Merry Christmas to ALL!

...from our house to yours!



It's my Christmas tradition to wait until Christmas morning to make 2007 Christmas ornament for the families. I use photos that I take on Christmas Eve. Each year they're different. Here's this year's ornaments.

Scrapping the Music - Baby it's Cold Outside

We got our dog from the pound. She's a mutt, but must be some type of warm weather mix.

She hates the cold. If it gets below 50F, you can find her bundled under her blanket.

I add the snowflake and title to the photo. Then printed the photo out, and added pretty patterned paper from Sassafras Lass, bling, and subtitle. The clear snowflake is a QK diecut with the edges painted with a pink paint marker.

Look at my new stamps!

I had clear stamps made of some of my son's cartoons and just got my stamps today. I'm so excited! They came out great! The clear rubber is not as durable as the the store bought stamps. I pulled on a piece of scrap rubber to see if I could break it and I could given a little effort. However, the images stamp clear. I tried using both cat's eye chalk ink and Stazon... both work great.

Here is the original image that I sent in:

Here are the stamps:

 

Hmmm... maybe I should have taken a photo when they were nice an clean, LOL!

If you are looking for a unique gift, I highly recommend http://www.villageimpressions.com/index.htm . The lady that there is named Anna-Mae and she is very very nice. I placed my order on a Monday, and they were in my mailbox the following Monday. How's that for service?!

Mary's Sunday Blog Challenge

Our challenge this week is to pick a layout from our gallery and highlight it on our blogs. Here is my pick by BethJ. Beth takes the most beautiful photos of her children. I like how she did the title and that the large photo is the center of her layout.



Here is another one I found in the gallery. It's not a layout, but it cracks me up everytime I see it. Mary you need to get around to scrapping this picture.

Scrapping the Music - Little Wonders

Here's my layout for the Scrapping the Music challenge, Little Wonder's by Rob Thomas.

This photo just breaks my heart...
My daughter played Varisty soccer last year as a Junior. This year because of repeated ankle injuries, she didn't perform well at tryouts and was cut from the Varsity team (they have a new coach this year).



I used the lyrics from Little Wonders instead of the title. Journaling reads:

All of my regret will wash away somehow...
But, I cannot forget the way I feel right now.

PP is from Basic Grey and We R Memory Keepers. The flower is Prima Essentials collection. These flowers are gorgeous! The doodle is made using a Crafter's Workshop template.

Scrapping the Music - Best Days

This week's song at ScrappingTheMusic was Best Days by Matt White. I've been real busy this week, but I still wanted in on this challenge. This is a hybrid layout... The photo, frame, title and journaling are all one piece printed off the computer. I just added background paper and chipboard.

This is my hubby and me. We used to do a lot of camping in our younger days. The background paper is from the Basic Grey Obsure line I got from the 2ScrappyChixDesigns store.

Double Page Layouts

I see all these great works of art single stand-alone layouts, but I am double page obsessed. Even when I show only one page, I usually have a companion page to go with it. For instance this layout that won the Scrapping the Music contest last month has a second page that I didn't show:



Here are some more two page layouts! I love showing off my photos... and I do have a whole lot of them!

Smoke and Fire

SCHOOL'S OUT!
The entire school district has closed today. They are using the high school gyms as evacuation centers. Some of my daughter's high school friends were packed last night, just waiting for the signal to evacuate their neighborhoods. The smoke is very thick today with the Santiago fire on one side of us and now the Camp Pendleton fire on the other side.

Scrapping the Music - You'll be Here in my Heart

Here is my latest layout for the Scrapping the Music challenge. This week the song is "You'll be in my Heart" by Phil Collins:



This is my daughter, I scanned a few old photos to add to the layout too. I used PP from the new BG Obscure collection, primas and quickutz die-cuts.

Get BG Obsure from 2SCD:
http://2scrappychixdesigns.com/zencart/index.php?main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1&keyword=obscure

Wind and Smoke

Welcome to Fall in Southern California. One weather pattern that heralds the coming of Fall is the Santa Ana Winds. That is when a ridge of high pressure causes the hot, dry winds to blow in from the desert. It's typically in the 90's with winds gusting up to 40-50mph! My brother's family had a large tree in their front yard blow over... thank goodness it missed the house.



