Wow 4 DAYS until National Scrapbook Day! What a wonderful day! I can't wait! I am going to be cropping with my friends at MDW from 10-5, then I am working the night shift from 5:30-1AM! Whew, I won't be able to move on Sunday, but it will be well worth it. I am doing a make and take which is Elsie inspired at the store, then teaching a mini class "YOU ROCK" with my buddy Renee at some point in the evening as well. We are going to have so much fun. We all have matching tank tops and we are all going to ROCK on Saturday. I hope everyone can come visit us in the store, there is going to be a ton of giveaways and games.
Also, on Sunday I am going out to YoungPlayMemories to pick up my design team box for Your Pictured Memories design team. I can't wait to start to play with this new product. I'll make sure its posted here ASAP! I've done a bunch of new projects, but two are birthday presents so I can't show them.. yet.. and the layouts I finished need some journaling before they are done. So, for now here is a newer layout of mine that is being featured in the Basic Grey gallery. Its a picture of me at age 21, in 1992. I love the purple mad dogs and great star earrings. Fun layout for me!

Let me know what your plans are on Saturday, is everyone going to party like rock stars?

Quick update! Look at BAM POP! My layout is in their gallery! Also, take a look at BASIC GREY! My layouts have been selected to be shown in their designer gallery! What a happy Friday for me! Also, I am going to Scrapbook Territory tonight for a Rubber Soul stamping class and cropping with my girl Laura! Have a great day!

Things have been very busy this past week. I had the pleasure of attending the 3-day breast cancer charity crop/silent auction at Young Play Memories. There were at least 50 people there and we had a fantastic time. It was me and my girl Nancie and we rocked it on Saturday! We did our own thing for awhile, then we decided to start doing layouts together. Meaning we took an idea or sketch and then made our own layouts. Its amazing to see how our layouts looked simular, but then took our own style on. We were so creative and in the swing of it.. and then alas.. it was already 11pm. These days that are all day crops are so wonderful, but go by so fast. I got great news that day as well, I am going to be on the Young Play Memories Design team! Yippee! I can't wait! A friend of mine Dee Bjorklund is also on the team, so its great to have a friend that I can hopefully get together and create with! I am still trying to figure out my NSD schedule, but I know I want to be with my girls, but I also want to do some make and takes.. stay tuned!
The layout with Tinkering Ink and the picture of me and the duck was my fav of the day. I am thankful to my father for clicking this picture, circa 1972. What a shot!
I also included a few others of the day! Enjoy!

I hope everyone has recovered from their Easter delights! I am now in full scrapbook mode, as I have classes to prepare for and a DESIGN TEAM to work on! WEEEHOO! I had to submit my bio and picture to the website and wow that was hard! I am not fond of pictures taken of me, but I had to bite the bullet and have some taken on Easter. If you'd like to see it, visit them at Your Pictured Memories and hit the design team button, yep thats me!

We have been having problems getting Tony to sleep at night. A few moms suggested to get him a twin bed because thats the sign he is ready. Well we got the perfect new bed for Tony at IKEA (we couldn't get him off the darn thing!) and he slept through the night last night! It worked! I love the bed and so does Tony. Look for pics soon of him on it!

I had so much fun making the project, Gypsy Mama! I love the products and colors for this mini book celebrating Mom! Perfect book for a gift for your mom or someone who is a mother! I'll be teaching it at My Daughters Wish on Saturday April 28th, and Thursday May 3rd, perfect time for Mothers Day. I hope to see some of you there!

Happy Easter! I am up before the family and enjoying my "quiet" time before the storm of Easter, dressing up and tons of family love. Bianca will be packing today to go to Washington D.C. with her 8th grade class. Its going to be a beautiful day for us. I love family get togethers. I am so blessed to have such a loving, caring, wonderful family. We will head to my parents in law house and celebrate today with 26 people. I hope each and every one of them realizes how lucky we all are to have each other. I can't wait to see Tony running around finding Easter eggs. I'll definitely be chasing him with the camera.
We have had a hectic week, but ended it with the best news ever! At 11pm the other night, Rocky (our lovely 70# dog) got in a scuffle with a skunk in the backyard. The smell was like a cloud of nuclear waste hanging over our house and permeating his fur! Poor guy was whinning and crying rolling around in the grass, and NO tomato soup didn't work on him. We ended up taking him to the vet the next day and he is much better now, but he still stinks!
Friday I got the best news ever! I made the design team for Your Pictured Memories! It actually says my name on the list! I had to have Bianca come into the room to tell me that was really my name on the screen and I wasn't hallucinating from checking so much all day! I am so excited and can't wait to get started being creative! Thanks to the entire staff for picking little ol me!
Have a blessed day everyone and enjoy each and every moment you have with family and friends. I will be snapping away, as I am officially the "family documenter" with our family and scrapping away the results of this beautiful day.

