patternpaperprincess

At least my thumb isn't in the pictures anymore!

2008-07-22T11:35:00.006-04:00

I admit it, I am a horrible picture taker. It isn't for lack of trying, because I have been in love with taking pictures my entire life. While this wonderful age of digital cameras has helped me some ( well, o.k., not really, it's just that now I can delete the REALLY bad pictures before anyone sees them!) I am still a less than average picture taker. I've been getting better at taking a little more time with the process and trying to really "look" at what I'm shooting, is it centered, is the background too busy, is my thumb in the viewfinder? Luckily, I have managed to learn to get my fingers out of the way now. I even try to get creative and "artsy" sometimes with my pictures. Why, I don't know, because the image I have in my mind and the one that prints out on photo paper never really match up. I'm also starting to play around a little with photo editing although at this point all I can do is crop the picture (and I don't even do this well half the time..you should see the last batch of pictures I just got back from Snapfish)! I bet somebody got a big chuckle when they pulled those off the conveyor belt. I did, however, manage to change a picture to sepia last week and darken the edges using the editing options on my photo printer, but I stumbled upon those features by accident and I don't think I could do it again. I've also decided I was going to start taking random photos every day and maybe, just maybe with enough practice and photo editing one day I will take a good picture.

I've been tagged!

2008-07-22T00:03:00.008-04:00

I was sitting here tonight Instant Messaging with a friend of mine who was updating her blog and really chastizing myself for not being a good blogger lately. Well the blogger gods must have heard me because they sent Queen Kathy to tag me tonight and that at least got me on here! Now let's see if my technically challenged self can figure out how to do this.....

Ten years ago:
I was 27 years old and living in Miami with my husband. We were getting ready to celebrate our 2nd anniversary and had started to look around at buying our first home. Ah, the newlywed years..thank heaven's their over!!!

Five things on today's to-do list:
I woke up this morning and declared today a Lazy Holiday in my Kingdom and as the Queen I felt it was my duty to set the example. I'm happy to say that I did a fantastic job at it!!! I took dd to TaeKwonDo this morning and tonight I made spaghetti for dinner. That's the beginning and the end of my to-do list.

A snack I enjoy:
My guilty pleasure is Little Debbie's Swiss Cake Rolls that have been in the refrigerator. It's like Heaven on Earth.

Places I have lived:

Chicago, Illinois

Zaragoza, Spain

Snellville, Georgia

Miami, Florida

Florence, South Carolina

Things I would do if I were a millionaire:
Hire a housekeeper
Hire a cook
Buy every, single scrappy goody I could get my hands on
Go with my husband and daughter anywhere and everywhere we wanted to around the world

5 people I am tagging:

Michelle
Jenny
Mary

Jenn

Coni

Come Play With Me!!!

2008-07-07T19:45:00.003-04:00

To all my family and friends.....if you would like to see me this summer then come on over to ScrapLove.com and join the Summer of ScrapLovin' contest because that's where I'll be for the next 6 weeks. Don't bother calling me because I'm gonna be too busy scrapping to pick up the phone. If you come for a visit, be sure to bring your own food and refreshments because I won't have time to go to the grocery store. If you wonder why my laundry is piled up to the ceiling, the beds aren't made and the dogs are looking a little hungry, it's because I'm having too much fun with all the scrappy challenges over at ScrapLove.com. I'll get to all the household chores once the contest is over!

P.S. If you happen to see my husband, tell him I love him dearly and to please take out the trash!

1984

2008-07-01T12:01:00.004-04:00

Last night I finished this layout using my 9th grade school picture. What a blast from the past. Only the past hadn't seem so long ago until a friend of mine pointed out that it was 24 years ago! My mind just kinda froze. 24 years? It can't be. What the heck have I been doing for the last 24 years?!?!?!? The more I thought about it, the more depressed I got. What happened to that list of things I was going to accomplish before I turned 30? I mean I'm only 7 years late! Did I even accomplish 1 thing on that list?

Write a book - NO - heck, I can't even manage to write a grocery list these days!

Go mountain climbing - NO - I'm deathly afraid of heights so I don't even know why that was on my list!

Go sky diving - NO - see above

Be a millionaire - NO - I probably owe about that much, does that count?

Be famous - NO - but then Ted Bundy was "famous" too, so maybe it's not that bad that I'm not!

Bring about world peace - NO - but it's not my fault no one will listen to my ideas on this matter!

