on the BASB website. I do hope you all play along. It's super easy, will definitely get you into the holiday spirit, and you could win this:
The new 7 Gypsies ATC & Photo Display.
I don't have time to post the details here on my blog just yet. I'm expecting company in an hour and my house is a crazy disaster.
Please visit the BASB site and tell me what you think. My family and I are doing the challenge and they're pretty excited about it!
xo
is good....and even a bit challenging for me :)
I created this layout using Studio Calico's kit, Playground.
And although the layout looks simple, using this particular piece of patterned paper was actually quite challenging for me.
I wish I'd photographed it prior to doodling, but if you look in the upper right-hand corner (paper with the tricycle), you can get an idea of what the sheet of patterned paper looked like before I started:
I wanted to use the entire piece of paper, but felt that the pattern needed to be "grounded" first, so I added some doodling with my superfine black sharpie, and defined the boxes. See the doodling around the boxes? I added doodling to the "Yesterday, Today, Forever" boxes (cut from Studio Calico pp) and the Jenni Bowlin labels.
I'm a collector of clear stamps. Yes, I admit it. I'm not in denial.
But on this layout, I actually DID some stamping!
First I stamped the outline of each letter. Then I stamped it's "solid" version. I cut out each letter and then added a small piece of cardboard (trick i learned from maryangella) to the back of a few letters to add a little dimension.
When pop dots add too much bulk, try using the cardboard trick. Sometimes that's all you need to give elements of your layout a little dimension.
I also used this stamp (by Studio Calico) all over my layout.
And if you haven't tried misting, it's pretty fun. I cut three of the striped "boxes" out of the patterned paper and filled them with white bazzill that I sprayed with blue Maya Mist, metallic yellow Maya Mist, and lime twist Glimmer Mist. I also used the mists for my journaling.
And for fun, I cut my pictures the same size as the striped boxes and outlined them with a black sharpie as well.
That's all for now.
Oh before I go, here's a picture I snapped of Christopher earlier this evening.
Only in Miami...
can you splash and play in your swimming pool...
at the end of October.
Oh, and that white bucket underneath the slide isn't full of toxic waste.
It's empty.
My pool guy put it there.
Remember my pool guy?
Well, I asked POOL GUY...aka HUSBAND
to fix the slide.
And apparently POOL GUY, aka HUSBAND
calls propping WHITE BUCKET
under slide
FIXING SLIDE.
*sigh*
Fortunatley, pool season is almost over. I'm hoping by Spring or maybe next Summer...yeah, probably next Summer, I'll be able to show you pictures without
WHITE BUCKET.
xo
Remember the whole pet rock bathing incident? Well, despite my very best efforts to resolve my clogged sink...
yucky...
I still have to go to the supermarket to buy some liquid plumber. The clog is behind the wall :(
And now onto more pleasant things.
Sunday giggles.The moment between my boys and my father unfolded so quickly, I grabbed his iPhone and started recording.
This is the reason it's so important for my boys to spend Sundays at my parents' house. The video is password protected. The password is: sundaygiggles
Sunday giggles from laverneboese on Vimeo.
Isn't it funny how my oldest son, Alexander is shoving Christopher all over the place in an effort to win this little game my father is playing with them?
*sigh* Sibling rivalry...
But even a hand in the face and practically being tackled, doesn't stop Christopher's constant giggling.
I love Sunday giggles.
Happy Monday.
xo
because I was feeling a little blah.
So I threw on these:
heehee, I know you are totally OVER seeing my fuzzy toe socks.
But in all honesty, they really do make me happy.
And those green striped thingys on them that look like spinning tops are actually upside-down Christmas trees.
I wish they would make toe socks with images that the person wearing them could see right-side-up. They seem to be designed to be viewed by the people who are not wearing them.
Because seriously, when am I going to be prancing around out in public in just my toe socks? No one else will frickin' see the design!
*sigh*
Anyway, back to me feeling a little blah.
I guess this post is about what I'm trying to do to get out of this state of funk that I'm in right now.
It's raining outside, which makes the INSIDE of my house quite dark.
So I lit this candle:
and now my house smells divine. So at least, for the time being, my house smells "good"...not like the dirty laundry that is sitting in my boys' laundry basket, waiting to be washed :(
I peeked out my window, ready to curse the rain and noticed this:
The rain actually made my dirty car look a lot cleaner.
Positive outlook, right?
So, as of right now this is what my:
"GET OUT OF YOUR FUNK AND MAKE YOURSELF HAPPY" list looks like:
1. Wearing happy toe socks with green-striped spinning tops :)
2. House smells like pumpkin spice....not dirty boy underwear.
3. Car looks clean when rinsed with rain water.
Pretty good right?
