{bliss}

by the numbers....

...the theme of this week's Feature at Peek is "Numbers".  I always enjoy our assignments, and had a particularly fun time this week working with current-to-the-day photos of our first week of school!  I discovered that I really like scrapping "in the moment" - something I will have to remember for future pages.  Working with the photos that I had taken just a day (or a moment) before really made me focus on how excited the kids were for the beginning of school, and how I felt at the prospect of having them both in school 5 days a week this year.  I picked some of my favorite lines from CHA to work with too - Basic Grey Periphery and Recess (which is just awesome mixed with an old favorite, Foofala Hall Pass!) Mustard Moon (the Man in the Moon collection is my favorite MuMo release ever!) and Daisy Buckets Garden Gate. 

Some of the layouts the PDT have posted so far today have totally knocked my socks off!  I love our Team, and am so impressed with the quality work each member does each month - we all have different styles and strengths, and I love seeing each Feature theme interpreted by each team member in their own special way!  Check out the gallery, and prepare to be inspired!

My projects are up on the CI blog today - they actually went up late in the day yesterday and I didn't discover it until about midnight last night.  (I'm a night owl!)  I really like the way my little pencil case album came out!  I bought a bunch of them at Staples penny sale before school started with the idea that they would be fun to alter, and it turned out to be just the right size for a summer wrap up mini album!

I completed a "Special Mission" for the Fiskateers too, and that blog entry should be going up sometime this weekend during the crop.  Another really fun project - I love barn stars!  This one sat in my scrap closet for almost two months before I decided on a paper collection to use for it.  I fell in love with the Daisy D's Autumn collections at CHA and couldn't think of a spiffier way to perk up the barn star!  I love the buttons too, I was so very happy with the way it came out.  The layout uses some photos from a couple years ago that are among my very favorite photos ever, and I decided to scrap them again for the fall-themed "Mission".  I just can't get over how little the girls are in it - it doesn't seem like any time has passed at all, and now they are so big!

We're just relaxing today and enjoying the beginning to the long weekend.  Tim scored some golf tournament tickets and is down in Norton, MA watching Tiger Woods.  I hope the weather stays clear - I can't imagine there is much that is less fun that trudging around a golf course in the pouring rain!  We were supposed to get thundershowers with a cooler front moving in, but that hasn't happened yet.  =P  It is still a steamy 86 degrees out there.  Have a happy and safe Labor Day weekend!

a fun holiday weekend Crop...

...is now in progress at Fiskateers!  :)  Lots of great inspiration on the blog from all of the "Secret Missions" that were assigned this month - I'll have one posted sometime this weekend.  ;)  The Crop goes from today right through Saturday, Sept. 1 and there will be giveaways and tons of challenges.

May has already posted a couple "early bird" challenges - this is the page I did for the "no-patterned-paper-2-or-more-fonts-and-at-least-one-ribbon challenge!  The wee buttons are actually tiny button brads from Making Memories - I love 'em!

and this card was for another challenge, and will be heading out to a friend who needs a cheering lift this week. Used some of my hoarded Sweetwater scraps for this one.  Love, love, love the Sweetwater All About Me collection!

I just finished a fun autumn-themed project for CI, but won't be able to share it for a little bit.  ;)  CI's Pizzazzill promotion is still going on, and there are new projects every couple days being posted on the CI blog.  The Pizzazzill Summer Sweepstakes contest is still very much on, despite some website issues at Scraphappy KT.  You can see all the great entries we've had for the contest in the Pizzazzill Gallery.  Some of the gals have been scrapping and creating like crazy, and I love checking out all the different ways they have used Pizzazzill Premium Cardstock!

We have just completed Day 3 of the school year and despite our rocky start on Tuesday, we've had a good week.  I think the girls are happy with their teachers, and are making new friends, which is great.  They will definitely enjoy being able to relax for the 4 day long weekend before getting back into the swing next week.

Jon's moving into the dorm this weekend - Guitar Hero and all!  lol!  I wish him a really good Junior year!  Love ya, kiddo!

this is what a happy second grader looks like

On her way to her first day of school!  :)  She was so excited to be on her way! 

We were finally able to connect with her teacher yesterday afternoon, so we were able to visit the classroom and do a couple photos and such.  Her teacher is very nice and I think Brigid is going to have a great year!

The kindergarten Open House was yesterday as well, and I was able to meet Aileen's new teacher.  The classroom is gorgeous, and her teacher is just exactly the way I hoped she would be.  Aileen seemed to be comfortable with her, which is awesome, and I think that she'll have a good first year too.  She's in the afternoon session, so she'll be able to have lunch at home and then I'll drop her off. 

And then it will be very, very Q U I E T for about 2 and a half hours.  Yikes!  I have plans for today.  I've got some pages in progress for the next PDT upload, and I rented myself a chick flick for company today!  :)  I am going to try really hard to structure my time better this year, because I've got projects to work on and I want to do a lot of handmade Christmas gifts this year.  I had good intentions last year, but it didn't work out as well as I had hoped.  This year I am vowing that I am going to use my time more efficiently! 

And here is my big kindergarten kid on her way to her first day too!  She did wonderfully, she didn't cry and was trying to make another little girl who was crying feel better.  Typical Aileen.  :)  The house is amazingingly quiet right now and I'm off to grab some lunch...  Had a great idea for a layout on the way home, so I'll work on that after my salad!  ;)

 

Last weekend of the summer....

