Wow, I've been neglecting this..

No LO for you this time, sorry.

A LOT has happened in the two months since I came around this way last... mainly my job taking every last ounce of free time I had away (and my sanity some days like today). While I DO love it, it's tiring some days and I come home wanting nothing more than a comfy spot on the couch with dinner waiting on me, which I get WAY more often than I deserve.

In major news (well, for us anyway) I FINALLY got the school board to listen to me and we're accelerating Connor through Kindergarten.. What's that mean? Well, he's cursed with a birthday 8 days after the cutoff, but blessed with a reading level that's FOUR grades over where he should be and a math level that's three grades higher than he should be. PLUS an IQ in the 140s. SO we had his IEP meeting yesterday with various teachers, principals, three of his four parents and the special ed. coordinator with the district and majority ruled to move him past K-5 next year to the second start to the right and straight on into first grade. In the words of his daddy "if he was born a week earlier, we wouldn't be having this conversation" and he was right, but we did it, they finally realized my child's smarter than the average bear. PLUS his "pull out" gifted teacher taught me third grade and she's WONDERFUL so I'm really excited about that.

I haven't really scrapped anything since Christmas or so, I'm dying to do Connor's field trip to the zoo, it's coming shortly, but it might have to wait until my life calms down some. I get about one day off every week and a half to two weeks or so and that's for errands I can't get done during the week, so scrapping's been left behind.. I AM keeping up with my pictures, just not scrapping them.

Speaking of pictures... my dream of my own studio is slowly -ever so slowly- coming to life. The company's been named, we just haven't gotten the license for the name yet, my hubby is - as I type- getting a refresher course in Flash so he can make my website and the logo is pretty much done... when the big reveal gets here, I'll link it up!!

I do have a flickr for the time being: www.flickr.com/photos/lkmadison so go take a look over there and tell me what you think!

Right now, it's time for bed, so I'm going to get as horizontal as I possibly can and crash out now.

thanks for reading!
~LSM

A massive catch-up!

So here's my caught up P365:

Week 4:


Kit by Digitreats, Template by M Originals again!

Week 5:


This kit by Vicki (Down by the Lilly Pond with Mel) and Template by M Originals.

Week 6:



This kit by Vicki, too and Template by M Originals

Week 7:



Kit by Vicki, Sorry, Mer, but this template's from Liz. Well, it's a combination of two of them, but I'll still give her credit!

Week 8:



Another Vicki kit and template by M Originals.

I have the LO of week 9 done, it's just ready for pictures and journaling! That makes Mondays MUCH easier now! And to keep up with my 4-week designer pattern, next week is somebody new!

I'm WAY behind, I know I know

So I'm completely caught up on P365, just not caught up on layouts. I've even already taken tomorrow's picture, cheating? yes, probably. Saving time tomorrow getting ready for school after a four day weekend? Oh yes indeed. (Tomorrow's picture is of Connor's first "poster project", his Daddy helped him on it over the weekend, I added two minor things and it's ready and sitting by the door).

P365 LO's will get posted as soon as I get last week's Monday and Wednesday pictures off of my phone and onto a computer... not a hard task, just a matter of bluetoothing it to hubby's computer and emailing it over. Sad when I see something and I say "can I borrow your phone?" and I click the picture and email it to myself so it's all waiting on me when I get home :)

And when I get the time, there's another WordArt coming soon, honestly, I'm all out of ideas but I need to scrap again. When I'll find the time for that I have NO idea, not that work is crazy busy but it does now eat a chunk of my day. How I had Mardi Gras off, I'll have NO idea, pure luck, I guess. I just hope I'm not slammed when I get there in 11 hours with a massively crazy maternity ward.

This blog needs to be pretty, too. It's still on Valentine's Day and those hearts but that'll change soon, it just requires time and patience, I have the patience, just not the time.

Maybe I can work on a killer one if I get to go with "the band" on a 2 week road trip to the Pacific NW - I'm sure I'll be DYING for something to do in that van for two weeks :). Other than clicking a picture out of the moving car every few seconds. Oh the Pacific Ocean, how I yearn to see thee.

Bedtime for me.
~LSM

A day early!!!

I actually finished a P365 on Sunday!! Yay!

It looks like 1970's wallpaper advertisement but I just had to make a fun one!

Digitreats papers and M Originals template!


And my first day at work is tomorrow.. It sounds exciting and promising, but ask me again after a week on the job and see :)

Weeks 1 and 2 of P365

So I should have posted this last week, but here's my week one of Project 365:


Smirk kit from Digitreats, template by MOriginals.

And here's week 2:


Digitreat's Giggle and MOriginals template.

Hopefully (if my ladies don't let me down, which I doubt they will) I can keep up the whole "kit by Digitreats, template by MOriginals" concept and do all 52 weeks like this. I'm a fan of continuity so we'll go with this idea until I get bored with it.