Get married - YES - and I've even managed to STAY married, which is really more remarkable than just getting married if you ask me!

Have children - YES - although I had always dreamed of having a big family, God blessed me with 1 amazingly beautiful, loving, cheerful, energetic daughter, and that's plenty for me!

Own my own business - YES - did it for a while - it's overrated if you ask me!

Be Happy - YES - I can honestly say that I am happy, but that's because 24 years later they make a pill for it!!!!

I may not have accomplished everything I set out to do 24 years ago, but I like where I am now just the same. Well, except for maybe a few extra pounds and a couple of wrinkles!

100 Daylillies

2008-05-13T21:18:00.012-04:00

I am the Queen of Too Many Projects. I rule in the land of Neverending Work. I have no subjects to help me. My King of Silly Comments wants to strangle me and my beautiful daughter, the Princess of Attitude, is upset because I don't have time for a Tea Party at the moment. I have been locked away in the Attic Tower for 3 days and today I was finally freed to walk about my Kingdom of Disaster. So what do I do with my new found freedom? I decide to ride my Carriage of Horrible Gas Mileage to a local nursery to walk blissfully among the flora and fauna. As I go to purchase some shrubs for my kingdom what should my eyes behold but a sign announcing the arrival of several different varieties of daylillies. "Just what my kingdom needs", I declare to the keeper of the flora and fauna. "For your Majesty I will make a special offer" says he. Before I could blink my eyes I have purchased 100 of the beautiful flowers. Luckily for me my Carriage of Horrible Gas Mileage has a large cargo hold and with the help of one of his servants soon my carriage is overflowing with daylillies. As I arrive at my kingdom, my head full of the beautiful aroma of daylillies I realize I have no servants! Alas, I, the Queen of Too Many Projects is now knee deep in dirt and mulch as I begin the long laborious process of planting my beautiful flowers. 6 down, 94 more to go. And the King of Silly Comments still wants to know what is for dinner!!!!

3 Days of Scrapbooking = 1 Layout

2008-04-10T23:17:00.008-04:00

It's been a crazy week of trying to cleanp up my scrapbooking space since ScrapLove's cyber-crop last weekend. I had never participated in a cyber-crop before, so I was pretty open-minded about what to expect. Let me tell you my friends, I was blown away. If I had had any more fun it would have been illegal! This cyber-crop included games, challenges, tutorials and classes and so much on-line chatter it's amazing we got any scrapbooking done. Well, I really didn't get much scrapbooking done to be honest. I did however, win the Bingo, Scattegories, AND word scramble games. Hey it might not have been scrapbooking, but the words were scrapbooking RELATED. What?! I did manage to completely finish one layout titled "Take My Picture". This was part of one of the sketch challenges for the cyber-crop. The sketch was the easy part. A lot of my friends on the ScrapLove site are very creative and can really think outside the box. I cannot. So why I thought I could get all "fancy" with my layout, I don't know. We'll blame it on the euphoria of getting to scrapbook all weekend long with the blessings of my wonderful husband. After I had picked my papers and pictures and placed them where I wanted to on the cardstock, I brought out my sewing machine and thought I would sew some of those fancy little squiggle vines that I've seen on other layouts. I drew them in pencil first like I had read on a tip. Threaded the machine with purple thread and stepped on the pedal. I now know that I cannot sew fancy little squiggle lines with my sewing machine on a 12 x 12 piece of cardstock. (lesson 1) "No problem", I say to myself, "I'll just add more flowers". Simple enough. I happily picked out the perfect chipboard flowers for each vine and carefully marked the exact spot where each of them should go after I made them sparkle with glitter. Afterall, everyone who is anyone is adding glitter to their pages these days. I've got a 4 year old, I know how to use glitter, we do it all the time! (Not really, we did it once and it was a big mess). Why I had even bought several bottles of glitter at my local craft store the day before just in case such an occasion should arise! I get out my paper plate, gently placing my chipboard flower in the center...I wonder what kind of glue I should use? I'll post the question on the ScrapLove message board, someone will surely know the answer. I wait patiently for 10 seconds, no reply, I'll just figure this out myself. It's only glue for pity sake. I look through all my adhesive options and decide that the Zip Dry is the way to go. A note to all of you reading this post...Zip Dry dries REALLY fast (lesson 2). I select my little glitter bottle and carefully unscrew the top, because I don't want to spill glitter all over my scrap table, and set it off to one side. Now I take my Zip Dry bottle and unscrew the top to it, cleaning off the nozzle to ensure I get a smooth flow. Perfect, I'm ready. With my left hand I pick up the little chipboard flower and hold it in between two of my large fingers. With my right hand I pick up the Zip Dry and begin to squeeze it out onto the chipboard flower. I now have a big blob of glue in the center of the flower. How do I smooth it out? Can't really ask anyone at ScrapLove because my hands are full. Let me think...I'll use my fingers to smooth out the really fast drying Zip Dry glue. (does anyone remember lesson 2?) I smooth out the glue and now I realize I need to wipe my finger before I pick up the glitter bottle. I try to set down the flower that is in my left hand, but I can't. The glue has now dried and I have a chipboard flower stuck to my index finger! I don't want the glue to dry on my right hand so I wipe it on the desk top. I peel the chipboard flower off my index finger leaving half of it still stuck, but I'll worry about that later I have to get the glitter on the flower while the glue is still a little tacky. The flower is back on the paper plate, I sprinkle the glitter on it and wait for it to dry. No problem. As I'm waiting I realize that it's gotten quite warm in my scrapbook room so I get up to turn on the ceiling fan. I return to my desk to see glitter flying everywhere from the wind coming off the fan. (lesson 3) I turn around quickly to go turn the fan back off and accidently bump my layout. I come back, finish gluing glitter on all the other chipboard flowers as quickly as I can because at this point I don't really care anymore how they look. I let them dry and then I attached them, without incident, to the layout. I am so proud of my layout that only took me 5 hours to do, that I want to scan it and upload it to the ScrapLove gallery right away. I try to pickup my layout to place it on the scanner but it won't move. Remember the glue I wiped off my finger onto the table top? Remember the layout I bumped when I went to turn off the fan? Well, low and behold the two have found each other and now my beautiful glittery layout is glued to my table top. Did I mention that this was only the first night of the crop?! Now you know why I dedicated the rest of my weekend to playing the games!

