The epitome of a bad day...

this is the current view from my dining room window.
Poor guy. Of course, it speaks to the leaps and bound
of technology today that 5 guys can't fix a Mercedes.
So glad he's not stuck by himself though.
Truly a rotten way to spend the afternoon.
I hope they figure it out soon...

More later (hopefully more positive stuff! ; p )
xoxo
Csmoferret

What the rest of my family is doing...

...these days!

Hubby and the kids have been out on the Aransas River
with Grandpa waterskiing and wake boarding. They went
early yesterday with Hubby's best friend (visiting
from Boston) and had a total blast.


In this photo Punkin is demonstrating how to knee board.

Me? I was scrapbooking with my 2 closest friends!
It was a glorious day!!!

xoxox
Csmoferret

I know, I dropped off the radar!

So sorry I've been missing in action for a very long time.
Don't you hate it when bloggers don't keep up with their
blogs? Me too! Unfortunately, life has gotten in the way
of my blogging time and I've dropped off the blogging
radar...

Well, I'm back! I've got lots of things to share and I'll
start with photos of last month's LOAD (Lay Out A
Day) Challenge. I LOVE participating in LOAD and
truly look forward to it. It does make a crazy busy
month even more so but I get to look through all
of the layouts I made on the fly that month and
it reminds me that I really can carve a few minutes
out of each day and make something...

Here are the layouts I made for the last part
of the month... (I'll put the rest in a separate
blog post to cut down on length.)

Day 30


Day 29

Day 28

Day 27


Day 26

Day 25

Day 24


Day 23


Day 22

Day 21

Day 20

Day 19


These were all digital pages: days 30,29,28,27,26,25,21,
20 and 19 are all from Lindsay Jane Designs; days 24,23,
and 22 are from Larisa Hicken of Garden Girls Designs.
I'll have another post with the rest of the photos.
I have to download them from my laptop.

See you later!
xoxo
Csmoferret

Wings 2 ATC swap

I participated in an ATC (artist trading card) swap online and
the theme was Wings. These are the cards I created today to
send in. I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out but I
am a bit worried that they may be a bit too chunky for the
others. Ah well, I like them-I hope they do too....

Here is a photo of cards #3,4,7 and 8...

and here is the whole set. You can see that they are not all exactly the
same but they are pretty close. The one with the gold butterfly is the
one I'm keeping from the set. I will get 8 different cards in return from
the swap group after April 1st. I'll post them when I get them.

Thanks for stoppin' by!
xoxox
Csmoferret

Here are my final 6 layouts for LOAD Feb 2010!!

Day 23
I found this and the next photo in a stack of things that hadn't been put
away yet and felt like I had hit gold. I love these two portraits and dug
out some school stuff to create this layout for the Buddy. It is so hard
to believe they are in 3rd grade already!

Day 24
I had a hard time with this layout because I just couldn't get over how
grown up Punkin looks. I guess it kind of freaked me out a bit. I love
her color coordination (teal brace bands and aqua & brown top) and
had to use those colors for her. The challenge was also to use scraps
and bits from our stash - the flowered patterned paper and the letter
stickers are all leftovers. I am thinking I may add a few crocheted
flowers but it's good the way it is.

Day 25
Every time I think of our trip to Wimberley, I think of this life-size chess
set in the garden at the EmilyAnn Theater. It was just so cool to play a
game of chess like this. The kids loved it too. I think I will move a few of
the chess pieces from over the title to the top of the photo like photo
corners. That just sounded like a cool idea when I was uploading this
photo.
Day 26
The background in this layout is made using Donna Downey's new
stamp set 'Where you are' and I didn't check to be sure I uploaded
the correct layout with the title over the lower birdcage. It should
read 'PLAY'. The one I uploaded to the LOAD gallery was missing it
so I just used the same photo here. This new stamp set just really
tickles my fancy!

Day 27
Buddy's experiment was carving soap with 4 different tools to see which
worked the fastest. It was pretty cool to watch him set everything up and
then hit the timer and start carving! Soap pieces were flying all over the
dining room! He really enjoyed his project, though and got his display
board all put together and finalized right after school on Friday. It is
due on Monday - so he was completely free and footloose all weekend.
He was quite possibly the happiest guy I know this weekend because
he finished his project before his sister did. That is why I completed
his layout first (even though it will wind up on the right side of the
2 page layout.)

