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!!

8 1/2 x 11 ??

8 1/2 x 11 is all the rage, but I have been bucking this trend for my beloved 12x12. I haven't scrapped this size since I first started 6 years ago. But today was the day. I have seen so many awesome pages this size I wanted to give it a try myself. hhhmmmm, not so sure I like this too much, but I am going to make at least one album of my niece.

So here are my first layout for the book.

Nothing to share...

I feel like such a slacker. It has been so *HOT* around here the past couple of days I haven't done a lick of scrapping since Sunday. My new house does not have AC (something we will fix next summer) and it just gets too hot in my scraproom to enjoy myself back there. So for the past 3 nights I have literally done nothing. So I have nothing to share.

I am hoping that the weekend is a bit cooler and I get some mojo going. I want to start work on my next article so I can get ahead of the game. I am also still thinking about entering MMM again this year.....but I would do it much different than last year and probably not obsess over each layout. Even with a more light hearted approach I would need to get working this weekend to finish by the deadline.

I promised this winter when the rain wouldn't stop that I would not complain about the sunny weather.....but I really want to scrap and right now it is just too darn HOT. We are having overhead light and ceiling fans put in all the bedrooms on Sunday....so that should help for sure.

Q: Are you a Pea?

Last night Danea called me after getting home from a fun visit to Suzy West's garage where she hung out with the celbs. During the conversation I re-told her a story about how my mom meet Suzy.

A few months ago I saw that Suzy was teaching a class at my mothers LSS in Goshen NY. Now you see I live 15 miles from Suzy here in California, and Goshen NY is 2,000 miles away, literally in the middle of nowhere. I was so shocked to see that she was going to be there, and as a surprise I signed my mom up for all 3 of Suzy's classes. Now in classic Suzy fashion, when my mom got to the store she was greeted with a big warm welcome from Suzy (who she had never meet) and was introduced as mjneal's mom. During the class there were several conversations about Peas and Pea names.

My mom called me as soon as she got home and just raved about the classes and how much fun she had. After telling me all about what she made she said in a very cute voice "Are you a Pea". To which I responded yes. Then her next question in a very stern motherly sort of way was "What the Hell's a Pea". After telling her a Pea was the nickname of people who chat over at the 2peas site she laughed. She had no idea what they were talking about all day, and no idea why they were referring to me as mjneal. Even though she has been scrapping for several year and even shopped at 2peas on several occasions. LOL....I thought that was funny.

Weekend Happenings

3 cheers for a great weekend. I left work around 3:30pm on Friday to continue getting ready for our Garage sale on Saturday. Danea and Jeff came over to help transport our larger items to their house. I kept the stuff I was still working on organizing and pricing and stayed up until almost midnight before finally calling it quits. The alarm went off bright and early on Saturday so I could be at Danea's house by 6:45am. We had a really good day, with the exception of the 90+ degree weather. Danea blogged all about the details -- here. In summary I made just under $400 and Zee ended up with well over $250 so it was a good day. What's funny is I have never been a garage sale person - don't like going to them and have never had one in my life. Danea had to talk me into having this one, but about 1/2 way through the day on Saturday we were already planning out the next one for late fall...

On Sunday I was planning to sleep in, but the birds were having a chirping field day at 7:00am. I was able to get a few more minutes of sleep but was up before 8. I spent the morning packing up the garage sale items that didn't sell, doing a little work work, and then sitting outside to read the paper. Jim and I had a great lunch out back and did some yard work before going inside around 4. I cleaned up my scraproom that was a disaster, ate dinner around 5 and then started scrapping around 6. I made 3 pages just for fun (posted below) before calling it a night.

So all-in-all it was a great weekend.

Playing Together

I used photoshop to over expose this picture...This layout uses 7 gypsies paper, a GinX heart, Heidi Swapp letters, and my very own ugly handwriting (No, I don't Love my handwriting even after reading the book).

Lazy Days of Summer

More of the Tucson pictures. This one uses the BasicGrey Color Me Silly line.

