It's becoming "The White House"

So the fun of buying a home that is not newly built is this --you buy it cuz you like where everything is.  And then comes the fun part of making cosmetic changes to make it more you.

  When we first looked at our house--I fell in love with it--the floor plan is so not typical and the kitchen could possibly turn some buyers away.  It is not your elaborate-large-chef-type kitchen.  It is small cozy, narrow BUT the amount of cabinet storage they squeezed in here is amazing--the pantry is HUGE--which I totally love.  Cuz this family loves to eat-LOL!

Our house was built in 1991 and the kitchen cabinets were good quality built--but the color was horrendous.  It reminded me of when my kids had to take augmetin medicine and their poop turned green/brownYUCK!
The handles on the cabinets I swear must be the originals-another yuck.  They were horrid brass with 20+ years of wear and tear.  Now my counter tops--again I am odd-and dont like the same trendy things  as most do.  These are regular ole laminate countertops with some serious texture--they are not smooth at all,.  But for being 20+ years old they are in great shape.  They are off white with some orangey-reddish-brown mixed in there   ( wait is that a color?  LOL)

Needless to say the kitchen was very dark-so when we were buying the house I told Craig first project on the list would be to paint the kitchen cabinets--it would brighten it up in there and make it look much bigger.

See what I mean--dark & dreary--who wants to be in there????

Well my husband absolutely hates to paint and I dont like long projects.  I am a quick change kinda gal--I just am horrible in the patience department.

FINALLY--one year after move in we decided to tackle the dreaded kitchen project.  First we painted and glazed the kitchen cabinets using the Rustoleum cabinets tranformation kit.  I Loved that kit--to easy and great instructions.  Next up I decided to add a backsplash for some color.  My walls are impossible to paint because they go soo high up and there is no stopping point from the kitchen to the rest of the house.  So my backsplash was my pop of color--if you know me you know I love color.  I decided to go with the look of a ceiling tile tin look.  I found some sheets of it that are very easily cut with scissors or a box cutter.  Of course I painted them red and installed them.  Well it was a bit much so I decided to add some glaze to it--leftover from my cabinet kit.  It needed to be toned down a bit--and it did just the trick.

See what I mean!  Wowza what a difference.  I must also add that we put rope lights up on top of the cabinets to for extra lighting--its soo pretty at night.   This view is looking in from the game room--well thats what we use it for--its supposed to be a dining room--WHATEVER!  We are real life people--we dont do fine china--LOL!

And this view is from the other end at the entryway from the eating area.

And my next big thing in here was the fun one--I wanted a screen pantry door just because they are cute.  Well of course my door is an odd size and it would cost an arm and a leg to special order one.  Then the hubby said he would build me one.  But I decided to let him off the hook and just paint and distress it--you can never have too much color.  So I just went to town painting it red, then I took out a sanding block and sanded away in different spots--next up add some glaze, new door knob and hinges.  And here's the cutie in her new glory

IS not just gorgeous--I love it soo much only becuz I did this all on my own--no instructions or nuttin'. And I had everything on hand--well except the new door knob.  That was a whoppin $14.95--now thats a cheap and big impact tranformation in my book!

Now we will rest for a bit--we are in the heart of baseball season, spring football practice--I have to take a housebreak for a bit.  Then we will comeback and add some trim on the cabinets to make them look not so builder grade, new flooring, reface the fridge--cant wait for that one--ur gonna love it!  And also cant wait for a new big deep sink and pretty new faucet!

I hope you enjoyed my kitchen reveal and stay tuned for more tranformations real soon!

toodles,
Tami

MS&M sketch blog

Well I am back again with some more creations based off of My Scraps & More sketch blog.  That Tammi sure can whip up some good sketches.

I havent had much time to scrap lately--we have been working on a makeover in my kitchen.  But last night while waiting up for my child to get home i worked on this one

Isnt it cute--the possiblities are endless.  Well this month is also their birthday so they are having a birthday swap with us.  We are supposed to use our kit for a sketch and I just had to use this one for my layout about our "night time" babysitter Amanda--I just love that girl.  Anyways here's the layout

And here's another sketch tthat I worked on the other night while waiting for paint to dry-LOL!

