Today has been a great day!

Not only did I get a confirmation email from House Party that I am a confirmed hostess for a Keurig Vue party (how cool is that???? I LOVE my coffee, this is THE best ever!) but... my husband got a bit of a bonus from work today, so he bought me my birthday present early - a new camera! Lovely little Canon, sweet little thing, think I'll call it Charlie :) My Sony camera that I sent out to get a new battery latch and cover is going to be expensive - the 'estimator' at Ritz Camera's lab in Florida said $250 to fix, on top of my $45 deposit. The camera was under $400 new. So... not sure on that one, so we got me a new one. And it's lovely - easy to use, 35x zoom - wicked!! Cannot wait to try it out on the blue bonnet patches that we are wandering out to see tomorrow.

Spring cleaning & organizing (reorganizing!)

I've been trying to get my room in ship shape, not only because it's spring, and it's time, but it's really time!! I have a new friend who is going to come over and scrap with me, and she has shared a picture of the scrapbook room she has in her house.... it's a magazine worthy space - it's ah-mazing!! So, to have her over, I need to get mine into a semblance of complete order, not the half and half version I have going now. The kids were helping out, Benjamin especially. While I was cleaning, he was drawing or painting, so we could still be together, while I was lost in space. Amazing how much time gets sucked away in that room, but I love it! One day, and very soon, it will be my uber room, to it's full potential, and I can't wait!

This I realized, is what Ben was doing when we had to head to the school bus stop. So funny! I sent this pic to my husband, and he said, "What did you do to him?" Nothing, honest, he just powered out, and needed a nap. That little man can sleep anywhere, and he does!

Super Superhero Album

I am so addicted to the new Superhero goodies from Close To My Heart. This is absolutely my favoritest line of theirs EVER! I made this sweet little album, which holds 48 pictures (a lot of real estate, as the album designer Laura would say!)

I love how the inserts are a full 4x6, and it takes very little designer paper to spruce it up. For the spacers (beads), and the outside decorations (chain, spiders, etc.) Hobby Lobby jewelery section was a dynamite score!

Blink - and a month is gone!

Where did it go? How does that happen? Wow! Caught up in hubby, kids, critters, friends, scrappy stuff... and boom! I have been scrappy though, lucky for that! My room is decently clean, and I've been able to have a couple days this month with friends over to scrap with me, and me out several times (thank you honey!)

(it's hanging in the kitchen, hence the little clothes pins and the funky Mardi Gras beads.)

This layout I did of the kids in the back yard helping Daddy pull weeds and till the back mulch. The weeds, seriously, were as tall / taller than Benjamin! Love the Basic Grey line for this - all the best colors to match the photos perfectly!

Spring is here (even if the calendar doesn't agree just yet.) All the shrubs are starting to bloom, and there are flowers popping up, and I'm seeing the beginning of the Texas wildflowers; by the end of the month they will be everywhere. My favorite thing about living in Texas is the wildflowers (well, one of my favorites, there are a lot of things I love.)

My latest scrappy passion, my Smash book, has been getting more attention. Take a peek at the front cover:

How cute is that? And it's getting just a little bit chunky!

I was lucky enough to head out to Clear Lake to scrap for an evening with my awesome artsy chic pal Lizzie,

and we smashed the evening away. This is what I accomplished:

My hubby is traveling today... he packs pretty light, as he's only gone for a few days. Thought it was funny though... I take more for a morning of scrapping than he does for almost a week LOL!!

Smashing good time!

I was already starting this to a small degree, but this amazing group on facebook that I was dragged into by my friend Lizzie (thanks girl - you'll notice I put up not a bit of fuss!) has inspired me to keep on going, and that means shopping for product!! With a little Office Max, some Walmart, and Michael's love, this is my loot for the week!

I've done a few pages and posted them... lemme look around here and see....here is a page I did for my little boy's 5th birthday at the end of last week. Kept some goodies from his gifts, and even a candle! Love smashing!

Can you see why I'm getting more and more in love with this? Lookie the spread at the Michael's closest to me:

Look at all the colors!! I am using a 'brag book' right now, but had to get me an original Smash book - my first choice was red. The inner pages are awesome! Not sure what my next color will be...

Oh yeah, here's my Kohl's page. Kinda liking this one, especially since I was trolling through the mail looking for inspiration, and I found some:

Okay, the last page I'll show is one I made. Yup, all by meself! Used newspaper, super crinkled, lots of gesso, paint, ink, mod podge, stazon and good ole' Sharpie. This is cool... just makes you want to touch it!!

So... that's it! Off to bed, will smash another day! Cheerio dahling!

Plant kindness and love - taken from the Authentique Paper blog

I hope I'm allowed to 'borrow' in this manner - I NEED to be able to do this in future!! I've done a sample petal, and I'm hooked! I have lots of patterned paper that these will be awesome for! Borrowed exactly as written from their awesome blog:

I've got a step-by-step tutorial prepared for you! Beware though, these flowers are time consuming and addicting to make! I didn't count, but I think it took me 30-40 flowers to fill this bouquet (and a lot of paper)... each one took about 20 minutes to make.

First you will need to cut your paper. For the small flowers I used 3x3 pieces (the 6x6 pads come in handy for this!) for the larger pieces I used the 12x12 sheets and cut them into 4x4 pieces. You will need 5 pieces of wither 3x3 or 4x4 to make one flower.

Fold paper in half to make a triangle. Make sure that the pattern side that you want your flower to be is the side showing.

Fold the two end pieces up to make a diamond shape, make sure all of you creases are firm. You may need to use a bone folder for this part.

Take the two top pieces and fold them back to meet the sides (I can't really think of how to explain to do this... so I will show another picture below)

This is what you should have now.

Now take and flatten out the top two pieces so they look like this.

Fold the little flaps back and crease, then tuck them inside.

Fold the two outside pieces on the crease that already exists and bring the two sides to meet, you will have a sort of cone shape that looks like this.

Glue the inside pieces together using hot glue (I used a high heat setting) then clamp them for a few minutes so the glue can get a firm bond.

Repeat these steps until you have all five petals.

Now glue the petals together, again using hot glue, make sure you hold each piece for a few minutes until the glue has set or the flower will fall apart and you will have glue gunk everywhere.

Before you add the last piece, if you are making a bouquet, I would suggest bamboo skewers. I added one in right before adding the last petal to the flower. Then I topped it off with a matching button.

Authentique: Gathering Collection- 6x6 bundle, 12x12 sheets, Headlines
Really Reasonable Ribbon: Sheer Iridescent Peach, Copper Glitz Ribbon
Assorted Buttons
Bamboo Skewers
Styrofoam Ball

My Day Off

This was a very fun Wednesday. While Katy, Houston and surrounding areas were belted with rain and wind (and tornadoes) Jesse & I scrapped the day away. Managed to get an entire cute little 7x7 album done, ready for putting photos and journaling. Very pleased with today, laughing, coffee, scrapping, relaxing. Awesome!