Oh, the Places You'll Go

And the sports gear you carried.





And the kids you've lulled to sleep.






And the kids you've carpooled.
And the Goldfish you've caught in your crevices.
And the sippy cups that have spoiled under your seats.
And the clothes that have been changed (and left there for weeks on end)
And the fights that have been broken up by some authoritative figure yelling from the driver's seat.

7 years, without a single trip outside of California, driving to pick up a kid from school, this occured:




And here's my unscientific analysis of how it happened.



So I ask, when am I going places and where? Cuz my car seems to drive on autopilot and rarely seems to leave my city limits.

December Scrapbooking

I don't think I did that many layouts in December, but finished up several that were started in November.

Love this page, these Lily Bee papers are so easy to use and those corrugated flowers are something new in my scrapbooking stash that I've gotten a lot of use from. Created from a sketch I think I found on the Two Peas site.

This is a page that I really want to move my style of scrapbooking towards. While I always have my camera with me for the big, traditional events, it's these small, ordinary things I don't want to forget. So I hope to do more pages like this (which happens to be measuring the kids on a wall in a closet~something we've been doing since we moved in our house 8 years ago).

Another page using the Catching Fall papers from Lily Bee.



I've been looking at this thinking something is missing and I realized it's the title. Now to figure out what the title will be and where to place it :-)

A sketch, not sure where this came from.

This is a lift from Scrapbook.com These last 3 pages used paper from The Girls Paperie called Toil and Trouble. I really loved that paper and my friend was going to a well stocked scrapbook store and I asked her to pick up a few sheets for me, she picked up 2 of each kind. So I should be stocked for Halloween paper for the next few years.

This orange paper is from the Halloween line, finding it to be pretty versatile if I pair it with other papers. And pair it I did. I used 6 different papers from different manufacturers here. These are some Thanksgiving pictures. I had just read an article about "shooting from the hip" which is literally placing your camera at hip level (crossing your fingers) and getting pictures from a different perspective. I really like it shows our family prayer before the Thanksgiving meal.

This page is a sketch from a sketch site using Restoration papers. This sweet little girl is Jack's friend which took a bit of coaxing, but glad I had my camera in hand.

This month has been more about getting back into a routine and getting organized and hasn't left much time for scrapbooking. I'm headed to Dillon Beach with my friends next month for some scrapbooking so I need to start organizing so I can take full advantage of a weekend away.

Why I Hate Michaels Part Deux

Don't remember part one? Well in the chaos of December, I didn't get around to sharing, but trust me it involved some misleading advertising and a dead car battery and left a seriously bad taste in my mouth.

Well enter, part two-the part that makes me really miss my local scrapbooking store.


So I heard through the rumor mill that they might be clearancing out some old Cricut Cartridges for $9.99 on January 8 (normally $89.99). And then I read some people were already finding them. Well not wanting to miss this opportunity, I called and asked. And yes, they did have them. They were located in the Cricut aisle and there were a lot left.
That was at 12:30 today and if I didn't have a 3 year old who was napping I would've been there at the moment. But I had to wait till 3:30.
Trying not to get my hopes up because they've often been dashed with promises of great things that never materialized at Michaels, I head straight to the Cricut aisle.

Great googly moogly, what do I see...





Seriously fellow scrapbookers, could this not be a more beautiful site??

So I grabbed 4 (took some pictures so I could share with my friends) and headed to the check out.

Still wondering why I hate Michaels?

Well I get up there only to be told they don't have any of these cartridges. In fact they don't have any of them left. Seriously-you see the pictures, it sure doesn't look like they are sold.
Saleslady upon seeing that I was ready to blow a gasket calls up the manager who said they did have a few left, but not what I wanted. So she rummaged through the locked cages and pulled out a few-wild west, doodlecharms, printing 101, a few wedding ones. Nothing that I was interested in settling for after I had the mother-lode in my hands just a few minutes prior.

So there you go, my tale of great woe which may or may not make you run out to your nearest Michaels and see if you can scavenger a great deal. Personally I'd boycott Michaels altogether if I had other options. But seeing as they are the only place around, I'm going to become the shopper the hate-the one with the 40% off coupon and only one item in hand.