Almost done

These past couples of weeks have been a blur.  The remodeling job has been occupying all of my mind and time.   But I can say that it's all well worth it . . . my kitchen is almost done and I LOVE, love, love it.  We would have been done with the kitchen today (aside from painting), but I decided that we needed to redo something that didn't look quite right, so that's going to delay things a few days.  I'm hoping we can start painting at the end of the week.  I'll definitely post pictures when it's all done.

A girl can never have too many pairs of shoes, right??  As much as I admire them, I'm not one to wear fancy shoes.  Instead you can usually find me in my comfortable flats or slip-on tennis shoes.  But I decided to make a couple pairs of fancy shoes with the beautiful Lily Bee papers.
   

I added some lace and Prima flowers to this pair:

I attached some fun feather trim to this pair.  I topped them off with two Lily Bee chipboard pieces that I adorned with rhinestones. 

I think I'll make matching purses to go with them.  :)

I created this shoe template myself.  It took quite a bit of trial and error and several wasted paper scraps, but I finally got the soles, heels and upper part just the way I wanted them.  Would you all be interested in a printable template for these shoes?  If so, I can try and re-create one based on these shoes and post it here.  If you're interested, leave a comment!   

Have a great day!!

Happy Friday

It's been one of those weeks. With so much going on, I've been doing many absent-minded things -- being late to pick up my girls from school on early out day, forgetting to set my alarm in the morning, misplacing things, turning on the coffee maker but then forgetting to put the coffee pot underneath (what a mess that made!) . . . sigh. My husband lovingly refers to me as "Lucy" ala "I Love Lucy."

On the scrappy front, here's a layout I made based on Prima's November BAP:

Do you love a good sale?  I do!  Prima and Shimmerz both have great sales coming up.  Prima is having a parking lot sale:

  If you don't live in the Southern California area, Prima also has a Virtual Warehouse Sale going on. Enter the Promo Code: POM to receive a 6x6 paper pad from the newest releases.

Shimmerz is having a great Black Friday sale!   The sale will start on Black Friday and run through cyber Monday.  All Shimmerz products will be 30% off and anyone who places an order during the sale event will be entered into a drawing for a Vibez 6 pack!

And the fun at my house continues . . .

Right now there are 5 men tearing up the floor and hammering away at things.  Listen . . . can you hear the pounding?   Half the contents of our house have been moved to the other rooms in our very small house.  We can barely move around.  It's been chaotic, to say the least.  But we have a great crew doing the remodel, and I just keep reminding myself how nice everything will look when it's all done and I've put our house back together.

Have a great weekend!

Construction -- Day 1

Today is the day.  After a couple months of planning, we are finally starting our big kitchen remodeling project.  No, we aren't attempting to do it ourselves.  Trust me, that would NOT be a pretty sight.   Our kitchen was remodeled about 20 years ago with cheaply made veneer-covered particle board cabinets, 70's style Formica countertops, and a cheap linoleum floor that attracts and locks in dirt.  The veneer is peeling off, the drawers and cabinets are broken, and the mottled floor is way beyond cleaning or repair.  And don't even get me started on the broken light fixtures, green mini blinds and chipping paint.  Yes, it's definitely time for a makeover.

This is what our kitchen looked like this morning:

 

 

 

Ba-bye, old kitchen! Today was demolition day, so a nice man came to our house with a hammer, a crow bar and some other manly type tools.  I think a screw driver was also involved, though I try not to get too involved with all that technical stuff.

I couldn't bear to watch, so I stayed in the other room with the door closed while that nice man did unspeakable things to our cabinets and counters.  After lots of hammering and loud noises, our cabinets and counters went POOF!  All gone!  Then that nice man hauled them away in the back of his van.  This is what our kitchen looks like right now:

Oooooooooooh, it's not pretty.   But take a look at these old black and white checkered tiles that were hiding under our cabinets.  And underneath these old tiles is some OLD yellow and green flooring that has probably been there for decades.

The demolition also revealed some old wallpaper and pea green paint on the walls (Hello 1970's!!).    Our house is 80+ years old, so there was a lot of history here before my husband bought this house about 20 years ago. I found myself standing in the kitchen and staring at all these old bits of history, and I wondered what life was like for the families who lived here before us.  And as much as I hated our yucky old kitchen, it does hold a lot of wonderful memories for our family.  It's the sink where I bathed my girls when they were babies, the stove where I cooked countless family dinners (and burned quite a few too), and the floors on which my girls first crawled and then took their first steps.  I will hold these memories dear, but I'm looking forward to creating new memories in our new kitchen.

