They're real and they're FABULOUS

So I mentioned that my boss brought me flowers... (I work in the twilight zone, things like this happen there.)

Here is what they look like... Dahlias from her garden. Dahlias that aren't hardy in our zone and have to dug up and stored in cedar chips through the winter. Now that is love.

Don't you love the harsh contrast of this beautiful arrangement against the ugly monotony of my office?!

happy...sad...scared

Tonight I had a bit of time to devote to the "You Think You Know Me" project. The beauty of this small book is that a little will go a long way. Very nice to not have to devote an entire evening or more to a layout!

My "Happy" page is here. I may do a few more happy pages though. But for starters, I did the page about my husband and me. We have something pretty special and it makes me all kinds of happy.

I am wrapping my brain around "Sad". I added a few quotes about sorrow that struck a cord with me. That is all for tonight though... maybe I'll tackle sad tomorrow.

It might be skipping ahead, but I loved this picture of me being "eaten" by the alligator, so I did the "Scared" page. And really, I'm not genuinely scared in the photo... but that would be a pretty horrific scenario if it was real. (Luckily, I guess, not many scared-looking pics of me in my collection.)

Since the book is bound with a binder ring, I can pretty much add whatever I want to the book in any shape or size. So, as I was rummaging through some memorabilia tonight, I came across these quotes that I saved from past issues of O, the Oprah magazine. I knew I had saved all these quotes for a reason!

How about that 75? It's from a valet hang-tag I scavenged from my brother's car! And can you see through to the other side of the Pomegranate Starbucks card? It's a joker! haha!! (Ok, maybe that doesn't mean anything, but I think one side is pretty and the joker is hilarious.)

And here is a tidbit from my day... my boss brought me flowers from her garden. I have no idea how she still has Dahlias surviving the chill, but she does and they are SPECTACULAR. I put my camera in my to-go bag for tomorrow. I gave them fresh water at the end of the day today, so I hope they are still in good shape for a photo.

you think you know me...

Alrighty! I started my assignments for the class "You think you know me". Here is a pic of what I have so far.

Front cover, back cover, a few details inside, and a binder ring. Hopefully tomorrow I will have time to work on some of the inside pages. For now... tata!

sleepy... re-engergized

Weekend of scrapping... drank a lot of coffee, stayed up late. Had tons of fun.

Last night: paid for it.

After dinner, I told John to wake me up in 20 mins. He did. I kept sleeping... and sleeping. Got nothing done.

I did get a start on the cover for the book I'm doing for Shimelle's class though. Paint had to dry, so I will finish it tonight when I am back in my crafting game.

And here is a tidbit that re-emphasizes the need to get up and go to HEAT (High Energy Athletic Training) class every Tuesday and Thursday:

Aerobic exercise beats gentler 10,000 steps in health study - CNN.com

whack-a-mole!

You want the bad news first? Remember those bulbs I spent so much time planting this week? The bulbs I was so excited about? The bulbs I ordered last spring for mucho dinero? The bulbs I have awaited all summer? The bulbs for which I risked giant mosquito bites on my a$$?!

Well, the rodent that lives under our front porch decided to check out what I've been up to. When I went from the garage to the front porch to retrieve a package, the scene in the photo at right is what greeted me. That punk rodent, whatever it is (skunk, possum, raccoon), dug up 2 of my hyacinth bulbs! The only good news here is that it looks like he nibbled at them a bit but didn't like them. That was was goal of the chemical I treated all the bulbs with. My friend Jenny has recommended hot pepper wax on the ground where I've planted... but I can't find any!

So when I saw this, I text messaged my husband, "Rodent under the porch must die! I am going to home depot." I got some rodent repellent that has some kind of wax to it... but it's not a spray. We'll see if this works. I also got some smoke bombs. I figured at the very least, the smoke bombs would be entertaining. John read the packaging, "do not use under or around buildings". I said, "I don't care... bomb him." Um, yeah... all those symptoms they say you'll experience if you set that thing off under your house... they aren't kidding. We were watching a movie and I stood up and felt a little woozy. John said his throat was feeling weird and his eyes were burning. LOL. We are SO SMART. (We had the windows open and it has cleared out now. I'm sure we'll be fine.) You know what the genius part of this is?? The darn rodent wasn't even in there!!

So you know what the good news is today? The package on my front porch was this month's Scrapologie kit, Signet and Scribe. It's pretty darn cool. I can't wait to start scrappin' with it. (Just as soon as the stink bomb scent clears from the basement.)

And the movie we watched tonight? Scrapped. Yes, John even watched it! I ordered my own copy of it... it arrived in the mail today. You have to at least check out the promos. They are HILARIOUS. I expected the whole movie to be as much comedy as the promos, but it really wasn't. It's a docu-drama by a guy who knows nothing about scrapbooking. Which is a brilliant way to introduce it. He interviews all kinds of scrappers and starts his own scrapbook. The movie is actually really touching. And it applies to anyone who has a LIFE... not just scrappers!

It has been an eventful evening... I'm pooped. Just need to work on a scrap project for a bit and then I am off to bed. N-night.

thinking about scrapping...

My creativity is not in top shape this week. I did a bit of scrapping over the weekend, but mainly small layouts just for myself. Last week I finished a project for my mom. The article about the project is posted on Crafty Places.

Since my creativity is blah and the weather is so nice... I have directed my attention to planting some spring bulbs. Last spring I was so enamored with the Breck's catalog that I caved and placed a fairly large order. Now mind you, I have a lot of landscaped beds around the house... but they are FULL of plants. I really didn't NEED any more spring bulbs... I just WANTED them.

We are pretty lucky in our landscaping. Most of the plants are self-sufficient perennials. And everything is color coordinated. Mostly we have white and purple... with a little bit of pink mixed in. There is always something in bloom. It's fantastic... exactly what I would have wanted (and I would have had no idea where to start on my own). So now in addition to the daffodils that we already have, I have planted the following

• Really foofy frilly tulips - "Super Bowl" and "Blue Heron"
  
• English Iris mix
  
• Purple and white giant hyacinths - "Blue Jacket" and "Carnegie"
  
• A mix of grape hyacinths and white tulips - the "winter blues collection" (YUM)
  
• Lavender Mountain Lilies
  
• Mountain Bells mix

So that will certainly help to get me through the winter. I absolutely love spring... the earth wakes up from hybernating and comes ALIVE. Don't get me wrong... summer is my absolute favorite season. But spring is the host of the show who introduces the main act. And if we need a few cold days so the bulbs know when to bloom, then I guess I will get through it. (Really, winter is just a good excuse to stay inside and scrapbook to me!)

So I guess that brings this post full circle. I am regenerating my creativity like that winter freeze... I signed up for an online class to explore my creativity. If you want to check it out... it's called You Think You Know Me and it's hosted by Shimelle. $15 for a scrapbooking class is actually a great price, I think. But I'll keep you posted on how the process goes... and if it gives me some good inspiration.

I also wrote down some journal prompts from the Scrap Girls newsletter today. Here is one I have done for myself already: List 10 things you enjoyed as a child. The prompt continues to ask "Why did you give them up?" I haven't thought through that much yet. But maybe I will post my answers in a future post and let you know why I don't play with my Strawberry Shortcake dolls any more!

How about you? What did you enjoy as a kid?

NerdTests.com Fun Tests - Nerd Quiz

NerdTests.com Fun Tests - Nerd Quiz

weekend wrap-up

something is going on here...
Originally uploaded by brungrrl.

