Good bye May

So I didn't quite make the blog a day in May goal. Although I think I only missed like 3 or 4 days. Not too bad, given my usual 2 or 3 posts a week. I haven't felt much like blogging the past few days. Lots of thoughts in my head. Keeping me preoccupied.

Besides turning thoughts around and around in my head and incessantly researching things on the computer, I spent the weekend scrapping and cleaning. After work yesterday, I cleaned the house a bit, than Michelle came over to scrap. We were pretty productive, 4 pages for her and 3 pages and a card for me. We took a break for dinner and headed to Pita Jungle to split a trio of hummus with cucumbers and the best salad ever, the Lentil Fetoosh. YUM! Here's one of the pages I made (from Danielle's lift challenge):


and a card I made with the scraps from this layout (another challenge):


Both of these were made with the June Scrap for a Cure kit. The kit goes live tomorrow and you should definitely check it out. I have pretty much used up the whole kit.

Nothing too eventful today. Laundry, computer time, hanging with Shawn, billing, cooking and a little scrapping. Oh and pie eating. Shawn decided he was craving pecan pie so he headed to Marie Callendars to pick one up. They were out of pecan apparently and I did not hear my phone when he called (twice) to figure out what kind to get, so, he got two pies. Yes, two pies, because we both need our own whole pie to eat. I had apple. It was delicious. If you want some pie, we've got plenty to share...

I'd best get off the computer. My wrist is killing me and I'm sure the computer surfing and typing is not helping. I think I'll go read my book or catch up on my pile of magazines.

Hope you had a nice weekend.

Come and Play

We're cropping this weekend at Scrap for A Cure. Plenty of challenges, games and tutorials and lots of fun. Come check it out. I'll be hosting a challenge and a game tomorrow afternoon. In the mean time, here's a sneak from the June SFAC kit:


Have a fabulous weekend!

Have you watched it yet?

If you are a choir/band/theater geek, you will love it!

Weekend Adventures

Its been a good weekend...not quite the weekend of nothingness at home that I planned, but good none the less. Here's a little weekend recap.

Friday night we had dinner at Pappadeux, where we enjoyed a really good, but rich dinner. We shared mussels as an appetizer and I had almond crusted trout and a nice glass of wine. Unfortunately, my poor stomach is not used to eating so much rich food, so it wasn't too happy with me during the night and the next morning.

Saturday night went to Michelina's for some Italian food. Another thing I haven't enjoyed in a long time. I decided to be careful about not overdoing it and stressing out my poor stomach, but had a great meal none the less.

Sunday I met up with my mom for pedicures and a little shopping. It was probably the best pedicure I've every gotten. Definitely the best foot massage. We hit World Market just in time for their outdoor sale and I got this fabulous striped umbrella for our courtyard. It matches out trim paint perfectly. I spent the rest of my Sunday doing laundry and scrapbooking. I was working with the June Scrap for a Cure kit. I'm in love with the kit and the Cosmo Cricket goodness inside of it.

Here's one of my pages, this week's Monday Challenge at SFAC. The challenge is to use at least 4 different patterned papers on your page. If you play along, post your creation in the challenge gallery to be eligible for the monthly RAK.


Monday I had intended to spend today in my pj's not leaving the house, cleaning and scrapping. Shawn had other plans. Instead I spent 2.5 hours at the Nissan dealership while Shawn got his new car. He decided on this car in Bitter Chocolate a couple of weeks ago and was just waiting for the dealership where he had worked a deal to get one in for him. He sold his Rx8 on Friday and was not enjoying being car less for the weekend. It's a pretty nice car and really comfortable and roomy on the inside. Plus it gets much better gas mileage than the Rx8 (and will hold a carseat, which is important in my book). He's awfully excited. After the dealership we grabbed a late lunch at BJ's Brewhouse and I headed home while Shawn went to show off his new car (he's showing it off to yet another friend right now in fact). I finished some of the cleaning and the laundry, planted some succulents and did some more scrapping. I just finished my 4th layout with the SFAC kit and my pages for the Scrapgal June gallery. Now I'm ready to go crawl in bed with a book or my knitting and get some rest before a really long day at work tomorrow.

