Long Time No Blog.............

OK... I left you all with the hopes and wishes that things would calm. The direct opposite happened.

We lost our sister in law to cancer last week. It's left me so sad. She was a wonderful person... so determined and full of life. I am going to miss her so very much. So this is why I've been a bit MIA for a bit... I needed a break to sit back and regroup.

But life goes on. So I am determined to plug past this and get things smoothed out. I started Christmas shopping and getting back into the groove of life.

Emily's band concert was on Wednesday evening and she did a great job. She even had a trio with her two great buddies Mackenzie and Sarah. Here's a peek of her playing Jingle Bells.

And today brought us the first real snowfall of the season! Everything is under a thick blanket of white! Emily played most of the afternoon outside with the neighbor boys. She even tried snowboarding down the hill by the barn! She came in for dinner cold, wet and exhausted. Joshua got too cold too quickly and decided a cozy spot by the fire was much more to his liking.

Joshie lost another tooth yesterday. He thinks this toothfairy thing is pretty cool!

I finished Breaking Dawn in the Twilight series. Much better than the last 2 in my humble opinion. I've still not been to see the movie... I know I am going to be disappointed so I've decided to hold out for it to hit Redbox.

I've been playing around with the camera trying to get better at using it. Here's a shot of the tree in a dark room... not too bad! :)

And that's about it!!! :) Going to go shovel some snow!

Lotsa fun Stuff!!!!!

Whew! Was last week such a BUSY week!!! I've done so much in one week I don't even think I know where to begin!

Monday saw me registering to go back to college. I am going to take 3 college courses from Northampton to get my Director's Credential Certifcate for the STARS program our preschool is enrolling in. I can't believe that I am going back to college! Thankfully, this will all be offered online so that it will fit into my hectic lifestyle!

Tuesday found me presenting our new preschool plan to the church ad council. Things went smoothly! WOO HOO!!!

Wednesday was a blur with a trip to the podiatrist who says that nasty wart on my foot will need surgery to remedy. Yuck!!! Emily's Girl Scout troop had their Christmas party that night as well! It was a fun time!!

Thursday brought the arrival of Miss Addison!!! She's gorgeous and I can't wait to see her in person! Until this cold leaves me, I'm stuck drooling on photos!! She SOO needs a scrappy baby album! I am still waiting to get the OK so share her pics with the world, but as soon as I get it, I'll share! :)

Friday was the end of the week and the worst day ever for this stinky cold/flu. Yucky stuff!!!

Saturday we finally got the tree and set it up in the house. We didn't decorate it though because we weren't sure what jack would do it it, but so far, so good!

Sunday marked a HUGE milestone for Joshie... he lost his very first baby tooth!!!! Woo HOO!!!!

Hopefully this week will be a bit calmer........................ :)

Waiting......................

I got the call last night at 11PM..... my little sister is headed to the hospital to have her precious little baby girl!!! The poor thing is almost 2 weeks overdue and was just plain miserable!!!

I am so thrilled for her and can't wait to meet the newest addition to the family! She will be my first blood related niece, so I am doubly thrilled!!!

I'll update everyone more as I find out more!!! :)

Chere is my HERO!

OK... I have this super cool, able to do it all camera... and I am camera illiterate. Enter Chere, my Nikon guru, who has helped me attain the unthinkable... a super cool, ultra trendy awesomely awesome photo!!!!

I've wanted to capture the feel of a professional portrait as seen on Amber Ulmer's photography blog, but had NO inkling of an idea on how to get started. Chere walked me through it and armed me with a free trial of Adobe Lightroom (which ROX my sox!!!) and a after a few hours of playing and trial and error... I made this!!!

Behold the original:



And my super cool trendy version:




Thanks Chere!!! You've created a monster now!!! :)

Having Fun with The Paper Element!

Well... it took awhile, but I jumped back into my scrappy room with some help from my buddy Vel (thanks sweetie!!) and of couse the boatload of goodies from The Paper Element. I worked on them in the freezing cold basement for limited amounts of time.... I lent out my portable heater to a friend who's furnace was on the fritz. Once it gets warmed up down there, I'll create some more! Loving that wonderfully yummy paper!!! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!

