stories about us

all we need now are some guests

I worked on a fun project this weekend applying this cute Stampin' Up! vinyl sign onto a pocket door in our home. This door closes off a spare bedroom (serving as our guest/craft room) and a bathroom from the rest of the house. So, essentially, if you're a guest here, you can lock the pocket door and then have the privacy of being able to go from your room to the bathroom without having to get fully dressed or whatever. More importantly, though, you'll have the ability to keep this little stinker out of your stuff, hee! :)

So a little bit more about this vinyl sign. Stampin' Up! has come out with a new line of self-adhesive vinyl home decor that is just so cool. The line is called Décor Elements and you can download the product brochure here. I used their flourish frame (in white) and some of their classic alphabet letters (also in white) to create my fun sign here.

They have all sorts of other wonderful designs too. Lots of pretty flowers and fun text art. You can click on the image below to see some cool sample images from Stampin' Up! You can also click on Tina and Elisha's blogs to see how they used their vinyl. Fun, fun! :)

* Giveaway Alert! * Giveaway Alert! * Giveaway Alert! *

And the best news of all? Stampin' Up! has generously offered to provide a giveaway of one of their new vinyl products (winner's choice!) to help celebrate this fun new launch. So make sure to download the brochure and check out their cool new goods! Then leave a comment here letting me know what your favorite design/color is—a quick hello will even do!—and I'll draw a random winner a week from now.

Happy browsing everyone! :)

it's official...he's a second grader now

Waah! How can it be that he is in second grade already? I don't know about you, but I thought I was pretty big stuff once I was in third or fourth grade. There's no way he can be getting close to that age, can he?

Matthew started school again this past Wednesday and I think that regardless of how much he complains about summer vacation coming to an abrupt end, he's actually excited to be back in school with all his friends. And even though he doesn't admit to it, I think he's also kinda glad to get a break from Hoonie too.

Don't get me wrong, Matthew is an excellent big brother. And a wonderful helper to me...in that he will watch and play with Hoonie whenever I need. But I know that it wears on him sometimes. And now that Hoonie can climb up the bunk and destroy all his favorite Lego creations, well...I think you'd be happy for a six-hour Hoonie break as well! :)

Hoonie, on the other hand, is quite bored out of his little gourd. To tell you the truth, I'm a little bored as well. Or maybe just lonely. I miss having people to talk to during the day...even if it was usually just about the finer points of Star Wars, episodes I through VI, and now Clone Wars too! :)

Hoonie did cry for just for a little bit when Matthew and Jack left together the other morning but then he soon preoccupied himself with never leaving my side for the rest of the morning/afternoon. Ah, good times! I hate to admit this, but I secretly wish he was a tv watcher. Matthew loved watching his videos. Hoonie, not so much! He'll watch for about five minutes at a time, but not the long uninterrupted stretches that Matthew (and Jack and I) so enjoyed. I can tell that we're going to have to settle into a new routine soon, though, because having a nearly thirty-pound two year old hanging off of my leg all day is just not working out for me, ha! :)

And, of course, I wouldn't end this post without the cheesy, yet obligatory, back-to-school shots that everyone so enjoys! So without further ado, here's Matthew at home right before leaving to school...hair nice and slick after just having been sprayed and combed, hee!

And Matthew at his new school desk informing us of how old his little brother is. Or, maybe that he's in second grade now. Lucky for us, he has the same teacher this year—it's a 1st/2nd combination class—and we absolutely adore her!

The only two things he still needs for school now are a haircut (oh, how he needs one!) and a new backpack. We'll have to work on both of those this weekend...

In other (non-school) news, someone around these parts celebrated a birthday last week. Allright, it was me! :P I turned a ripe ol' thirty-seven years old! Yikes, huh? I spent the day driving down to Southern California with Jack and the kids. And then out to a nice dinner once I got down there (I totally needed it after the l-o-n-g drive!). We actually went down to celebrate another birthday—Matthew's good friend Beamon turned 8 on the 15th—and they celebrated by going out to watch the Clone Wars together (along with the dads). Too cute! I'll post some pictures when I can (psst...Stacy, send me some pictures, hee!).

