Calendar #4

Here it is, the last of the calendars...#4! Another kit, of course. TFL!

Calendar #3

Woot! Calendar #3! Used a SU scrapbook kit....again. Couldn't help it. It let me whip these calendars up in no time and they turned out so cute. If I do say so myself! ;) TFL!

Altered Calendar #2

Tada! Calendar #2. Using another scrapbook kit. This one was a SU Sale-a-Bration kit a couple of years ago. The circle in the upper right corner is to personalize it for whomever won it....Kris, you left before I could do that!!TFL!

Altered Calendar

For Tiffany's Hostess Appreciation Day, she asked me to alter some calendars as door prizes. I used some retired SU scrapbook kits. I love those kits! It makes layouts, cards and altered stuff so easy to create!! Yeah, don't even ask me to tell you the names of those kits, though. I've never been able to remember those for some reason! I'm pretty sure this one was a hostess set, though. Anyway, TFL!

Pocket Silhouettes Birthday Card

Here is a card I whipped up for a suprise birthday party at church last Friday evening. I love Pocket Silhouettes!! The images are just so classy. I used Baja Breeze, Old Olive and Whisper White cardstock; Baja Breeze and Old Olive ink; Baja Breeze ribbon; brads; small and large tag punches; SU pattern paper (but I forgot which one!! Shame on me!). TFL!

An update on....nothing!

It's hard to update when I have nothing to talk about! ;) I've not done anything scrappy for over a week now, so no new pics to post. We've not done much of anything lately, so no new pics of anything else to post either.

I have been excercising lately.....alot! Me, Steve, Hillory, Jeremy, and Alex have been hittin' it pretty hard. During the week (about 3 days a week) we run for about 30-40 min and then swim for about 45 min right after. On the weekends we usually do a long bike ride or a shorter bike ride followed by a run. We are doing our first sprint triathlon in April up in Carmel, IN. I'm kinda nervous! My goal is to just finish and not make an ass out of myself! LOL!

I think we're going to change Toby's name to Toby No! That seems to be what we call him almost constantly! He's taking a liking to getting into the trash. He likes to get out all of his toys and have them all over the house. He bites the crap out of the girls' feet and pants. He seems especially to like bugging the crap out of McKenna all the time for some reason. He and Fartsy have a nightly ritual of chasing each other all over the flippin' house...Toby's playing, Fartsy, not so much. Fartsy gets downright vicious! It's actually kinda funny. Toby has also learned to ring the bells hanging from the doorknob when he needs to go out and potty! But, he has also learned that he can ring those bells and go outside and play whenever he wants, too. For a little 6lb dog, he has sooooo much energy. He just runs and runs around the outside of the house. He's crazy. We've also let him sleep in bed with us every once in a while. He's just so darn cute! It breaks my heart to put him up in his kennel at night. He also got groomed for the first time a couple weeks ago. He looks so stinkin' cute!

I was getting such a kick out of watching Mara play We Cheer on the Wii the other night! So much so, I kicked her off and played! It was fun! And, I freaking rocked it. I was winning new uniforms left and right! And, my arms hurt the next day! LOL!! Yeah, I think I made Mara a little bit nervous!! ;)

We got McKenna tested at Sylvan Learning Center on Wednesday. Seems she did really well. Like, really really well. The center manager was severly impressed. That's all great, but it just puts us in more of a quandry as to what to do with her. Her school doesn't have any type of accelerated classes. McKenna can't possibly be the only smart kid in this school district, so what do these smart kids have to make them use their full potential?! I just have so many questions. I don't know where to start or who to talk to. I'm going to have to start with her teacher and maybe the principal, as well. McKenna informed me yesterday that the only thing she likes about school is lunch, recess, and her friends! LOL!! Oh, and when I talked to her about being disorganized and things she can do to keep organized, she sighed and said "Organization just isn't my thing, Momma." She's such a nut.

