All packed and moved...

I am HERE now!!!!

Can't wait to see you there!

shabby to fabby...

Homework, homework, and more homework. I feel like *I* am back in school again.I can't believ ehow much work Monet has been coming home with. I have come to the conclusion that (a) she needs to have extra help in reading or (b) she needs a tutor at home. This week has taught me that I am, without a doubt, going to have less time for extra-curricular activities and will have to come up with some new time management ideas. There is not enough time in the day to do evrything that needs to be done. I have even had difficulty finding time to walk the dog.

However, Two days ago I had time to jog with the dog, scrap, and take the kids to children's church. That day felt so rewarding. I really accomplished so much.
needless to say, that was the one day this week that Monet didn't have more than three things to do for homework!

Here is my Personal Challenge. The challenge was to scrap what you are feeling right now.


I didn't get to wear pink but I did wear a salmon colored pair of capris and a pink flower hair clip. I ended up stopping at the Dollar Tree where I found some fabulous things for Christmas decorating. I picked up eight frames in yellow, tan, antique white, and red. I plam to use these to frame gifts. I also found some miniature wreaths made of berries and little glass beads. I think I might actually use these to wrap aorund candles. Then I found some silver berries which I plan to add to a gorgeous garland that I made last year to hang in the dining room doorway. It feels weird shopping for Christmas already but it seems that the stores begin stocking the shelves earlier every year. I would hate to miss out on all the good stuff if I waited!

Here is my Favorite Moments Layout I did for Kerry Lynn's Challenges:

This photo is of my husband and I at Vacation Bible Camp this past August. He totally threw me for a loop when he decided that he wanted to come along with the kids and I. He even came back for the last day when we had a huge picnic and some really great water fun for the kids. This day was definitely a day that I will never forget!

I am waiting on an order from a fabulous online store called Speckled Egg. I cannot wait to have in my hands some wonderful German glitter alphabets, wings, crowns, trims amongst other lovely vintage goodies that I am stocking up on to begin make all of my Christmas treasures. This year will be full of giving handmade pretties for all of my friends and family.

Tomorrow night is my big night. It will be the first scrapbooking crop! I put together a fabulous door prize for 1 lucky scrapper, packed full of Imagination Project & 7 Gypsies goodness. I am going to make up some place settings that each person attending can write their name on the card and itthey will all go into a bowl for one name to be be drawn.
I also picked up a great value paper pack at Walmart to share with beginners who may not have supplies but would like to join in the fabulous fun! I can't believe how loaded some of these packs are! Hopefully there will be some left so I can play too!

We will order pizza and have snacks and drinks- lots of laughing and even an area separate from the crop room for some of the kids to hang out. Can you tell I'm super excited!

This weekend is looking to be a great one for me- Here's to hoping your is fabulous too!

TGIF!

It's Friday!!! A very busy/frustrating week just passed and I am so thankful that the weekend is here!
Every school-morning I have two extra kids to tote along- today was one of those days that I was thinking to myself that even though it can be difficult to get 4 kids off to school- I am glad that I do because it tests my patience...in a good way. I am not among the most patient people. But today I wasn't far behind them. This says a lot considering yesterday was a really difficult day as far as testing my patience goes.
We live in what used to be a quiet neighborhood. Just in the last year things have changed so much with two new amilies who moved in. One upstairs from me and one next door. I am right int he middle of it all. And it surely tests my patience on a daily basis. The people upstaris dont put their children to bed unti sometimes after midnight. They ride bikes, skateboard, and run laps through the house at all hours of the night with loud music. Some nights I can't even think straight. I forgot what peace and quiet is. THere are 3 adults and four children living in a two bedroom apartment.
The people next door let their kids do pretty much whatever they want. So these kids think it's okay to play with other kids toys without asking and are constantly coming up onto my porch and looking into my windows. Not only do I think this is plain rude, but it's very distracting when my kids are doing homework or reading their books.
I know that I am not the only person who has lived her for a long time who feels the changes and is feeling the way I do about these two families. But I feel like I have it rougher (not trying to pity myself) but I am right under and next to all of this. My personal space is disrespected on a daily basis and I have no right to quiet at night when we are trying to get to bed at a decent hour (8:30 for the kids).

