk about, but it's way late here, so I'll try to post more tomorrow.

Where'd you go, Deb?

2008-09-26T02:06:00.000-04:00

Wow, it's just been crazy busy around our house the past couple of weeks. I've worked a bunch of nights, which is great for the paycheck, but not so much for creativity. Sleep just has to become the priority, along with making sure I give each of my kiddos some quality time.

The weather's getting crisp here in New England and the leaves are starting to change. I'm waiting a bit longer before I start snapping some foliage shots, though. The black bear in our neighborhood has been making a few more guest appearances in the woods near where I walk Harley. I have to confess I've been a bit spooked to walk the dog at night. Hope Mr. Bear hibernates soon.

The color yellow has been making me happy lately. I bought myself some new sneakers, and as soon as I saw these, I had to have them. I've decided to start walking when I can, and these make me feel more excited about it, LOL.

My Monday night CBS show have restarted. I was so excited that Horatio Kane was not killed off on Miami CSI. Even though he seriously overacts, I love David Caruso in this role. I just laugh at him sometimes. One of these days, I swear I am gonna count how many times he removes and reapplies his sunglasses in an episode. I bet the number will be over 20!

Tommy decided to boycott gymnastics classes last week. He flat out refused to go. I realized that he is probably to pooped to play on Thursday afternoons. He rides around the world all week while we drive the bigger kids to their activities. He goes to preschool 2 mornings a week. He generally does it all without a complaint. By the time Thursdays at 4pm roll around, he's had it. I figured I needed to give the little guy some downtime so we withdrew from the class. And I enjoyed taking a 2 hour nap with him on the couch. Message received, little man, loud and clear!

Speaking of Tommy... Here is a layout I made about him tonight. I did this for Challenge #3 in the Top Designer contest at Bad Girls:

I used their Sept kit for this page, which needed to have white space and demonstrate "less is more." Gasp! If you know me, you'll know that this was a HUGE challenge for me. But I'm so happy with how this turned out.

I really like the Glitz "table of elements" paper. I may need to get some more of it. Keeping fingers crossed that it will get me through to the next round.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

What's Up?

2008-09-15T02:18:00.001-04:00

I've worked the past couple of nights. They were quiet shifts, which is always a pleasant change from the norm. I really enjoy the majority of the people I work with. We get giddy since we're all sleep deprived. When it's quiet, we all get laughing like crazy. One funny thing that happened last night...
One of my co-workers asked me to come in and help translate for a Spansh speaking patient she had. So the two of us are in the room with this woman, asking her about her baby, if she has any pain, is she using the breast pump, yadda yadda. That's when the patient passes gas. Loudly. Long winded. And she doesn't even blink . She doesn't look or act embarrassed. She just keeps talking like nothing happened. Yikes! I think my eyes popped out of my head as I stifled my giggle. Now I know, toots are a normal body function. But this one was loud and it had some hang time too it. Even if I'm a nurse, I can be a bit juvenille about these things. Needless to say, the girls and I laughed about this all night.

I scrapped tonight. Look for Challenge 12 to be up on Dreamgirls later today.
In the meantime, here is a layout I made for a contest over at Bad Girls. I was feeling down in the dumps when I scrapped it, so I don't think it's my best work ever. The assignment was to use layering on a page. I worked with bright colors to try and cheer myself up, and it did help. Not sure if it's good enough to move me on to the next level in the contest, but that's okay.

Okay, gotta run - it's late and I need to catch some ZZZZ's!

Sad tonight

2008-09-12T22:34:00.000-04:00

I was flitting around on line tonight as I always do and discovered a post about Aleida Franklin.
I was on the DT at Scrapping the Music with her. Aleida was killed in a car accident on her way to work this morning. While I can't say I knew her well, I am able to say she was a warm and real person whose artwork truly inspired me. I am so sad for her family, and hope they will be comforted when they look back at her scrapbooks.

It blows my mind to think about this. She probably got up this morning and assumed today was like any other day. How could she know that today was to be her last morning on earth? This could be any of us on any given day. Give your family an extra hug and remember to not take any moment for granted.

Wow, has it really been 2 weeks?

2008-09-10T23:24:00.000-04:00

I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since I've blogged. Guess I just got caught up in the whole back to school whirlwind. I actually now have two mornings a week where I am ALONE. Can you believe it? It's been 11 years in the making. I still just come home and savor the quiet.

