It's been a lazy weekend for us

after a busy couple of weeks visiting with out-of-town family and then having soccer camp this is what the kids did yesterday:



and will probably do more of the same today. As for me I've been busy doing laundry and other neglected household chores. Even managed to do some "tossing" of unused forgotten items. (One large garbage bag left the house today...why does that feel so good?) We seem to accumulate lots of "clutter" to the point where it drives me insane then I go on a rampage through the house tossing items.

The main area which needed cleaning was my scraproom. I had this months kit leftovers & last months sponsor items from Coordinates Collections on my work area along with the leftovers from my "Doodlebug" DT project for the Scrapbook Cafe & some new DT stuff and other items I picked up on my last visit. Can you say a disaster? I also purged a pack of really old papers that I would probably never used...they have now made it into the kids craft bin. Ahh...finally some semblance of order up there. On scrappy news I agonized all day Friday on what kit to pick for August. Here are partial peeks of the choices:

Kit #1


Kit #2


Aren't they fantastic? Kit #2 (they haven't been named yet) is more of the colors I'm drawn too, but I feel like I've been scrapping alot along those lines lately. So using that logic I went with Kit #1. I see some fun WRMK stuff, Prima, and Cosmo Cricket stuff. (Plus I know of a few more goodies that will be in the kit ) Since I love Kit #2 SO much...I think I'm going to buy it for myself to enjoy too!


Don't forget to stop over to Pat's Blog to see this weeks Saturday Night Challenge. Our guest DT member Robyn came up this weeks challenge. It's a fun little Pocket Mini-Album.

Yikes! It's been a week...

since my last post. The last 2 weeks have been a whirlwind with family in town visiting and then this past week the kids have had soccer camp. I've barely been home (the growing pile of laundry can back me up on that :wink:). Today, the final day of camp, was only a half day. I managed to take the day off (no more vacations for me until at least September) so after camp we went in and spent a few hours at the beach. It was so very hot & humid but that water.....was C-O-L-D! I only went in up to my knees and my toes were numb from the cold. Of course my kids were in boogey boarding and swimming. Somehow oblivious to the cold water.

Tomorrow we're staying home. I need to get my projects for Coordinates Collections emailed off to Jamie and just catch up around the house. It's suppose to be another hot one so I think we'll just relax by the pool in the afternoon.

We'll call this the update post

Okay scrappy updates/answers to your burning questions...

Sarah..Yes, I think you might "need" the "Sunny Days" kit too. :wink: Bright fun colors just like the name implies. But some of the doublesided papers have a darker side. Not sure how much of it I can give away without upsetting Jamie. As for the Doodlebug "crushed velvet" papers...I just cut them with scissors. (The inside of the heart was cut with my xacto...you know how I love that :wink: )

Pat...Both the photo corner and heart are chipboard pieces, from the "Every Elements" set by Fancy Pants (I think we ordered them in our CHA order) I just glued the chipboard to the paper and cut out.

Soccer update...We just got word today that he made the traveling team. Starting in September I'll be traveling. Mostly in Southern NJ, but I know there are a few tournaments in PA & MD that the teams have attended in the past. Please remind me in the fall when I'm tired of traveling that I was excited for him in June...okay?

Book update...I'm about halfway thru "Change of Heart". Safe to say that I'm to the point that I can't put it down. After dinner tonight there will be no scrapping...I have to finish the book. Quite possibly it will happen tonight. "The boys" went to a Phillies game and "the girls" are home. Apparently Disney has a movie on tonight "Camp Rock" that is a must see for girls (Jonas Brothers) so I think I'll be left to enjoy my book.

Well I did both(that means there's a sneek peek)

Yep, before I let myself start "Change of Heart" I went upstairs and did my 1st LO using the fab "Sunny Days" July kit from Coordinates Collections. Then I proceeded to start reading the book. Before I knew it, it was midnight! (Told you once I picked it up....)


So anyway that's what I did tonight too. I made dinner for the kids then after we finished eatting and I cleaned up I went up to scrap a bit. I already had an idea for my DT project at Scrapbook Cafe. It was a pretty simple design scheme and I was uninterupted (hard to believe) so I finished that. Now after this post and a little surfingthe net I settle down for a few hours with my book. Life is GOOD!

Now for you my friends.....

Here's a little sneek of the "Sunny Days" kit:




and here's a look at what I whipped up for my DT project at the Scrapbook Cafe.



We were to use some of the Yummy Doodlebug "Crushed Velvet" papers for this months project.

I took a sheet of the "cupcake" & "lavendar" papers.

This picture really doesn't do it justice...because that white photo mat is actually a white piece of Doodlebug "sugar coated" paper. It didn't scan very well and since it's now dark here I couldn't go outside to try for better pictures. You'll have to trust me when I say it's got a nice sparkle to it. :wink: Added along the bottom of the scallop are small pink Kaiser rhinestones & another Kaiser rhinestone is added to the center of the Prima flower.
The only thing on this layout not from the Cafe are the Doodlebug "Loopy Lou's". Papers & rhinestones are currently available ...not sure about the Primas or the Fancy Pants chipboard.

