The good old days....

I love Facebook. I had been looking at old pictures from high school this past weekend and I came across pictures of me with one of my best high school friends that I have lost touch with.  We were pretty inseparable during the last couple of years of high school.

She moved away to live with her mom before we finished high school  We saw each other when we could for a while, but back in those days we didn't have e-mail, internet or free long distance on cell phones (we didn't have cell phones!) so it was good old fashioned letters that we had to write to keep in touch.  We did that for a while, but I am sure life got us busy and we lost touch.

Every time I came across these pictures over the years I wondered where she was and what happened to her.  And along comes Facebook and there she is.  The thing I love about Facebook is we are all busy in our everyday lives but it only takes a little bit of time throughout the week to keep in touch.

Some random Friday night during football season....1987

Probably during a water polo game.  Our high school team was great and the cheerleaders didn't miss a match.

And I have to love the 80's hair here (especially mine, what was UP with that?)  I think this was after high school when I went down to visit Holly at her mom's house and we went out dancing at a club.

Nice to reconnect with old friends.

A layout and ScanCafe

Another layout from my Baker's Dozen class.  Now I have just 4 layouts to work on to be caught up to the class.  One thing I love about the class is the simpleness.  You have already picked out pictures and embellishments and every couple of days you get a sketch and a recipe and you can get to work on telling a story.  Last night I wanted to scrap, but was tired so my heart wasn't in it as much.  So I flipped on the Glee season finale (which perked me up some) and grabbed my next assignment.

Me and Nana

PP, CS & ribbon from Studio Calico kit. Making Memories 

letter stickers and paint. Maya Mist, Quick Quotes canvas heart, 

Clearsnap ink and paper clip.

I love this picture of Nicholas and his Nana C.  He has really grown close to her since they moved here a year and a half ago.  I am glad that the boys will have a chance to grow up nearby to some of their family.  We are very lucky to have Mike's parents so close to us.

I am looking forward to this weekend already. My Mosh Posh and Citrus Tree Studios kits have arrived already this week.  My box from Studio Calico should be here today and another couple of orders should be here by Saturday.  It's been like Christmas! I have a big picture order to pick up at Costco today too.

So I'll have lots of new goodies to scrap with and a whole lot of new pictures to scrap with.  Including several pictures I recently had scanned by ScanCafe from my pre-digital days.  The Mosh Posh kit will be perfect for some pictures I have of my grandma's and my mom from the 40's - 70's. The Citrus Tree Studios should be great for a Father's Day surprise for Mike I am thinking about. And the Studio Calico kit is going to be great for last weekend's pool pictures.

If you have been thinking about getting photos scanned I really recommend ScanCafe. I heard about them when I took Library of Memories at Big Picture Scrapbooking and although the whole process took a couple of months I am so happy to have my old photos in digital format.  They retouched and in some cases restored photos and now I finally have them to incorporate into my scrapbooks.

I had been looking at scanning my photos for years including trying to do it myself.  I sent them about 2000 photos and selected about 1400 to have digitally. The great thing about ScanCafe is you are only obligated to pay for 50% of what they scan. So I sent negatives in that I had no idea what would be on them and only selected the pictures that were worth keeping.  There prices have gone up slightly since I ordered but they are still reasonable compared to other services.  And if you sign up for their newsletter they send out discount codes pretty often.  (I am not being paid to sing their praises, I was just really happy with their service.)

Starting on my Baker's Dozen

I signed up for the Baker's Dozen class over at Big Picture Scrapbooking. However, life got in the way and I am a bit behind in the class.  However I did put together my first layout last night.  A simple one that just focuses on the story I wanted to tell about a little boy who is getting into everything right now....

Sorry about them not being side by side, but I don't like the way the picture of the 2 pages together came out and it is too dark now to re-take it.

And just like that it's over....

