Finishing up Week in the Life Pics, a Layout and JoAnn's Finds

Sunday I talked about my discovery of the new EK Success jumbo border punches. I would have thought we were going to  have to wait to see them in the store, but I soon discovered they had been sighted at JoAnn's.

I headed over to JoAnn's after my dentist appointment yesterday. Which by the way, I was told at that appointment that I will need a root canal for the random pain I have been having, fun stuff. And I just thought I was going for my regular 6 month cleaning. I like my dentist a lot, but I didn't want to see him again until February.

Anyway, back to JoAnn's.  They had lots of the new jumbo punches at 30% off, so I picked my favorites to start with. I am sure I will see what others do and find some more favorites. I also saw the Tiny Attacher on clearance for $8 (normally $15), I have heard lots of people say they like it. I am not sure if it's much different than my stapler, but for the price I'll give it a shot. Plus it jumped in my cart.

Since the rest of the scrapbook section was 40% off I picked up a couple of other things as well.

I am taking Kelly Purkey's Sketch 2 class over at Studio Calico. This is my interpretation of Day 2 using the Studio Calico July kit. My August kit should be here tonight (according to the UPS website this morning). Yippee!

And to finish up my Week in the Life I have days 6 & 7, Friday and Saturday (July 30 & 31):

Friday

Humid, rainy, hot, sticky, just dropped Nicholas off at pre-school, off for the day's errands...

Grocery store, filling the cart with produce...

My little helper, we don't get a lot of one on one time, so this was fun....

After picking up Nicholas from school, off to Costco....

Stocked up at Costco, so hopefully Mike's next trip will be lighter on his knee...

Mike always takes the boys to Taco Bell after Costco, and Nicholas informed me I was expected to do the same....to prevent Jackson from napping on the way home we sang, "If Your Happy and You Know It" really loud all the way home....

After lunch boys are all napping....

Instead of enjoying quiet time with something relaxing, cleaning and reorganizing the pantry...

Then I made dinner, while my mom visited....

Random Thoughts from Friday:

• Morning school rush
• Sticky yucky weather
• Groceries
• Singing really, really loud
• Easier day
• Cooperative kiddos
• Thankful for naps
• Exhausted
• Homemade pizza
• Thoughtful parents
• Spending time together

Saturday

A bunch of leftovers in a skillet makes a great breakfast with lots of weekday leftovers....

This is what Jackson can do in mere minutes....the toys have all been banished back to their rooms....

And he thinks it's funny....

Watching a movie together, Nicholas makes sure daddy has lots of pillows to make him comfortable....

Yes, this is how I found him napping a little while later....

She slept all day too...

Mike finally feeling up to doing something, experiments with his new microphone....

Piles of laundry to fold....

Reading and tucking Nicholas into bed....

Mike and I hold off dinner, so we can have a peaceful one after the kiddos are in bed....

Random Thoughts from Saturday:

• Early morning train horns
• Breakfast from leftovers
• Down time and relaxing
• Afternoon coffee
• Thankful for naps
• Laundry
• Delicious food
• Late night scrap inspiration embraced

This may not have been a typical week for us, but it is one I am glad I documented. It was a special week of sorts, Mike having surgery, me being home to take care of the boys, etc.

My week days are filled with work and I don’t experience as much of the routine day to day of our family’s life. So this was a week in our life, 2010. 

Now to find time to scrap it.

ScrapTiffany Monday & Some Sunday Sweetness

This week at ScrapTiffany our assignment was Naked Chipboard. When we get the assignment we get a prompt like that, no explanation and usually amongst the DT we don't really talk about how we interpret it. I love that. It keeps it fun to see what everyone comes up with each week. I finished up my project Saturday, and was checking in at ScrapTiffany and saw a discussion on the challenge. So my interpretation is probably in the minority, but it was "naked" when I started. LOL!

I had so much fun trying to think of different ways to use my chipboard. I have 2 large baskets full, so I had lots to work with.

I embossed a rectangle with my Cuttlebug and painted it. Then tipped off the embossing with a glaze pen then stitched to the card base.  The flowers were both painted. The red was painted, stamped with a glue pad and then flocked over the stamped image. The yellow flower was outlined with glaze pen. The stem was misted with spray ink.

Head on over to ScrapTiffany today and Friday to see what the ladies have come up with for using your naked chipboard. There are lots of fun ideas over there.  And if you are inspired to play "naked" send your project to Tiffany at tiffany@scraptiffany.com.

And I will leave you today with some Sunday sweetness, my two boys:

I just love this sweet guy. Jackson is rowdy as can be and completely sweet at the same time.

