just being me

"so you're back from outer space..."

Yea, scrappy blog sort of got neglected. lol Well Im here for now, just a little update. This thing was sort of an eyesore and very much outdated. I mean, come on....Christmas?!? lol. Got rid of that holiday header and will try to push the holiday postings down a little bit. : )

So I spent a good amount of time trying to organize my digital photos today. I am sort of a bad scrapper, I print as I go but it leads to minimal scrapbooking. Its a MAD workflow to get a page done in this house...I have to locate a photo, edit and resize it in Photoshop, get it printed, pick it up at Walgreens (only ones with FUJI paper, Kodak paper sucks for some reason. Really bad quality.) Come back home then rustle around my paper and embellishments for a long time before I even cut anything. When I finally make a decision, I usually have a certain embellishment in mind that I want to add to the page, this is where it gets fun. 90% of the time that said embellishment is hidden, I swear I have scrap Elves with psychic powers who like to predict what I am going to want to use, then hide it from me in a place I will either never find it, or finally find it after 1.5 hours of searching. GR. lol Then once/if my layout/project is complete I sit and stare at it. And I do my signature "different perspectives" move. I hold it away from me and look at it, stand up and look at it, put it on a shelf and look at it, have Nicholas hold it and look at it, and whatever else it takes for me to finally decide that I love it. This is usually extended if I am really in love with it. LOL. I know....Im a scrap FREAK!

So Im still working at the ever fabulous Ruban Rouge....AND I LOVE IT! I really never thought working in retail could be so fun. I enjoy working with all of the ladies (and Mike) I have the pleasure of seeing everyday and our loyal customers are so FUN! Coming up at the end of this month, I am going to be leading two photography workshops, they are going to be SO much fun! I am so grateful for this opportunity Lisa has offered me, it apparently is something the scrappers have been wanting for a while, so I feel very honored to be the one to teach them! They are going to be workshops instead of classes because they are both spanned over three months, one Saturday in each. One is for those who want to learn more about SLRs and the other is aimed towards taking better photos for scrapbooking no matter what camera you have. Here is the 411:

I am psyched, I am planning lots of surprises and can not wait to start everything!

Ciao for now, Ill try to update with some layouts later this week! Happy 6-7-08!!

"Its the greatest time of year, and its here..."

"...help me celebrate it!"

So Im feeling all Christmasy (if thats a word) and so very much in the spirit. And it just strengthens these feelings whenever I see/hear this song by Aly and AJ. I just want to JAM out christmas style. This is where I got my blog title from, I keep saying it over and over! lol I am so into the rock/alternative christmas songs right now. : ) Listen/watch and let it move you.

We got our Christmas tree FINALLY after a week and a half of planning on it. I was SO excited and Aly had so much fun going with us. She was such a good girl. : ) Nicholas did all of the work while I took pictures, lol. I told him I didnt want to be the kind of wife that just sits and watches and expects the man to do all of the hard work. Ive seen that too often and it bugs that crap out of me. Well instead I take pictures! LMAO! I know its sad, but there really wasnt anything I could do to help but clean up the mess. It was a one person job, just like it was when the tree-man put the tree in our trunk. teehee but I got some good documentation for our journal!

Isnt that tree just PERFECT. And about $35 dollars cheaper for a small fee of driving out of the "nice" city we live in and going to the "not as nice" city in which we used to live. Only about 7 miles away, its funny how small things like that are taken into consideration. Good thing we are too smart for them! lol So HA! I love our tree, its sitting right next to me and I keep wafting in the wonderful christmas aroma. We also got a wreath out of the trimmings from the bottom! Cant wait to decorate it and make our wreath!

So I have been taking in the commercials and I wanted to share my FAVORITE this year. Gosh I love Target.

And this one PISSES me off. SO much. Its just so sad. This should not be something we want to highlight about Christmas these days. It just makes me so sad. I wish they could spend their time more constructively by passing on or coming up with more ideas on how to spread the holiday cheer. I am all out and wish there were more sources....so anyway, here's the one that is just saddening. Pushed Target farther up the pedestal for me...

