{me}anderings . . .

sea monster unmasked

 
the gman had his heart set on being something scary this year.  i'm not so into the scary, but can handle it if it has a touch of cute if that makes any sense.  we lucked out on this outfit at target.  i think he makes a really adorable sea monster, don't you?  the face paint and fangs were just for mommy's photo op.  after i got my pics he made me baby wipe his face so he could put his mask on which he probably wore for a whole two minutes total this evening.  that's okay though.  we were both happy and enjoyed our evening festivities.  happy halloween everyone!  :)

 

pumpkin patch part three

 
you will probably be rolling on the floor laughing when i tell you that last night the gman and i both slept in that little car's tent behind him.  yes.  yes we did.  it was a tight squeeze, but we managed.  we actually stayed warmer than most due to it's small size and thus greater concentration of body heat.  i'm not going to lie though.  an extra foot in all directions would be a big improvement.  gotta work on that for the spring trip.  it was sweet setting up and taking down.  just two poles and that's it.  you'll probably roll on the floor laughing your butt off when i tell you i just pulled out the two poles, threw everything inside, zipper it up, and had one of the guys help me tote it to the car.  tent turned duffle bag.  that's my kinda travel gear.  heh.

 
you will probably be suitably impressed with my strong constitution when i tell you we slept in this tent in 31 degree high humidity weather.  wowzas.  talk about cold.  the gman was making icies with the frost off the tents this morning.  oh and last night.  i am so very thankful for divine intervention.  i've had to make a trip to the ladies' room every night between the hours of 3:00 and 4:00 for the last seven years.  last night i miraculously did not have to make the trip to the little girls' port-a-potty.  so.very.thankful.

 
you're probably a little grossed out right about now at the grime under our fingernails as we dethaw them over the open flames.  hey.  there was no running water.  believe you me, the shower was the first thing i hit when i got home.  poor g had to wait as i used up all the hot water defunking.  he's still waiting actually.  hey.  he doesn't care.  he's a boy.

 
you would probably be oohing and ahhing over the gorgeous fall scenery there if my camera had been behaving properly.  apprently my camera isn't as durable as i am.  i finally determined that it was the lens that had gone defunct and switched it out for my junky kit lens, but only after many lost photo ops.  sigh.

 
and now you're probably wondering where all the pumpkin pictures are.  eh.  been there done that.  let's just cut this short and say we had great fun.  and now i'm going to defunkify the man child and hit the sack.  i am soooooooo looking forward to my warm, soft bed tonight.

jbs mercantile + crate paper restoration . . .

 
another sweet layout of the cutie blonde niece (sorry wendy, i really will get these pics uploaded for you this weekend).  and this is one more with the october jbs mercantile kit.  looove it.  i've got some exciting news for you!  the jbs design team is being featured on the crate blog today and if you go over there and leave a comment you'll have a chance to win one of these kits.  the drawing ends next week sometime.  if you don't happen to win, there are still a few kits left in the shop as well.

 
will you forgive me for posting an unedited picture?  oh and for not editing this post either?  our big camping trip is tonight you know and we need to be out the door in 37 minutes, but i just really wanted to let you know about the giveaway and tell you a little about the background for this layout.  i'm so happy with the way it turned out.  it's our coredinations cardstock with brown sugar and bubble gum ink pads swiped across it.  the brown sugar was much darker than i expected and i thought i was going to have to start over, but i thought to brush a thin coating of gesso over all and it turned out perfectly.  yay!  ok.  i'm outtie, but i'll be back soon.  :)

i'm teaching locally again!

 

the deets:

who - me and you

what - a christmas mini-album

when - tuesday, november 9th, 6:30-8:30

where - the scrap room, 615/758-9596

why - memory keeping, planning, or gift-giving

how much - $30

ETA: kits also available on ETSY.  interior page images and instructions will be available on my blog on november 10th.

 

i'm really excited to be teaching again locally!  our new lss, the scrap room, opened up in providence last month and i'll be teaching my first class there this month.  the store is across the street from the mall near buffalo wild wings.  mmm.  dinner anyone?  my first class will be this sweet christmas mini.  i'm using mine to finish up our december memories from 2009.  since we were in honduras for two weeks last year and i already did a mini on that, i'll be doing my mini in sections featuring the major events of the month.  there'll be 31 page so you could definitely do a december daily with it a la ali edwards.  it's tabbed too, so it's also perfect for christmas planning or gifting with pics of the grandkids inside.  i'll be selling extra kits at the store on class day and will have a few for sale on etsy for the non-locals.  i'll give you details on that as well as some pics of the interior pages next week.  yay!  i hope you'll join me!  i'd love to meet some more of the locals.