Friday: made kick-ass stir fry and a key lime pie

Saturday: returned some library books, browsed a church yard sale and got a cafe mocha at that starbucky place. Nothing at the church sale - NOTHING.

Did some yard work and cleaned my car a bit.

Got all dolled up and went to Becka & Jari's wedding. Had a TON of fun!
Took loads of pictures. A representative sample is here.

Sunday: Went to church, then Bob Evans w/the girls, planted some bulbs for spring. Painted my toenails. Lounged around an uploaded some photos.

How is that for deep thoughts?! What a beautiful weekend... I miss it already. Have a great week everyone!

love & prayers

I got this as a forwarded email... since I'm not much for forwarding... here it is. Good solid advice/inspiration to share...

St. Theresa's Prayer:

May today there be peace within. May you trust God that you a re exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.. May you be content knowing you are a child of God.... Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us.

... and a photo of the lovely Mr. & Mrs Jari. :-)

dark & twisty

doppler 4
Originally uploaded by brungrrl.

New meaning for dark & twisty... it's storming like crazy here. As I type this, a storm is coming our way. It was mid-80s here today - gorgeous day. I drove with the windows down at lunch.

NOW, I am at home and the windows are open. A storm had just gone through when I got home and it was cooling off. Now, the sounds outside are the crickets chirping and cars going by. The sky is getting darker and darker.

Look at the pictures they are showing on tv on the radar! Aaaahh! The pink is hail. The tv people are freaking out. They sent the weather guy down 71 into the worst of the storm - poor guy! Apparently there is some swirling in the clouds where the pink is. That has set off tornado warnings for the whole area.

Okie dokie... gotta go get ready to close windows and help the husband with dinner.

out.

Canaan Valley West Virginia

Here he comes....
Originally uploaded by pwhyte.

Hiking at Canaan Valley was amazing. The rain, the color, the light... sooo much atmosphere on this hike. Just look at this picture... I couldn't stage this if I wanted to. Raindrops on every branch, a rich red carpet of leaves, filtered light.

We are definitely going back. I want to see this place in snow and in spring... and certainly again in the fall. I could spend hours and hours looking around, just watching the forest LIVE.

scrap your walls!

Aaah, speaking of fall... it is thunderstorming like crazy right now! The back door is open, it feels wonderful! Not really much like fall though... Love thunder and lightning!

In scrapbooking news... I have another article posted on Crafty Places this week. Check out Scrap Your Walls: Love Always. Bill and Theresa and Bailey were this week's victims in my article. Muhaha! I am liking the weekly articles... forcing me to be creative. I want to be able to share more about what I do and how I do... I feel like I have mountains to learn, but I do know a few things that I can share already.

My husband was so sweet today. I asked him for a critique on the article since my mom is on vacation. I figured I'd get the usual: yes. no. that's nice. whatever. But he responded with a very SWEET email saying that the article was awesome and I really do have artist blood in me and it's so great that I'm passionate about scrapbooking. Awww... I love that guy.

And maybe I'm a praise junkie. So what. tee hee :-P

adventures in plumbing

Last Friday I visited my brother and sister-in-law. Friday night we had dinner at South Market Bistro. There is no such thing as a national spinach crisis here. Their food is purchased from local organic farms and prepared fresh. The menu is mouth-watering... and so much thought put into every dish. It was an experience. If I could have fit the place in my pocket (or at least in my ginormous trunk) to bring it home, I would have! (Especially the warm blueberry crisp with vanilla ice cream.)

On Saturday we went to the dump to get rid of the guts of their kitchen. They are in the midst of a complete kitchen remodel. Of course, the dump is like a smorgasbord to me. My brother practically had to hold me back to keep me from rummaging around. I did manage to scavenge a few of his drawers and cabinet doors that I am sure you will soon be seeing here as craft projects.

Then we did a lot of shopping. Lowe's, Lincoln Interiors (another mouth-watering place), JoAnn, thrift store (more rummaging!), and of course Custom Cut-ups. It was about 4 in the afternoon by the time I really got around to being helpful.

My brother had to re-work the plumbing going into his kitchen... so I learned how to sweat pipes! I could sooo be a plumber's assistant. I'm really good at holding things. (Seriously - these were HOT pipes... and sometimes I had to use muscle. Geesh.)

They're fun people... I'm glad we got to spend a completely random Friday and Saturday together.

bringing in fall

bringing in fall
Originally uploaded by brungrrl.

Fall was in the air this past week, wasn't it? The air is cooler and it moves more... the trees are starting to show the colors they've been fantasizing about all summer... things are changing!

I'm not a big fall person. Mainly because I'm not much of a winter person. And since fall ushers in winter, I really have no use for it. I shouldn't complain too much though, because each season really does have redeeming qualities. And as I learned in Phoenix, those long cold winters are THE reason we have such spectacular spring and summer. So I'll suck it up and deal for a few months so long as we have that.

My mums are not in such great shape this year. Not sure who was in charge of shaping and pruning them. But I did find a few to snip and put in this little flower frog vase. Mums are great in vases... I need to get to Trader Joe's for some more when these run out.

Happy autumn!

I'm "published".

A few weeks back, right after the Last Scrapper Standing, but completely unrelated to that contest... I found some of my flickr artwork on a site called Crafty Places. This was the article someone had written about my work.

So I ended up exchanging a few emails with the gal who runs the site and she asked me to be on her design team. It's a pretty new web site, so there is the opportunity to grow as it grows. And the requirements were not too bad... a handful of entries per month. I also have the freedom to craft what I want and write what I want. So that is pretty nice. I'm still working on my ability to craft-on-command. :-)

Last week I submitted my first two articles. The first is an anniversary card I made for a friend. I really did make it in a hurry. But I wasn't in such a hurry that I couldn't photograph it. (There is always time for a photograph - especially when the light is good!) Cards are a fairly new subset of scrappin' for me. I got into them when I went to a rubber stamping convention with my sister-in-law back in April.

Which leads me to my second article... a scrapbook layout about Jen. When she was at our house for an all-day crop, we both answered quiz questions from a magazine we got at the crop. I kept her answers to make a page about her and she took mine. Since I had it fresh in my mind, I went ahead and used this as my article submission. I love this idea of capturing quiz answers in family members' own words. It really adds heritage value to your albums. I can just picture our future children reading about their Aunt Jen!

Fisher-Price unveils T.M.X. Elmo - Yahoo! News

Fisher-Price unveils T.M.X. Elmo - Yahoo! News

Oh my... this has potential to CRACK ME UP. I mean the original was funny, but now knee-slapping and rolling over, pounding his arm. lol.

I can just laugh thinking about it. Go ahead, act like you don't think it's funny. I can give you my friend Jari's number if you want reminded of how funny Elmo is. :-)

photography weekend

a llama tending his wool
Originally uploaded by brungrrl.

It was a total photography weekend. It seems like I haven't had one of those in a while. I have been snapping on the weekends until the battery dies, the card is full, or I get bored... and not really ending up with anything great or special.

But this weekend rocked! I got to do "still life" and people pics at the wool gathering. And more people portaits & candids at my house on Sunday. Portaits and candid people shots are not my best works. I'm much better with nature and inanimate objects, usually. And I'm not sure that I learned anything new about pictures or the camera... but more photos is more photos, right?!

