Wow! It's been a year!

I know I've said this before but I am back! LOL. I had a baby. Her name is Emily. She is uber-adorable and now I am ready to start scrapping again. I think.

We had a good and bad year. I had a baby. My best friend died. That's the year in a nutshell.

So onto the scrapbooking. I finished Emily's album. It is so gorgeous and I am so proud. Lately I've been working on baby albums for Sandy's sons. Two of them are pregnant. Well, their girlfriends are at least. One with a boy and one with a girl. I gave the boy album away last Sunday at the baby shower. I didn't take any pics, bummer. BJ totally helped me get it finished in 2 days. Thanks so much! But I still have to finish the girl one and I will post pics of it. In the meantime, here's a pic of my beautiful girls. I'll be back soon.....

New pages

I joined a 14 days of Valentine sketches challenge where you do one sketch a day. It started yesterday and goes through Feb. 14th. I decided to use the sketches to get started on the new baby's album. I am absolutely loving the new Topstitch collection from Close to my Heart. I am going to try to do all 14 pages out of that paper. So here are my first two:

Here's another page I did with that same paper. I got this sketch from Little shop of Sketches.
Tonight I was going to join a women's group at a local church that are reading through the bible and scrapping about the verses. I thought that was such a great idea! Plus the support of the women is such a help to hold me accountable! LOL. Anyway, hubby still isn't home from work, so I couldn't go...I called and he is on his way. I was worried!

Harley's catching a cold and we are selling girl scout cookies. I started work again today until the end of this month...busy busy busy. I couldn't be happier :) Happy February!

Baby Busy-ness

I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year's. I've been slowly but steadily cleaning my house and preparing it for the baby's arrival. I am getting so darned excited! I seriously did not think I wanted another baby, but we made the decision to have one and now I couldn't be happier. I think most of the problem was that my first "baby" was twins and it was hard! The girls came and then my stepson came to live with us 6 months later and he was disabled and that was hard! I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that one little baby might be fun and happy and a joy. The girls are so excited and so is Shawn. So here we are, happy and blessed and barely getting any scrapping done..lol! I did a page yesterday with this beautiful new paper I bought from Close to my Heart. It was for a scraplift the person before you type challenge. So here is the page I scraplifted, it's from MelissaW:
http://www.scrapbook.com/galleries/101158/view/2552645/-1.html
and here is my take:
This new paper from Close to my Heart is called Topstitch. They have a coordinating stamp set that I just might have to purchase!

My friend Holly and I also made the invitations to my baby shower which is coming up on Feb. 20th. I am excited for that too. Hopefully lots of my friends that I haven't seen for a long time will come. We live "up the hill" and have no car right now so it seems we don't see anyone anymore.
Here are some layouts I did for my sister in law of her baby girl and baby boy. They aren't exactly babies anymore but I gave these to her for Christmas. This was using the new Close to my Heart Felicity Collection. It came with the paper and stamp set. It is only available until Jan. 31st!

The girls had a birthday and they turned 9 years old! I feel like they are growing up so fast! I keep finding myself scrapping pictures of them when they were young. I loved how cute and innocent they were. They are starting to get too pre-teenish for me. Hubby has to step in a lot and take over the arguments. I feel they argue a lot with me instead of obeying. I'm not looking forward to the time when they don't like me at all. How do I keep that from happening? How do I keep being their best friend and mom at the same time? Leave some advice...I need help!

Almost Christmas!

I have been trying to get some Christmas cards done and sent out but things are moving slowly around here. Hubby had his bday, so here's a page I did about him. Wasn't he so cute? He's still cute :) Here's a Christmas page I did that I'll add just because it's Christmas. It's our first Christmas as a family (with kids!) The girls are excited about Christmas. They still believe in Santa and I think that's awesome. I need to buy some wrapping paper and start wrapping presents. There aren't that many, but I gotta get it done before they start snooping around in my closet.