Sweet Girl

Just playing around with some of the pictures I took in Tucson last weekend. This is one of my niece using the BasicGrey Urban Couture line.

Finally having our garage sale

We moved into our new house the first week of Feberuary. As we were unpacking we decided to use the dining room (which we have no furniture for) as a holding spot for items we wanted to put in a garage sale. Almost 5 months later the dining room is still jam packed with stuff we want to get rid of. Tomorrow is the day. Danea and I are combining our stuff and will be having our sale at her house tomorrow. Danea lives right around the corner from one of the better LSS in our area. Since we both have a ton of SB supplies we are going to put several signs down that way and hope to attract the SB crowd. I did a major purge of paper, magazines, books, and embellies....not to mention so general household goods that would be great to get rid of. Woo Hoo....I am so excited to get all that stuff out of my dining room and hope to get a little mad money as a bonus.

A weekend in Tucson.....

was exactly what I needed. Jim and I took a very quick trip to Tucson this weekend. My brother and his 2 older ones were out there already so Jim and I decided to join them for the weekend. Other than the weather (which was an oven like 105 degrees in the shade) it was a great weekend. Totally relaxing and a great way to take a mental break from the stress at work. Plus I got to spend some real quality time with my brother and his kiddies. I took literally a couple hundred photos....Deleted about 150 of them immediately but still have a ton of great scrapping material waiting for me.

Saturday we spent the day outside with a trip up and down Mt. Lemmon (the kids loved the ski lift), a ride in a golf cart and some lessons from Pops, and a great dinner at my dad's girlfriends house. Sunday was equally as nice. We meet up with my cousin Colleen, her husband, and their 4 year old son. I hadn't seen Colleen in over 10 years so that was a nice treat. We took the kids to a play area in the mall (as outside was just too hot for them), a quick dip in the pool at Pops house, and then back to the mall to eat dinner (somebody special wanted Chicken and rice from the mall and didn't want to hear any other meal options). Right after dinner it was already time for Jim and I to go back to the airport. So it was a really short trip but well worth it.

Due to the unexpected weekend adventure I am now a little behind on my current article for SBM, but I work best when under a little time pressure so I should be able to finish on-time. As I am about 75% done with the article and 66% done with the layout samples.

Beach Babe

This is one of my favorite pictures of my niece (SIL took the picture). I'm not crazy about the actual layout so you will probably be seeing this picture again in a different layout. I just went a little overboard with my Rhonna Farrer stamps and Scenic Route papers.

Just an update

Work has been incredibly stressful the past two weeks and the next two look even worse. The company is going through a major effort to reduce costs and be more efficient. My group is being put under a lot of pressure to get a ton of analysis done very quickly to help with cost cutting recommendations. Everyone has been working long hours and are just generally grumpy about the tough economic times and possible work force reduction (although nothing has been announced regarding this).

I have been finding my sanity in the few minutes I get to scrap. Yesterday was a great day. I finished up my Christmas projects I have been working on for Becks new book, made a few cards, and finally got a copy of Scrapbooking in a Weekend (woo hoo, I had 13 layouts in the book and joined some really amazing scrappers).

Not much else to blog about. Jim and I are headed to Tucson this weekend to see my dad. My brother and his oldest 2 kiddies will be joining us. It will be a short trip but will be great to see the kids again so soon,

Here is my latest card:

Over the top Birthday Parties

I love a party as much as the next girl, but what my recent experience was just over the top . One of the main reasons for my New York visit last week was to attend my youngest Niece's 1st birthday party. Jim and I usually head out east over the Memorial Day week but this year we pulled in our trip so that we could be there for the party.

My brother and SIL always have great parties for their kids. My SIL comes from a really big family and they all do this. While she would never admit it....it is all about out-doing the last party. Each party has a theme and they usually go all out. The theme for this last party was a Barnyard Party. Very cute.

