My LO is in SNR now!

If you subscribe to Scrapbook News and Review, check out my LO there - it's in the section on scrapping your favorite color. Mine is purple (of course)!

Use Your Stash! Crop Party starts tonight!

In just a few hours, I will be posting my challenges and the prizes that go along with playing! For now, I am going to post the little RAK I put together for anyone who Follows me (link on right) and leaves a message on my blog between today and Wed. Good luck everyone!

I call this RAK "Embellies". It's got a ton of adorable buttons, a Maya Road sheer house keychain, vintage-looking stickers, a 7Gypsies journal handle, 4 Making Memories Vintage Findings stamps, MM vintage findings blossoms, a pack of making memories flower-head pins (8), and 2 Tim Holtz journaling tickets. Like I said - packed full of fun embellies for your scrapping pleasure and all you have to do is be a follower and leave a comment!



Here's my take on my eyelet challenge and my Prima Got Flowers? challenge. If you want to see the whole mini album, I have it HERE on 2Peas.

The kiddos

DD is 5.5 and DS is 10mos

Why, oh why, don't they understand?

In the interest of not getting myself in trouble by identifying the specific person I'm referring to, in case they happen to read it, I will speak in generalities (but this person could be identified as DM). First off, no one I know in my "real life" scrapbooks. No one. My friends give me blank, often disapproving looks when I mention it and I know they don't get it. Other people even closer, actively disapprove. Not DH. He thinks it's a good "hobby". Other people though (who are not to be identified, but could be labeled as DM and DF) actively disapprove. They think that "hobbies" are something you might do if you have a surplus of time and money. Otherwise, you should be focusing on other, more useful things (like cleaning the house) or things that make money. "I never did that" is what they say, and it seems to explain why they feel I'm misplacing my time. Why do I even tell them about it? I need to stop. To them, scrapbooking is "just a hobby" - in other words, a total waste of time and money and I'm being silly to spend either on it. At least online I see so many people who love it (and other forms of art) just as much as I do - I'm not alone and I'm not silly or insane :) Whew, thank goodness.

Ahh, they have these just to drive me crazy!

Check THIS out. Bermuda, really?! Ah well, at least there are things out there I can dream about.

Any advice?

How do I make enough time in a day to watch DS (I'm staying home with him, except for Tuesdays), take care of the house, exercise, and still have time to scrapbook/create? If you've figured out a system, I'd love to hear from you. He's still sleeping in my bed, so it's really hard to scrap after he goes to sleep, and he's a bad napper, so usually that doesn't work. I know there are people out there who have it figured out. I know your houses are clean and you still scrapbook every day. So let's hear from you, because I'm far from where I want to be with my daily schedule.

Today, I finally got him sleeping and started scrapping, when a package arrived, setting our dog on a barking spree, waking DS. It was all over from there. So that 10 minutes will likely be all I get today. And it's still better than what I had yesterday - nothing.

OMG, OMG, OMG!! SOOOO Excited!!

LOL...no, I'm NOT overdoing it with the title - the title is totally appropriate in excitement level because...well, I won some beautiful ZVA stuff! The ZVA DT was having a blog hop and I left comments and the random generator saw fit to pick ME to win $30 worth of ZVA products! I hope I get some pretty swirls, I just love that stuff.

Here's the link so you can see for yourself - and while you're there, check out the beautiful stuff their DT made: Lisa's Blog.

A scrapbooker's nightmare

My printer ran out of ink. LOL...yes, it's a total nightmare. I already ordered more but now I have to wait. In the meantime...no photos to scrap! Well, actually I always have photos since I'm always in the middle of several projects. But still, no more new photos I can print. I have 2 projects in the works that I have photos printed for, but both are minis. I was really wanting to do a 12x12. Be patient, Ilene!

And I totally scored today! Today is a work day, but while there, I had a long break so I went to ACMoore. They were having a 40% off sale on all their stickers. Yes, ALL, no exceptions. I got me BG June Bug chip sticker shapes for $3 (and I really wanted those, too!). And...drumroll, they actually had some of those beautiful Prima pearl flourishes. I grabbed three different ones, and asked if they were considered stickers. The cashier thought they were, but had to go find someone, and that someone went to the manager, etc. They came back after 20 min and said they weren't on sale, but they'd still give them to me at 40% off. Whoo hoo! Replenishing my very low and much used Prima flourish stock. That's one scrapbooking item that doesn't end up being stashed away in some dusty corner.

