Three-day weekending

I really don't feel like going back to work tomorrow! I had a long weekend and even thought it was pretty hot and I didn't even feel too great today, I still had a great time with lots of friends. I had some parties with my friends from work and friends from the Rover. Then today, I mostly just bummed around, did some reading. My grandmother stopped by for a bit - she was returning a book and wrote me a note to thank me. She's so cute! And then went to see The Heat with my sis. I love having time off! I know most people say they'd miss work if they won the lottery or something, but not me! I can't wait until I win and I can hang out and see movies and travel and scrap all I want. Because that is the plan!

But until then, I guess I will go back tomorrow. And at least this weekend I'll get to a crop again - I haven't been to one since April and I can catch up with the ladies and get some more pages done.

I've been doing a lot of catch up scrapping lately - really getting some older pages wrapped up. The only bad thing about waiting so long - I don't hang out with some of these people much any more and couples in some of the pictures have broken up. But I'm not going to let the drama keep me from scrapping some good times!

These pics are from the Circle Line tour I took with Becky back in 2009. I think I'm almost caught up on that year now!

My friend Rob was a doctor on Halloween and we took lots of pics of him torturing the other patrons.

Kylie's first t-ball game - finally scrapped these! She played coach-pitch ball this year.

 Here's Miss Maddie on Fourth of July - she didn't have a red, white and blue outfit, but she did have orange, blue and white! My friend Holly McCaig has recently gotten back into the digital scrapbooking biz and this is one of her new kits, Right Now, from Three Dog Pixels.

These are some shots - also from 2009 - when my friends Amy and Amanda and Haley came to New York. 

Amy recently came back for another visit with her sister - and we didn't take pics! - but we did have a great time which was part of a really awesome weekend that deserved it's own page!

Another ode to my chucks - I'm up to 13 pairs - using Amy Wolff's Pop of Color kit from the Scrap Pack at Scrap Stacks.

A BOYC page about my love of cold-brewed coffee. It's is one of my favorite things about summer!

 What I said before about breakups, etc., that's this page. But it was still a fun night watching the fireworks from an apartment in the Overlooks.

Took the girls to see the Little Mermaid at the Paper Mill Playhouse - so much fun! 

 Rocky has been a really good big brother! He's very protective of little Maddie and likes to sleep near her!

Penny at a Pug Party! She didn't like the water or the dogs! 

From the Rover's 15th anniversary celebration - two years ago. 

And I finished scrapping my St. Louis trip with the girls a few years ago! I

We'll remember this party not so much as Heather's birthday, but as that time we had a blow up doll with Karran's face on it shortly after he left for the UK.

 More Summer '11 adventures. I'm still working on an album about that summer. I'm getting there!

Here's one of me and Maddie!

And here are my friends The Bad Parts playing at a lame fair. They were pretty great, though! They're working on an album so maybe you'll all get to hear them soon!

Dealing with the heat

We had a pretty hot weekend here in Jersey. I stopped on my way home from work on Friday to fill up my gas tank at WaWa. The attendant asked how I was doing and I said I was doing ok with the AC in my car. I asked how he was doing since he was the one working outside.

Well, what he said pretty much made me want to cry. He said it wasn't too bad because in a few months he'd be going back to Afghanistan for his third tour with the Army. He had wanted to go back sooner, but he was required to wait. And he said he couldn't wait to get back.

It really broke my heart that this young guy is going back there. That he'd rather be over there than home. That there's a need for our troops to be overseas. I wanted to get out of my car and give him a hug, but dumbfounded, I think I just stared at him with my jaw open and managed to say something like, "Good luck, man." 

I haven't stopped thinking about that all weekend. The temperatures were in the 90s and was outside for parties and to run errands. But I have to be thankful for guys like him and for little things like air conditioning. In a few months, I will get to enjoy the crisp cool air and I will try to remember those who won't. 

Fun with newspapers

I haven't shared any of my work design lately. That's partly because I haven't had anything I've wanted to show off. But in the last few weeks, we've been working really hard to step things up on The Journal News and I've done some fun stuff. 

I think this is one of my favorite pages I've done at the studio. The story is about bridge phobia - and I spent so many years crossing the Tappan Zee bridge that I can relate! So as soon as I heard about this story, I had this idea to make the bridge look really creepy - I inverted the image and grunged it up. I love how it turned out!

This was the Sunday cover this week. It was a last minute decision to make this story the Sunday centerpiece - and it's really just a promo to the sports section. I think it turned out kind of cool!

And here's one of my recent skyboxes. We usually promote the Tax Watch page every Friday and it can be kind of hard to illustrate. This week was about online shopping and I drew this one myself. That might not seem like a big deal, but for me it is considering I work with a lot of people who can draw! I think it's so cute!