I know, I know........'WHO are YOU again???'

I've been 'gone' for sometime now......

gone meaning........away from crafting and creating.

But.......I'm trying to come back. And TODAY is the first day.....

So here's some of what I worked on today:

I'm going the whole Secret Santa/Sister thing at work. I thought it would be FUN!!! I still think it will be!!! AND it's going to HELP me to get back into 'creating'!

This is gift #1 for my Secret Sister.

It's just a bag of Limited Edition Dark Peppermint Truffles. Just a little something.......

I have my first 3 days planned......possibly 4....it's that 5th day that's giving me a hard time!!! LOL

Blogger is really giving me a hard time today. Perhaps it's because I haven't used it in so long?!?!

So--I apologize for the disorganization of this post. Hopefully, the next picture you see is of some cute little Mistletoe Pixies (Stampendous!) I got them last year, I think, and decided today to play with them.......they're not made into a card yet......just stamped, colored in and blended with OMS and stickles...planning to add some 'fuzz' to his pom pom and boots. First I've gotta find the 'fuzz'!! :)

This candle is just a WalMart candle. I hot glued some cinnamon sticks to it, added some ribbon, WILL add some greens and IT will be my Secret Sister's #3 gift!! Gift #2 is just going to be a CUTE Christmas mug with some peppermint hot cocoa and a mini holiday cake. Mmmmmm.

This is just a little card I made today....$1 stamps from Craft Warehouse I'm SURE!!

That's all I have for today!

But......it's SOMETHING!!! :)

Oh!! ALMOST forgot to mention........I received my FIRST Skipping Stones Deesign stamps yesterday! I CAN'T WAIT to play with them!! HOPEFULLY tomorrow!

I'll post!!

Ciao!

Witches Brew, spiders, bats and.........

My dear, sweet friend Erin suggested I post these pictures on my blog. WHAT AN IDEA!!

Honestly......I think half the time I FORGET I even HAVE a blog anymore!!! It's been SO long since I posted.....Feb or April....NO WONDER I don't remember!!!

Well, shame on me and a BIG THANK YOU to Erin for reminding me........... :)
October 31 is Brandi Louise's birthday.

Her REAL name is NOT Brandi Louise but it's what I call her. :)

And she's NOT EVEN one of my kids.......though I like to call her my own..

AND here, at this house, we LOVE US some Brandi Louise!!!! :)

This weekend is OUR birthday weekend with her and I can't wait for it to get here. What are we going to do?? Not 100% sure YET but you CAN be sure that if she's involved it WILL be FUN!!!! :)

I'd seen those cute little books at the $1 Spot in Target and KNEW I had to get one...or two.....I mean come on! For a BUCK?!?!?! :)

Originally I thought I'd SOMEHOW make up a birthday card for

Miss. Brandi-Louise using the book.....it just wasn't workin' for me. SO.....I decided to go with a little scrap book. They're just SIMPLE pages, what I'm ALL about these days, and she can fill it from pics from whatever she likes. I'm not sure if they're going to get dressed up or go "Trick or Treating" this year or not.........

Anyways............

This is the front of the book:

Page ONE

Pages TWO and THREE

FOUR and FIVE

See....SiMPLE!!!

SIX and SEVEN

EIGHT and NINE....and so on and so forth............

And THIS is a card my sweet, sweet friend Lainey Lou sent me. I hadn't been feeling well and she sent me card to help make me feel better. That was SO nice of you Laines!!!!

I LOVE YOU GIRL!!

12X12 pages....

One page of I THINK what is going to actually turn out to be THREE. GASP!!! Nikki's last Bday party with her friends in Ca. Not THE BEST layout NO DOUBT but it's DONE!!! And she'll like it. I KNOW she'll want all these pics. It IS for her after all.....

SIMPLE, SIMPLE!!!

Page 2 of 2

Joe and I have fun hiding eggs for the kids on Easter. This year I didn't get extra candy--like they need it anyways...so we put little trinkets from around the house in the eggs....Nikki got a BP keychain. LOL

Easter Page one of 2.....

I KNOW I'm backwards tonight....I uploaded the pics first and did them backwards....work with me tonight huh?! :)

Page 2 of 2

Page one (left side page) of a two page layout.....what I'm TRYING to get away from...