I used to love living here and even seriosly considered buying this house. My husband and I talked about living here until our kids were out of school. It's sad to see our neighborhood change like this because there are people who do not understand that this is a residential area- people get up early to go to work or school and it's not a party/hangout spot. It's difficult when you try hard to take care of your home and have friendly relationships with your neighbors but you are constantly being disrespected. Not to mention, living with people who have completely different standards for living. I hate to say that people should conform but to a degree I think that it would be a nice idea as far as consideration goes. Some people need to know when to put their big girl panties on and act in a way that doesn't feel completely disrespectful to others. But then, some people don't care about anyone but themselves.

Yesterday Jaden had his first cleaning at the dentist! He is one little boy with a lot of questions. I thought that with all those questions he might find interest in being a Dental Hygenist himself! He was completely amazed at how everything worked! And took so much interest in how to take good care of his teeth! It's nice when other people tell them all about it because he doesn't seem to believe me when I tell him that fruit snacks will rot your teeth!

Monet has had so much homeowrk this week I am beginning to thin she may be able to skip right from 4th grade to high school! Last night she did homework from 3:30 until 9:30. Of course there was dinner and a snack, and a few thing shta tse helped me with around the house but my gish- math, reading, study for 20 spelling words, AND study those little correction doodles! I am flustered at how anyone could expect a 9 year old to have enough nergy to do all of that in one evening. It makes me sad becaue with so much homework she had no time to be a kid a tall yesterday. he did work all day at school and then all evening at home. Then she went to bed in tears, exhausted and overwhelmed. We didn't even get to study all of her words either. I just coudn't keep her up that long.
we talked thoughand I told herthat she really needed to work faster- we need to work on that. And during the week, she willhave to make more responsible choices with what she chooses to do- she will likely have to study spelling words. She won't have much time to play with her new doll house or to ride her bike. Cartoons will be long forgotten once the week starts again. I feel like that is a lot to expect from a child her age. But at the same time I understand that withal lof the standards our kids have to meet, they have to be pushed. It just breaks my heart to see her have to be pushed through things instead of learning about quality and pride in her work.

I started late with the challenges over at Poppy Ink but never-the-less, I did join in with Challenge #2! Let me tell you that Heather has put up some really great prizes! Oh, and challenges too! I had a good time creating this Layout yesterday for the 2nd challenge...


We had to draw or doodle, use 5 pieces of ribbon, and use staples

I traced some leaf templates and then cut & distressed them. Before I glued the leafs down I doodled around the edges. The ribbon I sewed around the photo matte, gathering it here and there with black thread. The matte is stapled onto the background paper.

I can't wait to see what the next challenge is- and Heather's Overembellishing & Layering class which will be held on Monday the 24th at 7 pm!


Breanne has made up a blog for all of the Personal Challenges to be posted at! Mine is up in the gallery- actually all three of them!
So if you're ready to dig deep and maybe peel back some layers of the onion, this is a great challenge blog for you!

I got my SoML kit in the mail! I really can't say enough about how much I love the kits that Sara puts together! I am in love with every bit and piece that Sara has put into this kit! I ordered the add-on as well and some extra HS and AC letter stickers, which are ON SALE!! There are 6 pages of sale items, so be sure to check out the goodies!

I am really looking forward to seeing who the Guest Designer will be for October over at SoML! I can only imagine she will be fabulous!

The wonderful Miss Moxie aka Morgan is who I am gifting the Elsie "Music Therapy" print to! When I saw the print I knew that it was meant for her! Isn't it wonderful when you see something that is just perfect for someone you know, who you think is sweet and could use a nice gift! I will get to meet Morgan at the crop on Oct 8 at mlpa, so I thought I'd hold onto it until then and give it to her in person.

The first week of school went great. The kids both really like their teachers this year. Jaden is in Kindergarten. So far the transistion has been smooth as butter. I am hoping that this pattern continues. Monet hasn't had homework yet but I am sure that will change come tomorrow. She's a big 4th grader now! She has informed me that they are changing classes this year for a couple of classes to prepare them for Middle School. I think that is pretty cool!


