March Paper Posies

One of the most fun design opportunities I have is working with Paper Posies kits each month. It's one of the things I get to do - just for me. I love the mix of products Anna puts together. This month had products from Making Memories, Love Elsie and Daisy D's. As soon as the monthly newsletter comes out, I'll be sure to share my other projects with you.

I had a bit of a fun mail day yesterday. I placed an order with Tattered Angels and it came! I am totally in love with Glimmer Mist so I restocked on Coffee Shop and ordered a few new colors. I also got my hands on their new Glimmer Chips and they are fabulous! Very high quality and Victorian-looking. I can't wait to make some projects.

I'm finally starting to feel a lot better. I'm still not 100% but I'm thankful I wasn't REALLY sick in the first place. I have to go into work to finish my radio programs today and then I'm off until next Wednesday. I don't normally work on Friday's and Monday's, but I needed to use a vacation day by the end of the month and Tuesday's are my easiest day. I'll pretty much spend Friday and Saturday scrapbooking between loads of laundry and some light cleaning. My goal is to finish our adoption paperwork for the home study this weekend. I've been gradually working on my essay questions and Glen is finally home enough to work on his. I'm also planning on attacking our office (soon-to-be nursery). It's a disaster! As soon as the paperwork is completed, I need to turn my attention to thoroughly cleaning our house for the home study. This means doing things like cleaning the basement - yuck! Cleaning the office has a dual purpose though - I need to sort receipts so we can do our taxes. Let's just say I'm hoping for a very productive next few days.

Happy Thursday! :)

So Simple!

Just wanted to share a scan of the March/April issue of Simple Scrapbooks magazine with you this morning. That's my Summer Market layout on the bottom of the page with a really nice write-up about Des Moines and my hometown, Exira. I was super thrilled to get a page picked up for this mag especially since I don't really consider myself a simple scrapper. (By the way, you can click on the photo to see a larger image.)

Got a busy day ahead with work and cleaning when I get home. I have some projects I need to work on in my scrap room and then Idol is on tonight. Can't wait to see what the top 12 has in store for us!

Have a great Tuesday! :)

Seriously sick.

Well, I wasn't able to shake the sore throat ick that I picked up last week and it's now migrated to my sinuses and my chest. I sound fabulous. If I can keep from coughing, I should have a nice husky radio voice for my programs this week. *wink*

Had a great time with my sisters this weekend. They wanted to run some errands so we went to the mall for a bit. Despite not exercising for the past week and half, I've managed to drop a jean size which totally made my day. I also got the cutest white slip-on shoes which I won't be wearing until the snow melts and it dries up. I always manage to spend way too much $$$ when the girls come to visit.

It was a big weekend at my church! Internationally know Christian author and speaker Josh McDowell spoke on Sunday. We had an amazing turnout in our new building addition. And, I'm finally excited to say that I have my hubby back. He's been putting in insane hours at the church every night and weekend for the past 6 weeks working on the technical stuff - audio/visual, etc. all in preparation of this past weekend.

My sister, Jen, and I went with a high school friend of mine to see Nicole C. Mullen at another church last night. Nicole was fabulous! Her concert was full of energy but had these amazing and humbling moments. I cried several times!

This weekend I did some work on the March Paper Posies kit which I'll share soon. I also have projects from Upsy Daisy Designs to share. The project above is one I made for Rusty Pickle using my favorite French Market line and a wooden plaque I had in my stash from Hobby Lobby. I've had some good scrappy news lately - some projects picked up by Paper Crafts and Home & Heart.

Have a great night! :)

Seriously.

If it snows one more time, I think I might pack up my stuff and head south. I am so sick of winter! I've been sick the past few days. I finally got the sore throat ick that other people have had so I've been taking it easy and resting up. But today, I have some scrapping to do. Both of my sisters are coming for visits this weekend.

Here's a simple card I made using Upsy Daisy Designs London Blush line.

Have a fabulous weekend! :)

A tease

Today it got up to 63 degrees. I went to church without a coat and by later this afternoon, the temp dropped to 35. I'm so sick of cold, yucky weather! Bring on spring!

