FALLING OFF

So sometimes, if you have a contest/promotion going on in your blog, you want to tell people about it, n'est pas? LOL. Yeah, I've been a little busy and failed to mention my super exciting contest (see below). Obviously nobody won. *sigh* Have I mentioned I need a nanny?



Nothing too exciting going on over here. I went to the Archiver's crop last week with some other MOMS club moms and had tons of fun. I made these little note cards with my new Stampin' Up set:

I'm in the planning stages of Ava's first birthday party! With Ethan, we had it at a restaurant and invited SOOOOO many people - it was a whole 'thing'. For Ava, it's going to be a little affair but fabulous nonetheless. I've custom ordered labels, pendants for the little girls and spiderman crayons for the boys - all from etsy. I'll be using cotton napkins, real dishes, cutlery & cups and empty baby food jars in an effort to not make unnecessary waste (and save some money!). Hopefully it'll turn out ok.

Ava's screeching - gotta run! Have a great week everybody!

MONDAY, MONDAY

Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful dads out there!! We spent a quiet day at home yesterday. It was actually kind of nice not to have too much to do. My dad and father in law live in NY so we didn't really have anyone to visit.


The crop on LifePreserversClub.com was a success - lots of fun challenges, games and I actually got some pages done! Of course, they were the pages I needed for the challenges I had set up so I didn't have much choice LOL. Still, 3 pages in one day is no small feat for me. Did you complete any of my challenges???? I'm giving away a prize if you do. You will have until Friday, June 20th, 10pm EST to complete any one of my 2 challenges. If you complete both, you get two entries. A winner will be selected (randon drawing) from all eligible entries. Simply leave a comment on my blog linking back to your layout. For those of you who are not members of the message board, here are the challenges:


ALL MIXED UP Challenge: All right ladies, you know our alphabet packs (be it chipboard, stickers, thickers - whatever) never come with enough of the letters we need most. So, my challenge to you is to make a layout using a mix of letters from whatever you've got lying around! Here's my example: (how do you like my 'high school' handwriting? LOL)

FATHER KNOWS BEST Challenge: In honor of Father's Day, I want you do make a page honoring a special dad in your life. It could be your dad, your kid's dad, your dad-in-law, a mom who is both mom and dad - anyone! Here's mine:

And this is the page that I did just for myself:

So, get to scrapping ladies & gents. I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Have a wonderful week everyone!

SUCCESS!

Ava is sleeping on her own in her crib from 8p - 6a! WOOHOO! Now if I could get to bed at 8p we'd be golden :) A girl can dream......

Well, I'm trying to get through my backlog of LP Kits and use some of the cool stuff I have lying around in here. I finally tried my hand at an acrylic album. Yeah, so NOT a fan! Ay ay ay, these are hard to do! I listed it yesterday and it sold today (by convo - gotta tell her to 'take' it from my store). I may have to try my hand at another (or two because that's what I still have here) but then I think I'm done with acrylic. Here's a picture of it:

Now I have to put this kit away because I have to work on a make and take for the LP Crop this weekend (more about that later). But before I put it away I made this:

It used to hold my black peppercorn :) You all know how I hate to throw anything out! I don't know what I'll use it for but at least it's not in the garbage! I have empty baby food jars and peanut cans (cardboard ones) and all kinds of stuff I can't get rid of but don't have time to do anything with. Gosh, have I always been this frugal??

So, this weekend Life Preservers Club is hosting an online crop to celebrate it's sixth year!! Happy Birthday, LPC!! There will be lots of challenges and PRIZES and a few make and takes (one hosted by yours truly). Please join us! The crop starts tomorrow, Friday, at 7p and runs through Sunday. All you have to do is sign up to the message board (that does NOT sign you up for any kits) and get to know the most beautiful bunch of ladies ever! They have become like family to me so I know you'll love them too. And how's this for an incentive: If you complete my make and take project and post a link here, I will put your name in a drawing for a PRIZE!! WOOHOOO! You'll have to sign up to see what my make and take will be :)

In etsy news: I snagged another treasury!! This one I dedicated to my uber-talented teammates on Etsy In Spanish. Check it out:

I think that's all for now. I hope to 'see' you this weekend at LP!!

AWESOME FIND

I've listed a few things on craigslist lately - mostly things that Ava's outgrown and I've become a little bit of a junkie for it! I lost out on this gorgeous formal living room set with wingback chairs and matching loveseat and tables and everything because dh was skeeved about getting used furniture. I cried. It was so perfect and soooooo cheap! Grrr, I get so mad thinking about it!



Anyway, so I keep browsing in hopes of finding treasures to fill my emtpy home. Well, I came across this yesterday and decided I was going to go for it. It was my birthday money and I'm using it for MY scrap space so dh can be as skeeved as he wants but I AM GETTING IT! So I did. Isn't is just GORGEOUS?

Right now it's in the empty formal living room. The cardboard on the legs was for transporting it. I can't wait to get it in my scraproom! It's a huge surface and I'm gonna use it all up :)

My birthday was awesome. On Saturday dh, the kids and I went down to Glenwood Ave. in search of furniture. We did lots of window shopping, no buying, but it was fun - well, as fun as it can be with two cranky kids. Then Sunday (my actual birthday) I left the kids with my sister and dh and I went out. He got me the table set I wanted for the kitchen - I LOVE IT - and we had Japanese food. It was GREAT to be without the kids!