You may remember the picture... I posted it a couple of weeks ago. The one I found on my camera...proudly taken by the owner of those new crocs. Yeah, I know the "croc" thing was a bit over done a while ago, but I had to scrap it anyway. :wink:

Have a nice evening...I'm curling up shortly with a good book!

It's wednesday night & I'm home alone...

Can you believe it? Dan's at work and the kids are spending the night with their grandmother in at the beach. (This way they can get up and go straight to the beach) It's official I now have a future 2nd grader & 5th grader...today was their last day and both brought home stellar report cards.

So what am I doing with my "free" night you might ask. Well let see...today was my early day out of work so since I had no parental responsibilites I headed straight to the Scrapbook Cafe (It had been a month since my last visit...gasp!) I picked up some stuff for 2 different DT projects and brought home some other goodies. I spent about an hour browsing and talking with Angela...how nice. (Nobody nagging me for stickers or asking if we were leaving yet) While there she mentioned the crop the end of this month and then some classes being offered in July. I know I can't do the crop, but the classes in July sound like fun. I'm actually going to try to do them.

Now that I'm home I had a quick bite to eat and printed out some pictures. One for my layout using the new Doodlebug flocked papers (a SB Cafe DT project) and then a few pictures for a layout that was immediately inspired by some of the papers from the "Sunny Days" kit over at CC. Let me tell you that box was a welcome sight on Monday when I got home. Let me tell you right now that it is just AWESOME. (If you picked this as your June selection you wont be sorry!) Moments ago while printing pictures I had another flash of inspiration for this kit...will mull it over for awhile, whilst I work on the other layouts.

So.....that brings me to a dilema. Do I go back to scrapping after I finish surfing the net or do I take the night and enjoy the new Jodi Picoult book..."Change of Heart"? (A co-worker just gave it to me today) Decisions, decisions...I know if I start the book right now I probably won't go back to scrapping until the book is finished. lol So.......

I'll let you know later how I spent this evening alone.

Recital '08

I think this layout says it all...






A mix of pictures from rehersal and backstage both nights. Surprisingly it's one of the few 2pagers that I actually like when I've completed it. (The bottom of the LO was actually cutoff in the scan, it's actually a full circle and is about 1/4" off the bottom of the page) Supplies:Pattern Paper & Thickers: American Crafts; Rubons: Heidi Swapp & Basic Grey; Chipboard Stars: Lil Davis & Imagination Project (painted & covered in Stickles); and Rhinestones for some extra bling.

Now I need to clean up the mess. I actually started this layout right on top of my Making Memories mess from last months DT projects at Coordinates Collections. Have to get ready to do this months projects (the box of goodies is enroute to my house right now) Speaking of projects I really have to get to the Scrapbook Cafe to pickup stuff. (and do a little shopping :wink:) Was all set to go today, but I just saw that Angela was going to a crop today (she won't be at the store) and I wanted to talk to her...so I will have to pick a time and coordinate schedules with her.

The weather has finally cooled off a bit (more tolerable & fun to be outsside again). My MIL is here from South Carolina for 2 weeks. She rents a condo in Ocean City, so the kids will be spending some of their 1st days out of school at the beach. A great way to start the summer.

Well it's off to do some household chores....

It's still HOT!

Unless you are near the ocean (gotta love that ocean breeze) it just sucks the life out of you! So hot that at 6:30am in the morning yesterday my phone rings...Fritz's school...only a half day because of the heat. (His building has no central air) When he arrives home he has a letter stating that the entire district will be 1/2 days until the end of the year...appearently it's taxing the systems in the buildings with air. Despite all this...right now he is at tryouts for "traveling" soccer. They already put the boys thru an hour of tryouts on Saturday in this heat, but after tonight we should know who makes it for the 2008-2009 team. I hope he makes it (even though some coldy rainy weekend in the fall I'll be regreting this statement) but if not he'll still play in the rec program.

Dan got home yesterday and we've just been taking it easy,no exciting plans for this week. The Miss NJ parade is being held tomorrow up on the boardwalk...I've heard a rumor that the contestants are all going to be dressed as "Princesses" so I may take Becca over to watch.

On scrappy news...I'm in the midst of doing a 2page spread! I'm not usually comfortable doing 2pagers...but I had a"vision" over the weekend and so last night I laid out the basics. (thankgoodness for my BG mat...now I only wish they made it bigger for 2 pagers) So far I like what I've got going on...may sneak up to the scraproom later tonight and see if I can keep the "vision" on track.

