27 March 2012

look at that

I have got excess baggage under my eyes. Must be my total lack of sleep and working my hind end off at the Book Fair. It's all worth it in the end. Small price to pay for all the happy kids with their new books. I can rest on Saturday....

ALL DAY

IN MY JAMMIES

ON THE COUCH OR IN MY BED

DOING NOTHING!

I AM SO LOOKING FORWARD TO IT.

23 March 2012

oh the fun begins!


It is that time again! The Scholastic Book Fair is here! Which means I will not be around much for the coming week. Lots to do and so much fun to be had. I cannot wait. Guess I should get my day started and get the kiddos moving as well. Pictures of the Fair will be coming soon. I need to work on the finishing touches today. I need more hours and more arms to get everything done. But it will work out wonderfully!! It always does.

22 March 2012

back to 2008

And our trip to Walt Disney World! I finally embraced my clean and simple side and am moving through my pictures and feeling good about it. I have been stressing about making every layout a super duper days spent on it and every embellishment and technique used on them kind of layout. I have let go of that expectation and am shooting on getting them out of the box and into an album. (or two or three)

I will say this epiphany came from my friend Melissa. There will still be other pages that do get the special overdone treatment, but more often than not, I do believe they will be pretty clean and simple. On with the show...

This first set was in Pooh's Playful Spot that has since been removed from the landscape of the Magic Kingdom. The kids both loved playing here and it was a good spot to relax for the parents. All of my pages were at one time based on a pagemap but then once I get creating, I sort of move away from the pagemap. But they did start with some help.


More hanging at the play spot. Love the pictures and the kids faces. Used one of my EKSuccess border punches to make the orange accents for this page. The chipboard words came with a bunch of Pooh characters in a pack. I cannot remember who makes them as the packaging has been gone for a bit.


Liberty Tree Tavern when they still had characters visit your table. Alex was able to tolerate the characters as long as they didn't get too close. He would turn his head or hide his eyes so he couldn't see them and they couldn't see him. But he didn't scream or cry. The papers are from a DCWV summer paper stack from a few years back. I got out my red machine Sizzix and two different Sizzlit fonts to make the title.


The Pooh parade at the Crystal Palace. Kira had a blast! She did very well with spinning her napkin and walking. The papers are from a DCWV spring stack from a few years back. The chipboard letters are from a Christmas kit I purchased ages ago. The colors worked so on the layout they went!


Been busy since yesterday was Alex's 6th birthday. 6?? oh my word... where has the time gone? Seriously. He was just a baby and now he is almost through with kindergarten. Time really needs to slow on down. Off to get creative and do laundry.

12 March 2012

card sketch challenge

oh my goodness! Three posts in one day! Don't drop from shock. Not sure what is going on but I am happy to have actually sat down to scrap and done something besides staring into space (or at my computer). I used the sketch below from one of sketch challenge card groups. This is an extra bonus card sketch for March. They keep us on our toes at this group and I love it!



So here is what I came up with. I was feeling a bit green today (totally different than feeling blue) so I searched for some St. Patrick's Day themed papers and it the jackpot with these great papers from a DCWV Spring stack from who knows when. It's here so it got used. The stamp I purchased about a month ago since I had no shamrock stamps and thought everyone should have one. It was a set from Studio G at Joanns for a buck. Can't go wrong there!! 

I did some stitching and had fun coloring in the shamrock. I am happy with how this came out. Hope the lucky recipient likes it. But we'll have to wait a bit before I tell who this is for. Don't want to ruin the surprise!


I do think that is it for me today. I have a walk to go on with the town to support the purchasing of land so we may one day have a new school built. Plus it is an extremely gorgeous kind of spring day here. The air will do me good.

march sketch challenge

Look at that... two posts in one day from me! Now if both of them had been scrapping stuff that would have been even more of a miracle. I spent the morning in the art room at the school. Actually I was in the hallways of the school hanging up some of the most beautiful artwork you could imagine for the school wide art show that goes on for the entire month of March. Those kids are truly talented.

Anywho... in the sketch challenge group I am in, this was the sketch for March. Pretty neat one. I do believe I shall use this again as it was pretty easy to do and I can see different ways to add pictures and such.



Here is my take on the sketch. I used my scoring board to make the flower medallions and used one of my EK Success border punches for the circle borders. I wish they would put the name of the punch on the punch. It would make it easier when trying to describe things. I guess I could have put it on when I bought it, but alas, I did not.

Alex got to paint an ornament while Kira was doing two projects for a Girl Scout badge. He took his time and was really careful about where he put the 'ornaments' on the tree. I did the trunk of the tree and filled in some of the paint on the sides that he missed but he did everything else. It came out so nice. He hung it on his Christmas tree and it will be a treasured ornament for years to come.


Thanks for stopping by to peek. I need to work on a card... hoping to get some inspiration. Wish me luck.

update to vent

After much thought on the matter, I did return to the Kittery Outlets to ask for a price adjustment on my Childrens Place purchase. It took a bit of time for the girl to ring in the return as she had to type in each of the numbers for the items (and I had purchased quite a few items) and then she rescanned everything and I received a lovely discount of about $50! Really worth it to me.

