Be still my heart, is that a book vending machine?

Seriously, this was one of my favorite things I saw in Paris. Unfortunately, all the books were in French, so it was kind of 'bad dream-ish' in that aspect. But the idea of being able to buy literature in a vending machine was just awesome! This particular machine was in the Metro.
More fun with primas. (te-hee-hee)

the Fuzz

We did a lot of crazy things in Paris, like taking pictures with police officers. I wanted to capture all that in my book. I'm hoping this book will be like taking a trip in itself, experiencing and seeing all the cool things we did. I'm afraid I have pages and pages to go. But it's so fun!
The background paper here is an actual map the hotel concierge gave us when we got moved to another hotel the night before we left for home. I found it humorous. My fun yellow and green bubble letters were a free hotspot item from Archiver's. Still loving the cheap-o walmart star stickers.

High Flying Fun

Loving the green and brown together, with a bit of orange thrown in. Pictures from the flight to England.

"too many stairs"

This is somewhat of a lift off of something I saw in two peas. The picture is my sister, falling up the stairs (on flight four of 5 and a half - literally). I wanted to capture the insanity of the stairs in Paris. If you go, be prepared to pump your heart hard, it's crazy.

Love the patterned paper - more of my fun Scenic Route. The letter stickers are American Crafts and of course, tons of Primas. I'm finally busting into my five bottles with a vengeance, determined they won't sit and fade on a shelf. Had fun 'sprucing' them up with rhinestones and stickles and MOD epoxy with a little bit of ribbon thrown in for good measure. Fun, huh?

Some fun for you.

I just discovered a great new blog. This gal is amazing. Be sure to check her out!

enjoying the laughter of my family

But I know it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt. :) They are wrestling on the floor and Sarah keeps saying "BOBERT!!BOBERT!" because I always say "Robert" in a menacing tone when he's doing something annoying. So funny.
Just a random day. spent some time cleaning, some time scrapping. enjoying my studio. again. So thankful for my life, even with all it's ups and downs.

I'm working on a secret. I'll post it here when it's done. enjoy!

More Pictures
The english garden reminded me - on a much smaller scale - of Versailles. Ha. I've been there! Loved the bright color against the water, this was just really cool. His stuff will be on display until October, so I fully intend to go back!

Happy Birthday to ME!
I know it's still almost three weeks away, but Rob and I realized yesterday that it would be his last free day off until the last week in May, and we didn't want to wait celebrate until then. We have graduation next week, Rob's mom's wedding the week after that, then the week of my birthday is district council and camp counselor training.
So what did I want to do for my birthday? One of my favorite living artists is Dale Chihuly - a glass scultor (and visionary). Several years ago Rob and I watched this (literally) 3 hour PBS special on how he worked, how he put things together, his schemes for juxtiposing his work w/ architecture and nature. It was awesome. We had seen one Chihuly in real life at the OKC art museum, but the museum was closed that day and we couldn't get close. Yesterday we got close. The actual exhibit was not open yet - but they had the works around the garden. The kids loved it! We spent about 3 hours wandering around enjoying the gardens and the sculpture.
Then we went to O'fallon for cheap Walmart groceries (I gawked at prices and we bought 5 boxes of cereal!) and a quick stop at Archiver's. We came home and played in the yard for 45 minutes, bathed the kids and put them to bed, then snuggled in to watch "the Office" and ER. It was a stellar day.

Exploring Paris

Photos from our first full day in Paris. I've already scrapped the Eiffel Tower (two pages thus far) but I wanted to include these pages in my book. Really loving the giant flowers and the stitched centers. And the Heidi tape just makes me giddy. Great color. The rubon frame is Heidi too. She's my girl.

getting catcalls

This picture was taken in Saint Michel, our last day in Paris. Mom visited the Cluny Museum (medieval times - aka tapestries galore) while Char and I enjoyed one last shopping outing in Paris. So glad we did, it was on that trip I found my awesome beaded necklace and the cute blue poet/schoolgirl shirt. Anyhoo, as soon as we left Mom at the (George) Cluny, literally not 50 feet from the entrance, these construction guys started hooting and hollering at us. This certainly wasn't the first time we had been 'appreciated' but I happened to have my camera out and they made it memorable!