Glimmer Mist Isn't Found in the MakeUp Aisle

2008-04-02T22:47:00.004-04:00

It seems like everyday I am learning about some new product, designer, or website in the scrapbooking world that everyone else seems to have known about for years!!! Now granted, I don't live in a booming metropolis, but I'm not living on the top of a mountain either! I know that the internet is a bottomless pit of information, but I'm doing good to remember to put my bra on and brush my teeth in the mornings! I have a friend, Michelle, who is truly one of THE most amazingly talented scrapbooker's I have ever seen. Really. I call her my Guru Goodess of All Things Scrapbook. Seems like a long title, but it doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the knowledge this woman has. First it was Stickles, a puffy glitter type paint thingy that comes in small bottles with little bitty nozzles (I think because I ordered 4 colors of it 2 weeks ago and it hasn't come in yet). Then it was these little letter stickers that are showing up on layouts everywhere (except mine because I haven't been able to find them yet, but when I do, I'll own every sticker ever made, even if I never use them). Yesterday she introduced me to the beautiful, shabby chic world of Jenni Bowlin and now I must own everything that Jenni Bowlin has ever created, even if I don't know what to do with half of it! Today Michelle posed a question on ScrapLove where she is a member of their Design Team..."Does anyone use Glitter Mist"? I must admit that for a moment I thought my friend had slipped and hit her head on a piece of chipboard because why would she be talking about body glitter on a scrapbooking site? Once again I was apparently the only scrapbooker in America that had never heard of, much less used, Glimmer Mist. I'm still not sure what it is or what it does, I only know that now I have to have it. I can't wait to see what wonderful thing Michelle opens my eyes to tomorrow, and neither can my husband's credit card!!!

