I'm back!

Well we got back into town last night - we spent the week in VA visiting family. We had a wonderful time, great memories, weather and way to much food! Grams and Poppy watched the boys for Greg and I so we could have some much needed "us" time. We caught up with family and friends, went to dinner at a Japanese Steak house - I really enjoyed the night out, very entertaining meal. Aside from Zach waking up in the middle of the night and screaming like a caged animal for hours at a time - all went well :) The boys had so much fun being spoiled by Grams and Poppy. On Thursday Greg and I took a trip into Richmond and spent the morning walking in an area of town called "Carrytown" lots of quaint boutique type stores and galleries. We had a great pizza at Joe's Inn, and then my dear sweet hubby took me to a great little scrapbook store called "Memories Galore". Here are some of the goodies I found in Carrytown and at Memories Galore. I am thrilled to have found that 7gypsies punch, can't wait to try the crackle paint. The little magnets are made from old typewriter keys.


These cards are actual quotes from little children - so sweet, and the button, well it's just so true!


These cards were to just to cute to pass up - I loved their design too:


I LOVE these Sukie labels:


And a new addition to Nate's Ugly Doll family, he named him "Batty":


These are some of the great Scrap goodies my Mother-in-law gave me for Christmas:


As far as the scrap spending freeze goes - I applied the zip code rule to my purchases so that means they don't count! :)
I will be posting my Cocoa Daisy layouts tomorrow, and I hope you all have a safe and fun New Year!

Have a Merry Christmas!

This next week is going to get busy - so I wanted to take a moment to wish each of you a very blessed holiday. From my family to yours - have a Merry Christmas!

A year of memories.

A while back Tricia at Cocoa Daisy asked if I would help her put together a kit around the Danelle book box from Creative Imaginations, well here it is! I am so excited about this kit, (it makes me smile every time I look at it) you get everything you need to make it, (there is a complete list of instructions included) as well as plenty of other goodies to help you embellish the little books. There are 12 mini albums inside (one for each month) they are just the right size to get a little peek into what you did each month, and when you are done you will have a whole year's worth of memories. This would make a great gift to a new mom or newlyweds! I believe it goes up for sale January 1st!

My tip/trick for Tuesday!

We all love the packaging that our scrap goodies come in, so why not try to use, and recycle them at the same time! Alot of the packaging is in the same design as the line you are buying as well as being printed on heavy glossy cardstock. I keep my small tag punch handy (any small punch will do) and before I throw something away I will punch a few out - and I have custom little tags!

a few of my favorite things

I thought it would be fun to take a pic of some of my favorite scrap finds from this year. So here is the list: My Basic Grey magnetic mat (could not scrap without it), the glitter is from Doodlebug-great colors and Stampin' up-the best super fine glitter. I really like playing with the Prima watercolor papers, the little itty bitty flowers, and I adore their chipboard alphas. My new favorite punches are from Martha Stewart-the bird and the mini tag, and my scallop circle and oval from Marvey. I am really addicted to acrylic stamps, but the ones I keep reaching for are my Autumn Leaves swirls, my little bird/butterfly set from Sassafras Lass, and my date set from Three bugs in a rug. The wired pom pom trim is from an online store called PaperValise. I love all of the new Noteworthy line from Making Memories but especially these little journal notepads. The Versafine has been around for awhile but I only discovered it this year and it is the best for acrylic stamps, gives such a nice crisp image. The paint daubers from Ranger - so cool to use. The love elsie chipboard buttons-I can't seem to stop hoarding these! One tool I highly recommend is the Basic Grey file set, every scraper should have one of these! Another item I seem to not be able to get enough of are the Basic Grey buttons, the colors and variety of sizes are so perfect. Of course any and all thickers. The spools of thread-so great with the buttons-are from Martha Stewart. Daisy D's rub-on stitches look so real. The Tinkering Ink hand lotion came with one of my Cocoa Daisy kits and it is so awesome - I can use it and start scrapping with out greasy hands. The Hambly woodgrain overlays-I especially like the cream. That is pretty much everything! To be honest - this is a short list, I have a ton of favorites, but these are the ones I find myself reaching for all the time. Leave me a comment and let me know what your favorites of 2007 are - I would love to know!

