Are you feeling the love?

So, when you only have boys there are just soooo many scrapbook lines that you just can't use for boys and let them maintain any dignity whatsoever. However, you can bend the rules about 2 times/year with Valentine's Day and Easter. And boy do I take advantage of it! I bought a bunch of the Scenic Route Loveland line for a class at Pocketful Of Treasures and I just busted into it the other night and started making this little Valentine Mini of the boys. I plan to leave it sitting out as Valentine decor this year and when I look at it I just smile. The book is the Hearts to You Scalloped Chipboard Heart book designed by the lovely Cheryl Mezzetti for Magistical Memories. I have been hoarding it for the perfect pictures and papers for about a year now. I just love the way it turned out. So for today, enjoy the bright and pretty when you can!

Big Accomplishment for a little Guy

Tonight Jackson completed his first belt testing at Thackrey Tae Kwon Do. He was super excited to earn his yellow stripe belt. He even stood in front of all the students and audience to do his Poomsae by himself! Congratulations Jackson! We are so proud of you!

It's Official - the DIET is done!

WE DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 50 layouts with no purchases made!!!! Jennifer and I started this diet December 1, 2007. At first we had decided to include altered projects as part of the 50 required layouts. But then decided that we would just make it 50 layouts! We were allowed to buy adhesive and cardstock BUT nothing else - unless we had a gift certificate. Well December being Christmas and all - we did a lot of altered projects for presents. Jennifer was able to do some pages in December but I only got 3 done. So really we did almost 50 pages in one month! YIPPEEE.

The best part of this experiment is that we have figured out how we want to make our scrappy purchases in the future. We do not want to buy just because comething is cute - we want to buy with a layout in mind!! It is a little harder for me since I do my shopping online - I can't just buy for 1 layout - too much cost for shipping that way. That is the beauty of having an actual store where you can touch and feel the products - no shipping plus you can go and buy for just one layout. We used a lot of our stash up and it was really really fun! I love the layouts that we made this past month!

All that being said - we have seen lots of fun sneak peeks for CHA - and since Jennifer is actually going to CHA she will be able to tell me what stuff is going to be totally cool in my scrappy world!

Pocketful of Treasures is Famous!

Well, at least here in Fresno! Yay for Megan and Janice who were on Central Valley today yesterday video here.

At the end of the video she talks about a crop we are having on March 29, 2008. This crop is going to help raise money for JDRF and I am so very excited! May Flaum from Fiskateers is going to come and join us for a fun day of cropping, eating, and laughing. I am super jazzed about it! AND it gets better because Amy is coming too! Can it get any better? May, Amy, raising money to get rid of this horrible disease, I love it! More details to come...

Sweets for your eyes

I am excited to be a part of my first Kit Club Design Team and so thankful to Debbie at Crop Addict for giving me the chance to design with her kits. For the past few weeks, I have been hard at work creating some fun layouts. Here are a couple of sneaks of the upcoming Kit. It is sweet and yummy just like Valentine's Day candy. Head on over there and pick it up right away - it is jam packed! What I love the most is there are so many different looks for pages out of a single month's kit. I just *heart* them!

I Did It!!!

Well I did it ... I just sent off my application to the Scrapdango (www.scrapdango.net) design team. They have awesome kits there and Jennifer and I are thinking about getting the combo kit each month ... $55 for both the Sugar and the Spice kits. What a great idea to have a boy centered and girls centered kit. Perfect for Jennifer and I to share - since she has all the spice and I have all the sugar.

Speaking of sugar and spice ... I have to say that Miss Rachel seems to be WAY more spice at the moment. She has been held in at recess twice this week so she could finish up her work. I say twice so far because she is at school for day 3 right now. She is easily distracted (I know this ALL too well) and her teacher told me that if there were no other kids around she would never have any problems getting her work done. However like the rest of us Rachel lives in the real world and hopefully she will get less distracted as she gets older. For now - she will have to continue missing part of her recess - too bad it does not seem to be bothering her - ARGH!!

Upload Day at Mojo

This month our sponsor at Mojo (www.scrappinmojo.com) was Everlasting Keepsakes. They make lazer cut chipboard and it was really fun to work with. Head on over to Mojo and check it out ... http://www.scrappinmojo.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=13&sid=a7bde619058296fda4053ee7658cdc05

Also can't wait for Jennifer's first upload at Crop Addict. I am so excited to see what she has created for her first design team assignment there. The uploads can go into the gallery by Jan 20th I think - yeah Jennifer!!!

Where are we at on the diet???

Just a quick post to let you know where we are ...

Jennifer - 32
Amy - 27

Woohoo!!!

if he looked sick...

Some days I wish Jackson looked sick. I know that may sound weird to some of you, but I wish when people looked at him, the seriousness of his disease could show through. Other than the diabetes, he is an incredibly healthy little boy. But this dumb disease is ravaging his body and I am completely out of control. Even now at 1:00 am in the morning he is up having to go to the bathroom because his blood sugars are too high.

