Nine Days

Nine days. That's how many days til I hear the beep beep beep of the 26 foot moving truck backing up to my Suffolk house. Yep, D Day is almost here. As of yesterday, I have packed 148 boxes. I'm down to clothes, the kitchen, the good stuff in my scraproom, and miscellaneous stuff here and there. I'd say that's pretty good for doing it all myself in like 4 weeks. Nine days and what am I doing?!? Blogging. That's ok, I'll be back to it soon enough. The cardboard aint goin nowhere unless I say so.

Easter was good to us. Sunday was filled with a visit from the NJ Easter Bunny(Aunt Deb & Uncle George via the big brown truck), and brunch at my favorite brunch place in Smithfield on the water, and a wonderful Easter service at church. Sigh, will I miss THAT place. To think we've been a part of that church family since my oldest, now 10, was FOUR!!!!

So we won't be TOO photo heavy I'll leave you with a peek at these crazy baskets my brood got from NJ. I'll share more of Easter weekend next time.





Please join us for this. I really can not stress to you how much you NEED to join this site. You will never be without inspo and a friend ever again.


Please join Creative Soup for its Grand Re-Opening Gala!

May 1st through May 8th

Festivities to Include:
Start of our May Class
4-Day Crop
Live Chats
Prizes
Games
and lots more!

***Black Tie Optional***

This one I created for Creative Soup's 4.25 Craft Inspo Mojo Monday prompt.

Aren't hexagons such a fun shape...

New Cosmo Cricket Upcycle goodies. Look it how sweet Puppy was on his first Christmas...

The reopening Gala at Creative Soup is the First. My first project for Crop Suey goes up that day, as well. I'll be back soon to share all of those projects with YOU. Thanks for stopping, and I adore your comments. They do this tired Momma good! <3 Jenny

If The Shoe Fits

Choo choo, the crazy train continues. I keep packing and the brood keeps on unpacking. Oh, where did that toy come from? Oh, I want to read THAT book. Oh, I can still fit in that pirate shirt. Oh... squirrel! The Bigs are home on Spring Break and we're stuck inside due to a rather pleasant stomach bug and these darn pesky boxes. I do reward my endeavors with frequent breaks to enjoy my surroundings. Once such break was volunteering in Reagan's class. I was lucky enough to get to read to the class and help out with a couple of craft/math activities. It was so much fun to be back in the classroom. Now THAT is like riding a bike. But, the highlight of my visit was helping out with the Easter Egg Hunt in the school's courtyard. The very same hunt I volunteered for when P.J. and Julia, too were kindergarteners. I will miss this place next year.

The oh so proud boy. He has this crazy grin on in every picture when Momma is in his class.

A new lady friend...

The Twinnies with their completed craft and a new friend , as well.

Had to show you this closeup from my last post. I just love how all the little details of this layout for Scrap That Baby came together.

This next one I did for Creative Soup's Mojo Monday. The PROMPT 4.18 was to find inspiration in a shoe. This one was an easy one for me as I have always been inspired by the cute little shoes my kiddos wear from Stride Rite. Here's my take on the prompt and the shoes that inspired me. Please come play along... the forum is hopping with chatter and creativity.

Ninety-Six Boxes

96 Boxes. That's how many boxes I've packed since this latest installment in the Dziekan Family Adventure began. I've sorted, purged, and packed for about 3 weeks and I still have a few more weeks (and boxes) to go. To try to keep my sanity in between the cardboard and homework and usual household fun, I've been scrapping as much as possible. This time around I played with Studio Calico's On the Easel. I think I've done enough damage to that kit, it may be time to retire it. Sigh, once again the colors and the goodies were a home run. I can't share 2 of the pages as they're for Creative Soup in the coming weeks. Hint hint.

Speaking of Creative Soup, in honor of the BRAND SPANKIN NEW site, we're hosting a week o fun starting on the First. Please come join the forum and get ready to be inspired. You won't be sorry. Do it HERE.

I CAN share this layout I did for Scrap That Baby's newest prompt. SBT challenges you to pull out those ultrasound pictures and get scrapping. This one is priceless to me. The twinnies in all their in utero finest. Totally had to stitch in honor of my newest scrappy crush... Kin.

Another layout for fun using the awesome On The Easel. Stay tuned for two more to go live at Creative Soup on 4/25 and 5/23!


Be back soon with all the gouge on Creative Soup's Spring Class: Get Messy!

Jen

Creative Soup Spring Forward Blog Hop

Welcome to the Creative Soup’s Spring Forward Blog Hop!

To kick off our new enhanced site we thought it would be fun to have all of our creative team members complete one of the fun Mojo Monday challenges from the first quarter.

To participate in the blog hop leave a comment for me and follow the link to go see Katie, the next Creative Team member’s blog to see what they came up with! Go through and leave comments on all 9 blogs and be entered into a drawing for an amazing prize pack. The blog hop runs from tonight Friday April 8th at 8pm Est through Monday April 11th at 11:59pm EST. Winner will be drawn on Tuesday! If you get lost along the way, please go to our blog at The Creative Soup for the complete listing.

