Layout - Meeting David Walker

This is a photo from when I met David Walker at the Creating Keepsakes Convention - super nice guy. This is loosely based on a sketch. The little card in the corner is a drawing by him. Instead of just signing autographs, he was drawing little pictures for everyone - thought that was a cool idea.

Supplies:

Font - 2 Peas Rickety

Misc. patterned paper scraps

Letter Stickers - SEI, Artic Frog & Lil' Davis Designs

The Chandler Family

I created this layout based on a sketch at PageMaps. I also completed two challenges with it: 1) Use vellum, a silk flower and deco scissors 2) Use B&W focal photo with at least one color, theme of family and a quote.

Supplies:

Font - 2Peas Tattered Lace

Misc. patterned paper scraps

Yellow vellum

Silk flower - unknown

Quote from 2Peas

Ink pad - Versacolor

Matt's Birthday

Spencer was super sweet for Matt's birthday and really put some effort into doing cool stuff for him. We decorated the house and got lunch from his favorite place. Spencer picked out his Gamecock gifts and made him a sign. It was really cute!

Super Bowl Cookies

We had a few neighbors over to watch the Super Bowl (yeah, I'm a little behind). I made these football cookies, and as you can see...our little 2 year old neighbor enjoyed them. Isn't he the cutest???

Gamecock Basketball

Two weekends ago, we surprised Spencer with a trip down to Columbia for a Gamecock basketball game. We seriously got our tails whooped (by Georgia), but it was a ton of fun. Spencer is such a sports fanatic, he loves any and all games. He was sporting his big Gamecock hair and enjoyed watching all the action (but we did have serious nosebleed seats!).

Basketball has come to an end...

Friday night was Spencer's last basketball game of the season. We took a team picture right afterwards, but they will still have an awards ceremony at some point. His team wasn't very good this year, but I think he still had fun!

Snow Pictures...

We had a "real" snow a couple of weeks ago. It's the most snow we've seen in a few years so Spencer was ecstatic! We had a blast playing in it, even though it was sleeting...hard. The quality of the pictures I got were horrible, but here are some of my favorites anyway.

1 - Our snow-covered house

2 - Spencer and a kid from 3 houses down, and their snowman

3 - Our neighbor pushing Spencer on the sled

4 - Little boy from next door

5 - Our dog Rio

Layout - Family

I realized after scanning this that I forgot to write the date and names on the page...

I was able to fulfill 2 challenges with this one layout.

1) use 3 photos, 3 embellishments and 3 patterned papers

2) use white background, 8 ribbon strips & flowers or stars cut from patt. paper

Supplies:

Epoxy stickers - Miss Elizabeth's

ribbon - unknown

flowers handcut from misc. papers

I don't know what my deal is lately but the last several layouts that I've completed have been horrible. I just hate them. It isn't unusual for this to happen on occasion, but I've never gotten on a streak like this where I hate everything I am doing. Not sure what the problem is.

Dog Shows

I'm a total dork and really love watching dog shows. I have no knowledge of breeding or showing dogs. But I love dogs and love looking at them. My husband often just rolls his eyes at me when I get all excited when there's one on TV. The Westminster was on last week and I was able to watch part of it - it's like the Super Bowl of dog shows! This is the perfect type of thing to watch while scrapbooking...not too intense so that it's distracting, but good & interesting background entertainment.

Unfortunately, none of my favorites ever win. My favorite groups are sporting and hound. Some of my favorite breeds are Vizsla & Weimaraner, both of the sporting group; Greyhound & Whippet, both of the hound group; Italian Greyhound of the toy group.

Book - Judge & Jury

I recently finished listening to James Patterson's Judge and Jury (book on CD). It's one of his newer releases and is not part of any series (Alex Cross, nor the Women's Murder Club). Though, I think I prefer the series better - this was definitely a good read and I'd recommend it. It revolves around crime and law, as do most of his books. This one, however, also has a Mafia based storyline. Books on CD are such a great way to pass the time during my obnoxious commute (given that driving and reading aren't really condusive to being done simultaneously). I am lucky that the local library has really expanded its selection!

Bowling

Friday afternoon, everyone from our office went bowling. It was a fun time. We played three games. I got a 106 and then 114 the first two games. But by the last game, I scored a 147. Not too shabby for someone who hasn't picked up a bowling ball in over a year.

That's me bowling in the first picture. Then three of my coworkers. And finally proof of our scores (I'm "PS" - we came up with goofy names for all of us).

