(diva)logues

"You will remember me for centuries..."

 

This blog has gone from being a mostly scrapbooking blog... to being a mostly I'm-not-sure-what kind of blog... but probably heavier on the fitness talk than anything. 

Because well... that's been my job for the past 3 years.  Whoopsie. 

So... I thought I'd post a few pages that were made in the past couple months.  Just to prove that I do in fact still scrapbook sometimes, even if I don't ever post the pages regularly anymore.

Just grabbed products that matched... old & new... and made it work.  Some of the photos aren't of great quality either, but as I've mentioned before... I'd rather have "real" photos & stories in the books... than staged, professional one-photo pages without any journaling.  Just not my style...

 

 

 

 

All of Bryn's extra-curricular activities keep me pretty busy too, outside of teaching classes all the time.  Gone are the days when I sat in my craft room while Bryn was next to me playing with her "babies." Now I'm lucky if I can even get her to set foot in the craft room! 

Yep... those days are long gone....

And did I mention she just recently tried out for and MADE the freshman winter cheer squad?

High school here we come! 

"It's goin' down fo real..."

 

The obnoxious Zumba attire level can be taken up a few notches at Halloween.  Last year I wore a 70's disco costume for a party at Brickhouse Cardio. 

 

Not sure if it was more fun to wear an afro wig or an ozone-destroying amount of hairspray on my own hair for an 80's costume theme that same year.  And someone actually asked me if I was wearing a wig.  Umm noooo.... that would be my real hair.  I knew I kept those hot rollers for some reason. 

Jane Fonda eat your heart out...

 

I finally did something with those pictures from last year.  I'm only a year behind...

 

And since it's been a balmy 20 degrees outside lately, I figured I'd be an over-achiever & get this year's Halloween photos out of the way as well. 

If the afro wig can stay on my head for last year's Zumba... it could surely stay on my head again this year.  Although I did tell my class beforehand that if there were any wardrobe malfunctions, like splitting my jumpsuit pants while umm jumping... or if my wig flew off my head... the rule was that we just keep dancing. 

"Look away!" 

 

Okie dokie.  That's all for today.  Although I did finish 3 more pages recently. 

Over-achieving again!  

Because it's been like 20 degrees. 

Fo real...

 

"You're as cold as ice, cold as ice, I know... "

 

Cold weather is a sign that it's time to hide in my craftroom & get caught up on some scrapbooking.  Not that I'll ever be "caught up" on it.

And that hiding only takes place after I get my daily work-out in.  I'll leave the house to do that in ANY weather. 

Well maybe not a tornado.  Or ice. 

But rain & snow are just fine with me.  I have an umbrella & boots.  

I can even bust out the neon pink leg warmers if necessary.  I'm pretty versatile like that. 

And working with warm-weather photos & colorful paper makes a cold, gloomy & windy day seem brighter as well.  You can dwell on the negative or look for the positive in every moment. 

 

A mix of products here, but mostly Simple Stories DIY on these 2 pages + SRM Stickers...

 

 

Bryn usually looks at all my pages when they're finished.  When she saw that 2nd one she said, "You ampersand me???"

I said, "Ampersand is what the "and" sign on the keyboard is called."

She said, "Oh.  Ok."

 

See... I don't always give her "pimento answers."  Sometimes I'm honest right away.  LOL

 

Off to get a massage for this beat up body of mine.  Then 2 classes tomorrow & one on Saturday.

Bring it on!!

 

 

"Your bridges were burned and now it's your turn... to cry... cry me a river... "

 

February was heart health awareness month.  My good friend and fellow Zumba instructor at the YMCA, was interviewed by a local TV news show to promote her annual American Heart Association Zumbathon.  It's an event near & dear to her heart, as you'll hear in her interview.  A group of us helped with her Zumba routine on the Great Day St Louis segment.

You can see her story & watch us dance here.

 

 

Love those girls. 

It was a memorable event worth journaling, to say the least. 

 

2 days of LOTS of rain & storms around here.  We had the craziest winter ever... and I guess this is our spring now? 

One big river of hot mess...

 

"Take me away... a secret place... a sweet escape..."

 

Been trying to get photos off my phone.  Bryn showed me a fun app that I've been using a lot recently to make photo collages... Photo Grid.  You pick the photos you want to use & the app puts them into a grid for you.  Lots of other choices of grid designs, too, based on the number of photos you're using. 

Plus I don't have to email myself all the individual photos this way.  I can just email myself each photo collage once I've created it...

 

 

I used the app for my photos from our trip to the Bahamas that I posted here.  I also used the app for these 3 pages today.  I like that I don't have to mess with measuring the photos & putting them into a design that works for the scrapbook page.  I just print the grid in the size that I want... quick & easy.  

