House Drama.....

Here it is.... the day before Thanksgiving and I guess the one thing I have to be thankful for is that the financing on our house is done and we will finally get to close on Friday. After many extensions, heartache, letdowns and drama it will finally be over. I was supposed to leave on Monday for West Virginia but that trip got postponed indefinitely until the house stuff is taken care of. :( My Dad and kids were disappointed as was I, but I am thankful for our house and the fact that my kiddos will now have a new home with a big backyard and we won't have to worry about apartment living anymore. I am so happy!! Here is a picture of our new home.

Halloween Time

We had such a great time for Halloween this year. The 2 youngest kiddos had a party in the morning at pre-K and then another party in the afternoon with our playgroup pals. It was loads of fun and since they made out on the candy at both parties (and Mom was exhausted) we went to Ollie Koala's instead of the normal trick or treating. The kids had a blast! We also went ot Adventure Landing for a little pre-Halloween fun and the kids got temporary airbrushed tattoos (so did Mom lol) Here is a layout of my youngest getting his very first Tat!! I was so happy with this layout. I ran out of metal sheets (by Making memories) and ended up using an empty Dr. Pepper can!! This was also a DT reveal for Creative Scrappers!!!

Design Team Reveal

Well here it is.... another DT reveal from Creative Scrappers. I am so excited to be a part of this amazing group of women. There is so much talent on there, I can't even begin to try and keep up. In the midst of everything that has been going on I am struggling to find the time to scrap, but I am so grateful for the Creative Scrapper girls for keeping me motivated. Here is the DT reveal from the sneak peeks below.

OMG!!!!

I can't believe it has been nearly a month since I have done any blogging!! So if you can hang in there... this is going to be a LONG post!! :)

In the last month, DH and I have put an offer in on a house.... negotiated with the bank on the price (it is a foreclosure), signed our portion of the contract, (still waiting on the bank) secure financing and we are ready to lock in our rate!! But with the market fluctuating like it has, we may wait a week or so. That has been the home end of it. Anyone who has purchased a home KNOWS the hoops you get to jump through!!! LOL

In the meantime, I have been working on Team, Individual and Action shots for PAL Park Soccer League. That has kept me extremely busy lately! The shoot has taken longer than it should to finish for various reasons, but I was able to submit my last order for prints late last night!!! I am very excited about that part being over. Now delivery begins!!!

In the Scrapping area of my life (sound too compartmentalized? If it does, so sorry, my life is nothing but organized chaos!!!) I have been struggling to keep up with my duties for Creative Scrappers! I have been getting my assignments in just in time, or on the deadline. That is so not me!! I love to get my stuff in a week prior to when it is due. Hopefully once all of the house stuff and the business settles down a little, I will get back to my normal self! I did however get a couple of really fabulous layouts done (at least I think so). I am extremely happy with them and am truely glad that I am a DT member for Creative Scrappers. It has really given me the motivation to scrap. Lately I have just needed that extra nudge with everything else that has been going on. I'm going to post my last DT assignment and then post some sneak peaks for next week's DT Reveal!! Remember that you can visit the Creative Scrappers Blog to take a look at the past sketches and get some inspiration for yourself or just take a look around at what some of our fabulous DT has done!!!

Ready for some sneak peaks????

Just girl talk.................

Talk about procrastination! i have been so busy with this home buying adventure, that I didn't get my DT sketch reveal emailed to Creative Scrappers until last night!! I didn't even take the picture until 9:30pm!! WOW! I am so out of it!! We should be able to take a look at the DT reveal around Wednesday or Thursday of next week!! Be sure to stay tuned to see what is going on!

I also wanted to let you all know that the Creative Scrappers team has started posting challenges to get your design juices flowing and help provide some inspiration!! We have such a wonderful team of women that you might find it hard to pass up such a wonderful opportunity to learn from them through the challenges!!

Also.... my good friend Robyn has posted a little contest with a RAK gift for the winner, on her blog at Robyns Scrappy Nest. You can find her link to the right of my blog!! I will definitely get those sneak peeks out tonight and keep you all posted on the status of our home! I should know something tomorrow!!

If you are in the Jacksonville area and looking for some great people to crop with, you should check out JaxPark Scrappers. We rotate through 6 crops per quarter, from member hosted to in-store crops. There is a quarterly crop requirement of 1 crop. You can attend as many as you like!!! It is great fun and we always have an awesome time!! If you are interested, check them out and request to join! Just let them know that Angel sent you!!

Update.......

I know that it feels like forever since I posted on my blog. Since I posted about the DT reveal, DH and I have decided to become home owners. So we have spent day after day after day searching for a home. We have seen so many listings and seen so few within our budget and space requirements.

We found our house on Wednesday and put an offer in and we are now just waiting to hear back. In the meantime I'm dreaming about my soon (hopefully) to be scrap room. No longer will I have to share space in our bedroom! That is probably the most exciting thing! The second being the large fenced in yard that I can turn my kids out into so I can scrap!!!

While all of my energy has been fixated on this one area of my life, I have forgotten to post the DT Reveal over at the Creative Scrappers blog. I have also completed my second assignment for them and will more than likely be posting sneak peaks of that within the next couple of days!!

So let me know what you think of my DT reveal. The sketch was by Monika Martinson...

