We may live in Texas, but we’re not rodeo people. As in, we don’t know anything about livestock or horses or barrel racing. Until yesterday, Scott had never been to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, which is virtually unheard of for someone who has lived in Houston for six years. We got tickets at the last minute thanks to someone at my office and off we went.

Isabella rode the mechanical bull.

We ate deep fried Oreos. And don’t be hatin’ until you try’em. I waited all year for these and this was the highlight of my day. Its a good thing we had to leave the food area to see other sights or I would have just gotten back in line for more.

We saw Demi Lovato and the Jonas Brothers in concert. Let me just say, Demi Lovato was definitely NOT lip-syncing, and I think I would have preferred it. Granted, we’re talking kid bop pop here, but she probably needs to just stay in the studio where they can make it sound all purty and stuff. Jonas Bros, on the other hand, were also NOT lip-syncing (from what I could tell, maybe some of it?) and they were really quite good. And um, when did Nick Jonas acquire those guns on his arms?

And yes, I realize I am old enough to be his mother. And yes, he’s wearing a cowboy hat because they sang a country song during their show as a sign of appreciation for being in Texas at the rodeo. They sang it pretty well too. And no matter what you think about boy band pop, I am predicting Nick Jonas to be a force to be reckoned with as he grows up. His voice has already changed and its still great. He plays the piano, the bass guitar, the guitar, and the drums. He writes songs. He’s pretty awesome and his mama should be proud. And yeah, yeah, whatever for Kevin and Joe as well. They’re pretty good but little brother Nick is knocking it out of the park.

I like this photo.

And this one. I don’t know who this girl is, but we were walking down the aisle of pigs in the livestock arena and there she was. Tired. Exhausted. And perfectly comfortable in the stall with her pet. By the end of the day, after watching the kids feed, clean, and show their livestock, after cheering on the teens in the calf scramble trying to win $1500 to buy a calf for next year’s shows, after yelling my lungs out for the six-year-olds riding sheep in the mutton bustin’ contest, I decided THIS was what rodeo was about. Not fancy superstars on stage, and not even fried oreos. The love of kids for the outdoors, animals, and a way of life that most of us wouldn’t want, but means everything to them. Excellent stuff, folks. Excellent stuff.

I got to play with a bunch of product from ScrapMatters, thanks to Scrap N’Art magazine. Here’s some of my layouts with credits and some ideas for your next layouts.

Credits: Digital Kit: “Beach Bum” by WM[squared] Designs; Font: Piquarnic

This layout was an exercise in blending. The original photo was taken by the staff at our local water park and had a water park logo in the corner and all sorts of lame computer framing. I didn’t want any of that in my layout. The photo was also extremely overexposed because of the bright sunlight and the blue water. Using my blending options in Photoshop, I blended the photo with the background paper from the kit and then used my eraser tool to eliminate the edges of my photo. I think it turned out great and this one will definitely be in our 2009 album.

Credits: “Happy Together” by Gwenipooh Designs; Font: Piquarnic

This one was fun to make. I had a lot of photos with green backgrounds. I need to be sure they were seen against  my background so I added a white border to each photo. I also added a lot of stitching to this one simply because I love the look of stitching on scrapbook pages.

There are LOTS of layouts using product from ScrapMatters in the new issue of Scrap N’Art magazine. In fact, every issue is packed full of over 100 pages of inspirational projects, tutorials and product reviews. Go grab a subscription and join in on the fun!

I’m having so much fun getting back into creating, rather than designing. Designing is fun too, but it really takes a lot of time and I found I was never getting to use the products I created. So I’m happily back to doing what I love to do best. Capturing memories, putting them on pages and in projects. Having fun.

This photo makes me laugh every time I see it. This IS Bailey and Bella. This IS Bappy and Bippy. This IS our girls and their friendship. Just love it. I also had fun working on a forgotten technique in the TNT Challenge at Inspiration Lane.

Credits: Tami Miller “Chatterdoodle” and Kim Gehring “Funky Frames”.

This one is all about my hubby. I wanted to just put MINE in big letters. Because he is. But that seemed a bit. Possessive. But anyhoo, he is MINE and I am HIS and that makes me happy. This was created for the February Template Challenge at Inspiration Lane!

