scrap and the city

new scrapbook page.

hey yall!

i am enjoying this wonderful summer weather we are having!  after the rainy days late may thru early june,  we are now being blessed with lots  days where the weather is in the 80's  and nights that are 60 degrees or lower. we have been chillin' with just the fans going!  that right there is FAB!

so uh, layout, lets take a look, shall we?

i participated in my girl  linda b's  challenge over at write.click.scrapbook.   she was the host this week and she nailed it!. reading her posts was like listening to her talk or reading one of her daily emails.  love her!!!  and write.click.scrapbook.  is pretty wonderful too.  it was founded after the simple scrapbooks mag stopped.  many of the contributors were simple regulars old and new; and if you came to scrapbooking loving the simple scrapbooking way, you will love this blog. 

actually, remember there is no way to scrapbooking, but just like everything in life, you gravitate towards something you just vibe with.  for me, simple scrapbooks was my speed.  i definately miss the publication, but write.click.scrapbook.  fills the void. 

they have giveaways too.  something i plan to keep up with. 

so without further adieu. here is the layout:

 

closeup:

 

here is the deets:

k&co, martha stewart, studio calico, and ali edwards stamps, mm wedding paper, mm brads, martha stewart hydrangea punch, bazzil cs

can i tell you how much I LOVE TRAVEL stamps.  these are pretty much the gist of my travel collection, oh yeah and these stamps right here. i did a whole post about them!  travel stamps are not just the ultimate for documenting trips, but the hotness for documenting life's journey and day to day stuff. they are great for documenting places to go and people to see, even if its just the market, lol.   i guess that is why i like them alot.  MULTIPURPOSE.

and the journaling:

I have always loved going places and seeing sights. I like to explore new areas their history. As I get older, traveling and actually leaving the Tri State area is becoming a huge interest of mine. I want to take my family and get out to see more of the world!  Touch, feel and breathe new air and above all have a fun time doing so. 

It is a dream of mine to travel more.  GO. SEE. DO.

Travel can be expensive, and time off from work can be scarce, but with some planning and a whole lot of faith, I know my dreams to travel more will come true. 

so there you have it! lots of stamps, the coolest color right now, basic gray.  and one of my wishes.   hope you get inspired to check out that site too!

peace. 

ps. i didn't post anything before, but MJ was the best, right!   and one quick thought i have of many.  as i listen to off the wall, over and over, i can't believe how much i can relate to these timeless themes.  LEAVE THE 9 to  5 UP ON THE SHELF AND JUST ENJOY YOURSELF. LIVE LIFE OFF THE WALL! for realz.

things i love right now.

mac's 25% off sale on everything (except viva glam), ONLINE only.  free shipping at $60.00.

hosta i purchased last week. leafy and green.

5 guys burger and fries.   very fresh and very tasty.  a nice treat.

hot and sour soup.  only on mondays and never after tuesday.   something is wrong with the taste of it late in the week... weird..

trader joes!   i was getting tired of the same old same old.  went to trader joes and food was fun again!   got a few pre-mades to throw together evenings when i go to the gym. their ingredients are pretty on point.

this brush is a must have, very soon!!!  for that last blend when make-up application is done.

gardening and playing in the dirt.

cinnamin and sugar pita chips.  trader joes' has a brand that is thinner than stacy's.  much love.

bejeweled blitz tourny on facebook. 

ryan leslie's debut and seal's soul CD.  faves in the CD changer and itunes playlist

SLEEP!!!!   i am working really hard, cleaning the house,  going to the gym, cooking, getting rid of clutter.  by the time i get to bed. i am DONE!  sleeping feels so good!

and i am about to go to sleep now. 

peace

not having the words to say...

 i was watching the national spelling bee the other night and really, i want to brush up on my vocab.

plain and simple.  

i have been working with alex on enriching  her grammar, writing and reading.  we found some books from costco about a year ago and they cover all of that.  i love them for her.  they have practice questions that i copy so we can reuse the book over and over again.  she is cool with the practice.  and i want to do some too.

cause i want to brush up on my vocab.

i am reading the book outliers by malcom gladwell and its pretty good.   in one stream, its not saying things that you don't already know. basic things like, practice makes perfect.   but on the other hand, the way he writes and the social events he writes about, make you want to get up on your game and practice, practice, practice! 

did you know that it has been proven that  if you log 10,000 hours practicing  a certain thing, you become a world class expert on it?    i mean really, for most, the talent is not originally there... its the practice that gets you where you want to go... the drive to want to practice and for some the opportunities and luck in place for that practice to play itself out.  gladwell gives some good examples in the book (the beatles, bill gates, etc).  i am fascinated by their stories. YOU have to check this book  out.    

