I’m not sure who coined that phrase, but that is definitely what it has been here in Houston for the past three weeks. We’ve broken records almost daily for highest temps and least amount of rain. So when it started to thunder and rain this afternoon, boy were we happy. Its still 100 degrees, but its wet and that helps our grass and our plants, which is a very good thing.

So I’ve been working on some things and made a few layouts and I thought I would share and get you all updated.
This picture is a couple of years old but oh, how I love those Chiclet teeth. Every time I come across this photo in my stash, I want to scrap it all over again. I do love how digital allows me to do that. Of course, they can’t all go in albums, can they? But I can have fun making them and really, I think that is a big part of the purpose of all of this for me. FUN. Relaxation. Brain power. All rolled into one.

Okay, Isabella loved the first session of Kid College and is now taking Guitar, Modeling, Woodworking, Ballroom Dance, and PowerPoint. How cool is she. Woodworking and modeling. I love this girl. She leaves in two weeks for camp and will be gone for 24 days. Yikes! Crap! And all that! Seriously, she was ready to leave the day after school got out so I’m really happy for her and we have plans to watch lots of movies and hang out, just the two of us, Scott and I, while she is gone.

I’ve got a new kit out at a new place. I’m playing with a bunch of other designers in a program called the beKuler Challenge over at ScrapOutsideTheBox for the next few months. Three weeks to create a kit, six times in a row. How fun is that? So here is the first kit of mine. Its got lots of fun retro July 4th items, but could also be used by anyone so if you are not American, never fear, lots of flexibility in this kit! You can click right on the preview to go to my guest shop at SOTB!

And my CT has been having some fun, here are some layouts from them with this kit!

From Lizzie:

From April:

From Helen:

From Shantel:

Hope all my American friends have a fantastic July 4th and everyone stays cool in this heat!

So I had a CT Call and I got some fabulous responses. So I am announcing my new CT a bit late as they all have been working their little behinds off for me already!

LizzieJ is my original CT member, my very first. Lizzie is awesome and comes from a traditional scrapbooking background. I love how her pages look like they are truly paper! This one made with the Birthday Girl kit is great because she used it for a BOY!

April, known as adigigirl on most of the forums, is a new member to the team and created this fab layout with lots of layering! The kit is Summer Breeze.

Helen joined my team about a week ago and is great too. I actually met Helen, live, in the flesh, at CKU Houston last year, so I am beyond happy to have her on my team. I love her clean, graphic style and how about this landscape layout with the Pop Star kit? Love this!

Last but not least, is Shantel. Thank goodness I found her email in my spam (yikes!) because I would have hated to miss her. She made this fabulous layout using Summer Breeze and how awesome is that full-page photo? And guess what people? She’s gave me a quick page of it as well!

If you want the quickpage, you can click on the preview link below. It will start downloading immediately and you can leave posts here thanking Shantel for the freebie!


Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

I have not been writing much lately but you knew that, right? I’ve been busy designing but that is no excuse to ignore my blog and my blog reading friends. So sorry! School is out here! And of course, its very hot. Isabella is already getting very tan from swimming in Grandma Honey’s pool. I love that it is so convenient – thanks Mom! We went to the zoo a couple of weekends ago and I love this shot of my gorgeous kid. So full of life and energy!

I also made this layout from some other photos of our day, I had a lot of fun with the giraffe extraction! This was done with a kit called Musical Melissa from Neverland Scraps.

This week, Isabella is a bit bored as she is stuck at home with Mom and I while we work. She has spent some time with her neighborhood friends but she likes to be busy. She is starting a program called Kids College next week and is very excited. She will take five classes a day Mon-Thurs at a local middle school. Its run by one of the community colleges here and it is awesome. She will move from class to class “just like a big kid” she says and will eat lunch in the cafeteria “with no assigned seat Mom!”. And when I say classes, I mean things like… musical theatre, hip hop, creative writing, guitar, modeling, woodworking, and I threw in some science and a class on healthy snacks, LOL. I’ll keep everyone posted how she does, she picked everything out herself, with very little guidance, so it should be a fun month of classes for her.

Scott has been able to fishing every weekend for a month, seriously, how cool a wife am I? Just kidding, he loves it and it makes him relax so I am NOT complaining at ALL. His only requirement is to take photos for me if they catch anything. He’s taken our nephews a couple of times and one of them is heading out with him again this Saturday. It is supposed to be very hot so if you’re reading this, handsome, sunscreen AND A HAT! No messing with that gorgeous head of yours!

Here’s a couple of recent photos…

Okay, so this one is not so great because he had the camera on movie and I had to cut a still out of it. But who can resist showing off a shark catch? That is just too cool for words!

So I’m off to start my day now. Just wanted you to know that we do have a life going on here other than digi-designing. My day job is pretty slow right now but it should pick up soon and then we’re going to be NUTS around here, I tell ya! So I’m trying to get as much designing in as I can on some projects before that happens.

Have a fantastic next few days everyone! I’ll be back soon I promise!

My friend Helen, who I met at CKU last year, nominated my blog for this fun little award. Make sure you go and check out Helen’s blog – she’s working on some fab little SWAPs right now as the lucky dog is headed to Creative Escape this year!

1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.

2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.

3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award. – http://helen-mills.blogspot.com/

4. Share 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting… (a) I have never been to Europe, which is just a darn shame, (b) I lived in New Zealand for two years as a teenager, (c) I love cheesy dance movies, (d) I’m addicted to email and I’m not ashamed of it, (e) I {heart} office supplies, (f) my fave fruits are avocados, green grapes, and kiwi, and (g) I have a purse fetish even though I hate to change purses.

5. Nominate 6 Kreativ Bloggers and post links to their blogs. And all these girls have something in common… and I with them… can you guess what it is? Anyone who guesses will get a $5 coupon from me to whichever of my stores you want… so post people, post! Deadline is Sunday night!

Taj – http://artistheimitationoflife.blogspot.com/
Heidi – http://seesterk.blogspot.com/
Rebecca – http://byondbzr.blogspot.com/
Vicki – http://vicki20.blogspot.com/
Candy – http://candyscraps.typepad.com/