Please Don't Leaf Me-

It's a chilly November Monday morning here!
My husband spent the most of this past weekend
getting rid of every single leaf on our property.
I took a bunch of pics last week
of the 2 younger girls playing around in the leaves.
I spent most of this weekend
nursing a chest/head cold.
Not fun.

My page today is again a challenge
over at the American Crafts blog.
To use 2 AC products for an autumn page.
Erin was so funny,
getting on the ground to make "leaf angels"
She's very resourceful ;)



*Cardstock, Thickers, Rub-Ons and Flair
all American Crafts*

That's all I could muster for today...
hope your day is a great one :)
-Jody

-I Love, I Love, I Love My Calendar Girl-

How would you like to win a free calendar
from SRM Stickers by way of
http://www.writeclickscrapbook.com/ --->
Yours truly actually made a couple pages
for the giveaway itself,
as did the talented Marnie Flores & Autumn Baldwin:
Here are mine:





It will make a great personalized
holiday gift this season,
or you could be selfish like me
and keep it for yourself ;)
Hurry up, what are you waiting for?
Just leave a comment over at W.C.S site
and you could win...
it's as easy as that!

Thanks for stopping by!
-Jody

-We Are Family-

Just popping in quick to let you know that
it's a new month over at www.writeclickscrapbook.com/
where the theme was "Family Stories"
Such wonderful pages this month,
I laughed, I cried, I was inspired.
Every year for Thanksgiving,
I host @ 25-30 family members
and we all go around saying
what we are thankful for.
And that was my inspiration for this month:



Have a great day!
-Jody

-I Want Candy!-

Happy 2 days after Halloween!
Hope yours was an enjoyable one.
It rained on and off the entire day here.
That doesn't make for good trick or treating.
But we made out just fine with all the candy.
I wish I could say the same about photos
of my girls on Halloween.
This was the 1st time I didn't get the annual
Halloween photo on the front porch.
First of all, Ryan (16) wants nothing to do
with the holiday, she is above it. lol
Megan (12) wants nothing to do with me
being around on Halloween.
And Erin (9) was not happy with the
weather situation.
But even so, I managed to snap a photo of her
checking out her Halloween loot and made a page
for the weekly contest on the American Crafts blog.



*Cardstock, Patterned Paper, Letter Stickers & Stickers all American Crafts*

In honor of Halloween loot,
what is your favorite candy?
Reeses Peanut Butter Cups here!
Thanks for stopping by!
-Jody

-Orange You Glad Its Almost Halloween?-

Happy Almost Halloween!
Back in ancient times, when I was growing up (the 60's & 70's),
the night before Halloween was called "Gate Night",
a.k.a. a night where all the teenage miscreants
would gather all the toilet paper, eggs and shaving cream
they could get their juvenile delinquent hands on
and attack their neighbor's homes, cars, etc...
Good times, I tell you!
Luckily, these days (now that I own cars and a home)
that seems to be a thing of the past.
Does or did this happen where you live?

Anyhoo, big day here for the kids,
they get dressed up for school
and my littlest has a parade.
I go there and take photos for the yearbook
(They call me Mrs. Paparazzi because of my zoom lens)

Today's page was made from last night's photos
of my 2 youngest dds carving pumpkins.
The disgusted faces and shrieking
that was involved with removing the guts
of the pumpkin was very scrapworthy.



I love using orange on a page,
some people may not think so,
but they are not living on the edge like me.
Hey, let's revisit some OBG orange pages of mine, shall we?:



Did you know there is no word that rhymes with orange?



While I love the color orange,
the truth is the orange itself (fruit & juice)
is one of the things
that makes me nauseous on smell alone.
This was due to my mom forcing me to drink
orange-flavored Tang as a kid.
That and applesauce are 2 things you will never see me
put into my mouth.
How dare her try to get me
to eat and drink healthy as a child!
;)

Happy Halloween everyone!
-Jody

-You Wear It Well-

Morning!
Hope you all had a great weekend.
I spent the most of it
creating pages for some upcoming assignments
and playing around with my computer.
A computer savvy friend sent me a new program
so you can track people who read
your blog and I was busy playing with that too.
I find it fascinating all the different countries
who have visited this blog.
France, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, Australia,
Spain, England, Switzerland, South America
...is that not amazing?!
Thank you for visiting :)

