Ren's Happy Place

2012-01-25T08:45:00.000-08:00

Nine years ago today I got to wear the prettiest dress that I had ever owned in my life.
I got to have all the important and special people that mean the world to me gather together in one room.
I entered a room and walked towards a beautiful future that got better with each passing day.
I was given the opportunity to become something better than just myself, and everyone there shared in my joy.

Nine years ago today I married John Osburn and each day has been a blessing and full of the greatest love I could have ever imagined being possible.
To those of you who were there, thank you so very much for being part of our incredible life together.
To those that we've met and gotten to know since, I am sure you all know how much this day means to us.
Although we celebrate our love everyday today is extra special since its OUR DAY.

Happy Anniversary John! I LOVE YOU!!

Time Out

2011-09-22T11:08:00.000-07:00

Okay, tomorrow I go in for sinus surgery. I am told to expect a four to ten day recovery. I am told to expect a lot of discomfort for several days/weeks afterward with the discomfort easing a little each day. I am to avoid strenuous activity while recuperating...so of course, what am I worried about not being able to do...crafting!

So I will have to see how I feel afterward to gauge if I can create my bits of happiness, after all - paper and embellishments aren't that heavy...its just a matter of the movement and such...so I will be on a time out from the craft room (as well as everything else) I am hoping the recovery won't be too long, but I don't want to get my hopes up either.

I finished up some projects last night to give me a little craft boost to get me through until I feel up to creating again. I completed some ATCs for an online swap, and I have a set started for when I am ready to get back at it!

These are two of the sets that I did, I really like the pink one!!

Okay, as soon as I am able to lift my head up and function well enough I will post again. Until then I can use all the positive thoughts that can be sent my way!!
:) Have a wonderful day!!

Fun!

2011-09-14T15:09:00.000-07:00

Here is Jaime's book with all the papers, photos, and embellishments picked out and ready to be completed.

All the items needed for each page are in the sleeves with the exception of things for fine tuning like ink and small embellishments to fill in spots that I feel like filling in. I've even made journaling notes and have those in the sleeves as well, so I'll be able to do the journaling right away when I make the page instead of putting off doing the journaling later.

I took my mini Paris book with me yesterday to a friend's house to scrapbook, and it was so wonderful to have everything already selected, it may have taken a bit of time at home - but it made the process of completing the pages so much easier. And I only had to take three things with me. My tool kit, my embellishment tower (it holds my journaling pens, bling, and journal spots), and everything I needed fit into my rolly kit. It was soooo refreshing to not have to make more than one trip to my car!!

Last night was also filled with some incredible fun! I went to see a stage performance of my most favorite story ever written.

I laughed, I sighed, I was so delighted. I was teary at the end of it, which made my friends laugh at me because, well - the story never changes, it always ends the same way. But I'm such a sentimental fool that it always seems to move me to tears.

About an hour ago I worked on this project

I had seen this tape dispenser at a store and right away thought of my friend Nic, she loves shoes, she is dedicated to raising money to benefit breast cancer research, and she would love a pink shoe tape dispenser! I added some bling and some other little details. I know she's going to love it!

Tomorrow I am setting aside time to work on some more ATCs while I work on taking care of some chores and such. It will be exciting to see what I create.

As for tonight, I have plans to paint some pottery, of course we might get distracted and have fun just hanging out instead, either way its going to be a great night!

This Weekend

2011-09-09T08:37:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was full of birthday excess. So this weekend is going to be full of nothing but kicking back and relaxing with a little bit of chores sprinkled in here and there and with expectations of crafting the rest of the time.

I have started working on a mini Paris album, mostly because 7 full 12x12 albums is hard to go through for anyone, so I figured a 8x8 "best of" album would be good to have for anyone who is interested to see our trip. Yes, I know its been three years now since that awesome vacation took place (which I find so hard to believe its been that long...) and I keep seeming to milk it out, but why not? I enjoyed it too much to just let it fade away. And it keeps me motivated to look forward to when we can go again, which may be a little longer than I'd like - but we'll get there!
So for the mini Paris album I have some pages already done, and for the rest I have the papers and embellishments all picked out and organized. I just need to print some pictures - then all I have to do is assemble the pages.

I am also working on updating Jaime's first year album. I got the first couple months of her life with us captured, but now I need to catch up. I've picked out all the papers and embellies needed up to now, but I need to get photos printed for this book also.

So the first project to take care of: get some pictures printed.

It will be nice to have the books organized so completely - all I'll have to do when its time to go to crops is to grab the books, my tool kit, and hopefully one bag of extra essentials like ink and such. It will make hauling items to the crop so much easier! And I won't spend an hour there picking out the paper for the page I'm working on. Why didn't I do this before???

If I can keep up with this plan/strategy I am hoping I can incorporate it into all of my scrapping organization for the other projects/events I'm scrapping. We'll see how it goes...

Other than scrapbooking, I am also going to work on some more ATCs. I am doing another swap on the scrapbooking site and I'm excited because I'll be doing some seasonal ones this time along with a few "generic" ones.

And now to share the highlight of last birthday weekend.
Friday Edana and I went to visit the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades. It was a nice crisp cool day and we got to see a lot of very interesting antiquities. We didn't know how much there was to see there - it was an immense collection. We had a nice relaxing day wandering through the exhibits and marveling at all the items, we hadn't realized how much time had run away from us while we were there, its just marvelous the way the whole "time flies" scenario works.
The gardens there were very pretty too. And there were some amazing sculptures throughout the museum. Overall it was a wonderful day spent with an absolutely wonderful person!

It's My Birthday!

2011-09-04T01:05:00.000-07:00

Well, its a little after 1am on my birthday.
So far, its a great day!!

I have had a wonderful birthday weekend so far!
I spent Friday with Edana at the Getty Villa. It was such a pretty place and the weather was cool and clean. I took lots of pictures and hope to have some up soon.

Friday night, friends Rebecca and Jason came over and we all hung out and watched some fun TV, played cards, ate yummy snacks, and spent a lot of time laughing and just kicking back.

Saturday we slept in, then went out for bagels for breakfast. Then we took the pups to the dog park. Afterward we came home and just relaxed for a little bit. I went out in the evening to have dinner with some more friends. It was a lot of fun and so relaxing!

Still two more days of the weekend to go and we have plans to spend more time with family and friends, so it looks like its going to be a lot of fun!

Happy Birthday to Me!!

Some Recent Pictures

2011-08-30T06:48:00.000-07:00

I have to admit, I haven't been too organized lately. So I am giving myself a few personal challenges to see if this will get me re-organized and focused. So I am going to get on here at least twice a week, and if I don't have anything exciting to share - well then, I'll just post some recent pictures that I had taken, even if its just fuzzy blurry ones...hopefully I will have something fun and pretty - but I can't guarantee that.

So here is one of the most recent photos I've taken...