Okay.
Now tell me.
What. Do. You. See. Here?
Let me help you:
For those of you who are "tracking with me"...the first word that comes to mind is.
KARMA.
Yes, KARMA.
Those. Are. ROCKS.
Pet Rocks, to be exact.
They belong to the boy who once owned a groovy
GHETTO-MOBILE.
But whose stupid mom convinced him that we need to be mindful of the environment.
So what does this clever little boy do?
He brings the environment INDOORS.
And decides to save our planet....
3 rocks at a time.
But sadly, I know that these 3 pet rocks
will multiply
like GREMLINS.
They will have brothers, sisters, cousins.
And before I have a chance to exhale.
We will have a small quarry in the middle of my livingroom.
And again.
I.
WILL.
LOSE.
MY.
MIND.
But this mom has learned her lesson.
I will not chuck those three "ROCK ANIMALS" (who I'm sure have names by now) into the garbage.
I am just wondering...
Why are they sitting on my leather cushion in front of the window?
Was his bedroom too dark for them?
The window overlooks our pool.
Are they sunbathing?Does he plan on letting them take a swim later on today?
One. Last. Question...
Should I be afraid?
Yes, be afraid....
Be very, very, afraid.
Okay. I have to say, those three stupid rocks overlooking our pool did make me laugh today.
Isn't it funny how our children can truly make us joyful even when they're not physically in our presence?
Gotta love a creative mind...
So before I go, here's my final list of
THINGS THAT GOT ME OUT OF MY FUNK TODAY:
1. Happy toe socks with green-striped spinning tops :)
2. A house that smells like pumpkin spice....not funky underwear.
3. A clean car washed with rain water.
4. Little boys who leave rocks by the window to remind me that I truly have a reason to be happy...ALWAYS :)
xo
time for toe socks and pink, fuzzy slippers!!!! Yeah, we're having a few days of "Winter" here in Miami. Sadly, I fear that tomorrow we'll be back to our typical hot, humid, armpit-sweating days that make me wonder why the heck we live here :(
I've been wanting to blog for the past few weeks, but Typepad has been freezing up and deleting my posts--probably because I tried to post a picture of this:
GO GREEN!
Yeah.
Remember my son's groovy little GHETTO-MOBILE?
Yeah, it's seen better days.
Don't be a hater.
We kept the wheels.
Christopher and I had a long talk about saving the planet and we BOTH agreed that this would be his little contribution.
And now the Earth and my teeny weeny house will be so much "cleaner".
I. LOVE. MY. SON.
U and I both know that the little ghetto-mobile was driving me
INSANE.
I know that I promised to blog regularly.
Sheesh.
My life is just not cooperating.
But.
I have been working on some layouts. I have 8 scattered across my house and I'm working on them simultaneously, heehee. Hopefully I'll have them finished soon.
I do have one SIMPLE layout that I completed yesterday.
It's not my typical chunky-layered style. But I like it nonetheless.
It's about Alexander's newfound appreciation for Dunkin' Donuts' coffee and coffee rolls...yum. Man, I wish I had one of those right now. But we're on this stupid budget AND I no longer have a gym membership :( So now I can't stuff myself with coffee rolls and massive amounts of junk food :(
*sigh*
Edited:
Okay sillies. Alexander drinks DECAF!!!!! For real? My boys have enough "natural caffeine" to power the entire universe! I didn't have enough letters to spell out "decaf coffee" and that would look stupid on my layout, heehee :)
Christopher made the Kumon North America Math honor roll. He ranks number 3,235 out of 11,468, heehee :)
He's so cute, walking around exclaiming, "Mom, I'm number 3,235!" Gotta love how cute 6 year olds are and how even being number 3,235 is fantastic!
Jessica, Jessica, Jessica...thank you for being so patient in waiting for your RAK. I had to replace a few things. It appears that my son likes Webster's pages as well. Your box will go in the mail with a few extra goodies to make up for the fact that you've had to wait so long.
My friend Iris Babao Uy is hosting an online class where the proceeds will go to the victims of Ondoy. The cost of the class is only $5.00 and starts on November 6th. If you're interested, visit here
One last thing to share. It was Crazy Hat Day at my boys' school on Tuesday. Christopher chose not to participate but still wanted to be in the pictures with Alexander. They are both so goofy.
Not the happiest-looking shot, but they look calm, right?
And then Alexander has to start with the bunny ears...
Which really aren't so funny when Christopher joins in.
and this continues back and forth...
back and forth...