On to the latest page,
when I took Erin to our local fair this summer,
I remember taking this photo and saying,
"Look, you two are wearing the same outfit!"
so that's where the inspiration came
for this clean and simple page.:



Have a great day!
-Jody

-Smile, Though Your Wallet Is Breaking-

Happy Friday to everyone :)

Over at the Ella Publishing Blog, Lain & Angie
are running a contest with the title
"I Love Your Smile"
My poor kids unfortunately got the
crooked teeth gene from both their parents.
In the next year,
all 3 of our girls will be in braces at one time.
*Ouch* to our wallets!
Anyway, like her mother before her,
Erin is teased at school about her smile
(kids can be cruel, as we all know)
I just wanted to put on paper
how much I adore her smile.:



Have a great weekend!
-Jody

-Where's My Head? Asleep.-

Ok, so we finally got to a pumpkin patch,
the weather has been so awful here,
everyday I would plan on going, it would rain.
So here's a new header...for now.

I am busy working on 2 assignments
so I have no new pages to share.
But then I realized
I had one I never posted yet.
I was asked to create a page a couple months ago
by the talented Stacey Michaud
for Scrapstreet.com online magazine.
I had to use "prepositional phrases"
(on, in, beside, over)
as my journaling.
Once I found this photo of Andy and Erin
from our Cape Cod vacay,
it all fell into place.



That's all for today,
we're getting ready to carve into
the big pumpkins we amassed yesterday.
Photos to follow...
Have a great day!
-Jody

-Songs Stuck In My Head~Part 3-

It's been awhile since I did one of these...
I have been listening to a lot of music lately,
when I feel a scrap-block coming on,
I put on some of my favorite songs
and instantly I can make a page.
This song by 3 Doors Down
called "Here By Me" was perfect
for a photo I recently took with Megan.



Here is one of my first pages I had made of Megan,
a sweet memory is always triggered for me
when I hear James Blunt's "You're Beautiful"



One of her last days as a 4th grader (3 years ago!),
she was in her school auditorium with about
50 other girls and boys watching a slideshow
of photos taken of them through their school years.
This song came on and imagine 50 little voices
all singing this song in unison,
while waving their little arms in the air.
This song just makes me happy.
Disclaimer:
I realize some of you
would rather have root canal
then listen to this song again,
and I can live with that ;)

And on that note...
have a great day!
-Jody

-A Kiss Is Just A Kiss-

Yep, it's Friday again!

I wanted to thank everyone who commented on my little camera poll.
It seems most of you have both a point & shoot, as well as a DSLR.
Tonight I am going to my littlest's Halloween school party
and I will be lugging around my Rebel XTi while cursing because
the lowlight conditions are wreaking havoc on the perfect photos
I wish I was taking. :(

Today's page has to do with kissing.
Are you affectionate towards your children?
I have joked that when my kids were little,
they should have had bruises from all the kisses
I planted on their faces.
Still do with Erin. Shhhhhhhhh.
I scrapped this photo of my 3 girls
on the way home from our Cali vacation.
I love the expression on Megan's face.:



I have a couple of "kiss" pages.
This first one is an OBG of Erin
and myself with a quote I love:



And another with Erin,
this time with her Dadddy:



It's snowing here...
crazy weather, we haven't even gotten
our big carving pumpkins yet
and the ground will be covered in snow.
Did I mention I hate snow?

Hope it's warm where you are!
Have a great weekend!
-Jody

-Candid Camera-

Hi there...
There are times that I take out
my rather expensive Canon DSLR camera
and am so frustrated that I don't know enough about it
(shame on me for not fully reading the manual)
and I have to take 20 shots to get the perfect one.
Then my daughter Ryan goes and buys
an inexpensive Nikon compact point & shoot
and gets the same photos I am killing myself for in 1 shot.
Look at the beautiful colors in this:



I would like to do a little poll today:

Do you own a DSLR or a point & shoot camera?
What is your opinion about either?
I am very interested in hearing your answers...
Thanks in advance!
Have a great day, I'm off to get a flu shot!
-Jody

