No day like today....

Mackenzie the Swimmer, Alyssa the Dancer!

Last weekend we had the opportunity to attend my niece Mackenzie's annual synchronized swimming water show, the weather was perfect and we had great seats!   Mackenzie has been a competing member of the Arizona Aqua Stars swim team since she was in elementary school, she toils in the pool with her teammates many hours a week during competiton season and has won many awards for her efforts, the annual watershow is our yearly opportunity to see her strut her stuff! I wish I was better at capturing the quick acrobatics and amazing synchronized movements her team executes in the pool check out some of the photo albums my cousin Dana( her mom) usually has posted in her blog sidebar albums to see what these gals can do!  I was able to get a couple cute pictures of Mackenzie on the day of the performance with Alyssa and her college Roomate Riley and Mackenzie's other little cousin Katie, and a good picture of Michael with Mackenzie too. The costumes these swimmers wear are amazing as well sparkly and shimmering truly amazing... a tribute to all the moms to pitch in to do all the beadwork( I am talking bout you Dana!)   

One of the things Alyssa had asked me to do for her over spring break was take some action photos of her dancing to attach to her 2009/2010 NAU dance team audition packet. I was happy to do it, but a bit nervous since photos capturing lots of movement have never been my specialty! I did have a location in mind though. The last few times I had been to down town Mesa I had taken note of very cool surfaces on the exterior walls of some of the historic downtown buildings, and cool paint colors as well!  We settled on a wall with a brick and plaster finish that looked cool behind the pictures and I got a few picture that weren't blurry yeah! I wish I hadn't clipped off her fingers in this leap photo, but it was the best leaping one we took so we went with it!  Here are a couple more of my favorites of my favorite dancer we took that day.

She's home.... and a backyard barbeque, and recipe!

Friday night, Alyssa came home from college at NAU for spring break week, Yeah! Other than Christmas this will be the first time we have had her home for this long since the beginning of the school year. we have plans to get manicures and pedicures and Alyssa was lucky enough to pick up a couple of shifts at Target over break as well. Other than that I think her primary plan is  to hang out with friends and work on her tan! Yesterday we had some fabulous Arizona weather, 80 degrees and sunny, perfect weather for  barbequing and being outside. We also had the pleasure of attending my niece Mackenzie's snychronized swimming water show,She swims or the Arizona Aqua Stars, I will post more on that tomorrow! In honor of ALyssa's return we had a nice little barbeque for dinner here was our menu: Marinated and barbequed steaks, corn on the cob, and Fire and Ice pickeled cucumbers and tomatoes. We also had some shrimp cocktail as an appetizer it was simply delish! I took a rare family photo minus myself of  course during our appetizer course on the patio, I am really going to attempt to snap lots of photos over the break, it is driving me crazy that I have absolutely no photos lately!  I will close with my recipe, actually my mom's recipe for Fire and Ice pickled  cucumbers and tomatoes. If you are looking for a good side dish this summer with a kick to it I would highly recommend it!

Fire and Ice Tomatoes and Cucumbers
6 medium tomatoes quartered
1 medium white onion slices thin
1 large  or 2 medium cucumbers sliced thin
3/4 cup cider vinegr
1/4 cup water
1 tblsp plus 2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp celery salt
1 1/2 tsp  mustard seed
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
Combine vegetables in a bowl.
Combine remaining ingredients in a saucepan, bring to a boil and boil one minute. Pour over vegetables and mix, Cover and refrigerate 5-8 hours before serving.

I am back! and some super cool tape!

I guess it has been too long since my last blog post when things like this start happening!

• Family Members from out of state start calling to be sure I am ok since I never post to by blog any more
• When I have to consult my passworld file to log into Typepad!
• My husband even starts to comment on my lack of blogging

So what is the problem? why am I not blogging? Like any routine, once you break it becomes hard to get back into the habit of recording my thoughts and activities on a regular basis. I must also admit that while I am not blogging I am spending time on Facebook and Twitter largely because I can do it in extremely small bursts with albsolutely no preparation.... it is kinda like  "trial-sized" blogging 140 or 160 character entries and I am done, and I go on my merry way! While this type of social networking and connecting is fun, I have to admit i miss the more journal-like entries I have created for my blog over the past few years  and I am going to do my best to take some baby steps to get on the blog-bandwagon again! Wish me luck.

