Sweet Dreams, Baby!

The new prompt is up at Scrap That Baby! This time, we're scrapping pictures of baby sleeping. It took me a while to find a picture for this one, because Jonah hardly ever sleeps anywhere but his crib. And well, we don't really take the risk of waking him up to sneak in his room and snap pictures of him sleeping.. lol! But, he did somehow manage to fall asleep in his stroller... at the airshow, of all places, with jets zooming overhead. Maybe the big ear protection Daddy made him wear really works? lolI finally got to use the Sassafras Mix & Mend collection, and I absolutely love it! It may actually be my favorite line that Sass has ever made! It's just so absolutely perfect, it makes my heart smile! :) Again, I used burlap on this layout.. are you ladies used to hearing that by now? lol I have A LOT of it! But this time I used it as a mask. :)

Anyways, head on over to Scrap That Baby and submit your layout for a chance to win a prize from our lovely sponsor, Catch the Moments kits!

-Dani

25 Days of Christmas: Sketch 231

It's MONDAY! I hope your week is starting off on the right foot! A new sketch is up at Scrapbook Challenges today.


Sketch 231:
My take:
I used more of the Anna Griffin Christmas paper that I just HAD to have! I love it soooo much! I've been meaning to scrap this picture for a year now, but just couldn't decide on how to do it. It was hard for me to try to make a Christmas layout and still try to add in the blue since it was so important. Can you believe that dang Santa had blue gloves?! LOL HORRIBLE SANTA!

If you ladies do the sketch, head over to SC and post it in the gallery and the sketch 231 thread! You will have a chance at winning a prize from our wonderful monthly sponsor!

-Dani

25 Days of Christmas: Gift Wrap

I'm always looking for a way to recycle something or save money somehow. Christmas wrapping paper is no different. It's so expensive! And with my money saving, coupon clipping ways, I buy at least 4 newspapers a week to get the coupons. Sooo let's just say that I have a lot of newspaper laying around. Why not turn it into wrapping paper, right?!

I know this isn't the best picture, but I had to take it at night time really quick because my husband was DYING to open it.. lol! He "needed" his new running watch, so I had it shipped 2-day so that I could wrap it and surprise him with it.

Anyways, I wrinkled the newspaper up and inked it with distress ink and then sprayed it with some homemade glimmer mists. I sandwiched it between wax paper and ironed it on low so that it was flat like normal wrapping paper. Once it was wrapped, I added the bow. And let me just say, I'm horrible at making bows apparently. My friend, Jenny, had to make the bow for me. Thanks Jenny! :)

You can use all kinds of scrapbooking supplies to dress up some newspaper or a roll of kraft paper! So dig into your stash! If you make your own paper, let me know! I'd love to see pics! :)

-Dani

25 Days of Christmas: Gift Tag

Honestly, I hardly ever make tags. I just never really have a reason to, but I decided to challenge myself. I've always liked the idea of using pictures on gift tags. It's perfect for kids that aren't old enough to read yet, and also you could reuse them as ornaments. If neither of those, at least it adds a nice homemade touch to your gifts.I really love this paper!! I've been eying the Anna Griffin Christmas papers ever since Halloween, and I finally bought some today. It was 40% off at M's. :)

Also, I wanted to share an awesome idea that I saw the other day. I haven't had a chance to make them though. I think that it may have been in Family Circle magazine, but I don't remember. Anyways, they used cookies (I'd say gingerbread men) for gift tags! GENIUS! They decorated them and piped the name on them. I have to say, I may try that this year for some special gifts! :)

25 Days of Christmas: The Spirit of Giving

First off, I'm posting this like a lot late.. sorry! :) I had planned on posting a few things having to do with cards. Let's face it though, I'm not a card maker. I'll try to post the projects that I made later in the 25 days. I have something more important that I want to post today though.

There is a program called Holiday Mail for Heroes. We did a small card drive in support of this program at Scrapbook Challenges for Veteran's Day. In this program, the American Red Cross accepts cards and distributes them to our service members serving overseas and the wounded at Walter Reed Medical Center. I wanted to go ahead and get this information out there because the cards have to be postmarked by December 10. Any cards postmarked after the 10th will be thrown out. If you want to participate, your cards MUST be addressed as follows:

Holiday Mail for Heroes
PO Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD
20791-5456

Head to their website for further information and guidelines.

