Hello! Long Time No Blog

Hey! I'm a very bad blogger. :(

I've back in school again for the fall and I have pretty much been focusing on that. Exciting, though, because I'm finally in classrooms doing observation so I feel like I'm finally close to being the teacher I've always wanted to be!

I did get to do some scrapping with my mom in the last couple of weeks. OH-- and did I mention that we went on a cruise vacation?? Just the two of us! It was amaaaaazing. :)

Here are a few layouts I've done:

And continued... 4 layouts.

Alright, four more layouts to share with you guys. :) Click to enlarge and any comments are much appreciated. I'm starting to break out of my shell with my layouts. I tend to go simple, complex, simple, complex. Am I the only one that does that? I get exhausted from busy layouts and then do a simple one. Then by the time I'm done with the simple one, I'm ready to get out all my embellies and make another busy layout. Phew, exhausting, but fun!! :)

I was inspired to FINALLY use one of my many Hambly overlays that I've been hoarding for about a year, now! I saw this overlay used at mugsyboo.blogspot.com and it looked amazing so I made myself get it out and use it while the inspiration was still fresh. I really like the way it turned out and I'd love to thank Martha for that burst of inspiration! I will try and remember everything I used: Hambly overlay, Bazzill cardstock, Love Elsie ribbon, American Craft thickers, Bam Pop frame, Q & Co alphabet chipboard letters, Heidi Swapp ghost letters, stickles, chipboard buttons, and other random embellies/papers from previous kits (Poppy Ink, I think).



I was so happy that I used one of my old papers! I tend to only use my "newer" stuff. I was inspired by our clothes. Josh and I were wearing brown and blue and so I looked through my browns and blues and found this in the blues and thought it would be perfect. I also really wanted to use that Together rub-on by Daisy D's that I bought at The Crafty Scrapper (my local scrap shop). The two little birds represent Josh and I, of course, and those are Hambly rub-ons. The two gold butterflies came in a previous Poppy Ink kit. The buttons are random but mostly from kits or from Autumn Leaves. And I do believe this is the first time I used a corner adorner! I'm getting so bad about making only one picture layouts... haha, oh well!



I really wanted to use my new circle punch and my new Pop Culture paper that I bought at Target. I also bought some Autumn Leaves alphabet stamps at Target and this was my first time to use them. I also used some cute acorn stickers that I got in a previous Poppy Ink kit and a few sequins from a Scarlet Lime kit. Very simple layout that I was pretty pleased with. :)



This was the last layout that I did Sunday. I wanted to just randomly choose a picture and scrap it and I ended up choosing this one. This is Josh's mother and brother. We are at the Wax Museum. I thought something simple like this would look cute. I used Primas, an Autumn Leaves stamp, and cardstock. That's pretty much it!

2 Day Scrapathon

I had an amazing weekend at Mom's house. I will be there a lot here in the next couple of months because I have to get out of Josh's hair so he can study for his Series 7 test that he is taking at his work.

I did so many things at Mom's house!!

But, for now, here are only two of the things that I made. Both of these are for Josh. I made him a bookmark and a framed layout.

Five more pages!

I was a scrapping machine this Easter! Josh was out of town visiting family in Louisiana and so I was all alone for five days! I would have gone, but my boss wouldn't give me off. :( BUT- it ended up being a great Easter after all. I spent all day long on Easter Sunday with my mom scrapping away. My dad played my Wii or watched movies on my Zune and my grandma did her thing resting in her room or watching us scrap. It was a wonderful day for me because I got FOUR PAGES done. Okay, that's a lot for me! I also have one more page to share that I actually did a couple of weeks ago, but never scanned/photographed it. If you want to see them bigger, just give them a clickaroo!

This one I did last Saturday. Peggy's birthday was March 13th and I spent the 15th at my mom's scrapping so I figured it was only natural to do Peggy's birthday layout! I actually really like the way this came out. I used so many different products! For some reason, it's always very easy for me to do a layout about Peggy. I get to use so much cute girly stuff.


This one ended up being, ehhh, OKAY. I think because I LOVED this photo so much and then I really wanted to use some new decorated chipboard that I bought. I think the main problem is the background paper. I'm usually pretty good at choosing eye-pleasing background paper, but not in this case. This should have been used as accent paper because I didn't notice it until it was too late, but the pattern on the paper is crooked. So the whole thing kind of looks lop-sided. I will probably use this layout for my vacation album and scrap the picture again for the album of just Josh and me.


This was a fun layout for me to do! First of all, it's all from my March Scarlet Lime kit. I love me some monthly kits! haha BUT, what I really like about this layout is that I actually did something on it for the first time ever. When I was at The Crafty Scrapper last weekend (my LSS), I saw a chipboard hanging album that had distressed edges on the photograph so I used my Making Memories block and scratched, scratched, scratched away at the edges of my picture. I actually like the way it turned out and will probably use this technique again!


