Taking a break....

Well, for all of you who know my via scrapbooking, this will come as a bit of a surprise. I have decided to resign from all of my design teams. I am shocked at myself! I just made the Treasured Scrapbooking and Color Me Daisy Design teams. These are 2 teams of have wanted to be on for about a year. I love everything about these 2 sites. But, my life has taken a turn that I didn't expect. A good change!!!! I have been guest teaching full time since about day 6 of school this year. I am currently in a long term spot for first grade and LOVE it. My scrapbooking obsession has taken a backseat to my obsession with teaching. I LOVE coming up with creative ways to teach he curriculum. I am always thinking about what to teach, tools to support the curriculum and projects we can do on the side. That is my new creative outlet...in addition to decorating the classroom, hallway bulletin board AND coming up with crafts for the kids. I have thoroughly enjoyed being on design teams. Love it, love it, love it! But, I have noticed that my heart has not been into scrapping like it once was. My layouts are not "wowing' me anymore. I think it is time I take a break and simplify my life a little. I am thinking of doing memory books from Walgreen's every once in a while instead. That way I am still documenting life's little moments, because that will never stop in me!
I will still use my blog to post pics of what we have been doing. You just won't see many layouts. I will still scrap, but it will be because I WANT to, not because I HAVE to meet a deadline.
If you want to keep up with me....post a comment on my blog. Or, I think a bunch of my online friends are on my Facebook friend's list. If not, friend me!
Take care!
Jennifer

Heart Smiles.....

My friend Abbie makes these ADORABLE hats! Well, Natalie received her hat in the mail on Monday and we have been in love ever since. It's so stinkin' cute and so stylin'! Here are some pictures I took of her in it! You can find Abbie's Etsy store by clicking on this sentence! Check her out!

Happy Turkey Day!

Blog neglected

It seems that I have been neglecting my blog lately. I have been busy guest teaching and just started a long term spot as a first grade teacher. I am loving it! This isn't going to be the most detailed post...but it's something. All scrappy related. :)
I created this layout for Pink Ninjas. The DT of Pink Ninjas and Candy Shoppe Designs switched for a challenge. The theme for the challenge at Pink Ninjas was to scrap your alter ego, use a pink title and paint. I really am a boring person. I don't have an "alter ego" but I thought this picture of Natalie was perfect for the challenge. Sooo, I did a layout about Natalie and her batman shirt.

I added stickles to the open space in the batman felt ribbon. I have had this felt ribbon forever. It felt great to use up some of my stash!

I added pink bling to form a circle

and black bling to accent the title


ALSO.....
Creative Scrappers posted the latest sketch on Sunday. I really enjoyed this sketch. It's clean and linear.

I used the November kit from The Shaker Box to make this layout. It was packed with lots of My Little Yellow Bicycle goodies. I also made this frame

and here is a close up of the pumpkin

Happy Sunday...today's Creative Scrappers Sketch reveal....

Here is today's Creative Scrappers sketch reveal! You can see what all the other design team members did with the sketch by going here.
Here is the sketch

And here is what I did with it

I love this picture of Natalie with our 11 year old shih tzu Daisy. Daisy has to be THE best dog EVER. She is so sweet, loyal and smart.
and a close up of the orange glittery stars


Thanks for stopping by!

Doing the happy Scrappy Dance

I am soooo excited to have made the design team for the kit club Color Me Daisy!

Watch your language!

LOL! Did that catch your attention. The challenge at Candy Shoppe Designs proves that this blog is not just any ordinary blog! You can find all the details on this challenge by going here.

Here is my layout. This is all about when I thought my dryer was broken. I was hanging my clothes to dry until my Dad could come take a look at it. Well, he took it all apart and was confused because the dryer was getting power on his meter. Well, he looks up and tells me to flip the dial....the dial the goes from AIR FLUFF to HEAT! Yes, it was never broken, I just had forgotten I set the dryer to AiR FLUFF! Well, as my brother puts it....I pulled a Jennifer. Talk about embarrassing!! Just another story for the book of funny things I do.!!

