Wow! November is here!

It is hard to believe that November is already here. The time has flown by.

I have been busy working on the house, working shows, and taking care of the family.

My creative time has been cut to almost nothing for the past few months but has been exchanged for time working on our house. New paint, new kitchen and bathroom. It is nice to have it feel so fresh.

I have been cleaning and going through some of my clothing. I have a stack of scrapbooking t-shirts in sizes m-l-xl. If anyone would not mind hand me downs..(they are practically brand new) let me know! I would hate for them to go to waste!!

I am seriously looking forward to the holiday season. Time with the family is the best.

I did post a few layouts above that were done. I have been loving the Dr. Seuss isms lol!

Thanks for looking!

August is here!

August is here and it is getting time for school to start. Dare I say.. I can't wait!! (wink wink!)

The first of the month is always a busy day for me . I always try to get my newest Rusty Pickle projects for the month up on line. I posted them above.

We got up for an extra early walk this morning because Ian had to work. I think the dogs look forward to going as much as I do. There is something relaxing about our walk. It is our time to talk about what is going to happen for the day and spend a little bit of time together.

Last weekend we headed for the coast. It wasn't for fun but to go through a few things at Ian's mom's house before they sold it. We were able to take an antique china cabinet (the glass needed repair work) and also an antique men's dresser for David's room.

Tomorrow we plan to head back over there and visit with his mother who is in a nursing home.

It seems we are always running somewhere.. at least we are running together!

We are Back!

After our 6,500 mile road trip we are home! We all had loads of fun . We did have a few "bumps" in the road but we all worked together and tackled it as a family and are now returning to our busy lives at home.

Andrew had so much fun. I still hear things comming out of his mouth telling someone about something that happened or that he learned on our trip and think.. "wow! He really was listening". He was telling someone yesterday about how electricity was made with a dam and how the locks work on the dam we visited. The funny part was we had stopped by this dam for a quick picnic one day with my parents. But boy it must have made a big impression on him!

We visited Destin, Flordia and spent one day on the beach. Ahh.. the water was so nice. Not freezing like we have here in California. We all got a bit of sun even with the spf 70 we used.

Visiting with my parents was so much fun and eventful too. I was able to pick enough blackberries for some homemade jam. Yummm!

I missed Ruby and Max terribly and they were so happy to see us when we arrived home. I think their "welcoming party" lasted for about 20 min. We finally had to put them outside so we could carry in our luggage.

Now we are refreshed an back to our "real world", but boy it was sure fun to get away for a bit!

Well we are about to head out in a few days on our yearly "Family Vacation". I say "about", because here I sit, with nothing packed or ready to go.

It has been a hectic week around our house. My mom and Dad were out visiting, my grandmother was placed in the hospital, and then a rehabilitaion facility, Andrew had swimming lessons, and the list goes on.

My birthday is fast approaching and my kids decided to surprise me with the "bestest" gift in the world. They decided that mom needs to "stay connected" on her trips and bought me a laptop. It was such an awesome surprise! My son Jeremy orchestrated it all and then did the horribile duty of setting it all up with my software that I need. Eveyone tends to hide when I need computer help.

I must say thank you to each one individually as all had a hand in this..

So Thank You... Jeremy, Jennifer, Michael, David, Andrew (Yes! You can have my old dinasour!), and Ian... Y'all are the best! I love you all!

I also included a photo of one of my Dt projects for Rusty Pickle for July to the side! Thanks Jamie for the inspiration and thanks Andrew for the idea on how to use TH Swivil Clasps to hang the circle on! What would I do without my little scrapbooker? He is so full of ideas! I love how this turned out!

Now it must be off to pack!

Remember... "SMILES ARE FREE!"

Hugs!

"Up" and Away!!

Things have been busy around our household these past few weeks!
After returning from Pasadena everything has taken off!
My poor grandmother had to celebrate her 97th birthday in the hospital.
Hugs Grandma! I love you!
My parents are visiting from Tennessee.
Andrew is taking swimming lessons. It is too funny to watch. He loves the water and has fun when he wonders off from the class. I swear he is going to be the death of me.
We leave for vacation next week. I have packing to do.
I am trying to get my July Dt projects finished. I can't wait to share them with everyone.
I did post my "Day in my Life" page for June above. We went and saw the movie "Up".
I used the idea from the movie of the house floating away with balloons. The bottle cap pin from the movie, the movie ticket stubs, and a picture of Andrew were all used. Oh and then I also used a strip of an old 8mm movie.
Well I am off to start accomplishing some more chores.
Did I mention that everthing in my garden is "in season"? Squash or tomatoes anyone???

