weekend randomness.

i cannot get enough Etsy. (thank you Studio Calico members, lol.) i have often confessed my love affair with office supplies, (especially vintage ones) so when i saw these on Steph's blog, i hopped on over to check things out. why i only ordered as many as i did i don't know, lol...because i will be definitely be needing more. and look how sweetly Aja packs these lovely labels beafore sending them...and that yellow lace??!! WOW!! check out her etsy store if you too are a label luvah...you will not be disappointed!

planning on spending a quiet weekend at home...minus a few traditional trips here and there. Labor Day weekend usually means the Milan Melon Festival for the yummy watermelon and canteloupe ice cream, an hour or two spent at St. Jude's during the parish festival playing $0.25 bingo with Allie and a trip to St. Rocco's in Cleveland to light a candle for Dad during their annual festival. (for some reason, Labor Day weekend around here = LOTS of festivals) nothing too terribly exciting, but we enjoy our little things to do every year.

this afternoon, Mr. Harper and Allie will be glued to the t.v. watching these guys... GO BUCKS!! let's hope today is the start of another amazing season!!

i have been having the urge to 'play' lately while i scrap. not sure if it's the free time while Allie's at school, or the imminent change in weather that will be heading our way before we know it (i always look forward to autumn)...but i did notice that when you just sit down and enjoy yourself, the mojo seems to flow a bit better. i don't know, lol...just my theory. really had fun with these layouts...playing with paint, my sewing machine and my old typewriter are usually guaranteed to perk me up and bring a smile to my face. kinda what you would call a 'sure thing', lol.

hoping to clean the house this weekend as well. it's amazing how fast 'stuff' accumulates just after you clean...seriously, amazing. where the heck does all of this stuff come from?!

after much prompting from a friend (thank you Emily, lol), i changed my avatar pic over there to the right. it's funny that while you don't necessarily notice change in yourself, others do. i hadn't seen a noticeable difference...but i look at this face everyday in the mirror, lol. so thanks to Em for the push and thanks to Allie for our impromptu photo shoot this morning. thank goodness i have a child who still loves to play around with her mama.

i am officially immersed in the villainous pit that is FaceBook. (thank you Joy, lol) it really is a neat tool to keep up with friends and people that you don't see often...i don't know who the heck actually reads this blog, but if you're a member of FaceBook, look me up!

i was tagged by the super-sweet Michele Skinner the other day...that crazy girl needs to move closer to Cleveland...that's all there is to it. i can't figure out how to add the fun pic that goes along with the tag, but i will indeed pass the tag along to 7 friends. here are the rules...

1) The winner can put the logo on their blog. (since i couldn't figure this out, you can grab it from Michele's blog...i'm sure she won't mind, lol.)
(2) Link the person you received your award from.
(3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
(4) Put links of those on yours.
(5) Leave a message on the blogs of the girls or boys you’ve nominated.

so here are my 'nominees', lol...

Nicole Samuels...because i honestly don't know anyone sweeter.

Davinie Fiero...because she keeps me laughing long-distance.

Jenn Emch...because she is the definition of what a best friend should be.

Emily Pitts...because she is often the 'flip' to my 'flop', lol.

Joy Madison...because we share a brain...and this is a good thing.

Stephanie Howell...because she continues to keep on truckin'.

April Foster...because her style is how i want to be when i grow up, lol.

so go check out their blogs, ok?

hoping to scrap a bit this weekend...anyone else planning on being crafty?

=)

Iconic.

the name of September's kit at Studio Calico...perfect.

it went on sale last night at midnight, and i will have to say that this month's DT gallery is another doozie...these ladies never cease to amaze me, time after time. here are my projects for this month...


this one cracked me up because Allie had the nerve to tell me she was psyched about her new bike because it has '24 inch rims'. seriously??!! where did she learn that, lol?!

had fun with an empty toilet paper roll and some paint on this one...hahaha
i LOVE the Anna Griffin tape that was in the Sophia add-on...so i used it as a border. and that Jenni Bowlin crepe ribbon? took my time folding it behind one of the AG journaling cards to make a fun ruffle.
my mini of old pics of me and the fam...i will confess that the main reason i chose this add-on was the mini album and the exclusive SC numbers stamp. i used pieces of the pinked edge notebook paper that came with the kit on my other layouts and 'made' some 'pages' of my own to fit inside the book. when that notebook paper started dwindling down to tidbits, i decided to tear them in half, match up the edge against the chipboard cover and trim my own pinked edges. then i stuck that half piece under my pics and used it to journal...wanted to stretch it as much as i could, lol!

had a blast as usual...i know the 'Marilyn' add-on is sold out, but the others are still available as of right now! i just can't say enough about this month's offerings...the colors are right up my alley and everything is brand spankin' new from CHA.

