Dora's Days

I'm moving!

2010-02-24T11:55:00.000-08:00

Not me, my blog! I have redone my blog for easier locating to: http://doraphillips.blogspot.com/

My new blog name is Life--with a twist. Isn't that totally me? I am also renaming my digital design name from Dora's Designs to Dora's Lemonlove Creations. Fresh start to my scrapping world.

I made a little moving card to say howdy to my new blog. Give the image a click and it will take you on over. Bye!

Welcome to Friday!

2010-02-05T19:14:00.000-08:00

Wow! What a crazy week for our family. Poor Drew was running here, there, and everywhere with both of his sisters and his dad at this hospital or that one. Everything turned out really really well. We have a brand new niece--Rachel Alexandria. She arrived on Tuesday weighing in at 7lbs 7oz and is absolutely beautiful. Dad survived a surgery on his caroidid artery and is home resting now. Whew!

I did manage to scrap a bit--helps keep the sanity--but everything I did up until tonight is for the March issue of ScrapStreet.com Magazine. I took tonight off to play with a couple of challenges and the download a day kit at Divine Digital. It is too fabulous for words!

Supplies: Kit: Hearts Afire by Angel Hartline Designs (Divine Digital), Brown Bag Paper & Notebook Strips: Scrappincop, Fonts: Distressed Typewriter, Generic Bold.

Journaling: Look, Mom! I have a new best friend! Isn’t he just the cutest bear you ever saw in your whole life? He loves me and he is all MINE.

I am in love with this picture of Allie from last Valentine's Day. She loves bears and this one was a fave for a very long time. Darling!

sweet baby

2010-01-27T13:53:00.000-08:00

I am going to be an aunt again soon! My youngest Sister-in-law will have baby number three by C-section on Tuesday. They chose to be surprised, so I needed to make a card perfect for a girl or boy. This darling little baby bear cub was the perfect choice. Mixing him with craft and a bit of red made for a happy card to tuck in with Baby's welcome to the world gift.

The cub comes courtesy of the Splendid Stamping with The Greeting Farm relay this week. I am having such fun with these gorgeous digi stamps. The Sketch is card 40 at Inspired Blueprints. Their site is fabulous!

Welcome Baby. Paper, Die Cut: Jillibean Soup, Digital Stamp: Splendid Stamping with The Greeting Farm, Chipboard: BasicGrey, Cardstock: Bazzill, Rub Ons: Making Memories, Markers: Copic, Tools: Scor-it, Fiskars Punches, Cuttlebug, Spellbinders Templates.

Have a super day!

racing in!

2010-01-26T13:54:00.000-08:00

To keep up with the cool relay at Splendid Stamping with The Greeting Farm. Charlotte is a totally hip chick and I had fun playing with here--even if it is a quickie between work and kids activities. I gave the stamp a pass with embossing powder for a bit of a shine. Fast and fun!

You are my Sunshine. Paper, Die Cut: Crate Paper, Digital Stamp: Splendid Stamping with The Greeting Farm, Cardstock: Bazzill, Rub Ons: Sweetwater, Markers: Copic, Tools: Scor-it, Fiskars Punches.

Off I go to Tae Kwon Do!

Relay Racing

2010-01-25T13:45:00.001-08:00

I am running a relay! No, not with my feet, with my copic markers. One of my hybrid friends, Lisa Peppers, shared a link to a digital stamping site called Splendid Stamping with the Greeting Farm. They have some darling stamps!

The relay is easy enough. You start with adorable Mer Ian and create a card or project with him and post him by 6pm today. Then you comment with your email addy and a new pretty will be mailed to you. Tomorrow, you create with the new one and hurry to post. Five days of fun!

Of course, Tuesday is an insane day for me and I am scared I will end up fizzling out early, but I am determined to give it the old college try. I think I can, I think I can.

Her is my merman:

Happy Happy Happy. Digital Stamp: Splendid Stamping with The Greeting Farm, Paper, Die Cuts: Crate Paper, Pearls: Kaisercraft, Cardstock: Bazzill, Rub Ons: Sweetwater, Markers: Copic, Tools: Scor-it, Fiskars Punches.

Hope to see you tomorrow with a new card!

Scrapping Potluck

2010-01-17T15:33:00.000-08:00

Potluck is one of my favorite kind of challenges. Everyone who wants to play, signs up to "bring" a scrappy item. Then everyone who attends the challenge must scrap with every potluck item on their layout. For this challenge, our girls brought: journaling, bling, buttons, thread, ink, the color green, and flowers. Plenty of fun items to fit on a layout!

Here is mine:

Green Girl. Supplies: Paper & Die Cuts: Crate Paper, Buttons: BasicGrey, Bling: KaiserCraft, Ink: Stampin' Up!, Punch: Fiskars, Fonts: Georgia, Impact, Frisky, Kristin, Other: Thread.

I really love how it turned out. I have not "blocked" in awhile and missed it. It really is my favorite design scheme. Thanks for the fun challenge, gals!

The Stacey Challenge!

2010-01-13T13:46:00.000-08:00

I love Stacey Michaud! We "met" online a couple of years ago when she entered ScrapStreet's Star contest. Her work blew me away and we invited her to join our magazine staff at the beginning of the summer. About 6 weeks later, we were making plans to go to summer CHA and I will never forget her reaction. She was ready to leave her darling kiddos with the hubby and race off to stay with people she had never met live (at my house, not a nice safe hotel) in order to go see all of the new pretties.

We had an interesting mix that year--half scrap obsessed and half weekend croppers. The Crop gals were not into brand names, scrap celebs, and publishing. They just loved to scrap and were there for make-n-takes and to enjoy the girls trip. The other half of us had an absolute ball watching Stacey not recognize Kelly Goree (one of her absolute faves!) at the BG table. We were constantly clutching each other and frantically whispering, "don't look but over your left shoulder is . . ."

Stacey is as adorable in real life as she seems online. She is definitely a bundle of energy, a story teller, a teacher, and an absolutely fabulous friend. At that CHA, Stacey was a Chatterbox team finalist and we were all cheering her on. A year later at CHA in Orlando, she had just missed the Cosmo Cricket team after being a finalist. We were all so proud of her and so sad for her. Any company would be lucky to have her!

In Orlando, we all loved Pink Paislee best of all. We ordered many companies, but we ordered EVERYTHING PP had to offer. And no one was more excited than Stacey. The moment she was announced as a PP team member, we were all happy dancing for her across the country. I know she is going to inspire all of us with all of her amazing creations.

We decided to help kick off her journey by pulling out our PP and scrapping a bit.

Be Mine. Paper, Alphabet: Pink Paislee, Flower: Prima, Pearls: Kaisercraft, Ribbon: Offray.

Next, I want to tackle a layout with some super Stacey cutting. She is fearless with the scissors and her creations shine because of it. She is right, after all, It's Just Paper.

Getting my Mojo back!

2010-01-12T12:07:00.000-08:00

Ahh break time! My semester break ends tomorrow as we head back to the classroom ready to torture a new batch of students. Guess my blogging break should end, too. I definitely accomplished a good bit around the house and spent lots of time with the family. Allie and I are still hard at work on her doll house. Hopefully, it will be photo ready soon.

To get me started back on the scrapping and blogging path, I jumped over to the Mojo Monday blog. I have peeked in on them from time to time, but this is my first time playing along. Here is the sketch for this week:

And here is my version of it:

Hi. Paper: Pink Paislee, Alphabet: American Crafts, Butterfly: BasicGrey, Bling: Kaisercraft, Sketch: Mojo Monday.

I love a good sketch! It is a fabulous way to get the mojo jumpstarted. Now I am off to get Zack from the bus and begin the crazy busy Tuesday kid schedule.

smooches!

I survived Tuesday

2009-12-15T18:09:00.000-08:00

Tuesday is always my long day. I teach a full day and the kids have activities both before and after school. Added to that, it is always the big 5th grade homework day. Even a normal Tuesday has me collapsing at the end of the day--usually around 7:30.

This week I have the added whammy of Drew traveling and final exams. And then I needed to race fit in a quick 15 minutes in the grocery store with both kids in Tae Kwon Do gear.

I am not ashamed to say that Ronald McDonald cooked dinner. I have no guilt over it at all.

What makes me happy? The next FIVE weeks are my semester break. Yes, 5 weeks of no teaching and all day to enjoy.

What scares me? Starting in January, Tuesday gets longer. The only day I could get the kids into swim lessons was, you guessed it, Tuesday. From 7-8pm. After all of the other activities.

Go ahead and faint with me. Until then, I will focus on today's mantra: just keep going and you will survive.

I love this pretty picture:

It really symbolizes my Tuesday. I can live through it. Goodnight, Tuesday.

Have to spill

2009-12-14T18:56:00.001-08:00

ScrapStreet's Showroom column for the January issue features the fun stamps from Stamps of Life by Stephanie Barnard. I had the best weekend playing with them! So much fun that I have some left over after turning in my article and I am not done yet! Normally, I would wait until after the issue is out to show, but a little peek cannot hurt, right?

Digital Stamps: Stamps of Life Back2Basics, Cardstock: Coredinations, Ribbon: Offray, Markers: Copic, Tools: Cuttlebug, Fiskers border punch.

I printed the stamps in just an outline and colored them with my beloved Copics. Next, I used embossing powder for shine. Popping them with foam off of the Swiss Dots background makes for a great mixture of textures. Where did I start? With the ribbon. I have had this in my stash for awhile and it never quite matched any papers. I was able to color everything to match it instead. Fun!

coloring is good for you!

2009-12-13T16:13:00.000-08:00

Honest. It is. There is a reason why we give kids some crayons and paper. Ok, so promoting hand eye coordination and fine motor skills can be offered as rational, but it is just plain fun, too. A little bit of coloring and I feel less stressed. I can make something pretty and have complete control over it even if everything else is swirling around me. ahhh.

I am having a bigger problem figuring out how to make cards with my pretties. I prefer a 4in x 4in square card. I think it comes from scrapping 12x12 solo pages for so long--I think in a square. However, my new stamps are bigger. They want 5x7 cards. They need to go big. I have to give them what they want. After all, is this deer not the cutest thing you have ever seen?

Merry Christmas. Paper: Crate Paper, Pink Paislee, Die Cuts: Crate Paper, Stamp: Whiff of Joy, Markers: Copic, Other: Raffia.

I am going to take a batch of stamped images and my copics with me to school this week. Watching students take finals will be far less stressful with my magic markers at hand.

Just a bit of hello

2009-12-12T18:02:00.000-08:00

I was thrilled to receive an "open before Christmas" present today with a bunch of stamps perfect for coloring. I have stamps. Honest. After all, what self respecting scrapper doesn't? However, most of my stamps are not the color me type. They are more patterns and words.

I have found a few digi stamp sites since my copic obsession started, but had not purchased any rubber stamp pretties as of yet. Now I have a new batch just begging me to play!

Hi. Paper: Crate Paper, Ribbon: Offray, Stamps: Stamping Bella, The Stamps of Life (digital), Markers: Copic, Tools: Scor-it.

Have a happy, stampy day!

My day off

2009-12-11T20:06:00.000-08:00

Ahh, Friday. Freezing cold temps and not a single meeting to attend--what's a girl to do? Stay home and scrap! The week was absolutely crazy. Drew is out of town and the kids had their full complement of activities. It was the last week of the semester, so I had more than enough grading to do in between reviewing for finals. I did not have time to scrap, but I did make a little time to color each evening.

I used Kazan's sketch 41 from 2s4u--flipped a bit--for this one. I even pulled out the machine for a little stitching. It has been way too long since I did that!

You. Paper, Diecuts: Crate Paper, Chipboard: Heidi Swapp, Stamp: Whiff of Joy, Markers: Copic, Tools: Sewing Machine, Scor-it, Distresser.

Happy Friday, friends!

It's Complicated

2009-12-10T17:55:00.000-08:00

I love movies. In college, I worked at the "slightly late" theater on campus. A perfect job since I could eat candy and watch movies for free after working the concessions before the film. What could be better?

As an English major, films were often part of our writing assignments. We would read a Shakespearean play and then watch a number of movies based on the same play. Some of the best papers I wrote were analysis and comparison among film and the written word. I did learn--quickly--that I prefer my own imagination. The movies based on books are never quite as good as the way I saw them in my mind.

As momhood set in, movies became a dvd habit. Very seldom did we make it to a grown up movie on the big screen. Why? When they were tiny babies, it was money and time. As they got a bit older, there was the joy of watching them watch movies. It is so real to them that you just cannot resist. But over the last year or so, my patience for their movies waned. I desperately want the time I spent watching "Kung Fu Panda" back. There was actual pain in watching that one.

Earlier this fall, Zack started first grade and I took the plunge. I went to see a movie in the middle of the day all by myself. No one else wanted to see "Julie and Julia" so I grabbed my Jr. Mints and headed in all alone. And, I liked it. The movie and the experience.

I still prefer to see a movie with friends, but I am ok with heading out on my own and then discussing it with friends later. What I noticed about the last batch--except for J&J--is that I am older than the movies. The romantic comedies seem to all happen to women BELOW 30. The movies with vibrant "women of an age" with central romantic roles are few and far between.

Which is why "It's Complicated" is on my holiday must see list. Check out this screen shot:

Cheating with your ex-husband on the young tootsie that cheated on you with him? Ok, it sounds a bit twisted, but fun.

Of course, "Princess and the Frog" and "Alvin and the Chipmunks the Squeakuel" made the family must see list. I definitely deserve a bit of complication after surviving both of those!

