Scrapbook Update

My photos arrived from www.scrapbookpictures.com and I was very happy with my order. As you can see the photos were all different sizes and most were pre-cut for me. All I had to do was trim and add them to my prepared mini-book. I added a few more embellishments and I was done. I will definitly use this company again. They have so many more options than the other places I was using to develop my pictures.

Most of my photos were 2x2 inch. Having them printed at that size was much better than what I usually do which is attempt to crop them myself.My mom found some dies for my Quikutz that are of punctuation () {} [] * etc. I used them in this little book (thanks mom!). Most of the other supplies came from the August scrapbook kit. It was so nice to have everything coordinated for me. It made it really easy.

These are just 3 of the 8 layouts that highlighted my experience in San Antonio. So far people have enjoyed looking through it.

Our baby!

We are pleased to announce a new addition to the Cruikshank household. Meet Rosie!

We decided after much deliberation and planning to purchase this little washer/drier combo. That's right, she washes and dries all in the same machine.

Now for you non-New Yorkers I know you are wondering why on earth I would even care to post this. BUT having a washer of your own is UNHEARD of in this city. I recently read a New York Times article about how washing machines are a great equalizer. Neither the rich nor the poor have laundry capabilities in their homes. It just doesn't happen. Well one of the perks of living so far up in the Bronx is that out apartment has always had washing machine hook-ups in the kitchen. Our lease has a clause that doesn't allow driers but Rosie here doesn't work like a regular drier and requires no special pluming, venting, or an additional outlet (none of which we have). So she was allowed in.

I am on my 5th load (we had quite the back up of laundry and she doesn't hold very much) and I am loving her. Welcome Rosie!

Camping

Over the weekend I went cabin camping with my friends Suzan and Shelly. Suzan had never been camping before and really wanted to stay in a cabin in the woods. Well she found one in the Taconic State Park and invited me along.

We enjoyed a hike up to Bash Bish Falls which involved crossing the border from NY State to Massachusetts. The falls were very pretty.

We also built a campfire and introduced Suzan to smores which she had never experienced before. I was very proud of myself for building a fire (plus a second one indoors in the fireplace!). Watching Greg all these years must have rubbed off on me.

Suzan shares my love of jigsaw puzzles and brought along a 3D puzzle for us to work on. We stayed up till 2am the first night putting it together and managed to complete it by lunch the next day. We left it behind for some other campers to try. I never do the same puzzle twice!

It was a quick little trip. We went up on Friday night and were back by Sunday afternoon. It reminded me a lot of camping in the northwest because it was really overcast and rainy the whole time and kind of chilly. Plus I don't see a lot of forests in my day to day activities in NYC so that reminded me of the PacNW too. We had lots of fun!

Garden Update

When we had the heat wave her in NYC a few weeks ago we lost a great deal of our garden. Several days over 100 degrees was just too much for some things to take, even with lots of watering. We lost most of our cucumbers, watermelon, bowl gourd, zucchini (though it was almost dead from pests), pumpkin, and and some other vines. Not much is left.
One thing that did make it was a warted gourd that Greg planted. This morning I came down to these giant blooms. It has just rained and they looked so fresh and pretty. Unfortunately we can't eat warted guards but they make pretty decorations at Halloween.

Another thing that not only withstood the heat but is doing great are the tomatoes. Greg is delighted. I don't really like raw tomatoes but I planted Romas this year in hopes of making some sauce with them (I love cooked tomatoes!). These beauties came off the vine this morning and are coming camping with me. Don't tell them we are eating them on our tacos!

Lastly are the yellow squash or summer squash. This one ended up getting a little too big and may not steam up as nice as a small one would. So far this is the only fruit from this vine but it has a few blooms and may produce something else.

The morning glory was blooming this morning too. Unfortunately its beauty is tainted by the fact that it is such a nasty weed. We also have lots of big carrots and beets which I will photograph soon when we pull them up and eat them.

Have a great weekend!

Scrapbook Update - August Kit

I received my August kit last week in the mail. It was a little late because I had to pick it up at the post office. I was a little disappointed that the color were orange and pink. What am I going to do with this? Then I got a brainstorm. I am using this kit to make a mini-album of my trip to BSF headquarters. I know you are sick of hearing about BSF but I have a workshop next week and I thought taking a mini-book would be a great way to show people the trip and even drum up some more volunteers for next year.

