New LOs with Corina goodies

I've spent way too many hours during the last 4 days cleaning my house. It's now officially summer break and DH took that to mean we all had time to clean everything from top to bottom. Yuck! OK, yes it needs to be done as some places were a total mess. But, I don't like spending all of my time cleaning and nagging the kids to clean. Things are starting to look a lot better though, so in the end it will be worth it but man the process stinks! LOL I don't think we can even put out everything we have decided to throw away for the garbage men to pick up this week. I have a growing pile of things that will be donated to Goodwill too. I think I put on some tag list on here something about getting the table in my living room cleaned off- well, that is almost done. It's taken me three days so far to unbury it and sort stuff, but it is almost finshed. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to see the top of it again and then maybe I can actually move my laptop off of the dining room table. I won't be able to see the TV in the family room any more if i do that though, so I'm not quite sure how that will work. I wouldn't have to worry about a child accidentally spilling drinks all over it though, so that would be a big plus. Today was mostly spent going through all of the school papers that were brought home last week. Photos of projects, art papers, end of the year certificates and anything the kids wanted to have a photo of were taken this afternoon and they've all been 'round filed.' I also went through all of the leftover supplies to sort out what can be saved for the next school year. We have an extremely large pile of spiral notebooks that are partially used for the kids to use as drawing/journaling notebooks now. I just need to figure out somewhere to put them so that they are accessible, but not in the way. Add in the never-ending cleaning tasks of dishes and laundry and it seems like I haven't done much but clean up something the last few days. After spending most of the days picking up, I have given myself permission to do some 'fun' stuff in the evening and I've managed to finish a couple of layouts with new and old (new to me anyway) Corina goodies.

credits: by Corina Nielsen at FunkyPlaygroundDesigns: Spudunkity, Matties Overlays, Matties Hearts, Matties Curlers, Doodley Do Me Mats, Playing Hookies, black label from Fun and Fancy Free collab with Kate Hadfield; silver sequins by Meredith Fenwick; glitter layer style by Flergs; scraplift of "Just Love Life" by Kirstie Ibrahim at PeppermintCreative; fonts: CK Chocolate Sundae

As stage mom for the girls' tap class, I get to come up with a group gift for their tap teacher. I'm leaning towards getting a nice 12x12 frame and having this printed for her. Or the other thought I had was to put the group photo on a t-shirt and have all of the girls sign it for her. I guess it depends on how many of the moms actually give me money for the gift.

Oh, and not only have we been cleaning at our house, but we went to my mom's Monday morning and spent a lot of the day helping her clean out her garage. Bryce mowed her lawn for the second time and learned to use the weed trimmer too. While moving and going through all of the still unpacked boxes in the garage, we found an original drawing by my Dad of me at 3 years old. We don't have that many things that were actually hand-drawn by him, so it was nice to find this. It is now gracing the table in my living room. Even the very 70s style frame it is in looks pretty good in there as we do have a bit of olive green in the rug and the window valance. I'm not sure where I will put it permanently, but I will find some place for it. Here's a scrapbooked version of it.

credits: by Corina Nielsen at FunkyPlaygroundDesigns: Everyday Solids, Everyday Whites, Matties Squares, Ribbon Edgers 2, Illusive, Doodley Do Me Mats, Matties Curlers, alpha from Oh Poppycock, Arsenal of Elements- fibers, stitched trims, lacey trims; Funky Flowers Romantics by Paint the Moon (Annie Manning) at oscraps; fonts: CK Heritage

Well, it's off to bed for me. There is more cleaning to take care of tomorrow ;)

Latest LOs and card

My favorite pic I got of Carissa at the zoo Saturday.
credits: by Chere Kaye at FunkyPlaygroundDesigns: Everyday Basics Neutral Papers, Everyday Basics Classic Frames, Layering Templates, You're So Transparent Alpha, Triple Dipped Stitches- The Basics #2, Numbers Talk, Office Finishers; Funky Flowers Brights by Paint the Moon (Annie Manning) at oscraps, glitter layer style by Linda Sattgast, acrylic shadow style by Traci Reed
fonts: CK Invitation

I have nice pictures of all of the other kids too, and I got some better pics of the grizzly bears. I'll have to get my favorites from the new exhibit put together for a post soon.

journaling: Well kiddo, we did it- we survived the first year of middle school. Yes, I know that you were the one to actually attend and do all of the work, but I'm your mom and I was concerned about how the year would go for you. You had your ups and downs during the year, the good and bad days, the good and not so good choices. Overall though, I think I can say that it was a pretty good year for you. You've picked good friends. You worked hard and did your best most of the time. I'm proud of you and all that you accomplished. I'm sure 7th grade will be an even better year! I love you, Bryce. 5-23-08
credits: Joey from the Coffee House Friends collection by Chere Kaye at FunkyPlaygroundDesigns; fonts: CK Becky

and a graduation card I made for the son of some old friends we met in Germany. I can't believe that the baby I used to watch on occasion is 18 and graduating from high school.

digital credits: Downtown Living papers by Corina Nielsen at FunkyPlaygroundDesigns; white paper from White Papers by Vera Lim at PrimaHybrid; font: CK Regal
paper credits: Congratulations stamp by PSX, Textured Trios ribbon by Michaels, chipboard bracket from Journalist Collection Chipboards by Prima (#516482), Scrap Essentials brads by Joann Fabric and Crafts, Ranger Distress Ink (Black Soot)

We've been cleaning out lots of things and my husband has been rearranging the furniture. yuck. Tomorrow morning we go to Grandmama's house to help clean out her garage, and then I'm sure we will be back at it here at home in the afternoon. Yes, the house really needs it, but it isn't exactly the funnest way to spend the holiday weekend.