Gettin' By

It's the last day of June!

And that means at midnight, the Jenni Bowlin Mercantile gallery will go live. Awww yeah! You won't want to miss the lovely stuff the DT has done with this month's kit - plenty of eyecandy, I promise!  The July kit is a great mix of vintage, patriotic, and sun drenched summer goodness. Plus there's an exclusive JBS rub-on and journal tag, and of course some gorgeous JBS papers you won't want to miss.  As if that's not enough, the guest designer for July is none other than my amazingly talented friend, Lisa Truesdell (aka gluestickgirl).  'Nuff said??

So while you are waiting for the reveal, here's a few sneaks of my pages to whet your whistle:

And hey, since it's the last day of June (where the heck did it go?) I'll issue a challenge to everyone:  slow down and savor the season!  Enjoy the sun, sniff the flowers, make some iced tea and run barefoot through the grass.  It's summer! :)

So Much for Cultural Enlightenment.

Last week we spent the better part of Wednesday afternoon at the WOW Children's Museum in nearby Lafayette. I figured we should mix a little educational pursuit into our summer to balance out all hours spent racing Mario Karts and splashing at the pool.  Oh wait, the lifeguards sometimes tune in KBCO on the pool radio, so can we count that as culturally enlightening?  Of course we can.  If they play Grateful Dead, it counts in my book.

At any rate, the museum had some really cool exhibits, including a giant bubble machine (you get to create a human-sized bubble around yourself), a real drive-up bank window with operating vacuum tube, a life-size pirate ship, a magnet sculpture table, a build-your-own log cabin, and a kid-size grocery store with old fashioned cash register.  I wish I had photos, but in a moment we'll just attribute to the previously mentioned Summer Mommy Brain, I forgot it at home. Most of the activities were geared towards Riely's age group, but Hayden enjoyed it too. (Well, he played along reluctantly after I promised him a trip to Sonic for good behavior.  I've never been opposed to bribery, especially if I get an excuse to consume a Cream Pie Shake.) After we'd taken in most of the activities, Riely settled in at the stage/costume area and spent at least an hour trying on the various princess and fairy outfits and putting on shows for me at the large stage.  Meanwhile, Hayden found some older kids who started a game of hide and seek to keep them occupied.

Later that evening, we were talking about the museum trip over dinner. The kids were telling us about their favorite activities when Hayden remembered a new joke he learned from one of his fellow hide-and-seekers. He's even taught it to Riely, who delivers the punch line with an undeniable cuteness. So at the risk of sinking to juvenile potty humor (which you probably already know I do on a regular basis), here's the joke for you all to enjoy:

Hayden:  What's the difference between roast beef and pea soup?

Riely:  You can roast beef, but you can't pee soup!

And that, my friends, is what my darling children took away from our museum trip. Well worth the price of admission, wouldn't you say?!?

Fly-by Friday Post!

We are headed off to the pool for a lazy Friday...just popping on quickly to wish you all a lovely weekend and share a page I did a few weeks back but forgot to post.  The beautiful photos on this page were taken by Hayden and I just love them. Probably because he so artfully crops my big 'ol schnoz out  :)

patterned paper (Narratives by Creative Imaginations)
butterflies (from Jenni Bowlin June kit)
brads (Making Memories)
title font (Clarendon)

And hey - don't forget to scroll down and see if you're a winner from the giveaway yesterday!

Enjoy your weekend!

The Winning Numbers...

Ok, everyone, here's the numbers that Random.org generated:

So the winners are commentors 26, 11 and 53:

Congrats, ladies!  Please email me with your name, address, and which labels you'd like to receive.  I'll forward your requests on to Shabby Chic Crafts.  Thanks for playing!

As summer slips away...

Ack!  Where has June gone??  OK, we've filled it with plenty of activities, but still.  Yesterday I had to write a check and put the date as June 16, which may explain why I'm having trouble meeting any deadlines in a timely fashion these days.  I'll blame it on Mommy Summer Brain:  the affliction that occurs when you are so busy trying to keep your kids busy (and thus keep them from realizing they have free time to argue) that you forget just about everything else in your little world.

So here's what we've been up to:  Various excursions to local museums and attractions, a few matinee movies, lots of trips to the community pool to wear off any energy left after visiting said attractions, practicing golf shots in the back yard (Hayden), logging lots of running miles on the Asics (me), filling up a spiral notebook with drawings of Spongebob characters (Riely), barbequing dinner on the patio, roasting marshmellows (and eating lots of s'mores for dessert), running through sprinklers, taking in a Rockies baseball game, consuming an alarming amount of Fla-Vor-Ice, and sometimes just being lazy and enjoying the good ol' days of summer.

What we have NOT been doing: laundry, vacuuming, dusting, or generally housework of any kind, which is unfortunately going to have change in the upcoming days lest our house be taken over by mountains of dirty clothes, and a nasty orange fungus-y mold that appears to be growing in the toilet.  Anyone want to come over and help?? We have FlaVorIce!  And s'mores!  (You're tempted, aren't you??)