And here is one of the projects I've been working on...just to keep with the crafty theme/intention of the blog...

Some Halloween ATCs that I made to swap. I had also worked on some other ATCs but I am going to post them a little later.

I hope everyone is having a great day!

Yes, Yes, I know...

2011-04-18T21:57:00.000-07:00

Well...it seems that I feel off the face of the Earth, again. But I assure you, I haven't.
Recently I have fallen down on the expectations I have for myself and I am now striving to get back to the level of prolific creativity that I have had in the past.
I'm working on setting myself some new goals and working towards them.
Lately I have found myself battling with my self doubt which always seems to shake me up and I let it hold me back. I know that I am my own worst critic, and I need to not be so easily flustered.
I love the things that I create, I enjoy the creative process in making them and I always find myself surprised when I hear positive feedback for my creativity from others. At the risk of sounding too conceited, I have to admit I like hearing it. Who wouldn't?

I will be back soon, and in the meantime I will share my most recent creation that I am so very proud of and that I am hoping will lead to more excitement.

I love these little rose buds! I still am beside myself with joy when I think of how detailed they are for their size.
I can't help but grin when I think, "I made these!"

What I've Been Doing Lately

2011-02-19T07:00:00.000-08:00

Other than being under the weather and taking care of either John or Steve who have been experiencing ickiness and owies in one form or another I've been scrapping!
Surprise? I thought not. Hee hee

So here is some of the happy things I've created most recently.

This page was created to showcase Mac, a cat that I owned previously.
The hidden journaling (behind the large tag) talks about how unique of a character Mac was and how heartbroken I was to have to leave him behind with a friend when I moved.

This page was created to use up some scraps from my stash and to play with a hand held sewing machine that I was given a while ago.
I started applying the scraps to the background paper before I really knew what I was going to do with the page - then when going through my pictures I came across the large one of John - and since green is his favorite color it was fitting that I do a page about him.

This page is a direct lift from a magazine: Scrapbooks, etc. The Aug/Sept '06 issue - Jamie Waters' "Little Fish" page. I created it for an online challenge that was to do a monochrome page with light blue as the main color and the twist was "out my backdoor" in some sort of interpretation. I used a white pen to write in part of the lyrics of Creedence Clearwater Revival's song, Looking Out My Backdoor, in the line underneath the photo. While working on the page for the challenge the song just kept coming to my head so I thought I'd go ahead and add it.

There is a lot more than those, but I thought I'd just share a small bit.
I've also been gathering items for a Mad Tea Party next month and I'll be working on making all kinds of decorations and party favors for that.
I've also been working on helping a friend with some of her wedding accouterments, which I enjoy doing very much!

The Scrapbook Expo is next Friday, so it will be fun to see what comes of that.

Lastly, John and I went to Disneyland for our anniversary a couple of weeks back, we had a wonderful time and enjoyed ourselves immensely!
Here is one of my favorite pics of the day.

Now I've gotta run...I need to pack up some items, I'm going to a friend's house for some scrappin' time!
I hope everyone is well!
Until next time, take care! Sending out lots of happy vibes to everyone!!
~Ren

Jaime and Scrapbooking, of course...

2011-01-12T08:08:00.000-08:00

For those who have not met her yet, here is Jaime.
She has been with us for almost two weeks now.
We found her at the Orange County Shelter after several months of looking for a room mate for Steve.
She is a two year old Chihuahua/Cocker Spaniel mix, and has a very sweet temperament.
She passed her first vet appointment with praise and an "a-ok!"
However, she did give Steve a cold. :( But he is going to be just fine! :)

We have seen a definite improvement in Steve's behavior since we brought Jaime home, which is great because that was one of the things we were hoping for.
So all is good!
And now I have another subject to scrapbook about!! ;)

Also, I recently got the opportunity to go to Disneyland with my nieces.
It was a very fun day and I took LOTS of pictures, but who didn't think I would?

I especially like how this photo turned out!!
So I have even more to scrap about!

And while I'm on the subject of scrapbooking and craftyness...
I am participating in 12 online challenges for January, along with 2 share threads.

And I had a very positive experience for December.
Out of 13 challenges that I had joined, two of my layouts made it to the polls - and this page WON!!

It won in the Monochrome challenge for the Gold category.
I'm so pleased!! :) I put a lot of work into the page and I was so happy that it was well received.

Yay!
I hope everyone has a fantastic day!!
~Ren

My Four Favorite Tools

2010-12-15T21:23:00.000-08:00

I am so overwhelmingly excited when I am able to go from a blank piece of paper to something that well, just makes me happy.
These are four of my favorite tools that I use the most when I create my layouts, ATCs and other items that I make.
Of course I have to admit that I am not able to use just the items themselves the way that they are, in using them I need to also enlist the assistance of other tools, but these are the most basic; and largest in my crafting repertoire.

Allow me to introduce them.

Of course, some of you are familiar with my Cricut Create die-cut machine. I just love what I can do with it and how I'm able to pull some really wonderful things together.

Then there is the Gypsy, which is my hand held device that I use in relation to the Cricut on some occasions.
Its very nice that it stores all of my cartridges and I am able to manipulate them as needed.

The ATG gun.
I have posted about my excitement for this tool before.
I can't help but gush about it.
Yes, it is a little bulky - but surprisingly easy to use once you get the hang of it.
I like that I can get the equivalent of three snail runners out of one roll of my tape refills, and I get a little giddy over the amount of money I'm saving when I think about it.

The Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive.
Oh I like this glue soooo much.
It adheres faster than regular white glue. It does dry fast. It loves adhering paper to paper so well!
I know that Scotch makes a scrapbooking glue too, which I haven't tired yet, but I have been very satisfied with the results I have with this one.

I was able to use all four of these tools in making some wonderful things, including this layout ~

I just wanted to give a little bit of appreciation for these marvels and how they are a big part of my artistic processes.

Of course I should also acknowledge the other tools that I need to be able to use those to their full abilities:
Cricut mats, blades, and spatulas.
My Cricut Jukeboxes, which I use to keep my most used cartridges in to use when I'm cutting things without manipulating them on the Gypsy.
ATC refill tape.
Bee scissors, I have a yellow pair for cutting paper and a pink pair for cutting ribbon.
And my tool tote with TONS of odds and ends of smaller tools like rulers, stylus, awls, pens, the Crop-o-dile, and more...

All of these things; and so much more that I know I'm forgetting right now, help me to go from ideas to actual creations - and I'm so thankful for them!!

Fun Bit of News

2010-12-07T07:16:00.001-08:00

For the month of November I joined 10 scrapbooking challenges online through the Scrapbook.com site. I am happy to admit that I was able to complete all the challenges! I felt very successful.

