Shanty-lympics 2008

en & Mel have worked up an awesome challenge for August. Complete with blinkie!!

Pull out your track suit and stretch out your hamstrings. It is time for the Shanty-lympics!!!

For 3 weeks brave scrapbookers from all over the world can meet on one message board to show off their design talents for the thrill of a great layout…. and the agony of papercuts.

The Shanty-lympics will begin on August 8th and the winners will be posted on August 31st. Srapbookers will compete in 3 weekly challenges and win points from voters. At the end the 3 winners will be awarded Gold, Silver and Bronze prizes. You must have active participation on our message board in order to participate (only member having at least 25 posts before August 8th will be allowed to play). We welcome people from all over the globe to come and play in the Shanty-lympics!!

So invite all your scrappy friends over to Scrap Shanty to play in the Shanty-lympics. There is plenty of time to get the required 25 posts in before the 8th and also time to make great friends on a friendly and fun message board!!

Oy-Vey!

The challenges for the forth and final Week 4 of the Ultimate Recipe Showdown at Scrap Shanty - and Week 3 of the Summer of Scrap Lovin' Contest at Scrap Love - are TOUGH!

For the Ultimate Recipe Showdown this weeks challenge is:

1. first, you must use a sketch!


2. secondly, your LO must include journaling. the journaling must be more than just the facts (who/what/where) AND must be visible.

3. now for the fun part you must use the 5 numbers in your zipcode to determine the number of photos, embellishments, patterned papers, words in your title, etc. anything goes, as long as you have something for each number. (if you have a 0 you must use at least 1 of something.)
for instance, the numbers in my zip are: 44567 so i might do 4 photos, 4 buttons, 5 journaling strips, 6 rhinestones and 7 words in my title. make sense? if you have any questions, please ask! i'd hate for someone to be disqualified for a silly reason on the very last round
4. lastly, your LO must have something to do with where you live. this is very broad....it can be your house, town, state, country, your christmas decorations, your garden, your favorite piece of art, the color of your toothbrush, whatever. again, please ask if you're unsure!

and for SOSL Week 3

1) Your layout must be created primarily with transparencies - either as a background or a large transparency overlay. And we really don't want to see just a teeny transparency on the page either.

2) The title of your layout has to be a song title/lyrics. And we want to see journaling. Please make sure to type out your journaling when uploading your layout.

Thanks to my good friend Jen for getting me something transparent to scrap on - now just to get an idea. I'm getting a headache from thinking up ideas!! Calgon - take me awaaaay!!!!

Trends

So, I was organizing my digital copies of my layouts by year - and I noticed that recently - I've gone to mainly white backgrounds on my layouts. When did I become more comfortable with that - and why? Was I following a trend? Did I become afraid of color and patterns?

I can't say why I made the change - but it is interesting to go back and look. I also uploaded all my old layouts that I could find on the computer onto flickr and sorted them by year. I'm sorry to say that I can't give correct credit to sketches and scraplifts on the majority of them - so I'll just say I'm sorry ahead of time to anyone who's sketch I used or who I scraplifted and didn't retain the information on my hard drive. At the time most of these were made I was strictly at one site - and when I resigned from there it created a major brouhaha that resulted in me losing my gallery and all my information. So, now I have a flickr account and will be able to retain all that info in the future!

PS - I added a flickr badge to my sidebar - so if you are curious - you can check out my scrapping :)

Who got the short end of the stick?

This is a running discussion between Mitch and I. As most of you know - he left February 2008 for a year long deployment to Bahrain/Dubai. When he begins to complain about how rough he has it, being away from the family, I feel for him - really I do. I understand that it is tough being away from home and the family - but lets run down the facts and see who really has the short end of the stick!

For the majority of the last 5 months he has been living in a LUXURIOUS hotel, has a driver to drive him back and forth to work, doesn't have to do any cleaning or anything except for his little bit of dishes and laundry. If he doesn't want to cook - he can order room service or eat at one of the 3 fabulous restaurants right there in the hotel.