Also, I want to take this time to get the word out about a fake message that goes around every Christmas on social networking sites and email. I'm sure you have all seen the message saying something along the lines of "While you're doing your Christmas cards this year, take the time to send one to a soldier. Address your card to 'Any Recovering Soldier" and send them to Walter Reed.....". I just want to let you all know that Walter Reed doesn't accept cards that aren't addressed to a specific soldier because of safety concerns. They will just throw your cards out. And I've been seeing this go around for as long as I've been an Army wife.. lol :) So, if you see this, PLEASE let them know about the Holiday Mail for Heroes program!

To all of you that will be sending cards, THANK YOU SO MUCH for your support of our troops! :)
-Dani

25 Days of Christmas: Advent Calendar

Happy Thursday! Only 23 days until Christmas! Can y'all believe it's almost Christmastime? I most certainly can't. We got our Christmas tree last night, and as soon as I smelled the fresh piney scent of the tree lot, I knew Christmas had arrived. It seems like just yesterday I was complaining because it didn't get out of the 60's all summer.. haha!

Anyways, today I'm sharing an advent calendar. At first, I was going to just add daily Christmas activities to the backs of my fridge magnets, but I started looking through galleries and was inspired. I wanted to get a pre-made, plain advent calendar to alter. Of course, my M's let me down again. They didn't even have small trinket boxes that I could use for it. I ended up using toilet paper rolls cut into thirds.
A little bit of paint disguised the toilet paper rolls pretty well, I think. I used a 2" circle punch to make the circles, and they fit nearly perfect over the rolls. The book pages are slightly inked on the edges, but the rest of the distressing is natural. I got lucky a few months ago and found an old 1950's encyclopedia at Goodwill for $1. It makes the perfect accents! I used modge podge to stick them to the toilet paper rolls and to stick the toilet paper rolls to the burlap (yes, I'm STILL stuck on burlap. I have a ton of it left, too!). I weaved a painted dowel through the top and added some modge podge to get it to stay. And lastly, I put some bells on the ribbon and tied the ribbon to the dowel. And voila! A homemade advent calendar comprised of things that I already had around the house and in my stash. Well, all except for the jingle bells. They are 40% off at M's this week though, and I thought that was a good enough deal.

I'm pretty proud of it.. mostly of how cheap and easy it was. :)
-Dani

25 Days of Christmas: Fridge Calendar

Hey! I'm alive! :)

I've been neglecting my blog, and I apologize. But for the next 25 days, I'll be posting daily! I'm going to be posting something Christmas related every day starting today until Christmas day. The great thing about most of the projects that I'm going to be posting is that they're made using things from my stash. I hope you all will check in daily for Christmas ideas.

Today's project is a calendar for the refrigerator. I LOVE this idea! I was inspired by an advent calendar on a frugal blog that I read. I love it so much that I plan on making one for each month of the year, so keep an eye out for that!
I'm finally putting my Cricut to good use. I've had that thing for over two years, and I've used it more in the past two days than I have the whole time I've had it. All of the squares measure 2"x2" (the green inside measures 1 7/8" x 1 7/8" and the houndstooth measures 1 3/4" x 1 3/4"). Also, all of the products used came from my stash except for the magnets on the back. I found a roll of magnet at M's for $5.99, which I thought was a pretty good deal. I still have enough left for 2-4 more calendars!

Check back tomorrow for another project.. I'm really excited to post it!

Birthday Bash for Scrapbook Challenges!!

Welcome to Scrapbook Challenges' Birthday Bash blog hop!! If you hopped here from Pamela's blog then you're in the right place!! If not, then you can start the hop back at her blog.

So, Scrapbook Challenges has been on Ning for one year! I can't believe it! And what a great year it has been! Before Ning, it was a Myspace group. But who uses Myspace anymore, right? I think SC has found a great home at Ning!

Anyways, for the hop we are all posting this sketch designed by the fabulous Pamela!
I really love this sketch! It's so creative and really did inspire me! My layout is a really simple one though. :)

Every year, I take a picture of our "family" of pumpkins while they're still in the wagon at the pumpkin patch. I just love it! And for some reason, I'm really feeling the burlap lately! I found 10ft of burlap garland at M's for like $4 and couldn't pass it up!

