Whimsy Works

Please go here instead....

2008-02-04T07:07:00.000-08:00

Hey GIRLIES! I mentioned this before but I figured I'd do it again. I'm blogging here www.whimages.blogspot.com instead. Only because I can't keep up 2 blogs frequently. I will still post my classes for Scrap-Masters on here. I probably won't have a class till March and I've elected to not participate in the SMU this term. I don't feel like I have enough fresh stuff to offer and the photography thing is keeping me busy and I LOVE IT!

If you haven't seen the photography site and you'd like to, it's below and let me know what you think....I can take creative critisism, really I can handle it!
www.whimages.com

Oh no you di'int!

2008-01-29T11:40:00.000-08:00

I admit it...there are several blogs I read daily. Usually each one for a different reason but almost all of them because I find them inspiring or charming or just plain FUNNY! One in particular is of an artist in Canada named Kal Bartowski (I might be spelling that wrong, I'll have to check). She is SO upbeat and positive even when you can tell she doesn't wanna be! She's a new mom of a lovely little girl named Pilot and one of the best parts is that she has a boxer named CRASH! That's an awesome name for a boxer! Anyway she has a delightful writing style that keeps me coming back plus she's got this thing called "bullet proof positive attitude", who couldn't use that, huh? Yesterday, while walking, her perfectly sweet, harmless, goofy-*ss boxer boy was called dangerous. Makes my blood boil. My two <---- aren't even dangerous to the squirrels in the back yard! They let our little green parrot boss them around the house and avoid him like the plague even when he runs to the front door with them like a dog! Dangerous? not likely! Here's her linky loo if you want to check her out: www.lovelife.typepad.com/my_weblog

Change..

2008-01-28T05:02:00.000-08:00

Here's my totally unrelated blog photo <---- But she's just so pretty! I'm putting a hold on this blog for a while because blogging two blogs isn't really happenin' and I thought you might want to know. So if you are looking for me check out

www.whimages.blogspot.com
and
www.whimages.com

Blur

2007-12-04T18:13:00.000-08:00

So I haven't blogged in ages if you haven't noticed! My fall has been a BLUR of activity but it's been GOOD. Scrapping these two layouts for SMU for Dec. was SO fun. I really do LOVE scrappin! I really hope to do more in 08 and find a balance between everything!

Well, SMU ladies...these layouts are techniquey! The first one uses BLURRY photos. You have a couple right? We'll paint, corner round, tear, fold, dry stamp, mix stamping and stickers for journaling and heat emboss plus use felt flowers and paper flowers with brads AND staple GREEN tuile on as well as paint the back of ghost clocks (a whole pack is your free gift!). The journalling on this layout says
CHILDHOOD CAN BE A BLUR...ENJOY

On the BELIEVE layout we'll use one of those cool Crafter
Workshop doodling stencils as a stencil with a dry brush dabber technique and we'll put some of that on the actual photo. The file folder divider is actually an antique that I'm sharing with you, it came from my husband's grandfather. He was a grocery store manager years and YEARS ago. We will also heat emboss and regular stamp. That trim is GORGEOUS velvet from Creative Imaginations. Yummy yummy stuff! An y questions let me know, k?

Bit blue

2007-10-29T20:12:00.000-07:00

This really belongs on Whimages the blog but I've been neglecting this one so I wanted to post this tonight. This little (not so....actually almost 10 lbs) boy wrapped in blue was so SWEET today...only a few days old.

OMGAWSH!

2007-10-19T20:21:00.000-07:00

Hey check this OUT!!!

www.whimages.com

HEY!

2007-10-10T17:06:00.000-07:00

If you read my other blog, you may know that I'm building a website for the photography thingy that I'm kicking off. It's been keeping me so busy but I'll let you know as soon as it's truly launched. And because NO blog post is complete without a photo...here's one I snapped of Gracie today! I think she's my new muse...I could drown in those eyes! :D

pawsitively delightful!

2007-10-05T09:31:00.000-07:00

This poor boy got stung by a bee yesterday on his eyebrow...he ended up looking like Sugar Ray Leonard! A Anti-histamine later and he was resting comfortably! My poor man, but he DOES love his naps!

Lil' beauty

2007-10-05T08:14:00.000-07:00

Take time to smell the dandelions!

This is how we roll...

2007-09-30T19:17:00.000-07:00

Lazy Sunday mornings at our house...it's a couch pile up!

Peyton still has a heart with wings painted on her face and of course, Macy has to get in on the coziness 'cause cozy is her middle name!

2007-09-30T17:23:00.000-07:00

I ALMOST love Fall as much as spring. I WOULD if Winter wasn't next! Today my sister and I and the kids went to a Fall Fest. I asked permision for Cole to get his pic taken in this old pickup in a farmers field but the sun ended up too strong so I didn't get what I wanted but he still loved it!

There is not much better than festival food....pit beef, funnel cakes, and lemons with mint sticks YUMMMM!

Doodly-fun

2007-09-28T04:37:00.000-07:00

So I guess I have to toot my own horn if only because my kids think this is super cool! I don't submit because there really isn't time in my day and I really hate to have to write those really long supply lists. Plus, I scrap for them -----> and for me!
But when I saw this call I figured it be easy to submit too 'cause I mainly used Jenni Bowlin stuff. And here you go....it was on my front porch yesterday. Apparently it will be available at Michaels and I believe my lss, Scrap-Masters is going to get it in too. It's a super cute book with tons of GREAT ideas, and it's happy, colorful and FUN!

JUMP.

2007-09-26T09:43:00.000-07:00

"Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall"
-ray bradbury

I feel this is particularly appropos right now :D

A doggone blast!

2007-09-23T19:26:00.000-07:00

LOOOOOOK at this cutie! Some of you may know that I've been taking some photo's as a little side thingy. I totally have fallen HARD for photography. I have SO much to learn but it's already been so FUN!. One of the FABULOUS ladies that I've become friends with from my SMU classes has a delightful trio of Malteses (how do you plural that....is it like Hippos or Hippi, shrimp or shrimp). This weekend Laura and Brian were brave enough to dog sit Brian's sisters 2 Malts (LOL). AND I was crazy enough to try to snap some pics! Some turned out so doggone CUTE! Look at this face!

too cool to smile

2007-09-20T12:46:00.000-07:00

I think he's too cool to smile now...oh well!

And so it begins...

2007-09-19T18:53:00.000-07:00

Early last week Peyton came home from school and told me that a little boy in her friend Annie's class called her name. When she glanced over, he said, "You are PRETTY!" like he was confirming it to himself. She was desperate to know if a. Was it okay for him to say she was pretty and b. Was she pretty? So I let her know that yes it was fine for him to say she was pretty and yes of course, I thought she was pretty. A couple days went by and she came home one day and said that Brett (same little boy) told her again she was pretty. She was VERY quick to tell me that he was just being a nice friend and friends say nice things to one another. I whole-heartedly agree, FRIENDS should say nice things to each other!
Today she came home and said Brett, "blew me a kiss" when she got off the bus. She decided that "wasn't a very FRIEND thing to do!"

I wonder how she'll remember this little story about Brett when she's 25? Thank GOD I scrap! :D

2007-09-19T04:01:00.000-07:00

Recently, a friend asked me if I was happy that my sister, Brandy had moved closer. She moved from N.C. to DE a little over a month ago and it only takes about 36 minutes now to get together. I told my friend it was like everyday was my birthday! I know I'm a little goofy but really, I can't tell you what it means to be able to see her so often and watch her beautiful children GROW!

My neice, Grace is at such a fun stage and is learning new words everyday. She's following in the footsteps of our family and becoming an animal freak. She can spend an hour opening and closing my cell phone to look at the different pictures of Chester and Macy, although if she accidentaly pushes a button and they disappear, you'll clearly and distinctly hear her whisper, "crap!" LOL Don't look at me, she got that from MOMMY!

AND, there is nothing quite as sweet as a BIG lollipop!

It's official!

2007-09-14T08:29:00.000-07:00

Are these NOT just the most COOL business cards you've ever seen? I am in totall LOVE with them! They are just too cute if I do say so myself! LOL I've got a busy weekend coming up with 2 different photo shoots! Pretty cool huh? I'm so excited!

Tears...

2007-09-11T10:48:00.000-07:00

This morning, Peyton looked outside at the bleak and drizzled filled morning and teared up. "Why are you crying, honey?" I wondered. "It's raining and I won't be able to go to school!" She was ecstatic when she found out that YES, indeed you DO get to go to school in the rain! Who knew?!

Here is the other October SMU. In the next day or so I'll be emailing you SMU girls the homework sheet for my Sept. classes! I sure hope you can make it there, I've missed all of you!

