The Biggest News EVER!!!

I am so VERY excited to announce that I was chosen to be on SSD's very first Hybrid Team!!!
I had to read the email over and over just to be sure. It is definitely my dream team, I have been applying at SSD for years now. It is such an honor to be part of such a great site! Here is the official announcement with the rest of the hybrid girls! There is also a new Hybrid Babe Gallery that will soon be filled with inspiration for everyone. I have my first project ready to photograph, so it should be in there this weekend.

A Few Altered Items

Since I am on 3 different Altered/Hybrid teams I want to show off my recent projects that I have done for them. Let's start with my new team .... Manda Bean!

This my first project for Manda, it is an album for Justine & Dominic:






It turned out SO cute and they both LOVED it. There is a spot on each page for them to journal and since I printed on Matte paper it will be easy to write with any type of pen.

I also made these cute 4x4 chipboard magnets for my mom. I used the chipboard coasters that I bought on eBay before Christmas. I got a 100 square and a 100 round so I need to start using them up LOL. I made little 4x4 layouts, then put them all on a page and printed them. It was very easy, I was done in less than a hour start to finish:


Onto my projects for Dani Mogstad:
On the Girl Talk blog I did a post on how to transform a Starbuck's Frappacino Carrier into a storage space for extra hybrid supplies




I also put together this chipboard album of our 2005 Family Reunion for my mom:


Last but not least, Traci Reed
On the Hawt Mama blog there is instruction to cover a little wooden purse that I found at Michael's a while ago. It turned out really adorable and is the perfect size for a few pens and some envelopes for my desk.




and then I made ANOTHER chipboard album ... this time with the pictures from Ellie's birthday:


It has been a busy month that is for sure ... and with National Scrapbooking Day on Saturday I am sure I will have a bunch more stuff to show off soon.

Ellie turned 4!

Oops - I guess since I didn't blog last month I forgot to mention that Ellie has turned 4!! She had a fantastic birthday with her cousin Lillian and a few friends. Since Ellie and Lillian are only 6 weeks apart we chose a date in between both birthdays to have a party at Grandma's house. The girls wanted it to be a Princess Party. So Grandma decorated the dining room and turned it into a Princess dressing room, with a rack of play clothes, a table full of jewelry and tiara and of course a great big mirror to admire their new attire.

Princess Justine arrived to help the girls get dressed and they each took a photo with her to go into their craft project (a foam Princess Carriage frame). Then she read them the Princess and the Pea while Sara and I served the girls snacks on Grandma's china and punch in champagne glasses. When the girls finished eating their fruit tarts and heart shaped sandwiches we opened gifts. Ellie and Lillian sat on their thrones and everyone was able to watch them open the gifts.

The crowing moments was when each girl was presented with their very own cake. I had made 2 pillow shaped cakes, complete with tassels and then placed a real tiara on top. Instead of cutting into the beautiful cakes we gave each of the guests a cupcake, which was SO much easier.

Each little princess left with their craft and a goody bag filled with princess jewelry & makeup. It was a wonderful party and everyone had SO much fun!!

My fellow CT members on Dani Mogstad's team have made some adorable pages from the party:

Anthony started Tee-Ball

So the biggest highlight this month has been Anthony starting to play Tee Ball .... followed by our trip to Nascar. Here are some layouts of Anthony playing:

1st Game:


Batter Up:


I am sure there will be more to come. We still have another month of games!

All Time Favorite!

Every week I have a new "Favorite" kit from one of the amazing SSD designers. To pick my all time favorite is VERY hard. I am choosing:

Vintage Garden Fairies by Dani Mogstad & Shabby Miss Jenn

I love the colors and the whimsical feeling of the fairy wings and flowers. Plus it is from 2 amazing designers.

Knock on Wood

ok, the SSD Blog challenge is about being sick .... but I am knocking on wood because we have managed to avoid most bugs this year:

1. How often do you get sick with a cold? The flu? Something else? I rarely get sick. After working in child care so long my immunities all buffed up.

2. Are you the sort of person who goes to work or school no matter how sick you are or are you willing to stay at home when it gets bad? For the most part, yes. Unless it is something that is going to get others sick

3. How do you like to treat a cold? What remedies do you like and why? Do you go to the doctor willingly? I hate having a runny/stuff nose and I have found that Claritin D eliminates that symptom pretty well. I don't go to the doctor unless I have a high temp and not getting better.

4. What do you do to keep from getting sick in the winter? Honestly ... nothing. No flu shots, no bottle of hand sanitizer. Nothing.

5. What is your favorite thing to do when you stay home from work or school? Scrap!! Of Course!!

V-Day Wrap Up

Well I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day. I took a quiz from the SSD Blog and only got 2 out of 10 so I must not know a lot about Valetine's Day LOL! This year was my first with Bill though, so that made it special. It wasn't a perfect day - but in the end I have some very sweet memories. Here is my layout with the roses I got from him:

credits

Movies! Movies! Movies!

