My World Without A Filter

And the finished, hung project

2011-11-15T20:58:00.000-08:00

Here it is, hanging. I got the hook into the ceiling (got SO lucky and found a stud, right off the bat!) and tacked the cords to the wall. I used clear tape (yep, ghetto, I know) to tape the wires together and you can't see it. It looks pretty nice. I used an extension cord with 3 outlets on it so the lights are all plugged together. Love the way it looks. The vintage jars cast cool patterns of light on the wall, even better than I hoped. Especially the one with the grid pattern on it! I also sprayed the lids with the copper chrome paint today. You can't really see it when the lights are on, but during the day when they are off it shows better and ties nicely with the rest of the copper in the room.

I'M BACK!!!! And it's all about lighting!

2011-11-14T22:16:00.000-08:00

OK. So I needed to do this. And I needed to do it now. If I didn't do it now, I'd never do it. So I did it. The hardest part is blogging. So that's why you will get this in two installments. Today is the HOW-TO, and tomorrow will be the TA-DA!

I've been looking at design pages, checking out catalogs and online stores, that kind of stuff. Mostly looking for a solution for our living room. It's like a cave. We live below the street level (weird slope to the property outside out apartment.) and under several large pine trees. So the already dark winter seems that much darker with no natural sunlight. Chris and I agonized over lamps for months, finally settling on some coppery lamps with a funky hole in them and a cream linen shade. I love them. Chris loves them. But they do NOT put off enough light to fill this room. In an apartment, we have few options. We can't wire in a new light, we are limited on what we can permanently change. So the solution, for us anyway, was a pendant style lamp that we could plug into the wall with only a plant hook in the ceiling (something our management doesn't care about!)

Here's the inspiration for this project... It's not an original concept, everyone does it. But I wanted to do it differently. I wanted to use pieces I chose, not just generic jars. So I hunted thrift stores and eventually an antique mall in Sellwood (Stars, I love that place. lots to choose from, mostly reasonably priced) I found a couple SUPER cheap jars at Goodwill and some much more expensive ones at Stars. Expensive is relative. One was $8 and one $12. We went to the Light Bulb Lady on Mississippi and got all the parts we needed, plus some ideas on how the best way to proceed would be.

This is the disclaimer: I come from a family of electricians. Shepherds play with wires. It's in the genes, man. I've been zapped a few times, I'm no stranger to it. BUT- I'm not a trained electrician. I will not pretend to dispense electrical advice. This tutorial is a log of how I created my project, you should check with someone and make sure you are doing the right thing. My biggest concerns for someone replicating are that you use the proper gauge wire for what you are trying to put through it and that you use the proper wattage bulbs. So my SUGGESTIONS on those two fronts are as follows: 1- I used 16 gauge wire. The wire I selected is a clear sheathed copper wire. I did this because I wanted the exposed wire to look intentional and to match the lamps. It is of proper gauge to handle the size light bulbs I want and then some. Better to err on the side of caution as opposed to start fires! 2- Smaller bulbs are better. Seriously. This is not only to make sure you don't overload your wall outlet or the wire, but so you don't burn out your bulbs! With them being enclosed completely in a glass jar, you run the risk of heat being an issue and burning out bulbs as well. So stick to a 15 watt bulb please.

Back to the program. Here's what you're going to need...

Jars. With lids and rings. I used different types, one is actually an old mill light fixture. When you're deciding how many, please be mindful that this sucker's gonna be heavy. It's jars, after all. I chose to stick with 3 because I felt confident that I would be able to manage the weight of that many.
Wire. I purchased bulk wire from my lighting store, 12 feet per light. Measure ahead of time, give yourself a foot or so of play with each light, just in case. For me, it was 16 gauge clear sheathed copper.
Plugs. One per light. I found idiot proof plugs, simply shove the wire in the hole, clamp down the sides, and push it back in. Done.
Light bulb fixture and bulb that matches (yes, there are different sizes. Depending on what you want there are a million options. your best choices are going to be medium base or candelabra. Candelabra is the small base. Medium is the normal size. We chose a long skinny medium base.) . The ones I got are a 3 piece screw apart setup with screws to put your own wire into. They sell ones that have the black and white wire already pigtailed on, but I didn't want that wire, I wanted to wire my own. Up to you. It's SUPER easy to wire them up.
Wire protector. This is the little black guy that goes into the top of the light fixture. It keeps the wire from pulling out or rubbing with movement. Get it. If nothing else, it made me feel better about the weight of the jar not pulling the wire out.
Tools- sharpie, screw, screw driver,needle nosed pliers, hammer, something to pound on (I used an eyelet setting block), wire strippers/cutters (shhh, you don't really need them. With a steady hand, you can just use a pocket knife to cut the sheathing carefully and strip it off by hand. Sure is easier with the right tools.)

So here we go... Jumping right in. Again, disclaimer. I know there are probably other tutorials on this. I didn't use one. I didn't look at one or for one. I just dove in head first. Cause that's how I roll. Don't do ANYTHING until you read ALL the directions. PLEASE.

First: Cut your wire to length. Use the wire cutters, yep... Now's the time to hope you have wire cutters. Now where the wire is scored in the middle, cut it up about 1 1/2 inches so you have two little separate wires. Don't cut them off. It all needs to stay attached. Now using the correct gauge hole on your wire cutters, strip the sheathing off the wire on each side, about 1/2 inch up each. Look at the picture. The wire will be a bit crazy, like frizzy hair. Gently twist it so that it stays in a nice little tight roll.

Second: Take the twisted piece of wire and wrap it around each screw. Then screw down the screw tightly, making sure the wire stays under the screw. With the setup I got, it didn't matter which side was which. When you purchase your fixture, you should ask, it may.

Once you have this done, thread the other pieces of the fixture down the wire, including the little black insulator piece. When you have everything down, screw it all together.

Third: Put the plug on. This is probably the easiest thing you will do this whole project. Pull the plug part out of the housing. Stick the wire through the hole in the top.

Then pull the sides apart and stuff the wire down inside. It doesn't matter which way for this either with the parts I got. Crimp the sides back in and you're ready to stuff the prongs back into the housing.

Fourth: Put your bulb in, it's time for a test run. Plug it in. If it turns on, you did it right. If it doesn't, your wires are backward. If it pops your breaker, I'm sorry! I had this happen when I wired a light socket backwards once, I don't know that a lamp will do the same. In theory, it should just not turn on. But beware the breaker popping thing. Don't let it scare you, just be aware. If it happens, flip the breaker back on, unscrew your light fixture assembly, and switch your wires cause you put them on wrong. Then screw it back together and try again. Take the bulb out once you know it works.

Fifth: Get your can lid. Not the ring, just the lid. Now, I will say that there are a dozen ways I can think to do this better. But since I have limited tools at home and didn't want to go buy stuff just to do this, I improvised... Quite well! Take the fixture and trace around the bottom to get your hole size. Use the sharpie.

Using the screw and the hammer and your block, punch a small hole in the lid. Then screw the screw in to make a larger hole. Doesn't have to be big. Just big enough to get the pliers in. Now here's the fun part. Basically, you're going to open this sucker up like an old school can. Take ahold of the hole and start tearing. Using the circle as a guide, just pry it up in a circle. This was much easier than I anticipated.

Once you are done, slide (or in my case, the hole was TIGHT, so I had to screw it on) the lid on to the fixture and thread the holder ring up to secure it. Slide the ring on from the plug end, screw your light bulb back on, and screw the whole assembly onto the jar.

That's it. It's that easy. I made 3 of these in an hour, start to finish, and I had to figure it out as I went.

Finished product!!! Tune in tomorrow for the hanging, finished project! I need to spray paint my lids with a chrome copper paint to match the lamps and wire. And I need to go get my hook. I'll work on better pictures too. I LOVE the bulbs we chose, we got long skinny ones. I really wanted the Edison style bulbs, the ones with the super cool filaments. I would caution you on purchasing them for this project. They get very hot, use a TON of electricity, and are expensive. $15-$25 each and are NOT well suited to being completely enclosed so you are more likely to burn them out quickly due to overheating.

If you have questions, ask away and I'll do my best. Facebook will get you a faster answer. Or if you REALLY know me, you can text/call me. Otherwise, I'd love to see if you do this! If you want me to make you some, message me and we'll talk money and time.

I have nothing to say

2010-06-16T18:21:00.000-07:00

I sat down to blog and reaized that nothing has happened! Well, that's not quite true. We went for a cookout at Lydgate Park last night with Jackie guys, Tonia guys, and Lindsey and Alisa. It was SO much fun. Got some pictures taken with the girls, had an all kid photo taken on the beach, can't wait to see those.

Trent tried some ahi poke, which he suprisingly liked! I cannot do raw fish. He, evidently likes at least that kind! Ewwww. But good for him. Just makes it that much easier for him. That stuff is at every single cookout ever! I tried Mahi mahi, which I actually liked too! Julia likes fish anyway, so that was a given. But it wasn't bad, even just plain with some soy. I think I would like it much better with some other flavors, like a fruit salsa.

The surf was pretty rough. I have never been to this beach before. But it was nice. The kids got in some big floaty chairs and had a blast! Trent got tossed in the surf a few times, which was funny. he was having such a good time.

Speaking of Trent..... I am realizing HOW much I coddle him. I knew he was a mama's boy. I know I am a bit overbearing. Yeah yeah, spare me. I have 2 kids. I can't have anymore. Kids aren't replaceable and I want to make sure that mine are safe and happy. But in the meantime, I have made Trent a whiney quitter. I am so worried he is going to drown at the beach. Yes, it happens all the time. I know he's never going to learn to swim unless he does it, but I don't want him to get hurt. I"ve really had to take a step back. Sometimes to the point of letting lindsey or alisa watch him and I either bury my head in a book or keep my back to him because I worry so much! Julia is so independent. Even as a baby, she really didn't need me much. She always wanted to dissapear and play on her own in a corner somewhere. at our house in Louisiana, she has a walk-in closet that she turned into a girl cave! Filled it with stuffed animals, blankets, pillows, dolls, and books. If I couldn't find her, she was in there. But Trent, he needs the interaction, the attention, the affection. guess he's more like me and Julia is more like Luke.

At karate, Trent cried and bawled and gave up. Sense was trying to get him to do it right. He wasn't getting it, got indignant, and shut down. He started crying, then bawling. The guy didn't give in to it, which Trent needs. Thank goodness Conrad and Alisa were there to distract me! It was hard listening to him so upset and begging to go home. He needs to learn that if he just follows directions, he will be great. And crying doesn't get you out of doing what you need to do. He wanted to do karate, he's going to do it! Made me feel better that everyone said most all the little kids that do karate there cry at some point!

Pretty much, it comes down to me needing to let go a little. Let him be a boy. Let him grow up. Let him fall a few times. Julia, on the other hand, ROCKED IT! She did so well. She is so mature in some ways. And taking criticism (from someone not related to her ;)) well is something that she is learning. Sense showed her, made her do it again and again, and she did SO well. The adults in the class all commented on how well she was doing and how quickly she was picking it up.

Ok, so much for having nothing to say huh! Maybe someday soon, this blog will get back to being about photography. Maybe that should be on my agenda tomorrow. Grab the camera and go out. It's hard when the sunlight is SO harsh all day. Maybe there will be a few more clouds or maybe I should just shoot some high key stuff... No excuses eh?

So officially

2010-06-15T12:09:00.001-07:00

Luke and I are separated. Many of you already know, those who don't know that something has been up. But officially, that's why I am in Kauai. Things have been heading that way for a while now, years I would argue. I really am not sure what is going to happen, I will spare you all the details, cause really they don't matter.

I am seeing a therapist here to try to help me get myself squared away. Over the years, I have become someone I don't like anymore. I have lost my passion and have become a very negative person. And I am done with that! I need to be happy. Not blaming Luke, I am solely responsible for the choices I have made and the path I have taken.

So now that THAT'S done...! I am sitting in Starbucks looking fruitlessly for a job. I have been looking for WEEKS. I am getting very discouraged. Turns out that stay at home moms are not in high demand. And 10 years of verylittle working has done me more harm than I thought. Makes me sad. My kids are better off for it, I know that. Just is hard to swallow. I am smart, I am good at everything I have ever done. EVERYTHING. I have never failed at a job. Just wish I could get someone to believe that and PAY ME!

I really need to get my camera out, I haven't touched it since I've been here. BAD me. BAD BAD ME! Hopefully that will be part of the outcome of therapy. getting some of my creativity back. I miss it. I miss the fire in my gut that makes me stop on the side of the road to shoot something. That makes me RUSH home to grab my camera to capture the light. I need that back in my life. I'm pursuing it.

Also am pursuing a good tan ;) My sister (who is so freaking brown it makes me sick) commented last night on how my tan was coming along. That was nice! It's nice not being pasty. Not that I will ever become a sun worshipper, but it's so good feeling the warmth on my skin as I lay in the sand. And it's nice not sticking out like a tourist fresh off the plane, although I am sure I will for quite some time, if not forever. Haole is as haole does.

Done for now, will try to be better at bloggins, especially since I have so much free time right now ;/ Kids are in a summer program. Lindsey tells me to explore. I just want to explore a paycheck!

So the summer goes

2010-06-14T00:35:00.000-07:00

Had a great weekend. Lindsey and Alisa had Friday off for King K. day. Saturday was regatta at Hanalei. You should google it. It's awesome. They have a few there. Lots of people, had a really nice time.

I sat under the tent or layed in the sun on a towel and read a novel, start to finish. Called Good in Bed. Written by the same lady that wrote In Her Shoes. Very good read. About a fat girl that breaks up with her boyfriend, struggles with her weight, ends up pregnant, becomes BFF's with a super famous actress, sells a screen play, falls in love with a doctor who loves her even though she's fat. So this book really spoke to me right now, the whole fat girl thing anyway. Don't plan on getting famous or pregnant ;).

Got a little bit of a sunburn, not too bad considering I didn't wear sunscreen again. I really tried hard to flip every few minutes (when my body started getting hot) and stayed in the shade most of the day. We got there at 9:30 and left at like 6:00! It was a crazy long day. I never ate! I was so into the book. The kids, however, had a blast. Spent most of the day in the water. Trent made a little friend, which was GREAT! But what wasn't great was the sunburn they got on their faces. Trent got a blister on his ear and Julia got blisters on her nose. I feel like SUCH a bad mom. While they got sunscreen reapplied to their bodies, I forgot about their faces. I HATE when they get hurt. I always take it as a failure on my part as a mom, like I am an unfit mom because they got a sunburn. A little unreasonable, I know. But as a mom, (and you reading this are mostly moms) you feel responsible for everything and hate to know your kids are hurting and you could have revented it. So enough about that.....

Julia was over playing in the water alone (since trent was with the boys and Jackie and the girls left early) so she crawled into a beach chair, put a towel over her completely except her face, and fell asleep. For LIKE AN HOUR! I finally woke her up and made her come into the shade and drink some water. She then went back to sleep for another good half hour. Trent, on the other hand, only came back for food or when required. He took his rash guard off, then went back on the boogie board for like 2 hours. That was a bad idea. He came back for more sunscreen and had a HUGE rash all over his bely. Lindsey sprayed him down with sunscreen and he SCREAMED and cried. Poor guy. On one hand, I was like "well, if you had left your rash guard on while you used the boogie board..." but I really felt bad for him cause I know that hurt!

Ok, enough of the play by play! We had a good time. It was a nice break from reality. Cause reality was rough that night, just sayin. Things have to get worse before they get better right? Feeling really really confused after a period of extreme clarity. I felt so sure for a day or two, now I am back to confused. Stupid emotions. Whoever invented them was obviously not a debater. It would be much better if my rational mind was allowed free reign.

Feeling a little out of sorts

2010-06-09T18:43:00.000-07:00

You ever have one of those days where it feels like someone put a blindfold on you, spun you around in circles until you puked, then gave you a stick and left? Yeah, I kinda feel like that. I havent had anything that even looks like a lead on a job. I am going to go see a councelor on friday, hopefully that will help. I have not been myself for a long time and hopefully talking to someone will help me get back to happy.

I sat and had a good cry with Lindsey last night, thanks sis. Sometimes you just can't hold it in anymore. Or you don't even realize you are holding it in. You just open your mouth and everything comes out. Things you didn't even know you were feeling. It's kinda scary. Cause once you say it, you're like DAMN. where did that come from?

My best friend in the whole wide world has been noticably absent, he is going through some stuff right now too and is focusing on that. It's hard to feel like you are drifting farther away from the people who matter most to you. I've been really bad lately about just shutting people off. So for those of you I've done that to, I'm sorry. Kinda hard to have friends when you don't really want to talk to anyone cause you don't know what to say.

So I am trying to not be a debbie downer. I am trying to not burden everyone else with my problems. I know, that's what friends are for. But there is only so much negative your friends can handle before they don't want to be around you anymore. So I am trying to reserve my bitching! Right now I am just trying to enjoy time with my sister and my kids. Hopefully the weather will be nicer this weekend. While it's not cold or consistently raining, it is super windy.

