Chaos Ensues

Our Week(s) - October 18, 2010

I totally lost track of last weekend and didn't get around to posting here. First some pictures.

Devin has started working on Liz's pioneer dress for her Halloween Costume. He still hasn't made it very far along but we're hoping he can get it finished before we move.

While Devin was working on the dress Liz was on the opposite side of the table making Perler Bead creations. I think she did about 15 total. I've ironed 5 of them but they're still sitting there waiting for me to iron the other 10 or so.

It's finally fall in Chicago. The tree behind our house. 

 

Liz getting ready for a hayride.

Dev bought a Moka Pot over the weekend to see if it would provide an adequate substituion for his much larger espresso machine. For as often as we drink espressos and lattes he's decided that it will work just fine. Here's a fru fru coffee drink he made me the day after he bought it (gotta love chocolate)!

Right now I'm all consumed with the move. We found an apartment a lot more quickly than I thought we would and we will get the keys this upcoming weekend. We'll start moving some of the smaller items in over the weekend (especially the stuff going into the storage space) and then rent a truck for everything else next week. We're hoping to be totally done with everything (save some unpacking) by the 30th so we can thoroughly enjoy Halloween and my sister in law's last week visiting us.

A couple of months ago I was invited to be on the Digi Scrap Addicts creative team. I was thrilled to accept and am now part of an amazing team as a hybrid artist (this means I print papers and other elements from digital scrapbooking kits and make items with them). This is the first time I've ever been invited to join a digital creative team without applying. Needless to say I was a tiny bit excited about it. My first project for the newsletter was in this past week's issue of The Enabler.  It's the one made with Suzy Q Scraps Free to Be kit (the first hybrid project in this month's issue).

This was a slow week for me as far as layouts were concerned. I did create this layout about how we always have pumpkin pie for breakfast on Thanksgiving morning with Sir Scrapalot's new kit Cutie Pie.

Well I guess that's about it for this post. Hopefully I'll be able to take a few minutes next weekend to update everyone on the move. Here's hoping for a fantastic and stress free week packing and cleaning.

Our Week - October 3, 2010

Another quiet week here...most of it has been dedicated to cleaning and purging. Liz found time to make another clay creation, however, a dachshund with a beret.

And a drawing based on Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

 

Flashback to October of last year when we brought Rocky into our house.

 

To yesterday, he's now about twice as long (almost 3 ft) and a whole bunch bigger around.

I guess the biggest news is that it's totally official that we're moving, our goal is to find a place sometime in the next week while we continue to pack. Here's hoping it goes without too much of a hitch. I even created a scrapbook page to record my fears about the move (linked for credits).

I also created these cute treat bags just for fun. Can't believe it's already October (image also linked for credits).

Not much else this week.  My unexpected favorite new TV show is Raising Hope, I laugh so hard (and feel terrible doing so)...lol. Liz and I started watching The Princess and the Frog while Devin was at a dinner meeting earlier in the week and then finished it up after school the next day. Devin started working on Liz's Halloween costume today so that it will hopefully be finished before we move so I should have photos of the progress in next weeks post. Really not much else going on...seems like the moving thing is taking all of my energy right now. Mentally I'm hanging in there for now..hoping the stress doesn't get to me too much.

Guess I'll see y'all next week. Here's to a happy and productive week!

Our Week - September 25, 2010

As usual I'm a day late and a dollar short (or 2 days late and more dollars short than I'd care to admit). Last week was pretty uneventful. Liz was still cranky, I was still cranky, school time was fun. We spent a lot of time sorting through stuff, getting rid of stuff, and trying to figure out how we could possibly live in a 2 bedroom apartment. While we were going through everything Liz discovered a pack of sculpey she got as a gift a couple of years ago so she's been on a polymer clay kick. Here are a couple of her creations.

 

It's fun to watch Liz enjoying the same books I enjoyed as a child (she also read Ramona and her Father this week).

 

A picture of me that Liz took in case any of you want to see my not quite smiling face.

