I caulk... therefore I ROCK!

Catchy eh?

I have been a caulking FOOL the past couple of weeks. Caulking/painting the chair rails in Ashli's room, caulking the bathrooms, and finally, caulking and painting the shelves for Ashli's room today. While I think i'm a handy sort of girl, I am in no way some contracting master. I don't even know if I am using the caulk gun (or caulk) the right way! But let me just take you to CAULK school for a breif moment. Have you ever cut off the tip of a caulk bottle? The crap explodes out of the tube with ferver!  If you don't slam a paper towel over the tip ASAP you'll lose half the bottle all over the floor. And WHAT a PITA to clean up! It smears goo all over the place and if you don't get it cleaned up while it's wet, you'll NEVER get it out! Speaking of "Goo," after you squirt the stuff on the tub, or shelf or whatever, you have to squish it into place with your finger and spread... fun huh? Not so much. So, I was perusing the caulk isle at Home Depot a while back (yep, they have a caulk isle) and I saw this little yellow finger looking thingy called a 'DAP CAP' It is basically a paper towel replacer and a finger all in one! YAY!  It keeps the goo in when you want it in, and after you lay down your bead of caulk, you can use the other end to squish! LOVE IT! Now, I can caulk all over the place and I don't leave a nasty white bead of goo all over the house, nor is the icky stuff all over my fingers! So ladies, get out there and show your husband/boyfriend/dad/other significant male in your life that you can ROCK THE CAULK too. LMAO corny huh? Can you tell I'm like SO High on my new found capability?

Don't look at my post like you're on the wrong blog.. LOL Caulking really gives everything a nice, finished, clean look. And it's super easy! Get thee to Home Depot and get to caulking your baseboards ladies!  Next week? We're installing SHELVING (for your scrapbook supplies!)

Did a little Scrappin'

A WEEK AGO! Gosh, I'm so behind with everything! I completed this layout nearly two weeks ago and just haven't had time to photograph and upload it. 

The camera was lying all by its itty-bitty lonesome on the counter today begging me to pick it up and DO something with it, so I figured I'd get some of my work photographed and uploaded to it's appropriate places. =o)   It's been a productive day! Work is photographed, I have participated in manual labor around my house (i'll tell the story in an upcoming post), my children are clean and fed and I have two seconds to post my new layout while the chicken for my Chicken Enchiladas is 'poaching'.   Now, I have a silly question and if any of you happen to have the answer to this, please let me know.  Why do they call it "poaching"  Why don't they save me a lot of time and research and just say "BOIL THE DAMN CHICKEN?"

Anyway, here's that layout I was talking about - I used some awesome cut papers from Pink Paislee, some Primas and a Fancy Pants overlay =o) TFL

Stacey & Curtis

These are some photos from a shoot we did today for Stacey and Curtis.  I really do like how some of these came out~ Hope they like them too!

*YAWN* Good Morning!

 I'm a few days late.. but better late than never right? LAST WEEK'S challenge on The Photo Challenge Blog was to photograph your morning...  Yeah. My mornings are hectic, so I took my camera to bed with me and decided I would photograph the very first thing I saw when I opened my eyes. Welcome to my bedroom, welcome to my morning---

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Sorry for the iffy quality. I don't know what has happened! Either, ME or my camera forgot how to take photos. I'm betting it's prolly me! =o(

Matani vs The Pool!

Here's a layout I did last night of Matani's pool escapades this summer. He took on the pool... and he won. In about 2 hours. The pool had to be thrown away it was thrashed so badly!

I used the new Black Market Paper Society papers on this one, as well as some magic mesh, and some Basic Grey rubz. I wanted to give it that 'wet' look, so I dribbled diamond glaze all over the grungeboard splashes (thank you Tim Holtz!), and left 'water droplets' all over the page. It looks like the page is soaking wet, until you touch it! Cool effect!

~K~

Just a few Odds & Ends...