now one thing about the 10,000 hour thing.  the examples worked because folks were young.  i am talking about 10,000 hours starting out in pre- and post adolescence.  good for them right?  well for me, i just want to be aware that i need to put some time into being better at stuff.   i really didn't think about practicing and logging in time to get better.  i just had this mindset that i could just do a little  every now and then and that was good enough, because in my mind, that was all i needed to do to get by. not to say i don't want better, but with devoting time to so many other things. you forget what's needed to be the bomb.  its easy to lose the mindset of bettering your self.

plus i want to practice what i preach. with a tween... you need to show them that striving is what's up at any age!  no matter what crap you are dealing with.   like i tell b.  i try to do something better daily.  reading outliers, is really helping me focus to bring that to fruition. 

so i was thinking about things i can practice on.  narrowing it down.  and i came up with a few things so far.

increasing my vocab.  learning new words, meaning, and new ways to write them.   since i talk for a living, i want to hit people with some out of this world ish that they would never expect to hear!

time management.  looking at what i need to do and blocking it into an hour or whatever!  i waste so much time... always wondering where the damn weekend went.  i would love to work on this because time management makes everything else flow together, the cleaning, the cooking,  the crafting.  time at the gym.  family time. all this practicing i need to do.  all of that!    an the crazy part is that i don't want to get too complex on this.  i just want to have a list... from 2 to 3, watch an episode of charmed, from 3 to 4, prep and cook a meal, from 5 to 6:30  make some birthday cards.   i need a flow like that!  

eye makeup application.  last week alex had her recital and of course she needed a stage look.  alex has more lids than me, so its really fun to practice on her.  eye makeup is the true artistry.   everything else is gonna be alright if your eyes are TIGHT.

as you can see,  i have work to do....  30 minutes, maybe an hour a day devoted to one of these things.   anything you trying to work on?  holla at me!

peace.

ps... off to clean craft space from 5 to 6:30.  *wink*

 

 

finishing up

april photo a day was AMAZING!!!!   unfortunately crap our computer is putting us through is NOT! 

yes the posts are delayed, but the photos are forever.  i am excited that now i am finally getting a chance to share the rest of them with you. 

now sit back and relax and enjoy this photo heavy post!

04.17.09:  one of my favorite "artistic" photos that i found rummaging through my saved photos. i try.   i want to scrapbook this SOOO bad. i thought i lost it.  loves alex's chucks. 

 

04.18.09:  took a visit to the chesnut hill section of philly for drinks and wings.  this is a great part of the city. specialty shops. great food! everyone is so neighborly.  expensive as hell!

 

04.19.09:  cool dude is his parents lexus.  dj

04.20.09:   you had me a hello.   i think hello kitty reminds me so much of growing up in the 80's its not even funny.  each year i buy a hello kitty wall calendar to brighten up my frickin' cublical.  i really enjoy the themes each year. this year each photo has a dog in it.  i am soooo a dog person.

04.21.09:  she is cell. phone. crazy. if she could be on the phone 24/7, she would!  this chick is loving the free nights and weekends.  mobile to mobile talk and unlimited texting.

 

04.22.09:  happy birthday to me!  brian brought a bottle of nuvo to try and we took a couple of sips in the morning.   NOT a new favorite.  it tastes okay, and it makes me wonder what i can mix with it.  but it sure is a pretty pink  in the bottle;  even though i STRONGLY believe alcohol does not have to be marketed to women.  we gets it in on our own! believe that!  lol!

 

04.23.09:  birthday roses

04.24.09:  another photo from dylan's candy bar.  this place is serious eye candy literally.  so many bright colors against the white backdrop.  AMAZING!

one thing at dylan's i never had before is flavored cotton candy.  cotton candy is my favorite, but flavored WHA WHAT!?  i had orange. light fluffy and orange!   that was a serious.

 

04.25.09:  MAC studio talk.  i saw the ad at bloomingdales.  called dawn.  signed up instantly and had a *girl's afternoon experimenting with color and trying out new make-up tips.  AND LASHES!  we learned how to add lashes.  instant drama.  here is a pic from my place setting.  they gave us each a MAC paper pad and pencil for notes.   can you say awesome!!!

AWESOME!

04.26.09:   SICK.  i still had brian's cold that he gave me the saturday before my birthday.  i had a few different cough medicines that i like.  the truth is i was digging the kids triminic nighttime cough and cold.  that stuff is for kids, but it is strong and it puts me out!

fyi:  crazy, but i buy kids cold meds and take them cause i am cheap with that. we don't get sick that much and we are big with the getting a lot of liquids approach. one bottle per house. and now that alex is 12, we can get to the adult stuff.  again one bottle per house.