Here's a project I recently made with Rusty Pickle's Island Summer line and scalloped acrylic album. This one was really fun!

I've had a busy yet relaxing weekend. My hubby took me out on a date Friday night. We went to see The Other Boelyn Girl which was fabulous. Saturday I taught at Memory Bound in the morning and then took a nap when I got home. I worked on some Upsy Daisy Designs projects that night. I've got a busy day tomorrow as we're hosting small group at our house. I've got cleaning and laundry to do and I need to head to the gym.

Have a great week! :)

News from Upsy Daisy Designs!

I've got lots to share from Upsy Daisy Designs! Amanda released 4 new lines for CHA. My favorite of them is Cupcake (I have one of the papers pictured here). To see all the lines, just click: Cupcake, Vroom, Flutter, Tweet

Amanda is also looking for two new design team members. Click here for details.

Finally, visit the new Upsy Daisy Designs Blog for contest information and design team projects. I'll be posting something new on the blog this Friday.

I had an insanely busy weekend. My grandpa and grandma celebrated their 50th anniversary with a huge party. It was fun but a ton of work. I went to the state tournament yesterday with my family. We went out for breakfast first and then went downtown. I saw tons of people I went to high school with. It was an exciting day but the team ended up losing.

By the way, if you're local and free this Saturday I'm teaching again at Memory Bound. I'm teaching two classes this time around.

I haven't been feeling the best the past couple days. I've been having headaches, an ear ache, the chills and stomach issues. I felt really bad today so I came home early from work to rest. Glen has been sick for about the past month so I'm hoping I won't get what he's had. I can't believe how bad both versions of the flu are going around.

Have a great night!

a couple cards

*** card removed for publication***
Here's a couple cards I created in the last couple of days using Rusty Pickle's French Market and School Daze lines. I think of all the Rusty Pickle products French Market has to be my absolute favorite. I love the rich colors and it matches my kitchen perfectly. I started working on a project using this line last night so when I get it wrapped up, I'll post it.

Watched American Idol last night. Some of those guys can really sing-loved the rockers, Michael Johns and David Archuleta for sure, the dreadlock guy was really awesome. Can't wait to see the girls tonight.

It's like -7 here this morning. I'm wearing a light blue button up shirt today and trying to think it's springtime. When it hits 40, I 'll think it's a heatwave. :)

Well, off to write and record my radio programs.

Have a wonderful Wednesday! :)

I let out an actual squeal this morning!

I'm giddy with excitement! Today during my morning visit to the Twilight Lexicon, I came upon THESE pictures!!! If you haven't gathered it by now, I am pathetically obsessed with the Twilight series - reading and re-reading the books and reading and re-reading tons of fan fiction - all in the name of waiting until August 2nd for the release of the 4th book, Breaking Dawn, and the release of the Twilight movie (as of right now in mid-December). Never in my life have I been so drawn into a series of books. If you haven't yet read these books, please do yourself a favor and READ them! So, if you're wondering what the pictures are above, they are photos of the newly cast Cullen family in all their vampire glory! Let me just say, MAJOR hotness on the part of the male Cullens and if you've come to know the characters on the intimate level that I have you would understand why I'm so excited. Photo #2 has them all looking very predatory - makes me wish I was the piece of meat they were stalking! LOL! :)

Anyway, enough teenaged-girl gushing from me today! :) Major news on the hometown front. My Exira girls' high school basketball team has made it to the state tournament! Very exciting for my little town of 1,000 people. I have the day off Monday so I'm definitely going to the game. I feel as though this win has been building since my days in high school - not that I was on the team, of course - but I was cheering them on with my fellow cheerleaders!

I've been working on some projects for Rusty Pickle the past couple days so I'll be posting them soon....one project I was especially pleased with! I just thought the Cullens deserved the glory today. HA! :)

Have a terrific Tuesday! :)

YUMM-O!

Just when I think the Pickle can't get any better, they go and release these! Yes, folks, those are rub-ons in all their glory! (Someone on 2peas posted this photo to their flickr account so I swiped it for my blog.) Can't wait to get my hands all over these!