My other sweetie pie.  Nicholas doesn't nap anymore, he usually just crashes somewhere when he gets tired. Yesterday it was as if he was go, go, go and put his head down and was out just like this. He slept like that for over an hour.

I have a dentist appointment this afternoon, the only upside is I will be home earlier instead of working until 8:00.  Off to work now.  Have a great Monday!

A Layout, a Future Obsession and a Couple More Days from Our Week in the Life

I got to scrap yesterday afternoon and last night.  I spent a bunch of time playing in the afternoon for my ScrapTiffany assignment for the week. I can't share until that is posted over there tomorrow. I also had time to make a couple of layouts using the Studio Calico Continental kit.  I better get busy with it, because my August kit, Summer Camp is going to be landing on my porch in the next couple of days. This layout was to document my current obsession I have getting my Studio Calico box each month. I get excited for sneak peak night, shopping on reveal day and waiting (not so patiently) for UPS to show up with my box each month, just in time for it to start all over. So last month when my box arrived I snapped a couple of pictures. Don't you just love those cute cards that come in each kit.

Also, I stumbled on something I am certain will become another obsession for me:

Picture from the PaperCrafters Corner blog, follow the link and you can see all more pictures she has over there and enter for a giveaway too.  I see several of these making their way to my scrap room, looks like I need to free up another drawer. I haven't even seen what Martha Stewart punches are coming, but I usually can't resist those either.

It is an obsession I don't feel too bad about.  It seems I use at least one punch on every page or card that I do. So they are well loved and used obsessions. :)

Continuing on with posting our Week in the Life highlights, here are days 4 and 5 (Wednesday and Thursday) July 28th & 29th,

Wednesday I had trouble sleeping and woke up after having less than 5 hours sleep. Needing coffee...

Mike prepped for surgery...

Daddy resting, Nicholas making sure he is comfortable.

Someone really needed a nap....

Since no one but Mike wanted to take a nap, we had a family movie afternoon watching cars.

Brothers....

Random thoughts from Wednesday:

• Grateful for grandparents
• Waiting, waiting, waiting
• Surgery successful
• Thankful I can be home
• Taking care of my family
• Happy for places that deliver food
• Hoping for speedy recovery

Thursday

Jackson at story time at the library, enjoying the bubbles....

Shopping at Hobby Lobbyfor some upcoming home decor projects...

Fresh flowers from Super Target for $5.00...

Mike requests In-N-Out for lunch. Jackson falls asleep in the car, putting the brakes on chances for a nap (makes for a rough afternoon)....

One day the corn fields will be gone replaced with houses and shopping centers....

The sky above our house, thinking we are definitely going to get a storm today...

Super Target shopping trip for tonight's dinner....

Crazy storm this afternoon, thunder and lightening right above and crazy winds that knocked down trees in the neighborhood.

Reading together....

No cook chicken tostada's for dinner....

Random thoughts from Thursday:

• Little boy that doesn’t sleep through the night
• Tough day expected
• Lack of sleep takes a toll on all of us
• Jackson rowdy
• Nicholas helpful
• Fresh food and homemade Pico de Gallo
• Oreo ball cookies
• Nicholas says “Daddy had surgery” and “Daddy’s resting"

A Month In Review Layout and Week in the Life Days 2 & 3

I have been working through my Month In Review (Project 12) layouts. I finished up my February one using a Studio Calico kit and my 2nd attempt at a manual collage. I had to have it printed 2 times, because I messed up my layers and didn't catch it. This one actually had an issue, so I cut the two ones I had printed and pieced them back together to make it work. So we now have February 2010.

A little over a week ago I documented a week in our life.  Here are some highlights that I plan to use for day 2 & 3 (Monday & Tuesday)

Monday

Wake up...

Feed the dogs...

Take all of the books out of the bookcase...

Headed off to first day of pre-school (year 2)...

Listen to my favorite podcast on the way to work...

        

My commute....

A lunchtime errand for new sheets for our bed...

Chick-Fil-A for lunch back at my desk....

The temperature at 7:15 p.m. when I leave work....

Random Thoughts from Monday:

• Happy Nicholas loves school
• Busy getting things done at work to be off later in the week for Mike’s surgery
• Working late
• Mike’s busy cleaning and preparing for being down for a few days

Tuesday

Mike up early to clean the kitchen before the boys get up...

Nicholas MUST be the first one to get Jackson up in the morning....

Blowing raspberries at the mamarazzi....

Our weekday breakfast, fruit smoothies.....

After a long day at work, my drive home at about 7:30 pm, looks like we'll get a storm....

The pups get comfortable after the kiddos are in bed....

Random Thoughts from Tuesday:

• Very busy today
• Worked really late
• Exhausted at end of the day
• Mike’s nervous about his surgery tomorrow

How about more Adventures In Cooking?