Quick Trip

2009-12-09T18:42:00.000-08:00

The first real snow of the season started yesterday morning, bright and early. Allie and Zack eagerly bundled up for a few minutes of play before the bus arrived. Unfortunately, Allie could barely fit her feet into her old boots. In early October, she tried them on and they fit, but 2 months later it is a different story.

We had a tiny shopping window today while Zack was at scouts. 15 minutes in and out at Target. Luckily, she fell in love with these in an instant.

Her size? Woman's 7. Eeeek! I sense a growth spurt about to happen. She was a 5.5 at the beginning of the school season. The good news is that I am an 8.5 making it not much longer before I can double my shoe collection.

caught us

2009-12-08T19:18:00.000-08:00

You never know where Zack will pop up with his camera. He loves taking pictures. Every so often, he will bring me his camera filled with pictures for me to upload. He sits patiently and goes through shot after shot. He is ruthless with his eye, deleting those that do not please him. "I can always take more, mom," he tells me. He selects ones to print and keeps them in his room. Of course, I am allowed to print extras to scrap.

Zack is seven.

My kids amaze me all the time. Being a mom is the greatest gift. Well, on the days that it is not being the hardest work. It is definitely the most profound dichotomy of my life.

These shots are from sometime in early November. Allie and I got the mail and found a magazine for each of us. We plopped right down on the front steps to read and Zack appeared a bit later to capture the moment.

He is happy to take a couple of candid shots and then his bossy side pops up. Turn your head. Chin up. Now, over the shoulder. I love some of the creative things he comes up with like peeking over our magazines.

I forgot all about it until he brought me the camera today. How cute it turned out! I am already searching my brain for a title. Suggestions?

Hi Elf!

2009-12-07T18:29:00.000-08:00

I am having such fun with these darling Instyle stamps. I love when companies with really cute art make digital stamps available. Being able to have them instantly, resize them, print them again and again--all such selling points for me. I love the anime art eyes and cannot get enough of these stamps. Darling!

I created this card for the sketch on the Club Anime blog. I cropped the little elf into a head shot and used my spellbinders for a frame. I love the subtlety of the cuttlebug embossing on the white.

Santa Was Here. Paper, Die Cuts: Crate Paper, Ribbon: Offray, Stamp: Instyle.com, Markers: Copic, Cardstock: Bazzill Basics, Pearls: Kaisercraft, Tools: Cuttlebug, Spellbinders, Scor-it.

Just downloaded a new stamp and I have coloring to do. Happy Monday!

Ready for some football

2009-12-06T17:27:00.000-08:00

Ok, so our Steelers are torturing us right now. I have no excuses. Theories, certainly, but valid reasons escape me for such a horrible losing streak. Still, at our house we dress for the occasion.

Sundays are football days. We toss in some homework and some laundry, but all around football. What did we do before we could pause the games? Or before the magical NFL Sunday Ticket allowed us to see them all? Or before fantasy football gave us a reason to watch them all so energetically? Fortunately, we do not have to remember--we are soooooo spoiled.

Today, my Steelers lost. But my Saints won. Yes, I adopted the lovable Saints during my undergrad years. Tulane played in the Superdome and tickets for the Saints were not hard to come by. Of course, they were more commonly called the Aints in those days before they had EVER seen the playoffs. It definitely looks like it is their year. And it is easy to root for them when Brees is leading my fantasy team. Such the hero.

And the translation for my non football scrappy friends: yada yada yada cute picture yada yada yada picture. Love yall!

Happy Card

2009-12-05T16:53:00.000-08:00

I was in the Christmas card mood with red and green doodads out. I organize my goodies by color tray and somehow apples jumped out at me instead of anything holiday. I had such fun playing with the bright and the bold. I used Laura's sketch 40 from 2s4u. I swear the sketches get cuter every week over there! And the newest design team members are all super talented.

Love You. Paper: October Afternoon, Cardstock: Bazzill Basics, Ribbon: Offray, Pin: JoAnn's, Alphabet: American Crafts, Sticker: Making Memories, Tools: Scor-it, Spellbinders, Cuttlebug.

I have to say that this particular green paper--this card and the one from yest--is my favorite of the week. How can I have owned this one for months and somehow not have used it? It is such a yummy shade of green.

copic obsession

2009-12-04T19:32:00.001-08:00

My copic obsession is new. And fabulous. For those who have not yet discovered copics, they are a marker. But they are so much more. They are refillable, blendable, more like paint brushes already loaded with the perfect amount of color than a maker. There is even an airbrush system that works with the markers. Can you say Christmas present? I can!

I picked up my first few copics on sale at Hobby Lobby before I discovered they are marking them up WAY too much. I found an online store that delivers quickly and charges less everywhere else. I am in love. I have spent countless hours on youtube watching videos and wander through blogs.

Today was my day off. No work, no committees, no meetings, no playdates--just a me day. I slept in. I colored. I bubbled. I ate cookie dough. ahhhhh.

My blog hopping led me to Too Cute For Words a challenge blog featuring Instyle Stamps. I headed over and picked up my first couple of anime digital stamps. Excellent customer service! I created this for their color challenge--use brown, coral, and kiwi.

Paper, Stickers is BasicGrey, Journal Spot: Jillibean Soup, Bling: Kaisercraft. I used my copics on just about everything. I love how darling the journal spot is after it is colored!

Here are the copics used:

I can not wait to get back to my desk to color more!

lots of love

2009-12-03T17:48:00.000-08:00

I love a cute window card! Normally I just do a basic with the window, but this mouse was just too cute to make share a space. I decided to go with the trifold. How darling is he?

The paper is October Afternoon. I used photoshop to color the mouse's holiday bag and hat the exact color of the paper green. Really easy to do with software.

Almost ready to show off my very first copic coloring. I am definitely having a ton of fun doing my copic homework.

smooches!

12 Days of Christmas

2009-12-02T17:57:00.000-08:00

The nature of teaching college means I have a lovely holiday break. Four to six weeks of no classes. Oh, sure, I have classes to design and meetings to attend, but I have a long span of not teaching. I fill the time. Absolutely. I scrapbook. I read. I chatter with friends. I still have kids and a husband and a house.

But.

I always have this feeling that I missed the joy of Christmas. The month of December flies by with a ton of things that have to be done--especially final exam torture--but not much that gets to be fun. And then I have all the time in the world in January, but the holidays are gone.

What's a gal to do? Make a plan, of course. Tonight the family sat down and decided on 12 things to do to celebrate Christmas together. I know some of yall may be able to do the entire Advent countdown, but I have a traveling husband and an insane schedule so 12 is my number.

Each family member picked 3 items to add to the list. Drew shocked me when his first pick was to see Chipmunks Squeakquel on Christmas Day. Really, husband? He also picked a trip to the mall. Clearly, I do not know this man as well as I thought. Of course, when he added "just to look, not to shop" I knew he was back. Giggle.

We are all excited about the list and can't wait to kick off the holiday season. 12 days and counting . . .

Digital Delights

2009-12-01T19:15:00.000-08:00

Happy December! I am so excited to share the new issue with y'all. It is our 49th issue--the very first one of year FIVE. How is that possible? Recently the staff took a look back at issue one and had quite a giggle. We have certainly come a long way, babies.

Here is our current cover (and link in):

This month our fabulous Showroom sponsor is Digital Delights by Louby Lou. These digital stamps are so freaking cute! I am happy to blame designer/owner Wendy for creating designs so cute that I could totally justify buying copic markers. A LOT of copic markers. I did not have them before I completed the article, but I am a coloring fool now!

I am so proud of the creativity of all of our designers. Take a peek here to see the 24 different items we created together.

Personally, I made more than the three that made it into the issue. We did have to pick and choose. The first item I made was the wine bag. I took one look at this girl and knew I had to make her in felt. She is just the perfect little santa gal:

My favorite of the images on first glance was the turtle. I have colored him a half dozen times with my copics now practicing to shade and highlight well. I am certain I will have him looking fabulous soon! For this layout, I used my photoshop to color him and printed him on a transparency over and over as a border. Too cute!

This card was also colored in photoshop and then glittered a bit by me. I tried a bunch of different ribbons for the reins, but liked the glitter best.

I am so thrilled to have the opportunity to play with digital stamping. As a hybrid scrapper, these are my new favorite scrapping toys. Have you stamped today?

back in the saddle

2009-11-07T12:24:00.000-08:00

Finally. After several weeks of feeling all topsy turvey with my new schedule, I managed to phase scrapping back into my daily life. I feel so much better! I had a number of items to make for upcoming publications that I cannot share, but not that the must scrap list is done, I have time for fun scrapping. Yay!

I headed over to 2sketches4you and grabbed this week's sketch: Laura's Sketch 38. Fabulous! I used it for this thanks card for my inlaws. They were so sweet watching the kids when Drew and I were in Miami. A happy card and a gift certificate for dinner out was our way of saying thanks.

Cosmo Cricket papers, chipboard, ribbon from Earth Love, Jillibean Soup journal spot, and American Crafts Thickers with a hint of ink. I love how the colors are light, yet so warm. Yummy!

Off to scrap!

Halloween fun

2009-11-02T19:41:00.000-08:00

Halloween shopping this year was quite easy. Allie took one look at the darling ladybug and fell in love. Surprisingly affordable with everything from leggings to antenna, it fit her personality perfectly. And it fit my mom requirement--NOT sexy. Allie crossed into the tween size/age category this year and as we browsed online costume stores, I was getting nervous. I am just not ready to see my little girl in fishnets yet. I was thrilled with her choice:

While Allie and I shopped for her, Zack and Drew headed to the boy land. Zack had already decided on Harry Potter, so I was shocked when he came over with a snow wolf ninja costume. He loves wolves and was determined that this would be his costume. We arrived home to find that the mask was not in the bag.

Back I went. Although the bag listed it as included, it was not in any of the ones in stock. The manager offered to take it back and give me some $ off another costume for my trouble, but Zack held firm. He did not want a mask, anyway. He liked his costume, but did not make it to love and is certain that next year he wants to be Harry Potter. Here he is making his best evil ninja face:

I still think he is adorable--even when he is trying to be scary. Happy Halloween! Off to raid the candy bucket.

Back to scrapping

2009-11-01T19:11:00.000-08:00

Finally. After a couple of stressful weeks, I headed to my scrap room, turned on the tunes, and found absolutely no mojo. Eeek! Now that is a spooky Halloween. My favorite way to get my juices flowing is to lift one of my other works. Giving an old idea a new twist helps me get started.

I loved the paintbrush album I made for my mom's birthday and decided to put together one for Halloween. It let me use some fun premade embellies--like these darling monster felties from Sassafrass. How could you not love them?

The rich colors of the Pink Paislee papers are just gorgeous to work with and I definitely was in the groove by the time the project was ready for photographing. Quick, easy, and fun!

Life and fruit

2009-10-21T18:42:00.000-07:00

Life tosses fruit at us all of the time. Sometimes it is little life disruptions in the form of small fruits: lemons, limes, or berries. Other times you duck a coconut just to get hit with a pineapple.

In younger year we learn to take lemons and make lemonade. After a few years of experience, we laugh at lemons. Toss them at us and we turn them into a full meal from lemon shrimp appetizer to a lemon meringue pie. It is the nature of the hard working mom to multi-task our way through the fruit salad of life.

I spent a week enjoying juggling limes. Limes are my friend as they make great margaritas. Drew and I traveled to Miami for his work and enjoyed warm weather, good food, and friends. The Monday night football game was a definite highlight. Sure, I had a ton of prep before we left and make-up work when we returned, but it was worth every second.

While sitting in the airport waiting for my flight, life decided to add some more fruit to the mix. My dean called to ask a favor. Would I take an accelerated English class starting in just 4 days?

Eeek! Just one little 9 week request would change my life enormously. 4 days of work instead of 2. An extra 13 hours of prep, grading, teaching time. 13 hours less to manage the mom job and house stuff. The upside? More money, a happy dean, a chance to touch the lives of additional students. The tiebreaker: the woman scheduled to teach the class was called to active duty in Iraq. How could I not?

And so I find myself hitting 2 weeks without a bit of scrapping. I can not wait until this weekend when I can tap into my mojo. Until then, you will find me chopping fruit until I can turn this latest medly into a tasty treat.

Thanks for the fun

2009-10-05T17:02:00.001-07:00

The final challenge in the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog birthday celebration is to create thank you cards to send after the party ends. Normally, I do a photo birthday card showing some favorite shots of my birthday kid blowing out candles, opening presents, and playing games. It allows me to share the memory of the day with all of the family.

Even though this will not be our real thank you cards, it was still fun for Allie and I to put together. She felt we worked the tree image enough for our theme so we just used the same fabulous Earth Love papers, Thickers, our beloved Cuttlebug, and some favorite trim.

Thanks, Cuttlebug Team for the inspiration and fun!

Happy Card Day!

2009-10-03T17:11:00.000-07:00

Happy World Cardmaking Day!

My day began very happy when the Fancy Pants Designs blog announced me as one of their winners! I am so excited and cannot wait to see what darling goodies arrive. I adore Fancy Pants!

I zipped on over to 2 Sketches 4 You and grabbed Kazan's Sketch 36 to start my cardmaking day off right. I wanted to use this ribbon that I fell madly in love with by Jillibean Soup. How much did I love it? I bought 5 of the same exact one. Red is my favorite color and my son is obsessed with numbers--how could I not?

It is a happy card that is perfect to send as a pick me up to a friend that needs a smile. Thanks for the great sketch Kazan.

Allie and I also made our thank you cards for the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog, but a thunderstorm rolled in making it dark and horrible for taking a good photo. Will be back with it tomorrow!

Hope yall had a great day of cardmaking!

Fancy Friday

2009-10-02T15:24:00.000-07:00

Wow. What a long week. Filled with work, activities, meetings, volunteering, and more, every moment was scheduled. By the time I hit the couch on Thursday evening, I was all but brain dead.