I don't have any photos of the book because I am doing it a little bit backwards. I am using a new-ish photo service called www.scrapbookphotos.com which is a lot like other online photo developers except that they have tons of photo sizes to choose from, artsy borders, even color spot treatments. This mini book is 6 x 6 so all my photos are 2x2 or 2x3 in size. And they are coming to me pre-cropped. I am really excited about this but it took a ton more work than I usually do. I had to sketch out each page in advance to figure out how the photos would all fit and to pick the sizes. I was hoping the photos would arrive before this blog entry but I am still waiting.

I am going camping this weekend with some girlfriends so I probably won't get to scrap again until next week. I will be taking some vacation days and hope to spend one whole day scrapbooking. I may even meet my goal next week since I will only need 7 more layouts to make it to my goal total! How cool is that!

Rafiki Foundation

One of the perks of visiting BSF headquarters is that the Rafiki Foundation also has their headquarters on campus there too, as well as a store.

The Rafiki Foundation is a non-profit that's aim is to:
"help orphaned and vulnerable children in Africa to become godly contributors to their communities and the world"
They do this through specially designed orphanages and girls training centers.

The orphanages are cool. There is a village with a main center building and then small cottages around the perimeter. In each cottage live 10 orphans and one woman who is designated their permanent mother. Siblings are kept together and the cottage does everything together as a "family". They receive food, clothing, medicine, education and some kind of marketable skill training within the little village. I just think it is such a cool concept.

The training centers specifically target girls in developing countries who would not be able to attend school or are too young to find jobs. They receive an education and are taught a skill that results in a product. The products are sold in the US and all proceeds go directly back to the training centers. The photo shows the items I picked up at the Rafiki store.

Carved wooden ark - Malawi
Trees - Tanzania
Soaps - Cape Town
Quilted bag - Nigeria
Earrings- Can't remember

They had so many wonderful things and they were all very inexpensive. It is so nice shopping with the assurance that the products are helping children. Please check out their website and if you are in San Antonio definitely swing by the store. They do have a child sponsorship program too.

Super Nanny Alexis!

While my friend Karen is away on vacation I have been feeding her cats twice a day for the past few days. The only way to get them to hold still for a photo was to feed them. I have been calling them "Fat Buster and Mini Meow". If you know Austin Powers you will get it. The older cat is Buster and he is a little, well how should I put it....big boned. And then there is the new kitten Margarita. They look like twins but Margarita is from totally different stock.

This morning I went to feed them and I poured out their water and went to refill the bowls but there was no water coming from the faucet! I forgot that Karen got a note on Sunday that the water was going to be shut off for a day. I couldn't leave them with no water so the kitties are drinking Evian today. It's all I could find besides Diet Coke and OJ. For one day they can live the high life!

In the evenings I play with them a little.
Mini Meow is easily entertained. Greg came with me over the weekend and found this elastic ball thing to hang from the door. She loves it and it keeps her entertained for a while.

This is the extent of Buster playing. Mostly he flops his big belly out on the coffee table and lets me brush him. He is a real sweetie.

Occasionally I think about getting a cat. I am really allergic but we aren't allowed to have a dog in our building but cats are ok (so unfair I know!). Cat sitting has cured me of the desire. Cleaning out the litter box and dishing up the nasty smelling wet food is a little much for me. Oh and did I mention that Buster vomits if he eats too fast. Yeah, that was fun to clean-up too. I will just settle for visiting them when I hang out with Karen.

Have a good weekend!

Greg is here to pick me up so I have to run. I am hoping to get lots of fun projects done this weekend and will post about them next week. I leave you with a photo collage of my BSF trip that wouldn't post yesterday.

Have a great weekend!

Sorry! BSF trip update.

I have been a REALLY bad blogger. It has been almost a week since I posted. When I started this blog things were really slow at home and work so I had plenty of time to post but lately it has been go, go, go. I will try harder!
We made it home safe and sound from Texas (eventually!). It was a great trip and we especially loved working at BSF headquarters for a couple of days. In the above photo Alice and I are on a tour of the facility and got this photo in the library where the BSF staff meet each morning for their devotional time. It was fun hearing a little more of the story of BSF's founder. The facilities were wonderful and so well kept and run. The volunteer coordination staff couldn't have been more friendly or more accommodating. They made sure that we took lots of breaks and they were constantly feeding us! That may be a Texas thing.

