Babsarella's Pocketful of Sunshine

Au Revoir (for the weekend)...

We are heading over to Hollywood beach for the weekend...Hopefully the weather will be better than it was on Memorial Day weekend. At the time we called about our rooms (about 2 weeks ago), we were the only people staying at our hotel that weekend...cool. Lots of reading and relaxation...and not too much sun. Blair is bringing 2 friends, so they will be staying in an ajoining room and I'm sure there will be lots of girl-talk. Some of our friends are planning to come one evening for drinks and trivia. YEAH!!!

The photo is another little snippet from the project I have been working on. I am really liking the pretty yellow flocked wallpaper!!

Last night was Freshman/Parent orientation, where we got to meet Blair's teachers. I am happy to say that I liked them all and feel much better about her classes. Almost makes me want to go to school. It was so cute...her biology teacher had all the adorable little 'back to school' cutouts (like you would see in elementary school) all around her classroom, even hanging from the ceiling. Now that took some work! I think that will be a nice distraction when disecting critters. Really loved the Geometry teacher, so enthusiastic...she would rather teach geometry than any other math class....COOL!!! Oh, and her spanish teacher is not hispanic...she learned her language in school...I think that really will make an great impression on the kids not coming from a spanish-speaking home. Blair has her first test in spanish (and geometry) today, so hopefully she will do well. We were practicing habla-ing in espanole last evening. I also had to tease Blair that she likes her english class so much because her teacher has posters of Leonardo DiCaprio (in Romeo and Juliet) around.

Well, that's about all for now...Hope you have a safe and most wonderful weekend!!!

Just a little peek...

At some teeny parts of a new project I started. Been spending most of my free time working on it and I have been having bunches of fun. Lots of pretty color combos and plenty of bling. Wish I could share more, but I promised I would keep it under wraps.

Here is another little snippet...

So, what else...Blair has settled into school and keeping quite busy. She spent most of last weekend working on a study guide for her summer reading book. Let me tell you, those questions were HARD! As I mentioned in the previous post, I took my first golf lesson on Monday. Didn't even hit 1 ball...just worked on stance and stretching. I think it will get better once I can hit something...great way to take out the ole frustrations...as long as I CAN hit the ball. Lots to remember though!!! Oh, and last evening I finally watched Friends with Money. YUCK. Too many people with too many problems. (I think I said the same thing about Running With Scissors). Did not care for it at all. Oh well...can't love them all!!!

Hope your week is going well and you are enjoying the end of the summer...(course you won't know when summer ends and fall begins in this neck o' the woods)...

A New Adventure...

Tomorrow I will be starting a new adventure...or maybe I should say revisiting an old adventure. I signed up for golf lessons with my friend Melissa and her husband Dale. Actually Dale wasn't planning to go, but I think Melissa may have made him feel a bit guilty, so he decided to join us. I tried to get Mark to come along, but his work is too intense and unpredictable, so he will loose out on some extra practice. Got to go drag out my clubs from the cabinet in the garage, and dust off the old golf shoes. Keeping my fingers crossed that I don't hit any golf balls near any cars or people...then again, with my hand-eye coordination, I will be happy if I can get any golf balls to move off the tee!!! Wish me luck!!!

It's been a LONG week...

As you may remember, in my previous post I mentioned that Blair was starting High School on Monday...Here she is all ready to go with her new uniform, feeling full of nerves and excitement.  Well, things have been pretty challenging...not the work in the classes...just getting the blasted schedule fixed. It took until THURSDAY to get it all corrected. How can something that is not that hard take so long??? I even anticipated that this would happen (pretty scary), that they would place her in the wrong math class. I called 3 times over the summer and left messages to try and ensure she would not get the wrong math class. Didn't matter that the math class she took last year was THERE, and she made a 95, so they should have had ALL the appropriate info needed to place her in the correct class...but they didn't. Been fuming over this all week...plus they gave her the wrong elective that she did not like either. Based on all the experiences we have had prior to school starting, and from things I have heard from other parents, I am not surprised. I am hoping that it may get a bit smoother starting this week, but I know already that it is gonna be a LONG 4 years! On a much better note, she really likes Spanish and feels she is really learning a lot. She is also happy that one of her good friends is in her religion class. They have now given her art as an elective, and she is happy with that too. We will be going to orientation night this Thursday, so it will be quite interesting to meet the teachers and hear what they have to say.

