From the Mouthes of Babes

Last night I got home from work exhausted.  Bone tired.  After dinner I said that I was going to go  upstairs and get into my pajamas.  Michelle said I looked too tired to go up the stairs myself and offered to go and get my pjs for me and bring them down.  I thanked her for the offer but declined and said I'd go up myself.  So Jim chimed in and asked if I needed help, to which I said sure.  Now it was Bella's turn to chime in.  She turned to Jim and said "You shouldn't talk like that in front of a kid! Mom!"  When Jim started for the steps (heading for his office by the way) she looked at Michelle and said "He never listens to me!"  I have to wonder what she is thinking.  Later when I joined her in the family room she said "That's outstanding GaGa!"  I asked her what was outstanding because I didn't know what she was referring to and she went on to give me the definition of outstanding.  Ha!  She must think she lives with a bunch of dim wits.

Anyway, here are a few more layouts I completed of my favorite subject.

Strawberry Picking, May of This year!

This one is from a random pictures I took last summer.

How about some creativity?

So I was telling the truth when I said that I did some scrapbooking over the long weekend.  I finally got to it and it felt good.  So here are some pages for you!

4th of July 2009! Only a year behind, ha!

Busch Gardens, August 2009

December 2009, Out of Order!

March 2010, Bella's Stage Debut

These are four of my layouts, more to come!

Pictures

As promised, some pictures of what I have been up to! 

First, here is the basement:

This is the back wall where my scrapping area will be...

This is a view looking towards the back wall, there is another window next to this one and that door leads to a closet.  A little further down from that door is the exterior door.

This it in the throne room, the castle mural...

and the chalkboard is next to the door.

This layout is of Bella's 5th birthday.  It was a safari themed party.  Michelle thought that it was funny that I did a whole layout of her party and didn't include one other person in it.  Ha!

And this is Bella and Roxie.  The title is a little difficult to read, it says "Sun, Sand & Someone to Love".

Monday at Work

We made it through the weekend and Monday has arrived.  The above picture I took from my deck looking into the backyard.  As you can see, we got a lot of snow!!  That hole to the left of the picture is our little pond, we got around 34 inches total.  Guess what?  Another storm is headed our way and is expected to dump another 6-10 inches on us.  Schools are closed today and I'd guess they will be tomorrow as well and with more snow expected who knows when they'll go to school again!?

I made it to work today, but if we get more snow as expected, I don't think I'll make it in on Wednesday.  People around here don't drive too well in the snow and though I can manage, I worry about other drivers.  Many don't even take the snow off their cars.  This morning I saw a woman driving (and I was on the road with her for at least 15 minutes) she had 2 feet of snow on the top of her car and all her windows, except for the windshield were covered with frost/ice.  That's crazy!

Despite the shoveling, snow removal and an extra 5 year old, I did manage to get some scrapbooking in over the weekend. 

These pictures of Bella were taken at her pre-school last year.  They had picture people come in and they were allowed to dress any way that they wanted.  I thought they came out great!  (You can click on the pictures to see it bigger.)

This layout was scraplifted from one of Becky Higgins' books, quick and easy.  The pictures were from our trip to the pumpkin patch in 2008, so I got some catching up to do! 

What did you do this weekend?  Any snow where you live?  Let me know!

Happy Monday!

Welcome back!  I had a rather productive weekend, how about you?   Friday night I was bogged down by this migraine headache-still.  I can't seem to shake it for good.  It will go away for awhile and then rear it's ugly head back up, making my life miserable!  I really wish that we could find something that would work for me to get rid of the pain and prevent the re-bound headaches from occuring.  So needless to say, Friday I didn't get too much done.
Saturday we took the little one to dance and when it was over we went out to find that it had begun to snow.  We were only expecting to get an inch or snow, but as the snow kept falling and falling it became apparant that the weather man was wrong.  Go figure!  We wound up getting about 6 inches.  I had to go out in the midst of it all to make a hair appointment, which I wasn't going to miss.  So I got my hair done, cut and highlighted.  Had to get rid of the 'pilgrim' look.  Ha! 

Sunday I stayed in all day and it was great!  I got many of my completed scrapbook pages actually in the scrapbooks.  I don't work chronoligically so I tend to keep the pages in a plastic storage box until they are in some kind of an order.  I started Bella's new album and completed another one page spread for the front. 