This layout ended up being a pleasant surprise for me. I told myself that I was going to go through my stuff and choose something to use FIRST and THEN choose the photographs. I came across these My Mind's Eye frames that I have had for a while. Then I thought of these silly pictures I took of myself around my 25th birthday last year in the mirror. I printed three pictures on one 5x7 and cut them up to fit in the frames. Then I found this laser die cut that I bought at GASC last year and thought THIS WOULD BE PERFECT! Well, it ended up looking really cute, in my humble opinion! haha And this is one of the very few "me" pages I have done. And I just loved my different sized yellow buttons. My mom liked it so much that she ended up scraplifting me and she ended up with an awesome layout that she's going to frame and hang in her scrap room!


This was the last layout I did Sunday night. I used some paper that I bought at The Crafty scrapper, some journal die cuts that I got in a kit last month, and a rub-on that I got in another kit. The stars are PaperChase (the London paper company that only sells stuff in Borders) and the letters are Q & Company. Love those letters! I ended up using different colors for the R's because I didn't have enough R's in blue... but it ended up working with the page, I think.


Phew! That took me a long time to scan and photograph. Scanning stresses me out, so I think I'm going to stick with taking pictures of my layouts, even though it isn't quite as good of quality. Thanks for looking and any comments are very welcome. :)

Seven Things About Me

I've been tagged by the lovely and talented Carolyn at The Crafty Scrapper. I have to list seven things about me. I won't tag anyone because the only four people (lol) that visit my site have already been tagged. haha Ok so here we go-- seven things about me!!

1) I am a bartender. I work at a Cajun chain in the Dallas area and I've worked there for 4 years now. Dream job? Not really. But! I'm very thankful for it. I got promoted to a bartender 3 years ago, which truly is a monetary promotion. This has enabled me to work less, make good money, and still have time for school. I really do feel very lucky to have my job. Guests are total pains, but I guess that's the general public for you! :) lol, just kidding.. sort of! On a serious note, there are many guests that come in just to see "us" or even ME and it brightens my day knowing that every day I work I make someone a little bit happier. And I don't just mean by giving them alcohol! :) Being a bartender is a very social job and 80% of it is talking to your guests. We cheer people up, listen to people's woes, and make general chit chat with people. OH-- and that picture is not how I NORMALLY dress for work, that was on Mardi Gras when we had to dress up! I'm on the bottom row, the red head.


2) I'm currently going to school to be a teacher. I've been going to college full time and part time on and off for EIGHT YEARS. I know, it's totally "Tommy Boy" of me. But much of my college was spent working FULL TIME. My grades suffered taking a full load and working full time and I had to work to pay for school so I went to school part time. Then when I went to a university in Louisiana, I did a lot of the typical college "partying" and of course wasn't the BEST student, not too bad, though! Did a lot of catching up when I moved back to Texas. Now, I'm lucky enough to only have to work 3 days a week, plus I get grants for my school. I am hoping to teach here in the DFW area in the next couple of years.

3) My little pride and joy is my dog, Peggy. I miss her so much! She has been staying at my mom's for nearly a year for various reasons, but I'm hoping to bring her back to mommy soon. Peggy is 4 years old (as of March 13, actually!) and she is a Pekingese. We bought her at a rescue shop in Six Flags mall when she was a puppy. She was born with a birth defect in her back right leg causing her to not be able to bend her knee. When she walked, she looked like she had a peg leg... so we named her Peggy! As she's gotten older, she's gotten better with it. But you should see her when she pees, her left leg squats and her right leg kicks forward. It looks like she's doing the splits. haha When she was 2 (right when she turned two), she had bad back problems. My mom was babysitting her one night, and she called me at work to tell me that Peggy wasn't moving her lower half of her body. After a long drawn out process of overnight stays at the emergency center, we found out that she had slipped a disc and steroids were not helping and her only option was to be put to sleep or have surgery. It was devastating because the surgery was MY only option in my heart, but it cost me over $3000. Luckily, I hadn't done my taxes the past three or four years and I just so happen to have gotten my checks in and it pretty much paid for the whole thing. God works in mysterious ways, doesn't He? After some months of TLC, Peggy got to her old self. We just have to be very careful when picking her up and she's not allowed to use stairs.

4) I LOVE LOVE LOVE to travel and go on vacation! I just started going on REAL REAL vacations in 2006. Josh and I took our first vacation together. We went on a cruise and had the time of our life! haha so cheesy, but so true! So we pretty much immediately started planning for another trip. We took a mini trip to San Antonio with Josh's son, which was great! Then, we went on another cruise a year later. Currently on my vacation calendar is a trip to Cancun with Josh and some of his friends in May. Then, in September, I'm taking Mom on her very first real vacation! We are going on a cruise and I am soooooooo excited about it! Since 2006, I can say that I've been to Mexico twice, Jamaica twice, and Grand Cayman twice. :) In the future, I would love to go to both coasts of the US (never been). Alaskan cruise, Mediterranean cruise, Hawaiian cruise... I want to do it all! I want to see the world! :)

5) I love giraffes. I have loved giraffes since junior high, I think, so about 12 years or so. My dad used to do wood work and was making coin banks out of small wooden animals and he had me choose an animal for him to make and I chose the giraffe and loved it so much! Ever since then, I've been casually collecting giraffe things.

