Wreck This Journal!

I was so excited when the UPS guy dropped off this book yesterday! It's the latest from Keri Smith and those art journalers among you are going to loooove it! Nattie and I had the chance to look through it briefly last night, and there were some awesome prompts including things like:

glue a random page from a newspaper here;

poke holes in this page using a pencil;

fill in this page when you are really ANGRY; and my personal favorite...

glue in a photo of yourself you dislike. Deface.

What a fun project for the Summer!

In other news :) I took Iain and Jamie to the airport this morning; they'll arrive in Glasgow (Scotland) around noon tomorrow. Jamie was super-excited all the way until I said goodbye to them after check-in. Then his big blue eyes teared up and he just held me tight...OMG...I had to take a couple of minutes in the car before driving home. What a moment! I do plan on making the most of these 10 days with Nattie though!

Ramblings :)

First, today's blog challenge over on Two Peas:

3 Things I like about ME are my sense of humor (gotta have that!), my creativity and my support as a wife/mom/friend :)

3 Things I don't like about ME.. or things I could do without, about me are my weight (no-brainer!), my grey hair, and my anxiety about too many things!

So, we made it to Shrek 3 last night (had to drive through a very heavy rainstorm! Yuk!). I'd agree with what most people have said; it's not as good as the first 2 - but we still laughed a lot! Of course, the kids laughed at things like burping, but Iain and I laughed too; Donkey is still one of my favorite movie characters ever!

20 Random Questions....

I saw these on Anilu's blog (thanks to Anilu!) and thought they'd be fun to answer...feel free to copy and paste on your own blog :) Enjoy!

1. regular or diet soda: Regular Sprite
2. salt or pepper: Salt
3. hot or cold weather: Definitely cold!
4. dogs or cats: Cats right now, but Nattie is being very persistent about getting a dog :)
5. dieting or exercise: Exercise, although I need to do both :)
6. cooking or doing dishes: I usually do the cooking and Iain clears up and loads the dishwasher. Works for us!
7. sleeping or shopping: Shopping - for scrapbooking supplies or stationery
8. Red Lobster or Outback Steakhouse: Outback - Alice Springs Chicken
9. classical or hip hop music: Classical.
10. dancing or playing sports: Dancing, I've never been very athletic.
11. back rub or foot rub: Back rub - not a foot rub fan at all!
12. fruits or vegetables: Fruit - my favorites are strawberries and melon!
13. Grey's Anatomy or House: Grey's Anatomy. I can't get the image of Hugh Laurie in "Blackadder" out of my memory!
14. coffee or tea: Tea - Earl Grey with sugar
15. curling up with a good book or a night out on the town: Curling up with a book. That's an easy one!
16. Straight hair or curly hair: Curly. That's what I have to work with so I'd better like it :)
17. skirts or shorts: Shorts
18. burgers/hot dogs or Chinese food: Chinese.
19. vacationing in Switzerland or Mexico: Definitely Switzerland - lots to explore!
20. sports car or SUV: SUV for sure (except for the gas guzzling!)

Long Weekend!

We had a lovely, quiet weekend at home. On Saturday Iain took Jamie for a haircut while I finished my paper at home. Sunday morning was a lazy one spent drinking tea and reading my magazines, and then in the afternoon we went for a walk around Lake Evergreen and also around the little shops in Main Street (Nattie's favorites!). Hot dogs and ice cream for a late lunch, then we headed home.

On Sunday we went for a walk around the neighborhood; I love how every house here is so different! Iain and I are both starting to get the "painting bug"; we've been in the house for 8 months and it's time to get some color on those cream-colored walls! First up I think will be Nattie's bedroom which she says she wants to be orange or yellow. We'll have a look at some paint chips this week....

Today's Two Peas blog challenge is to share your favorite scrapbooking organization tips. Since we moved my scrap space is much smaller so I've become much more resourceful with my storage :) I put all my ribbon on 2" metal rings and hung them on the wall from mug hooks; I can see the colors easily and I've hung them on pieces of the wall which would otherwise be empty, leaving me more space for all those plastic drawers and containers :) I'll try and get some photos of my scrap room this week (but first I'll have to tidy it! LOL!).

Summertime.....

is almost here! The kids just have one week left of school. I can't believe it! Tuesday is Jamie's last day at preschool....sniff, sniff...

I'm sure many of us will be firing up the grill at some point this long weekend. Whatever you're up to, have fun!

And check out the BRAND NEW stamps for Summer over at The Cat's Pajamas! They are so fresh and unique! Click here for the stamps and here for the gallery. Let me know what you think!

Belated Happy Birthday to CJ!

To my friend Jackie's son, CJ :) He turned 9 this week! I remember when he was just born when we went to visit them in Boston....man, I feel old! This birthday card is of course made with stamps from The Cat's Pajamas! Look out for the Summer line hitting the site very soon...it is gorgeous!

Not too much going on here this weekend; Iain just got back from a week in Brazil and I have the laundry to catch up on! The weather is beautiful here, high 60s forecast for the weekend. Love it!

The 4 of us are going to see Shrek The Third on Tuesday; I've read mixed reviews to I'm excited to see what it's like. We're huge Shrek fans so I hope we won't be disappointed!

Now, off to work on that paper for school....

Generosity

What does generosity mean to me? I believe that generosity involves thinking of others first, and giving of yourself. Not material things, but your time, friendship, support and love. At least that's the way I'm trying to teach it to my kids. I also tell them that unprompted generosity is special as well!

In that same theme, here are some pages from a CJ I worked on this month. The title is "gifts" and we all have to make mini-books from the coasters supplied. The circle is about halfway done, and the work already completed was just inspiring! The rest of the book is in my gallery at Two Peas; just click here.

Have a great holiday weekend!

A visitor in the night...

Yikes! It looks like we had a visit from a bear last night... Nattie went out to wait for the school bus this morning and found these footprints crossing the driveway (yep, that's snow, at the end of May!). She came running back in and of course I ran out with my camera (after checking for bears!). First we thought it was a mountain lion, but the back feet are just too big. I checked a few internet sites to compare mountain lion and bear tracks, and they definitely resemble bears more. I wish I could have seen it :)

Today's blog challenge on Two Peas is to use one word to describe your knowledge of the internet. I think mine would be advanced. I can navigate my way around, particularly if I'm shopping or looking for a certain piece of information, and find what I need very quickly. Great question!

The snow is melting, thank goodness, but I am glad that we were able to see the tracks of our nighttime visitor as a result :)

Treasured relationships.

Today's blog challenge on Two Peas is all about relationships: which are your most treasured relationships right now?

Mine is my relationship with my hubby. I try to always keep at the front of my mind that one day the kids will grow up and leave home and it'll just be the two of us again! Iain and I still laugh together on a daily basis which is huge with all the everyday stress; I love that we can still just "hang out" and chat like we did when we first met :) After almost 17 years together, we must be doing something right!

Mommy-isms :)

This layout is one of my circle journal layouts for this month. The journal is all about things moms say or do...there is some great wisdom in this journal! Kirstie will have a great time reading through it when she gets it back later this year.