Sketchy Thursdays

I stumbled upon this site called Sketchy Thursdays which posts a sketch each Thursday.  They ask you to interpret the sketch and link it to be eligible for a prize.  All about it!  This is my first page based on the sketch for this week.

This is the first time using my Martha Stewart Crown Punch.  In love!  I've really got to start taking better pictures.  I just can't seem to get the lighting right.  Anyone have good tips on photographing layouts?

For Sale!

Hope everyone's having a good week.  Mine is turning out to be very busy!  I wanted to share my For Sale folder from my Scrap Angel page.  I have two mini albums that are made and ready to go out to lucky purchasers.  One is a Halloween themed mini and the other is a boy's Disney autograph book.  Please check them out and contact me if you're interested!

Also, I just finished The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larrson.  Anyone else read these books?  They're SOOOOOO good!  They just grip you.  The first one ended kinda slowly, but this second one ended very abruptly and definitely makes you want to continue on to the last book...which is what I'm doing!  Off to start The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

Night Flights

Josh has a night flight tonight.  Which means he went in early afternoon and won't be home until late tonight.  Caylan and I were on our own for dinner tonight.  That means one thing:  GOING OUT!  I just don't cook when he's not home.  So we piled up and went out for a little girl time.

We are so lucky to have a few In & Out Burgers near us.  Can't get enough!

After dinner, Caylan wanted ice cream.  I don't say no to ice cream.

She was being so careful not to drip it.

Yum!

We had a great girl night!  Now, it's time to tuck her in bed, curl up with a mug of tea, watch a few shows and knock out a good chunk of my book, which I'm REALLY enjoying.  Looking forward to a nice relaxing night and wait for my love to get home.

Grateful Mini and a side of Quilt

Happy Friday!  I have two projects to share today.  I'm so excited about both of them.  The first is a quilt that I just finished for my sister.  She's having a little boy in December so I wanted to make a quilt for her.  The beauty of this quilt is that I didn't spend a dime on it!  It's completely made of scrap fabric that I had already!  Even the backing I already had.  I used a Carmen's Block pattern, so it was easy to put together.  I really love it!

My second project is my Grateful mini.  I was inspired by Ali Edwards who did a gratitude journal a while ago.  I love the fact that there was a place to write down what you're thankful for everyday.  I finally did my own version.  I'm going to keep this book on my nightstand and every night, I'll stamp the date and write down one thing I'm thankful for that day.  It will really help me keep thinking positive thoughts and focus on the many blessings in my life.  I was lucky to find the perfect size journal at Borders.  And it's kraft paper, which is something I've been wanting to work with.  I love the way it turned out!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

WWII Tribute Album

My mother-in-law received her album today so I can now share it with all of you.  She loved it and I hope you enjoy it as well.

Featured!

Remember when I told you that I was going to be featured on The Dares blog?  They sent me some products and asked me to make a page based on an upcoming assignment.  It's being featured today!  The dare was to scrap what you wear.  When I first got the assignment I was kind of bummed, because I don't like a lot of my clothes right now.  So, when I went to my closet, I looked up at my very nice Coach bag collection.  Hmmmm, wheels started turning.  You wear purses right?  So that's what I did.  I love the page!  And seeing what everyone else did with the exact same products was so cool.  This is my new favorite blog, which I am officially stalking.  Hope you enjoy!

Stay Tuned...

Hi hi!  A couple of updates for you. 
1. My mother-in-law is scheduled to receive her WWII tribute album in the mail tomorrow.  I've been holding off on posting it until she's able to see it.  Once I get the go-ahead, I'll post pictures of it.
2. The Disney autograph book that was featured as a giveaway on Two Kids and a Map finally has a winner!  Congratulations to Dolly!  Once she chooses which book she'd like, the other one will go on sale on my Scrap Angel page.  Which one will it be, I wonder?
3. I'm really enjoying The Girl Who Played with Fire, but I can't seem to stay awake at night to read lately.  I keep falling asleep and it's frustrating me!  Must read during the day more often!
4. My scrapping is on a little break while I make a baby quilt for my sister.  Luckily it's coming together really quickly so I should be getting back soon.  Good thing, because I found a great little kraft journal at Borders today and got it to make a Graitude journal to use for 2011. 

