Starting to feel the pressure...

I just completed an "all about me" page for my son's preschool. I seriously stressed about this for a few minutes. We were on vacation when they were due so I haven't turned his in yet. I just started throwing something together and then I realized that this would be hanging in his classroom all year. Considering that just about everyone knows that I am obsessed with scrapbooking, I decided to spend "a little" more time making it kind of cute.

I am impressed that I am finally starting to get faster at completing LO's. I usually am able to complete at least a few each week but the two nights that I had time to scrap this week I got a LO done each evening. It's so nice to COMPLETE something. I really think that is a major reason why I scrap. I can actually check something off of my ever growing list of things to do.

Now if I can just check getting more sleep off of my list I would be set.


Here's a LO that I completed with the August Scarlet Lime Kit. I just love all of the little tags that were included. It was a great way to pull all of the colors in the LO together. Enjoy and hopefully I will remember to take a photo of Colin's all about me page before sending it to school tomorrow, lol!

Getting back into the groove.....

We had a WONDERFUL time in Disney this past week. We were very fortunate to have an extra set of hands. I would have not been able to make it through this week without them, thanks BaBa and G Dad. We got in last night and took today to get reorganized and settled for tomorrow. I did a few neat scrappy things for this trip that I will share as soon as I take photos. I do have to say, that this was the most organized I have been for a trip thanks to my scrap supplies. I made laminated cards that contained all of our important info for the week. I of course make it cute by using coordinating pattern paper and a little ribbon. We had a great time, but it is nice to be home. Now if I could just have a little more pixie dust to finish the rest of this laundry I would be set!

I'm here!

Wow, it's been awhile since I checked in. We have been extremely busy getting ready for vacation, finishing projects and taking on extra things because I have so much extra time on me hands, lol.

Colin just started playing 4 year old soccer, yes he is 3 but kicks like a 5 year old so we figured we would give it a shot. So far so good. He's learning some valuable skills and doing lots of running. He actually said he was a little tired today. He very rarely says that. To get him on the team I needed to be a coach so I haven't had a chance to get any photos yet. I'm going to try to bring my camera next time and try to sneak a few shots of him playing with the big kids, it's so cute.

So do you want to hear my crazy list of things that I need to do before we go on vacation? Yeah, so I decided to make tee shirts...those need finished, I made allergy free cookies and doughnuts, I plan on making cupcakes and muffins yet, a new flavor of ice cream and I need to pack Colin staples (just in case they can't make anything that he likes while we are there), coordinate with the house sitter, buy Colin new sneakers 40 mins from here, pack, finish laundry, iron, pick up dry ice for frozen food, tie loose ends up at work, oh and most importantly...finish scraping last year's photos before taking more. I'm sure there are like 10 other things that I need to do that I haven't thought of yet. It makes me tired just thinking about it.

Did I mention that we are going to the Mouse? For the third time? Please send prayers that all of the hurricanes stay in the ocean and that it is only hot and miserable there versus hot, miserable and wet.

Here's my public service announcement for today. Disney does a great job with managing food allergies. Yeah! It's because of Disney that my son knows what the inside of a restaurant looks like. They really have a great system in place, and if my kid wasn't an anxious eater, I wouldn't need to bring a thing with me. How nice would that be?? Colin still gets a little worried if he doesn't recognize the food in front of him. Which is actually a good thing. I would rather struggle with getting him to trust me and try new things than to just eat anything and get sick all of the time.

Here's another funny story...you know I need to make up for not blogging for like weeks. My wonderful husband is not thrilled with eating breakfast in the Castle. He thinks it's expensive and that we have a boy and he's, (Colin but he really means that he, Matt)is not interested in eating with the princesses. Um hello, I want to eat with the princesses. He doesn't realize that Disney is like a scrapbookers shangrala and that I will be in all of my glory snapping all of those photos. Jeez, if they had that Bibbidi Bobbdi Bo Boutique for grown ups I would so totally sign up and pay the price of our flights to get all gussied up like a princess. And I would proudly walk around the park like I dressed like that every day.

So wish us luck, it's a lot of work and I will be exhausted when we get back. So if you made it to here...you definitely deserve some eye candy. And I have tons, here's a bunch of layouts that I submitted that haven't gotten picked up. So they are free to share! So enjoy and I will talk to you soon, hopefully with an updated to do list that has everything checked off.

