SEI - My love

I am so drooling over the new SEI stuff - can't wait to get my hands on this stuff.

Holy Cow

I found a new site - thanks to 2peas - that has tons of CHA previews - and a very cool contest - go check them out

Scrap Ect

5 Questions - LATE

I know - late. But what do they say.... better late than never.

1) What stresses you out the most? Money - or lack there of.
2) What is the first thing you do when working on a layout? Try to get inspired, usually by a photo, sometimes by a color.
3) What is your favorite kind of cookie? Peanut butter with a kiss in the middle.
4) What age was your most memorable birthday? 3 - spent at Sesame Street Place - hangin with Big Bird
5) What is the most recent non-scrappin thing you have used on a layout? A set of gift tags from an Urban Outfitters catalog.

Looking forward to seeing everyone's answers.

Kiss - Kiss
~~ R ~~

Meme 1.26.06

Love, love me do
You know I love you
I'll always be true
So please, love me do.

The meme challenge today is about love. Well, not just love... Unconditional love. Which I think is the rarest kind of love these days. Everyone seems to have motives or payoffs, always taking love and not giving it in return. It makes me sad. Once you have known love without any of that it makes you even more sad to know some people might not ever. My mother gave me that kind of love. She saw who I was, heck she was responsible for shaping me into who I am, and she loved me. Not who she wanted me to be, she loved me. Without boundaries or limits, without walls. There wasn't a day with her that I didn't feel her love. We fought when I was younger, but it was usually because I wasn't loving myself, and I knew she saw through me. Knew when she looked at me some mother-vortex opened up and she saw right down to my soul, saw how I hated the choices I was making. Instead of saying hey you are right please help me - I pushed her away, or tried to. But she was there waiting for me to be ready, ready to love myself and to be loved by her. When I was she showered me with affection, and time. Doing things with me, and spending time talking to me. She loved the things I loved just because I loved them. She taught me how to love my daughter. How to make her feel safe. How to make her feel seen. Because of her I know that even if my daughter became a mass murder she would never doubt my love for her. My love will never go away, it can't be altered. All it can do is grow, and I will show her my love every single day.

Threadless

I love this site. It has the best T-Shirts ever. They crack me up, and I love the style of graphics they use. Well I should say that they pick, because the cool thing about Threadless is that they print other peoples shirts. You make a design - submit it - it gets voted on for a week - if it gets picked you get your shirt printed, $750, and $250 in store credit. The shirts they print are really good quality, I have loved everyone that i bought. Which is at like 8 now. So I just thought I'd share. Go by there - and if you see a shirt you really like register (they don't give out your info - or send you tons of crappy spam emails) - and then vote for it. Also once you are registered if you see a shirt that is out of stock you can request a reprint - I've done that one 3 shirts, and so far they have reprinted all of them. I guess I should show you some of the shirts.

These are some of the ones I have.

I want these.

These are submissions.

Hipster Doll by jcmyk is one I really Like.

New Crap

I haven't posted any crap in a while, and I don't know why. So here is some new stuff. You can find that HELLA cute make-up at Sephora (my fave place for facial camo), the poster is from Gig Posters, and the Shoe and Bunny Tee are from Karma Loop.

Stuffed love

Last night I did not scrap - I know shock and horror! However I did make something that I will scrap about at a later time. I will make up the page another day.
What I did was make my daughter a new lil love - a stuffed slightly ugly blue cat - that I named Scaredy Cat. Why you might ask? Well, my daughter has had a fear of being left alone for a long time - no not separation anxiety - being left alone. I think some of it comes from having her grandma and great grandma pass away before she was 3. She was so close with them and after she seemed aware that people could be gone at any moment. So sad for a child to learn this so young. Then a very terrible thing happened. She went to church with my dad, who dropped her off at the kids area while they were giving the sermon. While there she had to go potty, and the teacher sent her and another little girl (about 2 years older than my daughter) to the restroom alone. When the other little girl was done she left my daughter alone in the bathroom. She was in there screaming for help for who knows how long. Until the teacher finally came and found her. She had peed all over her self, and was hysterical. Thinking about this still makes me cry. Knowing she was there screaming for me and I never came. So very terrible. Needless to say she has been extremely fearful that I will leave her. So here enters Scaredy Cat. She knows that I made that cat just for her, and that I put my love inside her. So she is never without a little bit of me. Oh and Scaredy cat scares her fears away. Oh how I hope the little cat works.

