Happy Birthday My Little Man...

A year ago today you entered our lives and we will thankfully never be the same.

You are my sweet Little J, mommy's Peanut Butter Pie, our Mr. Squishy, Nicholas's Mai Me, and our funny JJ (the second J because you are definitely a Johnson, ;0 even if it isn't your last name).

Love this new smile you started doing....

You had no hesitation digging in and enjoying your birthday cupcake...

We love you Jackson!

Oh What a Night....

“Early November back in 2-0-9
What a very crazy time
As I remember what a night

Oh what a night,
You know I didn't even know the game
But I was never gonna be the same
Was it crazy, oh yes what a night!

Oh, I got a funny feeling when he cried to soon
And I, as I recall we watched the TV toons

Oh what a night! Doo dit doo dit dit doo dit doo dit dit’

(If you are too young, Google December 1963)

Yep! This was a dose of our day. After about 5 hours of sleep the boys woke up way too early and were cranky from the get go. Jackson barely took a nap and Nicholas (my great sleeper) refused to take one. So by the late afternoon it was crazy in these parts of Arizona.

I usually love my day’s home with the boys, but today work sounded like a great idea. I have a lot of patience with my kids (yes those that know me everywhere else won’t believe that) but it is very true. I said to Nicholas tonight that he had worn down my very last nerve and he had. I couldn’t wait to get them to bed.

Mike had planned and cooked us a fabulous dinner of beef tenderloin roast and scalloped potatoes with gruyere and smoked gouda cheeses. After we aborted a family dinner and decided to eat after they went to bed, Nicholas woke up as I was spooning out the dinner plates.

We watched about 25 minutes of TV (the shows never seem to last that long, but tonight they did). Then finally Mike and I enjoyed this fabulous dinner with a fantabulous bottle of Tobin James wine.





Then about 10 minutes ago Jackson started crying. He is relentless, no crying it out works for him. So Mike is giving him a bottle now. Happy! Happy! Joy1 Joy!

I did get a bit of scrapping done with the November Color Me Daisy Kit the past couple of nights.

Trick or Treat

Our Halloween festivities started this afternoon with Nicholas helping to carve the pumpkin. No touching pumkin guts or seeds, but the pumpkin was okay.

Of course it was a puzzle, we had to put the cut parts back where they came from...

Almost done...


After all that work the pumpkin has to be thirsty...

We had our traditional pizza dinner, although this year we ordered it early as we had to take kiddos out to trick or treat instead of eating it while sitting in the courtyard passing out candy. Nana R came by too to see the boys in thier costumes. Both the boys woke up with colds today so we had to dress them a bit warmer tonight.

Time to trick or treat. It didn't take long to catch on how this works. We had to let Nicholas ring the doorbell at each house. A lot of people weren't home tonight but he still hit 3 blocks of houses tonight.

Let's race to the next house...

HOLY CANDY BATMAN!!! We had some generous neighbors, one giving full size candy bars!



After 3 blocks of walking the wagon came in handy!

Good thing Daddy wasn't as tired as we were!

Back at home we sat in the courtyard and handed out candy to the other trick or treaters. "Robin" had a cold but he stuck it out for handing out candy.

Nicholas likes to sing the "nananananananananananaa Batman" song from the old time TV show. Candy from trick or treating is pretty good too! Nicholas even wore his mask, although it fit funny so instead of over his face it was on his head.



This reminded me of when I was a kid. I had to dump out the candy and sort it for my favorites. Nicholas isn't too experienced with candy, but he still had fun sorting the candy, counting it and putting it back in the bucket (of course Marti wanted to help).

But with all the excitement our good little sleeper would not go to bed. It was after 10 before he went to bed tonight. I am tired too!

Hope you had a great Halloween!

Autumn Splendor is Here

Color Me Daisy's November kit is available now. "Autumn Splendor" is perfect for capturing all your fall activities.

CKC Glendale Classes Pt 2

Class 3 Dimensional Pages - Creating Keepsakes Kelly Purkey This was a busy class. We had to stamp, heat emboss, die cut and emboss, use stickles and (when we got home use glossy accents). We made one 2 page layout, but because of all the different techniques we used I didn't completely get this put together in class. I won another idea book in this class, I don’t think I have this one.










Here is a detail of the glossy accents on the paper flower center. I like how it is raised. I have used it to give a glossy finish to something but now like this.






Class 4 Life’s Lyrics - Creating Keepsakes Kelly Purkey

My last class of the first day was a mini album called Life’s Lyrics. We used Basic Grey Junebug for the mini. Before class we were to pick out several song’s to use in our book. Since I didn’t know exactly what we would need, I just brought copies of the lyrics and kraft cardstock to write them out on. It turned out we didn’t finish in class so I just did it at home. You didn’t have room for all the lyrics, so it worked better to know what it looked like and then pick out the lyrics of a song that had meaning to you. I also won a giveaway in this class, which was a Card Idea book that I am pretty sure I already have, so it will go in the crop night prize box.