I'm still not used to the whole school-starts-in-August thing that we have in our town.  School is supposed to start the day after Labor Day.  Labor Day weekend is supposed to be summer's last hurrah, so I am having a hard time getting into the idea that this is the last weekend of our summer.  Naturally, I have to work the whole weekend, so I feel like summer has come to an abrupt screeching halt.

Jon arrived yesterday. His roommate is going to looooooove him this year!  He bought himself an Xbox360 and Guitar Hero 2 and a couple used games for the system.  I tried it, and it isn't nearly as easy as it looks!  I do much better using the controller rather than the guitar! 

Work today is going to be nuts.  Everyone else who has been taken by surprise by the sudden end of summer is going to be buying shoes and snacks and school supplies.  Wish me luck!  At least I'm not a closer tonight - yay!

I think we'll cookout tomorrow and celebrate the end of summer.  Aileen's Kindergarten Open House is on Monday morning, and we'll visit Brigid's classroom at the same time.  First day of school is Tuesday.  Eeek!

Have a great weekend, everyone! 

8 years and 1 day

Happy Anniversary to us!  :)

We're off to the movies to celebrate - not sure what we're going to see, but there are several out right now that we are interested in, so it will all depend on which one has the best matinee time!

Multiple photo layouts

...is the PDT Feature today at Peek.  This one was so much fun, and I am enjoying seeing how the other gals designed their pages to fit a bunch of photos.  I had one 8 photo layout - that was the most I fit in.  The others were 6, 4 and 3 photo layouts.  I like the CI Narratives transparency with the Daisy D's Salt Water Taffy paper behind it - love the color combo!  The photos are some of my favorites from thus far in 2007, and think they represent who my kids are and what life is like around our house right now. 

I also really like this one.  The Making Memories Summer collection works so well with the Scenic Route Metropolis collection - it's like they are made for each other!

Speaking of Scenic Route, we will be chatting with Layle Koncar, Marketing Director for Scenic Route at Peek on Friday, August 17 at 9pm eastern.  Join us!

You can check out the rest of the PDT's work in the PDT gallery!  Thanks for taking a peek!

Limeade Pizzazzill = Happiness

This page was so much fun to make!  The Pizzazzill die cut Numbers and Tags sheet made it really easy, and I loooove that Limeade green with the Renae's House pp!

The Pizzazzill Sweepstakes promotion at CI will be going on the entire month of August.  Make sure to check the CI blog for more inspiration.  I believe there is a new project going up tomorrow!  ;)

We are definitely counting down the days now.  Yikes!  Only 15 days until the first day of school!  I think I am in denial about Aileen starting kindergarten, because whenever I start to think about it, my brain instantly skitters off onto another subject altogether.  It is easier to think of Brigid starting second grade, because I've already gone through all the "separation anxiety" associated with her being gone all day when she started first grade.  It is going to be a very, very quiet house during the hours when both of them are in school at the same time, and it is going to take some adjusting to!  I will need to have a little more discipline with my time so I can get some work done during those hours. 

I'd like to start an Etsy shop, but it doesn't make any sense to even try until I get some stock made up that I can post!  I do have some altered birdhouses that I was going to post first and branch out from there.  That's my "project of the week!"

Details...

Got it yesterday, and I just love it!  So many awesome ideas, it is going to take a week just to "digest" them all!  If you haven't gotten a copy, I highly recommend it! 

The new Basic Grey:  Periphery, Mellow, Obscure and Recess have arrived at Peek. Yay!  I have really been looking forward to this release since I saw them in person at CHA!

I listed a few more items on eBay, including the New Orleans set of Heidi Swapp foam stamps.  I am still trying to "lighten the load" and clear out more stuff in the scraproom, so I will be listing auctions until I get this stash under control!

And speaking of stash - while "under the influence" of DwD, I tried a 12x6 layout last night!  I pulled a bunch of different embellishments together, and like the way it turned out.  I'm actually thinking of doing a quote album in this size and format, because the page size doesn't lend itself to a lot of journaling, but is just right to play with some embellishments, a nice photo and a quote!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Pizzazzill Sweepstakes!

Creative Imaginations is hosting a great summer sweepstakes contest!  Create a page with Pizzazzill, Creative Imagination's Premier Cardstock, submit it to the CI gallery and you could win a prize package of CI products with a retail value of $1000!  FIVE lucky runner ups will win a basket with $100 worth of product.  The more you enter, the better your chance to win!  Don't have any Pizzazzill?  (what's wrong with you - lol!) You can order it here at the Creative Imaginations online store! Check out the details here and the rules here  and more on the CI Blog.  This could be yours!  Enter today!

Loving the new Prima papers!

The background paper for this one is from the line called "Steel Toe Mary Janes" - isn't it luscious?  I couldn't wait to scrap with it, and used it literally, right out of the box!  The lined paper is one of my staples: Scenic Route Backgrounds.  Love 'em!  And the rub ons are Fancy Pants.

Today was a pretty relaxed day.  Went out to the library and the grocery store and that was about it.  The girls have been gleefully leaving me messes all over the house.  *sigh*  I can squawk about them now, but when they are both in school in a couple weeks and I am rattling around here all by myself, I think I'll be wishing for a mess or two!

Our special Guest DT Member, Tammy Gray, is featured on the CI blog today.  She did some fantastic work to accompany her blog entry; be sure to check it out.