One week to go

One week from today, I'll be on my way to CKU-A. I'm pretty excited about it, but a little worried, well, not worried, but hatin' to leave my family. I really really like being around my family, and I will sooooooooo miss the husband and the girls. To make matters worse, the husband has a business trip Monday-Friday the day after I return! UGH. So, needless to say, I'm having a bit of separation anxiety before it even happens.

So, CKU-A. Very happy about it. I feel as if I am going alone, even though I'll know a couple of people there. I guess that's ok. I never do anything alone because I feel so invisible and conspicuous at the same time. Still, I have some possibilities for fun, so we'll see what shakes out. I know that I will enjoy my album track. I just LOVE LOVE Heidi Swapp's line, and I have heard great things about the track. The other classes seem as if they will be fun, but the main focus is "She," Heidi's classes. I also have some contest entries, well, at least one, another one if I have time. Hopefully, I'll have some luck! My tags are mostly done for the open tag swap; I borrowed and changed up a bit a tag I received in the swap at Mpls last year. I have some dorm things to do still, name badges and some table things. We're going casual on the costume. You just can't go over the top on all of it, ya know? Anyway....hopefully, it'll be as great as last year when Nietra and I went. Now that was fun.

What else....had Mom's Night Out last night with Shannon and Amy. Loved getting together, so-so on the restaurant (the tempura didn't sit well with me overnight), loved the coffee and dessert, really loved all the chatting. I had to miss last month because of the work schedule. Hoping to iron it out for the next MNO.

Trying to do some extra house cleaning every day. I am a horrible house cleaner. Hear that, Tina?? I'm horrible at it!! I just don't wanna do it. It's like exercise. Know how, yes. Need to, yes. Wanna, no. So I am trying to do what I normally get done each day plus an extra thing. I have cleaned the front of the refrigerator and dishwasher. I have mopped the kitchen floor. I have scrubbed the toilet, including the part where the floor bolts are that seems to catch all the dust and hair. So, it's going ok. It's a good thing.

I finally got my Christmas flag down from the front of the house and put the Easter one out. Then it snowed several inches that same day. I found that funny. It's one of the mini flags on an iron hanger, not a big flag pole one.

Fun things I'm loving ~ actually, getting the extra cleaning done, I"m lovin' it. My new Wishblade for scrapbooking, I'm lovin' it. SO glad I decided to go for it and sell my alphabet dies to finance the WB! It rocks. Let me say that again. It rocks. Having my scrapbook room back. LOVIN' IT!!! Works so much better for me and for the girls as it turns out. Who knew. My knew khaki pants that are supposed to be crops, but are really just about regular length because I'm short and pants are made for the extremely tall, I'm lovin' em. Spring arriving, I"m lovin' it cause I want the husband and girls to enjoy warm days and no coats for a while, and me, too!

Okie doke...that's my update. Though I am behind on the Monday blog challenge. For that, which is music this week, I got nothing. Not much of a music girl, I'm afraid. Oh well...next week's might be easier. :)

Monday Blog Challenge

Well, today's challenge is the "four things" listings that I've done previously, so I'll just let ya scroll and find them in last month's entries. :) I'm a cheat, I know.

I've been reading blogs, and, inspired by the vivacious Tina, here's my doll. Yeah, that's me in an alternate universe. Fun though, that site.

Also got the scrapbook room moved back this weekend. By "back," I mean back to the space I had before I decided to give up my wonderful basement office for the girls to use it as a playroom. Yeah, that failed (see post below). So, it went quickly because I really just had to put things back as I had them before. It's even roomier, cause no piles o' stuff. But I can have piles o' stuff if I want 'em, cause there's more room. Heh.

Worked on this cj yesterday. It's about time.....we've been doing this about 10 months, and I think they're all lost. Somehow, Sarah's cj made it to me, and I send it home to her, so at least one is on track. I think it's Amy Totty's fault. That Bazzill chick has them stacked up. I want my book back! But I want Amy's work in it!! Get to it, chicky!