Color Me Daisy, that is. We sold off out the clearance mystery boxes in less than a week.  They are stuffed full and  ready to be picked up tomorrow.  So with that done, Color Me Daisy is no longer.  I have to admit that I realized while we were packing up the boxes late into the night last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, that I will very much NOT miss packing kits. I would much rather play with paper, and pretty sparkly things. Speaking of playing I pretty much used up all of my Mosh Posh May kit and here is the last layout I made. I love the Lily Bee colors.  I was pretty excited just now, I went to grab the Lily Bee blog link and saw one of my layouts I posted last week was in their Friday Faves post.  How cool is that? :)

"U 2 boys 'r' so Sweet"

I really had hoped to scrap some this weekend, but I was so tired last night I crashed early and this afternoon I ended up organizing my craft room instead.  So maybe tonight I'll get back to scrapping,

Nicholas had his last day of preschool this week.  They had a water and ice cream party, I had planned to volunteer that day, but it being quarter end at work I had to cancel. We really like his teacher, Ms. Jackie and we are glad Nicholas will have her again next year as his teacher.

I made his teacher, class assistants and speech therapist summer bags with beach towels, sunscreen, water bottles and a magazine.  I whipped up some matching cards with just a package of Sassafras Felties, a scrap of Basic Grey paper, a punch and a couple of stamps.

At the beginning of the year I did a major clean out of the craft room.  My LSS, Scrapbooks Etc., had it's semi-annual yard sale in March. I sold so much stuff I ended up with almost $600 in store credit, and up until this week I hadn't used any of it. With new lines starting to showing up, I made a trip over to the store on Thursday and picked up lots of goodies.

That Crafters Workshop star template should be fun for misting and painting. I am in love the new Bella Blvd. Man's House line (I even ordered a kit from Citrus Tree Studio), and think it may work for a project I have in mind. Nicholas loves trains, so I have a few pictures already for that new stamp. And  I have on more than one occasion wished I had an oval punch when making a card or needing a journaling spot. Also, I recently got the I Top on Scrapbooksteals, but the deal didn't include the small punch, so now I have it. It makes good layered flowers too.

I picked up more of Girl's Paperie On Holiday papers and some embellishments. They will be great for summer pages with or without actually traveling anywhere.

I really like Pink Paislee's new Starlight collection.  I also ordered a couple of pieces from Stop and Scrap and I thought the Basic Grey Basics stickers worked well with the papers.  Should be fun for boy pages or 4th of July pages.

Have you seen the new Echo Park line? It is so summery and happy, and those new Cosmo Cricket little alpha's are so perfect with it, as was the Sassafras Me Likey Ice Cream paper. I also ordered a couple of other pieces of this from Stop and Scrap.  I think this will be cute for a summer banner.

Studio Calico had the paper with the frogs in one of their add on's this month, but I passed on it over another add on I liked more.  But I still  had to have this paper. I also found these others from We R Memory Keepers 72 and Sunny line. Isn't it fun?!

I also picked up most of the new Studio Calico Documentary line. It will be fun for some travel pages and I love the hot air balloon. I have the Fab Rips and Alphas coming in a separate order.

So I have lots of new stuff to play with.  And best of all I didn't spend anything for this since I had a store credit.

Now I get it!

I didn't get what the big deal was...really.  But the catchy music during Idol each week including some of the songs I grew up with kept piquing my interest. And with shows winding up this month for the season, I needed something to fill the void during the summer months.  So I picked this up yesterday....

I "heart" this show. I can't say why for sure, but it is just plain fun. I watched the first two episodes last night and wanted to stay up all night watching the whole thing.

I have lots of scrappy stuff I have been doing, but I'll have to save it for another day. Life has been way too crazy lately. I got a lot of scrappy stuff done over the weekend, but didn't get any pictures taken.  Now I am debating if I want to give in for the night and go watch Glee or edit some pictures so I have new pictures to scrap.

We'll see what wins out.

Get moving....

I have two more reasons to get my butt out of bed in the morning and out the door to exercise....

Not only do I need to get an exercise routine going and keep it on track. These two adorable pups need to drop some weight too.

