just a whole lot of something.....

don't really know how to title this post as it is part scrapbooking, part family share and just about anything I can think of to cram. So let's move on shall we.....

First off are some fun scrappy news to share, got some of my published work back and my projects/pages and name can be found inside these books/magazines which are out in newstands right now

BHG Scrapbooks Etc. Nov/Dec 08 (my page is on page 96)


and PaperCrafts Cards Creations Vol 6


here's my card, it's on page 10

Plus I got two digital pages picked up for publication. My first digital pages to get pubbed. Woohoo!

And then we have some early Halloween photos. A friend of ours hosted a Halloween party and here's the kids just before they left for the shindig. I wasn't able to go with them since I had to work but according to Marcus they had a lot of fun. Sounds like a great party to me :)
I'm so glad Marcus wanted to be a Ninja Turtle again this year. This meant we didn't have to buy a new costume. Woohoo, saved me a few bucks!

I'm also very happy that Maddie's birthday is in the beginning of October so we can have loving relatives buy her her cute costume. Thanks Lolo and Lola. :)

So what would be a cute photo shoot without these kinds of outtakes right?!


And finally some projects to share. This is courtesy of SoCalScrap.us. This month is my final month to be in their design team and I've been very lucky to have had this experience. Shopping their store was just a thrill for me and being able to host challenges was a blast. These pages/projects features this, this, this, and this.

Real thing

Journaling:

What’s a girl that dreams of a trip to Paris gonna do when she can’t make that dream happen? Simple, she goes to Las Vegas and takes pictures of the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe at the Paris Hotel. It’s probably the closest she’s ever going to get to the real deal. May 2008

Bellagio

I used the swirl template here. I made the swirls with white pen then added glitter glue on top of it to add dimension and some sparkles.

Journaling:

My favorite hotel by far to tour was the Bellagio. It was so glamorous with its exquisite artworks, fountains and glass ceiling. It even had a conservatory and botanical garden in the lobby that just made me ooohhh and ahhhh all over for. It was definitely full of inspiration that I’m definitely going to go back there again and not to mention they had the biggest chocolate fountain in the world! May 2008

Now and Then card

inside look


Mom paper purse

was just playing around with leftover papers and thought of making a little paper purse.

the side view


I'm planning on actually giving this out to my mom but since Mother's day is quite a ways away I'm going to leave the real hugs and kisses chocolate till then. So for now there will be scrap paper in there instead.


Happy Sunday

Grace

do we not live in AMERICA???

ok so I'm taking this time to vent out so please bear with me and just hear me out......
Last night I worked. Everything was fine. Was doing a little customer service, so I came up to this couple and asked them if they were finding everything ok. The guy looked at me and started speaking to me in Spanish. Seeing that I was totally clueless to what he was saying, he asked if I spoke spanish. In my dorkiest spanish I said "muy very pukito" (translation: very tiny/small) and then he said......" muy very bbbaaaadddd!"
I was floored. He was upset that I didn't know Spanish. I held my tongue and turned around to continue my folding. After a few minutes I saw them still looking like they needed some assistance so I came up to them again and asked if everything was ok then he goes...."no spanish!" and continues to shake his head.
At that time I made the choice to turn around and do a few breathing exercises and just scream in my head. Seriously I was soooo close to telling that guy off.
First of all, I DO NOT NEED TO LEARN SPANISH! I'm in AMERICA for crying out loud. This is not Mexico!!! Grrrrrr I'm just sooooo upset about this. I mean I'm an immigrant too but I know how to speak English and do not even dare think that everyone else IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA will try to learn Tagalog just so that I CAN LIVE IN THIS COUNTRY. Sooooo unfair!!!
and second..... I've encountered some people that does not know a lick of English that will try to point, sign and cooperate with you so that you can help them out, but clearly this guy was more concerned that an AMERICAN like me does not know Spanish for him to refuse my help. OOOOOhhhhhh I hope that guy won't come back anymore cause maybe next time I won't be NICE!!!

(breathing in and breathing out)

So there. Thank you for letting me vent out and promise, my next post will be on a brighter note.

Have a great Saturday,
Grace

monday share and date with hubby pictures

Hi all,
Finally getting the feel of autumn around here. We are breaking out our jackets and extra warm blankets and (sadly) the coughs and colds have arrived in our home too. I had to have Marcus miss school today cause he was coughing really bad yesterday. I'm sure people at church didn't appreciate me bringing my hacking boy, but oh well! He's getting better though. I'm praying with some rest, liquids and cough medicine he'll be ready to go back to school tomorrow.

