amidst the chaos

the odds are against me

2007-10-07T15:42:00.000-07:00

wah wah waaaaaaaaaaaaaah
ok I must get that out of the way first. I tried so hard to participate in " 2008 Ms. Scrastic Pagent" but time and life were against me. First BOTH my printers are out of ink. I'm out of cash to replace either. Second. I scramble to put my pics together in a way that i can print the sizes that I need at my LSS... which means saving two photo's on one background. So I could print 2x3 wallet size photos for the two page layout I had in mind. I had to do that for 12 pictures. Only to find out once I get there... on the way to pick up the van that Mark had to leave overnight at the 4x4 event because he was too drunk to drive home the night before.... that I forgot to save them as full size. So all of my photo's were printing at a very blurry loooooooooooow resolution. But at this point I had no choice. I already waited too long to go to walmart's 1 hour photo......... so what happens next? The printer kiosk quit on me and I had to come back after the girl reloaded the ribbon and paper or whatever the printer said. So we go pick up Marks van who I had to follow home due to a tail light bulb outage. I go back and it's worse than before. She replaced the paper and ribbon.......... now it's out of whack. OMG I'm frusterated to tears by this point and I have a layout due by three CST... which only god knows is when in alliance to EST. and at this point I don't have time to figure it out. I had to break out and dust off the sewing machine.... dispose of all the spiders who had now inhabitated it. After two years... I put it away because it was giving me tension problems and ripping the paper on my layouts so I knew this was going to go down bad. but there wasn't much I could do. I had to wait until Mark got paid to print pictures... then we had the 4x4 event to go to... can't blame it on him... I got a adrenaline rush just being there and took 1000 pictures. (no joke wanna see them?) no money to replace ink so I had to have them printed and now this! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh! say it with me now.... arghhhhhhhhhhhh just like sexy johnny depp in pirates of the caribean of whatever his name is if you "will".....turner.... Orlando Bloom! that's it. Love em both. ok now that we have that straight.... ARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!
So, it comes down to me finishing my layout... including stitching, inking etc ( did I mention one of my scrap Goblins (Erin, Ben or Ian) ran off with my adhesive? So stitching was the "only" way anything was going down on this baby. Well there you have it. My naivette when it comes to times zones... trying to be a good sahm and deal with going to school.... (yearbook photog) conferances and all that... I feel bad for those of you who have jobs OMG! ack!

Ok. nuff whining...

I tried

I love the layout I came up with in the end

my family loves it. My husband actually tried to help (by suggesting that I cut my kids faces out in the shape of pumkins!) Then he told the kids to watch out cause Mommy had a deadline LOL. So all in all it was a positive experience. :D

Check out scraptastic Ms Scraptastic 2008 pagent ;)

http://www.scrap-tastic.com/pages/gallery.cfm?webcatid=69

addictions

2007-09-21T09:43:00.000-07:00

I am hopelessly addicted to
hoarding my scrapbook supplies (I'm sitting here staring @ piles of beautiful things and I have no idea where to start! I'm working on altering a mannequin for halloween for my Mom. NO, silly, not a life size mannequin (but oooh what fun) a little paper mache dressmakers Manne. You know the ones with just a torso? No arms, legs or head) I'm stumped! It's one of those things that I'm afraid to get started for fear of messing it up. I know what I want to do.... but once you glue stuff on... you just can't go back!

frozen bean and cheese burritoes (I just ate two and I want MORE!!! I will refrain... I will refrain... I will refrain...)

Dr. Pepper (of which I have none...)

Ok, I just wanted to share that with you all :D

what are you addicted to?

Oh you've got to check out this girl~

2007-09-21T04:44:00.001-07:00

This, is Amy!
I've known her for a bit. Met her when we were both submitting for the Design Team @ Couture. I am still shocked that I made it and she didn't. I'm thinking it was only because she is destined for bigger and better things. I mean......... come ooooooooonnnnnnnn just LOOK at her work! she's amazing! such individuality! You wanna talk about someone scrappin outside the box? Amy scraps in her own world. No one even comes close. She is such an inspiration to me and such a sweet lady. She got two of the most beautiful girls.

http://amybirch.blogspot.com/

Keep a close eye on this one ladies.... she's going to go far!

peace of mind - for now

2007-09-20T05:58:00.000-07:00

or maybe just a piece of my mind LOL

yesterday turned out to be an "O.K." day. I started out stomach twisting and full of apprehension and anxiety. For those of you who don't know me. (that would most likely be anyone reading this ha ha) I have issues with panic, anxiety and depression. Doesn't make life flow very smoothly.

