Can you Zumba?

I'm not sure I can! I'm trying this again but in the privacy of my own home. I bought a DVD series that has varying workouts and levels. So far I've just done the basics where they teach you the steps and get you used to moving. Let's just say I'm not sure I was made to shake my booty or roll my body :)

But, I do enjoy it. And no one is allowed in the room at the same time in case my hip swaying and booty shaking gets out of control. Plus, no one needs to see that!

Onward and upward in the quest to conquer the body shape. Let there be Zumba!

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25th - Christmas Countdown

Today being the 25th means another Christmas countdown post. It's just three months and I can HARDLY wait!!! Yes, we've already purchased a few things for the season. What's a person to do when Hobby Lobby puts their Christmas stuff out in July?? You gotta buy or it may be gone :)

So for this countdown, here are my favorite Christmas songs and movies (in no particular order). Happy Three Months 'Til Christmas!!

Favorite Christmas songs:

• O Holy Night (the Josh Groban version is my absolute favorite and on my iPod all year)
• Deck the Rooftop - Glee Cast
• Mary's Lullaby
• On This Winter's Night - Lady Antebellum
• Reason for the Season - Lonestar
• The Secret of Christmas - SHeDaisy and Johnny Mathis
• Breath of Heaven - Amy Grant
• Gift of Love - The Boones
• The Gifts of Christmas - Hilary Weeks
• Joseph's Lullaby - MercyMe
• Were You There on that Christmas
• The Innkeeper - Michael McLean
• Mary Let Me Hold Her Baby - Michael McLean
• Candlelight Carol - Mormon Tabernacle Choir
• I Believe in Father Christmas - Sarah Brightman
• Believe - Josh Groban
• VoiceMale - their Jingle album
• Pine Cones and Holly Berries - The Osmonds
• The Carpenters Christmas 

Favorite Christmas movies:

• Elf
• Muppet Christmas Carol
• The Christmas Story (you'll shoot your eye out!)
• Home Alone
• Miracle on 34th Street - both versions
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas - both versions
• Charlie Brown Christmas
• Shrek the Halls
• Mr. Krueger's Christmas

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CKU Reunion Blog Hop

I'm so excited - CKU Reunion is just a little over a month away! I loved going to past CKUs and hanging out with the incredibly talented teachers and soaking in their creativity. And this year it is in beautiful San Diego, CA (can you say beach nearby???) on October 27, 28, and 29. It's going to be a blast! And you'll be learning from some of the industry's experts like Lisa Bearnson, Teresa Collins, Stacy Julian, Michelle Hill, Megan Hoeppner, and other inspiring people. I'm telling you, you won't want to miss this!

So, the reason you're here is for the blog hop. I hope you've enjoyed the projects so far. If you stumbled upon this blog post and want to see the other CKU Reunion Blog Hop participants, then head on over to Mou Saha's blog. She got us started and has a list of everyone participating. The blog hop is from Friday, September 23 at 10:00 am MT until Saturday, September 24 at 10:00 am MT. If you get lost, I'll include the order at the end of the post.

And now, on to the project!

When I think about attending an event such as CKU Reunion, I know I'm going to have lots of stuff I want to keep track of, so that's my inspiration for this project. But first, I have a small quiz. What do you get when you put these items (pictured below) together with paper, stickers, buttons, and more?

Page protectors, envelope, electrical tape

Did you guess a mini-album? Well that's what I made from these. I took three envelopes (5"x5"), trimmed off the flaps, covered them with paper, stickers, buttons, ribbon, and other fun stuff. Then I used electric tape to bind the envelopes together into a booklet. To make sure everything stays together, I put tape in between each envelope and on the outside.

For the cover, I trimmed two 6"x6" page protectors to about 5 1/4" square (or as close as I could get them to the envelope's size). I attached them with electrical tape to the front and back envelope and then put tape across the outside to finish off the bound book effect.

Here's a few pictures to give you an idea of what the finished project looks like.

Front cover

First page (front of envelope)

Second page (back of envelope) and third page (front of envelope)

Fourth and fifth pages

Last page (back of last envelope) and back cover (lace is on the outside)

The product I used is Crate Paper's adorable Neighborhood collection. I love the bright colors, whimsical designs, and beautiful ribbons (but then I'm a sucker for ribbon). Plus I threw in some Queen & Co. flowers and a little crocheted ribbon I had on hand.

If you aren't going to an event in the near future, this can easily pass for a coupon organizer (just drop it in your purse), a receipt catcher, or anything else your clever brain can think of.

Thanks so much for stopping by. One last thing, if you leave a comment AND go to Facebook and Like one or all of the following pages, CKU, CK Scrapbook Conventions, or CK Scrap & Play, you'll be eligible to win a cool t-shirt from the CK Events team (we have several fun scrapbook related designs).

Here's the list. Next up is the talented Michelle Hill!

Mou Saha

Teresa Collins

Stacy Cohen 

Piradee Talvanna 

Laura Vegas 

Stacy Croninger  (you are here)

Michelle Hill 

Megan Hoeppner 

Kim Watson 

Bye!!!

