A very Merry Christmas!

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year... I can say that this year has been one spectacular year for me... and Christmas has ended the year well. I was able to spend Christmas eve with my husbands mom's side of the family, and Christmas Day with his dad's side of the family. His family from all around California was able to gather for a great celebration. Besides having a great time with family, and WAY to much food, I was spoiled with too many gifts as usual... but I got a few things I really was hoping for! My dad got me the Ott-lite I had been wanting for a very long time. So now when I go scrapbooking, I have a portable light to take with. My hubby got me a new cell phone, so I don't need to curse my old one out, that was on the fritz. And it has a camera on it, which I truly missed when I had switched over to a BlackBerry. And one gift that has been on my wish list for years, finally came true... I got a doggy! His name is Spyder... he was rescued from a home where the owners had to move into an apartment. The origional owners had rescued him from the pound... he is the sweetest border collie. Here is a photo of him playing with one of his many toy's. He loves balls! And will never stop playing catch (especially with my hubby, LOL)

Home sweet home!

Well, its been a hectic month, of painting, fixing, packing, and moving to our new house! We are officially living in our first home... Though it is furnished with not much more than stacks of boxes! Our move went pretty easy, othwer than the fact that the moving truck was a tad small... We had our kingsize mattress strapped to the back of tyhe truck, and we still have a bit of stuff to get from our rental! Our goal is to have things fixed up in the next month so it is ready for our first set of visitors... My dad and brother.

Last night we hoked up our new washer and dryer... Who knew that we would sit and watch it was our clothes for 10 minutes! We were so impressed with how quiet our new Electolux appliances are! It was very easy to figure out as well. There are so many options for washing clothes...

Besides moving I've been busy with holiday preparations, as we'll as releasing a sneak peak of the next kit over at www.urbanianthology.com/forum ... Its going to be a fantastic kit once again... :)

I hope every has a very merry Christmas, or a happy holiday for those that have other celebrations this time of year!

Take Care and be safe!

A scrappy kind of day!

Well, as most Saturday's go this time of year, I end up either scrapbooking at my house or heading off to a crop... it seems I become the football loving husbands widowed wife on the weekends, lol... so today I joined my friends Ching, Karen, and Yolanda for a day of scrapbooking at Scrap N' Yap. I haven't had so much fun scrapping, talking, and eating as I had today. I could not have been more perfect. We had some fantastic BBQ for lunch in a little restaurant called Joe's BBQ (I think that's what it's called...) and then we worked out way through some Churches Chicken, and finished the night off at A Cherry On Top for a frozen yougart BUFFET! I have never seen such a thing, about 10 choices of frozen yougart, we help our selves to a cup and fill it with the varieties we liked.... we then top it off with an assortment of toppings, and then they weigh it (I didn't want to look, it was a HUGE bowl) and we pay... I had a trio of yougarts... oreo cookie, cheese cake, and chocolate... I topped it with an assortment of chocolate toppings and for the "health" factor I threw on some raspberries, strawberries, and of course CHERRIES!

(Notice how HUGE, those SMALL bowls are!)

So besides EATING, we did do some scrapbooking (at least some of us, UH... CHING???)

Here is the layout that got rave reviews... Karen, thanks for letting me use your layout as a sketch for this! I love how this turned out using my November Urban Anthology Kit!

10 days and counting

Things have be busy this year... between starting a new business... my full time job, and buying a new house, it surly has kept me on my toes. I'm happy to say that in 10 day's we will be able to move into our brand new house. It is so exciting that this day has finally come! Today we took our final walk through of the house, double checking all of the items that were needing to be fixed as our inspector found. I realized how much work we are going to have to do to make the house ours... what seems like perfection when it is fully furnished... isn't quite that after the home owners start removing their personal items from the home. But none the less, its exciting to not live somewhere with noisy neighbors above us, traffic and trains passing buy at all hours of the day... and not being delayed by funeral processions, lol!

