Just reading away...

I'm just trying to waste time until dh gets home, so I was reading some blogs. On Shannon's she's got a blip about 2007's CKU's. I hear they will be having one in Nashville. I really like Nashville, we went to an Archery Trade Show a few years back there and it was my favorite Archery Convention so far (we are closing in on 8 yrs in business, wild!). I would love to make the trip down there, so who's with me???

Ok there was one other thing on Shannon's blog that got me thinking, she has a child who is not so wonderful at home. Guess what I think we probably all have children like that. So why am I chatting about this, well maybe because I have just yelled at my monsters for the tenth time in the last 20 min and well why do they do this to me??? They can make me crazy! This morning I needed to get a whole bunch of Archery stuff done and they were wonderful, so I took them to the pool for a few hours in the afternoon. Now they are fighting like cats and dogs, why??? Shouldn't they be tired out from the pool, why aren't they sleeping, why do they do this to me?? Ok so now why was it I thought I wanted another one of these little monsters??? Wait I remember, I love 'em! Yes I am crazy, and I admit it.

Wow can I babble when i want to. So hope everyone has had a good weekend, can you believe that it's almost August? Seems like it was just yesterday that I was picking at Christine for reminding me about it being June! We have had a great weekend, we spent the day at Nana & Papa's (in honor of Papa's b-day) yesterday. The boys took their four-wheelers and rode and rode. I did bring the camera, but didn't take a single picture. Jeff took some pictures of K spinning his tires with his cell phone. Yeah Jeff thought if would be fun to teach K to spin the tires on the gravel drive way. Not sure if my mother approved, but what can you do.

We are off to the Dells tomorrow, staying at the Great Wolf Lodge. Way more $$ then I expected, but we had a gift cert so we needed to use it. Not sure if we will leave the complex, sure looks as if there is more than enough stuff to keep the kids busy there. I would love to do the Duck ride, have never done that. And Jeff loves the go-karts. We should have a fun time. After that Jeff is off to West Viginia for a huge archery tournament and I am on my own with the kids for a few days. We have so many things planned. We are meeting up with Julie and her two on Wednesday, I can't wait to have our daughters meet. It is going to be a crazy, busy week, but I am so excited.

Girls Day Out!

So today I took Linds in for her special birthday treat. We visited Aunt Jojo at the "Salon". Jojo is finishing up her last weeks at cosmotology/barber school in Fennimore. That means great deals through the school salon (way good for me). First Linds had her toes done, then her hair braided, then the biggie... She got her ears pierced. They did both ears at once, so it was one, two click and it was over. Linds let out one small ouch, then thought for a second or two and then a few tears rolled down the cheeks, but no crying. Boy was she tough! All the girls said she was one of the bravest ear piercing's they have seen. I guess most little people do a little crying. I am just glad we got both ears done together, I am not so sure Linds would have sat through another click. Next we went out for lunch with Jojo, then back to the salon for a manicure. I was lucky enough to get my toes done too! I do have to say that I have never liked my feet and seeing them in a picture does not make me like them any better!

A Day fit for a Princess!

Yeah the party season at the Johnston house has officially ended! We have made it through the all boy party for K, the family party for both K & Linds, and today we made through Linds princess party!

I have put myself in over my head for another round, I volunteered to be a leader for vacation bible school at church this week and then went and scheduled Linds' party for today! What was I thinking???

Anyway... We had a wonderful all girl party that was most certainly fit for princesses. We had pb&j sandwiches cut in heart shapes, with crackers and dip and melon for lunch. Then moved on to the crafty fun, we decorated crowns and wands with sticky foam flowers and jewels. Bribed the girls with cake and ice cream so they would sit for a picture. They were all such lovely princesses. And Linds got more "make-up" than I have ever owned. Everyone had fun and the two hours went by so fast.

Now it's back to the grind, I have so much Archery work to catch up on. I am putting it off until tomorrow, just to tired out to deal with anything else today.
 

