If I Could Do Anything....

If you could do anything at all, what would it be?If other people weren't in the mix, if you didn't have to worry about relationships or money or time, what would be the things you'd do? You and you alone?

• Finish my bachelor's degree
• Work a summer at Disneyland
• Get SF Giants season tickets and go to the All-Star Game this year
• Start a non-profit to send information to pregnant moms wanting more information about getting the best start to breastfeeding
• Take a cross-country road trip
• Get tickets to the Oprah Show
• Travel to Europe spending most of my time in Italy where my dad's family is from
• Go to DisneyWorld because I've only been there once in 1992 and I'm sure a lot has changed since then
• Take a Mexican Cruise
• Spend a week on St. Thomas again laying on Megan's Bay everyday and eat pizza
• Cook gourmet meals all the time and hire a housekeeper to clean the mess and the rest of my house!
• Get tickets to see Jay Leno tape the Tonight Show before Conan takes over
• Visit New York City
• Get a personal pilates instructor
• Get a massage twice a month
• Hire lanscape designer and interior designer to finish my house and yard!

Okay, my list is totally long enough! But it was nice dreaming and making my wish list!!

Grandma C's Baby Album

I finally finished my mom's album today after my order of photos came in. I known she's going to be thrilled to get it. Looks like her house in Tahoe should be just fine! But she says her car is still loaded until the fire is 100% out - not taking any chances!

Twinkle Twinkle Star

I've gotten out the baby photos! How quickly I've forgotten them since they live in another album. I've been scrapping so many recent photos, I decided I better catch up on the baby's first six months! I love these photos and the layout is very unlike the way I usually scap - only one photo per page?!WOW. The left photo... my mom is holding the baby. The photo on the right... my husband hates this photo because of his farmer tan, but I love it. Father/Son photos just don't get much cuter than this!!

The only bad thing about this post is that I had a really hard time photographing the pages because of the light colors. As it is, I have a hard time getting crisp photos of my paper crafts, so if anyone reading would like to give me some advice/tips on photographing my layouts, it would be great. The next time I buy a printer/scanner, I'm going to get one with the "stitching" feature, but I won't need a new one for a long time!

July 4th 2006 - A Year Later!!

A year later, I have finally scrapped our photos from July 4th, 2006. Better late than never, right? I put in a bad photo of me looking quite chubs and of the embarassing sunburn on the baby's nose. I wanted to burn that photo, but sometimes it's the bad photos that conjure up the most memories later on, so I went ahead and included it! I used my Close To My Heart paper and some sticker tags by deluxe designs on this layout. I'm pretty happy with the way it came out!

Life's Too Short....

Two Peas Prompt....

Share a quote or a fave passage that has spoken to you recently.

I came up with this all by myself:

Life's too short to watch reruns!

More Foods

I actually finished this yesterday but didn't have the time to post it. I just had so many food and eating photos I wanted to use. This was a little less labor intensive that "Starting Solids" and I used some of the leftover food paper. I just loved these photos so much, they deserved a scrapbook page!

Into Everything!

This was a fun layout I did today.
I have been thinking about this theme for awhile
since my son has officially become the wild man of
the house. I used stamps to do the title and the
tags on the left say "all boy" and "just goofin' around."
The journaling on the right page is a quote that reads:
"A sparkling house is a fine thing if the children
aren't robbed of their luster by keeping it that way."
-Marcelene Cox

My Scrapbook Style

Honestly, I think my scrapbook style is to use a lot of my favorite photos that tell a story about a paticular topic or event. Not sure if that is considered a style or not!?

I think I can "clutter" up my pages sometimes with trying to squeeze too many photos, and I also have been trying harder to get into my stamps and embellishments more lately.

I do feel like my creativity is growing more and more especially lately because I've been making time for my crafts lately. We'll see how my style continues to grow and change!

The News

Two Peas Blogging Prompt....

Do you watch the news? Why or why not? What stories always move you? Blog about it.

I make it a point to not watch the news because I tire easily of too much negativity. Anything else is just "fluff" stories that aren't any interest. I know I probably miss out on things that would be interesting but I'm not willing to watch 100% of the time to catch 1% of something interesting.

HOWEVER... With that said.... I am watching the news right now because my mom's home is in South Lake Tahoe and this is something that worries me. I'm praying for Wasabe Drive in Meyers, CA (along with the rest of the area!) and hope that you'll join me!!! While I live five hours away, South Lake Tahoe is where my mom lives since 1999. I'm watching the news for any and all updates on this topic. It's hard though getting through all the commentary on Paris Hilton.

My new shirt!

Two Peas Blogging Prompt....

What one piece of clothing do you own, that you have been wearing a lot lately? And why? Blog about it... and share why u love it so much!

