Life of Leisure

I still have a few pictures left from our trip to Cuba in January 08. I'm almost done! This layout has no journaling because it's part of our Cuba album and honestly, no journaling is needed here! oops i just noticed a pebble came unglued and moved on the layout, must fix that!


I added a My Mind's Eye transparency on Sean's picture. Also, the two petals I cut off from this green flower were used as petals elsewhere on the layout. JJ, I used flowers!!!


While I was making this layout, Kira was on my scrap table playing with random things. She grabbed these pebbles and said "I'm going to put them on your page, Mommy!" Sure enough, the colours were perfect! Two years old and she's already an art genius! :)


Supplies:
Cardstock: Bazzill Basics in Lily White;
Patterned paper: Scenic Route "Metropolis" collection in Butler Street; Stampin' Up!; Rouge de Garance "Picoti Picota" collection in #4; Making Memories;
Letter : BasicGrey Undressed chipboard; American Crafts;
Brads: Dollar store;
Transparency: My Mind's Eye "Abbey Road" collection in Lucky Me "Hello World" element;
Flowers: Prima Marketing;
Gems: Robin's Nest;
Buttons: American Crafts;
Other: Glimmer Mist in Riptide; Doodlebug sequins;

Thanks for stopping by♥

I Will Remember **Scrapbook Circle August 09 Kit**

Scrapbook Circle's August 09 kit included these Glitz papers and gems. I really love how this turned out and I'm glad I finally scrapped this pic that I had been sitting on for months now!


Supplies:
Papers: Glitz
Gems: Glitz
Letters: Luxe
Journaling Spot: Jillibean Soup
Punches: Martha Stewart
Edge Distresser: Making Memories

Thanks for stopping by♥

First Day of School

Yup.
Today was the day.
This boy's first day of school:


And you know what?
This boy's mommy didn't cry! we'll see if I stay tears-free next week when he has to take the school bus for the first time! ;)
Everything has been so rough for us recently that I chose to only see the good in this day.
I'm not losing my boy;
He'll simply be even more interesting when he comes home at night and shares with me all the new things he learned.
I'm not losing my boy;
I'm gaining some alone-time with my daughter.
Besides, he was so excited, how could I cry?


Who says the required picture by the front door/steps has to be boring?
He woke up at 7 am and said: "I'm weady fo' school!"
Since today was only for an hour-and-a-half, he had to wait a few hours!
He did get a little worried right before we had to go in:


It didn't last long, however.
I held him, kissed him and told him I'd be there waiting for him when he was done.
Soon, he was back to his normal self:



My boy facing his new world:

It wasn't planned at all, but I think it's cool that he's standing on the word "départ".

How very à-propos, don't you think?

Thanks for dropping by♥

Time to Take Flight **American Crafts**

This week's challenge on the American Crafts blog notice that I was last week's winner?! COOL! is to sew on our layout. I did faux-stitching with my pen and some x-stitching. I absolutely love this line of papers, the colours are gorgeous!



Supplies:
Carstock: Bazzill Basics in Lily White;
Papers: American Crafts "Travel" collection;
Letters: American Crafts "Subway" and "Rockabye";
Felt shapes: American Crafts;
Acrylic dragonfly: American Crafts;
Pen: American Crafts Precision pen;
Thread;
"Imagine" embellishment punched out of Heidi Swapp packaging.

Thanks for stopping by♥

Win some stuff!

Julie is celebrating 100 followers at The Open Window. Check out the blog candy she is offering:

Good luck!

Cards - Scrap Within Reach & Nikki Sivils

I am so not a card maker! I struggle every time, lol!

This first one is made with Scrap Within Reach's Afternoon Tea collection.


This one is made with Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker's Henry's Brilliance collection.

Thanks for stopping by♥

Do Cats Like Baths?

If you happen to know who makes the blue-with-circles paper, I'd appreciate it! Thanks!

Supplies:
Papers: Pink Paisley and Fancy Pants;
Letters: Rose Moka;
Cardstock: Bazzill;
Chipboard: American Crafts;
Journaling spot: Fancy Pants;
Pen: Zig Writer;

Thanks for stopping by♥

A published layout (Simple Scrapbooks)

I realized last night while reading Jennifer's blog (a Scrap Within Reach fellow DT member) that I haven't been very good at posting my layouts that have been published. Since some of them were requested for publication before they were ever posted here, they've never been seen. Well, scrapbookers might've seen them in the mag, but my family hasn't! :) So this is mostly for them!

This layout was published in the second to last regular issue of Simple Scrapbooks, March/April 2009.

Thanks for stopping by♥

This Way to Fun! *Scrapbook Circle August Kit**

Cosmo Cricket's "The Boyfriend" is so cool! I made this layout at Erin's last Tuesday. You know, the day I came home and found my kitchen flooded? Yup. That day. At least, something good came out of that day! :)



Supplies:
Cardstock: Bazzill Basics;
Patterned paper: Cosmo Cricket "The Boyfriend collection";
Journaling Spot: October Afternoon Road Map Labels;
Letter stickers: Luxe Black Alpha;
Pen: American Crafts;
Black twine;
Misc. Buttons;

Thanks for stopping by♥

Prima Goodies!

Like what you see? Check out Prima's blog for a list of everything you see here. Make sure to post about this too if you want to win a Prima prize pack! Details on the blog.