Hope you had an enjoyable weekend.

Crazy

Did you see my crazy video collection? It's fixed now. Apparently all the attempts I made at sharing videos from You Tube on Wednesday night ended up posting some time yesterday. So I apologize if you stopped by and saw tons of videos all in a row. Crazy internet madness!

Speaking of crazy, today was a crazy day. It was like a full moon day, only I don't think it's a full moon. My first kiddo threw a major tantrum that involved breaking his alphasmart device, attempting to break his glasses and drawing blood on my arm. Nice. Next up I had a little grumpy pants who yelled at me every time I chose a task. Number three was a bit crazy and wild, although he did a pretty good job. Probably because I wasn't taking anymore nonsense and was pretty tough with him. I went to church with my last kiddo to keep her in line during communion practice, only no one was there for communion practice when we arrived. Oops! Her mom missed the memo apparently. Did I mention I had a stomach ache during much of this day? Fun times.

Since getting home, I've been putzing around the house. I managed to work on a couple of Scrapgal projects. If you haven't already checkout our May Contest, Scrapbooking from A-Z, you should. There are tons of fun challenge (one for each letter of the alphabet) and you can win prizes for playing along. Today's prompt from me, showed up a little late because I had to create it first, but it's up now....T is for TAPE:


I also worked on using up a big pile of scraps to create some ATC backgrounds. Here's one, Friday's Create 09 prompt from me, "what's your current playlist?"



Now I must go get ready for dinner. I think we are going for Italian food. We shall see what my stomach things of that.

Happy Saturday!

Listening

Another artist I've been listening to a lot lately. There's just something about her voice.

Love

Here's what I wanted to post yesterday. Vimeo is my friend.
I adore this song!

Priscilla Ahn - "Dream" from Paste Magazine on Vimeo.

Wednesday

I've been trying to post a video from You Tube and it's so not working. It's driving me a bit crazy actually, because I really want to share but somebody is not cooperating. So instead you get a synopsis of my day today.

MT session 1: lots of show tunes
rain!!!
MT session 2: crazy child who thinks screaming and babbling gets him out of work
throbbing ankle??
MT session 3: we are slightly obsessed with the yellow boomwhacker and the guitar (which we pretend is a cello)
crazy drivers
lunch at Wildflower with Kellie...half a sweet potato sandwich and salad
MT session 4: "I know an old lady who swallowed a snake. For goodness sake she swallowed a snake."
MT session 5: "I like to eat, eat, eat, apples and bananas" on repeat.
MT session 6: drumming=happy
drive home
chat with session 2's mom about behaviors
tacos (Shawn) and burritos (me) for dinner
tv and internet surfing
icing my ankle

Now, to go watch Glee online (I'm bummed I missed it last night) or read Wicked....hmmmm...tough decision....

Good night!

10 is the Magic Number

Well, on Tuesdays it is anyway...

1. Just finished my second attempt at a Strawberry shake...met some friends who where halfway through their lunch, so I just got a shake...ICK! It was gross! I had about 5 tastes and threw it away. Blech! So, on my way home I stopped for a real strawberry shake from Freddy's...mmmm, Freddy's is the best!

2. Loving this video, thanks Ally. You should check out her photography too, its stunning.

3. Am enjoying this blog, thanks Elise.

4. Still enjoying late start Tuesdays, although today I did an early morning make up session.

5. Found out our state rate for services is only being cut by 10%, not 54%...this is good news. Now we'll wait to see what fiscal year 2010 brings us.....

6. Got my June and July SFAC kits yesterday and can't wait to play with them. They're pretty fun. You'll want to check them out.

7. Waiting for this little guy to arrive at my house...


I adore KL's Kenner Road kits, but can't usually justify another scrappy purchase each month. This month I just couldn't resist.

