It's BACK and I am so excited ...

My desire to just sit and create. It has been a long while since I have had the real desire to sit down and create. It has been a journey ...

January 2008 started off with a bang! Jennifer and I had decided to take over Scrappin Mojo with another friend/member and we were all so very excited about running this great challenge-based scrapping community. Jennifer and I were doing LOAD (layout a day) with tons of other online scrappers at Big Picture Scrapbooking. I was having so much fun creating, playing with my scrappy stuff and thinking of fun ways to inspire the members of our website. We had on-line crops, taught mini classes, gathered inspirations from all over the Internet to help the girls with gift ideas for Christmas. Sure there was the boring daily tasks of deleting all the spammers and making sure the site was running correctly - but the fun out-weighed the effort required to run the site. And while I did not have the same amount of time to dedicate to my own scrapbook pages, I was still able to create some super fun stuff!!

Just before Christmas there was an event - a break-up of sorts and we were given an ultimatum. As much as I loved running that site, there was no way I was going to choose a website over family - and well Jennifer IS FAMILY. Without getting into the details - because they really don't matter anymore - Jennifer and I made the decision to hand the site over to the 3rd 'partner'. And while we miss what we had there - we are OK and the site is doing fine as well. However the whole ordeal really affected me in a negative manner. It was more than just missing a scrapbooking website - it felt like a real loss to me. And I guess I needed time to grieve through it and move past some of the things that were said and the way things were handled. (Anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that I am UBER over-protective of my friends and family and I will not have anyone hurt them or say things about them.)

Well that grieving process seemed to go on forever. I think I completed about 15 pages in all of last year. I just could not get into it. Jennifer tried everything to get me to do some pages, my friends at A Peek Into Yesterday were missing my pages .... nothing worked. Then I decided to purge my scrapbooking space of extra stuff. Some of the stuff went to recycling, some to the trash but most of it went to my friend Krista who was so excited with all this new stuff. She was able to create some memorial albums for her family as they suffered the loss of several members last year. And it somehow hit me - THAT is what scrapbooking is all about. Creating FOR FAMILY! The loss I had suffered was not that of family but it was the loss of a relationship that had been built on trust and mutual respect. But I still HAVE my family and I can still create for us, saving our memories and have fun while being creative.

During this whole time lots of other life things have happened -- one of the more significant being Jennifer's move back to Wichita. (This brought them to within driving distance ... meaning we could be together for celebrations - always good for the soul!) Jennifer also reconnected with a friend who just happened to be starting a scrapbook kit company. So Jennifer began creating for the kit club and convinced me that I needed to get these kits, that they would help on my road back to the scrapbooking world.

And you know what - they DID create a little spark in me ...Since then, I have moved to Oklahoma City and the house we bought has the perfect space to call my own. Jason bought me a great counter height table, I have fun storage for all my scrappy goodness and I am creating again. In fact when Jennifer suggested that I go out for the design team at Scrapbook Chicks ... I went for it. And I made it on the team - Jennifer said she had nothing to do with that - but I am sure she did not hurt my chances either - haha.

I look forward to receiving my kits each month and I can't wait to get creating with it. The monthly club company has now grown to include a store full of scrappy goodness to play with!!! I created this fun page this week with papers from the January kit and a sketch from Ella Publishing.


I am going to visit Jennifer and I can't wait to get there and just start scrapbooking with my partner in crime - or more appropriately my partner in paper. I can't tell you exactly when the little spark ignited into this flame of desire to be creative - but it did and I could not be happier. Just in time for National Scrapbook Day on May 1, when Jennifer will be joining me in my scrappy space and we will be playing with our online scrappy friends.

Happy Scrapping!!
Amy
xo

Weekend Fun

Will you have a chance to create this weekend? Amy and I cropped together (in our on-the-phone-way) tonight for the first time in a LONG time. It was fun and we both got a page done. Amy used her lightening speed scrapper skills to whip up the same sketch that took me just a bit longer. Can't wait to show you in the morning! Come over and join us on the Two Chicks Facebook Fan Page for the awesome sketch! There is a gift certificate for one lucky winner of the sketch challenge each week. Susan makes the most incredible and easy to use sketches for us. I LOVE them!

And even bigger news, check back next week... we have our first giveaway planned! YAY!

Jennifer writes these cute blog posts complete with WAY cute pictures of her seriously (and I mean SERIOUSLY) cute crafty projects. If she had not told me she made that topiary I would have sworn she paid oodles for it at some fancy decorating place. But no - not Jennifer - she drives through blog world and finds the cutest things to make. I have seen that topiary in person and it is SO darn cute!! But the cuteness does not end there - nope ... there are the cute things she has made for her scrappy room, the awesome projects she has made for her boys and the fun (and inexpensive) things she has made to decorate her house.

Jennifer is my BEST friend ... the person I turn to when I can't talk to anyone else ... the person who can call me and say "get your butt up and do something with your life today" (and not be hung up on). In Grey's Anatomy terms - she is MY person. Now that does not take away from my husband (or hers) because God love him he can say the same things to me as Jennifer - but the delivery is just not the same. And he just does not appreciate a good scrappy page from a crappy one. He can look at a bummer of a page and try to make me feel better when what I need to hear is "Yeah it is missing the mark" which is what I get from Jennifer. A husband knows better than to say yes you look fat in that dress, no that page is not stellar and I agree with you that girl is beautiful - THAT is the kind of thing that can only come from a girlfriend!!!
Though we are alike in many ways - there are loads of things that are different. I have 1 daughter- she has 3 sons, we grew up in different countries, she remembers songs I have never heard of (867-5???) Maybe I was studying for a big test or something ... in any case we have different styles, likes and dislikes but no matter what those are we compliment each other. I try to keep up with the blogs she tells me about, and I agree tons of the stuff she finds is TOTALLY adorable. I can see all of it looking cute in my house ... difference is - she decides she is going to make the cute things and she ACTUALLY does it! I just look and never do it ...

