Monday, November 28, 2011

holly jolly

For the past two weeks I have had my itunes and Pandora playing Christmas music. I love Christmas music and always have. I know the entire Carpenters Christmas album word for word. I would listen to it over and over and over and over, well you get the picture. My new fun treat this year is Michael Buble's new Christmas album. If you know me at all you will know that I am praying that Michael and his new bride realize they are NOT meant for each other and he will miraculously come crawling back to me. Like I ever had him before but a girl can lie right?

Where am I going with this? Well I will tell you or actually SHOW you!! Here are some of my all time favorite holiday songs!!
Bing Crosby
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dJ6H0DEV08
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpcxaNOfrCM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAOBN4Pt-Y&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puzU0T7aGJ8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi_0D0Jqlfc

So there you have it! What's YOUR favorite??

Monday, November 21, 2011

Lights are up


Today work was slow because of the upcoming Holiday. Kids were out of school so my office partner said to head home about 1:00. The kids and I took the opportunity to get some of the outside lights up! The house still looks so plain so I really need to find something to go on the porch near the colums. I don't like the tacky Christmas decorations but its hard to find some that are made for outside that I like. I really need some vegitation in the flour bed to the right. It's all just river rock right now. Any suggestions?

Friday, October 14, 2011

Timeless Layout

I took a ton of photos at this years mothers day get to gether. It was nice to have a lot of our "mothers" there even if mine was not.
Patterned paper is all October afternoon.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Taken over by aliens

Or by life. It seems life spins so quickly and then I realize, it really HAS been two months since I updated! Sorry blog world. Last weekend I was fortunate enough to take a break from that spinning life and spend some time scrapbooking with a group of fantastic ladies!! We had sooo much fun!

Here is one of the layouts that I did.

I can not for the life of me remember who makes the large brown die cut, but the stamps are from stamping up.

Monday, August 8, 2011

This past weekend my bff came down from Seattle to visit and we took the opportunity to take a quick trip to Jackson then north to Yellowstone and then back down through Island park. We took photos and just had fun together! Here are a couple. Wish I had more to post! Hopefully can get to that soon!




Tuesday, August 2, 2011

iPhone randomness

This is me and my friend Christy at the last retreat. We were doing our nails and have a "spa" weekend. Those are SLEEP masks on our face. NOT feminine hygene products.
Me and Bug out to eat somewhere? He looks thrilled doesn't he?

Not sure about this one?

MMMMM....orange leaf......

This was taken at the Ripley's museum in Jackson hole. Not sure why the bed pans inspired a photo but there you have it! lol

I am not a HUGE coffee drinker. I don't have to have it to function in the morning, but sometimes
its just what the McDoctor ordered.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Stationary birthday

A work acquaintance and friend of mine is having a birthday today and I wanted to do more than just a card so I decided I would have to break in the new scrap room to make her something! I got the idea off of this blog. It's under video tutorials. She has some fun other ones so stay and look awhile. AFTER you finish reading my blog. lol

I chose a bubble gum and oceany blue to create this and some stamps from my minds eye that I just LOVE. The lid slides off and inside is standard cards with envelopes, 3x3 cards and some gift tags. There is a little book with lined paper in there for addresses and a little pocket for some stamps. This would be fun to give to a new mom for thank you cards, or kids leaving for college. I may have to make more!



Sorry for the not so great photos. I of course took them with my iPhone. I seem to use that a lot lately. giggle.

Monday, July 25, 2011

A befor and AFTER!!!!!

I am so very happy with my new scrapbook room. After emptying it, purging, construction, painting and reorganizing it is finally done!!! Now if the rest of the house would organize it self I would be happy!

Here is a video I took when we first moved into the house and had just unpacked. Not inspiring at all.


This is a video of the NEW and IMPROVED scrap room!!! LOVE the colors and I feel so much more inspired! I want to create in there now. I still have some decorating to do on the walls and want to put up a magnet board to hang new baggies of goodies to use. But so far so good!

I am sorry about the quality. Both of these videos were from my IPhone.

Friday, July 22, 2011

studio re-do

When we first looked at this house to buy, a huge selling point was a dedicated room for scrapbooking that already had a built in desk.  In the old house I had a little corner of the family room and while I liked having a spot to scrap WITH involvement with the kids in the same room it was kind of pain to keep it tidy. I am NOT a tidy scrapper. Just ask my mother in law. So having a room to spread out and close the door when company comes was a huge draw for me. Unfortunately it has not really worked out that way. The built in desk was very awkward. I am not sure what the previous owners used it for but it was not for scrapping. It was higher than counter height and 50 inches deep. I couldn't use the space effectively and tried standing to scrap (hate that) and tried using a stool but my legs fall asleep. :( I had decided not long after moving in that that would have to change. Now more than ever because I have had a fold up table out in the family room for months so I can be comfortable scrapping.