Knowing that it was going to be crazy, I made certain to keep my Friday empty. The chores were done. The kids in school. The tivo full. I had all afternoon to scrap and play. Where to begin?

I stopped by the Fancy Pants Designs Friday Challenge. Their World Card Day challenge had me reaching for Rough and Tough and Krafty Boys collections. I was in the mood for a bit of paper piecing and had such fun putting together this little owl. Isn't he just too cute?

I am obsessed with pop dots lately and cannot resist layering items together. Using pop dots under letter stickers gives them such great look. Now the only question is who to send him to?

Bloom Ball

2009-09-27T13:45:00.000-07:00

Allie came running in after school on Wednesday eager to see the new Cuttlebug Challenge. She was stumped at first. hmmm table decorations. We do not have scrapping time midweek with after school activities, so we just peek and then run out to tackle the schedule.

"How about tree place cards?" Allie asked on Saturday. With each person's name and a cute little bird. Sounded good to me. We zipped up the cute little "lollipop" trees in a hurry.

Then came time to plan the centerpiece. "How about a real tree with lots of decorations?" Great idea. Except the real party is not until next July. Buying a tree now and then attempting to grow it indoors during a Chicago winter? Not quite the right plan. So it was back to the drawing board.

We had a ton of fun trying to make different trees. It was our own little Goldilocks adventure with too flat, too tall, too silly, but no just right. How could we make that top sphere? Then the light dawned on my darling girl's face: the bloom ball. Early in the school year, they created bloom balls as a book report illustrating and explaining different story scenes on each of the 12 panels. A little work with the circle cutter and the scor-it and we were off and running.

We started to reach for the bling or buttons to embellish the tree, but really thought the embossing was decoration enough. We added just a few items from Cosmo Cricket's Earth Love and left it simple. And we love it.

Thanks, Cuttlebug Challenge Blog for some wonderful challenges!

a mini tree

2009-09-20T18:09:00.000-07:00

Plant while you grow. This is definitely one of Allie's personal themes. She feels very strongly that with each year, she should be able to do more to make the world a better place. I could not be a more proud mommy.

It was make a mini album week for the Cuttlebug Blog Challenge--one that went with the continuing theme. I loved my very first tree invitation card so much that I adapted the design into a mini. I layered a few circles increasingly smaller in size and connected them with the Bind-it-all.

Take a peek inside:
Each of the tree fronts features the darling Cosmo Cricket Earth Love while the backs are craft paper embossed with a hint of ink by my Bug. For fun, I used a different folder for each one and stitched them together.

I adored this saying found on a 12 inch border strip so I snipped it up and inked the edges. The little birds on each page were cut out of a Earth Love paper, embossed and given a bling eye. I popped them up a bit for some dimension.

Choosing circle pictures seemed just right for the album. I cropped them in circles in elements and then trimmed them making it easy on me.

I couldn't resist embossing and slanting the back of the album a bit, too. Why ever use plain cardstock again?

Just for fun!

2009-09-14T14:30:00.000-07:00

Ok, so scrapping is fun, but sometimes the list of things I "need" to do for my commitments takes over and it is a couple of weeks before I can just grab my supplies and scrap for just the fun of it. But no more!

I know that for most people New Year's Day marks the beginning of the year, but for me it is September 1. Not only is it my birthday so I start a new year, but it is the beginning of the school year. As a teacher (and a mom), that is the calendar that my life revolves around. As a result, I make my resolutions now.

One of my resolutions is to recapture the fun of scrapping. I will make one layout and one card just for me at least 3 weeks out of every month. That is totally doable, right? Please say right.

This layout documents the attitude Allie has had for the last year. She is all peace, love, and trees. And it all started with this Halloween Costume. Not much chance that this Halloween layout was going to be black and orange--not with that colorful ensemble. Instead, it is Cosmo Cricket with a title of Thickers and Pink Paislee and a touch American Crafts flair. Add in a few flowers and overlays from My Mind's Eye and I have a live out loud layout that can keep up with that Hippy Costume!

the tree party continues . . .

2009-09-12T10:17:00.000-07:00

The second in the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog party challenges is to create a card and giftbag. I am so loving the earthy tones I am playing with for these! If you do not have Cosmo Cricket's Earth Love run to the lss for it is adorable!

For this card I used all of my faves right now. Earth Love, Maya Road (tree/trim), Thickers, and my Cuttlebug. I tried the "ink the bumpy" side of my folder before running the card through technique again since I loved it on the tree trunk of the first card. I know that all the experienced buggers are probably giggling at me, but as a baby bug I am soooo enjoying trying each technique. I get so giddy at the different things I can do with it.

The gift back gave me a bit more trouble. I wanted to just run the whole bag through my Bug. *Looks at bag size. Looks at bug. * Darn. Let's face it--right now I am so into this machine that I want to run ME through it. I needed the bigger bag since the party favor is a little tree to take home and plant and it needs to fit in the bag.

oh, did I forget to mention that Allie is so into this theme that she has decided it is her birthday party for next summer? And with my decisive 10yo I do not have to think she will change her mind--I know this is it.

Allie wanted the bag to say "I heart trees". The heart was giving us fits. We wanted it to pop with a bolder color. We tried a dozen different ones before we decided on this orange one cut out of some Autumn Leaves tags. I am sure that each bag will be just a bit different as we make them. We will probably end up using all of the dozen hearts we discarded all over the scrap desk.

Here is the close up of the embossing:

Obvious in real life, but not so much in the big photo. I must admit that the most fun for me with this challenge is getting to share it with Allie. She really has some lovely design ideas and is so excited about everything we make. We are having a ball!

Boo!

2009-09-12T10:05:00.000-07:00

I know. Why be in such a hurry for Halloween? Or even fall? After all, September is definitely the best month to live in Chicago. The weather is flawless. There are a ton of things to do. But on my desk was a fabulous new package of Halloween papers and stickers by Reminisce as they are our October issue Showroom for ScrapStreet Magazine.

I started earlier this week and just cannot stop! What fun they are to play with. I will have a sneak peek of all our work up soon, but for now I am playing with the scraps left from my own projects.

This cute little card is one that I will tuck in a lunchbox for a happy note for one of the kids. I love being able to give my munchkins that extra "mom loves you and is proud of you" hug even while they are away from me.

I used Laura's sketch 34 from 2 sketches 4 you to inspire me:

I loved the simplicity of the sketch replacing the circle with my pieced pumpkin. It only took a few minutes since I built the pumpkin over a journaling block of the same shape from Reminisce. The little pops of green are My Little Yellow Bicycle.

Aren't these patterns just too cute? I cannot wait to show yall what else we are all up to with them!

Time to Party!

2009-09-10T17:26:00.000-07:00

I loved reading that the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog is celebrating their birthday in September and is partying all month long. Not only is it my birthday month, but it is also ScrapStreet's 4th birthday! What could be better than for me to just party all month long.

CCB asked us to pick a party theme that could run all month long. hmmm what to pick? I asked Allie and she was quick to respond that we totally needed a tree planting party. She is all about peace, love, and green. Wait until I show you her new backpack (layout in progress). Darling!

I decided to start with a simple circle card and then add in a trunk. For some fun, I rubbed ink on the folder before I ran it through to give the trunk the extra depth. Love the way it turned out!

The paper and diecut are Cosmo Cricket's Earth Love (what else?) and the bird is Making Memories. A few pearls from Kaiser (a current obsession) and I have a quick and cute invitation to start off the party month.

Thanks Paper Trunk

2009-09-02T17:44:00.000-07:00

Paper Trunk is featured this month in ScrapStreet.com Magazine Showroom column. We received several lines to scrap with and the game was on. All of us found mojo and went to town creating beautiful items.

Although I enjoyed all the lines, Maybe Baby just grabbed me and would not let go. I found uses for every spare inch of paper. Honest. There are no scraps. *looks around room* That is such a first for me.

You can see several of my pretties in the issue, but I have more to share. These cards were simple and fun, made from the die cut sheets. One is going to Carrie at Paper Trunk with all my love and thanks. The other two are going into the Cards for Heroes box as we are still creating for our soldiers.

I could not resist using Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder for this one. I may never be able to leave white unembossed again. The pearls are Kaiser, letters are American Crafts, Paper is all Paper Trunk.

These two could not have been simplier. I love you is simply a diecut with the edges trimmed close and a few Kaiser pearls for flower centers. It took seconds. XO again built on a diecut with a bit of another piece (left from making Thanks) and a hint of Thickers. This line is just so classy!

Birthday

2009-09-01T18:43:00.000-07:00

Birthday present time! What did I ask for this year? A new phone. Honestly, mine was so old students would ask to see the rotary dial. I didn't have unlimited texting, but I didn't need it since it would take me so long to text that I would give up.

Which phone to pick? I called Lauren and asked what to buy. After all, if it is recommended by a 7th grader, it has to be cool, right? She screamed out enVtouch and so I am now the proud owner of:

A front touch screen, 3.2 camera, video, music and a zillion things I have not figured out yet are all included in this nifty little machine. It opens up to look like a mini laptop and I can catch up with all my gang even at school.

Shopping for it was enlightening. I made Drew head to the actual store with me instead of just ordering online. We figured it would be $100 for the new phone. Except when they pulled up our account, Drew had all kinds of credits as he is such a good customer. Turned out that they paid us to take the phone. Yep. Free phone, free case, and tossed in some free minutes to boot.

I tried to convince Drew that meant he still owed me a present, but he was not buying that one at all. I have to say I am one happy camper. Happy Birthday to me!

Catch the bus

2009-08-31T18:39:00.000-07:00

Allie and I were wandering through Target doing our grocery shopping, she spied this:

It was filled with yellow apples and just waiting for us to come along. Since both of my kids will happily eat 2 apples every single day, it was a no brainer to toss it in the cart. Especially when Allie turned with that gleam in her eye and said, "think of the craft we could do, Mom." I am so raising her right.

We arrived home, emptied the apples into the fruit bowl and dropped the bus off in the scrap office. The very next morning, I pop on to the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog and see a back to school gift/craft challenge. Kismet! I would have raced to my desk to create, but I knew Allie wanted to make one together. She had dolls all picked out to ride in it, after all.

She wanted a "hippie bus" which was not at all surprising as she has been on a peace, love, and trees kick since last Halloween when she first donned her hippy costume. Anything with a peace sign or a recycle theme has been huge in our house this year!

It took us a couple of days (5th grade homework is insane!) but we are proud to debut the Girlfriend Bus:

The paper and pretties are all Cosmo Cricket. We started with the Earth Love line since just it's name excited Allie, but quickly switched to Girl Friday to get the bold colors she was in the mood for. A little pearl action from Kaiser and some Cardstock trim embossed with our newest Cuttlebug plates:

I love how the two different circles play together. So yummy! Time to run. I need to stitch up a few ponchos for the dolls. They need to be stylin' to ride the bus.

smooches!

98, 99, and 100 . . .

2009-08-24T12:01:00.000-07:00

I made it! I wanted to finish 100 cards for the Cards For Heroes Drive at ScrapStreet before I head off to fall semester. Last night, I finished up my Showroom items with the absolutely fun Paper Trunk Socialite collection. I had some fun scraps on my table so I zipped out a few more cards.

I am sure that I will be able to make a few more before we finish the drive, but I am so happy to have my goal met. Just in time, too, as I head back into the classroom tomorrow morning to meet my new students. If you have not picked up this Paper Trunk yet, you must! Our entire team embraced mojo the second we spread them out in our spaces.

Happy Monday, friends!

Cuttlebug and Cards

2009-08-22T08:44:00.001-07:00

I blame Jackie. I have long resisted purchasing any machine other than my computer, photo printer, and wide format printer for my scrapping obsession. Oh I have marveled at them all, but still avoided them happily.

Until Jackie. She won our Star contest and a spot on our magazine staff this spring. And I began following her blog marveling at the cards she makes--amazing, really. And then she acquired a Cuttlebug. And her cards somehow managed to get EVEN BETTER! Clearly this machine was magic. I kept stalking her waiting for the moment it got shoved into a closet and forgotten. But instead, Maggie chose her to join the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog Team and she made more and more and more yummy items.

Off we headed to CHA and our entire team was determined to see the Cuttlebug in action certain that we would be able to talk ourselves out of wanting it. But then we met Maggie and were lucky to escape from the booth ordering only the Cuttlebug. She almost had us talked into Yudu's as well (I am still thinking!). Darn wonderful enabling people.

I am now the proud owner of a Cuttlebug and my first 2 folders. And I am still working hard on the Cards For Heroes Drive at ScrapStreet. I bopped on over to the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog in time for the Wednesday Challenge and made this shaped card.

For You by Dora Phillips. Supplies: Cardstock: Bazzill, Paper: October Afternoon, Pearls: Kaiser, Rub Ons: October Afternoon, Kaiser, Tools: Cuttlebug, Scor-it, Other: Ribbon.

I had such fun making my first Cuttle Card! And I am certain some little girl is going to love getting this from her soldier mommy or daddy.

92 cards and counting . . .

CFH Continues

2009-08-21T08:26:00.000-07:00

92 cards and counting . . .

I am having a ball making cards for such a great cause! But sometime after card 85 my mojo left me. eeek! I headed back to 2 sketches 4 you for a refill. Honestly, the talented designers there never fail to make me want to scrap cards again. Fabulous team!

Kazan's Sketch 33 inspired this card and got me back on track:

Pretty Please by Dora Phillips. Supplies: Cardstock: Bazzill, Paper, Rub On: October Afternoon, Brad: Eyelets & More, Tools: Scor-it, Sketch: 2S4U, Other: Ribbon.

