Fun with newspapers

We are getting ready for a mega monster storm here in New Jersey! Hurricane Sandy is heading up the East Coast and according to the news, it's going to mutate into a hybrid tropical-winter storm and attack us! It's pretty freaky and I hope that it's mostly hype. But you never know! I at least can look forward to a three-day weekend and I might just miss some of the chaos at work. 

At work, we have to worry about staffing the Studio and things like losing power, while our newspapers are dealing with the same things and trying to cover the preparations and aftermath. It can be pretty insane.

I might be able to do some work from home. Keeping my fingers crossed! In the meantime, I plan to enjoy a crop,  a Halloween party and a baby shower this weekend!

Here a few things I did at work before my last vacation....

Rochester's continuing series about schools. The numbers are pretty dramatic. Those are the differences in math scores between a charter and public school. Ouch!

I love working with my old friends at TJN again! 

And this was another fun skybox for Vineland promoting a special section.

Vacation Week Scrapping

This vacation was mostly a bust. I was so lazy and tired all week. I had a long list of stuff to do and barely made a dent. But I did get a lot of scrapping done! 

Got some Disney pages done. Still feels like I have a million more pictures to scrap! This was our visit to Norway in Epcot for dinner with the princesses. Credits: Sahlin Studios and Britt-ish Designs Taste of Norway & Germany. 

I love this sign at Hollywood Studios! Credits: Caroline S., Flutter Expressions and Valorie Brown's Handmade Memories from One Story Down; Snips and Snails Designs Play A Game elements and alpha from One Story Down

 

Some of our first sights at Magic Kingdom. Credits: Handmade Memories by Caroline S., Flutter Expressions and Valorie Brown at One Story Down

 I dug through the family archive to scrap this photo of Grandma as a witch! Credits: Michelle Godin's Wickedest Witch from Lily Pad

How cute Penny??? This is what she does in my bed. Credits: Amy Wolff's Don't Harsh My Mellow and Emily Merritt's Templates 17 from Lily Pad 

 I wanted to dress Penny as Yoda but the force was not with us! Credits: Jana M's Little Jedi and Little Stories templates 1 from One Story Down

My friend and fellow nerd Andrea Boyer is a guest designer at OSD this month so I had to use some of her goodies to scrap some Doctor Who pages! Her Angels paper inspired me to do a page about the Ponds' last episode. Credits: Lifescapes Designs' The Angels papers from One Story Down; River Rose's Autumn Equinox elements and stitches from One Story Down; Sissy Sparrows' Letters Home stackers from One story Down

Here's the Doctor Who mural from Brooklyn. Credits: Lifescapes' Designs Darkly Destroyed Papers from One Story Down; Caroline S., Flutter Expressions and Valorie Brown's Handmade Memories from One Story Down

 Another archive photo featuring my Grandpa and me. Credits: Caroline S., Flutter Expressions and Valorie Brown's Handmade Memories from One Story Down; River Rose's Autumn Equinox elements; The Edits' Floral Frames and Jana M's Into The Wood Lands alpha from One Story Down

 And here's an old-timey ship sailing up the Hudson. Credits: Caroline S., Flutter Expressions and Valorie Brown's Handmade Memories from One Story Down; River Rose's Autumnal Equinox's elements and stitching from One Story Down; Jennifer Barrette's Fall Mix Elements from One Story Down

Greetings from Comic Con

New York Comic Con was pretty crazy this year! The Javits center was totally packed, and the crowding kind of made the con hard to enjoy. We did get to see most of what we wanted, but it was hard to get to the displays and the lines for shopping were insane. It was fun at least to hang out with Mrs & Mr. Hunter and Gracie. I even ran into my co-worker Krystle, which is pretty cool considering how packed it was!

I am also very jealous that my friends Laila and Anton got to see the Firefly panel, where Nathon Fillion made a surprise appearance! I think I'm going to do a scrapbook page about celebs I didn't see! No sightings this year at all!

I have been looking everywhere for my Lightroom in the abyss that is our office so I could touch up these photos. They came out pretty dark so please try to imagine them brighter! 

 You can see how crowded it was!

 The TARDIS is cool!

Stay Puft says hi to Amanda and Haley!

I love this poster ... EGGS terminate! 

Miss Gracie and Gummy Bear

I watched so much Mystery Science Theater in college!

WeLoveFine has really cool tees for kids and grownups, too! I think the shirts Melissa and Gracie are wearing are from there.

 We couldn't even get into the Marvel and DC displays. But I did get some cool pics.

This kid is 20% cooler!

We found this booth with the cutest toys called Vamplets. I have a little baby vampire bat and Gracie got a few dolls. I'm sure a review will be coming soon to the Mommy and Gracie show.

Poor Bumblebee!

Mario ate the wrong kind of mushroom. I love this photo!

The lego display was so cool! Lots of great Lego figures and booths where you could play with Legos.

