Staci

Love Fest - a - Rama...

2010-01-09T21:08:00.004-06:00

It's a bona-fide love fest around these parts!

We had so much fun finishing up our Christmas goodies and making the rounds to deliver them to family (amid much present unwrapping of course!). The kids were sooooo in love with the trampoline that Santa left! It's been assembled in the back yard and getting as much use as possible when there's a freak artic blast winding its way through North Texas.

New Years was met with our usual low-key party...pizza dinner, chocolate chip cookies, movies, and falling asleep before midnight! LOL :) It's tough being in your 30s in suburbia. ;)

Since then, and with the talk therapy of a good friend, I've chosen my "word of the year" for 2010. With all the crazy that swirls around me, and my typical response to either go along with it or avoid it at all costs, my word of the year is ENGAGE. I want to ENGAGE in my life...live to the priorities I say I have. No procrastination, no avoidance...just jump in with both feet...into every moment!

Holding hands with ^that^ is my renewed energy to finish up some of these blasted house projects! I'm total decorator by nature...there's always a to-do list with projects, stuff to research, ideas to design. But my list has gotten longer and longer, instead of shorter. So we're getting some goodies done, starting with Van's room. I'm working on getting everything in tip-top shape too. Signed up for Motivated Moms and with my list-lovin' self, I'm super-excited to check, check, check off line items everyday! :) So far, so good...house is looking cleaner than in ages and...(holding back tears of joy)...my laundry room is empty!!!! For reals...no stuff in hampers, no stuff in baskets, no stuff on hanging rod...EMPTY! I even scavenged all the sheets & blankets off the kids beds to have something to wash today...and they're already clean and replaced! Yes, I'm feeling a little Martha-esque! :)

Been scrap-happy too. Having stuff done around the house makes me feel not so guilty about staying up late to do a "me thing" like scrap! :) Actually created some goodies that I love and had FUN making. Check 'em out...

Sweet little side note...keep your fingers crossed for me! I think I actually have a *job opportunity* hitting next week. I've got an interview on Monday and already had an audition that went great. Woo Hoo! :)

XOXO...Stac :)

Baking and Crafting...

2009-12-23T13:10:00.004-06:00

Couldn't be better! :)

For the KI 12 Days of Christmas blog party, I volunteered to make candy/cookie containers because that's pretty much what I spend 2 weeks doing in December anyways. :)

Everything from my (in)famous double doozies, brownie bites, cake balls, white chocolate popcorn, apple bread, and more gets mixed, baked, and prettied up in the E*Crew house! :) And then I just have to stay out of it and keep the kids out of it! LOL :) Which is even harder than it sounds! ;)

I made pretty little containers for the teachers gifts that I hope made the yummies inside taste even better! :) Here's the pics...

There's step-by-steps for each project on the KI Blog if you want to check them out.

For now, I'm back into the kitchen. I've got double doozies cooling in the fridge, apple bread to mix, and popcorn to make. Bob is working on the grandmas' photo albums. The kidlets are playing happily in the toy room, unaware that its about to be reading time (aka "quiet time") in thier rooms for a bit.

LOVE a nice cozy day at home, chilling and loving! :)

XOXO...Stac :)

KI Lovin'...Havin' a Blast...

2009-12-08T14:06:00.004-06:00

trust me...you're lucky you can't hear me singing along with that title. My singing is NOT something you want to hear. ;)

Point is...

I'm up for the blog challenge at the KI Memories blog (http://www.kimemories.typepad.com/) and had a blast with the layout I made. I got to play with one of the supa-fab pics I took on our recent photo tour downtown. The kidlets were sooooo good and had sooo much fun playing on the railroad tracks, which makes me love this pic even more! :) (family members who are reading...act surprised when you see these pics in your Christmas albums, 'k?) ;)

My challenge is called "Blank Slate" and I challenged the KI blog girls to take a patterned paper and blank it out with paint. It lets just a bit of the pattern peek through prettily. I left the block where my pics/goodies were going paint-less so the pattern would help make that area pop!

Got a nice little surprise too when I came home from a day of running around to find my layout in the Top 10 Votes on 2Peas! Sah-weet! :)

So without further chattering on, here's the layout...

Now that Tayvan is napping and won't catch me, I'm off to eat a little ice cream for lunch. Sssshhhhh! ;)
XOXO...Stac :)

doo...doo...doo...doooooo UPDATE! :)

2009-11-29T22:22:00.003-06:00

I warned y'all it was crazy around here in October, right? And I was really hoping for a slower November, but I swear that my calendar went straight from November 1st to November 30th in one big blink!

Quick run-down of this month...

* Bob got a nasty buggie and spent about a week lounging on the couch, sure that he was dying...from a really bad case of the coughs. ;) No worries, he's all better now and of course, is my big strong manly man again. ;)

* Super-Duper Exciting News...I got my ZUMBA certification! A dark (& way toooo fast) drive to Oklahoma, a long day of dancing, dancing, dancing, and Woo Hoo...I'm for real! :) I'm so excited to have this new opportunity in my life...something that brings me joy, that I can share with others, and that I'm actually a bit good at (not bragging, just happy to find my *thing*). I'm looking into teaching locally, another FUN opportunity. I'm really blessed to not *need* to work, and have the luxury of patiently and actively looking for a regular class that I can do while the kids are at school. In the meantime, you know I'm shigglin' it every chance I get, especially now that I have the cd's at home and can practice 24/7! :)

* Lilli is a ROCKSTAR gymnast! :) After some mega-rough weeks (to the point that her coach threatened to put her back on Level 3), she has really blossomed. He had her set some concrete goals and work towards them. She's been crossing them off the list, one by one...including her biggie...front handsprings on the trampoline and tumble-track, which she did successfully last week! :) But even more that the physical skills she's been improving lately, her attitude towards hard work, repeated practice, and "failure" have been sooooo much better. She's been thinking positively (she told her coach that she's "keeping happy thoughts in her head b/c she stays on the beam better that way!"), being engaged in her school projects, and just overall ROCKIN' it! :) Love that chickadee and am so thrilled to see her have so much positive reinforcement from a teacher/coach for a change!

* Thanksgiving was the usual...well, for us anyways! That means...no turkey in sight, no huge family gatherings, and no drama! Sah-weet! :) We only do "mom Thanksgiving" b/c both Bob's and my dad go to other family get togethers. So we headed down to MawMaw's to start cooking. The last 2 years, I've had the pleasure of showing my mom and grandma that I can actually cook like a grown-up now (last year, I made chicken cordon bleu; this year it was homemade pork taquitos). They made the sides and fixins' so that I could just fry, fry, fry. Yummy lunch was had by all...then we made our plan of attack for Black Friday. Dinner at my SIL's is always a bit crazy b/c of all the kiddos (our 3, plus her 5 in a tiny house!), but it's *awesome* b/c we always end up playing card games. Soooo fun! :) Learned a new one called KIMPS and Bob and I actually won! :)

Some seriously fun KI goodies this month too...

I've been playing with some "embroidery" stitching lately. I saw "embroidery" b/c I truly don't know what I'm doing...I just stitch and see how it looks. If it looks bad, I pull it out. If it looks good, then I go with it. I made a cupcake with silver sequin "sprinkles" from a KI digi brush (Lucy kit). I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the cupcake yet...although I think it might be turned into a pillow for a friend's Christmas present! :)

The layouts I posted this month are an old and a new...

newer one is a quick & easy one using paper scraps. (stripe is from KI digi Roxie...altered to match Heirloom paper). The notebook papers behind the pic are letters the kids wrote to each other, paperclipped in place so that they can be removed and read without disturbing the picture.

older one is the one I did for Kim and Ira to celebrate their new baby Austin! The sheer wings are cardstock backed, the ribbon is popped up so that she can slip pics in without disturbing it, and the stamps are mixed in with buttons and glitter glue dots.

So that's me in a nutshell right now! :) I promise to be back soon...before Christmas at least! Ok, ok...WELL BEFORE Christmas. December got to be less crazy, right? (please say "right!" so I won't go crazy!) LOL :)

XOXO...Stac :)

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

2009-10-21T16:34:00.003-05:00

hee hee...I LOVE Dori! ;)

October is always the craziest month of all for us and this year is no different. Lots of busy bees buzzing around here and my calendar looks ridunkulous if I say so myself! But it'll all get done, or it won't, but it's all good either way. :)

Scrappy news...

I had some messy fun last night, inking and distressing my paper till it cried for mercy! Take that! ;) Check it out...

You might notice some little "stitchy" dots around the edges. Yeah, I cheated a little. Okay, okay...a lot! I want to sew so badly but time hasn't magically multiplied enough for me to actually have some time to learn. My pretty little sewing machine sits here, lonely and begging for love. But I want the sewn look, so I pulled out my trusty Cutter Bee Bug to do the holes. It's really great to pre-poke holes to hand-stitch, but I'm going with the "doesn't it look like there's clear thread there?" (say yes) That's my story and I'm sticking to it! ;)

In Mom Identity Crisis news, I've been nudged again to try something a bit left of my comfort zone...teaching Zumba. I'm totally Zumba obsessed, taking around 4 classes a week and have loads of the choreography memorized already (thank you high school drill team!). But the idea of getting up on stage, with a mic to blare my admittedly twangy voice, and leading the way with my shigglin' is +more+ than a little scary! But I figure that I have a chance to try just about anything right now, so I might as well go with something that I know I'll enjoy (once I get over my nausea-inducing nerves!) So, I'm registering for training and then I'll have to market myself to local gyms (this might be where my Marla-directed PR dept comes in! LOL)

House-wise...spent all.day Saturday hitting garage sale after garage sale. Lots of goodies for crazy cheap...including a cute little set of steps for Van's bed ($2), an already-black distressed kid chair ($2), a gothic iron & wood mini-screen ($2), a huge red bead necklace ($1), several kids books, a Justice outfit for Lilli ($1), a huge sterling silver serving platter with a tree on it (.50!), and more! The steps are going to be an upcoming project for Van's room. Oh, and my piece de resistance (don't check my spelling on that, just go with it) was the craigslist bedroom suite I got for $75! For a headboard, dresser, mattress, box spring, and frame! Woo Hoo!!! I'm going to resell the headboard and dresser I think b/c I've suddenly found myself dresser-full! LOL :) I can't wait to get going on Van's room...especially now that I've got most of the stuff and can really make a difference in the cute-ness of her space! :)

Got to get ready to shiggle tonight. I'm thinking its going to be a grilled cheese for dinner kinda night. Shhhh! ;)

XOXO...Stac :)

Pantry Pics and a Return to Scrapping...

2009-10-11T23:08:00.003-05:00

As promised, I've got pics of our Pantry Makeover Extravaganza!

First off, I have to explain the uselessness of our builder grade pantry.

Its under the stairs, so super narrow (just 36in wide) and had a whopping one built-in shelving unit. Granted, the unit had 5 shelves, but they were super wide-spaced, so I had resorted to a combination of wire stacking units and baskets to make the space work a bit. Oh, and had to add in some random Sterilite drawer units for kid snacks and such.

Unfortunately, I don't have a full-on "before" pic. That man of mine decided it was time to start demo before I could get in there with the camera. But I wasn't about to stop his momentum to get this project rolling! LOL :) So here's a semi-before shot, so you can see the yucky floor & useless shelves.

After one day of super-man work, Bob had made awesome progress! He'd managed to demolish the cabinet, paint the walls & ceiling, replace the floor, and (unseen) install a new light fixture.

Next up was an admittedly expensive trip to Container Store. Between my organizer-extradinaire friend Amy and the fab lady at TCS, we got a great system set-up. I've got shelves galore now...literally have EMPTY spots! Whooo Hoooo! :) Love my new baskets and airtight bins too! :)

On the scrapping front, I've been so busy that I haven't had a chance to scrap at all in weeks. But that all changed this weekend! Sooo happy to be back in the saddle, but its always hard to get the mojo flowing at first. Here's one of the layouts I did with bits of goodies I found on my recent desk clean-up...

Off to bed! Got a busy day tomorrow...kids at school, I've a knee doc appt, hair appt, hit the JCPenny sale, assembly at the kiddo's school, gymnastics, costume shopping, dance class, and picking up the truck at mechanic. Yeah, that sounds do-able, right? Right??? ;)

XOXO...Stac :)

Check, check, check...

2009-09-30T23:48:00.004-05:00

and check again!

I gotta say...My new House to Home focus is totally rockin'! :) I'm actually making progress here people! This week, I've...

* searched out the fabric to back my kitchen cabinets, bought, chopped, ironed (yes, IRONED), and hung it...looks great if I say so myself. Just gonna finish up some shelf doo-dollyin' and I'll show ya.

* hit 2 Joann's for my new curtain fabric. No luck, but its supposed to be in tomorrow...tomorrow...I love ya tomorrow. ;) I'll have to hit both Joann's again to get enough, but I'm going for it with my coupons!

* bought some cute little grapevine wreaths to hang over ^those^ curtains. They're part of my "fall decor". ;)

* painted Declan's armoire. The hunter green was never my choice (it came to us that way), so I'm thrilled to finally have it a little more "me". It'll be finished up tomorrow with the old table runner that I'm chopping to bits to fill in the door frames.

* been obsessing about Tayvan's room re-do for her big birthday gift. I think I found a bed (wish me luck tomorrow when I go check it out...craigslist can be soooo good or uhm, not).

* hit a flea market and found an awesome 50's plastic faux milk-glass mirror. Even better than the faux milk-glass look is that it's *hobnail* milk glass with a fluted edge all around. To quote Rachel Zoe... I die. ;) It's going to find a home asap...maybe as a part of Van's new room! :)

* and in the project that never ends, I got a whole 'nother section of wall exposed in my laundry room. Yes, the exploded cow look continues. LOL :)

Other happenings...

PTA--of course. Spirit Gear goes out tomorrow! I can't tell you how excited I am! I did it. All by myself...figured it out, made mistakes, learned better ways for next time, but I did it. :) Fingers crossed that everyone agrees when they start getting their orders! LOL

Kiddos--Same crazy stuffs...running from school to Girl Scouts to gymnastics and more! The best kiddo news is...

Tayvan is 4 years old today! :)

Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday dear Tayvan. Happy Birthday to you. :)

We followed e*crew family tradition and headed to Magic Time Machine for dinner. She was thrilled to have Ariel as our waitress, but as always Jack Sparrow stole the show! The guy that plays Cap'n Jack is soooo great...totally hilariously quick witted and has the whole stumbling randomness down perfectly. Fun was had by all! Van's party is coming up this weekend. So far, she wants guinea pig cupcakes. Uhm, yeah...don't know what to do with that business, but I might see if I can find some sort of cupcake pick with Wonder Pets and call it a happy. LOL :)

Scrappy Goodness--The KI Wicked Party was AWESOME! Seeing everyone's cool projects and doing the Q&A's totally got me in the Halloween spirit! :) I can share my projects now too!! Check 'em out...

Well, I'm off to bed! Hey, its only midnight...that's pretty good for me! LOL :) Keep your fingers crossed for me that spirit gear goes well, Joann's has my fabric, and the bed is perfect! That's not to much to ask for in 5 hours is it? ;) LOL

XOXO...Stac :)

Experiements in Identity...

2009-09-23T23:00:00.004-05:00

huh? Okay, hold tight with me for a minute...

I have an explanation for my absence that I think a lot of mommas are going to connect with.

Flashback to last year: My bestie, Shonnery, had a really hard time with her youngest starting school. The whole "what do I do all day?" conundrum. I sympathized, I took her to lunch, I supported her through her moments of "hey, maybe I can do ____" with my whole heart. But I didn't understand. Not really.

I've since learned that a lot of moms pretty much have an identity crisis every August like clockwork. We're happy to get the kids happily back in school, love the structure & routine, but it does leave a chunk of 7 hours with no official plan.

Flash to current time: Tayvan started pre-school! WOO HOO!! Now granted, its not a full time gig; she's going 2 days a week from 9-2. But coupled with Memory Makers closing & the TN GASC cancelling, all together it has triggered a little bit of an identity crisis. I kinda don't know what to do with myself all day Monday and Wednesday! :) So my goal-setting self kicked into gear and I decided I needed to figure out my big Ta-Da for this school year.

After some thought, my *first* big item on The List is...house decor/organization/cleaning/control. I joined back up with FlyLady (a fab site to get the cleaning happening on a more routine basis). I've flipped through blog after blog of decorating and organizing, so my brain is brimming with funsie stuffs to do! And I've enlisted my friend Amy to help me work the Elfa to bring some much-need organization and storage to my pitiful pantry. And I can't wait! Well, actually...I haven't. A couple of the things that've been rolling on my house to-do list are already done. Pics soon...rooms in progress! :)

But in the middle of this house re-do and minor identity crisis, we've had some fun family moments. I did some quick invites to send out for Tayvan's 4th birthday party.

But the best fun was going to one of Bob's races in Greenville. He did okay, not his best but he was happy with the finish. Immediately after though, the Kids Cup started! Declan and Lilli were both excited and nervous. Declan was so thrilled that he could ride all out...no waiting for anyone to catch up. He's a total Speed Demon, flying around the course, actually doing tricks as he went! Lilli was bound and determined to catch her little brother...had her head down, elbows back, pedaling as fast as she could. In the end, Declan took first place by a good half-lap. Lilli took second place, happy with her performance (especially in the turns which still make her a little nervous). All in all, a great day for all! :)

One last thing before I head to bed (yawn!)...tomorrow night is a KI Blog Party! It starts at 7pm CST, and you definitely want to be there! We had the opportunity to create some Wicked projects...not wicked, Wicked (using the new Halloween line). LOL :) My home decor focus as of late worked perfectly b/c I was selected to make a fun wreath that I am IN LOVE with! :) I can't wait to show it tomorrow...first on the KI blog, then here & 2Peas, so stay tuned! :)

XOXO...Stac :)

hAppY dAnCe!! :)

2009-09-03T09:08:00.004-05:00

So I posted my big ol' family vacay album to 2Peas and guess what...

It's the Featured Layout!!!

How *totally cool* is that?!

Check it out...

XOXO...Stac :)

Big ol' update-o-rama! :)

2009-08-31T23:22:00.012-05:00

Yeah, so I've fallen into bad blogger habits! In my defense, I was off doing the Mom Thing which is always first priority! :)

So the quick rundown of events...

* 2 Back to School nights which had tons of PTA prep--delivering all the school supplies & spirit gear, setting up the booths, selling spirit gear

* meeting the kids teachers went super well. I think Lilli has a really great teacher this year and Declan is in love with his teacher b/c she has a pet snake and pet lizard in the class. LOL :)

* first day of school fun...getting the kids ready in the perfect outfit, loads of pics, and off to school! Neither kidlet wanted "maahmm" (you know the tone) to walk them into class...they were truly off on their own like big kids! And Mom was off to more PTA meetings and spirit gear booth selling.

* got Tayvan set up for her first school experience (other than working with me at the big kids school). Picking a school that actually has openings, is cost effective, and of course is awesome for the little one is *hard!* We had Meet the Teacher night for her last weekend too. Again, she was totally fine when I stepped out for the parent meeting. I came back and she was just working the room, introduced me to her new friends, and said she wasn't ready to go yet. LOL :)

* ^that^ is the highlights of the last couple of weeks, but of course mix in about 5 meetings at the school, loads of paperwork, researching community program options for the year, school clothes shopping, new glasses for Lilli, reorganizing the house for school mode, and probably a bunch of other stuff I forgotten by now! ;)

In my scrappy world, I've been having a blast working bit by bit on the mini album for our Sea World trip! It ended up a little huge and that's with some of the pics stuffed into the little kraft envelopes I built the album out of! But I figure that's okay b/c its all the family funsies! :)

Fair warning, pics galore below so grab a cup of coffee and come along on an e*crew family vacay! :)

Whew! That's a ton and then some, but the vacay was so fun that the album had to be show it all! :) Everything is KI Memories, kraft envelopes, sequins, and lots of paint! :)

XOXO...Stac :)

Wanna Share...

2009-08-17T07:51:00.002-05:00

with my living room makeover all done, I felt the need...
the need for scrappy love time!
Okay, so it doesn't have the same ring as "the need for speed", but if you've met me IRL, you know that I don't need speed...most folks want me to slow down a bit (in the car, how fast I talk, how much I can run through on a to do list, etc). LOL :)

Anyways, back to the current tangent.
My scrap happy self.

So I wanted to make a doo-dad to hang in the foyer on my huge green cabinet and thought I'd play with some digi goodies and go old-school too. Check it out...and the details are below the pic so don't run away...

The frame & skull are digi brushes from KI Memories. I erased the original eyes on the skull, replaced one with the "target" style eye, and filled in with a big feltie flower & button stacks for the other eye. The yellow portions of the frame are hand colored with Canvas Corp.'s *awesome* colored pencils. A blood red bow with a safety pin b/c you know she's a tough bow-head! LOL The hanger is one side of a long black zipper. Oh, and the skull & bones are mega-popped with foam tape.

