Happy Holidays

WOW I can't believe that Christmas is almost here. The past two weeks have been crafting crazy for me. Finishing up assignments, cards, and gifts...I'm sure most of you can relate. So I don't have anything new to share right now....but I will after the holidays.

Jim and I are getting ready to leave for New York on Friday. I am so excited about the trip. Of course the highlight of the trip will be seeing my nieces and nephew, but we also have a day planned in New York City. First the Radio City Music Hall show, then an NBC studio tour, a view from top-of-the-rock, and then if we have time a stop by the Morgan Museum to see a Bob Dylan Exhibit. Since none of us are brave enough to drive in the city we will take the train down and back. It's going to be a great day. To top all of that off, I am going to get real NY pizza and Italian food....something we just can't get here in CA. No matter how many people from "NY" that own resturants here in CA, there is nothing like real pizza from NY. Seriously, I think there is something in the water that make the crust taste so good.

I hope all of you have a happy holiday!!!!

Crazy for Canvas

I finally tried my hand at canvas creations. They are really very quick and fun to make. Both of these will be Christmas gifts this year. I have always sturggled with how to display handmade creations outside of my scraproom....so I love that these stand up by themselves. I am planning to make one or two for myself to put up on my mantle.

Jumbo Embellies!!!

I'm finally able to share a few layouts I did on super-sized embellishments. I know Wendy is going to love the picture in the 2nd page.....wozers look at that red hair on my niece.

Holy international blog batman!!!

OK, it really is the silly things that bring this girl joy. With the link from Pencil Lines my blog has been getting a lot of views since Sunday. In the past 24 hours I have had 50 visits to my blog (way more than usual) with a very interesting distribution that I got from my blog counter (and I love statistics):

• Over 50% of the visits came from outside the USA.
• People from 9 different contries came to visit. A big huge hello to my UK friends, but I also had visitors from Canada, Australia, South Africa, Singapore, Sweden, Netherlands, and Spain.... that's quite a list!
• 16 people linked to me from the pencil lines blog
• 3 people found me using google search for either "Missy's Muses" or "Missy Neal" - on a side note have you ever googled your own name - it's funny what comes up.
• 8 people leaving the blog clicked out to the Pencil Lines blog

Man, I really wish I knew who was stopping by to take a look. I would love to think about having friends in all these great locations.

Well thanks to everyone who stopped by....you really made my day.

Check out this weeks Pencil Lines guest member

Woo Hoo....a little tooty toot for me. I am so proud to be this weeks guest designer for the UK's smashing hit sketch challenge website: Pencil Lines. Each week this amazinly talented group of scrappers put up a sketch challenge. This week I was the lucky designer of the sketch and also made the following layout for the challenge:

Totally in LOVE with 8x8

Gosh, I feel so guilty for neglecting my blog the past two weeks, but it's been a little crazy. My dear MIL was in for a visit this week and we had a lovely time. We even ventured to the shopping mecca of Union Square San Francisco for a little black friday shopping. The good news is that I am now 90% done with my Christmas shopping.
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Scrap wise I have been working on a 8x8 album for my MIL and found out that I LOVE this size. It's just perfect for a 4x6 picture. I also went on a mission to use up some of my older embellies.....just look at these pages and you are sure to find some blast from the past items.

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About a year ago I did CKU masters where had a circuit of these 8x8 pages. I was not impressed with this portion of the CKU and thought I would never do this size again. That was until I found a super cute album that was just too perfect to pass up. So I decided to make my MIL a little album for her birthday. Oh my it was like heaven. The pages were fun and went together so quick and easy. I will for sure be doing another one of these. In the meantime check out some of the super fast cuties that went into my MIL's album:

Sharing my Bling

I haven't been scrapping much lately and what I have been doing can't be shared just yet, so I decided to share 2 of my favorite layouts from the current issue of the Scrapbook Magazine in the article on Bling.

The first is a layout of my Grandparents who were married for 57 years. My grandpa passed away earlier this year so it's really a tribute page to him. The 2nd page is my niece playing in the flowers at my moms house. I have scrapped this picture before but I just loved the way the colors in this page looked.

Thanks so much for looking.

It's time to vote...

For everyone in the US today is an important day. Remember to get out and vote...it's important and your civic duty.

