Scrapbook Update - Mini Layouts Continue

Greg's parents were here for a few days over the weekend to celebrate Dave's 60th Birthday. Boy were we busy. We put a lot of miles on the car getting to and from New Jersey (where they were staying) and we even visited some new places. I did manage to get some more layouts done for the mini book. Here are 4 today and I will post 4 more later on. I am almost done with the book which is good because my June kit came and I am itching to dive into it!

Birthday Planning!

Well the party has been planned and the evite went out today. A little last minute but at least it is done. This is the image I posted on the evite and am also going to use it to make some buttons for my guests to wear. I found this photo last night in a box of old stuff that needs to be scrapped. I just love the shocked look on my face! (Mom-do you remember this?) For any blog readers who are going to be in the area for my birthday and would like to join in here are the party details. Just email me and I will add you to the evite (for your RSVP).

**************

Look who’s turning 30!
It’s my 30th birthday and I would love you to join me for a birthday extravaganza. It is actually a two part affair and you can join for one or both parts!

Part I: Nothing says Happy Birthday like Shakespeare’s savage thriller exploring the difference between a leader and a tyrant, Macbeth! I know what you’re thinking about the process of getting tickets, but my birthday happens to fall on the Bronx Borough Ticket Giveaway Day. I have gotten Shakespeare in the Part tickets for the last 3 years using this method and historically it is really easy (meaning no line at all). Check the website for all the info http://www.publictheater.org/ and click on Shakespeare in the park.
Here is the short version:
1-3 pm Saturday - Meet me in the Bronx to pick up a voucher for that night’s show. They are available at “The Point” arts center in Hunts Point (I can help with directions for those interested but it is right off the 6 train). They only allow two vouchers per person and I would get there early just in case. If there are people who are interested but can’t get to the Bronx we may be able to pool extra vouchers from those who are going.

5:00 pm Saturday - Meet me at The Delacorte Theater in Central Park. You MUST exchange your voucher for a real ticket. Again only two vouchers can be turned in by any 1 person.


Part II: Join me for dinner Saturday night from 5:30 pm -7:30 pm on the Upper East Side at Mary Ann’s Restaurant (1503 2nd Ave, @ 78th St) for margaritas and yummy tex-mex food.

After dinner those who were able to get Shakespeare tickets will all walk over to the theater together and we will say a sad goodbye to those who are unable to continue.

I know this whole ordeal seems crazy but it can work, IT WILL WORK with your help. If we can get some people to commit to making the trek up to the Bronx and all meeting on time at the theater to pick up tickets we will all have nice block of seats together. Otherwise it will be everyone fending for themselves.

I would love to see you for some or all of the evening!

Please RSVP ASAP so we can get the wheels turning on our grand scheme!

Love,
Alexis

Scrapbook Update Part III

Here the last layouts from the batch I did last weekend. Additional supplies here include:
Brands
More fuzzy rub-on stars
Photo corners (just can't get enough)
Rhinstone stars from April kit
Sequin flowers
Chipboard letters (this time I made a G into a C)
As you can see most of these layouts are very simple which is why I am feeling very conflicted about how to account for these with my goal of one layout per week. If I count them all I will certainly meet my goal for the year but that seems like cheating because they are so much simpler than a full sized layout. Maybe I will make a subcatagory on my goal card for them. Not sure yet!

Scrapbook Update Part II

I o I





Ok, here are 4 more layouts. These include the following additional supplies:
A leftover paper flower from May Kit
Another chipboard letter ( I am determined to use them all!)
Brads
Photo corners
More rub-on velvet stars

These have been really fun to do. I just love doing mini theme albums. I have been scrapping these in order so I have been able to put them right into the mini album as I finish and photograph them. Yum!

Scrapbook Update Part I

The rain stopped for a little while this weekend but the garden didn't get a chance to fully dry so we didn't do any weeding. They are predicting a chance of rain everyday for the next 4 days but I am hoping for a little sun. Our little plants are so water logged and desperate for a little photosynthesis! Greg got out the hose on Sunday and sprayed down and cleaned our deck. I can't believe how great it looks now. We also did some house cleaning and made a run to the grocery store to stock up on meal stuff. It always feels so good to have a clean house and stocked pantry!

Friday turned out to be a great day for scrapbooking. I made serious headway on the road trip album. I will post the layouts over the next few days. I would really like to get this album done before my next scrapbook kit comes in the mail and it is scheduled to ship on the 15th so I have a solid week to work. But wait, my in-laws are coming on Thursday so that will probably slow me down. I will do my best.

The stats for this album are pretty simple. The paper is KI Memories, the Journey collection and includes matching die cuts which I am trying to use up. It is an older line but the colors are so great for this project. I don't have a ton of this paper so I may throw in some of another line that is similar but more blue/green heavy. I am using my new Quickutz alphabet for many of the layouts and am trying to use up some of the embellishments from the kits (to make way for new stuff) and so far so good. I am also using a single font for the whole book to tie the journaling all together. The star rub-ons are actually velvet and really fun to use. I figure this book is about the USA so stars fit right in! I have also sprinkled in photo corners, ribbon, metal letters, and brads in these 3 layouts.

