Scrapbooking...it's more than just a hobby!

I don't know how you all feel about scrapbooking but for me it is more than just a hobby! This is a way to document your family history! I like to make scans of birth certificates (when I can get my hands on them) and put them into scrapbook pages. Granted, I can't show you any pictures of what I have done due to the personal nature of the documents and who they are about and all but it does give you a little glimpse of documenting important pieces of information of your family members.

Bingo at Tiffinay's

Last night was the OSC Bingo at Tiffany's function...what a laugh riot! I can tell you all that everyone had a great time! Many of us were dressed in theme as Holly Golightly, the main charecter in the movie "Breakfast at Tiffany's" starring Audrey Hepburn.

So here I am bling and all!

Putting School Portraits in your Scrapbooks

I've never had a problem with being able to crop down an 8x10. As a matter of fact, I love working with those school portraits! It gives me the opportunity to make them look "better". Cropping out those huge open areas and bringing my child into a better frame so to speak. Lets face it, if you have more than 1 child it just isn't realistic to hang up every school picture, heck even with one child that would be a little much. So for me putting them into scrapbooks was a natural thing. These layouts don't need to be elborate pieces of art...just cover the basics...the name of the school, the school year, your child's name, grade and possibly the teacher if they are still in elemtry school.

Cook cook cook

Oh how I love to cook!I realize that not everyone loves to cook or even those who have a knack with cooking don't like to do it every day...but let me tell you today I am on a cooking streak! So far today I've made Jambalaya AND home made Chicken Pie! My house smells wonderful! I get in the mood to cook and there's just no stopping me! What I should be doing is making some recipe pages for my recipe scrapbook. I've made and gave a recipe scrapbook cook books as Christmas gifts. I have to say that was one fun gift to make and give!

Being Tourist...

So here I am, being a tourist with my mother-in-law. We've eaten lunch out nearly every day since she has been here. I feel the weight sneaking up on me. >:0 Today's adventure will take us to the Sioux Pottery Factory and to some quilt shops in town. She wants to visit these places and I say why not! How many people can truly say that they take the time to go to these little hole in the wall places where they live? I'm bringing my camera with me because you just never know when you are going to get a fantastic shot of something unusual.

My Minor Surgery

I had minor surgery on my neck yesterday. I have stitches (I have no idea how many) and the incision is about ¾ to 1 inch long. The piece of skin was sent for biopsy. It was a mole that "grew back". I had originally had it removed 19 years ago (the day before my younger sister's wedding day).It concerned me that in time it did grow back and it came back even larger. So here I am with this huge patch on my neck and yet again I am getting ready to go to a formal event, LOL! So everyone will see this "patch" on my neck and wonder what's up with it. I'll let you all know what is found out when I get the results back from the Pathology lab.

A Creative Moment

So there it was...a blustery Saturday. Wind, rain, hail and more wind. We ended up staying at home. It was just too darn miserable to go out! We all did our own thing...Hannah and Lucien tinkered around on the Miata, then played with the electric train set, my mother-in-law knitted and almost finished a scarf, Andrew of course played on his computer all day long and then as for myself I tinkered around intermittently in my Scrapbook Nook. I was playing around with some new to me product from Ranger Industries, made a few new cards and had fun playing with cardstock, ribbon, twill tape and of course stamps! Then of course there was the 20 page album that I started on Thursday and finished on Saturday. I can't begin to tell you all how pleased I am with that accomplishment! So yes, I am having a creative moment and I am relishing the thought of being just as productive and creative today!

