I did it!  I created 31 layouts this month, and most of them were double-page spreads thanks to Studio J and the Express Collections!  I’m so proud of myself and excited to get my printed layouts.  Many of them are destined for additional bling!  Can’t wait to put on the finishing touches and then to store these fantastic memories in my albums.

Layout 30 is done!  One more day and I will have completed a layout a day for the entire month…woo hoo!

The photos on this layout are a little dark, so I may go back and lighten them up prior to printing, but I’m far too tired to do it right now.  We lost power in the middle of the night and woke to phone and smoke detector batteries chirping.  It was very annoying. Super glad that it was pajama day at school today…LOL!

This layout about my Aunt Mary’s 70th birthday part is another Studio J Express Collection!  I added more eyelets, because I’m going to either add Glitz Gel or Sparkles to the center of them once I get the print.  Love adding the bling to my Studio J prints!

Ah, Rome…lunch was the best of times and worst of times here!

“Our quest for lunch on day one began with me asking a vendor for the best pizza in Rome. She gave us directions to Francesco’s. We had seen it advertised as the best pizzeria in our guide book so were excited about eating there. Yet, excitement turned to annoyance when we couldn’t find it, so I just settled for a place that sounded similar and seemed to have a good deal. I should have known that the waiter was trying too hard to get us to eat there. I also should have walked away after I saw the revolting, oil-soaked bruschetta. Neal was so disgusted by the entire meal that he didn’t finish eating and left the table. He did snap a photo of Angie’s so-called pizza…with olives hidden under a slice of lunch meat… ugh! Seriously, how is this place still in business? When Neal returned, he wanted to show us something…he had found the other restaurant!”

Thank goodness we had another day in Rome, because we went back and had lunch at Francesco’s the next day.  It was delicious.  I still need to write a negative review for the other place, because poor, unsuspecting tourists need to be warned to stay far away from that dive! I won’t even begin to tell you what the bathroom was like…it isn’t the kind of story I can tell on a G-rated site like mine.  LOL!

Busy weekend ahead, so here is a quick Studio J Express Collection layout of the Disney cruise I took with the family in 2008!

Because learning never ends, this is how my teaching partner and I spent our duty free lunch period a couple days this week!  Who needs to eat when you can make cards, right?!  I’m glad this layout gave me the opportunity to document what he has been teaching me over the past couple of years.  Through example, he has taught me that I can lighten up and have more fun even while enforcing the rules.  It has made a huge difference in my attitude and the atmosphere of my classroom this year.

The constant meetings at school are making this LOAD project more and more difficult to do. Thank goodness for the Studio J Express Collections and the fact that I have already uploaded photos that I didn’t use during the Studio J Boot Camp. You can tell I didn’t put much time into the journaling, either, but it still gives the general idea that I love hanging out with Carol at CTMH events.  These events are my favorite part of being a consultant and I’m really excited that they are bringing back the Album Retreat this year!

This layout is from the Studio J All About Me Express Collection.  I love that the CTMH artists created these little Polaroid images for my photos.  Fits the vintage theme of a Beatles tribute band.  This was such a fun show, so I’m glad Neal took photos.  He did a great job considering how dark the theatre was and the fact that he wasn’t using a flash.  As you may be able to tell from this photo, I take every opportunity to dance that I’m given…and then some!  Seriously, life should be a musical and the norm would be breaking out into song and dance whenever the mood inspired.  🙂

On a mildly related side note:  I attended a 3 hour SMART Board training after school today.  It was in my classroom, so I didn’t have to go far!  Near the end of the workshop, the trainer encouraged us to recreate a couple of the slides he put up on the SMART Board.  He was fairly astonished when I completed the task in under 10 minutes saying that it had taken him an entire day to figure out.  I told him that I’m a digital scrapbooker, so I’m used to piecing together various shapes to form new images and working in layers!    

The LOAD prompt today asked us to scrap photos from a different perspective.  It made me think of these photos of my family walking away from me this summer.  When I started looking at the actual photos, I found it humorous that my sister was laughing and all smiles when my cousin was listening to her new heart valve, but not so much when her husband was listening to it…LOL!

This layout is from another Studio J Express Collection (Little Man).  I’m so thankful for these collections, because I’m exhausted and don’t want to stay up late.  This LO went together quickly, so now I can do some chores and go to bed early.  Woo hoo for Studio J giving me time to scrap AND live my life!