Fun Friday, Work Saturday, Lazy Sunday!

It's been a whirlwind weekend! Friday had such a fun day and night in Walnut Creek and then the class in Brentwood. Sara met us at her home and made us a taco lunch, which was excellent. Spent some time playing with her dog Cody before I left for my class and Richard stayed there. Richard and Sara spent the evening picking up the crib and dresser and they had a heck of a time and had to make a couple of trips to Babies R Us. They did have a good time though and got to spend some quality time just the two of them.

The class Friday night in Brentwood was so much fun. There were around 14 of us and Sherry Mendoza with Prima was such fun and very funny. I did learn a lot of different techniques and I do love working with canvas. I didn't get a chance to finish my album, but took a few pictures of Sherry's for future reference. Hope I get to take another one of her classes in the future.

On Saturday we loaded up a queen bed from Sara's house and brought it home. Bringing home the bed was the easy part other than loading it up and driving it back. I hate it when I can't see out the mirror and then driving on a freeway I'm not familiar with for over 2 hours with wind! We get the bed home and have to move the double bed out of our bedroom, carry it to the front yard, clean out under the bed and then vacuum where the bed was and of course the rest of the room too. Now we have to bring the queen bed in the house and set it up if we want a place to sleep. Well of course the frame that we have is supposed to be a full/queen and the new queen mattress doesn't fit the frame, so it's now on the floor. We should have taken the frame that Sara had, but we thought we had one. Now she has to bring us the frame on Saturday when she comes, not a problem. Sunday I did get some cleaning done and did 4 loads of laundry, mostly bedding and dog blankets, but nothing since then. Dinner was easy, so clean up was a breeze too!

So now ready for Monday and getting ready for our party on Saturday, Richard's 60th birthday and retirement party. I think we're having around 60 people, so have lots and lots to do to get ready. Richard is doing outside and I'm of course doing the inside and making lists. I have to plan my days or I won't get everything done. I have lists by stores and I did finally ask a few people to bring some things, food of course. I don't want to kill myself trying to make everything.

Here are a few of the pictures I took of Sherry's album from Friday and can't wait to finish mine, but I'm sure it won't look anything like hers. I did buy a few things that we used in class, but couldn't afford to get everything and I really wanted to! hehehe

This is the cover of the Album, it's Prima Mixed Media Resist Canvas Album and we used the Inner Pages Refill kit to do the pages.

These are a couple of the other pages from her album. I was rushed when I was taking the pictures and so they're not so great and these are the only pages I got to take pictures of. I'm hoping she'll have some pictures on her blog or somewhere that I can look at too.

I will talk to you soon, going to be a very busy week for me, but will make some time to post. I have a post for Tuesday with the DT, so I will probably see you then!

Susie

I'm Still A Horrible Blogger!!

For some reason I just can't get into posting often enough and it's really sad, because I get a lot of hits and nothing new to read, so I apologize!!

I was just looking for something on an older post and I can't believe that National Scrapbooking Day is Saturday and I have nothing planned this year. All of my scrapbooking and card making friends have either gotten out of doing it or have moved away, which is really sad. I'll probably be finishing cleaning out my room, where everything was put that's ready for the garage sale that we're going to be having soon. We made some room in the garage for the boxes, so I can put my room back together AGAIN!! lol

Nothing new going on right now, same ole stuff. Richard is back working on his 1960 pick-up and is back to being excited about it. Would love to sell the Jeep and need to get it back up on Craigslist either today or tomorrow for the weekend. Someone did come and check it out, but didn't buy it!!! With the rain coming this weekend we need to cover it back up, which is really a pain in the butt.

I'm going to run right now and hope to post again either tonight or this weekend. Have lots to do today in hopes of getting my craft room together enough to have some fun this weekend, so wish me luck!!

Have a great day and talk to you soon!!

Back Again Today, I Promised!!