Also, look out for a really cool giveaway that I'll be posting next week on my blog. I'm totally excited about it and I bet you'll be too!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! :)

summer fun

We're having lots of it these days! :)

It's a good thing too as a new school year is just around the corner. Jack and I were talking about summer vacations when we were both kids and we swear that July and August were prime summer vacation months. I'm not sure when it happened—as Matthew has only been going to school for a couple of years now—but school seems to be starting earlier and earlier these days. And, no, he's not in year-round school (because that might explain things a bit). Ah well, the great mysteries of life...

What's not a mystery, though, is how to keep the boys happy. Just throw 'em into the creek and smiles and laughter can't be helped! It's a good thing that Jack's around because he takes them swimming (or paddleboating) at least a couple times a day...

Matthew is still quite proficient at the "doggy paddle." :)

I love that he looks like a little beaver swimming from here to there, hee!
 

Inevitably, Hoonie will wake up from his nap and want to go swimming too.
 

Hoonie loves being tossed up in the air...especially in the creek! :)
 

I love that face (Hoonie's, not Jack's, ha!)
 

Now that is one happy baby! That is, until we take him out...
 

Dang! Now how are we supposed to resist them eyes?
 

Or that face? Ah, we're helpless!
 

A true water baby goes swimming & then plays in the sprinklers too!
 

Swimming trunks are optional around here...
 

Look at those chunky baby legs...sigh.
 

And Matthew has taken it upon himself to go on a "mission" everyday (in the paddleboat) to see what kinds of creatures he can find. Polywogs (big and small), bullfrogs, fish, dragonflies, water skippers and crawdads...yes, crawdads. And after I take his picture with the "catch of the day," he puts them back where he found them.

No animals were harmed in the taking of this picture.
(Though the crawdad might beg to differ...)

Happy Friday everyone! Hope you have a great weekend. We're going to try and enjoy our last week and a half before school starts to the very fullest! :)

two more winners

And here are the last two winners of the giveaway extravaganza (extravaganza, extravaganza!):

Giveaway #4: Mini-Album Special Issue + Mini-Albums
Erika (poster #14)

would to win the mini books!!!
Posted by:erika | August 02, 2008 at 07:32 PM

Giveaway #5: Wood Photo Album + RealSimple Card Wheel
Aimee (poster #2)

hi! well, i usually use b&w for portrait-type pictures, then i use color for all the rest! :)
Posted by:aimee f. | August 03, 2008 at 11:56 PM

This time I had Jack randomly (& begrudgingly) pick numbers from a pail. I know, I know, it's supposed to be a hat...sorry! Anyhow, if you are Erika or Aimee, make sure to email me with your address at margaret.scarbrough@gmail.com so that I can mail out your package this week.

And thanks to everyone, again, for taking the time to read my blog and for playing along with me. It's been a lot of fun! Now back to some regular ol' blogging! :)

there's always a first

And with Hoonie, his first trip to the ER came this past Sunday. I had just come back from Sweetwater the day before and was getting ready to tackle all my magazine assignments. Ha ha, what was I thinking!

 
Taken the day after our exciting trip to the ER.

Hoonie had been playing "Mr. Universe" in Matthew's room (that's what we call him when he wears his space-print cape), jumping from his overstuffed chair, when Jack went in there to fetch him for naptime. As Jack was holding his right hand, Hoonie jumped one last time from the chair. And then he began scream crying. You know that horrible sound your child makes when something has gone terribly wrong? Yup, that one! Well, he eventually calmed down a bit but you could tell that he had hurt his arm somehow. He kept holding onto it with his other hand and held it really still and close to his body. And probably the most telling thing that something was wrong was that he just sat there on the sofa. Now Hoonie never just sits there. Oh, he might sit somewhere and spit juice out of his mouth or he might sit somewhere else while banging our fine (Ikea, ha!) furniture with his wood hammer...but he never just "sits" there, kwim! ;) And being that it was has naptime, he eventually started to fall asleep. Sitting upright. With his arm bent, and supported by his other hand, and held close to his body. He was a sorry sight to see! :(

Meanwhile, Jack and I were wondering what to do. ER or Immediate Care? Immediate Care or ER? We eventually settled on the ER. So we quickly got dressed, scooped him up, buckled him in (he cried just a little) and drove up the hill to the hospital. Now trust me when I say that I would prefer to have my boy 100% happy and healthy, but darn it, he was so mellow and easy to take care of when he was hurt. He just sat so calmly in my arms while I petted his head. Other than the fact that we were freaked out about what had happened to him and that we were stuck in ER, it was actually kinda nice, ha! Well, a nurse came out to take a brief report from us—you should have heard Jack describing the stars on Hoonie's Mr. Universe cape, ha!—and then we waited around for a bit. An x-ray tech eventually called us in and we took Hoonie in to get x-rayed. And that's when the crying started again. We had to move his body this way and his arm that way to get a good picture and he wasn't happy. But then, all of a sudden, he just stopped crying. And when we finished, he said "all done" and hopped away. Back in the waiting room, he was back to his normal self again. Climbing all over the waiting room furniture (ew!), running in and out of the automatic doors, begging for snacks and juice...pretty much having us run this way and that in order to keep up with him.