She saw the page and asked why she was crying in the second picture on the left.  She's not crying, she was putting the heart in her stuffed animal and the girl that was helping her told her to make a wish before she put the heart in and that is what she was doing!  I cleaned up my room a little and got a few more pages completed, so I felt really productive. 

I know the picture quality isn't great, sorry for that!   I was photographing them in my Scrapatorium and it has no natural light in it.  I love the picture of Bella in the bottom layout, with her mouth wide open.  She had such a great time that day and it shows! 

I also had time to take a nap, watch a movie with my daughter and spend some time with my son, too! 

All in all, a good weekend. 

A quick layout

I normally scrap two-page layouts, so when I need to do a one page one I find it difficult sometimes.  I like to do something special for the title page of the album, but for the last page I don't feel the need to do anything special, just get it done.  Anyway, this layout is for the last page of Bella's most recent album.  The shirt that she was wearing in the pics was pink with an owl on it, so I went with that.  It came together in nothing flat.  'Course I haven't done any journaling yet! 

Now I have to think of another title page for the next album!

Winter Weather on the Way

So the weather man says.  We are expecting a 'wintry mix' tonight and into tomorrow.  Accumulating to only an inch or so, but who knows what we will wind up with. 
Yesterday I went to work feeling pretty good about what I was wearing.  I had on a blue corduroy dress that came down past my knees, black hose and black shoes.  The shoes are the Naturalizers or something similar, but they are just plain black with a small stacked heel and a 2" band of elastic or something that goes across the top of the foot.  Got the picture?  Anyway, when I left for work it was still dark out and Bella was enjoying yet another day off of school so she and her Granddaddy slept in.  I walk in the door from work last night and Bella yells "Hi Gaga!", she then looks up at me and says "Oh, you look just like a Pilgrim."  So, won't be wearing that dress again, the shoes weren't that comfortable anyway, so they can go to!  And I made an appointment to get my hair done, though she can't get me in until the 31st.  Nothing quite like the honesty of a 5 year old to hit you where it hurts!  Ha!
Got another layout nearly completed, just need to add the journaling.

The pictures were taken this past summer at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg.  Jim and the girls went into the aviary and the birds are quite accustomed to people, but they flocked to Jim.  They were licking the perspiration from his neck! 

The paper is from Basic Grey's new Origins line.  I just love Basic Grey!  It is the paper that I consistently go to for scrapbooking and cardmaking.  Can't beat it!  I generally use a lot of pictures on each layout and I tend to keep the layouts pretty linear to keep them from looking too messy.  So nothing too special about my layouts, just getting them done.  I love the process though!  Love to sit in my Scrapatorium, with all my stuff around me and just create.  But it is often too easy to loose track of time.  I've been known to go in there at 7 or 8 in the evening and emerge only to find that it is now 12:30 or 1:00 and everyone else has gone to bed for the night!  Does that happen to anyone else?  I have DVD's that I pop into "watch" while I'm working, Boston Legal, The Golden Girls, Soap, Becker and The Pretender to name a few.  Things that I have seen over and over and don't have to pay too much attention to.  Still enjoy them though.  So, tell me how you work, do you have a routine?  Special music, shows or snacks that you like to have while working?  I'd love to hear from you!

Happy New Year!

Hope that you all had a safe celebration!  We went to Miyako for an early dinner for Michelle's birthday.  It was so delicious!  Afterwards we went home for ice cream cake and a quiet evening at home.

  Friday was Jim's birthday and although he thought we'd stay home for dinner, Bella thought that wasn't very 'festive', so we wound up at Carraba's.  The rest of the weekend was spent primarily on taking down all the Christmas decorations and getting the house back in order.  I am always anxious to get the house decorated for Christmas, but once Christmas is over, I want the decorations down!  Jim however, is never ready to see the decorations go down.  We did manage to get most everything done, with the exception of the outside lights and wreaths.  It was far too cold and too windy to go outside or to open the windows to pull the wreaths in.

