Mi Vida Ocupada: My Busy Life!

Some new scrappies.....

Scrapfabulous Saturday!!

Look who is back with some scrapbookin' action!!!!

 

Labor Day Scrappies.....

I sat down and scrapped for awhile on Monday, something I haven't done in months! I think I am more motivated to get back into the craft again :)

Anyone want to get together for a scrap night in a few weeks?????

 

Lots of Layouts....

These are all of my personal pages I did this past weekend.  I also did a two-pager for Erin and a single page LO for Michelle that I did not scan...

This is one of my favorites....

This next batch are all the ones I did for myself on the 2nd day....

 

And another of my favorites...

This one scanned like crap because there are big gaudy rhinestones across the bottom of the page....

 

And there ya have 'em!

Scrapulous....

Sickly scrappies

I am sick again.  Dang it!!!
The crap is still in my head and has also moved down to my chest :(

I scanned in a few scrappies I did this week....

This one is for Annika's album....

Going to do some homework and take it easy until later this afternoon when I have Bennett's baptism.  Wish I felt better!

National Scrap Day: 2008 Version

Scrapa-dappy-do

My homework was neglected this week because I decided its just so much more fun to scrap :)

It hasn't stopped snowing all day, so I scrapped.

Its been snowing since I woke up this morning.
Other than a big trip to the grocery store, I pretty much scrapped and worked around the house all day :)
I also organized some of my scrap stuff.  I found a ton of embellishments from kits I've bought from noelmignon.com,  but I am just not good at using them on my layouts.  Gonna try to incorporate what I have into future layouts and give some to Michelle or a friend and see if they can use them.

I know today was my first day off for spring break, but I swear it feels like the week is already over.  Time goes way too fast and a week is hardly any time in the grand scheme of things, is it? So many things I want to accomplish this week (things to do and people to see) and I just won't have nearly enough hours......

New Layouts & glitter footprints

I scrapped for a little while on Saturday night, these are the layouts I put together.....

I added the black borders so that you could see the white paper on the white blog background.
The title in the first one got screwed up...as I was letting the glue pen dry, I left the room for a little while.  Came back and discovered that one of my cats (Pharaoh), walked over the layout and then walked across the dining room table, leaving little glitter footprints everywhere.  Little shit! I also discovered that same day that his new favorite place to warm up and take a nap is on top of my laptop keyboard (I never shut the lid).  I am not even kidding! Pharaoh is a tiny cat and is also a freeze baby, so I guess he figured the laptop was a nice warm place to sleep.  I was wondering what the heck happened to my "s" key....it has been acting funny for the past week or so...now I know!

A Sore Shoulder, Ethan Frome & More layouts :)

My shoulder has been hurting something awful.  Its the muscle between my neck and my shoulder that is really painful.  Probably from carrying too many things back and forth between my schools.  I was so miserable that I took Friday off of work so that I could rest, put heat on it  and take some medication.  I spent the entire day and night laying on the sofa, reading Ethan Frome and typing an essay for my literature class. 

The rest helped quite a bit and my shoulder didn't really hurt as much today.  I spent most of  today scrapping......its great to see my stack of layouts-to-create get smaller :) These scans just don't do these layouts justice.....
My favorite thing to do while scrapping is watch TV episodes online at www.abc.com. Its funny because I am not a Tv person usually, but its nice to have something to do while I scrap. My new favorite shows are Eli Stone and Samantha Who?

Today was a really beautiful day so we took a drive through the country and grilled steaks for dinner. I can feel spring coming and I love it!

Huck Finn & a couple more layouts....

I finally finished my essay for Huck Finn.  Just how exciting do you think it is to analyze Twain's criticisms of society and document evidence through out the book?  My Lit class is wayyyyyy too much work for a 3 credit undergrad class!!!  I only have 3 lessons done out of 15 (plus a midterm and final).  I hate this and cannot wait to be finished!!!

To congratulate myself on getting it finished, I scrapped for a couple of hours.  I am officially done with 2007 pics!

Productive Day....

I had planned on doing nothing today but relax....of course that didn't happen!
I scrapped for about four hours this morning/afternoon and then spent the evening cleaning the house from top to bottom and several loads of laundry.

Now I can relax!

Here's the layouts.  I have noticed that I almost always go for black/brown/white backgrounds these days.

I am making good progress on my stack of layouts-to-create.  Next will be Christmas!

Now if only I could finish my $^%$^^ essay on Huckleberry Finn.  I've been reading the dang book for like 5 weeks now!

For fun :)

Its an absolute miracle, my friends.

I completed and submitted Lesson #1 for my LSU literature course.  It is absolutely ridiculous how long it took me to answer 4 stupid questions.  I sit here and stared and cursed at my computer so many times as I tried to "analyze" the stories.  I hate it, I hate it I hate it.
When I finally finished I treated myself to some scrappy time :)

This first one is for a challenge at Greta, Simone and Elizabeth's challenge blog : Scrap your crap.  The challenege was to use a holiday paper on a non-holiday layout.  Used up my pretty new Valentine paper for this birthday back in November!

Scraptastic Saturday.....