Local Cool Scrapbooking Finds

I was out and about with my mother in law yesterday. We went out to lunch at one of my favorite places Mongolian Grill. After lunch we stopped in at one of my favorite scrapbooking stores. She had new product in and it looked great! I was excited to be able to pick up some of the colored jumbo paper clips by Bazzill Basics. I also saw that they now carry the Click it eyelet setting tool by Karen Foster. Now at least I'll be able to tell others where they can get things locally without having to go through the hassle of shopping on the Internet...because the typical scrapbooker wants a tool or paper NOW...not 3 weeks from now, LOL! So for those that are local that read my blog the Click-it is available at "Happy Daze". But buy it next week... when the store is having 30% off for military appreciation week!
Just the other day I was in Hobby Lobby (again with the mother in law) and I used my 40% off coupon for the Crop-a-dile tool. LOVE IT! I really love how it goes through chip board like butter! It makes it super easy to make mini album covers from chip board!
"Scrapbook Etc" has ordered (and should have in stock by now) the Craft Mat from Ranger Industries. I LOVE that thing! I have two and let me tell you I would LOVE to have more! I can have crops and better yet stamping parties and not worry about heat damage happening to my counter tops or table tops! This is a "tool" that is especially tailor made for the "Kitchen Table" scrapbooker and stamper! If you don't have one, trust me you will want to have this product! And it wipes clean! What is not to like?

Crop @ My House Today!

Here I am, gearing up for a fun crop here at my house. I've got some that have RSVP'd to let me know that they will be here and others that have not bothered to let me know one way or the other (there's always some in every group). NO matter who shows up, we're going to have fun, that is certain!
Besides giving out a door prize or two, I'm also serving lunch. What's on the menu? Quiche! Bacon and Onion to be exact so I suppose that makes it Quiche Lorraine.
When ever I go to crops I always work on some sort of page kit that I have. I never sit down and get into detailed work on a layout because I'm always getting distracted. Since I never did get to work on those kits I brought with me to CKU-Masters in Boston last month (was way too busy with homework from my classes), I'm going to pull one out and work on it today. I'm not putting in any pictures or journaling, I'm just putting together the pages for the 8x8 album. That will keep me plenty busy! I'll have to fill you all in on the details of the crop, who showed up and how it went...later.

In the Kitchen with Sandie

I adore cooking, but since I have such a small kitchen I find that I need an assistant to wash up for me while I go along, LOL! There's no place to stack up dirty dishes...so out of concerns about space I HAVE to wash and put away as I go through the recipes.
On today's list I have a few things...Iodized Sea Salt, Malt Vinegar, lady fingers and Mascarpone cheese. I'll need to go to Safeway to find these items, since they are not carried in our commissary. Yes, I'm going to make a Tiramisu (My daughter and mother in law adore it).
I think that today's dinner will be Mexican food . I'm in the mood to cook Mexican...and since it's supposed to warm up to 60º I figure that Mexican will be a good alternative to me making soup again.
How do you feel about Chicken Pot Pie? I make a great Chicken Pie and will be making it this week. I have a feeling that my mother-in-law will be loving this dish as well as the others I have made so far.
I need to head on out to the grocery store and get those items so I can get started cooking as soon as possible!

I'm keeping busy...

I've been keeping pretty busy since my Mother-in-law arrived on Friday. Yesterday I took her to "Some-one's in the Kitchen" (my favorite place to buy kitchen tools and whatnot's) and then onward to "Hobby Lobby" to get some yarn (she makes the coolest knitted scarves). Well I ended up buying this seriously cool eyelash yarn in this variegated Sea-glass/Peacock (green to aqua) color...it's awesome looking! I also happened to have a 40% off coupon in my purse and I headed on over to the Scrapbooking Department to see what treasures I could find. I was excited to see that they finally had the Crop-a-dile, I had been wanting one of these little gems since CKU-Boston. So with my $40% off coupon I got it for the great price of $14.99...not to shabby of a deal if I do say so myself.

