It feels good to know...

...that there are people who understand and support what you're going through.  In addition to the great comments from you, I had the Man's support.  I was typing the last post when he walked in the back to check on the littlest.  I finished the post...burst into tears and the Man walked back into the room simultaneously.  I fully expected to hear, "What the hell????"  but he walked over, hugged me and asked, "Are you thinking about your Dad?"  Now THAT'S love!!!

I decided to keep myself EXTRA busy this past week to push away the blues.  In addition to projects the hubbs and I are completing around the house, I found a FEW minutes to get kreative!  Sassafras' design team sponsored a few "we're at CHA but don't forget about us" challenges and I did pages for a few (of COURSE I forgot to post these in time to be in the running for any PRIZES but it's all about the PROCESS...right???):

For Megan's challenge to focus on the journaling I kreated this page

of myself and my aunt last summer.  I LOVE when I'm able to get an older picture put away in the books!  I'm not sure if this counts as focusing on the journaling since I still added circles and STUFF around the page!!!

Kimberly's challenge was to scrap your summer traditions which was EASY AS PIE!!!   

We don't visit the same vacation spots every summer; we don't always complete the same activities.  But two things are GA-RON-TEED to happen EVERY summer: the Man steps up his barbecue'in and as SOON as they're in season we partake of the crawfish!  We love to eat...don't judge!  BONUS: I got to utilize one of the handmade embellishments from the July Kreatorville kit...SCORE!!!!

Michelle challenged us with a color palette which inspired me to scrap these older pix of Kea:

I found an entire pack of these 35mm pix while transforming my studio into Kea's bedroom a few weeks back.  I'm glad because a lot of Noonie's baby pictures were lost on an old computer.  I LOVED-ED that bouncer when he was a wee tot because it knocked him out ALL.THE.TIME. 

I also scrapped some of those same 35mm pictures using the last palette from Color Combos Galore.  I started off making the base of the page first...I didn't know what pictures I would use.  But when I looked at those sweet cheeks and little teeth peeking out...I couldn't resist scrapping my baby boy.  Hence the girly colors!

 

I'm not too pleased with myself right now.  There's actually a front facing shot that I left room for where you can SEE those little teeth...you know...so you get the full effect of all his cuteness!  But, I've misplaced it!  Guess I'll repost this once I add it to the page!

My twin is giving birth to a little girl right now so I used those same colors for a congrats card

I'm practicing my card-making skills.  I have a sister who'll be married in October, another whose having a baby in February and 90% of my friends will turn 40 this year...lots and LOTS of cards in my future!!!

I have a cool post up at Kreatorville  on a stash-busting technique I use a lot on my kreations.  In other scrappy news, my webinar has finally been posted on Masterful Scrapbook Design...you should really consider signing up to hear all my wit, charm and sage advice!  (I'm a comedian...what can I say???)  

I've saved my best scrappy news for last:  Debbi just announced that I'm the August Guest Designer over at Color Combos Galore...say whaaaat????  I'm soo excited...I've already finished two of the pages!  Here's a sneaky peaky for you:

 
I'm hot as a cat on a tin roof right now!!!  Keep it coming, Lord...keep it coming!!!

Every year for the past five...

THIS has been the hardest week I endure all year.  My Daddy was born on July 15th...and died on July 22, 2006.  Normally, I'm soo down during this week.  We couldn't really fully enjoy Daddy's last birthday because we KNEW his time was short.  I start working myself up in June, dreading what's coming.  But...it didn't happen this year.  I mean, I still felt down in June.  I always think about the fact that Daddy never got to meet my husband or youngest son so every time they (or the older two boys) accomplish anything my first thought is: Daddy would have LOVED to see that!  As I type this...is the first time I've cried this week.  My Daddy was an awesome artist and I always think about how he would be the only one of my family (beside my husband) to truly celebrate my kreative accomplishments.  Before this week arrived I prayed: "God...please...give me strength to focus on the positive during Daddy's week so that I'm not soo down in the dumps.  In Jesus' name...Amen."  And it worked!  I had soo much goodness in my life this week that I only smiled when I thought of my Daddy...thought of how proud he would be of me.  When I read this comment from Debbie

It hit me...HE DID IT!!!  My Daddy had a lil discussion with God: "Say Big G...I was thinking: why don't we give Face (what Daddy called me!) a break this year.  Nothing but goodness this week." And that's why I've had such a blessed week.  Thank you, Daddy...and God for such a spectacular week...and for helping me hold back the tears until it was over
 

Was I Masterful?

