Fun and Busy Weekend

Today was the first time Matt, Chet, and Faith performed with Sign Design, and they had a blast! I was so proud of them! This was the first time they had to do this without the mirrors to see the other kids, and they remembered most of the signs. The whole group looked great up there signing and dancing, and they got huge rounds of applause when they were done!

I must have been using the wrong f-stop on this shot, but I still like it enough to figure out a way to use it on a page. This is Faith's favorite song to sign and dance to... "Can You Shake It Like This?"


All of the boys sign the lyrics to "God Bless My Soldier Too", and it brought tears to the audience's eyes. I think it is a very emotional song to begin with, but to witness it being signed is heartstopping!

Afterwards, we had lunch together and rode some of the rides at the fall festival the performance was held at. Beth found herself a little friend... adorable, aren't they??

Last night we took the kids to the pumkin patch and took some photos and played on the rides there. The lighting was bad, and most of my shots came out blurry, but at least I caught one with most of them semi-looking at me... LOL


Chet wanted to ride the bungee trampoline, and started out just bouncing about four feet off the tramp. When I told him to jump really high so I could get a picture of him without all the twinkle lights behind him, the guy running Chet's bungee added some more cables to him. Then he grabbed Chet's feet, and sling-shotted him about twenty feet high. Chet yelled at him, but when he was done bouncing down he realized it was fun and couldn't wait to do it again.

Tomorrow is another busy day. Chet and Faith are performing in their vocal and chimes choirs at my mom's church, and then going to our church to practice their songs for the Primary program in a couple of weeks. I will post photos if I can get any good ones!

Now Accepting Applications .. Fashion File Challenge #7

LOL.. any takers????
I pulled colors from the sweater, all of which were in this KI paper. I was focusing more on the texture, though, so I filled the layout with little touches of texture: blue mesh, I made chipboard stencil letters with EZ Laser stencils, and used some paperclips and nailhead brads. (My brother is a helicopter/train mechanic, so the symbolism worked for me.) I went ahead and used a blocked look as well to sort of match the sweater. The title letters are K & Co, and even though they are technically definitions, it looked they were cut out of newsprint so I went with it... :0)

Sorry about the dirty scanner! Anybody have any tips on how to make the left side scan with the same color values as the right side??? This frustrates me so much!

this and that

My house smells so good right now. I have potato soup simmering on the stove. As soon as the veggies are cooked and the water boils down a bit I will add the cream and cheese. I am serving it with a freshly cut green salad. mmmmm.... soup and salad is my favorite! I am so glad it has cooled down... LOL... we are in the 80s this week.... nothing beats a warm meal on a cool night. LOL

Matt has choir tonight. I picked up the house today, and the kids started their new computer curriculum this morning. They LOVED it. They spent five hours straight working through it, and then wanted to get back on after lunch. The house was so quiet for much of that time because they all had earphones on to hear their computers without the other computers distracting them. It has been so long since the house was that quiet during waking hours!

A lot of you have asked where I got my Harley license plate album. It is made by a company called Shoestring Productions. They have lots of different designs... Nascar, Disney, football teams,. and states. So far I have collected the California, Pepsi, Harley, Route 66, Cowgirl Up, and Dallas Cowboys albums. As soon as I fill those babies up I will be displaying them. They are so cool! dKim told me she is working on making albums out of bigger metal signs, and that will be right on the top of my must have list! Here is their contact info if you want one for yourself!

Shoestring Productions

dkewhite@columbia-center.org

503-397-6376

Memory Trends Goodies

I will be back in just a little while to tell more about what these all are. I ran out of memory space on my camera, so check out Chris' blog after she gets her pics up to see even more of the great stuff we saw today!

The 7Gypsies booth always makes me happy. They make the coolest things with their products, and these bracelets just thrilled me to no end. I have to make something like these for myself!

Aren't these great? They are from Carolee's Creations.

These are new Carolee's Creation stickers. I thought they were fun.

Chatterbox has these new adorable matchbox albums to match the room sets.