Of course I squeezed some scrap time in since my last post.
Here is a mini I made for MOSD that captured the back to school excitement:

Speaking of Midnight Oil, here is a layout I made featuring Stick Ons. These are SO cool. They are a cross between rub on and stickers. They are vinyl, and add just a bit of dimension to your projects. This page is about Jimmy's preschool road race. The car, the exhaust, and the "o's" in the title are all Stick Ons. I love working with them. Check them out!

Have a great night!

And they're off!

2008-08-27T23:06:00.001-04:00

School started today for my older kids.
No one was thrilled - but didn't they all look cute in their uniforms?

After we sent them off, I headed off to the dentist. I had a filling that broke and needed fixing. I came home with the left side of my face numb and a crooked smile for hours. I felt like Mary Jo Buttafuco. Remember her?

It was nothing a nap couldn't fix, which was a good thing, since I needed to work on some DT stuff for MOSD. I still need to finish a few pages, but I wanted to share a peek!

This is the Hip to be Square mini. It is a 6x6 with 2 acrylic covers and 6 chipboard pages. I had fun with this one! It is about our day at the Mystic Aquarium a few weeks back.

Speaking of MOSD, have you heard about the guest DT contest? Becky Fleck has designed an exclusive sketch for us. Click
here to find out more!

My hubby and I watched this movie for the first time last night:

It was the best of both worlds - goofy stupid guy humor mixed with enough romance to make me say, "awwwwwww" LOL. I admit, I'm months to years behind the general population in movie viewing. Unless it's by Disney or Pixar, then we've seen it. Anyway, I give this movie two thumbs up. Not for those who are offended by raunchy words or humor.

I have a couple of toots to share. The first, a guest instructor position at my LSS, New England Scrapbook Company. I'm going to do a layout class in October and an acrylic mini album class in December. I'm really excited- they said my style was very different than anyone they have teaching currently. I'm a bit nervous, but can't wait to give it a go!

Second, I learned yesterday that Scrapbook News & Review ezine is requesting an altered canvas I made for my little guy. Very cool! Look for it in the September issue!

Okay, so this post is getting a little long, so I'll say C-ya!

Saying goodbye to summer

2008-08-23T03:00:00.001-04:00

Well, this week was a wonderful whirlwind, trying to fit in some last bits of fun in the sunshine.

Monday, we went to a local amusement park - that's me, C, B and R on the Zoomerang moments before the first big drop. It's a crazy fast upside down corkscrew that goes both forwards and backwards along the track. This was Bren & Ryan's first upside down ride and they LIKED it!

Tuesday was Mike's company picnic. Mike manned a tie dye station. None of us had ever done a tie dye before, so it was pretty cool. We all look like a bunch of hippies now, LOL!

Speaking of hippies... On Wednesday, Mike and I went to the Allman Brothers & Ratdog concert. It was a gorgeous evening under a covered outdoor arena. It's great to get out just as a couple once and a while.

I spent my day Thursday chauffering the kids around to friends houses and gymnastics. We ate at a chinese restaurant named Green Tea. It was, by far, the most delicious Chinese food I've ever had. We will definitely be going back there again!

I packed the kids up for a day at the local lake on Friday. Tommy always makes sand "soup" for me:

The older kids splashed and played Marco Polo.

Days like this make me wish summer could last forever!

Hope you all had a great week!

Where oh where did my mojo go?

2008-08-17T21:52:00.000-04:00

If you've seen it, send it back my way, okay?
I am jonesing to scrap, but have had zilch for time this week.
I worked a crazy on/off, on/off, on/off schedule this week, so any spare moments I've had are trying to have fun with the kids or sleeping. I don't normally work that type of schedule, but the floor was short staffed and I needed the extra money.
So I went. Night shifts are much easier when you do a few in a row. Being on then off wreaks havoc with my body.
And to be honest, tonight I feel crabby. I know I'm crabby. Even the kids told me I'm crabby. I feel bad about it. I remember growing up and secretly rolling my eyes when I thought my parents were being unreasonably grumpy. I'm sure my kids did that to me today.
I'm certain a good portion of my frustration is due to lack of sleep. But I also am itching to play with my paper and pictures. I just need some "me" time. Do you ever get like that?
Oh well, tomorrow's another day. We're going to a local amusement park for our annual end of summer family day. The kids are looking forward to it and I'm sure I'll get to take lots of pictures.
Okay, whine over. I'm headed up to bed. Wake me up sometime next week, okay?

