top 10 of 2010

So all the cool kids are doing it , so I thought it would be blog worthy to do it as well.

My favorite layouts I have made in the year 2010.

Above my all time favorite collection from Cosmo Cricket featured in the layout

"Schutt Apple Farm".  I loved the papers from Earth Love so much, I bought the

collection at 2peas then scooped up a stack when I saw it at Michaels.

Michaels, please carry cosmo cricket again? 

 Made this for a class I took of Shimelle's.  Paper strip love and of course my pip!

 I was getting friendly with my cricket here.  I had a period of a month where I used it for every layout.  Must try that again.  It was kinda fun, but now I have a slice,so.....

 Simple love for the Anna Griffin papers.  They are busy papers, but when it works, I want to use Anna on all my layouts.  Until it doesn't work, which happens too often...

 I posted this layout only on  my blog and in the gallery for Shimelle's class "Something for almost Nothing".  Then before I could post it anywhere else I saw it posted on 2peas.  Not my layout, but a complete scraplift.

I made it for a prompt from Shimelle's class to use a challenge prompt from 2peas to inspire my layout.  I made this, posted it Shimelle's gallery and while reading the message board, saw that several ladies were also using the prompt to enter the 2peas challenge. I thought I should as well.  So there I went and lo and behold, a complete scraplift of my layout was already present.  I called Craig into the room showed him the lift, we laughed, and then promptly forgot about it.

 I liked this one as well.

I used those lovely OA thrift store papers.

 I ADORE these photos!

There is something so fun and just so our life about them!

My sister and my girl Nora laughing it up!

That's the good life...

 More paper strip love, I love bits and pieces and I'm wild about this photo still.  Love a snoopy smile!

 This layout I whipped up the morning Nora went off to school.  The photo was taken, printed, and scrapped to go to school for show and tell.  It came home a wrinkled mess.  Yes, I was a little....disappointed, but it was a success for Nora and that's what mattered!

My blossoming love for the 8 1/2 x 11 photo!

Collage my photos and print it out!

Makes my two pagers so fast and effortless.

xmas shopping!

Who are those cute mannequins!

We have to amuse ourselves while shopping

with Grandma Sal!

These photos are all part of my December Daily.

Got everything downloaded, but the stinkin' printer is not cooperating!

My epson was free, but it's been a colossal pain in the you know what!

Eating lunch with my girl Nora at the market cafe in our fave supermarket Wegmans.

Sitting there watching the shoppers below.

Ahhh...December!

Once again...December Daily
will I finish it this year?

I'm up to day 7...sounds promising!

Making ornaments for our homemade Christmas.

Trying to catch up with my scrapbooks.

Everything is a 2pager and my favorite?

Printing out collages on 8.5x11.

Fast and easy!

I love the snow!
I really do...maybe because I'm a December baby.
This is a July baby and she' doing her best.
Poor thing!

I voted...did you?

This little one came with me today to vote.   She's wearing her sticker at school right now.   She loves it!

Happy Halloween!

Here's to another busy week!

Hope everyone had a great holiday.

we had wet snow, suffice to say the girls only hit 10 houses with their Dad and came back at the house within 30 minutes!

We hardly saw any kids and we have lots of candy left.

Hello Weight Watchers.....I need you!

Good it's Friday.

Is it wrong that I want to process the heck out of all my photos!!!

Only one in today's post, but I want to flip them all!

Restrain yourself Ann! ;)

Today is a half day for Nora and Charlotte has AM kindergarten and what am I doing with my free time?

Surfing the web and doing laundry.

I feel like I should be doing something more constructive before they get home in an hour.

Oh well. :)

Wednesday was a trip to Powder Mills park for some fall photos.

I read somewhere our clothing options should be neutrals for fall photos.

No way.

Craig & I couldn't get these two girls to stage a photo if our lives depended on it!

So it was off the school bus and to the park to catch the sunlight.

Craig's photos are as beautiful as always. I need to steal some for my layouts!

For the record these are my photos, his are lovely.