Wish us luck with the rest of our renovation project!!!

Busy week!

Whew, what a busy week it's been!  So much happening in the past week:

• Last minute planning, research and running around for a big house renovation project starting on Monday.
• My hubby's birthday on Tuesday -- Happy Birthday HHF (Handsome Husband Face)!
• My daughter's birthday yesterday, which involved three parties over the past week (friends, school and family).  Happy Birthday, sweet girl!
• Hours of packing up stuff from my kitchen and scraproom in anticipation of the above-mentioned renovation (I still have a lot more stuff to pack up and move out before Monday).
• Chaperoning a school field trip on Wednesday.
• Daily work (my day job as an insurance agent).
• Scrapbooking assignments.
• My dad just had hip surgery (it went well, yay!), so I'm off to the hospital today to spend time with him.

And I've been waking up at 5:00am every morning thinking about all the things I need to do, so I'm totally sleep deprived.  Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, Calgon take me away!!   Hopefully next week will be a little calmer.

On another note, THANK YOU for all the sweet comments regarding my new CK Dream Team gig.  I've been so busy that I haven't had a chance to respond or go back and blog hop.  But I really appreciate all your kind words!   Here are a couple recent CK layouts:

As seen in the October 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. Copyright Creative Crafts Group. Posted with prior permission from the publisher. 

I used Lily Bee papers and Shimmerz paint (on the paper curls) on this layout:

As seen in the October 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. Copyright Creative Crafts Group. Posted with prior permission from the publisher. 

Speaking of Lily Bee, there's a great warehouse sale going on.  You can check it out here:  Lily Bee Warehouse Sale. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Creating Keepsakes 2011 Dream Team

I can finally shout it from the rooftops . . . the 2011 Creating Keepsakes Dream Team has been announced, and my name is on the list! Working with the fabulous editors at CK has always been a joy (those ladies are the best!), and I'm very excited to be doing it in a more official capacity for the next year. 

Check out the 2011 Creating Keepsakes Dream Team members:

 Linda Barber

Stacy Cohen  -- that's me, that's me!!!

Nicole Harper

Maggie Holmes

Joey Manwarren

Suzy Plantamura

Piradee Talvanna

Laura Vegas

Kim Watson

Susan Weinroth

And the 2011 Creating Keepsakes Contributing Writers:

 Mandy Douglass

Cindy Tobey

Mou Saha

Deena Wuest

I'm honored to be working with such a talented group of ladies!! THANK YOU Creating Keepsakes for this amazing opportunity!! I'm a happy, happy girl!

I've been a bad blogger . . .

Shame on me . . . I've neglected my blog over the past week.  I've been a busy little bee.  We're starting a much-needed home renovation project in a couple weeks, so I've been running all over town trying to pick out materials.  And because I'm a very indecisive person (the understatement of the year), I tend to spend many hours (days, actually) researching every little decision.   Then I usually change my mind a few times before settling on my final choice.  But the good news is that once I make a decision, I'm always happy with it and I rarely look back.

My indecisiveness is the main reason why it takes me at least 2 or 3 nights to finish a single scrapbook page.   Should I use this paper or that one?  Should the flowers go here or there?  What color letters would look good?  You get the picture.

Here's a layout I created for the Shimmerz booth at CHA this past summer (yes, I'm behind on posting my stuff here).

I made the decorative background pattern by using a sheet of die-cut KI Memories paper as a mask with Razzle Dazzle Shimmerz Vibez:

I found the embroidered tulip applique at an estate sale. It was originally white, so I colored the petals with Pink Shimmerz and the stems with Peas-Be-Mine Pearlz.

I used a variety of Shimmerz products -- Sea Foam Spritz, Sea Monkey Spritz, and Wintergreen and Tickle Me Turquoise Shimmerz paint to color the flowers, which were cut from Glitz patterned paper.  I made the fabric flower and colored it with the new Pop Art Pink Vibez and Ruby Spritz. 

On another note, I'll have some very exciting news to share in a couple of days!  I've been bursting at the seams trying to keep this secret hush - hush, but soon I'll be able to shout it from the rooftops.  Stay tuned!