This week, too, I will be squeezing in some time to scrap.  The July Jenni Bowlin kit is calling my name, and I just got a big box of KI Memories new releases that are AMAZING.  Colorful, happy, and perfect for summer photos. 

And speaking of colorful and happy, have you seen the super cute tag designs at Shabby Chic Crafts?  The sweet owner Veronica sent me some to play with and I am hooked:

Week Days tags

Speech Bubble Bright Tags

So here's the good part: Shabby Chic Crafts is giving away a pack of tags to three of my readers who leave a comment here today. On Thursday, I'll pick three winners who will each get to choose a pack of labels from the huge selection at Shabby Chic - check all the cute designs out here! 

[Edited to Add:  Comments will stay open until 2:00 pm MST on Thursday.  Three names will be randomly drawn and posted around 3:00 that same day.]

And have a great Wednesday, alrighty?!?

For My Dad (just a day late)

Blogger note:  There wasn't much time for computer-related activities this weekend (and that's a GOOD thing!) so please forgive me for using today to wish my dad a Happy Father's Day.  Don't worry, I called him yesterday and got his gift mailed on time, but I also wanted this post to be part of his father's day gift, too.)

After my Opa passed away last month, our family gathered one weekend at Oma and Opa's house to begin sorting though their belongings and prepare the house to be put up for sale.  My Oma, being the consummate organizer, had left detailed lists of items that each child and grandchild should recieve. During her life, she had carefully noted which things each of us had particularly liked, or knew the history of, or just had an attachment to, and she took extreme care that we would each receive those items.

I guess this task prompted my own dad to start thinking of his own belongings and what he would leave to my brother and me. Over the next few days, he said several times that he knew exactly which things of his that Josh would want.  But he couldn't think of anything of his that I would want. I have a few things of my Dad's already that distinctly remind me of him:  a worn leather belt with a tarnished western buckle that I love to wear; an old utility shirt from his Air Force days that I wear as a jacket.  And honestly, when I think of my dad, I don't think of his things.  I think of his personality, his sense of humor, his laid-back attitude, and probably most importantly, the life-lessons he's taught me.  And I wanted to document just a few of those lessons...because they are so much more precious than any tangible thing he could leave to me:

All supplies from Studio Calico June kit, Soda Fountain & add on, Cherry Pop.

Happy Father's Day, Dad.  I love you!

Etsy Eyecandy

So I'm sort of on a spending lock-down these days.  This is due in part to a very expensive trip to Disney.  Egads. Who knew you could charge $7 for a small box of popcorn?  And $9 for a corndog?  And a whopping $28 for a kid's tee shirt? I guess if you're gonna pay your CEO a salary of $27.7 million, you gotta generate funds, huh?

I might have also gone on a bit of a spending spree at J Crew and Anthro just before the trip.  But there were sales!  Big sales!  And I saved so much with all my spending!  (yeah, that logic didn't fly with my irritated hubby, either.)

At any rate, I'm attempting to show some restraint in the retail shopping arena these days. But that doesn't mean I can't window shop...and tempt you all with some of the stuff in my favorites list on Etsy.  So if I magically found a money tree (I'm pretty sure they grow at Disney), here's what I'd purchase!  (Clicking on the photos will link you to the Etsy store that sells the item!)

Butterfly necklace by cardinalhouse.  And you can choose from several colors for the butterfly - so pretty!  (This would be the perfect accessory for some of the Anthro shirts I got- did i mention they were ON SALE?!?!)

There are some really cool original screen prints at stevester that you should check out...but this horse is my fave!

The art at William Dohman is fabulous, and this 8 x 8 print is perfect for the family photographer (or scrapbooker, or anyone's who proves themselves able to stick to a budget.  HEY that sounds kind of like ME!)

I am in love with the print on this adorable little sundress by Shelly Murphy Apparel.  And I just so happen to know a little girly that would look incredibly cute in it!

Shiny.  Silver.  Stars.  Um,  I think I really NEED this necklace by SoulPeaces.  It can be engraved with any custom words you desire.   Maybe they could engrave "Your Husband Said to Stop Spending Money" on mine. :)

So there you have it.  Now go forth and shop Esty!  And enjoy your Thursday, ok?  With any luck, I will getting some scrapping done to share with you tomorrow.  I also have two kiddos very interested in seeing the movie UP, so that's on the schedule for the afternoon as well. Yet another venue where I will pay an exhorbitant amount for about 10¢ worth of popcorn.  Maybe I should look into a popcorn cart to supplement my income this summer?!?

Home Again.

We're home and spending the next few days sliding back into a summer routine.  Our Disney trip was wonderful - jam packed with coasters, carousels, characters, and of course, cotton candy.  The few melt downs (by both mama and kiddos) were countered by plenty of magic moments.  All in all, it was a great vacation.  I've got lots of photos to edit, but here's a quick run through of some of my favorites:

Disney entrance (actually taken on our last day at the park)

With Tigger, one of the many icons we got to meet.

