Where has the time gone???!!!

Well I started this eons ago and never posted it, so here it is in its unfinished form just do I can post something new!

I can't believe how long its been since I posted here! And I can't believe Thanksgiving is next Thursday and then the holiday craziness kicks into FULL swing!! YIKES!!! Thinking of that makes me remember HOW MANY Christmas gifts I need to make!!!

I have been having a blast going scrapping every weekend for a while now! I don't think dh likes it, but it has been so nice to get a break form the boys-I think this is going to be one L O N G winter this year as they are climbing the walls already! I have some new creations to share with you from my adventures, here are a couple of my favorites!





TFL!
Valerie

Dixie Pieces Challenge

So one of the last challenges for the Dixie Pieces Birthday Bash is to blog about the songs of your life. So I guees I would start with when I was born and the #1 song (according to a website) was "I Wish" by Stevie Wonder.

As a little girl my grandmother and I would dance to the "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head"

Then when I was about 5 I received a fancy flashing disco lights record player and what were the first 45's I remember having that weren't kid songs??? "Another one bites the dust" by Queen,
"Hit me with your best shot" by Pat Benetar
and "Let's Get Physical" by Olivia Newton-John!

Then as I got older I listened to Wham
And Miami Sound Machine
And of course Madonna!!
Then there was The New Kids on The Block!!! I SOOOO LOVED Jordan!!
Let's see then in high school there was
And then she was my first concert
Then we move into
And
And now more recently I listen to Pink,
Nickelback
Carrie Underwood
and Kelly Clarkson


oh and let's see what else oh yeah how could I forget my wedding song!!
And I could go on forever, but we will end with a little country!



Well thanks Sherry! That was a fun musical journey!! Now I need to get back to scrapping I have a Grand Prize I'm gonna win!!! LOL!!
TFL!!

Valerie

Happy Halloween!!!

Hope everyone has a GREAT day!!! Here's a fun site to make your own festive jack-o-lantern!!
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/timages/page/pumpkin_sim.html

Here are a couple pics!

Have you been to Dixie Pieces Yet????

If NOT what are you WAITING FOR????!!! The challenges, the games the prizes, the GREAT girls!!! What else do you need?? Well don't answer that one! I posted a challenge on the 13th and on the 22nd I will be teaching 2 techniques!! There are some great challenges! Here are a couple of my entries:
My Challenge

Sketch Challenge

Favorite Ice Cream Challenge

Oppsite Challenge
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Well its been a LONG day for me time to go to bed!
TFL!!
Valerie

Dixie Pieces Birthday Bash!!!

Don't forget that the Dixie Pieces Birthday Bash has begun today!! Be sure to go over and join in the fun! The first challenge is a sketch created by one of the Design Team members.



And as promised here are a couple new LO's!!




TFL!!
Hope to see you over at Dixie Pieces!
Valerie

My How Time Flies!!!

So can you believe it here we are October 8th already!!?? These past couple weeks have just flown by SOOO FAST!! Sorry I have MIA for a while, but on Sept 25th Nicholas had to go in for some outpatient surgery to correct some problems from the nurses in the hospital NOT properly caring for his circumcision! It has been a roller coaster ride, but he is doing good and goes back in 1 week from today for a follow-up. It has been hard as I have had to spend LOTS of time watching over him and making sure he doesn't get too wild or that the 2 of them don't start horsing around! Here's a pic I took of Nick before he went in for surgery. He was giving me the I don't want my pic taken look, but I'm gonna smile after you take a pic!

So I haven't really scrapped much lately either! I did go to Hannah's on Friday with my scrappy pal Robin and we shopped our little hearts out! : ) I did surprise myself and get 2 LO's done! I was REALLY into shopping and seeing all the scrappy goodness there that I had a hard time getting into doing any work, but I guess once I got the shopping out of my system I was ready to work! : ) I will have to go and take pics later of my LO's I made. Believe it or not I made my first ever Halloween LO!! Robin challenged me to do it and I did! I LOVE challenges that get me to scrap! Oh speaking of challenges Dixie Pieces is going to be 1 year old on November 1st and to celebrate beginning Friday, October 10th, through Sunday, November 2nd, they'll have challenges, games, and other fun activities. Oh, and prizes! So be sure to come over and join in on all the fun!! And on the 13th and 22nd be sure to check out who's posting a challenge and a technique ; )!!!

