Mi Vida Ocupada: My Busy Life!

Our scrappy trip.....

Got back yesterday afternoon from a fun weekend filled with scrapping....
As I mentioned in my last post, I went with Michelle, Erin and eight other girls to a scrapbooking retreat in northern MN.  Wow, I have never scrapped so much or for so long in my life!!!
The building we were in is awesome!  The lower level is half scrapbook store called Once Upon A Page, the other half is a large crop room.  Here is what that room looked like with all of our stuff spread out at our tables.....


Notice the table in the middle full of snacks?????!!!  We had a wide range of goodies to keep us going!
Erin and Michelle, getting their scrap on!!

Scrapping for hours and hours on end is really exhausting, both mentally and physically! I was so tired!

So that was the crop room.  The upstairs of the building was the living quarters (which was really modern and great!) Besides this Great Room, there were three bedrooms to sleep 10 girls (plus one more on an air mattress) and two full-size bathrooms.  We had everything we needed!

We had pre-arranged for small groups to provide each meal, so we had baked mostaccolli on Friday night, and then waffles, sandwiches and enchiladas on Saturday.

It was a nice trip and I got just about everything I wanted to get done finished.  I will post my layouts later!

Thanks for inviting me, Michelle, I had a great time!

PS  They had some great product in the store, but I didn't allow myself to even go inside until Saturday, 30 minutes before they closed.  I was the only girl on our trip who did not spend a single $$$$$.  It took some restraint, but I will not buy anything else for a long time.  I have too much as it is and I just cannot justify spending $$ on scrapbook stuff with as much stuff as I already have!

Scrapbook weekend is here!

In just a little while I will be heading up north with Michelle and Erin and several other girls (half of whom I do not know) to spend the weekend at The Intensive Crop Unit.  Going to have a fun time and will hopefully catch up on all my recent photos!
Have a great weekend everyone!

Feeling Inspired...

My photos from the past 4-5 months have been stacking up like crazy, but I had not felt much like scrappin until last weekend when I bought some new products and picked up the Feb/March issue of BHG Scrapbooks Etc.  WOW are there some great layouts in that issue!! I might have to start doing some more "lifting" until my pile starts to diminish....oh yeah, grad school starts again this week.  Well, maybe this summer I can catch up!!??
Anyway, I woke up extra early on Sunday morn just to scrap.  Love how these turned out! (Of course they are much prettier in person!)

MLK Day scrappies

Heath Ledger died today?! How sad.  28 is way, way too young.

In happier news, I had the day off yesterday and scrapped a little.

I also started reading Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult yesterday and I am over half-way through with it now.  So good! I can't sing  enough praise for how much I love her books!

I am taking advantage of the next couple of weeks I still have off of grad school before Spring semester starts :)

PS  Did any of you know that my SIL Michelle scraps??  Her work is beautiful and she has never once scanned a page or taken photos of them to post online, but I think she should, so you can all see how cute her pages are!

I opened the BOX!

What box??

The box that had been sitting on my table for over a week, deliberately upopened.

Unopened because it contained temptation is this form:

I totally blame it on Greta for posting all the gorgeous pics of Noel Mignon's new scrapbook kit.

I had to have it, even though there is a fat chance I will be able to do any scrapping this semester. (I do have one scrap date planned in October with Kara)

I have to give a big shout-out for Noel's customer service...everything was wrapped and presented so thoughtfully and cute :)

I also picked up a bunch of photos yesterday that I ordered.

I'd be totally ready to scrap if it weren't for all the dang schoolwork I have to do.

But ya'll keep telling me its worth it, right?  Just one year.

Trying to work on my projects in advance, because things are going to get a lot more crazy after midterm!

My busy social life has turned into my busy school life.

I miss you all, wish I could make dinner plans with ya'll soon!!  My restaurant blog has been neglected too.

PS I am really not diggin' my hair.  The color is okay but I miss the lighter highlights and I am not loving the cut.  The length is fine, but I need more layers or something.  Looking at the pics I got yesterday made me wish I had my old hair back.  Se la vi.

PPS Happy Hump Day.....I'll be in class after work tonight until 10pm.  That means bed sometime after the clock strikes 12.  Gonna be tired tomorrow, thats for sure!

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:

Godiva....

I know I already mentioned it in this post I wrote a few months ago about chocolate, but Godiva is simply amazing, isn't it??