All in all, she's lots of fun! And a little tough! And a lot of bright, which I'm sure expected by now. ;)

Back with the story of my adventurous weekend soon! ;) Let's just say it involved Possum Kingdom Lake (hey, I live in Texas okay?), a lot of family, science lessons using dead animals, and more. Can't wait, right? I'll write it up and post it up asap! :)

Off to PTA all day! :)
XOXO...Stac

Back Home Sweet Home...

2009-08-12T23:48:00.004-05:00

We had an absolute *blast* in San Antonio!! Sea World was a total hit with the kids of course. They loved the shows, feeding dolphins, swimming in the wave pool and lazy river, and asking question after question of all the trainers/show folks. LOL :)

Funny on the way there...remember how I said the kids didn't know where we were going?

We pulled them out of bed at 5:30am, set them up with blankets & pillows and headed out. Eventually, they woke enough to ask "What are we doing?" I'm so mean...told them we were running an errand. Bwhahahah! :) When we were about 40 minutes away, I totally jumped into their Hangman game and did really good clues like "road", "trip", "shark", "dolphin", "Sea World". Nada, nothing, nope...didn't get it at all. (smacking head) But with some leading looks, they picked up on the game and were super excited! LOL :)

That first night, they were so excited about the hotel too....oohing and aahing over how "gahgeous it is...very fancy". Good to know that my kids are uber-happy with a generic Marriot! LOL :)

Oh, we took the trip downtown to the Riverwalk, rode the water taxi, and ate dinner. Super late night, but really fun. :) And a sidetrip on the way home to Natural Bridge Cavern. It was a mixed bag result. The kids talk about how great it was non-stop, but halfway through the tour they were just ready to be done & didn't care for the steepness of the walk down or up. Oh well, at least it's a good memory for them. :)

My very patient and understanding also helped me find what is apparently The Scrap Store in San Antonio. It's called Scrapbook 9-1-1 and man, I about needed an ambulance when i walked in. It's a crazy HUGE store! My man gave me 20-30 minutes & told me good luck, so I knew I had to hustle to see it all. Lots of yummy goodies, but the ones that jumped into my bag were the Heidi Swapp papers with all the pop-out diecuts. A funsie that I'd seen at CHA, but not IRL, so I grabbed them happily. :) Thanks to the great guy at SB911...gave us great directions (we were soooo lost) & totally rang me up quickly so I could be out in <30!>

On the scrappy sharing front...

these are some goodies I did for MM that didn't make the cut in the rearranging as they closed. :(

The first one is a card showcasing the gray love with Heidi Swapp Invisibles and my obsession with feathers. LOL :)

The next one is a "pretty" layout. Oooh, those are sooooo hard for me to do...just not my nature! LOL :) But the Webster's Pages products are just so gorgeous that you want to do "pretty" with them! I did manage to build the whole business on painted cardboard so its not totally textbook pretty. ;) Pic is a new fave...our wedding rings propped in a book with directed lighting to make a heart! So fun! :)

Back soon!

XOXO...Stac :)

Sshhhhh...

2009-08-06T22:02:00.003-05:00

I'm not really here.

You never saw me.

I'm supposed to be packing for our very last minute, spontaneous, surprise trip to...

Sea World!!!!!

Happy Happy Joy Joy

We are soooo gonna rock as parents tomorrow! ;)

The kids don't know why they went to bed so quickly, but they'll be even more surprised when we pull them out of bed at 5am! :)

I promise some good pics and vacay layouts when I get back, but I didn't want to leave town for the weekend without some scrappy goodies for y'all! :)

These are some American Crafts' lovin' layouts! :)

The first one is "Wannabe". I've got some spray painty goodness on here...totally wild and crazy with, not black paint as usual, but why yes, that is PINK spraypaint. Bring on the girlie jokes, but this layout just needed some frou frou and pink spray paint is about as much as I can handle! :) I spray painted the foam alphas too with reasonable results (aka not perfect but good enough for me!). The ribbon friends at the top include braided embroidery floss. :)

The second one is "bug lover". Dec has finally gotten over his squeamish non-boyish response to buggies. He'd be the one watching Lilli dig for worms, want to see them, and then run when she got within 5 feet of him. LOL :) But he's all over snails especially now, and even the occassional worm. :) I chopped the big sticker out (backing and all) and stuck it down, stamped onto transparency so that design work was easier and scattered groupings of rub-ons, buttons, and pearls. :)

Well, I'm off. Gotta look like I've been packing before Bob gets back from Blockbuster! hee hee (don't tell, 'kay?) ;)

XOXO...Stac :)

Check Mark...

2009-08-03T22:37:00.006-05:00

I'm a total list girl. It's a coping mechanism for my total flakiness. LOL

Hey, the important thing is that I admit the issue and then solve the problem, right? ;)

Anyway, there is nothing like the joy of marking stuff off The To-Do List.

This weekend, I got to make a big ol' checkmark on my To-Do List. It's called "The Living Room". That's right, baby...one room down!!!! (2 to go downstairs but don't be a buzzkill) ;)

As promised, I wanted to post pics of the room when its done. Post-painting & flooring, we've moved back in the couches, rug, furniture, quilts, new pillows, knick knacks, and more stuff that I've probably forgotten.

I've got one little blank wall area that will eventually get a pic but I'm not worried. It's just on my "I'll know it when I find it list". ;) The shopping list has much more pressing issues...like the rug-for-the-toyroom issue. My mom & grandma came up yesterday to see the new goodies...total love, but they veto-ed the addition rug with a comment of "too crazy". LOL :) I'm thinking maybe a zebra print instead. (you think I'm kidding but I'm serious!) We'll see what I can find though. :)

On the scrappy front, I *need* to scrapbook! Desperately...NEED! My kids know that I need to, my husband knows that I need to, I know that I need to...so that's next on my to-do list for tonight. LOL :)

I did make a couple of little cards a bit ago that make me smile though. Check 'em out...

This one uses my new Tim Holz sunburst stamp. I'd been eyeing it forever and finally gave it to its siren call! :) The big smiley patch is from the Target $ Spot.

This one is with Cosmo Cricket Jack's World. Such a cutie green giraffe and the yellow stripe is a new fave I think. :)

Well, off to scrappyland for a bit!

XOXO...Stac :)

Out of Town...

2009-07-31T00:48:00.005-05:00

but back again! :)

Y'all are never gonna guess where I've been and what I've been up to...

^That^, my friends, is the symbol of all the learning I did last weekend. You see, SLS 2009 is the Texas PTA's Summer Leadership Seminar. Somewhere along the way, I ended up on the PTA board at the kidlets school. It's been an awesome learning experience for me & I have totally loved every moment of it. This past weekend, I was lucky enough to go to the SLS and take some great classes...everything from "Scream-Free Parenting" to "Stop Bullying Now" to
classes on how diet/nutrition affects children's behavior. The other mom-friends that I went with are all super-great girls, full of spunk and laughter. Luckily, no late-night security visits were necessary but I'll admit that we were rather loud and obnoxious with our squeals of laughter...till 2am. LOL :) And the most important thing is that we all learned so much that will help our PTA be better...for our kids & teachers! :)

Before I headed out, I had to get some KI playin' done for the gallery! Had F-U-N with this one! This is the project that had my hands nasty-black for a couple of days. I accidentally got myself good with the spray paint. Then I ended up using the closest black inkpad...which happened to be Stazon, so all those stampy friends left their mark on my hands too. The epoxy word "birthday" began its life as a pretty pink, but uhm, yeah not today. Instead, I colored it with a black sharpie. But the mess is all good...just shows I'm scrappy, artsy-fartsy, crafty, or some combo thereof, right? :)

So, here's the KI funsie...

This pic has become a bit of a tradition. We've combined Lilli & Dec's family birthday party the last few years, so they have to agree on the cake (well, except for the one time they agreed on cupcakes--so I made both strawberry & chocolate ones). This year the agreement was choclate icing (Mom specialty) and lots of sprinkles (every kids dream!). The cake always ends up monstrously huge, but this one was more than a little tilted. It was so bad that I almost decided to to make it a mad-hatter cake at the last minute, but decided that was a little too crazy, even for me! LOL :) So, instead we had a plain old tilted cake...yummy! :)

So that's my update from my fun weekend away! :) Back to the scrappy, mommy, house-cleaning grind again! :)

XOXO...Stac :)

KI Lovey Dovey's... :)

2009-07-23T21:45:00.003-05:00

Seeing all the new KI goodies totally got my inspiration all swirled up. :)

Well, that and the challenge that Celeste posted on the KI Memories blog! She's got some major digi-hybrid skills in her, so her challenge sounded like a fun way to play with the digi KI goodies (one of my newer but white-hot love affairs!). :)

But I've done a lot of printing digi papers and using them "traditional" style. So, with all my inspiration, I wanted to try something different. I mustered up some major cajones and sent fabric through my beloved printer. Believe me when I say I was *scared* to do it. And the first time, it didn't go so well. But after a few tries, I figured out that the best way for my printer and the cheapy fabric I was using...

I temp adhered the cotton fabric to heavy-weight paper with Tacky Tape (top, bottom, sides), sent it through on a high-resolution setting (slow with lots of ink), and held my breath. And a big Woo Hoooooo later, I had pretty Roxie Quilt paper (altered a bit) on FABRIC! :)

Not to mention some yummy Toby brushes (colored in before printing) and title brush (glitter Stickles'd after printing). :)

Yeah, all that to say...I had fun playing with the KI digi goodies! :)

Back with more goodies soon. I did another KI project that left me with some seriously messy hands--spray paint, ink x uh oh, baby powder everywhere. Sounds like fun, right? :) Show ya soon! :)

XOXO...Stac :)

That Man o' Mine...

2009-07-21T22:36:00.004-05:00

I love that guy!

He totally agreed that the pillows are keepers.

Reminded 3 times to go get his laundry at the cleaners (I kept forgetting) without even an ugly tone of voice.

And when we got an opportunity to go on an unexpected date this weekend, he agreed to see Harry Potter with me!

He's such a good catch! :)

So, here's a little layout to love about my sweetie...

Riding bikes is not his hobby. It's his absolute passion...obsession! I don't get to watch his races very often, so this was a treat for me...got to watch and take pics! :)

Just taking the moment and appreciating it, my hubby, and all his hard work! :)

XOXO...Stac

Sneaky Peeks...

2009-07-18T14:52:00.002-05:00

Who loves Sneaky Peeks of the CHA soon-to-be-released goodies?
I know I do!!!

So, head over to the KI Memories blog and check the new goodies they're rolling out!

Can I just say yummmmmm! :)
I think my fave overall is the Heirloom line b/c it looks like it will match my house (& we all know that I'm in house mode). I predict some home decor projects with those babies! :)

But there's lots of goodies that I'm already excited about and can't wait to get my scrappy hands on! Did you see the RAINBOW! And the SKELETON! And the GUITAR! So many cute fun embellishments and love the polka dotties and stripey papers as always! Come to Mama, my little pretties! ;)

XOXO...Stac :)

Back to Normal-ish...

2009-07-17T19:51:00.004-05:00

The Floors Are Finished!

I have the biggest perma-grin ever. This is something Bob & I have wanted since we bought this house...8 years ago! Now, they're finally here and I looooooooove them so very much. It's actually quite obscene! I totally laid down on the nasty floor, but did manage to refrain from kissing them. A girl's gotta have her limits, right? ;)

I've got most of the big furniture pieces back in the house, just a cabinet or two still hanging out in the garage. Along with *lots* of decorative bits and baubles that need to find new homes. {{Happy Dance!}} Re-decorating makes me happy, especially when its my stuff...it just needs a little mixin' and stirrin' to be fresh again! :)

So, here's some furniture'd but not knick-knack'd pics...

Living Room:

One of the first orders of business in here is new couch cuties...aka pillows. I bought a couple today at World Market, but the jury (ie Bob) is out for the evening, so the tags are still peek-a-booing on them. I love how the fancy silk & pleating on the big puff one looks with the handmade granny crochet throw! Contrasty goodness, baby! :) What do y'all think? Are they keepers?

You can barely see into my scraproom in the first living room pics, so here's a better view. This is a major desk overhaul for me. My old desk was mounted to the wall and super-long. I wanted to move out into the room more & love the new footprint in here. But I need to reorganize and figure out new storage solutions. Another trip into town (IKEA & Container Store) is in order! But here it is for now...

For the kids, they're not so sure about the new floors. It has changed their play habits a bit...no more scooters/skateboards in the house, no more tackling & wrestling, etc. In super quick order, I need to find a rug to live in the middle of the room for some cushion--for tushies at play and the echo-y sound! LOL :) But the overall effect is soooo cool I think! :)

My first option is a total novelty rug that just makes me laugh b/c it's so perfect for a kid's room. Not sure yet b/c I just started looking but doesn't this just say "Kid Friendly!"...

For all of you scrappy folks, who really couldn't care less about my paint and floor re-do...Thanks for sticking with me! :) I recently discovered how to do blog stats and was surprised that I'm not actually talking to myself! LOL :) But no fear, I'm totally still a scrappy girl...just sidetracked! :)

I did manage to finish up a layout that I started before I destroyed my scraproom though. Here's my cutie pie Tayvan... :)

I've been scrapping some in the mess too. Can't keep a good girl down! LOL :) But it's not quite show-able stuffs yet. I finished up my DT app for American Crafts and had a lot of fun with the projects! I hope they love them too! ((Fingers Crossed!))

Whew! What a whirlwind couple of weeks of mess, re-doing, scrappy fun, crazy kids, summer camps, and more! :) Can't wait to see what next week holds! :)

XOXO...Stac :)

Mid-Way there...

2009-07-14T09:23:00.004-05:00

We're getting close! :)

The paint is all done and I'm peeking out the window as I type for the floor guys to arrive.

By the end of the day, I'll have new walls and new floors! WOO HOOOOOOO! :)

As promised, I took some midway pics to show the progress.

Check it out...

This is the toy room side of the house (peeking from my red kitchen--yes, that is a bright green picnic table doubling as my new kitchen table). The turquoise wall is my accent pop...times 3! Since my downstairs is a big square design, I have the two outside walls painted turquoise (bookends) and then the middle wall (foyer to kitchen hall) also painted turquoise. The bulk of the rest of the house is the yellow color. The yellow ended up a bit brighter than intended...its a little more *YELLOW* than yellow. LOL But we're hoping that once we have the dark floors in and all the furniture and decor (esp on the walls), it'll all tie together nicely. In my head it does, so we'll see. :) Oh, and that couch is one of my infamous craigslist finds--total vintage citron green crushed velvet mid century looooong sofa. *LOVE* :)

On the other side of the downstairs square, we have the living room and dining room-turned-scrap room set-up. The same turquoise bookend on the outside wall, bright yellow walls, and my beloved red couches. The yellow/red combo in my scraproom is a bit overkill to me. Sigh. I joked about it being a bit McDonald's before we did it, but Bob walked in goes "I'm Lovin' It...do do do do dooooo" LOL I love that he can laugh at my misfortune and make me laugh at it too. :) It's going to need some help...big help. But never fear, I've already got second draft plans...just gotta find the fabric bits to re-do a bit. :) I did get a new scrappy desk to do some re-arranging though, so I'm super stoked about that.

Once floors go in, I'll be bringing all my furniture back in from the garage and out of the kitchen (can you say "eating out?") and getting it all set back up. I. Can't. Wait! :)

One other quick pic to share...for laughs.

Note to self...wallpaper is used for a reason. Do not Mod Podge stuff to the walls. Why and how do I know this you might ask? Well, once upon a time, I decided to "faux leather" the walls of my l;aundry room. It looked great for years...loved it and it fit with the house. :) But in my massive re-do, I decided that it needed to come down. So we started peeling bits of paper off...as we passed by, with every load of laundry, whenever we have a minute. But its taking forever and now it looks like a brown/white cow exploded in there. LOL Well, at least this is Texas cattle country. ;)

Isn't that a riot? :) Never fear, I've got plans for in there too...after I get the paper off! Bad news is, its damaged the sheetrock a little bit, so my plans are limited. I think I'm actually just going to do a similar treatment again...using book pages and wallpaper paste this time! I learned my lesson--wallpaper paste exists for a reason! :)

I've been doing some scrappy stuffs lately, but can't post quite yet. Working on a couple of mag calls and even gulp...a design team app! I'm so excited...back to the days of "will they like me?" LOL It's exciting and hope-filled and fun! So cross your fingers for me, 'kay? :) Layouts coming soon to a screen near you though! ;)

XOXO...Stac :)

Disappearing Act...

2009-07-08T23:12:00.003-05:00

AKA Where in the world I've been since this weekend...

LOL :)

Well, first a fave pic from our annual 4th of July trip to my dad's (aka Poppy)...

It was whirlwind evening of fun by all -- from swimming, hot dogs, fireworks, face painting, and the above photo'd hay ride in Poppy's tractor. :) The kids will remember this forever! Truly awesome night. Of course, I crashed on the way home, only to wake up every 2.1 seconds to say "Are you okay to drive?" to Bob. Apparently, that's annoying. ;) But we made it home safely so I guess it worked. :)

After that, we spent days...days...hours upon hours...

emptying out our house!

WHY? you might ask. :)

Because the painters came today!!!

WOO HOO! This is sooooo freakin' exciting to me. You have to understand my obsession with paint. We actually have paint rules that I'm only allowed to repaint to a room every 5ish years. Otherwise, I'd be painting and repainting every room all.the.time. Well, to be totally honest, Bob would be painting and repainting. ;) LOL

But it's the running joke that if Bob is on vacation...what are you painting? LOL :) This time, I decided I *needed* the whole downstairs painted. Bob pretty much said "yeah, nooooo" so I had to figure something out. Like...Painters! The bestest folks evah!

But with their impending arrival this morning, we had to empty everything and scoot furniture into the middle of the rooms and clean and and and... :) Want proof positive? Check it out...

This is my living room and a peek into my scrap room sans furniture arrangement. The turquoise is our last paint adventure and plays into the new design. The taupe that peeking out in my room is what's leaving...all to be covered by yellow. Lots and lots of yellow. :)

Up next...

This is the kids toy room. You can peekaboo the new yellow color in the back corner of the room. Look how sunny and bright it is! Happy Dance!! :)

The kids were total troopers today b/c we were stuck in an upstairs bedroom alllllll day long, but a new movie this afternoon and a dinner out reward seemed to do the trick. I hope it works again next week b/c...

the floor guys are coming on Tuesday! :) WOO HOOOOOO!

All that nasty, filthy, stained, old taupe carpet is leaving too. Soon to be replaced with yummy dark wood laminate. YEAH!!! :)

No worries...I know Photo Rule 101...

Pics required of everything! :)

I'll get semi-after pics of the yellow/turquoise/red combo that's happening downstairs now when we get some better light (too late today and supposed to storm tomorrow).

And then I'll be showcasing my new homestead after the floors go in and I get to redecorate. I can't wait to pull everything from the garage back into the house and find everything new homes! :)

Woo Hoo! If there's one thing full of crafty goodness that can pull me away from scrapbooking, it's home decor!!!! And now I have a whole downstairs to do! :) Oh, and its totally scrap-related b/c I get to rearrange and decorate my scrap space a bit too! ;) And then scrap the pics and make some new wall doodads and on and on. :)

Off to read my new DIY Makeover mag! :)

XOXO...Stac :)

Double Up...

2009-07-03T14:37:00.007-05:00

posting today! LOL :)

I realized that I hadn't done shown some updated posting on my blog of my Memory Makers' column projects. So, update I am...

Memory Makers March / April -- What We're Lovin' trend "forest friends and woodgrain"
Loved the super cute Sassafras critters, especially the mix with the dark Collage Press paper. :)
And the October Afternoon is always one of those fall-in-love faves that you can't find forever...so when I found it, I was soooo excited! :) Love the deer guys! :)

Memory Makers May / June -- What We're Lovin' trend "vintage"
Go Staci, go Staci...I was sooooo excited that I got to do some hybrid work for this one! :) Rhonna's goodies are the coolest to work with, so I was glad that her Urban Junque line was perfect! :)
And who does vintage like Jenni Bowlin? Uhm, nobody! She's the bomb-diggity of vintage, so lots of JB goodies on the 2nd one. :)

Memory Makers July / August -- What We're Lovin' trend feature article "peace" & " kraft + color pop"
I can't begin to describe how over-joyed excited I was to have the opportunity to do a full-length feature article! This was my first time to make assignments for other designers, which was fun b/c I had to figure out trends AT CHA, get the products from the manufacturers, track down the designers at the show (hard!!!), and they had less than a week to get projects in for approval! WHEW! :) But it was *fun!* :)
I got to pick which trends I wanted to do, of course. So I played with the "peace" one with lots of American Crafts goodies. Then I jumped into the "kraft + color pop" trend with the awesome Fancy Pants and Hambly goodies. :) Total LOVE! :)

I've got one more column coming out in the Sept/Oct issue. It's a near/dear to my heart b/c it's a bit dark and twisty with a side of sarcastic funny like me! LOL :) Any guesses on the trend? (Marla, you can't guess b/c you saw the projects!)

Back soon with more goodies! :)

Happy almost-4th!

XOXO...Stac :)

Something New & Something Old...