-You Glow Girl!-

TGIF again!
Some of you, who have been reading this blog
since I started back in January,
know of my daughter Ryan's illness over the past year.
She was diagnosed in May of '08 with a rare bone cancer,
usually found in boys aged 10-20 called osteosarcoma.
This type of cancer afflicted
both Teddy Kennedy Jr. and Terry Fox.
Ryan, instead of having her leg amputated,
was able to have what is called a "limb-salvage" surgery.
Her surgeon removed a large portion of her bone
which housed the tumor
and replaced it with a metal prosthesis.
It has been a long, arduous journey for Ryan
as she tries to resume certain parts of her life.
She goes to intense physical therapy 2x a week
where they are trying to get full mobility back in her leg.
As of yesterday,
they were able to get an 80 degree range of motion,
which is fantastic!
We're hoping that she can get back to playing tennis,
which she was passionate about before her diagnosis.
I took this photo of her on the 1st day of school.
I think she positively radiates, but I know I am biased ;)



So if you were one of the many people
who said a prayer or simply had a good thought
for Ryan and her recovery,
I am happy to show you the result 9 months later.
Thank you so much!
Have a wonderful weekend!
-Jody

-Home Sweet Home-

Hellooooo...
Good Monday Morning to you all!
Getting ready to start decorating for Halloween here.
It's a big production as I have 100+ bats to tape up
all inside and outside of my house.

Speaking of houses,
my latest page has to do with my childhood home.
Over at 2Peas, the Flashback Friday challenge was to
scrap a special childhood memory
without using a photo.
Easy enough, music has been a major part of my life.
There isn't a memory that I have,
that music is not attached to it.
Growing up, my parents had a love for music
which did not go unnoticed by me.
I spent many an hour with my ear pressed against the stereo
memorizing song after song.
The Beatles were a huge influence on me
and to this day they are one of my favorites.:



Now this is an OBG (oldie but goodie)
page about the house I live in now.
My husband brought our dream home to life
by helping to build it every step of the way.
He is the best :)
Now if he could only clean up after himself...



That's it for today...
Hope your day is a great one!
-Jody

-Fall Into Fall-

Well I told you it was coming...
October is here!
So it's a new month, it's a new banner.
This one was of last year's Halloween.
Hopefully by the end of this month,
I will have a more recent fall photo to replace it with.
Notice the faces in the photo?
Pretty much exactly captures their true personalities.
'Nuff said.

There is a new gallery up at Write.Click.Scrapbook --->
where the theme was "Eye On Design"
I went to my trusted rounded cornered, color-blocked,
black and white photo design.:



So I leave you with a little tidbit
to make you feel a smidgen better about the fact
that fall is here with a vengeance......
Christmas is only 85 days away!

Have a great day!
-Jody

-Nuts-

Hello-
Today's blog title not only stands
for my newest scrap page,
but also for my state of mind of late.
Do you ever just have SO much to do on your to-do list
that nothing gets done in the process?
That's me right now.
It's so overwhelming
that I don't even know where to begin :(

Let's just get right to the layout.
Another sweet Erin page,
another page based on her shirt design
and another 2 sisters are
going to pout that their mother's "favorite"
had another page made about her.
Such is life. Deal. lol



How cute is that patterned paper?
And how cute is that shirt I got at Target?
And true story on the journaling too.
I can't say the moment I found out I was pregnant
was the happiest moment of my life,
but the moment she was born was.

Check back tomorrow for a new page
and a new month over at Write.Click.Scrapbook
and hopefully a new blog banner.
It's October already?
:::sigh:::
Have a great day!
-Jody

-Get Back, MoJo*!-

*also known as the inspiration that is Erin.

Anyway, I scrapped 2 pages in the last couple of days,
hopefully, my mojo is back.
The first one I can't show you yet
because it is the October assignment
over at Write.Click.Scrapbook---->
The amazing Elizabeth Dillow is hosting right now,
go check her out for some adorable scrap/craft ideas.