In the Kitchen with Sandie

I'd say that I discovered the joy of cooking around the age of 8 years old. I fondly remember my very first cook book...The Winnie the Pooh Cookbook and better yet I still have it! Besides cooking from scratch in general, I especially like to try new things. I think that I'm truly in my element when cooking... be it for a dinner party, a small gathering of friends for lunch or zucchini bread to share with a girlfriend over coffee.
I've got dinner for tomorrow night marinating...it's a recipe from the food network..from Ina Garten's' show The Barefoot Contessa. I made this a little while ago for the first time and LOVED it! With my mother-in-law arriving this afternoon, I wanted to have some special meals while she's here. The weather tomorrow is going to be on the cooler side, so this marinated beef stew (the recipe is called Parker's Beef Stew) is going to hit the spot! You marinate the beef in red wine, not cooking wine, but the good kind that you would drink with dinner. This meal is to die for! It's hearty and savory at the same time.
Tonight it's grilled Blackened Tuna Steaks with Lemon Steamed Green Beans, Long Grain Rice (the real stuff not that freeze dried boil in a bag stuff) and my version of Italian Pasta Salad. For dessert...New York Cheesecake with Strawberries! I'm getting ready to pull a loaf of zucchini bread out of the oven, it's smells so wonderful! I plan on having some with my tea in a little while :)
What do you do when you are in the mood for a particular thing? Do you try to shrug it off? Of do you go with it an make it? Oh my gosh I am wanting to make (and eat) Apple Crisp...just the thought of it is making me smile. I have my big colander full of bright green Granny Smith Apples and I'm ready to peel them! Maybe I'll make that for dessert and save the Cheesecake for tomorrow. It's days like this when I cure could use my gourmet kitchen that I had when we lived in Texas. Our next house is going to either have a gourmet kitchen or I'll do a remodel on it and put one in! The zucchini bread is out and it looks delicious!
My advice to you all today...find something that your really enjoy and do it! Be it making brownies, washing the car or scrapbooking. The key thing is to just enjoy yourself!

The Over Cropping of Digital Photos

The Over Cropping of Digital Photos...
Not all but some scrapbookers have moved on to the new technology of digital cameras. I was rather stand offish about going totally digital until a couple of years ago. I still pull my 35 mm camera out for some shots but it mainly hangs out in it's camera bag. What did it for me was taking my 35mm camera and all of my30+ rolls of 800 speed film through the airport and having each roll of film hand wiped for the bomb test and then being subject to a personal search...not much fun when you have to do it 3 times in a day. It also makes your husband and children grumble...a lot. It was soon after that my husband bought me digital camera #2...I love it!
Using digital cameras (got to love those memory cards) means that you can take many pictures of the same thing and later on picture out which photo's you want to print, I personally LOVE this about digital pictures. But one of the other great things to come out of digital photography is that we can also enhance the photo color and crop on our computer or printers. I had a conversation about this very thing with my friend Liz. As much as she loves her digital camera she told me that her husband drives her crazy because every photograph that he takes, he makes sure to fill up the entire frame with the subject matter. You see, her husband is the chief picture taker while on vacation (which is not the case for most scrapbooking women, LOL). This is a common practice with digital picture taking. Not leaving yourself anything to actually crop out of the picture. Some times you may want to have a smaller photo for a layout..but you've gone and blown that idea out of the water with the way you've taken the picture. You need to actually step back and take that camera out of zoom and get another shot of the same subject just father away. And after looking it on your computer monitor assess it...does it need to be cropped or the color enhanced? Do you want the picture to be a full 3x5 or 4x6 or are you going to want to crop the picture down and possibly use only a small portion of it to fit your needs in the layout? These are things to consider. So use that digital camera and take advantage of the fact that you don't have to get all of the pictures printed...just the ones you really want to to use on your next great layout!

Scrap Chat with Sandie...

Redundancy of photos OR Same photo different angle.
This is such a common thing that beginner scrapbookers have going on in their scrapbooks, heck even some more advanced scrapbookers still have this sort of thing going on. What it is, it's a failure to "weed out" (so to speak) the redundant photo's or the ones that all look the same. It's wanting to use ALL of your pictures to make a 2 page layout. A lot of the time you only need 1 or 2 photos to get the point across or subject matter into better perspective. Hey! I know what I'm talking about, that I used to be guilty of this very thing, so trust me...I do know what I am talking about here.