I have such a crush on Chris Hardwick. Even the Lego version.

 Darth Vader

 A little Doctor and Dalek!

I loved all of these signs!

The Artist Alley was such a zoo. We didn't even try to get down there!

And this is a massive gathering of Whovian cosplayers! Last year I think I saw about 40 people dressed like the Doctor, the Tardis or various companions. But this year, Doctor Who has really exploded and there were all kinds of Doctors - Four, Six (a really cute girl version!), Nine, Ten and Eleven; TARDISes - people in police box clothes or actual boxes!; Amy Ponds; a Donna Noble in a wedding dress; Martha Jonses; River Songs; a very clever Craig Owens with his baby Alfie; some Daleks; a Doctor with weeping Angel wings; and even several Oswin Oswalds. I was hanging around in the lobby when all of a sudden all of these Whovians started gathering. It was so cool!

If you'd like to see more about our adventure, check out The Mommy & Gracie show at NY Comic Con!

Scrap catch up

I am on vacation again this week! No big plans for adventures this week. I think I'm going to relax at home and try to do some creative stuff. The big adventure was actually yesterday - New York Comic Con. And I'll post some pics once I've recovered. I was still really exhausted from it all yesterday!

Here's what I've been scrapping lately...

I am trying to get some Disney scrapping done! I feel like I've hardly made a dent. We loved seeing Peter Pan and this ride!  Credits: Gina Miller and Jacque Larsen's Neverland from The Lily Pad

I also really loved these statues! Credits: Amy Wolff's Botanical from The Lily Pad

Lunch at the Crystal Palace was our first meal at the parks. Credits: Libby Pritchet'ts Do You Believe in Magic from Sweet Shoppe; Misty Cato's Memories in the Making from Sweet Shoppe

I just think my dog is the cutest thing ever! I must take a picture of her almost every day. These are just some from September. Credits: Lauren Grier's I Like You from The Lily Pad

This has to be one of my favorite pages! I mixed a bunch of Michelle Godin's goodies and I love how it turned out. And of course, I love it because it's about Chucks. Credits: Michelle Godin's Teen Scene Boys papers, Varsity Chip Alpha, Red White and Blue Alpha, Teeny Tiny Alpha, Moody Blues elements, Keep Calm and Spatter On, Hello Goodbye elements, Sunshine & Grassstains elements from The Lily Pad 

There is some awesome art journaling going on over at One Story Down. I've been wanting to do some more, but I don't always get to work on pages like this. But sometimes, when I see a kit the page just pops in my head and I scrap it right away! This happened with this page and the one below. Credits:Sarah Barber's Dreams from One Story Down 

I love this page not just because the inspiration came to me instantly, but also because the papers were created by my friend Andrea, who is a guest at OSD this month! There was a also a post at OSD about tips for using hidden jouranling, which I wanted to try. Here's what it says: The days are getting shorter

and colder and it’s easy to start feeling down So on those days when it’s hard to get up I need to remember the brighter days and my favorite Beatles songs (That's for you if you're reading, Kimberlee!)

Credits: Rainbow Brite by Andrea Boyer (Lifescapes) from One Story Down; Tracy Martin's Bewitched Flower from One Story Down; Paula Kesselring's Black & White Only Alpha and Stamped Alpha from One Story Down; Lauren Reid's tape and Perky Alpha from One Story Down

Some pics from last year's Halloween party. Credits: Tracy Martin's Bewitched from One Story Down; Janet Phillips' Scrap Your Heart Out Templates from Sweet Shoppe

 The Lily Pad designers released their October BOYC kits a few weeks ago and it's one of my faves, especially these papers from Amy Wolff, which matched my new owl pillow! Credits: Amy Wolff's Damaged Papers; Shawna Clingerman's Creative Bliss elements; Amy Martin's Lily Pad Template Challenge template 

Credits; Emily Merritt's Fall is Here Papers and Autumn Love Templates from The Lily Pad; Amy Wolff's Fall Cardboard papers from the Lily Pad; Kim Jensen's Chipboard Alphabet Soup from The Lily pad; Valorie Wibbens' Sprinkles from The Lily Pad; Michelle Godin's A Hint Of Fall Stamps from The Lily Pad

Credits: Kim Jensen's Cardboard Alphabet Soup and Torn Kraft papers from The Lily Pad; Michelle Godin's A Hint of Autumn papers from The Lily Pad; Shawna Clingerman's Creative Bliss elements from The Lily Pad

My efforts at gardening did not go so well this year! Credits: Caroline S's Squares! Templates and In My Garden from One Story Down 

Some pics from my birthday in 2011 at Eataly. Credits: Snips and Snails Designs' Letters from Tuscany and Vellum Doilies

Sir Angus was a pretty cool jouster at the Ren Faire. Credits: Britt-ish Designs and Man in the Moon's A Knight's Tale from Britt-ish Designs; Lauren Grier's Beginning is Now flower from Scrapfastic Designs