Meanwhile, I can show you the second one.
I saw this photo and immediately
starting singing the song,
"Let's Go Fly A Kite" from Mary Poppins.
It didn't hurt that I loved Erin's sweet face
and I liked how the kite's tail
looked like an "e" in the word kite.
Simple inspiration like that:



Here are some older layouts where Erin was the inspiration.
I found this quote and immediately knew what picture to scrap,
I love how her little body is peeking through the window:



And here she is enjoying a snack,
wonder where she gets her love for sweets?:



And finally, another song for inspiration.
I love the Queen song, "Bicycle":



There you go.
Thanks for all your comments
about how to get Mr. Mojo
to visit again.
I still haven't watched "Glee" this week.
I wanted to wait 'til I could watch it in peace.
Have a great weekend!
-Jody

-Have You Seen My Mojo?-

1) It has finally happened...
after 2 1/2 years of scrapping,
I have lost my scrap mojo.
I have sat in my scraproom
and made at least 3 different pages,
and ripped them apart because I just don't "feel" them.
Is this normal???
Am I just obsessing???
What can I do to get over this???
Can I stop overusing question marks???

2) Since I have no page to share,
and nothing of importance to share,
because I have no life,
I want to ask YOU,
"What TV show do you have to watch?"
What I mean is,
what show if mistakenly not Tivoed, DVRed or taped,
makes you go into a depression?
With that said...does anyone watch "Glee"?
I love this show more than life.
Between the witty (and sometimes raunchy) writing
and the great songs they showcase by the talented cast,
the show is right up my alley.

So if you have a sec...
could you answer either my mojo question or my TV question.
Many thanks!
Signed,
Jody <-who will be rewatching her favorite show
while not scrapping today.

-For Your Amusement-

Greetings once again on this fine friday!
Cool, crisp autumn weather happening in these parts.
And always with a clear blue sky.
Gorgeous!

I love going to carnivals and amusement parks
especially for the great spontaneous photo ops
my girls provide for me.
Check out Erin's face in this layout,
she never fails to inspire me daily with her wit:



I think I have 3 other photos waiting in my "to scrap" pile
from other outings to our local fairs, Disney, etc...
Here's one of my all-time favorite songs called
"The Circle Game" by Joni Mitchell
I remember my Mom singing this song on her guitar
and it brings back such wonderful memories :)
This was one of my very first pages:



Here's to hoping this weekend brings you
more joy than you can stand!
-Jody

-My Brown-Eyed Girl-

Only 363 more days until I get my way
for the entire day again,
a.k.a.... my birthday!
It was a wonderful day, I got:
handmade cards from my girls,
a beautiful diamond necklace from my husband
and many happy wishes from my friends
on and off-line.
I couldn't ask for more :)

On to scrapping...
recently I have noticed when I take Megan's photo,
she almost never smiles with her mouth open
until I bark this order...
"Smile with your mouth OPEN!"
It has officially started,
the "smirk" that signifies a child has braces,
which would be o.k...
if she had braces.
In due time.
:::sigh:::
Love the new Cosmo Cricket lines,
so many pretty choices,
it was hard to choose
which one to use on the page.



Megan has always been a great model for me,
she loves to have her photo taken
and the camera loves her as well,
but I don't know if I can go 2+ years
of not seeing her smile :(

Here are some blasts from the past of Megan.
Her coloring is so different from my other girls,
she has brown hair & eyes and she's the only one that tans,
I seem to make a lot of layouts about her with brown hues:









That's all she wrote for today,
I hope your day is a happy one,
thanks for stopping by!
-Jody

-Hear Me Roar!-

Hey there!
Turns out my littlest was fine by noon,
so no "real" sickness was involved the other day.
Looking forward to this weekend,
because it is my birthday on Sunday!
Wooooooohooooooooooooo!
29 again! ;)
Having my parents and sister and her family over,
so I need to get this house clean.
But here I sit...

I made this page for the challenge over at
http://www.onelittleword.typepad.com/
The Helen Reddy anthem, "I Am Woman"
from the 1970s was stuck in my head
as I went to make this page.
I never have felt more invincible
than when I gave birth to my 3 daughters.
Don't you love my bangs in the far left photo?
I was stylin' in 1993!



Thanks for stopping by!
-Jody

-Quickly...-

A quick post...
Looks like I've got a sick child at home today.
My littlest is complaining of a stomach ache :(

A quick page...
My middlest and her friend Ali
are so cute together.
They are always laughing.
I wanted to document their friendship.:



*Cardstock, Patterned Paper, Rub-Ons: All American Crafts*

A quick goodbye...
Have a great Tuesday! :)
-Jody

1st Day Of School, A Retrospective, If You Will...-

TGIF, once again!

