Scrap Happens

Happy Valentine's Day

2012-02-14T00:21:00.000-08:00

Each year I do a Valentine's Day layout for my husband featuring our 2 girls. Sometimes he takes them to work and other times they end up in my albums. But regardless of what he does with it, it's always waiting for him when he wakes up to leave for work. This is his 2012 layout.

And this is his Valentine's Day card.

Hope you all have a wonderful love-filled day.

Monkeys

2012-02-07T13:53:00.000-08:00

Normally I would not think these papers or colors would work together with these pictures, but I am not unhappy with the result.

This concludes all the layouts I made at Scrap Weekend in September. Next onto Scrap Weekend January 2012 layouts. Need to take pictures of those first though so it might be a little while.

Sisters - Friends

2012-02-06T13:50:00.000-08:00

Everything about this layout I love. The colors, the simple design, my beloved brown lace paper.

My Family

2012-02-05T13:48:00.000-08:00

Not sure that much needs to be said about this layout. Cute and bright just like the two little girls featured in it.

Thank God I Married A Real Man

2012-02-04T13:46:00.000-08:00

This is just a silly layout showcasing my silly husband as he took apart the engine of his truck. This is not something his electrical engineer self does every day and it needed to be documented. My favorite part about this one is the brown Glimmer Mist I dripped on the layout. Reminds me of auto oil drops.

Tickled

2012-02-03T16:44:00.000-08:00

Yet another I layout I made last September. I love the color combo of this layout.

Untitled layout

2012-01-28T13:37:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, I just don't feel the need to put a title on my layout, or I just can't come up with one.

Hannah Funny

2012-01-27T13:35:00.000-08:00

A sweet and simple layout about something funny my girl said that I wanted to document. I have always heard people tell me to write the funny things my kids say down. I was so good about doing this. Every time, I would enter it into the Notes section on my iPhone. Well wouldn't you know, my iPhone broke and there are quite a number of "funnies" that are lost forever. Words cannot express how sad I am about this. I would pay hundreds of dollars to retrieve them, but they're gone. So don't do what I did. Email the notes to yourself or write them down with an actual pen and paper.

These Two

2012-01-26T13:32:00.000-08:00

I love this layout of my oldest daughter and husband. It lists their similarities. It will be so fun to look back years from now and see if they still share the same qualities.

Birds of a Feather

2012-01-25T13:29:00.000-08:00

Well I don't know what I was thinking when I took this photograph of my layout. I think aside from the glare on the layout's photo, you can get the idea of the whole thing. I am almost positive that I used one of Maggie Holmes' layouts as inspiration for this layout, but that was 4+ months ago so I can't be sure. And how about that masking tape flower. So fun and so easy. I am sure you can Google just that and find a tutorial.

Getting Bigger

2012-01-24T20:26:00.000-08:00

Could this one be any simpler? A few layers of patterned paper, a matted photo, journaling block made with scraps of paper, and some layered circle punches. Oh and I guess there's some letter stickers on there too.

Improvement!!!

2012-01-23T15:14:00.000-08:00

This picture is taken by me as I am coming up on the finish line. I don't know anyone in it. LOL

Yesterday I ran a half marathon. I ran one last year as well and I am pleased to say I performed substantilally better this year, shaving almost a full minute off of my pace. The thing I am most proud of t his time, is that somehow, I managed to run the entire 13.1 miles. In all of my training runs over 8 miles, I have had to walk at least some of it. So I think I owe this accomplishment to the great energy of all the people both running and cheering.

Here are my results:

Overall: 4694 out of 7269

For all of the women I placed: 2395 out of 4289

For all the females in my age group (F 30-34) I placed: 496 out of 844

Finish Time/Pace: 2:23:03 / Pace: 10:55

My Split Time at the 6.6 Mi mark: 1:14:20 Pace: 11:16 (meaning I somehow sped up in the 2nd half of the race)

tiny tots

2012-01-23T11:46:00.000-08:00

This is a very simple layout ... again. Created back in September of my daughter

on her first day of Tiny Tots (preschool). If you can't tell, with many of these layouts I am posting, my focus was more the story and less about the art.

A glimpse of a good girl

2012-01-20T13:59:00.000-08:00

I love this layout more for the story it captures than the actual scrapbooking product. It tells of my then 4 year old daughter dealing with us thinking she had lied and trying to uncover the story.

The actual layout is a piece of patterned paper as the background, topped with half of a large square scallop piece, then topped with the photo mat/journaling piece. Some letter stickers and a few other accents complete the page. Can you tell simple is my style?

You at 1

2012-01-19T13:57:00.000-08:00

My apologies for the terrible pictures of these layouts. I took them some months ago and had no idea they were that poor. Hopefully you can get the idea of the layout just the same.

My girl @ 1 1/2 years

2012-01-18T13:53:00.000-08:00

I am sure that I love this layout more because of the photo than the actual artsy part of the layout. But that's OK.

Once upon a time

2012-01-17T13:48:00.001-08:00

This layout could not have been simpler. The paper is by Graphic 45 and all the detail you see is one piece of paper. I then matted a photo, cut out a piece of cardstock for journaling, and a circle for the date. I also added some Stickles to the fairies' wings but you can't tell in this picture.

Christmas Cuties

2012-01-11T09:49:00.000-08:00

This is another layout I completed last September. So don't go thinking I am all awesome and got some of this most recent Christmas' pictures scrapped. Check back with me in September 2012 and see how I am coming along on those.

I love this layout! And it is really simple if you break it down. I took an antique frame shaped die cut piece and used it as a mask. Then I sprayed gold mist over it. I matted the photo. Used some random Making Memories gold and pearl frame for the journaling, and then red Thickers for a title. Oh and I guess there's a crystal swirl piece in there as well.

@ 3

2012-01-10T22:48:00.000-08:00

Here's a layout I found while sorting pictures that I never posted. This is one I quickly whipped up back in September because I wanted to make sure I got some of my 3 year old's typical day or likes down. I don't normally use this many photos on a layout but I like the outcome.

Let's see if we can't get some scrappiness up here.

2012-01-10T11:01:00.000-08:00

Way back in September 2011 I attended a scrapbook weekend retreat. I love these. I get more scrapbooking done in 2.5 days than I do in a whole year.

Here is one layout I made.

Prior to going down there, I decided I was going to attempt to make a masking tape flower. I used this tutorial as my jumping off point. It's not hard at all.

There will be more layouts to come soon. I just need to weed through all the files.

Note To Self

2012-01-03T10:30:00.000-08:00

January 3, 2012

Dear Krista,

This is your post-Christmas 2011 self writing to you with a few words of advice/wisdom for you to take into account this Christmas season.

First and foremost, get your shopping done now!!! Prioritize this and have it done no later than December 10th! Do it online and don’t worry about sales that might be better in the future. Hopefully you have even been shopping throughout the year and have some purchases made.

You have to buy for:

(all of our family)
Toys for Tots
Military Servicemen

You have to bake/craft for:

(all of our friends)

Secondly, do NOT spoil the girls! You bought way too much last year for them. So much so that they didn’t really appreciate anything. Except the Squinkies. If those are still cool, get them a package of those. I know you have this vision in your head of a tree exploding with presents underneath it on Christmas morning, but that doesn’t have to actually happen for the girls to have a memorable Christmas. If you still want the look, wrap up empty boxes in Christmas paper. Or better yet, put fun love notes for everyone in boxes and wrap them up – still fun to open, no money expended, and you get more presents under the tree.

Do you have the Christmas card photo taken already? If not, plan it now. If you do, upload it to Costco and order 100. You don’t need more than 100. You had too many extras last year.

Next, decide on a church service you are going to now and don’t change course for anything. If someone else schedules something that conflicts with the time you have picked, so be it. You’ll either be late, need to leave early, or won’t be able to attend. Note: St. Paul had a Christmas Eve Children’s mass at 4:00 last year that the girls might enjoy.

Another thing … get your wrapping done ASAP! Forbid yourself to be wrapping anything on Christmas Eve like you did last year. Remember? You were up until 2:30 in the morning.

Also, do not forget about Santa’s milk and cookies. None of this popping cookies in the oven at midnight again.

Last year things were so crazed you didn’t get to read the girls Twas the Night Before Christmas like you have wanted to each year. Plan that into the evening. Perhaps read it at Papa Moose’s to all the little ones.

Buy the girls one cute Christmas t-shirt each.

Do NOT overpack the month of December. Remember you already will have Diego and the Triplet’s birthday parties not to mention possible Alexander’s as well. Say no. Don’t feel like you have to do everything. I think you should keep it to two planned things only. Taking the girls to walk around the Chino neighborhood of lights one night. And having the friends over for a Christmas craft another night. If all of your shopping and wrapping is done, you can do more.

If you have not already formulated a plan, purchased items, and begun to work on extra Christmas crafts for the house, forget about them. Don’t add to your stress.

Get to bed early.

Make Joel watch Love Actually with you.

Sit down with the girls and watch Elf, or Santa Claus, or Polar Express.

Do NOT forget to take a picture of the girls in their Christmas dresses like you did last year! You still need to put them back in their dresses and take one for this past Christmas.

If you can accomplish all of these things, I think you will enjoy the Christmas season much more. Remember, it’s not about how perfectly all the decorations are put up or the visual image people see. It’s about the memories and the bonds created with your family during this special time we celebrate the birth of Christ!

With love and hope for you,

Krista

Merry Christmas ... Happy New Year ... and perhaps I should just say Happy Valentine's Day too!

2012-01-02T11:18:00.000-08:00

Phew ... I AM SPENT!!!!

Just the thought of organizing some stuff to put on this blog exhausts me. So I apologize to any of you who pop in here from time to time only to get frustrated that I still have not added anything new.

I wish I could say I was up to a whole bunch of crafty goodness this past holiday season, but I didn't even have the time for that. :

It is clear that I need to rework my life. I feel a huge hole having not crafted a real personal or selfish project lately. It's been a LONG time. Yet there's nothing that is propelling me to go do something. I could make the time if I really wanted to. I am not sure what it is. Hopefully I'll get the mojo back soon. I'll make that one of my New Years Resolutions.

I have two main resolutions this year. In the past I have had so many and I don't even remember what they are so naturally they don't get accomplished.

1. play with my kids

2. get to know my husband better and nuture, foster, cherish our friendship

I wonder about the thoughts any of you are having upon reading those. :) Basically it boils down to me not knowing how to play with my kids. My daughters have amazing imaginations that I marvel at. I cannot remember EVER playing the way they do. Turning suitcases into airplane food carts, creating a whole world of adventure under a sheet, etc. If I ever had an inner child, she has been MIA for a long time. I want her back. The other resolution is fueled by the realization that this past year, for the most part, my best friend (husband) and I are like two ships passing in the night. We go through all the normal routines of life with kids, but I don't think we've gotten closer. If anything we've grown apart -- I thank texting and email for this. It's hit me hard and I am over it! I want us to get to KNOW each other better, spend quality time TOGETHER, TALK about our days together, etc. It shouldn't be too hard, but will require some special attention to change our bad habits.

So that's it. Hopefully I will be back before Valentine's Day!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

2011-11-24T13:39:00.000-08:00

For the last 2 years I took the month of November and on each day, I logged in and typed a post on what I was thankful for.

As can be evidenced by the fact that I have not posted since mid October, I have been having a hard time making my way over here to post. And it's not for lack of material. I have a ton of scrapbooking layouts still to post from my scrap weekend in September. I have to finish up posting about Hannah's Nightmare Before Christmas party. There's Halloween pictures. Hopefully some day I will get it all up here.

But I don't want to let today pass without throwing out there in cyberland that I am extremely thankful for all that is my life. My wonderful husband, my amazing two girls, a home over our heads, jobs for both of us, two loving dogs that drive me nuts but continue to only love, that my step mom is residing in Heaven, free of pain, after being plagued with a nasty battle with skin cancer, that my grandma is too up in Heaven after suffering a major stroke on New Years Day 2011, for my awesome friends, for knowing that God is present in my life and the ability to listen to His guidance, for knowing that He forgives me when I don't listen and so much more.

May you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

that picture above is sadly not my porch. I found the picture here.

It's a Good Coffee Life

2011-10-20T13:56:00.000-07:00

This is a little project I whipped up for an auction basket donation for my daughter's school. Each class has to prepare a basket for a silent auction that will raise money for the school. Her class's theme is Starbucks. We donated $5 to be put on a gift card, but as each day passed, the depseration in the teacher's voice grew as she pleaded for parents to contribute. Well, I have given more money in the first 8 weeks of school than I thought I ever would, so more wasn't an option. What was an option was all the scrapbook supplies I have lying around. So with great pleasure, I dedicated a few nights to making this fun minibook.

Each page is actually a coffee sleeve you get when Starbucks gives you your order. I took four of them and covered them in patterned paper. Then I sewed the bottoms closed on each sleeve so they could be used as a pocket. Then I punched them with my bind it all and used a 1" white wire ring to turn it into a book. The rest is random embellishments as you'll see. In each pocket, I turned an empty Starbucks gift card into a tag.

I think this could be a great gift for that coffee drinking friend.

Shared on:

Good or Bad?

2011-10-17T14:46:00.000-07:00

I am trying to decide if it's a good thing or a bad thing that my iPhone 3G screen no longer gives me a clear picture of what's on the screen. I can see the screen but it's blurry, like where there's a whole bunch of extra lines across the picture. I may or may not have thrown the phone down on the ground with some hefty force. Yes, it's been one of those days. And no, I don't normally throw my phone when I have a bad day.