Here is a close up of the ribbon



The WINNER of this challenge will be voted for by the Lollipop Girls of C.S.D. and announced on the blog on Wednesday, October 28, 2009. The WINNER will win a 309 Piece Collection Kit by Sassafras Lass called "Starry Night" from the Life is Beautiful Line.

Our Wonderful SPONSOR for this Challenge is Jill Coody, owner of Memorable Seasons. Be sure to check them out for all your latest needs when it comes to capturing the seasons of life. Sign up for her Newsletter to keep up with all the sales and promotions she's got going on, participate on her Forums and join in the fun challenges she hosts on the Memorable Seasons BLOG for even more fun. You'll be SO glad you did!

Happy Scrappy News

I am on the Design Team for the sketch site Creative Scrappers!!

Sketch Sunday

Today is the reveal of Sketch 73 at Creative Scrappers

Here is what this week's sketch looks like, created by LG


And this is my interpretation of it.


Thanks!
Have a great Sunday!

Proud Mom!

I had a very proud Mom moment on Saturday. Natalie scored her first goal in soccer!! I am so proud of her. It was such a rainy, chilly day and she really did an outstanding job playing. This is the same girl that walked off the field crying the first week because she thought she was bad at soccer. Unfortunately, I think the weather weakened her immune system because she woke up Sunday with a 102 temp. She took today off from school and is doing much better.
Here is my worn out girl walking back to the car in the wet, chilly weather

We went to Micky D's to do some celebrating


Ta ta for now....I am so proud of Natalie that I feel this deserves it's own blog post. :)

Fashionably Geek Challenge at Candy Shoppe Designs

The Fashionably Geek Challenge is posted on Candy Shoppe Designs!

Here is the layout I did.
We had to use a black background, white title, plaid and an apple. My apple is on the cover of the Twilight book. I had to do a layout about these books. I started reading the Twilight book this Summer and was completely hooked! I actually read it to prove that you don't get hooked...well, that didn't happen. I had the next 2 books on reserve a the library but went and bought them because I couldnt' wait that long until it was my turn. LOL. Would you believe I am reading Breaking Dawn right now and have not finished it!? I have had it for about 2 months, too. I think I don't want my Twilight series to end. Anywho, here is my layout and some close ups. I wanted to use a lot of luxurious items on my layout to replicate the lifestyle of the vampires in the book...pearls, bling and velvet.







Fashionably Geek Challenge
Due Date: Midnight (est) Monday, October 10, 2009
Oh! You didn't know that "Geek" was the new "Black?" Well, now you know! Let's rock this Challenge in the name of all geeks!
Rules are simple.....

-The base of your Paper Creation should be BLACK. It doesn't have to be all black or even plain black, but black. With that said, you don't have to create a layout. It can be any kind of Paper Creation (a layout, a card, a mini album, an altered item, etc.).
-The title/journaling on your Paper Creation (should you choose to add one) should be WHITE.
-You must include a PLAID, CHECKERED or ARGYLE PRINT and
-You must include an APPLE. It doesn't matter how many.
Already created a Paper Creation that fits into these rules? Awesome! Go ahead and enter it into the Challenge! They don't need to be new.

We are doing away with the POINT SYSTEM and instead strictly going by the voting from the Lollipop Girls from now on. So, do your best job and Good Luck! The Winner will be announced on 14 October.

Emily Nelson, Owner and Designer of E.A.D. Designs is our Fashionably Geek Challenge Sponsor. E.A.D. Designs is a family owned and operated business. Emily Nelson started E.A.D. Designs in 2002 and in a few short years it has grown into one of the largest retailers/wholesalers for Vinyl Lettering and Wall Art. With a passion for Crafts & Design, Emily was able to stay at the top of her game with the newest and hottest trends and this year she launched a Scrapbooking Vinyl Rub-On Line.