And now to the good stuff.. RAKs! Everyone who does a layout based on the sketch above and posts it in the Hop On section at Scrapbook Challenges will be entered to win one of Cosmo Cricket's most popular collections... The Early Bird Collection!! Also up for grabs is the It's Your Day collection from Fancy Pants (how fitting, right?). To be entered to win it, you have to comment on all of the blogs in the hop. If you join SC during the Birthday Bash, you will be entered to win Echo Park's Merry Christmas collection. Also, if you invite people to join SC during the bash, you will be entered to win October Afternoon's Road Map collection. To see pictures of these, check the Hop On section of SC!

And now to your next stop.....the fabulous and very talented Jowilna!!

Sketch 218 - Santa Cruz, CA

Howdy everyone! I hope everyone has been enjoying their Monday, if that's possible! ;) The worst part of my Mondays are that DH is always grouchy in the mornings because he has to get up so early after sleeping in on the weekend. And even then, he's still not SO bad, so I don't really mind Mondays.

Another thing about Monday is that it's sketch day at Scrapbook Challenges! Who doesn't love a good sketch, right?! This week's is an awesome one!!

Sketch 218:And here's what I did with it:

I used mostly scraps on this one. I hardly ever do that, but I've been trying harder lately. I hate being wasteful. I also flipped the sketch because that worked best for me. :)

Don't forget to stop by Scrapbook Challenges and post this sketch to the thread if you try it! You could win an awesome prize!

-Dani

Scrap that Baby... and the Grandparents!

There's a new prompt up at Scrap That Baby! This time, Sarah is asking us to scrap the baby and the grandparents in honor of Grandparent's Day. When I saw this prompt on the list waaayyy back in April, I was excited! I knew that I'd have the opportunity to have the perfect pictures for it because my parents were coming all the way out here to California to visit. And I got some good ones. The one I used on this layout is one of my favorites! Jonah loves his Paw Paw!
Isn't it just the sweetest?! And how about those hot air balloons? Sassafras rocks my world!

Well, what are you waiting for?? Head on over to Scrap That Baby and play with us!!
-Dani

Crackle medium, marry me please!

So lately, I've been watching technique videos and live shows. I think I've decided to challenge myself to try a new technique every week. Well yesterday, I tried crackle medium for the first time. I've used crackle paint before, but never crackle medium. And boy, was it awesome!! I did all of the steps and when it came down to just watching it crack, I stared at it for a good 15 minutes just in awe. It's really awesome stuff!

Anyways, to the project. You know those thick piece of cardboard that come in kits sometimes or maybe on the backs of paper pads? Well I've decided that I need to use them. Usually I used them to cover my work space when I paint, but I've recently turned a box lid into my go to paint and misting area. I figured it would be perfect to try out crackle medium though!

I started out with this (after I cut the original piece in half):


I used quite a few different paint techniques on this project. In addition to the crackle medium, I also used texture builder on the house, I used my Tim Holtz mask that I got yesterday to spell out 'Happy Halloween' in the back sprayed with orange acrylic paint and water in a mini mister, I used tissue paper to 'stamp' purple paint on the house, and also stamped 'Trick or Treat' with foam stamps and paint. So lots and lots of paint.. just like I like it!

And for the things that needed adhesive, of course I used my Glue Dots®! I used the Pop-up dots do give my project dimension! I love them soo much! I also used the Craft Dots to hold down the glitter frame.

Supply List --- Patterned Paper: Momenta, frame: Fancy Pants, Adhesive: Glue Dots®,
mask: Tim Holtz, rubber stamps: unknown, house (from chipboard album): Mary Engelbreit,
paint: Apple Barrel, crackle medium: Delta, texture builder: Delta, ribbon: Offray.

Thanks for looking! Everyone enjoy their Tuesday!
-Dani

I wrote this blog post while participating on the Glue Dots design team.

I am one frustrated crafter today....

I've just got to vent. I set out today to find some Fancy Pants paper, possibly some Halloween paper and embellishments, and some black Thickers. That was all in the world I needed. While I know that finding scrapbook supplies in countries other than the US is very hard (and I promise that I am grateful to even have the opportunity to shop in actual stores for supplies), but I must live in the black hole of the US. I have been to many, many Michael's stores in my day, but I have never seen such a horrible one than my local one. No one knows anything about the products they carry, nor about their store events. And get this... I didn't find any black Thickers. What?!!