I discovered something new and fun for me to try! I have never been a scrapbooker that uses idea books or sketches. I have always just done my own thing, but this week I actually took the time to go through a favorite book of mine which is Elsies book and put post-its on the pages I thought I'd like to try. I was so inspired that I sat right down and did that page. I was really pleased with what came out. Mine was totally different that what she did, but the inspiration was there and it was a happy moment for me. So, above, is this layout. I think I'll be adding some more to it.. It needs some white doodling on it but I was really excited about this. The second layout is also a sketch. I bought the paper pack for Halfway Cafe by Cosmo Cricket and knew I wanted to use it for this picture. On the backside of the paper pack cover, this sketch was there, 15 minutes later, this layout was done, different from the sketch, but great! So, this is a fun new thing I tried and loved! Pick up a sketch and see what you can do!

One other note, I sent the BAM POP layout from my previous post to them and they loved it and are going to put it up on their gallery on the website, WEEEHOO! How exciting for me!

Happy Monday! I am really going to try to update my blog on a weekly basis, so here it goes! I have so much to report this week! The new schedule is up for My Daughters Wish and I am teaching a whopping 8 classes over the next 3 months! I am so excited for all of them and hope everyone can find one that they like to come join me for a fun filled class! Here are the titles:

Wings and Things - Altered BE Purse
Gypsy Mama - Mothers Day version of 7 Gypsy Trunk Class
Fathers Day Coupon Book - This book will have coupons to give to dad for chores, favors and lots of hugs and kisses
Cosmo Cricket Lacing Project - This will be an Altered Wall Hanging with pictures, chipboard and a whole lot of funk!
Technique Tuesday - We'll use all the fun stamps to make some really cool things!
Copycat Crop - This one is not to be missed! We'll take your favorite Scrapbook Celebrities and scraplift a layout or project from each. It will be an all evening event!
Tim Holtz Wannabes - This is another fun one not to be missed! We'll take 3 of Tims best techniques, distress inks, alcohol inks and color wash and you'll spend 3 hours with 3 different teachers learning how to do all the fun things Tim does!
Queen for a Day - We'll alter one of those fantastic large letters all over the store and be treated like a queen while we have fun!

See the Calendar on the blog for times and more descriptions! I can't wait to have all kinds of fun with everyone!



For fun, I added a great picture of my Turkey friends that came to visit the other day! Have fun!

Hello everyone, I have updated my blog with some new fun things! My new slide show weeeehooo.. I love it! Thanks Christine for the inspiration.
Also, I have found this great new site. Tally Scrapper . Its a fun new store/message board/gallery that you can meet new people and give Tally points. They had a grand opening crop and challenge and I actually won one of them. It was for my layout/frame "19". This is one of the best things I have made. It is up on our wall in the hallway. I never scrap myself and this is a layout of me at 19. I love this picture and the frame just came out better than I anticipated. I won a cool All Boy Chipboard set/book/box from Fancy Pants. Look for it sometime in the future on this blog.
Have a great day everyone!

I recently joined the Basic Grey designers website, and they asked me to post answers to some questions, I thought I'd share them here with you, since they are really great questions. I think I'll have to scrap this too! lol!

If you could switch lives with anyone for a day, who would it be and why?
It would be my grandmother Leone, 60 years ago. She was such an inspiration to me. She has 6 children, her husband was off fighting in World War II and she worked the shipyard. I would love to see what life would have been like for her back then.

What do you think is your greatest achievement in your adult life?The easy answer is my children. I have a 13 year old daughter, Bianca and a 19 month old son, Tony. The deeper answer is to find acceptance of myself and to embrace life and really enjoy all the blessings I have.