Since DH and I moved since last election we had a new polling location. I was surprised when I got to the polls at 7:00am today and there were already 15 people ahead of us in line. It took almost 45 minutes to get our votes cast, but it was well worth it. A lot of my friends are voting absentee, but for me there is something that just feels good about standing in line to cast my vote. I am wearing my sticker today and hope you all do the same.

Inspired by...

Here is my Sweet and Sassy layout inspired by Carole and Joanne. I was a pop dot fool on this layout. Each flower is pop dot and the petals are bent upward. I wish the scan showed the dimention better. It was really fun to give this look a try....but I have a lot to learn.

Warning...

The following links may contain unbelievably inspiring work that may compel scrappers to immediately drop what they are doing and scrap.

Whoa, you know with the number of blogs and online galleries out there, it's easy to get used to seeing phenomenal work out there. However there are still times when my heart stops and I am just in total awe. That happened to me today....not once, but twice.

While I was doing my morning blog surfingI noticed on the ScrapGenie blog that Becks added Carole Janson as a DT member. So I just clicked on her blog link and WOWZERS. Then a few hours later I got a comment on my blog from Joanne Bain- so I followed her link back to her blog and was blown away again for the 2nd time today.

Seriously, I am just amazed by the work of these two ladies. Both are from Australia and have left me itching to get into my scraproom and try to create a 3-D layout. Check out the amazingly cool dimension they add to their art by pop dotting and folding the paper. They look so cool on-line I can't even imagine how good they look IRL.

So without further ado, I urge you to go check out the work of these two amazing artist:

Carole Janson

Joanne Bain

I have guests in town this weekend but I sure hope that my next post will be a 3-D layout inspired by these ladies.

I am going to admit it....

I scrap almost completely for the creative and artistic outlet. Memory keeping has never been my top priority. I am not making scrapbook albums with the hope that they will be passed on for generations. From my first trip to the local scrapbook store it has always been about the creative aspect for me. I think this is why I have never been into long and meaningful journaling and why it doesn’t bother me when my pages sit stacked on top of each other for months in my scraproom. While I do prefer to scrap my friends and loved ones, I have no problem finding inspiration to scrap stock photos or people I don’t know.

There I admit it. Memory keeping is not my motivation.

Recently there have been many well know scrapbook artist taking a step back from the commercial aspect of the industry. Many of them are realizing they don’t have time for what made them get into scrapping in the first place – Memory Keeping. So many times when people get down about not being published or selected for a call their friends will rally and tell them to remember why they started scrapping in the first place – to record your memories to pass on to your children or family. These type of posts actually make me feel bad, almost guilty that Memory keeping is not what scrapbooking is all about for me but rather just a creative outlet. In some ways I feel that I am cheating the hobby.

I do love to look at my completed pages and remember the moment that is being captured, but I can get this same feeling from looking at a photo album as well. All the papers and embellishments do for me is add a creative twist to the photos. I do credit my love of scrapbooking with my desire to improve my photo taking and editing skills. I’m sure that I will be scrapping for a long time to come and hope to continue growing creatively through the process. If the result of this creative growth are scrapbook albums that get passed to the next generation it’s just an added bonus.

So there you have it…..I full confession!!!

Pumpkin Pages

Here are two new layouts I did with pictures from the pumpkin patch last week. The first one is not my typical style but I wanted to use my new Daisy D's paper and paper frills and had so many pictures I wanted to scrap. The second layout was done for a Speshal dare and I wanted to try out my newly purchased itty bitty actions.....still need practice with that but I love that blown out photo look. Thanks so much for looking.

Rosie will be scrapping on the View tomorrow or Friday

How cool is that. Rosie has been a scrapbooker for a while and this Thursday or Friday she will be doing a segment on journal/scrapbooking on the view. Linda Woods & Karen Dinino are special gusts who are promoting their awesome book "Visual Chronicles". They are going to be using Walnut Ink TintZ from Fiber Scraps. A huge congrats to Patricia (the owner and creator of Fiber Scraps).

I am just so excited to see Rosie scrap. I will be setting my TiVo for sure.

Fiber Scraps Lunch Bag Book

I made my first lunch bag book well over a year ago and have been wanting to do another one ever since. DH and I went pumpkin picking last weekend and I figured these fiber scraps paper would match perfectly. What you can't tell from the photos is that the bags were distressed with walnut stain TintZ before being decorated.

