What do you do when a Tropical Storm hits on a 3 1/2 day weekend?

You get your "CRAFTY" on!  Ah yes with the direct landfall of Tropical Storm Lee on Louisiana threatening my long holiday weekend, I decided to make the best of it....

** warning - posts is pretty photo heavy and long because i got a lot done! **

Although Friday wasn't my normal half day (for being on call) at work, AG decided to let us all leave at noon to start tour holiday weekends.   Love when work does this.....   Around 10 am we got the weather update that the weather disturbance out in the gulf was officially a Tropical Depression and would be Tropical Storm Lee before it made landfall on Louisiana sometime Sunday morning.  Work was now in "Emergency Preparation" mode.   I do computer work for a grocery distribution company that services the entire gulf coast, so any small threat puts the tension high.   All this meant for me (because I was on call for the week) was that i just had to keep updated and be ready if any computer problems arises. 

So i spent my Friday half day picking up items around the outside of my house and getting ready for the storm.   I was also able to get my things packed for my LSS "Summer Challenge" crop being held on Saturday.  I packed thinking i would assess the weather situation in the morning and determine if a drive to praireiville would be a smart move.

Besides a little rain and wind on Saturday morning, the weather was too bad.  Well then the power went out.  OK that was a sign.  I packed the car and headed to my LSS.  Knowing they had power and Internet,  I could spend a couple of hours there and the crop and deal with work when there was issues.  Although only three of us showed up the crop, I chatted with good friends and managed to make some progress on Isabelle's dance album.   If you remember this post here, I had started on her dance album from this past year at our annual family beach trip in May.  I will admit since then and with only a couple of pages at the NSD crop at Micheals, I haven't really touched the album.  I didn't get it finished, only 4 pages left, but got a pretty good bit done.  Here is the latest pages....

 "Creep" - company dance

 "Creep"- company dance

 "Creep"- company dance

 "Sound of Silence"- company dance

 "Fame"- company dance

 "Fame"- company dance

 "Fame"- company dance

 "Hey Jupiter" - contemporary

 "Hey Jupiter" - Contemporary

 "Fire on the Dance Floor" - Hip Hop

 "Fire on the Dance Floor" - Hip Hop

 "Jewels" - Ballet

 "Jewels" - Ballet

 "Dock of the Bay" - Lyrical

 "Ocean Waves" - Tap

 "River Deep, Mountain High" - Jazz

Debbie Allen's

"All the Right Moves"

What's left is the rest of Debbie Allen, Master classes with Dion and NTG's Final Event.  The goal is to get it done before the first competition this year.  Well that's in November, so one more crop at my LSS should do it.

The crop ended around 3 and I headed home to hopefully a house with power.  Power was on, so i took the rest of the afternoon to get laundry and some house cleaning done, in case the power went out again during the weekend.   Just a few small glitches here and there.  

Sunday was yet another day of wind and rain, Tropical Storm Lee was pounding Louisiana.  I spent most of the morning and early afternoon helping my mom clean her house.  I owed her big time after she the rest of my family helped me move into the new house.  It took me the entire month of August to move!  

I spent the rest of Sunday and all of Monday working on crafty projects (Trying to get a head start on Halloween) and layouts for LOAD.

On a side Note......  I have been enrolled in BPC's "The Mother Load and haven't quite been keeping up with the warm up part.   I was taking both Finding Photo Freedom and starting Mother Load, along with the move all in the same month and was just stretched too thin!  The first of September started the LOAD part (Layout a Day).  I will admit, going into this class I knew that a layout a day was just not possible for me.  I took the class for the daily prompts in hoping that I could get out of my comfort zone of just scrapping events.  My goal was have 7 layouts in a week done.  Using my weekends and Wednesday afternoons to catch up on previous days prompts.  I do spend a couple of minutes a day, brainstorming on the prompts just to get my thoughts together on what i want the layout to look like.   This helps so when i sit down on the weekends and actually crop, the layouts come together pretty fast.

Out of the 5 prompts from the start of the class, I followed 2 completely, 1 partially, but also completed 4 additional layouts along with a set of cards.

LOAD #1: scrapbook a goal or aspiration

"Keep It Clean" - journaling reads: "Now that I have moved into the new house & have my craft space all set up, My goal is to "Keep It Clean" and pick up after each project".  This pictures are from my old craft room in the Ave B house right after it was re-organized.  It never stayed this way, but hopes with the way the area is set up in the new house, I should have not issues with keeping it clean.  I am not quite finish with the craft area in the new house but plan to posts pics as soon as its done.