Cons:
- can't really use the phone for leisure activities - checking email, blog hopping, web surfing, game playing, etc.
- GPS is going to be more difficult
- sending text messages will be more difficult

Pros:
- I will no longer stay up at night for extended periods of time checking just one more of my crafty blogs
- I won't have the ability or desire to do a whole bunch of other things I shouldn't be doing on my phone while in the car
- I might actually pay better attention to conversations because I won't be half distracted by the most recent Facebook status update
- Might be closer to getting a newer phone (which will then erase all of the pros above)

I have such a love/hate relationship with the smartphone technology.

Nightmare Before Christmas Party - Zero

2011-10-12T09:53:00.000-07:00

I finally got my pictures uploaded of my daughter's Nightmare Before Christmas party decor and thought I would share them here. There were so many more ideas I had for the party that never came to fruition because I ran out of time, but here we go.

I'll start with my favorite piece. Zero the ghost dog that belongs to Jack Skellington.

I got the idea from here.

He was quite simple so don't be intimidated. Seriously, I am have very little experience sewing anything. All you need to do is find a good picture of him from the movie and then follow the tips on the link I provided above. The only additional tips I have are:

(1) don't be concerned about quality fabric - the shearer the better since he's a ghost dog

(2) use white hangers when forming the ears so you don't see too much of the metal in them when done and rather than cutting out the shape of the ear from fabric and forming the hanger onto that, I formed the shape of the ear with the hanger first, then hot glued that to my fabric, then trimmed all the excess fabric but about a 1/2 inch from it, and then hot glued the remaining edges of fabric around the back side of the ear.

And just like that ...

2011-10-04T14:13:00.001-07:00

... it is October and my oldest baby is 6 years old.

It is unbelievable to me how quickly the past 6 years have flown. This little girls nothing short of amazing. Unfortunately the poor thing had to suffer her first sickness of the school year and was not at 100% for her party. More on that later. So not fair! But something I think I had better get used to considering her birthday comes just weeks into the new school year with lots of germs making their way around. {sigh}

Stuck

2011-08-18T11:29:00.001-07:00

That's what I seem to be. I have had a layout sitting on my table for weeks. Hating it completely. Each day it calls to me and I think I'll give it a few minutes, but I don't. I can't find the time or the energy, especially at the end of the day after everyone is in bed. So today I am going to tackle it. Unfortunately, this is what I have to deal with if I am to follow through. Ugh!!! Real life!

UPDATED: a few hours later, I am done with that layout. Not my favorite by far, but it just needed to get finished. I think sometimes you just have to let it go and say, "So this won't be my best work." On to the next project. Which really should be cleaning my scrap space ... again.

First Entrepreneurial Endeavor

2011-07-28T07:00:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we had our first ever yard sale. I am not a fan. I feel like people are judging me and my things. And I know I should not even be bothered because essentially we're getting rid of stuff we don't want anymore so who cares? But I do. I also hate the price negotiation. And watching things that were sentimental to me go for pennies.

But in preparing I asked the girls if they wanted to host a lemonade stand. Hannah of course jumped at the chance and Makaela was willing to follow along. Unfortunately Hannah was pretty sick that day so she came out for just a few minutes when Tylenol was working its wonders. Makaela had to work it by herself and, with Daddy's help, did rather well. Poor girl is plagued with shyness.

We should have had these girls out there a lot sooner. Almost everyone that came by bought a glass. I thought we should have sold them for $0.25 a glass to make change easier but Joel said $0.10. They sold out of their lemonade and made about $5.00. They decided they want to go to Yogurtland with the money. Now if we can just get them feeling better so we can go.

I am so proud of them.

Oh to be a kid again ...

2011-07-27T11:35:00.001-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, we decided to dive into sorting through our garage and organizing it. Cabinets were purchased (thank you Craigslist) and work began. Due to the condition of the cabinets, not to mention that fact that our garage has been a nightmare since we moved in over 2 years ago, this job called for some later than normal nights. While we tackled to real work, the girls got to play outside til well after dark.

It will never cease to amaze me what their imaginations can pull together. Earlier in the day, Hannah had a bunch of toys out on the front lawn. She said she was camping and needed a tent. I went into the garage and found and old cardboard box. I cut it up, taped it into a triangle tube, and there was her tent. Not even big enough for her to comfortable crawl through. I figured she'd be into it for about 5 minutes, but no. It was her prized possession for the rest of the day.

So while we were working, they climbed into the back of daddy's truck and set up their campsite. I brought out a blanket and some sippy cups of hot chocolate because it was a cool night. They found the plush purple chair, recently given to us by the neighbors, the toys, and the cardboard tent. And let's not forget Daddy's light. They were entertained for hours. And would have been happy little kids had I let them stay up later or perhaps even spend the night in there.

I remember smiling as I observed them and turning to Joel and saying, "I want to be a kid again."

How cool that something so simple can amuse them so much!

Makes my heart happy

2011-07-26T07:00:00.000-07:00

I love this iPhone photo despite the poor quality. Makaela nibbling on a Hawaiian roll, looking over her sister's shoulder to get in on the action.

The other day I up and decided to purchase the Jesus Storybook Bible for my girls. It arrived and to my great surprise, Hannah really took to it. Still unable to read, she's been enjoying looking at the pictures. It would be normal for her to give it a once over and move on, but on more than one occasion, I have caught her with the book, pouring over each page. She even requested that Joel and I read her a few chapters last night as her bedtime story. I couldn't be happier. Sadly, we're not a family who lives and breathes religion so when our kids openly welcome a little bit of faith based stories, we are more than willing to oblige.

In need of some perspective

2011-07-25T14:03:00.001-07:00

I woke up this morning and immediately jumped into a pity party for myself. Awesome way to start the day!!!

Let me start at the begininng ...

Friday evening as I was getting ready for bed, I noticed my lower right eye was tender to the touch and a little bit red. I opted for some eye drops and went to bed.

Saturday morning we awoke early to set up for our yard sale. Yes, we finally decided to get rid of much of our baby items. I would say this makes it almost 100% official that we will not be having anymore children. My eye? Red and irritated. Unfortunately, Hannah also woke up not feeling so well, complaining of a tummy ache. She later developed a fever and even threw up that night. I decided at 7:30PM to head to urgent care for my eye as it was not getting better. Diagnosis? Pink Eye. Eye drops prescribed.

I set my alarm for 3AM and 7AM to wake up and give Hannah children's ibuprofen to combat her fever as well as to give myself the eye drops. Joel let me sleep in until 10AM only for me to awake for the day with a sore throat. We battled Hannah's fever all day with ibuprofen. Her mood, energy level, and appetite ebbed and flowed with the effectiveness of the medicine.

This morning she still had a fever though doesn't feel quite as warm. But now I am frustrated!!! Enter pity party. I have Makaela who has been on antibiotics for a sinus infection since last Monday. We discovered that after she had a second recurrence of a fever that she fought all of last weekend. Our 14 year old black lab has a scratched eye that we are treating with antibiotic drops every 6 hours since last Wednesday. I have pink eye and a cold and Hannah and her fever make for a mama who is feeling rather sorry for herself.

Hence my need for perspective. I have it good. I know this. I know there are people in this world right now who would give anything for a chance to nurse their children back to health from a fever because either (1) they lost a child (2) have never been able to have children (3) their child is suffering from something more severe or (4) they themselves are suffering from something that does not allow them the opportunity to administer care for their family.

And yet, all of this doesn't seem to make me feel any less bad about my own situation. And for that I feel guilty and like a bad person. I should admit that as the hours have passed from this morning, my mood has bettered. Perhaps because I am at work and not having to deal with "it" for these few hours. But I feel like I should be able to feel that I am lucky and act as such without a self-imposed reality check. Lucky that I get to wake up with my kids. That I have the means to provide the necessary medicine and medical care for not only my children, but my pets too. That I have a husband who steps in whenever needed without being asked. That my kids get to know that I will take care of them when needed.

I am thankful I, just last night, finished reading a book I picked up at the Good Will. It is called At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon. I decided to buy it because I needed something to read and it had "New York Times Best Seller" scrolled across the top and was priced at only $1.99. It's from the persepctive of a 60 something Episcopalian rector and though I am not sure I would recommend it to a whole bunch of people, I really enjoyed it. There's quite a bit of scripture referenced in the book, though I wouldn't call it a pushy religious novel at all. Due to this book, I found it very easy to say a prayer this morning as I was vacuming, to help me be thankful for my situation and to ask for grace in dealing with my kids; and to help my frustration go away. I am not sure I can say that I had that God-to-self connection I would have loved. The kind where you can really feel Him working right away, but I do have faith that he heard me. And I am pretty sure the book helped me remember I can turn to God in those lower moments.

So hopefully that perspective I need will sink in really soon. Forgive me for venting. While I do intend for this blog to be a means for me to share and record my story, I don't mean for it to be a negative place. I'll admit I feel slightly better for getting it out though.

Sidenote: I do think I have some fun stuff to share soon. Once I upload some pictures.

See ya!

This book turns out to be the first of a four-part series. I think if I can find the others for a decent price, I might just pick them up.

Awesome!

2011-07-15T10:22:00.000-07:00

Love this picture I happened to snap of the girls as I was watching Wednesday's USA vs France soccer game! They didn't watch the whole thing with me but when they heard me spazzing out after Abby Wambach scored to make the game 2-1 USA, they came running. Both of them plopped themselves on our coffee table and began clapping and chanting, "USA! USA!" Could this be little women's soccer fans in the making? I sure hope so.

That night Hannah came down dressed in her soccer uniform from last season. Socks and all. She wanted to wear it to bed. Sounds good to me little lady. I should have snapped a picture of that.

We have signed her up for one more season of AYSO soccer. Last year, she did great the first game - even scored the first goal. But from each game on, she didn't run a whole lot, complained a lot, and didn't seem too interested in the game. She did however love getting a trophy which is why I think she was open to playing one more season. I am hoping that watching this USA team play will help instill some of the understanding and passion for the game. If not, we'll find her thing. I am not too worried.

Deep In My Heart

2011-07-14T11:12:00.000-07:00

I have to say that I think last Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were some of the best days for me in a long time. And let me say, that this is NO way has anything to do with the fact that my two lovely girls were at their grandparents. Seriously! Though this did help allow for the 4 days of fun.

Thursday:
Joel, myself, and our two good friends George and Roxanne went to see Les Miserables at the Ahmanson Theatre in L.A. I believe this is the 4th time I have seen it. By far this is my favorite musical I have ever seen. And I am proud to say that I have seen quite a few. The story is so captivating and the music is spectacular. Each time I see it, I catch something new, and even though I know what's coming, I still end up shedding heartfelt tears. It's a must see. Fortunately we were able to get the husbands to get out of work at a decent hour so that we could eat dinner downtown before the show. This is usually an impossible feat when Rox and I go on our own. We had a very nice sushi dinner at a teeny tiny place called Kamasa. I really had no idea that the Ahmanson was so close to Little Tokyo. I have lived in the L.A. area my entire life and yet, have no clue about downtown and all it's treasures. So anyways, this Kamasa is in Little Tokyo which is quite cute and literally chock full of sushi restaurants. We have no idea how they all stay in business because there are so many of them.

Friday:
Joel and I went to a dinner party at none other than George and Roxanne's. Last year 4 couples got together and did "Fancy Dinner". Each couple hosted a dinner party for the other 3 couples. These dinner parties consisted of gourmet meals in a variety of courses. It was so fun and definitely a challenging experience. Well, the husbands didn't exactly take to the name of "Fancy Dinner" nor did they like dressing up to hang with friends so they decided that this year they would take over the hosting and do the exact opposite of Fancy Dinner. So George and Roxanne hosted theirs and we were welcomed into a Mexican themed party. We had to do TJ shots of tequila on the way in, and then were treated to Alberto's Mexican food for dinner. The guys were in Heaven as Alberto's was a college staple for them. It is always so much fun to get together with good friends. Lots of laughs. I wish we could do this with all of our friends out there.

Saturday:
Two words ... MATCHBOX TWENTY!!!!! My very favorite band. Words cannot explain how much I love them and their music. This is the second time I have seen them and their performance did not disappoint. We saw them at Pachanga Indian Casino. It was an outdoor concert and the warm summer evening only added to the awesomeness. There is nothing like watching people perform music live. Seriously I think I could I watch any band perform live and be moved. But to get to see your favorite band perform and be able to sing along to all the songs is so moving. I can't explain what happens to me. Somewhere deep in my heart I am just truly happy. In a moment removed from all the worries and frustrations normal life can bring. (please don't think I have anything terrible going on; all is well). It's almost like I am somewhere else. Maybe even someone else. And it's fun! And these guys, Rob Thomas and all his band members, seem to have such a good time performing. They laugh and tease and interact with the crowd. They appear to be very humble and appreciative of all their fans. It's just such a rewarding experience for me. At one point in the concert Rob Thomas told the whole crowd to sit down. He said, "Now doesn't that feel good?" It did, but I would stand all day and night to hear his music live. Then he asked if someone with a particular Twitter name was in the crowd. This guy stands up and Rob proceeds to explain that this guy had tweeted several times asking for a meet and greet with the band. That this guy had just returned from serving in Iraq and that he had surprised his wife with tickets to to concert. Rob apologized that a meet and greet couldn't be worked out because they were really busy and rushed but that he was dedicating their next song to this couple. How sweet is that?! During another point in the concert, he told the whole crowd to just Tweet "anything. Say you're taking your clothes off." I have avoided Twitter, but let me tell you, I am seriously considering it and making Rob Thomas the only person I follow. The concert was so good. I can't wait for them to come back again. Totally excited that they are working on a new album in Nashville right now.

