You know its gonna be a bad day when...

You wake up and see this!!!!




Yes I just wanted to run away!! FAR AWAY!!! My darling sons woke up and decided to quietly go into their playroom, find some dry erase markers and create masterpieces! I was SOOOO angry I couldn't say anything! So now add to the LONG list of errands I had to run find something to get that marker off the wall! All I could think of was what my husband would say and then the thought of painting that room in the heat and humidity! Well I had 1 Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and I tried that on the wall and the blue was starting to come off, so I thought there may be some hope. I spent my ENTIRE evening in there scrubbing the wall with Soft Scrub with Bleach and Mr. Clean Dual Scrubber Magic Erasers! How I didn't kill my self from mixing cleaners is beyond me, but I DID get ALL the marker off the wall!! It took 6 Magic Erasers and 1/2 big bottle of Soft Scrub!! So needless to say I was a little too busy to post a MUST HAVE on Friday!

On Saturday my town had a parade and festival that we went to and had LOTS of fun! The boys were SOO cute! We sat at the very end of the parade and it wasn't crowded so I let them have a little more freedom than I normally would to go get some candy on their own, and they thought it was GREAT to be so grown-up! Later on we went to the festival thinking it would be a fun little festival, but there really wasn't anything for the boys to do, so we had some pizza and went home to go to the drive-in! The drive-in is SOOO AWESOME!!! We put the boys in their pj's and bring their blankies and they have a little snack and by the time the movie starts they about ready to fall asleep! By a 1/2 hr into the movie they were out cold! Its funny as a teenager you go to the drive-in to make out, and as a parent you go to have a night out without having to worry about getting a sitter! Here is a pic from the parade.


Sunday was another busy and fun day for our family as well! We took the boys to the Lake County fair with my brother and his girlfriend. It was fun, I would have liked to stay longer and see more things, but dh had enough walking around and well it just really wasn't his thing. We did see some of the animals which the boys just LOVED!! We also visited the fire department where the boys were able to try on kid sized fire equipment-which they LOVED too! They got to take a pony ride which they LOVED!! We watched a little of the demolition derby (the boys LOVE to crash cars), but it wasn't the same as it used to be, and well there wasn't a whole lot of crashing going on! :( Then to end our day dh won each of the boys a Tweety stuffed animal by throwing darts into the star on Tweety's belly. Here are a few pics form our fun at the fair!





So that was ANOTHER weekend gone SOO QUICKLY!! This summer is just flying by too quick! Stayed tuned tomorrow and I will post my final CHA MUST HAVES! I have another busy week coming up and a busy weekend as well! (which includes scrapping at Hannah's!!) I haven't scrapped in a while and I NEED to scrap!!

Well TFL!
Valerie

CHA MUST HAVE # 2 & 3

Sorry I was at the zoo all day with the boys and my girlfriend and her little one, so there was no MUST HAVE yesterday. So today I will give you 2 MUST HAVES instead of 1!

MUST HAVE company #2 Maya Road!

I am a HUGE fan of Glimmer Mists, but Maya Mists have me wrapped around their little spray bottle! The way they spray evenly and cover evenly is INCREDIBLE! They have 8 base colors coming out and 3 metallic colors. These differ from Glimmer Mist as you can have a solid non sparkly color with the base colors, or you can add a metallic color as well and add the sparkle. The colors are VERY intense with just a light spray and the metallic colors are VERY sparkly! The possibilities are endless for how you can layer colors and metallics and create exciting colors. The only downside is they are water based not alcohol based (like Glimmer Mists) and therefore you can't use them on acrylic like Glimmer Mists. Glimmer Mists also has SOOO many colors to choose from right now, but I am sure as the popularity of Maya Mists grows so to will the color choices! Here are the projects I did using the Maya Mists at CHA, oh yeah the Maya Mists also dried VERY quickly! This is one product you DON'T want to miss!


