(diva)logues

"We will, we will, ROCK YOU..."

Ok so who wants to see more SNAP?

Cricket... cricket...

Well obviously I do, so here we go!   It's really just a few of the journaling spots on here, but let's face it... that's what most of the collection is & why I love it.   The photos are from Bryn's band concert in December that also involved the "parent concert" I'd been practicing for too.   The things I will do for this child...

I added a SRM We've Got Your Border sticker sentiment to the bottom of my journaling spot.  And the musical notes is a very OLD clear overlay on blue cardstock to match the letter & number Thickers.  The polka dot paper on the sides is Echo Park Springtime...

I shared this video Bob took of our stellar performance on Facebook last month, but I thought I'd share it here too since it goes along with the photos.  It's totally hilarious.  Actually we sounded a lot better than I thought we would though.  And yes, that's me right in front.  My friend commented on Facebook that I was "first chair"... something only those who have played in band would understand.  Cracked me up though!!! 

Did we or did we not rock Hot Cross Buns?

 

Ok nevermind, don't answer that...

Well that's just purrrfect...

Since January is a big month for birthdays, I've been busy making a few cards.

Now that I think about it, EVERY month is a big month for birthdays.

Anyway, I happened to have the Simple Stories Fabulous collection still laying on my floor, so I used one of the journaling cards as the background for this one...

In addition to my SRM sticker sentiment, I added my own grass, an extra wing & a punched butterfly to add some dimension to the card...

I went out & bought some cat stickers just for this next card.  It's a long story.  Not even sure how it began...

Another journaling card for my background (this one from Echo Park) plus some added punched clouds & a border punched strip for my grass...

To add to the "cat" theme for this particular birthday party last Saturday night, I happened to find cat masks while shopping that day...

 

What can I say... it got a few laughs.

And in my world... getting a few laughs is golden.

"Wobble baby... wobble baby... wobble baby... wobble..."

Yep... I made some changes here.  And since I know nothing technical about blogs, I went with something very clean & streamlined.  Although if someone could put a rainbow & clouds on here I'd be happy.  What I like most about this new blog layout is that I can now use large size images... making it easier for readers to see detail without having to click on each image to increase the size.  I've been going through old posts to resize everything, but I may just decide to leave the last 5 years as is.  It will take FORever & I've got better things to do! 

Oh... and we had tornado sirens today.  In January.  And it was 66 degrees.  Thursday we're supposed to get snow.  Only in Missouri. 

Moving on...

After going through old photos last night and then taking the big stack of completed pages that had been piling up on my counter & finally putting them in the books (chronologically the best I could)... I decided to tackle some more events from last year.  Bryn's books are pretty much up-to-date, minus a couple trips.  But the books I have for my (& Bob's) fun stuff... have some gaps. 

Can one ever really be "caught up" with all their photos anyway?  I think not.

So last night I got out my Simple Stories SNAP collection (I told you I loved it) & printed photos from this birthday party that happened almost a year ago...

Once again... a boat load of party pics.  And yes... there were at least 20 more photos I could've used on here but I showed some restraint...

Will I ever be a one-photo-per-page-with-a-bunch-of-flowers-around-it kind of scrapbooker? 

Nope. 

Works for a lot of people, but it's just not practical for me.  Or my style, for that matter.

I need LOTS of pictures.  And journaling.  Preferably all on ONE 12x12 page.

 

And something else I need...

a little practice at doing "The Wobble."

The end.

"I'm easy to see, I'm with the girls on the dance floor..."

It's almost birthday party time.  A party that just might involve a dance floor. 

My FAVORITE kind of party.  For reals. 

In fact I just finished making a fun cd of party songs per the birthday girl's request.   

A warning to my Facebook friends... there will probably be a ton of pics on there Sunday.  That's how we tend to roll.  LOL

And what is this I see?  A Christmas page that WASN'T made with the 12 Days of Christmas collection?  I know... finally.  Sheesh.  And it's not even a Christmas collection.  It's the Echo Park Today's Story collection.  Sorry, I know.  I'm addicted to that one too.     

