Monday, August 29, 2011

Photo Op

Something unusual happened yesterday.  Meg actually called to me asking me to bring my camera.




I'm still weeding through my photo files so no new layouts but I'm sure you'll be seeing this one featured soon. Love it!



Saturday, August 27, 2011

A Little Silly

I'm in the process of catching up on two years worth of photo editing.  It's a bit overwhelming but I'm trying to do a few folders every day.  I'll get caught up...eventually.    

As I was searching photo files I came across these silly little tags that I made for a friend who had major surgery this past June.  




Her favorite "adult beverage" is a vodka/Fresca cocktail so I thought it would be cute to pretend like she was receiving them IV during her stay in the hospital.  I made these sparkly, very girlie looking tags out of stuff from my scrap room and took them to her the first evening.  Even "out of it" she got quite a kick out of them.  Apparently the doctors and nurses all got quite a laugh out of them every time they entered the room too.

I particularly like the way the morphine sign rounds out her "mommy cocktail."

Thursday, August 25, 2011

I'm seeing a trend...

I think the cutest photos I have right now are of Meg and Jasmine.  :)  Perhaps I should expand on my photography subjects?

Hot off the presses....



Thanks again for looking!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Another June Birthday

One of the pages I hope to make during Sept's Layout A Day (LOAD) will be about adopting Jasmine, our sweet little Maltese/Bichon Frise mix. In the 25 years we've been together Randy and I have never owned a dog and had no intention of ever doing so.  Finally, last summer, we finally relented to Meg's pleas and I am so glad we did.  This little fur ball has been such a wonderful addition to our family.  

Here's a page I did yesterday featuring a photo I took on Jasmine's first birthday.  


Yes, both "my girls" are spoiled.  







Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Yes, it's still 5 o'clock somewhere...

I had a special request for a salt shaker clock so here's #3.




Meggie says I need to start my own business but for now I'm happy to make them for my friends.

On the running front, I got a late start this month (out of town) and it's obvious that I'm not going to get anywhere close to my 40 mile goal.  Now that school is back in session I'm able to get out in the early mornings but I'm finding that I definitely prefer an evening run.  If I can get to 30 miles in August, I'll be happy.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Equal Opportunity Crafter


In addition to creating home decor projects and scrapbook pages I also love to make handmade cards.  I've found it to be a wonderful creative outlet that I can easily do with little bit of free time here and there. It's great to have a large stash of cards on hand to send out to family and friends as well as bundle up for gift giving.  I've given pretty card bundles out as hostess/teacher/holiday/birthday gifts, donated them for local fundraisers and now have several girlfriends who look forward to (and expect) an annual bundle on their birthday.

Here are a few of my latest ones.  Excuse the photography.  I'm still trying to figure out the whole "manual" thing with my camera.








Thanks again for stopping by!!!

Thursday, August 18, 2011

It's All in a Name

A friend of mine just started a new job and asked me if I'd make her a pretty name plate of sorts for her cubicle. This is what I came up with this morning.


All of the materials were ones I had on hand, starting with a 4x8 canvas. Her only request was the color coral so I grabbed the alphas and went with it.  I think it turned out really pretty and hope she does too.


Wednesday, August 17, 2011

And with this...

,,,Meg's first/last day of school album is completely caught up!!!

 
She's feeling well, adores her teachers and is loving school so far.  We're keeping our fingers crossed for a healthy year.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Catching Up Part Deux

The return of school means more play time in my craft room.  Today I finished a page featuring last year's back to school photos.  Meg was actually quite cooperative in the photo shoot because it gave her a chance to show off her new puppy, Jasmine.




Tomorrow I hope to scrap yesterday's First Day of Fifth Grade photo which will bring this particular up to date.  (And yes, a much bigger Jasmine was included in this year's photo as well.)

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Random Things from this Week

You all know how I LOVE to organize.  I just love everything neat, pretty, organized and labeled.   School starts here on Monday and I spent a couple of days this week helping one of my girlfriends get her first grade classroom in order.  I transformed what can only be termed a "total disaster" into an organized thing of beauty.  She loves it.  We still have one big closet to go and she's dragging her feet in procrastination but I'm going to force her to face it.  It's going to be a lot of work but trust me, she'll be happy that I'm bossy.

Because she has a dog/puppy theme going on in her room this year I thought a couple of themed organizational helpers would be a nice gift.  I whipped her up a simple composition book and coordinating bookmark using an old ScrapAddict kit I still had on hand.  I know she'll love them.