We went apple picking on Monday with my friend Sheila and her niece Nora, and let me tell you it was FUN!! I had only gone once before when I was 5, so this was new to me too! We went up to Harvard IL to a place called Royal Oak Farm and Fruit Orchard, and it was SOOO nice because we were able to let the kids play in this cool park area, take a train ride, go to a small petting zoo, there was a carousel-but Nick can't do that yet, and a tractor ride-which was booked for the day in addition to the apple orchard! The boys REALLY had a good time picking apples and every morning they ask me if we can go apple picking again! Here are a couple pics from our day! And yes my little ladies man was smitten with Nora and she wanted NOTHING to do with him! LOL!! I did manage to get a pic of the 2 of them holding hands for a minute!






We also went to Streamwood Pumpkin Fest on Saturday! The boys had a good time running around, listening to the librarian tell stories and play games, and watching a juggler! I love summer the best, but I must admit I REALLY enjoy the fall activities and Halloween! Speaking of which I should go downstairs and pull the Halloween decorations out like I promised Joseph last night! He is REALLY into Halloween! I let him stay up late last night watch the Martha Stewart Halloween show-he was SOOO into it! Then he came upstairs and started talking about where we should decorate and what we should do!



I can't wait to scrap all these new fun pics!

Well I better get going I've got a lot to get done today, and I have to find something to wear as I am going on a job interview tonight! YIKES!!! I haven't worked in OVER 3 1/2 years!!! With the cost of living getting SOOO expensive we need extra income, so I am gonna try working in the evenings. I am going to the children's store Carter's tonight, so we'll see what happens!

TFL!!!
Valerie

What a TERRIFIC Scrappy Day!!! : )

So Saturday morning I awoke to NO ONE in the house, checked my e-mails, got ready and went to scrap my little heart out ALL day long!!! : ) My scrappy pal and I went to Archiver's in Naperville, by the way the NICEST Archiver's I've been to! So we arrive just before 10 am and staked out our table and began our day! We had a NICE relaxing stress-free day! AAHHHH!!! We were SOOO happy to even just be able to shop without a 3 1/2 year old! I can't begin to tell you how that felt! My scrappy mojo wasn't flowing at first as I felt a migraine coming on, but I was determined not to let that stop me! I am happy to say after some lunch and shopping at Michael's and Joann's I was good! I'm sure the tylenol had NOTHING to do with it either! LOL!!

I am SOOOO proud of myself I FINALLY did the acrylic album I won from Sherry at Dixie Pieces a couple months ago! At first it was making my head hurt to have to do that much thinking about how to lay things out and what effect that would have on the look of the entire book, but once I got the hang of it I had a BLAST!!! I am actually VERY excited to do another one soon! I haven't decided if I want to do a haunted house like my buddy and I were discussing or if I want that adorable pumpkin at My Acrylic Albums! And if you look on their new blog they have the CUTEST idea for that book! So without further ado here it is!













I was on a roll after lunch, not ONLY did I do the acrylic album I ALSO did a 2 page LO!!! I will have to do my journaling and take a pic to share of that too!

Well I must say we had such a GOOD time Saturday and well we were pretty slap happy by the end of the night from ALL the sugar AND caffeine!! It was a miracle I could go to sleep that night, but the fact that by the end of the night I knew I was getting sick-I was exhausted!

I hope everyone has an AWESOME, TERRIFIC, FUN TO BE WITH scrappy friend and I hope you get to go out and have fun like we did every once in a while!

Well TFL and have a GREAT night!
Valerie

Half Way Through September?????

I still can't believe it!!!