So I decided to head to Beverly's, which is the only other craft store anywhere near here. I figured, if anything, I could find some Fancy Pants. They're usually really good about carrying manufacturers that I normally use. Nope. No FP. And hardly any Halloween stuff. I did find some black Thickers, but they only had 3 different sets and I didn't REALLY like any of them. Oh well.

On the bright side, Michaels is having a 50% off sale on their punches!! WOOO!!! And get this... (Are you guys sitting down? You may faint....) I finally bought a circle punch!! I've never, ever had a circle punch in the many years that I've been scrapbooking. Oh, and that circle punch brings my grand total of punches to a whopping FOUR. LOL! Insane, I know.

On a side note, I haven't actually bought any supplies (other than the $30 I spent at the Scrapbook Expo) since May *GASP*. After glancing around 2 whole stores, all I could find that I just couldn't live without was a circle punch, 2 sets of CC Tiny Type, a Tim Holtz mask (which was on clearance for $1.99 at Michaels), 1 set of Thickers, and 3 bottles of acrylic paint. That's it. Out of 2 whole, entire stores that's all I bought. Sad. Sooo I gave up and spent the rest of my money on McDonalds.. hahaha! =)

SC Sketch 217

Hellllooo Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend. We most certainly did! All is good in our house when Alabama wins on Saturday! =) It's all about college football around here in the fall.

Anyways, since it's Monday, that means there's a new sketch up at Scrapbook Challenges! I can't believe Pamela has posted 217 sketches since SC first started! WOW!
Sketch 217:

My layout based on the sketch:

It's a simple one, and yes, I'm STILL scrapbooking the pictures from when Daniel came home from Iraq.. lol! At first, I was a little worried about the one little square that moved while I was misting, but I just chalked it up to art. I'm ok with it. =)

Remember, if you do the sketch, please upload it to the gallery and thread at Scrapbook Challenges because we would love to see it! Also, you would have a chance to win this month's sponsor prize from... My Little Shoebox!!!

-Dani

Me = EXCITED!!

I'm excited to say... I'm a Glue Dots Dottie!!! I submitted my application back in May I believe, and got a follow up email about a month or 2 ago. But then I just forgot about it. And boy was I surprised to see the DT e-mail today!! =) I'm so excited!! (Have I said that yet???? LOL) So be looking forward to seeing lots of awesome projects all stuck together using some fabulous Glue Dots!! =)

-Dani

I wrote this blog post while participating on the Glue Dots design team.

Seasons of Change winner.. and some Momenta projects.

Oh my gosh, wasn't the Seasons of Change blog hop SOOOO much fun?!!? It went off flawlessly! A lot of the winners have been announced now, but there are still winners from members and DT blogs that haven't been announced. To check to see if you have won, check Winner's Circle!

As for my RAK, which turned into a mysetery RAK because I completely forgot to update my post (Sorry y'all!!)........


And the winner is.......


Ginny, send your info to tdsmith22@gmail.com. =)

Recently, I decided to use the Sweet Talk digital line from Momenta to do some candles. It was very easy to do, and I was happy with how they turned out.


I also make a 'Welcome' sign with the Flutter paper, some stickers, and some of their FABULOUS rub-ons. Seriously.. these rub-ons are awesome!! I love the quality. =)



That's all for today! Hope you all have a great Wednesday! =)

It's my birthday.. and I'll scrap if I want to...

It's my birthday today.. and I'm a big, fat 36 years old. Not really.. I'm 22, but I feel 36.. lol! Let's just hope that when I'm 36, I feel 22! =) I'm not scrapping today though. I'm lounging on the couch listening to some country music and missing home. Annnd letting DH clean house. Sounds like a good day to me! We're going to head to the fair a little later.. and I'm hoping for some king cake. We'll see.

Anyways, to the point of this post. Sketch 216 was posted at Scrapbook Challenges today! I've been working on September's sketches for about a week now, and I'm telling you.. it's killing me not being able to share them yet!!! I'm excited to share this one today though.
Sketch 216:

And here's my take:

I've had these pictures for a while now, and I knew what title I wanted to use with them. I've just been looking for the perfect papers to match. Well, at the Scrapbook Expo last month, I had a coupon for the SEI booth... and what do I see?! This amazing paper collection! I knew instantly that it'd be perfect for these pictures. See.. waiting around does pay off. =)

The 'purple carpet' in Pacific Grove is absolutely beautiful. It's definitely one of the things I was excited about when I found out we were moving here. I try to really not complain about where we live because it is amazing really. I've been to the Grand Canyon, and I much prefer the coastline of Big Sur. It's THAT beautiful here. But, it's still not home.. and I'm homesick. I'm glad I got to scrap that. =)

Hope everyone has a fun and safe Labor Day! =)
-Dani

Whaaat? I did a layout FOR FUN??

