Almost Famous!

As we were watching the PA-1 launch, Martel had Leo on his shoulders so Leo could see better. After the launch a reporter came up to Martel and said that he had been trying to get a picture of them and asked if he could take their picture. I couldn't believe it when Martel agreed and then he spoke, actually spoke to a reporter. My taciturn husband spoke to a reporter. As you can tell, I'm still amazed and it's been a month. Not only did the reporter take this great picture, it was on the front page of the Las Cruces Sun News the next day.

So Cool!

One of my husband's job duties (back home) is Shuttle Recovery if it lands at Dryden Flight Research Center (see this post) Last year STS-125 landed at Dryden and the Commander was Scott Altman. Martel came home and said that it was the best landing he'd ever seen.

Scott Altman happened to be at the PA-1 launch and was talking to the crowd. I went up to him and introduced myself, and Martel, to him and told him what Martel does and said about his landing. Scott (as he introduced himself) seemed to be happy to hear what Martel had to say about his piloting skills and posed for pictures with us (and Alex, our neighbor who came to the launch with us)

One big adventure

As some of you know, we temporarily relocated to the Las Cruces, New Mexico are for my husband's work. For those that don't know me/us, he's a Mechanical Engineer for NASA and is currently on the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) Project. They were getting ready to do some serious flight testing and moved the main crew to New Mexico (from different NASA centers throughout the country) to do the test. What they (successfully) did here was the Pad Abort 1 (PA-1) test which in a nutshell will jettison the crew module off the launch rocket in the event of a mishap. This one test flight is the reason that we've been in New Mexico for the last 8 months.

Enough jibber-jabber now, here's the first page of the album (yes, I'm dedicating an entire album to this, as it's a significant part of our lives). This is the Operations Crew (which my husband is a part of) in front of the Crew Module (CM) with the Launch Abort System (LAS) on attached to it.

It's HERE!!!! It's HERE!!!!

The Summer 2010 Idea Book is live to customers TODAY!!!!!!

There are SO many great new things in them. Click HERE to take a peak.

Notice the cool thing on the right side? Now you can call me anytime. All you do is click on the link and enter in your phone number. Google Voice will call you and then call me. AND it's a free call! (if you use your cell, minutes still apply) How cool is that?????

A Sweet Life

I can't believe it's been 3 weeks since I've posted! The life of a stay home mom can get a little crazy! LOL! Spring has hit Southern New Mexico with all her glory and we spend most of our days outside. And while my lovely husband is now on 2nd shift, leaving my evenings free (once the rugrats go to bed) I'm finding lots of time to craft, just.... well I'll admit it, I've just been lazy. You know because it's SOOOOO hard to take a photo (well, a GOOD photo of a layout is hard, but I don't take GOOD pictures of them ha ha ha), upload it and write a few sentences. @@ Yeah, I've got no excuse!

Anyway, great news! May 1st, the Summer Idea book goes live to customers. I must tell you, I love all the paper packs! I can't remember when that's happened. :) As usual, there are some pink and "girly" papers, such as this one here , Cherry-O. I, as a consultant, have access to all the fun new stuff a month before the public does. I placed my order for new goodies and didn't order this paper pack. Then, on Easter, Leo and I made a strawberry cake, actually Leo did most of the work and was so proud of himself. I know we used strawberries, but after we made the cake and I looked at the pictures, I ran to the computer and placed ANOTHER order just so I could do this layout! Yeah, I've got problems.

EVERYTHING on this layout was from the Cherry-O Workshop on the Go. I love these things, you get so much for your money, including the fun cherry stamp set that's only available with this kit. AND, I have TONS of paper and embellishments left over. If any of you are interested in purchasing this kit, drop me a line!

Holy Rockstar!

I got my new Rockstar Workshop on the Go (WOTG) from Close to my Heart yesterday. Today I decided to take an afternoon for myself and scrapbook. Man, I was on a roll and did 5 layouts! All of them are from the Rockstar paper pack AND I still have 3 full sheets of paper and a whole bunch of embellishments leftover. Here's a picture of all the layouts together and the leftover paper, just so you can see what your dollar (or $40) buys

This layout was the reason I wanted the WOTG. My crazy husband participated in the Bataan Memorial Death March last Sunday and marched 21 miles through the sand. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to finish the whole march (it was 26 miles). His bad leg just couldn't take anymore torture so he did the smart thing and didn't finish. I don't have all the pictures yet, he went with his friends who had cameras and they ACTUALLY took pictures. (like my cute pooch???

The reason I "needed" the Rockstar pack and EVERYTHING that you can add on was for these pictures. Leo's friend came over to play recently and they had an imaginary rock band going. It was soooooo funny! Leo was channeling my all time favorite musical performer, Henry Rollins. Most people who know me wouldn't think anything of it EXCEPT Leo's never seen Henry perform. I may love him, but my 4 year old shouldn't be listening to him. :) I digress, during this rockin performance, Leo was belting out rather "head bangerish" Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. It was one time when I desperately wished for a video camera.

The next reason I wanted this paper pack was because I thought the colors would go nicely with these pictures. The first day we moved in, I met our neighbor Dawn. Martel and her husband, Randy, had never met. The first weekend we were there, Dawn and I were at the fence chatting when Randy comes out with his favorite German beer. Dawn proceeds to "teach" Martel how to pour it. (there is a special way to do it and if you don't, it doesn't taste as good, in fact it's quite yucky straight from the bottle).

This is one of the layouts I did, just to do. I had no pictures for it. The layout is an example on the back of one of the sheets of Stickease. Then I saw these pictures of Leo and his best friend here at WSMR, Leah. Yes, we have a Leah. She thinks its so funny that she and I have the same name. I keep telling her that she spells her name wrong though. ;)

Again, I thought these pictures would go well with the colors of the paper pack and just used up a few of the scraps.

We have poppies, just like at home in California. And just like at home in California, Leo thinks that he can pick a "puppy" flower as he calls them, and then plant them were HE thinks they should be. So far he has not successfully transplanted a puppy flower.

Almost everything I used today was from CTMH and the Rockstar line except a few buttons and Thickers for some titles.

If anyone is interested in purchasing this fantastic kit, drop me a line.

Studio J layouts

I recently played around with the new Studio J digital layouts, soon to be available to the public. Man, were they fun! You don't need any special software, just internet access. I sat on my couch and watched TV and just scrapped away. I could have done it at Starbucks! LOL!

Each layout is $12.95 plus shipping. I know that sounds like a lot but there are several things that help the cost.

• You don't have to print your own pictures. You just drag and drop them into the layout. I don't know about you, but I do like to use larger than 4x6 photos and printing an 8x10 can be several dollars.
• You can put as many embellishment on your layout as you'd like. You all know I'm a button-a-holic. I can't do a layout without buttons and those little things add up. With Studio J, I can cover my entire page with buttons and the price doesn't change.
• You NEVER run out of alphabet stickease! NEVER! That right there is a huge bonus. Not only do you never run out of alphabets, you can resize all of the stickease and use them over and over again.

Here are a few of the layouts I made up.

See how the title and journalling look like they are attached to vellum and then adhered to the page? Yet another fun feature of Studio J!

I chose this layout because not only does it call for an 8x10 but those angles the side pictures are a pain in the tush to cut out. I did this layout once (click here) and swore I wouldn't do it again, no matter how cute I think it is. Not anymore! I can do this layout til the cows come home now.

The letter stickease didn't fit into the title box but you can adjust them just so. Same with the Wild West stickease. It wasn't the right size to go in that spot but I just shrank it a bit for a perfect fit!

These layouts were so much fun and hardly took any time at all.