I will post pics this week.

Meme 1.23.06

5 people I would like to meet in my life.....(alive or dead)

1) Alexander the Great - one of my very favorite people in history, to be so driven that he conquered the known world so young, I would just like to sit and talk with him
2) My mom's Yaya (Greek for grandma - but I don't spell it the right way, because my mom didn't), she made such a big impact on my mom's life. All the stories I have heard about her, I would just love to meet her face to face.
3) Cleopatra - wow to meet the woman that changed the fate of an empire
4) Orlando Bloom - hello - he's rockin some serious hot-ness!
5) My mom - before I came along. Her stories about when she was young are amazing - meeting the rolling stones, seeing the beatles, dating a friend of Andy Warhol (and meeting him), wearing a knit bikini in the desert (hehehe), and Greek adventures. I loved the person that young lady became so much, I would just like to see some of the events that shaped who she was.

5 Questions - week 2

Oh yeah its that time again. Make sure to leave a comment so I can hit up your blog and see your answers. Hummmmm lest see.........

1) Tell me about the best pet you have ever had? It was my ferret Gwen (as in King Arthur). She was so loving and sweet, and playful. But they need a lot of structure and I was a wild teen. I could tell she was depressed. So she went to live with my uncle J.P. - who loved her as much as I did. She passed away, but I still miss her.
2) What is the one place in this world you want to go to more than anywherelse? Back to Greece - I have been missing it a ton recently. It felt like home there.
3) With all the news these days - like from Mr. Osama - Do you feel safe? I feel like I should say no I don't feel safe, but the truth is I go most of my day without thinking about it at all. Is that terrible?
4) Friends (reruns) last night made me wonder this - Is there really such a thing as a "self-less good deed"? - you can elaborate or not. I have been thinking about it, and the only one I can come up with is organ donation. (going on the idea - between Joey and Pheobe - that you can't get happiness from the deed - or it isn't self-less) Because you arn't around to be happy that it is helping someone.
5) What is the one scrappin tool or thing you want, but can never seem to find? Heidi Swapp masks - they are no where to be found around here.

Worst habits

Here is another meme - My worst habits.

I used to bite my nails - but recently stopped.
I am messy - like super freakin messy.
I burp really loud - only around a trusted few (sad for them- even more sad for hubby and daughter who also get to hear me rip hella farts)
I save all kinds of crap - packrat?
I drink way to may sodas.
I cuss a lot - I've been known to make sailors blush.

I would try

We are taking an exercise from Julia Cameron's The Sound of Paper.

The artist soul thrives on adventure.
Many adventures require that we muster the courage to be a beginner. That bicycle trip to France requires that I haul out my bike and start riding. That black-and-white photography course says "Get out the camera; shoot a few rolls." Yoga for beginners requires that i stretch myself physically and mentally. Attendance at an open mic invites me to bring a poem. Life is filled with adventure if we are openhearted. [LOVE THAT!]
List five things you would love to do, if you didn't have to do them perfectly.

1. If I didn't have to do it perfectly, I'd try to teach a scrappin class.
2. If I didn't have to do it perfectly, I'd try oil paint.
3. If I didn't have to do it perfectly, I'd try write a book - children's or young adults.
4. If I didn't have to do it perfectly, I'd try to open a scrappin store.

Sickness Sucks!

I hate hate hate being sick. And oh how I wanted to post on Friday the 13th. Damn it! Early Friday I got a headache - from HELL. So to bed for me. Then Saturday seemed fine - went to mels made a rockin cake. But halfway through the cake making I started having super sinus problems. And - well - it all went straight to hell after that. My head was so stopped up that I couldn't breathe. It was so bad Chris woke me up in the middle of the night and said "hey Darth roll over - I can't get any sleep like this." I guess I was breathing a little loud. Medication is making me forget where this was going - SICKNESS SUCKS!!!!

My new layouts

These are some of my recent layouts. The colors are a little off - the scanner seems to be lightening them a little. And the reds are a little off. Like the one of my mom Nonie (said NoKnee) the N and I are not fuschia. Hope everyone likes.

