scrappenstance

Project Life | Video Tour

2011-05-24T04:51:00.000-07:00

Oh man... never realized how much I said 'um' until I watched this video. Yikes! I actually should've said that at the end... now that's all you'll be able to hear. :) We will blame the early morning and the fact that I was trying to beat the clock AND my memory card.

A few general notes about the experience so far:

To begin with, I only purchased the Project Life page protectors (Designs A and B) and journaling cards. I thought I would want to make my own kit, but after those pieces sat untouched for a few weeks, I caved for the ease of the complete kit. So glad I did.
Of the extras, so far I have used one of the Design B protectors and a handful of the cards.
I never approached this with a 'photo a day' goal in mind. Rules have never been much of a motivator for me! That being said, I can count on one hand the days that I haven't taken any pictures in the past several months. The harder part is narrowing them down.
Of the photos in the album, I'd say they're equal parts SLR, point and shoot, and camera phone. I obviously prefer the SLR images, but sometimes I'm just too lazy to get it out.
I use the kit's days of the week stickers, date stamp, and journaling cards constantly, but not so much the arrow stickers and filler cards.
Project Life has been awesome for getting me into a regular photo routine. With the exception of one or two weeks, I've spent Sunday afternoons dumping and editing all of my photos from the week, then uploading the PL ones for printing at the local Walgreens. Their quality isn't perfect but it's close to home.
In a perfect week, I'll have my print order picked up by 5 or 6:00 Sunday evening. After dinner, I can spend the last little bits of weekend vegging, corner rounding, writing, etc.
I LOVE having a place to put all the random crap I collect. Brochures, mail, ticket stubs, etc. I've been either incorporating this stuff into the design or tucking it behind the pictures.
I add some sort of digital effect to one or two photos a week, mainly month frames, story title brushes, and hand drawn words by Ali Edwards. Also love the Pioneer Woman Action s for PhotoShop Elements. I've created several photo collages using a stitch element by Anna Aspnes. I think it came from a freebie pack, so I don't have the link.
Also a big fan of Century Gothic. :)
To the basic kit, I've only added the Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher, We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, some scissors, black and red Staz On ink, and a hole punch. Use them all the time.
Keeping a pack of journaling cards in my purse works really well for me. I typically do one at lunch time for the previous day. I've gotten behind a few times and rely on technology to help me out. The voice recorder on my phone to record some notes, the Evernote app, Twitter, and Facebook status updates have all filled in the blanks a time or two.
Constantly looking at my album and my 'big white box' have also helped keep this train rollin'. I will confess that my box/kit has remained on my couch for months. Partly to keep the dogs off of it during the day, but also so I'm always thinking about it.

Last, and certainly not least, please help out Joplin, MO if you can. Joplin is halfway between our house in Oklahoma and where our families live in Missouri, so we're stopping through there at least once a month for gas, food, or shopping trips to Academy or Walmart. Now almost all of that is gone. So crazy. I still can't really believe it. The quickest, easiest way to help is by texting "convoy" to 50555 (donates $10 to the local Convoy of Hope) or texting "red cross" to 90999 (donates $10 to the Red Cross). For more information, please check out this resource from the local NBC affiliate.

Have a great weekend and happy summer!

Project Life | Week Two thru Four

2011-05-23T10:44:00.000-07:00

I recorded a nice little Project Life video update this morning but forgot to bring my USB cable! I will try to get that uploaded tonight but there are pictures in the meantime.

Week Two. Experiment with black and white image + story brushes by Ali Edwards [I will do a detailed product list with the video]. Loving the folded journaling cards!

Week Three. The 30th birthday week with lots of inserts! I used the other half of the divided 4x6 page protector I used in Week One to store some birthday cards. All I had to do was trim the cards and punch the 3 holes in the protector. I also printed all of my Facebook/Twitter birthday greetings out on photo paper and mounted them on the 2-sided patterned paper from the kit. A few other birthday cards were added into the page protectors or just hole punched. I used an Ali Edwards month frame to mark the start of my April photos.

Week Four. The week I met Miranda Lambert. :) More black and white, more digi elements from Ali, more ephemera, more photo collages, and more folded journaling cards. One of them I didn't fold - I wrote out the concert story on one side, added a picture of us on the other, and slipped it, our parking pass, and my Meet & Greet instructions behind one of the week's main photos. I added a total of 3 small photos inside the folds of the other card.

More updates to come. Loving this project!

Project Life | Week One

2011-03-22T10:43:00.000-07:00

I bought a few components of the Becky Higgins Project Life kit back in January but ultimately caved to the whole shebang a few weeks ago. An early birthday gift to myself. :) The original plan was to start on my birthday, but I decided to start last week with our trip to Milwaukee. Almost 1,600 miles logged on the bike through cold, rain, wind, small hail, sun, and 70+ degree blue skies. Quite the experience. All captured in Week One. The only thing I added to the kit was a divided 6x12 page protector (originally a divided 12x12 protector that I cut in half) with extra photos and ephemera:

Week Two is turning out to be not quite so exciting... sinus infections don't make for lots of photo ops. Blah.

Snowmageddon 2011

2011-02-01T20:49:00.001-08:00

Since last Wednesday, I have been to Missouri twice, attended an Adobe class, celebrated the daughter's TENTH birthday, completed my first real photo gig, ridden a high wire bicycle, put about 400 miles on the motorbike, survived a pre-blizzard grocery store trip, and prepared for... SNOWMAGEDDON 2011!

Thankfully, I received some cabin fever relief yesterday before the snow arrived. A little Raylan Givens (I've watched about 8 episodes today) and some Becky Higgins Project Life scrappy supplies. I just ordered the journaling cards and some divided page protectors. I don't really have a plan for them yet, but I'm planning to dive in tomorrow. I DID get all of our extra motorcycle-related pictures into a regular ol' photo album this afternoon though. Small victories.

Yesterday was frantic. I ventured to the grocery store at lunch, which was INSANE. They were out of parking spaces and carts, but I managed to cram 4 bags worth of stuff into one of those tiny baskets. Stopped at two other stores on the way home to acquire plastic sheeting and bungee cords. Scrambled to bring in the shovels, cover the outdoor chicken pen, set up an indoor chicken pen in our laundry room, prepare a cooler and all of the flashlights and oil lamps in case the power went out... all before it got too dark to see.

I also did some mad 'cooking' so we'd have some stuff on hand... pumpkin chocolate muffins (of course), hashbrown ham casserole (also blogged here), and two new ones: chicken wild rice soup and pizza dip. Not health food by any means, but it's all stuff we could reheat on the floor furnace if need be!

The ice started falling at around 11:00 last night. Thankfully the power never went out. Snow came down overnight and well into this afternoon. Lucy thinks it's wonderful. Stinky was finally forced outside once today. He peed about one foot from the door and came back in.

The official Tulsa count was 14", which breaks pretty much all snow-related records we had. I'm pretty sure of two things. 1.) Our house received much more than 14". 2.) It will definitely be at least Thursday before we go anywhere. Chris drove his work-issued Ford Taurus to the office this morning, but had a 4-wheel driving co-worker bring him home at noon. They nearly got stuck. Three other vehicles that left their office at the same time DID get stuck. Took them 3+ hours to get home. There are plow trucks all over the ditches. Craziness.

I've had a bit of a photography fail today, but it's too deep out there to do much wandering around! We did make it out to the chicken pen for a rescue mission. Had to shovel out their door to bring them inside. It's supposed to be well below zero tomorrow. I'll be staying inside. Finishing Justified. Maybe hitting up a little Sons of Anarchy while I'm at it. Trying not to think about the mess work will be in upon my return.

December Daily

2011-01-23T14:07:00.000-08:00

It's almost February, but I'm pretty excited to mark my December Daily project as done today! I'll have to go in and add a few date stamps to the last half of the entries, but other than that, it's ready for the shelf. Hooray!

My first two years of this project produced mixed results: in 2008, I played along with Ali Edwards almost exactly, making all of my base pages ahead of time. I went nuts. When it came down to adding actual content though, I only documented about 10 days. I was kind of tired of it before I even got started. I resisted the project in 2009, but ended up with a pretty cool mini of all of our Christmas cards, some photos, and journaling that covered around half of the month. I didn't make an effort to do anything every day and I loved the results.

This year was kind of a combination of the two approaches. I pre-made the pages but kept everything super simple and uniform with 2-sided 5x7 patterned paper, black and white 2x3 photos, date stamps, and graph paper for the journaling. I also threw in our Christmas cards and some ephemera. I kept daily notes in Evernote, but dragged my feet on writing up the journaling. As usual. But it's done now!

In other news, 'Gemma' is dissected and on the table, currently getting a new oil temperature gauge, a navigation something-or-other, and assorted chrome. I've got a review of Hells Angels on Wheels up on the Watchers of Anarchy site. Getting ready for a busy next couple of weeks! Taking advantage of lazy time while I can. Happy weekend!

Snow Day

2011-01-20T17:57:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, my Facebook status went something like this, 'Dear Universe, I have all the makings for chicken noodle soup at home. I'd be totally down for a snow day tomorrow. Just one.' Lo and behold, the universe granted my wish... partially. After a lunch outing with the Mister, I resigned to the fact that the roads were too good to justify staying home all day. I worked for a few hours this afternoon, but I did so in jeans, a hoodie, a [Opie] hat, and my new [Gemma] boots.

But before all of that, there was an outing with the critters and the new camera. Not as quick as the SLR and the color is a little wonky, but you win some, you lose some.

Mister's Birthday

2011-01-15T22:43:00.000-08:00

So far it's been a lovely birthday weekend for my favorite fella. Blue skies and near 50 degree temperatures today... a welcome change from the dreary 20's we hovered around earlier this week. Perfect for riding (with the help of some leather). Perfect for a lunch and dinner out with great friends (no cooking for me!). Perfect for a bike photo shoot ('Gemma' had yet to be properly photographed). Perfect for cheesecake (with lunch AND dinner). And then there was a Justified triple-header to end the evening, which I had absolutely NO complaints about.

Our first trip to The Cheesecake Factory... yummy. And they sat us at a table with good lighting, which was a plus.

The SLR stayed at home for this photo shoot, but I was pretty impressed with the performance of our new Sony DSC-H55. 'Gemma' photographed quite nicely.

The Oven Months

2011-01-10T18:51:00.000-08:00

In the summer months, we do all of our cooking in the crock pot, on the stove top, or outside on the grill. This poor old house can't keep up with the cooling if we crank up the oven, so we don't.

Then there's this time of year. I spent Saturday morning in front of that sucker. And it was glorious. And warm. The baked goodies, delicious.

A favorite in our house: Pumpkin Chocolate Muffins. I make them a lot (see bio).

Ingredients:

1 can pumpkin (some like pumpkin pie filling instead, but I think it's too sweet)
1 box moist yellow cake mix (I use Duncan Hines)
1/4 to 1/2 bag dark chocolate chips

Directions:

Mix pumpkin with cake mix. Then stir in chips. I usually fill one tin of 6 regular sized muffins plus one tin of mini muffins. You could also do all minis or all regular. Either way, grease the tins! Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes or so. Then try to keep them away from the dogs.

I also tried a new one: Hashbrown Ham Casserole. I saved the recipe to Evernote at work but it didn't sync for some reason and I couldn't find it again. Since I already had the ingredients, I just threw them together. Plus a few more. Please forgive the hodgepodge.

Ingredients:

2 ham steaks, cooked and diced
1/4 brick Velveeta, cubed (I used the 2% milk kind, b/c that makes it better, wink wink)
1 can Cream of Chicken
12 oz. sour cream (I used light)
1/2 bag frozen fajita mix (peppers and onions)
15 oz. frozen hash browns (I used shredded)
4 oz. shredded Mozzarella (2% milk kind)
2 cups crushed Corn Flakes
1/4 stick butter, melted (again, I used light)
garlic salt

Directions:

Combine Cream of Chicken, sour cream, and garlic salt. Stir in hash browns, peppers, and onions. Since I was flying by the seat of my pants and didn't have the forethought to thaw said items, I let that all hang out in a bowl while I made the muffins. If you're smarter than me, you could thaw first. Then stir in cheeses and ham. Spread in a 13x9 pan. Combine Corn Flakes and butter in a small bowl then top your casserole with the mixture. Bake covered at 400 for about 40 minutes, then remove foil and bake until desired crispiness. Yum. I don't have a picture, but I think I'll be making it again.

In other news, I actually finished 7 scrapbook layouts this weekend. Still thinking about shooting for a page a day this month. I managed it last year... we'll see. Cold weather = more weekends at home = more cooking, more cleaning, more Instant Netflix, more Sons of Anarchy, more puppies, more boy. Sigh. Sometimes you just need that.

Back to the Future

2011-01-08T15:32:00.001-08:00

Now that I have one of these new fandangled phones, I decided to give blogging another whirl. Maybe I'll do it more... maybe not. I at least have to make the half day I've spent cleaning up my layout worthwhile though!