I need to get my camera out and start using it. Just really feel incredibly uninspired. Maybe soon. I'll try to be better about posting, although most people visit this blog for scrappy purposes. I didn't bring any scrapbooking stuff with me at all this summer. Yep, DEPRESSING. but I was packing a ton of bags anyway and really didn't feel up to scrapping, so why go through the hassle of bringing stuff with me, just to have it sit and take up space where there really isn't any.

Hasta for now.

No Pictures...

2010-06-08T12:45:00.000-07:00

Just an update. My friend that usually emails me and says "hey hun, you're slacking off on the blog. You need to post SOMETHING." hasn't emailed me in a while.

The kids and I are in Kauai staying with my sister. Yes, I have been intentionally vague and will remain that way until such a time when I feel like I need to say something. So for now, we are here. We got here last wednesday, coming up on one week. It's been fabulous the whole time. Avoiding major sunburns so far, only tiny ones where sunscreen application has been funky.

Got to go out on Lindsey and Alisa's 2 man OC for the first time. Just went out a little ways in the bay, it was fun. A little scarey. You always feel like you are going to flip over. I have retarded shoulders, so paddling for me can be rough. But I had a good time, sucked a little bit of air.

So just looking for a job. No luck so far. Never have had such a hard time finding gainful employment. Usually, I get the job I want. So this is a bit different for me. In a week, I have had no real prospects. Thought I may have a job at a bakery, but don't think that is going to work out. Guess the people applying for a job just outnumber those of us looking. Maybe I just need to give it more than a week...

Well, I guess that's it for now. Coming up on my Dirty Thirty at the end of the month. Feel a little torn about that. Not going to be with MY friends to celebrate, which sucks. I want to do something FUN. Kick off my thirties with a bang. But I have family, so we'll see what we end up doing.

Swamps and Such

2010-05-27T06:52:00.000-07:00

Last week I took an afternoon to drive around. My intent was to find spanish moss to shoot. i LOVE it. But of course all the swamps/bayous I found were awesomely absent of the stuff. So here are a few pictures I made while out running around.

Thanks for looking. I enjoy sharing with you all.

My Future Secretary of State

2010-05-26T08:46:00.000-07:00

Yep, it's that time of year. school is out tomorrow. Another year has flown by with not much to show for it except a few new teeth, 2 garbage bags of clothes that don't fit anymore, and a noticable lack of kids plates and bowls. Where does it go? Seriously? This year has gone by faster than any other to date.

Today, Trent had his Kindergarten graduation from Timmons. He had a good teacher this year, we were very lucky. She suited him well. He really thrived in her class. he made new friends (not like that's hard for him) and has grown in his little personality. I know it's not really a big deal to make it out of Kinder, but most kids I know that are held back, it happens this year. So I'm excited! It's more of a rite of passage than a real milestone.

He spent the year LOVING to wear a shirt and tie, all the time. We're talking 3 days a week or more all year. They have a school uniform which is basically navy or khaki trousers/shorts/skirt and a hunter, burgundy, white, or navy polo. Since he loves to dress in a shirt and tie so much, I asked the principal and she said he could, as long as the shirt colors were in line with the dress code. So he has worn a white or chambray dress shirt all year! He would always tell teachers that he had a meeting with President Obama on the days he wore his tie. They asked him to talk to the president about increasing teacher's pay! It was kind of a running joke all year, but trent took it very seriously.

I tell you this because at graduation, they gave out certificates to each kid, and each kid had a special talent or trait that was recognized. So there were kids who got "best smile" or "most atheletic" or "best math student". My kid, yep, he got the "Secretary of State" award! Awesome right! I was so stoked. The teacher told basically what I just did, about his dress and his meetings with Obama. It was the cutest thing ever and he got plenty of applause! I was very proud!
Ok. well, that's about it for now. I do have some photos to share, of course and later this week will have another post sharing some photos I took on a little swamp excursion Trent and I took. Things have been a little hectic around here as of late. Some personal stuff going on, that always complicates things. And the end of school, and the kids and I are heading off for Kauai again. can't wait. I'll try to be a little better about posting, heavens knows I am not scrapping. Trying to make plenty of pictures before I leave Louisiana.

suffocating

2010-05-06T13:17:00.000-07:00

Ever have one of those days when you feel like you are suffocating in the open air? I am having one today. Feeling a bit panic-y, a bit trapped. To pass the time, I got out of the house and just drove. I haven't been many places here, No good reason, just haven't. It's too easy to get stuck in this house and let the days RUN by me. Here it is May and I have made a couple of friends, but I haven't explored my new home at all. So today I drove to Elysian Fields, then to Marshall Pottery. While I Marshall, I met a man who is a member of some Cattlemen's group out on tours of ranches all over the state. He was nice, we sat and visited while watching a potter at work. It was calming, I feel much better.

I had a whole big post typed out, then decided now is a good time to use my filter, what little I have. While I want to share, I don't know that I want to share that much with so many. It is the internet, once you post it, you cant take it back.

I did scrap today, I will post that sometime soon. Just need to shoot it. Feeling a bit BLAH right now, no telling what those photos would look like. Off to the end of the driveway to check the mail. Tomorrow is the kids' field day and I have to attend. Not happy about that because I was supposed to be working. oh well, I really didn't want to have to miss it, just don't like being told by the teacher that I need to be there. Don't they know that people have jobs? Really. Guess I am just on one today, maybe that is the problem!

coming to the end

2010-05-02T10:08:00.000-07:00

of my temp position. The girl I am replacing is supposedly coming back tomorrow. they ahve asked me to stay on "through the middle of the month" but i think they will see once she is back that there really is nothing for me to do. So I will be able to get back to my old antics.

I keep going to sit down at my craft desk, but there is either limited mojo, or too mmuch that needs to get done. I applaud you working moms who keep a clean house and still have time to craft. I just don't have the time management skills or energy to do it.

Working has been a very good thing for me. I have made a new friend. I have met new people who, although I don't see myself hanging out with, have made my day a bit brighter and more fun. I am useful again, for something other than housework and babysitting. I know, I know, it's an important job, blah blah blah. But when i tell people I am a stay at home mom, they look at me like "oh, wow. so you aren't smart enough or ambitious enough to have a real job." the conversation slows, like i wouldnt be able to hold my own because i take care of my kids. If you aren't a SAHM, you can't possibly understand. Just trust me when I say that it's not a good feeling.

It's been nice to earn a little money in my own name for once. Not that I make enough to make a dent, but enough to feel like my days have been of use. My first pay check I took out, bought groceries, a birthday gift, and some stuff at sams club and came home with $60. A whole weeks work, chaos at home, and I made grocery money! but in the grand scheme of things, we all have to eat right.

So consider this my salute to you women who work full time jobs. It's difficult, and I am looking forward to going back to simpler times. being able to just pick up and meet luke for lunch, going to the school for things like eater egg hunts and christmas parties... I am going to miss the kids' field day later this week and that makes me sad. very sad. But it's worth an extra couple hundred bucks if it's the only chance I have to make it for a long time.

Well, all things considered, it's been a good experience. got me out, got me moving, made me realize that although my situation isn't ideal, it could be much worse. I do need a vacation from my kids. I haven't been without them for longer than they are in school since last june when i came down here to look at houses with luke. we need another getaway. I NEED ANOTHER GETAWAY! when we lived in Wyoming, I got to go to Salt Lake once a month and got out of the house for at least 18-36 hours. I miss that very much. I miss my sanity breaks.

Maybe again someday. Maybe I can talk luke into letting me take a solo road trip around the south soon for photos and junking.

Will try to play again soon, I was doing so good with this blog for a long time, and now I am a bad bad blogger. Remind me, i'll try!

Some People...

2010-03-30T14:04:00.001-07:00

I really really want to just vent, but knowing the internet, I don't need anymore drama. So instead, I will share good things. I scrapped! Only one page, but I did it. Gotta start somewhere eh? It's trent's turtle shell. And some glimmer mist, and new webster's pages, primas, a bingo card from my friend Jamie, and graphic 45 ruler strip. It came together fairly well, I had fun doing it, but I am uninspired again.

After that, there hasn't been much in my world. Looking for a job, avoiding the reality of our new situation. Dealing with drama from people who profess NOT to be that kind, but in reality are the epitome of "that kind." I am realizing that I surround myself with people who never grew up, never want to grow up. Maybe it's because I don't want to grow up. I DO, however, expect a certain level of maturity in someone of my age. One day I hope to find people who can match wits with me AND stand by their word. Until then, more dissapointment is on my horizon I am afraid. So I will plug along with one less friend, adding that person to the "acquaintance" column. And I will shed a tear in my beer, wait I won't. Job interview tomorrow for a temp job. here's hoping.

Bad, Bad, Bad, blogger.

2010-03-26T19:36:00.000-07:00

I know. I have been busy, but not. Mostly I have been uninspired or inspired at the wrong time to post it. I have done NO scrapping. I bought a bunch of stuff from Blue Moon, then mom and dad came for a visit. So it is still in the box, although thoroughly rifled through. I did, however, make this page for the True xoxo girls blog. You should go. do the challenge. win a prize if you're lucky!

I have, however, been posting photos on facebook. So if you are not my friend already and you are reading this blog, you should become my friend so you can see what I am working on. And I promise to try to get back int he habit of blogging. It's so easy when you do it all the time to keep doing it. But once you stop, you are screwed! this photo I took and LOVED. It's my duck shoes in the permanent swamp that is my front yard. I messed with the saturations a little to get the color I wanted, but I just love the way my flash shimmers and sparkles off the water. Yep, I'm a photo geek.

And one more photo. this is from a few months ago but I don't know if I shared it. It is now framed 8x10 in my living room, along with the boots, the shot of my neck, some new flowers, the coke series posted on facebook under midgets and random shiz, and a few others. Maybe I will take a picture and show that some day. But a tiny frog somehow got on my kitchen window and hopped along and left these SUPER cool prints on the outside. I love it. LOVE it. All time top 10 photos.

Other things of significance in my life... Luke blew out his knee once and for all. We already knew he would need surgery, but it looks as if the time has come. He has been off work several days now and his boss said don't come back till it's fixed. That has left me scrambling for a job. I have appointments with temp agencies monday. Pray for our marriage. With Luke at home, things will be rough for a spell. We've been through rough patches before, but this will rival them. Luke with no income and at home all day is more than he can handle. Guess we will see how the cards fall. I will have to just get some pretty thick skin.

Well, that's it for tonight. See everyone later! Sooner than later I hope!

Happy Monday!

2010-03-08T07:37:00.000-08:00

Yep, It is. I got almost no sleep last night, and yet, here I am blogging away! I made this card this morning for the tuesday trigger over at Moxie Fab World. If you are reading MY blog and NOT Moxie Fab, you need to be! So here my take on this past tuesday's trigger...

I used a bunch of Sassafras (my FAVORITE!) Hog Heaven stuff I had left over, Prima flowers and E-line gems/pearls, a Maya Road branch, and a piece of Jenni Bowlin music paper, and some glimmer mist, of course! From the Trigger, I just really loved the candy pink and that's what really stuck with me!

I also decided why not kill 2 birds with 1 stone. So Becky Fleck is having a Sassafrass Nerdy Bird (which I MUST have and have already ordered some of it) contest over at the Page Maps Blog. I liked the sketch, so I molested it and here ya go!

And these are just some random junk jewlery pieces I found at the flea market yesterday! That broach is missing the center, so I figured I would doctor it up! And I found a meat picket! Luke had no idea what it was! So funny! And that heart has a mermaid riding a seahorse! SO COOL!

BONUS post!

2010-03-06T15:45:00.000-08:00

It's been a GORGEOUS day. 70 degrees, perfect humidity, not a cloud in the sky. Julia had a friend over last night and I decided after she went home, we needed to take a couple photos. Of course nothing really struck my fancy. But the COOELST things happened today!

1. We found balloons in the woods! Remember when we were kids and our classes would release piles and piles of balloons into the air with our names and addresses on them hoping SOMEONE would find them in like Egypt and send us a letter? Well, we got to be those people today! A kindergarten class in Big Sandy, Texas (about 75 miles away) released these on their 100th day of school! I think I was more excited about it than the kids because they don't do that much anymore. it's TERRIBLE for the environment. Basically it's school sanctioned littering and animals get tangled in the mess or eat the balloons. But it is really cool in theory! So we brought the whole stash of balloons, strings, and tags home. We took this photo of Julia and will send a copy along wih a map of our road and where the balloons were found to the school on monday.

2. The kids found a turtle shell in the woods! We have seen ONE turtle across the street a while back, Luke messed with it a bit. Bit the kids were making "forts" in the woods and ran across this shell. Julia's friend took the green shell off the boney part (grrrrrrr.) but they kept it, so right now it's being held on by Glue Dots! SO cool. OK, score one small one for the south.

3. Julie FINALLY learned to ride her bike consistently! She has been so afraid of falling that she never would even try without Luke holding on. Not only is she now riding, but steering on gravel! She decided she needed to ride up and down our road, which I didn't agree with. Not that it's busy by ANY stretch of the imagination, but the traffic that does make it down here is often oil field equipment. Not a match for a girl on a bike.

4. While I don't have flowers or green grass or anything spring like, we do have these TINY little purple flowers. They are so tiny and delicate and the bees were all over them. So I stopped the car at the end of the driveway when we came home, broke out my camera, and caught this bee. I HATE bees. The end of the driveway is a good place for them.

Well, that's it for this evening. Hopefully something worth blogging about will happen tomorrow! See you then! I think I will try the flea market!

Are there really more than one way to skin a cat?

2010-03-06T05:23:00.001-08:00

Crafty I have not been. I pulled out my new CC Earth Love kit I just got in the mail from PC magazine (I won it from their blog!) and cut all the strips and journaling cards apart with the intention of using them. Yeah, that's as far as I got. It's not even 7:30 am on Saturday and the kids have been up for an hour already! Why is it that on week days when they have to go to school, 6:30 seems like the beginning of time. They have such a horrible time getting up. we made bed time earlier (7:30) to help them get more sleep, but the morning still eludes us. So when they have a friend over, they stay up past 11 and are up 5 minutes earlier than the regular school day alarm?

So I am laying in bed and my cats decide its time for Kitty Smackdown. This is a regular occurrence in our house and occassionally includes Napoleon as well. I like watching smackdown, it's entertaining. I do not, however, like smackdown ON ME AT 6:30 AM ON A SATURDAY! Then, one of them calls time out to go take a giant crap in the litter box, which is in my bathroom. YUMMO! End result is scratches all down my arms and a room that smells like pumpkin spice.

Complaints over. I got a ton of photos scanned yesterday from a million years ago. That was fun. I have about 50 more to scan but am going to do many of them collage style because they are all cut up so small. Why did I do that? I ruined pictures by cutting people out of them, cutting them in stupid shapes, cutting them to fit in my magnetic album, which is now in the rubbish. Had a very enlightening chat with Vicki. She is such a kick. Love that girl. I also got to talk to Scott for a bit, which was wonderful. I miss him. I was sooooooo in high school love with him! And he's every bit as awesome now as I thought he was then, probably more. Shana is a lucky woman, hope she knows that.

This weekend is debate national qualifying for the Wind River district of Wyoming. I have my fingers crossed. I have so many kids there that I am still very much attached too (Not not mention my very best friend in the whole wide world) that I am queitly rooting for. I don't know how the standings are after last night. This tourney is different than regular meets. Instead of going to semis (after 4 rounds) and finals based on your record and power of op, you get an "UP" or a "DOWN" every round. Two downs and you are out. So you can be down and out by round 3, making your tourney VERY VERY VERY long while you sit for another day and a half waiting for the rest of the team. It's a very inspiring tourney, very emotional, very intense as both a kid and a coach. I miss debate with every cell in my body. Maybe when the kids hit high school I can coach again. Maybe if I am lucky, I will find a junior team for Julia and she can start in middle school!

Kitty smackdown has relocated to my legs, and now includes only Black and Napoleon. Tan is asleep on the other side of the bed. I have no plans for the day except to wash the supper dishes from last night. Dishwasher is running right now, just need to wash the pans. I made chicken enchilada soup. If you are one of the lucky few to have had it, you know how happy of a night it was last night! If not, just know that right now you should be drooling. Yep, it's that good. Good enough to brave an ulcer for. I was pretty uncomfortable last night, but man was it worth it!

Here is a photo from the WAY back machine. This is from Triangle Lake. Not the camp, the community. It's hard sometimes for people who only know one side of my life to distinguish! My grandparents LIVED there, so I have friends and family FROM there, as well as all my years as a camper. So this is from vacation bible school, I am going to guess in 1987 or 1988. From left to right- Chrissy Mac Farland, Jenny Applegate, Karey Larsen, me, Sarah Goetsch. Then there is a picture of Scott Donaldson and I. Sigh... Aren't we a cute couple? "low" and "kneehigh", those were our camp names. And lastly, this was part of our loyal group. Me, kate Schori, Jason Asher(not always with us), Kyle Phillips, Jennifer Souka, and David Otterman. We ended up together more often than not, insert about 30 others. This photo was intentional mouths full... crazy how we all ended up together all the time! Miss those kids so much! Thank God for Facebook. Moving so much, I lost touch with many of them.

