Recital, 3 year old style.

Recital was fun! Little Boo was adorable. She started out dancing really well, then midway decided she was done and started to leave the stage (both nights)...she would go back...but did not dance much, just kinda stood in her spot and watched the audience. Here's the full outfit I made her, the top and the tied tu-tu. It was cute, BUT, the tu-tu strips kept sticking to her tights and between her legs....

so for the performance, she wore this:

lucky mom had a 'backup' plan. Today, I hope to work on my 12x12 calendar swap ... I cut out gnomes last week, and then being me, changed my mind on what colors I want to use. Oh well, back to it!!

Creating Again...it feels good!

I've been creating again. Seems like such a long time, but this month is kinda a 'normal' month. No travel...so I have time to play in my scraproom. This is non scrap, DGD is going to be in a recital next weekend, her final production number is in white and gold. We were told to be creative..so her mom and I made one of those hand tied tutu's and I made her this to slip on top of her tank top. She may not wear it...I used binding tape around the arms and on the hem, but it may prove to be 'itchy'. We'll see. I did this without a pattern...so lots of imperfections, but hey, it will be worn 3 times on stage. teehee. We'll see. kinda scrap, making some cards for a swap on Scrapbooks.com. These are for the 'tag' cards. Just fun to make such a mess with glimmer mists. here are the red/white/blue cards I made for the swap. I just love pinwheels. I'm also in a 6x6 calendar swap, chose the month of August...trying to figure out how to incorporate pinwheels for that also. then for the 12x12 calendar swap, I chose May...so I'm making these hydrengeas...also plan to make a garden gnome. boy, these hydrengeas are hard work. The 2 shades of purple are so close, while cutting the top layer shade, I kept grabbing the lower layer shade. Turns out, under my room light they look the same..when I put them under the Ott...I could see the slight difference. aye yi yi. also in a Letter of the Word swap, but don't have a pic yet. So much fun to be creating again.

All are home

Whatta crazy month, but a good one. DD and DSIL are officially here. It was a crazy process, after her grad school graduation, dd and I drove her and her 2 cats and 2 dogs here from Texas. DSIL retired from the Marie Corps on May 28th, then he, DS and another friend took a roadtrip here. They got back on Saturday. All I can say, is it feels great to have all the kids nearby. Last night we grilled and had the family over for the evening. DS with Adriana (I don't know why this pic posted vertical, it isn't vertical anywhere else) Whatta feeling to sit at a dinner table with both kids, their spouses and granddaughter!! DD with Adriana DDIL with Sadie (one of DD's and DSIL's dogs) The first night was a li'l rough for DSIL, we do have a suite area in the back of the house that they can set up as their own..it has a bedroom, bathroom (both very small) and a living area (no kitchen)...but the ac does not work real well ...so it can get real stuffy. And it was in the 90's on Saturday...but he said, after waking up and walking the acreage...he decided he can 'make it work'. He loves the outdoors. He grew up in Oklahoma, so is quite comfortable with all our critters and stuff. DSIL with the tractor The Cats are adjusting. We've had a couple of weeks of doors closed...but when the dogs are outside doing their 'business', we've let our 2 cats mingle with their 2 cats. At first, lots of growling and hissing and puffy tails (I've re-nicknamed Winston, Puff Daddy) BUT now, they tread carefully, and 'talk' to each other...but no sign of fighting...so, I'm hopeful.

Home from Tejas

Just came home from a week long trip to Fort Worth, my dd graduated with her Masters in Public Administration from the UT, Arlington.

Can i just say, I LOVE Tejas! esp Q U E S O !!! We had tex-mex for 3 meals. 1st night -Posados, (my fave queso), 2nd day lunch - Yucatan Taco Stand (the tequila chicken nachos were AMAZING) and after graduation dinner - Papacitos. This will be my last trip to Ft Worth, as dd and dsil are moving here for 3 to 4 years. So, dd drove back to CA with me, she starts her new job in HR on Friday. Sooo....we got to drive 3 days with ...their 2 dogs and 2 cats. oh! what an adventure!

At night in the hotel room, it was Bailey (the doxie mix)...she would bark and woof at the different sounds. So, we did not get much sleep. Have a funny story about dd sleeping with pillows piled on her head, startling when Bailey began woofing, knocking over the Mt Dew on the nightstand...yeah, f u n. We did leave the maid a small tip with a note that it was Mt. Dew on the towels. teehee

The days, in the car, it was Colby the cat...he yowels for a good 3 or 4 hours, even WITH drugs.(we did not use the drugs on the last day, and it was a li'l better, he seemed less frantic) But by the afternoon he would tire out, then nap, then wake up an yowel a little, then go back to sleep. aye yi yi. Glad to be home, and get everyone settled. So the pet count is now, 2 inside dogs, 3 outside dogs, 4 inside cats. Include 1 horse and 6 cows...and you have the MJM abode.

Adventurous Week, well, kinda

On Sunday we had a b-day party for my li'l boo. She is now 3 years old. siiiigh, where does the time go. She has decided that gma can no longer call her all my li'l nicknames, she is constantly reminding me to call her "Adriana". Guess I'll have to make a scrapbook page about all the nicknames, g'ma used to have for her.

