Just take those old records off the shelf

This is what I've been singing since I got home last night because I have the house to myself! Mom is off to her Moose convention in Florida for a week. (And no, I'm not dancing around in my underwear.)

This is the third day in a row I've been up by 7 am. Of course yesterday, when I needed to be up, I couldn't get up. But today I can't fall back asleep. I'm trying to figure out some bills but my banking program is freezing up.

I've been trying to keep up on some challenges at RAKScraps and got a few pages done this week!
For Stacey's photo challenge, she wanted us to scrap our favorite photos. These pics of Taylor are from two years ago. She was hamming it up, saying "more" as I took these. She's not so willing these days! (I love Audra's new Graph Alphas MDM!) Credits.

I've been working on this one for awhile. It's for Shelly's quote challenge and it's a scraplift of one of Melinda's pages. I thought the quote would be great for these ride photos and I had the design down, but I couldn't decide on a kit! I went through about three until I decided on Power Puff Pixies and now I'm finally happy with it! Credits.
And here's my new favorite Kylie photo! Randi used to make a face like this when she was little. And what's also weird is that Kylie's wearing the same shirt that Taylor had on in the photos above. Credits.

How ironic that U2's Bad just came up on the iTunes rotation! "I'm wide awake....." It's going to be a long day!

The test

I did ok on the CAT scan. I didn't sleep well, but I managed to get up at 7 and drink that yucky stuff. I came and went back to bed afterwards. But I still have this gross metallic taste in my mouth from the shake or the dye I guess. I go back to the doctor in two weeks to find out what's going on.

Oh, and I'm mad at Tivo. The Beatles interview didn't record!

Day off

I am off from work today. I have to drink this yucky shake at 10 pm for my CAT scan tomorrow. I'm kind of nervous. I hope I do ok. I have a hard time staying still, especially for doctors.

I have been out running errands this afternoon. I took my car for an oil change and car wash, and I was hoping they could check the AC, which hasn't been working. But they don't do that there and I'm going to have to find someplace to check it out soon. My drive to work is just boiling lately!

I stopped at Barnes & Nobles to buy a gift, but ended up buying more books. And I finished reading The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri while I had my lunch. It's a great book, especially if you're interested in Indian culture and how immigrants adapt to the U.S., which always interests me since I'm froma family of immigrants. I've also read her book of short stories, Interpreter of Maldies.

Then I crossed the parking lot to Staples where I found a laptop bag! I got the brown one. It's got pink stitching and lining and has room for my laptop and lots of other stuff!
The gift, by the way, was for my grandma. It was her 76th birthday yesterday and we're going out with her later. Here's a picture of her from Memorial Day...


I want to try to get some scrapping done before then. I just got a manicure and I'm trying not to mess it up! Good thing I don't paper scrap. :)

Tonight on Larry King!

I've got my Tivo set for this! Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Olivia Harrison and Yoko Ono all on Larry King! :)

Rocky's famous!

Check out my favorite puppy in the Scrapbook Graphics newsletter this week! How cool is that!

I haven't been around much lately. I've been kind of cranky. Between work, doctor appointments, the heat, dieting, I think it's all getting to me. Then yesterday I was supposed to go for a CAT scan. I got up early, got to the doctor's office, sat around for a half hour. And then when I finally got called in, I was told I wasn't given the instructions for the test, so I couldn't have it done. Now I need to get up early on Thursday. At least my boss is letting me take a personal day on Wednesday, so I can get some rest the night before. That still has me feeling cranky today! Kinda just want to stay in bed with the air conditioner blaring.

On Saturday, Randi and Mom dragged me shopping. I didn't really want to go but they wanted to use my Macy's card to return something. I didn't get anything at the mall, but after they dropped me off at Rag Shop, which is going out of business. Everything is super cheap! I picked up some papers, alphas, a corner rounder, some scrap albums. I want to go back too!