Between all the paperwork and inspections for the home, Ching and I have worked on creating our next kit for Urban Anthology. I'm excited to announce It's A Wonderful Life. This kit has a touch of winter, a touch of Christmas, and just and elegant feel to it! I can't wait for the holiday's to come to scrap with this kit some pictures of Christmas in our new home. Did I mention you can pre order yours now... just head over to the Urban Anthology Store, and better yet, it will ship before December 15... so you will have it in plenty of time for the holidays.

Announcing Calgon Take Me Away

Another month has come... and my company Urban Anthology has released its November 2008 Kit for sale... announcing Calgon Take Me Away. This kit will bring you relaxation and a refreshed mind... get those summer photos scrapped, your children's back to school photos and parties in albums, this kit is so versatile, you just won't be able to put down the pieces...

Here is a look at all the goodies you can get... just stop on over at the Urban Anthology Store to get yours today!

Besides prepareing the next kit, I was busy enjoying the Halloween Season... Chris and I went to Disneyland to enjoy our Halloween, Disney style! We managed to get in the two newest rides, that we had been dreading the long lines for months... but we were able to make it through both under 45 minutes for each ride! We enjoyed some tasty sourdough bread bowls with soup, YMMY! As well as making our routine trip to the Tiki room, for my enjoyment of the singing birds... I'm not sure what is is about that room, but it makes me laugh every time. The trip to disney land, and the Mickey shaped pumpkins, truly inspired me to create a few pages with my October 2008, Bewitched, Urban Anthology Kit. I had a blast yesterday creating these...

Mission Accomplished: Urban Anthology... Cyber Crop

Well as I write this the Urban Anthology's first Cyber Crop is winding down, with just 20 minutes left for the members to submit their entries for prizes... the classes are complete... and we are all just chatting it up over scrap talk and lost papers, lol.

This weekend was fantastic. I got to meet a few new ladies who joined us for our cyber crop, they made me LAUGH so hard! I really needed that.

My design team created some fantastic classes, they offered a great variety of skills, techniques, and journaling. I love what the croppers created from the classes. I can't wait to wake up tomorrow morning to see posted in gallery.

We also gave away a bunch of prizes, which is so much fun to do!

I want to thank EVERYONE who helped put on the cyber crop, and thank EVERYONE who participated!!! I look forward to our next cyber crop in 2009! Keep your eyes peeled... its going to ROCK.

Check out what a fantastic time one of our newest members, Sandee had.

And here are some photos of the fantastic work our members did this weekend...

A card...

I made a birthday card today... I had fun using my new Bewitched Kit, from Urban Anthology!

Scrap Pink Cyber Crop - Right now

Your missing it! The scrap pink cyber crop has already started over at Urban Anthology. It is going through Sunday October 19, 2008! Come join us for lots of fun classes, games, and prizes GALORE! Donate a few bucks and earn a discount coupon good at the store for the rest of the YEAR, up to 40% off. Check out all the details in the forum!

Scrapping Time!

I finally made some time this weekend to do a little scrapbooking. I haven't done that in quite some time... when I am home... I managed to finish a layout in just one evening. I had seen a layout on the crate paper website that I wanted to use as a sketch... and here is what I came up with using the new Bewitched kit from Urban Anthology. I'm not much of a Halloween fan, but the papers lend them selves to doing so many different things. I used a photo from my Italy trip I took in late April! Right now I'm doing a masculine birthday card with the papers as well. I can't wait to finish and post a photo!

Haunting!

That time of year has come for ghosts and goblins... haunted houses... and candy apples... though I have learned since I moved to California, what we refer to more often then not in the Midwest that a "candy" apple, is really one coated in caramel... where here in California, they are really covered with a red candy coating... just a little interesting tid-bit for you. As the days get shorter and temperatures cool off, Fall is up-on us and winter is nearing.

I'm excited to say, that Urban Anthology is moving on to its second kit... with a bit of fall flare and a splash of Halloween... I would like to announce Bewitched!