Back to "normal"

So I made it through CHA and am back safe and sound at home. I am totally exhaused! But I did have a blast and saw so much stuff that I love! Bad news is that for day two my camera battery was DEAD! I think that I may have a bad battery, I took a fresh one off the charger for the trip and was totally sure it would last me through the weekend. Ya know I wasn't using the flash or anything that would have zapped the power, infact I only took about 40+ pictures Friday. I was so mad! Anyway you will have to just live with my typed re-cap and maybe some links (if I can find 'em).

Ok so Saturday we saw the good stuff, all the popular well know stuff. Out of those my most favorites were (drum roll please)...

BasicGrey - the new LilyKate is probably my fav, loved the soft colors and beautiful designs. Their booth also had some wonderful projects, some really cute stuff done with the baby lines.

Cosmo Cricket - Brand new company that if you are on the net at all you may have heard something about them. Great papers, they remind me a whole lot of BG's first line, but just different enough.

MME Bohemia & Signature - Ok this one really was my ultimate favorite (yes I am already in love with Wild Asparagus so goes to show). Bohemia is definately getting more attention, but if I had to pick between the two I would choose the Signature. It has more of an "outdoorsy" feel to it, and maybe a bit more manly. Not sure why I like that but I do. Although the accessories with the Bohemia line were fantastic, very creative and so different than anything else I had seen. Their reps also had these georgous T's and try as we may, they would not give us any.

Imaginese - Brand spanking new company, loved, loved, loved their papers and embellies. Thick double sided pp, with really unique and fun designs. One of their lines was designed with ideas from their kids drawings. They have also partnered up with bazzill so they list all the coordinating cs for each paper line. gotta love that! And they have the big bazzill brads to match their stuff too. (their site isn't up fully yet, but should be soon)

Crate Paper - Their new stuff was fabulous, lots of fun colors and lots of good stuff for boy pages, not just flowers and such. My favorite was the carnival and cowboy stuff. (the link here is for a two pes thread, the new stuff isn't up on their site yet.)

Alright so those were my favorites, I did love the new font "Tangerine" from QK too. Other than the above mentioned stuff, there was no "new" must have tool or accessory. We did see tons of stuff with glitter. So that must be hot. I may pick a little of that up, just because I do have a glittery girl of my own, but I can' t really get that into glitter. Oh and the other stuff for my wish list would be the bare elements stuff from Creative Imaginations. The purse one is so cute! I think I even get to design a class around that one. I can see lots of christmas gifs being done with this stuff.

Kids are harrassing me to get outside, so I need to get off this computer. Later!

Check these out!!!

So today was a blast! I took a Bazzill class and we all got a copy of the Bazzill Blueprints Software! I had heard about this, but thought why do I need it, well I need it! And I soooo love it! We put it on the laptop and I've been playing, need to play a little more, but boy is it fun.

Ok so these are some silly pictures, we didn't get through much of the show today, but here are the highlights from the things we did see. First Christine asked for the "must" have. So far I have to say Gel-a-tin stamps! These are so neat, really cool fonts and really cut images, swirls and circles and other stuff. They are clear acrylic and them come in CD tins! Their website is a little odd, but check 'em out here Gel-A-Tin

We stopped at Ranger, check out Tim! Ok so I was to scared to ask to have my picture taken with him, but I got a couple shots of him working, he is too cool! And I learned a couple of things that I do that are wrong. Can you believe I do stuff wrong! LOL!!! I have been schooled by Tim! Back to my must have, Tim has new acrylic paint, they are in dauber bottles and they are awesome!

Last picture is of some "holey" shoes. Anyone else ever thought of altering their crocs? What a cool idea I love it! Ok it is late and I am having issues trying to blog, so it's off the pc for me. Later!



Ribbon, ribbon, ribbon

Tim

Look at these shoes!

CHA WE'RE HERE!!!

Thanks everyone for the "awl" advise!

Well we got here in one piece, lots of traffic on the way into the big Chi town, but somehow I handled it just fine.

We did classes today and are working on taking pictures of all our project to post on the store blog.

