THE QUEEN OF QUIRK

cleaning out the office....

AGAIN.

It seems I have to do this quarterly because we are so incredibly bad about picking up after ourselves in the office.

This is midway through. Ick.

My plan of attack? Top to bottom. So, the top of the cabinet and the windowsill were the first to get hit with furious scrubbing and sorting.

After that, I cleaned out the big cabinet and was left with a massive pile of junky junk on the floor.

But at least I was making progress. I actually started this yesterday. I ruthlessly purged my scrap stash and promisd this HUGE box of goodies to the girls if they could get their art room cleaned up before bedtime tonight.

I snuck downstairs and peeked in on them and they were all getting along so well and being really helpful. It was lovely to see. It's a nice break from the catfights. ;)

But I can now say that after 2 days of intense purging and cleaning, my office is finally a place I can function in.

To the left of my desk:

The little red journal is my 2011 December Daily album. I can't wait to get the photos! I am so ready to get that scrapbook completed. :)

And to the right:

That little drawer unit is my "nook" I've carved out for Project Life.

The bottom drawer holds adhesives. The next drawer stores my stamps, ink pads and mounting blocks. The top drawer is where all my punches and cutting tools live.

The next 3 drawers hold my paper (along with a little tub full of the 3x4" pieces I cut), my alphabets and my page protectors.

On top I'll keep my PL journal and the camera.

And lest you think I just shoved everything into the cabinet...

Everything is all purdy and super organized now. This is where I store all my blank cards, paper scraps, glitter, flowers, rhinestones, labels, stickers, markers, ribbon, work supplies and mail stuff.

I am sooooo freakin' happy that my office is done.

Now all I have to do is lock everyone else in my family out of here and then hopefully it will stay this way.

Yeah right. ;)

join the party!

The fabulous Shimelle is hosting a fun party over on her blog to celebrate her new class Stress Free Scrapbooking #01: Go To Press!
I was lucky enough to get to play along and get my hands on some of her fabulous printables that are exclusive to her class! I worked with the "music" themed sheet and I have to say I'm kinda in love with tthe printables and this layout.

layout credits: thickers, amercan crafts paper, lily bee design paper, making memories stickers, basic grey paper

Anyone who knows my scrapping at all knows that I am kind of all over the place. I think I'm more of a hit-and-run scrapper. If it's not in my line of sight, it's probably not going to make it into my layout. It's gotten even worse now that I paper scrap so rarely and my supplies are very thin on the ground. I think, though, since I've learned to only buy the stuff I absolutely love (as opposed to going with trends) my stash is much more user friendly and my layouts still reflect my style no matter how limited my supplies are. That's always nice to find out. :)

So, since my theme was music, I chose to highlight my ever-growing CD collection. I am a sucker for music. I love to sing, I love to dance, and I love jamming out on RockBand. So, this is my little tribute to one of my most favorite things in the world. I just love Shimelle's word art and graphics. So much fun. I was looking around for an extra bit of blue for the page to tie in Shimelle's stuff and I came across an old Barbie mini puzzle board. I chopped that sucker up and used part of the frame as a big bracket. I also wanted something to mark the edge of the photo on the top, but couldn't find anything. So, I broke out my Sharpie and just started drawing random lines. I kinda like the way they turned out. I might have to play with that in digi and see if I can come up with a fun element pack. :)

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to play along and get scrapping with Shimelle. She's amazing! :)

whew!

Next time, seriously, I am taking the train. It would cost just as much, but the trek wouldn't be nearly as long! I had an awesome time, just being in the moment and enjoying the company of new and old friends. I took not one photo. Not a one. Not til about an hour before I left. :)

My Kimmy. In her class, gearing up for a fabulous scrap lesson. I miss her so much already! I had so much fun pal-ing around with these guys, though!

