I'm a Maniac!!

Of the scrapping sort that is. While I've been slacking in my blogging I've been catching up on scrapbooking. Here are some of latest. I have 3 more I finished at a crop yesterday but I don't have photos of those yet. I'll try to get those up later this week :o)

First is a layout of my son when he was 18 mo. old. This is one of my favorite pictures of him and it's not even a very good photo. I just love how the sun caught his face and he's smiling so sweetly :o)


This is a layout of my daughter last summer. She was having a water-gun fight with my son and some neighborhood kids. When she saw me with the camera, she stopped to pose for me :o)


This is a layout of my love :o) I started this as a just because I don't scrap him enough sort of layout. I have used this photo before but it's my favorite recent photo of him so I just can't help myself!


This is a layout of some London architecture. I was playing around with B&W and color photos and this is what I came up with. Because all the photos were very vertically tall, I wanted to keep the pics tall and thin. I'm not sure I'm done with this one so if you have any suggestions, please let me know!


I made Hats of Character to show off the variety of hats my son loves. He has collected them for years and the more unique the better. This is just a sampling :o)


The Desires layout was made for a Cosmo Cricket challenge to post goals for the coming year. So, I captured a few of my desires here :o)


I love love love this photo of Gwendolyn. We had been playing in the yard and she flopped to the ground just in time for this photo.


That's it for now :o) Thanks for looking!

OOhh, look at these goodies!

Scrapperlicious is giving away some new Clear Scraps mini shaped albums. Check out all the details at http://scrapperlicious.blogspot.com/2009/01/want-to-win-some-fun-acrylic-minis.html

These are my favs:

OMG I WON AN AWARD!!

Wee Faerie has awarded me with the Honest Scrap award. She's so sweet :) You should check out her blog...it's full of so many fantastic pretties (http://weefaeriering.blogspot.com/).

The rules to accepting my award are as follows: A) first list 10 honest things about yourself - and make it interesting, even if you have to dig deep! B) Pass the award on to 7 bloggers that you feel embody the spirit of the Honest Scrap.

So, 10 honest things about me...

1. I'm a gamer. All out gamer. OK, maybe not as much as Graham and Zach but I do play video games daily and table-top games weekly.

2. I believe Diet Mt. Dew is the sweet nectar of life. I try not to go a day without it even though I'm sure it's really bad for me.

3. I have told my son I will kill him in his sleep. But it's a gaming reference and it just makes him laugh. It has become a show of affection.

4. I could watch A Knight's Tale for 2 weeks straight on repeat play... and have.

5. I broke my tailbone by jumping from one tree to another, 20 feet off the ground, and missing. I grew up in a swamp and it was frozen and I landed HARD. But that's the sort of thing we did for fun growing up :)

6. I sleep with a stuffed wooly mammoth, cleverly named Wooly. Graham hates the competition.

7. I have a weakness for brownies and ice-cream. Can't wait to have some in a few days for my birthday.

8. Some days I wake up humming Elvendrums. I don't know why they enchant me so and I don't much mind :)

9. My grandmother painted a ceramic girl in my likeness when I was 6 and it sits next to my computer. I hardly remember her but I love that she made this for me.

10. Next to my cute little painted doll are a Mindflayer mini (from my brother), Tinkerbell (from my daughter), Drizzt mini (from my son) and a Kai figure (also from my son). They are all gifts from loved ones.

OK, that was hard! When I asked my family for help they said 1. you're a woman, 2. you have short hair. LOL!! Great help they are.

And 7 bloggers who now receive the award:

http://coffee-girl-crafts.blogspot.com/

http://scrappergal78.blogspot.com/

http://susansscrapingandstampingkreations.blogspot.com/

http://papertree.blogspot.com/

http://www.scrapbook.com/myplace/index.php?mod=blogs&u=205025

http://mauri-cita.over-blog.com/

http://theresawocketinmypocket.blogspot.com/

Some new layouts

I've finally finished a couple of new layouts. I've been cranking out greeting cards for upcoming craft fairs so I've sorta been neglecting scrapbooking just for me. I've also been playing WAR and Little Big Planet. I can't totally pretend I've been burning the midnight oil just to make some money :)



I've had this photo of myself since last summer but couldn't figure out how to scrap it. I was looking at how happy I was this day. My daughter and I had walked to the park and she took this picture. It was 8 months after we moved to Western Mass. Prior to moving out here we had a very rough year. I realized, that in this photo, things were getting back to a happy normal.



