Another Layout Share

Well, this kit from Scrapbooker's Club House keeps going and going! I love it, I never would have thought to use it for camping photos, but I think it works. Don't tell me otherwise. Here are a few more layouts i've completed with the kit.




I just love that photo of Craig with the kids flying the kite. Kayla was SOOO into her Hello Kitty kite. She figured out how to keep the kite up and was a pro in no time. She did not want Hello Kitty diving to the earth. She was so patient and deliberate, she was a great kite flier!!

On another note, I am loving the new Killers album. I think it's a collection of remakes and outtakes and cuts that didn't make the 2nd album. But they have an awesome acoustic version of Sam's Town and a great Joy Divison cover. The more I listen, the more I HAVE to listen. I hope they come back to LA next year, Tiff and I are ready. Peace out!

My View...

It was a beautiful West Coast sunny Christmas Eve day and we took advantage of it and went to the beach. We spent all afternoon letting the waves catch our toes and finding sea creatures in the tidepools. Because of the full moon, the tide was low and we saw all sorts of great things in the tidepools. It was nicer than many summer days at the beach. This is why I live in California. Happy Holidays everyone!!

O Christmas Tree

I've been playing with the settings on my camera, trying to get a good photo of our tree. Our living room has a valuted ceiling, so I get all sorts of weird shadows bouncing all over the place. This is the best photo I've gotten to date. I had to edit the photo a bit after I took it, tried to make it a little less yellow. But here it is!!

December is Good!

I have exciting news...I was picked to be Scrapbooker's Club House's December Guest Designer! WOOOOHOOO!! I am so thrilled about this. Nicole and all the girls at SBCH are awesome. They have great monthly challenges and are always ready with a kind word and friendly smile. Come on over and check it out! http://www.scrapbookersclubhouse.com/forum/phpBB2/index.php

Here are a few layouts I made with my guest designer kit. It included My Mind's Eye 'Out & About' patterned paper. This stuff is beautiful, I love it. It works for so many different themes and photos. The first one is a 6x12 LO, which is my first ever. I was scared at first, but it came together quickly and I will definitely be doing more of these!





This one was based on a Becky Higgins sketch. I like the clean lines and how I used so many photos on a 2-page LO.





I know it looks crooked, I can't seem to take a straight photo or fix anything in my photo editing software right now. Looks so professional, doesn't it....Yikes! I'm just lucky to find time for scrapping right now!

While i'm at it, check out these ornaments I made for a friend of mine. They were easy and fun and I only broke one!!


And to top it all off, here are the cuties on our lawn. My DH bought the polar bear last year and he thought the bear was lonely. He now has 2 penguin friends and they seem to enjoy our neighborhood!!! Happy Holidays, everyone!

The Good...The Bad...The Ugly

Okay, that is one of my DH's FAVORITE movies of all time, but that's not what this is about. Mary from 2SCD has a blog challenge, give the good, bad, and ugly of the holiday season. We'll start easy...

THE GOOD: This includes family and friends, time off work, presents, presents, giving presents, decorating the tree, lots and lots of holiday baking and eating, colder weather, wearing the hat and scarf even when it's not that cold outside, more family and friends, the quintesential christmas spirit!

THE BAD: I don't have much to say here! Maybe waiting in line or crowded parking lots, but I do alot of shopping online, so don't have to worry about that. Maybe those little extra pounds that creep on while i'm eating and baking?

THE UGLY: Whenever we get together for any occasion, there is always a few games of heated, highly competitive Scrabble played. We all know it, we all do it, we all love it. One holiday, my DH and I tried to memorize as many 2-letter words and words that start with 'V' from the dictionary on the drive to my Mom's. There's been letter swapping under the table, trash talking, pouting, some voices being raises, grudges held, and many challenges using the 20 year old dictionary. But this really takes the cake. This word was playing by my future brother-in-law on Thanksgiving. You can't really marry into this family unless you play a few rounds of Scrabble. You don't have to LIKE it, just shut up and play. Well, he played this word and by some miracle of nature, NOBODY CHALLENGED IT!!!!!! I wasn't in this game, but was shocked when I saw the board. He tried to sneak this past everyone, and by golly...it worked. Towl...some weird twisted version of towel...That's the UGLY i'm talking about!