This weekend was the turning off of the air conditioners and the moving of Liz back upstairs to her bedroom. We're doing a bit of a shift..Dev and I are taking her bed (moving down from a king to a queen) and we set this bed up temporarily for her until we can afford to buy her the bed she's been wanting. We are going to take her old room and turn our current bedroom into a bit of storage for things we are packing. I'm totally overwhelmed at the prospect of moving but it's going to have to happen.

Some pumpkins I created with a new kit from Sir Scrapalot Designs (images are all linked for full credits).

Layout I created with Funkalicious Fall by Jennifer Fox and Nikki Epperson.

Card I created using Falling For You by Geek Chic Scraps. I totally love that Tara included doodles in this kit so I could use some of my rubber stamping techniques on the card.

 
The only other thing that happened last week was the new season of TV starting. For years I never paid attention to what was on network TV but starting last year Devin and I have started Tivoing shows we enjoy and new shows that look promising to us. This was our TV recording schedule for last week.

Monday: How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men, Mike and Molly
Tuesday: Glee
Wednesday:The Middle, Modern Family, Cougar Town
Thursday:30 Rock, The Office, Outsourced, Big Bang Theory and $#*! My Dad Says

As you can see we're totally huge fans of sitcoms in this house.

I guess that's it for this week..see ya in a few days.

Our Week - September 19, 2010

Last Sunday I made goal to blog every weekend with some of the highlights from our week. I may be an hour or so late but here is this week.

While it may not seem like a typical highlight we searched high and low for pumpkin, apparantly there was a huge pumpkin shortage the past couple of years and finding pumpkin was hard, we went to three different grocery stores before we found this can. The main reason for the pumpkin search was so Devin could make Pumpkin Spice Lattes, can't say I was a big fan but I think he may try them again with less sugar than the recipe he tried called for. All I know is it's not long until Eggnog season and I intend to partake in as many eggnog lattes as Dev is willing to make for me. 
   

Liz did her first logic puzzle on Monday. I honestly think she had it figured out before she made any marks but I had her work through the steps just to make sure. I always thought logic puzzles were lots of fun and now it looks like Liz does as well.

Liz loves animals of all sorts (she has plans on adding at least 5 more pets to our household when she can talk us into it) and this young burmese python is one of her favorites, and no he isn't ours. Phoenix was a rescue snake and was badly burned on the underside from sitting too close to the heat lamp. He's now fully recovered but Liz has a really soft spot for him.

Dev's been wanting to try cooking out some ribs since he bought his grill and we just never got around to it. While we were walking through the grocery store we found spareribs on sale for $1.50 a pounds so Dev bought 2 racks (yes this is typical Dev..why make enough when you can make more..lol). He later figured out that you are supposed to trim for more consistant cooking but it still worked.

Liz has started working out of new math book. Up until this point we've done lots of workbooks and worksheets but she's never really worked out of a text. Devin was worried that there may be gaps so we found a 6th grade book at a used bookstore that we really like (lots of repetition of basic facts and examples of practical use). We're working slowly right now but I think once Liz gets the hang of it we'll be fine. There may be a spot or two where we may have to go back and catch up but we'll see. So far so good: week 1 down.

After the ribs marinated in the fridge overnight Dev grilled them on Thursday. He got a late start getting the grill ready so it was close to 9 before they were ready and imo they were a very decent first attempt at ribs. He has promise I do believe.

And finally we have fabric for Liz's Halloween Costume. This year she's decided she wants to be a pioneer girl. Devin is hoping to be able to get started on it this week depending on his work schedule. She was sooooo excited to finally have the fabric (they picked out the pattern over a month ago).

I also found out some big news this past week. On Tuesday Geek Chic Scraps announced her new creative team.

See my name? Right there top middle? I'm so excited to be a part of Tara's awesome creative team! If you go to the Geek Chic Blog you may even be able to scroll down and find a layout by me (hint it's of Liz reading to Grandpa).

I also found out that Laura Bozeman is retiring from designing. I'll really miss working with her and her and creating with her digi products. She's closing her shop at Inspiration Lane on September 30th.

