Laura Vegas

the funny thing about scrapping for publications … you’re always working in a different season!

this is my take on a halloween layout. i realized that last halloween i didn’t even take any pictures. none at all. and previous halloweens i’ve taken some pictures … but nothing super impressive. they’re just not pictures that inspire me to scrap them. also … i’m not a huge holiday scrapper. i just find it so over-whelming. there are always a ton of pictures … and they’re usually just average pictures since everything is so rush-rush. christmas is my all time least favorite holiday to scrap … some years i just don’t do it at all.

so i decided to just do a layout telling everyone why they won’t find halloween layouts in the albums. lol! i actually have a fall album that contains pumpkin patch layouts, fall layouts, thanksgiving (another one i havn’t scrapped in years), and a few old halloween layouts. i’m a big fall/pumpkin patch scrapper … love doing those! just not halloween.

but i really like this layout. super simple. some fun ki memories pattern papers, cute making memories cardstock stickers, and lil davis chipboard letters and ribbon. i like that the girls can one day look through their albums … and realize that even though we don’t have many halloween layouts … we did in fact celebrate it!

now … back to our normal spring schedule! and for the record … we’ve had temps in the high 80’s all weekend. and my air conditioning has been on for 2 days. lol!

you know i have to start with a photo of some sort. this is a layout i finished up today. just now getting around to scrapping some fall pictures.

pattern paper is ki memories, chatterbox, my minds eye … chipboard words and bottlecaps are lil davis … felt flowers are american crafts … brads are karen foster and making memories.

ok … now some random facts about my scrapping style right now … just for fun!

• i cannot scrap without a ruler … everything has to be totally straight and lined up. guess you’d call me a linear scrapper. lol!
• i’m addicted to polka-dots. pattern paper especially … every time i start digging around for paper i always go for the polka-dot pattern first. also polka-dot ribbon … buttons … whatever has dots all over.
• love the felt flowers by american crafts. i have a couple of sets … but i just love the colors like what i put on this recent layout. and they’re fun to layer … love the texture they add.
• i’m seriouly addicted to chipboard. love chipboard alphabets, flowers, stars (big on stars right now). i love the colored ones … but also love the raw ones that i can paint to match my layouts. of course i use making memories paints … love the colors. on occasion i do cover my chipboard with pattern paper and then sand down the edges.
• i used to be huge inker. i inked the edges of everything on my layouts. in fact i was quite known for it when i was teaching at the lss … the first 15 minutes in class was spent inking the edges of every single piece of cut paper in your kit. lol! nowdays … i can’t even remember the last time i inked anything. lol!
• i have realized i’m not a stamper. i have some stamps. love the new large words by heidi swapp. have a few acrylic sets of flowers. but i hate stamping. and i have boat loads of the foam stamps. don’t use them often these days either. too much work to stamp and then have to run and wash it off.
• i love the look of glitter … but i’m afraid to use it. lol! i bought a couple of sets of the making memories glitters … because they’re just so pretty. but i havn’t tried them. glitter is messy, right? and i’m a neat freak, right? lol!
• i’m also addicted the the photo collages now … and even just printing my own with some borders on them. i still feel the need to totally thank my friend and mentor erin … she taught me all i know. i don’t even order pictures anymore … except some for the daycare parents. i have all these older pictures … and i pull them out to scrap and then realize that they would look better in collages or printed smaller. it has totally changed my scrapping … and i love it!

i’m sure there are more fun facts … but my mind just went blank on any of the rest. lol! and tomorrow is friday … love that. i only have 1 kiddo tomorrow … and she’s only here until after lunch. so i’m meeting up with one of my old daycare moms (well … she’s not old … just mean that i used to watch her son for 3 years, but he left me over a year ago … so she’s not a current mom. lol!) to go by a lss in the next town. we have about a 2 hour window of time to go … before we have to be back to pick up our respective kids at school. i’ll let you know what i find!

i know i have a few posts i want to do about the girls … but today i’m feeling like some crafty talk. gotta start off with a couple of pictures … right?

once again my lovely model was adyson. she’s not old enough to really protest the whole picture taking thing … although she did try. lol! it was overcast this afternoon … perfect for pictures. i started doing her hair in the cute pigtails … and she was not digging that at all. as soon as we got outside it got super windy. in about 20 minutes i had over 60 pictures. and considering i havn’t had my camera out in over 2 weeks … about half of them were actually decent pics. lol! only edited these 2 so far … more to come i’m sure.

