the party's over

It was a beautiful day in SoCal, but as hot & sticky as they come. Thank goodness for nifty misters to spray cool refreshing water around the yard (whoever invented those misty thingeys is a genius!)

Jake is extremely happy with how the day went and especially thrilled with the awesome gift cards he received. I'm not sure if he's realized yet that he won't have the joy of spending them until *after* we return from our camping trip. I've a feeling that once it does occur to him, it's gonna drive him crazy!

see?

Don't I look like my 50s style avatar? (See yesterday's post below.) Same 'do and highlights. This isn't the exact photo I had in mind, but it's darn close!

So either I really *do* belong in the 50s or it just means I've had every hairstyle ever invented. And actually that is closer to the truth. In fact, I was thinking recently how fun it would be to do a layout about my many hair personalities.

fabulous fifties

I just took this quiz at Blogthings and it tells me that this is who I am. The little avatar even sorta looks like me, doesn't it? I'm going to have to find the pic where I'm wearing a b&w dress and have my hear fixed just like that. Uncanny!

I Belong in 1950

I'm fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in! Find out what year *YOU* belong in. Click the link below.

What Year Do You Belong In?

time for an intervention

Enter the fly lady!

We have planned a bbq for this coming weekend and while I would not call the house an utter disaster, I would say that it is not quite up to par for company. So I thought the easy way to plan my attack would be to revisit Fly Lady's Crisis Cleaning. It's perfect for an attention deficient person like me. (Notice FlyLady's ever-present mantra "Do not get sidetracked" - yup, just what I need!)

Let's see how big a difference I can make armed with my kitchen timer and this little purple fairy floating at my shoulder.

i have reservations

Products and project by Rusty Pickle

I am all set for Scrapbook Expo next month in San Diego. Room reserved, tickets purchased, workshops spots saved. Wooo hooo!

I'll be going with my mom and sis. We're planning to visit the expo on Friday and then have an all day crop at our hotel on Saturday. Can't wait.

Will I see you there?

dancin' machine

Have you got a need to scrap dance photos? If so, be sure to check out my other blog. I have kits leftover from last week's "Gotta Dance" layout class at SGT. There are four different kits to choose from (two ballet/lyrical and two tap/jazz). The pages were designed to be as generic as possible so that they could be used for anything from professional recital portraits to personal photos to candid pictures from home.

felt fettish

Don't you just love the fun felt embellishments that are everywhere these days? I recently saw cute felt shape magnets at both JoAnn's and Michaels and of course if you scrapbook there are the fun little flowers and shapes from American Crafts and other manufacturers.

Now, if you want to really, REALLY enjoy some awesome felt handiwork, check out the Pink Owl Creations store at Etsy. There are SOoooo many cool things in this store! Pins, headbands, barrettes and of course the must-have scrapbook accents, too. And be sure you tell Beth who sent you!

Yummies from Pink Owl Creations

rediscovering books

We finally got over to the library. It's the first trip of the summer and it's been a very long time since we've been there at all. We found some great books which will be perfect for our camping trip. They'll also be handy here at home for when all the tv/computer time is used up and the boredom settles in. Funny how that doesn't happen too much when summer vacation first gets going, but now that we are mid-stream there is a certain restlessness starting to emerge.


Besides the stack of novels, we also checked out some non-fiction books. Jake found a good one about birds and I found some on paper crafting that I hope will be fun for all of us. Jake is an origami master and even tho these projects aren't strictly about paper folding, they seem right up his alley. I also found an interesting book on book binding which I'm eager to look at.

There won't be much time for any of the books in the coming week tho. We have a family bbq coming up in honor of Jake's middle school promotion and then we leave for our camping trip a couple of days later. So, busy busy busy we will once again be.

slice of life

So I had to hit the ground running as soon as we got home from Vegas. I had a class today (Sunday) that still needed some prep work. Been a mighty busy girl, so this is the first chance I've had to post.

Speaking of girls, here's a pic of a girl we saw at the M&M shop in Vegas. She had the coolest 'do. I thought maybe she'd been a model at a hair show, but no she told me she just likes to have her her done up at the salon. I love the slices in this coif. (Yes, I asked if it was okay to take this pic.)

We had much too much fun in the M&M store and bought too much chocolate (esp considering the heat --I had to pre-plan stuff so that my candy was always in a safe cool spot).

We were at MGM, which I love. We've stayed there a few times before and so it's very comfortable. We *love* the lazy river that you can float on all day long (just wish there were a couple less waterfalls!) I also like that there's a movie theatre within walking distance. We took the kids to see Ratatouille (sp?) Cute movie.



Here kitty, kitty! This was the first time we really had a great moment at the Lion Habitat, too. There were two cubs and they were adorable. So playful and fun to watch. They were right in front of us a good deal of the time. Just wonderful!


Now this picture just makes me smile. This little ogre family is so cute. Last Monday night, I was blog surfing and at Susan's blog I saw the pic of her son's Shrek collection. The very next day we saw these guys at Build-A-Bear so I snapped a pic. The funny thing is she took her little guys to a Build-a-Bear store that same day so they could buy baby Shreks.


I also did a bit of scrapbooking and finally had a chance to play around with a clear album. So fun, but a bit tricky since the pages are .... well, CLEAR. You do have to pre-plan somewhat and since I was in lazy, vacation mood with poor lighting and limited supplies my book is a bit on the sloppy side. But I still had a blast making it and can't wait to try another. (You can see more pics from this album at my other blog.)