Katie: If you click these photos they will enlarge! Your dream come true!

More tomorrow!

Bad Blogger

Well Blogger has been causing me all kinds of problems this week by not letting me upload my photos. Then Friday I was able to upload this photo and got a warning that Blogger had a scheduled outage in 3 minutes so I had to quick save and wait to post again! Argh!

Well I actually took Friday off as a mental health vacation day and had intended to clean the house to get ready for the visit from my in-laws on Thursday but.......

I ended up spending the whole day scrapping. I figured out that I can run DVDs on my computer next to my scrapbook table and that opened up a whole new world of movies to watch while I work. This picture shows a little bit of what I have been working on. I started the cross country trip album and got about 10-12 pages done. This picture shows the title page and the state dividers that I made during the week. I will post the other layouts next week.

I am not sure how to account for these pages toward my goal. Each page is only 8x8 and they are much easier to generate because they all follow a theme. I will have to think about it.

As you can see I also got my Quickutz handle and put it to good use making the title. I have to say I have not been loving it as much as I hoped. The letters rarely cut out completely so I am usually finishing them off with scissors. I have been fiddling with the dies and have gotten better at using the system but it still isn't as problem free as I would like. I am glad I didn't pay $200 to get started. It could also be that my handle is used and a new one would work better at first.
Anyway, this weekend I WILL be cleaning the house. It has been raining for the last 3 days so the garden is flooded again but if it dries up we will get out and do some weeding. Have a great weekend!

Scrapbook Activity

Blogger has been having problems since yesterday and won't load my photos so I will try and post them later this week. Here is the text in its entirety and one photo I was able to load.

1. I completed the final layout for the 2003-2004 album. See, these photos were too cute not to use. Sorry this is a little blurry. Take a look at the detail shot below.
Here are the stats:
**This patterned paper came from the April kit.
**Photo corners.
**I found a way to use all those sequins I have been given in the last 2 kits. I picked out only the green, silver, and white sequins (circles and flowers) from the April and May kits and glued them down randomly along the seam.
**2 blue stars from the April kit.
**A few brown snaps I had on hand to pick up more of the brown in the paper.
**More chipboard letters from the May kit. Most good letters were gone so I turned a Q into an O, and a B into an E for the word love. It worked pretty well but don’t look too close!
**The journaling was just words that described the occasion (10 year anniversary of our 1st date).
**As I mentioned before this layout was inspired by some Jennifer McGuire layouts she has had in CK recently. I am very pleased with this one.

2. Greg and I sat down over the weekend and sorted the photos from our 2003 cross country road trip and then we made up a timeline. Boy do we remember things differently! But it was fun remembering what we could about that trip. It was a crazy one!

3. I got all the layouts for 2003-2004 date stamped and put into the album. I now have 3 years of memories finished (plus the wedding album and various trip albums).

4. The photos from 2004-2005 came in the mail on Saturday so now I just have to cross reference them with what is on the home computer to make sure nothing is missing before I begin scrapping.

5. I took a trip to Target on Saturday to get some stuff and came home with this little bulletin board to put above my scrap area.

I had been taping instructions, color charts, and inspiration-type stuff to the wall. So now I have an official place to stick the things I rip out of magazines and also to hang new products I get and want to include in my pages (like the pearl brads on there now for wedding pages coming up).
I also picked up this little wire mesh rolling cart. It slides under the side of my table and has room for my box of photos in progress and hopefully my trash can and idea books and things. Considering how small my table is I am hoping that this little cart will be a spot for me to keep things at my finger tips while clearing up some space on my table top. So far I love it and it doesn't take up any more room than I was using before.

That is all for now. This morning I began working on the trip album. I picked out the papers and started working on the title pages and state dividers. I think I want to use my new Quickutz alphabet for this book so I hope my eBay handle comes soon!

Weekend Plans

Happy Friday! Here is a photo depicting a common sight in our house over the last year. Greg studying. Well....

No more homework, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks!

Greg finished his class last week but he found out this week that he got an A- in said class. Good job honey! He isn't taking any courses over the summer but will continue his thesis research over the next couple months. This marks the end of a successful first year of graduate school for Greg. This last semester had its trials but overall things have been going well. Hopefully just one more year of part time study and he will be done.

On the garden front:
I have been trying to weed a little each night in hopes of staying on top of it. The transplants seems to be holding their own. We may have lost a couple little lettuce plants but everything else looks good. We have had a quick rain storm almost every night this week (with thunder and lightning) so I have only had to water the garden one time. That makes my job super easy. We will probably get out there this weekend and do some more minor things. We still have some herbs to plant so we need to figure out where to put them.

On the scrapbooking front:
I began another layout this morning using those 2 leftover photos. I think it will be a layout about our 10-year anniversary of our first date which occurred in 2004. I am sort of doing it in Jennifer McGuire style (if you get CK magazine and know who that is). She did some pregnancy pages that have inspired this layout.