now the scrap talk:

• you have to go read karen russell’s blog. she has an excellent post about long term photo storage. i’ve really tried to work up a system for my photo storage … and i think i’m close to what she has going. photo storage is so time consuming … it’s seriously like a part-time job. but well worth it in the long run.
• i took ady with my this morning and ran up to michaels. just to get out of the house for a little bit. they’re redoing the scrapbook section and were getting ready to put up all the  martha stewart scrapbook stuff. curious to see what she has come up with … i havn’t seen any previews yet.
• i did come across some brand new making memories product … i can always find their new stuff at michaels before it hits the lss stores. some fun new glitter chipboard alphas, flowers, hearts, and stars. i’m a huge chipboard fan … add some glitz and glitter and you’ve got me! also got some new MM packaging tape, flower tabs, and chipboard buttons. can’t wait to use them! i was curious about the new tag crumbler … but they didn’t have the tool up (just the tags) … and i figure i’ll wait until next week since we didn’t get 40% off coupons this week. lol!
• fed-ex dude brought me a nice surprise today. a goodie box from scrapbook trends … with the may issue, my returned layouts, and all my goodies. i had 3 layouts in this issue … i’ve never had more than 1 at a time … so this was fun. a layout of alyssa, a layout of wes (sure miss that guy), and a layout of ady. and awesome goodies! tons of great new product that looks like so much fun!
• seriously … what’s my problem with my camera? lol! there are days i take it out and forget everything i’ve learned. white balance, exposure, iso, flash … what does it all mean?!?!
• while ady was taking her nap today … i actually scrapped. seems strange to be doing pumpkin patch layouts in april … but that’s how it goes. also have a christmas layout in the works … but i’m really not digging it so far. one of the magazines is looking for fall and winter holiday stuff … so that’s what i’m doing.
• i need to make some baby gifts. so many people having babies in the next few months. remember sam … the cute little blond haired boy i used to watch? his mom, sierra (hi sierra!) … i think she was due this week. i tried emailing and didn’t get a response … which i’m hoping meant she had her baby girl. can’t wait to see her when she does arrive. promised mom that i would take some pictures!
• i’m in some serious need of an organizing day. i have a huge stack of layouts that need to be put into albums. i have tons of photos that need to be edited, uploaded, printed, and organized. i just need a day to sift through stuff and get odds and ends done. not sure when i’lll ever find such a day … does one exist? lol!

that’s it for now. later!

my sweet sarah … my sarah bear. there are definately 2 sides to sarah. look at these twophotos. in the first she looks so quiet and thoughtful.

then there is the other side of sarah … as seen in this second photo. the crazy, high-strung, hyper girl that doesn’t think before she does things. 

i think there is room for both of these sarahs … she just needs to figure out when to be the crazy one and when to be the thoughtful one.

i fight with this girl more than i care to admit. i don’t know if it’s that we’re so much alike. i think we just know how to get on each others nerves … we rub each other the wrong way. but we fight on a daily basis … about anything and everything. and usually at the wrong moments … when it’s just not the time for fighting. when it’s time to go to school … when parents are here picking up other kids … in the middle of a shower … when it’s bedtime.

i think a lot of it is that she’s always gotta question everything i say. i can’t ever tell her something and have her just say "ok mom". there’s always a comment or an excuse. like tonight the girls were kicking the soccer ball around for a few mintues in the front yard and the ball went in the street … we live on a very busy street with lots of fast cars speeding by (right next to a school mind you … but that’s a whole other story. lol!). sarah runs out into the street without even looking twice … mainly because she’s so hyper and wound up at this point. we yell at her to get out of the street. but then she’s got a reason she ran out there … "it was just really quick" … "there weren’t any cars" … "i know, i know" … "i was just getting the ball" … and on and on. could she just say "sorry mom" and move on. no. and then the ball goes out again … and she does it again. so i gave her a stern order to never ever go into the street like that again. she takes off upstairs and slams her door. she was pouting to joe and saying that i was mean to her. what the heck?!?!