My daughter loves going to the Magic Wings butterfly house near where I work. My Mom had come out to surprise Gwen for her birthday. Much to my Mom's delight, Gwen chose Magic Wings for her special day. My Mom also loves butterflies and the two of them were loving every minute. This layout is based on Pencil Lines sketch #108.

I've got a few more layouts I'd like to get done before I get back to all my finishing touches for the fairs. I'll get those posted just as soon as they're done and I'm actually home while it's light out. Damn daylight savings time messes everything up!

Happy Halloween... finally!

I've finally uploaded the photos from Halloween :o) My son was one of many Naruto characters, along with many of his friends. More specifically, he was Itachi.



My daughter was a vampire bride. Sweet Gwen who has been every Disney princess chose to be a vampire bride. And let me tell you... she was the cutest vampire bride out there!



Also represented that evening were Sasori, Deidara, Tobi, Kisame, and Konan. Some of his other friends were a zombie, Sarah Palin, Joe Biden, a safari dude, a horse rider, a football player, and Wednesday Addams. I was very proud at the effort this group of teenagers put into their costumes. My son knows I won't let him trick-or-treat if he doesn't have a good costume. If you're young enough to trick-or-treat then you're young enough to dress up and dress up well.

I Am Green With Envy

One of the challenges I'm in said blog about your scrap space. I don't have one *cry*

I look at pictures of people's scrap spaces and I am jealous. I have no dedicated space in my matchbox apartment. I annoy my family with scrapping bits left here and there throughout the house. And every time I want to scrap I have to take over the living room floor. I used to have a scrap space and it wasn't the greatest and it was in my bedroom but it was mine. I could leave a half-finished layout and come back to it 3 days later if I wanted to. My computer was on the same table so I could print whatever I needed for my layout. When I got tired, I could roll into bed. Saturday mornings? I could roll into my computer chair and get started.

When Gray moved in I gave up my space so we could fit a queen-sized bed in our room (you thought I was joking when I said matchbox?) Someday, I will once again have a space to call my own. I won't have to take out only 3 scrapping items at a time. I will spread out and no one will be able to say anything about it. If I want to leave an entire alphabet of painted chipboard out to dry...at the same time...I will! I have my whole new space planned out for the day we have the room in our home. Until then, I will stay Green with Envy :o)

Why do you CARE?!?!

Ok, so the election was last night and woo-hoo Obama is the president-elect :) Too bad not all of the items being voted on went the way I had hoped.

This morning at work everyone was talking about the variety of hot topics being voted on. Here in Mass the one we discussed was the decriminalization of marijuana. There were mixed feelings but it is no longer a criminal offense if you are caught possessing 1 oz. or less of marijuana. It is still a crime but it will no longer effect your ability to gain employment or go on a field trip with your children down the road, 10 years after you smoked your last joint. Some people commented that they voted no. I asked why they care? Alcohol is more dangerous and that's legal. It's still a crime to possess and use.. just not a criminal offense.

Then at lunch a co-worker noted that California (and a few other states) have banned same-sex marriage. Again, I asked, why do people care? What do so many people have against a gay couple pledging their ever-lasting love to each other? How does it affect your life? Don't start spewing crap about how it says so in the bible. News flash! Not everyone believes in the same religion as you. I don't come by your house and force my beliefs upon you so shut up and stop trying to force your beliefs on others. What happened to separation of religion and state? People banning happiness for outstanding members of society simply because they love someone of the same sex is sickening. Did you know most of the world legalized same-sex marriage years ago? Get over your miserable selves and let deserving people be happy!

It's almost as bad as those who would try to tell women whether they should be allowed to abort an unwanted pregnancy. No one is making you abort anything. WHY DO YOU CARE? It doesn't affect your life yet you would fight for a law that affects other's lives. Some pregnancies are life-threatening for the mother. Who are you to decide she and her unborn child should die because of your beliefs?

This is a sad, sad day to see the country take such a huge step backward on the heels of celebrating such a huge step forward.