Each challenge was a little different and required certain criteria that was a specific theme or using suggested techniques. Some of the challenges have voting at the end of the month to choose the best of the submitted layouts and some are just for sharing. For a couple of the layouts I was able to enter them into more than one challenge.

I had joined the following:
{pictures of the layouts are in the slide show on the right}

Use Your Scraps: 85% of the layout was to be made up from scraps of paper, ribbon, etc. and included an added twist to use a border or corner punch or a corner rounder.
I did a page that was about my Mom's visit from Seattle in 2002.

Darker Side: The layout is to be in dark colors with lots of distressing and generally have a dark/twisted sense of whatever the month's theme is. The theme for the month was to do a layout about a fairy tale.
I chose to capture the legend of Sleeping Beauty and tell a little about her dark origins. While doing research I found out, her story IS really dark and twisted!

Ugly Paper: This one was quite an interesting one. I took two pieces of scrapbook paper from my stash that aren't the prettiest things (in my opinion) and sent them off to an unsuspecting participant in the challenge. Then I receive two pieces of paper and an embellishment from someone else in the challenge.
The goal is to make a layout using the papers we receive and the twist is to use the given embellishment.
I was able to create a layout about Geocaching with the papers I received.

Lyric: We were to create a page about a song from the 70's.
I did my layout about my memories of receiving my own portable record player and the first three 45's that I was given with it. I emphasized that one of them was Chicago's "If You Leave Me Now" ballad, which still gets some air play today.

Neutrals: The assignment for this one was to use only neutral shade colors (brown, white, cream, black, grey, ecru,) and one POP of color.
I decided to use Pink as my color accent, and since I was going to use pink then I should make a page dedicated to my niece Heather, since she loves all things pink!

Monochrome: This one was a little different because it required making four layouts, one with different color schemes and twists, broken into week segments. Each page needed to be at least 75% of the specific color and using only neutral colors for the rest if needed.
Week 1 - Red, with the twist of: Just once...
I did something I hardly ever do, I put myself in the spotlight and put a picture of me on it and journaled about things I wish I had a more assertive nature about.
Week 2 - Green, with its twist of: A day in the life...
For this one I did a page about Steve and his schedule for one day and what his life is like

Week 3 - Purple, its twist:I am blessed...
I did a page about my deep love for John!
Week 4 - Blue, and the with the twist of: And then...
I did a page about seeing the Eiffel Tower for the first time during our trip in 2008 to Paris.

Other Challenges -
Scrap Your Pet: I did a different page about Steve, titled: "The Creature at the Top of the Stairs" it was a fun page to do.

Doodle: Use hand doodles within the layout. It also had a twist, this one was to doodle a border around something.
For this one I entered the purple layout I had made for the Monochrome challenge since I made doodled borders around some of the pictures on the page.

And the two other challenges are share groups - you post your items for other people to see and comment on, and you comment on their items.
Its a place to get feedback and inspiration from.
Its always fun to check in and see what other people are making and get some ideas or tips on techniques or new tools/items out in the market.

So when it was all said and done, for the month of November I created a total of 38 layouts (yes, that's right - not all of them are listed on here) and 39 ATCs (Artist Trading Cards).
A very productive month.

And when the voting was finished; for the challenges that have voting, I found out that my layout: "A Day in the Life of Steve" (pictured above) WON!
Whooo Hoooo!!
There isn't any prizes, just recognition - but I'm happy with that!

So now for the month of December I have joined 13 challenges!!
Ten of them are the same as before (with different themes and criteria but the same topics) plus a Holiday theme, a Creative Cricut challenge, and an ATC swap.
Luckily the Cricut and ATC ones aren't due until the end of February - but I'll finish them long before then.
I haven't started on any of this month's yet, I should get going on that in the next day or two.
But I have been working on the Compendium and that's been taking a little more time than I'd like but it will be nice once I get it caught up.

Well, that's all for now.
Have a great week everyone!

Happy Holidays!!

2010-11-29T21:05:00.000-08:00

Okay, I can go on and on about how I'm not that great of a blogger, but we all already know that. So instead of recapping what has taken place in the past two and a half months, lets just move forward.

First off: as a rule I don't make New Year's Resolutions because, lets face it - they generally don't make it past Valentine's Day, well...at least mine haven't.
BUT I am going to give myself the challenge of getting on here once a week to at least post something, anything, in hopes of instilling a good habit.
I cannot promise that it will always be crafting related but my goal is to make this a creative blog.
So if anyone finds me rushing in at zero hour just to say hello, don't be surprised.
I do honestly hope to get better at this and make it part of my artistic routine.
Wish me luck!!

I cannot guarantee that I will have another post before the end of this year, so I am going to get all of my Yuletide Greetings and Thanks out now.

Since we just had Thanksgiving let me say Thanks to several people that have helped to make my life whole and to also extend my Christmas wishes to you. Hopefully I will not leave anyone aside, please forgive me if I do. You have my permission to remind me that I am as loopy as ever.

John, Thank you for being you and loving me!

Mom & Wayne, I love you very much!

Keith, I may not always be the best sister - but I do care and love you!

Vonda & Big John, Thank you so much for everything and for always including me. I love you both a pretty whole lotta muches.

Grandma & Grandpa Laff, Aunt Dawn & Uncle Alex, Bryan, Nathan, Aunt Sharon, Dustin & Kari, Garret & Aubrey & Dylan, Shanelle & Hayden & Bree: It means the world to me that you are all the awesome people that you are and that you make me feel included in the wonderful group that is all of you.

Grandma K, I am thankful that you have passed down this wonderful gift of creativity. It has been my solace at times of great need and without it I would be lost. Much love to you!

Aunt Dale, I send you lots of hugs and love!!

Anita & Jimmy & Heather & Jennifer & Justin: Big smmmooochhyy wet kisses to all of ya! A special thanks to Anita for being my voice of reason when I get on my tangents and temporarily loose my mind. ;)

Edana, you are such a dear and wonderful friend to me. Your unconditional love and support always surprises and touches me. You have a deep affection and warmth that is genuine and endless and I am so completely grateful for you!

Nicole, you have been there during dark time and loopy times. You remind me of the importance of quality time. I enjoy our late coffee nights and I appreciate it that you never seem to tire of hearing me babble. Thank you for always being there!

Vanessa & Eric: I don't think I can express my appreciation for you two enough. Love you bunches!!! I include Diana & Misha & Colin & Charlotte & Grandma & Grandpa in that love too!

Denise, Veronica, Jenny, DiAnne & Chrysti: You gals rock! You inspire me and make me feel very special every time we get together.

Theresa, Mackenzie & Kelsie: I miss you girls a lot. Even though you're a ways away you're in my thoughts.

Jen, Amy, Jose, Lauren, Kim, Mr. & Mrs. McCormick, Aunt Shirley, & Aunt Pat: Thank you all so much for all the laughter that you let me in on whenever I'm around any of you. I do appreciate it very much.