Busy week

2008-07-26T21:50:00.000-04:00

Wow, it's been a busy week. After returning home from CHA, I worked two nights. Busy at work with a few crazy people. But now I'm off for a week, so I have a chance to recover.
My three eldest kids are going to spend a few weeks in Ohio with my in-laws, so I've been trying to get them packed and settled. Not a lot of time to scrap, which makes me crabby.
Seriously, I start to get irritable if I don't get to cut paper and play with flowers and ribbon!

I wanted to share this mini I made for my guest DT challenge over at Scrap for a Cure. They had their anniversary crop this past weekend. I missed it, boo-hoo, since I was in Chicago. I used their July project kit to create this mini that features some of my favorite pictures from this summer so far. I absolutely adore the colors of the Hello Sunshine line. Since I had to be sure to include all my kiddos, I added a few extra pages using some Hambly.

Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend!

More CHA goodness

2008-07-21T15:41:00.000-04:00

I promised more pictures:
Loved the American Crafts stuff!

Puffy thickers:

Chipboard thickers:

Thicker symbols & rub ons:

Textured cardstock:

Valentine line:

Flair embellishments:

Oh Prima, wonderful Prima. I was in awe!
Here is some goodness:

CHA, baby!

2008-07-20T23:13:00.000-04:00

I was lucky enough to go to CHA this time. Let me tell you, it was an amazing experience. There is just booth upon booth of eye candy. I thought I'd take the next couple of days to tell you about some of my favorites from CHA and post some pics!

So where do I start?
Well, how about we start with Chatterbox? Amazing, decadent, gorgeousness. I want it ALL. I'm sorry to say I don't know who to credit with creating these lovelies:

Next, Jenni Bowlin.
Check out this amazing crepe paper ribbon and look how Jenni used it to create a layered border - simply stunning...

And I'll wrap up this post with this picture of me with one of my scrap heroines - Ali Edwards.
Of course, you can't know a person from a five minute conversation, but I really enjoyed meeting her. She seemed very real and down to earth. How cool was this?

My brain and body are very tired so I'll share more tomorrow.

Birthdays & other fun stuff

2008-07-15T20:43:00.001-04:00

Seems like a lot of birthday celebrations this week. First of all, to my dear friend, Dolores, Happy Birthday to you. I can't wait to party in Chicago!

Natalia, the owner of Couture Scrapbooking is celebrating her 30th birthday at the end of the month. She is just one of the sweetest people EVAH. So sweet, in fact, that she is having a 30% sale to share the fun. Pop over and check it out- she always has the BEST items.

Scrap for a Cure celebrated it's first birthday this month too. They have the greatest kits and a really friendly message board.

So in honor of all the birthdays, I thought I'd share some birthday items I made recently using Basic Grey's Cupcake line:

Speaking of SFC, I had the pleasure of being the guest designer there this month.
Here are my projects:

Hope you all are having a great week!

We're home

2008-07-05T22:28:00.000-04:00

Let me tell you, Brant Lake, NY, is a little slice of heaven. It's located about 30 minutes north of Lake George, in the Adirondack Mountains. We packed up the kids and met my parents and sister's family for a vacation. My week was filled with sun, water, fishing and family fun. No computer, no phone (no signal with my cellular) and nowhere to run to. We stay in a "cabin" which was once a church. It's located on a cove which is filled with lily pads and the sounds of bullfrogs lull you to sleep at night. On the other edge of the property is a small "beach" where there is sand and the kids swam. We did an overnight trip at the nearby Six Flags, which had rides and a water park.

I still have hundreds of pictures to sort through, but here are some of my favorite shots from the week:

Ryan on a water slide:

Jimmy celebrating the 4th with spiky hair:

Miss B with her pink fishing pole:

Colin & Tommy before the big water gun fight:

Bren with Uncle Joe & little Mallory:

My littlest fisherman -he reeled in some good sized bass with that little "Cars" pole!