Layout - Bo

This was a challenge to use the Dr. Suess quote "Oh the Places You'll Go" and stars. I handwrote the quote on the large star, which was cut by hand. I also hand wrote the title and journaling. Definitely not beautiful, but done. This is my oldest nephew (but these pictures are two years old). He is really amazing...great at so many things that he tackles. I'm very proud of him!

Supplies:

"Hunter Green" Zig Writer

white pen - Uniball Signo

Layout - First Cup

This was a challenge to use black, white & red, doodling and three different types of ribbons.

These are pictures of Spencer's first cup of coffee.

Supplies

"Frost White" ink pad - Colorbox

"Jet Black" ink pad - Staz On

Patterned Paper & Rub on letters - Miss Elizabeth

Misc. ribbon

Computer font: Digs My Hart

White pen: Uniball Signo

Teacher Gift

I made this for Spencer's teacher's birthday. I just covered an inexpensive clipboard (magnetic) and made a matching card.

Spencer's Penguin Project

A few weeks ago, Spencer presented his Penguin project in class. I wasn't able to make this one, but Matt did and took a few snapshots. Unfortunately the actual penguin art project isn't in them. I need to get a photo of it (I've tried and they've all come out horribly!).

He did a fantastic job with it - coming up with all of the creative ideas on his own!

On a kick...

I've been on an organizational kick lately. Granted, this isn't that strange. I absolutely love, adore, worship all things organized. But even I must admit I've done more than usual in just a few days time...

It all began with a trip to some super cute antique shops on my lunch hour last Friday. I bought these cool finds (1st picture). That somehow landed me in "organizational mode" in my scrapbook room over the weekend. I did some re-organizing, as well as some purging (always a good thing!). I love those crazy fun canisters! Right now they are holding my rubber stamps. I'm still working on the whole "set up" so nothing actually looks pretty at the moment. I'm in the process of reorganizing the majority of my embellishments. I might need some prayers here...

Wednesday morning (Heart Day) Matt surprised me with a jewelry armoire, so that evening I thoroughly enjoyed organizing my jewelry.

Wednesday on my lunch hour I went to Lowe's. I picked up a "cap rack" to organize all of Matt's hats in our closet (2nd picture). This freed up a lot of much needed space on the shelves where we keep our shoes. It's super cool - holds 24 hats (but unfortunately, not visors). I am thinking of buying another for Spencer's room.

Also at Lowe's, I purchased a 18-drawer organizer for my letters (3rd picture) - pretty much anything alphabetical other than letter stickers. So far, so good.

I also found a fantastic deal on cute fabric bins at Lowe's (4th picture). I only bought this one, but I'm considering getting more. For now, this one has all of my letter stickers in it. I'm going to try it out and see how I like it.

The last two pictures are Real Simple items I purchased at Target. The pen caddy is for my commonly used tools to leave out on my scrapping area. The other thing is just to organize bills, receipts, etc. I love that they are orange and brown!

Happy Day!

Matt & I had agreed not to exchange Heart Day gifts. But he surprised me this morning with this...a jewelry armoire that I've been wanting for quite some time. Super sweet guy. I had a blast untangling my necklaces and whatnots this evening :)

Unfortunately, he is working tonight - so we'll have to do a romantic little something this weekend to make up for it.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day to all!

I figured this was a good time to share pictures of the Heart Day decorations I've got in my house. Not much...just enough. But, tomorrow I'll be at Target to see what's left and on sale, of course!

1 - I change these floating candle holders out for each season or holiday. Right now, they are full of red hearts. This makes me happy!

2- I got this super cute silver word at Target...loved it so much, I payed full price for it!

3 - I try to hang something seasonal here as well. These pretty hearts are from Michael's.

4 - Not a great photo, but here's "Heart Day Central". Lots of candles. Fun red bowl (love that thing) full of fake pink rose petals.

5 - This was a Christmas gift (with Christmas ribbon). I plan to switch out the bows for each season also. SUPER fun.

Book: Angry Housewives Eating Bon-Bons

The last book I finished reading was Angry Housewives Eating Bons-Bons by Lorna Landvik. This isn't my typical genre of choice, but it was still a good read. It was passed on to me by my sister. It's a good story of a group of women becoming friends and going through life changes together. I wasn't truly into it in the beginning because some of the not-so-happy situations they had to go through. But, eventually I started to enjoy the storylines more and overall was pleased with the book. The premise is a book club, and this would be a definite "must read" for any actual book clubs (which is something I'd love to be a part of...).