I've had a lot of excitement with the http://www.whimages.blogspot.com site and I can't wait to get snapping more pictures!

SMU for October

2007-09-10T11:00:00.000-07:00

Hey ladies! I thought you may like to see the other layout for October's Scrap-Masters University. We'll be using the super cool 6 x 6 photo (it's your free gift!) and you'll learn to make this FAB Rebecca Sower (ish) rose embellishment from vintage book paper and also Elsie Flanigan's ledger paper. These flowers are a BLAST to make, you will LOVE it! Isn't my neice Grace just the CUTEST! ...could eat her up!

Speaking of cute stuff, you HAVE to check out cuteoverload.com and see the Dobie going down the slide into a pool, over and over again! It's to die for! LOVE that!

I was going to tell y'all about the delish crockpot orange chicken I was makin' tonight but when I opened the package of chicken...not so delish smelling! URGH!

yummmmm

2007-09-09T14:28:00.000-07:00

My sister, being the best sister I have, took my girls home to DE to spend the night. Cole had a b-day party to attend so he was fine with it. This morning, I reluctantly put down a book I HAD to get yesterday (more on that in a minute) and made the short drive (36 min. as opposed to the 6 hours to N.C. before~!) to get them out of her hair. While there we decided to check out a CUPCAKE bakery in Newark called Sweet n Sassy Cupcakes http://www.sweetnsassycupcakes.com/ . YUMMMY and such a fun store! Brandy and I were both dying for this black and white brocade 2 tier stand....it was DELIGHTFUL!

Okay, about the hard to put down read. Some girls on http://www.scrapinstyletv.com/ , mainly this girl Kerry Lynn http://k8tykat.typepad.com/ , were talking about a vampire book that was just SO romantic. And heck, I'm all about the romance, well not really but I like to read romance! LOL So the book is ABSOLUTELY freakin GREAT! REally, I can't put the dern thing down and it's not like I don't have anything else I should be doing. AND it's a trilogy, I LOVE that, the husband does not! :D It's a young adult book but SOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooo good! It's called Twilight and it's by Stephanie Meyer. CHECK it out. So I mainly have the demise of my house to blame on Kerry Lynn so check out her awesome scrap-goodness here...http://www.scrapinstyletv.com/profile_55.html and show her some love!

Whimages

2007-09-02T09:25:00.000-07:00

Just to bore you some more, I started another blog...www.whimages.blogspot.com. I take so many photographs that I don't necessarily want to bore you with on here since Whimsyworks is about my life and scrappin'! Anyway if you are interested, check it out!

Today there was this...

2007-08-28T09:46:00.000-07:00

"I gotta go my own way."

My heart hurts but I'm so proud of all of them!

Coincidence of something more....

2007-08-27T10:43:00.000-07:00

"I've gotta go my own way. I've gotta move on" Peyton was belting that song out all morning. I thought she made it up herself but she explained it was from High School Musical 2. As if this morning wasn't hard enough, then the little stinker starts singing a song like she's 19 and going off to college or something!
Luckily, Callie and Cole were a little easier. They were so excited and did get. I hope their day goes as smooth as this morning!

Kady

2007-08-26T06:34:00.000-07:00

My neice Kady had her wisdom teeth taken out the other day. Poor Kady needs some hugs! She is a sweetheart who has the biggest heart for anything with fur or even feathers! I love this gorgeous girl!

To clarify...

2007-08-24T09:26:00.000-07:00

This picture is one of the reasons I'm queeeeezy! Not because I'm sick or pregnant (ummm three's a perfect number for this Mommy). Just because I don't like the end of summer. I don't like when the kids go back to school and the thought of this little one being gone ALL DAY at ALL DAY kindergarten is enough to make me toss my cookies. And the big kids are going to MIDDLE SCHOOL! OUCH! And so it goes... Change is good, right? LOL :D Parenting is bittersweet. I LOVE that the kids are getting bigger and experiencing so many things and learning and growing but gosh it's also so sad. They are not my babies anymore! I'm off to enjoy the last few days of summer and tonight we are going to FRIENDLY's to celebrate! :D ....keep smiling Robyn....keep smiling....don't let 'em see ya sweat!

Cole

2007-08-22T06:13:00.000-07:00

so blogger is finally letting me post pics again. I don't know what's up with that! Feeling a bit quezzzy in my stomach this week. I hate the end of summer! The only highlight is back to school shopping...I love doing that! LOL

Nothing more ominous than kindergarten

2007-08-16T20:57:00.000-07:00

sorry about my last post, I actually had a super cute pic of Peyton and her new Bean backpack but for some reason blogger won't let me post it. Sorry to scare Y'ALL!

ARGHHHH!

2007-08-15T10:38:00.000-07:00

Give me the strength to handle this...

I'm totally BUSCHED!

2007-08-08T13:24:00.000-07:00

The kids and I and my friend Lisa and her kid's went to Busch Gardens/Water Country for 4 days and now we're back and I'm tired. One of those "I need a vacation 'cause of my vacation" feelings! Matt didn't get to go because he started a new job on Monday! Great opportunity for him and he will do SUCH a good job. So proud of him!

Believe it or not, I didn't take a lot of pics there. It was kind of stressful with the camera and I wish I would have just taken my little point and shoot! Anyway here's a few...

This owl was simply GORGEOUS! Cole and I could have stayed there with her and her keeper all day. When she looked at you, you felt her presence completely! Such a cool animal!

Cole outside of some theater that had such pretty doors!

Peyton wanted her picture taken with the star of a show we saw. His name was "Aaron O'Sullivan" and he was nowhere to be found after the show. So she was more than happy to take here picture with Mr. Charlie
the security/usher guy! LOL

Callie infront of another really cool blue door! Didn't get any of the "normal" vacation pictures and didn't get to many altogether!

Find your joy

2007-08-02T19:51:00.000-07:00

Just a funky-fun 6 x 12. This is my last piece of the pink Hambly transparency...:( SO SAD, I love that stuff! I also love these cool silver rubon wings designed by Mrs. Kristina Contes herself...cool stuff!

About finding your joy...Cole has ALWAYS always always been into cars. Matt bought himself and Cole a Jeep Wrangler as a "toy" since Callie insisted he sell the motorcycle. This morning Matt walked into the garage to find Cole sitting in the Jeep reading the owners manual! LOL

Mom, you so have to BLOG this...

2007-07-31T19:09:00.000-07:00

As I think I've mentioned, we've been spending tons of time at the pool. This pool has a 2 really cool water slides that the kids (and adults) just LOVE. Peyton hasn't been able to get on the slides or do the diving board because you have to pass the pool test which is an entire lap in the lap pool, tread water 1 minute and float for 10 seconds on your back. The fact that the big kids can go down the slide and the dive board has been driving her just crazy. So today she was determined to PASS THAT TEST! Guess what? She did! As soon as she finished she got her stamp of approval and ran for the diving board. Of course, I asked her to stop so I could snap a picture of her hand (that she check a zillion times everytime she got out of the water). When I snapped the shot she said, "MOM, you so have to blog this!" That's my girl!

Oh and here's one of the only pictures Callie would let me take of her today, cute huh? geeeez....

Pure Delight

2007-07-30T18:46:00.000-07:00

Just because I'm feeling particularly joyful, here's a happy quick layout for you! Peyton and Grace could have spent hours dancing around the porch of one of my favorite local picture places! I'm lovin the purple with the green...delightful!

Dog Days Of Summer

2007-07-26T18:48:00.000-07:00

This post is basically for Nicole M. but hey you can all check out her super cute pups! I had the privledge of photographing these couple of liver lip guys and NOW I'm scrappin' them for Nicole. So here's a sneak peek, I won't show anymore 'cause I want her to be surprised! I'm mainly going to use the Tres' Jolie line by My Minds Eye with some other fun stuff thrown in. That way the entire album will have continuity.

Some Scrap-Masters University news...so I apparently freaked some of you out about the other sizes other than 12 x 12. I don't usually tend to freak people out except when I went to school with out clothes on. Oh yeah, that was a dream I had. Over and over and over again! So by popular demand, the next SMU will be 12 x 12 layouts. But that's not going to stop me from showing you some other sizes! LOL

Just BEACHY...

2007-07-25T06:30:00.000-07:00

We're back, tan, rested and fatter, I'm sure! It's amazing what a few days can do for you!

It's a dogs life...

2007-07-20T21:11:00.000-07:00

Very many nights in the summer, Grandmom is sweet enough to either take the kids out for icecream or bring some to them. Last night there just happened to be one extra caramel sundae. Of course, Chester and Macy COULD NOT let it go to waste! Look at those tongues!

This morning Macy asked to have a mani so we brightened up those nails with some hot pink! She's such a stylin chicka!