What is the best advice your mom ever gave you?Don't worry about what everyone else will think, go with your instinct and take a chance in life. Also, don't wear white after Labor Day

What is the hardest part of scrapbooking for you?Scrapbooking myself. I have been looking at my empty Art Journal for a few months, and just can't get to it. I feel like I have so much of my family to document, and just don't take the time to document me, which I know is the most important person for my family to have.

What is your favorite time of day and why?Early Early morning. I love sitting here at my computer looking out of my studio and seeing the deer and wildlife walking by in the sunrise. (See my blog for the view! http://artlifed.blogspot.com/ )

What a beautiful morning here, the turkeys were outside romping in the open space and all is well in the world. I spent the evening with my friends cropping and just having fun girl time. I love spending time with people that inspire me, and these women inspire me to create! I love it!

I have been working on design team submission stuff, so I can't really show that here, but here are two layouts I did this week. The first is so special to me. It is me in Hawaii when I was about 2 1/2 and I am anxiously waiting for my father to return from a tour of duty. I would get so excited and tell my mom that I wanted to look my best when daddy came home. Therefore the curlers!
The second layout is of Bianca. Wow I can't believe how awesome she is! She is the quentissential teenager, full of life and just so expressive in her actions and her fashion sense. I absolutely love what I caught in this picture! It is soo her! She is like this all the time! How much I love this side of her. I am proud oh so proud she is who she is! SHE ROCKS!

I wanted to share some pictures of my breakfast friends that stopped by the house the other day. Its absolutely amazing to have such wildlife right outside your door, especially here in the bay area. I try throwing veggies to them, and they come sniff them and just walk away. I need to plant something they like to eat and figure out what to feed them. I can't wait for spring around here and I hope we get a bunch of babies. I am so grateful to have this around me. They always make me feel more relaxed and I love being outside when they are close. Its so quiet and peaceful. Its nice to take a step back from your hectic life and watch nature.

Hello! I just wanted to share a special layout I did last week. This is of my father and me. I was about a year old and this is when we lived in Hawaii. My father was a pilot in the military and I moved around for the first 6 years of my life. I was a daddys girl for sure and I cherish these pictures I have of my childhood with him. My father died when I was 6 years old and I miss him every day. I am very fortunate my parents took a lot of pictures of us when we we were all together.
Enjoy and if your dad is around, give him a hug and kiss today and tell him how much he means to you!

Happy January everyone!

Things have been so busy these past few weeks, but I am finally working on my office/scrapbook room and am almost ready to start creating in my new space. Here is a picture of the view I get while I am here typing away.. priceless.

I also created a new class for My Daughters Wish. Its called the XOXO book. Its a mini book that is so much fun. I hope you can come take this class. Mallory will also be teaching a Valentines mini box/book class the same day, so come hang out with us. The classes are on Saturday February 3rd, and I am sure the class is repeating in February, just check the Class Schedule. Here are some photos of my book.

Wow, time is passing by so quickly these days.. Christmas was fantastic, to see Tony start to understand the ripping open of presents and playing with his new toys brings so much joy and happiness to our lives. I hope everyone can enjoy a Christmas with small children. It really puts things in perspective. We have one week to go before our big move. Tomorrow I am actually putting ALL my scrapbook supplies away. I have been putting it off each day and its finally time. Its so hard to not have your supplies out and handy for when you get the creative bug. I think I really need to start that art journal and get things down in there. I made journals this year for all my friends and really hope they get the message I am sending by writing things down. This past week I actually had lunch by myself out in Walnut Creek, and had a book with me called Visual Chronicles. I was really inspired by it and I am hoping to teach some kind of class at the store centered around it. I also need to document this move as it is such a big one for me. I am moving into a house that has such a rich and wonderful history and the sense of happiness and love that surrounds this house is just wonderful. I can't wait to start our lives there. I'll have picures of it soon. Also, I am teaching two classes at My Daughters Wish in the month of January. I am teaching the Recipe Book and the Wings Purse Album (renamed from Wishes). Check out the My Daughters Wish calendar or call the store for details.
For today, I am including some pics of the journals I made my friends this year. They were a ton of fun to make.

