Monday Quote

'Live for the moments you can't put into words'

(yes, I see the irony in posting this on a blog which is all about the written word, but it's a perfect match for this page, heck it's even on this page.)

Patterned Paper: My Mind's Eye (Penny Lane)
Cardstock: Bazzil
Stickers: Cosmo Cricket (Girl Friday, love this!)
Flower: Hobby Lobby
Buttons: Making Memories, Houston's stash

How about some cards?

Well, sadly my vacation week is coming to a close, and with only about half of my list complete, c'est la vie, you can't fight mother nature and as it turns out because of the little fit she decided to through on Thursday, I was quite productive in creative areas. Here are a few cards I created during the week.




Stamps: Stampin' Up
Ink: Stampin Up
Cardstock:Bazzil
Patterned Paper, Embellies: Making Memories


How cute are these new Owlies from Stamping Bella?


Stamps: Stamping Bella (Branching Out Owlies), PTI (sentiment)
Ink: Memento
Colors: Prismacolors
Patterned Paper:Bo Bunny
Cardstock: Bazzil
Diecuts: Nestabilities
Punch: Stampin Up
Ribbon: ???



Stamps: StampingBella(Partygirlabella, Billboardabella sentiment)
Ink: Memento
Colors: Copics
Patterned Paper:Making Memories(stripe, orange) Basic Grey(Hot Pink)
Cardstock: Bazzil
Diecuts: Quickutz
Other: Glitter

Hope you have a great week!

What to share? What to share?

So it turns out that a blizzard is a good thing for scrapbooking mojo, studio gets organized and photos get scrapped. Here are a couple that I finished up today. I think I've properly gushed over these rocking horse photos here in blog land it was time to get them all down on pages.



I actually started this one first and when I realized the stitching would be the perfect finishing touch so I took the side photos off and thought the layout looked pretty good with just one photo too, now the tough decision which one to put in her book and which one to keep for mine.



I also tried out a fab tip from Houston to cut foam with my revolution, love the way these letters turned out...my own thickers with any alpha...oh boy!

Patterned Paper/Cut-outs: My Minds Eye Bloom and Grow
Cardstock: Bazzil
Buttons: Making Memories
Alpha: QK Paige


Back to work at the store tomorrow and a little crafty time with the girls, can't wait.

Thickers, Thickers and More Thickers

while it's true my obsession with AC thickers doesn't run as deep as others, I couldn't pass up the challenge from the AC blog to use 3 or more different styles on a layout. Combine a challenge with a blizzard and voila a finished product. Added bonus, I designed the page to fit this week's journaler's challenge too. Give yourself a compliment, it really had me stumped and then...


it came to me...this is the chance to do what I've always wanted to do on page w/pics of my closet and fav items, if that doesn't say fashionista I don't know what does.


Patterned Paper: BG, Urban Prarie
Alpha: American Crafts' Thickers --- Vera(white), Rainboots (blue), Sprinkles (red and black)

Wanna get away?

With a snow storm looming (or hitting depending on where you are) in the Denver area, you may find yourself wanting to take off in search of real spring weather. Maybe you'll get lucky and have this guy on your flight...




Happy Thursday!

Update: Clearly I wrote this post early in the day...as of 3 pm no one is coming in or out of Denver. Blizzards are fun when you don't have to go anywhere.

Where does the time go?

What the week is half over? How can that be? Why is it that vacations go so much faster than a work week? For those of you keeping track, I've finished 3 of the tasks on the to-do list I made last week. Yes, I am a procrastinator, even on vacation. I have been able to spend time with friends and family and after all isn't that what vacations should really be about? Plus, I signed up for a Photoshop Workflow class on Jessica Sprague's site. It's great, so glad I took the plunge I've really learned quite a bit and feel more comfortable making edits on my own instead of depending on actions that others have created. Here are a few of my favorites...

Sienna was so cute, she played peek-a-boo with me from behind a tree.

Tea anyone?

Pigtails on parade!




and now we prepare to hunker down as the biggest storm of the season is headed this way...maybe the forecasters will be wrong, if not I have plenty of adhesive to keep me busy crafting all day.

Stalking...

yes I admit it, I've been stalking Stephanie Howell (@stephaniehowell for twitter folks) again...yes I know stalking is wrong, but since she was pubster of the day in 2 pea land at some point in the past couple of weeks, it was the perfect opportunity to go through her gallery and be inspired...as I always am. I decided to lift...alright...C.A.S.E this layout. Here's my version, it makes me happy, happy, happy.