Off to the beach for a couple days but I'll be back!

There's something about WAYNE...

2007-07-14T18:36:00.000-07:00

This is my Dad, Wayne. I promise I'll not turn this into a Wayne lovefest or anything. But he is pretty "special". Not many men can utter quite as many expletives one minute and then stop to pick up a baby goose whose mother was hit by a car, and bring said goose home. Or pay $500 to have a stray cat's broken leg set even though he "hates" cats. By the way, the cat left as soon as it felt better, LOL! Between my "achy breaky" back and the vomitfest that was our past few days with my sister Brandy, baby Grace, and Callie; we managed to snag a few minutes to snap some photos. I know this pic of me and my Dad is blurry (don't blame Brandy, she was using my camara) but it's so GREAT 'cause it shows the fun that we all have together! I also love this shot of Grace and Mason even though it should be an out-take, I just love the look on his face and how sharp Grace is and he's in the background
Also, and not that I like to toot my own horn, but the 6 x 12 layout I showed last week with my Dad and Callie was chosen to be in the catwalk at www.scrapinstyletv.com . Pretty cool! If you want to check it out, go there, then to strut your stuff then to the catwalk. Fun stuff at that site for sure!

Camo girl

2007-07-12T05:39:00.000-07:00

Here's the layout with the alcohol ink hibiscus ghost flower as promised to my SMU girls last night. Sorry it took me a bit, my Callie girl was way under the weather when I got home last night! :(

It's kraft cardstock, the edges are heat embossed with pirates gold embossing powder, Bazzill scallop and Amy Butler green patterned paper. The bronze paper is Hambly that I LUB! American Crafts thickers foam in brown for the letters.

I can't think of any witty...

2007-06-30T21:51:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned before, I've been taking a couple classes at the gym. My favorite is called Flexible strength and it's sort of a mix of pilates, yoga and stretching or something. Well, I'm obviously NOT flexible OR strong! I bent over early last week to pick up a piece of cardstock (you KNOW how heavy that Bazzill cardstock is) and WHAM! I mean WHHHHAMMMM! and also OUCH! So I spent most of this week in pain, wincing and mostly acting like I was 90 something. Today is the first day I felt much better. Jeez, talk about putting a wrench in your plans (pun intended).

Did you know everybody's doing it? Like EVERYBODY! 6 x 12 layouts, I mean. Tonight I did my first and I totally LOVE this size. It's fun, quick and easy AND here's the bonus people....I have to push aside less crap on my scrap desk to work on the layout. That's VERY important you know.

For you Scrap-Master's University students, the next two layouts are our my last for this course! As you know we are doing layouts inspired by a famous scrap-artist and both of these are inspired by Jamie Waters. If you want to see the originals before class they are in the March CK, page 77 and 81.

You will need 2 4 x 6 photos in a landscape (horizontal) layout for the first. The photos should coordinate somehow. Jamies layout is called brothers and mine says bond. You'll want to think of a word that somehow describes the two photos. It could be something as easy as love or siblings, or sister. The other layout will also use a 4 x 6 photo also landscape situated. Mine is of a good friend. All three of these photos can be black and white or color.

Just Beachy!

2007-06-27T05:56:00.000-07:00

Callie is in N.C. visiting my sister, Brandy. And the little luckylou has been to the beach twice in less than a week! I can't let Brandy out do me! So yesterday I took Cole and Peyton to the beach for the day. My friend Lisa and her family are there this week so we were able to hang with them. All of the kids had so much fun! The ladybug picture with little Mr. P totally cracks me up!

The start of SUMMER

2007-06-24T19:52:00.000-07:00

First I want to talk about my absence, my lack of blogging. I've had quite a few prods about blogging again so let me explain. I feel like this is the last summer like I've known it for a long time. Peyton is starting school at the end of August and the twins are starting MIDDLE school. So weird. So many changes. I'm trying so desperately NOT to be sad about it. It's definately the start of something new (those dang High School Musical commercials are getting to me!) I'm going to have to get a "real" job probably. As you probably know, I babysit a darling little guy named Hayden. I teach at Scrap-Masters and have in the past dabbled in some other things there like artist events and such. I also work as a server a few nights a week, which I really love believe it or not! LOL I really LOVE all three of these jobs. All 3! But I admit it probably does make our lives chaotic. So I've gotta get a real job. Like a 9-5 kinda job. So that brings me back full circle to the last summer thingy. I've been concentrating more on the kids, having the summer that I want them to have. Heck, I've been enjoying it too! As I mentioned before, we joined a local gym and it has an AWESOME pool area with slides and everything! So we've been having a blast! Plus I've been working out so that
is definately making me feel better about myself. Anyway, all this concentration on fun has put me even further behind in other stuff but that SCHTUFF will still be there later and this time with the kids won't be so...

Okay, about these pics! Last night, Matt played at our favorite local place. I don't normally go to his shows but when he plays at Looney's I really try to! I really enjoy going but it's just not something I can do often. This place is so
close and our friends usually make it. I think this is my new favorite photo of Matt. He looks so HAPPY and Hot (if I do say so myself!) Some girlfriends made it to the show too! In order are Lisa D, Me, Tina, and Missie! Too much fun!

For my SMU ladies... I will have the two layouts completed by the end of this week and I'll get my email out to you too for our last class! Last class, can you believe it? ! :D

For Brandy...

2007-06-17T06:33:00.000-07:00

My super sweet goofy little neice Grace has the most adorable SQUISHED face smile when you ask her to smile! I just HAD to document it!

official beginning...

2007-06-16T16:51:00.000-07:00

I never really feel like Summer can begin until the school year ends and that was yesterday for us! The twins offically ended their
elementary years with a jam-packed week full of awards ceremonies and parties. The little girl in the picture with Cole has been friends with them since Kindergarten and so has the little girl with Callie. I LOVE that they have friends like this!

Earlier in the week I took some photo's of a friends boxers for her. Cassius and Bailey were crazy fun and BUSY! Such total cuties though!

We've lost 3 family members in the past 2 weeks so that has been on our minds as well. The world is less of a place without them.

Here's hoping our summer is fun-filled!

too many chefs in the kitchen...

2007-06-09T20:26:00.000-07:00

On Friday, the twins had their Patriot fieldtrip (an earned trip) to Annapolis, Maryland. My friend Lisa and I were a couple of the chaperones. At the last minute we added a couple more moms to the carpool. Well ladies, when you have 3 different women giving directions to one frazzled mom in unchartered territory, you just may get pulled over by the FUZZ! Not just one but TWO! Yes, that's right, a mini van full of lost moms making a turn in a lane that wasn't a turn lane (apparently at least, we never really figured that out). Even though Lisa is smiling, look at how hard she's gripping her seatbelt! That's S T R E S S if you couldn't figure that out on your own! Luckily, no tickets were given and I'm sure the policemen got a chuckle!

Lisa DID NOT approve this post so she's probably gonna kill me...

I couple of my favorite pics of the day...Here's our group walking down one of the historic streets in Annapolis. A cool doorway on Maryland Avenue. Callie in front of someone's iron gate...it was so cool!

Foooooof!

2007-06-06T20:37:00.001-07:00

Hey ladies! Tonight I told you all about the awesome Teresa McFayden coming to our store in August. After talking to Cathy tonight, we may have to put that off a bit because of the vacations in the summer. I'll let you know....Anyway here's Teresa, MRS. FOOFALA's blog...

http://teresamcfayden.typepad.com/minutia/

Chester is the bester...

2007-06-06T08:17:00.000-07:00

Isn't he the schmoooshiest! Macy is just all about her comfort!

Even though I have 3 kids here's...

2007-06-05T20:34:00.000-07:00

Peyton again! LOL

I've been feeling like it's important to get down the memories that are "EVERYDAY" memories. Things I KNOW I'll forget. I've been feeling so bittersweet about Peyton going to school next year. I feel bad for her that she won't have her "down" time in the a.m. BELIEVE me people, the child DOES NOT do mornings. She is going to have such a hard time getting ready next year! These pictures could be taken basically on any given day. The journalling reads..." everyday you have pancakes or french toast and everyday I pull your hair up away from the syrup" Peyton calls this "pancake hair"

In other EXCITING news: LOVE, ELSIE has hit Scrap-Masters! We only have some of the Roxy line but stilll! I can't even tell you how HOT this line is!

Peytonism and yes I do have other children

2007-06-05T11:40:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I sent my sister some pics of Peyton in the pool at a pool party. She had on the CUTEST camo bikini! My pain in the bottom sister Brandy, emails me back, "you know, you DO have other children!". Yes I know, however, the little one doesn't act like I'm poking her in the eye with a toothpick as soon as she sees the camera. Seriously, you'd think I was causing physical pain to the larger two with my Canon! Let it be know (to my loyal blog audience of 15 or whatever) that I DO LOVE my other children, however I DO not take as many pictures of them. Period. I don't mean anything by it. It simply is not as easy to take photos of eleven year olds as it is to five year olds. Plus Peyton likes herself a little too much sometimes! :D

ohhh and that's Peyton and my brother, Darrin!