In addition to this, I finally got a chance to see a few films. First up, The World's Fastest Indian starring Anthony Hopkins. Excellent film about an older man from New Zealand that is intested in setting a land speed record with his motorcycle (the Indian). Mark and I both enjoyed this. Last evening, we went (at Blair's request) to see The Nanny Diaries. This was fun to watch, yet sad to think that there are people like those portrayed in the film. Blair read the book and said that the ending was a bit different...seems like that is pretty common.

Last, but not least, I am working on some things for a round robin, but have had no time to scan anything to give a sneaky peek...I need to get it out by end of the week, so I will try to give a little snippet (because I can't share the whole thing) later in the week.

Hope everyone is doing well and starting a fun and happy weekend!!!

Alphabetica...More Marie...

I know you are probably tired of seeing the same stamps, but as I mentioned before, I often will do multiples of something I plan to use again. Well, I had another Alphabetica journal ready and waiting. The instructions for this journal (which belongs to Ms. Lainie) were to select a word and then interpret it. Since the letter "Q" was not already taken, I selected the word QUEEN and used a couple of Marie Antoinette images to tie in with the theme. The background is wallpaper and sheet music. Embellishments are vintage rhinestones, silver glittered chipboard, velvet, crepe paper, and a few vintage flowers. I am ready to get this journal packed up and have it heading North this week.

Can't believe I actually got this page finished because we had quite a busy weekend. We were up at the crack o' dawn to do a garage sale with a friend of Mark's. Had to drag all our stuff over to his house at o' dark thirty. Sat out in the hot sun (thankfully it was not rain) til about 11am when we decided we were done. I think we were lucky to have made $10. Next time we will be doing it at Mom's house where the traffic is much better!! Oh, how I wanted to come home and take a nap, but alas that was not to be. Dropped all the left-overs at the Salvation Army, run by Mom's to get Beula, run home and shower, go grocery shopping, then headed to church for 5pm mass. Grabbed some dinner, then went home and somehow managed to stay awake to watch The Illusionist. It was enjoyable, but I probably would have liked it better if I wasn't so tired. Sunday, we had Mark's Mom and Sister over to celebrate his Mom's birthday. Lots of time to visit and catch up.

So tomorrow is the BIG DAY...Blair's first day of High School. Keeping our fingers crossed that all will go well!!!

Also wanted to mention that we saw the movie Mostly Martha last week. This is a German film that is the story No Reservations was based on. I enjoyed it and although Blair fell asleep, I think she liked it too. Some of the parts are totally identical (which was kinda strange), but the ending is a little different. Overall, I would recommend it.

Well...better head off to bed. The alarm clock starts going off an hour earlier tomorrow (yuck).

Ooh La La....

I got some new stamps!!!! Been squeezing in a bit of fun using them...well, not even all of them yet. Miss Marie is just too too fun and I just can't stop. I seem to be in a blue/purple mode too. Hmmm...do you ever get to using a certain color combo and just have to stay in that mode for a while??? I sure do. But then I get that way with food too. If I find something new that I like, I will want to eat it at least once a day. Ahhh...but I digress...back to the stamping...

I must give credit to so many wonderul bloggers who have been doing all sorts of fun Marie Antoinette projects, but especially to Lisa Guerin, who creates the most lovely projects using this stamp. So, just for fun (and because I have been uber-inspired), I rented Marie Antoinette again. I first saw this at the movies and although I did not care much for the story (lots of fluff, not much plot), I did think it was one of the prettiest movies I've seen in a long time. I decided I needed to take another look at all the beautiful clothes, shoes, and desserts!! Took out the sketchbook and "drew" rough sketches of some of the different things I want to remember. (I use quotes because drawing is not something I do very well). Want to find a way to incorporate them into some future project (as if I don't have enough fun things on my plate already).

We are enjoying the last few days before school starts on Monday. Last evening, Blair and I went to see Becoming Jane. We both enjoyed it quite a bit. That's about all for now. Hope you are having a wonderful week!!!

p.s. Yeah I know, that pour vous card is crooked...sorry.

This and That...

Lots going on lately...seems like there is never enough time to be creative. I did manage to create this card (over several nights) for my friend (who also shares the same birthday as my Dad). The focal image is from Character Constructions, as is the TEA letters. I love these letters, so I decided to do a play on the word PARTY. The floral image is a rub-on.  Now I know you may be saying "that image looks too familiar...oh yes, she just used it on the last creative post". Well, that is true, but a helpful hint of mine is...as long as you are stamping an image once, you might as well stamp it a few more times cuz you might need to use it again soon!