{Insert bitchy rant here}

2010-02-26T15:21:00.000-08:00

You know when you have one of those days where NOTHING goes the way you want? Yep, that's today. It's rainy and crappy, which I normally like. I woke up sweating my butt off. Like my sheets were WET, my clothes were WET and sticking to my body. GREAT! I get up, take the kids to the bus (I had to take Brandon's dog to the bus stop with us because he wouldn't go in the house and started chasing the car down the road.) Get home and go back to bed because I am so woosey I cannot stay upright.

Wake up at like noon. Power is out. Awesome. Our power goes out at least 2 or 3 times a month out here. I have never lived somewhere with such unreliable service. Power comes back on. I lay in bed for another half an hour, trying to get up the energy to get up. I let the dogs out to pee. Next, I go into the bathroom to take a shower. Turn the water on to warm up and start brushing my teeth. Power goes back off. Water shuts off. Awesome. cause when you live in the country and have a well, no power means no water and you are thrust back into 1880. Awesome.

I go back and sit on the bed and pet the cats. Power comes back on. I turn the water on and jump in as fast as I can. Carefully washing as fast as I can ONLY one part at a time. I have a gallon of water on the counter just in case. I get through my entire body and get done. I stay in and try to warm up, when the phone rings. Awesome. I am always afraid that if I don't answer the phone, it is going to be the school telling me I need to come get one of the kids or Luke saying he has been in a wreck. So I jump out with my towel and answer the phone. It's a telemarketer. Yep.

I get dressed and decide that I am NOT going to sit down, I am going to shampoo the rug. I have a puppy who still has accidents. His favorite place is in the hallway. So I decide to take care of it today. As I am shampooing, I feel very very weak and end up leaning against the wall to finish. I also clean a 6' section of the living room before I run out of clean water. I stop, drink a big glass of chocolate milk, and sit down. That's the end of my productivity for the day.

Luke is by this time almost home, when he lets me know he is chosing NOT to come hom. Instead, he is going to go to WORK! Yep, he's been gone for 7 weeks for school. I have seen him during 5 weekends during that time. So it's not as bad as it could have been. But still. Really? Beyond that, there is a SLOUGH of bad wrecks all over the parrish. So he already knows he would have a hard time gettign home.

Brandon shows up to get his dog, who has been a terrible pain in my ass all weekend. We sit and visit for almost 2 hours. At this point, my kids should have been home. They normally get home around 3:30. The finally show up at 4:30. They spent an hour and a half on the bus. Awesome. By that time, I had tried calling the transportation department and the school twice with no answer. So happy about that. Brandon leaves with his dog, my carpet shampooer, and my vacuum. he is moving out of his apartment this weekend and has to clean it.

Now Luke is telling me crap about work that isn't really good news. The phone won't stop ringing. Brandon is calling me to whine about the traffic he is stuck in. Luke is texting me complaints about work and his intended route home, which I know from the info I have been given, will not work any better than any other. It's 5:45 and I have nothing taken out for supper, no extra money for supper out, and no patience to cook anything anyway.

The kids are fighting and wrestling and screaming and whining and tattling and throwing toys. I don't have the attitude left to deal with them. This is my blog and I can bitch if I want to. I don't have anyone else to complain to! I have had nothing to eat today. I need to go grocery shopping. My gut hurts all the time with waves of overwhelming nausea in between. I need a break. i need a break from these kids, from being broke all the time, from the stupid crap that seems to happen all the time, from selfish people who swirl all around me. Seriously? I know I am not the most selfless person in the world. But sometimes it just gets to be too much. I am over it. I am shutting down the emotional bank of rachael. So if you want/need something from me in the near future, TOUGH CRAP!

We now return you to your regularly scheduled cheerful crafty rachael.

Royalty coming through...

2010-02-25T11:09:00.000-08:00

Ok, so it's wishful thinking. Moxie Fab World is having their stamping royalty contest going on now through March 8th. So I figured what the heck, it's not like I am doing anything else, may as well use of some stuff I have laying around to justify my recent scrappy purchases. I also did the Tuesday Trigger for this week. I will probably be adding more cards later this week, so keep watching!
CTMH stamps and ink, AC green alphas and ribbon, MLS sticker alphas, GCD pp, CI black die cut paper, BG pink paper, green smooch paint.

Cosmo Cricket boyfriend paper, CI die cut black paper, Maya road chip girl (cut out of paper and the negative image used as a mask)and acrylic wings, Glimmer Mist, MLS alpha stickers, MM rubon alphas, prima flowers and pearl, AC black ribbon, MME skull, white ribbon from packaging!

Oh Oh Oh. I also did my DT layout for XOXO girls for next month and I am in LOVE. I used some of the new CI wood veneer. SO excited about that stuff. There may be a tutorial coming soon on it. I found some fun stuff to do already! Wishing I would have bought some more! Plus it has a self portrait which i LOVE! I manipulated it a bit and am SO happy with the results. I can't wait to share it.

More cards soon!

And the Winner is?

2010-02-23T14:54:00.001-08:00

Not the person who ran the fastest! But trusty random.org says #19. So Michelle, you are the lucky contestant on...wait. wrong show. Ok. Just etsy convo me and we will get you squared away! Thanks to all the girls that participated in the TES blog hop! We love you guys! Hope you got way inspired on your way.

And as a small aside, yes those were Mardi Gras beads! We had just come back from a parade, I off loaded those from my neck, and got to work! I probably have 20 pounds or better of beads between the 2 parades we went to. So much fun!

Time to fix supper for the midgets. Its chunky raining outside (rain snow mix) and I just found out today that all my pain and suffering is from an ulcer. I am starving but afraid to eat because the pain is worse when I do! So wish me luck! I found quite a bit of fabulousness this weekend in Houston with Arcalee so I am hoping to feel up to crafting soon!

The Everyday Scrapper Goes On The Run!

2010-02-16T23:29:00.000-08:00

Well, technically it's a hop. But I would rather run! Know why? Cause I know that we have some pretty awesome girls and they will be sharing some pretty cool stuff for you! Giveaways from several of us as well as a prize on the main site! Cool right?? I happen to think so! This is our first ever blog hop, and we are super excited about it! After you are done here, you will be finishing up the last couple stops from our contributors and sketch team members. So pin an "S" on my chest and away we go!

I do random things on TES, but a lot of what I do is tutorials. So along those lines, I would like to share a little tip about "Point and Shoot" cameras with built in flashes. We all have them, we all know how unpredictable they are and how horribly washed out the photos can end up when using them.

I went to school (briefly) for photography and learned lots of things. Not once did they teach us about controlling a fixed flash! The worst is indoors. So this is what I figured out! Are you ready???

Paper towels and scotch tape! You can control the amount of flash by the thickness of the paper towel. This is how I do it. I take a paper towel and hold it just over the flash single thickness, then take a photo. Look at the result. Then decide whether you need to double it. I usually end up with a triple or quad thickness. Then simply scotch tape the piece of paper towel over your flash! Basically, this is buffering the amount of light.

Here is a sample I did, using a single, double, then quad towel. (Just so you know, my sofa is actually the color of the third! That's what happens when you buy a dry clean only sofa and move to the country with 2 dogs, 2 cats, and a little boy! Yep, it's embarassing!)

This is one thickness of paper:

This is double thickness of paper towel:

This is quad thickness of paper towel:

See how much difference there is? Now depending on your photo and light conditions, you can adjust this very quickly. If you are doing a portrait shoot, you can easily do this before hand. If you are jus taking snapshots, take one, then adjust. everywhere you go, you can find toilet paper or a napkin! Hope you try this out! So easy!

Now the part you really want... the goodies, right? I am just starting out with an Etsy store. Right now, I am really into making scarflettes and cowels. So why not give one away. But it will be custom, just for you! So check out my shop and let me know which strikes your fancy! If you are the lucky winner, I will get with you about the particulars. Check it out here.

And from here, you are running to Jennifer Priest!

If you get off track along the way or are starting at my blog, here is the complete list of the blogs you need to make it to. In order to be entered for the TES RAK, you MUST leave a comment on all the blogs.

1. The Everyday Scrapper www.theeverydayscrapper.com/?p=2828 (if this doesn't work, just go to www.theeverydayscrapper.com and scroll through the recent posts!)
2. Catherine www.dance-the-tide.blogspot.com
3. Anneliese www.queen-of-the-crop.blogspot.com
4. Jewels www.joy-n-jesus.blogspot.com
5. Karen www.countrygirl-karen.blogspot.com
6. Jennifer L www.jenniferlongenecker.blogspot.com
7. Mia www.makepositivechanges.blogspot.com
8. Rachael www.rachaelwoodphotography.blogspot.com
9. Jennifer P www.hydrangeahippo.blogspot.com
10. Sharon www.sharonbertolino.blogspot.com
11. Ana www.anazelia-myscrapbookaddiction.blogspot.com

Thanks for stopping by! I will be announcing a winner Next Tuesday (the 23rd), so be sure to check back in!

XOXO Feb challenge is up

2010-02-16T13:56:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to let you all know that the new challenge is up at True XOXO Girls . I am on team "O". This is our second month up and we are getting more and more girls playing along with us, which is awesome!

This month, my project is an altered Doorknob plate. I used a Bombshell stamp, Websters Sweet Cherry Pie paper, and a bunch of Prima e-line rhinestones and pearls. Hope you enjoy, can't wait to see your lifts.

Gone Etsy!!!

2010-02-16T13:42:00.000-08:00

Yep, I jumped on the band wagon for Etsy. For two reasons really.

Little Bits of Insanity

#1, I am obsessive at times. Once I start something I like, I keep doing it over and over until I have just scads of it. Right now it's been making jewlery and crocheting scarfs of varying styles. I started out doing it for myself, but I had plenty left over to make more, so I did. There's something about sitting and crocheting while watching TCM that makes me happy. I don't ever intend on having a business or making any real money, just recooping some of my spending! I think Luke will appreciate it.

#2, It will give me a bit of freedom to try new things. If I can make a few bucks, it will allow me to buy more! And that way I won't have to feel so bad for asking Luke for MORE craft money! It will be nice to be able to say that I make a little bit of money of my own to buy what I like.

So for right now, I don't have a ton of stuff up, several of the things I had made I ended up giving away as gifts to people who admired things of mine. Sucker! But I really do love being able to do that! And one necklace I am keeping for myself! Cause I just love it!

If you want something, let me know and i will do my best to make it. Otherwise, go look! Tell me what you think! I tried to keep my prices as low as possible. Considering an average scarf takes me 6 or 7 hours and the yarn is $8-$10 per scarf, less than $20 is CHEAP! Thanks so much for all of your support! Love you all!

It's Mardi Gras!

2010-02-14T19:42:00.000-08:00

I am not a fan of the south, that's no secret. But if I have to live here, it may as well be some place that embraces the "Lets get drunk and screw" anthem I have always been fond of. Shreveport has a pretty active Mardi Gras. This weekend, we hit up 2 parades.

The first one put on by the Krewe of Gemini was the better of the two. The floats were all themed after fictional characters. VERY COOL. Everyone is in costume, all throwing TONS of beads, dubloons, balls, cups, and random toys. The parade was about an hour and a half long, but we waited over 5 hours to see it! We were in the no drinking zone. The city designates this whole park as a family zone, so it wasn't as crowded as some of the other areas. This meant little competition for goodies and easy access in and out. We had porti potties near us, so that was good. Luke spoiled the kids, buying them cotton candy and trent a confetti gun. That thing was super cute! As much as he hates people, I think he had a good time. The kids were just beside themselves. We do NOT have parades like this back home! I have NEVER seen anything like it. People were camped out in trailers and tents, BBQing to save their places. That was insane. These people go big! Next year we will just tailgate too!

Today, Luke had to head back to Houston. When he left we loaded up in the car. We grabbed some lunch, parked right where the parade was staging, and walked about 5 blocks to the start of the "throw zone." We only had to wait a bit over an hour, which by comparison seemed like a breeze. There were throngs of people. By the time the parade actually started, we were 5 and 6 people deep on the street and sidewalk. Further down the route, it was much worse. We also didn't get nearly as much STUFF as the other onem but better beads and cool little toys and candy. But the coolest thing? Well, really 3 things. #1. One of the BBQ places threw HOT DOGS! #2. One float threw MOON PIES!!! Trent and I each got one. #3. Crawfish beads! They are red with a 4 inch crawfish on them! So freaking cool. This was by far a community parade. The floats weren't as good, more kids groups, and many more people there. We had a great time chatting with the folks around us. One man even gave the kids half of what he caught! He gave the other half to his niece... so I guess we can't fault him! We gave him one set of the crawfish beads!

I was thinking about taking the kids to the children's parade down on the boardwalk tuesday evening, but after giving it some serious though, I gave up on that. The fat tuesday mess will be REALLY bad in downtown on the other side of the river, where all the clubs are. And there is only ONE tiny entrance/exit for the freeway by the boardwalk, and just around christmas time it would take me 20 minutes just to get from the exit 1/4 a mile from parking! It was rediculous. So I will just keep them at home! Maybe I can appease them by buying a king cake.

I will leave you with a couple of photos from today, nothing special. Just what I snapped real quick between or during getting whacked in the FACE with beads! Yep, and I didn't even get the beads that hit me! Awesome! Can't wait till next year...

Hell Officially Froze Over!

2010-02-12T06:14:00.000-08:00

We woke up this morning to 3-4 beautiful inches of snow! The kids are outside playing, even my Napoleon is bouning through the chest deep snow. Freeways are closed because Shreveport has only 2 now plow attachments for the front of city pick-ups. Obviously school was cancelled by 2 yesterday!

The kids were up bright and early, like 6:30! Don't they know the rules of snow days??? We lost power briefly, I am sure the cause was a limb falling on a line. The trees are so weighted down. All of our small trees are bent over to the ground. The snow is still lightly falling, but its supposed to melt by this evening as the temperature flirts with 40. We'll see. Luke is supposed to come home tonight after he gets out of school, but I don't know if he will be able! I really hope he can. Mardi Gras parade tomorrow and then Valentines Day, it would be nice to have my husband.

I will leave you all with a few pictures I have a feeling I won't get again as long as we live here. I hope those of you with REAL snow problems are faring well.

Who me? Sassy??? NAW!

2010-02-10T12:25:00.000-08:00

Well it seems there is a lot of SASSYNESS going around this week. Over at Moxie Fab World (one of my favorite blogs for inspo, by the way!) issued a challenge. To use Anne Taintor's tongue in cheek style of 50's ad girls on a project. Yeah, I have been doing this for a few years! I didn't even know who Anne Taintor was! But anyway, I digress. I was flipping through an old 1950n edition of Look magazine that my girl Jamie sent me a few months ago. Several of the ads popped out at me, so I cut them out and made a few cards out of them. So thanks, Cath, for the challenge! I needed another excuse to ignore my housework!

This card is using some Cosmo Cricket pp, some Prima e-line gems, a MM snowflake, and my favorite fiskars punch.

As if I needed an excuse to use of more of my sassafras scraps... The trim is from Joann's and the flowers and gems are all Prima (cause who doesn't love some prima!)

And my other favorite, MME! This is some of the leftovers from the Breaking Free collection I used this summer on our Kauai trip. Rubons, frame, diecuts, all of it! It's a little difficult to tell from the photo, but the frame is popped out.

Thanks for dropping by my little blog! I love sharing my craft with you all and finding new scrappy friends all over the web!

Sassafras, will you be my Valentine?

2010-02-09T13:27:00.000-08:00

I took a challenge posted over at Sassafras's blog. Basically, the challenge is to use up your current stash of Sass to make room for your new stash! And you have to make something for someone you love for valentines. So I did! Cause Lord knows I have enough Sassafras! I bought at least part of every collection released at the last 4 CHA's! Yep, I am a Sass whore! One of my favorite lines of all time from them is "fawned of you too". I love the vintagey colors, cool patterns, and how well they mix with everything else!

So here it is, the piece d' resistance. I added some random crochet trim, a bunch of Prima e-line pearls and gems, some MM cork letters, vintage buttons, and smooch. (lovin me some smooch!) I have NO idea who will get this, maybe I will give it to B! I already made Luke a card... Julia would like this too though.

TGIF!

2010-02-05T13:42:00.000-08:00

So I did the Tuesday Trigger over at http://www.moxiefab.com/ . I posted about it over at TES, so I will spare the details. But thought I would share it here too! Luke is home tonight for the weekend, I am stoked. I have had a migraine since I woke up and it won't let up, so I am not doing much. I need to finish up laundry and pick up the kitchen, so we'll see how far I get. Going nuts waiting for news about Purple cows. Supposed to hear today. Still have my fingers crossed, although trying to be realistic!

Since i am not good enough..

2010-02-01T18:28:00.001-08:00

For the design team I applied for, I will share a couple of the projects I had to make new especially for the call. Kinda bummed I didn't make it, but at least I got some scrappy projects done!

