Waxahachie Road Trip

The 4 shoppers left around 8:30 yesterday for a fun but windy road trip. We stopped in West for a potty break and some Czech goodies. We arrived at Crafty Scrapper about 11 and shopped until time for lunch at the Doves Nest. Kerri met us there for yummy food! We went back to CS and retrieved our shopping baskets, paid the big bill and Patti was the winner for the day. She even got a cute Big Yellow Bicycle shopping bag, pays to shop big!! Patti and I went to an antique mall, I was looking for old postcards and Patti found some goodies. I also found this cute 3 tiered fruit basket and immediately filled it with scrapping goodies when I got home. We drove to Just Scrap It and did some more fun shopping before it was time to head home. We had a great day and I think we wore Patti out, she slept on the way back!

Be sure and check out the post about my Giveaway this weekend!

Road Trip Again

Janet, Patti, Marie and I are off to Waxahachie tomorrow to see the Crafty Scrapper and do some shopping. We are leaving early, heading for Starbucks and meeting Patti in Jarrell, she will have her thumb out waiting for us beside the road!
Be sure and pick your favorite word bloom for the giveaway next week!

Giveaway

To celebrate the return of my lost blog and our new business I am in the mood to give some goodies away. Click on the business link above and go to Word Blooms and find your favorite Word Bloom, don't click on order just remember which one you want:). Post your choice in the comments sections of this post and on March 22, T will pick 3 lucky names out of the hat and I will ship you your choice free of charge.
The weather here is just wonderful, well maybe a little hot 95 but no humidity, perfect day for me to tool around town with the VW top down!!

Acrylic Waterfall Scalloped album

I have some wonderfuldesign team friends doing samples for our new business. Janet created this awesome acrylic waterfall album, complete with pictures of beautiful butterflies! Thanks Janet

Game Ball

We have had a miserable soccer season in high shcool, 2 wins, 10 losses. We started the season full of excitement and hope due to a new coach and great promises of fairness. The pre-season was great, lots of enthausiam and energy, then bam the personality changed. The coach seemed to have lost interest in winning or coaching this year, working on getting ready for next year. Fast forward to the game last Friday night, we were playing the number one team and as the team was being introduced, the coach that started the season returned, high fiving the girls, getting excited and actually coaching. One would wonder if some parents and higher ups had a talk with the coach. He played this game to win and we did 1-0! Of course everyone was elated and commenting on the difference in that game and the last 9. T was awarded the game ball, well deserved, she did an awesome job in the goal! Receiving the game ball and of course winning did wonders for her confidence, that was certainly sagging from the last 9 games.

Tucker is 6

We went to Red Oak to celebrate Tucker's 6th birthday Sunday. It was such a fun party, complete with a bouncy house and about 15- 6 year olds. How quickly you forget that 6 year olds are so full of energy especially when grouped together! I made Tuck a soccer word bloom of his soccer practice. I think this was only the 2nd birthday party we have able to celebrate with the 3 boys, we always lived too far away.

My Blog

Have you missed this little blog? Sometimes it just doesn't pay to hit any delte button! I accidently deleted my account but after a month, blogger helped me get it back! I will never hit a delete button without carefully reading and still probably won't! Some of the pictures are missing but I will get them back over time!!
Here the link to the new blog that I used until this one was recovered, in case you want to see what was going on for a month
Just Daily Life Again

soccer word bloom

I hate getting all the stuff together for tax season. Every year I say I will be more organized but that never seems to happen. Hopefully tomorrow I can finish it up and send it to the accountant.
I love this time of the year, not too hot, just a great spring day. My tulips are trying so hard to poke their heads up. Of course the weather for the weekend is not going to be this nice, they are forecasting sleet,and if it happens, it will be Friday when we have a soccer game!
I finished a soccer word bloom album today, it's a good thing I have a lot of soccer pictures.

