if you give a kid a colored pencil

KidART

I love it when the little ones get all creative. I found crayola colored gel pencils for .50 each per package and dark paper at BigLots. Kept them busy for quite a while, a few days later I was putting the papers away and decided to pull them all together in a picture.

hmm. putting them all together didn't work so well in a picture....but its still cute.

journaling & layout about a blog

For some reason I could not get this to show up earlier {ahem. has nothing to do with operator error and fatigue, I swear} Thought I'd play around a little with photo editing seeing as that I couldn't get the banner thingie off the ground. After I saved and flattened all objects I thought of some other changes to make. So now I have another project to busy with.

But first....Today is an awesome looking day - may take the kids to the playground since its not scorching hot yet. Have some customer orders to deliver from memoryworks. Its so fun delivering the orders. Did you know that scrapbookers who are addicted to the hobby {like me}can carry on a conversation for a long time about scrapbooking and nothing else? So here's to a busy yet fun day ahead..........

















I posted "small size" so I would be sure it showed up this time. Could be too small to read the smaller print {not sure} I'm still a newbie at all this blogging and image posting/hosting. I like to see my stuff up here though -- you know, makes me feel like I finished something.

designer credits:
my own doodle in the picture {I love doodling swirls and flourishes lately}
patterned papers and photo turn : all from a digital kit "bold and sassy" from Angela Sharrow
little flourish and doodle flower: digital kits from Angie Briggs and digitalfreebies.com {Maria LaFrance designed}
background words and the "what's in blog" arrow are created by me in my software.
I used too many fonts at an ungodly hour so I really can't remember.

how iblog in the middle of the night.

well here I go again. my world of innsomnia.

Its 4:05am. Once, at 2:03am, I was thinking "I need to get to bed"...........but just not tired. At that particular moment I was at villagephotos.com signing up for a free account for hosting photos that I found out about through another website, {Screen Shots} lindsayteague.blogspot.com, because I was trying to figure out how to get a banner on my blog. That idea came from another blog, paper-cat.blogspot.com, who talks about putting a banner on her blog. I got there from -- following another link, though i can't remember how I found paper-cat, though from her blog I have added several more to my list of favorites. They are both very talented scrappers in my opinion. I love reading blogs of other scrapbookers. There's that commom thread, you know? In looking at my list of "favorites" tonight I notice there is a growing number of blogs I now like to pop into here and there. I know alot {I mean ALOT} of people all over the world blog, but tonight as I was going from creative blog to creative blog I realized it would never end, there would never be a link that said. Okay you've read all the scrapper blogs out there, now go to bed you sleepy girl. then another thought....{besides, you read alot of blogs girl}

what if everyone blogged, and what if we all had time to read each others, how much more we would understand each other, empathize with each other, deal with each other, help each other. Just plain get each other.

{skipping around to other thoughts..}
I went from one website to another, at some point I forgot why I logged in at 11:30pm. It was already late, I was kinda tired, but the pull of checking my email and signing into the forums and galleries of my favorite scrapbook sites was just too stong.

{here i go skipping again.}
Tried the banner thing but didn't get anywhere. Decided to go back to my photo editing software to gussy up my photo that I wanted to use. Ended up spending all my blogging time doing a layout, and it came together slowly but I like it. Now my legs are stuck in the sitting position. My hips are hurting and stiff. Its time to get to bed?? um. don't know if I should at this point. Yeah I probably will. 3 hours is better than none. maybe. At this point should i say Its too late? Its early just sounds wrong, yet right, so it automatically sounds wrong.

The typos in here before I cleaned it up were horrendous. Don't drive if your sleepy, and don't blog either.

Scrapbook layout for Independent twosomethings

Finally getting around to doing some fun stuff.

credits:

One very cute, very stubborn 2 year old

digital kits from

"America", by retrodiva (tracy collins) and "JustCause" Alpha {the letter J} also by Tracy Collins. She is a very talented designer at the www.digitalfreebies.com digital scrapbooking site.

Sigh.

Wish I could churn these out quicker. I get all absorbed in picking the colors and arranging the photos, then I get all gushy and weepy at the thought of my baby growing up....make me stop {:)} Then the big goofy smile.....then I say "you are sooooooooooooooo {pause}" and he says in his best 2 year old diction "Kewoot!" Then there's a gazillion kisses and tickling and tummy raspberries. Its a wonder I get anything done.

Miles and Miles of Flowers

In The Garden

{well almost a mile}

impressive anyway

my mother's neighbor let me loose in his sunflower patch. With camera in hand I walked through what seemed like millions of sunflowers.....wonder how many seed packets he used? The one below is my new screen saver....perfect for summer.

