Laura Vegas

they were so cute today

September 16, 2009

havn't shared anything about the daycare kiddos in a while. might be because i havn't taken any photos of them in a while. my camera has been ignored lately. i don't like that, and decided to brush the dust off it for a few minutes today. because i had to get some photos of these two.

as i was pulling up this photo, i realized that i did in fact take ONE photo in the last 6 weeks of haley. and she was wearing the exact same shirt. lol! just a funny sidenote. so haley shows up today with not one, but two tattoos on her arms. she has these from time to time. her and her dad love to put the tattoos on her.

you were probably expecting a butterfly or a heart, right? not haley. she goes for the bolder choices. i'm hoping those come off pretty easily. she's in a wedding on saturday. lol!

then nikolas showed up. he walked in wearing all these smiley face stickers. he had 5 on his right arm, and one on his forehead. it was so stinkin cute.

man, aren't those little hands and arms just calling out to be squeezed? i tell him about 83 times a day how cute he is. at one point, he was hiding behind the rocking chair. i think he was trying to get away from haley or something. then he stayed back there for a while, and was really quiet. he finally came out, and he didn't have any stickers on his arm. i asked him where they were, and he said "on the chair". i forgot all about them.

and i'm thinking he forgot about the one on his forehead. lol! i'm not making this part up. he wore that sticker on his forehead for over 2 hours. i was constantly laughing, because it was so funny. he even wore it during snack time. i finally took it off when he laid down for a nap.

nikolas also started bringing a backpack with him. i keep all the diapers and stuff here, so he never came with anything. now it's so cute to see him pull out all this stuff that he decided important enough to bring. he's been packing some snacks too. probably after watching big brothers and sister pack their lunches. here he's snacking on pretzels.

and here's haley snacking on the pretzel's she kept snagging from nikolas's backpack. she would run over and grab one super quick, watching him the whole time to see if he was watching her. then he would see her, and yell "nooooo, haley". and she would run for her dear life, land in the beanbag, and munch away. of course, the rule is that if you bring something, you have to share. but nikolas doesn't quite get that part yet. i keep telling him that haley always shares. she loves to bring us donuts every once in a while 🙂

and right before nikolas left today, i was cleaning up toys on the floor. and i spotted 5 smiley stickers all lined up on the back of the rocking chair. i reminded nikolas that he left his stickers there. he disappeared behind that chair for a few minutes. and when he came out, he had all 5 stickers lined back up on his arm. i offered him the one for his forehead back, but he didn't want it. lol!

and just something funny that haley said the other day, and i don't want to forget. i have about a million of these funnies, i really should write more of them down. anyways. i was in the bathroom, going tinkle. and of course, the kids are in there with me. because it would make no sense to let laura do her 10 seconds of business by herself, right? lol! haley asked me if i wanted her to shut the door. i said "nope, it really doesn't even matter at this point". and then she says "do you want me to get you some privacy?". omg, it was hilarious! i love these kids so much 🙂
more about my creative space

September 13, 2009

remember this that i shared a while back?

i was so excited when i was contacted by creating keepsakes magazine, asking if i wanted to have my studio featured in the creative spaces article for the august issue. of course i would! i didn't actually change anything in my studio for this article. i did clean it though. meaning, i dusted every nook and cranny. even though i doubt it would have shown in the photos. lol! i was taking my own photos for this, and i think that was the hardest part. i have terrible lighting up in the loft and i was having a hard time getting good photos. i'll be honest. i think i took over 500 shots, just to get the ones you see here. lol! then i did all the writing. i'm proud to say this article is all me 🙂 figured it's about time to share more details with you. remember, click on any photo and you should be able to see it larger.

so this is my studio. this is our upstairs loft area. i actually took this photo from the top of the stairs. so when you walk up, this is what you see. i have the master bedroom and alyssa's bedroom behind me. and sarah's bedroom and the girls bathroom to my left. in the right corner, is a television and computer desk for the girls, and a big comfy chair.

my island. the piece of furniture i get asked about the most. sorry, you can't buy this anywhere. it was custom built by my talented mom. yes, my mom! i did a whole post about it HERE, so you can check that out if you want all the details. the side of the island you see is actually the girls side. so i did stage that side for the photos. a lot of that stuff is from my side, the side that didn't really show in the pics.

