A fairly slow day today.  Scott and I went to the 99centsonly store, but we didn't find much.  I haven't found much lately, which means something good is just about due.  It works that way…the good deals come to those that wait and visit often.  I don't go as often as I used to before Megan found her new job, but if I have another reason to go up to the Square, I'm definitely going to go early so I don't miss out.  Today's double-duty trip was for crickets for the critters.  I've been playing around with making ribbon roses after I saw a Ribbon Roses tutorial on YouTube.  No matter how hard I try though, I can't get mine to look like hers.  But I like the way mine turned out…maybe it's the kind of ribbon I'm using, not that I'm having trouble following directions!  Maybe I'll make my own tutorial:)  Did you notice my funny "e"?  I ran out of the letter "e" a long time ago!  Actually I was out of the letter "i" as well.  So I cut up 2 unused "j"s – and crossed a "c" with part of one.  Make it do or do without! I have decided that I will never finish my scrapbooking.  There will always be more photos to make pages with, thoughts to write down…even if I were to stop the world – or even

I have been wanting to post some scrapbook layouts, but I think I need to spend  a lot of time on the text in the post…oh well!  No one really cares what I have to say, right?  It's all in the pictures, huh!?! Actually, I usually have a lot to say, but it's a time issue.  I'm not the best with time management, but I love to scrapbook and sometimes it's easier to say it with pictures.  It's one of my favorite creative outlets and I can't seem to give it up.  I know that some of my friends would much rather read, but for me…it's all about color and color makes me happy – either observing it, mixing it or combining colors to form pleasing palates. These colors were perfect for the colors in the photo, which was of my little friend Henry, at my daughter and son-in-law's (Christie and Matt) wedding open house.  The photo was taken by Alison Beachem! I really love subtle patterns that can mix and mingle with each other to make a bright, cheerful page. Everything about this layout compliments the cupcakes in the photo.   Believe it or not, the cupcakes came first! This picture really takes me back!  Mike is graduating in a couple of  weeks, Tom is turning 16 at the end of the week, Heather is in college and everyone  else is BIG and playing football.  I love

I had the opportunity to do something fun this year – be a judge at the San Diego County Fair in Del Mar!  No…I'm not going to tell you what I was judging, just in case you entered something and don't agree with the judge!  But it was an interesting and educational opportunity.  I would love to have the opportunity again next year. Both Mike and Tom have also been working at the fair for set-up in the Home and Hobby department and they will continue to work there once the fair actually starts, after school and during the day when school is out.  Now I'm going to have to do a serious plug for submitting in Home and Hobby.  Enter!  I have seen some wonderful arts and crafts that haven't been anywhere near the San Diego County Fair!  Did you know that there are cash prizes available?  Did you know that there are areas of submission for children?  We used to do this years ago with our children, things like Megan's Betty Boop collection and Jake's Lego creations.  It doesn't have to be anything massive, just a bunch of any type of item, like bottle caps, matchbooks or pigs or along a theme, like "I Love Lucy" merchandise.  It's a chance to strut your stuff! On to scrapbooking… I made this layout for a Pinecone Press upcoming Options kit with

I have to say that sometimes I get really frustrated with myself when I make dumb mistakes.  What makes me even MADDER is when I can’t figure out what I did wrong…mad or crazy, which can be synonymous.  So I typed out almost an entire post, including photos, had to leave for a few minutes, which turned into a few hours and when I came back…I couldn’t find it.  And the title was out of my head…which had been super cute.  Then I remembered that I had centered the whole blog around the word “cute”…beats me if I can remember a single sentence.  But it’s been a long week and I’m only to Wednesday and I need to move on to the next task at hand…or at least to attack the list.  Last week I got a wonderful box full of Cosmo Cricket’s new line, DeLovely, in the mail.  I love the brilliant colors – the shades of green, turquoise, yellow and bright pink are some of my favorites colors ever and the combinations make me happy.  Anyway, last week was crazy busy and I had to set the box aside for a few days.  Once I got to it, I sure had fun.  Hopefully I will get to play more with it tomorrow! I like to think of card making as warm-ups to my “creative exercise”.  I will frequently start

What happened?  Well, I had planned on making a big deal about my 100th post…but I just noticed that I'm already at 102!  I honestly didn't think that I would be able to do it – stick with something for so long!  I signed up for Typepad on a month-to-month basis because I wanted to make sure I would keep going…so I could cancel if it was too much for my schedule.  But let's see…I have been typepadding for almost 8 months, approximately 200 days, and I have 102 posts…that averages out to a post every other day!  Not too bad, if I do say so myself! I am a fairly confident person, but I haven't been stretching myself creatively much lately.  So I decided that I needed to step outside my comfort zone.  I submitted some projects to a design team call.  I came across Margie's website accidentally…I'm Just a Girl.  I discovered that I had missed her class up at Everafter earlier in the month.  Nothing personal, but I just don't like to drive that far to a scrapbook store anymore and I don't have to because I have a really great one close by…Cool Scrapbook Stuff in Poway.  But it would have been fun to take a class.  I haven't taken a class for YEARS!  But whether I get on the team or not, it was fun to try!&#

I don't know how it happened, but I've lost a whole 'nother week!  I don't dare plan out the entire week…too much comes up and I need to make sure that I don't get too behind by scheduling too much.  But I still can't believe how time flies by.  My Mom warned me about this.  It's definitely no major revelation, but every once in a while it just seems to smack me in the face…not in a painful kind of way, but it helps keep me humble and grateful that I got as much done as I did and it inspires me to be careful how I use my time.  I had so much fun over the long weekend.  I worked at the Pinecone Press booth on Friday at the Scrapbook Expo in Del Mar, CA and then taught a make and take at Cool Scrapbook Stuff in Poway…how to make those fabulous flowers.  I haven't taught for a while and I'm out of practice, but I think that the ladies had a good time, even though we were outside and the breeze was blowing our papers away.  I now have an even better collection of colors of Glimmer Mist and can't wait to expand my finished flower color list.  I will have to post them again when I get more done.  It's my new "addiction", but I'm very good about

Spring is here!  Bouquets of flowers are always welcome at my house, but if a trip to the store is not in my time schedule or budget, I'll just make a few of my own!  Not that I need spring as an excuse for making flowers!  They're never as wonderful as the real thing, mostly because they have no fragrance and I'm not as patient with the intricacies, but I sure love making them.  These sweet little flowers remind me of Bachelor Buttons.  Making one layer is great for scrapbooking or card making, but for a more dimensional project, making two and putting them back to back will do the trick.  The first couple took a while to make, working out the steps, but once that was mastered, just a few minutes will do.  You can get the directions here. Just imagine how cute these would look on a card or a scrapbook page…okay, if I didn't have to bake for the Senior Bake Sale, clean house, prepare for a wedding, 3 baptisms and a reception, not to mention out-of-town company, maybe I'd do that right now.  As it stands, I'll just have to wait until next week…oh wait!  Next week I'm working on cleaning my workroom.  Great!  It will be summer before I get back to these!  Well, we shall see!&#