So, I got tagged with an Honest Scrap Award from my friend Sherrie. I am supposed to list ten truths about myself and then pass this along to others. So here goes.

1. I love chocolate chip cookie dough from a tube. Or in squares. Or homemade if time allows. And I don’t like to bake cookies.
2. I have become somewhat addicted to Super Mario Brothers for the Wii. I kinda sorta knew I could easily become a game junkie, but didn’t realize how easy it would be. I have recently caught myself laying in bed at night trying to figure out how to get a certain gold coin from a certain difficult place in a certain difficult level.
3. I love to read. Until recently, I spent lots of money on books. Almost as much money as I spent on craft supplies, but that’s an entirely separate issue. Now, we are making a library trip every couple of weeks and I have to limit the number of books I check out because if I get all the books I want to read, I will neglect my family. I don’t believe in extending my checkouts. Books must be read instantaneously upon arrival in the house.
4. I wish I had a tiny tattoo. I’m not sure where or what, but I wish I was brave enough to get one. And that would be bravery related to the pain involved as well as bravery related to the marital problems such an act would surely cause for me.
5. I hate laundry. Most of my readers already know that, but I really hate laundry. If I was wealthy, a laundress would be hired, if I could find such a thing, prior to any other help around our house.
6. I want crazy punked out hair. Sometimes. But I only think it looks cute on skinny people (no offense to anyone out there, its just an opinion) and I’m not skinny so that’s out. I would also love long, thick, Brooke Shields hair. But seriously. That’s not even possible.
7. I could eat Whataburger for lunch almost every day. A #1 with cheese and jalapenos and a diet coke. But if I did, I would never, ever get the crazy punked out hair.
8. We are saving for a travel trailer because we love to go on weekend trips. We love the quiet and the fact that it takes a really long time to make meals. And I get to read while everyone else naps or just hangs out.
9. My daughter is the light of my life. I don’t think I realized how MUCH I would love a child. I know that sounds really stupid but its the truth. I knew I would love her because she’s mine, but honestly, its like I’ve grown an entirely new heart over the past nine years and it keeps growing and seems like its going to burst in such a good way.
10. Well, I can’t think of a #10 because I’m lame. Really, seriously. Thought about it for 5 minutes. Walked away. Came back. I’m sure one I hit Post, something will come to me. Or tonight while I’m thinking up Super Mario moves, I’ll also think of a #10. But for now, I’m done!

I’m passing this award on to Danielle and Helen!

So a few weeks ago, back in January, I became a Fiskateer. Now, that sounds a little weird, but its very simple. The Fiskateers are crafters who love to use scissors and create fun stuff and show it off online. And I’m thinking that fit me and probably fits several of you readers out there. Well, little did I know when I joined that I would be getting these in the mail!

Seriously? Yes, seriously. They even have my number engraved on them. Pretty cool! If you would like to check out the Fiskateers website, click on the button over there on the right. The forums are fun and the gallery is full of neat ideas and projects. Have fun!

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”.