MY CREATIVITY HAS BEEN FOUND!!!

ya know, part of the reason that i haven't blogged in forever, apart from the busy*ness, is the lack of mojo.
creative mojo that is.

i don't know what happened. it up and disappeared on me.

but with a very soft and gentle push and discovering that it wasn't too let to get on a class by the fab*boo ashley wren i believe it is back and in full force.



i came home from work early yesterday and due to an earlier conversation with a person who means the world to me, i finally grabbed my vintange nikkormat, some black and white film, and hoped for the best. the only thing is i have to wait two weeks to get it back :(

after shooting with that, i decided to shoot some of the same things that i shot with the nikkormat with my luv, the rebel.



didn't like how a lot of the pics turned out. this is what happens when you feel like you've lost your connection with your camera :( i did get these though.


what has got to be the most happiest kids on earth right????



ahh...that's better!!!


once some stuff got done around the house, it was time to work on that class.
it felt so good to do something creative ya know.
like my body and mind felt alive.
this is why i shouldn't let myself get caught up in the every day and must remember to make time for creativity. my soul needs it.

so this class is all about creating a journal.

here's my cover.


copper paint over a composition book. due to the thickness of the paint, last minute i decided to stick my hand on it and love the way the compo book peeks thru.


and the first prompt!


8 happies!

i love how this is the first page in the book. a list of things that make me happy at this moment.

so tonight the plan is to go home and do the next one. i'm super excited. i've got ideas swimming around in my head and can't wait till next week when i stay the night at g's house on monday and scrap till our heart's content.

ps...don't forget to vote!


<3 elizabeth <3

IS IT THE END OF OCTOBER ALREADY? WHEN THE HELL DID THAT HAPPEN?!?!?

so had no intention of taking a two month break from the blog.
seriously!

life has just been a crazy mess of soccer games, homework, boyscout events, more work dumped on me at work (which would explain why i don't get to leave many comments on blogs), a new ritual of baths in my jaccuzi tub ;) halloween parties, camping trips, the list goes on and on.

i've barely scrapped in forever (hopefully that will change this weekend) and my house never got decorated for halloween :(

i do have some exciting news though.

i've been asked to participate in the newest upcoming challenge blog FORWARD PROGRESS. the idea is just pure brilliance!!! scrap your future. i mean seriously, how often are we scrapping our past or not even wanting to scrap something b/c it happend so long ago that the pics are old, or whatever. i am constantly thinking about my future and why not scrap it?!?! i'm on a team with a great group of gals and can't wait to get to know them better and hopefully if i have any readers left....lol...you'll stop by and partake in some of the challenges. i'll let y'all know when the first one is up.

i hope that all is well with y'all and i do hope to be back sooner than later.

hope everyone has a happy, happy, happy halloween!!!


<3 elizabeth <3

THE GREAT. THE BAD. THE UGLY

THE GREAT

*michael and i spent a glorious saturday night
here for our anniversary. the room was nice and of course i love this casino/hotel. we ate dinner at the outback, had frozen custard at bops, saw a swing vote (1 1/2 thumbs down), gambled a lil bit, and then had room service the next a.m. where i had the best coffee and blueberry danish! (a mini will be coming to a blog near you soon :)

*the kiddos are signed up for soccer and mikey only has practice once a week and a game on saturday and bella has her practice before her game on saturday.

*we finally have an awesome back to school routine which comes complete with having an hour to myself in the morning after the kiddos catch the bus....bliss!!!

*michael and i decided that in january we are going to start trying for another bambino :)

*i'm about to start taking quilt classes.

*i'm going to crop at the lss friday night...whooo*haaaa!!!

*stacks and stacks of library books are sitting around my house just waiting to be devored.

*bella will be signed up for daisies soon :)

*tried a new recipe last night...tomato basil tart...which was so devine i can't stop thinking about it.

*speaking of cooking, i've been cooking up a storm: homemade bread, cherry jam, chicken broth, cookies, homemade pizza (this too will be coming to a post near you soon :)


THE BAD

*we've been so busy i can hardly stand myself.

*i haven't scrapped in weeks (that will soon change though since i am devoting the whole weekend to this).

*i'm having trouble coming up with baby names. yes, i'm a major PLANNER. if i could pee on the stick and it turn pink or blue that would make me happy. i have to have the name planned out way in advance and well, there are some rules. ya see, the four of us all have one vowel and two "m"s for initials. and we for the most part have italian names. so trying to find italian names that meet this criteria is hard. however, i think we may end up dropping the whole italian thing and just finding the vowel and two m's. and of course i only have a girl's name picked...grr! any suggestions?


THE BAD

*my bella*boo has to have surgery on her eye on september 2nd. :( she will have that papaloma removed and i've been assured that it won't come back. she doesn't know yet. we won't tell her till the day before. we have to drive to mobile, alabama to have it done. i worry that she will be like me as a child and haved to be strapped down when they give her the anesthia. oh i can't even think about it.

*and again, i've just been busy busy busy. both at work and home. there are def. not enough hours in the day.

how have y'all been?

AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION HEART WALK

this year, i'm participating in the american heart association heart walk and i'm quite excited about it. its 4 miles long and will be my first ever walk for a cause :)

i kinda feel funny asking this on my blog, but its for a good cause right? so if anyone is interested in making a donation for me, you can go to my home page on the gulfcoast heart walk site and do so!!!

i have a goal of $100 and i would love to be able to go over :)

thanks in advance and i'd love to know if anyone else is doing the walk :)

hugs,
e

<3 HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MY LOVE <3

wow baby!
can you believe its already been 9 years???

i love you more than anything in the world and i can't wait to share many, many more years with you.

can't wait for this weekend ;)

MY BABY STARTED KINDERGARTEN TODAY!!!

*sniff*
*sniff*

my bella boo had her first day of kindergarten today. michael and i brought her to school where we got to hang out in her classroom, have breakfast with her, give her a ton o' hugs and kisses, watch a presentation given by the other kindergarten teachers and then back to her classroom to ask any questions.

this was the second year that they did it this way and bella won't go back until monday. if you don't think for one second that i was pissed as shit when i found out about this, well, you're wrong.

but anyway.

dontchya just wanna eat her up in that jumper???




with book bag and lunch bag that she left at school {shakes head}

MIKEY'S FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

bug started 3rd grade today!

i can't believe it.

not only did summer fly by, i have a child old enough to be in third grade!
what the?????

here he is all dressed up and ready to go. notice the goofy look on his face. he's def. getting to the age where seeing if he can mess up a good pic is numero uno priority!

MORE SCRAPPINESS!!!!

i have been on a scrapping rampage lately (well at least compared to other months...lol) and here are a few more los i've done.


lo for the dares


a lo for anthologies, my lss

has anyone else had mucho scrappy mojo?

QUEEN OF CRAP!!!

yay!

this week i am queen of crap over at scrap your crap.

this week's challenge is beads. i have a ton of beads since i like to dabble in jewelry making every now and again but needed to figure out what i wanted to do with them.

so this is what i came up with



make sure you guys swing over there and let me know what ya did so i can check it out :)

BREAKING DAWN

okay, so here i am at around 1:30 saturday morning after running around getting this book.

after i picked michael up from the airport, the four of us went to eat, and then headed to barnes and noble. its about 11:30. it is pretty packed and everyone is wearing wrist bands....oh no!

so instead of waiting around there, i bought the chocolate bars and headed to walmart where i stood in line with about 8 other people and had the book in my hand by 12:01.

too bad i'm disappointed with it.
i'm not finished yet...have about 200 pages yet but i'm ready to be done with it. its not what i expected but i won't get into anymore b/c i don't wanna give out any spoilers :(

b/c i can't stop painting or creating today.



on canvas board
size 12x16

THANK YOU & A MINI

thank you all for the sympathies regarding michael's grandpa. i'll be sure to let him know your kind words.

you
all
are
the
best!


okay, now for a mini.

i've had this idea in my head for about a week now and thought it was brilliant if i do say so myself...lol.

i wanted to do a mini on my name and do a descriptive word for each letter of my name that fits me to a tee!

and this is what i came up with :)





e: emotional.....i am extremely emotional which i both love and hate
l: loving........oh how i love to love and be loved
i: imagination...my imagination is both my sanity and insanity
z: zealous.......i am over zealous of most everything
a: artistic......without art i would be nothing
b: baking........baking: my therapy
e: eager.........always ready to push my own limits
t: thinker.......always in my head analyzing everything
h: homemaker.....taking care of my family and home is what i live for


this was so much fun and seriously, you should do the same. it was a lil hard for me to find a word for "z" but still...it picked a good one.

{DEEP SIGH}

that's all i can really say...i'm exhausted. so much has been going on lately. between back to school shopping, sleeping over friends, dentist appointments, running errands, and blah blah, we received some bad news last thursday.

michael's grandfather passed away last week and he left on friday to head to milwaukee. he won't be back till this friday so i took off this week to be at home with the kiddos.

we are going to miss his grandfather deeply but knowing that he lead a full life filled with love makes us feel a little bit better. i'm glad that michael has had this time to spend with his grandma and his sister. i know that is making them all feel better and i just wish that we could have went with him.

*********************************************************

on to some happy things.

being off does mean though that i do have time to get some stuff done. the house is clean (for the most part ;), i've been baking up a storm and i'm about ready to throw some dough into the bread machine and make
some of these mini vanilla wafers, some homemade chicken soup for dinner, and some cherry preserves!

i've also scrapped a very little. but you'll have to stay tuned for those los ;)

i'm super excited about this



i pick up michael tomorrow at the airport between 10-11 pm and i've already told him that we are stopping at barnes and nobel on the way home. i got an email from them yesterday that said they were having a release party (hello partying with the teens ;) and i'm hoping that i can get my hands on the book by midnight ;)

who else out there is on pins and needles.

and lets not get me started on the movie.
{deep sigh}


oh did anyone watch project runway last night?
did y'all not die when they were trying to get tim to say "holla" right???
bwahahahahahahaa!

shit i love that show.
and is anyone else ready for ms. leathaah to be cut? good grief.

oh and last but certainly not least, some fab*boo people have tagged me with this



i've been tagged by: noel, karen, and sian. some of my most favorite people ever.

here are the rules....


