Haven't melted yet...

I'm still here!! I'm just not on my own computer so I can't really post any pics. The only scrappy stuff I have done is for my mom's memorial and it's still a little too recent to think about posting any of that. I do have some scrappy mojo running through my veins so hopefully I will get time soon!!

It is HOT in Central Washington. I am talking 107 degrees and no breeze. I am MELTING. I'm sitting in front of the air conditioner trying to cool off before going to bed (it's almost midnight!). But alas... I'm still hot enough to scream. Or at least growl. LOL.

Hope you all are well. I will be back SOON with some fun news....

Making Memories Contest

Whoa Baby! Making Memories is giving away the whole company... well.. not quite the WHOLE company... but tons of stuff!!

Right now (for one hour, so don't wait) they are giving away some Slice accessories. Check it out HERE!

Did this grab your attention?? Peak your curiosity? I BET! The big reveal is here! The first advert prompt from Dotty Divas can be found HERE. Head on over and check it out!! You have until August 20th to submit. Here is the full advertisement:

This is a challenge blog you are definately going to want to follow. I have seen the advert prompt for the second challenge and it is gorgeous!

I created two projects using the first prompt. The first is a LO about my sister Molly's trip to Las Vegas. Where she had too much fun, if ya know what I mean. The LO was created on a black background and the "swirlies" were drawn free-hand on scraps of pp. I then cut them out and arranged them on the cardstock. It reminds me of one of the show girls' head-dress. Here goes:

the second project is a card. This was super easy because the pp did all of the work for me!

Also: If you create a LO (or card, or altered item.. whatever!)... link me up to your project and i will draw one random entry for a RAK. Yep. You heard me right... a RAK! Can't wait to see what you create!!

Changes...

Just when you think you have ahold of this thing called life... another curve pops up in the road.

Last Saturday I was in Kansas City with my Brother-in-law (shout out to Jon!). We went to the open casting call of The Biggest Loser. I was hoping to post pics but it was pretty lame. We waited in line for HOURS (we got there at 5am) and then you get 30 seconds to "get their attention" in a group interview. Insane. We did everything we thought to do and no luck. No call back. Ah well. I'll still root on the next batch of losers. LOL.

But the curve wasn't the casting call. The curve came before we left the hotel. At 3:30am I received a call from my older sister (she lives in Washington with the rest of my family) letting me know that my mom had passed away. It was like being punched in the gut. She was 57. She was my best friend. My own personal cheering section. But she was also very, very sick. If you remember from a post in May, I had to fly home suddenly because she was in the hospital and it looked grim. My daughters and i were able to spend two weeks with her and saw her come home from the hospital and it looked promising. She wasn't "good" but she was definately better. I haven't talked to her much in the last few months because she just didn't feel well enough to talk on the phone. But I could tell how sick she was. It was shock to hear the heartbreaking news, but it wasn't unexpected either. Her obituary is posted below. I'm not on my computer so I can't post the pictures that we used but I did have this LO in my photobucket account. My mom was an amazing woman. I am so lucky to have had her in my life.

On the morning of July 18th, Jesus called my mom home. She's in Heaven now (without a shadow of doubt in my mind, I know she is there) and is no longer hurting. She can walk and breath again. No more oxygen masks. No more tripping on that "damn tube" as she walked around her house, tethered to her machine. She is happy and in the presence of God. What more could I ask for?

We have spent the last two days in the car. 1,704 miles and 26 hours of driving. We are at my dad's house now. Preparing for the services this weekend. Jared will fly back to Wichita (and work) on Tuesday out of Seattle. The girls and I are staying for a few weeks.We will visit some friends in Portland and get to spend at least a day on the Oregon Coast (I miss the ocean!). Then we will drive back (one of my aunts will be driving with us) and take the "scenic route" through Yellowstone and stopping at Mt Rushmore. I brought my scrappy stuff so that I can work on some DT assignments (Watch for some big news after the 1st!). Talk to you all soon!

In Loving Memory...

Saturday, July 18th

Yakima - Terry (Aunt Terry) passed away peacefully in her home after a long courageous battle with multiple health issues. Terry was a loving Mother and Grandmother and was loved and respected by all who knew her. She was (and without a doubt in her mind) everyones favorite aunt. She was always there and you could count on her no matter what.