Kara and I were out at the Mall of America last night for a scrapbook class at Archiver's, so along with dinner, we both bought some of the best chocolates at Godiva.  It doesn't bother me that my four little chocolates were almost $9.  That is four days worth of treats :)

So Kara and I had this "Scrapbooking trends" class at Archiver's.  I thought we were going to learn some cool new techiniques which basically meant we were given a layout to copy.  It turned out pretty cute, although mine is slightly different because about half-way through our instructions I decided to do it "my way" ;) I'll post that layout soon. 

Here is my loot from Archiver's...

I spent all afternoon printing pictures and pairing them with papers.  I plan to rock the scrappies over the next several days!

A Fabulous First Day of Summer Vacation....

I have to say I had quite a happy, fulfilling first day off :)

I got to sleep in as late as I wanted (8:45am).

I got plenty of guilt-free time on my computer.

I had a lunch date at a local restaurant and while there I ran into Leslie, a friend I have had since preschool but had not seen since 2 summers ago.  She is managing the restaurant we ate at and was able to sit down with us and play catch-up.  She is 6-mos. happily pregnant.  It was great to see her!  We had been in contact for a short while a couple of years ago but I lost her number when my old cell phone literally fell in the toilet at my best friend's wedding!!!  It will be very nice to keep in touch again.

I picked up my camera from Best Buy....repairs complete :)  Such a relief to have my baby home again!!

Came home to a large package full of scrap supplies.  Had to arrange all my goodies so I could savor the newness and prettiness.  It was hard to clean it up, I could've drooled over it all afternoon!

PS.  Hey Michelle, I am putting together a package of goodies for you :) Call me tonight!

Friends Jeff & Toni came over with the family for a little visit.  Ms. Cidney turns 2-years old tomorrow already!  She was only 5lbs 14oz when she was born, but she is such a  beautiful, sweet little girl now!  She is all smiles except when it comes time to take her picture!!

Cid with her big sister, Georgia.

Later in the evening I grilled pork chops for dinner and then hung out with Lanee and Sonja for awhile.

I have approximately 10 more weeks of freedom to enjoy more days like this.  Love 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!

Just playin around.....

in Photoshop :)

Downloaded some fun digi stuff and made my first digi layout.  The digital thing is kind of addicting! Thanks again, Kel for telling me about Scrappin With Ikea Goddess!

Credits and where you can find the items I used here

Paint Swirl Paper by Amanda

Crown (Glitz Growning Glory  http://limegreenbogiegirl.blogspot.com) (Greta, I instantly thought of you when I downloaded this one! LOL)

Ric Rac, truquoise and purple flower) Garden Party at Designs by Krista

Japanese Foliage brushes at Designfruit.com

A few Birthday Tags...

I haven't been so good about the birthday shout-outs, tags, and collages lately.  I am doing my best to keep up, but sometimes it takes time and energy that I haven't had to make something special happen :)

Here are a few tags for some special blogging friends of mine...people who have been with me since the very beginning :) Sorry I am so late in posting these....my motto is better late, than never!

If you would like to let me know when your birthday is, post it on my birthday alarm calendar!

Happy Birthday Raina, Jan 13th

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Happy Birthday Nicole! December 10th

Happy Birthday Maria! December 5th

 

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If you have noticed the lack of pictures here lately, it is because I have not taken one single photo yet in 2007.  Seems hard to believe, doesn't it??!!  I have temporarily turned into a photo slacker!! It isn't that I haven't done anything fun to take pictures of...again, just haven't been in the mood to pull my camera out.  I have been loving all the picture posts I have seen on various blogs lately that showcase fun things around people's homes ( Elsie, Kristi,) can't remember who else, but those posts are cool.  I plan to do this myself sometime later in the week!

And I have a favor to ask....if you link to this blog or have me bookmarked, please update your links with www.sweetsauer.com.  I am trying to wean everyone from the typepad address. Thanks!

Lazy Mode.....

During this last week that I have been off of work I have gotten into a bad sleep schedule...up 'til 2-3am and sleeping until about 10am most days. It killed me to have to get up so early again this morning with the start of Summer school.  I am sooooo not in the mood to work this summer!!!!!!!  It was pretty much the butt-crack-of-dawn when I rolled out of bed and made haste in getting my first day lessons ready since there were  so many other things I chose to do over the weekend instead......  Like drinking Mailbu/ OJ  and playing Trivial Pursuit with Heather on Saturday night.  We were both really bored so I made her come over to our house.  Closets have also been cleaned out to get things ready to sell on Ebay.   It was either buy a bigger house or start selling some stuff.  So selling stuff on eBay has now become my second job.  We have been talking about selling stuff on there for like three years and we posted our very first items tonight.  Yay!!!!!!

