How's this for creepy??

Been busy today with mojo flowing and decided to knock out these pages for the CJ I'm involved in. This is Rebecca's (flowerpower) CJ Do You Believe? and focuses on the paranormal. We had a bunch of questions to choose from and I chose to answer whether I believe in ghosts. This was partly due to some playing around in Photoshop yesterday and creating a photo collage for something completely unrelated. Hubby was so blown away by the results, he suggested I do it again for this CJ. I have to say, I'm stinkin' proud of the creep factor on this spread. It came out just as twisted as I predicted it would! The merged images are pics of my great-grandmother and I just changed the opacity for extra ghostliness. No matter how hard I try though, I just can't capture with the camera the transparent elements on this. Kinda like taking pics of ghosts, I imagine?? It was fun and I'm covered in ink and paint tonight. oh-and adhesive. Definitely a change of pace from my norm and I think the girls were expecting cutesie out of me. I think they'll be surprised and hopefully a little creeped out!

My first cj pages are complete...

Well, excluding my own, of course. These pages are for Shawna's (Saucier131) cj Say What?!? We were asked to do a 2 pager on a word(s) or phrase that we find ourselves using A LOT and try to incorporate pics of us using our word or situations where we would definitely blurt out our word. This was actually much more difficult than I anticipated. No, not figuring out which word or phrase is my signature but trying to find just the right pics for this. I think by now anyone who knows me knows how much the word "stinkin" flies out of my mouth. I felt some pressure in trying to fulfill the doodling requirements on these pages as well. I just don't doodle. Guess I'm just a neat freak like that. Must have order and all. I cheated and used templates but I DID come clean with everyone on that. And faced a bit of ribbin' for it too!

I need a 12-step program...

The first step is recognizing you have a problem, right? Ya see, I have this little sub-addiction to my main addiction(that being sb supplies,of course). I cave at the sight of a new QK release. I can't help it. There's no stopping it. Just when I think I have enough stinkin' fonts around here, I convince myself there's always room for one more. Or 4 more, whatever the case may be. So this last week has been interesting for my mailman. I wonder if he wonders what the heck I'm ordering?? I think the mailman knows more about our lives than we do.

So, with the release of the new 4x8 alpha,which I wasn't too sure about on day 1 of the release, I then felt compelled to finally pick up the 12" platform for the Rev. I mean, ya never know when you might want to buy a 4x8 alpha, right? Quickly realizing I had no real need for the 12" platform without a 4x8 alpha, I then picked up 2 of those. One just wouldn't be enough justification. But in order to truly appreciate that 12" platform I needed to cut something 12" long so I then picked up 2 of the 12" borders. After all, those scallop borders are stinkin' cute. But then we need to back up a step. Two days prior to this, I had already convinced myself that my true love lies in the 2x2 alphas so I shamelessly picked up "just one more" of those. Now this morning I see a deal on a third 4x8 alpha I would be a fool to let slip by.

All said and done, I have had packages arriving all week from various QK meccas around the country (because in order to really justify this I had to shop around for the best deals-none of which was possible through one store as many of these were sold out at one store and not the other) and my mailman can now cancel his gym membership since he's having to step out of his little white truck and walk up to the house to leave the packages.

And now I feel like I've done my good deed for the week in keeping him healthy and fit.
I wonder what QK will release next month?

Whew! It's been a crazy couple weeks!

But we're back from Orlando and gearing up for another school year! This summer has just flown by and I can hardly believe the kid will be a sophomore this year!! What an awesome-ly relaxing vacation we just had-believe it or not in Orlando of all places! Here's some pics of the week long seek for the ultimate thrill ride. I have to say there were a few coasters at Islands of Adventure that nearly knocked my socks off! I mean pee-your-pants exciting! The Hulk I believe was my favorite. If you've never been on it or heard anything about it-you WILL NOT be expecting what's in store for you at the beginning of that ride. Totally cool!

The best part of this trip had to be returning to the luxurious resort we stayed at down there. We looked forward to hanging out at the pool every day or having a few drinks on our florida room patio on the top floor. You've seen the cruise commercial with the teenage girl who scowls the whole time and won't be caught smiling or having a good time, right? That was Chase. Just too funny. Didn't know whether to laugh or scream at him but in the end, he asked if we were going back next year. WTH???

I'm sad to see the summer come to an end but looking forward to a few upcoming trips I'm taking with hubby later on this month. Only this time I think we'll leave the sulky one at home :)

Ready to mail!

I'm so stinkin' proud of myself! I finished my cj pages BEFORE the deadline, thank you very much. I only had a month to do these and procrastinated until this past weekend. I think I'm definitely one of those people that works better under pressure. So I'll stick this in the mail tomorrow and anxiously await the first journal to be sent my way! Unfortunately it will arrive next week when we're in Orlando on vacation so once again, I'll have only a few weeks to work on the 2 pager for that album --but no worries!!