Fiber Scraps Projects

After coming back from Memory Trends I feel so motivated to create. Here are a couple quick projects I did using Fiber Scraps products.

A decoupaged ornamet

And a gift bag

Vegas Baby

Woo Hoo....I just got back from an exciting and exhausting 2 days in Vegas. I'm actually glad to be back at work - SITTING.

Memory Trends seemed quite a bit slower this year, but there was plenty of great stuff to tickle my fancy. The highlight of the trip was meeting up with Natalie, Becks, and Michelle not too long into the show on Tuesday. I am still feeling quite compelled to speak with a British accent. In fact in my head I am writing this entry with perfect English diction. I learned quite a few new words and phrases that I must practice up on for our next visit. Michelle and Becks were booked with meetings so I had the extreme pleasure of walking the majority of the floor with Nat. Come to find out that Nat and I are like Yin and Yang when it comes to scrapbooking tastes. She is drawn to the contemporary lines with geometric shapes and open space on layouts. I on the other hand still love the vintage, grunge look of Cosmo and similar lines.

There was clearly a theme to this years show: Bling, Chipboard, and Clear stamps. Many companies combined the first two and had chipboard bling. Scrapworks and a few others figured out how to bake the glitter right into the chipboard when it is patterned….this keeps the glitter on the chipboard and off your hands. I can’t tell you how many times I have gone to work and found glitter in my hair or even on my face. So baked on glitter is the hot set up.

Now a few comments about the products and booths:
• Crate Paper, Crate Paper, Crate Paper……OMG, this stuff is just absolutely to die for. The Christmas line was probably my favorite of the show.
• The new BasicGrey fruitcake line was also a fantastic Christmas line and one that will certainly be finding its way to my scraproom.
• The 7 Gypsies booth had some of the most amazing projects. So grungy and yummy!!!
• The layouts and creations in so many booths were just amazing, but I have to say that some of my very favorite pages were in the MAMBI booth. Yup, the MAMBI booth. They have a bunch of new bling words and shapes that are fantastic, but it’s what their designers did with them that impressed me the most.
• Scenic Route was another super cool stop. With a new line and the coolest GOLD chipboard letter. Very very cool.
• Not to be outdone by its last releases Cosmo Cricket is out with new lines that I LOVE even more than the last lines….seriously, I didn’t that that was possible.
• Technique Tuesday (OK I am a little bias here) but OMG the stamp sets and booth layouts are so amazing. I just LOVE the fact that they feature so many layouts with such great texture and polished details…..LOVE LOVE LOVE this booth.

After writing way too much detail that would probably be way too boring for anyone to read I decided to delete that and talk about the highlights:
• My flight was right on time Monday. I meet up with Danea and Susanne at the hotel and we had a good catching up session.
• Danea had her wrist cast all blinged up, looking so cute, and got a ton of comments on it.
• Susanne was as cute as ever and looked great!!!!
• Monday night I hit the shops at Caesar’s and the Venetian before going back to the room
• Tuesday I hit the show floor early and hooked up with Natalie, Becks, and Michelle for a few minutes and walked the floor with Nat until lunchtime when we took a break to eat.
• After lunch we walked the floor a bit more before finding a seat at the QuickKutz booth where Natalie introduced me to her very cool friend Melanie.
• My feet had had enough so I walked back to the hotel and meet back up with Danea and Susanne. Susanne was not feeling too well, so Danea and I went out to dinner after walking all the way back to the show so Danea could order one of those fancy shmancy massage chairs.
• After dinner it was back to the hotel for a little relaxing and tv.
• Wed morning was breakfast with Natalie and Michelle at the Winn Buffet (enough food for the rest of the day) and back to the show.
• We walked for a bit and meet up with Becks for a little rest on the floor outside BasicGrey. A much needed break for my feet!!!
• I got a very nice surprise to run into WENDY at the prima booth. Holy cow, Wendy showed me some of the most amazing creations she made for the show. Totally amazing stuff. Prima had probably one of the biggest releases at the show. Some really great stuff coming.
• We were just about finished going up and down the aisles when I saw Suzy at the canvas concepts booth. That woman is amazing….totally uplifting and bubbly all the freakin’ time. We stayed for a few minutes and snapped a few pictures.
• I finally got a picture of Becks and I as proof that she is ‘real’ and not my imaginary friend. This gives me plausible deniability for when packages arrive and I tell DH they are samples from Becks. He will never know that Becks/ScrapGenie does not distribute Queen & Co, Heidi Swapp, or Autumn Leaves (oooohhh).
• It was about 4:00pm when I meet back up with Danea and Susanne for a little more walking and then back to the hotel to pack up my bags and head for the airport.
• Once again my flight was right on-time and smooth as silk.

