think fast

long time no post

Yikes! It's been awhile. I've probably lost every blog reader I've ever had! BUT, I do have a little excuse. I was busy matchmaking. Yup, it ended up being a match made in heaven.

Mr Jackhammer....meet the Hallway:

 

Mr. Jackhammer...meet the Kitchen:

 

Mr. Jackhammer...meet the Bathroom:

 

Mr. Jackhammer...meet the Playroom:

 

Mr. Jackhammer was a busy guy last week. I also set him up with the Living room, Pantry and Entryway. It was love at first sight.

Meanwhile, we moved out of the house for a week while Mr. Gary and his crew introduced new tile to all the above mentioned areas. YAY! It's done now (except for the major mess to clean up) and we are busy painting, adding new trim work and assembling new furniture from IKEA. SO, stayed tuned for remodeling updates and papercrafting updates and matchmaking updates! I promise not to go so long between posts.

Later.

calling all card makers

I wanted to share THIS link since it's for such a good cause. We all love to make cards, but don't always know what to do with them...here's a great chance to share the love. My buddy Melanie is coordinating a card drive for Phoenix Children's Hospital via Creating Keepsakes Conventions. If you are planning on attending the Phoenix Convention next week, please click on the link and find out details. Heck, even if you aren't attending Convention, you can still help out.

Thanks in advance! (And, if will be at Convention, you'd better hunt me down and say hi! I'll be teaching there all weekend).

Later.

summer is almost over

Seems a little hard to say since our "summer" in Arizona usually lingers at least through September, but it feels like it's coming to an end. We had a kicker of a monsoon storm last night. It was awesome. Tons of thunder and lightning and even a brief  burst of hail! Wow. Then, the kids are back on schedule and I'm getting into a routine also. Went to my Mom's house last night with my cousin and Aunt for an evening of playing with fabric and sewing. That felt so good. We try to get together one evening a week to do crafts, but not during the summer. Chalk up another point in the "nice to be in a routine" column.

Also, I finally scrapped my last two 12 on 12 layouts --- July and August. I just love these. I have almost a year's worth in an album now and they are so fun to look through. I also have them in an album over in my sidebar. Good times.

Later.

a green hat

Did you ever buy a piece of clothing for your child that just screams "photograph me!"? Well, if you are a scrapbooker, you probably have. I did. Back when Eloise was only one month old, our church had a craft sale and a sweet Grandma from Minnesota made about twelve of these adorable crocheted hats and dontated them for our fundraiser. Well, no doubt about it, I snatched one right up. I actually didn't figure it would fit Ello until next summer - wrong! Good thing I pulled it out and tried it on our  little melon head. SOOOO cute! I took a ton of photos - here are two cute ones:

I have several others showing the entire hat, but I want to scrap those before I share. Have I mentioned that I LOVE scrapbooking? Hee,  hee.

BTW, my teaching trip to Tulsa was fantastic! I met up with buddy Elizabeth Dillow and her friend Kristy and had a really good time. Our favorite was a little local Mexican food restaurant that was soooo yummy. Classes went really well - I'm excited to teach here in Phoenix in September! Will I see you there? (Update: Elizabeth has some photos if you follow that link -disregard the cheesy grin on my face -lol!).

Later.

blown away

The girls and I were lucky enough to spend a Friday morning with the amazing Sarah Goodman of Sarah Goodman Photography a few weeks ago and this morning I received my online images to peek at. WOW! I'm so totally blown away. Sarah has an amazing gift to connect with her subjects and really get some great shots. She took photos of all four of my girls, ages 6 months to 19 years and managed to get the same personal connection with all of them. If you are EVER in need of a photographer - Sarah goes above and beyond.

Sarah is allowing me to share my very own personal slide show - ENJOY!

http://www.sarahgoodmanphotography.com/Slideshows/Kestigirls/

(More update from my week tomorrow).

Later.

maui layouts

Just thought I'd share a bunch of the Maui layouts I finished this past week. It was a good time just scrappin' away while the kids were in school. These are all 8.5 X 11, some double and some single pages. It was our trip two years ago - the kids have grown so much! Man, I love scrapbooking.

Enjoy.

Later.

 

seven months

Lest you think I forgot Ello's seven month photo shoot...

Awww-isn't she cute? Defnitely gaining on Mr. Bear. Then there's the outtake...love this one:

I think it's a love/hate relationship. Heh, heh.