While I for the majority of the last 5 months, have been cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, taking care of 3 kids, potty training a dog and trying to keep her in the backyard, working, making sure that cars get oil changes, that the lawn gets mowed and the weed eating gets done. That homework is finished, appointments are made and kept, shopping for items for DH that he can't seem to buy for himself overseas (such as underwear), putting said stuff into boxes and getting it mailed, chores are done and entertaining kids 24-7. Kids that seem to think that I am Mom-TV - the 24 hour entertainment channel.

So - who got the short end of the stick do you think? ( I know, I'm whining - and I love my life and my kiddos - but maaaan - they are on my nerves today!)

Music to Scrap By

Well as you can tell, I added a playlist to my blog. I was blog surfing the other day and came across this blog and she had some of the coolest songs on it - so I made up a playlist and added a few others that I love to listen to too. My taste in music is definitely eclectic.

So, what are some songs that you love to listen to while scrapping?? I just might add them to my playlist. Also, do you love or hate playlists on blogs?

I put mine at the top - so you can easily turn it off, if it annoys you - cause I know I get annoyed when I have to search for where I can turn them off at :)

SOSL Week#2

Here is the layout I finished for the Summer of Scrap Lovin' Contest at Scrap Love . This challenge was a definite challenge.

I worked really hard thinking up the theme and design for this layout, and what non-scrapping items I would use. Put lots of thought into it .... not that I'm sure you can tell LOL. The design is pretty close to what I was thinking in my head - but the overall effect I'm not sure about ...sigh.

Anyway here it is:


and a close up, so you can see my non scrappy items - which were straws, a pepsi label, a name badge and a mesh bag from a garlic bulb :)

Week #3 Ultimate Recipe Showdown

Well here is what I came up with for week#3 for this contest at Scrap Shanty .

I am a scrap-stalker.....sorta

Well I would be - if Jen weren't already my friend :) But fortunately for me - she is my friend - so I don't have to resort to stalking her.

I did a couple of scraplifts of Jen's layouts the other day. Not sure how well I did at lifting them - cause Jen has an effortless style and awesome handwriting - which I posses neither of.

But the photos are done - and my admiration for Jen's scrapping is now documented - so all's well ;)


this is a lift of Jen's Cold Pink Nose layout.



and this one is a lift of Jen's Let's Roll Big Brother layout.

Oh yeah - I can't wait for this movie!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DIqaoYJEaI&hl=en&fs=1]

Anyone else a Twilight fan?

Get this widget!

I have to admit to coming late to the party. When I was snowed in at my sisters in January 2008, I was looking for a book at Target and happened to run across Twilight in paperback. It was a nice big book - and it was about vampires. So I bought it. Little did I know what I was getting myself into!

I read that book in about a day, couldn't put it down in fact. Noticed there were 2 other books in the series. So off to Barnes & Noble we went, and I bought all THREE in hardback and gave the paperback to my neice. I ended up reading all these books in just a couple of days. Wonderful story and writing.

The 4th and final book in the series is due out August 2nd.



There is also a movie due out soon. You may have seen the cover of a recent Entertainment Weekly. Still not sure if I'm liking the "look" of Edward - time will tell. But I will definitely be seeing this movie when it comes out.

I had no idea how huge these books were when I became a fan - we are talking Harry Potter type huge! But they are so worth it, and I am now re-reading them in preparation for Breaking Dawn, which I preordered months ago, to arrive.

So anyone else?

Hmm...

So after watching this video - is your first impulse to boil some eggs and try it?

No? Well, maybe I'm not as normal as the voices in my head tell me I am.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dut1b--AgLM]

SOSL Week#2 Challenge

This weeks challenge has me freakin' a bit.

