Dec 12th..the day after...

Did you do anything to commemorate the special day of 12-12-12?

  Me?  I painted a bathroom!!!  

I did have a layout featured at Little Red Scrapbook for their "Wow'd us Wednesday" !!

This is one of the several layouts I completed a few weekends ago at my crop.

 Here is another one of my favorites: 

Our construction is almost done...will share photos soon!!

Almost December!

Where has the time gone?  We have been super busy here!!  Especially me as I recently started working!!!  I am lucky because I get to combine my love of scrapbooking with a little bit of income!!  I am working at our local scrapbook store Everafter!!!    I am meeting tons of new people and having a lot of fun!!

On top of this, we also started a remodel job at our house!!!  What started out as simply putting in french doors to the patio has blossomed into 2 french doors, a partial kitchen remodel, total remodel of our kids and master bathrooms plus a lot of electrical stuff that needed to be redone to bring the house back up to code after 15 years!!  The hardest part has been the scheduling with 5 people using one shower as they do the other bathroom!!  Stuff is in boxes everywhere but at least we had a working kitchen for Thanksgiving and I have been promised that everything will be done by Christmas!!   I have decided not to share any photos yet as everything is half done!!

I will share a few photos of my beautiful girls at some events we have attended lately.  I really don't have many scrapbook pages to share as I currently can not get to my scrap stuff as it is buried behind boxes of fixtures and sinks!!!  I will soon I promise!!

 At ArtSplash in September:

Izzy at Dia de los Muertos in October:

This girls working at Survivor Crop - a fundraiser for Susan G. Komen Research put on by Everafter Scrapbooking...It raised over $60K this year!!!

Okay, I give.   Here are some layouts I did with photos from our coast trip in August:

I love that the girls were holding hands so I had to snap a quick pic!!!

That's all for now...Have a healthy and happy holiday season!!

October Happenings at CUC!!

We have a new theme for October...

Come check it out!!!

School Starts Today!

Today is a big day....Jules starts her Senior year and Izzy begins high school...

I was lucky to get this one of Izzy...she is really nervous about starting high school

Jules on the other hand was all set...Here she is rocking her vintage dress...with combat boots...

 and a leather studded backpack!!

and since it has been a month since I posted,

 here are a few pictures from when I took the girls on a little college visit/vacation up the coast.

 We stopped to take pictures at an overlook near Lake Cachuma..

At the Apple Farm Inn in San Luis Obispo..

We also visited the little town of Solvang...a "Danish" village full of cute little shops!

 

The girls in front of this amazing metal artwork on a wall....wish I could find someone to make some for me!!

.A photo which actually has me in it!!  On the pier in Santa Barbara..

Sharing some new creations!

I was busy scrapping this weekend and thought I would share...

Cruise Photos

I can't take credit for these photos...her friend took them.

Beautiful Sunsets on our cruise.

Quick pictures on our trip to the sample sales in LA.

Love these photos of Jules being silly with the sparklers!!

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I hope everyone enjoyed the blog hop and online crop at

  Cookin' Up Creations this past weekend.

The winner of my drawing is...

Sheng!

Please send me your email and I will get your prize out to you quickly!!

Christmas In July Blog Hop!!!

Welcome to the CHRISTMAS IN JULY blog hop, 

hosted by the 

Cookin' Up Creations Master Chef Challenge Team!

We hope our projects and craft ideas will help you get a head start on your holiday crafting. If you have been following the hop route, then you should have come from Jan's blog. If not, and you would like to follow along the complete blog hop itinerary, please start at the Cookin' Up Creations Blog so you won't miss any of the fantastic projects and inspiration the "chefs" have cooked up for you.

My holiday project is an easy to make gift card holder.  I can't take credit for coming up with the original idea as I found it on the
  Hero Arts Blog...  

First, cut a 4 x 12 strip of  cardstock for the body of the card:

Score at 4" from each end (in other words, divide into 3 equal parts)

I used my cutter as a guide you can use the scoring blade or a scoring stick..both work perfectly..