I have one friend who has come a long way since her days as a CM consultant (Yes I was partially responsible for her getting into making lumpy pages in her scrapbooks) but she still has a problem of using redundant photos in her layouts. It's the same picture shot over and over again of the same subject matter but she's moved 5 or 6 inches, LOL! My recommendation would be to assess your photos, spread them out and really look at them, maybe there is one that stands out from the rest. Take that one photo's and have it blown up to a 5x7 or an 8x10 and have IT be the main focal point on the layout. It's better top have one larger photo than say a half dozen or more spread out over 2 pages all shot from different angles. Just because you shot 20 pictures of the same thing from different angles doesn't mean that you have to use them all in a layout, LOL! So take a step back and really LOOK at those pictures, see which one or ones stand out from the others and go from there.

When "little" projects take on a life of their own...

Okay, my project started out innocent enough with a simple rearranging a few things in my Armoiré, mainly the oodles of board games that we have. Well of course you know that my scrapbooks are stored in there...so I rearranged them as well and decided to take some of my empty scrapbooks from the hall scrap closet (formerly known as the linen closet) and put them in the Armoiré. Then of course my plan was to remove the dozens of boxes of Stampin Up stamps from my daughters top shelf of her closet and place them in the scrap closet. So now I have 4 areas of my house in chaos...the living room, my daughters room, the hall way in between my son's bedroom and the master bed room then of course it wouldn't be complete without turning my Scrapbook Nook upside down, LOL! I moved some books and binders from a small book shelf in the scrapbook nook into the scrap closet and now look...I rearranged my cardstock and moved it around as well, AUGH! I look at the time and say OH WOW, I've been at this for the better part of the day. Hmmm, what frozen delights am I making for dinner? LOL!
Break time over...time for me to get this house in order before my husband gets home and thinks that I'm freaking out while looking for something. My answer would be...Yes, I'm looking for something honey...my mind!

Scrap Chat with Sandie

What's your Scrapbooking Style?
Finding ones niche...that's what scrapbooking style is about (or at least I think that's what it's about). I do have to give a chuckle at some fads... Remember Shabby Chic and how everything was covered in walnut ink? Pictures, paper, embellishments, all sprayed with walnut ink in various shades of dark brown, Ugh! Oh how I hated how that looked! To me, it was rather dark and depressing to look at. Then again think about who I am...I'm the lady with the rainbow of dishes in her cupboards, of course I would find walnut ink sprayed on everything depressing, LOL! But what one person may find not to their personal tastes it might very well be the cats meow to someone else. The Shabby Chic look was featured in the major scrapbooking magazines for months. While the lesser known scrapbooking magazines touched on it and went on. That was when the lesser known scrapbooking magazines made it out into the bigger viewing audiences. I found that a lot of scrapbookers like myself wanted to see "other" kinds of layouts and ideas in the publications, not just one style over and over again.
So where am I getting to with this topic right? There are a great deal many fads, techniques and products out there on the market today. So many in fact that we can take a piece here and a snip it there and put our own spin on it and turn it into something completely unique and our own. Your thing could be buttons (I still use them and love them) or maybe it's ribbons, or maybe you're really good with an x-acto knife and make beautiful hand cut page titles. There is something out there for everyone! We are no longer subject to having triangles and rectangles on our layouts! We can do more, and better yet... there's more out there for us to use!

My advice...try something new! Make a mini book (one with 6x6 pages works well) with different techniques that you've found to be of interest to you on the web or in magazines. Don't try to add pictures while making these little pages, just try out the techniques and styles. And trust me when I say that somewhere along the way you are going to find some techniques or products just don't quite do it for you...but don't be discouraged by that, embrace it for what it is... a learning experience. And there will be others that you really like, enjoy them but do not limit yourself to using just them. I did this exercise recently while at CKU-Boston and I have to say that I've grown from this experience. I used to be such a stickler for things (embellishments) NOT sticking out from the top of the my layouts, everything would be nicely tucked inside of the page protector. But you know what...I've totally changed my opinion on this and I will now incorporate new things, not in every layout mind you but I will be having things sticking out of the tops of the page protectors now and again :) It's thinking beyond the square and opening your mind to new experiences even when you think that your style has been set.