This week I got a hair up my nose and finally decided to do something about it. Or I just needed and excuse to buy a jig saw (I have wanted one for a while) I decided that my ideal height of the desk needed to be 29 inches and the depth to work with at about 34. I like to have some of my cubbies in front of me for easy access to supplies so I took their depth into the calculations also. So I decided to cut a rectangle out of the desk to have a U workspace. I can put stuff to the sides and in front. then we yanked the desk off the "rails" (for lack of a better term) that were nailed into the wall and tore the rails off. My kids LOVED this part and honestly I just let them do it. After that I measured and cut new rails and mounted them under the desk at my desired height. The desk would never come completely out due to it being wedged against the side walls. Under the desk to the left and right is built in shelving. Nothing to fancy just particle board. But whoever built this desk to begin with did a really good job. Those shelves were NOT coming out. My handy dandy jig saw to the rescue. Since the desk top was lifted I measured the shelves from the ground up to the height of the new rails and cut (awkwardly i might add) the top of the shelves off. I lost a shelf but I am ok with that. Then we lowered the desk (ok hammered the thing down cuz it was soooo tight) and nailed the top to the rails. Then we caulked the edges and corners for a more finished look and then I spackled the area that was damaged from the rails.

This was the desk when I first unpacked after moving in. You can kinda see all the extra unused space behind my scrap cubbies because it was way too deep.

Here is Chris helping me screw in the new railings. I was doing that one myself but burned my thumb badly on the head of a screw. I have the impression of the screw head burnt into my thumb. Yes you can laugh now......
                                        More railing help and top of the shelves after I cut them

The desk after being reinstalled . I tried it out with my scrapping chair and its perfect!! The grey line is where the old railings were and as you can see I had some major spackeling to do.

Tonight I will wipe everything down so we can start painting! I have decided to repaint the desk white (since all my scrap cubbies are white) and paint the room a lighter shade of the blue I painted in Taylor's bedroom. It's a really pretty color but far too bright for my small space, so I am mixing it with white to tone it down a bit. Then its hauling in all my crap and reorganizing!

Me and the boys are very proud of ourselves for doing this alone. I hope the desk doesn't crash down and ruin the good mood.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Better get better

It seems like lately several of my clients have been in the hospital, car wrecks, or been sick so while I am in this 'card phase' I decided I had better make some simple cards to stock pile so that the agency can send them out when needed.

This was a simple card using only one white card and some stampin up stamps. I got the idea from this card on Maile Belles blog.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Just a note

Since taking this online class the card ideas are just running around in my head and I am glad I have taken some time to do them!! I just used some of the scraps that are left over from the cards I made for the class so that the colors matched. Just simple stamped cards!



Cardstock: Bazil
stamps: stampin up - Apple Blossoms set
ink: CTMH colors - clover meadow, ocean, sunflower

Monday, July 11, 2011

Week Three card class


Week three colors of the online card class have got to be my favorite so far. I am loving the chocolaty yummyness that are represented. I just had to create a card tonight using those colors even though I have NO energy tonight. I really like how it turned out!


Sunday, July 10, 2011

More cards!

I am really loving this card class!! Here are two more!







I am really loving this card class!! Here are two more!

Monday, July 4, 2011

Independence




Happy fourth of July everyone!!! Hope you are having BBQs and parades and fireworks with all your friends and family!!! I am kickin it here at home having some much needed quiet time with the boys gone.

We did all our family celebrating yesterday, so I decided today I would work on my first card for this weeks card class here!


LOVE the color combos this week!!!





Thursday, June 30, 2011

Second card



This card is still sticking with this weeks colors and also Kristina's Balance sketches.



Check it!

My BFF Sarah was soo sweet to me for my bday. She signed me up for Jen McGuire and Kristina Werner's online Card Camp!!! So excited!! Every week has color combos, videos, examples and even sketches! Loving the creative juices that are flowing! This is the card I made to put in the gallery. Not completely in love with it, but I did follow some of the techniques and the colors! Thanks Sari! If any of you are interested I think you can still sign up here!

Friday, June 24, 2011

I bought tickets to the Shriner's Circus ages ago. I do every year. Its a good cause right?! Well this is the first year the kids are actually in town to go! First circus EVER. I actually really enjoyed it and I think Chris did too. Taylor, not so much. He really felt bad for the animals in the show and I think it really ruined it for him. They had some pretty good acts including the power puff girls who did the rope dancing in the air thingy, jugglers, acrobats, and the motorcycle ball. They had 4 bikes in going in circles around the inside of the ball. We had a terrific seat to see it well!