why does she question everything? why does she get upset everytime she doesn’t like my answer … and fuss and argue until she thinks i’m going to give in? why must she talk back to every little thing i say … even when i’m just commenting on something or asking something? why do we have to turn everything into a fight? we did it again at bedtime. all because she wouldn’t say "good night" to me after i said it and told you her i loved her.  she ignored me and wouldn’t respond. then started complaining about everything just to delay bedtime. then when i told her it wasn’t the time for this … i went to leave the room and apparently she then said "good night" … which i didn’t respond to because honestly i didn’t hear it. this turned into a major yelling fest. i won’t lie … it wasn’t pretty. all she had to do was say "good night" and let it go. i guess that would have been too easy. and it would have meant that alyssa could have slept better! lol!

sometimes i don’t know what to do with sarah. how to get through things with her. she frustrates me to no end. and yet i know all she wants to do is please me. she really wants to be like me … in the things i do. she just gets so wound up that she doesn’t stop to think. and she knows it. she told me tonight after a lot of yelling … "i just don’t think in my head sometimes". i’m constantly telling her to relax … tone it down … take it down a notch … calm down. when she’s wound up she seriously can’t even stop her mind long enough to pay attention to what i’m saying most of the time.

i don’t know if i even made my point in all of that. i’m still really upset from our bedtime arguement. sad thing was joe was downstairs the whole time watching the baseball game … and had no idea anything was going on. lol! come on dude … our house is really not that big. you can hear everything in our house … especially screaming kids. lol! i don’t know … just wanted to get some of my thoughts down. vent a little.

i love my sarah bear. even when she’s the crazy one. because really … look at that smile on her face. she may be crazy sometimes … but she’s having fun and being happy (even if it gets her in trouble in the end). i do have something else i’ve been wanting to share about sarah … so maybe i’ll do that tomorrow. and some stuff about alyssa too … love that kid too! love both my girls … more than they’ll ever know!

first a layout share. i finished this layout about a month ago … but have been holding off on sharing it. it was for something … but since that something never happened … i’m sharing it today!

all the girlies! this is all lil davis product … all except the rhinestones. i think they layout is more impressive in person. the title chipboard letters are glittery. the paint i used on the chipboard stars is a metallic black paint. and added all the fun rhinestones just for more glitz.

in other monday stuff:

• finished up 2 layout this morning. loved the way they turned out. can’t share them … they’re for something secretive! lol!
• need to do 3 more design team layouts before the end of the month. i have a week, right?
• girls all went back to school today. after being off for over 4 weeks. and after having one day back … sarah goes on a field trip tomorrow … and alyssa had a field trip on wednesday. school is rough these days! lol!
• i baked some cookies today. i think i made 15 of them. and i do believe i ate 15 of them. lol! but just a note … i take the break&bake nestle cookies and actually cut each one in half before baking. so really … it was more like 8 cookies!
• after living off cookies, chocolate, and a starbucks all day … i needed some real food. so for dinner i was craving breakfast. i made bacon, maple syrup & honey sausage, and hash browns. the downstairs still smells so yummy!
• joe’s on vacation this week … so he is officially named my "errand boy". i did let him go golfing today with some dudes from work. but tomorrow he already has his line-up. blockbuster at 10:00 am opening time … more for him since he’s a movie freak … but i do want to see "night at the museum". then the bank. then home depot for more bark. then starbucks for me … which i’ll need because tomorrow is my super long day. lol!
• i need to make myself a note … gotta go to abc.com and watch "ugly betty" from last week. our dvr went out and didn’t tape our shows that night. i caught "grey’s anatomy" on friday … guess it’s good they replay it. and i realized yesterday that i can probably watch "ugly betty" on the internet. technology can be a beautiful thing!
• gotta give a shout-out to my good friend deneen! i noticed when i came on here to post this that when she left a comment on yesterdays post … that made her my 1000th comment on my blog. too cool!

that’s it for now. thanks for stopping by!

thanks for all your posts about joe’s "incident". lol! i figure now that i’ve shared a "wingnut" moment of his … i better show him at work too!

yep … we did some yardwork today. i’ve been talking about getting a few new plants for the front yard. we’re on a corner lot … with a detatched garage on the side. so our front yard is actually pretty good size. and luckily we have planted some good basics over the last few years … some plants that have really done well. i should have taken a picture of our birch trees … they’re looking so good. hard to believe we only paid $12 bucks for them last year. we were in desperate need of some new bark too. after 5 years of living here … the bark that came with the house was wearing pretty thin and looking pretty bad.

