Summer Vacation and an Old Post

My mom, my sister and I are all going on a road trip in August to South Carolina and Georgia. I am super excited about taking a vacation and spending time with my family (although we will probably be ready to kill each other by the end of it). So in honor of our upcoming road trip I am reposting an old blog that I wrote on myspace in June 2006 when my mom and I took a trip to Maine. I thought it was funny and I do plan on turning it into a scrapbook page at some point but I thought you would enjoy it so I'm sharing:

Adventures in the Airport

Charlotte Airport. It's 4:00AM, our flight leaves at 6:10AM. SOMEONE(ok me...) thought it would be a bright idea to get there really early.. you know just in case. Mom and I have been driving around but all the parking lots appear to be closed.

Mom: I’m going to stop and ask this guy if he know where we can park.

Me: NO! We are in Charlotte Mom you can't just stop and ask someone for directions at 4 in the morning (classic overreacting on my part)

Mom pulls up to an unmarked white van and rolls down the window.

Mom: Excuse me do you know where we can park?

Scary man in unmarked vehicle: I don't know I think you might be able to park in remote parking.

Mom: Do you know if a shuttle goes out there.

Scary man in unmarked vehicle: Yeah I'm the shuttle service and I'm going over there now. You can follow me.

Me: Uhh mom I don't think he's the shuttle service and I am asking for ID before I get into his car.
We find remote parking. Park the car and haul all our luggage to the shuttle stop, which by the way had no way of contacting the shuttle so we just sat and wait...

Me: Mom I don't think that guy was the shuttle service and I don't think a shuttle is coming. Hey there’s a person in that booth over there why don't you ask him.

Mom: I'm not going over there you go.

After some struggle over who exactly was going to check to see if there was a person in the booth Mom goes over. Turns around and starts laughing. Yells across the parking lot:

Mom: There's no one in there!

Ok so Mom and I have really poor eyesight because I SWEAR there was someone in the booth.

Finally a security car comes

Security Guy: Are you guys waiting for the shuttle?

Mom: Uhh yeah (oh gee no we thought it would be fun to hang out in an empty airport parking lot at 4 in the morning)

Finally a shuttle comes. It was NOT the white unmarked van. It was an actual shuttle. We never found out what happened to the scary guy in the unmarked van. Luckily he never showed up to take us to the airport...

(picture of mom June 2006, Maine)

Sneak Peek...

Working on a project using the new Cosmo Cricket Early Bird line.

More to come...

The Dreaded Budget....

Ever since Dustin and I moved in together we have had a general budget, that way we knew how much was going to the bills every month and what we should be setting aside each month in savings. In February we started keeping all our receipts and tracking every cent we spent in an excel spreadsheet (surprisingly my idea...thanks dad for making me read all those finance books). Well we didn't really pay too much attention to where we were spending the money as long as our savings for the month was pretty close to our goal. Well in June we didn't do so well... and I made the mistake of going back and adding up how much I was spending on this scrapbook habit.... and well I'm putting myself on a budget. Starting TODAY! So here it goes: I have decided to limit my spending to $20 a week. Yeah you might think "Melissa .... $20 a week is a lot to spend on paper, this doesn't sound like a budget at all.". Well no one asked you! Just kidding!! Baby Steps people, baby steps.... you wouldn't suggest that a 3 pack a day smoker quit cold turkey would you? Okay you might because smoking is bad for you. But I'm not going to get scrapbooking cancer. Considering I could easily spend 2-5 times that in a week... EASY... $20 seems like a good place to start. And I have decided that I will start each week off with a $20 bill. If I have any left over at the end of the week it can roll over into the next week but I can't use next week's $20 early. And I am going to challenge myself to use the products I buy versus just putting it in a pile somewhere and forgetting about it. So this is going to be good for me.... or I'll give up in a week.... either way it will make for a good blog....

Creativity Challenge

So in light of my new budget (I will post on this tomorrow), I have decided to challenge myself to use the products I have in my stash. I hope to post every week with a challenge to create something during the week using products I already have on hand. It can be a layout, an ATC, a card, or any other crafty project as long as I use the products I have previously selected. So here are the products I plan on using this week:

Something Old: Tool

Here is one of the new EK Success punches that i bought when it first came out because I thought it was so cool. Sadly I think I have used it once since then, so my goal is to use the punch during the week.

Something Old: ProductHeidi Grace embellishments: I think these were on sale somewhere online a couple months ago and I went a tad bit crazy and stocked up. So my challenge will be to use some of these stickers.

Something New: Product

Each week I will challenge myself to use any product that I buy in the previous week. Lask week I bought some of the new BasicGrey June Bug papers and Cosmo Cricket Early Bird Papers so I will be using them this week.

