The BEST Disney vacation ever!!

We had such a blast on the Disney Cruise!  I highly recommend it to everyone of all ages.  They had kid programs, adult programs, lots of characters, parties, a pirate night (argh!), and of course world class cuisine (yum-o!)  We had some great adventures and fun times and of course I took TONS of pictures.  Since I can't really post all 300 photos, I've selected a few to give you an idea about how our cruise went.  Hope you enjoy the photo collage! 

Thanks for stopping by!

disney.cruise!!!

Tomorrow we leave for our much anticipated Disney Cruise to Mexico!!!  I've been waiting months for the day to come when we leave for the ship and it's finally here!  We've never been on a cruise, and Parker has been asking me almost everyday if we get to leave for our cruise yet.  So, I've been super busy getting everything ready at work and at home to be gone for 8 days....no time for scrapping :(  But of course I'll have a bazillion pictures when we get back, so I'll be scrappin'!  Wish i was going to Scrapbook Paradise camp this year since I could really use 3 uninterrupted days to scrapbook.  I plan on going next year, and I'm sure I'll have plenty more pics and books to work on by then! 

Hope you are all enjoying fall!  Fall is my FAVORITE season!  I love the crisp air, apple farms, and falling acorns...love it!  Have a great week.  I'll post pics of my princess girl when we get back.

the twilight zone

I think I live in the twilight zone.  I don't ever remember living in a place where there are SO many grumpy, bitter, crabby people.  Seriously, I'd bet that 80% of the community is grumpy and mad about something all the time.  It's crazy!  Some days I think to myself, "self, this day is going to be different, people will realize how blessed we all really are, maybe everyone will be smiling today..."  hmmmm, that thought usually doesn't last long.  I really don't get it?!  Why do people want to go through life this way?!  And we all know the old saying 'Misery loves company', well I totally get that.  It's so hard to stay clear of the grumpies when they seem to be everywhere and then it's VERY hard not to get sucked into the grumpy trap!  Thank God, He has my back and I don't have to get sucked in!  Happy Friday!

Play Date Cafe Challenge #92

Here's the next one for the PDC Challenge...  Gotta get it posted and off to work.  TFL!!

(added:  OK, so now that I'm at home and not rushing off to work, I figured I'd add a few details about my card here.  This card is nothing like what I had originally planned.  I sat down with my supplies and scraps and started creating a different design which wasn't flowing, so this is what came out instead.  I haven't used the decorative leaves in a long time and forgot I had them till I started looking and organizing my scrap area.  The dark ring is actually a stamp but it didn't turn out right...looks more like a coffee ring, but hey maybe it goes since it's kinda vintage-y!  The brownish/goldish "paper" is actually from a vintage newspaper style shopping bag that I got here at a local store when I purchased an ornament last Christmas.  I liked how it looked like old newspaper advertisments and kept it for just the right project.  The twirled bloom in the center of the flower is antique gold tulle, which I was originally planning to overlap along the bottom like to mimic the dress in the PDC photo...didn't happen that way.  oh well.  I'm still pleased with how it turned out.  It's a bummer that I finished late into the evening and didn't have good lighting to take the pictures...I'll work on the next one earlier, so I'll still have time to photograph and post.)

Thanks for the really sweet comments!!

Super Excited!! PDCC#90

My card for challenge #90 which was the following colors: Eggplant...Fuschia...Orangesicle
was noticed!! I couldn't believe it.  I see sooo many beautiful designs that I was completely blown away that I was one of the honorable mentions!!  Can you tell that I'm totally uber excited?!  I don't really know what makes a winning card and I feel for the ladies deciding (tough decisions every week), but I'm gonna keep right on playing as often as I can.  I'm having a blast!  Thanks ladies for picking me as honarable mention...I'm thrilled!


Have you seen the prizes that are being given away?!  Seems the Twinery was a hot item since there were about 160+ entries for that challenge....smokes!  Plus it was a really fun color challenge.  This week, the challenge colors are gorgeous and have me up at night trying to narrow down a design in my head.  The color combo seems very victorian-y (not sure that's even a word ;)  Not to mention that the prize pack this week is from Tattered Angels (a product I LOVE!)  and it looks like one of the bottles is my favorite Sunshine color (hard to tell exactly but I'm taking a guess)


Thanks PDC ladies for the fun-ness and for making my day!  :)
(now I gotta figure out how to put that blinkie thingy on my page...Yay!)