The wool gathering pics were sort of a challenge because of the tinted light in the tents. One tent had a red and white striped roof and the other was yellow stripes. EEeeek! And you know I couldn't just leave them, right? I played with some adjustments in iPhoto... usually that is enough to tweak photos into shape, but I didn't have enough control over the color there. So I brought them into Photoshop Elements and used their automated tools. The Auto Color Correction did the trick. It was actually pretty amazing how it figured out what the right color was. The pictures of just yarn were the hardest because it's so hard to remember what the CORRECT color was. And after you play with it for a while... everything starts looking off and you have no idea from memory what the real colors were. (And I have pretty good color memory, mind you.) Also, probably a good thing I edited the pictures as soon as I got home, or they could have ended up REALLY crazy-looking!

When John saw this photo, he wanted to know why I didn't buy the toy llama... because it's so cute. He was also totally ok with my threats to bring home an angora rabbit. He's an odd one, my husband. :-)

cornhole

the toss
Originally uploaded by brungrrl.

We had the gang over for grilled burgers, hot dogs, punch bowl dessert, and cornhole today. The weather was again gorgeous. Justin played his trumpet for us... so did Jari. Sarah and Jeremy later played beautiful music on blades of grass. I'm sure the neighbors were QUITE confused.

a wool gathering

finely knitted yarns
Originally uploaded by brungrrl.

Today I went with my friend Ellen, her mom, sister, and neice to a wool gathering in Yellow Springs. I resisted the urge to take up knitting... I have plenty of other hobbies, that's for sure!

But I did take plenty of photos. the wool is just gorgeous... alpaca, mohair, silk, wool, cashmere, angora. And in every color and combination of colors imaginable. Mixed in with ribbon and beads. Yum! It's inspiration for scrapbooking and sewing to an extent. I did find some very cool buttons and even a few ceramic pieces to use on a scrapbook page.

It's a friends-filled weekend. I had dinner last night with Jenny and Becka while the rest of the gang was entertaining Jari at his bachelor outing. John didn't get to go because his flight back from DC was all messed up. I picked him up at the airport in DAYTON late last night.

Tonight we celebrated Allison's birthday at dinner w/her, Sarah, Amy, Andrew, and Jeremy. And we have plans for a get-together tomorrow to play some cornhole and cook out. It's a beautiful weekend... so glad for this weather.

remember

September 11. A day for remembering.
Remembering hurts.

The stories and the pictures still make me cry. Big sobbing, get-a-paper-towel, cries. Tonight on the news they walked through the airplane hangar where they have saved much of the debris from the World Trade Center. There is a large "blob" of metal. Not sure how wide, but it was just over the reporter's head in height. It is 4 stories of the building where it got the hottest. It burned as hot as the Earth's core. Paper was instantly carbonized (you can still read the words on it). And surely there were people on those four floors. And this blob of metal is their grave.

Wouldn't it be nice if some of my tears could help alleviate the pain of folks who lost loved ones that day? I wish it could be that way.

It's amazing who I look like!

It's amazing who I look like!
Originally uploaded by brungrrl.

This is HILARIOUS to me! I'm either a Columbian bikini model, funny girl Goldie Hawn, or the oh-so French Audrey Tatou. OR... I could be princess Leia!! Natalie Imbruglia... whutever. Have you heard me sing?

Ok... find out who you look like and report back. :-)

photo contest

city of Detroit as seen from Windsor
Originally uploaded by brungrrl.

It's time to submit 2 photos to my company's photo contest. Every year they produce a 52-week calendar that is distributed to everyone in the company (and to the employees of the company that publishes it... just because they like it so much!)

Well, you all know how important photography is to me... not just for scrapbooking, but as a hobby in itself. So getting in the calendar is an annual goal of mine!

The only words I have to go by are to look at last year's calendar. They say, "Many of the photos have a very obvious center of interest or activity. Look for photos in your collection that are a little different and unique." Location seems important... world places. Some past favorites are a pig on the beach in Costa Rica and of course sunsets, mountains, people, and architecture are popular also.

I emailed the group to my family and friends already to solicit some feedback. I asked everyone to choose 2 photos. Right now, the photo of the Detroit skyline (pictured here) is in the lead with 6 votes. The next closest is the Poison Dart Frog bunny with 3 votes. So if you haven't voted yet... click here see the whole set and let me know what you like.

Entries are due by Friday, September 15. I should know by November if I made it or not. THANKS! :-)

what's next

lastScrapperStanding all
Originally uploaded by brungrrl.

Last Scrapper Standing was fun. It pretty much consumed all of August though! Poor John had to take over on laundry, housekeeping, and making meals. In the end, I didn't win, but I do have a beautiful bunch of scrapbook pages to show for the effort!

I spent the long weekend in WV with the fam. We ate good food, took some photos, sat on the porch, chased goldie at the pond, drove the tractor, and played Rook. It was relaxing and rejuvenating. Just what I needed to re-group and get my mind around everything I need to do this month.

September is the calm before the storm. We have a TON going on in October this year. So I am spending this month catching up on stuff around the house and hopefully getting a few Christmas projects out of the way in advance.

So that's pretty much my life in a nutshell. Now... I wonder how my girls in SCOTLAND are doing?! Did you get there? All is going well?

tick tock tick tock

lastScrapperStanding 4
Originally uploaded by brungrrl.

Last night I finally got some veg-out time. I watched Project Runway for the first time ever. Normally, it'd be something totally up my alley. But lately I feel a bit removed from fashion. Probably because my cute clothes don't fit any more. Bah! But the effers and all the scrappers on 2 peas are talking about it, so I checked it out.

Heck, I feel removed from popular tv, too. We watch King of Queens during dinner and then it's off to scrappin' for me. Lost and Grey's Anatomy will be starting soon! I'm psyched!

As for all the scrappin... the month of August has been such a journey. Last Scrapper Standing has ruled our household. It has given me an opportunity to show off my skills and build some new skills. Having a challenge where you compete against the others forces you to stretch what you would normally do. I have tricks that I remix from time to time for challenges that arise in my general scrappin... but those weren't going to be nearly artistic enough for the competition.

For the final round, I spent about 10 hours on my layout. Probably more than that considering that I sat on the design for about a day and a half to make sure I had really worked through all the issues. That helped so much. Because when I actually put it to paper, it worked. The little cars and the ferris wheel were the right scale and didn't hang off the edge too much. And all put together, it really looked like a ferris wheel.

Only a couple things really perplexed me. When I first put the ferris wheel together, it looked flat. It didn't have much depth. I could have stacked a piece of cardboard or 2 to get the look, but I think it should have been handled with color. Something about the colors needed to be different to make the wheel pop from the base. Not sure. I'd be open to suggestions on that. (Like shadows in chalk on the background or a heavier black line on one edge?)

The other design flaw was the amount of empty space in the middle. It feels like something is missing. And maybe this goes back to the lack of depth. Maybe I should have added some flashing lights to the spokes. That'd draw the eye to the center. :-)

And John is so cute in his support of this. He joined me on the big comfy chair last night to look through all the entries one by one to see what the competition looked like.

Between Last Scrapper Standing and the 3 crops I've been to since April, I have gotten mad scrapping done this summer. And usually summer is a slow time for that hobby. For now, at least, the creativity is flowing and it feels good!

Ok... well wish me luck on the challenge. Can't wait til they post the results. :-)

so.tired.