I did a really great class from Lil Davis super cute summer brag book, loved it. Also did a class from Hero Arts, this will be the same class that they are teaching at MOA in september, now I need to find someone to switch classes with me. Oh well! Very cute holiday cards. And last class was a recipe accordian type thingy. I think I have some issues with recipe stuff... So anyway, better sign off for now. Later!

CHA here we come!

Well sort of, I am trying to get organized for CHA (craft & hobby association) trade show that starts tomorrow in Chicago. I never like to pack anything until the utter last second, so today I have just been thinking about what I need to pack tonight. How silly is that! So the big question is this, I am signed up for a Bazzill class (way excited) and in the list of supplies is an awl, I know what a woodworking type awl is, but why on earth would I need one for a scrappin class??? Anybody got any ideas??? I am at a loss as to if I should run to the hardware store and pick one up or just go without and wing it. Right now I am totally on the wing it side. At least all of the other classes I am taking I have all the tools for.

So anyone else that lives in the scrappin universe with me, have you seen some of the "sneak" peaks that have been posted on two peas? I am so excited, last summer when we went the big thing was the cricut and the xyron PCS. What will be the big thing this time? Ooo, the excitement is killing me. Plus I am dying to see what the new QK font or fonts (I hope a couple) will be. I have finally fallen in love with prima flowers, so it will be fun to see their new stuff too. Plus all the paper, last year I was so sick of paper by Saturday, you could never believe how much there is, so wild. I am bringing the camera, and the boss is bringing the laptop, so if your lucky we may have some hot new stuff to share. Not sure if I will get to update my blog, but keep checking the Memories Scrap N Stamp link here and you may get a chance to see the hot new thing early! And of course can't forget about all the lovely stamps I will be checking out. Just thinking about them makes my pocketbook hurt. Why do I love stamps... Hey I should do a scrap page about that! Christine your blog has just been so full of insperation lately you've got me on a roll, thinking of things that I want others to see and read about in the later years.

Alright better get back to thinking about packing, we are leaving at 4:30 AM tomorrow. How's that sound to you Miss not a morning person Katie! LOL!!!

Birthday Party Invite!

Ok it's a simple one, but there is really only so much you can do with the purse template. It's the coluzzle one if you want to know. (Love it for girly things) I just used plain pink cs, cut my purse, then stamped with my new SU paisley background (love it!). I cut a handle out of silver cs then added the little extras on the outside. Thank you Christine for the rinestone brads (one of many goodies that I got from the big box sent to the WI cammandos) that are the center of my primas. Inside is just the wording printed in pink with sponged pink edges. 

All signed up!

Ok so I was almost as worked up for the Mall Of America ScrapFest as I was for CKU. Why I am not sure. But after waiting for two hours for registration to open (they don't seem to post the time anywhere before hand, unlike CKU), I got in and got the classes I wanted. I did end up scaling back, really need to watch what I am spending. But for all you interested readers (Julie and Chirs mainly) here is what I am scheduled for:

ScrapFest After Dark Party - Friday 7:00 PM (Way excited about this one!)
Seasoned With Style Recipe Album - Saturday 9:00 AM
Around the Block - Saturday 10:00 AM
A Journey to Remember - Saturday 12:00 PM
Sweet and Sour Desk Calendar – Saturday 2:00 PM
Happy Holiday Folio - Saturday 3:00 PM
Clearly Cute Cards – Saturday 4:00 PM

I am very excited about going and so jazzed that Julie will be making the trip with me too! We are going to have a blast!

Well it really is time to get away from this computer, it is supposed to be a little less horrible outside today. I think I will set up the splash pool and let the kids play outside today. They were getting a little squirrely yesterday staying inside. But after being out in the heat Saturday and Sunday (we spent the afternoon at the pool), I just knew I needed to stay in the AC and rest a little. I'll be working on Linds "Princess Party" invites today. I have a very fun idea, maybe i will share the finished work. Later!

I was just a scrappin today!