Well, that's just some of our pics. In case you can't tell, we had a good time!

greetings from las vegas, nevada

Well, it's our last night in Vegas and we've had such a relaxing time. I recovered from a near digital camera disaster (eek, my card was full, yet there were no images on it --go figure!). After reformatting my card I was back in business and even tho I missed a day of photos, I was able to get back on track. I've even figured out how to load a pic here from dh's laptop. I can't believe how quickly our time here has gone and we're headed back home tomorrow.

Goodbye pool, goodbye maid, goodbye restaurant meals. Sigh.

adios, au revoir and stuff like that there

My last blog post for a bit. Tomorrow we set out on the wide open road (at least we *hope* it will be wide open!)

Catch up later!

(PS - the card was made for a Quickutz Challenge last summer. The alphabet ["Ginger"] and suitcase are both from Quickutz. Patterned paper by Chatterbox.)

summer fave

Tonight we had grilled veggies for dinner. Eating these is just about my favoritist, bestest thing to eat in summer. I used to only grill squash, but lately any veggie is fair game. Just add a little olive oil, sea salt and fresh ground pepper. SOoooo good!

We didn't even bother with a main dish tonight. It's been so hot and sticky that no one has much of an appetite at dinnertime. So tonight we just made a meal of the the veggies along with some yummy olive focaccia bread from Trader Joe's (it tastes kind of like pizza).

Delish!

you give my heart wings

Here it is! The exclusive Quickutz Revolution die from Scrappin' Good Times. Isn't it cute? It's the same design we have on our store tee-shirts, by none other than our very own Joy Campbell (who also designed the mk-n-tk pictured above).

I was just thinking how the die gives more options than the obvious design it's made for. Think of all the uses for the individual elements in the set. I was just looking for a tiny crown for the QK mk-n-tk I did last month and ended up having to use a punchie because the current QK crown is more of a tiara. This one would've been perfect!

Anyway, this has been a very exciting week at the store with the new QK Cookie Cutter release and the debut of the SGT exclusive die. BTW, the die is already available for pre-order on the Scrappin' Good Times site.



(PS you can read more about QK exclusives at the veggie site.)

3, 2, 1...

Hot Diggety Dog, only 3 days more!

Only got a couple of things more to finish up before we leave. I'm hoping to get started on packing tomorrow since we have a busy Saturday and want to leave early on Sunday.

I saw on the news today that the weather is pushing 116 in Vegas. YIPES! They were also reporting scattered power outtages (no, pleeeeeeeze!) Well, let's say I'm hoping for a cooling trend.

{BTW, this pic is a card I made last summer for a Quickutz challenge at Scrappin' Good Times. Alphabet ["Sunshine"] and hot dog shape are both by QK.)

countdown to vegas

(2005 trip to Vegas - front of Monte Carlo hotel)

Eeeek! We leave in less than four days!

I'm not sure how this trip snuck up so fast, but all of a sudden I'm feeling very short on time. Took the kids for some new summer clothes yesterday. We just need to exchange one bathing suit and we're ready on that score. But, I have an endless list of little details to take care of. Thankfully they are all little quick tasks - I just wish there weren't so many of them.

One of the things on my list is deciding what scrappy stuff to take with. There is a very cool "use-up-a-kit" challenge at Willow Traders that I would love to participate in. Seems like that would keep my scrappy packing pretty minimal too.

Hmmm, have to decide what I'm gonna take.

cookie cutters

So, remember the extra cookies from my last post? Those were for my special friends at Scrappin' Good Times for tonight's big Quickutz Event as the new Cookie Cutter dies are unveiled. Sure wish I could have joined in on the fun. (Photo compliments of Jennifer)

You can read & see more in the SGT blog (link at right) and also here: http://www.scrappingoodtimes.com/newproducts.html

cutting, cutting, cutting

Seems like that's all I've been doing for the past 24 hours. First it was cutting cookies last night. I'd bought stuff to make cute girly sugar cookies for my "A Night to Remember" class a couple of weeks ago at SGT, but ran out of time to do the baking. The ingredients have been sitting on the kitchen counter ever since "accusing" me whenever I walk by. I decided to cook 'em up last night. It worked out great because the kiddoes were spending today with their cousins, so I knew they'd love decorating cookies. I also made an extra batch for some special friends (more on this later!) That made for a WHOLE LOTTA cookies to cut.

(Crown decorated by Libs.)

Today's cutting was of the die cutting nature. Since my Dance Recital classes are less than two weeks away and I'm going on vacation next week, I needed to make a very large dent in kit preparation so that I really can relax and recreate while we're gone! I'm almost there, just another hour or so of die cutting and I can move on to mats and stuff.

Cutting, cutting, cutting...

dippity-do

Nothing like a good strong hair lacquer to keep those dancers' chignons in place while performing. Okay, so I don't really know if it was dippity-do (probably not and yes, I realize I'm dating myself - AGAIN), but whatever the stuff in Celina's hair it is totally made to HOLD! Hours after applying it the stuff was still in like glue.

So, what's this all about? Well, last night I attended the annual recital of my friend Coleen's dance studio. For several years I was there to watch my own little performers but they stopped dancing some time ago. However, I still have friends who study there (like Celina here) and I love dance so there I was. The show was wonderful and I was thoroughly entertained! It's amazing to see how much all the students improve over the year. I notice it so much more now that I'm not at the studio any more.

Great performance, C! And your hair held up too - woo hoo! Congratulations to ALL on a job well done!

(ETA: I just uploaded some layouts I've done of past recital and dance class photos here --OR-- click on the PaperCraft Princess blog link in Scrapbook Stuff links at the right----->)