If I hadn't busted my box open before, this page definitely does it. YES, that's lipstick up the side. It just seemed appropriate. Paris is so sexy, I thought my page needed a little bit of over-the-top-ness too! Love the giant flowers stapled to the side, you can say it - I'm off my rocker and I'm loving it!!! I am really enjoying that random floral paper underneath too, just throwing all kinds of things in the mix today.

traveling buddies

so having fun with this Paris album. Rob said to me this morning "you sure are doing a lot of Paris pages in our album." Apparently he didn't realize I was doing a whole Paris album. Ha!! It's really coming together. This thing is going to be huge, probably going to have to find some refills for it. fun.

I used some scenic route letters, that fun DCWV scallop paper (yummy!), old MOD paper and rhinestones from Walmart w/ a 7 gypsies rubon. The orange is scenic route too.

Dream

A simple page, but fun none-the-less. Love this picture of the Louvre. Wish I had changed more of my Paris pictures to black and white, but I can always print them again that way. I purposefully took most everything in color, since you can always change a digital file to black and white, but not the reverse.

more pictures from yesterday.

GREAT day.

seriously, great day. Worked my butt off this morning, laundry and wallpaper peeling, the usual for me.

Rob had a big meeting with Pastor this morning, discussing some new brilliant ideas he's hatching.

I made my kids lunch (granted it was just mac and cheese and dogs, but it counts!). We then headed to St. Louis for the Galleria (and my 'A' at anthropology) and the Science Center. Great time. The kids were pretty good - Eli's in a rough patch, but it was fairly ok most of the time. He loved it and is already begging to go back. We just spent time together, laughing and playing. Caught some Burger King on the way home and made tollhouse cookies to warm up the house when we got home.

The kids went to bed by about 7:30, crashed from lots of sightseeing. Rob and I played on our seperate computers. I ordered from amillionmemories.com because they have 20% off between now and May 2 with coupon code 1444. Happy early birthday to me. :) So in the mood to play, but it's getting pretty late. Maybe tomorrow during naps, after I plan my missionettes lesson. We are wrapping up on Esther, one cool chick, let me tell you! Got a lot on my plate for tomorrow; dishes need done, vacuuming, laundry to fold and put away. And wallpaper to strip. I spent one hour on it today and got about 3 square feet stripped. But, it's my last wall of torture in my last room of eternal painting pain! I say that, but it's two rooms ( a small 1/2 bath and I still have the master bath to deal with - where I am totally uninspired).

Made plans with three different cousins to connect in the near future. Can't wait to see them all. Family is a tough but good thing. And these are the good ones! :) Bracing myself for all the next month has to take/offer. Twenty-seven is looming, but I can do this, right?

the he*art of Paris

This is another lift from the Jaime Waters 12 layouts tonight article. I found it very inspiring. I toned down the color palette alot, wanting to focus on pictures instead.

I had a fun time coming up with this title. It's kind of a pun because it seemed to me that the heart of Paris is the art of Paris, so I tried to play on that. :) Very simple here, K&Co paper, KI paper (letters) and cardstock, Heidi Grace heart and my cheap-o HL rubber stamps. Love em, messy and all.

I'm heading out for some time to myself. Hitting Hobby Lobby and Archiver's with a list. Might drop by Anthropology too, there's an A I'm after. Hopefully it will be a relaxing and wonderful, soulful evening. I could certainly use it!

Rick Steves - I think I love you!

Last post of the night. I'm pooping out. Love this page, my favorite from the past few days. Rick Steves was our invisible tour guide on this trip. We seriously would have been in a world of hurt without him. The guys a genius. I totally recommend his books and show. Brilliant.

Versilly

This one is for my mom and sister. We were jumping in front of the palace. Why? Mostly, because our husbands weren't there to stop us, really. We called Verailles, Versilly most of the trip. It was so extravagent and gaudy it just really seemed appropriate!

Versailles

I actually wrote 'touring' across the top of the title here, after I took this picture. This page is a lift of Jaime Waters from the latest CK. Very cool. Interesting place too.

mmm. Duckloaf.