I've decided that I spend more time putting Ava to sleep than doing anything else even though I swore I wouldn't do it again after Ethan. She's always been a good sleeper but the last month or so she's started waking up at night and rather than listening to her cry, I would get up and rock her. Well, on Wednesday nite when she got up at 2am I just couldn't take it anymore. I put her down in her crib and she screamed for what seemed like forever! But, I was good. And she fell asleep. Last night, I did it again and when I put her down she didn't cry but for a minute, sat up in her crib for about 10 minutes and went right down. Tonight, I just put her down a little bit ago and she just stopped crying and is now asleep. I guess it does work! Oh, it just breaks my heart to hear her cry and not comfort her. *sigh* You know what though? I noticed she took a long nap today too. Hmmm.... maybe the experts are right! :)

On etsy news: I'm in a treasury today and I also snagged one! If I could get the screen image I'd post it here but thumbalizr isn't working for me right now. Maybe I'll try again later. Ok here's the one I'm in: NC TREASURY and here's the one I made: A Tribute to Puerto Rico. Come check them out!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DH!

We celebrated dh's birthday yesterday - 41! Wowzers! I remember when I thought 35 was old. And here I am not 5 days away from it myself. *sigh* Time flies.

We had my sister and family over to 'celebrate' - no biggie. I made dinner but we had a Carvel ice cream cake YUMMY! My sweet sweet neighbors dropped by with a bottle of champagne for our birthday gift. Otherwise, nothing too exciting happened.

Actually, that's not true! OMGosh so I'm out running some errands, trying to get the bday cake and there are cops everywhere! So, I'm super cautious, right? Speed limit 35 - I'm doing 36 and a ^@#!&* cop pulls me over!!!!!!!! Says I'm in a school zone. It was a girl cop. I'm like, dude, are you serious?? It's MEMORIAL DAY there are no classes today. 'Doesn't matter' says she, '25 all the time' - on that ONE friggin road! OMGosh, I just wanna grrrrrr thinking about it. Ms. Officer gave me a ticket for $170!! I wanna throw up just thinking about it. Happy freakin birthday to me. God, please forgive me for the horrible, horrible thoughts I'm having towards that..........woman.

So, I'm off to create. Gotta sell lots and lots and lots of stuff to pay for this &*(#^ ticket by July 11th.

OK, I'M BACK.

For real. LOL. I can't believe it's been 15 days since I told you how busy I was and that I'd be back soon! Sheesh, time flies. I've just been so consumed by these custom orders. I'm trying to finish up my last one and then I'm taking a break. I need to slow down a little and pace myself - Summer's coming!

Let's see...what's happened since we chatted last....

I've got a garden! Well, my father in law gave us a few Spanish pepper plants and then dh went and got me cilantro and tomatoes. I'm so excited to see if they make it! If we don't kill these off, next year I want a full fledged garden - lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers - the works! Cross your fingers ;)

We also got 2 trees from my dad and 2 from my father in law. DH has been busy planting them. Who knew tree placement was such a chore? It's so funny how many little things I never really paid attention to until I got this house. Now I know what a crape myrtle and a red maple are and that petunias need full sun. I've got ferns hanging on the porch and my two palm trees that my dear neighbors gave me last summer are on either end of the porch. My first house is starting to feel like home!

I've been trying so desperately to find a round table in black for my kitchen. It has to be at least 48" (preferably bigger) but all I keep finding is glass top tables. I'm so sad :( I mean, I know Pottery Barn has the one I want but there is NO WAY I would pay Pottery Barn money even if I had it! I'm going to try the stores on Glenwood Ave. as a last resort. I keep checking craigslist but I've had no luck yet.

I joined the Etsy in Spanish Street Team! Check out our blog EtsyinSpanish.blogspot.com. They even featured one of my items: Princess at Work featured!

Oh, I went to Scrapmania at Archiver's on May 10th with some ladies from the MOMS club. I had SOOOOOOO much fun!! That was the best Mother's Day gift (except for my first Mother's day when Ethan came home from the hospital after two months) ever! I left just after 9p (I had been out all day in the HOT sun shopping) but some of the ladies stayed till 11p! I can't wait to do it again. I even got THREE pages done!! WAHOO!

So, that's all I've got for now. Pray that I am able to finish this album in the next couple of days so that I can move on. My customers have been wonderful, giving me carte blanche and relying solely on my vision for their projects and for that I'm grateful. Now, I need to take a little scrapping break and do something with the four kits I haven't yet opened!

Oh! Shout out to SANDRA CURRY - the newest member of the LifePreserversClub.com Design Team!! Marcene, I'm so sorry to see you go and I wish you well in your new job!

OH MY GOSH!!!

What a busy month April was! Sheesh! I feel like I'm just now taking a deep cleansing breath and getting ready to start something new.

I've got some new custom orders to fill and I'll be going back to NY for a few days this month. You all know how behind I get when I go away! I'm excited to see my friends and family but I know I'm gonna have so much to do before and after. Stressing doesn't help, I know.

My parents are arriving tomorrow for a visit. I don't think we have anything planned for Mother's Day - maybe church and brunch? I guess we'll play it by ear.

I'm gonna go get to work on more orders. TTYL!