In other news, Liz is currently reading The Hobbit and she just finished Strider (the sequel to Dear Mr. Henshaw) tonight, Devin finished reading the tenth book in The 39 Clues earlier this week and I have just started  reading Pop by Gordon Korman. We finished watching season 2 of Better Off Ted, and I don't think we watched any movies this week. 

Liz had a bit of a struggle this past week with attitude. For some reason she was beyond even her typical moody self. As we start a new school week tomorrow I'm really hoping that she got the rest and relaxation she needed this weekend to be my bright and eager daughter ready to learn.

The only other thing going on is that Devin and I have decided that it's time to start looking for a new place to live. We're hoping for something closer to Dev's work and idealy a lot cheaper (this will probably mean an apartment but I think we'll find a way to make it work for us for a a little while at least). This week we're going to spend working on clearing out some of the clutter and items we just don't need and next weekend hopefully start getting an idea of what's out there and start packing what we don't need right now, even though it never is we're hoping to make this the easiest move ever (a girl can dream, right?).

Apparantly I had a bit of a novel to write tonight. Gues I'll bid y'all adieu and get to bed. Thanks  for stopping by - hope you all have a wonderful week!

Our Week - September 12, 2010

So I've decided that if nothing else I'm going to strive to do a weekly roundup each weekend. There may be occasional blog posts during the week but at the very least I figured I could at least do a weekly post (I think I've thought this before though so please try to understand if I don't).

The weekly roundup will include photos of what we've done this week, layouts and hybrid projects I've created, and just general blabbering on by me.

We were lucky enough to get to take an impromptu trip to Arkansas over Labor Day weekend. Was so much fun to get to visit with my family. We played games, ate a lot, and talked a lot..that's what we do best.

We got to watch my nephew walk his goat in preparation for showing it at the county fair. He placed first in showmanship for the peewee division and his goat placed 5th overall for it's weight range. We are so proud of him and can't wait to see how he does in a larger fair he's planning on showing him in later this month.

 

I got to hang with my nieces.

 

Liz and I played giant games at the library. I ended up toppling the tower...
 
 

and Liz beat me at Connect 4. There were also a few games of giant tic-tac-toe played, most of them ending in a draw.

 

For our birthdays my parents and sister got Devin and me a new camera and it arrived yesterday. I was so excited to unbox it. I took a few photos of it with our old camera (an 8 yo Panasonic Lumix which served me well but I'm much thankful for the higher resolution and smaller size of the new camera).
 

I'll be sharing photos taken with this on next weeks blog post (lol here's hoping I remember to do next weeks blog post).

Here are some layouts and a hybrid project I've done in the past couple of weeks.

This first one was for a Log Your Memory challenge. Each week I try to do the challenge so you'll be seeing a lot of layouts inspired by them. This particular layout is about my first year of being homeschooled and my feelings about it vs. public school.

Most items from Pursuit of Knowledge by the Polka Dot Plum designers.
Alpha- Arithmetic of Love - Sir Scrapalot (recolored)
Ribbon - Jennifer Fox/Meg Mullins - Oh So Silly (recolored)
Background paper is by Club Scrap (recolored)
Fonts: Pea Mique and My Own Topher

This next layout is about what I love about homeschooling my daughter.

 

Punky Peppy Grab Bag - Sir Scrapalot and JB Designs

Last year Lizzy got to race a bathtub at one of the local fall festivals. Not quite as wild as the Nanaimo Bathtub Races but she still had a blast.

 

Raw Earth - Dream Big Designs

This next thing is a hybrid project I created using Oh So Studious by Jennifer Fox and Meghan Mullens.

To see how I made these you can visit Jennifer Fox's Blog.

And finally a few other random tidbits about last week.

Devin learned how to change out the brake pads on our van.

Devin and Liz have both been sick but I've managed to escape it so far.