Back From Pasadena!!

It was a great show in Pasadena!

I got to see lots of my local friends who traveled up to visit Pasadena's first ever CKC.

I just had to post this photo from the show. It is our typical "WE ARE DONE!" dirty hands photo.

I even had the hubby and Andrew helping us out! Andrew was quite the motor mouth during tear down. I think our neighboring booths were getting an earful of him. I had to laugh, because my hubby told me on the way home.. "Now I know why you come home so tired and bruised every show." He had helped us with set up too and said he had to get back to his work to "rest".

We had an awesome crew! Thanks Guys!

Now I am busy around the house doing catch up for being gone for the past two weeks.

My parents will be arriving on Saturday and I am anxiously awaiting their arrival.

I have a few projects to complete and then just got an awesome box of new Pickelicious goodies from my UPS man! SCORE!

Off to Arlington!

I am headed out the door soon to work the GASC show in Arlington, Texas! I will be working with my good friend and fellow chef Kim and a local person from the area I have never met.

I am also hoping to touch bases with my freind and fellow chef Jill! I can't wait!

This is going to be a busy next two weeks. I will be doing back to back shows with the next one a CKC in Pasadena!

I am anxious to see the new Rusty Pickle Patriotic line at the show... and maybe pick up a few more goodies. I am already anticipating getting home and getting to play.

I will be missing Andrew who told me he slipped a secret note into my suitcase. I am not susposed to look until I get there.

I wanted to leave you with a few of my June RP creations. Enjoy!

Summer is comming FAST!

Working with the papers I was given for my June Creative Team assignment for Scrapbook Doodle reminded me that summer was fast approaching.

It has been so hot outside and staying inside and creating was just the ticket. Don't get me wrong I was still chasing andrew, cooking dinner, but after all went to bed... I had lots of fun!

School is almost over for Andrew and summer is sitting here ready to start!

Tags with Andrew

Andrew sat down with me the other night while I was watching a Tim Holtz Demo on the computer. It is had to believe that he sat through the whole demo and was so interested in it.

He asked if he could make one. I had been wanting to try too so while he watched it again and made a "list" of the things we needed I dug them out with enough tags for both of us to give it a shot.

I can not believe how easy they were. What was even worse.. one of the tags we did you can't tell his from mine.. lol. I guess that I shouldn't say worse.. I was just surprised at how well he did. He even corrected me on a few of my "faults".

I posted our creations above. His are the set of two in the picture and mine are the set of three.

I was so proud of what he created.

Now I fear, he will be into my scrap supplies more often. He has found "that man" as he calls him on You Tube and has been watching all of his demos! I have created a mad man!

Playing with Scrapbook Supplies

Last night I sat down to do my "Day in a Life" album page for May.

The 19th this month happened to be a Tuesday so I couldn't resist scrapping Andrew's favorite weekly holiday. I was itching to play with the new Cosmo Cricket Early bird and play with some Tim Holtz product so I dug in and had some fun.

I used my QK Silhouette Digital cutter for the lettering and then masked on the tag with the Tim Holtz Grunge Mask. I had a blast. The Chipboard frame was actully an old Scrapworks one I had laying around from Christmas and I added those cute eating utensil chipboards that went with the new Cosmo papers. I added Rusty Pickle Buttons and monthly rubons and was done! I really had a lot of fun doing this months.

Today I will spend paying insurance bills (Yikes! dont' ever have a teenage driver.. it will kill you pocketbook!), picking up around the house , and then hopefully working on some more assignments!

Now I must go out and fill the wading pool.. I need to have it ready for Andrew and the dogs!

It's going to be a hot one!

Yes! It is going to be a hot one!.... Summer that is!

It has been so hot and humid the past few days here. I finally bit the bullet so to speak and turned on our air conditioner. We are filling Andrew's wading pool daily. I don't know who is enjoying it more Andrew or the dogs!