Here I am again, two days in a row! I've been looking through pictures and don't have as many as I thought I did, but am still going to share quite a few. I got my new camera in late January, so other than the SuperBowl pictures they're all with my old camera. I do love my new camera though, it's a Kodak Easy Share Z1085 IS. It's not exactly the camera I wanted, but I couldn't afford the camera I wanted and this one has everything that I was looking for, so I went for it. I did get a really good deal on it though and it's so cool. Yes, I am a dork. lol

I don't know if you've seen the movie The Christmas Card or not, but it was filmed on location or at least is supposed to have been filmed in Nevada City, California. I love this movie and so of course when Richard was on vacation the week after Christmas we went to check out the covered bridge and Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Much to my surprise when we found the location of where the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was, there was nothing there but a cement landing!! Oh well, was a little disappointed, but I got over it. We did go on the bridge that was in the movie, but it's not a bridge that's in use, so that was fudged too!! We did have a fun day and took lots of pictures.

This picture is of Richard standing where the Memorial was supposed to be.



This is the bridge that was in The Christmas Card. Cody rode over it on his motorcycle when he was coming into town.



This sign is at the end of the bridge and thought it was pretty neat!



And this is a sign about the bridge itself.



Here are the SuperBowl Pictures. We went to Dan and Sylvia's house down the street and have a really good time and as you'll see in the pictures, there was so much good food! Dan and Sylvia are really big Pittsburg fans, so of course everyone else was cheering on the other team, but they were really good about it!!

This is the just some of the food that was at the party!



This is my hubby Richard!



Here are a few friends outside chatting and watching the game.




That's all I'm going to do right now, but will be back later this week with some more pictures. I've been pretty horrible about taking pictures and I could just smack myself. I've been trying to get a good picture of M&M, but she hates the camera and when she sees it she takes off running. I've been trying to be sneaky, but it's not working. I'll keep working on it though, I'm determined to get a good picture of her and now with the face recognition and other features in my new camera, you can actually see her face and not just a black blob! They're not actually good pictures since she's running away, but she at least looks like a dog now.

Thanks again for stopping by and talk to you soon!

Been MIA, But I'm Back!!

I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted anything, it's almost embarrassing! I've been out of everything for so long, but I'm trying to catch back up. I feel like I've fallen off the face of the world and trying to find myself again. The holidays seemed to come and go so fast and life is just rushing by so fast, but I think it's starting to slow down now, at least I hope it is. I started working again typing, which is a good thing, but balancing life and work again were really hard, but I've got it down again now.

We lead a pretty boring life these days, just working. I hadn't even scrapped or done anything since before Christmas, but spent the whole day yesterday in my craft room finishing up some things that have been on the table what seemed like months. If you didn't know already, I didn't make the design team that I went out for and neither did my friend Amanda, which was really disappointing. Amanda did make it further in the rounds than I did though, which was great for her. But alas, neither of us made the final cut, but life goes on. I do have craft books all over the place though and trying to get my creative juices in gear and am excited to get new things started again. I'm even going to start back crocheting my poncho this week since I don't have work (hope I remember how, it's been a while). lol

Right now I feel the need to finish things that I've started and de-clutter! Our house is so small and things seem to be 'stuffed' in every nook and cranny and it's getting on my nerves. So this week I'm hoping to spend a lot of time going through everything and hopefully getting rid of a lot of 'stuff'. We've been saying we're going to have a garage sale, but now is the time. I have boxes full of 'stuff' in my craft room already that have been waiting for probably 2 years now and am so sick of working around them. So I'm hoping to add to the boxes and have a garage sale in a month or so if the weather permits.

So I'm sorry for letting my blog go neglected for so long and I promise it won't happen again! I'll be back tomorrow and catch up some more and add some pictures that I took with my new camera!! Yes, new camera!! I'll share more about it tomorrow. hehehe

Thanks for stopping by and see you later!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving! We'll be going to Galt for Thanksgiving this year, it's been awhile since we've spent it with my family and it'll be nice for a change. Am thankful everyone is healthy and happy!! Neither of the kids will be joining us though, but they're off doing what makes them happy I guess!! lol

Lots going on this time of year and have been so busy trying to get things done. I'm behind as usual, but will play catch up this weekend hopefully. I did make it through the second round at WeScrap and so did Amanda and that makes me very happy. I'll post my layout at the end if you want to check it out. This weeks challenge is a Make-Up Challenge and haven't even started it yet!! It's due tomorrow by midnight, so you know what I'll be doing tonight and tomorrow!!