So I was SO busy last week I never had a chance to share my HAPPY SCRAPPY mail I got last Monday! It was my August kit from Dixie Pieces!! I was lucky enough to get the last kit!! Here is a pic from their website as I started using it before I took a pic! And I must say for the FIRST time my box wasn't damaged!! LOL!!! I guess the Post Office decided to not take their frustrations out on my box! So here is the gorgeous kit.

I have been busy creating away for a while now and then all of a sudden I just completely lost my mojo!! I don't know what happened, but I sat downstairs for 2 days now just staring at all my scrappy goodness and just can't find something to do!! Maybe I just need to do the BIG clean/purge I have been talking about doing for a while now??? I want to get rid of all the stuff I will NEVER use and have been holding onto for WAY TOO LONG now! As I type this I think more and more of how that may be a good idea to clean out my space and then I can take the time to properly pack my stuff for my LONG crop this weekend! Hmmm...I did FINALLY find the pictures to work on my house shape acrylic album I won from Dixie Pieces a couple months ago. I started working on this album, went out and bought things I wanted to do the album and then all of a sudden the pics that I was going to use were NO where to be found! So in my loss of mojo I decided maybe I needed to look through an old box of pics and scrap something besides the boys and guess what? YUP! The pictures were sitting right there! LOL!!

So my best scrapping buddy Robin and I are doing a MARATHON scrappy day on Saturday! We are going to be on Archiver's doorstep when they open in the morning and we will be there till they kick us out that night! I CAN'T WAIT!!! I am bummed I haven't been able to get to Hannah's to crop for a while now, and I am going to miss their big one on the 27th as it will be 2 days after Nicholas' surgery! So we are making our own scrappy day, but it won't be the same as Hannah's! I NEED a Hannah's trip!!

So speaking of Hannah's I won this HOME letter kit a couple months ago at a crop and I finally decided to do it the other day and I guess it turned out OK. I guess I pictured it to look a little different. I am going to make it a 2 sided decoration and the back I am going to use Christmas paper and it will say "Home for the Holidays" I just have to find the right paper for the job!


Here is a card I made for a wedding we went to. The card is on the top and the envelope is on the bottom. I am SOO mad my camera battery died and I didn't get a picture of the card on the gift! It was SOOO pretty! Oh well! I just hope the bride and groom appreciated it!

And here are a couple of my recent LO's I made that I can now show you. The first one is made with some of the supplies I won from Paper Patch Crafts.


Well that's all for now folks!

Valerie

Another weekend come and GONE!!

Seriously where is time going??? I can't believe its September 8th already!! Christmas is going to be upon us BEFORE we know it!! YIKES!! OK enough of that, because I am in NO way ready to think about that craziness!

So we had the last wedding for hopefully a LONG time on Saturday! Though I think I have been spoiled getting to go out with my hubby every Saturday!

On Saturday afternoon we took the boys to a duck race for the Elgin boys and girls club. It used to be (rubber)ducks that raced down the Fox River, but this year they stuck them in a fountain and kids from the club picked ducks from the fountain. We didn't win anything, but the boys had fun! After the winning ducks were picked the kids watching were able to go and pick up the ducks and put them away in the boxes. The whole time the boys kept telling me they wanted to go get wet too, so this was their opportunity to get wet. Which I wish I would have known that as they had brand new gym shoes and jeans on! It was kind of cool and the sun disappeared during the pick so they were cold when it was done! Before the duck pick they had a Karate demo and then they asked everyone that was watching if they wanted a turn, well Nick took off running as soon as they asked him if he wanted to do it, it was SOOO cute! He really did GREAT!! He followed the directions and was participating and doing everything! I wish I brought the video camera! I have also learned that dh NEEDS to be taught how to properly use the camera!! I gave him the camera to go take pics and well I only got 1 good pic!! ALL the rest are VERY blurry! That's what I get for giving him such an important responsibility! After the duck pick we took a ride on this cute little train they had there! It didn't run on tracks, they drove it on the sidewalk and we took a nice 10 minute train ride around the park and along the river! It was fun! Here are a couple pics from the day!