2009-07-03T11:22:00.003-05:00

all at once! LOL :)

I got a little chance to play last night! Love love love when you get a little burst of magic and it not only works, but works fast. You see, I'm a totally slow scrapper. But last night, Bob claimed the tv & the computer (so no shows or music) & he was doing laundry too! WOO HOO! So I got a super quickie project done...under 30 minutes! :)

I'm cleaning out my "random bits & baubles" bins b/c they're overfull, so I used this big alien monster dude. He started life as a hangtag on Declan's shorts. :)

As for the something old, this one's a little harder. Some folks know, but most don't, that I was working on a book project a while back. It was still very early-stage, but I'd spent countless hours doing write-ups, projects, planning, etc. Unfortunately, it was in final approval stage when the economy tanked and I was one of the unlucky cuts. The whole she-bang is still living in the work-in-progress binder that I was using, just kinda ignored.

One day, I will write a book. It's still a huge goal for me and a dream that I want to achieve. In the meantime, I'm going to start slowly posting some of the layouts that I created for my first book project. Here's the first one that I can let go of...it was a stamping focused example...

As for the e*crew, we're chillin' out today...totally veggin'. Tomorrow, I'm shiggling in the am & then we head to Poppy's house for our 4th of July Extravaganza! :) He lives in the country, so we can do whatever we want for the most part. Usually, that involves hand-feeding the koi fishies in his pond, swimming for hours, cooking hot dogs & smores on the firepit, and lots and lots of fireworks! :) Should be a blast...literally! LOL ;)

Happy (early) 4th to everyone! Stare deeply into a sparkler and ponder your life...it's a 4th of July tradition! :)

XOXO...Stac :)

DUDE!!!

2009-07-01T13:44:00.002-05:00

Really!!! Yes, I'm screaming b/c...

DUDE! Check this out...

My layout is Layout of the Day on 2Peas! How cool is that? I'm a little super-uber-overexcited about this but I can't help it...that ROCKS! :)

Here's the full shot of the layout...

Lots of Cosmo Cricket lovin', my new beloved Tim Holtz stamp, some hot Creative Imagination rhinestone brads, and always present Thickers. :)

Oh, paper trick must-do: Cosmo Cricket has great distressed edges, but since I'm an 8.5x11 girl, I have to chop a couple of those pretties off. :( So I sliced them down, patched them back onto my background and covered the seam with a pretty ribbon border frame. Functional and decorative! :)

Also, the orange frame thing in the title started life as a sticker tag. After a little exacto knife surgery, the insides are saved for another layout and the outside orange frame found life on this layout over some grey cardstock. Double bonus! :)

Off to cartwheel or eat chocolate or both! :)

XOXO...Staci :)

I'm baaaack! :)

2009-06-30T22:42:00.004-05:00

Whew! Another super-fun week of teaching, scrapping, shopping, big dinners, and airports. LOL :) The recap:

* Left out Thursday for GASC - Chantilly VA.

* Got set up early enough to hit a local Zumba class near the hotel. (yes, I am obsessive...why do you ask?) ;)

* Taught all day Friday -- Hambly Mixed Up mini album, Pink Paislee Fascinating Frame Up project, Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday Galore mini album, and American Crafts Crafty Girl album. All went really well. Lots of love to the VA girls who came to play and scrap and have fun with me! :)

* Snuck into the back of Crystal's 7gypsies Mini Album Madness class. Such an awesome project, but I figured out that I'm a totally sucky student. I'd be doing my own thing & hear this niggling "make sure you..." and realize that I was totally zoned. I'd look up and be 2 pages ahead so I'd just go back to working. Later, I'd hear again "make sure you..." and look up to realize that now I was 3 pages behind. LOL Oh well, it was worth it b/c my album is totally cute & based on Crystal's design but has "me" in it too--lots of handcut scallops and hearts, marker lines, etc. :)

ETA: Dude, look what I found on Crystal's blog!!! (her pic...that I was too focused to even realize she was taking! LOL)

* Taught Saturday morning -- Pebbles' Summer Scrappin' Fun layouts, KI Memories sketch class, and Sassafras Lass Wonderfully Whimsical layout. All went really well again. (whew!) I got to meet Michelle Vocke, who is the awesome VA local writer gal that did several write-ups on GASC (including special love on my classes!).

* Shopped all afternoon on Saturday and found some serious goodies!!!! Marla is proud of me b/c I bought stamps! I know...shocker! I actually bought 2 new Tim Holtz stamps that I've already inked to death (soon to post projects!). Lots of Teresa Collins goodies, AC flair buttons, repeat October Afternoon paper & diecuts to go with, Making Memories buttons, Cosmo Cricket stickers and more. Suffice it to say, my room is bombed! But I'm going for the "scrap with it" style of cleaning up, rather than actually, you know...cleaning. ;)

* On Sunday, I was the lucky bird with a late flight, so I'm went to Zumba again. Probably made a fool out of myself b/c I'm all-out-getting-down and the other ladies...not so much. Make no mistake, they were into it, but I'm a little...uhm, yeah...just a little more shigglin' going on in Staci's world! ;) But I'll never see them again & I'm sure I was their entertainment from Texas..."remember the time that crazy blue-hair girl came and was all low, low, low...." ;)

* Lovely reunion dinner with the kiddos and Bob on Sunday night.

* Monday morning -- dr visit. UGH! Poor Lilli has had allergies bad lately, but while I was gone, she got progressively worse. So I took her to the doc with what I'm sure was a sinus infection & double ear infections. Nurse Mom was right on. Plus, she was having so much trouble breathing, that she was wheezing...basically having a minor but constant asthma attack. B/c she doesn't have a history of asthma, we're doing the inhaler + antibiotics for now, but hopefully she'll wean off the inhaler in a couple of weeks. (fingers crossed) Speaking of fingers, while sitting there with Lilli, I noticed that Tayvan's suck-blister on her thumb was looking gross and infected. Showed it to the dr who kinda freaked a bit. Yeah, likely staph infection abscess. (yuck yuck yuck) Doc took care of it while I held Tayvan down (but Van was a total brave champ and barely cried). It's totally gauze-wrapped up now...so maybe this will be the hard-core jump-start to No.More.Thumb.Sucking! Well, I'm optimistic! ;)

* Today...rest, relax, chill...finally. :) Back to the grind tomorrow! :)

* Can't have a postie without pretties though, so here's some fun...

Memory Makers July/August 2009 feature article "7 Trends to Try"

These are my layouts for trend -- "peace symbols" & "kraft + color pop"

Back soon with more new goodies!

XOXO...Stac :)

Double Bonus Day...

2009-06-24T09:11:00.005-05:00

Rushing out the door to shiggle, but promised a posting to a lil someone special... :)

So, lucky you, it's a double bonus day o'projects!

First up, a super fun layout I made last night with a mix of Cosmo Cricket and Sassafras lovin'. These flowers are the easiest-peasiest thing in the world, but so cute! :)

Then, as promised to several folks....drumroll please....

my Pink Paislee Fascinating Frame Up class goodies...

And I know everyone wants close-ups of these babies, so never fear...b/c they are here!

In the class, we make the big one with the house. But it's totally do-able for folks to make the other two at home. I made them strictly with the class kit products, except the hoops. So you can have your own little family of framed layouts! Soooo fun and easy, but with a big wow on the cheap! Best of both worlds! :)

And I'm off...

XOXO...Stac :)

Let's Rock...

2009-06-22T22:20:00.004-05:00

We're total rock stars in our family.

Well, in our own minds at least! LOL :)

But don't tell Declan that.

Please.

He is certain that he's a rock star or will be one.

He is the coolest lil punk you'll ever meet.

Totally into rock music, skateboarding, doing tricks on his bike, skulls, and great clothes!

Love that guy!

Here he is...at his best... ;)

Lots of fun goodies from my stash--some Jillibean Soup, Cosmo Cricket, Doodlebug, & Reminisce. The patch is one that Declan earned at a skateboard thing last summer...saved it for the perfect layout and this one felt right. I can't remember the manufacturer on the skull paper that I chopped to bits...I'll keep searching or if anyone can clue me in, I'd appreciate it! :)

Gearing up for GASC-Chantilly VA! Just a couple more days till I'll be chillin' on the plane, heading to a weekend of super fun teaching & shopping!

Oh, and in a fit of total OCD, I've researched Zumba classes in VA that are within the 3 mile radius the hotel shuttle will take me. Hopefully, the few gyms/classes that I've scoped out will let me in & the classes will be as bootie poppin' as Dara's classes are! :)

XOXO...Stac :)

My fave way to scrap...

2009-06-18T16:15:00.002-05:00

is when new goodies never even get put away.

They're just so inspiring that you gotta use them right away! :)

That's what I love about this layout from last night. The mess of goodies in my room in a little overwhelming right now, but I'd rather scrap than clean! LOL Hey, its double-bonus...it is cleaned up a bit & I got a layout done! ;)

This is me & my bestie girl, Shonnery! :) We were out for a Girl's Night Out, dancin' our azz off! :) A random country song came on (Friends in Low Places) and we didn't miss a beat...straight from bootie poppin' to 2-steppin'! :)

There's lots more stories from that night, including my knight in shining armour...Tom (Shonnery's husband). He literally picked me up and moved me when a guy got a little too close and I didn't realize it (oblivious!) and then almost got into it with another guy who was coming on too strong for Tom's taste too. Again...Staci = oblivious and didn't even know that the almost-fight was about me until 2 days later. My friends have taken to saying that I "require supervision" b/c I'm not so aware of my surroundings, especially when there's music/dancing involved. It'd be funny...except its true! Okay, I'll admit it...maybe that makes it more funny! ;) LOL

Off to gymnastics! Lilli moved to Level 3 (YEAHHHHH!!!!) and Dec is trying out Boys Gymnastics (wtg!). Back with more goodies soon...

XOXO...Stac :)

Literal Sarcasm.

2009-06-17T15:29:00.005-05:00

bwahahahah. I can't help but laugh already as I remember the story behind these layouts. Lilli, god love her, is the most literal child on the face of the planet. She's frequently been told this (by us, teachers, friends, etc). You can "joke" with her, but chances are...she's not going to get it. ;) As re-enacted yet again by her comments this past weekend...

And with that story, it also reminded me that I hadn't quite documented the full breadth & depth of her lack of sarcasm-decipering. And with our family of Sarcasm King & Queens (aka me, Bob, my mom), that's not so good for Little Lilli. ;) So here's the ode to that...

Man, I love that girl! The best part is that I know she'll figure it out one day and joke along with the rest of us. And then it'll be the best story of "remember when Lilli said..." LOL :)

Scrappy wise, these are made up of my box of Studio Calico lovelies that I got! I did have to handcut some extra cork butterflies from a spare cork tag to match the one that was already in the Chatterbox set of diecuts. :) And those starburst Collage Press diecuts are a TDF fave! Wish I could get a whole sheet of those babies! ;)

Off to do homework and hit the pool!

XOXO...Stac :)

Happy Kids Make Me...

2009-06-14T17:20:00.003-05:00

A Happy Mamma! :)

It seems so rare these days, but every once in awhile, my kids actually seem to like each other. I totally lucked into these shots! Lilli was reading to the little ones from their favorite Snake Dicitonary book (yes, really) and I was walking down the stairs with my camera. Total Lucky Moment! I was able to snap off several shots before Tayvan caught me & they started cheesin' for the camera. :) LOVE LOVE LOVE these candid shots...all pajama'd up, fingers in their mouths as always, snuggly in blankets...so them! :)

And of course, the pics were perfect for this little grouping of birdies I found in my new box of KI goodies. They're from various bits of the Friendship line. Awwww, Friends! I hope, with all my heart, that these kiddos are friends...forever. :) The birds were beggin' for a tree, so I went to my fave Tia Bennett digi one.

Been spray paint playing a lot lately. After lots and lots of trial/error, I finally found a way that works for me. I am spraying onto transparencies (or chopped up page protectors in this case) from way up high. You get little splotches of paint without warping the paper. And best of the best, if I get too heavy-handed with the spray paint & its a bit too much, I can just save the transparencies for another project & haven't wasted my $$paper$$. ;) It might not be the best option, but its working for me for now! :)

Got lots done today too...birthday party-check, porch rockers-check, vintage formica table-check but too small so need a change of plans with him, lots of little jobs around the house accomplished today too (thanks Bob!).

Off to figure out dinner & then some late-night scrappin' after the kids crash tonight. :)

XOXO...Staci :)

Squeezin' some JUICY SUMMER!

2009-06-12T14:40:00.004-05:00

I love mail days that come with big boxes of goodies! So ready to play! I have boxes o' stuff sitting ready for me to dig in...some stuff I bought at GASC, some stuff I "got" at GASC, some Studio Calico stuff delivered while I was at GASC, and then...da da da daaaaa.....a Big Box of KI Memories goodies! :)

The day I got the KI goodies, Shannon so very sweetly reminded us that we could use our new Juicy Summer stuff for this week's Focus On... blog post. YES! Girl, I love a deadline and a direction, so I got to work on some fun stuffs with the new Juicy Summer line. Couldn't help but throw some hybrid KI into the mix (Clark paper altered a teeny bit & the frame set), but mostly, it's all Juicy Summer papers & bits.

My GASC friends will know of my not-so-secret love for the pleated flower. Why yes, I am a Paper Pleating Princess! ;) So, of course, there's a papery flower friend on this one.

Here's pics...

Tonight, I'm hoping/planning to play with some Friendship line stuffs. And then oh-so-happily dig into my Studio Calico kit! :) I promise to post pics of more goodies as soon as possible this weekend!!!

Oh, and fingers crossed for me on the homefront! I am making some mega-major progress on my Summer Home Improvement to-do list. Bought rockers for the front porch, found a craigslist deal on a new kitchen table, picked out my new yellow paint yesterday. Next up, getting chairs put together (ahem, Bob!!!) and getting quotes for paint. I think I'm going to hit the floor outlet store to hunt some deals too! :) House pics soon too! ;)

XOXO...Staci :)

Lucy...I'm Home....

2009-06-08T09:29:00.002-05:00

Back. Home. Now.
It's been a crazy-fun, super-busy, wacked-up weekend of scrappy goodness! I gonna say that GASC Arlington was a 110% success! :)

I had 4 days of classes...morning till night, literally all day. Mostly all great reviews. I warn folks about my hyperactivity and that they'll love it or hate it. LOL I think most folks love it, or at least can handle it in small doses. Bwahahahah! :) Poor Marla, she has to live with it for the whole week of crazy Staci! :)

Got some awesome deals too! Can't wait to scrap with the yummy Heidi Swapp goodies I got (love me some mirror butterflies!), Basic Grey chipboard alphas that I've been lusting for, and more. My biggest splurges were a surprise to all...stamps! I'm apparently fully infected with the stamp obsession. Got some **super love** Sassafras ones that you'll be sick of seeing b/c I'm so in love that I think they're my new fave & I haven't even used them yet! And shocker of shocks, I actually spent $19 of my own hard-to-let-it-go cash on one set of stamps from Technique Tuesday. But in my defense, they're Ali Edwards & there was a cute sample showing them so I was totally sucker punched into buying them! ;) I think they're by far the most expensive stamp I've ever bought...maybe even the most expensive scrappy thing I've ever bought! LOL :) I'm not sure that's a good line for me to have crossed b/c now I'll probably do it again & not give it a second thought! ;) (nah, I'm still too cheap for words!) :)

Let's see...what else? Found a fave booth at "Glue" with lots of flair button pins that I stocked up on. Also got some new charms for my junk necklace & a super cute wooden rolodex thing that I'm dying to play with...spray paint, here I come! :)

All in all, I need to clean up my desk space (ugh!), get all this scrappy inspiration to good use, and create, create, create! I also figured out that I need to get my teachy self out to some stores too! LOL I had no less than a bajillion people ask me 1. what store I teach at or 2. if I'd come to their store. The answers are 1. no where right now, and 2. heck yeah baby! Need to print my business cards again and mail those babies out! ;) (excuse me for a moment while I add that to my to-do list!) :)

Oh yeah, gotta get back to school work too...no Sarah, I haven't forgotten that I'm smack in the middle of my PTA spirit gear drive! ;) It's totally on my to-do list too! What's a mom, if not a multi-tasker extrodinaire?! :)

Those of you that took my classes...sooooo great to see your bright & smiling faces! I love to laugh with ya, or let ya laugh at me...it's all good as long as your laughing, smiling, and having scrappy fun! :) I'll have pics up of some of the projects soon...as soon as I find my camera again. It's buried in my suitcase of purchases! LOL :) And if you took pics in my classes...of me, of you, of us, of projects...please oh please email them to me!!! I'd love to see them! And if you don't mind, I'll even post them here for other folks to love too. :)

Well, as I'm back to Mom Mode today, I'm off to start the rounds of swimming lessons & tutoring sessions. Back super soon though with project pics, new scrappy fun, and more crazy Staci ramblings. Deal? :)
XOXO...Stac :)

Crazy Busy...

2009-05-25T22:23:00.003-05:00

with Boxes e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e. LOL

I'm swamped with getting all the goodies ready for GASC in a couple of weeks.

But I'm doing pretty well on getting it all done. My prep checklist is getting more and more things checked off! WOO HOO! :)

Trying to finish out the school year goodies too. Still running the spirit gear sale for another week, but we made it through the carnival with flying colors. The kids had a BLAST at the carnival...bouncy houses, petting zoo, cotton candy...fun! :) And we are getting more comfortable with Lilli being...(gulp) a big girl. We let her run around at the carnival with friends (we could see the whole thing), whereas last year she had to stay right with us. I've been letting her & Declan walk to school sometimes too. Bob was home one morning to see my routine of watching them walk to the corner till they're completely out of sight. Then I run upstairs to watch out the upstairs window b/c there's 2 little peekaboo spots that I can see them. I still want to check that they're being nice & staying together, following the rules ya know! LOL Yeah, Bob was laughing at me hardcore! ;)

In KI news, I just got word that I have goodies on their way! WOO HOO...sooooo can't wait to play! :) I did have lots of fun with the May projects!! The first project was for my blog challenge to "get out of the box". I know that's totally cliche, but I wanted to encourage folks to play a little bit and try that product, that technique, that design...whatever has been floating around that sounds like a fun thing to try for a layout! :)

Here's that one...

For the second one, I played with more of the new digital papers! Gotta say again and again...love, love, love! Just an easy contrast boost and then printed in b&w.

Here's this one...

Also, been doing a huge gallery update at 2Peas with my Memory Makers goodies from the Masters column and book. I'm starting to upload my Contributing Editor goodies tomorrow. Check it out... 2Peas Gallery.

Well, back to the grindstone. More kits to pack, more instruction sheets to write, more scrapping to do! :) XOXO...Stac :)

Chocolate Induced Posting...

2009-04-12T09:53:00.004-05:00

It's Easter Sunday.

We've egg hunted, eaten copious amounts of chocolate, run the sugar high off and now we're crashing.

The eggs are on the stove, boiling in preparation for dying. "Are they ready yet?" is a constant mantra at the moment.

So, what better time for a quick update? LOL :)

(total aside: I wish I could show y'all some of what I've been working on most lately!!! I just finished up a Memory Makers column that is soooooo *me* that I'm dying for it to come out! And I'm decorating the heck out of my kidlets school for Spring Carnival. I was on a ladder for 2 hours yesterday painting butcher paper to turn out front office into a bank! But no pics allowed. (pouting Staci) Trust me though...it's Cool!)

On the topic of things I can share, I wanted to share some KI lovin' first!

Has everyone seen this>>> KI Memories goes digi! :)

I'm getting ready to download it all! Happy Happy Joy Joy = Me!

Had some KI gallery fun for March too that I want to share...

This one is from the Focus On...Daydream line. Love the softie colors...so different for me, so I had to funkify it up! LOL The background is a page protector, chopped in half (so its only one thickness) and then crumpled to bits and painty perfection.

This one is for a blog challenge to "scrap a noise or conversation". More painty fun of course and still lovin' the grey right now.

How about another GASC sneak peek too?

In keeping with the KI love, how about a sneak of the KI Memories class "Get Scrap Inspired"...all about maximizing your sketch love! :) These 2 classes are just about full, so hurry. There's one at 8am on Friday (before the shopping opens, you can be learning!) and one at 4pm on Saturday (get ready to crop with lots o'sketches!) :)

Check it out...

Back soon with more!

XOXO...Staci

More Sneaky-Peeky Pics...

2009-03-25T12:38:00.003-05:00

Who wants more sneaky-peeky pics of upcoming GASC classes?

Well, I hope someone does! ;)

Here's some more GASC love...

My 2 most popular classes last year...ones that I got emails about months later were Cosmo Cricket and Jenni Bowlin. And I sooooo excited to be offering classes with them again this year! WOO HOOOOOOO!!! :)

* Jenni Bowlin

Vintage Hip class

The Thursday class for this one is already sold out, and the Friday and Saturday sessions are filling up *fast!* so if you want to be in this one...go now! I'll wait for you to come back....

doo doo doo doo doo doo

doooooooo

(that's my Jeopardy music! LOL)

Anyways, Jenni Bowlin goodies are one of my absolute faves in the industry. Nobody does vintage like Jenni. So starting with a base of *tons* of new goodies, I couldn't help but create the cutest stinkin' album evah! LOL :) This vintage looking gem has it all--glitter, bingo cards, journaling cards, pearl flowers, rhinestone buttons, a whole mini paper pack, felt, rubons, chipboard buttons, lace, and alpha stickers! Dude!!! That's like a scrap store extravaganza in a bag...plus the class! You know me...I've got all kinda of tips and tricks to make the most of your supplies, have fun, and add a little "you" to your album! :)

Here's a pic...