The Package

2008-03-31T22:10:00.004-04:00

I woke up this morning to a cold, rainy, dreary day in South Carolina. So different than the weather we had last week, but hey, at least some of this pollen is getting washed away and I can once again walk in the land of the living instead of hibernating in my home. I was walking on egg shells all day listening for the sound of car tires in my driveway. I knew the package had been sent on Friday and it just had to come today. I'm not sure I would survive another day without this package. At around 1:30 I finally heard the sound I'd been listening for all day. I was upstairs in my little scrapbook corner while my beautiful daughter played with her Littlest Pet Shop animals when I heard the car. I ran to the window just to make sure it was my driveway that it had pulled into. My eyes went immediately to the letters emblazoned on the side door panel...USPS. My package was here, just a short few feet from where I now stood. I turned quickly and raced down the stairs, leaving my daughter calling out for me. I couldn't go back for her, something magical had taken over my body and it was propelling me down the stairs at a speed I didn't know I possessed. I ran through the kitchen, past the dining room, finally reaching the finish line that was my front door. With frantic fingers I undid the locks and threw the door open just as the new mail lady was about to ring my door bell. She screamed, I screamed, my daughter who had run down the stairs after me screamed and then burst out crying, I burst into hysterical laughter at the situation, the new mail lady handed me my beautiful package without uttering a word and quickly turned and walked rather briskly to her awaiting car. I'm not sure if she will be back tomorrow. With careful hands and light feet I carried my precious package to the kitchen, took out the kitchen scissors and with the precision of a surgeon, carefully opened the package...there it was in all it's glory...my Pink Paislee patterned paper. More beautiful than any photograph I had seen. For a moment I felt the clouds part and a ray of sunlight shone down on a sheet of Spring Flowers from the Spring Fling Collection. My world is a little prettier tonight. Sweet dreams everyone.

One Day

2008-03-30T22:48:00.004-04:00

This is another layout that I did for a challenge. I just printed this photo last night on my new HP Photosmart printer. This is exactly why I wanted to have a photo printer, so I could scrapbook the picture I wanted, when I wanted it, and how I wanted it. I can't remember ever having scrapbooked a black & white picture before, but I'm always drawn to other scrapbooker's layouts that do. I've also had this paper sitting around for two years now. When Daisy D's first came out with this Nursery line I knew I had to have, but when I received it in the mail it was almost too pretty to cut into.

It's so hard for me to look at pictures of my little girl when she was a baby because she's just grown up so fast. All day I've just been coming back to my desk to look at this picture. Just a few hours old, so tiny, so soft, so beautiful. In an instant my life changed forever and I didn't care. I couldn't even remember what my life had been like before she entered the world, but I knew I never wanted to know a world without her in it. I also feel in love with my husband all over again that day. How could I not, look what we had made together! One day she will change the world, but she will always be my baby.

I {{heart}} Cricut

2008-03-30T01:13:00.003-04:00

This layout was also done for a challenge at ScrapLove. I love doing these challenges because it gets me to scrapbook some of the hundred's of pictures I have sitting on my desk and it also helps me step out of my box artistically when I might not otherwise. This layout might be one of my own personal favorites because it's not often that I scrapbook about myself. I still can't believe that I dragged one of my good friends out of bed on a rainy, cold Friday morning to drive an hour and a half to Myrtle Beach so I could buy my Cricut Expressions!!! What's more surprising is that when I told her what I wanted to do she said "o.k." and got out of bed. I would have hung up the phone and gone back to sleep. My friend happens to be a photographer so I knew she wouldn't think twice when I whipped out my camera and told her to take a picture of me in the store with my huge ProvoCraft box and a cartridge I just "had to have". You should have seen the faces of the cashiers and other customers!!! I bet they are still talking about the two crazy women from Florence. Hope my layout made you laugh.

The Other Side of Me

2008-03-27T23:15:00.006-04:00

I did a layout today of my daughter posing beside a Hannah Montana cut out at a department store. I was having a hard time coming up with a title so I decided to look up the titles to Hannah Montana songs. "The Other Side of Me" seemed to fit so perfectly with the pictures and with my little girl. On one side my daughter is a Diva, a Girly Girl, an actress, a singer, a dancer, and a soccer player. On the other side she still loves her paci (yes I know she's 4), she loves to be rocked and carried, would rather sleep with mom and dad than in her own bed, she also loves to be told that she's still our baby. As I was listing the two sides of my daughter I started wondering if there was more than one side to me? Know what I discovered...I'm not as one dimensional as I thought. There's the side of me that's the wife, I take care of the house and pay the bills, I make sure dinner is ready when my husband comes home. I listen to him talk about his day and tell him how proud I am of everything he accomplishes. I cheer him on in basketball, golf and tennis. I laugh with him when he starts rocking out playing Guitar Heros, I cry with him when life throws us a curve ball, I lay on his stomach and watch every reality show he wants to watch and I love him. I'm a mother to a beautiful little girl, I kiss her boo-boos, I wipe her tears, I read her stories and brush her Barbie's hair. I volunteer in her class and chauffeur her to ballet, swim class, soccer and tee ball. I watch princess movies over and over again and I love every minute of it. I am a friend who wouldn't be able to bail you out of jail because I'd be sitting right beside you!!! And last, but not least, I'm ME!!! I love flavored coffee, Diet Coke, chocolate cake (to go with the Diet Coke), chick flicks, boy bands, 80's music...all of it, lip liner, Hardee's chocolate milk shakes, my Dooney giraffe print handbag, fun and funky print pj's, bad reality t.v. shows, any craft ever invented although my true love is scrapbooking, and chatting with my friends on-line. Who knew I had so many sides, not me!!!!

