create

A little off

We are on day 3 of our four day weekend and it seems a little off.  Especially since we aren't going to church .  We usually don't go to church when we are up here in the Poconos.  Mostly because it's just too hard to go and bring the boys without a nursery.  Our oldest can handle the service, but the almost 2-year-old is a mini-disaster.  So we are hanging out - taking walks in the woods, fishing, rowing the boat and eating.  It's been a weekend of good food - not so good for any semblance of a diet I had before coming.  Oh well.  It will be good to get home tomorrow and get back on track. 

Hubby is leaving for Switzerland tomorrow night and will be gone until next Sunday.  This is pretty horrible as he was in NYC last week for 3 days and gone at the beginning of May for 4 days.  I don't do well by myself at night.  I know it sounds totally lame, but I got married right after college and haven't really had to sleep by myself at night.  Now I LOVE being by myself in my house during the day, but at night my mind just starts thinking about all the really BAD stuff that could happen.   It's probably worse for the boys as they just miss him so much when he goes on his trips.

I did manage to do a layout up here using Jessica Bolton's fabulous new blog gift.

credits:  Wish blog gift from Jessica Bolton, graph paper from Gina Cabrera, Virtual Photographer on the photo, fonts are stamp act and trebuchet ms.

My first altered project

I know I am not winning any awards here, but this is my first altered project.  My edge inking went a little overboard (didn't realize how "easy" it was to ink the edges and how much ink the paper would suck up) and my first foam stamping is a little sloopy (haven't really done much stuff with paint AT ALL).....but this was seriously FUN.  Next time I would do what Donna Downey suggests in her book to make it look more finished - spray painting the edge and spiral binding.  I used Jessica Bolton's fabulous Delight in Photographs kit and printed the digital pages out on cardstock on my home printer.  I couldn't believe how awesome it printed out.  I thought I would try a couple of these first before I did an album.  I want to do one for my hubby and father for Father's Day. 

Well, this is short as I am going out to the dock with hubby to drink some wine and contemplate life.  We are up at my in-laws lake house in NE Pennsylvania for the holiday weekend.  It is SO relaxing here - especially after the boys go to bed.  I wish I could live up here IRL.  Our oldest son (4 years) went fishing with Daddy this afternoon and caught 3 fish....one was a huge 14 inch bass.  He caught the first fish of the trip using the worms he collected and his little fishing rod.  Needless to say he was beyond ecstatic.  I'll share some pictures tomorrow. 

Check out Jess' blog for an awesome free gift!!

2 weeks...yikes!!

Yesterday, I picked up the camera for my regular photo session of the boys in their church clothes (since this is probably the only FIVE minutes of the day that they aren't covered in dirt or mulch) and realized that it had been 2 WEEKS since I last took a picture.  Add to that, my last blog post from THREE weeks ago and you can see it has been all falling apart here. 

The falling apart has had to do with our cable modem....which in turn affects our phone (we have that VOIP phone thing).  Since we don't get great cell phone coverage where we are (for some odd reason, especially since we live 7 miles from The White House!!), it has been these 2 weeks of feeling totally disconnected.  I've had to go across the street (to actually get only 2 bars on my cell phone) to call Comcast to ask where the technician is (missed 3 appointments).  Then we get a guy who works here for almost 2 hours and leaves with the cable modem still not working AND for some reason the digital cable NOW not working.  Ohhh, that was bad since we couldn't watch The Sopranos and Big Love that last Sunday night.....  Anyway, we are now all fixed and connected and caught up with our shows. 

I used my lack of internet to do some much needed maintenance on my computer.  So much digital scrapping stuff I don't ever use and won't ever use, got packed off to DVDs (I should've just deleted it, but my pack-rat instincts prevailed).  Feels good to have things running better and organized.  Now if I need a specific alpha or ribbon I will know right where it is. 

So all I have to show in terms of scrapping is one measly page...that's it.  ONE PAGE in almost 3 weeks.  Pretty pathetic.  My only excuse is that I've been bitten by this Donna Downey journal thing.  It's like REAL paper and REAL glue.  LOL!!  I've never been a paper scrapper, so this is so, so new to me.  I started easy by "re"covering a spiral journal notebook.  I used some of my digital scrapping paper printed on cardstock (who knew how fabulous it would turn out).  I will post picture once I finally get it finished.  I am just waiting on finding the "perfect" ribbon.  Although, I'm sure it will take me an hour to get the bow just right...lol.  I now see there is something to this paper-project-stuff.  Trust me, I don't see myself becoming a paper girl, but the whole album/art journal thing is just so tempting to me.  It's nice not to be tied to the computer.

Anyway, here is my layout for this Easter.  I used DDE's Hello Chickee kit and scraplifted one of the layouts in April's CK issue.  The article is "Make 12 Layouts in one Night".  Yeah, right!  This layout was timed to take 11 minutes.  It took me 11 minutes just to crop my photos the way I wanted them.  Oh well, I will never be a fast scrapper.  I feel like it needs more, but oh well.

Hubby is out of town these next couple nights so I am going to have to stay up late and get back in the swing of scrapping things.  I've been missing out on all the great activities at Scrapartist and the like, so I am going to be checking stuff out after the boys are in bed.

Photo + Scrap Challenge #3

ARGGHHHH!!!  Too many computer problems here yesterday and today.  Finally, all seems fixed and I'm able to post my layout for Jess' Blog challenge.  You were to answer the question..."I think _____ is beautiful!"  Better late than never, I guess?

 

credits:  jen wilson sepia papers, meredith fenwicks true colors papers, jess bolton ribbons and stitching, tonya doughty random alpha, shabby princess scalloped edges, date stamp by mandy steward, book plate by HIS collection (Meredith Fenwick & Kim Christensen), fonts are jw pencil loops, ld remington portable, ld journaling.

On a more serious note, I think I need to quit the scrapping thing.  Seriously, I spend way too much time on each layout, trying this...trying that....the number of layers I add, delete and modify is huge!!  So, I either have to stop striving for a sort of "perfection" (at least in my eyes) and start having fun....or the other alternative is to move back to my next favorite thing to do...quilting.  At least with that, once you get started it's pretty hard to "undo" what you've done.  I did think I try the "make 12 layouts tonite" thing in April's CK mag.  I really love the layouts (multiple photos which I love) and think it would be fun.  Maybe it will get me back in the groove. 

I'll share another layout I did for the scraplift challenge a couple weeks ago at SA.  We scraplifted one of Jen Harr's LOs.  That was fun.  I used Dianne Rigdon's Lil Buckaroo kit.  See full credits at my gallery at SA (link on right).