Love of Paper

Back to creating...

2011-05-25T22:30:00.000-07:00

Here are a few things I have been working on since I have been home and as back to normal as I can possibly be... First up, I made a card for the sb.com Card Challenge for technique. This technique is called Bargello Technique and the directions for it can be found here on the Split Coast Stampers website. They have the best tutorials. I thought it almost had a "quilt-like" look to it and wasn't so sure I would like it, but I love the way it came out in the end and seeing as I need all kinds of thank you cards, that's what I decided to make.

The scraps from that card, came from this layout from Taylor's birth. I LOVE this paper line from Cosmo Cricket. The quote on the left says, "Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart." I was at a friend's house the other day and they had it on their wall and it is apparently a quote from Winnie the Pooh! Isn't it weird when things like that happen? Like when you do something and then you see it somewhere else? My sister would know exactly what I'm talking about! LOL! Anyways, the journaling here says, "We have very few pictures from your actual birth because it went so fast and we left the camera in the car. Here you are under the heat lamp while the nurses did your footprints." By the way, I don't scrap in order, I just scrap whatever inspires me that day!

Next up, I finally got around to scrapping Madison's preschool pictures from this year. Here is her picture and her class picture. The crayons, scissors, and little drawing are just stickers. The journaling here says, "You started preschool this year and absolutely LOVE it! Miss Celia is your teacher and she always says what a great listener you are. She also says that you love to paint and really take your time. I am so proud that you have learned to write your name. Your preschool is right next to my school and I love being able to take you every morning. But when I come to pick you up, you never want to come home, even when you have been there all day long. It makes me happy that you like it so much!" I used my Cricut for the title that just says Preschool, but I did the shadow cut which I LOVE to do. It is very subtle, but I love the look it gives. Here is a closer look at the title, so you know what I mean. The shadow color is light pink, so you can see it if you click on the picture to make it bigger.

Finally, I did a layout based on the sketch for this week at Sketchy Thursdays.

Here is their sketch and then my take on it. These pictures are from my Uncle Dick's birthday on October 1, 2009. Madison was helping him blow out the candles. I turned the sketch sorta, and instead of circles, I made half circles from the flowers that I cut out from coordinating paper. Of course, I had to pop dot them for dimension. For those of you that know Uncle Dick, isn't that middle picture just a classic Uncle Dick pose? I just think it screams his personality when I look at it! It makes me laugh! I have lots more to share... in another post, on another day! I sure have missed scrapping, but I love being back to it!!! Thanks for visiting!

Trauma Brain

2011-05-21T14:15:00.000-07:00

So after my accident and once I was stable, I was moved from Sharp Hospital to Tri-City because that was back in my network for insurance and well, of course I wanted them to pay for everything, so I had to follow their rules. Once I arrived at Tri-City, I had a very difficult transition. Most of the time I was at Sharp, I was on morphine, and believe me, I needed it! But once I moved it was time to down-grade the pain meds. So when I arrived at Tri-City, I wasn't in the clouds anymore. Unfortunately, then came depression and it hit me hard. I think that was a part of me that was disappointed that I wasn't able to go home, but I knew on the other hand that I wasn't independent enough to be going home either. I knew that if I came home, I would be a huge burden on my family, and for that reason I needed to stay in the Rehab Facility. In my heart I wanted to be at home, but in my mind I knew that I needed to be in the hospital longer.

My first night there, while eating my dinner, I turned on the tv and was trying to eat. I seriously thought that I was going crazy! I was getting so confused. I couldn't concentrate on anything, the tv was too loud and noisy... I felt like everything was spinning around and I couldn't focus on anything. I turned off the tv, and got rid of the food. Then I laid in my bed having a panic attack and trying to relax. I called the nurse and talked to her about what was going on. It was very hard for me because I felt like I was going crazy and I didn't know how to explain it to someone. I was scared that they would think I was crazy... and maybe I was. Luckily, she was an AWESOME nurse! She sat with me until I felt better, she also put in a request for me to speak with the psychologist/psychiatrists (WHOEVER!). Throughout that night and the next day, I did very little. I tried to read a magazine, I would get so confused. I tried to watch tv, confused again. Play on my phone, nope. It seemed that I couldn't do anything, other than lay in bed... and even then I would have panic attacks in the middle of the nigtht... I'd just try to relax and thank goodness for my friend, Jeannie, who helped me A LOT!!! Even when I was texting her at 3am. Thank you, Jeannie!

Those few days felt like a lifetime... and then FINALLY came my insurance approval... and I could talk to someone. The moment she walked in the door, I started crying. I just spilled it all... every emotion of the accident, every feeling I was having, the guilt, the fear, the anger, the disappointment, the frustration, and all of the confusion and feels of losing my mind. She spent probably over an hour with me, and then she told me about what she called "Trauma Brain". She explained it best to me as to say that it's like someone has gone into your head and shaken it all up. It's all still there, it just needs time to settle back down, and accept what has happened. I came to realize, I wasn't losing my mind, I didn't need medication, I just needed time. If you know me well, you know how hard that was going to be for me, but if time is what I needed, then that was what I was just going to have to do!

