Welcome to October

Hooray for October, my favorite month. This month is off to a great start so far, as I have already enjoyed a wine and cheese girls night out, gorgeous weather and a few handfuls of candy corn. Now for the pumpkin goodness to begin.....

I have quite the list of things to do and enjoy in October. Here are a few of my favorite items:

• decorate for Halloween
• plant fall flowers
• cook/bake/eat lots of pumpkin and apple goodness
• pumpkin patch
• Halloween fun with my Oregon girls!!
• birthday fun all month if I get my way :)

Since it's a new month, I've got lots of scrappy stuff to share. This month's Scrap for a Cure kit is full of fall colors that were so fun to work with. Here are my pages:





You'll have to excuse that last picture. It was taken with bad lighting and I haven't had a chance to redo it yet.

At Scrapgal, our manufacture of the month is My Minds Eye. I'm loving some of their patterned papers right now. Here's my MME page:


and a yummy mix of Jillibean Soup and Prima to honor my love for October:


I'm hoping to spend part of this weekend scrapping. I'd love to finish my Halloween project so I can post and enjoy for the rest of the month.

Happy October!

Sunday Funday

It's been quite the busy week. Quite the busy month actually. Today I decided to have a little me day. I pretty much spent the whole day scrapping. I actually brought my stuff out to the living room and scrapped in front of the tv, something I don't do too often. I watched several episode of Mad Men and Bridge to Teribithia. I got a lot done, unfortunately most of it I can't share until Oct 1st. Here's a card I made for a Sketch Challenge at Scrapgal's crop this weekend:


I also played with the October Scrap for A Cure kit. It's full of lovely fall papers and embellishments. Here are a few sneaks:




The rest of my day was spent reading (I finished this book) and napping. I did manage to cook lunch and dinner and finish all the laundry. I did not do any of the paperwork that I need to get done. Guess what I'm doing tomorrow?

Hope you had a lovely weekend.

The 10 Again

So I've not been the greatest blogger as of late. It's been a busy month so far. I don't see things getting any less busy till oh, say January. It's just getting to be that time of year. Lots and lots going on and the calendar is getting fuller and fuller by the minute. Anyway, back to this blogging thing. At the very least, you can count on me to bring you my favorite Tuesday 10 posts. There's just something about making these little lists that I love. Little snippets of my life. Without further ado, I bring you today's 10:

1. Have jumped into the phenomenon that is True Blood. I haven't watched any of the shows yet, but I just started reading the first book in the series. It's pretty entertaining thus far.

2. Started off the fall eating with some butternut squash ravioli for dinner tonight. Shawn was not a fan, but I thought it was quite tasty.

3. Finding this video amusing.

4. Looking forward to the Fall Haul crop at Scrapgal this weekend.

5. Working on a little Halloween project that includes this little guy:


6. Enjoying this blog with it's emphasis on food and art.

7. Created this page on Sunday. It's my take on the current Scrapjack and my project for the 4th week of the Back to School Challenge at Scrapgal.


8. Looking forward to Criminal Minds and Grey's Anatomy season premiers later this week.

9. Trying to forget that my birthday is just around the corner. Seems like this year is just going by so fast.

10. Hoping to get another good, full night of sleep tonight. I do not feel rested lately. Maybe I'll actually get to relax this weekend and I'll feel better.

Chicago in Pictures

We were in Chicago for five days over Labor Day to visit Shawn's family and celebrate his mom's birthday. Hope you had a great birthday Ellen. While we were there, the weather was perfect and we took advantage of all opportunities to hang outside. We spent lots of time with Shawn's family and had some lovely dinners and adventures together. On Sunday, we went into the city to check out the jazz festival and play tourist. We took lots of pictures. Unfortunately, that was the only day I took pictures. You would think and "everyday moments" scrapper like me would do better at random everyday vacation and family shots, but nope. I neglected the camera the rest of our trip. Oh well. We did get some good ones in the city.

Here's a few of my favorite pictures:














We should go to Chicago more often in the summer. It was beautiful!

I Need

We just got back from 5 lovely days in Chicago. I'm afraid my stress level started to elevate before we even boarded the plane. I have so much to do this month and am not quite sure how it will all get done. Add to my regular list the mess with my car and I'm working hard to not be too stressed. Here's a few things I need....

to clean...my house is closing in on me and making me crazy!
to organize...I have too many unfinished projects
to get to work on paperwork....I'm halfway there
to buy a new car
to reschedule some kids so I can make up lost income
to scrap, so I can meet some deadlines and stay sane
to chat with a few friends
to print and back up photos
to make appointments
to finish mileage and tax stuff
to spend less time on the internet
to get some exercise
to purge and sort magazines
to clean up outside
to get to work!

Happy Thursday!

September Scraps

Here are several pages that I have finished in the past couple of weeks. This first one uses a Studio Calico kit and a lovely picture of me giving you my "you bug me" face.


This page uses a Kenner Road kit and some pictures of Kellie's famous flower baskets from Easter.


This page is one of my pages for the September gallery at Scrapgal. I am in love with Lily Bee and their fabulous papers and rub ons. This page is mostly Lily Bee goodies.


The next few pages are my pages for the September Scrap for a Cure gallery. Both the main kit and mini kits are fabulous this month, The main kit is full of Lily Bee, Pink Paislee, g.c.d. and tons of other goodies. More Lily Bee on this first page.


Love this fun circle design paper from g.c.d. Used it on the next two pages.



Here's the cover of a travel mini album I made from the September mini kit. It's an unfinished album at this point, as I may gift it to a lucky recipient.


I've been working on a few other projects. Doing a lot more altered stuff and playing with inks, paints and mediums on canvas lately too.

Happy Thursday!

Spetember's First 10

1. Dinner with Kellie at Bombay Spice. YUM!

2. Back to School Contest at Scrapgal starts today. Go check out Week 1's Challenge here.


3. SEI is the September manufacturer at Scrapgal. Share your favorite SEI layouts for a chance to win a prize. Here's mine:


4. New kits went live at Scrap for A Cure today. Here's the main kit:


and the mini kit

I was lucky enough to get to work with both of these yummy kits this month. Lots of fun stuff in them. I will share my pages tomorrow.

5. Did you see the moon? Not looking forward to the rest of the work week....

6. My new guitar came today! Now I need to find a fun guitar strap.

7. Had an eye appointment today and for the first time ever, she actually reduced my prescription. It appears my eyes are getting better. Don't get too excited, I'm still quite blind.

8. Helping Shawn decide which koi to get rid of tomorrow. Our fish are just way too big for the pond and it's time to give some up so they can have more room. It's a bit sad though because I think one of my favorites will have to go. He's got a birth defect, so he's on the lower end of the koi quality scale, but I have a soft spot for him and his little slurpy eating sounds.

9. Trying hard not to buy all of the new CHA goodies showing up at Scrapgal. There's even a 15% off sale right now...

10. Strawberries n cream popsicles just might be my new favorite. Although the coconut ones are quite delicious too.