So that’s my trip in a nutshell. Blogger Beta is acting up on me again….so I will be back later with pictures.

Be Silly

Crate-Birdie-Class
Originally uploaded by mjneal.

Well it looks like I figured out how to load a single photo from flickr, but still don't know how to do multiple photo loads. I'll keep working on that.

This is a layout using the new Crate Paper Birdie collection.

Blog neglect

OK,let me first say that I switched to Blogger Beta and now I don't know how to load pictures anymore. So I will have to figure that out as I have some new stuff to share.

There is no real reason for my blog neglect. Work has been work and I really haven't been doing much scrapping in the past week or so.

I need to get ready for Memory Trends. I am headed out to Vegas after work on Monday and will meet Danea and Susanne who will already be there. So that is something to look forward to. I'll be sure to take my camera and get lots of pictures.

Now I am off to go figure out how to load pictures again so I can load my recent layouts.

Tagged by Wendy

So I was tagged by Wendy:

The rule is to list 5 weird things about yourself or your pets and then tag 5 friends and list them:

Gosh, I don't know that enough people read my blog to tag but I'll try: Annie, Carrie, Danea, Juls, and Hebe

Since I don't have any pets I guess my weirdness has to be all about me. Here goes:
1. I am the most picky eater on earth. I don't like any sea food at all, the only veggie I will even consider is corn, and I eat my burgers plain. The good news is that any kind of sweets or Chocolate is not a problem.

2. I have to hit the snooze button each morning twice or I am grumpy all day. I NEED that 18 minutes of grog time before I get out of bed, or I am off kilter all day.

3. I eat the same lunch every day (during the week)....and have since I was in grade school. (pressed ham sandwich, small baggie of pretzles, and an applesause cup).

4. I hate feet - especially mine. I have a giant big toe. Growing up my family called it bongo because it was so big. My shoe size is at least one size larger than I should wear just to make room for that darn toe.

5. I talk to my pictures. Most of the time I am just saying hi to my nieces and nephew that I see more in pictures than in real life. But the fact remains that I talk to the pictures.

Oh my, I love this paper line

In the past I have sturggled with some of the GinX lines with the bright colors and bold prints....but I just love the look of this line. I am so into these colors right now and just love the look of the blue and orange together. To make sure it was girly enough I added the GinX chipboard flowers to the title and the new Bazzill blooms at the bottom. Thanks so much for looking.

Another routine weekend

So this weekend was yet another routine weekend where I didn't get as much done as I wanted to - both scrapwise and yardwork wise. It was quite nice and relaxing but now that it's over I feel like I wasted time. O'well there is always next weekend.

I did get some scrapping done. Here is a layout I made just to play with my new GinX papers and pictures my mom took last weekend.

Look how big....

ooohhh my I can hardly believe my eyes. I just saw these two in June and they already seem so much bigger. This is another layout that I did while my mom was out for a visit. I just got that chatterbox paper and wanted something neutral to match their cloths.

Just playing around with some new goodies.

This is a really quick page I did of my niece at the beach. I basically just wanted to play with my new Queen and Co. goodies.



These are some older pictures of my nephew that my brother took. I just love his little playful smile that he has in these pictures. I am not usually one for these bright bold colors but I love this scrapworks line.

Be yourself - Fiber Scraps

Here is my latest layout made for my September Fiber Scraps DT assignment. Yes, I have scrapped this picture before but I loved how his shirt matched the papers - so I used it again.

Materials: Fiber Scraps Pattern Paper, Prism Cardstock, Autumn Leaves stamps, and Lil Davis Chipboard letters. The title was cut using the Pazzles Mini.

No Masters for me

Well the good news about not being selected as a MMM is that I can finally share my layouts. I know a lot of people are keeping them private in hopes of other publication, but I really wanted to share. Here is 4 of my 5 layouts.....and they are some of my favorites.

Here you go:

Remember Me?