I am so tired. My entry for the final round of last scrapper standing is completed and I am exhausted. John seems to think it's a winner... but then, he did have some input on this one... so what does he know?

Tomorrow I will post it for all the world to see... and judge. Yikes!

Judging scrapping... that's like an oxymoron, isn't it? Like having an opinion that's wrong. Well, let me just say this month has been some of my finest scrapping ever, so whatever happens this challenge has ruled! And I can't wait to apply my new scrappin' fever to other projects. Stay tuned...

N-night.

about dare 3.5...

Well it has been a whirlwind since Thursday night, I tell you. I got home from a debacle of a FORK outing and all I could think about was sleep. I had spent the previous evenings readying dare 3 and working hard at work... so I was pooped. I sat down with my laptop thinking I'd just catch up for a few minutes before bed... and not worry about the dare until Friday when it was announced (if I even made it... the competition is getting fierce).

Well, wouldn't you know... they threw us a curveball. Dare 3.5 to weed out a few more people. And this one had a tighter time constraint. It was announced late Thursday evening and due Saturday by midnight. Eeek! I had an ALL DAY crop to attend at Red Letter Journals on Saturday! So this meant I had to post by Saturday morning before we left. So I got my pen and my think-journal and started coming up with a concept.

The challenge was to use a wet medium. I'd used paints before in my scrapbook pages. I could immediately think of a few predictable ways to use paint. But what would help me stand out? I have very limited abilities when it comes to wielding a paint brush. So I thought, keep it simple. But whatever I paint, it needs to make an impact on the page.

My answer to dare 3.5 is posted on Two Peas in a Bucket. I've had that piece of glass for a while. My grandma had given it to me to use for x-acto cutting, but I had a self-healing mat, so I didn't need it. And I had never considered using it for any project. but this could work. It wasn't big enough for me to be elaborate. I was keeping it simple this time. The glass was a bit blueish tinted, so that led me to this photo. I've been wanting to work with this photo for a while. It's one of my favorites from this year. And the quote I had seen at Hobby Lobby and had written it down just that week. Everything just fell into place for this one.

So this morning, the effer gals announced the next challenge to allow us time to get going on it. This afternoon they posted the list of folks moving on. I get so nervous checking the list each time!! My name was there. Let me look again. . . yep, still there. 1 of 27 remaining out of the 480 who started this contest. I've created 4 beautiful scrappin' works of art and learned so much along the way.

So I am off to brainstorm 10 patterned papers on one layout. Wish me luck.

curveball?!

Good news: I made it. 40 of 89 moved on. (Started with 480!)

On to the final round(s) . . .


Oh lordy.
Bad news: There is a challenge #3.5. Must use a wet medium. Well this is gonna get me right at my inner artist, eh?

Worse news: It's due SATURDAY by midnight!!

last scrapper standing 3 :: my favorite things

My entry is ready! It was actually ready last night. Overachiever, huh?!

Not really... I knew tonight was visit-with- baby- Reagan night, so I worked until it was a masterpiece last night.

My mind may not be processing this challenge thing right. Every week I think BIGGER, rather than more creative. It is still creative, it's just very time consuming when you can't say no to all the ideas that flood your mind. And you know what sucks? When you get it done and the PERFECT smaller design of the same info (if not more) pops into your head. Hello?! Where was that idea 5 days ago?! Next time...

So this is about My Favorite Things. Ironically enough, things that happen to be round. The cover shows a pair of earrings, my camera lens, and the emblem from my car. (Obviously, these were the random items that didn't fit in the categories designated for the book. Sometimes the creativity defines itself!)

The book is not really an accordian book, but it does fold out into multiple pages. I considered that 8 pages could be done on 4, front and back. But that wasn't how I wanted it to look. I was actually aiming for miles and miles of circular pages. :-)

And the backs are blank. Which could be a problem, but I really see it as an opportunity for more scrappin'. I can think of some parallel or future themes along the same lines to fill up the back. And of course, I'd stick with the same rules: all circles, no straight lines!

Wish me luck. I now have 24+ hours of anticipation and nail biting...

who rocks the scraps?!

lastScrapperStanding2
Originally uploaded by brungrrl.

Yahoooooo!!!

I made the cut this week on Last Scrapper Standing!

This is such the thrill. My goal was to just make it past round one. Well I accomplished that. But wouldn't you know, once I had a taste of it, I really wanted to make it to week 3! Well now I have. We are down to about 89 people from about 400. Looks like I'm top 25%. Go me.

Next week's challenge... circles!

I'll let you know how it goes.

Crashing Internet Explorer

Well.... on a technical note... it seems that my blog crashes Internet Explorer. Uhhh.... I don't know what to do. Just one more reason to use Firefox, I guess. :-)

last scrapper standing #2: Life is a Gift

Whew! Entry submitted just under the wire. The challenge this week was 13 photos on one layout.

I posted it on Two Peas... have a look. This one also took two evenings to complete. I got some good inspiration from all kinds of folks. Funny when you tell people what the next challenge is, they immediately say "hmm", and their eyes roll to the left as their right brain starts churning up ideas. But I was sure glad to have the help on this one... there are just too many directions to go with many photos on a page.

Also, you can click on the link at right to see the other photos of the layout. C'mon, you know you are dying to unwind that string and see what's inside!

life is a gift

I have a book titled Glimpses of Grace. It is by Madeleine L'Engle. She wrote the much famous children's novel A Wrinkle in Time that I read when I was probably 11 years old. That book was a life-changer for me. It was when I realized a lot of things about life... like that God is everywhere... really everywhere. That he is in science and relationships with other people and in your heartache and your joy. I went on to read more of Madeleine L'Engle's books. Each one was powerful and inspirational to me.

So when I discovered Glimpses of Grace as an adult, I was THRILLED. It's excerpts from both her books for both children and adults that serve as meditations on God and life in general. The book is organized as a reading for each day. It takes 5 minutes to read an entry. But it makes you think and fuels your day.

Today's entry is a father talking to his daughter. He tells her to love life. He says, "You can love it even when you're in anguish." There is something that most people would be afraid to say to each other in the midst of a crisis. But it's true. If you don't love life when it is the worst, how can you appreciate the best of the best times? It's hard to digest when we are in the deepest throws of sorrow and pain that it is something that is good for us. It's hard to understand that the worst heartache you can imagine serves any purpose that is good. But you have to love life and keep faith that there is a reason.

These words were reinforced at church today when our pastor talked about the origins of the hymn "It is well with my soul". The author had lost all his possessions in the Chicago Fire and his 4 daughters had died crossing the Atlantic. But upon feeling the weight of the anguish caused by these events... he wrote a song about eternal hope. He was loving life even in anguish.

Last Scrapper Standing - Dare #1

Dare #1... here is the gist of it:

Journaling. You must create a layout that has all of your journaling on top of your photo. All of it. And it has to be a decent chunk of story...not just a sentence. We want to see you creatively include a sizable story on your photo (or photos). You may add a title, embellishments and whatever you like to the rest of your page, but all the journaling MUST be on your photo.

Refer to the Effer Dares blog for more info.

JOHN: 1+1=us

Shwew. I did it. Only two evenings on this. (Not full evenings, mind you... but my brain did need to rest on the ideas from evening one before pulling it all together.) Don't laugh... I'm slow. It'll get better with practice.

This was not the photo I wanted to use for this dare... but it was among the photos I wanted to scrap, so it's good to have. And the dare provided plenty of inspiration. I'm pleased with how it turned out.