I was in that hospital for about a week. By the time I was ready to go home, my brain was not back to normal yet, but I was able to do a word search book that someone brought me (I don't know who, sorry! But thanks whoever it was!) At the time of going home, I was doing A LOT of word searches because it seemed to be the only thing that I could focus on. Still no reading, still no tv. Once I was home, the transition wasn't easy. I was so nervous about everything, the change, the burden on my family, the wheelchair fitting in the house, my girls understanding how little I was going to be able to do for them, my Mom being able to change EVERYTHING to spend everyday with me, having to ask her to do that... it was a lot!

Lucky for me, I have an amazing family, and an even more amazing Mom! I owe her big time! Once I was home, I decided I wanted to try doing a puzzle, thinking THAT was something that maybe I would be able to handle. It was!!! My mom and I worked on a puzzle and sometimes we would spend most of the day at her card table she brought over working on the puzzle... and another puzzle... and another puzzle. She bought more puzzles (we didn't really own any and my Mom had just recently gotten rid of all of hers!) and we did those too! My aunt brought us more puzzles! Kathy brought more puzzles! My first few days home were spent between puzzles and word searches. Everyone kept trying to be so positive about my extra time at home and how I could scrapbook... I tried! I sat at my table, and started to panic about all the things I have and became very overwhelmed... even cried, because I just wanted to be normal again. Usually I would LOVE this chance to spend days at this table, but instead it was making me have a panic attack.

There is a saying that I heard once at work that said something about "a sorrow takes a 1,000 tellings." Basically it means that you have to tell your story, cry about it, relive it, share it, dream it, exc. 1,000 times before you are able to move past it and allow it to no longer cause you so much pain. I cried, a lot, and sometimes I still do. I relive the accident over and over, probably on a daily basis. I dream about it every single night. Last night's dream I had a new car, but same accident. I woke up to pain in my ankle because I was trying to push the break. I figure that rather than worry about these re-occurring, I'm counting them up on my 1,000 tellings, which is also what the dr told me. She said the more and more I experience it, the easier it will be come for me to accept it.

I think that I can officially say that my trauma brain is now GONE! I have started scrapping again and I will even have my music going while I am doing it. I will be back soon with some scrapping things to share with you. I have completed 6 weeks, and I have 6 more weeks to go without walking. I truly believe that if I can pass this time scrapping, which is something that I LOVE to do, it will greatly help me. I still struggle EVERY SINGLE DAY with the need and want to just get out of bed pain-free and WALK! I cannot wait to WALK again! I didn't realize what a gift it is to get out of bed each morning, and I hope that I remember to treasure it when the gift is returned to me. Depression still lingers in those moments, and when I'm in pain, it is even harder to fight, but honestly paper is therapeutic for me. I'm so happy that the trauma brain is gone and I can now pass the time working on some paper products, cards, layouts, and whatever! I believe that scrapping will help me heal and I'm looking forward to it! How fun!

Life changing accident...

2011-05-07T14:45:00.000-07:00

Well, here we go, let's see if I can brave this post, it's going to be a long one... On April 7th, while driving home from work and after picking up my girls, we were in a major car accident. I think that my cousin Alana said it best on her blog at Milton Memories when she said it was one of those phone calls no one likes to get. I'm still not sure HOW it happened, and I will never know, but we had just been sitting at a red light. The light turned green, everyone went. We were the last car and thankfully no one was behind us. Apparently two cars at the front of the line had a fender bender and everyone slammed on their brakes. I must have looked away, because when I looked up the truck in front of me was right there and I knew I wouldn't have enough time to stop. I knew in that moment that we were going to hit him. I also had enough time to think that this was not going to be good and that we were not going to win this battle because the truch that I hit was a huge Ford F550 all steel back work truck. From there, everything happened in slow motion. We hit, I watched the air bags deploy, I could see every tiny spec of dust and powder flying through the air and all I could think was please let my children be okay...

After the immediate shock, I opened my car door to get out of the car. Madison kept asking me, "What did you do, Mommy?" I knew that she was talking but Taylor wasn't saying anything and I needed to see them, to see that they were okay, and to talk to them and reassure them. Immediately after stepping out of the car, I fell to the ground. I hadn't felt any pain and hadn't even thought that I might be hurt. I realized that I was having difficulty moving my legs. My left ankle was obviously broken and basically going the opposite direction of my leg. My right pant leg was cut open and blood was all over my pants, but I couldn't really see the extent of the wound. I slid on my hands to Madison's car door and opened it. She wanted me to get her out but I couldn't stand up. I told her I was going to get help. I continued to slide across the ground dragging my legs. SEVERAL cars were driving around the accident slowly... no one was stopping to help. I was yelling to cars to please help, to please call 911. I still can't believe how many cars drove by... must have been at least 20-30. The guy that I hit called 911.

They took Madison out of the car in her booster seat and she stood right up, walked over to me and sat on my lap. She only cried a bit and told me her arm hurt. I saw them take Taylor out, as well, also in her car seat. Her head and hair were covered in blood. They turned her away from me. I didn't like that... at all.

