Design Team Layout

I'm not sure I ever formally announced it but I actually made a DESIGN TEAM. Thank you to Jill at The Scrapaholic for accepting me to her sketch team. I missed the first sketch because of vacation (and the playground) but I did get the layout finished up last night.


Here is the sketch she gave us to work with.....




I don't know about you guys but I've never started with a sketch and had the layout coming out looking like the sketch but I LOVE using them as a starting point. I flipped this sketch since it fit my pictures better and instead of using all the ribbon, I went with leaves since it fit the subject in my pictures better but stayed with the overall layout in the sketch.



The journaling hasn't been finished yet because I want to sit down with Jake about what he wants it to say. These are pictures taken when the class went to the home of a class member who was killed in a tractor accident and planted a tree for the family. I really feel like he needs to give me input on what to journal on this page.

If you like the sketch and want to join in on the fun, Jill is sponsoring a challenge on her blog that you can participate in. Join us at www.thescrapoholic.blogspot.com starting Saturday, July 23rd and share your layout with us.

I'm adding to my resume

I'm going to add playground designer to my resume.LOL

The last few weeks all my spare time has been consumed by either vacation (can I go back?) or working at my daughter's new home helping her get everything in order for a state daycare license. The playground has taken forever but I think it is finally getting there.

We started with a fence I found on Craigslist......quite by accident! Then an idea that has been brewing for a loooooong time started taking shape. A tire tunnel.


it started out looking like this........both my brothers, my nephew and a friend of ours all pitched in one night to help Joni/Marcus/Larry/Jake and I put the fence up and bury the tires. We were quite the crew!!

Then Joni and I made a trip to Lowe's and Sutherland's and found some outdoor primer that was a mistint for CHEAP. We primed all the tires and went at them with cans of brightly colored spray paint. I would recommend painting before you bury if anyone else tries this at home!

Then we made some teepee style frames for the big swings. She also put up a smaller frame for toddler swings that is to the left of where I am standing to take the picture. We put the braces and swings on this the next day.

and for the grand finale...................

Larry and I disassebled the old telephone pole swingset and slide we had in our backyard from when our 3 kids were little. We salvaged all the 1x's we could to make platforms and cut the slide down. Add some more paint, a few 2 x 4's, lots of screws, and some pvc pipe to make railing and voila......you have a tire tunnel the whole neighborhood is talking about LOL. The kids can go over, under and around. There is another slide and wall on the back side to match. We have the rock holds ordered to add to the walls to make rock climbing walls for the kids. We will add some graffiti to the walls once those are in place. The kids love it.......even my 16 year old, football playing, girl chasing son has been caught going over and through the tunnels! We will add mats in this weekend once we get them cleaned up, painted and cut but the kids don't seem to mind crawling around in the dirt......Joni does mind having to clean all them up to go back in the house though.

So there you have it. My creative bug led me to the biggest project I have ever tried to accomplish. I must say........this is the first time that a project in my head actually worked out as good in real life as I could see it on the screen in my head. Thanks goodness........I think Joni and I would have both cried had it not worked out.

Hopefully this week I'll get back to some scrappin' also. It is entirely to hot to do anything outside and if I get my scraproom cleaned up so I can find my counter, I plan on kicking out a layout or two!

And life just gets crazier....

and here I thought I was going to have so much time to create in June.

Actually, I have been creating, just not in my scraproom. We have spent most of this week helping Joni get moved in and settled in her new home. Lots of organizing to do with all the kids toys and then there is the playground! I never thought I would ever put playground designer on my resume, but I do believe I am going to add it. I will post some pictures after this weekend of some of the fun stuff we are doing. She says the kids will fight over swings so we are making sure to put a big swing set in with 4 seats plus a toddler set of swings so the little guys aren't mixed in with the bigger rough and tumble kids. I am also designing and building a tire tunnel and gym. It is actually coming out pretty cool. We are getting ready to wash all the tires down and do the painting on those...hopefully this weekend. If all goes well, then Monday I am going to disassemble the old "gallows" swingset at my house (it was made out of telephone poles so a friend dubbed it the gallows). I will be using the wood from that to build the platforms and slide on the tire gym......I promise to post pictures if I can get it all done.