It is available for purchase at the Urban Anthology Store, for just $35! It is jam packed full of papers, and embellishments. You will be sure to get a box FULL of goodies you just can't resist using. If your like me and are not into the Halloween holiday to much, this kit is still for you, it has nice oranges, greens, and purples, that can make a fantastic fall layout.

Take a look at this kit! (Don't you just love that little witch, she is darn cute!)

An exciting day...

My husband and I have been waiting for a long time to be able to buy a home of our own. The stars were in alignment this year for us, and today we were able to put in an offer on a home! Now we must wait and see if they accept the offer... We hope to be calling Glendora, CA our new home!


On another note, go check out the Urban Anthology Blog, they are having a poll this week, where you can win a fantastic prize for just leaving a comment...

Its been so long!

I can't believe i have neglected my blog for so long! Life has been very busy these days... Urban Anthology has taken off and has kept me on my toes. Our second kit will be released October 1st, and I'm very excited about its release. Our last kit did well, and I was finally able to tinker with a few papers yesterday to make a card for my MIL. This weekend I will be heading out to the Scrappin' Escapes Retreat... to both relax and do a little business. I haven't been to one of Jessica's retreats yet, but from what I have been told by some friends of mine, they are retreats that are not to be missed!

Now onto my personal life, things have been busy there as well... we are finally starting to look to buy a house. I never thought making that decision would be so hard. I thought it would be like my wedding dress, when you try the right one on, you just know... but I guess my house vs hubbies house are two different things! Good thing he didn't pick my wedding dress, lol! During our summer we were able to take a small vacation to Virginia to visit our friends the Adam, Erica, and little Megan... who is their beautiful and smart daughter ... I hope our kids are that cute and smart some day! We enjoyed a nice extra long weekend with them, wishing Adam (Chris's friend from childhood) well on his deployment with the Navy...

Chris has been busy these past few weeks volunteering at the Los Angeles County Fair at the Garden Railroad. He enjoys spending his free time tinkering the with trains! I'm glad he found a place and people to share his passion for trains with! Now lets just hope he was joking about the garden railroad around our new house!

I am looking forward to the fall season that is upon us. Now if the hot temperatures would just cool down, I wouldn't complain. I hope to make it to the mountains one of these weekends for a relaxing weekend away... and perhaps a day or two at Disneyland before our season passes expire... we still haven't tried out some of there newest rides.

Urban Anthology Design Team

Urban Anthology, is growing so fast... this week I picked it's first design team. It was one of the hardest things to ever do! Here are the 4 wonderful ladies that will be a part of my first team...

Karen
a.k.a karemal
BLOG: www.reallifeinpictures.blogspot.com

Kathi
a.k.a kathi_minikatie
BLOG: www.everylittlescrap.wordpress.com

Keri
a.k.a jade
BLOG: www.kensingtondesign.blogspot.com

Kristin
a.k.a kzfoug
BLOG: www.memoriesbythepageful-kristin.blogspot.com


I am so very excited about the success of my site... I hope it continues to grow, as we add our fantastic kits (coming so very soon, I promise!) As well as adding new members to our design team and our moderators.

I want to thank everyone, including my Hubby, who has been a part of the success of this site!

WOW

I'm so excited about my new layout... I LOVE how it turned out... I created this while at a crop at Scrap N Yap in their newly opened scrapbook room... they just opened it this week and are still fixing it up, but the space is large and the lighting is great... the ladies from the San Gabriel Meet-up group were a hoot to! Did you ladies ever get that sewing machine working????

Growing....

Every day, I'm so amazed at how fast my site has taken off... on Sunday night it will be 3 weeks that Urban Anthology has been online, and we are already at 50 members, and nearly 2000 posts! It is such a happening place. I and all the members are having SO much fun... This weekend I'm getting ready to order the stuff for the first sets of kits for the store. I can wait for all the goodies to come in... and have them in the store for purchase.... Come check out Urban Anthology if you haven't already, you don't want to miss out on all the fun!

More Exciting News!

I'm so very excited about the success of Urban Anthology. With just being two weeks old, we are nearing 1000 posts already! And with all of that chatter... it was time to announce the Urban Anthology Call for Design Team Members... visit the blog for all the details... www.urban-anthology.com/blog.