Thought I would close with a photo of this totally cute tape I ordered last week that came in the mail today! This purchase was the result of a twitter post from Stacy Julian about a cool tape company she had happened upon Tapeswell!  I would highly suggest checking them out. The two rolls of printed coordinating packing tape I got came packaged in the darling can next to it. I also ordered the roll of 15o fun mailing labels that coordinate with the tape! There is just something fun about sending envelopes and packages that look cute!  Hope I enabled a few of you, but this stuff is just too cute to pass up!

Chipboard makes me happy... how 'bout you?

I love creating with chipboard and I am excited to announce I am teaching a new "Projects Now" Class at Big Picture Scrapbooking that shares my favorite techniques for creating with chipboard.  The great thing about a "Projects Now" class is that you can take it whenever you like, registration is always open.  I would love to have you join me. Click on the Big Picture Scrapbooking Link above and check it out! Be on the watch for other  'Projects Now'   classes from me this spring at Big Picture Scrapbooking!

A collection of this and that....and a collection I am starting!

It has been a long while since I have collected something, I guess nothing has really caught my fancy to be honest. This Christmas my husband put a cool iron and wooden coat hook from Anthropologie in my stocking.  I had actually looked at them a few times when I had been shopping over the holidays and thought it would be fun to have one in my scraproom, so it was a nice surprise to get one as a gift. A good friend, Liz Eaton had mentioned that she was going to display a collection of hooks  to hang stuff on in her son's room and I thought it might be fun to do the same in my scrap room for my ever growing collection of aprons and such.... I guess I better start collecting!  Well on to hook number 2, I was internet surfing a couple of weeks ago and one link led to another and I found this completely cool boutique , I windowed shopped for awhile be fore I happend upon this wonderful vintage coat hook from an English school classroom, it was love at first sight, one quick click of the mouse and this little beauty was mine. Does two make a collection, I am thinking so.... I loved that the vintage hook came with a lovely vintage postcard and label-shaped business card from the shop proprietess.  As I clump them somewhere on  a wall I will have to post a photo to share.  On an unrelated  topic while cruising thru Michael's Craft store this weekend I found some super cute stuff in the sewing section that has some definite scrapbooking potential , It was a cute line of embellishments inspired by my favorite reality show Project Runway, and created by Dritz. I will post a picture below. ( so sad Project Runway's fate is unknown I miss the show already!)The trim and rosette flowers are made from twill zipper tape, the rosette zipper flowers have pins on the back so you could actually wear them if you wanted! The other item in the picture is an adorable box of straight pins with little blue buttons atop the pin head.... way cute.

Good Luck NAU Dance Team!!!

Never let anyone tell you that dancers aren't serious athletes! Alyssa and her teammates on the Northern Arizona University  Dance team have been training hard all school year in addition to studying and performing at football, basketball and volleyball games!  These gals workout with all the other collegiate athletes two times a week on weight training, and 3 times a week doing dance choreography and dance work outs in addition to performing at athletic events! I getting tired just thinking bout their schedule. These are just a few of the girls that were at the airport when i dropped Alyssa off this morning, a total of 9 dance team members will be competing at the UDA National College Cheer and Dance Competition in Orlando, Florida this weekend.  Last year NAU placed 4th in the Hip Hop Division  and they are hoping to improve  their standing in both Hip Hop and Jazz  this year! No matter how they do we are all incredibly proud of their hard work and how wonderfully they represent the university!  Go Lumberjacks!!!!

Ok ...... this lack of blogging has gone on long enough!

