Another Snow Day

Yes, another. The kids were off of school yesterday AND today because of the snowstorm that blew through the state. We were on the very fringes of the storm, and even though the streets got a bit slushy and the wind was fierce yesterday it was hardly worth cancelling school for where we are. Today has been beautiful, and certainly didn't warrant no school for ice and snow conditions. We live in the very southwest corner of our school district and often the weather conditions in the northeast area of the district are what determines whether school is delayed or cancelled. In the case of this storm, it was evidently very bad up in the mountains and the northeast part of the district; the other school districts that are located on the north side of town also cancelled school yesterday and today. It still seems wierd to have school cancelled though when there is not even an inch of the white stuff in the yard and I didn't have a qualm about going out to the library and grocery store yesterday. Oh well.

Dani and Shawna shook things up in the yourfavorite pair forums two days ago and swapped CTs. So, us Dani's Girls have a week to scrap as much as we can with Shawna's awesome stuff. I've been having fun with some kits I've been wanting. Nothing like a CT assignment to get me to actually scrap with something! They also turned the swap into a little competition too- the team that outscraps the other gets GC's to use in the store of the their swap designer. Shawna started us out with her latest kit, Capricious. I just love the soft colors and patterns in it and found it was perfect for scrapping another of Sarah's newborn portraits.

credits: Capricious by Shawna Clingerman at mylittlescraps.com and sweetshoppedesigns.com; circle stitch by Dani Mogstad at designbydani.com; LO based on sketch by Robin Cabana for RAKscraps.com; portrait by Roseanne Miske, Miske Photography; corner fold by Karah Fredricks at blueflombingo.com; fonts: SuzanneQuillSH

For my second kit choice (we can choose another when we are done with the last), I chose her Mr. Cool kit. It was perfect for this photo I had of my parents enjoying an evening with some friends from grad school. I would have been a little tyke at this point in time and was probably already in bed ;)

credits: Mr. cool by Shawna Clingerman at mylittlescraps.com and sweetshoppedesigns.com; stitching from Spring Chick by Dani Mogstad and Dawn Stocsill at designbydani.com and sweetshoppedesigns.com; LO template by Nikki Beaudreau for DigiChick sketch challenge; fonts: FG Elin

and I put together a new insert for my coffee tumbler last night with Shawna's Inverted Doodlie Love and got it put together this morning.

credits: Inverted Doodly Love by Shawna Clingerman and Lauren Grier at SweetShoppeDesigns.com; tumbler insert template by Melinda Staley at Scrapdish.com; font: 2Peas Gimme Coffee

Sarah thought it was pretty neat, and ran off with my cup. (yes, it is empty)
I finally got it back without fussing and crying ensuing by making a smaller version of the insert that fits the Playtex Create-a-Cup I bought for her a while back and hadn't 'dressed' yet.
I guess I should help Bryce work a bit on his science fair project- we have to get the poster presentation ready to turn in next week. Oh joy. I really think these sorts of things are for the parents as much as the kids at times since most of the time the kids don't have a clue about how to go about these sorts of things. I'd rather scrap, but this should probably be worked on for a bit first.

Happy Birthday, Amy!

Today my friend, Amy, is celebrating her birthday. Since our little group of scrapping friends is spread far and wide, Robin decided to throw her a party on her blog! All sorts of fun things to do in Amy's honor.
*I discovered my Elvish name: Ireth Anwarünya
and I discovered my Hobbit name: Primula Grubb
(I think I'll stick with the Elvish name, please! LOL)
*I listened to "How We Operate" by Gomez; not my usual style of music, but definately enjoyable.
*I played a few of the minigames at Vivapinata.com; the dancing pinatas were my favorite ;) I even let Beth play too.

*I found out I would be Elinor Dashwood in the world of Jane Austen- just like Amy :)
As Marianne's older sister, Elinor lives at the other end of the emotional spectrum. She rarely reveals her intense feelings and is more concerned with being honest and loyal than having what she deserves. Even though her intentions are pure, she sets herself up for loss by constantly placing other people before her own needs. Overall, Elinor is gentle and rational but is just as capable of radical emotions (despite her withholding them) as her sister.

*and I did some quirky ATC designing.
If you would like to grab the ATCs for your quirky collection, you can get them here.

I haven't had time to do a lift of one of Amy's LOs yet, so I'll try to do that tomorrow.

I hope you had a fabulously wonderful birthday, Amy! Love you!

Bryce's 11th birthday party pics

the decorations: Castle cake and Lego Knight's Kingdom partyware


We had pizza and Coke for dinner right off. It was warm enough that all of the kids went outside in the backyard.