Terry was always busy with her sewing, quilting and various other crafts; and was good at whatever she decided to do. She loved the outdoors and especially fishing throughout her life. The most important role in life to her was that of Momma and Gram.

Terry is survived and remembered by her daughters Molly (Yakima), Erin and Jared (Mulvane, KS), and Kelly and Tim (Yakima); and her grandchildren JJ, Emily and Kayla. Her husband Donald (Yakima) as well as numerous brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces and many, many friends. She was preceeded in death by her parents and a sibling.

Terry will be sadly missed and will forever remain in the hearts of many. Her pain is gone but her spirit lives on...

Birthday Cards Galore!

Between my family, Jared's family and our friends - we have a TON of summer Birthdays!! I have made so many bday cards lately that I literally have a pile on my desk, ready to mail out! I thought I would share a few with ya'll!!

The first is for my friend, Jamie. We are "Birthday Twins" as she calls it (aka, we have the same bday). I saw the pic on this card on her facebook profile. It is of her daughter Maddy walking down a highway in Alaska. I immediately fell in love with it so I printed it off and used it as the main embelishment of her Birthday card! The alphas say "Life is good". All of the pp is from the 8x8 paper pad I won from October Afternoon. I adore this pp!! The card LO was based on a sketch from 2S4Y (Laura's 30)

The next card is also using the October Afternoon paper pad. A totally different look, from the same line!! Don't you love the cherries and the polka dots?

I have a hard time making "boy cards". This is for Jared's cousin, Matt. The background pp has motorcycles on it. I hope he'll like it??

This last one makes me smile!! These are the owls from American Crafts. Love their huge eyes!!

That's it for tonight. I have been making my entries for the AC DT Call. I need to get my butt in gear because the call ends in 4 days. I have my entries done (created a new LO tonight!) so I just need to take photos. *Fingers Crossed*

Talk to you all soon!

My cup runneth over...

I had the most amazing Birthday yesterday! Thank you to everyone who sent me comments on fb, texts, etc etc. I am so thankfull!!

I was showered with love (and presents!) all day long. Being so far way from "home" I was worried that I was going to be super home-sick. But It really was such a pleasant day. It actually started the afternoon before when I took my girls to the LSS to pick out bday gifts for me. A random assortment of bling, ribbon, alphas and stamps. They did great! That afternoon I also received a bday card (with some ca$h) from Jared's Grandma (whom I absolutely adore). In the evening Jared put the girls to bed and I spent some much needed "me" time shopping at Kohl's. I am now in love with that store, I had never really been before but I am definately smitten! I only spent $30 and bought a new jacket, sweater, shoes, necklace/earrings and earrings. Can you believe that?? Their clearance is amazing! That night when Jared went to work (well, morning seeing as it was 2am) he left me a Birthday card on his pillow. *awe!* isn't he the best??

Tuesday morning I woke up late (oops!) and rushed the girls over to my MIL's house and then headed to the DMV. I still had a Washington ID so I figure it's about time to switch to Kansas... a year later! Especially because my old ID expired yesterday. Oops. LOL. Then I hit a new scrapbook store (Scrap Funattic in Andover, KS). I really liked that store! Their selection was really nice and they have it grouped well. I also think their crop space looked phenominal! I may have to check out a crop sometime soon. I also hit Tuesday Morning and between the two... I came home with way too much new scrappy stuff!! But I'm not giving any of it back... it's mine. LOL

In the afternoon I picked up the girls and went home to prep our house. All of our family (on Jared's side, of course.... mine wouldn't drive the 1,700 to be here. stubborn. *wink*) came over for dinner. We had yummy enchiladas with rice/beans. And two chocolate cakes!! I opened the girls' gifts and also my gift from Jared: a digital scrapbooking program and a Beatles CD (which I am currently listening to!). The problem - I already had the digital program! So today we traded it for the Martha Stewart Circle Cutter which I have been oogling for quite some time! His parents/sister/brother all went together and bought me (my heart skips a beat just thinking about this!) the Making Memories Carousel!! I am SOOOO excited! I already have it all filled up and I am in love! They also bought me the desktop organizer in white, which is already overfilled. LOL. I wanted this so that I can keep my "new" items in plain sight. Usually I just lay them on my desk but it get's way too messy. The tall organizer also holds my paper trimmer (SO much more convenient than where I had it!) and has three drawers on the bottom that hold more tools. Their gift also came with a free copy of the current Scrapbook & Cards Today magazine (which, if you recall, I was featured on their blog last month). It is really inspiring!