1. The winner can take the logo
2. Place a link to the person that sent you the award
3. Give the Award to at least 7 other Scrapbooking-Blogs, which by its currency,the issues of choice and for their designs are especially noteworthy
4. Put a link to these sites on your Blog.
5. Write a comment on their Blogs that they’ve won an Award.

i don't know who all has received this and who hasn't, but i'm tagging anyway....

sarah
who is so stinkin' cute and someone i wish i could meet b/c i know we would just jive.

josie
b/c she is just the sweetest thing ever and we share a love of marshmallow dip, books, kitchen aid mixers.

aimee
she is an awesome scrapper who has an amazing eye for design and photography.

anna
damn i love this chick. who else can ask a friend "is it just me or are you ready for edward and bella to fuck?" and she doesn't email you back with a "you're a freak. don't talk to me ever again" but toally agrees with ya!

joss
to the sweetest chick ever! to an amazing photographer who totally blows me away. a chick who can quilt with the best of em and makes me so completely crazy jealous of her skills.

andrea
a rockin' scrapper who can put the bestest swap package together ever! to this day she remains my favorite swappy partner and awesome bloggin' buddy. even though we don't chat as much, i think of her daily :)

miss leopard print
not only do i think this girl can scrap with the best of em, she's hilarious as all get out and stamped me some mr. t images. umm hello....awesome!

okay, off to start baking and possibly snugglin' up to "eclipse" again so i'm all ready for friday :)

THANK*YOU!!

thanks everyone for the well wishes for my bella*boo! i'm just ready for the 12th to get her so i can find out what comes next. boy do i hate to wait :) i'll keep ya updated.


oh

i wanted to share some other scrappiness that i have been working on lately. i don't know why, but i scrap in some major spurts. i'll scrap like crazy and then you won't see anything from me for weeks. totally annoying.

anyway

this is another mini (told ya i was hooked) that i did on sunday and believe it or not, it got me on the catwalk which is so cool.

i take a ton of pictures of nature related items. have no idea why since birds scare the shit outta me and its always so hot outside, but when something catches my eye, i've gotta snap it. so this is an album devoted to a few of my faves :)

























(excuse some of the wonky pics, but i scanned em and well transparency doesn't scan well :(

then this next lo i did for the design experiment. you were to do a lo on comfort and believe it or not, this is what comforts me. i know noel will totally agree with me on this ;) oh and a lot of the goodies i used on this page came from the picnic basket kit over at noel mignon.




can you believe how much i've been scrappin'?
oh and i've been cross stitchin' up a storm as well. i'll have to post pics of those too. nothing like the kiddos being in bed, jb on the tube, and doing a lil xstitching :)

{deep sigh}

heaven!

MY POOR BELLA*BOO

bella has always had sinus problems and lately her eye has been really gunked up and i blew it off as that. we had a slight change in our weather last week and everyone has been complaining of sinus problems. well monday when i got home for work, i noticed this pink skin hanging on her eyeball {insert gag and freak out on my part} after having the pediatrician paged, i explained to him what was going on and he advised that she needed to come in yesterday morning. so after running from one doctor to another doctor and then being referred to now a third doctor that only comes into town once a month, i found out that bella has a papalloma on her eye. and it has to be surgically removed.
{sniff sniff}

i won't know more until we see the lid specialist (umm hello...doctors specialize on the eye lid only???) on the 12th of next month.

poor lil thing. the only good thing about it is, that it doesn't hurt or bother her at all which is a saving grace for me.

has this happened to anyone else's kiddos???

my poor bella boo!

DESPITE....

...my mood today, i'm feeling quite creative.
and thanks to that creativity, i've been able to catch up on some challenges :)


category stories


syc


challenge over at studio calico


for the new challenge blog the story matters


and a lo just cause

now off to work on my next mini :)

MORE MINIS!

i am officially hooked on minis and spend most of my day daydreaming of all the different minis i wanna make.

so b/c of this, i have made two more in the past week!

the first one is for the current noel mignon challenge. can you believe that i really have never scrapped christmas???

oh the horror!

but as i've mentioned before, i'm more of an "everyday scrapper" and find it hard to scrap events. but not anymore!!!!

(ps...i scanned these so due to the raised embellies on the pages, the color is a lil off)

this mini was made with a bazzill acordian mini that i got when aimee got rid a ton of her stuff :)











almost everything used in this mini came from the fab*boo kits from noel mingon

the next mini was actually inspired when i went downstairs to have lunch with michael and he had this nifty lil card that he got in the mail from the national forensic academy. i had already taken the pictures in the beginning of the year and knew when i saw this that i had to have it. since michael was just going to throw it away, it was mine. i'll have to remember to tell michael never to throw away his mail again ;) on the cover the stickers and mikey's picture are covering up the details for the event that was on the card...lol.

i did this one last night.

i'm not pleased with every page b/c i think they are lacking in some goodies, but damn, the scrappy industry only makes so many crime scene related goodies...lol.

but mikey LOVES it so that is all that matters :)