Princess Boo, some cards, and a layout

I have several projects to wrap up that are almost done, they just need some photos or finishing touches. I am SLOWLY getting them all done though. I am usually so on top of everything, but this month has been a tough one for me to manage. I fell behind on so many things, and quite honestly I have wanted to soak in the last few weeks before school starts with my precious girls. One more week with them is all I have and I am really going to miss having them with me all day. The four of them generally get along well and they are a pleasure to have around. I really am blessed.
What I am not looking forward to is the work that comes with school. I am not mentally ready for that shift yet, but it will kick in as soon as school starts. At least I hope so. It needs to. heehee

I have projects to share:
first is a page from an album I am working on for My Acrylic Album. I don't need the page and I actually wanted to use it for a wall hanging for Ashlyn's room anyway. Her royal highness requested "Princess Boo" which is what we call her; actually we call her boo, she added the princess. ;) The album is almost done, I am just needing to add the rest of the pics and finishing touches. I really hope to wrap it up tomorrow.

The cards are for my weekly card sketch teams; "You are the apple of my eye" is for Sketch This 64 . I am planning to slip this into one of the girls' backpacks someday when they are in need of a pick-me-up. The October Afternoon rubons are so darn cute and were prefect for the theme of the card. The apples are made with my new favorite supply: Stickles. I can't get enough of them!
"Happy Birthday" is Di Hickman August #4. This sketch is my favorite so far, and the girls on the team just blew this sketch out of the water! The creative takes on this awesome sketch are fantastic. You have to check them out! I printed out the SMJ designs Birthday Wishes (Shabby Miss Jenn Designs) kit to create this. As soon as I saw this fun kit the idea for the card popped right into my head. I just love it when this happens!

Lastly, the layout is for Creatively Yours 12x12 sketch #23. I turned the sketch upside down and took some creative liberty with it, but it still resembles the original enough to notice. Or at least I hope so. I don't want to demolish the actual sketch. lol

I have been trying to use my stash as much as possible lately. I do have a nice pile of brand new yummy goodies to play with though; Pink Paislee, Basic Grey, Scenic Route, Rose Moka, the new Bazzill just the edge, and a few other odds and ends. I am not sure which I want to dig into first, but I have a bit of time before I do anyway. Maybe by then I will have some fresh pics to scrap. I have only taken a small handful of pics since Winter. This is good because I have been scrapping some not-so-great pics, but they capture a moment I want to remember. I do want some pretty new pics to play with though... next week I am sure I will have plenty.

I broke into my wonderful Sept. Color {Me} Daisy kit today and created 2 layouts and am wrapping up a third. At least I found some mojo. I hope to wrap this kit up tomorrow... or at least try to.

I am off to go beat my dh at Scrabble again. The girls are watching the new Little Mermaid movie... it's pretty cute. I'm sure it will be watched again in the morning.
Have a great one! Thanks for stopping by!

cards

Another Monday. It's going to be a cool and dreary day around here, at least weather wise. I think we are in for an early Autumn. Not quite sure how I feel about this yet.

Not much to talk about. I am just slowly working on catching up on everything scrappy. I have several acrylic albums to wrap up asap and they are coming along slowly, but surely.














I also have to dig
into my Sept. Color{Me}Daisy kit. It's a good thing I am a multi-tasker. :)
The kids have a little less than 2 weeks before school starts and I am trying to hang out with them as much as possible before all the chaos begins. Kara, Skye and I have been playing Scrabble quite a bit while Ashlyn and I have played way too many games of LPS Guess Who?. lol! I have dreams about those cute little creatures staring back at me. I have taken them to lunch a few times and it's been fun, and a nice treat since we rarely eat out.
Meghan came home from visiting with her mom on Friday night and now we are a complete family unit once again. I miss having Emily here, but she's happy at home with her mom.

On Saturday Skye and I headed out to A Stamp 4 All to meet up with Dee, the owner of My Acrylic Album. She is such a fun woman with a great personality and it was so cool just to sit and chat with her! I hope to meet up again with her very soon. :) I also got to see a few of the gorgeous projects from the DT that were on Display. WOWZA! That was a treat in itself! Skye likes to play store, and she really embraced helping out with a make-n-take and even "pushed" a few items onto ladies. She's a natural salesman (woman). She keeps talking about not waiting to go back and sell some more! lol!