I was playing around with some scraps and some older pictures from last year and created these 6 x 12's. I enjoy working with this size. It is perfect for scraps and pictures that are not quite perfect.

I am off to water the garden and see how my tomatoes, and peppers are doing. I picked the peas and the spinach yesterday. It should not be long until I can also harvest the radishes and carrots.

Andrew has only a couple of weeks of school to go. Yikes! Summer vacation is almost here!

Here Comes the Rain?

Today I uploaded my May Design Team Assignments for Rusty Pickle. I really had a lot of fun playint with these. I loved the orange and black together! You know I rarely have done layouts of myself but this one was actually a lot of fun to do!!

It is susposed to rain heavy this evening and then again tomorrow morning so I cancelled the garage sale. I wil just move it forward a week or so. We really need the rain. My garden would love the water! Don't get me wrong I water it all the time but there is something about a nice warm rain.

Speaking of gardens... mine is comming along nicely. I even saw a small pea pod in the pea vines today. My peppers, tomatoes, and strawberries, along with the peas are blooming. My spinach, beans, and carrots are looking well too! Andrwe planted some corn at school in a pot and brought it home so I put it in next to our cucumbers. If they keep growing we will have three whole stalks of corn.. LOL! YAY!

Well I just wanted to show ya'll the layouts! I hope to get some more done this weekend.. durning the rain???!!

It's "Chicken Day"!!!

Well I have been busy scrapping away at home. I just finished the above layouts that are made out of the Scrapbook Doodle's May monthly kit. It was fun to play with the orange and blue for a while. The last one was a photo that Andrew took of me. He is such a "goober". He is always grabbing my camera and snapping away. When I was erasing his "photo session" from my memory card I came across this picture and thought.. Why not use one?

Tonight is open house at school and also "Chicken Day"! Those of you who don't know about Chicken Day, obviously have not received a call from Andrew on a Tuesday. We buy chicken from KFC on Tuesdays because of the specials they run . (Wow it has been on for about a year now!)

Well when I pick him up from school we head off to pick up dinner. He has figured out how to call people using my iphone so he grabs it and looks at everyone's picture in my address book and proceedes to call and let them know it is "Chicken Day!" Don't be surprised if you get a call!!

We are thinking about having a garage sale this weekend. We were cleaning out the garage last weekend and had people stopping by asking if we were cleaning or having a sale. Hey.. don't laugh! We made $45 on the clean out! The big plus was we didn't have to put those items back into the garage! We set an old lawn mower out that Andrew had destroyed and filled with dirt on our back slab for our yearly rubbage day comming up... it was gone the next day. We don't know who snagged it but it was one less thing to haul off to the city yard!

Well it is time to think about picking up Andrew and celebrating "Chicken Day", so let me leave you with this......

HAPPY CHICKEN DAY!!!

St. Louis Fun!

Working St. Louis with my buddies? What can I say.. one word says it all..."FUN"!!

Bad hair days were even fun! (just look at the above photo.. what was it doing?)

Nanette and her daughter Kalie were a blast. I think we were always giggling. The tear down crew? Well look at the pictures above at the dirty hands. They were awesome!

I am happy to be home for a bit to spend some time with my family. Thanks St. Louis for a wonderful time!

Butterflies and Packing

Today Andrew's insect project was due at school. Everyone in the family was susposed to help make and research an insect of Andrew's choice. Everyone else had suggestions of maybe doing an ant or a lightening bug (think of the possibilities) but Andrew stood firm with his choice of a butterfly.
I helped Andrew research it, while David and Ian did the model... ahemm .. let me clarify.. David did the model while Ian ran to pick up the supplies and watched.
Andrew was quite proud of it this morning as he carried it into the school. He asked me to to a photograph of it as he was leaving.
Today I have been finishing up some layouts, trying to sort things, and pick up around the house.
Tomorrow I will be packing to head to CKC St Louis, MO (really it is in Collinsville, IL).
As some of you know I have been collecting state charms for my bracelet. I already have one from last year for MO, so I think I will be doing the IL one for this show. It counts right?
I will be working with Nanette and her daughter Kaylie! It should be loads of fun.
I am also going to get to see Jamie and her mother Rose! They promised to help with tear down like last time in Kansas City!
I can't wait to see them!

