aloha, baby!

If you've been waiting patiently to see the full sample of my August class at Scrappin' Good Times, the wait is over! I'll be dropping the completed sample at the store this evening.

After I scanned the book, I noticed that the first two pages kind of remind me of the children's book "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" by B. Martin Jr. and J. Archambault (illustrated by L. Ehlert). However, you'll just have to come into the store to see what I mean, because I didn't include those pages here. Just teasing you with a little peek.

I can't tell you how many times I've read that book when the kiddoes where younger. I used to be able to quote most of it by heart. Evidently it still lodged somewhere in my subconscious.

A told B, and B told C, "I'll meet you at the top of the coconut tree...

summer days

Browsing thru last year's photo albums, got me on a kinda nostalgic kick. Thought I'd share my Very First SGT Project. This page was part of a paper bag album done as a progressive make-n-take.

Let me tell you I was SOooooo nervous with this one. Worried that it wouldn't "go" with the rest of the book, or that it was just too simple a design. Nervous too about teaching it since I'd never taught before.

As it turned out, the event was a total blast. There were WAY more people than I ever expected to see, everyone was wonderful and the night went off without a hitch.

Now I'm thinking I need to scraplift myself on this one -lol! BTW, here's the cover of the PBA:

one year ago

It's always fun to look back and see where you were a year ago. What was going on, what everyone looked like (esp the kiddoes since they change so much more than adults).

So what was going on 365 days ago? I was being a teacher's aide at SGT for Kris (an awesome scrapper who has since joined the Queen & Co. design team and will be coming back to the SGT team this summer - woo hoo!)

This was my first experience at a SB class. Kristin gave me the confidence to give teaching a try. I found out that I really love it!

This was an altered clipboard class and here you see Sandy/Scrapdog1 putting some finishing touches on her project.

tag, i'm it!

The Good Time Girls rotate design responsibilities for monthly kits (scrapbook kits and card kits). I was up for a July card design. This card uses a motif from a patterned paper by Flair Designs so each card is slightly different. Everything in the kit is cut for you, ready to assemble.

These go on sale next week. Enjoy!

time for a vacation

(A pic from last year's camping trip at Carpinteria.)

Guess what? I made our vacation reservations today! Wahoo!

First, we're going to Vegas in a few weeks. Me & the kids are just tagging along - it will be business for DH. But I couldn't see his perfectly good air-conditioned room with maid service and a swimming pool going to waste while he is out each day making sales calls. We made sure to pick a hotel with an excellent pool since that is where we plan to spend most of our free time.

Then a few weeks after that we'll be camping at McGrath Beach in Ventura. We've never camped there, but I'm hopeful that it will be as nice as some of the reviews say it is. Unfortunately, the pickings is mighty slim when you wait this long to reserve a site. So, we'll just hope for the best.

The kids go back to school early this year (in August and they're none too happy about it). So, I wanted to be sure we had our vacations early enough to leave us time for shopping and getting ready.

I expect this summer is just going to fly by!

a night to remember

My "A Night to Remember" paper bag album class was yesterday. What a great group we had! The class went very smoothly and we even finished up on time (my new goal!)

I still have a few class kits. Visit my PaperCraft Princess blog to order kits.

Here's a look at a couple of the interior pages.

And the add on kit (a small, glitzy frame suitable for wallet size photos):

bopped til we dropped...

... at Michelyn's graduation party. It was a "Rock Around the Clock" affair and everyone dressed in 50s, 60s and 70s costumes. Have you every done the Cha Cha Slide? It looks like so much fun.

The group was mostly fit for the 50s, including me. I wore black capris, black sleeveless shirt and the shoes my mom always calls "springolators". In my day they were Candies, but now I think they're just called mules? Anyway, mine looked a bit like this, but lower heels.

The finishing touch for my outfit was supposed to be chiffon scarf, but after coming up empty handed after two trips to different thrift stores, I finally made a stop at Vintage Dreams, a cool little boutique near my home. I didn't find chiffon, but there were lots of scarves to choose from so I went with a red poka dot one and a dotty bracelet to match.

It is such a cool little shop. I wish I'd had more time to browse. I'll have to stop by again one day soon.

thrifting

I made a quick stop at the thrift store trying to find one last item for my costume for tonight's party. This is a different store than the one I checked in at earlier in the week. Time was tight, but I took a quick cruise down a few aisles and found some goodies. A brand new box of curly ribbon from IKEA (love the colors); a metal pedestal bowl; silver plated cake serving untensils, a crystal relish dish and a gorgeous turquoise shell dish.