5 Things is Up...

I just wanted to share a recent LO that I did for Reminisce. You can see it here, 5 Things. How cool is that? It was fun to play with products that someone else picked out for me and be limited to only those items. So if you are stuck for mojo one day, pull out some photos, a few items and clear everything else off of your desk. It really works for forcing that creativity out of hiding. After I finished this LO I was able to complete three more. I took photos of them last night, I'm sure my neighbors must think I'm crazy when I am out on my deck with paper and my camera. Oh well. I hope to load those tonight. That's it for now, thanks as always for letting me share!

It's been a crazy week....

I've been working on lots of projects and have just started an online organizing workshop at Simplify 101. It's great and has really started me thinking about the right system for me at home. It was the motivation I needed to make a home binder for all of my bills and important documents. Now I can just flip through pages to see what is due rather than opening all of those envelopes. A simple project really but it made a world of difference.

We had a major scare this week with Colin at school. His milk was accidentally switched with another child's. After taking one sip he went to his teacher and said that it wasn't his milk. That's when he started vomiting, breaking out in hives and having labored breathing. So my public service announcement this week...if your child has food allergies, tell everyone that works with him that it is OKAY to give him his Epi Pen. It seems scary to do it and "what happens if he didn't need it?" But in reality, it's better for him to have it if he didn't need it then not to have it and it be too late. The gravity of this hasn't really hit me yet. I'm sure it will soon. We are extremely lucky that he knows so much about his health and new to go to his teacher right away. I'm amazed that he knew enough to just take a sip. Colin is fine, it was rough for about an hour and once home we gave a breathing treatment and Benedryl. It was a learning experience for everyone involved and we now know to make our emergency plan a bit more specific.


Anyway I just realized that I haven't shared a LO here in awhile. So here is one from Blue and White weekend at PSU. I have several mini books that I just completed. Any tips for taking photos of them?

What I am working on now....

I can hardly contain my excitement! I came home today to some wonderful scrappy mail! I found out last week that I am one of the four contestants in Reminisce's Take 5 contest. So they sent me some of their newly released goodies to make a LO with. Yeah!

I can't wait to get started! I will post more soon. I have lots of updates to share. Blog ya later!

The Big Picture....

I have so much to share from an extremely busy weekend. So I went to the Creating Keepsakes Convention in Valley Forge this weekend. This was the first type of event that I attended like this so I didn't know exactly what to expect. I scheduled three classes and two volunteer shifts. The class that I was looking forward to the most was Finish Line Scrapbooking with Stacy Julian. I have those photos that I want to scrap but they just keep getting pushed to the side in favor of other projects. I knew I NEEDED this class. It's a leap of faith and definitely out of my comfort zone, (you just had to bring photos and black embellishments, you had no idea what paper you were going to work with, I even emailed ahead of time thinking I might get a better idea of what size photos or what color photos to bring but no luck. She said, just bring your photos.) It worked out great, I loved the result. She chatted with me afterwards and signed my copy of her newest book, Photo Freedom. She definitely has helped me see the "bigger picture" this weekend, in more ways than one. Thank you Stacy!



I was a Teacher's Assistant for my two volunteer shifts. I had no idea which classes that I would be volunteering for until I got into my assigned room and saw the materials on the floor. I was very lucky to have the opportunity to help out some very talented ladies, and a gentleman. In total it was four classes. A class from Pazzles, Tiffany Tillman, Stacy Julian and Piggy Tales. Pazzles showed everyone how to work with their software, Tiffany, get this, made me measure and Piggy Tales made some very hip cards. And Stacy, well it was a pleasure to listen to her lecture both on Friday and Saturday.
I really could listen to her talk about scrapbooking and her perspective all day. And that really is saying a lot coming from me because I do like to hear myself talk. And if you know me, you know just how much I like listening to myself talk. Seriously I felt like someone needed to pinch me Saturday afternoon.
*sigh* I love scrapbooking.



I also got to meet up with some CKMBer's in real life. It's always fun to get together with these girls and have a good laugh. I can't wait for the next crop, which I have already forgotten when it is, someone please remind me so I can put it in my calendar.




Here are also the ID tags that I made for this event.
I just die cut a plastic placemat and glued foam letters that I had die cut as well. I used a craft glue that is made to dry clear and adhere fabric to all kinds of smooth materials. It worked great and we then tied the tags onto our bags with ribbon.


Okay that's it for now. I jumped out of bed because I had an idea and I wanted to write it down before I forget. Then I thought, while I'm awake I might as well do a few things. Take care and have a nice start to your week!