Cards For Heroes Continues!

This week's special guest is:

Jennifer McGuireis our guest host this week at ScrapStreet.com for our Cards for Heroes Card Drive! She is AMAZINGLY talented and we are so lucky to have her this week! If you get a chance, pop over to our site or her blog and get in on this weeks challenge!

Make sure to keep checking in on the card drive! We have a few more FABULOUS guest hosts that will be gracing us with some really great challenges and prizes!

Now that my mojo is racing I am off to scrap! Smooches!

Winner!

2009-08-18T09:35:00.000-07:00

Time to draw a winner from the Cards For Heroes Blog Hop!

Thanks to all of you who commented and who participated in the hop! LetUmom, please send me an email at Dora@scrapstreet.com with your address so I can get your prize right out. Congrats!

CFH Blog Hopping

2009-08-13T18:09:00.000-07:00

I am signing up for my first mini blog hop with other talented crafters in honor of the Cards for Heros program. This amazing organization has sent over 170,000 cards to our military men and women in service to our country.

If you get a chance today, make a small Christmas card and send it in to CFH so that a solider can let his/her family know how much they mean to them from so far away. If you want, you can participate in our CFH Card Drive at ScrapStreet.com too, and not only get the chance to win some great prizes but truly make Christmas special for the "waiting families" at home. The deadline for getting Christmas Cards to CFH is November 1st and right around the corner! Make sure you get those holiday cards in soon!

Here is my first holiday card:

This is a hybrid card. I am crazy in love with shaped cards right now. To make one simply find a digital embellishment that you like (this one is from NitWits), resize it (I went for 4x5), and print on white cardstock. Fold the cardstock in half and trim around the image remembering to skip a piece at the top or side along your fold. Add a bit more embellishments if you like. This one has brads and a rub on.

Time to run! I printed out some darling penguins that are calling my name. Smooches!

A Hop, A Sketch, and A Rak!

It is time for the Cards for Heroes mini hop to begin! Yay!

I am so excited to be a part of this fabulous cause. My younger brother was a Navy man and many of our relatives are proud to serve in the Army. Add to that the wonderful Army wives I count among my closest friends and how could I help but jump in with both feet and scissors in hand.

Not only am I playing in the hop, but I am also working for the ScrapStreet.com CFH card drive. If you have not checked it out, peek here for details: CFH Thread. There are some great prizes to be one for a great cause.

For my part of the hop, I have created a sketch:

It is a simple one allowing for plenty of play!

Here is my own take on it:

And for every person who leaves a comment today on my blog, you will be entered in the drawing for the rak. If you actually use my sketch you can link back each card as many times as you make them in additional comments to up your chances of the random number generator picking YOU!

What is this Rak? It is the Little Sprout Collection Kit from Crate Paper. I will happily mail one to our winner. Please note that since the items are glittered, this will be something for you to play with just for you, but not to make CFH cards with.

One of my personal favorite scrappers, Jackie, scrapped with this cute kit in her Cuttlebug challenge this week. If you want a closer look at the die cuts that come with the kit, peek at her blog Luv 2 Scrappp.

Where do you go next? Your next stop is Diana's blog All the little things that matter! Have a great blog hop and thanks so much for contributing.

Please remember that all Holiday cards need to be on their way by November 1. Thanks!

Card Crazy!

2009-08-12T11:02:00.000-07:00

Cards for Heroes is a non-profit organization that supports our nation's Armed Forces by sending blank, hand-made cards overseas for our soldiers to write home on, as well as, cards of gratitude to encourage them.

ScrapStreet is running our second annual card drive. We have a goal of 1000 cards this year to make the lives of our soldiers and their families just a little brighter. At the end of three weeks of challenges, we will all ship our cards into our leader--and military wife--Bri.

Today our first special Wednesday Guest:

Karen Russell, a military wife herself, has recently stepped back from teaching scrapbooking classes and designing scrapbooking products to focus on teaching photography classes full time. She has offered this AMAZING prize to one lucky winner in today’s challenge at ScrapStreet's Cards For Heroes contest:

a seat in her next photography class!!!!!

If you have not read anything about this class or seen the amazing photos that come OUT of this class, you need to check it out here: Snapshots of a Good Life.

So head on over to Karen’s blog and get involved in the challenge!!!! You will have from now until Sunday, August 16th at midnight to submit your cards!!! You may upload your creations to the CFH Gallery here.

So what am I doing for the next few days? I am making cards like mad!!!!!!

My son has a birthday party to attend tonight at the ever popular Chuck E Cheese, so I warmed up with a card for a 7yo boy. To get my mojo started, I headed over to a favorite sketch site 2s4u and used Laura's sketch 32 to make this card:

and now I am off to make a ton of cards! I hope all of you will join in and help us support our troops.

Home again

2009-08-08T15:08:00.000-07:00

It is so good to finally be home! I definitely had a ball, but it was time to be home. Over the past month, I have been home only 4 days! Between camping, CHA girls trip, and a week at Disney, it has been fun, but totally crazy.

Of course I have hundreds of pictures that I could share, but since so many will be popping up in layouts now that my mojo is humming overtime, I decided to just share one favorite moment from each of us.

Zack wanted to be chosen for Jedi training--what 7yo boy wouldn't? I crossed my fingers and made sure we were standing right up front. Zack wore his lucky video game tshirt. The force was strong in my boy and he was chosen to be the first Jedi at the first training (saving me an entire day of trying again and again). Here he is defending us all from the evil Darth.

Allie always roots for the underdog and Disney was no different. She noticed that Daisy Duck is "underappreciated" as a character. She has almost no merchandise. Barely a visual anywhere in the park. But on day three, we did manage to find her for a character signing and Allie simply glowed!

Drew has done Disney several times now as Daddy. However, with young kids we spent most of our time in the shows, character lines, and small rides. This year was totally different--with Allie as a courageous 10yo, he had a partner for all his roller coasters. Day one had us all on the Rock-n-roller coaster!

What was my favorite moment? Watching my family is always a joy for me, but the best picture we have is me hugging my beloved coke while it mists water on me. ahhhh perfection!

a new card

2009-07-03T19:01:00.000-07:00

I fell madly in love with this paper set from Crate Paper this week. Now, the old me would have "saved" it for the perfect layout. Yes, every piece of it in case I needed them all. But the new me is using supplies and not afraid to start with a card. Go me!

This card uses Laura's Sketch 29 from 2s4u. When I peeked at the card on Monday, I saw a window instantly. Then when I found the Crate paper, I just had to put the adorable glittered squirrels inside. Thanks for the inspiration!

Gather Love by Dora Phillips. Supplies: Paper, Die cuts: Crate Paper, Flowers: Prima, Buttons: Making Memories.

Downtown

2009-07-03T18:10:00.000-07:00

On July 1, we headed into downtown Naperville for an afternoon photoshoot. It was a chilly and overcast day--only 63 degrees for the high! I love the variety of backgrounds to be found in just a couple of blocks worth of walking.

Here is Zack hanging out in front of a painted mural brick wall:

Sidney decided to give me some of her "Tyra eyes". Think she watches enough America's Top Model? I think it is my fave of the whole shoot.

I wanted a classic teen pose from Lauren. She is so gorgeous that it is hard to get a picture where she looks her age instead of much, much older.

I love the way Allie tilts her head and smiles at me. This is definitely the look she gives most often--my happy girl.

One of our goals for this visit is to take lots of photos of mom with her grandbabies while they are all together. Don't they look darling?

Happy Birthday, Mom!

2009-06-27T11:20:00.000-07:00

Mom flew in on her birthday to visit. It was her present to herself and not a surprise since I was holding all 4 of the grandkids hostage. After a couple of weeks with the nieces here, she was definitely needing some little kid hugs. She is staying 2 weeks with us--long enough to celebrate Zack's birthday and the 4th of July! Yay, us!

I took one look at Kazan's Sketch 29 from 2s4u and just couldn't think card for Mom's birthday. Instead, I thought mini album. With a crazy week, I wanted to make Mom an album, but I needed to do it quickly. This sketch was PERFECT. A few minutes with my circle punch, a sprinkle of glitter, and an old paintbrush and I was d0ne. It really was a 15 minute project.

Paintbrush Moments by Dora Phillips. Supplies: Paper, Diecuts: Crate Paper, Rub Ons: Sweetwater, Glitter: Martha Stewart, Tools: Fiskars Circle Punch, Scor-it, Other: Paintbrush.

Card Love

2009-06-18T17:56:00.000-07:00

I still have a bit over a month until my 12th wedding anniversary (time flies!) but this week's sketch at 2s4u inspired me to make a bright and happy card for my darling husband. I love the way it turned out! Thanks, Laura.

Supplies: BasicGrey, Joann's, Theresa Collins, Making Memories.

But I did not stop there. I popped in on Kate Hadfield's blog and could not resist her Father's Day doodles. I just had to go hybrid and print them for some fun cards. A little glitter, a little bling, a little ribbon and these doodles are ready to go to the Dad's in my world.

Off to play some more! Have a great weekend!

A little woodsy walk

2009-06-14T19:20:00.000-07:00

I am so excited to have my nieces, Lauren and Sidney, visiting for the first 6 weeks of summer vacation. Of course, I am not nearly as excited as Allie is to have her matching age cousin for the world's longest sleepover. They have decided to just be called "the nines" as they are a 9yo unit instead of 2 individual girls now. We are one week in and they could not be happier.

Lauren at almost 13 now is definitely different for me. After so many years of just little ones, a preteen brings some new experiences. It has been a long time since I have had anyone riding shotgun. I am used to climbing into the car, tossing my bags in the passenger seat, and looking over my shoulder to check on seat belts. Lauren is getting pretty good at catching those bags before they bop her. I am in awe of the total of songs on her ipod--pretty much every song on that pops on the radio inspires her to say, "I have this on my ipod" and she is correct. Also amazing is the speed her fingers can text. But it is also fabulous to have someone who wants to watch shows with me, scrapbook endlessly, and who is excellent at jumping in on the housework.

Zack could be the odd man out, but mostly he is enjoying himself. The girls all include him in their games and allow him to fetch things and push them on the swings. Fortunately for him, he is too young to realize those are not actual priviledges. This week is all about tooth loss for my little man. His front two teeth have been moving forward in anticipation of jumping ship for several weeks. We are certain they will be in the hands of the tooth fairy any time now.

We headed to the park in our subdivision for a nature walk and photo shoot. We loved seeing all the baby geese and ducks. Zack found a beautiful feather that he just would not let go of for anything. Here the kids are walking and running across the bridge over the creek.

After playing along the bridge, we stopped for some portraits. Lauren by the edge of the bridge:

The nines taking turns modeling in the crook of a tree:

And then Zack took his turn in the tree. He is refusing to smile until at least one tooth pops out since he insists that they poke his lips if he is happy. We are having way too much fun making him laugh even when he doesnt want to, but for this shot, he held firm.

More soon!

Monsterific

2009-06-12T15:45:00.001-07:00

I have been dying to use this little monster from October Afternoon since it arrived, but I could not figure out what layout to use it on. You would think my kids would have done something naughty that I could photograph over the course of a couple of months, but the darn kids are on a good streak.

I had him pinned to my bulletin board waiting patiently and today he just looked so sad that I thought he would be perfect for a miss you card. I am so in love with him that it will be hard for me to send him along to a friend.

I used Kazan's Sketch 28 from 2S4U:

Supplies: Paper & Die Cuts: October Afternoon, Stickers: Making Memories, Chipboard: BasicGrey, Bling: Heidi Swapp.

Card Fun!

2009-06-04T18:26:00.000-07:00

Cards have never been my specialty, but more of something I did with my scraps after making layouts. I am not sure if it is the lack of pictures that held me back or perhaps that I miss the storytelling aspect, but I tended to slap together cards as an afterthought.

But last month our magazine showroom item was the fabulous Scor-it. I started with a layout as is my usual style and I loved it. But then I needed to make a card. And after making it, I wanted to make another. And another. It was fun and I wanted to find new things I could do with this tool. Which led me to start googling blogs and asking my scrappy friends for recommendations. Right away they sent me to 2 Sketches 4 You. ooooh the inspiration!

So, now I can't seem to stop making cards and I have found that they can simply be fun! Bold & bright, soft & moody, earthy & green--I want to do them all!

I created this one from this week's sketch on 2 Sketches which also happens to be their 1st Annual 2 Sketches 4 You Ultimate Card Showdown. How fun!

Supplies: Cardstock: Bazzill Basics, Paper: BasicGrey, Bling: BasicGrey, Journal Card: Maya Road, Scallop: Pink Paislee, Pins & Flower: Jo Ann Essentials, Tool: Scor-it.

Technique: I used the Scor-it to emboss a square pattern on the cardstock. I love the extra dimension it brings to the solid layer.

last day of school

2009-06-03T19:18:00.000-07:00

Today was the last day of school. Well, the last 2 hours to be more precise. With such a short day, the Kindergarten kids joined the big kids in the morning instead of sleeping in and catching the after lunch bus. Zack was less than thrilled as he is NOT a morning person.

The weather was a brisk 52 degrees on this lovely June morning. Can you believe it? Sweatshirts for the last day of school. I wonder if Allie will notice that her little brother is almost as tall as she is when she looks at this picture?

Here they are all swarming the bus, eager to survive the last day. What I should have taken a picture of was the moms looking on with faces that screamed last 2 hours of freedom--what should I do with it?

