I’m sitting here at Scrap Palace with Michelle right now. I am happy to report that I have been pretty good about getting things done. I got my little mini wedding album completed for the most part and I finished up a summer album I had been working on. I’ve also got one layout done and I’m starting a second right now.

So while I’ve gotten all that done… Michelle has been doing a lot of starring. She seems to have this thing about starring at me while I’m concentrating. It’s flattering and kinda creepy all at the same time. :p

It’s 12:30 am right now and I miss Denny. This always happens. If only I could bring him along. I’m sure all the other gals would enjoy that… NOT.

~j

I’ve been a bad blogger.  It’s been busy around here to say the least.  Denny has been working on a project that kept him from home for two weeks.  I think I may be on Mommy overload.  Between homework and other activities my nerves are shot.  Then last week Denny’s Uncle passed away.  Which was a blow to both of us, obviously mostly Denny, but I had a vast respect for Uncle Bob and he was just one of the nicest men I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.  He is missed.

I promised some photos of tiles that I had done over the last couple of weeks and just didn’t get around to posting them.  So, as promised here they are…

I’m trying to play catch up today and get the stuff done that I haven’t been able to attend to over the last week or two.  Wish me luck!

~j

Renee tagged me today.  I gotta thank her for that cuz I needed a good kick in the pants to get back to blogging.    So, thanks Renee!!

Here are the rules…

1. The winner can put the logo on their blog
2. Link the person you received your award from
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the girls or boys you’ve nominated.

Ok so rule one and two taken care of!  Now on to nominating 7 other blogs.  Hmm, ok I pick the following:

1. Jamie Harker – Well, just because the girl cracks me up more often than not.
2. Sarah Bolton – Umm, shes young and still has a footloose and fancy free life, so I get to relive my life, errr, 10 years ago, all over again though her.   Plus she’s a darn good babysitter.
3. Becky Fleck – I like the Page Maps.  Of course I’ve only used one once.  But, if I got the chance to scrapbook more I swear I’d use more.
4. Jana Walsh – Cute cards and stuff.  She seems to find other blogs that actually do technique ideas and I like that.  Again, something I’d put to better use if I made more time to scrap.
5. Emily Adams – She does this “Sense”-ational Sunday thing that I enjoy.  It’s totally not scrapbooking related, but cool just the same.
6. Tim Holtz, Because I learn somethign nearly everytime I visit.  FYI he is on QVC Sept 23rd.
7. Ali Edwards – Always something good over there.

Now I need to run around and comment all over.  Something I’m not going to do right now cuz Shelby is actually “resting” and I have other things I’d like to do with my quiet time.  Denny is not home this weekend so I’m on kid duty and I’ll take the break where I can get it.

In other news I’ve actually created some stuff over the last two weeks.  I’m working on a secret project that I can’t reveal until November.  Beyond that I’ve done two tiles and a clear acrylic album.  I’ll post some photos tomorrow when Denny gives my camera back.

Hmm, what other exciting stuff has gone on around here?  Well, my hairdyer caught on fire, lol.  It’s funny now, however not so funny in the moment.  The second I turned it on flames started climbing up the cord from the base of the plug.  Thankfully I had the good sense to yank it out and put the cord in the sink to put out the fire.  I called the company and they sent a call tag for it and are replacing it.  They said it’s “deffective.”  Gee, ya think?

Then yesterday Denny thought he was having a heart attack.  Turns out he decided that a particular medication he was given wasn’t all that effective, (I agree with him there), so he decided to wean himself off.  (Again, I’m ok with that.)  However…. weaning off requires more than THREE days.  Argh, so he basically stopped a blood pressure altering drug cold turkey.  Not a good idea.  So the racing heart, crazy blood pressure, lightheaded and tingly Denny with chest pains went to the doctor.  The doctor told him the same thing I did after an EKG and a chest xray.  That being said, he did actually have soemthing else wrong with him – a viral lung infection.  The infection was causing the chest pain.  Lots of excitement yesterday.

That about covers it for today.  I got up super early this morning so I am off to go vegitate for a few. 