My SIL made a bunch of the decorations herself. Once again all very cute, but that was not the end. I can understand the need to rent tables and chairs. With the 60+ guests of course we would need somewhere to sit. I can even understand the food bill as we all certainly enjoyed the baby back ribs, chicken, stuffed mushrooms, and Heineken. I will even give in and admit how cute the real bales of hey (purchased from a farm 20 miles away) were.....but that is my limit.

When I heard squeaking and squawking coming from near the food area I though birds were trying to get into the food. But no, that was just the sound from the baby chicks and ducklings that were purchased to enhance the barnyard theme. OK, a little over the top. Then about 1/2 way through the party I here this odd sound - clip-clop-clip-clop- coming from outside the front gate. After seeing the ducklings I should have guessed.....they hired a pony. Oh but not just one, of course with the number of kids they certainly needed two ponies. Can you believe this ponies....in urban New Jersey (just outside of Manhattan).

So long gone are the days of hamburgers, hotdogs, chips, and soda....and here are the days of baby back ribs, chicken, stuffed mushrooms, and Heineken while taking pony rides in your back yard.

After seeing this party I can't imagine what next year will bring! From now on I think I am going to stick to my regular memorial day week visit.

Check this out....

I know it probably doesn't look like much, but I am so happy. After visiting 3 different Kinkos I finally got one to try binding the chipboard for me. They had no trouble with it, and it turned out perfect.

Ever since the first Becky Higgins book I sketch all of my layouts. My scraproom is full with a million little post-it notes with layout sketches. I have more sketches than I will probably ever scrap, but I still keep sketching. In my quest to orgainze I decided to make myself a sketch book, but really wanted one with the squares already drawn. Since I could not find one on the market I decided to make my own. The book contains 50 pages the have 4 squares printed on each side. So the book is just over 1/4" thick and can hold 400 sketches.

I wanted to keep the cover flat so that I could use it like a spiral notebook and flip the cover over the back and still have it lay flat. I made this plain simple one first to make sure that I could get it bound. I plan to make another one with a more detailed (but still flat) cover.

My next task it to start tranferring my million post-it's into sketchbooks like these. Sometimes it's the little things that can make you happy.

I'm home and unpacked!!!

I am back from a week of visiting family and friends in New York. All in all it was a great trip. We got back early enough that I was able to finish unpacking, do 3 loads of laundry, open the mail, and even got a little scrapping in tonight.

One of the mail items waiting for me was issue 15 of the SBM (Scrapbook Magazine). In this issue they included samples of the new Blonde Moments paper. OMG, this stuff is just amazing. I LOVE it. Another package I got contained my pre-ordered sassafras acrylic stamps. So I played with both my new goodies using a photo I snapped of my niece this past week.

More about my trip to follow....but now it's time to go watch AI and catch up on the apprentice.

Weekend Happenings

Another fantastic weekend at home. Now that we are in the new house Jim and I are spending more and more time at home. We are just so happy we made the move. The weather has been beautiful and we are making the most our patio.

On Saturday we had to do some errands in the morning but were home by ~2:00pm. Spent a few hours outside watering the lawn and flowers. Then we just relaxed, enjoyed each others company, and talked about the remaining house upgrades that we will do over the next year or so. For dinner we cooked out on the grill and had some yummy yummy NY strips. After dinner I was able to get a little scrapping in and then started gathering materials for my Sunday project.

On Sunday I slept in a bit and then called my mom. Had to do a little work work before starting the fun part of the day. After a little more yardwork, a quick shower, and a very light lunch I got a bit more scapping in. I started work on my very first altered coin folder (for a new assignment). OMG, I am so happy with how it turned out. I immediately orderd more of them. Dinner was another night on the grill. This time we had yummy yummy kabobs - probably my favorite summer time meal. After dinner I just finished up my coin folder, and then watched the west wing finale (I am so sad to see this show go) and the first part of the Grey's Anatomy season finale (I am so glad this show will be coming back).

Tonight after work Jim and I will be packing for New York. We are taking the red eye flight after work tomorrow but there will not be enough time to pack after work. The bad news is that the weather has been icky and rainy back east and all the cool summer cloths I picked out to wear may need to be replaced with warmer duds. I am still hoping for the weather to turn around before Wed.

