Doing a RAK (and lots of other fun stuff)

Happy Monday morning everyone! I'm going to start this blog post off with a new layout... This is another Daisy D's layout done for my DT work for Create My Keepsake. Have I mentioned how much I am diggin' this Daisy D's?? :-) Next, since some of you were wondering what the new 'do looks like, I'm taking my dear friend Renee's lead and posting a picture of the new hair :-) I took several inches off and went with the messy/choppy layered look that I often go for.

Lastly, the part I know you are all waiting for (because, after all, who doesn't like free stuff??) I am stealing the awesomely talented Doris's idea for a RAK. I have a rather large stack of layouts that are piled up on my printer in my scrap room. I'm sick of looking at them and want to finally get them into albums. I have no idea how many are there.

Sooo, leave me a comment on this post and tell me how many layouts you think are in my stack. The person who comes closest to guessing the correct number of layouts gets this lovely brand new border punch by Martha Stewart. So, guess away, people! I'll announce a winner on Thursday :-)

My daughter says a new word...

So, at 18 months, Chloe is adding new words to her repertoire every day. Well, the most recent is oatmeal, however, it sounds suspiciously like "eat me"! Given her temperament, it's quite possible that the phrasing is intentional, hehhea! It is the funniest thing! So, of course, it's become my favorite thing to turn into her latest party trick. "Chloe... say oatmeal!" Poor kid.

Since I'm on the subject of funny things my kids say, I have to share this one. The other night, Noah was playing his Star Wars Lego video game (his latest obsession). He asked me to help him get through this one part of the game. I told him I had never played the game before, so I wasn't really sure what I was doing, but that I would try my best to help him. So, he's coaching me along the way, telling me what buttons to push to make the little star wars guy jump, run, etc (nice that i'm taking lessons from a 3 1/2 year old, huh?). Well, I'm getting very proud of myself, as it seemed as though I was taking down the bad guys and moving through the one part of the game rather well. All of a sudden, Noah looks at me and says, "mommy, I think this game is too hard for you" and then takes the controller from my hand! Niiiiiice, kiddo, way to make your mommy feel totally incompetent, lol!

We're having a good weekend. We had a birthday party for one of the kids in the neighborhood yesterday morning and then another birthday party for my step-grandfather last night at a restaurant. Afterwards, all 19 of us came back to my house. The kids had a blast running around all over the place, and it was so nice to see my family that came in from out of town. Today we have a birthday party out by my parents, so we're going to make a day of it.

I have another Daisy D's layout to share that I did for my DT work for Create My Keepsake. I'm almost done with another one, too, which I'll hopefully finish up tonight. It's so cool that this "Chloe Marie" line can be used for scrapping girls and boys.

I used the Daisy D's letter stickers as masks. Journaling talks about my son's happy, loving, goofy nature. He has always been such a fun, upbeat kid... I hope he always stays that way!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

I'm up!

The Luxe blog is taking turns spotlighting each member of the DT, and today is my turn :-) If you're interested, you can check it out here. And since they shared one of my DT layouts from last month, I am now allowed to share it here! I used almost all Luxe products for this layout, "My girl" with the exception of the microbeads, the bling arrow, the buttons, the paper flowers and the "I love you" ribbon. I'm loving their stamps (I used them for the labels) - they give a wonderful crisp image!

We had a nice playdate today with my mom and my mom's friend who is watching her 3 y.o. granddaughter. I even got to treat myself to a haircut while my mom watched the kids back at my house. Having an hour to myself - pure bliss, lol!

I'm loving my new Daisy D's!

Ok, so this is a quickie post to drop off a LO I did for my Create My Keepsake DT work. Our manufacturer sponsor this month is Daisy D's (Chloe Marie line), and let me tell you - this line is GORGEOUS! Thanks so much to CMK and Daisy D's for my awesome package! I tore right into that box when I got it yesterday! Something about the colors made me think of these photos I had of Chloe from last summer, so I scrapped some older photos :-) I know no one is surprised that I cut into that paper, lol, as that seems to be my favorite thing to do lately!

Patterned paper, Die-cut flowers, Die-cut tag, Cardstock letter stickers, and rub-ons are all Daisy D's; Mini-glitter letter stickers and brad: Making Memories; Bling: Heidi Swapp, and I also added micro-beads and stitching.

A good friend of mine who I don't get to see that often is on her way over for a playdate, so I've got to get off of this computer!

:-) Hope everyone is having a great week!