On Friday, I arrived late into town and the girlies were all in the city eating dinner, so I went around the corner from our hotel to grab a bite to eat and wait for them. The waiter was bringing me complimentary drinks which I will gladly blame for the moment when I burst out of the restaurant and into the street upon seeing my peeps walk by the window! I exploded through the door and yelled something to the effect of "HEY YOU HOT AMERICAN CHICKS!!" They all then turned around and then Kim came barreling at me at breakneck pace and then I got to hug on Cori and I also got to meet Tena Sprenger and Laurie Stamas. The other gals were pooped, so Kim came back with me into the 'straunt while I paid my bill and gathered my slushy self. We got back into the hotel and in our search for Cori, I got to meet Amy Hanna and Pam Garrison. My jaw literally dropped when I realized I was meeting Pam. :) I am a total nerd and we all know how giddily and overwhelmingly impressed I get when meeting celebs. I'm a class act, alright. The gals had to get up at dawn to be at the convention center, so we all headed to bed. It took me forever to fall asleep. By this time it was 12:30 am and my blood was thick with adrenaline.

Saturday morning, Laurie, Amy, Cori and I met in the breakfast room and noshed and chatted before we headed out to the flea markets. We took the metro to the outskirts of town and settled in for a packed morning of treasure-seeking. I kinda wasn't feeling it, though. The things we found were beautiful and adorable and downright amazing, but the prices were just too rich for my blood. I was really hoping to come home with a painting, but the still life I found (which was gorgeous with its cool blues and blood red fruit) was 800 euros. There was no way I could justify getting it. I did pick up a necklace from a lady who had a bunch of vintage jewelry displayed. The one I got isn't old, but I really like it.

We saw amazing garden ornaments, huge onion dome bird cages, atrociously priced paintings and every kind of knick knack and collectible you could imagine. But seriously, the prices are just whackadoo right now. I did, however, pick up some letterpress stamps.

While Cori and Amy ventured off to another market, Laurie and I headed inside to a pizzeria for warmth and liquid sustenance. We had some seriously yummy pizza and quattro formaggi. Laurie and I hit it off amazingly and I am so glad I got to meet her. Talk about an amazing group of women! After a couple of hours, Cori and Amy moseyed on back to us and we all shared a bottle of vino before heading back to the metro. Not before we stopped and perused a handbag shop, though. Priorities, right? :)

We finally got back to our hotel and Laurie and I headed to the market to grab some snackies (i.e. 5 bottles of vin, baguettes, soft cheeses, salami, grissini and water) because it had been unanimously decided that we would dine-in tonight. Amy wasn't feeling well, so she went to her room and literally crashed. Laurie went to freshen up and I changed and then headed to Cori's room. I'm sure Cori just wanted to take a nap, but I, being the oblivious hanger-on that I am, parked my tush on her bed and chatted to no end. We had fun chatting about Franch stuff and we cracked open the wine and grissini. Laurie was taking entirely too long (what were you doing, Laurie!!?!?!) so Cori texted her and then she came down with Tena. The big girls showed up around then from their long day of teaching and Cori and I greeted Kimmy with a picnic spread out on her lovey blankie on the bed. She was happy about the wine...prolly not so happy about the crumbs. ;) After everyone got settled in, we ate and chatted until late at night. Much laughter was heard, stories shared, advice given. It was heavenly. Laurie has a stack of quotes, though, that would make yer mama slap ya! Apparently we are quite a naughty bunch of girls! If those quotes pop up somewhere, I'll be sure to share them. Kim also played around with her Flip and there are some seriously good laughs on that thing. And all I can say is..."no comment." ;) After the people in the next room pounded on the wall, we tried to keep it down, but it just wasn't going to happen. So, we whispered and giggled and said our goodnights and headed off to bed.

Sunday morning, I woke up bright and early to head over to Parc Floral with Kim, Tena and Pam to help hang out and spend some time with them. All three of them loaded me down with goodies and I am sooo grateful. I have so much yummy stuff to play with! Kim played around with my camera and tried to get some decent headshots of me, but I am seriously the most obnoxious person to take pictures of. Just ask Kim. I end up doing things like this:

Kim actually had to revert to her time-tested kid mode in order to get me to cooperate. This consisted of talking about poop and farts. Seriously, I'm taht bad. i have no idea what to do on the other side of the lens. I just freeze and then I start to make faces. I am 3.