TOOOOOTALLY love this sketch--I love sketches with strips--they are soo fun.  I will be using this one again for sure.  I decided to scrap my kids Pre-K graduation photos--ummm hello one is in HS and the other is in Middle School--hehehehehe  I am afraid I made this one a little to busy-oh well I do that sometimes.

Thats it for now--gotta go finish painting my pantry door!

You outta go ck out their blog-pick a sketch and give it a whirl--it's fun I promise!
toodles,
Tami

MSM sketch #20

Told ya I love these sketches!  Here is the second sketch for the month of March

And can you believe i am actually scrapping a picture that I just received last week-SHOCKER!  I am in baseball mode right now so I wanted to go ahead and scrap Bo's picture for this year--here is Mr Handsome  (sorry I am a little proud of him right now)

Of course this was easy for me cuz the sketch is awesome and I got to use my favorite color palette.  YIPEE arent I lucky my kids HS colors are the greatest ever!  LOL

Thanks for looking!

toodles,

Tami

MY scraps and more sketches

I am totally in love with the sketches over at MSM--Tammi is a great sketch designer.  They live such room for intrepretation.

Each week they post a sketch on the blog and you have until the end of the month to post your take in order to be eligible for the monthly prize.

So first one of the month was this

Ok so I had to give it a try--I mean I dont do the slant thang much--and you know I love a challenge!

So here's what I came up with

Its my son and his to besties during one of their games.  This image I saw quite a bit thru the year.  This was really hard for me more than just the slant--Its real hard to me to scrap something and the colors dont match perfectly but I am trying real hard to get over that  (insert rolling eyes)

So thanks for looking-cant wait to tackle next weeks sketch

toodles,
Tami

Memorable Seasons: Are your bags packed???

Memorable Seasons: Are your bags packed???: Because it is time to head off on our island adventure and see who... will be our Last Scrapper Standing for 213. Do you enjoy the TV show... Survivor—well, we here at Memorable Seasons have our own take on the show. It's called The Last Scrapper Standing and we want all you ladies to join us here on our little island for a 6 week adventure that will cause you to scrap your sandals off! 

The DT will issue you a challenge every Friday starting February 8th, you will then have until the following Wednesday to get your layout loaded to the gallery and linked back to the appropriate thread. On Thursday all of us on the island will vote for our top 3 favorites, depending on how many entries we have entered on week 1, a percentage of those will move forward to next week. This will continue until week 5. The last week only the DT members aka THE JURY will vote on the top 3. The layout which receives the most votes will become our Last Scrapper Standing.

So what if you are voted off or what if you don’t want to join in the contest, no problem, because every week ANYONE that participates in the challenges will be eligible for a random prize drawing!
So we encourage you to invite your friends and spread the news because this promises to be the event of 2013, right here on our own little island at Memorable Seasons. So who is ready to be challenged?  Stop by the forum for more details.

I hope you will come join me and the others for some fun times on the island--I am sooo excited for this!

toodles

Tami

A sketch and a collection = Happy ME!

FINALLY I got to scrap this month-WHEW how I have missed this.  And even better I actually got a challenge done and posted here on time.  Over at My Scraps & More she is hosting a weekly sketch challenge which is right up my alley.  Here is this week sketch

And I actually pulled out some Echo Park for this one.  I luv their product so easy to work with so I breezed thru this sketch rather quickly with no hesitation.  Which totally kick started my mojo again.  So here's what I came up with

So proud of myself-I just reached in a box of pictures and pulled this out and went for it--I luv it.  Now I cant wait for the new sketch tomorrow!

Thanks for looking,
toodles,
Tami

New sketch Blog

Oh boy i found a new sketch blog over at My Scraps and More blog  last Friday they debuted their first sketch.  And it was from one of my fave sketch artists Kristine Davidson--so of course I had to give it a whirl.

