(diva)logues

Monday... FUN day...

We had a blast over the weekend... lots of fun with family & friends on Friday & Saturday night!  Well... minus the part when Mizzou lost, that is.  The weather has also been fabulous around here, even though we also had a huge spring-like thunderstorm over the weekend.  This "winter" has been unseasonably warm and I love it.  Snow is nice around the holidays, but I don't need it during this time of year!  I'm ready for fun in the sun right now! 

So... with warm weather outside, it was the inspiration I needed to get around to doing something with these zoo photos we took at the end of last summer.  It's a mix of mostly new product I've recently received..."Caribbean" twine from The Twiney (more on them soon!), KI Memories "Hot Date"paper & letter stickers, Nikki Sivils "Audrey" border strips, SRM Stickers flower border sticker, Dear Lizzy chipboard pieces, a couple other random scraps of paper AND 2 old, old, old (did I say old?) animal stickers (Me & My Big Ideas... I think??  Lost the packaging)...        

Hope your St. Patrick's Day weekend was a blast.  No one got pinched around here... we were all wearing our GREEN!

It's Monday... my fun day, Zumba day!  Woot wooot! 

Hope you have a FABULOUS week, everyone!

"On Friday night... I'm sorry, I'm booked..."

As planned, I have continued with my quest to use photos from earlier this year.  And with the weirdly warm 60-degree weather we had yesterday, it doesn't seem too inappropriate to be posting a page about Easter in December since that's typical Easter-time weather.  Umm, right? 

I pulled out my Pink Paislee Hometown Summer collection & added some Easter SRM sticker sentiments.  Nothing too fancy here, but I can finally scratch this event off my list anyway...

Back to normal weather today and... 

• Had Aqua Jog & Zumba classes this morning.  Best day of the week! 
• Lunch with the girls.  Always fun & full of laughs.  Note to self... must see the movie "Hall Pass." 
• Early release day for Bryn & we were off to get a photo taken with Santa.  Even though she told me before we went in, that he wasn't "the REAL Santa."   I got a photo though... yay me!  
• Quick stops at Target & Michaels.  I feel like I'm spending too much time at both places lately & no, I'm still not finished with my Christmas shopping.
• Planning to start wrapping some gifts with Bryn's help today.  She's a really good wrapper.  Better than most adults.  Or at least better than her dad, anyway. 
• Going to a gift exchange party tonight with a bunch of girls from the Y.  Should be more laughs tonight for sure.   
• All of this, while nursing a sore throat for the past 2 days.  Obviously not bad enough to keep me in bed though.  I have to be REALLY sick for that.  And "I'm sorry... I'm booked!" 

Rock on...

I made a trip to Archivers yesterday after lunch with my date.  I don't go there very often anymore, but I went looking for some of the new Amy Tangerine collection.  Thankfully it wasn't a wasted trip.  I bought some of the paper & a package of the stitched Thickers... love those.  The last thing I need to be buying is more scrapbooking stuff, but that yellow chevron paper... had. to. have. it.      

For now, though, I have another mix of random stash.  I feel the need to use what's still laying around, because once I file it away behind cabinet doors, I tend to forget about it.  This one is a mix of mostly Cosmo Cricket, Bella Blvd & Pink Paislee.  It's not the most rock-n-rollish page, but at our age we aren't exactly diving into mosh pits anymore either...    

 

I altered the iPod cut-out a bit.  The original highlighted music category on there was "hip hop."  So I typed out "rock & roll" on Word, highlighted it with yellow like the original was, printed it & covered it.  I used some of my Glossy Accents on the "screen" to give it a little more dimension...

 

And speaking of mosh pits... I'm loving that song "My Body" by Young The Giant ever since I saw them on the MTV Video Music Awards the other night.  And I must play it really loud... 

"Sleep with one eye open, gripping your pillow tight..."

... or sleep with 2 eyes open, as I've been doing a lot of lately.  