The webinar yesterday started off like a train wreck but I ended up feeling like a lottery winner!!!  I was SOOO nervous and my heart was pounding.  I've never done this before and I was worried...would something go wrong...of COURSE it did!!!  I put the headset that Debbie sent to me on top of our freezer to make sure the littlest boy didn't destroy it before I got the chance to USE them...I thought that would be the crux of my problems...FOOL!! My discussion was scheduled to begin at 8:30...my computer froze at 8:05.  Hubbs and I decided that he would take the boys and leave for an hour.  When the technical difficulties began, I demanded asked the teen boy to stay home to be my audio technician...needless to say, I was NOT his friend!  He wanted to go with Dad to do something fun.  WhatEVER, dude!!!  Have you ever watched Royal Pains? This doctor lost his job because he chose to save a (nobody) kid over a billionaire hospital board member and his brother encourages him to become a concierge doctor.  Hank's the doctor and Evan's the brother.  Well, when Evan and Hank are having a phone conversation that Evan doesn't particularly want to hear, he pretends that there's static on the line and he's going through a tunnel.  Well, that's what Debbie sounded like.  I had to laugh to keep from crying.  First MY computer and then Mahd's? God WHY have You to led me to this webinar with faulty equipment???  When Debbie said, "You can just call in"...well, I REALLY heard angels singing.  I was having a good time...explaining my techniques to people who really care...and then the pages we were discussing disappeared from the screen.  I pray EVERY day, people...mostly for patience. I have LOTS of love and empathy...which I OBVIOUSLY exchanged for patience!  At this point, my chest started tightening up and I almost started hyperventilating!  It's a good thing I've looked at those pages about a thousand times over the last few months and I could see them in my sleep because I was able to visualize the elements she was asking about until Mahd was able to unfreeze his screen.  I really enjoyed it a GREAT deal!!!  I made a few new scrappy pals...what UP, Mary??  Get those HATS ready for our pictures in Vegas!!!  And Tams and I laughed but not so much that Debbie won't ask me to come back...right, Debbie?  PLEEEEASE???  I want to share a few (or SEVEN!) of the pages that I kreated especially for Masterful Scrappers:

I HAD TO share this page first (and separately!) because (in my humble opinion) it's the best one I've kreated lately.  Kea broke my Daddy's glasses and then cheerfully walked up to me to SHOW me that he broke them!  God was with him THAT day, because the idea for this page IMMEDIATELY popped into my head and I was too excited about kreating to choke him!  

Those are some GORGEOUS young men!  (This is my space...I can gush if I wanna!!!)

The "One with the 'Fro" page is another that came together rather quickly.  The picture on the left is of me and my Daddy Ernest in front of our church on Easter Sunday when I was 7.  When we took a picture together in the SAME SPOT this year, I knew that I had to scrap them together! 

I REALLY enjoyed this webinar and hope I inspired some artists (OTHER than Tami who MIGHT just buy stock in Sharpie!!!)


And it MUST still be rainin' on me!!!  I participated in Color Combos Galore blog hop a few days ago and when I logged on yesterday I saw that I won a set of handmade butterflies from Kelly!!!  I PROMISED her that I wouldn't hoard them so I'll show some kreations using them soon! THEN, I find out that my page had been chosen as the gallery fave on Color Combos on the 19th!

AND an email today saying the same page has been added to the Featured Pages gallery!!!

I logged into Pinterest and saw this:

(one of my FAVORITE older pages had been pinned!!!) and I got a message from Natty saying, "Congrats on being featured in the Two Peas newsletter!"  Wait...WHA...???  

HUHN...MIGHT NOT be such a bad time to try out for this team...you know, strike while the iron's hot!!!

Also, I received a blog award from my main chica, Pam!