Along with the first winds of the season come the brush fires. Usually they don't reach the houses, but this year lots of houses were burned in Malibu and are threatened here in North Irvine/Tustin Heights. The above is a photo of the smoke from the parking lot where I work in Tustin.

Here are a couple of photos that I took on my way home.

Please keep all the fire victims in your prayers.

Scrapping the Music - My Wish

Here is my layout, of my son's 8th grade graduation. The words of this song are beautiful and perfect for this layout.



I used the song lyrics in the journaling...
My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to, your dreams stay big, your worries stay small, You never need to carry more than you can hold, and while you're out there getting where you're getting to, I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too, Yeah, this, is my wish.

The patterned paper by 7Gypsies. The star stamp is one of my favorites by Paula Best. It reads, "Wish on Every Star" ... and I'm still practicing my doodling!

Scrapping the Music - Bubbly

As soon as I saw the title of the song, I knew what photo I wanted to use (even through the song has nothing to do with bubbles and bathtime). My mom has had this photo stuck to her sewing cabinet for years, so I ran down to her house to make a copy.



This layout uses the new Fancy Pants Botanical and Sweet Pea patterned papers from the 2SCD store. I used the new Prancer Thickers for the title.

This is my FIRST doodling layout. I'm taking a doodling class right now at Big Picture Scrapbooking with Maelynn Cheung and was finally brave enough to try it on a layout. I was so nervous! What do you think? Is it too much?

Book Review - "Uglies" and "Love, Stargirl"

If you liked "Stargirl" by Jerry Spinelli, you will love "Love, Stargirl"! This is the sequel to Stargirl and follows Stargirl after she leaves Leo in Arizona. There she struggles with the question, "Can you lose your favorite person without losing yourself?" Written as a series of letters to Leo, Stargirl rediscovers who she is. It is a very sweet, loving, funny, feel-good, story.

The Uglies is the first book in a series by Scott Westerfield. Set in the future where teens are given an operation on their 16th birthday to turn them pretty. You'll have to read the book to find out more about that... I won't spoil it for you. The heroine, Tally, is stupid, annoying, and shallow at the beginning, but she does evolve painstakingly slowly into a strong admirable character in the end. There is some good action and once you get past the beginning chapters it's a fun read.

My kids the Superstars!

This is my son. He's a freshman in High School and didn't make the High School soccer team. So, He decided to try out for the cross country team and made it! He just started running two months ago.


Here he is at the Dana Hills Invitational, running in the rain.
He came in 3rd place for his school and 41st place overall, and brought home a medal.

Here's my daughter. She has always been a Club soccer mid-fielder. This year, the coach wants her to play striker.

Not too shabby! Here she is scoring a goal against the hated West Coast Club.

Scrapping the Music - Sweet Child O' Mine

This is a layout inspired by the Guns and Roses song "Sweet Child O' Mine," posted on the Scrapping the Music challenge blog.





As I was looking through my old photo albums, I came across this photo. I'd completely forgotten about it. It was a beautiful candid moment.

I love the fun music inspired challenges at Scrapping the Music. They are have a great scrapbook kit to give away for just posting a comment on their blog. Visit them here:


http://scrappingthemusic.blogspot.com/

So sad...

My son's cross country meet yesterday was traumatic. A girl died.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-me-deadrunner28sep28,1,3560875.story?track=rss

She's the same age as my son, and ran the race right after his. He said that she was throwing up blood and died before the ambulance took her to the hospital. I'm talking to my son (what would you say to your child if he just saw someone die?), and the coaches are talking to the team. He seems to be dealing with it okay. It's a terrible thing to have happened. I can't imagine how much pain her family, her coaches, and her teammates are going through right now...

It's a scary thought to think that one of your family memebers may leave the house on a typical morning, and not return home. I just got this image in an email from my dad. It makes me want to hold my family in a hug and not let them go:

Amber's Blog Challenge

What fall premiere are you looking forward to the most???

The only show I watch is Dancing with a Stars. I didn't realize it started this week, so I missed the dances. I saw the judging show... WOW, is Dolly Parton skinny!

Scrapping the Music - These are My People

Here is my layout inspired by Scrapping the Music song of the week, "These are My People" by Rodney Atkins. This is a hybrid layout. The PP is from the FreeForm Cosmo Collection. The diecuts are from Quickutz and the flower is from Prima.



