I'm outta here (just for a bit)

Heading out bright & early tomorrow morning...for sunny FLA. Just in time as our little heat wave is supposedly ending and more rain & seasonal temps are coming back. We are only going for a quick little trip...be back home on Sunday. However it is one of my favorite times to go down...I love the International Flower Show at Epcot. I am packing the laptop, so I'll pop in a few times and on Friday I'll share some of those DT projects I've been waiting to reveal.

A sunny/warm TGIF to you!

TGIF!!!!
Boy it's been a few busy weeks around here. Thankfully the sun is shining and the temperatures are rising. The forecast for the weekend is actually HOT & sunny. Just getting in from "picture day" for the upcoming dance recital in June. (2 costumes and numerous poses) Tomorrow is the last day for Rec. soccer afterwards I plan on trying to find stuff to do outside so we can enjoy the weather (it's also Dan's birthday...but he's teaching a class for most of the day) Sunday afternoon is an away soccer game...then the countdown can officially begin for our getaway. Wednesday we leave for a little mini vacation to WDW!!! As of right now our only planned vacation for the rest of the year( will have to think about that :wink:)

The June kits are up for preview over on the Coordinates Collections blog....I have chosen kit #2 (it doesnt have a name yet.) It should arrive shortly after my return from WDW (I'm sure I'll have a few pictures to scrap)


Some fun products from Jillibean Soup, American Crafts, Prima, and Sei for starters. I can't wait to play with it!

Now in just one more week I can reveal all of the fun stuff I created with the Lemonade kit...for now here's another peek to wet your whistle...



Well that's all I've got for now....happy weekend :)

Busy, busy....

That's what I've been. The rain did go away for a couple of days anyway (apparently it will be coming back tonight or tomorrow :( ) Yesterday was B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L...just a perfect late spring day. This is what we did in the morning....



Then we came home and did stuff around the house. It was even nice enough to have lunch out on the deck. We also went out to a local wildlife/garden center....our koi were coming out of their winter hibernation and were HUNGRY, so we picked up some food for them.

Well the inspiration I'm getting from the May "Lemonade" kit over at Coordinates Collections seems to be almost unlimited. I've stayed up late the past 2 nights cranking out projects. As it stands right now I have 4 layouts, 3 cards, and 1 altered project. I'm sorry I didn't buy the cardstock addon this month. From my personal stash I added in 3 blue notecards and a piece of white, black and kraft cardstock. I think if you keep these 3 colors on hand you can really stretch any kit to the max. Talk about stretching...all but one paper in the kit and one in the pattern paper addon are double sided! ( I did pickup the pattern paper addon this month) Doulble-sided papers really do give you more bang for the buck. With all that I've created I still have plenty of pattern papers left...if only I had more free time.

Okay speaking of the pattern paper addon.... I was totally scared of this piece of paper....



...and do you know that I have almost completely used it up???? ( I am completely shocked, I only have a few small pieces left!) On my first layout I used that cool "graph type" paper (you can see in my 1st sneek I posted). Then I did another layout that uses a big piece of the front side. You never know where inspiration may lead you.

Anyway that's about it for now. I have to go jump in the shower before todays soccer games (Yes I said games...one scheduled & one makeup from a rainout a few weeks ago) The first is an away game and the second is at home. We won't be done soccer until about 6:30pm tonight.

Hope you are all having a great weekend!

Rain, rain , go AWAY!

It's been raining since Monday night and the wind is a blowing...today I had to venture out to go to work...it was nasty! The forecast is for sun to arrive sometime tomorrow and warm temps by Friday. (Fingers crossed this will happen)

Well here's another peek at something from the May "Lemonade" kit over at Coordinates Collections...



I had this cute little nest with the greens around it in a closet (it was bought last spring with the intentions of making something...it didn't happen :wink:). So when I saw that cute little bird stamp (Daisy Bucket) in the kit it was resurrected from the closet. I stamped the bird in brown on some white cardstock, colored with pencils, added a black rhinestone for the eye and placed her in the nest. Hmmmm....what could this project be???? Only 15 days until I can reveal it.

Stay tuned....

A day late...

but as I promised I have some things to share.

First for those of you with a sweet tooth...the cheesecake was delicious! I will definitely be making that one again. Next time I may tweek the filling layer...to have a bit more raspberry in the middle layer. The only thing that didn't work (totally not my fault) was that the fresh raspberries I bought to use as a garnish were totally moldy when I went to wash them...grrr!