Supplies: Studio Calico Kit - "Boardwalk", Sassafras Sunshine Broadcast PP "Flourish" (11481), Create Paper Studio C PP, SC Chipboard Alpha (CA004), Basic Grey Brads "Out of Print" (3341)

LOAD #2: Laughter-tell a story that made you laugh really big

"Laughter" - this one tells the story from our road trip in California two summers ago.  I have never laughed so hard.  These kids say the cutest things!

Supplies: Studio Calico Kit - "Boardwalk", SC PP "Boroughs" (SCPP0069), SC Chipboard Alpha (CA004), My Mind's Eye -Lime Twist "Fly a Kite" Spring Twine (LT1053)

LOAD #3 - was to use one of your snack bags of supplies, I never did this assignment!

LOAD #4 - Minimal Scrapbooking + gotta scrap photo - your requirements for a page to be considered a successful layout.  this was hard for me to put together as a list.

     Mine are basically the following:

1. cardstock/patterned paper background
2. title
3. one photo
4. minimal journaling
5. few embellishments

"Ghouls Just Wanna Have Fun" - this is minimal for me!

Supplies: American Crafts "Boo" collection, PP "Barbara R. Bones" (35188), "Jack T. Skullinski" (35191), "Van D. Helsing" (35195), Details "Fright" (78035), Minimarks "Ghoulish" (43382), Remarks "Ghostly" (42167), Thickers Borders "Bones" (53106)

LOAD #5 - Throw out your requirements, break your rules and do the opposite.  This one throws me for a loop and not sure what to do.   I tend to scrap however the pics move me.  

Sometimes its...

• multiple photos or a single photo
• single page or double page
• 12x12, 8.5 x 11, or 8x8
• just cardstock, patterned paper
• from a kit or just wanna use supplies
• small amount of journal, long paragraph

I don't stick to just one set of rules, but like the challenge for those who do!

The next two layouts and set of cards were completed because I liked working the AC's "Boo" collection and wanted to get last year's trick or treat pics scrapped for display. I like to display last year's layout in a 12x12 photo box with the rest of my holiday decor.

 "Party at Ave B" -pics from last year's trick or treat party at my house

Supplies: American Crafts' "Boo" Collection, PP - "Vladimir E. Bite" (35193), "Inga H. Mumm" (35187), "Charlotte A. Weaver" (35184), "Lydia J. Fungus" (35194), Just Write "Boo" (64002), Thickers "Bones" (53094)(53097), Borders "Bones" (53106), Remarks "Ghostly" (42167), "Superstitious" (42169), Minimarks "Ghoulish" (43382)

 "Spooky Decor" - since it was the first year having trick or treat at my house, i decided to decorate with diy crafty decor.  Had so much fun doing this! Plan is to add more decor for this year's party.

Supplies: American Crafts' "Boo" Collection - PP "Elizabeth B. Stein" (35190), Thickers "Bones" (53097), Rmearks "Ghostly" (42167), Minimarks "Ghoulish" (43382), Just Write "Boo" (64002)

"Boo Cards" - Finished off the Halloween trend with two card to be used closer to Halloween and sent to my little buddy and her family.

Supplies: American Crafts' "Boo" collection, PP - "Van D. Helsing" (35195), Flair "Happy Halloween" (70063), Minimarks "Ghoulish" (43382), Remarks "Superstitious" (42169), "Igor" (42168), Thickers Borders "Bones" (53106), Just Write "Boo" (64002)

While putting away the leftovers from this collection (see working on my "keep it clean" goal), I discovered in my stash AC's "Confetti" collection.  I had gotten the entire collection off of a steal site before i moved and had completely forgotten about it.

I pulled the whole collection out and managed to get two more layouts done before going to bed last night.

 "Happy 12 Birthday" - favorite pic from Noah's 12th birthday this past may

Supplies: American Crafts' "Confetti" collection, PP - "Holly Hazelnut"(border piece) (35323) "Banana Cream Brady" (35326), Remarks - "Pin the Tail" (42186), "Musical Chairs" (42188), "Surprise" (42185), Bits - "Tags" (85533), Thickers "Dots" (53237)

"Pool Jam" - during his pool party, Noah and his friends brought our their instruments and started playing for everyone.  So cute to see him in his Fedora rocking it out!

Supplies: American Crafts' "Confetti" Collection, PP - "Holly Hazelnut" (35323), Thickers "Cheer" (53154), Bits "Tags" (85533), Remarks "Muscial Chairs" (42188), "Pin the Tail" (42186)

That's the end of the layouts from the holiday weekend, but i did complete two more projects.  I had pinned these to my pinterest during this past week in hopes of making ones of my own in the future.

