CHA bound, not me silly, the project!

The owner of the lss where I teach and dt for is going to CHA and he's taking a couple of my projects with him to showcase their photo lab goodies. At least my stuff is going! LOL I love this little purse pal I finished tonight. It's just my style (well, I've got a million styles but...) and I love the colors and can't wait to put this on my family room table with the other mini books. The blue's will blend right in and the bird on the front, well it goes well with the other 5 real ones we have in there!

More JBS

Somebody stooooop me! (said in my best Jim Carey voice from "The Mask")! So I've made a boat load of stuff from last months Jenni Bowlin kit. I can't NOT use this stuff! It's just so delicious with black and white pictures too! YUM! :D Anyway, on the blue moon freak chance that Jenni seee's my blog...I promise I'm not some weird scrap-stalker chic or anything. Well, maybe an teeeny-weeny, itsy bitsy smidgen. :)

Tonight, was one of those nights I couldn't wait for the kiddo's to go to bed! Shocker, I know! Really, I'm not normally like that at all but can you spell H Y P E R? Golly day. And it's finally cold here, I know it took till like mid January. However, I could get used to the milder temps and all, minus the global warming and everything (see post a few down...I'm afraid I contributed to the whole glacier melt thing with my impossibly large bangs about 1987 or so). Anyway, I think it's throwing the kids off or something. Yeah, that's it, my kids are hyper because of global warming! I knew it wasn't my fault or anything.

See, I told you I like Valentines Day!

Am I boring you yet with these flower albums? :D

I know these are all sort of similar but since I teach these, I often direct students here to see what's coming up. This little album is in February and uses the UBER cool Jenni Bowlin goodies.

On another topic, the Ravens lost. So sad :( So close yet so far away!

I'm trying to get ready to go to North Carolina for the birth of my new (yet to be named) nephew.
Can't wait to see my sister and spend time with little Gracie. Gosh I miss them! I'll keep you posted on the big day!

Love

I don't wear a lot of red. Just not my color but I LOVE the look of red and I would love to pair this bracelette with some black or cream! I love Valentines day, adore the hearts and the happiness. I like the decorations for this day and the whole "feeling"! I'm having so much fun with the February projects for my lss. This class will be on a Saturday again. *** Edited to add, the class is Saturday, February 17th. Speaking of February classes I have some super cool news...

On another happy note. Scrap-Masters WILL be getting the Jenni Bowlin goodies in January. MAN I'm psyched! My mind is racing with ideas for projects...I couldn't sleep last night. Sleep is over rated anyway! :D

my new scraplove...

It's no secret that I have a big ol' scrapcrush on the Jenni Bowlin kits. This is a mini book in a cd tin that I put together using various pieces from past kits and the paper
from the December kit. I really love black, red and cream! The title is I (heart)..., it's some of the things I love!

I'm really hoping, crossing fingers and crossing toes that Scrap-Masters will be one of the first stores to carry JBS goodies. I have everything all set and I'm just waiting for final approval! This is way cool news! We'd get our first shipment in January but the goodies
are not really going retail to the rest of the public till MARCH! Gosh, I think that's darn cool. We'd have it about 2 months early. Say your little scrap prayers for me!

New pics

The weather the past two days has been so mild, it's just lovely! Well, for January at least! I've been torturing the kids with the camera and they've been mildly receptive. My son wasn't in the best mood this a.m. because we had to get his flu shot at Johns Hopkins (due to his allergies)so you would have thought he was going to have his big toe lopped off. He did fine of course!

About the weather, I have to admit, I love it but it's really worrying me about global warming! I'm making a mental note to NEVER buy aerosol hairspray again. There is probably a huge hole in the ozone from the big hair trend of the eighties alone!

back to a routine!

The kids went back to school yesterday, I'll miss them but it's so nice to have a normal day again! :)
Tree is away, most of the presents are away.....ahhhh. I love the season but I love getting my house back too!

Here's a little "purse pal tin" I'll be teaching in Jan. Gosh I love these tins, they are so fun to do and so fun to share. Such a cute way to show off your photos and your love of scrappin'! ****Edited**** This tin is about the 2"1/2 by 3 and 1/4 inches. It was orignally inteded to hold business cards. I use passport sized photos and cropped wallet sized prints too.