Another Maya Road goodie that is coming out is the sheer calender album! VERY cool item you get 12 5.4"x5.0" pages on a ring. The ideas are running through my head on the things I can make with that little "cutie"! You can choose white and black or cream and brown sheets. They also have some SUPER adorable cupcake shapes coming out, AWESOME new stamps, YUMMY flowers, and for mom's of train obsessed boys a SUPER COOL chipboard train accordion album! Here's a link to their summer CHA catalog! http://www.mayaroad.net/index.php?main_page=announcements_details&zenid=618dc7493fae8895068735be6dd3c57d&a_id=10






MUST HAVE company #3 Basic Grey

Oh what can I say?!! The new lines are yummy!! The new chipboard is AWESOME!! I LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT!!! Their chipboard letters now come in white and 2 shades of brown. And as always it is sticker chipboard-GREATEST idea EVER!! I used their rub-ons in the make and take and all I can say is they made me fall in love with rub-ons once again! : ) They went on like butta! Just the LIGHTEST of pressure and ta-da they were on! I CAN'T wait to get my hands on all their new goodies!! Here is a small preview, for more go to www.basicgrey.com









Well that's enough fun for one day! Till tomorrow!
TFL!
Valerie

CHA MUST HAVE #1

So I decided that each day I would enable you to make your list of things to buy from things I LOVED at CHA! Today's featured company is Ranger! First off the NEW Stickles!! Everyone NEEDS MORE Stickles!! : ) Why do you need the new Stickles? Let me tell you. Distress Stickles come in the same colors as Distress Crackle paints, and the glitter used in these is a pearlized glitter so it is not a metallic shine.
To quote Tim on his new Stickles:
"stickles you say? yes stickles! but these aren't your ordinary stickles (of course), this formulation combines a pearlized glitter instead of metallic glitter and composed of carious particle sizes. pair that with the popular color palette of distress and you have a very vintage (almost mica looking) distress glitter glue. the texture is amazing, the colors are amazing and the results...still pure distress."



The glitz Stickles on the other hand are even more sparkly than the original
to add MORE bling to your projects!



And then there are the Ice Stickles made from various sizes of glitter and larger pieces than regular stickles giving a thicker look to your project.



I have fallen in LOVE with a new white pen!! Inkssentials™ White Pen All I can say is it writes like BUTTA!!!

Doodle, draw, write and scribble with the Inkssentials™ White Opaque Pen. Filled with a bright, white opaque pigment ink this pen is great for doodling, accenting stamped projects and journaling on colored papers. Use it over projects painted with Distress Crackle Paint™ and Adirondack® Acrylic Paint Dabbers. Highlight pre-printed embellishments and scrapbook papers to make them pop!
• Opaque coverage
• Acid free, non-toxic
• Ideal for scrapbookers, paper crafters and altered artists
• Works on polymer clay prior to baking
• Lightfast, waterproof and fade resistant



Then there are the new colors of Crackle paint!! Metallics and WHITE!! New Metallic Crackle Paint in 3 finishes! And by request, a new opaque white paint called Picket Fence has been added to the other 24 Distress Crackle Paint colors.

Note: Metallic Crackle Paints take 2-3 times longer to dry than non-metallic versions. Do not use a craft heat tool to speed drying as it will cause the paint to bubble.



And my final Ranger reccomendation...Claudine Hellmuth Studio Paints

The Claudine Hellmuth Studio line of semi-gloss paint is a collection of 15 highly pigmented, artist quality acrylic paints in her favorite colors! Creamy in consistency, they can be mixed together for an endless palette of colors without becoming muddy. Use for painting on Claudine Hellmuth Sticky-Back Canvas, paper projects, and more.

• Acid free, non-toxic
• Archival
• Artist quality paint
• Signature palette, 15 whimsical colors
• Available in 2 oz. jars

These paints were amazing!! The color was SO intense and you only needed 1 light coat to get that vibrant color!! A MUST have paint!!



This is the paint I used in the flower make and take!

Well I hope I added to your shopping list and stayed tuned till tommorrow when I bring the next installment of CHA MUST HAVES!!!

TFL!
Valerie

Back from CHA!!!!