Up to this point, my blog's been mostly scrapbook-y in nature... hence the name. Haven't been doing much of that lately. I did 32 pages last January and not too many since! I'm good with that. I did do a December Daily... hoping to finish that up this weekend.

Until then... look Ma! I'm in a magazine!

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Senior Shoot: Round One

2010-07-29T10:27:00.000-07:00

Almost a month ago now, I was on top of a parking garage in downtown Springfield with my mom, sisters, and husband as the sun rose. By about 10:30 that morning, Chris and I had shot almost 1,000 photos between us and we were all breaking for the day at IHOP. It was a loooong morning, but so productive and fun. Another session is in the works for the fall, which I'm very excited about. I will hopefully have a few photography classes under my belt by then! Here are some favorites. They still need some editing...

Thanks ladies and gent for a super fun day!

New Lens, Baby!

2010-06-30T18:41:00.000-07:00

Yes, it has been three months since I blogged. There were lots of soccer games and road trips and family outings and chicken wrangling and all sorts of things going on in that time span. Lots and lots of photos too. But enough about that for now, 'cause I got a new lens today! Yay for 50mm!

Senior portraits, round one to come this weekend. Trying to get some practice in before that.

Adventures in Twelving

2010-03-15T19:35:00.000-07:00

I believe I've mentioned my previous endeavors with the 12 of 12 project here... 12 photos taken on the 12th of the month. Kinda like the Project 365 or Project Life, only better. Better if you're someone like me who has commitment issues. :) I've dabbled in it the last few years, but I'm going to try to hit all 12 months for 2010. So far so good.

No layout for March yet, but I did make a pretty photo grid [thank you Cathy Zielske]. I love that springy colors are making an appearance. Chicken fuzz. Daffodils. Target dressing room. Onion rings. Also making an appearance? My Hickory Hills sweatshirt. I just made the frightening realization that I've had that shirt for almost 20 years. Since 7th grade. So, beautiful white and yellow dress from the Target dressing room, in your face! You may not fit, but my junior high sweatshirt does.

The bottom right picture... sigh. We hardly ever sit down and watch a movie, but I thought The Lost Boys seemed appropriate. And it was. I feel better now after seeing cute lil' Corey Haim giggling and singing in a bubble bath. For the most part. Still SO sad.

But in happier news, although it has nothing to do with the 12th, Jimmy Fallon's recent reunion of California Dreams made me crazy happy. Giddy. I saw it online last week. Michael Cade, who played Sly, wrote me a letter 'back in the day'. A real letter! So cool. I had written him a letter asking if the show had released an album... because I couldn't exactly Google those sorts of questions then. I wonder how teenybopper fan mail is handled these days. Do they even send real letters?

Besides taking pictures on Friday, I stopped by the Make a Wish Foundation office. Spoke to a woman there about possibly making some themed scrapbooks for their Wish kids. There's already a Creative Memories contact that handles Disney stuff, but they don't have anyone doing the other wishes. I'm pretty excited about it. Hopefully I hear back from them soon and can get some other people involved.

Leaving for Austin a week from tomorrow! Very very excited. Then the next week will be birthday. Still thinking about doing a Project Life-sort of thing for my 29th year. A daily photo. Daily tweet. A mini album. A journal. I'm not quite sure which direction to go with it, but I think something would be cool. Any ideas? :)

I Love the 80's but Hate Blogger

2010-03-10T17:54:00.000-08:00

Sad news about Corey Haim today. Not entirely unexpected... but sad nonetheless. I can't tell you how many times I watched The Lost Boys and paused it just to gaze lovingly at his cute smile. [NERD!] This was well before a time when a few clicks of a button (or taps of your finger) would add that smiling face as my cell phone wallpaper. I think this was even before I'd been introducd to my cousins' Tiger Beat magazines. So yeah... grainy images on my TV was the best I could do. I picked up this little treasure at the Tulsa Flea Market a few months ago. I was hoping Haim would pull through and reunite with Feldman for Two Coreys glory - other than reality hell on A&E... but I guess that will have to wait. RIP.

One of the articles that I read today linked to the other Corey's blog, which was another treasure. He had an entry concerning the 25th Anniversary gathering for The Goonies, which I'm totally psyched about now! I can't believe it's already been 5 years since the other big get together, much less 25 years since the movie! Crazy. Apparently Astoria, Oregon is already filling up for the event in June, but I'm going to try to go. How cool would that be?! In 2002, I saw Feldman's band (yes, it's called The Truth Movement) perform in St. Louis (actually it was in East St. Louis, next door to a strip club). It was insane. And awesome. I came away with one of my most prized possessions. Thank you to Corey's girlfriend at the time and current ex-wife! No thank you to Blogger... really, can centering the picture be THAT hard???

And while I'm feeling all nostalgic, here's my most recent layout. Ode to VHS. I should've mentioned in the layout that I didn't throw them ALL away... that seriously might've made me cry. [NERD!]

Other than that, life's been good. Lots of surgeries lately for the family... thank God they've all gone well. I hope they're done. We're getting restless and more and more fed up with Oklahoma and living in town. Not too thrilled with the prospect of moving though. What a pain. The family has been expanded by five cute little peepers. The newest in a string of 'green' projects. They have yet to be named - I was thinking Dorothy, Sophia, Blanche, Rose, and... something else. Hopefully they're all girls since that's all we're allowed to have. Lucy has been a good Mama Hen... so far. She's been sleeping under their box every night, so no click-click-click of her toenails on the hardwoods! That's been nice. Something new to 'shepherd.'

That's about it! Getting ready to head to Austin again in a few weeks, which I'm totally excited about. I plan to gain at least 5 pounds on the visit. Breakfast Burrito, here I come!

No thank you, Punxsutawney Phil

2010-02-07T08:51:00.000-08:00

The last few weeks in bullet points...

Endured another snow and a scary ride home from work. Bad drivers on top of snow on top of ice = me having a drink when I get home. Or at the very least playing with the puppies and then Photoshop. :)

Tried unsuccessfully to stalk Miranda Lambert at the new Extreme Makeover house in Tulsa.
Finally purchased an external hard drive and transferred the laptop pics to it. Named it Bobby Elvis.
Did dinner and Up in the Air with Beth. I loved the movie but hated how I felt at the end. I get ambiguity... that's life... it's 'up in the air' if you will... but it makes me wonder if filmmakers have just given up on resolving their stories. I think the attitude is 'Just end it... it's cool.' Whatev. Two hours of Clooney on a big screen. Sigh.

Started work on a tribute album for my friend Sarah. She got her puppy Pedie in September of '08 and he died only months later from dyautonomia. Very sad. Strange phenomena too - I guess this particular disease has really been concentrated around southwest Missouri. They still don't know much about it.
In keeping with the depressing dog theme, I did another layout for the Ali Edwards' Yesterday & Today class. It was supposed to be one about something challenging. So of course I put it off. Finally decided to pull this story directly from my blog.

Made a birthday card for the girl - my first one in awhile. Used a bow from a Victoria's Secret box left over from Christmas. Love it when I actually use random stuff that I save! Nine... I still can't believe it. When she opened the card at the party, she said 'Oh yeah, this is definitely from Allison!' :)

Birthday partied yesterday in MO. No skates this time = no injuries. Yay! It was fast and furious but she had such fun with her friends and did really well on the skates too! Although, she was concerned by the end that she'd broken her thumb. I think she'll be OK. [Dear Blogger, is it too much to ask to center, I mean REALLY center, this friggin' picture!?!]

We did some experimenting with the external flash. I liked how this one came out. Chris was holding the flash halfway across the rink from me. Which was cool, except that my control freak tendencies kind of came out to play. Since I had the camera set to wireless flash, I was getting so aggravated that there wasn't a flash there every time I wanted to take a picture! The flash might've been with my 'flasher' on the other side of the room. Maybe I should've been toting both cameras. Maybe I have a sickness.

My one and only Oscar prediction came true. Inglourious Basterds was nominated for Best Cinematography. It's always at this time of year that I feel least like the person I was ten years ago when I entered college as a Film Theory student. This year, I was pretty proud to have seen 3 of the 10 nominated Best Picture films [which, by the way, what's with that??]. That's probably a record for me recently.
Really really really ready for spring. I've liked these productive snow days, but the cabin fever is kicking in.

Binge

2010-01-27T20:32:00.000-08:00

The month has been kind of busy and quiet, all at the same time. Only two weekends of travel so far - one being this trip for dinner with Dad and our belated wedding reception-y thing. My beloved 'Nan' insisted. I think she wanted an excuse to use her fancy dishes. We couldn't be all fancy though. The cake (well, our slice) was cut with Chris's new Ka-Bar knife. Gangsta.

What else? Lots of Guitar Hero. And being moderately lazy. And some knitting. Chris is working on converting the 2nd bedroom to run completely on alternative power. He's rigging solar cells and a bicycle generator. I'm impressed. Wish it was ready to go - sounds like we may be without power again with this impending ice storm.

Lucy's been gutting this duck for the last month. It has no eyes now.

I've been on a scrapbooking binge. 28 layouts for the month so far, most of them completed over the last weekend for the crop at Memorable Seasons. I think I covered just about every member of the family with 8-1/2 x 11's, 12x12's, 6x12's, 2-pagers, no photo pages... it was madness. In a good way. Here are my favorites.

By the way, I think I'm done with setting up 'quality' photos of my LO's (although I never have really mastered that). I just don't care that much anymore. 10 minutes photographing a LO could be 10 minutes making another one. Just my opinion. For the moment anyway. Then again.. maybe I'm just making another excuse for being lazy. :)

I'm going to try to make 31 LO's by the end of the month, but we're hitting the road again on Saturday (weather permitting). We'll see what happens! At the very least, hopefully I'll have finished that pesky pink scarf that I started 2 years ago. I'm definitely taking that in the car with me.

Have a great week!

Picking [More] Favorites

2010-01-04T17:21:00.000-08:00

It's already the 4th of January, but I'm still in year-in-review mode. I'm in the process of organizing photos and such, so I figured I'd join in on the 'favorite layouts' fun. One of the exercises in Ali's Yesterday & Today class was to basically do an inventory of what worked for you on your pages. What didn't work for you. Kind of a helpful thing because, while I don't regret making any of my pages, there are DEFINITELY ones that I'm not fond of. Like ones where I tried to get fancy. Or where I tried to use supplies I wasn't so fond of just because I felt I had to get my money's worth. Or ones that I did for an assignment of some sort, even if I wasn't 'feeling it.' So... goal for 2010 is to make less of those. And make more like these. My ten favorite layouts from 2009...

I also really enjoyed my mini projects, but maybe I'll save those for later. I'm kind of burned out on minis at the moment. Sad news today about my local scrapbook store - it's closing. So I guess this is good news for the few surviving stores that I visit. I always feel obliged to spread the love! So... more to spread now. Very sad though.

Hope 2010 is treating you well! What was your favorite project of 2009?

Dedicated to the Ones I Loved

2009-12-30T16:41:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone survived Christmas! I still have one more 'Christmas' to attend before calling it a season, but so far so good. Still haven't done much with my holiday photos yet and I'm still working on my Daily (more to come later), but I did get this video uploaded. Fun with my favorite people!

For some reason, it only dawned on me last week that this was the end of a decade. How'd that happen?!? Thought I'd start compiling a few lists for myself to recap. It seems like the thing to do now! Here are my favorite bits of entertainment from the last ten years.

O Brother Where Art Thou I can't even count the number of times I've watched this. First movie since The Goonies that I have to stop and watch, no matter when or what it's on. It's pretty. It's 'old timey.' It's got great music. And George.
Moulin Rouge Eye Candy. Director Baz Luhrmann and his wife, Production Designer Catherine Martin, are big time inspirations. So over the top. And I love it.
Sons of Anarchy This is the most recent addition. I didn't start watching it until a few months ago, and I never thought I'd fall for a show about an outlaw biker gang. But wow. AMAZING characters. Amazing writing. Amazing views of a very hot Charlie Hunnam. And some bada$$ chicks.
Middlesex It's the most amount of book I've read in the shortest amount of time. Blew through it in a weekend. Hermaphrodites, incest, Greek history, love, Black Muslims, the circus... what's not to love?
Nine The Broadway show, not the movie. WAY not the movie. I was so lucky to see this in New York with the original revival cast! Antonio Banderas, Mary Stuart Masterson, Chita Rivera, Jane Krakowski... all amazing. Definitely worth my $100.
Unfaithful I only went to see this movie because Corey Feldman cancelled his concert that night. Maybe I loved it because I had no expectations. It's definitely not uplifting. It's not a film that's widely appreciated. But it's one that got under my skin. Lovely details and acting. Couldn't stop thinking about it.
Good Times/'Texas Music' in general I guess lumping Charlie Robison's album in with 'Texas Music' is kind of a cheat to him, but this album introduced me to my new favorite genre back in 2004. Since then I've seen him live 10 times. And added several other similar musicians to my list of most 'plays.'
Dirty Jobs A show that educates me (though sometimes not for the better!), inspires me, repulses me, makes me laugh, and makes me drool... all in one sitting! I think it's interesting that the 'regular folks' featured are some of the happiest people you could ever encounter, even if they're knee deep in dung. Then again... who wouldn't be happy in the presence of Mr. Mike Rowe. Sigh.
The Office Filled the void that Friends left. And so well! Frighteningly close to my life at times, but a good time. Funny and sweet.
Oceans Eleven George again. Saw this one in the theater three times. Hadn't done that since Jurassic Park! It was just FUN. I loved Oceans Twelve too. Not so much Thirteen... but as long as they make them, I'm game!