8. Needing to go bathing suit shopping...not my favorite thing to do, but most of the suits I have are several years old and a bit big on me these days. I ordered one from Victoria's Secret a couple of weeks ago, but didn't like the way it fit me...it now has a home on my sister's long and lean body.

9. Loving Dina's bracelet...she's amazing I tell you!

10. Have lots of projects that are in progress...really feeling like I need to buckle down and finish one of them...let's see England album, Week in the Life Album, knitted tunic top, Wedding Album, Hawaii Album, Create 09 catch up...ugh! I'm too creatively scattered these days.

Ok, I'm off to work...happy Tuesday!

Monday Catch Up

It was a busy weekend. I'm spending today getting caught up on things I normally would do on the weekend...laundry, cleaning, groceries....I was just too busy scrapping and hanging out with family this weekend to get those things done. I was also a little preoccupied with work news this weekend to focus on too many things at once. The good news is the work news has been resolved, at least for now and I'm enjoying my day off today, even if I am in catch up mode.

Here are the pages I got done this weekend. Did two of these Saturday night during the Scrapgal crop and got the other four done while scrapping with Ally on Sunday. This first one was a combination of two challenges...a sewing challenge and a scrap 10 things you are grateful for challenge:


This one is a little unconventional for a baby page, but I think it worked.


I was having a hard time getting started with the amazing Playground kit from Studio Calico, so Ally offered me some PageMaps Sketches and I cranked out this page using one of them.


A song lyric challenge using the lyrics from this song:


Kellie's not going to like this picture, but I think the page turned out cute.


A challenge to scrap about your favorite shoes. Now I have a lot of shoes I love, but this pair truly makes me smile every time I put them on my feet.


Be sure to stop by Andrea's etsy store Knitty Bitties. She got tons of cute stuff and a few new items. I've got my eye on this:

If You Need Me

You'll find me here:


There's tons of great challenge, tutorials, games and prizes. Go check it out!

While you are at it, come play along with this challenge too:


You could win more prizes.....

Happy Scrappy Saturday!

Thursday Thankfuls

1. Hugs and cuddles from two lovely kiddos today.

2. A ginormous chocolate chip cookie after dinner because I really need a pick me up after a long day.

3. Arrived home to a fixed Tivo, thanks Shawn. (did I mention our Tivo crashed and took all our shows with it, including a week's worth of shows I missed while in OR)

4. Knitting and Grey's Anatomy.

5. Heading into a weekend of scrapping and hanging with family.

The 10 for Today

1. Enjoyed my new Tuesday work schedule...home until almost 2pm!

2. Spent two hours this afternoon editing and uploading pictures from the past four months. I have decided I need to be better about doing this monthly...it takes a LONG time when you wait!

3. Found this gorgeous photo in my shots from OR last week. Such a beautiful family!


4. Love seeing this every time I walk outside my front door. The first of my succulent obsession.


5. Wearing my new sandals today. I bought them at Target in Salem. They are super comfortable.


6. I never finished my garden this spring and now its too hot to plant much. My geraniums and gerberas are already losing ground to the heat. But, I do have tons of herbs and my heat loving basil is growing like crazy.


7. Made homemade spinach and mushroom pizza for dinner tonight using some of that lovely basil. I also tried goat cheese mozzerella to see if my reflux tummy handles it better. We shall see...it was quite delicious either way!

8. This is what Shawn spent the morning doing...yes, that's a new toy, a teeny tiny little hand held computer....and no, he didn't need this.


9. Devoured tons of berries today...blueberries and huge, delicious raspberries on my cereal and some leftover strawberry shortcake (with a few raspberries for good measure) after lunch. Mmmm!

10. Thinking I need a magazine intervention. I got two new issues today (Body and Soul and Elle Decor) and I already have a giant stack of unread magazines piled up next to my bed and in the living room. Maybe I just need a beach vacation....

