Lamest of the lame bloggers

   Okay, so the last blog I posted I said how lame I was for not blogging for so long...and that was over a month ago. So this time I'm really, really lame and horrible and stupid and all that stuff. I think, in my mind, I need more followers to make this even worth it, so this may be my last-ditch effort at blogging. I really like sharing my stuff, but if no one is interested (and I totally get that no one is, why would they be, I'm just a normal person who does normal, boring stuff. It's not like I'm a circus performer or anything!), then why even bother? When I was blogging regularly, it was nice to have a kind of release for crap going through my mind. So, anyway, here goes the regular blog stuff.
   I mentioned in my last post (a month and a half ago, I know) about Google Reader. I'm probably really late in the game with this one, but I really love how it can organize all the blogs I follow in one easy place. I was bookmarking all these sites and checking them everyday to see if they had new posts or not. STUPID!! Now I just subscribe or follow the blog and they all show up nice and neat in my Reader! How so very convenient! So if you read my blog, get a Google Reader account and you can be a happy blog reader like I am! Too bad I don't have paid advertisers on this site...I just did a wonderful commercial for Google, huh?
    A lot has happened since my last post. My sister, brother-in-law and nieces came to visit for a week or so. They live in Washington state (about as far away from me as they can possibly get...maybe I should wonder about that?), and I only get to see them once or twice a year. It was awesome to see them and it was the first time that Maylee was actually old enough to enjoy the visit. She had a great time with her cousins. They got along like sisters, annoying and loving each other! Of course, my mom loved that they were here. She misses her other two granddaughters like crazy. I guess it was pretty nice to see her daughter, too, but she lives with her favorite one, now doesn't she (ha!)? The house was a complete disaster for a whole week, but what can you do with 3 girls under the age of 7?

The only picture I got of all three of them was in the tub, so I had to do a little cropping to make it internet-safe. Maylee's having more fun that it looks like...
    It has been crazy, miserable hot here. I really don't enjoy summer, but Maylee could care less how hot it is outside, so I try to let her see the sun every once in a while. Speaking of Maylee, it is just amazing to me how much she has learned. She can pretty much say everything now and communicate anything she needs to. She has even picked up the art of talking back to her parents. Fun. We're trying to nip it in the bud, because I'm not good at dealing with it, so I want her to get over this phase! She's generally a pretty good girl, but she likes to say "No, Mommy, I will not!" Then she usually comes over and says "I'm sorry, Mommy." She knows it's not "nice" to talk that way, but she can't seem to help herself, so she says it and then apologizes. AAhhh! I'm really trying to be patient.
    Let's see...in the past month I've read, of course, and I even went to the movies. I saw Eclipse with a girlfriend. Yes, I've jumped on the Twilight movie train. The books were okay, I read them way before they hit such popularity, but these movies....you have to admit, ladies, they have some VERY pretty boys in them. I mean, like, humina, humina!! As far as reading, I read the greatest book. It was called The Passage by Justin Cronin. It was a post-apocalyptic novel and it was HUGE and a great read. The apocalypse was brought on by vampires (or virals, as they're called in the book), but is far from your typical vampire novel. It was a great read. I highly recommend it! I also read the latest Janet Evanovich book, Sizzling Sixteen. It was hilarious, as usual for Evanovich. She's really the only bestselling author I read and she is so funny!
  Okay, on to scrapping. I haven't done a lot of scrapping, but I've been working really hard on organizing my kits and such. I know I've mentioned how bad I am about crediting scrap kits I've used and I've been working hard to remedy that and make it easier for myself when done with a page. So here are my recent pages, with credits!

This is a first for me because I learned how to blend a picture into the background! I took a tutorial from Misty Cato and she provided the clipping mask and the background paper in the tutorial! How awesome is that?! The elements are from Delicious Scraps Into Spring kit.

 These were Maylee's first pig tails. I know, I can't believe I waited until she was 2 years old, because they're heart-breakingly cute! She's just now letting me do her hair without too much fuss. This was done with the Stuff to Scrap April blog train, Simple pleasures. Blog trains are awesome. At the CT (creative team) members of a store get together and make one huge scrap kit. With everyone contributing a little, a huge kit can be made. It's great for us freebie-hunters!

This was done with Modern June's Cool Pool party kit. She has great freebies and great sales on her kits pretty often.

I used Raspberry Road's Fruit Salad kit for this page. I really like their elements. They have a real graphic feel that I like.

Next I made my usual monthly page. These are done with Cuddle Beez month pages. Unfortunately, Brenda is taking some time off, so we won't get freebies from her for a while.

This next one I whipped up really quick and was so pleased with how it turned out. I taught myself how to change the color of elements in Photoshop, and I've been playing with that. I made everything blue to go along with her beautiful eyes. This is the only page I won't be able to credit because I got all these elements here and there. Sorry!

The next page is probably my favorite page I've ever made. A lot of scrapper do this style of scrapping. I call it "reality scrapping." They use actual graphics instead of scrapbook elements to make pages. They've always intrigued me, but I feel like I'm not creative enough to do them. I've been practicing my extractions in PS (that's cutting out something from a picture), and I thought it would make a great reality scrap page. I used Raspberry Road's Nature retreat to do this page.

So that's all I've got! If I keep up on this blog thing, my posts won't be so long! I'll try for that next time.