So, as you can see, I am spoiled! Thank you so much to everyone who helped make this Birthday my best yet!!

Dotty Divas!

Whoo Hoo! Fun news!! I received an email today saying that I am a DT member at Dotty Divas!

I found this blog through (what used to be called) Pub Calls. I was drawn to this specific DT because the challenge prompts will be based on advertisements! This is something that I am seeing more and more lately and it has really intrigued me. I am so very excited to get started!

I can't show you the first prompt just yet
but I will give you a tiny sneak peak
to get you drooling for more...

Check out the new blog HERE and give me a shout-out in their comments!!

This Wednesday...

Is the release of the next Harry Potter movie: The Half Blood Prince. If you could see how giddy I am - you would think I've lost it! But I am SOOOO excited! It comes out the day after my Birthday so I'm hoping that we have some extra $$$ to go and see it. Forget that... I'll find the dang $$!! LOL. Anyone else a closet HP fan??

And btw, how could you NOT love this face??


*sigh* I could get lost in those eyes. er.. um... I mean... I love my husband very much... LOL

Spending Freeze

Don't you HATE being on a spending freeze? I know that a lot of you are. So am I. I'm talking everything... clothes, groceries (we have a bad habit of shopping once a week then going back almost every day for "just one more thing"), entertainment and most of all scrappy stuff. Ugh. And it's soooo much more difficult right now because there are so many amazing products available. Grrr. So today I said "Enough! I have to buy SOMETHING." So I did what I could and I took $2 to the Dollar Tree! Woot. And I found something pretty fantastic, too. Check 'em out:

Here's a close up of some of them. The packages contain 46 pieces each! The left is pink/black with butterflies/flowers and the right are all sorts of brights with stars/hearts.

What a great find, right? And all for $2!! Now that's a price we can afford! LOL And don't you love the American Crafts paper in the background? That's from my "pre-freeze" shopping days. I haven't gotten the guts to cut it up... yet....

Wall of Fame

About two weeks ago Jared and I moved all of my scrappy and school stuff into one of the bedrooms. It had been in the living room, sprawled in a corner. But I just outgrew my desk and bookshelf there. So now I get to actually unpack all of my scrappy stuff (and ya'll know there's a lot of it!) and have adequate storage for my text books, papers, binders, bags, etc, etc. The best part is... I can come in here and close the door when I have homework to do! So much easier than when I was in the middle of the living room and everyone had to tip toe around me.

So... now I have this big, blank room to figure out what to do with. I want it to feel comfortable and inspiring but I have no money to make this happen!! I definately need to invest in a curtain and a few bulletin boards, though. But what to do for artwork?? Wait! I'M an artist!! Why not display my own art?? So I came up with a plan! I was hoping to buy a whole bunch of those $5 12x12 frames and hang them in a grid on the wall. But wait... I'm still broke. Dang. There goes that! But today I came up with the BEST idea! For a $2 package of silver binder clips at Target, DH and I did this to one of my walls:

ta-da! Isn't it grand?? 21 of my LOs displayed in all of their glory! Now I am trying to figure out what to do with the other two blank walls....

State of Liberty LO

This LO is based on a sketch for the July Challenge at Paper Popsicles. The products and LO are gorgeous in real life. Please excuse the photo of it. I'm about one more junky picture away from selling an organ in order to buy a new camera!

The pp is Basic Grey, Lime Rickey. The black swirls along the left are a 12" rub-on from Glitz. The title is a MAMBI sticker. The edge is hand-stitched with black embroidery floss.

Happy 30th Kelly!

