Music Man

I'm playing again!! Woohoo!! A couple of weeks ago, my friend has asked me to play in the pit for the musical, Music Man. I couldn't say no. I LOVE playing in musicals. So much FUN! And this years show marks the 20th anniversary for the Hartford players. It was an honor to be a part of this production. All last week we had rehearsal every night and then opening night on Friday. OMG! We were a HIT! The feedback from the audience during the show just made everyone's adrenaline soar. Did I say yet how much I just LOVE playing in musicals? :D lol!!

Birthday Celebration

This years birthday for me came and went. We really didn't do anything special for it. My mom asked if I wanted to go out for dinner and I said, no, I'd rather just not do anything this year. Well my friend Leah said that she wanted to take me for dinner. I've been putting it off b/c I just didn't want to celebrate me getting older. ich. So finally she convinced me to go out Friday night and I did. I am SO glad I did too. Holy FUN! I haven't laughed that hard in a really long time. Leah drove and on the way downtown, she had the sunroof open and I looked up and saw this.

The sky was so blue. :)
Leah took me to a restaurant called Kil@wat that is located inside the InterContinental Hotel downtown Milwaukee.

We started off with the Wisconsin cheese fondue. YUMMY!!

Then I had the American grouper

and Leah had Grandma's chicken

Leah said her dinner was good, and mine was just ok. I'm sorry to say, but the beans tasted just like plain baked beans. Not the best mix of taste for me. Afterwards, we went to At Random.

This place is your 1950's cheesy cocktail lounge that serves the BEST ice cream drinks. I've never been there before but Leah talks about it sooo much. When I walked in, it was soooo dark and that the only lights were from these orange lanterns lit at each table. It's just like what Hernando's Hideaway would be from the musical, Pajama Game. :) I had a grasshopper and Leah had a Peanut Butter Cup. So good. Here are some photos I tried to take so you can see just how dark and orange it was in there. She even said I had to check out the bathroom too. (heehee)



We didn't stay too long b/c it was starting to get a little to smoky in there for me. But what a FUN night! Thanks Leah!!

Rice Krispies Treats

Darnell has been bugging me a LOT lately to make him some rice krispies treats. So when I was at the store to get the cereal, I saw the box of Fruity Pebbles and thought it would be fun to try something different. Well, I'll just say that they're just ok. Good, but I think I like the plain rice krispies better. I was checking out the Kellogg's site and they have several different kinds that you can make. But I think when it comes down to it, I would but much happier with the origianl. I guess I'm just a plain-jane type of a person. :D

wedding

I have a HUGE pile of old scrapbooking mags that I just can't seam to toss. So I was going through them and ran across a LO by Donna Downey in the July/Aug 2007 issue of Simple Scrapbooks and I just had to do this one.


credits

Leah

Here are some photos I took Friday of my friend, Leah. She is a Music teacher at the HS and graduation was Friday night. She didn't have any pictures of her in her gown and hood and asked if I would take some. I played around with some freebie PS actions I got from Totally Rad. I really liked how they turned out. I think I just might invest in some of their actions. I also tried a grunge look with a frame and scratch overlay from Keep Designing. Fun!

Happy Mother's Day...

to all my mommy friends out there!! :D

Today was a low key day. My parents were up north and came back this morning so we could all hang out. I ended up making a carrot cake, and boy was it yummy! We took our PS3 over to my parents and watched movies. We ended up watching Alvin and the Chipmunks and Enchanted. I really wanted to go to a nursery to buy some plants but it was yucky out and my mom really didn't want to. They had just bought a bunch of plants and trees from an Amish greenhouse up north. They're going back this Thursday to pick up the trees and she said she would bring my a red maple tree for my front yard to replace my Magnolia tree that died. (sniff...I truly do NOT have green thumbs. So we'll see if this tree will make it.) My brother didn't make it today b/c Lisa wasn't feeling well. I think she's 12 weeks along now and has been very sick. I'm praying and have my fingers crossed that everything works out for them this time. I really want to be an auntie so I can spoil them rotten! Yes, THEM, b/c it's TWINS! :D YAY!

waterfalls

I am so jealous. My friend, Raleigh, went on a day trip down to Starved Rock State Park and got beautiful shots of waterfalls. He sent me the photos and I did some editing in CS3 by doing the orton effect to the photos to add richness to the colors then created this storyboard for him. Once I get my butt to the store and buy more ink for my printer I am printing this one out and it's going up on my wall.

So I told DH about what Raleigh did and he's like, So when are we going? Woohoo! A campin' we will go..a campin' we will go.. :D

where has the time gone?

recap: well, since I started my new job 2 months ago, I haven't had time to breath. So much going on all at once. I've had the past couple of days off b/c I had all 4 wisdom teeth pulled. (ouch! not fun) So now I'm trying to play catch up with my list of stuff I've been slacking on. One of them being scrapbooking. I signed up to take the 3rd class by Jessica Sprague and I've barley had time to do any of the work. Now the 4 week class is over and I've only completed 1 layout from it! URGH! I hate being behind. I feel like I've missed soooo much. But the nice thing is that all the material will be available for ever! LOVE her classes for that! :D

I went to a Stampin' Up 10 4 10 class last night with my friend, Beth. We made some really cute cards. All of them are birthday cards and I can't wait to be able to use them. Stampin' Up is one thing I've really never got into. I do have some of their stamps but I think I really like the clear stamps better. At least you can see where you're stamping with the clear. But they do have some really cute stamps out. I'll probably cave in and buy a bunch.