Thankfully, the ambulance and fire truck arrived. I don't know that I have ever felt such relief in my life. Knowing that there were people arriving who could help us, all of us. I would not allow them to look at my injuries until they had worked on both of my children. They wanted to cut the sleeve of Madison's shirt and that cute adorable thing looked at me frieghtened and said, "But I love this shirt, Mommy! It has a hood!" I promised to buy her 20 shirts with hoods and that it was what they needed to do, and the scissors went to work. They informed me that Madison had a broken arm and would be transported by ambulance to Tri-City Hospital. Next, they evaluated Taylor and I kept asking for her to be brought to me. Poor baby had already been fighting a fever that day, so she was already sick. She had several gashes in her head and head wounds tend to bleed quite a bit. They said she was tracking just fine and all vitals were good but they still recommended that she be airlifted to Rady Children's Hospital. I knew that I was very hurt, and would eventually end up at a hospital somewhere... but my mind was so worried about my two girls and that they were going to two different hospitals, probably without their Mommy.

And then another gift arrived... Kathy and Wayne Harlan... Kathy and my Mom have been best friends since 1st grade, so I grew up with them like an aunt and uncle. I teared up as I saw Wayne come around the ambulance and over to me. I asked them to please ride with Madison in the ambulance and to check on Taylor. Then I finally let them work on me, once I knew people were watching over my babies. Originally, there were two helicopters ordered, one for me and one for Taylor. I was being taken to Sharp. I asked the paramedics over and over if we could please go in the same helicopter. I just wanted to be with her. She still wasn't talking and I was still worried about her. They finally said, "Yes!"

As I was being loaded into the helicopter, my cell phone rang and it was Josh. I hadn't been able to reach him until then. I can't imagine what he was feeling, learning everything that was going on, I asked him to go be with Taylor, to meet her at the hospital. Once in the helicopter, I asked them to let me hold Taylor's hand. I couldn't really see her because she was beside me and we were both strapped down, but they put my hand on hers and I tucked it under her fingers and told her everything was going to be okay and Mommy was right here. She rubbed her fingers on my hand and I realized in that moment that she knew I was there and it brought complete joy to my heart. I also realized that she was helping me, just as much as I was helping her. When we landed at Children's, it was just like on television, the helicopter door flew open, a team of people took Taylor away and a nurse asked me a few questions about her. Within one minute, the door was shut again and we were lifting off the ground. I took a deep breathe and put all my trust and faith that those amazing doctors and nurses would take good care of my baby girl. That was very difficult.

Finally, I arrived at Sharp and there were several doctors working on me right away. I tried to just relax and let them do their jobs. I just kept telling them, "Please let me walk again!" I knew that Kathy was with Madison and I knew that Josh and my mom were on their way to Taylor and that it was now time to take care of me. After a while, a nurse who had taken off my wedding ring and taken my cell phone came and told me that my cousins Tim and Alana were in the waiting room. I couldn't see them or talk to them, but another gift of knowing that they were there, for me, made me feel safer and loved. Thank you, Tim and Alana (and Addy, too!) for coming, even if you couldn't see me! And for guarding my wedding rings! Josh arrived later and they let him in to be with me. Ah, he is amazing! So strong! I just kept telling him how sorry I was. He held my hand through everything.

In the end, Madison had a broken arm, which also ended up being a broken clavical, as well. Taylor received several stictches on her face, but they were both released from the hospital that night. I have a fractured vertebrae in my back, received several staples and stitches for the gash in my left knee, and I had surgery on my right ankle where I received 2 metal plates and 7 screws that you can see here:

Here is a pictures of the car:

Taylor at Children's Hospital:

Madison visiting me at the hospital, you can see that her arm is not in the sleeve of her shirt:

A HUGE thank you to everyone who has been helping us! I have a new love of life! I have a big family who are all very close, at times it can be difficult because everyone has their own opinions, but on days like April 7th, I could not have appreciated each person more! With the 3 of us all going to different hospitals, having a huge family meant that everyone split up to support us all. You are all amazing and please know how much I appreciate it! I will never be able to express my gratitude! We are on the mend now... I'm home now after 10 days in the hospital, and working on healing. This post has been very theraputic for me, sorry it was so long! Thank you for being a part of our lives! You are all important to me! I love you!

Play until you crash...

2011-01-02T20:12:00.000-08:00

Due to the state of the economy in my house (LOL!), I am going to be trying REALLY hard to make better use of the scrapping items that I have in my house. Last Christmas my Mom bought me these stitching templates and I think that I have only used them once... until today! My lo for today is based on a sketch from Sketchy Thursdays. They have THE BEST sketches, in case I haven't told you 100 times yet! LOL! This week the sketch is only available for viewing if you are a fan of the Facebook page. So although this lo took me ALL DAY LONG to finish, it is finally done... it's slightly difficult to scrap with a 2 and 4 year old in the house but I will forgive them only because they live here too! And because they are super cute!!! So here it is...

I did just get these American Craft papers the other day with a gift card to Ever After Scrapbooks (my LSS, for those not in San Diego) that Santa left in my stocking! (Thanks, Josh, if you read this) But the stickers for the title are ancient. I've had them FOREVER... just got lucky that they matched! And finally, the journaling... again, I'm always worried about writing on a lo because I don't want to mess it up. And I think I've said it before but I know how well I recognize my Mom's handwriting and I want my girls to know that I wrote this for them... something sentimental about it that hopefully they will appreciate later on. I know printing it out on the computer would be neater, but hey, this is for my girls, not a magazine! LOL! :)

I left that part of the picture in so you could check out her dress-up shoes still on her feet, hanging off the bed. She calls them her dancing shoes! Well, it's back to work tomorrow! I'm not ready, but I never am... but I did miss my 1st graders! I LOVE how different they are after Christmas break and how their reading just takes off!!! I'm looking forward to that!!!!!!! Thanks for visiting!!!

