It’s been awhile since I’ve posted some of my latest creations. I’ve been busy this summer stretching myself when it comes to hybrid scrapping.
First off, over at DigiScrapAddicts, the featured product for July was by Studio Flergs featuring all three of her Twilight themed kits. I ended up making a mini-album about my trip to Houston and getting to go to TwiCon. I decided I am going to make it an 8×8 album now, but the mini album turned out uber cute.
Speaking of scrapping, I made a few other pages too:
Credits: A New Me
Credits: In Bloom (part of the The Daily Digi grab bag for August)
And finally I made a card for one of my friends who was in the hospital recently. It brought a smile to her face.
The inside says: I’ll go bananas if you don’t get well soon. LOL!
Well I know I bombarded you with lots of new projects, but as you can see I’ve been busy
This year for Vacation Bible School (VBS), I volunteered to teach the second graders. Boy I tell ya, I think I learned more than they did when it comes to how they view the world. Below are some of the things I learned while “teaching”
I had at most 8 kids a day for all five days and my heart literally went out to each and every one of them. Some were my instant favorites, while others became my “helpers” so I could keep a better eye on them. Interacting with these kids just reaffirmed in my heart the reasons I will continue to homeschool. Sadly, there are things that no 8 or 9 year should even be privy too. Never in my life did I have to tell a child that it is okay to say that another girl is pretty. While sitting in the sanctuary, a few girls were on stage and one of the little girls leans over and says to me, “I think the girl on the end is really pretty, but not in a gay way.” WHAT? Why on earth would a little girl have to say that? I also learned patience and try to not argue with a little one as she blatantly lied all week long about things, including what other kids were saying to her as I sat among them. I often wonder if God looks down and just chuckles as we are just as obstinate in how we behave too.
Silly Bandz are like crack to kids. If you do not know what Silly Bandz are, then you are sadly not “with it” Rubber band bracelets in the shapes of animals, people, and things. And all they wanted to do was trade with their friends. So you’d hear things like, “I’ll trade you a car for a monkey.” And “Those aren’t the good bands, they break too easily.” Oh yes, there are Silly Bandz snobs out there. No matter the brand, they all tend to break pretty easily, cause uh, they’re just rubber bands.
My kids (and myself) are not immune to this addiction. In fact, Jayson kept trying to tell me all about them and I finally looked them up on e-bay. We ended up getting a couple online, then we found some Disney ones at Wal-Mart, we got the Toy Story ones and the classic Disney characters. Myself I have a glow-in-the-dark monkey — reminds me of my favorite band 100 Monkeys. Hee hee
See, we really like our Silly Bandz!!
Jorja quite proud of her collection of bandz.
Below are some pictures from VBS. Our theme this year was western.
The kids proudly wearing their shirts. Jayson was a helper for the recreation time. He helped the kids play the games.
On the last day of VBS, they had the kids from different grades come up and sing the songs they had learned during the week.
All week long Jorja would not participate in either the music session or during recreation. She usually sat with one of the girls during music, but then at home she would show me all the motions. During music time, the 1st and 2nd graders were together, so I actually was there to witness her not doing the motions. However, by the end of the week, they had the kids practice on stage during music and my little turkey did all the moves without fear or anything. As you can see, she did fine.
There’s my Cauner, front and center!!! Now this one has no fear. His teacher said Cauner is very vocal and has no problem expressing himself. Which she said she was glad to hear that I wasn’t discouraging him from expressing himself. This age group was the quietest one on stage, you could barely hear them and most would barely do the motions. But not Cauner, he sang out loud and proud. I need to get this boy into drama!!
All in all, VBS was a very crazy hectic week that flew by. I am so thankful for the girls who helped, Nikki and Brandi, Tammy and I teach, supervise, and ultimately not strangle these little ones. There were times that that is exactly what I wanted to do. *sigh* In the end, I had fun and I know the kids did too.