The challenge is:

Your mission is to go through your junk drawer, your desk drawer, where ever you keep stuff junk and make a page using "non-scrap supplies". You can use magazines, tags from clothes or objects, wrapping paper, office supplies, receipts, just anything that you wouldn't use to embellish a traditional page. AND we want to easily see at least 3 different non-scrap supplies on your page.

Hopefully I can figure out something cool to do for the challenge - stay tuned.

SOSL Week #1 - finished

K - so this is what I did for week #1's challenge over at ScrapLove . I took inspiration from the baseball field photo and did this Football themed layout. Patterned papers and chipboard circles are from a Scarlet Lime kit, I added American Crafts Thickers and MM Tiny Alpha. Pretty simple - but I think I like it!

Week #2 Ultimate Recipe Showdown

This is what I came up with for week 2. Stacy (the big meanie) said she wouldn't accept my squiggly lined paper for striped paper, but since I'm just playing along - I say POO on her and I'm gonna call it finished ;)



Papers are from a ScrapRoom Kit - I added Around the Block Doodle Alpha, Heidi Swapp Chipboard Alpha, Unknown chipboard tab, Cosmo Cricket Rub-ons.

Clean scrapping room

So my scrappy friend Shana and her kids are coming over today and since it is the first time she will have seen my scrapping area - I dusted! I know, can you believe it? I also finished up the tail end of my organizing.

I know it has taken me long enough - but I feel okay now to show you some photos of the area since I moved. Sorry for the long wait - I know you were patiently waiting with bated breath to see this ;)


This is the place the magic happens (or more often the train wrecks!), there are 2 IKEA desks facing each other, Emma "owns" the other side - so I didn't take a picture of that - cause Emma's idea of clean and mine are far apart!

These are my IKEA shelves, that hold my stuff in those small Iris drawers. I also have small plastic containers that hold my tools and punches and other stuff. Also my Albums are here too.


This is another IKEA shelf, that houses all my patterned paper on top of it, along with alphabet stickers, page kits and other stuff stored in craft project carriers. This also houses my photos.
I also have 4 Iris carts along it that hold office supplies, photo paper, ink cartridges, envelopes, adhesive and memorabilia.


This is on my desk. All my little goodies within reach :)


See the pretty label? Everything is all nice and labeled now and organized- no pulling out drawers to see what is inside! Yee-haw!

Summer of Scrap Lovin' Week 1

Great challenge this week for the SOSL Week 1. I've been pondering what to do for the challenge - I need to get hot cause it is due on the 19th. I'll post back and let you know what I made.

The challenge is: Create a layout using this mosiac as your inspiration. You may choose to use the colors, a certain photograph, the mood or season of the picture - just anything that has inspired you from these photographs.

I scrapped!!!

Don't faint now anyone -but I actually scrapped over the weekend. Scrap Love was having a kick off crop for their Summer of Scrap Lovin' Contest. It was just the kick I needed to get moving!!

Everything pretty much Uses a Scarlet Lime kit with few additions. These kits rock my world!

Did this for a winter time memories challenge.


This was for a Patterned Paper only challenge


This was for a campfire memories challenge


This was a scraplift of a layout by LaurieC


This was for a challenge to use Wings, and have Wings in the title.


This was for a Lyrics Challenge. Lyrics were from Jack Johnson's Better Together song.

This was for a color inspiration challenge.

So I got a lot done, but my scrappin' mojo was interrupted by Braeden coming in bleeding. He had been cleaning up around the shed in the backyard - and had stepped on a nail with his right foot, in his heel and when he got off that nail and stepped back with his left foot - he got a nail in that heel. What are the odds? So off to the emergency room we went to get him a tetanus shot. Poor kid.
I told him that I had wanted out of going to Hell on Earth aka Chuck E Cheese for a birthday party that day, but that that was not the way I wanted to get out of it!