1st card(s) of 2011...

2011-01-02T10:45:00.000-08:00

And I'm off... working hard on that goal of 52 cards this year and ACTUALLY sending them to people! I think that a hand-written note sent via snail mail has so much meaning, especially when it is totally unexpected. I used to write to my Grandma about once a month but since she passed away over a year ago, I seem to have lost that habit and I am hoping to gain it back this year! I want to remember to appreciate people in my life, near and far.

Today's card is for my friend, Rachel who just had her baby yesterday! I used the weekly sketch from Mojo Monday for this card. I love that in scrapping right now there is a lot of negative space. It took me some getting used to but I love it. I also like clean lines and simplicity so this card goes that direction as well. Mojo Monday offers up a card sketch and lately they have been giving you a shape card as well. I went with the square.

I just realized that I never posted about the baby shower... hmm... I'll need to get to that! Well, this card was made from the scraps I had left (and I have A LOT so you'll be seeing more!). I made the one on the left for Rachel and the one of the right will go to a card swap I am doing on scrapbook.com. Finally, also on sb.com my friend Tarynne (check out her blog), does a monthly card challenge with several categories. This card is for the theme category where you had to make a card for something new, this is for the beautiful new baby boy, Griffen Hank!!

I doodled around the circle... always scary for me because I'm afraid I will mess up the entire card, but I like it! Thanks for visiting!!!

New Year's Resolution...

2011-01-01T12:27:00.000-08:00

Happy 1/1/11!!!! Such a fun date!!! My friend Rachel had her baby this morning at 3a.m which means her beautiful baby boy will have a fabulous birthday every year!!! How fun!!! And he was the 1st baby of the year at the hopsital so they got some extra special gifts including a $300 gift card to Babies R Us! Super fun and to a family that will put that $$$$ to GREAT use! Extra special!!!

On to the REAL reason for this post... I am a person that LOVES resolutions. I'm not ridiculously obsessed with completing them, but I love goals and accomplishments. I think they are great things to keep us focused. And if you can't accomplish them, then oh well! But if you can, AWESOMENESS!!! So this year I have three resolutions...
      1. Run the half-marathon again with a BETTER time!!!
      2. Make 52 scrapbook layouts!!!! FUN!!!
      3. Make 52 cards and send them out!!!!

In all honesty, those are the same exact ones as last year (minus the better time part) but I failed at #2 and #3. So what-the-heck, let's try them again!!!!! Do you have a New Years Resolution this year???

Wine Charms

2010-12-31T12:37:00.000-08:00

I love everything having to do with paper... and I love wine... so why not make the two things come together??? Well, I do!!! LOL! I know that it is silly, but if you are a visitor in my home, you can pretty much count on the fact that I will offer you a glass of wine. It may not be the best kind, but you can count on a glass nonetheless. I have become obsessed with making wine charms for all events held at my house... well, heck, I'll even make them for events at your house, if you want me to!! :) Anyways, this post has been LOOOOOONNNNNGGG overdue because I've been making them forever but here are some examples of the charms I have made....

I made these for my best friend who was going to a baseball themed bachelorette party. Didn't know the girl getting married, but each girl attending had their own numbered shirt so I made these for each girl.

Christmas 2009, added a gem to the top of each tree, but you can't see that here.

Christmas 2010, made the leaves from a circle punch, tutorial I saw somewhere...

For Alana's baby shower, this monkey was on her invitations so I scanned in the picture of her, cut them out and mounted on a scalloped punch.

Tupperware party!!!!! LOL! I cut apart one of the catalogs ahead of time!

I have done them for my girls' birthday parties too! Care Bears, Dora, exc. Ah, but so much fun for me!!! It's a blend of two things that I love! :)

And finally, look what my hubby did to our cupboard because he knows how much I love my wine and all the glasses...

Ah, love the organization!!

He's the best, in case you didn't know! :)
Thanks for visiting!

90 days of working out...

2010-12-30T22:31:00.000-08:00

One of my New Years resolutions will be to begin working out again. Although we recently had to eliminate the gym memberships, we need to continue to work out and make exercise a priority in our lives. Last year my resolution was to run a half-marathon and we did it! This year I would like to do it again! It is in June and I don't want to wait as long to train for it, as we did this past year. So to help get us on track, I made us little mini-calendars on Excel with fun fonts to track our workouts for 90 days. I know that if we can get to 90 days, we will have a huge weight-loss and we will be in a better place to really start our serious training for June. My goal is to beat my time from this year, which shouldn't be hard if I stick with this plan! LOL!

I used fonts101.com today! It was fun! Thanks, Tarynne! Downloaded about 8 different fonts! It was so easy and I got a few great ones that will be useful for my classroom too!

This one is for me

For my hubby...

Just wanted to share his January in ESPN font...

Pretty new font!

Thanks for visiting! Happy New Years to you! I hope that 2011 is a great year for finding employment for my family. We've had just about enough of 2010. I will happily kiss it good-bye! :)

Scrapping from Thanksgiving Break...