WeScrap is also having a membership special for only $5 for a year and business membership for $12 for a year. So if you're interested you can go check it out, they're a great group and lots of fun.

Here is my layout for Week 2 at WeScrap and it was a Close-Up Challenge.



Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving and talk to you soon!

Happy Hump Day!

I can't believe it's Wednesday already, this week is just flying by way to fast. First off, my mom is doing really well and thank you all for your well wishes and prayers, they were appreciated!

As for the Challenge on WeScrap.com, I did make it to the second round, which makes me really happy. Everyone actually got to move on to the second round though, but hey, I'll take it!! A few people had dropped out, so we all got to go one! Am trying to find some time to do the second round challenge, it has to be in the gallery by midnight Friday night and will probably be doing it Friday unless I find some time before then. I do have my picture picked out, but need to resize it and pick out everything to go with it. Have been giving it a lot of thought, but haven't come up with any good ideas yet and it's going to drive me crazy. I'm sure I'll come up with something, but it has to be something good if I want to make it to the next round! Keep your fingers crossed for me, I'm going to need it.

Been trying to get things ready for my Etsy Store, but coming along slow! A friend of mine named Teresa made my banner for me since I'm so computer challenged and couldn't do it myself after a month of trying. I did get the right program now I think, but will use the one Teresa made me until I have time to play around with it again.

My very good friend Amanda does have an awesome Etsy Store and if you scrapbook or make cards you should check it out. She has some great kits and the prices are excellent. The link to her store is here, so you should go check it out.

Here are a few of the current items that she has in there right now, so go and check them out along with the other stuff she has, she's a real sweetie!!








That's about it for today, but I'm sure I'll be back really soon. Lots going on this week and probably next week to with Thanksgiving coming up way too soon!!

Talk to you soon and don't forget to stop by Amanda's Etsy Store!!

Happy Friday!!

I'm so glad it's Friday, it's been a long week!

Today my mom is going in for surgery, the gastric bypass, so please send your prayers and wishes. She's had some issues and hope this helps her get back to her old self. She's had trouble getting around and getting out of breath when she tries to do anything. It's been kind of keeping her at home a lot and she's a goer and has been getting really depressed. I don't blame her and pray it all works out for her. It's going to be hard going, but hope it's worth it in the end!!

I finally finished my first layout for the WeScrap Fresh Face Challenge! I totally screwed up my first one and had to redo it, but still pretty happy with it. It was basically a scraplift challenge where you pick someones layout and make it your own. This was a pretty easy and have a feeling they're going to get a little harder as the challenges go on. I hope I at least make it through the first cut, but it's okay if I don't. I know I'll be disappointed, but will live with it!! lol My Plurk friend Amanda is also doing it, she actually talked me into it. Her layout is pretty awesome, so keep your fingers crossed for her also.

So here is my first Layout for the Challenge and keep your fingers crossed for me.



Thanks for stopping by and talk to you again soon!!

I'm A Bad Blogger!!

I can't believe I did it again, it's been to long between posts!! I keep trying to get better, but life keeps getting in the way.

Been pretty busy and trying to de-clutter the house! Been going through everything and trying to get rid of stuff and hopefully get enough stuff together for a garage sale or sale items on Craig's List or somewhere.

I've also been trying to get stuff ready for my Etsy store, but it's going so slow. I have some things together, but have been trying to make a banner. Yeah, right. I still think it's my Photoshop program, but tried Illustrator too and it didn't work out!! It's horrible being computer challenged, but haven't given up yet. If I don't figure it out by Friday I'm just going to open my store without a banner and hope people will still check it out and hopefully buy lots of stuff!! lol

If you didn't know, I started selling Avon a while back and just loving it. I've done better with Avon than I ever did selling scrapbooking stuff. Go figure. Everyone knows Avon and they've already got the awesome reputation and I don't have to sell the name. Avon isn't just for your mother anymore, they have stuff for everyone!! Avon Calling!! lol

The WeScrap Challenge started this week and am working on the first Mini-Challenge and should have it up tomorrow. That's what I'm doing tonight! I'm still nervous and hope to at least make it through the first round. So keep your fingers crossed for me, I think I'll need it. I've seen some of the layouts of the gals that I'm up against and they're so awesome, so you may need to cross more than your fingers for me!!