Honorable mentions. The Royal Tenenbaums. Miranda Lambert. Tina Fey. Boomtown. Picnic. Shooter Jennings. The Hangover. Castle. Eternal Sunshine. Mean Girls. Life of Pi. Justin Timberlake. Norah Jones. Wedding Crashers. Up. Guitar Hero. The Last Lecture. The Prestige. Kill Bill. No Country for Old Men. Trading Spaces. 30 Rock. Rachael Ray. White Stripes. Many others I'm sure I'm forgetting.

What did you love?? :)

December Daily-ish, Part I

2009-12-20T09:15:00.000-08:00

This has actually been really fun for me this year! The key, I think, is that I'm just doing the pages as I go. I should've known better last year. I'm just not a 'do it ahead of time' type of girl. My only pre-planning was selecting 4 or 5 sheets of coordinating double-sided paper. I've kept that paper, my hole punch, glue stick, an assortment of white Thickers, and my hole punching template on my desk all week. Spent maybe 30 minutes a night on it. So far, so good. I'm going to have to go get bigger binder rings though! Incorporating all of my Christmas cards (and lots of random 'stuff') is working well, but it's getting bulky rather quickly!

Better Late

2009-12-13T21:14:00.000-08:00

Yes, it is December 13th. And yes, today is the day that I decided to start a December Daily project. Better late than never, right? We're kind of battling sickness around here, so maybe this is cabin fever setting in. In any case, I'm doing it.

Yesterday, there was a bunch of boring stuff going on. Cleaning. Laundry. Watching TV. Grocery shopping. Wrapping presents. Had Chick-Fil-A for breakfast. Yummmmm. Definitely a highlight. I tried to make some kind of 'easy' hashbrown cheesy potato soup for dinner. Fail. Maybe my taster's out of whack. Chris was pretty sick all day. I was feeling iffy. Decided we should probably skip my company Christmas party just in case. So we continued our exciting evening at home. I started reading Hamlet. We'll see how that goes. It's been awhile since I ventured into Shakespeare.

Also worked on some DT stuff for Scraphappys. This month I got to work with October Afternoon, one of my favorites.

Today was the Tulsa Toy Run - my first one to actually ride in. It was really quite amazing. The most bikes I'd ever seen in one place. The most bikes I'd ever heard in one place. Crazy stunt rider show before we headed out. Our motorcade from the Fairgrounds to the River Spirit Casino was more like a parade. Lots of waving people along the route. And we got to run red lights. Pretty sweet. And lots of toys for the kiddos. We got a BOGO coupon for the buffet, but the line (and the crowd) was a little much. So we ended up at Pei Wei. And this evening? More laundry. TV. And wrestling the dogs. And staying up way too late. Monday morning will be here soon.

WiTL: An Update

2009-11-23T10:59:00.000-08:00

I kind of dropped my Week in the Life project like a hot potato here at my blog, but I assure you it is still alive and well! In fact, it is a little all consuming at the moment... but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. As most of you know, it ended up being a very busy week - I got married! Nothing big or crazy... in fact, no one else even came. It still made for lots of stuff to do. Like sitting in a Social Security office for an hour. I seriously started to rethink the name change situation after about minute 20. What a wretched place.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of the album's progress. I am so thrilled with it. And yes, it is a complete lift of Ali Edwards. You can see her 2008 project here. In my mind, it beats having tons of professional posey pictures to document the day. And days surrounding. Even if my desk has been a total wreck ever since. [Please note fresh flowers from my husband :)]

I'm not sure why these pictures look so terrible. I'll post better ones when I'm done! Supplies include patterned paper by Collage Press, Love Elsie, Creative Imaginations, and some white Bazzil Dotted Swiss. Metal tabs (and probably some wax seals - I haven't decided on those yet) from 7 Gypsies. Tags from Creative Imaginations. Stamps from Heidi Swapp, Scenic Route, and Maya Road. And also some metal rimmed tags, ginormous brads, buttons, and a set of vintage playing cards that I picked up at a thrift store about a month ago. So far, all the pictures for this were printed with my new printer! My super kind coworkers gave us some $ as a wedding gift, and I opted for a new all-in-one printer. Way better than a toaster. I still need to do some color adjusting, but I love it. So awesome to not deal with paper jams every time I print!!

One of my favorite parts is the electronic guest book type of thing - one page of which you can see on the bottom right. We got so many lovely well wishes in the form of text messages, emails, Facebook comments, etc. (my, how times have changed!) that I compiled them into some word art for the album. I'm hoping to finish it in the next two days so that we can share it with family over Thanksgiving! More detail (and better photos!) to follow. As of this weekend, I also have a totally new scrapbook area to share. I'm still getting it all put away. Have a rad Thanksgiving and enjoy your turkey comas!

WiTL: Day One

2009-10-28T04:59:00.000-07:00

I broke the song lyric as blog title mold. Boo. I started a Week in the Life project yesterday - kind of odd to start on a Tuesday I guess, but it was one less thing I had to start on a Monday. :) I'm going to highlight some photos here. Journaling is total stream of conscious right now and on my 'private' blog. Loving using that to record some stories. Don't have to worry about writing 'well' and can keep adding to it. I adore the physical act of putting pen to paper, but sometimes it's a little time consuming.

Anywho... here's the start.

I took Chris to work this morning, so we had to leave early. It was dark and rainy. Combine that with him being in the car and I was NOT thrilled about driving.

Minor meltdown over our filing system at work. I redid a lot... but lots more to do!

'The drive at 5.'

Heading out for Bike Night at Baja Jacks, our Tuesday ritual.

This is Christopher being embarrassed that I brought the 'big' camera in to eat with us. And that I put it on the table. 'People are looking at us like we're weird.' And this is me doing my evil laugh.

It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown after dinner. I only saw the last half, so I missed the pumpkin. A little disappointing. After that, it was Dancing With the Stars and Sons of Anarchy. No gym. Oopsie.

Chris ended the evening by whacking Stinky with the recliner, so he made up for it with a little cuddling. I wasn't feeling too hot, so he was scared to cuddle with me.

'Simple Kind of Life'

2009-10-26T20:18:00.000-07:00

Inspired by The Simple Woman's Day Book / Ali Edwards:

Outside my window... kinda cold and windy today. Lots of the leaves are blowing off the trees.

I am thinking... about starting a 'Week in the Life' project tomorrow. I feel a good week coming on. :)

I am thankful for... that the doctor, who looked suspiciously like Jon Gosselin, was actually pretty cool today. For Chris keeping me motivated on the gym thing. For dry weather. That my CKC prize finally arrived!

From the kitchen... hot dogs and my new favorite, avocado, peas, tomato, and feta with Hendricksons dressing.

I am wearing... a pink cami, cropped grey workout pants, and socks.

I am creating... some greeting cards. I don't like making cards, but a kit came with my CKC prize. They're easy while I watch Dancing With the Stars and Castle. And I'm working on a Mole Day layout.

I am going... to bed shortly. Some sleep to catch up on.

I am reading... I finished Johnny Cash's autobiography a week or two ago. Haven't started anything else yet.

I am hoping... I don't get stressed out this week.

I am hearing... Castle. And Chris yawning. And the fan.

Around the house... it's pretty messy. Football season is catching up with us. But it looks lived in and fall-y and that makes me happy.

One of my favorite things... we've been to the gym eight of the last ten days, which is kind of amazing.

A few plans for the rest of the week... visiting my friend Beth, working, figuring out something to take for our Potluck Friday, dressing up, gym, making [sorta] big happy changes, and riding a train.

Other than that, it's officially fall here. We fired off the ol' floor heater the Friday before last. It's a rather scary beast, but it does the job quite well! Saved us during the ice storm. It hasn't been too cold since, but I'm sure it will get that way in the not so distant future.

In other news, we started the low carb thing last week. I'm not a huge fan of it, but I'm mostly sticking to it. Sneaking in a PB&J once in awhile. :) In one hour, we got the fridge stocked with washed, cooked, sliced, and/or diced chicken, hamburger, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, lettuce, peas, peppers, onions, and beans ready for a week full of salads, etc. It was a little insane, but so nice to not really cook the rest of the week.

Yesterday, I tried out a practice tattoo on Chris. He's wanting a few, including this Spartan logo. Lucky we got a picture - it was totally smeared shortly afterwards. I'm still iffy on the tat issue, but I'm looking into white ink. Some of those are sweet! And very subtle.

This is my Week 3 (I think??) project for the Yesterday | Today class. Six (or more) layouts in one - I can't help but love that. Might end up doing a whole album with this design. Super efficient = super awesome.

And that's about it! The train ride didn't happen a few weeks ago - we found out the caboose wasn't heated so we swapped out for first class. I think there's a scrapbook store at our destination town. Woohoo! More to come. Have a great week and Happy Halloween!

'Digital Get Down'

2009-10-13T11:24:00.000-07:00

[Inappropriate NSync song? Anyone? Crickets? Maybe I should give up using quotes and songs for my titles...]

It's official. I hate my printer. I was all excited to cozy up with some Forensic Files and get rolling on my week 2 project for Yesterday | Today Friday night. Friday morning, I even got up early to do all my photo editing and prep work. That evening, I was all ready to print my photos and knock out some layouts. Except... it didn't quite work out that way. I have relatively new ink in there. I have HP photo paper for my HP printer. All of that good stuff. And yet... paper jams, horrid color, lines, misfeeds, four pieces of photo paper and lots of ink down the tubes. Not to mention the heightened blood pressure.

So. I ended up downloading Ali's layered template and making my first 'real' digital page. I experimented with Scrapblog quite awhile ago, but decided digital just wasn't a fun thing for me. My only digi 'stash' consists of some texture downloads from my Jessica Sprague PhotoShop class (I believe all from Fudge Graphics), but I'm semi-happy with the way it turned out. Still planning on doing a paper version at some point. Keep it old school. :) I'd also like to go back in and add small dates to the photos. Very strange for me to do a layout without journaling or dates! It's kind of bothering me, even if it's a 'cover' page.

So now the question is... keep my HP for the scanner which still works perfectly fine or upgrade everything? I'm leaning towards keeping the all-in-one for the scanner and getting a separate 12x12 printer. Maybe upgrade the scanner when the current one dies. Still pondering that one.

There's a new challenge at Theatre Love! This time, anything from Les Miserables is fair game. Lots of good stuff there, although all of the design team ended up using 'On My Own.' Great minds think alike I guess! Every time I think of that song now, I remember Joey (Katie Holmes) singing it on Dawsons Creek. Waaaay back in the first season. Fun memories. :) Anyway, this is my sis and her first apartment. They're both ridiculously cute. Head on over and share some Les Mis love with us!

Have a happy week friends! Fingers crossed the rain goes away for the weekend. I'm doing a train ride with the boy and the inlaws. I'm super excited! Hopefully some good fall-y pictures to follow.

'Feelin' Good My Friend'

2009-10-06T13:08:00.000-07:00

It was a fabulous, fabulous weekend... right up until the fever and ick Sunday night. This is my second day home from work. I'm feeling much better today, but I decided one more day of recovery sounded like a better idea than facing the flu nazis. Can't say I mind spending the day napping and watching live court coverage and Sex and the City. And scrapbooking. I finally finished this layout that's been on my desk for over a week. I think I'll use this basic idea for some of my Yesterday | Today class work. So many of my memories are attached to specific places. Houses. Places I've worked. Classrooms. I think this is a new favorite. Good memories. :)

I also finished two super quick minis. I had planned to do a daily album for one month this summer, but that didn't happen. Instead I ended up with a 'Summer' album. I created 23 4x6 documents in Photoshop and added two 2-1/2x4 pictures to each one. Had them printed. Cut them all in half, leaving a small journaling area on each photo. Took four sheets of Cosmo Cricket's Snorkel collection and cut them all into 4x6 pieces. Used some scrap cardboard for a cover. Punched some holes. And voila:

While I was at it, I made a similar mini for my sister's new apartment. This time I just trimmed up some 4x6 prints. And added a window using some scrap acrylic. I'll leave further embellishing / journaling to her. She's crafty. :)

Before all of this was the fabulous weekend. Chris got the laptop rigged up in the backseat, so I had a rolling photo editing studio on the way to Fayetteville Friday. That was amazing. Being unproductive on these road trips just kills me. While in Arkansas, we attended our 10th Charlie Robison show (Dear 'My Hometown guy', don't you know that's always the last song? Stop requesting it two minutes in Jacka$$!), visited War Eagle Mill, perused Pig Trail Harley Davidson, listened to the new Miranda Lambert album, and stopped by a scrapbook store.

