on a roll

with my creativity anyway...well, i really shouldn't say that too much....i'm more on a roll with completing projects! sometimes, as an avid scrapbooker, i have opportunities to do things that results in a collection of 'stuff' - sometimes it's projects, class kits, make and takes...other times it's just product. sometimes it's from a class i selected, other times stuff is 'gifted' to me.

in preparation for my garage sale, and really since the move and during the unpacking process, i've discovered and uncovered the multitude...the pure plethora.... of projects i have just waiting for my touch and memories to make them complete.

so that's what i've been doing lately - really doesn't take too much creativity or energy (other than searching for pictures!) and now i'm surrounded by some cute, finished projects...and those of you that are scrappers know what an accomplishment FINISHED is...

so here's rundown of some of my recent completions:

this project was 'gifted' to my by my friend, amy, after girls weekend... i think she just didn't have room in the car to bring it home, but i was happy to have it! it was a kit made by colorbok (a michigan company) that is sold in Joanns - it's now hanging on the back of my back door, just waiting for some memos!

this next project is one that i bought at joanns - same company, same concept (a kit you just put together) that i've had stashed in my room for...um....too long...let's just leave it at that. i'm in love with the 'photo decor' concept - it makes my house more personalized and homey...so glad i have this to add to a wall somewhere now!


next comes two things that i did as 'make and takes' at cha (craft and hobby association) winter tradeshow in anaheim, ca last february - which really isn't too long, given some of these other ones coming up. the first one is a little 'desk topper' display that i made in the world win papers booth (with my friend yvonne - who is AWESOME! - and world win papers, offering the first line of 'green' papers in the scrapbook industry). this was a pretty plain little guy - just the chipboard, ribbon 'binding' and the patterned and cardstock mats - i added the flowers, ribbons, ghost hearts, painted chipboard letters...etc. anyway, i think it's a cute little thing to be sitting on my desk, and it will be easy to change the pictures when the spirit moves.
the next 'make and take' i LOVE - i made this little tin in the sandylion booth with the cute mickey based stickers and papers. i used some black and white pictures of jason and i from our 2005 (adult only) trip to WDW. the little insert fits right in the tin - SO CUTE!
then comes some class projects i never finished. the first is a chunky chipboard album from a class i took with donna downey in october 2006 - wow...that was awhile ago. turned out very cute - even though i had to 'create' some of the letters (not nearly enough Ds in there for what i needed).

then comes two class projects from a trip i made to orlando for cku (creating keepsakes university, for those of you not 'in the know') i think that was the summer of 2005. hello - three years these have been sitting in my scrap room.

'vacation life' album - the concept of the class was to learn how to cut paper and use it in a way that it looks like ribbon. i used some recent vacation photos from spring break on hilton head for this album. cause family is what life is all about, and i LOVE how we look on vacation!
the next one is a pocket type album - enough pages for three pockets - and i was inspired to finish this album based on a challenge i posted on the mega meet message board awhile back from the simple scrapbooks special edition scrapbook play - i interviewed the three older kids in march as a part of that challenge, but never got around to completing it. this project was the perfect way to finish it off! i just printed a couple pictures of each kid, typed out their questions and answers (some the same, some not) and then stuck them in there, with their questions on a tag in their pocket. although there wasn't a pocket for molly (who wasn't old enough to answer my questions anyway!) there was a page for her picture, so i included my little toddler, too.
that about covers it for now...i've got one more old class project that has pictures and just needs my 'words', and i'm working on some 'page based' projects too - the girls school albums, soccer pictures, dance pictures and our hilton head vacation...all of which are 'looming' - if you know what i mean...and sometimes it's just great to have something DONE.

p.s. - i think you can click on these pictures to see them larger - if the spirit moves you.

new design

for those of you that read this blog through a 'feed' - go to the actual site to see my new design...

i'm beginning to think i should have been taking 'screen shots' of my blog versions...i do have a scrapbook of my various blog headers...but my blog is just so much more these days...

ah well.