After my almost 39 years this song says it perfectly…

My first song was Real Live Woman ` Trisha Yearwood

I no longer justify
Reasons for the way that I behave
I offer no apologies
For the things that I believe
And say
And I like it that way



This song reminds me of when we left California for me to take a my job out here in Arizona. It was a huge change for us a big promotion for me and a huge opportunity for us. I remember listening to this CD on the drive out here that night. We were closing on our first house the next day and I had just started my new position 2 days before. And Arizona seemed like a whole different world from where we had always known.

Wide Open Spaces – Dixie Chicks

She needs wide open spaces
Room to make her big mistakes
If these are life lessons, she’ll take this test



This song has been one I sang to both my babies when they would fall asleep when I was holding them. I am sure most parents can relate to this.

Aerosmith “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”

I don’t want to miss one smile
I don’t want to miss one kiss
Don’t want to close my eyes
Cause I’d miss you baby
And I don’t want to miss a thing



Another one for my boys, as a parent you want the best for your kids and you want them to take all that life gives them and not take it for granted.

I Hope You Dance, LeAnn Womack

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
May you never take one single breath for granted
Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens
And when you get the chance to sit out or dance
I hope you dance



One more for my boys who have their whole lives ahead of them

“Unwritten” Natasha Bedingfield

Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten



One of my favorite songs is Upside Down by Jack Jackson. I remember one of the first times I really heard it was at Creative Escape in 2006. Stacy Julian was the keynote speaker the last night and I was at a crossroad in my life. I was pregnant with our first child, frustrated with my job and just not really sure where I wanted things to go. There were some things Stacy said that night that I will never forget. The first was “What would you do if perceived impossibilities and insecurities didn’t stop you.” I felt trapped by the financial security we had from my job. It made me feel I couldn’t do anything else. I was working a ton of hours and 6 months pregnant.

The theme of Stacy’s whole presentation that night resonated from a lyric from this song “Is this how it’s supposed to be”. Since that night, I have often questioned that very thing. I can say now I have moved past that place of how I felt about my job, I am sure some of it was pregnancy emotions. But what I won’t forget from that night was the check that those words can give me when something doesn’t feel right, “Is this how it’s supposed to be?” And if the answer is no, then change it.

I thought it was impossible for me to find a “place” in the scrapbooking world. I was wrong; I am doing something I am passionate about. I work more now and sleep less but I love what I am doing. I am realistic that this will probably never allow me to leave my day job, but right now I am okay with that, and that is what is important.

‘Upside Down” Jack Johnson
Is this how it’s supposed to be?
I want to turn the whole thing upside down
Who’s to say what’s impossible and can’t be found?
I don’t want this feeling to go away



So that is it for my first day of classes. I was beat after having classes from 8:30 am to 8:00 pm with lots of shopping in between. I was wishing that I had a hotel room by the end of the day.

Next up Day 2 Classes

On the second day I was able to be with my friends, Jen, Renee and Chaery. We shopped took classes and stayed for the evening crop that night.

Latest & Greatest with Shelby Dredge

This was our first class on Saturday and the one we take every time . Always lots of Basic Grey with a bit of Crate Paper and Fancy Pants Designs. In the class you do 4 single page kits and you can buy the matching page kit for a double layout for about $12. Even though I am usually a single page gal, I do get this. Shelby always designs pages that you can use lots of pictures on, so another great class for just getting some of those random pictures scrapped that are sitting in the binder ready to go.

Here are the pages we made:

Here is my little busybody, Jackson



This one was perfect for some leftover pictures from Nicholas’s first Christmas



Since we are a no girl zone, this girly page was perfect for the puppy girlies.



This was a good layout for Nicholas’s first trip to the pumpkin patch that I never got around to scrapping.



As always this class is great, you always get a few tricks even when you have taken Shelby’s class 2x a year for several years. Things come pre cut for the most part so the pages are pretty quick to put together.

Masking & Misting Techniques taught by Maggie Holmes

This class turned to be sponsored by a kit club (sorry I won’t give them advertising here but not hard to figure out if you want to). It was a nice class kit, with full packages of things to use and plenty of leftovers. We did some masking and misting techniques. I have tons of Glimmer and Maya Road mists, but have never used them on a layout, so it was fun to try it out.

I actually won a giveaway in this class too. It was my lucky weekend. (I also won a door prize in the vendor fair).