Home to Play For A Bit!

Well I am home for a few days, I leave to go to St. Louis CKC next week.

Andrew has kept me busy. He has a few school projects that are comming

due and then we have been enjoying the spring weather.

Andrew was out with the dogs blowing bubbles the other day. I heard him giggling and

Max was barking and jumping. After a closer look I see that he was blowing the

bubbles and Max was trying to jump up and "pop" them. I had to run and grab my

camera and capture these shots!

Ahh!! I am enjoying these warm days!

Pleasanton, CA Done!

What a blast we had in Pleasanton!

I absolutly loved all of my helpers and would love to have them back anytime!

Teresa... girl you rock! Thank you so much!

The tear down crew... what can I say? We did it !! I don't think that some of you have laughed so hard in ages.. even my hubby helped!...(why can't I get him to help at home?)

I must admit.. it being the first show of the year it kicked my you know what and I pretty much vegged all Sunday.

But.. I did drop a few lbs!! Hee hee.. and it was much more fun than getting on a treadmill or going to the gym!

Tasha.. you deserve a medal! How do you sleep? LOL! Brenda and I giggled so hard.. Lance was snoring so loudly the people in the next room were beating on the walls for him to stop in the middle of the night!

Thanks again ladies.. and Teresa and Brenda.. I hope we get to do this again.. Ya'll are the best!

And away we Goooooooo!

Yes! Show Season is starting!

Tomorrow I am heading out for the Pleasanton Expo in California. I will spend today packing, tying up loose ends aound the house, and finishing a few projects I have on my desk.

This picture is from the Chatanooga Show last year. That was a few pounds ago. Maybe starting work will help shed some of my "packed on" winter pounds.

I will be working with one of my great fellow chef's Brenda, and Lance will be teaching. We will also have the honor of having a helper for set-up. Yay Tereasa!!

When I return home my mom and Dad will be here visiting and I will get to spend some time with them. I miss them being around in my life every day. I can't wait to see them!

Hopefully my house will not be in too much disrepair when I return from the show after three days with all men being there! You know how the guys are! (wink!)

Always Remember...

This week has been so hectic around our house.

Spring has sprung so to say.

Yards needed mowing, dogs to the vet for shots, help out at school, floors that needed repair among other things.

Surprise!!

My son decided to keep it from us that his girlfriend from New York was comming to visit.

I found out when he called me from work the night she was susposed to arrive. It seems that she was stranded in Las Vegas because she had missed her flight.

They decided that he would pick her up there (a 6 hour drive one way) after he finished his night shift at work.

Well he made it to Las Vegas and was headed home and fell asleep while driving and ran into a semi.

Luckly no one was hurt, but his car was totaled.

It made me start thinking how that sometimes you get busy with life and you forget to tell people who mean the most, that you love them.

My older boys have grown up and left the nest. I don't see them everyday. Do they know how I feel?

I have decided that no matter how embarassing it is for them, how silly they think it is, or how much they think they have grown , that they will receive those mommy kisses and hugs forever.

I love them!

Jackpot!!

Today I feel like I hit the Jackpot! My sister in law sent me some photos of their family.

As most of you know I only have boys, but now, I finally have some girl photos to work with!!

Everyone tells me to just scrap myself. Trust me, it is not the same. Most of the photos of myself at a young age are black and white and will not go with the new trendy paper. While they do make fabulous heritage layouts, they just don't do the new paper "justice".

We are so lucky to have the new camera types that give you such true colors in our photos and make it possible to do layouts with such bold and bright colors.

I have been struggling with designer block recently so I hope these will help get me out of it.

The wind has picked up around here and it has cooled off a bit. I am in desperate need of sunshine and warm weather! I find myself shivering in the mornings still. Where is that "shorts weather" I was asking for?

March is here!

March has blown in with lots of rain here.

We spent yesterday moving things in the house and cleaning a bit here and there.

We live in a very tiny house and it seems we are jam packed into it.
There is not a day that goes by that I am not dreaming of a house a bit larger. If I could have a room of my own to scrap that would be an extra blessing.