So, that's where I am. Oh, and I got my Wishblade on Friday. That thing is COOL. Even the husband loves it after we were able to make a Cubs'-looking logo, circles and all. Made the title on the cj layout with it, too. Now just to learn the more advanced functions. I'm going to be happy with it though...definitely the right decision to sell the old Sizzix alphabet sets to pay for it. And I made better money on those than I spent, especially since I bought them from ebay in the first place! Nifty, nifty. :)

Wednesday

Man! do I need to catch up. The days seem to pass quickly whether I have anything specific to do or not. After several work days in a short time from last Thursday through all day Sunday, I was thrilled to see Sunday night come, except for the fact that the husband returns to work Mondays. So...I've really enjoyed the past two nights, but tonight, it's work again. And tomorrow night, too. Bummer. A few short hours on Saturday early, just filling in for a co-worker and grabbing some extra pay, and the weekend is mine. Yippee!!

I had a revelation yesterday about my scrapbook space. Well, actually, I had that particular revelation a while ago, that my space SUCKS. The revelation yesterday was that I am taking my good space back from the kids. I'm moving back into my fun little office painted Becky Higgins Behr asparagus green with my scrapbook words foam-stamped on the overhang. Yes, the husband will have to clean and paint over the crayon that now adorns the walls, but so what. I'm taking my room back, my room with the shelf-lined closet and hangy space. The move starts Friday eve. Yippee, again!!

The playroom? Ahh...it will be in the big space that I've attempted to occupy since Christmas. The space is large, but so unusable for scrapbooking! I can't hang anything in the cinder block (not easily, anyway), I can't place anything that's a temptation for the girls, I can't use low shelves or open spaces, stack things on the floor, etc. It will be a perfect play space...good area carpet, wide open space for the Little Tikes stuff, Barbie tent, Shrek chairs, etc. And now that the girls have the feel of the basement, I think it will be easier to keep them from the spaces they don't need to be in, such as the laundry room and furnace room. At first, I thought it would be tough, but after standing in the little office yesterday and seeing what I'd see out the door from my scrapbook desk if it were back in there, I realize I can still keep an eye on what the girls are doing, and, truth be known, they'll want to be near me enough that I can keep them from going where they shouldn't anyway.

No new layouts to share....several nearly-complete ones needing titles or journaling. Hope to get back to scrapping soon. It's therapeutic, cheaper than therapy, creative, and fun. Oh, I'm also trying to keep my pledge to not buy patterned paper anymore for a while. Got a few sheets of the newest stuff, and now I just need to use it!

Elsie, Elsie, Elsie

I just gotta say, could Elsie Flannigan's layouts be any more cute??? Check out her blog; link to the right.

Guilty Pleasure

Our WT weekly blog challenge is "Guilty Pleasure." Gee, not sure I have any of those, as I'm so bad about having what I want. Maybe if I did feel guilty, indulging wouldn't be so easy. I have to say that I love Hershey Nuggets with Almonds. Just love them. Sadly, I find that they taste different, actually better than Kisses. Not my fault they are bigger. There's just something about chewing a nice chunk of chocolate that's soooo good. I guess the guilty pleasure part of it is having several in a row. Like 6 or 8. Lots. Love em. Love em so much that last year, each instructor at CKU got a single Hershey Nugget with Almonds in a tiny plastic bag with a thank you tag attached. Chocolate is always welcome by scrapbookers, ya know. I think it's a universal rule or something that you must have chocolate while scrapbooking. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Pre-pre-school blues

So today we went to pre-pre-school for the 3rd and last time. The "director" told me last week that she and the teachers are concerned with the girls' apparent fear of the bathroom. They don't care if the girls go potty or not (they are only there for 2 hours a week, anyway), but they MUST wash their hands before snacks. This is a health department regulation (yeah, I confirmed it). I figure, sheesh, won't an antibacterial wipe do the trick? Health department and day-care licensing guy says their doctor can write them a note about their phobia and an exception would be made, but I'm still not taking the girls back. They just turned 3, they will go to 3-year-old pre-school in the fall, and that will be fine. This was an attempt to get them involved outside the house and with other children to help them learn and play with others, share, etc. The director was pretty rude, which is why I used quotes around her title in the sentence above. I mean, here I am, obviously-distraught parent with 2 3-year-olds who want to go to school, and she's just walking by like I'm not even there. "We have to keep the group together," she says. So I ask, is it a "keep the group together" issue or a wash-hands issue? There are 7 kids in the class and 2 teachers. Sheesh...can't they wash their hands in shifts with those numbers? The potty is just a few paces from their class, too. Even the pastor who walked by showed concern for my distraught state at least. Well, good riddence, I guess. If she can be that rude and unfeeling (not even showing sympathy, despite the "rules" is what gets me), I don't want my children in her school anyway. And this a church facility. Harumph!! I have already enrolled the girls in a closer church program that starts after labor day. It's a 3-year-old class, twice a week, and my friends have their kids there and LOVE how they nurture the kids and HELP them. Gee, what a concept.