Poor Grandma. : ( I so feel her pain. I think this is something I will add to my Christmas journal. This sort of stuff should be immortalized to show either how far we have grown (hopefully) or how bad its gotten, well in the future since now.

Speaking of my Christmas Journal, here are some sneakies of what Ive done so far, the rest are in the album to the right.

I am SO enjoying this process, the only thing I am having trouble with is adding photos to it. I would really love to have more photos in the book. Anyway, if you havent signed up yet its not too late! Its SO very worth it!

Well Im off to edit some layout photos, then decorate the christmas tree! Mmmm, love me some hot Shnacolate!   

"How low can you go?"

Busy busy busy like a bumblebee! Photos, scrapbooking, christmas journaling and attempting to clean. Funny how it never seems like I get anything done regardless of how busy I feel. : )

During a sit break on Monday I saw this commercial on the telly and CRACKED up. For a long time. Oh my GOODNESS. I immediately looked for it online so I could watch it again. Then again. Then I showed Nicholas and we laughed together. I watched again just now. omg. definitely the best commercial Ive ever seen. Okay Ill shut up and you can watch it yourself.

Isnt that hilarious. I love how the dad is getting all into it and LOVE the id's expressions. That is some freaking talent. I told nicholas that I want one of those for Christmas. tehehe, yes, the little boy. I would be delighted to have one like him! He is just SO adorable and fun!

Here's a layout I did back in October for October Afternoon and just found in my unedited folder.

Ill try to post some photos of my christmas journal, its been SO ultra fun!!

ciao for now.

"Glitter is the Herpes of Craft Supplies."

Hello Strangers!

I have lots to share, I guess that makes sense seeing as I havent blogged in over a month. It is just way to busy here, I cant keep up with life. lol

And before you make the decision to be offended by my title PLEASE watch this stand-up skit. OMG Dimetri Martin is my ALL time favorite comedian. He never uses judgemental or racist jokes. Just random everyday life stuff. Just my flavor. He makes me laugh SO hard. And I LOVE LOVE to laugh, its my favorite pasttime. I so want to be his best friend. Watch this, I guarantee you will laugh:

So these are my last projects for the LSS challenge. I didnt win but it is all good because I wasnt really expecting to. I didnt even know what the prize was, I still dont. I entered because I had never done an effer challenge and I knew this would force me to. I am so glad that I did because I absolutely love the projects that I was forced to do. lol : )

This was the "excessive ribbon" challenge: I was inspired by a combination of a Jenni Bowlin project and a Heidi swapp project to do the funky accordian shape album but then gave it a different textured up flavor!

 

And the final round for the ones who moved on was to scrap with a "PISSED OFF" theme:

 

I had the Ribbon project in the store to take photos of and I recieved many requests to make it a class so I eventually caved and offered it up. However I only recieved one sign up and it was a kit purchase so I have extra kits made up if anyone would like one. I had to RE-do the project to suit the product we had in the store and the photos of the new one are below. The kit will include access to a web page with 17 detailed photos, the supply list and instructions to re-create the project. I guess we can call it an online class! The Home decor class is $40. If you are interested, you can view the listing on Etsy here: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=8160981