I also got out a box of photos from our cross country car trip when we bought our current car from my Dad in Seattle and drove it out to NYC. I am going to put the trip into its own album and last night I got out the photos and memorabilia from the trip to sort into piles and started reminiscing about the trip. I forgot visiting the world's smallest chapel in Minnesota, or the world's largest Jolly Green Giant statue in Minnesota, actually I forgot ever visiting Minnesota. So now I am excited to work on that mini-book before beginning 2004-2005. This weekend Greg and I are going to figure out the timeline and see what memories we can remember from the trip since I didn't find a journal so apparently I didn't keep track of the details. It was a great trip full of suprises so look for layouts in the coming weeks. It should go quickly since it will be a theme book and all the paper and embellishments will be the same.

Have a great weekend!

Scrapbook Update-Layout 32

That's right, I am just 20 layouts away from my 2006 goal and we are just about half way through the year. It blows me away to think that I have stuck to this goal so successfully and for so long. Now if I could just keep other kinds of goals like exercise and not eating dessert for breakfast! So I finished this layout this morning before work (I was a little late coming in!). It is the long awaited Christmas layout and final entry into the 2003-2004 album. This layout features our first attempt at a home photo shoot in hopes of taking a great picture for our yearly Christmas card:

Here are the stats:

• The May kit strikes again! All the papers in the May kit were double sided and one sheet had flowers on the front and this lovely red polka dot on the back which I thought would go nicely with a Christmas theme. I didn't have much left so it is just a thin strip at the top and a little thicker strip at the bottom.
• It is hard to see in the photo but under the letters PHO is a light green rub-on. It is the last rub-on that came with the kit.
• Photo corners of course!
• More of the chipboard letters from the kit for the title. I ended up really liking these and the green color was very appealing to me. I am now left with letters that really don't spell anything. I will have to think of something brilliant to do with the left-overs.
• The last spotted bookplate from the kit for the date.
• The layout design was from the BH sketch book.

Here are some close-ups for you:

Well, the May kit ended up being a real hit with me. I used about 90% of it I think which is good because the June kit is shipping out in about 10 or so days. I think a sneak peek will be posted today and I can't wait to see it. I think one of the reasons that I like this club so much (so far) is it has exposed me to products I probably wouldn't ever buy. I don't have a scrapbook store to shop at so I end up buying everything online and tend to stick to a few companies that I know I like. When you have a store to browse through and touch the stuff it is easier to find new things to try. On-line that aspect is missing. In the kits I have gotten SEI and Scenic Route papers which I really enjoyed but probably would never have ordered myself (I tend to buy KI only). And the same is true of a lot of the embellishments too. I may never have tried chipboard without the kits to spur me on (I hear there is more in the June kit too!).

But most importantly the reason the kits have worked so well is I have forced myself to keep them out and use them right away instead of incorporating them in my stash or holding them aside because they are so "perfect".

I ordered photo prints for the 2004-2005 album so I can start it soon. I did have a couple photos left over that didn't make it onto this layout but I really want to use them so I am thinking of doing another layout with just those 2 photos. Maybe an anniversary one or more of a "feelings" type page and less of an "events" type page. I don't normally go for that but it is never too late to give it a try!

Scrapbook Update

I didn't accomplish as much as I hoped over the weekend when it came to scrapbooking, but I did manage to do my one required weekly layout:


This was a quick and easy layout about a hike we took in 2004. I used my May kit once again. Supplies included: Cardstock base, one piece of patterned paper cut to have scalloped edges, fabric flowers with button centers, ribbon, chipboard letters, polka-dot bookplates held on by coordinating brads. I have to say this kit has been very inspirational. I didn't get around to completing that last Christmas layout like I had planned but I did find a sketch to use and pulled some papers so it should be easy to do this week.

Our Green Thumb!

Greg and I had a wonderful (and productive) holiday weekend. NYC finally saw a break from the constant rain and gloom (or as some of you may know it, Seattle weather) and we had highs in the mid-80s and some humidity to boot. We spent a good part of Sunday and Monday out in the garden. We managed to get the raised bed to fit into the garden WITHOUT having to cut it down. It required a bit of digging around the fence and even chipping away at a little bit of the concrete pathway but we got it in. Another trip to Home Depot (2 trips actually) and 520 lbs of compost/soil later and the bed was ready to plant. We transplanted all of our plants and laid down some garden fabric (the black stuff you see isn't plastic) and mulch for weed control. We got done just in time for a 20 minute rain storm to blow through and water everything for us! The only negative garden event was that our next-door neighbors decided to drain their gross above ground pool and a lot of water drained into our garden which is a low point in the area. The pool flooded all our paths on the right side of the garden behind the shed. Luckily I had decided to focus mainly on the left side this year and all that is on the right side are some of Greg's gourds. We were really pleased to get the plants in the ground, a bunch more things seeded, and a lot of the beds cleaned up. Now we just have to focus on weeding and watering!

I hope you all had wonderful Memorial Days!

Misc Musings

I am VERY happy to report that I completed jury duty on Friday! Yippie! The last 2 days were especially hard because we were sequestered during the day meaning they took away our phones and forced us to stay in a little jury room when we weren't in the court room. After closing arguments we began our deliberation. Right off the bat we had 9 guiltys and 3 unsures. There was one crazy guy on the jury who kept wanted to hear huge segments of testimony read back, the other 2 just wanted time to study the photos (we had photos of the crime being committed). On day 2 of deliberation everyone was in agreement and we found the defendant guilty of 1st degree robbery (robbery with a firearm) and we were sent home. We were not present for sentencing so I don't know what happen to the guy. I am glad to be done with jury duty and just in time for the 3 day weekend. I feel like I have gotten my life back but that is kind of ironic since the defendant is going to prison.