The true test of a good purchase is if I like it even better once I get it home. Happy to say, that I like all of these plenty now that they're in the house.

pop! goes my heart

I always catch up on chick flicks while hubby is out of town. So this week while he was at a trade show, I rented Music & Lyrics with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore. Loved it! The video that plays with the opening credits is a riot and dead on!

Now the dumb song is stuck in my head. (Click the pic to watch the video and get it stuck in your head too.)

rhythm is gonna get you

As promised, here is one of the layouts for my "Gotta Dance" class next month. This is one half of the tap/jazz session. I have another 2 pager in similar colors for tap/jazz. And then yet another two double pagers for the ballet/lyrical session.

It scanned pretty true to life except that the large flowers on both pages are soft pink. The patterned paper is from Imagination Project.

More on this (and all other) classes at SGT here.

suds & samples

One of my goals for this summer is to take more pictures. Ideally, I'd like to take at least a photo a day. That said, I'm not off to a very good start. (In fact, confession time. The photo above is a stock image from the Microsoft gallery. But isn't it a great pic?)

This week there just haven't been any visuals that I want to capture for all time. I'm still up to my eyeballs in laundry (the "suds" in my subject). Mt. Washmore really piled up during the last two weeks when things were especially hectic. I'm exaggerating about the loads reaching my eyeballs, of course. The number is less than it was on Monday, but still more than I can count on one hand. I'm in no mood to photograph those laundry baskets.

In between loads I'm working diligently on finishing up class samples for my summer classes. No more teaser samples —all us teachers will be submitting finished samples at class kick-off from now on. SOoooo that means I need to finish up my summer class samples (yeah, that means the ones that debuted earlier this month) so that I can get started on the fall ones (August kickoff). I'm mostly done with the layouts for my Gotta Dance class (I'll post some images later in the week). I'm really happy with how they turned out, tho I really wrestled with them for awhile there.

One more to go now. See you on the other side!

can we talk?

(Yup, that's me.)

Okay, so the thing with blogs is it turns out there are some very cool and interesting ones out there. There are blogs on style, decor, food... you name it. The ones that seem to have caught my eye are those with a retro/vintage flair.

There is a whole tribe of people out there who call themselves "thrifters" or who talk of "thrifting" and who post the most delightful photos of their awesome finds at flea markets, estate and yard sales, as well as antique and thrift stores. Some of these bloggers have an incredible eye for finding treasures. They totally make me want to drop everything and go on a treasure hunt. I love vintage, lived in, shabby chic stuff.

Here are a few of the fun blogs I've been enjoying:
Nostalgia at the Stone House
Apron Thrift Girl
Daisy Cottage

So with all this talk of thrifting and with a costume party to go to this weekend, I decided to drag the kids to our largest local thrift store today. The idea was to just pop in and out, but it is such a large store that our quick visit took longer than planned. It's amazing how long it can take to flip thru long racks of clothing even when you have a good idea of what you are looking for.

Since we were mainly there for costumes I didn't look at much else. I did manage to find a couple of useful items, tho I can't call them treasures. Oh, and we found costumes too. So time well spent.

(PS~ does anyone have an idea of where I might find some Keds canvas oxford tennies in black? I need them before Saturday, so hoping one of my local peeps has a lead for me.)

end of school = party time

Another pic from last week. This one taken at Libby's end of school party.

been a busy, busy week!

It happens every year. The last week that the kids are in school is CRAZY! There is just so much going on. It's wild. But at least I know to expect it and I generally keep that week wide open.

This year, tho, I had to squeeze a couple of other (non-school) things into the week. My monthly make-n-take at Scrappin Good Times was scheduled for Wednesday, PLUS we had lots and lots of CKU students coming thru the store on the same day. Wow, what a fun group of scrappers. It really made me want to go to CKU sometime. I took a few pics...

moving on

See this little guy? Well, there he was looking all adorable in his suspenders and tie. Then I blinked. And in that one little blink of the eye time escaped me. I can't believe it, but this little boy just graduated from middle school. Yup, he is now officially a high school student.

I have a feeling the next four years are going to fly by too.


Here he is shaking the principal's hand as he receives his diploma. Congrats, Jake! I'm so proud of you!!

2 girls

There were two little girls who had two little curls
Right in the middle of their foreheads;
When they were good, they were very, very good,
And when they were bad they were horrid.

