Happy Friday and Cosmo Cricket Class

 

In a few short hours it will be Friday. I am looking forward to a weekend hanging out with family and brunch on Sunday for Mother’s Day.  Hanging out with these little guys.

A while back I took a Cosmo Cricket class at my LSS, Paper Vineyard.  I never shared the layouts and cards we made so I thought I would share them today, since I still haven’t finished my CKC post. I took 3 classes and 2 of them used the newest lines Salt Air and Upcycle. The third focused on CC’s fabric and the new Glubers.

Have a great weekend!

Happy Friday

I unexplainably woke up at 4:00 am this morning and could not go back to sleep. I figured I may as well get up and be productive with the time. I am sure I will be loving it about 2:00 this afternoon when the lack of sleep hits.  It will be even more fabulous because my entire afternoon is filled with back to back meetings. At least I have a 4 day weekend to look forward to.

Last weekend was Mike’s big 45th. 

His choice of celebrating was to stay at home most of the weekend and cook for us.  He started off the day with his Bobby Flay inspired Bloody Mary’s and brunch on the grill.  Those breakfast sandwiches are too die for.

We just hung around the house all day and he grilled us fabulous burgers for dinner.  I told him I would make him anything he wanted for his birthday cake. He picked Oreo Cheesecake. I found a few recipe ideas and made a Cheesecake Factory inspired Oreo Cheesecake for our dessert.  It was probably my best cheesecake effort to date.

Nicholas loves birthdays, singing and helping blow out candles.

Nicholas has decided he likes to stamp and made his Daddy a birthday card.

The great thing for me is all weekend he wanted to go down to my scrap room to stamp and do crafts. He is pretty self sufficient down there, I set him up with his own drawer full of old stamps and stamp pads, paper, stickers, and other items I didn’t want anymore.  It let me get some scrap time in too, I just have to let him have control of the TV while we are down there. But that’s okay. 

This was my simple card for Mike.  And since I have a ton of layouts I haven’t shared, here are a few….

Jackson’s first Christmas….

At the pumpkin patch, I scrapped the enlarged photo I had in our entry way during the fall season.

ZooLights at the Phoenix Zoo in 2009 in a rare 2 pager…

Have a great weekend….

ScrapTiffany Monday

This week at ScrapTiffany was handmade flowers. I made mine by punching several circles and adhering them together, folding them to make petals and then forming my flower with the petals. 

Check out what the other ladies did at ScrapTiffany. 

Last week I was consumed with dealing with putting my mom and the hospital, so I didn't get around to posting last week's ScrapTiffany challenge.  It was a sketch challenge week, and this was my take on it.

You can see last week's challenge here and here over at ScrapTiffany.

Have a great Monday.

21 Years Ago Today....

We went on our first date...

So today is our "unofficial" anniversary. I couldn't have it any better.

Ask and you shall receive....I guess

I know I have been complaining A LOT about the heat this year in lovely Arizona, aka 'the oven". We have been hoping for fall, but really?

"Fall"-ing trees????  They said we had winds up to 70 mph in some parts of Chandler. Must have been in our front yard. This is the 4th or 5th tree  we have lost in our front yard in this spot. The first 2 died and the last ones were knocked over in storms. We have lived in our house 5 years, and between a severe frost in 2007 that killed a few other trees and the winds, our tree landscaping looks like we have lived here 5 minutes. I want my trees to grow up. 

I went on a walk this morning and the only other trees that were lost were in the common areas, no other homes that I saw. Just loving that we get to pay someone to remove the tree and plant another one. 

On the upside we may finally be heading towards fall. It should be in the 80's to low 90's for the rest of the week. Hasta la vista 100 degree temps!

Mike took the boys to Snip It's for hair cuts yesterday. They both look like little marines with their short do's.

Here's a card I made for my friend that is coming back to work today after a very long and bad illness. It's a scary thing to think you are going about your normal life your still relatively young, overall healthy and then wham, life stops you in your tracks. I am praying she is back feeling like her normal self soon. 

I made this with the new Pink Paislee/House of Three Parisian Anthology paper and trim. I picked up the trims at my LSS last week. I was paying for my other purchases and looked over and saw them peeking out of a box of new stuff that hadn't been put out yet. I asked if I could buy them even though they weren't up for sale. I misted the paper with Tattered Angels. It didn't show up in the picture too well, but it the glossy part of the paper is still creamy off white.

The stamp was found in the dollar bin at Michael's a month or so ago. They had a few "vintage-y" style stamps (birdcage, old fashioned key and old typewriter) that I got as well.  Oh and the trim....swoon.

Have a great Wednesday! 

How about some cards?

What a fast weekend. It seems like whenever I have an extra day I cram so much in to make the most of it. We had a couple of barbeque's in the backyard. I baked. I worked on my first assignment for the photography class I am taking with Maggie Holmes. I actually opened my camera manual and started reading. I made lots of cards and a few layouts.

I did not open my new Stampmaker. Something to look forward too, I guess.

Our ScrapTiffany assignment this week was Cardstock Only.  A while back I saw a layout using punches layered  for the background. I had wanted to do one like that, but when I sat down to work on it, the layout wasn't working out for me and I felt like making a card:

I inked the edges to make each one stand out. I want to try it on a layout too sometime soon.  There are so many fun things we can do with cardstock. Check out what the other girls did over at ScrapTiffany , and if you make a project based on the challenge share it by e-mailing it to Tiffany over at ScrapTiffany.

I have 3 nieces that have September birthdays. So I made a bunch of cards up yesterday for them and a couple more. 

Using up some Cosmo Cricket Material Girl this one is for my niece turning 3...