What a wonderful day! We finally had a day as a family to sit back and relax and enjoy being together! Life has been hectic lately, so we decided we needed a day for just us as a family. We hunkered down in the house feasting on turkey and homemade pumpkin pie and then strolled outside on the cold to play with the camera where Jack was nice enough to pose for a couple of photos.

We hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Playing around....

Sunday our camera FINALLY arrived... told ya I was all about the bad luck! Anyhow, I did some playing around and didn't have too much luck getting the style photo I wanted, but after some help from my friend Chere, I should be on the right path shortly. Thanks Chere!!! I would love to give the tutorial she sent me a try, but Tom stole the camera to show it off at work!!! :)

Anyhow, I took this one of Jack while he was trying to sleep on the couch... he wasn't a very happy subject. I'll post more after I get my camera back, LOL!

Lightly Falling Snow and other Stuff

This snow is falling! It's only lightly laying on the trees and shrubs right now, but boy does it ever put me in the mood for Christmas already! How wonderful! I'm not a big fan of snow, but it's beautiful to watch fall gently to the ground!

Thanks to all of the well wishers who helped cheer me up at a difficult time. Things are looking up now and some of the fog has lifted. And for those of you who also frequent my Facebook... thanks as well! My SIL is doing better... she's not out of the hospital yet, but she's out of the ICU. That in itself is great news!

And in other news, we decided to make the leap and buy a new camera. Of course we've had nothing but problems in the whole purchase process.... nothing ever goes smoothly for us, so we've learned to just deal with it. But we are hoping for the arrival of the camera by Friday!! Not like I will even know how to use it, LOL! I did figure out how to turn it on in the store, so that's a huge plus!

Last but not least.... a yummy package of Paper Element goodies arrived on my snow dusted doorstep today stuffed to the gills with Christmas paper loveliness! It's just the thing to fix my scrappy mojo and I hope to be able to share some creations with you all soon!

Ever Feel Invisible?

Ever have one of those weeks? Everything you do, almost everyone you talk to.... you feel invisible? Left answering machine messages go unanswered, emailed go unreplied to? I so feel there right now.

I am up to my ears in grant work for preschool. So many steps, so many papers to file, so many questions. And every time I leave a message with a fine government office, no one returns my calls. I don't understand why these people cannot return my calls or answer my emails.

Guess I'm just grumpy. It seems life hasn't been very cooperative for the last few months and I am in a funk. And for once, I just want a day to progress effortlessly... like a Walgreen's "Perfect" ad. Wouldn't life just be grand if everything went smoothly for once?

Where'd My Mojo Go?

Whew.

Life has been once again coming at me with lightning speed. Stress and stress and more stress has been piling up all around me from all sorts of sources. In the past, my stress reliever has been to hole up in my scrappy space and create away... it's my therapy.

Lately though, scrapbooking reminds me of some of the stress I just want to forget and I just can't seem to pick up my supplies and jump in. Is it lost mojo? Is is scrappy phobia? How do I get past this and reclaim my love of all things scrap related?

I need your help. Please help me find my mojo. I've looked everywhere and it seems to be lost.

Halloween Mini

Well... I have alot on my plate right now. So I thought for today I would offer up a Halloween mini album I made for you to take a quick peek at.

I promise to be back to regularly scheduled programming soon.

Memories of Grandma

Last night we lost a great person. My grandma. Her health had been declining and she is finally with God. She was a wonderful person... a good loyal friend... the one I baked cookies with ans spent summers playing at her cabin. She was the leftie of her generation as I am in mine. Oh I miss her already. She was a great person and will be sadly missed.

Rest in peace, my beloved Grandma. We will miss you.

Outtakes from the Tulip Field

As some of you know, the tulip field was mowed down by the powers that be and that left me with some yummy goodies to share with all of you! I know some of you are left scratching your heads, but I also know others are shaking their heads. LOL... sometimes I like being vague. :)

So anyhow, without further fanfare, please enjoy some eye candy! :)



This little layout is of Joshie at a year. He was such a happy little baby and I just adored this photo of him. This envelope of photos have been sitting around collecting dust, so I had a blast scrapping them.