Urban Anthology

Well, as some of you may know, and to others this is a great surprise... I have decided to start an online company Urban Anthology. This online company, will consist of a forum (which is currently up and running) and will soon have an online gallery and store. The store will be emphasizing kits, as well as other scrapbook products. Please come check out my site and join in the fun... you can find everything through the Urban Anthology blog... http://urban-anthology.com/blog/

Keep watching the Urban Anthology blog for updates. Hope to see you online soon!

Ching just for you...

Ching... I'm posting just for you.... this is how you get an image into your blog, with a link....
Good Luck. :-)

2nd Anniversary!

 
 
 

I can't beleive it is already here... our second anniversary! YIKES... time has gone by so fast. But I am happy to say that every day my love for Chris still grows. I feel our relationship is getting stronger as time goes on. Though my attention to uh... details, still lacks... not sure how that happens... as I didn't notice the HUGE boquet of flowers by the kitchen sink when I got home tonight. But my hubby filled the house with pretty roses... in my scrap room, the kitchen, and even a few for the bathroom. :-) I'm going to have to take some to my scrapbook retreat this weekend so I can enjoy them all weekend long. What a sweetie... I love you, and Happy 2nd Anniversary!

Italy...

  Chris and I finally made it on my dream trip to ITALY! We just returned from 12 day's in Italy, we visited Venice, Florance, and Rome. The weather could not have been any better it was in the 70's and sunny for 10 out of the 12 days! My favorite city was Venice. It truly felt like vacation, with no cars... and being able to stroll through the city from store to store, to restaurants, and to museums... We ventured out to the island of Murano to see the glass makers the island is known for. We saw some BEAUTIFUL goods... unfortunately we couldn't take them all home with us. We traveled by train between the three cities. It was fun taking the high speed trains and seeing the scenery of the Italian countryside. In Florance I was shocked at all of the traffic and graffiti... though there were many great museums and Churches to visit. My highlight was climbing to a top of a hill that overlooked the city... we watched the sun set and enjoyed the lights twinkling in the dark. On our way back to the hotel that night, we stopped at a local restaurant and had dinner... after we had someone translate the menu for us. And then we were off to Rome, for a whirl wind tour of the city... unfortunately in our planning we didn't realize May 1 was a holiday, so we only had one whole day to visit the major attractions. We were able to see the Colosseum, and many of the local ruins... in addition we went to Vatican City, saw the Sistine Chapel, and Saint Peters Basilica. I can't wait for our next trip... destination unknown... I do have one tip though... we purchased new luggage by Eagle Creek, along with their packing systems... I wasn't sure how it all would work, but I'm SOOO happy we got it. The suitcases held up well, it was supper easy to keep things organized when we were moving from city to city. And I manged to fit TWO weeks worth of clothing into one suitcase! That is unheard of for me.

CKU.... in review...

Well, CKU Chicago 2008 is over. It was a spectacular 3 and a half days of scrapbooking. The inspiration stations were truly inspirational, I learned several new techniques. My favorite technique was using paint to glue clear items (acrylic or transparencies) to the page. I took the Remeber Album, by Margie Romney-Anslet, she chose a beautiful album and papers for us to create a masterpiece with. It will take me quite some time to finish, since I'm using this opportunity to scrap me! The 4 mini classes were great as well. I made an awsome mirror designed by Tim Holtz, along with 3 other amazing projects. Though the highlight of my trip was hanging out with my best buddies, Melody and Angie. And being apart of the dorm Scrap Lightning. It was an amazing feat of organizing and doing by 8 of us across the country, many of us not knowing the other people! I have included our performance, please take a minute to watch, and laugh with us. :-)

1 more day...

Just one more day until the start of CKU! I am so excited. Here is the layout I made to enter into the layout contest. I hope I have a chance at winning...

CKU Chicago 2008

I'm so excited to be going to CKU Chicago 2008. It's coming so quick. I've been working on my homework, and dorm preparations. I created this map to help me find all the location stores and places to eat. Please check it out...