I'm changing my look...

yes you read that right, I'm going to be changing my look. I changed it a year ago and made my hair brown. I did it on a temporary basis to look like Audrey Hepburn for a themed OSC function with the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's. I liked it so I kept it brown, for a year now. Well I've had enough of it being brown! I went in to the salon a few days before leaving for Boston and this new stylist made my hair 3 shades darker than I wanted it. Every time I look in the mirror I shake my head. I just do not like it. So get ready folks...I'm going back to being me...what is "me"? you wonder...it's a lot Blonder than it is now that's fror sure, LOL! I can not take this look any longer, and the black tipped ends of my hair have got to go! The stylist gave me a "trendy new look", I'm sorry but this just isn't doing it for me!

I posted that picture of myself taken by Becky Higgins...I love that picture just not my hair color. So in the next few days I'll be sporting a new hair color. Don't be shocked...I know that it will be a bit of a surprise but hey...what's hair for if you can't have fun with it right?

Sandie, Wilson and Becky Higgins

I just wanted to show you all this beautiful picture that Becky Higgins took of me using my own camera. She did this during her mini class at CKU-Masters in Boston in August.


And of course there's this great picture of Becky Higgins, myself and Wilson the Travel Pig.



I wish that Becky had more time allotted for her class, she's an awesome teacher!

Being Sick

In case you were wondering where I've been...I've been sick. I've had a tummy bug and let me tell you it was not pleasant! Why is it that I can eat the same things as the rest of my family members yet I am the one to "catch" some sort of bug? Just the luck of the draw I suppose.

So while being sick I managed to tinker around with a little project that I've been wanting to do for a while. I have these fabric covered Colorbok albums that I got on clearance from target over a year ago. I've been wanting to stamp on the outside covers, but never knew what it was that I wanted to stamp on them. So last night I got out the Fabrico Black Ink and some new flower stamps by Autumn Leaves and went to stamping all of one of those albums...LOVE IT! What a great way to dress up a plain album! Now my 11 year old daughter Hannah says to me "Mom, they're rather plain" meaning that I need to color the flowers. I colored in 3 of those flowers this morning...to be perfectly honest, I think that I prefer the flowers just stamped in black ink. Oh well, this is just a play around album any way. I'm not sure what I will stamp on the other 2 albums, those can wait for now.

Journaling and the OSC Scrapbooks

Journaling... not all of my pages warrant the in depth details of the who what where and when that is generally associated with scrapbooking. But the project that I am working on now needs names, dozens of names. So I will need some help getting these names together and then I can type them out. This is for the OSC scrapbooks. My goal with these scrapbooks is to get a picture of every member in there at least once. I've noticed that in the OSC scrapbooks of years past, you see pictures of the same people over and over again without any mention of who they are or their squadron affiliation. Well that is changing here and now. I'm making sure that details of who is in what picture are being given versus going into detail of the food menu. I also need to take a clear picture of this years executive board and of the non-executive board members as I feel that we all need to be represented in these albums with our names. Our albums will have interest features as well as pocket pages for each months OSC new letter. I plan on giving out a well organized and beautifully made album to our membership, the OSC President, The honorary President who is the Wing Commanders Spouse and Honorary Vice President who is the Vice Wing Commanders spouse in May 2007.

Scrapbooking Toys

One of my most favorite scrapbooking toys is my Cannon Picture Printer. I love how I am able to be able to print wonderfully clear and crisp 4x6 photo's with this thing! Mine is a CP-200. I got it for Christmas 2004...okay a little after Christmas but it was still for Christmas ya know ;)
So today I'm creating more layouts and I need a few pictures...so I plug in my little picture printer and WOW! What great quality photo's! This printer does the same thing that the new Kodak picture printers do. And now that the photo printer packs are $9.99...got to love technology and how the prices come down after a while. When I first got this printer the photo packs were $24.99, eeek! This is much more affordable now!