And then it was onto Missouri for a little football action a few white squirrel sightings in Marionville! A new addition to my squirrel album. Yay! Anywho... like I said. Amazing weekend until the sickies kicked in.

'Reunited and it Feels So...'

2009-10-01T19:58:00.000-07:00

Good? Surreal? Depressing? A little bit of all 3 I think. Saturday we made the journey to my 10 year high school reunion at Rockbridge Trout & Game Ranch in southern Missouri. Beautiful, beautiful place and cool setting, but I can't say much for the food. It was truly lovely though. And great to see classmates, even if it made me feel old. Hopefully more people show up next time!
.

We couldn't have asked for a better ride. No rain, no cold, no heat, actual HILLS and CURVES (neither of these things really exist in Tulsa)... it was perfect. AND I was able to fit in two cameras and ample clothing, lotion, etc. Rolled 570 miles this trip and only spent about 30 bucks in gas! Only one minor heart attack... a deer jumped out in front of us on our ride home Sunday morning. Luckily, years of driving in Missouri had sharpened Chris's reflexes and we all escaped without injury.

So many favorite pictures from the weekend! Breakfast in downtown Branson with the parentals, family time in Nixa, Mom's crazy Monster Cookies, Bo and Dugan, lots of cool roadside buildings and barns, obligatory fall poses with the sisters. Perhaps some future material for the Yesterday | Today class I'm taking with Ali Edwards. Today was Day One of a 13-week 'journey' - so far so good! Really trying to nail down the stories that NEED to be documented and lay out some framework for their creation. I'm not big on planning, so this is good discipline!

'Headin' for the Highway'

2009-09-25T08:52:00.000-07:00

What I thought to be simple bloggy changes ended up being kind of an ordeal, but I'm happy with the outcome and I guess that's all that matters. Between that fun adventure and my HTML class next week, I should be in good shape for next time I decide to change it up. IF there is a next time.

Anyway... things have been rockin' and rollin' the past few months. In scrapbook news, I was asked to join the new Design Team at Scraphappys, my local store. So far I've gotten to work with the Fancy Pants Kraft Kuts line and the Basic Grey Junebug stuff. Lovin' it! They included some tulle in my Junebug kit, so I crafted some flowers and managed not to burn the house down. I saw several tutorials on this, so it's nothing original... really fun though (especially for you pyros out there)! Just cut out some rough circle shapes and melt the edges over a candle (the heat, not the flame). I did four tulle layers for each flower. The finished result is on the right... somewhere under 'I Scrapbook.'

On the home front, there's been lots and lots of rain. A few road trips. Lots of dining alfresco (between the rain). Some fall decorations. Back to school (3rd and 6th grade for the kids, several computer classes for me). A nearly broken pinky finger. Cheerleading. A little fishing. Footballing. More rain.

Heading out for my high school reunion in a few hours - our first 'big' road trip on this bike. The good news is that the forecast is looking less like rain by the hour. Huge plus! The bad news is that I might have to sacrifice a change of clothes for my camera, as space is very limited. We'll see what happens. Have a happy weekend! PS. If you would like to track our progress, check out The Christopher Blog. Chris is going to try to do mobile posts along the way.

'Move That Bus'... but not quite yet

2009-09-22T20:46:00.000-07:00

Please bear with me while I try to give this thing a makeover. Turns out I know just enough about HTML to be highly annoyed...

Happy Fall!!

'My, It's Been a Long Long Time'

2009-06-29T14:26:00.000-07:00

Whew. Four month blogging hiatus. Four months of minutia likely forgotten, but I must say, it was pretty nice to have one less thing to do. Here's what I DO remember about the last several months - for my benefit if no one else's.

A fruitless drive around the NKOTB tour buses downtown. To Christopher's delight, I only spotted a bunch of losers stalking the buses. ;)

A good solid month of gym going. Followed by a few months of the weather being either too nice to be inside or too hot to be in a warehouse setting with a bunch of sweaty people.

My 28th birthday. Chris got up EARLY and brought me my favorite breakfast from Cracker Barrel. And a stuffed squirrel. Kelly and Dawn took me out to lunch at TGIF. And I don't really remember the evening... but there were lots of fun calls and messages and a few other celebrations before and after the 'big' day.

Mini golfing with family and bowling with coworkers. Fairly awful scores on both.

Roller skating, which resulted in what I'm pretty certain was a cracked tailbone.

Leno's last Tonight Show. I'm a Letterman girl, but it had me choked up.

New (to us) living room furniture. Now I can actually lay down if I feel like vegging - it's awesome!!

A bogus finale to Dancing With the Stars. Shawn Johnson was my pick from the first week, but Gilles was robbed.

Great CPE classes on PhotoShop and communication, followed by an exceptionally lousy writing class.

Baby fever is baaaaack! Friends are popping them out like there's no tomorrow. Even Jim and Pam.

I became a HUGE fan of Baja Jacks. I think it's our favorite restaurant now.

A super sweet kit from ConCroption. I LOVE this stuff! (PS. Kits are 20% off until 7/5!!)

A GREAT week with the kids. It was a zoo, movies, cookouts, picnics, scrapbooks, photography, Tulsa Air and Space Museum, cookie baking, pudding making, airplane flying, crab boat drawing, donkey petting, dog playing good time.

A highly anticipated trip to Austin. Of all the places we visited (Artz Rib House, Cowboy Harley, Mount Bonnell, Zilker Park, The Salt Lick, Magnolia Cafe, Congress Avenue Bridge, Texas State Capitol, Pete's Dueling Piano Bar, Pure, Coyote Ugly), my only let down was Coyote Ugly. Not sure what I was expecting though. This was by far the best trip to Texas and I'm looking forward to going back! Too much concrete for Chris, but I'm in love. I made this to commemorate it.

I was a finalist in the Last Scrapper Standing contest at Memorable Seasons and scored a gift card - thanks Jill! Awesome awesome challenges, DT.

My 9th Charlie Robison show in the 4th different state (this one at Willie's Place in Carl's Corner, TX), had my picture taken with him, and got an autographed copy of his new album Beautiful Day in the mail last week. A day before it was released. And it's fantastic. I recommend 'She's So Fine' and 'Racing in the Street.' Happiness! I broke down and signed up for Twitter, in the hopes of winning a living room concert. :)

An RC fly-in with the boys. I came back with this. My first sunburn in years.

I didn't pound anybody. Considering a few days and encounters over the last few months, that's kind of impressive. To me at least.

Lots of old ER watching. And crying at the finale.

A fun Branson evening with Jessica and Brandon. Chicken Taco Loco at Casa Fuentes and the Horn Dawgs, old friends, and the Temptations! at Tabu.
Alexis told me, "You're way prettier than a cow" AND "I would love you even if you were only my one quarter stepmother."
We cleared a garden spot but have yet to plant anything.

And I guess that about covers it. We might be headed to Pawhuska, OK this weekend to celebrate the 4th with Shooter Jennings! It's still up in the air, but I'm liking the sounds of it. Have a happy one!

And check out the Sweeney Todd challenge at Theatre Love Challenges this week - it's a good one!

'Measure a Year'

2009-02-28T06:56:00.000-08:00

Some happy news to share that I don't guess I've posted yet: I was lucky enough to be chosen as a Design Team Member for the Theatre Love Challenges Blog! I think it's such a great idea for a blog and how cool to be able to combine two things that you love? Even if you don't love theatre, there's so much great talent and inspiration in the songs, sets, costumes, etc. I scored first row seats to see Baz Luhrmann's (think Moulin Rouge) production of La Boheme (the inspiration for Rent) on Broadway back in 2003. I remember being concerned that the first row might ruin things. That I'd see too many seams and makeup lines and streaky paint on the sets. But I didn't. It was magical. And SO inspiring. Seriously... I think all of the home decor items that I bought afterwards were directly influenced by the colors and overall design. Catherine Martin (the designer) is my hero!

Anyway, check out the blog for some Rent-inspired goodies and be sure to play along! To be honest, Rent is definitely not my favorite, but the 'Measure a Year' song still got the ol' creative juices flowing. It's a great chance to recap 2008! Here's a peek (sorry to those that have already seen it!). And yep, that's a half naked Mike Rowe on my desktop. It really is necessary during audit season. :)

Also worked on an altering project this week for ConCroption. I'm totally in a red, black, and white phase these days! Anyway, I used the Maya Road Make a Date stamp set, some Heidi Swapp letters, and some paper from the February kit. Loving this journal already!

Anyway, I've got to leave for my very first pedicure momentarily! Have a great weekend!

'Humortastical Wonderment & Stupidistical Gigglosity'

2009-02-22T06:28:00.000-08:00

I spent yesterday morning watching the final Late Night with Conan O'Brien on the laptop. If you didn't see it, check out the '1864 Baseball' clip - love it. According to Will Ferrell as George W. Bush (he made a guest appearance), it was full of 'humortastical wonderment and stupidistical gigglosity.' Precisely. I was so upset that I'd forgotten to watch it Friday (let's face it, staying up that late just doesn't come as naturally anymore), but so grateful for this little invention called the internet. I popped this 2003 picture out of the frame as the credits rolled, scanned it, and printed it. Finished up the layout tonight.

Sassafras and Scenic Route paper, Thickers, Basic Grey ribbon, and lots of scrap acrylic. It makes my heart happy. Here's the pull-out journaling:

Getting tickets for Conan was probably THE very first thing I did in planning the Spring Break trip to NYC. The months leading to it were agonizing, but the experience - oh so worth it! It was a dream. On top of everything else, Joshua Jackson was the guest. Are you kidding?! I was in Heaven. EXCEPT that we couldn't take pictures. My arm ended up being on TV b/c Dana gave up her seat to a guy w/ the show for a bit. She got a t-shirt. But still, I needed a souvenir! We settled for a digital Conan and green screen @ the NBC Store. We bent down to kiss the cheek of Fake Conan and the photographer says, 'You can't do that.' WHAT?! Apparently, customers had been banned from touching the fake people - Al Roker, Conan, Carson Daly... all had been previously subjected to inappropriateness and were branded untouchable. So, in this photo, I am rebeling. Take that NBC!

Other than that, quite a bit has transpired since the last blog! Nothing exciting, but still a lot. I'm not doing too well keeping up! More pictures and projects shortly. I hope. Or if you're impatient (as I am), check out the Flickr link at the right for the latest adventures.

'Where the Black Trees Grow'

2009-02-04T04:23:00.000-08:00

When all was said and done, the Louisiana trip was a go. Our original flight out of Tulsa was at 7-something in the morning, but it was cancelled and we had to reschedule for 3-something. Then we had to be de-iced TWICE, so we didn't leave for Dallas until around 5. And our layover was less than an hour so the semi-nice dinner we had planned at the Dallas airport was downgraded to a horribly dried out wrap at Au Bon Pain.

Even though that's how most of my travel experiences have been lately, I kinda like it. It's the only time I give myself to read and not think about laundry or scrapbooking or any other number of distractions. With all that de-icing, I was able to read a great book - The Last Lecture - from beginning to end! I absolutely loved it. Two of the best hours I've ever spent.

The several days in Louisiana weren't terribly thrilling. I counted these for two whole days:
The only part of New Orleans I saw was the airport, which apparently isn't even in New Orleans. I saw lots of swamp and 'black trees' (all the while singing 'Marie Laveau' in my head) but no alligators. I DID see lots of fun people that I work with every day over the phone. And I watched them eat these. The most adventurous I got was a crab cake.

I was really glad to be home Friday night!!! Chris's coworker said Chris was in a bad mood all week, so I think he was glad to have me home too. Saturday morning, we made a quickie trip to MO for Alexis's birthday party. I can't believe she's 8!! I have a feeling that might've been the last Chuck E. Cheese party, which is a little sad. She was SO not impressed with the birthday parade and other festivities this time around.

Sunday, when I should've been unpacking, I did a few scrapbook pages. And watched the post-Super Bowl episode of The Office. Loved it! I'm also loving 6x6 paper pads lately. They are awesome for one photo pages. Just add a sheet, a photo, a title, and a little dressing up. Here's my fave layout from this weekend - I used a sheet from a 6x6 Basic Grey pad:

Have a good week everyone! I'm hoping to get back on track with the gym and to stay at home for awhile. Things need to be cleaned. And created. :)

'Turning of the Page'

2009-01-26T17:34:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday I joined some Webster friends in Kansas to welcome in a new era of America. I'm not sure if it'll be a bad one or a good one. I'm still pretty indifferent about the Obama thing to be honest, but it is a new and fresh start. And Dubya has been sent packing... good enough reason for me to do a happy dance!

While in Kansas, we scoped out Truckhenge. I'm not sure how to describe it. Unique for sure. Recycling at its finest. Created by Ron Lessman, a true character who's destined for, at the very least, an HGTV appearance in the not too near future. I'm thinking Ron and his catfish farm could also be a good Dirty Jobs segment. If you ever happen to find yourself near Topeka, Kansas, I recommend checking it out.