About the Peytonism...

Okay, as I've stated before, I've got more than my share of muffin top pokin out of the top of my pants now. I hate it. So we joined the local gym. We are not gym rats by any means but I DO enjoy a good walk! LOL So I'm hoping that this will help. Today I found out that I am 10lbs heavier than I was about 2 weeks after I had Peyton. That totally SUCKS especially considering that was 5 years ago! Today I had my baseline fitness test. Peyton happily went to the tot area so I could go to the meeting. I guess she was expecting miracles because when I went to pick her up she looked REALLY surprised to see me. Then she walks over lifts my shirt and says, " But you're not skinny YET!" If it was only that easy!

O Happy DAY!

2007-06-04T05:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was one of those busy, fun-filled days full of family! My handsome little nephew Mason was Baptized in the Catholic Church. Here are a few of my favorite pics from the day!

SOOOO SWEEEEPY

2007-05-31T07:36:00.000-07:00

All I'm saying is that in my next life, I want to come back as one of these two.

In other news

2007-05-30T06:18:00.000-07:00

Finally after over 2 long years, my sister is moving closer! Brandy being in North Carolina with my beautiful little neice and nephew so far away has been so difficult. Now they are only going to be about an hour which is SO much more manageable than almost 6 hours! :D I can't tell you how excited this has made us! Plus we'll get to see them this weekend when Mason gets Baptized! It's going to be a good week friends, I can feel it!

This little turtle key holder is for my friend Tina's B-day, I just think he's cute!

Inspired by

2007-05-29T17:40:00.000-07:00

The next Scrap-Masters University on June 6th will be the start of our "inspired by" theme. So this layout is inspired by an Elsie Flanigan layout. This layout uses mainly 7 gypsy goodies and some vintage buttons. I'm really hoping to show the students how to take an inpiration piece and make it their own. And I chose Elsie 'cause everything the girl does is just so dern cute! :D Plus we should get the "love, Elsie" line in at the store anyday!

One Little Word

2007-05-25T16:56:00.000-07:00

Hey blog readers! So some super cool chicka's started a new challange site called ONE LITTLE WORD http://onelittleword.blogspot.com/2007/05/word-up-go.html

It sounds super cool and fun! All of it was originally inspired by Ali. So here's my take on the first word GO

Almost everything here (except the Heidi letters which were leftover from a jenni bowlin kit and my Kristina Contes class) I received in a RAK (random act of kindness) from the DELIGHTFULLY talented Lisa Gary! http://artsyfartsychic.blogspot.com/

Just Chillin here!

2007-05-23T07:39:00.000-07:00

After the mad house that was my party weekend (Callie and Cole had the friends party Saturday, and family party Sunday), yesterday I CLEANED and CLEANED some more. We had our house appraised last night for a refinance. That's always fun -thick sarcasm here. Anyway today I just want to chill but low and behold the LAUNDRY never ends!

Here's a quick layout I did of Peyton of one of my favorite pics! So FUN and she looks so relaxed! And for my SMU students, I'd like to point out the repetition of the circle theme on the two accents and also on the fold over portion to the right. You also may want to notice the Z theory too.
Here's the cute little bird spitter I got for Mother's day and a recent pond pic.

And the ego deflates

2007-05-21T14:34:00.000-07:00

I work as a server2-3 nights a week at a seafood restaurant. I've been "serving" about 10 years and I know it sounds crazy but I love it. Really. I like the cash too but that goes with out saying! :D But anyway, it's fun, the money is good, I love the people I work with and it's DEFINATELY one of those jobs that when you leave, you LEAVE. No stress taking it home with you. And MAN do I love me some crabcakes at 50% off too!

Okay, my story...you know there is a story coming right? Over there is my niece, Kady. I love me some KADY! Cool kid, a little crazy cool but cool. She loves animals (ME too) and she's funny and witty and smart. People have said forever how much we look alike. I was 17 when she was born (that's important for this story). Fastforward to the restaurant. Every Thur. for about 9 months I make small talk with one of the hostesses that happens to be a friend of my neices family. She's a bit older and very sweet and she leaves as I'm coming. Thursday during our small talk she starts mentioning my mother. "your mother this and your mother that" Well, I haven't seen my mother in 14 years so I wasn't really sure where she was going with that. Finally, I said "WHO" when she said "your mother". I then realized she
thought I WAS Kady! OMG. Poor lady needs glasses! I tell her who I am and she said all these months she thought I WAS KADY! LOL So that night I go home with a MUCH LARGER HEAD. As I'm explaining the wonderful little story (in my eyes anyway, lol) to my husband, Peyton exclaims "why would she think you were Kady? You're not skinny!" There goes my ego...

The catastrophe and so much S'MORE!

2007-05-19T21:06:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm so PUNNY!

Let's start with the beginning. Tonight we celebrated Callie and Cole's birthday with a little "friends" party. They each got to invite a certain number of friends and we were going to order Pizza and then make s'mores on a camp fire. I'm going to lable the catastrophes here. There were probably more, I'm not sure. After a while it became the norm so whatever...

1. I purchase 2 cake mixes to make 24 cupcakes and 1 2 layer 8" round cake. As I slide the second tray of cupcakes in I realize the first one is in the way. So I thought I'd slide it out by hand, it had only been in a moment. It couldn't be HOT. WRONG! So I get burned AND dump the 12 batter filled cupcake liners onto my oven door.
2. My neighbors DO not have cake mixes around. ARGH! Doesn't anyone bake a daggonit cake ever? LOL MIL to the rescue.
3. I make the rest of the cupcakes and add a third layer to the layer cake. 3
is always better than one! Everything is seemingly going fine. Then I broke a

coffee mug full of water on the floor and CUT myself picking it up.

Little side not here, Callie and I then make the CHOCOLATE FRENCH BUTTERCREAM to frost these little bad boys with. YES, not only do I love to bake, I obviously do not have enough (insert anything here like, laundry to do, bills to pay, house to clean) to keep me busy. French buttercream kicks the fat booty of all other buttercreams in my esteemed opinion. Well maybe not esteemed but in my eyes, yeah! Good SCHtuff! Okay, I frost the cute little cupcakes and the bigger cake. Color small bits of frosting to make the beak and blue bird and then toast the coconut.

4. Moving on to catastrophe 4. I frost and decorate all the cakes. Callie and I are pleasedwith the 24 cute little cupcake nests. I carefully take the tray of cakes into the dining room to put them infront of the window. It's a nice cool day and the breeze SHOULD set the frosting beautifully. About 10 min. later I realize we had not closed the gate into the dining room. WITH a totally sick stomach I peek into there and see that CHESTER has helped himself to 13 of my 24 "gourmet frosted cupcakes". Oh the brown DEVIL!
5. It rains during the party so the Campfire IS NOT an option! GOSH!

My mother in law was awesome and ran to get me some bakery cupcakes...:D So anyway we made indoor S'mores. YUMMY goodness was had and enjoyed by all. Hey check out the face on that cutie <---- He still had fun! That's what it's all about.

Although I bet Chester had the most fun of all!

Not always

2007-05-18T07:32:00.000-07:00

The twins turned 11. The TWINS TURNED 11.

Middle school is looming, hormones are fluctuating, feet are growing, times are changing. I know that soon these big two are not going to want to be back there in the back seat. And SOON, too soon they probably won't want to be in the car with me at all. It happens so fast. Really. I can clearly PERFECTLY clearly remember about 12 years ago, with big tears sliding down my cheeks, sobbing to Matt that I was so worried that we would never hear little feet running on our hardwood floors. I can't tell you how often I remind US about that. It really comes in handy to remember this when Cole runs through in his big 9 1/2 MENS muddy sneakers and when the click clack of one pair of Callie's multitude of flip flops resonates across the tile of the kitchen or better yet when she TAPtap TAPs on the marble slab of the fireplace in her tap shoes. Let's not forget the CLACK CLACK of a pair of plastic dress up heels on the wee one. I wish I could let my then 24 year old self HEAR the sounds that I hear now, I could tell ME that it would be okay. That one day our house would vibrate with the noise of 6 feet. I smile because I know it won't always be loud and believe it or not I know that quiet in the future will once again make me sad.

I think this is my new favorite picture.

