Getting Back in the Scrappy Groove

I am finally getting my mojo back a little when it comes to scrapping. I am getting ready to place a gigantic order from scrapbookpictures.com since they are having a sale, based on the amount you spend you can save anywhere from 10%-40% on your order! I am looking forward to try some of the metallic pictures they offer...I have the best waterfall pictures from Gatlinburg I would like to have printed that way! I will update with my review when I get them. I haven't placed a photo order since the beginning of Feb. 2008, so a photo order is long overdue. I think getting some new photos to work with will kick my scrapbooking into full gear again.

With this order, I'm doing things a little different. Instead of ordering straight 4x6 pictures, I'm trying to plan some pages in advance to mix up the sizes some. I would rather just order some 3x3, 4x4, 5x7..whatever size I need instead of trying to crop a 4x6 into that size later. We will see how this goes and if I like it, then I will continue to plan my pages in advance and order the photos this way!

In my uploading, I found some more pics of older pages I've made that I haven't posted here yet...so enjoy!

Still Recovering from the Weekend!

This weekend was a busy one! It seems like the busy weekends fly by...without nearly enough time to relax from the hectic week. Friday Drew got off work late. Apparently his group is swamped and so he has to stay until things get finished, so instead of leaving work at 2:30, he didn't leave until almost 4! By the time he got home, it was time to cook dinner and start tackling the remaining cleaning/unpacking of the house. We cleaned and moved things for a little while and I was just exhausted so we quit for the night. Of course, that meant there was a lot of work left for Saturday.

We spent most of the morning and afternoon getting things in order. It was a ton of work, but our house looks awesome now! I will have to take some pics and put up, I would love to scrap them now that the house is tidy! By the time we finished cleaning, it was time to start dinner. Of course, we needed extra crescent rolls so Drew went to the store while I cooked...I didn't realize until he was already through at the store that we also needed sloppy joe seasoning. Luckily, he wasn't too far from the store so he was able to turn around and get it for me.

Just our luck, a little before 6 when Lindsey and Travis were supposed to be at our house, she called to see if Travis's sister could tag along. Apparently she came into town and asked if she could go so she didn't have to stay home alone. We agreed and she came along. We had a fun night eating dinner and dessert (ice cream with brownie batter on top...which was an accident. Lindsey brought the brownies and told us just to keep them warm in the oven, we didn't realize they weren't baked yet and an hour and a half in the oven at 170 doesn't bake them, so they weren't finished by the time it was time to eat dessert!). We also played Phase 10, but unfortunately didn't get to finish the entire game before they had to leave to go meet some other friends who were coming in from out of town. Hopefully next time we can have longer to play games and be able to play more than 1 game!

After they left, we took Elf out on a walk. As we were coming back into the house, the neighbors spotted us and came over to talk. We spent about an hour and a half outside meeting and talking to a bunch of our neighbors. Apparently, they are all married and close to our age and they get together to hang out every weekend and cook out a bunch during the summer. We got invited to come hang out with them, but it was already almost 11 and I was exhausted from working around the house all day, so we passed.

Sunday we went grocery shopping. We went to Costco and stocked up on some stuff and then hit the HEB since they were having a major meat sale...ground beef, bone-in chicken breasts, and shank ham all for $1 a pound. We stocked up on meat and hopefully have enough for at least the next month. I've been cooking more, which is good. My goal is to cut our eating out to only 2x a month instead of 1-2x a week like we were. All the extra money we can save now with the baby on the way will help!

I guess that's the highlights of our weekend. This week has been rather boring so far. Drew worked late again last night but that's about it.

Since I'm trying to upload all my layouts, here are some older ones:

Such a long time...

Gee, obviously the resolution from my previous blog post didn't happen! I really don't remember all the time that I even have a blog and it gets neglected, as you can tell. I'm guessing no one reads it anyway since it's so sporadic with my posts, but I am going to try to do better! I can't believe it's almost been a year since I last blogged...so much changes!

As of right now, I am 15 1/2 weeks pregnant with our first baby! Drew and I are excited and can't wait till August to meet him/her. In the mean time, we moved into our first house in December. We're still settling in and need to hang things on our walls. We have plenty of extra space to grow into now, much better than our 750 sq. ft apartment we were cramped into. We are now living in 2700 sq. feet with 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, a huge kitchen that I love, a breakfast room, formal dining room (that is actually being used as my scrapbook room), living room, and game room.

I am very excited to have a scrapbook room now...although it is still sparsely furnished. I really want an Ikea Expedit shelf, but the one I want is $200 and I am too cheap to buy it since we have so much other furniture we need to buy first. So I got some of the sterilite containers and a cheap bookcase from Wal-Mart and have everything organized in there for now. It serves it's purpose so I can't complain. Now if only I could get back into the swing of scrapping!

I haven't completed any projects since before November and I now have the itch to create again so hopefully I can turn that around soon! But for now, I will upload some of my older projects. My goal is to eventually upload all of the LOs I have on my computer so at least I have a backup copy of them if something were to happen to the originals!

These LOs are from my stint as a Guest Designer over at Scrapdango:

Back to the Real World!