Anyway a few weeks ago my brother crashed his four wheeler down an 8 foot ravine into a mucky creek bed. ok, so the wheeler gently dumped him off into the ditch and then rocked itself back upright, still purring and ready for some more action. My brother on the other hand (ha ha, you'll get the joke later) ended up going for a ride in an ambulance with a broken arm. Clean break... between the elbow and the shoulder. ew... to hear him describe it gives me the willies! He was holding his arm up in front of him and his fingers were behind his back wriggling in the mud. Apparently the ER was too busy that evening so they sent him home with an ace bandage and a splint with instructions to go to his primary physician. TWO weeks later, they decide that they arm was NOT going to heal on it's own and he needed surgery (exact words were he should have had emergancy surgery in the ER) My brother endured over 14 days of sleeping upright and having his right arm strapped to his side, and yes he is right handed. SO, yesterday was his surgery. Why is it that doctors have no compassion for anxious family members sitting in the waiting room for hours? My Mom and my brothers GF were told surgery would take one hour. 3 hours later they were still waiting for word. I was home with his GF's son and anxiously awaiting to hear myself. I begged for the phone to ring and at the same time, dreaded the moment it did. I hate the idea of surgery. In the past few years I've had my husband in twice for skin grafts, my mother in twice for heart procedures, my uncle in more times than I can count for tumors (he lost that battle but went down fighting) and the same brother in twice for a colonostomy and it's repair. All turned out well, but that's alot of waiting for news. YUCK.
So what did I do? I couldn't sit around at home so I went SHOPPING! I hit Michaels and got paper for 5/1.... they have some gorgeous bohemia papers..... photo boxes 2/3 foam brushes for 15/1 and my best deal of the day?

http://www.walnuthollow.com/products/images/26443drill.jpg

A girlie tool! I love engraving on acrylic but the tools sold in the sb section are so fragile that the slightest bit of pressure and the bit comes to a slooooooooooow grind. Not only does it engrave but it sands and drills! woo hoo! best part? It was over 50% off! Regularly $34.99 and on sale for $14.99. I'm on a tight budget these days but how could I resist? It was beautiful timing cause I just saw an ad for it in sommerset and included the link to walnuthollow here yesterday. oooh de lolli! I'm a happy scrapper! Now I can't wait to play!

Not only that... but I found a paper mache mannequin..... on sale...50% off yippee!

Then I ran in to Target on the way to pick up my nephew and they had just stocked thier dollar spot with scrapbook stuff! oooooooooh yeah. I always miss out on the SB stuff LOL, so yesterday was my lucky day!

The amazing world of blogs

2007-09-19T05:58:00.001-07:00

I have ventured into the world of blogs and gotten lost in the depths of the vast ness of the internet. Each blog linking to another and another, one more breathtaking and idea inspiring than the last. Here are a few brilliant ones I found just this morning. I sooooooooo am sitting here wishing I had a cable modem so they would load completely and quickly.
http://queendebbee.blogspot.com/
http://vintagepleasure.typepad.com/vintage_pleasure/
http://myhouseiscuterthanyours.blogspot.com/

and some more I found in my copy of Sommerset Studio. WOW that mag is amazing. I am 'technically' a scrapper but like to transfer my love of the craft to other parts of my life and this mag has shown me just how far I can take it!

www.lisaguerin-artblog.blogspot.com
www.michelleward.typepad.com
www.galleryfifty.com
www.linsart.blogspot.com

some webs
www.parisfleamarketdesigns.com
www.theartbarn.net
www.clover-usa.com
www.walnuthollow.com
www.artid.com
www.artellawordsandart.com/ss6.html
www.frostcreekcharms.com
www.absolutelyeverything.com
www.papermoongallery.com
www.silvermoonstudios.com

retreats
Oregon
www.artandsoulretreat.com (oct 3-9) I wanna go!

One thing I found that I would LOVE to do is a pay it forward. What a way.......

curiouser & curiouser

2007-09-18T14:49:00.000-07:00

So I'm wondering, how many take online classes and actually pay to take them? Did you enjoy them? Honestly I am a little skeptical... I mean some of these classes get expensive and there is soooooo much free information on the internet on blogs and such. hmmm... I just thought it was interesting. I might have to take a class just to see what all the hubbub is about.

What am I doing today?