Word Blooms Eagles Album

We are doing some custom word book albums. These are so much fun and fast to do, plus a great way to use up those embellies. This one is for T's high school soccer team. There is a space at the back for the team to sign their names.

Neighbors vs. No Neighbors

We have lived both ways. We used to live in the Hill Country on 20 acres our nearest neighbors were miles away. That lifestyle had great advantages, great views, quiet, with only the animals for noise.We moved and I was so glad to be back to everything being just a short drive and nice friendly neighbors to visit with. Where we live now certainly has a culture mix, which is to be expected these days. We do have wonderful neighbors that make living here super. Now comes the bad part. We live on a hill that allows us to see in our nieghbors backyard (of course they can see in ours too but we lead a dull life). All of our neighbors have dogs, so do we, but our dogs do not bark in chorus with all the other dogs. I understand barking is a normal dog thing but one neighbor has a big dog that barks at everything and at any time of the day or night. It has become very annoying to hear that woof! We called animal control and the owner came over to talk to us. He was very nice and hopefully that problem is solved. The next problem, 2 neighbors have teenagers that huddle on their back porches and smoke pot and whatever other drug of their choice is. That annoys and upsets me to see 4 to 6 kids home alone at various times of the day doing their "thing". Sitting in my sb room I can see them puffing away, then out our family room window we can see the other group puffing away. I still love living in a neighborhood but I don't enjoy seeing these actions 2 to 3 times a week from each neighbors children. Where are the parents?

Spring Acrylic Album

I guess I am getting anxious for the bluebonnets to pop their heads up,I love that time of the year. I don't think it will be long since it is almost 80 today.
I finished the album so when the bluebonnets are ready I will be too, just need to add ribbon and pictures!

Acrylic Tab Album

I finally finished this tab album. Love the red and black. Just a fun one showing T playing her guitar. I used Hambly and Bo Bunny rub-ons and of course some Prima bling

Altered Cookbook

I reorganized how I keep my receipes and this was a very old receipe book,complete with divider tabs. I covered the book with BG Recess paper, 7 Gyp. gaffer tape, rubons, QK scallop dies and lots of ink. I tried using HS copper clock rub-on but of course they didn't rubon, but I left what little went on on. I used the tab dividers as a pattern to cut out of chipboard, and there were 12 so perfect for this album. I plan to take a few of our favorite pictures each month and put them on the dividers. I am only using embellies that I have, going through the stash.At the end of the year I will have an album of our favorite pictures of 2008. Regarding the HS copper clocks rub-ons, they are horrible, what a waste of money! I emailed the company but got the response I expected...nothing.On a happy note, my friend gave me the new BG rubon tool...love that new tool.

A few more layouts

It is been so windy here a great few days to stay inside out of the howling wind.
Here are a few more I finished at the retreat.

Some layouts

Here are a few of the layouts I did over the weekend at our retreat. I am trying hard to keep up with the high school soccer pictures, so far so good! I made some pocket pages to keep the programs and ay other info. it was fun to work on layouts for a while instead of mini albums

G'town Mini Retreat

I had a mini retreat at my house this weekend, plus a Governors Cup Soccer tournament. The retreat was a blast! We stayed up late, ate way too much, watched fun movies and last but not least scrapped the weekend away.
GHS held the annual Governor's Cup Soccer tournament, with lousy weather the first two days and perfect soccer weather on Sat. The team came in second place, way to go Eagles!
The retreat required no outdoor activities with the exception of hauling in tons of scrapbooking goodies. I finished 14 layouts, a big deal for me, the others all accomplished some of their goals! Food of course was in great supply and we had a unwritten rule of eating or drinking every 20 minutes. We followed that rule! Molly and Tiki received tons of petting and little snacks to make them feel like a part of the retreat.Thanks everyone for a fun weekend and big thanks to dh for helping us set up tables and haul supplies!!

