Birthday party activities

Erica had a blast at her TWO-DAY birthday party.  I don't think I have it in me to do that again.  Although, some of the things we did were alot of fun.  Decorating pillow cases was one of the fun activities, for sure.  The girls used fabric markers and did whatever they wanted.  Note to self...next time wash the pillow case first!!!  Erica's bled through to her pillow after using it a few days.  Oh, well...no real harm done.

The Life of the Party kit was my second favorite.  I pulled together all the layouts in no time at all.  For this one, I swapped out one of the chipboard die cut shapes for the pillow invitation...since it worked with us decorating pillow cases.  And for once I actually remembered to include memorabilia on the page!

A Class Act

Another one of my favorite layouts is Erica's third grade school picture.  She still needs to work on her smile, but this is better than her big cheesy one she often has for pictures.  I'm also not quite sure why she wears her head band so low on her head...but she's her own person and I can't change it.

This is another Oxford kit layout...it was soooo much fun to play with.

Paella Recipe

The food was awesome all weekend, if I don't say so myself.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE comfort food.  And when it's fairly healthy, that's even better.  I tried to google the recipe to give credits appropriately, but I can't find it anymore.  Just know this is not my recipe. 

Shrimp Paella
2 tsp Olive Oil
1 tsp chopped garlic
1 lb cleaned shrimp
1 c chopped onion
6 oz 1/4" sausage sliced (I use 4 links Chicken and Spinach sausage)
1 box Spanish seasoned rice and vermicelli mix (I use Fred Meyer brand)
1 c peas
1 can stewed tomatoes
14 oz artichoke hearts

Heat oil in skillet over medium high heat.  Add garlic and shrimp and cook for 3 minutes.  Remove shrimp and keep covered in a bowl.
In the same skillet, saute onion and sausage for 3 minutes.  Add rice without the seasoning and cook for 3 minutes.  Add 2 cups water, tomatoes, peas, and seasoning mix. 
Simmer covered for 20 minutes.  Add shrimp and artichoke hearts.  Heat and serve.

 I'm not sure why the picture came in vertically...but I guess this is better than nothing.

My favorite AIW layout...Lovely You!

Ha...so I didn't go right to bed last night like I said I was...I scrapped some more. I only got a few more pages done, but I can now say I have a whole album PLUS...21 pages and two more on the dinner table just about done!

I thought I'd post my favorite layout first. I just love my wacky daughter, and this layout totally shows her wackiness. Her school has spirit week in the fall and one day was "Crazy Hair and Crazy Clothes" day. She put on a purple dress with a blue skirt and a green sweater. Sometimes I think she'd actually wear this and not give it a second thought...thank goodness for veto power! Then she had me tease up two piggy tails into big balls on the side of her head.

The layout kit is Basic Grey (all the kits are from Basic Grey) and this is a layout from the Oxford kit.

Album in a Weekend!!!

WHEW...what a weekend I've had so far.  I hosted an Album in a Weekend (AIW as I called it).  A bunch of ladies got together and scrapped all day Friday and Saturday...and some of them after they hit the Black Friday sales (I didn't this year).

I was able to complete (3) of my standard 8x8 calendars for Christmas presents (sorry, no pix given "eyes" that read the blog) as well as (9) 12x12 pages, all of which have pictures!!!  Last weekend I made (7) 12x12 layouts with pictures, too.  That's almost a whole album in a weekend!

Three ladies spent the night and Jeff cooked for us all weekend!  One of my layouts is going to be my favorite scrappy meals.  We had chicken and white bean soup, paella, omelets, turkey and spinach chili, and Thanksgiving left overs (the last meal was supposed to be couscous soup, but only one scrapper was left, so we just had left overs).  Oh, and we even made Sassy Dalons...a fun new concoction made with Gin, Cranberry Twist Mix, and Sprite...YUM!!!

Sorry, it's late and I REALLY need some sleep, so I'll get pictures tomorrow when the sun comes up (ha...I can sleep in for that!).  I also promised the scrappers recipes with pictures of our yummy meals...so more to come over the next few days!

Happy belated Thanksgiving!!!

Cards from scraps

"People" always say that after you finish a scrapbook page, you should use scraps to make cards before you put everything away.  I took that to heart as I finished my Embrace Imperfection mini album and then the Pure Bliss layout a few weeks ago.  The cards are adapted from the Cooking Up Cards class I took at...you guessed it, Big Picture Classes.  Man, I feel like a walking bill board for their classes.  But I can't help it...they're awesome!  I'm really bummed that I missed out on signing up for the Textuality class in September.  Oh, well, I'm going to keep my eyes open and sign up when it comes out again (if you see it, tell me!!!). 

Stay tuned...I've been talking to some gals around here about doing a card swap.  That's where we all make a card for however many people sign up for the swap.  Then we give one to each person and get one from each person.  So you end up with a bunch of different cards from other people.  The cool thing is, I want to do it as a "recipe" card swap.  So not only do you give the card, you include the "recipe" and sketch on how you put it together so they can duplicate it later.  What fun...I got the idea from the same class...hee, hee.

What fakers!!!

Man, can I just tell you what a ham my daughter is?  Ha, I think all my blog readers know her and know that I don't have to remind you about that.  This summer Erica went to Girl Scout resident camp FOR A WEEK.  Yes, she was gone, away from us, with no phone, FOR A WEEK.  She even kept a journal while she was gone...but that's another story (maybe a scrapbook page).  The best part about the camping trip was that she went for free because she sold soooooo many cookies this year.

The trip TO camp was also a great story!  It takes us about an hour to get from home to Camp Togowoods.  We drove out with Bella and her family to keep each other company and save on gas.  Nicole and I had a great time chatting in the front.  We were almost to the camp, and we noticed they were all asleep in the back.  Nicole took out my camera and got took these pictures.  Then all of a sudden, they snickered and "woke up."  Those trick-sters.  They were faking!  Well, at least two of them were faking.  There's a picture of Carolyn in the back asleep so hard she's about bent in half in her seat...she's NOT faking.

This is another layout from the Double Take class at Big Picture Classes...and another layout I finished at the crop in mid October...I was on a roll with the sketches!!!