Journaling reads: These are my friends and teammates. We have been together for over 4 yrs. And have something big in common; we all LOVE soccer! We are tough ladies... not a single girly-girl in the bunch! We all play hard, get dirty, and have fun whether we win or lose. Of course, it’s always better to win! On or off the field, they are the best bunch of friends anyone could ever have. They are my team... the people I play with, the people I hang out with, and the people, with whom, I celebrate the victories of the day!

Song Lyrics used: We fall Down and We get up; We walk proud and We talk tough...We got heart and We got nerve; Even If we are a bit disturbed...


Another new layout using the Scribble Scrabble August kit from 2SCD:



I just love the colors and patterns in this paper line!!!

Kim's blog challenge at 2SCD

My taste in art runs toward the whimsical beach/ocean prints like: Roaslie Prussing, Arnold Fields, and Ruiz Munoz.

My decorating colors follow that theme also, blues for the ocean and the sky, and brown/tans for the sand... accented with colors of orange and green.

Scrapping the Music - Say it Right

This weeks song is "Say it Right" by by Nelly Furtado. I was honored to be picked as the featured scrapper for the week. Here is my layout:



I tried to capture the passion from the song in my layout by using the trendy colors, then I added the black to make it all sparkle. The beautiful patterned paper is from My Mind's Eye. The border around the photo is a digital element that I added before I printed it. It's called "Ledger Overlay" from Kate Pertiet.

See more great layouts and inspiration at :

Scrapping the Music - Like a Star

Checkout this great new blog!

http://scrappingthemusic.blogspot.com/

The is such a fun idea! Here is the layout that I created for their first challenge. I used the Scribble Scrabble August kit from the 2ScrappyChix Designs store. There was a lot of junk in the background of my photo. I could have used my photo editor to edit it out, but I did it the old fashioned way... cut it out with scissors!

Book Review - Sea of Monsters, Small Steps, Maximum Ride #3

Whoa! Call me slow... I just got it! Riordan's "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" series is a take off on Harry Potter! In the second book of the series, "The Sea of Monsters," Percy and the half blood Olympians must save the camp (instead of wizard kids saving their school), by recovering the Golden Fleece from the Cyclops Polyphemus. We find out in this book about Percy being the child mentioned in "the Prophesy." Also there is an evil titan spirit, whose henchmen are trying to create a new body for him so he can take over Olympus and the world. But add dodgeball playing cannibals, a satyr in a wedding dress, and partying-animal centaurs; and even with the similarities to Harry Potter you have a very entertaining story for 5th-6th graders! I very highly recommend this series.

This sequel to "Holes" features Armpit's and X-ray's life after Camp Greenlake. When I think of "Holes," I think of it's story as a tall-tale... Fun and magical. "Small Steps" is a story with social implications... growing up, triumph of the human spirit, of self-sacrifice, and of doing the right thing. It is very sweet and as long as you don't go in thinking that it will be "like Holes," it's a very enjoyable read.

Well, Max finally saves the world, kind of... I almost didn't read this book, because book 2 irritated me so much. I was irritated at the start of this book also, but I read the ending first, and that kept me going. LOL! Good thing I did, because I would have put this one down... the flock fighting and splitting up, Sight-seeing Europe, googling girls on the beach! Hello! You're supposed to be saving the world!

Amber's blog challenge at 2SCD

Share a SUMMER goal that you never got around to accomplishing.

Only one? LOL!
1) Paint the house
2) Find the kids a new dentist
3) Teach my son Spanish
4) Have my kitchen remodeled
5) Visit Niagra Falls (and Mary)
6) Run the 10K through Disneyland
7) Go parasailing
8) Clean out the bedroom
9) Get the carpets cleaned

Sweet Dog

M - mutt
I - immovable
L - lovable
K - kooky
B - beautiful
O - obedient (NOT!)
N - needy
E - energetic
S - spoiled

This is from a blogging challenge at 2SCD. The challenge is to use the letters in a sweet word to describe a family member... Well Kayle thinks she a person in the family and she also thinks milkbones are pretty sweet. LOL!