2010-12-12T20:39:00.000-08:00

Along with my goal of making 52 cards in 2010, I set a personal goal to do 52 layouts in scrapping, as well. I'm also failing there but doing MUCH better than the 1 card so far this year... Here are a few lo's that I did over the Thanksgiving vacation because we were able to stay home this year so I got to do what I LOVE and that's scrap!!!

This first page was for Taylor's album from Christmas Morning in 2008. I had done Madison's page but never Taylor's so with another Christmas approaching, I figured I better get one it! I cut the trees from a very busy sheet of 12 x 12 paper and then foam mounted them for some dimension. She was only 5 months old here.

This next page is another one for the Yosemite album. I actually based the layout on a sketch from Sketchy Thursdays. I loved these papers! Very fun colors! Josh and I rented the raft to float but Madison wasn't old enough, so my In-laws brought her to the bridge in the picture and we "picked" her up and took her down the rest of the way with us. They kept Taylor while we did it, so that is a picture of them and Taylor as we left. This was the highlight of the trip for me! :)

Finally, I did this lo for a Monochromatic challenge on sb.com. It had to be in purples and this was so hard for me, yet I like the end result... and then I forgot to go post it on the site! LOL! Oh well! This was Madison at 9 months old at my parents house. She LOVED the dishwasher and would always "help" with the dishes. I couldn't crop the floor out of this picture because I wanted to remember that flooring in their kitchen. It is the house I grew up in and they replaced the flooring a few years ago. Now that I am finally getting around to scrapping this picture, I wanted to remember that flooring! So silly, I know!

Thanks for visiting, as always!

Thanksgiving Card

2010-12-12T20:09:00.000-08:00

I LOVE scrapbook.com and I used to visit often but due to life being busier lately I haven't frequented as often as I would like, but hey, whatever! While on my week off for Thanksgiving and LOVING that we stayed home ALL week... other then both girls being sick almost the entire time... it gave me some time to create and visit sb.com. I LOVE their Challenge forums. I like to work on a challenge so my pages don't all start to look the same and push myself to try something new or different. I don't make cards often and actually had a goal to make 52 cards this year which I'm not even remotely close to... below is #1 this year... but again, whatever! Using a sketch from the November Card Challenge and using the colors (red, orange, green) and theme category (thankful), I was able to create this card. I actually made two of them and sent one to my In-laws and made one for my Aunt Patty who hosted Thanksgiving at her house this year. Thank goodness we only had to be a guest this year, especially since I had to spend Thanksgiving morning at the Urgent Care with Maddie for ear infections! Thanks again, Aunt Patty!

I hope that your Thanksgiving was WONDERFUL! We have more appreciation and are more thankful this year, probably more than ever!

VID Family Picnic

2010-12-12T19:54:00.000-08:00

Growing up, my Dad worked for the Vista Irrigation District (VID). Every year they had a family picnic and I have very fond memories of attending it. We always had fun and playing Bingo was one of the highlights! My Dad was lucky enough to retire at the age of 55 and took a few years enjoying his time off until a seat on the Board of Directors opened at the VID for his division and he decided to run for the position. We all helped with his campaign and he won which was very exciting for us all! (Geeze, that was 4 years ago and was just re-elected in Nov! Time flies!) Due to his office, we now get to attend the Family Picnics again and it is VERY fun for me to attend, bring my kids and my FABULOUS husband to share a piece of my childhood with them. And due to his recent re-election, we can count on at least 4 more years of Family Picnics with the VID! I'm looking forward to them! This year was held on Sept. 11th hence the red, white and blue!

For Taylor's album, 1st time having her face painted. She is always so serious!

For Madison's album, her face painting.

Took these last few with my phone so not the best quality, but here are pics from the day.

The clown did a magic show. Madison, Taylor and Brody were watching and saying the magic words. They also "helped" in the show.

My nephew Dylan LOVES the rock wall. He'd stay there all day if he could. I decided to give it a try this year in spite of my fear of heights... didn't do that great but it was kinda fun anways! Finally, the last picture is of my Mom and Dylan playing Bingo, our favorite thing to do. I HAD to include the picture because we NEVER get any with my Mom!

Halloween Lanterns

2010-12-12T19:21:00.000-08:00

My cousin shared a picture on Facebook of some lanterns that she made and I decided right away that I just HAD to try them as well! Here are some pictures of my kids, nephews, and my sister and I at work! All we needed were some jars, tissue paper, Modge Podge, and ribbon. Sorry it has been 100 years since I've posted!

Madison putting the tissue paper on her jar.

Taylor and Brady working on theirs.

Everyone hard at work.

Clean table, eh??

We struggled to get the candles lit on two of them but they were cute!
There were Madison's, Taylor's, Dylan's, Renee's and Brody's.

They were so cute, I'm thinking that I need to make some for other holidays... maybe, we'll see!

It's paper, but the working type...

