I blinked and I missed it. Them, rather.

June and July, that is.  I've been crazy busy and just haven't made the time for my poor, neglected blog.

Did I mention that we've been busy? Ryan and I have been working a lot - not a bad thing in the current economy. Ryan's company was sold to another company, which gave us a few weeks of uncertainty, but luckily their jobs transferred over with minimal changes, at least through the end of this year.

The boys had 4 weeks of summer camp scattered in over the last 2 months.  When they weren't in  camp, they had "mom school" with me, as well as plenty of play time, video game, swimming, and reading time.  My mom, sister, niece and nephew came to visit for about a week, and the cousins had a wonderful time being together.

Jeremy has had an eventful summer.  He took part in the Lee Brothers Tae Kwon Do tournament in June (his first ever tournament), and to our delight took first among the white belts in his group.  His favorite part was breaking a board with his bare hand!  A week later he passed the test for his "high white" belt, his first belt elevation.  And then just last Friday, he finally lost his first tooth! He really didn't want to start 1st grade being one of the very few children who still had all of his baby teeth, so this was a really exciting event for him.

Matthew has embraced Harry Potter this summer - really getting into reading the books and playing the new Lego Harry Potter game. 

I spent last week at CHA (the Craft and Hobby Association's trade show), in Chicago, with the ScrapStreet team.  Dora, who owns/edits ScrapStreet, lives in a suburb of Chicago and very kindly hosted 7 of us for the week.  It was lots of fun, with late nights, story telling, and ogling of new scrapping products.  We also picked the kits for the next 6 months of the kit club.  The team tradition is taking a group picture in the marble bathroom.

We are heading to Ryan's hometown shortly for his grandmother's 90th birthday.  Folks are coming in from all over the country to celebrate with Grandma, and we are looking forward to seeing everyone there.

School starts on August 18, so we'll begin the school year preparations soon.  We got the kids' homeroom assignments today, and are pleased with the teachers and classmates they have been placed with.  I am looking forward to this year, as both kids will finally be on the same schedule and I won't have to drive to/from school 3 times a day!

Signing off now with a promise to be back soon...

ScrapStreet Design Team Call!

Read on to learn about a design team call!  Scrapstreet is looking for a couple of new team members who LOVE to create and to write.  We are looking for people who are active in scrapbooking--blogging, gallery uploads, trying new things.  People who tackle scrapping with enthusiasm!  Traditional, hybrid, digital, layout, card, and altered artists are all encouraged to apply.

The Job:
Our team publishes a monthly ezine with thousands of subscribers and a 5-year history. We love finding and showcasing talented scrappers and beautiful products. If you are selected for our team, you will write a monthly article which will include selecting and requesting the work of designers, combining the work into an interesting article, and meeting your deadline.

You will also receive products at least 6 times a year from a variety of manufacturers and will scrap several items to showcase their lines. It is an excellent opportunity to increase your visibility in the scrapping community while having fun.

To Apply:
Send the following to designteam@scrapstreet.com
contact information
a short statement of why you are interested in joining us.
3 of your favorite creations showcasing your style.
a link to your blog.
a link to your gallery.

We will accept applications until midnight April 10th.  Announcements will be made on Monday, April 12th.  We are so excited to add some talented new people to our family!  Want to know who you would be joining?  Peek at our current issue here and at the blogs along the side to get to know some of our team.

PTI Goodness... and Some Stitching Badness

My PTI prize package arrived yesterday - it was like Christmas came again!  The gals at ScrapStreet have a "swap meet" challenge going.  I was inspired by this image that KT posted:

I love the combination of kraft, cream, dark brown accents and pastels.  And you *know* I had to play with my new PTI goodies, so I created these baby announcement cards using PTI's Pretty Pastels paper and the Baby Button Bits stamp set.  I have a friend who's due in February, so the timing was perfect.

Each bear and button is color-coordinated with the strip of paper at the top of the card.  The materials were:  paper, stamps, buttons: Papertrey Ink; kraft: Stampin' Up!;cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper, The Paper Company; ink: Ranger; tools: Cuttlebug (ProvoCraft); dies: Spellbinders; adhesive: Scotch, Glue Dots.

On Friday night/Saturday we got 5" of snow and sleet.  The kids had a ball playing outside yesterday.  Until they started playing with sticks.  Matthew ended up accidentally hitting Jeremy with one, slicing his cheek open.  The cut was deep and had jagged edges, so I took him to the ER for stitches.  Luckily, the roads were better than they usually are in NC when it snows, and I was able to get there and home just fine.  It was not fun to have to mummify him to keep him still during the stitching.  Three of us were needed to hold him down, in addition to the wrapping.  Once he realized that the anesthetic was working, he finally relaxed and we were able to leave very shortly thereafter.  He won't let me take a picture of it yet, but I will.  The stitches won't come out until Thursday.

Both he and Matthew had already had endless lectures about swinging sticks around.  Hopefully this will finally have taught them a lesson.