Pretty cool huh!?  I've been wanting to get a decent 'MOON' shot since I got my zoom lens. I've been so busy with the house, the kids, the... the... the  that I never got it. UNTIL TONIGHT! It seemed so close tonight, and the zoom helped even more! Thank the Lord for tripods and remote controls! YAY!

And... here's one of the Wonder Spaz. I noticed that Photo Challenge this week is animals too... maybe they'll let me back in with this one of Matani showing his goose who the BOSS is!?

First Deposit!!!!!!

Thanks to friends, family, caring scrapbookers and of course to My Acrylic Album, we were able to make the very first donation on behalf of Mason Puzzle to Autism Speaks!! We have created a tribute page for Mason and Mason's Puzzle. Through this page, we are able to keep track of the funds going to Autism Speaks in honor of my precious little man! Please take a moment to check out Mason's tribute page, and if you are able... please make a donation to Autism Speaks. No amount is too small!! Let's solve this puzzle, not only for Mason but for all children afflicted with Autism!
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Check out Mason's tribute page here: http://events.autismspeaks.org/tributes/masonspuzzle

STOP INTERNET PREDATORS!

You owe it to your children who use computers to check this program out! This program will effectively reduce the chances that your child will give pertinent personal information to online predators!

A very dear friend of mine has come up with a personal safety computer program which can prohibit your children from accidentally giving out personally identifying information via computer to online predators (or anyone for that matter!) This program monitors your child's internet activity, can be customized to suit your specific needs and will give you reports of your child's activities if your child tries to type in 'prohibited' information.

You've probably all seen the Dateline specials on T.V. about online predators and sex offenders, and how prevalent they are in our computers. They prey on our children in the safety of their own homes. This program stops these animals from getting any information you don't want them to have! I so very strongly urge ALL of you with children to go to www.blockoutgoing.com and check out this very inexpensive program. It just might save your child, or a child you know. And by all means, please let your friends and family know of this invaluable program!

Just a few photos from the house...

The house we bought has been sitting empty for at least one year, maybe more. The grass was dead, we weren't sure we'd be able to bring it back, but so far it's coming along! We have four trees in our front yard. One is DEFINITELY dead, one is definitely alive. The other two are really questionable. So off we went to the Nursery this week to pick out our new tree. This is a big deal for us, we love our plants and trees and buying a new tree is like welcoming a new family member! After MUCH deliberation and searching, we found our perfect addition! He's an English Oak tree. Slow growing and very very strong. We love him and can't wait for him to grow along with our family! (no.. let me re-phrase, he can grow UP with Ashli and Mason, we are NOT growing our family!)

Here is Gregg planting the new Oak, while Ashli supervises.

Guess who I walked in on "helping" me to paint Ashli's room? Yeah.. that was a heart-stopping moment! A two-year-old with a loaded PURPLE paint brush in my new house! YIKES!

I'm in heaven.. I found RUB-ONS for WALLS! YAY!!!!!!!!! You scrapper people know what I mean! These are Vinyl rub ons from www.vinylwallart.com. These were the PERFECT addition to Ashli's new room! She loves her flowers!

This is Ashli's room (unfinished). I spent this week painting it the colors that Ashli chose. The darker purple on the bottom and the lilac on top. We're waiting for daddy to pull it all together with a beautiful chair rail to separate the two colors. Then, I have to paint a book case and add a few little things and her room will be complete!

Here's the back yard. I think I took these photos two days after we moved in. We had NO fence and let me tell you.. with "Matani, The Wonder Spaz" living in this house, we NEEDED a fence! Not to even mention what a pain in the butt it was to leash up both dogs to take them outside every hour or two! Thank GOD I have a very handy husband who was equally motivated to get that fence up ASAP! (I did help.. quite a bit too!)

Another view of the backyard. Don't I have such lovely weeds? The yard had never been landscaped, so that is our NEXT big project! YIPPEE! More trees!

And yet, another view of the back yard. This one shows the little deck we have off the dining room.

Here is my honey building our peace of mind. (And my sanity).

You know I had to throw in a shot of Mason's amazing smile! *sigh* I love that boy!
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More photos to come, SOON hopefully!