To the Geeks!!! Oh my, there are soooo many so I unfortunately will lump you all together, but know that whether as a group or individually you all make me laugh and smile and think and wonder and just all around have such a fun time. I am sooooo happy that John found all of you extraordinary people and that you've welcomed us into the fold so warmly.

And for the gals that I've gotten to chat with on the scrapbook site, well thanks for all the giggles, appreciation, and encouragement!

Okay...I am pretty sure I've goofed and am forgetting some folks, again...please forgive me.

I wish each and everyone a warm, safe, and healthy Christmas season. I want nothing but peace and happiness for all of us. Lots of hugs, tons of laughter, but most of all love and joy!
Happy Christmas and Merry New Year!
With Much Love,
~Ren

Happy Happy Joy Joy

2010-08-09T18:24:00.001-07:00

It arrived! It arrived! And I am doing a happy dance!!

I know I am probably the only one that finds glee in this, but darn it - I'm soooo happy about it!

Oh...here's some other things that have gone on recently:

Wine tasting/buying trip to Santa Ynez valley with Vanessa and Jen

And a visit to the Muckenthaller Cultural Center in Fullerton

Now if you'll excuse me...I have some crafting to do...
:) Have a fabulous day!!
~Ren

2010-07-24T11:19:00.000-07:00

I got curious and decided to change the way the blog looks, I hope you like it!

So what did I learn these past couple of weeks?
Well, many things.
First, when going to a long crop at a friend’s house (what constitute “long”? oh, twelve hours) make sure to get up every once in a while instead of only three times.

Second, when at said crop – don’t keep stuff at your feet and then bend over from the chair to get it. Instead, keep it within reach OR get out of the chair and kneel down to get it.

Third, learn these two things before you repeat it again a week later at another crop (this one not lasting twelve hours – but still a good amount of time was spent sitting, and reaching, and so on…)

How did I come to learn these things?
I pinched a nerve in my hip. Yes, that’s what I said. In my hip, the area of the ball joint – and I don’t suggest it to anyone. It burned with the fire of a thousand suns…and I’ll just spare everyone the rest of the details.
A doctor’s visit and a filled prescription of Ibuprofen in 800Mg later… I just have to wait the 6-8 weeks (5-7 now) for it to heal. Oh, and be careful. Sigh

Another lesson learned:
Don’t order anything online that is a “pre-order” - wait for it to be in stock, then order it.

The pink ATG gun that I was so excited to be ordering and had hoped to have in my hands by at least now, well – it’s back ordered until August!
Well, I’m taking care of that on Monday.

Let’s move on to happier thoughts, shall we?
Here’s what I have gotten done lately, even while combating injury -

I have completed my Mom’s mini album of my wedding. Now I just need to send it off to her with her other goodies.

Steve’s album is caught up to current.

I am a good way through stitching the wedding project for Eric and Vanessa – my goal is to try to complete the stitching before the middle of August.

I have started amassing the photos for my Disney scrapbook.
This might actually become a couple of books because I have so many memories to record. Unfortunately I don’t have all of my pictures anymore, so we’ll see what magic I can create!

I have been hesitating making my Cricut compendium book…it’s because it is a daunting task – but I need to get on top of it, then it won’t feel like such a huge project.
I also found out that simple math is not easy (yes, sarcasm) – I have to correct myself to say that I own 28 cartridges, not 29. And I’ve only completed cataloging 2 of them.
So in order to challenge myself I am adding a project counter:
Compendium Status: 2/28 – of course that will get more intimidating if I pick up more cartridges….

Recent Day Trips and Experiences
Edana and I went to the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda to see their garden.
We didn’t know that the garden was part of the museum’s admission, so we went ahead because we were told that they had the largest rose garden in Orange County. The garden was nice, but I feel that Roger’s Gardens and Nursery in Newport is actually bigger.
It was a pretty warm day; it was also the 20th anniversary of Nixon’s induction into office (I believe) so we were there when they were having a celebration and luncheon.
While there we were able to get some photos of a few pretty flowers and one very flighty butterfly. After walking through the gardens we meandered through the museum a little bit, mostly to take advantage of the coolness before going back outside. I learned some new things but I also have a deeper appreciation for Pat Nixon now.

The Geek group had a Cake Challenge event that I co-hosted. We had a really nice turn out and a lot more cakes were brought in to be judged than I anticipated. We all had a lot of fun, but when we plan to have one next year we’ve decided it will be in the winter, everyone’s cake kinda got beat up in the heat. John made his own entry and won two prizes!

Other News and Happenings…
I will be traveling to Santa Barbara this next weekend to take part in some wine tasting with my friends Vanessa and Jen. I will be taking this opportunity to discover what type of wine I like, if I truly even enjoy wine. So we’ll see how that goes. I’m hoping to take a lot of beautiful pictures and fun times to capture!

My Sister-in-Law; Anita, and her husband; Jimmy, bought a house! I’m so excited for them. It was a long process with many many emotional set-backs, so I’m very happy this has come to fruition for them. I’m looking forward to seeing their new abode soon. Congratulations you guys!!

Okay…I think that’s all for now…which seems like a lot…
Take Care!
I hope everyone has a wonderful day! Thanks for stopping by!
~Ren

Projects!

2010-07-05T20:51:00.000-07:00

Here is what I've been doing during this long break between posts:

I worked on and FINISHED the Monterey scrapbook. Yay!!

I have also been working on Steve's 1st year album, and I'm almost caught up to current, three more layouts and we'll be waiting for the next big activity.

And I started a mini scrapbook of my wedding for my Mom.

There have been a few late night/early morning crops at Denise's house. Not only are we having a great time enjoying each other's company and seeing what we're all working on but the conversations have been varied and stimulating!
I've been having scrapping fun with these gals!!

We also recently had our last crop with Theresa, the lady who pretty much brought us all together. We will miss her very much and we wish her and her family the best of luck in Colorado and we're hoping we will get to visit her soon!!

I have been working on a project for my friends Eric & Vanessa, for their wedding in October. I am hoping to have it completed soon. I'll show you the pics once they're finished.

My Cricut cartridge collection is now up to 29 carts since the roll out of the Walmart exclusive Lites. They seem to be introducing new carts more often lately. I just saw today that they are making a full content cart for Halloween (along with some seasonal carts) - I've been saying for a while that they needed one. I know - I'm obsessed! I hope I don't regret not joining the Cricut Circle as a charter member...

I am one of the (not so) happy folks who couldn't update her Gypsy this holiday weekend, but that's okay - the glich should be repaired and the site up and running again by Tues/late Wed.

And I ordered a pink ATG gun from Custom Crops, now I am patiently waiting for my shipping confirmation that its on its way! Once I get the ship confirmation number I'll order some refills!!

