Chef Robin & other random stuff

Have I mentioned that I've been on a cooking kick lately! I haven't had a Lean Cuisine in ages. I started just before my furlough week. I've been making food and freezing the leftovers for dinner during at work. I think it's saving me money. The only downside has been all the dishes I need to wash. Here's what I'm making tonight with ground turkey. I cooked the turkey and some of the other stuff ahead of time and I'm baking the potatoes now. Hope it turns out ok!

I had a good weekend. Hung out with some friends at karaoke on Friday. Last night I saw the high school's production of All Shook Up, which was really cute! And Randi and I saw I Love You, Man this afternoon and I just cracked up the whole time. Love Paul Rudd and Jason Segel.

My cable box is dead and my Tivo-ing is all screwed up! It's so annoying. I have to wait until Tuesday before someone can come and fix or replace it.

I saw my nieces last weekend and they peformed a princess fashion/musical show. It was insane! I have to say I'm so proud of Kylie. She knows how to spell and write her name now! (Not bad for a 3 year old, I think!). And Taylor lost her first tooth. I get teary just thinking about how big they are getting.

This week is going to be nuts for me. We're launching the paper's redesign on Friday for Saturday's paper. I'm not sure how ready we are! We still have to train everyone in the next few days. I'm worried about the reactions and how it will go over as well as how everyone will do with the changes. The paper is converting to a 44-inch web, which is a technical way of saying the paper is getting smaller. But the type is getting bigger. It's going to be a big change. And it's going to be weird seeing a lot of things I designed become the style of things. We had to work with fonts and resources that we had and make some compromises. But I think some things look good. I hope people will like it!

I better get back to the kitchen and check on those potatoes!

Up too early, again

Rocky's here today and he and Penny took over my bed this morning. So I decided to get some stuff done. Did some laundry. Finished up a layout. Posted the Studio Spotlight. (Check out the new SBG designers.) Of course now the dogs are sitting together on the other couch looking at me. Wonder if they'll let me go back to sleep.

I have a million things to do lately, but I'd rather scrap! I am on such a roll. I think I could scrap all day. I've been trying to use my tablet some more, and I'm getting used to it with the laptop. Here are some more pages.

This weeks Studio Start challenged us to list people we'd invite for dinner so I made a page about my friends on the Studio Crew. Maya's re-released her Everything but the Kitchen Sink which was super fun to use, especially since it had lots of chickens. The crew loves the chickens. Credits

I did this one for a Studio Wendy play day. And I just love, love Irene Alexeeva's critters. She is awesome. I love this photo of Kylie, too. I have one similar to it of Tay from a few years ago. Credits

This was another fun page to make! I scanned my Wicked stuff but was annoyed that I couldn't find the first book or my ticket stub, d'oh. Tangie Baxter's Fabuloz Friends kit is too cool. Credits

This photo of T cracks me up. She looks like a cross between Axel Rose and a wrestler. She is a nut! I used lots of Holly McCaig's stuff on here. If you're looking for her designs, she's at 2 Peas these days. Credits
And this is actually 4 pages - merged into one for posting convenience - from the St. Patrick's Day part at the Rover. I used two of Hillary Heidelberg's 365 double page templates to get all these photos in. 365 templates make great multi photo pages. The Sunday Best page I posted a while ago was also a 365 template. Just take off the month, date elements and give it your own spin! Credits

Up early!

I am up early and I don't even mind! I stayed in last night and went to bed pretty early. I watched the Spiderwick Chronicles and scrapped a bit. Here's one of my pages...

I love two page templates. My friend Melinda is the queen of two pagers and she has some great templates in her store at Scrapdish. Credits.

I had to share this picture of Penny. Poor dog. LOL! She doesn't look very Irish.

I am not the only one in my family dressing up the animals! My aunts had the horses posing for St. Patrick's Day - and one of my aunt's made this card! I'm so proud of her. LOL!

Have I mentioned that I've been on a cooking kick? I have been trying to cook more since I was off on furlough. I freeze all my leftover and take them to work. I haven't had a Lean Cuisine in weeks now. Yesterday, I got all my ingredients ready for my favorite chicken chili recipe and I just figured out how to use the crock pot. (Plug in. That took me awhile.) I can't wait for dinner!

