And this year's end-of-the-year photo project...

Is kind of a bomb, really.   BUT it was a fun one.  And the grandparents that are receiving said photo bomb-tastic items will be excited anyway.  You know it's true.

The boys didn't want to go back outside and complete anything that they started.   They had a HUGE base (actually younger chicken boy did it with help from the girls prior to their extravaganza).  So the boys were supposed to finish theirs for photos, and didn't want to.

 So - instead, I had to opt for the kids all together for photos...which kind of went something like ...

 A little bit of this (bad photographer yelling at elder chicken...who looks funeral bound)...

 and a little bit of that...

 ...and a bit more of the other

 ...and chaotic scene ensues

...and I threw some vintage at it and called it a friggin' mess and was over it all.

Ooookay...so printing, fixing colors a bit (hateful camera and photographer irritated, great combo) and sending copies of flippin' chaos to the grandparents.  They'll LOVE this I'm sure (good thing there were school photos already included in their envelopes, eh?).  

Snow Hits The Fan...

Okay.  All four of the chickens were in the same place starting the day after Christmas.   I can almost not express how happy this makes me, to have them all together with us.  I'm not going to expand on that thought right now, well, because I'm trying to share snow pictures and not cry all over myself prematurely with the thoughts of having to take my eldest chicken back (ack...warning...warning...warning...red alert...subject change...)

ANYWAY --- these two girl chickens made a delightful snowman by themselves (it was stressed "without the help of those boys, we did it alone").    They had all gone out at the same time earlier in the day, but left a snowman bottom unfinished - the girls wanted all four of them to finish a snowman and get their photos taken.  Well, part of it happened, though not in the originally intended way.    The boys didn't want to go outside.   The eldest girl chicken was very irritated at this - so the two girls stomped and clucked outside to make the bestest ever.   They managed and conquered :)

Making it happen....  A couple of bad asses...really.  

 AWWWWWWW...

 I'm tellin' . 

 Goofy comes out...

And YES I'll be updating tomorrow when the boys realize what they missed out on and go back outside (after being tormented by the girls, I'm sure). 

and - I have to add - my heart is full this week. Bursting. 

A Monday of Manic Proportions?

:)    Sketch challenge from Diana over @SNC --- I of course had to change it to something other than what it was posted.  (12x12 turned into 6x12).  A photo that was originally printed as 5x7 by someone other than myself.  There was so much "extra" in the photo...basically I just wanted to capture us being "us".  Not glamorous or anything, just a down-time kind of regular-ish day.  

And Manic?? not really that much mania going on, as far as scrapping.  Lots of mania as far as OMG kid homework, projects, extra credit issues, and the girl who put a pencil in her ear  LOL

December ATC and Journaling Challenges you say?

Don't mind if I do...late...but here they be nonetheless...

ATC Challenge:   Christmas "tag".
I think that the mail theme behind this month's ATC is to make something (Christmas/Holiday) related that you won't be keeping... Logan's tag for his gift bag. I figure I can use this for his Bday gift as well, if I don't make another set for the other kids (gotta be fair you know).

And
JOURNALING Challenge:   Random Christmas Tradition
I do at least one of these pages every year.  Last year I already scrapped the PJs -- because my kids and my sister's kids got to be matching and it was a cute pic set so I HAD TO scrap it right then instead of letting it wait (seriously).   Anyway -- this was a trip down a tortured bit of memory lane for me, December 2007.  I had two jobs with the second being at a photography studio.   Literally thousands of pics were taken by me that whole year.  And ... I got my own kids pics taken by me AT HOME on December 24th!!!  Seriously???  Though I have to admit, the 2008 year was a ton busier (and I'm done thinking about it....now.  LOL)

and what does this year have in store for me I wonder?  Never can tell ;)

Thanks for stopping by!

Quick post before a long-ish break?

or maybe me being out of my house and visiting for like six days, I'll find a need to blog MORE? *shrug*   it's a coin toss, never can tell.

OKAY. SO I did some scrappy stuff that I'll share.  Who knows if anything profound will come from this post.  It may just be something to look at - and that'll be it.  Never can tell from start to finish of a post.  Oh, and yes, I am aware that I can edit the post blahblahblah.  I'm not feeling it, so I'm just going on the fly.  It can be cohesive if I so choose, but chances are, it's going to look like a whole bunch of ADD on a blog post.  Why? because that's pretty much the way I roll.  No apologies for being me...nope. Not today.

