Laura Vegas

i know … i’ve been a bad blogger. not sure why. i have stuff to say … and then i’m too tired to sit and type it all up. so nothing major tonight … just a few random things.

• i felt like changing my picture over there. joe took a few last week … but i need to teach him about the whole focusing thing. so this picture isn’t great … but i figured if i changed it to black and white it would look semi-decent. plus it’s pretty tiny over there. i didn’t think i looked too bad in it … is it that noticeable that i lead a stress-filled life?
• although one reason i semi like this photo … that’s my real hair folks! about 3 weeks ago i started wearing my hair all natural. no hairpieces … no hats. it all started after i tagged along on sarah’s field trip … and some girl said loudly "hey sarah, it looks like your mom is wearing a wig". nice, right? it was just a ponytailed hairpiece …  but it still made me feel really lousy. it takes a ton of curling iron work to get my hair to look halfway decent all on it’s own … and i’m talking a ton of time. and it’s still looking crazy in the back. i don’t think anyone can even imagine what it looks like … it’s seriously crazy back there. and still a little thin on top. but i have had a couple of great hair days … where the curls were perfect and it all looked good. then again … most days are still crappy. lol!
• yesterday and today i worked on photos … getting caught up on the ones i had from may and june. most of them are edited, uploaded, and i ordered a few today. i also am ordering some new pictures for my wall of kids. don’t know if you remember … but in the daycare room i have 15 – 8×10 photos of kids. but most of the pics are older … from when i first went digital. it is actually quite amazing to pull up a super old photo that i thought i had edited so good … and then edit it with what i know now. they look so much better. i almost feel a need to redo all the pics that i know friends of mine have up on their walls. lol! plus, a few kids are no longer around … and we have a few new kids that need to go up there. i also decided to go with color pics. i like the black and white … but i feel like it needs something. hopefully it won’t be too much color … most of the pics are close-ups … so it’s not like you’re seeing too many different things. and i’m going to mix up some vertical and horizontal … much to the horror of my mom who came over and hung all those pics totally straight in rows for me. lol!
• i havn’t scrapped too much lately. i still have a few design team layouts to finish for this month … just 2, and they’re halfway done. i did finish up a special project last week … but i can’t share that for another 2 months. i’ve never really had to keep anything secret before … so this will be hard.
• the girls get out of school on wednesday. yep … they’re still in school. they finish this school year on wednesday … and then they have almost 2 weeks off. then they start up in their new grades, new teachers, new classmates.
• if you didn’t catch that one … i will have 4 extra girls around for 2 weeks. lol! they will most certainly drive me crazy … but still love them.

my mind is starting to wander now … and it’s getting late. i have a lifetime movie that i really want to watch before bed. my veg time … my down time. i promise i’m going to be better at posting this week. you can hold me to it!

no … as a matter of fact … i don’t speak spanish! lol! my yahoo page (including my email account) thinks i speak spanish today. everything is in spanish! and of course i can’t fix it … because i don’t know spanish. lol! i’m totally wishing i had paid attention more back in high school.

and typepad is being funny with me this evening. so i’m going to make this quick. i had a post all ready in my head … but i was just able to get into my account … and now i’m too tired to post. and all i want to do is go watch tv before bed. lol!

and what’s up with the whole "verify your comment" thing? some blogs you have to do this … some you don’t … some asks it of you certain times and not others. a few people have commented that they have to do it on my blog. which actually made me feel important. lol! but i admit i get frustrated sometimes when i have to enter that letter/number combo … i get to my third try sometimes trying to get it right and i feel like it’s going to lock me out. like taking your atm card away if you try to many times … not that this has happened to me but i’ve seen it when i worked in grocery. lol! i’m picturing an "automated robot" as they refer to it … sitting there saying "arghhhhhh, i can’t comment on laura’s blog today … their verify comment thing has tricked me again". i know … i’m hilarious! lol!

today is someone’s birthday! and she wanted everyone to know. funny how alyssa was too embarrased to wear this shirt on her birthday … but sarah was all over it. lol!

and i just noticed it looks like sarah has no right arm in this picture … which she does indeed have a right arm. lol! and on a funny note … i love the look of light photos. and i always try and lighten up the pictures of the girls. but my girls are dark. sarah really is a chocolate brown color … which means she looks nothing like me. lol!