And for the first 2 pages, I used some SRM Stickers along with some more of the free downloadable journaling cards I found on the Pocket Source blog...

 

 

 

I've deleted about 400 photos off my phone & am down to around 700 now.  Still don't have enough storage space to do the latest iPhone update, but hopefully eventually I can get there.  Craziness.

And yes, I know.  Adding more apps like this one, doesn't help free up storage.  Oh well...

 

Northridge Publishing... anyone... anyone??

Any of my scrapbooking friends had their work published in Scrapbook Trends lately?  My card that was published in the March issue was just finally returned to me last week, but that was all that was in the box?  No free magazines & no freebies as I've received in the past.  Just wondering if anyone knows if they've changed their terms?  

Anyway... I'm not going to buy that issue just to see my card in there, because really they should've sent me one... but here's the card that graced the pages of that magazine a few months ago...

 

And let's see... took 2 classes at the Y this morning (spin & Zumba), had lunch & and I'm now impatiently awaiting Bryn's arrival home tonight.  Can't wait to see her!  It's a rainy day here though, so I'm probably going to spend some time in the craft room.  In fact... here's one of the pages I finished this week while she was gone...

Mostly Simple Stories SNAP collection on here & I did a little hand-stitching by my butterfly.  I still need to get my dang sewing machine fixed.... would be nice to actually use that again!....

And the little flowers by my title letters are from the SRM Mother's Day Sticker set.  I just added a little bling to them...

 

Okie dokie then... happy Friday & have a fabulous weekend!

"Sexy people all around the world... the night is young... let's have some fun..."

We're a little over a week into the summer.  Nothing too out of the ordinary so far... mostly some pool time and friends time.  The month of June will be way busier though.  Bryn's 12th birthday is coming up, she's doing a 1-week soccer camp & then we're off to a Meditteranean cruise (Bob's incentive trip with State Farm)... which means Italy, France & Spain.  Long flight to get to that side of the world, but it should be pretty amazing.  I've been to Spain & France, but it will be my first time in Italy.  It will also be my first cruise EVER. 

For now though... some photos from Bryn's recent school band concert from a few weeks ago.  Thankfully there was no "parent concert" this time.  Once is enough for that craziness.  It was amazing how much they had improved since the December concert...

Mostly the DCWV Edumacation Stack on here with some Simple Stories SNAP & Bella Blvd Midterm.  That big "SCHOOL" title is a SRM Sticker, as is the 2013 sticker.  I do love using SRM Stickers...

 

And speaking of SRM Stickers... my SRM Tube storage idea is featured on their blog today.  You can check it out here.

I'm also finishing up choreographing another song for Zumba...

 

I do love me some Pitbull. 

Happy Friday, everyone, and have a FUN weekend! 

When in Rome, do as the Romans. When in America, do as the Americans... take a shower & wear deodorant.

Please and thank you. 

ESPECIALLY if you workout. 

Or... perhaps maybe exercise options, like walking or running outdoors, might be a more suitable option? 

Stick around.  I'm full of helpful hints. 

 

Okie dokie then, moving on...

I finally did something with our Bermuda pics from last summer.   With 2 summer trips approaching, I figured it might be nice to get those out of the way before there's more.  Bermuda's just one of several trips that I haven't yet tackled, but oh well.  One down, more to go.

Just paper-pieced my palm tree, found my airplane clip-art online, and then used some Bella Blvd chipboard stickers (clouds & sun) and some MAMBI stickers (the beach items)...

The I Love You border sticker is from SRM Valentines Stickers By The Dozen...

 

That was also the trip where something was wrong with our camera & every single photo had a black smudge on it.  And looking at those photos just makes me think how much I could use a beach right about now.  

Guess I can wait until next month though...

I just say NO to reptiles...

... unless of course you'd like to buy me a snakeskin bag or something... and then I say YES.  As for snakes, lizards, geckos or any creature in the reptile house at the zoo... ummmm NO.  Somehow though... we ended up with a pet gecko named Junior. 

Who he/she was a "junior" to in our family, I'm not sure. 

And Junior lived in my craft room... which was really all shades of wrong considering how much I don't love reptiles.  And the absolute best part about Junior living in my craft room, God rest his/her soul, was the sound of the live crickets (ie. gecko food) chirping every.  freakin'.  day. 

I mean, I have a nice craft room.  How is it that I felt like I was outside in the wilderness when I was in there? 

The things I won't agree to for this child. 

Anyway... Junior passed away.  Bryn cried.  I did a secret happy dance.  It was a very sad day.

