My eyeballs are fuzzy.

Either I need glasses or I need to go to bed earlier than 2:30 or both. I thought I took some really great pictures to show you a project I’ve been working on and on the little screen on my camera they looked fine. After opening them on my computer they are totally fuzzy, dark, glary (I’m too lazy to check if I’ve used that word correctly) bad bad bad! And the worst part is that I already gave the project away so I can’t redo the photos. So here they are in all their tired old eyes glory.

Cody’s little sister is getting married on Friday and asked me if I would make her guest book. No one has to twist my arm to pull me away from boxes right now I can tell you that much! She had the idea picked out from Creating Keepsakes June magazine and I tweaked it a lot. It was so much fun and she’s such a cute girl, I can say that because I’m an entire year older. In real life I’m a jeans and Cody’s old t-shirt kind of girl but with paper projects I think I’m a wee bit wild for some so I hope she likes it.

I used an American Crafts modern 6x6” album and made accordion envelope books that have 80 scallop edge square cards tucked inside for the guests to write messages on. I made 6 scrapbook pages and 4 of the envelope books to go in between the pages.

(See what I mean about the pictures, my eyeballs! My sad sorry 90 year old eyeballs!)

On a random note, I think my class reunion is this weekend or I had heard it was going to be. Because of the wedding and the fact that I never intended to go I won’t be attending so anyone from my class that’s found their way here- Hi. Here’s the quick run down. I’m not fat, I’m a stay at home mom to 5 kids who are cuter than yours (totally almost kidding), yes I’m still married and plan on staying that way, yes we still live here and will probably rot here, and we are super happy and having the time of our lives. I think that about wraps that up until our 2 0th high school reunion I plan on ditching too ;).

Lost and Found

Do you know how long it's been since I've scrapbooked or shared scrapbook pages? July of 2008, almost an entire year! That's way too long. I'm in the middle of packing up my craft room and I found these little babies just begging for some journaling. Poor things. I'm the worst at journaling, I really have trouble with throwing my thoughts on a page and not having it sound like a cheesy singles ad or a Carpenters song. Not to mention my handwriting looks like a mans. I don't have time to write neatly and I've never been a fan of hearts to dot my I's or swirly loopies.

Before I pack these bad boys and forget about them for another year I thought I would share them- sans journaling. I think I'll tackle the journaling during lunch so at least they'll be finished forgotten pages. I've found a bunch of stuff tucked in corners I forgot about. The best part is that it feels like Christmas all over again every time I go to pack a box- yay!

I get to paint my new house in 2 days and after that it's time to move in and set up so my crafting will be put on hold for a bit. I was worried about leaving my blog with nothing crafty to share for the rest of the month while I move but I have a secret. I've been holding out on you. I'm so sorry, okay I'm not sorry at all but I have a few projects I've saved so I can show you some cute stuff while I'm covered in paint and cleaning supplies. Have a great Tuesday!

Wordless Week- Day 5 + 6 (I'm behind)

Day 5

Day 6

Wordless Week- Day 3

Wordless Week

Well today won't be totally wordless but I'm planning on posting a picture of something I've been up to each day for a week. I've been totally over whelmed lately and I feel I should spare you the whiny details so this is the plan. So without further ado and blabbing I give you day 1-

It's a whale, it's a plane...

No, it's super scrapbook mom. I found my hidden scrapbook power yesterday and it felt so good to flex my paper muscles. My goal was to get one page done while the girls watched a movie but I couldn't put my supplies down. I finished one page then I wanted to just get a quick one done for Jeremy before I needed to pick the kids up. Before I knew it we were eating dinner picnic style so I could finish the third page. It takes me forever to do one page so I'm so proud of myself that I got 3 done!

This is a scraplift from Maggie Holmes page in Creating Keepsakes May issue pg. 85. Credit where credit is due ;o).

This page still needs something but for now I'm calling it done. I'm thinking flourishy stuff in the blue circly part- yeah something like that.

I'm tempted to do more today but we really need spoons. It only takes me a few minutes to load the dishwasher though and I can throw a hat on to take Ashlyn to school... maybe I'll catch up to my goal for the year. Watch out evil house cleaning villains- super scrapper's here to save the crafty day!

*ETA- My scrapbook plans for today are shot. I just noticed Kaci crammed a bead up her nose that I can't seem to get dislodged so the afternoon will be spent at the pediatric clinic blue bead fishing. Maybe tomorrow, sigh.

My poor son.

I think I may have driven Jim back into hiding. He's an elusive guy and doesn't like his picture taken, I had to sneak up on him while he was playing in the backyard to get this one. I think he wears that hat as some sort of scrapbooking deterrent. Yesterday I managed to get him to sit still for a few seconds and get some good pictures of him when I actually had some natural light in my house which is a real miracle lately. I plan on scrapbooking them and the little stinker gave me about 15 pictures of the exact same face, even when I teased and prodded I got the same face. That's my boy.

Today I had to take him to the dentist for his first fillings. I hated having to tell him about the shots and stuff so the ride over was a little rough. He did very well and only one more appointment to get the bottom filled and he's done but I hated being the bad guy, isn't that the dad's job? Next I had to drag him to the store to get butter and diapers, not very fun. Then he had to go with me to my Dr. appointment and sit for 30 minutes. When I go to town I have to pack as much as I can in one trip to make the most of it so there was no turning back once he buckled in the car. Yeah, I think it'll be a long time before he volunteers to go with me to town again. I feel bad.

At my appointment he found out what a diseased uterus looks like. It didn't even don on me that there would be plastic "female parts" laying around the room, I feel so dumb and won't take another one of my sons to the ob that's for sure. He did get to hear the heartbeat and thought that was cool. Our little bean is beating about 162 beats per minute and I've gained 5 lbs. since my last appointment. I really need to stop baking cookies!

I did manage to get another layout finished Wednesday. I'm still 3 behind to keep up with my goal but if I keep doing 2 a week I should be caught up in no time. Kaci's picture doesn't have that much contrast and isn't that dark in real life, she's much cuter. I'm so proud that I have 5 completely done- journaled and all!

Homegrown CSI

The crime scene: A small home office in rural Oregon on a lazy Saturday. The mother was enjoying a nice hot shower while the father was tending the children. The father decided to get himself ready for the day as well… this sets up our case.
The victims:
Victim 1- unsuspecting paperwork and bills, they had it coming.



Victim 2- mouse pad, desk, and every last sheet of printer paper. The mouse saw the attack but being chained to the desk could do nothing. The desk and printer paper had no time to react before being obliterated.



Victim 3- printer. The printer, having heard the cries of the mouse and watching thus far tried to get away but also being hooked to the desk was helpless. One of many weapons was left here.



Victim 4- The computer screen. Dear sweet computer screen, she was the last to go. She endured the worst of the attack, I believe while trying to save the others. Who could have done such a terrible thing?


The suspects- Jeremy, Ashlyn, Mary, and Kaci. Ashlyn and Mary have a rock solid alibi. Jeremy was a witness and believed accomplice by leaving the door open and watching the happenings unfold. Kaci, our main suspect and possible perp.

The verdict- Kaci, having been found with black permanent marker on her torso and extremities was determined our perp and served life. Well not life but a 2 minute time out. Jeremy escaped with a slap on the wrist (a firm warning).

In other news after the crime scene was cleaned and the perps taken care of we skipped town. I found a few things I couldn’t live without like these eggs. They match my mud room decorations perfectly.




I wasn’t able to do girls night Friday, my heart was freaking out and doing its tachycardia thing and I didn’t want to give anyone a cold especially the baby. Feeling a little behind on my 52 layouts in 52 weeks I did a scrapbook page last night after church. I really need to get out and do this more often.

You've got questions...

I've got some answers! Blogger doesn't let me email answers to comments so I thought I would share them here for the good of all.

1. Cinnamon rolls- How very very rude of me to show my yummy cinnamon rolls and not share the recipe. It's my favorite roll recipe from Cody's aunt Dianne. These are super easy, back in the days when I couldn't get anything to rise to save my life I would make this dough and it would work every time. Makes great rolls too. Love it!
To be fair- I make the dough according to directions but I dump as much butter, cinnamon, and sugar as I want. I usually use a cream cheese frosting recipe for the top but last time I was out of cream cheese and did a simple glaze. Still good either way.

Never Fail Rolls
2 Tbl. Dry yeast
½ cup sugar
¼ cup warm water
2 tsp. salt
2 cups warm water
2 eggs, beaten
½ cup butter, melted
6 cups flour

Mix yeast with ¼ cup warm water. In separate bowl (kitchen aid) combine 2 cups warm water, sugar, salt, and eggs and mix. Add yeast. Add flour to other ingredients and beat vigorously to a soft dough. Let rise ½ hour. Place in fridge for 2 or more hours. Dough can stay in fridge up to 2-3 days. Roll out with quite a bit of flour. Cut into desired shape and dip in butter. Arrange on cookie sheet. Let rise 1-2 hours. Bake at 425 for 12-15 min.

*For Cinnamon Rolls*
Add a ½ tsp. lemon in the dough (optional).

1/3 cup butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup raisins (optional in my opinion-yuck!)
2 tsp. cinnamon

Roll into a rectangle and spread melted butter over dough. Sprinkle with brown sugar, cinnamon, and raisins. Roll like a jelly roll and cut with a string 1” wide. Place on
buttered cookie sheet ½ inch apart. Let rise 1 hr. then bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

Aunt Val's Cream Cheese Frosting
1 pkg. cream cheese (8 oz.)
1 cube butter softened
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese and butter together until fluffy and smooth. Add vanilla and powdered sugar and beat the tar out of it until creamy. Add to cooled rolls (or it will melt).

2. Digital scrapbooking- the program I use is just Adobe Photoshop Elements. I'm stuck in the days of yore with my dial-up Internet and disposable digital camera and my photoshop is the same way. I use 2.0. I'm still learning and I'm hoping to get a higher version this spring, but since I'm very cheap and I still can't spring for high speed- 2.0 suites me just fine. I think it's pretty easy once you get the hang of it. Jessica Sprague has some great tutorials for little tricks you can do with photoshop on her blog. Most of her things are tailored for a higher version but I can do most of them with my version as well.

3. Hairbows- I recommend Suave Professionals curl enhancing spray gel extra hold in the teal green bottle. I fix my girls' hair wet, spritz a few squirts of the spray gel, style, then hairspray. If their hair holds up well the bow will stay too. The spray gel works wonders for fly-aways and Kaci's curls and keeps their hair tidier for longer. I also prefer alligator clips with textured ribbon strip glued inside to french clips or plastic clippies. They just stay better in my girls' fine hair. There is a way to make hair bows with a strong magnet on the alligator clip but I haven't tried it yet. Not much help here but any suggestions are welcome!

I think that's it, if there's something you want to know and I haven't covered it let me know and I can do another long winded addition. I'm just not a ton of help in these areas, I'm sort of a Jill of all trades. How does that saying go? Something like I can do a million different things but I've mastered none of them- yeah, that's pretty much me in a nutshell. Have a great rest of the weekend!

Girls gone wild...

Or at least as wild as we get on our girls night out scrapbooking. Tired women hopped up on chocolate and wielding sharp objects until the wee hours of the morning can get pretty wild! I gorged myself on a half a big bag of peanut m&m's and gummy bears with a season of Friends on in the background and stayed out until 4 a.m. . I managed to get 2 1/2 layouts done which is awesome for me. I'm going to try to get 52 done this year which is one a week and so far I'm caught up ;o). Here's hoping I stay on track.




Sorry for the cruddy pictures, my house at night is just terrible for lighting and my camera is the digital equivalent to a disposable I swear- this is why I'm not in all those purdy picture books ;p.

Spring sprucing

I filled the empty space in my living room with the picture frames I altered last night. I just covered the matted part with patterned paper but it was just the pick me up those frames needed. My living room feels a little more like spring to me while it's snowing and raining outside which makes me happy. I tried to match the things on the bookshelf with the papers in the frames. I might have to move a few things around but so far this it.

My Big Bad digital self-

For posterity purposes, and because I'm so proud of myself for trying my first digital announcement, I thought I'd add a picture of the last few digital things I've been playing with. I'm by far not the best at digital, I'm at the kindergarden digital level I swear, and I still can't really do anything with it but it's fun to play and I'm definitely learning what NOT to do ;o).

I'm also going to do something scrappy later for our living room. I'll post a picture when Cody comes home with my prints. I have a big empty space on the little wall in our living room and heaven forbid my wall look bare for my family Sunday!

My first try...

And I think maybe I'll leave digital to the experts! I finished my very first digital scrapbook pages for the recipe swap. I did the pretzel page first and it was a breeze but the soup page- not so much. It's harder than it looks in some ways and very easy in others. I got frustrated with not having the embellishments that I wanted and because I have dial-up it had already taken me forever to get the papers.

It took me over 8 hours of loading (good thing it was t.v. night last night and I could just let the internet go!) different page elements to make these two pages and after looking at them I wish I could have loaded some other things. Until I get a faster Internet I think I'll keep with traditional paper. I LOVE the brushes though- I tried not to abuse them lol! It's so fun to step outside the box every once in a while and I'm going to love the cute cookbook when every one's finished. Thanks Sherelle for letting me join in!

Some craftiness

I finished some of my promised projects over the last few days and thought I would share. I only managed to brake my sewing machine once and cut my fingers a few times but they're done! The pictures are not the greatest I know but it's my blog and I have absolutely no natural light in my entire house what so ever so here they are in all there blurry fake light glory-




This is the sample for the craft class I'm teaching for enrichment. We are having the class on the 9th and the supplies aren't here yet so this is just the sample using things I had on hand. I had to have it done for tomorrow so I quickly threw the frame together last night (I'm dieing to add some ribbon or something but I don't have time!) but I think it turned out alright. We are just going to do the wire tree part in class. I found the idea here and I thought it would also be cute as a tree in a chunky wooden block with a vinyl title or as a rickety tree for a halloween display. Oh I wish I had the time to play more!


This is just random but when I was a teenager my best friend and I would drive to the gas station at lunch (or anytime) during school and buy gummy hamburgers. I loved those things!! They were the best candy. Well, I still have a huge sweet tooth and I confess I have a tender spot in my heart for gummy hamburgers. I love them. I've been sick this week and the kids are all snotty (sick style not bratty) and I've been stressed out trying to get the craft figured out and ordered and Cody brought me home a huge box of hamburgers. He bought all they had. How sweet!