Winner Winner Chicken Dinner :)

***Decided to change the drawing and do it early!! PLUS, I have 2 winners-one drawn by each child; what is it about kids and drawing a name out of a hat that each one has to do it?

So, without further ado-the 2 winners are:

RENE and MICH3113LEE

Congrats ladies! I will be in touch with you tonight when I get back from Pennsylvania tonight. And to all of those that didn't win...I'm thinking of drawing some more names for my birthday....just because I still am in the cleaning mode and I still need to decrease my stash. It won't be Christmas stuff but I'll find some theme or just cool stuff in general....won't open the giveaway to any new names so that should be nice right??!!!!

Enjoy this day the Lord has made; it is gorgeous outside!

Smores are all gone

and we roasted mini marshmallows {or is it marshmellows??} over the fire {heheheeheee} I mean candle...both kids are gone to bed! They just can't stay up late :)

Hope everybody had a wonderful 4th!!! This was the 1st time in "forever" that I haven't been celebrating my birthday around the 4th-For those of you who are new to me, I usually celebrate my birthday a week early and do it around the 4th with a big cookout with family and friends and tons of food, crabs and beer, etc...but, this year funds were low and BB won't be here so we decided not to do it...felt kinda weird but definitely stress-free which on one hand, I kinda liked. May have to buy some crabs and shrimp on payday next week (just for me, Brandon & Ken) to make up for the loss of birthday cheesecake today though.

Good night!
btw-love all the comments & compliments on the blog- Thank you!

Happy 4th of July!!

As we celebrate Independence Day here in the USA, let us remember that it's not all about the fireworks and bbqs today...it's about what we think of when we hear the word "freedom"...we take for granted all the liberties and freedoms that those who wrote and signed the Declaration of Independence strived for. I know that even though I love to travel, THIS is the best country to live in and be a citizen of; my freedoms as a woman and a woman of color couldn't be afforded anywhere else in this land. For people who have desired Change, this 4th of July is especially significant with the election of and presidency of Barack Obama (hail to the KING- he rocks!!) and how he's changing the face of this nation & hopefully how others have previously viewed this nation in what "I" feel is a positive way (JMO folks, this is MY blog after all)...my family is not participating in the traditional celebrations this year, we are chillng out AT HOME, enjoying a nice (Puerto Rican)dinner, a new beverage (Ken & I are partaking in a new alcoholic beverage courtesy of the Food Network magazine) and the kids will make smores under the stars......way better than dealing with pushy crowds and overpriced food & junk mementos like we did last year.

Great photo courtesy of Richard Drew for the AP network

He's transforming .....

slowly-I'm working on him in between mommy gigs today....plus I want to do what Ted said and paint in layers.....The Shimmerz mixed with the Adirondack paints are working pretty nicely I must say!

Christmas in July RAK**added more

to the stash....non-Christmas stuff

Kitchen helper

here's my helper today; washing the potatoes for dinner...and washing the basil from my garden...was a beautiful day and I ate my first green tomato from my garden...yummy but I'd rather let my tomatoes ripen and just buy the green ones from Frank's veggie stand; they said they'd start getting them next week.

Thank you Mary !

An unexpected RAK for me today and boy was I surprised! The Fiskateers were having a shindig in South Carolina and many of us made homemade gifts for Debby to give away during the fun...I altered an acrylic paint can and filled it with goodies and Mary liked it so much that she sent me this: You can't see it that great in the picture but it's an adorable custom button with my nickname of preference Queen Kat! If you see me at a crop I will be wearing it!

Christmas in July

RAK or giveaway....I know I'm late but it took me forever to bounce back from that cold & sinus infection...WAAAYYY too long...old age baby...but anyway, I posted the first pic of the giveaway somewhere below and think I will keep cleaning the scrapstudio tomorrow and Friday to add some other goodies in that are non-Christmas related but still scrapbooking supplies- Drawing to be done on my favorite holiday- the 4th of July!! Here's the deal:

** Follow my blog
** Tell me your favorite holiday that you like to scrap & send me a link to your blog
** Did I say become a follower of my blog???


That's it! I'll draw a name late late late Saturday night and will post the winner when I get back home from Pennsylvania Sunday night.

**remember, RAK open to USA residents only this time *****

How could I forget??

But I did- the tag that Mr. Ted from Stampers Anonymous made for me!!! HEEERRRREEE she is...isn't she wonderful??? All the masking, inking, stamping and metal accents {LOVE LOVE}

Great American Scrapbook Convention

I know I said I thought it was just so-so but there were upsides to parts of it; I did meet a few Divas that had some cool stuff....

I met these 2 awesome chicks from Pugnacious Stamps


Thank you Melissa for being so sweet and yes, they rocked the tiaras baby! Their booth is where I bought some Shimmerz-bought the Mocha, Gold Shimmer and the Concrete...have been playing with them today with the TH grungeboard....

and I also met these 2 divas ***Jennifer and Pam: Can we say
I met these 2 awesome chicks from Luxe Designs baby! Their products were as beautiful and friendly as they were....filled my box for $ 20 bucks, yep, you heard me, $ 20 ...loved meeting them and can't wait to create with some of that stuff too...


I was inspired by the gorgeous layouts done by Quick Quotes and the great stamps from Ted @ Stampers Anonymous....other than that, I think we folks here in Maryland are spoiled with the fact that we have a great selection of at least 3 local scrapbook stores plus the chain stores all within driving distance.