Tag Along

This weekend in Katy was cold, rainy, windy, muddy, and just miserable in general for soccer.Thursday it was cold but no rain, but Friday made up for it. The cold front hit, the rains and wind moved in. We played at 6pm and I had on thermals, sweats, down coat, gloves, ear muffs, scarf, boots and was still miserable. I felt like the Michelin tire baby I couldn't move or get in the truck. We lost in a shootout but we still went to the finals. Saturday was a little better with no rain and some sun. We slopped through the mud to the soccer fields to watch the girls win the game 4-1 and place 3rd.
This little unicorn has begun the soccer season w/T and is safely tucked on the sidelines for luck. We have another tournament this weekend and of course we are expecting sleet and cold. Maybe this little tag along will work his magic on the weather.

Men and directions

We drove from our house to Katy, Texas to watch T play in the I-10 Shootout.My dh and I have our biggest arguments over my lack of ability to read maps. I know that I am directionaly challenged and map reading is certainly a skill that I am lacking,so I was determined to fix this shortcoming. It seems that on every road trip we get lost, sometimes for a few minutes and sometimes longer, my fault or his we are still lost. Then I discovered Jill our GPS, it was love at first sight on the scrapbooking road trips I have taken. Jill has gotten us there going through Dallas,and Ft.Worth traffic without a hiccup. Now these trips have been with my friend Janet so there is no discussion on my ability to get us lost. However this weekend dh and I plug Jill in and we are off. Her directions say go one way but dh is bound and determined that he knows a better way! I think it is something in the male ego to prove a female voice on the GPS wrong. Jill wasn't wrong and we went a "few" miles out of our way to get to Katy.After that he admitted Jill was a pretty smart cookie and she has been plugged in to take us to various soccer fields and restaurants without a detour. Gotta love the GPS!

Soccer in Houston has always been rainy and cold, this weekend no exception. Last night we won in a shootout with T in the goal.It was cold but not rainy. Tonight made up for it. We lost in another shootout, again with T in the goal. It was in the high 30's with blowing rain and just teeth chattering cold on those steel bleachers. Soccer in the winter is always a treat. We have one more game tomorrow, then back home with Jill giving us directions.

School Soccer Starts Again

and it was so cold! We played a 3 day tournament in Allen, 2 were at night and the last one at 8am, each time the temperature had us hauling out blankets,gloves, heavy coats, and ear muffs. We shivered our way through all the games and it was so nice to get warm after each game.
This was the first away tournament riding with the team on the bus for T and with us staying at a different hotel.Her allergies kicked in so she was not in the best shape for a road trip or cold soccer games but she made it.
It was so nice to get home and get warm.Next week another road trip but this will be heading to Houston so rain will probably be the weather of choice.

I decided for this high school season I wouldn't take a zillion action shots but pictures of the sideline things they do. The funny and sometimes not so funny sideline antics are a great memory to have!

More Acrylic Goodies

I made these cute little hanging Valentine birds using stamps and Stickles. A cute little Valentine decoration.
This is the start of the 4 tab acrylic album using BoBunny and Hambly rub-ons. Love the red and black together!

Acrylic Heart Album

This is a 5 1/2 in. acrylic heart album that we are making. I used Cloud 9 paper for this one, some cute little birds,acrylic hearts,and lots of buttons!!

My Pals Pages

Here are a few of the 6 x 6 pages from the Pals Mini album! The Elsie papers are just perfect for teen pages!!

Fun layout

Decided to do some summer layouts since it is cold weather here. Today was a good day to stay inside and scrap! I used an old Scrap Addict kit. I actually did 3 layouts today and only got one scanned!Finished my pals mini album so will post some of the pages tomorrow.