So yesterday, I did two simple layouts while the girls played, but I'm waiting for my new QK Studio Classic alphabet to arrive by mail so I can put titles on them before posting. :)

Fragile and amazing

If you feel like it and haven't already, take a look at Tara Whitney's blog today. She and her family are amazing and deserve some great joy in life, especially right now. I don't know Tara at all; I just read her blog and think she's amazingly talented. Link is to the right in my Blogs listing. :)

Flat hair?

Ok, so I'm looking at the pics below and thinking, sheesh, I've got flat hair. You know how when the lady fixes your hair and it's not the way you would fix it, so you fool with it on the way home? Well, it's still an improvement over how badly outgrown my hairstyle was, but I gotta get my poof today. Trust me, it'll poof, and it'll be better. lol

New Stuff

I joined my WT buddies in a blog challenge. It's to get us all blogging again after a sluggish winter with not many entries among us. So the first challenge is "I am a child of the ___." Well, in my case, it's the 1970s! I was born in the early 1960s, so I came of age in the 70s.

I remember wearing clogs.
I saw Aerosmith in concert 30 years ago.
I wore bell bottoms.
I thought the Mystery Machine was cool long before Sarah Michelle Geller was even born.
I rang in the country's bicentennial.
I remember Watergate.
I wore a dress in my 6th grade picture that was so short, my teacher threatened to send me home if I ever wore it again.
I had shag haircuts.
I loved Donny Osmond.

Concerts I saw:
Aerosmith
Blue Oyster Cult
KISS
ELO
Alice Cooper with Eddie Money and Sweet
Captain and Tenille (I have no idea why though....lol)

The other blog challenge was to post about what's new. Well, nothing much new with sb'ing and the usual things I go on about, but I did get new glasses and a haircut today. What do you think?I'm hoping I shook off the winter dowdy! First photo is a "hold the camera at arm's length" self-portrait; dh took second photo for me.

One more....

This is Maddie's birthday lo....Em's was posted a-ways back. Again, love the Bazzill biggies!

A layout

Might as well add a layout I did at Tina's last week that I finally journaled on....not entirely happy with the journaling as I ran out of room to write....oh well. Love the big Bazzill flower!

Valentines and Crocs

Two things I did yesterday...brought hand-made valentines for the girls to trade in preschool and got some crocs for comfy feet while working parttime. I blame Donna Downey for enabling me on the Crocs, btw. Oh, yeah, those ARE my fat, pale ankles, thank you very much!

Tagged

Well, I've been tagged by Cricket! A second post within 13 hours or so? Gee, I can't believe myself! :)

WHAT SCRAPBOOK LINES/PRODUCT ETC. DO YOU DISLIKE?
Hmm..I don't dislike a whole lot; I prefer some things to others. I guess if I have to say something, it would be that I dislike Zots because they do NOT stick like Glue Dots, most roll stickers, though there are some nicer quality ones with quotes or good alphas (like American Crafts), and I guess cheap cardstock. Hate cheap cardstock.

WHAT IS THE HARDEST THING YOU EVER HAD TO SCRAP?
I don't think I've sb'd anything hard, but I've tried things that turned out hard, like an entry for the Basic Grey contest last year.

WHAT TECHNIQUE DO YOU USE MORE THAN ANYTHING?
Probably inking and distressing. Even though a cleaner look seems to have taken hold of the industry lately, I still love the shabby chick look.

WHAT'S THE SMALLEST SCRAP OF PAPER YOU SAVE?
Geesh, I need to get over this, but probably about something 1"x2" depending on what paper it is. I figure if I can get a die cut out of it, it might come in handy, and some cardstock I use over and over so I know I'll use that color again.

EVER HAD ANY SCRAPBOOKING RELATED INJURIES?
None that I can think of...I'm sure I've been stuck with the piercer or a staple or something.

FINISH THIS SENTENCE: "IF I WASN'T A SCRAPBOOKER/STAMPER, I WOULD SPEND MY MONEY ON..." books, first edition and collectible books, Gymboree clothes for my girls, house stuff.

GIVE US YOUR BEST STORAGE OR ORGANIZATIONAL IDEA:
Wall storage. I have learned that you can't find a place for every little basket you can find, but storing on shelving or on the wall (like the MM panels) is helpful. Also vertical paper storage...can you say easier than a million wire Target cube shelves??

