Happy Homemaker

I am certainly not a "happy homemaker" -- in fact, I hate to clean, dislike laundry, and except for the expense, would gladly eat out every night of the week. However, I do so love the Modern Homemaker line from October Afternoon. I love the bright red, yellow, and green colors of the line. I adore the polka dots and the vintage designs. They provided the perfect combination for documenting my birthday breakfast in bed....a breakfast my children thoughtfully made for me.



**and you can't see hidden behind the main section are the homemade cards the kids made for me!

Life and Drama

It has has been a crazy few days in the Greenspun household! We have had our share of tears and laughter, happiness and excitement, surprises and well....life in general. Let's start with some of the happiness --

My youngest turned 5 1/2 yesterday. 5 1/2 you say? Nothing special, right? Except that it is a big deal. For the first time ever, dd got to celebrate her 1/2 birthday since she is in kindergarten and has a summer birthday. It was HER special day at school. Then, we decided to surprise her too...we celebrated at home with HALF of a birthday cake and a HALF wrapped present. :) She LOVED being the center of attention! She was a little disappointed with her present as it wasn't an iTouch but she'll get over it.



Now for the rest of the emotional rollercoaster ride....the kids had their first experience with death. Sadly, they lost one of their pet hamsters over the weekend. I think it had something to do with being dropped from 4 feet in the air days before but I think I'll keep that to myself. Middle daughter was beside herself. She LOVES her pets -- animals in general really. Seek will be sadly missed. So, as a "pick-me-up" we went and picked out our goldfish that were won at the school fair. It took the kids' minds off of the hamster for oh, say, a day.......goldie #1 left us a few days after arriving. Note to self: never try to replace a hamster with an animal with an even shorter life expectancy! I should know better, seriously, how long did I think that fish would last?! So, more tears were shed.

Plans for this weekend --- replace hamster AND fish.

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Now on to my weekend happiness --- with no work on Monday, I did a quick run over to Michael's. There was a 25% off entire purchase coupon in honor of our Presidents --- think any were scrappers?!?! Well, I certainly couldn't let the coupon go to waste so I ran over and grabbed the Martha Stewart Double Border Punch. And with that, I came home and immediately went to work.

I don't know what made me think to use red and yellow on a holiday layout but I think it works. I had these scraps of OA Homemaker paper sitting on my desk left over from a previous layout and couldn't bear to part with them. Glad I put them to good use.



Don't you just love that punch?? I can tell I am going to get a lot of use out of that one!! Of course, as I got about 1/2 way finsihed with the holiday layout, I realized it was looking awfully familiar....a lot like this layout that I created and shared with you a few months back.



Apparantly I must really like this style :O)

Chop Suey Challenge

It is always fun to sit down at my desk with a scrapbooking challenge. It really gets my creative juices going and forces me to think out of the box a little. Chop Suey always has some great challenges going on....this time around, they challenge you to use 9 different items on a page (multiples count as one). Nine sure does sound like alot!! Except when I sat down with the challenge in hand, it came together quite quickly!



My nine items:
1 - Sass Patterned paper
2 - Cardstock
3 - Tag
4 - Lily Bee Rub-ons
5 - Chipboard
6 - Stickers (dimensional and alpha)
7 - Kaiser gems
8 - Decorative tape
9 - Paint/ink

I've been Awarded...

The Leibster Award



My sweet friend Colette gave me this wonderful award on her blog, A Gift of Memories. I was introduced to Colette shortly after I started scrapbooking. I happened to join a kit club, Scrapbook Obsessions, where she was a designer. Her work was/IS FANTASTIC! She has a style all her own and she has this unbelievable talent for layering, detailing, and mixing elements. Even years later, I am in awe of her!!

Now as part of this award, I am given the honor of passing it on to other deserving bloggers out there.

First, I will pass this award on to my bestest college friend ever, Cheryl. While her blog is currently under construction, she does have some FANTASTIC tips for "Keeping Things Simple" HERE. I have never met a more organized person in my entire life....and somehow, she is the one woman in the world who became a mother and her organized home and organized life didn't skip a beat!!


I will also pass this award on to Mara . She is so sweet and always leaving me love here on my blog. She has a YUMMY blog!! She is either posting delicious recipes and mouth water pictures or she is posting some fabulous craft/scrap goodies. Seriously, does it get better than both chocolate and scrapbooking?!? Thank you so much for all of your comments Mara!!

I also want to pass this award on to two scrapbookers I have met over the past few months though my work with 3 Scrappy Boys and Sketchabilities. Kim and Yara. Kim, your work is so inspiring! I love the rustic feel of your layouts...your love of distressing and ability to add just the perfect amount of detail is amazing! Thank you for sharing your talent! Yara, it has been wonderful getting to know you and your work over the past six months. I can't tell you both how much I appreciate your sweet comments!!

So a final round of applause for Colette, Cheryl, Mara, Kim, and Yara....You Gals are AWESOME!!


And Here are the rules for the Liebster award:
1) Accept it, write a post about it and display it.


2) Pass it on to 3-5 fabulous but yet unknown blogs [not ones with large amounts of followers] and tell them they have been awarded the love blog award.


3) Link back to the person who awarded it to you.