I love movies, I must have over a hundred DVD's and that is NOT counting the kids movies (which is probably another 50 at least) PLUS I have a Blockbuster account so I get movies from them in the mail AND I return them to my local Blockbuster to get another free rental. Right now I have been catching up on my favorite TV shows on DVD. (You know since the writer's strike ruined this season)
Currently I have:
Friends Season 4
October Road Season 1
Desperate Housewives Season 2
The Office Season 1
The Real Housewives of Orange County Season 1

What do I do besides scrap?

Man there are some days when I feel like I do nothing but scrap (but I wouldn't say that too loud around the office) LOL.

I am luck to have taken over as the office manager for our family business when my mom retired due to health problems.

It is a wonderful job and I love my boss (he is my dad after all). I am in the office alone most days. As long as I get my daily work done I am able to play around online and post my layouts and such.

Before I took over the position full time I worked half a day and stayed at home in the mornings with my kids. Now that my oldest is in Kindergarten (full day) it was easier to make the transition to full time.

I still miss my lazy mornings with the kids crawling into my bed, but we still get that on the weeknds they are home.

Who can resist a good challenge?

Back when I first started scrapping I overdosed on challenges. I think I got kind of burned out. So I went on a hiatus of sorts ... but I found my scrapping slowed down. I had nothing to jump start my creativity. So I started surfing around trying to find a site that matched my style and had challenges that gave me the starting point I needed. Then I rediscovered the Sweet Shoppe again. I fell in love with their challenges. My favorite by far is the Cookie Decorating 101 challenge. I can't help but LOVE a good template and these ones are always top notch! Here is one of my recent layouts from the recent challenge, it is also with Dani's newest kit Love Struck.

What is ahead??

SO, now that I am officially on my 2 dream teams I have to make some new scrap "goals" for the year. I decided to make it a short list, then hopefully I will accomplish them!

• Improve and advance my hybrid skills
• Scrap more pictures per page
• Include more journaling

See a nice short list!

A few good projects

I told you I would be back with some of the projects I have been creating for my 2 new teams. It took me a while, but here I am. Let's start with the projects I have completed with Traci's stuff today.

I got to kick off January with a project that I have wanted to do for a while. I finally made Ellie a bow holder to display & store all her cute little hair clips. It came out SO cute. Here it is with just a few bows on it ... but now it is full. I think I will need to do her whole name if she keeps collecting bows like this. For a full set of instructions go HERE


I am also VERY proud of my Mini Mailbox


I made these cute little tumbers for Ellie class at Christmas before I was on Traci's team, but I still love them!


Check back soon for more projects

My BIG Announcement!

I said I would be back with my announcement but I got busy and didn't get back to post yesterday. If you take a peak at my side bar you may notice the change!! I am now a part of not one but TWO fantastic DREAM teams. You are now looking at an Altered Girl for both Dani Mogstad AND Traci Reed!!!!

Welcome 2008!

I hope that everyone had a fun & safe New Year's Eve. Since the kids were still with their Dad in California, Bill & I decided to spend the evening with my friends Justine & Dominic. Justine was Anthony's very first babysitter about 5 years ago now. For the longest time she was the kids ONLY babysitter. At one point we stopped saying "babysitter" and she became our Nanny. She even went on a family trip to Hawaii in 2004. So needless to say we have been together in good times and bad. Yet through these years we have definitely become friends. Now that she is over 21 and married it is a whole lot easier to be "friends" since we have more in common.

Bill had to work at his store so for a couple hours it was just the 3 of us. Basically all Justine & I did was watch Dom play the Wii (which was MY Wii BTW) Eventually we convinced him that since we did have 4 controllers we could all play!

Once Bill arrived we cooked the Pizza's and opened up the beer. Justine & I opted for a concoction of Rasperry Pucker & Sprite. YUM! I got cut off pretty early so I would be sober to drive home after Midnight though.

The 4 of us had a blast playing on the Wii. Then we rang in the New Year by watching the "pre-recorded" Time Square footage on the local station in town. We had picked up poppers at Wal-Mart while shopping earlier so took a few pictures and then let off the poppers outside.

We then decided to keep the TV off and played Catch Phrase. While this game is fun sober (I should know) it is a LOT of fun when playing with friends that have been drinking. We kept rotating teams and laughing. It was great fun.

New Year's Day was full of excitement as well. First & foremost, I went and picked up my kids from their Dad's. I hadn't seen my kids since Christmas morning so I was definitely overdue for hugs & kisses from them. They had lots of stories to tell and talked just about non-stop till we got home!

At home Anthony was greeted with a brand new room!! While he was gone we took the opportunity to redecorate. He got a set of bunk beds with some new bedding and then we painted over the old border in his room and made a magnetic border all the way around. It just looks like a painted green border - but with the metallic pain under it the magnets stick to the wall. SO COOL! My mom also bought all the "sports" accessories that she could find for his room.




We added some Wallies around the painted boarder:
It turned out SO cute. Pictures to come soon - I promise. As well as some scrapbook related announcements as well.