Sunday:
If I thought the level of my happiness couldn't get any higher than the previous night, I was wrong. Joel was gone all day deep sea fishing and I got up to watch the Women's US soccer team play Brazil in the quarter finals match. What. A. Game!!! Oh my gosh. The roller coaster of emotions I experienced are unmatched. Nervousness, Excitement, Fear, Depression, Joy, Hope, Frustration, Anger, Bewilderment ... I am sure I have missed a few.

We are up 1-0 - totally stoked but irritated that Abby Wambach seems to fall down every time the ball comes near her. C'mon! You're tough and a stud of a player. I agree when Brazil's Marta yelled at her about needing to get up and play.

Then a penalty is called against the US in the box. Ugh! Seriously I still don't really see the foul but have come to realize that FIFA imposes some pretty strict rules. Not only does this mean a PK for Brazil but our defender, Rachel Buehler, is red carded and kicked off the field. This means we need to play down a man for the rest of the game. Not good. But Hope Solo can block this PK. She's a stud too. And block it she does. The jumping around I did in our living room was comical I am sure. But what? The ref has called a foul and is allowing Brazil to set up to take the PK again. Enter ANGER!!!! Total BS!! Hope Solo doesn't block this one and now the game is tied. Now I am nervous.

The game continues. US with 10 players and Brazil with 11. And to my great surprise, we're playing better with 10 than we were with 11. This shouldn't come as a surprise. I've been there before. A good team with good players will rise to the occasion knowing they have to play for efficiently and effectively. And so the US rallies, keeping the score tied at 1-1 and going to 30 minutes of overtime. OK, can we keep it tied and get to penalty kicks? If so, we can pull this off.

But stopping Brazil is difficult and sure enough they come up with another goal. A great shot by Marta and now I enter a depressed state. I am so not ready to see this amazing team of US women go home. I have only recently clued into them and am learning their stories. Relating to them. Loving them. Who they are as individuals and even more as Team USA. I want more of them. I watch each move with baited breath. The time is ticking away. When the time clock reaches 120 minutes, I've pretty much conceded the loss. We're in the final 3 minutes of injury time. Thank God Team USA didn't! Still down a player with the score at 1-2, Megan Rapinoe, a cute, spunky, blond, mid-fielder sends a ball from the left side and who is there to knock it in with her head? Abby Wambach!!!!!! Truly it was an amazing goal. With literally seconds left on the clock, Abby evens the score and we got to PKs. I seriously think my heart may have stopped beating for a second. In watching earlier games, I became fixated with Rapinoe. And I am not sure why. I was never a midfielder, but she was fun to watch come off the bench and play. And the constant story of Wambach being in a goal drought since last November played into the emotion. Yes, in a prior game to Brazil she had been credited with a goal, but it was a weak goal. This one, she EARNED! It was her, "F you! We ain't done yet!" goal. I loved it! I now totally now how Joel feels when watching the Lakers play in the playoffs. It's intense. We pretty much sailed through PKs. I was nervous when our first shot by Shannon Boxx was blocked but fortunately the ref called that one back because the keeper had come off her line. Boxx buried the next shot. And seeing Hope Solo block Brazil's 3rd PK was thrilling to say the least. What a win!!!!!! This team is amazing. Their composure and hard work is nothing short of inspiring. It makes me think about dusting off my cleats again. I find myself recalling fond memories of playing high school in soccer with all of my soccer friends. A tiny part of me longs to be reunited with them. Fortunately Facebook allows for some interaction, but we're all so far apart now and leading our own lives. I am so happy I get to relive those memories as I watch this amazing team move one to finals (they won the semi finals against France yesterday).

Thinking ...

2011-07-14T10:45:00.000-07:00

So obviously it's been forever since I last had a post up here. Life has been hectic. But let's face it, even if I didn't have any activities or children or chores to distract me, I would still say life is hectic.

As far as scrapping goes, I have done a few things here and there. No layouts, though there is one in progress on my table right now. I have made several last minute cards that I didn't even have time to photograph. I even made some Disneyland autograph books which came out really cute but alas, no photos. Because why ... last minute, of course!

So why did I title this post "Thinking ..."? Well, that's what I have been doing over the past month and a half. Thinking about lots of things related to this blog. Perhaps it would help if I gave a little bit of background.

I started this blog at the request of a local scrapbook store. I was on the design team and in an effort to help with getting the word out about the store, as well as to provide inspiration to customers, I started Scrap Happens. Do you get my play on words there? If not, it's supposed to be like S*#t Happens. And that it does. Unfortunately, my local scrapbook store fell to hard economic times. But I liked having a blog. I liked the idea of a little extra pressure to do some scrapping so that I would have some content to post here. And I so I kept it going. Trying hard to post my crafty creations.

But soon, that pressure I liked the idea of so much in the beginning, became a burden. And I found my creative mojo fading. I think this has to do with a lot of things. I used to thrive in the late night hours. Waiting all day for my family to fall asleep so I could go into my craft room guilt free. Now, when the kids and husband are asleep, I find the couch calling my name. The craft room is too quiet. My computer in there too slow. I have nothing that is inspiring me to scrap. I don't feel like getting all of the stuff out. It's too messy. You get the point. And therefore the blog fell by the wayside. Because after all, it's called Scrap Happens and if I am not scrapping, I shouldn't be posting anything.

And then the Paperclipping Roundtable entered my world. I have posted about it here before. Basically it's a free weekly podcast where people who work within the scrapbooking industry get together and talk about various subjects pertaining to scrapbooking. They have the two regular hosts and then have a variety of recurring guests which include Ali Edwards, Stacy Julian, Anna Cabrerra, and Angie Lucas of Ella Publishing. To add to the fun, they have special guest spots which have been filled with people like Stephanie Howell (my all time fav scrapper), Kelly Purkey, Shimelle Laine, to name a few. Seriously, you should check it out. You can find it on iTunes and download it to your iPod or iPhone. Not to mention listening to it from your computer. Anyways ... I started listening and began to feel myself get inspired about scrapbooking again. But not the same kind of inspiration I had before. I was now and am now inspired to share/tell my stories through scrapbooking. Yeah, scrapping a birthday party or event will be fun from time to time, but if it's not telling a story about something I wish to remember or document for the future, more than likely, it's not going to see any game time.

Now enter the problem of remembering the stories I want to share long enough to actually get them scrapped. Unfortunately, my memory is terrible. I know it's because I rush rush rush through life all the time, and don't slow down to really let something special sink in.

To make a long long long story a little shorter, this is where my blog comes into play. I am no longer going to adhere to the rule that any post I make needs to be scrapbooking or craft related. I am not a "celebrity" in this industry and would be shocked if there are more than 5 people who pop in here from time to time. So my guess is this change is not going to make a lick of difference to anyone, but I felt the need to post something about the new direction I am going to take.

This blog will now be a journal of sorts about me and my family's life. A place to document things I wish to remember. A tool for me to use when I do find some time to scrap - where I can come back and look at past posts and think, "Oh yeah, I remember that. Remember feeling that."

So there you have it. Scrap Happens is taking a new direction. (ha! that makes me think of Glee) I will still certainly post scrapbook pages I complete up here. But hopefully you'll see more things about my day to day life. It is MY blog after all right?

Sometimes

2011-05-30T14:37:00.000-07:00

Another favorite of the group of layouts I did at scrap weekend. It tells of how my youngest daughter is such a hit and miss happy person upon waking up from her nap.

Do you remember when I talked about how I used a LSS's AccuCut machine to cut chipboard templates for myself so that I could always make my own cute shapes here? Well that is how I got those antique shapes. I traced and cut 4 of them and staggered them to work as a mat for my photos.

I didn't add much to this layout. Just popped up a few journaling stickers.

Can you believe the sewing detail on this piece of cardstock?! I love it!

Poor Baby

2011-05-29T15:30:00.000-07:00

A layout about my poor girl and her visit to the ER while on our family vacation. Of course!!!

As you can see it's relatively simple and heavy on the journaling. I took some twill ribbon and ran a stitch in and out of the top. Then I took the two ends and pulled to give it that pleated look. The burlap heart is actually a wooden heart (from Michaels). I adhered the burlap to the top and then roughly cut around the edge of the heart.

C'mon

2011-05-28T15:21:00.000-07:00

OK, this layout is probably 4 to 5 years in the making. Literally. When I first joined the design team of a local scrapbook store, which is now closed (sad), we had a crop. It was the first one I went to. I had purchased some kit and brought it with me. I started this layout at this crop but never finished it. What I had done that day was the background papers, the painted chipboard swirls adhered and tied with the ribbon, and the pink photo mat pocket with photo adhered. That's it. I knew at some point I wanted to add some journaling and tuck it in the pocket, but for YEARS it sat in a plastic bag.

Well I finally challenged myself to finish it. I added the juornaling piece and topped it with a decorative edge punched piece. Added the cute little stickers including the arrow point down to indicate there's something in there. I also added the title, frame, decorative pins, and flowers.

Sitting Up

2011-05-27T15:01:00.000-07:00

Another layout that I am not super thrilled with but glad I got it done nonetheless.

That little flower on the side is not hard to do at all. I am sure the technique has been around for a while but I saw it demoed here.

Baby You're A Star

2011-05-26T14:54:00.000-07:00

I am noticing that most of my favorite layouts I have created recently tend to be those on a white or cream background. Interesting. This layout is no exception. My oldest was star of the week at her preschool. We did not get the poster back where she lists her favorite things and goals so I wanted to document it her on this layout. I am so pleased with how it turned out. Againa I used the AccuCut chipboard templates I made for myself at a LSS to do the antique frame pieces on the background.

Due to all of her silly poses, I simply overlapped all of the photos to create one long line of pictures.

And because the word "star" never would have fit in the title, I simply cut out a star with a friend's diecut machine and added some Stickles to the outer edges. I used a sheet of American Crafts journaling stickers for my notes and popped them up with pop dots. The butterfly is Jenni Bowlin and I have no idea where the heart stick pin came from. A miscellaneou kit treasure I am sure.

So Different

2011-05-25T14:43:00.000-07:00

A cute little layout I whipped up the other day using a 6x6 paper . And darnit all if I can't remember who makes it. I imagine it's a fairly recent release as I bought from a LSS right before Easter 2011. But all of my Google searches come up negative and of course I tossed the cover sheet to the pack. Sorry about that.

One of the sheets has these glitter embellished tags. I hand cut them out, staggered them on my layout, and added my journaling to them.

This piece of cardstock has some beautiful embossing on it.

Echo Park Love

2011-05-24T12:12:00.000-07:00

So Echo Park is a really neat up and coming scrapbook company. With each release, I think I fall more and more in love with their product. I had the privilege to be at CHA and see this line called "Little Girl" and put it on my keep-an-eye-out-list. About a month ago I heard an episode of Paperclipping Roundtable (love this weekly podcast!) and one of the guests selected this line called "Dots and Stripes Candy Shoppe" as her pick of the week. Ironically, a guest the very next week picked it as well. When I Googled it, I think I began to drool. I need to assess my scrapbooking budget very soon.

Anyways, several weeks ago I got my hands on the Life Documented 12x12 Collection Kit by Echo Park. I was totally drawn to the vibrant colors with yet an aged look. And I loved that the focus of this line was about memory keeping/recording. Lots of journaling spots, date stickers, quotes about life, etc.

So when I happened upon this contest, so to speak, on Echo Park's blog, I knew I had to get busy. And it wasn't hard at all. I dug through my photo collection with no real picture or direction in mind. Just a mission to create three layouts. Below is what I came up with. And at this moment I would like to thank my husband for putting up with my absence over the weekend as I retreated to my scrapbook room.

DADDY, HELP layout

This layout came together fairly quickly. I selected one of the 12x12 patterned pieces as my background. Then filed through all of the other patterned papers and cut out sentiments they had preprinted for me. The pink "life documented" piece, the green "today" bingo card, and the green and orange journaling pieces were all part of larger pieces of 12x12 paper. Every other accent is a sticker. I inked all the paper pieces, adhered them down, added the stickers and there you go.

This shot shows a little of the dimension I added with popdots. I matted that heart sticker with brown cardstock and then popped up the “100% real” sticker.

Supplies:
From the Life Documented Collection
Background piece – 100% real life
Pink “life documented” piece – 4x4 quotes & 6x8 photo mat elements
Green “today” bingo card – 4x6 vertical journaling card elements
Green journaling tag – flash cards
Orange journaling tag - 4x6 monthly journaling card elements #2
from sticker sheet: brown swirls, polka dot heart, green and orange label stickers, “100% real”, rectangular heart, and letters.
Other
Brown cardstock mat for heart – Bazzill

LOVE YOU layout

This layout uses Echo Park's "A Walk In the Life" collection. I trimmed the floral bakground 12x12 piece down to 11x11 and stitched it to a white cardstock background. Then I was pleasantly surprised to find that Echo Park has partnered with Silhouette America and they are now carrying several designs that I can cut out with my electronic die cutting machine (Silhouette). Sweet! So I chose the clouds and the antique frame pieces to cut. Then I simply layered everyting, adhered it all, stuck my photos on top and began to embellish. The "love you" and journaling piece are again part of a larger 12x12 sheet that I cut out by hand. I rounded the corners of each piece. Finally I went to my flower stash and stacked a bunch together with a brad.

In this shot you can see how I popped up the front cloud.