I'm altering a window! Well actually I'm working on two at the same time. One of my boys and one of me for my design team projects for Couture using My Minds Eye papers. They were just to beautiful to put away in a scrapbook! I'll post a link to the gallery when I get them complete. I'm a bit of a perfectionist so it may take me awhile ;)

Have a happy tuesday!

such big plans

2007-09-13T07:12:00.000-07:00

I don't know what has gotten into me. I'm sooooooooooo tired lately, I think I am overwhelmed by all the ideas and plans I have spinning around in my head. Stuff I was going to get done when the kids went back to school and it is overwhelming! I have my first design team upload due at Couture on the 15th. Natalia sent us some AMAZING stuff. Be sure to check out the store and Making Memories new halloween stuff. OMG it is to die for! I'm in love with their new clear stuff... ok it's not as much clear as it is transparent. It looks so cool. It's from making memories. How can you be disappointed? They are one of my all time favorite companies. Thier products are always top notch! I'm both nervous and excited. I hope my stuff is up to thier standards... ooooooooh the pressure! I always do this to myself. I tend to try out for teams... thinking I can do it.. and then get overwhelmed by the other talented designers there. UGH! So.. that is my sob story for today.

2007-09-06T05:30:00.000-07:00

today is the day calls go out for the Creative eXpress design team. I entered on a whim. Truley not expecting a call. Not after grazing through thier gallery... there is some amazing work in there and from what I understand there are only four spots out of twenty open if they accept the previous years design team members back. They had to resubmit as well. So keep your fingers crossed for me XXX! What a dreamy team this would be to design for.

Check out thier site... some awesome stuff in the gallery, yummy goodies in the store.... fun girls to chat with.

www.creativexpress.com

2007-08-21T13:43:00.000-07:00

A new page

Creativity Unbound is having a Cyber Crop to launch the exciting new changes to the blog. Be sure to check it out starting September 1st. There will be prizes, games, challenges and did I mention prizes? The easiest thing to do will be to enter the referral drawing... so spred the love and invite a friend.

Check out all the details http://www.creativityunbound.blogspot.com/ be sure to stop by and say hello on the new forum too :D

2007-08-17T14:25:00.000-07:00

Here's my BIG news!http://www.creativityunbound.blogspot.com/

2007-08-15T13:16:00.000-07:00

Vote for your favorites for a chance to win CK's top ten 2008
http://www.iboutique.com/cgi-bin/myers/start.cgi/iboutique/orderform/ReadersChoice/ballot.html

and while your at it... check out these awesome doodling templates. They are by the crafters workshop and they are GORGEOUS. www.craftersworkshop.com I can't wait to get my hands on some! I love them all! The journaling ones... the arrows... circles... all so cool!
A friend of mine got the swirly vines template in August's kit from www.ilovetocreate.com and it is soo cool looking! I got to touch it, but she wouldn't let me borrow it. Can't say I blame her. She probably never would have seen it again. Mwuah ha ha ha!

2007-08-15T11:43:00.000-07:00

Angela @ Creativity Unbound is giving away the cutest mini book kits. All you need to do is leave a comment on her blog for a chance to win

check it out!

http://creativityunbound.blogspot.com/2007/08/its-giveaway-time.html

2007-08-15T07:30:00.000-07:00

oooooooooh a little toot!
Tenika posted a layout I did on her blog
http://scrapbooklayouts.blogspot.com/

2007-08-15T05:42:00.000-07:00

It's Wednesday and I am just BURSTING with the most awesome news to share... but I can't ;) So I'll wait. and no before you get too excited... I didn't submit for MMMasters this year. So it's not that. But in my 'personal' opinion... MUCH BETTER!

I do have some pics to share though from the park with the kids the other day.

In other news.... the kids are going back to school soon and hopefully this means a fresh start for me. My baby will be starting Kindergarten and I WILL be spending alot of time volunteering in thier classrooms because it's what I love to do. But this also means a CLEAN HOUSE! I need to go through the basement and bring up all the stuff that sadly got ruined. When we moved in the basement was dry but... that didn't last long. It's still dry but so damp we started growing science projects down there. So it's time to bite the big one and dig in. It's not going to be fun or easy because I've stacked stuff along the safe walls a little precariously......

My brothers girlfriend and I took all the kids (SIX of them!) to lunch at McDonalds and then to see Nancy Drew at the Discount theatre. It was a pretty good time. The kids behaved themselves for the most part (5 of them boys between the ages of 5-8) While we were at McD's I noticed that Erin was taller than Jessica! Erin loves going shopping with us because she likes to pretend she and Jessica are sisters and I'm both of thier Mom... Jessica is 25 so that makes me feel OLD! THEN while we were eating a woman walks by and asks if all these kids were mine. SHE thought Jessica was one of them too! Poor Jessica.... girl can't help she's tiny and has a youthful face. I did feel ancient AGAIN... and ragged! I had my camera and really should have taken a picture but um....well... I opted to not. Can you blame me?