Were you a closet snooper? A looker of under beds trying to find what your parents got you for Christmas? I was! I even unwrapped presents that were already under the tree and then re-wrapped them. And to tell you the truth...I still hunt for my gifts. The year before last my hubby hid my gift in the shed out back. I never found it...he's getting too smart for me.

Anyway, I am trying to keep the true spirit of Christmas which is of course, Jesus. He is the reason for the season. Here's a verse for some perspective:
But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:10-11

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Where I've been!

So...i haven't been here, but I have been around. I am 5 months pregnant so lots of stuff got put on hold. But I got some mojo back and here is 2 pages I've done that took the past two weeks! TFL!

stolen from Jaime

ABC's of me
A - Age: 32
B - Bed size: Queen
C - Chore you hate: dishes
D - Dog's name: Princess
E - Essential start your day item: coffee pot
F - Favorite color: greens
G - Gold or Silver: silver
H - Height: 5'6"
I - Instruments you play(ed): i play A song on the piano and A song on the guitar :)
J - Job title: um...phone caller and home school teacher and mom
K - Kid(s): Harley and Chloe and Cody
M - Mom's name: Lori
N - Nicknames: J, Jenn, Jenny
O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: None
P - Pet Peeve: Kids sitting on the laps of parents in cars! Are those parents stupid!!!???
Q - Quote from a movie: No one saw!!! Outrageous Fortune
R - Right or left handed: Right
S - Siblings: a brother and two sisters.
T - Time you wake up: depends on the day
U- Underwear: hole-y :)
V - Vegetable you dislike: I have to agree with beets.
W - Ways you drink your coffee: with sugar free sugar and milk usually...but you can entice me with flavored creamer.
X-rays you've had: teeth
Y - Yummy food you make: my kids like potato bake
Z - Zoo favorite : monkeys...they are so funny to watch!

Card Swaps & Promotions

I am becoming addicted to card swaps. It started with the stamp camp. I had to make 10...fine. 10 is a nice rounded number. This week I made 20 cards for a card swap at Pink Pineapple. 20 is wayyyy too many. But I'd do it again..lol. I am going to participate in the 1st card swap at the lss here in town too. We only have to have 5 cards. I am trying to get my kids to participate but we'll see. I don't think they can make 5 of the same card yet. Anyway, here's a pic of the 20 I made.
Pretty simple, right?

The girls had a promotion ceremony at school! They got promoted to 3rd grade! I am so proud!
This is their teacher at school. There was absolutely no way I could have homeschooled these two this year without her help. She was sent from heaven! Thank you Mrs. Millen!

Charles Card Challenge #2

It had only been two days and they wanted another card challenge. Fine with me! I love cards. On Wednesdays we go to a free make n take at the lss. They usually make cards. So we decided to use whatever card we make there as our base and then add the rest of the challenge which was:
1. Use Brads
2. Use pop-ups
3. Use Bling
4. HAVE FUN!

Here is Harley's take:
Here is Chloe's take:Here is my take (I couldn't find my card from the store :( :
TfL!

Charles Card Challenge #1

So the girls and I started doing some card challenges at home with each other. No one wins or loses, just for fun. So our first challenge was:
1. Use blue pattern paper
2. Use ribbon
3. Use bling
4. Have FUN!

Here is Harley's take:
Here is Chloe's take:
Here is my take:

TFL!

USE it Challenge!

USE IT Challenge #12

Here is Patti's challenge:
1) Use some old chipboard
2) Use buttons- one of my very favorite embellishments
3) Tear some paper.
4) Optional: Stitch.

And here's my take:

Use IT Challenge #11

Here is Ingrid's challenge:

1. Size: square card base

.....
2. Theme: Summer

.....
3. Embellishments:

use a flower(s), ribbon, pin(s) and twine
.....
4. Tools: Punches

Here's my take! Hope it's still in on time!!

A coupla pages!