I hope you all had a good week,
we've had our ups (back to school)
and our downs (my car needs a new motor!)
The mechanic asked "What did you do?"
What do you think I did,
I drove the damn car!
You gave me a defective car,
but I did something wrong, of course.

The rental car I was given had roll-up windows.
My girls got in the car and were mortified,
"What do we do with THOSE!
They'd never seen hand cranks in a car before.
They don't know how good they have it ;)

This week over at the 2Peas Pub Ad challenge
I made this page about Erin's 1st day of school.
Maybe you've seen the photo before,
at the top of my blog. lol:



All in all, each girl had a great week.
That usually doesn't happen to my girls,
dating back to Ryan's 1st day of kindergarden
11 years ago when they dropped her off at the wrong school.
Traumatic, to say the least.

Erin is my little worry wart.
Every little thing, she frets about.
Two years ago, it was fodder for another
first day of school page.
Thankfully, there were no "looks" this year:



*Note to self:
Stop dragging your feet
and download that drop-shadow action
to your brand new PSE
so the hundreds of white cardstock pages
you obsessively create, don't look so flat.*

Have a great weekend!
-Jody

-School Daze-

Happy Tuesday!

First things first...
Its a brand new month
and a new gallery over at
Write.Click.Scrapbook.
Go check it out---->
The theme this month was "Back To School"
I made a page about my feelings
when my girls get on the bus
and how my heart is always with them everyday,
so I wrote a letter to their bus driver:



Here's an older page I did of Ryan two years ago
when she was just starting high school.
While I would love to redo some parts of the page over,
the sentiment holds true, today more than ever...



It's been a crazy couple of days
getting ready for school to officially begin tomorrow.
Hopefully a new blog header will be photographed.
Last year Erin missed the bus,
so that photo op was blown. lol
Scrapbook Expo last week was SO much fun,
my friend and I wiped the place clean.
Spent a lot of cash and had a great time doing it :)

In crappy news,
my brand new car
died on me this past Sunday.
And when I say died,
I mean completely lost power
on a very busy local road.
No steering and no brakes (!)
It was very scary, to say the least,
as I had my Erin with me at the time.
Luckily, it was the weekend
and my husband came to our rescue.
It is now in the shop
for who knows how long while they
"figure out" what went wrong.
They have no clue as of this moment.

Hope you are having a better week than I am ;)
-Jody

-A Plane Fear-

It's Friday again,
only 5 more days 'til school starts!
That school supply shopping spree we ventured out on?
$100 dropped just on my two youngest dds...
isn't that ridiculous?
Whatever happened to some #2 pencils, an eraser,
crayons and a marble notebook?
Their lists alone were a full page long.
Crazy, I tell you!

I made a page yesterday for the Flashback Friday
over at 2Peas, where the question was:
What were you afraid of as a child?
Well, this was a huge fear of mine,
and I've never told a soul.
Until now, that is.



On that happy note,
I am off today with a old friend,
who is a new scrapper.
We're going to a "Scrap Expo"
where hopefully I can fill
my already full drawers with more product!

Have a great weekend!
-Jody

-Shopping, Sewing & Winking-

Hellooooo Tuesday!
I've got a busy day ahead
taking the 2 younger dds for their annual physical.
The "question" has already been asked 2 days ago...
"Am I gonna get a shot?????!!!!"
:::sigh:::
And then school supply shopping!
Good times ahead.

Over at the American Crafts blog,
the weekly challenge was to "sew" on a layout.
I did my usual faux sewing (rub-ons/pen)
and everything else is AC products...
cardstock, patterned papers, rub-ons, thickers and pen.
The layout was a photo taken
from our trip down to the Jersey Shore in June.
This is Ryan and her 2 best friends
with their brand new hoodies they bought because it was chilly!
The title is a twist on the movie title, "Boyz 'N The Hood":



And memory #2 from our California adventure:
There is a chain of restaurants,
none of which are in our state that I know of,
that are named "uWink",
which we loved because of our last name.
And of course my name at 2Peas, Winks.



Anyway, here you place your entire order through a computer,
no server is neccessary,
except to bring you your food/drink.
We had a blast putting the order in
and then you play computer games against one another
while you wait for your food to arrive.
Alot of fun, until you want the kids to actually eat their food...



I can't believe it is Aug. 25th already.
Summer, we hardly knew ya...