Our Little Mister - Sketch 182

Wanted to share my take on Pamela's sketch 182 that I made for Scrapbook Challenges. Using some older paper - Skate Shoppe (Basic Grey). I colored the acrylic star with Staz On ink and added some Making Memories stickers, from their Animal Crackers - Jack line. Also, a Jenni Bowlin ticket and Maya Road flower. Thanks for looking. This is my DS end of October, 2009.

Use Your Stash! Weekend Crop Party

As promised, I have more info on the upcoming crop party! The theme is Use Your Stash and Deb, Debi, and I will have 6 challenges that will get you to use up all that stuff you have hidden in the dark recesses of your scrap rooms. Out with the old and in with the new! Join us this coming Friday the 22nd for a chance to win prizes, get some pages done, and clear some space! You will have until Wed midnight (your time zone) to complete them to be eligible to win.

And, as an added bonus - I will also have a RAK up for anyone who follows my blog and leaves a comment (between 22nd and 27th)! So if you already follow, make sure you stop by and comment, and if you don't, then...well, what are you waiting for? :)

I'll take pics of the RAKs tomorrow and let you all know what they'll be. SO stop by Scrapbook Challenges (link on right) and RSVP. If you're not a member, join up and have some fun. We have challenges, sketches, and prizes up for grabs and you only participate as much as you want to.

So glad people like my mini!

I'm glad I posted my Egypt mini - I did it some time ago! This morning, it's in the top 5 most liked at 2Peas and top 10 most viewed and top 10 most bookmarked! Thanks to all who took a look :)

Our trip to Egypt

Wanted to share this album. I suppose one could call it a mini...although there's nothing "mini" about it. March 2008, DH and I went to Egypt on a 9 day trip. It was as wonderful as I imagined, and my expectations were high. This scrapbook is an album I bought in Egypt. It has, if I remember correctly, 25 pages. That's 50 pages, plus I put something on the inside front and inside back covers. Let's just say we had nearly 1000 photos and it was difficult to stop at 50 pages. Because my space was limited, I had to plan very carefully. It starts with our first day and chronologically ends with our last. Therefore, I had to make sure I devoted some space to everything. It took a LOT of planning. And a while to complete. There are sheet protectors between each page and the pages are black. The cover is leather engraved with a famous ancient painting of the Pharaoh in battle. While on the trip, we took an excursion by plane to Abu Simbel to see this in one of the temples. The most unbelievable thing about Egypt is how well everything is preserved. These ancient monuments are still standing, just as impressive now. Because of the dry climate there, all this fares much better. In many places, there's still paint left from thousands of years ago and you can clearly see how colorful everything used to be. You can imagine the painters with their brushes, painting away, likely enjoying it just as much as we enjoy scrapbooking :)

See all the inside pics in my gallery at 2Peas. It is labeled Egypt Vacation mini (PART 1), (PART 2), (PART 3)

Wonderful news!

I received an email today from Scrap N'Art, an awesome online magazine, that they loved one of my LO's and want to publish it. Unfortunately, I submitted incorrectly, but they want me to resubmit. You bet I will! I re-photographed, as per their guidelines, and I'll be resubmitting tonight when the kids go to sleep. So excited and happy about this!!

Fourteen on the 14th

Yep, that's right. It's been 14 years since I started dating my husband. Time sure flies :) 14 on the 14th. Of course, I made a little mini for him to commemorate the occasion. We ate dinner together while DD watched TV and DS crawled around. It was actually much easier than going out. We like to go out a lot, but with kids this age, I'm thinking staying home might be preferable. This weekend, we'll go visit his parents and drop the kids off, so we can go shopping, see a movie and go out to eat and celebrate.

Weekend crop party!

Stay turned for more info. But I'll tell you a little bit for now - starting Friday 22nd this month, Scrapbook Challenges will be having a weekend crop party, full of awesome challenges, games, and prizes! It'll be hosted by DT gals Deb, Debi, and myself. So put it in your planners and check back in here or at SC for more info very soon. Hope to see you there!