More photos to post, but I've been cruising on scrapping layouts all this week. Feels so good. I will share those, too.

Later.

can you hear

the cricket's chirping? Ha, ha - that's the sound of my peaceful, empty house. Well, maybe not totally empty, Eloise is taking a nap and where are the rest of the crew? In second, fourth, eighth and tenth grades! YAY! School started today and I'm psyched. The washer is humming, dishes are done (and the kitchen has stayed clean ALL morning) and I'm...well, I'm blogging. Okay, after that (and after checking a few blogs and a few message boards) I'm tackling the bathroom. (Those of you who know me, quit rolling your eyes).

But, I can't leave you without a few photos. This first photo is of one of my best friends since age fourteen. She's now a wonderful Mom and these are only a few of her girls. She has one married already! Her second is getting married next month Yikes! Aren't they beautiful, though?

Torm, you recognize this park? It's Van Riper - cool, eh? Oh, and I can't resist one more of Akia - she is such a spunky little cutie.

And, Akia is eating the yummiest ice cream ever - Jilbert dairy ice cream. It's a shame those Yoopers keep this stuff all to their selves. I'm telling you. Actually, my hips say maybe it's a good thing. :)

Later.

playroom

First, to answer a couple questions about the new desk - yep, so far I love it. I can seat two people there to scrap, or me and my laptop (what a team - lol). The desk can fasten at either end, also if that fits better in your space. And, no, I certainly didn't replace ALL my albums. I did replace four of them: one striped album that used to have Hawaii photos, one light blue 8.5 X 11, one gold one that only had maybe six layouts in it, and one warped black one. Several years ago I began buying only red and black albums. I picked up several when our Recolletions closed, etc. It just so happened that many of them matched. And, of course I had stacks of layouts with NO home, so I picked up the American Crafts Moden D-rings for those layouts. I'm super happy with those. In fact, the AC 12 X 12 albums can also hold 8.5 X 11 protectors and 8 X 8 protectors. How cool is that? So, anyhow, the layout reorganization was more a matter of sorting all the layouts in my new three categories. SOO much easier to find a particualr layout. For example, my kids wanted to see the layouts of our Santa Fe trip - instead of leafing through six albums, I pick up the one labeled Place We Go 2007 - and there it was! Sweet.

Okay, on to the next project...the playroom.

Remember this?

That (thanks to my talented hubster) has turned into this:

See my cute dutch door peeking out on the left there? He cut my old door in half, added a ledge and voila! Eloise can play here and I can still see her from that doorway. Oh, and so far I've added this:

I found the pillows brand new at a garage sale and ordered the shelf/seat thing from Land of Nod. I love it! I've always wanted a window seat. Now, I want to add a couple shelves on the wall and hang some prints. Then, we'll move Ello's kitchen in here and some more toys. Any recommendations for a rug? Our tile guy is coming over Monday to give us a bid for replacing all that yucky 12 x 12 inch tile. We already bought 20 X 20 inch tile in a sort of mottled light grayish concrete look. Can't wait to get that HUGE project underway. Maybe we'll move out of the house for a week! :O)

Sorry for the long post - we're off to buy school supplies. School starts MONDAY! YAY!!!!!!!

Later.

organized?

Let's just say I'm getting there. Every time I tackle my studio I sift through another layer. It feels good. I moved the larger/taller desk OUT of my studio and into Meghan's room It will be perfect for her art classes. I orginally bought it for the nursery and it just never quite fit into the laundry room. Then, IKEA came out with this nifty desk piece that fits on their Expedit unit along with these white cubby doors and I just knew it would be perfect. The room feels so much bigger and more efficient now.

I tried to get a photo of the whole desk, but my 50mm wouldn't go back that far. I'll switch lenses later today and try again. In the meantime, here are a few shots of the cubby and my revamped albums. I reorganized ALL my layouts into three categories a la Stacy Julian (btw- check out Stacy's latest twitter - hee, hee). These are: People We Love, All About Us (for family albums) and Places We Go (with some complete albums named for the place - like Paris). What do you think? Pages are easy to find, well labeled and beee-yoo-tiful to look at. Can't beat that.

Later.

 

p.s. Most of the albums are American Crafts D-ring Modern Albums, with a few postbound American Crafts mixed in. Also, a few of the older black ones are W R Memory Keepers D-ring. Love those, too.