Wow is summer almost over?

Well...I do not know where the summer went! My children go back to school in a mere 3 weeks! I have to say that I love summer as much as my kids! I get to sleep in until 7 yes 7 sometimes 7:30 if I am feeling really tired! I love that there is no schedule to keep, the kids can stay up as late as they want and watch movies...what is better is that because they do not want to go to bed they hide quietly in the toy room hoping that I do not know that they are still awake...I let them believe this every night of the summer.

I am sure that many of you are in the same boat as me...baseball is over and football practise and cheerleading practise has begun!



We had Jamboree this last weekend and we played our arch enemy and won!! That was cool! It was cool until one of my little cheerleaders heard the other coach say a couple of swear words (I am the cheer coach and sit down on the field with the girls) But none the less it was an exciting game including the last minute touchdown that our team made stripping the ball from the other team.

I grew up in a small town (very small town) and although I enjoyed growing up there I have since become a big city girl...and no cinci is not a big city. I moved to Mason about 5 years ago and it reminds me of American Fork Utah 25 years ago...so now I am raising my children in a small town, and I will admit that although I really miss Phoenix I do love the small time vibe that we have here and Chicago is really just 5 hours away right?

So I have been really bad about blogging and scrapping...although I am working on a super cute item for Whitney's cheerleading party. But I have been making T-shirts like a mad woman! I am finally getting the hang of my yudu machine and I will say that I am digging it! I made these cheer shirts for a cheer camp that my centers did- how cute are they? I also made football shirts for my husbands team- I used a design from Heidi Swapp and a fun logo and they turned out super cute!I will take a picture and post.




Well, I am hoping that we will have some great weather to round off the summer...but for now I am shopping for BTS clothes and supplies! Off to Target I go!

peace

W-

Sunday evening...ahhhh......

Here is one of the ads for Evian...how dang cute are these babies? I was crackin'up watching this!

I love Sunday evening...today was a little busier than normal we went to some friends after church and relaxed and enjoyed their beautiful house and swimming pool. My husband coaches a football team and it is getting to be that time of the year...FOOTBALL SEASON! We are big football fans here in the Simmons homestead and come August 25 we eat , sleep and breath football. This will be a bittersweet year because it will be Slade's last year he plays for his dad. Then we will have to wait for the d-man to start playing.

So I have been busy re-scrapping and getting to some current pictures! It has been nice to start and have all of my stuff handy! Although my husband told me tonight that my table was messy! I told him it was my creative mojo that was spread all over...I know that you know what I mean.

Well off to a new week! I love Sunday evening and mentally preparing myself for the new week! My Monday starts early and usually lasts into the evening! So off we start to a new week!

Have a great Monday!

W-

Re-Scrapping....

 

So, like many of you I starting scrapbooking in the 80's...long before it was called scrapbooking and when I used colored construction paper and yes...the magnetic pages! I know YIKES! But I have evolved as scrapbooking has...however I go back to my days of old circa 1984 and I am mortified by by pages! But worse than my pages from college is the book that I did for my oldest son that is now 20...the horror REALLY!

So now that I have my scrapbook room and I am organized and ready to go I went and pulled out Austins book and I am RE-Scrapping it! Silly huh? How many times have you done this though? I look at some of my layouts and I crack up how really bad they are- I am no Heidi Swapp and believe me if I would have left one of my books at the store it would have ended up in the "round file"! But here I am 20 years later with my son gone on his mission and I am Re-scrapping his life! And I have to say that I love it! I love looking at all of his cuteness and remembering him through the years! It is amazing how much you forget the bigger they get!

So one of the things that I have done is made pockets for each grade to stick certificates and what not into. This is the remake of Austin's 5th grade pocket...forgive the photo it is from my blackberry...so the quality is a tad weak! But you get the gist...The one thing that I do to make the pages stronger is using cardboard under the entire layout to give it strength and double sided foam tape to make the pockets a little bit bigger. Through trial and error I have found this way to be a little more durable.

