Rolling Skating Party (or how 80's girls roll)

The hubby threw the best party for my 40th birthday - A Roller Skating Party.  Come to think of it, he rocks the decade parties - the 30th party was pretty amazing too.

He nailed it - perfect spot, great dinner after, and lap after lap of roller skating bliss for this 80's wanna be roller skating girl.

Moeller's Carrot cake - be still my heart.

The girls owned the rink - they were hilarious!

It's so cool when your kids friends have awesome parents. . . .

I am not exactly sure to say about this one - those two.

One of the best moments was when we walked in and our server looked at Elsie and asked how old she was and I had to say, "Actually, the party is for me!"

Besties - so different, yet so alike.

And then I got one more page in before I packed up the scraproom for the retreat!

Workspace Wednesday - what I've been up to . . .

So today marks the last day of my thirties. Tomorrow (Lord willing) I turn 40.

Whew. Deep breaths. Ok, I'm good.

To celebrate - the hubby planned a little party this weekend. Here's a hint - think 80's birthday party.  That post will follow next week.

In the meantime - here's what I have been up to when I haven't been sorting, starring and editing nearly 1000 photos from our Greece trip - I have over 5000 (don't judge, there were a lot of cameras and people on that two week trip!).  They arrived last night and I have managed to get them sorted by date - remind me why photos can't arrive from the printer in the same order that I had them on my desktop????  Anyway, the four day retreat is next week and I am sooooooo ready.

First up - a little warm up with some older supplies I was forcing myself to use. This came together quickly. Those metal circles are finally all used up. Yeah!  I seem to be on a bit of a monochromatic theme the last month or so (more later in this post).

And back to the 1989 Girl Scout Trip to Wyoming book. Here is the progress:

Made fast work of this with the help of a pocket page and the travel collection from Shimelle.

And more from the other side of the pocket:

One of y all time fav photos. All I can say is "Jill - you rock!"

Popped these two photos on this layout that was mostly done from the mixed media class I took from Nicole Harper at CKC last month.

I had fun with this one - got to layer lots of stuff!  Here's a close up.

Yes, I cut up that pretty sheet of paper to emphasis the going, going, going, gone theme. I think it worked as I intended.  Yet again, monochromatic.  

And just for fun - a few tags with the most recent Cocoa Daisy kit stamps. I cannot take the credit - while I came up with the design, Elsie did most of the stamping.

Ok - off to see what else I can get done before I pack up for the retreat.

Simple Scrapper - Simple Tip Saturday (yep, that's me!)

I was so excited to be featured on the Simple Scrapper blog this past weekend for their Simple Tip Saturday.  Here's a screen shot.

I just joined Simple Scrapper as a member a couple of months ago and have found it to be an incredible community of supportive crafters. There is a private FaceBook page, a ton of sketches and starters, along with prompts and awesome classes.  Check out Jennifer Wilson's upcoming class Before Your Story.

Thanks to everyone for being so supportive and encouraging about the post.  You are the best.

CKC Houston

Angelia and I went on our annual trek up to The Woodlands to CKC (Creaking Keepsakes Convention) Houston. We always have such a good time. Here are the highlights. And yes, this might become a layout later -what's better than scrapbooking about scrapbooking - hey, don't judge me!

Ok - here's a happy sight!  An entire 18 wheeler of scrappy goodness.

We took a great class called Mixed Media Layouts

And even after all of these years of scrapping I learned a bunch of new techniques!  We used gesso, glue guns, gelatos - you name it and it was fun.

And guess who was the teacher???  Eeek - Nicole Harper.  Just as lovely in person as her scrapbooking shows. Down to earth and such a fun teacher. She even let me take a selfie! It is odd and cool all at the same time to feel like you "know" someone like this. I have followed her forever in the magazines, on the scrap blogs through her pages, and now on Instagram.  I have watched her daughter grow up in her work (and she's lovely) and then to meet her and see that she is a full time working mom (two jobs!) who makes time for this fun hobby and doesn't take herself too seriously is pretty amazing in my book.

We started doing this several years ago after I paid $8 for the worst salad ever - gourmet lunch for two in a comfy chair at the convention - complete with champagne.  It's one of the best parts about going!

Cheers y'all! Then we took another class, also taught by Nicole Harper on pocket pages.  It was great and made us think and gave me some good new ideas (which I used the next day when I finished up another week!).

And finally, here is the only layout I have made this month since I have been working on a massive Project Life catch up project.  I am happy to report I have 13 weeks left and I am caught up! BAM!