The kids are BACK TO SCHOOL

...as of Wednesday!! I just haven't had a chance to post the pictures I took--been BUSY!

So I figured I'd just post now.......Gosh how they're GROWING!

Here's our 'Beauty'! It's hard to believe she's already in

8th Grade!

And of course, my little man-Sammo.

Big 2nd Grader this year!

And a nice picture of them together........and BOTH of them are even smiling!

They weren't hitting each other, talking about the other one, teasing, bothering etc, etc.........

Yes! OF COURSE Nikki was MORTIFIED that I would even THINK to take a picture once the bus actually arrived. But I did anyways. She survived and I thought it would make a good scrapbook page. :)

A few cards.....

Yesterday I had the pleasure of going to my bestest friend Katrina's house! We'd planned to get together as soon as the kids got off to school and stamp and play all day. HOWEVER, I am the world's WORST pack and stamper. I do SO much better at home with my stuff....what I KNOW I have. It's SO NOT that my stuff is better (Katrina!) just that I KNOW what I have and I NEVER seem to bring what I need....I always bring what I THINK I'll use but for some reason it doesn't usually turn out to be WHAT I actually want once I'm there---WHEREVER 'there' is. We had a good time and I got some base cards made up. I couldn't sleep this morning so, instead of just staying in bed thinking about a gazillion different things I figured I may as well get up and do SOMETHING. That 'something' ended up being the cards I started yesterday at Kat's. So, here they are:

This is one of the first ones I worked on. I used some more of that My Minds Eye paper.

I cut out the circles from one of the papers and just added some glitter glue stuff to them for a little sparkle.

Again, more of My Mind's Eye paper..........>I think the flash was too bright here...but it's the only picture I took of this card soooo----

These two cards are SO similar. We got the idea from a Card's Creations magazine. Of course, I used the same My Mind's Eye paper but look at how, similar yes, but different the cards are. LOVE the paper. Love the colors.

I have a few other bases to finish up. Part of one is drying---(liquid glass) so once I put it together I'll post it as well......I have another 2 bases also so I'm going to HOPE to do something with them today too. So, check back and see what I've come up with!

Until then---Happy Stamping, scrapping or just PLAYING!

Smiles!

Two cards for tonight......

I was busy today trying to clean up and organize my scrap room a bit......it's better but still needs work. What I NEED is someone to come organize all my stuff for me!!

Anyways---this is what I worked on tonight.....

This one is actually a 're-vamp' from what I did the other day. I just wasn't overly happy with it. I'm really not THRILLED with it now but it's better than it was. It still looks like it's missing something.....I just can't quite put my finger on it yet.......maybe I should have just put the guys fishing up further.....

This next one didn't work quite as I'd envisioned it but it'll work for me. I used that My Minds Eye paper (the deal from COSTCO---see earlier post) and Vintage Father's Day (CTMH-C1239). I used chocolate ink and paper and heavenly blue paper. The brads are just big brads I picked up a LONG time ago from JoAnns.

Thanks for taking a look!

Today is Thursday...

...and MY THIRD day of 'vacation'!!
The 'boys' talked me into going fishing this morning. I don't know if 'talked me into going fishing' is really as accurate as maybe guilted me into going fishing but.....

...fishing I went.

Really........it WAS fun.




LOOK at this SKY!!! I just thought it was BEAUTIFUL!!!!

THIS is part of the gift for being up SO early in the morning!












....I'm ALWAYS a SUCKER for these reflection pics- SO, I HAD to include this one! :)













And here's Samuel PATIENTLY waiting for SOMETHING to hit his line!











Actually it wasn't TOO long before he got a hit. They threw the first one back.....too small for their liking.....so REALLY this was fish #2 but the first 'keeper'. It was only 2 pounds but Samuel wanted to keep it so keep it we did!


















And here we have Keeper #2---a five pounder. Joe was happy with him.






They weren't having as good luck as they USUALLY do. I suggested that perhaps it was ME and that maybe I SHOULDN'T go again!!




REALLY I don't mind going........