Christmas at the Neal's

OMG, I love these kids so much I can't stop looking at this page. I finally got my hands of the Rhonna Farrer doodling stamps and just LOVE them.

Happy Birthday Caterina

Today is my youngest niece's 1st birthday. My brother took these pictures a few weeks ago and I just got them yesterday and decided to whip out a quick layout tonight. I just can't believe that she is one already. My very best friend from grade school also has a DD celebrating her 1st birthday today (I am so excited to see both little girls next week when I am back in New York). And Wendy's precious DD turned 4 today. So it is a great day.

On top of all the special birthdays today I got a little mini-toot. I know I said I would not submit to paperART again, but I'm a sucker and I did. I needed to make a couple cards this weekend and decided to submit them. Since I am going to be giving them away next week and PaperART accepts electronic submissions I went ahead and sent them in. They picked up one of them today....best part is that I will actually be compensated for this one.

In other news, Jim and I are getting ready for our trip to NY. We leave next Tuesday and return a week later. We are both really looking forward to the time off work and I can't wait to see my family. We have an event packed week planned.

Tomorrow is Friday and we have nothing major planned for the weekend. I know we will enjoy the great weather and I should be able to get some scrapping in.

Busy, Busy, Busy...

I'm talking layouts here. I love the busy look layouts. My DH was away on business today, so I had several hours to myself tonight. I used all the time to work on this one layout. I took this shot of my dad and niece last August.

Happy Birthday Mom!

I know I have scrapped this picture before but I was never really happy with that page. Since I don't have very many pictures of my mom as a child I decided to scrap this project again. My mom's birthday was last week and thought it would be nice to post a layout for her. Happy Birthday MOM!!!

Pig Tails

I know this is not the best picture but I just had to scrap it. My little niece is a girls girl...she was so excited when her mom (my SIL) put her hair in pig tails. She hammed it up for the camera. I am so excited to see her and her brother and sister when I am back in New York for a visit in 2 weeks.

4 Years Ago Today...

Jim and I tied the knot. After 6 years of dating we finally said our "I do's". We have done so much together since this day, but at the same time if feels like just yesterday. I love him more today than I ever have before and I hope to say the same thing every year for the rest of my life.

(PS - this layout is an older one I made last year)

Yoplait Whips

Yum Yum Yummy!!!!

Have you tried Yoplait Whips? oooohhh they are delish. So light and fluffy, they just make your mouth happy. My new favorite treat - almost as good as chocolate.

Woo Hoo.....Check this out

OK, I'm tooting here.... check out Becks blog entry for today!

Becks Blog

Becks Fagg is one of the Who's who of scrapping in the UK. She is part of the editorial team at Practical Publishing, she owns and runs ScrapGenie (a sb supply distribution company), along with basically everything else in the SB world.

I was one of the very lucky people who she asked to help contribute to her new book, "Scrapbooking in a Weekend". I am seriously glad that I didn't see the list of contributors before agreeing to participate. Now I am insanely full of worry that my pages are not up to snuff. I can't wait to get my grubby little hands on a copy of that book....I should have it soon.

Another No Scrapping Weekend

This weekend we had the painters in the house again. This time they were working on the family room, sun room, and kitchen. For the sun room they had to use an oil based primer....oooohhh my does that stuff stink. The bad news is they did not finish up and need to come back today. Originally my plan was to go back into my scraproom and close the door....but the smell was just too strong. So Jim and I spent the entire weekend outside pulling weeds, trimming shrubs, and the fun part of planting flowers.

Since I didn't scrap at all this weekend, I thought I would share a few pages I did a few weeks ago. I originally made these for an assignment I am working on....but later decided to re-do these pages as they were not my favorites.

Accessibility is the key.

I am finding the best feature of my new scraproom is the accessibility of all my paper and embellies. Having so much more at my fingertips makes it so much easier for me to try new products and different styles.