Well all I can say is it was a BLAST!! To walk around and take it all in was fabulous, and to stand there and watch Tim Holtz make some of his famous tags was indescribable!! I also got to meet Kim Hughs and see some of the adorable stamps she has coming out, the snowmen in the winter set are SOOO cute! (For those who don't know snowmen are my weakness!! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them!! I collect them!) All the new products that will be coming out is just AWESOME! To take in ALL the sights, do some make and takes, meet some MB members, and get to take part in the raffles for some AWESOME prizes was SO much fun! I was not a big winner in any of the raffles, but I did get spotted Sunday afternoon wearing my MM apron and got the last prize they were handing out- 2 packages of the new MM acrylic stamps and an acrylic block!! :) Here's the prize!

And I got these for being at the MM booth at 2:00 everyday for their drawing. On Sunday I was hanging around long enough afterwards and was lucky enough to get the Christmas 5x7 mini album too!

I also got some fun hand-outs from other booths as well! On Sunday while I was doing my BG make & Take we heard this train whistle, after a while a rep from Creative Imaginations came over and was handing out wooden Lionel train whistles-and I was lucky enough to get 2 for the boys which they LOVE! ATB was handing out key chains, Little Yellow Bicycle was throwing out prizes and I caught a package of decorative brads, Glitz gave us some rub-ons, Ribbonshouse (made in US only) gave us a pack of ribbon :) , some guy was handing out nail starters (a magnet that holds a nail while you hammer it into the wall)Then the make and takes were fun! First I did this fun little slider window (can't remember if that is the correct name of the product) sign with some of their new paper!

Then I went over to Ranger and saw a demo by Tim Holtz and did one of the make & takes there. It was this cute little flower made using Claudine Hellmuth sticky back canvas paper & acrylic paints, a MM brad, and my new favorite white pen- Ranger Inkessentials White Opaque pen!!! It writes like Butta!! LOVE IT!! The BEST white pen EVER!!!

Over at My Mind's Eye I made this little flower card using their new "Laundry Line" line. I also used their new stamps, buttons to match the line, and their new inks that coordinate to the different color lines (1 is pinks the other is blue/greens). At first I thought the inks were a great idea, but after using them I think they need to modify them some. The inks are shaped like Cat's Eye and were in a circle that you unsnap and the inks fan out a little bit, then you are suppose to be able to just lift out the color you need use it and set in back in. Well I could not get the ink out of the tray and in the whole process of getting them in/out I got ink ALL over my fingers from that one and the ones next to it! I wish I could find a pic to show, I thought it was a good idea at first, and but in the end I was not liking it at all! Here's the cute little card!

Then I went over to Maya Road and well I am in LOVE with a new product!! Maya Mists!!! Yes Maya Road now has their own version of Glimmer Mist! And I must say my initial thought was copy cats-I DON'T need this! Then I did their make & Take which was covering their chipboard shapes using the Maya Mists. I LOVE the way it sprays- even full coverage! It dried REALLY fast too! It was just amazing to me how well this spray worked! They sell plain colors and then they sell matallic colors if you want to add sparkle to your project! The 2 downsides to Maya Mist- they are water based so they are NOT as versatile as Glimmer Mist (NO acrylic usage), and they currently only have 8 regular colors and 3 metallic colors! The first side is using red and gold, and the second side is using blue and silver! I also did a piece using only the metallic spray.

The next is a make & take from Basic Grey it is a cute little chipboard notepad! This is made using their new Natural Granola line of paper and rub-ons. We also used their new chipboard that is in "Milk Chocolate Chip". I have never used BG rub-ons before and let me just say these were the EASIEST rub-ons I have EVER used!! Just went on like Butta!!! I also now know that I NEED their filing tool kit! I had LOTS of fun doing this one!My final project is not complete yet as I just did the basics and left the tedious job of assembling for home! I felt bad for people who waiting in line for almost an hour to make one, and I would rather be able to move on and do another make & take. So I took a picture for reference and to show you till I finish. This was one of the projects from Provo Craft a safari lunch box! It is made using Cuttle kids die cuts and the Cricut. I wish I could have gotten a second one so each boy could have one, but I think I would cry the first time it was trashed, so I think it will be mine! I think its stinkin' cute!! And worth the 45 minute wait!