I have a bit to finish up here.....like a lot....need to journal and probably add some type of embellishment.....any suggestions?

Sammo playing inside some storage boxes. This was way BACK when we lived in Ca....

Gosh these pics make me SMILE!

He was such a little boy!

Samuel and his best friend Riley.....last year. I just HAPPENED to be outside to get these pics......LOVE 'em!

Samuel's 'Treasure Leg'. The story behind these pics......

I'd JUST come home from class a few years back and Sammo was talkin', talkin', talkin from the moment I stepped inside the door. I was half paying attention to him....just getting home, dinner time, long day etc, etc.... Finally....I get down the stairs and I ask him, 'What? Samuel WHAT do you need???' When he responds, "LOOK Momma! It's my treasure leg. And 'X' marks that spot!!" I looked down and YES, indeed, he'd made himself a treasure leg complete with 'X' marking the spot. HOW could I be mad....even though he'd written ALL up and down his leg? Nope! I whipped out my camera and took some pics!!! What a memory! :)

So...this is ONE of those pages that needs some finishing too....Looking for some of those lightweight gold coins....we had some around here SOMEWHERE.....of COURSE NOW that I'm looking for ANY.....nope! Can't find a ONE!!!!

Alright well I DO work in the am so I'm going to bed NOW.........

Thanks for stopping by. I KNOW it's been FOREVER since my last post. Just been SO busy!!!

I'm kinda feeling 'back in the groove' now and I'm REALLY feeling the DESIRE to scrapbook again so HOPEFULLY I'll be a little more consistent with my postings.

Have a GREAT week!!!

-S

Scrapbook Retreat

I went to a FABULOUS Scrapbook Retreat last weekend. I've been SO SUPER busy since I got back that I haven't had a chance to think about, much less post, pictures of what I got accomplished. I certainly didn't complete as many pages as some of the other girls BUT I had to take care of a few things while I was there AND my husband had JUST returned (the first day of the retreat) from being gone for a month so he came down and stayed in the room with me the second night. :)

I promised Lainey I would post them today. I'm a girl of my word......so here goes......YES! It is 9:38 PM and Lainey is PROBABLY headed to bed if she isn't there yet BUT the day isn't over for me quite yet!! :)

Some of the pages DO need some finishing touches.....that is ONE of the things about being ANYWHERE aside from my OWN studio.....I never know what ALL to bring......SO yes.....I need to finish a few things up.

Right now I'm finishing up a 12X12 album for both Nikki and Samuel so I have some 12X12 pages BUT I also picked up an inexpensive 8X8 album ($7 at Walmart-last one!) and decided I was going to use it for ME....just those pics I probably have doubles of that will go in the kids' book but that I want too. So I worked on some of those........

Looks like blogger isn't going to cooperate with me tonight so I'll post the 8X8's first and put the 12X12's in the next post.

I am going VERY simple these days. LONG GONE are the days of spending hours on a page. I am TOO far behind and have TOO many pages to scrapbook!!

This is my handsome husband! This picture was taken...geesh I can't remember either last summer or the summer before.

SIMPLE or WHAT?!?

Man, I LOVE this man!!! :)Me and 'Beans'.

This picture was taken a FEW years ago....she and I went to see Kenny Chesney in Spokane.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this paper!!!

I LOVE this picture. One of the few of just me and her.

Teeheeehee.....

Joe's and Sammo....Sammo was SO little then. I did a 12X12 pretty much the SAME thing except for where the green rub on is here there on the other it says, Like Father Like Son. Just LOOK at those crazy looks! LOL

My Beans......

Easter a few years ago. My GOSH!! LOOK at how YOUNG she looks!!! Her hair was SO long.....I think it makes her look even younger!!

Ahhhhh......My DEAR Sweet friend Pat, and her new husband George, Pat, who is also Sammo's Godmother. I LOVE this woman!!

I didn't do any journaling....she sent me the pics....I wasn't there......

This is the last of the 8X8's....

I have a few finishing touches to add to this page....just didn't have a few of the things I wanted to use there.

Anyways.....this is my friend Jan. We used to work together....some of us got together for her birthday to celebrate....

Looking at the layout now........again......I think I WILL add some journaling.