Happy day after St. Patrick's Day!

I keep forgetting to stop in and blog! I am so caught up in Twitter lately and celebristalking. It cracks me up how the world has just seemed to discover it, just like they've discovered Facebook a few months ago.

Anyways, I did my St. Pat's celebrating over the weekend at the Wild Rover, my favorite local Irish pub. The place was filled with lots of friends and some people I haven't seen in ages and even my mom came!

I think I look cute! You can see more of the shenanigans here. I don't remember taking some of these photos! On Sunday, Mom, Randi and I went to an Irish pub/restaurant called Shannon Rose where there was some good food and a little band playing Irish music.

Not much else is new. We're finalizing our redesign at work. I think most people have taken their furloughs so it feels a little crowded on the night desk this week - that's a good thing! I'm still nervous about what could happen now that the first quarter is coming to an end. A paper in Seattle just went online only yesterday.

And here are some new pages. Can you tell I'm looking forward to spring and Easter! :)

I finally scrapped some photos from Lucia's baptism with a new kit by Jenn Trippetti called Tears of a Clown (no scary clowns included). Credits

This was a Studio Start We Can Build it page. Fun to try something different and use purple, which is not one of my favorite colors, but I like it here. Funny story about this page - my fellow crew mate Kait recognized my cousin in this page. Danielle goes to school with her son and lives down the street from them - small world!!! Credits

This was another Studio Start using a color combo. The colors got me thinking about Lost and these postcards from ABC.com that I've been wanting to scrap. Can't wait for a new episode tonight! Credits
I never use quick pages, but this one called my name. I wanted to knock out a page quickly today and this one was pretty cool! I added my photo and dressed it up a bit. Credits
This was for a Natali play day. I love these old photos of my family all dressed up, especially my grandpa in the top hat! Credits
I wanted to use these cute critters in Forest Polka so I dug up some more Easter photos! Credits
And I used more photos from last Easter for this Jen Caputo play day page. Credits

In other crafty news, I got my first kit of the month from AC Bailey and some other goodies. (Another Studio Crew six degrees story: I met Elisabeth from AC Bailey at the monthly crop I go to and she's one their team with my fellow crew mate Leah!) I have a plan in my head for a hybrid album! And be sure to check out Studio Matters today for my spotlight on word art.

Craftiness

I had lot of fun today working on some crafty stuff! I didn't keep track of supplies. Just got covered in glue and glitter.

I played with stamps for these bags. Two of my co-workers recently had new babies and we took up collections for gifts. I'm going to put them in these.

I covered an 8x8 album from SEI with some paper and alphas for my Christmas pages.

And I cut out and inked the edges to this ATC I made for my fellow crewmate Anna. I sent her a copy a few weeks ago, but I liked it so much I made a copy for myself. There's another side too, which I didn't get a good photo of.

The problem pug?

I was uploading photos to Facebook last night and I got this message?


I had a few drinks last night so I was confused. I thought Penny had been playing with my laptop while I was out! But I think it's just their Fail Whale image.

Another Saturday night...

I'm watching Bridget Jones' Diary, organizing stuff and enjoying having the house to myself. What are you all up to?

I can't believe my week off is almost over!!!!! My sister and I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex in NYC yesterday. It was kind of cool, but we thought it was a ripoff. It was cool that you got an audio device to go through the exhibits. They show you a little movie and then there's about 3 or 4 rooms of stuff. Then that's it! The real hall of fame is way cooler and worth the trip.

My favorite things to see were Bruce Springsteen's old car - it looks like the Greased Lightening car - and John Lennon's piano. They don't let you take photos and don't even sell postcards so I can't share any images.

After that, we walked around a bit in the city and then had some lunch. There was so much traffic getting around yesterday. It was kind of annoying.

I also hung out last night with some friends from high school at karaoke. I didn't sing, but it was still fun. Makes me glad for Facebook. I've been able to get together with some different people lately.