I spent as much time studying on Saturday as I did on these Layouts, yet I seemed to be more productive with these :) I am slowly working on October/November.....whew!!

Scrapalicious....

Found a few hours on Friday to sneak in a couple of layouts.  This makes me caught up through Labor Day....yikes....good thing I didn't go out much last Fall!! I only have about 10-15 layouts in my "to do" pile.  No prob, right!? Ha! School starts back up again in a few weeks!

Whoa! I scrapped....

Its been months and I may have lost some of my "touch", but I got a wild hair to start scrappin at 11pm last night!

Oops, just realized I switched the pages on the last layout when putting the photos together, the title should be on the first page.
I have a least a million more pages to do, but hopefully Michelle and I will be able to scrap together some time this month.  We both got new Cricut fonts for Christmas!

Happy Scrappy!

I finished up one of my "smaller" math assignments last night and decided I needed deserved some time to break out my scrap stuff and get creating! These are my first creations in TWO MONTHS.  Sorry about the crappy scans....

Scrappies.

I sat down and forced myself to scrap tonight.  I have had no motivation or creativity lately.  I'm not really loving any of these layouts I did :(

I like this one the best of the three:

Diggin' Scallops....

Bazzill with scallops, that is!! My Friday night creations.......

and this one is for Annika's album (so much cuter IRL)....

Prayers and getting my mind off things :)

Yesterday was such a sad day.  Not only was it really depressing watching the news coverage of the bridge collapse, but I also got bad news from a couple of my friends (all unrelated to the bridge event). 

**Please say prayers for the young dad in my hometown who took his own life on Monday and left behind a wife and 1 1/2 year old daughter.  His friends and family are hurting really badly right now.

**Please say prayers for a friend of mine whose domestic partner was hit and dragged for hundreds of feet under a car while working in New Jersey a few weeks ago.  He is now off life support but is going to need a long time to recover from all of the injuries.

**Please say a prayer for one of my college roomates who is now 34 weeks pregnant and suffering from a large cyst on her ovary and pre-term labor.  She has been in/out of the hospital for the past six weeks and has been on bedrest for awhile now.  Pray that she makes it another couple of weeks before giving birth.

**Please continue to say prayers for all the people affected by the bridge collapse here in Minneapolis.

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To get my mind off this bad stuff, I spent quite some time yesterday with my scrap stuff :)

This is the layout I made at Archiver's the other night.  I added the pics and lettering, this one is for Annika's album.  I had no idea what pics I was going to add when I first made the page, and the only letter we could put on our layout was the "F".  Doesn't go very well with "Easter", but oh well!

Using up most of my Love, Elsie stuff....

The pretty silk flowers (behind the paper ones) on this one were a gift to me from Sarah (birthday present) and this was the perfect LO to use them on! The right page is based on this sketch.

Going to scrap much more tonight when some of the girls come over!

I really scrapped!

This top one is my own design...Is it taboo/unpatriotic to do a 4th of July page that is not red, white & blue? Those colors just didn't work well with the sunset in the pic!

This bottom is a scraplift of Jamie Harper's LO on page 84 of the Sept 07 issue of Creating Keepsakes Magazine

6 hours of scrappin'

I sat down to scrap last night and about 6 hours later I had a whole stack of scrappies :)

(***I am sure everyone already knows this, but you can click on any picture to make it bigger.  You can also save pictures to your computer by right clicking and then save as)

This layout is based loosely on this sketch

The left side of this Prince layout was inspired by this layout from Luvscrappin

This layout was inspired by this layout by Bonbitz

Productive....

Crankin out the scrappies :)

Would you believe I am all caught up with my photos???!!!

I did this one for Annika's album :)

Friday night scrappies....

Michelle and I got togetehr on Friday night to do a little scrappin :)  I somehow managed to crank these two out, despite the fact that I wasn't feeling that great.  ( I have been having dizzy spells every day for the past week).

Saturday scrappies and sweets....

Saturday was a pretty leisurely day.  I got up early and went shopping and to lunch with Lanee.  We tried a new place called Jake's Grille....I will be writing the review sometime this week, but we both really liked it :)

Spent the entire afternoon scrapping my brains out:

I nearly forgot it was my cousin Kevin's graduation party Saturday night until Michelle reminded me.  I had no other plans for the evening so I went to the party for about an hour....they were serving desserts.  These were all made by my aunt Chris, so delicious!

Annika spent some time playing with our cousin's new puppy.  Nothing like sweet puppy kisses!

Watched Night at the Museum (cute!) and Nacho Libre (stupid!) on Saturday night when I got home.

Its hotter than heck out right now, but I am going to have lunch and boating with the family.  I am going to see Dir en Grey and Deftones tonight :)

Happy Father's Day!

Memorial Weekend!

Wow, I LOVE long weekends! Especially when there is a lot going on like there was this weekend :)

Friday night I went downtown Mpls. to see Static X at First Avenue.  Fun stuff! These guys are always good for an ass-kickin good time.  The only thing I totally hate about these type of shows is that there are too many BIG, sweaty, stinky guys everywhere.  I always try to stick by E but he always makes his way to the stage and I end up making my way to the back of the floor where I won't get pushed around.  Same story this time!