Last weekend, I attended Scrap-A-Palooza in Springfield with my friend Beth and sister Whitney. I was actually fairly productive, which is unusual for me in a mass crop environment. Finished up my 'Oh Eight' mini. Finished this LO for the January ConCroption challenge. Loved working with masking tape!! Can't say that I'll use it all the time, but I love being able to peel it up if I don't like it.

Kind of put me in the 2-page groove. Here's another I finished yesterday. Loved working with these photos. They were taken the same day as the above photos. The title and most of the journaling were taken directly from my blog. :)

This one's from a few weeks ago. When life gives you business trips, make layouts. :)

Supposed to be heading out to New Orleans for another business trip tomorrow, providing that the flight isn't cancelled again. We are in the midst of an ice storm here, so no telling what'll happen. Roads are already really slick, but thankfully not as much in the trees as the last big go-round. Hopefully that means I won't be hearing trees break all night long, followed by the eerie silence of a power outtage. Yikes!

'Take a Little Trip and See'

2009-01-07T18:20:00.000-08:00

Well, well, well... long time no blog. It was my plan to have a fancier and more informative blog in the new year, but I haven't so much gotten around to that. I was kind of waiting on that to post... maybe next time! You will notice that I AM experimenting with a new banner. Eventually a new layout, links, etc. to match.

Since the Christmas craziness (great fun and lots of traveling), we've had several dang cold days here. And a few REALLY nice ones like this Saturday. It was well into the 70's, so we set off on the bike. Beautiful day for it and we only got kinda sorta lost (and out of gas) once. We're kicking around the idea of doing a motorcycle pictorial-type of blog, but I'm already trying to keep up with 3! A fourth might not be a great idea.

Did some relaxing on Sunday. Some scrapbooking. Lucy supervised.

Here's one of my favorite recent layouts. I love this because it's fall-y and required NO photo cropping! I should have some other new projects posted over at ConCroption momentarily - lots of great stuff going on over there for 2009! Guest designers Heidi Swapp, Allison Abad, and Elizabeth Kartchner are all coming up - yay! Good sales too - currently 40% off papers and 30% off of albums.

In other scrap happenings, thank you for the love at Lotus Paperie! I was the Flickr winner this month! I love those challenges - so inspiring. I'm also really excited about a new Broadway related project that my ConCroption buddy Kimmy is starting up - Theatre Love Challenges. I think it will be the challenge blog I never knew I always wanted. On one hand you've got scrapbooking. Awesome... obviously. And on the other hand you've got musical theatre goodness. Also awesome. In the words of Joey from Friends, 'Put your hands together!' There's a DT call going on now, so head over there if you're interested!

What else? Gosh... busy month ahead. Chris and Alexis have birthdays. Looking forward to the anniversary crop at Memorable Seasons on the 15th. I'm going to a 'real life' crop next weekend in Missouri - Scrap-a-palooza! Very exciting. Hopefully I can stay on track and actually get something done - usually I space out and am distracted by my annoyance with loud cell phone talkers. And breastfeeding discussions. Trying to keep up with my new Monday thru Thursday gym routine. On inauguration day, I'm bound for Kansas to join some college friends in bidding Dubya a (not so) fond farewell. Probably headed to Louisiana at the end of the month to count pipe. For like 3 days. So... fun times ahead!! Hope your 2009's are going well!

P.S. My December Daily was a colossal failure. I DO have a photo for every day, but not the journaling. :(

'Mystic Pizza and the Award Goes To...'

2008-12-19T10:36:00.000-08:00

One of the highlights of my St. Louis trip last month was getting to eat Imo's Pizza. I didn't indulge in Imo's too much during the college days at Webster, mostly because I was too cheap but also because not many of my friends liked it. They said it was like sauce on a cracker. I say it's like heaven on a square. I even dedicated a scrapbook page to it. Yummm.

And today I just found out that another of my photos - one from the above layout - was picked up by Schmap for their St. Louis Guide. It's a terrible photo, but hey, I'm still mildly excited.

I was more excited to receive these awards from a few of my super talented and sweet scrappy friends, Jen and Crystal. I got one of them a LONG time ago, but I kinda forgot to blog it. Thank you guys SO much!

Rules for the Kreative Blogger Award:The winner may put the logo on their blog. Put a link to the person who sent you the award. Nominate 5 blogs, with links to their blogs. Leave a message for your nominees.

Nominating only 5 blogs is a big task - there are so many cool ones that I'm 'following'! Thanks to Jen for passing along the word about the 'following' feature, by the way. Here's just a handful of the many awesomely talented ladies that I can always find inspiration from. Check 'em out!

1. Stacy Stone

2. Norma Kennedy

3. Sasha Holloway

4. Allison Davis

5. Sue Mylde

Lastly but not leastly, my 'Talk Birdy to Me' layout is nominated for November's Flickr contest at Lotus Paperie! So, if you need something to do between now and two weeks from now, stop by and show me some love. :) And now I will get back to day 10 or so of my December Daily. Yeah... not doing so well with it!

'Fa-Ra-Ra-Ra-Ra'

2008-12-11T10:43:00.000-08:00

Not to be Scrooge-y, but I need to get something off of my chest. I am a lover of Christmas music. It's one of my favorite things about the holidays. That being said, Christmas music can make me extremely irrate. Perhaps it's some kind of chemical imbalance or the fact that I'm usually stressed out this time of year anyway, but I'm finding that certain things just set me off!

I'm a firm believer that holiday tuneage should adhere to the following guidelines:

If you're someone other than Bing Crosby or Doris Day, DON'T sing 'Baby It's Cold Outside'. Apparently there is a cute version of this on the movie Elf, but as I have not yet seen Elf (don't worry, my friend loaned it to me today), I can't say for sure.
If you're Jessica Simpson, DON'T sing. Ever. Period. And don't act either.
Should be played between the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas. That's it. It's almost like Thanksgiving and Halloween don't even exist anymore.
If you can't hit the notes, DO NOT record a version of 'O Holy Night.' It's just wrong.
Twangy Christmas standards are also wrong. I'm a HUGE country fan, but countrified Christmas music just turns me off for some reason. With the exception of 'Leroy the Redneck Reindeer' by Joe Diffie. Though that's not exactly a 'standard.'
Barbra Streisand's 'Jingle Bells' should be banned in public settings. Hearing it in a department store nearly sends me into a full-fledged panic attack.

Lest you think me a music snob, my all time favorite Christmas album is still New Kids on the Block's Merry Merry Christmas. I will hopefully get it dug out tomorrow! Good stuff my friends. 'You left the fire burning and I burnt my butt' - lyrical genius.

***I had to come back in and add these two pictures that I just came across. Christmas 1989 baby. Oh yeah. I was apparently VERY excited about my New Kids stuff.

This week marks one year since the ice storm and breaking through our back door to find this:

Could've been worse, but that sure was an interesting six days. Thankfully we still had the old gas floor furnace, so we stayed pretty toasty. And it was cold enough outside to keep sandwich fixins and whatnot in a big truck toolbox on the deck. Chris works in the generator business, so he stayed quite busy! He could pick up TV signals on his radio, so we listened to the SNL Christmas special and occasionally the news. My office had power, so I got my daily dose of internet. And we have a gas hot water heater, so showers were still a go! Like I said, could've been much worse. There's still some shreds of our pecan trees left in the back - potential roof crashers, so here's hoping we don't have a repeat this season!

How are your December projects going - Daily album, shopping, decorating?? I think it's safe to say that I'm failing in each of them, but I have a day off today so time to catch up!

'Quicker Than a Ray of Light'

2008-11-30T16:05:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure how it is that it's already time to go back to work! I've been off since Wednesday, but with the traveling and cooking and cleaning and eating and shopping and birthday partying, it really doesn't feel like it! I guess it's been a productive week though. I did several 'just because' layouts and scrapped a ton of photos that I'd been putting off. Totally developed a new appreciation for my recently purchased square punches!

I did my first two projects for Concroption. This is a photo I've already used on another layout, but I adore it! (Thanks Jessica) Love this duct tape paper too - after a little Heidi Swapp distresser and some ink, I think it looks pretty authentic!

And this one's my first two-pager in awhile. I downloaded the free trial for Photoshop, along with several free collage templates from Scrapbooks, Etc. Had to watch a few tutorial videos to get on track with Photoshop - I can tell that's going to be my big challenge for the new year! I picked up the full version (of Elements) on Friday at Best Buy for $89 (by the way, my 'Black Friday' shopping was actually awesome and not crazy!). It also included Premiere, which I've used pretty extensively before, but I'll have to get re-acquainted. Lots to learn, but I'm excited.

Saw LOTS of family and friends last night for my grandma's surprise birthday party - I'd say it was a hit! Very cool to see lots of people that I don't normally get to and a few that I'd never met. My favorite part was when Nan walked into the room of 40-some people and said, 'Well, I guess it's a good thing I combed my hair!' I took some journaling cards from an old Sharebook kit I had and thankfully the guests participated and wrote some very kind birthday messages. Album coming soon...Speaking of hair, I got mine cut right before the party and I love it. WAY overdue.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Tomorrow starts the December Daily project and Christmas countdown. Officially time to dig out the New Kids on the Block Funky Funky Christmas CD - YES! :)

'Get Your Kicks'

2008-11-20T19:52:00.000-08:00

I experimented a few months ago with a 'page protector layout.' There was awhile there when I kept seeing them in all the magazines (I especially loved Elizabeth Kartchner's)! Thought they offered a good solution for my abundance of Route 66 photos. Unfortunately, I can't get them to photograph too well, but here is my first try. The Cyrus Avery Centennial Plaza. I did little journaling cards to stash behind the title. One is 'facts' about the bridge and plaza. The other is 'notes' about this particular visit.

I did page #2 for my Route 66 album last night, using the backside of the first one. I'm loving this project! I'm keeping it simple by using the same products (stencils, AC paper and pens, circle punches, Target alphas) and same techniques with the journaling, etc. Since there are only openings on one side of the protector sheet, I had to do a little slicing on the second page in order to have the journaling cards poke through on the right side. Quick and simple though. Fun to play with.

Here are my prettiful sisters looking fall-y last week. And my puppy Dugan. I love sweatshirt and scarf weather. It will soon be replaced with t-shirt, sweater, coat, gloves, ski mask, and scarf weather. Boo. Great time to stay inside, but I hate having to get so bundled up! Especially when you have to go into a store or something and take it all back off. Anyway, have a wonderful weekend!

PS. Got my Concroption goodies - hopefully I'll get some projects done soon!

'Oh. My. God. Becky.'

2008-11-18T10:56:00.000-08:00

Umm... best week ever! Except for the frenzy of chart making at work that's been driving me crazy the last few days, but I think the other cool stuff has more than made up for that. Plus, I think I could make an Excel chart in my sleep now, where as last week I had to do a lot of poking around.

First of all, I did this layout Saturday night of Popeye, the family bird (a Quaker parrot). Popeye was a Christmas gift from my aunt and uncle to my mom, sisters, and I in 1999. When I moved to Tulsa in 2003, Popeye soon followed. Not because I wanted her. We've never gotten along - she likes to taunt me with maniacal laughter. Popeye became an Oklahoma resident because Chris decided a bird would be fun and he promised to clean the cage. Mmhmm. So for 5 years, she's lived with us. In fact, we didn't know she was a she until August this year - in one week, she laid 3 eggs! It was totally weird. Apparently not unusual for the breed though. Anyway, we just took her back to Mom and I thought I should document her fun words and phrases while they were still fresh in my mind. Chris says I forgot 'tickle tickle,' so I went back and added that one. This one just got Layout of the Week at Memorable Seasons!

I also won this 'Just in Case' mini album kit from Allison Davis that I'm completely in love with! The concept is so cool - each page is actually an envelope that features a loved one on the outside and a letter to that loved one inside the envelope. 'Just in case.' Genius. And cute.

Lastly, and certainly not leastly (pretty sure that's not a word), I was browsing some blogs Saturday night and saw a DT call for Concroption on UnPubbed. I hadn't applied for a DT in awhile, so I thought 'what the heck' and sent off my LO's, bio, etc. Shortly afterwards, I was asked to join!! AHHHH! No way!! I'm SO SO SO excited and honored. Gosh... first the New Kids concert and now a design team. Pinch me. Speaking of New Kids, check out the playlist and my official welcome here. How cool is that?!?

'First Time Was a Great Time'

2008-11-13T04:05:00.000-08:00

Yes, it has been a long time since I've blogged... but, I was away doing important things. Like throwing together a last minute Halloween costume. With a camouflage shirt, boots, overalls, pigtails, and National Wild Turkey Federation straw hat, Chris called my character "one of those good ol' redneck girls." And in case you're curious, no I didn't have to buy any of those items! Which kinda scared me...