Did you have a good Valentine's day? My sweetie got me a gift certificate for a pedicure which was a nice surprise since he doesn't normally do things like that. I watched Lost (and called my sister in between commercials about 4 times) and did some computer work. I have an uneventful weekend ahead which is fine with me. My Saturday plans got postponed so now I'm free to clean and catch up on some scrappin'!

Happy Friday! :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Well, I seemed to have dropped off the face of the earth after my last post. We have been super busy! First things first, here's the last two sneak peeks of Rusty Pickle's new lines for CHA. The first one is called White Chocolate Bunnies and it's a new take on the Chocolate Bunnies line. The other line is called Pop Star and it's a fun black and white doodling line designed by the fabulous Rusty Pickle Chef, Rachelle Minett. Each paper is named for the characters in High School Musical...how fun is that?

We worked on our video project that's helping pay for our adoption and had video shoots all day Friday, part of Sunday and Tuesday. We're only halfway done shooting it too! Videos are hard work especially when you're trying to do them the right way.

I've slowly been working my way through my scrap room cleaning and organizing. I'm trying to get rid of a lot of stuff I just don't use.

Last night, I took a Zumba class with a friend of mine from work. It's a Latin inspired cardio dance class. It was sooooo fun...I didn't even realize I was working out although I was sure sweating enough to be burning a lot of calories!

I'm totally pumped about American Idol...the top 24 are amazing this year so it should be a good season! And my favorite show Lost is on tonight...yay! Thank goodness the writer's strike has ended because I have been missing Grey's! I guess it's a good thing I haven't been holed up in front of the TV with the strike but I do try to multi-task while I'm watching my shows!

Well, have a great Valentine's Day with your sweetie! We're not going out tonight because the restaurants will be too busy so we're celebrating next week! :)

Under the Stars

Here's another Rusty Pickle sneak peek for our new line called Under the Stars. I love the possibilities with this one - camping, fishing, traveling, hiking, anything outdoor related, Father's Day, etc. Love the colors in this one!

I finally made it to work this morning. We got 8 inches of snow and they weren't recommending travel when I woke up so I did some things around the house. The roads were still crappy when I drove in. Better get busy...I have much to do as today through Saturday are insanely busy! :)

Stay warm!

Praise the Lord!

First of all, our formal adoption application was APPROVED! At this point we have a ton of paperwork yet to do including 10 pages of essay questions that Glen and I BOTH have to fill out. We need to have physicals and go to the police station to be fingerprinted. I'm overwhelmed with everything we have to do but so thankful we made it past this step!

In other news, the first picture you see here is a sneak peek of Rusty Pickle's new line called Gametime. Yep, it's that time again! CHA is this weekend in Anaheim and I'll have sneak peeks for you all week long!!! The muted browns of this line are great for other projects other than sports-related. If you want to keep up, be sure to visit Rusty Pickle's blog (www.rustypickle.typepad.com) this week.

I've also included a photo of a card I made using the Island Summer line from Rusty Pickle. Love the fun colors of this line! I'll tell you what...I wish I was the hula girl on this card right about now. We are getting hammered with snow and have more on the way. I'm so ready for spring!

Have a great night! :)

A fabulous weekend!

Love me some Rusty Pickle Petit Cherub! If you haven't seen this line, it's fabulous! Why? It's for baby boy, baby girl and gender neutral - you're completely covered if you purchase this line!

I had a very productive weekend which isn't over yet for me since I don't work on Mondays, but I had plenty of time for fun too! My sister spent the weekend with me and she was a big help. We caught a matinee on Friday AND Saturday. Friday was 27 Dresses - absolutely adorable movie! I definitely want to own this one since I'm a sucker for romantic comedies! Saturday was The Bucket List - good movie but kind of depressing. I did some not-so-fun cleaning in my kitchen. Organized and cleaned out some cupboards, cleaned out the fridge, that kind of thing. I also spent a lot of time in my scrap room. I decided to completely purge and clean my room. I have kits and paper, etc. that have been sitting around and I know I'm never going to use them. My room is getting a complete overhaul! I'm going to sell lots of scrap stuff on Craig's list (hopefully) and put it all toward adoption expenses. I've got some pretty good stuff I'm selling for way cheaper than what it retails for so if you might be interested in checking out what I have, let me know! Sunday, I reluctantly watched the Super Bowl (actually I just stayed in the same room as my hubby and sister and surfed the Internet!) I wasn't feeling very well yesterday afternoon and evening so I just hung out and rested and went to bed early. Oh yeah, Jen and I also rented a couple movies (can you say movie marathon weekend?) - Waitress (which was phenomenal) and In the Land of Women (this was pretty good...it had Meg Ryan (who I love), Adam Brody (a total cutie) and Kristen Stewart (who is playing Bella in the upcoming movie, Twilight that I can't wait for). All in all, a great weekend and I actually got some things done.

