Queen of *heart* ATC ~ Simply Artistic

Hiya everyone ~ Happy Wednesday!!!

I just wanted to share my latest ATC that I made. I had stumbled upon this site ~ Simply ArTistiC
I love their latest prompt Gothic Queen so I decided to participate.

Have a wonderful rest of the week.

PS: there's a great card tutorial over at Scrap.Laugh.Love by Renee, head on over and check it out :)

Hugs,

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!!!

Hey girls, I want to fill you in on a great event that is coming up. Dirty Scraps is having their very first blog hop, scheduled for October 23rd at midnight central time and ending October 24th at midnight central time.

The Dirty Scraps DT members are very excited to have our first blog hop and are looking forward to getting some new followers and seeing our loyal followers join us for our hop.

So mark your calendars because you are not going to want to miss this hop. Not only do we have some AWESOME sponsors that will be giving away prizes, but each DT member will also have a little goodie of their own that you can have a chance to win!

I will have a sneaky peak of my blog hop prize coming soon!

So mark your calendars and get ready to hop.

Hugs,

New projects to share...

Hello everyone, hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

I have done a little blog update. If you didn’t notice I’ve been changing up the design of my blog a lot lately, for some reason I couldn’t get happy with any of the pre-designed templates and headers. So I designed this new banner and welcome sign, I really love the way it turned out.

I got a lot of crafty projects done this past weekend and wanted to share them with you. I was so inspired by Val’s handmade bulletin board tutorial over at Scrap.Laugh.Love that I decided to make one for my message center at home. I had bought the green polka dot fabric awhile ago, not knowing what I was going to do with it. Isn’t it great when you have stuff lying around and that perfect project comes along to use it for? I love that. If you haven’t noticed already, I love love love polariod pictures. I was checking out one of the Scrapbook Trends magazines and saw these awesome handmade polariods and knew instantly that I had to make one. I had been saving the gnome brad from Oriental Trading Co. for ages and decided it would be perfect for my “polariod”. The clear doily transparency is Hambly and the bloom brad is also from Oriental Trading Co. And finally I decided to make another tiny ATC book to hold all my artistic trading cards from the Vampire Hotties ATC Swap. I believe the vampire guy is a Jolee sticker and the album was longer, I just cut it down and I’m going to make another cover with the left over pieces.

On Saturday my family had lunch at Cheesecake Factory…. it was so, so delicious and the cheesecake was to die for LOL Maxwell had Red Velvet cheesecake, Michael had Tiramisu cheesecake, my parents split a Splenda cheesecake and I split a piece of Kahlua Coffee Cocoa Cheesecake with my aunt. I’m sure that even though I had half a piece it still did serious damage. I love the trick that I saw on Becky Higgins blog to place the camera on the table and take the picture. The viewpoint is fantastic, I love the way they came out.

Enjoy the rest of your week and have fun.
Hugs,

Another week done...

Happy Friday.

I took this picture this morning on my way to work.

I will never forget 9-11. I was in the city that day and it was one of the most traumatic days I've ever went thru.

Let us always remember all those innocent people that lost their lives that day and pray for their families and friends.

***

My boys enjoyed their first day of school, Maxwell really likes his new teacher and I'm so glad for that! Michael is happy with his classes and very happy that he got back into symphonic band this year!

***

Remember I was sharing that I wanted to make my plastic bin bento box more pretty? Well I pulled out some rub-ons and tried it out:

I think it came out cute and so far it held up to washing, I was worried about that LOL

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So far my fitness goals are on track. I haven't been working out this week like I should though. I noticed I feel more tired this week not working out then last week when I did alot. I gotta get back on track with that. The Chicas Lose It challenge that I participated in over at sb.com has finally ended. I didn't win the top 3 prizes but it's okay. I'm happy for all the girls that won and lost so much weight, it's awesome. I lost 8 pounds during the competition and a total of 16.6 pounds since May, so I'm happy with that!

***

I got the rest of my ATC's done for the Vampire Hotties ATC swap, I had so much fun doing them, check it out:

Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy!

Hugs, Marlene

Scrap.Laugh.Love - there's still time!!!

Just a reminder for you all to head on over to Scrap.Laugh.Love! There's some great things going on over there and so much fun and creativeness to take part in!

The random follower drawing will be held next Wednesday, September 15. There's still time for you to become a follower and be included into the drawing for a fantastic prize!

There's a great tutorial up right now from Val, she will show you how to make your own homemade bulletin board! Very easy and so cute, great way to organize your pictures and notes.

We also have our first challenge going on:
scrap,laugh,love
how does this inspire you?
what does this mean to you?
anyway anyhow. whatever you're inspired to do!

I can't wait to see you there :) xxx Marlene

Dirty Scraps Challenge No. 17 is up!!!

Hey everyone, I got a new challenge for you all....

