Scrapbook Challenges Blog Hop

Welcome to another installment of the Scrapbook Challenges Seasons of Change Blog Hop!  I hope you're enjoying your little trip through the interweb...if you've just stumbled upon me here (or have gotten lost along the way), you can find the beginning of the train at Brynn Marie's site.

We have a new crop of Design Team members joining the hop this season, so let me re-introduce myself.  I'm Chanell, a resident digi-designer.  I'm proud mama to four babies and a fur-baby, wife to a high school statistics teacher, and crazy woman who is packing to move in a month.  If you would, kindly say a prayer that our sale is finalized, we find a new house and I stay sane enough to keep designing!  Hahaha!

Speaking of designing, Brynn has put together a festive little sketch for the hop, and it's been a ton of fun to work with it!

It was the perfect direction to take a little scrapper redo of one of the first pages I ever designed.  It has been one of those "great idea, poorly executed" layouts that has always kinda bugged me.  You know the kind?  Here's my new page using Brynn's sketch (you can click to enlarge it):

Summertime Toes by Chanell Rigterink Credits Digital Kit: NSD 2011 Designer Blog Hop Collab by Design House Digital; Photo Corner: Gunhild Storeide; Border: Doodle Borders by Sahlin Studio; Sketch: SS01 by Brynn Marie; Font: Vaguely Repulsive

Ahhh, much better.  I love how the layering turned out, and I would never have thought of it without the sketch!  Yay!

Ok, so, down to business.  Prizes!

1. For one person who leaves a comment on all the blogs in the hop, they will get the Salt Air Collection from Cosmo Cricket.

2. For one person who does a layout based on the sketch and posts in the HOP ON section, will receive a $20.00 USD Gift Certificate to Scrapbook.com.

3. For inviting people to join the group one person will receive a mix of alcohol ink goodies from Ranger*.
AND
4. One new member over the weekend will ALSO receive a mix of alcohol ink goodies from Ranger*.

*colors may vary.

Awesome, right?  Thanks for hoppin' by and sayin' hi!  I look forward to seeing your take on the sketch in the gallery this weekend!

Your next stop on the hop is with one of our new members, Eka!

Enjoy!

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Eye Candy

Just some pages...just for grins...just to take my mind off waiting for the counteroffer on our house to be accepted!  Hahahaha!

Dare to Dream digital scrapbooking layout by Chanell Rigterink Credits Digital Kit: Art and Soul by Holly Designs and Sahlin Studio; Font: Waterfalls

Pink Flamingo Party digital scrapbooking layout by Chanell Rigterink Credits Digital Paper: 300 Days of Summer by Lauren Reid, Summer Minimalist Papers by Fruitloop Sally; Digital Embellishments: Frog Luau Add-On by Raspberry Road Designs; Font: Caitlin

Hoser digital scrapbooking layout by Chanell Rigterink Credits Digital Kit: Water Park Add-On by Sahlin Studio; Template: June 2011 Challenge Template by Amy Martin for The Lilypad; Fonts: Cry Kitty, Century Gothic

Aloha Halloween digital scrapbooking layout by Chanell Rigterink Credits Digital Papers: 300 Days of Summer by Lauren Reid, Summer Minimalist by Fruitloop Sally; Digital Embellishments: Beach Break by Amber Clegg; Fonts: Digs My Hart, Century Gothic

Touch the Sky digital scrapbooking layout by Chanell Rigterink Credits Digital Papers: For the Boys by Karen Funk; Overlay: Mist Vol. 4 by Gennifer Bursett; Photo Corner: Gunhild Storeide; Stitches: Stitch It Up 3 by Crisdam Designs; Fonts: Sponge Job, Traveling Typewriter, Ampersand

Blessings digital scrapbooking layout by Chanell Rigterink Credits Damask Paper: A Story of Friendship Add-On by Sahlin Studio; Paper and Butterfly: Art and Soul by Holly Designs and Sahlin Studio; Word Art: Small Blessings by Sahlin Studio; Stitching: 2011 NSD Collab by Design House Digitals; Fonts: I Love Derwin, Traveling Typewriter

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Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

I have a batch of these babies in the oven right now.  While I was mixing them, Pup came up and exclaimed, "Oh, those are my FAVORITE muffins, Mom!"  I figured that was a good enough recommendation for a blog post...

