Tag!

I have been having a great time working with the December kit from The Paper Trail Store (http://www.leaveapapertrail.com/zencart). I especially love how you can create black and white pages with pops of color, which I though was perfect for this layout of our first (and so far only) trip to the Albuquerque Auto Show.

For this create-a-tag challenge I used one of the stickers from the kit to create a journaling tag. I can't wait to see what everyone else does for this challenge!

Movies you can watch with Jesse

Building on my earlier post, these are movies I would absolutely watch again (in no particular order):

Kung Fu Hustle (2004)
The Bourne Trilogy (2002 - 2007)
Babel (2006)
The Chronicles of Riddick (2004) only for serious fans of mindless sci-fi action
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Serenity (2005)
Seven Samurai (1954)
The Constant Gardner (2005)
Charlie Wilson's War (2007)
Primary Colors (1998)
The Social Network (2010)
Event Horizon (1997)
The Fog of War (2003)
Riding Giants (2004)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)

Movies to Hate with a Passion

Krystle and I just watched one of the most horrendous things I have ever seen, charmingly entitled Eat Pray Love (2010, with Julia Roberts). I hated this movie from just after the opening credits, though I will admit that my utter lack of sympathy for the main character likely comes more from me than any egregious issues with her.

Regardless, this spurred me to make a list of the recent movies that I hate, with a passion, to warn you, our friends in the blogosphere, before your precious evenings are ruined. Feel free to spew your own cinematic venom in the comments.

In no particular order, and without explanation:

Eat Pray Love (2010)
Atonement (2007)
Sex and the City (all of them)
Green Zone (2010)
The Departed (2006)
The Time Traveler's Wife (2009)
Anger Management (2003)
Bride Wars (2009)

Vegas baby, VEGAS!

The title above is how Dave summarized our trip to run the Rock 'n Roll half marathon. We had a lot of hang out time the days before, stuffed ourselves ("carbo loaded") at a French themed buffet, walked more than we wanted to up and down the strip, and eventually ran the half right through the action. Check it out. Dan and I set personal best times while Dave and Tiffany finished looking like they wanted to do it again. For my trouble I received a solid metal participant's medal and all the bananas I could eat, which turned out to be 1.

The highlights were a dirty old man and his acolytes handing out beer at about mile 4 and a guy in a Marines shirt that we passed at mile 2 rolling by me at mile 13.

Check us out:

Stamping

I have to admit that I do not stamp all that often so I am glad that The (paper) Trail Makers Challenge Blog is challenging everyone to stamp on their projects. For this challenge I used tone-on-tone stamping (a technique that I have never tried before) and used the stamped cardstock as part of my background:

I created this layout with the beautiful December kit from The Paper Trail store, which you can find here: http://www.leaveapapertrail.com/zencart/.

Thankful

We were able to see almost everyone on Jesse's mom's side of the family for Thanksgiving at Pop Pop's. We were also able to celebrate two very special birthdays:

We are thankful for lots of family fun!

Trail Makers Blog Hop

There are two exciting things going on at the Trail Makers -- the first is the debut of the lovely December kit and the second is a blog hop to show you what the design team has done with it! So first things first, here is the kit! It features Lily Bee's Christmas Town line with a good helping of embellishments, including Prima flowers, Thickers, and ribbon. You can get more details and purchase the kit at the Paper Trail Store: http://www.leaveapapertrail.com/

My favorite thing about this kit is that it is so versatile that you can use it for any type of layout. Here, I used the kit (along with candy cane stickles, which you can also find at the store) to create a layout of my inlaws' trip to visit us in New Mexico. I especially love the sheer red ribbon that I pleated and taped to give extra dimension and richness to this layout.

If you are interested in seeing what the other design team members did with this kit, hop right along with us. If you came here from Jen's blog, head over to Karen's next: http://leaveapapertrail.blogspot.com/. If you came here first, go back to the beginning of the hop at the Trail Makers blog: http://www.trailmakers.blogspot.com/. I am sure you will be amazed at all of the beautiful projects and there are PRIZES involved!

Save the Date (Trail Makers Blog Hop)

You are cordially invited to join us here on December 1st at midnight EST to debut the December Paper Trails Kit. Believe me it is full of absolute GORGEOUSNESS!!!! Each of the Design Team Members will have a DEBUT project to share with you using the kit and a little birdie told me that there will be RAK's too! Then you will want to race to the Paper Trails store to purchase the December Kit because they will be gone quick as a wink. Karen truly outdid herself this time!!! The blog hop will last until December 4th at 11pm EST and then RAK's will be pulled on December 5th and announced!!! Are you ready to get your hop on?