I had a few bad quality cell phone photos... one showing Junior shedding his skin (totally disgusting)... so I thought I'd document our time spent with this pet.  The page turned out kinda cute (helloooo... a rainbow!) considering how NOT cute the pet was...

Speaking of the rainbow... that journaling card was from the super cute and FREE journaling cards found here.  The chevron background paper is Simple Stories Vintage Bliss.  I added a SRM Hello sticker on there too...

So to sum things up... reptiles ok for accessories... not ok for pets. 

And quite frankly... any kind of animal print gets my vote.  In fact... I just bought a zebra print rug for the craftroom....

 

I think I just died and went to Heaven. 

The end.

Zumba cures all...

It's Monday again & I heart Mondays... even if I wake up on day #2 of a migraine like I did today... it's still a fantastic day because of teaching Zumba!  Love it!  And beginning this week, I am taking over the Friday morning Zumba class too.  So I'll be teaching on Mondays & Fridays and also still helping teach the Tuesday 5:30am class, once every 3 weeks with 2 other instructors.  I am always BUSY, but I love it! 

I finally have something crafty today.  Haven't had much time to create lately, but did have some new photos from Bob's recent weekend in Florida for the Mizzou football game, so I got inspired.  He was there with my parents & their friends who have a beach house in Tampa.  The game was played in Gainesville and although Mizzou lost, they still had a lot of fun...

Sometimes I use my Handwritten Fonts card with my Slice to make titles, but this time I made my own.  I posted a tutorial on how to do this 2 years ago.  You can see it here if you want to try this technique out for yourself...

Aside from that, it's just a random mix of Bella Blvd's Making The Team, some old Mizzou themed patterned paper I had & anything else I could find that was BLACK & GOLD-ish. 

Have a GREAT week, everyone! 

Believe in yourself, and you will be unstoppable...

Last month while I was in New York, Bryn participated in her 3rd "TRYathlon" at the YMCA... 150 yard swim, 1 mile run and 2.5 miles on the bike for her age group.  While she wasn't exactly amused by my not being there, she did have the support of her dad, her grandparents and my friend's daugther to cheer her on!  She gets her desire to compete and her love of sports & exercise honestly.  What she hasn't quite learned though is that you can't just go out and do something like this without training for it.  She finished the race, of course, but did complain that she could "hardly breathe" while she was running. 

And like the good mother I ALWAYS am... I said, "Well, I told you so."  LOL! 

As a side story to this race, one of the girls in Bryn's age group had her bike break shortly after she got on to ride so she couldn't continue to compete.  However, when Bryn was finished with her biking, she let this girl borrow her bike.  And by the time this girl got to the last portion of the race... the running... she was the only kid still left on the course.  Everyone else had already finished.  So... several of the kids, Bryn included, went back out & ran with her so she didn't have to finish the race alone.  Talk about a tear-jerker.  Bob said it was emotional to watch.  And I cried on the phone when he told me the story, dang it! 

To say that I'm proud of Bryn for a million reasons would be an understatement.  Girlfriend is going to be unstoppable in life...

I may not be an open book, but I'm pretty easy to read...

You know your friends pay attention & know you really well, when they hand you a stack of 6 tickets & tell you to pick which one you want to match the scrapbook.  I mean, I've never said that I need ticket stubs & memorabilia that will coordinate with photos... sometimes things work on a page, sometimes they don't.  But I think she just gets it.  And I smiled & picked this one.  I figured the red background on this ticket would work better than the tickets with the blue backgrounds... 

It was a fun Labor Day at the ball park.  I only had my iPhone that day for photos, but I'd rather have less than perfect photos rather than no photos at all! 

I used some left-overs from the July HIP 2B SQUARE kit... the blue paper + the washi tape for my border.  Then I used a little Bella Blvd's Making The Team, a couple star punches and a SRM sticker sentiment to finish it off...

Here's something else pretty easy to read about me...

I ♥ ZUMBA.

And it's time to go teach my Monday morning class!  Woot woooooot! 

Coolio...

Last night was the 6th Grade Open House.  I had a moment of my own middle school deja vu when I heard someone behind me after I walked in the door saying, "Deana Newsom!  Deana Newsom!"  It's not every day that I'm called by my maiden name, so it took me a moment to turn around.  Turns out a girl I went to high school with also has a 6th grader at Bryn's school.  Small world! 