When you volunteer you do whatever they need that day but most of the work is done in the warehouse sorting, packing, weighing, and organizing the materials that are printed in-house. Alice and I spent half our time sorting and organizing packing slips and letters and half our time weighing out Home Training Pages into 100 sheet bundles so they could be shipped off to classes around the world. It was very cool to see the process it takes to get materials to the classes, the materials we enjoy using each week. It is truly an opportunity to see the BIG PICTURE!

We met lots of great people and got to rub elbows with some of the executive staff (or BSF celebrities as I like to call them) and we were kind of like little celebrities too since we were from the NYC class. Everyone wanted to ask us about it. Alice is already organizing a trip for next year (we hope to get into on-campus housing for $10 a day! You can't beat that!) so if you are interested drop me a line and I will forward you on to her.

OOPS!!

I am in San Antonio right now with my friend Alice. We are SUPPOSED to be on a plane right now but we missed our flight!!! Mom, you aren't the only one who has trouble in airports I guess! With the recent problems with air travel we were extra careful to be at the airport 2 hours early sans viscous liquids. Only problem was we thought our flight was at 7pm but in fact it had been at 5pm! We had misread the itinerary. Or rather Alice mis-read it and I was too lazy to check it at all. We make such a great team!!!!!

Anyway, we are staying in a hotel tonight by the airport until our flight first thing in the morning. We had a great time volunteering at BSF headquarters on Thursday and Friday and met so many wonderful and fun people. We ate our way through Texas and it is true, everything is bigger here including the portions. We visited the Alamo and the Riverwalk, Market Square and did lots of shopping. We are looking forward to getting home but are enjoying this evening to take a break and relax. We have been working on some knitting projects and I am currently washing laundry since I was out of clean clothes after today.

I have tons of photos to share soon. Have a wonderful Sunday!

Good-Bye Again!

It is such a beautiful day today. Not too hot, breezy, and low humidity! I love days like this. This is what summer SHOULD be like, for everyone. I wish I had some fun photos to post today but that would mean I have been doing fun things and alas I have not. I have been working pretty late most nights and I have been trying to go to bed at 10pm each night this week so that I can get up earlier and that leaves little time for much else.

I am leaving tonight on a jet plane for Texas with my dear friend and faithful blog reader ALICE (hi Alice!). We are heading to San Antonio for a few days to volunteer at BSF headquarters. I am really looking forward to it and hope that it will really get me excited for class to start in just a few short weeks. I am packed and ready to go. I just have to tie up all loose ends at work.

On a fun note my friend Susan (from Texas!) is here in NYC today and I will get a chance to say a quick hi to her and Lily this afternoon. You can see a photo of her and baby Lily on my last post. It was her baby shower that was featured.

I won't be able to post again until next week so I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Scrapbook Update

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. We enjoyed much cooler weather and I had some time to do a little scrapbooking. I am now only 8 layouts away from meeting my 2006 goal. I can't express how excited I am about that. Space is clearing up in my scrapbook area where boxes of photos used to be and it feels so good. Here are the layouts I did this week. I have been changing the way I scrapbook in that at times along the way I will just glue things down instead of agonizing over them and rearranging for hours. Sometimes it works great and other times I regret doing it but I move ahead anyway. This was one of those times. I started sticking down stickers and putting in brads and then decided I hated the way it looked. But I moved on anyway. I ended up added some paint to this layout (I am now loving paint!) and I think it redeemed it a little but this is still not one of my favorite layouts. I am slowly learning to let go of my perfectionism and just live and learn.
This layout features a baby shower I attended for my friend and recent blog reader, Susan Glassmoyer. I had a ton of photos of her opening each gift and a few not so great crowd shots. So I picked the best of the present shots and cut out individual heads from the group shots. I added the photos from her birth announcement to complete the story. Greg agreed that this layout used the pictures really well considering the limitations. I used some Ghost Letters from Heide Swapp but I painted the back of letters with peach paint to coordinate with the paper. I am loving paint right now. It is such an easy way to add color. I just have to be careful not to go buying a million tubes of it.

This was a quicky of a bachelorette party we had at work (or with work people I should say). Super simple and using KI paper which I have tons of. No real embellishments except letter stickers.

I received notice that my new August kit will be shipping soon. I still have old kit stuff to use so I had better get busy!