I do have some scrappy stuff to share, but this is getting long, so I'll leave you with this picture of the July kit from Scrap for a Cure

This kit is beautiful. I had so much fun designing with it!
Hope you all had a safe and wonderful holiday!

start of summer

2008-06-24T02:02:00.001-04:00

So now the kids are on summer vacation. I love it, for the most part. I love the pace. Nowhere to run to. Sleepng in late. Spending lots of time outside.
The drawback is the inevitable bickering that crops up with all the togetherness. It's stormed here every day for the past 3 days, so we were indoors more than I hoped over this weekend.

The last day of school was the 19th. C & B were invited to a friend's house, so I took the younger guys to the lake to get some excitement and energy out.
Of course, I took tons of pictures. Here are some of my favorites:

We met up with the other kids later that evening to have our annual end of school ice cream cones:

I've managed to sneak some scrapping in too. This was an accomplishment since I had my sister's kids all weekend. So we had 8 kids aged 2-11 running around. Lots of fun, but I was exhausted. No pictures either.

Here's a sneak peek of one of my LOs with my guest kit for Scrap for a Cure. This is all I can share just yet, but trust me, you want this kit!

Happy Father's Day!

2008-06-16T00:20:00.001-04:00

Time has just been zipping along here, hasn't it? I've been meaning to update, but it's been a crazy week. The end of the school year means dance recitals, preschool graduations and a zillion other details to finish up, especially with 5 kids!

Today was a good day. Mike and my brother-in-law went golfing with my dad. My sister, the kids and I joined up with them after for a cookout at my mom's. We hung out on the deck and watched all the kids play. Here's a rare picture of my dad and I:

I hope you all enjoyed time today with the dads in your lives.

Speaking of men in my life...
I did this page of Mike this week for a challenge - to use nontraditional colors for your subject. So for this page, I used the Teresa Collins Bella Girl line, available at Couture Scrapbooking:

I mentioned the dance recital - here is a page I did for this week's song at Scrapping the Music. It's one of my favorite pictures of Brenna that I enhanced using Picnik. Again, all the pretty supplies are available at Couture Scrapbooking.

Challenge #6 is up at Dreamgirls. This time, we're asking you to scrap a first time.
The twists are to add some sort of real or faux stitching and add some ribbon or trims. Here is my page for that. And yes, I realized after I photographed it that I forgot the ribbon. DOH! That's what happens when you scrap at 3am. LOL. So I'll be going back and fixing it.

Our sponsor this week is Magistical Memories! You don't want to miss this one!

So that's about all for now. I was up entirely too late several nights this week and it's catching up with me. I'll be back to share some more soon!

Feeling lucky

2008-06-07T00:57:00.000-04:00

I haven't blogged for a while. I do have some scrappy stuff to share, but first I want to tell you about the personal stuff. I feel like I dodged a bullet this week. You see, I had a bit of a health scare that I didn't really want to talk about until I knew more. Many of you know that my dad is being treated for Stage 4 colon cancer. Thank God he is so strong and still fighting. It is a life threatening diagnosis. So it was even more frightening to me when I noticed bleeding when I used the bathroom. Now I know, this is a yucky subject, and one I think people don't want to discuss because it talks about something "dirty". But you know what? If me sharing this helps anyone in the future, I don't mind talking about it.
I was so scared, so I immediately called a gastroenterologist. He happened to have an opening that very day. We talked and it was decided that I should have a colonoscopy. Soon. Again, an icky topic, because the idea of having a long tube inserted in you , especially THERE, is unpleasant. But I got over my fear and had it done Wednesday.
I was found to have a large polyp that was the source of my troubles. It was big enough that both the doctor and the nurse told me I was lucky I went in when I did. It was removed and I'm waiting for the report that it is not cancerous. My doctor says he thinks it's not going to turn out to be serious, so I am cautiously relieved. You see, most colon cancers start as these benign polyps. Given time to grow, the odds increase that they will become cancerous. I am now going to need to be watched very carefully the rest of my life.
So my point of sharing all this is this: Do NOT ignore any change in your bowel habits. Any type of bleeding there warrants a trip to the doctor. There are lots of minor problems that can cause bleeding, but there are some that are BAD. If I had tried to blame it on something like hemmorhoids, and waited, I might have heard BAD news in the future. I am only 40 years old and have a lot to live for. Some people think this stuff only happens to older people, but that's just not true. There's a 22 year old girl who gets chemo every 2 weeks with my dad. She had colon cancer. Colon cancer is the third most frequently diagnosed cancer in our country. We can't afford to be embarrassed to talk about it.