Notice the two neighbor girls peeking over the fence there trying to crash the party LOL
Bryce decided to open presents next. First gift was from Mitchell- a Bionicle
Yu-Gi-Oh cards from Davis
Bionicle and Lego Star Wars sets from Hunter and Robert B

Another Bionicle from Robert C
Star Wars transformer set from Dad
Dragon Chronicles books from Grandmama
Lego Knight's Kingdom figures from Mama- he got 4, only the really cool bad guy shown here ;)
ScoobyDoo videogame from his sisters
He got a giftcard from Nicholas and some cash from the Rodeffers. Im sure there will be a shopping trip to Target in the future.
After the presents were all opened we had cake

and then the boys enjoyed the rest of the evening watching a movie, puting together and playing with all of the Lego sets, and playing the videogames Bryce's friends brought with them. Since we don't have a Playstation, two boys brought theirs from home to share.


I finally told the last 3 boys to turn off the lights and go to sleep at 12:30. I was pleasantly surprised when they did so without grumbling and went right to sleep. Mark made everyone pancakes for breakfast this morning. I would say that it was a great party- I think the boys were better behaved than the girls were two years ago when Beth and Carissa had their first slumber party.

Castle Cake

I'll be back with more pics and party description later, but since so many people wanted to see the cake here it is. I'm pleased with it- love the luster dust stuff we get at the cake shop up in Denver, it covered up the pastel and bright colors of the easter candy corn and gumdrops pretty well. It probably took me a couple of hours total to do this- not bad at all. I'd be willing to do another of these in the future if it was called for ;) All of the guys were suitably impressed- Mark and the boys all commented on it as they came in.





I just wish more of them had eaten cake- we're going to be eating cake every night for a week now! I guess it is a good thing that it's 4 months until the twins' birthday party. Carissa decided a flat cake was not going to be good enough this year and wants a 3D cake of some sort- I have no ideas at this point since the theme they want to do is High School Musical. That is going to call for some creativity in cake decorating.

Scrapping Help

I have a dear friend from RAKscraps and Amy's former CT, who has offered to help me with my mounds of vacation photos from last summer. Cathy calls herself 'photo challenged' LOL Her kids are all grown and she usually scraps her grandkids now, and sometimes the photos are in limited supply. Cathy has a scrapping style I love and when she offered to do a LO or two, I said yes! So, I sent her a few pics from vacation and here is what she did with them.
I love it! I love the emphasis on the photo of waiting for the train to come, and the graphic style of the LO goes well with that. I really like the alpha she used for the title- grungy and fun at the same time. If you click on the picture to enlarge it a bit, you should be able to read the journaling. Thanks so much, Cathy! I can't wait to see what you do with the next set :)

As soon as I finish my breakfast and coffee here, I have to get started on putting Bryce's cake together. I hope it doesn't take too long! 6 of the 7 boys he invited have RSVPed as of a few minutes ago, and supposedly the last one is coming too, but I haven't received 'official' word yet. Any way you slice it, there are going to be more boys in our house tonight than girls. I'm sure Bryce is going to have a blast!

RAKscraps news

RAKscraps is looking for some scrappers to join the team! Deadline for applications is April 22. You can

and the first minkits of the April megakit have been released. This month's theme is April Showers. Watch the announcement forum for details!

and of course don't forget the admin addon to the April megakit at Scrapdish. All proceeds from sales go to help keep RAKscraps fun and free!

Lacking scrap inspiration today

I think it is more that I don't know what to pick to work on, it is certainly not for a lack of things I want to get done. I just don't have any great ideas jumping out at me saying "pick me! pick me!" and no pressing deadlines at the moment for any of my CTs. I should be making a list of things to get from the store that I need for Bryce's birthday cake and party on Friday night. He chose a Lego Knights theme and so the plan is to make a castle cake. Audra helped me find a cake design that I think is doable within the amount of time I usually spend- some of the cakes I found were just way too complicated! Bryce chose to have a sleepover this year, so I figure that pizza, cake, a movie, snacks, and some video/computer games will keep him and his friends occupied for the evening without me having to get too involved in the whole thing.

As usual I'm behind on my posting here, so you all will get a rundown of everything I've scrapped in the last week and a few from the week before I didn't post yet.
I found, I think the perfect kit for Anna's wedding pics, so I had to scrap a few of those (thanks Krista and Jess!)