Now that it is time for summer vacation to begin, I started with a bit of sewing. The kids and I picked up some fun material in the same colors as their beach towels. I stitched up a bag for each kid so they can keep track of their swim gear. It has been a while since I fired up the sewing machine, but it was definitely fun. I am going to leave it out and see if I can use it on some scrap pages this week.

bathroom remodel

2009-06-02T17:38:00.001-07:00

The downstairs bathroom was definitely on the todo list from the first moment we moved in. Bold fixtures in gold, dark paneling, and avocado green flooring left no doubt as to when the room was decorated. Unfortunately, it was not the only room that worked the 70's flair. Shag carpeting in need of a good mowing had to go first. And then there were the lovely green kitchen appliances that headed to the great disco in the sky. One by one rooms were made over and still the downstairs bathroom waited. We outgrew the house and added on an addition, but still the bath waited.

After 10 years of patience, the little bath finally topped the list. We headed in to demolish everything and anything we could find. We found plenty. Four layers of tile in the shower. Five different wallpapers behind the paneling (and none of them pretty). Finally, we were at studs.

You would think with waiting so long to remodel that I would have a ton of ideas, but I had nothing. Not a clue. I googled. I read magazines. I spent hours watching HGTV. Still, nothing. Complete decorating block struck me. I knew that the floor needed to be in a cream tile to continue the look of the adjoining rooms. But that was all I had.

A trip to home depot for paint chips brought inspiration in the form of glass tile. I fell madly in love with a sheet of tiny green, cream, and brown square tiles just perfect for the bottom of the shower. Moments later, Zack spotted just the right vanity (the boy has an eye) in a dark wood with a round front. Finally, we had a plan.

It took me a couple of weeks to put together the little touches after staring at empty shelves, but now it is gorgeous. And just in time for Lauren and Sidney to come for the summer. I am fairly certain moving from 4 people to 6 will have us needing the extra bath space--especially with extra women!

I am so glad to cross this room off the list for good!

Easter Shopping

2009-04-11T20:17:00.001-07:00

It was time to head out for the Easter outfits. Zack knew just what he wanted--what he always wants--"something fancy, Mom." My boy loves a tie, a suit coat, a hat, anything that makes him a sharp dressed man. He would be easy to select something for except I swear he grows nightly and I have no idea what size he is from day to day.

Allie knew what she did NOT want. She put it plainly, "I am not going to look like an Easter egg. No dress, no skirt, no pastels, no ruffles, no lace." Yep. The tomboy years have arrived. I decided it would be best to load them both up and head out to shop.

We headed to the boy section first to handle the easy child and they both fell in love with the EXACT SAME OUTFIT. Here they are all "duded up":

Yes. Same exact suits. Fortunately, Allie decided the look was a bit too much boy and too little her so we headed in for a few feminine touches: lose the tie, add the jewelry, fluff the hair, add the heels. Here is her before and after:

Zack was a little sad that she would not wear the tie. Drew walked in just in time to point out that she is a mini me. Ok, so the white shirt and black vest is a fave look of mine, too. What can I say? I never really outgrew the tomboy myself.

Pretty sure that my "Easter Shoot" will not look like any of my friends, but I loved it all the same. My models are extra stylish in their "fancy clothes!"

Happy Easter, friends! Much love!

Testing Day

2009-02-08T18:33:00.000-08:00

Bright and early on Saturday morning we reported for belt testing. Zack was trying to move from yellow to orange and Allie was taking two tests from white to orange. I was more nervous for Zack--he tends to kick you in the ankles instead of the belt--not a good plan. Allie, on the other hand, is a high kicker and all fired up.

They warmed up together taking turns showing me their kicks:

Next they were lined up for testing. Zack pulled first up out of all 50 kids. How did that happen? He is such a cool customer, though, and jumped right up. He kicked is board in half with not a care in the world. It was Drew's first time at the tests and he was so shocked to see they use real wood and not the practice boards like in class. I wish I could show you photos, but it is a no flash room so we do not distract the kids and he moved so fast it was nothing but a blur.

Moments later, he was standing watching his sister take her turn:

And he clapped hard for her as she broke through double boards. Yes, being at the ripe old age of 9, she had to kick through and punch through twice the width. I held my breath until she was done, naturally.

They moved onto their forms as an entire group and were flawless. It surprises me that Allie can be so precise in her form but through years of dance lessons she simply could not manage to remember her routines. I guess she is right and dance just was not her thing.

What is her thing? Her kicks. She loves them and is so excited that orange belt will include jumping kicks and sparring. Lord help me!

They both passed and will receive their belts next week. And we get to move to the intermediate class (an hour later on Sat mornings!) and we add buying sparring equipment to my todo list for the week. Way to go, Angels! Mommy is so proud of you.

Today's Photoshoot

2009-02-03T18:45:00.000-08:00

Zack loves taking pictures. I know that many people would be shocked to know that I entrust my digi rebel to my six year old son, but I believe in teaching him how and letting him learn and grow in this art form. Right now, we use the tripod for most of his shots. It allows him to have a steady hand and to really set up his shots. He also is not allowed to use the camera without me at this point. I do have a Kodak Easy Share that the kids can use on their own.

Today Zack came home from school and asked if there was enough time for a photo shoot before Tae Kwon Do. There was time. I thought he would gather his Star Wars guys and set up some battles to photograph as this is his current favorite, but he surprised me.

Great, Mom. Can you and Sissie stand over by the fireplace? Oh and have some fun with it.

How fun! He gave us directions and snapped pictures. Because he wanted us standing, he needed to stand on a chair and raise the tripod to its highest level. I really wish I had a shot of him taking our pictures. Maybe next time I will sneak the Kodak out for a few.

Here are the results of his work today:

Wonder what he will want to shoot tomorrow?

Bye bye tooth

2009-01-11T12:40:00.000-08:00

I mean teeth.

My kids both have only had teeth work in pairs. As babies they arrived in pairs and as kids they leave in pairs. But they only leave after the new ones arrive. Right before Christmas, I looked inside Zack's mouth and there they were--2 big teeth right behind his lower baby teeth.

At 6 1/2, he was pretty certain the teeth were never going to come out. But 2 weeks later they were loose and he was having fun twirling them around. Right before the bus arrived, the first one was ready to pluck out. I raced for the camera to snap a quick shot. There is no way for me to have one of those cute gap tooth grins from my kids since the big teeth are already in the way, but I tried.

The next morning he had a fresh 2 dollar bill from the tooth fairy and another tooth popping out. Again right after lunch and before the bus came, we plucked tooth 2. Even with my thumb pulling down his lip, you can barely see a little spot where it is out.

Two down and many more to go. But probably not too soon. After all, at 9 1/2 Allie has only lost 8 total even though many of her classmates are already in braces.

New Year, New Do

2009-01-03T16:19:00.000-08:00

For Allie today. She has been asking for a new look for a couple of weeks now. A "real hairdo" instead of just continuing to grow her hair. She wanted STYLE.

At first the thought of it was hard on me. Allie was completely and totally bald for the first 2 years of her life. No mother has ever been as happy to see hair on her as I was. Honest. But she is definitely coming into her own as a young lady now. She made the decision to pierce her ears and took excellent care of them. She is interested in clothing and puts together wonderful outfits for school. And she really wanted to make her own hair decision.

She looked like this as the day began:

We headed to my salon for a 2:30 appointment with Keirstin. She did a lovely job on my hair and I knew I could trust her with my angel. Allie wanted her hair just to her shoulders with lots of layers. And she wants to grow her bangs back out so they will curve to the side and "hug" her face. She also wanted blue peek a boo highlights, but we need to save something for her teen years so those were out. She got exactly what she wanted and was positively glowing as she left the salon looking like this:

Zack was waiting at the door for us after hearing the garage door open. He was very enthusiastic about her new look--which I could tell was important to her. He does have a wonderful sense of style, after all. Daddy sniffed a bit in true man style about the loss of long hair, but he hid it well.

It was a good day!

look at me! I am scrapping!

2008-12-30T20:22:00.000-08:00

Ahh it feels good to sit down and do a bit of a digi page today. Normally the last 2 days of the month I am running around like a crazy woman working on the magazine; however, it is all done! Early, even!

As a reward, I let myself go shopping in the wonderful digi designs in the Scrapstreet store. I fell in love with Whoville by Ginger Scraps and happily scrapped this layout:

And then I spent an hour or so popping by some of my favorite digi blogs checking in on everyone else's holiday. I found a great drawing over at Rhonna's new blog (click me) and I found a new (to me) inspiration blog (click me).

What an enjoyable evening!

Secret Santa

2008-12-17T18:27:00.000-08:00

Oh what a bad blogger I have been!

ScrapStreet did our annual secret santa and it was tons of fun! I, of course, messed up for the second year in a row. Last year, I sent my gift late. This year, I was early. Still, we all managed to have a ton of fun.

Meesh is amazing at setting up a good time. She has elves and zany ideas and keeps us in stitches even when we are feeling the holiday stress.

My santa started with sending some cushy socks and some yummy lotions. They arrived just in time to start my holiday spirit. A week later were more socks and a cute silver star. And then a gift certificate for scrappy goodies!

I was already spoiled when this arrived:

I just wanted to sit and hold the pretty package for awhile. I am so in love with the gorgeous tote. I have a large obsession with organization and this bin is perfect for me. Look at those wonderful patterns and warm colors.

Inside was a whole spa! Lotions, potions, pedicure and manicure tools and yummies, plus some fabulous silver jewelry, scrappy pretties, and gifts for Allie and Zack. Allie loved her new earrings and necklace and Zack was in heaven with his Star Wars Lego set.

And, if all that wasnt enough, she made me my fave snack in the whole wide world: choc covered pretzels. The family keeps looking at me with puppy dog eyes, but I am not sharing.

So, who was my Secret Santa? The fabulous Brianne. I adore her and have felt such a connection since we first met. She really feels like a little sister or like the Sex & The City gal pal that would have rounded out my single years. Oh the trouble we would have found. I feel so blessed to have her in my life. Thanks, sugar!

Zack's new room

2008-11-04T18:54:00.000-08:00

As we completed Allie's room, Zack stepped right up to begin the planning of his room. He was more than ready to leave behind the nautical nursery in favor of a "fancy" room. His favorite colors have not wavered since he first learned his colors: black, white, and gray. At first, I thought maybe he might be color blind, but he is not. He simply loves the classics. When asked why, he will tell you that they match everything.

As we searched through magazines and online sites searching for ideas, he was drawn to rooms in these three shades but with pops of bright colors. He debated between red, lime green, and orange finally selecting orange. When I mentioned it to Drew, he rolled his eyes and said incredulously, "a Halloween room?" I assured him that we could make it less than scary.

We started with painting horizontal lines just like Zack's favorite shirts (yes, that was with an s) keeping black around the window as a feature. With a strong neutral base, we were able to have fun with the orange pops--and can easily change them out if his color changes later. My favorite is the layered rugs with round oranges on the black and white stripes. Here is the view from the doorway:

We did a good bit of "recycling" in the room. I recovered this chair in black cord and repainted the bookcase from my office. We still need to merchandise the shelves, but I just couldn't wait to share! This is his reading nook:

Wall art for a mere $20. I used postcards from Ikea; each one has little squares of numbers on them in colors that coordinate with the room. Zack loves his numbers! They alternate with mirrors which appeal to his desire for a bit of sparkle in everything. They decorate the wall above his bed.

The last wall is his new built in desk. I used two shelving units (which used to hold my scrap papers until I got a new closet unit for my own birthday) and one piece of coated wood cut by the friendly folks at Home Depot for me. Two extra brackets keep it safe and a smidge of caulk made it look finished. I am still working on desk accessories, but the magnetic strips and board are a great start. There is a rolling office chair (just like daddy's) tucked in there. Allie gave it a test drive with her homework today and declared it perfect.

There you have it. A room simply perfect for my boy. And arguably the best decorated room in my entire house. He definitely has style!

Allie's earrings

2008-10-24T17:25:00.001-07:00

This week was a big one at our house. Allie decided she wanted her ears pierced, much to the surprise of the rest of us.

Many times, I have told Allie the story of getting my own ears pierced. The rule in our family was that you had to wait until you were 13 years old. I waited. I did not want to, but I did. On my birthday, we headed to the mall for the big event. My tummy jumped with excitement as I chose my earrings--the ones I would get to wear the next week on the first day of school. I was the last girl in my class to have my ears done.

Moments after having my ears done, my dad turned to my 11 year old sister and asked if she wanted hers done too. I about fainted. Of course, she jumped at the chance to break the rule. I decided at that exact moment that my daughter could have her ears pierced anytime she wanted.

Perhaps some people would have changed their mind about such a thing as they aged, but not me. I wanted it to be my daughter's decision. The first time Allie brought it up, she was six. And she decided not to have them done. Last year, Zack chattered on and on about a little girl in his class with her "sparkly" ears. Allie thought about it again, but decided no.

This week, she asked if she could have them done now. I asked if there was a reason why she was interested. The answer: "I just think it is time." We headed to the calendar and found that Friday was our first day with available time for a trip to the mall. All week I waited for her to forget or change her mind, but instead she grew more and more excited.

She skipped home from the bus and raced into the house already calling out my name. "Let's go, Mom!"

Likety split, we were out of there. During the twenty minute drive to the mall, she told me how her tummy wasn't even nervous yet. Allie is a big one on listening to her tummy. It tells her when something is going to be too dangerous. So far, the tummy was not even upset.

We parked and walked into the mall heading for Libby Lou--her favorite store in the whole wide world. We stopped outside to look at the ear piercing sign and give her a chance to back out. "The tummy is only a little nervous now, Mom, we are good."

She chose multi-colored flower earrings in gold. While we waited for the paperwork, I snapped our before shot:

We filed the paperwork and made dots on her ears picking the perfect spots. Amanda, our trusty sales lady, held the gun to her ear. I held my camera. Allie held onto the arms of the chair. One, Two, Three and it was done. Switch to the other side and zip it was all over.