Oh we may look sweet as can be, but looks can be deceiving!

boom - zap!

Our microwave went out in a blaze of glory a couple of weeks ago (quite literally --with brilliant blue sparks and sci-fi soundeffects). I didn't miss it too much at first. We've had so much going on and then there were was the distracting coincidence of other delightful mechanical failures to deal with (my car's new water pump, followed by a new water pump for DH's car too).

The microwave was sorely missed, however, when we settled down to watch a movie this week. What no popcorn? We had to actually pull out a pan and make it the old fashioned way. But it turns out that was a fun little project too. I'd almost forgotten how to make it. I spilled kernals all over the stove and ended up with too much in pot. It was kind of funny to watch the lid slowly lift off the pan as the popcorn volume exceeded the available space.

But yum --it was delicious!

make-n-take wednesday

It's that time again at Scrappin' Good Times. On Wednesday, I'll be doing the free make-n-take pictured below. This month, instead of a card we'll be making a tag.

I had so much fun coming up with this project using Quickutz. To start with, the apron and BBQ tool are both cut from Quickutz shape dies. And guess what? I used one of my Quickutz alphabets to create a rocker stamp for the title too! To top that off, the whole tag is encased in Quickutz packaging (I love recycling these little clamshell cases - you can have such fun with them!)

This tag would be great on a gift for the special BBQ King in your life.

Stop by the store this Wednesday June 13 between 11:30am to 1:00pm. This project is easy and can be completed in about 15 minutes or less.

Hope I see you!

Let them eat cake

Last Thursday was my 26th Wedding Anniversary, but we've decided to postpone celebrating due to so much going on at the moment. We thought we'd steal away after the kids start summer break (we did this last year and it was wonderful!)

That decided, I'd still meant to bake or buy a cake last Thursday that we could to enjoy after dinner. Unfortunately, things went wacky-haywire and I wasn't even sure when David would finally make it home (his car had broken down Wednesday night in the desert between Vegas and home). So, the anniversary slipped by somewhat forgotten (awful, isn't it?)

Forgotten that is until tonight when my dear sweet friend Lisa surprised us tonight with a little impromptu anniversary party. We had a wonderful time and felt so special.

Thanks, Lisa --you're the BEST!

Where is all this STUFF coming from?

I've been trying to purge my stash... well, at least SOME of it in preparation for a SB garage sale. I keep finding stuff I didn't even remember I had. That's a sad state of affairs. I'm going to blame it on not having the ideal storage set-up. Now that DH and DS have built me some awesome shelving units, I feel like organization is within reach.

But I still can't figure out where all this stuff has come from. Could it be breeding when I'm not looking?

Music Genome Project

I just rediscovered Pandora Radio. It's a free online radio service where the listener "defines" the music. I love how you feed the station with favorite artists or songs and then it plays music that matches those styles. You can read more about it here: Music Genome Project

And if you feel adventurous, you can try listening to my main station Cindy's Jukebox (also listed in my "tunes" links at the right). Be forewarned, it's a pretty eclectic mix.

Surprise Dinner at SGT on 6/1

Our dinner hosts from last night. That's our store owner Trish in the middle there holding a beautiful 'thank you' book that these lovely ladies made. I already really enjoy teaching classes at SGT, and this gesture of appreciation just makes it that much more rewarding. Thanks from the bottom of my heart, ladies!

The desserts were not only delicious, but beautiful to look at too.

New month, new blog

How can it be June? I'm not sure how time passes by so quickly. Every year it seems to speed by faster. So what better way to celebrate the middle of the year than a new blog to blabber in (or is it to blabber on?)

Last night was the bi-monthly class kick-off at SGT. It was a blast as usual. As usual there are lots of exciting classes coming up. The tablescapes were wonderful, too.

I have three classes in the next few months:

"A Night to Remember" paper bag album

Sunday, June 24 Time: 12:30 – 3:30 pm

“Gotta Dance"Recital Layouts (two sessions)
Sunday, July 15
Time: 11:00 am – 1:00 pm (ballet)

Time: 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm (tap/jazz)

“Aloha, Baby!" chipboard album
Sunday, August 12 Time: 12:30 – 3:30 pm

For more info on these classes, check out the SGT website.

Then after the kick-off a great surprise was waiting for us. Several of our customers treated us to a yummy dinner from Buca di beppo. It was wonderful! They decorated the tables and really treated us like royalty. Awesome ladies! I'll add some pictures of this later.