Well I have to say that I am finally back in the groove and it feels good! I am working on several layouts at a time and cutting away as well! I think that my wishblade has been a little lonely! But I am happy to say that I am back!

Hope that you had a great 4th of July!

The newest toy..the Yudo!

So I bought the Yudo...I know crazy! But I have to tell you that it is very fun...and I haven't even scratched the surface of the fun things that I can do with this thing!

OK...I will admit I have ruined about 10 t-shirts...but now I have the hang of it!
Luckily for me my sister was in town and her MIL does real silk screening for a living...so she gave me some helpful tips(that I really needed!) I will say that getting the emulsion sheets on was a challenge for me but finally...success!

For Claire's birthday party I made shirts that the girls could decorate. It was a lot of fun for the girls and it only took me an hour to clean the scrap dungeon. I had made the shirts fro night shirts but the girls all wore them to school...which I thought was pretty funny.

So memorial day week-end is upon us and I am ready for a fun 3 day weekend!

Have a great one!

W-

The return of the Scrap dungeon...no more!

Well, the basement is finished and for those of you that may visit my very neglected blog you will be happy for me that I have once again have access to my scrapping supplies! It was painful to pack up the dungeon and even more painful to try and get to them while the basement was being finished. But TA-DA! I made numerous trips to IKEA and although I am not completely done at least I am done enough that everything is back to where I can get to it. As you will see that my walls are pretty barren and I do not have a desk yet...but I am very picky and I haven't found one that I like...or let me re-phrase that...I haven't found one that is under 500 that I like. I am so excited to be able to get all of my stuff out and start scrapping again and cutting and creating!

Initially I was going to make this a toy room for Deacon but Greg convinced me that I should make it a scrap/craft room, I think that the sight of all of my scrapping supplies that I had "organized" back into the closet was driving him crazy! That and the fact that I had completely stopped scrapping because it was just to big of a pain in the rear to get anything out. Now before you feel to bad for Deacon we do have a toy room upstairs and he refuses to go up there and play...all of his toys are in the family room. Now that the basement is done he won't come down here unless someone is down here so it was wise not to make another toy room...I would then have 2 rooms that he wouldn't play in.

This has been a crazy year and although I usually bounce back quickly from personal tragedies...and like everyone I have had some doozies! I have really struggled with the death of my sister. There are son many emotions that you feel when there is a death in a family and I think that I am finally at acceptance. When my mother passed away 7 years ago I was so busy trying to get everything in order and keep my fragile family together that I really did not give myself time to grieve...and I think that with the death of my sister that all of the feelings that I had boxed up and put on the shelf were unpacked and laid out on the floor again...like a really unhappy Christmas. But it has been 2 months now and I have been trying to get my "head back in the game."

So I am excited to get creative again! It was fun to get everything out and get it organized. I will tell you that I was really digging IKEA- I was able to get everything that I wanted so that the furniture is the laid out the way that I wanted it...and I put it all together myself! I am now an expert furniture builder!

So I am back and ready to create and share!!!

W-

Keeping Life in perspective....

Enjoy-

W-

Why do I love these People?

Well, it is a dreary Monday...but I love Monday's because they are the start of the week and everything is new! I bought this book 2 weeks ago and I have to say that it is soooo good. I read Po Bronson's book "What should I do with my life" about 5 years ago and though that it was such a great book. What I love about Po Bronson is that he believes the same thing that I do...Everyone has a story! I think that people are fascinating! Have you ever met someone that didn't have an amazing story to tell. Sometimes you have to get through the part that they may not be really good story tellers...but after that...if you listen...really listen you will learn to appreciate and truly love everyone that you come in contact with! OK once in a while you may not REALLY love that person...but they probably have something that you can learn from. I loved this book because once again it proves that people are amazing and everyday ordinary people are far more interesting than any celebrity and what party they may be going to. We each have a story that is our own and we are lucky to be able to share with others and perhaps help them...or help ourselves by getting it off our chest!

So have a great Monday!

W-