my paper storage. my paper goes about 2/3 the length of the island, on the back side. i have my cardstock stored in the horizontal paper trays. most of it is organized by color. i store all my pattern paper in the vertical paper holders. i sort everything by manufacturer. it's the easiest way for me. i could never sort by color or pattern type. but that's just me. i know my paper by who makes it. and that is how i find what i want, just by knowing who makes what.

on the far end of my island, i have these metal mesh baskets that i got at target. they're a size that would hold cd's. these hold mostly making memories embellishments, for design team work. and personal work, of course. i keep the most current collections seperated by basket. so if i want halloween embellishments, i can just pull out one basket and i have everything in there. if i want the travel collection, there it all is. i also keep extra ribbons, and some chipboard here.

this shows my ikea shelves and embellishment shelf. i love my ikea expedit shelves. i have 2 of the large ones side by side. so i have 50 cubes of storage. the embellishment shelf was also built by my mom. i drew up the dimensions according to what jars i was planning on using. it's only 6 inches deep, just enough to line up a ton of jars.

this is how i store the majority of my embellishments. i use what i see. so the glass jars made perfect sense for me. i take things out of the original containers or packaging to save on space. some things are stored by themselves, some things are grouped together. but everything is sorted by manufacturer. i don't have to worry about keeping the packaging to know who made what. i just know. it's a talent, i know 😉

on the ikea shelves, i have a few different types of baskets. the wicker ones are just from michaels. and i have metal mesh baskets, and black metal mesh baskets. both styles are from target. this is where i get a little random. some things here i store by manufacturer. i guess you could say the main manufactures. i just know their product, so i keep it all together. but there are also things i store by product type. like i keep most rubons together in one basket. but i also have rubons within the manufacturer baskets. so there is no set pattern for me here. i just have a way of knowing what is where.

i keep most of my chipboard together. although i do have making memories chipboard elsewhere. and american crafts chipboard letters elsewhere. but the rest of it it pretty much kept in one spot. or should i say 4 spots? lol! once again, i'm big on taking things out of their original packaging. just takes up less space, and makes it easier to dig through.

i love this shot. my making memories carousel's. this is where i keep my most used tools and adhesives. i have one that is entirely for new products, things i don't want to forget to use. and the girls keep some stuff in one too.

my computer area. i keep my laptop downstairs during the day, since i'm with the daycare kids all day. but my mom built me this simple desk to work at, and keep my printers. i use the dell printer for all my regular printing. and my awesome photo printer is strickly for photos. i also keep my slice die cut machine here, and my cuttlebug. down on the floor, i have some boxes that store extra printer paper, photo paper, inks, etc.

my paint shelf, also built by my mom. see a theme going here? she built most everything in here, with the exception of the ikea shelves. i had her make me this years ago. mainly because i had some empty space on the wall, and thought it would be cool to have the paints all lined up. it's more of a decorative storage piece. i could easily toss all these bottles in a box or basket. but i had the wall space, so why not 😉

this is above my red cabinet. which my mom also built. it has doors on it, so this is the only area that i have to hide things in and close up. lol! there's no closet up here. so in this cabinet, is where i put things i don't want seen or don't need often. i have a sewing machine in there, extra albums, loads of page protectors, alterable things that i might use for projects down the road, etc. then on top of the cabinet, i have these huge glass jars. also from target. i have other jars on the embellishment shelf with ribbons. but these are my big collections. two of those jars are making memories ribbons, and one is american crafts ribbon. then i have a few other things up there. a jar of thread, a small shelf with ink pads. the stamp shelf was a fairly recent addition to the room, i think eariler this year. it was another one of those "i have some wall space to fill up" kind of ideas. the stamps used to be in baskets. but the space was there, so why not display them in a decorative way.

and here is what the other side of the room looked like during the process of me writing this article and taking all the photos. lol! that's our big comfy chair, which got moved about 15 feet back and in front of the stairs. the extra dresser came out of alyssa's room a year ago, and has just never found a new home. it got pushed to the side, and covered in stuff from the girls side of the island. you can see alyssa's room back there. i had to actually stand IN her room to get a shot of my entire space. using my kit lens, which was the only way to get it all in the shot.