Scrappy Weekend

I had another fabulous scrappy weekend on Saturday. The guys decided to go to the poker room and left us to do our own thing...... so what did we do, we scrapped!!!! I'm so excited since I scrapped my first sketch layout for Creative Scrappers!!! Stay tuned for the Big new DT reveal on September 1st!! I can't do any sneak peeks just yet, but soon!!!

Had to do this sketch.....

I really thought I needed to do this one. I used Abby's pictures from the first day of school this year. I really like the way it turned out even though the picture turned out a little blurry. :( It's raining with the possiblilty of Tropical Storm Fay hitting us tonight and I had to do all my pics outside on the porch! Yuk!! Check out all the sketches on the Creative Scrappers forum. This is sketch 13 by Becky Fleck.

Layouts I completed this weekend

Only 2 but better than none, right? Actually I get a lot of layouts that don't get finished when I start them. Is that common?? This one took a month to get a title for!!! And the second took 15 hours!!! WTH?? So sad.

Remember... Thank you to a friend

This past Saturday night I spent the last night of cropping with a very special ;) friend of mine. She left Monday night on a 700 mile move to West Virginia.

Saturday evening when 3 of us were spending some crop time, all of her scrapstuff was packed away... :( but she really wanted to scrap. So I handed over my stash of papers and said have at it. She scrapped this page for me..... she even took the photo back in February at a Valentines party! Now I will always have something in my scrapbook to remember her by.....

I made it!!

WOOHOO!! I was chosen to be one of the DT members over at Creative Scrappers!! I am so excited! It is a wonderful opportunity to work with some truely talented ladies! I can't wait to get started! You should go on over to their site, check out everything they have to offer! I'm sure you will be impressed!

Here are the layouts that I submitted for this DT call. I'm very impressed with them and just love how they all turned out!

******Still reeling from the excitement****** :)

Gettin' Sketchy Challenge Entry

So I have stepped into the world of contests and challenges. I visited a blog by Gettin' Sketchy and my '1,825 days' layout is my version of the sketch they provided. These pictures were taken at the reception following my vow renewal on mine & my hubby's 5th anniversary. I am very excited as this is my first ever challenge or contest entry!! Wish me luck! Below is the sketch they provided.

Scrapping Hiatus????????

Holy Cow!!! It seems like I haven't scrapped anything is so long!! I really need to do something about that! I have been busy with my photography and taking on a new partner is really working out! We finished shooting, ordering, & delivering prints for a local soccer league last month and are very proud of ourselves!! We have also booked quite a few sessions coming up, so maybe I have a tiny excuse for the lack of scrap! Still feeling the need to create something though. Here are some pics that I have been working on. I will be leaving in 2 days for vacation so I will have some motivation to scrap when I get back!

OH, BTW: I got to meet Jenny McCarthy at a charity event I photographed!

NSD Crop

Our little scrap group got together and did some NSD cropping. We had prizes, and games, and lots of yummy food!! Thanks to Robyn we had a lot of space to crop in!! Here is the one layout I got done!!

Scrapsimmee 2008

WOW!! What a remarkable, 4 day, scrappin' weekend!! I have never scrapped that much in one weekend.....EVER!!! Seven of us from our scrap group decided to attend Scrapsimmee this year in Kissimmee. It is hosted by Scrapbook Central. We had a fabulous time scrapping! The hotel where we stayed had a waterpark in the courtyard and we got some fabulous pics of all of us acting crazy!!! (You didn't hear it from me!!) I will definitely be going again in November and plan on going to this event everytime it is offered!! I even got quite a bit of scrapping done!! Check it out!!!

Nassau ScrapFest

I attended a large crop this weekend in Nassau County. The NassauScrapfest.They host two 12 hour crops a year and always have great seating space and wonderful catered meals and the proceeds benefit the local domestic violence shelter. ( A very noble cause in my book.)

This semi annual event was no different! This time, I dedicated more time to scrapping and less time to chatting since I am trying to gear up for Scrapsimmee next weekend!! I was able to complete 3 layouts!! The most ever in a single sitting!! Take a look and let me know what you think!!

Just an update....

Well, this month has really been fantastic! I have learned that I have awesome friends (it is a bonus that they are scrappy!!) I had a wonderful birthday, and used a challenge provided by The Scrappy Gourmet. to motivate me!!! They are having their birthday celebration this month.I scrapped something I wouldn't have normally done!! It got me outside my box, (or rectangle, circle, trapezoid.... LOL.) I'm pretty pleased with this one! It was all about the place I live.

What A Christmas Present!!!

What a super happy girl my 13 year old was this Christmas when my Dad drove down from West Virginia to pick her up for Christmas Break. Little did she know what was waiting for her! She was gifted with her very own horse!!! (Something she has been begging for almost her entire life!) His name is Blaze and I just had to scrap the beautiful pictures they took for me!!

Sketch Challenge from JPS

I am a member of a little scrap group here in Jacksonville, and every month we have a person who volunteers to provide a challenge. For the month of December it was the sketch below and I am now posting my twist on it. I had a little trouble with it, but really loved the photo that I took of my husband and our middle daughter. It was the sweetest thing! I just had to use it!! Hope you like!

PS: I won the challenge!! :) Yay Me!!