Allie was just glowing! She was so proud of herself for making the choice and sticking with it all the way to the end. And she loves the look of her sparkles. As we were leaving the store, she was already on the phone calling Grammy to spread the news!

Of course, we had to celebrate the day with a little shopping. We both added a pair of boots to our shoe collection. Allie found a darling hat. I added a new sweater and a couple of pairs of pants. A successful trip all around.

I love having a daughter!

A Bit of Paris

2008-10-13T09:03:00.000-07:00

We survived! We spent the entire weekend working, but we finished Allie's room. We started it for her 8th birthday (ok, so she is 9 now, what's your point?) and then we left the final touches undone. The ones that really make it a complete room. So this weekend, we hauled the already purchased fabric out of the back of my craft closet and got to work.

The built in shelves got a fresh coat of white paint and some serious editing. We also finished the valence and stitched up some new pillows for the window seat. Spray painting the baskets black and adding tags really completed the look.

The vanity is a huge improvement! We added in some small drawers under the shelf to organize all her Allie's hair and jewelry items. Then we stitched up this darling full skirt. The stool fits underneath when not in use.

The bed is curtained all around now with new pillows hidden inside. The picture is not as strong, but the delight on Allie's face as she hides inside her lounge more than makes up for it.

It was a long weekend, but it is so worth it! Of course, Zack has plans for his room, too. I need a nap!

a boy and his shoes

2008-09-29T19:57:00.001-07:00

Zack has very strong opinions on his style. He prefers solid color on color ensembles--blue shorts with blue top instead of blue shorts with a white top. He also is into a couple of pairs of slip on tennis shoes. One set he found at Target and wore all summer until a neighbor brought over a hand me down pair from her son.

From that moment on, it was all about the "checker shoes." Black and white are his favorite colors (don't get me started--we have an ongoing discussion on why he cannot have a bedroom with black walls and white marble tile floor. The boy is SIX!) so these shoes are everything he could want in a pair.

We were waiting for the bus when he asked me to head back in and grab my camera for a "shoe shoot." Yep. The boy has my number. He had a ball spinning and kicking in the shoes. I cannot wait to make a layout to capture this memory.

I am certain with such a stylish son, I will have many a layout dedicated to his changing "looks." And I am looking forward to it!

rain, rain go away!

2008-09-19T19:23:00.000-07:00

It rained all week long, but when the sun peeked out long enough for me to get on a plane and make it safely to Pittsburgh for Erin's wedding. Mom's flight also made it out of the rain on time. It was wonderful to get to spend some time with her. I cannot remember the last time we were together without the kids. We had such a good time!

Right before the wedding, Drew called to let me know our house was washing away. After a few minutes of questioning and calming him down and we figured out that what was really happening was around 6 inches of water in our lower level. Eeek! That would be our family room, playroom, game room, and my scrap room. I went on to the wedding and reception and he went to work with the wet vac.

On Sunday, I got an earlier flight home to help. The yard was a complete swamp and the water was still coming in. It rained the first half of Sunday, keeping it coming. We finally got all of the water up in time for Sunday night football. Monday morning brought more rain and more work. I spent most of the week alternating between scrubbing and drying everything in sight.

Allie loved having a swamp in the backyard. This is a shot of her playing Monday afternoon. Much of the water in the yard receded by then, but there was still enough for her to splash around in. How could I not see the bright side of the rain with such a bright child in my life. She is my own ray of sunshine!

hide and seek

2008-09-03T20:06:00.001-07:00

Zack loves the 15 minutes we spend playing outside before his bus comes. First, he picks all of the dandelions he can find and we blow the "old" ones and use the yellow ones to color a patch on the sidewalk. He calls it our sunshine spot since it is tinged with a bit of dandelion dye.

After that, Zack is ready for a bit of hide and seek. See how good he is at it:

We do a bit of running around trying to catch each other. Of course, when I catch him, I get to tickle him until he squeals at me. Pretty soon we see the lights of the bus at the stop before us and he turns to me all serious to give me my reminder, "Mom, I will wave to you from my seat. Make sure you are at the bus stop after school to ask about my day."

I reassure him that I will and he hops right up those big steps looking oh so young. Tomorrow, I work and Drew will be in charge of getting Zack onto the bus. I wonder what they do for fun first?

that's my girl!

2008-08-25T20:24:00.000-07:00

Snapped this picture of my nutty daughter having her after school snack today. She insists she was so worn out from her rough Monday that she couldn't even lift her glass. I have to give her credit for using her problem solving skills! Wonder how many straws she fit together for that kind of reach?

Digi kit is Shabby Pickle Cherry Pick'en.

Back 2 School

2008-08-23T19:41:00.000-07:00

The time has come! This week was the first week of school for my angels.

Allie is a fourth grader (where did the time go?) and is in Mrs. Carter's class. She was very excited to have her since she is the adviser for the 5th grade Drama Club and my little actress wants to start brown nosing already. Allie was a bit bummed to be separated from all her best buddies from last year, but is already telling tales about her new friends. She is, after all, a social butterfly.

Zack started his very first day of Kindergarten on Tuesday. It was bring your mom with day and we had fun touring his classroom and finding his way around the school. Then he had Wednesday off to "recover". But when Thursday dawned he was more than ready for the bus to arrive to take him to school. So ready, in fact, that he began asking if it was time for lunch about 20 minutes after he finished breakfast! Soon enough, the bus came and off my baby went.

I would like to say I spent the next hour sniffling and pondering how my little pumpkin was surviving without me, but the truth is I headed for a nap. I had my own back to school dinner and meetings and such stretching out late that night.

Zack is in a total Spanish immersion program taking him from Kindergarten through 5th grade with the goal of providing him a completely bilingual experience. We are thrilled for him to have such a wonderful opportunity. Each day he is teaching the rest of the family something new. How cool is that?

It's a summer thing!

2008-07-31T19:43:00.000-07:00

Super hot day. One hose. Two kids. And endless hours of fun. I swear my kids will play with the hose until the entire yard is a marsh. They swap out all the different sprinkler heads that we own and take turns running, leaping, giggling, and tasting. In the end, they turn back to the traditional--the plain old regular hose. And they love it.

Summer just rocks!

Allie's birthday!

2008-07-25T18:14:00.001-07:00

Is it possible that my baby is really NINE? She is pretty sure, but I think we must have counted wrong. Where did these last few years go? zoooooooooooom!

We had a Hannah Montana day--watch, tshirt, dolls (looks like barbie to me), doll clothes. All Hannah, all day. Everything except music. For that she prefers Taylor Swift.

Here is the birthday girl:

broken ribs suck!

2008-07-21T14:41:00.000-07:00

ok, so this is not the first time I have broken a bone. I have done the arm. the toes. a finger or two. No, I am not a total clutz, but an athlete is going to be injured. When you break something it hurts. A whole lot. But then, you cast or splint it, baby it, and it only hurts when you bop into something or touch it a bit too hard.

Ribs are NOT the same. You are not allowed to baby them since if you do not breathe with nice full lungs, you will breed lovely lung mucus. Ick! So you have to keep breathing and are not permitted to wrap or cast those ribs. And with every breath, the darn ribs move and they hurt. I am 5 days into this injury and let me tell you, it is not at all fun!

Oh, are you lost? My bad, let me back up a bit.

On Sunday, I played my usual beach volleyball. Three games with the team and then three games pick-up. The team games rarely include collisions since the boys on my team know that I will cover my area just fine. But sometimes in the pick-up games, people come over to "help" and there is a crash. Had one and it hurt, but I thought I just bruised my ribs.

Monday and Tuesday, they were sore. Wednesday was the next game. Played just fine, but noticed that when we would have a good volley and my breathing would get deeper, it would hurt. Kept playing. After 6 games, I headed home and couldnt even get into the shower. Was afraid I would pass out.

Off to the emergency room I went to discover what had probably been cracked ribs on Sunday were now broken ribs. Two of them on my right side. As I am right handed, this means anytime I do anything with my right hand, it is going to hurt.

Vicodin was the drug prescribed and off I went. Took two and started the final preparations to get my house ready for company. A bit of sweeping and mopping and bed making. A few errands. All good. 4 hours later--another pill and into the car to pick up all my friends. Dinner and giggles (which hurt even with the meds) and off for another pill and sleep.

Morning on Friday brought breakfast and a pill. Off to the Craft and Hobby Association trade show for a day on my feet wandering around. Luckily, my girls did the fetch and carry portion for me. Had lunch and another pill. Following all the rules--actually taking less meds than prescribed.

Halfway through Friday, it happened. One of the ladies flipped around with her arms full of goody bags and nailed me dead on in the ribs. Saw stars. Saw my life pass in front of my eyes. Saw the white light and was heading towards it in a hurry. Friends dragged me back and into the food court. What was open? Ice cream and nachos. Went for ice cream and a pill.

NOT A GOOD IDEA.

Pretty darn quick, we were in the car with Katy driving heading for home. And I was GREEN. Teeth were sweating, body clammy, end was near. And we were in a construction express zone. No exit for 12 miles, no shoulder, no salvation. I am trying to lower the window. EEEk! child locks! Trying to empty a bag, but no time! yep. tossed my ice cream all over myself in the car. Lordy, was that embarrassing. Oh and messy.

Got home and spent the rest of the night running to purge. Tried just a simple tylenol the next day and that worked out no better. Had to go cold turkey. Trust me, the pain of tossing those cookies is nothing to sneeze at. And you really do not want to sneeze.

So that brings us to Monday. I survived class. I survived playtime with the kids. I hurt with every breath.

And I do not care if I sound like a baby whining about it!

silly sleeping children

2008-07-14T20:25:00.000-07:00

Here are my darling babies having one of their summer sleepovers. They absolutely love to giggle themselves to sleep and take turns "hosting" the party. Poor angel is one confused kitty hunting for her mama each night. I am pretty sure that she would prefer Allie to stay in her own bed every night. They are so cute all snuggled up together:

Of course, if you look at it from another angle, you can see that this sleepover missed the bed. Yep, they started out in the bed with the trundle pulled out, but decided that was no fun. They grabbed their video game cushion--big round one and squeezed in together.

Summer game

2008-07-11T21:04:00.000-07:00

Tonight we went to check out the DuPage Dragons baseball game. Everyone should be required to spend one beautiful summer evening watching a semi pro or college ball game. Honestly. It was good family fun--felt like we turned back the hands of time. Kids were able to play in a field in sight while we watched the game and chattered together. We felt comfortable sending them to the concession stand alone. They ran the bases and had baseball signed by the team members. A little slice of perfection.

Here is a picture of me. Ok, of my wristband (yes, I got carded!). And of the hand blended margarita (so strong! yum!). And my front row seat (yes that is the dugout my drink is sitting on).

and a shot of Zack in front of the field sporting his brand new Cubs hat. He may only be six, but that is a hat purchased today from the men's department of Walmart. The boy has a huge melon!

And my little princess with her pink hat and braids looking like a diva. Of course, she sat still for only long enough to wolf down some food and then she was off and running barefoot through the fields like the tomboy she really is. Go girl!

Welcome to the world, little one

2008-07-11T20:49:00.000-07:00

Here she is: Hannah Mary. Arriving on July 3, just after 1:30pm. Big sister Isa will be thrilled to be a big sister just as soon as she understands what that means. Mom and Hannah are home now and doing beautifully. Here is a picture of Allie holding Hannah for the very first time at just one day old. Already she is in love!

Happy 4th!

2008-07-04T15:07:00.001-07:00

My favorite holiday is here! I wish you all the best of everything today--best bbq, fireworks, weather, and fun! We started the day with our annual bike parade and penny carnival. I run the carnival every year with lots of help from mom who flies in to run our prize table. The kids play games like puttputt, duck pond, horseshoes, football toss, and a bunch more of the same. They win tickets that they trade in for patriotic prizes. Every one has a blast. We had around 70 kids from babies to teens. Thank goodness the teens take turns running the games for me!

Here are Allie and Zack from today. He drove his jeep in the parade. It was a compromise--I wanted him to be able to ride his bike, but he is just a smidge away from ready for that. I did NOT want him pulled in the wagon by Daddy. Driving the jeep was the middle ground.

Happy 4th, my friends!

Happy Birthday Zack!

2008-06-27T19:10:00.001-07:00

I cannot believe my baby is six today! When people used to say that your kids will grow up in the blink of an eye, I thought they were insane. Of course, at the time I was desperate for sleep since my darling boy seemed to never go more than a couple hours at a time. I was certain that each day took twice as long as it was supposed to and the nights were even longer.

But somewhere along the way (definitely after potty training since that was a loooong stretch) time began to speed up. Now, the days zip by with lots of giggles and new adventures. I love watching Zack be so excited about each thing that he learns. He has such a sweet heart and a fun way of looking at everything.

Here he is showing me just how old he is today:

My new snack

2008-06-24T12:12:00.000-07:00

Hold onto your hats, friends o' mine. I have a new favorite snack that you will never believe! I have gone mad over edamame--a Japanese soybean. You boil it and then sprinkle with the spice of your choice and suck the beans out of the pods. I am using bbq spice and am eating half a pound at a sitting. Fabulous summer snack.

ok, it tastes and looks nothing like m&m's, but it is yummy just the same. Guess those staying at Hotel Dora next month will get a chance to find out. Don't worry ladies, after a few of my frozen cosmos, you will think they are m&m's!

such a sad blogger

2008-06-22T15:25:00.000-07:00

I am. Really. Ok, back to trying to stay up to date.