Creativity never seems to cease, which makes me so happy.

Hair Bows!

I'm all for supporting small and home businesses.  For my daughter's first birthday, a friend of mine sent me some hair bows.  If you haven't seen my daughter's head of hair, we seriously needed them!  These bows were made by Melanie from Simply Bows-N-Bands.  Let me tell you, these bows are fantastic!  Melanie is an Air Force wife who does this in her spare time and sells them, and they're great!  Even better than what you would get in a store.  Made with love and the quality is just amazing.  So, over the weekend she had a little contest and guess who won some free bows....this girl!  I'm stoked!  I'm getting two free 3" bows for my daughter.  If you haven't heard of Melanie, seriously please go check out her page and the gorgeous bows and headbands she makes.  She'll do custom orders and any color combination that you want.  I ordered a huge 4" black and red bow for my daughter to wear on game days, for the Georgia Bulldogs and I love it!  And let me know what you think!

Last Comic Standing Tour

Last night, my husband and I went on a last minute date.  On Friday, we randomly saw a commercial for The Last Comic Standing Comedy Tour that was going to be in Tucson....tomorrow!  We scrambled to see if our friends could watch Caylan for us and quickly bought tickets.  Luckily, we were able to get great seats, even though we bought the tickets the day before the event.  Last Comic Standing is one of our favorite shows.  We love stand-up comedy!  The show consisted of the top 5 comics from the competition: Felipe Esparza (who won), Roy Wood Jr, Tommy Johnagin, Myq Kaplan, and Mike DeStefano.  The show was great!  We were laughing non-stop!  They were just as funny in person as they were on tv.  We absolutely loved it and we got to meet them after the show.  They signed our tickets for us and we got some pictures.  A scrapbook page was already in the works in my head!

We had 8th row seats, center stage.

Roy Wood Jr, my favorite!

Felipe Esparza, the winner.

These pictures were taken with our iPhones, so the lighting is a little off, but we're so happy we got them!  Awesome show and awesome date night!

Random Thursday Thoughts

1.  I'm excited to finish my first custom scrapbook order...a WWII tribute album for my mother-in-law.  I should finish it today.
2.  I'm obsessed with two songs right now:  Airplanes by B.O.B and Hayley Williams.  Snuff by Slipknot.  Can't. Get. Enough.
3.  Happy my husband's flight got cancelled today and he's coming home early.  They didn't have a plane for his crew...kinda need one of those huh?
4.  Feeling bad for my daughter, who has a head cold.  Poor thing.
5.  Studio Calico does a Question of the Day.  Today's was, "If you could be any other person for one day, who would you be?"  I answered Giada de Laurentiis, so I can eat all the yummy food and still be skinny.  Plus she's so gorgeous.  I'd just stare at myself all day.
6.  Just ordered this mini album kit from Elise Blaha Cripe.  Excited to get back to my hometown and do a mini about it.
7.  Thinking about opening an ETSY shop to sell some premade albums.
8.  Craving mozzarella sticks with ranch dressing.
9.  I have no idea what my daughter is going to be for Halloween.  We might just take her to a store and say, pick one!
10.  Super excited for our friends from California to come visit in a couple of weeks.

32 Mini and a Giveaway!

I finished my mini album that I was inspired to make while taking the MiniBook Workshop taught by Elise Cripe.  I absolutely love this album.  It was so easy and quick to put together.  My birthday is coming up in October and I wanted to document some things that I want to accomplish within that year.  This album is now sitting on my bookshelf where I can see it everyday and I can check things off as I do them.

In other exciting news, I'm being featured on the the blog Two Kids and a Map today!  I made some custom Disney autograph books and one of them is being featured for a giveaway.  Be sure to head over there and enter to win!  Two Kids and a Map is a great traveling website run by my friend, Jen.  She gives great travel tips for traveling with your kids and offers deals and must-see's for so many different places.  She was also chosen as Southern Living's Mom Blogger of the Week not too long ago!  Go check her out!