I know everyone has been so busy these past few weeks getting ready for Christmas! I know I have and with our impending move coming up on January 8th, our lives are in a whirlwind. I am taking time to reflect and think about this past year and how my life has changed and how some people come in and out of our lives. I have become closer to many of my friends this year and that has been so important to me. I have met some incredible people who inspire me and make me a better person. I am now working at a job that I can actually say I love. The people there are fantastic and I feel so welcome and appreciated, what a wonderful feeling. I am so thankful to have a family that I love, friends that I can count on and a future that I am excited to walk into. Much love hugs and peace to everyone who comes by to say hi!
On another note, I have been frantically working on Christmas presents and I will only show one today that I made for Bianca. It was a Bare Elements trunk that I altered with the Daisy D Girlfriends line. It turned out really cute and I think she will like it.
Enjoy!

Happy Sunday!
I can't believe that Christmas is only 22 days away! YIKES! We are also moving in January. I am so excited to move into our new house. I will have deer and wild turkeys in my backyard, I can't wait! Its very hectic and stressful to plan a move and try to get it done through the holidays. I am so blessed in my life to have a fantastic family, great friends and a understanding and supportive husband. I am now working and I love it! I now know what motivational speakers say to do a job that you love and it will be rewarding. I love working at a job where I love the products, I love the people and my coworkers are supportive and I am appreciated. It means the world to me. I am including two layouts I did a few weeks ago, one is of Tony at the Pumpkin Patch. The other is of Bianca and Tony up in Weaverville this summer. Have a great day everyone and remember to be thankful of our blessings and tell the people you love that you love them all the time!

Wishes 2007

What do you get when you merge Bare Elements, 7Gypsies, Petaloo, Bazzill, Bohemia and Basic Grey? A fantasic project that will be my next class at My Daughters Wish! This will be a fun filled class where your going to create a keepsake for yourself to hide away all your wishes for the upcoming year! Take the time during this busy holiday season to reflect on yourself and where you want to be next year. The class will be this Friday night from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. Please call the store at 925-952-4437. The cost will be $34, we'll have a lot of fun come join us!

Hello World!
Well my first class at My Daugthers Wish was so much fun Friday night. It was such a surreal experience to have created something that I love and seeing others creating the same thing in front of me and they really liked it! Thanks to everyone that came, I can't wait to do it again.
Saturday I spent 13 hours at a crop with my girlfriends. These are the best days. The worst part is how FAST it goes by. We went out for lunch and of course chatted ALOT, but wow, its over in a flash. I love just being with a great group of friends that are so talented and to get inspired to do better by just being with them. So thanks to Laura, Nancie, Mallory, Gina and Sharon for hanging out with me. Above is my favorite of the day. I love this picture of my Tony even though its from behind. When I look at this, I think geez I am getting the hang of this photography thing. The second layout is of my Grandparents, Amandina and Humberto Pinho. This is one of my favorite photographs ever. The clothes, the smiles, and the car behind them. Things were so beautiful then. I am lucky to have such great pictures of my family.
Lastly, I get to teach another class! I got so excited when I was given a BARE ELEMENTS purse. So intimidating but I am so excited to create! Look for a picture of my finished product here early next week. The class will be on Friday December 1st from 6:30-8:00pm. I am not sure of the cost yet, because I have to pick out all the fun things we'll be doing to it. But I do know that its going to be something like your favorite things, or hopes and dreams. It will have a mini album inside made with Bazzill envelopes.. how fun! I hope to see you there.

I am so excited! I am going to be teaching my first class at My Daughters Wish Scrapbook store in Walnut Creek! The class is a Recipe Book and I will have so many fun things in store for you in this class. We will be using all kinds of new products and doing things from inking to painting to sanding and stamping. You'll leave this class with a beautiful book to keep all your favorite recipes and also a few tips and ways to use things. The preliminary schedule of the class will be Wednesday, November 14th from 10:30am to 12:30pm. The second time is Friday November 17th from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. The class will be $34 and your going to have a ton of fun. Here are some pictures of the project. Please call My Daughters Wish at 925-952-4437 to sign up! Hope to see you there!

Ok I've been Tagged! My buddy Laura got me!