It's mostly the entire 12x12 journaling cards page.  I changed it up just a bit to cover the yellow & blue.  Also added some SRM Christmas-themed stickers + some of my own embellishments...

The grid made it easier to finish in a reasonable time. 

And by reasonable, I mean less than 2 days.  LOL

Have a FABULOUS weekend, everyone! 

 

Wha' shoe lookin' at?

You know it's really cold outside & HOT inside when the windows in the Zumba room are all fogged up.

Zumbliciousness.

Just a couple more pages here using some more of my December photo stash, along with more of the My Mind's Eye 12 Days of Christmas collection.  You'd think I'd used it all by now, but hang tight!  I still have a few more scraps.  LOL 

I mixed in some old Cosmo Cricket (the polka dot background paper) + some Simple Stories Fabulous stickers.  The shoe is a downloaded clip art image to fit the theme, with some added bling.  It doesn't look like any of the 3 pairs of shoes she received, but frankly I don't care.  It matches the page.

This kid is a total NUT.  I'll admit she gets the crazy faces from me, along with the outta control excitement over shoes.  She better study hard & get a good job... that's all I can say...

On the next page I wanted to use the photos Bryn had taken with her iPod Touch when she attended a parade with her friend.  They aren't the best quality photos, but I'm all for using imperfect photos in the books to document an event...

I made my own tree + added some bling.  I do love me some bling...

I also kinda love graph paper.

Duh.

It's almost the weekend!  ROCK ON...

Are ewe sure?

So I made this belated card for my friend.  Better late than never!

And when I showed it to Bryn (my biggest critic fan) she said, "Happy birthday to E we?" 

I said, "No.  That says ewe."

She said, "What's that?"

I said, "It's a female sheep.  It's a play on words."

She said, "Umm, no one knows that Mommy, except for you."

 

I hate to be right ALL the time, but I'm pretty sure she's wrong & I'm not the only one that knows that.  And anyway, it's not like I'm going to have a lot of uses for a sheep sticker so I thought it would be cute on a card...

My sewing machine seems to have something wrong with it & it's really annoying me.  I've tried rethreading it about 50 times, which by the way is making me blind, and it still won't sew.  It comes unthreaded every time.  WTH?

Determined to have some added texture on here though, I got out my needle + embroidery floss.  Usually this results in blood added to my project but I'm happy to say I managed to finish this one without poking my finger...

I added the pink bow to my sticker... just to make SURE there was no confusion as to whether it was really a ewe or not. 

Ewe know what I'm sayin'...

And welp... it's 9:00am... I've already taught the 5:30am Zumba class & I feel like half the day is over!  Better get my 2nd wind... I'm booked! 

"Now would I say something that wasn't true...I'm asking you sugar would I lie to you..."

Well apparently I lied.  I thought I was only going to do a couple pages from December (Christmas Day & Christmas Eve), but I found this page I had finished last week and hadn't yet posted.  The photos are pretty busy, so I wanted to keep the rest of the page pretty simple & streamlined... 

More My Mind's Eye 12 Days of Christmas, some Doodlebug Designs North Pole + more SRM Christmas sentiment stickers...

In addition to that I found some photos Bryn had taken at a local parade she attended with her neighbor friend, so I guess I'll have a handful of pages from December.  

Or well... I guess that assumes I actually do something with the photos.  One never knows!   

Happy Friday & have a great weekend, everyone!

"So this is what you meant... when you said you that you were spent..."

Ok, so now that I finally managed to finish my December Daily mini book, I thought I'd create a couple pages using my leftover My Mind's Eye 12 Days of Christmas collection that I had used to create the book.  Since the mini book only allows room for a few photos, I like to do some 12x12 pages too.  We all know I like to use as many of my photos as possible from every event!  In all likelihood I'll just do a Christmas Eve & Christmas Day page, but we'll see.   I still need to go through all my photos from the month.  I've started with Christmas Day though.  I printed my photos in wallet size so I could fit a lot on the page (8 to be exact)...