Everything except bling and pen: Making Memories
Bling: Kaiser Kraft
Pen: Ek Success

Speaking of happiness...Sienna is spending the day with me today, we've had breakfast and a tea party so far. Hope to have some cute photos to share tomorrow.

Monday Quote

If you think dogs can't count, try putting three dog biscuits in your pocket and then giving Fido only two of them. ~Phil Pastoret



Ok so I griped about Tanner in the last post, I thought it would only be fair to show a layout of him when he's better behaved. I did this one for a past journaler's challenge about nicknames. Of which he has many, many names...some good, others not so much.

love, love, love the new Bo Bunny Pet Shop line, great patterns and masculine colors. It has cutesy elements that I shied away from, but I'm always thankful to find pet paper that doesn't mix dogs and cats(bleh! sorry cat lovers) on the same paper.


Patterned Paper: Bo Bunny Pet Shop, Basic Grey(brown solid)
Alpha: AC thickers, QK Blossom
Diecuts: QK Library Pocket
Ribbon: AC

Spring break?

Spring Break Day 1 was beautiful day with Colorado's weather at it's best. So what are a girl and her dog, her sister, her niece, sister's dogs and apparently all of the southern metro region to do, head to the closed water source of course...Chatfield Res.

We usually love the dog park there, wide open spaces...water for the dogs to swim...and usually enough dogs to have fun but not too crowded. Well not yesterday...I had never seen the place so packed. Sadly, Tanner inner pack mentality took over and he was such a butt.

I think in every family there is that one person...sibling...cousin...parent...you fill in the blank...that gets on every one's nerves, they pick and pick and 90% the picking is annoying but usually ignored and then there is the other 10% were someone else has had enough and they fight back against the picker and before long there is much screaming and everyone else just stands in shock? Well that was the case yesterday at the park...but not between my sister and me but the dogs! I'd like to say that Tanner is the one who stands up to the annoyance, but no, he is the ass of the dog family and sometimes Kinley(a golden who weighs twice as much as Tanner) just fights back and a huge dog fight ensues. Poor Shelley was holding Sienna, and I'm getting closer and closer to the dogs hoping to have an opportunity to pull Tanner away when there's a break in the action, which eventually there was, but we needed the help of another person to really separate them. Luckily neither dog was seriously hurt, Tanner got a small nick on his leg and Kinley unharmed. As you can imagine, Tanner's trip was cut short as I marched him right back to the car and made him wait while I went to help Shelley collect her dogs and Sienna who wanted nothing to do with the stroller at this point and needed to be carried back to the car.

If the rest of the days of spring break are going to be like this, I think I might just go back to work. Here's hoping the tide changes today...

Counting the days...

Spring Break is just a few days away...you would think that since I work for a school I would automatically have it off...oh were it so...admins work year round, but we do have PTO days and instead of losing some at the end of the SY again I've decided to have a little stay*cation and use those days during Spring Break.

Not that it will be much of a break, as I'm out for my walks with Tanner many things that I need/want to get done pop into my head. So to help in my effort to keep track and attempt to actually get them done, I decided to post them here...sorry a boring read today, sometimes this blog is really all about me...hey, no snickering on the sometimes.

1. Clean out, wash and vacuum car
2. Restructure little retirement fund from previous job so money will not continue to waste away
3. Mani/Petti...70 degree weather has my toes screaming for air, but they're not ready for public viewing just yet
4. Finish scraproom organization
5. Clean out closet, put winter clothes away...this will no doubt cause a major blizzard
6. Lots of laundry
7. Take Tanner to the wash your pup place
8. Clean out fridge

Well those are the ones I can remember at the moment...I'm sure I'll be adding to the list as the time comes closer.

Monday Quote

A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous. Coco Chanel

So true, so true...I think this is one of those quotes I might like on my headstone when the day comes.


Last week's journaling challenge was about Fame...I decided to do a page about my secret(well until now) dream to be a fashion designer. I used a brochure from my trip to New York and a visit to the Fashion Institute and a sketch of my own.

Obsessed much

I know I just posted yesterday that the rocking horse for Sienna was the best garage sale purchase ever...how quickly ever changes. Perhaps I need to start categorizing that statement. Finds for kids, crafting finds etc...because look what I picked up at the Scrapbook Destination garage sale yesterday:


oodles of 'Stampin' up' ink pads and reinkers. Yes I know, not totally special, but wait until you hear the price...wait for it...take a guess...ooh did you say $3.00? $2.00? wrong! try .75 for both the pad and the reinker! How could I pass that up? So that just totally got me in the crafty mood...1st step organization, since even in my high 'SU' times I never purchased the ink pads, I had to familiarize myself with the colors so I made a little chart.



here's where the obsession part really kicks in: I took pictures of my chart with my cell phone so I would know which colors I still need to complete my collection. Yes I like to have everything sometimes, but only if I can get a deal.