Supplies:
From A Walk In the Park collection
Yellow paper – Element Card Paper
Green paper – Playful Stripes
Turquoise paper – Blissful Day Border
Daisy Background paper – Mother Nature
“Love you” and journal tag – Element Card Paper
Other
White cardstock – Bazzill
Flowers – Prima, Petaloo, and Queen & Co.
Brad – misc.

LIFE IS SWEET layout

This is the most favorite layout I did of the three!

To start out, I used an old Heidi Swapp mask and Glimmer Misted that pink heart onto some cream cardstock. I then hand cut the pennant border pieces out of a 12x12 patterned paper sheet along with the "life is sweet" piece. I rounded the corners of that piece, added some turquoise stitching underneath the sentiment and then traced a line of glue around the pink frame and added some sparkly pink glitter. While that was drying, I went to the sticker sheet that came in the kit and selected words that would compliment my journaling. In order to get the journaling to look right, I used a light pencil first. Then I went over it again with my black pen and erased the pencil lines. This allowed me to make sure I left enough room for my sticker words. I also used that long scalloped border piece from the sticker sheet and backed it with a pink piece of cardstock. Once all the paper pieces were put on I found some coordinating buttons, threaded them with embroidery floss and slapped them on. As you now know, not a ton of product was used, but I think it all came together to create a big impact.

Supplies:
From Life Documented collection
“life is sweet” piece – 4x4 quotes and 6x8 photo mat elements
Pennant pieces – Life Is Good
From sticker sheet – words, scalloped border, and heart under pink button
Other
Pink cardstock – Bazzill
Cream cardstock background – Bazzill
Buttons – misc
Embroidery floss – misc
Glitter – Mark Enterprises
Pink Mist – Glimmer Mist

Happy Home

2011-05-23T14:26:00.000-07:00

This layout I don't feel to great about but I am glad I scrapbooked the picture and the journaling. It uses Echo Park products from their Life Is Good line.

It's hard to see in this picture but I popped the houses up with popdots. The crystal swirls are from ZVA Creative or Prima. I can't exactly recall now but both companies carry beautiful crystal swirl embellishments.

Big Girl Panties

2011-05-22T14:24:00.000-07:00

I love this layout!!! and it was so simple. I used the background piece of patterned paper from Ym Mind's Eye and basically popped a few dimensional items on top of the already printed designs.

Can you believe those photos came from my old 3G iphone? I love them so much!

Poachlay

2011-05-21T14:21:00.000-07:00

Here's a layout I did featuring my oldest daughter's obsession with Chipotle. It's her all time favorite place to eat. She's loved since she was two years old.

I am kind of thinking I should outline the title letters in a brown pen to make them pop a bit more.

Lucky Me

2011-05-20T11:05:00.000-07:00

Here's another layout I did at scrap weekend.

I love all the shaped pieces of patterned paper out there on the market. But more often than not, I can't bring myself to buy them. Want to know how I got that scalloped background piece? I didn't buy it like that? It came as a square 12x12 piece in one of the kits I ordered. My local scrapbook store has an AccuCut machine with all sorts of large scale dies that you can use. AccuCut will cut through thick chipboard. So what I did was take 12x12 pieces of thick chipboard and run all of my favorite dies through them. Now I have a stack full of templates that I can trace onto my regular old patterned paper at any time.

Some Scrappy Goodness

2011-05-19T10:43:00.000-07:00

Last month I snuck away to what I call Scrap Weekend with some wonderfully talented scrabooker friends. I love these trips. So much so that I have tweaked my schedule and done a lot of eyelash batting at my husband to be able to do it again in September. Yay!

I always come home and think I am going to add the dates to the layouts and then submit them for publishing. But that never happens. In addition, I can hardly remember the products I have used on the layouts so I would be dead in the water even if they liked something.

So for the past month, they've sat in a paper bag and I am finally getting around to posting them here.

Here's the 1st one. And since I like to see my blog look different as often as possible, I'll post all of the others in the days to come. :)

"Best iPhone Photo"

The "iPhone" letters were actually bright pink, but I used a Jenni Bowlin paint dabber in Malted Milk to change the color. The little letters are from Cosmo Cricket.

A close up shot of some of my dimension. The flower is made up of a canvas print tag (I believe the middle has some pale teal and salmon pink sentiment on it). Then the brown plaid part is fabric tape (by e2Daily) that I made by beginning on the outer edge of the flower and folding and sticking as I curled around towards the center. Then I threaded the green button with some twine and stuck it in the center of the flower. Super easy!

Finally Getting DeTANGLED

2011-05-17T10:32:00.000-07:00

I did an Etsy search for Tangled ideas. (an excellent source of inspiration) Little did I know that there are a ton of amazing designers out there that will make invitations for you in a digital format -- for a very reasonable price. I saw this one (see below) and decided to try my hand at creating my own digital invite via Photoshop while using this as my inspiration. If you don't quite have the Photoshop skills, I highly recommend using this route for your party invitations. The quality is amazing, the price is totally affordable, and you can quickly email it to all of your party guests or upload the file to Costco and have them printed out so you can send in the mail. Mine went out via email ... see part above where I started late.

Just in case the link above doesn't work, this invite is from assilemward's shop in Etsy.

I really wanted to try and recreate pieces of the movie for this party. Thanks to my sister's boyfriend who works at Lowes, I was able to score several huge pieces of cardboard. On one large sheet, I sketched out a tower (trying my hardest to use the movie's tower as my guide) and then used my stash of acrylic paints to color it up. My husband then built a simple wooden frame and attached it to the cardboard tower so it could act as a photo spot for all of our little Rapunzel princesses.

I also used several rolls of yellow curling ribbon to create a Rapunzel headband. I have no pictures of the process but to do this, I first covered the entire length of a plastic headband (purchased from the 99 cent store) with LONG individual strands of yellow ribbon. I used hot glue -- be careful, it's hot! Then I cut 15 LONG strands of ribbon. Tied them in a double knot at one end. Then I hot glued that knotted piece to the headband. I repeated this process, placing each kotted piece as close to the prior one, until the whole headband had knotted strands across it. When the headband was covered with "hair" I went back and snipped off the tails on the double knots.

Here's my little birthday girl in her tower, letting her hair hang down. I think it turned out pretty nicely. Even some of us adults got into the tower for a picture.

I also very much wanted to recreate the purple flags are prevalent throughout the scenes when Rapunzel and Flynn Rider are in the town for the celebration. Now I know that in the movie they are triangles, but given my time constraints as well as my budget constraints, they were gonna be rectangles at my party. I purchased twelve 12x12 sheets of purple cardstock from Michaels. I cut each sheet into six 4x6 pieces -- these were my flags (12 sheets will give you 72 flags). Then I used my Silhouette cutting machine to cut out several sunburst shapes on some scratch cardstock. I tossed the actual sunburst diecut created and used the negative part as a stencil. Then I put my husband to work painting (stippling) the paint onto the flags. I used acrylic yellow paint from my stash and a foam brush. You may want to cut several stencils out because the paint will begin to soak the paper stencil making it impossible to create all of the flags in one pass. I had 6 stencils and I am thinking 12-15 would have been a good number. I then punched holes in each corner of the flag when the suns were dry and tied them all together using some thin purple satin ribbon. Tada!

In my head, the yard was to be strung with hundreds of lanterns to replicate the scene in the movie where the kingdom releases lanterns for the lost princess. But those darn budget restrictions prevailed and I had to limit the number I used. So you'll see that it looks a little sparse. I also had to factor in the rope swing range which prevented me from going directly across the yard. I found this website that seemed to carry paper lanterns for a good price. They also had paper bag luminaries in various colors. My thoughts on those being that you could hang them from a line and have them resemble some of the more cylintrical lanterns in the movie. This was a daytime party so none of the lanterns nor luminaries would be lit up. Although I think an evening Tangled party would be super awesome! You could totally buy light up paper lanterns and then set luminaries all over the ground with their glowing candles inside (note: fire hazard for little ones, best to go with battery operated candles in this case). Below you can see a shot of the party with a string of lanterns in the background as well as a shot where I hung a few of the lanterns under the patio cover. I used purple, pink, and yellow paper lanterns in various sizes and then lightblue, lime green, orange, and fuschia luminaries.

We commissioned a face painter for the party. No relation to the movie but we thought it would be a fun change of pace. She was awesome!

While walking through Dollar Tree, I saw these straws (below) and HAD to buy them. I thought of all the flowers that were put into Rapunzel's hair when the little girls braided it up for her. Little did I know that when you fan out the paper center, there's no good way of attaching it (no flap to tuck it into, no sticky back, etc). So I had to Scotch tape every flower which was sort of an unanticipated pain and time sucker. Probably why they were at Dollar Tree huh? Normally we do boxed drinks for the kiddos at our parties but given the straws, I bought 1/2 gallon juice cartons. Probably won't do that again. I am not sure how many parents picked up on that and we had almost all of the juice left over. I feel terrible if there were thirsty kids! I could always have just used the fancy straws in the boxed drinks. Lesson learned.

We have a rope swing in the yard and my husband had a good idea of trying to make the rope portion look like Rapunzel's hair. To do this, I took more yellow curling ribbon and tied about 100-150 strands from high up on the rope. Then I proceeded to braid all these ribbons down the rope. In all honesty, I probably should have used more like 1,000 strands to get the effect I wanted, but oh well. The kids LOVED the rope swing. If you have the tree and yard space, I highly recommend it.

With another large piece of cardboard, I projected an online image of Rapunzel and traced her. Then I painted her with my acrlic paints. You can see in the picture below that I also posted WANTED fliers all over the yard. I found this online too.

For a fun food item, I made jello boats. 4 boxes of the Blueberry Jello made me about 22 boats. Super easy. Pour the jello into the clear plastic cups, pop and orange slice on top (the boat), then stick a toothpick through a triangular piece of purple paper and stab it into the orange.

For a game, we played Pin the Tail on Flynn Rider. Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of the game in process nor a picture of the frying pan. But all we did was Google an image for frying pan, print it out on plain paper, cut it out, glue it onto black cardstock, cut that out and there was your frying pan. Slap some two sided tape on the back and you're good to go. Below is the picture we used. This is after the game, hence a piece of leftover tape on his neck. To get this image, I asked on the guys at my work to print it out on our plotter. If you know anyone who works in an architectural or engineering firm, or for a graphics design company, they'll have a large format printer and can do this for you. I am not sure if a printing place like FedEx Kinkos can do it for you since it is a licensed image.

For favors, I did two things. I purchased some paint sets at Dollar Tree. Then I bought a 500 sheet pack of white cardstock from Staples. I cut the sheets of cardstock in half and then packaged a pile of the paper with a paint set, tied it with some of that yellow curling ribbon, and stuck a little note on top saying "Thanks for coming to my party. Here's some paints to let your inner artist shine, just like Rapunzel." Sorry, no picture, but I assure you, a very easy thing to do. I also made some marshmallow pops (see below). To do this, you just buy some candy melts (got mine at Michaels) in purple and white. Melt them per the instructions. Stick a lollipop stick into a large marshmallow, dip in the melted chocolate, and then immediately into a dish of sprinkles. Let harden and then place in bag and tie with more yellow curling ribbon. I got the lollipop sticks and the bags from Michaels as well.

I knew I wanted to do a tower cake. I had no idea how I was going to accomplish this since I am by no means a pastry chef. Initially I thought I would make a sheet cake and the on top with rice cereal make a box type shape and frost it with buttercream. But then I saw this cake from Family Fun's website and I knew I was going in that direction. You'll see that I did end up doing a layered round cake on the bottom and then constructing the tower like theirs on top.

Other details not shown:

For food, we served deli meat, cheese, and bread for make your own sandwiches. We had lots of fruit (pineapple, canteloupe, water melon, raspberries, etc). We had rainbow goldfish crackers.

There were outside speakers so we piped the Rapunzel soundtrack over them.

If I had more time, I think I would have bought or made more luminaries to use as centerpieces for the tables. Instead at the last minute, I bought two containers of plastic purple gem stones from Party City and threw them down the center of the table. Then I let each kid take a gem stone home.

Things I would have liked to have done:

Chalked a big sunburst on the driveway like Rapunzel does in the movie

Created a Maximus out of cardboard for the boys to stand behind and take a picture.

Invented some sort of game using green silly string and a target to act like Pascal's shooting tongue.

Made my own braided bread.

BIGGEST LESSON LEARNED:

Make a timeline list of all the things you want to accomplish in your party. Then assign a mom the task of reminding you of one task at the designated time. Why do I recommend this? Because I forgot to put out the jello boats and also forgot to give the first 3 guests that left the party their favors! Argh!

I am going to take this into consideration and begin to plan my other daughter's Nightmare Before Christmas party now. It's in October. :)

Simple and Cute

2011-05-11T20:37:00.000-07:00

A cute little card for my sweet niece's 4th birthday. My first time using baker's twine and I love it. I know it's been super trendy for some time now, but I am always late to the game.

Another Baby's Mini

2011-05-07T20:54:00.001-07:00

Here is a mini album I completed today, just minutes before I needed to leave for the party at which I was giving it. Hence the terrible photos. My apologies.

The cover:

Pages 1 & 2 (with acrylic insert):

Pages 3 & 4:

Pages 5 & 6:

Pages 7 & 8:

Pages 9 & 10:

Back cover:

Too cute not to share!

2011-04-14T14:49:00.000-07:00

I stumbled across this idea on one of my favorite blogs and decided I was going to do this.

If you're looking for a quick, easy, and cheap little Easter gift, I highly recommend it.