and the birthday girl loves her new look in her room. i think these cute ladybug pillows i found were her favorite!

and here’s a few pics of the room as promised. my mom came over yesterday and painted … the bottom third of the walls used to be a bright pink … so i just had her paint it all the green. she also came by this morning and put up the hardware for the window treatments … i can do those kind of things, but it seems to take me forever. lol!

then i got ady down for a nap and got down to business. changed all the bedding … which i washed last night and had hiding in the dryer. hung up the paper lanterns … which i love, but do need a few more because the colors in the one corner don’t look right to me (love the orange, but it just doesn’t look right without some extra pink). put out my few frames and canvases that i made. new lamp and rug. moved most of the stuffed animals to the closet. tried to make her shelving above her bed a little more decorative. and overall cleaning and making the room pretty. got all this done in 2 hours … along with getting rid of all the old stuff. just in time for ady to wake up from her nap … and to get the older girls from school (darn early day! lol!).

i added all the pictures in an album so as not to hog my blog space … so check here to see more of sarah’s room. i love the way it turned out … so colorful and fun! and she loves it. let me know if you have any questions about any of it … i’m too tired to post all my details. lol!

and one last think i was thinking about today as i was going through these pictures. i was reading a  discussion yesterday about tilting your photos. some people swear by it … some people do it on occasion … and some people don’t like the tilt. i realized that i love tilting my photos. i guess you can do this in photoshop as you’re editing … but i do it as i frame my photo. but someone made a comment about how some people see it and think you’ve just taken a lopsided picture … while some see the artistic part of it. like when my mom asked why i cut off the top part of my girls heads in a lot of pictures. lol! which really does look good. i started wondering if some people see my photos and think i’m strange because i can’t shoot a straight picture. lol! i took a few of these photos of sarah’s room straight on … but they just looked plain and boring. so i embraced the tilt. i’m all about the tilt!

so just wondering if anyone else had any thoughts on this boring/interesting topic. lol! how i mixed that in with a birthday post i have no idea! lol! hope you all have a good one!

saturday we had sarah’s 8th birthday party … a swim party of course. the girl’s a fish, i swear! i have to warn you … the few photos you are about to see are not my best work. lol! i have to have the next party in the early evening. the sun nearly killed every photo i took. but whatever!

first up … the birthday girl. looking cute in braided pigtails … so much better than having all her wet hair in her face all day. lol!

this picture isn’t anything great. but it sums up the day … lots of girlies (and a few boys) all lookin good in their bikinis. hanging out … swimming … playing volleyball (i think that’s what they were doing) … laughing … and being noisy! but they had a blast. hard to really get any pictures of them these days because they swim so good … they won’t slow down enough to get anything. in fact every time sarah saw me trying to take a picture of her … she’d hide underwater. lol!

 

the birthday girl pretending to blow out her candles on her cupcakes. yes, pretending … because joe lit the candles while the kids were still in the pool … and then rushed to get everyone out and then started the singing. and i didn’t even have my camera out. needless to say … i missed the whole thing. lol!

so even though i didn’t get any great pictures … the party was a success. i think this is her 5th swim party in a row. so we’re used to them and they are pretty easy to throw. still a lot of work … but we know what needs to be done and don’t have to be super creative. and a big "thank you" to my parents for letting us use their house and their pool … and for cleaning up whatever we left!

i will say though … by the time we got cleaned up and back home we were so exhausted. i had been going non-stop since friday afternoon. we all walked in the house and plopped on the couch … and ended up watching some movie and none of us moved till the end. this morning the girls and i all slept in and it took us quite a while to get going. then sarah was anxious to go to target since she had got some gift cards. she picked out a cd and about 6 books … i swayed her away from a few toys since i knew she would play with them once and then forget about them. lol! we ended up spending the rest of the day cleaning and picking up the house. and i also got some bright idea to do some yardwork … so i’m certainly going to pay for that tomorrow. i know i pushed myself too hard this weekend … and i’m going to be in some serious pain (not like i’m not in pain everyday anyways … but it’ll be worse).

and since it’s fathers day … a picture of joe (busy attending to sarah’s gift opening discards). he was a huge help at the party. i always feel weird saying "thanks" to him for stuff like that … since it’s his job just as much as it is mine. lol! he decided to spend fathers day out on the golf course … where else would he want to be. lol! he had his monthly tournament with my brother … and this month it happen to be on fathers day. so he was gone all day … and it felt like just another day to be honest.