Well this post has gotten to be SO long so I will put some of the many phots I took in a slide show. It was SO hard to choose what to show so here are just some highlights of yummy new products and cute projects! So here's a little show for you

I had SOOO much fun!! It was fun on Saturday to get to meet Sherry, Robert, Brenna, Krista and Jeff form Dixie Pieces! I also got to meet Kim and her daughter Jordan from Dixie Pieces as well! I also met up with Marci and she introduced me to Mary Jo and Lynn from I Am A Scrapaholic kits. It was fun hanging out with everyone on Saturday and then I went back on Sunday for some serious looking and make and taking! I wish I would have been able to go on Friday as well and do/see more! I am SAD to hear they will not be coming back to Chicago next year! But I am VERY glad I was able to have the opportunity to go this year and experience CHA! Thank you again to Sherry for the opportunity!

TFL!

Valerie

My Camera is BACK!!!!

Oh the little things in life that excite me!! Really my husband is a lucky guy, I am SO low maintenance!

So this morning as I am trying to get dressed the doorbell rings, of course as I am completely naked, so the boys starting squealing in delight wanting to know who was at the door! I hurry to throw something on and now the person is knocking on the door, so I yell out I'm coming! I open the door and there is a big box and a DHL man, as I am signing for a the package I notice the label-its the camera!!! YEAH!!! I have NO idea what was wrong, all I do know is it is FIXED!!! I must say that wasn't so bad of a wait, a little over a week! So now I can go back to snapping away! : )

So as promised I have some new LO's to show you!

The first one here is made with the Dixie Pieces January kit! A little something to cool you off in the heat of the summer! I SOOOO LOVE that kit!! I can't wait, I decided I NEED their June kit as well, so I will be ordering that VERY soon! Speaking of Dixie Pieces, just a reminder the first weekend in August will be another one of their AWESOME online crops, so be sure to come check it out! LOTS of fun!!!

I just added the glitter chipboard letters, the little clear snowflake embellies on the ribbon, the Heidi Grace rub-ons and the journaling sticker from Remarks. I also added some stickles to the snowflakes to help make them stand out more.This one is made from almost all of the Basic Grey Cupcake line of products, I just added the Making Memories journaling sheet and a clear Remarks journaling sticker. The letters were not standing out very well, so I decided to outline them with a green glaze pen, and did the same to the strip of paper on the right as well. Under the letters I used silver stickles to create some "bling".Here's a better pic of one I showed before, this one is Making Memories pp, Scenic Route/Heidi Grace letters, Jenni Bowlin ticket, Autumn Leaves button, and Scenic Route chipboard.

I have recently started posting on the Cricut.com message boards, and I have to say the ladies AND gents there are SUPER NICE people!! Everyone is ALWAYS giving a RAK to someone, or if they find a hot item everyone is looking for they will buy extra and give those away to people, or share things with someone who is looking for something-just SOOO generous! And I am excited to say I received my first RAK from Rachel (B&Wsmommy)!!! I just LOVE scrappy mail!! She knew I had 2 boys and sent the following to me!

I have an awesome RAK going out to 5boysRmine. I have to say this Cricut message board is VERY DANGEROUS!!! I have bought 2 cartridges REALLY cheap from ladies selling them on that board! Just bad, bad, bad!!! LOL!!! I have definitely learned some new things on that board and discovered some new items.

I CAN'T wait for tomorrow!!! Its crop night over at Hannah's!!! I haven't gone out to scrap since the last one they had on June 6th!!! It will be fun, but lonely-my friend/scrapping buddy is still on bedrest! Please keep her, the baby and all of her family in your thoughts. They have a long road ahead of them and I hope next week when she goes for her ultrasound they get LOTS of good news! She has a 3 1/2 year old who has been bouncing between family members each day as she can't take care of him. Tough times for everyone, but I hope that they get good news next week and continue getting good news till the end in December! I will have one of my scrapping buddies with me, so I won't be alone. I have LOTS to get done tomorrow too! I hope to at the very least get the album I am working on for my friend who just got married done! She got married in May in Florida and the reception is in August and the shower is on Sunday. I am just hoping I get the pics I ordered online in time!! YIKES!!