This card is for my bff Jason for his birthday. Fits him.

I used a cork coaster from Ikea for the card, then some Pink Paisley paper, Maya road bird and branch, Bella Blvd houndstooth paper, paper reflections key and keyhole.

Kaiser Craft papers, Bazzill swiss dot cs, AC blue letters, MLS small white and black letters, Kaiser rubon. Napoleon has the WORST overbite and these crazy shark teeth. He just never lost his baby teeth because they came in SO far up in his gums. He is such a unique little puppy!

I took these photos of the kids in the cemetary near our house. Its very small, maybe 25 graves total from half dozen families. we found out recently that we live on an old plantation. The graves date back before 1900-1950. I shot them in their costumes before we went trick or treating and in black and white with my Olympus Evolt E500. I used so much random stuff on this. Daisy D's halloween postcards, MME cat and skull, AC bat, Doodlebug gems, LYB ghost chip, and hand cut trees, CK hat pin, OA Journaling sticker.

Look ma, I scrapped!

2010-01-29T15:04:00.000-08:00

Yeah, Yeah. I was doing so well before Christmas with posting. And then I got lax. And now i am trying to get things posted. I HAVE scrapped, I promise! But some things have been for DT work, some for applications that require non-published ANYWHERE stuff. So here are a few projects from the Project Runway crop over at Serendipity Scrapbooks. If you have never been there before, you should go! They have a very active board and some really really talented scrappers. and GREAT sales! Kristin always has a ton of product.

This Kindergarten layout is using a bunch of the stuff from the October Afternoon Report Card line. I LOVE this owl paper SOOOOOO much!

This was a punk challenge, so I glimmer misted some cosmo cricket paper from the boyfriend collection. I also used a few pieces of thickers, some MM alphas, prima pearls, and BG rubon. The zebra paper is from GCD.

And last but not least, this rad card! Sassafras Me Likey paper, some felt flowers cut on a regular die cut machine, thickers, a graph paper notecard, and bazzil swiss dot paper. LOVE it! It's my favorite project of the crop.

So there are a few projects, not everything! I am working on some stuff now, so I will post more next week! I love you Carolyn! And if you are reading this, please go vote for me at purple cows

I am a semi-finalist!

2010-01-24T14:38:00.000-08:00

Over at purple cows! They have a design contest going on and I entered. I can't say what I entered, it's supposed to be a blind poll. But I can say that it's ME. it's all my personality which is why I am so surprised to be int he position I am in! I really appreciate all of you who come visit my blog and say nice things and encourage me. That makes it that much more special when I get recognized in something more significant. So please go to the blog and vote for your favorite, I hope it's mine!
www.sadiepurplecow.blogspot.com

New liftables are up at XOXO!

2010-01-20T22:18:00.000-08:00

Just so everyone knows, the second set of liftables is up for this month! I am on the "O" team, so my layout "tan" is up! This new venture for me is very very fun. I am really enjoying myself. With that said, I am completely without mojo right now! Usually when Luke is out of town, I scrap my butt off. But the crop I will be doing over at Serendipity Scrapbooks is not until this weekend, WHEN HE COMES HOME! AHHHHH! Maybe i will get to do a few challenges while he is hunting saturday morning or while I am waiting for him to get here friday night. we will see.

In the meantime, I have been working on some tutorials over at The Everyday Scrapper, so keep your eyes out there too! Just some fun stuff. Cause that's how I roll!

In other news, we escaped damage by a thunder storm/tornado storm last night. A friend of ours lost some windows and there was a tornado about 7 miles from our house, but we

had almost nothing. Not even much wind or rain. Awesome! Guess God was listening! Having lunch with a lady from green River who also got transferred down here with her husband. We didn't associate back home, but could both use another familiar face. So hopefully this will go well! Be back hopefully soon with more productive scrappy news.

The best thing EVER!

2010-01-15T19:34:00.000-08:00

One of my former students, Garrett, shared this on facebook. i think it is the most awesome thing I have seen in months! When i was in high school, my 1988 Toyota 4x4 was named "Critter Gitter" and said so across the top of the windshield! it was awesome and I miss it so much. So I thought I would share this with you. It made me smile!

Foxy!

2010-01-13T15:21:00.000-08:00

Brandon and I were supposed to have coffee monday morning, but both of us were up late and decided to sit and chat on the phone in the comfort of our own homes as opposed to actually showering and getting moving. The makeup date was today for lunch. We met at this really great place called Guisseppe's with his friend Laurel, who I am now loving! She's so cool!

After we took her back to work, we did a little bit of shopping. We ended up at TJ Maxx. I need a bag. Something fierce. The one I have been using I bought for a Disneyland trip. It's Eddie Bauer and VERY practical. Not very cute! I do love it for trips, but for every day I need more, something cute that isn't made out of back pack material! I have a HOT Fossil 54 clutch, but sometimes you just need a strap, right!

We walk to the purse section and the heavens opened up and the sun shone down on me. This bag was calling to me. Wow. So I now own this bag, it took like .34 seconds to decide. B was like "you NEED that bag!" and I agreed. This after I tell him how I have been looking for weeks and finding nothing that was small enough or had the right length strap, blah blah blah. And this was the first thing I saw. So now all my stuff is moved over and I am happy. When I showed the kids, trent said "Mom, that's FOXY!" So here it is, now I can go craft because I shared this with everyone. Maybe I will scrap it. Or maybe I will just use it as inspiration.

Not great photos, but here's what I did...

2010-01-12T13:02:00.000-08:00

I actually got in my scrap room the other day to work on some stuff. Having a month break almost because of the surgery and christmas really took the winds out of my sails. But this little wallet sized photo of my Grammy fell out of a stack so I needed to scrap it. I have hung onto this old MM paper collection for a long time now and I love it for vintage photos.

This one is photos I LOVED from Natchitoches, LA. It's the oldest town in LA. So amazing. Old plantations, beautiful architecture, the style of buildings you expect to be in LA, but it's not the norm! When we moved here, I expected to see things that looked like the french quarter in NOLA. But that's not the reality at all! Reality is that NOLA is not where I live, so my area looks just like any other major metro area. We live in the country, our house is 3 years old. We have mobile homes near us and downtown shreveport is being torn down, one decrepid empty building at a time. Sad. So anyway, I loved this spiral staircase. I have been told it's a national historic landmark. It's awesome. I used a ton of smooch and some MM glaze, which I love! I used it in the corner and the top, the silver part that is so reflective you can't tell what the heck it is! But in person it looks really cool.

So yeah, that's pretty much it! Luke is gone for 7 weeks for school, I am at home with the kids when they aren't in school, which seems like all the time! They had thursday off for a pretend weather day and have friday and next monday off again! It's a wonder they learn anything! I have been crocheting a lot. I am wokring on some stuff for an etsy store. the crocheting is an extension of my anxiety, I need to be doing something with my hands right now constantly. So this is the most productive thing I could think of. Now if only I could teach my toes to crochet, maybe i could stop the constant wriggling/tapping of those things! Look for more from me soon!

F@&* it Friday

2010-01-08T09:13:00.000-08:00

I was chatting with my girl Kelly a couple of days ago and I just got the urge to make a paper moustache. I drew one out on a scrap of Bazzill swiss dot cardstock I had laying near me, slapped a glue dot on the back of it and stuck it on my face. Good for some laughs right? Yeah, I was in the house alone!

I was talking to her about my rampant use of the "F" word. I told her i should scrap it and she agreed. She told me about a layout she had done of it too. So that was it, I had my challenge. But this came to me instead.

I turned my point and shoot on myself and clicked off about 10 pictures. I uploaded them, then messed with them a little. I used a bunch of thickers and some Sassafras "Anthem" scraps I saved. Of course I can never post this anywhere but my blog, but I had to share it cause it makes me laugh! It's SO my personality.

Hope you enjoyed my "F" word Friday. Maybe I will keep up the tradition.

My Big Announcement!!!

2010-01-05T11:15:00.000-08:00

You are looking at one of the inaugural True OG's! That's True XOXO Girl! I am on the DT for a newly launching challenge blog and the first challenge is up! How this works is this: We are split into 2 teams. There will be two challenges a month with one prize at the end. What are the challenges? Scraplift us! We get a list of things to use on our layouts and then you just have to lift us! One or all!

Check us out here and add us to your list of followed blogs. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE join us! I am really stoked about this team, there are some incredibly talented girls here. This month's sponsor is Ink & Button, this really cool Etsy shop. and she designed this headband just for our blog! It's super cute, I may have to ask her to make me one too!

My team is the "O" girls, so appropriate for me right! Our liftables will be up on the 15th, so I can't show you yet! But go check out the first projects from the X's. I can show you my XOXO layout that was designed just for the reveal.

Go now! Thanks girls! Love ya!

Fat Girl in a Little Bikini

2010-01-04T10:32:00.001-08:00

Those of you who know me from Scrap Gal, this is for you! This summer I spent in Kauai with my sister. It was a trip of firsts. I tried MANY new things, including ziplining, Filipino food, and wearing a true bikini IN PUBLIC! And maybe I shouldn't have. I apologise to any of you who saw me in person and were grossed out.

One of the good things about Kauai is that while I did know a LOT of people by the end of my stay, I was still relatively anonymous. And there were many people with worse bodies than mine wearing as little as I was. Sometimes less and in less appropriate places.

Once I got past being embarrased and self conscience, I was comfortable, had a great tan, and even felt a bit freed. I even shopped for and bought a second bikini top! The tankini top was relegated to the back of the closet and I RAN IT!

So here it is, photographic proof of my adventures in the skinny girl atire. Consider yourself warned, do not scroll further if you don't want to see me mostly naked! I used MME Breaking Free collection for almost the entire layout, in keeping with the theme of all of my pages from that trip.

Top 10 of 09

2009-12-30T15:21:00.001-08:00

Over at Crop Addict, someone suggested that we blog our top 10 projects of 2009. Since I don't have photos of all of my favorites (I know, I know. Sometimes I just don't feel like taking the pictures,) I picked my top 10 from my "Scrap To Keep" file.

I found myself using a LOT of My Minds Eye and Sassafras this year. I realize that Sassafras has really fit my spunky mood this year. I also have been scrapping LESS kids and MORE me. I started a scrap only journal for myself. Basically I am scrapping photo-less layouts, just journaling about my feelings, things I like, things I hate... I am not much for just writing. And as I have said previously many times, scrapping my thoughts basically is cheap therapy. I need to work on it while I work on the layouts. And when I am done, hopefully I can let it go.

So here they are, 10 of my favorite projects from this year. Hope they are some of your favorites too.

Better and Scrapping Again

2009-12-21T15:40:00.001-08:00

So I am much much better today. I am on NO pain meds. I am not 100%, still swallowing carefully, having minor earaches, and getting sore after a lengthy phone call. Thanks for the well wishes! I have actually ALMOST caught up on all the house work I missed.... Almost. Lets not get ahead of ourselves! Christmas shopping is done, but not all wrapped. And I gave up on making gifts for some people. Sorry guys. I love you, but there just isn't time. The kids were sick half of last week, Julia missed a day and a half and Trent missed 3! Then Thursday he had an all day field trip I went on and Friday was parties in the afternoon. I did both kids'.

I actually did scrap a couple pages, one that I am not sharing yet because it is for an upcoming TES post. But this one is using some fabulous My Little Scrapbox that Tanisha Long sent me. If you don't know her, go find her. She is SO talented. I have a STACK of photos of me as a child that my mom gave me in those old magnetic albums. Many of the photos are ruined from the discoloration, but some fared better than others. sorry for the bad photo, but it's already dark and I knew if I didn't blog now, I wouldn't get it done for days again!

And check out Spunky Scrappers for the new challenge! This week, it's all about "believe". This is my layout! Love this boy! The paper is one of my all time fav BG lines, Hang 10. And that stamp is by bombshell. They are AWESOME, you should check them out. I have a couple sets from them and they are the best!
If I don't blog before then, Merry Christmas!

Survivor: Greenwood

2009-12-13T10:15:00.000-08:00

I think I can honestly now say I have an idea of what it's like to be on that show. I have not eaten more than 4 popcicles a day since tuesday. I cannot eat! STILL! I am woozy all the time, sleep most of the day because of the meds, and and feel like my stomach is eating itself.

My friend Ana has been coming over to help out with the kids and keeping my kitchen clean, which has been a god-send. The rest of the house is ankle deep. Luke has decided to take a side logging business again, against my better judgement. He works all 3 of his days off to make what he would make in simply working ONE more day at his real job. It infuriates me, but you can't tell that man anything. Whatever.

I have polished off the better part of a box of fudgecicles, some twin pops, and 1/2 a pint of ben and jerry's Cherry Garcia. I think I probably have consumed 2000 calories since tuesday, including drinks. I bought Sprite Zero (out of habit, not realizing that I could USE the calories right now!) and have been drinking that and water. More water because the sprite has been irritating my throat lately. I need to go to the grocery store something fierce, but am so weak that I have to hold the wall to walk to the bathroom.

I know it will get better some days, but obviously I am not healing quickly from this surgery. It's probably my own fault, I am afraid to swallow. But my throat swelling doesn't seem to be going down at ALL. I still live with an ice pack on my neck to control that swelling. Today is the first day I actually have a jawline since surgery. I still feel like I swallowed a ping pong ball. But I can speak, so that's awesme. I went for 2 full days with NO words. Then another 2 with very short sentences once in a while. It still hurts to talk, but at least i can make the sounds. Right now the ear aches are really getting me.

So to all of my committments I am slacking off on, I am really really sorry. I don't feel stable enough to scrap... at least not to have it be anything I would be able to share... I am not sure jackson pollack type scrapping would go over well! I tried to work on a few christmas gifts, but that's going no where fast.

I am hoping that by the end of this next week I will be closer to 75%, I think 100% is a rediculous stretch! My Grandma and Grandpa sent me a thank you card which was really nice. The ONLY people who did mind you.... Bad friends, shame on all of you.

Hopefully the next time I blog, I will have better news. And no, I am not sharing any photos. I DID shower last night, but it's still not pretty!

Since I am now officially useless...

2009-12-09T06:26:00.000-08:00

Thought I would share with you. I made this little layout about my sanity in a pill. If you don't know (which probably most of you dont), I have chronic daily migraines. I have had a few many years back, then about a year and a half ago, I started having frequent migraines. Then after about 6 months, they became a daily occurrence. Many people CLAIM to have migraines. They think that any bad headache is a migraine. That's just not the case. If you are one of these people, STOP! You make our affliction seem less.

Migraines are a very specific type of headache. They are vascular in nature. Basically, what happens is that the vessels in your brain dialate and as the blood rushes, it causes a throbbing pain. Many people have what's called "aura". Some people get halos or spots or a metallic taste in their mouths. I get light, sound, and smell sensitivity. I also get some odd aura. It's verbal. I have a hard time finding words or completing thoughts. Speaking is a task. I cannot read, I have a hard time following other people's speech too. And nausea and vomitting is pretty common too. I get it. The headaches are hemispherical. That means that you typically only get them on one side of your head or the other. Mine are almost always directly above my left ear. And specific things trigger them. When i have breakthrough headaches (meaning that while I am on my preventative meds, I still get occassional headaches) they are usually caused by something like alcohol (more than one or two beverages and I get one. that SUCKS!), certain medications, lack of sleep, etc...

OK, mini lesson over. So this page is about Effexor XR, my saviour. This is an SNRI that I take every day and it controls the seratonin levels in my brain. Research points to seratonin level issues as a cause of migraines, so controlling that seems to help. I went from being on my emergency meds daily and still non-functional many days to having one or two breakthrough headaches a week with maybe one or two significant headaches a month. That is a miracle. As a bonus, this particular med is also used to treat anxiety disorder, which I have! So it helps control my panic attacks as well and makes my little quirks less intrusive! Win Win situation!

I used Sassafrass Marmalade papers which I really didn't think I liked. Kelly sent them to me so I used them. And LOVE them! Thanks Kelly, you're my favorite! Also a Maya Road bird, Pink Paisley Pixie Stix, Prima flowers and lined paper, and Thickers. Cause what is a layout without thickers!

Photos and a little update

2009-12-06T19:01:00.000-08:00

I promised photos from Natchitoches two weeks ago, and I finally uploaded them... Some didn't come out as well as I hoped, but that happens with fading light and plenty traffic! Some I really liked!

This general store is like nothing I have ever seen before. It's in a 100+ year old building and everything is in the flat top tables in cool bins as old as the building. The paint had to be 1/4 inch thick! They had such cool things stored in display counters and this wonderful older gentleman who used to be an art professor who now paints watercolors! So cool. I got to sit and visit with him for probably half an hour. Everyone else was ready to go and left the store to sit outside while I visited. I love talking to older people. One question leads to one hour! But it was really nice!

Other photos are just quick snapshots I wanted to share, Julia after she got her face painted at Bass Pro and Boudreaux and Tan laying together. She thinks she is one of the dogs!