~j

This weekend was pretty uneventful really. Saturday we went to Blakes Big Apple to pick raspberries. It’s usually a fun thing we all do as a family. Unfortunately Dylan has developed a severe phobia to all things insect. Argh. Well the second we got out of the car and near a raspberry bush a bug flew out and landed on the back of Dillys shoulder. The kid freaked out and ran screaming and crying. That kicked off Ethan, and he started screaming while trying to avoid Dylan. After what seemed like an eternity the bug finally flew off. However, the damage had already been done. Dylan spent the rest of the time whining and crying, nearly unable to move. I picked his share of the berries and at the end the kid wouldn’t even hold the carton of berries. Yeah, he was not a happy camper.

I spent the day Sunday running errands with Denny and working on my article for the next issue of Michigan Scrapbooker Magazine. I had ordered the photos for it on the 23rd and they just showed up the other day. Honestly, I work best if it’s done at the last minute, but I was getting a little nervous about not having the photos here. Anyway, I finished the layout and I’m just about done with the article. It just needs some tweaking here and there. This time around I’m also doing another article for another department, just filling in for someone else, so I’ll be wrapping that up today and tomorrow I think.

Shelby has her first dance class later today. She is so stinkin’ excited to “go dance.” I’ll be taking lots of photos. After doing the little boy routine for so long it’s refreshing to have a princess to have fun with. All new adventured for me. As a kid I hated dance, lol, so we’ll see how she does. She is a million times more girly than I ever was that’s for sure.

Happy Monday everyone!

~j

Day two of school went just fine. Both Dylan and Ethan seem to be doing ok. Ethan had some serious apprehension about it this year, which turned out to be all about the upcoming MEAP. Apparently he was worried about how he’d do. I think after my conversation with him we got that all straightened out. He came home yesterday pretty happy, so I assume it worked.

Yesterday after I took the boys to school and ran to the grocery store, I dropped Shelby off at my in-laws. I had a lunch date yesterday with my mom so my in-laws were baby sitting. I ended up with a few minutes to spare before I had to pick up my mom and created an altered tile. I have a bunch of them that I’ve done in all different sizes that hang along the soffit in my office/scrap room. They all start as just plain white glazed tiles. This one is 6×6. If you want to recreate the look, here are the steps…

Supplies you’ll need:
-Glazed Tile
-Alcohol Ink & Applicator
-Mask (I used a piece of Maya Road Petals and Leaves Sheer Sheet)
-Removable Adhesive
-Permanent Adhesive
-Cardstock (to mount your photo on)
-Photo & Misc embellishments (in this case jewels, ribbon and a flower)

The steps are simple. First make sure your tile is clean and dry. I’d suggest soap and water and not any type of chemical cleaner for this task. After you’ve dried it COMPLETELY take whatever you plan to use as your mask and apply some removable adhesive to the back. I used Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L E-Z Dots for this. Then apply the mask on to the top of the tile.

After applying your mask and getting it positioned where you want it, get out your alcohol inks. I used three different shades of brown for mine as I wanted to pull the brown from the color of Shelby’s shirt. Put your drops of alcohol ink onto the applicator and dab away over the top of the mask. Nothing has to be perfect here and alcohol ink is pretty forgiving… just dab back over it if you don’t like the application. You just want to be sure your mask stays in place.

Once the ink has been applied, remove your mask. Alcohol ink dries fairly quickly, but I did use my heat gun to help in along a bit. Again, make sure your mask is removed first so you don’t melt it. After the ink has dried, you can rub off any of the removable adhesive that may have transferred to the tile in the process.

No all that remains is embellishing and placing your photo. One this one all I did was tie some ribbon around, place a flower on top and put a jewel in the center. Then I matted my photo, adhered it and stick on the jewel “princess” title. Everything is adhered to the tile using a permanent adhesive runner, such a and E-Z Runner by Scrapbook Adhesive by 3L.

This is a quick project that looks like it took a lot more effort. I probably got this done in about 15 minutes or so max. To hang them I get plate hangers, which you can find at your local home improvement store, (i.e. Lowes, where I also get the tiles).

Enjoy!

~j

Current Mood: Happy

Ha Ha, my car! That’s what’s new. I got a call last week that my car was in and would be at my dealer Thursday/Friday. Yipee skippy. I picked her up on Friday. I’ll tell you what, I love it, and I do mean LOVE it. If I could live in it, I probably would.