Anyway, it was a parents-only event where we got to go to each classroom of our child's schedule... starting with 1st hour.... ending with 6th hour.  We had 7 minutes per class & then the bell would ring, just like being in school.  And the hallways were PACKED in between classes.  We had 3 minutes to get to our next class.  Evidently the kids have 5 minutes in between, which is good since it was like herding cattle & impossible to walk quickly.  Bryn would later tell me that she's figured out to stay to the side when she's walking through the hall & push people to get through.  I said, "Ummm... you shouldn't be pushing people."  She said, "I don't push them hard.  I just have to get through all the people." 

Ummm...no. 

At one point walking through the maze of people last night, I overheard a dad behind me say, "I hated middle school." 

Well, thank you for letting us all know.  We're so impressed.  

Middle school seems to be going well for Bryn, so far, and yesterday she "bought" her lunch at school for the first time EVER.  She said she was going to pick a burger (plus 2 sides, which I would later find out was a bag a chips & "she lost her bowl of pineapple"... WTH?).  We went online the night before to check ingredients to make sure she could eat what was being served & not be allergic to any of it (no dairy, eggs, peanuts, treenuts).  I also made her PROMISE me that she would go immediately to the nurse if she felt any kind of reaction & we also made a deal that this would be OCCASIONAL that she bought... so I wasn't worried about it every time it happened. 

Sheesh.

Moving on.  New page here regarding preparations for 6th grade, as well as first day of school.  I used the Echo Park School Days collection along with some school themed SRM Stickers...

That's a SMASH journal pocket calendar on there, purchased from Target.  And gotta love googly eyes... :-)

By 8:20am this morning, I had already done a 6:30 Spin class, rushed home to drive Bryn to school by 8:00, drove to Starbucks, then to the gas station when Bryn called me to say she forgot her binder & "could I get it & bring it to her?"  At least I got half the tank filled before I had to leave.

The rest of the day should be a piece of cake after all that.

And one more quickie...

My Navy Pier page that I posted the other day is featured today on the Craft Gossip site  as their Inspiration du Jour...

 

Coolio!       

It's Deana. Not DeAnna. Just sayin'...

Although the older I get, the more I'm willing to answer to anything.  Well don't be mean.  Oh & don't come in yelling a childhood nickname at me while I'm working.  But that's a story for another day.

This story here involves my name being mispronounced.  So what else is new.  But it wasn't until after I printed my journaling that I realized I didn't even include that part of the story.  Thus the sticker in the top that says Hello My Name Is.  Hopefully some day when I'm old & senile the sticker will remind me of that part of the story.

Anyway.  If you're new to reading this blog, my craft room was on TV again last summer for the 2nd time.  The first time it was on TV, it was for a segment KMOV's "Great Day St Louis" was doing on gift wrap areas, as I have a whole area of my craft room that was built to be a gift wrap station.  You can see video here... forward to around 7:30.  This particular time though, the producer of the show had emailed me & said they were doing a segment on "mom caves" & said I had a "great one" & asked if I'd be interested in shooting footage again.  You can see the mom cave video here... forward to around 6:10. 

Well of course!!!   

Did not love that during the editing process, the host must've forgotton how to pronounce my name.  Oh well... Deana... DeAnna... whatever. 

I used mostly Simple Stories Fabulous collection for this page with a bit of Echo Park & Bella Blvd...

In other news...

Bryn's first day of school went "great!"  She said she only got lost one time & asked a teacher where to go.  She also said that "middle school is way better than elementary school." 

If she's happy... I'm happy! 

Put me in coach...

It's our last softball game of the season today... yay!  I mean booo.  LOVE the sport... coaching not so much.  I played fast-pitch for 9 years & then played in random co-ed leagues after college, but as for coaching... the Friday night practices all summer really cramped my style.  If I were just the "parent," I could've sent Bob to some of the practices without me.  LOL  And as it was, he did.  Since one night I was in Vegas & another 100+ degree night, I just begged for mercy & he went in my place.  It's been a fun season though & also fun to watch the girls improve every week, especially Bryn.  By the middle of the season, Bryn started pitching & was striking girls out.  Nice, when there's some really loooooong innings. 

HOT, HOT summer here though.  So HOT, that we had games cancelled 2 weeks in a row due to extreme heat.  So today's game is actually a make-up game or the season would've been over by now. 

Anyhooo...

Just a quick page that I made using lots of Bella Blvd (a mix of Family Dynamix + Making the Team) + some SRM Summer sticker sentiments...

 

Weather is in the high 80's today. 

Thank goodness for the little things...

"When the going gets rough, the tough the get rough..."

Creating is therapy for me. 

Working-out is too. 

The fact that I actually make a little money doing both is a bonus.  I can manage to temporarily forget about everything else going on in my life when I'm doing either one.  This can pose a problem though when I stay up too late creating & then have to get up at 5:55 to do a spin class, like today.   