Okay, so let me share some projects now...

Here is my LO for the current Dreamgirls challenge - to scrap 5 random facts on five locations of your page and use doodling:

Here are a couple of recent 8.5 x 11 pages:

Once again, it seems I've stayed up later than I should, so it's off to sleep for me. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Sneaky Peek and other stuff

2008-05-31T00:07:00.000-04:00

Here is a sneak peek of a LO for the next Dreamgirls challenge:

That's all I can share for now, but be sure to check out Challenge #5 on June 1st! You have GOT to see the inspiring projects the DT has created!

I have a toot to share too. I was asked to be the Guest DT member at Scrap for a Cure for July. I am so excited!

Oh, and I realized I never shared this LO that I made for last week's challenge at Scrapping the Music. This is Jimmy, last spring at a playground. Love this picture of him. The song inspo last week was Breathe In, Breathe Out by Matt Kearney. I used some of the lyrics for my journaling.

The week has flown by. I wasn't needed at work on Tuesday, so I haven't gone back yet. But I spoke with my manager and it looks like I'll be working Saturday night.

Tommy spiked a fever Tuesday night and a trip to the pediatrician netted us a bronchitis diagnosis and yet another antibiotic to add to our medicine regime. Dr. Russ also told Tommy he needed to start pooping on the potty like a big boy. This was greeted with giggles of laughter by Tommy, who refused to acknowledge the authority of a doctor.

The kids had their school spring concert the other night. While I always do the dutiful mom thing and smile through these concerts, I especially enjoyed this one. Maybe because it wasn't as hot in the auditorium this year, or maybe it's because I was there alone. (Mike stayed home with Tommy who was in all his "I'm sick, so I'll terrorize you" 3 year old glory.) I think it's because this year all the kids (especially my 11 year old) REALLY sang. They sang a variety of traditional church hymns as well as some contemporary Praise songs. I was so sorry I chose to leave my camera home. I felt so uplifted by the children's performance. Their innocence and love of God touched me. After I was home, I learned our family was chosen to receive some scholarship monies from our school and Parish for the next school year. It is such a timely blessing, since we've been living on a tight budget for some time now. I actually cried tears of joy as I read it. It will really help us as we work to get back to normal.

I wanted to share some pictures of Jimmy. They had a "Road Race" at his preschool. Each child needed to make a "vehicle" with his family to race at school. His teacher was amazing, creating a course marked with homemade checkered flags and a "Car wash" through plastic fringe and bubbles. It was SO fun to see and I can't wait to scrap these pictures:

On the assembly line, making the car...

Gentleman, start your engines!

VROOOM! He's off...

Jimmy, in fact, did "win" the race, although there was never an official race. They ended their day with hot dogs and cupcakes and watched the movie "Cars." He loved every minute of it!

Well, have a great weekend everyone! I will be working this weekend and will be very happy to do!

My latest projects

2008-05-27T18:56:00.000-04:00

In my last post, I mentioned that I had worked on a fun, girlie LO. This was inspired by a sketch by the very talented Zarah at the Scrapbook Nook. I dove into my supplies and here's what happened:

I was really happy with it, and I think it helped me find my long lost mojo!

Here's a DT project for MOSD. The mini is their Clearly Designed Steps album.

Most of the mini album is from the May kit at Scrapbook for a Cure. It's already sold out. You should check out their kits though - June's sneak peeks look amazing.
Okay, well, it's off to nap - my first night back to work tonight. Wish me luck!

Gimme S'more Mojo!

2008-05-26T02:50:00.000-04:00

Wow, I haven't blogged in a bit! Spring has been a busy season for us. My mother's day brunch didn't happen since I was feverish and slept all day. Turns out I had a sinus and ear infections. After some antibiotics, I was on the mend. Just in time for my poor Harley dog to come down with some illness. He was limping,and not eating. The vet diagnosed him with anaplasmosis. This is a tick bourne illness like Lyme Disease. So my puppykins is now on a month's worth of antibiotics, but should get better. But a word of caution - we've had a crazy amount of ticks on the kids this year. I'm talking at least a couple week. Do those tick checks!

