Panacci, Obama and Adobe...

Hey, I'm back and excited! Yesterday... I met KELLY PANACCI... Scrapbook designer who's line you can find @ Sandylion. We took her class at Scrapbook Village (Yes, our wonderful Bonnie W. got her to come all the way from Canada to teach us this advanced class here in Kentucky!) As we were photographed, April and I were star struck by the fabulous Kelly! She is very personable and great to spend some crafty time with! Below are the fun pages I made in her class! If you visit her blog, http://www.kellypanacci.typepad.com/ you can see the real deal! And... her husband was just as much fun to be around as Kelly herself... he actually sat down and did some of the make & takes with the ladies while Kelly took pictures with us... what a support team! I would absolutely LOVE to work on a design team... one day... one day...

Very creative... I 'heart' all of her patterned paper and have used a lot of her stamps, papers and embellies on layouts in the past. What great fun we had! Can't wait to get my hands on the stamps she designed that April purchased yesterday! Here are some of her papers and embellies I picked up yesterday... can't wait to scrap with them!Here is my new toy... the Glue Glider Pro... I know, you say, "That has been out for a long time!" But take a closer look, it's a mini! Not that hulking mam-a-jam-a that everyone is lugging around. This bad boy fits in the palm of my hand and won't give me a stress fracture! Can you say LOVE?!?

Alrighty, on to my next brush with a famous person... please meet, our president, Mr. Barack Obama (well, it's actually my nine year old getting ready for his presentation) Seth's reading class put together a "Wax Museum" for his school last week. He chose to research our newest president and created a Power Point presentation to boot. The class was very excited about the learning experience and did such a great job. It was funny to me that he should chose this particular person because his father and I are by no means politically minded... but my fabulous sister was a very proud aunt because of his choice in Famous Americans! Isn't he beautiful?!?So, along the way, I FINALLY picked up Adobe Photoshop! Again, can you say LOVE? Look what I learned to do today... yep, I know I am always a little behind, but better late than never! I am so very excited to learn all I can in my "spare" time-LOL! Thanks to all of the people on youtube who share their how-to videos because they know I don't read manuals and I do better when it is shown to me quickly!
Now, I'm off to re-visit Facebook... sorry to all of my friends who haven't heard from me in a week... I will visit with you next... all my love! Have a great week!

Lazy!

Fiskar's Fun Day with the Fiskateer's!

It is Sunday afternoon, and after two weeks of not being home... Donnie in the hospital, out-of-town meetings, Fiskar's Day, etc. ... I have been super lazy this weekend! I want to share some fun from the Fiskar's Fun Day. The top pic is April and I as we enjoy the day of paper crafting, I love April, she has always been such an awesome friend! (yes, our shirts match, they say Psycho Scrapper, the back says, You say that like it is a bad thing! Now that is my kind of humor) We had a GREAT time and the Fiskateer ladies were Super amazing! I really LOVED the orange and yellow socks... go ladies!

There were 300 of us in that room and it was unbelievable! And the stuff we got, OMG! I can't begin to describe it! At the end of the event, they gave away ALL of the tools we used that day to encourage "RAC"s- for those of you who are not into crafting speak, that means Random Acts of Crafting... So, to ensure that I used my new tools with integrity, I worked on a friend's baby shower invitations yesterday. She wanted really cute, printed cards but couldn't afford the $150.00-me either- so we made these instead, thanks in part to the Fiskar's Stamp Press... Now, can I say, I really do love this tool? I mean, really, I have always thought it was neat, but never stamped enough to purchase one...

I also got the CUTEST stamp set from my CTMH rep-January Stamp of the Month... can you see it on this invitation...the calendar... we circled the date instead of writing it in... I LOVE it!

Aren't they too cute? Well, let me say that after my RAC yesterday, I will be stamping more often! It is a totally awesome tool and worth the money! I also won a Fiskar's trimmer from these great ladies during the late nite crop! Woo-hoo! Thanks Fiskars! Thanks Bonnie and Janett from Scrapbook Village! Here are a few shots of the huge room full of fun crafters!

thankful

There are so many things I am thankful for today... I am thankful that we were safe in all of the tornado damage to the area today. And, I am thankful that I live in a place where Elsie can make a living selling these...

Check out her blog and her new shop...http://www.abeautifulmess.typepad.com/ such cuteness and gives me the smiles I needed today... Thanks again to everyone for their love and prayers!xox

The Meanest Mom

Ok... if you have never visited this blog... please go now... right now and read Guilty as Charged... belly laughs to follow and the realization that you are not the only one...http://themeanestmom.blogspot.com/. Let me know which one you do most often... I am also...guilty as charged! Happy Tuesday!