Something New: Tool

I do not plan on buying a new tool every week but since I bought this Spellbound cartridge for the Making Memories slice last week so I will be using this.

My plans for the weekend...

So besides working (of course) I plan on seriously reorganizing my scrap "area". Since we live in a tiny one bedroom apartment I have converted the dining area to my pretend scrap room. And as anyone who knows me might have guessed, it is a HUGE MESS. So that is my plan for the weekend. And here are the before pictures (and yes I actually work in that mess):

Notice the new BasicGrey in that last shot.... I need to use that soon! And if you think this looks like a lot of stuff you should see the closet I have that is full of even more stuff!

Oh yeah and I am putting myself on a scrap budget starting next week... more on that later... this should be interesting.

I don't want Virginia to feel bad...

So here are the reasons I love Virginia (in photos):

Missing South Dakota...

This week marks one year since we moved to Virginia. And while VA is growing on me, I can’t help but miss South Dakota a little bit (along with the stable full-time job I left). In honor of the state we left behind I am reposting a collection of things I learned in my first few months of living in South Dakota (originally posted on myspace):

Things I have Learned In South Dakota:

1. -12 doesn't feel much colder than 0 but 20 degrees is now grounds for saying the phrase "It's nice out today"

2. Despite how crunchy and fun the ice appears... it is NOT a good idea to step on it.

3. If you wait until the day of a Holiday (for instance Valentine's day) and attempt to go out and buy a gift during your lunch break you WILL run into your significant other... because Lewis Pharmacy is the only store in town

4. Not only do you have to know where all the current buildings in the town are you also have to know what buildings used to be. Directions are often given by saying " It's in the old ______ building" (I work in the Old Foundation Building).

For example: My supervisor and I were going to the Campus Surplus Sale which was in the Poultry Research Facility. We drove around in the country for quite some time before finally pulling over at the Swine Research Facility which was of course a road up from the Sheep Research Facility (there is a lof of research going on here at SDSU) Anyways she went into the building to ask for directions:

Supervisor: Can you give me directions to Poultry Research

Swine Researcher: Uhh there is no Poultry Research

Supervisor: Umm ok do you know where Campus Surplus is?

Swine Researcher: Oh yeah its in the Old Poultry Research building

5. You can leave your car running while you are in the store. Seriously! People leave their cars running all the time. Because its cold! I don't though because I'm still the person who locks their car doors while driving 75 on the highway... you know just in case some mad man (who can run really really fast) comes running at my car trying to get in.... yeah I don't trust people (thanks mom and dad for teaching me people are bad!)

6. People talk funny here... yeah yeah I know what you are thinking "Melissa it's called an accent. People have them all over the country. None are better than the other, they are just different" Well no... my way of talking is better ... South Dakotans just pronounce things the wrong way like for example they pronounce "bag" as "beg" and "flag" as "fleg" and they can't even get their own state capital's name right... it's "Pierre" it should be pronounced like the French name that it is... like the the Frenchman's name you named the city after... but no they pronounce it "peer"

7. Oh yeah... and it’s called SODA not pop!

8.Who needs Walmart when you have Hy-vee! Hy-vee is a grocery store/bank/pharmacy/drycleaners/starbucks/restaraunt. It's the world's best grocery store... and I love it!

9. Food comes in two taste levels: Bland and Blander...seriously would it kill them to use a little spice in their food once in a while

10. On Thursdays you can get Liver and Onions for $5 at the Pheasant Lounge..... mmm tasty (yeah that was sarcasm for those of you who didn't catch that)

11. Its super windy... and apparently the wind blows in both directions all the time. For example I ride my bike in one direction and its against the wind.. its hard but I think "hey at least it'll be easier on the way back" except it won't because the wind will be blowing in your face that direction too.... seriously

I miss you South Dakota!!

Not quite the way I planned...

So I haven't been doing much with this blog, however I HAVE been doing lots and lots of scrapbooking which is really good. I think I have created 80 layouts in the past 4 months. Here is a sampling:

And last week I had the misfortune of watching all the Tim Holtz demos on his website... I say misfortune because I IMMEDIATELY went out and bought tons of distress inks, two craft mats, stamps, and more supplies, all so I could create some cool water color distress ink tags. See:

And I've been wanting to get into ATCs so I have been working on a few ATCs... now I just have to find a place to trade them.

So that's been pretty much it on the creativity side, I've been working a lot lately and buying lots of supplies as we continue to get in new product... We just got in a ton of new Basic Grey today and I had to restrain myself and only buy a few stamps and papers... I'm sure I'll buy some more pieces soon.