2010-08-15T22:23:00.001-07:00

So what's been keeping me from scrapping... 1st grade... and my type A personality... I just have to tell you that 9 years ago, in my first year of teaching my principal said something to me along the lines of, "Well with you being a type A personality..." I don't even remember the rest. I said, "What? Type A? Me??" and he said, "Yes!" I walked out of his office VERY offended, even though I adored him as a principal... He was soooooooooooooo right and I didn't even know it! Anyways, back on track, I bought some clipart to use for my classroom this year from Scrappin' Doodles so I have been busy creating things with that clipart to use in my classroom. So these items are things that I made in Word and Excel on paper, but for work, not for fun... but it's still been fun and will hopefully keep me organized this year, while still lookin' cute!
Made a calendar for each month... these are just some of them...

I also made a calendar of the months to do some Long-Range planning for the year:

This is a list to record how the kids get home each day... need this for 1st graders:

A Birthday Chart by months to record my students' birthdays:

And finally, I need to give credit for these ideas to the blog at Littlest Learners because her blog has been very useful to me for these ideas and I LOVE her ideas for the classroom.

I've still got it...

2010-08-15T16:29:00.000-07:00

Well, I think it has been MONTHS since I have scrapbooked but yesterday I realized I've still got it! LOL! I had a scrapping date with my friend Honeye and without her locking me into a date to scrap, I probably would not be posting this right now. I was able to get 4 layouts done, well one was a two pager. I'm trying to work on our Yosemite album. We went there for vacation LAST summer and I've never scrapped the pics until recently. I want to get them done before I forget what I was taking pictures of... yikes, I better get my wedding done then, as well! LOL!

Can I tell you how much I LOVE these papers??? Just loved the colors and I really like the way this page came out, given that Taylor is rubbing her eyes and it's not all THAT great of picture of all of us, who cares! Who takes a crawling baby to Yosemite for a week anyways? Crazy people do! Not to mention that this rock was really high up and I'm afraid of heights and just wanted to get DOWN!

These are of us at Yosemite Falls which was beautiful. Josh's parents watched Taylor while Josh, Madison and I hiked in on the rocks a little closer and got sprayed from the falls. That's what the arrow is pointing to... it's us!

Finally, these are pics of Madison and my Father-in-law washing the breakfast dishes. Madison was really excited about helping Grandpa wash the dishes.

I won't lie and say that I LOVED this vacation, but I did survive and I still do want my children to be able to look back on these pictures someday... but I did make my husband promise that we won't go back until our kids are able to do the hikes on their own. I think it would be much more fun because Yosemite really is beautiful!
Thanks for visiting!

Thanks for "popping" in!!

2010-08-05T09:02:00.000-07:00

I haven't had much time to scrapbook and already the summer has flown by! I just can't believe how fast this time goes, every summer, same story! This is the first year that I think I am THIS excited about going back to school. I am moving to 1st grade this year (I've taught it before) and I CANNOT WAIT!!!!!!! I didn't mind teaching 6th grade, don't get me wrong, but if I had my choice, 1st grade is where my heart is! I am sooooooo excited! Soooooo... instead of scrapping lately, I've been working on things for my classroom... they still involve paper, of course! On the Friday before school starts, we have a 3 hours block of time where the students and their families can come see the classroom and meet their teachers. We haven't done this in the past so it is new for us this year, because of ALL the changes in the district. Anyways, I decided to make these and put them on the students' desks. It is a bag of microwave popcorn. I think they came out cute! I can't wait to meet my future students and hopefully have a WONDERFUL year!!! Thanks for visiting!!!

Sometimes you just have to try!!!

2010-06-05T21:08:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, I'm about to embark on my 1st half-marathon. My husband, Uncle Dick and I will be running the Rock n Roll in San Diego. We fell off the training bandwagon but we tried to pull it together in the end. We have 4 hours to finish 13.1 miles. It should be doable but I'm nervous as hell!!! Yep, I said that! I hope that it will be more on the fun side than the painful, miserable side but I really have no idea what to expect. This is something that I have been wanting to do ever since my cousin lost her sweet daughter Ravyn to cancer last year. I am running, in part, for her tomorrow! For both Ravyn who had to leave this Earth FAR too early at the age of 7 and Kathy, my cousin, because her strength through this all has been amazing to me. Tomorrow is also exactly one year to the day that we lost my Aunt Amy to cancer. Even in her fifties, it was an unfair loss. She still had so much life to enjoy and grandbabies to play with. We miss her! Finally, this particular run benefits the Leukemia and Lymphomia Society and this year my cousin, Alison was diagnosed with Lymphomia. She is the reason I signed up for this race. At 25, she is an amazing person and handled this diagnosis like a champ! She is running the relay tomorrow! The relay is with 4 people for the full marathon. They each run between 4-8 miles each. My cousin Alana and her husband, Tim are running legs of the relay too! I'm excited to take on this adventure with them and for a good cause. Everyone knows someone who has been impacted by cancer but this is my turn to give a half-marathon a try! Night all! 3:30 am will come early!

Like Mother like Daughter...

2010-05-09T16:39:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to post this picture FOREVER on my blog but life has just been FAR too busy lately and I haven't even been at the scrappin' table in what feels like months. But being that today is Mother's Day, I figured that I just HAD to get this one posted today because this blog is all about how I LOVE PAPER!!!! This seems to have been a trait that I have passed along to my oldest daughter Madison. She appears to have more fun tearing apart the paper in her coloring books, rather than coloring in them. At first I didn't mind... then I got REALLY annoyed with the constant piles of torn up paper laying around the house... finally, I have accepted the fact that she is just like ME!!! She just loves paper. Whether she is coloring it, cutting it, painting on it, or tearing it... so I will continue to clean up after her messes... while blaiming myself. LOL!

