Mini Album

Here's the mini album I made for my next door neighbor. They went on a cruise to Cozumel and Progresso. She's giving it to her room mate for Christmas. I have added binder rings and some ribbon as a final touch.

Stupid HTML

I spent the better part of 2 days trying to change my blog, but I have no idea how to keep my widgets when I change the layout. So I've been browsing the web and I have found how to change the column size (sorta) and the background and the header (good to know!!). But not how to change the color of the columns (because I hate a white background) or how to use a premade blogger layout (from somewhere like pyzam) without losing all of my links. Grrrrr

Can anyone out there help me?

Harvest Crop

This past week was the first ever online crop at Noel Mignon. There were daily challenges, games and prizes. I got 3 out of 6 layouts done, and I won a RAK and a prize! I also preordered Noel's latest kit, Winter Weather...which are now sold out! Here are the LO's that I did, and I'll post the kit and prizes once I get them.

Festival

The first weekend in November is the Peter Anderson Festival, and its another one that I love and wait all year for. Like Cruisin the Coast, each year it gets bigger and bigger. Martye and I took the babies and stayed for the whole day. I was sooooo tired by the time we went back to the car. But we had such a good time.

For lunch we took our food to Marshall Park and let the babies out of the strollers.


Dylan and AbbyEli

Checking out something beyond the fence.


Eli wants to see it too...


Abby doesn't want to be left out...



Here's some of the goodies that I got...and now I'm broke! lol

Marlin Miller is an artist who has been carving some of the trees that Hurricane Katrina damaged along Biloxi beach.
I got one of his carvings and talked with him some. He and his wife are very nice. Lauren and Marlin gave each other a hard time. She asked him about doing a little bitty owl carving and he showed her a twig snake that he "carved". He even signed the bottom of the Egert.
Ocean Springs Harbor by Linda Theobald. We already have one of her prints with the Barrier Islands. And Craig and I love just about any artwork that is about OS Harbor.


This is a photograph by Steve White. It's the buoy on Horn Island. Isn't it gorgeous?? I believe its the same buoy that we saw on the island after Katrina. I got a t-shirt from him as well, and we already own a print of the Golden Fisherman from him.


I got Lauren a tie-dyed bag and a pair of earrings that I can wear with my scrubs at work. Oh and I got hanging made of driftwood and a ceramic fish. Now I have to get all these framed and figure out where to hang them all!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Between my job and Craig working out of town, I have been going non-stop. Me and the kids have been doing so much, especially on the weekends. The first week in October is Cruisin' the Coast. I looooove Cruisin'. I can't wait for it to come around each year. I really enjoy the muscle cars of the 60's and 70's...Cameros, Corvettes, Mustangs...and especially this Nova which reminds me of the one my dad had when I was a kid.



Lauren likes the older cars of the 40's and 50's (?) Especially the ones with flames painted on them.





And we all love the burnouts that they do...



The last couple of years Mom and I have been taking Lauren over to the Mobile Fair, but this year it just wasn't possible. So we tool both the kids to the Church of the Redeemer fall festival and pumpkin patch. Lauren got her face painted.



Both of the kids played games like feed the pumpkin eater and cake walk (mom won a cake on that one, YAY mom!) And they got to walk around the patch and pick out pumpkins.







And of course, there's Halloween. Lauren and I painted the pumpkins while Ethan was napping. It was nice to have a little bit of time with just the two of us.





Here's the finished products...The little pumpkins have faces on both sides of them.



Lauren dressed up as a pirate...Think Elizabeth Swann from the first POTC movie when she stowed away on the ship.

Big Boy here was Superman. I went with something not too hot (do you know how hard that is??!!) and something that didn't require a headpiece.



We piled up and went up to my mom's church this year and did Hallelujah night. We usually go downtown, but with Craig gone this year, I was not carting two kids around that many people by myself. I think they had fun...Lauren gushed "This is the best trick or treat ev-er!!" She's so dramatic.