We're really looking forward to this trip next week. Hubby needs a break from work BAD and I need a change of scenery AGAIN. I think I'm looking forward to going to Sea World the most. I know it's crazy but no matter how many times I visit that park--San Diego, San Antonio, and now Orlando--I NEVER get sick of it!! It's my absolute favorite and can you blame me?? They have been incredibly gracious to active duty military over the years and who can argue with free beer tasting??? Anheuser-Busch ROCKS. Plain and simple.

So my cj topic was "The little things in life that make you smile" and here's my 10 little things:

1. Sitting on the patio with my morning java in my favorite mug

2.Hearing The Cure's "Just Like Heaven" come on the radio, out of the blue

3.Abby's frog-butt

4. A warm sandy beach

5.My stuffed sea turtle

6.Wearing a new outfit

7.Eating cake-my guilty little secret

8. Getting a package in the mail-especially if it's a new Quickutz alpha!

9. Curling up on the sofa and watching "So I Married an Axe Murderer" on a rainy Sat. afternoon

10. Having friends over for a BBQ on the weekend

Doesn't take much to make me happy--obviously.

First try at a CJ...

I've been more productive in the past 2 days than in the past 2 months! Here are some pages from a circle journal I'm participating in on sb.com. Because I'm totally freakin sick and tired of crappy people and crappy vibes--my topic is "The Little Things in Life that make you smile". Hoping this little book will cheer me up whenever I look at it! If you're not familiar with a circle journal-a small group of online friends exchange albums with their own specific topic and each person does a layout for each book. In the end, I'll have a completed 8x8 album with my pages and pages from some extremely talented ladies that I've come to call "friends" from my fave scrapbook mb. I can't wait to get the first album in the mail!!

Grrrrr.....It's Monday.....

I forced myself to go to the gym and run this morning even though every muscle in my body is screaming from a long weekend of wakeboarding. I can get up every time now on the board but it's the staying up for longer than a few minutes that's kicking my butt. Our friend Scott assures me he'll have me doing flips over the wake by the end of the summer. Yeah, right.

Yikes! Where has the time flown??

Hard to believe we're nearly halfway through June already! I haven't had much time to update this (not that anyone really reads this?!?) and finding time to scrap just hasn't happened. BUT--this was my entry for the annual Pagemaps contest a few weeks ago. I used the March '08 sketch and had these pics laying around that seemed to fit it perfect. Poor hubby just can't seem to get back to Mass to catch a Sox game so it's kinda a little joke between us that he's his own little Red Sox Nation wherever the Army sends us. It was a big loser but I loved how it turned out and hubby did too.

The hot summer days have set in here and you can pretty much find us on the lake wakeboarding all summer. YES--I learned how my 2nd try!!!! Got some great pics of my son learning to waterski too so I'm feeling a layout coming on here soon!

Happy Mother's Day!!

Here's a little gift book I whipped out yesterday to give my mom this Mother's Day. I used a BasicGrey chipboard album for this and it worked up super fast. I started it with a pic of her and and my grandmother and included pics of her and my brother and I and then all of the grandkids. I finished it up with current pics of my family and my brother's family and put a few poems in there about mothers and one about grandma's too. Just a fun little book for her to share with the rest of the family next week when they make another trek up north. Now I get to kick back and relax and enjoy my day while hubby does the laundry and the yard work :)

Is it Friday yet??

It's just been one of those weeks. After many months of waiting and anxiety, hubby finally had his major dental surgery on Monday and is back to work today. He only had to wait 28 years after an accident all but destroyed the upper left side of his teeth to FINALLY have it all fixed. So now he'll have a whole new grille with 3 brand new implants hopefully in place by the end of the year. Funny thing is, I always thought his teeth just added to his ruggedly handsome good looks but he's always been a little self-conscious of them. He had tears in his eyes on Monday when he saw his new smile and that was just with the prosthetics in place! The docs did a fabulous job and we're really fortunate to be assigned to a post that just happens to be the Army's center for dental training. Yeah, I know, it's a little scary that he has a resident in training working on him but there's always a price even when it's "free". We just have to keep our fingers crossed that he heals well and all the steps to this long process happen on schedule so we can finish this before he retires next year :)

So, I've been working on more pages to my "book of us" and getting closer to completing it. These pics from when we met in Germany in 1995 have always been special to me but I'll cherish them even more now that his appearance has changed so much. Just a little reminder to him that I fell in love with the guy with the "messed up teeth" and I thought he was a total hottie! Now I'm afraid I'll never get him away from mirrors :)