Here is list of stuff included on the page:

• Paper from Urban Lily
• Paper from KI Memories
• Bazzill cardstock
• Tab from ScrapWorks
• Stamp from Verses Rubber Stamps
• Rub-ons from EK Success
• Rub-ons from Making Memories
• "Us" sticker from American Crafts
• Zig Vellum Writer in black
• Zig Opaque Writer in white
• Flash cards: vintage school supplies!

There is journaling on the photo. If you don't have a vellum writer and an opaque writer pen, you gotta get them. They ROCK for scrapping. They come in all colors, but a good army of black and white should go a long way. Writing on photos was already my new favorite scrapping technique, so I was really excited that it was the first dare! The journaling reads:

"Since we've been married... I've discovered... You measure in whole inches and ticks. You like lima beans but not peas. You were into model rockets as a kid... and you still are. You cook, clean, AND do laundry. Your love for me never waivers --> (Even when I'm a punk!)"

The tab was a "because it's cute" purchase a few weeks back at a local scrapbook store that is going out of business. (It was also on sale... but look how well it matches... how could I resist?!)

There is also journaling underneath the photo. The hidden words are more personal... so it makes sense that you have to work to get to them. This journaling is on orange cardstock that I distressed. Another favorite technique of mine. Basically... I get to beat the crap out of a piece of perfectly good paper. (Theresa and Jen would so cringe over this.) The inside reads

"We have been married for one year. At times, it seems like WE have always been. Other times it seems like we have so far to go together. Coming home to you is like coming HOME. Our live & relationship fills me with joy and contentment I would never have dreamed possible."

Add some rub-ons, doodle a border, it's good to go. Gluestick it and go. :-)

The lettering I did with a template. Sorry, not sure who made the template... I've had it for ages. I filled in the letters with a design that matches the striped paper and colored it in with colored pencils. (Gosh, I like coloring almost as much as cutting and pasting!!) I love the way these letters turned out. Totally worth the time and effort!

Now, my favorite part. The FLASH CARDS. Jen and Theresa didn't get how I would ever make use of addition flash cards and primer word cards in my scrapbook. Well, how fun is this! (Ok, I admit, I'm not sure what the heck I will do with 6+7, 3+3, etc... but I will be sure to blog about it when I figure it out!) The "us" primer card got cut down so it fit nicely in the sum area on the 1+1 card. It got distressed with chalk and ink so it stands out a bit. Add ribbon, staple, gluestick... title done.

This layout was pretty darn fun. And as soon as I get the photo I need from my mom to do my original idea, I will do it as well... with journaling ON the photo just like the dare. But we'll see if I have time to get that done in the next week while it's fresh in my mind. HOPEFULLY I will make it to week 2 of the dares. I have no illusions of winning the whole thing, but if I can make the first cut, I'll be happy. Wish me luck.

I'll leave you with the words of the stamp I used on this layout (love this stamp... so many people in my life to whom it applies):

Life gives us treasures to discover like the earth, the sky, and beautiful people like you.

happy 31st birthday to me!

happy 31st birthday to me!
Originally uploaded by brungrrl.

I had a most wonderful 31st birthday. We stayed home and didn't do much at all! I got greetings by email, phone, post, and in person. My cousins Katie and Kyle called me... they are so sweet to remember me when I suck and STILL haven't sent their birthday gifts to them!

My wonderful husband was OH so thoughtful and got me a card full of gifts. I got a day of scrappin at a local scrapbook store that should be a ton of fun. How cool for him to get me a whole day to myself! I also get dinner and a new computer accessory I've been jonesing for. (Mom & Dad chipped in bigtime on that also.)

That evening we had some of the gang over for ice cream sundaes. The sundaes were yummy and the company was delightful. Jari showed up with yet another card and FLOWERS from him and Becka.

How lucky is this old lady?! :-)

top o' the mornin' to you!

We visited the Dublin Irish Festival tonight. It was huge this year! I think we only made it through a quarter of the place. We ended up the night at the Prodigals' show. The Prodigals freakin' rock! The lead singer is hot, hot, hot. No really, John agrees!

she sells seashells down by the seashore

Just a quick post to show off a shadowbox I made for my Aunt Joan. It is a thank you present for letting us crash with her at the beach in early July.

The shadowbox is from JoAnn. The sticker letters are Basic Grey. The background paper I got at a rubber stamping convention in Akron last spring. It's a great textured paper from August Art Paper. The photos are by me and the sea shells are from Huntington Beach State Park in South Carolina.

The journaling reads, "Just as the shells in their fragmented beauty tell the story of the SEA... so too are our memories of days on the beach." My cousin Jessica wasn't much into picking up shells on the beach. Most of the shells on this stretch of beach are pretty crappy looking and mostly small and broken. But I LOVE seashells... so I was a determined beachcomber. Jessica tried to catch my enthusiasm, but it just wasn't happening. When I got home and cleaned and sorted the shells... I just kept thinking they were as beautiful to me then as they were that day on the beach when I picked them up. And I couldn't help but think that each shell used to be whole and a tiny creature lived there. And the creature probably lived out its natural life in that shell and when it passed away (or was eaten by a larger sea creature), its shell was tossed about by the sea - probably ferociously enough to break it to bits. And then it slowly washed up onto the shore to bask in the sun. That's when I came along "looking for little pretties."

OK... so my point... those clams, crabs, and conches lives had meaning and even though they got eaten (let's just admit that's what happened to them!)... their legacy lives on. The vessel of their lives is now a memento of memories from that vacation. It all has meaning... and even the smallest of creatures can have the most profound impact by doing hardly anything at all but living here on earth.

scrap fever

Last weekend my sister-in-law Jen went with me to Wooster to my brother and other sister-in-law's house. We attended a weekend crop hosted by Custom Cut-ups of Wooster. Oh my goodness... WHAT a great weekend.

When Jen got to my house we both unwound by talking about our crappy week. With THAT out of the way... we could start filling up on better stuff! We chatted all the way to Wooster. When we got there, Theresa drove us to Lodi to a Scrapbook Outlet. The outlet had a lot of stuff, not really outlet prices though. And of course... we yacked it up all the way there and back.

OH... while we were at the outlet we stopped by the java joint in the food court. The owner gave us 2 drinks and a cinnamon roll for free and suggested we stay a bit and listen to the musician he had brought in. There was a lot of drama surrounding the music. Apparently one of the other food court vendors had complained about the noise and tried to nix the music... but the java guy was persistent in keeping the music. At least, that's what we understood of the story... it was kind of hard to hear him telling it. :-)

For dinner we let my brother join us for pizza in Amish country. Not sure how that works out... but it does! The pizza was awesome. I think the name of the town was Friendsburg. A little farming town. Apparently they have bring your tractor to school day at the local school there... so I hear.

The next morning we got up early. Scrap weekends are like Christmas. I want to go to bed early so I can wake up and it be scrap day already! (Or CRAP day... as I said, mixing the words CROP and SCRAP.... oh well, I'm a dufus.) Theresa knows how I like to start my day with coffee... so we stopped at Tulipan Hungarian Pastry & Coffee Shop in downtown Wooster. Yummers on both pastries and coffee!

We were at the Best Western by 9:30am. The energy was already in motion because most of the scrappers started on Friday evening. Oh yeah! Find our tables and get set up. Our goodie bags ROCKED. There was a Karen Foster kit with paper and elements, several awesome sticker sheets, and a magazine. AND... we got $10 coupons to spend at the store.