Happy 4th of July!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! Ours was fantastic! I think this was my favorite 4th of July yet :-) Our day started with a bike parade that our cul-de-sac put together. We decorated the kids bikes and then took them on a little parade around part of the neighborhood. Afterwards, they had snacks and played outside for a couple of hours.

Noah and his girlfriend, Savannah:

I made the mistake of challenging my neighbor LaTanya to a scooter race on the kids' scooters. Bad idea - she kicked my butt, lol!

After we came home and refreshed (i.e. napped!), we went to another neighbor's house for a late afternoon/evening party. The kids had a blast, and so did us adults! My husband had a little too much fun, but that is a whole nother story, lol. Once it got dark, we walked across the street to the big hill in our neighborhood - you can see the fireworks that they shoot off in the center of town (without fighting the traffic and dealing with parking!) The kids went to sleep waaaay past their bedtime, and Chloe was a bit on the cranky side today, but it was well worth it! We made up for our active day yesterday by having a low-key one today. We did go fishing with Chip and Lisa and the girls (next door) at the pond near our house, so that was fun. Noah had never been before (nor had I!).

Noah with his girlfriend Savannah and soon to be sister-in-law, Kaylee, lol:

I'll leave you all with my newest layout. The journaling lists all of Noah's friends and mentions how amazing it is that at 3 1/2, he has almost as many friends as I do, heheah!

I also want to tell you guys about this awesome RAK that Emily from Luxe is doing this weekend - you can win: 10 sheets of red & Blue Simply Luxe, 2 sheets of Color Me...Strarstruck, 2 12 x 12 sheets of alpha stickers, 1 red & 1 blue sheet of die-cut journaling jotters, 1 set of red label stickers, 1 white dot border rub, 1 white alpha rub & 1 set of blue epoxy stickers. The winner will be posted on Monday morning, so go check it out before it ends!

Hope everyone had a safe and wonderful holiday!!

Yes, I am THAT cheesy!

So, although I read that Memory Makers Reader's Idea Gallery would hit newstands on July 8th, I heard (via the 2Peas grapevine), that some stores already had it! Sooo, of course I had to run over to B&N after work tonight. I'm just way too impatient to wait for my two free copies, lol. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but it looks like a great issue! Anyway, without further ado, here are my VERY cheesy photos of me showing my very first two published layouts ever!Please pardon my appearance - today is my looong day of work (I go straight from my school to private practice, but I can't complain too much since I only work a couple of days a week, lol), and I just got home.

By the way, my layout "I'd Wonder" is on page 56, and "Living in our hood" is on page 82. It's funny, though, because those two layouts are older ones of mine, and I feel like my style has changed so much! They are definitely not two of my favorites that i've done, yet for awhile, they were my only layouts to get picked up (funny how that works)! However, I put my heart into them like I do all of my layouts, and it's definitely fun to see your own creations in print! :-)

If you are in this issue, too, give me a shout out and let me know which layout is yours - it's so much fun to see layouts from scrappy friends i've met online!

This was another exciting part of my day today:

Does that featured layout on 2Peas look familiar? ;-)

Off to go watch So You Think You Can Dance - I have to go get my fill of my reality TV! Happy Hump Day everyone!

Christmas in July...

That's what happens when you're on a pub schedule, lol. I did this one pretty late, though, so I already missed the deadlines for a lot of magazines... that's what I get for being a slacker :-) So, this is my first ever Christmas layout! From this Jewish girl from Maryland, heheah. Journaling is about how I never thought I would celebrate Christmas as an adult, being that I'm Jewish. However, Tony and my SIL Terry celebrate X-mas, and every year Terry and my bro host a big Xmas Eve dinner, so that has become our family tradition.

I have a Hannukah one that I did to, so i'll post that soon, too, just to even things up, hehea. I sent that one in to a mag who requests never before seen, so I'll wait just a little longer to post that one (wishful thinking, huh?!).

So, I wanted to let you all know that fabulous things are going on on the Luxe blog. So far they have shown 4 previews of their new stuff coming out, and they will be previewing even more (9 in total!)! They have a ton of new product featuring in the next few months, so you don't want to miss out! I think i'm most excited about their "It's about time" line featuring calendar papers. They are also spotlighting a different DT member every few days, so you'll have to check out the amazing talent that surrounds me on that team! I found out today that one of my Luxe layouts made it into their catalogue, so I can't wait to see that!

Also wanted to wish Paper Trunk a very happy 1st birthday today! They have all sorts of fun challenges on their blog today to celebrate. Most of the challenges require the uploads by July 6th - so you all have plenty of time to play :-)