EGG-citing!

The day before Easter is always a good day to color eggs. Especially if you haven't done it in 2 years due to vacations. ;) The girls were happy to not miss this tradition this year.

Lately Marissa's favorite color has been blue, so of course her first egg had to be too. Gianna's favorite color is now yellow...The eggs in their bath.... Waiting patiently for her eggs... Thinking of trouble....always need to keep an extra eye on her! The finished eggs....so pretty!

Just Read: Water For Elephants

I've heard about this book for a long time.
To be honest I wasn't sure it would interest me.
So I did what I do best.

Procrastinate.

Since I've been reading on the ipad, I've started giving books I normally wouldn't bother with a chance. So I downloaded this finally. I mean it's got to be decent for them to turn it into a movie, right??

Not that I had any desire to see the movie.

So the book sat in my ipad, downloaded just waiting for me to read it. I was trying to "save it" to read on our next vacation, but then I realized I could always download something else & decided to just read it already.
I have to say, within the first few pages, the book got me. Hook. Line. and Sinker.

I had the hardest time putting it down too. I finished it in about a day, since I was trying to make it last.

Yes it's that good.

Now I DO want to see the movie. ;)

Summer Beauty

I have a habit of printing pictures with intentions to scrap them but then get involved with other projects. Then when I'm ready to scrap them, the ideas I had are gone. I know I should write them down as I print the pictures but hey, I'm nothing if not a procrastinator! ;)

I absolutely LOVE this picture of Marissa. She looks so much older than 9. It's like I get to see a glimpse of what she'll look like when she's older. This is another lift of Laura's work. You can see her LO HERE. I used all "Summertime" Echo Park Papers & embellies on this. And I got to use my new Sizzix flower rosettes. That is so much fun to use.

Bloom

You know when you take a pic & it takes your breath away? This picture does that to me. Seeing Marissa enjoying the sun in the backyard last Summer, without a care in the world. I love seeing how carefree she looks.

I've had this printed out on my desk for awhile, but wasn't sure which papers would do it justice. The not knowing made me put it off for awhile but as I was putting a stack of papers away I came across these & thought it would work. I lifted Laura's "Braces" LO, because her LO's are always inspiring & make scrapping so much easier for me. I know it seems like all I seem to do is lift her LO's lately, but I'm getting there...very slowly. I think all the school LO's have been sucking the ideas out of me!

All papers are from Imaginisce. They're so sweet looking & the fact that it had an owl in the paper sold it for me...since both Marissa & I are really into owls. ;)

Spring Parties

Today the girls had their Spring parties at school. Gianna's class had theirs 1st, which worked perfectly since the girls' classrooms are not close to each other, & this way I could spend extra time with both girls.

We took the kids outside where some moms had hidden eggs already. Once we let them loose the kids were on the hunt! See Gianna (in green jacket)? She was in a zone. Her eyes were on the lookout for those eggs.

This pic melts me. See how she's mid-prance? That's normal for her. This captures how she really is. Carefree. I sense a LO in the works.

After the great egg hunt, the kids played a few games.

Once back inside, the kids had their snack....& a few kids (one may or may not have been mine) snuck in some candy from their treat bags. ;) I felt bad for their teacher since they still had an hour left of school!

Then I went to the other side of the school for Marissa's party. Basically they did the same thing....I guess games were pretty limited.

The great egg hunt was on. Marissa was trying to fill her bag with the required 6 eggs as soon as possible.

Then there was the egg toss. This wasn't the easiest to do since the eggs were just empty plastic & it was a little windy out.

They played another game or two then went inside for their treats. Not too many snuck any candy....that I'll admit too anyway, but by this time school was out. It's now officially SPRING BREAK for us! Let the mornings of sleeping in begin!!

Night Owls

While waiting for the ball to drop on New Year's Eve I took these pics of the girls in their new owl PJ's. They look so comfy--wish I had a set! ;)

Since the pics weren't both the same dimensions they threw me off a bit. Going through some notes I made when I read all my favorite blogs, I came across THIS LO of Laura's & knew where to go from there.