Anyway Sunday was a beautifully glorious day....the sun was shining but a bit on the cool side. We drove up to PA to celebrate Easter with my family and to have the traditional egg hunt at my parents house. Each child was told that they could go out and collect 25 eggs and then there were another 20 saved for the 2 year old twins to find when they arrived. So everyone races out into the backyard and it's a whirlwind of children zipping around gathering eggs...



That's Fritz rounding a big planting area that always hides quite a few eggs. Everyone has their favorite spots to hit out in the yard.



Periodically when you think you've reached your limit you have to stop and count what you have in your basket.



Then when it's all said and done with you have quite the haul. It never fails that every year we come up short an egg or two. This year all but 1 egg was found...apparently the squirrels in the area look forward to Easter just as much as the kids. In a week or 2 my father will find the egg when he mows the grass and it usually is empty and in a location other than where it was normally hidden.

Now on to the scrappy stuff. Wow this kit is fun!!!
So far I have 2 layouts and an altered item done and still a few more things planned out.
Here's a little sneek of my 1st layout....



The kraft cardstock is from my stash, the cream/blue paper on the left is from the paper addon and you can just see a bit of a Jillibean Journaling sprout on the right. Jamie has the red ones listed as a kit addon, but I'm also recommending the brown. Like I said I have 3 projects done and 2 of them have brown journaling sprouts and one has red. This layout kinda has an "Ali-esque" type design to it. Not my usual but I had fun with it.

Stay tuned....I may share some more sneeks later in the week.

{creative}

It's weird how a word just keeps cropping up over and over. I read an article early this week on creativity and then I received my kit in the mail this week and inside was a canvas tag by Prima that said "create". Then while sorting thru some old pictures I found this painting I did in 1st grade (a very long time ago...you can even see by the curves in my bus. They use to be rounder in design...now the ones my kids ride are very boxy) This was my very 1st art show and I won 3rd place out of all the 1st graders.



Art was a very big part of my education ( I went to a high school which had an "Art Major" program...so in addition to taking my regular college prep classes I also had an Art period every day. This got me to thinking about how I have always led a creative life. However it's not just the painting & drawing and obviously now scrapbooking. There are other things in life that I enjoy that can be considered "creative". Take gardening....thru plant color/selection and hardscaping(pots, rocks, etc.) I am creating a work of art in my yard or patio/deck. Cooking is creating with food creating a work of art that can be both beautiful to the eye and appealing to the taste buds. Those are just a few of the things that have popped into my mind on this idea.

So with this in mind it has been a rather creative day around our home. (Perfect on a rainy Saturday) I hard boiled eggs and let the kids have fun coloring them.



Then I got creative in the kitchen. This years Easter dessert will be a "White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake.



It smells so good...it will be agonizing waiting until tomorrow afternoon for a taste. I also got busy preparing the ingredients for homemade fajitas tonight.

In addition to all this I have been playing with the scrumptious "Lemonade Kit" over at Coordinates Collections. My first layout is about what else but ....my creatvity.

Hope you all have a Happy Easter. Hopefully I'll have some pictures, a peek at my 1st layout and I will report on how the dessert tasted on Monday.

A chance to win a Kit!!!

Well actually there are 3 kits up for grabs! Just check out these blogs.
Kelly Goree has both of the April kits up for grabs on her blog (the "Puddles" & "Petals" kits).
Both of these fantastic kits feature some of the new Basic Grey papers. You have until 11:59pm tonight to leave a comment on her blog. Then over on the Pink Paislee blog they are giving away one of the "Puddles" kits (my favorite...it has all that great PP "fetching" goodness in it). They also posted one of my layouts on their blog as an example from the kit! Hop on over today...they'll pick a winner tomorrow.

Well I'm off to the grocery store. Besides the regular groceries I need to buy the ingredients for a dessert I'm making for Easter. More on that later!

Waiting patiently

for this to arrive....



This is the preview of one of the May kits over at Coordinates Collections. I can't wait to play with it. I'm also waiting for this weather to change. Between the winds and the barometric pressure I've been suffering from some pretty nasty headaches...especially last Friday and Saturday! At times I could barely think straight... I tried reading my book and just couldn't on Saturday..ended up taking meds and lying down. (Something I hardly ever do during the day)

Sunday I still had a bit of a headache and had to drive appox 1 hr each direction to Fritz's game. Well worth it...the game was won and he scored his 1st goal since he started playing traveling soccer. We also got to visit with a family who had to move out of the area ( they now live close to where our game was) and we'll get to see them again at another game later this month.