"Keep Calm..." - from AC's blog

Here is mine:



"DIY Cheap Halloween Trays" - these are from Joy Hopes' blog .  Thought this would be great for trick or treat party this year.  Basically its silver trays and glass candle sticks spray painted.  Had a little bit of sunshine and cool weather on Sunday afternoon, so the perfect time to get this project completed.  Went to dollar tree and found three different style trays (oval, circle and rounded rectangle). Decided to do three: two in all black because my kitchen is black and red and one in orange and black for Halloween.

My version.....

FYI, while going to my local dollar tree in search of the supplies needed for the trays and frame, I discovered that they had just put out all of their Halloween/fall decor.  I scoped up four huge spiders and webs, fun straws, test tube candy and pumpkin dollies.   Since spray paint was used on the tray they are not safe to put food directly on them.  I will be using the pumpkin dollies (pack of 35 for only $1) I found.

All in all a pretty productive 3 1/2 holiday weekend!  When you are stuck inside all day, there is no excuse not to get your "CRAFT" on.

More Halloween/fall decor to come.  In the meantime, you can check out my collection of ideas on pinterest.

Now off the the BPC board for "The Mother Load" to posts my layouts......

Weekend Wrap Up - CCL, Band Slam & Housework!

Warning! - long post, lots of pictures.......


Whew!  This weekend was jam packed, I'm exhausted.   Only 4 more days till the next one.......

So anyway, my weekend started off on a Friday.  I was so graciously able to take the day off from work to attend my LSS's, Memory Mania, weekend crop. 

CCL(Camp Crop aLot) XXI "Scrapbooking Divas"

CCL started bright and early Friday morning at 9:00 am.  I arrived at the Crown Plaza, early might i add,  decked out in my diva apparel.  side note: apparently i never had my picture taken as this diva, such a shame!  As the doors opened I filed in line with the rest of the divas waiting for my Castle table assignment.  E10 would be where I would reign for the next 37 hrs. 

Just a quick hello to my Castle-mates.  I met some wonderful ladies.  So Nancy, Wendy, Glenda and Glenda, if you are reading this... hello and I miss ya'll already!  I always sign up for these crops as a single because my family and friends aren't into the scrappy stuff.  No biggie, makes for a great way to make new friends.

Once past the Castle gates I was greeted with a table of cupcakes!  Don't they just know how to make me smile! I headed off to my assigned table to drop off my goodies.  I was given a tool tote and my CCL t-shirt.  Now it was time to unload all the scrappy supplies from my car.  I brought just what was needed.  It only took three trips!  I had my castle set up and decorated in no time.   Side Note: Once again, never took a picture of my castle.  Here is the pic of all the decor I brought with me.

Getting down to business.....
Most of Friday was spent working on my mini album for my trip to Chicago back in 2007.  I used my scrapscription kit "Around and About".  Unfortunately this kit is no longer available for purchase but you can buy the pdf instructions here and use your own supplies. What a wonderful kit, it used a Maya Road chipboard binder album and Basic Grey's "Wander" Collection.  I entered this mini album into the Page Contest.  More on this later in the post!

Friday afternoon I took the "Triple the Fun" class taught by the lovely Becky and Jody.  In a two hour time "crunch" I created 3 double page layouts.  I say "crunch" because we went way over our time limit.  Here are the 3 wonderful layouts complete with pictures.

After dinner, it was time for the "Pajama Crop".   I changed into my comfy pjs and cropped till right around 2 am.  I ran out of adhesive and the Cupcake Shoppe was closed for the night.  I headed home to get a couple of hours of rest.

Status:  4 Double Pages, 3 Single Pages, 1 Mini Album

Friday's Layouts:

 Supplies: Pink Paislee Hometown Summer Patterned Paper "Summer Fun" (00454); October Afternoon Rocket Age Miscellany Bag (DC-145); Girl's Paperie "Jubilee" Fabric Brads (CP65087), Studio Calico Kit: "Ray Gun"

 

 Supplies: October Afternoon Rocket Age Patterned Paper "Incoming Transmission" (#PP-571); Sassafraslass Patterned Paper "a...b...c..." (#11474); Crate Paper Borders "Toy Box" (TB891); Studio Calico Kit: Paper Moon

 Supplies: American Crafts Hello Sunshine Patterned Paper "Frolic" (35403), Bits "Tags" (85547), Thickers "Hardcover" (53137); Making Memories "With Love" flower brads (34816); Cosmo Cricket "Upcycle" Lovely Bits (BFL848); Studio Calico Kits: Make 'Em Laugh, Moses Supposes, Tap Dance

 Supplies:

Chicago Mini Album:

Went back to the castle bright and early Saturday morning just in time for the Cupcake shoppe to reopen at 8:15.  Stocked up on adhesive and went back to work.  By lunchtime I had completed an additional 6 layouts.  Not long after it was time for me to leave CCL for a couple of hours to attend Young Band Summer Slam.  I submitted my mini book for the contest and headed off to the Shaw Center.