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Favorite Quotes

Quotes are one of those things that I love reading - they are quick and inspirational. Here are a few of my favorites:

Think big thoughts but relish small pleasures.  ~H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Happiness is a warm puppy.  ~Charles M. Schulz

People know you for what you've done, not for what you plan to do.  ~Author Unknown

If I had to sum up Friendship in one word, it would be Comfort.  ~Terri Guillemets

Goals are dreams with deadlines.  ~Diana Scharf Hunt

Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.  ~W.T. Purkiser

When the world says, "Give up,"
Hope whispers, "Try it one more time."
~Author Unknown

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Pumpkin Cake

It's started - the leaves are changing on the mountains, the mornings are cooler, and the sun doesn't rise as early. Must be Fall! And with Fall comes pumpkins. There are so many wonderful pumpkin recipes. One of my favorites is Pumpkin Cake - made in a jelly roll pan (a cookie sheet like pan with sides and about an inch deep) with creamy, lovely, cream cheese frosting!

I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.

Pumpkin Cake

batter

1 (16oz) can pumpkin

3 eggs

1 cup oil

2 cups sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp baking powder

2 cups flour

½ tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

Mix pumpkin, eggs, oil, sugar and cinnamon together and beat together until smooth and light. Add baking powder, flour, salt and baking soda and beat well. Pour batter into lightly greased deep cookie sheet or jellyroll pan. Bake at 350^o for 20 to 25 minutes. Cool completely.

frosting

1 cube softened butter

4 cups powdered sugar

1 (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1 tsp vanilla

Mix until creamy smooth. Spread on cooled cake.

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Life is Wonderful card

It's amazing what having a few new products will do for your creativity! Yesterday I created this card for a friend and it was so much fun!! Plus it has lots of purple in it.

I used a piece of string I had in the tool drawer for the banner line and foam squares to raise the pennants from the card. The finished card is 4.25" x 5.5".

Here are the products I used to create the card.

Kioshi Collection Pack (BasicGrey)

Wonderful {Itty Bitty} (Unity Stamp Co.)

Life Documented Banner (Unity Stamp Co.)

Perfect Little Black Dress hybrid ink pad (Clear & Simple Stamps)

Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Vintage Photo

Tim Holtz Ink Blending Tool

InLinkz.com

Links and images powered by InLinkz. You can join by clicking InLinkz.

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A Bad Day of Fishing...

is better than a good day at work :)

And we decided to put this quote to the test at Lake Powell this weekend. We went to Hite, which is on the north end of the lake where the Colorado River comes in. We've never been to this part of the lake so it was a fun adventure. The weather forecast said 20% chance of rain Friday night and then clear on Saturday. Sure enough, the 20% chance of rain found us, on the lake. But before the drenching downpour we had some good fishing. We, and I'm using we in the royal way since I didn't catch any fish, caught several large mouth bass and a striper.

As we fished we watched the storm develop. It was actually quite impressive. There were tons of clouds, lightening, and thunder - the kind that bounces off the mountains. Luckily we hadn't gone far from the dock so it didn't take long to get back when the rain started.

Here's one of the bass that was caught:

We headed back to the motel, grabbed some dinner, and watched Boise State on TV. We set the alarms for 4:45 am (gotta get on the lake at first light). The next morning when we got up it was raining and looked like it had rained most of the night. We decided to stick with the plan and head to the lake. It was an hour away and as we got closer found that the storm wasn't at the lake - yippee for us!!

We launched and headed out. We fished several places with not a single bite. So we moved on. Tried some additional places and realized that the clouds were building again. Sure enough, the rain started again so we headed back towards the dock but decided to keep fishing and see if it blew over.

And then the fun began! We spotted a boil!!! A boil is where the stripers corral other fish and push them to the surface for a feeding frenzy. They are so fun to fish, because you basically throw in your line and bring in a fish, over, and over. It was a small boil but we did manage to pull in one striper - a beautiful four pounder. Unfortunately, no photo because it was raining. Not only raining, but pelting us - you could hear it come across the lake. So we packed it in, headed for the dock, and sat in the car for about 30 minutes waiting for the storm to blow over, which it did.

We headed out one more time. Not much happened in the fishing arena except this fine specimen - the fish that couldn't get away:

Yes, you are seeing correctly, the lure is at the top (it's about 2 inches long) and the cute little baby fish is at the bottom. He was just barely larger than the lure. We had a good laugh, tossed him back, and continued the quest. Needless to say, after another hour of fishing a variety of spots, a couple rain showers, and no fish, we called it a day.

Was it better than being at work? Yes!!! The scenery was beautiful, the company entertaining, and it was refreshing to be in nature. While the fish weren't biting on Saturday morning, I took a couple pictures of the area as the sun came up. Enjoy!

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Happy & Sad

I'm happy that the busiest part of our convention travel season is about to be over.
I'm sad that summer is over and I didn't do as many things as I wanted.

I'm happy that football season is here.
I'm sad that I only went fishing once (but I do have plans for a second trip).

I'm happy that I have lots of new scrappin' and creating supplies.
I'm sad that I haven't had the time or energy to use them.

I'm happy to be posting on my blog again.
I'm sad that I let it go so long.

I'm not really sure where August went, but I have a few posts about a couple things from the month. Plus, I recently read a portion of an interview about blogging that has inspired me to be who I am and not worry about what I think I should be. Some day I'll be that person, but right now I am who I am and I want to be happy with that person and enjoy life now.

Happy Labor Day!

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