(click to see it larger!)
credits can be seen here

a few LOs with my cutie pie and her shenanigans:

credits can be seen here

credits can be seen here

credits can be seen here

my next circle journal LO, robin's topic was to scrap a favorite recipe.

credits can be seen here

and I've been trying to make a dent in the huge amount of pictures from last year's summer vacation before we actually go on our vacation for this summer. I've made a little progress, but it doesn't seem like a whole lot when compared to the amount still left to do!

credits can be seen here

a couple of science museum LOs- I wish you could see the details on the black alpha in this first one, the letters are fuzzy and it totally reminded me of these pics with our hair sticking straight up when I saw it LOL It's another one of Krista's fabulous creations.

credits can be seen here

credits can be seen here

and a few zoo animal LOs from the Bronx zoo- peacock and polar bear- and the pandas at the National Zoo in WA DC.

credits can be seen here

credits can be seen here

credits can be seen here

And of course there is the usual indecision about what to make for dinner tonight too. I need to go rescue the munchkin from her bed and start figuring out dinner. TTYL!

I'm Officially FUNKY

Winners have been announced, and I am officially the digital Queen of Funk for 2007. I'm still having a bit of hard time believing it. Big humongous thanks to Tania, Amy, Cass, and Mish for all of the support and encouragement! I certainly couldn't have done it without you!(I wouldn't even have entered, in fact ;) ) Amy took 3rd place and Cass took 5th. Everyone did a great job each week and the gallery is so very inspiring! If you want to see all of my LOs in one place, I made a web album and posted them all there. I added a link to it, and my other main galleries, in the sidebar on the right --------->

and apparently I never shared my challenge 5 LO here.

journaling: These neon green shoes caught my eye one evening while we were shopping for new shoes for the kids. I dismissed them at first glance, because they were, well, neon green. And neon green is not my usual style. I’m normally a plain white tennie kind of gal. They were too bold, too bright, and just didn’t suit.... But I kept coming back to them, they were on clearance for only $3.... I really could use some new shoes for mucking around at home, taking out the garbage and things like that.... so I bought them. I must be more funky than I originally thought because I find myself wearing them not only out to the mailbox, but to the post office and grocery store and on other various errands around town. They make me smile and brighten my day, and that is really all that matters! (plus, they are easy to find when Sarah loses them during play time!)
credits: Background paper from Dude by Meredith Fenwick (recolored); by Sophia Sarducci: Iron Popovers, Nature's Garden, March Edition Dimestore Beads; Photo frames by Nancy Comelab at MyDigitalMuse; Cardboard Bits Zig Zag Paper Chains by Kim Jensen at Scrapdish; Circle stitches by Karen Hunt; Messy Paint Stroke (circular) by Jessica Bolton at Scrapbookgraphics; Paint strokes by Michelle Coleman; Art Strokes alpha by Angela Barton at SweetShoppeDesigns; fonts: SBC Courtneys Journal

Ok, I've got to sit sitting here in a stupor with a grin on my face and get some things done today! A blizzard warning is supposed to go into effect tonight around dinner time- oh joy! it's definately a typical spring here in Colorado LOL!

All Funked Out

Well, the voting and judging is done at the Funk It Up contest, and it does appear that I am holding on to first place by one point! Nothing is official yet, and who knows it there aren't some more secret points for something to be awarded, so I will just wait and see what happens. It was an amazingly fun contest. I enjoyed stretching myself each week, and it was even better because I had so many friends playing along too. Amy, Cass and Robin Forman came out with spots at the top of the pack as well.
The week 6 challenge was to scrap something about a secret. All I could think of was of my secret chocolate stash I keep for myself, so Confessions of a Chocoholic was born. I get a craving every time I look at this LO....

journaling: I admit it, I'm a chocoholic. I'll eat chocolate in any form, for any occasion, anywhere and any time! I have my favorites, but really whatever is on hand will do. Especially during 'that time' of the month. I make chocolate chip cookies so that I can snitch a bit of the dough and chips from the bowl. If I've got a craving and I don't have anything in my secret chocolate stash, I'll go grab a bag of chocolate chips from the pantry and satisfy my craving that way.

credits:
Papers from Cinnamon by Jen Reed at computerscrapbook.com;
page curl filter by Mac;
On the Edge photo cluster frame set by Nancy Comelab at MyDigitalMuse;
chocolate chip cookies by myself, the rest of the chocolate photos are from StockXchange;
Shabby ribbon and ribbon knot by Christina Renee at FunkyPlayground;
box of chocolate word art by Angie Briggs;
brown chipboard alpha by Meredith Fenwick;
Bohemian Peddler Elements by Krista Mettler and Jessica Bolton at scrapbookgraphics: newsprint alpha, hat pin, bent staples, flower, buttons, old paper
fonts: Vintage Typewriter, FG Amelia

and here is a LO I started over the weekend and finally finished up last night. Sarah out enjoying the Spring warmth and sunshine in the backyard.