Then off to make some cards...this one was inspired by a card I saw on the Papertry Ink blog earlier in the week.
Supplies:
Stamps: Botanicals:Inque Boutique sorry can't find the name of the set Sentiment: Papertry Ink
Cardstock: PTI
Ink: Close to Cocoa, SU
Punch: Martha
Extras: Making Memories ribbon and button

The image on the next card may look familiar from the fab Angela's blog, she used this in her copic class and for the Instyle DT submission (for which she was selected Yay Angela!) I colored it the night of the class and she's just been waiting for a card to land on. So when I unpacked some new Making Memories Whimsy (i'm such a Making Memories slut, I can't help myself sometimes, I want it all) and saw the paisley I knew it would be perfect for this little diva.

Supplies:
Stamps: Roxy---Instyle Stamps, Ab Fab sentinment--- PTI, Inside sentiment(not pictured) CHF
Patterned Paper: Making Memories--- Whimsy: Paisley, Noteworthy: Orange Polka
Cardstock: PTI
Colors:Copic Ciao and Spica(gold glitter)
Frame: Nestabilities
Extras: Flowers and Buttons---Making Memories, Glassy Accents, Glitter

Happy Sunday! Now I'm off to Costco to pick up the rocking horse photos.

A few new pics

I took these on Sunday, I can't believe it's taken me a week to edit and post these pics of Sienna and her rocking horse. I can't wait to scrap them...






I think this one is my favorite...




I think the horse can now take it's place as one of the best garage sale purchases, ever...

Hello!

A quick special shout out to new visitors coming from Lisa's blog...how much do we love her!

And if you're a *fan* of the snuggie video then you won't want to miss this post: Insane in the Membrane featuring Bill Maher in a snuggie.


Still on the snuggie note, I had lunch with the fab Houston today and she asked if I knew that there was such a thing as a snuggie pub crawl. Yes, it's true...check out this news report from Nashville.



And before you dismiss it as a silly southern thing (as I was tempted to do) you should know that there are Snuggie Crawls scheduled in Chicago, NYC and even our own fair Denver. I'll be sure to let you know the date when I find out. Houston tells me you can purchase your very own Snuggie at Staples.

Spring

Nothing says spring to me like Cadbury...so when I came across this ad with excellent use of CGI I couldn't help but share...

Video Thursday

Super cool video for a super cool cause

Spread the Word

Once upon a time in a land far, far away (aka 1996) I discovered a fabulous scrapbook how-to book called Core Composition it's teachings have stuck with me through out the many phases and styles of my scrapping 'career'. So sorry, it's out of print now...but the author is going stronger than ever and moved on to much 'big'ger things.

Why yes the author of this fab spiral bound book is none other than Stacy Julian and guess what she's coming to Denver and wants to meet scrappers Yay! Now we...and by we I mean you...yes you because I've already done my bit...need to convince her that Scrapbook Destination is the place to be.

So what do you need to do...it's simple
1. Post a comment to Stacy's blog and tell her why you love Scrapbook Destination
2. Tell all your friends, tweet it up, use facebook, even carrier pigeons if you must to have them post on her blog.

Thanks friends!

Monday Quote

“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Suess

Happy birthday to the doctor, once upon a time I could recite many a Suess book...Green Eggs and Ham, Go Dog Go, Hop on Pop just to name a few. Now I have to look at the words which tells me there's not enough Suess in my life.

In the past year or so I've learned more about the components to building/becoming a successful reader and how wonderful these books are, beyond the pure fun of the characters they are perfect for beginning readers.

But did you know...Dr. Seuss didn’t just happen to write books that help emergent readers. He wrote The Cat in the Hat in response to a complaint by a man named John Hersey that the reading primers being used in schools (this was 1954) were full of “insipid illustrations” of “abnormally courteous children.” Dick and Jane anyone? Hersey said, “Why should [school primers] not have pictures that widen rather than narrow the associative richness the children give to the words they illustrate Dr. Seuss responded to this challenge by writing a book that came from a 223-word list of vocabulary words for school children. Because the list was so limiting, it took him 9 months to complete. The finished product–The Cat in the Hat.

and that's that.