Scrapathalon Week #8 and #9

I completely forgot to post my LO from last week's scrapathalon, so it's a double post this week!

Here's week 8 - my very first all digi LO!



And week 9 - do a scraplift of one of Cheryl's LOs.

I chose her "Spring"




And my version - "Holy Matrimony"




P.S. I got a new car this weekend! :) I'll try to post some pics tomorrow.

Scrapathalon Week #7

The Scrapathalon challenge this week was to do a LO with a time theme and you must use clocks. I won the poll votes and the judges votes!! I can't believe it!! I didn't even really like this LO, I thought it was too busy!! I'm on cloud nine!

Scrapathalon Week #6

Voting ended yesterday so I can share my LO now! This week's challenge was to use only brown colored cardstock - no patterend paper - and as many embellishments as possible. Here's what I came up with:

Scrapathalon Week #5

Week 5 was a tough one in the scrapathalon. This week the challenge was to complete 4 layouts based on the theme 867-5309. The catch was the 4 layouts could only include 8 patterned papers, 6 ribbons, 7 photos, 5 visual triangles, 3 numerical references, 1 word "OH", and 9 pieces of chipboard. This may not sound so bad, but to a girl who uses pp and chipboard like it's going out of style it was quite challenging. Anyway, here are my 4 LOs!!

This is 26

and it's not as bad as I expected :)

Yep today's my birthday. I had joked all last week that I was getting ready to turn 25 again. John brought me home a birthday cake and a sweet card and suddenly it didn't seem quite so bad!

I also had a fabulous pre-birthday weekend. Saturday I cropped with Amber, Amber, and Stacey. I had so much fun and cannot wait until the next one. Here is a photo Amber Ulmer's mom took of all the gals at our table, C/O Amber's blog:



Then on Sunday Dad took John and I to dinner for our birthdays and anniversary. John took this pic of me and my (not so) little brothers.



Where has the time gone?? I cannot believe that this time next year I'll be seeing Matthew (the older one) off to college.

All this talk of me getting older and my brothers growing up really has me thinking back to the reason we scrap. We scrap to remember days like this. My friend Tiffany gave me a birthday card with something to the effect of "in 10 years you'll never believe you were this young" written inside. Thanks to scrapping I hope that I will be able to remember, and just by flipping a few pages in my scrapbook I'll be able to recall exaclty how it felt to be 26. Exactly how it felt to be alive at this very moment.

Scrapathalon Week 4 and Exciting News!!

This was week 4 of the scrapathalon. The theme was Promises, Promises and the style was graphic. There is hidden journaling behind the photo that reads: Nanny –
When you died I promised that I would never forget you and I never will. You walked down the isle with me in the form of your broach, but more importantly you walk with me everyday through the values you instilled in me. I love you and miss you but I know I will see you again one day.



On to the Exciting News part!!! I got tagged by my scrap-idol Martha as a Rockin' Girl Blogger! FUN!!



I nominate Shrimp (yes this is a shameless ploy to get you blogging again, he he he), Tracey, Amanda, Chasity, and another (awesome)Amber!!

Speaking of Ambers, I get to meet two tomorrow!!! I'm going to the Scrap It! meet-up group crop and am going to meet Amber M. and Amber U. there! I can't wait! I'll be sure to post some pics.

And last but not least - I am this week's guest artist at (scr)apropos!! I'm totally stoked about it!! Check it out if you get a chance!!

Scrapathalon Week #3

Here is my entry for week three of the scrapathalon - the challenge this week was based on Harry Connick Jr's Recipe for Love. Make a layout featuring a recipe for something other than food.



And for any of you thinking about doing a LO for my iTunes challenge I'm giving you an extra week because I forgot I'm going to San Diego tomorrow for a while so I won't have time to get out your RAK.

Scrapathalon Week #1

Recently I decided to join the scrapathalon challenge on SB.com. The scrapathalon is a 10-week series of challenges each based on a song title. This week's challenge was based on The Jackson 5's "ABCs." Each scrapper was required to complete a LO using all 26 letters on the Alphabet in order. And since there were 3 letters in the song title, you had to include at least 3 different types of letters in your LO. I used a combo of chipboard, stickers, rub-ons, plastic, and hand written letters. It was great fun and there were lots of great LOs submitted. I can't wait to get started on this week's challenge!

20 Reasons

Here's my latest LO! It's for Allie's Challenge for our Critique group and for Aimee's challenge as well. I was thinking since I posted such a negative post about friends the other day, I should take some time and remember the good things about my best friend! There are 20 good reasons on this LO why we are still good friends after all these years!

Cool Stuff Alert!!

Mom and I were bored today so we decided to ride out to "The Factory" - a collection of interesting little shops and antique stores in Franklin. We hadn't ever been before and I'm glad we decided to check it out. If you haven't already you MUST check out Fluff. I am so digging all of their stuff. I bought the cute little coin purse above at a store in The Factory and then when I got home and investigated further I found a sweet pug shirt in their online store that I just had to order.

In the same store where I discovered Fluff, I also found the Puggy Bank below!! How could I resist that little guy?!? I couldn't! Home with me he came!!

And just for fun I'm posting a picture I took of Genie and Dora taking a nap together yesterday. It was rainy and gross and the girls took full advantage of that with an all-day long nap fest. Ahhhh they are girls after my own heart!! I can't wait to scrap this pic!

I'm such an oddball....

I just realized when posting my weekly column over at SSSB that I'm a complete oddball. Or maybe I'm just getting too old to be trendy anymore, LOL (Lord I hope that's not the case, I'm not even 26 yet!!!). Let me explain....

(1) The bird trend. OMG, the bird trend. Please God let this come to an end soon. I do not and will never understand the recent obsession with all things feather, flappy, and just darn disgusting. Yes, I realize that my deep-seeded fear of all things with feathers and beaks makes me a bit biased on this subject, but when I can't even walk around my LSS without practically going into a panic attack, what has this world come to?!?!

(2) Skulls?? Really, Skulls?? I can't imagine anything more disgusting and non-feminine. Yes that's right, I'm a girly-girl and proud of it. I want nothing to do with the dern things. (Ok confession - I've done one skull LO but it was for a friend!!). I know this skull obession seems to have stemmed from the sucess of all the Pirates of the Carribean movies so perhaps if I hadn't fallen asleep in the 1st one and never watched the 2nd and 3rd I could understand this a little bit better. Que sera sera - I just hope this trend ends soon!!

I could go on, but all this negative energy has tired me out!! I need to go run it off, then I'll feel better!!

I'm so excited!

I made the design team at my local scrapbook store!!! I am soooo excited! I've never been on a design team before so I honestly don't know how much work it's going to be but I'm up for the challenge. Woo-hooo!!!
Here are the items I used in my entry:

Long Runs and Scrapbooking?!?!

John, my Dad, and I did our longest run yet on Saturday. It was chilly, but the skies were blue and sunny. I'm not sure of our exact mileage, but from looking at the course map it looks like it was somewhere between 8 and 10 miles. It have to say it was the most pleasant run of that distance I have ever had. I think I owe a lot of that to my new shoes and insoles. I went with the Mizunos, but with a higher stability since my knee has been giving me some more trouble. Here's a link if you are interested:

http://www.mizunousa.com/equipment.nsf/AllProduct/DD1D4580F8C836D8852572270072F103?opendocument&div=running&cat=womensfootwear

I also bought some Super Feet insoles. I really can't tell if it's the insoles, the shoes, or a combination of the two, but I truly feel that this is as close to wonderful as my feet have ever felt during a run.


While on my run I had a big decision to make. I recently began co-hosting a scrapbooking critique group, and Friday was the deadline to enter our first challenge. The challenge was an exercise in simplicity - you were only allowed to use one sheet of card stock and one sheet of patterned paper (unlimited embellishments). I went over each layout in my head while on the run and my thoughts kept returning to this LO by Lynette. Isn't it lovely??