The rules are : List 5 weird things about yourself or your pets. Tag 5 friends and list them. Then, those people need to write on their blogs about 5 weird things, and state the rules, and tag 5 more people. Don't forget to let the people you tag know by posting a comment on their blog!

1. I must have a flavored creamer with my coffee every morning. I'll even run to the store in the morning if I am out.
2. I must have ice in my drink. I'd rather go without if I can't have ice.
3. The bed must be made every day (or I try really hard to have at least that done!)
4. I'd rather drive 10 miles farther to get it on sale or use a coupon than pay full price right in front of me.
5. I will drive an hour to go to a scrapbook store to get that one special item I HAVE to have today!

So.. I am tagging my dear friends.. Ally, Tab, Wendy, and two new friends..
Kim, and Yvette both from the My Daugthers Wish Message Board!

enjoy!

So its Sunday morning, before anyone in my house is awake, I have a perfect cup of coffee in front of me and all is well with the world. So many things, great things, happening for me. I took a chance and went into one of my local scrapbook stores, My Daughters Wish and talked to Sheri about the job opening she had. I brought in my "book" and probably 10 projects. She was so nice to me and really liked my stuff! I can't tell you how nice it is to hear from someone who is not your close friends or family tell you that your work is good. She was very happy to have me come work there and asked if I would like to teach also.. Would I like to TEACH? Um.. YES! So, I am going to start working with her on teaching at MDW. This is exactly what I needed in my life right now. I am also going to be teaching make and takes at the upcoming Scrapbook Expo in Sacramento. I am so excited for this opportunity.

I also want to send a prayer to my sister Nadia who right now has been running in a 100 mile marathon for 25 hours straight.. yes you read right 100 miles, 31 hours to complete the race.. and at last night at about 8pm, she was at mile 50 2.5 hours ahead of schedule.. SHE ROCKS! What an inspiration she is!

Here is a random layout that I picked for today.

Happy Tuesday everyone! I am starting the process of selling our house, and wow is it stressful. We aren't one of the lucky ones that is going to make money off the sale of our house. We have only been here two years, and we will be lucky to get out even. The realtor just left and she found all these things, I didn't get clean and took apart our house. Then the bombshell on how much the houses in our development are going for.. not much.. So, we are going to have to do a bunch of work on the house to try to sell it without a loss. The good thing is that we are moving.. to a better neighborhood, with a good school district. Its amazing what we will do for our children right? I would walk to the ends of the earth and work until I collapsed just to provide a good home for my children. It puts things in perspective and you realize that it the long run, it will be a great thing we are doing. But the next 9 months are going to be hard on us. I have so many things to do. But for now, I am going to work on something creative for my honey for his birthday. It will make me feel better, once my hands are dirty and my craft table is a mess again. Here is a page I did at a great store crop at Young Play Memories. Its a fantastic store, which I would frequent if I lived closer. Its another oldie of me and my mom when we lived in Hawaii, I am about 3 years old. Have a great day everyone!

Wow, I can't believe how long its been. Life happens so fast these days.. I have been so busy, but I am still taking the time to be creative and see my friends. I am on an "old" picture kick. I have taken a bunch of my old slides from when I was a child and putting them on disk and printing them for scrapping! I found this old picture of my mom pregnant with me. I LOVE this picture! She made all her clothes back then, and Bianca and I agree that we wish we had this dress/outfit for us today. She is so fashionable and just darling. I promise to add more scans of recent pages I have done. Much love to all!

A few weeks ago, I decided to submit for a scrapbook design team. This was the first time I tried out for one. Now, I have never been published or won any contests or anything. I really only have submitted a few things. But this one was relatively easy to enter, and I had the products so I did it. I was so happy with my resulting layouts. Really some of the best pages I have produced. I was sad on the day the winners were announced as I was not picked, but was really happy with my effort. You must continue to try or you'll never succeed. I will try again when the time is right and hopefully some day I will succeed. I do have to remember that I do this as a hobby and I do it for the satisfied I get from creating something that will remain long after I am gone. I have so much fun creating my layouts and projects and I think my family appreciates what I do. I keep telling myself that I don't need validation from the industry, just my own inner validation. Keep my head up and keep creating! Here is my favorite layout that I created for the design team submission.