I need to do my use it challenge card...i think it's due today! But I wanted to post these pages I did.

I love these papers! I got them from Holly. I think they are a new stampin' up set!

This lo is for the Hearts and Crafts Design Team. We had to do something for Father's Day with all this stuff. We also got some other stuff. *Edit...since I took this pic...my hubby wanted something on this page...so I let him, he messed up and didn't like it. So now the yellow strip is a black strip with a quote...A Bird in a cage...is worth two in a bush.

This was for a BOM challenge. It was really hard. The blue rectangle with the arrows is an accordian style hidden journal. It's kinda personal. I hid it...
And, I finally scrapped the puppy pics of Princess! She is huge now...but got this page done...
TFL! Off to make the card!

Weekend

What a busy weekend. It wasn't really...it just went so fast it feels like it. The girls went camping at Fiesta Island with the girl scouts. I can't wait to get their cameras developed. I always send them with disposables. They said they didn't take very many pics. I think Chloe will use the rest of her film taking pics of the cats. I find so many on my digital camera! For example:


But anyway! I wanted to post some lo's I did at the lss night crop on Friday. Since I had no children, I stayed reeeaallyy late and I was exhausted on Sat. morn at 8 a.m. when I got up. ...For no reason cuz the kids were still gone. So Sat. morn I watched the finale for Ugly Betty. And guess what? I missed the end cuz I recorded it and it went past the cut off time for the recorder. So if anyone knows, can you tell me if Daniel's wife died or not??? Thanks.
So here's a lo that I did last week for the Scraptathlon chall. I love the distressed look of this. I also like the topic and inspiration. I got some points from votes. I have to load it anonymously.

SO Sat. around 12:30 or so, Holly picked me up because she had a bbq at her house at 2 p.m. and I had no car. Then I hung out until 10:30 p.m. and went home. Shawn came for a little while. It was nice. I held a baby that is 4 weeks old and I want one. sshhh..don't tell. I will change my mind soon.

Another lo. This one is for a Scrap the Beach chall. (75% blue and brown) and for the Mother's day chall.

Today the girls came home at about 11a.m. I missed them soooooo much! I held them like babies ;) Then I scrapped and they watched t.v. because, you know, they had to camp with no t.v. God forbid! ANYWAY, I have dispersed the lo's throughout the whole post so you wouldn't get bored! This was long..sorry.

A lo for the Scrap the Beach chall. journaling.

A lo I did of my friend's sons. For the Scrap the Beach Chall. stamping.
Just a random lo. I wanted to do a page before I forgot about soccer.

Scrapbook Challenges DT Blog Hop!

I was checking out a blog hop and it is so much fun! It started at Pamela's blog and then hopped to 9 others. Here's my take on the sketch they had to win a RAK.
The sketch:
And my take:
TfL!

Use IT Challenge #10

Here are the rules of the challenge:
1. monochromatic scraps- All of it is scraps but all the green is monochromatic scraps.

2. rub-ons or clear stickers- the part that says is You & Me are rub-ons

3. chipboard- Both stars are chipboard covered in paper. The LOVE is chipboard also.

4. (optional) non-traditional ribbon- I don't know if my rope ribbon counts as non-traditional. But it isn't traditional to me!

And here's my take on it!

I got this sketch from the CTMH catalog. Thanks for looking.

Church in Jamul

I had my final conference with the teacher today and she is so great! I love how re-assuring she is. She said the girls are doing wonderful. We have enough work turned in, but finish up the reading in the books we have and maybe do a couple hands on activities out of the book because we have to turn them in and then this summer work on multiplication up to 5's and work on the computer on compass learning. She said take the summer off! No work...lol. The compass learning is cool because it is games that introduce them to things they will learn next year. I am so darned happy!