Zzzzzzzz

It's late and I'm tired, but I wanted to make sure I posted today so the Blog A Day police don't come after me....

Today was a lovely day of make up sessions, grocery shopping, laundry finishing, shortcake making, and jumping from project to project. Tonight Kellie and I made a belated Mother's Day dinner for the family. We had scallops with pasta, spinach salad, bread and strawberry shortcake for dessert. It was delicious! Kellie and I are taking my mom to Wicked as her mother's day gift. It's not till July, but we are totally excited! I'd best get to reading that book before we go.

Here's a picture of me and Miss Eloise, thanks Nicole!


Nighty night!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mommy's out there. I'm looking forward to spending tomorrow evening with my mom and wishing her a Happy Mother's Day. Hope you enjoy your day!

Saturday Afternoon Playlist

Here's what I listened to in the car today and on my long drive home from work. It definitely made being stuck in freeway closure traffic a bit better.

Blitzen Trapper--Furr
The Decemberists--The Rake's Song
Rilo Kiley--Silver Lining
Iron & Wine--Jezebel
Alexi Murdoch--All My Days
Elliott Smith--Between the Bars
Ray LaMontagne--Let It Be Me
Ben Taylor--I Try
Sufjan Stevens--To Be Alone With You
Kings of Convenience--Misread
Joshua Radin--The Fear You Won't Fall
Feist--I Feel It All
Gomez--See The World
The Decemberists--O Valencia!
The Format--On Your Porch (acoustic version)
Patty Griffin--Let Him Fly
The Avett Brothers--St. Joseph's
Ben Harper--Diamonds on the Inside
Iron & Wine--Freedom Hangs Like Heaven
Katie Herzig--Fools Gold
Regina Spektor--Samson
Feist--Mushaboom
Rachael Yamagata--Be Be Your Love

Daily Numbers

Here's a few snippets from my day today, by the numbers.

• 5 music therapy sessions
• 1 outfit change (well shirt change) this morning
• 1 pink lady apple
  
• 1 trip to Target
• 1 throbbing toe, run over by yours truly with my Target shopping cart
• 2 phone conversations with my sister
• 1 expired yogurt into the trash instead of my lunch bag
  
• 1 veggie sandwich and 1 chocolate chip cookie at Paradise Bakery
• 1 crazy giggly child
• 1 screaming, constant "no" saying child
• 1 bowl of Kashi Cinnamon Harvest with 4 strawberries
  
• 1 phone conversation with Jessie
• 1 IM session with Jessie
• 1 trip to pick up Greek Pita
• 1 overly full tummy filled by Greek Pita
  
• 2 hours spent on the computer, internet surfing, chatting and blogging
• 2 tweets
• about 2 hours spent in the car throughout the day
• 2 emails answered
• 40+ emails read and/or deleted
• 15 minutes of Science Friday on NPR
• at least 50 oz of water
• 1 acid reflux pill
• 1 multivitamin
  

Thursday Thankfuls

Yes, I know today is Friday, but I missed my blog a day yesterday so here's a catch up post...the one I meant to post last night.

Today I am thankful for:
1. A wonderful trip to OR and four days of wonderful time with my girls (newest little OR girl included).
2. A big hug and kiss from Shawn as he picked me up at the airport.
3. A sweet little hug from Miss Amelia on her first birthday.
4. The garbage and recycle taken out, the dishes put in the dishwasher and no added messes upon my return home.
5. A cancellation tomorrow and a chance to sleep in a bit.