Thursday was a really long hard day in court so I decided not to go to work that evening and instead came home to rest. But when I got home there were so many things that needed to be done I couldn't sit down and veg out. Last weekend be bought lumber to make a raised garden bed and had even had the boards cut to length at the store so I decided I was going to put it together while Greg was at school. I got out the drill and went to work. I knew I could build it if I put my mind to it (my mom was a great example of that). After I finished building it in the driveway I went into the garden and dug out the bed to make a place for it. Then I went crazy and pulled the ivy off the fences and weeded a bit. When Greg got home he offered to help carry the box into the garden. It was 4' wide, 11' long, and 10" tall. It was too heavy for me to carry alone. Well when we got it into the garden, this is what we found.....
Yep, it is about 5 inches too long! I guess the old adage "measure twice, cut once" isn't just a cute saying. Greg says that when I had him help me measure the bed he didn't realize at the time that we would buy wood that day (in his defense I did kind of spring that on him AT the hardware store) and that he didn't realize he should be really careful about reading the tape. He says he may have rounded down. All is not lost. We will trim it down and fix it this weekend but I just thought it was funny. I guess I haven't earned a pink toolbelt yet!

We have no special plans for the holiday weekend. We hope you have a wonderful Memorial Day!

Surprise!

Look what came in the mail last night! Let me back up….. A few weeks ago I came across the blog of Karen Russell, a well known scrapbooker and designer in the industry. She was doing a fund raiser for Women for Women International, an organization that provides woman in conflict and post conflict areas with loans to begin their own business, skills and job training, and business support. For example a woman who lost her husband and livelyhood in a civil war could apply for a loan to start a business selling mangos to support her family. WforW would provide the loan and skills to start her "micro-enterprize". Anyway if you donated to the organization you essentially bought a raffle ticket from her. She had 96 famous scrapbookers who were going to scrapbook pages for lucky winners and tons of companies willing to give prize packages (actually over 200 winners in all so the odds were really good). I was REALLY hoping to win a layout by Becky Higgins so I donated/entered. Well, when the winners were announced (She raised over $12,500 on her blog by the way!) I was disappointed not to have won a layout by BH but when I scrolled down to the prize package winners I saw my name in that list. Initially I was excited once again until I realized that my package was going to come from Quickutz. I don’t own a Quickutz tool (a personal die cutter) and all Quickutz is notoriously expensive.

Well last night I got this box in the mail and Greg and I couldn’t figure out what it could be and then I remembered MY PRIZE. When I opened it was found a complete “Abigail” alphabet set and a black tote bag. I really like the alphabet set. It is a nice classic font that could be used on all kinds of layouts. I was disappointed they didn’t send the hand tool since you can’t use the dies without the hand tool which cost $55-$105 depending on the style. Greg suggested I get rid of the prize if it meant I was going to have to spend money to use it. The companies that were donating prize packages were asked to supply a prize package valued at $50. When I got online last night I found out that my prize package was worth over $200. That was very generous of them. The alphabet set alone retails for $170! So I turned to eBay and found a hand tool on an auction that was ending in 10 min and I bid on it and WON which allowed me to save a few bucks. So I am keeping the prize and am actually kind of excited about it. Look for these letters in my future layouts!

Look What I Made

At craft club meeting this month the theme was crochet. Our teacher was the wonderfully patient and enthusiastic Alice! She walked us through the production of a crocheted coaster. And when I say patient I mean it! We spent over 3 hours working on one coaster! None the less, we had a wonderful time and walked away with a completed project.

I immediately started my second coaster on the subway ride home. I got to row 3 and couldn't remember Alice's specific instructions that deviated from the pattern so I was staring at my completed coaster trying to figure it out looking perplexed. Well this really bothered a Ukrainian woman sitting across from me on the train and she INSISTED I give her my completed coaster. Then in broken English she began to argue with me as to what to do next. First we argued about where I was in the coaster. She said crochet 3 stitches I said I think it is only 2. Then when I was doing the half double crochet she insisted I should do a plain double crochet. When I tried to show her the pattern to say that the HDC was what it called for she shook her finger at me and said, "in my country small girls do this [pattern]"! I don't think she was trying to insult me. I explained that I had just learned how to crochet that very day. I thanked her for her help and went on with the project. HA! Only in NYC!

Over the course of jury duty and some time at home I completed a 6 coaster set. Thanks Alice for the wonderful instruction and for putting together absolutely everything we needed and in such a cute kit!

Scrapbook Update - May Kit

Remember the scrapbook club I joined last month? Well my kit for May arrived in the mail and I found it so inspiring I used it to make 3 layouts on Sunday. I was going to work on the final Christmas layout for this album but as you can see below, the kit has a flower/spring theme so I had to change gears and instead worked on some other things.