The cute chubby black and white one, Marti (or fatty patty as I lovingly call her), well in dog terms she's obese. Marti should weigh 14 pounds and she weighs about 19. It's pretty harsh really. How would you like to be considered obese when you are 5 pounds overweight? I noticed that she is having a bit more trouble getting her bottom half on the couch when she jumps up. I don't think that food is really her issue. She would sleep 23 hours a day if we let her. She is LAZY and proud of it.

The white cutie-pie is Mandi. She should be a little dog and her fur sometimes hides things. But she can't sneak through the pool fence anymore. She probably weighs 10 pounds and shouldn't be more than 8 or 9. She isn't lazy so much as she is a piggy. She stalks the boys when they are eating to get whatever scraps she can find.

So until we get a routine going, I am alternating taking one of them on a walk each morning. They are a bit impossible to walk together and I need to want to get out of bed in the morning and being dragged by one dog while the other one lallygags along isn't going to make me race out the door.

So first up was Marti, she enjoyed her walk this morning. Mandi on the other hand was very mad that she didn't get to go. Tomorrow will be Mandi's turn and I am certain that our LAZY Marti will stay in bed under the covers and not even know we are gone.

It's the Climb...and yummy cookies

We have a climber on our hands. Jackson has been climbing on everything lately...the coffee table, the fireplace mantel, the ottoman, chairs, whatever.  I told Mike he just wants to be up higher so it is easier for him to get in our face (he is quite bossy). The problem is we think he can get up just fine, it's getting down we are worried about. Nicholas never did this, so it's a new thing. I am sure my mom would call it payback.  Apparently I was quite the acrobat back in my day.

I got home earlier than normal for a Friday, so I decided to find out what happened when you take these....

and mix them up like this.....

you get something that looks like this....

I found this recipe for Reese's Peanut Butter Egg Cookies on the Picky Palate blog.  I love her recipes they are usually relatively easy to follow and every one I have tried is easy to make. When I saw this recipe earlier this week I knew I had to make them, the Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs are probably my favorite all year.

The recipe said it would make 4 dozen, my scoop must be a bit smaller because I ended up with 5 dozen. So I think my co-workers will be happy on Monday with some of these.  There is no way we can keep them in the house. It will be impossible not to devour them over the weekend.

I've been a bad girl.....but I am so happy about it...and a few Color Me Daisy peeks

Yesterday I left this message for Mike "oh good, you didn't answer so I don't have to tell you what I did at lunch".  He called back later and said "you bought a sewing machine, didn't you?".  Well I guess I wasn't getting away with anything, was I? A couple of years ago I wanted to learn to sew just so I could stitch on my scrapbook pages, but I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a machine. So I got the bargain basement Singer from Target on a Black Friday sale.  It took me almost 2 years to actually learn to use it. I've sewed with it some, but it jams a lot and now that I have dabbled a bit in some fabric sewing I know it isn't going to cut it for long. I had known when I bought it that if I got the sewing bug I would go ahead and upgrade.

I have been including fabric in the Color Me Daisy kits for the past year and every time I go to pick out fabrics I am so intrigued (I think it's just like scrapbook papers in that respect). I look at it and touch it and see so many possibilities.

I also want to do a makeover on my kitchen and master bathroom, as well as finishing some window treatments around the house.  They are so expensive to have done I keep putting it off. So I thought maybe I could learn to sew them myself.

So after a lot of research I finally settled on a new machine:

Isn't she pretty? This machine does 173 stitches including some basic embroidery. But the coolest thing about it (for me) is the bobbin loading. I hated the one on my old machine, this one is so much simpler. I have a class next week on how to use it, but I plan to play with it this weekend. I even have an apron in mind to try to make.

Earlier this week I went to Michael's in search of some of the new EK Success Border Punches. They didn't have any yet, but I did find a star border punch in the American Girls section. I like flowers as much as the next girl, but with 2 boys a star border is a bit more useful. Of course I found what I was looking for at JoAnn's yesterday when I bought my machine, but I couldn't justify spending even more money after the sewing machine purchase.