Tales from Babyland

I've been busy the past few days playing with these cute little tootsies. Aren't they precious? I haven't been the best at getting photos and what I've gotten haven't been great. I don't have the most cooperative of models however...she's a bit squirmy...but awfully adorable. Her Mama and I were planning on a little photo shoot with the hat I knit her, but we've yet to accomplish that. We've been too busy searching for smiles and dimples. Look, I caught one on film:


On Monday, we headed to Micheal's to purchase supplies for a little craft project for Miss Ella's bedroom. We bought canvases and pretty papers to make a little collage project I saw on Martha Stewart last week. Last night we had big plans to work on these while Princess Ella snoozed. Well, her Mama decided to get other things done on her to do list and ended up doing the whole project on my own. They turned out super cute. I promise to post better pictures later, but here's what they look like:




They will hang above Ella's crib from some pretty organza ribbons. Cute, cute! I also made these two for Miss Amelia's first birthday. Love the bright, fun American Crafts papers on these.


Well, I hear a little fussy girl in the other room...I'm off to go scoop her up so Mama can finish her nappy nap.

Catching Up

So I have already fallen off the blog a day bandwagon, missing yesterday's post. A little birdy reminded me that I needed to blog. I had full intentions of posting some pictures of little Miss Eloise last night and again today, but it has yet to happen. Last night I was too busy watching a silly movie and playing wedding planning with Miss Nicole. I've been busy this evening making crafties for Amelia's birthday and Ella's bedroom, holding fussy babies, showing Mama Jessie how to beautify her blog and staying up way past my bedtime. Tomorrow, I will try to do better and post some pictures. I'm hoping to share our little crafty project and some baby toes. Stay tuned....

Off To See The Wizard

And by Wizard, I mean this cutie:


And her Mama:


And the tall, now bride to be, you see featured in some of these photos:


If you need me, I'll be busy playing with them. See you soon.

Busy busy bee

Today I've been a busy girl. Between work, NSD fun all over the place, laundry, cooking and packing, I'm pretty exhausted right now! Andrea has challenged her blog readers to join her in a daily post for the month of May. I'm not sure I'll make it, as this is quite a busy month, but I didn't want to drop out on May 2nd!

More scrappy goodness....

This page was created for a "white space" challenge at Studio Calico and a challenge I posted at Scrap for a Cure to use up a sheet of partially used rub-ons. I love how it turned out.


Continuing with the use your stash theme, this page was done for a challenge I posted on the Galblog today to mix your old product (at least a year old) with you new goodies. I love this new kraft line from Fancy Pants and paired it with Hambly I'd been hoarding.


This last page was created today to fit two challenges at Scrap for a Cure. One was Danielle's "use borders" challenge and the other was to use paint from the "I'll take your ____ and leave you ____" challenge.


Now I need to spend some time with Shawn before I abandon him for OR tomorrow afternoon.
Hope you've had a lovely Saturday!

Scrappy Scrap Scrap

Tomorrow is National Scrapbook Day. There are events going on all over crafty land. We've kicked off some challenges at Scrap for a Cure tonight. I just posted mine and will post another tomorrow afternoon. We'll be posting lifts and challenges on Scrapgal tomorrow. I'll be posting a challenge or two, complete with prize, on the Galblog in the morning. Studio Calico has a whole slew of DT challenges, many of which I've been working on this week. SIS is starting challenges tonight. Too bad I have to work till 2pm tomorrow and need to do laundry and pack before I leave Sunday afternoon! I'm hoping to squeeze in a few pages tomorrow evening.

Everyone's got sales and specials going on too. Everythings 25% off at Scrapgal this weekend with the code nsd25. You'll get a free gift if you purchase from Scrap for a Cure this weekend. I'm excited about 40% of alphabet stamps at Purple Onion Designs. Fabulous prices for some fun alphabet goodness!

Speaking of scrappy stuff, May galleries went live today at Scrapgal and Scrap for a Cure. Here are my Scrapgal pages. This first one is my current favorite page. I'm in love with the felty, stitchy, glittery goodness:


Loving the new Fancy Pants and Crate Paper.


Scrap for a Cure's May kit is so fun this month. Full of spring papers and goodness and so easy to work with. I cranked out these 4 layouts in one night.





The mini kit this month is full of great products too. You should definitely check it out and buy it this weekend so you can get a free gift!

Happy Scrapping!