so we headed off to home depot … much to the dismay of the girls. they were not thrilled to be going! lol! picked up a few new plants … and even 2 to put in the huge pots we have by the front door walkway. those pots have been empty for over a year now. i never did plant anything in there last year. we also picked up a bunch of bags of new bark. i didn’t know it was so cheap … only $2.77 for these huge bags of great colored bark. of course … the 8 bags didn’t go as far as we thought. and when joe went back they only had 4 bags left. so we still need to pick up some more to finish off by the garage.

but it looks so great. cute little new plants that hopefully will do good. trimmed up some of the shrubs … i can even see out my kitchen window again. i was worried that if i waited … the yard dudes will hack them into a box shape like they like to do. not that they ever touch my plants … but with my luck they would and then ruin them. still need to trim up a few things … but ran out of room in the yard bin … and it doesn’t get emptied for another week. lol!

good excuse to put off finishing up the yard work! lol!

i have some random thoughts to share … and a few older layouts like i promised. but i have to tell this story while it’s fresh.

yesterday joe got up around 4:00 … he works nights and sleeps during the day. he was up for a bit and then thought he’d run to the bank to deposit our loads of money. lol! he was back in a few minutes though saying something about there were 2 trains so he turned around … didn’t make much sense … but whatever. then he took both the girls to run alyssa over to soccer practice.

when he and sarah got back sarah ran in telling me that "dad ran into a pole with the van" … completly broke the headlight, but that’s most of the damage. he comes in the house and was acting really funny. said he felt dizzy and lightheaded. started saying all kinds of strange things. he was walking funny. he laid on the couch and fell asleep. so i got him up a few minutes later and told him dinner was ready. he got up and came to get something to drink and fix up his plate. but his movements were really slow and real shaky. he just didn’t look right. seemed totally confused and wasn’t really responding. after he ate he went back on the couch and fell asleep again.

i swear the first thing i thought of was that he was having a stroke. i don’t even know much about it … but i was convinced that was it. i turned the computer on and did a quick search. all the symptoms were dead on. so i called my dad … my go-to doctor. he said to just watch him and see how he did. maybe he was just overly tired. maybe he knocked something out when he hit the pole. i had to pick up alyssa at practice though … i was scared to leave him here. he wouldn’t really respond to me and i couldn’t get him to get up. so i asked my dad to come check him out while i picked up alyssa. i even took the long way home because i just had a terrible feeling. i was scared to come home and find that there really was something wrong. we got back and my dad seemed to think he was ok … just shook up from something.

so he just slept on the couch. i got the girls fed … took them upstairs for showers … and we hung out upstairs doing some stuff. i kept coming down to check on him … make sure he was still breathing. i came down at one point to get the girls some ice cream … and he all of the sudden woke up started asking where his ice cream was. so he had a bowl. i heard sarah yelling that dad needed help getting off the couch. but he got up … came upstairs and as soon as he layed down he was asleep again.

and of course … i’m sitting there worried out of my mind. i tend to be real paranoid about things like that. thinking the worst … like something is seriously, deathly wrong. but i won’t call a doctor or anything because what if it’s really nothing … i’d hate to bother them. but i kept reading all this stuff about strokes … i was still convinced that’s what it was. and they say you shouldn’t sit and wait to see if symptoms get better. every minute with something like that is crucial.

i finally got the girls to bed … made sure joe was still breathing … and came downstairs to finish cleaning stuff up before bed. i went to get out my medicine to take before bed. and i noticed one of my pill bottles wasn’t on my shelf in the cabinet. i found it on joe’s shelf with all his asthma stuff. so i took out the bottle and for some reason decided to count the pills … i had just got a refill on monday so i knew only 3 of the pill should be gone. but there were 4 gone.

the wingnut took one of my sleeping pills!!!

omg … i couldn’t believe it. it explained everything so perfectly! when he gets up in the afternoon he takes his asthma medicines … inhalers, pills, nose sprays, the works. his allergies are super bad so he’s got tons of stuff. it was totally by accident. not sure why he just grabbed a bottle without reading what it was. every time i take anything i make sure to read what i took out to make sure it’s right. although i was still worried because i didn’t know if for some reason he had took one before coming upstairs. there could have still been something going on … and he just took the pill in his confused state. but i had a feeling he had taken it in the afternoon.