BOOOOOOO-YA!!!!! Welcome to the family, Jason!



That's The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly...and for my DH...

Thanksgiving...so many photos, so little time

We had a great visit with my family on Thanksgiving. I brought my new camera and between my 2 brothers and 1 sister and 1 brother-in-law-to-be and myself, I took over 400 photos. Yikes! I just whittled it down and will share some!

First, we had a huge feast on Thanksgiving. Turkey, veggie pot pie, mashed taters, butter horn rolls, bulgar/butternut squash/pinenut salad, Chimay, wine, etc. etc. etc...The kids helped Baki with the butter horns and had a great time being in the kitchen.




These little gems were SO good the next day with a little drizzle of honey. Here's some more of my family. Oldest brother, brother-in-law-to-be, sister, Mom, DH, and my son. What a great group! Oh yeah, and an empty Chimay bottle. Go figure.



Here's one of me and my sis, apparently using the flash on the camera is against my youngest brother's religion.



Here's my youngest brother. His hair is always the hot topic and what he's going to do next. Well, this holiday it was all super short except for this big 'tail' thing on the left hand side. Interesting...very interesting...





And, really, this is the reason for the season. RediWhip spray whipped cream. We had quite the assortment. This type of stuff usually ends up with somebody taking a hit right from the bottle and then it goes downhill from there. I'll save the really gorey photos for later.



We went into the Big City on Saturday. San Fransicso, Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf. We took the BART into the city and then took the cable cars to the wharf. The kids were so excited about riding the BART. Kayla was wearing this hat that Baki gave her and was just killing me she was so damn cute!!!





Here's Kevin with his BART ticket. He liked how you put it into the turnstyle and then it spits it back out. You have to take it and then the little gate opens for you. Too fun! He spent the ride with Aunt Sarah, looking at the map and figuring out where we were. I spent the ride standing up behind this group of stupid people who had no consideration for the fact that there were other people on the BART besides them selves. I almost barfed on them. Feeling a bit queasy, but that passed.



Here's the first building you see when emerging from the underground BART station. Pretty cool...especially with that big Gap ad!



Spent a fun day at Pier 39 eating and walking and taking in the sites, the sounds, the long lines for the bathroom. The kids rode the carousel, Baki spoiled us at the chocolate shop and we watched the sea lions. It was a beautiful day, no wind and the sun was out.



Doesn't my DH just looked thrilled to be having his picture taken???



That was it!!! We had a fantastic time and were so glad we got to spend it with family. That's what Thanksgiving is all about. Thanks for listening!

Check It Out!

I am SUPER excited!!! I am the featured scrapper at Scrapbookers Club House!! Go check it out at http://scrapbookersclubhouse.wordpress.com !!!!!!!!!

Little Devils...

Today was a super fun Halloween day!!!! Our city puts on a Trick or Treat Village every year. There are carnival games, crafts, a trick or treat spooky village and outside play structures (bounce house, bouncey slide, etc.). The kids get to wear their costumes and have fun and...of course...get candy. It was raining all day today, so the outside playing was cut short, but the kids had a ball with everything else!

First things first. My mom sent us this 6 foot tall, mechanical pumpkin snowman contraption. The largest pumpkin head spins and a cat jumps out of the other pumpkin. It's pretty crazy, but my DH put it up today. The kids just LOVE it and it's the hit of the neighborhood!!



So, my little devil and mermaid dressed up for Trick or Treat Village. The devil costume has been in my family for years. My youngest sister and brother both wore it when they were his age. It's just adorable. And K wanted to be a mermaid...NOT Ariel...just a mermaid. So particular for such a young age!