I have managed to see quite a few movies...First up is The Painted Veil, starring Edward Norton and Naomi Watts. Lovely period film set in 1920s China. Very Merchant-Ivory I think. Most enjoyable. Next was Factory Girl starring Sienna Miller. Story of Edie Sedgewick and her relationship with Andy Warhol. Not really my cup-o-tea. Too much weirdness. Too many self-absorbed people. Some parts were rather unsuitable for the kiddos too. Friday night we saw No Reservations with Catherine Zeta-Jones...LOVED IT!!! All 3 of us really enjoyed this movie. Some sad parts will bring you to tears, but it is totally worth the watch. Last up, Bourne Ultimatum with Matt Damon. Super action film. Lots going on, very fast paced. Mark and I both enjoyed it!!

Took Blair and her friend down to Miami to do a bit of shopping on Saturday. The girls had a great time and Blair actually found some jeans that she liked. SCORE! Today, I have spent ALL DAY tinkering with Blair's old laptop. Can't believe I haven't smashed it on the floor yet. Everything I try to install seems to be a big problem. Linksys tech support was useless too. I sure hope for all the effort I have put into this monster-machine it will work properly for a while.

Hope you are having a MOST LOVELY Weekend!!!

Missing You...

Happy Birthday Dad...Hope you know how much you are missed...August 9, 1930

Party On Dude...Virtual Style...

Miss Kari, aka Artsymama is having a virtual blogging party, so I decided to join in the fun. She asked everyone to share either a tutorial or something creative, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to show you the most recent creation for the Alphabetical round robin I am participating in. This was quite a challenge in that we had to select something from an ABBA song to inspire us. WOW. I haven't listened to ABBA since the late 70's or so, although they were one of my favorites back then. I was trying to get inspiration from lyrics that were not already used by one of the other artists, so I ended up using words from the song Chiquitita. I thought this worked pretty well with the image and the bird. Used a bit of sheet music which was gesso'd over for the arch (also a little something new I wanted to try). Now, I must admit that I had the most lovely background originally, but I chose to handwrite the words to the song. MISTAKE. I really don't care for my handwriting. So I was not happy with the look...no problem, just whip out some new paint for the background (being careful not to get any on the things that are already attached, and repaint. I like it much better with the stamped words. In case you can not tell, the woman has a pretty lace skirt and a belt of velvet and rhinestones. The woman is a stamp from Character Constructions, and the little snippet of wording in the arch says, "A PRETTY PAIR INDEED". Well, Heather...hope you like the latest addition to your journal!

A Little Trip to Big D...

Took a little mini vacation and headed out to Dallas to see family. Blair left almost a week before us, so she could have a bit more time. I did not realize it, but it has actually been about 4 years since I've been there, even longer for Mark. Although it was in the middle of Summer and kinda hot, it was actually more pleasant than in Florida. We actually could sit in the shade of the patio and not feel like we were sweating to death. We didn't do a whole lot of things, but I did get to go to one of my favorite restaurants, La Madeleine, for some tomato basil soup. YUMMY!!! Oh how I wish they would put that restaurant in this area!! We relaxed by the pool, and also spent on day at a place called Gaylord Texan. It is VERY large hotel with nice restaurants, indoor gardens and waterfalls, and a few shops. Kinda reminds me of an Embassy Suites with everything under a huge glass domed roof. Took lots of photos there. If you are interested, I loaded some of the photos into an album called Dallas 2007 on the left.

While there, we also got a chance to watch Apocalypto. In case you are not familiar with it, this movie (directed by Mel Gibson) takes place at the end of the Mayan civilization. It was very suspenseful and fast paced (think Die Hard) but all done in a foreign language (subtitles). LOTS of gore and brutality. Certainly not for the faint of heart. I would recommend it if you like action and can get past the yucky parts. Oh, and we watch a little extra on the DVD about the making of this movie that was really good!! In addition to this, I finished the latest Somerset Studio, Artful Blogging, and Somerset Home magazines. I also started (and almost finished) In this House. LOVE this book...cool techinques, and each artist decorated a house form book. The back of the book also has a bit of clip art and the form to create your own house. I think I will be adding this to my list o' projects I want to do. (Yes, I know...this list seems to grow by leaps and bounds). So, today, I am just playing catch-up...unpacking, laundry, odds and ends. Tomorrow, back to work. Hope all is well with you and have have had a most enjoyable and creative time during the last few days. Hope to show you my latest Alphabetica entry this week...so hope you will check back again!!  (p.s. In case you were wondering, yes, I have been playing with Photoshop on some of these photos).