Happy Mother's Day to all the fabulous Mom's out there and especially my own!!! She is truly amazing and I am so thankful for our close relationship. Josh made a full spread for a late breakfast for my sister, my mom and I this morning. Of course all the kids and my Dad were there too! And did I mention the Chandon... FABULOUSNESS with fabulous company! I hope that your day was just as wonderful and that I will be back to share some layouts with you all very soon!

Spring Break Accomplishments

2010-04-10T17:50:00.000-07:00

It's my Spring Break from work... well, it's actually almost over. We spent a week up in San Jose visiting my In-laws but we are back home now. I'm sure that you will be seeing plenty of pictures from that trip soon enough as I have already ordered the prints (thanks to Snapfish having a great deal) and will be scrapping them soon enough. For me, as you've probably heard me say before, I measure the success of a vacation or weekend by how many pages I get scrapped. LOL! Well, here are the two that I just finished. I still have one more day off (tomorrow) and with any luck, there will be more to share.

First is this layout, which is for my In-laws album. More left-over Bo Bunny papers!! The pictures are of my In-laws and Maddie making Candy Cane cookies. If you haven't had them, they are DELICIOUS but I don't cook/bake (if I don't have to) so I leave this part to them, and my husband. Margaret (my Mother-in-Law) bought Madison this cute purple apron and they had a great time baking. Steve just came in to steal a cookie. I always see people adding the little dots to their lettering and so I decided to try it on this layout (which I will refer to as an lo for now on, for those of you who don't scrap).

These next pictures are from June 2007 when Madison was 13 months old. Josh is a HUGE San Francisco Giants fan so for Father's Day I took Madison to get her picture taken in this Giants outfit. I also did this lo in Giants' colors. Josh loved it... I think it's just okay, because I'd rather it be PADRES!!!!!!!!! LOL!

I love when I get some pictures from the past done. I have SOOOOOO many pictures to scrap so when I can get some pages done I feel a sense of accomplishment. Did I mention that my mom took Madison to the movies?? Only having 1 kid at home helped too! Josh is building and installing a new garage door at my parents house yesterday and today... he's never done this before... let's hope it all works out. I tried to help today, but I was useless. Crossing my fingers for a successful, WORKING garage door at the end of this. Thanks for visiting!

Sketchy Thursdays from the past...

2010-03-22T20:35:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned them before but Sketchy Thursdays is one of my favorite blogs to visit. I just love the sketches. They are supposed to be done weekly but I can never seem to find the time to do them ON TIME so here are a few from their previous weeks that I have recently completed.
I don't have a family album, or an album of just Josh and I so I'm not too sure where this layout will end up but I wanted to scrap these pictures. Maybe someday when I get around to ACTUALLY doing a wedding album for us, then I can add this to the back! LOL! I wish I had more pictures of my parents when they were young so I'm hoping that no matter where this layout ends up, someday my kids will appreciate it. These are pictures of us at Justin and Jamie's wedding in San Francisco. It was great because my In-laws met us at the airport and got to keep the kids for the weekend while we enjoyed some time alone. The colors reflect their wedding colors, too!

If you know me well, you know that I hate turquoise! This layout doesn't reflect that! LOL! I just loved how Maddie's pajamas popped off these pics so I ran with it. I stitched the lines and added some splattered red paint. It is the first time I have "painted" on a layout. Now I wish I had done more red but it's okay. I still like it. I mostly love that she really was proud that she "READ" the book "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish."

A busy day at the table...

2010-03-21T18:25:00.000-07:00

My idea of the perfect day is a day at home sitting at my scrapbook table and doing what I love. I got to have a day like that today and here are the results of it. Thanks for visiting!

I loved the color combo on this one! This is a priceless picture! How many people did YOU have at the hospital? LOL! We have great families, as you can see here! We were all very excited for Madison to arrive. This was May, 2006.

This is a picture of Madison cruising around the coffee table. I used some left over Bo Bunny papers from over a year ago. I LOVE their papers. They are beautiful and thick! He, he! I stiched the black to pull that color out from the stripes. I cut the swirls and LOVE from the "Home" cartridge on my Cricut. Then I added some jewels to the swirls. This pic is from March 2007.

These pictures are of Madison doing an egg hunt in April 2007. I printed the pictures over a year ago but have had a difficult time scrapping them. I guess Springy layouts are not enjoyable for me. After reading Jennifer Priest's blog Hydrangea Hippo today, her latest use your supplies challenge is to use patterned papers. It's amazing how quickly that CUTE paper you bought, isn't so cute anymore. I tried to use this green flowery paper as inspired by her challenge. Jennifer is very talented and I started following her blog after attending one of her classes at The Pink Pineapple when I made a Father's Day book for Josh. She has been doing a challenge to encourage us to use the things you already have at home! I've been wanting to play along, but you know how busy life gets! All patterned papers that I used today, I have had for over a year. Thanks Jennifer, for helping me use it up and make space for more supplies!