The girls were somewhat cooperating.

In most of my photos the girls are looking at his camera.

Here's some evidence. :)

Guilty pleasures this week:

Top Chef: Just Desserts

There is a lot of drama with pastry chefs.

I'm seriously convinced one chef is bi-polar and if he hasn't seeked treatment, he should

immediately.

Jersey Shore : Yes, I watch this ridiculous show.

Last night was last episode of season and it was just alright.

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills

I love the Real Housewives of New York & New Jersey so much.

I want this show to be good so bad....those messes in DC lost me after one episode.

fun.

Loving my Studio Calico kit from September! Sigh...such a lovely batch of papers and embellies!

I absolutely adore the colors!
Working on Girl Scout stuff this weekend. Selling cookies and making 25 pins to swap for Camporee next weekend. We're still undecided on what pins to make. I want to use craft stuff I have on hand and just purchase the pins. We'll see how it goes!

Have a great weekend!

Back in school & more kitchen pics

1st day of Kindergarten!

Woot woot!

So adorable and so proud!

The Bus was very late. So I didn't get any good shots of her getting on the bus.

But I got some the other day, but I thought I would keep them in sequence.

So Charlotte's in the pm class which means pick-up is 11:45.

Here is Nora getting off the bus on her 1st day!

Woot! Woot!

Her bus stop for pick up is at 8:20am, down the block at the corner with some 2nd graders.

I actually took some pictures in the am, but I thought the ones of her getting off the bus came out a little better.

She's wearing her new boots. She loves them because she picked them out with her Dad at Target and they remind her of Wizards of Waverly, and still rocking the occasional Hannah Montana tee.
Oh yes....that black vest is glittered!
And you can never have enough denim leggings!
Four pair at last count!

Big News!
The kitchen floor is in!

Oh it's beautiful!
I'm in love and we're going to put these hardwoods throughout the house!

I left you with a glimpse of what my new windows looked like, so here they are in full.

Love the circle window. I've never had one before and I've always admired them.

It's just cool.

The other windows have a crank and I can open them all for a major wind or just one for a gentle breeze!

You can see my counter tops here.
Ugh.
That was difficult.
A story for another day.
I'll also take a better photo of them when they are not dusty!

A brand new stainless steel bottom freezer refrigerator sits in the near corner.
Yes, I have polished it up since this photo was taken! :)
We're actually painting the cabinet doors today.
Getting exciting around here!

More kitchen repair

We're replacing one wall of windows in the kitchen.

Replacing drywall and adding a whole new ceiling.

Holy crap.

Let me get my camera was my reaction to this hole on the side of my house.

That's our veggie garden next to the house!

Our garden is quite big. We ate the corn. It was delicious and the tomatoes are never ending.

Unfortunately the veggies piled up while we were without a kitchen, but lucky for everyone else because we were constantly giving it away.

Oh yeah, back to the kitchen. Within a day that giant hole turned into this.

I can say with pride I helped quite a bit.

Well... with all the lifting, cleaning, and swearing!

But Craig's been the real beast!

I can scrapbook again?!

A little break from my home improvement stories to tell you about my little Nora.

Yesterday my little kindergartner Charlotte and my first grader Nora got off the school bus and Nora stormed up the driveway yelling at Charlotte,
"You lied to me! You said you would sit with me on the bus!"

Charlotte, age 5, already a pro at avoiding conflict calmly tells Nora,
"I didn't see you."

Between me & you, I think she saw her!

Charlotte has just been busy sitting with her newest pal from her kindergarten class, Lila. She likes sitting with her new friend, she knows she can see her sister at home and play with her then.

Nora doesn't have a friend from her class on the bus. It shouldn't be a big deal, but Nora is very shy and unless someone makes a move to sit with her, she'll sit by herself. I also think she's been looking forward to sitting with Charlotte on the bus.

So yesterday, Nora blew up at her sister and underneath her bluster I could tell she was very sad that she sat alone. She cried, we hugged and talked about maybe sitting with someone else who sat by themselves. Maybe that person just wants to sit with someone too. She felt better after our little talk and we read some books together (Charlotte banned from the room by Nora's decree!)