While I was standing there waiting for the girl to type everything in, the girl who waited on my yesterday was next to her and someone tried to use a Childrens Place retail coupon and she told them that they were two separate "companies" now but that she could offer her the outlet coupon discount instead!! WHAT??? Why couldn't she have done that with me yesterday?? Why did I have to travel back up there to go through all this??

I do believe I am writing to the company (I already took their online survey) but I think a district manager needs to know of this.

Feeling better already.

10 March 2012

had to share and a vent

Okay first off what an incredibly LONG and tiring week it has been keeping the electronics off in our house. Alex was pretty easy going with it, Kira however was quite the grump about it by the end of the week. Of course her beloved reading is not the same as playing her DS. Looks like she will be unplugged some more.

Anywho... at the Family Dance Party, I hung this amazing banner that we got from Staples for $19.99! Seriously. Hubby had a coupon for a 6' x 2.5' banner. Love it. The graphic I will let you know came from my favorite of favorite Aliens. She did such a great job on it. LOVE IT!! It was the logo for the week of fun we had (we being the PTA).

I was the photographer at the Dance Party taking pictures of the families and groups of kids which I then emailed to the parents so they would have these great memories. I had to test my lighting and such and I had two adorable subjects on hand....


This is before they danced like fools all night and were hot and sweaty. But they are kinda cute! It was a fun night. I need to get the pictures hubby has of Alex 'break dancing' on the dance floor from his phone. So cute.

Now for the vent... today went to the Childrens Place outlet up in Kittery, Maine. We usually go there since the closest mall with a Childrens Place is about 45 minutes away and they have a better selection as it is a bigger store than most of the mall ones. I loaded up my mesh bag full of jeans for Alex (he is destroying the knees on all of his jeans), short sleeved polos for Alex, capris for Kira and a couple of tank tops. Pretty full bag when we got done.

I get in line with my coupon for 25% off and my Place Card which gives me an additional 5% off my sale. I'm thinking I am doing well. The girl rings me up and we do the small chat stuff. She sees the coupon I have and continues to ring me up. At the end she gives me the total before my discounts and I hand her my coupon and card. She looks at the coupon, converses with the girl next to her and tells me my coupon does not work in the outlets. ummm... since when?? I have been doing this for some time now (like since Kira was born) She tells me they have separated the two companies. Now there is the Childrens Place in the malls and Childrens Place Outlets. hmmm... I must have missed that email that they sent to all their customers on this big change. Especially since I am a Place Card holder AND I get their emails practically every day with coupons.

I was like okay ring it up whatever. Then I get thinking about it after we leave and I am not happy in the least. Now as it is about 4 1/2 hours later, I am really really not happy about it. So I go and look in my inbox and there is an email from Childrens Place Outlets. It's the only one so this is something very very new. I open it and there is a coupon there for 25% off!! ummm... I had one of those. They couldn't have used the correct code (as I am sure it was somewhere in their computer system having worked retail before I know these things) since obviously I have received emails from Childrens Place. Tomorrow we are going back up there after a birthday party and I am getting my discount or they can return my entire purchase and forget about me shopping there again.

Don't mess with someone who has worked retail before. I know how things work and they could have done something for me especially since the amount was over $200. grrrr. Not like I went in for one shirt on sale for $2.99 and wanted it cheaper, I was buying a full bag of stuff.

If you have made it to the end, thanks. If not... no biggie. I feel better getting it off my chest. Now I can have a nice evening with hubby. TTFN

06 March 2012

the first of alex's turning 6 celebrations

Every year we head to Syracuse to celebrate Alex's birthday in February when everyone is on break. It makes his birthday stretch out for about a month. I don't think he minds much. Here's Kira, my father in law, Alex and hubby waiting for everyone to arrive so we can start the party!! As you can tell... Alex was beside himself waiting to open his gifts.


Here is a great shot of him opening a Pokemon figure. Cannot tell you which one of the 600+ there are, but he can and that's all that matters.


Another pretty exciting find from Grandpa.


Time for a big ole hug for Grandpa for such a great present. Can you say excited?? Love the smile on Grandpa's face.


Here's another happy smile for a Pokemon. Okay... so he can be a bit of a ham.


The AMAZING cake created by the wonderful bakers at Wegmans. I sent my parents into the store with a picture of a cake and they recreated it perfectly! We supplied the figures but they did the rest. I was so happy. I am writing a letter to the store for making my little guy so happy on his day.


Had to share this picture of Alex. Whenever he wears a shirt with buttons, that is where his hand usually rests. I love that I captured it for all time!!


Big wind there! Happy pre- 6th birthday big guy!!


It was a good but quick trip to Syracuse as we got snowed in on Thursday and had to leave on Friday instead. Hoping to go back at the end of May for the newest Foltz addition from brother and sister in law, but with these insane gas prices we'll have to see. Filling up caused major sticker shock to us. Seriously... we filled up in Syracuse after driving the entire trip and it cost us $71.55 for 18 gallons! Coming home it was $63.05 for 17 gallons. ouchie!