The kit contained everything you see above. Patterned paper form SEI, some cardstock, some chipboard flowers and letters, a package of rub-ons, a foam stamp, some spotted bookplates, ribbon, a ton of sequins and rhinestones, and an array of fabric/paper/plastic/charm flowers.

My first layout was this one. It was pretty quick and easy and is the title page for the album. I used:

• A sheet of patterned paper.
• The piece of scalloped cardstock
• Chipboard letters
• All the rub-on words
• 2 paper flowers
• separate rub-ons from my stash for the dates.

I especially love the way this one turned out.

Next was this layout of a music festival. I used another sheet of patterned paper, some photo corners, more chipboard letters, some glittered dots and I covered the chipboard flower with some more paper for the title, and finished with the red filigree rub-on over the top photo. I was also very pleased with this layout which was much busier than my standard stuff.
Lastly was this one. It is a layout of all the Misc events from the year that don't have enough photos to dedicate a whole layout to individually. I used the rest of the rub-ons, lots of patterned paper, photo corners, chipboard letters, cardstock, and ribbon. Sorry, the close-ups on this one didn't turn out.

This kit was really well coordinated. I may even be able to use some of the paper for that lone Christmas layout I still need to do. It was fun to challenge myself to use the kit for these layouts. Both of the kits I have now received came with a lot of sequins. I need to figure out a good way to use them. I can never think of anything when I look at them. I guess they don't inspire me. Maybe they would be better for card making.

This brought me up to 30 layouts toward my goal and I am just one layout away from finishing this album. Yippie!

Wonderful Weekend

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend too! Greg and I had a very nice day out of the house and away from the regular grind on Saturday. We hit our favorite thrift store on LI called Northern Thrift. We found lots of great things for Greg to add to his wardrobe. This is the only time I get to buy him clothes (at the thrift store) so I had a great time and found a few things for myself as well. We had a nice low key lunch, drove around and stopped at some garage sales and then ended up at this public beach in Oyster Bay (above) for a little stroll and people watching. Then we headed home (to beat the rain, argh!) for homemade pizzas and a DVD. It was a wonderful and relaxing day. The way a Saturday should be. I think it really helped us to reconnect and feel refreshed for another busy week.

On Sunday Greg studied like a madman (and is taking the final right now as I type this) and I scrapbooked 3 layouts. I will post those tomorrow. We also made a trip to Home Depot to buy some compost but ended up buying lumber to make a raised bed in the garden (remember that goal of mine). Of course when we got back to the house it started pouring again so that project is on hold. This weather is starting to annoy me. I hate it when our entire spring is spoiled by rain. Well then we were off to church and it was our night to usher which went really well.

Today I am back on jury duty but the case is really moving along now and was sort of interesting today.

TGIF!!!

Above is a photo of my home away from home these days, the Bronx County Courthouse.Thank goodness it is Friday! I didn't get home from work until12:15am this morning. Greg was sweet and came to NYU to keep me company while I worked alone in the lab. It was nice to have a ride home and not have to spend an hour on the train. I spent 6.5 hours getting the grant application done last night but I didn't mind because my boss Maria offered to take care of the copying, signatures, and deliveries for me today so I didn't have to come into work. Whoohhooooo! I can't tell you have wonderful it felt that moment she offered. I could feel about 1,000 pounds of weight come off my shoulders. She called this morning to ask me a question and said it all looked good and she was sending it out. I am SOOOO glad to have that project done. I can spend the day here in jury duty with a much more positive attitude now.When I woke up this morning I felt like I had a hang-over. I went to bed so late and woke up to an overcast sky and rain so my sinus were completely clogged and my head was aching BUT I didn't have to leavefor work at 5am so it was a-ok! The trial is moving along today. I am at lunch right now. After this I have our last BSF leaders meeting tonight and then I may try and meet up with some friends after that. It is going to be a late night but I don't care because.....Greg suggested we both spend the day together tomorrow out of the house away from work, school, and the usual routine. I jumped at the chance for some quality time with my guy. We are planning to head out toLong Island to visit our favorite thrift store and hit some other small villages (that is what they call them!) for lunch and there are some parks around the water so maybe we will hit one of those too. I am so excited! Other than that we have other goals for the weekend. Greg has a final on Monday so he will be studying. I need to do my weekly layout and tidy up the house. If the garden dries up (it has been raining most of the week) I will get some plants into the ground. They have out grown their little pots and may die if I don't transplant them soon. I hope you all have a great weekend!"

Jury Duty Update

I am still here and still loving Jury Duty. At least our trial started yesterday. After 5 hours of sitting around we went into the court room for 30 minutes of opening remarks. Totally worth the 5 hours ofwaiting! Today is a little better. We only waited 2 hours to get into the courtroom and then we heard 20 minutes of testimony before being excused for lunch. I can't get over how slow things move here.Today and tomorrow are going to be really busy days for me. We have an NIH grant due tomorrow at work so I have been going into work every evening after Jury Duty to work on it. Tomorrow I have to go inBEFORE jury duty to get the thing finished and mailed off. I love commuting 3 hours in a day instead of 2. Greg won baseball tickets to a Yankees game today but had to give them away because we are both too busy. The sad thing is that I can SEE the stadium and the game from the jury waiting room. Talk about rubbing it in!The last 2 weeks have been extremely stressful for us both. With Greg in school we have been operating under a pretty high level of busy-ness and stress but with me essentially working 2 jobs right now(juror by day, lab manager by night) the stress has really been getting to me. Yesterday I almost yelled at the court officer because she was trying to force me to get on an elevator before I was ready. After the 5 hours of waiting I was not in the mood to be told what to do. I am sure she couldn't figure out what happened to the nice, sweet, perfect, juror they had interviewed previously and who this new crabby/weepy woman was (I cry more when I am stressed, yippee).Today I have put on my happy face and have prayed for stamina and patience so things are going a little better. I have just resolved to do what I can and not sweat the rest. I love jury duty!