Ok, peeps, there's your update! Not much to talk about, really. I would tell the story of how Steve was on the phone with 9-1-1 a couple of weeks ago to almost report 3 missing girls, but my Mom reads my blog and I don't want her to stroke out. Which, by this point, she probably already has! But, all is well in the Birrell household. All 3 girls alive, well, and accounted for!!

Good night and peace out....

I just love this little guy!!

I hadn't done a layout of my little cutie patootie nephew in a while, so, this is for him! Another personal challenge to use up some old stash. Papers are old American Crafts, again. The journaling spots are from BYOM shopping like from over a year ago, if I'm not mistaken. Chipboard A...old. The blingy stars, well, that's new, it was in the Dec. BYOM kit. Another PageMap (from the book). TFL!

Sprint triathlon training...

...has officially started! I can now say this without laughing as much as I used to a couple months ago! I'm committed, evenl though Hillory says we need to actually sign up for one to be 100% committed. We have two in mind...one in June in Illinois and one in September in Indy.

Steve and I started our running training last night. We ran/walked for 1.5 miles and rode our bike 1.75. On Sunday me, Steve, Alex, Jeremy and Hillory rode our bikes (yes, in 32 degree weather!). Hillory and I got about 15 miles in whereas the boys got a couple more miles in. But, there were some major killer hills!! My thighs are still feeling it today. Tomorrow, Steve and I are going to run at the high school track and then head on into the high school for open swim for some laps. The only thing I'm worried about is that it's supposed to get downright FRIGID this week! There's always my treadmill, I guess....

My friend, Myra, said she'd be ready for some 5K's starting in like May. Depending on how my running is going by then, I told her I'd run some with her. Thank goodness for my friend, Darla, too! She's my long distance motivator over in Illinois!

All I can say is....if I'm excercising this much, I better lose a little weight somewhere along the line!!!!

Went a little old school with this one...

This was a quick and easy layout. I tried to use only older stuff for this. I have come to the conclusion that I am, in fact, a scrap snob. I can't help it, I love new stuff. I'm more inspired by brand spankin' new scrappy stuff. These were some old AC papers I've had for I bet at least 2 years. The rub-ons...well, that little a in conga is MM "heidi" font, so that tells ya how old that is! The other rub-ons are Doodlebug Designs Party Mix. I don't particularly care for this layout, I've created worse, but thought I'd post it anyway.

The photos are of Steve, the girls, and Jacob in the parking lot at the Science Museum in St. Louis when we visited back in October.

TFL!

from this to this in one quick camera flash

Another layout I did with the fantastically awesome December BYOM kit! Yes, I realize I said December kit. The OA papers ran late, so the DT didn't get a chance to work on stuff for a newsletter, so I'm now getting around to doing a few things with it. PageMap sketch! I painted the arrows with MM paint (I'm blanking on the name) and then painted Stickles on it. Everything is from the kit, but I think the tiny little alpha's and little jewels (on the buttons) were extras from shoping. Oh, and I used the SU spiral punch and circle punches, too. TFL!

Hi friend

Here's a card I made with some leftovers from the December BYOM kit featuring October Afternoon paper! This is a CardMap sketch, btw. Everything on here is from the kit + some extras from the shopping area. I put Stickles in the middle of the buttons and on top of the 'hi' and then sprayed the whole thing with silver glimmer mist! It looks so neat IRL! TFL!

Love You Much gift bag

And, this is the gift bag I stamped for the gift I made! Very quick and easy, which is what I needed after doing the card and the altered frame! I took my SU markers in 3 different colors and colord the hearts in on the stamp, huffed, and then stamped. Topped it off with a big, brown SU ribbon bow, and a "friend to friend" stamped and punched out with the word window punch (if I'm not mistaken on the name of the punch....). Voila! Quick and easy decorated gift bag! Yeah, I know, it was a Christmas party, but I was just Christmas-ed out. Plus, I needed an excuse to break out that Love You Much bundle!! TFL!

Handmade SU gift exchange goodies

Here's what I made! I LOVED how it turned out! I even contemplated stealing it for myself, but, I didn't. It was a kit that I bought at Joann's several years ago. It actually came with paper and other accessories, but I used all SU stuff, instead.