Well naptime has just ended, so I am back on the clock!

TFL!
Valerie

I've Got A Golden Ticket, I've Got A Golden Ticket...

To Summer CHA 2008!!!!!! I am SOOOO EXCITED!!! The wonderful Ms. Sherry over at Dixie Pieces has offered to "hook me up" with a pass!! I feel like a little kid waiting for Christmas to come! All the new scrappy goodies to look at, the stars of scrapbooking to meet, and of course the pen and paper taking notes of all the goodies I will have to get!!! I have never been to CHA, so I have NO idea what to expect, except to feel overwhelmed by the miles of scrappy goodness!!! : ) It is going to be held in Rosemont which is a quick 30 minute ride from my house, so I can't wait to get in on the fun, and maybe get to meet some of the people from the message boards! I hope I have my camera back by then! No news on the camera yet, so I am hoping the old saying no news is good news applies here!

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend! Ours was definitely action packed! Thursday we went to the Schaumburg flyers game/fireworks-they lost, Friday we went to the Chicago White Sox game/fireworks-they lost, Saturday we went to my parents' condo in Fox Lake- 1 hour trip turned into 2, took us 1 hour to go 3 miles!! Sunday the boys played in the pool in the backyard with 2 of their friends, and today we went to the zoo with my girlfriend Sheila! Can you say EXHAUSTED!!!!??? And I'm not quite sure who is more exhausted the boys or me!! It was fun to be busy and have things to do, but I am drained! It will be nice to stay in tomorrow, because then the craziness will start again! Friday night I am going to Hannah's to scrapbook-YEAH I haven't gone out to scrap since June 6th!! I haven't had anytime WITHOUT the boys since that night either!! Saturday we will either go to Beanie Baby day at the zoo or go see Diego at Kiddie Land, and Sunday I have a bridal shower for my girlfriend Cara who got married on the beach in Florida in May-which I need to go this week to get the present and I need to finish a project I am working on for her too! This is REALLY a CRAZY summer!! The following week is CHA and I have a graduation party, the next week ANOTHER bridal shower and my grandpa's birthday and the very next day he goes back to the hospital to HOPEFULLY have his colon reconnected! YIKES!! And August is looking to be just as busy!

It is crazy as I am sitting here at my computer out of the corner of my eye I can see a MASSIVE electrical storm going on! All I see is the sky continually lighting up, and it has been going on for a while now! There is a BIG storm just to the north of me, and we are suppose to be getting a SEVERE storm overnight! I wish I had my camera to capture this! Its neat and scary all at the same time! I am a BIG wimp!!! I HATE storms!!! WOW this looks like it is getting pretty close, I think I should call it a night on my computer and shut down for the night just in case!

Have A Good Night!
Valerie

This SUCKS!!!

So last year my camera broke in May and I had to wait till the end of July to get a new one! It sucked having to use a disposable till I could get a new one, and even WORSE was the 4th of July without a camera!! When I finally did get a new camera it was the BEST!!! LOVED EVERYTHING about it!! So now fast forward to present day, 4th of July fast approaching and thinking of all the GREAT shots I am going to get this year FINALLY!! Right? WRONG!!! My camera BROKE!!!! I was devastated when I got the message from Kodak saying you will need to send your camera in for repairs! Then it is just under the 1 year warranty (thank god!) but I need a receipt for proof-darn I don't have that!! But wait I did buy it online at Best Buy...hmmm...maybe...YES they keep your transactions online for 1 year!!! :) Now I am happy and sad at the same time! I have to send my camera in to Kodak for repair that SHOULD be covered, but now I am without a camera for 2 WEEKS!!! ARGH!!! What is a scrapper to do without a camera?? SO many things going on the next couple days and I have to go buy some nasty disposables if I want to capture the moments at all!! This SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS!!! So NO pics from me for a while! :( And last night I found 4 LO's I NEVER took pics of and posted, plus I should be finished in a couple days with a project I am working on and I can't wait to share it with you guys!!! Did I mention that this SUCKS??? LOL, well sort of!