On the way to the festivities, my DH thought my son's costume wouldn't be complete without a 6 foot tall pitchfork. So we swung by the Halloween store (which was packed with adults trying on costumes in the aisles, last minute purchases for Halloween parties tonight!) and got him a pitchfork. Let me tell you how many people got poked or hit or swung at with that thing....but just by Accident (he tells me).



We met some friends there and everyone looked so great in their costumes! Check out Jack Sparrow!!



Too fun. The kids are now tucked away for the night and I am exhausted. I ran 13 miles this morning and boy and I tired!! We will be carving pumpkins tomorrow, so look for more photos soon!!!

Fire Fire everywhere...

Well, the Santa Ana winds kicked into full force today and with it came some seriously horrible fires. Malibu lost a church and some homes, with many still threatened. Moorpark had it's own fire, but I think it's contained. Porter Ranch, just west of our old house in Chatworth is burning. Castaic and Agua Dulce are still burning. 1 person died in San Diego and many other fire fighters were injured. The sky here is smokey and thick and smelly. Being outside is very smokey. My daughter asked me if it was night yet and it was only 2pm!

I have some strong memories of being evacuated from our house in Chatsworth due to fires. The first time, my daughter was 3 weeks old. It was scary, the fire came right up to our neighborhood. There was ash falling everywhere and our house was probably about 200 feet from the fireline. I was freaking out about forgetting the breast pump (yeah, I was a bit hormonal). Packed up our hard drive, file cabinet drawers, scrapbooks and the breast pump and we went and spent the next 2 nights with some good friends who took us in!

The second time was 3 days before escrow was supposed to close in our house sale! I couldn't make it home from work because the freeways were closed. We spent the night ay my BIL's house. I had to go to work the next day and didn't have any clothes. So I wore one of my BIL's Dodger shirts and the same pants as the previous day. It was so styling. Luckily, no damage occured, escrow closed on our house (although the new owners had quite a time finding fire insurace) and all was well.

Here's a photo I took tonight of the setting sun. Bright red/orange in the hazy sky, pretty weird. Stay safe.

Blog Action Day

Well, today is blog action day. A chance for everyone to blog about the same thing...and it happens to be my most favorite subject. A Greener Planet!!!! Love your mother!!! I was very excited to see Ali Edwards blogged about this topic today as well. How to become a greener scrapbooker. Because, seriously, I do worry about this. The hobby and craft I love uses tons and tons of paper and plastic to package all that great stuff you want to use on your page. Go check out Ali's blog to see what she has to say. She says it well. Her blog link is in my link of fav blogs.

It's so important that we really understand the consequences of our actions. Everything we do today affects what happens tomorrow. Change those lightbulbs, start or continue recycling, share a ride to the store, don't buy anything that is packaged in excess plastic, buy a permanent water bottle and don't keep using the plastic ones you throw away, buy produce from a local source not food that has traveled 3000 miles to get to you.

Here are some quotes from Rachel Carson, one of the first American woman marine biologists and ecologists. My daughter is named after her and I love her work.

"Now I truly believe that we in this generation must come to terms with nature, and I think we're challenged, as mankind has never been challenged before, to prove our maturity and our mastery, not of nature but of ourselves."

— Rachel Carson, author, Silent Spring


"Considering the whole span of earthly time... Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species – man – acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world."

— Rachel Carson, author, Silent Spring

And one by Al Gore, recent winner of the Nobel Peach Prize for his work on climate change and global warming.

"The good news is we know what to do. The good news is, we have everything we need now to respond to the challenge of global warming. We have all the technologies we need; more are being developed. And as they become available and become more affordable when produced in scale, they will make it easier to respond. But we should not wait, we cannot wait, we must not wait."

— Al Gore

START TO OR CONTINUE TO LOVE YOUR MOTHER!!!

And on a lighter note...here are some photos from our recent trip to the pumpkin patch. We had a fantastic day!!!

Top 10 Fav TV Shows

Kim's blog challenge from 2SCD is to blog about your favorite TV. Okay, so I came to TV a little bit late in life. I didn't watch much growing up, we weren't allowed to watching anything but PBS (Zoom, Viva Allegre, Sesame Street). And cartoons only on Saturday morning. So...my top 10 TV shows will be favorites from college on...because that's when I really discovered TV!