Anyways.......those are my 8X8 pages. I'll see if Blogger is going to play nice so I can add the rest!!

PICTURE CHALLENGE

The 6th Picture Challenge...

I've been challenged by LAINEY!!!! (I {heart} you Lainey!!!!)
These are the challenge instructions:
•Go to your photo folder in your computer.
•Go to the 6th folder of the photos.
•Go to the sixth picture.
•Put the picture on your blog and description of it.
•Invite six friends to join the challenge.
•Link them in your blog and let them know they have been challenged!

Of ALL the places I'd be somewhat 'organized' it WOULD have to be my pictures. UGH. They're all organized by year and then month.....

SO, this is my picture!

It's from a few weeks back when I went ice fishing with Joe. This is him, drilling one of the holes. Good time.

SO....I tag:

* Laurie @ Live, Love, Laugh, Create

* Rachelle @ The Ink Boutique (just because I haven't heard from her in a while)

* Aura @ Aura of Design (because I REALLY haven't heard from HER in a while!!)

* Katrina @ Kindred Thoughts and Things (because I'm wondering if she even REMEMBERS HOW to blog?!?) :)

* Peggy @ Colour du jour

and...........

* Courtney @ Created by Courtney

Or course just because you're name doesn't appear here....FEEL FREE to consider yourself tagged!! :)

Charlene's Birthday Card

This is the birthday card I came up with for one of the girls at work, Charlene. Interestingly enough, I was inspired by one of the other girls' scrub tops.
Charlene was off all week last week, her birthday week, and just returned to work today. She liked it. I was pretty pleased with it too. :)

Materials Used:
Misc black cardstock, Daisy White CS (CTMH), misc hot
pink cardstock
True Black ink (CTMH), Bubblegum ink (CTMH)
Time Well Spent stamp set (SU!),, Birthday Blossoms (Stampendous)
Stickles-Star Dust

Samuel's Valentine's

I SO snagged this idea from

Laurie over at Just Give Me Stamps. If you've never visited her blog....GO!!! OH MY GOSH!! Her artwork is AMAZING!!! Hers are a little more involved. I needed a little simpler and easier. Most of my paper is scraps-which explains the varying colors of pink, for the girls of course. I embossed the cardstock with one of my cuttlebug folders punched the white strip with a MS punch adhered it all and added riboon. I worked on them today at lunch so I didn't have to worry about finishing them all tonight. (Samuel has to have his Valentine's turned in tomorrow....and NO candy this year....why we went for pencils!!) I think they came out pretty cute! I'm pleased. :)

I STILL have a birthday card, or TWO or THREE.....or more......to get done. Maybe tomorrow??? Have a GREAT week!!!

Sympathy Card

A sympathy card for my friend Katrina. Katrina's Aunt passed away last week and the services are today. Please say a prayer for Katrina and her family. She/They were very close to her Aunt Dorothy and I know she will be missed greatly.

Paper: Fancy Pants and CTMH(Twilight, Cranberry, Naturals) Inks: CTMH (Twilight, Cranberry, Golden Ember, Garden Green, Black) Ribbon: CTMH (Ivory) Stickles (XMas Red, Turquoise) Stamps: CTMH ?? Name?? OLD WOODIES set BUT my ALL TIME FAVORITE!!! and With Sympathy by Great Impressions

LOOK at what I got!!!!

First of all........

THANK YOU PEGGY!!!!!

Do I EVER feel SPOILED!!! :)

Peggy dropped this GORGEOUS bag off to me this evening!!!

If you remember I'd won it in Peggy's Comment Contest a while back but it wasn't quite finished....

It was SO WORTH the wait!!!!!!

I CAN'T WAIT to start using it now!!!!!

I ran into Peggy early today at their store here in town, I was buying some ingredients I needed for dinner.

I only wish I'd gotten a picture of Peggy at the door handing it to me now. LOL

Isn't it beautiful??!?!

You should only just see it IN PERSON!!

And the INSIDE!!!!

You MUST go to Peggys blog at Colour de Jour.

She has WAY better pictures posted. You have to scroll down a bit but they're there. I PROMISE!! :)

Thank You! Thank You! Thank You Peggy!!

I LOVE it!!!!