So here is the update part. I am getting my tonsils out tuesday! I have been having problems with them a lot over the past, well, 29 years! They were supposed to come out in '98 and I got sick, then my insurance ran out. So I went in Friday, the doc said "Yeah, they're bad and they're coming out. How does Tuesday sound..." So I will be going in. Last time I had surgery, I got pretty sick afterwards and ended up spending almost the whole day in the hospital. So hopefully this time, they will LISTEN to me when I tell them to give me phenergan!

This means I will be largely unproductive for a while. I do NOT do well with pain meds. I get very ill. The doc said I won't be able to handle the pain without the meds, so I will be on phenergan to keep from yacking and Midrin to squash the inevitable migraines the meds will cause! Yep, it will be one happy unconscience week or two! I will be trying to facebook and MB occassionally, just depends on how often I am alert!

I still have a bunch of Christmas presents to make, all of my gifts to wrap, and some DT stuff to do. Wish me luck! If you want to send flowers, feel free! Also, Papa John's would be greatly appreciated! lol! I promise NOT to post pictures of my scars.

December!

2009-12-01T16:03:00.000-08:00

November flew by. Yeah, I am a bad blogger. Since there are like 3 of you who actually follow me somewhat regularly, Here is what has happened in the past 2 weeks.

1. Steve and Gayle (my in-laws) came and stayed a week with us for Thanksgiving. It was really nice. We took in the sights a bit, got to visit a lot, did some shopping, and just hung out.

2. I had some medical issues that took a lot of time and stress. Long rated G story is that I am ok, just adding another "disease/disorder/condition" to my list. Yep, it's fun.

3. Our outdoor cat passed a tape worm. Yep, it was like 12 inches. At least. It was the most incredibly disgusting thing ever so I had to share. It was too much nasty to keep to myself. Just be glad I didn't take a picture.

4. trent is now missing both his front top teeth and his two bottom side teeth. Then we went out for supper and he got corn on the cob. Yep, we all laughed.

5. You know you're a redneck when.... You take your kids to Bass Pro Shop to see Santa.

6. Stood on line for 3 hours to get INTO toys r us on black friday. Then took another 30 minutes to check out once I got inside. Yep, that was awesome. It was 33 degrees and I wore a fleece. Wahoo. By the time I got in, half the stuff I was waiting for was gone. Then I stood on line at Target for one hour. I got everything I needed plus a reusable shopping bag and checked out in less than 5 minutes. Much better choice at Target.

7. We had another scorpion in the house. Yep, the insect variety with the sting parts. EW. I am not a fan of the south. Just sayin.

8. Got a bunch of stuff to work on Christmas projects with. I am making a ton this year for gifts, so that is taking most of my crafting time. So that's more of why I am not posting scrappy stuff. Cause the altered items I have made are gifts and that would just ruin everything!

My goal is to scrap at least one or two pages tomorrow. Wish me luck. I'll post if I get the chance! Hope all of you are less stressed than I feel right now. Enjoy your holidays!

Pictures coming soon, we got to go to Natchitoches (pronounced nack a tish) where they are old plantations. It's the oldest city in louisiana and was incorperated in 1714. So I have some really good photos, I just need to upload them from my CF card, which I cannot just stick into my laptop!

Hasta!

I am scrapping, I promise!

2009-11-22T15:21:00.000-08:00

I know pretty much everyone who follows my blog does so because they know me from scrapping. Well, I promise I am working! I just cannot post ANYTHING! I made a new design team. Well, actually, 2! But one is a secret and I can't spill till next month! So here's the good news.

I made the DT over at www.spunkyscrappers.ning.com ! I am so stoked. This is a challenge blog with weekly challenges as well as a whole ning community. I am on the "B" team as we are split into two groups. We do a challenge every week, so we split so that there isn't quite so much work. So I have been working on upcoming challenges. Check this week's out, it's all about the word FREE. There will be another one up in a couple days and the layout I am working on is SO ME! Spunky Scrappers is a group of girls like me- no filter. Well, i don't think any of them are as bad as I am, but it's kind of a "gloves are coming off" kind of group. We scrap anything and everything. I will tell you that my layout on my desk right now for this week doesn't contain pictures because we would have to change to a R rating! It's way fun, we just got new sketch artists too, so there is a LOT coming up. Go check it out!

Plus, I have been working on getting stuff going over at www.TheEverydayScrapper.com with some new contributors. Also, the new team, which of course you don't get to know about yet. But lets just say my profile picture for it is freaking HOT!

Add this to the PILE of Christmas presents I am working on. I am B_R_O_K_E this year. Having 2 houses and having moved etc has just taken the budget down to NIL. So I am making as many as I can. Which really just works out well because I am so awesome, everyone wants my gifts anyway... right? Yeah, maybe not. But I am working on cool stuff. I will post some when I get them finished.

OK, in-laws coming in LATE tonight. I am not feeling well. I have been having constant dizziness for 3 days now. It's something with my eyes, not an inner ear infection. I think it must have something to do with my optic nerve or something. My lips tingle when i move my eyes. It SUCKS. BAD. I am going to try to get to the doc tomorrow cause I cannot do anything like this!

Till later this week, have a great time! Enjoy the fall, enjoy your families! And Getcha SOME!

Almost My Favorite Holiday!

2009-11-21T07:48:00.000-08:00

It's Saturday. That means like 5 days until Thanksgiving. I LOVE Thanksgiving. I LOVE everything about it. I love the house full of people. I love the colors. I love the chill in the air, the smell of hot cider and roasting turkey and candles burning. Yes, there are no presents, but I am ok with that! So much less stress leading up to it than Christmas. No mass shopping expeditions, no stress about finding the perfect "IT", no crowds. Just a warm house and great food.

I am blessed. Really, we all say that right? Sometimes it's harder than others to see the blessings. Especially when the bills have piled 6 inches high and there is no more money to pay them. When relationships are stressed and tensions mount. When my attitude is gone and I don't see it coming back any time soon. I have to step back and look at what I do have. A husband who loves me. 2 healthy kids. A great family and network of friends nationwide. A roof over my head, and (almost bald) tires under my butt when I need to get out. I live in a free country run by officials I pretend to have a say in electing. I get to stay at home every day, be here when my kids get on the bus and when they get off. I don't have to pay someone else to raise them. Luke lets me scrap to my hearts content, although I am sure at many times he is gritting his teeth at the lack of housework getting done. I have food, clean water, access to medical care, and no one waiting to beat, rape, torture me. No war in my backyard, no armed men at my door. And do I deserve any of it? Not especially. I haven't really done anything spectacular or worthy. So I guess it all comes down to the fact that God is good.

Yep, I seep into sap every once in a while. I don't like to let it happen often because it's of little use, all the blubbering and whatnot! So now that we have that all out of the way, I am off to finish putting together the guest room. Steve and Gayle are coming tomorrow very late to spend the week with us. I need to scrub the kids' bathroom since they will be sharing and the kids make a nasty mess out of it daily! I finally locked them out of it yesterday because they refuse to clean up after themselves.

So i am off, I need to get some design team blog posts ready too at some point today. Right, I just dont see that happening! Have a great weekend.

I want my cake.

2009-11-17T11:19:00.000-08:00

I found myself Friday evening hanging out on Facebook for the Maya Road crop and chat. So much fun those girls! The design team amazes me. And the owners are sooooo sweet. I didn't know anything about the company before then.

One of the challenges was to make a tag using MR stuff. I pulled out my stash and came up with this little girl. Lots of chip pieces, a trinket pin, rubons, and a cupcake topped wtih dimensional elements, pixie stix, and smooch.

No idea what i will do with it, for now I think I will just look at it and think about making some cupcakes. I do have some cherry frosting in the pantry!

Coupons!!!!!

2009-11-13T16:40:00.000-08:00

It's getting on Christmas time. That means using using up lots of scrappy supplies making gifts and less money to buy new stuff! So the ladies over at http://www.savvynsassy.com/ are hooking us up. But you have to go check out http://www.theeverydayscrapper.com/ to get the codes! So RUN to the blog, get your codes, and get shoping. They have the awesomest (is that a word even) ribbon! I love this months' finds!

A new photo I love

2009-11-12T08:19:00.000-08:00

I got a new kitten. Her name is Tan. As in the drink "Black and Tan" which is, if you don't know, a guiness and bass ale. Our other kitten, if you didn't figure it out is black! So anyway.... She was in my craft room playing while I was working the other day. When I scrap, ALL of the animals come in there and pile around my table. Tan was rolling around in a pile of wadded up light pink tulle I had on the floor. She ended up all in it. Luckily I had my camera on my desk next to me. I got a few really good shots of her. She is quite photogenic.

I am changing the name of my blog...

2009-11-11T13:13:00.000-08:00

Well, at least my banner title. I had a lovely chat last night over at serendipity scrapbooks with Becky Fleck. She is a KICK in the pants! I'm not a big sketch fan, but do admire her work with BG. We all know what a BG whore I am. Evidently Nook and Pantry hasn't been the big hit they were hoping for, but I am in LOVE! I got to play with some via my DT connections at scrapgal.com. So I chose this eggbeater page, not knowing what the HELL I was going to do with it. I just loved it so much. Yesterday i was scrapping when I kept thinking naughty thoughts about Nook and Pantry. Nooky and Panty kept coming into my head and running around. So after I finished my layout, I took the scraps and made this card! Becky got to hear about it last night, but since it is MY brand of humor, I opted not to post it in the gallery with my layout. So here it is!

Spunky Scrappers GDT!

2009-11-10T06:21:00.000-08:00

So i found this fabulous little blog, as you have already seen me post about. It's called Spunky Scrappers. Spunk is something I have plenty of. I am in love! A group of girls that will tolerate, even encourage my particular brand of cheeky, obnoxious, shocking, honest scrapping! So I am GDT this week. Head over here and check out this weeks' challenge. It's all about scrapping a random though. Here is my layout. There are some really fabulous layouts up with me this week!

Trusty ol' Random.org

2009-11-08T07:40:00.000-08:00

Says #4 and 6, so that's Mara and carolyn! Email me your addy's for your magnet/pin sets! I will have them sent out to you! THanks everyone for stopping by! I will be looking for some more etsy finds soon! It's lots of fun! I hope you girls all head that way and do some christmas shopping homemade, even if it's someone else's homemade.

The Coolest Chipboard EVER!

2009-11-07T06:41:00.000-08:00

I was hanging out over at the Crop Addict today and someone shared this company with me. So I thought I would pass it on because it's the coolest thing ever! It's called riff Raff Designs and they do laser cut chip. Such cool designs. I really really love their stuff. Did I mention that? Oh, cause I really love their stuff! They have everything from flourishes to pregnant body outlines to guitars and angel wings!

Just click on the photo to get to their website! I'm hoping someone who reads this will decide to carry their entire line because I WANT IT!

Because Jaybird did one...

2009-11-05T18:04:00.000-08:00

Well, not really, but kinda! I have been planning on altering an older copy of "Bridges of Madison County." It's my favorite book in the world. But it got a grease spot on the front. My bff Jason got me a new copy for christmas, so I am going to ffix this one up good! In the meantime, it's been sitting around for months and months because I don't know exactly where I want to go with it and I only get one shot since the book is important for me to keep.

My girl Jaybird altered this awesome book (check it out at http://www.thegalblog.com/) and I figured "Know what, what the hell!" Kelly sent me this super cute little pink address book. Well, I don't use them. I use my trusty palm pilot or a spreadsheet. But it was SOOOOOO cute I knew I HAD to use it. So, voila! I modge podged the crap out of it, cut my hole, and trimmed it out. I wanted to obscure it a bit, so I used some sheer swiss dot fabric.

Mostly this was a way to blow off some steam for an afternoon. Over at the Gal, we are having an "Attitude of Gratitude" contest. One of the challenges is to make a gratitude journal, which I intend to do. But I started thinking about the old "Daily Affirmations" sketch on SNL. So right now, I am affirming away. And this little pinky is here to remind me.

New blog!

2009-11-03T09:38:00.000-08:00

Hey gals and pals. Just thought I would give a little shout out to a fab little place called Spunky Scrappers! It's a super cool challenge blog/site and they just put up a new blogspot blog to go along with it. So head over and check it out. They are having a dt call too, so if you're interested....

www.spunkyscrapper.blogspot.com

You can check out the ning community too at www.spunkyscrappers.ning.com

Happy Haunting

2009-11-01T12:22:00.000-08:00

My friend Ana and I took our kids to this very old cemetery by my house. I live out of town in a rural area. Up on the side of this random little raised wooded area is a very small cemetery. We're talking maybe 25 graves, all from the same 3 or 4 families. The earliest in tact grave marker is a death date of 1899 and the latest is sometime in the 30's. It's not marked, I can't find out anything about it. But it's there and occasionally someone comes up there and mows over the grass overgrowth. We got all the kids ready to go to the Halloween Party at the Calvary Chapel. we made a stop up there on the way to town.

These are a few of the photos I took with my Olympus E-500. Sometimes it gives me fits and makes me crazy, but right now it's working ok! They were pretty much all shot at 1/30 or 1/40 and F4.3. No flash on my standard lens.

Hailey dressed up as a vampire. By the time we got out of the truck, she was over her vampire teeth and didn't wear them the whole day! So much for being a vampire! Henry was a skeleton. Nuf said. Trent was the white ninja from the new G.I. Joe movie. He's the bad guy, aparantly. We haven't seen it but Lindsey told me he was. So Trent had to tell EVERYONE that he was the white ninja from GI Joe and he was a bad guy not a good guy. Julia was a Zebra. So cute! She had a bit of a cold though and wasn't feeling so excited. Of course I had to take a photo of Napoleon in his super cute bumblebee costume! He didn't fight it, he did fight the leash, so we couldn't take him with us. Bummer. Next year though. I will work on the leash thing. He's just used to being in my purse of my carrying him.

Isn't the flare and the sun streaks on Hailey's photo FREAKY? Seriously! I had one that came out perfectly, really crisp and clean. But the other 3 I took had obvious streaking and this odd flare. I zoomed in on it and it looked like a flame from a bunsen burner! TOO CREEPY. It's sun flare, I was shooting into the sunset. But still. In a graveyard on Halloween....

Christmas Blog Candy Etsy Style!

2009-10-28T19:38:00.000-07:00

If you follow my blog, you know I like to give stuff away. You also know that I am crafty. And that I get behind stuff and people I like 100,000%! I am a fan of Etsy, not just because it gives artisans a way to sell their goods, but because it encourages us all to support hand-crafted goods. I feel like 100 years, women prided themselves in their hand-made goods. Quilts, ebroidery, needlecrafts, and garment making. But since the era of 2 income families, that has very much gone by the wayside. Scrapbooking as an industry has encouraged women (and men, I know there are a few of you out there!) to craft, and to be proud of it. Now Etsy is doing that AND making it a viable way to make money!

So this is the part where I get behind soemthing and RUN! A few days ago, I posted a few things I loved that I found on Etsy. And a few of those vendors were kind enough to either donate products for me to giveaway or offer a limited number of discounts. You ready? Cause these goodies are VERY Christmas giftable!

This is SOOOOO awesome! Nicole over at Naussica Distribution on Etsy MADE these special for me to give away to you! 2 sets! So 2 people will win one magnet and one pin. So awesome! Did I mention that? If you never took statistics in college, you may not be familiar with this guy, but it's the normal distribution curve. This version is MUCH more pleasant than the version in my books! You can't buy these in the store, they are just for you here!

And Judith over at Wild Fiber Knits is offering a $5 coupon to the first 5 people who convo her through her Etsy shop. Her prices are very reasonable and she makes very cute things! I am in love with her scarflettes and this green purse! Friends and nieces and the like can be difficult to shop for, but her scarflettes would make anyone happy to open a pressie from you! I know I would be! So check out their shop right here, make sure you let them know I sent you!

So leave me a comment and you will be entered for the normal distribution magnet/pin sets! and keep your eyes pealed as I am working on some more stuff in the near future! and go to Wild Knit Fibers and order something fabulous for someone you love (maybe that's yourself!)

Oh, if you link my via facebook or twitter and let me know, I will give you an extra entry! You have until November 7th to enter.

Daily Dose of Fabulous!

2009-10-26T09:38:00.000-07:00

I am all about supporting small businesses. This year for Christmas an Channukah, I would like to encourage you to join me. And to entice you, I spent a little time looking around Etsy or some super fab finds!

OMG. Seriously. I found this today on Etsy. I love Etsy. And I HATE statistics. I hate it I hate it I hate it. It about gave me a nervous breakdown. So imagine my surprise when I saw this today! My first reaction was "Where the hell was this when I needed something to cry into?" My second reaction was I really hope someone else besides the person who made this shares my opinion. So all of you current or former college students, please RUN to this etsy store and buy one of these! They also carry log distribution, which I never did understand, simply dumped the formulas into my calculator like a freaking monkey! Log what/who? Here is the store, go check them out!