Aging is fun.  LOL

Anyhoo... been creating quite a bit lately but since I have nothing I can post for awhile, I thought I'd make something for fun using a combination of left-over stash that's been laying on my craft table.

Just bits of Echo Park, Bella Blvd, Bazzill Basics, Pink Paislee, We Are Memory Keepers, a SRM sticker sentiment & a Jolee's Boutique roller coaster sticker...  

 

 

TGIF and have a great weekend, everyone!

"Don't stop the party..."

I actually created something for the first time in 3 weeks.  

I mentioned that to Bryn & she stared at me and said, "I think that's a record."  I just laughed... because she's probably right.  

Between taking a quick end-of-summer family trip and hanging out with friends every single day in the last few weeks, I have accomplished nothing.  Not one darn thing.  And quite frankly, I haven't felt even remotely sad about it either.  Ok, well... maybe a minor twinge of guilt that I have some things that need to be completed by the end of the month, but not enough to make me say no to having fun.  LOL

So... since Bryn left yesterday to go to the lake with her cousin & my parents until Sunday (I got tears in my eyes after I dropped her off... 6 days is a long time.  LOL), I decided yesterday would be a good time to get back in my craft room.  So... I started with the page I was "pretending" to make when Great Day St Louis here filming me in my craft room.  Thought maybe I should finish what I started.  And I still haven't heard when that segment will air.  Not that I'm in a hurry to see it, mind you. 

It's just a mix of some Pink Paislee, some Bella Blvd & some SRM Stickers...

 

 

School starts next Wednesday.  It's not my favorite day of the year, I have to say.  Even though we can manage to get on each other's nerves sometimes, I miss Bryn when she's not here.  So, since summer is just about over & I'll only have next Monday & Tuesday with her after she returns from the lake, we went to Six Flags on Monday with our friends.  Haven't been there in at LEAST 20 years... probably more.  The weather had actually cooled off a bit & a lot of schools in the area went back that day, so the lines were tolerable & we weren't totally sweating our butts off.  It was fun! 

 

I'll attempt to spend some time creating this week so I actually have something worth posting here.  I'm not making any promises though, as I seem to be easily talked out of working these days. 

Hope you're enjoying the end of your summer too!

"It's a beautiful day... don't let it get away..."

Have you stopped by the SRM Stickers blog lately?  They've been posting the brand new sticker sheets that are making their debut at the CHA Tradeshow next week.  Something that's brand new this time around, are the Fancy Sentiments... for cards + projects requiring "a little more elegance or sophistication."  I wouldn't say that creating elegant & sophisticated cards are my forte, but I think these stickers can also work with something a little more cutesy...    

 

I used the new Thank You sentiments to create my card, along with some Pink Paislee Hometown Summer and a little pink crepe paper...

 

 

I'm already finished with Spin class this morning.  And it's hot & nasty outside, so we'll be inside today. I sweat enough this morning, thank-you-very-much.  ;-) 

Bob sent me a link to this article this morning... U2 360 Tour preps begin at Busch Stadium.  I'll be one of the 50,000+ fans, along with 3 other friends, in the crowd on Sunday night.  The tickets were purchased almost a year ago.  Florence & The Machine opened for them on part of their tour.  Really, REALLY wish they were going to be here this weekend, but it looks like we'll be seeing Interpol for the opening act instead.  I don't think I'm familiar with them, but U2 should be phenomenal.  Can't wait! 

 

Happy Monday everyone!  Hope it's a great week!

4th of July weekend...

 

Our weekend so far... 

• Fun with girlfriends & our daughters (minus Sally's daughter).  We seem to have passed on our love for pyramid-building to them.  
• A short time at the pool, due to some kid puking in the pool.
• A LOT of creating in order to meet a deadline coming up.  And yes, I have a lot of work space in my craft room, but somehow I always end up with everything on the floor.
• Spin class & running.
• Some popcorn & wine. 
• A trip to watch my sister's boyfriend's band perform, with a fireworks display at the end... cancelled due to lots of RAIN tonight.  Poo...

 

... and tomorrow remains to be seen!  Hope you're enjoying your weekend, too! 