My Pals Mini Album

A look at a BoBunny Mini Album, using Elsie paper and lots of buttons. This is the front and spine of the album!I dug out my crackle paint for the leaves and on the inside of the cover!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a safe and fun New Years Eve. We spent it at home playing Wii and XBox 360. Our little drummer boy loved the Rock Band, along with his brothers and cousin! I am sure our neighbors enjoyed our "rockin" New Years Eve. We toasted in the New Year with some sparkling Apple Cider,headed for bed but got to enjoy of neighbors fireworks for about 30 min! Tomorrow our Christmas decorations are coming down and hopefully I can get back in the scrapbooking mode!!

Merry Christmas

I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday!We stayed home,Rich had doctors appointments that we felt he needed to keep. Of course that didn't mean it was a quiet Christmas! We played Wii until our arms fell off and T had her friends over for a "rockin" session with Rock Band and Guitar Hero III. Our furniture is still moved back to allow for all the activity playing these games! If you look closely at the top picture you can see the tattoos on T right arm. It is a sleeve that slips over the arm and really does look real! Grandkids are coming this weekend so I am sure it will stay lively and loud!!

Wii Did Something

We have never done before! Guess you are never too old! We wanted to get our grandkids a Wii for Christmas and of course there are none around! We found a store that would have 60 this moring at 9 am. We had to purchase a MVP card for $20 to do this. We arrived at 7 am and joined the 20 people in front of us to wait our turn. It was cold and windy but we really enjoyed our time in line visiting with the 5 people in front and behind us! One lady even brought us coffee! We have now joined the ranks of those with a Wii! I don't think we have ever stood in a line for 2 hours to get anything and may never do it again but overall it was a fun experience!!

Santas Lap

I talked T into sitting on Santas lap over the Thanksgiving holidays, I don't know how many more years I can do that! I did a quick layout just to document this!
This child has a thing for the backs of any remote device. She love to take the little piece that holds the batteries in and poof they disappear! We have used a large amount of scotch tape and duct tape to keep the batteries in her remotes. She "lost" the back off of our remote for the TV in the family room last week, so that rendered it useless and I refused to use duct tape!The very first thing she did with the new one was to remove the little holder....but I saw her! She has been threatened to not reach 17 if she looses it again!The joys of a 16 year old!!

More Memories

The Red Stocking. My Mother made 6 of these way back in the 1950's. They are plain and simple compared to some but I do remember her sitting in her chair sewing the felt and sequins on carefully by hand.
T. Stocking. I cross stitched this on linen and thought it was beautiful, but T was such a tomboy way back then she did not like it at all. Luckily, years have changed her opinion of this.
Elves. I made these in the early 80's when I used my sewing machine for actually sewing on material. I entered the little fellas in our county fair and won first place.
Tree skirt. The best memory of making this tree skirt was sitting all alone in our game room with the stero turned up and sewing all the felt and sequins by hand. The kids were all in school and dh was in New Mexico hunting. We lived where it snowed and I could stay warm and toasty,watch it snow, work on the tree skirt,and enjoy the week alone! This skirt has certainly seen better days but I still can't bring myself to give it up! Maybe someday I will do another one!

Fond Memories

I took pictures of some Christmas decorations that brought back fond memories of years gone by.
The ceramic Santas. I remember going to a ceramic shop and sitting while my Mother and aunt sanded and painted these wonderful Santas. I have had them for years and each Christmas I remember that my Mother was very artistic and my aunt was not but I love these Santas that they both made over 40 years ago!
The block tree. I made it about 15 years ago and I still love to get it out every year, get the hot glue gun and glue the pieces back on. Last year my dog got tangled in the tablecloth and the tree fell to the ground and into a million pieces. I finally found the instructions oh how to put it back together, so once again it has a regal spot in our house. The grandkids love to spin it around picking out their favorite toy!
The 12 days of Christmas. I loved cross stitching way back when and this is still one of my favorite pieces.
The pillow. A friend gave me this pattern in 1986 and I love the colors and children on the words, so each year I take it out and it has a special place on our sofa!
I will post some more fond memories of the Christmas decorations around our house tomorrow!