YOU JUST WON A WEEK LONG SCRAPBOOKING CRUISE FOR 5, WHO IS GOING WITH YOU?
Wow...Nietra, Tina, Donna Downey, Ali Edwards, Heidi Swapp, Karen Burniston, Dana from Archivers and Teri from Scrap This Crop That. Wait, that's 8. Well, we'll just have to eat less so we can all go.

AFTER YOU HAVE ANSWERED, TAG FOUR OF YOUR BUDDIES:
Four? Not sure I know four who blog.....Tina, Kara, Amy Renee', and ..... Karen B? are you reading still? lol

Happy Valentine's Day

Well, technically, it's 7 minutes past Valentine's day, but I had a bit of trouble logging into Blogger. I am now using Internet Explorer to surf, and I had to reset some things in the Internet options before Blogger would let me blog.

So I have been busy...just nothing too exciting to blog about. I've done some layouts that I have pics of but need to upload. In the meantime, I"ll share a glimpse of dh's mini-album/Valentine's card that I made. Tomorrow, the girls have a little party at pre-school. I made a bunch of heart-shaped valentines for them to take for their classmates. I'm so excited! Their first official valentine swap!!

Speaking of swap.....ok, bad pun....I switched to the Heidi Swapp album track for CKU-albums. I just couldn't help myself. I knew I'd love the one I was in, but I just can't resist the Heidi Swapp stuff...in the words of one of my three-year-olds, I reabby reabby reabby wub it!!

I'm all verklempt.

Karen Burniston read my blog today and said nice things about the Emily's 3 layout. Cool, huh? That's what a nice kit will do for ya and a little bit of fun ingenuity. Not much blogging time right now, as little Emily is right here wanting to play alphabet. I guess that's ok.

Today, this made me go "hmmmm" -- why does my hair and/or pores smell of onion when the shower water first hits me on the day after I eat something that's made with fresh onion? Why is that? There is absolutely no mistaking that smell of fresh onion either. We had homemade chicken noodle soup last night with plenty of fresh carrots, celery, and onion in it!

Did two layouts today. One is of the girls in 2004 before our move playing with Little People for one of the first times. The pic isn't great, but the fun sure does show. Used stuff from my stash, including Little People stickers that Santa brought me my first Christmas as a scrapbooker. I need one more MM Tag Maker rim to finish it up but thought I"d go ahead and post anyway.

Second layout is from the Lisa B QVC book. I just love all things Heidi Swapp. Well, almost all things. I'm not into the chipboard strips and a few of the other things. Still, lovin' this book!

Oh, it finally happened. One of the girls got into my sb'ing stuff while I wasn't home and dh wasn't watching them in the basement. She got Zig markers and blank shipping tags. Could have been so much worse....still, we can't trust them at all in the basement by themselves. Will the day ever come that they can play without being watched like a hawk?

Ok, so I posted the layouts backwards. No biggie....

New Layout

Just a quick post to add this Emily birthday layout since it's been a while since I uploaded one. Created this (mostly) while cropping with Tina the other day....still have to finish the journaling off in pen, but first I have to buy a Zig Millenium .05 in brown. This paper, tags, and embellies came in a GREAT kit by Over the Moon Press; I'll be doing a Maddie lo next, then a bigger birthday lo, too. Fun kit!

More Scrapping!

Ever since we moved my beloved scrapbook room to the "outer" basement area, formerly my stamping room, I have gotten lots more layouts done. It's not because the space is that much more inspiring; it's actually less so. It's because my toddlers took over my little room for their play room, and now that I can be downstairs more during the day, I get more done. That's kind of a "duh!" moment, huh? Ahh well. I'm glad to have gotten much more scrapbooking done. I am usually doing projects for gifts, cards, etc, and not doing so much of my own layouts, so I'm happy. I feel like Matthew J. Bruccoli when asked what his (at the time) new biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald had in it that the other (classic) ones didn't, and he replied, "more facts!" Well, now I've got 'more layouts!' I need to post pictures soon. In the meantime, check out the latest in my gallery at Willow Traders. http://www.willowtraders.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=1266

Tagged by Kara

I've been tagged for the latest quiz, so here goes!