 

so, october has completely gotten away from me.  i had meant for this month's goal to be mini albums, but alas this is the first one i've gotten to.  sigh.  and i don't think i'll be getting any done this weekend as the gman and i are going on our first boy scout camping trip friday night and most of saturday and then there's trick-or-treating to be done sunday night.  sounds like great fun though, yes?  the toting is especially vital as i've already gone through all the tootsie rolls g got at trunk-or-treating last sunday and am in desperate need of a new supply.

well.  back to work with me.  hope to see you soon!

motley crew

 
can you tell we frantically dug through blake's dress up box about fifteen minutes before heading to trunk or treat tonight?  yea.  it was a totally unproductive weekend.  i'm going to be paying for that this week as i frantically throw projects together.  oops.

pumpkin patch part two

 
yesterday we went on the fall school field trip to the pumpkin patch.  now i have to admit to being one of those moms who would never let the kid wear a red shirt to the pumpkin patch or an orange shirt to a christmas party.  but hey now, this is a really interesting color combo, isn't it?  i like it a lot!

 
the corn maze was not made of corn.  it's a grain obviously.  an ornamental grass?  i kept calling it grass.  i refused to call it the corn it wasn't.  one of my boys corrected me and called it, "hay."  clearly it's still a grass.  and very cool.  i love photographing dried grasses.  loved making bouquets with them when i was a little girl.

 
cute baby goats.  except one of them had demon eyes.  really it did.  i'm going to have to delete the photo.  i made sure not to post it here.  it was too creepy.

 
these were my three boys.  two of them were wanderers.  i think i am not going to be getting any chaperoning awards.  in fact, i'm quite sure i got dissed in the teachers' lounge for being that chaperone who couldn't keep up with her kids.  but seriously.  i had to yell for thing one every 10minutes and thing two every 5.  i was quite relieved when they were caged in the big yellow school bus and no longer my repsonsibility.

 
this is a somewhat sad little picture.  i think i've mentioned before that the gman is afraid of heights.  he's in a very bad phase with his fear these days.  the kids were having so much fun on this slide.  g knew it was fun.  he knew it was no big deal.  but he couldn't control his fear.  he would walk up one side wanting to do it then walk down the other because he couldn't do it.  he didn't want me to go with him because he's getting bigger and didn't want to have his mommy go with him.  by his third aborted attempt he was holding back the tears and finally agreed to try it with me.  he cried harder and harder as we went up the hill.  by the time we got to the top he was actually quite panicked.  almost hysterical, but he wanted to experience the fun so much even though he was afraid.  we managed to go down once and then three more times.  he never did let go of his iron grip on my thigh, but his tears dried up and he loved it.  he wants me to make a mini-album of the day.  i must be sure to do that for him.

glittershim giveaway winnerS!

The random number generator picked 29:

This class sounds so amazing... : ) Cool to see lots of different people's perspectives too.

Posted by: Lou

and you all were so very sweet that i decided to give away my second sneaky pass here as well.

The random number generator then picked 8:

hi!! thank you for the opportunity to win! i usually don't take part in giveways as i am in France and people tend not to send stuff that far away but this class is online so no need to pay for postage!! i would love to win, i love shimmelle's work! have a great day!

Posted by: sophie

congratulations friends!  please send me your name and email address to [email protected] and i will forward it to shimelle who will get you registered for her lovely class, true stories.

glittershim giveaway!

 
do you know shimelle laine?  to know her is to love her.  she is such a genuinely kind person and oh so talented.  if you don't know her yet, i hope you'll take the time to get to know her in her upcoming class "true stories."  i have seen the makings of it and it is truly amazing.  shimelle won my heart last year when she brought me a coke in a pepsi establishment.  it makes me giggle that she mentioned my addiction in my guest spot intro on her blog.  i laughed out loud knowing there were two cokes on display in my peek.  i think she will laugh at me too.  oops.  ha.  but lets move past my bad habits and focus on the pretties, shall we?  this is a tiny corner of the two page layout that i made for her class.  a two page layout that i love!  and it wasn't even painful.  thanks so much for the inspiration shimelle.  i'm pretty sure this is my most favorite two pager ever and i couldn't have done it without you.  :)

 
guess what?!!!  i have a spot to giveaway in her class!!  she's generous too!!  leave a comment on this post and i'll randomly choose one of you this saturday!!  yay!!

happy birthday angel baby!

 
this is us at 10:12 pm last night.  the hour and minute he was born.  i take his picture every year exactly on his birthday.  what a blessing he is.  even when we are having spelling test practice wars.  sigh.

 
his papi got him a wii for his birthday.  fun times.

 
we also rearranged his craft area last weekend so he'd have a little desk area of his own.

 
aunt theresa sent him a visa gift card.  he had to buy something right away.  he got a ramp for his tech decks and flip tricks.  we're trying to save the rest till at least next weekend.  thanks aunt theresa!

page pizzazz winner!

Wow! What a great giveaway! Please pick me! I absolutely loved your last post.

Posted by: Ginny C.

congratulations Ginny!  email me at [email protected] and i'll get you hooked up.  :)