* Cosmo Cricket

Girl Friday Galore class

Everyonce in a while, a line comes along that makes me squeal like a little girl. I'll admit it...it's not my usual M.O. but sometimes I just can't help it. Girl Friday is that line. Girly colors that aren't too girly-sweet for me. ;) Plus, vintage images! Can you say BONUS! :) I'll let you in on a little secret to my work flow for this one...

I gathered my 4x6 pics, scattered the products all around me and BOOM! Lightening flash! :) Basically, I created a super fast, ridiculously cute Girl Power album! Really, it came together sooo quick that I got to bed before 2am! And that, my friends, is a goal in and of itself for this night owl! :) My album is all about my daughters and me, but it'll be perfect for sisters, your daughters girlfriends, your girlfriends, any group of women that touch your heart! :)

Wanna see?...

That's it for today!

But more to come of course! :)

I've still got Pebbles/Core'dinations, KI Memories, and American Crafts/Maya Road to sneak preview pics for!

See ya soon!

XOXO...Stac :)

Sneaky Peeky pics...

2009-03-21T09:07:00.006-05:00

always make me go ooooohhh and make me impatient to see the whole she-bang! I know that's kinda the point, but I'm not exactly a long-attention-span-come-back-to-see-more kinda girl! LOL :) But I'm learning...and I hope everyone else is too...

b/c I've got some litle sneaky peeky pics...detail shots...and some love to share on these class projects! :)

First up, Hambly and American Tag "Mixed Up Mini Album" class...

From the very first second I started thinking about classes this year, I wanted to get some Hambly happening! I have a serious Hambly obsession and ocassionally have to put.down.the.Hambly and try something else (although sometimes unwillingly!) LOL :) Then, Marla introduced me to the "Tag Man" of American Tag Co. at CHA. I'll be honest...I would've normally walked past this booth b/c its very artsy-mixed media collage type stuff when you look at the booth as a whole. But Marla went in, and of course I followed. As I browsed, my heart rate went higher and higher! Dude, they are like the company that not a lot of scrappy folks know about yet that everyone needs to know about! I totally looked like this... :D with a huge stupid grin. They have envelopes, tag, ticket rolls, twine...all the coolest little detail stuffs. I was totally lusting over a mixed set of their tags (secretly wishing that I could puppy dog eye my way into a pack to bring home). So when I got them to sign on for sponsorship (yes, with *that* tag set!!), I knew they were a perfect match with my belovedly funky-fresh Hambly goodies! :)

This class has it all--Hambly metallic! papers, transparencies (including new release!), stickers, and rub-ons, then the American Tag mixed set of tags! SO MUCH FUN!!! And for the scrapper in you, I made sure it fits a ton of pics--12 to be exact!

So with no further adieu (is that how that goes?)...

Mixed Up Mini Album...

Next up is Pink Paislee Fascinating Frame-Up class:

Okay, so this class is one that my husband thinks I'm a little crazy for. But he's not scrappy-crafty-trendy like I am...or you are! ;) I read lots and lots of blogs (too many if I'm honest!). But one of my faves is SouleMama. She makes me want to be a better mom...the kind that sits in the grass and knits while the kids have time for super-creative freedom to run around the woods. (Instead, I'm running here and there...PTA to soccer to gymnastics to girl scouts to room mom with a line of rotating kids behind me in the minivan...repeat tomorrow) Anyway, I digress... The point is she's a Fabric Queen and has often showed pics of her fave fabrics hanging in embroidery hoops all over her house. So gorgeous...and so cheap! Two of my fave things! ;) I've also seen this happening in the scrappy world a bit lately...at CHA, on 2Peas, in my lss. It's definitely a hot up-&-coming trend with all the scrap-jumped-to-home-decor style we've got rollin' right now. So, inspired by the Fabric Queen & more, this Pink Paislee class centers around marrying a gorgeously polka-dottie paper stylishly into an embroidery hoop...with all the associated distressing, wrinkling, curling and more! Makes such a fun backdrop for the stickers, chipboard, brads, and more that we'll pile onto the middle to make a fun framed layout! :) Did I mention that Pink Paislee *rocks* the generosity gene and this class is stacked with Fascinating line goodies? So, you can get more embroidery hoops and have enough product to make a whole wall of "Frame Up" layouts! Dude! :)

Here's the pic:

Okay, one more for today...

by special request...

Art Rebel Junk Gypsy banner class with Glitz and Canvas Corp.

In case you don't know, I have a bit of an obsession with color...lots of colors. But one of my fave combos is always red/turquoise/black. So you can imagine my joy when I saw the Glitz Rebel line! Well, the name probably helps too...wanna-be Rebel that I am! ;) So gorgeously grungy makes me a happy girl! And when they said that they'd sponsor, but could I please use the roller doodles in the class, I was like "Uh, YEAH!!!!" Love those little guys...so cool and sometimes hard to find! So then I started thinking of a project and came up with the coolest inspiration. A friend has previously hooked me up with the Junk Gypsy site...to drool, wish, and dream about the day that I can afford a $100 bracelet of vintage baubles! Ding, ding, ding...I can't afford it, nor is it scrappy in the least, but by goodness, I'm gonna turn that bracelet want into a scrappy love project! :) And so was born this class "Art Rebel Junk Gypsy banner". I think you'll agree that we totally get Junk Gypsy'd in this class...with a bunch of vintage-inspired buttons, nailheads, distressing, bottlecaps, rub-ons, and more! And the banner part? That's thanks to Canvas Corp., a company that is crossing over from the home interiors side of the crafting world to the scrappy side with a new line of canvas blanks, perfect for banners, canvas albums, wall hangings, tags for traditional layouts, and more! Their booth was like a free pass to an art store, but with super nice folks that would actually help you and not look at you crazy when you said "What's gesso?" LOL :) Remember those roller doodles I mentioned? We're roller doodling onto...Canvas!! Yep, I said it! And it is ridiculously COOL!

So, here's the peek-a-boo...

How's that looking? Sounding good?

I hope so b/c I'm super-duper excited about these classes! :)

I'm off to the gym to shiggle these pounds away (darn Christmas fudge...still), but I'll be back with more sneaky-peeks and some KI lovin' too. :)

XOXO...Stac :)

At what point...

2009-03-17T15:12:00.002-05:00

do you say that blogging just isn't for you?
I don't know.
I pretty much just ignore this blog till Marla yells at me to "Do.It." and so here I am.
You'd think that as much as I chatter all day, I could post stuff up, right?
But somehow my chatter is much more endearing in person with full effects than bland on a page.
Well, we'll see...
:)

Update of the E*Crew variety...
Rounding out the last 9 weeks of school and making summer plans! We can't wait...long days of sunshine, picnics, gym playdates, sleepovers, and of course...tutoring! LOL :)

Everyone is healthy for the moment...Thank Goodness and touch wood! Hoping it stays that way. :)

LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of prep going on for Great American Scrapbook Convention.
I'm teaching tons of classes and am sooooo excited about each and every one of them. Wanna see my schedule...and maybe come along?

Thursday:
8:00 - 9:30 Girl Friday Galore (Cosmo Cricket)
10:00 - 11:30 Vintage Hip(Jenni Bowlin)
12:30 - 1:30 Details soon! ;)
2:00 - 3:00 Summer Scrappin' Fun (Pebbles / Core'dinations)
3:30 - 5:00 She's a Crafty Girl (American Crafts)
5:30 - 7:00 Art Rebel Junk Gypsy banner (Glitz / Canvas Corp)

Friday:
8:00 - 9:00 Get Scrap Inspired! (KI Memories)
9:30 - 10:30 Details soon! ;)
11:00- 12:30 Art Rebel Junk Gypsy banner (Glitz / Canvas Corp)
1:30 - 3:00 Girl Friday Galore (Cosmo Cricket)
3:30 - 5:00 Vintage Hip (Jenni Bowlin)
5:30 - 6:30 Summer Scrappin' Fun (Pebbles / Core'dinations)

Saturday:
8:00 - 9:00 Fascinating Frame Up (Pink Paislee)
9:30 - 11:00 She's a Crafty Girl (American Crafts)
12:00 - 1:30 Vintage Hip (Jenni Bowlin)
2:00 - 3:30 Mixed Up mini album (Hambly / American Tag)
4:00 - 5:00 Get Scrap Inspired! (KI Memories)
5:30 - 7:00 Girl Friday Galore (Cosmo Cricket)

Plus, I'm going out early to get everything prepped and about 90% sure I'm teaching a special class on Wednesday too! All in all, I'll be gone from Tuesday to Sunday! Whew! It's gonna be a whirlwind of fun! :)

I'll be back in the next few days (promise!) to post up some sneak peeks of the projects!
And don't forget to hit the GASC site...registration goes live super soon so you better figure out your schedule! :)
XOXO...Stac :)

KI Lovin'....

2009-01-29T08:00:00.007-06:00

Havin' a blast! :)

Got back from CHA to a box of goodie fun! I can't wait to dig in! The new stuffs are just so gorgeously glittered and I love the new designs and embellishments and, and, and...just all.of.it! :)

Head over to the KI blog too!

I'm the "Meet the Team" designer this week. The interview questions were fun and I love the layout that is with the questionnaire. :)

Also, I'm doing the scrap challege this week to scraplift yourself! So many options to play with out of your own scrapbook, so have a blast with it! :)

Here's the layout I lifted from the Memory Makers Scrapbook Idea Gallery magazine and the KI layout that I created for the challenge:

I'd love to see what y'all create too! Make sure to post it to the KI thread so we can all love on you and your layout! :)
XOXO...Stac :)

Last Day of CHA Fun... :)

2009-01-28T09:46:00.013-06:00

Woo Hoo! Another fun day on the CHA floor! Are you ready for the longest list of goodies yet? Yeah, I thought you might be! ;)

Kaiser: With some of the coolest wooden mini albums and wall art I saw, I was a happy girl in the Kaiser booth! One of their new lines hits on a hot trend of the stacking dolls, but these are my favorite ones b/c they are just so cute in their bright dresses! :)

Prima: Every. Single. Thing. Is. Absolutely. Breath-takingly. Fabulous. I know that I’m a little excitable in general, but this whole booth was full of the most gorgeous goodies. I don’t even know where to start b/c I wanted it all—beaded butterflies, flowers, stems of sparkly stars, stitched papers, canvas art, super cute paper lines, great clear stamps, album ring cozies, and more, more, more. Every. Single. Thing…really. :) Also, I was lucky enough to meet Adrienne Looman who designed their new Rebellious line, a rockin’ hot pink/lime green/black combo full of punk rock fun.

Anna Griffin: There are lots of jungle lines here, but Anna Griffin took it one step further and the animals are full of circus fun! Some great flocked monkey patterns and some other fun patterns too. All ready to add to the cute little mini albums. Oh, and the diecut papers that go with the lines are beautiful too—the lined up turquoise elephants for the Riley line make me laugh out loud! :)

Teresa Collins: As always, just totally gorgeous lines! The manilla ledger bases and journaling cards are so awesome for every layout. :) I saw some *great* new transparencies that are so coming to live with me asap! Love the little alphabet papers too…just want to chop them to bits but they look great uncut too as a layout base. Double Bonus! :)

K & Company: The totally cutie Actopus to Zelephant line made me want to create a mini-album immediately! Then, even better, I saw the way they’d used an extra big version of it in their display and decided that my kids will be needing a little alphabet wall art thing in the toy room instead! F-U-N!

Pebbles: Walking down an aisle, I saw a wall with framed papers so delicious that I had to break the up-&-down each aisle rule to go check them out! Lucky for me, Pebbles new lines were so worth the rule-breaking. The new lines are bright, cheerful and flat-out gorgeous with little birds, houses, flowers…I want to frame them too! Then I turned around and saw the cutest (& smartest) packaging idea in ages. Pebbles has great new chipboard sets, some with glitter, all done up in…wait for it…”chip bags”! Totally adorable little potato chip looking bags with awesome glitter embellishments! Betcha can’t eat, I mean buy, just one! ;)

Technique Tuesday: The new Ali Edwards stamps aren’t flashy and ooooh-inducing. What they are is 110% useful, cool and totally Ali. Translate that to…I want them so bad I can taste it!! :) These are the stamps that you’re going to pull out again and again to add a little extra detail to every layout.

Fancy Pants: This was a release that I was sooo excited to see! And they totally did NOT disappoint. The watercolor rainbows and sunshines made me smile like a 9 year old all over again! So pretty, fun and sweet. Around the corner was the new kraft line, which was equally fabulous with pale little sweet rainbows, trees, and animal friends. Then I saw my new mini-album obsession. New album set-ups with a mixture of pages—felt, transparency, chipboard…all in one convenient package. Guess who is getting to work on one asap? Yep, that’d be me…and you too!

GCD Studios: Have you felt this paper? Really. You need to. Its super thick, linen textured and double-sided. Totally rich luxury with glitter, flocking, foils…yum! The new Spring line was my fave here with fun rainbows, kelly green damask-type designs, and big polka dots. There was a great fabric-inspired line too that looked like home décor fabric swatches. I had to touch them to see if they were really paper! LOL

My Little Shoebox: Between the lines, the sample layouts, and the girls working, this is the sweetest booth at CHA I think. Every paper line has a little pink or coral in it…but the mix of colors make them all unique! With lines featuring happy little birds, houses, flowers, owls, rainbows, and more, they’ve got you covered and will bring a smile to your face. MLS also has my new fave alpha of the show that I’m ready to stock.up.on! Awesome little alpha sets in a variety of colors designed to match MLS lines plus about every line in your scrap stash. These are a total must-have in every color.

Glitz Designs: Can you hear my rebel yell? Okay, so maybe I didn’t literally yell out in the middle of CHA, but I wanted to so badly! The new Rebel line has a totally me mix of turquoise, red, and black with lots of grungy fun. The rub-ons are like buttah—smooth and easy. And I saw lots of folks begging for the distressing stamp set, which apparently was a HIT in the Glitz class.

Chatterbox: Okay, I want to make sure to mention the gorgeous paper line with fab blue, brown, and yellow combo of stars, flowers, and dots. Because the papers are truly fab. Okay, now…cover your eyes b/c I’m about to start kissing embellishments! ;) The goodies that go with the new line are so ridiculously awesome that I didn’t want to leave them. Fun cork shapes, gorgeous deer cards, butterfly and bird die cuts, transparency frames…every single one in the whole set are so usable and fabulous, which is so rare. But Chatterbox nailed it perfectly. So that I can maximize total usage of these fabulous bits, I think I’ll have to play with one of their great new albums too—maybe the denim one? Or the canvas one? Or the one that goes on the stand? Hmmm, maybe all of them! ;)

Basic Grey: Two words for you—Lime Rickey! This is my absolute fave of the new lines because it is full of bright colors that are going to carry us through the spring and summer months with lots of scrap happiness. The Marrakech line is gorgeous too, with pretty details that go with the stacking doll theme I was seeing.

Maya Road: Heaven…pure and total heaven! New yummies everywhere I looked that are so awesome I wanted to bring them home…NOW (please!). LOL ;) Maya Road was showing new spray mist colors (amethest to go with all the purple goodies), luxury crushed velvet ribbon, cute baby pompom ribbon, and mini velvet flowers with rhinestone centers. They also had more fabulous albums that I can possibly work my way through but I am sure going to be happy trying—all the shaped acrylics, layered chipboards, and mix-up ones with chipboard and envelopes all ready to be your new fave mini! :)

Whew! Well, that’s it for this round of CHA coverage. I am finally back home in freezing cold Texas after almost spending the night at the airport, flying through an ice storm, and slip-sliding our way home. Comfy and cozy with my family around me, California seems like forever ago already. But so many of the goodies are going to have me rushing to my scrapbook room asap! I’m sure they will do the same for you too. ~*~Happy Scrapping!~*~

The Fun Continues... :)

2009-01-27T02:23:00.012-06:00

Hey y’all! Back again from another fun day on the CHA floor! :) I’ve seen lots more goodies that you are soooo going to love! Are. You. Ready? :)

Blue Eyed Dezines: Stopped me in my tracks! This is a company out of Australia that was showcasing some fabulous felt embellishments! I love the fun and bright colors and of course polka dotties make everyone smile. The frames are gorgeous too with a little touch of frou-frou swooshie-ness and big touch of bold!

KI Memories: With a new release that is huge, there’s going to be lots here that is going to come live in your scraproom! KI has added glitter shine to much of this release—papers, alphas, and embellishments! Several themes, featuring girl, boy, pets, fruit, and more. And of course, the always fab Sheer Delights and lace cardstock in new colors and designs. :)

Crate Paper: Happy little critters make me happy too! Crate’s new Little Sprouts line has the cutest little woodland friends, including a crazy-cute mushroom die cut paper. The die cuts are awesome, with several that I wanted to pull off the display (no worries I didn’t! LOL) Another boy line with some cute monsters that is lots of fun! And a girl line named after my daughter Lillian (not really…just teasing ;) LOL) that is fun and springy with some great patterned bird chipboard.

Little Yellow Bicycle: Always a crazy busy booth, today was no exception! One of my faves here was their travel-inspired line featuring a great color combo of navy and orange. There’s been several navy based lines here, but LYB is the only one adding a big pop of orange to it. :) I love the full line of embellishments LYB offers with their lines. The Clear Cuts transparency elements are my personal fave, but there’s plenty of goodies to choose from.

7 Gypsies: Oh my Yum! 7 gypsies always makes me want to create as many mini books as possible! Just so many cool album ideas and embellishments! The Binderie was a hit at the Make & Take table (check Crystal Jeffrey Reiger’s blog for pics). The Gypsy Market line is totally pretty with rich saturated red, black, and maize yellow. My fave paper of the line is the distressed black and white stripe b/c it adds some contrasting color and scale to all the other pretty papers! :)

American Crafts: So much to talk about there’s not even room enough to talk about it all! Pretty much just set aside a paycheck for AC goodies and you might get what you’ll want from this release. LOL ;) Fabulous paper lines—I am in heaven between the Teen line and the Craft Fair line! Always great embellishments—chipboard, rubons, flair buttons, new Thickers, and more! Cute little albums all set up with page protectors. And a whole new launch into stamps. Most are perfect for card making, but the border stamps make them perfect for scrappers too. Start saving now…trust me! ;)

Bella Blvd.: With two new releases full of bright and fun, you’ll be all set for spring and summer! They’ve got the super hot color palette (pink, green, blue) going on and rock it out with birthday candles, cupcakes, water droplets (cute!), trees, and hearts. Who could ask for anything more? Oh, you want more? How about huge sheets chock full of coordinating stickers? How about big sheets of awesome alpha stickers? Yeah, they got you covered there too!

Jillibean Soup: A new exhibitor at this show, Jillibean Soup has a great idea. Kraft and lots of it! They have several lines developed on kraft bases that have big impact b/c of their other color choices (like the bold black, red, & green). Not to mention that it’s cute trees, big polka dots, starbursts, and more!! If kraft isn’t your thing or you want to mix it up, they have more colorful lines too like a fun froggy line with bright greens and yellows. They’ve got coordinating ledger journaling spots too that come in variety shaped sets.

Well, that was my Monday! See anything you like? Is there anything y’all want pics of for tomorrow? My game plan is to hit the floor running and bring y’all lots more drool-worthy goodies! ;)
XOXO…Staci :)

The Fun has Begun...

2009-01-26T03:45:00.011-06:00

Welcome to CHA-Winter 09! No worries that you are at home, cozy with your family. I'm here to show you the goodies that you want to get your hands on asap. :)

Gotta start at the beginning:

Did you hear the angels singing? Yeah, me too. So let's keep it going...here we go with the goodies you came to see:

I'm a neat and organized girl, so I (and therefore you) started on the far wall and worked my way through, row by row to be sure to see it all. :) So far, I've made it through almost 2 halls...with 2 more to go, plus I always have to go back for stuff I somehow missed! LOL :)

Cosmo Cricket: I'm love, love, lovin' the new Girl Friday line. Totally cute color scheme (pink/green/blue is seriously all over CHA today!) and some fun designs. The Everafter line is a great wedding line, featuring another hot color of the moment-grey! The Lil' Man line has some cute versatility, with an obvious choice being for boy layouts, but they had some fun "My Hero" projects done up too. Last but not least is the Snorkel line with a big bang of color-very bright spring/summer vibe line will be perfect for your warm weather layouts.

Heidi Swapp: Super innovative coolness of course. She has these new sheer transparencies that you can color with the medium of your choice (paint, alcohol inks, etc) and the design is a resist so you end up with a great "white-on-your color choice" design. Heidi was demo'ing these today...totally fun and non-scary way to add a big technique look to your projects. :) Also, they've got cool patterned papers with little shapes partially die-cut out so that you can pop them out almost all the way, but not quite. It gives your projects tons of depth and dimension with minimal effort. Or of course, you can fancy them up with rhinestones, glitter, and bits too.