Sometimes I take too long of a break from blogging and it makes it very hard to hop back in the blogging saddle again. Seems like even though I am busy, and lots of stuff if happening I keep thinking....well is it really blog-worthy?  My friends, family and industry peeps are inquiring about an update so I here I go...... December is over but some definitely noteworthy things occurred so I will try to do a little recap!
Christmas - it was wonderful, I was way more organized and  prepared from a card sending, cookie making, shopping point of view this year largely because I took a great class from Aby Garvey at Simplify 101. I made a great Christmas binder that kept my holiday to-do's, lists, recipes and holiday stuff in order and accessible. I would highly reccommend Aby's classes on organization she has them going on her website year round check them out! Christmas did feel like it happened all at once though, even though Alyssa got done with class at NAU on 12/10 she was unable to come home from Flagstaff until the 20th due to an extended practice schedule with the NAU dance team. They are attending UDA College Cheerleading and Dance National Competition in January and had a short break 12/20-1/2 for the holidays so they could prepare. Mike had also had a crazy month of travel for work and was literally only in town on weekends, two of which he didn't feel so well on in December so we were doing much of our family shopping and planning over the phone, he finally finished traveling on the 19th! Michael was done with school on the 19th as well so Christmas hoopla officially started the weekend of the 19th! We made a mad dash to finish up and wrap all the presents and 6 days later the holiday was upon us!  Next up in my recap is the Dancing with the Stars Live tour show that my mom and I attended...... WOW was it fun.  My mom and I both really enjoy watching the Dancing with the Stars program during the viewing season and we had attended the live tour show together last year too but this years show blew last year's away!To start off with we had AMAZING seats, we could see perfectly, some of the dancers even ran out down the aisles near us, and the choregraphy was so much better than last year, the numbers were all way over the top, with great costumes. All my favorite professional dancers from the show were there, as well as some of my fav stars from this season, i especially liked seeing  Lacy Schwimmer and Lance Bass do some of my favorite numbers from the season. Mom and I may be making this a yearly event! The next season of Dancing with the Stars starts Monday, March 9th can't wait! As I mentioned in my uber-short 12/29 blog post I also did a fun Scrapbooking Segment on the Channel 12 Arizona Midday show. I have had the fun of appearing on channel 12 all through 2008 as their local scrapbooking expert, I really enjoy doing it, and the folks at Channel 12 a super nice.  My after Christmas segment was on not being overwhelmed by your Christmas photos. My favorite project was a little 6 x 6 book that was filled with simple pages showing my christmas card photos for the last 18 years, my family and friends have all enjoyed looking at it, and it is now a permanent part of our christmas decor. I am looking forward to getting it out again next year and adding the next picture! I used a super cute Album from American Crafts, all I had to do was slide in my mini pages, the page sleeves were already part of the book! We also had the pleasure of having some company over the holidays. Mike's sister Janet and her daughter Theresa stayed with us from the 30th -Jan 6th. It had been a few years since Janet had been to Arizona and we thrilled to have her back.  We watched movies, played bocci ball and croquet, as well as Apples to Apples! We went shopping and enjoyed some fabulous dinners out! Janet and Mike both enjoy Mountain Biking so they took a bike ride in Usuary Park that Janet really enjoyed. A few days later we all hiked up the trail to the Wind Cave at Usuary Park before coming home to watch the Cardinals play football. The photo at the right is proof that I actually went hiking, I am not the out-doorsy type but I have to admit I enjoyed the workout! I think Mike could convince me to go again, I do wish there were bathrooms at the top though, I drank lots of water on the way up and it seems like a long way down! The photo at the top of this blog post was also taken the day of the hike it is a great shot of what the desert looks like this time of year in my part of Arizona. We were all sad to see Janet and Theresa go because that signaled the end of the holidays, back to school for Michael and back to work and work travel for Mike, and work for me as well. The first week of January whizzed by, I had not really been on my computer much over the holidays and I had some work to attend to immediately,so I am sad to admit that I am just now taking down my holiday decorations, I am doing a little every day with high hopes that they will be officially stored away until next year by the end of this weekend. I am looking forward to seeing ALyssa and some of her dance  team buddies tomorrow, they are driving down from Flagstaff so they can hop on a plane to Orlando Thursday morning to attend the UDA  College Cheer and Dance Competition they have been prepping for, it will be fun having a houseful of girls for a night!  Ok my recap is done.... I am going to make a concerted effort to blog regularly going forward.

Catch me on Arizona Midday today!

Today I will be sharing some fun ideas for scrapbooking your holiday photos and cards.... stress free! check it out on Arizona Midday if you are in Arizona it is on Channel 12 today at 1pm, I think I will be leading off the 2nd half hour at 1:30! 

I have been a bad blogger this month, I am turning over a new leaf in January! I will start early this afternoon with a recap of my projects from the midday show!

goodbye Thanksgiving, hello Christmas!