Lauren bobbed for apples but I didn't get any pictures of it. She came up to me twice dripping wet and dashed off again before I could even think to get the camera. So here's the bucket...



She had so much fun playing all the games. She was trying for 50 tickets so she could get a slingshot, of all things!

I won!!

I entered a giveaway at Funky Finds and won this wonderful print by Jessica Doyle. I am so excited to get this, not only is it cool as shit but it will eventually match my living room. Or maybe my living room will eventually match the print, if I can ever get started painting. She has so many one of a kind pieces of artwork that she sells on etsy. She seems really nice, communicated often with me thru emails, and shipped it fast too. Please go check her out.

Birthday Cards

This is a birthday card that I made for my next door neighbor, Kathy, to give to her roommate, Robin. Kathy came over and picked out things to put on the card and sat with me while I made it. She was so excited and happy to give Robin this card. I am going to be making a mini album of their cruise that they just went on, too. Yay!



This is a birthday card for my mom. Her birthday is in a couple of days and she loves the "cake batter" yellow color, so I chose that for the cardstock. The flower trim in the ribbon came from a nightgown that she just made for Lauren. She gave me the leftovers and I thought it would be cute to put some on her card. I just kinda tied it into the ribbon.

The Art is Found Challenge

I have decided to enter this layout for The Art is Found challenge blog. It's all about cardboard this week so I thought this would be perfect. This will be the first time I've entered anything there, although I have them on my Google Reader and have stalked them forever now. They have such unique prompts and awesome creativity.


Beach Brat...

Got Mojo?

Sometimes I have it, sometimes I don't have it, and sometimes I have to steal it...



These two layouts are lifts of "He Adores You" by Maggie Holmes in the September 2008 issue of Creating Keepsakes. I made one for both of the kids to put in each of their albums.


This is a straight up lift of "Go Fish" by Karen Helmka in the Products Guide 2008 issue of Creating Keepsakes. Daddy got Ethan his first fishing pole...he can't wait for Ethan to be big enough to take fishing.


The color is really off on this one (the cardstock is really a true red) and is a continuation of the grid layout style. Just some snap0shots of Ethan playing with ordinary things like a box, a calculator, and the cat's tail.


This one I started by drawing and then cutting out the sun using some scrap cardstock. I had the wavy paper already cut out that was left over from another project. I wanted to put a palm tree and remembered that I had seen one that I liked before. So I made one like Jennifer (shihtzu452) from scrapbook dot com. I really like this layout...I love the pic of Lauren.


So I finally got some mojo and did all these layouts this weekend...it just wasn't my mojo.

*knocks back*

I'm here, Gina!! lol

I have the usual excuses of being busy...working 12 hour shifts at the hospital, preparing and evacuating for Gustav, preparing again for Ike but not evacuating...*sigh* Hubby went out of town to Louisiana soon after Gustav for storm (tree) work, came home for 2 days and left for Texas following Ike. He is, as I write, on his way home now for one night and will be going back to do a debris contract. One night sucks, but at least I get to see him for a little while before he goes again. He's gone out of town before, but this time is so different than the last time...our lives are completely different and I have been really missing him.

I have not scrapped since before the storms...my stuff is still packed up. First for the storms, and then because I thought I was going to go to a crop. The crop got canceled (I was soooooo disappointed!!) and I haven't been able to attend any since. So my stuff sits... And no pictures of scrappy things...Bummer

Maybe I can get my stuff out Sunday or Monday...one can hope!

Remembering 9-11-01

Update

Thanks to everyone who expressed concern over Gustav. Me and mine are fine. I finally got out of work at about 6pm Sunday evening, went home and packed and headed up to my mom's (who had my kids). We never lost power and me and the kids went home Monday evening. Our house was fine, no water or wind damage, just some leaves and small branches blown around.

But now we have Ike to fret about, so say a prayer that he goes away, and I'll probably have the same plans of going up to my mom's, but this time I'll make sure I'm packed ahead of time, so I'm not the one doing any freaking out.