and i know sarah’s birthday isn’t until wednesday … but 8 years ago she was actually born on fathers day! yep … i gave joe the grand-daddy of gifts … a baby girl. how can i even top that year after year?!?! lol!

gotta get busy now … no time to rest. i have to get everything ready for sarah’s new room. to be revealed on wednesday. i was going to do it tuesday (since the girls get out of school early on wednesday). but i realized that i have 3 little girlies here on tuesday … and i just don’t see getting it all done with them around. i don’t want to count on getting them down for naps at the same time either … especially since sarah’s room is a napping room. lol! hey … i guess when i think about it … ady is getting a new room too. that’s where she takes all her naps. lol! anyways … i just have ady on wednesday. so i think i can pull it off before 12:15 that day. let’s hope anyways!

and also wanted to say a quick "thank you" to sarah … one of my daycare moms. i was going to call her today … but got busy and didn’t want to stop (when i stop i tend to really stop). after our trip to target and a major mishap at the slushie machine … i stopped at starbucks for my own treat. i was in my own little world as the girls were bickering in the back of the van. i wasn’t paying attention to anything going on around me. i got to the window and i was told that my drink had been paid for … "a gift from haley" the guy told me. i didn’t even realize they were in front of me the whole time. it was such a nice treat and totally changed my mood. so thank you sarah and haley!

i just had to share this. i "found" this scrapbooker … keisha … about a year ago and thought her style was just amazing. i even emailed her to tell her how awesome i thought her work was. little did i realize that she was already quite well known in the scrapping scene. lol! and i thought i was pretty aware of what’s going on. this past week she was named a new garden girl over at 2peas … and she totally deserves it!

so she emailed me to ask if i’ve ever had one of my layouts "lifted" before … meaning someone use it as inspiration for their own layout. she asked if she could "lift" one of my layouts. i was thrilled that she asked … and thrilled that she thought about me! somehow i totally forgot about the new garden going up yesterday … but i remember tonight and had to check it out.

so go and look at this. it should be showing my layout on that page too … the one she used for her inspiration. that would make sense, right … to see which layout she’s being inspired by. lol! but it’s not on there right now … at least i don’t see it. so to see which layout she picked … go here.

thanks keisha!!! i love your layout and to see you put your magical take on my design! too cool!

seriously … that was the best concert! keith urban puts on a killer show. i’ve been a big fan of his for years now … just never gone to see him. i love his music … love his voice … love his instrumental abilities (he owns that quitar of his … but i really love when he plays the piano). just an awesome performer. and so much fun to hear the wreckers as his opening act. i got their cd when it first came out and there are a few songs on there that i just love.

and i had an excellent night with the girls! jenn, ruth, and deneen … so glad we could all go together. although next time dina needs to come (hint, hint). i did miss being with the family on my birthday … but the concert just happen to be that night. lol! and the morning started off so bad … i had 7 kids here by 7:30am. let me remind you i am NOT a morning person at all. i had 1 screaming baby, 1 crazy little girl, 1 inquisitive little boy, and 4 girls that i was trying to get ready and out the door for school. we did make it … but it was rough. lol! the afternoon got better. joe brought me a starbucks, my neighbor ruth (who heard all the rucus as she walked her son to school … note to self, "shut the windows") and her lovely daughter ayana brought me flowers and chocolate … what more could i want.  so all in all … not too bad a day.

back to reality though. we got back last night at about 12:30am. i popped my sleeping pill right when i walked in the door (i tried to take it before we got home, but the girls didn’t think that was wise since i was driving). but apparently it doesn’t work when you’re all hyped up from an awesome concert. lol! i think i may have dosed off about 3am … which sucked because i had to be up before 7am. so i have felt so out of it all day. i actually felt a little hungover … although i think the last time i had a drink was about 4 months ago. lol! feel like i’ve been in a daze all day. guess it might have helped if i’d have taken a nap.