Dang it!

Dang it - hate when I send people to my blog and then I remember that I have to fix typos and missing pictures????

Fixed them and trying the photos again....

:)

Remember This and That

I've been having those reminiscing kind of days lately. I purposfully didn't get on the computer since Sunday. Last night I decided that three days is enough. Sometimes I feel like I spend so much time online that I start to feel guilty for slacking. So there has been alot of time with the kids and the normal household "get organized" kind of stuff. It helps that it is raining right now...it adds to the introspective nature.

This Week a series of quick events happened that made me get all nostalgic and thinking about priorities all of a sudden...Dropped of my daughter at "craft" camp at JoAnn's and while walking through the store on the way out I pass dozens of their clearance items..drooling...{why this is significant, I'll get there} I'm reminded that I have been spending alot on craft/scrapbooking lately and not spending money on what I used to spend money on...clothes, myself, pretty items for the house, now its all about the kids and their activities, their wants, needs. I folded on the winnie the pooh craft kit and pokemon rare cards yesterday. Now, I try to make myself feel okay about this by remembering that they have a "chore chart" that tracks their good behaviors and so they get points/stickers to earn little things throughout the year. 'Cept as they get older the things they want are getting pricier. So we still mix in "go for icecream" or go to a friends house {or have friends over} and less pricier items like {my fav} "a trip to the dollar store" {squeal}. So I work that logic out in my head and buy the kid stuff. Ignoring that big 60% clearance sale sign above "home decorating" and "garden". Such pretty stuff. So I'm reminding myself of what mom used to say {good ole advice for us spenders} SAVE ; save for what you want, then get it. Stop buying the stuff you already have.......their lessons came from hard times, depression, war, losing parents at a young age. If only I had inherited the "save, save, save" part of the DNA? sigh.

I also yak it up with the instructor, come to find out teaching kids about crafts is just a side hobby she's really a medical secretary, and just loves doing this stuff with her own grandkids so now she teaches at JoAnns. I could do that. I mean I'd love to do that. So I start thinking again about going back to work and making it meaningful and doing what I love to do.

Past experiences, both good and bad, will remind me of what I like to do and what I don't. People I like to work with and people that I don't. People that shouldn't be allowed to manage and those who will forever support and inspire you. I keep it in the far-back of the brain, and head off to finish errands while daughter is at camp. Take the boys into Wal-Mart and get our stuff that we needed {school supplies} Squeal at the joy of finding the Good CRAYOLA markers for .88 cents!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and try to keep the rest of the trip focused on what we need.

On my way to tell my son only one pack of pokemon cards for today and SHE comes into my fleld of vision. Eyes make contact.
No. Not. Eye. Contact.
I have to say "hi" now.

She being a person I used to work with, then manage, and have since utterly tried to forget.
It was a very short conversation {I couldn't tell if she just didn't want to talk or if I put her off in some way} Once my initital "oh god" had passed I did chat it up a little. "Reserved" is my new demeanor, sometimes the less I say the better. She sees me with the baby and looks surprised I say "yup, I had another one." She seems uncomfortable, I am trying to hold a figety two-year old who is sooo done with the shopping cart and just wants to get down. Who also saw chips in one of the lanes and is now yelling "Mommmie, chips, Mommie Chips". This is going on while I am trying to look pulled together and with it for former co-worker {but of course I am all disheveled and grungy looking instead, sigh, why does this always happen?}

Then it gets said....."I was just talking to so and so and we were talking about you, and wishing you would come back, wondering if you ever would?"......I try not to fall to the ground. Try to keep my jaw from dropping. Is she freakin' kidding???? She's gotta be. Just being nice.

I simply say "really? well I bet I will have to hunt for a job sooner or later with the three kids"....I laugh...she laughs. "well I gotta go" we both say....pleasantries said, kind parting words trailing off in the middle of Wal-Mart. I have to hide behind lane number 13 and a stack of pokemon cards to shudder and shrug it off.

SO I'm flattered if it was sincere. Cause I thought I burned all my bridges there so to speak. But can't get the other trailing thought out of my head that she was just being nice. ????

Or, is it a sign. for going back to work {gotta do what I love this time though, that's that, that I know for sure}

I Discovered

that a new fragrance can be combined from two very different products in your medicine cabinet and this is what I smell right now. I have to say it is pleasing though, not bad -- has some company invented this smell already?