I got this recipe from a forum where someone else had apparently gotten it from the "Mad About Muffins" cookbook.  Just givin' props.

1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini

2 cups flour (I use 1 cup AP and 1 cup whole wheat)

1 tsp baking powder

1 tbs. baking soda

2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground cloves

1/4 cup baking cocoa

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

1 cup chocolate chips

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp. vanilla

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup buttermilk

Heat oven to 375.  In a large bowl, sift together dry ingredients.  Toast nuts in oven for 4 minutes.  Stir nuts and chocolate chips into flour mixture.

In medium bowl, mix together wet ingredients.  Add into flour mixture and mix well.  Stir in shredded zucchini.  Fill muffin tins and bake 20 minutes.  Makes 18 muffins.

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I Heart Faces: Let's Hear It For the Boys Challenge

The challenge of the week at I Heart Faces is Boys.  Yeah, I have three of those...so choosing just one photo was agonizing!  Don't even ask how many times I changed my mind over which to post...

In the end, I've decided on this shot of my youngest.  If I recall correctly, this was the only image from the whole shoot that turned out well at all...and it's a perfect glimpse into his personality.  The twinkle, the smirk, just daring you to ask what's going on inside that three-year-old imagination.  All boy, this child is, from his spikey cow-licked hair to his bare toes!

Mischievous

Thanks for looking (don't forget you can click the photo to enlarge it)!  And be sure to check out the other fab entries at I Heart Faces!

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The ORANGE Party

Pup has a great imagination.  And a total obsession with the color orange.  So, when I asked him what kind of birthday party he wanted when he turned four, no silly cartoon character would do.  He wanted ORANGE.

So, we ran with it!

Orange plates.  Napkins with a candle and a giant orange flame.  Orange tablecloth.  Every orange toy we could find to use as decoration.  A complete orange menu of his favorite foods: corn dogs, spicy chicken tenders, mac and cheese, cantaloupe, carrots and orange bell peppers, and jello with little mandarin oranges.  To drink?  Orange pop.  And for dessert, a carrot cake with bright orange frosting carrots.  I even managed to find a candle with orange polka dots!

Pup was in heaven.  It was orange as far as the eye could see.  Even his presents were orange.  An orange lunchbox, orange outdoor toys and a huge box of orange snackfoods from Auntie H. 

It was a great party.  I think that smile says it all!

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Living the Dream

It seems the boat still floats, the kids still like to fish, and the dog likes to sun himself from the bow.  We're living the dream...

P.S. Would you believe Hubs took this picture with his cellphone?!?

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Starting a Collection

I'm not much of a collector.  First, I have four children...and the quantity of "things" they treasure and insist on keeping is always growing.  I'm forever purging their belongings, and the thought of bringing more unnecessary things into our house (especially while we're trying to sell it) is really ridiculous.

Second, I'm incredibly cheap.  I mean thrifty.  No, I mean cheap.  I love shopping, but I hate spending more than a couple dollars on anything.  In fact, that's kind of how this new collection of mine has started...

I love the look of vintage cameras.  Can't shoot 'em, but I think they look cool.  Don't have a place to keep them, but something about them just speaks to me.  Maybe it's that I can imagine all the places they've been and things they've seen. 

Nonetheless, I've toyed with collecting them before and never started.  I found one a few months back at a Goodwill, but they were asking a whopping $5 for it, still in the case, and I couldn't pull the proverbial trigger.  But, I've thought about that camera a million times; I've checked back at that shelf in the store every time I've been there since.  So, when I ran across this Kodak Instamatic 314 at another thrift store this morning, I didn't hesitate.

Of course, it helped that it was only a dollar.  It doesn't have a case and it's definitely broken, but I bought it anyway.  Broke the ice, so to speak.  I've discovered that this particular model is older than me, selling for $38 between 1968 and 1971.  Something totally nonsensical about that makes my heart go pitter-pat...

So, I still have too many things in my house, and it's still silly of me to start collecting anything (let alone broken relics of cameras).  But I'm gonna do it anyway.  Because it brings me joy.

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