My dear friend Edana gave me some good reassurance about my post back a while ago when I was so hard on myself about my picture taking abilities. She was so wonderful to point out that digital cameras make it easier to take bad pictures because we don't take the time to really take a photo like we used to when we were using actual film. So true on my part! So I've decided to take a little more time when I take my pictures, we'll see how they turn out...in the meantime here is one I took when she and I were wandering through downtown Orange a couple of weeks ago, its so pretty I thought I'd share it with everyone.

Thank you Edana for your continuing support and love!!

I Did It!!

2010-05-21T15:24:00.000-07:00

Okay, I have to say that I am completely proud of myself.
I finished scrapping the Paris trip from 2008.
It took 7 scrapbooks!! Yes, 7!!

I am so happy!! This feels soooo good to have this project finished!
Now I am focusing on catching up Steve's album and scrapping the Monterey trip from 2006.
I love the feeling of meeting goals!!

Newly Discovered!

2010-05-08T06:58:00.000-07:00

In my excitement and enthusiasm to want to capture and record activities and memorable occasions I will take pictures, sometimes LOTS of pictures.
With the wonderful equipment of a digital camera that number has risen exponentially - the only draw back to having soooo many pictures is when they need to be loaded, edited, labeled, etc.
So I make sure to try to do this timely - that way I can clear the camera to be able to take more photos!

But what I've discovered is this phenomenon that lately, well... I am terrible at taking photos! I know that I'm just being hard on myself but I have to be honest, they are just not that great.

Every once in a while one will come out beautiful and makes me go all happy skippy inside - but for every good photo there is a bunch of blurry, yucky, poorly lit, badly framed, ick...
Compound that with the fact that I almost ALWAYS forget to clean the lens before taking pictures.

Sigh.

Okay, its just me being hard on myself I know, but I am soooo frustrated because these moments are not getting captured! I am happy that I have some sort of documentation of an event of another, but if its blurry or too dark its not very aesthetic to look at, so why keep it in my files...
These are the thoughts that flit through my brain as I upload my pics and try to find the best ones I have...
And every once in a while I come across one that looks cool because its blurry or fuzzy, but I am so glad that I don't take pictures for a living! I just don't want to be the one who gets known for taking bad photos. My pride and conceit has risen again!!
So here's how I will combat this: I have a new goal to learn how to use my camera properly so that I can use it to my best advantage and learn to not be so hasty to try to capture every detail - we'll see how that works.

For now I'll take what Serendipitous pics come my way. :)

Hmmm.... almost May?

2010-04-23T14:12:00.000-07:00

Alright, so as I've mentioned in my previous post, I'm a bad blogger.
But it isn't like I haven't been doing anything!
So here are some interesting things that have happened since oh...January.

I went to the Napoleon Exhibit at the Muzeo museum in Anaheim with Edana.

Geocaching on New Year's Day with Jeremy from the Geekitude group.

January had a few celebrations in it. Jen's Birthday, Shanelle's Going-Away party (she and her two children moved to Washington state), and then one of my scrapbooking friends; Denise, had a crop at her new house for her housewarming party!

January also brought a few day trips. A belated holiday trip that we called Christmas with the Carpenters as we traveled to Bakersfield to visit with my Sis-in-law and nieces. And of course there was the Scrapbook Expo. It usually takes place in February but this year it was crammed into the last of January.

The last day of January we gathered with the friends from the Geekitude group to have fun and raise money for an excellent chairty: Childs Play, set up by the good folks form Penny Arcade, one of John's favorite online comics. Their web addy: www.childsplaycharity.org

February was just as packed and crazy as January, if you could believe it!
We had the Geekitude group over for a Rock Band Pary, fun!
I went scrappin' at Denise's again, more fun!

We made a decision to bring a pet into our home so on the 18th we brought home Steve!

and its been so much fun since!!

I went back to the Muzeo with Edana again, this time to see the frog exhibit

John and I attended the Jonathan Coulton show at the Largo in LA one evening. We went to dinner at the Stinking Rose before the show. YUM!!
The rest of the month was spent celebrating John's birthday with family and friends at different events.

March was just as jammed packed with activities!
We saw the new Alice in Wonderland with some of the Geeks.
Steve started obedience classes AND had his first playdate with Terra, Nic and Jen's dog.

Then we celebrated Nic's birthday, followed by a Geek Karaoke party at our place (who'd a thought we could cram 30 people in the condo! Not me.)
The end of March brought a bitter-sweet activity of the last scrapbook crop at Theresa's house. She will be moving to Colorado as soon as her house sells. I will miss her and her family very much! :(

April was really rainy and gloomy, but it had some really nice bright days!
I've gotten to spend a few good days with Vanessa C. helping to get ready for her wedding in October. It's gonna be here before we all know it!
We all spent Easter at Vonda and Big John's and was shaken up by a decent size earthquake that really had me scared.
And in April I finished my Marquoir!! A three (or is it four?) year project that we had all planned to have done in two, but it is done. And I love it!

one of my goals is to get on here and blog about this project and all nine of the squares that make this sampler, now family heirloom.

And of course the biggest project that I've been working on - that is ALMOST DONE - the Paris scrapbooks! I had originally planned for it to be a 4 album set, but due to the size and bulkiness of each book I have broken them up into smaller ones and looks like it will be a seven album set! As soon as I have them finished I am planning on having a show-and-tell gathering so people can come over and look through them while we chat and snack. I'm not sure if that is conceited or not, but I worked so hard on them that I want to share them with everyone.

Other projects that I am working on:
Steve's scrapbook - this will be an on-going project that will chronicle the first year of him with us.

Monterey Scrapbook - capturing the vacation of October 2006 with Nic & Jen to Monterey, California

Paris Mini album - because it will be really hard to carry 7 volumes anywhere - this is meant to be a "best of" book

Wedding Mini album - My Mom has asked me for an album of my wedding. Why I didn't think of that when I was working on my main album, I have no idea

And LOTS of other things - Including working with Vanessa for her wedding, did I mention that its in October?

Hmmm..... What have I been doing all this time?

2010-04-05T08:46:00.000-07:00

Wow... I am definately not a blogger... I'll have to catch up here... or should I just start from scratch?? But I've done so many fun things since January and have created some really neat things, so I will have to get on top of this soon - and get better at keeping it up!! (how many times have I said that?)

2010-01-03T20:52:00.001-08:00

Okay... in response to a suggestion I'm going to try something new here... I'm going to attempt to add a picture within the blog, not just let Flickr do all the work... here it goes...

Yeah!!! It looks like it worked! What do you think??
This is one of my most favorite layouts about the Paris trip. :)

Okay... if this is a positive result I think my blog might get a little more interesting from here on, lets hope.