To hold you over until then, here is another layout that I made using the November kit. Check out the full kit here:

http://leaveapapertrail.com/zencart

A Page in Time Scrapbook Kits

I am this month's guest designer at A Page in Time Scrapbook Kits and was fortunate enough to design with their Making Memories Reverie kit, which was perfect for these pictures from Karl's wedding:

Check out the guest design team announcement and the kits here: http://apageintimescrapbookkits.blogspot.com/

Mouthwatering

Right now the (paper) trail makers challenge blog (http://www.trailmakers.blogspot.com/) is having another challenge -- to create a layout that has something to do with food -- and they are giving away beautiful embellishments from the Parisian Anthology line if there are at least 10 participants! You have until next Saturday (the 27th) to enter. Here is what I came up with for the challenge:

I will admit it -- I am not very good in the kitchen. Which is why I surprised myself when I made a delicious pie for Jesse's 30th birthday. This is the recipe that I used for the crust, which was flakey and delicious!

I love how the Jenni Bowlin papers really added to the home-y feel of this layout. I also used a Jenni Bowlin vintage button and a black button from Basic Grey's Cappella collection.

October Layouts

Despite being super-busy this past month, I managed to get some layouts done (mainly in the first part of the month). This first layout is of Karl and Emily's wedding reception and I used MME's Lush collection in pink (you can't tell very well but the paper is flocked).

I conquered my fears of mists in this next layout. I misted the Fancy Pants background paper with some of my brand new Smooch Spritz.

And I made another zipper flower for this layout, which was pretty fun too.

In this clean and simple layout, I layered some of Teresa Collins's Giving Thanks papers, which are so pretty, and just added Making Memories alphabet sickers.

And last but not least, I finished another sparkly Christmas layout with specialty paper from The Paper Studio and Doodlebug, Making Memories glitter alphas, and a Kaisercraft wood star and a nativity cut-out that I painted with Ranger metallic paint dabbers.



I can't believe that Thanksgiving (and Christmas) are almost here again!

New Mexico Employment Law Desk Reference

You may or may not know that the Labor and Employment Group of my law firm (of which I am a part) has been working for over 2 years to publish a book: The New Mexico Employment Law Desk Reference. It is done, published, and we have even sold some to our clients (New Mexico employers).

Today we had a book signing party (all of us wrote chapters and/or assisted with editing the book).

And here we are -- all proud and liquored up:

Postcards from Paris

Right now Jesse and I are super-busy for work. I am just randomly busy and Jesse is preparing for a conference. If you are asking "didn't he just get back from a conference?" you would be correct! Despite the title of this post, Jesse's last conference was in Luxembourg, which is apparently really pretty and affluent. After his week-long conference came to an end, Jesse took a little detour to Paris, where he spent some time with his thesis advisor who is now a professor there.

This is Jesse eating a hamburger in Luxembourg (he has one in every new place he visits):



And this is a really cool war memorial for the Battle of the Bulge:
Luxembourg looks like a really nice place!

They certainly have more greenery than we do here in the desert!

And castles!

This is Jesse with some college friends.

Not surprisingly, the best resturant Jesse has ever been to is in Paris (this isn't it though).

The timing was perfect for Jesse -- he was in Paris for the Paris auto show.

Much better than the Albuquerque auto show!

Most importantly (to me) is that Jesse went to a chocolatier and picked up some chocolates to bring home to me (they are so good!)

He also had time to take in the more traditional sights, which are even prettier at night.

Amazing, huh?

Not Halloween

The challenge that is currently running on The (paper) Trail Makers Challenge Blog is to use Halloween papers on a non-Halloween layout. I decided not only to use Halloween papers on a non-Halloween layout, but I used them on a summer layout! I accomplished this feat by using the papers very creatively. The bright green strips on the top and bottom of the page are Scribble Scrabble's Jeepers Creepers Cats Bats and Hats. and the orange photo mat and flower are made from Scribble Scrabble's Jeepers Creepers Halloween Sampler. I also used Scribble Scrabble's Jeepers Creepers Scribbled Sentiments Die Cuts for the frame around my subtitle. One fun technique that I used in this layout was to create a zipper flower!

You can enter your own layout for the challenge here: http://www.trailmakers.blogspot.com/

Now a Kit Club!

Big news! The store connected with The (paper) Trail Challenge Blog is now a kit club! This month is the debut kit month and let me just tell you, the kit is stunning! It is packed full of Parisian Anthology and Portebello Road papers and lovely lace and ribbon and pearls!