Today's picture is of a soggy light socket in the bathroom, but you'll have to wait for that LO to get that story. I'm just thankful I don't own the building because I wouldn't want to take apart two floors of bathrooms from faulty pipes.

Time to restart the computer and work on the logo for Mom's newest brilliant idea.
~LSM

I'm back!!

Wow so coming down with serious knock-you-on-your-butt-all-you-want-to-do-is-sleep sinus garbage helps me keep up with my scrapping!!! I've done SIX LO's in the past three days, that's a serious record for me. AND I have a new wordart for you tonight, in plenty of time for Valentine's Day! (I'm more than a month early, I'm shocked!)

Between Project 365 and Vicki's Challenge, I'm all scrapped out! The wordart tonight comes from my third (and probably my last) entry in her challenge. I got the idea when we were listening to the song during vacation over NYE and I've been meaning to get the right LO for it and I finally got around to doing it. All of the elements came from the most recent issue of ScrapNArt's Ezine, they're easy to get, it's a free subscription. (The requirement for the challenge was of someone you loved only using the three kids within the E-zine).

So, here's the LO:

I know, it's simple, but I was going for the "I left this for you to find when you come home and I'm not here" look. It's all from the OScraps part, except for the folded paper, that's Vicki's on a "multiply" layer over the weathered paper. The WordArt is here, 4shared doesn't like the PNG, but if you want it, let me know and I'll send it over, the link is for a jpg, as are all of the rest. I used "Pea Megan" for the unbolded and "Pea Shirley" for the bolded words, both are from Kevin and Amanda.

So, here's the other LO's I did for her challenge:




The black/red/white one contains the papers, staple and ribbon links from "Urban Love", the crown overlay, the overlay on the red, the heart, the black doodle frame are from "Love Letters", and stitches and date tag are from "Waiting to Happen". The bright and messy one, well, only the "love letters for you" note and the overlay are from OScraps while the rest is from "Waiting to Happen". So without realizing it, I have one of each kit.

Here's my Christmas ones!


Credits "Connor's First Guitar" for go to Pam for her paper, tag and frame; the alpha and the frame wrap come from Gunhild. And he's slowly learning to play, which makes it more amazing. In case you're wondering, it's a 1/2 size we got for $100 at a local music store, it's the only one that size my husband could actually tune!


Credits for "Connor as an Elf": The pouty son, well, he's mine (I had to take that picture, it was one of those "look at me" and I clicked it, it's my favorite of him so far), everything's Vicki's, except the bow, and that's an action from my dear friend (and mainly my inspiration) Deb.


Credits for "Elf on a Shelf": Template from Liz, circle letters from Pam. I HIGHLY recommend the book/elf for any parent with a young child during Christmas, it's adorable and works like a charm. The 24 pictures are from every day during December until he went back in his box.


Credits for "Only one Bite?" go to Gunhild, with the gingerbread layering styles going to Ray at the Adobe Exchange (Thanks Deb!). Of course, this LO was inspired by Santa, we decorated cookies two days before and made a big deal of setting them out and Santa only ate one bite! Of course, he left a note saying that he was too full after eating everybody else's cookies ;).

SO, now that my weekend CSI is over, I think it's time for bed.
If I get inspired for another Valentine's Day WordArt (I know there's tons out there, I just have to have inspiration), I'll set it free!
~LSM

He did it again..

So following my obsession with Photoshop and scrapping, one day I decided to share Deb's animal templates with my then 4 year old and he had a BLAST. Once he figured out the layers, he had a whole farm cranked out in a few days. She brags about him here when we spent our summer on Photoshop.

So anyway, I was trying to get ideas for my Project 365 last night and he kept begging for computer time, so I gave him some this morning and he didn't fail us! Here's his "airplane in the sky", all credits go to Deb again for layer styles and overlays, Connor just colored it. He now LOVES Layer styles "they look real, Mommy!" so now his coloring time is cut down to three clicks.

Maybe I should give him free reign and show him how to do my header and let him do it :).

When I show my scrapping, I always get the "How'd you do that?" or "I don't understand Photoshop" and my response is "if CONNOR can do it, you can, it's not hard"

I know it's not a wordart, but I've been gone for a week at the in-laws and internet time was limited to time at Starbucks because they don't even have cable and are still stuck in the 70's with fuzzy wallpaper and harvest gold all over their house. They use the oven so rarely that it cooked chicken breasts in 30 minutes on 325, it normally takes over an hour at 475 in our oven. 325 degrees set off the smoke alarm, they're under direct orders to not use it until we can get them a new one, I don't want them burning the house down.

I'll have one in a few days, I'm still on Thanksgiving pages I need to do to stay up to date, but I'll have one soon.

And yes, I'll change the header off of Christmas soon, too. In my house, the saddest day of the year is the day the tree comes down. :(.

Time to go find some food,
~LSM