in other news … we had our first day of 100 degree weather here. we had temps of 101 today … and even now at 9:30 in the evening it’s still 90 degrees out. i hate the heat … i can’t function in it. i walked to school this afternoon to pick up the girls … by the time we got back i was dripping in sweat and so exhausted. and we only live across the street. lol! then i had to drive back over to pick up the girls fundraising orders … and brought 2 huge boxes back with me. cookie dough … which i had to unpack and put away in the freezer in the garage. most of it joe had to deliver to people at his work tonight. still not sure why we even sold that much. anyways … my air conditioning has been on all stinking day. and i know it’s going to be like this every day pretty soon … and much worst. did i tell you … i hate the heat!!! lol!

guess that’s it for now. off to watch a little tv … and then off to bed. need me some sleep!

i had a chance tonight to take a few pics of my good friend deneen and her 4 beautiful girls. we did this super quick … so we didn’t fuss with too many poses. we’ll save that for another day, right deneen?!?! lol! and we’re totally going to take pics in front of that house down the road (although i’m not going to the door to ask so you’ll have to do it. lol!). as usual … click on the picture to see a larger version.

and this last one that i took after we were done. the entire 10 minute photo shoot was apparently so exhausting that heather had to take a quick rest on the grass. i immediatly thought about that picture i took of sarah … and stood directly above her for all of 2 seconds to get this shot. not technically perfect … but i still love it. not sure if i like it in color or the black & white better … what do you think? and the borders i added on these are looking a little pink … not sure why, but i’m too tired to go redo them.

 

thanks deneen for sharing your girls with me for a few minutes. nice to see some new faces on my computer screen now and then!

why is it i feel an incredible amount of quilt when i don’t post for a few days? like you’re all on the edges of your seat waiting to hear about my crazy, exciting life. lol!

• i did make it through my 2 days of work last week. it was a little crazy though. i had a 7 month old girlie literally screaming her head off every time i put her down or walked away from her. sorry haley … but facts are facts and you did scream quite a bit. you’re still cute though!
• i finished up 3 baby albums and made 3 baby cards to go with them. so glad to have them done. although i had to take apart 6 albums to actually make the 3 albums … hate it when you don’t have any refill pages to add to your albums. and i always make my albums at least 24 pages … which requires 12 page protectors and most albums only come with 10. just need to get the ablums to the appropiate moms and moms-to-be.
• worked on a few fun things for sarah’s room. i painted 4 wooden frames that i’ve had for ages … and by accident found some super old stickers (yeah, stickers! lol!) that i used on the frames. they’re actually really cute. i also painted 2 canvases that i’ve had laying around. i added buttons to them and some painted circles. one of them i really like … the other i’m not crazy about. figures. and oddly enough … out of my gazillion buttons i have in my jars … i just couldn’t find the right shades of any of the colors that i wanted. lol!
• had 2 grandma’s celebrate birthdays this weekend … both the big 60. congrats to both! alyssa’s grandma had a party on saturday … so both the girls went to the party to see all the cousins and play. my mom had a surprise party today given by my dad (too cool!). and then we went over along with my brother and his wife … and we had dinner, the girls swam, and opened some presents.
• i made my mom this framed thing. designed the entire thing and then went to put it in the wooden frame … and the prongs in the back kept falling out so i couldn’t actually assemble it. i just gave her the whole thing and told her she had to figure out how to put it together. lol! how lame was that?!?! but i had already finished it and i wasn’t about to re-do it for another size frame. sorry mom!
• alyssa is so congested right now. i feel so bad for her. she is allergic to dogs … and grammy and papa have a dog. i’m such a bad mom … because i always forget to have her take extra medicine before going over their house. i just don’t think about it. i need to remember though … one time her breathing got so bad that they said she came close to having to be hospitalized. you really can’t mess with that breathing stuff. she came home tonight and took her meds and inhalers. hopefully she’ll feel better in the morning.
• we also cleaned out the garage this weekend while the girls were at the party. i had all this stuff that i really wanted to find homes for. stuff i didn’t want or need … but i figured i could find someone to give it to. well … i’m tired of trying to find people. so we loaded up tons of stuff … mostly empty storage containers … and took it to donate. i cleaned out the downstairs bedroom closet and got rid of so much. i can’t figure out how i’m always getting rid of stuff … you’d think at some point we wouldn’t have anything left. lol! but i have decluttered this house so much in the past year … and i love it.

guess that’s it for now. i’m tired. and i have to get up early. got a couple kids coming super early tomorrow (if you call 7am early … which i totally do!). i don’t normally start my weeks off like this … so it just may kill me. and my birthday is tuesday … and my birthday usually sucks every year. so i’m preparing myself for the inevitable doom that is to come. at least at 5:00pm on my birthday i can call it quits and escape with a few friends to the keith urban concert!!!

hope you all had a great weekend! back later!

i know … 4 layouts in 1 day? could it be true? and by 1 day … what i really mean is the 6.5 hours the girls were at school. i was on a roll today … all 4 of these were from start to finish. with the exception of printing the photos … i'd already done that part.