Gustav...and Katrina

So we have the first hurricane since Katrina breathing down our necks...and everyone has been in freak out mode for about 2 or 3 days. I have been stuck at work for the last 2 days and have not been able to do very much in the way of preparation. As soon as someone gets here to relieve me I have to go home and throw together a change of clothes, all my pics, and as much of my scrappy stuff as I can fit into my truck. Luckily I was able to come home during lunch and pack my kids' stuff, so that my mom could come and get them. Hopefully the weather will hold out long enough for me to make the drive to be with them.

I have to say that I'm kinda worried about the storm but only because I might have to be out in it. We did pretty good during Katrina...no water and only minimal damage to the roof. Katrina is the new benchmark to compare all 'canes to. All around I hear "well, we didn't flood during Katrina, so we should be alright." Or "So and so didn't get any water during Katrina, so we are going there." Not that long ago it was all about Camille. And one day I'll be one of those old-timers who talks about what it was like to people who weren't even born.

And just how ironic is it that the 3rd anniversary of Katrina got overshadowed by this, the first storm since that bitch?

My Sister and a Challenge

So I'm doing a book about my sister's visit b/c it just wouldn't fit into one particular album. This is my first mini album, although I'm not so sure this is technically a "mini" being that it is 6x12. Whatever...I'm going out of the box. So I was doing pretty good, got on a roll and then...BAM! Blocked...I hate that. So I go to scrapbook dot com, pagemaps, etc looking for inspiration and...nuthin'. Then I see on Noel's blog that she has donated a couple of her kits for the Becky Fleck pagemap's blog, so I go and check it out b/c my broke ass can't get her kit this month like I thought I was going to. Hallelujah...it's a 6x12 sketch!!! That couldn't have come at a better time. So here is my entry for it. Hopefully I'll get a two-fer out of this...I got my page done and oh to win one of those kits...*fingers crossed*!!!!!!!!!!!

The little sticker is the word "Forever" along with the definition.




PS...I'm going to post the whole album when its done...I still have a few more pages left to do :)

Birthday Cards

Here's a couple of cards that I made. This one I made for my aunt's birthday awhile back. Sorry for the bad pic...I forgot to take a pic before I gave it to her, so I took the pic at her birthday party. I made it with basic grey paper.




These cards are for my sisiter's birthday. The one on the left I made and the one on the right, my daughter "made". She used her paper that she had in her stash and she said she wanted it the same as mine. I did the cutting and she put it together, and wrote on the inside.


I have noticed that alot of card makers use stamps...maybe I should invest in a few basic ones. Any suggestions on which ones would be good to start with?

More Layouts

Here's a few more layouts that I've done recently and am just now getting around to taking pics and posting them...*sigh*

Ethan wearing Daddy's sunglasses...I love these papers.


I have waited for so long to scrap these pics and not for lack of trying. I finally found some papers that I liked with them. I used stuff from the scrapbook deals 4 u kit. Ethan really loved playing in the sand.


This one was a redo. Kinda plain, but it looks alot better than what it was. Still have to journal...dang it. I don't know if you can tell, but that is 5 kids (3 one year olds and 2 older kids) and all of their junk crammed into a Ford Expedition.


Thanks for stopping by!

Pool Fun

This weekend Ethan and I went over to my friend Mandy's house. She has a pool and Ethan hasn't been in so long...not at all this year come to think of it. So here's just a few snapshots from the day. We had a really good time. It's a good thing that we went on Friday because it has been raining every day since. My yard and plants are saying "THANK YOU!!!", but it sure is screwing up my beach plans that I had for this weekend!

Eating some strawberries. Ethan lurves him some strawberries!



This is Mason, he's two and a half and a really big boy! A little rotten but overall pretty sweet. See? He's giving me a kiss. Pretty cool since this is the first time he's seen me in two years.



Ethan found the PINK swim ring. This is a not so funny thing that my hubby makes comments about. That's probably a whole 'nuther post and I really don't feel like opening that can.



The boys playing so well together. Mandy was a little worried that Mason would be too rough, but he did really really good!