Next is this little gem. I saw this in the recently listed section of Etsy and I swooned. I am a huge fan of steampunk, but find a lot of the pieces to be too big or loud for my jeans and t-shirts style. But not this. Or about 20 other pieces I found in this store! And so reasonably priced. They are going on my kaboodle list for sure. Go look, I am sure you will find something you will fall in love with too!

2 more to go! Here is the most amazingly hilarious wall art. I have a puppy who at this point is doing his fair share of pissing, mostly on the floor thank heavens. (as I was typing this, he actually just peed on the carpet right by the window. DOH!) But this is just too funny! I am looking at a few designs for my craft room! She has so much stuff! Another of my favorites is a piece of flying paper that turns into an oragami bird! You can find her Etsy store here. How awesome would this be for a Christmas gift!

Last but certainly NOT least is this incredibly cute scarflette. I love scarfs but the extra bulk on my already ample chest is enough to disuade me. This little guy is perfect! Extremely stylish, just quaint enough to be trendy but not look like you are trying too hard. If someone got me one of these, it would be a happy Christmas indeed! Go here and buy me one, I'd be happy with this blue one! But i did just get a dark mossy green peacoat, so a white, cream, or tan would be great!

Check back later in the week for some pretty sweet blog candy. Be sure and tell a friend!

Sad Times

2009-10-21T18:29:00.001-07:00

I just realized it has been a full week since I blogged! No No Bad Rachael! Things have been kinda hectic around here. I have been running crazy with my friend, running around with the kids, and working on my craft room.

I also have a bit of bad news. Our amazing old kitty Dragon has left us. He is a VERY indoor kitty. He is 13 years old and over the past year has lost over half his body weight. So we knew it was coming. Sunday, he wanted outside. He NEVER leaves the house, EVER. So he ran out and we tried to put him back in, but he ran off again. And that's the last we saw of him. We think he probably went off to die. Very sad. Luke took it hard. Dragon was his main man. Luke decided he wanted a new kitten, that he missed the kitty snuggles too much. He has been wanting one for a few months now, but kicked it into high gear. So Ana and I went to the shelter today and found a black kitty, just like Luke requested. While there, the man offered to give us one free if we wanted! So of course I got a second one! She is sooo beautiful. Of course I will post pictures. right now we are calling them black and tan (guinness and bass!) but I don't know if that will stick.

I will leave you with a picture of my fat Dragon and a promise you will hear from me sooner. I will be posting again on TES Friday, so come check us out. and look for us on facebook too! I would LOVE you to add us!

Giveaway coming soon... keep your eyes pealed!

Happy Pig Day!

2009-10-14T08:19:00.000-07:00

I bought some paper mache pigs a week or so ago with the intention of sending them out to friends and having them create something with them. well I changed my mind, so there! I LOVE polka dots. I don't know why, but especially vintage style polka dot patterns. Like this one from 7 Gypsies. I searched for almost an hour in my wreck of a scrap room for it!

I tore it into a million little pieces, then used some modge podge to stick the pieces down. Luke thought I was crazy! I also used a piece of SEI paper lace, kind like a little skirt. Then this morning when it was dry, I used some old Basic Grey rubons for the black flowers. Lots of little trims, some black Kaiser bling, and my very favorite My Little Scrapbox alpha stickers. (Just let me know when you all get tired of seeing them!)

The result is something that will go fabulously with the new colors I have chosen for my scrap room. My walls are tan and I have a zebra rug, so I will be using a buttery yellow a bit lighter than this pig for my other accent color. Fabulous!

Spilling the beans...

2009-10-09T17:09:00.000-07:00

As you may have noticed, I have a new blinkie over on the side of my blog. And that means I have been selected for the design team over at The Everday Scrapper! I am really excited! Just like the blinkie says, we will be giving some inspiration, showing you some new ideas, and even a challenge or two! The team is mostly new, so it's exciting to see where the new girls will take us!

We do have a forum, which I hope you guys will participate in! No store, no pressure, just a cool place to hang out! The official announcement should be coming soon, but I was told it was OK to spill! I will be on the blog a couple times a month, so keep your eyes pealed! If there's something you would like to see, let me know and I will do my best!

Frog Prints

2009-10-06T17:17:00.000-07:00

I guess this week is back to basics for me. Back to making pictures. I have been scrapping but nothing I can share yet! I have something new in the works... I'll spill soon! But I will tell you it's something I am very excited about! So as soon as I can, you'll all know!

Tonight when we got home from Julia's program, there was a super cute tree frog crawling across our window! I am talking about the window over my kitchen sink! I have no idea how he got up there, but the humidity is so horrid outside that he left really cool tracks all across! By the time I got my camera, he was already up on the top sill. So I went out and took a picture for the kids to see. But here they are, frog prints

My light filled evening

2009-10-01T21:23:00.000-07:00

Even though I am not the best, my first love is photography. This evening, we had a pretty significant thunderstorm. we're talking thousands of strikes an hour significant. Everyone else went to bed but I was working on putting all my ribbon onto my new ribbon ring (yeah!) We missed half of CSI for the tornado warnings just north of here, so I was looking forward to a doozy of a storm. We, of course, caught the thinnest band of it. But it was impressive nontheless.

Here is one of the 204 frames I took this evening. Do you know how hard it is to capture a thunderstorm with a 3 year old point and shoot digital camera? Argh. Frustrating. I missed all the best shots cause the lag time was so slow! Grrrr. But anyway, here is my favorite shot of the night. Bear in mind, that this frame was shot at about 9:45 pm, not in the early evening. It was pitch black out. Hope you enjoy your friday/weekend!

Loving Amplified

2009-10-01T13:18:00.000-07:00

Anyone who has seen my blog more than once knows how enamoured I am with Sassafras Lass. Maybe enamoured isn't a strong enough word. Anyway, semantics. Over at the Gal, we got the new Marmalade, Amplify, and Monstrosity. So at first, I wasnt really sure about any of it, to be honest. I saw the CHA booth stuff and wasnt impressed. Then the stuff got in the store. I looked at it and thought "What the heck, it's only a few bucks right?"

Last Saturday while I was locked in my craft room, it arrived! I almost attacked my poor postal lady! It's amazing! Seriously amazing. The photos online do NOT do it justice. I am so in love. I bought some of the Monstrosity and Amplify both. I passed on the Marmalade for now just because I have SOOOOOOOOOO much girly stuff right now I need to get through. I may pick some up down the road.

This is one of the layouts I did with the Amplify and one of the felites from the Monstrosity line. I really with that Sass would have put out some rad felties for the Amp line. Oh well, maybe I will just have to make my own. Heaven knows I have enough felt laying around my craft room. Hmmmmm. Maybe while Luke is hiding from poor defenseless deer in the woods I could do that!

Another Weiner!

2009-09-30T15:31:00.000-07:00

I want to say thanks to everyone that hung out with us this weekend at the Gal. The winner of my RAK of MME Bloom and Grow is Kimbo! She does some AWESOME work, you should check her out!

In other news, I am a bit worried about Samoa. I don't directly know anyone from there, but My sister-in-law now has some family there. Her step-sister just married a Samoan and his family all lives there. I don't know them, have never met them. But I know Alisa's step dad. If you pray, please pray that their family is ok. An 8.0 is a pretty damn big earthquake. And 3 to 4 waves is a lot of devastation. Tuna packing is the main industry there and the tuna canneries have closed now, not due to damage but I'm guessing out of health concerns. This will be devastating for the island. No jobs, no money, no money no food, no way to fix what they lost. So find a charity and DONATE. Check out http://www.charitynavigator.com/ to get an idea of what charities pass on the most money and which are valid to begin with.

It's a good day, I have no complaints. My dark cloud is hopefully lifting. Things here are going well. Slowly, but well. Time to hop up and clean the kitchen before supper. I'm the worst housekeeper ever! Here's a new card I whipped up.

Win Stuff! Pseudo Blog Candy

2009-09-26T14:50:00.000-07:00

So as I said, http://www.scrapgal.com/ is on crop overload. I am hosting a couple of challenges. Super easy peasy. Go to the Gal, sign up, and do any of the 3 of my challenges. Let me know you did it and you will be entered to win a Bloom and grow My Minds Eye paper kit! Sweet right! So get moving. You have until midnight Sunday night. And there are several other RAK's including GC's to the store! So have fun, look forward to seeing you tonight at chat!

Pink Ninja? I want to be one when I grow up!

2009-09-25T15:30:00.000-07:00

So I found this SUPER cute challenge blog. It's called "the pink ninjas". I NEED this place. Maybe one day they will let me GDT or even DT. One can dream right? Ok. So this week's promt is to scrap your addictions. And my current addiction (one of many) is Gyros. There is a place off Youree drive called Yeero-Yeero. They make a damn good Gyro. So I have been sneaking over there a couple days a week for one. MMMMMMmmmmm. I havbe some leftover Anthem by Sassafras I am trying to use up since I just ordered a bunch of the monster and oh crap, I don't remember the other one. Not marmalade. But anyway, I have new stuff coming so I am using up the old. So here it is. As a small aside, I didn't have another "o" for addiction, so I used a stash of the ... that AC puts 3 million of in each package and I never use them!

Paper, journalins sticker and heart sticker- Sassafras
Flower- Prima
Alphas and ribbon- American Crafts Thickers
Small alpha stickers- MLS
Pop dots- ZVA
Cardstock- Bazill
Other- Vellum

Hope you will join me this weekend at http://www.scrapgal.com/ for one of our FABULOUS crops. Grab your favorite "mommy" beverage and get going. Anyone who completes one of my challenges (one today and one tomorrow) will be entered to win a MME goody, which I will post about soon! Like tonight or tomorrow. So head over and take a peek!

Hambly Lovin'

2009-09-24T07:31:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post. I have had this Hambly transparancy for over a year now. I bought it because I love chandeliers. I had no idea what to do with it. It's too big to use on a page and I didn't want to cut it to use like half of it. So in my shelves it sat. Until Monday. Our new house has the kind of windows with faux panes. I really like the look, but don't love the obstructed view. So while staring out the window instead of scrapping, I got the brilliant idea to see if the transparancy fit. And it did!!! So I cut around it to get rid of the extra clear part leaving mostly just the black design, added a glue dot to the top and middle under the design so they didn't show, and up it went in the top middle square. Now when I am staring off in space, at least I have something pretty to look at, besides out jungle of a front yard!

A Sunday Without Football is a Good sunday!

2009-09-20T08:02:00.000-07:00

Luke is working nights this week, which means he will have to leave the house before 12:30. And this means NO FOOTBALL today for me! Last weekend, we had free NFL Sunday ticket on Directv. So we watched football or football related shows for about 8 hours. I am SO over it! It was nice to get to watch the Seattle game, other wise I just don't care!

I am unpacking and organizing my scrap room, what a nightmare that is. All the boxes are in different rooms, go movers! And they punched 2 holes in my white Ikea bookcase. You bet your butt they will be paying to replace that. I am not a happy camper. But it is nice to sift through boxes and find things I forgot I had. Projects I did and love, embellies I don't remember even buying! So it's a bit like Christmas. Lots of stuff to pull out of boxes, but then you have to put it all away!

Napoleon is getting bigger and bigger. That makes me sad. I really wanted a very small puppy. He was! He just isn't now. So I guess he won't be my purse puppy afterall. I am hoping he stays small enough to be portable, that is why I got him afterall! He is such a sweet guy! I love him to pieces. He sleeps on my shoulder, bites my toes, and poops everywhere. We are working on house breaking, but it's slow going. If I take him out every hour or two, he is great. He still has accidents once in a while. But if I get busy and forget, well all bets are off! he loves playing with Budrow, which is a blessing. Budrow is HUGE and so submissive and dumb! But he lets the puppy chew on his ears and tails and even crawl in his MOUTH! Yep, it's crazy. Budrow will lay with his mouth open and Napoleon will climb halfway in there and bite his cheeks and stuff. It's so funny!

I am off to unpack more. Maybe even scrap a little. Here is a picture I took of Napoleon last week. He's such a handsome pup!

2009-09-16T08:59:00.000-07:00

Guess where I will be next weekend! If you don't hang at the gal, you should! We have so much fun at crops (and pretty much all the time). There will be lots of prizes and challenges and fun. So make sure you put us on your calendar!

In other news, we are still not unpacked! I know, I am a bad housewife. Luke has been off the past 3 days and I have been spending time with him running around the countryside. It's so nice to spend quality time with the man you love. Without distractions, without kids, without chores. I realize how much I miss him! He works so much and we don't get much alone time.

I saw swamps! And a heron. And swamps. It was cool! It was the Louisiana I was expecting but hadn't really seen yet. We are so close to the texas border, I can spit in one state and have it land in another. We are about 400 yards from Texas and it's not the typical picture of swampy muck I had in my head. I guess that's a good thing.

Guess I don't really have much else going on right now, I have been scrapping a bit. I did this layout about my FAVORITE food in the WORLD, Pineapple! It's for the Fave things blog. This page makes me happy.

I will be getting scrappy this week while the kids are in school. I need to take breaks from packing right? Today is laundry day so i don't know what i will get done! I just ordered a TON of new stuff from www.scrapgal.com and can't wait till it gets here! See ya soon, I promise I won't be blogging so far apart. And stay tuned, I will be posting some blog candy soon!

I'm a loser baby...

2009-09-11T19:51:00.001-07:00

Insert Beck here. I know it's been a long time, but we are moved in to the new house, not unpacked. Not organized. I'm going nuts! So much STUFF just keeps popping in and taking over. I did manage to take some pics of Julia the other day, here is one I love.

But I will blog more soon. battery isn't holding out on me and I am tired. Givee me a break, I'm almost as old as Jamie! (love ya girl!)

Getting Busy With New Goodies!

2009-08-25T08:39:00.000-07:00

I got so much new ish! I got my scrapgal.com order yesterday and some new prima (that hasn't even shipped to most stores yet, but I have a hook up!) I have been a busy girl! Some of what I have made I can't show yet, you will have to wait till next month on the Scrapgal.com board, blog, and a crop to see. But i will share a couple things.

This card I made for the Moxie Fab challenge on the blog this week. It's Bazzill Kraft paper, My Little Shoe Box tiny green stickers, Maya Road chip bird, American Crafts thickers, paper, and stamp, and a Prima E-line pearl for the eye! So cute right!

And this layout is one of my favorite! I have been trying to let my friend Jamie Dougherty's style rub off on me some. I am usually a really simple, clean line scrapper. But I love her funky, eclectic style. So Little bits of her are rubbing off! This silver bird, she sent me! I love her! I used MME Andrea Victoria paper and die cuts, muslin flowers I made using the Maya Road blog instructions, New Prima center bling, and New E-Line white flowers, gems, and pearls, and a bling wing. So cute right! I love this page so much. Oh, and my old standby Scenic Route alpha stickers. I don't know what I would do without them!

Hawaii batch 1

2009-08-18T19:13:00.001-07:00

I have been back for a while now, at least 3 weeks I suppose. Well, tomorrow 3 weeks! I realized that I really posted relatively few pictures. I showed you lots of scrapbook pages, but not much of my craft, my soul in digital format. So here are a few things that I feel are a good representation of me and that trip.

I would like to say, and I will be journaling this in scrap form at some point, that Kauai was a very spiritual time for me. Not like "ooh, I found Jesus" kind, but "I feel connected with the earth and the sea and people not of my blood but of another time" kind. There were a few moments where I really thought I would be lost in that time. Feelings of overwhelming emotion and almost posession. It's hard to explain, but I have never felt anything like that in my life. EVER. With that said, here are the photos I made that I feel I need to share.

One Little World

2009-08-13T14:44:00.000-07:00

I am always up for a challenge. So I hopped on the OLW bandwagon and did this week's challenge. I really feel like I am still 19. that my life is not my own. That I stopped being Rachael at 20 and became Luke's wife, then Julia's mom, then Trent's mom. In jobs, I was always someone's assistant. I just want to be me. I have been struggling with this the past 2 years, just ask Luke! It's hard to know who you are when the years you were supposed to be figuring that out we spent working on someone else's life. I guess what this layout is all about for me, feeling like I am playing grown up when I am most assuredly not mentally a grown up.

Pretty much everything is Sassafras Me Likey. Thickers, and some doodlebug glitter dot paper. I love me some polka dot paper, and glitter makes everything better!

Cause I'm the queen of the trailer park...

2009-08-13T12:37:00.000-07:00

Yep, it's true. I am living in a 5th wheel in an RV park in Marshall Texas. Our now fired mortgage broker screwed us over yet again, so we have moved on to a different company. But that means more time, probably 2 more weeks here. We have been here 2 weeks now. Kids start school next monday.

I have had a bit of time since there isn't much to do but shop right now. I have scrapped a little bit. But really, even with the AC blowing full blast, it's still hot in here. Too hot to be comfortable. I have some of the stuff I printed off before I left Kauai, so I have been plugging away, very slowly. Mostly all I want to do is sleep!

Here is something I worked on. Only blog readers will see this one until next month. But.... If you come to http://www.scrapgal.com/ and click on the blog link the first week of the month, you will find how this relates to the september contest that has a goody!