Here's a two-page spread that I got done too! I haven't stuck down the lettering yet, can't decide if I like the placement or not. Any opinions out there???

I'll leave it sit until morning and then maybe I can make my mind up. 

Doing a little scrappin!

This one's just for you Christine, yes I actually found some time to scrap for me. A friend of mine stopped by with her convertible yesterday and had to drag Linds and I to the scrap stores in Madison. Yeah whatever! LOL!!! Anyway... We went to check out some "new" stamp place in Mt Horeb, turned out to be someone just starting with Stampin Up (not that that's a bad thing, just not what we were lookin for). So we headed in to Mad town and hit two LSS. I got the PP in the LO yesterday, just for these photos. Pretty simple page (why it takes me hours to create a simple page is ?????), but I like it and I may even turn it into a spread I've still got a really cute picture of Linds at the pool that would go good with some journaling. 

Birthday Party Wrap-up!

Well we made it through the birthday party friday night. And no one melted! The kids had a great time on the water slide, big hit. I of course made way to much food, but it was all good and I think we will be eating cold sandwiches for a few more days. I was planning on taking a picture of the food spread (Christine I think it was you that has me obsessed with taking pics of food.), but I forgot! And well 4 doz cupcakes were more than enough, of those I think we only came home with just a little more than a dozen, which by today I think there are only a couple left. Really how different is a cupcake for breakfast than a doughnut??? LOL!!

So when I am uploading pictures I try to think about what order they will show up in and well I over-think, cuz they are backwords from how I wanted them, oh well! the first pics are of the kids with their cupcake cakes. then Jeff playing with Kaleb's new toy. K got one of these little remote controled thingy's and well daddy had just as much fun. We got home and Linds just crashed on the floor, so Jeff thought it was funny to try and bump into her with the remote control thing, don't you just love the look on his face. What a total child at heart!

The next set are a few of opening presents. I let Jeff take the pictures this year and he is a total pose taker (he wants everything posed just right), me on the other hand I am way into action shots, so I am a little bummed with the presents pics, I wanted more of the paper ripping action. I'll get over it, hey I still have photos from birthdays three years ago I need to scrap. Better get going on that...

The last set are my favs from the waterslide. Here is where Jeff did a great job getting pictures, and lots of them! The little guy in the middle is cousin Lane, isn't that the best action shot!
 

Birthday Presents!  
 
  

Water Slide Fun!


 

Hot, hot, hot...

Ok so today is a very typical dog days of summer day in WI. Hot and humid. We spent some time outside, but mostly just hung out in the AC. Gotta love AC, especially for little miss PG. I have so many things to do, but just no ambition. Spent most of the morning prep-ing for a class I taught at the LSS tonight. Did a ribbon class where we learned how to make stitched flowers and hinges from ribbons. Thank you to Making Memories "Ribbonrie" book. It was a challenging class, but my students liked it and everyones pages turned out very nice.

Now we have moved on to planning for our big picnic party tomorrow night. I am on my second batch of cupcakes, ya think 48 cupcakes will be enough for 20+ people??? I love making the kids cakes at birthday time, and this time around I felt like doing the cupcake thing. I may hate myself tomorrow when i am frosting. I always go way overboard, oh well. Every year I tell myself to keep it simple, and every year I never do. I have gotten over the need to turn on the grill and do the whole burger/brat idea. We now order a tray of deli meats and do cold sandwiches. Guess I am getting a little better as I go.

I really need to get my kids in the bath tub, you should see K, he is completly covered with dirt. Boys! There is no way they can go to bed again without a bath, maybe I will just hose them down outside, it certainly is warm enough.

Thank you Julie!

The mailman stopped at my house today and gave me a strange package from Addicted To Rubber Stamps . I thought to myself, what did I order??? I don't remember ordering anything??? Hmmmm... So I rip it open and low and behold new stamps! Julie seems to think that Katie and I have turned her into a stamp addict, ok we are probably very good enablers, LOL!!! Well, at Scrap Day #2 she was showing off some new things she had gotten since Scrap Day #1 and we were all ohhh'in and ahhh'in over these TT stamps. What a total sweetheart you are Julie! I will return the favor, you just wait and see!