2007-08-12T06:03:00.001-07:00

It's Sunday.... and I have to wave a big Hello to fellow blogger Amy... um.... how do I respond to comments on my blog? Youi'll have to gorgive me I'm a little new at this so it may take me some time getting the hang of it. Not much new going on here today. Still working on printing wedding photo's for my friends album ;) I wish I didn't have such a rush to get it done... or so many pictures to choose from and so many pages to make. I wanted to do some really cool editing on some of them but it takes forever soooooooooo..... plus I know that they got some pretty rocking photos from thier hired photogs.

2007-08-08T13:06:00.000-07:00

Another Scraplift - This one was by Holly a FABulous Designer over at Couture. I just loved the look/feel of her layout so I lifted it and made one of Ben. You can see Holly's original layout "A Natural" here http://www.couturescrapbooking.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1&ppuser=2

Other news for today........

YAY! I decided to go for it and took on my first photo job! Well kinda ;)

Someone posted on an online want ads that they were looking for a photographer and I volunteered my services. Yes ladies and gents you read that right. I volunteered! I need to build up my portfolio and since I am not all that confident this will be just what I need and I won't need to feel guilty that my pictures aren't "good enough" since I will be gifting them :D

Not much new today

2007-08-08T06:57:00.000-07:00

I did send out for two more design teams, only for the challenge of it. I'm not expecting to make them. One is for a manufactor, American Crafts and I don't have any of thier stuff... so that's probably out. Then there's Creative Express.... where they have a ton of talented people submitting... and it's an open gallery where everyone can see who and what they're submitting so it's very intimidating. It would be fun though. My Dream Design Team would have to be Provo Craft. Now THAT would be so much fun!

Any way here are my latest pages. I hadn't scrapped in awhile before the design team call. The Journey of Me was the first page I did for my submission to Couture. We had to create a ME page. I also created the 'always love each other' page, Swim and Love x3 for the call. It was a mad rush to submit too and I ended up having to submit three different time because I lost my internet access for a few days and had to send the first one a couple days before the deadline from my parents house. ACK so I was freaking out.

The bubbles page I created as a scraplift of Wendi's WOW page at couture. I loved her circle elements and photo placement. You can see her original page here. http://www.couturescrapbooking.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=395&ppuser=83

My Dear Santa page was a scraplift of Amy Birch I loved the bright bold colors and how they POPPED off the black background. Check out her original

http://www.couturescrapbooking.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=407&ppuser=85

I have a challenge for you dear reader. Sit down "right now" and compose a letter to your future self detailing everything you are grateful at this point in your life and what your dreams are for your future.

Jumping on the bandwagon

2007-08-07T18:43:00.000-07:00

Well it seems everyone has one of these and since I love reading them and checking out all thier pictures I thought what the hay? Why not me too!?!

Soooooooooooooooo ladies and gents... here I am :D

News thus far....

Going back a few months I was asked to be a volunteer yearbook photographer for the kids school. Anyone who knows me will know what an honor and a privaledge this is. To be ASKED! Not just asked but recommended by some of the teachers. Really made my year ;) I was at the school three days a week for Ians speech therapy starting in february last year anyway so it was just so awesome.

I made a design team! I saw an ad for this website in Memory Makers Magazine and the site alone is amazing... thier colors and graphics.... inspirational! Then the girls on the DT already were so amazing. I'm so honored to be a part of it. Check it out and see what I mean http://www.couturescrapbooking.com/ The announcement was made on the first of August and here it is 7 days later and I'm still walking on air.

I took some great pics of Mike and Crystals wedding on Saturday. That was SO much fun for me. I wish I had the personality to do it for real. I got some good random candid shots which are the type I prefer to take.... and I took a few over the photogs shoulder... he said it was ok! It still didn't make me feel much better doing it... I got a few good ones of him taking pictures too ;) Isn't she the most beautiful bride? I had fun editing the pics too as you can see :D

Today news....

I got Ian's Kindergarten info in the mail today and reading it I started to cry. This is it. My last baby.... starting school like one of the big kids. I thought I would be ok with it, I was thinking WOW cool time to myself... time to clean.... scrap.... grocery shop.... Now I'm not looking forward to September 5th with the same enthusiasm I was.... it's sinking in. My baby,........ waaaaaaaaaaaaaaah