Weekly questions

Ok so I love looking at everyones blog - and now I want all the gals that stop by here to do me a little favor. Each week I am going to post 5 questions - I f you stop by that week please answer the questions on your blog. I will answer them here. That way I kind get to see who drops by, and I get to know a little bit more about you. Fun! Ok here they are

1) What color makes you smile? For me it is yellow - so sunny and bright
2) What is your food related pet peeve (is that how you spell it) ? I hate when people bite on their fork when they take a bite
3) What is your favorite web site (besides 2peas)? Right now www.gigposters.com
4) What did you do on your last date? Went to eat and to see a movie
5) What is your favorite slang word? Mine is Hella!

Can't wait to see your answers

******edited to answer question #4 - which like a dork I forgot to do.******

Dozen List - swiped form Toni

Twelve Movies (in no particular order):
1. Fight Club
2. Chronicles of Riddick
3. Steel Magnolias
4. Joy Luck Club
5. Barbarella
6. Mona Lisa Smile
7. Proof
8. Harry Potter Movies
9. The Star Wars Saga
10. Picture of Dorian Grey
11. Finding Neverland
12. Donnie Darkko

Eleven Good Bands/Artists (in no particular order)
1. Tori Amos
2. Madonna
3. The Cure
4. Duran Duran
5. The Beatles
6. Coldplay
7. Smashing Pumpkins
8. Abigail Washburn
9. Cyndi Lauper
10. Fiona Apple
11. Unkle

Ten Things About Me
1. I have a hella sweet tooth.
2. I "happen" upon good photos - or at least it feels that way
3. I would have a house full of pets if hubby would let me - except cats, I'm allergic
4. I love color
5. I'm a lil bit of a tomboy
6. I miss my mother more than anything
7. I love to scrapbook
8. I like to color with my daughter
9. I like to paint, but I'm terrible at it
10. I get super gassy when I eat beans

Nine Good Friends (in no particular order)
1. Chrissy-Poo
2. Mel
3. Mimi
4. Brenna
5. Robin
6. Chirs' former bandmates - too many to name
7. The fab ladies at Scrapbook Village
8. My uncle JP
9. Very best friend is my daughter, the J-Girl

Eight Favorite Foods/Drinks
1. Mom's chicken salad
2. Grandpa Fleener's grilled steak
3. Starbucks White chocolate Moca with extra white chocolate and extra whip - so like candy
4. Skittles - taste the rainbow
5. Mom's homeade Peanut Butter Cookies w/ the kiss in the middle - so Yummy!
6. Dad's famous french toast
7. Anything my Gradma Lee cooked
8. Granma Fleener's biscuts and gravy

Seven Things I Wear Daily
1. Undies
2. Bra
3. Blue Jeans - almost daily
4. Glasses
5. Lipgloss
6. Top (to cover the bra)
7. A smile

Six Things I Hate
1. Pouty Daughters
2. Paper work
3. Mornings
4. Cleaning
5. People who never smile
6. Rude Drivers

Five Things I Do Daily
1. Visit my bathroom
2. Kiss my daughter and say tell her I love her
3. Scrap
4. Get on the internet
5. Sleep next to my hubby

Four Shows I Watch
1. Lost
2. Southpark
3. Will and Grace
4. Simpsons - try to at least

Three Places I've Lived
1. Houston, Texas
2. St. Petersburg, Fl
3. Athens Greece - for a little over a month

Two Things I Want
1. For my scraproom to be finished
2. To get published

One Person I Want to See Right Now
1. My mom

Brian Despain

Oh love his work too. A little more masculine than I normally go for, but I just love his work. Check him out. Hes got a link on the side too.

Lynne Naylor

Found her on the web somehow and had to share her stuff. I love the colors. Well that and the retro style. So freakin cool. So here is some of her stuff - love it - and go check out more of her stuff. (I linked her up on the side)

Therapy Scrappin

Sometimes I have a feeling I need to get out. I'm sure everyone does - well last night my therapy was to scrap it. This is me... missing my mommy. Sad and blue. It felt really good to put it down on paper. It is a little chaotic but so are my feelings - so it fits. If you have never scrapped something like this I suggest you give it a try. You would be surprised how much better you feel later.