Speaking of Skylar... this girl has really done some changing this summer! She must have grown at least 3" and she was already pretty tall. She's a little over 5'6" now and wears a size 8 shoe! She's still as skinny as can be though, still in a size 10S girls pant. Ugh, it's really going to be a struggle to find jeans long enough that will fit her at the waist. Her face has matured quite a bit too and she's looking more like a beautiful young woman. *sniff* I still cannot believe that she's going to be 13 in a few months and is a 7th grader. The fun times are just around the corner. HA!

Here are my cards from last week:
Di Hickman Card Sketch August #3 (when you smile) and Sketch This 63 (Good Work).

I am off to try to get a few things wrapped up around the house so we can all play the rest of the day. :) Have a wonderful week!

Oh yeah, I am sooo excited! I got 2 cards picked up for the Jan. 2009 Cards magazine. I've had a dry spell and it was a pleasant surprise!

hot, but relaxing weekend

Whew, it was a hot weekend! Today it got up to 103' and I actually had to turn the AC on. I always try not to, but it was just plain miserable around the house. We've been in the high 90's for several days now and i really hope it cools down tomorrow.

I am going back to work for a few days this week at the publishing company. They needed help for a few more days so why not. I can handle some more pain now that I can actually move my hands and feel my fingertips once again. Who needs fingernails anyway? I am glad I stuck it out though because I got moved to a different position on Friday... I went from boxing books which was what was killing me, to placing complete orders onto pallets from 2 separate conveyor belts because the temp that came in couldn't figure out how to stack them correctly. Not sure why he couldn't figure that out, but at least it got me away from what I was doing before. After break, the guy who normally stacks the pallets relieved me and i was moved again to pricing books. It's really nothing exciting and even though it was much easier on the hands, it required even less brain useage and I really found myself losing it. Ha! I was letting books go through upside down or backwards or even trying to push stacks of 3 through at a time. I tell ya, after about 5 minutes I couldn't tell you what the front cover looked like because I had seen it too many times. There is a nice long list of books I never want to see in a store now.
This is pretty cool though... on Thursday we were all allowed to take up to 10 magazines before they were shredded. Apparently this happens each Thursday. The girls sure were happy when I came home with some magazines for them! I picked up a few for me too. All in all I picked up about $60.00 in free magazines which really perked me up! I guess they do this with books on occasion as well, so maybe I'll get lucky and get to pick a few. One of the lines was boxing a Jodi Picoult book that I don't have yet. So, working Thursdays are more than worth it. :)

I spent some time scrapping this weekend. I worked on some DT work and since I had my Sassafras Lass papers out I decided to create a few layouts in between projects. They are looking for a few new DT members so I figured why not? I have been hoarding it and using it sparingly, but now that there are new releases I wanted to use some of my stash up. This was one of my fav. releases from Winter CHA and I am really looking forward to getting the Summer releases. Cute cute stuff! It's hard to tell, but I added one detail pic. Both layouts have plenty of dimension to them. I just love layers and dimension on a layout.

I finally got my goodies from Scrapping Outback and I made a card with one of the Wedding Hearts. This is such a pretty and delicate piece and I wanted to create something romantic with it and the Sass Lass paper was perfect! It's really hard to see in the pic, but I tore the rose pp and then pieced it back together. I inked over the edges a bit. I also added some October Afternoon rubons and lightly inked over them. I ran an inkpad over the chipboard hearts, sprayed with Glimmer Mist and immediately added a bit of glitter. It's so pretty irl.

I received the September kit from Color{Me}Daisy yesterday, but I haven't even opened the box yet. I have a few more things to catch up on before I dig in. The other girls have said it's beautiful and I am sure it is! I'll post some peeks soon.

Have a wonderful week!

sketch assignments

I've got 3 sketch projects to share today.

First a card from Sketch This 62. I used up several scraps of Sassafras Lass for this. I cannot wait to get my hands on the new releases... cute stuff!

Secondly a card from Di Hickman August #2 (August 13). I have been waiting to use these pretty K&Co. diecuts.

and lastly a layout from Creatively Yours layout #19 using yummy October Afternoon. The pics aren't great, but I am learning to just use them and not worry about it if they are too dark.