Silly Mood

2007-05-15T21:00:00.000-07:00

Tonight I just wanted to goof off and play with a couple silly pics I have from the Zoo. Totally non-stress, non thinking layouts but those are fun! Altough most of my layouts are non stress! LOL

I found this super SUPER cool site today called Scrap In Style TV. OMG I can tell this is going to be a GREAT uplifting happy scrap place! I love that. If you haven't noticed, I'm all about the happy. Too many things in life aren't so don't dwell on the bad! :D

This pic of Grace totally incredibly CRACKS me UP! I know the thumbs up was accidental but my GAWD, you CAN NOT look at that and not LAUGH OUT LOUD! That girls a scamp!

And this pic of Dorrie....too funny! Dorrie is so funny at the zoo! Her arm DID get tired holding up that ostrich while I focused. poor girl.

FLOWER HEAVEN

2007-05-15T11:01:00.000-07:00

This morning Stephanie and I went to my favorite greenhouse. This place is AWESOME and huge and considering that they usually are PACKED prior to mother's day they still had an incredible selection. It's called Grier Nursery and they supply flowers for many of the hotels in Baltimore. Their stuff is always GORGEOUS!

Here's Steph hunting for the perfect hanging basket (the girl bought 5). I'm gonna get in trouble because as I'm snappin the pic's she's saying how she MUST have prior approval on all photos before I blog them. sorry steph! :D You still love me right?

Here she is after she finds ONE of the perfect baskets! If you look real close in the last pic you can see the top of Peyton's head in the sea of blossoms.

Balance...

2007-05-13T19:38:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day everyone! Today was so beautiful, the weather was perfect! We went shopping at the pond store, I got a super cute little bird that spits water from her beak, she's a sweet little wren. Matt already hooked her up to the pond so I'll snap her pic tomorrow! We went to Home Depot (of course, I think we are there EVERY weekend!) and then went a few other places. Our good friends Jeff and Steph (HI STEPH) stopped by with their cuties. We tried to talk them into dinner but it was a no go. :(

Tonight I scrapped! In the kitchen! My scrap-room is truly so scary right now that I'm dreading going in there. YIKES! Oh and yesterday was a GREAT mail day! My Jenni Bowlin stuff was on the door step when we came home! It's gorgeous as usual, AND here is some EXCITING NEWS! Teresa McFayden of FOOFALA fame is coming to Scrap-Masters! AUGUST is gonna be hot for more reasons than one CHICKIES! She's going to teach us some FOOFIE goodness! I've got some other goodies up my sleeve but I just can't share quite yet!

This will be our next build a page. Remember girls, if you are in the MD area, the BAP's are only $6.00 and they INCLUDE everything plus a COOL 6 x 6 picture, just remember to bring your digital media! This page has Foofala, K & Co. Fontwerks and a cool Heidi Swapp stamp! We will also have a more boyish BAP to offer but it's not quite done! LOL Just like Peyton in the picture, I've got a LOT to balance!

bloggin' fool....yeah, that's me today!

2007-05-09T19:56:00.000-07:00

I've blogged like a million times in the last 2 days! Sick of me? :D So I promised my SMU ladies tonight that I'd post these just in case
they needed them. These were the two we did tonight. Our topic was white space and visual triangle/Z. I really love my SMU ladies!

In other news, I have a Peytonism for you. Today she asked me what type of dog Scoobie doo was. I told her a "Great Dane". She asked if she was allowed to say that and I said "of course"! So then, she wanted to know if when something went wrong could she say, "oh Dane!"

I told her no. :D

And also, let me just tell you that my least favorite color combo is red and yellow, together. I really need to blame this on my sister in law, Karen (she never reads this, well I hope not but what I am about to say I would tell her in person, if I had to!). Get ready for this because it's a pretty scary visual.

In the eighties, when girls used to wear those thick bunchy socks, Karen (and this pains me to even type) would pair two pairsof socks....RED AND YELLOW! ARCKKKK, ARGGGGH! Horrific then, and even more horrific to think of it now. Man I wish I had a picture. I guess I don't really need one, I'm already scarred for life. But in this layout <---- I can handle it for some reason, maybe there is enough blue and green to counteract whatever weird red/yellow antibodies I must have!

Next SMU

2007-05-09T13:14:00.000-07:00

Here's one of the next SMU's. The techniques will be hand cut flowers, title on the photos and collaged photos (all photos touching). We'll use the fun doodlebug line that's all black and white but we'll pop it with color! Yours won't have to be pink, especiall if you want a boyish layout.

Hodge Podge

2007-05-09T06:06:00.000-07:00

Crazy hodge podge post here. Early this year, we changed our family room and gave it a more pottery barn feel. I'm lovin' still. The top is painted a soft robin egg blue (appropos, huh?). I've always liked this color, our powder room has been painted that for years. Anyway, I'm insanely attracted now to anything this color. And anyone that knows me KNOWS I have a fabric softener addiction. SO NOW, Downy is making me VERY happy by combining my two loves! This Tahitian Waterfall smells totally delish! YUMMMM.

Thought 2. My sister is a GREAT MOM! Really, she has so much love and patience! Considering her little ones are 13 months apart and she makes it look like a piece of cake!

Thought3. I love this pic of Callie and my Dad at the Zoo!

Thought 4. Here's that mountain goat I mentioned. click on his pic to see his pearly whites up close! This guy is totally GRINNING!

She

2007-05-08T19:11:00.000-07:00

Martha, Martha, ohhh I love me some Martha! I really do like the craft goodness that Martha has put out at Michaels, I know it's full of controversy but hey, I like it! The green background floral is Ms. Marthas. I have another layout with Martha goodies but I don't think I'm gonna post it 'cause I'm toying with the idea of submitting and I really like that layout! :D This pink ledger paper is Fontwerks that we finally got in at Scrap-Masters and I'm in LOVE. Such cool paper, but then again, I haven't met many ledger papers I didn't like!

WHEWWWWW!

2007-05-07T06:11:00.000-07:00

Things have finally settled down here at the Bedsaul household! Last week was CRAZY busy. Here's a quick recap...

Started with dress rehearsals for the girls 3 nights straight in full make up and custume. Luckily we had some major help because I worked two of those nights! Matt and his mom had to fill in! My sister, Brandy drove 6 hours with the babies (Grace 16 mo. and Mason 3 mo.) from N.C. She is a SAINT! :D It was so so SO great to see them but the first 4 days were nuts with the dress rehearsals and then the 3 shows! Callie and I were gone on Saturday for 10 hours between both of the shows! That girl can DANCE! Love her to pieces! My little tappin' queen! I had to make some kind of baked good for the refreshments at the shows so I made Butterscotch Chocolate Chunk Blondies, they are one of my families favorites and I must say apparently they were the first to sell out! :D ~ reaching around to pat self on back! I'll share the recipe at the end of this post! Sunday we had one more show with both girls in it and pretty much the whole family came to the show. I must say that little Grace was MUCH better behaved than my father! If I only had a muzzle...

And look at that toe action on Callie! Do you know how hard to do that is in TAPS? And little Peyton did awesome! Not a shy bone in that girls body. She exudes self-confidence!

We went to the Baltimore Zoo on Tuesday. The big kids skipped school (yeah, I'm a cool mom like that! LOL) and we all had FUN! The zoo was more then a little bit lacking but we were all together and how can you not have fun at the zoo? I fell in love with a super cute mountain goat that had a real smile! His pearly whites were always visible, it was hysterical. After the zoo we went to an early dinner (eggplant parm...yummy) then we drove into the city for dessert at Vacarro's in Little Italy. DOUBLE YUM! They have the best Ameretti's.

Sadly, my sister left on Thursday. So hard to see her go. :(

Well, here's the recipe...

Butterscotch Blondies

2 1/4 Cups flour
2 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t salt
3/4 Cup butter
1/2 cup grandulated sugar
2 Cups firmly packed DARK brown sugar
1 t vanilla
3 eggs
1 cup chopped milk chocolate bars - coarse

Preheat oven to 350

combine flour, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, cream butter sugars and vanilla until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time. Blend in flour mixture. Stir in chunks by hand. Spread into a greased 10 x 15 jelly roll pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes, cool cut into small squares.

Mason

2007-05-02T16:25:00.000-07:00

Isn't he the cutest!!!!!

Grace

2007-04-30T14:27:00.000-07:00

No time but I wanted to show you this I took at one of my favorite places. She's such a little beauty!

Tagged

2007-04-25T05:46:00.000-07:00

So Vee tagged me! I've been blogging well over a year and never been tagged, a virtual tag virgin-that's me. Apparently I have to list 7 random little know facts/habits about myself. Then tag 7 more people and list it in their comments so that they have to do the same. So here goes...

