Chicago & Baby PMS

Hi everyone! I hope you had a great week!

Last weekend we went on a very impromptu trip to Chicago. We basically woke up on Saturday, hubby asked where I wanted to go/do.. I threw some things out there and voilah!, Chicago, here we come! Other than Caleb being a little sick and uncomfortable (tummy issues), it was a great weekend. It was definitely a fun little trip and I have a bunch more pics that I'm sure I'll end up scrapping :)

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Friday night my friend Michele and I went back to Archivers for their Friday night crop. All I did was talk (and shop) so I didn't get much done. But here's a layout I completed.
You gotta love finding an SD card (while searching my camera bag in Chicago) from almost four years ago full of pics of your super cute 16.5 month old. An SD card I thought was gone FOREVER. Love it!
So of course, I had to scrap some of the pics. This is Caleb in one of his "Baby PMS" modes. Where one minute he was the happiest kid and then all the sudden he was crying. I don't remember the reason why he was crying (I wish I did... bummer). There's something to be said for scrapping pics soon after you take them, LOL. Ah well.. still scrap worthy :)

"Baby PMS" - cardstock: Bazzill; scallop strips: Sassafras; "baby" alphas: AC Amy Tangerine; "PMS" alphas: cut out from Making Memories "Jack" paper; chipboard accents: Little Yellow Bicycle


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Monday Caleb starts his 3rd year of preschool.. he is SO excited. And I have lots of tagging to do for an upcoming consignment sale.
And I have TONS of work I need to do on this horribly messy scraproom. Lord help me, LOL.

I am pretty organized but very MESSY!



Where I sit:

Where friends sit when they come to scrap:


Have a GREAT week!

Another One!

I'm on a roll! LOL

Last night my friend Michele and I went to a crop at Archivers for a few hours. Here's what I came up with.



"Happy Day"
Background pp: Basic Grey; Clouds, banner and strip paper: Jillibean Soup; Twine: My Minds Eye; Buttons: Epiphany Crafts; Mat cardstock: DCVW; Other: Sapphire Glimmer Mist

Thanks for looking! Have a great weekend! We are off on a (very) impromptu trip to Chicago :)

Monthly Crop Layouts

YAY!!! I FINALLY scrapped!!!
Other than one I did for my friend Michele, these are my first layouts in over SEVEN MONTHS!! So I'm rusty.. be kind, please (but don't lie to me if they suck, LOL)

So my monthly crop was Saturday and I'll admit, I talked more than I scrapped :)
My friend Michele went with me and we just couldn't stop gabbing. She got like 10 layouts done and I got three :(
(I hadn't been to an NJS crop in over a year so I had alot of catching up to do with some of the girls.. LOL)

Anyway, here is what I accomplished. I apologize for the really cruddy pics. I still haven't figured out my PSE 9 editing software that I've had since Christmas (yikes!)


"Two of a Kind" - this one I let the patterned paper do all the work. Very simple layout about my son and his best friend at his Birthday party.
Paper: Fancy Pants & Bazzill; Alpha stickers: Doodlebug; Photo Corners: WRMK; used my Cuttlebug to cut the stars


This was my paternal Grandmother, Grandma Martin. She died when I was nineteen. I didn't know her well at all because I was estranged from my Dad until I was eighteen but I've heard alot about her from him and other family.
This layout took me four hours. I am NOT kidding. I stuck all the bling on by hand after the batteries in my Imaginisce bling tool died. What a PAIN IN THE BUTT!! I will definitely be buying Prima bling swirls from now on. It's worth the $6.99 to just plop it on there in a few minutes and be done with it, LOL.
Anyone want to buy my bling tool? Great idea but FAIL. Definitely NOT worth the time it takes. Even when the batteries ARE working. And my right hand is STILL hurting from using that tool!

Paper, bird diecut, flower stickers, all paper for roses & "Treasure" sticker: Colorbok "Flea Market" line; photo corners: Making Memories; other: lace doilie, Imaginisce bling



This is a scraplift of a local friend, Sarah Mullanix. I changed it up a bit, added the 5, etc. Love these pics from his Birthday party :)
Paper: Scenic Route, Imaginisce & Bazzill; Alphas: Doodlebug, The Paper Studio & Sandylion; Other: bakers twine, Love Elsie ribbon


Michele and I left the crop early to go to Big Lots for cheap, GREAT scrappy goodies and when we came out of the store, it was storming REALLY bad. What a crazy drive home that was (the crop was about 52 miles from home)
On the way home we heard about the tragedy at the Indiana State Fair.
God bless the families affected and the men and women who bravely pulled people from under the steel mess. I am very proud to be a Hoosier right now.