This page totally cracks me up. It's about my experience with French food. An appetizer I ordered the one time we ate in a cafe while in Paris. Very interesting, to say the least. It tasted like pastrami made with duck and a lot of pepper, served cold. Like duck pate', but maybe mixed with cavier (that kind of salty burst in your mouth) definitely an experience I won't soon forget!

World Perspective

While I'm up I may as well post my five layouts that have been sitting around here. This one is a complete and total Ali lift, just for the record. She had done one abou the great feeling of flying home. I really liked the simplicity of it, so this is my take. Cool journaling, hope you can read it.

deep thoughts for one am

A very long day today, I think I eluded to that earlier.

Mom said something to me on our Paris trip that caught me off guard (one of many things said to me on that trip that I've been chewing on for weeks now). She said that I was still figuring out who I was.

Ouch. I think. I'm not sure. I thought I had that all figured out. Enough at least to know that you reconsider the 'who-am-I' every time you have a major life change (ie: death, birth, major job change). But I've been stirring it around in my mind for some time now and I hate that she may be right.

I turn twenty-seven in three weeks. (that's a seperate post in itself, maybe even a whole new blog!) How can I not know who I am?? It scares me to even type that, the black and white on the screen is screaming back at me, YOU BIG FAKER! I've made a lot of really big and irreversible decisions if that's truly the case I could be in trouble. Maybe it's just one in the morning and not time to be pondering these kind of life-shaping/shifting statements.

I lived life full-throttle for those first few years out of the nest. Maybe I should have slowed down a bit and spent a little more time thinking about what it really is I want out of life. Although, I feel like I've been thinking about that since Eli was born and I still don't have an answer. Maybe it's a good thing I started with a husband and kids and got those things going while I had the time and energy (and lack of motivation for anything else) while the getting was good. I really did know I wanted that, and I haven't changed my mind so far, even though there are days. :)

Definitely too late for these kinds of discussions.

Maybe I should take some moments and think about my passions. I understand that this is all the rage right now (passion thinking - all over tv and books and radio). As a stay-at-home mom and full-time pastor's wife I don't have a lot of time to think about what I'm passionate about, mostly what I do is decided for me, and in the brief moments of alone quiet time I usually try to catch my breath and do a little something for me, so the tiny bit of original Anna that is left doesn't wither up and blow away in the wind.

What am I passionate about?

* The first answer is easy. My God. Living right and learning and giving and listening and trying not to screw up too terribly, although I feel I do daily.

* The second answer is true. My family. I am insanely passionate about my family. Lately I am very much struggling with the stay at home thing and can't help but wonder if God is leading me in another direction or if I am just being discontent (an aggrivating state of being for me!). But I adore my husband, even if we've been married eight years and the honeymoon is definitely over and sometimes I look at him and think "ergh! You drive me crazy". But he is usually driving me crazy in a good way and for that I am thankful. He knows me better than any other soul on earth, and amazingly enough still loves me with abandon, even if he's not the best at showing it all the time. I love my kids too, little pieces of me and Rob, complete with our nuances and short-comings. I love Sarah's curly hair and her mischief-loving, attack-life-with-a-vengeance attitude that she totally gets from me. I love Eli and his sensitive, loving countenence, and those amazing blue eyes that see right to your soul, even when you are trying to hide it. "Mommy, why is your smile down?" The kid has a gift.

[I say all that and I feel like I've been failing miserably with my kids lately. My patience has just been nill and I'm not sure how or where to fix it. And why am I writing all this here? Probalby because it's one am and there is no one to say it to.]

* I'm passionate about ministry. I have been for years, all the way back to church camp when I was fourteen. I want to make a difference in this world and that seems like some tiny way that I can help. It's crazy to me that it's now really Rob's job and not something we just volunteer all our free time, money and energy to.

* I'm really, really passionate about scrapbooking. And it's a source of frustration for me. I've tried to find my niche in the industry (working in a store, teaching, writing, publishing) over and over and I'm just burnt on it. I feel like God hasn't allowed me in, like it just must not be the right time (or what? not sure) and I'm starting to wonder if my dreams are futile. Maybe it will just always be a hobby.

* I feel like something is missing. And no, Lori, it is not another baby. That would be a receipe for one of those horrible postpartem episodes where all the children wind up in sack and the Mom jumps off the bridge into the icy water.

