Bob always complains...

...that I never blog about him so this post is dedicated to him :)
Here he is





















driving his new shiny red GTI :) (which is parked by my much loved VW R32)














He went and filled up his truck with gas last week and it cost $85...yikes!!! It was time to look at something smaller and more fuel efficient so on Memorial day we did a little shopping.
























And then I did a little scrapping, oooh, and I just have to sneak one small non-Bob related goodie in here, how cool is this fabric which is actually a bedspread from Urban Outfitters
























which is now a tote with tons left for other projects!

Check it out...

I had the opportunity to create a LO for the Pencil Lines Sketch Blog recently and it is up today. You have to check out their fab Design Team's take on my Mugsy LO...very cool stuff!

Oh Happy Day

The rain has stopped, the sun is out and I have a couple of days off from work..woo-hoo! I have grand plans for all of the things I hope to accomplish, I am going to go get new glasses this morning and since I will be out I think I will pop into Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie to see if there are any goodies I just might need. I have a ton of pics I have printed off on the new new printer so hopefully I can squeeze in some scrapping this afternoon or tomorrow.

One Little Word

You should go check out the One Little Word challenge blog...the super talented team over there has posted up their first challenge which is the word "go"...with a little help from Pixie here is my attempt :)

Inspired by Pixie...

a couple of new LOs :)
























Oooooh, and if you haven't tried an Orange Cream Frappuccino yet...go now and get one! Soooooo good!

The pugs get more mail than I do!

So in the past few days, every time I go to the mailbox there is another fun package sitting there waiting for either Mugsy or Pixie :) It started with this uber cool t-shirt that was sent to Mugsy from Heather S. How cute is he in his skully shirt?!
























Then he received this fun bandana from Theresa over at Pug Village You don't think my love of skulls is rubbing off on him do you..tee-hee
























Even the new girl is getting mail, Pixie got this super cute puggy card (that I am so going to scrap with) from Jan and her sweet whippet Jocko from over at the
CK message boards























I guess I can't complain too much since the last package I received was my ultra fab new printer, copier, scanner from the Martha Stewart contest. I have to admit it has been sitting here a few days as I have been a little intimidated by it, but today's the day that I am going to break it in!

Today is brought to you by the color red

A new tote I made this morning out of a pillowcase & a little bias tape...you can find the instructions in the new Martha Stewart Living
























Opie sitting in my desk chair wrapped in his favorite blankie I made him
























A cute little napkin holder that came in a package of goodies from my parents recently

A couple of cards....

I don't know why I haven't been making cards more often, these are made from the fab-o 2 Scrappy Chix Designs May kit...*sigh* I just love those robots so much!

Some exciting news!

O.k., so in the past week, everything has just been going really well....first there was the Martha Stewart contest, then Morrissy last night which was amazing and then I go to check out the zingBOOM blog this morning to find out that I have been chosen to be on her DT!!!! Kristen puts together the ~coolest~ kits and honestly they are the only kits I have ever purchased on a monthly basis. She chose 2 other DT members, the insanely talented Amber Ulmer and Ronee Parsons.

That was fast...

When I came home on my break yesterday to check on the puggies I noticed there were a couple of Fed-ex envelopes on our porch...the first one I opened had my $250 Michaels gift card from the Martha Stewart Scrapbooking Contest along with a note that my HP goodies would be here in a few days :) I honestly never buy a whole lot at Michaels, but I was able to find a few things last night knowing that it wasn't going to cost me anything, and I still have quite a bit left on my gift card, I am considering a Cuttlebug, but am trying to decide if I would get enough use out of it...decisions, decisions!

















I also received my zingboom kit in the mail yesterday, but alas there is limited time to scrap today as we are off to see Morrissey tonight!

Finally, some time to scrap

I don't know why I have felt so busy lately, but I finally carved out some time to work on some LOs the past couple of days. I did these with the ~awesome~ kit I received as Guest Design Team Member for 2 Scrappy Chix Designs this month. I am having so much fun with the Hambly, along with all of the other goodies in the kit. This is my first Pixie LO


























Sarah, I hope you don't mind, but
you've been scrapped!























2 Scrappy Chix is having an on-line crop this weekend, and last night I got to present my challenge. The crop starts up again today at 12...the insanely talented Tammy Kay is hosting a challenge today so you should definitely come check it out...here is today's schedule:

Saturday Hostesses:
12-1: Joni
1-2: Joni
2-3: Mary
3-4: Tammy Kay
4-5: Kim
5-6: Kim
6-7: Kim
7-8: Angie

And my LO for my project

Martha Stewart approved...