Creative Soup Blog Hop
Main Site: blog
Jessica Bree: http://www.jessicabree.typepad.com/
Mara: http://studiolorange.blogspot.com/
K: http://www.rukristin.blogspot.com/
Jenny: http://scrappinjen-partyoffive.blogspot.com
Katie: http://scissorsspatulasandsneakers.blogspot.com
Dana: http://datatar.blogspot.com
Jenn: http://heldscraptive.blogspot.com
Stevie: http://www.srkerr.blogspot.com


Don’t forget to register at http://www.thecreativesoup.com/ to join in all the fun!
Here is my take on the layout as well as a showcase of a Creative Team member’s original project!

Quarter 1's original challenge: 1.17 Mojo Monday: Catalog Inspiration

We talk about using ads for inspiration all the time. But this time, I'd like us to take a look at a catalog. You may have some left over from the holidays, or you might be starting to see some of the new after-holiday sale catalogs coming out. Retailers sent out catalogs through the mail, leave them out in the stores, and post them online.

The process of creating a catalog, or even just a catalog page, is very similar to that of creating a layout. First you have the photoshoot, then the editing, then getting everything down on the page in order to convey a message to the reader.

For this challenge, I'd like you to go through some of your catalogs. If you don't have any left in person, there are some great ones online that you can flip through. Anthropology.com has their three latest catalogs online.


Some Ideas to get you started:

--Lift a catalog spread (take inspiration from the colors, photo placement, the models, the tone, etc)
--Use parts of the ads directly on your projects (this is especially great with catalogs where they make a magazine-catalog with extra art added in)
--Have a "catalog inspired" photoshoot and scrap those photos (this one is great is great to scrap those holiday clothes, or fun dress up time!)

I just love what Kim did with K's fun challenge. Kim used this ad from Anthropogie...

to inspire this precious layout. Gotta love the oversized frame and the floating butterflies.

For my take, I took K's challenge a bit further and didn't get my inspiration from a print ad, per se, but from my toddlers' television show ads. If you're like me and have little ones at home, you've found yourself instantly inspired by the incredibly delightful illustrations between the shows on tv's Noggin/Nick Jr channel. I took a couple of screen shots to trigger your memory. Note the whimsical flowers and the button faces.


All of that inspo, led me to FINALLY create this...





*************** Good luck and happy hopping. I'm sure you'll be inspired by this crew! Jen

Prizes AND a Creative Soup Blog Hop Tomorrow

Come Join Us as we relaunch Creative Soup at It’s new home!
Starting 8pm EST Friday April 8 we will be hosting a Blog Hop to celebrate the relaunch of The Creative Soup’s new forum!!! http://www.thecreativesoup.com/
Who We Are:

The Creative Soup is a new scrapbook challenge forum that started in January 2011. The idea of The Creative Soup is to create a site where scrapbookers can come to be challenged and inspired all in one place. We have a fun vibrant and growing community of really supportive people who are there to encourage one another in our craft!
Creative Soup has several challenges and events to help people get their mojo going!
1. Mojo Mondays: Weekly challenges that rotate between four different kinds of challenges (AAM, Sketch, Inspiration, and Random). We find that challenges are a great way to jump start a layout and to encourage people to scrap more! There are monthly badges and a drawing for prizes for people who complete three out of four challenges.
2. Quarterly Classes: Every quarter our amazing Design Team will present an in-depth month long FREE class to really get your creative juices going. Each class comes with fantastic tutorials, clear and concise directions, and multiple completed samples to help inspire you.
3. Fun inspirational threads that post each week including: Talk Tuesday (journaling prompts), Web Wednesday (cool DIY projects), Thrifty Thursdays (Getting the most out of your scrap supplies), Font Friday (featured online free font), and Snapshot Sunday (photography challenges/ideas)

So come and register at http://www.thecreativesoup.com/ to join in all the fun!

And be sure to stop back Friday April 8th to participate in the blog hop and earn a chance to win a cool prize pack!

Seriously... Where DOES the Time Go?!?

So, what's shakin Hot Stuff? Busy, busy here. Over the last few weeks we've been busy with family visiting from out of town, making plans to move (locally), birthday celebrations and plans, plans plans. Gotta love a life constantly in a state of fluidity. At least it keeps one on one's toes!!

Had a wonderful visit with Geega & Dumpa and Aunt Debbie and Uncle George. They spoiled us with their time and fun stuff too. We celebrated a belated birthday for Julia and a very belated Christmas while they were here. Fun, fun, fun. One of the highlights (at least for Sullivan) has to be Sullivan FINALLY graduating to Big Boy status and receiving a much-loved Hess truck from Deb & George. Oh Happy Boy.




Someone else celebrated a birthday, as well. This one was a true milestone. Hubby celebrated the Big 4-0. Way too much was to be had on that day(s) for sure. This picture will have to suffice.


More news to share HERE. I guess I GOTTA make time to scrap with all of these new teams to play with, huh?!? The moving moxes and sorting and purging will have to wait. On that note, we were lucky enough to get through a typically year-and-a half-wait list to get into base housing in TWO MONTHS. so, as of the end of May, I'll be a Virginia Beach resident. Can't wait for all the fun stuff that will bring for the brood. Let alone not having to listen to Donk complain about the commute from he double toothpicks any longer. Can I get a, "Woot Woot?"

My last few projects for Scrapbook Express. I had a blast designing with their fantastic products including this Twig line from Little Yellow Bicycle.

Later. Is it Spring in YOUR neck of the woods? It sure is here... well, today anyways.