A good friend of ours happens to be our car salesman also, (and now the salesman of choice for our family and friends). He is SUCH a nice guy, so if you are looking for a dealer that can get ya any GM vehicle, drop me a line and I’ll send you his way. Anyway, he says, “I’ll have them stripe it for you. What do you want?” Uhh, first, I assume you mean pinstripe. Second, I have no idea! He asked if I wanted flashy or classic. I told him I’m not too flashy really so probably more classic. He says, “No, you want flashy.” LOL. Ok, I guess that’s what I want. He told me I’d like blue and purple stripes, and frankly I wasn’t so sure. But, I told him that I trusted his judgment. I’m glad I did… it’s fantastic! (You like how I make all these decisions without consulting Denny?) Anyway, John at Rinke Cadillac – go see him!!!

The other NEW thing – today was the first day back at school, and the first day of school for Dylan period! Kindergarten, yeesh, time goes by way to quick. Seems like just yesterday I was taking Ethans photo before his first day of kindergarten, now today he started third grade. Here is Ethan on his first day of Kindergarten and then today.

And here is Dilly today just before we left for school…

Yes, I have a thing for plaid. Every single year for elementary school thus far… new plaid shirt and matching t shirt underneath. Yes, I know I’m neurotic. In my defense, Dilly opted NOT to wear what I picked for him. Instead he says, “Uhh, I’m not wearing that Mom. Don’t you have something orange?” Orange apparently is his new color. Orange shirt, orange backpack, and if he new Crocs weren’t too big he’d be wearing those too… also orange. So, he picked out the orange shirt, which happens to be one Ethan wore at one point, but there was no talking Dilly out of it. What can I say?

It’s nearly 11am now, and no one from the school has called to tell me I have a kid up there freaking out, so I guess it’s going ok. Shelby and I are enjoying the day without boys thus far. She seems to be the most excited about it. No one to share with I guess!

Happy first day back at school to all the other Mom’s out there!

~j

Well I did get around to actually creating yesterday. I made a friend a birthday card, which I’ll send out tomorrow or Saturday. I like to time it so the card comes on or as close as possible to their birthday. I had intended to take a photo of it, but, Denny took my camera to work again today. Argh. It’s pretty cute and I did a masking technique with Glimmer Mist on it that I’m happy with.

I also finally used my Bind It All to bind up this family mini album I did. I need to get out the photos I want to pop in it and then I think I’m going to leave it at that. It’s all done with Sweetwater product and including the cover, is 7 pages in total. It’s cute and the kids love to look at mini albums. I’ll take actual photos of each page after I get all the photos in… which, well, let’s be honest, could be a very long time from now, lol.

In my continued effort to clean out, I’m getting rid of my Cricut. I NEVER use the thing, and I think Michelle can attest to that. Actually I think Michelle has used it more than I have. Pathetic I know. At any rate, I’m selling my nearly new Cricut with the following cartridges… George, Fabulous Finds and Opposites Attract. All of it can be yours for $200.00. I’ll ship it at the actual shipping costs if needed. Drop me a line if you are interested.

That’s all for today. Happy Thursday!

~j

For the last two days I keep coming into my scrap room/office and standing here. I feel compelled to do something, but apparently not compelled enough cuz here I sit. I sit here and look at the empty counter and think to myself, I think I want to scrap. How dumb is that? I leave the room and then I’m drawn back and yet I’ve still done NOTHING. It’s not for lack of things I could do. Afterall, I have two projects sitting here that are either half done or just waiting for photos. I could easily finish up that, yet I haven’t. I need a kick in the pants or something!

Yesterday was packet pickup day at school. The kids found out what teacher each of them got and got to meet them. Packet pickup day is also the day they take school photos, so each of them did that also. This is Dilly’s first year at the “big kid school” and while he seems a little excited he is equally, (if not more), freaked out by the entire event. We put him in the full day kindergarten program after much debate and I’m hoping it works out for him ok! Cross your fingers that I don’t get a phone call shortly after I leave telling me he is having some sort of melt down, lol. I can already hear the conversation, “Mrs. Dera, we seem to be having a problem with Dylan. Could you come up to the school?” Yikes.