I still haven't done my 10 cards for Stamp Camp tonight! I gotta do those right after this post :)

So today the girls were talking about how a kid in their class has an uncle who is a pastor. I said, we have a cousin who is a pastor. They were shocked! So I looked his church up on the www and found him. He's a youth pastor though. No biggie...but then I clicked on his blog and he talked about how he speaks in the main services about once a year and this weekend is the weekend he is doing them! Talk about a God thing! I haven't been in church in a few weeks months and now we are going to watch my cousin speak. I called my aunt and she said she goes to the 9:30 service. Looks like we will be up and gone really early Sunday. Their church is in Jamul.

Just wanted to share cuz I thought it was great. By the way, that pie was nasty! LOL...but the girls liked it!

End of school year stress!

I am totally tripping on having everything done and turned in by the end of the school year. In case you don't know, this is my first year homeschooling my girls and we homeschool through a montessori program. So they get to go to school a couple days a week and there are only 4 more "school days" left. Two more Tuesdays and two more Wednesdays. I emailed the teacher today to find out just how much work I need to pack into the next two weeks to pass 2nd grade. Ugh, I'm stressed!

On a happy note, Holly and I are attending Stamp Camp at the Stampin' Up ladies house tomorrow night! I am so excited! I love going and learning new stuff. The best thing is the card swap. Last month I didn't participate, but Holly did and she got some amazing cards. I am excited. So I guess I better go get started making my 10 cards to swap. :/

On Memorial Day weekend, the girls are going camping with the girl scouts from Friday - Sunday. Isn't that awesome!! And guess what else?? :D Hubby might be going to the river with a couple of his buds too! Could you imagine...an entire weekend at home by myself! Holy mackeral! I gotta find me a crop or two or three! The only bad thing is we only have one car and hubby is talking about taking it. Guess I'll be staying home :)

Here's a pic of this wonderful looking Lemon Meringue Pie I made tonight. I say wonderful looking because I haven't actually tried the pie itself yet and this was my first time making one. Doesn't it look yummy? :) Has it been 3-6 hours chilling yet?

Use It Challenge #9

Here's my entry for the USE IT Challenge #9:
These were the must-haves:
1. Color challenge: PINK, BLACK, WHITE
2. Accents: SCALLOPS, RIBBON, AND BLING,
OH MY!
3. Pattern: POLKA DOTS, BABY!
4. D.I.Y.: aka 'do it yourself'
Create something to add to your card....
I made a flower by sewing some ribbon into a circle and then pulling tight and adding a button to the middle.
The button doesn't look very pink, but I promise it is. On this pic it looks more red to me.

Anyway!!! I have to get some scrapping done because I joined way too many challenges. But wanted to get this card in today while I was in a missing mood. I miss my friend.

Use It Challenge #8

I am following a new blog called Use It! that has challenges to use my supplies in the way of card making. Here's this weeks challenge. I had to use flowers, metal (brad), fiber and as an extra, a tool I haven't used in a long time...didn't do that part. TFL.

Stuff from Scrapbook Expo

Here are a couple of the things we made at the scrapbook expo:

This was the make n take at the Tattered Angels booth. It was so fun. We used tons of glimmer mist and the mask/stamp set they have there. These are the new Framed fonts that they have. Super cute!!
Just a free make n take we made at a booth. It was cute.
a sand shaker box we made at Heartstring Designs. They made these using a bag. I thought that was neat considering I learned from Holly using pop up tape and a little piece of plastic as the window. They also have a unique product called Matboard. It's this board above here, double matted. It's thick. I like it.
An Acrylic album that we made using a Bind It All Zutter. I love it! I want one so bad. Do you know how many books you can make as gifts with this thing! It was so cool. I also now love acrylic!
I made more things there but they are half finished so they will be posted later...


Some cards I made for one of the NSBD challenges at scrap-diner.com. I had to make 6 cards using titles of songs as the sentiment. Here's 3 + the 1 below. Still have two more to make.

This card is for the Card Challenge at Scrapbook.com. The theme is a thank you card. Plus it has a song title so it counts for the challenge above! TFL!