Speaking of the State Fair, we went last week. We rode the train from where we live in Fishers all the way down to the fair in Indy and Caleb was just SO happy with the train ride. I think that was his favorite part :)
Here are a few pics from the fair. This was a very impromptu trip.. we didn't know we were going til thirty minutes before we went. So after I shot the first picture below, my camera batteries DIED. I kidd you not. And I was stuck carrying around my camera ALL DAY at the fair. What a pain, LOL.
So the rest after this first one are from my cell phone:







Thanks for looking. Have a great week!!

Flea Market

Okay so I won't lie. I've never been a big fan of Colorbok. Their stuff has just always seemed really cheap to me.
So imagine my surprise when I fell in LOVE with the Flea Market collection at Joann's yesterday. And, it was 40% off! (as is ALL of their scrap stuff right now.. except storage).
I have the PERFECT pictures of my paternal Grandmother I'm going to use with this collection. And I think I will scrap them on Saturday at my crop :)

The above picture doesn't do it justice. You HAVE to go to Joann's to check it out in person. Unfortunately for me (but great for my pocketbook), alot of the embellies were gone already (Castleton/Indianapolis location). But I managed to snag two different paper pads (which are to die for), the fabric labels, the journaling spots (they call them diecuts) and the fabric strips.

So go check it out. If you love vintage-y birds, flowers and pink, you won't be disappointed.

I'll be back next week to post my scrappy layouts from my crop :)

If you love The Girls' Paperie and have a Tuesday Morning near you...

RUN, don't walk to your nearest store! The Girls' Paperie is no longer in business so it's hard to find the older lines but Tuesday Morning has bagged kits for $19.99 that are worth double+!

I got the "Toil & Trouble", "On Holiday", "Tinsel & Twig" and "Paper Girl" kits. (thank you Daddy for the birthday money) :) :) :)
You get ALL the embellies and stamps for each line plus the paper!!! Can you believe that!?!
("Toil & Trouble" actually came with two of several of the embellies and "Tinsel & Twig" did not come with ANY paper but, it was still worth the price. The stamps alone retail for $10).

Anyway, check it out :) And if you are the Indy area, the Carmel location has the most kits left. E. 96th street has a few but Carmel definitely has the most (all except the "Toil & Trouble".. I took the last one of those).

Okay, I'm done enabling.. I'm off to try and scrap a little bit. Have a great night!

Happy Birthday to ME!!

Today is my 37th Birthday!!

And guess what!?, I'm okay with turning 37.
I've lost alot of weight and am starting to feel really good about myself. Better than I've felt in five years.
And my surgeon has given me the go-ahead to start trying for baby #2 next Spring. So I am anxiously waiting for that :)

Anyhoo, my friend Michele came over today and I scrapped my first LAYOUT in over seven months.
Not of Caleb though.. of Michele's son, Elijah.
What a cutie-pie he is, that Elijah.. SOOOOO precious, too. He is "Aunt Jenny's" favorite one-year old :)
It's a very simple layout using the Imaginisce "Animal Crackers" line and my Mickey/Disney Cricut cartridge.
Here's a cell phone pic (2) of the layout that Michele took.



And then here are some flowers I've been making a ton of (again, cell phone pics - sorry)



Sunday, Michele and I are going to take a mini card class at Archivers. (YAY) and on Aug 13th we are attending a twelve hour crop with my old NJS gang. Can't wait! I can't wait to get some layouts done! I got Caleb's birthday pics back today from the printer and can't wait to scrap them.
I hope everyone is having a great week. Until next time,

5th Birthday Pics

Well, I'm probably not going to get any scrapping done this week like I thought. Hubby went out of town and this weekend is a no-go. We have friends coming over for dinner and fun .. then of course church. And with only five days til my birthday, I'm hoping we get to go on a date for that :)

But I did make tons of handmade flowers with my friend Michele yesterday. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pics before I let her take them home. But I made them with this as well as just tearing paper into a spiral (I actually like the torn look better).