From A Dear Friend...

Many of you who read my blog know my dear friend Paulien Van den Bosch, of Castricum Holland. This woman is a card making PHENOM! HOLY COW her work is so unbelievably GORGEOUS! She just finished giving classes in the Netherlands to more than 100 people on how to make cards like 'SHE' does! Anyway, my beautiful friend sent me this gorgeous card for my birthday and I just had to share it! It's STUNNING! Thank you Honey! I LOVE IT!!!

Found a few minutes to SCRAAAAAAAAAAAP!

I snuck down to my little craft-room / office in the middle of the night (okay, it was 10:00. But at my age, that IS the middle of the night!) to get in a little bit of scrap-time. It felt good to get back to the hobby that I love and actually PLAY with some paper!

This is Ashli and her first Snowman. The journaling here reads:

" I just love this photo of you with your first snow man! Oh how you loved him. You, daddy & the Smiths worked on him all morning and your "imagigation" brought him to life. In your eyes he was alive, and you loved him. It broke your heart when he melted, but he will always live in you!!"
A big thank you to my dear friend Tracey Jackson, from whom I stole the lacing idea! Her layouts are REALLY fantastic!

Here is a layout I've been trying to get done since FEBRUARY. (I'm a tad bit behind) This layout documents Matani's travel from Johannesburg, South Africa to the United States. It's just a fun little collage full of memorabilia from his memorable journey. The tassels on this layout were made by Eco-Africa , A company who employs women in a small village in Zimbabwe to create hand made paper crafting papers, kits and other stuff. All proceeds go to help these women feed their families.
Look for a complete feature on Eco-Africa in the March/April issue of Scrap N' Art!

Wanna know what'll freak ya out?

So today, I am lazily going about putting laundry away and tidying up the house. No biggy right? Right. I walk into my bathroom to toss a loofa into the shower and turn back around to leave.. but I stop. Had I just seen... something outside the bathroom window? No.. No, it couldn't have been. I turn around slowly and gaze out my bathroom window. And just WHAT to my wondering eyes should appear?
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A FRIGGIN' TORNADO! (No, I am not kidding. Who could possibly make this crap up?)
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Yep folks, there was a TORNADO outside my window. I sat and stared at it for about a minute while trying to collect my thoughts and come to terms with what I thought I was seeing, when Gregg came in and says, "whatcha lookin' at?" I tell him that I'm not sure... but I think it's a tornado. He comes over and peeks out the window and sure enough... it's a tornado! "Go get your camera!" he says. Not, go get the kids.. go turn on the news.. no. "Go get the camera!" LOL! So I of course go turn on the news to see what is going on, as we had received no warning. The sirens never went off and sure enough there is a tornado warning in our area and a tornado currently on the ground (duh!). Being as the tornado was moving away from us, I thought it was safe to go ahead and grab my camera, but by the time I got all the way down to my scrap-room, unpacked the camera and got back up to my bathroom the tornado was dissipating and returning to the clouds. (Of course). So, here are the shots I did catch of it before it finally disappeared. You can click on the photos to make them larger if ya wanna.

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This first shot shows the funnel going back up.

funnel going back up...

funnel going back up, and the view from my bathroom LOL!

The End!

WE'RE IN!

Gosh it's been a long time huh? We finally got moved into our new place two weeks ago. It's been CRAZY trying to unpack, get settled, build a fence, do the window coverings, keep up with therapies 4-5 days a week, keep up with Scrap N' Art and with My Acrylic Album and *attempt* to keep my sanity!

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So here we are! All moved in, no photos on the computer yet *GASP!* But I'll get to it as soon as I can! Maybe tomorrow? I don't have any plans tomorrow other than staying in my Jammies ALL DAY LONG! LOL~

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Anyway, just wanted to post an update and let everyone know we're all alive! I hope to be able to start posting regularly again soon!

Big hugs!
~K~

Mason's Puzzle makes it to ENGLAND!

Thank you to my very dear friend Tracey, who has brought Mason's Puzzle to England.