Here is the sketch

And here is my take on the sketch

I love this sketch so much I will be def be using this again!

Tonight is the deadline for the sketch challenge and cant wait to see the new one tomorrow!

toodles,
Tami

Hop on over here

Welcome to our blog hop here at Memorable Seasons!




You will begin hopping at the Memorable Seasons blog and continue on through the DT blogs to see some of what we created during our Members Challenge Us crop. You might also find a few peeks of what the DT are working with for September! Make sure you leave a comment on the Memorable Seasons blog for a chance to win a prize that will be drawn at the end of the hop. The hop will run from Friday, August 31st – Monday, September 3rd with a full reveal of our September kits on the forum on the 4th. The winner of the hop will be revealed on the blog on the 4th also. On Tuesdays throughout September you will find challenges listed on our Forum and on Thursdays you will find the challenge listed on the blog – so make sure you stop by and catch up on what has been going on!



Memorable Seasons blog: http://www.memorableseasons.blogspot.com/

Joni's blog: http://joniparkerstuff.blogspot.com/

Carol's blog: http://crazyforcrafting.blogspot.com/

Liz's blog: http://www.thescrappiest.blogspot.com/

Tami's blog: http://tami-lifeinthewhitehouse.blogspot.com/

Wendy's blog: http://antenucci.blogspot.com/



Make sure that you also grab our blinkie to proudly display on your blog - you never know when we might stop by to check it out!






Now last week we had one of my favorite crops of the year--its the Members Challenge Us crop.  Yes you read that right--the members of the message boards get to issue the challenges-IT's so fun!  Well one of the challenges put before us was presented by our resident storyteller--Susan.  Her challenge to us was to use three different pieces of fabric.  LUV IT!   So here's what she created as an example for us and then mine is to follow

Isnt that just gorgeous!

And there's me and my hubby.  So glad she made me drag out that fabric that I have been hoarding foreva!

And lucky for us we are going to have Susan as our Guest Designer this month-YIPEEEEEEE

And here's a sneak peek of what she got to work with this month

Any guesses girls?

Well while I have your minds racing--here's what I got to work with this month...

Welp how bout that one?  HUH

Tell ya what if you leave a comment here guessing either of the two, I will put your name in a drawing for some goodies!

Good luck ladies,
Tami

Its time for a BIG contest over at Memorable Seasons

Well today is the day ladies--its time for the Contest of survival on our little island to begin!

Here is a link to the forum with all the details
http://www.memorableseasons.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=97









Hello Ladies and welcome to WEEK 1 of Last Scrapper Standing



Are you ready for your first challenge? Well I am so excited to go first this time. And in honor of the summer season my challenge is all about color. The colors in my kit this month are predominatly RED BLUE & YELLOW which just scream summertime to me. So thats it I want you to create a layout using those colors. That's it-easy peezy. Not a bunch of requirements here becuz I wanna see your creative juices flow girls!

Here's an example I have for you using my Simple Stories Summer Fresh kit

As soon as I saw that tag-Hello my name is- I knew it would be perfect for this photo of us the day my oldest son's adoption was complete. (Yes he is my son-my hubs finally got to adopt him-long long story) I have been hoarding this photo waiting for the perfect pps to inspire me and as soon as I saw this line I knew I finally found it. You gotta get you sum of these girls! OK sorry back to the contest stuff

To sum it up for this week
1) Create a new layout just for our contest using the colors, red blue & yellow

2) load your layout to our gallery and link it back to this thread

3) Must be completed by Wed 6/6 at midnight CST

4) Thursday 6/7 VOTE VOTE VOTE

Now go get a drink with a little umbrella in it and let that mojo flow girls
toodles,

Tami

Let's PArty

So NSD was last weekend but not over at Memorable Seasons.  we are celebrating all week long-YIPEEEE!

We the DT are issuing a challenge a day--thats a total of 6 challenges for the week and the crop ends on Sunday at midnight.  No grumbling now ladies, if you cant find the time to scrap this week we have some games with prizes.  And I am even hosting a show n tell challenge.  See so you dont have to scrap to have sum fun!