In addition to the My Mind's Eye, I also threw in a couple bits of Nikki Sivils' Gingerbread Land (an oldie but a goodie!) + some SRM We've Got Your Border Christmas stickers (love them!)...

... and I made my own tags using a tag punch + some SRM Merry Stickers...

It was "early release day" at school today.  I brought Bryn & her friend home to hang out for a few hours, so since they're busy... I think I'll hang out in my craftroom.

Yay me!

Can I get a do-over. Please.

Ummm 2013.  The first 11 days... not so great.  The year literally began with Bryn having a REALLY bad stomach virus.  A few days later I had the stomach virus.  Then last Monday, I got in my car to go teach Zumba & had a dead battery so I started walking to work since I had 15 minutes until my class started.  Luckily a friend who takes my class drove by, saw me walking & picked me up.  I know...so random.  An angel in a van!    

And just when I was thinking that's all just random craziness that happens to everyone... then... worst of all... one of my bestie's husband committed suicide.  Not sure how else to say that without it being so abrubt.  It's an awful horrible tragic mess.

No comments necessary for me though.  Just requesting that everyone who reads this say a quick prayer for her and her daughter.  I love them so much.  And I don't think one can ever have too many prayers. 

 

My December Daily is finally complete, with the exception of Day #23 which must've been such a boring day I couldn't even remember what to say.  Ok well... actually I wasn't able to find a photo either... 

Most of the book was created using My Mind's Eye 12 Days of Christmas + SRM Stickers.  And like I said at the beginning of the month, it's a 6x6 format which made the pages pretty quick + easy to complete.

You can see the book in it's entirety here.

Ok.  Do-over begins now.  Keeping the faith for good things to come...

We're all in our places with sunshiny faces...

The weather is a-mazing today and yet I just spent the whole day, minus my 6:30am spin class + a quick run to Starbucks, in my craftroom working (or playing, really).  And to be perfectly honest at 3pm I thought to myself... this was the best day ever.  And Bryn has volleyball intramurals all week after school, so that gives me an EXTRA hour to do whatever the heck I want.  Strange, I know, but with everything else going on lately, to have an entire day to devote to choreographing 2 Zumba songs + getting a couple scrapbook pages completed... I was a happy girl. 

Or... perhaps it's this Simple Stories SNAP collection that makes me so happy?  Page number 3 is here, so sorry in advance if you're not quite as into SNAP as I am.  You're going to see more of it too.  That's how I roll.  When I like something, I just keep using it.  Like rainbows and clouds and buildings and... well, you know the drill. 

 

In addition to the SNAP collection, I also used a SRM Stickers 12x12 calendar page + some SRM Calendar Companion stickers on the bottom...

Ok, so today wasn't really the best day EVER.  Clearly I've had better days.  Like with people.  I'm not just a recluse or anything.  

But it was really nice.  And I really am a happy girl right now. 

And according to the forecast we have 3 more days of weather in the 50's & 60's, so I'm pretty sure this will be the best weekend EVER!  Well maybe not EVER, but my weekend involves really cool & fun people.  Oh and 2 birthday parties.  And probably a headache on Sunday.  WOOOT!

Enough exaggeration.  Off to pick up my volleyball girl...

SNAP out of it...

You know you are not feeling well when you're too sick to Zumba, let alone sit in your craft room.  But after 24 hours of a stomach virus, that somehow lead to a sore throat today... I'm at least out of bed & have showered.  It's the little things!  Hopefully I snap out of this soon.

I mentioned you would probably be seeing a lot more of Simple Stories SNAP collection soon, so here we go!  I simply ADORE that collection.

This page is a combination of SNAP + DCWV The Edumacation Stack (a fun school-themed paper pad)...