But at least I had fun making something, right?  Who needs sleep?  And it was something with a lot of photos & memories that made me laugh again just thinking about it.  I needed that.  It's a pretty basic design that I've used before, but it allows for a ton of photos + journaling while still keeping it to just one 12x12 page...

Just some random things here that said "Vegas" to me + a little Glossy Accents on my "wine glass." 

I know... I haven't used it in awhile.  I was long over-due.  Heehee...

Waiting for the sprinkler company to get here this morning & also looking forward to my appointment with the closet company this afternoon.  Bryn's new room is slowly coming together as well.  And one of these days we'll actually finish the school supplies shopping. 

Oy.  Lots to do. 

Maybe I'll just go work-out again & hide in my craftroom afterward instead.  :-)

Thanks, Jane Fonda, for inspiring me to look like a huge dork...

It's Zumba day... my favorite day of the week... and not only do I have some fun things coming up design-wise, I also have lots of Zumba to do in the next 2 weeks while I'm subbing for my friend.  Love that! 

Bryn came back home from the lake on Friday night with a fever, sore throat & had just puked in my parent's car right before they got home.  Poor Bryn.  Poor car!  So... we took her to see the doctor on Saturday morning.  They thought it appeared to be Strep & prescribed an antibiotic just incase, but said they'd call us today with lab results & tell us to discontinue use of them if it came back negative.  Even though the fever had broke by Saturday, she spent the whole weekend resting, saying her throat hurt & feeling just plain yucky.  It was a weekend full of popsicles, Sprite & Gatorade.  Lots of extra hugs + kisses, too.

I posted an old photo of me doing aerobics in the 80's on Facebook yesterday , prompting the inspiration for this page.  It's proof that the accessorizing to work-out isn't just something that happened with Zumba.  Although I have to say, Zumba does kinda take things to a whole new level of borderline obnoxious.  And please don't think it's a requirement to wear "bling" for Zumba.  Just some good shoes & a smile is all you need.  Well... clothing is preferable too.         

I think I'm just going to stop telling you that my pages are a combination of random things I've found on my craft table.  It's a given.  It's how I roll.  Blah, blah, blah.  Unless, of course, I'm designing for a manufacturer & then I'll play by the "rules," if there really are rules.  Heehee  

 

Off to teach Zumba this morning... then to lunch with the girls... & then to Bryn's orthodontist appointment.  

Hopefully Bryn can last.  She's feeling a little better, but still not quite 100%. 

What if a liar's pants really could catch on fire?

Just a quickie since I haven't been on here in a few days.  Actually almost a week.  I have been working on a few things, but figured I should just wait to photograph them when my camera is here.  The new lens has arrived though... just waiting on the camera... so I'm half-way there.  No more black smudge on my photos.  Yay!   

Just a mix of things on here (mostly Bella Blvd, SRM Stickers & Doodlebug Designs)...   

And since that page isn't the most exciting thing I've ever made... how about something that IS exciting? 

Like shoes...

I'm thinking they'll be worn with a white dress soon. 

Now I just need to make some plans.  Who wants to take me out?

Cricket... cricket...

"... the smell of wine and cheap perfume..."

Yay for Friday... yay for the weekend... and yay for having plans to look forward to... love having plans! 

Still taking photos off-center here.  Can't have black smudges on my pages that aren't really there.  Did realize after changing lenses, that the problem is still there.  Sooo... it's obviously a mechanical problem with my camera.  I really like my Canon though, so I went out to Amazon & ordered the body of the camera to go with my new lens (as well as my old long-range lens).  Bob said he might take the old camera to see if it can be repaired & if so, we'll give it to Bryn with the old stock lens that originally came with it.  She's been wanting a new camera anyway & will be thrilled if this works out.    

 

In the meantime a new page, with some off-center shooting.  It took me 13 shots to get this somewhat right, but who's counting...

Just incase you're wondering about my choice in "embellishments," I hand-drew & cut that "stick figure" to mimic the one Bryn made for her art project... same reason for the "apple tree."   A mix of products on here (Bella Blvd, My Minds Eye, etc) and also used a few SRM Congratulations stickers...

We'll be hitting the ball fields for softball practice tonight & then Bryn's first game is tomorrow morning.  Then a fun night out with friends tomorrow night!  Looking forward to it!

Happy Friday & have a great weekend! 

I ♥ Zumba...

... just incase you didn't already know that.

I also kinda love these 12x12 divided page protectors... although I did think they were going to make it easier & faster to get a page done.  And nope... up 'til midnight last night trying to figure out what the heck to do with it!  Considering I usually end up trying to squeeze all my photos onto one 12x12 page, this is somewhat different for me though.  I think I'm going to try this more often (especially since I have a whole package of these page protectors to use!) 

