(diva)logues

Bueller... Bueller...

 

Anyone... anyone... ?

 

Cricket.... cricket.... 

 

Maybe I should go ahead & re-introduce myself since it's been ridiculously long since I've last blogged.  Like since November 7.

 

Hi... I'm Deana.  Not DeAnna

Blogger for almost 6 years now.  Although in the last couple months you might wonder since it used to be almost daily.

Scrapbooker for almost a lifetime.  Again with wondering.

Zumba instructor who no longer has much drive or inspiration to stay connected to this blogging/crafting world, but is still not willing to give up on said blogging & will probably never quit scrapbooking either. 

I guess a big part of the problem is that I'm no longer designing for any companies, so I don't have anything I HAVE to do. 

 

Torn between 2 lovers... feelin' like a fool... lovin' both of you is breakin' all the rules....

 

Anyhoo.  Here's some of what's gone on in the past month...

• Lots of Zumba.  Duh. 

• Also Spin class & running.
• And an Insanity class that tried to kill me.  I won though.
• A rotator cuff that's having issues. 
• A girls night with fabulously crazy friends

• Annual mammogram & fasting physical.  Still healthy, although one may argue I need meds for craziness.
• 2 movies with a friend:  Thor & Hunger Games... one of which was at a 5-star lounge where they served you from a menu.  Are you kidding me??  Yes please!!

• Lots of volleyball practices & games for Bryn

• Our home alarm motion detector activated in the basement while not home, resulting in the police coming to search our house.  False alarm.  Thankfully no one jumped out of the closet to kill me after they left. 
• Alarm company at house to fix the false alarm problem.
• A weekend in Memphis, along with the Mizzou vs Mississippi football game at Ole Miss.  Coldest 9 hours of my life ever.  But Mizzou won.   Go Tigers!

• Candy Crush.  Level 123.  And yes I know...  I need a life.  Literally & figuratively.
• Mizzou girls volleyball game in Columbia.  They won & are ranked 4th in the country.  Makes me SO want to play volleyball again. 

• My hair did.
• Bryn's hair did.
• A wonderful Thanksgiving with family.

• Black Friday shopping at 2 stores because it was on Bryn's "bucket list" to experience it.  Hopefully the 1/2 wait in line cured her forever, since I already know how much I hate it.
• Cyber Monday, on the other hand, is ok.
• Date night with Bob to watch Mizzou win & go to the SEC championship game.  Tigers vs. Tigers on Saturday.... gotta love it!
• A wake for my friend's dad.
• Some of the Christmas decorations out, along with a tree that's still naked.

• Annual YMCA employee tests and a CPR & First Aid re-certification class.
• Too many iPhone photos & not enough (or rather any) with my Canon.
• And a couple finished pages + a few pages in progress still laying on my floor...

 

 

Suffice it to say that this is the first year in last 5 years that I'm not doing a December Daily mini book.  I'd be lucky to blog daily & we all know that isn't happening...  so I'm pretty sure the mini book is NOT happening either. 

Am I a little sad to not be doing it?  YES.  Because the finished book is always pictures & daily memories that would've never been documented in the main scrapbook had it not been for the work to complete it. 

But also one less thing to stress me out in December.

So yay me.

 

Okie dokie then.  I'll be back in less than a month.  Even if it kills me...

"Them baggy sweat pants & the Reeboks with the straps... she turned around & gave that big booty a slap..."

 

Ok here we go.  I actually have acccomplished something other than playing Candy Crush or cruising Facebook lately.  Why I ever let my friend finally talk me into Candy Crush, after at least 6 months of harassing me to play, I don't know.  We're talking SERIOUS time-waster, folks. 

As if Facebook isn't bad enough.  

If you're not already playing this stupid game... just say NO.  I recommend just doing Zumba instead.  Then you can EAT candy, instead of just getting aggravated by it. 

 

Halloween was a blast this year.  I got to dress up TWICE for Zumba.  Once for a Halloween party at Brickhouse Cardio Club where I teach... I dressed as a 70's Disco Queen, afro wig & all...

 

 

.... and then it was an 80's costume theme for Zumba on Halloween morning at the YMCA, so I dressed like I actually used to dress for aerobics classes in the 80's.  That's me on the right in the pink leotard & pink leg warmers.  And no that's not a wig this time... just dusted off the hot rollers & used a ton of hairspray.  Although it did look like a wig, I must say.  A really BAD wig. 

Why did I ever think my hair looked good like that?

 

And Bryn dressed up as Minnie Mouse this year...

I also went on a 7th grade field trip to the St Louis Zoo, with a horrible sinus infection.  Bryn wanted me to go though, so if a 12-year old still wants you around.... you grin & bear it... since that may not last forever...

And yes... she's officially taller than me now. 

Sigh...

 

And here's a few pages I finished recently... all of which have SRM Stickers on each somewhere...

And just incase you missed my last post... I passed the AFAA Group Exercise Instructor test.  So I'm officially certified.  Or certifiable.  Either works in my case...

 

 

 

Leave a comment if you have questions, because I'm leaving product information off this time.  It's already a long enough post and well... I'm feeling lazy. 

Or... maybe it's because Facebook & Candy Crush are calling my name?

 

Step away from the phone...

Just say NO. 

"The way she pop it low... drop it low... shawty's got dance moves..."

 

Hmmm... only 12 days this time... wow, I think I'm onto something here. 

And it's called neglect. 

