did i mention...

i won!

my friend mrs. L over at pages, pucks and pantry hosted a giveaway to celebrater her second blogiversary and i won one of the prizes. the numbers were drawn by her adorable kitten tiggher.

and this is what i won:
the paper crafts gourmet book!

If you love both food and paper crafting, Paper Crafts Gourmet is the perfect recipe book for you! In this mouth-watering publication, you'll find over 50 original recipes from the family and friends of Paper Crafts magazine. Then the country's most talented paper craft designers whipped up over 110 projects to complement these incredibly savory recipes. Projects include clever containers, gorgeous tags and wraps, fun food markers, cards to accompany your food gifts, and much, much more! If your favorite foods include Soups & Stews, Breads, Appetizers, Main Dishes, Beverages, Desserts, and Snacks, then the variety of recipes inside is sure to satisfy the pickiest of eaters!

scrap happy...

last weekend a friend arranged for us to go to her co-workers cabin at pine mountain lake for a weekend of scrapbooking and fun.
here's the cabin:

here is some of us working on our projects:

this is panda:

this is daisy and bella:

this is bella:

here is notsoccer mom and me at the lake:

me and my niece at the lake:


it was hotter than hades during the day. fortunately we (notsoccer mom, my niece and i) had a room in the nice cool basement. i got 26 pages done in my rome 2005 scrapbook. i don't feel so bad now that i know the homeowner that hosted us was working on a book from her trip to china in 2000!

National Scrapbooking day!

National Scrapbooking Day 2009!

Here are the top ten scrapping activities for this fun day:

1. Attend a crop or scrapbooking party! Of course, this would be #1 on the list! There is nothing better, and more motivating, than to scrap with friends! If you didn't plan to attend a crop, be spontaneous and consider inviting some friends over!

2. Go shopping! No scrapper can resist buying some new goodies! If you find that you are on more of a shoestring budget, set yourself a limit, say $5.00, and buy some new papers or some new stickers.

3. Scrap by yourself! We all do this on other days of the year, but at the very least, do some scrapbooking by yourself today if you aren't getting together with others.

4. Learn a new technique! Even if you aren't signed up for your local scrapbook stores (LSS) classes, turn to the internet to learn to learn a new technique for your pages. Visit your favorite search engine, and type in what you would like to learn about.

5. Join a new email list! There are literally hundreds of scrapbooking email lists on the internet, so why not join a new one! Just visit sites such as http://groups.yahoo.com or http://www.topica.com and put the word "scrapbooking" into their search box. Even if you don't want the extra email, you can always read the messages on the web!

6. Submit your best layouts to magazines! If you find that you are home on National Scrapbooking Day, why not submit some of your best layouts to magazines?

7. Organize! Is your scrapbook area getting a little cluttered? Spend some time organizing and decluttering it! While this may not sound like a fun thing to do, it is essential to have a neat scrapping space to create your masterpieces.

8. Copy And Steal Everything (CASE)! One of the best ways to get ideas for your own layouts is to see what other scrappers have created. Spend some time reviewing your favorite scrapping magazines or visit a site such as scrapbooking.com to be inspired.

9. Try something different! Have you always wanted to use your rubber stamps in your layout? Maybe you would like to try the use of wire, jute, buttons, or ribbon? If you have always thought of using something non-scrapbooking related in your album, spend some time doing just that!

10. Teach! I think one of the best way to spend National Scrapbooking Day is to teach a non-scrapper your favorite hobby! Think of at least one friend or family member that doesn't scrapbook, invite them over (be sure to have them bring some photos), and let them use your supplies to create a few pages. Before you know it, you will have a new scrappin' buddy!

i want...

one of these!


oh, and this too.

if necessity is the mother of invention...

then being poor is the mother of creativity.

this christmas, after not working for 6 months i didn't have much money for gifts. but i knew that notsoccer mom has plans to makeover her scrapbooking room and that her colors of choice for the room are browns and blues. and i had finally finished the brown and blue lap blanket that i started for her a while back (if we ask her nicely, maybe she will post a photo of it!).

being a scrapbooker means that you can never have too much storage for embellishments.

i got this hard cardboard box at michaels. it was basic white. so i wrapped it with some beautiful(at least i think so) brown and blue papers and embellished it with ribbons and charms and even some bling. then i filled it with a bunch of scraping things that i had picked up during the year.

the top has a curly loose ribbon of blue and brown all around it. i added the charms "best friend" and a pretty heart, and spelled out NSM's name with rhinestone letters.


the top and the sides are two different papers in the same tones. around the top lip of the box i wrapped a stripe of blue and one of brown ribbon to finish it off.

i know i was thrilled with how it all came together. i was inspired to do this project by a photo i had seen in an old issue of creating keepsakes magazine for hat boxes that were decorated to look like birthday cakes.

i hope that notsoccer mom enjoys using it as much as i enjoyed making it!

weekend scrapping...

these are the first four pages of the trip to cabo from last year. i did these on saturday and gave them to roommate L.
(click to embiggen any of the images)

it's D day...

or rather "I" day. i go to the hematologist at 11:30 for the blood draw that is going to decide my future. ok, maybe it's not THAT dramatic... but it will determine if i am to start IV iron or not.
UPDATED: SHITAKE! my levels are still too low so i will be spending 6-7 hours tomorrow at the oncology infusion center getting an IV infusion of iron. :(

on top of that, last week after my root canal i lost all sense of smell and taste so the ENT has me on an anti-viral medication which of course includes me taking yet another course of steroids. yay, lucky me!

on the bright side, i finally finished the postcard project i wanted to do and will post pix of that later. i also scrapped four pages of pictures from my trip to cabo last november with Roommate L and gave them to her, and yesterday i FINALLY started my italy scrapbook from my trip in 2005 and have seven pages done! yay me!

all that in addition to cutting up two pineapples, five mangoes, six kiwis, one watermelon and baking a pineapple upside down cake from scratch for Notsoccer Mom's end of summer/back to school luau on saturday night. that was fun. she had the perfect mix of people which made for great conversations. and her son, the wonderously talented eight year old organized the other kids and they did a show for all the adults.

if you're looking for me on friday...

i'll be at the scrapbook expo in santa clara with notsoccer mom.

woo hoo! can't wait to see what's new in the world of scrapbooking because i am getting ready to start scrapping my 2005 trip to rome.