If you are looking for the Scrapbook Challenges Seasons of Change blog hop, click here or scroll down.

It really has been a while since I've done a page just for fun. I'm always doing sketches or prompts for my DT commitments. Last night, my hubbs had CQ, which is a 24 hour shift. I was bored and couldn't sleep, so I decided to scrap. That's weird in itself, because normally I am a morning scrapper. Well, I was browsing the blog world and saw this week's Sketchy Thursdays sketch. As soon as I saw it, I knew this Crate Paper line would be perfect for it! And any excuse to play with some Crate Paper is a good enough excuse for me! =)

The sketch:


My take:


I also paired this with a couple of the challenges from Scrapbook Challenges. Awesome right?? THREE birds with one stone! =)

SC's Season of Change Blog Hop

Welcome to the Scrapbook Challenges Seasons of Change blog hop! I hope you all arrived here safe and sound from Pamela's blog. If you just happened to have stumbled upon my blog and didn't realize there was a blog hop happening, you can start the hop on Pamela's blog.

A new design team term is starting at Scrapbook Challenges! On the course of this hop, you will meet some new faces and say goodbye to some of the ones that you have been seeing around. What about me? Well I'm proud to say that I will be sticking around for another term! I love it so much, how could I just stop at one term?? =) For those of you that are new to Scrapbook Challenges, I'd like to tell you a little about myself. First off, I've been a member of SC since its Myspace days. I believe when I joined, there were only about 60 members. I wasn't active then, but it sure was a good place for inspiration.. and still is! I also design for Momenta and Scrap That Baby. I enjoy scrapbooking and altered art a great deal, but I also love photography. When I'm not flexing my artistic muscles, I love being outdoors hiking, fishing, swimming, and just being on the lake. I'm a Southerner through and through, and I love me some good ol' sweet tea! Monday is actually my birthday, and I will be 22. I've been married for 4 years to a soldier, Daniel. We've got a 13 month old son, Jonah, and he's the most awesome baby around! =) I love my little family!

Enough about me. Here's the sketch for the blog hop. I hope you all are inspired by the amazing talent of this DT to do this sketch! Ya know, because if you do the sketch and post it in the 'Hop On' section in the group, you could possibly win the new Pixie-Licious line from Cosmo Cricket!! EEEEEEE!!!

And here's my take:

I absolutely love this picture of Daniel and Jonah! I have said that I think that it's my favorite picture I've ever taken! And I'm happy to have paired it with the awesome Girl Friday line from Cosmo Cricket! See, just because it says girl in the name doesn't mean ya can't scrap boys with it! =)

And here comes the part where I'm green with envy! Everyone who posts a comment on all of the blogs in the hop will be entered to win the new Restoration line from Crate Paper! Oh my gosh, I love this line! I love Crate Paper too! Someone is going to be a lucky girl (or guy, I suppose)!!


In addition to that, everyone who joins the group this weekend gets entered into the drawing for a Prima pack, everyone who invites someone to the group this weekend, through the "invite" link on main page, gets entered into a drawing for a Prima pack, and there will be a fifth prize in the Hop On section!

Also, I will be giving a small RAK to someone who comments on my blog and becomes a follower. I will edit this post later with a picture.. it's still dark here and I didn't have a chance to take one yesterday. =)

Now hop on to the next blog! It's one of our new ladies.... Racquel!!

Scrap That Baby blog hop winner!!

Normally I'm old fashioned and actually draw a name from a 'hat' but today I'm running short on time. So I used old-faithful, random.org.



And according to random.org, our winner is.............

REBEKAH!!!!!

Rebekah, please send your address to tdsmith22@gmail.com and I will get your prize out to you ASAP!

Thanks everyone for playing along and following my blog! =)

Summer has arrived... briefly

Oh gosh y'all.. the high today is supposed to be 86!! A whole 86 whopping degrees?!!! Yes please! Hahaha.. I know that that's not REALLY hot, but considering that the highest temperature before the past 2 days was only about 72, I'd say it's worth blogging about! Too bad it's only brief and will be back down to a high of 59 on Saturday. Talk about depressing.