Taking a Gamble

2011-03-29T13:49:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago, I made some decorated Easter eggs that I really loved. Since then I have contemplated trying to sell them. It's not an easy task, hollowing out the eggs and then dying them and embellishing them. But it's fun. So over the past couple of weeks I have been working on some new eggs and today is the day. I opened an Etsy shop. If you're interested in seeing the individual eggs, you can find them here. For now, they're all resting in a basket looking pretty as ever.

Happy Birthday TWO You

2011-03-18T08:53:00.001-07:00

Here's two cards I whipped up the other night for some very good friends of mine.

Both were made from scraps in my stash. On this top one there's actually some stitching around the edge but it's difficult to tell because my camera settings were off.

On this card I busted out my Glimmer Mist in "Pink Lemonade". I think I overdid it a bit but oh well. When you wait til the last minute, you can't be picky.

Wish I could say there's been more time to craft but there hasn't. Just the normal things of everyday life keeping me super busy.

Who says Valentine's Day has passed?

2011-03-03T10:09:00.000-08:00

Not us here in my home. We've been feeling the love for quite some time now. And since Spring and Easter are going to sneak up on me pretty quickly, I figured I had better snap some pictures before I pull it all down. As you might see, I got pretty crafty for this holiday.

Here's the mantel:

Some paper lollies with wooden hearts sprinkled with German Glass Glitter:

A frame filled with an old Basic Grey calendar page (from a kit I bought) and a few Prima crystal embellishments:

I made the simple Happy Valentine's Day banner several years ago. The heart garland was made this year covering more wooden hearts (from Michaels) with various Valentine's papers (last year's Making Memories and Pink Paislee) and hot gluing them to some satin ribbon.

Crepe paper rosettes hot glued to the glass of this frame. The background patterned paper is set inside the frame. These rosettes are super easy to make. Just Google it.

I made this tin ages ago as a design team assigment for my local scrapbook store that closed last year. It uses an old S.E.I. paper line. Inside of it is an accordion folded string of papers with love quotes written. At some point I will go back and add pictures of my husband and I.

These tissue paper flowers were also really fun to make. Another thing where Google will give you several tutorials.

And in keeping with my annual tradition of making a Valentine's Day layout for my husband featuring each of our girls ...

I also made them cards (two days after Valentine's Day). My husband gets each girl their own card and signs it from him. So I make them a card from me. Time just got away from me but I was not going to let this excuse to share some words of love with them escape.

That's all I have. Now time to rip it all down and pack it away til next year. :(

Yesterday I just had to ...

2011-02-04T12:00:00.000-08:00

... ignore the chaos of my house and just scrapbook. I often get creative urges in the mid-afternoon but normally don't act on them because of all the other things that need to be done (laundry, dinner, cleaning, tending to kids, etc.). But today, I gave in. One daughter was down for a nap, tonight's dinner plan involves leftovers, and the other daughter was more than willing to join me in my scrap room -- so the stars aligned you could say.

I set the time on my phone for 45 minutes and went about picking some photos and then some paper. Once again, my most recent Noel Mignon kit came in handy. No rifling through my stast for coordinating embellishments.

Here's what I created:

Hopefully the colors aren't too off. Sorry about that photo glare. Just another reason why I prefer to print my photos with a matte finish.

Jillibean Soup

2011-02-03T10:47:00.000-08:00

In my last post I mentioned a make n take I got to do at the Jillibean Soup booth at CHA. Here is is. On the back it has a pin so you can stick it to a bag or piece of clothing or something. I am showing it because the butterfly is a real picture of the corrugated shapes that I must have.

Another thing at the show that I forgot to mention is this tool:

It's called a drill punch and it's by Tim Holtz. We made a chain necklace as a make n take at his booth and used this tool to punch a hole in a charm. It was so easy. According to the gal leading the make n take, it can punch through any soft metal and they had done 2 pennies at one time. I am not sure why I want this, but I do.

I'm a Lucky Girl ...

2011-02-02T10:11:00.000-08:00

... because I got to attend CHA on Saturday. The Craft and Hobby Association semiannual trade show. It's where all the craft companies debut their new products and sell them to all the various stores (from Michael's and JoAnns to your local scrapbook store). This is my 4th year attending. I think it's safe to say that the economy has taken it's toll on the scrapbooking manufacturers. That is not to say there wasn't some great product. Just a little less than has been in the past.

I found myself not quite as inclined to take many pictures this year. Perhaps that is because my design team responsibilities have likely come to an end. Sad, I know. So there wasn't a need to really scope out new product lines for me to use in the future. My trip yesterday was simply personal and completely selfish.

So unfortunately, I don't have a ton of pictures to share about what I loved. But trust me, if you Google CHA 2011 Winter releases, I bet at least a hundred different entries will show up. If you go here, they're doing little videos about the 3 days they're spending at the CHA show. And here is where you can find all the sneaks the companies were releasing prior to the show.

So some things I really liked that I didn't get pictures of were Silhouette and My Mind's Eye. Silhouette has AMAZING samples of all the various things you can do with their cutter machine and accessory products. Their booth totally makes me want to run out and buy a bunch of Premium Vinyl, Flocked Heat Transfer Iron on Material. And then one of their new products is sewable fabric interfacing. So I can now use my Silhouette to cut material. So cool!

Here's a link to My Mind's Eye releases. The overall name of the collection is Stella and Rose. Then they have collections with different names. Here's Mabel and Hazel. And here is Hattie and Gertie. Their stuff is always just so pretty. I am loving how their coordinating embellishments are getting more detailed.

Bella Blvd.'s lines were cute! I really like how all of their releases can coordinate with each other. Here's Family Dynamix -- a must have! Here is Mr. Boy. They also have a line called "Tail Waggers and Cat Naps" which is about pets, but I can't seem to find a link to it. You know it's cute though if it's from Bella. Here's a couple of my pictures from their booth.

This book below is a book designed by a very talented friend of mine, Julie Johnson. She runs Paisleys and Polka Dots, a kit club. I don't know how she does it but each month she comes out with a mini album release as well as a 2-page layout release. This mini book she designed for the Bella Blvd. booth is a perfect example of the detail and quality you'd get in one of her kits. I highly recommend her if you're looking for some kits or even want to be inspired with new things. Her prices are very reasonable. Gotta act fast though. She sells out quickly.

I can't wait to get my hands on Echo Park's "Little Girl" line!

Prima's booth just makes me drool. I didn't spend too much time looking at any of their new product, but I am certain it's stunning. Here are some pics of their samples. Their designers are quite talented as you can see. Here's a page of some of their releases this show. And I really want some of these:

Bo Bunny has some cute lines! I really was drawn to Gabrielle and it's soft hues. Can't wait to see that in the stores.

Pink Paislee has a cute line called "Hometown Summer". I especially liked these chipboard border stickers. I think they'll add a perfect amount of dimension to my layouts.

I want these by Jillibean Soup!!!! All of them! In a make n take they offered, I got to use one of the butterflies. I love it!

Ranger's booth was wonderfully decorated. Here's a couple of images. The best new thing I think I saw was the Distress Stain by Tim Holtz. Rather than having to use the pads to ink up something pretty heavily, he's offering a dabber bottle that can saturate an area pretty quickly. Great for coloring trims, or the center of a page, or a whole piece of something quickly.

Making Memories had a huge release going in a very different direction than scrapbooking. They have released award ribbons and wands. On a podcast I listen to (the paperclipping roundtable), one of the guests is associated with MM and teased about this new release. She said it would cross over several industries including gift wrap. I couldn't imagine what it would be, but it was certainly not this. In looking around their booth, I was definitely inspired. The ribbons are adorable. Perfect for parties, class events, rewarding you kid for something, gifts, etc.) I think it’s something I can make so the likelihood of me buying any of these products is slim, but there are super cute!

And that's pretty much what spoke to me. I know I missed a lot. So I will be excited to see what all the other scrappers out there pick up on that I didn't.

Charlie's Baby Album

2011-02-01T22:33:00.000-08:00

Well only one year past the day of his birth, I finally got Charlie's baby album done. I can't tell you how many months it sat on my desk half finished. Now I only have two more albums to complete before babies reach their 1st birthday. One happens in a few weeks (I have all the paper, but nothing started) and the other happens at the end of April (barely started on this one). Then I will be caught up just in time for all the friends I have who planned to get knocked up again -- Charlie's mommy is one of them.

This one uses a Clear Scraps acrylic album as the foundation. I designed it so mommy can put a picture of Charlie every 3 months. There are some pull-out tags in there for her to make notes.

Interesting ...

2011-01-26T22:55:00.000-08:00

So I have always thought that maybe Costco's color photo prints were a bit off from what I saw on my screen. A couple of years back I even seem to recall reading that someone said they printed the color green poorly. It's never been enough to make me pursue a different printer for my photos. What I was getting back was good enough. Until last weekend.

I was in a mad dash trying to get my stuff together for Scrap Weekend. My main problem was not having any recent prints to scrap with. Minor detail right? So I stayed up way too late selecting photos from the many folders I had on my computer to print. I uploaded them to Costco and was about to process my order when I saw that the earliest they would be ready for pick up was 1:00PM. That was a couple of hours past the time I wanted to leave. So I searched for a Costco near where I would be headed. No luck. So in a desperate moment, I opened an account with Walgreens. Uploaded my pictures and selected a store near where I would be staying. I was a little bummed that they only offered the glossy finish for pick up orders (because I have become fond of the matte or "lustre" finish), but at this point, beggars couldn't be choosers.

Everything worked out well. I got my pictures and began scrapping. Sometime on Saturday afternoon, I came across a set of photos printed from Costco (I had grabbed some photos I had at home just in case before leaving). Unbeknownst to me, I also had the exact same, unedited photos printed in my Walgreens order. I compared the too, and my theory was confirmed. What a difference!!!

Here I have laid the Walgreens print on top of the layout with the Costco prints. Both sets of photos are the same exact shots, with glossy finishes, and are unedited. Just in my photo of the photos, you can see quite a difference in the vibrancy or pop of the colors. I think Walgreen may have just found a new customer. This is not to say I will never use Costco again. They're super convenient and I do some of my shopping there. But for my prints that I really love and have specific plans for? Walgreens it may be.

Thought I would share in case anyone has been questioning their Costco prints or pondering where to get their photos printed at. These are the only two pick up places I have tried. I have used Shutterfly and Snapfish in the past, but long before the days of me knowing how to shoot in Manual.

Scrap Weekend Projects Part 4

2011-01-25T23:59:00.001-08:00

This is the final installment of my scrap weekend projects. I wish I had lots more to show you. There are a TON of ideas in my head that I want to create (both scrapbooking and home decor), but I am finding there's not a lot of time or energy when I do find the time. Enough said, on with the show.

"Pinata Time" - This was the first layout I completed at Scrap Weekend. This is probably my least favorite of all I did. Yet surprisingly, it's the one the most people complimented. Go figure! This documents my Hannah whacking the pinata at her birthday party.

"Happy Girls" - a simple layout. I love that floral rubon in the upper right corner. I do happen to remember that it's by Hambly Studios, and let me just tell you ... quality rubons from that company!

"Click" - a layout documenting my appreciation for Hannah and her willingness to pose for me. This little dilapidated building in Breckenridge, CO was screaming at me to take a picture of it. I am no photographer by any means, but jumped at the opportunity to practice. And I love love love this paper line by American Crafts. I know it's Dear Lizzy. I think it was the very first one she released. I have been drooling over it for almost a year. Finally got my hands on it this Summer and then finally put it to good use. It did not disappoint. Everything on this page is from that line.

"1st loose tooth" - a two pager! The one and only of the weekend. It's a little plain jane right now. Thinking I may go back and add some blingy swirls to it. The title is pretty self explanatory of what I am documenting here.

And there you have it folks. My 16 layouts. I so wish I could find more time and energy to do some at home. I'd love to be able to make a goal of 1 layout a week, but I think that's unrealistic. Especially with all the other craftiness I end up sneaking in last minute.

Scrap Weekend Projects Part 3

2011-01-24T17:09:00.001-08:00

This type of layout is probably my favorite concept. Inspired by Ali Edwards who is AMAZING at documenting real life through scrapbooking, I created this layout about my youngest. Inside that pocket contains a little note about all the various things that make up her personality. I may at some point go back and write something on the outside of the envelope that lets people know they can open it up. Otherwise it looks like a randomly placed embellishment to me.

A layout documenting a cute series of photos I snapped. Makaela jumping to Joel and him not expecting her to jump so close to the edge. She went under the water and he had to scramble to her. She was fine and her happy little self. I just love the action setting on my camera for quick firing.

This layout is a little different for me as I usually fill up the entire page, but I really like it. When my husband looked at it, he asked, "Are you going to put anything on the other side?" Nope!

Just a sweet and simple layout about when Hannah got to hold her new little cousin for the first time. She felt like such a big girl! (all papers are by Echo Park)

Scrap Weekend Projects Part 2

2011-01-23T18:13:00.001-08:00

Here's another set of projects I completed last weekend on my Scrapbook Weekend trip. (noticing the colors seem very washed out in these photos so when looking at them, imagine a whole lot more vibrancy)

This layout is super simple. That's just one piece of patterened paper as a background. The pink detail and lines were all preprinted. Love it! Then I just needed to slap a cute photo of my girls loving each other on it, a title, some journaling, and some washi tape pieces (I think that's what they call it - basically pattern printed tape).

A layout of Hannah's first ever soccer game. I used white puffy letter Thickers for the title and then using my journaling pen, traced around the outside of them. The quality of this photo of the layout is horrible. If I had the energy, I would TOTALLY take a new picture.