I recently made this cute little canister box and wrote up a tutorial on how to make it. Please free to check out my tutorial over at The Hybrid Chick blog: Canister Box.
This was my thought process up to the point I boarded the plane bound for Houston. I had been counting down the days to seeing my best friend, Tammi and my sister, Jessica in Houston. We were planning on attending the Twilight Convention. What is a Twilight Convention (TwiCon) you ask? Well let me tell you, it’s all about Twilight baby! There are guest speakers that come, they do Q&A sessions, sign autographs and take pictures. They have merchandise out the wazoo, trivia games, and a party on Saturday night.
I was literally so excited about my trip, I starting packing on Monday and my flight didn’t leave till Thursday. This all started when Tammi came to visit me back in November of last year. I had told her that I was wanting to take a trip to see family and I mentioned I would love to attend a Twilight Convention someday with her. We had heard about them online thru Twitter from a site called Twilight Lexicon. We both follow them on Twitter. So her and I looked into it and decided that we would attend the Houston one, I told Jess and she decided that she was going to go too. So now the three of us are going and I am beyond thrilled. I get to hang out with my bestie and my sister for the whole weekend, no kids and no hubby. lol
Well the big day finally comes around and it is a 90 minute ride to Nashville, I hadn’t slept so before we left I brought a Monster with me. Then when I was on the plane, I had another one. So trust me when Tammi picked me up, I was beyond wired. ROFL!!! So we stopped to wait for Jess’ flight to get in and where do we go? Starbucks!!! I got myself a frapuccino — yum!!!
Now notice how blurry Tammi’s picture is compared to the one she took of me? That’s how bad I was — ROFL!!
Once we picked up Jessica, we went to Olive Garden for lunch — oh so yummy. I had Tammi take a picture of me and Jess.
After lunch, we headed to Tammi’s to rest for a bit. Another bonus to being in Houston was we get to see my dad. Now Jess or I hadn’t told him we were coming yet, we wanted to surprise him — oh boy did we ever. Jess called Daddy on his cell while he was at work and said she wanted to take him to dinner and was going to bring a couple of friends along. I could hear his excitement from across the room. He didn’t believe Jess that I was there till she handed me the phone and had me talk to him. He told us when he got off work and said for us to meet him at the house. So we settled in at Tammi’s and just chilled out waiting for him to get off work. Then we made the drive over from Houston to Pasadena — got to see a lot of sites that I hadn’t seen in years. Daddy called Lori to tell her we were coming and she was so thrilled to see us. Daddy ended up getting off work late, but that’s okay once he got there we took him out to eat at Denny’s. We didn’t stay out long cause both me and Jess were crashing big time. We made plans to go over to his house on Sunday and just spend some time with him. So back to Tammi’s we went to finally crash, cause we knew Friday was going to be a long day.
Friday morning came awfully early, but we were all super stoked cause Peter Facinelli (Carlisle Cullen) was going to be the main speaker that day. We were also going to get to take a picture with Peter. So before we headed out, we stopped to take pictures. Tammi was our wonderful driver for the whole weekend and so I’ve got to show some love for the little yellow bug.
Cute huh? Well try cramming four grown adults into it and see how cute you still think it is. I had rug burns getting out of it.
The convention was being held in the Galleria mall in downtown Houston. We were Gold Members – which meant we had the good seats and also got to be in line first for autographs. We were in row 6, in the center — we had a great view of the stage. Before we sat down, we walked around the convention a bit. We took this picture:
Which side are you on? Vampire or Werewolf?
Our main announcers for the weekend were a group of people called The Hillywood Show. They are a hoot, they do these awesome videos that spoof Twilight and New Moon. They signed a picture for me and let us take a picture with them.
Jess got all excited cause “Jasper” touched her.