Tea Party Bridal Shower

2010-03-13T17:23:00.000-08:00

My best friend is throwing a Bridal Shower for her future sister-in-law. Since Erica's family is from Scotland, they wanted the shower to be a traditional English Tea Party. (The wedding is full of Scottish features!)She called me MONTHS ago to ask me to make the invites which I of course said, "YES!" Then it took me a while to find the stamp that I wanted. Then comes the hard part... trying to design something easy enough to make because she needed 27 invitations but still making it look cute! I decided that I would make her three examples. They looked like this:

I had opinions about all three... I liked this, didn't like that... but they chose #1... I didn't really care for the top part of #1 (I thought it looked like a birthday party!)... so I changed it and ended up with this as the final product. I really hope that they liked them. They arrived at Erica's house today!

I love when things rhyme... I think that's the teacher in me. So for the inside I made it say, "Come enjoy a cup of tea, as we shower with gifts, the Bride-to-Be." And of course all of the details for the party. I also can't stand a plain white envelope anymore, so I stamped and cut the teapots in the plaid print for the envie. Much better and fun!

Thanks, Shad, for letting me make them for you!

Altered Composition Book

2010-02-09T21:43:00.000-08:00

I mentioned in a previous post that I have been venturing into the world of altering various items (although when I go back to read that post, all I can notice are the typos!) I guess that I shouldn't be doing these posts so late at night. : ) Anyways, I decided to try to alter a composition book. I didn't really use any guidance other than the fact that I have seen other people do it, so I decided to try it too!!! Obviously I made this one for Madison. I covered it with paper and stuck it down with Modge Podge. Then I used a strip of ribbon to cover the separation between the cover and the binding strip of paper. I used my Cricut to cut out the letters for her name from chipboard and covered them in Stickles. Then I cut out the flowers and layered them around the edges. I also added some Stickles to the flowers. Finally, I found it to be a little too plain, so I doodled the stitch lines around the edges and added the swirls and such around the flowers. She of course loved it, because she is three. I wasn't impressed but I will be better next time, if I decide to try again! LOL!! It's just fun for me to try something new, so that part I enjoyed!

Pumpkin Pals

2010-02-06T10:51:00.000-08:00

Just wanting to share the latest layout that I worked on... This seems to have taken me all week to actually complete, partly because it was a busy week at work, and partly because I couldn't find my Xyron refill. The Xyron is the most fabulous tool for sticking down those tiny letters for the title. I love that thing! It turns anything into a sticker! AWESOME! Lucky for me, my fabulous husband found my refills in the exact spot that I swear I checked 2 or 3 times. These pictures are of my youngest daughter, Taylor and my nephew, Brody at the pumpkin patch this past October. This year we went to a small patch in Fallbrook and had a great time! When I saw this pumpkin paper at the store, I knew I had to get it just for these pictures. I like the end result. I just folded the strips of paper behind the pumpkin that I cut out from the background paper to give it more dimension.

Altered Items

2010-01-26T21:16:00.000-08:00

I've just been venturing into the world of altered items. I haven't done many things but I love seeing what others do and then using it for inspiration. I share more of them in the next few days but his one of the projects I have most recently done... be kind, they were first attempts! : )

This was my most recent creation. I spray painted (actually Josh did!) a cookie sheet black and used the wedding favor canisters from Michael's. I added magnets to the back so they would stick to the pan. I used Modge Podge to attach some paper to the pan and punched the circle from Making Memories christmas paper. Then of course, my fabulous Cricut cut all the numbers for me! I put some M & M's inside!

This is just a closer shot of the canisters:

And then finally, a side view from an angle:

Thanks for visiting!!!

A New Year of Scrapping

2010-01-24T22:26:00.000-08:00

Well, I wanted to start this blog to share my creations in scrapbooking. This year I have set my goal of completing 52 layouts (lo's) and making 52 cards for 2010. I set the same goal for scrapbooking last year and ended up doing 60 pages so I figured that I should keep the same goal, and hope to pass it, because I KNOW that I have so many things that I WANT to scrap!

This weekend I was able to finish a few pages. These are actually going to be for my Mother-in-law. I made my In-laws a photo album a couple of Christmas' ago and I try to make a few pages for them to add to it every now and then.

Sketchy Thursday

2009-10-18T19:35:00.000-07:00

I've just recently found a blog called Sketchy Thursdays
They post a sketch every Thursday and they are fabulous! This is the first time I have completed a sketch for them but I check in on the blog regularly. I've become a huge fan of sketches because I feel like I can get a layout done quicker! Here was my take on the sketch:

I will post some of the other pages that I got done today when I have more time, but I did want to share with you the Halloween card that I made for the Pink Pineapple's Card Swap and for Scrappily Ever After's blog challenge (use green, orange, purple and black in a card or layout). Here is her blog: http://scrappin-sheshe.blogspot.com/2009/10/sheshes-halloween-color-challenge.html

And my card:

Welcome to my Blog

2009-08-21T15:46:00.000-07:00

Hello! This is my first time posting and I'm not really sure what I am doing but I'm going to give it a go! This is a card that I made today for She-She's Blog. She had three sketches for a challenge that ends today. I only had time for one but here it is!

This was a free digi-stamp that She-She also posted on her blog the other day and as soon as I saw her, I knew I was going to be using her with this paper line. I watercolored the digi-stamp and pop dot mounted her for dimension. I think it came out pretty cute. I will be sending this card to my cousin for her hospitality.