~Ren

Christmas of 2009

2009-12-26T13:31:00.000-08:00

This has been such a fantastic Christmas season!
John and I had so much happening that it was a little crazy, and a little tiring at times, but was a lot of fun!
We got to see a lot of our friends and spend quality time with them, which I am thinking more now-a-days is the best Christmas gift ever!
We had Nic and Jen over to help decorate our tree and our home. I so like that new tradition we've started. Then a week later we went to their house and returned the favor.
We went to Roger's Gardens in Newport and walked around with my good friend Edana and we took our holiday pictures in some very gorgeous areas!
I got to scrapbook at Theresa's House and Pinecone this month, I always enjoy myself at each place.
We went to the Newport Harbor Boat Parade with the Geekitude group as well as hosted a Christmas Cookie Exchange with them at out house. (I'm thinking we need to have a family version of that next year too!)
And we also attended a Geekitude Festivus activity too!
Christmas eve was a lot of fun with the family at John's Aunt Dawn's house and then later at Nic's house.
And of course Christmas day with John's family here at home and calling friends and family who are away. It has been such a pleasant and enjoyable season this year.
I am just so thankful for my family and friends!!
Merry Christmas to everyone and sincere wishes for a safe and happy New Year!!
~Ren

Let the Scrappin' Commence!!

2009-12-04T10:10:00.000-08:00

I had the week before Thanksgiving off and I planned to work on a long list of things around the house. We also had an activity planned for the Sunday following Thanksgiving with our friends, Nic and Jen, to come over and spend the afternoon hanging out and help us decorate our home for the holidays. It’s a new tradition we’re starting so I wanted to have the house cleaned and ready for the fun day.
Other projects that I had planned for the week:
Get our garage organized so we could get to a few things, including the Christmas decorations.
Rework our extra room to make a designated crafting place.
And a bunch of other “smaller” projects, I had hoped to accomplish.
Monday morning I started working on my list then got completely overwhelmed.

The hardest part of big projects is figuring out where to start.
John and I had tried to make conscious efforts to keep from just throwing stuff into the garage – we had it organized at one time but over the past twelve months the plan just crumbled… so the task of cleaning it up and reorganizing it again seems daunting.
So after discussing it with John I turned my sights towards only one big task in my list of intentions. Make the designated craft space in the room upstairs.

This project would actually accomplish two things on our long-term desires, I would have a place that I could call an actual “craft area” and our dining room area would be restored to – well, a dining room area. A place where we could sit and eat without having to figure out where to put the layouts I was in the middle of, and so on. So after reassessing the battle plan I started working on it Monday night.
At first it didn’t seem too difficult. Pick things up and take it upstairs.
But then I thought, once I get it up there where is it going? So the plan of attack was to pull things out of the room to make a space to put the “new” items. So shelves got reorganized to clear off places for the boxes and baskets of accessories, embellishments, tools, etc. of my scrapbooking addiction.
Then there was the parting of things that I eliminated from the mass collection – duplicate beanie babies (how did I manage to get a duplicate dog? What am I doing with a toucan? How come I have three of the same Winnie-the-Pooh bean bag?) And other strange questions arose as I culled the herd. (The strangest things pop into my head when I’m working and distract me.)

Once that step was completed then the job of bringing things upstairs started. I lost count of how many times I went up and down our stairs. Its only 12 steps for crying out loud! After two days of moving things around and hauling stuff up to the room I felt like I had trekked up Notre Dame again – which made me smile when I thought of the happy memories of the trip…again, with the stuff popping in my head!
And if moving items to the upper level weren’t enough of a task, I then needed to organize and figure out workable storage for all the items. I had no idea how long it would take to sift through a bunch of little things. WOW, it was unbelievably time consuming! I don’t remember how many tiny pieces of approximately 1 x 2 inch scraps of paper I parted with, why was I holding on to ones that small anyway??

By Wednesday the front room and dining room were cleaned, spruced, and restored to a living space. The upstairs room now had organization and I couldn’t wait to get started scrapping in my new space. All I lacked was a table, chair, and more lighting. No worries, we planned to head out during the weekend and find them and at the same time possibly take advantage of the huge sales.

Part of my in-laws Thanksgiving Day traditions is that once the feasting is done the newspaper ads for the weekend sales come out and everyone sifts through them looking for the deals they’re willing to go early for. John and I looked through the ads for a table and chair, all the while enjoying the laughter and oohs and ahhs with everyone else. When asked by his Mom what we were looking for we told her about the previous couple days’ activities and that we needed the table and chair to complete my space. She said that it sounded like the items would be good Christmas gift ideas, but we explained that I didn’t really want to wait that long to get them. I have a goal of trying to finish the Paris project before the end of the year after all… so even though we didn’t see anything in the papers that was what I had in mind we decided that sometime that weekend we might get out and looky-loo.
We had only planned to relax and enjoy the weekend, shopping wasn’t really a top priority so we spent the couple of days after Thanksgiving prepping our home for our day with Nic and Jen to come over to help decorate. So on Saturday night when my Mom-in-law called to discuss some covert topic with John I went upstairs to work more on organizing the tiny elements in my appointed creativity area. Then John came to me needing advice about a dilemma he and his Mom couldn’t decide on. A Christmas present had been purchased for me, but she knew that I wanted it and needed it before the holiday…so what did I want more, the gift now – or then? Would I be disappointed to know early what I was getting for Christmas? Would I be upset that I didn’t have anything to open on Christmas day? These questions were posed to me and after thinking it through I decided to accept the gift early. I am more than happy to recall on Christmas morning what I’d already been gifted with. Yes, I like surprises but since I had determined what the gift was, after recalling the conversation on Thursday and John’s attempt at being cryptic but not completely covert, I was very happy to have the table brought over on Saturday night.
The table is the perfect height, and the chair is comfy! I have a foot stool that belonged to my grandmother underneath the table for when I need to elevate my legs, so there is another comfy bonus to my little sanctuary. So now my craft area is set and I have spent many happy hours there already. The space is still a little creatively messy – but it will all be put right in a while. As soon as I get another lamp I will be complete! I am so delighted with how all our hard work of getting things rearranged worked out.
Sunday was so much fun decorating the house and putting ornaments on the tree. I like the new tradition we’ve started with Nic and Jen, I hope it is one we can continue for years to come!!
Now…if we can just get the garage done…

Crawling Out From Under A Rock

2009-11-16T20:39:00.000-08:00

Hmmmm.... oh yeah... I have a blog.

Yeah, I guess maybe I should utilize this and get some of those deep thoughts out of my head. Or, just use it like I intended and share my latest creative happenings with everyone.
Silly Karen. Its not like you haven't been constructive or haven't gone anywhere...
You'd think that I really do live under a rock and only come out when the weather is agreeable.
Okay...I won't bore everyone with what's happened over the past 4 MONTHS!!???
I will update on what I've been up to/obsessing over/and kicking around lately though.