Meeting Aurora after an eternal 90 minute-wait.  I think I was more ecstatic than R to meet her - I got all teary-eyed!  (geesh!)

Posing with Mater and Lighting at California Adventure.

One of several rides on King Arthur's Carousel.

The Coaster Cam's shot of Hayden and me on California Screamin'.  (Despite the expression in the photo, he really did have fun!)

Enjoying the best cotton candy on earth.  Seriously.

A serendipitous meeting with Mickey during our last few hours at the park...and even though I had no time to adjust my camera settings for the dark room, getting this (imperfect) shot was the ideal ending to our visit.

So today I'm catching up on emails, finishing up some work projects, and after a trip to the pool, hope to dive into several scrappy boxes I got while we were away:  A big delivery of colorful KI goodness, my July JBS kit, and the Soda Fountain kit from Studio Calico.  Life is good!

A Final Gesture of Goodwill.

Can you even believe I scheduled THREE posts during my absence?!?  Me either.  I amaze even myself with my organizational and time management skills at times. (Really, I'm just all hopped up on Emergen-C and can't sleep, thus the posts.) And if you happen to work for Emergen-C and want to send me a lifetime supply, I'll gladly sing its praises to my loyal audience of eight!

So it's Saturday...the last day of my vacation.  We'll be headed back to the Rocky Mountains this evening, bidding a fond farewell to the magic that is Disney.  And I'm trying to think of a suitable segue into this post topic, but it's not forthcoming.  Hmmm...maybe I shouldn't have added that vodka to the Emergen-C. At any rate, I'll just be awkward and jolting and tell you:  Here are the last few pages I managed to produce from last month's Studio Calico kit, Playground.  And, gosh I'm good with words!

I'm hoping that by the time I arrive home, my newest SC kit, Soda Fountain will be waiting.  I'll check in with y'all on Monday - until then, have a wonderful weekend!!

Design Redeaux

Well, looky here.  Another post scheduled during my va-cay.  I'm totally racking up the "considerate blogger" points here, right?!?   Awww yeah.  And I get to act all Cajun and use the  fancy "eaux" ending in my post title.  Or is that French?  Well, at any rate, it looks dang cool, dontcha think??

So for awhile now, I've had this page in my scrapbook.  And it's been bugging the crap out of me.  Like design-wise, something is really OFF.  And normally, I'm not a big proponent of re-doing pages, because, well, there will always be new photos to scrap, and why waste your time?  Move on, already!  But in this case, I made an exception.  Partly because I'm just a tad OCD and couldn't let it go.  And partly because I thought I might make an interesting blog post.  (Again with the considerate blogger schtick!)

So here's my original page:

I guess my problem with this page is that I originally created it just to use that fancy little damask design stamp thingy that you see in the upper left hand corner.  It's a Heidi Swapp stamp that had been in my stash for awhile and I kept seeing other people use it in such cool ways.  So I said to myself, "Self, you should use that stamp, too!  And make a cool page!" Then, as often happens, I got too involved in talking to myself and got off on a tangent about how maybe I should have gone to law school, and was orange really a good color on me, and where did I leave my cell phone, anyway?!?  And the design kind of fell apart from there.

But hey! I used the stamp!  And apparently slapped the rest of the stuff on there in a drunken fury.  Not really, but it does look a bit, er, haphazard.  Or sloppy.  Or maybe sloppily haphazard?  And the background colors do nothing for the photos.  Everything gets lost in that sea of carmine red.  Oh jeez, can we just say it:  IT SUCKS DONKEYS.  Yes, yes it does.

So I started over.  Luckily, I had used El Crapola Adhesive (aka this stuff - there's a reason it's cheap!) that doesn't really secure anything to your page, so the photos and journaling strips came off easily.  I would reuse those on the Design Redeaux - recycling, people!  And instead of being creatively driven by product usage (i.e. the damask stamp), I decided to let the photos dictate which product they wanted to accompany.  They needed a paper that was more in harmony with their warm hues; something that echoed their rustic, yet colorful selves.  Which in this case, turned out to be the Studio Calico Bibliography kit:

patterned paper (Studio Calico); chipboard buttons (Scenic Route); letter stickers (October Afternoon)
baker's twine (Studio Calico); copper brads & eyelets; font (Type-Ra); pen (American Crafts)

You see how some of the blacks and reds and blues in the photos are highlighted (yet not overshadowed) with this patterned paper?  And how by re-arranging the photos to be positioned straight (but still staggered) lends a more pleasing flow to the page? And by stacking the journal strips vertically makes for easier reading?  And how the smaller, less contrasting title is still a focal point, without screaming "LOOK AT ME!!"  You see it, right?  This is a better design, no?  Well, at any rate, it's not bugging me anymore.  Which leaves me plenty of time to obsess over other things.  Like wouldn't it be cool to see The Cure at Red Rocks?  And it's really not too late to get my masters in Art History.  And OOOH!  I really need this bracelet as a summer accessory!  Um, what did you just say about ADHD?  Are you talking to moi?!?