Have a great Monday! :)

Yikes! I'm up late!

I haven't shared a layout in a while so here's a new one from me using Rusty Pickle's Snowflakes & Mittens line. I also used some fabulous Rusty Pickle chipboard and beautiful vintage German glass glitter that I picked up at the Rose Mille in Stillwater, MN last fall. We take a photo together each Christmas so I always make up a layout and add it to our Christmas album. I think I'm all caught up now! I'll be sharing some more Rusty Pickle soon as well as the February Paper Posies kit.

This week has been pretty busy. I moved offices at work today. I've gone out to the movies, had Bible study, watched American Idol and then planted myself in front of the TV tonight to watch Lost. I also finished our formal adoption application on Monday, which was very exciting. We both have physicals scheduled and are awaiting to hear of our approval. If you want to pray for us, here's a few specifics you can be praying about: 1) approval of our formal application; 2) for financial provision (we're starting to pay as we go step by step); 3) for preparation of our house for our home study (I need to do some deep cleaning); 4) for wisdom and time to work on our video and scrapbook (I need to make 4 duplicates of our scrapbook that will be shown to prospective birthmothers). Thanks for all your positive thoughts and prayers! I'm planning on spending the weekend cleaning and organizing my scrap room so I can get started on that part of the process. You might also pray that I have a productive weekend! :) My sister is coming to spend the weekend with me and help out. Of course, we're going to have some fun too...we're probably going to catch a movie!

Have a great weekend! :)

Good Monday morning!

Alright...I've got lots on my agenda to accomplish today so let's hope I stay motivated and productive! My classes went well on Saturday!!! I was excited to share my love for Rusty Pickle and really hope that everyone learned some fun new techniques they can incorporate into their own scrapbooking and cardmaking. I tried to make the classes really technique heavy. I'll have a couple more classes in March.

Saturday night, my hubby and I went to the movies where we saw the movie, Juno. Holy cow! This movie was absolutely wonderful! It was about a teen pregnancy and had a beautiful pro-life message all about adoption. I was literally bawling in the movie theater. I could identify with Jennifer Garner's character to the "T." I was crying so hard that I almost got up and left at a couple points. I even cried in the car the whole way home! Phenomenal movie! In fact, I'm going to see it again tonight with a couple girlfriends. I already warned them that I'm going to be a crier! :)

Sunday, we had church and then I ran a few errands (the cupboards were bare so I got some groceries, etc.) I even got a nap in...haven't had one of those for a while and then we had young adult fellowship at church.

Right now, I'm gearing up to work on our adoption paperwork!!!! That movie really inspired me to get going. We've had a busy couple of months with the holidays, traveling, my job change, etc. so I'm going to make this a priority!!!

Have a great Monday! :)

Neck pain/migraines

Grrr! I'm really getting frustrated with all the headaches and pain I've been having lately. Soon after I blogged yesterday I got a severe headache. It went away for awhile and then came back again in the afternoon. My headaches are all caused by pain I have in my neck and left shoulder. Five or six years ago I was in a car accident and I've had somewhat chronic pain ever since. It flairs up at least once a month or so. I go to a chiropractor regularly to keep my pain in check and it definitely helps the pain to exercise and keep my muscles strong in my neck and shoulder. Yesterday, the pain was so bad that I decided to leave work early and head straight to the chiropractor. I spent the rest of the night in the recliner with a heating pad and occasionally used a massager on myself. I'm frustrated because the pain and headaches are debilitating. I'm not good to do anything. I woke up this morning feeling it some more but I hope it goes away because I have a busy day at work and then I'm kitting my stuff for classes tonight.