1. I wanted twins forever. When I was little I'd play "LIFE" by myself, (my family wasn't into games) and I'd go over and over the part where you get the children until I had twins, sometimes I'd have 2 car load of kids! LOL When we first announced we were pregnant, my mother in law asked if I wanted a girl or a boy and I said "I want twins"! We were truly blessed! Although, this am. when the twins decided they had to do an assignment this morning that they obviously put on the back burner to play outside yesterday, I didn't feel too blessed and neither did they. Let's just say they won't be playing with friends for about 7 more days!
2. I am not organized. No shocker there!
3. I am a boxer freak. Truly. Like will stop my car to talk to someone if they are walking a boxer. No joke.
4. I personify animals in my head all the time. My family makes fun of me incessantly for it. I can't help it!
5. This is the heaviest I've ever been in my life except pregnant or immediately post partum. It sucks.
6. I like to drink orange juice when I eat pizza. I know, it sounds yucky.
7. I love to bake and I like to feed people. My husband says I'm already like an old Polish grandmother~ "EAT, EAT!"

Let's see, I'll Tag 7 people and list them later...must go work on a project real quick AND my sister is coming for a visit TONIGHT!!!! YEAH! So you'll be seeing fresh pics of my gorgeous little neice and nephew real soon!

I took this picture of Peyton yesterday, She has such pretty skin! :D

Still SCRAP HAPPY!

2007-04-23T04:56:00.000-07:00

Here are some more pics..

This coffee cup cracks me up, we've got yummy coffee at Srap-Masters and Kristi accidentally spilled some of her green paint on her cup, HOW APPROPOS! LOL Cathy and I are looking at KC like she's crazy in the frame pic....ummmm maybe 'cause she is! :D

And yes that is Chester slippin' Kristi the tongue. LOL

SERIOUSLY...

2007-04-22T16:37:00.000-07:00

I don't even know where to start. Seriously. SO MUCH FUN!!! I really had the best scrappy weekend EVER! And I have to say that my man MATT totally ROCKS too! Friday on thru Sunday were just a whirlwind of FUN with Kristina. The girl rocks, HARD! Matt took excellent care of the kiddos while KC and I had a blast. If you EVER have a chance to take a http://soundsofscience.blogspot.com Kristina Contes class, drop everything and DO it! Plus I've totally gained a new friend who I'm LOVIN! :D Let's start at the beginning...

Friday, Peyton and I picked Kristina up at the airport and made a quick stop by Scrap-Masters so she could drop off her scrap-goodness. Her books are so yummy and I have to say I think that not only do her wonderful and WILD ideas come from her UBER cool creative mind, she uses rubber cement...enough said (read here: FUMES) :D Okay, on to my house for a meet and greet with my other kids, husband and zoo. Chester immediately fell in love, pictures of that will follow tomorrow and I must say the feeling is mutual although KC has a girl crush on Macy. After a jaunt to the hotel for a
quick check in we went back to the house for Peach Sangria and SMORE'S on a campfire...YUM!
Next morning, bright and early (yeah well I was a tad late but you know...) off to the store for the classes! OKAY, this was SO MUCH fun! SO much fun, yeah, I know I said that but GAWSH it was GREAT! And I met my girl VEE http://creativeblessing.blogspot.com/ who SO totally is incredibly awesome and beautiful AND she brought me a Heidi Swapp stamp I've been dying for. TOO COOL and check out her AMAZING work, she is VERY up and coming. Kristi is calm and relaxed and FUNNY while teaching and it rubs off on the students...I LOVED that. It showed everyone that scrapping should be FUN! I set next to a SUPER cool lady that I wanted to bring home and have her be my MOM! LOL (sorry Deb and Dawn, but she's GREAT)! The NEXT class was JUST as great and I really don't even know which book I like better. I'm totally in love with both and I keep looking at them over and over and over!

Last night we had a great dinner with David and Cathy at the CrackPot in Bel Air. Yummy food and I had 2 Blue Moons....again YUMMY! Sadly, this am. the girls and I drove KC back to the airport. Not only did I gain SUPERCOOL new ideas but also a new friend. Seriously.

More photos to come tomorrow, check back, K?

SPRING FLING

2007-04-18T09:01:00.000-07:00

As I've mentioned a million other times, the LSS where I work is having it's first birthday bash this weekend AND I'm taking both Kristina Contes classes on Saturday. So needless to say, I'm looking forward to this weekend! I made (with a little bit of help from Peyton) these SUPER FUN SPRING pinwheels! I think the colors are so DELISH but that may have something to do with the pink and GREEN color scheme! (wink) I also get to meet Vee on Saturday! That's gonna be cool because I've been following her blog for so long now! COME ON SATURDAY!

Almost forgot to mention, yesterday was my 14th wedding anniversay. I forgot to say anything to Matt in the morning and he forgot as well. SO about 8:30 I called his cell (which is sort of a no no considering he's a 7th grade teacher) and when he picked up I just screamed Happy Anniversary. He didn't say anything and hung up. A second later my phone rang and I picked
it up and his entire class scream "Happy Anniversary" He's a dork! LOL

she's this and more...

2007-04-16T07:59:00.000-07:00

Just some Callie lovin! Out of my three she's the most LEAST cooperative with photos so I'm SO happy whe let me take pictures of her a few weeks back. You are probably tired of seeing her but normally she's the least scrapped! She really is such a cool kid if I do say so myself. I am totally not kidding when I say she is an adult (a very wise adult) in an almost 11 year old body! She's always been that way!

Tweaked

2007-04-15T09:30:00.000-07:00

This layout of Callie has been hidden in her room for a couple months. She didn't like it so she hid it from me! Sometimes the truth hurts, huh? :D Anyway I finally begged her to let me see it and I realized I didn't like a part of it either so this a.m. I tweaked it some and I like it so much better! That flower is one of the buttons from my mother in law...It's so FLIPPIN YUMMY! So 3-D!

freshhhhhh...

2007-04-14T21:43:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I've been baking up a bunch of fresh layouts lately but haven't been posting them. I've kinda been tossing the idea of submitting around and sounds like you can't have them online much anymore. I'm tired of not posting and I don't know if I'm IN LOVE with this layout yet, I usually can't tell till the morning but here it is: sorry the colors are much different in real life but that's what happens when you photograph it at midnight on the dining room table! These paper are some of the new girl scout papers from K &Co. that SM just got in. If you read my blog at all (all 10 of you) you know that I LOVE pink and green...yummy! The pics not that grainy either in real life. Jeeezo I've picked this thing apart!

Speaking of Scrap-Masters, we got more delish stuff in and I'm dying for the AMY BUTLER scrap-pack we have...I LOVE IT! Apparently we are getting in the totes/purses too! We'll have all kinds of goodies for Saturday at the birthday bash! Fontwerks, Hambly Screen Prints, lots of K&Co. goodies, finally some scalloped Bazzill. I'm so excited about the Fontwerks and Hambly goodies...YEAHHHHHHHHHHH!

The view from my lap

2007-04-13T07:59:00.000-07:00

This is the view from my lap everymorning...Chester squeezed in between me and the keyboard and the pub in the background!

And this....do you ever EVER feel like this? A lonely piece of cap'n crunch in a sea of CRUNCH BERRIES?

Science can be FUN!

2007-04-13T05:01:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my twins have been at an Environmental Camp all week with their class. They've never been away, so this has been an EXPERIENCE for all of us! :D Luckily it's very close and we go to this park to hike or play in the stream especially in the summer, so they are very familiar with it.

Last night was family night and the parents were invited to a campfire and the kids toured us around. They looked so tired! LOL But very happy. It was so good to see them and we are so very proud of them for staying! We were really afraid that they would be too homesick because they are NOT used to staying over anywhere but Grandmoms! Here are some cute pictures...

Snips and Snails...

2007-04-12T10:36:00.000-07:00

I had a fun SMU (Scrap-Masters University) layout class last night and the ladies were GREAT! As always I had some strange looks from the class because I really don't measure much but...anyway! Some of the girls couldn't do their photos because the machine went down. :( So they asked me to post this layout here, the other one is already in the archives. In this layout I taught a cool photo pop technique. If you look closely, Chester is popping out of the layout! FUN!

Tonight we get to go to a CAMPFIRE and see the twins! I'm so excited! And they come home early tomorrow! YEAH. I know they've had fun but are missing home. We've had a couple phone calls from the teachers just to let us know they are homesick but we are SO proud that they've stuck it out! I'm hoping to get some fun pictures tonight!

kissy lips

2007-04-11T05:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, the twins left for a 3 day "trip" with their classmates for a science immersion program. Luckily they are only about 15 minutes away but they've never been "AWAY". I knew if would be hard when they left but I can't really describe how it feels. I know this is SO awesome for them and such an incredible experience but I just worry about the little things, like is Cole going to remember chapstick (he has my dry lips) and will they wear sunscreen, etc. etc. etc. Okay, gotta stop before I get more sad.