Okay now onto the main event. What was suppose to be a 60 minute Q&A session, turned into over two hours of fun with Peter. He is an absolute sweetheart. He actually got up out of his chair and went all over the place to answer the questions from the audience. He even came and answered a question I had and then came back and answered one from Jess. Not bad for a guy who had been awake for the past 24 hours and only got to take like an hour long nap. He also had a piece of gum that he was smacking the whole time to keep awake.
Once Peter’s session was over, we had to wait in line for our photo op. Which was so worth the wait. Peter was so sweet to each person that came up to him. It was funny cause during his Q&A session he told us he used to be extremely shy. I think he got over it.
Once the photo ops were over, they played a game called Yes/No. The winner would be treated to a make over for the Vampire Ball on Saturday. Both Tammi and Jess played, I was getting tired and knew my reflexes would stink, lol!
Needless to say, they didn’t win. But it was fun! After this was over, it was time for our autograph session. I brought my graphic novel and had Peter sign it. I asked him if he had seen it yet and I bookmarked a page with Dr. Cullen in it, so he could see it. He was trying to read it, it was cute. LOL!
I taped a bit of Peter’s Q&A session, here he is trying to teach us about how one scene can literally take all day to film.
With day one of the convention over, we were starving and headed out for dinner. Tammi took us to a place called Kenny and Ziggy’s, it was really yummy. It gave us a chance to just sit and relax for a while. Once we were done, we were picking up Greg and going to a place called The Hop. I was also going to meet my friend, Robin, there. Greg’s friend, Tommarra, was celebrating her birthday. So we had lots of people to meet up with. We had an absolute blast. I loved being able to see old friends and make some new ones.
Me and Jess — along with Jess, me and Greg
Me and my Bestie — Robin, me and Tammi
Saturday was jam packed with all kinds of speakers. We heard from five of them that day. Gil Birmingham (Billy Black), Kiowa Gordan (Embry Call), Charlie Bewley (Demetri), Christopher Heyerdahl (Marcus), and Mike Welsh (Mike Newton). Now I enjoyed both Gil and Kiowa. Gil answered one of my questions regarding a movie he did with Johnny Depp. Kiowa still seems really new at all this and doesn’t seem to feel comfortable on stage.
Gil Birmingham — Kiowa Gordan
I taped this for my mom, she’s a big werewolf fan — so here you go again Mom.
Our next speakers were grouped together. They were great as a team. They play the Volturi — the old vampires in the Twilight story. Basically they are the ones that enforce the rules — yup, vampires have rules. lol Now their stage presence was just so fun. Both Charlie and Christopher wandered around the audience and took questions.
I also taped some of their Q&A too:
The last speaker for the day was Mike Welsh. He is a hoot. He had done karaoke the night before and sang for us a little bit during his Q&A session. Someone one asked him some of his favorite bands and I instantly fell in love – he said he loves Fugazi. *le sigh* He also does a spot on imitation of Eddie Veder from Pearl Jam.
You still with me? Cool, cause I’m not quite done. Once we were done Saturday afternoon, we grabbed some dinner and got ready for the Vampire Ball. Any excuse to get dressed up, we were all for it. The girls from The Hillywood Show taught us a dance from their latest video, boy was it hard. Gil, Mike, Charlie, and Christopher were all there, they danced, Mike sang and just had a good time. I got a hug from Christopher and Jess got one from Gil.
Look out, here comes trouble.
Jess and I trying to do the steps.
Sunday, we opted to just not go to the final day and just hang out together. The movie The Runaways was playing in select theaters and it was playing in Houston. So the girls and I headed to the theater. It was an amazing movie and I can’t wait to own it. After the movie, we made a stop at a candy store and The Chocolate Bar.
Then we headed over to Daddy’s house to just hang out for the rest of the day. He and Lori made us tacos, oh they were so yummy!!
Daddy with his girls. <3
Since it was our last day, we "kidnapped" Greg and forced him to eat ice cream over at my dad's house. He was an unwilling participant at first, but eventually he came around.