and the television is inside that corner cabinet. not built by my mom, but stained by her about 10 years ago. lol! and here is more of the girls stuff that i took off their side of the island for the photos. they're side isn't quite as pretty as my side. no offense to them. lol!

so i hope that gives you a good idea of what i have going on up here in my studio. now here's the shocker for you. wait for it, wait for it. i'm moving my space back downstairs. i'm ducking as you all throw stuff at me, wondering how i could give up this gorgeous space. lol! it's purely for practical reasons, and i'm so excited about it. it's going to make better use of our space and my time by moving. so it's all good. and i'm already working hard at the move. will share my "new" space when it's all ready 🙂
soccer time

September 10, 2009

here we are, 10 or 11 days into september. and i've blogged all of 4 times, including this post. pathetic. i have excuses and explanations. but that doesn't do anything for you all that come so faithfully to read my blog. lol! figured i'd better stop by and share something. dug out these soccer photos.

this was from the girls first games, about 3 weeks ago. both girls moved up an age bracket this year. we have alyssa on under-14's, and she's on the pink panthers. do you like her uniform? she doesn't. i don't. you would think that with all the pretty colors in the rainbow, that they could come up with a few good colors for the teams. how on earth did they get this awful, baby pink jersey? with a baby blue stripe to top it off. and there are pink socks too. there was a team with this color last year. and every single time i saw them, i would comment about how ugly their uniforms were. serves me right, i guess, that we should end up with this color. lol! moving on. we have sarah on under-12's this year, and she's on the arsenol. black uniform, with red flames. can't find anything wrong with that. except that it's not the best color to be wearing on the hot days that we have.

so it's the first game. and i bring my camera. and i actually take out my camera. which i didn't do much last season. i would bring it, but not use it. sadly, my 75-300mm lens (or is it 70-300mm?) isn't focusing. at all. which just stinks. because the fields are huge, and the action is always on the other side of the field, right? lol! i had to use my other lens, which didn't get me great shots. i gave up rather quickly. still havn't checked what's wrong with the lens. i'm not sure i want to know.

they both did great at their first games. sarah had an awesome goal, which i actually got play by play shots of her going all the way down. alyssa played midfield quite a bit that game. not her favorite position, but she does it well. i had to miss their second games, since i was out of town for something secretive. lol! of course, they both had top notch games when i wasn't there to see them. alyssa scored a goal, and had 2 assists. and sarah scored 2 goals, or 3 if you count the one that the referee later changed his mind about. lol! then we had a week off of games over labor day weekend. but we're back at it on saturday. guess i better get that lens out and see if it magically fixed itself 😉
got sketch #90

September 9, 2009

i was asked to contribute to another sketch for the got sketch blog this past week. if you're into 2-page sketches, valerie just announced a super fun online class. check the blog for all the details. here is my take on sketch #90. be sure to check out the other contributors and the great layouts they came up with.

a pretty simple layout. which i love doing from time to time. although the girls must not get "simple". alyssa kept asking me if i was going to add more stuff. and sarah asked if i was going to finish it. lol! i'm not even sure how i came up with these photos. but these are some that i took of my brother and sister-in-law, and my sister, back at christmas. guess they deserve to be in our scrapbook albums too 😉

supplies –
pattern paper – my mind's eye
transparent tree – my mind's eye
chipboard letters – american crafts
gems – michaels, my mind's eye, creative cafe
ink – colorbox
a few random things

September 7, 2009

first up, i'm excited about THIS. i was very honored when heather asked me to be one of the girls on her dream team for her kit club at scrapbook bakery. i have worked with her monthly kits before, and they're always a lot of fun. she's working on a new and improved kit, starting in november. so keep your eyes out for it.

i still don't have my laptop back. this bums me out. they said they're waiting on a part and that it's coming from back east. but they also said there's no way to track this part or when it will arrive. it's been almost 2 weeks, and i'm starting to lose my patience. i'm getting by with the girls laptop, and i'm thankful we have it. but i also would be so much more efficient on my own laptop.