I used the stamp set and pattern paper from the Love You Much bundle, Candy Lane. I used the Big Scallop Circle die, cut in half and those cute little birds from Birds and Blooms. These pics don't even do it justice, it's so much cuter IRL! TFL!

Oh, and Tiffany ended up with the gift! LOL!!

Love You Much!

Here's the card I made for the post-Christmas Christmas party at Darla's last Friday evening! I was on a total Love You Much kick for everything I took to the party.....the make-n-take card, the gift for the gift exchange and the gift bag I put it in! I just love this cute little stamp bundle (stamp set, 3 heart punch, and great pattern paper called Candy Lane). I also went a little Big Shot crazy....the Top Note die, Big Scallop Circle die, and the birds are from the Birds and Blooms die set! I always try and make it a personal goal to use all the stamps in a set, if I can (unless it's an all phrase set, of course). And, I did on this one! Which is why there are so many layers and pieces to it. I just couldn't stop! LOL! And, yes, the actual "Love you much" stamp is stamped on the inside of the card!

Stop by tomorrow...I'm going to have pics of the gift exchange gift I made posted! You'll never believe who ended up with my gift, either! ;)

....and more BYOM!!!

Are you getting tired of seeing BYOM January kit goodies, yet?! Too bad! ;) This is the last of it, anyway. Needless to say, I have nothing left of this kit! Everything on these layouts are are from the kit + extras from shopping.....except the naked chipboard circle on the second layout. It's a Technique Tuesday chipboard and it was in the shopping area for a prev kit several months ago.

The top layout was done using a sketch from my good friend and fellow DT member, Liz! It's not a sketch she did for BYOM, but one she posted on her blog, which she does regularly! Check it out for some inspiration! The bottom layout was done using another So Sketchy layout.

TFL!

....more BYOM....

And, two more layouts done with the January BYOM kit! The top layout isn't really on a white cardstock background, I put it on that for the photo. It's really a round layout! I don't do those too often, but it was kinda fun! I used a PageMaps RoundMap for that one. The bottom layout I used a sketch from So Sketchy. I love that she incorporated sewing into her sketch! Everything on these layouts are from the kit + extras from the shopping area. TFL!

BYOM January kit!!!

Yes, it's here!! And it's truly fabulous! I know I say this about every kit, but it's the truth! These lines from Crate Paper and Making Memories paper were meant to be put together. Everything from these two layouts were from the kit + extras from the shopping area, except the pink Bazzill Bling cardstock on the "Mom & Jenna" layout, which, by the way, is an 8x10 layout meant to be put in a frame.

Check back over the next 2 days as I will be unveiling the other 4 layouts I did with the kit!! :)

Happy 2009!

Happy New Year to everyone! I hope you had a great time doing what you loved. The Birrell clan all went over to Alex and Tracy's and Hillory and Jeremy and their family came over, too. All 8 of the kids played downstairs in the basement and they all played so well together, it was kinda scary! Alex and Tracy taught us all how to play a card game called NERTS (think Solitaire x 3 all going on at the same time everyone playing off everyone else's cards) and it was so fun! We played that most of the time. We also played Trivial Pursuit 80's Edition and CatchPhrase. We watched the ball drop and then pretty much packed up and headed home. We got home around 1:30 and then we stayed up until about 3am playing on the DS's!

Today we got up, played around on the Wii and then me and Steve, Alex, Hillory and Jeremy went for an 11 mile bike ride this afternoon. I haven't ridden that much for quite a while, so boy am I feelin' it this evening!

Well, it's back to work tomorrow....blech. Tiffany and I are going to our up-up-up-upline's house in Illinois for a post-Christmas Christmas Party! We have to make a handmade gift out of Stampin' Up product for a gift exchange and come up with a card or paper project for everyone there to make themselves to take home. I love what I made for the gift exchange!!! I'll be sure and take a picture of it before I give it away. And, I love the card I made, too! I'll take a pic of that, too, of course.