holy sheeeee....

I woke up the other morning, just another day in the life o'me. A quick glance in the mirror is all I could stand. How do you wake up one day and finally don't look like you're in your early 20's? I know I know. I'm in my late 20's but I forget that all the time. I don't feel like I'm going to be 27 this year...or even 30 in a few. I have new wrinkles that have seem to appear out of no where. Grey hair sprouting off the top of my head.


lol. That's my complaint for the day.

So I finally attempted a little drawing with my tablet while the kids napped this afternoon. The sheep kinda represents me. Except I said an explicit version when finding my wrinkles.

On to some scrap news.

For awhile I had been planning on a trip to The Netherlands for the Scrap-A-Ganza (a big scrap expo). I decided last month not to go simply because of cost (it's in Euros and if you're familiar with how weak the dollar is, you'd understand why I nixed the trip). Well! Good news! I've been offered a working scholarship which means I can go! I'll work, but I'll also be able to attend some of the fab workshops. I'm totally excited. It'll be a small vacation, which I desperately need.

Here are some old (like last week or two) layouts that I haven't uploaded here yet. Since I update the Daily Inspiration blog, well, daily...I feel blogged out most days.

Anberlin will be 4 on THURSDAY!!! geeeze. The quote on the layout is from C.S. Lewis: "It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird; it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. ANd you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary decent egg. We must either be hatched or go bad." Love the quote. Very fitting for this silly photo of my little girl.

This lo I made for last week's Scrapping the Music. The song was my choice, "Little Waltz" by Basia Bulat. It was a different sound...maybe one that most people aren't used to. I think that's why participation was down a bit. :( Oh well. What can you do? If I exposed at least one person to a new worthwhile song, then it was worth it.

Ahhh. My quasi-political lo. This is for Mojo. The challenge is to use inspiration from Juno and the soundtrack. I chose the song "Loose Lips" by Kimya Dawson. It was theraputic making this lo. Just watching the news and all the BS going on in the world today...it's unnecessary.

Hmmm. I still have lots to talk about but feel a bit tired. So tomorrow I'll post a big THANK YOU blog to some great scrap friends I've had the pleasure of knowing. :)

xoxo
jess

Dear Readers

Dear Readers,

I've been sucked into playing "Rock Band."

I shall return soon with exciting news and layouts.

Till then, I'm living out my rock and roll dreams through this awesome game.

xoxo
jess

ps- I'm on drums. :D

Shut Your Gob!

It's official.

I'm on the "Juno" bandwagon. Unfortunately, by the time I got to our store, all of the copies had been sold. Luckily for me, we have a tiny rental place and I was able to snag the last copy there. I watched it 3 times. *sigh* Josh, my ever so thoughtful hubsie, informed me last night he bought me a copy on blu ray. Yes!

Sweeney Todd...well I mean, you can't beat a movie that has Johnny Depp, much less Johnny Depp SINGING.

News. Hmmm. Not much to announce. I received my Bamboo tablet in the mail yesterday. The tablet is installed, BUT (and this is one big, frustrating "BUT") I cannot get the software bundle that came with it to install. So right now I'm sans Photoshop, Corel Painter, and Nik Color. >:{ I put the installation cd in the drive and it won't even read it. Or the ONE time it did yesterday, it froze. ARGH! Hopefully I'll have a bit of better luck today.

The new Mojo layout will be going up soon!! Here's a sneak.

I had fun with this one. No patterned paper. All me. lol.

Yesterday I also got a pretty sweet box from Heather's store. I made this layout using those materials. It's for the OLW challenge as well. Our neighbor gave the kids a bunch of gently used toys last month. Lots of instruments, trucks for Sebastian...it's great. I'll be posting this layout on http://everythingscrappn.blogspot.com later today if you're interested in the materials that were used.
That's it! Time to work.

xoxo

Dear Summers Kids

Dear Chilluns,
Please go to bed early so I can watch Juno and Sweeney Todd tonight.

Love,
Your Cabin Fever Riddled Mother



Is it Sunday yet?? Geeeeze. Not much to report. The Dozens kit comes out today...except it goes on sale at 10 pm in the states, which means it'll be 5 am here. I hope it doesn't sell out before I can get ahold of it.

I don't have any scrappy goodness to show you right now. I will in a couple of days when the next Mojo layout goes up. And my layout. Wow. It's a doozee...a tongue in cheek...take it with a grain of salt...political. That pretty much sums it up.

In a couple of weeks, my little girl is going to 4. FOUR. Argh! Too fast!

I started exercising again in the house since I don't have anyone to watch the kids so I can go to our gym. I have one of those Gazelles. I really like it b/c there's no impact, which saves my poor knees. Josh put the first season of "Californication" on my ipod, so I've been watching that while working out. It really makes it easier. And watching that show made me remember how hot David Duchovny is! ;)

That's all for now I suppose. What's new in your world?

ho hum hum

One more day down, only 6 more to go until Josh is home again. I so need a break from the kids! lol. I was supposed to take a trip to Poland on the 20th, but yeah. Those plans went down the drain. So to make myself feel better, I bought myself a Polish Teapot from a Bazaar that was held on our base a couple of weekends ago. It's so pretty! I found a very similar piece online:

The spout on mine is slightly different and there's a thumb rest on the handle. But it's the same print. One day I plan to go to Poland though, and go to one of the pottery factories. It's ALOT cheaper to buy it here than in the states! There was a cute blue with white polka dot dinner set that I saw that I REALLY wanted.

Anyhoo. On to some layouts.

Have I mentioned A Daily Inspiration is up and running again! I'm pretty sure I have. Here's my latest layout that was posted today. My silly crazy little boy! He's always into other people's shoes. Early today he was marching around in Josh's army boots. I'm really starting to like the color orange! That and the color yellow. Such happy colors.
The new Scrapping The Music challenge goes up tonight! I suppose I'm giving some of you a headstart, but it's night time here and I wanted to post it now. LOL. The photo was taken the night before Sebastian's surgery back in January. I wanted to make sure we had a recent photo of us 4...well because I'm paranoid and have horrible situations running through my head constantly. Ah,the worries of a mother. Anyways, you can see how sleepy Josh and I look.

Here's a layout I did for Say it in Scrap. It's a cool new challenge blog put together by my buuuuuuuddies. :) The colors are off...it's brighter IRL. The journaling says, "I love it when yo put aside your rockstar 'cool' and go along with what I want to do. Makes my ♥ go flip-flop." The photo is from our trip to Sea World in San Antonio about a month before we left the states. I love this photo. :D

Hmmmm. I think that's about it. OH. If you want to see a cute video, peep this: Ring Around the Rosies. I love my crazy kids.

xoxo
Jess

ps- Yes, those are dish towels wrapped around their waists. I think we had watched "Lilo and Stitch" that particular night and they were pretending to dance the hula....they insisted on wearing them. :)

**warm fuzzies**

Know what gives me the warm fuzzies?

Listening to Sebastian sing "Ferre Jacques" to himself before going to sleep (and he's only 2, remember that).

*sigh*

xoxoxo

More Pics

Busy Busy Busy. It's so nice to have stuff to do again! lol.

I made the Catwalk at SisTV this week for my latest Mojo layout!! Such a great surprise! :D

I also finished two layouts. That should be a record for me since I feel like I haven't done much scrapping lately. One is for the next STM challenge, so I can only show a sneak. The next one isn't for anything in particular...I just wanted to scrap the pic! :D

I used the latest "The Dozens" kit as well as some of last month's "Style Phyle" from Sis.


The orange felt/wood heart as well as the ladybug are items I found at a fleamarket here. I wish I picked up more of the ladybugs b/c they're just too cute!!
Here are more pics from the past couple of weeks. We took the kids to the Frankfurt Zoo after we dropped Josh's sister off at the airport. Honestly, this was not one of the best zoos I've been to. I was really disappointed. The zoo itself is situated in the downtown area, surrounded by apartments and office buildings. You know what it reminded me of? The cartoon, "Madagascar." Despite feeling bad for the animals, I was able to put my zoom lens from Christmas to use and got some pretty good shots.

Ah...the lion in his natural chain linked fence habitat. *sarcasm*

We took the kids to Nuremburg for the "Volksfest." See that rollar coaster shaped like the Olympic Rings? I rode that when I was 10 at Oktoberfest in Munchen (Munich). I was surprised to see it after all these years! I'm sure it's not the SAME one, but it did bring back memories.

The kids rode these little kiddie rides all day. Since it was "family day" that particular day, we were able to enjoy cheaper prices. And lucky for us we got there shortly after the carnival opened, so we didn't have to fight the crowds.

Ah. A Ferris Wheel. Why is it the older I get, the wussier I become?! I used to LOVE rides, but OMG. Josh and I were a couple of chickens. We wouldn't have gone on, but Anberlin really wanted to ride it. Sheesh. We went around a few times. I have to admit, the view was beautiful. After about the 4th time around, we stopped. AT THE VERY TOP. I didn't realize what was going on and screamed, "OH MY GOD! DID WE STOP!???!!???" Josh got this look on his face like "shut up!" I didn't realize how loud that was. They were just letting people off and getting new riders on. Once again...sheesh. O_o

OMG!!!! Once again, I haven't had this since Oktoberfest! *drooooooool* I'll let you in on a little known fact about me (if you don't know already)...I love food. I'm not terribly picky. I looooooooove seafood. I could easily give up chicken, beef, and pork but couldn't do without seafood. Anyways, we went into the tent that was set up next to the grilled fish so I could have a meal and Josh could grab a beer. Mmmmmmmm. It was so good.

A mannequin at H&M in the men's department. Josh was trying on some clothes so I patiently sat with the kids in this small sitting area. I thought the way the hand was positioned was neat. lol.

I'll leave you with a couple of pics to "awwwwwwwwwww" over. I know I do when I look at it.

xoxo
jess

Some Pretty Cool News!

As you know, I'm a part of a talented DT courtesy of ScrapBookMate in Europe. We have a blog, A Daily Inspiration, in which a layout/project is supposed to be uploaded everyday. Well, our last DT Coordinator had to step down a month or so ago due to her daughter's health issues. Since then, the blog wasn't kept up to speed and our DT had been feeling a bit lost. Ok, so what's the good news? The head honchos made me the new DT Coordinator! Woo Hoo! I'm in charge of the DT and have been working fervently to get things organized and the blog back to where it should be. So please stop by the blog and show some support. We have alot of talent on the team. I believe Luciana (Lucy) Folch will have a project up today!



I started a layout last night for the upcoming Scrapping the Music challenge and I REALLY like how it's coming out. I did the background for it...I'll just leave it at that for now since it's not done. The new challenge with the song that I picked will be up on Sunday evening!



Ready to be overloaded with pics? They haven't been edited. I'm having issues getting my photoshop transferred from my Laptop to this comp. I finally got the printer to work so I can resume scrapbooking! Yay! Here goes (the photos are in no particular order...I'm too lazy to get them in the organized by day):



The Residenz in Wuerzburg

The Church at the Residenz

The Gardens at the Residenz

Sebastian inside one of the halls in the Residenz where they had artwork on the wall.

Sebastian checking himself out in a pair of shades from H&M.

LOL. The kids on Easter with their big ol' baskets. We didn't do a real egghunt. I hid a few eggs around the house in obvious spots, but it was snowing outside. Too cold for my Texan blood.

This type of Easter decoration seems to be the norm here. This was taken at Rothenburg o.b. Tauber. Also, people decorated their trees with Easter eggs hanging from a string...kinda like Christmas! It's pretty cute.
Mmmmm. Guess what I discovered?! A gummi bear factory/outlet store!!! DROOOOOOOOOL. On top of having every gummy imagineable (either packaged or in bulk), I found some italian style cookies and cakes that I haven't had since I was little! I see another trip there in the near future.
My SIL helping Anberlin with some candy.
Snow. Snow sucks when you have to drive over 2 hours to get your husband. Actually, it was bad when we lef the house, b/c it was really early and the roads in the towns had just gotten a fresh layer of salt and weren't totally clear yet. But by the time we got on the Autobahn, it was cleared off completely and I didn't have to drive like a 90 year old grandmother.
I managed to get one photo of Josh and his sister together before she had to leave. We ate at a restaurant called "Sushi World" in a gorgeous town of Wiesbaden.
Hee hee. I love this picture. My two goofballs.

ok. That's it for now! I have lots of cool pics from our trip to the Frankfurt Zoo and the Volksfest in Nuremburg (a pretty big carnival). Hopefully I'll get those up soon.

xoxo
jess

In Vein

I can't believe I forgot to upload this layout to my blogger. I made it for Scrapping the Music, but it's also serving as a layout for a friend's blog for her webstore. You can check it out here: http://everythingscrappn.blogspot.com. She's getting in lots of new merchandise, so check out her store as well. I think her prices are great, cheap shipping, and you'll be supporting a fellow scrapper.
The New challenge is up at Mojo and wow...you have to check out the prize!! It's pretty sweeeet! I used some of the newest "The Dozens" kit for this one, as well as the last "Style Phyle" from Sis. The tags are from a pair of jeans from H&M that I recycled. :) The picture is of a tattoo I hope to get in the near future. The 3 hearts represent Josh and the kids, plus Josh and I always tell each other "love love love" when we say goodbye to each other. I can't remember if we got it from "The Simpsons" or "Bruce Almighty." LOL.
A few weekends ago I found this cute stand at a local flea market selling all kinds of awesome felt and misc embellies. The orange and teal flower is from that. Check out our new challenge and upload your lo's!

I've totally been slacking on stuff. lol. I just don't ever seem to have a spare moment, but all of that will be changing soon. Josh is being sent away again on Monday for 12 days. Can you say blah? But when he's gone I have time to kill so I plan on lots of layouts. Plus, there's OMG. The Dozens is having a DT call! I know tons of talent will be applying, and I plan on throwing my stuff in as well.

Another reason on the lag of layouts is issues with the comp. We got a new computer...well it's Josh's comp for his music, but since my computer is not yet ready, I'm using it. We're having issues moving photoshop from the laptop to this comp. Plus there's issues with the printer and Vista. Blah Blah Blah. I think I've finally gotten the printer issue resolved so maybe I can get some photos printed tonight.

I just found out Alkaline Trio will be releasing a new album on July 1st! Eeeeeeee! I just finished listening to their new single "In Vein" on MySpace. It's only available for 24 hours, so if you're a fan, hurry over to their site and give it a listen. It's yummy.

Speaking of music, have you had a chance to listen to Josh's new songs on iTunes? It's a little less than $4 for the album and trust me, you won't be disappointed. It's Hits and Mrs, "The Beta EP." I hope you'll give it a chance. :D

Off to do mommy stuff.

xoxo

jess