My 22nd Birthday was on Tuesday. I really was dreading turning another year older. But Nicholas took very good care of me in my depression of getting older. I just dont want to grow up. I'd be very content with staying 21 for the rest of my life. : ) hehe who am I kidding, everyone would. lol He had planned on making me his special Chocolate gravy and biscuits for breakfast but I slept in too late for breakfast. : ) what else is new? So we got lunch and went to my favorite par in Tarpon by the water to eat it and watch Aly play. It was too cold for baby girl, so we went home. although I liked the cold weather on my birthday. Lunch was ruined because they put mayo on our subs so we got ready to go to dinner. I had begged my family wees ago to go to dinner for my birthday and after much complaining and frustration only my rachel and her family went with us. We went to my Favorite place to eat, Bahama Breeze, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. It made the entire day sweet, despite the rest of my "relatives." MMM, we had Barbecue grilled chicken flatbread pizza and coconut encrusted onion rings to start! yum! We took lots of pictures,listened to chilling music and just seeing my Rachel made me happy. Nicholas had Ice cream cake with CRUNCHIES waiting for us at home and I tried to find room to stuff it in. We always get Ice cream cake with CRUNCHIES for birthdays. Can you guess what my favorite part is? : )

I got the best gifts a scrappy girl could get! My loving and nearly perfect Nicholas gave me this beauty:

What a wonderful surprise it was to find that it does beautiful movies with SOUND! So cool. And I can record memos as long as I want to go along with the photos I take. So say we go somewhere, take photos, and on the car ride home I can go through and record notes and journaling for each photo! That is a scrapper's dream, am I right? This will also help with all of the HILARIOUS things my boys say when we have them. I dont even have to write it down, at least not until it comes time to actually scrapbook it. I can just have him say it again in the microphone right along with the photo I just took of him! LOVE THIS! THE BEST birthday present. Nicholas could not wait to give it to me, he kept saying that all night on the day before and at Midnight he gave it to me. lol We are so bad like that! But I love it!

And then a sweet scrappy friend named Roni, : ) gave me this:

Well not the actual album, thats Shimelle's but she gifted me the "Journal your Christmas" class and I am just SO freaking excited! I really wanted to do it this year and so I am! And now its even more special because someone cared about me so much to go the extra mile to do such a sweet thing. Thank you Roni, you are such a dear friend. This is going to be such a great christmas year. : ) That is how I spent my Birthday night before I went to bed; cleaning out my scrap area to get ready for this journal project. Of course I am a major overachiever and deep cleaned a little area only. I must to everything to the BEST of my ability instead of just getting it done slightly. Its a sad sad disease. lol

Then, today, my Sweet sweet friends Maddie, Tina and Maria gave me this REALLY adorable Coach Lion keychain and a gift card to my favorite place to shop, Ruban Rouge! How sweet are they? I am so lucky to be surrounded with all of this love... : )   Feeling so very grateful.

And I just want to say Happy Birthday to all of my fellow November birthday girls! Schmid, Jamie, Anne, Chrissy, Elsie and anyone else! November is the best month to have a birthday. In my opinion anyway! HUGS!

Okay, ciao for now. Thanks for stopping by!

Not in any particular order...

Okay, I know. Not so good at updating. It has just been so busy...and I can always find something better to do like....be lazy. : )

I have been a busy little bumblebee scrapping away, making all sorts of projects and stuff. Ive been participating in the Last Scrapper Standing challenge so Ill post my round 1 and 2 projects here for you to see.

Round 1: Use 8 clear elements on a layout. (really bad photo and havent had the time to re-do it! lol)

Round 2: Scrap 7 random facts

The theme was inspired by a mini album that Tara Whitney did. "Let me count the ways" but really I guess I cant even give credit to her since it was actually Elizabeth that wrote that. lol The base for the album to be random was from the challenge, I actually scrapped it random instead of just the facts. : )

Now I must get back to work, its late but I need to finish this month's SOMO kit projects. I need to be done by Sat. and Im such a slow scrapper so I need to concentrate! Dont get me wrong though, this kit is FANtastic, LOVE every bit of it! If you havent seen it you must check it out! Plus, I have some halloween stuff to work on for the wonderful store...so no more bloggy for me til its all done! lol Thats a good excuse to not blog right!?

Thanks for stopping by...Ill leave you with my flavor of the week:

YES, I watch Disney Channel. YES, I love the Jonas Brothers. YES, I know that you probably think this is stupid and only for kids. NO, I dont really care what you think. : )

SO love the lyrics, "Cause there's more to life than just to live"

ciao for now!