Here are some pics from Caleb's 5th Birthday party on June 26th. We had his party at this spray/fun park.. he loved it!
Hopefully I'll get to scrap these soon :)



"Woody" piggy bank from The Petrey's


I asked him what he wanted for his birthday several times and each time all I heard was a TRAFFIC LIGHT. So that's what he got (along with several other things.. mostly Cars 2 stuff)


Playing with the military vehicles he got from Mimi & Poppy (my parents)




The $15 balloons that last two days



Daddy pushing him and a few of his guests.. loved it!


My step-dad going down the slide. As you can see, Caleb thought it was hilarious!


"Woody" cake from The Cakehole in New Palestine, IN. I didn't get to eat any but heard it was scrumptious!




My Mom trying to recapture her youth


Step-dad & Mom


My friend Michele's little boy, Elijah. Caleb and Elijah have the same birthday, four years apart


Caleb and his Best Friend Jason Jr.
Jason was SOAKED from the spray park and Caleb hates being wet so he told him to stay away so Jason poked him on the nose.


And apparently that amused Caleb, LOL



Well that's it for now. Have a GREAT weekend and, STAY COOL!

I'm going to scrapbook soon....

Saturday Daddy took Caleb to the Indy Children's Museum so I worked on organizing my scraproom. I have friends that come over to scrapbook but we always end up scrapping on the floor or the table b/c my room was/is still a mess!

But I got alot done. WHOO HOO!

And yesterday, we went down to IKEA where I bought another VIKA ALEX storage unit as well as a shelf that attaches to my IKEA desk. That will free up some desk space for me :)

I still feel like I don't know where certain things are and so I'm going to have to spend some time labeling. But before I do that, I really just want to make a few layouts with some of the new paper I've bought in the past month. Other than cards, I haven't scrapbooked since December, I think? I really have the bug.. I miss it horribly.

Stay tuned. Barring unforseen circumstances like hubby going out of town for a week (like last week) or me going back into the hospital, I think some scrappy layouts will be posted soon :)

It's been a LOOOONG time!

Geez, it's been forever since I've been on here. I even forgot my login password, LOL.

Well, I haven't had any scrappy news to report. I went back into the hospital after the last visit I posted about. That time I had fluid on my lungs and was in there for three days. Then a week later an xray showed I had Pneumonia. I had that for two weeks. I was back to living downstairs that whole time and the scraproom is upstairs :(
This was all a result of the first hospital visit. They pumped me full of too much fluid.

So I pretty much quit scrapbooking. I never have time anymore. After losing 130+ pounds, all I want to do is shop and do things outside with Caleb. We also bought a membership to the Indianapolis Children's Museum so we are staying pretty busy.
I am hoping once the colder weather comes in, I will get back to scrapping. I am still BUYING scrap stuff... just rarely use it. I do take classes from time to time at Archivers though.. love that place. (and it's only 3 miles away!!!)

Caleb turned FIVE on June 27th. We had a party the day before at a local spray park. He wouldn't get in the water but he did enjoy the regular park next to it.
Here's a pic from that day. I'm sure I'll post more of the pics later or scrap them so you can see them.


Til then, have a great Summer! I know we sure are having fun!

Sometimes I just have to wonder....

Why ME, God?

I almost died over the weekend. On Wednesday the 4th, I went to the hospital to have yet another Endoscopy done to fix yet ANOTHER stricture. Well, my surgeon wasn't available and with hubbys work schedule like it is (he has to watch Caleb all day), I had to have it done by another surgeon.
Well, she tore me.
Which turned into a leak. Then renal failure, another surgery to fix the leak, three days in the ICU and then another four days in the bariatric unit. I finally got home Wednesday night and I am wiped.
No scrapping for me this month. It's all I can do to walk at this point. I am in SO much pain. Thank God for Lortab! (even though it just barely numbs the pain sometimes)

Please keep me in your prayers.

Just a quickie...

My little boy has been in the hospital for two days (nothing super serious) and well, I am bored out of my mind! So I thought I'd give a quick update.
The only scrapping I've done this past month is some card making. I've made tons and tons of cards for friends.. Thank You's and lots of Happy Birthdays :)
I fully planned to scrap but life always gets in the way. I've had two more Endoscopys and hubby has been gone a lot. And little Caleb has been sick, blah blah blah....

So, I guess maybe May will be my month???.... Hmmmm, we'll see.