"Just dance... gonna be okay..."

Happy "4th of July" weekend.  July 1st already.  So much going on in my world right now.  Some good... mostly good... some not so great.  My mind is elsewhere.  Big time.  I am lacking in motivation & creativity right now, too.  And with CHA coming up & a deadline looming... this is not a good combination.  I keep staring at product & thinking...  I got nothin'.  No photos.  No creativity.  Nothin'.  Calgon... take me away. 

So...in attempt to get my mind off reality, I thought I'd try to get the creative juices flowing again by doing something just for grins.  And just so you can get a small glimpse of how I roll sometimes (or... who am I kidding... it's ALWAYS how I roll), I thought I'd show you how many times I made changes to this page before I settled on the end result.  I'm still not completely thrilled with the result, but I have to say it's better than it was.  I spent HOURS on this page.  HOURS.  And Bryn was at her friend's house for 2 of those hours, so I wasn't ignoring anyone.  Not then anyway... ;-)

 

 The final result...  

 

I used Elmers Craft Bond Tacky Glue & Glue Spots for my buttons & orange twine...

 

My SRM "Summer" sticker sentiments were added at the last minute, too.  Somehow their stickers seem to finish off all my projects these days. 

No big plans for us this weekend.  I'm entertaining some friends from grade school tonight & their daughters, but the rest of the weekend is still tentatively planned.  But that's just fine with me.  I don't wish to be traveling this weekend... I'm happy to be at home! 

Have a safe & happy weekend everyone! 

Keeping the soiree going...

Have you seen the SRM Stickers blog this week?  Today wraps up the 3-day feature of SRM Stickers + Pink Paislee.  There have been so many inspiring projects posted with all the new Pink Paislee lines!  I was fortunate to receive the Soiree line and have made 2 pages so far.  You can see them here & here.  I still have plenty of paper left, so you may see more in the future! 

Today I have a couple cards...

 

 

 

 

I posted a tutorial for making these 3-dimensional embellishments here.

 

You can find all the SRM Stickers in their online store right here!

I'm finished with my Spin class & now I'm headed out to lunch with the girls.  Life is good... ;-)

It's time for a little Soiree...

 

SRM Stickers has teamed up with Pink Paislee this week!  They were very generous with our team & sent everyone one of their new 12x12 paper collections.  I received the Soiree line... perfect for some fun party pics (which I have quite a few of lately!).  I also added some birthday-themed SRM Stickers to my page...

 

Mini tutorial here on making your paper look like a ribbon, since I've been asked how to do it.  Simply make a couple curves in your paper, add sticky dots underneath and snip the ends like you would on a piece of ribbon.  Easy peasy...

 

I also used some of the Soiree line on my 2-page Spring Break layout posted here.  I really love the bright colors & patterns in this line.  So FUN!

You can see more design team creations here and I will be posting a couple cards I made with this line tomorrow, too! 

And speaking of "soirees"... we had another fun weekend night with friends...

 

I have no clue why people were staring at us in the bar after dinner.  We were just dancing.  A lot!  LOL!  

Hocus Pocus... my camera's on auto focus

SRM Stickers is featuring the new Pink Paislee lines on the blog today & tomorrow.  They were quite generous with the SRM Stickers design team & mailed us all different lines!  I was happy that I received Hocus Pocus, since I just had the pleasure of creating with Old School in my September HIP 2B SQUARE kit...

 

 

I made a card & a layout using some old Halloween photos of Bryn...

 

 

You can find all the Halloween-themed SRM Stickers online!  Check out the SRM Stickers blog  to see how the team created with Hocus Pocus, Old School & Sweetness!

This morning I'm off to Zumba, then back home to wait for the heating/AC guy to come over to make sure our system is ready for winter, then it's "early release day" at school so  I'll be off to pick up Bryn.  Right after school I'm getting together with another mom to plan the class Halloween FALL party & then tonight is Bryn's volleyball practice.  It's going to be a busy day... so what else is new?!