Donna Downey is a Jersey Girl

Turns out she grew up about 30 minutes away from where I graduated High School. Who knew. Why would I put this random fact here on my blog? Glad you asked. I got to meet her and take a class from her on Sunday morning. Yes, you can tell all your friends that you know me.
She is the most personable teacher I have had the pleasure of meeting in a while. She is so friendly and funny. I didn't feel like an idiot at any point during her class. And let me tell you, I normally do several times during any given class. We had a whole 3 hours with her. Bill is so cute. Much better IRL, if you know what I mean, wink, wink. AND talk about a sweetie... The ladies at Beach Scrapbook are fabulous. They had most of the supplies we needed there at the store. Good thing too. Because you all know how I need more eyelets. LOL. Megan went to the class with me. I will have to post a picture of the three of us, Megan, Donna and Me. But not tonight. I am tired. I didn't feel well Monday and Today, so I was home. You would think I would have blogged. But, I didn't want to get paint on the keyboard. My priority was to attempt to finish the incredible book from Donna's wonderful class. I am "this" close to finishing it. Photos are promised. I wasn't a total bum. I made a beef roast with homemade mashed potatoes for dinner tonight.

Way behind, and won't be caught up today either.

WOW, how time has flown. Last week at work was really busy. Trying to "find" money. But I made it through. Friday was Survivor. Usually we have Pizza and watch it, but this time we got Chik-fil-A. It was a nice change. Saturday was relaxing. During the day we only had to get Morgan packed and ready to go with Abby for the night. Then Steph came over and joined us at Red Lobster with Carolyn and Brannon for dinner. It was a nice meal. Not my first choice, but Pop-pop used to take the girls there and I think that it holds sentimental value with Carolyn. While we were there the table kind of kitty-corner to us just got up and left with out paying. I can't believe that people are that "ballsy". I would be so frigging scared, I would pee my pants. There were about 6 people at the table. AND they had a baby with them. And to add insult to injury the Red Lobster gave the server the choice of paying the check or being written up. I am so not impressed with that policy. Poor guy. I hope he picked the write up. I would have.
Anyway, after the meal, Carolyn and Brannon took Megan and Melissa back to the house. Danny, Stephanie and myself went to a party at a friends home. She was celebrating the end of a 4 year long divorce. Her ex just wouldn't let go - of the money. He wanted all of hers. She is the one who made wise choices and invested well. He is a no-load who ended up getting way more than he deserves. And he didn't get more than a bunch of lawyers bills. The party was very nice. She hired a band. Route 66. They were pretty good. I can't believe she hired them and had them set up in her house. But she did. We are not party animals, and despite the good time, we headed home around 10.

Halloween Party Pics

I hung these lanterns to form a barrier between the hall and my scraproom. They had a little light in each one that I couldn't get to photograph well. I am not a good photographer. Yet.

I had the girls guess how many candy corn were in the bottle.

The winner took it home with her.

These sodas were pretty wierd flavors. Candy corn and buried pomegranite. The girls didn't like the sodas. But the cans are cute.

Megan, Morgan, Melissa and I molded the candy a couple of days before the party.

They ate mummy dogs (cresent dogs), monkey brains (pear halves) and bat wings (Doritos). And drank blood (Tropical Punch Kool-aid).

Two of my three big mouth daughters.

Even the eighth graders had fun with the disgusting food names.

Megan really let loose.

Megan really lost it when Melissa announced that she dropped her wiener.

The highlight of the party. The Mummy Wrap.

Here's my little coven.
Watching "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and winding down.

Halloween Sleepover Party 2008

I haven't had time to really do much of anything but get ready for tonights Halloween Sleepover Party. I promise to post later on this weekend. Pictures are forthcoming.

The girls are very excited. I think this will be an annual event now...

Designing Halloween 2007

Here is my latest assignment from Cathy Z's class. I had a really hard time with this. I usually put A LOT more "stuff" on my layouts. So going this sparse was not comfortable at all. But, I trusted Cathy and worked through it. I am SO GLAD I did. I love this layout.