Tomorrow is my birthday so we are closing the office at noon and the girls are taking me to lunch!!! Johnnie Carino's!!! YUM!! Tonight LaRee, Bug and I are going to the local sounds choir performance of The Sound of Music. Really excited about that!

Monday, June 20, 2011

This last week while Chris was in DC I took a week off to hang with bug. We went to the Zoo, Worked in the garden and played some miniature golf. We went golfing at a place we had never been before and really enjoyed it. It was less novelty and more actual putting!






Sunday, June 19, 2011

Mothers day

I know we are way passed mothers day but wanted to share some photos of the day. All of these are with my 92 year old grandma!







Thursday, June 9, 2011

Where to start?

Bet you feel like I dropped off the face of the earth? Well if you don't then you don't come to my blog too often now do you?


Lots of things going on in life since my last post. Here are a few things:


Taylor has turned 11
Kids finished 5th grade and 8th grade
Went on a quick trip to Jackson
the entire month of may is GONE (wth?)
Chris is on his Washington DC trip.



Ok so I lied, not much HAS happened. That's it - those are the highlights. How sad is that? I mean not that we didn't have day to day fun or even bad times but that is basically it. Now you know why I don't post?





(Picture Chris took from phone of Betsy Ross house)

Any way Chris is off on his trip. He has been working toward this since October of 2010. He left Monday and will be back on the 17th. This is the first time he has been 'off' on his own with out a parent and I admit I was a bit (ok more than a bit) that first day he was gone, but he has called me everyday to check in and he is having the time of his life! Here are some of the places he gets to go/has gone:




Phili PA- Liberty Hall, US mint, Rocky steps, Betsy Ross house, House where declaration of independence was written

Gettysburg


Ghost tour of Williamsberg


Jamestown


The WHITE HOUSE (an actual tour)


Tomb of the unknown soldier


Smithsonian


Natural history museum

American History Museum

A dinner on a boat on the Potomac

Newseum

Holocaust museum

Ford's theatre

Bush Gardens

and many many more places.


I am hoping he is taking LOTS of photos! I can not WAIT to do a book for him when he gets back!!

Monday, April 4, 2011

April wedding

Saturday I shot the ceremony of my friends son's wedding. Such a pretty place to have it!! It was at the Shelton reception center and it was small and beautiful! Here are just a few shots!

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

How to make devine Ziti for Scrapping Goddesses

Saturday our office held our first ever March of Dimes scrapbooking crop. It wasn't too big, but I think if we keep it up we could do much more next year!! I was stupid and took NO pictures but I did take pictures the night before of the Ziti I prepared for dinner. Everyone has always like my ziti so I thought I would share the recipe here!!


I start with my favorite pasta. I really like Barilla. Its available in most chains. I use 1 and a half boxes for a 9x13 pan.


Start a pot of water to boil. When it reaches its boiling point salt it well. I do mean well. Pasta is made for salting. Add noodles to the water.
Chop one full onion to the size of your choice. I cut it as small as my runny eyes will allow. Usually until I can't see any more.


Brown the onions with a pound of Italian Sausage. I do NOT use hamburger. You can if you want, or even do half and half, but to me it just does not taste right. To the meat and onions I added some salt and pepper. At this time you could also add a bit of red pepper flakes if you wish. It just depends on if you like a little more heat or not. It also depends on what kind of sausage you have.

Please do NOT forget about your noodles boiling!! Set your timer for 5 minutes. You do not want them fully cooked!!! After the 5 minutes drain your noodles and set aside.
Open two jars of your favorite marinara sauce. Again I am a Barilla fan. Use a few spoon fulls of the sauce from the jar to cover the bottom of your pan lightly. (9x13) This is basically to keep the noodles moist and from sticking to the bottom.
Combine your two jars of sauce and your meat mixture together.
Start layering your dish. I start with about half the noodles then I add half the sauce, then I add sliced provolone cheese and Parmesan. Then on top of that or right before if you wish I squirt some ranch dressing on it. Maybe a 1/2 a cup or so I just eyeball it. You are supposed to use sour cream but the last time I made this I didn't have sour cream and substituted the ranch. I liked it sooo much more that I use it all the time now. Feel free to use the sour cream if you with though.
Start your next layer the same way. Noodles, sauce, cheese and ranch. On the very top layer I just poor on the parm. nice and crunchy on the top.
I do not have a picture cooked because it was actually cooked the next day so I completely forgot to snap a pic!! You can make this dish ahead and the flavors will marry and just be sooo yummy with the noodles that soak up all the sauce and flavor. I usually put it in the oven at 350 for about 45 minutes. If you have refrigerated it at all you will more than likely need an hour. Its done when cheese is slightly brown and edges are bubbly.
Serve with green salad and garlic bread!!