1. Beverly Hills 90210. The Brenda and Dylan saga...could it get any better? Little did Brenda know that Dylan had a HUGE crush on me!



2. Three's Company. Watched every rerun, loved this show. Jack Tripper is awesome!

3. Charles in Charge. The dynamic between Charles and Buddy Lenbeck should be the model of best friend relationships on all TV shows in the future.



4. Survivor. Loved this show from the very first season. I'm not super into it right now, but it was must see TV for a long time in our house! Anybody else think Jeff Probst is hot??? I mean, not me...I was just wondering...



5. Six Feet Under. This was an HBO series and I didn't watch it when it was actually on HBO. Got all the seasons later via Netflix. It was one of the best series i've ever seen. It was frickin' awesome, highly recommend it.

6, 7, 8, 9, 10. All of the last 5 spots will be filled by the greatest TV show of all time...LOST. Love it. Period. What's not to love???

I'm running...running...running...

So, I officially joined Ventura Roadrunners this weekend. I have a couple of friends from work that recently joined and we are all training for the Los Angeles Marathon in March 2008. I've been following the training program, but officially joined yesterday. Gotta love the free t-shirt! Yesterday was 10 miles. Not too bad, we run along the beach every Saturday morning. It was gorgeous, lots of waves and surfers and blue sky. You could see all the way to the Channel Islands, it was so pretty. Did well with the 10 miles. Around mile 8, got a knot in my left quad, but ran through it and finished with no problems.

The foam roller is my best friend. This is a big roll of foam, looks suspiciously like a swimming pool noodle except it's about 5X the diameter. And while it's called foam, it's pretty much hard as a rock. I roll around on that thing after every run. Put all my weight on my hip or quad or hamstring on that foam roller and give it a good roll. Hurts like crazy at first, then it kinda hurts so good...know what I mean??? The $20 bucks I spent on that is the best $$$ i've ever spent. I don't have any hip pain anymore when I run, no muscle soreness, nothing. It's frickin' awesome!!

So, here's to running or walking or swimming or biking or whatever gets you outside and active!

My Baby is 4!!!

Wow, how time flies. My sweet baby girl turned 4 last Friday. It wasn't that long ago that we were bringing her home from the hospital. She would scream and cry and scream and not sleep and eat for 5 minutes, then fall asleep, the wake up screaming again. Ah, babies. Aren't they lovely??? Well, she's stopped all that screaming, but she has retained her feisty attitude that we all love!

Her birthday was fun. Dad and her decorated a Hello Kitty cake and it was a smashing success!!



She opened presents and the best one was saved for last. She and her brother love the Backyardigans. Wait, they are massively obsessed with the Backyardigans is more like it. So, we got her the little stuffed dolls of all the characters. She was super excited to open Uniqua!!



Her and Kevin fought over which ones they were going to sleep with. But here she is with her favorites AND wearing her new 'shoes with holes' sent to her from her loving Baki!!



She desperately wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese's for her birthday. And since that place gives me a massive migrane and makes me want to become a hermit in the hills of Chatsworth, we decided to just invite family and go early early early on a Sunday morning. It was perfect! Nobody in the place but us for the first 30 minutes. Yeah!!! The kids loved it. Kayla loved playing everything, throwing skeeballs like they were baseballs,



collecting tickets, and playing with her two cousins, who are both 4. Those girls are so cute together, I just wanted to eat them all up with a spoon!!!



And eat we did!!! A trip to Cold Stone Creamery was in order. Kayla ordered chocolate ice cream with M&M's. That's my girl, chocolate with a little more chocolate mixed in!!



We relaxed in the beautiful sun and I gently forced the kids to sit prettily in front of the fountain. I love this photo that resulted!! I hope these cousins stay friends forever!!!



We had a great weekend, celebrating birthdays and family and friends. Thank you, Kayla girl, for being such a joy in our lives!!!!!