I must say that now I have to check out all that this addicted to site has to offer. I think I have browsed there once or twice, but now I will have to browse a little harder. Any store that sends candy with an order is a good store to order from! Oh and the cute little foam stamp is already in use. Linds is making beautiful leaf designs as I type! One last note, for all you moms that love craft ideas, we are doing the foam stamps just like mommy does with acrylic paints only we are using the Crayola washable finger paints. These are working so slick, try it! 

The Bravest Boy!

I am so proud of Kaleb! A few weeks ago I noticed that one of his adult teeth (bottom front) had come all the way through, but his little baby teeth were still hanging in strong in the front of the big guys. I called the dentist and they suggested we work at wiggling it out on our own for the next two weeks and if it didn't come out on it's own then bring him in. Well that was over three weeks ago so yesterday when I noticed that there were now two adult teeth popping through and no baby teeth falling out I called the dentist back. Guess where we went today? Yup to the dentist. Well when they looked at K's teeth they decided that one on the top needed to come out too! Three teeth "wiggled" out and there were no tears, no screams of pain, nothing but the bravest boy around! The dentist said he was the best patient of the day. Of course we had to stop off at the store for a reward (along with some tylenol suggested by dentist), the second picture is K and his new toy. He thinks he is so cool because he has three holes in his mouth. Our coolest trick is a straw fits through the holes! Kids are amazing! 

Kaleb and Lindsay's first "real" rainbow!

I am not sure how this picture will look on the web, hope you all can see the rainbows we saw yesterday. I love rainbows!

I had a wonderful weekend, first off Saturday Jeff was off doing the archery stuff and then Grandpa showed up at 10 am and took K & Linds, so here I am all alone, now what??? Ok so I had a ton of things to do, I really needed to get the office back in order. It seems that we can go about a month and then everything finds it's way back to the floor and overflowing from every surface in here, how that happens??? So anyway I straightened the office and tried to get more stuff organized for our second "Week in the Life" crop. I did get lots done and was all prepped and ready to go for Sunday. Then I headed off to Memories, Dot and I sat down and scheduled out Tuesday Tech classes through the end of the year. I didn't check the store blog yet, so I'm not sure if they are up there yet, but we have got some good stuff planned for everyone. I spent about three hours at the store. I always spend so much time there, but it's my fav place and I feel like I dont' get to gab with Dorothy enough. Then I realized that I did need to get my kids. Went to grandpa's and grabbed them, then we saw Sweet Corn for sale at the corner. The kids have been after me for about two or three weeks now for sweet corn, so what the heck we bought a dozen. Boy it was good! And of course as we were cleaning up I thought I really should have taken some pictures of eating. Oh well!

On to Sunday, like I mentioned before, we had our second get together for the "Week" albums. A huge thank you to Shannon for her hospitality this go around. She has a wonderful Scrap room that she shared with us, got us each our own table and away we went. Some great pages were completed! I did some fun stuff just have to get the journaling in now. Seems funny to me that I can sit and type up all kinds of stuff here, but when I try and journal in my SB's I just can't think of what to say??? What is with that??? Anyway I let Katie get away with taking more pictures of me! YUCK!! She thinks I will appreciate them someday, I'm not so sure. At least I know that she takes beautiful pictures so how bad could they be? We had a great lunch at Panera Bread Co. I have heard of this place and passed by one many times just hadn't eaten there before. It was very good. We enjoyed sandwiches and salads outside. In the shade the weather was just right! Then we ventured off to the nearest LSS for fun, found a generous soul to take a picture of the four of us, so Katie how did they turn out, LOL!!! I picked up some boy pp and some bazzill colors I was running low on, but didn't really need anything else. Then we headed back to Shannon's and worked some more.

