Monday, July 26, 2010

Day 207, Monday, July 26


I didn't have much going on today...so I took a picture of this little pail basket that I bought at the Longaberger Factory Outlet Store when we were on vacation. I remember seeing this basket in the mini catalog when it came several months ago. I thought it was really cute. I couldn't let this little guy stay at the store....it had to come home with me. With only 45 minutes to shop at the outlet store...it should feel really lucky to be in my house! LOL

Day 206, Sunday, July 25


Today I started this mini album for my soon to be born great niece. I cut the paper and chipboard with the die cut machine at Scrapadoodle. I took it with me on vacation and glued all of the paper to the chipboard. I started decorating the pages this afternoon. It will have enough pages to document a once a month photo of the baby. We know it is a girl...but no name, yet. I will show some of the pages at a later date.

Day 205, Saturday, July 24


A very good friend of ours was the director at Schram school. One of the last things he did before he moved to Arizona, was construct a nature trail that was handicap accessable for students who were in wheel chairs. Many of the landscape bricks were "adopted" to product funds for this project. He had this sculpture of a paper airplane placed in the park for all to enjoy.

Day 204, Friday, July 23


On our way home from Indianapolis, we stopped at a McDonald's for a pit stop. As we were leaving the parking lot....I realized that the street sign was "Smith Ave". Had to have a pic of that!

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Day 203, Thursday, July 22


We went to the Indy Zoo today. It was really hot, but it rained on us a couple of times and cooled us off a little. But then the sun reappeared and the humidity kicked in. We were ready to go after we went in the ocean exhibit. These penguins are so much fun to watch. There was a vent pushing the water around and these little guys were swimming really fast to keep up against the current. I have lots of zoo pictures to scrapbook now.

Day 202, Wednesday, July 21


No vacation would be complete...if I didn't find a local scrapbook store or an Archiver's! This was our last stop for the night today! I didn't spend a lot of money in here (you know I am going to CHA Super Show in Chicago in about a week!). I love to look at all the new stuff and dream about what my next project will be!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Day 201, Tuesday, July 20


Today we drove from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to Columbus, Ohio. There were a couple of pictures to choose from as there have been since last friday when we left for vacation. This one is the most memorable for me. I didn't know when we started out driving today, that we would be going through not one, but 4 tunnels through the mountains. I HATE to go through a tunnel, much less drive through one myself. I don't think I drew a breath until we reach the other end!

Day 200, Monday, July 19


After we visited Hershey Hotel and Lancaster, PA, we decided to go to Gettysburg. We arrived at the visitor's center 15 minutes before closing. We bought the self guided tour book/cd and started out across town to begin the auto tour. It is a very awe inspiring drive that takes about 2 1/2 hours to complete. We decided to "hurry" and see as much as we could, because we were running out of light. This picture is at the Gettysburg Soldiers National Cemetary. This is where President Lincoln gave the Gettsburg address. The entire address is engraved in the side where Jim is standing. We are planning to listen to the rest of the CD on our trip home.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Day 199, Sunday, July 18


This morning we left Niagara Falls and traveled to Hershey, Pennsylvania. I wanted to go visit the city where the chocolate is made! We went to Chocolate World, where I made my own candy bar. It has rice krispies, caramel bites and vanilla chips inside. I also chose to put multi-colored sprinkles on the top. After your bar is made and in the cooling chamber, you can design your own box cover. On the side of the label....it says, "made by Aprile Smith". It was fun to do...but I don't think I will be eating this candy bar!

Day 198, Saturday, July 17


Today we went to Niagara Falls, Canada. We took a bus trip to view the falls from Canada. We went to several locations to view the falls and see the sights on the Canadian side. We didn't get a stamp in our passport books, but if we didn't have them, we wouldn't have been able to go on this bus tour. We did get to go under the falls to view them through the tunnels and out on a platform that is located at the base of the falls. We got to wear yellow ponchos and got really wet! We also saw the power plants, whirlpool and Aero car and the Floral Clock. We went up in the Skylon to view the falls at night....with lights! Totally awesome and worth the trip!

Friday, July 16, 2010

Day 197, Friday, July 16


Here I am outside the Hard Rock Cafe in Cleveland, Ohio! (you can see the neon sign in the upper right hand corner of the photo) We left this morning at 7:15 for vacation. We dropped Giz off at the kennel, stopped at Starbuck's and were on the road to vacation. Tomorrow, we will head to Niagara Falls in the morning and stay overnight there. The guitars were placed around the sidewalk inside the mall. Various artists decorated the giant guitars....this one was my favorite as it had the brightest colors. Our meal was awesome!

