Mail Call

I got this super cute card in the mail from my mom. I LOVE it. It features the new Anna Griffin papers that I am loving right now. Mom apparently has some styles I don't! I am going to display this in my scrapbook "area" so I can look at it all the time. I can tell where I get my creative streak from. My mom is so crafty and talented. If she had more time there is no telling what she would come up with. Yes Dad, you are creative too. I just don't think your writing skills rubbed off on me (as you can tell from my blog!).

Today is my Friday here at work and it has been a busy day. I did have time this morning to stop at Barnes and Noble (it is right next to my train station) and get a couple books for our trip. One is a guide to New England. We are going to Salem but will probably visit Martha's Vineyard, New Hampshire, and Vermont as well. I wouldn't mind another stop in The Cod but Greg seems to have had enough Cod for a lifetime so we'll see. I also got a really nifty book on I-95. It lists every exit on that interstate and what you can find at each one. It looked really cool and we can use it if we ever drive down to Florida like we have always planned. Getting the books really made me excited to hit the road with my darling husband. Our favorite type of vacation is the good old American road trip. I feel another theme album coming on.

Have a great rest of the week and a great weekend!

Scrapbook update

For those who have emailed me, I am not ignoring you. I had been preparing for an audit that occured today and that means I have been really busy at work. I will probably have a chance to reply tomorrow (I hope!). Here are the layouts I completed last weekend. I could have kept going but chose to go to the Hamptons instead. I was on a roll and you can probably tell why. Very simple layouts.
Here is a simple garden layout I did. Greg took lots of individual detail shots but not one shot of the entire garden that year. This sketch from BH worked great to include lots of photos. Again the yellow isn't so puke like in person. I used some paper from the July kit and some chipboard letters I cut and painted for the title.

It is Christmas again and I decided to do a one page layout of all the Christmas photos we received that year. Again just paper for this one, nothing fancy but I like it anyway. The other photos is the back of the layout where I pasted a key I made of who was in each photo for future reference.

And another Christmas layout showing our Christmas card, newsletter and Christmas photo from that year. Not much fancy here either. I did use some metal charm snowflakes, some ribbon, some brads, and more of those trusty little white stickers I am loving right now.

I doubt I will be doing any layouts this week but that is ok. I am 41 layouts toward my goal. When I told Greg he asked if that meant I would stop when I hit 52? What is he trying to tell me? I am REALLY excited to be just 11 layouts away from completing my goal. I have just been really happy with how scrapbooking has been fitting in nicely with my schedule this year.

A Lovely Weekend

I had intended to post on Friday but a tropical storm moved through our area on Friday morning (and during the day) and we lost power on the 5 train so I stayed home and worked a little on an audit I have coming up on Tuesday at work. I also deep cleaned my kitchen on Friday which was long overdue. I LOVE walking into the kitchen now and seeing it sparkle! If only it could stay that way forever.

This weekend I not only got 3 more layouts done (am now at 41!!!! layouts toward my goal) but we went to a fun going away party for a friend from church. One of the hazards of living in NYC is that people really come and go a lot so you will inevitably lose 1 or 2 friends a year. It is very sad but exciting at the same time to hear about what their future holds.

On Sunday we went with some other friends out to the Hamptons. Way out on the eastern tip of Long Island for you non-locals. It was overcast and sprinkled a little but we didn't mind. It was still plenty warm. We had lots of yummy food, stopped at a couple wineries, and spent some time on the beach. It was a fun but relaxed trip, just the way I like it. Plus, while out in Southampton Greg and I finally decided where to go on our trip next weekend. We are heading to Salem Mass. Home of the Salem witch trials! I know, not very romantic but at least it is a destination. We are planning our route and you can be sure we will find at least a couple strange attractions to visit on the way! We leave Thursday so I will only have 3 posts this week and then I am off blogger for 5 days. Sorry, I wish there was a way to auto post. Maybe I will figure out how to post via my phone. Supposedly it can be done!

Irony and My Appendix

Yesterday I wrote this big long post about how I was having such a great day.

1. The humidity had broken after it being so hot that they ran warnings on the TV about conserving power to avoid brown-outs. There was a cool breeze on my way to work!
2. I had great new songs on my ipod that I was really enjoying.
3. I wore the evil sandals again (ALL DAY) with no problems thanks to my mom's suggestion to wear the sandal footies.
4. The robin's nest I pass each day had the mommy robin feeding little beaks that I could see above the nest. So cute!
5. I had on a new shirt that I was really liking that I ordered online.