I watched some Netflix movies this weekend. Little Children is amazing, but creepy. I kind of didn't want it to end even though it was a little long, but the characters were just so interesting. I also saw Because I Said So, which was kind of cute. I didn't like how open the characters were! I couldn't talk to my mom like that LOL! I also thought it was cool that Mandy Moore got to be the player in this and date two hot guys!

(It's so hot that Randi just brought Rocky over. Today was the last day of school and she's going out to celebrate at lunch now. I'm really happy for her because she'll be starting at the high school in the fall, which is the job she's wanted all along.)

Sunday, we took my nieces to the Bronx Zoo! It was a gorgeous day, not too hot at all, and the zoo wasn't that crowded! Here are some photos. I'm much happier with them this year with my new camera. But I didn't get as many as I would have liked since I had to hold/chase Kylie in parts where they don't allow strollers!

The sea lions are back! They had been at the aquarium while the zoo was under rennovation.
Check out Taylor's hair! She had a hair cut the day before so it's all straight!
The gorillas were very playful! I was chasing Kylie around in the Congo, so not to many good shots.
The wild dogs were sleepy again, but Kylie was happy to pet this one!
The girls playing in the tiger area. I didn't get one shot of the tigers even though they were roaming around.

I have lots of emails and posting to catch up on now! Hope you're staying cool!

New sketch challenge!

I've got a new sketch challenge up at RAKScraps! You can check out the challenge here and grab the free templates or png shapes. (There's also an 8x10 version of the sketch) I'll have a freebie for everyone who joins in.
Here's the page I did with the sketch. Kylie is a diva in training. She has a good teacher in her older sister. Credits.

Vacation Chat with Irene

Join Irene in the RAKScraps chat room at 9 pm EST/6 pm PST on Wednesday, June 20 for a Vacation Chat!!!
She'll have this freebie for you and some prizes from our sponsors too!
Irene also has a challenge planned for you! You can find out more details here.

Lots of layouts

I wish I had more time to scrap!!! I was supposed to be at my brother's house today waiting for the washing machine delivery, and I was actually looking forward to having some uninteruppted scrapping time. But the delivery won't be until afternoon, so he didn't need me to wait. And instead of scrapping, I've been ACDSeeing stuff. (Yes, my collection is that big that it's taking me months!)


Well, since I didn't get any scrapping done today, here are some pages I've done in the last week or so...

Danielle and Taylor wanted matching rainbows when we went to the face painting booth at Ag Field Day. Couldn't get a good photo of T, but Danielle is such a ham! :) Isn't this rainbow paper so cute - it's from Jenn Trippetti's Pretty Funky kit. Credits.
I've also been using a bunch of templates lately. Makes life way easier! This one and the Rocky page below are by Jen Caputo. And I also used lots of goodies by Audra Little on this one. And I just love this picture of Kylie playing in the grass at grandma's. Credits.

My mother gave Kylie this hairstyle - and Taylor had to have 3 pigtails too. Kylie says "cheese" when she sees my camera now. She likes to pose! This page has more of Jenn's stuff on it. Credit.

Here's my favorite birthday dog!!! I used lots of stuff by Jess and Kim's Rowdy Boy clusters on this one. Credits

And here's another photo I really love from when I took the girls to the park. I used Jess's Summertime Potentialities papers and elements. Credits

I am not as smart at Mish!

You Failed 8th Grade Math

Oh no, you only got 6/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

I saw these quizes on Mish's blog. My brain hurts from the math test and I was getting cross-eyed on the IQ test so I quit! I am soooooooooo bad a math!!!!

You Really Know Your State Capitols

You Got 17 State Capitols Correct You're either a geography buff... or you have an excellent memory.

Do You Know Your State Capitols?

June Mega Kit and RAKFile!

RAKScraps June Mega Kit is here! Celebrate your favorite guys with this kit brought to you by our Elements Team. This kit is FREE and each piece is available for a limited time only! You can find out how to download this kit in our Announcement Forum. If you miss any of the piece or if you're planning a summer vacation, you can purchase the entire Mega Kit on CD at Scrapdish, where you'll also find the Mega Kit Add On created by the RAKScraps Admins.