 

all of these are 9×9 layouts. i didn't intend for the "pretty" layout of alyssa to be that size … but i got carried away cutting my papers to 9×9 … so i went with it. i really do love that size though … so much fun. lots of older pattern paper on these … but it's all good. fun to dig them out and find all the patterns that i still love and never got around to using. those buttons on haley's layout are super old … those were those "button-ups" that had the thread already on them and the pop-up adhesive on the back. i can't believe i still have those laying around … they were apparently too nice to use! lol! and on the bottlecaps on amanda's layout … i always smash them before using them on my layouts. i don't like them super bulky. as i was in the garage smashing these 3 bottlecaps … i thought i should have just brought all the ones i have out and smashed them all at once.

i also noticed i have done quite a few 1-photo layouts lately. i don't usually do many of those. i usually have 3-4 pictures on a layout. but i have quite a few 5×7's laying around that i ordered of some of my favorite photos … so i've been using them. lol! but definately not the norm for me.

yesterday the UPS dude came by with the paper lanterns that i ordered for sarah's room. i was worried that i the ones i had picked would be too big … but they look good. i would love to get a few more of the smaller ones (6-8 inches) that were about 60 cents … but they were out of most of the colors. and check out all those pretty paint colors all lined up … all making memories paints. those are basically the colors that are going in her room. with some black mixed in. it's going to look so cute! and no … i'm not doing major wall painting with those or anything. lol! they're to use on some frames and canvases to decorate the room.

yesterday i also had my fedex dude come by with an awesome box of making memories product for an upcoming assignment. then today the fedex dude came again … with the new issue of scrapbooks etc and my layout that's in the issue. this is my second layout in scrapbooks etc … so fun to see it in there. and it actually has pictures of me and joe on it along with the girls!!! you have to pick up the issue though to see what layout! lol! then the UPS dude came by again … and brought me my order of scrapbook albums. so now i need to get those baby gifts in their albums and ready to go. erika is having her baby in like 8 days … maybe i can get it there before the baby gets there. the race is on! lol!

so … all in all … not a bad couple of days off. back to work tomorrow … kids here bright and early. i can manage 2 days can't i? and next week is my birthday (i won't even scare you with the number) … and i happen to be going to see keith urban in concert! i just love his music … but i've never been to see him. after about 9 years straight … i'm skipping seeing my boyfriend, tim mcgraw this year. thought keith would be a good change! can't wait!

first a few pics of the girls. i always feel like i have to put the pictures at the top to grab your attention when you come to visit. lol! as if you won’t read through all my random thoughts to see the pictures if they were at the end of the post.

took a few pictures of the girls yesterday for an upcoming project i’m working on. they were pretty cooporative for me … i tried not to make it too painful for them. lol! have a few goofy ones i got of them too … still have to go through and edit those.

i got a good amount accomplished today. i printed out quite a few photos … made a few collages to print. i made 2 layouts and a card. also pulled out some product for some other layouts i want to get started on. i guess that doesn’t sound like much now that i typed it. lol! but i really felt good about what i got done.

i think the best part for me right now is that i feel like i’m in my groove. i feel like i’ve really come into my own style. not that i was doing anyone else’s style. i just think that i have a certain "look" and "feel" to my layouts … that they look like me. maybe i’m wrong … maybe i’m the only one that sees it. but i know what works … i know what i like … i know what i’m comfortable doing on my layouts. i think i have a good feel for color … and i think i’m getting more bold in my color choices. i know i’m not a big "techniquey" (spl?) person … and i’m ok with that. i do feel that i know how to use product well. i may not invent some never before seen, crazy, new way to use something … but i can use product in fun ways.

and i’m happy to be at this stage. where i’m loving my style … and not questioning it when i create. it’s so much fun! just don’t get me started on my photography ability … that i am guestioning. lol! that’s a whole other post. i have some issues … and i need to figure those out. more on that later.