So on Friday night I was home without dh and got to watch whatever I wanted and of course there was NOTHING good on! So I started watching this movie on Life Time called "What Girls Learn" the description was that it was about how 2 girls dealt with their mom moving them from the South to New York because she met a man. I thought this could be good, well as I'm watching it all of a sudden becomes clear this is a TEAR jerker of a movie! And what do I do? Yep keep watching!! Here I am trying to do a 2 page LO and keep the tears off of it! I'm balling my eyes out and yet I'm STILL watching the dumb movie! Why do we do that to ourselves???? I have NO idea why I felt the need to get sad and cry like a baby over this movie when I could have changed the channel, had dry eyes and not felt all sad the rest of the night! I am surprised I didn't get any tears on my LO! I think it was that I stopped every time I teared up, which would explain part of the reason its still not done! I don't know why I have such a hard time doing a 2 pager! I do know that I REALLY need to clean my workspace and make more room to work! I need a day without the boys so I can clean AND scrap! That's the issue, when I have time to myself I go and scrap and NOT waste my time cleaning! LOL!!

So my scrappy pal Marci awarded me with this blog award, like a week ago I'm a little behind!

So here's the rules to this award:
Who gets the “Brilliante Webblog Award"?

Websites and blogs of your choice for their designs that are especially noteworthy.
1. The winner can take the logo
2. Place a link to the person that sent you the award
3. Give the Award to at least 7 other Scrapbooking-Blogs, which by its currency, the issues of choice and for their designs are especially noteworthy
4. Put a link to these sites on your Blog.
5. Write a comment on their Blogs that they’ve won an Award.

So thank you Marci for the honor! I have a BUNCH of blogs I stalk and don't post on, so I don't know who to nominate! If you read my blog you deserve to take the award too! And I will say that I give the award to Tracy and Amy as I always find inspiration on their blogs!

Well I've spent WAY too much time on the computer this morning and as a result I now get to go grocery shopping in the rain with the boys! So much for the weather report last night that said the rain wouldn't start till 3:00 this afternoon!

Have a GREAT day!
TFL!
Valerie

Back FINALLY!!!

Sorry its been SOOOO L O N G!!! Life has been CRAZY!! August was filled with LOTS of busyness, illness, and WEDDINGS!! 4 to be exact!! OUCH!!! Well the last wedding is this weekend, so 3 in August and 1 in September! I am SOOO weddinged out!

Any who I CAN NOT believe that we are into September and summer is unofficially over!!! : ( I am a summer girl, so this depresses me GREATLY! I just LOVE the cool weather and being outside, I HATE fall/winter clothes and the cold! I think I may need to move to the desert! Well that's enough of my belly aching about that. I got some AWESOME scrappy mail in August that I am dying to share with you! So get ready to fest your eyes on some yummy goodies!


This is the June kit from Dixie Pieces that I won as my grand Prize from Dixie Pieces Summer Splash crop at the beginning of the month! It is MORE gorgeous in person!! They still have some left....GO get one!!!

And this is my AWESOME prize I won from Paper Patch Crafts during the Dixie Pieces online crop too!

And these are my new FAVORITE pens!!! They are Inkessentials by Ranger- MUST haves!

I must say I think Sherry from Dixie Pieces mailman doesn't like sending BIG packages to me as last time I got a kit from her it was a miracle the kit wasn't damaged! And well this time this is what I got! LOL!!!


So I have a lot of new scrappy projects that I have been doing, but I can't share any of my best at this time with you as they are "busy" ; ) So here are a couple that I can show you.



And on 1 final note here I wanted to share some of my favorites papers from CHA that I can't wait to get my hands on! The first is by Li'l Davis Designs their Spooky line I NEED that spider web die cut page!!

And then there was this Yummy line by My Mind's Eye Spooked and Night Light! : )



And of course you can never fail with Making Memories and the Halloween line Spellbound is a goodie too! I think I NEED to go shopping!! LOL!!!

Well have a good one and I'll be back again soon!
TFL!

Valerie