I was trying to flip this one around but I just couldn't hack it (my mojo was leaving me), so I just made both LO's the same this time.Used My Little Shoebox papers, letters from Jillibean Soup & those cute little owls are from Michaels.

Working Hard

With the Summer approaching (not fast enough for us), the girls have been realizing that part of their Summer will be spent with me at work.

Before you go feeling sorry for them, it's just 2 days a week. A few hours each day. Wed. is the longer day but even then we're out by 1pm usually. Thurs is even earlier. Like I said don't feel sorry for them. They have fun. Sometimes if Joe has an extra video game not on location, he'll let them play. They also bring their Nintendo DSi's & books. They can keep busy.

With that said I was going through some of the pics from my iphone & came across these. I knew how I wanted to scrap them. First I used the Instagram app on my iphone to brighten them up. I printed them out & trimmed them to fit the Say Cheese stamp. (Can I just say how much I LOVE that stamp??) I used all Jillibean Soup on here including the Coredinations cardstock. I have to admit-it was my 1st time using it, & I love the contrast & the feel of the paper after sanding it After making the 1st one, I realized I had to make another. I try to be fair for each girls' album, especially if they're both in the pic, then try to mix it up so they don't look exactly alike. Used all Jillibean Soup for this too.And those tiny mini tags are an old QK die that I had in my stash. I love how these turned out. I think I'll be scrapping more of my iphone pics in the future!

Just Read: The Forgotten Garden

Since getting my iPad I was skeptical about using it to read books on it. I like the feel of a good book in my hands. I never thought I'd get into reading books on the iPad. But then I had an epihany (of sorts)--it'll be great for vacations! I won't have to lug books with me on the plane & make room for them in my suitcase! I think that sold me. Not that I won't ever buy real books again but I definately like not having to deal with piles of books I'm running out of room to store. I don't just buy (download) the books right away either. First I'll download a sample to see if I like the book. It'll give you a nice chunk to read & get hooked on. I like this a lot. If I read the beginning & decided it's not doing anything for me, I delete it. No harm done. If I decided I can't wait to turn the page then I download it. Fast & simple. So far I've only deleted 1 book that I couldn't get into. This book started out as a sample. I don't remember where I heard about it, but the preview sounded good so I tried it out. I liked it enough that I downloaded it. It was a little confusing since it jumped between 3 different time periods but it pulled me in & I couldn't wait to finish it. The ending was a little bittersweet for me, but it was a good read.

"The The Impotence of Proofreading,"

Got this from Curly Girl's blog. It's hysterical!!

School Kits 2nd Grade Miss M

Anyone else getting sick of seeing these school LO's? I'm sorta getting tired of making them. I am up to Marissa's 3rd grade year & then I get to start Gianna's school years. Luckily I'm not as far behind on her's. ;) The thing that doesn't make it "too" boring is that I try to make the LO's similar but different. They don't lay together in the albums & are broken up by other LO's from the years, so I know they don't even have to look similar. I just think it's easier to make them if I limit myself to product & design. I really try to stick to just the product from Becky's School Kits. Of course I toss in a few things from my stash here & there but if I didn't they would look all alike. Seems like I have so many pics from each year that I just can't get them all on one LO. In my line of thinking the more LO's I make the more of my stash I use. ;) I start the LO with all wallet sized pics. Then as I go along I trim them down to make everything fit. And where would I be without my collection of QuicKutz (now Lifestyle Crafts) ?? Years ago I bought so many of the dies & now I'm really thankful I did. They've really come in handy. The journaling is simply a folded piece of cardstock. I draw lines with my ruler & write my journaling. I dress up the outside of it & voila! This is the second LO for her 2nd grade year. On the day that I was just about done with this LO I got some "happy mail" from 2Peas. Inside was THIS stamp set & I knew how I was going to use it! I'm not even going to admit how many "banner" stamps I now own.....no way! ;) I even used one of the library pockets that came with the kit for this LO. I don't often think about them since they're larger than the space I usually have left but in this case it worked perfectly.