On Saturday we had a party up at my parents house with my mom's side of the family.  My cousin Tyler was in town from Chicago and his mom flew in from Tucson to surprise him.  He was totally surprised!! Gotta love it.  The weather was better than it the forecast predicted, so we were able to do many fun things outdoors.  I was only able to take a few pics (that didn't require flash) with my own camera, but I took a ton with Bri & Mich's Rebel.  Here are a couple taken with my camera. 

Tyler (who obviously was NOT smiling in this pic) and me sitting on the boat down at the marina.

My Aunt Connie with Bianca (who is getting so big at 4 months old!)

and my cousin Mackenzie with this adorable little 9-week-old weiner-dog puppy that belonged to my cousin David.

It was great to see some of my cousins...a few I hadn't seen in three years!

Later Saturday night I watched the movie, Apocalypto.  WOW.  Very good movie, but hard to watch some parts because it is so brutal.

Got some time in the sun on Sunday afternoon (which was the best weather of the weekend)....I  went swimming and to a BBQ.  Later that night so went back up to my parents house for dinner and to spend more time with Connie and Tyler while they were here.  My gram and gramp were up there too, so we enjoyed dinner, went for a walk and then had a bonfire overlooking the lake.  I love sitting by the fire!

On Monday I lounged around and then went out to eat.  I scrapped later that night.  I wish you could see how cool these American Craft glitter alpha rub-ons look IRL! (You can click on any pic to make it bigger).Oh, and does anyone have any great ideas for a journaling pen that writes on transparencies???

Hope everyone had a nice and safe weekend!

Fishing Opener Trophies....

Ha ha! Did I getcha with the title of this post?  It wasn't me, but rather a friend who was up at dawn this morning for the fishing opener.  I figured I might as well get a little scrappin' done while he was out :)

I love how the first one turned out, but nothing I tried after that meets my standards.  I especially hate the bottom one, the more stuff I added to make it better, the worse it became.  Oh well, I'll live with it!

National Scrapbooking Day....

This morning was very productive :)  Cranked out these four layouts in about 3 hours.....

I hope all of you fellow scrappers are able to do something scrap-related this weekend!

A Pain in the neck......

I've got one. A REAL pain in the neck.  I've had this stupid crick in my neck since the day after Easter.  That was two weeks ago!!? I've slept on it weird and had pain like this before, but never for this long. (Not since the initial car accident many years ago anyway). I've had many headaches again lately too. I totally need to see a chiropractor, but need to track one down in my network.  One that is convenient for me to get to. Is there a huge difference in the type of chiropractic care you receive? I assume so, but not sure what would be best for me.  Someone who can cure me of all my aches and pains would be great :)

It was beautiful here for most of the weekend.  I scrapped with some of my friends on Saturday morning. Ironic to scrap this snowy layout while it was so nice out!  This layout kind of looks like crap on here, looks much better IRL.  Love this new Cricut font, the Mini Monogram.  It was on sale at Michael's last week for over 50% off, so I snatched it up.

I started another layout but haven't finished it yet. This one I did sometime last week. I am getting pretty lazy, I didn't even bother with journaling or a creative title.

I have so many more pages to do and haven't been feeling too creative with the scrappies.  I would be all about scraplifting these days,  but I haven't even seen too many layouts in the latest mags that inspire me or work with all the pictures I like to use.  I know I am an unconventional scrapper....I am not all about "cutesy" titles, I just like to create cool pages to display all the photos I take from different outtings with my friends and family.  I'm not trying to get published or anything, I'm doing it for myself.  My scrap philosophy is that I have too many great photos to use just one on a page.  I also scrap because I love all the products! Who doesn't?

I really didn't do anything else this weekend, other than sit around and read a lot, and hang out with my man.  I was invited to a party at B & M's, but was so tired and just wasn't feeling that great.  Sorry guys!

So back to reading.... I feel like going on a book-shopping spree.  Any shopping spree, for that matter.  I want new shoes, new clothes, a new camera....all sorts of stuff.  I could spend a ton of money right now, but I am showing restraint!  I am also thinking about buying a Blackberry phone.  Anyone have one that can vouch for them??

I changed up the look on the Twin Cities Restaurant Blog this week and was able to solve my category problem.  I also included drop-down menus and it is much easier to navigate now.  I've tried only one new restaurant in the past two weeks, but hoping to try a couple of new places this week.  I'd love suggestions for good Mexican restaurants that are out of my normal geographical area :)

More scrappies :)

A few more scrappies. Cranked these out this morning while watching Season 2 Grey's Anatomy.  I love Saturday mornings when that happens :)

Some scrappies...

My net's been down the past few days or I would've posted these sooner.  Haven't done nearly as much scrappin' as I had thought I would...just not feelin' the creativity....these are both lifts from the March and April CK Mag. 

Yikes, its already Wednesday night?   

Snow Day Scrappies....

We got another 16" of snow Thursday-Friday...so much that they cancelled school pretty much everywhere. (PS jennifer H...cancelled/canceled can be spelled with either 1 or 2 "l"s according to dictionary.com ).