My sister Brandy's birthday is today...Happy Birthday oh fertile one! Brandy is due in about 3 weeks and if you remember a couple weeks ago I posted about Grace's 1st birthday. That's right folks, they'll be 13 months apart! :D Yeeee Haaaa! That's a good time for sure! Anyway, I don't want to hear any complaining because my first 2 are 7 minutes apart. :D Sweetpea, I hope your birthday is great and I'm sorry I'm not in N.C. to do some major cake damage with you! Love ya!

Okay, this is totally unrelated to anything but I have to write about this. Yesterday, I took my littlest to McDonalds for a yogurt parfait (she really got a happy meal but the parfait sounds infinately more healthy). In the parking lot was a work van for a company that had the MOST hysterical name I've ever seen, although I don't think it was meant to be funny and maybe I just have a weird sense of humor. The company name was

GODLY PEST REMOVAL

Does the pest remover guy say a prayer as he's sprinkling the poison and setting the traps? Does he only set "live" traps and then catch the critters and take them to some special reserve for pests? How would God want us to remove pests?

Flower Album

Happy New Year EVERYONE! I'm hoping you each had a delightful Holiday season, we sure did. My son had asthma and pnuemonia but is now doing so much better and I'm very thankful!

The next class I have at Scrap-masters.com is Wednesday, Jan 10 and it's this super cute little album made from Heidi Swapp flowers. I designed and taught a similar class a few months ago but this one is PINKER and a bit FUNKIER! I originally made the albums (check the archives from the spring) from regular silk flowers and I was inspired by a design made by the uber fantastic Jenni Bowlin. Sorry the pics aren't that great!

If you have any questions just shoot me an email or comment! :)

Junque bracelette

Saturday I taught the Junque Bracelette at Scrap-Masters, it was such a FUN class. Everyone sort of was overwhelmed at first but by the end of class, they were as in LOVE with these bracelettes as I am. I made this one tonight just because I love pink and green! So CUTE! Girls, if you've never made these, you have to try one! It's a very reasonable kit too. I wish I had taken my camera, it would have been so cool to get pics of everyone's when they were done. I don't know what is up with me lately and my forgetfulness, jeez!


Also I walked into the family room tonight to witness the scene below. Matt watching football with his best furry baby girl! :) I'm not so sure I can compete with this!


Oh, by the way, those are flames from the fire place poking out of Macy's head, she only a little devil some of the time! :D

Having Cake and eating it too!

The kids and I made a VERY impromtu trip
to North Carolina to attend Grace's 1st birthday! Gosh it was fun! I miss my sister so much so it was so great to spend time with their growing family (Brandy is due with a little baby boy in JAN!). Everything at the party was so cute, she had a pink and black poodle theme! Cute!!! This cake had marshmellow fondant polka dots! YUM!

I'm working on some cool stuff for January and February for Scrap-Masters so I can't wait to share it with you! My gypsy bracelet class this Saturday may have the largest attendence of any class yet! :)

Oh, while in N.C. we went to the coolest paper and beads store called Panopolie in Raleigh. Serious eye candy there! I would have loved to take a picture of the sun streaming through the jars of beads in the front window, but alas...no camera! The shame...

Tracy Miller

Tonight I'm taking a short photography for scrapbookers class from Tracy Miller (garden girl and photog extrordinaire). Should be super cool! Can't wait!

And here's a picture 'cause I don't like to blog without one! :D It's Macy's extreme closeup...I love her little monkey face!

Edited to add: I just was at Chris Jenkins blog (http://chrisjenkins.typepad.com/) ...I love that blog, her photos rock and she had one of the songs from Happy feet on there. In Callie's tap class they tap to it and it's such a happy upbeat song, I LOVE IT!!! Speaking of Callie, that girl is totally ROCKIN' and I'm so incredibly proud of her! Her tap instructor asked her to try out for another, more advanced class so she basically skipped 21/2 LEVELS of tap! She's in there with girls who are 17 and have been tapping for years and she's only 10 and this is her second year. Her instructor (who reads Callie like a book) felt that Callie is the type of kid who can step up to the plate when pushed and boy is she being pushed but she's kickin' some major booty and doing great! Go Callie!