I also picked up some yarn to try my hand at crocheting flowers. I haven't really crocheted in years, I started a blanket when Nicholas was born but never finished it, and fortunately I didn't have to because my "second" mom is a whiz at crocheting and she did a gorgeous one for him. But I still want to learn how to do flowers. So I brought a few fun colors on sale and have found some tutorials on a few blogs and plan to give that a whirl.

And last, but definitely not least, I have a few sneaks from one of my layouts I finished with the Color Me Daisy Spring Fever kit that will be released on April 5th.

I love the Jillibean Soup corrugated alpha's, they give you so many possibilities...

The kit has 5 fabric's included and the Idea Guide included with the kit will have no-sew fabric ideas.....

and Pink Paislee's new Artisan Elements are very fun to work with....

If you want to see additional sneak peeks for the Spring Fever kit visit the Color Me Daisy Blog or  Featured Designer, Becky Williams.

What I Have Learned as a Mother

Today on Stacy Julian's blog I saw this post about 22 Things I Learned Being a Mother which was inspired by  Amy Krouse-Rosenthal who I remembered from doing an Encyclopedia of Me (A-Z) inspired scrapbook a few years ago based on the book by her, ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AN ORDINARY LIFE.  So I took Stacy's challenge and wrote down my 22 before reading Stacy's or watching the video by Amy. My list was a bit different since my two boys are still toddlers, but I think it will make great journaling for a scrapbook page.  So make your list of 22 Things and then read mine and Stacy's and watch Amy's movie. I am sure that we will all find little nuggets in common.

22 things I have learned as a mother

1. You can’t protect them from everything
2. Independence is a good thing at any age
3. There really is nothing sweeter than hearing mommy 100 times in a day (one day you’ll miss it)
4. When your children do something that you are really proud of you know you must have done something right
5. Routines are important
6. I look forward to hearing “mommy’s home” when I get home from work at the end of the day
7. Watching the world through their eyes as they explore and learn is very cool
8. When your child is hurt or sick or struggling you would do anything to take their pain away
9. Snacks are a good thing
10. Sometimes (okay most times) it is just easier to let your very picky eater have chicken fingers or hot dogs than it is to have a melt down
11. When you hear “I love you mommy” for the first time your heart will immediately melt
12. Children do things at their pace not yours
13. They grow up too fast
14. It is really cool to watch your sons bond with their daddy
15. It is okay for daddy to be the main caregiver and have mommy go to work everyday
16. You do not need to yell at your kids to let them know you aren’t happy with something they did
17. Barney, The Wiggles and kids TV shows in general are not terrible and you are not a bad parent if you let them watch
18. Getting your baby to consistently sleep through the night makes for a much happier home
19. Sometimes bribery is okay to avoid a public meltdown
20. Your house will never again be as neat as it once was and it won’t matter
21. You won’t have all the free time you used to have and sometimes you’ll miss it
22. But, when those little guys crawl in your lap and want to cuddle with you, you will forget what life was like before they were here

Is it only Tuesday

I am already ready for Friday. We took the boys to the park tonight to tire them out before bed (I think it worked). I will be glad when American Idol is back to only an hour. I hate 2 hour tv nights. No time for anything else. I made this layout over the weekend using the Studio Calico March kit, I love this face that Jackson makes, I call it his cheesy smile. He started doing it right around when he turned one, and still does it all the time, especially when I have the camera out. I love the wood veneer pieces that Studio Calico included in their kit this month. I misted the sun piece with Lemon Maya Mist. I can't wait to use more of this stuff.

Back to American Idol, I think that either Paige or Tim Urban are going home tonight.  Either one deserves to go, and it works out fine for my American Idol pool points, I won't be too far out of it if one of them gets the boot. But overall tonight, the show stunk. Pick better songs people. You can do better. But I think Miley Cyrus is a doll, and did alright as a mentor. She has a good amount of confidence for a 17 year old.

Off to read a few pages of my book before crashing for the night,