In other news, <------I think Chester's lips are just beggin' for a big kiss here! :D

In other, other news...yesterday I was able to check out the Hambly that came in at Scrap-Masters, let me just say YUM! Awesome heavy weight papers and the transparency's are just LOVELY and the SMELL. OHHHH the smell, Vanilla! Vanilla, people it's just DELISH smelling! We are not going to have it put out until the birthday weekend, April 21, but I'm just DYING for some of this! And there are SUPER cool SILVER rubons that I'm just itching to use.

It's April!

2007-04-08T21:28:00.000-07:00

It's spring but my goodness we had SNOW flurries on EASTER SUNDAY yesterday! The poor kids had to do their egg hunt in winter jackets and jeans! MAN, I want some warm weather! We had such a nice day, low stress and fun filled with lots of chocolate. Here's a layout I did super quick the other night. Not much to say but it sure was fun to just PLAY! I used Heidi Grace paper and cardstock stickers. I copied the little tiny bird and just made a paper piecing out of the cute papers that matched. Easy peasy and I'm lovin this bird. :D

Italian Beef and Garlic Mash

2007-04-03T12:49:00.000-07:00

Oh shucks girls, thanks for the sweet compliments...

I got a similar recipe off of 2peas a while back and lost it then found it. Here it is with my modifications...

Here's the Italian beef

1 3.5 - 5 lb. RUMP roast
1 can of beef broth
1 can of french onion soup
2 packets of Italian dressing mix
1 16 oz. jar of pepperoncini (in vinegar) cut stems from pepperoncini and reserve liquid

Dump ALL except stems in the crock pot and cook 8- 12 hours on low. I then drain off the liquid and most of the peppers (my family can be wimpy, lol) and reserve the liquid. I then shred the meat in the crock pot and top with provolone or mozzarella and wait about 5 minutes. Serve on toasted onion rolls!

Garlic Mash potatoes
1 5lb bag of red potatoes washed and cubed but not skinned
3 oz cream cheese
1/2 stick of butter
milk
"Oh so GARLIC" from Lizzies Kitchen (in the spice aisle) or Garlic Garlic! from tastefully simple
salt and pepper
1 cup of real shredded Parmesan

cook potatoes till tender. While they are cooking put about 1/2 cup milk and about 1 T of the garlic stuff, the cream cheese and the butter in the mixing bowl. Add salt and pepper till taste. Drain potatoes and add to mixing bowl. Beat till mixed then add the Parmesan and beat just till blended adding more milk if needed. Enjoy!

I got the original recipe for the parmesan mashed pots from Chef Mickey's in Disney world and the garlic is just icing on the cake! I don't even normally like garlic but a little here just gives them a great kick!

An unrelated picture because you HAVE to have a picture!

My new favorite photo place!

2007-04-02T12:14:00.000-07:00

It was such a gorgeous day here today, like 74 with a nice breeze. The kids are off with spring break, I've got spicy italian beef in the crock pot and plans for garlic mash potatoes! The kids were semi cooperative for some photos (well Callie was VERY cooperative, which is NOT the norm) so I've had a GREAT day! LOL Here are a few from today...

I'm so excited!!!!!!!

2007-03-30T09:44:00.000-07:00

*****This post has nothing to do with the picture, other than maybe the wings are a homemade, handrawn transparency 3D sorta thingy I made and that relates to HAMBLY...

Yesterday I ordered a small boatload of Hambly papers, rubons and overlays for Scrap-Masters! YEAHHHHHHH, now we are going to be a Hambly retailer! So happy! Can't wait to get it but it won't be unveiled at the store 'til the Birthday Bash with Kristina. Also, yesterday the entire collection of Jenni Bowlins AWESOME TASTIC new goodies that JUST debuted came in and was put on the floor! It shines in all it's yummy scrap glory! In other COOL news at Scrap-Masters...I placed a order today with Fontwerks for the store too! Papers, rubons and stamps...I even ordered the incredibly beautiful WING SET BY TIA BENNET! Sorry for the screaming but man I can't WAIT! I think we are one of the only stores in MD to have Fontwerks! :D

In other news, my husband sold his motorcycle last night. After being rear ended last month, he realized how easily you could SERIOUSLY be hurt on a bike. As much as I know he loved it, I have to say, I'm releaved!

Horses and Hambly...

2007-03-26T15:56:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago, my father purchased our children a little 4 wheeler. Okay, before you get all postal on me, as far as 4wheelers go, it has some cool safety features like a remote turn off (on a little remote control my husband keeps on him) and speed control, etc. As a whole I'm a nervous nelly momma but, I grew up with all kinds of stuff like this, go carts and dune buggies and Sea-Do's so I want my kids to have the same kind of fun that I LOVED. Anyway yesterday we finally caught a few hours to take it over to my brothers farm about 5 minutes away to let the kids ride. Here are some cute pics...and C IS a little large for it, but oh well! Oh and there's one of C and Chester that I just LOVe!

OHHH and Kristina's albums are IN DA HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OHHH I'm so loving this HAMBLY in it! I can't wait to get my hands on my own. I'm just going to leave it at this:

KRISTINA'S MINI BOOKS ROCK!!! Totally enough said!

THE COOLEST THING...

2007-03-22T19:19:00.000-07:00

Kristina Contes, Scrap-artist extraordinaire and 2007 HOF (go KRISTINA), is coming to little old Bel Air and is teaching 2 AWESOME mini book classes at Scrap-Masters! This is going to be too cool! I'm just a tad excited (times 50). I already signed up for both classes! LOL I can't wait for April 21, plus the store is having their birthday bash that weekend with all kinds of give aways and contests and a special birthday build a page! Oh yeah, btw, that's one of Aprils SMU (scrap-masters university) layouts. I'll be teaching this layout and another. It's basic grey, jenni bowlin, some heidi swapp stamps and embossing powder. We are going to DISTRESS your pictures too! cool huh? Plus I'll tell you how to de-saturate your photos to get this lovely washed effect above. In the other layout we are going to do a cool 3D photo pop effect. :D

St. Patty's day too much fun!

2007-03-19T05:56:00.000-07:00

I almost forgot to post about St. Patty's day. Matt's band played at Looney's North. MY GOODNESS, and to think I wasn't going to even go! Wow! Good times, good times! The place was packed. PACKED. Like sardines packed. When we left at 4:00 in the AFTERNOON there was a line snaking around the building of people waiting to get in. Crashnelson rocked the house, of course and DANG is that drummer a HOTTIE! LOL :D

So here's Matt with some girls I work with. Yes, I'm comfortable enough to let him squeeze a couple chicks more than a few years younger than me! It was my idea, lol! And here is a cute pic of my neice, Kady getting some Chester lovin' yesterday at P's b-day party.

These are too much fun!

2007-03-18T19:19:00.000-07:00

I'm totally in love we these tiny little hangers from my jbs kit this month! Aren't they cute!!! I copied Jenni's quotes 'cause I loved them! Papers are 7gypsies, Hudsun Valley. It's a yummy collection! Sorry for the bad photo, I had to take it at night and the flash and all.

In other cool news...KRISTINA CONTES IS COMING TO SCRAP-MASTERS. TOO COOL! She's going to be our guest artist for the birthday bash. I'll give you more details as I get them from Kristina. I'm giddy here!

Next build a page

2007-03-15T20:28:00.000-07:00

EDIT: Since several of you have commented on the flowers I thought I'd tell you about them. First of all, in real life they match the blue in the tan, georgia clay and butter yellow brocade pattern that's a strip on the left. The flowers are cut with a cricut (both layouts) and then heat embossed with a tone on tone effect in a french script pattern (See-D stamp). The centers on this layout are kraft cardstock distressed with Orange marmalade distress inks by Tim Holtz.

I've finished the next build a page for Scrap-Masters. It's the companion page for the first one from 2 weeks ago. It's all 7gypsies Hudson Valley. I hope you like it and gosh it's a great deal at $6.00 a kit including the 6 x 6 photo!

My birthday girl and an act of kindness

2007-03-14T06:59:00.000-07:00

I can't believe this little girl is 5! Almost feels like yesterday that I brought a pudgy little bundle home wrapped in pink with a sweet little eyelet bonnet atop her head. Now she's a sassy little sprite who cracks us up constantly with her silly and witty comments. Here are two recent ones:
*While discussing her love for "High School Musical" she dreamily said "I'm never going to have a boyfriend like Troy!"
*She recently asked me why I went to CCD (religious ed) with the twins. I told her that I was the teacher and she said with too much attitude, "What do you know about GOD?"

I hope your birthday is the best, little one!