So after some coffee and chatting, I had to head out in order to catch my flight. I had to leave early, because there was a marathon going on at the time and I had no idea how I was going to cross it. So, I hugged on Tena and Pam and told them how happy I was to met them and then I gave Kim one last hug and had to skedaddle before the tears really started to fall. I missed Cori, Amy, and Laurie by about an hour, but Pam let me text them to say goodbye. I hope they had a lovely day. :) I headed over to the marathon I had to cross and waited almost 10 minutes before a sufficient lull came along for me to cross through. I don't run. I sorta prance and hop. So, I underestimated the time it would take me to cross the street and almost got run over by some very determined joggers. The police, however, were laughing at me. :)

So, I got to the hotel, threw all my crap in my bag and high-tailed it outta there. The trek home was awful and really really long. My flight was delayed 2 hours and then when we finally got to Heathrow, we sat on the runway for almost an hour before they finally let us get into the terminal. And apparently I was lucky just to get a British Airways flight yesterday. Colin said that over 140 flights were canceled yesterday. Whew!

Just getting out of Heathrow is a huge mess. I swear I walked a mile from the gate to the baggage claim area. And when I got there, the floor was literally covered with baggage. As far as the eye could see, there were suitcases all around. I'm sooo glad my bag was still on the belt and I found it pretty quickly. So, from Heathrow, i have to take a 45 minute train into King's Cross and from there I have to take an hour train to gt home. I arrived right on time and Colin and the girls wee there to pick me up. They were all soooo sweet and happy and the girls couldn't stop kissing and hugging me. Noodle literally had her lips pressed to mine and would not back off. :)

When we got home, I gave them their gifts from Kim and they squealed and went nuts over their new outfits. Noodle insisted that I tie her ribbon on her head and she went to sleep with it on. I took it off of her when she fell asleep, so this morning, she had it in her hands and was asking me to tie it back on for her. And then we had breakfast.

So that's about it. We have to leave in an hour for a playdate and then I've got some unpacking and laundry to do. I cam home to a spotless house which was such a treat! Colin really spoils me. :) I've gotta dash! Ciao, all!

it just...happened

Yesterday was a loooong day. The choir concert didn't start til 6 and the chubkins are usually in bed by 7, so it was kinda hectic at the end. They didn't get in bed til 9.

But Lara loved being "on the stage" as she's been calling it. We all filed into the auditorium and found our seats at the very back of the theater (seriously...3 rows in front of the guy that does the thing that runs the thing). When the kiddos came on stage, we started waving at Lara til she saw us and her face was PRICELESS. She was sooo excited to see us. Mia stood up on the seat and waved and waved. This is how many kids there were. Can you spot Lara?

Of course you can't. ;) I have no idea what my cam was doing, but this gives you some perspective on how far back we were. The performance was called "Our Colorful World"...I think. The kiddos sang Colors of the Wind, It's a Wonderful World, Purple People Eater, etc. Lara's class sang a song about oranges.

And I love this one...HA!

I have no idea what she was so scowly about, but I'm sure it was the fact that she was super tired and her patience was wearing thin. It was a sweet show and we had a good time. Since we got home so late, we just slapped some quesadillas together and rushed the kiddos off to bed. We all woke this morning feeling under the weather. Lara has a sore throat and cough, Mia still has her horrible hacking cough thing, Noodle is swollen and puffy and cranky. Needless to say, we skipped school today in order to try and rest up.

I, however, scrapped.

The coolio kits I bought from Kristina Contes arrived (along with a sweet note that absolved me of my stalker qualities at CHA. YESSS!). I ordered some photos from Shutterfly and as soon as those got here, I got to work. I made a mess, my hands are covered in glue and ink and they are sore, sore, sore. Holy beans, I've missed paper scrapping! I finished the top album and I assembled the bottom album. Still waiting on photos to slap in there.

You can grab KC's kits HERE. I seriously had so much fun.

While doin' all this scrapperiferoo, though, I realized my tools are a bit dated. Not "so last season" dated, but old dated. My poor little circle punch can barely cut through a sheet of Hambly. BARELY. And that's if I punch it over and over again about 20 times and then rotate the punch while it's clamped down. SICK. So, I bought a Crop-a-dile today. Since it's so nifty and handy and multi-functional and lime green, I think it will be a good addition to my stash.

So, that's been my day so far. Just scrappin' and drinkin' joe and enjoying the sunshine. I hope everyone's havin' a rockin' Tues.! Ciao, all.