Thankful

I hope everyone had a blessed and wonderful Thanksgiving. Ours was very nice. The kids were VERY interested in helping me make and bake everything. Wednesday night we made apple pie, pound cake, brownie bites, blueberry crisp and baked rice pudding! Whew! So cool that they want to learn this stuff, especially Callie and Cole. I want them to have those skills plus doubling recipes is good for math! LOL

Thinking of everything that I'm grateful for had me thinking of my (unloved, lol) KI layouts. I'm so grateful that I finished that album. It
put into words so many thoughts that I don't normally say to the kids and I'm glad that they are now all on paper and in one place! Anyway, our computer had died so I never posted any of the layouts so these are a few that I had in the ki album. If you have any questions, just ask :)

Friday I worked at scrap-masters doing the make and takes that I designed (except for the variation of a micro album that Glenni Light did with us at the scrap getaway. Very busy but fun day! Did you all venture out yesterday?

ROCKSTAR

My youngest has a super strong personality, as this post will reflect! :)

Peyton has a pair of jeans from the Children's Place that she calls her "rock star" jeans because of the worn and torn look they have. They are dern cute for sure! About a week ago, while at Target, I spotted this cool tee that was black with a heart and wings and the sleaves are sheer with roses on them sorta tattoo looking (okay, don't go calling social services or anything :) ). It's super cute and I immediately thought, "ROCKSTAR JEANS!" She's worn the outfit about 3 times in the last 7 days, totally loves it! So I combined my love of the band Nickleback and Peyton's outfit and got this layout for the DT at Scrap-Masters.

Another couple little Peytonisms, I hope I'm not boring you to tears! While at lunch the other day, my Dad called me and when I told him I was at lunch with Peyton and my friend Lisa, my Dad asked to talk to Lisa. We've all vacationed together so he likes to tease her now and then. When I handed the phone to Lisa, Peyton exclaimed, "I didn't know Pop Pop was Mrs. Lisa's daddy too!" :)

Last one, I promise: We had a pasta bake tonight and it's not Peyton's favorite. Callie and Cole sure enjoy it but pasta is not P's thing. Anyway, she had gotten up from the table and I told her she needed to have one more bite of pasta and wash her hands before she played. She said, "but MOM, Queen's don't LIKE noodles!" I hadn't really noticed the crown on her head because it's such a common fixture but it was after that comment that I noticed her....ummmm, cloak! Duh!


I'll add some layout info. The border is Tim Holtz distress embossing powder, I love that stuff cause it's NOT shiny. The Rockstar is Heidi Swapp iron ons. The cardstock is Bazzill ('cause there is no other!) The heart is also Heidi. The wings are my own drawing.

Christmas photos...

A family friend asked me to take some holiday shots of her boys this weekend and here's 2 cute ones I got. I LOVE me some big brown eyes! I know the composition on the top one isn't all that but the interaction of the boys was so sweet!

Whimsy Works

$%*&@!! Verizon!

We haven't had internet in almost a week! Jeez, someone's out to get me! I have a cute layout I'll post later.

class projects

Here are a couple store projects. The top one is leapfrog bazzill, american crafts patterned paper, the little scallop rectangle is k&co. the envelop is bazzill, a pink hks flower, making memories velvet letters and the arrow stamp is from a jenni bowlin kit. Man I love me some jenni bowlin studio! That girl just rocks! Isn't this pic of Callie and Peyton cute! :) Gosh, I'm feeling the 81/2 by 11 layouts lately. *Edited to add the journaling...You can't read it and it's kinda funny: Moments like this almost make me believe that you are always angels! :D

I'll be teaching this bracelet on Dec. 9th. I'm in LOVE with it and I could totally make it even more "junque" but I can't since it's for a class. I'm going to have to make another since I'm having a hard time turning in the class sample because I want to KEEP it! LOL I love yummy buttons and I could just load this thing up with them!



This last picture is of Peyton, it just totally makes me happy. She's such a goof! Halloween day she asked me if I was just going to be a "Mommy" for Halloween...ummm yeah, that's it! LOL


The twins are at such a cool age. They are still "kids" but are so totally blossoming. 5th grade is such an incredible year of change, they are growing so much intellectually and physically. It's neat but it also makes me sad, they won't be little much longer!

oh my

I've been crazy busy but g o o d busy. I took a part-time position with Scrap-Masters as the class co-ordinator. I'm trying to get up to speed with that plus get all my holiday samples in for the design team and the class samples. I need a 30 hour day! I'm having fun though!

I'll try to post a pic tomorrow, 'cause what's a blog post with-out a picture!