Today was a difficult day. His sensor is a testy little machine and the signal was lost right before Tae Kwon Do and we couldn't get it back. I wish the powers that be could give us more information about why we lose the signal and how to get it back quicker. We managed to get it back later this evening, but the tension and worry were already there.

And he can't fully participate in his Tae Kwon Do because we don't want him to harm the pump site or the sensor so he just sits out the parts he can't do. He TOTALLY understands why, but Ken said tonight, his face looked so sad as he watched his classmates. If he looked sick, maybe others around him would be more sensitive to his needs. UGH!

I try to remind myself that this is all part of God's plan and that He is going to use Jackson in his broken state in far great ways than I can imagine. Some days, like today, are just too hard.

Happy Scrappy Mail for Kids!

As you may or may not know ... Jennifer and I met in Fort Morgan, Colorado in 2004. You may also be aware that one of my favourite scrapbook manufacturers is also located in Fort Morgan - Sweetwater Scrapbook. A family owned company - Karla, Lisa and Susan are awesome - we love them! We attended one of their Sweet Retreats as a getting ready for Jennifer to move trip. Well they have now bought a house and are hosting retreats there year round. We are working on our plans to go and take in one of the retreats!!


One of their new things this year is a Kid's Club. It is $5 + shipping each month and it is so fun. Grandma Fran gave this year long membership to Rachel for Christmas - how fun is that! Rachel thought it was great to get scrappy mail just for her!!

Check out the Sweetwater house or the kit memberships at their website ... http://www.sweetwaterscrapbook.com/ and click on the links to the Sweetwater House, Kid's Club etc.

The Stash Diet and where we are at

Well we are 5 weeks into the stash diet now. It has been so much fun looking through my stuff. And it has also been fun to see some friends joining in with us and trying to create without buying!

Jennifer is up to about 25 layouts I think - with several being design team ones that she has been working very hard on. I can't wait until she can post them - because they sound awesome. I split out my pages and my projects and I am trailing her in the layout department. I only have 15 pages completed. But I was very surprised to see that in December I created 20 projects that count towards the 50 page goal. I have decided to push myself ( as has Jennifer) to create 50 actual layouts before I call this diet done. I think I can still get it done before the CHA stuff starts to arrive and has me wanting to shop shop shop!

Christmas break officially ended today as well - Rachel was so excited to go to school today - I am not sure she could think about how tired she must have been. She was awake at least 3 times last night and at one point she was awake for at least 45 minutes. I figure she will be taking a nap as soon as she gets home and I think I am going to have to join her as when she was up last night SO was I!! It seems like the break flew by - but I guess that is because I was down and out with the flu for 7 days of it!!

We have started a new way of posting challenges at Mojo ... Jennifer will post Sundays and I will post Saturdays. Be sure to check out the challenge threads everyday to see what the rest of the DT has in store for you! www.scrappinmojo.com

That's all my ramblings for today - hope you have a great Monday!!

Layout A Day Challenge

So Jennifer and I both signed up for the Big Picture Scrapbooking class - L.O.A.D. (Layout A Day). We are on day 5 and have both decided we really like the challenge of getting a page done for each day in January - with no requirements as to what the LO has to be!! By the end of January this class will push us over the 50 layout Stash Diet requirement.


It has been so fun doing the stash diet! I have been using papers that I loved when I bought them, but never used them. I have been searching through my stash to find embellies while planning pages. It has been super fun! And I have been organizing my stuff as I am doing this! It reminded me that the new year's resolution - buy stuff with a purpose and use it right away - is a good one for me. There are so many awesome things in my stash that I had to have because they were so cute or pretty - and yet there they sit in my storage containers! Not for long though - I am going to get to using the stuff!


Took Rachel and her friend to the park yesterday and while they played I wrote in my page planning book - even did some sketches. I would like to try and do this more - it will help me with my picture printing costs. I have so many pictures that I have printed and then I decide - well I want that one in 5x7 and I really don't need 6 pictures of Rachel doing that. Total waste of money - so hopefully my page planning will help with these costs!

I leave you now with the first 5 layouts I have done for the LOAD class ...

van der Kooi Tree '06 - Jennifer said this one does not even count as scrapbooking and I tend to agree - but I just wanted to get these pictures on a page!!

HAPPY 2008!!!

Wow - I can't believe that it is 2008! Where does the time go? I spent the last few days going through my calendar to do my monthly pages for 2007 - we sure do pack a lot into a year. And 2008 is already shaping up to have lots going on!

When Jennifer showed me the link to the Blessings book - I knew that I wanted to do it too. So here is mine - I loved Jennifer's clear cover so I used a Hambly overlay to make my cover.

To one and all - I wish you a happy and blessed 2008!