Tehehe

A sound I first heard Mel make. That crazy silly chick. Love these layouts. I have a little bit of journaling to add to them, but nothing much. Hope you like them.

Flatstock

I can't wait for Chris and I to go to Flatstock again this year. We have such a good time going and hanging out in Austin (TX ya'll). We always come back with way too many posters! But hey they are such good buys there is no way I wouldn't get a ton. I mean $10 to $40 for limited edition hand screenprinted poster art, and art prints. Plus you are helping support some super cool artists. I would really like to go to Flatstock in Seattle one year. That would be so cool. Well anyways, here is another place that inspires me, Cricket Press. Their stuff is fun and strange. The colors really draw me in. Love their stuff. I have some of their work too. Its so yummy. You really can beat the feel of a hand screenprinted poster. I am too excited to wait.

Leia Bell

I love love love her posters. They make me smile, and make me sad at the same time. I love the bright colors in them. I first saw her work at Flatstock in Austin - and along with several other designers and artists - I fell in love with her work. It is so child like - not to be confused with childish. By child like I mean simple lines and fun colors, but full of emotion. They make me feel like I am seeing the focus of the poster for the very first time. It brings back waves of childhood memories and feelings. Like I said - I love her stuff, and am even lucky enough to own several pieces. Go check out her stuff. She has stuff for sale. LEIA BELL

First Week

This is the first week of the new year, and I am here at work, but I wish I was at home scrappin. Last night the girls and I had our Monday night crop at Scrapbook Village. So wonderful. Except Mel wasn't there. Shes still in Cali - that butt. But I got a page done ( except for one thing) and another page more than half way done. So far my one page a day is going pretty well. That my goal for 2006. I'm gonna do it too. That and to try to get published - it's not a goal so much as a hope and pray. Right now there are some calls that fit the work I have been doing. So hey why not submit - right?
I also made a decision yesterday - I want to go to CKU here in Houston. I think I had been avoiding the idea for several reasons - the money (not that its not worth it - that much extra isn't always easy to come by at our house) and the class thing (I tend not to be a class taker - who knows why). I just decided if I am going to take any classes I really want them to be taught by Elsie F. or Ali E. or any of the other teachers there. It just seems like fun. So if you are going - let me know - I'd love to meet some fellow peas and/or bloggers. Also if you have been please let me know what you thought, and what you liked and didn't.

My mortality

So this may sound crazy and maybe no one will be able to relate. Sometimes I have a crazy moment of clarity about my mortality. Today it was while driving with my hubby and daughter. I don't know what triggered it but suddenly I felt an overwhelming sense of - well i don't know the word for it. I just knew in that second that everything I love could be gone in an instant. I felt panic and I was terrified. I had an urge to grab them both and scream at them to be careful in everything they do, because I need them and love them more than they know. I calmed my inner voice and settled for a gentle pat on both of their legs and an " I love you people". Not enough by any means, but better that scaring them half to death. I don't want them to be troubled by my crazyness. Just had to get that out. Thinking about it - the feelings are probably so strong because my mom has only been gone for 3 years and my grandma died this year. So I have a very fresh sense of loss - and the quickness with which it can happen. I just want to make sure to let them feel how much I love them even more this year.

Sad - effer dare #9

This is my take on numba nine - SAD. I was inspired by the art in my happy trees post. Well here ya go.

**HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR**

Hello I posted before and totally forgot to say a darn thing about it now being 2006 - BABY! Lovin this year so far. Hello - its been all scrappin, thats right I'm a hardcore party animal. I scrapped last night (while my sick lil monkey slept) and got a lotta stuff started. I hope everyone has a great new year full of exciting and wonderful new things. I'm gonna have a Hella good year.

Effer 17 and Christmas 2004

Here is what I was working on yesterday, the Christmas 2004 (late I know) is inspired by one of my images a few post down. Love that pic of J-Girl with the snowball. That is my effer dare. Loved this dare. The paper isn't crap so much as I couldn't find anything to use it on. Its the r in the bottom right corner. The paper that I love is anything Sassafras Lass. Hope you guys like.