I have completed 2 full days of work and only have 2 more to go. I am beat. That job is brutal I tell ya! My body aches and I sure am glad I only have 2 more days of this. My hands are so sore that I can barely use them. My cuticles are toast, not like they were all that great before, but they are now just bloody cracked messes. I have tiny cuts up and down my forearms from reaching into the boxes to pull out the books.
This is what I do all day. Open a box, take 12 books out of box and place in larger box. I do this with 2 titles and then package the final box of 36 books and place on pallet. Someone else does the first 2 titles. It's a no-brainer and I think I may actually be losing brain cells just working there. lol! Maybe we'll get lucky tomorrow and finish these 4 titles and move onto something else. I don't ever want to see these 4 books in a store! :) I actually dreamt about these books hunting me down last night. Pretty scary considering it's a series of murder books.
The thing that makes it worthwhile is that it's pretty laid back. You do your job and no one is there breathing down your neck. We can even eat and drink on the line which is pretty cool.
I suppose if the temp agency asks me to return I might, but I could never work there full time.

I am off to go make dinner and then die. ha!

layouts

It's my week for the weekly challenge over at Color{Me}Daisy and this layout is for the challenge I came up with. I have always liked this photo of Skye, and even though it's not a great pic. it suits her because she is constantly on the go. Come on over and take the challenge, you could win 3 of the Pink Paislee stamps for playing along. :)

I decided to enter the Fancy Pants DT call. I have always loved FPD and even though my chances are slim to make the team, at least I have a shot by entering. I managed to create 2 new layouts for the call this weekend and I am pretty happy with them. I had a lot of fun trying some new techniques (new to me) and I actually used a transparency... something I find challenging.
I know many of my friends also entered and I want to wish you all good luck!

I got a job for the rest of the week. I will be packing book orders starting tomorrow. I am nervous because it's been awhile since I have worked, but the extra cash will come in handy especially with school just around the corner. It's nice to be able to pick and choose if I work or not. I feel quite fortunate to have that blessing.

I need to go make a few cards and then I am going to hang out with the girls. Have a great week!

cards and Chipboard School

TGIF! The Olympics start today! Yay! I don't sit around and watch all day, but I am excited to watch some new events that I have never seen before and watch some of my favorites; swimming and gymnastics. These athletes are incredible! Their dedication and drive are inspiring and I can't even imagine how they must be feeling right now. Go USA!

Here are my cards for this week. :)
Di Hickman August #1: our bundle of joy and sketch this 61: laugh




Scrapping Outback is hosting a fun 7 week event! Here are the details:

Welcome to the first Scrapping Outback Chipboard School. There will be plenty to learn in the school house with teachers from all corners of the globe. Over seven weeks you will be learning new skills and updating some old techniques. We will help you take your chipboard to a whole new level. Each week you will be required to attend the roll call and class session.

Rules and Conditions-

1- The Chipboard School will run for seven weeks. The first class session will begin on Tuesday, August 19^th 2008. Each student is to register by Sunday, August 17^th 2008, 8.30pm (AEST). The competition is open to all Australian Residents and other International Countries. If International winner they will be responsible for half the postage of prize.

2- Each week students are required to register in the class roll by Tuesday, 8.30pm (AEST). Each week’s class session will be uploaded by Tuesday, 11am.

3- Each weeks task is to be completed and uploaded in the appropriate gallery by the following Monday, 9pm (AEST). Each weeks winning layout will be advised by Tuesday, 8.30pm.

4- Each student must complete an upload six of the seven weeks classes to be eligible for the prize. Each student must register in the class roll each week by the given time and day to be eligible for the prize. No late notes accepted!!

5- All student’s entries are not to be uploaded in any other store, gallery or competition. Entries can be uploaded into personal blogs each week but require a link to Scrapping Outback and a mention from which competition it is from.

6- Students layouts may be used by Scrapping Outback for display in store, blog and promotional material. Students may submit layouts for publication in magazines.

7- The Grand Prize winner will receive a prize to the value of $200.00. Photo of prize will be available. A prize will be given to one layout from the seven weeks that contains Scrapping Outback Chipboard. This prize has been kindly donated by Kaisercraft. Value $55.00. This layout will not necessarily be a winner from any given week.

We'd love to have you come play along! :)

totally bummed

My dh's surgery was unsuccessful. They weren't able to induce an abnormal rhythm, thus were not able to locate the "needle in the haystack" problem area. *huge sigh* The doc. was frustrated because he witnessed all the activity 3 weeks ago and then after trying for 2.5 hours today to cause a disturbance, nothing. His heart was on it's best behavior last night and today, unfortunately.
So, tomorrow morning they are going to put him on a treadmill and see what activity, if any, they can produce and then will figure out what the next step will be.
At this point the doc. is unsure of what is next. It's going to depend on the test tomorrow morning.

It is what it is and it is common for this to happen and it's totally frustrating, but it's out of our control and all we can do is take it one step at a time.

The body sure is a funny thing.

catching up

Good morning! It's a beautiful Sunday morning. The sun is out, the birds are singing and it's going to be a warm day, but not too hot. Perfect!

The past few days have been a rollercoaster. On Tuesday my in-laws arrived. It was a nice visit with them.
On Tuesday my dh's heart went out of rhythm. He hadn't been feeling well over the weekend and it seemed that his meds were not working well for him. By Thursday when we went to see the Electrophysicologist he was feeling awful. It was decided that my dh needed to have his follow-up procedure asap, which was going to be two weeks, however, there was an opening on Monday (tomorrow) so the doc. told my hubby to check into the hospital Friday morning to spend the weekend there waiting for the procedure. (He needs to be off his meds and the best way to monitor him is to have him hooked up to a heart monitor in the hospital where if something were to happen it can be taken care of immediately. It's boring for him, but the safest way.) Kenny started crying because he is so thankful that he was able to have this procedure sooner than later. He had a rough week and just knew he couldn't wait much longer. The angels were definitely watching over him. Had I not witnessed it myself I probably would not have believed it, but his heart rate went from 90 something up to 296 and then dropped down to 39 and back to the low 100's where it stayed for a while... all within a minute. That was one of the worse jumps he has ever experienced. Thankfully he was sitting down or he might have been out cold on the floor. Scary stuff I tell you.
Last night was rough for him. His blood pressure was really high, 180/140, when I first arrived. I had been home all day because Skye has Katie all weekend and I can't leave her alone so the girls and I didn't get to see him until after 4. He was told to lie back in bed and rest, so the girls and I ate and then I brought some food up to his room for him to eat thinking it might help him feel a bit better because he was waiting for us so we could all eat dinner together. It did because after he ate and rested it was down to 130/90. We didn't stay long. :( I called him about 8pm last night to check on him and his bp was up again and he had a migraine so I didn't talk long. I sure hope he's feeling better this morning. It's too early to call and check on him.

His procedure is going to be sometime Monday... we have been told several different times, but last we heard it was going to be at 4PM. It's a 4-6 hour procedure and a bit more extensive than the 2 Ablations he had back in July (3 weeks ago). I am not really sure what they are doing this time, I just know that it's more complicated and will take much longer. Oh, and that trying to locate the trouble area is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. yikes! I just pray that they are able to take care of this and that Kenny doesn't have to undergo this once again. The dr. said that if everything goes as planned Kenny should be off the Flecanide and other meds. I sure hope this is the case!

This is draining on all of us in different ways. I am worried about my dh and the bills and trying to keep a smile on my face so the girls don't worry. They are stressed and scared that their daddy is going to die. I keep re-assuring them that he's going to be just fine and that they shouldn't worry. He's not at high risk for death, but there is a chance, especially a high risk for him having a stroke and it does cross my mind. He's worn out and he's irritable and frustrated and just tired of feeling this way. I totally get that and I know it's not easy for him to be down. It's really just draining on every level for us, but there is no use in wallowing because that isn't going to do anyone any good. I try to just keep on with "normal" daily life because letting everything else go isn't going to do anything but make things worse. I am really hoping I get the chance to finish my book today and scrap after I attend to a few chores around the house.

Friday just so happened to be my birthday. Happy Birthday to me. lol! It wasn't all that bad. I never have high expectations for anything which is a good thing. Although it would have been nice to have my dh home with me, it really is just another day and his health is way more important than celebrating my birthday. After I dropped my in-laws off at the bus station and my dh was checked into his room at the hospital I was so mentally and physically drained that I went home and took a nap and then just rested for several hours. I got up around 1pm and felt so much better. I took the girls to Target, to Michael's and the scrapbook store then we stopped by Fred Meyer and picked up a birthday cake and then we headed to the hospital to celebrate. Not so bad. We came home early and I cleaned up a bit, read, watched some TV with the girls and went to bed.

I have a summer cold. Summer colds are the worst. It really hasn't been all that warm here lately. It's been in the 70's, which is well below normal. I have been bundled up in pants and a sweatshirt walking around with a box of Kleenex. Ha! I have been taking some Airborne too, but not consistently. I didn't get much sleep last week and I am sure that's what really wore me down. I can usually fight it off before it starts, but not this time. As long as I am feeling better tomorrow I'll be good to go.

Anyway, I haven't scrapped at all this week, but here is my card for Di Hickman's sketch July #5 (I used a beautiful card kit from Say it With Letters to create it) as well a my take on Sketch This 60.

Well, I am off to dig into the day! I hope you have a wonderful week!