journaling: Sarah was so happy to be outside. She went from one toy and chair to another, sitting in them, getting up, and then doing it all over again. She would look over at me from the chairs and just grin.
credits: Simply Lovely Papers One and Just Fun Alpha Stamps by Correen Silke at Scrapdish.com; Cardboard Bits Broken Hearts and Cord Crazy Shapes, Lines and Alpha by Kim Jensen at Scrapdish.com; tag from Calista collection by Jeanine Baechtold at computerscrapbook.com; Flowers by Correen Silke and Jen Reed; photoframe by Nancy Comelab at MyDigitalMuse; Easy Peasy Corner Fold template by Karah Fredricks; fonts: 2Peas Hot Chocolate

Well, I'm off to litter the galleries with chocolate goodness and spread the cravings! have a great day everyone!

Digicrafting tonight!

I"ve got a co-host tonight and we THREE (yes 3!) different cup templates to hand out- Starbucks tumbler, Aladdin mugs, and the new Playtext Create-a-Cup kiddie cups. Pam has put together some awesome layered ones for chat and posting freebies too. Don't miss it!

too much eggcitement over the weekend

journaling: I didn't get any good pictures at the egg hunt at church this year. As is typical of spring in Colorado, it was very cold and snowy so the egg hunt had to be held inside again. Brenna wasn't obeying Mark when it was time to leave, so he wouldn't let her stay to find eggs. Sarah got so tired of waiting for it to start once she saw the eggs in the sanctuary that she was very upset and wouldn't pick up any of the eggs when it finally did start. The big kids were in another room and I was stuck dealing with a fussing and crying baby so I couldn't go in there to try and get pictures of them. The kids hid a few of our eggs for Brenna when we got home.
credits: by Christina Renee at Funky Playground: Dream Solids Brights, Easter Chipboard, Egglets, Shabby Ribbons; Funky Playground Designs Funk That Spring; Mesh and tape from Home by Jessica Bolton at Scrapbookgraphics; masking tape by Krista Mettler from Eczentric at Scrapdish; Pop alpha by Holly McCaig at MyDigitalMuse; On the Edge photocluster by Nancy Comelab at MyDigitalMuse; circle stitches by Karen Hunt
fonts: 2Peas Hot Chocolate

The rest of the weekend went pretty well. It was quiet for the most part, which I do not count as a bad thing ;) We discovered Saturday evening that the local McD's now have RedBox DVD rental kiosks outside them and have enjoyed watching movies the last 3 evenings. We were looking for Eragon and didn't have any luck the first two nights, so we watched Cinderella 3 and Charlotte's Web instead. We finally got a copy of Eragon and watched that last night. It was OK- I think they did a pretty good adaption of it for the length of the movie, but they just left so much out. As Mark put it when it was over- there wasn't enough time to do any character development, so you didn't care when one of the main characters died. There just wasn't any real scope of how much they went through to get to where they were at the end of the movie either. It just needed to be longer. I definately recommend the book, not so much the movie.

This is the only other LO I got done this weekend- the next page for the circle journal I'm in. I keep getting comments about all of the blending - TracyAnn did all of the work folks! LOL I just plopped a few of her gorgeous items on my page and was done. I just love beautiful, easy pages like this! I have had a vision of what I wanted this page to look like for a long time and never could find what I wanted. Then Amy started scrapping with TracyAnn's stuff and I finally found what I needed. I don't usually buy things full-price, but in this case it was worth it! When I pulled out the envelope with the symphony picture in it I found one of the programs in there too- it was one Daddy had put together for the group. I've got more stuff in there, so I will have to work up another page to go with this, I think.

journaling: Music in many forms has always been, and will always be, a huge part of my life. I have participated in making music since I started talking- singing nursery rhymes and other childhood songs, singing along with all of the TV commercials as a child, learning to play the piano, oboe and clarinet, and being a part of choirs, ensembles and bands and symphonies of all sizes and styles. Making music is a part of who I am. My favorite musical moments have always been when I am performing with a group. There is something about working in synchronized harmony with the other members to create something complicated and wonderful to the ears that I have not been able to match in any other activity. I haven't been part of a group like this for many years now, but I dream of being able to find a group to participate in someday down the road.
credits: by TracyAnn Robinson at SBB: Peek-a-boo notepaper, Paraphenalia tags and charms 1, Paraphenalia hinged butterflies, pin, Take Two photomats number 3; glitter doodle arrow from Spring Chick by Dani Mogstad and Dawn Stocsill at SweetShoppeDesigns
fonts: TXT Delicate Script

I'm evidently needed upstairs to fix something that has gone wrong with the computer - Brenna is calling me. I've got a few pictures of coloring eggs that maybe I'll get put up soon.