Well, it turns out that he had Nursemaid's elbow (a partially dislocated elbow). I had never heard of it. But I guess it's a fairly common thing to happen to a toddler. It tends to happen when you pull your child's arm too hard (or, in our case, when your child jumps off of something while holding onto your hand). The best thing about Nursemaid's elbow, though, is that it's easily remedied by flexing the arm a certain way. The elbow goes back into place and everything is back to normal again. So just like that—well, more like three stressed-filled hours later—we were back on our way home again with a 100% healthy Hoonie. :)

And just to prove that he's back to his old self again, here's a picture I took of Hoonie during naptime yesterday. He's a little stinker these days and takes up to an hour to fall asleep. I guess it doesn't help that he has a big basket of stuffed animals right next to his bed. And at the end of his bed is a bookcase and sometimes it will be books all over his bed instead of soft stuffed animals, hee! :) 

Hope everyone has a happy and healthy week!

all good things must come to an end (aka giveaway no. 5)

My giveaway extravaganza (extravaganza, extravaganza!) is coming to a close today. So sad! This is my last giveaway post of the bunch and it will only be open for comments until 9:00 tomorrow evening my time (pacific). For this giveaway, I have up for grabs a beautiful wood photo album by Marcel Schurman and a Real Simple card wheel (which you can also use as a photo album).

I don't know about you, but when I find something I really, really like, I buy lots of them. To share, of course. I give one to my mom and one to my sister and one to my friend...and so on. Then I buy extras. If they're a reasonable price, lots of extras. Case in point: when Matthew was a little boy (about three or f) he was totally into sticker scenes. We went through a whole bunch of those little Dover sticker books (and by a whole bunch, we're talking hundreds). So when Target introduced their dollar spot and had these cute little sticker scenes (with cars, people, buses, etc) on a laminated tri-fold background, I bought lots. So many, in fact, that Matthew eventually outgrew his sticker phase before we ran out out 'em and now we have plenty left over for Hoonie, ha!

Anyhow, I love this wood album. It has twelve really thick pages (dark brown pages, by the way) and a smooth wood cover and back. I've given several of these away but still have a few left in my stash. For my personal copy, I stuck b/w photos of the boys with some really simple photo corners. I don't think dimensional embellishments would work well for this album (kind of ruins the elegance of it), but rub-ons on the photos might be kinda cool. Also, if you wanted to make it more of a scrapbook, versus a plain photo album, you could include journaling on opposite sides of the photos. Whatever you do, just enjoy it! :)

As for the card wheel, I've seen people make cute little scrapbooks out of these things. I've been meaning to do the same...but have never gotten around to it for some reason or another. So hopefully one of you out there will have better luck with it! ;)

Okay, I guess that's it! Just remember to leave a comment here and I'll pick the last two winners sometime tomorrow evening. Let's see...just for fun, you can comment on whether you prefer to use color or black/white photos in your scrapbooking. I personally started out using only color photos, then made to switch to using only black/white photos, then made the switch back to color and now find myself using both about equally. Actually, I've noticed that lately I like to include both on a layout. How about you?

Thanks to everyone for reading and for playing along this past week and a half. It's been fun! :)

and a sweet time was had by all

The cool chalkboard door in the crop room.

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of attending a scrapbooking retreat (on behalf of Simple Scrapbooks) at the Sweetwater House in Fort Morgan, CO. What a neat little getaway that was! Seriously, from the moment you walk in the door you realize just what attention to detail Karla and her daughters have put into the whole weekend. From the home itself, to the menu, to all the different projects...and to everything single little thing in between. It was such a cool experience! :)

Mmm mmm...our meals were all so yummy! (photo credit: Tina Cockburn)

Just one of the many "window treatments" found throughout the home.