“There is no delight in owning anything unshared.”

Lots of sharing going on...: ) I have a layout I did sometime last week and a few photos of a class I am looking forward (and hoping that I will be) teaching this Saturday at Ruban Rouge.

I used SO much product on this page..that was sort of the challenge for myself. I have all of this wonderful product that just sits and sits so I pulled out some oldies. Then there are a lot of newbies, saw the Elsie cupcake paper and FREAKED because I knew it was perfectly perfect for our little nickname for Aly. one out of the shillion that we have anyway. Then the Scenic Route that I adore and some October Afternoon Rubons thrown in for good measure and the perfect touch. This page was so much fun. Although I cant run my fingers over it daily (if it were here it would so be on display, this pages makes both of us laugh each time we look) because its hidden somewhere upon the red walls of Ruban Rouge. But thats okay, because then we can share the laughs with others too! So anyway, fun stuff. : )

This was such a fun project to make! I have been asked multiple times to do a class at the store but I was sort of cautious because I didnt want to jump right in. If you know me, everything I do that has my name attached to it MUST be the absolute best that I can do and it has to be different, so the weariness goes without saying. Ive never taught before. So anyway, I put something together that I had wanted to work on for the longest time ans designed it with a class in mind. Its technique and concept based, but I think the colors are scaring everyone off. lol I have SO much fun planned for this class and I can not wait for everyone to see the presentation you know, how everything is set out...of it! (SO many different ideas!) Anyway, I just hope I do get to do it, it is going to be such a fun experience!

I have a SUPER dee duper fun project to share soon. I finished it last night and brought it to the store so I wont be able to take pictures of it 'til I go there again but I will post as soon as I take the photos. It was such a genius idea that Lisa had me put to life and I am in love with it for my home. Nick loves it too so that is always a good thing when you are putting something handmade in your house that they are forced to look at each day.

Off to sleepytime. : )

Quote by Seneca

"i thought of all the things i have to say..."

Cramped up, I couldn’t write a word all day"

So here it is. Finally, I know. My scrappy blog. My reason for this seperation, well its so much to explain but to make a long story short I used to have so much to say and wanted to for myself...but with so many reading and such a crazy judgemental world (which I hate the most) that we have, not only in general but in Scrapbooking as well, I just had to use discretion for fear of my words being taken the wrong way or being used against me. man, that was a mad run-on sentence. hehe So I never blogged. I couldnt write anything and I wanted to so badly for myself for the future. But I had an angry audience, lol who wanted me to blog so I had to think of a new approach. Anyway, my more personal life and my problems and silly little excitements will be kept to myself and my family on my private blog and everyone else is free to read and delve themselves into my scrapbooking world. which, actually, is a pretty big one. : )

Okay now, back to the schedule. Got lots to share!

Here's a layout I did early last month. It was my first time using Hambly Screen Prints and I loved it. Ruban Rouge got a little order in and I went happily at my work using it, I cant believe how fun it made this layout.

This is my FAVORITE line of American Crafts EVER. And those Hambly rub ons on the same color American crafts paper just came too easy for me. Can you believe I did this layout in one night? Definitely NEVER happens. Just goes to show how awesome all of these Manufacturers are! I am totally in love with the little mini dachshund I accidentally found on the new Basic Grey rubons from the Mellow line. So freaking cute and PERFECT for this page. If only you knew how happy I was when I discovered that. : ) Also loving the Making Memories line art stickers from their Halloween line. (used on the word "hands") Okay, Ill shut up about it now. Can you tell that is my favorite layout Ive done? : )

Feeling SUPER inspired lately with all of this new music coming out! Angels and Airwaves has a new CD coming, Motion City Soundtrack has a new one soon as well as FOO FIGHTERS! All of my favorite "scrap to" music. So so inspiring. their lyrics are so moving and make me wanna jam out. (you know sit dance or something. lol) Ill share for you to listen, hopefully it will instill some inspiration for you as well. : ) And if this is not the kind of music that you like then just try to understand that these people are sending messages rather than just making stupid music. And you never know, you may just find that after listening to it a few times, you have found new music that you love! I am IN LOVE with music, I like to give everything a chance, especially if there is a message to share or inspiration to give. and more importantly if it is their PASSION rather than just a way to get rich and famous : ) Here are the links for the lyrics: Enjoy!