And one more quick page I made last week using some random stuff... of course... (SRM Stickers, Bella Blvd, Nikki Sivils & Echo Park)...

When I posted it on scrapbook.com someone said, "I love the house you created."  I thought, "Huh??"  Totally unintentional, but I guess it does kinda look like a house now that she mentioned it.   

 

And here's a few other things I l♥ve right now...

• 25 rules for mothers of daughters... made me cry. 

 

• My friend, Toni's, collection in this Designer Discovery Contest.  Please vote for her HERE!  Seriously CUTE, CUTE, CUTE collection.  I NEED IT! 

 

• And one more thing I love... packing to go to Bermuda!  Woot woooot!  :-)

"...someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection..."

I've got rainbows on the brain, since Bryn & I hit the stores yesterday for all things rainbow.  I have to admit, my patience was wearing a bit thin by the time we got to the 2nd store. 

"Look at this!  Look at that!  Can we get that?  Let's get this.  No, trust me, they won't like that."

No. No. No. No. No. 

Calgon... take me away.  And I mean for GOOD this time.  LOL

We did manage to get quite a bit accomplished though, so I'm glad she talked me into going shopping yesterday considering it was the last thing I felt like doing at the time.

Anyway... with rainbows on the brain & this page laying on my floor in progress (with just the 3 photos + the blue Bella Blvd paper + the Martha Stewart punched border) I decided to do something rainbowish last night and grabbed these WAY OLD Prima flowers.  I mean, OLD, as in at least 4-5 years old.  I put some Want 2 Scrap pearls in the middle of each.  My original idea of what to put inside each flower was rejected by Bryn before she went to bed.  It's nice to have another set of eyes around here...  

I also made my own journaling spot using some Nikki Sivils' paper + a strip of Echo Park paper on the bottom.  My title is a SRM Easter sticker sentiment...

 

It's probably safe to say this won't be the last you see of a rainbowish page.  Once I have photos from Bryn's birthday this weekend... I'll have to do something with them, of course! 

Happy Memorial Day Weekend...

It's Memorial Day Weekend... aka... our anniversary weekend... AND the annual carnival in Bob's home-town, of which I'm not exactly a fan but Bryn LOVES it.  This year brought us to town for Bob's sister's retirement party from teaching for the past 32 years!  Impressive!  Might I also mention that the last 2 days have been the HOTTEST days of the year so far... 97 degrees.  And thank you again to Bob for not telling me I had little bits of Kleenex stuck to my face yesterday after attempting to blot all the sweat!  White crap on the face is always a good look when you're talking to lots of people.  LOL  It was fun to see family though & quite a few people had more than a 3-hour trip to get there.  Thankfully we didn't have that long of a drive...only a little over an hour. 

My sister, Marci, is also officially moved to Denver as of Friday.  We helped her finish boxing everything up on Wednesday so the movers could come over & haul everything into the truck.  Her & my parents hit the road with her car & the moving truck early Friday morning for the 13-hour drive to get there.  Have I ever mentioned that my daughter is OBSESSED with tape of all kinds... Scotch tape, packing tape, decorative tape, etc.  I get a bit annoyed when I'm looking for a piece of tape & have to go on a scavenger hunt in my house to look for it.  Needless to say, she was in charge of the packing tape on all the remaining boxes & was loving every minute of it.... so much so that Marci will probably need a jack hammer to get the boxes open.  Sucks to be Marci!  LOL 

Bryn & Bob just left for our subdivision pool that opened this weekend, so I finished up a new page using... what do you know... some decorative TAPE!  Bryn would be soooo jealous.     

It's more of that washi tape from Target that I just machine-stitched over, mixed with lots of SRM Stickers (baseball & summer stickers) + Bella Blvd...

We're having dinner out tonight for our anniversary, which is actually tomorrow.  Can't believe it's been 12 years already.

Time flies when you're having fun! 

Be kind... for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle...

Just a few more random pages.  I seem to be on a creative roll lately.  Probably because disappearing into my work takes my mind off other things.  I'm definitely trying to roll with it though, because most of the time the creative mojo just isn't there.   

The first page has photos from back in 2010.  I ran across them when I was going through all my old photo files on my laptop and started laughing out loud again.  This was the day I was waving good-bye to Bryn and her Bitty Twins while Bob was pulling out of the driveway.  As I was waving & he was backing up... he backed over one of the sprinkler heads & caused a huge geyser of water that was spraying into the backseat window where Bryn was sitting.  She started screaming.  I was yelling, "Bob!!!  STOP!!!"  Finally before he turned to drive down the street he realized what happened and said he couldn't hear me yelling at him because Bryn was screaming in the backseat.  I said, "That's because water was spraying in on her!!" 