Ok, I called my sister and told her NOT to look at my blog until after her Bday package arrives. So now I can share with you the card and altered item that I made for her!! First, her card. This is the big Three Oh for her and I wanted to try something really special. It was inspired by those word albums (made out of chipboard). I created the template on Microsoft Publisher then used it as a pattern for the cardstock. The 3 and the 0 are part of the actual body of the card, not glued on later. The rest of the card was inspired by a sketch challenge at the Paper Popsicles Blog. I am absolutely in love with this card!!! Lemme know what you think?

open:

from the top:

For her altered item I made her a name plate for her desk. You know how when you were in school your teacher used to have the wooden wedge with his/her name engraved on the metal plate? This is a funkier and more modern twist on one of those. And because she loves her name (i mean loves it. She has it tattoo'd on her body a few times and also across the back of her car!) this was perfect. I got the idea from a member at Tally Scrapper. Here is her new name plate:

Now I just have to get these things into the mail tomorrow!!! Happy Birthday Sister!!

4th of July

We had a wonderful 4th of July! It started out with a parade then a BBQ at our house and a TON of fireworks!! 4th of July here (in Kansas) is quite a bit different than back home (Washington) because fireworks are legal here. So this is the first time we have been able to light off our own fireworks in years. Jared went a bit crazy and tried to spend a ton, but we agreed on a budget and he only went $.41 over. I asked him (jokingly) why he didn't put something back and he sorta looked at me like I had a third eye growing out of my forehead. LOL. We sat in our driveway and watched as Jared, Jon and Dennis lit off our arsenal. Meanwhile, the entire neighborhood was doing the same thing! It was like being in the middle of a war zone!! But it was so incredibly fun and watching Jared grin like a fool as he got to blow stuff up was well worth the extra $.41!

On a serious note, I am a very proud American. A thankful American. Thankful to our troops, our communities and to God for all that He has Blessed us with.

Here are a couple of pics of the girls from Saturday. More can be found on my facebook page:
Emily with a sparkler:

Kayla with the neighbor's bunny (she was in love!):

Busy, Busy!

I have been busy making tons of new things. Problem is... I can't show you just yet!! Most of the projects are for the American Crafts DT Call (my heart skips a beat just thinking about it!). Another project is for my little sister's bday and because she checks my blog every once in a while... it'll have to wait until she sees it first. :o) The last new thing is a Halloween Card! It is for the Fall Call at Scrapbook and Cards Today. If you remember, I had a LO featured on their blog a few weeks back. So I decided to try and give a printed submission a go! Wish me luck!

Here is a sneak peak of the Halloween card:

Paper Popsicles

As you know, I am looking for a new scrappy "home". I was pointed towards Paper Popsicles by a friend (thanks JoAnne!) and it looks really interesting. They sorta got my attention with all of the bright colors and polka dots. I am a sucka' for polka dots! I registered for my username ("erin" - yeah, I'm super creative. dig it.) and look forward to jumping right in!

Right now on their blog they have an awesome RAK up for grabs:

Head to their blog (follow their links or paste in) www.paperpopsicles.com to check them out!!

homeless

Well, my DT term at 2SCD has come to an end. The owner is going to hold off on doing kits and the message boards for a while. I really enjoyed my time there and was able to work with a couple of gorgeous kits, too!

Anyone know of a really great group that I should check out? I need a scrappy home!

Merry

Another creation for Kristin's Blog Challenge #4. This card did not start out as a Christmas card but it sort of turned itself into one! Even though the paper pad these pp came from is summery and bright, I thought the red and green looked gorgeous together. And the grey polka dots remind me of a cold, snowy day. I guess now I have a jump start on Christmas this year!!

The pp are from the October Afternoon paper pad I won a few weeks ago (Cherry Hill), the square journaling block is Maya Road (I added the red border), the green letter M is from The Paper Studio (at Hobby Lobby) and the buttons are Creative Cafe.

dog food cake

Emily is turning 7 this Sunday and wanted a "puppy party". So we bought puppy cups, plates, napkins, invites.. you get the idea. When I asked her what kind of cake she said she wanted a "dog food cake" for her party tomorrow. Here's what I made for her today - complete with dog food (aka cocoa puffs)!!

The cake itself is huge. 4 full layers in the blue part! She is a bit of a chocoholic and requested chocolate cake (to no surprise). This is a "triple chocolate fudge" cake mix with chocolate chips dumped in and chocolate frosting between the layers! I think she's going to like it??

Wannabe!

Did you see the call?? My heart is skipping a beat... I adore American Crafts! As you can tell by my many recent layouts that are flooded with their products! The DT Call is open until July 20th so I am off to create!