Oh man I feel so out of the loop. With my moms visit this week I have not checked email, blogs, or MBs in a week. It feels like I have been gone for months. I sure hope you haven't forgotten about me.

Overall my week with my Mom was great. We spent a huge amount of time scrapbooking and shopping. We each got 5 layouts done. The highlight for her was a trip to Suzy's garage where we almost mauled the UPS man when he came in with the new bazzill mini blooms. Good times, good times.

We also did a few non-sb related activities. Including a drive up the coast, cloths shopping, and breakfast at her favorite restaurant (twice!).

This has been a very rough work week for the company I work for. There has been a lot of news press about our impending layouts. So it was actually nice to be out of the office not thinking too much about events I can not control.

Here are a couple of the layouts I did while my mom was here.:

This is me and my mom at Suzy's garage - aren't I brave for posting a picture with no make up on?

This is the new Cosmo Cricket Wanted line. Oh man do I LOVE this paper.

These are the cutest pictures of my niece on the beach. She was laughing so hard. This is one using the sassafrass lass papers and stamps.

I still LOVE scenic route

even though I was not selected for their DT. Of course with 400+ entries I am not too disappointed....I really didn't think I had a chance to start with. While the entries did not have to be "never before seen" I kept mine unposted until now. So here is the first of 3 layouts I did for the contest:

I just love this picture of my nephew taken last year at the pumpkin patch. This is one of the older SR lines but still one of my favorites.

The MMM winners should be announced either late next week or early the following. I am really looking forward to seeing the winners list ... mostly so I can share those layouts as well. One of them is probably my new favorite of my work. So I'm excited to share.

Can you believe I am still working on organizing my room. This turned into a much bigger project than I thought. I still have a significant amount of work left to finish. However with my mother coming in for a weeks visit I could not let her see my room in the state it was yesterday, so I quickly put everything away for now. At least I can get back to scrapping in there....but I am determined to finish up the organizational overhaul after mom goes back home.

Organizing....

After this last week, I actually think scrapbooking might have been a hobby invented by the owners of sterlite. It seems that finding the perfect storage and organization is a perpetual quest. Over the years I have found some solutions that work for me that will never be changed, but I am still looking for the easiest way to organize others.

After a visit to Wendy's last week I decided to copy what she did with combining a bunch of embellishments into a single little drawer with no packaging. So this week I have been working for several hours each night to unpackage and combine my supplies. I have been working for hours and still have so much more to go. I've already been to target 3 times for additional storage and have at least one more trip to go (and another one to the hardware store for a nuts/bolts container)

Tonight I am planning to rearrange some of the shelves in my storage cabinet's and get everything put away. I need to get working on my next magazine assignment and want to put the final touches on the layouts I did for Susanne's store. Right now my work table is under a huge pile of supplies.

So that's why I haven't posted anything new....or even scanned the other layouts that I did last weekend for the store.

The perfect scraproom.....is a never ending journey!!!

5 layouts in 1 crop....No Way!!!

but yes it's even amazing to me, I finished (well almost) 5 pages at Wendy's crop on Saturday. Whoa, I am usually the queen of gab and have never done more than 1 layout at a crop until this weekend. I still did plenty of talking, visiting, and eating but also got 5 pages done for Susanne's store.

Here is the first one I did using one of the newer Center City Designs collections:

In short the weekend was just awesome. Wendy has an amazing house and a beautiful family - along with a fantastic scraproom. The crop on Saturday was great to see so many friends and meet new ones. Not to mention all the yummy food. Wow, I seriously can't wait to do that again.

So after seeing Wendy's embellishment storage I have been on a mission all night to take everything out of it's packaging and make it easy and accessable. I worked all night but haven't made much of a dent.....for sure I am going to like this system better. Thanks so much for the great ideas Wendy.

It's been a good few days...

Scrapwise. On Tuesday I got my hands on some of the new MME Bohemia papers. Love love love them, and cranked out a layout in record time....gotta love that.

Wednesday morning the first email of the day came from Wendy pointing me to the 2peas thread where I was POTD. Woo Hoo.....it's funny how a little thing like that totally lifted me for the day.

Yesterday I came home to a couple of boxes packed with goodies, including the new Heidi Swapp stuff and the 3 bugs new lines. Very cool stuff.