So here it is. Enjoy. Can't wait for all of the CHA new releases to get here so I can get super busy! Stay tuned, there may be more goodies here in the near future!

New Month, New Contests!

2009-08-04T16:56:00.000-07:00

Over at Scrapgal, we are always up to some crazy fun with lots of goodies. This month, here are the new contests! We are featuring GCD and doing a Bingo with a twist! Sound like fun? Check it out!

Go. Now! What are you waiting for!!! Can't wait to see what you guys come up with! While you're at it, check out what the design team whipped up for you this month!

Presents for......

2009-07-27T12:21:00.000-07:00

#7! So that means that Cindy is the winner! Get me your addy and I will get you some goodies! my email is shep_9 at yahoo.com . Congrats, hope you had a great Christmas! I only made it to a couple blogs because I was too busy getting a tan and playing in the water with my kids.

Alas, my trip is coming to an end. I leave tomorrow night for a red eye back to the mainland. Poo. At least that means more regular posts and maybe another challenge/giveaway soon! Keep your eyes peeled!

Thanks to everyone who stopped by!

Merry Christmas in July!

2009-07-25T00:04:00.000-07:00

Hey girls! Whether you are here from ScrapGal.com or Add Glitter and stir, welcome! Glad to have you! Hope you are getting all kinds of caught up on Christmas stuff, I'm not! I'm sitting on a beach in Hawaii! But I do feel generous. So I think I will do another little RAK. Merry Christmas in July from me to you. Just leave me a post before tomorrow at noon and I will hook you up with a little surprise Kauaian style! It's not gonna be scrappy stuff, something from the island. You will like it. Or at least I will like sending it!

So here is a card I made from a pageframes clear acrylic bird shape... at least I think it's pageframes! lol! You know how that goes, you take it out of the package and can't remember anymore.

What I did:

1. So that the card could be truely doublesided was write my message on the back side of the double sided paper. That's the key... DOUBLESIDED!

2. Then I used liquid glue. The metal kind from making memories. You need something that will hold tight to the non-pourous surface but still remain clear.

3. Adhere everything down and you are good to go! Drop some rubons too if you've got 'em! I used some metal charms, rubons, snowflake trim, and rick rack. You can use whatever! IF you have to use regular adhesive, like tombow or something, this is a good way to hide it.

Have fun! Be sure to check out the Gal blog for a month of Christmas ideas and bounce around the Christmas blog party over at Add Glitter and Stir for more giveaways and ideas! Enjoy!

I am in love

2009-07-23T16:01:00.000-07:00

With Kepa Kruse. There, I said it. Seriously, he makes me swoon. He's a local boy from Kauai and his music is on the radio all the time. He's so cruise! I love listening to him all day! I added one of his songs to my sidebar, listen to it. You can find him on MySpace too and there is a link to download his whole album for free. You should go do it.

Next item of business. Only one more week. Well not even a week. Our idiot mortgage guy screwed us and now we are going to have to wait 3-4 more weeks to get our house. He screwed up our loan after sitting on it for a month. Don't even get me started. So in any case, we will be living in a friend's travel trailer for that time. Yep, I am stoked!

Christmas Blog party is still going on over at scrapgal.com, you should go check out all the cool ideas. Everything from cards to goody holders and home decor ideas. Way cool stuff.

We went and ate supper at Poipu at sunset last night. It was really nice. A bit windy, but the beach was beautiful. Of course the kids had to get in the water. Trent was in over his head. He got pummelled by waves and came back for more. Alisa just sat and watched them having fun. I am going to miss Hawaii. It's not the same as if you were to come out here as a tourist. I have been to beaches tourists wouldn't go to or can't find. I ate at places tourists never see. I hung with the coolest people on earth. This summer has been absolutely amazing. I got the local style Kauai. And I am very greatful for that. Alisa has the best family and the girls have some really awesome friends. Lindsey wants the kids at least to come out every summer. I think that will be arranged.

Julia has made good friends with Alisa's little sisters. I have visions of 10 years of summer visits to aunties' house to hang with her girls! So much fun. I fully intend to be spending some serious time out here too. I can't believe I have to leave in less than a week. But I miss Luke and he misses us. I haven't scrapped much because I was scrapping Lindsey's wedding album yesterday so I didn't get much of my own stuff done. But here is one I did. More are on scrapgal in my gallery!

Enjoy your summer! Shoots!

Favorite things

2009-07-17T00:39:00.000-07:00

So my girl Jamie is on the DT of a BRAND NEW challenge blog. It's called These Are a Few of My Fave Things. You should go check, it's the first challenge so you can say "I knew that blog way back when!" Here is my entry for the first challenge, which is your favorite COLOR! Since I don't have a favorite color, I did 2! Adore it from afar.... HA ha!

So my time in Hawaii is flying. My 3 days of scrapping are over for this week, and next week I won't get as much because Koloa Plantation Days are next week. Lots of stuff to do! I will get some done, I am already about half a week behind. It just keeps creeping up on me! I got 4 layouts done today and 4 yesterday and it still isn't enough! So I will be making up more than I wanted to when I get home! I will stay up a bit tonight to get one more done.

We are going to a Buddhist temple and a place called Queen's Bath tomorrow with Lindsey, Beth (Lindsey's awesome friend who I now love) and the kids. I am looking forward to checking some new stuff out and getting some awesome pictures to add to my pile of memories.

Last night, Lindsey and I went to Duke's in Lihue (Extremely overpriced, go for the Hula pie, but skip dinner unless you eat pu pu's ONLY in the bar downstairs). Then we went out to this bar called Rob's with Beth. It was so nice. So much fun to just hang out and visit with adults, and not about my kids! Alisa is a saint and kept the kids for me. She met up with her mom and sister and took the kids shopping, bought them new toys, took them to Mc Donalds, and even let Julia roam the mall with the older girls ALONE! I never! But it's different out here and the other girls are older. Julia had SO much fun.

So I guess that's about it for now. Hope your summer kicks ass as much as mine does!

Scrapping Hawaiian Style

2009-07-09T17:26:00.000-07:00

Humidity and all. So I have been working my little butt off the past couple days. While Lindsey is working, I scrap. I have posted a few things over in the scrapgal gallery, but here are a couple that aren't up there.

Sorry about the glare on the first pic. I used a transparancy and no matter what angle I used, I couldn't get rid of it! Since I am EXTREMELY limited on supplies here (i only brought one shoulder tote. And there is no lss here!) pretty much everything is MME Breaking Free. Last day of scrapping is today and I haven't been very successful. Soon I think I will bail and get to baking. I promised lindsey and alisa baked goods! I'll try to be better about blogging, but give me a break please, cause it is vacation!

7/8/09-10:11

2009-07-08T18:31:00.001-07:00

So I did this challenge posed by Liz Kartchner... Take a photo of what you were doing at this time, since it's such a clever date. I was scrapping my little heart out at Lindsey's kitchen table, eating my new favorite candy, Hi-Chew. It's a big thing out here in Kauai, I don't know where it's from or if it's big anywhere else. But it's so amazingly good. My favorite are sour apple and strawberry, but the ones I was eating this morning were lemon. I bought the Costco pack which has a lot of different kind.

I have been kicking butt this week with scrapping this trip, buying all that MME stuff before I came was a FABULOUS idea. It's so easy. I mean, I will say that I would love to have more options with regards to embellies, there's nothing like scrapping at home (or the best stocked scrap store in the world) but when that is absent, this will suffice. The whole point of this was to NOT have 300 photos sitting in a box 4 years after this trip. And that will not happen! I will have at least the first 3 weeks scrapped by the time I leave. Kind of hard to scrap week 4 when I am still in it! But I don't know how much Iw ill get to do once I get home. I think it will be pretty crazy for a while. I will post layouts tomorrow, I have at least 4 done now, maybe 5!

No No Bad Blogger...

2009-07-02T18:16:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I think this is the longest I have gone in a REALLY long time. But it's for good reason. I am in Hawaii. That's reason enough right? I have been hanging with my sister, working on design team projects for Scrap Gal. You should go, NOW, and check out the happenings for July. We are doing Christmas in July and Vintage Summer with Jenni Bowlin. Should be tons of fun and good prizes too!

In the past week, I have been to the beach 3 times, watched my sister and Alisa paddle in a regatta (outrigger canoes, all day races), been shopping, been to a BBQ with my sister-in-laws step dad's family (who are Filipino, which is awesome because I got to eat some new stuff that rocked my world!), went on a picnic up the Waimea Canyon, saw a sea turtle, did some shopping, had a birthday (I turned 29, no one sent me presents), got a pedi (b-day pressie from my sister), and sweated my butt off.

I have done like 4 layouts, 2 cards, and made a big mess on my sister's table. Her dog has fallen in love with me. Her name is Olive, she is super cute. She hangs on the back of the couch across my shoulders. Or on my lap. Or following me around the house. Or waking me up in the morning by licking my hand or jumping up on the bed with me.

For those of you who don't know, Kauai is COVERED in chickens. After Hurricane Iniki, the chickens that were in cages were scattered. Since Hawaii has bird protection laws, you can't kill them or trap them. So they roost in the yard, on the side of the road, they are in parking lots, shopping malls, the beach!!! Everywhere pretty much. The kids love it. They are always yelling "Chicken, rooster, Baby chicks..." it's better than slug bug.

Julia's arm is broken. I don't know if I even posted about that! She broke it with my dad in Denver by falling off some playground equipment. The break is up so high on her arm they can't cast it. So that means weekly x-rays. Yeah, that's FUN and CHEAP! So every Monday in Kauai, we get to go to the Ortho. Awesome. Oh well. IF she is good with her arm and keeps it wrapped and in the sling, she won't have to have surgery. If she's not, we have to have surgery. So here's hoping.

Well, I guess that's about it. check out scrapgal for my latest. And check out the photo goodness I have been hooking up lately! and yes. that is a gecko on my sis's window catching/eating a cockroach! The geckos are everywhere! (as are the bugs...ewwww.) And those pastries are from a local bakery that rocks my world. And the canoe is my sister and Alisa's club, Kawaiikini Canoe Club. What awesome girls.

Blogging In Denver International Airport

2009-06-18T10:57:00.000-07:00

So first things first, The winner for my little giveaway according to the random number generator is #18, which would happen to be Beth Perry. So beth, I will be dropping you a comment on your blog, but in case yoee this first, email me your address and I will get your goodies out to you as soon as I get home on tuesday! Thanks so much for all the congrats gs, I hope you will all be hopping over to scrapgal.com to check me out.

Ok, so next item of business, I am at DIA waiting for my flight to Shreveport airport to spend a few days with Luke in Texas/Louisiana. The kids are with my Dad here at a friends house. I got to go do a very small amount of shopping last night, headed up to Sephora for my free birthday lip gloss (if you aren't a beauty insider yet, head to www.sephora.com and sign up. You get free stuffor your birthday!) I also picked up one of their scent books. It has 10 testers in it and an atomizer. it's $50, but you get a certificate for a free bottle of perfume (one of the 10) when you decide which one you want. Since Luke is SOOOO picky, I am tired of spending $40-$60 for a bottle of perfume he hates! So this way, he can decide what HE likes and then I will get that!

Next item of business... I am NOT looking forward to hot. Man alive, hot in Denver, hot in Louisiana, and hot in texas. Anyone who knows me, knows that I HATE anything over about 75 degrees! I am a cold weather girl. So ts going to be a big fat change for me. I will try not to whine too much, but just know that I am already uncomfortable!

Ok, I think that's about it. Yesterday was a VERY long drive, I misestimated the amount of time it would take me by almost an hour. The kids did really well considering, and the weather was good. first time I have drive by myself east and had it not be snowing! Thank GOD for Nintendo DS. They never would have made it if it weren't for that.

well, I suppose that's it for now. Since I am in the airport and was traveling yesterday too, I don't have anything nto post. But next week, I promise I will! Have a great weekend!

I made design team at scrapgal!

2009-06-16T09:12:00.000-07:00

OK, so this is my big announcement! I made the design team! This is most likely the best thing that has happened all year! I am so excited. This group of girls is SOOOOOO freaking fun. They are mostly like me. Loud, crazy, and loads of fun. Very talented to. The store has some awesome stuff, some of which I haven't seen anywhere else! I have made some really great friends over there and hope you will check us out here. We have a lot of really cool stuff going on this month, a summer picnic contest and a Pink Pailsey contest. Lots of goodies to give away.

In honor or making the design team, I thought I would to a little RAK. You don't get to know what it is, but I promise it won't be cast offs of old stash I am trying to offload. Lets just say I just did some scrappy shopping! So leave me a comment by Wednesday (tomorrow) at 6 am. I will need the winner's address before I leave for Denver so I can get your package in the mail. This is a quick one, but I am leaving for vacation and wanted to do something!

Here is a layout I did about making the DT. I used all kinds of Sassafrass Hog Heaven. Have a great day!

I think I should crawl back in bed...

2009-06-15T11:41:00.000-07:00

SO today it has really hit me. I only have 4 days left in my house. Ever. This weekend, we signed a lease for it. A great couple in the same situation as us- getting transferred, unable to sell their house, needs a place to live until they get it sold cause they can't afford 2 mortgages- is going to be living here, hopefully starting the 1st of July, assuming the movers can get organized.

I will be leaving for Texas/Louisiana to see Luke and look at houses on Wednesday. I am going down a day early to get some stuff taken care of in Denver. My folks will be keeping the kids for me there are my mom's friend is graduating from college. My parents planned to come down anyway so it just worked for them to keep my midgets there.

When I get back next Tuesday, I will have Wednesday at home, then Thursday I have to leave for Salt Lake. The kids and I fly out friday morning at 6am, so we have to stay overnight there. I still don't know how I am getting to the airport. I need someone to drive me, but finding someone to drive you 3 hours just to turn around and come home isn't easy. I will figure it out I am sure.

At that point, I will never be back here again. We will spend a month in Hawaii with Lindsey. My folks are coming out the last 4 days we are there, so we will get some time altogether (minus Luke) for the first time in 2 years. I miss my sissy and even Alisa, though she torments me so with her feet!

When we leave Hawaii, we will head straight for Dallas, TX and on to wherever it is Luke has found for us to live. I will no longer be a Wyoming resident, which isn't all that sad. I hate GR and pretty much everything here! This is the ugliest part of the whole state. I will be happy to put it in my rearview mirror. But TX brings new challenges, a new way of life. A new climate, new people, new customs. And MORE republicans!!!! AHHHHHHH! Not that I am opposed to republicans, I even share some of their views. I just have a hard time with conservatives sometimes. I am, afterall, DEBATE! And that makes me prone to arguements. And that makes me prone to disliking people because they have no EVIDENCE for their arguements. They believe stuff and they don't know why and don't have any logical evidence, much less set prescedence to back it up. And that infuriates me! OK, enough about that.

Ok, I need to go switch over laundry so I can start packing today. Just what I always wanted to do. I cleaned out all the leftovers so when Traeger comes to house sit, he doesn't have any funky science experiments growing in the back of the fridge! I will have an update tomorrow... something good!

I will leave you with something I did Saturday night.

Hasta Los Crotches.

The WEINER!!!

2009-06-11T09:10:00.000-07:00

OK, I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get the stupid thing from Random.org in here to show the winning number, but it was 1! I gave the parameters of 1-8 because I got 8 entries. So the order you submitted your entry is the number you get! If you want to see the random.org thing, I was able to save it in a word document and if someone tells me how, I will post it here! so the first entry was......
MANDY! PM me your addy over on scrapgal and I will get your goodies out today!

Thanks to all you girls for playing! I am thinking I am going to make this a fairly regular thing. I will post a new challenge later in the month with more goodies, so be sure to check back then. And tell a friend! While you're at it, check out the challenges over on scrapgal, there are some cool prizes up for grabs. Hope to see you there! Congrats Mandy!!

Challenge and Giveaway time...

2009-06-10T18:00:00.000-07:00

OK, so I am inspired. Luke got a new dog a couple weeks ago and since he is out of state, I didn't get to meet him until last week when they came home for a visit. I am in love with him. I can't wait to snuggle in bed with him when Luke leaves in the mornings!

So here is the challenge part. I want you to create a layout about your fur baby. But, I want it to be a new one. So here's the catch. There are specifics! You need to use only 2 colors on the whole layout, not including black or white which count as neutrals and everyone can use! Yeah, i know. But i know you can do it. And I will make it worth it.

I have, in my posession, this....

Yep, I am giving away a WHOLE Mr. Campy crafting kit! Sounds like a pretty good giveaway to me! This was bestowed upon my by the wonderful folks over on the Cosmo Blog to share the wealth with. So I am going to hook you up. You will have until the 10th to do this, that's just over a week. Link it up, I will do the old random number generator thing to figure out which of you will have your summer camping trips squared away! I am going to try to do more challenges and giveaways, so keep an eye out! Add me to your blog roll, cause lets face it... You know you want to!

Here's my layout for some inspiration!

How Do I Love Thee?