So since it's been so nice out, I haven't done any scrapping for the past few days. I have taken plenty of pictures for scrapping though! I'll share just one of my little man enjoying his water table!



Well I hope y'all are enjoying your week so far! Don't forget about the DT Call at Scrap For Therapy!

Design Team Call at Scrap For Therapy.

We are looking for 4 new designers to join us as we continue to work at getting Scrap For Therapy started! This is our second ever DT call, and we will be making many changes this term. Scrap For Therapy is a scrapbooking forum, and we will be incorporating our brand new blog into it starting this term. The DT term will be 3 months, starting October 1, and running through December 31.

Requirements: Each DT member will be required to complete a layout every other week based on the sketches given to you. Sketches are posted all at once a few weeks before they are due, giving you plenty of time to finish them. Also, DT members will post challenges, tutorials, and participate in any events that we may have going on. We understand that sometimes life gets in the way, we just ask that you communicate with us and we will be understanding.

We are unable to compensate you at this time. Our blog and forum is just for the love of the craft!

To submit, send the following to scrapfortherapy@gmail.com:
1) Name
2) Links to blogs and galleries
3) A brief bio
4) Design team experience (none is required!)
5) Why you would love to be apart of this team
6) At least 3 projects showing your current style and ability.

Please note: Preference will be given to those who create an account on the forum and are active so that we can get to know you better.

Forum
Blog

Boooo.. it's Monday, but yay for sketches!

Wow this weekend flew by!! We had a great weekend full of lots and lots of family time! We shopped pretty much all day on Saturday for some new clothes (yay!). By the way, the clearance section at Old Navy is a MUST right now! They actually had shorts for $1.97! And then yesterday was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! It was warmer, though the wind was still a little chilly. We spent a lot of time outside playing with the little man though. The one thing about Monterey is that the parks here are amazing. We took Jonah to the Dennis the Menace park today, which we go to a lot. It's an awesome park, so if you have kids and ever visit the Monterey area, it should definitely be added to your agenda! Oh and I got a haircut! =) I like it a lot! My hair hasn't been this short since before Jonah.

Enough about that though. It's Monday. That means sketches! First up, we have Sketch 214 from Scrapbook Challenges.

And here's my take:


Next up, we have sketch 13 from Scrap For Therapy. SFT is a brand new forum that I've been helping out with in the past few months. I've been trying my hand at designing sketches. Though I'm still not very good at it, I'm designing SFT's sketches. Head to the forum and check it out and try out the sketches to be entered into the drawing for the monthly prize!

And here is what one of our wonderful DT member Katie Tennis did with it:


I sure do hope you all enjoyed the Scrap That Baby blog hop! (Winners will be announced on the 25th!) I REALLLLY hope you all enjoyed it.... because there will be 2 more coming your way here soon, within days of each other. Keep a look out for those at the beginning of September!

Who doesn't love a good blog hop??

I told you all that Wednesday would be fun!! =) BTW, I'm scheduling my post 15 minutes before the hop starts. It officially starts at 8am EST.

***********************************************************************************************
Welcome to the Scrap that Baby's Sweet Summertime blog hop!!

Thank you so much for hopping along on our first ever blog hop!

If you didn't come from Maya's blog or you popped upon this blog and didn't realize we were blog hopping you need to go to Scrap That Baby and start the HOP! You will need to comment on ALL of the blogs to be eligible for the grand prizes listed on the main site! Plus so many of our awesome designers are giving away a prize on their blogs as well. You will not want to miss out. There are MANY MANY chances to win!

Our theme for this blog hop is SWEET SUMMERTIME!! The members of our design team will all be sharing fantastic summer projects, stories, tips or ideas for keeping cool and having fun in the summer with a baby along.

Here are a few ideas by Dani (That's me! lol):

This layout is from a trip to the beach back in April. It was actually warm then!


The format for this hop said that we could insert stories. I just want to say that I don't have any summer stories including little Mr. Jonah man. Why? Well because, being Southern, my idea of summer includes intense heat, humidity, and spending time by the lake. Here, on the central coast of California, we've barely reached 70 degrees, and those days are rare. Soo our summer this year has just consisted of hikes and doing things indoors. But next year we'll be in Texas in the summertime!