Here are the two pages we did:





Technique Tuesday Ali Edwards Class taught by Darcy

This class was inspired by Ali Edwards. We did a layout in class using different stamping techniques and then had a take home card. The instructor Darcy was fantastic. The best information I got from the class was when she talked about the different types of inks and what they were best used for. She also talked about glaze pens, which sent us all in search of them after class. We got a great demo at the Technique Tuesday booth and we were sold on them.

Here are the layouts we did, the weren’t elaborate in style, but more focused on different stamping techniques.






The last thing we did was the Saturday night crop. We had dinner over at the Yardhouse after a day of shopping then settled in for a night of scrapping at the Saturday Sendoff Crop.



We received a goodie bag and then they gave away door prizes throughout the night. I think 3 of us won a door prize. Both the goodie bag and door prize bag contained tons of things I already had (older idea books, current issue of CK, font software from a few years ago, and also some older embellies) It did come with a pack of cardstock which is always nice. Since I had most of the stuff I put it in the prize box for crop nights at my house, I will probably donate some to someplace too, since 3 of my crop night attendees were with me at the CKC crop night and received some of the same things.

Overall I loved CKC Glendale. The location was fantastic. The shopping this time was really good, a real great mix of newer product, great deals and different vendors. Although the vendor that carries the Bind It All wasn’t there even though they were on the map, and that is something I planned to buy. I really enjoyed my classes and instructors. So all in all a good experience that I am ready to repeat soon. Unfortunately it looks like next year will not be at Glendale again, based on the recent dates released. But we still have Mesa and that is only 6 months away!

CKC Glendale Thoughts & Classes Pt. 1

A few weeks ago I attended the Creating Keepakes Convention in Glendale (CKC) and had a lot of fun. Even though I had to drive 45 minutes to get to the venue I loved the location. Sadly it looks like we will only have CKC Mesa in Arizona next year. I guess we were spoiled having 2 different ones each year. But I loved the Glendale location even though it was far.

The shopping this time was pretty darn good. Owning a scrapbook kit club, I don't find a need to buy a ton of stuff from my LSS so I wasn't expecting to spend nearly what I did this time. I picked up quite a few things that I thought would be fun to experiment with. And of course I bought Thickers, 15 packs to be exact to add to my ever growing collection. I can't resist all the different colors and fonts and when they are selling them at slightly more than wholesale (new ones too) I couldn't resist. Especially if I knew I wasn't going to use them in a kit or add on anytime soon.

I took 7 classes this time and spread them out over the 2 days so I never felt overwhelmed by them. Overall I liked the class pace. I finished a lot of the layouts or projects in class this time. And as of this past weekend every single layout, card and mini book is complete with pictures (which I will share over the next 3 posts).

Day 1 Classes

Joy of Cards - PaperCrafts - Kim Kesti

The class was taught by Kim Kesti from PaperCrafts. We made 4 really cute cards, Kim was great and I pretty much finished my cards up in class. And to top it off I won an idea book. I already had it, but still nice to win. It's now in the prize box for crop nights for someone else to benefit from.

We glittered the butterfly on this one with a Sakura Quickie Glue Pen and it worked really well. I liked all the little touches that we did on these cards like poking holes for the butterfly trail on this one.

This is a great way to use up all that pom pom trim I have. Use it as a border.

Another poking holes around the star. I've seen it before, but never done it and I thought it added a fun touch to this card.

And this was a fun cute card made with American Crafts papers.

Class 2 Scrap Strips Creating Keepsakes - Marnie Flores

This class was taught by Marnie Flores who I recognized from Write Click Scrapbook which is one of the places we advertise Color Me Daisy. We worked with Marnie when we did a giveaway with them, so it was fun to meet her in real life. She is very sweet and funny.

I like to take a lot of layout classes at the conventions, because it usually helps me just get some random pictures scrapped that I have in my binders to scrap but have never found the right page for.

We did 1 double page and 2 single page layouts. The idea of the class was to use up your scraps. These are the cute pages we made in the class:

This one is the double page layout. We received a transparency with the title on this one, so I used it to scrap some random leftover pictures of the day Jackson was born that was from right before we left to the hospital, in the delivery room, with his nana for the first time and daddy holding him. We used a lot of punches in this class for borders and accents, which I do a lot of. It is a great way to stretch supplies.



This is the 1st of the 2 single page layouts. I used a picture from the day we went to Laguna Beach for breakfast when we were in California this past summer for my grandfather's funeral. It was Jackson's first visit to the beach. We didn't have time to stay long and while the trip itself was sad and kind of stressful, this was a nice morning we had as a family away from it all.

This last one I added some stickers from my stash for the title. We made the borders from border punches. Just some pics of my little guy chillin' in the pool.

I guess Blogger doesn't want me to post any more pictures in this post. So I will start part 2 soon.