Last week Mike had surgery and we knew he wouldn't be doing anything yummy in the kitchen. I took a few days off of work to take care of the boys and him. I knew the chances of escaping to my scrap room was going to be slim to none (it ended up being a total of 30 minutes in the middle of the night in the past week). I needed some kind of creative outlet while he was down.

We had takeout Wednesday night after his surgery, which was less than exciting. And I had to do some grocery shopping so we could eat. So to plan some meals I flipped through the latest Cooking Light magazine.  I had two missions, something new and minimal food wasted.

My first trip to the store on Thursday morning was a quick run into Super Target for mostly fresh produce.

That afternoon I made my first attempt at Mike's Pico De Gallo, and the cover recipe Chicken and Guacamole Tostadas.  A super easy no bake recipe, that we had for leftover lunches all weekend. It will now be in heavy rotation for Friday night dinners. I didn't do so bad at Mike's Pico either.

I also made the Oreo Truffles (see yesterday's post here)

Friday was grocery shopping and Costco day, so I finalized my weekend meal plans.  Friday night I made the boys a cheese pizza and Mike and I had this Cobb Salad Pizza. It was so yummy it will definitely be repeated.

We had leftover chicken from the night before and I had extra potatoes from the dish I planned to make Saturday night so I did some chopping of that and some veggies and threw it in a skillet with some eggs on Saturday morning.

Topped with a bit of Pico de Gallo and cheese we had a chicken egg hash for breakfast Saturday with lots of leftovers for the coming week.

Saturday night I made a simple Arugula salad with a Dijon Vinaigrette from the magazine...

to go with Chili Espresso Rubbed Steaks with Warm Tomato Sauce. The rub was to die for. Mike manned the grill that night so I could get the boys bathed and ready for bed.

Accompanying the steak was Roasted Fingerling Potatoes with Dijon.

We had lots of leftover potatoes, steak and veggies so I chopped them all up and made a steak hash inspired by one found in the magazine, but I didn't really pay attention to their recipe, just used my own leftovers and scrambled my eggs.

Again, lots of leftovers for weekday breakfasts.

We finished off the weekend with some seafood. Some crab claws

Made the base for this Spicy Corn and Crab Chowder. Which was only about medium spicy which is perfect for me.

I used up the lettuce and veggies  from the previous nights using the same Dijon vinaigrette that I used on Saturday nights salad.

And this accompanied Pan Grilled Salmon with Red Pepper Salsa. We bought our salmon at Costco, so we had big enough pieces to cut in half and save the leftovers for lunch the next day.

Also, I couldn't keep these boysenberries out of my cart at Costco. So we picked up some shortcakes and paired them with some vanilla ice cream cups we had in the freezer. I made a quick dessert inspired by this one in the magazine. I just wanted to keep it simple, since I had already done plenty of cooking for the weekend.

So my past weekend cooking adventures were numerous. I now plan to take a few off, and put Mike back to work in the kitchen.

Week In the Life - Day 1

A little over a week ago I embarked on an adventure to document a week in our life. I picked an unusual week for a reason. Mike was having surgery. Nicholas was starting back to school. And I was going to be home on 3 of the weekdays, so I could incorporate more of "us" in that week. Who wants to hear about 5 days in a row of my meetings, calls, and work. So while some of the week isn't typical, it is a week in our life - 2010. Sunday 7/25 - Day 1

First cup of coffee...

Morning baths...

In the news this week...

Sunday breakfast....

That Mike cooks....

Hanging out....

Hungry....

Chips and salsa....

Playful afternoon....

Naptime....(don't love the picture of me, but love the moment)

Maybe a storm?

On the computer....

Takeout for dinner....

Random thoughts from the day:

• Boys tough
• Hoping for a good week with them
• Worried about my friend, hoping she gets better quickly
• Praying for my uncle and his wife’s family - they have been given so much to handle
• Nicholas super excited to start back to school tomorrow.
• Mike anxious about his surgery

Quick Update and ScrapTiffany Monday - Sketch

It has been crazy in our house since Mike had his knee surgery this past Wednesday. Posting on the blog was a luxury I couldn't make time for. He is doing a lot better today, moving around pretty good, just a bit slower than normal. I go back to work today.  He will try to take it easy this week at home, the best he can while taking care of the boys anyway. This week at ScrapTiffany is sketch week. We got to give our take on this fabulous sketch from Rebecca:

I used the same general design, but replaced the circles with stars. This layout percolated in my mind for several days and when I finally was able to sit down and it came together just the way I wanted.

I even fixed the sewing machine bobbin so I could stitch my star to the page.