Tonight we are taking the boys to see their first Schaumburg Flyers baseball game (they are a Northern league professional baseball team minutes from my house) they will be having fireworks after the game which the boys are going to love! Then tomorrow is the BIG ONE!! We are HUGE Chicago White Sox fans in our house, so we will be going to the game tomorrow night and seeing fireworks tomorrow too! This will be the boys second White Sox game and they have been asking dh everyday since baseball began when are we going! We had told them we needed to buy tickets and we don't have any tickets to go yet, so they always tell us that THEY have tickets to go! Yesterday was SO cute as they were playing with their cars and saying that their cars had tickets to go to the White Sox game so they were going to the game! They have NO idea about either baseball game yet, so it will be exciting to see their faces light up with joy!

Saturday I believe the plan is to go up to my parent's condo for fireworks on the lake, which is ALWAYS fun!

No I STILL don't have any idea about Hannah's Design Team. STILL WAITING!

Have a Great 4th Everyone and see you next week...unless I hear some news before then!
TFL!
Valerie

STILL Waiting!!!!

Can I just say the suspense is KILLING me!!! I am like a little kid waiting for Christmas morning to come! The voting for Design Team at Hannah's ended on Sunday, so now I am just waiting to hear the results!


Well I have been too busy/tired this weekend to get any scrapping time in! : ( But we have been busy making "scrapbook moments"! I have a TON of new pictures to be downloaded, edited, printed! We renewed our membership to the Brookfield zoo, so we went on Sunday and had a good time till it started to rain and get chilly! The boys were SOO excited to go to the zoo and see all the animals in real life! They both said their favorite animal was the rhinoceros! He was very close to the edge and walking around, which they loved! Then as were taking out last potty break before we went home dh surprised the boys and bought them each a stuffed snake! They loved them SO much they slept with them in the car on the way home!

Yesterday we went to IKEA with one of my friends and her little boy, and I got a REAL TREAT!! IKEA has a kid's play area that kids between a certain height can play in for 1 hour for FREE! I had heard about it from my neighbor, but NEVER let the boys go in. Well we walked in right behind a family going there and they heard and wanted to go too! After making sure Nicholas was going to be big enough I asked the boys if they really wanted to do it and told them I would not be there. They could care less about me!! They NEVER looked back once they were told they could go! I was sad they didn't even say goodbye to me! But let me tell you 1 hour of shopping without them was UNBELIEVABLE!!! I NEVER get to shop child FREE so this was a treat!! 1 hour goes a lot FASTER than you would think! I was worried about them not wanting to leave and giving the ladies a hard time, but they came right out and were good! They LOVED getting to jump into the ball pit! They did confess that they got in trouble for throwing the balls! Gotta love the honesty! And I was informed Joseph went potty while there. I am SURE it was just to check out the bathroom! He takes after my grandfather and wants to go potty in EVERY store we go to!! Annoying! But I have figured out that is his game and I don't allow him to go in EVERY store now, and knock on wood he hasn't had an accident from not going either!



And lastly some eye candy. Here is one of my LO's I was working on last week and finally got a picture taken of it! The other one I did last week I have decided to enter into the Guest Design Team contest at Back Porch Memories, so you'll have to go there and find it in the August Guest Design Team folder. You'll NEVER believe its mine!! Its a girl LO!!! I used a picture of my niece Susan when she was in for a visit in April! ARGH!!!! I just went to retake one of the pics as it didn't come out well and now my LESS than 1 year old camera isn't working!!! It turned on the lens came out and turned off!!! I just put new batteries in, but tried new just in case!! NO LUCK!! So now the lens is out and the camera won't turn on!!!! Its ALWAYS something!!! Now I hope I can get this figured out!! So here is the bad unedited pic and hopefully I can fix my camera problem now!!!

TFL!!

Valerie