In addition I'm going to volunteer in her classroom for a few hours each week. She thinks I'm doing it so that she can have one on one time with her students. Little does she know that I'm actually doing it to police my hard work. *wink* I will not let her slip back into her old ways!!!

Moving to another topic.  A few days ago I posted a layout of my daughter's first day of 3rd grade in which  I made mention of her silky blonde hair.  Well I took her to the salon on Wednesday evening for the clarifying treatment that I spoke of, in spite of my husbands insistence that "her hair isn't green!"  Well, I beg to differ.  Note Exhibit A...



Note that blue water? That's all of the chlorine and chemicals that leached out of her hair following the application of the treatment.  (It goes on clear and then she sits under a dryer for 15 minutes to activate the process.) Ummm....what do you think?????

I took an after photo later that evening.  She still has some green tinge in the top layer of hair but it's sooooo much better than it was earlier this week.  I'll take her back for follow up treatment in a month.



And my husband was right.  Her hair wasn't green.  It was turquoise.




Friday, August 12, 2011

New Stuff Radar

My daughter has what I call New Stuff Radar when it comes to my crafting supplies.  Those of you who have seen JulieWorld know that it is just as well stocked as any Michael's or Joann's.  And while I have more things than I could possibly ever use, the whole room is extremely well organized.  Be that as it may, I still love new stuff.  And as I buy 'said new stuff', I will immediately take them out of their packaging and put them away in their respective spots.

Now enter Meg.  She loves to go in there and create things on the fly.  Don't get me wrong.  I love that she does this but I'll be damned if she doesn't ALWAYS find (and USE) the newest/latest/greatest items in my room.  They can be stashed away in a bowl at the back of a shelf (mind you....I have TONS of bowls and TONS of shelves) yet she uses that New Stuff Radar of hers to sniff it out.  The most recent example....

Last week I received an online order from 2Peas that included these two bottle of Liquid Pearls.




I immediately put them away with all of my other Pearls, Stickles, glitter glue, etc.  Well last night while I was watching TV Meg wandered into the scrap room to work on something.  (I never know what that "something" is until she emerges.)  She came out 30 minutes later to show off her latest creations, decorated bottle caps.  (Bottle caps necklaces are are all of the rage with the girls now.)  Meg had made one for herself and three of her closest BFFs using (you guessed it) my brand new red and turquoise Perfect Pearls....and LOTS of it.  *sigh*  Now mind you, I have three bowls of like items on that shelf so how in the world did she know to grab the brand new ones? Why she possesses New Stuff Radar of course!!!!







I can't totally fault her. I think it's in the genes.  Take Jay.  Back to school shopping during his tween years was absolutely exasperating when it came to athletic shoes.  He had a sixth sense when it came to this year's Ken Griffey Jr./Frank Thomas model vs. last year's model.   Seriously?  New is new, right?  Apparently not.  How could we possibly buy the somewhat cheaper last year's model?  Never mind that they he hadn't worn them last year.  And I possess "Most Expensive Purse on the Rack Radar" meaning that I can walk into any discount store (TJMaxx, Marshalls' etc) and immediately gravitate to the one and only handbag on the rack that still carries a $200+ price tag.  Seriously, it NEVER fails.  

Such a long story just to show off my daughter's latest creations....






Thursday, August 11, 2011

A Quick Post...

I'm still working my way through first/last day of school photos.  This layout features Meg on the last day of third grade, taken not long before her 9th birthday.



Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Hot off the Press

This layout features one of my all-time favorite photos of Meg.  It was taken on her first day of 3rd grade.  Cute outfit, cute boots, cute hair (more on that in just a bit), cute pose...seriously, could she be any prettier?


Now about the hair...see how pretty it is?  She had just gotten a shorter haircut and deep conditioning/brightening treatment to remove all of the chlorine and chemicals that come with having a backyard pool.  It's hasn't been this platinum and shiny since her toddler years.  Fast forward two years...her hair is longer and slowly darkening but in the hopes of recapturing a bit of this lovely silkiness I am taking her back for a treatment later this week.

Next Monday is her first day of 5th grade.  She knows the drill....

Monday, August 8, 2011

Block Party

While I'm trying to get caught up at home I thought I'd share another one of my daughter's projects.  She was very busy in her room last night playing with her Fuzzoodles.  If you aren't familiar with Fuzzoodles, I liken them to giant pipe cleaner Mr. Potato Heads.  They're actually quite cute and great entertainment.

Meet the Fuzzoodle Family....


Apparently Mr. Gnome is quite the party host.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Busy Week

I've been visiting my son in Orlando and my parents/sis in Tampa this week so no new projects to share.  Will be back to blogging on Monday.