Anyways, did you guys know that I can track my blog visitors. Yep, thank goodness to my stat counter. Well last Thursday I checked (just like I always do) and was shocked to find out that I had 200 something page loads! Wow where did that come from? I mean, I didn't even post anything new so why would there be so much visits? Well come to find out that somebody made these and kindly posted where she got the idea and that's how everyone came to my site. It's really cool to know that (a) people like my tutorials/project shares enough to try them for themselves and (b) that they don't forget to share the source. Made my day. :)

So moving on.... Friday night, Mitch and I went to the Newport Beach temple for a date. Yeah, were kinda dorky that way. Since Mitch was so busy making the canoes for their scout trip in July and I've been working nights and Saturdays, we never had the time to go to the temple. But thankfully we got some break. Funny thing is that, that day they actually called me and asked if I could come in. I nicely said no, I mean I have a date!

Anyways, my in laws were kind enough to watch the kids. Although Newport Beach is far from us, since we were dropping the kids off at my in laws house we figured we'd go to that direction instead. It was great. That was our first time doing an endowment session in a small temple. Every temple is different in it's own right but they all have that distinct quality you can only see and feel in a house of the Lord. We can't wait to go on our next date there.

I don't have any fancy contraption for my camera for night shots so here's my best shot of the temple.


After our session, Mitch was in the mood for some mexican food so with my trustee walking google (my brother Gary) we tracked down a Don Jose close to my in laws and ate there. Mitch got a plate of Chile Verde and I got Chile Relleno. Mmmm!


And finally some monday layouts to share...

His/Her

I made this page using the October Coconut Scrapshop kit. The journaling is Mitch's and I perspective on our Vegas trip in May. Still going through those pictures.

I used the acorn cookie cutter that came in the kit to make my leaves. I used them as a template. I also took apart this circle embellishment from Maya Road and used the two circles for the date on my page.


U&I

This page was made to journal the highs and lows of my relationship with my daughter. She's really cute and loving but sometimes can be really stubborn and "diva-ish" in character. I particularly chose these pictures so as to show that the good times outweigh the bad.

I did some paper pleating/folding then sewed two ribbons. You can't see it but the & sign has glitters on it.


So that's it, thank you for stopping by and have a great day,
Grace

link friday....

Hi all,
quickly popping in here to wave hi and to share some links.

I'm hosting some fun challenges and games this month. All of them have prize packages up for grabs so be sure to check em out...

CCS Product challenge

SCS Journaling Challenge

SCS Gallery Hunt

My playlist is expanding week by week.

Borrowed this cd in the library and it's bringing me back to High School.
I know I'm "too old" to like him, but I really like this song.
Maddie and I can't stop singing her "bleeding" song in the car.

Went here today. Spent a ton of money but now I'm set on food for the rest of the month.

California friends and family, we all have an important duty to vote yes on this. Watch this for more info.

And finally, hubby and I are going on a little and much needed date tonight. We're going here. Will post pictures tomorrow.

Have a great weekend,
Grace

Coconut Scrapshop October kit...

Jen never disappoints with her kits. It's always filled with yummy supplies. In this month's kit, my favorite would have to be the BoBunny paper, all the fun buttons and the etsy finds. Here's what I made with it. (I made two pages but one is still needing some journaling so will post that later)

Still Madly Inlove


this page was also inspired by DT Pam's sketch which you can find in the CCS message board and in the inspiration sheet included in the kit.


When I was making this yesterday, I was stumped with a title so I turned to hubby and asked him what he thought. He gave me the title and I went with it. See, who says husbands can't help you scrapbook?! *laugh*


I just love, love, love the Bobunny papers, The intricate design was just so inspiring. It took me a while to handcut it but it was worth it. The buttons were fun to play with here as well.

Happy Fall card

*the green buttons and "happy" stickers are not included in the kit. I love the glittered journaling shape. I added some of those Daisy d's rubon to make everything even.


because the "tree" was a little heavy, I added pop up adhesive on the back of the black circle so it's not resting directly on the paper.

Rustling leaves hanging decoration

-PULLED OUT FOR PUBLICATION-

I bought shaped frame at the dollar spot in Michaels a long time ago. I liked the shape and the wires but didn't like the painting on it so I covered it up with more Bobunny papers (I used up all of that design!) layered some of the fun embellishments that came in the kit and voila.... a cute thing to hang on my wall for this season.


-PULLED OUT FOR PUBLICATION-

as you can see from the back of the project, I changed this item up big time. Hubby came in handy with this project again. The wires had some pink and blue beads in there that I had him take out with some pliers. Bec. the wires were twirked, I didn't want to undo them just so I can get the beads out so he just broke them off with pliers.


-PULLED OUT FOR PUBLICATION-

I love the layers on this.

Kits can be found here.