I found the star buttons in my stash. Since starting with ScrapTiffany each weekly challenge I have dug something out of my stash to complete my week's assignment. It has been fun to re-discover things that have been hanging out in my scrap room for a while.

We would love to see your take on the sketch. If you use Rebecca's Sketch, send your layouts to ScrapTiffany to share. E-mail them to: Tiffany@ScrapTiffany.com.  Also visit ScrapTiffany on Friday to see the what the rest of the DT did with the sketch.

Adventures in Cooking & Project 12 Layout

This past weekend we were busy getting Nicholas ready to go back to school and preparing for Mike to be down from knee surgery.  The surgery was this morning, and he is in recovery now.  It sounds like he should feel a lot better once he heals. Mike still did some cooking, but kept it a little easier.  Saturday night he made steak sliders with grilled onions.  He used a rub spice that he made a little bit ago.  To go with them he also made sweet potato fries.  They weren't really crispy like chips, but they were tasty.  The spice mix was yummy a bit sweet and spicy.

We ordered pizza Sunday night, but Monday he cooked up pork tenderloin tacos in the crock pot and made a mango pico de gallo.  The sauce for the pork included cinnamon sticks.  It added a bit of a sweet flavor to complement a mildly spicy sauce with adobo chile sauce.  The mango salsa is about medium hot.  I love the pico type of salsas, I could eat them with a spoon.

With Mike recovering from surgery, I am on the hook for the meals for the next several days.  So we'll see what kind of adventures I come up with next week.

I decided to do some monthly layouts for 2010, Project 12 style.  I just got started this past week.  I made up some picture collages in PSE with my favorite pictures from the month done through June.  I had them printed up at Costco in 8x12 and 8x8 sizes.  I ended up doing the collages myself.  I looked all over for templates, but didn't like what I found.  Costco has a collage tool, but I wanted more control.  It took a bit longer, but as I worked through each month, I got better at it and was happy with the results.

I finally got to use my Studio Calico month stamps.  I made the flower with Studio Calico Fabrips.

Hope you have a great Wednesday!

First Day of Pre-Shcool & the Slice

Some crazy person in Arizona thinks it's a good idea for the kids to start back to school this week.  It was probably 108 yesterday. We live in a semi-year round school district, so the kids only get 8 weeks off for summer. The pre-school Nicholas attends is at the elementary school, so his schedule is the same as the schools.  He has been super excited for the past week to go back.  He even cooperated for a mini 1st day of school photo shoot.

At least temporarily....I'll take it as progress...

He was telling me he was done.  I am sure one day he will be mad at me for posting his funny face. :)  I went in late so Mike and I could take him to school, so did everyone else.  It was very crowded and lots of cameras with all the "mamarazzi" in full force.  I felt right at home.

I almost laughed when I saw someone else taking this same picture of her kid from behind, must be a fellow scrapbooker.

Sunday we went out school supply shopping for the classroom wish list. I have been eying this for a while, debating if I should get it or not.  Then it goes on sale 40% off at Michael's.

What's a girl to do? Make a card of course...

Have a great day!  I can't wait to start checking out CHA pictures and videos tonight after the kiddos go to bed.

Sunday, Sunday

I love Sundays.  There usually isn't a lot to do.  Mike makes breakfast, and we usually just stick around home.  Today I want to check out some more of the sneak peeks for the CHA show starting this week.  I am loving a lot of what I have seen so far.

I couldn't wait for this weekend.  Last one went way too fast. Life at work is gearing up to be busy for the next couple of months. The days are long but they go fast.  Mike is having knee surgery next week, so we have been preparing for that, since he will not be very mobile for at least a few days.

We spent yesterday hanging out at home.  Mike is working on a big project for his radio stations.  And I have been scanning tons of old photos I have borrowed from my mom.  I finally finished the scanning part, now I still have 110+ scans to crop to individual pictures and do some re-touching.  It will be a process, but to have so much of our family history digitized is priceless. It has been fun to revisit some old memories and I can't wait to start capturing those stories in my scrapbooks.

I spent Friday night scrapping.  I found this sketch on the Studio Calico blog, and used it to do the layout below.  I am almost out of the Basic Grey Oliver goodies I bought, good thing I will be getting some more in my Studio Calico August kit add on's. It is perfect for boy stuff.

Nicholas is talking so much now it is amazing what comes out of his mouth sometimes.  The other day, we had guests, the adults were talking and Nicholas put on his Angels cap and looked at his reflection in the fireplace glass, and proceeded to have a full conversation with his reflection.  We all stopped talking to listen in.  When he was done, he said see you later, tipped his cap and walked away.  It was so stinkin' cute.