Love the girls on the chipboard, but hadn't had a place to use them....

And using up some of the girlie stuff in Studio Calico's Summer Camp kit and add-on's I made this card...

and one for my card stash from leftovers scraps....

Another from the same kit for a friend that has been sick.  The butterfly's are the punch outs from the new EK Success jumbo butterfly border punch. I didn't like the way the border looked so I used the negative instead and used my EK bracket border on both sides of the strip to make the border.

Yippee for short weeks! Have a great Tuesday!

14 Years, Fish and Greetings

14 years ago on Tuesday I married this man...

We celebrated our anniversary with a long weekend at home, on our anniversary we spent the day with our family and took the boys to the aquarium and out to lunch.

Nicholas ran from one exhibit to the next to see the "fishies"...

We ate lunch at Claim Jumper. Meals out are always an adventure with a 1 and 3 year old...

Instead of eating his apples, Nicholas dipped them in caramel sauce and then ranch dip, and then wanted me to eat them....

At least when we got home, they were worn out and took naps. I joined them for a short nap and then headed to my scrap room.  I broke into this finally (Studio Calico August kit)...

Here is a peek at what I worked on for my ScrapTiffany challenge for next Monday....

With all that time off, I would have expected to get a little more time to scrap in, but my mojo just didn't deliver.  I made a quick anniversary card for Mike....

And last week I made this card for a baby shower I was attending....

I am glad the rest of my work week is short. The boys have colds, so I hope they are better by the weekend. Hope you have a happy Thursday!

First Day of Pre-Shcool & the Slice

Some crazy person in Arizona thinks it's a good idea for the kids to start back to school this week.  It was probably 108 yesterday.

We live in a semi-year round school district, so the kids only get 8 weeks off for summer. The pre-school Nicholas attends is at the elementary school, so his schedule is the same as the schools.  He has been super excited for the past week to go back.  He even cooperated for a mini 1st day of school photo shoot.

At least temporarily....I'll take it as progress...

He was telling me he was done.  I am sure one day he will be mad at me for posting his funny face. :)  I went in late so Mike and I could take him to school, so did everyone else.  It was very crowded and lots of cameras with all the "mamarazzi" in full force.  I felt right at home.

I almost laughed when I saw someone else taking this same picture of her kid from behind, must be a fellow scrapbooker.

Sunday we went out school supply shopping for the classroom wish list. I have been eying this for a while, debating if I should get it or not.  Then it goes on sale 40% off at Michael's. 

What's a girl to do? Make a card of course...

Have a great day!  I can't wait to start checking out CHA pictures and videos tonight after the kiddos go to bed.

Adventures in Cooking from the Weekend

This past weekend went way too fast.  Saturday I went to a baby shower, so Mike took the boys to the mall and out to lunch at Kona Grill.  He had planned to make a couple new dishes this weekend, so he picked the easier of the two on Saturday night.  So we ate Chipotle Cajun Pasta.  It was a bit spicy but very good.  It was great for left overs last night and we'll be eating it up for lunch today.  

Sunday he had more time and made Teriyaki Chicken with Pineapple Mexican Salad.  I was busy on the computer when he was in the kitchen, so I didn't realize he made his Teryaki sauce from scratch.  It was the tastiest teriyaki sauce I have ever had.  

The salad was really yummy and pretty easy to make.  It was a chopped pineapple and jicama with some sliced onion and minced cilantro.  Toss in olive oil (2T) and white vinegar (1T, I used white balsamic).  Then top it off with a little feta cheese and fresh cracked pepper. 

I needed a card for the baby shower I was going to.  My friend is not a fan of pink, so I wanted to make a card with lavender (the baby's room color).  Apparently I am not a purple fan, I got rid of every piece of purple patterned paper I had back when I cleaned out my scrap stuff.  Finally I found an old class kit, I took apart the layout that was partly finished and made this quick card.

Father's Day Weekend, Old Family Photos & Cards

We spent the weekend in California at my Dad and Evelyn's house for Father's Day.  It was a fun filled weekend, my brother and sister were able to be around a lot, which was great since we haven't seen them much in the past couple of years.

Friday started off early so we could hit the road, but it was derailed a bit by this munchkin' who ended up in our bed at about 2 a.m. and was up for about an hour.  Nicholas never does this, so it was perfect timing since we planned to get up at 4 and be on the road by 6. :)

He does look cute in that big old bed. The drives both way were pretty uneventful. It was best when they looked like this....

Saturday we met Mike's brother Scott and his family for lunch between our nieces softball tournament games.  Then we headed back to my Dad's house for swimming and celebrating birthdays for my 2 nephews, Christian and Andrew. 

Sunday Dad made brunch and we hung out all day.  We took some updated family photos...

Mike got spoiled for Father's Day....

My sister and I spent time with our Dad, looking at old family pictures and finding out who the people we didn't recognize were.

We found great ones like this favorite of both my sister and I of our grandma and dad when he was probably about 2.  She was so pretty and young and he was adorable.  We think every one of my brother's and my boy's have looked like our Dad in this picture at some point.

My Dad and his brothers...(or a picture from The Outsiders.)

Our Dad sometime in the later 60's, we think.

My sister found this great one of our Grandma, it looks like someone is not behaving and getting that look....

Dad racing his cars that our Grandpa used to build. We know there has to be more of these pictures.

Earl, a great uncle, he was lost at sea in a submarine while in the Navy.  This was one of the last pictures of him.

Our great great grandparents (I think it was on my Grandfather's side)

A slice of Americana...my Uncle Jim and Aunt Noreen.

And a little scrappy stuff...I used Girls Paperie to make Father's Day cards for the Dad's in our life.

Have a great week!