Christmas 2007

I'm trying to get caught up on my Christmas layouts before another year comes and goes. I'm doing them out of order, so don't think I'm almost done lol. I just pick the pictures that suit the sketch I'm using. I love sketches. Saves me so much time trying to come up with something that looks cool. This is yet another one I did with a sketch from 52sketches52weeks.
It looks crooked, but it really isn't. I can't seem to take a straight picture of a layout at all. And, the colors are all wrong. I took the picture inside without any natural lighting. It looks all orangey, but it really isn't. Anyway, you get the idea.

Home

Well, I'm home again. Florida is a beautiful state, and I had lots of fun, but I'm glad to be home. The air there is so humid. It takes your breath away when you get out of the car or come out of an air-conditioned building. But, I have to say, it did great things for my hair lol. I didn't have any flyaways. And, we hardly needed lotion at all.
Here are some pictures of my trip. I didn't get many because it rained a lot and we were working most of the time. Who wants to take pictures at a trade show?

This is the courtyard at our hotel. Isn't it pretty? I'm a sucker for a palm tree. The picture is a little foggy because my camera didn't like the humidity at first either.

Front view of the castle. I like this castle more than the one in Disneyland. But it was amazing to me how similar the parks really are. I think I like Disneyland better though.

This is what the weather was like in Disney World almost the entire time we were there.

The castl lit up at night. Getting ready for fireworks that I did not get any good pictures of.

Headed to the Sunshine State

I will be in Florida for the next week at CHA (Craft & Hobby Association). For those who don't know, it is a semi-annual show they do where vendors and retailers can get together to talk about the newest, latest, and greatest craft product on the market. I've always wanted to go to one, but never thought it would be for work (that's a drag). It's always been closed to the public anyway, but I guess they will be changing that the last day this year. That would be interesting, but we won't stay to see it.
I think Florida might be on my list of worst places to go in July/August. Can you say humid heat? Ugghhhh. The summer show used to be in Chicago--I could live with that.
On top of that, I don't have one single pair of comfy shoes to walk in. I can't find any that don't hurt my feet. So, this will be intersting to say the least. Hopefully I will live to tell about it.

New Hair

I have been a red head for about 2 1/2 months now, but my roots (and gray) were starting to show. I had decided to go back to my natural color (dark brown for those who can't remember or haven't known me long enough). Somehow though, my natural color just isn't enough anymore. I need something interesting. A little kick. So, I asked Tibi to give me blond highlights again. I love it! I have had this hair before, not for a while, but I think it is my favorite and it suits me the best.

Christmas 2003

This is just another layout I did for a sketch on 52sketches52weeks. This one is for sketch #28.

Catching Up

Just catching up on some of the sketches I haven't been able to get done over at 52sketches52weeks. I should be catching up on my housework, but where's the fun in that? I've been working so late that I don't have time to do anything that doesn't HAVE to get done each night. Therefore, my house is a wreck. Then, on the weekends, I want to relax. Whatever....... no one is going to remember how dirty my house was when I'm gone (hopefully) :). But, they will have my scrapbooks to remember how much I loved them.

New Do......

This is my niece, Jordyn. She has been begging my sister, Lacy, to cut her hair for weeks. This little one has lots of opinions on her own appearance lol. I remember last year she wanted bangs so bad. She finally got them, and she loved them for a couple of months, but then wanted to grow them back out. She's always wanting new outfits and putting on nail polish and all that girly stuff that mom's just love to do.
Well, after she was the flower girl in her cousin Katherine's wedding in June, she got her wish. They cut her hair from almost her waist up to her shoulders. She looks so darn cute in her new do. And she just tosses it like nobody's business. She's trouble waiting to happen I tell ya. Anyhow, I had to scrap it. This isn't really a good picture of her hair cut, but I liked the picture. She's such a sweetie.
I used American Crafts cardstock, Bo-Bunny patterned paper, a Stampin Up punch for the little hidden journaling tag, and my Cricut to cut the flourishes from my new Home Decor cartridge. The layout was inspired by sketch #25 at 52sketches52weeks.

Camping

Well, we decided late on Friday night that we were going to go camping. I was so excited. We haven't been camping this year at all, and I don't even remember the last time we went with our friends. All of us used to get together every Memorial Day weekend no matter what. But, then people started showing up that we didn't know, and there was all this drama.
So, anyway, the original group of friends decided to get together and go camping this week. They were all up there since Wednesday, but Shane and I couldn't go mid-week because of work. It seemed like such a waste to tow the trailer up for one night. Shane was just going to go up for the day and ride, and I would visit with the wives on Saturday. Well, we got talking, and it was going to cost the same amount of money either way because our truck doesn't get any worse gas mileage with the trailer on.
Anyway, we through some food from the house in and went.
We had a blast. I forgot how exhausting camping can be though. Especially when you drink all day and forget to wear sunscreen. Ummm..........it hurts to brush your hair when you have a sunburn on your head just in case you were wondering.
And, this will really shock a lot of you, I didn't take one picture! I am the queen of pictures (next to my sister, Kim), and I was having too much fun relaxing and catching up with my friends. I took a couple of scenery pics on the way down the canyon because the red in the dirt was fabulous, but they were all moving and blurry. Bummer. Oh well, life goes on. Hopefully I'll have lots more opportunities to get pics.

Happy Dad's Day!!!!!!!!

I want to say Happy Father's Day to my awesome dad. I love you more than words can express, and I hope you know how much you mean to me and my family. No one could ever ask for a better dad.

( This is my dad with my son at the hospital the day he was born. I love this picture.)

And, to my husband Shane. You are a wonderful husband to me and father to our son. And, I love you to pieces!

Disney's Pixar Play Parade

This is my layout for 52sketches52weeks sketch #24. My sister, Kim, flew Garrett and I out to California to go to Disneyland for his eleventh birthday. Is that not the best present ever?! We had tons of fun. I took about 300 pictures a day lol. Thank goodness for digital! I remember when you had to print all of your pictures. What a waste of money and paper.
Anyway, I think this parade was the first day we were there. They had every Pixar movie character you could think of in it. I'm really bummed because I didn't get a good picture of Mike from Monsters Inc. He's my favorite Pixar movie character. But, it was a really fun parade, especially for really little kids.

Happy Birthday

This is a card I made for a friend of mine at work. I cased this card from a talented designer at Splitcoaststampers here. I hope she likes it!
Just so everyone knows, I don't make cards everytime there is a birthday. This is the first time I've made one in a while as a matter of fact. I used to try to, but I got burned out on it after a while.
I don't want anyone to feel bad if they don't get a handmade card from me. It's not you, it's me. I swear it. I just make them if the mood strikes me. Or, in this case, if it is my contribution to a work celebration lol. Even some of my dearest and closest family members haven't gotten one in a while.

Cousins

This is a page I did to celebrate how close Garrett is with his only two cousins on my side of the family. They act more like siblings than cousins. They miss each other when they spend any length of time apart, and they fight when they are together. But you better not catch anyone saying anything bad about any of them, or the other two will put you right back in your place. I hope they always stay this close. I had cousins on my mom's side of the family that we were pretty close to, but we've grown apart over the years. It would break my heart for that to happen to these three. They truly love each other as siblings would.
This is a bad picture, but I wanted to share now and not wait for the sunlight to come. Because, who knows when that will happen. It's been raining for almost two weeks already. I used a red-eye pen on the picture, but it didn't work very well. I can't afford to pay for a good photo editing software right now, and wouldn't know how to use it if I could lol.























This is the sketch from 52sketches52weeks.