Anyhow, I was lucky enough to be paired with Tina Cockburn who was the photography half of the weekend (though, really, her scrapbooking skills are right up there as well). She answered a lot of questions I had about my camera and taught me a fair bit about post-processing too. Thanks so much Tina! :) And our group of eight girls were a blast too! It was so much fun getting to know everyone and listen to their stories. We had one semi-local girl (from Greeley), another guest from Montana, a couple of friends from Alaska, a mother/daughter-in-law/cousin-in-law trio from Texas and even someone from Germany! I'm sure the local residents found us amusing as we paraded down the streets of Fort Morgan in search of colorful backdrops (for cool photo opportunities), the coffee shop, the scrapbook store and other fun shopping!

One of the coolest things about the retreat, though, were the awesome projects that the Sweetwater girls had come up with. There were a total of five mini albums and one journal that you worked on during your stay. Here are a few of my completed albums from the weekend...

This was probably the most "complicated" album out of the bunch only because the pages were all different sizes. I did this one about brothers and I absolutely love it! Here's a shot of an interior spread...

And see all the fun little doodles? I did that! Not freehand, though, but using their doodling templates. So very cool! Another neat thing is that the album is made up of mostly sweetwater products (papers, stickers, rubons, etc.) so everything coordinates really nicely.

Here's another album I made about things that make me smile...

Each inside spread consists of two photos (of things make you smile) with hidden journaling behind each. I think there were a total of twelve photos inside (the first page, five spreads and the last page) and then I added an extra photo on my cover.

Okay, okay...so I haven't technically added in my journaling yet! :P

And that is something else I loved...you could totally personalize each album however you wished. They had a color handout for each project and, if you wanted, you could copy it exactly. Or you could change things up a bit (which is what I ended up doing). For the most part, though, I didn't stray too far from the handouts since all the albums were already so cute and well thought out! :)

One more album to share...only because I still have to finish the rest, ha! This one was a really cute word-association album...

On each spread, you had one photo and then one word (relating to the photo). I added some of Sweetwater's rub-ons to each photo as my "embellishment".

I actually do have one more completed album but that one is actually on-site at Sweetwater to be used as a display album. It's the Simple Scrapbooks album and the theme is "home". I love that it's made with a house-shaped album too...

Sorry, but the inside is empty...

And for those of you who are interested, all the mini-albums come packaged in a little kit like this...

Everything is included inside (the mini-album, the papers, stickers, ribbon, etc). And like I mentioned earlier, you could always add your own personal touches too. One of the coolest things about the kits are that the papers (in all but one album) are already pre-cut for you. How cool is that?

Honestly, this retreat is such a great deal. If you are looking for the perfect getaway for you and your girlfriends (or even just for yourself), you should sign up for one of the Simple weekends. For just $300.00, you have 2 nights/3 days lodging at their wonderfully remodeled home (think Pottery Barn here), all your meals & snacks covered (that's five yummy homemade meals and lots of snacks) and all the materials to complete six incredibly cute projects. Plus, I just saw on the Simple blog that if you sign up before August 10 (for the August retreat with the oh-so-hilarious Cheryl and the ever-so-talented Elisha), Simple will throw in a copy of this wonderful book and Sweetwater will throw in one of Karla's own handmade pillows. Ah, doesn't get much sweeter than that... :)

ps...While we were getting a photo lesson from Tina outside, I noticed the storm clouds building up. So I snuck away for a few seconds (bad Margaret!) and snapped this shot...

 

Don't the clouds look absolutely wicked? We did end up getting quite the thunderstorm that evening...so cool! And just so you know that I paid attention to most of Tina's class, here's my shot of our incredibly cute photo model...

 

Not half bad if I do say so myself. Though in reality, it was near to impossible to even get a halfway bad shot of her! Thanks to Susan for letting her beautiful daughter model for us! :)

do you have plans for this evening? (+ giveaway no. 4)

If not, make sure to grab of copy of this and you could very likely finish a whole mini album by the end of this evening! No joke! Mini albums are big in scrapbooking right now. I personally love mini albums (and there is so much inspiration in this issue too). I know I'm not supposed to worry about whether I am "caught up" with my scrapbooks at all, but gosh darn I'm not. And I most likely will never be. So when I'm actually able to complete a mini album about a family trip or about a week-in-the-life (which was my particular assignment for the album), it feels damn good. Really damn good, in fact! :)

Anyhow, being that I'm finally caught up with my deadlines—man, was I ever swamped ever since coming back from Sweetwater!—I'm going to be finishing up my giveaway extravaganza (echo: extravaganza, extravaganza!). After this giveaway, I'll have one more this weekend (thus concluding the giveway extravaganza...extravaganza, extravaganza!) and will mail everything out next week (sorry Linda, Liz and Stacy...I'm working on it! Plus, you have a chance to win more now!).