And of course it wouldnt be an NSD party without a sale in the storehttp://www.qbaroo.com/memorableseasons/main.cfm?categoryoid=448
dont stop in that category cuz there is also a clearance sale going on too-WHOOP WHOOP my favorite 2 words in the English language. LOL!

So here's the scrappy challenge I issued for the week....

Manufacturer line mixer--I love when I get a new line of paper to dive into my stash from that company and see what older product mixes well with the new stuff. 

So my challenge to you is --create a layout with at least 2 different paper lines from the same manufacturer.

Here's mine, I worked with the NEW MME Miss Caroline Dilly Dally stuff--OHHH my goodness it is soo dang cute.  And it mixes really well with the STella and Rose or the Lost and found lines

Now wont you come on over and join the party!

DT call at Memorable Seasons

New Design Team members search


Memorable Seasons http://www.memorableseasons.com/

is holding a Design Team search until Dec 31. A decision will be made by Jan 5.



Memorable Seasons is an on-line scrapbook store, gallery and message board dedicated to documenting all the seasons in your life. We are searching for one more designer to complete our team.



To apply, please email the following to momawhite99@yahoo.com

1.links to your online gallery, blog and/or resume, if available

2. your full contact information: name, phone number, email address, and mailing address. Include your message board name if you sign up for the gallery under a name other than your given name.

3. a short paragraph or two about why you want to be one of our designers and what you would add to our team

4. a list of your current scrapbooking commitments – other DT work, etc

5. and then attach the following items



photos or scans of 3 total projects to include

• your favorite layout

• one card

• one altered item or an additional card

We prefer those who are not currently on a design team affiliated with a store. Manufacturer, sketch site or kit clubs with no stores attached are okay. Additional details can be found here.









Design team members will receive a monthly kit sometime after the 10th of the month. You are required to create and share at least 4 projects using mostly the items in your kit on the 1st of each month. One of those 4 projects must be a card. You will also be required to choose a layout of the week, issue a DT challenge and post to the blog on a rotating basis with the other DT members. Other requirements include active participation on the message board, on line crops, occasional happy hour duties, creating a layout based on a monthly sketch and any other promotions that may come up. Term is 6 months with an option to extend by 6 more months and a limit of 1 year. If selected to join our team your initial 6 month term will begin in Feb 2012.

Dec Kit Club Reveal at Memorable Seasons

Oh girls-this month I got to work with the December kit for my reveal and let me tell you what-this kit is GORGEOUS! Jill is the MASTER of mixing papers to come up with a beauty of a kit. And all for $24.99-WOW-such a great deal. I tell ya you gotta sign up-you wont believe how cheap her shipping is!



Here's a link with all the info about the kit club

http://www.memorableseasons.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=9147


And now I have a picture for you of it

We sure hope you get in on this kit club you sure wont be disappointed. And if you already arent hanging out with us over on the boards-wont you come join us and show us your creations-we would love to be inspired by you!



toodles,

Tami

Time to be grateful

So today its my turn to issue a journaling challenge over at Memorable Seasons and here it is

Hello ladies, with Thanksgiving quickly approaching I thought I would make this months journaling challenge quick and simple. Now remember ladies as much as we all love scrapping and creating beautiful designs-its the story or words about the picture that are very important to those that we are leaving the creations for.




So for this months challenge I want you to journal about something or someone you are grateful for.

THAT'S it!



I used my Kit for this month. When I saw the tree and that it was only half of a tree. I decided to use these photos of my Uncle from my mom's side of the family and journal about his & my dads relationship and how strong it still is even though my mom is gone.

