A Cropping Weekend!

Had a really nice time at the Italian themed crop Memory Bound hosted yesterday. Coincidentally, Rhonda and I shared a table with Michelle McClure and Diane Vincent who are members of the Iowa Scrappers yahoo group that I met many years ago. We had pizza, soda and cheesecake for lunch and for dinner, Rhonda, Diane and I went to Panera Bread for soup and sandwiches.

I also finished the mini album I took with me to work on, I just have the journaling left to do. I also finished 5 pages and I'm so glad that at the last minute I grabbed my plastic tote with all of my kitty cat supplies. I had just a few cat photos left to do and figured I could work on those if I got bored with the mini album.

I got really tired mid day and was really dragging ass, so I took a break and walked down to the Treasure House, a gift and home decor store in the same strip mall. I was glad I did because they carry Heartwood Creek by Jim Shore and I collect his cats and the Santa, but I didn't realize that he has a new collection out of Christmas figurines, Rudoph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, from the class TV special of the 60's. There are seven figurines and they are darling! I have all of the bobbleheads and like to do a minature tree with the ornaments I have of the characters from that TV special.

Here's are the two I would love to have:




I'm now complete current with my pet photos, so I can now move on to something else. I think I may try and work on photos from last Christmas. I'd really like to have those done before this Christmas is upon us. Here's what I worked on yesterday:








Hope you have a great week! Mine is going to be a busy one!

Going to a Crop tomorrow!

Yippee! It's been awhile since I've scrapbooked outside of my own little space so I'm really looking forward to meeting Rhonda tomorrow at Memory Bound for their Italian themed crop being held this weekend. Cheri was suppose to join us, but unfortunately she has to cancel due to a family wedding. We will miss her.

I decided that instead of bringing pages to work on, I would bring a couple of mini album projects that I've been wanting to at least get started on.

I've saved my Iowa State Fair prize money and Memory Bound gift certificate so I even have FREE money to spend! YEA!

My Scrapbooking Mojo!

Been kicking some ass regarding scrapbooking the last 2 or 3 days. Here's some of my most recent -

Kirby, the Wonder Cat

Gray Cardstock – unknown, Bo Bunny Press; Licorice Stripe Pattern Paper, Cloud 9 Design Patterned Paper; Here Kitty Kitty, Cat Chitchat. Cloud 9 Design 3D Gel Stitches, American Crafts Thickers; Sprinkles, black

Oreo

Black Cardstock – Archivers, Blue Cardstock – unknown, DCWV 8x8 Patterned Paper; Scrapbook Kit in a Stack-Cat, Doodlebug Designs Cardstock Stickers; Kitty Kitty
Yellow Brads – unknown, American Crafts Thickers; Root Beer Float, black, LB Angela computer font

Fur Stains

Daisy Hill Cat’s Meow Scrap Kit – Patterned Paper and Stickers, Coluzzle Letter Template, Bo Bunny Press Cat Word Sticker, Impression Obsession Journaling Stamp, Nick Bantok Van Dyke Brown Ink Pad

The rest of these pages are 8X8. I needed to finish up the 8X8 album I have for our cats and these pages fit the bill perfectly.


Oreo - Cute Little Kitty

Deja Views Cat’s Life Paper & Punch Out Tablet; Patterned Paper, Cardstock Embellishments, Alphabet, Making Memories Fabric Alphabet; Jersey font, griffin, Queen & Co Brad

Oreo and Gizmo

Deja Views Cat’s Life Paper & Punch Out Tablet; Patterned Paper, Cardstock Embellishments, Alphabet, Quikutz Tab Die Cut, Quikutz Parathesis Die Cut, Scenic Route White Lined Paper, American Crafts Ribbon, Doodlebug Designs Brad; marmalade


Gizmo aka Gizzy

Deja Views Cat’s Life Paper & Punch Out Tablet; Patterned Paper, Cardstock Embellishments, Alphabet

Gizmo Purr

S.E.I. Kitty’s Place Patterned Paper; Cat Walk, S.E.I. Kitty’s Place Rub-ons


As you can tell, I've been working on kitty pages! I love doing pet pages. It's a nice devirsion from people pages.

Next weekend I'm attending an Italian themed crop at Memory Bound. I'm meeting my friend Rhonda there and I've got a project all ready to work on during the crop. I'm going to do a mini album of our day trip to Matchstick Marvels in Gladbook, IA. We went up there a couple of years ago and the photos are just too cool not to have in some type of a mini album, so that's what I'm going to work on.