My hand is coming along. The doctor pronounced it healed on Friday and told the therapist that my hand should get exercised with "No Holds Barred." This is good, since joints that weren't even involved are swollen and painful. I'm told this is from the lack of mobility, so I'm happy to try to exercise it, even if it hurts. I'm returning to work Tuesday night. Should be interesting!

Billy Joel played his opening night of a ten show run here at Mohegan Sun. Mike and I went and had a wonderful time. My sister kept the kids overnight for us. It was a treat to get out as a couple. I asked Mike to take my picture before we left - I figured I was all made up, so why not? Here's the one he took:

And here's a silly one I snapped of myself. I'm such a goof.

My mojo has been on a bit of a vacation the past few weeks. I've been working on a mini album for a DT project. And while I love what I've done so far, I just really had to WORK for every page I've done. You know, nothing just gels,so you keep moving things around and it takes FOREVER. So I took a few nights off. And tonight I scrapped a page that I am really happy with. It's one for me, with happy girlie colors and embellies. I'll post it tomorrow. Meanwhile, I think it's got me feeling like I can be creative again.

This weekend has been beautiful here. Sunny and warm, but with a light breeze. We grilled today and had a nice family meal after mass. The kids had a blast toasting marshmallows after lunch. I forgot how good s'mores taste!

Tommy was cute. He actually passed up the chocolate and graham crackers just to eat the "smarshmellows".

Later, Mike set up the hammock in the yard for me and I took a nap under the trees. Pure bliss!

Okay, well, it's late here, so I'll share some scrappy stuff tomorrow. Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Happy Mother's Day!

2008-05-11T01:09:00.000-04:00

The past couple of weeks have flown by. Dreamgirls posted a new challenge on the first. The topic is to scrap something you're proud of. I chose to scrap about quitting smoking, which I am happy to say happened 6 years ago:

Our prize this week is a gorgeous May kit from OPAAT. You NEED to check it out!

We also hosted a movie themed mini crop on NSD on our message board. It was a blast!

Speaking of cybercrops, I can't wait for Saturday the 17th. Scrap for a Cure is having their first ever. It should be a blast!
I've fallen in love with their kits and have been happily diving into the April kit and add on:

It's been a rough week here - RJ had double ear infections, Jimmy's asthma acted up so he's on steroids. Tommy had an engorged deer tick in the back of his neck - so now he's on antibiotics too. It's like a pharmacy counter in my kitchen, LOL. I've started with a cold today and am shivering with chills as I type this. Ugh.

Oh well, I suppose I should hop in bed and rest. We are meeting my folks and my sister's family for brunch - I don't want to miss that!
I hope you all have a happy and healthy Mother's Day. Enjoy!

the one armed bandit

2008-04-29T00:37:00.000-04:00

Okay, so this hand thing is getting played out. I don't mean to sound like a whiner, but really, my left hand is my long lost friend. While I've discovered many little tricks to accomplish things one handed, here's a list of just a few of the things I can't manage without my left hand:

Button jeans (who'd think I'd get sick of sweats?)
open pull top soup cans (it spilled all over the floor)
take oatmeal down from the top shelf in my pantry (it spilled all over the floor)
strain a pot of cooked pasta (DH wanted me to individually drain each ravioli out of the pot with a slotted spoon. I know, insert eyeroll here.)
Carry laundry baskets (not a perk when you need clean underwear!)
Shave under my arms (don't worry - I get help, LOL)
put on deodorant (again, I get help, hee-hee)
Blow my hair dry into any semblance of a style ( it's as flat as a pancake)
Hold the phone while multi-tasking (I bought a headset to ease the chronic cramp in my neck)
Cut my own meat (feel like a toddler again)

But all in all, I can't complain too much. The kids have stepped up and offered to help me. I get to poke around on the computer a lot. And hopefully it will only be for a few more weeks.

I've tried scrapping again. It's slow going. But I was inspired to try after my LSS owner told me about a one armed woman she observed at a crop. I finished this page for STM. The song this week is "Shine" by Anna Nalick. This is our newest nephew. Isn't he gorgeous?

Have you checked out the reader's gallery at Dreamgirls? There is just oodles of eye candy there. Challenge #3 will be posted on the first, plus we have some fun planned for NSD. You won't want to miss it!