Remember you have til 11/30 at midnight to get your creation loaded to the gallery and linked back here to qualify for the monthly drawing. Cant wait to see what you create girls!

toodles,
Tami

Sketchy Thursdays and a sniff sniff

I just love when I see a sketch and RIGHT away I know what I wanna do.  This happens alot for me with the sketches over at Sketchy Thursdays.  While I have been able to play along with them much lately-I am excited that life is slowing down for a bit so I could join in this week.    So here's the sketch

So when I saw it I immediately thought of a layout I have been wanting to do for quite sometime.  And what hooked me was the lil paint splatters in the top right corner.  Why you ask--well I wanted to do a page of my oldest son on his first day of the 8th grade and also a picture of his first day of kindergarten.  Which for me was rough last year when that day came cuz that meant that would be the end of his time at his elementary school  (they go K - 8th grade)  and then would come high school-YIKES-soo not ready for that!  Ok so it was last year but I still totally can feel the emotion I had on that day so I figured better get it scrapped while I can still feel and journal they emotions I felt that day.  Those lil paint splatters to me represent my tears that I keep to myself becuz my boy is growing up.  Thats why they are hidden behind the photo and just peek out a lil bit! 

Now onto the fun stuff-I chose to break out my new goodies-Little Yellow Bicycle's Head of the Class line.  Looove the design of this stuff and the quality-WOWZA!!!  Of course I got it all at a GREAT price becuz I got it at my FAVE scrappy store MEMORABLE SEASONS.    So here's what I came up with

you have until Wed at midnight to join the fun over at Sketchy Thursdays-hurry hurry!

toodles,

Tami

Memorable Seasons challenge

Its my turn this week for a challenge-did you know that we have 2 challenges a week over at Memorable Seasons?  All you have to do is post your entry in the gallery and link it back to the forum to be entered in a drawing for a monthly prize.  Wont you come join us?  Here's my challenge for the week

Hello ladies. So we have been seeing alot of work being done with strips of paper or borders as some like to call them. And in my kit this month I got this sheet of paper






and also this set of border stickers





so I thought how economical it would be to just those on a layout-and fun too I might add.





So I cut out a few of the strips straight, I also cut out the bottom border with the owls and fussy cut them, added a few from the sticker sheet and what a fun colorful combo I ended up with. And just for an extra added touch I scrunched some of the strips, angle cut one, and cut the ends of one with my deco scissors. So other than the base of my layout I only had to cut into one sheet of paper for my circle-the rest was from the two items listed above---NOW that is stretching your papers girls.



So hopefully I have inspired you today incase you are ever wondering what to do with that one sheet that usually shows up in a collection. Now let me see you strip it down and give me a layout for this challenge!



Remember you have until the end of the month at midnight to qualify for our monthly prize drawing!  Now hurry and get ta scrappin!



toodles,

Tami

1 TUff kid with a sketch

Well I finally got to play along with a Sketch from over @ Sketchy Thursdays. I just looove their stuff. So here's the sketch this week

These are some pic's of my youngest son after his last baseball game - he had to play catcher the whole game and the heat was HORRIBLE that day. SO in place of the circles they had on the sketch I chose to use some messy paint becuz to me it mimicks how messy he was after the game. And the stars well of course they represent him becuz he is my lil star player =)
So here's my take on the sketch-Thanks for looking

toodles,
Tami

On the Hunt with a challenge

I decided once again to join the fun over at Once Upon a SKetch.

I mean a great sketch with a journaling challenge is soo right up my alley. Isnt that why we scrap-so the stories dont go untold?

Anyhow this week we were given this awesome sketch and we had to type our journaling. Now I must say this is a challenge for me cuz I make it a habit to handwrite my journaling. Its just a lil personal touch I like to have on the page. But after completing this challenge it sure is alot easier to type it up and you can get alot more journaling on there too. Cuz I am sure you can tell from my post I always have alot to say-LOL!



Onto my lo-well at our old house we lived by the woods (as we called them) and we used to go ride our 4wheelers alot there. Well one year it finally dawned on us why dont we have our Easter Egg hunt there-DUH! The kids soo enjoyed it and it became a new tradition for us. So thats the story on this one. I worked with the Crate Paper Neighborhood line-love the colors, it has just enuff pink in there not to be too overwhelming and well since we had our hunt with the neighbors well it was a no brainer-heheh! The egg doiley was such a steal at Wally world during Easter season only $1 for 40 of them. Gosh I will never use them all but hey ya never know I might just be sharing them with you.