Motion City Soundtrack: Cant finish what you started

Foo Fighters: The Pretender

Angels and Airwaves: Everythings Magic

Okay, Im going to get ready for a FUN night...cropping at my favorite place. Love the $5 crop nights...so much mojo in that Design Studio! Maybe tomorrow I will share a layout I did with some October afternoon goodies, some Scenic Route and Elsies newest line, Jack and Abby!

"This is the End for you my friend..."

The link is "fixed" lol.

http://theresamarie.typepad.com/proof/

I just hadnt posted yet on my scrappy blog so there was nothing to show but now there is so it works! Just thought Id leave you with this AWESOME song/video/lyrics to leave with. Love to listen to this band when I work out or am pumped or something....they have such an amazing message to give to the world! LOVE IT!

http://www.songmeanings.net/lyric.php?lid=3530822107858573959

So ciao! : )

FYI

I am seperating my blog into three parts; Personal/journal, scrapbooking and photography. I have not had the time to work on those blogs yet but in a few days this blog will be password protected for my personal blogging.The new scrappy blog will be here: http://theresamarie.typepad.com/proof/ and the photo one will be here: http://theresamarie.typepad.com/the_tmphoto_blog/.

Just thought I would put that up so that you know where to go. this will save me email replies which, if you know me, I am so bad at doing. lol

Anyway, thats that. Ill wait a few days to password protect this blog. : )

"Mighty mighty good man"

Yes, that song is really old and crusty but thats the only thing I can think of when searching my mind for lyrics that match the feeling I had when I came home from work today. : )

Okay, I wanted to put this down somewhere. It just may not happen much more in the future so I feel that it is im-por-tahn-tay to document this. And if you are reading but are not Theresa Marie Jasper I just want to put it out there that it may be a little sickening. Its sort of funny that as I am typing this, Roseanne on nick at nite is PMSing on Dan's birthday and doing a toast to the fact that he is her TV watching, beer demanding, doesnt get up even to go to the bathroom Rock. The pen in her ink, or something like that. And here I am, before marriage, experiening the sweet, mind-reading pen in my ink, er I think it is ink in my pen. but whatever, funny just the same. So I did do the dishes and the laundry yesterday then planned on cleaning the hardwood and tile floors today. And here comes the sickening "he's so amazingly amazing" part. Now you KNOW that you have found a keeper as in keep him forever when you can unknowingly train him to read your mind then actually DO what you had in mind. I didnt even mention OR hint to him that I was going to clean the floors and he didnt even stop there. He straightened up and put things away and took out the trash and even cleaned the rest of the kitchen. Then, to top it all off he doesnt ask for anything in return or even ask for me to notice. Of course, being the super excited freak that I am, I went crazy when I realized what he did. I didnt notice the hardwood floors I just thought it was the bathroom and the kitchen yet there was no, "Oh I did the hardwood too!" It was just, "well yea I cleaned a little." It was his day off and usually he rests by just chillaxing around the house. Not cleaning. But I never have a problem with it, I dont ever complain. Hmmmm, maybe that is my secret!? note to self. lol So anyway, this man just keeps getting better and better every day. And just when I think I have reached my limit at 7 years. Love isnt even the right word anymore. : )

Okay, throw up I know. hehe Well thats enough for today. I cant believe I blogged twice in a row. Ive gotten over having a picture for each post because I just want to document my everyday. Off to finish this episode of "Roseanne" yes I watch that, just love how real it is and I always laugh! then its sleepytime for me. : )