I do have some tips though. Some of you may know, my other hobby is couponing. I'm always looking out for good deals. Throughout the summer, you can find coupons for general summertime items like sunscreen and bug spray, as well as even some apparel coupons like from target.com. A lot of times the coupons won't expire for months, so hang onto them until summer is winding down and products go on clearance. Use this opportunity to stock up for next year! Same goes with summer toys and clothes for the kiddos!

And lastly, I want to share a recipe for one of my favorite summer foods. Sadly, I don't have a picture.. but trust me, it's delicious and my little man likes it too!

Spaghetti Salad
1 lb spaghetti
1 bottle Italian dressing
1 large tomato
1 bunch of green onions
1 large cucumber
vegetable seasoning
garlic powder
onion powder
celery seed

Cook spaghetti according to directions on package. Meanwhile, chop tomato, green onions, and cucumber. Once the spaghetti is drained and cooled, mix in the veggies, Italian dressing, and spices. Mix well. Refrigerate. Serve cold.


But wait, there's more! In addition to the prize you can win from the main blog, I am also hosting my own giveaway! Become a follower of my blog and comment that you did, and you will be entered to win 10 various KI Memories papers and some KI Memories embellishments.


********************************************************************************

Our blog hop run from today, August 18th until August 22nd . Invite your
friends to play for extra entries. You must comment on all the blogs for a chance at the main prize
The Scrap that Baby blog will be drawing for prizes on Wednesday August 25th! .

The next stop on the blog hop is........ BRANDI!

Habitat for Humanity warehouse sale.

Daniel and I were driving to the post thrift store the other day (which we found out is only open 2 days a week for only 5 hours..lol), and we saw a sign for a warehouse sale. Curious, we followed the signs and saw that it was a Habitat for Humanity sale. Apparently, they take the stuff that they take out of old houses and sale it at their warehouse. AWESOME, right?! I figured that this would be the perfect place to find shelves for my scraproom or even some things that I could turn in to craft projects! I was sooo excited! Turns out, we made it just in time because they were about to close. That made it even better, because everyone that goes to these types of sales knows that at the end of the day the seller is wayyy more likely to bargain with you. And EVEN BETTER than that is that they have this sale once a month! WOO!!

Anyways, in the first little section we found a desk (well, actually 2 exactly alike). The moment I saw it, I knew it was perfect. If life were a movie, the desk would be glowing and angels would be singing! LOL! It was originally priced at $75, but had been marked down through the day. When we got there, it was $30. I sent Daniel, the alpha male, to bargain with the guy and we ended up taking it home for $20! I know that it needs a new paint job and some TLC, but for now I'm using it. I figured that when we get to our next duty station (where we will be buying a house!!!!!), I will finally get to decorate my scraproom the way I want, and will paint it then.

So here's my new and improved scrapping area!


And here's the other side, still a little cluttered from all of the rearranging I've been doing.


Not to be outdone, Jonah just HAD to have his own little desk too ;)


So I encourage you all to see if your local Habitat for Humanity chapter has these awesome warehouse sales!!

Getting back into the swing of things...

I think I'm finally, finally, FINALLY getting back into the swing of things, though it hasn't helped that we've been without internet service for 3 days. I've been scrapping though.. and it has been SOOO much fun! I actually did a layout today, but I will be sharing it on Wednesday. Why Wednesday, you ask... well check back in on Wednesday and find out. ;) I promise you won't be disappointed.

A new prompt was posted at Scrap That Baby yesterday!! The prompt, Step By Step, is to scrap baby walking, crawling, rolling, or any other way they can be 'on the move'! This prompt was actually ALMOST perfect for me, as Jonah just took off and started walking the other day. He had had first steps already and would walk a few at a time, but he's walking at least 8-10 steps at a time now. Anyways, I didn't have pictures printed of that in time, so my layout is of him crawling in the sand on a trip to the beach back in April.


And since today is Monday, a new sketch was posted at Scrapbook Challenges! I really wanted to do this one REALLY badly, but since the internet was out, I couldn't get online to get the sketch, or to post it for that matter. I know this is definitely one I will go back and do in the future because it definitely fits my style! =)


And last but not least, my project was featured on Momenta's blog today. It's just a sweet and simple layout featuring the Family Ties collection, which happens to be my favorite Momenta collection!

Don't forget to check back in Wednesday for some FUN! =)
-Dani