04.27.09: girl's afternoon, a saturday or sunday when you can't get a full girl's day because you have child rearing and household chores to do before and after your event. this is dawn and i at MAC studio talk.  love it. it was so delightful they had a black backdrop for photos! we had a great time.  can you see our lashes???

04.28.09:  i ate at the cheescake factory 3 times in april.  once during spring break week with mom, my birthday, and my mom's birthday.  i tried their gumbo for the first time AND tried ketel one in my matini.  i actually had a few new things while i was there.  finally something else besides my favorite avacado egg rolls.

04.29.09:  damn NY subway is so fricking clean and soooo easy to use.  LOL! i say that after i ended up in some borough somewhere instead of manhattan.  the conductor was friendly and let us know the real deal.  the NY subway is a good damn deal, priced right, spacious,  and i am happy to report the same train goes to coney island and canal street and times square, AND dylan's and serendipity 3. all the places  i love.  one train.  YES!  

04.30.09:  i love this ad in times square.  ' 09 had been great so far!  a few highlights: i joined a gym (big deal, i hated excercise) went to central park for the first time.  mastered 2 recipes i have been dying to try, chicken and sausage gumbo, and curry chicken. 

april 09 was the best! 

photo a day was awsome.  posting and documenting.  looking back and re-living the memory. i love this activity for that. HOPEFULLY i will be able to get my scrap on with these photos soon.  i have tons of ideas to pull together.  

peace.

you gotta have options!

yesterday, I took alex to aeropostale for some spring tees. that is her store, and surprisingly, its the store of lots of tweens and teens everywhere, which is to my surprise cause its not all about polo and tommy or even the GAP like during my tween and teen days. its not about spending your arm and leg like it use to be. these kids like comfort, color, and cheap. they also like to layer, so a 17.50 tee, at buy one get one free is a good deal and everyone is happy. and you can rock it with and without hoodie. observing more at aero is that their extra small tee would fit an 80 pounder. so kids as small as 3rd or 4th grade can shop there, as well as the college set. I also like the variety. they have tons of different designs and colors without inappropriate sayings; and because kids styles tend to vary so much today, there is something for everyone without chances of playing the same outfit. we really do like it and i have a 25 percent coupon good for april 30. i love that! my real love came for them when I started to really check out their designs. lots of white with cool colors like blue, green, purple and silver print. many shades of pink and blue to make any pink lover happy. red on heather gray. a pretty warm yellow. and then I went crazy over the fonts! bold sans serif with sparkly script. athletic fonts distressed. no really, whatever your mood, they had it. because as a scrapbooker, I love to observe type styles and color combos, i was head over heels about my new finds. plus its always nice to like the same stuff as the kid... to a degree of course. I want to use their details as inspiration for my april 09 album. badly! so I will! peace. ps. check out aeropostale.com for photos. once I get it all together I will unveil what I used from them and what not.

04.16.09

BAM!  POW!  KABOOM!!! 

dj has a comic book shirt where iron man talks when you press the button.  as a family we are big geeks super hero buffs!  we  really go for origin stories and daily crime fighting activities, that we can live vicariously through.  its all fun, the movies, the comic books, the gear you wear.  total coolness.

peace.

1/2 way through....

what i am learning about photo a day. 

i am loving every minute of it. 

i get lazy.  but no matter what, i will have 30 photos to reflect on at the end of april, taking in april, to bring me countless joy when april is over.   feeling like that is the shit!

i get mad when i don't have my camera because its become a good habit to carry it around.  yes it is big and bulky, but we make do.  my camera and i enjoy the time we are spending together.

i don't take a photo a day.  at first i really wanted to, but when it got down to it, i had some rainy days, some fog and i just couldn't find interesting things to take a pic of.   i also didn't want to do trees and flowers the whole time either.   i was beating myself up for it. i assumed that the daily's people do online were photos taken that day.   then i thought about it all, heck its not when you take the picture. its the damn story you tell.   there are no rules.  just post the photo and move on with it.  your words and the photo together is that GOLD... ahem,  or in my case, that tiffany silver (which i prefer) that i want

disclaimer:  the photo you see may or may not have been taken that day, but if it was, i'll know. in my journal, you can bet your bottom dollar that i will make note of it!

another disclaimer,  there are a few photos a day that will not be mine!   for example, 04.17.09's photo  is going to be about something i am enjoying. can't take a pic of it, but i will search the plethora of photos on the net for it. but its still about my month.  stay tuned.