FIRST UP:     "Thankful" which is for TWO challenges @SNC   One being for Sherrie's Potpourri challenge for "thankful"...and the second being for Diana's color challenge with an awesome array of (what I'll describe as) cranberry/orange/sage.   so it all worked out well I think - and HOLY WOW DOES TIME FLY!!! These kids are not this small, nor this compliant near each other anymore(and the baby is in kindergarten, so bah).

NEXT UP:   Another challenge for Resa's Ad Challenge @SNC which had two different vintage advertisements circa 1952-ish.   (hence my tag!)    ANd thanks to Lynn and her obsession with sending me blogs to follow - I have now become hooked on THIS BRILLIANT ART SPOT for a LOT of inspiration -- I have had SO MANY "AHA" moments when perusing her blog...I have so many supplies on-hand that I have had forever and she has actually encouraged me (and she doesn't know it yet) to USE THIS STUFF FOR PITY'S SAKE.   Sooooo...here is my Girlz night-in

This is the stuff I've got -- actually I have two more pending photos...I'll get around to it eventually.
and there we have it, nothing profound here *snort*

Wake me when November begins...what?

Oh, RIIIIIIGHT - that was yesterday.  My bad.   So apparently I'm now running 24hrs behind myself - yay. Don't be jealous. You can all achieve this level of greatness if you apply yourself!

Challenge day @SNC brings you a marvelous ATC Challenge brought to you by moi - a spectacular Journaling challenge brought to you by *gasp* me --- and a whole gaggle of scrappy cohorts challenges (I believe that there are NINE posted on the 1st and the same (or one more?) on the 15th.   Loads of scrappy minion goodness is here...check it out.

Without further in-depth procrastination efforts:

ATC Challenge:   CHANNEL YOUR FALL:    Use a quote for fall, loads of fall colors, a technique that reminds you of fall...whatever -- but get your fall goodness packed on that 2.5 x 3.5 piece of freedom.

 a number of fascinating techniques used for this little piece.   I used old book page, whitewashed with water/acrylic paint - went insane with chalk/TH inks, StazOn and stamps, then the tree is made with book page inked/inked and re-inked and torn after being crinkled.    The quote, Emily Bronte  "Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the Autumn tree".   Ahhhh...the crispness of fall and it's glorious crunchy leaves!!

JOURNAL CHALLENGE:   "THANKFUL FOR..."    But I don't want just ANY thankful - we know people are thankful for their jobs, their spouses, kids, families, homes, etc...I wanted to take the thankful to a different path.   I should have (could have would have) gotten a bit more in-depth with emotional journaling, but I kept it simpler. 

Without the "frivolous" types of things used to get into direct and near instantaneous contact with family far away (including PreciousBabyBoy Chicken) -- I would be a mess full of sobbing psyche and tissues..in a puddle.   SO - it seemed appropriate to be thankful for the wonderful technologic marvels that make it possible for us to "be there" when we're not able to "be there".   Know what I mean??  you do.

Techniques o-plenty for this one and it was fun - up to a point.    I was IN LOVE WITH the techniques and how this was shaping up at first.  THEN I put the paper in my printer (after doing THREE different drafts on other paper to ensure that it was not going to jack up my page).   and well, it jacked up my page *insert really bad non-kid-friendly words here*.     The base page, white cardstock which I had printed a free printable card template (two cards, one sheet, just print, cut and use)....well, I printed once, then used 2 blank cards and taped them to the page, then did two more, and the greed over-ran my good graces of the printer because it had printed misc. stuff on my original CS sheet.    I sat it aside thinking "well, self, you;ll have to use that for something, you waster".     I started with white acrylic paint and my lovely TheCraftersWorkshop 6x6 template "gears" --- I have two of these templates (finally) and LOVE LOVE LOVE them.      So after I waited patiently for the paint to dry, I used mists, then babywiped the excess from the white paint...*sigh*   resisting goodness!    it was at this point that the printer snafu occurred.   I was SOOOO unbelievably disgusted.  First I tried to paint over the words with white acrylic, which worked/didn't work at the same time. then the epiphany for alcohol ink usage came into play (hence the darker purple).  THen I hated it.   I was loving this for so long, then ran into the brick wall of hatred.  I cut things, tore things, pieced things together, and I became "just okay" with it - but truly it felt like a let-down after being in layout love at first.

BUT the good thing about playing around with things?? you get to DO IT AGAIN.   and hopefully DO IT DIFFERENTLY (haha printer, you diabolical menace).

The Witch, her daughter and mini hats/brooms...

Or Transportation+Helmet (thanks dear loving man of mine. No seriously, that was funny and I giggled for a while)

These are from ChickenLittle's need for a dessert for her party @school...I'd have loved this when I was a kid, so BAM...

Fly safely young witches ;)