Until I decided that I've captured the perfect moment...
xo
My take on "mini" kind of turned into more of a "maxi" layout since I still have not been able to contain myself when it comes to scrapbooking. Here's Greta's challenge, taken from the BASB site:
"My challenge to you is to go mini. Use mini photos or embellishments on your layout, create a mini layout within a larger layout, or take the "go mini" theme in your own creative direction."and here's her fabulous layout:
Isn't it beautiful?! And you can definitely see the direction she took with the whole "mini" theme. Diana, Judi, Denise, and Anilu have also created some amazing layouts. Make sure you go by and check them out.
Okay, here's my layout:
They started as the inspiration for my layout. I chose to do this one on my oldest son, Alexander. He's my little "thinker". We do a lot of talking.
Right now he's at the vulnerable age where everything in life seems a little overwhelming for him.
He experiences doubt and fear...and questions everything about EVERYTHING.
I spend time each night before he falls asleep reassuring him, answering his questions, and letting him know how much he's loved.
I guess my take on this challenge was also a play on the word "mini".
Even though Alexander's my "big boy", this world really makes him seem so very small.
I guess that logic works right? Okay, enough chatter...
Everything from this layout came from my yummy Studio Calico kit, Over the Rainbow.
And one sheet came from Cotillion.
Hmmm, maybe the little letter tiles that I hand-wrote qualify as "mini". My journaling wasn't as "wordy" as I normally make it, heehee. That would require a gazillion mini tiles!
Really, doing my journaling this way wasn't hard to do. I just wrote the words "spaced out" on thin journaling strips. I drew boxes around each letter. Then I snipped the individual tiles with my scissors.
The most tedious part was gluing them down.
I held them with a pair of tweezers and stuck a dab of glossy accents on the back.
I made the sun and clouds out of the Maya Road chipboard (from my kit). It was a full sheet of shapes that resembled gears and different sized circles.
I cut the shapes in half and covered them with patterned paper (that I distressed). The patterned paper doesn't cover the chipboard completely...I liked seeing some of the raw chipboard.
I cut out some of the multi-colored sun rays (Sass patterned paper) and stuck them behind my chipboard cloud and sun.
Hmmm, I think that's about it.
Thanks for coming back to my blog everyone and taking a peek at my layouts. I'll put a pot of coffee on tonight and begin answering your comments and stalking your blogs. We'll see if the boys will cooperate tonight.
Before I go, I have to share a few more pictures with you.
My youngest son, Christopher, can really drive me bonkers. These next pictures aren't fabulous because I had to capture them quickly and like Karen Russell taught me, sometimes it's more important to just capture the moment.
No, your eyes are not deceiving you.
Yes, that IS an entire roll of toilet paper rolled out across my floor.
It's a road.
And as I was taking this picture it was slowing moving....disappearing as it snaked around the corner.
As I followed it, I found this.
Yeah, it's blurry but boy doesn't it just capture the moment perfectly?...the look of shock and slight horror on my son's face.
Priceless.And just one more picture before I go.
Christopher was sitting in his bed. It was bedtime. You can see the entrance to his bedroom in the picture.
And in response to my plea he said,
"I can't mommy. It's my car and I need it there. It's parked outside of my bedroom."So we have this little jacked-up cardboard car still sitting...excuse me, I mean "parked" in various places throughout my house, depending on where my little man needs to drive it.
The thing has awful suspension. He's constantly flopping out of it onto the floor.
*sigh*I hate the "car".
I wish he would get an upgrade...maybe something plastic.
I'm thinking of letting him take it for a ride outside.
And maybe giving it a carwash .
And letting it melt.
*sigh*Sadly, I think we'll have that frickin' jacked-up, recycled cardboard, ghetto-mobile until Christmas :(
life is good.xo
using yummy Webster's pages. I was inspired by scrap diva, Maryangella because she was totally rocking this paper so I had to go out and get my own.
I cut the 12 x 12 Webster's pages paper into the shape you see here by tracing an acrylic template.
If any of you want to play along with PBP, you have until the 25th of this month to upload your layouts. The next challenge I'm working on is one for BASB..."Go mini"! Go here to check it out. That's really all I have for now. Before I go, I do want to mention the fabulous time I had at Sanibel Island. Damaris put together the most relaxing scrapbooking retreat. I snagged this picture from her blog.
I attended the retreat with all of these beautiful women. Can you believe that Damaris's mom made everyone an apron?! Too cute. And I roomed with Maryangella who pumps out layouts like a machine!
Well, I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend. I'm hoping that creating layouts and blogging will become a consistent habit for me from now on, heehee. Oh, and Jessica Griffin, send me your addy pretty please. I want to get my CHA goodies out to you!!! Sorry it took so long.
xo
I've been dreading this day and I can't believe that a year has already gone by.