The 3 of us together = one nutty combination. 

Just a random mix of products.  The car & heart are from the Nikki Sivils' Noah collection.  I put some Want 2 Scrap bling on the tires.  The lined paper is from Nikki Sivils' Summer collection.  I paper-pieced my own drops of water...

Another random mix here.  Sometimes things just need googly eyes added to finish it off.  Or maybe it was to make smile.  Either way, it worked for me...

And I finally used these professional photos + a screen shot of the website that were taken for this recording studio photo shoot with Bryn & some friends.  Another random mix (surprise, surprise) of whatever happened to be laying on the floor that matched.  Heehee.  The headphone & records were from the Nikki Sivils' Dan The Record Man collection.  More Want 2 Scrap bling on the headphones too... 

I think it's obvious I like those red Bella Blvd letter stickers.  They've only been on 3 pages in the last week. 

On Charter's home page today, one of the "hot searches" they were highlighting was "What's the best way to get rid of a migraine?"  So I clicked on it... because I have a migraine today.  And I get to teach 4 hours of Zumba tomorrow for another middle school field trip at the Y, so I'm kinda hoping I'm not teaching with a headache.  The article is A Better Route To Migraine Relief, by Dr Andrew Weil.  The last paragraph stuck with me...

"Finally, if you continue to have attacks, try to change the way you think about the headaches. Migraine is like an electrical storm in your head - violent and disruptive, but leading to a calm, clear state in the end. You may, upon reflection, discover that it is not so bad to let yourself have a headache once in a while. It is a good excuse to drop your usual routine and go inward, letting accumulated stress dissipate. As you come to accept migraines in this way and see them as serving a purpose in your life, you may not have them so frequently." 

I ♥ Target...

...because who knew I needed some washi tape when all I walked in for was laundry detergent & shampoo? 

Oh ok... I had chocolate on my list too.   

But have you noticed that in their office/school supply section they carry this cool tape now?  And you know that washi tape is one of the "in" things in scrapbooking, but it isn't cheap.  This 4-roll Target version for only $5.00, however, is a GREAT deal if you ask me.  Did you even ask me?  They had 4-packs of other colors too, but I went with the red set...

And voila... a taped border is a quick and easy way to add color + pattern.  The tape is a bit transparent, so you can tell I didn't get it lined up exactly straight but I'm all about imperfection here.  Only in scrapbooking though, not in trying to tame my wrinkles.  And even then I'm not doing a great job, but let's move on... 

This was another page I finished over the weekend.  Pretty basic design here, which is good when you're just trying to get pages into the books & not worry about too much detail.  The patterned paper is from my Recollections All Girl paper pad, a Nikki Sivils gingerbread house, a white SRM sticker sentiment adhered directly onto my photo, Bella Blvd letter stickers & my Martha Stewart snowflake punch with some pink Want 2 Scrap bling in the centers...

Another event documented and into the scrapbook.  I'm on a roll here...

"Old" is the new "new"...

Well... not really.  I love "new."  In fact, I just bought a lot of "new" today... like lots of fun blingy stuff for Zumba & going out on the town.  I even bought a couple birthday gifts today, too, so it wasn't all just for me... even though MOST of it was for me.  LOL  

But for the sake of this post... we'll just pretend that "old" is cool.  Because I have a TON of old product, not to mention a TON of photos that need to get into the books.  And since my goal this year is to get pages finished, whether they're "publishable" or not, I think I may be on a roll here!  Almost everything I used for these 3 pages was AT LEAST a year old, some of it a LOT older than that.  And of course... there's some SRM stickers on all pages.  LOVE those stickers...   

Photos scrapped... check.

Old stash reduction... check.

Don't care if I can post them anywhere but here... check, check, check!

And speaking of birthday gifts.... I have a fun birthday party to attend tomorrow night.  Belly dancers will be there and I'm sure we'll all be dancing as well!  Woot woooot!  Party pics next week!

Have a FABULOUS weekend everyone!  TGIF!

"Yeah, you keep me holding on in Red Hill Town..."