enjoy the new look. like a hair style, who knows how long i'll keep it.

merry and pippin

one fate-filled trip to the farmers market with some friends...

oye...

it's not that we hadn't talked about getting some kittens. but then there's my friend. holding one. talking to the nice farmer lady that is DESPERATELY trying to unload them. friend saying she LIKES that one. attracting OTHER people to see them. making them have a perceived demand...

and then we're walking to the car with the farmer lady's pet carrier and two little boy kittens inside...

let me introduce you to merry and pippin...

who are tearing up the house and thoroughly entertaining the children as i type.

boy weekend

well, porter had a GREAT weekend with his grandparents at the lake (aka, their house!) i heard tale of special food treats and eye appointments and hockey in the driveway...the i think these pictures say it all....

both sets of my kids grandparents work hard to spend some 'one on one' time with all the kids - which is great, cause really, jason and i rarely get the opportunity to! i made it to the age of 30 with all four of my grandparents still living, which has afforded me some incredible memories of all of them (with two of them still alive and kicking and headed on a cruise in january, despite being in their mid and late 80s!!) i'm glad that my children are forging those same kind of relationships. and, can i just add, that if MY fishing experiences with my own parents were like what porter had this weekend, i'd probably actually like fishing...alas, they were not.

girls weekend

immediately following the birthday extravaganza, we headed into 'girls weekend'....porter was off to grammie and grandpa's for the weekend (see that post later - cause DANG - that boy had some FUN!)

molly and jason 'vacationed' at his parents' house for the weekend. i entertained lilly and maya, along with tara, and my two friends from the long-lost grand haven area - joy and amy and their three combined daughters, kendall, emily and maggie!




we made pizzas, had ice cream sundaes, went to the farmers market (where apparently they also have kittens...but again, more on that LATER), did some scrapbooking (the girls, too!), hit the downtown summer solstice festival (and joy and amy were jumping on my trampoline at midnight to celebrate summer as well!), sprinklers and slip and slides, and we did sparklers and s'mores and pedicures and manicures and hair streaks and all sorts of great 'girl' stuff. and the girls watched high school musical and high school musical 2 more times than i can count.

here's hoping it becomes tradition (well, not the high school musical part)!

TWO!!

molly hit the big 2 today!

here she is enjoying her 'choice' of birthday lunch (i had already set the menu for her birthday dinner...) mcdonald's fries and apple slices...and because it was her birthday, she got to have soda while the other kids had milk - and yes, at least it was caffeine free!


for dinner, we had both sets of grandparents over, and my friend tara, who was coming for 'girls weekend' - but more on that later - so she came a day early to help celebrate!

i made a fruit bouquet....notice how molly is acting like i'm not suppose to notice that she's taking grapes off of this (it started with NO stick showing! not sure if you can tell in this picture, but she's removed three or four already!) little squirt!


i made these s'more brownie bites for her birthday treat - since none of the kids really like cake. molly LOVES marshmallows, or just 'mallow' as she calls it, so this was as great little goodie.

here she is enjoying her treat...but um, actually, after consuming the marshmallows and teddy grahams, she was pretty much done with it and moved on to just marshmallows. but it was her birthday...

molly opened all her gifts - some great toys, awesome pajamas (which she LOVES - she takes after her brother in that respect - they are very particular about what they sleep in, apparently, and also like new ones every other day!) she also got a new sprinkler, which everyone is looking forward to using!

and tara came through with a gift for the other kids - check THIS out:

it's a 5 FOOT tall inflatable EASEL! it uses sidewalk chalk and then just rinses clean. how cool is THAT?? you can also use the 'sidewalk chalk paint' on it - which the girls are using here, but it takes a bit more effort to wash off...so might just save that for the driveway. this is definitely a hit...probably going to go camping with us, too!

can't believe my little princess is already two....

hurray for 'new' jobs..

i'll grant that jason has been working at this job for nearly 18 months now, but today was a day that reminded us why we uprooted the family from grand haven to move here for this 'new' job.