Bo Bunny Press: With several new lines to choose from, this is a hard decision. But I've been swayed by my peers b/c I have heard tons of buzz about their new Love Shack line. With the hot pink/blue/green color scheme again, it's decidedly girl or lovey dovey at the least, but no matter what, it is CUTE ! :)

Dream Street Papers: I totally love how each line has its own designer and therefore, a completely different feel. One of those "something for everyone" things. My fave was the new Heartsong line, with its pink, blue, and orange colors (again!!!). How can you choose when there’s clouds, hearts, and maybe best of all, little children silhouettes!? That’s right…you can’t, so just get it all! LOL :)

Making Memories: This sneak peek with harlequin in green and blue with a rockin' guitar decoration had me seriously interested. The full line is both cute and useful! The plaid and camo prints are totally fun background options and the robot paper brought the biggest smile to my face! Rock On Scrappers! :) I need to also note that MM has a *huge* wedding line with pretty grey and white designs. But the big hottie of the wedding line is the tons o'embellishments!! These are ones that you'll want for lots of different types of layouts if you get out of the "wedding" thinking. I'm all in for the pearl pins and buttons for sure!

Sassafras Lass: I always threaten to just set up shop and move into the Sassafras booth. Just totally my vibe of papers and embellishments. I love the *cute* factor and they are always a step ahead with their cool trendsetting selves. :) This time, they are coming out with their biggest embellishment release yet, headlined by these feltie bits. Felt (especially stitched felt) accents are all over CHA, but these are my fave of the day. They've got another hot trend covered with their Bungle Jungle line! Lots of hippos, lions, crocodiles, etc stomping all around CHA!

Doodlebug: Some companies have a solid image. You know what their booth is going to look like at CHA without a doubt. Doodlebug is one those companies. Their booth looks like one of their ads come to life in front of your eyes. Yummy little ideas and sparkle and details abound. Mixed in with all this eye candy were the new lines featuring ice cream, cupcakes, and cherries. Man, who needs a snack?! ;)

Pink Paislee: They went with a bit of a different inspiration this go-round. With the catalog and advertising sneaks, there's a big emphasis on photography and emotions. The lines are then designed to go with those vibes. Fun idea and ultimately great goodies! My fave of the release is the bold and bright Fascinating line, with my love majorly caused by this one layout. I thought the line was pretty, then I saw the way this sample had the big flowers chopped out and fell head over heels.

Webster's Pages: Oh, soooo pretty!!! I love that the Magical Wishes line is floral with a vintage-y lean, but bright enough for some real pop. There's also one that has another hot trend I'm seeing...silhouettes of children. This particular version has them in white gloss with little pattern accents! And in some of the best news all day, they've got...Ribbon! Gorgeous pleated satin ribbon, lace with a mix of cream and white, crochet looks, and more. Really luscious ribbon that will be coming to live with me asap.

Jenni Bowlin: Everything she makes is golden by me as far as I'm concerned. Truly. The new Farmers Wife collection features some cutie cherries, flour sack designs, and ledger paper. Always popular are the bingo cards and a new set-up for the label stickers (no longer on a roll), but the big hits are the new embellishments. Get in line now for some of the awesome new rhinestone centered "vintage" buttons, patterned chipboard buttons, and large/small calendars!

Hambly Screenprints: Bright and funky transparencies make me smile! So of course, I was grinning ear to ear in the Hambly booth! With flocks of butterflies, laundry lines of baby onesies, and circles both big and small...totally Yes! :) The mixed up transparency below has a little taste of several of the new designs-circles, frames, grunge...yum!

Canvas Home Basics: Seemed to be lots of folks working the cross over market, getting scrappers to create some home décor crafts. I'm game...how about you? To start, check out these canvas bases. My faves are the pennant flag type cuts for making garlands! Lots of other funsies too-pillow forms, hardware, etc.

So there you have a little taste of my day. I’ll be back tomorrow night with a peek at the goodies I see on Monday! :)

XOXO...Staci :)

CHA Prep...

2009-01-17T01:25:00.004-06:00

I'm totally consumed.

With CHA right around the corner, I am a whirlwind of to-do lists.

Most involve shopping in some way--for clothes, for likes/loves in the new releases, and as always for house decorations. :)

There's so many squeal-worthy new goodies coming out. I just can't wait to get to Cali and see them all IRL. I'm hard-core working at the show...for MM and GASC. Be sure to check out the MM editors blog during the show, starting the night of 1/24. I'll be posting a daily update with pics of what I see and love! :)

Speaking of things I love, here's the two layouts from my new column in the Jan/Feb MM on houndstooth:

1. featuring the Hambly love

2. featuring Sonburn and Dream Street Papers

Back to the lists!

To do, to do, to do! :)

XOXO...Stac :)

Uhm, hi...

2009-01-02T20:02:00.007-06:00

So. Yeah. I. Totally. Suck.

I didn't mean to suck so desperately badly, but I had some "stuff" come up and it took way higher priority than blogging.

Bad Staci.

No worries...I've been yelled at for my lack of blogging, by friends and family alike.

So sorry everyone.

But I'm back.

Quick-ish Update:

October:

* sick, sick, sick...severe strep throat for me and what ended up to be a systemic strep infection for Tayvan

* Red Ribbon Week at school: made 40+ award ribbons using my trusty Cricut and some hand-stitching on scrap fabric. Turned out super cute if I say so myself, especially considering my budget for them!

* Halloween: Lilli=vampire, Declan = pirate, Tayvan = Little Bo Peep, fun was had by all and then the sickies (me & Van) went back to bed

November:

* PTA crazy! Served as the canned food drive organizer (925 cans!!!)

* Made Spirit Gear spirit flags. Think Texas mum (streamers, noisemakers, etc) hanging from a pennent flag instead of a flower. Fun and the kids love them.

* Bob started a new job that he loves and is a huge blessing for our family. Go Bob! :) One of the first things we did was go to his company picnic, which was basically a free for all day at Six Flags. Tayvan stayed behind with Grana (sickie again), but the rest of us had an absolute BLAST! :)

* Photo editing for my step-sis' baby shower. Pics turned out great...she was a gorgeous mom-to-be (cutie patootie baby Baron was born Dec. 3!)

* Thanksgiving at MawMaw Ilene's was different this year. I actually got to make the main entree. We're not big on tradition, so I went with chicken cordon blue. :) Here's a layout I did for KI Memories about it:

December:

* PTA crazy again! Served as toy drive organizer (240 toys!!), co-organizer for winter parties for Lilli's & Dec's class.

* Lots of photo prep for the grandparents annual e*crew photo album.

* Lots of baking, baking, and more baking. Had fun with goodie bag toppers for a KI challenge.

January:

* January/February Memory Makers hit the newstand!!!! Eeeeeeeeekkkkkk! :) So excited about the new column! Crazy ecstatic giggling excited! :) And Lilli is such a proud girl, keeps calling it "her magazine" b/c she's on the cover. She quietly told me that I need to put Tayvan on a cover now b/c it's only fair. Bwhahaha! :) From her mouth to the MM folks ears! ;)

* School starts back tomorrow and with it our return to routine. I need to get my bootie back in the right gear! We're a little scattered here, but I'm on it! Got the dry erase boards out and everything today! LOL :)

And on that note, I'm going to shut my long-winded trap.

Oh, with a little promise (resolution?) to be a better blogger!

Promise! :)

Let's Get Physical...Physical...

2008-10-19T20:46:00.007-05:00

Hee Hee!

On my birthday, our Tuesday crew had a Flashdance day at dance class.

What a total hoot!

The best part was walking around the gym looking like this. People would literally stop with heavy weights over the head to look at you like you grew a second head or something! Bwahahahahah! :)

These are my girlies: Shonnery, Bessie, Marla, and Corinne!

Thanks for the GREAT time on my birthday, my friends! :)

XOXO...Stac :)

Drumroll please...

2008-10-17T22:22:00.005-05:00

And the winner is...

Sandy said...
I'm always up for a possible goodie envelope. How nice of you. Happy, Happy birthday. I hope it is your best ever!
7:29 PM

Sandy...if you'll email me your addy, I'll get your goodies out to you! :)

clap clap clap clap

Congrats! :)

And on to tattoo pics b/c I know you've all just been dying to see, right? LOL :) I will say that it was quite the experience. Bob thinks I handled it better than he did...something about a higher pain tolerance from childbirth. Cracked me up! :) :) :) But he was the only one who cussed about the pain (totally out of character btw!). But they look great...or they will...when the swelling goes down! :)

XOXO...Stac :)

Birthday Blessings...

2008-10-14T16:29:00.003-05:00

Wow!
What a day!!!

I wrote how great my friends are this morning, but after seeing everyone...I am a LUCKY and BLESSED girl with some great people around me!

* Bob wrote me the most awesome bday card ever! Truly touched my heart and made me cry. (made Shonnery and Bessie cry over lunch too).

* Flashdance Class was a BLAST!!! Pics to come soon! Suffice it to say that Shonnery and I made.an.entrance. The most fun was to run out and get a drink by your self though. Everyone working out would freeze with their weights and check out the looney toons in full-out 80's gear! LOL :)

* More girlfriend fun with lunch, birthday cards, a t-shirt made special for me, and a bajillion facebook birthday wishes! :)

So, I'm paying it forward! It's my birthday and I'm passing on some blessings!

In the form of a RAK! Post a comment...maybe about your biggest blessing or your best birthday memory or just "Happy Birthday Staci!" I'll do a drawing on Friday for a winner and send some lucky ducky a bit of scrappy goodness (US only please). Here's a quickie pic of some goodies I pulled together today...

There's some random funsies--fabric, chipboard, diecuts, rubons, stickers, tags, vintage bits and baubles, pins, stamps and more! By the time the envelope gets stuffed on Saturday, there will probably be even more goodies! ;)

XOXO...Staci :)

Eye Candy and Sugar Rushes...

2008-10-14T09:00:00.008-05:00

I am a sugar-aholic. Truly. Need. Crave. Must Have.

I've been trying to be good so that I can drop a few before dancing next weekend. But my FANTASTIC friends brought cupcakes to practice on Sunday. I couldn't say no, now could I? So I dug into a yummy and crazy-huge cupcake...heaven! They sent the extras home with me so I've pretty much been in a sugar induced haze ever since! LOL The good news is that I get lots of stuff done with sugar on board in mass quantities! :)

I am up for the KI Memories blog challenge this week. Had some fun with stamps! Marla is proud of me I think b/c I used a mask over the pic to do the fleur de lis stamping. She's like a proud mama...that I used a mask, that I knew what it was, and that I knew what is was called! LOL :) I'm growing in my stamp lovey-ness for sure. :) Check it out...

In other fun stuffs, my step-sister is getting ready to have her first little one. I made a little card to go with her baby gift. She totally loved it, passed it around to show everyone and everything! It feels good when folks who don't "do crafts" still "get it". I'm lucky that she's one that does "get it". She already sent me a thank you note and said that she's putting the card on the front of the baby book. Now that is what's known as an honor, my friends. Made me all warm and fuzzy. Here's the card...

Last note...today is...my BIRTHDAY!!! :) I'm 33 years old today! Can't believe it b/c most days I feel like I'm maybe 23! :) Not that I want to go back...those were happy but rough years! ;) So today I'm taking stock...in myself, in my husband, in my family, in our life. I've come to a conclusion...I am a damn lucky girl. Really. I have a fabulous life, full of love, laughter, and fun! Just the way I want it! :)

To celebrate, Bob and I are going to get matching tattoos tomorrow night. Shonnery, my bestest gal-pal in the whole wide world, is totally out-of-her-mind with love for me apparently b/c she's offered to babysit my whole brood on a school night so that Bob and I can have a Tattoo Date Night. :) No doubt there will be lots of laughing and lots of pics for this one! Coming soon... :)

Off to shiggle it with my girls today! Its Flashdance day at the gym. Gotta find a headband and leg warmers real quick! ;) XOXO...Stac :)

Yep. I'm officially a...

2008-10-11T23:08:00.006-05:00

Big Old Dork!
LOL
:)

I'm all "look at this cute one of Tayvan" and then picked the wrong one to post.
Dork.
Yep.
At least I picked one I hadn't posted before. LOL
:)

But here's the Tayvan one I meant to post...

And you can see it on the KI Memories gallery too.

I layered a Sheer Delight onto cardstock and chopped around it for all the cool circle bits. I'm rather in.love with the verbology stamps too. :)

XOXO...Staci :)

Random Fun & Recipes...

2008-10-09T13:44:00.012-05:00

I love me some random-ness. Its pretty much how my brain works all the time. But there are days when you truly need a map to keep up with my jumping tangents. I've been so scatter-brained lately that I don't think even Dora would be willing to come along...singing map or no singing map. "I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm the maaaaaap!"

Ahem, sorry.
Don't say I didn't warn you though.
:sheepish:

So, with some structure to keep me focused (ooh, look at the shiny stuff!)..

1. Van's party was great! Lots of food, lots of family, lots of fun! The cupcakes went over awesome! (as requested...recipes below). She ran around the whole party saying "Oh Yeah! Oh Yeah! I'm three! Oh Yeah!" and had us all Cracking.Up! Don't know where she got that little nugget of smartness, but yes, she is 3. :)

2. Sent off my column for March/April to Memory Makers. Had some mega-fun with this one too! I'm not supposed to say what the topic is yet, but let's just say that I've been playing with some cah-ute stuffs! :)

3. Working on other Top Secret Stuffs. Just cross your fingers for me and call it good. I'll share asap...from every rooftop...at the top of lungs...with jumps and dancing too if it all works out right. ;)

4. KI Memories gallery goodies are up for October! Check out this fun one I did of Ms. Van. She is really enjoying being home with me all day right now. We goof off and play, snuggle and watch tv, run errands and eat Happy Meals. Life is good. :)

6. Recipes: As requested, the recipes for the gain-a-pound-per-bite cupcakes I made for the party. :) Note: This is best done as a two-day process with the mousse on day 1 and then finishing on day 2 with the cake and frosting. It gives the mousse time to set properly.

Mousse:
* Using microwave or double boiler, melt 1 bag of milk chocolate chips, 1/4 cup water, and 2 tablespoons butter. Set aside.
* In a small saucepan, whisk 2 tbl. sugar, 3 egg yolks, and 1/4 cup water. Cook over low heat, stirring frequently until it reaches 160 degrees.
* Remove mixture from heat and slowly whisk in semi-cooled chocolate mixture. Continue stirring until cool (to speed this up, you can place the pan in a bowl of ice.
* Whip 1 1/4 cups of heavy whipping cream (takes forever but is sooooo worth it). Fold whipped cream into cooled chocolate mixture, continuing to mix. Cover well and refrigerate overnight.

Cake: (day 2)
* Mix dry ingredients--2 cups sugar, 1 3/4 cups flour, 3/4 cup cocoa, 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. salt, 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda.
* Add 2 eggs, 1 cup cold milk, 1/2 cup veggie oil, 2 tsp. vanilla extract. Mix well.
* Add 1 cup of boiling water. Mix well. (batter will be thin).
* Put in cupcake pans and bake at 350 degrees till toothpick comes out clean (usually 25-35 minutes in my oven).
* When done, remove from oven and place immediately into fridge/freezer for a few minutes to cool quickly. (timesaver! :) LOL)
* When cool, use a serrated knife to cut upside-down cone shapes from the tops of the cupcakes. Basically, the point of the cone shape should be just-shy of the bottom of the cupcake (so that your filling doesn't come out the bottom). Cut the bottom of the cone off, and fit the "lid" part back onto the cupcake. You want to cut out the cone, cut off the tip, and keep it matched to the right cupcake so that they look smoother later. (lesson learned the hard way)

Frosting:
* Melt 1 stick of butter in microwave. Add 1/2 cup cocoa (sometimes I go heavy here if I really want it to be rich!) and 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract. Stir until mixed well.
* Add 3-4 cups of powdered sugar and 1/4 cup of milk. Mix until desired consistency is reached.
* I fiddle around with the frosting a lot b/c the weather, the temperature of the butter, etc all affect it greatly. Basically, just add powdered sugar little bit at a time till you get a smooth, creamy mixture. If it gets too thick, you can add a smidgen more milk to correct. Sorry for the lack of preciseness with the frosting! LOL :) If you want to test it, let the bowl sit for 20 minutes or so. If its a good mix, the top most layer will form a very slight "crust". You can mix it up well again to spread on the cupcakes, secure in the knowledge that its perfect. You can also taste, taste, taste to check and double-check! ;)

Assembly:
* Fluff mousse to refresh. Take "lid" off one cupcake at a time and fill with mousse. Replace lid. Again, work one cupcake at a time or the lids won't fit properly.
* Frost cupcakes **generously**. These are rich, dense cupcakes so don't skimp on the frosting!! Optional: While the frosting is fresh (& slightly sticky), turn the cupcake upside into a bowl of chocolate sprinkles so that they stick, rolling and turning cupcake to cover all the frosting.
* I highly recommend serving these with ice cream or milk. They are seriously chocolate heaven! :)

ENJOY!!! :) :)
Dude, I think that's the most focus I've had in a week! But those cupcakes are worth it! You'll see... ;)

Reminded...

2008-09-29T22:54:00.000-05:00

The kids and I have started thinking about one of my favorite holidays...Halloween!!! :) I love all the talk about costumes, my beloved skully stuff is available in every store and the whole scare factor makes me a bit giddy! LOL :)

So far, the only one that seems to have made up their minds solidly about their costume is Tayvan. She says she wants to be a "Scary Pirate...bwahaha...aaarrgh" Literally. That's what SHE said! I about fell out and hit the floor laughing!

It did remind me of a few-months-old layout that I never posted. Lilli in all her Halloween glory! All hail the Queen...

So, now for the rest of the E*crew to figure out our costumes!

What are you and yours going to be this year?

I'd love to hear some fun ideas! :)

XOXO...Stac :)

Yummmm...

2008-09-23T23:37:00.000-05:00

Remember those Death by Chocolate cupcakes I mentioned?
Oh my...
So Woooooooo dee Hooooooooooo!!!

I have never made filled cupcakes before. That part was actually easier than I thought. The mousse was another story...took f.o.r.e.v.e.r. but was worth it! :)

Check out this chunk of heaven...

And some scrappy fun ahead...
Some yummy Glitz paper fun (I could faint over this yellow paper!!!), a transparency star bit from Little Yellow Bicycle halloween line (colored with a sharpie), and some fave Colorbok rocker bits.

Sorry Mom! She *hates* that we've taken to calling Tayvan "Kurt" (as in Cobain) when her hair is all grungy like this. But it totally fits and we are Gen X'ers afterall! :)

Have a great day!
XOXO...Stac :)

Prep work...

2008-09-20T15:36:00.000-05:00

Tayvan is almost 3 years old!
I can't believe that my baby is totally toddler-ific. It seems like yesterday that she was truly my baby.
Her birthday party is next weekend, so I've been diving in to the prep work.
:)

For this scrapping fiend, first up was the invitations of course!
I only had to make 10 (thank goodness for small close-knit families), but I had to do them super fast so I kept them simple.

What do y'all think?

I was so happy to play with a little bit of the Cosmo Cricket Hello Sunshine line. I fell in love, bought it, put it away...and kinda forgot about it. But when I pulled it out for the little tags, it just screamed "Yeah...you still love me!" Ssshhh, I didn't put it up yet b/c I want to play with it some more! LOL :) I think I have a date with some Sunshine Yellow tonight! :)

Next up for preparations...
cupcake lovies!

I said the other day that I'm going throuh a Suzy Homemaker phase again. Pretty hardcore one actually. I've been doing weekly menu plans, cooking dinner every night with lots of new recipes, baking all kinds of goodies every week. S.U.Z.Y. :) Check out Pioneer Woman of course, and a new fave is the Sunday Baker. :)

I think I've gone off the deep end a bit though. Yesterday, I had some freebie money to get a little sumpthin' for Staci at Target. Ended up with a super-cute skirt in one hand and a new cupcake pan in the other. Guess which one I bought. Yeah, the cupcake pan. And I'm sooo excited about it! LOL :) Looks like the deep end was...back there and I'm out in free water. LOL :)

My cupcake plans are...Death by Chocolate!
jumbo chocolate cupcakes
filled with chocolate mousse
topped with chocolate buttercream
Yummmmm!
For the actual party ones, I'll probably roll them around in choclate sprinkles too.
Never too much chocolate, right? ;)

In other scrappy news...
I am going to teach at Scrappin' Bunnies in McKinney in October!
I am so excited about this!!!
Emily is super-sweet and she does a fantastic job with this store. Everytime I see a newsletter from her with the list of new goodies, I feel like I need to *run* to get there before the goodies are gone! :)
So make a plan to shop on October 17th and come to my class in the same trip! :)

If you can't come to the class, Emily is selling the class kits too.
But really, its so much more fun in person.
Come, scrap, laugh at me, laugh with me, leave with a happy feeling in your heart and chocolate in your veins! :)

Mmmm, chocolate.
What did you say?
Why yes, I do have a one-track mind! ;)
XOXO...Stac :)

I suck...