Only 2 more days of work and school. We have Spring Break next week. I took off Mon/Tues and Dan has off wed/Thurs...then works Fri night. Trying to decide what to make for the Easter meal in PA and trying to decide if I want to do the Egg Hunt on the beach again this Saturday(remember last years pictures of all those eggs on the beach???) At least Easter is later this year...hoping we won't be waiting for the hunt to start in a mini sleet storm like last year with some of those silly people wearing shorts & flipflops just because they are visiting a shore town.

Well now I'm just rambling so I call it a post and end now.

{You}

Well actually it's me, but the name of the contest is "YOU". Every month Coordinates Collections has a contest and this month it is called "You". Actually I'm the one who came up with the idea for the contest and the prize this month is..."$50 in scrapping supplies. Would you like a chance to win??? Here's the contest info....

• Upload entries to the "Contests and Challenges" section of the CC Gallery by April 30th at 11:59 PST.
• Put the name of the contest in your title
• Post a link of that project into the thread for that contest on the Message Board

Let's learn a little something about each other. Please share will all your friends here at Coordinates Collections a little-known fact about yourself. All you have to do is create a layout highlighting what you want to share. It can be something totally serious like a medical condition, how you put yourself through school, religious beliefs, etc. Or you can go for something fun and quirky. Do you sleep with socks on? Do you only eat based on food color? (I have a friend who won't eat anything green!) Are you addicted to trashy romance novels? Okay, so you get the idea. Now get scrapping! When you're done this contest will make a great addition to your 'book of me' album.

Winner will receive $50 IN SCRAP SUPPLIES! Winner will be determined by a random drawing and announced on the CC Message Board. There's no limit to the number of entries, but you'll only be entered for the prize once.

So that's the contest info and here's the layout I just did. Of course I'm not eligible for the prize but I decided to do one anyway.



As a child I couldn't stand going to the beach. I would drive my mother crazy always wanting to change bathingsuits because I couldn't stand the feel of the sand on my skin!!! Later I just didn't go to the beach. Finally in my teens I changed my mind. Now I love going to the beach!

Anyway lots of fun stuff on this layout...Pattern Papers, chipboard letters"Yuck", and butterfly are Pink Paislee (I mixed the captivating and fetching lines), Hambly transparency; Thickers "sand?"; flowers: Prima & cardstock diecuts; Buttons: Basic Grey; Chipboard Circle & Felt: Fancy Pants; Label Stickers: Fontwerks.

Hope to see some fun "You" layouts in the CC gallery soon!

It's a beautiful day here in South Jersey (if you are out of the wind) This mornings soccer game was won, mailed Andrea her prize package from the little giveaway I had here on the blog, put together this layout, laundry is in progress, now I think I'm going out to read my book in the sunshine for a bit. (I have a nice sunny out of the wind spot in mind).

Talk later.

As promised I'm posting again today.

Finally I can reveal my projects! It has been hard keeping them underwraps all this time. I know I've said it before, but I will say it again anyway....I LOVED this kit!

It had something to do with this piece of pattern paper "Spirited" from the FETCHING collection by Pink Paislee.



The moment I saw it at CHA I was in LOVE. Then when we started building a kit around it, I could hardly control myself. :wink: I actually used parts of this paper on 3 different projects this month. (2 layouts & a card) Here is my favorite layout this month....



It was so easy cutting the circles...you could just use the print as guides for your circle sizes. To give the layout more dimension, I mounted some of the circles with "pop-dots" or foam tape. Everything here is from the kit and the "sticker book" add-on. (I already professed my love for these in prior posts. Here is one more layout using some of the Basic Grey Marakesh papers in the kit (and Pink Paislee of course) The kraft cardstock was added from my own stash.



The rest of my projects are posted in the gallery over at Coordinates Collections
Don't be alarmed if you check the site and it seems a bit different...The logo and colors are being changed and right now the MB has been upgraded, but the logo and colors haven't been added yet (that may be happening today)

Okay 2 posts in one day is enough for me...got to get the prep work for dinner done and then drop off at soccer practice.

No Foolin...we have a WINNER!!!

Yep, just a quick post to let you know who the winner is.

Congrats to ANDREA!!!!!
Love your blog and your design team work at CC! Anyway, I am obsessed with journaling blocks right now. Patterned paper and thickers have always been favorites as well!

Please either PM over at CC or if you want leave your addy here so I can get your prize off to you later in the week.

I'll be back later today to post this months projects and a few details...stay tuned.