i feel like doing a december daily will be a peice of cake.  this right here is GOOD practice for making one during one of the busiest months of the year.

i get excited knowing that i am going places to take photos! like NYC.  i knew that was going to provide me with lots of photos for photo a day!

i hope to get some scrap supplies together  for this soon.  i will like to use mostly stamps and buttons... ribbon too.  this is a great way to use up that stuff.

do you know that i love this?

i will print the 30 photos at home and they will be 3 x 5 size i think.

my blog posts are going to be my prompts.  this blog is a FAB way to remember it all.  they are TRULY notes to self!

hmmm  that is all i am observing now.

what do you think.  do you feel like trying a photo a day for a month sometime in the future?

let me know what you think!

peace.

04.15.09

WIP

i am still not done this layout that i started when cynta came over to scrapbook 4.10.09.  tsk, tsk, tsk. 

i am really a slow scrapbooker and am trying to figure out how i can speed up the process. 

anywhoo,  this page is just about done, i need to add journaling and if you look closely, you will see the title, "it's showtime", in die-cuts the same color as the cardstock it is on. the lighting is really bad, so you may not be able to see it.  when i shoot this layout again. it will be in the day time, so it should show up better.  i really like the diecuts on the same color cardstock look. that is my new favorite thing.

*sigh* i am just slow at it.  

oh,  btw,  this page is my attempt to use up the hundreds of buttons i have.  expect to see lots of buttons on my futer pages.  heck, i may even stick some buttons on pages in the past too.  crazy, but the buttons gots to go. ribbon too!  i have too much of them both.

peace.

04.14.09

dylan's candy bar...

another picture from NYC.   we went to dylan's candy bar and had so much fun!  a couple of years ago, i read an article about dylan lauren,  daughter of ralph lauren starting her own venture, a candy store in manhattan.  i was wowed and amazed by the article and photos that accompanied the article.  i vowed to get there one day, because like the big kid i am, you can never be too old to love something sweet.

i also saw this show feature on kimora's show and in on demand.  i watched both of these segments with alex and her eyes got as big as mine!  i knew dylan's was on the list of to do places for our NYC trip. 

i took tons of pics there... and surprisingly i didn't do much damage in the candy department.  there was just so much to see and too much to really keep track of so late in the day!   i will say this, the place is just marvelous and it further affirms for me that everything is NYC is always done wayYYY big! 

here is the centerpeice of dylan's. acrylic lollipops on display. there are many more marvels that i hope make it to a mini album one day all bakc and white with the photos popping out i'm thinking... *sigh* i took over 300 photos in NYC and i am STILL wondering how i am going to attack them all!   shoot, baby steps, steph,  one segment at a time.  i can't even think about it.  my shutterfinger is starting to hurt...

peace.

04.13.09

my thing... one of them anyway

i am really into eyeshadow.  mixing and matching and finding new ways to layer so it will last longer once applied.  

i do MAC's MATTE, concealer, then a paint pot.  i also do concealer under the eye, with pressed powder to finish my look. i am not a big liquid or creme foundation person. i am too oily for that. 

the artistry is in the eyes so i really love to do them up.  as you can see, i have a lot of colors to mix and match, so its always fun to try new things with what i have on hand. 

note this is the tip of the iceberg.  i have lots more eyeshadow not photo'd here. i just pulled out a couple for the photo.  i also want to add, that even though MAC is my main joint, i also love, love, love, loreal's HIP line. the one beyonce and kerry washington model alot in loreal ads.  the colors remind me alot of MAC, but at a (almost) more affordable price. they are still a little high, but they give you 2 complimenting colors in a pot instead of one.  that's a nice bonus!

another note about MAC, see if you have a local outlet mall.  my tri state area has quite a few. if you can get to one, check out the costmetic company outlet store.  the "cosmetic company" is estee lauder, which is the parent company of MAC, origins, bobby brown, prescriptives, and a few others.   there you can find, these products at 20-30 percent off.  don;t be afraid thinking the make-up there is some old and shrivled up stock, cause its not.  its the overstock and returns not sold in stores. 
you see, most makeup remains fresh until its open; its only when you start using it, exposing it to the air, and stuff in the air, that it goes bad. mascara is the main one you should immediately be concerned about. it is very delicate when exposed to the air and germs.  life span is a few months. everything else is pretty good with shelf life  after opening.

here is a site with more info.  real simple magazine also covers this at least once a year. i feel like they cover it more than this at times, but nonetheless GOOD info. 

peace.