Tag, I'm It!

The lovely Ms. Paula tagged me, thereby saving me from having to try to come up with a blog post on five hours of sleep (both kids were up multiple times last night with nightmares and other assorted needs) , so here goes:

Ten years ago...
Seth and I had been married for almost a year and were living in a tiny rent-controlled house on the beach, a quarter mile or so north of the Santa Monica pier. I was teaching high school history in South Central Los Angeles and had just been named department chair. My free time was filled with movies, reading, dinners out, trips to farmer's markets, and rollerblading.

Five things on today's "to do list"... 1. Pack lunches and get everyone ready for school/camp/work 2. Work 3. Make a giant salad for dinner 4. Call my mom (she beat me to the punch!) 5. Renew library books online

Snacks I enjoy... anything salty and crispy and anything chocolate

Places I have lived... Massachusetts, New Hampshire, DC, Northern California, Southern California, Colorado

So...now I'm supposed to tag five people (I will avoid tagging those of you who got mad last time I tagged you, those of you who have already been tagged, and those of you on - or about to go on - vacation). Therefore, I am tagging: Christyn, Heather, Houston, Lisa, and Rachel.

Strawberry Picking

Last week we went strawberry picking. Besides the strawberries, I got two things out of the experience. The first is this layout (more October Afternoon goodness):

The second is poison ivy, which, somehow, everyone else managed to avoid. Sigh...

Happy Father's Day!

Apologies for the long time lag between posts - life has a way of getting busy sometimes!


Supper club was fabulous, as always. We had picadillo empanadas; shrimp, mango, and jicama salad; chicken with orange, red onion, and parsley mojo (not the scrapbook kind, the sauce kind); Cuban black beans and rice; avocado salad; coconut flan; and, of course, mojitos. Mmmmm....I'm so bummed that we are skipping July - everyone has opposing travel plans, which happens to us at least one month every summer. I can't wait for our August dinner!


Now, more October Afternoon goodness. I seriously can't get enough of this stuff! I used it to make Father's Day cards for my dad and for my husband.


First, the card for my dad, which features October Afternoon Daydream patterned papers, American Crafts Playroom felt Thickers, staples, and my trusty star (Fiskars) and notebook (Stampin' Up) punches:


Next, the card for my husband. I used a grid page from an October Afternoon mini album as the background. While I love grids and love this shape, you all know about my fear of mini albums. ;)Therefore, you will be likely to spot these pages used not as a mini album, but in all kinds of alternative ways. (Stay tuned to my next blog post for a layout with one of the mini album pages as a journaling block.) The patterned papers are from the Detours and Daydream lines, and the stars and "once upon a time" phrase are from the Everyday Basics rub-on set. The cute little potty people are from Maya Road (and are one of my all time favorite products - I seriously think I should buy about 25 sets of these things because I am sure they will stop producing them, at which point I will cry if I don't have an endless stash of them hidden away). I added card text in story form to follow the "once upon a time" phrase on the card's front.

An October Afternoon in June

As most of my loyal readers know, I was added to the October Afternoon design team about two months ago. I am absolutely thrilled to be a member of this team! I loved October Afternoon's first product release - from Summer 2007 CHA - but the two collections released this winter absolutely blew me away. I was fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to work with the new products back in February, and made several samples for display in the October Afternoon booth at CHA. The fabulous Daydream and Detours lines are shipping to stores and kit clubs now and the design team got their hands on the new products this week. Needless to say, I dove right in! :)

First, I figured if it's an October Afternoon in June, I can get ready for Christmas in July :)

(October Afternoon patterned papers, stamps, and die cut tab)

Then, I had to scrap one of my favorite recent photos:


(October Afternoon patterned paper, photo corner die cuts, and rubber charm; Making Memories chipboard letters)

I also had to use the new Story Time stamp set (which comes with a library card stamp and lots of fun story-related phrases):


(October Afternoon patterned paper, library card stamp, and rubber charms; American Crafts letter stickers)

Now I'm off to finish prepping for our Cuban-themed supper club tonight...the picadillo empanadas need to be assembled! (More on that tomorrow...)

Scrapping Again

I have been so off this spring/early summer but it looks like I might be getting back to a routine of creating regularly again. I did three projects (one layout and two cards) for Scrapbook Destination using the new Black Market Paper Society Lucky 'n Love paper:




I've also done a bunch of layouts for submission, and I also dove into my recently-arrived October Afternoon product box, but that deserves a post of its own...stay tuned... :)

I Let Eli Stay Up Late...

so that he could finish reading the first chapter of Island of the Blue Dolphins. Yes, so that he could finish reading it! I am one proud mommy at the moment, and Eli is grinning from ear to ear (or was, when I finally tucked him in around 9:00 tonight). He can't wait to read Chapter 2 tomorrow to find out whether or not Karana's tribe will go to war with Captain Orlov and the Aleutians. Eli thinks they will because Captain Orlov is not nice, and, although Captain Orlov finally agreed to strike an equal bargain with Karana's tribe, Eli doesn't trust him. :)