Day 28

The last two layouts are halves of a 2 page set. The 'Popcorn &' should
be on the left and the 'Soap' should be on the right. These are photos
of the twins with their completed Science Project Display Boards. It
really made everyone here happy when they both finished their
projects with several days to spare. So glad they don't know about
procrastination yet.

Well, LOAD is done for this month. I feel pretty good about the
layouts I made this month and I also rearranged my albums and
determined I am sick of postbound albums and will most likely
be purchasing ring bound albums to move everything to very
soon. I am so tired of tiny metal post extensions that don't
tighten down correctly, spine covers that just look stupid
and page protectors that don't get included on the post
even though the 20 before and after do. Ring binder style
albums would eliminate all those hassles. I know they
come with their own set of hassles but at least I would
be able to move things around more easily. So, look
for a change on that front before too long.

Have a great week! See you back here soon!
x0x0x
Csmoferret

PS - Yep! I'll be LOAD'n again in May! Can't wait to
get started again!

Day 22 - Our 2009 Christmas Card

I usually forget to include a copy of the Christmas
photo that we send to family and friends and I
was lucky that Hubby printed out an extra large
copy by mistake. I snagged it and set it aside just
for this purpose. Then, yesterday, after looking
through the LOAD gallery I was inspired by one
of the layouts that had a picture with Santa and
a large nutcracker.

Well, I rummaged through my stash and found
a layered nutcracker, Happy Holidays transparency,
glittered snowflake lace and Christmas patterned
paper and a layout was born! Thanks to
SmileyGurl80 of LOAD! She was the source
of my inspiration!

Well, LOAD is done and uploaded!
Good Night!
xoxox
Csmoferret

Day 16- 21 - Still LOAD'n along...

Well, this is a photo heavy post...
I've been remiss in posting my layouts to my blog and
I thought I would do that before I go to bed tonight.

Day 16
I am looking for some larger sticker letters to fix this title -it's just too
small for the photo and it didn't really show up until after I was looking
at the posted layout in the LOAD gallery. Funny how you don't notice
flaws until you see the layout in a different light.

Day 17
The button in the center of the felt flower says "Joy" on it and
makes the title "Pure Joy". It's the first thing that came to mind
when I saw this photo of Punkin at Gymnastics. The photo
doesn't do this layout justice.

Day 18
The pink flowers are My Minds Eye Vinyl decals and I had a hard
time getting them to lay where I wanted them to without sticking
to everything and I ended up with the smaller one stuck to the
photo in the wrong place. I had planned for it to be a bit further
over on the green dot paper. But, it turned out okay.

Day 19
This layout uses a photo collage that Hubby created in Picasa with our
ski trip photos. He was just playing around with the collage creator and
let me have the practice print he made. It made for a very quick layout.

Day 20
Okay, this layout has problems and it is mostly because the Hambly
Rub-ons did not, in fact, rub on. It did not matter what I used or how I
positioned the ship, skull or title - they simply would not rub on to the
patterned paper. I ended up using a tape runner to adhere them but
it really didn't work all that well either and I have marks on the ship
where I tried to get the rub-on to work.

Anyway-the photo is not of a skull on a pirate ship or
anything like that but it was the start of my
kids singing "Yo Ho Yo Ho A Pirate's Life For Me" throughout
the Moody Gardens Aquarium and Theaters. It was a fun thing
for the kids to find just before heading into the iMax film
about dinosaurs.

Day 21
This is one of my all-time favorite photos and it took me a couple of
hours to put this layout together for today. It is also the first time
I have sewn ruffled ribbon on a layout. Too fun!

This was a visit to Pensacola Beach in 2006 and it is the first
time the kids were old enough to play in the sand at the
beach. It was too cold to get into the water but it was a
gorgeous day for shelling. They couldn't stay dry, though
(Duh! They're kids!) and wanted me to take a picture
of them in their wet pants. They had so much fun
running all around and finding shells -just grinning
from ear to ear the whole time. It just makes my heart
swell everytime I look at it. I think this will be going
into my "Photos I Love" album instead of the
"Places We Go" album.

Well, that is all for tonight. I have to get up early
for work tomorrow so look for more later in the week.
xoxox
Csmoferret