Unfortunately our vacation has come to an end and this week has been about getting back into a normal routine.

We left for Tennessee around 4:00 am on May 1. After a long drive, we finally got to my parent's house a little before 5:00 pm. We took them out for an early Mother's Day dinner and then just hung out until we were ready to crash. Friday morning, we were up and gone from their house by 9:30 am. We met Jennie on the way to Drew's dad's house and got my bridesmaids dress for her wedding. By about noon, we were on our way to Chattanooga to check into our hotel and get settled before the rehearsal at 6 (which was really 5 because we lost an hour!). JT got to the hotel about the same time we did and we were starving, so we went to eat at the Texas Roadhouse next door...I love their Italian dressing and their rolls! We got done with enough time to head back to the hotel and change, then head to the rehearsal. Luckily, the rehearsal went somewhat fast. After the rehearsal and dinner, all the guys decided they wanted to go bowling. So Drew and I went with them and bowled from 11:30 pm- 2:00 am. I was exhausted and ready to go back to the hotel around 1, but since we rode with JT, we were stuck there till they closed.

Saturday was the wedding. Since Drew had to be there at 11:00 for pictures, I got drug along. I didn't know anyone so we convinced some people to come early to meet me so I wasn't too bored. Drew was done by about 11:45 but had to stay until 2:30 when the wedding started. Once the wedding finally started, it went somewhat quick. But it took forever to do pictures after the wedding and the reception lasted way too long. After the reception, we went out to eat with JT and Chasity and the parents. After dinner, the parents left and we hung out with Chasity and JT until about midnight.

Sunday, we left Chattanooga around 11:30 to head to Gatlinburg. We couldn't check into our hotel until 4, so we hit the visitors centers, found our cabin (after getting lost, of course) and went grocery shopping. By the time we got done and back up to our cabin we were able to get the code to check in. Our cabin was called "Stars and Stripes" and was on the top of the mountain. It had a jacuzzi, hot tub, pool table, and air hockey table. It was decorated with a somewhat contemporary theme, which is probably why I liked it so much! Here are some pictures from the cabin:

The view from our porch:


The living room:


The dining room:


Our kitchen:

I have decided I would like to blog on a regular basis! So my resolution over the summer is to try to write at least 2 new posts a week...so we'll see how that goes. I've recently started reading other people's blogs, mainly scrapping blogs for inspiration, but it is so fun to read about others so I figure I should keep mine up too! I actually forgot I had a blog until a few weeks ago. Now I'm going to make a point to update!

This week is review week in my classes...which means next week are my finals! I'm glad, it gives me a month long break. But May will be so busy it probably won't feel like a break to me. May 3 we are headed to Chattanooga for Nathan and Carlie's wedding. After we leave the wedding, we are headed to Gatlinburg for a week! I convinced Drew that we needed to take a vacation and since I have been wanting to go to Gatlinburg since Oct. 2006, it's a long overdue trip. And since we'll already be in Tennessee, it's not that much further from our original destination! We will get back home for a week, and then will be headed back to Tennessee for Jennie's wedding on May 24. So it looks like we'll be spending more time in Tennessee than home next month!

Other than that, not much has really been going on around here. Drew's been sick this week, I wasn't feeling great last week so we pretty much just relaxed all weekend! We are going to try some new churches in the coming weeks and hopefully find one that we both agree on...I would like to find another puppet team but would also like to find an active group of young married couples to get involved with. Drew doesn't have any friends still and the ones I've met have been through the lunch group and scrapbooking...and the few people from our old church group that I keep in touch with. So hopefully we can find a place that we feel at home!

I wanted to add a few more pages that I completed over the weekend as well! This month, I've really been turning out the layouts. My mojo has been back and I've accomplished more this month than I have since I started scrapbooking over the summer. Our Disney World honeymoon album is now complete....only 2 years after the honeymoon! Now I can work on whatever random pictures I choose, before getting brave and tackling the wedding album!

My newest favorite page (although the colors are much brighter in real life!):


Another page from the honeymoon album:

What a Weekend!

This weekend was so much fun! I hosted a challenge and a game over at the Scrapdango Spring Fever Crop, and there was such awesome participation! Twenty ladies joined me in my game of Scattegories! The layouts for my challenge are due tonight at midnight so I will have a final count of challenge participants tomorrow! I really enjoyed spending my weekend scrapping with those awesome ladies and I am enjoying my Guest Designer position even more!

I got my kit in the mail last week and I have already made a 2 page layout! I can't wait to come up with some more pages and cards! I will post them here after the full kit reveal on May 1!

In addition, I am trying out for the design team over at Sketch-abilites. It's a cool new sketch challenge blog and they are searching for their first design team! Our assignment was to use their first sketch to create a layout!

Here is the sketch:
And here is my layout using this sketch:

Scrapdango Cyber Crop!

Since I won the Guest Design position at Scrapdango for April, I get to help plan an online crop. So everyone save the dates - April 19 and 20, and come on over to Scrapdango and join us for lots of scrappy fun including awesome challenges, games, and of course prizes!