I have been thinking about this sweater I own a lot recently. It's a sweater that I just like a lot and happen to think it looks good on me and good in photos. I wore it in my engagement photos and I wore it on a winter trip to Disneyland in 2004 and have a gang of photos of me wearing it there. It had gotten some kind of mystery stain on it so it was in the closet for a long time. My mom is the washing machine queen so I got her to get the stain out. So since then, and since moving back to colder weather, I have been wearing it more often. Now in 2007 we took photos with our wedding photographer to celebrate my son's first birthday. I had nothing to wear and I wanted to wear my favorite sweater, but couldn't wear the same thing since I planned to display these photos near my engagement photo. So I raced down to the mall with less than an hour to find something suitable and found this amazing new blouse. It's something I probably would not have normally picked out. It's much more feminine than the clothes I normally wear (I call them froo-froo!) but I totally love this new blouse and have worn it three times since getting it. I can't wait to see how my photos came out and see if I have a new "favorite" to replace my sweater....

Joe on the Go & Solid Foods

I got so much scrapbooking done today...it was amazing. I have no clue how I did it considering it was a crazy day! But here's a look at my solid foods and "Joe on the Go" layouts.

Baby's First Easter

I'm really excited about this layout because I did

it all in one sitting. I had laid out the paper a few

weeks ago, but I did it start to finish tonight.

Baby is waking, so can't say anything else!

Pit Stop

Here is another layout I started awhile back and
just finished. I don't think I'll ever be able to
finish anything in one sitting ever again! I'm
pretty excited about this layout because I haven't
done anything with a racing theme. Racing is
my husband's passion which makes it, on some
level, important to me as well! These photos were
taken at JCPenney on the baby's first birthday
without my husband knowing this month's theme.
One of the blankets is handmade the baby's Great Aunt
Vivian and it shows my husband's race car. The other
blanket is handmade by the baby's Aunt Daisha.
These were such special gifts, I really liked how I was
able to incorporate them into his birthday photos
and into this layout.

Wordless Entry

Christmas Quote

Erma Bombeck:
There's nothing sadder in this world
than to awake Christmas morning
and not be a child.

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Swimming Layout

We don't get to do a lot of swimming in this area because of the weather, but we did a YMCA class in March 2007 and went to a pool party a month later at the same pool. So these photos are from two different swimming days. I had started this layout several weeks ago but put it aside to try and organize my scrapbooking supplies. I finished it up tonight. My favorite thing is probably the use of the photo corners on the first page. A lot of the paper and chipboard is from Scenic Route Paper Co.

Santa Layout

I did this page tonight on a whim. I'm more enthusiastic about Disneyland that Christmas, but I thought it would be a fun tradition to do a page each year of my son with Santa and include his "wish list." Of course his list at six months old consists of hugs and kisses from mommy and daddy, for daddy to finish renovating the house so we can move in before Christmas, and some things that he ended up getting for Christmas like a red wagon and new pajamas. It was a quick and simple page, but fun to do!

If I Could Cure Any Disease...

I was prompted by this topic from a message board I like to visit and I had to write about it because the thoughts instantly popped in my head. If I could cure any disease, it would be schizophrenia. It is a disease that has had an effect on my family since as long as I can remember. For the person who has it, it's a sentence of emptiness inside. It is a lonely disease with little support and even a smaller amount of public knowledge. The mentally ill used to be cast away and treated like second rate citizens. There have been improvements in our society but things are still sadly in a poor state. People in asylums used to die and be unclaimed by family only to be buried in unmarked mass graves. This is something you think might have happened in the 1800s.... perhaps in poor countries. But no, this happened in the 1900s in California. One such mass grave exists in downtown Stockton, CA. The last I heard, a developer wanted to build medical offices on the land and there was a debate about it. Our mentally ill citizens have done nothing wrong and did not ask for this life but I think it's our job to take care of them even if it just to offer them a warm smile...

Something that Makes Me Smile

Something that always makes me smile is Disneyland. I love Disneyland. I just get excited thinking about it. I walk faster, I get hyper, it's like a kid in a candy store. I love the atmosphre, the people watching, and even the food! I always think fondly of the first time I went to Disneyland with Robert. I'm not sure if we were just boyfriend/girlfriend at the time or if we were engaged yet, but I don't think he'd ever seen me walk so fast and have so much energy. We went non-stop all day until our feet were both killing us. I was so saddened that he'd only been to Disneyland a few times in his life and I wanted him to experience every last possible detail we could squeeze in. I wish I had a photo to post from that trip, but since I don't have one, I'll post a photo from our most recent trip we took on Mother's Day weekend...

In addition to that trip, I'll always remember the MANY trips I took each summer with my cousins and the great memories we made all those years. Disneyland is just a place that reminds me of everlasting youth and it makes me smile just thinking about it!

Grandma D's Album

This is a project I started before the baby was born. It was supposed to be done as a gift for Mother's Day this year, but I just barely finished it this evening. There is another version for my mom but this one is for my mother-in-law.

Quick Father's Day Card

Just needed to get a quick Father's Day Card so I threw this together this evening. I've never been into card-making as much as scrapbooking, but I'm always wondering what to do with my small paper and ribbon scraps. This seemed like a good way to use stuff I already had instead of spending 2.95 on a card from Hallmark.

The Dirt Track Wife Gets Revenge!!

Aw, look at us... Ocean Speedway Awards Banquet. My son above at the Merced Speedway having a great time. Well, it's time for this dirt track wife to get revenge doing what I love... scrapbooking!! That's me and that's what I love. So I'm creating a new blog to share my passion for arts with paper!!