So I've been instructed to thank the person who gave the award to me, tell you 8 things about me and pass this to seven others!  Thank you my sister ...you know I love you like Hot Tamales!!!  And speaking of Hot Tamales, that's fact number one!
1.  They are my favorite EVA candy!!!  I would eat them when I was
    pregnant with my middle and little boys and I could smell the 
    cinnamon in my breast milk...I thought that was the coolest!!!
    (Don't worry...I tasted it to make sure I didn't burn the 
    kids' mouths!!!)
2.  No matter WHAT I DO...what I'm feeling is written all over my
    my face!  I try SOO hard to disguise it...especially when I'm
    thinking "UGH!" but it doesn't work!
3.  I always wished my first name was Kelly.  In elementary school
    I would write my name as "Keandra Rachelle Kelly Theresa 
    Perkins" (Theresa is my confirmation name...I started out 
    as a good Catholic school girl!)    
4.  My favorite color is red.  Maybe that's why I have a jones
    for Hot Tamales...hmmmm
5.  I always wanted daughters.  I bought all girl clothes with son
    one and cried as I exchanged them.  I bought SOME girl clothes
    with son two and DIDN'T cry when I exchanged them.  I bought 
    some girl clothes with son three.  Then, I got a teenaged 
    stepdaughter.  I happily skipped to the store to exchange the
    girl clothes.  And just like that...I was cured of EVA wanting
    another vagina to reside in my house.  Sorry...just sayin'
6.  I'm EXTREMELY sensitive.  I cried while watching America's Got
    Talent the other day because the homeless dancer made it 
    through to the semi-finals
7.  I always root for the underdog (see number 6)
8.  I love HARD.  If I'm down for you there's almost NOTHING I 
    wouldn't do to see you happy.   But if you cross me...

I actually have fun doing those "getting-to-know me" posts!  And I have seven ladies who ABSOLUTELY deserve this award:

1. Chary

2. Natty

3. Tami

4. Cinds

5. Chal

6. Laura

7. Miche

And I'll ask that you spread some love: click on each name to be taken to that chica's spot.  Be nice...leave a comment!  And tell 'em Keandra Rachelle Kelly Theresa Perkins Willis sent ya!!!

Do you ever get that feeling...

...that when it rains it pours?  I don't mean in a Katrina-sweeping-away-lives rain.  I mean a warm, gentle "wanna-put-on-my-rain-boots-and-play-in-a-puddle rain.  So, I logged into Facebook the other day and saw the following poem on my son's wall:

One day when I get to your kingdom
and finally understand the true meaning of freedom,
I will only have one question to ask
Please allow me to look at my childhood past
to finally and truly see
that the truth will set you free
and that evil is only within the mind
that we must leave the faulty errors behind
for when we see Your rod
we know it is You, 
our only hero,
God.

I like it.  So I asked who wrote it and he responded, "me".  I am SOO proud of my kreative kids!!!  I love that he said it "just came to me and I had to write it down!"  and I was INSTANTLY inspired to scrap document this!  The current challenge at Color Combos Galore was the perfect palette for me to quickly complete this layout:

This is the one I made for Mahd to keep...I'm still working on ours.  He smiled when he saw it today...I don't know if that really means anything since he smiles when you LOOK at him!  I also happened to visit Sassafras' blog and saw that the July challenge is to mix and match different Sass lines.  RIGHT UP MY ALLEY!!!  Those letters on the page above?  They're Sassafras circa 1914!!!  I exaggerate but they ARE at least five years old!  I've been doing really well with using my stash this year and letter stickers for journaling helps me out quite a bit!  My goal is to attend summer CHA next year with a clean slate!  I mean, I have some papers and embellies that I'm just stocked up on (like Scenic Route graph papers and alphabet stickers!)  But I wanna do away with the stuff I'm HOARDING!  Someone else can use them and I can use the SPACE!  I'll get off my soapbox now and show you the page I made:

This picture was taken during one of Mahd's football practices.  I almost always take the camera because I never know what memories I might capture!  This particular day, Kea had tried several times to run out on the field and join the practice and I kept reeling him back!  I guess he wore himself out (it WAS about 95 degrees!) and sat down on my lap in submission and I pounced with the cam!  I LOVE messy pages so this really makes me happy!  I just saw that Sass has a few challenges going on this week while they're away at CHA so maybe I'll get to play some more with them...IF I get two minutes to rub together!!!


The July kit has been revealed over at Kreatorville (go SEE!!!)and two of the pages I completed were featured in the post.  But, this kit inspired me so much that I actually did about TWENTY pages, some cards AND some home decor items!  I know having a trillion pix from the Man's birthday party  inspired me and I did a few 8x8's for his book:

But I just also loved the papers and colors SOO much!  Crate Paper ALWAYS makes me swoon and the Campy Trails line by American Crafts...ahh, the MASCULINITY of it...LOVE! Coupled with the AWESOME handmade Aptly Kreative embellishment for the July kit they're PERFECT for this Mahd page:

My son LOVES chicken!  It's kinda like Bubba from Forrest Gump with fowl instead of shrimp.  He'll eat it any way; he'll eat it any day.  He'll eat it on bread or standing on his head.  It's late...the Dr. Seuss comes out in me!  I actually took these pix one day to time him and he finished EVERYTHING on his plate in THIRTY ONE MINUTES!  DAAAYYYYNG!!!!  Dude is serious about his chicken!  I'm glad I was able to use those corrugated Rusty Pickle numbers too.  I love them...a lot...but since I scrap mostly 8.5x11, they tend to overwhelm most pages I do!  I also got to use bits and pieces from vintage Kreatorville kits so this page makes me REALLY happy!!!