I got an e-mail today from one of the girls I know at Scrapjazz wanting to know if I had seen that I was this week's SJ Featured Artist. Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!   Its only been like two years now that I was hoping they would pick me :)  I have been fairly active on the boards for over two years now and post all of my work to the gallery, but they had still been selecting unfamiliar artists from time to time.  Someone even commented how one such featured artist was bragging about how she was chosen and that she thought it was funny because she wasn't even a real member. Thats pretty sad and ungrateful IMO!!  I am totally stoked that I was picked!

Currently reading Jennifer Weiner's newest paperback, Goodnight Nobody.  Has a different feel than her other books...kind of like a mystery.  Decent so far....I am about 1/3 through.

Thought I would switch to Firefox last week but it is slower than hell and I cannot stand it!!!!!!  I also cannot get into my Typepad account for some weird reason.  Gonna stick with IE because it is much faster on my computer!

Been craving Italian lately....gonna have dinner with Susan tomorrow night.  Bring on the garlic and cheese! Ciao.......

Random Post of the Week...

**Went to visit our friends Jeff and Toni after work tonight.  Georgia and Cidney are getting so big! Cidney turns one years old in three days:)

** Tomorrow is the last day of the school year.   It is bittersweet....I am sad to think that I might not be coming back to my school next year.  Might not see my students and their families that I have gotten to know so well for the past two years.  I was lucky to have a job I like so much.  Whether I am there half-time next year depends on if I can find another half-time position in my district SOON.  It isn't looking good, folks. I thought I'd have to go back to teaching special ed, but hundreds of those positions were also cut.  If I can't find a job on my own soon, they will assign me somewhere full-time when something in my licensure area opens up.   That could literally be the day before school starts or two weeks into the next year.  That sucks! The good news is that I am guaranteed my salary either way, so being tenured helps to ease the mind some.

**I will be teaching 4th grade students with learning disabilities this summer.  I will have Mon-Thurs off next week and then summer school starts Friday.  It runs 5 weeks, but I will only work the first four.

** I am having knee surgery on July 25th.  I will have 4 weeks to recover and then back to work..hopefully! The healing time needed for my procedure is up to 8 weeks.  I hope I am good enough to do the Tootsie Roll at Kara's wedding on Sept 9...I know she is looking forward to that!

**In the scrappy news, I ordered a ton of overlays and papers from Hambly Screen Prints today.  You have to check out Their layout gallery.  Wow!!  I even saw stuff made by my girls Christina Padilla, Jaime Warren and Kristi Contes.  how cool!  I am going to make some cool stuff when I get it and try to make that gallery too! I never submit my stuff because I'd rather do it for fun, but that looks fun too!

Then Greta asks me if I have seen the new Cricut by ProvoCraft yet.  Well no, I hadn't until she sent me to their site to check it out and now I want one of these bad boys! They are really sweet.  I have never had a Quikutz and this thing looks pretty techno-savy and you get like a million fonts and you can change the size on it too.  Thanks a lot, Greta...one more thing for me to put on my wish list! I think they are going for around $300? I bet Adrienne has one of these or will be getting one soon! I say that because she loves to shop and always has the coolest tools before anyone else I know.  If anyone seriously has this already, let me know what you think!

**I am reading My Friend Leonard by James Frey.  Not sure if he "embellished" this story, like he did with A Million Little Pieces, but I am enjoying it.  Love both books of his, despite all the controversy. Can't wait to read, read, read all summer long! Love it! Kim...I may take your suggestion and add bookreviews to the book thumbnails on my sidebar.  I might have more time to do that this summer.

**Sending positive thoughts to my girlfriend who is going to the Dr. tomorrow to make sure her cervical cancer hasn't come back.  She is the third friend of mine (that I know of )who has had cervical cancer. It is scary how many people are affected. 

**Sent those bookmarks out yesterday...hope you girls like the ones you get!

Good night!

ScrapJazzy Awards!

Have any of you heard about the ScrapJazzy Awards yet?  This is the coolest idea I have heard in a long time!  Members of the Scrapjazz community can nominate and later vote on their favorites in a number of scrapbooking categories.... Funniest Layout, Most memorable layout/project, Best Layout, Best article, Favorite member, etc.  I  can't wait to go back through the gallery to nominate some of my faves!  I would love some of you scrappers who have never visited SJ to come give it a try....everyone is so nice and helpful.  There is never any unpleasantness or catiness like there is at some *other* boards!