WHAT I DO mind is having to get up at 4:00 in the morning and sitting on ROCKS! Grrrrr! WHY didn't I think to bring a chair?? Hmmmmmmmm, I dunno. But I can Guar-UN-TEE you I WILL remember NEXT TIME!
I brought a BUNCH of scrapbooking and card making magazines (OF COURSE the NEW! CTMH catty) and looked through them. I brought my camera, OF COURSE, BUT, my batteries were low. I KNEW they were low so got my charger but I couldn't put my hands on the little do-hickie thing that plugs into the car and then you can plug regular plug things into.....It WASN'T in my van and I THOUGHT it was in the truck. Joe couldn't find it................so I had to be picky with WHAT I took-NOT something I LIKE to have to do. Wouldn't you know Joe FOUND the stupid thing as we were packing up to leave?! NO KIDDING!!








THIS would be keeper fish #3. Yes, another small one but at this point I was getting tired of sitting on the rocks, I'd been through ALL my magazines at least once and I was about ready to go home. Samuel wanted to keep this one anyways so...........we kept him.












Then Sammo caught this little 'beauty'....heehee.

This sucker fish kept sneaking out from under a rock by where we were sitting. Samuel and I kept watching him darting out and scaring the itty bitty baby fishes. We moved a couple of feet away...to ANOTHER hard rock....Samuel threw his line in and after a bit Joe told him to just reel it in....Samuel said he thought he felt some tugging on it and low and behold when he pulled it out here was this little sucker fish! TOO FUNNY.


Here's a better view of him................................>




Their limit is 2 fish each-I don't have a license so I don't count. We left with only 3 fish today but they just weren't biting and Momma Bear was getting tired. I think Papa Bear was getting tired of no biting fish too.......so we on headed home!





WHAT a morning!

I ended up having to send Samuel to his room for not listening after we got home. I've been having issues with him the last few days NOT doing what he's told so off to his room he goes. After about 10 minutes things got REAL quiet so I went to check him.........


POOR guy! He was TUCKERED right OUT!
He's STILL sleeping!! See what an early morning of fishing will do to a little boy!! :)




Well, that was OUR fun for the morning. NOW to get those pictures uploaded to shutterfly!!

One more card for tonight......

Samuel had SO much fun playing with me the other day......we were practicing the 'polished stone' technique--and I MEAN practicing. It was SUPER fun though. I only had the platinum planet reinker so when we went to Wenatchee yesterday I told him we were going to look for other metalic reinkers. I found the Precious Metals by Inkabilities AND it was on SALE ($9.79). I spoke with one of the associates and she said it should work just fine so I decided to just get it. Don't you know he's been asking to use them ALL day so finally after dinner tonight I told him we'd play. In all our excitement we TOTALLY forgot to even USE the metalic inks!! LOL HOW silly is that! He made some cool papers. THEN he wanted to stamp something.......and then of course we HAD to make it into a card. Again, I used some of the NEW papers I got. (LOVE 'EM!!!) and we just threw together this card real quick. The colors in the flower REALLY are prettier in person but oh well!! :)

Paper, Paper and MORE Paper!!

Yesterday we were in Wenatchee......I had my FINAL! WOOHOO! That would mean that I am on BREAK until the 17th of Sept!! Did I say WOOHOO??!!!!!

We had to make the ever dreaded COSTCO run.....BUT! LOOK what I found!

Paper, paper and MORE paper! Just what I, really DIDN'T need, BUT OH! SOOOOO wanted! It's called My Mind's Eye and it's Two 180 page books of paper. Three each of 60 unique Magnolia designs and 3 each of 60 unique Wild Asparagus designs. I think I LOVE about ALL of the Magnolia papers......

Here are a few pictures of SOME of my favorites:

Oh! And the BEST part! ALL of this paper for just $9.99! Did you know that comes out to about $.03/sheet!!

I couldn't WAIT to get up this morning and play with them. I ONLY had time for ONE card as I had a few things to get done today.........One being a MUCH needed haircut. I'll try to post a pic of that later. Noone here really likes it....but more on that later on..............

Anyways- Here's the card I made before my little man woke from his slumber........

I went to Beate's blog this am. She has the CUTEST card Christmas card there. I kindasorta used the same type idea but not really....It was my intention.....it just didn't work that way.