So what else is a girl who just recently received about $100 worth of fun new papers supposed to do with her time off besides scrap all day while watching episodes 13-18 of Grey's Anatomy season 2?

Hurray for snow days!

Hard to stay away...

Its only been a week since I last had a meaningful post and I thought I would be fine to let it go for awhile, but what can I say?  I love blogging too much to stay away too long.

Does that make you happy to hear?!

Thanks to all of you who were concerned about my apparent hiatus.  Nothing to worry about! There was some concern over how much time I spend on my computer.....TOO MUCH time.  Time that I should be spending on other priorities when I actually have time to spare.  Its hard though.... there is just so much to do on my computer....checking e-mails, IMing, blogging, reading all the blogs in my blogroll (I have about a gazillion), keeping up with Scrappjazz message boards & gallery, online shopping, MySpace, Facebook, tracking my finances & paying bills, photo editing and uploading, scanning and stitching layouts.....I could go on & on.  How have I let myself get so wrapped up in all this stuff???  Is there a way I can balance all of this and continue to lead a busy life? To maintain a healthy relationship with those who mean the most to me?

I've had all sorts of stuff to blog about this week, try to make this short and sweet :)

We had a BLIZZARD last night.  Like12 inches of snow.  Whoa!

Instead of staying home all safe and warm and snug, I went to a party in honor of Lanee's 30th birthday...good thing we live so close or I would not have gone.  The roads were treacherous because the plows couldn't possibly keep up with the blowing snowfall.  Only half the guests were able to make it because of the weather, but we still had a lot of fun drinking, playing cards and eating a ton of good food.  Me duele el estomago hoy!

Lanee had several beautiful flower arrangements and while I was trying to get a shot of these pretty lilies that were in her bathroom, I attempted a self-portrait in the mirror.

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Earlier on Saturday I went to Bri & Mich's to scrap with Michelle.  We both got some really cute pages done :)

Ms. B is getting big!  It was fairly easy to scrap with her around because she was content sleeping/laying in her little chair.  Annika, however, couldn't resist all the beautiful supplies we had strewn all over the dining room.  Can you blame her?  Too much new, fun stuff to look at and touch.  It'll be great when she is old enough to do some scrappies with us!

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Here is one other funny picture of my cat Phoenix.  He sleeps like this all the time....he is part dog, ya know.

Have a great week :)

Babies and scrappies....

Visited my sweet baby niece again yesterday morning.  She is still very tiny, but it is amazing how much she has changed already.   At first I thought she looked just like Annika did when she was born, but now I am not sure who she looks like...I guess we will have to wait and see!  Michelle looks gorgeous, as always.  She is such a good mamacita!

After visiting with Bianca, Brian and Michelle, I went and had lunch with Kara and Mandie at the new Granite City Brewery at Rosedale Mall.  This was the first time I got to see Mandie's baby, Aubryana, who will be 5 months old next week already!  She is so cute and is already looking so much like her daddy!  There was so much for us all to catch up on and talk about, I wish my girls lived closer...they are each about 45min-hour away from me in opposite directions :( Can't wait to see both of their new houses too!

Since I was feeling so good (something I used to take for granted), I stopped at Archiver's after lunch to pick up some new magaziness for inspiration.  I have not even cracked these magazines yet, but I was in the scrappin mood and had nothing else to do and spent most of the afternoon/evening creating these fun new scrappies:

I have quite a few pics to get printed from the past few weeks and CANNOT WAIT to get my hands on all the gorgeous new scrap products that are being released this weekend at CHA.  Monique at Scap Etc.  has done an excellent job of posting sneak peeks of all the good stuff....go check out her blog!!!  Be prepared to drool and drop a lot of moola this season :)

Hope everyone has a nice weekend...its FREEZING here!

$1.96 A Gallon!!!!??

The way gas prices were looking last spring, I never thought I would see gas get this low again.  Its awesome!  How long can we expect this to last, I wonder?

Wanted to share the layouts I started last weekend and finally finished up.  I got sick and tired of staring at them unfinished on the kitchen table after 4 days and did something about it :)  Scrapping has been a struggle lately...just not feeling it.  I bet that will change once all the new products from the upcoming CHA show come out next month (and right in time for my 30th birthday!)

And me and my Jenny.

So, I went to the ENT specialist yesterday.  I  found out after a CT scan that I have the largest sinuses the Dr. has ever seen (and this is the 2nd Doc who has told me this).  Weird, huh? Well anyway, there is no sign of infection in my sinuses or my ear.  I do have significant clicking in my jaw that he thinks might be causing the headaches and ear pain.  I will have to go to an oral surgeon and see what might be the next step. The ENT Dr. also sent me to get extensive allergy testing to find out why I have chronic nasal congestion, hopefully we will know what I am allergic to next week.  One other discovery at my visit yesterday is that I have a lump on my thyroid. I have to go to the hospital Friday afternoon to have a biopsy done.  I was a little nervous about this at first, but my dad sent me this article and I feel much more relieved afer reading it.  My mom told me that there is a history of thyroid problems in her family, so it could just be genetic.  Either way, there is no sense in dwelling on it until I know what is going on, but I wanted to document it here anyway.  Asking for extra good thoughts my way couldn't hurt either :)

Looking forward to the 3-day weekend, this week has been much longer than usual!!