2009-06-09T13:06:00.001-07:00

I was lucky enough to win a Wee Bundle of Sunshine Lollipop from the Sass blog and have just absolutely been itching to play with it. So for the last 2 days, I have been working on this! It's for my sister. I took the kids out recently for a photo shoot and these are from then. Of course I had to include 1 of myself too, but mostly they are of the kids.

I used a ton of stash on this, flowers from all kinds of places, rubons from mostly BG, the new paper whimsy (card sticking up in the back) from Sass, and so much ribbon I can't even tell you! I have also fallen in love with Kaiser bling. So there is some of that here too. And Maya Road cupcake rubons and chip wing. They are the cutest! Thanks to the girls over at scrapgal.com, I am not infatuated with thickers. The blue puffy ones are so fun and I had to use them here. wow, I could keep going forever. There is so much great stuff in here that I love. But I will let you look now!

The album is a 5x10 Pageframes album. I am cheap and acrylic is on the spendy side. So i put it in my purple cow rotary trimmer and cut the sucker in half! it was actually much easier than I thought, 3 or 4 passes through the rotary was enough to cut right through the acrylic. So now I have 2- 3 ring 5x5 albums instead of 1 5x10 6 ring album! Aren't I so clever!!Enjoy, hope it brings you some magical inspiration today! I just can't stop touching it, it's so much fun!

Homage to Anthem

2009-06-06T13:08:00.000-07:00

So as you may know, I recently won a super fab prize pack from Sassafrass. I was chosen as their blog blinky winner for last week. YEEHAW! And I felt like I owed it to them to create something fitting of the line. I do believe this qualifies as fitting. Can I just say that I am in love? The gret bright colors just scream happiness! How can you look at this house and not smile? It's a bit 50's, a bit Skittles, and a bit Wizard of Oz.

So some technical issues/advice/what I did...

1. To make the flowers in the window box, I punched some scraps of the anthem paper using my EK binding punch. I folded the long skinny stip on the bottom to a 90 degree angle. i ran a couple little spots of adhesive and stuck them down in rows of different colors. No one wants bland flowers!

2. The balloons posed a bit of a problem. I knew I wanted them to float above the house, but figured wire would look cheesy. So I took a 12 inch MME THICK transparancy strip and cut an 1/8 inch strip off the side. I then cut that to varying lengths so the balloons could be different heights. For the front and back balloon, I pt a glue dot on the bottom and top of the transpapracy and on the bottom, I wrapped it all the way around (for better adhesion). Stick the balloon on the top, cut a small square of matching paper and stick it on to cover the glue dot and end of the transparancy. On the bottom, I sandwiched the transparancy between the paper edge and the chipboard roof.

3. When you use the doodlebug houses, you HAVE to use glue. The adhesive they put on is completely useless. They even added a sticker to say to use hot glue. I don't have a hot glue gun, I broke mine... So I used a metal glue. So far so good.

4. I wanted to use a different paper on each side of the house, so I had white spots on the corners. I added ribbon and felt "gutters" to cover those spots. I used the edges of the paper (which by the way, is the smartest thing Sass has ever done, I use those just as much if not more than anything else!) I also cut curtains out of scraps for the windows. I wanted the inside to be interesting too, so I covered the inside with more of the paper so that when you look through the front door, you get something other than white. the back of the house was plain so I used a paper whimsy, doodled in purple around it, cut a flower paper whimsy in half, and put it and the center on pop dots.

Ok, enjoy! And go buy some Anthem now!

Giving some shout outs

2009-06-03T22:24:00.000-07:00

Ok, so i am all about hooking people up who hook me up. So that's what this is all about. Three places that have hooked a girl UP recently.

1. Sassafrass. Ok, besides the fact that they freaking rock and you can tell by 1/2 the layouts on my blog that I am a tiny bit obsessed, I was chosen for their blinky blog person thingy for the week! Isn't that awesome?? It's totally random and has nothing to do with my amazing scrappy skillz :( but nonethe less, they are hooking me up with a package of Sassafrass goodies! I have no idea what yet, but I was told I would be pleasantly surprised... It's Sass, of course it's going to be pleasant!

ETA my motherload! Holy cow, it was way fast shipping! And i sure was PLEASANTLY SURPRISED! Anthem kit (with cs sticker 12x12, cs alphas, and the 6x12 cs stickers), Hog Heaven kit (same as anthem), wee sunshine lollipop pad, and 2 packs of paper whimsies (1 is the ATC card style and one is flowers!!!!) If I didn't love Sass enough before, I really love them now!

2. Ebay find of the month. Dora's Scrapbooking Outlet. OMG! serious hookup. Ok, lets start with the fact that she has ALL the new MME Break free collection in kits and HALF OFF (only for like 2 days, so go FAST!)! I bought almost all of it. Second, she was out of the rubons and offered to run out and get them TOMORROW for me so i could have them! Seriously? That's customer service! And LASTLY, but certainly not least, she offers FREE SHIPPING over $50, which isn't hard to do. Well, actually at half off it took more than I thought! So go check her out, tell her I told you about her. My ebay name is shep_9! I just want her to know that I really appreciate her! (This post is not sponsored by or bribed or blackmailed by anyone, just some honest to goodness lovin!)

3. Scrap gal. Now i don't want you to think they are the least cause they are last, in fact they are the best, so I was saving them for last! They are having a DT call, don't bother applying, I intend to earn a spot so you have no chance! j/k! But seriously, they are having a Pink Paisley contest (all creations must be 75% PP products to enter) and you don't even have to be good! this isn't a "Only Ali Edwards need apply" kind of place. They are equal opportunity lovers! So you enter a project, your name goes into the hat. At the end of the month, they draw a random winner! Voila! I won the Glitz contest over there in April and HOLY Motherload Batman! i got the entire Rebel line, half of the Hot Mama, a bunch of the one with cars and road signs (the name escapes me), and a stack of rubons, cs alphas, and cs stickers. probably close to $100 of goodies. I was FLOORED. I have been using the heck out of it!

Ok, second. They are having a summer picnic challenge, with weekly challenges. No idea what the prize is, if there even is one! But the challenge this week is really fun. You pick a menu and you get specific things you have to have on a layout that you enter. It's so much fun.

And third, pretty much everything over there rocks. The ladies are AWESOME, talented, funny, supportive girls. The gallery is always rocking! The store has the latest October Afternoon release!!! And it would be a lot more fun if you came and hung out. Seriously. It is so much fun i can't even tell you.

It's really late, like almost midnight. Insomnia strikes again. Hey, I could make my own Star Wars-esque trilogy about my lack of sleep! That would be so cool! but I think I would be the only one awake to watch it. Alas, no scrapping today. I spent the day loading 25 listings onto ebay. it was time to clear out the kids' closets and get rid of all of Trent's Thomas the train stuff. So if you're looking, go check it out! Hope to see lots of entries for my challenge! If this goes well, it may become a regular thing ;) So tell a friend and get busy!

My favorite mini book

2009-06-01T18:39:00.000-07:00

This is quite possibly my favorite mini ever. It's a bunch of little lessons I learned college. The dorms sure were informative! Little gems like "don't dump a bowl of top ramen in your garbage can when your dorm has a mouse problem. The proverb about the mouse falling in a bucket of cream doesn't translate to salty aasian noodles." and "That boy may be cute, but VD is forever". Every lesson in this mini is something either I personally or a friend of fellow dormer learned the first semester.

All the paper is from Crate Paper, Crush collection. Most of the ribbons are, and some of the rubons too. The rest is all stuff from my stash, everything from Making Memories, My Minds Eye, you name it! The big green flower on the front is actually a SHOE CLIP from Old Navy! I saw it, bought a pair in green and a pair in burgendy knowing they would never see shoes!

Ok, that's about it for now. Maybe back tomorrow with something new. We'll see how the mojo is! All kinds of rain and thunderstorms today and it got chilly so I snuggled up with Trent on the sofa and played Super Mario Brothers vs. battles on the kids' Nintendo DS.

Fancy Pantsy

2009-05-31T19:47:00.000-07:00

I was over at Luv Scrappin here in the big GR and saw this awesome fancy pants paper! And of course, I had to buy some. HAD to! There were mystical powers willing me to the checkout. paper in hand. Ok, so that said, I decided to make a father's day card with some of it and a layout about Trent and his legos with the rest. I am so enamoured with it.

Scrap stuff aside, (although it is what I am doing with most of my time now that Luke is back in Texas and school is done. I can see the back yard from the window over my desk so the kids can play and I can multi-task) things here are ok. Still nothing looking like interest on the house. Still broke. Still missing Luke, even though he's been gone for 2 days. I am looking forward to going to see him in Texas. I want to see Louisiana. i want to know what I have gotten myself into! I will be there for like 5 days, then come home for 1 and then off to Hawaii for 5 weeks! I can't wait to see my sis and her extended fam. Trent is so excited to see "Auntie weesa" and Julia is way stoked for Aunt Lindsey, so the kids will be evenly split! It's good that both Aunties have a kid that likes them best!

I fully intend to get a good head start on skin cancer. I am not going to spend my summer vacation hiding in the house! We will be at the beach! I'm not a tanning person, but being out at the beach all the time it's bound to happen. I have already bought some sunscreen as the kids got a bit pink playing in the sprinkler the other day. Julia was of course super dramatic! I always tell her "you're going to die." Maybe I should scrap that!

We have someone to take care of the house while we are gone, a kid who is like Luke's little brother is going to move in here for a while. That makes me happy. I really like him. I think the house will be standing and maybe even in good shape by the end of the time! I am going to list the house for rent tomorrow and hopefully we can find someone to move in and keep the place up while we move away. And we really could use the offset in finance!

Ok, enough of that! Here is my fancy pantsy stuff. Check out the photos on the bottom of my blog, I'm adding a couple new ones! Spring has really inspired me! I only wish it had been longer than a week! We went from cold crap and snow, directly to 80 degrees and it look slike summer!

I LOVE SASSAFRASS!!!

2009-05-30T10:46:00.000-07:00

I am so in love with all the new Sassafrass lines! As you can see from recent posts, I have been using it a LOT! So why stop now. This page just made my day. I finished it this morning and had to post it. It is so fabulous! I think it may be my favorite this month, certainly this week. The paper is from the new Anthem line, the chip flowers and the pink cloud sticker (which I {heart}) are also new Sass. And I am learning to love thickers too. Thanks to all the girls at Scrap Gal for the insane thickers enabling!

Busy scrappy day

2009-05-29T20:42:00.000-07:00

Luke was fishing with Julia, then napping, then packing. So I had like 3 1/2 or 4 hours of scrappy time today. I busted out my BG Wisteria and went to town. I used a ton of scraps to make an ATC and a card as well as another page in my flower mini. then I did this page, which I {heart}. It's from a sketch over at Kenner Road. Go check out the blog, they have tons of great stuff over there. These are a bunch of different strips of Wisteria papers, some primas, and a Maya road branch chip piece COVERED in glitter! I tried something new that worked really well. I used a can of spray adhesive! Some super strength stuff from the hardware store. I took the branch in the garage, then sprayed the heck out of it until it was shiny and wet. Then I dumped a TON of glitter on it while it was still wet and it worked like a CHARM. I got a ton of coverage with only a very small thin part from there I touched it before it was dry. I fixed that with a little tombow mono and Bada Bing!

Lucas is HOME!!!

2009-05-27T10:16:00.000-07:00

But only for a short time. He surprised us by leaving after work on Saturday and driving through the night to get here Sunday afternoon. I, of course, figured it out when he was about 6 hours away. But the kids were truely surprised. And he brought Boodro. Much to my surprise, I LOVE LOVE LOVE that dog. I have never felt this way about a dog before. I just hope it stays this way! Luke will have to leave early saturday morning, which makes me sad. But at least I get almost a week with him. I will be back down with him in just shy of 3 weeks, so that is good.

Still haven't sold the house, still no one looking. Very depressing. The makrket just dissapeared with the jobs out here. It sucks. We are having an open house tomorrow, but I am not hopeful. I have pretty much given up. We will move to Texas with Luke when we get back from Hawaii and that's that.

So that's about all here. I have been taking pictures of flowers the past few days because they make me happy. I also got some prairie dogs at the Echo rest stop of all places! Spring has finally come to Wyoming and I am drinking it all in. So here are two of my favorites this week.

My Baby!!!

2009-05-20T20:13:00.001-07:00

Trent graduated from preschool today. OUCH. Ok, I have no issue with my age. In fact, I feel MUCH older than I am, probably 10 years. While all my peers were going to college, getting drunk, holding cool AND crappy jobs, I was married, having babies, and paying mortgage. The issue, like for most parents, is that he is growing up so fast. I have given up on holding onto Julia. Time and teen waits for no man. She thinks she is a teenager already. All of her friends have parents who let their 7 and 8 year old girls wear fake nails, dye their hair, put on makeup, and wear clothes that I MAY have worn at 19! Not me. But I am having to slowly give in. she got a grown up haircut this week. It's really cute, layered. it makes her look older. Ok. But my baby! He still needs read to at night before bead. He still snuggles up under my arm ALL day. He needs at least 10 hugs every day. He is still a little boy. But real school! This year, I made sure to treasure our alone time together. We had friday mommy-trent days where we went to lunch and did our shopping together. We sit and watch cartoons on the sofa before school or play super mario brothers. And next year, I am afraid I will lose that. Julia has always been incredibly independent. Not affectionate, not needy. It's just her personality. She made her first scrapbook page today. She has been bugging me for weeks to make something, so I went through old stuff I had and let her have her own box. Growing up. OUCH.

I LOVE WEEKEND CROPS!

2009-05-19T01:06:00.001-07:00

I was chillin for the weekend at Scrapgal and did a TON of stuff. Besides the fact that those girls rock and I had a blast chatting the night away, there were some really cool challenges. Since school is over for the semester, I have some extra time on my hands and figured I may as well scrap my little heart out and completely ignore housework! Here are a few of my favorite things (insert sound of music here) from this weekend of course!

friday updates

2009-05-15T10:00:00.000-07:00

So it's payday, that means grocery shopping and alone day with Trent. I love these days and know I won't have them for much longer! So I am livin it up!

I have been scrapping a bunch, there is a May A-Z challenge over at scrapgal.com and I am trying to keep up! I have been making ATC's for the first time ever and they are fun! I think I may get addicted! Also over there, check out the Gal blog, they are hookin it up with RAK's to celebrate their 100th blog post! How cool right! There is a crop this weekend too, you should check it out. I will be hangin out there. Since school is out and Luke is gone, I have a lot of free time...

So here is a new layout to share, nothing super fancy, just fun! I am loving the new sassafrass lines, I just can't get enough of them. I am running low already! I may have to be placing an order or making an excuse to go to Salt Lake!

Star Search Has Returned!!

2009-05-13T10:36:00.001-07:00

Well, kind of! I am going to be working on a 5 week challenges over at Vintage Plum. They are doing a challenge and at the end, they are hooking the winner up with a guest DT spot. I would love to get it, they have the best kits ever! They are way my style. All of the products in the kits are from companies who manufacture in the US. Gotta love that.

So today, I will be scrapping working on the challenge for this week. I am excited. I am supposed to be going up to Luv Scrappin to scrap with Dawn, we will see what's up. Yesterday she couldn't because her midget was sick. So hopefully she will be there today!

Last night I worked on some ATC's which is a new venture for me. I have never tried them before, but they were part of a challenge so I gave them a go. A great way to use up leftovers if I do say so! I am notorious for saving every little scrap and I don't make cards often, so I think these will be a good way to use some of them up! I'll post them to this post in a bit, it's too windy to take pictures right now. Gotta love wyoming. I woke up this morning to the flag from the front of our house UNDER my car in the driveway. I am ready for the wind to be done. NOW.

Been Busy

2009-05-11T21:59:00.000-07:00

I have been scrapping quite a bit lately. I did a page today but haven't gotten a pic of it yet because it was super windy today. I am trying to take more pictures outside but it's hard with all the wind all the time. Go Wyoming. So here is one I did this weekend of my feet. Luke loves my feet. I love getting pedicures. I love being barefoot. I hate having to wear shoes. And of course I had to use the new Sassafrass pretties!

Other than that, I have been loving no school. It makes me so happy to be done with 2 classes that I despised, Biology and Math. I managed a B in both of those classes and an A in my writing class. I don't know what to do with myself now without 6 horus of homework most days! I rocked my term paper in my writing class. I haven't gotten my grade back yet (GRRRR) but I had a 106.6% before the term paper so I was guaranteed an A in the class.

The kids are good. Much better since I am not so crabby! My neurologistfinally figured out a good medication and dosage to squash MOST of my headaches. I still have 1-2 a week, but since Luke left in March, I had been having 1-2 a day! I went a whole month with only 1 day off from them. So here it is, medication #4 and it's working like a champ! I am so much less crabby now, with the kids and just in general. I actually feel like scrapping and going to the park with the kids. I don't know how they put up with me for this long. I guess that's why they were so out of control! I am out of control, so are they. But it's getting better. The weather is getting warmer and they are getting restless. I think we will be planting flowers in the front tomorrow.