Have a great day!
-Jody

-The Secret-

TGIF!
I've only managed to do 4 loads of laundry,
4 more to go.
But of course I had to do a new page.
A girl has priorities!

Here's a page about Erin's favorite summer treat
and it combined Beth Proudfoot's Write.Click.Scrapbook challenge
and Nicole S's sketch challenge together.


So I can't leave without posting a pic from our California adventure.
There is a secret for how 3 sisters
can actually get along on a plane flight
that lasts for 6 hours.
TVs built into the seats in front of them.


Pure bliss.
Whoever thought of this,
is a friggin' genius!

Have a great weekend!
-Jody

-Hooray For Hollywood-

Did ya miss me?
Well, I missed you!

We just returned from our wonderful vacation
through the Make-A-Wish foundation.
It wasn't 24 hours into my daughter Ryan's cancer diagnosis last year,
that she was told that she would get a wish granted
through this wonderful organization.
She took some time to think it over
and decided that her wish would be to visit
Hollywood, Disney & Universal theme parks.
I'll be back tomorrow after some much needed sleep!
ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-
Jody

-Swing Out Sisters-

Happy Humpday!
I love Wednesdays because I have 2 days off afterward,
so in reality, my weekend is almost here ;)

Over at Write.Click.Scrapbook,
Rebecca Cooper has a challenge to create a page
in your "signature" style.
Do you all have a style?
I definitely do.
Simple, focus on the photo, a little pp and a Thicker title.
Because of her challenge, I probably created this page
quicker than any other page I have made
because I just accepted...me.



Looking through my old layouts,
it seems I have a thing for swings.
This is my 3rd page about them,
but definitely not my last,
I have accepted that as well. lol
Here is one of my first pages of Erin,
look how tiny she is,
with a poem I love.



And here is Megan's other "Swinger" page from a few months back:



So do you have a certain style that you scrapbook to?
Or do you try to change it up?
I'd love to hear from you...
and as always, have a great day!
-Jody

Friend + Enemy = Frenemy

My 2 older daughters have this strange love/hate
relationship going on that I wanted to get down on paper.
I know they love each other
(as much as they pretend like they don't)
but I'm not quite sure how much
they actually "like" one another.
Now if you talk to my oldest she will say,
"No siblings ever get along all of the time!"
I would be happy with just some of the time :(
So their relationship sparked this layout titled "Frenemies":



I made a page over a year and a half ago,
also pointing out the virtues of friendships between sisters.
Doesn't look like much has changed.
:::sigh:::



Thanks to everyone
who left a comment about my last layout.
You were all so very sweet,
and some of you asked about my scraproom.
My husband built me the most wonderful room
and if ever is is clean again,
I will be posting pics :)
Have a great day!
-Jody

-If At First You Don't Succeed...-

Well, it's official...
I did not make the American Crafts design team.
I have to admit, rejection stings a lil' bit.
But what does an obsessed scrapper like myself do?
Why we make a page about that said rejection!
And you know what?
I feel much better now.
I called it:
"The Elephant In My Scrap Room"



The team has so many amazing ladies...
I am so happy for my Write.Click.Scrapbook girls:
Melanie, Beth & Katrina!
And to my friends:
Kathy, Moon and Danielle!
I will live vicariously through your creations :)

So it seems my boyfriend, American Crafts (A.C. for short)
has ended our love affair.
I will wait for him forever because he will come back to me...
they always do! ;)

Have a great day!
-Jody

-August Rush-

Well hello there-
August is rushing through already it seems.
I hope everyone's summer is going well.
I took my 2 youngest dds to another fair yesterday
after another week of miserable rainy weather.
The new blog header was taken of them mid-air.

As always, a new month means a new gallery over at
www.writeclickscrapbook.com/
and the talented Sara Winnick is hosting this week
Hop on over to see this month's beautiful creations.
The theme for August was "Sweet Summer" and my page
was a huge part of my childhood summers.
There wasn't a day that I don't remember buying
something from the Ice Cream truck back in the day.
We were always on a first name basis
with the man who drove the truck.
Just don't remind my Mom about the time
I actually went on a route with Mike,
our friendly neighborhood Ice Cream man when I was a teenager.
Times indeed were different back in the olden days. lol
Here is a more innocent "Summer Memory":



Thanks for visiting,
have a great day!
-Jody