She has donated a sample of some of her Vinyl Rub-On Sets (Family Words, Time Well Spent, Vintage and What a Hoot) and they will go to 1 LUCKY Sweetheart of C.S.D. after the Challenge is over. The Vinyl is acid-free so they are perfect for your Scrapbooking Projects and the great thing about them is that they won't rub off!

Scrappy Fun!

Last Monday I was so lucky to meet one of my online scrappy friends. Kim and I met each other from a "few" different sites we both hang out at. She mentioned that she was going to be in MI for her sister's wedding. I asked here where, and come to find out it was 40 minutes from where I live. Kim is SO nice!! She drove to my little town where we had lunch and chatted for such a long time.


Another great thing in my scrappy world is that I am joining the last 3 sketches for Creative Scrappers. I am so excited to be back, they truly have some of the most inspiring sketches around. Here is this week's sketch.

And here is my interpretation of it
Some'bunny' new to love

Homecoming!

Yesterday was the big Homecoming Parade. We usually just line up and watch the parade. This year we went to the school first. The school was putting on a hot dog sale..hot dogs were $1. We then walked up to town to watch the parade. I forgot to bring something for Natalie to put her candy in, but my purse worked quite well. LOL. I checked the University Den for hair stuff since the University of Michigan and Mattawan both have blue and gold for school colors. There was barely anything so I just made her ponytail holders. Here's Natalie showing her school spirit.

Here's to a great week....

This was Natalie's first full week of school. I am so proud of her because on Thursday and Friday she walked to her bus all by herself at dismissal. Go figure, her bus is one of the very last ones which is at the opposite end of both schools. She was so proud so I treated her to a Bug Juice. :) I was able to sub 2 1/2 days already and was so excited to see her at school when she came in at the afternoon. Gosh, if feels so good to be back in the classroom. Picture Day was on Wednesday. Natalie looked so cute, but of course she had a monster of a mosquito bite right between her eyes. The mosquitoes have been really bad lately and she really swelled up from them. When she was 2 she had one right by her eye which swelled to the point her eye swelled shut. It was horrible. I have seen so many kids with tons of bites and tennis ball sized swells. I wouldn't mind one good freeze at night to kill the mosquitoes off, and then warm right back up again.

On Monday I got a call from my SIL and she told me that they knew of someone giving away a bunny. Jenny and Brad didn't want it because they just got a bunny for Katie last month. Apparently my BIL met someone in the pet store who was looking for a home for their bunny with all it's home goodies for FREE. If they couldn't find a home they were going to shoot it!! EEEEK!!! So my BIL called the poeple and even went an d picked it up for us. Natalie's been wanting one for quite some time and I thought it would be a good little pet for her. He's such a little cutie and really friendly. We put a litter box in his cage and he already does his business in that.



We had our second soccer game today! Boy, did my girls do AWESOME!! We won by a score of 9+ to 0. I wasn't keeping score but my Dad quit counting at 9. I am pretty proud because I feel like I taught them some things at practice and they used those skills at the game today. Here is a picture of Natalie and I after our game last week.

And Natalie. I love these uniforms because they are reversible. When we are the home team we play with the green side, the away team we wear the silver side. All the kids have the same uniform which makes for easy uniform orders when adding a new player to the team at the last second.

And I already scrapped a layout about it. I stitched the black lines on the soccer ball and the white movement of the ball.


And here are 2 more layouts I have done using my Treasured Scrapbooking Kit for my Guest Design Team spot. I have SO much more stuff left that I could scrap a ton more.

Natalie's friends do have faces, **insert giggle**


Oh, and you may have noticed that I need to approve comments now. So sad that I must do this, but I actually had a spam comment. Ugh!

Guess that's all for now, have a great rest of your weekend!

Candy Shoppe Designs Sweet 16

Candy Shoppe Designs is looking for any way to celebrate...and what better than a Sweet 16 blog hop. Today is the 16th day Candy Shoppe has been up and running and things have been a blast already!!