Look What I Made!

I made these altered journals to give to my students on the last day of BSF this year. They were super easy and turned out so adorable. Each one is different and only used 4 sheets of paper (with lots left over). I bought inexpensive composition books for $2 each and attached the paper using a glue stick and lots of rubbing with my bone folder. The composition books are great because the covers aren't glossy so I didn't have to sand them to prepare the surface for gluing. Maybe this would be a good craft club activity! I probably did all 3 in about an hour. The paper flowers are held on with snaps that I put through the cover using my anywhere hole punch. Then I spelled their names in rub-ons and glued them to the cover with photo corners (of course!).

Unfortunately we were told on the Saturday before class that we were not allowed to give the students any gifts on the last night. I suspected BSF might have a "guideline" about that but it wasn't in the manual so I took a chance. I am really sad that I couldn't give them away to the girls. Instead I will be re-gifting them to some lucky ladies once I can pry the names off!

Scrapbook Update

Here is the 3rd of 4 Christmas Layouts for this album. This one focuses on the holiday activities we did that year since we stayed home for Christmas.
Here are the stats:

• Some embroidered paper I have had for years for the top of the page
• Rub-ons for the title and cut the @ out of cardstock
• 5 poetry dog tags (metal tags with words). I can't believe I bought these things. They cost like $20 at the time but they were all the rage so I had to get some too. I think I had used one before this layout.
• Red snaps to affix the tags
• I used my own handwriting for the journaling. I of course hate the way it looks but I think adding more paper with journaling would have looked bad too so I went with the handwriting. It is all the rage again to write on your layouts. If only my printing wasn't so boring.
  

I was pulling out the photos of this weeks layout and it looks like I have about 4 to go and I am done with this album. That is pretty exciting. I am going to finish the last Christmas layout this week. Here are some close-ups. Sorry the photos aren't so good. We are having a lot of rain and overcast days lately so I didn't have very good light to work with.

***Once again this is posted by Greg while I am on Jury Duty. Thanks Honey!

Happy Mother's Day

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day if you are a Mother and for those of us who aren't I hope you had a nice day honoring your moms. The photo at the left is a picture of the gift I sent my awesome mom for Mother's Day. It is actually a mixed media colleague made by Claudine Hellmuth. She is an artist in Florida who makes these "Poppet Sketches". If you send her photos of your loved ones she will make them into a custom college like this one. I love the way it turned out and my mom apparently loves it too. Take a look at her site or her blog if you get a chance. She was great to work with and it was so cool checking her blog and one day seeing our picture posted!

Greg's mom loved her gift too. Remember that I sent her the mini explosion book that I made for the craft club class. She has never received a handmade scrapbook type gift from me yet so I wasn't sure how it would be received. She cried when she thanked me.

We wish we could have been in Seattle to really treat our moms on their special day but we settled for some nice Mother's Day phone chats.

Here are some fun Mothering quotes that I found:

Mothers of teenagers know why animals eat their young -Unknown

I want my children to have all the things I can't afford. Then I want to move in with them-Phyllis Diller

There's a lot more to being a woman than being a mother, but there's a hell of a lot more to being a mother than most people suspect. - Rosanne Barr

A suburban mother's role is to deliver children obstetrically once, and by car forever after. -Peter De Vries

It kills you to see them grow up but it would kill you faster if they didn't. -Barbara Kingsover

Happy Mother's Day! I love you Mom!!

Garden Update - May

The little plants in the greenhouse are growing like crazy and it is about time to get them into the ground. Greg and I spent a couple good hours in the garden last Sunday and got it looking more like this:
Several beds are clear and ready and we even got the aisles weeded thanks to the scuttle hoe we found in the shed. Right now we are concentrating on one side (the sunny side) in hopes that we can get it planted this weekend (if I don't have to work that is). It still could use a ton of work but honesty last weekend I almost just gave up on the whole idea of a garden. We have just been so busy and gardens take a lot of care and daily commitment and I was really doubting our ability to do that. But Greg reminded me that there is more work up front than there is maintenance to do so we plowed ahead. I will be happy once it is all planted and things start growing. Speaking of which I need to find some good pickle recipes. Not the canning kind necessarily. I guess more like fast pickles that you keep in the refrigerator. We buy some like that at our grocery store. If you have a recipe please share.

I am in jury duty right now so Greg is posting this for me. Thanks Honey! Everyone have a great weekend!