Layout - In Your Own World

The challenge here was to use eyelets, metal letters & word stickers. Very simple layout but I like it just fine. I think these pictures are super cute with those goggles and all...

Supplies:

Word squares - Scrapworks

Title sticker - Pebbles, Inc.

Font - Greer

Number eyelets - Making Memories

Layout - Duct Tape Dinosaurs

OK, I can't stand this layout but oh well...

The challenge was to use 3 bookplates & 3 patterned papers from different manufacturers.

This is for my work album. My boss had these huge duct tape dinosaurs shipped to our office from our main headquarters in Ohio. They were super cool but way too big to actually fit in our small office!

Supplies:

Patterned Papers - "Chocolate Rings", Deluxe Designs; "Green Hide", Paper Adventures; "Bon Bon Dots", Doodlebug

Letter Stickers - EK Success, Making Memories & Frances Meyer

Bookplates - Making Memories

Green Zig Writer

Need some color

I've been thinking about color a lot lately. I need MORE color in my house. Despite the fact that brown is definitely my favorite color, I do really enjoy bold colors. In my old house, we had some pretty bold colors. The kitchen, in particular, which was pretty much orange. My scrap room was brown, Spencer's room burgundy, our bed room was green (not so bold of a shade there).

Currently the downstairs of our house is not bold at all. The majority is a darker tan color (latte). Our kitchen is a muted yellow (restrained gold), a far cry from my last kitchen. Our dining room is a darker blue - not too bold, but moreso than the other rooms (outerspace). Our 1/2 bath is a baby or sky blue color. I like all of this...just miss having more color. I have splashes here and there, but need more. So the rooms that aren't painted, I want to do something more exciting.

Just been brainstorming...in particular about my scrapbook studio and the laundry room. These are both rooms that Matt doesn't care what I do :) I need to find some inspiration...

Colors that I'm excited about right now --

Navy & White...mainly in clothing...not sure I want to take a room in this :) But I love nautical looking clothing for spring and I'm so ready for spring.

Orange...despite Clemson being the devil, I do really enjoy orange. When those orange washers and dryers were introduced, I immediately said I wanted to have one. I didn't know why - didn't even think I liked orange. But I loved those. Now that I'm w/out my bold, almost orange, kitchen, I miss the color even more. I don't wear orange, ever. But I love it in home decor. I've been buying orange accessories for the kitchen to help me with my fetish (Rachel Ray pans - awesome!)

Black & White...I love the look of these two colors together. They are so classic. Depending on the design, you can have something simple, something chic, something sassy, something feminine, something masculine - you get the point.

Cobalt Blue...I've always been a fan of this color. I love southwestern and spanish type looks in home decor and I often associate this color with those styles. I would love to have a tile backsplash with this color, but I think it'd be way too much for our current kitchen...

At least someone is using it...

Well, at least someone is using the new elliptical machine, right? Just kidding. I have been using it - just not as often as I should. But Spencer has been pretty entertained by it. He'll work his tail off to try and get one of the numbers to a certain point (not sure which measurement he's striving for exactly).

Spencer playing basketball...

This is Spencer's 4th season playing basketball for our church. He moved up an age group this year (to 8-9 year olds), but unfortunately so did most of the younger kids. We have a very young team and they haven't had the best season. Depending on the team, they are sometimes playing against all 4th graders, while we have some kids that are barely 7 yet. We were hoping Spencer would learn more about the game being in an older group. Though that isn't really happening, he is having fun - and that's what counts.

As you can see, none of the pictures in the gyms come out very well. These are the best shots of three games so far (he's missed 2 from being sick).

iPod fun...

Saturday, Matt & I returned a $100 HDMI cord to Best Buy (what???). I took advantage and treated myself to some new iPod accessories for my nano. I got this snazzy new pink case, matching earphones (of course), and the iTrip I've been itching for. LOVE it!

New Goal...

I've set a new goal for myself. I am going to try to post something to my blog daily. Whether it be a picture, a layout, a quote, a random thought...just something.

a couple of swap layouts...

These are a few layouts leftover from the 8.5x11 kraft swap that I did...just now getting around to printing photos from them. Both are for Spencer's school album; both from 1st grade. Nothing's more fun than being able to plop pictures on a page and it's done!