BUT NOT TODAY ... Two Chicks put up this totally cute sketch this afternoon and I said I was going to do it --- AND I DID IT!!! And here it is ... I have had this page in my head since I got the picture of Jennifer (the person) and her namesake Jennifer (the cat). NO I DID NOT NAME THE CAT - Rachel did when she was 4! When I saw the sketch it was perfect for these pictures. So I pulled out my handy Two Chicks April kit and put this together. Used a few pieces from my brown Chick 'n Feathers and some buttons from my Chick 'n Feed and some alphas from the March kit. And VOILA - I love this ... the full title it "nature vs nurture? maybe the crazy is from Jennifer" and on the picture are the words (the person not the cat).


I wonder if I bought all the supplies for the topiary if she would make me one? She has banned me from the hot glue gun since the episode of making VBS horses in 2005 ...

xo
Amy

Topiary Envy

So, here's the deal, one of my dear friends in Fresno had these two great topiaries and from the very first moment I saw them in her living room I tried to devise a plan to get them to my home. Unfortunately, it's a bit difficult to stash a 30" high tree in your handbag or sweatshirt. So in my efforts at not becoming a full on criminal, I started to search high and low (and really low sometimes) for something to match the beauty of these fun little decorating accessories. I was amazed at just how pricey these guys can be!! Of course, with my cadillac tastes, I was finding them for upward of $50 (or MORE!) each! OMGoodness!!! Are you kidding me?? I really had no idea when I started my hunt that they would be so expensive.

Bring in Dave Ramsey... UGH! Dave certainly has no room in our current budget for these trees. But my living room really needed at least one. I have a teensy home decor budget each month so I began searching blog land for how to make one... remembering that I am really better with paper than anything else. But oh how I was dreaming of my very own topiary! Finally, after months of searching I found exactly what I was looking for! Right HERE. So I gathered up the stuff and spent an afternoon burning my fingers all in the name of decorating.

Here is a little look at my steps:

First, I ripped all these little boxwood pieces off of close to 4 stems I picked up at Hobby Lobby at 50% off. YAY! Couldn't have created this without that sale.

Next, I used my extremely scientific tool to poke shallow holes in the green floral ball to push the stems into after adding a drop of hot glue on the ends. There was an insane amount of hot glue used in the creation of this topiary, but that's ok with me. After all this trouble, I don't want this sucker falling apart on me!Using the tutorial from Miss Mustard Seed, I proceeded to add the boxwood in all around the ball while it rested on another scientific-topiary-making-holder.After a few hours of ripping stems, poking holes, cursing the hot glue gun, and general praises to myself of "look how cute this is gonna be!" it was finished. Look at her in all her topiary glory! I had to run out before it snowed again to find the perfect stick from one of our trees (shhhhh, just don't mention this to Ken) but I LOVE the way she came out. I have plans for a second one just as soon as HL has another sale. He He!
Note: I would like to dedicate this post to never giving up on your dreams, no matter how demented and self-centered they may be. ;)

A GOOD Good Friday Post

Well here I sit, in Oklahoma, boxes (mostly) unpacked, car in the garage and ready to start life as a Canadian Okie. Not sure how I am going to do with storm season, but this morning I awoke to the weather radio alarm letting us know that there was a hail storm on the way. And darn - it showed up exactly when they said ... Jason - we're not in Texas anymore. The weather predictions from where we lived were not always that accurate!

It is Good Friday and there is no shortage of Churches to choose to attend for Good Friday service. We will go to the one we attended this past Sunday - since we know a bit about how to get around there. Seriously the Churches here are HUGE. I think it will be interesting to try a few out and decide where we will end up. As for the rest of the weekend we had planned to do a bunch of stuff around the house until last evening when Jennifer called and suggested we head up there for Easter. So we will leave tomorrow sometime - so cool to be only 2 hours from her now!!!

Well there have been a lot of changes since I last posted ... new house, new state, new school ... the list goes on. One thing that has not changed ... scrapping and the awesome kits from Two Chicks ... in the midst of packing and unpacking I have been able to get some pages done ...

As you can see ... lots if FUN patterns and colours to play with. I still have pages up my sleeve, but I think my family is appreciative that our house is looking more like a home than a packing plant!

Have a great Easter!!
Amy

This is no joke!

The April Kit from Two Chicks is the bestest kit evah!!! I know I say that all the time, but I really truly love this one. It includes all my favorites - Great patterned papers with lots of small patterns to cut up, punch, tear, stamp; versatile die cut sheet with lots of uses; ribbons, need I say more? ; oodles of bright colored buttons, and alphabets to die for! There is even a die cut paper too!! WOW!! I have lots left over and a list of pages to create that is a mile long. It has been perfect for creating lots of LOM layouts too. Just fun and unique and perfect. ;)


I have another really cute one that I couldn't get good lighting for yesterday. Stop back by to see it and all of Amy's creations too.