Please don't hate the photographer. Hate her skills. Or lack of skills. I will probably try to take better pictures of this layout when I have finished my next assignment. Which I will tomorrow, I hope.

Autumn Vegetable Chowder

I love soups and stews. And I can't wait to try this one.

Autumn Vegetable Chowder

Doesn't this look yummy! It is so up my alley, right down to the green mug. I see this soup in my future. My very near future.

Haunted Houses, Invitations

During our recent trip to A.C. Moore, Melissa and I got a few Halloween decorations. Just little ones, but big enough to cause quite a bit of excited anticipation around here this evening. We started pulling out the Halloween decorations. The mantel now has a haunted house and a graveyard displayed right next to Santa's stop watch. Yup, we still have it. I mean, come on, he doesn't really need it until December 24th, right?!?!

Anyway, we got the invitations done. I scanned four of them. They really look a lot cuter in person. I really like the googley eyes.

This is four of the cards we made. There are 12 total. All of them a variation of the design you see above. All of them really cute. And here is the inside of the card. If you're free, come on over...

The girls won't be able to give them out until Thursday because I want to put some little Halloween confetti-ish shapes in each one.

I also finished my assignment for this week in Cathy Z's Design Your Life Class over at BPS. I really wasn't feeling the title in diecuts glued onto the large photo, so I re-printed it with the title printed on it. I like it WAY better.

I think that after this class, I need to find a photography class. I REALLY need help taking pictures.

Designing Easter

This Design class is so what I needed. I am so inspired by it. Cathy Z rocks.
I put this little layout together for her class in nothing flat. The scan is REALLY bad, but you get the idea.

I would have finished another assignment, but Danny cut his finger and we had to take him to get stitches. Then out for lunch, and I dropped them all off and went to the grocery store. I took Melissa with me. So we stopped off at A.C. Moore. I had to. I had a few 55% off coupons. I ended up saving $95. My bill was only $93. I did GREAT. Of course Danny would counter that I could have saved even more by not going at all. So I did what any smart, scrapbooking wife does. I came home and cooked him a homemade dinner. Yup. I made shredded beef tacos. And boy were they good.

He thanked me several times during dinner. (odd) AND he thanked me a few times AFTER dinner. (very rare).

Well, I am off to watch Desperate Housewives and then to read for a bit.

Designing My Life, and LOVING it.

My latest class started last Thursday. It is online, so I don't have to go anywhere. But I am loving it. We are being taught about Design in Scrapbooking. We had a Pre-class assignment. Which I posted a bit ago. With class beginning, we also got an assignment to make one 12x12 page and two 8 1/2x11 pages (a two page layout). I got them mostly done. I need to finish the journaling on them and then I will put them here.

Today we got an email with a BONUS assignment. Ask my girls, "BONUS assignment" are not two words normally welcome in anyones ears. But, I was thrilled. We got a sketch and a color scheme.

And here is my interpretation:

I think this turned out wonderfully.

It really captures Melissa's beauty. Both inside and out.

Gotta go now.

I haven't finished the book just yet.

Caught up in the Underland....

I am obsessed with yet another series of books. Okay, you caught me, it is actually 2 series. One starts with Magyk and the other with Gregor the Overlander. Morgan is to blame for me staying up late, not getting enough sleep. Gregor is a boy in New York City whose father has not been around for a couple of years. His mother has to work long hours to try to support them. Which leaves Gregor to help care for his little sisters. One 7 and one 2 years old. He ends up "falling" into a vent grate in the laundry room of their apartment building and lands in the Underland. There he encounters giant talking roaches (ewww) and six foot tall talking rats (yikes) along with humans and bats large enough to ride. Gregor finds out that he is the Warrior spoken about in the Underlanders prophecies and as such is sort of forced to carry them through. It is a very good story. There are 5 books. I am working on number 4 now. Gotta go read some more...