I used some of my new papers and Cocoa (CTMH). My Dad has been on my mind today, ALL day, so I made this card up for him. I liked that there were some really nice masculine papers in those books.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to play some more tonight--who knows. I'm thinking I am going to have a BETTER chance of playing when the kids go back to school and Joe goes back to work--BOTH next week!!! Cleaning and playing that's what I'll be doing!!

Enjoy the rest of your Tuesday!

Before I head off to bed.....

...I figured I'd post these last 3 cards......

After I posted the other photos I pulled out some reinkers that I've never opened either--some Adirondak inks--and started playing. I've been wanting to try the polished stone and just never took the time. SO play I did!! If you've never done it...DO!! It's addicting though-at least it was for me. I wanted to see all the different creations I could come up with. After a while I pulled out my CTMH re-inkers too. FUN, FUN, FUN!! Samuel came in, shortly after I'd finished, and HE wanted to 'play' too. Somehow I managed to talk him into tomorrow. -I'd already put everything away!! I also played around with spritzing the glossy paper and then dropping ink from the reinkers on. THAT was FUN too!!! SO, now I have all these colored papers waiting for images to be stamped on them!



I DID make up a few cards though. I used a sketch idea from Beate's blog ( http://beate.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/).
If you've never made it over to HER site-GO! As quickly as you can. She is AMAZING! I just LOVE her artwork (and sketch ideas)!! She's a very talented lady that's for sure!







I really shouldn't have taken this picture so head on as the sparklies caused it to glare a bit too much but you get the idea.
AND, I think if I'd realized it before I'd already stuck it all down, I would have used a different ribbon under the pink one. It brought out the yellow in the other butterfly but this butterfly was done with different colors-no yellow! Oh well.....too late now!

I just LOVE this layout.

FINALLY!

I have to thank Aura and Kris for inspiring me!! I got together with them yesterday after our test. Aura was helping Kris to put together, what turned out to be, THE SWEETEST poem/picture/collage for Kris' daughter--she's getting married in Sept. The poem was SOOO sweet and Aura is AMAZING! It turned out BEAUTIFUL! Anyways! It turned out we HAD (heehee) to go to the Craft Warehouse to pick up a few things for Kris' project-ahem...and a few little things for me too!!!! But, I'll get to that later.......................
All that playing REALLY got me into the mood so guess where I've been most of the day so far? Yeppers! In my, as Joe likes to call it, 'Scrap-n-Crap' room!
First I had to come in this morning to clean off the tables. UGH! I had school stuff, papers, stamps, tools, etc, etc...from the LAST time I tried to play scattered all over the tables.

I got MOST of it picked up and put away and then decided to PLAY!! I started using a retired, Stampin' Up set called Simply Circles.

I TOTALLY lifted this card from splitcoaststampers:

I wasn't AS pleased with mine as I was with the one I saw there--and my apologizes......darned if I can find who originally did this one! I went back and looked and looked and can't find it. It's there SOMEWHERE.

I used CTMH paper and stamps: Chocolate, Cocoa and Crystal Blue.

Using the same stamp set I did these up:

Again, I used CTMH papers and ink--
Colors and Ink= Watermelon, Orange and of

course Black. I just LOVE these colors together.

Something on the splitcoaststampers site inspired

me to do one of the resist techniques where you

first stamp with the versamark and then with a

cottonball rub chalk over the card. I love this

technique. It's just FUN!

This was one of the first cards I did. I wasn't real happy with how the small circles stamped out on the watermelon but oh well. I wasn't SUPER crazy about this one. It needed something.........

SO-After I took THIS picture, I added some ribbon............

Waddayathink?? Better??

I thought so.

I like it MUCH better with the little bit of white, organdy ribbon-CTMH of course! :)

This is a card I actually DID make last weekend. It was a QUICKIE and I didn't have a chance to post it. I DO like how it turned out. It's a SU set-Watercolor Garden. I LOVE it. -I say that about MOST of my sets don't I?! --Well, I guess that's a GOOD thing! I random stamped a piece of white cardstock using Cranberry and I THINK it was buttercup and Garden Green (CTMH ink and cardstock). All I did for the tag was cut out a flower from the random stamped page and used my tag maker thingy (Making Memories) to MAKE it into a tag. It is SO simple but I love it! I feel like it COULD use something in the bottom right hand corner but I can't think of what and then I'm afraid it would be too much. Suggestions are welcome.