Last night I finished up a Christmas assignment for Papercraft Essentials (a UK publication) and packed for my crop at Wendy's tomorrow. I am planning to make layouts for my friend Susanne's LSS, so I decided to use pictures that were already printed that I had scraped before. So even though I knew what papers lines I was using and what pictures I was using it still took me several hours to pack.

I am so excited for my trip this weekend. Seeing Wendy and her beautiful family... and of seeing so many foxies. Woo Hoo...

LOVE this new line

I just got a few sets from the new My Minds Eye Bohemia line. OMG, this paper is to die for.....LOVE it. Here is a really quick layout I did of me and my niece taken in June. I really did nothing but add a picture and prima flowers to this amazing collection. The paper is so darn pretty I hated to cover it up.

The Graduate

This is my 2nd layout made for the Ali Edwards Designers eye challenge. This challenge was to cut a photo at an angle and then add triangle shaped pattern paper to the bottom. This is a photo from last year that has been waiting for me to scrap.

I also attempted the 3rd layout challenge to make your own pattern paper....LOL, that turned out so ugly I can't post....but will attempt again this week. I also got some assignment work done this weekend and have a few more things to finish up early this week.

Not much else going on this weekend. I saw Danea for a few hours on Saturday. Poor thing wants to scrap so bad, but with her right hand all wrapped up can't do much in the way of scrapping just yet.

My Weekend

This was a super fast layout. The last of many from this weekend. A BIG HUGE thank you to Kirsty for sending me the LUSH blonde moments papers....I just love them. I was running out of steam tonight and decided to see if I could do a layout in less than 30 minutes. Since this queen and co set matched the pinks and purples of the layout it was easy.... printed the picture, made the layout, and even got it scanned in under 30 minutes.....that's a world record, baby!!!

Not much other than relaxing and scrapping this weekend. I decided to enter the Scenic Route DT contest....so I made my 3 layouts for that. I know I will not make the team but it was just great motivation to use some of the cool products I already had on hand.

So it's back to work in a few hours.....I am sure hoping this week is better than last!!!!

You

Just playing around with freestyle again. I have so many of these queen and co. embellies with all the new ones on order....so I decided to play with them today.

Materials: Prism Cardstock, Queen and Co. Sequins, brads, ribbon slide, Autumn Leaves stamps, Prima flowers, Doodlebug letter stickers, Maya Road ribbon, CTMH white ink, and brilliance coral ink.

Stealing the show

My friend and fellow SBM DT memeber Annie is organizing an Ali Edwards Design Challenge. Here is my layout for the first challenge.


For this challenge I used pictures that were already printed and I had laying around for a LONG time. This is my oldest niece taken about 2 years ago. Thanks for the challenge Annie....I'm really happy for the motivation to use some of my "less than perfect" everyday pictures.

My first Fiber Scraps Layout

This is a quick layout I did tonight using my new stash from Fiber Scraps. Paper, fiber, tintz, tag stickers, and letter stickers all from Fiber Scraps. Other materials: Prism Cardstock, Junkitz flower, and bazzill jumbo brad.

Woo Hoo. Yesterday I came home to my copy of issue 19 of TSBM. I still have the giddies from seeing my article in print. Here is another layout I did for this issue:

This is my first publication of my youngest niece. She is so much bigger now, but this is still one of my favorite pictures.

We have scrap-ation!!!

Whew, the weather was even cooler today than yesterday....back down to our normal summer weather. I was finally able to get back into my scraproom. First I had to clean up a HUGE mess that I left behind from the last project - from 2 weeks ago. Once I got everything put away I had less than an hour to scrap, but I was bound and determined to get a page finished. I cheated a little and used a picture that I had already printed.....but here she is my first page after the heat wave.

This is a picture of me and my best friend from college taken about 2 years ago at her wedding shower. Materials: Prism cardstock, prima pp and flowers, foofala buttons, and BasicGrey ribbon. Even if she was a quickie it felt good to scrap again....I've got the itch. Tomorrow its back to my scrapbook magazine assignment.

*R*E*L*I*E*F*

aaaahhhh, the heat finally broke. When I got home from work last night the house was only 91 degrees inside, and it cooled off to 84 before we went to bed. I had a good night sleep for the first time in 10 days. It felt so good, but I didn't want to get up for work this morning. Today should be even cooler than yesterday.....so I have my fingers crossed that I might be able to get back in my scraproom tonight. Woo Hoo....that would be the first scrapping in over 2 weeks.