The rainbow is from Sunday night, as I got back into Dodgeville and went to pick up my monsters the rain started, it rained hard but the sun kept shinning. As we were driving home from Grandpa's Kaleb spotted the rainbow. I really believe that this is the first "real" rainbow the kids have seen. They were both very excited, so we got a quick pic after pulling in the driveway. It is amazing to me that you can see two rainbows in the picture, can you see them both? When I took it all I saw was the one, to my photographer friends is the second one really there or could it be some camera issue??? Anyway I like the way the picture turned out. 

Ever have one of those days...

Yesterday was one of those days where I am not really sure what happened, the day started and then it ended. It wasn't that I was doing so much, its more like I did way to many bits and pieces of stuff that I felt like I did nothing. Weird!

I did manage to get some cleaning done in the basement on wednesday am. It turned out to be better than expected. The cleaning was no fun, but I did find a couple bags of baby stuff (my fav infant things) that I thought were long gone. Made me smile and come september the little one won't have to go naked all the time! LOL!!!

If you're wondering, we are still in total limbo about a new house, we think, we want, we need, but then you look at the payment and go well maybe we can make this place work. If only $$ were no object??? I think we have just gotten way to used to the way things are and both Jeff and I are a little scared to make any changes.

The pics are from our trip to the pool on wednesday. Had a fabulous time, the kids were great and we even got ice cream cones on the way home. We are heading back to the pool this afternoon and both K & Linds have friends meeting them there!

Welcome back from the holiday!

Ok so we had a very busy few days around here, but lots of fun was had!

On Saturday we met daddy in Reedsburg to watch him shoot, only thing he had a bad day and didn't make it to the final shoot off. The kids were a little disappointed that we didn't get to watch daddy, but it was fun to be able to play with him while watching the five that did make it. The we ventured off to Rthym and Booms, which ended up being postponed until Sunday. Lots of stormy weather, we had black clouds following us all the way into Madison, but we were only to Middleton when we heard the postpone-ment on the radio, so we didn't have to deal with a traffic headache for the drive home. I told K and Linds that God wanted to do his own fireworks tonight and we would just have to wait. The kids thought that was pretty cool.

We did venture back in on Sunday and had a great time. I got the best picture of one of my favorite childhood memories, the ice cream truck. Anyone else out there remember when all the neighborhood kids would run out at the sound of that "special" music and just wait for a treat. What a memory! Ok so I had to pick and choose what pic I put up here today and that one didn't make the cut, but it will certainly end up in a scrapbook. The first picture here is from Sunday night's Rthym & Booms. Boy is it hard to take a good picture at night. I did manage to get a couple good ones of the fireworks too. More stuff I can't wait to scrap.

Monday K, Linds and I spent the day with Grandma Mary, Nana, & Papa. We took a trip to Greendale, WI. This is a "Greenbelt Community" something developed by FDR during the depression. We didn't really learn anything about this greenbelt topic, but we did get to shop in some cute stores and have a fun lunch. My favorite stop was Apples of Eden. I am a big, big, big fan of carmel apples and this was unbelievable! I think I may become a good customer, LOL! Picture number two is from this trip, they had this beautiful fountain and of course I had to let the kids play in it. They didn't get to wet!

Monday night I threw some steaks on the grill and we had a relaxing supper with daddy and then I let the kids do some sparklers. Another great day and night!

We spent the "actual" holiday together too! Jeff wanted to shoot his archery league score in the morning so we hit the course with Grandpa and cousin Jordy in the morning and then went on to Aunt Julie's for food, chit chat between the gals and trap shooting for the guys. I of course thought I had the camera in my purse, but nope. I missed a picture of a baby hawk at the archery course and a shot of Kaleb's fav from Aunt Julie's, the boys chasing the girls. Aunt Jan decided to take all the girls for a ride on the 4-wheeler and the boys just ran after them. Why Kaleb thought this was so cool, who knows??? The boys did get their turn at a ride, but it is the chasing that is stuck in K's head today.

Today I have been assigned the task of cleaning up the basement, YUCK! But I will try to get something done down there before we head to the pool after lunch. I will put my camera in the pool bag now!