Seth's Suitcase of LOVE...

So, you know, I hate to disappoint... so without further adieu... Seth's Suitcase of Love... Yes, Valentine's celebrations will be happening all over the country in elementary, middle and high schools on Friday... and with this celebration comes the task of parents helping their children create "boxes" to collect their valentines in...So, with that said, let me remind you that Seth is his mother's son! So, after working on the covering with his dad, I asked him what he wanted to 'title' his box... he said, "It isn't a box, it is a suitcase, a suitcase of LOVE!" "Oh, well, ok..." I mumbled trying my best not to giggle at the seriousness in his voice... well, the suitcase of love it will be. With that, we cut a love hole, tied a handle and used my scrapbooking supplies to create the title he desired. Tonight we will embellish it. Just had to share that cute little story... my kids, they keep me on my toes...

That leads to Josh today. While I have been sick, I slept until almost noon (I know... that NEVER happens to me anymore-that is how I knew I was sick) and got up to see we had another beautiful day. So, Donnie and Josh headed outside to teach Josh to ride "without training wheels" This was a huge success and I took a few pictures to document the occasion... ok, to scrapbook! And you can see the immense joy on his face and the pleasure in doing something his big brothers do... you know, sometimes it is hard to be the baby... He said he can't wait until his brothers get home from school so he can show them... Go Josh!

70 Degrees and Sick...

Today was a beautiful 70 degree day and I had to sleep through most of it. That still didn't ruin the appreciation of such beautiful weather. While I always have trouble sending the older two boys to school without me (just out of habit), I really enjoyed Josh today playing in the dirt outside. It is soooooo nice to have a little sunshine in February to boost our spirits and get some much needed exercise and fresh air. The boys came home from school and for the first time in forever didn't need any prodding from me to go out and play.

Yesterday was just as nice and so we ventured over to our friends' goat farm to see the 30 some (yes, I did say 30 plus) brand new baby goats. The boys ran through the hills and got as muddy as they could so they could play in the creek... I so love watching them play and remembering how much fun we had when we were their age.

Notice the one muddy shoe...

I also got to scrapbook with April on Saturday (made the very CUTE layout you see in the header-love it), the day in which I noticed I was coming down with some type of creeping crud. I stayed home sick today and think I will probably have to bite the bullet and go to the doctor tomorrow. I hate to miss two days with my students but don't think I will be much good to them the way I feel.

Tomorrow I will post Seth's Suitcase of LOVE... yes, he created that title all by himself. I will leave you hanging on that until tomorrow...

Yet Another Snow Day!

Well, it has officially been a week since I last posted and lo and behold, it is another snow day. Before I talk about that, let's talk about how I survived a slumber party on Friday night with 15 boys and one great little girl. Seth turned nine on Tuesday and we had all of his friends over for a rousing slumber party. Seth is so much like me he wanted his cake to say, "Have an artsy-fartsy birthday" So I took out the fartsy part and ordered this cake from my FAVORITE bakery (an hour's drive from here-also the death of my diet!) The boys were great and we actually got 6 hours of sleep!

OK, on to the snow day... I absolutely LOVE waking up to a text from friends that says "No school!" Notice, if you will, the exclamation point at the end... can you tell we love a few snow days? After yesterday at school, a little break was warrented. My 9 year old woke up this morning to find out he didn't have to go to third grade today and said, "Woo-hoo, no open response writing today!" That says it all! Tomorrow is dress as your favorite character day, so, instead of scrapping, I will be trying to pull together costumes. We, the second grade teachers, will be sporting costumes of our favorite book "Pinkalicious" with a crown, wand and pink feather boa... can you imagine? We do have a lot of fun. My sister, the wonderful lawyer, texted back to me this morning that in her next life she was going to be a teacher... lol! I do love it, especially when we get a little surprise like this...

And, with that, I will post my latest layout, made last week on a snow day... I love this picture of Seth and tried to do something new... I inked the white chipboard letters darker at the top and lighter at the bottom in order to add some visual interest. I then inked the top of each letter to make it pop a little. I had a lot of fun and have put it aside for a while to come back to it a little later to add something... I also submitted several layouts to magazines this week for possible publication... wish me luck... best of luck to you. Have a wonderful snow day and please pray for all of the people who are still out of power this week and for those people who have left their families to go and help... We are so blessed!