So these are a few of the stamps I picked up yesterday-one of those 'few little things for me'.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE 'em but I'm not quite so sure what I'm going to do with them SO--PLEASE---if you have ANY suggestions.....PLEASE DO share in the comments section--OR you could email me.

Aura actually reminded me of the Twinkling H2O's I have. I think I bought them 2 years ago or so......anyways, don't you know I'd NEVER even opened the package!! SO, this am I broke 'em out and started playing with them but I wasn't really all that excited about them so my guess is I'm using them wrong! Any suggestions or ideas for those would be greatly appreciated too!!

Well, I guess that's all for now. I'm going to hope to 'play' for a while longer. Keep checking back to see what else I come up with.

I have OODLES of pictures to scrap also. While I was gone this week our pictures from the lake came in so I'm going to HOPE to get some of them done too! We'll see.

Until next time........

Happy scrappin' and stampin'!

FUN at the Lake!!!

We went to the lake yesterday (Lake Osooyos)with our friends-Tony and Katrina and their kidlets Luke and Tori. Nikki didn't go as she had a previous lake day engagement with some friends (her loss!! JK-I know she had a good time too--just NOT as good a time as US! teeheehee!)-- so it was just me, Joe and Samuel. We had SUCH a good time!! We had FUN but even more so just really enjoyed spending the day with good friends!! :) We've all been SO busy and haven't really had any time to spend together.

Poor Tori stepped on a bee and was stung (OUCH!) before we went out on the boat. Poor thing.
Joe and Luke were QUITE the clowns out on the tube.

Like Katrina said, "They look like they're playing twister out there." And they did. Little dare devils jumping around, kneeling, posing and being crazy!! :)

Go'in for a little dip to cool off!!

Just LOOK at those purty tootsies!!>

And what a pretty color too!! :)

And of course.......here's my little man!

Nikki told me how she liked this picture of Samuel so I just HAD to include it. It was SO nice to hear Nikki actually compliment a picture of HER BROTHER. They fight like cats and dogs most of the time anymore so it really was heart warming to hear her make such a nice comment.

So guess what??? You guessed it! NO creating for me yet AGAIN this weekend! I forfeited my creating time for a WONDERFUL day FULL of fun at the Lake with AWESOME friends. It was worth it! The added bonus?? I now have MORE pictures-errr, I mean memories to scrapbook!

Next weekend is MINE!!!!

PS

I forgot to mention....
My mom called right after I got home tonight. She was going through her new catty and it turns out she found Samuel on YET ANOTHER page!!! Page 81 bottom left hand corner!!

Look at my Baby......

If this isn't just one of the cutest pictures!

I let Samuel sleep in my bed with me last weekend while I was home. I woke up one morning and this is how he was sleeping. How precious is this?! Him and his 'bunny'-he sleeps with him EVERY night.

SO, I am home for another weekend. I got MOST of my paperwork finished this week in hopes it will free up some of my weekend time for 'crafting'. Will it work out?? Check back later this weekend and see! ;)

I was blog blocked!

I couldn't believe it! When I went to post the other day there was my notice....that I'd been blocked. I'm unblocked now.
I didn't create ANYTHING this weekend! :( I MAY get a chance to do something this weekend coming-we'll see. I'm going to PLAN on getting the rest of my paperwork for Monday done this week so I'll have free weekend play time. THEN, one more week, one test, my final and I have a MONTH!! YIPPEE!
This summer quarter sure is flying right on by!!
I'll hope to have something to share this weekend.....
-S

This is where I live...

This is what I see when I come home each week and it is when I see this that I am reminded, of one of the reasons, we live here. I just don't EVER tire of this sight!

It was ANOTHER BUSY week this week and I'm just SO glad it's over!! Two more weeks to go!!

I'm HOPING to maybe JUST MAYBE get some kind of chance to create, if even just a little, this weekend. I have (94) NEW pics from Shutterfly that arrived this week while I was gone....we'll see how far I get! I'm thinking if I out my 'ole trusty and true Cherish book I COULD be done in NO time. We'll see. Check back in and see how far I end up getting! Until then............................................................