Here is a layout I did a few months ago as part of my doodling article for issue 17 of the Scrapbook Magazine. This is Wendy and I just before we left for an all day class - her DH took the picture.

I'm still melting

I so wish I had something more to share, but it is still to hot to do anything but lie around and complain about the heat. According to the news the heat is supposed to break tomorrow and be even better on Thursday....but that's what they said two days ago about yesterday and today... so I am skeptical yet optimistic.

I have a DT deadline looming near and if this heat doesn't let up, I might end up cutting my ear off to get it done (because for sure I will be insane scrapping in this heat).

We did call 3 different companies about installing central air....the soonest we can get it done would be almost 4 weeks from now. So we are going to stick with our original house upgrade plan and have it installed this fall (they are taking advantage of the hot weather and increasing the prices significantly)

I promise not to whine so much on my next post!!!

I'm melting!!!!!

As of this minute it is now 103 degrees INSIDE the house. I am literally melting. We are off to eat dinner in a well air conditioned resturant. Forget about any kind of scrapping. It's so darn HOT. I hope you all are having a better weekend than me.....uuuggghhh.

Good things come in threes...

Woo Hoo.....I have some exciting scrapbooking news to share:

1. I will be the newest member of the Fiber Scraps DT (starting August 1st). I am so excited about this opportunity and can't thank them enough for considering me. They have some very cool color combinations on their paper lines and I am really looking forward to working with them.

2. I finished my MMM contest entry (with paperwork) and have sent off to have pictures made of my pages. I plan to have the box sealed and in the mail by the weekend. While my experience is much different than last year, I am glad I decided to enter. In the end I enjoyed the process and I am quite happy with my entry. What's even better is that I really found a fondness for bright pages with multiple photos.

3. I got my next assignment for the Scrapbook Magazine (leave it to Natalie to pick a GREAT topic....a really hot trend) and another assignment for Papercraft essentials. Issue 17 of TSM which has my first article just hit the shelves this week. So I am excited to see this issue IRL.

With things the way they are at my day job.....it is so refreshing to get good news on the scrapbooking front. So I'm a happy camper for sure. Now I just need it to cool down a little so I could actually get in my scraproom and work.

Prima Freakin' ROCKS!!!

I finally got my hands of some of the new YUMMY Prima papers. OMG I LOVE them. They almost scrap themselves. LOVE LOVE LOVE. Look at those black rubons. That flower was so detailed and rubbed off so smooth and clean.

I am working on a special project and got stuck on my last layout. So I decided to take a quick break and play with my new papers. Papers, bloom, and rubons are all prima, Bazzill brad, and Heidi Swapp journaling spot and fuzzy rubon title.

This page took me 2 weeks

oooohhh this darn page. About 2 weeks ago I finished one of my favorite pages ever. Right after that I had the mojo flowing and started to work on this page. uuuugghh, I have been struggling ever since. I wanted to make a really special page with this picture of my mother and I, but just couldn't find a way to make it feel right. So after futzing around for 2 weeks I decided to call it a day and slapped down what I had and added the stamped title. This is far from my favorite page but I still love the picture and the colors. 2 good things came of this. First I found my new love of the versa magic chalk ink pads and second my mojo came back and I was able to get through two more pages after this. So here she is....the page that took me 2 weeks

4th of July

Coming back to work after a long weekend is always the pits....but look what I found in my inbox to cheer me up. Thanks to my brother and SIL for having such cute kiddies!!

We had a nice relaxing long weekend. Jim's mom is in for a visit. She has been helping us in the yard as she has quite a green thumb. Yesterday we went to a little festival in town, ate some junk food, and then took a drive down the coast. We were home before dark so we just watched the fireworks on tv. Tomorrow Jim and I are taking off work and we will spend the day up in San Francisco....so that should be fun.

Scrapping wise I have been in a slump but still got a little done. I finally finished a layout (that I will post later) that has been sitting on my desk for about 10 days. That layout just had me stumped, and after essentially giving up, I slapped it together and called it done. After that page I started working on my next TSBM assignment. Thanks to some expert advice from Wendy (suggesting to use the cheapo cardstock from Michaels to cut flourishy monograms on the pazzles) I was able to finish my 2nd page and start on the 3rd. Thank you WENDY!!

That's about all for now. I hope everyone had a nice 4th!!