After School Clutter

To be able to entertain at a moments notice we need to have certain things in order...a way to free the living room, and dining room of clutter (we'll work on the other rooms later).
Take for instance when my kids come home from school...My daughter Hannah (I love her dearly) has this horrible habit of dumping everything on the floor as soon as she walks through the door, be it her gym bag, back pack, shoes, coat whatever it is...it's all on the floor. Then she proceeds to rummage through her back pack and do her homework in the middle of the walking area between the dining room and the living room- UGH! My son Andrew on the other hand (bless his soul) spreads everything out across the kitchen table. He does it in such a manner that there is no way my daughter could even get a note book on the table. Heaven forbid if friends dropped by while my children and doing their homework. They would see my house as a library blown up. Both Andrew and Hannah have desks in their rooms for this very reason but do they use them? Oh heavens no! That would be wanting too much from them at this moment, LOL! So one of my first things is to have a designated place for them to put their backpacks after their home work is done, this is a must! It needs to be near the door for them to grab on their way to catching the bus in the morning.
This is the first step in conquering the clutter in our living space. Now to work on the 2nd thing...I'll let you know how that goes.
It's little things here and there that one can do to keep from having a messy looking home. It's developing habits and sticking to them (and getting the rest of your family members to do the same). It takes about 30 days to develop and maintain a good habit or routine. Since school just started again I've got to get my children back into their old routine...this will be a hard one but it will get done. Hannah's routine of dumping everything in the middle of the floor or in the door way has got to go! I can deal with Andrew not sharing the table a lot more than Hannah's dumping habit. But I hope the be able to get my children to get back in the habit of using those desks in their bedrooms to do their homework.

My busy busy Wednesday

Today has been one of those go go go kind of days. Starting with my son's Orthodontic appointment at 7:30 am (ugh). So we have to leave the house by 6:55 am at the latest...or that we seriously throw us off track. We get there with time to burn...okay so it's 5 minutes. We're done there and off we go to get Andrew off to High School. We pull Andrew's bike out of the back of the Prairie Schooner (the nick name for my Honda Minivan).
Next stop the Post Office...where I am getting the paper work to file 2 postal claims. Those packages I shipped from RAF Mildenhall on August 9th still have not found their way here. I shipped them insured priority mail. This stinks because they have our clothes in them...my favorite pair of Chaco sandals, my new skirt, new Capri pants and more! I really don't want to make a claim, I'd much rather have those boxes with our things arrive on and be there on my door step!
Next stop...OSC Board Meeting. It took longer than I expected at the Post Office. But I was able to make the tail end of the board meeting, where I was able to vote on a few issues at hand. I met one of my newest neighbors...and she is a hoot! I can tell that we are going to get along fabulously! She is a scrapbooker and that right there signifies something doesn't it? LOL!
So what's next right? Tonight there's a spouses coffee that I will be attending. So what's for dinner? Left overs...but they aren't bad left overs, these are actually rather yummy. It's the inside of a chicken pot pie, My own special chicken pot pie recipe that no one else has :)
I'm planning out the door prize give aways for my OSC crop. This is going to be a total blast! I'm excited and better yet others are excited about this crop.

It's Tuesday Gromit

So here it is, Tuesday. I have a to do list that I'm not very fond of at the moment. I've been knocking things off that list right and left but they are unpleasant chores to say the least.
What is up with our laundry? Didn't I just tackle Mount Washmore on Saturday? I know that I did and here it is Tuesday and there are "5" loads that have accumulated since Saturdays wash fest, Sheesh! I think that there is something to be said about nudist colony's...no laundry hanging over them, LOL!
So I'm tooling around in the upstairs (our house is a split level and it's reversed from a standard normal house plan bedrooms are downstairs while everything else is upstairs) okay so I'm tooling around and I'm either batty as a loon or my house smells funky. I can't pin point it yet but there is some weird odor coming from somewhere. Now I'm on some sort of warped mission to locate where the smell is coming from. Can someone tell me why is it that women have this innate sense of smell and men can't seem to smell a thing?
I'm off to do some exchanges...seems I have to go into the dressing room with my daughter to make sure that clothes fit her properly. I trusted her when she said that the 12 slims fit her...well they fit her in length only, LOL! So I'm off to Kohl's to do an exchange.