This layout is of my cutie Makaela riding a horse for the first time.

once again, the colors are really washed out. Again, it's one piece of patterned paper with the antique frame detail on it. Then there's a smaller strip of patterned paper underneath the photos (it was the cover piece in a paper pack that displayed all the patterns inside that I just cut off the title part). I happen to remember that all of this page is made with items from Echo Park.

Scrap Weekend Projects #1

2011-01-19T20:45:00.000-08:00

I was going to share all of my layouts in one post but if any of you are like me, sometimes it's hard to take in a lot of projects at one time. So I'll share 4 projects with you today.

First off, I really wish I could remember in which order I created these layouts. then I would share them that way. When I first arrived at the house, or Scrapbook Inn, I felt really blocked. Nothing was coming to me. I was not as prepared as I had hoped to be. I brought my Noel Mignon kits (2 of them), my Studio Calico kit (just the 1), 3 paper packs from Echo Park, and a bag of stuff I bought back in September from Archivers in Colorado (that I had not dug into once). Side note: HOLY COW! Archivers rocks! I am so sad that they do not have one here in CA. I will apologize now ... I do not know most of the manufacturers of the products I used. It was not about documenting what I used this weekend people. It was about getting stuff done. And that I did.

So here we go! I LOVE YOU TOO is about this picture of my husband framing some graffiti in the way background. We had stopped off to stretch our legs after many hours in the car on the way to Arches National Park. It's probably hard to tell, but the graffiti he's framing with his hands says "Wife I Love You!" I seriously hate taggers but how sweet a message. :) I do know that laser cut paper is by Basic Grey. They call it Doily Paper I think. I cut some of it away as you can see and though the picture doesn't show it, the whole piece is raised with pop dots.

This might be my favorite layout of the whole weekend. This photo booth strip has been hanging out in my purse since the night we bought it. Each time I came across it, I thought, "I NEED to get this scrapbooked before it gets ruined." I like how the colors all work together and the black and white photos contrast nicely. I also like how I had a ready made title with paper. I really love how in the series of photos it goes cute, silly, cute, silly. And that we all 4 did it together.

I snapped these lovely photos of my oldest back in November. The title is simply "BEAUTIFUL on the inside and out". Very true of this wonderful girl. That scalloped floral background piece is just one precut piece of paper. They've been around for years now and I think I will always love them! All of the detail adds so much to the page without all the work.

This may have been the first layout I finished. It's very simple. If you look closely, all of my layouts are simple, but this one is especially simple. 5 embellishments and some letter stickers. Done!

And that's it for today.

Whoa yah!!!!

2011-01-18T12:43:00.000-08:00

Sunday I returned home from a wonderful scrappy weekend. 2 days of uninterupted scrapping. Heaven I tell ya! Bless you Joel and inlaws who make occassional escapes like this possible!

The last time I went on one of these (April 2010), I accomplished what I thought to be a lot for me. 14 layouts I believe. Well this time I finished 17!!!! And I really like them all. It feels so good to get something for me (and my family) done. Now if I can just manage to get them into albums.

So when I get out from under the hustle and bustle of today, I hope to post them.

My Goal for Today - updated

2011-01-04T10:29:00.001-08:00

To turn this into something pretty.

I am thinking chunky glitter, some pale pastel papers, a pretty button or two, perhaps some twine.

Hopefully I'll be back later to post the final product. I have lots of other things to do today before I can tackle this.

Two days later ...

Ha ha! Silly me to think I would be able to tackle this little box in one day! The night of my original post I did actually pick my paper and cut it and ink the edges. Note: the amount of paper I used was one 1 1/2" strip by about 8". So yay me that I did all that work. {sarcasm}

Yesterday, I snuck in and quickly and glued some glitter on the top.

Today, I could no longer take it anymore and had to go into my scraproom and finish this project!

Viola!

Aaaahhhhh. I feel rejuvenated! It's amazing how therapeutic crafting and creating can be. And how easily I can forget that. Now ... who to give this little lovely to?

My WORD for 2011

2011-01-01T11:49:00.000-08:00

So lots of people choose a word solely for themselves each year to focus on. I first heard of this idea from Ali Edwards. Last year I picked the word PEACE which you can read about here if you'd like. Let me tell you, the first 3 months I really got a lot out of this choice. When things would start to get hairy, I'd just say the word "peace" over and over in my head and I would cool down, or mellow out, or relax much more quickly than normal. But unfortunately, somewhere along the way, PEACE go left by the wayside. I had all sorts of crafty ideas for that word. I was going to buy anything and everything I saw that had that word on it and plaster my house with it so it would be everywhere we turned, serving as a reminder to me. Never happened. I found one thing, that I was going to alter, but like all things that go into my scraproom, they get burried and don't resurface for years. So I soon found myself going through the days without so much as a thought about peace.

For the past couple of weeks, I have been pondering what my word would be for 2011. Two words in particular have been swirling around. "Imperfect" and "Calm".

Imperfect not because I want to become less perfect than I am, but because I want to accept that I am imperfect. Sometimes I feel too much of my time is spent trying to put forth an image of perfection. I am never successful in this endeavor, but the attempt is made. For example, I was up until 4AM on Christmas morning putting finishing touches on things (because a 2 1/2 yr old and a 5 yr old will notice all of it right?), typing up a cute letter to Santa (rather than scribbling it out), and finally cleaning up all the clutter so my Christmas morning pictures would look put together. Can you believe that? Am I the only one who cleans up so the evidence of her normal, everyday life is nowhere to be seen in the photos? I think I rationalize some of this by saying I don't want extra "noise" in my photos distracting from the subjects at hand, but I think really it's because I want to pretend I have it all together all of the time.

Calm for similar reasons as why I picked the word PEACE. But also because I find myself getting worked up or stressed out or panicky about things I have no control over or things I shouldn't care about. The other day at work I realized I needed to get some deposits made before our bank courier arrived. With the New Year holiday coming, this was the last day to do it and these deposits needed to be made in 2010. Naturally I realize this minutes before the courier was to arrive. Seriously, it would have been interesting to know what my blood pressure was at that moment. I can't explain the internal knots I was feeling inside my body. My hand was shaking as I was endorsing the checks, trying to write the deposit slips, make copies of it all, getting it in the bag, recording it in the register, and making sure the amounts were correct for the accountant. It was the worst 1o minutes of my day I tell ya. And in hindsight, I should have taken a deep breath, told myself to stay calm and gotten it done. If the courier came, I could have asked him to stay an extra minute while I finished. The stress could have been avoided. This is one example of many I encounter because I don't know how to stay calm. I worry too much about other people. Inconveniencing them. Bugging them. Total strangers. Who cares if you have to wait for my parking spot while I buckle my kids into their carseats?! Unfortunately I do and then the craze comes on. Well no more! Because CALM is my new word for 2011. I'm gonna take on an "It is what it is" attitude. I hope this will allow me to be more tolerant with my kids, get through life with less stress, enjoy the simple things more, and generally be a happier, more carefree person.

I think I need to purchase one of these soon:

Where I've been, how far I've come, and where I'm going

2010-12-31T15:45:00.000-08:00

So on this day last year, I posted my New Year's Resolutions for the 2010 year. Here it is if you want to see it all. But if you don't want to, this was my list:

Lose weight - If I lost any, it's a small amount

Be a better mom - I had some successes and failures here - nothing too detrimental

Be closer to God - I am not any farther away from Him, but not sure about closer

Be a better wife - I think I have been a good wife though not sure about better

Go to church more regularly - FAIL and not proud to admit that

Get Hannah's BR fully decorated (dresser refinished, artwork up, and curtain) - got 2 out of 3 here; still need to hang artwork

Get Makaela's BR fully decorated (artwork and curtain) - does getting a curtain rod for her room count for anything?

Get our BR fully decorated (new bedspread, walls antiqued, curtains, artwork, big piece of furniture) - we got a bedspread!

Valance for above kitchen window - ironically, without looking at my list, I have been thinking about tackling this in the next couple of days

Drapery piece for back door - nope

Organize junk in office - ummmm no!

Scrapbooking layouts into albums - no

Find Christmas tree topper - yes, yes, yes! Man it feels good to say yes to something!

Christmas gifts purchased by end of November - I wish!

Plan a nice 35th birthday party for Joel - I must have thought I put 40th birthday party. :)

Create prayer list - no

Take more video of girls - I probably did more than in 2009

Meal plan for whole year - I think I did it for 2 weeks. It was the best 2 weeks of my life so I am not certain why I stopped.

Train for Camp Pendleton Mud Run - train? no! completed? yes!

Get older pictures printed and ready for scrapbooking - I actually did some of this, but not as much as I would have liked.

Get Hannah signed up for extracaricular activity - she played soccer this past Fall

Do a Jillian Michaels video at least once a week - ha ha ha ha

Get the kids exercising more - we did better but nothing too structured

Teach Hannah how to ride a bike with no training wheels - YES! She did it! And she was awesome at it. And then she outgrew that bike and we bought her one that is too big for her to start on her own so training wheels are back on it.

Exercise dogs more - does the fact that I took Buddy for a 3 mi run today count for anything? Who cares if it was the first run in ohhhh, a year!

So there's my progress for 2010. It leaves a lot to be desired.

Things that weren't on the list that I did accomplish were:

Train for a 1/2 marathon - so far my training has had me run over 100 miles

Prepare for, cook for, and host a fancy dinner for 6 of our closest friends - a 5 course meal was cooked and was a brilliant success if I may say so myself

Go on a 2 week vacation with family - stomach flu suffered by all 4 of us along the way and we still made it and travelled technically through 5 states

Furnished our living room.

Completed 3 Pottery Barn knockoff shelves for the house (with Joel's help of course).

Stopped biting my nails - I never really thought this would happen, but then one random day I read something about another girl who had the same bad habit and I just decided I didn't want to have that habit anymore. Can I just tell you, broken nails are SUPER frustrating and they hurt way worse than nails bitten down to the fingertips?

For 2011, I am going to carry over most of the unfinished items from 2010 (kitchen valance, back door drapery, finish girls' rooms, prayer list, meal plan) and add a few. Added are:

Create and follow a budget so that hopefully we can save some money but more importantly keep me from stressing too much after I pay the bills and realize I have $10 in the account and a full 2 weeks til I get paid again.

Complete my 1/2 marathon in January.

Continue with a running schedule 3x a week after my race.

Finish the 3 baby albums I owe friends (Milena, Charlie, and Payton - Charlie's is almost done)

Get some for artwork, pictures, quotes, etc on our walls.

Eat better - more fruits, veggies, wholesome stuff as opposed to the soda, candy, and other junk I love.

Spend at least 1/2 hour a day doing nothing but playing with my girls. I need to take advantage of this time that they want to do stuff with me and all the millions of other things I need to do will have to wait because they deserve at least that and so much more.

Potty train Makaela - who at this moment is showing no signs of interest in it.

Get some sort of a garden going that actually produces something we can eat.

I know there's a ton more things I want to do. Here's to a great 2011!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!

2010-12-25T13:46:00.001-08:00

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas. I know just a short time ago I was posting here and wishing the same thing. But this time I am including a festive photo of our tree, post-present opening.

May your day be filled with many blessings. I know mine is. I can hear them right now playing with their toys. :)

I now know how Santa feels!

2010-12-25T02:27:00.000-08:00

It's 2:28AM as I begin this post. I am sitting here finishing up tags to put on the presents from Santa for out two little girls. I still have to hang the stockings, put out the cookies and milk for Santa, nibble on them, clean up downstairs so there's no evidence of wrapping or mess that will get in my photos. Gotta have the perfect picture you know. Still have to wrap hubby's gift. {sigh} I can't wait to crawl into bed. I don't know how Santa does it. Going going going all night long. Well, I take that back. Yes I do!

Merry Christmas to all of you. May you have a blessed day!

By the way, it's now 3:42AM. Good night.

In denial

2010-12-16T17:51:00.000-08:00

I cannot believe Christmas is in 9 days! And I am sitting here wishing I had all sorts of wonderful Christmassy projects to share. Or photos of all the amazing holiday things we've done as a family. But truth be told, most of these past 16 days of December have been filled with the norm with a small few seasonal things mixed in.

I attended an ornament exchange early in the month. I spent several hours making mine and walked away with some pretty beautiful ornaments made by others. (perhaps a post for another time)

We hosted our annual Christmas party with all of our friends last weekend. It was the 8th Annual 4 Meats. Yes, we call our party 4 Meats and feel very blessed and honored that so many friends carve out a day in their own busy Decembers to gather around to celebrate. It is called 4 Meats because way back when, my husband (then fiance) and his roommate hosted a small Christmas party for some friends in their apartment. On the BBQ he cooked chicken, steak, and sausage and it was observed that this was the 3 meats of Christmas (just like the 3 wisemen). The next year he and I were married and in our own home. We hosted yet another Christmas party. As we fondly remembered the prior year's 3 Meats of Christmas it was observed that there were 4 meat dishes on the menu. And at that moment 4 Meats was born ... and has been going strong for 8 straight years now. It's a blast! Complete with a huge potluck, a White Elephant gift exchange, and "shot time" with the famous (infamous) jageritas.

We had the kids' friends over for gingerbread house decorating and dinner. After that we piled in cars and toured through a pretty cool neighborhood that decorates with lots of lights.

We saw Santa and then went to Disneyland to see it all decorated for Christmas. It was too chilly though and I had not packed proper clothing to stay and watch it "snow" on Main Street.