CKU Chicago 2008 Google Map

My Space, update

Well, I have worked on my scrapspace some more... and now it's a bit more organized... but still messy!

I realized I work best having things sorted by color... and tried to group like things in areas. And those things I use a LOT, I tried keeping in arms reach.

Rotary Stuff Holder

You probably have seen by now the clip-it-up... its a holder that uses clips to hold baggies, or pages, and allows them to rotate around a center post. Well the clip it up, is quite pricy. I saw a few inspirational ideas on other sites, and decided I could do it for even less. So for about $5 in supplies, I made this, with a few parts to spare to make some others. This is holding 6x6 pages.


How to Make:

Purchase:
Circlular wood base about 6.5" in diameter
Dowel about 3/4" in diameter (cut to 7" tall)
2 -Binder Rings 1.5 tp 2" in diameter
Chipboad (several pieces cut to about 1/2" wide x 6" tall, punch holes to match page protectors
6x6 page protectors (10-20 depends how full you want it)
1 wood screw

Assemble:
1- Pre drill holes in the center of the base and dowel (to accomodate for the screw we drilled a hole the size of the screw head into the bottome of the base, just deep enough for the screw head)
2- Screw base to dowl
3- Put page protectors and chipboard pieces on ring binders. I alternated 2-3 page protectors and then one chipboard peice
4- Slide assembled binder rings/page protectors over the dowl, and fill pages with goodies.

CHA

CHA... Boy was it EXCITING. This was my first year attending the Craft and Hobby Association Show in Anaheim, CA. I was able to attend the show for 2 days... I saw many new products that will be out for 2008 in the scrapbooking world. One trend was clear ribbons. Several companies created vinyl like ribbon with printing. The best description I heard "they are like fancy clear bra straps!" Another trend I noticed was expanding lines to include papers, rub-ons, embellishments, bling and much more. Many paper lines are now offered in several color schemes as well. Purple is finally hot... it seems to be creeping into more paper lines as well. Not a yucky grape purple but elegant muted tones. Along with drooling over the products, I was able to do many make and takes.


Check back often for more on CHA. After I finish reading my materials... I will be sharing more. And who knows... if you leave a comment... you might just win a share of my loot from the show. :-) Be sure to check out what I got from all the wonderful companies at CHA!

Goals...

With the new year already started, it was time to take that annual look at life and decide what 2008 was going to be. This year is going to be focused on ME. Yes, it sounds a bit selfish, but this year I hope to work on improving myself, which I hope improves the lifes of the people around me. I started the year with finding my self a doctor I could trust. It sounds like an odd thing to start with, but if we are not healty on the inside we can't work on the rest of the things in our lives. After researching a bunch of doctors, I finally found one that seemed like a winner. And boy was I surprised when I had my first appointment. For the first time in years, I had someone welcome me to their health care facility, told me how to "get around" the facility, who to go to with complaints and comments, and was given a whole phamplet of information to read. Then it was time to meet the doctor. We sat and talked for about a half an hour and then it was time for a routine exam. I was so happy with the doctor and the respect she showed and the ear she lent. She opened my eyes to other reasons to loose weight this year. As it is everyones goal each year to lose those extra pounds, it was mine this year. I just wanted to look better. But when she told me that being over weight could seriously effect having a child some day, that truly was an eye opener! Needless to say, it has motivated me to get back to the gym... and to eat more of my fruits and veggies... and I've already started to drop a few pounds. Another motivation is the trip to Italy my husband and I are taking this spring... I don't want more photos of me... being fat! So here is to the year of self reflection and self improvement. I hope to challenge myself this year to make it one of the best years I've had!

Organized...

What a great way to start the new year, by having a fresh clean space to scrap in. I finally have my space organzied so I can be more effecient with my scrapbooking. My new organization allows me to see what I have and to USE what I have. I'm excited for all the challenges I will be participating in this year. I'm sure they will expand my scrapping horizions as they did last year.