Check out the link below to see the store display for Paper Paradise, in England!

http://tj-runningwithscissors.blogspot.com/2008/08/masons-puzzle.html

Just a little update...

Well, our house is STILL under contract. No one has backed out *yet*! We did manage to get our other house 'back', but in order to do so had to move the closing date up to the 8th! This seriously gave us less than 2 weeks to get ready to get out! I'm not going to count my chickens before they hatch this time, but if all goes as planned, we sign off on this house and sign ON to our next house on Friday the 8th, and Saturday is moving day!

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We have been terribly busy with house hunting (up to 50+ properties in 4 days), Mason's therapies and various inspections and appraisals all over the place. Did I mention.. all of this with psycho dog? LOL! I only say that because he's right next to me mutilating his squeaky sea-horse! Anyhow, I'm hoping that by Sept. 1st our lives will be SOMEWHAT back to normal, whatever THAT is!

We have LOTS to do at the new house (landscaping, furniture and window coverings.. etc) so I may be off and on sporatically for a while!

Hope everyone is doing well!

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~K~

Some Pics.. Some News!

My daylillies are up! YAY! Just in time for me to get one last photo before we move! (Hopefully). Our house is back under contract with a NEW set of buyers! So, again.. we have 30 days to find a new house and get out! We are trying desperately to get the house we had under contract back in May... but we are having to fight another buyer for it! UGH!!! Hopefully we'll know something soon. We've seen all the other homes in this area and they all pretty much SUCKED. So.. keep our fingers crossed!

This is a baby American Kestrel (Thanks HB!) There are three babes and a mommy (see a few posts below). They have made my yard home for the past few days and enjoy sitting on my back fence! I got my camera out, DOUBLE CHECKED MY ISO and popped off a few shots. This little angel who has only been out of the nest for about 1-2 weeks let me get to within 5 feet or so of him. I just loved this shot!



Here is a dragonfly that I found hanging out on my raspberry bushes while I was Kestrel hunting. I tried to get some great shots of it's face as I am convinced it was giving me some pretty strange looks, but every one of them came out blurry! Ah well, i'm trying my best to find those bugs Wen!

Fill 'er Up!

This week's challenge on the photo blog is to fill your frame, OR make your subject the focus. I'm reeeeeeeeeeeeally good at that one! So here are a couple from today!

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I FOUND A BUG!!!!

Here ya go Wen, not nearly as good as YOUR grasshopper shot, but at least I flippin FOUND one! I was tempted to give him a leaf to eat.. just to see if I could get the 'money shot' No such luck! LOL

Here is my attempt to fill the frame with the beautiful storm clouds that were hanging over the house today!

This little beauty is the center of an Orchid... Her name is Sally.

(It's an Ashli thing)

Here is "Sally" again, after a little misting (spoiling)

This is Sally, in all her beautiful glory. MAN! These plants are just stunning!

It's Mah POOCH!

There's mah boy! And his.. uhhmmm, errrr Tree? Gregg got so tired of Matani chewing on our bushes and trees that he just lopped a limb off and gave it to him! It's his new favorite toy!

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Oh yeah.. notice that pink blob in his right eye? Yeah, I rushed him to the vet Monday morning (Thanks Stacey!) because I thought he had poked his eye with a stick (I don't know WHAT would make me think that...) Turns out his third eyelid (yes.. dogs have 3 eyelids. How alienish eh?) prolapsed. He has a "cherry eye" Purely cosmetic, won't cause him any harm and will cost about $600.00 to tuck back in with no guarantee that it won't prolapse again.

ughhhh

I have finally accepted the fact that my dog has a lazy eye. I was in doubt (denial) until this photo series. Now I'm convinced.. poor thing. I can't tell if he's looking at me or the kids!

OR BOTH!

*stop laughing, it's not funny* Do you think he likes his tree? Good grief, I couldn't get him to let it go!

Here he is "hovering" over it. Like I'm going to take it from him and start chewing on it!

Finally! A photo with no stick in his mouth! It is however, right beside him....

Eh, at least he likes it!