Dirty Scraps Challenge No. 17

The Moment
The first year hubby and I met we were together Christmas Eve...we were talking and everything was so exciting, we ended up staying up all night until Christmas morning. Every year now we spend Christmas Eve together on the sofa or by the tree, chattering about the year and our lives until we both pass out.
The first time, it was one of those "Moments" you know those unexpected spontaneous moments that you will never forget and has changed a part of your life.
I challenge you today to look deep in your heart and find that forgotten moment, that moment you never talk about but you treasure in your heart, that moment that changed the way you saw yourself or you saw the person you were in it with.
No, it does not have to be a romantic moment or a sweet moment it can be any moment you want. Good, bad, or even ugly! Now go get DIRTY!

Our Awesome SPONSORS!!!!!!

COPIC Marker: You can win a FREE pack of 9 COPIC Markers!

and

Some Odd Girl:
You can also win 3 digital images from Some Odd Girl Stamps!

The design team got to play with some digital images from Some Odd Girl. I loved playing with these images cause I'm not a digital scrapper but I found that I love combining the two styles together. The sun is called "Sunny Rays" from the nature collection and the cute owl is called "Hoot" from the critters collection.

Journaling reads...
You walked into my room one day.
You gave me a big hug and said...
"Mom, you're the best mom I ever had. I love you."
It was totally spontaneous and filled
my heart with so much joy.
To know that I'm doing a pretty decent job
as a mother is the best feeling ever!
Head on over and get dirty! Hugs, Marlene

1st Day of School!!!

Hi everyone!!! Well, today is the first day of school here in New York. I have to say the morning went surprisingly well, we got ready and out the door in great time today. I'm guessing the fact that they have off tomorrow and Friday helped them get thru today LOL I'm so excited to hear how their day is going. I'm going to pick Max up from school later this afternoon and then we're gonna bake some Nestle Back to School cookies.

I've been looking at all the cool Japanese bento items that you can buy online, man that stuff is so darn adorable. Little penguin mayo containers and two tier bento boxes with the straps, oh it's all so cute. But for now I'm putting together my own items and trying not to get carried away LOL Maxwell got his first bento box lunch today! I found these cute plastic toothpicks this weekend so I made him some watermelon and grape fruit skewers. He also got some oranges, mini chocolate chip muffins and a round ham sandwich. I also found these really cute small containers at the Christmas Tree shop. I've been looking everywhere for a small container that I could put condiments in and I was so excited to find them also this weekend. They're actually containers for storing lotions and stuff like that when you travel but their perfect for what I need it for. I've also been thinking of decorating my box and containers with some rub-ons to make them cute looking, we'll see how that goes.

We had a great 3 day weekend, but it went way too fast as usual. Got all the school supplies bought and labeled and the boys got hair cuts. We also spent the day at Ocean Grove, NJ, they had a great craft fair. Here's the gang: my aunt, my mom, me, Max & Mike. Michael is carrying his precious cargo ~ Sardo Fiore cheese (sheep's milk cheese), it's out of this world delicious!

Enjoy the rest of your week and remember to stop by Scrap,Laugh,Love! Ledesma's scrap space is being featured this month and it's pretty cool to see where people scrap and how it's decorated and organized.

Hugs, Marlene

Got some news to share...

Happy September! The summer is coming to a close and the fall weather will be upon us soon, I can’t wait. Fall is my favorite season, I love the changing of the weather, the leaves turning, picking pumpkins, school starting, Halloween costumes… I can go on and on.

I got some big news and I’m so excited to finally be able to share with you guys. I've been selected to be on the design team over at Scrap,Laugh,Love!!! I’m so honored to be picked and so beyond excited. My friends Val and Renee have started this new challenge blog for all things crafty and I invite you all to stop on over, become a follower and participate in the great challenges!

Here’s our first challenge…

scrap,laugh,love
how does this inspire you?
what does this mean to you?
anyway anyhow. whatever you're inspired to do!

I hope to see you all there!!!

***

Oh if you didn’t know already, I’m a bento box fanatic now LOL!!! The other day Val posted on her blog some pictures of her bento boxes. I’ve been seeing bento stuff on other blogs too lately and I had to give it a try. This past weekend I went to the Dollar Tree and got this nice sized plastic bin, it fits perfectly in my lunch sack. I also picked up some silicon cupcake liners at the Christmas Tree Shop for $1.29, can’t beat that. I’m hooked. I also got my son Maxwell his own bin for his lunch box when school starts. I’m thinking of filling it with chicken nuggets one day and pizza bagel bites another day, the possibilities are endless. I think it’s great for anyone who wants to eat healthy like I am because everything is portion controlled. I have to tell ya I’m so full after lunch now!

Val shared some great bento links with me and I thought I'd share them with you guys:

http://justbento.com/

http://patrizziagundich.blogspot.com/2010/08/bento-snack-16.html

http://bentolunch.blogspot.com/2010/08/feeding-my-husband-conference-lunch.html

Okay, enjoy the rest of your week everyone!

Hugs, Marlene