I'm soo excited but NERVOUS about tonight!  Remember when I told you that I was asked to participate in Masterful Scrapbook Design's July webinars?  Well, my show is scheduled for tonight (Tuesday, 19 July) at 9:30 EST...which is 8:30 my (Central Standard) time.  You can go HERE to subscribe to the webinar.  It's really an awesome deal: for $12.50 you have access to my webinar as well as the other three teachers for July (Celeste Smith, Vee Jennings and Lynnette Penacho) as WELL AS a free 12 lesson e-class!!!  I mean, I'm excited about dissecting my work with like minded individuals but what if I choke...literally.  What if all I can remember is "Hi my name is Kean".  Debbie will ask, "so on this page, what inspired you to tear the paper in that manner?"  and I'll be like giggle, giggle "did I tell you my name is Kean?"  It's just that I kinda have stage fright around peeps I don't know.  Here's my confession: when I was a little girl, I had an EXTREMELY raspy voice.  The doctor told my parents that when I was learning to speak, I obviously got a cold and started speaking with my false folds instead of the true vocal cords.  (Did you know you have false folds?  I didn't either.  And this has been your medical lesson for the day...you're welcome!)  So I was teased a lot when I was younger. My Daddy would call me Whispers which would have been cute if my classmates and the dude I had a crush on when I was six weren't telling me I sounded like a man.  Don't worry...I'm TOO cute to still be bothered by what some idiots said to me in 1865!  I'm not that little girl...dude, if God allows...I'll be forty in a few months!  It's just that I always get that twinge when I have to talk to people for the first time like, what will they think???  I'm sure it'll be fine because this lady (who makes me cry real tears when I laugh and this chica (who I happen to think is sweet as honey) will be there for support so I should be FINE...riiight????  I'll be back tomorrow to share some of the pages I kreated especially for Masterful Scrapbook Design!

The $5 Buffet.

No...not Chinese!  Though I could go for some steaming won tons right now...I digress!  I mean buffet...like

buf·fet ¹  (b-f, b-)n.

1. A large sideboard with drawers and cupboards.

2.

a. A counter or table from which meals or refreshments are served.

So, even though we don't have a hospital or Wal-Mart in my neighborhood, we have a cool thrift store.  It's actually in a strip mall and spans three store fronts.  I always dream of finding a $3 dinette set to refinish like all the thrifty divas out there so I try to visit this store a few times a month.  A couple of months ago I decided to stop in before dropping Mahd at football practice and I stopped breathing for a minute.  Whether it was from the beauty of this buffet

or all the dust emanating from it...I don't know.  And when Ms. Annie (yeah, baybee...I'm on a first name basis with her...what????) told me, "Oh, baybee...you can have that old thing for $5!"...I had to restrain myself because I almost shoved the money at her and pushed her down on the way out!  I'm glad I had the 5'11" teen with me because it took all three of us to get this into the back of my truck!  I had to rush home like the wind to get started on it!  See, I have that "startnotfinish" illness and I couldn't stand to see the disappointment in hubbs' eyes when he saw another incomplete project! I opened it up and found the bottom was wrapped in this YUMMY Christmas wrapping paper from 1852 and there were two white wire shelves

(which I bleached and placed in another cabinet to organize our canned goods).  I tried to remove the hardware which was actually STAPLED on and I had a mishap

What's sad is that I'm used to accidents like this...if you look closely at the tip of my index finger you'll see ANOTHER cut just starting to heal.  UMMM...so IXNAY on the EMOVERAY!  I decided to just cut around those pieces with my paintbrush and have a wipe handy for quick clean ups!!!

I didn't prime it...'cause I lost the primer and didn't want to explain to the hubbs why I needed more so soon.  Remember when Valspar gave out free samples a few months ago?  I got a couple of VINTAGE GREY (EB48-1) and it only took one full jar plus a DAB from another to achieve this:

Hubbs was even wowed...I added storage to our kitchen for $5 and a LITTLE BLOOD and sweat?  Who's the woman???  I'm linking up to these parties: