Finally Friday

I've had a really long week. Here is my weekend Top Ten:

1. A 4 day weekend
2. Celebrating 14 years with my sweetie
3. Quiet mornings with a cup of coffee and no one awake
4. Lazy afternoons to play with my boys
5. Late nights to scrap with my new Studio Calico and Mosh Posh kits
6. Me time at the spa for a relaxing massage and facial
7. A family day out for lunch and a trip to the aquarium
8. Cooking some comfort food including my "almost" fried chicken and mashed potatoes
9. Sneak peek night at Studio Calico
10. A nap, or three

Here's to hoping I get out of work at a halfway decent hour tonight!

And another layout made with the July Studio Calico kit.

Hope you have a great weekend, I know I will. Happy Friday!

Adventures in Cooking & Baking

Mike is still recovering from knee surgery and I have been super busy at work.  As a result. this past weekend our adventures in cooking were kept easy. Saturday Mike made this easy whole wheat pasta with fresh tomatoes and turkey sausage and a bit of Italian cheese and herbs. We paired it with a light Caesar salad mix from the produce section.

Have you seen all the new bagel thins and sandwich thins that are out in the grocery stores.  Mike cut up some of the bagel thins to make these bagel chips. Just a bit of cooking spray and a sprinkle of herb mixture with garlic powder, rosemary, salt and pepper.

For dinner Sunday I made my Mojito Melon Salad. It is just some chopped up honeydew melon, cantaloupe, mango and cucumber, with some torn mint a sprinkling of Splenda and juice from a lime.  

And to keep Sunday nights meal easy and make some leftovers for the week, Mike made our favorite crock pot fajitas.  We use steak strips we get from Costco, red and yellow peppers, and an onion. Throw it in the crock pot with a pack of fajita seasoning and a half a bottle of beer. Cook for 4-6 hours on low.

And I had been hearing about these Pretzel M&M's:

Mara always shares great recipes she has made on her blog.  She made Pretzel M&M Blondie's from a recipe she found at Bake at 350. So I gave them a try Sunday afternoon, and they were a hit.

I am taking a 4 day weekend this coming weekend to celebrate our 14 year wedding anniversary. So I am sure I will have a few more adventures to share next week.

Happy Thursday!

Words on Wednesday

I am ready for the weekend already. I was so excited when I got the e-mail yesterday saying my Studio Calico box had been delivered. I called Mike and told him to get it off the porch. So I was a bit mad last night when I went to get my hair cut and highlighted that he double booked.  I am usually there a little over 2 hours, last night it was 3 1/2.  Making me get home too late to see my kiddos and too late to do anything else.

So I am looking forward to enjoying my box tonight.  In the meantime here is another layout from the Kelly Purkey Sketch class I am taking at Studio Calico.

It may be a little hard to see, but when I was going through the pictures from a Fathers Day family photo shoot, I saw this one with Nicholas sitting in the back completely done with the picture taking and definitely ready to go back to playing.  So I couldn't resist scrapping this outtake from the shoot.

Happy Hump Day!

Finishing up Week in the Life Pics, a Layout and JoAnn's Finds

Sunday I talked about my discovery of the new EK Success jumbo border punches. I would have thought we were going to  have to wait to see them in the store, but I soon discovered they had been sighted at JoAnn's. 

I headed over to JoAnn's after my dentist appointment yesterday. Which by the way, I was told at that appointment that I will need a root canal for the random pain I have been having, fun stuff. And I just thought I was going for my regular 6 month cleaning. I like my dentist a lot, but I didn't want to see him again until February.

Anyway, back to JoAnn's.  They had lots of the new jumbo punches at 30% off, so I picked my favorites to start with. I am sure I will see what others do and find some more favorites. I also saw the Tiny Attacher on clearance for $8 (normally $15), I have heard lots of people say they like it. I am not sure if it's much different than my stapler, but for the price I'll give it a shot. Plus it jumped in my cart.

Since the rest of the scrapbook section was 40% off I picked up a couple of other things as well.

I am taking Kelly Purkey's Sketch 2 class over at Studio Calico. This is my interpretation of Day 2 using the Studio Calico July kit. My August kit should be here tonight (according to the UPS website this morning). Yippee!

And to finish up my Week in the Life I have days 6 & 7, Friday and Saturday (July 30 & 31):

Friday

Humid, rainy, hot, sticky, just dropped Nicholas off at pre-school, off for the day's errands...

Grocery store, filling the cart with produce...

My little helper, we don't get a lot of one on one time, so this was fun....

After picking up Nicholas from school, off to Costco....

Stocked up at Costco, so hopefully Mike's next trip will be lighter on his knee...

Mike always takes the boys to Taco Bell after Costco, and Nicholas informed me I was expected to do the same....to prevent Jackson from napping on the way home we sang, "If Your Happy and You Know It" really loud all the way home....

After lunch boys are all napping....

Instead of enjoying quiet time with something relaxing, cleaning and reorganizing the pantry...

Then I made dinner, while my mom visited....

Random Thoughts from Friday:

• Morning school rush
• Sticky yucky weather
• Groceries
• Singing really, really loud
• Easier day
• Cooperative kiddos
• Thankful for naps
• Exhausted
• Homemade pizza
• Thoughtful parents
• Spending time together

Saturday

A bunch of leftovers in a skillet makes a great breakfast with lots of weekday leftovers....

This is what Jackson can do in mere minutes....the toys have all been banished back to their rooms....

And he thinks it's funny....

Watching a movie together, Nicholas makes sure daddy has lots of pillows to make him comfortable....

Yes, this is how I found him napping a little while later....

She slept all day too...

Mike finally feeling up to doing something, experiments with his new microphone....

Piles of laundry to fold....

Reading and tucking Nicholas into bed....

Mike and I hold off dinner, so we can have a peaceful one after the kiddos are in bed....

Random Thoughts from Saturday:

• Early morning train horns
• Breakfast from leftovers
• Down time and relaxing
• Afternoon coffee
• Thankful for naps
• Laundry
• Delicious food
• Late night scrap inspiration embraced

This may not have been a typical week for us, but it is one I am glad I documented. It was a special week of sorts, Mike having surgery, me being home to take care of the boys, etc.

My week days are filled with work and I don’t experience as much of the routine day to day of our family’s life. So this was a week in our life, 2010. 

Now to find time to scrap it.

ScrapTiffany Monday & Some Sunday Sweetness

This week at ScrapTiffany our assignment was Naked Chipboard. When we get the assignment we get a prompt like that, no explanation and usually amongst the DT we don't really talk about how we interpret it. I love that. It keeps it fun to see what everyone comes up with each week.

I finished up my project Saturday, and was checking in at ScrapTiffany and saw a discussion on the challenge. So my interpretation is probably in the minority, but it was "naked" when I started. LOL!

I had so much fun trying to think of different ways to use my chipboard. I have 2 large baskets full, so I had lots to work with.

I embossed a rectangle with my Cuttlebug and painted it. Then tipped off the embossing with a glaze pen then stitched to the card base.  The flowers were both painted. The red was painted, stamped with a glue pad and then flocked over the stamped image. The yellow flower was outlined with glaze pen. The stem was misted with spray ink.

Head on over to ScrapTiffany today and Friday to see what the ladies have come up with for using your naked chipboard. There are lots of fun ideas over there.  And if you are inspired to play "naked" send your project to Tiffany at tiffany@scraptiffany.com.

And I will leave you today with some Sunday sweetness, my two boys:

I just love this sweet guy. Jackson is rowdy as can be and completely sweet at the same time.

My other sweetie pie.  Nicholas doesn't nap anymore, he usually just crashes somewhere when he gets tired. Yesterday it was as if he was go, go, go and put his head down and was out just like this. He slept like that for over an hour.

Publish Post

I have a dentist appointment this afternoon, the only upside is I will be home earlier instead of working until 8:00.  Off to work now.  Have a great Monday!

A Layout, a Future Obsession and a Couple More Days from Our Week in the Life

I got to scrap yesterday afternoon and last night.  I spent a bunch of time playing in the afternoon for my ScrapTiffany assignment for the week. I can't share until that is posted over there tomorrow.

I also had time to make a couple of layouts using the Studio Calico Continental kit.  I better get busy with it, because my August kit, Summer Camp is going to be landing on my porch in the next couple of days. This layout was to document my current obsession I have getting my Studio Calico box each month. I get excited for sneak peak night, shopping on reveal day and waiting (not so patiently) for UPS to show up with my box each month, just in time for it to start all over. So last month when my box arrived I snapped a couple of pictures. Don't you just love those cute cards that come in each kit.

Also, I stumbled on something I am certain will become another obsession for me:

Picture from the PaperCrafters Corner blog, follow the link and you can see all more pictures she has over there and enter for a giveaway too.  I see several of these making their way to my scrap room, looks like I need to free up another drawer. I haven't even seen what Martha Stewart punches are coming, but I usually can't resist those either.

It is an obsession I don't feel too bad about.  It seems I use at least one punch on every page or card that I do. So they are well loved and used obsessions. :)

Continuing on with posting our Week in the Life highlights, here are days 4 and 5 (Wednesday and Thursday) July 28th & 29th,

Wednesday


I had trouble sleeping and woke up after having less than 5 hours sleep. Needing coffee...

Mike prepped for surgery...

Daddy resting, Nicholas making sure he is comfortable.

Someone really needed a nap....

Since no one but Mike wanted to take a nap, we had a family movie afternoon watching cars.

Brothers....

Random thoughts from Wednesday:

• Grateful for grandparents
• Waiting, waiting, waiting
• Surgery successful
• Thankful I can be home
• Taking care of my family
• Happy for places that deliver food
• Hoping for speedy recovery

Thursday

Jackson at story time at the library, enjoying the bubbles....

Shopping at Hobby Lobbyfor some upcoming home decor projects...

Fresh flowers from Super Target for $5.00...

Mike requests In-N-Out for lunch. Jackson falls asleep in the car, putting the brakes on chances for a nap (makes for a rough afternoon)....

One day the corn fields will be gone replaced with houses and shopping centers....

The sky above our house, thinking we are definitely going to get a storm today...

Super Target shopping trip for tonight's dinner....

Crazy storm this afternoon, thunder and lightening right above and crazy winds that knocked down trees in the neighborhood.

Reading together....

No cook chicken tostada's for dinner....

Random thoughts from Thursday:

• Little boy that doesn’t sleep through the night
• Tough day expected
• Lack of sleep takes a toll on all of us
• Jackson rowdy
• Nicholas helpful
• Fresh food and homemade Pico de Gallo
• Oreo ball cookies
• Nicholas says “Daddy had surgery” and “Daddy’s resting"