Some Dec. randomness

Not a lot going on and seeing as how I cannot post any of the layouts I am working on yet I thought I would post some random thoughts for the day.
I am not in the Christmas mood yet - it's making me grumpy.
Just bought the cutest little fake trees for my kitchen from pottery barn.
Nic gave me some awesome Ghirardelli peppermint bark chocolates with my swap on Sat. and I loved them so much I had to buy the big bag at Target today.
I have all my Christmas shopping done, and my cards mailed.
I love it how Nate will surprise us with a new bit of knowledge he learned at school.
I need to start making dinner but I am not motivated at all! (Chicken stir-fry is on the menu)
I want to go clothes shopping REALLY BAD!!!
Zach just got a stuffed frog from his Grammy today and when he unwrapped it he said "oh he's cute" and gave it a kiss.
The quote on my fridge right now reads "We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today."
I took this photo of my little itty bitty while playing tickle monster - I know it's blurry - but I love it, you can see his little scar on his chin from his accident Thanksgiving night - which sent us to the emergency room! Luckily he did not need stitches just some "super glue".
Have a great day :)

Pajama Day!

I am offically declaring today a pajama day! It's nasty rainy and icey outside so we are just going to stay in wrap presents and hang out in our pj's. I may even get a little scrapping done today. I have on my new pj's from Old Navy - my mom gave me these for my birthday and I love them!!! Of course they are orange and off-white a favorite color combo of mine (they match my scrap room). The boys are all for pajama day too, and to end the day Nate has requested pizza and chips and cheese for dinner - boy do I like the way he thinks!

Happy Birthday week - to me!

I cannot believe I am "in my mid thirty's! and yes that is as close to me telling you all my age as you are going to get! I have to say I really don't feel like I am this old, I still think of myself as a 30 year old. I do not like this getting closer to 40 or the crows feet I am starting to see - no not at all! We celebrate birthdays in our house for a whole week - the birthday boy or girl gets to be spoiled all week long, helps with the getting older thing! Tonight is dinner out with my hubby - just us, no kids a great meal and glass of wine - can't wait! My wonderful cousin-in-law was sweet enough to send me a Gift Certificate to my LSS - to help me out till the spending freeze is over, Thank you Tessa!!!! I must give full disclosure about the spending freeze - last Sunday night was my LSS's ViP night and of course being it is a once a year thing and it was the first night of said birthday week - I had to go, and yes I spent some money, but in my defense I applied it as a birthday present to myself :) and I bought one of these:


I have also been busy being "crafty" this week, I made these:
for the girls I am going to crop with ALL DAY tomorrow, (just some little felt bags with something sweet inside) can't wait to see my Crazy Michigan SiSters!

And I made this for my BFF Amber, I love the "&" sign (love collecting them) I like to say "&... because there is always more to the story" really applies to the stories we tell when we scrapbook. The "&" charm is from PaperValise, the other parts and crystals are from a local bead shop.

GOTM for Dec!

In other words I am the Girlie of the Month for Scrap-tastic! Becky sent me some wonderful holiday goodies from the store (go check out her store, she has a great selection, especially of Prima and Urban Lilly.) I loved working with the blue and red combo, and had a chance to make some Christmas cards. It seems like forever since I have made a bunch of cards.

Happy December 1st!

And to celebrate here are the rest of my layouts using the December Cocoa Daisy kit! I have a hard time making Christmas layouts (I think I o'd on them when I first started scrapbooking) and I was thrilled that this months kit was not your traditional Christmas colors/kit. The first layout is done with the Prima watercolor paper - this was time consuming, but a lot of fun. I used watercolor pencils for the detail work and a water brush and ink pads for the background, all you do is use a wet brush (or I like to use the brushes that have a barrel you can fill with water) and just rub the brush against the ink pad then paint, gives you a very subtle effect. The photo is of my grandmother when she was a little girl.
The second layout I made with the journaling in mind, it comes from one of my son's books, I altered it a little it reads: "I heard" said the bird. "How"? said the cow. "when"? said the hen. "where"? said the mare. "I heard" said the bird. "what!" asked all the animals. "what did you hear?" "I heard the mommy say"..." I LOVE YOU" "I declare!" said the hare.
The title on the third layout is also from a children's book.
So if you are ever stuck on what to journal on a page, just look through your child's books!