She's in another fun stage, the 'look at this' followed by making a face. yeah, that one.

ANd in the imitate everyone stage...gotta watch what we do and say!

I've been spending my spare time in the back guest suite, prepping it for dd and dsil's arrival. Oh My! I had a LOT of stuff back there! priority one was rehoming my scrapbook stuff that made its way back there. I have 15 18gallon storage bins filled with books, as the bookshelves have now become scrapshelves! ha! I am now in the process of going thru the stuff my mom left in her closet. Oh MY!!! This is what the room looked like this morn, think ya'll can understand why sometimes I walk in there only to walk out, feeling so overwhelmed.

and I did replace it(see prev entry)...haven't had time to really play with it, just test it, but I LOVE it!!

ay On Monday I got a tooth extracted. It cracked last week...been an interesting week as far as the odd pains, numbness, and inability to really taste and eat! But I think I lost a li'l weight. Told dh that next time I start to regain, I'm gonna have a tooth pulled. Don't think I'm gonna get any implants or anything, think I'll just enjoy my 'hillbilly smile'. Oh, next entry, I'll talk about dh's first days as a rancher. All I'm gonna say is we still don't have one of the cows on our property yet...she is over the fence with the neighbor's herd. teehee

my 'slice' died

This weekend, it's official, it just makes an odd long whirrr noise and does absolutely nothing else. I tried to 'hone' it, but get an error message. Its an older machine, so out of warranty. Plus reading the Scrapbook.com slice lovers machine, sound like customer service is not much help for the machines over a year old.

So, what to do, I've invested so much in cards and accessories. A part of me is kinda disappointed with the whole thing. Did I get $100's use out of it all told? Would it be better to sell what I have left? decisions, decisions.

I love the images and fonts. Even though most of the images I have are pretty one dimensional.

Now, it was the original machine and a 'calibration' card was sent...it helped with the original issues. I liked it, but never found it 'portable' as advertised. It really needed to be plugged in, just to give it the power to make a good cut.

So, what would you do, sell what's left or try again with the Elite?

3 more weekends till dd and dsil come out here. Soooooo looking forward to having them here/near. I sooooooo missed her. I know, I know, she's a married woman now...so it isn't about having my 'baby' back.

Got to spend a lot of the weekend with Adriana, I just LOVE any time I get with that li'l girl. My li'l boo. I think I'm taking her to dance class tonight, maybe we'll stop and get a li'l spaghetti afterwards.


Been working on more ATC cards. The April set for an exchange at Scrapbook.com.

And at a crop last week, on a Tues, spring break for the other gals in the group, but I got the day off...worked on my European Cruise...ALMOST done with the day in Turkey.

for books like this, I tend to do 2 page layouts...I like to use kits like the ones I get from Scrapbook Circle and Scrapbook Nook...but there is usually only one page of a certain pp...so, I need to 'spread it' to 2 pages...can get a li'l challenging. At crops I tend to get the pics down...then embellish later. So, I have a whole stack awaiting embellishment and book placement.

At this pace, I may be finished with the cruise this year. I'll be able to start last October's Hawaii album next year...ha!!!!

March was a busy month...

did a couple of swaps...and a huge project for church..also went to the Expo.

Felt like I could not 'catch' my breath this month, and April is not looking any easier. Have a 'close' deadline at work, more training...looks like I'll be working a LOT in April. Then May is when dd and dsil will be moving here. Wow, hopefully things will be back to normal by June. Well, what is normal for me...like a 3 day work week!!
Here are a couple of pics from the church project, did 10 of these signs for the Easter Fair. Good thing I have a cricut, but goodness cutting that may letters was still time consuming and crazy. Used the Don Juan font. Now, for the bigger letters all I had was Hobby Lobby's Paper Studio pack in black...oh my, that stuff is sooooo bad in a cricut, its fibrous and falls apart on the matt and does not come off very clean. Luckily, I made a trip to Michaels for their Recollection pack for the smaller letters.




My granddaughter did the backgrounds for the 'Pin it' and "Registration" signs...all I can say is 'she's a natural artist'. Really, I was working on other signs, and she was left pretty much to herself with the paint and brushes. The hand print was my idea...so funny, after we did hers...she told me, "now I get to paint your hands"

This project took quite a few days, getting the critters and letters cut, the sign blanks wrapped in kraft then the painting. A couple other kids helped. They each did a sign for me.

Earlier in the month, I did this Season's swap with a group at Splitcoast Stampers



I loved the butterflies so much I used them on an ATC swap at Scrapbook.com





then there was a page candy swap also at Scrapbook.com






That turned out to be a li'l harder than I thought, keeping to the theme, but keeping generic enough that hopefully it would be usable for other scrappers. phew!!

this month, with the upcoming work schedule, I only signed up for the ATC swap.

AND hopefully this month I can squeeze in some time to scrap some pages. Well, maybe not, still clearing out the back suite for the kids. We'll see how it all works out!!