Then when I went to post the website crashed and it was all lost! That should have been a warning about my "good" day. In the late afternoon I started having this pain in my side which worsened as I made my way home and was causing a bit of nausea and a great deal of discomfort. After a few hours in bed and some Advil it wasn't getting much better so we called the nurse line to get their opinion. The nurse thought it sounded like appendicitis and said I should go to the emergency room. Well, I hate to be a problem so I decided to wait. Plus, I was watching So You Think You Can Dance and I didn't want to miss Benji's individual perfomance! So I decided to wait 20 minutes and see if it would get better (or worse). It hurt but I was still able to walk around and talk normally and stuff. If it was really my appendix I reasoned that it would hurt way more. I also wasn't running a fever although according to the internet that isn't uncommon in "older" people who tend to have less prominent symptoms. Older was defined as 30 and above! I knew this was going to happen once I turned 30!

Well after 20 minutes I thought it seemed less severe (and my show wasn't over) so I waited another 30 minutes and it was definitely better. Greg made me walk around the block at 10pm because the web said that exercise makes appendicitis worse but I had no problem with the walk. He also wouldn't let me eat dinner! I had no appetite when the pain was at its worst but Greg thinks maybe it was something intestinal and not related to my appendix so he refused to let me eat anything (the nurse also said not to eat but I think it was in case I needed surgery). So by 11:30pm I was really hungry but the pain in my side was pretty much gone. When I woke up this morning I was back to my old self. Kind of odd.

So much for my great day! And poor Greg had purposefully stayed home from school so he could work on an application for work and I monopolized his time with my pseudo-emergency. Oh well.

Garden Update

The garden has been growing steadily and so far we have enjoyed lots of lettuce and a couple cucumbers but that has been about it. We usually don't get a bounty of tomatoes until August and I wouldn't expect pumpkins until fall but I have been really looking forward to the zucchini and squash I planted.

Sunday night Greg and I did a little weeding and propped some of the plants up when I noticed that the zucchini plant WAS making something. I found this monster zucchini below the branches. I put a pencil there to show you the scale. It seems the plant was putting all its eggs in one basket since this was the only one! I am hoping to chop it up for dinner tonight to see if it is as tasty as it looks! YUM!

Scrapbook Update

The heat index is at 105 degrees today so I am pleased to be at work! I mis-spoke a couple posts back that I was up to 30 layouts toward my goal. It was actually 35 layouts toward my goal and I completed 3 more this weekend bringing me to 38! Whoohoo. I am really pleased with the way they turned out and I have Becky Higgins partly to thank. Her sketches really do a lot to help me scrap faster. Once I find a sketch that works with my photos I can focus on the color and embellishments and not worry about placement. That is a huge help to me.
This first layout documents my trip to New Orleans in 2005. I used some of the new paper from the July kit and the 2 paperclips and ribbon from the June kit. The June kit also included some little white letter sticker which I used on all 3 layouts (I really like them) and here they label all the photos. There is A LOT of journaling on this page. Probably too much. I thought about using hidden journaling but I hate to have to take a page out of the page protector to read what happened and I didn't want to do 2 layouts (I am lazy I guess).

Here is another Thanksgiving layout featuring basic grey paper, some more of the June kit letter stickers and 2 paper flowers from the June kit as well. I only had one sheet of the basic grey paper so I had to cut and piece the paper together on the left. I have to say it turned out great. You can't actually tell it is 4 pieces of paper unless you look really close. I was able to copy the pattern really well. A simple layout but I love it.

Last but certainly not least is this layout of Katie's trip out to NYC for a visit. Forgive the ugly yellow color. It is a much softer hue in real life. I tried something new for me and painted the edges of the paper to give it a distressed look. That is really "in" right now and my mom gave me some paints for my birthday so I thought it would be good to try. Now, to plug Making Memories Paints....they are fantastic. They don't warp the paper because they aren't as "wet" as regular acrylic paints and they dry super fast. I probably only had to wait 5-10 minutes for the paper to be fully dry so I could keep working. This layout features paper and flowers from the June kit, some snaps to hold the flowers in place, some old metal words (girlfriends, buds) and a metal frame that I have had forever in my stash, and a few more of those little white letter stickers. I think this layout ended up being my favorite of the weekend. This BH sketch came from one of the magazine pages I keep in my idea drawer.

Next on my plate are some Christmas photos. Unfortunately the June and July kits don't have anything very Christmasy so I will have to look through my own stuff.

Brighten My Day

My dear sweet husband suprised me last night with these! So there they were this morning when I woke up. Fresh flowers really brighten a girls day! I am VERY blessed and lucky to have Greg in my life. He puts up with so much from me! Thanks Greg!

TGIF - I can't tell you how glad I am that it is Friday. The sun is back and the flowers put me in a great mood and my mind is churning with weekend plans so I am hoping the day will fly by! Happy Friday to you all!

