New liftables are up at XOXO!

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!

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!

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...

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

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!!!

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

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.