I also want to tell you a little something about this girl down here. She is both of my daugher's awesome dance instructor and the creative genius behind a wonderful dance production every year. She has totally inspired C by believing in her and her abilities. She's been a total boost to her self-confidence.

And Peyton thinks the word COOL was written for Tracy! I want to share something that Tracy did yesterday that was just a little thing but a

huge thing at the same time. C has a dance class after P so during C's class P usually just amuses herself by singing and dancing. Well she made up a "new" dance move and after class she excitedly showed it to Ms. Tracy. Tracy said she loved it and maybe she's add it to a dance! I'm sure teachers have to say things like this all the time! Anyway, yesterday in class, Tracy added that little move to the dance! C and I just about died and it really made P so incredibly happy! She's such a neat lady to remember something like that and then make a little girl's day extra special! We are blessed to have people like this in our lives!

P.S. she's a darn good bartender too! :D

Glorious DAY!

2007-03-12T20:10:00.000-07:00

Such a beautiful day here today. Yesterday too! I really wanted to take the kids to an old bridge yesterday to take their pictures. NO one was cooperative, I could have talked P into it but without the other two, I just didn't want to bother. Today, we decided she'd let me get some photos since it's so close to her b-day. Some turned out so cute! These were at the same house/gardens that my sister had her garden-reception for her wedding. Such a lovely old place!

Too much FUN!

2007-03-10T21:25:00.000-08:00

Last week when Scrap-Masters got the new Basic Grey line in, I took one look at "Perhaps" and KNEW it would match the 7gypsies sticker "unique"! I couldn't wait to do this little album. Who's kids are NOT unique? LOL This album went so fast and was so easy it practically scrapped itself! And as you know I'm lovin' the pink and green goodness of it too! I'll be teaching this little cutie Monday, April 23.

Editied to add, I won't be teaching it that day. :( I'll anounce the date as soon as I know!

I heart chipboard!

2007-03-09T11:21:00.000-08:00

Man, I love chipboard! Such a cool product, who would have thunk? :D This little album is made from Jenni Bowlin Heart shaped chipboard and Around the Block papers. I'll be teaching it later this month.

I've hit the button motherload (aka: don't hate me because of my buttons)

2007-03-04T18:58:00.000-08:00

YESSSS!!! Look at my button jackpot. It's okay to be pea-green with envy! LOL Really, I'm lucky! Okay, so I'm going to let you in on a little secret...shhh, don't tell anyone else. I know my secret will be safe here with my 10 loyal blog readers.

Remember last month, I was lucky enough to do that human interest segment on a local tv station (If you are bored or need a really good laugh, there is a direct link in last months archives)? Somehow during the LIVE segment I mentioned that the button from the layout was from my grandmothers button basket. I'm really not sure where this statement came from. I plucked it out of clean air, really. And if you know me, I'm not one to do a lot of air pluckin' statements. Of course, I really should have been blonde and all that and some of my comments are for sure out of left field but they are not really BS just usually....ODD. Anyway, I guess I always wanted the kinda grandmother who HAD a button basket. Mine didn't. She actually wasn't particularly domestic but that's another story. My kids on the other hand ARE lucky enough to HAVE a grandmother WITH a button basket. Actually it's more like a cigar box and a cigar box and an organized little compartmentalized piece of rubbermade. Anyway, because this woman somehow loves me (and my inescapable ohhhhs and ahhhhs and embarrassing giggles over the sight of said cigar boxes) was super kind enough to GIVE me one of the cigar boxes FULL of the lovely button goodness. And I do mean lovely and there are tons of buttons PLUS they were her GRANDMOTHERS. Just wanted to share my happiness with you all! All 10 of you! :D

Build a Page

2007-03-02T05:55:00.000-08:00

A couple days ago, this little scamp was busily drawing colorful butterflies. They were so pretty! She's always said she wants to be a baker when she grows up-it kinda goes along with her HUGE sweet tooth! After admirering the lovely drawings I asked if maybe she wanted to be an ARTIST and a BAKER. And she said, "I don't want to be either of those!" So of course I asked what she wanted to do then when she grew up. This was her reply: "I don't want to get a job, I just want to stay here and hang out with you all day!" :D

Been working on some events for my lss, March is National Craft Month, so we have a lot going on. Saturday we are having a build a page event for $5.00 and you get a 6 x 6 enlargement for that! This is the page we are going to be building. I got to use the new 7gypsies called Hudson Valley, it's so LOVELY!

Some quick pics of my album in a night class. These ladies were so FUN! MY GOODNESS, my stomach hurt from laughing so hard. Carol had to show off her BIG tool, and make us all jealous! Man, now I want one of those huge adhesive guns, it's so awesome.

Forgot this..

2007-02-20T18:55:00.000-08:00

Something about pink and green just makes me grin real big! :D Really, I do like it, it's such a happy little combo. I really like this new Doodlebug paper, it screams SPRING~ As one of the March classes, this tin is in a CD sized case so it's perfect for 2 x 2 photos and 3 x 3! Love funky sized pics.

Patriots and Valentines...OH MY!

2007-02-20T18:27:00.000-08:00

Patriots and Valentines...OH MY! The twins had their Patriot assembly today. SO cool, I'm so proud of them. Can you believe that Callie is actually OLDER than Cole! Look at that height difference!Then I finally taught the twins' class their Valentine craft. So fun! Crazy, but fun. 30 10 year olds with Jenni Bowlin chipboard hearts, paper, Heidi Swapp stamps, omgoodness! Too funny. I'll show you the twins close up but I don't want to show everyone else's except from far away, here are 27 of them on the chalkboard.Finally a layout I'm teaching in a challange class. Old Sei but it's still cute!
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by Robyn
6:06:00 PM

I'm not a nipper! I JUST CAN'T NIP!

2007-02-17T17:21:00.000-08:00

I had a fun group of ladies today at Scrap-Masters for the February Junque bracelette class. They had me laughing
constantly! One of them, who shall remain nameless, (she knows who she is! LOL) just couldn't cut the wires. She just couldn't NIP! LOL

In other news, I hope to be able to link March's Calendar here soon. We have FUN stuff planned for March, all kinds of doodling classes and and artist visit and cool sales too!

Scrapbooking as therapy...

2007-02-14T20:01:00.000-08:00

Cole and I worked on his class Valentines project tonight and then he made his own Valentines for the class. I LOVE that he wanted to make them instead of buying them! ...cool kid! LOL He then made Callie's too although she said she wanted store bought ones. He said he'll just put them in her room in a bag. That boy can be a sweetheart. On the other hand, Callie must be pre-hormonal or something. The girl is driving us batty! One minute, she's sweet as can be and the NEXT WHAM!!!! Tears and ATTITUDE galore! Geez! So while Cole was doing his V-day cards I whipped this up, and I do mean WHIP, it took me about 30 minutes. AND yes I DO feel better!

The journalling says something about Callie's TWEEN 'Tude!

Almost Valentines Day!

2007-02-12T20:09:00.000-08:00

I taught a fun class tonight (the Jenni Bowlin brag book posted a couple weeks ago). I love that book. I got a sneak peek at Jenni's new line coming out in March! OHHH MY! Let's just say my creative juices are flowin'! SUPER cute stuff and all kinds of goodies it sounds like to go with it! Be still my scrappin heart!

Last week, I took pictures of C and C's entire class with making memories X's and O's. On Wednesday this week (if it doesn't snow) we are doing a V-day craft using JB Studio's 6" chipboard hearts and making them into fridge frames. I wish I could show you some of the pictures, some are so cute and some are hysterical. Some little boys just won't smile when you stick an X and O in their hand! ...I have no idea why! :D I'll post all their projects when we are done.

I'm working feverishly on March samples for my lss so I'll have some fun stuff to post here soon. In the meantime he's a picture of C I took in her class room. It's catch-lightalicious if I do say so myself! (catch-lights are those super cool reflections you get in the eyes if you try hard enough or know what you are doing. I don't but sometimes I get lucky!)

I'm back from N.C.

2007-02-07T09:35:00.000-08:00

My sister had baby Mason Micheal on Thursday by C-section. He weighed 9 13 oz and was 22 inches. He's a cutie! got back on Monday, so I was gone 7 days! Busy busy on this end getting my house back in order and I have a class tonight with making that cute little SEI purse pal I showed a few weeks ago.

I'm almost off...

2007-01-29T16:22:00.000-08:00

Brandy went to the sonographer today to get an estimate on the baby's weight. Well, it seems the wee man ain't so wee! :D The little guy is guestimated to be 10lbs. 3 oz. UMMM yeah. Big baby! :D Man I can't wait to meet him, see Brandy, squeeze Gracie, all that good schtuff! I'll be bloggin' on the road so expect a post or two! ;)