If you have stopped by my blog for the Sweet 16 challenge...then here are your simple instructions. Each DT member has simple instructions posted one her blog for you to create an amazing layout. It's sort of like a blind layout challenge via a blog hop...I LOVE these!

The 6th SIMPLE STEP for you is to layer your chosen photo (with an edge) over the cut piece of patterned paper that you did on STEP 3.

Add my simple instructions to your layout and go back to the CSD blog to post something new you have learned about me.

Here are the RULES for the Sweet 16 Blog Hop challenge
Rules:
1. You must complete the Blog Hop in the order listed. Please do not skip over anyone. If you find that there is a dead end somewhere through the Hop please wait a little bit as we are all on separate time zones.
2. After each Lollipop Girl's Blog you visit you will be directed back here to C.S.D. to check-in. CHECK-IN by leaving a COMMENT under this post letting us all know 1 thing you have learned about that particular Lollipop Girl you just visited that you never knew beforehand. Also, let us know how you are coming along with your layout and anything else you'd like to share.
3. You MUST follow the SIMPLE STEP that each Lollipop Girl lays out for you. In the end of it all you should have a completed layout with YOUR interpretation of the SIMPLE STEPS we gave you.
4. You MUST enter the layout you completed during the Blog Hop into the Challenge for the Lollipop Guild Kit Blog Candy. You may create as many layouts as you'd like by doing the Blog Hop over again for extra chances at winning.

Here is the layout I created following the instructions given

I used
Bazill cardstock
PP is Basic Grey
Pearls, flowers and ribbon-unknown




A few random facts about me...
I love watching Ghost Hunters and any "real" paranormal shows
I returned to college when I was 27 and graduated with Honors when I was 32.
If I were still married, today would have been my 9th Anniversary
I can't stand meat in my spaghetti

The school journey has begun!

School is back in session! Yesterday was the first day of school. All of the kids went back except Kindergartners. We had a half our time block in which we went to Natalie's room, gathered some information, found her locker and most importantly...got her name tag with school bus information. This is the 3rd time we've been to school in preparation for the school year, and let me just say that I think it's a GREAT idea! Natalie was really happy to see another girl from Kiddie U in her room, and Meaghan seemed just as excited.
Here she is entering the school

Here we are together

Here she is in front of the office entrance of the school. It seems like yesterday I was entering these doors every single day as an elementary student. Now I will enter them as a Mom AND guest teacher.

Today was the official day Kindergartners rode the bus to school. Even though Natalie's been excited, I was concerned she'd really cry. We got down to the Kiddie U bus stop about 45 minutes early. We took some photos and then I saw all the kids that were in preschool come out of the building. It's so hard to believe that these kids are in Kindergarten. All of the kids who are catching the bus at the Kiddie U bus stop joined the line. This one little boy was crying so hard and holding his Dad's leg. I was about losing it then. I thought Natalie might get upset but she didn't. She did great up until the bus pulled up. She started to get nervous and grabbed my pants and shed a few tears. The little girl in front of her also started to cry. Both girls got on the bus with the help of Johanna (the owner of Kiddie U--she is AWESOME) Next thing I know, Natalie's waving out the window at me with all smiles. I drove to school to watch her get off the bus. Wasn't sure if this was a good idea but I did it anyway. The principal escorts each child off the bus and hands them over to another school adult. They then guide the children to their teacher's line. Each child had a color coordinated name tag that matched their teacher's sign. Natalie got off the bus full of smiles. She told me, "I knew I'd see you down here!" I took a couple more pics and then left. She did GREAT!! I saw a friend who has twin boys entering Kindergarten also. We both left, teary eyed and reflecting on the past 5 years....they truly do go by way too fast!
Here are some pics of today

Waiting for the bus


The iCarly backpack

Me and my girl

Her bus arriving at school....principal is on greeting the children before escorting them off. He is an AMAZING principal!!

Natalie once she got off the bus...all smiles


So, our journey has begun. I can't believe it! I am thrilled that today went well and can't wait to hear how her day went. One more hour until her bus arrives!