So hopefully I'll be posting again this week. I haven't been working, but that's good for right now. I'm enjoying my time off and making good use of it!!

Talk to you soon!!

Getting Brave These Days!!

No, I'm not a brave person and I can't believe that I'm actually going to do it and go out for a design team. So this post is mainly to put some of my layouts on so that WeScrap.com can check them out. So cross your fingers!!

Here are a few layouts that I've done. The pictures aren't that great, but haven't figured out how to take good pictures of layouts, so this is the best I've got for now!! lol I should try using my scanner again, but I love lumpy layouts and lumpy doesn't scan very well at all for me.

Come Join Us On Saturday!!!!

Oh My!! Been A Bad Blogger!

I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since I've posted. I keep thinking about doing it, but for reason haven't taken the time. I've been playing with my camera again, but I'm still not happy with my pictures. Think I need to save up for a nicer camera and hope it helps and doesn't turn out to be me!! lol

Been busy working the last few weeks, which is good because I never know when I'm actually getting work, so I'll take it when I can. Now getting paid is another thing, still haven't gotten paid for work in August, but hopefully on the 20th. Keep your fingers crossed!! I've also been working on selling Avon, but coming along kind of slow. I'm not as aggressive as I need to be, but need to work on it. I've got a few customers, but would like more of course!!

Haven't been doing much of anything lately. Have gotten a few new things for the yard for our Halloween scene. I'll try to remember to take pictures again this weekend and post them. I still haven't been out to take pictures of the 4 new headstones either, but I'll make sure I do it his weekend for sure. I have other pictures I need to take to, so I'll do them all at the same time.

Been thinking about trying out for a design team too, but still thinking about it. I don't know why I'm struggling with the thought of it, probably the total rejection of it all. The one I'm thinking about is going to be a Project Runway type competition, rather than just anonymous people choosing people and then just posting the winner. So my projects will be voted on weekly for I believe 4 weeks and each week people will be getting kicked off. I've only watched Project Runway one time and it's a lot of pressure!! lol I should just suck it up and go for it. I'm one of those that is my own worst critic and never happy with what I've done and not just in scrapbooking, in all aspects of my life!! Yes, I'm one of those. But I'll decide by this weekend and probably end up doing it in the end unless I talk myself out of it by then. Those are the other pictures I'm supposed to take this weekend, my scrapbooking pages and projects I've done to see if I even qualify for design team!! Will keep you up to date on what I decide. If you come back and there's a bunch of pictures posted, that could mean I decided to do it!! Cross your fingers just in case!!

This Saturday Sara is coming to spend the day with us, her boyfriend is away on business and it's a good weekend for her to spend quality time with her dad!! We talked about going to Apple Hill and see if it works out. I've only been there once and it was 14 years or so years ago. If nothing else it'll be a good day out and hopefully fun.

I've gotten a few of the inside Halloween decorations out, but only a few. I've made some of them and I did take some pictures today, but they're not that good, but I will post them anyway though.

This is the lid of a paint can I painted about 5 years ago. The candy is actually white, don't know why it's showing up pink, must be my mastery with the camera! lol



This is a shot of one of the sides, couldn't get a good picture of the whole thing for some reason. The flash kept glaring off of it and when I went to a less lite area or used no flash then it was too dark, so this is the best picture I got.



These were some coasters I made out of terra cotta pot bottoms. I made a bunch of these for gifts, but mine are the only Halloween ones. The ones I made as gifts I were unique to each person that I gave them to. Of course I didn't take any pictures of any of the other ones that I made.



That's all I've got for now, but will be back this weekend!!

Talk to you later!

Save The Tatas Charity Kit!!

This is an awesome kit and for a Great cause; the price is even more awesome for what is included in this kit. It's a digital scrapbooking kit, so if you haven't had the chance to venture into digital scrapbooking this is the time to take the leap! If you're already a digital scrapbooker this is a must have kit!