Ultimate Recipe Showdown Week 2

your LO must have a christmas theme* (hey, blame whoever invented christmas in july!)

use non-traditional colors (i.e. no red and green) YOU CAN USE RED OR GREEN, JUST NOT A RED/GREEN COMBINATION!

scallops

striped patterned paper

chipboard

use song title/lyrics for your LO title

Gonna have to think on this one a bit - I'll post when I've completed the layout. It is so much fun to be able to just "play"!!

Tagged

Jen tagged me - so I figured I'd better answer this :)

Ten Years Ago:1998.
I was living in Santa Rita Guam and was pregnant with my 2nd child.

Five Things on Today's To-Do List:
Work
Grocery Shop
Get Emma to eat
Scrap
Enjoy the sunshine

Snacks I enjoy:
Red Licorice
Peanut Butter M&M's

Things I would do if I were a Millionaire:
Pay off all my bills
Fully fund college funds for my kids
Travel

Places I have lived:
Glendale, AZ
Great Bend, KS
Irrigon, OR
Santa Rita, Guam

People I want to tag:
none :)

Ski Dubai!

While in Dubai - we got to visit the world famous indoor ski area - Ski Dubai. WOW! Inside a mall no less. Amazing. Here is a layout I did - using a ScrapRoom kit and adding some other stuff.

Ultimate Recipe Showdown Contest at the Shanty

Stacy is running this fun contest all this month - and Week 1's recipe was:

Floral patterned paper

1 tag

3 circles (anything circular will do)

Something swirly (rubons, stamps, chipboard, bling, etc.)

Since I'm still on admin at the Shanty - I am just playing along for fun - here is the layout that I did for week one. Uses mostly a Scarlet Lime kit!

2008 Summer of Scraplovin' Challenge

In an effort to get more motivated and back into Scrapping rather than collecting - I joined up over at Scrap Love and signed up for their Summer of Scraplovin' Challenge. I drug Jen along with me for the ride :) Looks like it should be fun - hope I can keep up!

Old Fashioned Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Jen & I were chatting and somehow - we came upon the subject of our love for Oatmeal Cookies. I mentioned that I had an awesome recipe for Oatmeal Raisin Cookies and Jen made me promise to share it on my blog.

So here ya go Jen!

1 Cup Raisins
1 Cup Water
3/4 Cup Shortening
1 1/2 Cups Sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
2 1/2 Cups Flour **
1 tsp soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cloves
2 Cups Oats
1/2 Cup chopped Nuts (I omit this)

**If using Self Rising Flour, omit soda, salt & baking powder.

Simmer raisins & water over medium heatuntil raisins are plump, about 15 minutes. Drain raisins, reserving liquid. Add enough water to reserved liquid to make 1/2 Cup.

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix shortening, sugar, eggs & vanilla. Stir in reserved liquid. Blend in remaining ingredients, including raisins. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light brown.

Makes about 6 1/2 dozen cookies.

Wii Fit

I ordered mine off ebay and it came yesterday. Oh my!! So much fun. Before buying the Wii - I have to admit that this seemed ridiculous to me - but Mitch wanted me to get it - said he wanted something to break up the monotony of running on the treadmill.

And I have to say, it was a great call on his part. I love it! Hula Hoops, Step, Yoga and more. Although I could do without the tough love - of making my Mii look more like me (fat) LOL.

So if you are thinking of getting the Wii Fit - I say go for it - money well spent!

Trampoline

Whenever we go to my sisters - the kids always look forward to jumping on the trampoline. They spend so much time outside playing on hers and the last time we were there - they even slept outside on it.



My MIL has always been against it - said it was an accident waiting to happen. My sister has had hers for over 10 years with no accidents. So I talked it over with DH and we decided to go ahead and get them one. I ordered one and when it got here it took Braeden and I awhile to put together - but the kids LOVE it and I even like to jump on it. I love being able to look out the window and see them outside playing on it.

We have talked with the kiddos about the safety rules, so hopefully we will have years of safe fun with the trampoline, and won't prove MIL right.