Relaxation Tip

I find that the best way to relax is to escape into a good book! If it's warm, I like reading outside in the shade. If it's cool, I like reading inside wrapped in a blanket.

Our stay home vacation

My son was away at High School Cross Country camp for three days, and we already had this week planned off work. So, we decided to have a stay home vacation. We played tourist in our own backyard! When people come to Southern California, what do they do? There's amusement parks of course, but we've been to them all. There's lots of desert activities, but my hubby refuses to go to the desert during the summer. When we meet out of town people the first place they want to go is Hollywood and Venice Beach. We've been to Hollywood, but never been to Venice Beach. So away we went.



Here is a photo of part of the canal system that gives Venice Beach it's name. It's beautiful and very ritzy! Then we headed to the beach. I heard that a lot of artists make Venice Beach their home. So, I expected: art studios, sculpture, upscale boutiques, and souvenir shops. What we saw were lots of homeless, tattoo parlors, tacky T-shirt and poster shops, drug dealers, and drug users right out on the street.

Well, next stop was Muscle Beach... again another disappointment. I guess the beautiful people all have jobs (we were there on a Monday). There was only one fat guy working out.



Here is a picture of the famous part of Muscle Beach. You can see the workout area behind the stage where the guys (and girls) get pumped up. Then they come up on the stage to pose. I'm standing in the bleachers to take this photo. I tried to get my hubby to pose with his shirt off, but he wouldn't do it. He also wouldn't go up on stage alone, so our daughter had to go with him. LOL!

The next day we headed to our local beach. We go to the beach all the time to picnic, surf, and run; but thinking again of what a tourist would do, we decided to rent jet skis!



Here's my daughter. She's ridden jet skis before on Lake Havasu. She's already a real pro.



I decided not to drive. It's kind of expensive to rent one, but free for a rider. My daughter has a waterproof digital camera, with video mode. Here's a short video of our ride. We got it up to 55mph!

I took my daughter on a marathon day of school shopping. I also tried getting tickets to a Broadway play, but everything was sold out. So I got tickets for her and my hubby to go to the Galaxy-Pachuca game. It was a rough/wild game. David Beckham got hurt again and may be out for the rest of the season... MAJOR BUMMER! I watched the game on TV... double overtime and a shoot out. Galaxy lost, but it was still a great game!

Scribble Scrabble

It felt good to work on some layouts. Seems like I haven't finished one in quite a while. The 2ScrappyChix Designs store has a wonderful new paper line called Scribble Scrabble. I love the soft, rich colors.

This one is called Enjoy Life: Grab it, Enjoy it, Love it, Live it, Never take it for granted...
Journaling reads: When I asked Cheryl why she wanted to play the guitar, she said "I just had the URGE to play the guitar. That's why I draw, because I feel like it. I also want to try ice skating and diving! Oh, and sky diving too! That sounds likes fun!" {{{YIKES!!!}}}
This layout came about as an aftermath to some major drama at our house last week. There is a good chance that Cheryl will be cut from the Varsity soccer team (this is her senior year). Papa, if you're reading this, don't tell her you know. By doing this layout, I was trying to get her to think about her life and to see that there is more to life than playing soccer.


This one is called Sweet Dreams. It's another soccer layout, kind of. Cheryl works so hard during a game that the first thing she does when she gets home is take a nap. Journaling reads: "This is the aftermath of a soccer game.... Doesn't she look like an angel? Just 20 minutes ago she was bashing other angels around the soccer field."

Book Reviews - "Deathly Hallows" and "On the Run" series

{NO SPOILERS HERE} Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Was slow to start, really slow... deathly slow... My kids made a comment that when they make this one into a movie, they won't have much to cut-out because nothing much happens in the first half of the book! But once it got going it was a fun, fast-paced, fantasy adventure that one would expect from Rowling. I've read reviews whose readers have said that it caps off the series very nicely; all questions are answered; and all conflicts resolved. I guess that's true for the most part, but the epilogue left me flat. It felt tacked on... incomplete. I think it tried to answer the questions of the characters' futures, but left out so many characters that it left me hanging...
In comparison to the other books: I liked book 1, it was fresh and fun! I liked book 2 and book 3. Book 4 was my favorite! Book five just irritated me. Book six was ok. Book seven is as good as the first books were, but the magic of Harry's world, which drew me in the first place, is conspicuously absent.