Take center section and score in half

Cut slit for gift card to go into

glue section together

Not sure if you can see the glue but go along the edges leaving an open space in the middle where the gift card will go.  Don't glue the slit closed!!!

Decorate card... I wanted to bring out the fushia from the ribbon so I backed the card on matching paper and used some on the inner section too.

I used a sticker on the middle section that will also hold the gift card in place.  

I hope you  enjoy the finish product..these would be perfect for use all year round!!

 Now be sure to go next to Michelle's blog to see what holiday inspiration she has cooked up for you.  So you can make sure you have visited everyone, here is the list again...

Cookin' Up Creations

Annette

 Annie

 Barb 

Cassy 

Jan

 Jo( you are here!!!) 

Michelle 

Sandy 

Tamara

 Our blog hop continues through Sunday evening, July 22 and be sure to stop by the
  Cookin' Up Creations forum for our
 CHRISTMAS IN JULY CROP
this weekend, starting Friday, July 20 and continuing through Sunday, July 22.
There will be more Christmas and holiday inspiration, challenges, and games. 

And for those of  you who have made it all the way to the end of this post, there is a treat for you.  Become a follower of my blog and post that you did and you will be entered in a drawing for some goodies from me!!

Blog Hop and Online Crop at CUC!!

Come join the fun... The blog hop will start here...

June...

Well, I guess I haven't posted in a month.... make that almost 2... So much went on during June so here is a quick summary...

We started the month with 8th grade promotion events for Izzy...
The Dance...

 The Ceremony....

Then that weekend was Brock's Company party at their new site...

of course, another opportunity for a photo of Izzy!!

Then a trip to the San Diego County Fair...

Izzy submitted a photo and received a ribbon...pretty good as there were thousands of entries!!

Doggie haircuts...

A trip to the LA markets to clothes shop at the sample sales..

One of my layouts got picked up for Layout of the Week at two different sites in the same week!!

 Veggies are planted......

   Now on to July.....

Happy Birthday Cookin Up Creations!

Come join us for a party...a scraping party that is..

There will be lots of challenges, games and prizes!!!

CHS Prom 2012

Prom time is here.  I have loved seeing the photos of friend's children all dressed up!!  Well,  our turn happened yesterday!

Here are some photos of Juliet and her date Shon before they went to meet up with the "group".  We took them to the beach and took some nice shots.  I will remember that heels and sand do not mix in the future!!

They were so cute doing the flower exchange...a true life skill...how to pin on a boutonniere without stabbing yourself:

We still have 4 weeks of school which are going to be very busy!!  

Spring Break in San Francisco

Juliet and I took advantage of the week off to plan a trip to San Francisco.  Of course, it rained a lot but we had a good time.  Our primary goal was to visit some schools...and we did have 2 full days of doing just that! Of course, we didn't take photos of that...only the tourist sites we visited!!  Our hotel was near Fisherman's Wharf so we spent a lot of time there.

The view of the wharf...with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

The cable cars were the easiest way to get to down town San Francisco... which was perfect as there was a stop just a block from our hotel!!  Here is our view from the bus stop.... and down the hill was a perfect view of Alcatraz.

We met some interesting people on our daily travels.  The brakeman for the car was a great guy...loved his job and knew a lot of the locals who rode his car.  He insisted on taking a bunch of photos of us!

We went to Ghirardelli Chocolate but the line for the ice cream parlor was out the door...and even in the cold and rain...but boy did it smell delicious!

Our cable car went by the top of Lombard street.  Of course we had to get off once and walk down!!

 By the 3rd day, we were much better at catching the trolley cars...there is a secret...don't go to the first stop on the route...there are lines there but if you walk a couple of blocks to the next stop, there will be spaces...or at least a spot to hold on ...which is part of the fun!!

Our last night in San Francisco was quite exciting.  There was a major storm with amazing lightning...I am posting this photo from the news...I love it!!  We didn't see this happen but we sure saw a lot of flashes!!

Good to be back home..