In my old tiny space, my KI paper was stored underneith two other brands. I knew I had it, but when it's not staring me in the face I never thought about using it. Now this paper has it's very own tray and while I was searching for paper to match this picture it was right there saying "Pick me, pick me...." So I tried it.

This is yet another picture of my nephew at the beach last summer - using KI paper and embellies.

Did you ever have one of those weekends...

where you were actually happy to go back to work on Monday so you could finally relax? Well, that is me this weekend.

Jim and I had quite a productive weekend house wise. We had the contractors in the house all weekend to finish up the work they were doing in the family room and kitchen. Now the family room just needs a coat of paint and new carpet and it will be finished.

We also used the break in the rain on Saturday to fertilize the lawn and pull some weeds. Our yard is just full of clover and we are going to try to pull that out a little at a time. If we pulled it all at once we would have a huge patch of dirt in our front yard. Of course this involved many trips to the store and virtually took all day on Saturday

Sunday the rain was back so I was planning on scrapping most of the day. However with the constant noise and interruption of the contractors it was just impossible to focus on getting anything done. So I cleaned up my room and decided to help Jim with some garage clean up and organization. That area is still quite a mess from the move.

Last night the contractors were trying to finish up so they did not have to return today, so they stayed until well after 7:00pm. While I was so happy to finally see good progress on the family room, I was very disappointed that Jim and I did not get to share our traditional Easter dinner for two. Jim could tell I was upset about this so he promised to make us a special dinner next weekend....he is so sweet.

As we drove to work this morning I joked about finally being able to relax once we get to work. I was joking, but in many ways it's true. I really hope to squeeze some scrapping in tonight.

A little different for me....

but I really happy with this page. This Daisy D's paper collection remains one of my all time favorites and just love the dramatic look of the black. Just a quick post before going to catch up on American Idol.

ETA: These are flowers from my garden, but I can not take credit for their beauty. The previous owner left us with some treasures in the back yard.

A couple quickies

Just a couple of very quick layouts that I did last night. Not my normal detailed look but I wanted to challenge myself to do two pages in one night (after work). Not only did I do these pages but I actually started work on a 3rd one. Now I want to get home right now and finish that one up....but it will have to work until my work day is over (boo hoo). Anyway here are the 2 from last night.

Sunday Fun!

Yesterday was a great day. Danea came over to play in my new room. I so love having enough room for two people to scrap in comfort. What's even better that that in addition to our gabbing we both actually got some work done.

A few scrap observations from my play date: Heidi Swapp Fuzzy rubons are the best thing since sliced bread (seriously this is my new favorite embellie), I can't get enough of the new Crate papers, the most recent BasicGrey collections are the best so far (well maybe with the exception of sublime), and no page is complete without a little ink.

Here are the two pages I finished yesterday. The die cut flowers on the first page were inspired by Kristy W - who also has the pazzles cutter and uses these on many of her pages. The jewels on the dream page were Danea's suggestion (on the shock!)

Beach Memories

This is another picture from the same trip to the beach my niece and nephew tool last summer. This is little Sarina getting ready to build a castle. TFL.

Beach Boy

Looking at this picture almost makes me want to cry. He was just a baby 'yesterday' now he is a full fledged big boy. I am a very proud Aunt....but miss seeing baby William pictures.

I have a ton of the Heidi Swapp stuff and I'm finally getting a chance to play with it. Wow, she has some really cool stuff. TFL.

Doing the happy dance

Woo Hoo. As of yesterday afternoon the massive annual performance process my company goes through has been completed. We have finished all of our management meetings and I have written and delivered all the reviews with my engineers. In addition my boss gave me my review. Some of you who know me well know how much I hate this process...it literally takes more than two months and many many hours to complete the process. Sort of cloak and dagger sort of closed door meetings. The last step of the process is to write the performance review and give them to the employees. Woo Hoo....I am completely done until next January when we will start the process all over again.

So today I am totally doing the happy dance as I can finally get back to doing real work.