That's me! A few weeks ago I found out about Martha's call for LOs for her scrapbooking contest and figured what the heck, i'll give it a try. I put it out of my mind as I know there were thousands of entries, but then a couple of weeks ago I got a call from one of her producers that they wanted to talk with me. Of course I wasn't home and when I tried to call the producer back 4 days in a row was unsuccessful. Once again I put it out of my mind. Then I got an email that they wanted to talk to me and to please call them...I did, and was never able to get hold of anyone again! Fast forward to a couple of days ago and I get another email and they want a picture of me because I am being considered as a finalist, I email the picture, try to follow up with a call and nobody!! Yesterday evening one more email came accross that they wanted to know how to pronounce my name so at that point I figured I was in the running for something. Today just happened to be my day off so I sat through the entire show, & about 2 minutes from the end, there's Martha saying my name with my picture at the bottom of the t.v. screen, kinda' surreal. This is ever so exciting as I have been hesitant to submit anything up until now, but this gives me the confidence to submit to some of the scrapping mags finally. Of course it was a Mugsy LO that was picked...this one to be precise
























All of the winning entries can be seen
here plus you can scroll down on that same page to see the fab-o prize package...hmmmmmmm, what to get with that $250 Michaels card :)

Flea market finds

So this past Sunday, some of us from The Chicagoland Craft Collective got together at the Kane County Flea Market to do a little shopping for ideas and stuff :)

~love~ the colors of these blocks

















Groovy glasses
















Fun phones















We agreed that clowns are scary, but this one was kind of cute :)























Sarah bought this cutie























I got this cool toy box to put all of my fabric in
















How fun are these going to be to scrap with?! I got a ginormous bag with about 50 of them in it, it was every valentine received in 1950 & 1951 by a boy named Charles


















Another purchase, some fab old playing cards with dogs on them, how cool is the one with the scarecrow?



















Mmmmmmm....coffee cake!























I could go on and on...obviously we had a great time and much money was spent :)

Come check out...

The on-line crop over at 2 Scrappy Chix Designs May 11-13. All of the DT members including us Guest Designers have some fab-o projects planned, check in Friday night for mine :) The fun starts at 6 p.m.

It's a girl!

So am I the best secret keeper or what?! We have been working with Northern Illinois Pug Rescue & Adoption over the past few weeks ironing out the details on adding another puggy to our family. Well yesterday after work I went and picked up the newest member of our family Pixie :) She is such a doll and Opie & Mugsy just adore her. I have had to pull a few scrapping supplies out of her mouth, but we'll work on that.

Happy Dance

O.k. so over at 2Peas today, they have their Garden Girls highlighting different scrappers and (gasp!) Rhonna Farrer picked a couple of my LOs to highlight! If this doesn't make a girl's day, I don't know what does :) You can check them out here & here & 1 more here

And because I can't have 2 posts without pictures here is my exhausted shipping clerk yesterday after boxing up a bunch of orders :)

Happy National Scrapbooking Day

So super stamper Sarah Moore has a fab little venture called Craft Critique that you should go check out. Various crafty folk are able to give their honest opinion on different craft products and techniques. It's a great resource for info on new products as well as great tips and some fun projects. Oh yeah, another reason to go check it out is that I wrote today's article Creative Scrapbook Supply Shopping :) There's even a picture of my camera shy face...shocking I know, a scrapper that is camera shy!

So my NSD activities are going to be pretty simple,I have to go to work this morning, but this afternoon I am going to pick up some Chinese take-out and lock myself in my scrapping room and not come out until it is cleaned up, that may mean I don't see the light of day until Monday!

She got me

So I found myself with a little free time after work yesterday so I decided to make my way over to Michaels to check out the new Martha Stewart Crafts line. I really didn't expect to find anything as I prefer brighter edgier stuff, but darn it all I ended up finding a couple of things I had to have! First off, how could I pass up these birdie stamps





















Here's a sneaky peak of a LO I am using them on
























These little journaling stickers were too cool to pass up

























And paper with lady bugs & fruit, I just know I can do something fun with that!

When pugs fly

and a funny out-take :)

Because 2 days without posting...

is too long, here is some randomness from the last few days.

My husband Bob complains that I never post anything about him, so here is a LO of him and Mugsy in their favorite place, the couch :)























I helped a friend move into her super cute new apartment this weekend...it's all cool and vintage-y























And I have another scrapping kit available on Etsy.

















I have a ton of stuff I am working on this week, and my Dad sent another fun outfit for Mugsy so a photoshoot is in the works!