so … he had actually driven the girls in the car … an hour after taking a sleeping pill. i guess we’re lucky the only thing he hit was a pole. and it’s a good thing he didn’t have to work last night. this morning he finally woke up and the first thing i asked him was "when exactly did you take my sleeping pill?". he just looked at me funny … and said "ohhhhh, that’s what was going on". lol! i’ve been calling him an idiot all day. lol! i swear he had me thinking the worst … i was scared more than i want to admit.

although now i can laugh about it. i told him "you do know that i’m telling everyone about this, right?". he said he knew i would. although he just walked by and saw me hiding what i was typing … right away he said he knew i was posting this on my blog.

i told him "how could i not!". lol!

i know … totally great title there. lol! first a layout that i think i forgot to share … because i hate to post without a picture of something.

and just a few random things scrap-related for today:

• i have had 2 things come up in the last few days that i’m super excited about … but i can’t tell you what they are. lol! i know … that’s so mean. i hate when people leave you hangin about surprises. but as soon as i can tell … i will!
• i got a layout picked up today by scrapbook trends … for the september issue. i had to take the layout off my blog and my gallery.  so if you want to play detective and you think you know all my layouts by heart … maybe you can figure out which one it was. although i have had to pull quite a few in the past few months … which is really a good thing. i feel so lucky to be having the small amount of luck that i am having!
• i took some time today to update my gallery over at 2peas. i think sometimes i lose track of what i post and where i post it. i try and keep things current over there … i like having one gallery where you can find all my stuff. i also sat there and went through every layout and updated them to the new larger sized images … took some time, but fun to go through all my older stuff. can you believe i have 160 layouts in my gallery? and trust me … i have plenty that i don’t actually post in there.
• i think i’m going to pick out some older layouts and share them again with you. i love that i can go back to over a year ago … and the layouts are still so "me" … so my style still. sure, there are a few i kind of cringe at … but still fun to see how i’ve developed my style … but stayed true to it at the same time.
• just realized what the date is … where has this month gone? i say that every month, don’t i?!?! lol! i still have a few layouts to do for lil davis. need to work on those.
• you should see my painted canvas. i can’t even believe i made something hand-painted … and artsy. i’m almost done with it … just a few more finishing touches. already have plans for a few more. have to get to michaels first to pick up a few more.
• tomorrow they announce the winner of the mm idol. i can’t wait to see who the lucky girl is. and for once … i have no idea who i voted for this week. lol! i know it was annonymous (spl?) the past few weeks … but i could kindof tell a few of them by their styles. not this week though.

guess that’s it for now on the scrapbook front. for once, i feel like i have quite a few things i need to work on. and apparently, not as much time as i usually have to work. lol! isn’t that way it normally works?!?!   

i got this idea in my head the other day and just had to have a polka-dot headband … and i found one at target. in fact … i found quite a few:

aren’t these just the cutest things?!?! i had bought a black velvet one quite a while back … but it just never looked right on me. but i’ve needed something different lately. after i started losing so much hair … i went straight to hats. i think that was back in october … and i wore hats about 6-7 days a week for months. just about a month ago … i started just wearing a few of the hair clip-on thingies. some days they look ok … but other days they just look funky. but a couple days ago i threw on the hair clip-on thingies … and added a wide headband. it was just what i needed!

i love the extra color on my head! i’m a jeans and t-shirt girl … so having some fun color and pattern just makes things look more fun, right? and can you even tell i’m wearing fake hair on top of my own? actually i’m pretty sure you can if you happen to be standing behind me … but it doesn’t look half bad from the front. lol! and i think all the hair colors blend in pretty good. i’m loving the bright colored headbands too. so much fun. i’m all about color these days … i know, i keep saying that. although i was wearing the plain black one today … but with a cute black and grey striped shirt … so i was still looking cute. lol!

other random stuff:

