I have the best blog friends EVER!

It's so great to see so many of my friends over at Creative Cookbooking! Thanks for coming over to play with us! The crop has officially started and people have won stuff already. What are the rest of you waiting for? ;-)

Lets see, I've been scrapping, and I can start sharing some of the layouts I've been having to sit on! I don't know how all of you talented girls on DTs do it! LOL

Here's a layout I finished this weekend of the 13 year old. I lifted the idea of cutting the paper from the gallery at Scrapbook.com. (Sorry, I don't remember who exactly to give credit to) Don't you think the photos make it look like she busted through the paper? LOL





I'll be back later this week to share some of the Creative Cookbooking layouts I've been working on. Thanks for stopping by! :-)

Quick reminder!

The official kick off of the Iron Chef Cropetition starts Monday, but there might be some fun pre-crop stuff this weekend. Just sayin'... LOL Click on the big Creative Cookbooking banner right up there. ^^^ Have a scrappy weekend! :-)

Scrappy weekend!

I have a couple of projects I wanted to share. This is one I did yesterday. Do you ever refer back to your blog for journaling? If you're a regular reader, the journaling will sound familiar. The layout is a little messy, just like my life. :-D



I finished this one today using Cosmo Crickets Material Girl. I don't know WHAT I was thinking, I decided to stitch around the punched border. At 5 a.m. this morning. :-O Anyway, I finally finished it up and was happy with the result. And did you know that a number 2 with the bottom line cut off and a dot added makes a question mark? :-)



I hope y'all are enjoying your weekend, whether you're scrapping or not. Thanks for stopping by! :-)

Creative Cookbooking Iron Chef Cropetition

It's official! The call is out! See that big banner right up there? :look up: :-D

The Creative Cookbooking team would like to invite you to join us for a week long crop starting April 26th and going through May 3rd, 2010. There will be fabulous challenges, tutorials, games and lots of PRIZES!

If you are competing for the Iron Chef guest designer position, then there are a few more things you should know!

This challenge will be posted Friday evening, May 1st and is due Sunday, May 3rd, 11:59 p.m. MST If you've ever watched the show on Food Network, you know there is always a "secret ingredient" that is used in each dish. Each competitor will choose one layout from a current Chef to lift. The secret ingredient must be used in some way, shape or form on your entry layout. Judging will be based on originality, presentation, and creativity. The judging panel will consist of all forum members. A poll will be posted on Monday, May 4th and a winner will be announced on Wednesday, May 6th.

The winner, based on voting results, will be the Iron Chef Guest Designer during the month of June!

Please join us at http://creativecookbooking.ning.com/forum/topics/sign-up-here to join in the fun!

Oooh, prizes! Lots of prizes! Here's a little sneaky peek of some of what you can win...



C'mon, you know you wanna! I'd love to see all my scrappy friends come over and play with me! :-)

Happy Monday

Yes, it is. Even though FIL is back, it's been fairly pleasant. The sun is shining, the girls and I are wrapping up our school year this week, and I got a little scrappy time in. :-)

Here's a layout I did for the Scrap for a Cure crop this weekend. My pics were perfect for the theme, Spring Fling.



And this is one I did today, just because. :-)



Here's a closeup of the flower. The how to was in last months Scrapbooks Etc, and I just can't stop doing them! LOL



The Creative Cookbooking team has been hard at work getting ready for the Iron Chef Cropetition! I got my first look at the prizes that will be up for grabs today. Yowsers! Y'all will DEFINITELY want to come play! I'll be posting all the details for the crop later this week, we're getting close! :-)

Thanks for stopping by!

Don't you just love

scrappy friends who hook you up? Some call it enabling, and I always fall for it hook, line and sinker. And I almost never regret it! :-D My friend Kayla posted a link on Creative Cookbooking to HSN where I got a FAB deal on both Material Girl and Garden Variety by Cosmo Cricket for less than $20! I just got it in the mail and I'm already using it up!

I totally lifted this layout from Tonya, who's layout was featured on the Cosmo Cricket blog.