Relief

The heat finally broke today and we are enjoying temps in the low 90s and much less humidity. Still pretty darn hot but so much more tolerable. Work was a lot quieter today and I was able to catch up on all my normal work. We have plans this weekend to visit with some friends we haven't seen in ages and will even be taking in a movie IN A THEATER. Something we don't often do. So here are some pictures from our trip. Nothing amazing mind you!
Greg jumped a fence to get this shot on Martha's Vineyard in Edgartown. Such a rebel!

Here I am at American Stonehenge in New Hampshire. That face is the one you get when you say to me "go and climb inside that little cave". Are you joking!?! I was a little overheated and tired by this point in the day so I wasn't amused by Greg's request.

A problem we faced on this trip was that we didn't end up with a single photo with both of us in it. I'm definitly one of those people who doesn't want to stop strangers on the street and beg them to photograph us but there really weren't any of those kinds of opportunities. If you have been following my scrapbooking on this blog you know that I end each album with a page about our anniversary complete with a photo and since our anniversary occurred on this trip I had hoped to get a cute photo of us after 5 years of marriage. So when we got home I forced Greg into a home photo session. I pulled out that piece of black velvet I bought at Christmas and we tried our best at an artsy portrait. It is a little off since we were using a tripod and a timer but I still like it a lot. Happy Anniversary darling!

Have a great weekend everyone!

When it rains.....There is fire!

What? Upon returning from vacation I found out that there was a big problem with one of my multi-million dollar grants at work. So since pulling up in the driveway from a wonderful little vacation with my hubby I have been dealing with the problem. I am known at work for not getting worried but this issue has worried me. Mostly because my boss is away on vacation and I have had to deal with it on my own. It isn't really resolved yet but I feel that I have done all I can do and now I just need to pray that it will work out fine. But in the heat of that problem we had a lab fire yesterday!

I couldn't help but laugh. We were working in the lab (I was actually seeding plates to help out a post-doc, something I haven't done in 2 years) and the fire alarm went off. We were kind of annoyed because not only were we all really busy but it was 110 degrees outside and we didn't really want to stand out there. We assumed that it was a drill or someone pulled the alarm which happens often at this school but usually during finals week! So the girls and I went down and ran off to get some coffee instead of standing around. When we returned to the building we started hearing rumors that the problem had been on the 7th floor. HUH? That is was room 766. HUH? That's my lab! Turns out that in the room next to where we had been seeding plates the temp had gotten so high (it is a growth chamber used for growing plants and has lots of hot lights in it) that the sprinkler head had melted and set off the sprinklers which triggered the alarm and then the spraying water ignited a light socket and caused it to blow. And we were right there and didn't hear or see anything! When we returned to the lab there was about an inch of water on the floor and about 4 inches inside the room so they couldn't open the door. The room is supposed to automatically shut itself off when it gets to hot but apparently there was a glitch in the control panel and it just kept heating and heating and heating. We had about 40 NYU personnel here cleaning and investigating the whole thing and I couldn't help but laugh. When it rains it pours (or starts a fire!).

I had wonderful plans to post this week about my trip and some other stuff I am doing but have been really pre-occupied. Last night I worked till 10pm but after today things should quiet back down. Unless something else in the lab decides to explode!

Welcome Back Cruikshank

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am back safe and sound from our little road trip last weekend. Things kind of blew up at work while I was gone (it's amazing what can go wrong in 3 days time!) so I have been really preoccupied since getting home and checking my email for the first time.

We had a wonderful trip. Here is a quick break down (places we stopped to visit and/or stayed in):

Day 1: Mystic Connecticut, Newport Rhode Island & New Bedford Massachusetts. New Bedford is an old whaling town where Moby Dick was written and featured.

Day 2: Martha's Vineyard

Day 3: Boston & Salem Massachusetts, and American Stonehenge North Salem New Hampshire. We celebrated our anniversary in Concord New Hampshire and had a really nice dinner and some swimming. Perfect evening!

Day 4: Canterbury Shaker Village in Canterbury New Hampshire & Lowell Massachusetts. The Shaker Village had the BEST brunch I have ever eaten. I would highly recommend a visit just for the food.

We were supposed to stay away 5 days but decided to drive home on Sunday instead of paying to sleep somewhere just to drive home Monday. We rolled in at about 12:30am.

We had a marvelous time but are glad to be home. Unfortunately with the heat index today it is 106-110 degrees and there are tons of heat warnings and I am worried about brown-outs tonight. I just want my one little air conditioner to run so I can sleep. That doesn't seem like too much to ask!

More later!

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.