And check out the newest RAKFile! These newsletters just get better all the time! There's a great tutorial and some pretty cool freebies too!

Random Sunday observations

"Sleep is totally awesome. Especially if you're tired." - Corinne, my 12-year-old cousin said today.

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The people who made the movie Eragon should apologize to Christopher Paolini and then go study under Peter Jackson to learn how to make movies that respect a book, look cool and entertain.

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John From Cincinatti is a weird show. I liked Ed O'Neil. I also like that Luke Perry and Willie Garson are on it. Don't know if I'll keep watching.

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I wish I had my actions and fonts on the laptop. I have about 3 pages done and another started, but I'm too lazy to bring them upstairs so I can put on the finishing touches.

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I'm hosting Night Owls tonight at RAKScraps 12:30 am EST. I hope some people show up!!!

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I got a manicure today and it's already ruined. I didn't let it dry long enough.

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I just remembered that Entourage is about to start. Yay!

Happy Birthday Rocky!

Yesterday was my favorite puppy's fourth birthday!!!!! He went to get groomed this week so that's why he has on a bandana. We went shopping at Pet Smart today and got him a new harness, a cord for the backyard and some doggie treats!

Today was a good Saturday, even if things didn't work out the way we had hoped! We got up early to wait on line in Central Park for tickets to Shakespeare in the Park. Well, 11 am isn't early enough! There were some crazies there at 5:30 am! We waited two hours and got turned away with about 50 or so people in front of us. There were still a bunch more people behind us too.

Well, going to the park is always interesting because I always see the strangest things there! We saw a troupe of belly dancers walking around. But the weird thing is they were kind of goth looking with tattoos and facial piercings. And the people on line around us were interesting characters too.

After getting some lunch, Randi and I stopped at the Buttercup Bake Shop, which specializes in yummy cupcakes and we got some treats!

And maybe it's a good thing we didn't get those tickets because it rained tonight! I watched some Nextflix tonight instead. Music and Lyrics is now one of my favorite movies. I just love Hugh Grant and all the cheesy singing. And his dancing too!!!! I also watched Marie Antoinette, which I thought was OK. I liked the crazy fashions and music, but I just thought it was slow. There wasn't much dialouge either, which I thought was weird.

So now I'm going to play some more with my laptop! It took me forever to figure out how to get photos on this thing. There isn't a slot for my memory stick and I couldn't find a plug for my camera. So I had to find batteries for my old camera and use the USB cord that works with that one. Phew!


I still need to add some fonts and actions on here. Going to upgrade my photoshop now at least because I forget how to use 7!

Memory Almost Full

While I was at the Strawberry Fields show, they were playing songs from Paul McCartney's new album Memory Almost Full. And I was in Starbucks last week where I decided to pick it up! I think it's one of his best albums in awhile - as good or better than Flaming Pie. My favorite song is Dance Tonight, which has a cool video with Natalie Portman and Mackenzie Crook (from the British vesion of The Office).

Oh, and speaking of ex-Beatles, I'm just browsing the iTunes store and found a new John tribute album called Instant Karma with some pretty cool artists and also found that the Traveling Wilburys (which George belonged to) is now available! I love how there's always new stuff out there for us Beatles junkies!

And, I also just realized that you can make a wish list in iTunes. You can create a playlist and then add songs from the store to it. Didn't think of that before!

Greeting from the living room

I'm babysitting Kylie today - so that gives me a good excuse to play with my laptop!!! She's sitting on the couch watching Little Einsteins right now. She had a bad fever yesterday. Apparently there's a virus going around the day care. So I'm kinda glad she's not clingy right now. She's also roaring at me because she's playing with her polar bear. She looks kind of tired too.
I put a bunch of photos on my extra EHD and some kits I've been wanting to play with. So if she takes a nap, I think I can get some scrapping done!