2008-09-18T12:29:00.001-05:00

at blogging!
I want to soooo badly!
But somehow time just gets away from me.

My girl, Marla, told me its because I don't know a very important word in the English language...
NO!

Honestly, she's right.

But the last few weeks have been swarmed with school starting, PTA work, scrapping stuffs, PTA work, lots of work on something that I can't share yet, PTA work, dancing, becoming a Suzy Homemaker type again, and oh did I mention PTA work? LOL :)

Its truly been crazy! But its a good kind of crazy, kwim? Lots of fun, lots of great happenings, lots of love. :)

And...I've got some blog-a-licious plans in store for this joint! :) Coming soon...blog make-over magic, lots of inspirations, and some fun give-aways! :) Yeppers, free stuff...that's what everyone wants, right? ;) LOL :)

In the meantime, I want to show off my cuties on the first day of school...

and give a BIG Shout Out to the new KI Memories girlies!! I am SO HAPPY to continue on as a KI design team member. Its an amazing dream come true...again! :)

Speaking of...
Check out the KI blog for my blog challenge: Welcome Fall!

I made a super fun little tree door hanger that is so much better than the empty wreath hanger that was there before! (is that too much honesty?) LOL :)

XOXO...Stac :)

Mix It Up Baby!

2008-08-27T10:05:00.000-05:00

This is my comfort zone.
My love of scrappin' stuff exploded onto a page.
I love to dig around in my bins, folders, spinner rack, etc and just find goodies and make 'em work together! :)

In this case, I didn't have to go far! I got some new KI Memories Sheer Delights in houndstooth that I'm IN LOVE with!!! Uhm, yes...that circle of sheer goodness is a chunk of a KI Sheer Delight! Can I tell you that chopping that baby up almost made me hyperventilate?! But I tell folks all the time that "these are your supplies, tell 'em what to do and don't be afraid to USE them!" so I gave myself a pep talk and chopped on in! LOL :) Love the end result too! :)

Also, got some awesome goodies from American Craft this week (thanks again y'all!) and there were these great vinyl thickers. Now, I've played with AC vinyl thickers before, but these are...YELLOW!!! Be still my sunshine-color-happy heart! :)

And the thing that's been sitting on my desk for a couple of weeks b/c I couldn't bear to put them away and forget about them...Colorbok Lucky You. Yeah, I think I bought the whole line when Joann's had a sale and I'm feeling soooo Lucky! :) Great overlays on this one...more goodies to come on other layouts b/c I haven't put them up yet! LOL :)

So, that's the new...here's the result:

So what's piled up on your desk? I wanna know what you need to stare at and can't wait to use! :) And of course, I'd love to see what you're making with it too! :)

XOXO...Stac :)

Happy Dance...Break It Down...

2008-08-19T22:32:00.000-05:00

I like to move it, move it...
I like to move it, move it...
She likes to...MOVE IT!

Yeah, I'm so totally doing a happy dance!!!
I've finished my first column for Memory Makers and shipped everything off!!!
Such an amazing feeling! Still sooooo surreal, but so fantastically WOOOOO dee HOOOOOO!!!!
:)
Starting on Round 2! ;)

Newsflash...doo doo doo dooooo doo doo doo dooooo
Have y'all seen this?
http://kimemories.typepad.com/
Dude, KI is having a design team call!!! Such super-duper exciting news!! Can't wait to see what the new team looks like! :)

AND
yes, a big AND
I've been holding out on y'all. Sorry but I'm in the "don't count your chickens before they hatch" camp, but now that they've hatched, I'm counting baby! :)
Check.This.Out.

I'm a cover model!!! I've had my layout with Declan on a cover already (I was that crazy-ass chick dancing around WalMart with a magazine, laughing manically!) but now it's my layout with a picture of yours truly on it too! Abso-freakin'-lutely Insane...that's what it is!

So I'm full of good news and craziness today...how about y'all?
XOXO...Staci

Two Weekends of Girl Fun...

2008-08-10T11:11:00.001-05:00

I'm a mom.
I'm a wife.
But sometimes, ya just gotta get out with the girls and have a little Me Time!
I'm such a lucky girl that I got to do it two weekends in a row!
(kisses to Bob for sure!)

So, a bit of backstory...
I'm dancing as a Dallas Defenders cheerleader! Its a minor league football team & we raise funds for kids charities. As part of the whole cheerleader gig, our director set up a big photo-shoot for cheerleader calendar! Say what? Yeah, a calendar...a Swimsuit Calendar! LOL :) The photo shoot was a huge, fancy-schmancy mansion in a gorgeous neighborhood! It was full-on with make-up artists, hair stylists and photo set-ups...the whole shebang! :) I did the shots in our cheerleader uniform, but not the swimsuit ones. Too many issues with the swimsuit stuff for me, so I opted out of that one happily! :) But I want to show you the pics of my bestest girlies all done up, looking hotter than hot! :)

So, there's us in all our glory. Apparently, I coined a new term o'Staci...Hotness on a Stick! Don't know why, or where it came from, but it became the catchphrase of the day. Of course, if I could show you the pics of all those hotties (& all the other chicks there) walking around in bikinis and heels, you'd understand better why the term was flowing like water up in that place! LOL :) For now, you'll just have to use your imagination b/c those pics aren't mine to share! ;)

Weekend #2:
Yesterday, Ms. Marla organized a whole day of scrapping fun for us! :) She picked me up at 8:45 and we headed out for the day to shop till we dropped!

First up, the Crafty Scrapper in Waxahatchie! I've heard so many fabulous things about this store (& they were soooo generous and great at GASC for my Jenni Bowlin class). The store...TOTALLY lived up to its reputation! So much product in a huge, charming setting! :) Helpful folks too...they were telling me about the Lisa Pace class coming soon (http://www.lisapace.com/). I got lots of goodies and we were off to a fantastic start!! Happy, happy, joy, joy! :)

Next door, there is a gorgeous home decor shop called the Dove's Nest. Marla and I ran around wishing that we'd instantly win the lottery so that we could just pack up the whole store in the van and bring it home! There were some deals to be found, but we were good and saved our budget for the scrap stuff we'd planned. But believe me, I'm saving up for some home stuff for our next trip to Waxahatchie! :)

We ran around to a few more stores...that Marla knows the name of and that escape me right now. Sorry.

Then we hit Gotta Scrap in Rockwall. Lots more yumminess to be had. Got some little Creative Cafe tickets that ended up being a whole big thing. Marla and I ended up laughing ourselves giddy over the whole thing and it has now become forever known as The Great Ticket Debaucle! Its gonna be all okay...I'm sure we'll get it straightened out and I can't wait to play with the cutie little journaling tickets! LOL :)

When we finally got home, we started cropping the night away (with Bob just shaking his head at us for the most part!) LOL :) After digging through some goodies from my spinner rack, somehow we got into the little AC chipboard animals. Why exactly are there pigs in there? What are you supposed to scrap with those? This was what we pondered as the hour approached midnight! What followed was some *really* inappropriate (& very funny) jokes about a tour to the Owen Farm (think sausage), and lots of oinks and snorting. Ultimately, I think we mixed up some sky paper, a whole AC chipboard pig family, and some Heidi Swapp ghost wings and got a little diarama going of..."When Pigs Fly". Yeah, it might be one of those things that you had to be there for, but we were rolling on the floor and had a super-hard ab workout from all the laughing! :)

So that was my 2 weekends of crazy girlie fun! And I absolutely LOVED every single moment of it! Thanks to my dance girls for the first weekend, thanks to Marla for the second weekend, and thanks to Bob for handling things on the homefront for me to disappear for a while! :)

Desperate times...

2008-08-03T21:47:00.000-05:00

call for desperate measures! LOL

I went away to GASC in Michigan last week.
It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL there...weather, downtown area, the hotel.
Oh My...the hotel was hard-core fancy-schmancy!
And here I come in cut-off jean capris! Oh well...they're my fave! ;)

My weekend consisted of:
teaching classes, shopping the show floor, dinners with the GASC & MM folks, shopping at a crazy-huge lss, teaching classes some more, checking out the downtown shops, hunting for diet coke, and of course...scrapping!

Actually, I didn't take any scrap supplies with me b/c I usually am too busy & tired to scrap on these weekends away. But I was feeling particularly inspired and got a bit...desperate! LOL :) I ended up searching through magazines for a picture that I could scrap! I know, I know...it sounds pitiful. But luckily I was still reading a June woman mag and it had wedding tidbits in it! I chopped a great little generic wedding-ish pic out and it totally gave me an opportunity to tell a story that I needed to put in my album, but hadn't b/c I haven't been sure how to tell the story without pics. Catch-22, see? :)

So, ultimately...here's what I came up with...

This is 98% product that I bought right there on the shopping floor at GASC! And its really more about the journaling, but of course...yummy goodies are always fun to scatter about! :)

Flash forward...I get home and get to scrappy plans for my KI projects this month. One problem...no photo paper in sight! Oopsie! ;) Again, it worked out...I scrapped some pics off the fridge that I've been meaning to get to and got a little hybrid up in here too! :)

Check it out...
http://www.kimemories.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=ideagallery.detail&loid=1556
and
http://www.kimemories.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=ideagallery.detail&loid=1554

Rest assured, my desperate times are over though. Got a big ole box o'photo paper today! Back to scrapping my pics...yes pics...without restriction! ;)

Oh, got a great story to share about my Saturday night too, but I wanna wait till I download pics so that I can show and tell both! :) Suffice it to say that the story involves 1. a mansion, 2. bunches of hottie women, 3. photographers/makeup artists/hair stylists, 4. bootie shakin' and so much more! Peeked your curiosity yet? Yeah, I figured! ;) I'll download and try to post up the details early this week! ;)

XOXO...Stac :)

ETA: Oh.My.Gosh!!! Crystal is the absolute bestest evah! :) She's the fab chickie that drove us to the hugest scrapbook store I've ever seen! Check out her blog on the MM site for the hilarious pics of the shopping trip! ;)
http://www.memorymakersmagazine.com/crystaljeffreyrieger/CommentView,guid,97ac5c12-8401-43a3-bc23-4773d5a6b418.aspx
Her family was with her and there's great pics of them too! She has super-sweet kidlets (Harper made me feel right at home...she's such a talker so we clicked right off!) and great mom/sis combo! It made me so happy when a stranger on the street thought I belonged with them, especially since I'm missing my red hair right now! They were so adorable...a family chock full o'love and fun! :)

Secret's out...

2008-07-22T08:41:00.000-05:00

So, my secret is out!
Wooooooooo Hoooooooooo

I've been asked to be a contributing editor at Memory Makers magazine for next year!!!!
(pinch me)
I totally think I'm dreaming!
Scratch that, don't pinch me b/c I don't want to wake up!!!
(cartwheel, cartwheel, dizzy moment, cartwheel again)

My first assignment was to cover the CHA trends for the MM editor blog. So here's my contributing editor debut. (that sounds soooooo crazy!)
http://www.memorymakersmagazine.com/blog/

XOXO...Stac :)

Thanks...

2008-07-20T11:40:00.001-05:00

I was a semi-finalist in the Scrapbooks etc Ultimate Summer Challenge. The challenge was to use 8 pics on a layout. Being an 8.5x11 girl, I went with a index print type line-up. :)

The best part of the whole thing was...

all my family and friends really got behind me and were voting, voting, voting. It was so awesome to feel everyone's love and support and know that they were with me 110%. I might not have won that week's contest, but I definitely won with a great family and awesome friends.

Thanks again everyone!!!

Here's the layout...

Lots of love...XOXO Stac :)

PS--News from CHA coming soon! Yeppers, I went last minute! Working on it now! Post coming soon! {/tease}

Hmm...I'm kinda turning into a bit of a big ol' tease aren't I? Sorry...it will all be revealed soon enough! ;)

Monster Kid...

2008-07-14T15:36:00.000-05:00

Now, you know I'd never really call any of my kids a "monster".
At least not in writing where its saved for posterity.
(not denying that I might've muttered it under my breath during a tantrum though)

But...
I didn't...
she did! :)

To get the full effect, you'll have to imagine her switiching from her usual high-pitched sweet voice to a total monster-deep growl to delier this line. ;)

In other news, I got some GREAT GREAT GREAT news that has quite put me over the moon. Required a nice family dinner out to celebrate and everthing. I don't know if I can spill it publicly yet though...I'll let ya know. Just know that its BIG and definitely WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO DEE HOOOOOOOOOOO worthy! (/tease) LOL ;)

XOXO...Stac :)

a Favor, Pretty Please? :)

2008-07-09T21:22:00.000-05:00

Hey y'all!
I am dedicated to the Ultimate Summer Challenge on Scrapbooks, etc.
Totally having fun with the challenges and such!

I am a semi-finalist this week and **really** need y'all's votes..Pretty Please with Glitter on Top!

Here's the link...http://my.scrapbooksetc.com/app/voting/index.jsp?id=/templatedata/sbe/voting/data/1207926756307.xml&sid=7

You do have to register, but they don't spam you.
And you can VOTE DAILY!!
After you vote each day, you can see where I'm at in the standings.

I really appreciate all of y'all's support!
Thank you!
XOXO...Stac :)

Quickie..

2008-07-02T17:39:00.000-05:00

No, not *that* kind! ;)

In a well balanced diet, there is always the rush of a bit o'junk food, right? Or if you are me, there are *way too many* Chick Fil A stops in a week (uhm 2 already & its only Wednesday! eek!).

I digress...my point was (is) that sometimes ya need a quickie in your life.

Like last night.

I had a scrappin' urge, but was oh so tired.

Gave myself a midnight deadline and *started* at 10:15pm. In just under 2 hours, I'd selected pics, photoshopped them a teeny bit, printed & trimmed them, picked products to play with, done a little minor technique magic, pushed the scrappin' bits around a while, stuck everything down, took my layout photo (in the dark no less & with flash/transparency issues), photoshopped the layout pic, and posted. In under 2 hours. I think its a record for me. LOL :)

Now is it my bestest layout in the whole wide world?

No.

But sometimes fast food, I mean quickie scrappin is good for the soul. There is some sense of satisfaction to just getting it done on occassion. And its pretty cute I think? Wait, its a boy page...not cute. Its Rockin' Cool, right? ;)

XOXO...Staci

Love it when...

2008-06-30T18:39:00.000-05:00

I get whole bunch of new goodies to play with! :)

Confession: I'm not really a scrap shopper. I'm a scrap browser. I have a *very* limited scrap budget per month so I have to really love something to pull out greenbacks for it. LOL :)

So this month, some yummies that I've been lusting for finally arrived...October Afternoon!!! Woo-de-hoooooo! :)

And I'm no longer a scrap kit virgin. Yeah, I know I was on the MFM team and *LOVED* Shari's kits, but I had never actually bought a kit before. Till I saw the Q-Tea (http://www.qteakits.blogspot.com/) June "Oh Deer" kit. Deer? You know I had to have it! :)

And last but certainly not least...remember when I was gone to GASC a couple of weeks ago? There was a booth there that had something totally unique and different going on...very cool niche stuff. What is it? Crafty Secrets Heartwarming Vintage Collection (http://www.craftysecrets.com/). I'd never heard of it but the dt stuff they had floating about pulled my tired self right in there and perked me right up! Sooo cute and cool! :) I got a couple of the little journal pads and have fallen in love! Need to get some of the little sticker goodness they have next! LOL :)

So, I actually had time to play with these yummy new goodies this weekend and this is what I came up with... ;)

XOXO...Stac :)

Layout Catch Up...

2008-06-27T13:20:00.000-05:00

Uhm, hi there.

Hopefully, everyone is up for some layout lovin' b/c I need to do a little "housekeeping". LOL Need to post up some layouts to show "me" a bit, so here goes a layout laden post. (no cards this time! ;) Bwhaha)

Recent one from Scrapbooks, etc Ultimate Summer Challenge (weekly top 10):

Lots of Memory Makers Master ones...

July/August 08 Master Techniques:

May/June 08 Master Techniques

March/April 08 Master Techniques:

March/April 08 Master Challenge: March/April 08 Cover: February 08 Master Techniques (article cover):

January 08 Master "I Wish" layout from MMM entry:

KI Gallery:

http://www.kimemories.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=ideagallery.search

My son tends to get pubbed more than my girls (even though they are all the most fabulous cuties ever created of course), b/c he's the one that poses for me! But wanna show off my chickadees too, so here's my girls...pretty in pink:

Wish me lucky, duckies! ;)

XOXO...Stac :)

I swear...

2008-06-23T22:20:00.001-05:00

Its just been a card-heavy time right now. Lots of lovey dovey thanks going on. Maybe Marla is rubbing off on me more than I thought? LOL :)

Okay, so obviously, here's another thank you card! ;)

I swear I scrap layouts too! Remember, there's one that needs a good voting up at:

http://www.scrapbooksetc.com/challenge/index.html

Other ones in progress that I can't show right now too. I swear I scrapbook still! ;) LOL :)

Family-wise, our crazy 2 weeks of swim lessons, handwriting camp, soccer, and more started. I expect to go crazy in abou 2.25 days. Watch for the fireworks! ;) Nah, actually went pretty well today, but its gonna be a long, busy couple of weeks. I promise to post up a bit though. :)

XOXO...Stac :)

Card maniac???

2008-06-20T15:08:00.000-05:00

Nah, not really. I do cards when I need to. And only when I need to. :)

Having said that, I needed to make one this week.

Luckily, the mojo has returned so it came together quickly and cutely. :)Check out the thank you card I made for the fabulous GASC crew! :)

Lovin' the little birdie hollarin' out big love! Just makes me smile a bit. :)

If you haven't voted for me today in the Scrapbooks etc Ultimate Summer Challenge, WHY NOT?? Go do it now!! (pretty please!!)

The registration thing is easy and then you can one-click vote every day till the 25th. :)

http://my.scrapbooksetc.com/app/voting/index.jsp;jsessionid=A2CUHEZTCVTVTQFIBQNSCZQ?id=/templatedata/sbe/voting/data/1207926546230.xml&sid=8

THANKS!! :) Maybe I'll have to make my buddies all thank you cards for voting too? Hmmmm... ;)
XOXO...Stac :)

WOO HOO! :)

2008-06-18T15:07:00.000-05:00

I've been so busy with GASC prep-work that I kinda forgot how to scrapbook. I know it sounds silly, but I was a bit overwhelmed with the "what do I do?" moment before you start a new project. So while flipping through Scrapbooks, etc. I came across a challenge that I thought might be just the ticket to get me rolling again. :) They'r doing a big Ultimate Summer Challenge and week 1 was simply "raid you sticker stash & use them creatively". Okay, I can do that. A little direction but still freedom! :)

Did my entry...felt sooooo nice to play with paper and goodies again! :) And my kiddos just crack me up. Now. If you saw what it took to get the cute little lovey pose layout, you'd *really* understand the title! ;) I'm pretty sure it involved threats of bodily injury (okay, not really, but probably close). ;)

And even cooler, I just saw that my layout is in the semi-finals for this week! WOOOOOOO HOOOOOO! :) :) If you want to see (and vote) ;) the layout is:
http://my.scrapbooksetc.com/app/voting/index.jsp?id=/templatedata/sbe/voting/data/1207926546230.xml&sid=6

Off to get scrappy some more! I can feel the mojo a'flowing again! :)
XOXO...Stac :)

Home Sweet Home.

2008-06-11T08:30:00.000-05:00

* Back from GASC.

* Recovery in progress.

* Voice returning. Actually it held out until the very end. Started sounding like Frogger in the truck on the way home, as I sang (screeched) my heart out! ;)

* Boxes stacked up for Michigan next month.

* Lessons learned, fun had, great people met, more fun had.

* Scared some folks with my hyperactivity. Other folks were okay with it. Other folks loved it. No worries, I made sure that I sugared everyone up so they were hyperactive with me. ;) Lots of "energetic instructor" reviews. I'm taking that as a positive...better than being a drone. Bwhahahahah! :)

Yep...that was my GASC weekend!! :)

One big oops though! Although my camera was IN MY PURSE, somehow I never really thought to take it out! Bad scrapbooker, I know! :blush: I know one girl got some good pics of me actually teaching--said she got one of me in mid-jump around. :blush: If that was you, or you got other pics of my classes, I'd love to see if you don't mind sharing! Just email them to me and I'll post them on the blog with your credit. :) Pretty please with sugar on top! :)

Wanna see a couple of the projects from a couple of the classes? :) Of course ya do! ;)

Here's the Magic Mesh Mania project...

This class is FULL of stampy/painty fun and mess (wet wipes included). You end up with a cute "pieces of me" layout with lil bits of your personality displayed. And then you have an inspiration "list" of techniques to play with Magic Mesh too. :) Double bonus! :) :)

Here's the one of the projects from the KI Memories class...

This one has fingerpainting fun (wet wipes again), stamping with household objects (a fave for this budget conscious girl! LOL), and maybe scariest of all...doodling! LOL Everyone did really great...dove right in to the fingerpainting, and either doing or promising to do the doodley scallops! :) Out of the box for some folks but I loved how everyone jumped in with both feet and eyes wide open.

One more share. This is one of the projects from the Vintage Hip class (Jenni Bowlin goodies).

This was a TOTAL feel good class. Everyone really responded to this one...the products, the projects, and the vintage vibe. Some folks had heritage pic copies that they were using and the projects went from great to WOW with that touch!

I'll share the Cosmo Cricket class goodies another day this week so that I can photo-load the post with the Get Happy album pages (also known as HappyHappyJoyJoy for those of you who took it! ;) LOL).

If you were there, I'd love to hear about your weekend too! Fave class (mine or someone else's), projects to share, crop stories to laugh at, pics to love, etc. Seemed like a great weekend was had by all! :) ...Stac :)

GASC is Great...

2008-06-06T23:59:00.000-05:00

At GASC! Woo de hoooooooo! Been so much crazy fun, running straight through classes for 2 days so far, 1 more to go. If you knew how many typos were in that sentence before I proofed it, you'd understand how tired I am! Bwhahahahah! Its late now, by morning, with a little sleep...I'll be going 90-to-nothing again! I think I've scared some folks with my energy, but I give fair warning! ;)

All my classes have been super fun! I'm in this little hide-y hole back in the corner...don't leave except to pee or run and look on the vendor floor for a minute. I've been sooooooo good with the shopping! (pats self on back!) Of course, that might have to do with the long line at the "Everything Heidi Swapp is .99" booth. Gotta figure out how to get there & shop & pay in between classes! LOL :)

Brought my camera. Haven't even taken it out. Bad scrapper girl! Bad. Bad. Been too busy and having too much fun though. Got to have dinner with Ms. Kitty (Foster) last night. Riot a minute as always with that chick! There was accidental panty flashing (wind advisory much?), fire lane parking (totally necessary, uhm right?), getting lost even with a GPS onboard, drunk men attempting to pick up on the whole table lot of us hot work-a-day women, yummy food, good folks, and lots of laughs. And all that was just at dinner! :)

Off to bed. Marla's totally laughing at me tonight b/c I'm in "off" mode. Rare Occurence. But she gets the joy that is Staci Off tonight. She literally had to warn me not to walk into a pole at Walmart tonight. Wha? What pole? Hey, entertainment at any cost! ;)

XOXO ...Stac :)

In Love. Crazy.

2008-06-03T08:59:00.000-05:00

No, not crazy in love. No, not in love and crazy. In Love. Crazy. Two totally separate things happening right now! LOL :)

1. In Love.

Had Lilli & Dec's joint birthday party this weekend. Spent the day before running around doing PTA/school stuff and Bob (who was a bit sick) spent the day with some combination of the kids, cleaning the house top to bottom. He's such a fantastic guy and I'm totally In Love with him. The party was great. Hadn't seen family in a while it seemed. Plus, its kinda nice to show that I can be a little Suzy Homemaker/Betty Crocker when the situation calls for it. I know most of them had their doubts about that previously, but I've settled into a good rhythm with my domestic talents. ;) The kids were super great--polite, not too crazy, and had loads of fun. Cousin Jeremy learned a new skill...balloon animals! They had an absolute BLAST watching him make animal after animal, and they've played with the balloons just as much as their birthday toys. :) Totally In Love with the kiddos and think every day is such a major blessing that I get to spend watching and helping them grow up. Last but not least LOL, I got a new muffin/cupcake pan. Its the bestest in the whole wide world and I am totally In Love with it. It's here: http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?sku=2105-955&CMP=AFC-CCF

By Wilton and that pic doesn't do it justice at all. Its got super deep, mega huge cupcake tins. The holes are big enough that it takes one cake recipe (or mix) to make 6 cupcakes! Excuse me, off to cuppiecake heaven! :) :) Check out the pic of the strawberry and chocolate ones from the party! :)

2. Running short on time, so on to the Crazy. :)

GASC is this week. Soon. Really really soon. I'm nervous about the teaching b/c I'm doing so many classes. Its a nervous excitement though. I just want to do a fantastic job b/c I know how important a day away with the girls is for all the folks taking classes and shopping. I want to make their getaway day as awesome as possible. The other bit of crazy comes from all the prep work still going on! Eeek! Yes, still prepping stuff! All my kits are finally done (thanks Bob!), some got mailed off and are confirmed delivered, some are ready to load up for the drive to Arlington, some are ready to go to Michigan. And then my doorbell rang yesterday and...I got more kits!!! Scenic Route goodies got here and now I'm totally golden! But my house looks like a bomb went off, which totally makes this Neat Freak go a little crazy! LOL Check out the kit goodness...

Well, I'm to go shopping for a new goodie or two to wear at GASC. Teaching is a good excuse for a new shirt or skirt, right? :) And then to hit the gym to get my shiggles out! :) See y'all soon! :) :)

Finished.

2008-05-24T23:46:00.001-05:00

This is one of "those" layouts. The ones that get started, find inspiration, and then somewhere along the way, they just sputter out. Partially the layout, partially my crazy-busy self, but this has been sitting on my desk for over a month! :shock: :horror: LOL But yesterday, I decided. It was going to get finished before I picked up Lilli at school. 3:30...no more, no less. So here it is:

The fun part is the background paper--its Scenic Route grid paper that I went over with sharpie and then colored in with map pencils. I've done this with crayons before too. Oh, highlighters might be fun! LOL Hmmm, back to the desk for more I guess! :)

Have a smilie-filled weekend! :)

Share...

2008-05-22T22:10:00.000-05:00

Thought I'd share a couple of goodies that I've done lately. :)

The first two are for the May KI Memories gallery, which you can check out here:

http://www.kimemories.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=ideagallery.main

First up, is a layout for my blog challenge this month:

http://kimemories.typepad.com/celebrate_life/2008/05/find-it.html

Loving my new coffee table that I scored for only $60 on craigslist. Definitely my new fave by far! :)

Next up is a card I made for a girlfriend's birthday. Bessie is my bling-a-licious girlie...she always has bling on...a.l.w.a.y.s. Its just part of who she is and goodness knows, she doesn't need it b/c she shines brightly without it. She's one of those totally gorgeous, sexy women who doesn't have to try at it, its just natural. Lucky chick! ;) And she's just so super sweet and funny, which has helped me through more than a few Mommy crisis moments! LOL :) Anyways, that was a lot of reading just to peek at a card...sorry! :)

Its been a birthday card kinda month for me too. My bestest girlfriend in the world just turned 35 last week too. She is the bravest, most good-hearted, hottie of a woman you could possible imagine and then some. :) She has changed me for the good in so many ways and I am so thankful to have her in my life. So of course, the card had to be special! :) She cried so I think I hit it on the head. :)

Off to work on some more GASC goodies! Have you registered yet? Texas online registration is closed, but Michigan is still open and I have class spots!!! :) http://www.greatamericanscrapbook.com

Have a great day! :)

Cooler than cool...

2008-05-18T16:53:00.000-05:00

I have dreams of being this cool hip artsy-fartsy type. Reality: I'm a weird mom type. But luckily I have great friends, who are either equally weird or at least accepting of my weird. Enter my friend, Marla...

She is a friend of the "accepting" variety...she gets my obsessive scrappy nature, can shiggle it with the best of 'em, and is also a mom-type. So our conversations go something like this... "Did you see the new October Afternoon? Lovin' the deeries. (topic change) Who's class are we taking this week? I need some booty poppin' shiggle. (topic change) Ugh, potty training is hard! LOL But she will get it worked out this summer, right?" LOL :)

Yeah, so a couple of weeks ago, we totally LUCKED out and actually heard about a cool indie craft show in Dallas before it happened! Go us! Yep, totally...go us...and so we went. :)

Sooooo many fantastically cool and inspiring things to look at and yes, buy. ;) And buy we did! LOL :)

So, I always love it when other blogosphere folks share pics & links to cool stuff, so I thought why mess with greatness. :)

Here's Ms. Marla (remember I said we might be a little weird...immature...whatever!):

And then the goodies began...

Cute little barettes with little "present" looking fabric bits on top from broken doll. Totally adorable:

The cutest t-shirts I've ever seen from http://www.harrilu.com/ and you know I thought they were really special b/c I paid $28 for a tunic t-shirt and I'm a cheapskate deluxe! So that tells ya how much I LOVE this shirt/dress. :)

Marla and me shared a yard of some crazy cute green owl fabric. Lovin' the polka dottie green one too. :)

Such creative organic necklace designs from www.pamelamichelle.etsy.com . Lots of birdies and trees! :)

Other faves to check out:

nerdbomber.etsy.com for cool patches, journals, and more.

mineymoshop.etsy.com does the most original screenprints onto wood planks...wall art, coasters, etc.

www.one-updesigns.com has totally cool wall graphics. I bought uhm, a few...but I'll be using them on paper as "rub-ons".

There were so many other fantastic crafters there, but these were some faves! :) And we had a blast...totally and completely fun...just 2 chicks shopping, checking out crafts, and eating a dinner out sans the constant "Mommeeeeeee!" LOL Its gotta be done every once in a while! ;)

It's sinking in...

2008-05-05T16:23:00.001-05:00

...and she's getting it. :)

We spent lots of this weekend working on the thank you notes for Lilli's birthday party friends. I minorly altered the make&take that Tracie Radke (fellow MMM'er) did at CHA. Here's the little thank you cards:

Lilli made a feeble attempt at whining about all the writing. But when I reminded her that her friends had come to celebrate with her and had very generously brought her gifts and the least she could do was writing them a 3 sentence thank you note (insert expectant look here)... Yeah, she sat right down and got to writing her little heart out. ;)

As she worked, she made mention that she hoped she had an extra. Being my daughter, I was guessing she wanted to "decorate" the card front. ;) And she quite secretively went to work on her extra card.

And then she brought me this...

and my heart started squeezing and my eyes had the pinpricks of tears. She listened to me and actually heard me. And all on her own, never a mention of it all by me, she wrote Mom and Dad a thank you note for her leopard webkinz. :) I'm a proud mama. She's getting it...it's sinking in...

Hope you have a squeezy heart day too! :) ...Stac

Mad for Madras...

2008-04-29T17:29:00.000-05:00

I've been seeing it everywhere. A little pop of spring/summer fun! I'm all about mixing patterns and bright colors, so this is right up my alley! :)

Check out these pics...

These are from Target, The Company Store, and JCrew. Soooo super cute! I've managed to get Lilli into some cutie madras shorts, I'm working on getting Bob into some long bermuda ones (sedate brown so as not to scare the poor man), and have my eye on a little beverage bucket I saw this weekend. Might have to throw a party to justify that purchase! ;)

Naturally, anything that I see in out in the "real world" gets translated to my scrappin' addiction. And the search for madras plaid paper began. And ended...rather abruptly unfortunately. I have plaid papers, but no madras...not even plaid in the vibrant hues that are calling my name "Staciiiiiii, use meeeeee!" ;)

So what's a scrap-desperate girl to do? Well, since I wasn't making a late night fabric run (don't laugh...I've done it!), this chick took out those cutie shorts of her daughters! I took a macro pic of them, photoshopped it up a bit for extra oomph, and printed it onto matte photo paper. Yep, I made my own madras plaid paper from Lilli's shorts! LOL :) And you know what? My Madras-Mad Self was quite happy with the result! :)

Check it out...

Supplies: Adhesive (Adhesive Technologies, Provocraft), Buttons (Autumn Leaves), Patterned paper (Dream Street Papers), Pen (Sharpie, Uniball), Rhinestons (Glitz Designs), Ribbon (Cream City Ribbon), Stamps (Fontwerks), Stickers (American Crafts, Autumn Leaves), Misc.: staples

Madras. Yes, its everywhere. Learn to love it and the springy happy feelings it gives you! And of course, scrap with it...however necessary! ;)
Have a smilie-filled day! ...Staci :)

Spirituality in a Song...

2008-04-25T08:48:00.001-05:00

I am a spiritual being. Not religious. Not particularly active in my faith (unfortunately). But I am spiritual. My beliefs guide my core values, the presence I give to those around me, the goals I work towards. And sometimes, it's a little thing that reminds me to tune in...to myself, to the world, to the blessings in my life.

That's what this song by Flyleaf (http://www.flyleafmusic.com/) does for me. I LOVE Flyleaf. I have for ages. But this song gives me goosebumps on the 1000th time, just like on the 1st time. That's rare and special, so I take advantage. Next time, your sitting at a stop light, look over at the car next to you. See that Minivan Mom, singing her heart out, banging her head? Yeah, that's me. I'm at church...back in 2 minutes with a lightened heart. :)

Scrap-wise...lots of random goodies on this one! Only took about 20 minutes (other than the writing) b/c I just pulled out my baggie of samples from CHA and picked whatever faves jumped out at me. Love no-brainer projects sometimes, just mix and go! LOL :) Have a great day! ...S :)

2008-04-24T00:15:00.000-05:00

Earth Day. Its been a whole week of festivities at Lilli's school. Trying to bring focus to our world in fun, creative ways for the kids.

One of the projects is a Family Recycled Art Project. We had to create art completely from items that can be recycled. Lilli and I brainstormed and I remembered a super-cute mirror frame I'd seen at Urban Outfitters. That one was made with teeny rolled bits of papers. I thought folding would be easier for almost-7yo fingers so we went with a folded magazine bits wreath.

We got to work. Lilli did so great...really doing her best to get everything lined up when she folded all the paper bits, so careful. She was working solid with me through the first magazine. By the time we hit the second one, she was done. Poor baby fingers worked to the bone. LOL :) So Mom is the one staying up tonight to finish it off.

Turned out pretty cute I think. In a random, handmade kinda way. ;)

Lovin' the little family art projects. Can't wait to do more this summer!

Oh, and I hung it on the door to surprise Lilli in the morning. She'll be excited b/c my little clone was worry-warting about it not being done in time for the 1st grade tour.

Right Place, Right Time...

2008-04-21T12:53:00.001-05:00

Man, I had one of those weekends!

No, not the ones where you wished Monday would Hurry.Up.Already. LOL

We had a *GREAT* weekend!

Saturday morning: Garage Sale Heaven!

The kids and I hit a couple of sales in McKinney.

At one I found some gorgeous vintage greeting cards that the lady GAVE me! Sah-weet! :) And then I found this...

Coolest thing evah! Totally made me smile all goofy...so I bought it. What am I going to do with it you might ask? Uhm, the answer is: I've got no idea! But I will figure it out and it will be fabulous! ;)

Then off to a HUGE community sale in Providence. I hate going to Providence. Its a delightfully Mayberry little neighborhood, full of cute little painted houses, with sidewalks where kids lay about coloring with chalk, playgrounds every block, fishing ponds, etc. Sounds quite nice, doesn't it? That's the problem!! Everytime I go there, I want to MOVE there! LOL We actually talked seriously about it a couple of years ago, but the drive didn't make sense for Bob. One day, I'll live in Mayberry...

Oh, back to the garage sale! :) We parked & walked up to a lady with a blanket-full of toddler girl clothes. All fancy-brands that I don't pay retail for and all in Tayvan's size. The lady says she wants to go shop too, so I needed to start picking stuff up b/c she was dealing. Well, I do what I'm told so I gathered up an armful of stuff and she says $1 an item. Uhm, WHAT??? $1 for Gymboree stuff with the tags still on it? (picture me gathering more goodies) All said, I bought $18 worth of stuff...great stuff and went on happily with a stroller full of designer duds, imagining all the great pics I was going to take of Van in the cutie clothes. :) On my way back down the other side of the street 20 minutes later, the lady waves me over and tells me that she's taking the rest to Goodwill so if I want anything for free, I'd better grab it! I asked her if she was really, really sure and when she nodded, I started picking more before I fainted away with joy! :)

So, this is my loot for a whopping $18! Every piece is either Gymboree, Gap, Old Navy, or The Children's Place. I took the tags off about 10 pieces!

On Sunday, Bob wanted to take the kids and me to the Superdome to watch the bike races with another family. Being such a fantastic wife, I said yes and acted like I meant it. ;) Really, it was pretty cool, but pretty darn scary b/c those guys are going 40+ mph and they're [thisclosetoeachother]. Luckily, Bob knows better than to ask for a new bike to tackle that side of his biking hobby. When the kids got rambuctious, me and the other mom took off for her house where the kids could be safely crazy and we could sit on the couch. Her house was totally decorated all cute & y'all know I'm a total sucker for decorating talk. :) She told me about a resale shop in The Colony that I'm gonna hit tomorrow. Fingers crossed they have some goodies for me b/c I'm on a decorating roll!

Totally, a Right Place, Right Time kinda weekend! :)

Etiquette?

2008-04-16T23:08:00.000-05:00

So what's the correct etiquette here? When you fall off the face of the blogger earth, and then unceremoniously show up again? Apologies...that sounds like a good start. So I'm sorry to anyone who may have been reading when I *poof* vanished. Of course, there's probably no one here now but me, but that's cool. Maybe folks will come back to chitter-chat with me eventually! LOL :)

Can I make it up a little bit with a cute digi project that I did this week?

Lilli's first friend birthday party is coming up. I can't believe she's about to be 7yo! So of course, I wanted to make the invites, but didn't feel that would be practical for the kids to smush into backpacks. LOL :) Digi to the rescue!! I'm relatively comfy with photoshopping pics, but not used to doing full-out digi layouts. So that made it a fun challenge and let me keep the Creative Staci happy and the Practical Staci satisfied. :)

I won't finish with promises of daily posts or anything crazy like that. I want to blog for me, for my family. It is important to me and so I will do my best.

Have a smilie-filled day!! :)

What have I been up to?

2007-12-17T09:49:00.000-06:00

Just a family update today...

My poor babies. Everyone of them has been sick.
Lilli started it.
Came home from school with a 103 fever. No other symptoms at all. Slept for 3 days straight and then bounced back.

Declan and Tayvan got hit next (despite all my disinfecting...grrr!).
Declan did the fever & a little cough, but is back to his usual self now.

Tayvan.
Oh Tayvan.
Poor thing gets hit so hard with every.little.thing.
She's on day 9.
Still has a very low fever. Snot coming out every hole in her head. Coughing. Sneezing.

Sounds like a typical cold, right?
Yeah, except she has the cold buggie in her body and *in her eyes*.
Did I say poor baby yet?
Her eyes are about swollen shut. And they keep crusting over.

We've spent the better part of the last week either in the steamy shower with menthol bodywash lathered up or laying on the couch while she sleeps on me or watches Yo Gabba Gabba for the 20th time that day.

Fingers crossed that my baby gets better soon.
I promise that when she does, I'll be back.
Till then, I'm off to the couch for more cuddling.
Gotta find time to finish out my Christmas stuff and get started on HOF stuff! ;)

Giving Thanks...

2007-11-28T09:23:00.000-06:00

1. Family Update: Went to Burleson for Thanksgiving. Had a nice, chill day of food and family. We ended up spending the night at SIL's house so that we could get in line at Best Buy at 2am. It was cold, windy and sucked b/c we didn't get the computer bundle we were in line for. :( But after heading back to SIL's to warm up & sleep, SIL saved Black Friday for us. She'd hit a store for what she needed & then call me for my list. While I watched the kids, she did the shopping for both of us. She *RocKs!*! :)

Settling back in to daily life now. School's back in. Hitting the gym hard-core to make up for the T.giving foodie binge. ;)

2. MotD: This is supposed to be kid related, but the biggest thing that happened lately is...

I got my copy of Espirit Scrapbooking yesterday!!!! It is so weird in the coolest way to see a whole big article about me. Still kinda thinking "Why?" but I hope that the European scrappers like the layouts I did. :) Gotta say...EEEEEKKKKKK! (picture odd little happy dance here!) Check it out...

3. Inspiration: Uhm, check me out!! ^^^^^^ Bwhahaha! Sorry, couldn't help it. ;)

Ooh, realized the scans are pretty bad. Here's some better pics of the layouts themselves. :)

Yeah, I suck and I'm sorry...

2007-11-12T19:57:00.000-06:00

This blog thing has totally gotten away from me. :(
I had a crazy-busy last bit of October. (being Red Ribbon Parent for Lilli's class took *so much time*!)
And posted to the MMM blog every week.
So I was neglectful.
And I'm sorry.
Don't know who I'm apologizing too really, b/c not many read this blog anyways...and y'all have probably left since I haven't written in a month. Maybe to myself.
Okay.

1. MotD: Bad day. Mean kids at the playground (mine and others). No one wanted to do homework. Kids in bed early. I'm eating chocolate chip cookies & waiting for Heroes to start. Good news: tomorrow is a new day. That's what I tell the kids when we have a sucky day, so now I'm telling it to myself. :)

2. Family Update: Red Ribbon Week. Halloween (Queen, Darth Vader, & Snow Princess). Pumpkin Patch trip. Boo at the Zoo. Bob out of town for races or at work all night. Pulled a hamstring doing the splits (yeah that I did them to the floor, wah that I hurt myself). Thinking a lot about a boob job.

3. Inspiration: Got a great one today...straight from 2peas. They called it "organizational porn". Bwhahaha! Okay, maybe not, but its GOOD! Enjoy!
http://www.cluttercontrolfreak.com/

I promise to be back sooner rather than later. Okay? :)

What a week...

2007-10-12T01:40:00.000-05:00

1. MotD: Declan sounded out 3 words!!!!! I could literally start flipping cartwheels!!! I am so excited and proud of him!!! A couple of weeks ago, we were sitting at a stoplight & he "read" the sign beside us..."That says 'no'!" We were shocked to say the least. I've continued working on the letter names (he knows sounds 110% but not the names as well) & writing them & his name. Today, we had a few minutes & sat down in front of the fridge to play with Tayvan's magnet letters. I made "cat", "dog", "rat", "jog" & a few letter blends & we went to town. I had to help a little bit, but he totally sounded them out & figured out the words!!!

2. Family Update: Allergies Suck. Big Time. I am absolutely miserable with allergies, but its my own fault. In some bad idea version of my day yesterday, I decided to walk outside, weed the flower beds, & air out the house in the same day. Bad Idea. But Clairitin is my friend. Vapo-rub too. Lilli's taking care of me & Bob took me to dinner b/c I was not cooking. ;)

3. Inspiration: Gonna be a tad bit selfish here. Check out the new DT gallery at KI! All the girls did layouts about themselves & each one is absolutely fabulous!! My layout is one of my faves in ages!!! :)
http://kimemories.typepad.com/photos/ki_design_team/mesmall.html

Ta-Da..I'm here! :)

2007-10-04T01:18:00.000-05:00

See, I can be good...sometimes. I'm back and just a couple of days later to boot! :)

1. MotD: Whoops, didn't happen today by a long stretch. We were busy. We were running around. It was just a busy day...and I wasn't able to set aside time for something special. Well, the kids would probably say that dinner was special...Mickey D's (every kids fave) eaten in the van on the way home! LOL Yeah, not a Great Mom day, but its cool. Just one of those things.

2. Family Update: We were so busy today b/c unfortunately my lss is closing!! I love my lss and shop there whenever I can, but with my budget I'm not exactly floating their business by any stretch. I'm sad to see them go for sure though. And of course I had to hit the 50% sale today...along with every other scrapper in the whole freakin' area!!!! Ultimately, it took me 3 trips to the store (~20 min each way!) to shop, get a number to pay, and actually pay. UGH! But I got some cool goodies that I'm thrilled with so that's what counts right! :)

Oh, Amy...I'm redecorating our living room. Its been a sorta Pottery Barn chic (well, knock-off PB anyways)...lots of tan, red, chocolate. But I've gotten where I feel it doesn't reflect me & my love of color & funk so much anymore. I'm moving towards a more flea market chic look...vintagey, collected, random. Just kinda "if I like it, it goes"...regardless of what it is. :) I've traded tan couches for bright red ones. Bought the vintage turquoise chair. And once it gets here, I'm going to paint a focal wall turquoise to coordinate with the chair and order fabric for a couple of pillows. Just a deliciously fun process for me b/c I LOVE LOVE LOVE to decorate! :)

3. Inspiration: Okay, I've been hoarding this one. Its one of my absolute favorites. But I'm feeling guilty at such a blah blog entry so I'm doling out the good stuff! Check this site out and fall in love...I want to own every tshirt. But the best part is...even if I can't buy them, I can totally use them as scrap-inspiration! :)
http://www.bellamuse.com/silkscreens.html

La-la-la...

2007-09-30T23:00:00.000-05:00

So, uhm...I knew I'd been neglectful. Didn't realize it had been that long! I'm just gonna gloss right over that little factoid and continue on like I blogged more recently than 2 weeks ago! LOL

1. MotD/Family Update: Today's Tayvan's 2nd birthday!!! WOO HOO to my baby girl! :) We had her party yesterday...fun with family, presents, and best of all--CAKE! :) Its tradition for us to re-do the kids nursery into a Big Kid room for their 2nd birthday. But since Tayvan is still totally content in her crib & we don't need it for another baby like usual, we've decided to let her redecorating wait just a little bit. But I'm looking forward to it. :)

Today, we went to Canton to find some coolio furniture. We didn't really have any furniture luck, but I found the most fabulous doors from an old school. They are HUGE 8ft tall, 2in thick solid wood with glass panels! One of them is already turquoise and still has the steel hardware on it. And the best part? $20 for both!!!!! Total huge !!

Then we came home & I searched ebay again for a chair. JACKPOT!! I actually found and won a fabulous turquoise chair! Finally! :) Check it out...

Yeah! So now that its on its way, I can almost finalize fabrics and paint swatches. Soon! :)

2. Inspiration: Okay, I'm just gonna go with this...*everywhere* I looked at Canton today was...turquoise/aqua & hot pink. Granted, I was looking for turquoise stuff but it was all.over.the.place. And mixed with hot pink a lot, but not for girly frou frou stuff. Just for regular stuff--home decor, clothes, knick knacks. So use that as a jump point! And if you need more inspiration for those colors...check out the MyFavoriteMemories.net October 1st gallery tomorrow morning. The October kit is full of bright colors! :)

Back in Town...

2007-09-17T23:14:00.001-05:00

So much for regular blogging, but I have a good excuse...
I was busy having a great weekend! :)

1. Family Update:

We went to Bob's family reunion this weekend. Two days out on Possum Kingdom lake. Lots of fun, some not-so fun...but all in all, a great time!

Good Highlights: Kids swimming in the lake. Jumping on the water trampoline and rolling off into the water. Paddleboats. Good food. Family fun. Lots of laughs. Lilli caught her first fish. "Camping" in a cabin just like my grandparents old one (brought back memories). Kids all piled up in the tiny living room to sleep. Family breakfasts with lots of kids helping. Feeding the deer by hand in the morning light.

Bad Highlights: Drive taking twice as long as we thought. Tayvan falling IN the lake and bashing her head on a rock. (still makes my heart race) Not nearly enough sleep b/c I don't sleep well in weird places. A honkin' water bug dive-bombing our bed right as we drifted off. (still makes my heart race) Leaving early so that I could make a OPT Team function that was kinda jacked up.

But all in all...a Fantabulous Weekend!!!
:)

2. MotD:
Trying to work with Lilli on enjoying school work more. Since the weather was great today...I decided to take homework outside. Grabbed the chalk & drew her math table on the porch so that she could fill in her numbers to 50. Still not selling it 100% so at the end of every row, we did a Super Silly Dance! SUCCESS! ;) We did it for 2 rows & I started weeding the flowerbeds with a promise that she'd tell me when she was ready for more silly dancing. *Several* minutes later, she says she's ready. I'm thinking "ugh, girl...do you know how long it took you to do 1 row??!! Focus child, focus!!" So I go over & She'd Finished The Whole Thing!!!!!! WOO HOO!!! Major focus, major initiative for her. Silly Dance. Silly Dance. Silly Dance! :)

3. Inspiration:
Been playing with some super simple digi stuff for Tayvan's invite (which you can see on the MMM blog). Wanted to share some fab digi downloads...fonts, brushes, etc. :)
http://www.misprintedtype.com/v3/goodies.php
Enjoy!!! :)

Have a great day!
...S

Mixing It Up...

2007-09-13T07:03:00.000-05:00

Just now posting what I half-way wrote last night! LOL :) It's still Tuesday right? ;)

1. MotD:

Adding Declan into the mix with our RAK's. He helped me hand out a couple of candy bars to folks at the grocery store on the way out. He was so cute..."here ya go! Have a sweet day!" Went to lunch with Tayvan and Bob while Dec was at school on Monday. She was in *rare form*--crazy laughing, noise making, smack talking baby girl. Bob & I were cracking up at her! Great to be able to spend some one on one time with her and us.

2. Family Update:

Okay, not really *family* but I'm going to look at the yummy chair that I found on Craigslist tonight. Its awesome to me and fugly to Bob, but he's said that I can go for it...he's okay with it if I love it. that I love IRL tonight & that the guy is negotiable on the price. Check it out...

3. Inspiration:

Music today mostly but I don't know how to post it so that it plays on my blog yet. So I'll do the link thing instead...

Flyleaf (one of my mega faves)

http://www.flyleafmusic.com/

And a new band I heard on the radio this week...best place I can find is on this guys blog but its a cool song...

http://www.johnmortell.com/2007/06/21/paramour-misery-business/

Smooches all! :) ...S

Hi!

2007-09-10T23:36:00.001-05:00

Sorry...went out of town for the weekend. Catch up time...

1. MotD:
My faves of the weekend:
* watching Lilli play with the "big girls" under the bleachers at the football game. It was a lesson for me to learn to let go a bit...she was under the bleachers out of sight, but not out of hearing range with her older cousin to watch her. She did great and followed the rules. I did sneak down to peek on her every once in a while though! Loved watching how she interacts and how animated she is. :)
* Bob playing Kerplunk with the kids at the kitchen table. They were loving playing with Daddy and its a strategy game (albeit an easy one) and he's so good at those!

2. Family Update:
Same old, same old. Lilli=school. Declan=school. Tayvan=crazy silly funny girl. Bob=feeling better, back to biking, working a lot. Me=dancing fool, scrapping nut. Been scrapping a *ton*...can't post anything though. :( Oh, I had a dr appt today. He removed the mole from below my right eye. Its been bugging me...don't want to be "that lady with the mole" so gone it is. :)

3. Inspiration:
I think that this is the new fabric for my couch pillows. I'm going for a vintage-y flea market-y kinda vibe. What do y'all think? Does this fabric look like an old tablecloth to you? It kinda does to me! Yeah!!!!

http://www.freespiritfabric.com/core-pages/gallery.php?gal_id=97&sw_id=2028&add=ok&add=exist

Gonna party like its your Birthday...

2007-09-07T01:10:00.000-05:00

1. Memory of the Day:
Today is Bob's 33rd birthday. I should say that our MotD is cooking him a cake, or taking him out to dinner, or something fancy and nice like that. But its not. When I told the kids that Daddy would be home soon, they started to clean on their own so that the house would look nice. Then when the garage door started its grinding noise, they ran and hid (Lilli behind the couch, Declan under the slide, Tayvan and me around the corner in the toy room) so that we could yell....SURPRISE!!!! when he walked in the door. Just lots of love and happiness...yeah, MotD! :)

2. Family Update:
Lilli was Table Master today. A big woo hoo for her b/c its a reward for good behavior. Once the teacher can trust you to make good choices, you get to be a Table Master for a couple of days. I'm not sure what all it entails, but I know she gets to take some extra funsie books for storytime and she was excited about getting the papers to pass out and keeping the table clean. :) WTG girl! :) Especially great b/c Lilli's been talking about how she keeps working hard to make good choices, but not everyone in her class does and she doesn't understand why. I've been telling her to just keep doing HER best and she would be a good example for the other kids. Love that that was reinforced in such a great way for her! :) (Now, if she'd do this at home to be a good example for Dec & Van all the time I'd be set! LOL)

3. Inspiration:
My KI girl, Danni, sent me this link today. Totally yummy fabric goodness. Makes it really hard to stay true to my self-imposed "not gonna take up sewing until I work on my photography" rule. But the fabric is droolworthy. Maybe if I just don't sew with it, if I did something else, I could treat myself to a smidge of it? ;)

http://www.joeldewberry.com/

Tough Sell...

2007-09-04T22:30:00.000-05:00

1. Memory of the Day:

Well, my planned MotD didn't pan out b/c Dec's little friend didn't come over to play. But we made the best of it and sang & danced around to the little karaoke machine. Thank goodness for microphones & a hubby who doesn't think I'm crazy when I ask him to put in a stage & mirror in the toy room. The kids LOVE it! :) And I got to snuggle with Lilli for almost 45 minutes while we went through her word family booklet! Perfect! :)

2. Family Update:

Not a whole lot going on today. Dec starts pre-k tomorrow. He's excited! :) Worked on lots of mail prep stuff today--contracts, packaging, supply lists, etc. Oh, I took a pic of the potential pillow fabric. See what y'all think!! And tell me the truth! :) Remember, the wall behind the couch is ultimately going to be turquoise. I like that the cherries are kinda funky cool and the colors are good, but not sure its retro enough to give the flea market vibe that I was wanting, kwim?

3. Cool Inspiration of the Day:

Love this dress. Makes me wish that I was a girly girl...at least for a second. But I'm not, and I'm cheap to boot, so it'll never be mine, but I can glean a little inspiration, right? LOL :)

http://www.betseyjohnson.com/Evening_Graceland_Dress/pd/c/1101/np/1101/p/3223.html

Family Fun Day...

2007-09-04T00:59:00.000-05:00

1. Memory of the Day:
So we got up this morning with all kinds of plans. Decided to scratch those and head to the zoo with the kiddos. We had fun walking around for a while, before the skies decided to open up and dump a ton of rain in as short a period of time as possible. LOL We took cover under an awning but Lilli had other plans. She kicked off her shoes and danced all through the rain, in and out and all around, twirling and jumping, and having a ball. Declan and Tayvan joined her a bit...laughing all the way before retiring to shelter with Bob & me to watch Lilli. :) And we got to be the RockStar parents today to the kids. We let them all ride the big carousel at the zoo! They had a blast and gave me & Bob a hug afterwards, saying "Y'all are the best parents ever!" Aaaaaawwww! :)

2. Family Update:
Y'all are not gonna believe what Tayvan did today!!!! She was running around nakie after a bath and told me "Mommy! Potty!" I sat her on the potty & she peed!!!!! Oh.My.Gosh. We did the whole pee-pee party song & dance & YEAH! Probably not really full-on ready to train (she's not even 2 quite yet), but at least its a good move in the right direction!! :)

3. Inspiration of the Day:
What do you need for inspiration? Cute, colorful, cool technique...gotcha covered! :) Check out these super cute little pins on etsy! :)

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=5231330

Quick & Lovey...

2007-09-02T14:07:00.000-05:00

1. Memory of the Day:

As another of my new ideas, I am making a goal to do some little RAK every day. Some days, little. Some days, bigger. But something to make the world a little more smiley for someone. Today, the kids & I made a huge batch of chocolate chip cookies for the folks that work at the child center at the gym. They take awesome care of my kiddos while I get my groove on, for which I am so grateful. They always know us by name, love on my kids like they are their own, offer smiles & hugs everytime, and just generally make my life so much easier. So I wanted to return the favor. We made cookies and made a Thank You card to put with it. They were all shocked, said they'd never had a parent do that before, which shocked me. Made me want to do it more often for them! :) Here's the card that we made this morning...

2. Cool Inspiration:
On the same RAK note, my daily inspiration isn't scrappy related exactly. But its worth it. Its a website FULL of RAK ideas and stories. If you need a good cry, need to have your faith restored in humanity, this is for you...

www.actsofkindness.org

3. Family Update:
Off to my dad's for a Labor Day cookout tonight. Hope to have lots of fun, lots of laughs, and get lots of pics! :) CU tomorrow! :)

I'm calling it Saturday "night"...

2007-09-02T02:09:00.000-05:00

So technically, its 2am on Sunday, but this is my Saturday post, 'kay? I have a good excuse for my tardiness...I was finishing up a layout for the MFM gallery! :) That's good, right? :)

1. Memory of the Day:
So the kids MotD doesn't actually involve me and Bob. That's gotta be okay sometimes! I got a fabulously HUGE Rescue Heroes station toy off freecycle today. It's awesome..lights, sounds, moving stuff. Declan is In Love. And Lilli and him actually played together super well for a while...she with her Barbie house, he with his RH station. Apparently, Barbie wouldn't leave Billy (Blazes) alone at work and kept calling him to come home. LOL :) But all's well that ends well...Lilli, I mean Barbie, talked "Billy" into coming to the house b/c their kitty (Lil Pet Shop) was stuck in the tree! LOL :) I loved listening to them play together...happy, imagination, love. Its not so common these days...the argue more than play together, so it was nice to hear & see that they still like each other! ;)

2. E-Crew Update:
I think I found some fabric for my couch pillows!!! YEAH! Its been a major long ordeal with lots of searching that ended with 4.99/yd fabric at Joann's. LOL I'll take a pic of the fabric laying on the couch tomorrow so that y'all can tell me yeah/nay. I *really* want opinions! :)

3. Cool Inspiration:
So, I'm sharing a biggie with y'all here b/c I'm too tired to search etsy/ebay/et al. right now. This is one of those sites that you're gonna get lost in, so don't click till you have a few minutes to look around. Its a children's clothing company in Australia. Every page of their site is pure eye candy...the layers, the elements, the design. And then you get to the clothes! Check the layers, the buttons, the texture, the details. Absolutely Amazing Inspiration. It always makes me wanna sew something though! :)

http://www.paperwings.com.au/

Back to School Day thank goodness!

2007-08-31T22:17:00.000-05:00

1. Memory of the Day:

D/T/me had a blast playing today. Lots of finger-skateboarding, dinosaurs, and blocks. We decided to make a block tower taller than Dec and we suceeded several times. Of course, before I could get any pics, they kept falling! LOL But I managed to get one pic from the probably 10 towers that we built! :)

2. E-Crew Update:

I finally found Declan a pre-k program! YEAH!!! I have been so stressed abot this since getting the letter from Ms. Diana that she wasn't going to be able to have school this year. After lots of phone calls & asking every woman that I met where their kids go to pre-k, I found one that will work. Its a great program, close to home, and somewhat reasonably priced (LOL). Dec had his Back to School day today so we got to meet the teacher, see the room, and meet lots of his classmates. He'll be going M/W/F from 9-2 so I hope he loves it and learns a lot!! :)

3. Cool Inspiration:

Etst again. You just can't beat it for finding the coolest things. :) This is one of my fave sellers. Her whole shop if filled with pretty stitched felt pillows and goodies. Check out her items sold to get the full effect. :)

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5073197

2007-08-30T17:59:00.000-05:00

>
1. Memory of the Day & Family Update at the same time. :)

Lilli went to the dentist today for 3 fillings. Yes, 3...poor girl. But she did soooo great! I'm so glad that we got a second opinion on her dental work & that we went with the 2nd dentist to do the work. Afterwards, on the way home, she ASKED if she could go back to school! So, with 1.5 hrs left, back she went! :)

Me/D/T went home to find my boxes from MMM and my MFM kit! WHAT A DAY!!! Pics in a sec. But the funnest part was the kids all playing in the boxes (esp. when Lilli came home too). They were playing house, making "baths" with the bubble wrap, pushing each other around in a train. I ended up doing the train thing too, pushing them all! Got my work-out for the day! LOL :)

So, I know that everyone is just dying to see my MMM loot. Heck, I've been stalking for the UPS man for a few days since they told me it was on its way! LOL :) Y'all have to understand, I don't really spend much on scrap stuff...maybe $10 a month and some months, not even that. I mostly use what MFM sends me & whatevers on sale at HL b/c I'm cheap...I mean frugal! So, just the boxes of stuff was enough to about send me into hyperventilation. But I was/am so overwhelmed with the generosity of the contest sponsers. They truly went waaaaay above & beyond any hopes/dreams I could have ever had! Now my problem is figuring out where I'm gonna put it all! And that's not a bad problem to have! LOL :) So, here it is...

Whew! Now that's a tough act to follow, but I'm gonna try b/c I have to start out being good to my topic limits! LOL :) Onto...

2. Inspiration of the Day:

I saw the cutest little coaster on etsy today! Check out the color combo (a la my in-progress living room! LOL) and the cool way she stitched the ric rac down! Love it! :) Enjoy...

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6849127

Welcome, welcome...hello to all!

2007-08-30T17:37:00.000-05:00

Bwhaha! "all" like anybody's reading this but me! But that's okay. It's been a whirlwind time lately and I'm expecting this year to be awesome too. So I'm gonna blog so that I don't forget the coolio things that happen along the way!

For the record, I guess I should introduce myself...
Staci
31yo
wife to Bobby, my hs sweetheart that I married on 1/27/97
3 cool kids--Lilli 6yo, Declan 4yo, and Tayvan almost 2yo
live in McKinney TX
love to scrap, love to dance (other than my family, these are my passions)

So, the latest...
I was selected to be a Memory Makers Master (aaaaaaaahhhhh!) and to be on the KI Memories design team (aaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!) Two supa-dupa mega-huge, blow my mind opportunities! I was and still am shocked but its starting to sink in a little bit as I get to know the other girls on the teams, who have all been so friendly! :) Add these fabulous gigs to my beloved MyFavoriteMemories.net & Provocraft teams and Staci's a busy girl! :) But busy in the bestest possible way...doing something that I love!!! :)

My Plan and Proposal:
I am a crazy-wordy girl. That does not work well in blogs. So I'm going to try to keep my posts kinda limited to 3 areas--

1. Memory of the Day: This is a fabulous idea that I've been doing with the kids. Every day, I make sure that we do something special that is worthy of being the Memory of the Day. Some days, its little...playing their fave game uninterrupted by siblings; some days, its bigger...trip to the zoo. Or anything else that happens to happen. But I want to be conscious of what's happening in their lives. And I want to make myself accountable by posting up lots of what these Memories are. :)

2. Cool Finds & Inspirations: Exactly what it sounds like. Just posting up fun things that I find online or IRL.

3. Family Update: I will try to keep this brief! But I want to remember the day-to-day stuff that happens to the E-crew! :)

So there you have it...me in a nutshell & the gameplan. If you wanna play along, GREAT!