i've been sick for the last 2 days. some sort of stomach bug. really knocked me out, and i feel like i just wasted 2 days doing a lot of nothing. i did manage to get out and take the girls to the movies today. went to see "bandslam", which i thought was a cool movie. although there was a lot of loud music in it (hence the title "bandslam"). which would have been totally fine with me, except that i wasn't feeling all that great. lol!

something has changed with typepad and how i get the comments sent to me. and i havn't figured it out yet. i like that i get an email for every comment, and that it's really easy to reply to everyone through email. but now, it's not giving me that easy reply option. it's bugging the heck out of me. and i'm not sure if it's something that got accidently changed in my typepad account. just know, that if i don't reply, it's only because it's not as easy for me to do it right now.
i found something to share

September 2, 2009

i just wanted to say a huge "thank you" for all the sweet comments on my last post. i really do appreciate each and every one of them. so, i was sitting here trying to think of something that i could share with you. seeing as i still don't have my computer back, i'm sort of limited on some things. but then i realized that i had some cards up on the jillibean soup blog on monday. so now i have something to share 🙂

sorry if these pics are a tad blurry. i did these right before i sent my computer off to the shop, and didn't put them on my external hard drive. so i had to copy my images back over from the jillibean blog. lol! i thought this card was so cute. i cut the owls from the pattern paper, and adhered them with pop dots. i also tied some twine around the journaling spot. so doesn't it look like their perched on a branch? every once in a while, i do something clever like that 😉

i just love the soup staples pattern papers. when the papers are all out on my desk, they remind me of a rainbow. so i cut strips of the main colors for this card, and lined them up in rainbow fashion. i was going to spell out "color" in different color letter stickers. but sadly, jill hasn't designed blue letter stickers yet. lol! so i went with straight red.

that's it for tonight. i'm still recovering from last weekend. i went on a fun, exciting, new adventure. i can't say much about it yet. but know that i totally would if i could. i'm still trying to get back on track with everything else going on. scrapping like crazy. nothing i can share yet, but know that i'm scrapping. getting up early every day this week for the cutie pattotie daycare kids and my neighbors. i detest waking up early, but i'm willing to do it for them because i love them all. running all over with the girls and their activities. soccer, beginning band night at school, and an 8th grade parent meeting about requirements for graduation. first off, graduation? i can't think about that yet. second off, i'm not sure if i really need to go to that meeting. i have no worries that alyssa is far exceeding her requirements. lol!

that "that's it for tonight" turned into a longer ending than i planned 😉
you might have seen this

August 31, 2009

i cannot tell you how excited i was to see this come out over the weekend.

those aren't my kids. but that IS my layout! some of you might remember this layout i did for megan, using her super cute halloween photos of her youngest two kiddos. i was thrilled when i got an email from creating keepsakes about featuring it on the cover of the october issue. i was totally honored to be asked. i also have another layout inside, for the becky higgins sketch. it's one that i just love, that managed to get 16 of the daycare kids i've had onto a 2 page layout. it means a lot to me, and i'll share it here another day. in the meantime, make sure to pick up this issue if you don't have it yet. it's packed with great ideas and awesome layouts. one of the best issues this year. and i'm not just saying that because they put me on the cover 😉
computer issues

August 27, 2009

i've been a bad blogger this week. might have something to do with the computer issues i've experienced. my laptop screen just went totally black on monday. i was typing. and then poof, it was dark. i have never freaked more. i rely on my laptop for everything. luckily, i had the girls laptop that i could use. i could get to my email and all that. but i had projects due, assignments to turn in. a lot of them in fact. and on their computer, there was no way to upload pictures from my camera or edit anything.

so this was me on tuesday night. my mom brought over her monitor (which is stinkin huge), so that i could hook up my laptop and just work off her monitor. which worked. but her coloring was all different. so what i thought i was editing, didn't end up looking like what i thought it edited too later. and her monitor was sitting where my regular printer usually sits. so i had a printer hooked up on the floor to use. i don't use my photo printer for regular paper stuff. i also had the girls laptop going on the other side of the room. i was working off all of them.