Tomorrow night is Hannah's Christmas recital in which she will be playing the role of Mary. I love it because when I was little, I too played Mary at the children's mass.

Then there's my office Christmas party.

And then the actual holiday will be here.

To date I maybe have a few presents of the 20+ I need to buy. I somehow have to miraculously come up with 2 teacher gifts between now (6:10PM and tomorrow morning).

I so want to feel the Christmas spirit. To really enjoy the season and the excitement that the girls get out of this time of year. But the pressure of everything is so overwhelming. Maybe if I can have all the shopping done and gifts wrapped by the end of the weekend there will be hope for me. Maybe.

Could it be?

2010-12-01T12:19:00.000-08:00

Yes! It's something scrappy. A little card I threw together this morning for my darling God Daughter's 2nd birthday. I was feeling terrible that I hadn't done this earlier. Like I was slighting her by waiting til the last minute. But honestly, I love this card! I think it turned out rather well. I love the chunky German glass glitter! (sorry about the poor quality iPhone photo)

In other news, I won a contest being held over on Shannon Tidwell's blog. If you have not checked her out for scrapbooking inspiration, you need to! She is so very clever! But the contest was for a spot in Journal Your Christmas being run over at Shimelle.com. I am really looking forward to this. I'm hoping to be able to record some wonderful memories.

Today is the first day and she posted this Christmas manifesto she created.

I love all of it except for the "write real Christmas cards" part. What does that mean? Sit and write a special message to each recipient? If I did that, perhaps I might finish our cards by Christmas next year! As it is, I am supposed to hand make my cards, but I don't think that will happen. Sorry! Anyways, I really need to focus on the capture the magic part. Let's just say the Christmas spirit was not exactly with me as I raced around town cursing all of the "dumb" drivers around me. And of course cursing the world when I pulled into the gas station only to get out and realize that the tank was on the wrong side. How long have I been driving this car? A year and a half you say? Well certainly this is not my fault. The world is against me I tell you. {sarcasm}

Thankful for Day #30

2010-11-30T23:20:00.001-08:00

... that I made it to the end of the month with a post for every day! Woo hoo!

And because I went the whole month without posting the cliche things I am thankful for, I will now post them on this last day of November.

I am thankful for God and the blessings he has bestowed upon me.
I am thankful for my husband.
I am thankful for my two beautiful daughters.
I am thankful for our health.
I am thankful for our extended family.
I am thankful for our wonderful friends.
I am thankful for the roof over our head.
I am thankful for the food in our bellies.
I am thankful for the jobs we both have.
I am thankful for health insurance.
I am thankful for the military and their supportive families who defend our freedoms.
I am thankful for our safe neighborhood.
I am thankful for the good head on my shoulders.
I am thankful for our two doggies, despite how much they may frustrate me in the middle of the night.
I am thankful for the opportunity to do extracurricular things like craft, take vacations, run races, etc.
I am thankful to live in the U.S.A.

And for many more things I am sure that escape my tired mind at this moment.

Oh yes, and I am thankful for those of you who chose to read this blog for the past 30 days despite it's lack of pictures and non-scrapbook related content. I will try to do better in the coming posts.

Thankful for Day #29

2010-11-29T23:44:00.001-08:00

... for my Silhouette cutting machine. Man! I have had this thing working today. If you're a serious crafter and can afford to spend a couple hundred dollars on a tool, I highly recommend doing so. This puppy can just cut and cut and cut. I pick out any font, or digital design I want and size it to my specification. Then I load the paper, hit cut, and it does all the work for me. If it weren't so late, I would snap a picture of all that I have cut. It's literally at least 400 pieces in one day!I have had it for a few years now and would highly recommend it. If you're interested, go here. The things you can do with it. Here's their blog where you can see what some very talented people do with their machines. All I have ever cut is paper and one piece of vinyl which I have yet to adhere to my wall. But I am in love with this machine.

Thankful for Day #28

2010-11-28T23:59:00.000-08:00

... for Christmas spirit. Upon arriving home from visiting my inlaws over the weekend, we got out the Christmas tree and some ornaments. The girls were beyond excited! They just couldn't wait o be handed an ornament to hang on the tree. Each one that was pulled out got big "oooohs" and "ahhhhhs" (even the simplest little red balls). I don't think Hannah went 2 minutes without telling Joel or I that she loved us. A true sign of her excitement. I think it's her way of saying, "I am so so so happy right now!" It warms my heart! We certainly didn't finish the tree, but you can tell it's going to be a fun Christmas this year!

Thankful for Day #27

2010-11-27T23:59:00.000-08:00

... for dedication. I am training for a 1/2 marathon right now. I am not a runner! But I got sucked into this race a couple months ago thinking that it would be a good way for my husband and I to do something together. Cuz I am not gonna get him to scrapbook anytime soon. And I realized we don't do a lot together that doesn't involve the girls. I thought we'd be able to train together and then of course do the race together. It was also going to be an exercise in positivity for me. Even though I HATE running, I figured I could focus on what it would do for my body (hello weight loss - hopefully) and it would bring Joel and I closer. So training was supposed to begin November 1st, but knowing how out of shape I was, I began the 2nd week of October. A sort of training for the training if you will. Well little did we know he would tear his ACL and be out of the race. I think the old me would have jumped up and down at this opportunity to bow out of the race. Or at least to not take it so seriously and therefore jump off the training schedule. I say the "old me" because this new me has done the complete opposite.

Yep, I have stuck to the traiing regimen. I even ran my training distance last Saturday in the rain! Yuck! But my dedication really set in today while up in Tehachapi visiting the inlaws. Tehachapi is a much higher elevation than where I live. I think the difference is a few thousand feet. With that comes thinner air and much cooler temps. Couple that with the fact that a storm was going to come in tonight and let's just say that last night I was less than optimistic about having to do this run. I found brain working to find an excuse not to run. Or to run later. But I couldn't find one and finally it just came down to me having to do it. So I did. I set out in the high 40 degree temps and started off on my 6 mi run. this is the farthest distance I have had to run in my traiing. Quite possibly the farthest distance I have ever one in one straight shot. I was prepared for it to be difficult. I was prepared for my legs to gas out. I was prepared to walk if I had to. But to my complete surprise and utter amazement, I ran the whole thing!!!! It wasn't easy by any means, but I did it.

I am not sure where this dedication has come from. I think a large part of it comes from not wanting to let my husband down. Not that he would hold it against me if I didn't do it. He knows I am not a runner. There's also the money I paid to be in the darn race. But it's coming from somewhere deeper and I am so thankful. I am proud of myself for having stuck with this so far. Let me tell you, not drinking soda the day before my run is not fun. I still can't fathom that my body will run 13.1 miles in just about 8 weeks. But I know if my dedication can stay strong, it will.

Thankful for Day #26

2010-11-26T09:00:00.001-08:00

... for good Facebook friends who warned me about the woes of Black Friday shopping. I was very much decided upon venturing out to see what all the hubbub was and sought tips via Facebook. Every response was related to advising me not to do it. I took them at their word and got a few extra hours of sleep. On my way in to work this morning I stopped by Kohl's just to see what I had missed out on. There was a line of people literally weaving and wrapping through half of the store. I counted 8 registers going (not including those in the customer service dept). I observed all the selections of the people in line and several had "big ticket items". I walked the store to see the deals. There were definitely some things I would have liked to have picked up. A really cute twin bed comforter/sheet set that would be perfect for Makaela's room was $35. They did have two of those prelit Christmas trees in pots that stand about 3 t0 4 feet tall that I have been wanting forever for $39. And some cute fleece blankets for $8. But none of it was worth waiting in line for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Thank you FB friends!

Thankful for Day #25

2010-11-25T11:59:00.000-08:00

... for so much on this wonderful Thanksgiving Day! For my body that allowed me to run a 5K this morning with my fastest pace to date (still slow, but getting better). For my daughter her persevered through her very first 1K ever even though she was so tired and felt like she was going to throw up (I think she had a side cramp). For my husband and other daughter who came to cheer us on and congratulate us when we were done. For the nice 4.5 hour lull between getting home from the race and needing to leave for our Thanksgiving feast that allowed us to nap, relax, freshen up, etc. For the wonderful food that filled our bellies and warmed our hearts, prepared by many of the guests. For my dad and stepmom who hosted Thanksgiving dinner despite the fact that my stepmom is still recovering from a very invasive abdominal surgery. For my awesome family that provides so much love! For two little girls who kept good attitudes throughout the whole day. For heaters both in the car and in the house. For a warm bed to fall into at the day's end. It was a fantastic day! Happy Thanksgiving!

Thankful for Day #24

2010-11-24T19:33:00.000-08:00

... for Thanksgiving break! Hannah has been out of school all this week and it is SO SO SO nice not to have to do the morning routine of dragging her out of bed, making her go to the bathroom, getting her dressed, monitoring her brushing her teeth (which she manages to do much slower than anyone else on the planet I am sure), getting breakfast ready, packing her snack, getting Makaela ready, and getting out the door. We are loving being able to sleep in a bit, stay in jammies longer, and just go with the flow. I will miss these lazy mornings come next week.

Thankful for Day #23

2010-11-23T15:11:00.001-08:00

... for husbands who get up at 5AM to change the damn battery in the smoke alarm because it's been beeping every 20 seconds for the last hour and a half. Thank you dearet husband. I love you so much!

Thankful for Day #22

2010-11-22T23:59:00.000-08:00

... yummy Mexican food and buy one, get one free Coronas. I went out with one of my best friends last night (aka Maid of Honor, sorority sister, friend since Jr. High). When we got up to the counter to order our food, I pulled a Corona from their fridge and was informed that I got another one for free. Sold! Unfortunately, I am sure my body will feel it when I run tomorrow but I'll survive. It was worth it.

Thankful for Day #21

2010-11-22T00:17:00.000-08:00

... tools. As in mitre saws, and nail guns, and air compressors, and levels. I can't take credit for the handywork performed in our garage today, but I can tell you that my husband did awesome work on a costume/dressup station we are making for our girls for Christmas! This thing is gonna be super sturdy, complete with show storage on the bottom, a hanger rod, and a storage shelf up top. I'll have to post pictures of it when it's completed and ready for paint (the part of the project where I make my debut). I am trying to decide if this project is saving us money. Naturally it's going to be much cheaper andbetter quality than the ones you see in catalogs, but we'd never buy those anyways. Now we have lumber costs and I am sure the girls will get a new princess dress out ofthe deal too. Oh well! Hopefully the girls will look at it with as much pride and their mommy and daddy will.

Thankful for Day #20

2010-11-20T23:59:00.000-08:00

... warm slippers!!!! I finally broke down and bought myself a pair of slippers. They're a cheap pair, but cute. They look like a warm, red knit sweater with cream faux fur lining. And they have a plastic sole on them so I can show them off to my neighbors whenever I wander out in the morning hours. I can't begin to tell you how long I have been wanting a pair. How long I have wondered why I don't have a pair. Especially considering how cold I get. It's been years people!!! So now I have them and my feet are already thankful.

Thankful for Day #19

2010-11-19T23:59:00.000-08:00

... for perspective. As I was driving home today from work today, I happened to look into the eyes of two gentlemen. Not at the same time. One man was crossing the street in front of me as I waited for a light to turn green. His hands were folded up under his arms tight to keep warm. He wore loose, denim jeans, a ragged denim jacket, worn shoes, and he had no hat. His eyes looked sad. Or lonely. And my mind began to wonder about what his life is like. Does he have a home to go to? Is he hungry? Will he be able to keep warm as the rain comes in?

The next man was a young, black man. I am not sure if he saw me, but I caught a quick glimpse at his eyes as I drove past him. He was sitting on the bench at a bus stop next to several other minorities. He was dressed as a young, twenty-something black man would dress I suppose. Not all ganster/thug, but not as though he were on his way to a job interview either -- jeans, t-shirt, sneakers, black, flat billed hat. He didn't look sad, or happy, or anything. Perhaps I passed him too quickly. But my mind jumped to what his life must be like. His skin happened to be especially dark and I wondered how hard has it been for him to grow up as a black man. Has he been harrassed by the cops moreso than he deserved? Denied certain liberties I take for granted? Does he have two parents at home who love him, support him, encourage him?

Answers to these queestions will never be known. But these two men forced me (or allowed me) to take a moment to focus on my life and just how good I have it. And how good my children's lives are. We are all loved so very much. Have more than enough to sustain our bodies. We will sleep well tonight and be warm and dry as the rain comes down. It makes me sad that not everyone has this. I am not sure what I can do to help solve the problem. But I am happy that it gives me perspective.

Perhaps these men will stay with me in the future and I won't get so down when we can't afford to eat out at a restaurant when I am too tired to cook. Or when I can't go buy a new pair of brown and black boots despite how desperately I think my wardrobe needs them. Maybe I will be more conscientous about making sure all leftovers are eaten and not thrown away. Hopefully I will remember to hug my girls a few extra times each day; to say a prayer that they remain healthy, safe, and happy more often than just at night as I am nodding off to sleep. Maybe I will remember to thank my husband for all he does for this family. Maybe I will begin to think about how I can be more of a part of the solution for all those out there that don't have the luxuries I have.