I have tomorrow off and I'm meeting my Aunt Susie at The Cheesecake Factory for lunch. I also need to stop in to Bed, Bath & Beyond to look for a new body pillow. My body pillow, pillowcase is shot and I need a new one. I have a gift certificate from Paul to Best Buy, so I may also go look for a 2.0 USB Port Hub for my laptop and I really want to go to the bookstore, but I don't know if I'll have time for that this trip. Dad is coming over for a steak dinner tomorrow night and I'll need to get home to start putting the food together.

Have a great week!


Edited to Add: I'm participating in a scrapbook challenge that a friend of mine is hosting. We have to keep track of how many brads, eyelets and buttons we use between now and the end of October. My total right now: 9

You have to rent this film!

On the recommendation of a friend, I watched the film Once last night. I started watching it yesterday afternoon but didn't get to finish it until last night. OMG! I love this film! The music is so incredible! I was just mesmerized with the songs and story. Run to your nearest video store and get this!

The song "Falling Slowly" from this movie won the Best Song Oscar at the Oscars last February......so deserving.

It's my Birthday and a BIG surprise

Today I woke up 51 years old. It's hard to believe because it just seems like yesterday I was driving back to Iowa from San Diego ready to make a new life with my new husband on my 30th birthday.

It was an awesome day! I wanted to sleep in but our friend Paul called at 7:00am because he wanted to be the first person to wish me a happy birthday. Then a half hour later, my Uncle Dic also called in a happy birthday. After that, I just decided to get up.

I opened my presents from my boys. They did good, they got me this:



with a new arm band and ear plugs. I'm stoked because it's 8Gigs and holds 2000 songs or 8 hours of video plus photos. Something my old, old nano did not do. My iPod is what makes my walking and workouts tolerable and I can't imagine not having one. It's funny, a few years ago I couldn't imagine why I would own one???

I spent a couple of hours getting everything I wanted downloaded to it and then I took off for Payless Shoe Store and an hour later I walked out with these - in black:



I'm going to wear them next month when we go to Iowa City to see Kathy Griffin.

After Payless, I hit Merle Hay Mall for Younker's annual Goodwill Sale. I had a few articles of clothing to turn in for 20% off coupons and what's special about this sale, it's the only time that you can use coupons for cosmetics and perfume. I was bummed the Clinque didn't have the blush I wanted, but I scored some things for Fred and Connor. One Nautica shirt for Fred, $54.00 regular, I paid $19.00 and a beautiful Lynn & Scott dress shirt that retailed for $65.00 for $20.00. Man, do I love to find bargains like that. I also found a really cute graphic tee for Connor that only cost me $8.99 down from $22.00.

I had to stop at Target also because my niece Chloe has a birthday coming up on October 5th and I wanted to get her gift purchased also. I found what I was looking for plus a bunch of cute little things in the dollar spot. I gotta stay away from there....LOL.

I headed up to Memory Bound in Ankeny after that to pick up a Bo Bunny Press My Word Baby chipboard album that I'm going to make for a co-worker who is expecting her first baby in December. I had all the time in the world, so I also looked around for awhile. Lots of cute new things, but I'm bound and determined to use what I have, so I only bought a few sheets of some new My Mind's Eye patterned paper. I actually got out of there for $22.00.

I headed home so I could be there when Connor got home from school and Fred was getting off early because our plans this evening were to meet my brother (who I share a birthday with, I'm 5 years, 3 minutes apart), my brother's friend, Craig and our friend Paul for dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant in Pleasant Hill called "El Azteca".

Here's where the surprise comes in. So were sitting there, just had our margarita's delivered and we just gave our orders when I look up and I see my dad and stepmom's best friends, Ron and Darlene. Once it registers that it's them, I'm thinking to myself "Cool, there's Ron and Darlene, I'm going to get a chance to chat with them" and then at the same time, my brother and I realize that our dad is standing right behind them! What a surprise!

For those of you who don't know or have forgotten, my dad lives in Las Vegas and we don't get to see him alot, although in the last year he's been back more than he ever has. Everyone said later that the look on my brother's and I's faces was priceless. It's rare that someone can surprise me because I really don't like them, but this time it was way cool! My dad is here until the 29th, so we have plenty of time to get together. We had a great time at dinner and now two margaritas and one shot of Tequila later, I'm feeling rather good and thought I would try my hand at drunk blogging...LOL!

I am SO glad I have tomorrow off.

My Connor Brag! and how to get Mom to go to bed early....

Yesterday Connor brought home his first progress report from school. This isn't a report card, it's just printed reports that each of his teachers gave to him detailing what his score were on different papers, quizzes and test.