I watched my first Bollywood movie ever, Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year. I think it was more entertaining than it would have been had it been the same movie in English set in the US. One thing I totally didn't expect which I found odd was the frequent use of English in the movie. There would be a conversation and in the middle of it, for no reason that I can surmise, there would be a sentence or two spoken in English. I also love that there were subtitles for these English phrases and that they translated bastard to rogue. All in all I thoroughly enjoyed it.

We also started watching season 2 of Better Off Ted. I really enjoyed the first season and am sad that there won't be a third.

For the two reasons mentioned above (and a whole lot more) I love Netflix streaming to my TV.

I guess that's it for this week. See ya next weekend if not before.

Some photos from this summer....

I'm planning on setting a blogging schedule for myself to make sure that I at least post a couple of times a week but first I wanted to share a few photos that we took this summer of the Lizard.

This first one is her swimming in a friend's pool. We had a good visit with our good friends from St. Louis and I think getting to go in the pool was a definite highlight for Liz.

Liz playing Pokemon with her cousin. It was so great that she got to spend so much time with her cousins while we were in Arkansas. I think these two will always have a special bond though. It was extremely hard for her to say goodbye when it was time to leave him and I really do wish our visits didn't have to be so far apart.

We took a trip into Chinatown in late July. I think Devin went into every Chinese Bakery he saw looking for the same concoctions he used to get regularly in Vancouver. Liz had to pose with the snake from the Chinese Zodiac because that's her symbol.

 

One of Liz's biggest highlights was that she got to go down on the ball field and be honored for completing the Summer Reading Program at the local library. Here she is introducing herself to the crowd.

We have actually had a fairly laid back summer, other than a 2 week trip to Arkansas (followed immediately by  a weekend in Cincinnati for a family reunion) we've stayed pretty close to home. 

Inspiration Lane Blog Train

Hey everyone. The Inspiration Lane CT decided to take the newest IL Mega Sampler and turn it into quick pages for y'all to enjoy. Here is the mega kit that we're all using for our quickpages (kit is linked to item in store).

Here is a list of the participants in this blog train.

Erika: http://inkincreations.blogspot.com/
Bethany: http://scrappingbytrialanderror.blogspot.com/
Sugar N Spice: http://picarook.blogspot.com/
Sarah: http://chaosensues.typepad.com/ - This is me!!! :)
CupcakeJamie: http://www.jamie-cupcake.blogspot.com
Aimeemomof2+ http://inspiration-lane.com/blog/
melscrap http://inspiration-lane.com/blog/
Bobbie: http://bbsbluebutton.wordpress.com/

Here's the preview of my quick page (link to download full size png is just below preview). Make sure to stop by all the other blogs in order to get all of the amazing pages.

To download my quickpage please click here.

I hope you enjoy these quickpages that we've all made. Make sure when you visit the other fabulous ladies on the train to leave them some love!

Look What I Made

Here's a little mini book that I made. Link is to Jennifer Fox's blog.

Easy Hybrid Mini Book

The photo I promised...

I promised some of y'all a recent photo of the Lizard...since I'm up way later than I should be I thought I'd go ahead and post one. She's at a library program (big shocker there...lol). I really will try to post more often...I can't even use busy as an excuse. Anywho here's the photo. Isn't she gorgeous? (not that I'm biased or anything)

I hope you all have a wonderful night (lol if you're still awake even) and tomorrow! Good night all!

So excited! Guess who I'm CTing for?

A couple of days ago I accepted a hybrid CT postion with one of my favorite designers. I discovered Jennifer Fox Designs shortly after I began digiscrapping when I won a random draw for one of her kits on one of the digi scrapbooking forums and have been a fan ever since. I'm so glad that I was in the right place at the right time to get this gig.

I have a preview of the three collab kits that Jennifer did with Wild Dandelion Designs (see my card there in the middle?!?!).

Plus today Jennifer is the featured designer on the Digichick blog. Click the link to learn more about Jennifer and save 30% in her shop today only!

I can't wait to share with you more projects that I create using Jennifer's goodies...so keep tuned (and yeah I'll get some pics up of the Lizard soon for those waiting with baited breath).