If I win, I will definitely share my prize with JJ, my pal and Prima-user extraordinaire! :)

It's That Time... **New Nikki Sivils**

Here's my first layout using Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker's "Henry's Brilliance" collection. I really, really like how this turned out!



Thanks for stopping by♥

Check out these links!

I was proud to see that Lindsay decided to post my card on the Cosmo Cricket blog.

You can also see a Nikki Sivils card I made on Nikki's blog.

And if you got your hands on the Fall issue of Scrapbooking & Beyond, you can see 2 of my layouts. "Café du matin" is on page 22, and "Still Very Much Loved" is on page 43. You can also see my fellow Nikki Sivils DT member Hilde Janbroers' gorgeous layout on page 46! Are you in this issue? Please let me know so I can check it out!

Thanks for stopping by and letting me toot a little♥

Thank you!

Hello everyone! I would like to thank you all for your comments yesterday.
A special thank you to Erin who gave me a call last night and lifted my spirits!
It is still incredibly noisy here, but the heat is the worst.
It's currently 38 C in our house (100 F) with no possibilities of opening the windows.
Since there are also 2 huge dehumidifiers in the house, we are fighting dehydration.
Let's just say a lot of water has been drunk!
The kids are starting to feel affected by this heat.
I wish we could go away today, but I can't take my car because it is having HUGE problems and it might die in my hands.
Even my husband wont drive it unless he absolutely has to.
So I'm stuck here.
We'll go in the backyard.
We'll go in the pool.
We'll do what we have to do! :)
Oh, and btw, the insurance company will pay to put us up somewhere else, so no worries there.

Thanks for stopping by♥

Calling Bob the Builder! Calling Bob the Builder!

I went to my pal Erin's place for the day yesterday.
Left at 9:30.
Came back at 5:30.
Came back to a little surprise in my kitchen and dining room.
The surprise?
They were flooded.
The culprit?
This:

I have no freakin' idea how that happened.
It was fine when I left.
It cracked from top to bottom at some point during the day.
So the tank leaked out...
But kept refilling itself.
So it kept on leaking, and leaking, and leaking.

I came home to 1 inch of water in my kitchen, a little less in my dining room.
Those rooms are below the bathroom.
Sean's bedroom, which shares a wall with the bathroom, got damage too.
So did the basement.
Luckily, none of my scrapbooking stuff or other important stuff was touched, other than my scanner/printer.
We were extremely lucky for that!

The insurance company sent a clean-up crew last night.
They arrived at 9pm and left at 1 am.
Now, there are a lot of these in our house:

Super-duper fans to dry out everything.
Super-duper LOUD fans.
Super-duper fans that make the house unbelievably hot.
And since it's really humid outside, we can't open the windows (because it'll prevent everything from drying properly.)
Oh.
did I mention we don't have AC?
The fans are here until Friday.
Good times.

So...
What else can you see in my house right now?
Oh yeah.
This:

That's in my kitchen.
And you can see a hole farther down.
That's the dining room.
There's a big a whole in the basement ceiling.
The whole floor in the dining room and living room will have to be redone because it was too damaged.
The floor in Sean's room too.
Ceilings, obviously.
Probably a few walls.
Which means what?
Chances are we'll have to move out until they are done fixing things.
And Sean is starting school on the 28th...

Well, let's look at the good side of things.
I'll finally get my kitchen painted.
And there's a lot of this going on, so it can't be so bad, can it?

Thanks for stopping by♥

A Layout, a Card and a Toot... Oh my!

I took these pictures of Sean back in April because I thought he was adorable. However, when I had them printed, I realized how drab they look, what with the cement, the bare bushes, the yellow grass and the all-beige outfit. So I ran with that idea! ;)

This week's American Crafts challenge was to use 2 Remarks stickers. No problem there. First I have the letters, then there's the journaling spot.

Supplies:
Cardstock: Bazzill Basics;
Paper: American Crafts Kids collection;
Chipboard shapes: American Crafts;
Journaling spot: American Crafts Remarks;
Letters: American Crafts Remarks;
Pen: Sakura and American Crafts;
Ribbon: Unknown;

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

I also made this card using the August kit from Scrapbook Circle. Gotta love Cosmo Cricket and "The Boyfriend"! The only supplies not from the kit are the mini letters.


This is the inside:

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

Last, but certainly not least, Jane from Scrapbooking & Beyond just requested a layout for the spring or summer 2010 issue (to be determined, it could fit in either one)! YAY!

Thanks for stopping by♥

Card Week @ Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker!

Head on over to Nikki's blog. The design team is taking over for the entire week! We were asked to create a card using at least one stamp from NSS. The cards that were turned in are amazing! Today's cards come courtesy of Nathalie Leonelli and Jana Eubank. I'll show you my card as soon as it is posted over there!

I hope you'll stop by♥

Check Out my Bonhomme

Wow, this looks crooked, doesn't it? Obviously, it's not the case in real life, I guess I was too tired last night when I did my cropping and I'm too lazy now to redo it! ;)


Supplies:
Cardstock: Bazzill and Bazzill Swiss Dots;
Patterned paper: Crate Paper, October Afternoon and Pebbles Inc.;
Letter stickers: JilliBean Soup;
Journaling spot: Toga;
Circle Embellishment: American Crafts Flair;
Gems: Kaiser Crafts;
Punch: Marvy Uchida;
Pen: American Crafts;
Other: Glimmer Mist;
Ink: Nick Bantock;

Thanks for stopping by♥