We painted the town red Saturday night.  Well... I was wearing my red pants anyway.  We started with dinner at Modesto Tapas Bar on The Hill.  Haven't been there in at least 5 years, maybe more.  Always yummy food & it's just a great restaurant.  Bob forgot he had told them we were celebrating our anniversary when he made the reservation & they brought us each a glass of champagne.  Nice!  Didn't get to meet up with my sister & her friends afterward, as our dinner finished before theirs... and quite frankly we're just getting too old to stay out all night.  So we stopped at Bailey's Chocolate Bar in Lafayette Square on the way home for dessert... some "Chocolate Inebriation."  Bailey's is one of my favorite little hip & swanky places to go after dinner.  It's always packed there, so we're obviously not the only ones who love it.  If only they were closer to home.  Or maybe that would be a bad thing... ;-)

Here's another page using more of the photo collages created with Picnik.  It's just makes it too easy to put a lot of photos onto a page.  And what can I say... I find it difficult to just use one photo to sum up an event.  Maybe that makes all my pages look the same.  I do not care.  LOL  

 

I used a few SRM stickers on here, including the running shoes + lots of Bella Blvd...

 

Happy rainy Monday!  Have a GREAT week, everyone!

Zumba love...

Before leaving town this week, I found some time to create with the big mess of products sitting on my craft table... and quite frankly, all over my floor.  Things tend to get scattered all over the place when I'm in create mode.  And please don't come in & try to tip-toe through the big mess.  Makes me nervous.  LOL  I am happy to say though, that I did clean & straighten up the craft room before I left.  Hate coming back home to a mess.  Yay me. 

So... this one is a mix of mostly American Crafts & some Bella Blvd.  I also added a Zumba clothing tag for another punch of color, as well as to play off the circle design in the paper.  Did I mention I buy a lot of Zumba clothes?  A girl's gotta have options... ;-)

These aren't great quality photos, but my scrapbooks are full of pages with imperfect photos.  It's the memories that matter.  And this night is a really good memory...           

Now if only I could be doing Zumba with my friends right now... all would be perfect in my world.  But... I'm hitting the treadmill instead. 

Don't forget to check out the My Memories Suite giveaway.  You have until Sunday evening to leave a comment! 

TGIF...

Just a quick post today with a mix of products and some of the photos from last weekend's fun.  Once I got the design to work, I came up with the journaling pretty quickly by copying it from my blog post the other day and pasting it into a text box on Word.  You can read the journaling here if you missed it.

 

The random things on my list actually occurred during the whole weekend, even though the photos were from Friday night only.  When I use the photos from Saturday night, there may be a little repetition of things mentioned, but that's ok.  Funny things are worth repeating...    ;-)   

 

TGIF everyone!  Hope it's a great weekend for you!  Ours will be eventful and full of more photo opps! 

SRM Stickers + Bella Blvd...

Check out the SRM Stickers blog today for the continuation of their "Paper of the Week" series.  Each Monday a different manufacturer is in the spotlight.  It's my turn today using SRM Stickers + Bella Blvd.  They were very generous when they sent me the Family Dynamix line to work with, so I made 7 projects. 

Here are just 2 of them...

On this page I used one of the new SRM mini calendars + a couple random sentiments...

 

And on this page I used the Faith sentiment stickers...

 

Head over to the SRM Stickers blog to see all of my projects AND for a chance to win the Family Dynamix line + some brand new SRM Stickers! 

Have a GREAT week! 

"Now go. Stop. Drop. Pause..."

Did I ever mention that Thursday is my favorite day of the week?  It may have something to do with Zumba in the morning.  Just sayin.  And I love that some of you have started taking Zumba classes because I talk about it on here all. the. time.  You are cool girls.  ;-)   

 

Just another page today using lots of Bella Blvd.  Since this birthday party was held at the horse race track, I decided to make a horse using my Cricut and the Create A Critter cartridge.  Or... I guess I should say that Bryn made the horse for me.  And of course, I had to add some google eyes.  Love those.      

There was also a Kentucky Derby theme going on... thus the hats.  I didn't wear one, but by the end of the evening Bob did...

 

He's kinda dorky like that.  And I can say that, because I'm never dorky.  Not at all.  

And speaking of Bella Blvd... I'm going to have a boat-load of projects going up on the SRM Stickers blog on Monday for their "Paper of the Week" series that's been going on for the past 2 months.  So stay tuned for that with a chance to win some Bella Blvd goodies! 

And thanks for the fun comments yesterday.  You guys always make me laugh. 

• No, I'm not selling the Missoni I scored.  Ok... well how much is it going for?   
• Yes, OF COURSE, I have an outfit planned for the reunion.  Now I just have to figure out how I'm getting home that night since all the other party people are spending the night at the hotel.  But, hey... at least I have a dress.  I have my priorities you know.
• And as for Zumba... I wish you ALL could make a road trip here to try it out.  I promise you it would be the most FUN workout you've EVER had.  It's like you're at a party in a nightclub... minus the booze & lurking men... and a LOT more sweating!