Everyone should pass this along to their friends and family!!!!

Special collaboration kit featuring designs from Holly McCaig, Andie Smith, Mikkel Paige, Scrappy Pony, Carrie Bombria, Audra Little and Tara Sroka. For every kit purchased at Tara's Store (click on Tara's Store for link) all the proceeds will go to the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer charity. Hope starts here and hopefully we can end this deadly disease.

It's Almost That Time of Year!!

This is one of our favorite times of the year, Halloween!! Richard is like a little kid at Halloween and always goes all out. He's been decorating the yard for quite a few years and now he tries to add something new every year. This year it's the skeleton coming out of the grave and I really like how it turned out. Last year he made the headstones and I painted them. I think he's got plans to make a few more this year, because he told me to think up a few more ideas to put on them. Here are the progress pictures and the end result. I'll be taking a picture with one of them when I can get Richard to take it and I'll post that one here also.

So here are the pictures and I was practicing with different settings on my camera and I think they turned out okay. lol I'm no photographer though, not even close!!























That's just of few of the 70 plus pictures I took!! Like I said, I was messing with the settings on my camera and a lot of them didn't come out very good. It was a really hot day and so we worked on it in the morning and then in the evening. Now the dogs are going to be looking out the window and thinking that there are people in the yard and bark at them!! Oh fun!! lol

Talk to you soon!

Just A Quickie!!

Since I promised to post pictures and didn't do it, thought I'd better do a quickie update and post a picture of the birthday girl from Saturday's birthday party.



It's been a busy week and just downloaded the pictures from my camera last night. Thought I would get more good ones, but of course I take horrible pictures. I need to play with Photoshop and fix all the red eyes before I post any more of them. I will work on it his weekend, don't think I'll be getting work.

We are going to decorate for Halloween this weekend though!! Richard loves Halloween and has been planning the yard for at least a month. Going to his brother Larry's house on Saturday to pick up some dirt. I will take pictures when it's done and hope it works out like he's hoping it will. Still need to find some more clothes for some more people, but it may be to late for that now. Oh well, next year!! lol

I've been busy working most of the week and decided to sell Avon. I know, I said I wasn't going to sell anything anymore, but I couldn't resist!! If you're interested in anything you can always go to my website at www.yourAvon.com/susiegerdes and check it out. You can order online and have it delivered to your home. If you do decide to place an order just let me know and I'll send you a free delivery code!!

So hopefully I'll be posting more pictures this weekend, the birthday party and the yard decorating!! I love this time of the year, the weather's great and lots of festivities going on! Who knows, we might have another Halloween Party this year, it was fun last year!

Talk to you soon!!

I Can't Believe The Weekend Is Already Over!

It's already Sunday night, where did the weekend go?? Time seems to just slip by me anymore and seems to be going faster and faster!

We had Triva's surprise party yesterday and it was such a good time! There were lots of friends, family and a ton of great food, not mention the beer and wine!! lol And yes, the Captain showed up, but I didn't have any. Everyone seemed to be having a fun time. My mom's cousin Antoinette and her husband Jack even came from Novato and it was so good to see them both. Auntie Olga and Uncle Jim were also there and it was a nice surprise, it's been a while since I've seen them also. They live in Morgan Hill, about 2 hours away from Galt where the party was. Auntie Emma is always so nice to let us have all the parties at her house too!! Thanks Auntie Emma!!

The circle album I made for Triva she seemed to really like, she even cried when she opened it, which made me feel good but then sad at the same time. It was an album with her and her grandson Jaydin who recently moved out of state and when I started making the album I didn't know that. So when she saw it and all the pictures of Jaydin she started crying and I felt horrible. She did tell me that she loved and that I shouldn't be sorry I made her cry. I did feel better after that!!

Here are the really bad pictures of took really fast Friday night when I actually finished it. Sorry for the poor quality, but the lighting is really bad in my craft room!!



















Tomorrow I'll post the actual party pictures, but they're still in my camera!! lol

Talk to you soon!!