Day 196, Thursday, July 15


I went this afternoon to get a pedicure and manicure. I usually don't get my finger nails done...I am just to hard on them and it isn't worth the time and effort to keep them polished. But since we are leaving for vacation on friday morning, I got them done, too. Well, I left the nail salon and went to Kroger's to get a 20 pound bag of ice to put in the cooler for our drinks...and I messed up the polish on 3 fingers on my right hand! I had to go back after packing and have them fixed. I could have kicked my own behind!

Day 195, Wednesday, July 14


This is the disaster I had on my desk today after cropping all day with Krista and Cindy! We had a blast, talking, cutting, glueing, talking, eating lunch, talking....well, you get the idea! Anyway, this is a paper bag album that I started...soon to be finished I hope!

Day 194, Tuesday, July 13


Nate, Andy, Stacie, Austin and Pete went to Kouri's for a little liquid refreshment this evening. Andy and Pete came to visit from St. Louis. It is very rare when the "Smith" cousins can get together. What a great picture! Thanks, John for taken my "POTD"!

Day 193, Monday, July 12


Peyton and I had a great day together! (we always do!) We went to Chuck E Cheese for lunch and to use the rest of our tokens. He had been saving all his points to use all at once...he had 624 points and this big red spikey ball was 500 points and he wanted it BAD! We also went to see the movie "Despicable Me". I didn't like it at first, but it grew on me and I liked it after all. He just loves to go see "the big TV" as he said when he was 3! Love you, Peyton...I had fun today!

Day 192, Sunday, July 11


This is my neighbor's flower in her front yard. It is about 9" in diameter....simply beautiful!

Day 191, Saturday, July 10


Today, I went to Nikki's for the New Catalog Bash! We made the birthday card pictured using the new embossing folder from Stampin' Up!. The ribbon and ink and stamps are new, too! I ordered the new large scalloped punch, a tag sizzix die set and the embossing folder we used for the card. Nikki gave us $5 in free product for every $25 we spent...so I chose a package of dimentionals since I use soooo many! Can't wait to view the new catty! Thanks, Nikki for a great morning of stamping...and for selling all your "old" stuff to us die hard customers!

Friday, July 9, 2010

St Pete Beach Album, Florida Aquarium

I used 50 states to cut the shape of Florida and Cuttin' Up to cut the other letters in the title. All of the circles were cut with George. I doodled around all of them. I added a rhinestone to the dot in the "i" of Aquarium and a star rhinestone to the Tampa Bay/St Pete area on the Flordia shape.

The fish was cut from Life's A Beach and I used the "flip" button to make the fish face the opposite way. I cuttlebugged the fish with spots and dots and added the googly eyes. The picture of the penguin and the picture of Jim and I are ones that were taken by the photographer at the Aquarium.

St Pete Beach Album, Sunset


I used rub-on letters for the title and you can't really see that I placed a sun under the title. There is a "sleeve" over the picture in the lower right corner that says "Vacation memories".

I also used some acetate "vacation" phrases that I got at Michael's a while ago...and a few clear epoxy quotes. I used the rest of my Bo Bunny embellishments on this layout as they were perfect for the sunset pictures. It was a beautiful place to watch the sunset every night for a week!

St Pete Beach Album, Jelly Fish


I cut the title with Mickey Font and the velum swirly thing in the title from Accent Essentials. The marquee journaling box was cut from AE, too.

I have no idea where I got the paper...I have been collecting papers for almost a year to be able to complete this album. I added some green bling in the title and on the journaling marquee.

Day 190, Friday, July 9


The Nina and Pinta docked in Peoria today on the riverfront next to the Spirit of Peoria. The Nina has been here before, but this time the Pinta is visiting, too. The Pinta is 20 feet longer than the Nina. We didn't go aboard the boats, as we had seen the Nina on Columbus Day a few years ago. The Nina was built completely by hand and without the use of power tools in Bahia, Brazil, in 1992, the 500th anniversary of Columbus' sailing the ocean blue!