Stay warm! It's like -20 in Iowa! Brrrr!

thank you!

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes yesterday! I had a fabulous day! My co-workers took me out to lunch and then I came home to several birthday cards in the mail. Glen and I went to Texas Roadhouse (and thank goodness he didn't tell them it was my birthday so I wouldn't have to get on that ridiculous saddle!) and then we did go see National Treasure (which was a wonderful movie). I loved the first one and the sequel was definitely just as good!

Today is also a special day for me and my hubby because it's the 6th anniversary of our first date! Funny story here - I met Glen at a local TV station where he worked and I was an intern over the month of January. He asked me out for dinner but I told him no. The reason? I was dating someone else at the time. Dinner seemed too much like a date and I get super nervous eating in front of people I don't know very well. So we decided to go to a coffee shop after work instead. That was innocent enough, right? Grabbing coffee is something you can do with a friend. Well, it was over our "innocent" coffee date that the sparks flew! We ended up talking until they closed the coffee shop. Seriously like 4 hours or so of just talking! Anyway, we always try to go out for coffee around our anniversary...it's a great reminder of why we fell in love in the first place. :)

Today I'm just itching to do some creative work but that will have to hold off since I'm at work today. Hopefully, I still have the creative bug tonight.

Have a great Wednesday! :)

In my birthday suit...

Okay, I'm not really in my birthday suit, but today is my birthday! I'm the big 2-7 today! :) I'm looking forward to a good day. My hubby is taking me to Texas Roadhouse tonight (yummy steak...here I come) and then we might be going to see National Treasure.

I've been having headache problems ever since Saturday. I ended up spending the entire day in the recliner with a heating pad trying to get rid of it. It's rare for me to have a headache that I just can't shake. Acupuncture did help some.

Here's a couple of projects I wanted to share with the January Paper Posies kit. I loved working with these new Collage Press papers. January also marks a year that I have been designing with Paper Posies - I LOVE, LOVE the kits that Anna puts together!

Enjoy your Tuesday! :)

BRRRRRR!!!

It's around -9 here, but the windchill makes it feel like -20 or so. That's just not right! I'm planning on staying in most of the day! I was supposed to go out with some girlfriends this morning for lunch but I woke up with a migraine. Luckily, Glen and I got in for acupuncture this afternoon so hopefully that will do the trick to get rid of it.

I've been working on some projects with the February Paper Posies kit and finally found my missing mojo! I actually really enjoyed being creative which hasn't happened in a while for me. I'll share soon.

I got a card picked up by Scrapbook Trends last night. Felt great to get an e-mail because I haven't submitted anything in a while (especially any new projects).

I have a busy weekend ahead. We're planning on going to Saturday night church because Sunday I have to work the Hy-Vee bridal show for work. I hope that will be lots of fun! Monday, I'm going to Memory Bound to kit my classes and then we have small group that night. Lots going on!

Enjoy your weekend and stay warm if you live somewhere cold! :)

My job news!

Hey there...just a quick post because I remembered that I forgot to share my job news! It's been a crazy busy last two weeks transitioning between my two jobs. I work at the Iowa Family Policy Center part-time. It's a fabulous Christian organization that supports pro-family issues. (Kind of like Focus on the Family if you've heard of them). Last March, I was hired to do the marketing and public relations for Marriage Matters (their healthy marriage side of IFPC). My very good friend Rachel was their communications director but left her role in December to have a baby. Part of Rachel's responsibilities included writing, producing and voicing radio programs that are played on around 20 radio stations across Iowa. They looked high and low to find someone to fill her position but could not find anyone qualified or that would take the job. Enter ME! Because my old job was federally funded, I was asked to take on the radio programs as my new job. The change gives me more job security and I'm actually qualified to do it. I used to work at a talk radio station in college and did it all when I was there. So that's my news! I have a slight learning curve because it's been awhile since I've done radio but I'm picking it up quickly. Anyway, I'm just taking a quick lunch break now and then I need to get everything wrapped up for the week at work. Have a great day! :)