I am coming along on the Paris Scrapbooks. I am almost finished documenting day 8 of our trip. The big tourist day, Pont Alexandre III, the Liberty Flame, Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, and more. So I'm really excited that I see the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. I have only a few more days to capture and then I'll be completed with the project.
I am truly hoping to have it completed by the end of this year.
What's really interesting about the last few days of the trip is the lack of the amount of pictures that we took. I know it was because we were concerned about saving battery power in the camera, plus after the ninth day we were soooo tired and overwhelmed, not to mention John coming down with that terrible flu!
But as I've always said, I love all the photos we took no matter how many there are!

Another really interesting thing about reflecting on the trip is that I flipped foward in the travel journal and realized that I never completed it!
In the last few days of the journey I slipped up and never wrote down what all had taken place and I started to panic. Of course this panic was so silly because its not like I don't remember what happened - I was there for crying out loud.
But then I had a moment of clarity when I realized - oh yeah... I was going to spend the time on the flight home updating the journal - I mean, it was a fifteen hour flight - there was pleanty of time!
Now, of course I didn't know then that I would be getting sick on the flight.
Looking back I think part of my getting sick was in sympathy for John being so darn miserable, and the fact that I was exhausted. Deliriously happy and in disbelief, but exhausted all-in-all
Luckily I kept cryptic notes to help with the actual journal entries.
Sooo.. I need to go back and write in the last bit and the reflections of the trip itself, another personal task for me to accomplish before the end of the year!

One of the layouts I have been working on is the arial pictures of the city from the top of the Eiffel Tower. My idea is to put little tags on the side of the pics that show the landmarks of the city. Places that we actually visited will be in one color, while other known landmarks we missed will be in another color, more for points of interest and such.
So in order to make sure that I have the correct places labeled I've been spending time on Google Earth. Man, I love it! Its so much fun to go virtually wandering around and revisiting the places we were at.

So when I got to having trouble seeing things in my pictures; my poor tired eyeballs, I decided to fly to other places I'd been to and check in there. Again, I so enjoy peeking in on places like Savannah, Georgia and Seattle, Washington, oh and there was Rock City, Tennessee and Gatlinburg, Tennessee. It was even a lot of fun, although a little cheesy, to check in on my neighborhood. So I have successfully spent some hours there lately.

Changing Topic:
I've recently did a little baking, which turned out to be more of a failed experiement of strange serendipitous proportions. The people that I chat with everyday have already heard this story, but I'll retell it anyway.
I made a pineapple upside down cake, and after putting it on the glass platter I didn't put it on a cooling rack - and the heat from the cake shattered the platter. Scary and frustrating all at the same time.
So as upset as I was about the experience luckily my fabulous support team around me rallied my spirits and I surprisingly moved on with ease.

BUT I am planning a rematch with the baking fates! John and I have a Geek event on Saturday night, and although I will be spending time with my Mom between Thursday night and Saturday afternoon I'm going to try to squeeze in some baking time early Friday morning. I am hoping to make a creme filled Devil's Food cake that is topped with faux ganache and decorated with a lacy frosting top. Imagine a giant Hostess Ding Dong, but in 9 1/2 x 13 inch form. If I can pull it off I will regain confidence in my baking self esteem!
The Geek group will be my taste testers to see if it goes into rotation, mwahhh haaa haaa ha ha!!!!!

This is the time of year that my mind starts to turn to baking and candy making, that's when I really start getting into the holiday spirit!

So what else has been happening???
Oh, Rock Band. I have become obsessed with it!!!
It started out simply as just being a roadie/groupie for John and has now turned into my personal mini ego-fest!
I decided a while ago that I was going to try things that I'm intimidated by. So I started singing along one night during a family Rock Band party, then I tried the guitar one day when I was home alone. I started on "easy" and have now worked my way up to "medium" and am now comfortable to play with other people, and pardon me as I pat myself on the back to say, "I've gotten pretty decent at it."
Either way its been a lot of fun, and even though I get a little frustrated sometimes when I forget where and what my fingers are supposed to do - it actually relaxes me.
The only problem is that it has taken away some of my attention from scrapbooking...

oh yeah, the Paris project... Gotta get that wrapped up!

Well, its been fun catching up. I think I will make it my goal to try to put something one here more often, wait? Haven't I already said that once before??? Well, we'll see how it goes...

Have a great day!
Ren :)

Holy Geekathon Batman! Its Comic-Con time!

2009-07-22T18:29:00.000-07:00

Every year on the third weekend of July something magical happens... well... maybe not magical, whimsical? Yeah, lets go with that.
My husband eagerly awaits this time of year, its almost as exciting for him as Christmas.
I'm talking about the annual San Diego Comic-Con. This is the first year John will be able to do something he's been wanting to do for years - stay in San Diego and be able to attend the masquerade ball on Saturday night!
In the past he's decided not to stay the entire day to see it because it doesn't start until like 9pm (!) and he didn't want to drive home so late afterwards.
So, since we're staying in town the whole weekend he's going to get to go and see all the cool costumes that people will be showing off. Mind you, people will walking around the convention all weekend long in costume but the masquerade is kinda a big deal - I guess.

What will I be doing you ask? Well, I will be going to the convention with him for one of the days and enjoying all the interesting sights, but that's all I'll be able to handle, so I'm going to let him enjoy the rest of his weekend without having to worry about me losing it in a crowd.
Besides, I'm not that big of a geek anyway. Someone out there will disagree with that, but believe me my level of geekiness is soooooo low in comparison to some of the hardcore comic/movie/tv/science fiction/role playing/game loving geeks that will be there. I'll let them have the fun.

The rest of the weekend I am planning on scrapping in the hotel room with maybe a break out by the pool. A trip to Sea World with my wonderful friends, who are coming down to enjoy the day with me, is also planned. Other than that, relaxing and just kicking back!! I'm hoping somewhere in the weekend I will have my hands on a nice cool frosty margarita!! Wish me luck on that!

I will be back next week with highlights and all the fun news from our wonderful experience!
:)

Under A Rock...

2009-07-17T08:15:00.000-07:00

Okay, apparently I've been under a rock or something...because I haven't added anything here in over a month??

Silly Karen...
Okay, here a condensed version of a blog entry I put up today on the scrapbooking website. I apologize to anyone who's seeing it again.

Let me start off by saying - I enjoy scrapbooking sooo very much! So I like it when I can go to crops and be among folks that share in my enthusiasm.

I've been going to a store's crop nights for a few months now, I have been there maybe five or six times, and I've been very comfortable and have had fun there. Since I hadn't been going to the store for a long time I haven't gotten to know all the regulars yet, but the ones I have gotten to know have been so friendly and personable, making the experiences so much nicer.

When I went for their Independence Day crop earlier this month I was very excited. It was twelve hours of scrapping with a potluck barbeque and it sounded like it was going to be a great day!