Will post the other page soon.

Have a great day,
Grace

World Card Making Day

Last Saturday was World Card Making Day. I know what other kinds of day can they have out there, right? But for me this one was fun! And to celebrate I made a couple. I've actually been on a card making streak this week. Going through my scraps of paper got me to be creative. Here's some of my card share....

Always card

this took me a mere 5 minutes to make. All these stickers were from a sticker book I got (a long time ago) at the dollar spot in Michaels.

HI! card

Again playing with itty bitty scraps here. Love these self adhesive blings.

Let's party card

trying some shaped card here. I'm seriously loving my fiskars water threading punch (scallop). I mean I use it on pretty much all of my projects/pages lately.

Love....always

The circle and "always" papers are from a Creative Imaginations journaling pad. The colors were inspired by the fall season.

one-derful card

this one was a fast one too. I like to use scraps of paper to test my stitching before I do it in my project so I have a lot of those scrap cardstocks that have stitches on them. One example is the brown background here. Everything here are still from my scrap bin.

Ok so hope this inspires you to go grab those scraps and make a card or two. Nothing beats a handmade card. :)

Have a great day,
Grace

a Maddie post

Hello October!
One of my favorite things about this month is that we get to celebrate our dear Maddie's birthday. Her special day falls on the 4th. I still can't believe she's already 3!
Anyways in line with her birthday, this post is all about her, our dear little princess!!!

First off, on tuesday (sept. 30) her preschool class went to Liberty park for a "field trip". It was hot but she sure had a lot of fun. Here she is conquering the wall!



and a thumbs up when she got to the top.


and then on Thursday (Oct2nd) we brought snacks to school and I made some strawberries and cream for a treat to the kids. They sang the bday song to her and the teacher got her this crown. How cute is she...


Although her bday fell on Saturday, with work and other commitments, we only were able to celebrate yesterday. But she didn't care, as long as she got her gifts and BOY was she happy to open her presents.
Here's my "attempt" at making her the castle cake. I know it's more like a leaning tower of Pisa if you asked me but I tried.



and here she is modeling all of her beautiful princess dresses. I'm grateful for grandparents, uncles and aunts cause I could've never afford all these fun stuff for her.




we're still missing Cinderella but Christmas is just around the corner. *wink*

She had a blast playing with her favorite cousin Cassidy. They played dress up, exchanged princess shoes and watched the Cinderella movie.

And here she is this morning. Looks like this is what I'll see for the rest of the week. *laugh*


Happy Birthday little princess!

Have a great day,
Grace

right now tidbits....

Right now.....

I'm loving the two days off I got from work. Eventhough it was only two days it made a BIG difference. I was able to make 5 cards and finishing up 3 layouts. Wow now that's progress!!!

I'm addicted to these shows.....




I don't mind eating spaghetti with meatballs in every meal. Doesn't even have to be fancy, just plain spaghetti noddles with red sauce and some great meatballs from Costco. Yum, just thinking about it makes me wanna eat some right now.

I'm planning on making this cake for Maddie's 3rd birthday this weekend. My dear friend Becky made one for her girl and Maddie never forgot about it.

I've "somewhat" reorganized my space. I say somewhat cause I just shoved most of the stuff wherever there was a space but now my table is all empty and going through my stash truly sparked up some creativity in me.

I wanna buy these at Aero. I'm totally addicted now to becoming aero cool.






I'm vowing that I'm not going to buy those paper packs at Costco and JoAnn's. The quality is not good and there are just far more designs that I don't care for. They're just cluttering my space.

I'm feeling rejuvenated and excited because it's another month. I have some goals planned and can't wait to be able to execute them.

Feeling blessed. Got my complimentary copy of this and some fun scrapbook goodies. I have two mini albums in this book and I'm so cheery about all the fun stuff I got for "payment". Nothing beats free scrapbook stuff.


I got a happy email. Got picked up for publication again. It's been a long time since I got one of these happy emails.

So there. I hope I didn't bore you. Have a great start of a weekend,

Grace

my style showcase

Lately I haven't had time to actually sit and scrap. Can you believe it that it's been WEEKS, yes sadly weeks since I've made a page and all I can do is sigh. But I still love to look at inspirations in blogs and galleries and got me thinking of what my personal style really is. And I've come up with the conclusion that I don't sway to any "style" that's been put out there. I just love trying them all. So with this new conclusion, I'll share some pages I've made that fits certain styles.

Digital


Graphic


Sassy


Romantic/Shabby


Sleek/Simple and Traditional


As you can see I like to try them all. So for those that are looking for a midweek challenge, why not try making pages/projects that are out of your comfort zone and make one for each style and see what you come up with.

Have a great day,
Grace