Miss Emily created a super fun page of drawings that I just HAD to use with this photo of Em. It completely screams Emily and her fun and funky style.



Some fun wall altered wall art of a little Joshie. This is just too cute hanging on my wall.



A layout of Em with her idol. :) Those girls are too cute together.

I'm so glad I found these unharmed in the tulip field clippings. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. My heart went into each and every one of these projects. :)

Getting Back to Business

Yikes! Sorry I've been so behind on my blog! Life has hit kinda fast lately! We got through Halloween and all of the trick or treating and classroom parties. Whew! What a whirlwind! Josh's party for Halloween was a sock hop and they celebrated with carrot fries and milk shakes. I decided to make some fake cookie cheeseburgers to have some fun! I took a pic of them but my camera REFUSED to bring them into focus correctly. Sometimes that camera can be so tempermental. So please pardon the blurry pic, but I wanted to share!

We are off to a Halloween party tonight...can't wait!

It's Pumpkin Carving Time!

Josh and I had a little quality time together today after Emily went to see High School Musical 3 with a good friend, so we carved the pumpkins. He loved the haunted house one...this one was his fave. Emily picked a spooky Jack the Pumpkin King face and Josh's was one I just hand drew out. We did the haunted house for a competition on Pack Rat (Facebook).

We also created a cute little pumpkin using the Cricut for our preschool. They were so easy to make and turned out so cute. I used my George cart to cute star shapes from the Cricut vinyl and let the kids stick them wherever on their little pumpkins. I then spray painted the pumpkin black and removed the vinyl. These were neat and SO easy!!!

My Newest Addiction

I LOVE Woot.com. It's been an addiction of mine since I found it on Emilie Ahern's blog months ago. Since then, a friend introduced me to a scrapbooking version of Woot called Peachy Cheap. They have some great daily deals (they take a break on Sundays) and I LOVE most of the goodies they pick out to feature. You'll hafta check it out!
Click Here for Peachy Cheap!

Halloween Spookies!

Josh had his Halloween Birthday party this weekend and of course... costumes were required. :) I was able to have the two of them slow down enough to grab a few photos of them in their spooky garb. Josh ended up spiking a fever almost immediately after these pics were taken and is scheduled to visit the dr. later on today. Poor kiddo.... sick for his party.

Em wanted to be a gothic inspired vampire and Josh was a pirate once again... one of his fave costumes. :)

She's in the Band!!!

Miss Em had a fabulously fun weekend! Friday night, the elementary band was asked to play with the highschool band for the half time football show. It was senior night and the stands were packed, so she had a blast out there on the field hamming it up. It was colder than cold, but the kids all had a great time.

This pic was from the night before. She and her fellow band buddy posed for some pics for me... this one was just too cute!! :)

Happy Birthday, Birthday Boy!!!!

Here he is... the 6 year old little guy!!!! Time flies!!!! I can't believe he's 6 already!!!

In honor of his birthday, I decided to do my Round #6 Bad Girls Top Designer layout on my little guy. The class was all about breaking all of the design rules that we have learned so far, so I started with making my own patterned paper with acyrlic paints and glimmer mist, and using colors that I loved, regardless to whether they were in the photo. I then added my textured layers in reckless abandon for the rules of balance. :) This was my end result!!!!

Oh... and I had to share with you... my son is doing the "Happy 6 Year Old" dance right now and accidentally let out a little toot. He stopped in his tracks and smiled a bright smile and proclaimed "That's my first 6 year old fart." Ahhhh.... the things that makes a Momma proud!!! :)

Happy Birthday Joshie!!! :)

Halloween Inspired Semi Healthy Birthday Treats

Joshie man turns 6 tommorow and wanted to celebrate with his Kindergarten pals. Our school district has adopted the healthier snack options at classroom events which leaves the old cupcake standby out of the question. So I thought up a semi healthy Smores snack mix and created some cute boxes to serve it up in for some spooky birthday fun!