Hope everyone has a good one :)

New Scrappies...

Just a quick post with a few layouts I worked on the other day.  This was from my mom's bday back in November.

And this one was from Thanksgiving.  Both designs are from Becky Higgin's Sketches v2.  She makes scrapping so much easier when you have a lot of pictures and are running behind!

Sorry I have been such a blog slack....its really rough being on vacation for two weeks!! LOL

Where did the week go?

Could it really be Friday already? That means that week one of my vacation is already over.  Where the heck did it go??!!!

Anyway, I finally did a little scrapping today :)

This one is for Maria's CJ.  I have had her book for almost four months now and finally got my rear in gear to get it finished.  Maria, I hope you like this...it could never be good enough to justify how much time I have had it :(  Thank you so much for your patience, it will be to you very soon!

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This next one has actually been finished for about a month now, but I finally just got around to scanning and stitching it. 

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Love the mix of colors on this one.  There is just something about red and turquoise that I dig :)

And this last one is from Lanee and Roger's wedding.  I think it turned out cute, but it seems so spring-themed with these colors and it was actually a fall wedding.  I wish I would've turned the pics to sepia and used fall shades instead of these pastels.  Oh well, I'll keep that in mind for future fall weddings!

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I have yet to pick a winner for the banner giveaway.  Someone will get a lucky e-mail from me soon!

PS  I am less than 500 hits away from 50,000!!!!!!!!!!! Crikey!!!  Do you think I can hit 50k by the New Year???

Mini Donuts, Madeline album, etc

Where do you suppose one gets fresh, hot mini donuts at this time of the year?? Fair donuts, the kind that are warm and sugary.  I missed out by not getting any at the Fair last year, I guess, but they sound incredible to me at the moment!

I scrapped all darn day on Saturday.  Like 12 hours straight, with just a few breaks here and there.  I was on a roll working on my Madeline Island mini-book, figured I might as well just keep truckin! Check out this slide show, I love it!!!!!  I plan to do just one more layout, of pics from inside our cottage.  Other than that, it is finished :)

Other randomness:

** Still no snow here in the Twin Cities.  It was very cold last week, but this week it is supposed to stay slightly above freezing.  There are already fisherman and shacks out on the thin ice!!!

**I watched Pirates of the Cariibbean last night and then watched a show on the Discovery channel about Giant Squid.  Any guesses about what I dreamt about all night ???? Yep, giant squid.  I must be the most suggestable dreamer out there! (Or do you think most women are like that?)

**I was soooooo craving Mexican yesterday (Susan, where are you??????)  and needed to get out of the house, so I went to La Casita for dinner. 

**Hoping to get started on my Christmas shopping tonight.  I still don't know what to get anyone!

**Ordered the wrong type of hard drive enclosure, so I still have not recovered any info from my old laptop.  I thought I needed SATA, but I really need IDE.  The IDE enclosure should be here in a few days :)

**My brother Jeff took a trip to LA last weekend and ended up in the Presidential Suite at the Hilton.  Read his story here.

**My poor Gramps just had several surgeries to remove skin cancer again.  He is having another big one right before Christmas.  Poor guy!  My Aunt Carol is also having major surgery again right before Christmas :(  I wish them both a speedy recovery!

** The stomach flu is running rampant around here.  Just about everyone I know has had it....including all but like 4 people that I work with (including me).  I have been washing my hands even more than usual, my poor skin!! Please, please, please don't let me get it...especially not at Christmas!

** I would like to see if there is any interest in getting a group of girls together to attend Scrap Mania at Archiver's in Roseville some Friday or Saturday night.

"Need time away to get your scrapbook pages done, and have some fun with friends? Scrap Mania is the answer! Now on both Friday and Saturday nights, we make our workshop available to you from 5pm–11pm.

Now you can enjoy food and drinks right at your table, and sign up as many friends as you want—reserve a table or even the whole room for your private mania, up to three months in advance! The $15 fee includes a free gift or coupon, dinner and a variety of snacks, prizes, and product demos."

This is open to anyone!!! If you are interested to do this sometime, let me know.  I am sure it would work best to plan something for January, but they have not put out their January calendar yet.  Stay tuned, I will mention this again soon!

**I haven't been the best about the birthday shout-outs lately :(

Happy belated birthday to:

Nicole B (Dec 10th)

Maria H (Dec 5th)

Amber Nichole (Dec 4th)

Meaghan B (Dec 1st)

Jules M (Nov 24th)

Have a nice week everyone, only two weeks until Christmas!

Long time, no blog

After five days without blogging, I hardly know where to begin!