Not sure what I'm going to do tonight. I've been lazy today. Not sure if I can find the motivation to go out.

Bumming around

I haven't been doing much all week. I like being lazy. I enjoy having no where to go. I am glad I have a dog, because otherwise, I'd forget to go outside!

My fun and exciting activities have included: cleaning off my dresser, taking Penny out, going out to eat, cooking risotto (and it came out great!), scrapping, watching tv, shopping, getting an oil change, drinking some beers at the bar, listening to U2's new album, watching U2 on Letterman (Oh they're singing Beautiful Day as I write this! Woohoo!). I also have been catching up on my Tivo and watched a few episodes of Dollhouse, which is a pretty cool show. And I'm annoyed at ABC for canceling yet another show that I love - Life on Mars. I've been ranting about all this in real time on Twitter.

Tomorrow, I'm going to the city to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex! That should be pretty cool. I hope it's nice out.

(Bono is changing up the words like crazy ... it's awesome! Adding a little tribute to Dave and to the Ramones.)

Here's some of the scrapping I've done this week.

Finally scrapped my first month of Project 365 photos! Credits

This is my grandma. She looked so pretty on her wedding day. I used a kit by Irene Alexeeva, who is a guest this month at SBG. Credits

I also did a little scrap therapy and played with lots of Kim Jensen's stuff. Credits

And..... here's a page I did tonight that I haven't posted anywhere yet. I fell in love with Lorie Davison's Flying Dreams kit and just had to play with it, even though this kind of page isn't my usual style. I know it isn't perfect, but it was a lot of fun to create.

Impressions of Heritage

Here's a preview of the latest SBG collab - Impressions of Heritage. It's on sale for $9.99 this month and it's got so much good stuff in it! I mentioned in my last post that I am super excited about this month's kit because I wrote a description that inspired the colors and theme. Last year, I scanned a lot of my old family photos and as I scrap them, I don't like to use traditional heritage kits that seem so frilly and beige! I like color and funky elements and this has lot of that!
Here was my description:

It’s not just the box of old photos of nameless people you found in your grandmother’s closet, old doilies and dusty trinkets.

Heritage is the story of the memories, traditions, events, cultures, holidays, beliefs and people who make you who you are. We all have our own.

When I think of my heritage, here are some things that come to mind: grandpa’s stories about the Army; grandma’s cheesecake; the cameo great-grandma always wore; Dad’s stories of growing up in another country; listening to my Mom’s 45 records; my sister cooking recipes she learned from our grandmother;visiting my aunt’s farm at Easter time; clips of stories I wrote for my college newspaper; and starting new traditions with my nieces.

So while heritage does include the many people who have come before me in those old yellow photos, it’s also about the people I’m scrapping about today and the memories we are making together now.

You can see more LOs with this beautiful kit on the Studio Matters blog! And speaking of the SBG blog, be sure to check out my Spotlight post on Wednesday for lots of enabling. I can't wait to play with some of the kits featured this week!

Snowed in

Penny and I are snowed in today. I'm glad I don't have to drive to work today. I'm off all week on furlough - and I really don't mind! I needed a break.

I went to a party this weekend and saw some high school classmates I haven't seen in ages. But other than that, it was a pretty quiet weekend. Mom and I went shopping on Saturday and I bought some new shirts, some crafty stuff and groceries for the week.

And I've been doing some scrapping, too. Here are the rest of my pages from the crop and a few from the week.

Penny & Rocky can be so sweet sometimes. Dana Frantz is leaving SBG so we did a goodbye play day. Credits.
Me & my brother when we could fit in the same chair. LOL! Credits
I did this page for a Studio Start challenge to scrap a favorite memory. This is about the day Taylor was born. She's going to be 6 soon - just lost her first tooth! Credits

My great-grandma and grandma. Did this one for a Manu playday. Credits

That little butt belongs to me! I love this photo. This page is using the new SBG Impressions of Heritage colllab. I really love this kit because I helped pick the colors and wrote the description to help the designers get creative! I really love how it turned out because it's got some funky patterns and different colors for a heritage kit! Credits

Some photos of the zoo for a Baers Garten play day. Credits