Thankful for Day #18

2010-11-18T23:59:00.000-08:00

... for a nice, sunny day. Rain is in the forecast for the weekend so I took the opportunity to spend some time outside. Let the girls run around, ride their bikes, hunt for caterpillars, etc. And while they were at that, I mowed the lawn. Shhhh ... don't tell my husband, but I actually like doing this. I know ... total surprise to me too. He had to teach me because of his torn ACL. I thought I would hate it, but I don't. There's something I find very satisfying about doing such a male dominated task. I also enjoy the fresh air. And then of course there's the satisfaction of seeing a nicely groomed lawn as a result of your labor. Truth be told, it's not that hard to mow our lawn. We don't have any huge patches of grass and we have no real slopes. I will go on record and say I DO NOT like weed eating though. That task is for the birds! So I am thankful for a the nice weather and a chance to get the yard spiffed up before the rain comes and prevents me from doing it.

Thankful for Day #17

2010-11-17T21:49:00.001-08:00

... for this recipe. Or should I just say I am thankful for Bakerella. She's awesome! And so is this recipe. It was a super last minute decision as a dessert for the fancy dinner I hosted several weeks back now -- as in the morning of, I decide that the cookie dough truffles weren't going to be enough so let's throw one more dessert on the menu.

Everyone swooned over it!

And don't tell them, but it is the easiest thing to make ever! I am making one right now because my husband loved it so much, he volunteered me to make it for his work Thanksgiving party tomorrow. I am so jealous I won't get any, but that's OK. I can ask the cook to make me one anytime.

Thankful for Day #16

2010-11-16T21:38:00.001-08:00

... a forgiving husband. He called me this morning and asked me to do two things for him. In the midst of my morning chaos I quickly OK'd him and had every intention of doing his bidding. However, the thought or memory of me having agreed to such tasks quickly evaporated from my mind. For I filled the rest of the day with a "berry hunt" with the girls, then a spontaneous trip to Chik-fil-A to meet up with a friend, and then a walk down memory lane as I sorted through a box of Hannah's baby keepsakes at her request. It was not until I finally entered my kitchen and saw one of the things I was supposed to do sitting there on the counter, that I realized I had COMPLETELY forgotten to do what my husband had asked of me. Doh!!! Mind you this was also coincidentally 5 minutes before he was due home. When I told him of my carelessness and my plans to remedy it tomorrow, he was quite OK with my blunder. Phew!!! I need to take a page from his book because I am not so certain I would have been as forgiving had he been the one to not do two tasks I specifically asked of him.

Thankful for Day #15

2010-11-15T11:58:00.001-08:00

... that I cleaned last night!!! I know this is related to last night's post but I was able to get up and breathe a sigh of relief that I didn't have to deal with the kitchen floor this morning before the babysitter got to the house. I was actually able to leave for work, feeling like my house was somewhat clean. Not the norm in my world I tell ya!

Now I get to look forward to going home in a few hours to play with my girls. The little one informed me last night as I was rocking her to sleep (something I rarely ever do and also something I am thankful for) that she wanted to play with her little toys and pretend that they're chefs. So in my head I have dreamed up this fun event where we'll get out their Thomas the Train tracks set them up, set up all the Little People figurines and house and tree house, and pretend that there's a baking section and then the trains will have to deliver the food to a party somewhere at one of the houses. I think they'll eat this up. I am guessing that later on I will be thinking about how thankful I am for the patience I am going to pray for because anytime I imagine anything, it never never ever plays out like I wanted it to.

Update: train tracks + Little People with the girls went well! Yeah! And I would like to add that I am also thankful for evening walks with Hannah, even when 3/4 of the way through she says she tired and her legs are going to go right into the ground. :)

Thankful for Day #14

2010-11-14T23:56:00.000-08:00

... the fact that I got my lazy rear up from the couch at 10:30PM to mop the kitchen floor and scrub the surface of my daughters' drawing desk. Now I can go to bed and know I don't have to rush around tomorrow morning to accomplish these things.

Thankful for Day #13

2010-11-13T23:59:00.000-08:00

... for Starbucks gift cards that are old but still hold a balance large enough to cover 3 hot chocolates and a few goodies for me, my hubby, and 2 special little girls.

Yep, people give me Starbucks gift cards and guess what? I don't drink coffee. Nope, I drink soda. And too much of it I might add.

Anyways, I have been carrying around 2 gift cards to Starbucks and was very excited when I went to pay for our goodies, that I had enough to cover the whole charge. Hurray!

It was the perfect ending to a nice, late dinner with my family.

Thankful for Day #12

2010-11-12T22:35:00.000-08:00

... for the opportunity to take photos of my good friends and their families. As a scrapbooker it would seem only natural that I be drawn to photography as well. For me, it's no longer about just a beautiful scrapbook page by way of paper and embellishments. Nope. It now is about a good photo as a base. So any time I get the opportunity to snap pictures of someone else in a photoshoot type setting, I am excited. Excited because I get to hone my skills. I still SO SO SO very amature. I do not aspire to ever be professional but I would not mind the capability of being able to be a wedding photographer for a friend or family member. Or the one all my friends call to take their Christmas photos.

So today I got to take pictures of two families where the mommies happen to be sisters and happen to be girls I went to college with and have developed even more of a friendship outside of college. Let me tell you ... I was NERVOUS. I have never really before been asked to do this kind of thing. I have certainly offered it up and done it, but then I feel like I am in control and hey, if I screw up, you didn't ask me to do it so I didn't disappoint you. Right? Well I am currently going through all 600+ photos I took today and am pleased enough. Enough to the point where I believe the mommy friends will be happy.

So far this is my favorite photo. No editing done to it. I just love his posture and half smile here. The one foot kicked out. And that everything that is supposed to be in focus is in focus. Nothing is too bright or too dark.

If all of my pictures come out like this, I can certainly tweek them a bit and have a nice little package to present to my friends. Fingers crossed that the remaining 500 photos are of this quality.

I am also thankful for the lessons learned from today's shoot. (1) remember the end of daylight savings happens in November and plan start times accordingly so you don't run out of daylight (2) memorize a specific flow of pictures you want to do - don't rely on a list because things get crazy when kids don't cooperate or adults get stuck talking (I suspect this is one of those things that comes with practice) (3) remember to actually bring the candies you brought to bribe the little ones with you instead of accidentally leaving them in the car - it's much more effective when you have candy in hand (4) if you bring props, use them

Thankful for Day #11

2010-11-11T23:05:00.000-08:00

... for outside inspiration/motivation via complete strangers. In the past couple of days whether it be via talk radio or blog reading, I have come across a theme that is deeply resonating with me.

Earlier this week I was listening to Dr. Laura. [yes, I listen to Dr. Laura and I LOVE her! Sometimes I do have to take what she is saying with a grain of salt, but for the most part, I think she is right on the money with her advice. I think her standpoint on putting children first is excellent and I wish more people would listen to her.] She was either reading an email or tackling a call from a woman who was trying to her best to keep her house clean & be on top of the everyday duties and then was feeling bad because she didn't have the time to just play with her kids. At one point Dr. Laura asked her, "Would you rather be a bad housekeeper or a bad mother?" Let me tell ya ... a wake up moment for me! I am by no means a domestic goddess. But I do find myself telling my kids no when they ask me to do something or play something because of the laundry list of things I feel I need or want to get done. Straightening up the kitchen, putting a load of laundry in, paying the bills, etc. And then ask me what I do when they go to bed. I watch my DVR'd shows. I read my blogs. I play on the internet. I think I can reprioritize a few things so that I can say yes more often.

Then today while listening to whoever comes on after Dr. Laura these days (you can tell KFWB is experimenting with the 3:00-4:00 hour because for the past 3 weeks they have changes hosts each week). It was a woman and a man. The woman deems herself a "relationship expert". Hmmm is all I have to say to that. But anyways, I wasn't totally listening but my ears perked up when I heard the man saying something to the effect that we have such a short amount of time in our kids' lives to make an impact. That they won't remember the dirty dishes in the sink when they grow up but they will remember that you took time to teach them something, or play a game with them. I swear I almost started crying just thinking about the fact that there will come a time when my girls won't want to do anything with me. And the opportunity to play, be silly, make messes with them will be forever gone.

And then to top it off, today I was looking at The Idea Room's blog because I am doing a photo shoot for some friend's tomorrow and knew I had seen some photography tutorials there. One in particular was about decorating your home with portraiture. Yeah yeah yeah! Pictures are nice. They make a house a home. We need to get a lot more up in this here house of ours (it's only been 2 years since we moved in). But then I saw a tip about specifically putting up pictures of your kids and one of them with you (the parent) by their bed. That kids seeing pictures of themselves and ones of them with their parents is a surefire way to instill good self-esteem. Duh! Makes perfect sense. I never in a million years would have thought about this. But I am SO thankful that I read it.

My goals in the next couple of days is to dig out any pictures of myself with each girl, Joel with each girl and some family shots and get my house plastered with them. And to also say yes more than I say no to the girls and to surprise them with some fun activities. Maybe to let my sink pile up with dishes for a couple of days. Maybe to have races in the front yard instead of worrying about sorting out the junk mail and getting it into the recycle bin.

Thankful for Day #10

2010-11-10T23:58:00.000-08:00

... Facebook. Yes, I said Facebook. The reason being because it has a miraculous way of lifting you up and making you feel as though you are not alone. Good times are celebrated together via Facebook. Comfort comes during the hard times from little comments that people took time to post. You can laugh together and maybe even cry together. Information os shared, questions answered. You can make yourself a little more vulnerable, all the while remaining safe behind your profile picture. Yesterday I put up a quick status update calling for prayers as my stepmom went into surgery (see Thankful for Day #9). Some of my dearest friends and some friends who I haven't seen in years were quick to comment that they were praying and would be waiting for an update. I felt loved and truly believe that part of the successful surgery is due to the love and thoughtfulness that poured out because of a Facebook post. In the early days of my Facebook existence, I was pretty wary. But I have grown to see it's benefits and have determined that they far outweigh any negatives.

Thankful for Day #9

2010-11-09T23:12:00.000-08:00

... the wonderful surgeon who successfully removed a tumor from my stepmom's rear abdominal area, all the while saving her kidney. My stepmom is battling a very rather and most often deadly case of Melanoma. it's Stage 4. She Has undergone an insane amount of high dose chemo. At a scan around 1 1/2 months ago, all affected lymphnodes had decreased in size with the exception of one that had doubled (went from a golfball to a lemon in size). Today she underwent surgery to have this infected "bugger", as she calls, it removed. It was a difficult surgery in that the doctor needed to slice her in the front, remove her intestines, and then carefully navigate around her other organs to get to the tumor. For some reason I cannot recall, he was going to put a stint in her kidney to help it drain. If it didn't work, he would have to remove it. Another concern for all of us was what if the doctor finds more bad stuff when she's opened up? What if the tumor has attached itself to other important organs and tissues and arteries and whatnot? Her last scan was over 5 weeks ago and in the span of one month, the thing had doubled in size. Needless to say, lots to worry about. And by the grace of God, and with the help of many many prayers, she is recovering with the tumor cleanly removed. She is a wonderful woman and only 48 yrs old. It's way too soon for her to be taken from us and we are just so thankful we got some good news and she made it through this surgery. Recovery is going to be tough because she has a good sized incision, but she can make it. Please pray for her.

Thankful for Day #8

2010-11-08T22:04:00.000-08:00

... for old college friends. Tonight I got to share a really nice evening out with a good friend, sorority sister, and brides maid in my wedding. It was so fun catching up about kids, family, other friends, etc. Makes me realize how much I miss her. Thank you Jaque!

Thankful for Day #7

2010-11-07T23:59:00.000-08:00

... for crafty time. I love it! I love that I have a little room full of all my favorite scrapbooking supplies that I can sneak off to every now and again to create something. It's therapeutic. Admittedly, creating can be overwhelming, but it is ALWAYS fulfilling. No matter how late I may stay up to finish a project.

Thankful for Day #6

2010-11-06T22:40:00.000-07:00

... wine! Wine makes anything better. Not that I am advocating alcoholism or anything. But earlier today I was feeling a bit anxious about some things and after a glass of wine (yes, I am a lightweight) I am finding it was all for naught.

Thankful for Day #5

2010-11-05T20:34:00.001-07:00

... for Grape Pedialyte:

and Grape Children's Motrin: to help ease my 5 year old's aches, upset stomach and fever. Yes, this is the same 5 year old that just 5 days ago, I claimed I was thankful she was healthy. Life!

Thankful for Day #4

2010-11-05T00:30:00.000-07:00

... for a husband that despite a recently torn ACL, will still dance and be silly with the girls. He's awesome!

Thankful for Day #3

2010-11-03T21:43:00.000-07:00

... a sweet little 2 1/2 yr old girl who races down the hall each morning to climb into bed with me. I love it! My oldest never did this.

Thankful For Day #2

2010-11-02T20:10:00.000-07:00

OK seriously I don't know why this picture is turning on its side. It does not look like this in my photo editing program.

Today I am thankful for these legs and feet and the fact that they can still run and allow me to train for a 1/2 marathon.

Back in August 1998 I suffered a compound fracture to my left tibia and fibula. Basically the whole lower half of my left leg was nearly severed when a sea-doo crashed into mine. I won't bore you with the details, but I was helivacked (sp?) out of the lake and taken to Loma Linda University Hospital. Fortunately they have a wonderful medical program and by the grace of God, one artery remained in tact and they were able to reattach my leg and restore it. I am sure that most of my family never thought I would be able to once again walk normally, play soccer, hike, and run. But here I am today. A few nasty scars but a fully functioning leg.

So I snapped this picture of my feet right before I headed off on one of my training runs. The only thing that would make this post better would be if I had reported my best time to date, but sadly it was my worst performance in this training regimen. Oh well. I could very well not have any leg at all on which to run. So I am thankful!