A Day in the Life of a SAHM

2008-03-26T15:52:00.004-04:00

I am a Stay At Home Mom and I love it. I thank God every day for allowing me to do this. Today my little one was home again from school, still recovering from a bout with strep throat. I am so glad that I get to be the one to take care of her. I'll be the first to admit that there have been moments in the past few days when I've had to count to 10 before answering one more of her exhausting list of questions, and then it hit me today when I was explaining to her that 4 quarters make a dollar that I am teaching the future of this world. How amazing is that? The moments I spend with her, the questions I answer, will mold who she is to become. WOW!!! She is like a sponge, learning so much every day, even things I don't realize I'm teaching her. The next time I get frustrated or angry with someone or some situation I'm going to stop and think, is this what I want my daughter to learn from me? I'm not just molding her life, she's molding mine too!!!

Snow Day?

2008-03-25T22:58:00.006-04:00

I've just started scrapbooking again after a 2 year hiatus. Now that I'm back doing what I love I can't imagine ever taking that much time off again. What was I thinking?!?!?! Coming back to scrapbooking means I've also reconnected with some great cyber friends who love this craft as much, if not more, than I do. One of my cyber friends has been creating these amazing layouts lately and has totally inspired me. Her name is KathyM and we both hang out at ScrapLove.com. Today she posted a layout that totally blew me away so as I sat down tonight to work on my own layout of a South Carolina snow day I tried to channel her creativity. This layout is definitely different from my usual style, but I really like it. Kathy has been stepping out of her scrapbooking comfort zone lately and the results are amazing. I can only hope that stepping out of my comfort zone will lead to good things for me too. Kathy, you inspire me in all aspects of life, you are truly an amazing woman and I thank you for letting me call you "friend".

What A Day

2008-03-23T21:31:00.004-04:00

Happy Easter everyone!!! It's been a looonnnggg day here. My little one got up this morning so excited that the Easter Bunny had paid her a visit and she went off in search of eggs around the house. That was the beginning of a rough day. The hunt ended when she stumped her toe so bad on a door jam that we thought she might have broken her big toe. Let me tell you that it takes A LOT of candy to make a boo-boo like that feel better! Having already come within inches of an emergency room visit I don't know why we thought it would be a good idea to take her to a friend's house for another hunt this afternoon. But hey, what could possibly happen in a nice, flat backyard, right? WRONG! My baby found the one, count them, one, hole in the entire yard to fall into and twist her ankle. Lot's more candy and all was better, or so we thought. We come and lay down for a nap, I notice that she feels a little warm, but hey, she's been outside in the sun playing and running around and falling into holes, right? WRONG AGAIN!! She wakes up from her nap and feels even warmer, just for kicks I take her temperature, 101. I give her some Tylenol and that's the LAST thing that actually went into her mouth for a long, long time. Moral of the Story: Candy might be a temporary fix for a boo-boo, but you are going to pay dearly for it in the long run!!!!

Blogging Take Two

2008-03-20T16:27:00.003-04:00

Well, after many struggles and frustrations I have decided to move my blog. I tried to work with the other site, but they only wanted to let me use their links and features. After trying for 4 days to upload a slide show, a simple picture, or music I called it quits. Now from going from one link to another to another to another to another, filling out surveys and questionnaires I have more blocked spam in my inbox than I know what to do with. I wanted a blog to connect with my friends and family, show off a little of my scrapping and journal. I did not want to buy airline tickets, movie tickets, get marketing tips or stock tips, I didn't want to have to download the music someone else decided was hot, hip and cool. I didn't want a slide show filled with people I didn't know, or huge eyeballs, or windmills.

To all my friends how sent me much love and support at the "other site", I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I hope you will visit me here as many of you use blogger.com to host your own sites. I am a "jump in feet first" type person and 99.9% of the time life gives me lemonade, but there is that .1% where I get lemons, I learn my lesson, reflect, and then make lemonade out of my lemons. Life's just too short to sweat the small stuff.

Thanks for visiting, I hope you come again, I'll be serving lemonade out on the veranda every day at 4:30.