Scrapbook Update

Here is the layout I created last weekend. That seems like forever ago, sorry for the delay. This is one of 4 Christmas layouts for the album. It is about the new Christmas decorations I created that year. Here are the stats: I dry embossed the red paper to look like berry clusters (goes with the journaling) and I gilded the stars with gold leaf and covered them with diamond glaze (again goes with the journaling). I used 2 gold metal frames I have had for ages, gold wire, gold brads, and instead of photo corners (can it be? No photo corners!) I used photo anchors after Alice and I saw some on another layout on Saturday. Oh, and letter stickers and rub-ons for the title. I am working on another Christmas layout for this weekend but it is slow going with the dreaded jury duty. Here are some close ups.

Jury Duty!!!

I love jury duty, I love jury duty, I love jury duty. That is right, this is what I have been reminding myself each day that I travel to the most boring place on earth. The Bronx County Courthouse. I just finished my 3rd day of jury duty which is why I have been MIA from posting. The courthouse even has a computer room where I attempted to post on my blog but after my entire post was lost once and then I tried unsuccessfully to upload 3 times I gave up. So here is my report....

Day 1
Not so bad, kind of novel really. There are about 500+ people in the pool. I get assigned to a civil case involving a police shooting late in the morning and spend several hours in a courtroom marveling at how bumbling lawyers can still have jobs. I would have sworn they had never done jury selection before but I was wrong. They were just really bad at it. Luckily my name was not randomly drawn before they had enough jurors so I was sent back to the pool. Done for the day in time to go shopping before BSF. Not a terrible day, just kind of long and boring. Lunch options were really bad so I will bring my own lunch tomorrow.

Day 2
Did you know that the Bronx County Courthouse does an annual emergency evacuation drill? Yes, just once a year. Well today was the day. I spend most of the morning walking down the stairs with thousands of other people, standing out on the street for 45 minutes and then standing in the security line for an hour waiting to get back in. Fun! Then I found out that there was a major crisis at work. I tried to deal with it the best I could from the little computer room. Did I mention that the little computers (which are glued to the tables) automatically close down every 5 minutes? Sometimes mid-typing! Why is it that my job can be slow and boring for weeks on end but then when I have to be away for a day or two all hell breaks loose? Well, I had my lunch from home (best thing I did) and was slowly pulling out my eyelashes one by one because of the sheer boredom of waiting around. I mean it is so boring in the jury pool that I was too bored to read or do the things I brought to do. I was too bored to do anything to alleviate the boredom. But it was all worth it because if I could just last 1 more hour I was free to go home and would be done with my service. Well, that is when they called my name the second time and assigned me to a supreme court criminal case. After the first wave of questioning when they let 3/4 of the people go I knew they were going to pick me for the jury. I mean I am a perfect juror. I have never been arrested. I don't know any cops. I am not suing anyone. I have no documented scheduling problems. I couldn't say yes to a single one of their questions. But we didn't get that far. I can see why the wheels of justice move so slowly. It took us 2 hours to get through the first wave of questions. I have to come back for day three. By the time I get home I am so stressed out with the work thing that I yell at my husband and lock myself in the bathroom (it is the only door we have in our apartment to slam!). I love jury duty.

Day 3
My train is stalled because of congestion down the line. I start to get stressed that I will be late for court. I of course forgot how slow things move from my first 2 days of jury duty. Once I finally get there I end up waiting 2 hours to get called back by the judge. I had told my boss I was sure I would be done after the morning. Silly me. The remaining jurors get questioned by the judge and the attorneys. One attorney in particular talks to us like we are idiots (granted some of us probably were kind of slow) which really annoys me. The more I hear people answer the more I realize I am sure to be on this jury. Again, I am the perfect juror. During my lunch break I continue to battle the crappy court computers and make phone calls to the National Science Foundation to try and sort out this work problem. After lunch the decisions are made. 4 of the remaining 14 jurors are selected and I am one of them. Do I win a prize? Yes, I get to come back for more of this! They are giving us Thursday off while they find the rest of jury (it is the Bronx, the pickins are slim) but I have to be back on Friday.

Greg and I made up and the work situation has been sorted out. I may have to work all weekend on another crisis that emerged today but that will depend on the judge. If this trial starts on Monday then I will have to work all weekend. If not than I won't. And they wonder why people make up reasons to get out of jury duty! I for one love jury duty!

Mental Break Down

I am sorry there are no new photos for the last couple days of this week. Greg had a big presentation at school yesterday (which went great by the way! He rocked it!) so Greg had the jump drive which means no photos from my blog.

I have been insanely busy today. I have dreaded jury duty on Monday in the mighty mighty Bronx county so I have been trying to tie up every loose end at work and with BSF. Unfortunately it is almost quitting time and I am no where near being done so now I am ranking things from least likely to most likely to get me fired if I don't finish them today so I can get home and clean my house.

My dear friend Alice is coming over tomorrow for some craft time and I want to at least clear a path for her to get to my scrapbooking area. No really, it isn't that bad but I would like to vacuum tonight.