Then I did about a five mile hike in flip flops. It was neither planned nor pleasant (especially the part where I almost stepped on a snake), but I guess I should've learned by now to pack tennis shoes whenever we go out 'on a drive.' I suggested taking a walk at the RSU trails while we were in the neighborhood, which to me meant about 10 minutes or so on the pavement. To Christopher, it meant taking a much longer 'scenic route.' Ay-yi-yi.

I took a road trip to St. Louis and visited the beautiful campus of Webster University, my alma mater! It made me really miss St. Louis. And school. Sadly, I ran out of time to see all the people I had planned to see, but it was still great to be back. Go Gorloks!

This layout was nominated as a finalist for Lotus Paperie's monthly Flickr contest! Four days left to cast your vote... wink wink, nudge nudge.

Most importantly, I was gone for a few days doing something I've been wanting to do for almost twenty years now. I SAW NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK IN CONCERT!!! AND IT WAS FLIPPIN' AWESOME!!! Honestly, it was a dream come true. Laugh all you want, but the 3rd grader in me was SO happy! And the actual me was too. I could go on and on, fully detailing my wonderment and joy, but I'm going to save that for a mini book. Seriously. I think I'll combine concert pics and some stuff from 'back in the day.' I think I'm wearing some kind of New Kids merchandise in every photo of me that exists from 1989 - 1991ish. Stay tuned. In the meantime, here are a few photos and videos to give you an idea. You can also check out the full set on Flickr.
Thank you Sarah for scoring us some awesome seats! It was a blast! We were SO close, especially when they did their 'middle of the audience' set. Super cool. [Check out my vintage Joey button in the photo - lots of girls went ALL out! Crimped hair, neon, tight rolled jeans... I was in awe.]

"Walkin' in Memphis"

2008-10-31T04:18:00.000-07:00

I've been Schmapped! One of my National Civil Rights Museum photos was chosen for inclusion in Schmap's Memphis guide. What's Schmap you ask? Well, I wondered the same thing. Schmap offers digital guides to cities across the world, complete with maps, photos, reviews, and tips about attractions, restaurants, lodging, etc. I realize this is no big deal in the grand scheme of things - lots of people have lots of photos all over the internet, but I was excited! Memphis is one of my favorite places to be. If you plan to do any traveling, check out the site! It's pretty cool, really. And check out the Civil Rights Museum too - it was a great experience. I'd like to go back. They had a whole section that kind of presented the case for a conspiracy in the MLK assassination that looked pretty interesting. Didn't have time to go through that stuff at all! Here's the photo that was used. Nothing spectacular, that's for sure.

Happy Halloween everybody! Guess I better go scrounge up some sort of costume now...

"Another One Bites the Dust"

2008-10-28T18:43:00.000-07:00

How is it that another weekend is already gone? Between Friday morning and Monday morning, I only spent about one conscious hour at home. Doing laundry. Good weekend though (except when the semi driver tried to run me off the road), just busy!

Enjoyed some great weather and a fun last minute trip to Silver Dollar City. It was the first time for Alexis and the first time in about five years for me. So much was new! And old at the same time... kind of comforting. I didn't get to take too many pictures since it was just the two of us, but we rode lots of rides, saw some mules and a butter sculpture, ate some fried food, listened to some bluegrass, and got to ride a smelly yellow school bus back to the parking lot. That last part wasn't my favorite.

I missed the Lotus Paperie DT call because of trying to get out of town and whatnot, but I DID finish a layout early this morning. My productivity hasn't been too high lately, so it was nice to get something done! And my melodramatic 12-year-old diary finally came in handy. I used an excerpt for the journaling.

And I was inspired by the December Daily project on Ali Edwards' blog! I received a few supplies from Scraphappys last week during their make 'n take, so I decided to expand on their pink and green color scheme. I bought this 6x9 album last week when I meant to get a 6x6 for the Jessica Sprague class. Now it'll be my December album. I'm really excited! Got my basic supplies all picked out and I'm ready to roll.

"I Go Back"

2008-10-23T04:37:00.001-07:00

I finished up a layout earlier in the week based on Chrissy's 'Thankful for Scrapbooking' prompt at Memorable Seasons. I included a collage of photos that kind of show my 'scrappy' evolution over the last 10 years. Thought it might be fun to take a closer look. :)

I've been 'keeper of the photos' for much longer than 10 years, but here's where I really started to put things together: yearbook. Stories. Layouts. Typography. Design. Photos. Titles. It all started here.

But it also started here. Art. I lived in that class for all four years of high school. Great friends. A few great teachers (and one total jacka$$). Fun times at art shows and museums and such. This was one of my favorite projects: our final one year, if I remember right. We had about 30 minutes to do a mixed media self portrait. Our mirror? A Christmas ornament. Mine was blue.

I got to combine the two in yearbook. Here's some of my stellar ad work.

I started to combine a high school book of my own at some point. I remember buying one of those spiral jobs at Wal-Mart just as a place to put stuff. Newspaper clippings (NOT sprayed with archival mist! Shh...), prom tickets, cards, art ribbons, LAD fair ribbons, etc.

The summer before my freshman year, I entered a contest in Disney Adventures magazine. Because the ad totally led me to believe that if I was chosen as one of their 'Junior Reporters,' I would meet famous people. Namely Tom Hanks (I had a weird 'thing'). So imagine my horror when, on Valentines Day my freshman year of high school, when everyone else is getting mushy crap from boyfriends and girlfriends and whatnot, I get 'Congratulations' balloons delivered. Everyone was like, "Dude, they messed those up!" 'Fraid not. I got two different deliveries (one from Mom and one from Dad, both in the middle of class) to congratulate me for winning said contest. For a magazine featuring all things Disney. In high school. WAY uncool. AND I never got to meet anyone. I just filled out a survey once a month and sometimes my answer was printed. And I got a camera. None of these facts are on this page, as I hadn't quite mastered the 'journaling' thing yet. Dotted lettering though, I had down!

My craftiness in college was kind of limited to magnets for the fridge, some books with quotes and ticket stubs, and one crude scrapbook to document my freshman year, which included my 'meeting' with Tom Hanks! They asked him one of the questions I'd submitted in some kind of Yahoo celebrity chat. He actually said, 'Good question.' And that was kind of the end of my 'thing' for him. But not my 'thing' for dotted lettering apparently.

After college and moving to Tulsa with Chris, I took up 'real' scrapbooking to document our adventures. I actually used letter stickers and cardstock and journaling! My entire supply stash actually fit in one clear 12x12 envelope.

And then there was a few years ago, a time of digital cameras and a house in which to spread out. So spread out, I did. I now have a large desk and some rolling totes (give or take) full of supplies. I scrapbook WAY more frequently than once a month. I love trying new techniques and meeting new super talented scrappy people. And I figured it would be a good time to document the journey to this point:

Hope you all have a great week! Sorry for the long post and thank you for the kind words about Toby last week. :) Little brother now has a Doberman puppy, so I'm sure they're all staying quite busy!

"All Dogs Go to Heaven"

2008-10-17T04:27:00.000-07:00

Toby really wasn't MY dog, but I still took it kind of rough (or 'ruff,' if you will) when I heard from Dad that she died this week. She was 10 years old. She's the reason we got a German Shepherd, and Lucy sure reminds me of her.

I saw Toby about seven months ago. A cool 'everything happens for a reason' kind of thing happened that day and now I'm even more grateful for it. Toby was an outside only dog. A farm dog. A never even try to get in the house unless it's storming dog. She was terrified of lightning and thunder. So usually the only time I saw her was in passing. But on the night that I arrived at Dad's house in March, there were storms moving in. Toby, in all her filthy glory, snuck in the back door around bedtime. She said her hellos to everyone and I was again struck by how much she reminded me of Lucy. Or I suppose it's the other way around. Not only her general appearance, but quirky things like tucking her front paw under or the way that she'd lay down and stretch and groan.

Being inside was out of the norm for Toby, but she was extremely well mannered. She made her rounds and then picked a spot in the corner to stetch out and didn't make another peep. After everyone went to bed, I stayed up petting her and scratching her and talking to her. Took some pictures. I slept on the couch beside her and sometime in the middle of the night, I awoke to her head on my stomach and her tail wagging. Just like the German that sometimes shares my bedroom with me at home. The lightning was coming pretty heavy in the distance then, so she must've been scared. I loved on her some more until she finally crashed out again. I think I just knew that would be it. And it was. She headed back outside when morning came around and Whit and I started out for Missouri. Seven months later, Toby walked down to the pond and went to sleep. And now she's roaming pastures and dirt roads in a great hereafter free of thunder and lightning and hip dysplasia and snot-nosed kids with sticks. With lots of Dad's BBQ to eat and some cow poop to roll in, just for good measure.

"Tuesday I Get a Little Sideways"

2008-10-06T04:43:00.000-07:00

For some reason, Tuesday is my most dreaded day of the week. It's when the exhaustion from the weekend truly hits me. When the phones seem to ring off the hook at work. When there never seems to be any good TV on. And yet here we are... Tuesday. I guess I'm off to a reasonably good start. Not even 7am and I've done two loads of laundry and a scrapbook page!

The weekend was fast and furious, but full of fall-y goodness. First there was the 35th Annual Ozark Arts & Crafts Show with my mom, sisters, Chris's mom, and Alexis. Wow. SO much to see! I don't think I even saw a fourth of it, but I LOVED the milk jug skeleton. I should've bought one. If you're so inclined, you can find directions here.

Then there were tractor rides back at the 'homestead.' I feared for my life a little.

The girls had a blast playing with dump trucks in the bare garden. Talk about filthy!

Saturday evening I went to the Presleys show in Branson with my mom and Taylor. An at least yearly tradition. I really hate to think about how many times I've been, but I'd venture to guess it's well into the hundreds by now. I kinda went through a phase in junior high where I wanted to marry the guy in the yellow hat. Seriously.
Come Sunday, I was ready to go home and sleep. Apparently, so were they.
I started a new class over at Scrap in Style TV this week, 'Bling Out Your Blog with Kimberly Brimhall.' Thought it sounded fun. My homework was to post something autumn related, so here's a LO I did not too long ago with my favorite autumn poem AND photo. It was kind of an experimental LO and I'm not entirely happy with how it came out, but oh well! It still makes me happy. :)

"Up With Your Chinny-Chin-Chin"

2008-10-01T04:21:00.000-07:00

That would be a song from Charlotte's Web... remember the spider from my last post? Yeah, I think there was a Charlotte's Web-type situation that occurred. :( I noticed a large egg sack out there early Saturday morning, but no spider. Haven't seen her since. Then I remembered what happened to Charlotte after she made her egg sack... boo hoo. I don't really like the idea of hundreds of baby spiders running around, but I guess at least they're outside and not under my bed or something!

I did my first online crop this weekend at Memorable Seasons - surprisingly cool! I got lots of stuff done, had fun, AND didn't have to listen to graphic discussions on breastfeeding OR annoyingly loud cell phone talkers like at the 'real' crops. YAY! Here are my favorite products of the 'Cornucopia Crop':

A lift of Jessica Sprague's mini book in the October CK. I still have no idea who that baby is in the bunny suit. I suppose I should call my mom on that one. This was my favorite costume!

A very quick 'one more before I go to bed' page! I really love the AC Slick Writers I got... I've been bordering lots of photos with them. Also love the Sassafrass Lass stuff. :)

I made a pocket with the large photo to contain a pull out copy of Alec's certificate. His mom took a photo just of it and I printed it. Looks like a mini version! I also got the Threading Water punch recently - been getting lots of use out of it.

This one still looks kind of funny to me, but I'm going with it. This is an excerpt of emails between Alec and I in which he told me I was old. God love him.
I think this is my favorite one. All of the photos are from the Henning Conservation area in Branson, Mo. We used to go all the time when we lived there and it's still one of my very favorite places. We still had a film camera when we frequented there, so there were lots of 'extra' photos! I got out my new Fiskars squeeze punches (I went on a punch binge!) and went to town on a handful of them. Added a few black and red accents, a few Thickers, and an awesome Henning-related quote. That was it! Very quick, simple, and it just makes me happy. :)

Nothing exciting to report from the Tulsa State Fair. Pretty much the same story as every year before: I parked miles away, I didn't win anything, carnies heckled me, none of the animals in the 'birthing center' felt like having babies while I was there, and there were far too many people.

Anywho, have a great week!

'That's What She Said'

2008-09-25T04:47:00.001-07:00

The Office was awwwwwesome. :) I really intended to record it and go to the fair last night, but a funny thing happened. Couldn't find the remote for the DVD-R. Haven't used it in months. We've got two different universal remotes that will operate the basic DVD-R functions, but apparently bringing up the timer recording menu is NOT one of them. Arrrrgggg!!! Stupid technology. I was really really missing my VCR. I could program that thing in my sleep AND without the stinkin' remote! So I guess Thursday night activities are just out for me for the next several months. Yippee.

You know what else is awwwwesome? Happy mail. This just in from Memorable Seasons. I looove Sassafrass - looking forward to playing with it! Thanks Jill! You're fabulous. Also looking forward to joining in on their crop this weekend. Hopefully I'll be around. :)

Does anyone know what kind of flowers these are?? They literally just sprang up in our front yard and I don't remember seeing them before. They're gorgeous!!