I spent last night scrapping digi pages and had such fun! I finally scrapped my most recent favorite picture of Allie in the dandelions. I planned to journal a bit more, but the perfect sentence came to me so I stopped there. I am sure I will print it and do it in paper, too.

I used products from Shabby Miss Jenn--Weeds n Wildflowers, Sunshine, and Flowerstand.

Today was back to school day for me. I picked up a summer class that will run for the next 8 weeks starting tomorrow morning bright and early. I am excited about it, but prepping a new class is always time consuming. Spent several hours today finishing reading my text and completing my syllabus. Fun, but looooong.

Down, but not out

2008-04-29T16:22:00.001-07:00

hmmm who will check in here when they see the site is down?

Ok, Street Sisters, we are temporarily down right now. Take a few deep breaths. I have sent a help plea to Tony and hopefully he should flip the switch to give us more bandwidth in a few.

see, we got a smidge too popular lately. Mag is getting over one million hits per month. Site has been hopping. Fun is being had. We have upped the bandwidth each month to try to stay ahead of it, but as the end of the month draws near, we find we misjudged our needs again.

so good news/bad news.

Tony! hurry. people are emailing me at an alarming rate. *passes out chocolate*

hold on honeys!

gotta have friends

2008-04-27T12:44:00.000-07:00

Today's challenge is all about friends. hmm. I was always the kinda gal who had one girlfriend and a whole batch of guy friends. Why? Because guys were more fun. No drama. No mess. No weird passive/aggressive games. They just wanted to have fun.

Then, I got married and having guy friends got a bit strange. Oh, my husband's friends were fun and allowed, but making new guy friends seemed to be crossing some unmentioned married line. Luckily for me, the frat boys took over the house next door and became new friends with a hubby approval pass. Saves all those potential sticky moments, ya know.

Once married and heading down the mom and wife path, girl friends became far more important. You NEED someone who can laugh at what a moron your hubby is with you. And she can laugh because hers is EXACTLY the same. Yep. You need someone in the trenches with you. So, I started looking around and finding gals with similar interests and a similar dread of the drama.

Along the way, a strange and wonderful thing happened. I ended up without friends, but with sisters. Yes, indeedy. I still have my special sister of the heart from childhood. Hi, Katy! And I have my street sisters. Girls that I met online and should be just "imaginary friends" as my son describes them. But, they are not. They are the first people I talk to in the morning, the last ones I whisper to before bed. They are the ones who giggle at all the stories of my life and tease me about all my blond ways. (I know, Linda, plugging the slow cooker in does help with the dinner success.) They are the ones liable to give me a call or drop me a little happy mail (beware of wax candy!) just exactly when I need it most. They motivate me, inspire me, cry with me, laugh at me, and love me for just who I am.

Wow, I am such a lucky girl. Smooches!

Say goodbye to clutter

2008-04-25T07:04:00.000-07:00

Love today's challenge! I admit that I used to be the worst packrat. Nothing could leave my house since I was sure I would need it someday. And then my house was sooooooooo overstocked that I couldn't find anything I needed. Horrible circle that was to be caught in.

In most every area of my house, I keep only the bare minimum. Cept for one. Can you guess?

Yep. The scrap room. I know I still keep more stuff here than I really NEED. But that is what this challenge month is all about, right? Meesh tells me that she is almost out of scrap supplies and actually needs her kit this month. As in can't scrap if she doesn't get it. How proud am I of her. Ok, so I know that she lives an hour away from any shopping and would never have gotten in this predicament if not for that. Still, she could have chosen to hold onto her precious supplies so she didn't run out, but instead she whipped them out and scrapped them. She is my SHERO!

How to rid myself of the clutter? Scrap! Bringing things out and putting them in the use it or RAK it pile. And scrapping every day, too. Big crop weekend this weekend and next weekend. Bet I can make a big dent in my clutter.

smooches!

Re: Re

2008-04-23T15:57:00.000-07:00

So today's challenge is to RE. rethink, redefine, & renew.

hmmm. what to do with this?

My area of change was to be a better blogger. Think I am going to need more. Think I will challenge myself to be a daily scrapper.

I used to be really good at this. Always had a page going and would finish one at least every other day. Then, I started second guessing. Is the page good enough? Is it cutting edge? Is it publish worthy? Now, I was not submitting them anywhere, but I still wanted to them to be good enough in case I changed my mind and found the perfect call and yadayaydayayada. (ok, so I am a little insane, but you knew that).

ReThink: I am going to rethink the way I scrap. I am challenging myself to always have a page actively going on my desk. I loved being a hit and run scrapper--do a bit, leave it, do a bit more.

Taking a challenge

2008-04-22T16:48:00.000-07:00

Here I am being a horrible blogger again. It is not like I do not have a ton of stuff to say--yall know that you can't shut me up--I just forget to save something for her.

Bri to the rescue! She has made it a 30 day challenge of sorts. I adore a good challenge so here I am ready to take it on. Love you, Bri!

Today is about change. This is something I have thought a lot about lately. I made the healthy change last month--joined the healthclub and committed to going 3x a week. Joined the Frat Boys volleyball team for 2 more days a week of activity. Started grocery shopping every other week instead of every week (less snack buying that way) and are cooking meals instead of driving thru for them. Go me!

But there is always room for more change. What to pick? I know! Regular blogging will be my change right now. Can I do it? sure! will I? stay tuned . . .

Eeek!

2008-03-30T17:12:00.000-07:00

Look at me being a bad blogger! More than a week since I have been in here--and we all know that it is not because I am not online.

hmmm guess I better catch up on details.

ScrapStreet is running the Star contest and I am loving watching all the talented women scrap my crazy challenges. You know I love trying to figure out ways to get everyone scrapping on top of the box while shouting "crazy chick" at me at the top of their lungs.

Because Meesh either loves or hates me, she got me to agree to submit 5 pages each month to places other than the street. Over the past 6 months I was scrapping less than 5 pages a month so I did really need the kick in the pants. I did finish them this month, but only emailed them out moments ago. whew.

It was spring break for me this week and the average temp was around 35. sigh. I am sooooooo ready to be warm. Really really ready.

I did scrap a little something to share here today. My Alie and her indoor tulips--she just couldnt wait for the snow to melt and the outside ones to bloom. Happy Day, Friends!

Remembering

2008-03-13T17:04:00.000-07:00

Today is a rough one for me. It is the second anniversary of the day my little brother passed away. Ivan was amazing, frustrating, silly, talented, loving, generous, annoying--all of the things a baby brother should be. He was a Navy man, a Special Education assistant, an Animal Rescue Worker, an Artist, a Musician, and a variety of other jobs all before he turned 26.

He was working at an animal preserve as a volunteer on a hot Florida day. He came in for a cold beverage, passed out, and hit his head. Exactly what caused the accident was never quite clear; perhaps heat stroke or simple exhaustion. His brain swelled and he suffered from the after effects of a traumatic brain injury from that point on. He was never again without pain, without a ringing in his ears, without medication for seizures and other problems. He suffered from short term memory loss and could no longer live alone since he was apt to forget he was cooking and leave the stove going or forget if he took his medication and take too little or too much.

For the next few years, Ivan lived with my sister Lisa and with my mom and then with me. It was not easy for any of us. My sister and I both had small children to care for, husbands who had not signed on for extra family members, and all of the frustrations of our own lives to deal with--but we managed. While living with me, Ivan was able to take some art courses at one of the colleges I teach at and I know that it helped him if only for a bit.

His death was unexpected. Early after his accident, we were prepared to lose him almost every day, but that fades with time. He was managing, although not improving. New research into TBI issues were being heavily invested in by a variety of hospitals since so many soldiers were returning home with the same problems. There was hope. And then he was gone. And my heart was broken. The hardest part for me is that I cannot remember the last words I said to him. I know it was a phone call a couple of weeks before that day, but I cannot remember and I so wish I could.

I see Ivan every single day in the face of Zack. It is impossible not to as he looks so very much like him. Zack was only a baby when Ivan came to stay with us and Uncle Ivan was too much of a mouthful so he ended up with Cool-Cool. And it fit perfectly. He was just so very cool.

Here they are Ivan and Zack both at about the same age:

And here was one of Ivan from the last summer he was with us:

Thank you, friends, for all the love and support you gave me then and today. I cannot express how grateful I am to have friends who go the extra mile to make me feel like everything is going to be ok. I love you all. And, Ivan, I miss you.

One day later . . .

2008-03-12T13:22:00.001-07:00

The repair man came from Sears and made the fridge all better. The bill was a bit painful, but I am just going to think of all the good Sears does for the Extreme Home Improvement show and know that I just did my part. When he finished, Repair Guy made the suggestion, "I wouldn't buy a full fridge of groceries just yet. Just in case. Start small."

Ok, so just the high priority items. Welcome to my fridge:

Can I offer you a Coke?

And then there are days . . .

2008-03-11T16:37:00.000-07:00

when the giggles just keep on coming.

The morning began with the alarm blaring at 6:30am. Already my mind was cursing the spring forward plan and missing that extra hour of sleep. I know that the clocks changed two days ago, but for us night owls, it takes a while to get there.

I stumbled to the kitchen to start some waffles before waking the kids. Tuesday is an 8am class day which means leaving the house by 7:15 with both kids, all our bookbags, breakfast in hand, and smiling faces. Not an easy chore on a normal day. As I am scanning the freezer for the waffles, I notice a wet sensation around my feet. Soggy socks. I look down to see a river of melted ice cream has flowed from the bottom and is racing across the kitchen floor. It is then that I realized the freezer is not at all cold.

utoh. I open the fridge side to find the same fate. Warm milk and spoiled everything. A quick glance at the clock reveals no time to clean. Cannot actually call my Dean and tell her the midterm will not be given today on account of spilled milk.

I make toast, slap some pnut butter on it, and shout for the kids to get moving. Snag some juice boxes and fresh socks and we are out the door without a minute to spare.

3 exams and 6 hours later and I am back home to deal with the kitchen. But it is not just the kitchen. I open the door to the house and the smell overwhelms me. What the heck IS that? I step in and begin walking up the stairs noticing my feet sticking. I make it to the kitchen to find that our three cats found the spilled ice cream to be far more of a reason for celebration than I did. Footprints led every which way. Over the couch and through the bathroom--sticky residue all over the house.

I rolled up my sleeves, grabbed the swiffer and got to work. 15 minutes later, I found the first pile. Oh goody, cat vomit. Always a pleasure. 10 minutes and one room later I found another problem--cat diarrhea--joy of joys. I kept cleaning; they kept spewing. I was outnumbered. For such little creatures, they sure can create volume amounts of ick.

And, to top it all off, it is my super Tuesday. The day where I stockpiled oodles of kids lessons thinking having the other days off would be fun. So out I go to drop one at religion class. Back home to tackle a room. Out to drop the next one off at Library Crafts. Pick the other back up and head back to clean another room only to find the first room is freshly christened again. Pick up at the library, drive thru dinner (hello! empty fridge), drop off at dance class and back home for more torture. One final pick up and I can now head for a much needed shower.

As of this second, I am ahead of the cat caravan, but I need to type quickly because it may not last. Wish me luck.

oh, and go ahead and giggle--I dont mind. Just please, keep your ice cream to yourself.

Another Saturday Night . . .

2008-03-10T16:09:00.001-07:00

Ok, so for me it was a Saturday afternoon. Each weekend, ScrapStreet comes alive with scrapping challenges. Once a month, we have a good old fashioned Street Fair with games, giggles, challenges, and prizes. Other weekends it is more of a laid back scrap night--with an occasional bingo thrown in for fun. This Sat, I was in charge and chose to make it a challenge night. Two different options--Journal Journey or Bloggin Baby--each with 5 challenges to complete if you wanted bragging rights and the winning blinkie.

Of course, when the idea hit me, I spaced that we were hosting the frat boys and fratlings for a card night. How could I forget that? Kids were even having a sleep over. The race was on. Complete 5 challenges, straighten the house, pull together some snacks, answer the "how many more minutes, mommy?" question repeatedly, and stay sane. Somehow, I made it!

The layout challenge was create one in the same colors as your blog, must have journaling, and must be about you. Whew! Zack took this picture of me earlier in the week (yes, I do let my 5yo handle my Rebel!) and the supplies are from this month's kit featuring October Afternoon. I am so in love with turquoise, orange, green, and yellow as I beg for spring to arrive.

Journaling says: This photo was taken by Zack at age five. He will only agree to pose for me if I pose for him. And often his pictures are the better ones. 3/1/o8

Life in a vacuum

2008-03-08T12:01:00.000-08:00

Ezra Pound, a famous poet and literary critic, once stated, "Literature does not exist in a vacuum." His point was that you can never understand a story just by reading the words on the page. It is infused with the history, politics, and art of the time, as well as the author's own life. It is not what it is, but so much more.

Throughout the years since he first uttered these words, they have been transfered to refer to Art, People, Life; essentially used to point out that Nothing exists in a vacuum. (of course, if you want to go all housekeeping small change and dust bunnies exist in my vacuum). But if I stay in the philosophical, this is actually one of my favorite parts of the internet--my scrapbooking is not in a vacuum. Had I not had a community of people to challenge me, to critique my work, to teach me, to giggle over my failures and happy dance my successes, where would my scrapping be?

I am pretty sure, it would be tucked away on a shelf with other crafts that I got bored with and only visit occasionally. Crochet, candle-making, beading, quilting, embroidery all claim spots on these shelves and tend to only jump down when a specific gift is requested. Instead, scrapping claims most of my office area. My best friends are my scrap buddies, my most tortuous daily moments are scrap stories, my neighborhood is a scrap soap, my kids are scrap models. And my vacuum, well, it sits lonely in the corner waiting for my husband to come along and show it some love.