Now I'm up to 3rd grade & I've got the 1st LO framed out on my desk. YAY! The crazy part is I have A LOT of pics from 3rd grade. So I might just end up with 3 LO's from that year! Hoping to have those ready to share soon & I can stop being such a lame blogger!

Daily Mug Shots

If you've been reading this blog for awhile then this LO should come as no surprise. I had these few extra copies lying around after doing THIS album so I thought "Why not make a LO?".

I had it all planned out in my head, but of course, when I went to lay it down on paper it wasn't flowing right. I walked away a few times. Took it apart a couple of times. At one point I thought about skipping all together but instead I just shuffled it into a pile of stuff.

One day I pulled it out & thought "Why am I making this harder than it should be?" So, I finished it, & though it wasn't what I had envisioned, I was happy with it.(except for the journaling since the procrastinator in me refused to let me finish it without a fight.).

Stamps: Hero Arts Banner Flags

Punch: Fiskars & Stampin Up

Alpha Stickers: Title letters & Banner letters

Heart Beads: Bead section of Michaels

Just Read:Tiger's Curse

I'm the type of person that will read anything that holds my interest. Doesn't matter to me really. I saw this listed as I was searching for books to read on my iPad, so I gave it a try. It sounded interesting. And I noticed it was listed as a "teen" book. Apparently I like "teen" books, especially if they're in a "series". Twilight, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson--go figure. I ended up reading this in about a day. I liked it. It had adventure, mythology, & romance. The next book in this series comes out in June. Can't wait! What are you reading??

School Kits 1st Grade Miss M

After much procrastination, I started working on the CK Becky Higgin's Kit Of The Month School Kits again. There's no reason why, just that I seem to require a certain amount of procrastination to start a project. After starting I wonder why it took me so long to start since the project didn't take as long as the actual procrastination.

Got that?

This LO came together in a flash. The journaling took the longest, of course, but even that was done in no time. I decided to go outside the box with these a bit & use some of the embellies I seem to horde but not use enough that weren't part of the kit. The "first grade" block is one of those older woven label embellies that didn't match so I colored it with markers. Not perfectly matched but better than it was. See the "school days" over my hidden journaling? It actually an OLD rub on from Me & My Big Ideas. It's fun & sparkly....but it wouldn't rub onto my block. So I left it as is & just cut the whole thing from the plastic backing & adhered it down. Waste not, want not. I set my mind on having that on my LO & it went.....Kicking & screaming but I won. I always do. ;)
This LO is more true to the kit. I added very little from my stash to it.

I know the second page is all about Field Day but I was short on pics so I went back & printed more of these since I couldn't find more of the art show on my external hard drive. Grrrrrr....

In the end I realized if I can bang out a few more of these I'll be up to Marissa's year this year won't be so far behind. That's got me motivated for now so bear with me since there will be more of these coming. Hope I'm not scaring anyone off. I do have something else to share that's not school related, in the next few days. ;)

Birthday Cards 2.0

After making Joe's birthday cards, I had plenty more papers to make a few more so I went for it. I really hate to put the supplies away when it's easier to make more. KWIM? Besides I can always use more bday cards.....which I'm sure I'll be getting a few of my own today....ummmm...it's my birthday. Just don't ask how old I'm turning since I have to seriously stop & think about it. I keep saying 38 when it's actually 37...why I'm skipping a year to be OLDER is beyond me! And now that I typed that I REALLY don't like either number!!

Moving on.......

I kept to the same designs for a few of them.

This one looks much better IRL. The green is minty & the dimensional sticker is lavendar.

I have so many of these dimensional stickers & really don't use them as often as I should, but I can't seem to stop buying them. I used up a whole pack on these cards. YAY!

Again these colors are much better IRL...

Album Cover

Because I just can't let anything go, Christmas being no exception. Here is the album for my December Daily.

I was tempted to put the album away until next year but I couldn't do it until the cover was pretty. Besides, I still had all the papers on my desk, so why not?

It didn't take me very long. I guess I procrastinated for nothing. (as usual) ;)