Our yard is also home to a very persistent (and I think beautiful) garden spider. Lucy has destroyed her web twice now with her ridiculous tail. Poor thing.

In bloggy news, I was tagged by the lovely and talented Ms. Stacy for an 'All About Me,' so here goes:

10 years ago I:
1. Was at the beginning of my senior year in high school
2. Had no car
3. Was working at the radio station
4. Lived in Missouri
5. Watched Letterman & Conan faithfully (AND could still get up early with no problems)

Five things on today's to-do list:
1. Laundry
2. Work
3. Setting the stupid DVD-R
4. Going to opening night of the Tulsa State Fair
5. Watching The Office!!!

Five snacks I enjoy:
1. Honey wheat pretzels
2. Cereal
3. Peaches
4. Peanut butter honey sandwiches
5. Cheese

Five things I would do if I was a millionaire:

1. Move to the 'country'
2. Pay off some stuff

3. Maybe get another degree, just for fun

4. Travel more

5. Help out the family

Five places I have lived:

1. Springfield, MO

2. Branson, MO

3. Mtn. Grove, MO

4. St. Louis, MO

5. Tulsa, OK

Five jobs I have had:

1. Radio DJ / Board Operator

2. Ticket sales for Webster Conservatory & two Branson theaters

3. Ticket office manager for Tulsa Ballet

4. Jewelry designer

5. Office guru for some vets, my college, and my current gig

Last but not least, I had to run after my dog at 5:00 this morning. She was having a cow to go out, so I got up and opened the door for her. She hit the back gate at approximately 100 mph, busted the latch, and took off running after what I hope was a cat. Now Lucy is not exactly socialized and might be in need of some Dog Whisperer intervention, so it has scared me to death the few times that she's gotten loose. She is the best dog and best guardian, but no doubt in my mind that she'd bite a stranger. So I went after her in my underwear. Luckily it was dark. She wasn't much for listening to me, even in my most 'calm assertive' Cesar-inspired voice. She was doing serious sniffing in the sleeping neighbor's yard, so I ran in, threw on some pants, and grabbed her leash. Luckily she was in the same place when I got back out there and I got her back inside with no fuss. But now, a little gate repair (and reinforcing!) is required.

So, that's my story. Have a great weekend!!!

"Wewease the Secwet Weapon"

2008-09-20T20:00:00.000-07:00

So, my only gripe for today was that the high was supposed to be the in low 80's, but I can tell you that it felt significantly hotter than that out on these rocks watching Chris do his crawling thing.I think my pasty white arms may even be a bit sunburned! Other than that, it was a wonderful day. I took some scrapbooking gear and magazines along to the competition, so I got four hours worth of work done in the great outdoors. It was pretty nice! Chris didn't fare terribly well, but it was his first competition and he's already started work reconstructing his truck for better luck next time. After his last run, we had a late lunch at Subway and then went to the flea market in Langley. This is where I saw the infamous Cabbage Patch doll heads last year. They were still there.

Eek! They also had a Ouija board that I seriously contemplated buying. I kept thinking that it would make a super cool Halloween decoration, but I couldn't shake the urban legends from my junior high days. Ultimately I decided that purchasing a ouija board probably wasn't necessary. I did, however, purchase a large plush Fievel toy from An American Tail. Because I needed that. He looks good on the shelf with my E.T.'s though. :)

After situating Fievel, I did this layout for UnPubbed's open call. It has to be one of my favorite photos EVER - my great grandpa and his brother (and two mystery dudes) chillin' with what my grandma speculates to be moonshine. 'Git-r-done' Grandpa John! Apparently he always was ornery!

"It's Sunday Now and You Can Bet That I'm Alright"

2008-09-14T20:30:00.000-07:00

I think we entered the weekend with roughly a hundred percent chance of rain for both Saturday AND Sunday. Ick. I'm happy to report that most definitely wasn't the case for today. It was gorgeous! We picked up a late fast food breakfast and took it to Woodward Park, one of the city's gems. A popular spot for wedding and cheerleader photos. And I'd heard it was a good place to feed the squirrels. As I've mentioned before, I'm an avid collector of squirrel photos, so I had to save some of my breakfast and give it a shot. The stories were true. :)

Speaking of food, the recipe for the taco soup chili from last week. It was gooood. It's a highly technical recipe. You dump five cans of beans, one can of diced tomatoes, and one packet of taco seasoning into the ol' crock pot and turn it on low for the day. You can pretty much use whatever you want. I did a few great northern beans, some kidney, some chili beans, some 'chili ready' tomatoes, and a 'cheesy taco' seasoning packet. When you get home from work (or when you're about ready to eat), cook up about a pound of meat (we used chicken), throw it in the crock pot, turn it to high. About 15 minutes later you have a delicious meal. Yummmy!

Back to the weekend, we also went to Grand Lake this afternoon so Chris could scout the location for the remote controlled rock crawling competition he'll be in next weekend. It was beautiful. Made me wonder (again) why on earth we live in town. I miss the 'wide open spaces.'

"It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year"

2008-09-09T13:18:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, it's officially FALL in my book! And I'm SOOO excited! There's a chill in the air, some kind of chicken taco soup brewing in my crockpot (I'll post a recipe if it's good), fall festivals to attend, scarecrow decorations to hang, hoodies to wear... I'm just giddy. Historically, I seem to double or triple the amount of pictures that I take during this time of year, so I will have plenty to keep me busy during the deliciously cool and rainy evenings. I can't wait.

I've got plenty to keep me busy now too though! Working on an 'all about me' mini project at Memorable Seasons and also working on some stuff to submit for their design team call. I haven't applied for anything lately because I haven't wanted to really participate on a foreign message board. It kinda takes a lot of work! Lot of flippin' passwords to keep track of too. ;) But, I'm all about Memorable Seasons. Love the gals there.

Also gathering some stuff to enter in the Tulsa State Fair. I have to drop it off Saturday and I'm still trying to decide what to take! Looking forward to all the exhibits and wonderfully horrible fair food at the end of the month! Yumm...

Here's a few recent projects, plus my new favorite jack-o-lantern, Miss Alexis. :)

Just loving Miranda Lambert right now. Finally purchased her 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend' CD, featuring the title to this LO. :)

This was our Valentines Day at the new house a few years ago. Pizza, a roll of carpet, and a ceiling fan box. Good times. Tomorrow, it will be 5 years since our first 'real' date!

I'm so glad I'm past the tooth losing stage, but isn't she too cute?

"Angels Among Us"

2008-08-28T04:47:00.000-07:00

Wow, Saturday was THE day for scrapbook awesomeness. After I left the convention and had lunch with the lovely Christopher, we stopped at Hobby Lobby so I could see if the rumors of a scrapbook section overhaul were true. I was perusing the paper aisle, taking note of the numerous empty spots, when I heard an angel named Kay calling to me... "Are you big into scrapbooking" she asked. "Pshyeah!" I replied and showed her my armband from the convention. She proceeded to tell me about the changes in store for their paper selction. Intriguing enough, but my main concern was whether or not they had the Bind-It-All. "Actually we can only keep two in stock and I just sold the last one today. Hold on though..." She disappeared briefly and came back with not only a rain check, but also a 40% coupon and the promise that she would be calling me Monday to come pick up my new machine! An angel, I tell ya! So Monday I came home with a Bind-It-All and only 36 less bucks in my pocket (OK, maybe a few less than that after I purchased some binding coil and Thickers). How cool is that?!?!?! Thank you Kay!!

Of course I had to use it when I got home, so I gathered my rather large collection of postcards from my more 'worldly' friends and some scrap chipboard that Chris saved from the trash for me. About half an hour later, I had this little book:

Because I wanted the postcards to be somewhat staggered, I was able to play around with alignment and whatnot. Good practice - a perfect first project. I have a feeling I'll be getting a lot of use out of this little jewel.

Yesterday, I got great news over at UnPubbed! I had the winning lift of Corey's gorgeous layout and I'm getting a super cool kit in the mail! Yippeee! Here's the lift, an account of our tour of the Jesse James house in St. Joseph, MO:

Ironically, the night after I finished this layout, we watched a two hour special about Jesse James on the Military Channel (yep, DORKS!). They actually proposed the idea that maybe it was not Jesse James that was killed in this house and maybe there was no real bullet hole. It was a complicated idea, but interesting! A side note: the number one thought I had while cruising through this little museum was, "Holy crap this place needs a scrapbooker's touch!" All of the text on the 'exhibits' was yellowing and peeling up. It was kind of sad.

"Girls Gone Wild"

2008-08-23T15:05:00.001-07:00

Just returned from the contained chaos that is the Creating Keepsakes Convention. Wowza. I went three years ago and volunteered as an armband checker for the Vendor Faire - it was overwhelming. Lots of scrapbook paraphernalia toting ladies, not a lot of space. After four hours of standing at the doorway, by the time I got to actually shop, I was WAY exhausted and didn't come away with much.

Not exactly the case this year... on the plus side, I only spent about $40! BUT, I got 3 packages of Lil' Davis chipboard letters, Lil' Davis chipboard borders, 4 packages of Heidi Swapp chipboard letters, 2 6x6 Basic Grey paper packs (one from the Boxer line and one from Cupcake), a Scenic Route mini album, a Maya Road mini album, a 6x6 Sassafrass Lass paper pack, and about 10 single papers (most from Sassafrass). I'd say I did pretty good! And maybe one of those seemingly hundreds of drawings I entered will pan out (or I'll be bombarded with spam). Here's a peek:

And a layout from this afternoon. A tribute to my dear old pet, Leonardo. Yes, he had 8 legs, but he never made a mess or noise and I have to admit, it's not nearly as entertaining to watch my dogs eat. Meal time for Leonardo (and the unfortunate crickets) was like watching an episode of Nova unfold before your very eyes. You just couldn't turn away.

"#1 Crush"

2008-08-18T10:35:00.000-07:00

I heard someone refer to their lack of sleep this last week as "Olympic Hangover," and I can completely appreciate that. I had to breathe a slight sigh of relief after the last swim was over Saturday night - maybe now I can get some rest! I really don't remember actually getting into the games like this since 1996 Atlanta, so it's been fun to watch! I also got a kick out of the gymnastics. Took me back to my younger days when I'd make posters of the medal counts for Shannon Miller, Kim Zmeskal, etc. I also discovered a new-to-me sport: synchronized diving. What is that about??? Chris said, "That is the gayest thing I've ever seen." I think I'll have to agree. And I have a new crush to show for all of my late nights. A super cute swimmer. No, it's not Michael Phelps, although how awesome was he?!?! I had my eye on his teammate Aaron Peirsol. :) Ahhh.... When I wasn't oooing and ahhing this weekend, I did get some scrapbook pages done. I'm kind of liking my current trend of a few semi-elaborate two pagers, followed by a few simple one photo-ers. Makes my whole non-existent organization system somewhat of a pain though. I'm thinking of mounting my 8-1/2 x 11's to some 12x12 cardstock to make it easier. Does anyone do this?

This is Alexis's self-administered haircut from a few years ago. You could still see some of her scalp weeks later! I guess it could've been worse though. I've heard some horror stories!

I was going to save this photo for my in-the-works Route 66 album, but I grabbed an opportunity to use this incredibly cheesy title instead! Thank you Simpsons. :) You can't really tell, but the hearts are some homemade 'ghost shapes' cut from the plastic packaging for American Crafts brads. I freehanded those, then used them to trace hearts from the paper. I inked the paper, then stitched them to the plastic hearts. I've been going nuts saving all kinds of plastic packaging! Hopefully I'll put all of it to good use.

"Oh, It is Love"

2008-08-12T04:39:00.000-07:00

After LOTS of research and shopping and asking and listening and testing and reading and thinking and persuading and researching and thinking some more, we have a winner! The Sony Alpha 200. Got a really good deal on it at Camera Gallery, and they were also very helpful. If you ever find yourself in Tulsa and looking for a new camera, go see Ken. I have a lot to learn, but so far, I likey! Haven't used a REAL camera in so long, but wow, it makes a difference. Here's some samples (too bad it can't clean my bathroom mirror).

Here's my favorite shot so far. I was playing with the in-camera black and white mode and different focus settings. Love how it came out! Stinky is a great napping buddy. :)

Here's one of Popeye, post-bath. Again, I'm loving the depth of field! It's so awesome to not focus on everything. One of the really cool features is that the camera autofocuses as soon as you put your eye to the viewfinder, instead of when you press the shutter button. You can turn the feature off, but I'm diggin' it.

Here's Lucy surveying the newest development in the backyard: the building of an RC car track. Yes, she looks about as thrilled as I am. I will say though, even though I can't drive worth a crap, it is pretty fun. :)
Last but not least, Stinky the Vampire. Not as vicious as it looks, I promise.