So, definitely not a child. Just a passion for something, outside of this house and my family and everything so neatly tied up with a bow. Something that's mine, where I'm making a difference and escaping for bit of quality Anna time too.

Maybe I'm asking too much? Just looking over my list of passions, is there really room in my life for one more thing? And I didn't even put my friends, they should totally be on there too. Also, looking over my list, I see a lot of frustration, in almost every area. Most of my frustration comes from a lack of appreciation or compensation. Maybe my motivator is broke and I'm looking at this from all the wrong angles.

I guess I'm just looking for balance. A little more me and a little less everyone else. Seems selfish. But after five+ years home catering to everyone's needs, my needs are creeping in and getting louder all the time.

Well, I've totally rambled and stuttered and stammered, but at least a good bit is off my chest. Maybe now I could go for some late night scrapbook shopping, or at least browsing. A little retail therapy goes a long way. Either that or I could find my bed like a normal person since it's almost 2am now!!!

weird day here.

First of all, my daughter is taking the nap of the century. I'm seriously starting to wonder if she's dead, she's been sleeping since 1pm. Poor thing, church just wipes her out. Sundays are a tough day for all of us. Whew. I hear her just now waking up. Time for supper.

We have more church tonight, and a dessert auction. I baked Grammy Ginny's world-famous cheesecake, so hopefully it sells well. Shoot, and I haven't planned a game yet for youth. Gotta fly.

such a great evening

Just a quick recap and I'm headed to bed. I'm wiped out. We went to one of our teenager's musicals tonight. It was fun, she did a good job. Then we wandered up to the mall for a coffee but found a carnival instead. We wound up riding the sky wheel (Rob was sooooo funny, whining about the height the whole time - not at all romantic, but hilarious!) and wrapped it all up with a funnel cake - which is now rumbling in my tummy. It was just nice to be out, just the two of us, doing something really date like. Great night. Love my hubby. Sorry, no pictures. Too bad too, you would have peed your pants laughing at him. Wish I had a video, so stinking funny! Maybe tomorrow I will finally post my five pages I have ready to put up. toodles!

little extras

These are the fun bonuses in my room. I do need to apologize for the bad pictures, this is really a camera lighting nightmare, with all the open light, but it's great for creating, and that's more important!

I love this A that I found at Walmart for 97 cents. It's a high density foam, so stinking cute. Also these paper mache flowers from Red Lead, I altered them one afternoon last week. And this spice cabinet was my great grandmother's. Lots of little personal touches, only going to continue that trend. I picked up a cheap-o clock from walmart yesterday and it will soon be graced with another A and hung on the wall so I can try to keep track of time while I'm playing. (good luck with that!)

Ali Edwards Inspiration

Was puttering around in my studio the other day and it hit me to do this to the door leading up to the kids suite. Isn't it fun? I used four different sets of foam alpha stamps, the MM florals and a whole lot of stickles and puffy paint! :) I'm emailing it to Ali just for fun.

drum roll please....

As I am revealing the new studio, a variable original artwork in itself!! Also, a work in progress. I am still adding things, changing things, making it mine! But you'll at least be able to get a feel for where it's going this way.

The two walls that were ugly wood paneling are now a bright cheery white. It's so much nicer to work in there now, much better lighting situation. Funny how paint changes everything. The other two walls are a grey/green/blue-ish color, to match my cool storage boxes. Then I'm using a lot of bright colored accents around the room, like my fun flowers on that high shelf. I'm sprinkling the entire room with A's of every size and color (not to be Ali, just because my name starts with A!)
Since I took these pictures I purchased a small sterilite drawer set for my foam stamps, it's sitting on my desk. I also found a thread rack that I need to paint and hang over the sewing machine.

I love how the room is bright and open. I'm opting for no window coverings. I love how everything is organized and within reach. Loving the little tins from the Target $ spot. I love that it's all mine!! I've spent one evening playing in the new studio and it was absolutely inspiring! I can't believe it's mine.

If this doesn't make you want to run out and buy velcro, I don't know what would!!!