One of our current ScrapStreet calls is to use paint. I love paint, but rarely have had luck using it in my scrapping. Still, I took up the challenge--mostly because Zack said something just to perfect and it screamed for me to try again. Here it is:

Now, let's be honest. This was one of those priceless things that came out of my 5yo son's mouth as we were racing through the early morning get to school and work rush. It was not a photo time and might have been a forgotten moment if I was living in that vacuum. But instead, it was a post on ScrapStreet. And then it was a photoshoot. And then it was a layout answering a challenge. This is often how I scrap--my pages start with the story more often than they start with the photo.

My first game of tag.

2008-03-08T06:51:00.000-08:00

Seven Random Things About Me.
here how it works:
1. Link to the person that tagged you and leave a comment on their blog, so that their readers can visit yours. Meesh tagged me!
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share 7 Random facts about yourself on your blog.
4. Tag 7 random people at the bottom of your post, linking to their blog.
Let each person know by leaving a comment on their blog.

7 Random things about me...

1. I have my belly button double pierced.
2. I can tap dance--really well.
3. I never need to drink cause I am crazy enough sober--and will dance on bars, tables, etc.
4. Most weeks, I read 5 novels for fun.
5. I am completely addicted to television.
6. I am a nerd. really! I adore school and studying and like long division.
7. I hate to swim. blech!

Ok... so I did it! and am accepting that tagging is part of this whole blog thing so yes , this time I am going to Tag people... except all of the bloggers I know have already been tagged. Yep. I am a blog baby and have a small circle so far.

I could tag students, but somehow that seems wrong so I am stuck being it. Off to see about making new friends!

Big Girl Glasses

2008-02-26T16:04:00.000-08:00

I did it. I headed to Target today and bought grown up bar ware. For some reason, when Drew and I registered for wedding stuff, bar glasses did not make our list. We had 3 mismatched wine glasses, a couple of novelty shot glasses, your basic household tall drink glasses, and a variety of plastic cups. Sad, I know.

Drew likes to drink his Captain and Diet Coke in a 32oz brightly colored Target plastic cup. Makes me giggle. You know the ones, right? The ones that just scream SPRING at you as you wander the isle dressed in your winter coat, hat, and boots certain that the snow will never leave and the sun will never shine again. You see them and your hands reach out and you grasp them to your poor frozen chest. Just the act of putting them into your cart gives you a breath of hope that someday soon you could be sitting in the yard in shorts watching the kids play with the hose while you sip an ice cold glass of something. So you buy them. Not because you need more cups, but because you need the promise of spring. These are my hubby's drinking cups enjoyed all year long and definitely ready for replacing by the time the next ones call to me.

But this year, after placing the fabulous new cups into my cart I took a detour into the glass ware. And I bought a nice simple box of big girl glasses. 4 beer steins, 4 wine glasses, 4 shot glasses, 4 martini glasses, and a mixing container with strainer. Yes, I did. And then (on some sort of cocktail possibility high) I headed over to the alcohol isle and picked up the ingredients for lemon drop cocktails. *snap* oh yes, I did. On a Tuesday. And I am having one tonight.

Recipe: 2 shots vodka (citrus one if you can)
1 shot sour mix
1 shot sprite
shake with ice and strain into glass.

and if you want to get fancy, put sugar on the rim of your glass.

As soon as the kids are in bed, I am pulling up a cocktail and settling in for a bit of American Idol and some relaxation. Grown up drink in a grown up glass--not that I do not remember the lemon drop body shots of my youth fondly, but in this case, grown up feels good.

Cheers!

my photo studio

2008-02-20T13:11:00.000-08:00

Making a photo studio has been on my todo list for quite some time. Reading this month's Scrapstreet mag (yes, I do read it too!) really had me eager to get to work. I was having some trouble finding the seamless photo paper anywhere close to me, so I sent a note to our photo dude, James, and he sent me to Dick Blick art supply.

Since I am not going to be doing large group shoots, a 4 ft wide by 50 ft long roll of paper would be just right for me. I headed over to the local store--only 15 min from my house and I had no clue they were there. I purchased 3 different rolls of Tru-Brite art paper: red, blue, and black for $21 each. Next stop was Home Depot for a thin piece of PVC pipe, 2 lengths of chain, and 2 hooks. Total: $9.

Zack and I took all of 15 minutes to hang our photo studio. Used the power drill to poke 2 holes in each end of the pipe and some needle nose pliers to close the chain on one end. I left the other end open so I can trade out the paper easily. Total cost if I chose only one color of paper would have been $30. Here is a glimpse:

And my first couple of shots of Zack:

Allie just got home from school and raced upstairs to change into something for her photo shoot. Excuse me! Gotta run!

Better to give than to take

2008-02-18T16:03:00.000-08:00

Every Mommy has a little something different in their bag of tricks. We have to, after all, to stay ahead of the fray. One of my tricks is the "sorry gift" or "minutes". Let's face it--everyone hurts a loved one now and again. And when you have siblings, the now and again can come every few moments. So we moms need something in place to turn the tide.

I tend to use a lot of the same tricks that I used as a teacher with my kids--mostly because I know they worked and because I understand the psychology behind them. This one always managed to confuse students and then to strengthen bonds. In class, I called it simply "minutes."

If a student wrongs another--teasing, pulling out a chair, namecalling, etc.--typical teacher response is to punish the student that is committing the action. He took something from someone else so you take something from him. It is the "eye for an eye" mentality and is a method as old as time. It is also one that students expect. By high school, they know the punishment and commit the crime already willing to endure it (if they get caught). Early on in my teaching career, I flipped it on them. Instead of taking something away from the student, they had to give something to the student they wronged. They owed them "minutes". Perhaps 15 minutes to do flashcards or to study for a vocab quiz. Perhaps time to peer edit. Repeat offenders could end up owing lunchtime to cleaning a locker or teaching a new dance move.

Think I am crazy? You aren't the first, I promise. But it works. The students learn that if they torture someone, they will then "owe" him or her and they hate being in debt to another. And often, they would bond and realize that the person they were picking on was a real person--with feelings and intelligence. Sometimes the oddest of friendships grew from some minute requests. And I was always impressed by the things students chose.

At home, I do this with my kids. If Allie swipes Zack's outfit, she owes him 30 minutes. And he gets to choose what he has to do--anything from one of her chores to spending some special time with him. If Zack breaks one of her toys, he owes her. And if Mommy speaks crossly when she shouldn't or forgets something she promised to do, then mommy must pay up too. Works great with the hubby as well. Some of our best memories started with one owing the other some minutes. I had to learn to golf once. He had to plant roses. Giving and growing together.

So, friends, got tricks? I would love to hear all about them.

Better In Blue

2008-02-17T15:50:00.000-08:00

During our latest shopping trip, we discovered that Zack and Allie can now wear some of the same sizes. He may be 3 years younger, but baby brother is growing fast. Both can fit in a size 7 in tshirts and workout pants, which happens to be both of their favorite outfits. They each chose 3 new suits and we headed home all happy.

Fast forward to a week later and Allie bounces downstairs wearing her brother's new pants and hoody. "Excuuuuse me," Zack announced in his best abused brother voice, "but those are MY clothes."

"I know, but I like them," she answered authoritatively, as if that was going to be the final word on the subject.

"But they are blue. And blue is for boys. Everyone knows that." Oh, isn't that cute. He is going to try logic with his sister. So young, so many lessons to learn when dealing with females.

"I look better in blue than you do." And with that pronouncement, she sashayed out of the room to search for hair bows in just the right shade.

I quickly bit the inside of my cheek to stop the laughter as he turned to me with big eyes, shocked and confused by what had just happened. I could see the wheels turning as he tried to figure out what to say to make me step in and defend his clothing honor. Finally, he sighed. "I know. Life isn't fair."

Oh my poor baby. He has already learned so many lessons at the ripe old age of 5 1/2. And life not being fair is just one of them. Today we add: girls love to swipe boy clothes, blue is for girls too, and logic may not always be your friend. Someday he will find that having a big sister gives him an advantage in dealing with women. But today is not that day.

Later that afternoon, I had a chat with Allie letting her know that we do not borrow without asking. She apologized to her brother and he received 30 minutes of her time as her "sorry gift". He chose to have her read to him and they giggled and bonded over stories. Still, when I bent to tuck him into bed, I found his other 2 new outfits tucked underneath his pillow for safekeeping.

One more lesson learned: if she can't find them, she can't borrow them. Good thinking, sugar.

As usual, I was inspired by my kids. I am certain I will scrap the story later, but first I couldn't resist making a new digi kit: Better In Blue. You can snag it in the ScrapStreet Store.

Momstones

2008-02-14T16:12:00.000-08:00

What is a momstone? The cajones you need to be a mom? No, although those help immensely. Momstones are those milestones that your children reach that are important to you. The ones that give you back just a bit of life.

Do yall remember those first months of motherhood? With a baby in one hand and a baby book in the other? Checking to see if your precious pumpkin could lift his head or roll over at the right moment? Ah the pride you felt at those first milestones.

Momstones are even better. The first day that you wake up and do not have a diaper to change. Heaven. Never have I heard a mom say, "gee, I really miss changing diapers." And bidding farewell to the disposable pants can also mark the momstone of tossing the diaper bag. No more lugging a bag bigger than the child along with you. Other fun momstones? How about when they learn to dress all the way to shoes allowing you to shout "get ready" as you jump in the shower? Or one of my own favorites: make your own breakfast and turn on your own cartoons. Ahhh Saturday morning peace and sleep--a gift that never gets old.

Each age can bring a new momstone and allow you to reclaim a few minutes back from your busy day. From goodbye to the carseat to hello to the driver's license, each one is an important day in your life as a mom. And each one means that you are doing your job and doing it well. With a baby's first breath, Mom is needed for 24 hours a day because that little bundle is completely helpless, completely dependent. But children should not remain that way. They should grow to be independent adults and then capable of a solid interdependent relationship with their chosen love. Anyone who has ever dated a momma's boy can tell you that she did no one a favor (and they will tell you in detail. I can entertain you over cosmos for hours, trust me).

So kick up your heels and celebrate those momstones! You are not being selfish as you lounge around on the couch watching your children do laundry and fetch you a coke--you are making stronger adults. I promise.

20 years later

2008-02-13T16:38:00.000-08:00

I stand in front of a room of college freshmen. Only now, I am not one of them, but the professor. Yes, a full 20 years and so many of the questions are the same: do we really need a thesis? do you really have to cite your quotes? a full three pages, is she kidding? And then my favorite of them all: do we need to type this?

Now, kiddies, 20 years ago when I arrived at college THRILLED to have an electric typewriter in hand after learning on a manual one in our ancient typing classroom, I asked this question. Ok, so I only asked it during fall semester; by spring semester I understood the answer would always be a rousing yes. In the age of computers, I thought this question would be rendered obsolete. After all, my students will type texts to each other from across the room if I let them rather than speak. Yet, the question persists.

And thinking of it reminds me of how many other things have changed since I was that student. We had no internet (kind of obvious since we had no computers, but it seems to need to be said). We had to go to the library to do research and look through microfilm for "current" answers. And we had to know things since we couldn't dial up the trusty google on our cell phones. Oh, that was because we did not have cell phones. Or pagers. Or answering machines. Or tivo.

By this point, anyone under the age of 35 has fallen into a stupor wondering what we could possibly have done with ourselves. Shall I rouse them for a spirited game of pong or just let them zone out contemplating a world where coffee came in one flavor and cost a mere quarter?

All about people

2008-02-12T15:20:00.000-08:00

I love people. I just cannot help it; people are so interesting.

All mothers know that you put the same ingredients into making those babies of yours, but get entirely different dishes out of them. Oh sure, both of my kids are blond with blue eyes. Both will probably be tall. But they are so different. Zack is left-handed, left brained. An organized soul with a love for math, yet he has an eye for fashion and color. Allie, on the other hand, is all social all the time. With a wicked sense of humor and a sweet word for everyone, she draws people to her like bees to honey--but don't ask her to count them or she will run screaming from the math homework. These differences make them such fun to watch as they grow. Where do they stem from?

This is one of my favorite weeks as a professor. Week 3 of a new semester. By now, I know a bit about my students likes, dislikes, personalities. They have let down the "first date" front and are more comfortable being themselves. Leaders emerge, class clowns offer giggles, slackers try sliding by me with charm--ah yes, the semester has truly begun. And I am genuinely interested in learning about all of them.

The student in me is constantly studying people--live and in books--to learn more about what makes them tick. How much is nature and how much is nurture? Do we moms really have the power to create good students/citizens/people? Can we damage our children beyond repair? I have to say the answer to both is yes. But neither is as easy as society would want us to believe. Raising a good adult is a day in/day out task that is neither easy nor instant. It is, to borrow a slogan, the hardest job you will ever love. And ruining a child is not easy either. It is not because you let them watch too much tv, fed them too much fast food, or left them with a sitter for Cosmo night with the girls. It, too, takes day to day work or day to day neglect to cause to happen. So, have a Cosmo night with the girls, but don't take your little girls to Cosmo night. It is a good first step.

So, darling friends, I wonder: How do you know how to parent? Do you raise your children the way you were raised? Or the exact opposite of how you were raised? Do you feel as if you just flounder along? Do you let common sense be your guide? Or are you, like me, a student of the game?

Monday, the beginning.

2008-02-11T11:28:00.000-08:00

Well, here it is. The blog. I avoided it for a long time thinking there is nothing that I do not say on ScrapStreet, so why would I need a blog? Perhaps I can find a little something new to say every day or so. It will certainly be easier for me to keep track of my goals and goodies--or at least that is what I am telling myself. So here I go into the wide world of blogging.

Be gentle with me.