today, he went on a golf outing, as part of a foursome representing his company. it was a fundraiser for the mlb baseball alumni association or something like that...golfed. chatted with tommy lasorda. got paid.

nice.

garage sales

it was that time of year again...time to go through the millions of toys and children's clothing items that we have and decide what to keep and what to sell...and this year was heavy on the SELL side...lots of things didn't even get unpacked from the move (8 months before this!) so I just slapped on the sale sticker and put it in a box...

here's some pictures of our set up...

inside the garage was all the kids clothing - i think it was four tables...and all my scrapbooking stuff...

these two tables were covered with small kids toys, and some packaged neatly in ziplocs (thanks to my ocd...)

and then we had all the big toys and other things lining the sidewalk and driveway. whew.

my trusty friend tara, and her son zach, who are strangely, despite the massive amount of work i give them, always willing to be my sidekicks when i need help... made the journey and tara helped me work the garage sale, while zach was on kid patrol.

although last year's sale was a HUGE hit, this year was SLOW. i even put ads in the paper and everything, but have had almost as much luck posting some of my big items that didn't sell on craigslist as i did at the actual garage sale. we did sell a bit, but have LOTS left, so i'm probably going to do another one, just not sure when (cause i have to ask tara when she's available - lol!)

here's hoping we'll be busier so that i don't have to hunt up more crossword puzzles for me and tara to do while i should be busy counting change!

compare and contrast

first and last day pictures...

here we are again, the end of another school year. tomorrow, maybe we'll all sleep in...of course, i do have a garage sale this weekend where it seems like we're selling everything that isn't a worldly possession.

what can i threaten the kids with next week, after i can't tell them i'm going to sell ALL their toys?

rain

so we took our inaugural camping trip of the season this past weekend - not too far from the house because we had our final soccer matches on saturday (all three kids played at the same time!).

it rained a lot this weekend.

while driving to the campground on friday night - in the rain - i got a KQOTD:

Maya : April showers bring May flowers. It's June, right? It's not suppose to be this rainy in June.

p.s. - we think we've 'lost' both bunnies. survival of the fittest, we suppose. we'll downplay max's role in this...

bunnies

we've been out in the yard a lot lately, enjoying the new playstructure. max, our bouvier, loves to join us and has found a great 'resting' space near some hostas along our back fence.

yesterday max was wandering in the back area looking a little suspicious. maya and porter picked up on his behavior right away. and a strange squeaking sound that accompanied it.

"MOM! Max has something in his mouth!" screams maya. i look at max. max looks at me like "dang. caught again." and proceeds to drop something to the ground. as i'm making my approach, he picks it up again and squeaking resumes. clearly, his 'something' is alive. or perhaps, close to death.

i yell again. this time, i'm close enough to him that when he drops the item, he runs away, giving me time to find whatever it is that has been squeaking.

what i found, was a VERY small bunny. barely had bunny ears. eyes not open. and really no fur. i guarded it until it found refuge under a plant and 'caged' max in our screen room, with orders to everyone to clearly observe his behavior while outside to go potty to ensure a bunny snatching incident doesn't occur again.

maya elaborates that she saw max pick up the bunny out of the myrtle near our birdhouses, which are right next to the house. i check out the area, but don't see anything.

today, grandpop was babysitting while i headed to porter's preschool end-of-the-year parent/teacher conference (at which he was highly praised!). when i returned home, he was outside with the kids. upon heading back in the house to leave, he says, he picked up a baby squirrel near the myrtle and put it back in. i said, no, i think it's a bunny! and we both start looking for it.

i find one, near my suet feeder. sure enough, clearly a sibling to the one max played with the day before. my fil says, no, i think i put it more over here...and he looks, and sure enough, there's another one!

you can sort of see how small it is based on the size of the myrtle leaves by it's head...this guy is SMALL. so at least, for now, we have two survivors, hanging out in our myrtle. my internet research tells me that they are less than a week old. here's hoping i can chronicle their growth in the coming weeks. they are definitely bite size for max.