Hee hee. I was putting my studio back together this morning (after an amazing one-day paint job - pictures coming later) and I had this idea for Heidi Swapp storage tape. They are velcroed to my pantry cabinet, totally accessible to my desk, all in a neat line and easy to see. I can take them down to use them, and put them back up when I'm done. I'm in love!!

getting ready...

It's that time again. I emptied and taped off the studio last night, I've already been to Lowe's and back this morning. My paint guy helped me find a stud finder so Rob can finally put up our porch swing. (yipee!) We love our porch swing, that will make this house really feel like home!

Anyhoo, I'm just waiting for Sarah to konk out after lunch so I can get painting in the studio. I'm excited for it, way in the mood to bring about change. I keep imagining it finished, bright and airy and clean. Goodbye ugly wood paneling!! Hello beautiful white slatted walls!! Hmmm. It will feel good. I'll be happy when my studio is back together, I feel like my heart is spread all over the dining room. ugh. I have to have it back together by Friday because we are hosting Cribz here at our house.

Feeling productive today. Hopefully Sarah cooperates and takes an awesome nap and Eli is just worn out from school. He finally went back today - he's way out of the habit after 9 days of Spring Break. Getting him up this morning was tough. But he woke up after a quick bath and I think he'll do fine. He's only got a few weeks left. Next year will be hard, all day. Poor kid.

Sorry about the absence of Easter dress pictures - they are on my camera hard drive, but I can't find my cord - I've been searching the house for it. Very annoying. I have some new scrapbook pages to show you too, also locked in my camera. stink.

Well, hopefully I'll have some great before and after pictures to post in the next few days. Hopefully it will be awesome!! Have a great day!

Happy Easter!!

What a beautiful day. A good day to be alive. I'm sure Jesus agrees! :) We spent the morning in church, my two beautiful children were scrubbed and shiny in their new easter clothes and I don't think I've ever been so proud! Sunday school was awesome, I feel like I am gleaning so much from that hour each week. I finally got my hands on a lesson plan and so now I'm reading the follow-up scriptures each day, that's really driving the lessons home. I can feel myself growing, suddenly God is becoming intellectually engaging to me, not just spiritually and emotionally.
I like that, it feels like there is more to my relationship with Him. The Bible is starting to open up to me, be more real... something I have been praying about for a long time now.

Anyhoo, I digress. Church was awesome. Rob and I were received as new members, along with our pal, Ron. All fifty-five people in churh this morning came and shook our hands. You dont think 55 people is all that many until you hug each one, my smile was ready to fall off!! It felt like our wedding reception all over again. But truely, I am so thankful to be here, we are sooo loved. Happy to see my hubby happy too.

We then were invited to Berryl and Tanya's house for dinner. It was wonderful, so much good cooking. I think I'll gain weight here, I try to keep my portions small. :) The kids had an easter egg hunt, their fourth this year, I think. We came home to our easter baskets too, candy-free. We could feed a small third world country for a week with all the candy these jabronies have raked in in the last ten days! Who knew that a guy on a cross could generate such an uproar for the candy industry?? again, digressing.


Just really thankful for that guy 2000 years ago. Easter never loses it's pull for me. More real this year than ever. Do yourself a favor, watch the Passion if you've never seen it. Let God open up your mind and do an intellectual work on you. Know Him beyond the simple feelings of yourself, let Him work in your heart and mind. happy easter.

Seeing Paris, from under my umbrella

THis is the coolest page I did today. So much going on here, lots of pictures. We spent a lot of time under our umbrellas on this trip, but it was so romantic and picturesque, you forgot about being cold and wet!!

Orange paper is new scenic route. I've used a lot of this line in this book, it's bright and fun and airy. Loving it. Fun tape from HKS attaches the transparency that overlays the entire layout. I stamped on it to add a bit of pizazz and then went crazy with Primas (since I have 5 bottles on the shelf!) The chipboard letters in the title are HKS, of course. This is really her book, right?

So that's my stuff for today, but I'm hoping to scrap while these kids snooze, Rob's got some work to finish up before tomorrow. Check ya later, dude!