The three of us are kind of picky about having our photos sorted and ready to scrap when we get there. So we don't mess around with sorting and organizing at the crop. So... we started scrapping. We share tools, paper, and ideas and help each other out when we get creative block. And we poke plenty of fun at each other. The girls make fun of my glue stick and my non-archival free habits (oops). And we laugh at Jen for being over organized. (Really though... she is a master of organization.)

That afternoon we took a break and went to the store to use our $10 coupons. There was a free gift when you bought so much American Crafts paper and stickers. The gift was WAY tempting... so we all three indulged. The paper is gorgeous... and I have already used most of the free gift... so I guess it was pretty cool, too. The Custom Cut-ups store is VERY cool. They have an extraordinary selection of stuff. And some very cool ideas on display in the store.

Speaking of ideas... the make-n-takes we did at the crop RULED. One was a page about ourselves, complete with a photo. Another was an idea for using multiple papers from the same line on one layout (this was handy Saturday night when my brain was fried). And the coolest one that I haven't finished yet is a fold-out accordian-style book that we made with 2 boards and 3 sheets of cardstock.

I got about 12 pages done all weekend... this is good for me. Sure, sure. Theresa got a whopping 30-some pages done. We had an awesome time. It is so sad to pack up and leave on Sunday. Can't wait for the next one!

Effer Dares

I've been following the Effer Dares for a while now. These gals are the pinnacle of artsy scrappin'. Every week they post a dare or challenge to create a scrapbook page based on the inspiration they present.

This week's dare was about "positive self-talk". I'm not usually a self-promoter in my scrapbooks, so this was an original dare for me. Last week our yoga instructor taught us about the chakras and we did a chakra-based workout. Since that was still on my mind, I used that as inspiration for this dare.

P.F. B. dinner

P.F. B. dinner
Originally uploaded by brungrrl.

The hubby made PF Chang style lettuce wraps for dinner on Thursday. They were YuuMMMy.

It was a lengthy recipe with a list of ingredients a mile long. I sure as heck wouldn't have attempted it. :-)

the library comes to me!

Here are some things that are making library use very easy these days!

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/
This is mad-convenient. Get out your library card and give it a whirl. Soon you will be accessing your library’s info regarding that topic you just can’t seem to get off your mind.

http://worldcat.org
Coming soon! Can’t wait for this. Beyond the first entry… this one will let you find in any library that provides access to their information.

http://www.librarything.com/
Build your own library! Ok, so it’s a lot different than the others. But it is a good way to get recommendations for other books based on what you own and like.

See more progress on: use the library more

altered card box

altered card box
Originally uploaded by brungrrl.

This is another altered container made with stuff from the Scrapologie July kit. I got this box at a church yard sale several weeks back. (Notice a pattern here with the church sales... they are a rockin' place to find stuff!) I guess it was a stationery box of some sort, covered in a dated contact paper.

So I got out the mod podge and got busy on it. The biggest challenge was in figuring out which way to go with the papers. I decided to use one paper on the front/bottom and a different paper on the top/back. I made the sides the same and brought it around the top with a curve to make it look a bit more detailed.

All the papers are from the scrapologie kit except the black with white polka dots. The ribbon is also some I had on hand (not from the kit).

The giant flower is made with the KI Memories alphabet soup paper. It's pretty bold, so I cut another one with polka dot vellum to diffuse it a bit. Added a couple more flowers and a giant brad for a center... and voila!

Can I say, I am LOVING the white pen? I have a white Signo Uniball pen and a Zig Opaque Writer in white. Theresa thinks I'm crazy ever since the clear gelly roll pen. (Emperor's new clothes for scrapbookers, anyone?) So wait til she finds out about my love for the WHITE pen!

Anyway, to finish the box, I accented the designs with "greetings" you might put on homemade cards. This box is for my sister-in-law Jen who makes cards. But, shhh, it's a secret! ;-)

new yard art

gnome with binoculars
Originally uploaded by brungrrl.

We had a new lawn ornament this morning when we got up. Apparently, he's the nosy sort. We were pulling out of the garage to go to church when we spied this mischievous little gnome.

I have a few guesses on where it came from. What are your thoughts?!

:-)

it's psychological.

We got pedometers at work as an incentive to get healthy. We are challenged to walk 10,000 steps each day. O.m.g… I was out walking last night when I really wanted to be crafting. Every step thinking, “am I there YET?!”

The pedometer plays mind games with you. You know you don’t HAVE to… but the pedometer is on your hip sitting at 1500 steps for the day and you think, “Wow, I got VERY little activity today.” So off you go. Walking every street, every court in your neighborhood until well after it gets dark.

So if you need incentive to go for a walk. Get a pedometer and set a goal. You will either rejoice or rue the day that you started. :-)

See more progress on: take more walks

tomato mozzarella salad

tomato mozzarella salad
Originally uploaded by brungrrl.

Here is a lovely summer treat. Tomatoes are a summer favorite around here. Cut 'em up in a bowl, add mozzarella balls, fresh basil, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

We had this last night with corn on the cob, grilled chicken, and iced tea.

meal plans

The other night the hubby and I planned out meals for the next two weeks. The idea is twofold: (1) we take turns making dinner and (2) we each learn to make something new once in a while.

Of course, there has to be some competition. So John thinks we should rate each other on taste, presentation, etc. This could be fun…

Last night I made a Pampered Chef Florentine Garden Ring. I’ve had it before, but hadn’t made it myself since I got my baking stone. It was delicious. John loved it.

The oven is a disaster now… guess I will clean it this weekend.

:-)

See more progress on: learn to cook more things

the power of a minute

The other day I was listening to my iPod and I heard (really heard) about one minute of a great song. My whole mood changed. It made me think, what else can change your whole outlook in a minute or less? So I made a list of things that do it for me:

The best things in life that last a minute or less:

• a kiss
• a hug (and I mean a genuine HUG)
  
• the best part of your favorite song
• seeing a hummingbird
• a piece of chocolate candy
• lightning (from a distance!)
• a "hello" smile/wave/honk from a stranger
• voicemail from a loved-one
• smelling a flower
  

Speaking of hanging onto the little things for cheer... here is something else that got me thinking: Melody Ross of Chatterbox (who doesn't love Chatterbox?! Journaling Genie, anyone?!) blogged about dealing with depression this week. It's an insightful post. Check it out. Scrapbooking is usually about the sunny side of life. So it's insightful to hear another respected scrapper shout out on life's challenges.

And that reminded me of my friend Johnny Mac's post about community and isolation. His post made me think of our friend Erin and how she suffered so in the midst of SO MANY friends and people who loved her. It made me think, "I'm getting what I need... is there someone who needs ME right now?"

So ANYWAY! I'm having a crappy day and I'm hanging onto those little things that last less than a minute. What turns your day around (or just keeps you going) in a minute or less?

poke salad annie... gator's got your granny

Ah yes... vacation. It seems miles and light years away now. But to fill you in... (and so I don't soon forget it...) here 'tis.

So we made the stop in Charlotte on the way down. We just sort of meandered our way there on Saturday. It was nice to take it slow and not rush to relax (seems contradictory, right?). So on Sunday we got up and had breakfast and headed the rest of the way. We figured on a 3 hour drive, but it ended up being 4 hours, no biggie. We didn't get caught in any traffic, so that was nice. And we went off the highway to go around Columbia on a very nice 2 lane road. It was perfectly straight, and since everyone was at church, the road was ours.