And what's in store for my 4th giveaway? Well, what would be more appropriate to this post than a copy of Simple's latest special issue, Mini Albums in an Evening, plus a couple of actual mini albums (from Junkitz and Maya Road) to get you inspired to create. Who knows I may just throw in an extra album too! ;) Just leave a comment to this post and I'll pick a winner on Monday!

Hoping to post a report of my wonderful time at Sweetwater later this weekend! In the meantime, you can check out Tina's blog (hi Tina!) for her recap!

Happy Friday everyone (& happy August too)! :)

and the winners are...

Giveaway #1: BasicGrey
Linda (poster #20)

So glad you and your family can see the blue sky again. Love the new Basic Grey pages you did!
Posted by:Linda | July 19, 2008 at 05:39 PM

Giveaway #2: Sanrio
Stacy (poster #15)

No love for Pucca? awe man!
I have never seen those cute little tiny barista guys. So adorable!
Posted by:Stacy | July 23, 2008 at 10:36 PM

Giveaway #3: Sweetwater
Liz (poster #5)

Oh, how I wish I were going to Sweetwater to crop,...It sounds like a wonderful time. The goodies are great!
Liz
Posted by:Liz | July 24, 2008 at 06:55 AM

All three winners were picked by my random number generator (also known as Matthew). Evidentally the boy only likes numbers divisible by 5! I asked him to pick a number between 1 and however many comments there were for the post and you can see his very random results above. Next time, I may have to look into a different (i.e. more random) selection method.

Anyhow, if you're on the list above, make sure to email me at: margaret.scarbrough@gmail.com and I'll get your package out sometime this week! :)

I'm hoping to do a couple more giveaways later this week (thus concluding my giveaway extravaganza, ha!) but first I have to catch up from my trip (which was wonderful, by the way). I have a deadline today, tomorrow and Wednesday...and after that, I plan on taking a long nap! Hoping to post more about the retreat and also about our first trip to the ER (yesterday) with Hoonie!

Thanks to everyone for playing along! :)

i hate packing (+ giveaway no. 3)

I really really hate packing, I mean!

And, yes, I am writing this blog post at nearly 1:30 in the morning because...I'm still packing! I'm debating as to whether I should even go to bed since I have to get up at 3:00 (an hour and half from now) to drive to the airport. And knowing me, there's a good chance I might not get up if I go to sleep now.

And I don't know about you, but it's been such a long time since I've been to a crop that I don't even know what to pack there. I'm just bringing the bare essentials (photos, paper trimmer, adhesive and a journaling pen) and crossing my fingers that it's enough, ha!

And I know I haven't posted a giveaway in a few days but I've been really, really busy. Plus we kind of had an unexpected visit from some old friends of ours. Unexpected meaning that we knew they were going to be driving down & staying with us sometime near the end of July, but we weren't sure exactly when, ha! But despite me being busy while they were here, it was wonderful to catch up with them again.

And, yes, there is a reason for this post...I figured since I'm leaving for my Sweet Retreat this evening/morning (I'm so excited to be meeting Tina!), I ought to have a Sweetwater giveaway! :) And since the most recent holiday (for us in the states) was the 4th of July, I'm offering up this set of mostly Sweetwater goodies in a delightful 4th of July theme. The papers (all doubled-sided!) and stickers (oh, how I love their stickers!) are all Sweetwater products and I've also thrown in some matching red Bazzill brads (the big ones!) and some cute red ricrac on a cool little wood spool (from my personal wood spool collection!). Just make sure to leave a comment to this post to be entered.

And knowing me, I'll probably throw in some other Sweetwater goodies as well. :) As you can tell, their stuff is pretty cute. But, like I said above, I'm really (really!) in love with their sticker sheets. They have coordinating stickers (like the sets above) for most of their paper lines I think. They're so much fun!

And, yeah, you're right...I probably better get back to packing now. Blech! :P

(One, maybe two, more giveaways when I get back...)