Great find!

and totally by accident-found this at the Goodwill-

was just running errands in another town and had some time to kill so I thought I'd duck into a Goodwill store that I had been to once before to see if I could find a great picture frame or a cool shelf....she (the bird) was a GREAT find since I had just signed up for a fantastic class called Patchwork Pandemonium
to be taught by none other than the fantastic Tim Holtz at Queens Ink, Savage, MD

...and also saw that he was teaching this class (Assemblage of Flight) as well....BUT due to limited funds, I didn't get to sign up for both classes BUT I had that cool bird on my mind and thought to myself-"SELF, you can step outside your box and try this"... I'm hoping I can teach myself how to turn this (MY FIND):


to THIS or something that KINDA looks like it:


It's on my list of summer projects.....and btw, the birdee cost me 4 bucks!!!

Great American Scrapbook Convention

Attended the GASC in Chantilly, VA for the first time-wasn't all that everybody was saying it was as far as the vendors spaces....most things I could've gotten at Photo Scraps with the exceptions of a few stops and a few things. I am tired and have an early wakeup call again tomorrow so I'll leave you with sneak peeks of what I WAS happy with...the divas will follow later in the weekend.......

This cool guy named TED from Stampers Anonymous

who, in addition to using his own creations ( namely THE STAMPS-HIS CREATIONS-uses great stuff from this line/creator:



created something fabulous for HER ROYAL HIGHNESS -that would be me!! {Sneak peek and yes, it involves a crown or two}



I know I took up a lot of his time ( I was talking way too much) and hope that he knows how much I enjoyed watching him actually use the techniques that Tim Holtz is famous for on his blog-I wasn't as intimidated watching Ted do it ...he was extremely patient, knowledgeable about ALL the products. His STAMPS and creativity were simply divine. In fact, his website doesn't do justice to his stamps; they are 100 times better in person-not the puny stamps you see at Michaels or the other crappy (oops, I said that out loud) big box stores and his prices were so darn reasonable...check out his schedule to see if he's coming to a show near you...you will not be disappointed with his stamps. HE made me a GORGEOUS tag but there are so many other things to do with the stamps so, hopefully I can find the creative bug tomorrow and get my mojo flowing.


Both E and I agreed that we would actually give the Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas a really good try this year......
Good night peeps!

Deal of the Day

Sick or no sick, I had to get up and take Brandon to therapy so, since I was passing Glen Burnie, "Taj" twisted my arm and MADE me stop in at Big Lots (something I don't normally do since it makes my allergies go crazy with the amount of dust in there)-anyway, for once, the store was clean and organized (sorry Big Lots but it's true)

The Thickers and the DCWV foil chipboards were $ 2 and they had American Crafts buttons (at least 7 different colors but I only picked up 2 packs) for $ 1 each...you heard me....they also had American Crafts Metropolitan and A La Carte paper packs for $8 each.


I had $ 20 bucks that was burning a hole in my pocket so now I really have to add alphas and titles to my pages! Sorry for the bad picture; I'm just here for a quick bit then am off to do tea, netti pot and bed in that order...haven't been sleeping good so...am determined to get up tomorrow and get this sickness off my back, get in gear and do my hair (it looks crazy since I've been laying in bed sweating-trust me, it's BAAADDD) & to get packed and ready for the weekend since I AM going to GASC and then am off for a girls weekend with Lisa and Debbie.

LsOTD

Continuing the honor of Father's Day-my favorite layouts of my favorite guys- my husband Ken



and my Dad {Don} and even though my dad was a kid in this layout; he still looks the same to me!

Happy Father's Day !!!

Here's the guy who gave me these wonderful little people we call Thing 1 and Thing 2-He's upstairs as I TYPE this, eating cupcakes that were NOT baked by mwah! Darling BB made him his favorite-chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting!





To all those great Dads and other guys who are filling in as "Dad," hope you had a great Father's Day!

It's Official....

finally...school's out here in Maryland...she's "OFFICIALLY" a Seventh Grader....

and was about to drive my &#$ crazy today since one of her friends was having an out of school "night" party. Am off to go pick her up....lhm!

Etsy spies of the day

CraftieRobot Messenger bag

Sketches by Maria

Awesome soy candles

Glass works pendant


BerdandBee Handpainted vintage and thrift finds

Big winner!

This is who took home some really great stuff from the charity auction....Ms. Amber! Got a Cricut Expressions for like $ 175 !!! I forgot the exact price but it was a STEAL and all $$ went to our charity! She was also the winner of 2 of the fantastic books that Tracy donated from Photo Scraps !! Congrats Amber!!!

I am not coordinated

to play many of the Wii games that require use of all the controller buttons like Mario and stuff like that but I did just start playing this Wii Music

so we had an afterhours Wii pajama jam....and yes Karla, my pjs are loud and comfy!!!

Kala Dala reigned supreme-she was the Wii Music maestro! We shoulda played this first but this was BB's game and I never looked at it so...next time we have another Wii party, we'll do the battle of the bands!
Of course, I'm gonna practice tons beforehand {cheater cheater that I am}

Before I got the crud

this is what I looked like the same morning-my adopted sis had "da family" over for a yummy brunch and I felt great...I can't tell you how much I missed going to brunch like I used to do back in the day; it was great. Amazing how now that I am older, I can catch a cold in like 24 hours...am just glad that I was the only one who caught the crud; it's mostly contained to the sinuses now so...netti pot....