Check out the kit here http://leaveapapertrail.com/zencart and take a peek at other layouts showcasing the kit here: http://trailmakers.blogspot.com/2010/11/this-is-it-our-big-announcement.html

Recipe Challenge

Better Scrap (http://www.betterscrap.com/) has a receipe challenge this week. I created this layout that features the pie that I baked for Jesse for his 30th birthday:

In this layout I used Midnight Black Discount Cardstock, embellishments from Gauche Alchemy's Acme Mixed Media Paper Crafting Kit, and For the Luv of Art Favorite Things Stamp Set. I also used papers and a button from Jenni Bowlin, My Mind’s Eye ribbon, Prima rhinestones, Ranger Stickles, a Sakura Glaze pen, and I tried my brand new Tim Holtz alpha die for the first time!

Art Freckles Blog Hop

Don't you love blog hops? I have participated in many a blog hop but my blog has never been one of the hop stops! Well, there is a first time for everything and today I am part of Art Freckle's fall blog hop.

Thanksgiving is fun with my inlaws because not only do we get a feast but there are muliple birthdays to celebrate that weekend as well! I created this layout using Teresa Collins's new fall line -- Giving Thanks -- which you can find at the Art Freckles online store (http://www.artfreckles.com/store/catalog/). While you're there, check out what is happening on the message board (http://artfreckles.com/forum/index.php).

There is a total of 8 stops on this hop so here is a full list so you don't miss any. If you are hopping in order, Jamie is next!

1. Art Freckles - http://artfreck.blogspot.com/
2. Linda Gunther - http://lindasueanne-scraps.blogspot.com/
3. Joanne Keminen - http://usinguptheprettypaper.blogspot.com/
4. Jill Sarginson - http://jillelizabethsarginson.blogspot.com/
5. Krystle Thomas - http://hightimesinthehighdesert.blogspot.com/ [you are here]
6. Jamie Harder - http://ahappyscrappyplace.blogspot.com/
7. Kayla DuPont - http://dream-bielieve-imagine-mustangkayla.blogspot.com/
8. Shannon Wyman - http://cre8yourself.blogspot.com/

{SAS}sy News

Super-exciting news! I am going to be a guest designer for Scrap Attack Scrapbooking! They have a great message board, online store, and blog, which you can check out here: http://scrapattackscrapbooking.com/index.htm

I want to share with you the layouts that I created for my design team application. I love this first one because these pictures of Chloe using chopsticks is so adorable! I used Basic Grey's Ambrosia collection for this layout, along with some embellishments from their June Bug line, some Bazzill rhinestones, and my favorite Thickers font.

I love the pictures in this next layout too because it warms my heart to see Jesse and Rachel playing in the snow. Aren't they adorable? I used some specialty paper from The Paper Studio and The Paper Company for the background and embellished it with American Crafts Thickers and rose ribbon, Jolee's Swarovski crystals, and Liquid Pearls.

This last layout is about the highlights from our trip to Boston, especially seeing the Car Talk office (one highlight not featured here is our dinner with Matt -- sadly we forgot to take pictures of that). I used Fancy Pants notebook paper, Discount Cardstock, Bazzill rhinestones, a Jenni Bowlin button, Pink Paislee pleated ribbon, MME Lush ribbon, and a Making Memories embellishment for this layout. I even used stamps (for the title and flourish) -- something that I need to do more often!

Banner Year

A new challenge is up at the (paper) Trail Makers Challenge blog and you are challenged to add banners to your layouts! Check out the details here: http://trailmakers.blogspot.com/

I wanted to make a bright, fun banner for this challenge and Creative Imaginations' Piece of Cake - Balloon Animals paper was just what I was looking for. The paper has a series of diamonds that I cut in half to make triangles for my banner. To finish the page, I used a bright white cardstock to make the colors in this layout pop even more.

Recycle, Reuse, Renew

Better Scrap (http://www.betterscrap.com/) has a "Recycle, Reuse, Renew" challenge this week. I used corrugated cardboard and other unusual items in this New Mexico layout:

Duke City Half Marathon

The Duke City 1/2 marathon was today. I was shooting for under 2 hrs or better, and came out well ahead of that at 1:49:23. I'd rate that as almost miraculous, and certainly a huge, fun blessing. You can check out my splits at Garmin:

Duke City Half Marathon by jessedavidthomas at Garmin Connect - Details

Everyone else ran great as well. Dave smoked us all, Dan was just a minute or two behind me, and Sarah and Tiffany came in well under 2.

Lots of fun.