FOR THE BOXES:
I used my Cricut Tags Bags Boxes and More cartridge to cut out the popcorn box with window option at 5 1/2. I then stamped the boxes with a Stampin Up Halloween background stamp set and assembled. I lined the box with a cello bag from the candy making aisle and added my mix. I topped it off with a cute Halloween ribbon. I would've loved to glam them up more, but since I was making 20 of them, less was more. :)

FOR THE SNACK MIX:
Mix one box of Golden Grahams cereal, 3/4 of a bag of mini marshmallows, and a bag of milk chocolate chips together and measure into the bags in 1 cup servings. Don't make it too early in advance though because the cereal will absorb the moisture from the marshmallows and make it soggy.

The {Almost} Birthday Boy!!!!

So Friday is Joshie's BIG day... he turns 6!!!! He is so stinkin excited to hit 6 that he literally wakes up every morning with a case of the giggles wondering if today is the big day. :) We had some beautiful weather this weekend so I got a few shots of the birthday boy in our beloved sugar maple tree. The tree isn't quite as splendid this year as it was last year (we had a very dry summer) but the pics turned out fairly good all the same.

So Happy Birthday, Little Man!!!! :) We'll be celebrating in Halloween style on Saturday with a spooky Halloween/Birthday party in the barn with all of his closest friends and family. :)

Create a Layout and Win at The Paper Element!!

The blog challenge is up and running at The Paper Element. You'll hafta stop over and check out my challenge for this week... it's all about autumn!!! Click on the Paper Element to head on over!

The Paper Element

Guess Who is October's Guest DT Member at My Acrylic Album?

....well none other than me!!! I was asked to be a Guest DT member a few months ago and this month it's my turn! :) I love working with acrylic albums... this is quickly becoming one of my fave ways to scrap. I created two different albums and I just love the end result for both of them. Here's a sneaky peeky and you can click here to check both albums out!

Just Jack

I had to get some pics of some layouts last night and Jack was watching the neighbor boy (one of his favorite people eva!!) across the street, so I was able to snap off a few pics of the hyper puppy before he ran off to play.

Our hyper puppy Jack decided to eat a copy of Dr. Seuss' "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" over the weekend. I have to say, he does have great taste in books... Dr. Seuss being my fave author and all, but it was a school library book. We tried Border's to replace it, and can you believe it's out of print?!?!?! So Mr. Jack's lunch (which he actually UNzipped Josh's backpack to get to while we were out) is $20 to replace a VERY well worn book.

That dog.

Round #5 of Bad Girls TOP DESIGNER!!!!

OK.... so I COMPLETELY cannot believe that I am actually in for Round #5 at Bad Girls Top Designer! I am amazed! The talent there is just overwhelming and each week I find myself on the verge of throwing up when I enter my layout into the gallery... will I make it another round?!?! I am having so much fun with this competition.. the classes are amazing and really force me to put thought into my pages...something I don't always do. So here is my round #5 entry. This week is all about pulling color from your photo and balancing it with neutrals. It was taught by the uber-talented Heidi Sonboul. I pulled out the purples and Em's skin tone for the background paper (how yummy is that Black Market paper?! YUM!!) I pulled further color with the reds and pinks of the dress and used those in my embellies. White already appeared as a neutral in my photo, so I decided to strike a balance and throw in black as a second neutral. I like the way it turned out, but the competition is fierce. I am second guessing myself and my style with every page. But, my heart and soul is in this page and my style is me... I can only hope they like it as well. :)

A Little fun at the Faire

We had a beautiful weekend and took full advantage with a trip to the Renaissance Faire. It's a great place to visit for anyone headed to the Lancaster, PA area... there is so much there to see and do and the entertainment is terrific!!!

Here are the kiddos by the cool pirate ship. The ship is actually a sword shop inside and during the day they raffle off some of the swords. The place is teeming with pirates and Josh got a kick out of that! He even saw Captain Jack Sparrow and bought a cool doubloon necklace from him... he was warned not to wear it in the moonlight though lest he turn into a skeleton pirate. :)

We also watched a cute jester show with a doggie that looked alot like our Jack. This dog's name was Blockhead (I think they must be related.... Blockhead is a GREAT name for our Jack!) It was cute and the two jesters did a great job!!!

The human chess match and the joust at the end of the day were for sure the highlights. The action was amazing!!! None of the pics turned out of the joust becuase they never stopped moving!!!

Here are my two Renaissance loving kiddos near the end of our fun filled day....we had a blast!!!