I had another great discussion with my Pastor and his wife about the scrapbooking classes at our church. They seem very excited and are interested in trying this out for our Outreach Ministry. If that doesn't fly then we can try to do the program separate from the church by pretty much letting me use the space to hold the functions. Either way I still get to teach which is awesome but I still think it would be great if we used it as outreach. We will see what God wants it to be and go with that.

I worked on some layouts for Breanne's Personal Challenges. They are tough to do but each one let me get some feelings down on paper that I probably would not have otherwise. They are not the pretty moments. They are actually about events that happened in my life that I would rather erase or well, have rather not have had to deal with at all. But then I think about these moments, even though they are not something I would normally tell others about- and realize that they have made me who I am today. And I don't think I turned out all too shabby!

mlpa

Arent' they so pretty! I am seriously rushing Fall but it is my very favorite season. Besides, I picked them up at the market for $2.99!

I am so excited. I didn't know if I was going to be able to make it (MLPA) at first but when I asked my friend Dany if she wanted to go, she was like "Heck Yeah!!!"

So we are there! October 6th all day! I can't wait to meet all of you who are going in person! THere are still spots open right now so if you are in the area, let breanne know in this thread.

I have a wonderful surprise for one lucky girl who will be there and I really can't wait to give it to her! Over at SIS I started a thread to see if anyone could guess who she is... You can play too!
Here is the print...
It's PERFECT!!! So I had to get it!

Here are the other projects I worked on over the weekend I said I'd post:



This is the project I want to do at my church. I hope that everyone enjoys- who doesn't love a cute garland?

This is a 6 X 12 I did with the August Poppy Ink Kit. I love the colors and they really worked great withthe photo.
I also wante dto share with you how I made the water look so cool- I used an acid wash filter I downloaded to photoshop. Acid wash makes water look so cool- almost lagoon-ish!

A littl ecloseup of the small cluster at the bottom of the page- cause I am lovin' all things glitter lately!

Tomorrow is the big day!!! Remind me to charge my batteries to take some 1st day piccies. My baby is off to Kindergarten and my daughter is heading to 4th grade. WOW!

I can't decide if I'm going to induldge in myself this first day or if I'm going to step to it and start applying for jobs....

monday, monday!!

I still have a terrible cough- passed it on to my hubby and together we are praying that the kids don't end up with it. School starts Wednesday!!! They are excited, we are excited, and then we are all a little sad all at the same time because summer vaca is at it's end.

I did a scrap area overhaul! The table I had to work at was WAY too small so I pulled out a larger tabletop I had been storing in the front closet. I had forgotten that I even had that! Anyhow, I tried to not move anything but of course the tabletop was too large to fit where I had the table riginally. So I moved everything around and what do you know? It looks great and all of my stuff in in order. Well, truthfully, it's not in order but I know where everything is! Maybe I will share pictures of that later because I am really loving how it feels in my space.

This weekend was productive in scrappy terms. I worked on three projects (maybe more, I'm working on my 1st coffee still), two which I will share now with you since I haven't taken photos of the others =)
The first is a box that I covered just for fun and well, to look nicer in my scrap area. I am using it to hold my small but growing ephemera stash. It makes me all kinds of happy to think of that box being full!



Here is a little detail of the posie. It's made with the instructions gigi made up over at OLW.
She's one fabulous flower maker so I had to try it out!



A little glitter and voila! Isn't she gorgeous!


This totally inspiring Fashionista is challenges SISters something fierce! Every Monday she is posting a new prompt for her FAVORITE MOMENTS Challenge.
Here is the First Challenge

The prompt for this Challenge is "What I Know"

Here is mine:


And a little detail of my journaling:


I spoke to my Pastor last night some more about starting the crops and classes. I worked on a project that I am hoping I will be able to teach before the season passes. I really love how it came out so I will take a picture in a few and share with you. I would love to hear your feedback, so please check back!

Have a wonderful Labor Day!