Friday night was a rock-star party night.  A friend of ours got us on the guest list to see Twisted Sister at the Myth.  What an awesome good time! I frickin LOVE jammin to 80's rock!!  The song, "We're Not Gonna Take It!" brings back a ton of memories from college and I knew it would be fun to see Dee Snider and all the original members rockin out and dressed up.  I was not disappointed! Heather and Lanee came out with us too.  I am pretty mad that I didn't bring my camera out that night.  I always have it in my purse but took it out before we left because the show was at Myth and I didn't think they'd let me bring it in.  Of course it happened to be a night that cameras WERE allowed, so I got screwed out of taking a ton of fun pictures.  Oh well!  After the show we met some friends at The Bird in Mplwd.  I hadn't been to that dive in about 10 years and once I got inside, I realized that not a dang thing had changed. Even the music!  It was all the same old-school stuff I danced to 10 years ago, so I had a great-ol' time shaking my booty on the dance floor!! Several shots of tequila and some beer made me feel pretty groovy!!

Drinking and staying out so late wasn't the best idea since I had plans to get up early Saturday morning to scrap with some of my girlfriends.  This gave me about 5 hours of sleep....not nearly enough to free myself from the effects of the night before.  Oh well! I wanted to get started on my Madeline Island scrap project.  Check out what I got done so far!

Here is the cover.  I bought book board and covered it with papers from the Magnolia line.  I am using the coordinated line to do this whole mini-book.

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I have about 30-40 pictures that will go into this album when finished.  It was very hard to narrow it down from the 200 pictures we took on this trip!  I have to do the pages chronologically and in order so that I know where to punch the holes.

Intro page

Lunch and margaritas in Duluth

and the ferry ride!

Thats all I got done so far, but I will get to work on it soon :)

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I have some other layouts that I did in the past week that I finally got to scan in.  I have to say, this new computer is soooo much faster than my old one, I was able to scan and stitch all of these layouts in like 1/4 of the time.

These are all lifts/sketches from the new BH Sketches book. 

I sure have put my new Cricut to use!

and this one, a farewell to Fall!

I will try to be better about blogging this week :)

Have a good one!

Weekend Scrappies

Went shopping at Michael's on Friday during my lunch hour..... I swear I only went to buy some brown ribbon, but in the back of my mind I couldn't help but think about all the enablers at Scrapjazz who had posted that morning about the Cricut being on sale at Michael's.  I hadn't ever actually seen it in person until that day, but it looked so cool and it was on sale for $200, down from the MSR price of $300.  So I went ahead and bought it. Merry Christmas to myself :)

I also got this sweet new scrap case and spent Friday night organizing and cleaning out my supplies.  (After cleaning my house that is!)  I am much happier now that I can find everything, and I can easily take (most) of my supplies to scrap with my friends.

 

There are a bunch of clear plastic cases that velcro to the sides of the tote.  I've got all my adhesives, tools, pens, favorite stamps, Primas and other silk flowers, embellishments, buttons, brads  in there.  I can almost fit my cricut on the top...just don't want to break the zipper.

I also got the smaller matching one to put my stamps and ink pads in.  Got them both for 40% off by using the Michael's coupon :)  I feel so groovy and organized now!

Once my supplies were organized, I was in the mood to scrap!

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Love the new Thickers stickers by American Crafts. The large flowers were done with the Cricut 

 

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North Shore with some Hambly......

Another one with Thickers

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And these two I used my new Cricut with the George Font.  This machine is so slick!!

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I must not have aligned this one correctly when scanning the pages.  Oops!

Hoping to scrap again next weekend.  Going to be a busy, exhausting week with school conferences every evening and Thanksgiving later this week.

Have a good one!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween, ya'll.  Doesn't seem like many people I know dressed up or did anything too great this year??? Is that what happens once you have kids?  You dress them up, but not yourself???  I still plan to go out tomorrow and find something cheap/discounted to put together for next year!

Anyway, I was tagged awhile back but didn't have the time to do it until now.  Here goes....

"5 weird things about me"

1.  I do not take naps.  Ever.  I might say sometimes that I want to take a nap, but I never, ever do.  Sleeping during the day is a total waste of time (unless I am sick!)

2.  I have an irrational fear of leeches.  I can't talk or think about them too much, or I will have nightmares tonight.  They are the grossest, nastiest things on earth and I would rather die than have one on me.  I have been teased with them since I was a kid, and I just cannot get over it.  I will never swim in a lake for this reason alone!

3. I think I am more than a little obsessed with Prince.  Everyone knows I have always been a huge fan (I have seen him in concert and have hung out at Paisley Park several times), but I also have dreams about meeting him or hanging out with him all the time.  Different scenarios each time, at least 15 of these dreams in the past few years! I wish someday I could actually meet him, it would be a dream come true! LOL

4. I don't know how to whistle.  I have tried and tried over the years, but nothing comes out of my mouth when I try!  I can't sing worth a darn either....my voice is terrible!!!!

5. I am obsessed with flossing.  I have a little mouth and tightly spaced-teeth and I cannot stand the feeling of anything in my teeth. I have to take care of it immediately after eating or I'll go crazy!!  If I do not have floss or a tooth pick, I will figure out another method to work the junk free.  This habit of mine drives a few people insane!

I can't really think of too many more weird things about myself???!!!

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Other stuff:

I got a big package of new scrap stuff in the mail last night :)  I spent the evening picking out new papers to go with all my new pictures.  Can't wait to get started! I have about 20 layouts to do, plus a mini-book of our Girls' Madeline Island trip before I catch up.  No prob! Lol.

