Happy Monday

well... it was quite the weekend! My cousin Lyndsey (13, amazing voice and actress) was in her school play so of course we had to take over the auditorium to see it. She was great as Veruca Salt even had the accent down to perfection. She made a demo CD and it was the first time i heard it but i have to admit the girl's got talent that is rare. I cried of course through most of it! She won an auction to appear as an extra in the Broadway play rent so that is happening later this month. I've seen rent 11 times to date, and clearly it is one of my favorite shows (perhaps the reason she loves it so much also!) In any even we are all looking forward to that, and as her fav cousin i get to go backstage with her as she gets ready. To commemorate the event I bought her a pair of doc martens, What every girl on the Lower East Side needs, and am making her an altered tin full of Lower East Side goodies. As I Finish that I'll let you know! We also had a little incident with my grandpa, but luckily he seems to be doing much better now that the doctor's know what the problem is and they can treat it. I mean the man is 90 with moderate dementia so we aren't putting him through too much stress, but we want him here as long as we can have him.

In creativity news, Joanne's bib's are coming along nicely! I'm going to Rhode Island this weekend with my mom and aunt and their best friends fro a great girls weekend and should have some time in the car to stitch away! I am also adding a few things on to the project list...I should be busy for years at this rate... which is good!
I'm posting some pictures of some layouts that i have completed so you can all get an idea of what my scrapping style is....















Latest layout based on sketch

















Again based on a sketch















Also based on a sketch (see what I mean about how much better they look when I use a sketch for inspiration)
















The Hollywood Hills are like my crowning achievement on this, I made them myself.
















I think this is by far one of my very favorite layouts I have ever made!


In dating news... NADA! Went to the settler's meetup tonight and had a blast! Great people pretty fun game, just not much potential! But still something i plan on keeping up with for fun purposes. I'll spare everyone the details of my small breakdown on Friday but it was the result of too much wine and being with friends (deadly combo!)

Anywho that's all for now, this is kind of therapeutic so i may update more often than I thought!

Post number 2! What am I doing and what do I want to be doing and Sketches

I've decided since this was my blog I'd keep everyone up to date on all things... scrapping/creativity wise, my personal dating hi jinks (ugh if i ever date again!), and then any other random things that pop into my head...

So i thought as a matter of prosperity I'd let you all know what I'm currently working on. It'll be a fun way to record what I actually get done... I find like a lot of scrapbookers and creative people in general, i have a lot that I'm working on and go back and forth depending on the mood.

So currently on my creativity project list:

1. Bib's for Joanne's shower (cross-stitching 2... the shower is a month away)
2. LO for Baby's first year for Joanne (I haven't even started this yet, but it should go pretty quickly once i get started)
3. Mickey Cross-stitch (HA, this I've had for a number of years,I do it for like 3 weeks straight then put it away for 6 months! I swear I'll finish it!)
4. Pictures of New Years, My birthday party, Mel's wedding, random girls night in, and Timber are all screaming for pages to be done
5. Bread, I want to bake some - random I know but still on my list of things to do
6. A LO of weight loss with 3 pictures from 3 years of st. patty's day.
7. LO of me and my mom then and now type thing.
8. Something for my brother's engagement party
9. The altered tin for my cousin Lyndsey's performance in Rent
10. I found a great family quote and have some great pictures of me and my cousins to apply to it, but we have to get a group shot at the engagement party.

Just to name a few! Woo, I'm tired just writing it! I need a day off!

And in all of this I had the brilliant idea of doing a heritage album. Or at least doing something with all the great pictures my grandma, and her sisters gave me. I was telling someone else this online (a dating story for another post!) and he gave me great tips on getting marriage certificates and census stuff, so I'm really thinking about planning a timeline and to do list. I'm lucky enough to have my grandma and lots of other older relatives around so I want to take advantage of the great stories and first hand accounts while I can. So I'm not sure it will be a full out family tree type thing as much as going through the pictures with them and getting some great stories and having something my cousins and I can look back at fondly.

Sketches

I love these things... I am finding as a new scrapper, that I'm way better when i work with a sketch and it's mainly because I have no idea about composition/balance etc... I'm hoping as i get better i can rely less on them, but right now i don't really care that most of my stuff is being done with the inspiration of a sketch. Some times it's a replication, sometimes a base but either way things are getting done. I've done 2 layouts in 2 days and boy am I happy! Pictures to follow soon!

Dating in NYC
OK, well we'll just get it out there, I just broke up with my boyfriend of almost a year 2 weeks ago. A really good and overdue move... but still kinda sucky. I'm not ready to date by any means...(still need to lose some of the boyfriend weight) but i thought maybe I'd try talking to guys yesterday. Enter craigslist. I posted an ad for guys to talk to at work...middle of the day no commitment, no strings etc... (also how said ex and i met)

Well as expected got a ton of responses, more than half were creepy but did spend the day chatting with some OK guys. Nothing life altering! But at least a way to make the day go by!

Monday I am going to a Settler's meetup (meetup.com... great place to find groups all over of people who enjoy the same things as you! including scrapbooking!) with an old friend of mine from college. Not really expecting to meet anyone, just figured it gets me out and involved in new things, and I'm learning that meeting people in this city is all about trying new things!

That's it for now... Hope everyone has a great weekend!

My very first post

Hello! and i say that more to myself than anyone else, since i'm not really sure anyone is going to read this!
A few things about me you might like to know:

• I love using elipses (though i can't say the actual word) and exclamation points
• I had gastric bypass almost 2 years ago and have lost over 100 pounds, and am pretty excited about that
• I have a dog who I adore, her picture is on the side
• I'm completely new to the scrapbooking thing, but have always loved pictures
• I really suck at updating blogs, the last time i tried this was after the surgery - didn't go so well, but i'm going to try.

Ok so this is just to get the page running, I will actually think of something witty to say and post some layouts and stuff I'm working on soon.