I've been home a week now...

And I haven't done any real scrapbooking per say with exception of drawing up a sketch or two. Well I guess there's the inking of the card-stock and printed paper that I did yesterday afternoon in preparation of doing the layout. Heck I haven't written a letter, I haven't even picked up and worked on any of my almost finished needlework projects. There always seems to be something pulling me in the opposite direction, something else that needs my attention. And lets not even go there with the book I've been trying to read for the past 2 months.

So I'm hoping that September will pick up for me in the creative department. I've already got 2 sketches drawn up, picked out and sent the OSC photo's to be printed at Walgreen's (I need to pick them up today). I'm eager to get working on those layouts! I also want to work on the cross stitch project for my m-i-l.

We went to a BBQ Saturday and it was a lot of fun! We all enjoyed getting out and being with friends. It makes me want to have a cook out at our place! Getting friends together, hanging out and enjoying the company of friends.

I've been trying to get my mother-in-law out here for a vacation and I think that she is finally taking me up on the offer. I think that she she's finally narrowed down when she wants to come. I need to check my e-mail and see if she has purchased her airline ticket to come out...then I'll have "for sure" dates for her visit. I look forward to her coming out here. Maybe I can take her to an OSC function while she's here!

So it's Labor Day and I hope that everyone who reads my blog has a wonderful day! I'm going to get out of here and run out to Walgreen's to pick up my photo's while my entire family is asleep!

My Scrapbooking goals for September

Here are my scrapbooking goals that I will hopefully achieve for the month of September...

scrap the OSC August function (that's either a double or triple page layout for "4" 12x12 albums)

Pick up OSC pictures at Walgreen's (I ordered them the other day)

Finish up my home work from my Becky Higgins class kit (it's an entire album)

Finish up Lisa Bearnson 2 page spread

Finish up class kit from Around the Block

Finish up class project from Bazzill Basics Paper Co.

Make something with the scrapbook paper from the Cactus Pink sponsored class

Finish up Jen Child's class project

Now keep in mind that I got nothing done with exception of those "20" 6x6 pages in the month of August. And that was only because of CKU-Masters! Being gone from home for 23 days did not help me in the least!

Mount Washmore

Why is it that when I do laundry I do it in mass production? It's because I don't want to be bothered with washing many little loads every day during the week that's why! I have a couple of friends that wash at least 2 loads of laundry every day...yikes! That's not my idea of getting laundry done. It's mass production Saturdays for me...besides I can get the other members of this household to help out! I can't get over how much laundry OUR family of 4 goes through in a week. Every dirty clothes hamper in this household is stuffed full. So to get on with it I'm going to do an early start, and get on with tackling my Mount Washmore!

Stormy Day

We woke up to a very loud thunderstorm with lots of lightening and rain...and of course no storm would be complete without the howling South Dakota wind. My poor potted plants that on our front porch have been taking quite the beating this morning. I'll have to drag them into the garage to dry out for a bit before I bring them into the house. One plant is almost stripped of all of it's leaves, I wonder if it will be able to recover.

My husband is off from work for "the AF Family Fun Day" too bad that our kids are IN SCHOOL, Our kids are always in school when those AF family days are held, go figure! I think that these days are scheduled for schools that start after Labor Day.

Since it was raining outside I let my kitty go play in the garage (our garage is kitty safe). So Hannah comes into the kitchen to get some breakfast and she hears a commotion going on in the garage...there's the cat on top of the Miata windshield on her hind legs meeeeeoooowing up a storm. There's something flying around in our garage...it's a BAT!
Nothing like getting our hearts pumping ya know! Yes I've got pictures and good close up one as well. All four of us and the cat are in the garage trying to catch it. My DH finally catches it and puts it outside under the deck.

Now for me to get with the program and finish the gutting process of my Scrapbook Nook. I've got to figure out what tools need to be where. I have got little piles of stuff here and there in my small space. I'm in the process of getting a care package together for my best friend Susan...I bought some cool scrapping and stamping goodies for her while I was in Boston, ssshhh it's a surprise:)