In other SJ news, a couple of girls on the DT, which is proudly referred to as The "Blue Crew", resigned from their positions to pursue other things.  One of those girls is Elizabeth, whose work I adore.  She was always around the message boards to answer my questions when I was first beginning and some of her info was invauable to me.  Although I still read Elizabeth's blog several times a week, her contributions will surely be missed at Scrapjazz.  Ben & Andrea, the owners of SJ have some BIG shoes to fill in her absence! Who knows, maybe I will apply to be a Blue Crew member....I guess I'll never know unless I get up the courage to start applying and submitting!

**Just two more days of work until my vacation starts.  Yay!!!!!!

True Colors: Calling for One More Artist!

I am in the process of organizing two different Circle Journal groups right now....one is with Maria and some of her friends in Canada and the Netherlands. We will hopefully get this one off the ground by January 1st, if not sooner. Everyone will be picking their own theme.

The other is a color themed Circle Journal with myself, Alex, April, Chriselda, Valerie, Sarah, and Nadine.  We had an 8th girl who just decided to back out of the project (better now than after we start!), so we are anxiously looking for an 8th member to join us so that we may get started with the journal. 

I got the Color Theme idea from the book True Color: A Palette of Collaborative Art JOurnals., sold by Stampington.com.  We will each be picking a color/color scheme/combo and the books will rotate among us.  The color schemes that were represented in the book are white, red, hot pink & orange, sunset, yellowgreen & copper, metallics, autumn, violet & yellow, violet & green, green, forest floor, aqua, blue & ochre, sepia, and black.  I scanned in several examples from the book and put them in this True Colors Album (also located on my sidebar) .  Some very cool stuff! I say it is worth it to buy the book just to read about their process and to see more pictures of their work.  Very talented artists!!

Now remember ladies:  These were professional artists who completed these pages, not scrappers like us.  This is just an idea of what can be done, not what is to be expected.  They used tons of objects and techniques on their pages(quilting, sewing, fabric, fibers, mesh, metal, paint, stamping, drawing, etc).  I am sure we will all come up with our own unique creations with a scrappers' flair.  I am really looking forward to starting and I know most of the other girls are too!

Please let me know if you have interest!!  This is a commitment that will likely last 8 months or so and will also involve financial commitment, as we will all be shipping our journals to the next girl at the beginning of each month.  Serious scrappers only!

Random Scrap Friday

I had a ton of things I wanted to talk about today, but since I wrote none of them down, we'll just see what happens with this little post!

Last night I met some friends at the brand new TGIFridays restaurant in town.  Good stuff, Maynard! I had the brushetta chicken pasta in all its garlicy goodness. Its always nice to have another option for dinner :)

We went to the mall and then to Shinders afterward.  I picked up the new Creating Keepsakes magazine and was pleased to see so many ideas that I might actually use! There was a really cute Christmas Tree layout in there by Kristi Contes.  It is always fun to see layouts done by familiar faces! I have not jumped on the publishing bandwagon YET.  My layouts are almost all two pagers and I think it is harder to get noticed that way.  Plus I can hardly ever remember what products I used and that is a faux-pas in the publishing world.  Maybe one of these days I'll actually visit scrap submit and see what I would need to do to get noticed! Another reason I haven't tried is because I would hate to have the pressure of feeling like every layout I do has to be perfect and publishable.  I am doing this for ME, because I enjoy pictures and displaying them in a fun way.

Speaking of layouts, I finally got these two finished.  Not my best work, but two less to worry about now! (The stack continues to grow!) This one was fine until I ruined it by stamping the title with ink.  I should of used paint or large letter stickers instead. A friend at Scrapjazz also brought to my attention that I made a spelling error in my journaling.  I visited the Bazaar, not the Bizarre.  Whoops!

And I think the background on this one is too busy.  I have patterned paper coming out of my ears so I am trying to use up as much as I can!

And now I have a question for those of you "PEAS".  Which message boards do you frequent at that site? I am curious because I have always been a Scrapjazz girl and most of us there jump from forum to forum freely.  I have heard rumors here and there that the NSBR board at 2Peas can get a little feisty and that most of the girls at 2Peas stick to just one board, making many "mini communities".  I know I have several friends at 2Peas (as well as at SJ) and I would like to know where to find you there! Where will I be welcomed?  Also, if there are any Peas here, could you tell me your usernames??

One last thing:  I bought the new Disney Movie, "Aliens of the Deep", directed by James Cameron (who did Titanic) and we watched it when we got home late last night.  What an AWESOME video! They do real-live dives to the very bottom of the ocean to see what kind of life they find there.  It is soooo cool! It makes you realize how truly incredible our planet is!

Alrighty everyone, have a fabulous weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!    

Attention Scrapjazz Bloggers!!!

I have put together a webring of my fellow Scrapjazz Bloggers.....