ETSY???

Some of you may know that I have a Scrap Angel facebook site where I advertise my custom scrapbook business.  I've also considered creating an ETSY shop to sell some already made products.  I'm wondering if anyone has a site, or shops on them, and what your experiences are?  Would ETSY be a good resource for custom scrapbook products?  I'm just wondering if it would be worth the effort.  I've gotten two custom scrapbook orders from my facebook site, but just not the response I was hoping for.  Thanks for your advice or input!

Book Review and Some Projects

Calling all vampire lovers!  I just finished Born to Bite by Lynsay Sands.  OMG!  It's the 13th book of the Argeneau vampire series.  If you enjoy vampire books and haven't read these....do it immediately!  Not only are the storylines fantastic, the love scenes are...um...lovely.  They're definitely adult books, but they're very very good.  The series focuses on one family of vampires and the people they live their lives with, called their lifemates.  Each book focuses on one member of the family and you learn their backgrounds and how they met their lifemates.  One of the best series I've read.  And number 14 comes out in December.  Happy Sarah!  If you're interested, the first in the series is called A Quick Bite. 

My next book is going to be The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson.  I really enjoyed the first book and I'm excited to see where this one will take us.

On to my projects update.  Oh my.  I have a lot of stuff to work on!  I've started my mother-in-law's WWII album.  I was very nervous about it because the stuff she has is so incredible.  Once I started sketching and making plans, I was feeling better.  I've gotten 3 layouts done so far.  I'm not going to post anything until it's all finished, but I'm very happy with the results.  I just hope to do it justice, and so far I think I am.
I am also going to do a Halloween themed mini album to keep my daughter's costume pictures in over the years.  I'm also going to be making some extras of these albums to sell on my Scrap Angel site.  I have also completed my "32" mini album that I made for my minibook workshop.  I'll be taking pictures and posting it tomorrow.  I really love the way it turned out.

AND I received my Studio Calico kit and extra goodies today!  I was stalking my door just waiting for the UPS man, who took forever!  I was overwhelmed with how beautiful everything was and I totally understand all the hype over Studio Calico deliveries.  Well worth the money!  I'm excited to get started on some pages and projects.  Luckily, I got the Harvest Moon add-on, which has some awesome fall and Halloween themed items.  Just perfect for my mini!  I can't wait to get back to my studio and start creating!

EEEEEEK!

Well, it finally happened.  After a few years of Josh mentioning and me repeatedly saying, "No way!"  I finally got to a point where I was ok with him getting a handgun.  It's for protection while at home, in case we're in the situation where we need to protect ourselves.  Then he says, "You need to learn how to use this in case you need to while I'm away."  Eeeeeek!  But he's right.  If he's away on a trip and I'm in a situation where I need to protect myself and my daughter, I should be comfortable using it if I need to.  So, off to the shooting range we went today.  I was terrified! He showed me beforehand how to get it ready and all the gadgets on it.  Once we were there, he had me hold on to his hands while he shot it so I would get a feel for how it was.  I about jumped out of my skin!  After holding onto his hand for a few minutes, it was my turn.  Hands sweating and shaking, heart racing....but I braved up and took it.  The first shot scared me a bit, but I kept at it.  My dear husband was so patient with me and helped hold my hands steady at first.  Once I fired off a few rounds, I gave him the ok to let me shoot by myself.  I started getting used to the recoil and I was able to shoot it without too much shaking.  And I ended up doing pretty well.  I shot two full magazines, 17 bullets each.  I'm pretty proud of myself.  I definitely need more practice, but I'm glad I'm learning how to use it in case, God forbid, I need to.  I don't know if I'll ever be totally comfortable with a gun in the house, even unloaded and locked away, but I do have peace of mind knowing how to use it and knowing that it's there.  Let's just pray that we'll never be in a situation where we need it.