6) I love me some electronic gadgets. :) I am such a Nintendo girl. I bought a Wii this Christmas and it has provided much entertainment for me and my family! I recently bought the new Super Mario Smash Brothers Brawl, but haven't had a chance to play it. My favorite things to play on it are the sports (bowling and golf) and Super Mario Galaxy. I can't wait for the Super Mario Kart to come out! I also recently bought an 80GB Microsoft Zune. What a cool little thing! I've been putting tons of music and even movies on there. I need something to distract me when I'm on that plane to Cancun in May! haha It's definitely a nifty gadget. One of my other favorite gadgets is my little HP photo printer that my boyfriend gave me about a year ago as a gift. A great scrapper tool for me. :)

7) I've been casually scrapping for a good ten or so years with my mom and other family members.. just more to have something to do when they scrap. BUT-- I've only been an avid scrapper with my own scrapping supplies for 1 year and 4 months. I remember this because I went to GASC (scrap convention) in 2006 with my mom and sister. This was in June and I thought it would be cool to do a very simple album of my first cruise that I was about to take that September. After I got home from the cruise and saw my pictures, I started to want to make the album, of course. It went from "simple" to "OHHH LOOK WHAT I CAN DO!" and in December, I told Josh: "That's it. I'm going to start scrapbooking. And not just every once in a while with mom. I mean REALLY scrapbooking. I'm buying a desk, I'm buying supplies, the whole SHABANG!" And so I did! :) Now I scrap with my mom all the time and it's probably my favorite part of my week when I get to go over there. It has definitely brought me closer with her and even a little closer to my scrapper sister who lives in Illinois. I think it's crazy that some people thing that if you don't have kids, what's the point of scrapping? I do it because it's fun and I love that I will have something to remember the big and small moments of my life and maybe even be able to share it with my FUTURE kids. I may not have kids now, but I still have stuff to scrap about. Me, my dog, Josh, my friends, my family, my vacations, my favorite color, WHATEVER I WANT. That's the beauty of it.

A Little Scrappin' Done...

I got to go to Mom's on Sunday and do some scrappin'! I decided to use some of my old stash that really isn't my style anymore. But, I had it, so I thought I would use it! They turned out okay, just WAY MORE SIMPLER than I'm used to! :) I also did landscape 11 x 8.5 for the first time. I wanted to put them with my other layouts in my American Crafts Modern Album, so I had to punch a hole for it to fit in the rings, but it turned out good! I don't know why it looks crooked on the scan, I must of pushed it around too much. It's not crooked in "real life."

I'm so excited about going to Mom's to scrap on Saturday. I got off of work and everything. My aunt, my cousin, and my cousin's friend will be there. And hopefully Mom and I will get to go shopping at The Crafty Scrapper later that night! :)

A little scrap time...

Sunday I went to Mom's house and made a couple of layouts. I was starting to feel sick so I didn't have my normal MOJO, but I still had a lot of fun! To the right is one of the layouts I did from when Josh, James (his son), and I went to Sea World in San Antonio! Click it to see it much larger. It was a lot of fun and it was James' first time ever!

I am very excited because my mom is having a little mini crop party on March 15. It will be me, her, my aunt, my cousin, and my cousin's friend. There will be food, gabbing, and scrapping! I hope my mojo doesn't disappear for that day like it did on Sunday!

I've done a little bit more online shopping! I bought a Close To My Heart square punch set, a new modern album (red one!), some landscape page protectors (11 x 8.5 -- thought it would be fun to give that a whirl), and some STAZON (black and white). I wish I could scrap as much as I shop!

Also, I'VE BEEN TAGGED by Brook. :) I don't really know anyone that checks my blog, so I'm not going to tag anyone, but I love that I got tagged! haha

So here we go--

Here are the rules:

1. You have to post the rules before you give your answers.

2. You must list one fact about yourself beginning with each letter of your middle name. (If you don't have a middle name, use your maiden name).

3. After you are tagged, you need to update your blog with your middle name and your answers.

4. At the end of your blog post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name. (Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged and that they need to read your blog for details).

Answers:

M - Math. I've always had a thing for algebra.
A - Anxious. I get anxiety over the simple things.
R - Reliable. I might be late, but I'll be there if I said I would.
I - Indecisive. I have trouble making small decisions.
E - Easygoing. I can get along with most anyone.


So, there's my first TAG!

First Time for Everything!

Welcome to my very first blog entry! The goal of my blog is to share with everyone my latest creations and chat about the world of creativity as a whole. Whether it be a scrapbook layout, an altered item, photography, or anything else!

Here are the last few layouts that I've done.. click on them to see them FULL SIZE, close when finished viewing:

In the future, I will post what inspires me, who inspires me, and anything relating to the scrapbooking or creativity world.