A webring is a service provided by Ring Surf that allows people to connect their Blogs/websites to one another. You can click the link on any Blog connected in the ring and it will bring you to another blog within the ring.  Seems pretty cool!

How do you add your Blog to the ring? In theory it goes like this:

There is a Box in the right sidebar of my site that says "Scrapjazz Bloggers". 

Click JOIN.  You will have to create a username.  They will give you a site ID....it is VERY important that you use this html code exactly as they give it to you when you paste it into your blog.

Once you "join" then you will receive an e-mail from ringsurf with the "Scrapjazz Bloggers" site ID and the html code to add the "scrapjazz boggers" box to your Blog. Copy this code using Control C.

How to add code to your Blog?

Blogger users:  Not quite sure how you do it!

Typepad Users:  You will need to create a new typelist "Link".

Create a new link but leave link name and url blank.  In the notes section, copy and paste the code, using control V.   Make sure the configuration of the page is set to "use text".

Go to Weblogs>Design.  You will go to content> change content.  Add the new list you created by checking it, save changes.  If you want to move it somewhere, go to change layout.  Republish site. 

Your "scrapjazz bloggers" box should be listed in your side bar.

Ringsurf sends me an e-mail every time someone tries to join the blogring and then I have to sign in to Ringsurf, have them check your blog to make sure that the code is displayed exactly the way it needs to be.  If everything checks out, I can make you active in the Scrapjazz Bloggers ring.

It will be great to be connected to other Jazzers!

Weekend Recap

It seems like it was ages ago that I posted about my flat tire!!

What have I been up to? Hmmm, let me retrace my weekend...

Friday

We had a wonderful Talent Show at my afternoon school on Friday.  Several of the acts were the typical groups of little girls who make up a dance with just a couple of moves that get repeated over and over...anyone know that popular dance song, "let me see your 1-2 step"??  Well apparently that is the most popular song out there for little girls to dance to because we had not one, not two but FOUR acts singing or dancing to that same song!! I honestly think the girls get more out of coordinating their matching outfits than they do the dancing.  We had a couple of students playing the piano that were actually VERY talented.  That was what it is all about, in my opinion.  Chances are that next year I will be the person in charge of the Talent Show...my standards will be much higher and less acts will be chosen!! If you had seen the quality of some of the acts, you would know that I am not being mean, just honest. The kids really seem to feel so proud of themselves, that this year's coordinator had a hard time saying NO to any of those who tried out! Higher standards are a good thing in my opinion!

After work on Friday I met my friends Lori and Ra at Champps.  We ordered a giant thing of chicken nachos and it was so big that the three of us ate that and had no room left to eat dinner!!

Of course the giant sundae that Ra ordered put us over the edge! These girls are so much fun...we spent two weeks together in Connecticut a few years ago for work and we have discussed going on another trip together sometime.  That would be really fun!

After dinner with these ladies I went to Cassie's house to hang out with her for awhile.  Her daughter is getting so big and smart! I just love Johnnessa to death and love visiting...I don't do it often enough.  I hope to see more of them both this summer.  As sweet as Johnnessa is, Cassie needed a break from her motherly duties so we ended up leaving and going to my house to hang out for awhile...

Saturday

I lazed around for a good part of the day, finished reading Shopaholic Ties the Knot, and then went to hang out with Jenny for some female companionship.  We both needed some"girl time" to discuss relationships, work, etc.  Her new apartment is totally organized and looking great in the week since we got her moved in.  She got me the best lotions and soaps as a thank-you for helping her with the move.  Jenny is so sweet and thoughtful!  We walked to Bonfire for dinner, which is just a block away from her apartment.  Loved it!!  I had the chicken ravioli with artichokes and it was delicious.  Can't wait to go back there with another group of friends sometime soon.  Anyone down to join me???

I watched part of the Miami vs Detroit game, but Miami was getting spanked, so I decided to watch The Aviator.  Very good movie!! Long, but it was entertaining for the most part....

Sunday

I started scrappin' a little bit this morning...I haven't been real motivated in that area this past week.  Around noon I went to my friend Shannon's house for lunch with her and Kara and Gina.  It was sunny out so we were able to sit outside for awhile and watch the kids play.  I will be going out with these girls again next weekend for Kara's birthday.  That will be a riot!! Stay tuned for that post and those pictures!!

When I got home later I sat on the deck and started a new mystery by Patricia Cornwell.  Tried to get tan but the clouds started rolling in and we actually had a tornado warning and sirens going off...not much rain actually fell at our house, so I went out and decided to brave it for some dinner. 

I spent the rest of the evening putting these two scrapbook layouts together: