Exhausted!

I don't know what it is, but I've been so worn out the past few days! As much as I love Christmas, I'm glad it's over. I'm looking forward to the new year...I've made some resolutions that I plan on keeping. They are pretty easy. I didn't want to get in over my head.

I'll post pictures from Christmas once I can make myself sit down at the computer long enough to edit and upload all of them. I got a new zoom lens for the camera. I can't wait to use that baby! It'll make taking tourist-ie pictures alot easier. I got new games for my DS and I can't put them down now. I also got Silpat for my baking needs. If you've never heard of it or used one, you are missing out! Look into it, seriously. I also got a big box of cookie cutters!! Thank goodness Joanns was out of stock when I ordered a set for myself!

I took a week long "hiatus" from scrapping. It was a well deserved break. I've been working hard to attain certain goals and I feel really good about things right now. Here's a bit of more good news...

I am now on the "Scrapping the Music" challenge blog design team! I received the exciting news a few days ago!!

I am going to be a guest designer for "Magistical Memories" (an AWESOME chipboard company) for the month of February.

2008 is off to a busy start, but I'm doing something that I'm passionate about. :)

I locked myself in our "music studio" for about 3 hours and got back into scrapping. I finally got a bit of a break from the kids. Josh has been busy with "Hits & Mrs" so that leaves me at home with the kids even more. But I think we're going to try out a schedule we can work with. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 7-10 pm I am not to be disturbed while I work on projects. He has to weekends to work on his music and any other day he gets out of work early.

New Years is sneaking up! What are your resolutions?

xoxo

Oh Happy Day!!

I just received notification that I made it to the Scrapbook Mate Design Team! I'm totally stoked and can't wait to get started!! They are the largest supplier of scrapbook materials in Europe. eeeeeee!

http://adailyinspiration.blogspot.com/

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Hits and Mrs.

I've been a busy little bee! Another plug for the guys.

www.myspace.com/hitsandmrs
I used 2 different color gelly roll glaze pens for a punch of gloss and color, rhinestone brads by making memories, rhinestones, silver foil rub ons, black glitter stickle paint, and foiled patterned paper from the rock star stack by dcwv. journaling spot by maya road. art by me. :)

stash diet 8/50.

btw- someone made it into the designer gallery at basic grey finally!! :D woo hoo!

Altered Album for Michelle

I am in an impatient mood tonight, so I'm going to share a gift I made for Michelle Cle...wait a minute, what's your new last name now?! LOL. Anyways, we did a small swap in our Mojo group and I got dear Michelle. It's not much, but I'm pleased with it and I hope she likes it too! Sorry to ruin the surprise, but there are a couple of other things in the box! I won't ruin those for you. :)

I'm back on a tattoo inspired frenzy, if you can't tell. I used a SEI plain album. I don't remember the dimensions off hand. covered the book with a recycled mesh bag that had tangerines in it. I made two of the tattoo images. I cut around one of the hearts/lock and used foam pop dots and glued it ontop of the complete image to make it pop more. I colored it with prisma color pencils, and went over some spots with sakura gelly roll glaze pens, my fave.

I hope you like it!

xoxo

OLW: Hope

LO for the One Little Word challenge blog.

Journaling reads, "Your love for music fuels your need to create it. You're never given up and I doubt you ever will. You've found your sound, now run with it."

You can listen to his band at: http://www.myspace.com/hitsandmrs

They'll will have a new song up shortly. :)

xoxo

Scrapdragons Challenge: Guilty Pleasure

I bet you would never have guessed that I have a HUGE beanie baby collection. Well I do. They're not displayed though. I keep them in this big locker type thing, locked up, hidden from the elements.

BTW, the photo is only part of my collection. Yikes, huh? I guess deep down I'm holding onto the hope that they'll be worth money one day.

Stash Diet lo 2/50

xoxo

St. Jacob's Church in Rothenburg ob der Tauber

On Saturday we took another adventure to Rothenburg. It's not very far from us at all thank goodness. Our first stop was a sushi restaurant. Yuuuuuum. It seems like forever since I've had my favorite, Chirashi (sashimi served over sushi rice). It was a tiny place and it also served as a modern art gallery. There were alot of postersize photographs and this cute little felt mobile. Seriously, I want one!! Josh ordered his usual unagi (eel) which is one of our favorites.

After our bellies were full, we walked around the corner to this huge church that I've been wanting to go into. It's St. Jakobs Lutheran Church. Alot of this info I'm about to type is from the pamphlet they gave me.

St. Jacobs is dedicated to the apostle (engl. St James). It is one of the churches on the pilgrimage route to St. James grave in Santiago de Comostela in Spain. St. James became the patron saint of the pilgrims and merchants. he can be recognized by his pilgrims-staff and the St. James-scallop on his hat.

The High Alter (1466), also called the Twelve Apostles Alter, is one of the finest high altars in Germany. The excellent wood carvins are the work of Swabian master carvers. Most impressive is the crucifis with the four angels representing (right) Faith and Prayer and (left) Unbelief and Doubt. Under the crucifix are the six saints: elizabeth, James, Virgin Mary, John, Leonard, and Antonius the Hermit. The altar painting are by a Nordling master artist Friedrich Herlin. The predella shows Christ with the twelve Apostles. The altar wings depict the following scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary: Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, Circumcision, Adoration of the Magi, Presentation in the Temple, and Death of Virgin Mary (two panels). The rear sides depict the Legend of St. James.

The stained glass windows in the east chancel, 56 feet high, are of great merit, and their glorious rich colouring is best seen in the morning sunlight. The left window shows scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary, the centre window scenes from Christ's Life and Passion, surrounded by Prophets. the right window is taken up with Christ's work of Redemption through the Sacraments.

To the left of the High Alter is the Tabernacle-formly a place of sanctuary-, a beatuiful stone sculpture of the 14th century, with an unusual representation of the Holy Trinity. On the right of the altar is an early stone sculpture (Christ the King).

The chancel pews are the work of a Rothenburg master craftsman and date back to 1514. Above them on the north wall are the coats of arms of Rothenburg patricians and mayors. On the south wall are the portraits of former preachers after the Reformation.

The Alter of the Virgin Mary is in the north aisle (about 1520) is the work of an unknown master. In the shrine: Coronation of the Virgin Mary, in the predella: Death of the VIrgin Mary. On the altar wings: Virgin Mary and Child; St. Ann, Child, and Virgin Mary.

The pulpit dates from about 1854.

The new organ in the west gallery was consecrated in 1968. It has two consoles, six manuals, and more than 5000 pipes.

I didn't get a chance to go upstairs b/c the kids were misbehaving. We walked towards the middle of town to find the Christmas market that I had been wanting to go to for the past couple of months.

The first thing we did was let the kids ride on a carousel which was kinda big mistake. For one, it was way past their naptime. They did not want to get off and a fit followed. Geeeeeze. We tried to bribe them with some freshly made Crepes with Nutella. Nope. Here's some photos for you to drool over.

I have lots more pictures from Sunday's adventure. We went to the HUGE Christmas market in Nuremburg. GORGEOUS. Lots of new scrap stuff too.

xoxo

How to Make My Family Behave in a Restaraunt:

Give Josh a beer.

Give the kids their DVD player.

Photo courtesy of my wonderful hubba bubba.

We had a super busy weekend and a huge photo post is coming soon! I'm in the process of editing the pics.

xoxo

ps- It was a negative on the Magistical Memories DT Call. :( Don't fret. There's always next year. I've already put in for a couple other spots, so I suppose we'll see!

Think Green: Recycle

For the Color Your World Challenge (greens and blues).

I wasn't big on recycling until we moved here. Now it's second nature and I feel guilty if I throw something away in the garbage that could have been recycled. They have lots of recycling spots on base and when you're off base, recycling cans are readily available as well. Where we were from, recycling was not pushed. In fact, I don't recall seeing recycling centers sans the few "paper" dumpsters in front of a few elementary schools in San Antonio. I bet if it were more convenient for Americans to recycle, they would.

The photo is of my sorting bins that are on my shelves in my kitchen. I have one for glass, hard plastic, soft plastic, paper/cardboard, and aluminum (that's under my sink).

What do you think?

On a bummy note, Joanns ran out of that 101 cookie cutter set I ordered a while ago. :(

So I'm putting myself through a personal challenge right now, brought on by Cathy. I'm just going to copy and paste straight from her blog:

So I was browsing blogs this morning and came upon this fabulous idea which I'm totally going to take on. It's called a Stash Diet, I found it on this blog (http://jenniferandamy.blogspot.com/2007/12/simplify.html). The rules are below. This is a great way to save money, get rid of old stuff (you know the stuff we say we will never use again). It's true what the blogger said when she said that if my kids look at the LO's when they are older they are not going to say "oh man, that is the time when mom used all the 'old stuff' on our pages." They don't care what products or when the product was made just that there is something made of that memory. I love this idea and I hope that all of you join in with me and do this. It will be quite a journey to get out all that Stack paper and use it up.

This time no saving of the scraps lol....the rules are as follows.

1. Create 50 layouts using only products, tools, and supplies we have on hand.

2. Cardstock and adhesive can be purchased when needed. Who can make many pages with no adhesive?

3. Gift certificates, RAK's, DT kits are not included -those can be used.

4. Larger altered projects count as 1 layout.

I'm in. Why not. My wallet could use a break and I have a ton of things to use. We'll see how long this will last!! lol. So far, 1/50 done! Yippee!

xoxo

Double Rainbows and a Money Book Tutorial

I didn't realize how much it rained in Germany! Geeeeeze. The mornings start off sunny and I think, "oh good! I'll be able to take the kids to the park!" But by the time they're done eating breakfast, it's clouded up and has started raining. :( We managed to catch 2 rainbows though, on our way out to Wurzburg on Sunday.


***Money Book Tutorial***





Here's a quick and easy gift idea. Instead of stuffing money into a card, you can make a quick little book.

1. First you'll need a heavy weight cardstock and then a thinner patterned paper.
2. Glue the two back to back.
3. Once it is dry, cut out a 6.5" x 2.75" rectangle.
4. Find the center (lengthwise) and make two vertical creases (1/16th to either side of the middle) to create the spine of the book.
5. Fold dollar bills in half, one at a time, and crease them. Open the up and stack them together.
6. Fold the entire stack of bills in half (as one).
7. Use string/ribbon to bind the money to the book by wrapping it around the spine and then across the center fold of the bills. Knot the string/ribbon.
8. Punch one hole in the front and back cover (be careful not to punch through the money!). Slip a piece of ribbon through and knot to close the book.
9. Decorate to your heart's content.


xoxo

*yaaaaaaaaawn*

I feel like I've been non-stop all week! I'm exhausted today.

Josh got off of work early Friday so we went to Furth to hit up Ikea again. I needed some frames to finish off his christmas present. Then we took a little excursion downtown to find a wonderful clothing store called H&M. Their prices are extremely reasonable. I'm not huge on the women's section myself...not quite my style, but the kid's clothes are friggen awesome. They had some cute dresses on sale and we found a couple of sweaters for Sebastian too.

While trying to find a parking spot downtown, we drove by the christmas market. It was ALOT bigger than the one in the one town that we went to last weekend. But after we went shopping, we couldn't find it. :( I'm still hoping to go to the Nuremburg market before it ends. Or even the Rothenburg one would be nice...that is closer and we're more familiar with that town.

Yesterday was our orphan sponsorship day and it went well. This is Nadine and she's 17. She has 4 brothers and one sister that have all lived in the orphanage (three of them are over 18 now and I don't think they're there anymore). Lucky for me, she spoke a little bit of english which she learned from school. We spent most of the day bowling, which was great because I hadn't been bowling in FOREVER! When I was little, almost every Saturday morning was spent at the bowling alley with our league. Lol. I even had my own peach bowling ball, blue bowling ball bag, and matching bowling shoes. :) I didn't throw gutter balls all day,thank goodness. Josh wears a big shoe (size 12) so there was slim pickings on fashionable bowling shoes for him. I dunno, I think these colors are becoming on him. LOL! Here's my latest layout for the OLW blog. Thank god for our GPS. Seriously. We'd get SOOOO lost without it here.

oh! All my goodies from Heather's store came in! *droooool* I think I am done buying Prima for awhile. I have way too much. Well, I have too much everything. I see a few ebay lots in the near future to lighten up my stash...some of the older things that I never got around to using.

Everyone keep their fingers crossed for me. I have recently applied for two design teams. The first is at Magistical Memories. I love their chipboard and their new designs just keep getting better and better. The second is a European based dt called Scrapbook Mate. Hopefully I'll get picked up somewhere. If not, well I guess I'll have to keep applying until I get a spot somewhere! I'm pretty tenacious.

Well, I'm off to attempt to finish the last bit of handmade gifts so I can get boxes off tomorrow. Josh leaves early in the morning and will be gone all week. There is a bright side...he'll be able to come home for the weekends. Hope everyone had a great weekend.

xoxo

Eeeeeeee!!!!

I won my first layout contest! It was at Magistical Memories. I'm so excited...even more excited to get a box full of free chipboard. Aaaaaand, I got my order from Heather's store, Everything Scrappn. I can't wait to use it. Such a good scrap day.

xoxo

Scrap Mojo Challenge 5

New Challenge is up! For my paint technique, I used a mesh bag that had my onions in it! LOL. I love the impression that it made though. This LO is kinda crazy...alot of elements going on, a complete 180 from my white space layout. Ah well. That's me. :)

I've been a little busy bee working on handmade gifts, but I can't post them here. However, most of you who read my blog know where to find me elsewhere (ie AMM, SISTV, 2Peas, etc). I'll be sure to post them there and then I'll post them here once Christmas is over. I do have to say, my main project is almost done and I am in love with it. I'm not sure I want to give it up!

I'm glad to announce that I've found the Simpson's Calendar that was wanted by the girl I'm "adopting" this Saturday. I almost broke down and bought Bath & Body Works, but I thought I'd give the book section a second chance. Sure enough, there it was!! I was so happy, as it was the only thing she had asked for. I did also buy her a very pretty scarf. I'm really excited for Saturday. I hope I can keep her entertained and make her trip worthwhile.

And on some disappointing news...they're sending Josh to another city a couple hours away for about 10 days. :( There goes all the fun Christmas stuff out the window. We had a trip to Nuremburg's Christmas Market planned for Tuesday. We were taking the train with a bunch of people from his company. If I knew more people, maybe I'd risk going...but I don't and I don't want to go to a BIG, unfamiliar city by myself with 2 toddlers. So hopefully he'll be home before Christmas and we can do some things. Here's hoping....

I'm getting my hair cut tomorrow. eeeee! It's been a long time and it looks totally neglected.

ta ta for now.

xoxo

Every Thug Needs A Lady

Here's my latest LO and I love it's simplicity. It was for the A Million Memories "use your white space" challenge. For all my non scrapping buddies, white space is like negative space...there's nothing around it. Things like the space between graphics, margins, gutters, space between columns, space between lines of type or figures and objects drawn or depicted are considered white space too (thought I'd throw in some lingo from my old design lessons. lol). To me though, the most important part about white space is that it allows emphasis on your focal point...you're forced to look at one thing and not be distracted by other page elements.

Hee Hee. I was going through a box of mementos that Josh kept from Korea. It had letters, cards, scrapbooks, etc that I sent him while he was deployed for a year. After he opened this card (and like everything else I made him), I made him PROMISE to keep it in pristine shape so I can have it in my completed projects area. LOL. It's so simple and cute.

Here are a few pics of the kids decorating the tree. Anberlin took charge and did a really good job of hanging the ornaments. Sebastian did an even better job of dumping all of the ornaments out of the box and rolling them across the floor. He didn't have much interest in the tree, but had fun playing with the ornaments/box (as seen in the last photo...he's peering through the ornament box).

So I don't think I've ever mentioned how TALL Anberlin is. She's in the 95th percentile...basically there's only 5% of the population who is taller than her in her age range. She looks like a giant when she stands next to other 3 years olds and parents are surprised to learn her age. She looks so funny in her pants though. 4T is too short for her now. We went to H&M this weekend and thankfully the 3-4 year old size pants fit her PERFECTLY. And I love it even more when pants have the built in elastic that you can manually adjust.

Which brings me to my next point. Sebastian is skinny. I think he is in the 10th percentile for his age and weight. Given, he was just getting over his stomach flu when that was taken. BUT, I don't know what has snapped in him, but he's been eating like CRAZY! Before, he'd take a few bites and refuse to eat anymore. Now, he asks for seconds. It's awesome! His cheeks are getting chubbier, he's got a little pot belly...he looks like a typical toddler. :)

I was tempted to make an advent calendar for the kids, but broke down and bought a cheap one. I knew that by the time I got around to making one, it would be Christmas and the point would have been defeated.


By the way, it only lasted one day. Sebastian got a hold of it while I was cleaning and ripped the base apart. SO now we take a piece of chocolate from the roof once a day, count the remaining squares and put it in my "sweets" hiding spot.

I just ordered this for the kids and I can't wait to get it! It has the complete alphabet, numbers 0-9, and assorted shapes. It'll be great for our little lessons. :)

And here's some eye candy. I got this in the mail after a LONG day with the kids. Scrapfreak had an AWESOME black friday sale, as did this site:

She has awesome prices on most items, so it's worth taking a moment to check it out! I made out like a bandit on both sites. The order from everythingscrappn.com should be here any day. I can't wait!!!

And on a last note, I am starting on a "the faces of the Summers' kids" book (that is, once all the Christmas gifts are done). Here's a preview, hee hee.

xoxo