Noah has been participating in a Young Band program through Baton Rouge Music Studios this summer.  The program puts together kids of similar age and ability to form a band.  They spent the summer writing music, practicing, recording a single and making a music video.  Saturday's show debut the video along with live performances.  Noah is a guitar player for "Hysteria".  Here are a few pics of the band singing their single "I'm Moving On".  As soon as the music video is posted on YouTube I will link it up on my blog.

 Noah signing autographs!

Noah and Doug Gay the owner/director of BRMS

After the show and dinner with the family, I headed back to the Castle just in time for the announcement of the Page Contest and Grand Prize winners.  Needless to say I did not will the Grand Prize drawing for free admission into the next CCL but my mini book did place 2nd in the Page Contest for a $30 gift card to Memory Mania. Wohoo!

The night/early morning finished off with a few more layouts before packing up and heading home.  Once again i lasted till about 2 am.

Status: 4 Double Layouts, 5 Single Layouts 

Saturdays Layouts:

 Supplies: My Mind's Eye Fine and Dandy Patterned Paper "Fabulous" (FAD125), "Daydream" (FAD124); Cosmo Cricket "Circa 1934" Cardstock Stickers (CCS782); BoBunny Petals "Charcoal Knit" (PPCK997); Glubers;  Studio Calico Kits: Licorice Twist

 Supplies: Webster's Pages Patterned Paper "Accessorize" (US1814D); Crate Paper Emma's Shoppe Patterned Paper "Dresses" (#ES856); American Crafts Thickers "Doll Fabric" (53168); Red Twine; Studio Calico Kits: Singin' In the Rain

 Supplies: Pebbles Inc. Happy Go Lucky Patterned Paper "Cloud Nine" (751090); My Mind's Eye Lush Patterned Paper "Black Floral Tiles" (LU1003); Fancy Pants Black Trims (#1192); American Crafts Thickers "Hardcover" (53135), Pogo prints; Studio Calico Kits: Pint

 Supplies: Memory Mania Kit

 

 Supplies: The Girl's Paperie Jubilee Patterned Paper "Carni Stripe" (GP65078), Chipboard Alpha "Karlee" (GP65127); Pink Paislee Border Stickers "Hometown Summer" (00466); Jillibean Soup Kraft File Folders (JBS6605); Studio Calico Kit: Countdown

 Supplies: CratePaper Toy Box Patterned Paper "Sports"(TB888); K & Company Smash Pad "Travel" (30-614871); American Crafts Thickers "Sunrise" (53180); Studio Calico Mister Hueys "Bluegrass"; Studio Calico Kit: Papermoon

 Supplies: Studio Calico Patterned Paper "London Calling" (SCPP067); American Crafts Peachy Keen Patterned Paper "Gee Whiz" (35383), Thickers "Dot" (53237); Studio Calico Kit": Mind the Gap

 Supplies: My Mind's Eye Good Day Sunshine Patterned Paper "Head In the Clouds" (GDS114); Maya Road Mini Triangle Banner Canvas (CN1679); American Crafts Thickers "Doll Fabric" (53169); Crate Paper Emma's Shoppe Patterned Paper "Quilts" (ES858); Studio Calico Kit:

 Supplies: Layout from last CCL class, just added pics

 Supplies: Layout from last CCL class, just added pics

 Supplies: American Crafts Hello Sunshine Patterned Paper "Blithe" (35416), Thickers "Hardcover" (53137); Crate Paper Emma's Shoppe Chipboard (ES860), Phrases (ES962); Studio Calico Kit: Tap Dance



The weekend rounded with work at the new house....

 The house is coming along, plumbing is down, ie. shower and hot water heater are installed.  The family and I put down baseboards, cleaned the kitchen, cleared out some stuff, amongst other things.   Only a handful items left on the list.  Moving date is still set for Aug 13th.  I confirmed with the movers, cable company and current landlord today.  All is a go.  Finished off Sunday afternoon with more packing at my house and off to bed early.  I was sound asleep by 9pm.

Sometime my weekends are busier than my weeks!