All in all it was a good trip. It seemed to go by way too fast. I really hope to get back down to Texas again soon. I’m looking into going next summer, but we’ll see. Thanks again to my bestie for being our driver and taking us all over Houston, Pasadena, Friendswood, you name it we went there. Thanks also for letting me and Jess crash at your place. The lesson we learned from this trip, aside from what happens in Tejas, stays in Tejas (haha) is that Jessica just wants to lick ‘em! *muah*
OOPS, boy is my face red. *blushing* My last blog entry was March 29th. A lot has happened since then — I met Peter Facinelli, I hugged Christopher Hyderdahl (Marcus), I moved, my van died, this is our last week of school and I’ve been busy. LOL!! I promise, I will post something soon. I need to sit and journal about my trip to Houston and post some new creations too. Guess this is what happens, when life gets in the way.
Are you ready? The girls from Kelleigh’s creative team and the girls from The Hybrid Chick are going to have you hopping around today.
One lucky hopper (that’s you) will win a $10 gift certificate to Kelleigh’s store just for commenting on her blog post with your vote for your favorite Creative Team project. One lucky Creative Team member will win $10 in PayPal cash for earning the most votes!! The Blog Hop contest winners will be announced on Thursday, April 8th.
I decided to use the clover box template by Kelleigh and Summer Funk by Wendy Page:
So without further ado, here is my little project:
Due to my ever vigilant bestie, Tammi, she sent me a tweet that 100 Monkeys were going to be playing in Louisville. She sent me the link to buy tickets and then I started looking at the venue they were playing at and whether or not it was a place I could find. I am not familiar with Louisville at all and was a little hesitant to go. But that hesitation didn’t last long. As a birthday present, I decided to take Jayson with me. He too is a big 100 Monkeys fan. So I told Jayson I’d take him and he could invite a friend. So he picked his friend, Jay.
So Monday afternoon rolled around and we headed out to Louisville (lue-vul ) — listening to 100 Monkeys on the way. I had directions printed out to Uncle Pleasant’s and said a little prayer that we wouldn’t get too lost. Needless to say, we got lost, but thank goodness for GPS on my phone. We found the venue and then parked. We waited maybe 20 minutes outside before the doors opened. There were four local bands playing before 100 Monkeys took the stage. So below are some pictures in order of their appearance. They were all pretty good.
Uncle Pleasant’s sign*
After the night was over, I realized they put the bands in order from the bottom to the top.
Since I’m a big fan of Twitter, I found some fellow Monkey fans online and found out a few of them were going to be at the show. One girl named Stefanie was actually on a 4 day roadtrip and had seen them in Chicago, St. Louis and then Louisville. So I tweeted her at the show and asked where she was, I described my outfit and then I hear, “Are you AquaRuby?” Twitter is a wonderful way to connect to people, but yeah to meet someone in person based only on a screenname feels funny. Hers is 100MonkeysIndy, but from here on out she’ll be known only as Stef. *giggle* Jayson took a picture for me.
The first band to play was called Totem Spirit Fox. They said if you came up to them afterwards they’d give you a demo CD.
So when they were over, Jayson asked for a CD.
The second band was Aquaventure with yes, that’s Fabio.
They had a very bluesy sound.
The third band threw most of us off cause these guys were really buff compared to the previous two bands, but they played Indy Pop. They call themselves Sugar Spell It Out.
The fourth act was by a girl called Panda Gail. She played folksy music. She was uber cute.
Then the big moment came and the room got really crowded. This was an all ages show and there were lots of people literally of all ages there. I stood by Stefanie and her friend Kristin. Next to me was Jayson and Jay. Eventually a bunch of little girls with their moms were by us and we basically tried to protect the girls. They were like ten, they were so cute. Sadly there were quite a few drunk people there too. But there was so much energy in the room, it was hard to be mad at the idiots. LOL!!