It is looking to be a busy weekend. After Alice leaves we are meeting some old friends at the beer garden for dinner and a chance to see their ultra cute twin toddler boys (yes it is a beer garden but it isn't what the name implies, totally family friendly and a nice outdoor local). Then on Sunday we are hoping to pick up some free compost at the Bronx composing center. Then church of course. So I am hoping to get some scrapbooking done but the garden is our number one priority. We spent about 3 hours out there last weekend in the sunshine (yeah!!!) but we still have a long way to go and my little plants in the greenhouse are growing like weeds! Hopefully they can compete with the real weeds in the garden.

Have a great weekend!

Another Layout - I'm on a roll

That's right, I finished this puppy this morning. Here are the stats: Back in 2003 I saved all the holiday stamps that came on our Christmas cards because I saw a BH layout that used salvaged stamps and I was inspired to do the same thing. So when I pulled out the Christmas card photos we received in 2003 there was a big old pile of stamps there too. That made my job easy. I used the stamps to make a cute border then cropped the photos to fill the page. Do you see your photo there? If not then you should really think about sending me your picture THIS year so you too can be honored with a spot in the Cruikshank family album. I also used metal photo corners (did you doubt I would use some photo corners?) a vellum tag, rub on letters for the title, and some red ribbon. I actually have 3-4 more Christmas layout to do for this year.

To clarify something about my scrapbook progress and goals. When I say I am almost done with this album that means I am almost done scrapbooking the year 2003-2004. I still have 2 years to go after this album is done and this only covers my married life. I have no high school or college pages done. Not sure I will even attempt that since I hope to eventually have kids to scrap and am sure that will take up a great deal of my scrapbooking time. We'll see though. I often dream of doing a quick and simple theme type book of my formative years. My mom did an excellent job of arranging my childhood photos into albums complete with cleaver little sayings and info next to each photo so I feel absolutely no need to re-do any of that. In a perfect world I would like to be able to scrapbook in present time. Meaning I take some photos on Saturday, order prints on Sunday and then make a layout that week. We'll see if that ever happens. I think if I keep up the pace and meet my scrapbooking goal for 2006 I may be caught up into the current year and that would be awesome. But of course my goal isn't to get caught up as much as it is to use up my stash of hoarded supplies! So I must scrap on!

Scrapbook Update - HALFWAY THERE!

This weekend I actually had very little time to scrap but some how completed 2 layouts. The first one I had been working on in bits and pieces during the week which meant on Saturday I just had to do the journaling and I was done. The second layout came together in my mind quickly and was done in about an hour which was great. The best part is that they bumped me up to 26 layouts completed which is half way to my goal for the year! And since it is only May that means I am ahead of schedule. I am also almost finished with the current album I am working on which is also encouraging. Oh, I have been using a new product for adhering vellum. Glue Dots brand has come out with Vellum Dots. So far I love them. You truly can't see them at all once you apply them. I will let you know if they hold up over the long run.
Last weekend in the mail we got an invitation booklet from the Asia Society (we are members-long story). The booklet outlined these dinners you could buy tickets too as a fundraiser. The tickets were $500 each so there as no way we were going to buy any so I was about to pitch the booklet in the recycling bin when I thought to myself how nice some of the pages were. They were such pretty colors and patterns so I ripped them out and used them on this layout. The patterned paper is actually 9 pages from the little booklet all glued together. I added my photos, journaling and some colored brads. The paper was kind of busy so I kept it simple. I used the chipboard letters from my recent kit and broke out the tube of paint that came in the kit also. It was a pearl color. Painting the letters went much faster and easier than the glitter fiasco. This layout will be the final page in the album.
This layout features Greg's 2004 gardening efforts. I used photo corners (Yippie!), my velvet letter stickers yet again, rub-on letters for the subtitle, some leather flowers I got a long time ago but always loved to much to actually use (I know it makes no sense!), and a brad and a snap for the flower centers. A simple layout but I love the photos at the bottom. Greg had the foresight to take pictures of his garden every 1-2 weeks so you can actually see it grow in the photos over the summer. So cool! Good job Honey!

I am already 50% done with my next layout for this week. I am on a roll! Here are some close-ups (sorry, not the best quality):

Happy Birthday Suzan!

(Wow, I am looking at Friday's post and the plants I photographed are already 4x larger in just a few days.)

Over the weekend Greg and I attended a birthday party for my dear friend and co-worker Suzan Runko. We had fun chatting with everyone despite the chilly conditions (it was an outdoor party that eventually became an indoor party. I love spring but the nights are still pretty darn cold).

Before leaving for Suzan's party I got the grand idea of making her a birthday hat and button. My first attempt at making a birthday hat went so well I had to take photos. And of course I don't have a button machine (though with all the other useless tools I have I am really surprised I don't have one) so I made a birthday badge instead! Some level of humiliation is always required at an adult birthday party, don't you think!

I started by making a cone out of cardstock for the base and then covered it with cute wrapping paper. I used some ribbon tied with craft wire for the plumb at the top (poked the wire through the top of the cone and taped it inside to secure). Set some eyelets in the sides and completed the hat with some thin elastic (used for making bead bracelets) threaded through the eyelets and tied off. It was big hit and drew lots of attention!

I will surely keep this idea in case I am ever in need of hats for a child's birthday party. It was very quick and easy to make.