Chatterbox has also released these big spools of their patterned papers for art projects such as covering lampshades, wallpapering shelves etc. Very cool! I can't wait to make a humongous canvas with one!

This was a new company called Collage Press. The XO paper really caught my eye.

EK Success has these really cool chalk Zigs. You write on the paper with them and it looks like nothing is there. A few seconds later the color shows up... very yummy!


This another new company called IMLW Publishers. The owner is a big train buff, so he has a huge link of train related products. I need some for my Reading Railroad during the summer! I also loved their license plate paper. It would look great on some masculine themed altered objects.


I got to see Teresa Collins' new line of paper (I personally loved the stripes and snowmen, and while I was there I snapped a shot of these new hangerz.. basically twill with little hanger tabs attached to them.

Look... somebody made a stamp jsut for me! LOL... she said her husband told her she spelled it wrong, but it looks perfect to me!

I LOVED the Maya Roads booth... probably my favorite there. These are really big bottlecaps.. 2.75 inches wide! She had an adorable album on her keychain that she made with them... fun!


Both of these are more Maya Road... (insert happy sighs) I adore their new ribbons, and the flower chipboard pieces are to die for. I know lots of companies have chipboard now, but they don't come in the perfect little tins like these do, and they don't have the detail!

The new Making Memories luggage in pink with black polkadot innards... be still my heart!

The new Queen and Co Christmas paper. Loved it!

Scrapworks new line of paper... I love pinks and reds and oranges!

Scrapworks also has new holiday tabs... they are awesome!

I htought this new carnival font from Technique Tuesday was very cool!

I also like the new Eiffel Tower Tech Tues font.. very similar to the MM font, but thicker.

This is a brand new company (Trace Industry) with some pretty cool canvas paper. I loved how they used their heritage photos to create the floor!


We R Memory Keepers has a ton of new wooden embellishments and tags... very cool!

Little acrylic pieces from Heidi Grace.

I love big brads and I cannot lie! Queen and Co

Bazzill has lots of big brads as well... my favorites are the ones with polka dots!
Bazzill's new flower chipboard pieces... very cool, but not as heart stopping as Maya Road's.

Bazzill Gallery letters in circles and squares... these would look so cool with some paint!

Sees.. aren't those Bazill dot brads so yummy!

I like these Bazill tees! They are pink, fitted, comfortable neckline, and so perfect!

Why don't more companies carry Beaux Regards ribbon? If you are a retailer with a wide line of their products, please email me... I will be your new best customer! (Anybody who has been in my scrap room knows I need more ribbon... LOL... cough cough cough)

Here is Margie demoing the really cool new tag maker tool from Making Memories. It smooshes (very technical, I know) the metal rims over paper or fabric tags... so cool!

You thought the pink MM luggage was hot, check out the green!

I loved these new SEI Christmas stickers.

Making Memories has a bunch of new Christmas stuff out as well.

This is jsut one of the fonts A-Z Scrapbooking has used to make big huge chipboard letters. I love how each bag has a bunch of different sizes... so perfect for an eclectic junque girl like me!

Heidi Swapp has lots of new stuff! Here are the new chipboard letters.

My Mind's Eye has a whole new Kaleidoscope line out with more paisleys... happy happy joy joy!

Here is Jenna demoing the new Brainiac scrapping book featuring top scrappers like Katherine Brooks, Lisa Bearnson, Angie Randall... and jsut for fun because I can, I think you all should know that yours truly has a couple of layouts in there as well! :0)

Heidi Swapp's booth was offering HS lipgloss, flowers, lanyards, and these really fun HS gumballs... LOL

All the HS gals were wearing these jeans that they had dolled up with rub-ons, stamps, and iron-ons... they all looked so good! I had to take this picture to make a banner with. (Do any of you do that... see things as potential banners now??? )

I missed tons of photo opps when my camera ran out of space, so make sure you check Chris's blog! She has a hundred or so up! I had a great time walking the floor with her and eating lunch! (Except for the shoes killing my feet, but I am all over that now... LOL)