"You and Me Go Fishing in the Park"

2008-07-24T04:43:00.000-07:00

First, my latest entry for UnPubbed... this has to be like my 5th or 6th fishing LO! I'm not sure how that happened. This is Christopher fetching my lure from the tree it was clinging to for dear life. Happened on my first cast. That was pretty much how the rest of the trip went. But, a good memory AND I got to use some of my very favorite stuff on a page, so I can't complain.

Second, I was 'tagged' by a sweet pal and awesome scrapbooker, buffy_kramer! By the way, I just love her blog title :)

What was I doing Ten Years Ago Hmm... In the grand scheme of things, I was just getting ready to start my senior year of high school. Literally though, I was probably watching a movie. Or doing something crafty.

Five Things On Today's "To Do" List Get a crap load of files off of my desk at work, laundry, watch that Crime Scene University show, perhaps do a scrapbook page, maybe organize some bills and my checkbook as much as I hate that

I'm addicted to picking at my cuticles, watching true crime TV shows, iced tea, my new 'flair' application on Facebook, carbs

Things I Would Do If I Were a Millionaire Hire a maid (might not wait for millionaire status), move to the country and work from home (then I might not need a maid), travel more!

Places I have Lived Springfield, MO; Branson, MO; Mtn. Grove, MO; St. Louis, MO; Tulsa, OK

"Back to Life, Back to Reality"

2008-07-21T17:40:00.000-07:00

The Missouri 'vacation' is over. Boo. I can't say it was terribly exciting or productive or even relaxing, but I did see some fam for a day or two. And I learned that sometimes it sucks to have a German Shepherd that doesn't play well with strangers. Makes traveling a pretty huge pain. Bless her cute lil' overprotective heart.

I got close to none of the things done that I wanted to do in MO. Didn't go to the eye doctor, didn't get a flippin' Pineapple Whip (arg!!), didn't go to any scrapbook stores, didn't catch the midnight showing of The Dark Knight, didn't see many people... I was pretty much a failure. But, I DID catch up on some scrapbooking yesterday at home. I finished my summer mini for the contest at Memorable Seasons and a LO for Jen's challenge.

Better vacation luck next time.

"When You Light the Fuse You Better Get Back Quick"

2008-07-05T06:05:00.000-07:00

ANOTHER happy mail day on Thursday! I got my Guest Design Team kit from Memorable Seasons - a wealth of goodness from the Scenic Route Liberty Collection. Christmas in July all over again! I could get used to this. The really cool thing about this kit AND the Lotus Paperie kit is that they've been full of incredible stuff, but stuff that I probably wouldn't buy myself. After using them though, I want more! It's been a great challenge. Lesson learned: don't count products out because they might not be 'your style.' Give 'em a whirl!

There were no cookouts or sparklers or fireworks shows for us yesterday. Chris spent a good part of the day setting stuff up for the city's big shindig, but other than that, we went out for lunch, I cleaned and scrapped, and he worked on the new scooter. It was kind of nice. In the spirit of things though, I did these two pages:

Hope everyone had a great one!

"Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto"

2008-07-02T05:21:00.000-07:00

I got 'happy mail' on Monday! My prize pack from Lotus Paperie - the Blast Off Couture Collection. Gorgeous stuff. I have to admit though, I was kind of thinking, 'What the heck am I gonna do with all these robots?'

The more I thought about it though, the more ideas I had! Dug up these 8-year-old pics of Alec - I thought they went well. And I got to use my new Deja Views letter stencils! Love stencils. Used circle stencils AND two different sets of letter stencils on this LO!

Late late late Saturday night, the awesome Christopher was kind enough to go with me to a midnight showing of... THE GOONIES at Circle Cinema! My all time favorite movie. He even stayed awake for most of it this time! I was totally impressed when we walked into the theater and there was a Baby Ruth and 'gold' coin in everyone's chair. Too cool!

Also on Saturday, we got a scooter. Meet Bruno. I zoomed around the 'hood at a roaring 20mph (it goes about 50)! Getting about 130mpg! Chris has driven it to work every day this week.

And finally, meet my office squirrel. I haven't officially named him, but I've stalked him for some time now. I collect squirrel pics, so Chris got me a squirrel feeder for the tiny tree outside my office window so I could lure in the elusive critter. Worked like a charm. He's been getting more and more comfortable with spectators - even eating on his belly yesterday like my dog does! I'd never seen that before.

"I'm So Excited"

2008-07-01T04:47:00.000-07:00

Wow, I just can't think of that song without also thinking of Saved By the Bell and Jessie Spano and her caffeine pill-induced meltdown. I've heard more people quote that scene than that've quoted The Godfather - seriously.

Anywho, two really exciting things this week. I was named the Guest Design Team Member for July at Memorable Seasons AND I got my super cool Couture Collection kit from Lotus Paperie in the mail yesterday! Hopefully this is the end to my week-long scrapping rut. I started a page last night with my new kit and I'm feeling good about it so far - yeehoo! I will also be getting a kit from Memorable Seasons in the next few days and I can't wait. Christmas in July - far less stressful than Christmas in December! :)

Jen's blog challenge for this week at Croppinsville: name your 5 favorite products. Hmm... toughie! I'm gonna go with Thickers, journaling spots, patterned paper, embroidery thread, and buttons. For now.

And here's the one layout I've been really happy with in the past week or so. Love the super cute deer paper from October Afternoon. More to come hopefully! :)

"Long Time Gone"

2008-06-24T11:09:00.000-07:00

Apparently this blogging habit is a hard one for me to keep... kinda like that whole 'working out' thing. But lo and behold, I'm baaack with a spiffy slideshow of some of my fave layouts, along with a new link or two. Also some recent happenings:

* I won the May Challenge at Lotus Paperie! I was so awesomely thrilled and I'm looking forward to playing with my new Couture Collection! They've got some really great weekly challenges over there, some great kits, and stellar inspiration, so head on over and join in!

* At Memorable Seasons, I'm working on a really fun summer mini album for their Spring Into Summer contest. The design team's got some fun prompts and there will be prizes! Come on down...

* I totally failed the 12 on the 12th photo / layout project this month. :( I got in about 6 photos and spent most of my evening at the vet with Stinky. He's OK, but I broke my one month streak!

* I got to visit the new Croppinsville store this weekend in Collinsville! Woohoo - new scrapbook store! It rocked. Check 'em out - they're online too! And their blog challenge of the week is to name your top five favorite crafting tools. My staples are:

Stencils. Yes, I know fancy die cutting machines and punches would save me boat loads of time, but there's something theraputic about using stencils. AND they take up much less space. :)
My .3 lead pencil. Accidentally 'stolen' from my jewelry designing gig. Love it!
Scissors. I usually have at least 3 different scissors on my desk at all times.
Tweezers. Again, I have like 3 pair of tweezers.
Paper piercer. Makes stitching and brads go much faster!

And that will about do it for me. Have a great week! (And RIP George Carlin. My fave 'appropriate' Carlin quote: "Tonight's weather? Dark.")

"Why'd it Have to be Snakes?"

2008-05-26T08:33:00.000-07:00

Went to see the new Indiana Jones Sunday at the super cool 'vintage' Allred Theatre in Pryor.

I was ridiculously excited, and despite a few flaws in the film, I left with a feeling of glee. What more can you ask for. Man, I'd forgotten how hot Harrison Ford is! Had to come home and watch Raiders of the Lost Ark. Happiness. May sneak the other two in this week.

Had my own Indy moment last weekend when Chris caught a glimpse of a snake slithering under our bathroom cabinet. When he told me I'd have to help him get to it, the neighbors probably thought he was killing me. I squalled quite a lot. Tarantulas, bugs, mice, sharks, lizards... I can deal with all of those things. Snakes are a very different story. Especially when they're in my house. Fast forward through a bunch of screaming and threats and cursing and dancing and snakes coming back to life after you thought they were dead... the house is now snake-free. That's what I'm telling myself at least.

On May 12th, I decided to take part in a lil' challenge where you take twelve photos throughout your day and then scrapbook them. Here's the inspiration. I got kind of impatient to start my project, so I printed my own pics. Long story short, they were larger than I anticipated, so I ended up making a mini album with my Twelve of Twelve pics. Click here for a link to larger views on Flickr.

"We're Gonna Have a Good Time"

2008-05-16T04:53:00.000-07:00

A few tidbits of awesomeness to share for this Friday:

1. We're going to see Charlie Robison tonight! I think this will be #7. The eighth if you count that time that we went but had to leave before he came on stage due to an unfortunate encounter with Taco Bell. And they'll be closer to home this time, which I'm very excited about. None of this driving to Oklahoma City crap. I hate Oklahoma City. On a slight downer, I just found out his stellar guitar player Kevin Carroll went solo and won't be along. But overall, yay!!! Here's a somewhat crappy page I did about a year ago to show the Charlie love. It was my first stitching experiment...

2. My Mother's Day card was featured on ScrapScene last week! I'd honestly never seen their site until I heard through the Memorable Seasons MB that I was on it. Woohoo! Sorry the card's not for you Mom. :) It was for a swap.

3. It's a gorgeous day, supposed to be a gorgeous weekend, and I get to spend it all at or near home. This is a rare luxury. Party on.

"Not Easy Being Green"

2008-04-26T20:53:00.001-07:00

Interesting weekend so far... the PLAN was to go out of town Friday night, but we got about 90 miles and $20 in gas out and had to turn around and come back home. Chris had to do something for work plus we had a leak in a tire. SO, the great turkey hunt didn't happen and I didn't get to help my friend Sarah move. I feel so bad. :( But, I did just finish a layout, so I guess all is not lost.

This was my experience camping with my dad and family a few summers ago. Everyone got a good laugh.

"Taco, Burrito, What's Comin' Out of Your Speedo?"

2008-04-25T11:05:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so the title's a little gross, but in trying to keep with this movie quote and song lyric theme, all that came to mind was this old SNL cheerleader song! Ah, the good ol' days. Anyway, I decided that this year I would start applying for some scrapbook design teams and whatnot and I finally did! Here is my entry for Sketch-Abilities, an up and coming sketch blog. I love sketches, and this one was really fun:

Here's what I came up with. I LOVE this restaurant. Chicken Taco Loco. Yummm. If you're ever in the Branson area I recommend stopping by.

"C-c-c-cold Hearted Sssssnake"

2008-04-18T12:52:00.000-07:00

Snakes scare the absolute bejesus out of me, but I had fun doing this page last week! Even if I had to relive the terrifying event.

Consider this my tribute to the late, great Steve Irwin. I really miss that crazy guy.

"Thunder Rolls"

2008-04-08T18:29:00.000-07:00

I think I only slept about an hour last night between the mass quantities of before-bed iced tea, tornado sirens, and thunder, not to mention the snoring boy and barking dog. At about 2:30am, I decided to get up and document my college graduation saga. It was quite fitting.

Pull-out journaling reads, "A giant tent in the middle of a muddy baseball field isn't an idea place to be during a tornado warning, but that's where I found myself with my School of Communications classmates, trying to frickin' graduate. We'd had our long boring university-wide ceremony earlier in the morning & the weather was fine. When it was time for the main event, the gathering of family & friends, the reading of the names, the tossing of caps... all hell broke loose. Right in the middle of Ryan's speech, to be exact. Wind, rain, booming thunder... the whole nine yards. The dean interrupted the festivities with a cry of 'Tornadoes are coming! Run for your lives!' At least, that's how I remember it. She also wished us a universal congrats, & with that, we were 'graduated.' The aftermath was a horror show of chaos, confused kids, drenched grandparents, & lots of running. Besides feeling completely horrible for my family, I was totally bummed that I couldn't do proper pictures or goodbyes. But, I did get one last night with my beloved roommates & one heck of a memorable graduation. And we didn't get blown away. Guess we could call it good."

"Dirty White Boy"

2008-04-05T09:18:00.000-07:00

My latest page... an ode to my 'TV boyfriend,' Mr. Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs. Sigh. I think this was my first pop culture-type of page. Lots of fun! Looking forward to doing more. Although, maybe not any more dedicated to Mike... Chris would have a conniption. :) Journaling says, "A few years ago, we stumbled across a man standing up to his knees in bat poo on the Discovery Channel. I gained a new TV boyfriend and Chris gained a nemesis. April 2008"

And just for fun, here's a quote of Mr. Rowe's that I saw on the Dirty Jobs message board (research, you know): "Too many people are focused on mythical pots of gold when they could be enjoying the rainbow. After all, those are real and rather pretty." Love it.

"It's all downhill from here..."

2008-04-01T10:46:00.000-07:00

So, here it is... my first full day of being 27. I got some really great comments yesterday like, "Welcome to your late 20's," "You're almost 30," "I'll have to trade you in for a newer model," and my favorite, "It's all downhill from here." Ahhh... they just gave me that warm fuzzy feeling. I was also reminded that Kurt Cobain, Robert Johnson, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and a whole slew of other notables were dead by their 28th birthday. Again, this comment made me think swell thoughts. Sunshine and rainbows. And now here I am FINALLY making my first blog entry since setting this up over a month ago. Nothing like a few choice words of encouragement to get you going. 'Scrappier' things to follow...