I really haven't deserted by blog, though by my lack of consistent posting you would have you  think so! Seems I have been taking my holiday preparation seriously this season, my class at Simplify 101 has kept me on point getting my tasks organized for the season. I am actually ahead of schedule personally! We have the tree up, the house decorated, the Christmas card photo taken and 3 kinds of cookies already made! I have been online shopping and shopping at the mall and the kids have made some great lists for me and Mike to work from.  I still have lots of work for my job to take care of before the end of the year so it is good that I have a jump on the holiday fun stuff! ALyssa came home from NAU for a nice long holiday weekend and it was wonderful! we had her from Tuesday-Sunday, I didn't want her to leave! She has 10 more days of school, then she has to stay on campus another 10 days past the end of school to practice with the dance team for her  January National's competition, she won't be home for Christmas til 12/20! I am going to try and sneak a few more holiday posts in probably brief ones! I have been posting via twitter and facebook since I can do that quickly!

lots of little things....

Seems like I have been busy doing everything but blogging! I will try to cover some of the things I have been meaning to post about! Lets start with Halloween! Halloween weekend was lots of fun like always but we had the added treat of having Alyssa home for the weekend. We were invited over to the Florence household to have dinner, and Michael,(he was Darth Vadar this year) went for what appears to be his last bit of trick or treating with his cousin Steven.When Michael tired of trick or treating he switched to handing out candy with MacKenzie, and of course tormenting her a bit as shown in the picture! Thank  Goodness Dana took lots of great pictures  because I didn't take many! Thanks for letting me hi-jack some photos off your blog Dana! Check out Dana's blog for more photos and a complete Halloween recap!  The balance of Alyssa's weekend home from college was spent taking her out to do a little shopping for some clothes to wear in the much cooler weather she is now experiencing up in Flagstaff at NAU. We also took her ou tot eat at Famous Daves Barbeque, our new favorite dining out place that she had not tried yet. I loved looking in her room all weekend and seeing her there, I have gotten used to seeing her room empty, I hugged her a bunch this weekend, I can't wait til she comes home again for Thanksgiving in a couple weeks.Next on my List of updates is a fun online class I have recently signed up to take this month, Get Organized for the Holidays taught by Aby Garvey at the simplify 101 website. Aby  is the queen of organizing I love reading her blog, and really enjoyed the book she authored with Wendy Smedley, "The Organized and Inspired Scrapbooker".  The last few years I have always found myself chasing Christmas instead of enjoying Christmas, I will be completing a Christmas plan organized in a binder using Aby's amazing organizational guidance! Class started today.. I am really pumped. If you want to get organized for everything important that happens in your holiday season it is not too late to sign up, join me!!  Next update on the list, as usual I have been reading quite a bit lately and thought I would pass on a couple good titles I have enjoyed lately.  My cousin Dana suggested I read "These is my Words" by Nancy Turner. It was a book I had not heard of, but I have found if Dana likes the book it is a good bet I will too! This book was a fictional memior of a pioneer woman, Sarah Agnes Prine that takes place in the Arizona Territories during  1886-1901. The book is written in diary format and shares a fascinating glimpse in to the lifestyle , hardships and loves of Sarah's life. I absolutely loved this book for many reasons, I felt like I really knew the characters personalities and since the book was written like a diary the writing had a very raw and honest flavor to it. I really liked that all the history facts that were mixed into the story were acurate so I learned a little history about the state of Arizona too. Another great fiction novel I recently read was "The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo" by Steig Larsson.  This book was a best seller in Sweden prior to it's release in the US and after reading it I can certainly see why.  I love a good mystery and this book has all the ingredients to keep me guessing the whole way thru.A rich Swedish industrialist hires a well known journalist to write his family history, and help him solve a 30 year old family murder mystery as well. There are many unlikely twists and turns and some very unlikely crime solving partners... great read! As always I am presently reading a great self help book right now too!  I had orginally heard about  "The Migraine Brain; your guide to fewer headaches and better health" when the author Carolyn Bernstein  M. D. was interviewed on the Today Show. I also listened to a fantastic interview on NPR of the author that I found completely fascinating. I have suffered from migraines for many years and have learned to manage them much better the last couple years after working closely with a nuerologist, tracking my headaches , taking medication and watching my diet. This book is based on the author's 20 years of experience as a nuerologist at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Bernstien guides readers through the process of  finding your migraine triggers, understanding the phases of a migraine, reducing pain and duration during a migraine, and understanding how the brain of the migraine sufferer is different than someone who does not suffer from these types of headaches.  I thought I was very knowledgeable about my migraines and I am learning lots of additional important and helpful information from this book. If you suffer from migraines this is a very insightful book to read.