Well there you have it for today-thanks for stopping by. Stay tuned for more goodies to come later in the week. I am working on a lo with stars---AHHHH my fave!

SKetches and spots-fun fun

So this week over at Once Upon a Sketch they posted another awesome sketch and the journaling challenge was to journal on a journaling spot. EASY PEESY huh!

Well as soon as I saw the sketch I knew exactly what I was gonna do-GOSH I love when I get instantly inspired like that. I had just gotten some of the Jillibean Dutch Mustard Soup papers. ANd can you believe I just bought some journaling sprouts-what in the world is wrong with me??? Those things are awesome-I have since bought 3 other sets-yep I am addicted. But I have an obsession with journaling spots so this challenge was a great way to dig in and use some of them up. Did you know they are not just for journaling-they are great for an embellishment for for your title placement-if the area you want to put your title is too buzy well stick a journaling spot in there to ground your title.

So off to my lo-well I have had these pics of my son - who btw is now ten, for along time. I love his lil sweet self in the photos but i absolutely HATE HATE these kind of cheezy backgrounds. As long as I have had children I would never let the photographers use those dumb things. Anyways his g-parents took him one Sunday after Church and had his pic made, so the background police wasnt there to put a stop to this. Well he looks so dang cute with his lil feet crossed and his chubby lil hands clapping I had to scrap them anyways. On my lo I combined some old JB pp with the new Dutch mustard soup becuz I wanted to focus on the #2, since he was two in the pictures. And with that came the sketch having 2 photos, and I carried the theme into my stitching-I did 2 lil hand stitches different places on the lo and 2 different fonts used in the title. Hope you enjoy and just maybe learned a lil something today.

Being a Mom is a Dirty job

Well this weekend is Mothers Day and of course Saturday is National Scrapbooking Day. So over at Memorable Seasons are having an online crop. We arent having a BUNCH of challenges just a few to get you going and try to win some prizes. We understand that its Mothers Day weekend so we dont wanna overwhelm you with challenges. So if you need to get your scrap on come join us.

Here is my challenge for the crop.
Being a Mom we have all kinds of dirty duties, mopping, dirty laundry, clean up sick kids and so on and so on. So my challenge to you is to scrap from the phrase
"Being a Mom is a Dirty job". That is sooo wide open for interpretation. As for me I took it literally and scrapped some photos of me and my boys and the local Mud Bog during the County Fair. I took them by myself, cant remember why Dad wasnt there but anyways we had a good time.
Here's my example

I took some brown acrylic paint mixed it with a lil bit of water and went to town splatting it all over the page and add some photos and journaling and WHA LA! I used some Echo Park, playground, walk in the park and lil boys line. Dont they just mix together so well.

Now I must add that I am soo addicted to the challenges over at The Paper Variety and this week their challenge is to get messy- so yes I too had that in mind when I was making this page. I loooove love to paint, mist etc on my lo's. So if you do my challenge well you can use it over there too-DOUBLE goodness!
Now get on over there and join us for a wee bit of fun.
toodles
Tami

Busy Busy week

Well I havent been scrappin this week (insert shock face) LOL!

Its been a busy week here at the White House, we have had baseball practices, basketball tryout preparation, school awards banquet and church. And today is Cinco De Mayo-WHOOP WHOOP!

Tonight I am making Tami's Mucho Nacho Bellgrande and a Margarita cake, cant wait to taste that cake. Now if only I could find my sombrerro-LOL!

So this Saturday is National Scrapbooking Day--BTW my Hubs asked why are they having that "I thought that was everyday at our house" CRAZY GUY! Anyways there are numerous online crops all over the Cyber world and of course we @ Memorable Seasons are having one too.
You need to get over there today becuz we are releasing our challenges this afternoon so that you can get a jump start on all the activities for the weekend. And while your there dont forget to sign up for my Bingo game-trust me its not your average Bingo game-LOL!

Toodles,
Tami