PDC challenge #91

I see that most people combine challenges, so I'll have to look into that, but for now, this is my own creation using the challenge colors from PDC -- BLACK, WHITE, and a splash of another color.  Which was a little difficult for me because I just love the rainbow colors together, so when I saw this picture, I didn't want to narrow it down!

Here's my take on it...

I chose yellow as my splash, simply because it suited my card idea of a neutral baby card.  I used my Silhouette to cut the flourishes, labels and carriage.  I used the negative of the flourish design to use as a template for my spray mist (tattered angels, sunshine -- my new fave).  I used a very old wood block stamp for the sentiment and zinged it up in white(is zinged a word?  I think so!).  A little gingham ribbon and star brad to finish it off.  Simple, yet effective.  Thanks for looking!!  :)

My card for the Play Date Cafe Challenge #90

I'm playing along again with The Play Date Cafe #90.  I love these colors...This week's suggested colors are:


Eggplant...Fuschia...Orangesicle




Here's my take on it.  I used my silhouette to create the fuschia scrolling image and stamped my thank you's.  I realized I don't have very much fuschia (lots of pink, but not much fuschia)  in my stash of leftovers.  I love to use up my scraps for cards and tags!

I love to wander thru everyones beautiful creations and being new to challenges (and cards :) I enjoy seeing how different everyone's style is even with the same colors!  It's great!  Thanks to all those who share their cards!  It's exactly what I need to get my juices flowing again! 

It's hard to see, but the dark ribbon is very eggplant-y!  It's a shimmery, felty rick-rack...so much fun!

Thanks for looking!!!

parker turns 4!

so this picture is about 2 1/2 months behind, but this is Parker's school picture which just happened to fall on her Birthday this year!  It turned out so good, I thought I would share.

my first challenge!

So I've decided to finally enter a challenge. (The Play Date Cafe #88)  I've never really thought about entering, but a friend of mine encouraged all of her blog readers to enter if they don't already and I thought...sure, why not?!  :)  so, here's my first entry and may I just say that these colors were a real challenge for me.  I plan on sending this out to my good friend Shauna who fits this saying perfectly.

(I used the Silhouette to cut the shapes and font [sun_C02843_1, 5_clouds_C00679_20509, hello_sunshine_C00593_18816.  Cardstock is Bazill basic and color mates: glitter is Doodlebug (sun) and stickles for the clouds and "Sunshine": the title words were sprayed with sunshine glimmer mist [my new fave])
Here's The Play Date's color pick for the week.  If you haven't checked out the blog, hop over there and pick up some inspiration to get your card-making mojo flowin'!

random phone pics - little snippets of my life

I love random phone pics simply because they're little moments in time that were captured on the fly. and the best part is, i've finally figured out how to get them downloaded off my phone!

Parker at brown's campground in bishop for memorial day camping trip.

Parker at the first 5 for california free play day in bishop Ca.

beautiful blue eyes!

Yep, that's me.  I'm practicing :)

  


 
 

 

Sleeping Beauty Parker

Parker testing out the new-old bigger bike.












my dad at the traveling veterans memorial wall.

 Parker and "baby 2 1/2"

My beautiful neices [Kayla in the distance, and Bria in the foreground] snowboarding at mammoth - Dec 2009

some of my latest layouts

This layout turned out to be one of my favorites.  I used my silhouette to create the monochromatic background and then inked some white bazzill border strips different colors of blue.  Inked a doily for behind the photo and the swirls and letters are stickers.  QK letters for the title - font Strawberry.  My inspiration came from the Creating Keepsakes Jan 2011 cover.

This page title was inspired by Sesame Street (of course).  I always loved at the end of Sesame Street there's a recap of what was learned that day.  I used my Silhouette with the pen option and love how it turned out!

happy "Valestimes" day

My little Valestime (as Parker says it :)!!

She was so excited to wear her fancy Christmas dress to another party at school....she's a very girly girl!

An entire bag full of goodies from friends at pre-school.

These are the fun treats that Parker and I made for her class.  Of course I used my Silhouette which made it super simple to make sooo many of the same tags.  'Bee Mine' is cut from red vinyl so we could just stick it right onto the hearts.  I finished it off with a print and cut bee!  (Parker's classroom is called the Busy Bees, so this theme worked perfectly!)