See? Told ya! Lifted it almost exactly! LOL

And here's one I did for the Creative Cookbooking Spring challenge using a sketch from A Million Memories. I used really old Wild Asparagus paper. Must use up the old stash with all the new that I'm getting! LOL



I also got two other layouts done, but I can't show them just yet. Sorry, I really hate when people say that and I have to say, it gives me no pleasure. ;-)

Have a scrappy week and I'm sure I'm forgetting to tell y'all something, but when I remember what it is, I'll be back. LOL

New math

Once upon a time, there was 1 man + 1 woman and they were in love. Over the next 22 years, 1 man + 1 woman = 4 children + 1 father law + 1 mother in law + 3 dogs + 3 cats + 2 rabbits + 1 hamster. Man and woman have their eye on the prize (retirement). Man is very busy working his company, to the exclusion of everything else. Woman decides it's time to lighten the load. Buh bye, lazy, good for nothing 19 year old. OUT. To all 4 children, "if the animals started off being yours, either take them with you or find them homes or I will take care of it." Child #1 took her dog to college, 1 rabbit + 1 hamster died and all the others were taken to the humane society by woman. Save the 1 cat. Mostly because she's old, an outside cat, and woman LIKES her.

Are you still with me? The load has been lightened to where 1 man + 1 woman = 2 teenagers + 1 father in law + 1 cat.

Until last month. Man decides having child #1, who is fresh out of college, move back home and go to work for his company. And if you've done the math correctly, you know that that puts them up 1 more child and 1 dog.





By now, woman is feeling old and broken and tired and frustrated and is ready to move on to a new phase in her life. Apparently it's not the phase that, until just last year, man and woman were in together. Woman is feeling overworked and underappreciated, so she is going to get a "real" job for the first time in 23 years of marriage.

Stay with me now...

The 2 teenagers whine that it's not fair that child #1 still has 1 dog, so they ask MAN for pets. They're just SMALL PETS, the man says, and pleads their case. Woman, who is sporting a new attitude, agrees. Adding 2 more pets is a FINE idea. (can you sense womans sarcasm? Yes, so do family members. Did that stop them? No.)





Not only that, but small animal #1 is one of those social type mammals, so it wouldn't really be fair having it in a cage all by itself. Woman decides that child #4 should have another social type mammal to keep #3s social type mammal company in the cage.



Woman suggested they look around some more while at the pet store and all of a sudden, aforementioned family members get scared looks on their faces. Hey! Woman is just trying to be agreeable this time, instead of being the bad guy!

Now it's time to check your math...

Last week: 1 man + 1 woman = 2 teenagers + 1 father in law + 1 cat

This week: 1 man + 1 woman = 3 children + 1 father in law + 1 cat + 1 dog + 1 Russian tortoise + 2 guinea pigs

I'm telling you, new math is MESSED UP!

If you sense that I've had a self defining revelation, you would be right. The people I thought would make me happy over the last 23 years have not, and looking back, it was quite selfish of me to expect them to. I chose to be a SAHM, I thought that making everyone else happy would make me happy, and the realization after 23 years of not being able to make everyone else happy has made me unhappy. But, I have a new attitude and it's feeling quite liberating!

Updates are sure to come. Thanks for stopping by, I'll be back soon with some projects I've been working on. :-)

Happy April!

I was so excited to play with my new Flower Soft! I made a template with my Wishblade and then used the negative to lay the glue down for the title. Sprinkle a little Flower Soft over the glue and viola! Only thing is, children like to rub fingers over it because it's soft and it will come off. So, everyone here got a mini lecture about NOT touching the calendar. LOL

It's shaping up to be another busy month. Father in law will come back from his travels at some point, there are dance photos to take and a recital to get ready for and the girls and I will finish up our school year in a few weeks. YAY! Megan has moved back home and starts her new job today, so that adds a whole new dimension to the household. We'll see how long it takes before she's back outta here. So far, she's not diggin' being back home and it's only been 2 days. I think she'll like it even less when FIL gets back home, since they will be sharing the downstairs part of the house. I don't think he'll like it much either. Should be interesting. LOL

Wishing all of my scrappy friends a very scrappy April! :-)