Another Near & Dear Layout

using the Scrap Treasures kit:

The first kit is up

at Scrap Treasures! All this for less than $20! Kits will be for sale every other month. Aren't these colors and those textures yummy? I love the velvet ribbon and the lace and the alphas and...I could just go on and on.











Here's what I've done with the kit so far. But stay tuned, there's definitely more to come!

Are you up for a Week Long PARTY????

WooHoo! The girls at Scrap Treasures are planning a fun-filled week starting Monday, June 11 through Sunday, June 17 to celebrate the Grand Opening of the Scrap Treasures Store. There will be lots of games, challenges, contests, and prizes. We even will be chatting with some real scrapping celebrities --- Tara Governo, owner of Dream Street Papers and Cindy Tobey, designer for Fancy Pants Designs.

So start cleaning off your scrap table, get those pics printed, and join us for a FUN WEEK as we celebrate the official Grand Opening. Ummm.....did I mention there will be LOTS of prizes ???? And maybe even a surprise or two.

I can hardly believe it!!!

WOW! I've been helping out at Scrap Treasures while Sunny got the site up and running and put a Design Team in place. Little did I imagine when this all started that I would be one of an awesome team Sunny has put together. I'm so honored to have this opportunity. I know there are some great things coming up in the store and in the forums!

Go ahead and mark your calendar for the week of June 11-17. It will be a week-long Grand Opening celebration with lots of challenges, prizes, games and fun. Thanks again Sunny! I'm looking forward to a very busy six months!!

Certified Junkie!

Yep - I'm living up to my reputation as a challenge junkie. I didn't get around to finishing this for the IMCK online crop last weekend. This was for a scraplift challenge. I lifted a LO by my friend Amy who is on the Design Team there. It also was for a black and white only challenge at SOS AND a challenge to use heat embossing from Scrap Treasures. Multi-tasking at its finest. LOL


Don't forget the Memorial Day sale at Scrap Treasures. 15% off everything through Tuesday.

It's starting to hit me

That wave of emotions from realizing that my oldest will be starting kindergarten in exactly 81 days. Here's an excerpt of an email I sent as soon as I got to the office this morning. I sent it to a dear friend whose daughter is getting married in 2 months.

I'm a blubbering mess this morning. And the first thing I thought of was how you must be having the same feelings each and every day right now. Why is it so hard to see our kids grow up? I mean, them growing up is all part of the master plan isn't it?

We're nearing the end of regular session at Addison's preschool. She'll stay on for Summer Session until the middle of August, but the regular session is winding up with lots of year-end activities. This morning was "Build a Book". So we sat at a table for an hour with a blank spiral mini-book, glued foamies and paper, and colored. When I start to leave, I find in her cubbie a 3-ring binder. Her teacher made each of the 11 kids in her class their own scrapbook of the year. Thirty 8.5X11 pages documenting her year in Miss Beth's class and the sweetest letter to her at the end from Miss Beth. Not Ali or Heidi style, but perfect for a 5 year old. Why am I crying? Because I'm so sad she's ready to start her journey into the big mean world with kindergarten as the first stop. And I know that somewhere along the line she's going to realize that not everyone loves her like her Momma and Daddy and Miss Julee (her first sitter) and Miss Beth (her first teacher). It's just so stinking sad. And my makeup is a mess. LOL

Here's a pic of Addison with her awesome scrapbook. We will treasure this forever. And he'll kill me if he reads this, but Carl even got teary-eyed when he read the letter Miss Beth wrote to Addison. Thanks Miss Beth for loving our little girl!!

Fort Knox

Welcome to Fort Knox. And yes, there are some treasures in here even though they may not be gold. LOL This is what you have to do when you have a scrap space in an open area AND have an inquisitive, energetic 19-month old whose curiosity outweighs his ability to retain what "NO" means.

1. The "U" in my U-shaped area is barricaded with a baby gate.














2. I actually started using these Rubbermaid tubs for project kits, theme papers and alterables when I started running out of storage space. It turns out they really were necessary to prevent bandits from using the craft desk as a tunnel.













3. I had to build up a barricade next to the wall. This only used to house my crop tote, but Clark was climbing over that on a fairly consistent basis. He still gets the floss holder down and carries it around like a suitcase, but so far he's been deterred from trying to climb in anymore.


















And there you have it. Mom's way to protect her space!!!

I'm really not sure where the month has gone!!!

I've been busy. I've been scrapping. I did get sick....REALLY sick. They say it was food poisoning, but I have no idea why I got it and no one else did. I just dropped a bunch of pics off the camera to the computer. Here are a few of my favs.

Celebrating National Scrapbooking Week

I've often said that I never in my life thought I could ever find a hobby that would rival my dh's golf spending. Then I found scrapbooking. I met Carl the second week of April....right in the midst of the Masters Golf Tournament. I learned quickly that his world STOPPED for the Masters. At least until we had kids. Now he tries to celebrate Masters week yet balance his paternal responsibilities. And too funny, but that's how I now feel about National Scrapbooking Week! Like it should be some kind of sacred holiday.

I will be celebrating this week by going to the CK Convention on Friday. Then coming home and cybercropping with some online friends at Sunny's new site: Scrap Treasures. There will be games and challenges and PRIZES all weekend!! If you don't have a place to celebrate NSD, please join us at Scrap Treasures. And, of course, I'll be balancing my scrapping with making sure the kids stay clean, fed, and happy. (They don't need to eat that often, do they?)

I should just admit I'll never catch up! LOL

Life is ALWAYS crazy it seems. Carl's shoulder surgery ended up being more intensive than they thought so his recovery time is now 6 weeks instead of 1 week. It's tough doing the whole get ready-get home-dinner-cleanup-playtime-bathtime-bedtime thing without his help! But his left arm is supposed to be immobilized for another 5 weeks. It's times like these I wonder how the single moms do it all. We'll make it, but it has definitely hindered catching up on other post-tax-season things.

I had so much fun at the SOS Spring Fling Crop! I was able to get a few layouts done which is always a good thing! My favorite creation was the Altered Planner Challenge. I made this to slip in the plastic cover of my 3-ring binder I have to keep up with the class assignments.

















And last night, I finished this LO combining one of Ingrid's sketch challenges and Gina's Scrapping with the Stars Challenge at Willow Traders.