A year ago, my friend Aleida Franklin died in a car accident...and the loss of such a beautiful soul left me feeling completely empty. I won't make this a long sad post, because honestly, I think Aleida would kick my ass if she knew I was sitting here mourning her loss yet again.
So instead I'm writing to remind all mommies out there to hand your cameras over and get pictures of YOURSELVES with your children/families.
So here's one of me and the three (out of 4) most important men in my life...my dad makes #4 but wasn't on vacation with us, heehee.
Anyway, I'm a hot mess in this photo. We were finally leaving Kings Dominion after being there all day long---and I look totally rough. I mean rough.
But you know, later on it won't matter. This scary photo of me will be a photo I cherish...no make-up, big forehead, crooked sunglasses and all :)
xo
closed my preschool blog.....
wuh?
Yeah, I kept another blog for my Preschool class. No, of course you didn't know about it. It was "secret" and password protected, heehee...only for my preschool parents. I uploaded pictures, videos, parental resources, and pretty much kept a little diary of what we did in class.
And that, plus running my classroom...being a mom, blah, blah, blah...consumed almost all of my time.
And so this poor blog has been neglected and I have done absolutley NO SCRAPBOOKING whatsoever. My only saving grace for staying in touch with people is facebook. And I'm really not a great facebooker, because I refuse to be a slave to my computer. And facebook just sucks you in horribly.
As I've mentioned before in a previous post, I have spent my entire Summer taking Karen Russell's online photography class. And although the class's primary focus is teaching better photography skills, I have really learned so much more from it. It's really hard for me to explain. And I think that everyone that takes her class looks at photography differently...and looks at documenting their family's memories differently. And for that reason alone, her class is worth taking. Reading her last lesson had me in tears..."good" tears, if there is such a thing. I won't tell you what she wrote/discussed, just in case you're waiting to take her class. I don't want to spoil it for you. But I'll remember what she said in that lesson for the rest of my life...and definitlely take my camera with me everywhere.
These are pictures of Christopher bugging Alexander while they watched cartoons yesterday. No, Alexander didn't get drop-kicked in the mouth as I sat and took pictures...but I did snap this photo as he was telling me, "Mom, do you see what Christopher's doing...mom, he keeps sticking his foot on my face." Christopher eventually stopped, but not before he figured out another way to harass his brother.
And no, I'm not the world's best photographer....Karen doesn't perform miracles--But I do love how I managed to capture even a small glimpse of Christopher's devilish grin as he messed with his brother's feet.
So, as I get it together as a scrapbooker, I'm going to post true moments of my family's lives that I want to document.
In the past year, I think I got caught up in "staging" too many memories to coordinate with the latest paper lines. Is anyone else guilty of this?
I think that's also why I stopped scrapbooking. I didn't really take any pictures worth documenting. Sad huh? I want to document more moments like these:
Andrew reads to our boys every night. Alexander was already asleep, so it's just Andrew and Christopher, sharing a one-on-one moment.
But these are things that are important to me. My husband is sooooo busy, but his boys and our family are priorities for him. So yeah, he's still in his work clothes. And I know he's tired from a long day at work--he's an attorney. And yet, he's not rushing through the book. It happens to be a childhood favorite of mine...WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS, by Shel Silverstein. So am I happy that I snuck in with my camera and snapped a picture...heck yeah....
or took a picture of Alexander asleep on our couch? He loves to fall asleep there when Andrew and I are up working late. I just think it's the sweetest thing.
Speaking of sweetest things, don't these eyes just melt your heart?...
maybe I'm a little biased, because Christopher's my son...but man, I think he has some of the prettiest eyes I've ever seen.
Well, I haven't forgotten about my CHA giveaways. My pictures are too old and crusty to post, so I'll spare you the agony of looking through the 700+ that I took. But I do want to say hello to Kim, a total sweetheart I met IRL at CHA.
And don't forget that tomorrow marks the launch of Point. Blank. Period
My girls, Sasha Halloway, Holly Hanks, and Maryangella Haberman are just a few of the talented ladies that are part of their design team. Go check it out! I can't wait to start their challenges!
And for those of you who live locally, my dear friend Damaris, is hosting her Scrap Pink Crop this Saturday, September 5, from 8am to 10pm. She only has 4 spots left. Her crops are amazing and she always has the biggest, most generous goody bags for you. If you're interested, left me know and I'll give you more details. Or just leave a comment on her blog.
Okay, now for the CHA giveaways. I have a few of those really cute MM aprons and canvas bags they had at CHA. If you're intersted in owning one, leave a comment here and I'll randomly choose a few names and send them out to you. Have a fabulous Monday.xo