Scrapbook Update

Here is the July kit. It arrived in the mail yesterday. I barely dove into the June kit but actually these papers are kind of similar. The kit includes all you see above. 7 sheets of patterned paper. 3 sheets of cardstock (1 is the new pinked edge Bazzill. I had the scalloped in another kit and loved it). I also received 2 chipboard arrows, 2 tags, some ribbon, 6 shell buttons, metal letters that say "UR HERE", a silver frame, a silver starfish charm, a bunch of shell sequins (not a ton which is nice), journaling spots, and a clear acrylic alphabet. I was worried when I saw this kit online that it was going to be a little too far "out there" for me but I think I can make it work. I am thinking of using the UR HERE letters for my title page on the next album. Maybe.

I am planning to spend some time scrapbooking on Saturday so we'll see what happens. I believe at last count I am at 30 layouts and we are about 27 weeks into the year so I am still a little bit ahead (plus a trip album which isn't counted in the goal).

Where in the world is Alexis?

Sorry sorry! I have been such a bad blogger lately. My mom was in town and then I have had a nasty head cold and it has thrown off my schedule. Mom and I had a very nice visit and she arrived home safely yesterday. I probably won't see her again until Thanksgiving. Being away from the family has really been the only big problem we have by living here in NYC. It is just such a long and expensive trip to see our loved ones so we really enjoy the opportunities to reconnect when we can.

I woke up today and realized that summer is about half over! WHAT! How did that happen? All spring I kept telling myself that each problem that arose would be solved because "summer is almost here". I would have so much more time this summer. I would have so much more energy this summer. I would be better about exercising this summer. I will get caught up on things this summer. I will read that book this summer. I will grow lots of yummy stuff this summer. I will eat better this summer. Well summer is half over and none of that stuff has happened. I think Greg and I have been busier since summer started. The heat and humidity really zap my energy and motivation to do much of anything. Who was I kidding? I guess instead of addressing problems I was having, I just imagined that "summer" would fix them. It didn't and in some cases has made some things worse.

Well summer isn't over yet so I guess I need to take action. One thing Greg and I did was set a plan to take a mini vacation together. Our schedules did not ease up at all over the summer and we realized that if we didn't pick actual dates our loose plans to travel would never happen so we did it. We are taking a trip and the dates are set. Now, we don't actually have a destination planned yet but we have 2 weeks to figure it out. Probably some kind of car trip. We love hitting the road and there is so much to see in the Northeast. Any suggestions?

Our little garden is coming along and growing but we have no actual fruits of our labor yet. We were a little slow in getting started but I am hoping that there will be something to pick in the next few weeks. We do have some small lettuces that I will harvest this week for a salad but that is about it so far. I should probably get out and plant some more carrots, beets, and spinach since a lot of those seeds never germinated during our really rainy and cold early June.

Sorry if this post is a little pessimistic. It is a REALLY hot and muggy day and I have been battling a headache since this morning so I guess I am in one of those moods. I hope your summer is going well!

Scrapbook Update

My Mom had some problems at the airport and had to switch flights so I had a few extra hours to finish up the layout I was working on:
This layout features some stuff from the June kit. The patterned paper, the ribbon, the round tag in the lower corner (and the stamp), and photo anchors are all from the kit. I got the layout design idea for this from the Creating Keepsakes website. It was actually a sketch that was on the submission page for the December 06 issue. Since I finished the layout so quickly I decided to submit it to CK and sent it in this morning. We'll see if they want to publish it.

On another note my mom is here. We are having a good time even though I have been pretty sick so far.

Mom: Hi! I'm here, finally. I learned two things at the airport. 1) you can check in at the e-ticket kiosk even if you didn't use your own credit card to buy the ticket, you just need SOME piece of id with your name on it at the airport and 2) 45 minutes is NOT enough time to arrive at the airport before your flight is scheduled to leave. Good news is that I got to see the Great Salt Lake from the air -- very cool!! It is absolutely delightful to chat with Alexis and Greg in person. See ya.

Can you tell my mom is a teacher! She and I are doing craft stuff today while Greg is at school and then we will hit the big apple tonight for some fun activities. Mom, did bring the nice weather with her and we have had a drop in humidity and some lower temps which has been nice.

Have a great weekend!

June Kit?

The July kit will be shipped in a few days but I havn't had a chance to use my June kit yet.
I wasn't as excited about these papers although I am already using the diamond paper on a layout. This kit also included more tags and stuff and fewer small embellishments. The stamp shown is a date/name double stamp which is kind of cute. There is also a big sheet of stickers which I am not sure I am into. We'll see what comes of this kit. I am determined to get at least one layout out of it before the July kit arrives. My mom will be tomorrow so I am going to try and get a layout done tonight. I am about half way there.

****I wrote this post out yesterday and I didn't finish the layout but I did work on it a little more. My mom is in the air now!

The rest-I promise this is it!

Of course not all the pages will fit on one post so I had to break it up but I promise, this is IT. The book is done. I am going back to regular pages now!

It's DONE!!!

One thing I was able to accomplish over my 4 day weekend was to complete the cross country travel album I started (seems like forever ago!). It felt really good to get these last layouts done and have everything put away into its own little mini album.