Marty (the Banana-ger) came on stage and had a camcorder. He told us to say hello, to which we did!
Then the boys came on stage, below in no real order or manner is my collection of pictures. Yes, there are a lot!!
Jackson (J Action) wearing an adorable monkey hat.
Ooooh that smirk. o.O
Uncle Larry and Jerad Anderson (J Rad) playing
Ben Johnson (Ben J) singing The Monkey Song
Ben Graupner (Ben G)
Ben J*
Jackson on the drums*
J Rad*
Jackson pointing at who knows what. But funny thing, at one point people were yelling I love you Ben J or Ben G and the little girls beside me were yelling I love you Jackson. Well at a rare quiet moment in the show, I yelled out “I love you J Action!!” (Jackson’s stage name) and he said “I love you back!” *swoon* So we’re just gonna pretend that he’s pointing at me in this picture, lol!!
Now you saw the picture of Marty in the banana suit. Now Marty goes into the crowd and dances with people. So here he is dancing with me.
Now it was getting close to eleven and the guys took a break and said they’d be back. Well after a little wardrobe change, they came back with gusto!!
Ben Graupner playing the bongos and wearing a Mine’s Bigger t-shirt.
The boys getting down!!*
Jerad cut the sleeves off his shirt and Jackson wore the sleeve on his head, silly Monkey!
These guys are seriously talented. Jackson, as well as the other guys, play several of the instruments. They are constantly switching between songs what instrument they will play. Here Jackson is playing the trumpet and the keyboard.
When the show was over, they took a bow. I am glad I got this shot of all five of them together.
Once they were done, I bought a few items. I got a button, a sticker, some sunglasses, and a shirt. We then went outside and just hung out while the guys loaded up their equipment. J Rad came up and asked us if we had a good time. We said, “No!” LOL! He then said, “Yeah, me neither, Kentucky was definitely a low point on the tour.” Then he laughed with us. Ben G kept coming out and just being silly. Then finally Uncle Larry came out and I talked to him for a few minutes. He said this was his second time to play in Kentucky and he thanked us for coming out.
This poor little guy is strapped to their trailer, lol!!
Loading up their trailer
Made a new friend, his name is Gus. Gus belongs to the sound guy, Scott. He’s in the camo shirt in the picture above.
As soon as the gear was loaded up the guys had to take off. Jackson posed with one group of fans and said they really had to go, but he stopped and let me take his picture before his got in the car.
However, Ben G had some abnormal growth and had to show me his tail. ROFL!!!
All in all, it was a really fun night. The venue was small and run down. It felt like a million degrees inside, but it was worth it. The energy these guys have on stage is awesome. If you have not heard of 100 Monkeys, you really need to check them out. They have a music player on their site: Music Player, check it out!!
The next day I was sporting my new Monkey gear:
My new shirt
My Monkey shades
*these pictures were taken by another Monkey fan named Stacy. I snagged them from her facebook page, but they came out so nice I wanted to post them.
That fabulous Miss Flergs has done it yet again. I still can’t get over the fact that I get to scrap with her kits for free!! She and Studio mgl (Monica) has collaborated to bring you Casual Attraction
This kit is extremely versatile because of the awesome color palette.
I ended up doing a page about Jorja when she and I took an impromptu field trip to our local bakery. The lady who owns the shop allowed Jorja to help her make some bread and she even wore one of the bakers coats.
WHAT? Why on earth would a little girl have to say that? I also learned patience and try to not argue with a little one as she blatantly lied all week long about things, including what other kids were saying to her as I sat among them. I often wonder if God looks down and just chuckles as we are just as obstinate in how we behave too.
Rubber band bracelets in the shapes of animals, people, and things. And all they wanted to do was trade with their friends. So you’d hear things like, “I’ll trade you a car for a monkey.” And “Those aren’t the good bands, they break too easily.” Oh yes, there are Silly Bandz snobs out there. 