We are also going to spend next week getting our horse trailer/living quarters cleaned out and ready for the family float trip...we leave the 9th for a full week. I haven't done one thing to get ready for it this year...not one. We will probably be packing at 10 p.m. on the 8th. I know I will forget something....hopefully it won't be to tell the neighbors we are leaving so they will keep an eye on the house and water the critters LOL.

Well, lunch house is about over so it is back to work for me! Everybody enjoy the long weekend and remember the real reason for the 4th of July holiday and thank a veteran!!

catching up on some things

I got several vinyl window decals cut tonight and my scrap desk cleaned off. Hopefully that means I can do some scrapping in a couple of nights. Tomorrow night is dedicated to my mom and her pea patch LOL.

And hopefully I will be around more after this weekend. If you don't know me personally, let me in on a little bit of happiness that has happened at our house. My 20 year old daughter is buying a house....all on her own....and opening her daycare. She is still going to finish her college degree but decided when this particular house came up for sale it was time to make the move and follow her dreams. I'm a bit sad about her moving out "permantely" but she is only 5 miles from me, in town, so I can eat lunch with her most everyday AND most importantly...I'm sooooo very PROUD of her for having the guts to follow her dream and not let everyone tell her she needs to wait. I know she is intelligient and determined enough to make it work. And heaven knows the girl has the work ethic to do it................

that being said, I might not be on for a few weeks as consistently as I was wanting to be this summer. Helping her settle into her new home is going to take some time I was planning on spending in the craft room.

my brats........that I couldn't be prouder of......Joni and Jake at Prom this past April. Jake was a sophomore, Joni went with her boyfriend to his Senior Prom this year. Pretty good lookin' siblings don't you think?!?!

Joni and her boyfriend Marcus at his senior prom this past spring. A friend of mine made her dress and I made her jewelry and headband.

a few new ones from Mariska's album

okay, the first one isn't in a scrapbook page yet but I wanted to share.....Jeana's class graduated this year....they didn't forget. She was in the senior video and several of the kids gave me the same flowers they gave their mom's........and we got a tassel.......yup...bawled like a baby all day but I hope they know just how much it meant to us to have them remember her after 7 years. They are a special group of kids!

and now for the layouts for her album.
This is one of my favorites even though it didn't photograph well. I pulled the definition of a crop consultant off the net and changed it up a little to fit Mariska and her daddy LOL. She was "working" with him that day planting corn when Sharon snapped the picture out the front door.

Easter egg hunting with the cousins.......she hit the motherload!

Mariska and Zane "working" on the semi LOL

She was completely obsessed with her Burger King crown and even wore it fishing one Sunday afternoon....gotta love 3 year olds and their determination and committment rofl.

The annual Easter Egg coloring extravaganza with friends....love the picture of all the kids in the tree.

Life overwhelming!

Yup, you guessed it. I've been overwhelmed by everything life has to offer. I haven't completely quit scrapping, just haven't had time to post too much lately and I'm sorry about that. I have some really fun layouts I finished to complete Mariska's album before her 3rd birthday party a couple of weeks ago and I've been cutting a lot of vinyl lately. Our relay for life team made window decals as a fundraiser so that kept me busy. Add in the end of school, the start of summer, oh and my daughter signing a contract to buy a house and life has just gotten out of hand.

I still have some window decals to cut this week so hopefully next week I can post some layouts. Jake is headed to Washington D.C. next Monday so things should be fairly quiet around my house....maybe then I can get back to some nice calm, quiet evenings....but then again....Joni will still be home and we will still be gathering up goodies for her new home and eventually a fully state licensed home day care.........

Remind me in a few years when I'm complaining about boredom that these days were overwhelming to me LOL.

YUP!! I'm excited

I got the big prize pack from the Imaginesce blog hop today...well everything but the cuttlebug machine and I already have one of those so I can still use the two paper lines, the embellishments and stamps to match as well as 12 embossing folders, 2 sets of embossing borders and 3 sets of cut and emboss dies that I am sitting at work drooling over!!!! Bonus is tomorrow is National Scrapbooking Day and I'm planning on doing a lot of challenges and fun tomorrow throughout the day. May start the day doing some close to home rummage saleing then be up and running by the 9:00 a.m. start time on sb.com

I do have lots of layouts to post eventually. Haven't had much down time at home to actually catch up here....but I will try to do that the first night it rains again and we don't have baseball games or graduations. The next week and a half is pretty crazy!!