We have parent portal at the Infinite Campus where we can also look up this stuff but the reports he brought home yesterday were more complete. I'm happy to report that currently he's on track to bring home four A's and two B's.

Because of his ADD, he struggles in school, he never developed the natural love of reading that both Fred and I have and we have to be constantly vigilant in his education for fear that he could fall through the cracks. For him to be bringing home this type of progress report for the type of transition year 7th grade is, is just awesome and we're so proud of him.

We do reward for this type of thing sometimes, although I know not all parents approve of this or do it, with some parents, good grades are just expected, but we know how hard school is for him so for us, rewarding him helps. He has been waiting since last year for The Force Unleashed. He's had a reserve on it since the middle of summer and has been slowly paying on it. The game was released today and after work I stopped by GameStop and paid the remaining $20 bucks off for him and picked it up. Guess what he and Fred are doing right now?

I'm being totally ignored and this is why I'm upstairs on my laptop blogging about all of this.

Well, I'm hitting the hay early tonight, my current issue of Vanity Fair is on my nightstand and I'm going to go read until I fall asleep.

Later.....

It was a good weekend!

Had a pretty good weekend. Slept in Saturday morning and we all just took our time waking up and getting ready for the day. We all had a little bit of normal Saturday chores, but I had no errands to run and for that I was thankful.

My sister dropped Chloe off Saturday afternoon because she had to work and Chloe was sick and she didn't want to call in sick. I quarantined Chloe and she slept most of the afternoon into early evening, got up, had something to eat and went back and layed down. You could tell she wasn't feeling good. She watched a couple of movies until her mom picked her up.

I actually cranked out three pages this weekend. I got some mojo going both Friday night and Saturday night so I took advantage of it.

Here are some of my latest:



I can't believe I actually got to use those Jenni Bowlin felt birds. I didn't think I would ever have a need. They came in one of her kits that I subscribed to for a very short time.



I digitally scrapped these pictures for the Jessica Sprague online class I took, but I wanted them in paper also.



Used up some old My Mind's Eye Wild Asparagus for this page. The photos were taken a Ledges State Park last fall. It's only taken me a year to scrapbook them.



Another photo from Ledges State Park. Used some newer Little Yellow Bicycle Zach's Life Collection on this page.


Thanks for looking!

Back to work tomorrow but it's a short week for me. I have Thursday, Friday and next Monday off, 5 days! Woo Hoo!

It's like crack.....

I'm talking about my obession with pens. I'm always on the look out for fabulous writing instruments, in fact, I pretty sure this is a previous post I had regarding a pen that I thought was the end all meets all in pens. I was wrong.

THIS is the perfect pen for everything! Scrapbooking, list making, note writing, journal entries, you name it. It's the new Sharpie pens that don't bleed through the paper. They come in black and there is also a 4 pack with black, blue, red and green. I've probably spent 20 bucks on these as I have them stashed everywhere at home and work.




Another plus for this pen is that David Beckham is hocking them!

2008 Survey

My friend Jenni E. sent this survey to me yesterday and I thought the questions were interesting and I like to read these things when friends send them. I was suppose to respond in an email with my answers, but I thought it was easier to post it to my blog.

1. What time did you get up this morning? 5:00am

2. Diamonds or Pearls? Diamonds

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Journey to the Center of the Earth

4. What is your favorite TV show? Project Runway

5. What do you usually have for breakfast? Fruit/Hard-boiled Egg

6. What is your middle name? Sue

7. What food do you dislike? Lima beans

8. What is your favorite CD (song) at the moment? Anything by 3 Doors Down

9. What kind of car do you drive? 2005 Ford Focus Wagon

10. Favorite sandwich? Bacon, White Bread with a touch of Miracle Whip

11. What characteristic do you despise? Intolerance

12. Favorite item of clothing? My "woobie shirt"

13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? South Pacific

14. Are you an organized person? Who...me?

15. Where would you like to retire to? I don't care as long as I don't have to work.

16. What was your most memorable birthday? 40th. I got 6 bouquets of flowers sent to me at work.

17. What are you going to do when you finish this? Go eat some popcorn.

18. Furthest place you are sending this to? ??

19. Person you expect to send it back first? ??

20. When is your birthday? September 18, 1957

21. Morning person or night person? It depends on whether it's a work day or not.

22. What is your shoe size? 10

23. Pets? Yes, 4 kitty boys - Kirby, Tucker, Gizmo and Oreo.

24. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us? My boys and I are in heavy discussion about where our next vacation destination is going to be....Hawaii? Caribbean?? Washington DC?? Maine??