Here are the layouts I created the other night when Lanee was over.

and

Hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable evening!!

Cookin and scrappin :)

I cooked this weekend!

Follow- a- recipe-type cooking.  I hardly ever cook anything that requires a recipe, so this is big news!! LOL.  Wanted to use some of the recipe cards I made a few years ago (shown below if you want to try it!).  Here is what I tried.....

Chicken Marsala- Not bad.  Next time I will not add the cream until the very end! I will also use portobellas instead of button shrooms.

Pumpkin Cake- Delish! Cream cheese frosting rocks! This is the recipe I used.

Wild Rice Soup with Ham- Unbelievable! The best I have ever had :)

Besides cooking all weekend, I scrapped too.  Its convenient to scrap at the dining room table :)

I am loving pink!

And a little more hot pink! (Boo on my scanner)

I Finally scrapped for ME!

Many of you regular readers have probably noticed that I haven't posted any scrapbook pages in months!!   That is because I literally have done only one page for myself in the past 3 months!  Any time that I had to scrap since July was literally devoted to working on the albums for Kara and Lanee. (And big, beautiful albums they turned out to be!)

Since I no longer need to feel guilty about working on my own pages, I am trying to get caught up on the millions of fun pictures that need to be scrapped.  These layouts bring me up to mid-August....only about 100 more layouts to go and I will be on par!  I think I need to start lifting some layouts in order to get them all done (if only I had time to look through the galleries at SJ and 2P!)

Annika's 1st Birthday......

A day at the beach....

Kara's Bridal Shower.....

Amanda's Baby Shower.........

and Richie's birthday......

It feels good to get something accomplished in my album.  I also need to complete my entry in Maria's CJ (sorry it has taken so long!) and also Sarah and Valeries color CJ's  (if/when they ever arrive!)

Hopefully I will have more layouts to post this week!  I had almost forgotten what a PITA it is to scan and stitch these 12 x12 layouts.  Grrrrrr!!!

Bachelorette Party and a whole lot more!

Ahhh, the past few days have been a blur.  A blur because I have been out having fun and not getting enough sleep for like the past 4 nights now! Before I post a million pics, I feel like I need to apologize to a few friends who have been neglected lately......Lindsay T, sorry I didn't e-mail you on your b-day....please see tag below :) Keith, sorry I haven't called you back.  Bradie, we will try to connect or at least talk in the next few days.  Susan, dinner next week works for me if you have time before your big European vacation.  Aunt Patti in AZ, sorry I haven't responded to your e-mail.  Jenny, I have been meaning to call you.  I could probably go on and on!

***Now that that has been said, lets move on to the fun stuff... Kara's bachelorette party was a ton of fun! We had a personal shower for her at a hotel in Stillwater with tons of food and drinks.  At around 10pm the Coach Limo came to get our group of 14-15 girls and we went to the Freight House for a few.  Ran in to my girls Jesse and Sarah (and their husbands) out there, so that was fun! The limo then took us to Myth Nightclub where we had a prime VIP area overlooking the stage complete with our own waiter, bottles of booze and a mini keg.  I think everyone had a jolly good time drinking all that liquor! We ran into some people from highschool, Billy and Trina, who were out celebrating after their wedding reception earlier that night with a bunch of other people we know.  Congrats to them for tying the knot after 9-10 years!  Here are some pics from the night.....

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***I wasn't feeling too hot on Sunday, so stayed on the couch and read an old book by Janet Evanovich, Full House.  Kind of a cute story....not as good as Stephanie Plum books though.  Later that evening our friends Rusty and Alex came over with their baby, 3 week-old Kylie Lynn Marie. She is pretty sweet! And yes, I seriously have about 20-30 babies in my life.  Its crazy!

***Here is a big shout-out to my girl Lindsay T for her b-day!!!!!!! I hope you has a fabulous day! Did you see your birthday thread at 2Peas on Saturday!? Hope so! xoxoxox

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***I also forgot to post this layout I did almost two weeks ago of me and Jenny.  This is the first and only layout that has gotten some "new paper" love.  I am loving this new Basic Grey.  Can't wait to find some time to work on a whole lot more cute layouts of my fun times of late! The Bohemia line by MME is calling to me...

***Speaking of scrapping, I have been closely following the Dares' Last Scrapper Standing competition.  WOW.  Blown away by all the amazing talent and effort of all the girls who entered that baby.  I couldn't possibly pick or predict a winner because the work is ALL amazing!!  I was totally disappointed and shocked that my Scrapjazz girls Christina P and  Kelli J were eliminated after the 3rd and 3.5th rounds.  Their stuff totally rocked! 

***Muchas Gracias for all the nice comments about my sassy new hair.  Even E likes it! Hopefully I can work on a banner and new color scheme this week...this blog is ready for a change again!

***I visited with Lanee on Saturday afternoon after I got my hair done.  Her surgery went okay and she is doing pretty good, but has a lot of pain.  She showed me some of her final wedding stuff....only 6 or 7 weeks away! I cannot wait for our girls weekend up North in September.