Speaking of Birthdays, I can't believe my birthday is coming up in June. Yikes! I really, REALLY want the new Canon XSi. I told DH that everyone should chip in and get me that camera. :D (I'm so bad!) We stopped at Best Buy the other weekend b/c I wanted to check out the camera. They didn't even have it. They guy said that they had it out on the floor 4 hours and someone wanted it really bad so they decided to sell the floor model. And they said they wouldn't get another one in for a couple more days. As I think about it, it's probably good that they didn't have it that day. I would have probably walked out the store with it if they did.

DH and I went up to Door County the weekend of April 4th to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary. Wow! I can't believe 10 years have gone by already. We really wanted to go to Las Vegas, but decided to stay in the area instead. We stayed at the beautiful Birchwood Lodge in Sister Bay. We stayed in the Grand One-Bedroom Suite. It was so nice. And the shower in that room was HUGE! It was a walk in shower and you could have fit 50 people in that thing. It was HUGE! After we got settled in, we meet my friend Jen that lives in Sister Bay. Her daughter, Jenna, had a dance recital rehearsal that night. And since the recital was on Sunday and we weren't going to be there for it, we went to the rehearsal instead. Afterwards we went to dinner at....um....nuts! I forgot the name of the place....but they did have good food! Saturday DH and I went out to see the lighthouse on cana island. So pretty. It was such a beautiful day out. Then Saturday night, Jen & Roger and D & I went to eat at Alexander's. So good! All in all, it was a great weekend and a great anniversary. :)

Nature

credits

This LO is for a challenge over at Shabby Miss Jenn Designs.

Diva Dog Zona

credits

Blake Shelton

credits

CountryFest 2006

I've finally decided to start in on my numerous photos from country fest in 06.


credits

this is me

credit

I thought I would try something new today, so I created a circle LO! It was fun....different, but fun. I still have to try to learn how to create text inside a shape in CS3. I just can't seam to figure that one out. So if you know, please let me know!!

Big & Rich

credits here

Here is my 2nd LO using CS3. I heart CS3. WOW! What a difference with what you're able to do. But this is my first page to my Country Feast album I'm going to do. We went in June, 2006. I just hope I can remember all the details. LOL! But once I'm done with all the pages, I'm going to do the Shutterfly book with these and give a copy of that to my parents. Now I just with I would have started this a month ago. I start a new job on Monday so I wont have much free time anymore. (sigh) It was nice while it lasted. :D

projects

This is the heart album I did for hubby for valentines day this year. I've never done one of these chipboard albums before and I REALLY like how it turned out. Really easy to do, too. Most of the papers I used were from the Smitten paper pack by K&Company. Elements were a mix of a lot of different stuff I had laying around.



Here are just a few of the cards I've created recently. The first one I lifted from a card that was done by Kelly Purkey. (sorry it's sideways, for some reason I can't get it turned the right way.)


And this one I just sent out.

Ashlynn's Hair clip

credits

Here is a LO is just finished working on. This took me waaaaay too long to do. And I guess I still just don't have that "it's finished" feeling about this. Maybe because it doesn't have a title. But do all LO's really have to have a title? I don't think so. But maybe that's why I don't think it's done. I don't know. I'll wait a couple of weeks and then look at it again. :D

Zona

This LO is from a kit I bought at DesignerDigitals awhile ago. I just haven't had the time to go through and play with it. I feel like I'm starting to run out of pictures to play with. Maybe next week, I'll sit down and concentrate on going through all my old photos and scan them in to scrap. Boy! What a project THAT will be! :D



I really love how the postcard turned out! I will have to use that setting on more photos. I'll try to post more LO's on here later today.

Orton Effect Challenge

Here is my LO for the Orton Effect Challenge over at Jessica Sprague.


credits

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday! YAY! Happy B-day, Mom! (I think everyone should celebrate their birthday to the max)
Brian & Lisa, mom & dad and I got together and had lunch at Cafe Soeurette today. I sooo love their food. So good. I ended up making a really cute photo mat to put inside one of those Starbucks coffee (tumbler) mugs. But b/c I'm always a tad behind when it comes to important things(heehee), I had to stop at Starbucks on the way to the restaurant to pick up one of those mugs to put the photo in. :D But it did turn out really cute. And you know what? Do you think I remembered to take ANY photos of it or her today? Nope! Oh well. We are going out this Saturday for a Birthday dinner to celebrate hubby's birthday and mom's birthday. So I'll be sure to take pictures then.

Here is a LO I recently put together using on of the premade LO's from Jessica Sprague. I printed this out and had it framed and now hangs on the wall in my parents livingroom. Picture was taken at the Friends & Family open house at Cafe Soeurette before the restaurant officially opened.

Happy Birthday, Darnell

Today is D's 36th Birthday! Happy Birthday D, Love ya!