Departure
This page excited me. The numbers across the top are the date we left, a number engraved in my brain forever, I spent six months counting down to it!! I had fun writing on my pictures. I feel free to take risks like that because this book is all mine, all about my trip, I can do anything I want with it. I like that. I need to feel that way more often about my pages. Love the giant numbers here, Nothing But Numbers by Making Memories, and my famous Lowe's mail box stickers. And I've almost used up this awesome twill tape from foofala. It's been so fun in this book, I wish I'd bought more. Might have to visit Linne Cards again soon! And yes, that's a piece of my actual itinerary.

Enjoy Paris

This page is a total lift from the book FreeStyle. Sweet book, really enjoying it. I love the journaling here, it's all random stuff from the trip, as if you were about to go to Paris. "See the city. Don't forget your camera. Explore. Unwind. Ride the Metro. Find Napolean's Tomb. Climb the stairs to the top of the Eiffel. Stop and enjoy some hot cocoa on the way down. Take in the incredible view. Take a picture, it will last longer." and it goes on like that. I took a picture of the whole thing before I put the photos down. Finally broke down and used my HKS fuzzy rub-on stars, so cool. I actually painted them because the white seemed too harsh. More fun map tape too. Such a cool trip. By the way, these are the hotels we crashed at in paris.

Leaving On a Jet Plane

This layout is in honor of Lisa Loeb and her awesome song that's been stuck in my head for weeks now. Eli started singing it the other day too, now we are doing duets. I can hear him humming it in the tub now!

Love, love, LOVE the patterned paper here. Found it at some random hole-in-the-wall scrapbook store months ago with Kim. This paper and four orange ribbon photo corners (also seen here) are all I bought there, but this paper was so worth it!! The title was stamped on scratch paper with HKS stamps and then adhered and cut from patterned paper. I especially enjoy the orange splash of paint behind it. The stamps (featured in the center) was an indulgence from Red Lead last weekend, I've used it twice all ready and can easily see it becoming a new favorite. Also broke out my HKS trip tape, so yummy.

Plum Tuckered Out

This is my best page from last night. Heavily inspired, heck, totally lifted from JB's March kit. But I don't care, I love it anyway!! Love the colors, love the journaling, even the pictures crack me up. We took these as we were riding the (blasted) RER into the city after two solid days of travel. I was a little tired and cranky I think.

Used Anna Griffin polka dot paper from last weekend's shopping excursion, the scallop cardstock, various bits of paper I've had through out this book. I'm trying to keep a consistent color scheme, but not matchy matchy at all. Also used my beloved Lil Davis plastic letter stickers - I'll cry when they are gone, those cheap-o rub-ons from HL and some equally cheap-o rubber/foam stamps from HL. I've definitely gotten my $4 worth out of them!!

Trying to decide if it's worth braving Target today to get Sarah a couple more pairs of shorts. Eli needs some t-shirts too, and pajamas. I wrote a list when I was done going through their things, so their wouldn't be any question as to what to look for. Rob will be home for lunch soon. I love Saturdays!

calling home

Char took these photos for me. I made a daily call back to the states the whole time we were over there. It's the longest Rob and I had ever been apart, but we did it!! The phone cards were super stinking expensive, something like 15 euros (or 18 american dollars) for about 30 minutes of talk time. crazy. But it was worth it.

I used letter stickers as masks and painted over the top of them, then removed them. I also used the basic grey symbols rub-ons. They are so stinking cute!! This paper I had originally gotten for my trip layouts, but realized after I bough it that it had states all over it, but it turned out to be perfect for this particular page. I also used HKS tape, love that stuff, it's so versatile.

thank you char

Today has been a super productive day thus far. I have our taxes all ready for the mail - yippee! I've done three loads of laundry, gone through the kids and my clothes, removing all the winter things, I've cleaned up the kitchen. I just need to vaccuum and straighten up the kids 'suite' and then I'll feel like I can play till my heart's content. So good, cause I'm majorly in the mood!

I'm going to post some of last night's endeavors. Starting with this one of my sister, Char. She is responsible for me going to Paris. I could have never done something like that on my own, being unemployed and all. So this page is just a thank you to her. And yes, I'm going to email it to her shortly.

I also just wanted to make a disclaimer here, I've been lifting a lot of basic ideas lately, so they may look familiar. I'm way inspired by Jenni Bowlin lately, and I'm just going with it. Not like I'm getting published anyway, may as well flex some creative muscle!! having fun with the process!