and alyssa had a project due for school. one that required lots of typing and sizing and printing of photos. photos that i had to dig off my external hard drives. i have two of them, since last year i filled up the first one. i also had alyssa's little hard drive stick thing out, to save her typing stuff on so that i could print off my laptop. no idea why, but their printer isn't working. and my printer isn't set up on their laptop. i was running back and forth between all of these machines all night. trying to get everything done. and saved on the external hard drives. so that i could have access to everything the next day, using just the girls laptop.

long story short, my laptop is at the repair shop right now. it's been there for almost two days. it made me super nervous to watch it walk out my door. i'm hoping it's fixable. the dude seemed to think it would be, but would cost me a pretty penny. in the meantime, i'm sort of lost. i don't have my bookmarks and links. i can't upload photos. i can't edit photos. i can't even resize a stinkin photo. the only reason you see that photo up top, is because i edited it and saved it in a post 2 nights ago. when all these extra things were hooked up. i also can't print. i've been emailing things to my mom, and having her print stuff for me. and everytime i need to show someone something or attach a photo to an email, i have to drag my external hard drives out. it's frustrating. i am totally aware of how much i rely on my computer. but now i realize just how much the computer is a part of every little thing i do. and it's exhausting, all this running back and forth. i'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed for my laptop's safe return. without costing me too much moolah.
got sketch #89

August 26, 2009

i was asked to contribute to the got sketch blog again this week. i have been really loving the idea of the sketches recently. alyssa was just asking me whether i liked working with them. and i said "yes, because it does some of the thinking for me". so true. so here is my take on sketch #89. make sure to check out the blog for more great layouts from the other contributors.

first off, recognize this little one? that's our sarah bear, over 9 years ago! i want to squeeze those cheeks. wait a minute, i think i actually did today. lol! i'm not sure what even made me dig through photos from this far back. but i actually pulled out a few sets of photos for this sketch, and started a few different layouts. this one was working the best for me, so i went with it. secondly. if any colors look funky on this, please cut me some slack. i have some major computer issues right now and am doing the best i can. kind of hard when you can't actually see anything on your screen. more on that in my next post. but know that this should be blue, green, and yellow 😉

so i decided to turn the sketch on it's side for once. i know people do this all the time. but i'm usually a pretty straight forward thinker. just take what is given me, and follow it. but most of the photos i wanted to use were all horizontal. the girls thought i was breaking some rules and were convinced i was doing it all wrong. lol!

i choose a few jillibean soup papers from the new collections. the title took me forever, although i have no idea why. i was stuck on the embellishments, but found these metal rim tags and grommets that were simple and in the right colors. and i just happen to see these label stickers, and decided to toss them on there for my journaling. this layout just sort of happened. i can't explain it, but it just kind of fell together. guess it's a good thing i had a basic sketch to work off. lol!

supplies –
pattern paper – jillibean soup
foam letter stickers – american crafts
ribbon – making memories
grommets – making memories
metal rim tags – making memories
brads – making memories
label stickers – jenni bowlin
posters and magazines

August 23, 2009

this was a layout i started a few weeks back, just for fun. the whole reason this layout came together was because i wanted to use these ki memories alphabet soup letters. i have a jar of them in different colors. but they used to be deemed "too special" to actually use. until now. i have 4 layouts started right now, just to use the letters.

i was just trying to figure out some titles i could spell out. and finding photos that matched the colors i had out. i am so product driven in my scrapping. more often than not, my layouts begin with me simply wanting to use a certain product. these photos were just some snapshots i had taken of the girls at the beginning of the year, while they were looking through their magazines in their rooms. not ones i would have pulled out to scrap, necessarily. but now i'm glad i did.

i know you can totally see the mini glue dots on these letters. lol! i have my ki memories gloo, which is meant for these acrylic pieces. and i use it all the time, especially on chipboard. but sometimes i find that it warps my cardstock. maybe i use too much, i have no idea. but i'm a big glue dot person. and i'm not one to stress over whether my adhesive shows that much. lol!

supplies –
pattern paper – ki memories
acrylic letters – ki memories
letter sticker – doodlebug, american crafts
clear heart sticker – making memories
brads – making memories
ribbon – american crafts
diecut border – creative cafe
punch – fiskars, stampin up

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