The questionnaire was a free download found here.  I like to be able to include things like Bryn's handwriting or art work in her scrapbooks as much as possible.  I think it's hilarious that one of the foods she doesn't like is tofu.  How many kids have even tried that?!  And her favorite color is zebra.  Sooo funny.  That's my girl!

And I finally used all the movie ticket stubs I'd been saving for the past couple years.  These are all movies I've seen with friends... which incidentally is how I see most movies lately.  Thank you, friends! 

The polaroid frame paper on the right that holds all the movie ticket stubs is from the Echo Park Sweet Day collection, while the rest of the page is SNAP.  I also added some SRM Sticker sentiments to my Nikki Sivils scalloped border strip... 

Gotta love 3D glasses!

Hope you're enjoying your weekend and are virus-free!  ;-)

"I'll buy you a round, if you come close, turn up the sound..."

Well... I think we're finally in the clear and my little very tall mini-me will be heading back to school tomorrow.  She's been eating today, so I think that's a good sign.  Love when she's home with me, but yay for that virus being behind us.  It was AWFUL.    

Here's that other new page I recently finished.  It was inspired by my Top 12 favs post from Monday.  One of the layouts I included on here wasn't even on my list, but I wanted to include a page that I'd made about Zumba since 2012 was my first year teaching it.  Well, plus it kinda matched...    

Most of the page was made using the Simple Stories SN@P collection.  Love, love, love it.  Will be using more of that collection ASAP.  The blue background paper is from Simple Stories Harvest Lane collection.  That photo of me is from 2 summers ago.  Sadly... the state of my craft room floor pretty much looks exactly like that right now...

The rest of my house is usually immaculate.  Why does my craft room floor look like this?  This must say something about my creative mind.  And I'm not sure I want to know what it is!

And speaking of my creative mind... what do think about these new booties?

I say... different, sparkly & maybe slightly crazy.

Kinda like me.  ;-)

Friends are like Louis Vuitton bags. No one wants the fake ones...

Happy 2013!  It's been an interesting year so far... and by interesting I mean it's kinda stunk.  Bryn came down with a bad case of the stomach flu on New Year's Eve, which totally changed our plans right after we went out that night.  She ended up spending that night sleeping (kinda sleeping anyway) on the floor next to the bathroom.  It was an AWFUL, AWFUL night for her & she's still not feeling well.  Doubting that she'll be going back to school when that resumes tomorrow, as she still hasn't been able to eat a normal meal.  A couple popsicles, a couple crackers, electrolyte water & Sprite is all that she's been doing lately.  And she's wanted a LOT of mama time, which I actually kinda love.  Just wish she'd feel better soon.  She rarely gets sick, so she's not liking this. 

In the meantime... some crafty stuff.  I attempted to clear off my craft table so I could actually use it to create on, but ended up with a total MESS on the floor.  So... with all this random stuff staring me in the face, I started using some of it.  Funny how that happens.

I finished these 2 pages a couple weeks ago (before the mess on the floor happened)...

... and this next page WAS finished over a month ago, but I hated it & never posted it... so I totally re-did it with less color & pattern  recently.  Still not much to write home about, but better than it was...

The SRM Girl Scout sticker is sold at Girl Scout Council Stores.  And I thought it was quite perfect considering I had just taught Zumba to 2 groups of Girl Scouts so they could get a badge for learning a new dance!

I used a photo collage on the next page which was made via Picmonkey... a somewhat free photo editing site.  They have recently added the option of upgrading ($4.99/month) to use of a lot of their editing features though.  Poop.

And more SRM Stickers.... the We've Got Your Border Halloween stickers were used on the top & bottom of the page... love them...

I finished one more yesterday, but I'll save something for tomorrow.  Still need to finish up my December Daily too.  Maybe I'll work on that later. 

We'll see what happens.

If you have any questions on the products I used on those pages, just leave a comment & I'll email you links.  Too lazy to link everything up right now.  LOL