I love new stuff!

I love new stuff! I've been doing a lot of shopping and got a few birthday gifts!

I finally got my new glasses last week! The old ones were so scratched and smudgy!
I've been looking for these sneaks for ever! Finally found them today at the Palisades Center.
And I have been eyeing this skirt from Banana Republic for awhile too, so I finally gave in. Randi had a discount coupon so that was even better! Looks much better on me than it does hanging up here. I got a cute matching sweater too!
Mom got me this new blanket set for my birthday! The blanket is so comfy and it's hard to get out of bed when I have the AC on.

I got some GCs for my birthday too, so I did some shopping at Scrap Artist, Funky Playground and Sweet Shoppe. Here's what I got!


And here's my new laptop!!!

Digi Craft Chat at RAKScraps

Join Melinda in the RAKScraps chat room at 9:30 PM EST/6:30 PM PST for a DigiCraft Chat and Challenge! Melinda will be showing us how to create a Square Gift Box from any digital kit in your stash!You can find out more details here.
And if you'd like to try more craft projects, you can find more of Melinda's templates in the Day Old Donuts section at Scrapdish!

Digi Craft Chat at RAKScraps

Join Melinda in the RAKScraps chat room at 9:30 PM EST/6:30 PM PST for a DigiCraft Chat and Challenge! Melinda will be showing us how to create a Square Gift Box from any digital kit in your stash!You can find out more details here.
And if you'd like to try more craft projects, you can find more of Melinda's templates in the Day Old Donuts section at Scrapdish!

Hello from my new laptop!!!

I'm blogging from my living room! I'm just getting acquainted with my brand new laptop, which arrived today while I was out shopping again! If I knew it would be here - I would have saved lots of money!!! I'm so excited! The screen is huge and so far Vista isn't too confusing. I need to install photoshop and firefox!

First Guest CT page

Here's my first page as a CT for Jennifer Trippetti! I used her All Things Americana kit to scrap these photos from the Memorial Day parade in my crazy town. All the politicos were out making a fuss before the primary. It was pretty funny to watch!
Jenn's running a cool promotion this month! She's offering free gifts with every purchase of $5 each week in June! The gifts are really cool too! :) You can see all of her goodies here. Here's another page I got done this week! I scraplifted Kimberly, Bansgran, one of my favorite doggie scrappers to do this page of Randi. She got this guitar in the mail after she bought her new VW - some kind of crazy offer! But it was pretty cool and we tried to rock out and make up our own songs even though we don't know what we are doing! You can tell by the look on mom's face in the background! You can see all the credits here.

Some news and some scrapping!

I was so excited to get a pm from Jenn Trippetti asking me to be a guest CT!!! I can't wait to get started playing! This is my first guest spot. So while I'm downloading some new goodies, here are some pages I've gotten done! I did some of these before my vacation, but I've actually been in the mood to scrap this week too!

This is about as close as I get to a two-page layout! Did these reverse matching pages of my nieces using their portraits! I just love Kim Jensen's Love is Messy Clusters! More credits here for T and K.

This is one I did a while ago about my wonderful driving skills using lots of goodies by Jessica Bolton! Credits.

This is a page that I promised Michelle Adams I would get around to when I was ready since I was so miserable last year. You can read my journaling and credits here. Lots of goodies from Studio Krista on this one.

And here's one from my night out on Saturday. The pineapple had a fruit punch margarita and it was so good! It was so big that I only needed one. I was also trying to eat the pineapple using the straw. Very entertaining! LOL! The template is by my dear friend Tracy Blankenship and you can get some of her funky super cool templates on her blog right now! Here are the rest of my credits.

Why does it have to end!!!!!