Strangely enough... people still visit this blog every day in spite of my not posting.  A LOT of the traffic is via Pinterest for this project I posted 2 years ago when Bryn was playing volleyball.  I made these gifts for her teammates (using SRM tubes + stickers), since I was one of the coaches for her team.  The owner of SRM Stickers has told me before that it's the most-pinned project of everything she's put on Pinterest from her design team. 

People love colorful shoe laces, I guess.  Who knew?!  LOL 

And speaking of volleyball, Bryn is FINALLY back at it again.  I mean, have you seen how tall that girl is?  She NEEDS to play.  Us shawtys that played volleyball back in the day, could only bump & set.  That girl can slam it over the net with those long legs if she'd just stay at it.  Anyhoo.... her first game is next week while we're in Vegas.  Very bummed to miss it, but I think Grandma will be able to take her.  

In addition to volleyball, other things going on around here include teaching/subbing Zumba, watching Mizzou football with friends in the rain, taking Bryn to the dermatologist for some weird virus on her legs that looks like gigantic zits, helping with boatloads of 7th grade homework (minus the math... that's Bob's department), spinning & running, hangin' with my peeps, enjoying the cooler Fall weather & looking forward to seeing my sister this weekend. 

I've also finished a few things lately, while catching The Voice & the Cardinals playoff games.   

Gotta love St Louis!

No detail shots on any of these, so it's not a mile-long post.  Just message me if you want product info.  I figure I may as well post all these at once since it could be another 12-17 days before I'm back on here again.   

Ahem. 

 

On this one I used Bryn's artwork.  She drew her name with markers one day at the Y while I was teaching so I saved it, cut it out & put it on here with some of her "selfies" she took over the summer.  The rest of the page is a list of things she did this summer.  You know... a reminder to her when she tells me she never goes anywhere...

On the next page, I forgot that I had already used these comparison photos of the first & last days of school, like ummm 2 weeks ago, so technically I have 2 pages with these same photos.  And before you ask how that happened, the answer is YES.  I AM LOSING MY MIND.  Don't judge. 

Hey, at least I never posted the first page or you'd really think I was strange.  Perhaps that's why I forgot. 

And yes, I know you think I'm strange anyway.  Don't judge. 

And since I really didn't like that first page I made a couple weeks ago anyway, but did like the journaling card... I just peeled it off that page and stuck it on this next page! 

Not so strange after all, huh?

And the journaling for this last page was taken directly from my blog post seen here.  Just typed it onto Word, printed & added Bryn's 7th grade photos taken at orientation in August.  Easy peasy...

 

SRM Stickers on all 4 pages.  Whether I'm designing for them or not, I'm a fan for life! 

 

Oh.... and I FINALLY received my copy of the March issue of Scrapbook Trends magazine where my card was published.  After this long of waiting, I thought for sure they had forgotten about me.  Never got to see the edition until now, but gotta love that they gave me a 2-page spread...

 

Bob asked me when I made those muffins by my card & why didn't he get any? 

Ummm... it's the magazine's styling for the photo shoot..... helllllooooo.... ?

 

I heard they've recently gone all digital.  As have a lot of magazines.  Kinda sad. 

 

Ok then... I leave you with my new favorite Zumba song...

 

 

Time to hit the dance floor...

"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! 

"Hey hey hey..."

TGIF... and so far it's been an awesome one.  Although any day that begins with a fun Zumba class usually makes for an awesome day.  As do surprise early birthday gifts! 

For Mother's Day I received a new laptop, which was awesome considering I've had my current laptop for about 5 years & it was just a matter of time before it crashed on me.  So for a few days I was without my old one while everything was transferred over to the new one.   I had a couple scheduled posts this week though, so it appeared that I was still around.  For the last couple days I've been working between the two computers since 1) I haven't totally figured everything out on this new one and 2) I only have Photoshop on the old one.   My next order of business is to get that on the new laptop.  Hoping to figure that out tonight. 

Actually I'm hoping Bob will figure that out for me tonight.  Ahem.

Best Mother's Day gift of all though... was the hand-painted chevron print canvas that Bryn made for me.  I've always told her I'd much rather she make something for me, than to buy something.  She's one very creative girl.  You can't tell in the photo, but the white paint is sparkly.  Gotta love anything with glitter...

 

And speaking of her creativity... I found some random photos from her 4th grade year (2 years ago) and decided to make one page about these random events from that year, rather than dedicate a separate page to each event...

It's a mix of old & new products... plus some SRM Stickers.  Their stickers always seem to find a way onto my pages & projects.  Love them!

 

And YAY... I'm teaching a 90-minute Zumba class tomorrow morning, so the FUN continues!

Have a GREAT weekend, everyone! 

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!  ;-)

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  

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...

"ONE... we came to have some fun... TWO... and we came to rock with you..."

I guess I lied.  I thought I had finished the last page for Bryn's 10th year book.  But for realz this time, after finishing this one, I am D. O. N. E. with that book now.  Yay.

Just a few photos from a trip to Scottsdale last October during the World Series.  We packed some Cardinals red to show our support from afar & spent a lot of time watching baseball while there.  However... I realized after I printed my journaling that I thought it was the Playoffs.  So I'm going to change that.  

I hand-cut the cactus.  In fact, I didn't even draw my shape first, just cut... thus the imperfectness.  I used a combination of products... mostly Echo Park & DCWV. 

Getting tired of seeing graph paper yet?  I can't get enough of it!  Heehee 

6 more days until my next trip...  VEGAS again, baby!  3rd time this year.  Wooot! 

What to pack... what to pack... besides bling & shoes, that is?