"On the Run" is a series of six books for 4th-5th graders,and I've read all six. Kudos to author Gordon Korman for creating such a fast-paced, well-written, action packed adventure series for younger kids. The end of each book will have even the most reluctant reader looking for the next book. 15 year old Aiden and his 11 year old sister Meg escape from a prison camp with the intent to prove that their parents (who are serving life sentences in prison) were framed for the crime. They are eluding state and local police, the FBI, and a mysterious man who is trying to kill them, as they get closer and closer to the truth!

Kim's Blog Challenge

Here are some of my favorite blogs that I have bookmarked:

Sprague Lab is the blog of Jessica Sprague - PS designer extraordinaire! Even if you don't do digital, her designs are so inspiring:
http://spraguelab.squarespace.com/blog/

This is the blog for Scrapbook Oasis, the best LSS by me in Irvine, CA. They are always on top of the new products, and I rely on them to let me know what the new hot trends are:
http://thescrapbookoasis.typepad.com/

I saw Amy Tangerine's work at Scrapbook Oasis. She crossed over her scrapbook designs to T-Shirt designs. Her T-shirts are worn by lots of Hollywood stars and go for over $200. She's are real inspiration:
http://www.amytangerine.blogspot.com/

The way I see it....

I really do pick quality over quantity! I was disappointed that we didn't get to take our two-week long vacation, but we had a BLAST on our little 3 day weekend! We spent the entire time together, enjoying each either other's company, playing togehter, and trying new things. We had so much fun and made some great memories!

Our Whirlwind Vacation!

We were planning a two week vacation back east, but my hubby couldn't get the time off. So, our summer vacation has dwindled down to a long weekend. We left Friday, returning Monday.

Our first stop was Las Vegas, we stayed downtown at the Golden Nugget. They had a three-story tall water slide through a shark tank! Very Cool!!! We did a little celebrating... Today is our 22nd wedding anniversary... But, it's to bed early! We are being picked up at 3:50am. We are going white water rafting through the Grand Canyon!

The van took us to the Hualapai Indian Reservation in AZ, where we caught a school bus to the river... Have you ever been off-roading in a school bus? It's a wild ride!!! From there we boarded our raft.

We shared a raft with a very nice family of four from Florida. This whole white water rafting tour is run by the Hualapai Reservation. Each raft is captained by a member of the tribe.

I don't know if the term white water really applies to the Colorado River. It's about as white as a cup of hot chocolate! Hahaha! We noticed right away that none of the guides were wearing white. And for very good reason... we all got very very wet, and muddy, and dirty! This is mild compared to other rapids we went through. We went through a couple of class-6 stretches!

Here's my son. Doesn't he look like he's having a wet good time?

The scenery was beautiful... I won't bore you with too many scenery shots, but here is one of my hubby with the walls of the canyon behind him.

We took a break in the rafting action to hike up the side of a stream; through a water filled cave; to a gorgeous waterfall!

The outside air temp was 124F, the Colorado River water temp was 45F.

At about 35 miles from Lake Mead we were airlifted out of the Canyon by helicopter.

Isn't it beautiful? That chocolate brown strip at the lower right hand corner of the photo is the Colorado River. Whew, what a busy day! We got back to Las Vegas at about 8pm.

The next morning we left Las Vegas and headed home... on a whim, we stopped for the night at Big Bear Lake, in the San Bernardino Mountains. By this time my daughter's sniffles was a full fledged cold! So, no Lake activities for us.

We went over to Snow Summit, one of the the local ski resorts, and went for a speed run! We took the ski chair lift up the mountain and rode in these little toboggan things that zoom their way down the mountain.

From there we went for a little drive.... 4-wheeling in a mini-van is not as much fun as going in a school bus. We ended up in a beautiful little spot.

Then we went for a climb to try and catch a view of the lake.

Here it is and it was really worth the climb.
The next morning we walked through town. They even had an LSS!

We stopped at the marina and looked around. My daughter's cold was no better, so we scrapped the wave runner idea. They had a little replica pirate ship called "Time Bandit." It was pretty funny... it was sooooo small! Hahaha! Major tourist trap!

So that was our whirlwind vacation. It's back to work tomorrow!