We got to Huntington Beach with plenty of daylight to spare. Since we were guests to my aunt and uncle's camper where there was limited space (with 4 adults, a pre-teen, a dog, and an odd cat), we were living out of the trunk of Mom's car. So nothing to unpack. We just found our swimsuits, lathered on the sunscreen, and flip flopped to the beach. I think we did some body surfing that day, walked the beach, and took a nap. I remember the nap because I was sort of in and out and it was sunny AND it was sprinkling. And I remember thinking, "It's raining. No, it's sunny. No, it can't be sunny if it's raining. Well it is. You must be dreaming. Ok, night, night." STACE! You wanna go for a walk? "Uh... what? who? Ok..." I was awake, no more rain in the sun.

The next day was QUITE eventful. We got up at 5:30am in order to be on the beach at dawn. We took our cameras and headed for the jetty. The jetty is in Murrell's Inlet, about 2.75 miles up the coast by way of the beach. It's just out there in the ocean, beckoning. Ok, truth is, my mom won't shut up until we walk all the way there and back, no matter how much pain it causes us. It was nice to go at sunrise. Few people on the beach. The light was spectacular for photographs. It was quite the memory.

After the walk we had breakfast and I took a nap. (Do you see the pattern yet?!) Nothing like waking up from a nap around 10am. We called the kayak company to see if they had added an additional excursion that day... we were in luck! It was on like donkey kong at 12:30pm. Mom and I headed to Oyster Landing just north of the park. It's a saltwater marsh filled with oysters, crabs, swamp grass, and part time sea water.

Our group had to wait for a couple chics in swim skirts and flip flops before we could get started. One introduced herself as SPARKLES. We thought, "Grrreat... she's gonna hold up the whole trip." Our guides gave us some instruction, and we shoved off. The group started paddling after the guides... while Mom and I paddled the other direction in our tandem kayak. We exchanged a few words with each other and then paddled in yet another direction. And then back around in a circle before we got headed anywhere near our group. Luckily,one of the guides stayed back with us. We caught up to the group once or twice when they were stopped. Only because once we were going fast, we couldn't stop and we'd just crash into them.

We spent two hours rowing like crazy through the marsh. Mostly, we were working against each other... it was pure torture. Great scenery... never riding tandem with my mother in anything, ever again! (Sorry, Mom.) We got a divorce as soon as we got out of the kayak.

Camping with my aunt and uncle isn't like real camping. The RV is air conditioned and my aunt whips up gourmet meals lickety split every night. We were mere steps from the ocean. A boardwalk path leads from the campground to the beach. Only other campers were on our beach during the day. It was MUCH less crowded than the public beach. And there were stretches of beach where there wasn't a soul in sight.

On Tuesday we watched fireworks from the beach after dark. There were fireworks south and north of the park. The moon was out, there was a breeze, the waves crashing... it was fabulous. A wonderful 4th of July!

Let's eat.

Ah, our friend Jenny. What will she think of next? She constantly torments us with stories of her OTHER friends. You know, her work friends... the classy friends. The smart friends. They go to fancy restaurants and read books... while we, the down-home, barbecue-lovin, movie-goin friends cry on each others shoulders.

Don't worry - we always tease her about this. She likes to pit us against each other... if we compete for her favor, it can only work out well for her. And you know what? We like her other friends. So maybe we will just add them to our group...

Muhaha! Jenny is providing us with a way to do just that. She has organized a monthly dinner outing for friends and friends of friends. Anyone is welcome, you just have to be a chic... no boys allowed. One person in the group selects the restaurant, date, and time. We meet up and chow down and chit chat about anything and everything under the sun. Dianne won the contest for naming the group. It's called FORK. That's it, just FORK. And as you can imagine... there are rules and competitions, just as with all things Jenny...

Check out the FORK blog at http://forkclub.blogspot.com.

vacation

Here's the beginning of our vacation stories.... Mom and I just returned from a week at Huntington Beach with my aunt & uncle...

Saturday. July 1, 2006.
6:30am. Hit the highway headed for Charlotte! Mom drove the Ohio and West Virginia portions of the trip. We made a stop in Ripley for breakfast and in Beckley at Tamarac for some shopping. Tamarac is such a good time... GREAT shopping. I got a ceramic wall pocket for our house. (Just in case the perfect souvenir eludes me at the beach!) It has a maple leaf on it. It should go nicely in a grouping with the photos and pressed leaves I am working on putting in a collage at home.

We made a stop for lunch somewhere in North Carolina. We went to a flea market that was about as horrible as horrible gets. But to save that stop from being a complete waste of time, we had lunch at Arby's, where one of the employees entertained us in a chicken costume. Not every day you encounter a life-size chicken.

Back on the highway, we were in Charlotte before 3pm. We checked into the Doubletree Guest Suites, which was indeed right next to the Symphony Park. Folks had already covered the park with picnic blankets saving spots for later that night. We got hot chocolate chip cookies at check-in. Yum! Incentive to stay at Doubletree more often!

It's amazing how tired sitting in the car makes you. I was so zonked! We napped for an hour or so and watched tv in order to pull ourselves together for a night out. Then we hit the mall. Ooops. It was a great mall... one store after another full of cool stuff. We each bought a couple clothing items. And we kept on shopping right through the start of the symphony concert. So we swung by the car and put away our shopping treasures and picked up our lawn chairs.

The park was jam-packed! The stage was in the middle of a pond in the center ofthe park. There were people sitting on every side. We squeezed in just behind the stage on the back side of the park. We nestled in between some shrubbery. The music was fantastic. It was a beautiful moonlit night. And then... fireworks at the end!

the week in review

white pine
Originally uploaded by brungrrl.

This past week has been a whirlwind. Busy at work, busy in life. It was more about getting out than staying home for once.

I went to a Clippers baseball game with the hubby and 3 of my girlfriends. It was dime-a-dog night! Funny how a generic hot dog tastes SO good in the right setting (and with the right beverage).

Tuesday was a much-anticipated event with some more girlfriends. It was the inaugural outing for FORK. My friend Jenny concocted this scheme for us girls to visit a new restaurant every month. There are a lot of rules. You can invite your "others" (other friends outside of our little circle), but no boys. "Others," as we call them, have become more important in the past few years. Everyone has others, but you can't talk about them, because your inner circle will get jealous. Well, no more. The Others have been outed. They are welcome in the circle (they always were... we just make a bigger deal about it now!) And Others can be so much fun! Even if they are your classier and smarter friends, they still know good dirt on you to share with the inner circle! (muhaha!!) So anyway, I got out of the house on Tuesday and it was fun.

On Wednesday, we stayed home. The hubby and I yacked it up in the garage watching a storm. It's funny, sometimes we just like to sit and talk about life, work, family, our past, gossip, etc. And when we do, it seems like we've been moving so fast, that we haven't talked in ages! It's fun being married. I have a good team. :-)

Thursday evening was also at home, but one of John's friends came by for dinner. So at least we felt like we were socializing.