Ethan is pretty cheesed off as he doesn’t have any of his close friends in his class this year. While I think its sad to split kids up after they have established close friendships, I can see how it would give him a bigger circle of friends so that can be good. We’ll see the first week how it works out. Ethan is usually pretty good at adapting, so I’m not super worried about it.

Tonight is “cirriculium night” at the school so I would imagine Denny and I will get a list of more school supplies to add to the ones I picked up before my surgery. On top of finding out about all the other plans for the year. I’m not sure how it is going to work out with two kids thus two different classes. The time slot is 6-7pm period and I don’t know how they expect us to be at the same place at the same time. I know I could send Denny to one and do the other class myself, but I don’t have a real good feeling about that. I know if he goes I’m going to miss out on at least half of the important information that I need for the year. Not that he isn’t able to pay attention, he just isn’t real good at retaining information. Let’s put it that way. All you moms know what I’m talking about. I’m the one doing the “school work” all year long so I’d like to be informed directly. KWIM? No idea how this is going to work when he have all three in the school at the same time. Eventually I’m going to have to give up some control. I’m not real good at that.

I’m on day two of my Slim Fast routine. After paying a vist to the scale during my first post op check up I decided I had to loose some weight. Considering I had lost some organs you’d think I would have been significantly lighter, lol. And well, lets just say I wasn’t. Even taking swelling into account I weighted a lot more than I want to, or than I should for that matter. Once upon a time I was a twig, and frankly, I enjoyed it. I’m not happy with the weight I’m at now, and haven’t been for a long time, so I need to do something about it. The whole Slim Fast thing is how I lost it after I had Dilly, so hopefully it will work again. I just need to stick to it and not let Denny distract me with his ice cream additction!

~j

I finally got a chance to sit down today and “work” with the Becky Fleck Page Maps book. I gave it a good read really last week, but this is the first time I’ve really selected a sketch I plan to work with. I’m trying to plan out something for a project and just ordered the photos to go with it so it will be awhile before I really dig in… but so far so good.

I have to say that I really like the book. There are little tips and tricks scattered through that give good detail and instructions that help you along the way. On top of which all the sketches are pretty versatile and easily adapted to fit your needs. The sketches would also lend themselves to cards nicely for those of you that are cardmakers.

What I especially like is that card pack that is at the end of the book. There are 60 heavy duty and kinda laminated cards at the pack that you can make into a card pack. The little box for the cards are even provided. Each card has one of the sketches from the book and a finished example. Also printed on the cards are little suggestions for things to try on the layout to make it more of your own. This pack makes it great for those of you that travel to crop and don’t want to drag along the book! The card pack takes up little to no space at all and is color coded for the type of sketch at the top of the card, (12×12 single or double, 8.5×11 vertical, landscape).

I used to be a fan of the Becky Higgins sketch books, but just found that I grew out of them. On top of which after awhile all of them seemed to look the same to me. This one I can really see myself using for awhile. All in all, I highly recommend it!!

On a side note… Thank you Sarah for coming to help me “clean out” some of my stash the other day. I really feel a lot better about the state of my organization so thanks for that. I’m glad you were able to find some stuff you could use!!!

Happy Saturday to you!!

~j

I have several rubber stamp sets here that I want to find new homes for.  Just about all of them are unused and complete.  There are a couple that are missing a piece or two or have one or two stamps used out of the full set.  Each set is already mounted on EZ Mount.  Any takers??  I’ll ship them if need be at an additional cost.

Leave Memories Big Font (Plain) $10.00. New and Complete Set mounted on EZ Mount

Leave Memories I Found Evidence Stamp Set - $10.00 New and Complete

Leave Memories Big Font Pattern Stamp Set - $10.00 New and Complete

Leave Memories Passport To Travel Stamp Set - $10.00 Mostly New and Complete

Leave Memories Our Be'be Firsts Stamp Set - $10.00 New and Complete

Leave Memories Ribbon Stamps Stamp Set - $5.00 New, Missing "thank you" & "Courage"

There are a lot more beyond these.  You can see a full list of the Leave Memories Stamps I’m letting go of here.  I also have a TAC set in need of a good home.

~j