Credits: Kim Gehring “Boy Oh Boy” and Jen Yurko “February Template” forum freebie.

And last but not least, I like this one a lot. I have lots of photos of Isabella sitting on her Dad’s shoulders. At various times, for various reasons. And no matter when or why, Scott always said yes. No matter how tired he was, no matter how heavy she felt. He can’t do this anymore and I know it sometimes makes him sad that she is too big to do this. Such lovely memories for all of us. I created this one for the February Quote Challenge at Inspiration Lane and it was even chosen as Layout of the Day on Friday. Pretty cool!

Credits: Papers are from Tami Miller’s “Craft Box Basics”. Tag with screw is from Tami Miller’s “Serenity Fields”. Split rivets are from Steel City Scraps “Date Snippets”. All are available at Inspiration Lane. The Love in chrome was made by me. Other elements are from the Songbird Ave Feb 2010 Collab Kit “Port Au Prince”.

I took some time out yesterday to play with some digital goodies. It’s been awhile and it felt really good to create some layouts from some of my favorite photos. I created these layouts with kits from Tami Miller and Kim Gehring. I’m on their CT now and am loving the new goodies that are creating. I also created these for the challenges at Inspiration Lane, which are very cool and a lot of fun.

This first layout was created for the Ad Sketch Challenge. We had to use a specific ad, it was a film festival poster, as inspiration. I used Tami Miller’s beautiful kit, Serenity Fields, for this one.

The mock wedding was fun. The synagogue does this each year with the fourth graders which felt a little odd, but when I thought about it… they are young enough for it to NOT mean anything other than a chance to dress up, but old enough to understand the traditions and the various parts of the ceremony. Isabella informed us she was divorced, before she even made it to the reception! Although she did agree to have her picture taken with her newly divorced un-groom. It was a fun morning.

This photo of my husband resting on a bench was taken at the zoo last year. I like how the sun was in his eyes through the trees and he really was quite peaceful. I used Kim Gehring’s Hippie Chick to create this layout, and I used it for the Playing with Numbers Challenge, which pushed me to be super minimalist by only allowing a certain number of items/elements on the page.

I encourage you to check out Tami and Kim’s kits, they are really beautiful. AND to check out the digital challenges at Inspiration Lane, there is something for everyone!

So. You might have gathered from my previous posts that I’m trying to organize, simplify, take more time for family, etc. Oh. And be healthy, err, healthiER, to be honest about it. Not trying to run any marathons this year, just trying to stop the ever-spreading backside.

So one of the things I wanted to get a handle on was cooking. Eating at home is infinitely better for so many reasons. I can control what goes in our mouths, I can control how much goes in our mouths, its cheaper, and its faster than getting in the car, deciding where to go, sitting down, ordering, waiting, eating, waiting, and driving home. I would rather spend that extra time doing something else. So in one of my many blog reading sessions, someone (sorry, don’t know who) posted a link to Once A Month Mom which caught my eye and being the type-A person I am, decided instantaneously to give it a try. Last Saturday, Scott and I shopped from her grocery list, using some of what we already had in hand. We got everything we needed for a marathon cooking session on Sunday.

And marathon it was. I took no photos because I was too busy cooking but from 9am to 5pm, we cooked. With a 1 hour break for lunch.We ended up with about 30 dinners, 20 breakfasts, and about 10 lunches. Seriously, in 8 hours. Our freezer was completely confused when we got ready to load it up. Had no clue how to handle that much food, but where there is a will, there is a way. So now, we have meals.

We’ve been eating them this week and I have to say, they are all yummy so far, and our dinner time is easy. We spend more time talking, less time cooking, and we don’t have to GO anywhere. I love that. So, the food and dinner situation is under control. And even school day breakfasts for Isabella and breakfasts and lunches for Scott. Sweet. Oh. And the entire grocery bill for everything we cooked, plus some extra snacks for Isabella, and some household cleaning items, was under $450. I don’t know how that compares to your food budget, but that is HUGE for us when I think about how much we have spent on restaurants, fast food, and even groceries bought several times a week for various meals.

And yes, we’re still married after spending 8 hours in the kitchen. We rocked it. It was fun and awesome. Reminded me how totally GOOD my husband is. Did I mention how much I love him so? Well, I do. He’s the best. And I will try to remember to take photos next month.