So I sit here hoping that today will be better. I told Charlotte to sit with whomever she wants and her sister will do the same. If you want to sit together, if you don't want to sit together, that fine too.

So it's only our first full week in the bus and I'm really hoping all goes well today. My heart hurts so much when my girls' hurt.

Be back later with an update and maybe finish my kitchen story. :)

ETA : Charlotte sat with Nora on bus Friday, but she kicked and pinched Nora. Nora wanted to report her sister to bus driver. But thankfully she reported Charlotte's behavior to us. Charlotte....Argh.

I used to blog once

I used to blog once upon a time.

Then I bought an awesome house with great "bones" in a fantastic idyllic neighborhood.

We (Craig & I) were going to turn this old ranch into our dream house. Years of subscribing to magazines like Cottage Living, House Beautiful, Martha Stewart's Living, This Old House, and every other magazine I can't think of right now.... we were ready to abandon our brand spankin' new McMansions and create the perfect home!

What a colossal pain in the a**!!!

We've done this before 10 years ago with our first house. It was dirty and disgusting, but we were young and tore that house up inside and out and made it a beautiful and unique home.

Fast forward 10 years, we're at it again. We're older, busier, and now with two kids and a dog, this has been harder than even I could have imagined.

It's terribly draining physically, mentally, and financially.

I worry about the NAILS sticking up and out everywhere!

"Wear your shoes" "Don't go in there!" "Don't touch that!"
were (are) daily admonishes!

The whole house felt inside out. The kitchen was a wreck, 2 bathrooms in a state of wreckage, and our two main rooms were also construction zones. The dust and dirt was incredible. I felt like I traded my nice life in for this stressed out mess and I felt like I was suffocating!

A home should be your refuge, your safe place, but I felt ours was anything but! Just the opposite, it was place I just had to get out of everyday!

So I would wake up and take the girls somewhere everyday. The mall, museum, a movie, walks down by the lake, playgrounds, get us all haircuts and many a time, we just went to Grandma's house.

But things have gotten better lately.

Long holiday weekends that give Craig extra time to work on the house.

Craig has been amazing with all the work he's been putting into the house.

I don't think I'll ever say it enough, but he's a real champion when

he has the time to get this stuff done. Nobody works harder than him, balancing his real job, remodeling a house, and still fitting in time to spend with his little girls.

It's been amazing to watch him.

Now with school in session, I'm not running around trying to think up things to keep our girls entertained daily. Yay for school!!!

And that's not all.

There's a kitchen that is definitely making a comeback in a major way!!!

These photos are only part of this story. More photos in tomorrow's post of a kitchen at it's darkest hour (eek!) and (dare I say it, dream it!) it's future glory!

Patience grasshopper.

what we're obsessed with.....

1. Always new scrapping supplies. I can't help being in any store and looking round for something I can use in a mini album or layout. I bought some cool travel stamps at Anthropologie the other day. I was looking for a skirt, I bought stamps. :P

2. Swimming swimming and more swimming! We can't get enough pool time. And maybe one day I was obsessed with buying the girls some swimsuits at TJ Maxx. Can't beat buying a Nike suit that was originally $70 for $10. Love running into deals like that!

3. We are 100% obsessed with the TLC show Toddlers and Tiaras. It's my fault. I was flicking the channels around one rainy afternoon at my mom's house and ran into a marathon. I abhor and adore this show. As the mother to two little girls, it's kinda fascinating but a real trainwreck! Now I know what's a formal dress and what constitutes full glitz. It completes me! It's definitely been my summer guilty pleasure!

4. Finishing my sister's album of her trip to Las Vegas. If you ask me it is the most awesome album I've ever done and it's already gone from my house.

5. Arranging my crafting supplies. I want to get some photos of my scrap room for prosperity but I start organizing and immediately somehow get inspired to make a project and abandon all motivation to organize my room. Soon it will get done!