Day 189, Thursday, July 8


I have known about and loved eating Skinny Cow products for several years. During the last 18 months, these products have become very important to me by helping me stay on track with my fat grams and calories. I only buy a couple a month, so I don't go over board. Well, one of our local grocery stores had them on sale for 10/$10...I had only tried this one before. Well, they had Caramel Cone, Cookies and Cream and Strawberry Cheesecake. I think the Caramel Cone is my favorite...should have gotten 10 of those!

Day 188, Wednesday, July 7


Today was my weekly visit with Peyton. We had some errands to do and first on his list was to visit the Lego aisle at Wal-Mart. I told him he had $10 to spend at Wal-Mart, Michael's or Hobby Lobby. He always finds something at each stop! So, I have given him a budget and he seems to understand that concept. Except today, he just couldn't decide between a Lego police set and an Iron-Man Mega Block set. He wanted both really bad, but didn't have enough $$$'s to get both, today. His answer was maybe Uncle Jim would get the other one for him....or maybe he would buy the $50 set on the top shelf that he wanted!

Day 187, Tuesday, July 6


Well, today was a pretty boring day around my house. My most exciting event was my workout at Parkside. I happened to see this beautiful tiger lily and went to the car to get my camera. The stem was almost as tall as me!

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

St Pete Beach Album, Sunrise


This is the Bo Bunny paper that I have used before. I only had one sheet of the palm trees, so I cut the paper into circles to remind me of the sun. The ribbon is actually tape from Heidi Swapp...had that for a while! I cut the "@" from Tear Drop (gotta get those cart used for my challenge!). The word "Sunrise" was in a rub-on package.

The journaling box, tag on the other page, title block and Sandtastic are all stickers that match the Bo Bunny paper.

St Pete Beach Album, Footprints


The title is a Jolee's sticker (I liked it so much that I bought 2, oops!) I cuttlebugged the background with the divine swirls folder and punched the top with the Martha Stewart punch sea shells. I inked the cardstock and layered a piece of velumn under the title.


I cut the footprints from New Arrival ... stretching and making them more narrow to look like adult footprints instead of baby prints. I inked them and cuttlebugged them with the swiss dots folder.

St Pete Beach Album, Vacation


A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it in! That is exactly what we did when we went to St. Pete Beach. We stayed at the Grand Plaza Resort. This hotel is a round building and the way the top is shaped, it looks like a crown. I used Storybook to cut the "marque" shape that I used as a background. I used the fiskars threading water punch to add shape to the green paper. I doodled and added some ribbon for a really simple page.

The patterned paper is from a stack called Spring Break from the Paper Company. I got it at Hobby Lobby or Michael's...I can't remember.

Day 186, Monday, July 5


We drove by the "wind farm". Those things are HUGE! I would like to go stand by one and look up at it.

Day 185, Sunday, July 4


Happy 4th of July! We went to the golf course and sat on the fairway to watch the fireworks tonight. I must of snapped about 250 pictures with my camera...this one was interesting the way the explosion fanned out!

Day 184, Saturday, July 3


We ate lunch at TGIF's today in Springfield. I looked up at the wall and here was the "Jaws" poster. I couldn't let this picture go by...I had just been talking about waiting in line at the movies with some friends. This movie was the longest line I have ever waited in. Jim and I went to see this movie the night before my family left for a vacation to the California coast. Needless to say, my feet were the only thing that got in the ocean!

Friday, July 2, 2010

St Pete Beach Album, Having the Time of My Life

I used the border feature to cut the yellow bikini's for this layout. I cut it several times and cuttlebugged it with the swiss dots folder adding a flower and brad in the center of the bra. I layered and doodled around the edges.

Day 182, Friday, July 2


I'd like to welcome all of my flat project 365 friends to my Scrap Cave! Today marks the middle of the year and we decided to make a flat paper doll of ourself and mail them to each other. My friends are all stuck to my cricut mat....I thought it was a fitting place to group them all together. So, I hope my friends enjoy their stay....they can come to visit me anytime! Thanks once again for another awesome year of Project 365 or Project Life as it is being called now. I have met some awesome friends through this project and have taken tons of pictures recording our daily routine.

Day 182, Thursday, July 1


Peyton and I went to play Mini Golf today! It was a very beautiful day in Central Illinois. At the end of 9 holes, the score was tied...but when we finished there had been too many strokes that "didn't count" to really make a true count....so we are just not going to talk about it anymore. We also had lunch with Valerie, Stacie and Cyndi at Culver's. Today was Valerie's birthday...Happy B-Day to Valerie.