25. What did you want to be when you were little? Artist

26. How are you today? Good but tired.

27. What is your favorite flower? Roses and Peonies.

28. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? September 18th....PRESENTS!

29. What are you listening to right now? Lazer 103, I think it's Saving Abel

30. What was the last thing you ate? Pizza

31. Do you wish on stars? Sometimes.

32. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Sidewalk Chalk Blue

33. How is the weather right now? Stormy

34. Last person I spoke to on the phone? My girlfriend, Laureen

35. Favorite soft drink? Diet Pepsi

36. Favorite restaurant? The Latin King

37. Hair color? Light Brown

38. What was your favorite toy as a child? My art supplies.

39. Summer or Winter? Neither - Fall

40. Chocolate or Vanilla? Chocolate

41. Coffee or tea? Coffee

42. Do you want your friends to email you back? Okay.

43. When was the last time you cried? It's been awhile.

44. What is under your bed? Probably one of the cats.

45. What did you do last night? Read my book.

46. What are you afraid of? Tornados and losing a loved one.

47. Salty or sweet? Salty

48. How many keys on your key ring? A bunch.

49. How many years at your current job? 21

50. Favorite day of the week? Saturday

51. Do you make friends easily? Yes

52. Do you like finding out all this stuff about your friends? Yes

New Music!

I've added some new music to my Tuneage.....the first three songs are on CONSTANT rotation on my iPod. They are three of my top twenty favorite songs of all time and thought I should share them with my family and friends who stop by.

Fred and I were both jazzed when we heard that AC/DC has a new album coming out "Black Ice". Click on the link to hear a "Rock and Roll Train" for that upcoming album.

Well, I'm off to finish up some scrapbook pages and then I'm going to watch Baby Mama with my boys!

Tomorrow is FRIDAY! YEA!

Just doing some sharing.....

These are photos that I took the last time Connor and I went to visit Grammy at Glendale Cemetary in Des Moines. Grammy is interred right across the road from the duck pond that you can see from University. There are several flocks of ducks and geese that are pretty domesticated. We stopped at a grocery store to buy a loaf of bread to feed the ducks and geese while we were there. I can't wait to scrapbook these...

Look what I found........

The day that Connor and I went out to the fair to do all the things that Fred doesn't enjoy doing (he only likes to eat and go to concerts....LOL), we stopped in at the old time general store that up by the Indian stuff, east of the Bud Tent (see how I can tell you where everything is out at the fairgrounds in relation to the Bud Tent...), to buy a couple of drinks, as Connor was deciding on an old fashioned root beer, I was perusing the candy counter and look what I found -



Candy polka dots on paper, Necco wafers, Boston Baked Beans and candy cigarettes?. It's been a long time since I've seen any of these candies. The cigs surprised me because I figured they quit making them. I know there are places online that specialize in vintage candy, but I've never checked them out.

These candies brought back memories of "Clevenger's" a mom and pop five and dime on Army Post Road in Des Moines that was within walking distance of where I grew up from age 5 to 13. We LOVED going to Clevenger's. They had EVERYTHING....from ladies perfumes and handkercheifs to Matchbox cars and notions, but best of all, they had a penny candy counter. One of those where the women behind the counter had to pluck what you wanted from the case and put it in a sack for you. In 1969, a quarter bought ALOT of candy and I always chose candy polka pots, candy necklaces and red licorice. Sometimes I would chose chocolate, but mostly only tootsie rolls.

We also had a soda fountain down Army Post Road from Clevenger's called "Whitaker's Pharmacy". First and foremost it was a pharmacy, but it was also a Hallmark store (which meant breakables...look out.....you break, you buy) and in the back was a soda fountain where we could get our fill of cokes, cherry cokes, green rivers or ice cream sodas. My friends and I bought plenty of mother's presents at those two stores. They had layaway and liked kids. I bought my first watch at Clevenger's. I was probably 11 years old and it was a Mickey Mouse watch with a red patent leather band. It was $20.00 and it took me forever to pay off the layaway but I did. Wish I still had the damn thing....LOL!

Hope everyone had a nice three day weekend. Mine was interesting...Connor was sick, poor thing, 2 weeks into school and he picks up some bug, I took him to Mercy East Thursday after school to rule out strep, he made it to school Friday, but by Friday night he was down for the count :( We were really looking forward to doing the pool on the last weekend we could, but that didn't pan out...Oh, well...I did get to the gym yesterday for a really good workout. I gave myself a break last week...I had been going strong for so long and was a bit burned out, but I found that I sorta missed it, so back at it I go until burn out happens again.

Well, I've certainly been a chatty today haven't I? Have a good week!