My husband has been wanting us to get one of those small mini freezers but we sadly have had no room. He decided to move a wooden filing cabinet into the house so we might have room in the garage for the freezer.

Well when you move the cabinet the files need to be cleaned right? I spent most of the day shreading documents that were at the oldest, 20 years old.

It felt good to be rid of the junk but of course the cabinet takes up room in the house.

There were lots of treasures in there . Fun family photos and things that had been forgotten.

I made the layout here from an old photo of my sister and myself. The materials used were all from Scrapbook Doodle's March kit. We were quite a pair!

Today I am off to see what March brings. Looks like rain for sure!

February! Where did it go?

It is hard to believe that February is over. It seems like the month had just started.

We spent today in town. I can't believe how fast Andrew is growing. He had a field trip last Wednesday and as I was dressing him I noticed that all of the pants he has in his drawer were hitting him at and above his ankles!

I received an email that Osh Kosh was having a $10 pant sale this weekend so I vowed to get him a few pair. Yes! to my amazement, he had gone up two pant sizes. What was even more amazing is while he could fit into the slims they were a tad snug and now he is a regular!

We fixed up his wardrobe with 3 pants, 4 shorts, and four new shirts which totaled to under $100 including tax! Yeah!!

After that we ventured to the mall to pick up a few other necessities and then Ian surprised us with Lunch at Red Robin. David had gone with us so for a change the entire household was there! It was so nice.

Today feels like Sunday to me. Ian has been working 6-7 days a week so we have not had a Saturday together in forever. I am hoping that tomorrow I can have him knock off a few things on my "honey-do" list.

I created the February layout for my "Day in the Life" album. The day that was chosen was just an ordinary day for me. I tried to make a layout that said just that! I am going to make the album myself with my bind it all. These pages I do will matt onto kraft colored pages. I am really looking forward to seeing how it ends up.

I have been dreaming of summer and I must admit I am ready for March.. I really want to dig out those shorts and pack the pants till the fall!

Let me leave this post by saying one of my new favoite sayings....

"A true friend will always say you are a good egg, even though they know you are slightly cracked!"

New addition!

I am so behind with my blog.

Everyone in the family has been sick and life has just gotten in the way.

I have vowed to get this going again.

We have a new addition to our family.

Meet Ruby!

We picked her up in Oregon from my good buddy Kathie D on the 17th of Jan.

She is our male boxer Max's new best buddy.

The online board that I follow and design for (scrapbook doodle) started a challenge to be done monthly. We are creating an album called "A Day in my Life". We are chosing a day and every month we are scrapping something about that day.

I was a little behind because I decided to join mid February. So February will be soon to follow!

This layout is done for the 19th of January.

We picked Ruby up less than 30 hours earlier!

I have some hidden journaling on the tag under the photo pocket about our routine's changing.

Wow! Feburary is almost over and we are into March.

The Pleasanton, Ca Expo is comming up fast! I'll be hitting the road soon heading out around the middle of March. I hope to see you all there!

My Guys 2008

With my boys living all over now, it is hard to get a photo with each and every one of them in it!

Here is the Christmas 2008 photo!

We have birthdays for three of them at the end of the month! I need to get the cakes ordered! They don't like to share!

In two weeks we are going to pick up our new addition to the family.. our new "Ruby"! Here new room (crate) is ready and waiting!

I can't wait to get out of the house and on the road!

Happy New Year!

Well the New Year has started and is going strong.

Little changes are taking place in our family, schedules changing people comming in and out of the household.

So far...

I have finally had my oldest move out.

My son David, got his first set of college grades and we were so happy to see he has a 4.0 average after this first semester.

Andrew is doing well at school. It is so cute to see him so excited about it!

I have been helping out in his class room on Tuesdays. I think he loves it as much as I do. This way I can keep my eye on him!

We are getting a new addition to our family in a few weeks.

Our dog Max is finally getting a partner.. we will be picking up a new little puppy "Ruby" in a few weeks! We will be back to potty training again and all that fun, but nothing beats those puppy snuggles.

With all of the new changes going on I am starting the new year with a motto. My new motto for this year is the one reflected on the card to the left.. "Life is good.. Follow your dreams".