Okay another heat related story...I'm sitting here listening to the fire scanner. It's so hot they opened the drawbridge (the "draw" part is metal grate) that it expanded do to the heat...now it can't be closed. The fire company has to be dispatched to pump water on it to cool it down. FYI this is the 3rd day in a row this has happened. Stay cool all my east coast friends and Lisa if you are reading...SNOW??? You're kidding me right???!

This is a first...

I actually did the Saturday Night Challenge on Saturday night! Let me first say I do not own a huge collection of stamps and what I do have are mostly words/alphas. So pulling out what shapes I did have, I started brainstorming. I finally settled on a pacakage of Basic Grey Christmas stamps as my starting point. Here's a look at the 3 sets of stamps I used in my card:





Now I know my idea isn't that far out of the box but I started with the 2 large snowflake stamps and stamped them onto white cardstock using ColorBox Chalk ink in Dark Peony. Then in ColorBox Chalk ink in Pink Pastel I stamped a smaller snowflakes around the larger ones. From there I drew in leaves and stems with a colored pencil...lighting outlining in a black fine tip journaling pen. In the bottom right corner I stamped the Autumn Leaves Ledger stamp...being careful not to apply ink to the bottom portion. From the "Friends" set by Technique Tuesday I used the word "You" and overlapped this over the previous stamp. I penned in the word "for" with a Zig marker. I then mounted the white cardstock onto a card made from kraft cardstock. To add a little sparkle I placed Kaiser rhinestones to the centers of the big snowflakes/flowers.



So that's it a flowered card made from snowflake stamps...like I said it's not real far out of the box :wink:

So it's suppose to be another scorcher today. I don't mind the heat but that humidity has got to go. Last night after we got home from soccer tryouts I finally broke down and put the air on. On the way home my car thermometer still said 95 & that was @ 6:30pm. I then heard on the weather that factoring in the humidity the heat index was about 105. Just a litlle uncomfortable for me. Today will either be spent in the pool or possibly inside watching baseball or a Nascar race (that's where Dan is this weekend) If you're in this heat wave I hope you are all staying cool. Maybe scrapping???

Finally Friday!

It's Friday night, I'm home and I'm doing absolutely nothing and it feels good!

Both nights of dance went off without a hitch. Wednesday night was a bit stressful and hot (...the backstage thermostat was set at 85 deg. and it got quite warm before anyone figured it out!) Last night I was able to sit back, relax and enjoy the show. Man some of those girls can dance!

It's suppose to be a hot sunny weekend and we only have "traveling" soccer tryouts on Saturday...other than that I think we are just going to "chill out" at home. Maybe, just maybe I might make it to the Cafe or just do a little fun scrapping for myself.

Dance,dance and still more dance...

As the Mom of a dancer that is my life this week. Yesterday it involved about 4 hours of my day...dress rehersal day. Tonight is a performance and I'm helping out backstage and then Thursday night I actually get to sit in the audience and enjoy the show. I took a bunch of pictures yesterday and was actually trying to play with the manual settings on my camera (practice makes perfect right?) Most of them are far from perfect( actually downright ready to be deleted) but I have some I can work with. I thought I'd share some with you...

Her 1st number is a tap number to the song "Hey Mickey" (cheerleader costume)

her side of the stage lined up to start (she's the 2nd in line from front)

a slightly blurry pic... pom-pom's high in the air

Even though this is totally out of focus...I love it!

I guess because it shows the motion and energy?

Okay next number is a jazz routine done to "I can't dance". For all of you who hav e been subjected to the High School Musical craze this is from HSM2...the baseball field dance. Hence her baseball costume :wink:

there she is in the back row....

a closeup that actually turned out pretty good!

so that is what I'm up to this week. Busy, busy busy no time for creating...just being there for one of my kids. Hopefully this weekend I can find some time to do something with a few of these pictures.

June 1st can you believe it?

I'm having trouble believing it's June already...time just flying by. It is the 1st of the month so I have projects to post over at Coordinates Collections and the full kit previews should be up; but I'm not able to connect (not sure if it's me or if the site has gone down,either way kinda bummed)

So otherwise I'm just hanging out this weekend. Dan's working all weekend and I have lots of household chores to do. Yesterday I went grocery shopping...kinda had sticker shock when I left. I'm not buying anymore than usual and am actually trying to take advantage of sale items, but that grocery bill just keeps climbing. And after all that when I got home I realized I forgot to buy laundry detergent!!!! grrr...I deperately need this item since I ran out last weekend in the middle of doing the weekly laundry. So I'll be heading out the door soon to pickup detergent. I really wanted to go to the Scrapbook Cafe today, but with all the laundry and the price of gas I'm just not sure. (besides I'd have to drag the kids with me and you all know how happy that makes the kids...especially the boys)

Anyway Pat posted the challenge last night.....it's"RED" . Got to think about this one...not a color I usually use. Other good news we picked our first guest designer for the Cafe...congrats Robyn!

If you've made it this far I'm sorry for the ramblings and I'll call it a post. Have a good one!