The other thing about Thursday... it was my first day with the PEDOMETER. My work has a new program where we are challenged to walk 10,000 steps every day through the end of the summer. I think, "I walk a lot, I bet I can do that lickety-split." Uh... day one, not so good. I had walked 4,000 steps by the time I got home. I am looking at the darn thing thinking, "GREAT! now I have to go for a really big walk... and I don't.have.time." So I went for a 3 mile walk to get all my steps in. Mind you, I had already worked out that day, but I had to get all my "clicks" in. By the time I did some more housework (upstairs, basement, back again, inside, outside, kitchen, bedroom, etc.) I was at 11,400 steps for the day. I'd better be svelte by the end of the summer.

It's been a good week. I'm tired in a happy way. Happy Friday. How was your week?

go clippers

We went to dime-a-dog night tonight with the girls to see the Clippers. They won... we ate a lot of hot dogs. It was fun. :-) Night night.

yellow in the garden

yellow in the garden
Originally uploaded by brungrrl.

I got a new book for digital scrappin' inspiration: Digital Designs for Scrapbooking by Renee Pearson. The book is the nuts and bolts of making digital pages. The designs are simple... an excellent starting point for anyone.

This page is a "scraplift" of one of Renee's designs in that book. I think I have a few more tweaks to it... but mostly I like how it turned out. Sometimes I get a little crazy with the papers and textures... but for this one I intentionally kept the color scheme simple and the backgrounds muted so the photos would stand out. (And believe me, I had to change it a few times in talking myself out of the busy backgrounds.)

The journaling isn't the best. What can I say? I have a one-track mind. Either I'm thinking design and color or I'm thinking in words... I can't do both at the same time.

Ah well, it's a start.

The only purchased element here is the yellow print on the top. It's from ACOT.

just be

just be
Originally uploaded by brungrrl.

Nowadays I just like being home. I like not having to go anywhere, not having anything I HAVE to get done. I like watching things grow. And believe me, there is plenty growing here. I like that there is always something to do - work and fun. I like coming home to my husband... even when he's ornery.

The past couple weekends we have spent at home and we LOVE it. Starting the day off right by making coffee, filling the bird feeder, and cranking up the iPod.

We're pretty sure our house is a castle... so please don't let us find out it's not. :-)

one year

On Sunday we celebrated our one year wedding anniversary. Time flies, doesn't it?
Bill and Theresa have kept the top of our wedding cake in their freezer for a year now. They brought it to us over the weekend. We dug into it after dinner tonight. From the horror stories we have heard about year old wedding cake... I have to say, this one still had some life in it!

Happy anniversary, hubby. I love you.

pie irons

When we had our bonfire in West Virginia, it was the first chance to use Dad's new pie irons. The old ones were apparently made of aluminum, and if left in the fire too long, WOULD MELT. Just ask my brother...

So we made delicious pizzas and cherry pies in the pie irons. (I mean, is there anything better than pizzas, hot dogs, and marshmallows over an open fire?!) In the process, one of the pins fell out of one of the irons. Since my dad is retired, he had time to email the pie iron company and ask for a replacement pin.

Now these folks produce a product that isn't very expensive. Their product line isn't that extensive (although, bigger than you might expect it to be). And their repeat customer base probably isn't that great. But one of their employees took the time to send my dad a gracious email and provide a solution that was more than what he asked for:

Hi Paul,

Thanks for writing and sorry to hear about the pin falling out. Sometimes when we hear about a pin coming out of the iron, the pin was actually missing when the item was made and escaped our quality check. Although a replacement pin can be sent, it may not hold as well as if it were assembled here - so my suggestion is that we send you two new pins + a replacement square pie iron. Best case scenario, you'll have two square pie irons in great shape and the worst case is you'll have a replacement for the bad one.

We'll ship it via UPS in the next couple of days.

Best regards,
Michael

Now doesn't that just warm your heart like a cherry pie fresh off the campfire?! I think the Pie Iron people should make (or at least service) cars and medical devices... what do you think?

Check out what else these folks offer for you campers out there...
http://www.pieiron.com/

Happy trails...

deep thoughts

I have deep thoughts all day long. When I find time to sit down and blog, my brain is fried and nothing comes.

But I haven't blogged in a few days, so here is an update.

We are wanting to finish our basement, right? We are saving money to have it contracted out so it's done RIGHT. Well... savings takes time. IN THE MEANTIME... there is a ton of unused space in the basement that I could totally take over for scrappin. So I made John set up the drafting table my brother got me. It's FABULOUS. THE THING for scrapbooking. PLUS, being in the basement, I can go down there and make a huge mess and LEAVE IT. I got a layout done over the weekend. I know you are thinking, "one whole layout, eh?"... but that's a lot for summer when I'm typically on hiatus from scrappin'. (I can't believe I am posting photos of my skanky basement. Never was a hole in the ground loved so much! Hehehe. Look how messy it is. John's just glad it's not the kitchen table!) Check out the rest of the pics on flickr.

I dragged Jenny to the market on Saturday around 7:30am. Yeah, it doesn't open that early, but if I'm up, I need some Starbucks. So off we went. Lots of beautiful plants at the market. Also nabbed some fresh strawberries and tomatoes. Didn't get enough tomatoes, we have already devoured them. I also got a lavender plant and pulled up some dead-looking phlox to make room for it in the front flower bed. Not like I needed any more plants... but it's LAVENDER. yum yum.

The other reason we had to go to the market so early was so I could hit the yard sales in my neighborhood at 9am. It was pouring the rain down by then. But it was community yard sale day, so I wanted to show my support. Sh-yeah. I just wanted cheap junk. I couldn't believe what I scored! Lots of scrapbooking stuff. A brand new artsy scrapbook for a dollar and plenty of unused papers and stickers. I also got a 3-drawer storage bin that was perfect for my new craft area. $3!!! So guess what I'm doing this Saturday morning? Oh yeah... just gotta figure out where the good sales are.

It's also our anniversary this year. Wow, time flies. And I can't believe we still like each other. For real... we are special people... :-) I'm just kiddin'. I love that dude.

Aunt Emmy's Peonies

During Memorial weekend in West Virginia, as we drove by an old homeplace, Mom pointed out that there were peonies growing, even though the house was gone. That's some determination, I tell ya.

The house is long gone. There is part of the fence and some of the foundation remaining. The woods has overtaken the yard and I'm sure there are snakes, though luckily, I didn't see any.

The house belonged to Aunt Emmy and Uncle Homer. According to my mom:

Aunt Emma (Emma Corella) was a sister to your great grandmother Lilly Rosella (Sumpter) on your Pappaw’s side. Their maiden name was Norman. Emma was married to Homer Beall. Uncle Homer was Mammaw’s uncle – a brother to your other great grandmother Allie Beall Alltop (Mammaw’s mother). So they were related on both sides. Aunt Emma and Uncle Homer took in most of the orphaned children that were left parentless due to tuberculosis. (Photo of Frank and Lilly Sumpter on their 50th wedding anniversary in 1952.)

In a time when we are warned of the dangers of West Nile virus and avian flu outbreaks, it's interesting to think of the impact that tuberculosis had on our families back in the early 20th century (at least in the midwest and Appalachia). TB took my Mammaw's mother and her two brothers early in their lives. And she herself did a stint in one of the sanitariums in West Virginia - Hopemont. The sanitarium was strategically located at a high altitude where the air was cooler because this was thought to help the patients.

At any rate, it certainly makes you thankful for the advances in medicine over the last century that have helped us to find better vaccines, treatments, and cures for diseases. I'm sure thankful to still have most of my family members in my life... and for the time I got to spend with those who are gone.