Cue, Rant:
I got there and was placed by some ladies I had not seen before, I figured either they hadn't been to the store in quite some while (they seemed to know quite a few of the people who showed up) or they had been there on nights that I didn't attend the crops.
I was very happy to meet new people and introduced myself, everything seemed pleasant.
Not more than twenty minutes later one of the women completely bit my head off in response to something I had said.
Well, I was completely frazzled, not to leave out - felt insulted, and well maybe this is a little over-reactionary but - attacked.
The woman didn't know me from Eve, I had only said hello to her a moment ago and next thing I know I'm being verbally eviserated!
Well - I didn't react outwardly (although I'm sure I blanched a little and maybe even winced) and I certainly didn't speak to her the rest of the day.

I almost considered leaving (being moved wasn't really an option since they were expecting a large group of people who all wanted to sit together...) but I had been looking foward to the crop for a few weeks and didn't feel I should be the one to leave.

Did I mention this took place all within the first thirty minutes of arriving at the store?

So I just sat at my seat and ignored the woman that was twelve feet away from me and just went about my day of scrapping.
A few hours into the crop some of the other folks that I had gotten to know showed up so I did start to feel comfortable.

I never got a chance to talk to the hostess about it. I didn't want to make waves since I'm kind of the new kid in town there, but I felt that I should at least have the right to discuss it with her. Unfortunately I didn't take any initiative to talk to her, since she was the only hostess with a crowd of over 30 women she was very busy. I did let her know that I wanted to talk with her when we got a chance.

By the end of the evening I had made up my mind that for future crops if this same woman is attending I'll just ask not to be sat by her. I'm sure she's not even aware how much she offended me, and I guess that's her personality - but I don't have to be friendly to her, I'm not going to be rude to her - but I don't need to know her.

Its been a couple of weeks since the experience. I'm getting ready to go back to the store tonight, I will ask the hostess to set me apart from the woman and just politely say that I would prefer not to be sat next to her. I don't think the hostess will be offended, and I don't want to be difficult but I don't want to be uncomfortable either.

I've decided that I'm very sorry for this woman that had such negative experiences thats influenced her violent emotions, but that doesn't mean she has the right to diminish my happiness.
I choose not to give her any control over me or cloud my happy memories. I enjoy this hobby too much to let someone spoil it for me.

I would rather be positive and happy while I'm doing something that brings me so much joy. So in order to keep that blissful feeling I will not associate with anyone who is grouchy, angry, or rude. They can sit in there pit of dispair without me, thank you very much.

I will go and merrily scrap my day away in happy thoughts and enjoy myself.

What did you do Ray?

2009-05-04T07:55:00.000-07:00

So in all my excitement over National Scrapbooking Day I didn't share the information about my fun activity with my beloved friend Edana.
On Friday we went to Los Angeles to go to the Pavillion of Wings Butterfly exhibit at Exhibition Park, right next to the Natural History Museum. It was a nice day with mild weather and overcast sun which made it comfortable inside the netted area were lots and lots of different butterflies were fliting around. It was so wonderful to actually be in the enclosure with them! After spending time in the exhibit we stepped outside to see this brick building that I believe is the original facade of the museum - it was so wonderful to see, it reminded me of being back in Paris with the ornate buildings and stonework.

While taking photos of the building Edana noticed some flowers that she wanted to get closer to take pictures of and right around that time I noticed this vast space of roses bushes. Turns out it is the Exposition Park Rose Garden. It was fabulous! Its this huge area with seperated plots of specific roses of different varieties and colors. We had such a wonderful time walking through and taking pictures. Every once in a while the wind would blow over the bushes and we were treated to fragrant wafts of roses. It was so serene and beautiful. I like it when serendipity gives us a surprise! If you like roses I strongly suggest you visit the garden. The butterfly exhibit runs to July I believe, and it was pretty inexpensive - $3 for 30 minutes if I remember right... parking was $8, but you can make a day of it! We even saw people having a picnic in the rose garden - so there you go.

As per my previous post, Saturday was National Scrapbooking Day, and I had a blast. I went to Theresa's house and there was a total of six of us scrapping and chatting - it was a lot of fun! Surprisingly we all got a lot accomplished. I spent four and a half hours of the crop time working on one layout. Not because of the usual "thinking about it too much," but because it was a tedious detail oriented layout. I took a photo of a stained glass ceiling and made an inverted pop-up of it using four copies of the photo. Then with my Cricut machine I cut out a bunch of flourishes and made decorative corners to highlight the photo. And that's all that is on the page!! I will try to have pictures of the page up later this afternoon. I just hope it looks as good on the blog as it does in person.

Other than that Sunday was pretty quiet, John spent most of the day resting because he has been having sinus complications, luckily by this morning he was feeling much better.
Oh and me, well... I signed myself up for a scrapbooking challenge. This is the first one I signed up for so it will be interesting to see how it goes. Its 20 layouts within the 31 days of May. So all the layouts I create in the month can be used in the challenge. Then there is this extra 25 bonus pages and I'm not even sure what that's all about - so I may have gotten myself into a sticky situation... we'll have to see how it goes, I'm a little excited about it - I have 7 layouts already done so I'm going to maintain my positivity about it. But when it starts to go bad I don't know who I'm gonna call... I know, Ghostbusters?? {harken back to blog entry title - I know its a stretch - work with me here!} Heee heee hee

I hope everyone is having an excellent day! Be back soon!
~Ren

Happy National Scrapbooking Day!!

2009-05-01T06:31:00.000-07:00

For the scrapbookers out there - May 2nd is National Scrapbooking Day!! So if you're like me and scrapbooking is not only a hobby - but therapy and the biggest part of my socialization, then you're having trouble maintaining your excitement that you're scrapping all day long on Saturday!!
I am so delighted that I have a place to throw my need for creativity somewhere that I actually like the outcome of what I've made. Although, it has taken a toll on the other crafty things I like to do, my jewelry making and cross-stitching projects have been gathering a layer of dust lately...
All the doodling, and cutting out pieces of paper, and the stickers that I got in trouble in school for has helped me to gather together skills that I use in my fascination with paper and embellishments, and tape - and don't forget glitter, gotta have glitter!!
So I'm glad we have a national day on the books to recognize the cataloging of our lives and experiences - but truly, for me - everyday is scrapbooking day!!
Enjoy the day folks! I hope you are all scrapping and chatting with friends!
Have a wonderful Scrapbooking Day! And if you don't scrapbook - well... have a great day to you too!!

Testing 1,2,3...

2009-04-22T21:50:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone! Just trying to work out the kinks!
Thanks for stopping by!

First Post

2009-04-22T13:01:00.000-07:00

Okay... here's my first post in my own blog. Now I've got to round up everyone from the blog I share with John; my husband, so I will need to get on that right away. Along with figuring out this internet thing to know how to work this out... something new to learn!!
Have a great day to anyone who stumbles in!!
-Ren