• it rained today. it’s been dark, gloomy, and wet all day. hate it. but we did manage to get a little done around here today.
• between joe and i … we managed to get the entire house cleaned in about an hour. bathrooms, vacumming, dusting … check. laundry is an ongoing thing … but i’m on my third load of the day right now.
• that canvas i bought last weekend with intentions of making something to hang by the front door? i actually painted it. the background at least. lol! then i added the second color on the bottom part … and it’s darker than i wanted. so gotta paint over it in a lighter color. i’m not a painter … but at least i took it out and got a start.
• joe has 2 of his work shirts that have needed buttons sewn on. they were sitting in my studio on the table for about 3 weeks … then i took them downstairs (with the buttons) and they sat in the laundry room for over a week. i kept telling him i’d just glue-dot them on for him. lol! i use thread on my buttons on my layouts all the time … but i don’t actually sew them onto my layout … i glue-dot them on. but today i actually sewed 4 buttons on his shirts. took me all of about 10 minutes … and 4 weeks to do it! lol!
• the girls have been watching "full house" alllllll the time. lol! they have 6 of the seasons on DVD … and they watch them over and over. funny since i watched it when i was younger. i have to admit … i get caught up watching right with them.
• ran to target earlier today for a few things … you know … toilet paper, detergent, bar soap … all those things that seem to run out at the same time. lol! i ran down the candy aisle … and next thing you know i came out with goobers, good & plenty, whoppers, and mike & ikes. you’d think i was stocking a movie theatre. lol! also had to pick up my weekly gossip magazine … usually "in touch" becuase it’s cheap. i love reading about all the celebrity gossip … even if half of it probably isn’t true. lol!
• we went out to a early dinner at round table pizza. we just had one open up in town … and joe’s been wanting to go there for days. while we were eating alyssa lost a tooth. i think it’s her first molar that she’s lost … as soon as it happened i could tell. she just had that look and was pulling food out of her mouth. lol! and note to self … remember to do my tooth fairy duties before going to bed. i hope i have some money!

that’s it for now. my canvas is dry and i need to start my next color!

first up … the winners. gotta trust me on this one … i wrote down everyone’s name and mixed them all up. then sarah picked out 2 names.

leslie gets the box of scrap goodies!

liann gets the assortment of cards!

congrats girls! send me your address and i’ll get those out … possible today if you get me in time. lol! i have to run errands later … so that would work out. and thanks to everyone for playing along and leaving me all the great comments!

now … about my "melrose place". it was always one of my favorite shows. watched it all years ago … but hadn’t seen it since. then last summer i stumbled upon it again. they show the re-runs on the "soap network". it was on monday thru friday … 5 days a week. and i just happen to come in at the very beginning of the series. so i started recording it … 5 episodes every week. it was great during the summer since nothing else was on. when all the shows started back up in the fall i didn’t know if i could keep up … if i could still find time to watch 5 episode of melrose each week along with all of my regular shows. but i did. sometimes they piled up and i’d have like 7-8 episodes at a time. but i’d just get in and have like a melrose marathon. lol!

now … they also show "melrose place" on saturdays. 3 episodes every saturday. but saturdays on on a different time-frame. i think it recently started over … so saturdays is actually on season 1 right now. i wasn’t really sure what season i was up too … but i knew it was towards the end.

this week it dawned on me that i didn’t have any "melrose place" on my DVR. i checked my recording and the schedule … and there was nothing there. come to find out … "soap network" changed up their schedule and they’re not showing melrose during the week anymore.

what the heck!?!?!?!?!?!?!

i can’t even begin to tell you how upset i am. i did some searching online and found some episode guides so i could figure out where i was. there were a total of 7 seasons for "melrose place" … a total of 227 episodes. quess what episode i was on as of last friday? 202!!! that means i only had 25 episodes left! that means i had watched 202 episodes … basically i’ve been watching it for about 40 weeks (5 a week). and i only had 5 weeks left to go. i’ve been on the edge of my seat the last week or so every time i watched a show … because i could just tell that it was getting to the end.

so now what?!?! i just wait a year for the saturday run to catch up? season 1 & 2 just came out on DVD a few months ago … so i highly doubt i’ll get up season 7 anytime soon that way. i feel so betrayed by the "soap network". how can they get people to invest their time and energy into a show like that … and then just yang it from them? i’ve been going through "melrose" withdrawls all week … i have nothing to watch!

well … that’s my rant! may seem trivia to some people … but it was something to me!