Four jobs you’ve had in your life:
1. Theatre box office (live theatre, not movies)
2. Paste-up artist for commercial printer
3. Educational Television traffic and administrative positions (fave jobs EVER)
4. State Department of Education, Director of Statistical Reporting (my career job)

Four movies you would watch over and over:
1. The American President
2. Princess Diaries
3. You've Got Mail
4. Bull Durham

Four places you have lived:
1. Biloxi, Mississippi (birthplace)
2. Jackson, Mississippi (college and adult years)
3. Starkville, Mississippi (grad school years)
4. Des Moines, Iowa (husband transferred)

Four TV shows you love to watch:
1. Desperate Housewives
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. Gilmore Girls
4. The West Wing (esp the old, really good ones)

Four places you have been on vacation:
1. DisneyWorld
2. NYC
3. Charlottesville, VA
4. Smoky Mountains

Four websites you visit daily:
1. Yahoo mail
2. Willow Traders
3. 2Peas
4. Various Blogs

Four of your favorite foods:
1. Sandwiches (I dunno, just love sandwiches)
2. Beef roast cooked with potatoes, carrots and onions
3. Barbeque
4. Chicken cooked all kinds of ways

Four places you would rather be right now:
1. I think I would like to live in the Chicago area or Champagne, IL, area (so girls could be around family)
2. A Disney vacation would be great
3. A Cooperstown vacation would be great with Dh
4.

Four bloggers you are tagging:
1. Tina
2. Dalis (ya out there, girl?)
3. Husband
4. ??

Happy New Year

I just read one of my top three favorite blogs and enjoyed the new year's resolutions so much that I thought I'd drop one or two of my own. As a rule, I don't make resolutions because they always seem doomed. I make a cheer and a prayer for things to go terrifically for us in the new year, however.

We love our new home in the midwest, but this has not been the best year in terms of success and advancing our income/financial lives, and I pray for more resolution and success in that this year. We did some GREAT things, like let my scrapbooking be a little income for us (something we didn't think of when I started!) and also improving some small but important areas of the house.

I am committed to making the most of my current sb supplies and tools before adding any unjustifiably, whether it be cleaning out, selling, giving away, or using....I don't want anything stagnant in my stash.

I need to keep up with the housework better and more quickly so it's not always such a task to do it.

I need to figure out how to get the girls to WANT to wear clothes....these two pumpkins seem to like being au natural for whatever reason. Also MUST make it through the home stretch of potty training - they can, they do, but they don't always, and that's gotta change.

I pray for success, peace, friends, and fun for my dearest, wonderful, warm, nicest guy I know, best friend I will ever have, father of my beautiful angels, fruitcake of a guy husband.

There. I think that's enough for anyone, right? Happy New Year. Peace.

Wow, that was fast

My last post said that Christmas is nearly here. Well, here we are on Friday following Christmas, and I'm wondering how it came and went so quickly. We had a nice Christmas day. The girls didn't wake too too early, so our day began about 8 am. They noticed immediately their Santa presents. We don't wrap Santa big gifts, and this year, they got the Little People Castle and each a baby doll and baby stroller from Santa. They loved them, but boy, those Little People sure are popular here! The Castle set is especially loved because it has hee-haws in it! The girls have nice wooden rocking horses they ride that were gifts from Oma and Opa. I used to tell them, "EEeeeeee-haaawwwwww!" when they rode. So now, they call horses hee-haws. Go figure. Other gifts were loved and admired and being played with, used, appreciated, eaten, cooked, munched, you get the picture. Especially popular are the Dora DVDs that seem to play non-stop now. And you know they now loop? I don't even have to hit play; the darn things just start themselves! Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I guess it's good when I"m trying to do something like clean the kitchen counters off or take a shower.

Let's see, what else....Oh, I gave up my charming little scrapbook room so the girls can have a playroom in the basement. Our house needs for them to have a playroom! Way too many little things everywhere.....so now my sb room is in the more open basement room. Not happy with the current configuration, so this weekend we'll try again. Also some painting in our immediate future, because I just can't stand the yellow that's been there forever. I want fresh and bright. I want my Behr Asparagus paint back!!

In the meantime, I did get to do one layout using some of my BG Blitzen paper finally. Also used some BG Holy Cow rubons, my new QK Olivia alphabet, and a Creative Imaginations Santa metal plaque from a package I won. Not sure I love that, but will go with it for now. Big Heidi Swapp alpha at the bottom - just love those! The thing at the top is just a clip holding the page; also some glare on photos from camera flash.