Okay here is the formula,

1 - 2 swipes of husbands Old Spice Deoderant under each pit and
1 spritz under each arm pit of my Estee Lauder Pleasures Perfume

At first it came across as really perfumey -- like I was trying to cover up a sweaty armpit in the middle of the sticky, humid day{which I was} but as the day wore on it became softer. Sometimes smelling like the old spice and sometimes like floral. I could smell it all night. Then I dressed in the morning and changed shirts. However last night I couldn't find a new t-shirt so I grabbed the first one on the chair {which just happened to be the scented pit shirt} so I could get to the job of getting the boys to bedtime. {Mommy falls asleep first sometimes. Sometimes on the floor next to your beds.} I woke at a strange time in the middle of the night and and headed for the bathroom. What's that cool scent? Oh, yeh, its me. So after 24 hours the combo old spice/pleasures has fully uh, melded, and there is a really clean, fresh, outdoorsy, musk scent. Now, there's the problem of duplicating this scent after I take my shower this morning. Will it work a second time? Should I just keep wearing the t-shirt? {kidding}

added journaling 7/13 ; hope whoever reads this can guess that I was being goofy. I do like to use real deo and plus I couldn't duplicate the fragrance....so that means my chemistry career is over anyway.

Like a Kid in the MemoryWorks Candy Store

yummy
....Just recieved my newest shipment of goodies from the company I am an independent scrapbook consultant for... www.memory-works.com ..........all I can say is Mail is fun again! Really I am like a kid when the packages come, even though I know exactly what's in there.

And to think I was going to post pictures of paint chips and our house being painted..... If I can stop drooling over the Autumn Leaves papers and Hiedi Swapp goodies long enoughI am posting the pic of the reason for my addiction.

That's not one Heidi Swapp clear stamp -- that's three. And the Autumn Leaves "summer" theme set by foof-a-la.....I can't wait to use that one, And then the topper {cause I love rubber stamping on pages lately} Rhonna Farrer Nature stamps with the cutest birds and flourishes; the clear stamp set has 9 pieces. There is joyous squealing going on... must....use...inside voice.

oh, okay. In the midst of one great package {:)} there is home improvements being made. I picked a color from the tan spectrum and now its looking goldish -- but drying to the right shade. Kinda panic when that happens.

Feelin' Crafty

Some of the crafts we've been working on {below}....some were for teacher gifts, others for our yard sale, some are just funny/cute pictures. It was my first attempt at embossing with a heat gun. Its one of my new loves now. The note cards I did were for the teachers and each had a cute bug embossed in gold embossing powder. I love it when I get all the supplies out. I make such a mess -- but it all looks so beautiful to me. All that paper, ribbons, glittery stuff all over the place. Tools, brads, scraps of pretty paper.

Can't believe the kids have been out of school for two weeks already.

July and August are some of my favorite times....slower schedules, longer days, easy clothing {or less of it} more time for scrapbooking....you'd think.

So many photos....so little time.

This one of my little guy with the hat gets tagged as one of my favorites for sure. Going to go look up some of my digital kits that I have stashed {more like hoarded} in my hard drive and see what I can come up with.





I loved the idea of tags for our little oregano flower pots, one night while on a few paper/stationery websites I fell in love with an idea at "lovelymailorder" www.lovelydesign.com they have these block-style tags right on the website that actually look like shipping labels on their products. I liked how they look ultra cool/mod and sort of industrial so I went back to my software and tried a version of it that would fit the tiny pots. And there they are. The smaller tags are mine - they just say "fresh oregano" and the back says "from the garden" I layerd various circle shapes in the software, printed and cut the tags to a small size for the bags we put the pots in.

Beginning of summer happiness

In reviewing last post I had to laugh because I was so nit-picky. Luckily for my husband that doesn't happen that often, but I do have my moments.

Every time two weeks or so goes by and I haven't time to come here to update it means too much other stuff is piled up that is getting done. In this case the end of the school year was approaching, award ceremonies, teacher gifts to make, a neighborhood garage sale to get ready for, scrapbooking events to complete, and the beginning of summer happiness for the children {this alone involves a whole list of to-do's so as to keep them busy and keep the learning going} and finally summer camps and play-dates.

"Marshmallows for roasting on the backyard fireplace" read the first item on my shopping list the other day.

So there comes a time after all the hullabullo is over when you finally get a chance to sit back and reclaim your free-time you look around your house and you realize that there are a number of things that got left by the wayside in order to get to the "fun" parts of life. So yesterday I literlly spent hours on laundry alone. But that is finally all organized. The kids were also helpful {this means that they did not interrupt mom as I hauled out load after load from the laundry room, they did not do flips through all the warm clothes just out of the dryer and they actually for a short time at least helped by bringing up their own laundry.} This makes my work so much easier. So happy when they help. I have cookies -n- cream ice cream with waffle bowls waiting as a reward later today.