It has been bitter cold and WINDY!  We had wind gusts of 40 MPH.  At times it felt like the roof of our  house was going to be ripped right off.  Bella thought that there was a ghost in her room.  So, yesterday was a day to stay home and stay warm!  Bella spent a good part of the day like this:

Yes, Roxie gets right in bed with her and she tucks her in under the covers!  That is my bed by the way!
And, the big news of the weekend was t hat I actually got into my scraproom and was able to get a two-page layout done!  Here's the proof:

Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures, but it is difficult to photograph .  Now lest you think that I am that caught up, I must confess that the pictures are from last Christmas! Ha!  But in my defense, I don't scrap chronologically.  I have layouts done from Easter and June of '09, but I just got around to Christmas '08.  Hopefully I'll be able to get back into a regular routine of scrapping and  card making now that the holidays are over. 
Hope everyone has a Blessed New Year!

Weekend Recap

My Weekend was busy, really, well sort of. Friday found me at home all day on the couch feeling yucky. Nothing specific, just feeling lousy. I stayed home from work and went to the dr. just to be safe-diagnosis: virus. So, Friday was wholly undproductive. Then on Saturday I woke up feeling somewhat better, but I knew that I had a full plate so I had to get moving. I went to Toys R' Us to pick up a Christmas gift for Bella and then drop it off at my neighbors' house so that she could hide it. Ran a few more errands and returned home to do a quick cleaning. Around lunchtime, Andy & Durinda arrived and we began preparing for the evening's event-a Surprise 70th birthday party for Andy. Durinda was worried that he knew, but he was clueless. Here's the proof:

So, that was my Saturday, it was a lot of fun and Durinda pulled off the perfect surprise!  On Sunday, I never

even made it out of my P.J.s!  It was one of those days, the temperature dipped way down and I was still not feeling great, so I just stayed comfy.  I decided to have a go at cleaning my room and I really made quite a good showing at it.  I was able to really get a lot accomplished and after I finished cleaning, I was able to work in there for a while too!  Great day!  So now, I'd like to give you a tour of my Scrapatorium.  It is small-6' x 11' approximately.  It is right off the garage and used to be our mud room, but I took it over about a year ago as my own.  So, this is the view coming in the door from the garage:

As you can see it is painted a nice cheery pink.  (Pink makes me happy!)  I had the rub on over the desk made for me by Uppercase Living and I love it!  The desk and hutch top came from Office Max and is part of the Christopher Lowell collection designed for small spaces.  I have my Glimmer Mist and Stickles hanging on the back, they are attached to with velcro tape. 

This is looking from my desk towards the back of the room where a closet once was.  I removed the doors and put my cubbies in there, giving me lots of storage space.  The inside of the closet is painted a cream color and the shelves and the wall space in between are painted brown.  I have white baskets lined with a pink and green fabric sitting on the first shelf.  They are labeled and hold things like adhesives, rub-ons, punches, etc.  It is somewhat difficult to see, but on top of the cubbies sits a small DVD player with a TV sitting on top of it.  (Watching Golden Girls when the photo was taken!)  I left the coat rod in there and created a Clip It Up style of thing and hang some of larger embellishments there.

This bookcase sits next to the closet opening, behind my desk.  I can just reach back and grab whatever I need.  I keep my ribbons in the basked on the top shelf.  The boxes hold things like bags for cards and crafts, QK foam, foam stamps, etc.  In the small drawer unit with the green/pink drawers I have my stamp inks, and stamp accessories.  On the third shelf, I keep my Studio G stamps in the green binders (there are 2 of them) and next to that are pads of Basic Grey 6 x 6 paper for card making.  There are also idea books, files and all kinds of stuff. 

Finally, this is the view from the closet facing the doors.  The door on the left leads to the garage and the one on the right goes into the hallway and the kitchen.  The back wall holds my MM Embellishment Center and an old VCR Tape rack we had that fits perfectly.  I have all of my QK 2 x 2 fonts on that, as well as my markers, Primas and a Card box.  And finally, my DVD collection.  I like to put on old TV shows while I crop.  Between the door and my desk is a small 2-shelf unit that holds my border punches, embossing gun, some of my most used Revolution Dies and Spellbinders and on top of it is my 8.5" x 11" cardstock. 

So, there you have it!  It's small, but it's mine!  Now maybe I can get some scrapping done!