Well my week off is almost over! It's back to work tomorrow. I've been catching up at RAKscraps and with some email just now. I have had a pretty amazing week, considering I just stayed home!
I got so much done, went somewhere every day, made some progress with cleaning and things I had been procrastinating! I saw some great movies, saw lots of friends. My new glasses and laptop should be here any day! The desk is still pretty gross - but I did reduce the pile a bit! LOL!
It's been raining tonight - but I was so lucky to have such gorgeous weather all week. I felel pretty good and I've motivated to get stuff done. I want to get out of the house more during the day before work instead of just sitting around on the computer. And I really need to get back on the diet after relaxing it the last few days. Wish me luck as I go back to work tomorrow - I hope this attitude stays with me!

So I'm just getting home - and I feel like bawling, but in a good way! I went to dinner with my friends and then my sister or brother or SIL suggested going to my old watering hole instead of Hoboken afterwards and I saw a bunch of people who I haven't seen in years! And it was like I just saw them yesterday. It was so crazy, and well, I've had a few too many diet cokes and stolis, but it was a pretty good night. This is the first time in ages that I've gone out for my b'day and didn't end up puking and crying all night.

There are so many reasons I haven't gone there. I gained so much weight. I was cutting back on the crazy life. I was avoiding people who knew my ex-boyfriend and who he owed money too. But you know, not one person mentioned him. And I don't know if it was fake or if they were really happy to see me, but it was fun. I'm glad I went.

Strawberry Fields Forever

Just got back from the Beatles Brunch at BB Kings! My favorite Beatles tribute band plays there every weekend and Bettty suprised me with tickets for my birthday! I have seen them play before at Beatlesfest, where they performed only a song or two in the Battle of the Bands. And they were always the best ones there!

The food was not all that, but the show was pretty amazing! They start out dressed up in the matching suits - like in their early days and did a bunch of songs from the early albums. Lots of good rocking stuff, I saw her standing there, Twist and Shout, She Loves You, Act Naturally, Roll Over Beethoven, Slow Down, You Can't Do That. Randi and I were probably the only people there with the exception of the band and Bob Buckman from Q104.3 who knew all the songs. They also did Till There Was You, one of my faves, and And I Love Her.
Their performances were so dead on. They had all the mannerisms perfect, pretty good accents, the same guitars.


Then they took a break and changed into their Sgt Peppers Costumes. This section of the show was kinda cool because those were all songs the Beatles never did live - Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields, All You Need Is Love, Got to Get You Into My Life, Magical Mystery Tour, I am the Walrus. George acted a little trippy during the whole thing and mock perfomed some of the instruments during Penny Lane.

Then they changed again, into more Let It Be era clothes. They did some of my faves, Get Back, Rocky Racoon, Don't Let Me Down, Revolution. Paul was the best one. (Which was super cool since he is my favorite Beatle!) He did a perfect McCartney - especially the deeper singing and crazy yelling he did in those later era songs. Randi said to me at one point that if you looked at the screen and not the stage, it looked like you were watching the Beatles. It really was the next best thing! So these pictures aren't great - I couldn't find a good setting on the camera and it was dark, but I tried to lighten them up a bit. But you can get the idea. We had a great view too and a great booth table! Much better than the long table on the side where we sat to see Brian Wilson there!

Did you all know I was a Beatles freak? :) I checked myself out of a hospital against doctor's orders to see Paul, and have seen Ringo twice. I've been to Strawberry Fields sing alongs several times, and stood online at a book signing trying to see Paul. I have a whole shelf of books, another of CDs, and another of videos. They are also the reason for my self imposed ebay ban. So I'm still super excited from the show - or maybe it's just the 4 cups of coffee I've had this since this morning. Feel like digging out my Anthology videos and watching them all over again!

Just a few highlights from this week!

The week's not over yet, but here are few more highlights!
At our Memorial Day BBQ
My cousin and I drew this hideous hopscotch board!
Taylor made it more beautiful!!!

Rocky was so good at the parade!
Some WNY politics in the parade.

At the Museum of Natural History
Red moon over NYC on Thursday night
The haircut