***I am back at work.  Met some staff at my new school.  Going to be a very busy week getting ready for school to start next Tuesday.  We are also looking forward to a visit from Erick's cousins Dana (Kevin) and Jasmine this upcoming weekend.  That means we will get to go back to the State Fair this weekend when they are here!

I scrapped with Cass!

My friend Cassie has been collecting supplies for awhile, but hadn't ever actually scrapped until she came over on Tuesday night! She got started on a really cute layout of her daughter, and I used a couple of her pics to create this layout for her album. 

I am waiting for an order of pics to arrive (along with an order for at least 100 sheets of newly released papers), so in the meantime, I scrapped these pics from Vegas.  Still have a few more to do!

Me and Heather with a wax version of HUgh Hefner at the Museum of Wax in Vegas!

More scrappin!

Oh, what a way to spend a Friday night!!!

A Scrap Marathon.....

I've had a lot of time to myself to scrap these past few days as I sit home all alone :) I have been working especially hard on finishing this engagement album for Kara.  I am giving to it to her at her bridal shower tomorrow, so I am finally going to post it here!  I absolutely LOVE how it turned out! Besides the intro page and the personal note to Kara at the end, there are 12 double page Layouts here.  Whoa! The pics were all taken at places they have traveled together in the past year of their engagement, it was hard to leave so many other great pictures out!

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And thats not all!  I have also gotten these done too!

For Alexandra's Green & Brown CJ:

And with friends Jen & Lori:

and out on White Bear Lake

and Father's Day

I might just be all scrapped out for a few days!!

I also wanted to say Happy Anniversary to my best friend Mary today!!

Birthday Love and more layouts!

Happy Birthday to my girl Leah yesterday....

and to my girl Lori today!  Have a great birthday, ladies!!

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And I have had some major creative energy flowing lately...... feels great to have a little time to do it!  I am trying to make some of my two-pagers feel more "connected" to each other and was successful with all of these!

These all look so much better IRL..... The pages really do line up, the black is really black, and the other colors are very bright :) Oh well!  I love these photos I took of a few of my friends and their kids last month at the lake.....

And here is me and Farrah and her daughter Berlyn when we went out to lunch about a month ago......

and the last layout is one I made for my friend Kara's wedding shower gift album (that she knows I am making for her) and I do not want her to see it yet, so I am not going to post on my site, but I have it posted here at Scrapjazz.  Kara...don't you dare look!  I want you to be very surprised when I give the album to you, so no peaking!  But it is very cute if I do say so myself!!!

Have a great Saturday everyone!

xoxoxox

Sevendust at Myth!

Got to see one of my all-time favorite heavy rockin' bands last night at Myth Nightclub.

SEVENDUST!!!

Of course the camera police were in action so I only got a couple of pics. This is me and my girl Ang:

I had a little bit of an awkward encounter with the bouncer who was checking ID's at the club....he is a former very good friend of mine from like 10 years ago.  A good friend who tried to cross the line of our friendship in a very inappropriate way.  We had a big fight and I haven't spoken to him or seen him in like 8 years.  There was a long line of people waiting to get inside and I was hoping he wouldn't notice me because I didn't want to talk to him.  When I got to the front of the line he glances up at me, does a double take, reads my ID and was like, "Whoa, I haven't seen you in a Looonnnnnng time." And I was like, "Yep, a long time." Then I walked away.  I had nothing more to say to this person and it wasn't the time/place.  It was weird though.

I also saw another reunion between a very good friend of mine and someone whom had once been a very important part of my friend's life for many, many years until about two years ago.  Things ended very badly between them and they had not seen or spoken to each other until last night.  Lots of hard feelings on the part of my friend...stuff that is hard to forgive.  It was very emotional reunion between the two of them and it was emotional for me to watch.  I know that forgiveness is the Christian way, but it certainly isn't easy in some cases. I think my friend handled the situation very well, considering the circumstances that ended their friendship.  Maybe this is the first step toward healing.

The show was pretty kick-ass, but I was pretty tired after late-nights of working and going to the gym on Mon& Tuesday and then working late again for parent/teacher conferences on Wednesday (last night) before the show.  We got home around 1am and bedtime was about an hour later.

So I am majorly dragging today and will be working several extra hours for conferences again tonight. I need a little break!

I am looking forward to dinner with a group of my girlfriends on Friday night.... hitting a cool place in Uptown :)

Late on Friday night we are also expecting E's cousin Dana (with her boyfriend Kevin and daughter Jasmine) to be coming in from Chicago.  They will be hanging out and staying with us until Wednesday or so.  I am trying to talk Dana into bringing some pictures with her so that we can scrap together this weekend. I am waiting on an order from Down Memory Lane Co and want to get my March Circle journals completed!

I actually got a layout done last weekend that I haven't had a chance to post until now.

I wanted to thank Kim, Jennifer, Jules, Jeff and Adrienne for obliging my request to put their locations on the map from my last post.  Its too bad that only five people love me though! But it isn't too late! You don't need to upload a pic if you don't want, and you certainly do not need to leave your last name if anyone was worried about that.

Thats all for now.  Peace out, people!!