so with Allie back to school, i'm getting back into the swing of my routine. actually able to catch up on laundry...keep the house tidy for the bulk of the day (lol)...rearrange furniture...you know, fun stuff. (bwahahaha) it's strange though for some reason this year, as i find myself wondering more frequently what she may be up to at school. her Open House/Back to School BBQ is this evening...we're looking forward to seeing her new school and meeting her teachers. she always gets so excited to show us around, introduce us to her friends, etc...i think she may look forward to Open House more than we do, lol.

got home after a looooooooooooooong day at work last evening and she was sobbing...apparently she had forgotten her FIRST homework assignment in her desk. ay yi yi. she was thinking she could do it today, but i spent the better part of 20 minutes trying to calm her down. i just told her to go right to Mrs. Jurega first thing this a.m. and ask her what to do...but to be prepared for a 'scolding', lol. this caught our attention for 2 reasons: one, she is a straight A student. and she LOVES homework (weird, i know)...so for her to forget it in her desk was odd. two, the fact that it took 20 minutes to settle her down was unusual. she's so easygoing that for her to carry on like that you'd have thought the sky was falling.

so i think we'll chalk that one up to new 4th grader-9 year old girl-you couldn't possibly understand drama. if that was a glimpse of what's headed our way, we are in for trouble.

no big plans for the holiday weekend...we are pretty low-key and tend to stick close to home. we usually head out to the Melon Festival in Milan for some of their yummy homemade watermelon ice cream...the canteloupe is divine as well...so that may be the only venture out of the yard this weekend.

hope you enjoy your long weekend!!

t minus 1...

can you tell she's excited to go back?

i will definitely count myself as one of the lucky people whose child actually looks forward to the start of school...i understand that this isn't always the case, lol. but girlfriend is all packed up, the outfit is chosen, the lunch contents bought and all that stands between us and 4th grade is 18 hours.

wow...4th grade.


i still remember taking her to pre-school that first time.

and crying my eyes out when she walked away as if i didn't exist, lol.

but i was so proud of her for that...i was worried since she is an only child that there may be some drama & clinginess, but man was i wrong.

and she's never looked back.

she's starting at a new school...ours was one of 2 that were closed in Elyria. but rather than be nervous, she is thrilled. i believe the quote went something like...

'Mom, i'll know people from my old school anyway. but it's the new people that i'm excited about...think of all the new friends i'm gonna have!!'

that's our girl...social butterfly of Elyria, lol.

so as usual, the anxiety lies only within her mama...who is flat-out freaking out that she is starting 4th grade.

but i'll be ok.
=)



my last sneaks for Studio Calico's September kit...going on sale this Wednesday evening at midnight EST. i couldn't even begin to choose my favorite part...

(and notice, i even caved and used some of the houndstooth goodies, lol...SO not me, but they definitely fit with some of my 1970s pics, lol)

oh...and i happened upon the Pink Paislee blog last evening...if you love glitter you may want to check it out...Rebecca has gone crazy and is giving away a FULL SET of ALL 15 PIXEE STIX!! trust me when i tell you that the colors are AWESOME. my faves include some that aren't metallic...they look like crystal sugars you would decorate Christmas cookies with!!

so you know they must be good, right?!

have a great week!!

is this time of year crazy for anyone else??

because i just feel like we are running constantly...

go.
go.
go.

just getting home from Allie's soccer tournament and am proud to say that they came in 2ND!!! HUGE news, considering all of last season they only won 1 game and they've had the entire summer off. these girls are really turning it around...and i'm also so proud of Mike for leading them in their quest for greatness. (hahaha)

thought i'd post my first sneaks for Studio Calico's September kit...i know we say it every month, but WOW.

to help you understand, for me...

green + blue = awesome.

green + blue + yellow = nirvana, lol.




quite a few SC exclusive stamps in the main kit and add-ons this month...and i adore them. i'm still working on a few more layouts, so i should have more sneaks later in the week.

lots going on around here and we're just trying to keep up, lol. only 1 more week before Allie heads back to school...i can't believe she's starting 4th grade...and hopefully things will calm down a bit. i'll end with a pic of some flowers my mama brought me the other day...from the $1 bouquet roadside stand owned by the cute little old man...
pretty easy way to make someone's day...thanks mom!

glad to be home.

for real.

it had been a long time since Mike & i had visited Canada, and let's just say we're happy to be home! not that we didn't have a good time...the Harper's always find a way to have fun...but we hit a few snags along the way. nothing we couldn't work out, but it was trying at times.

confession: i don't have many fears. but THIS is probably my biggest...bridges. and this would be the ginormous Peace Bridge we passed to enter Canada. i absolutely HATE bridges. it doesn't matter if they look completely sturdy, if they have huge guard rails, if they are 5 lanes or 2...i hate them. if i'm driving and have to go over one, the tell-tale sign that i'm freaked is that i shut up completely (ha) and have the white knuckle thing going on due to gripping the wheel so tightly. my family knows this...so they try to talk me through/over the bridge while we're on it. and i appreciate it...but i still am terrified. so in a feeble attempt to divert my attention away from the fact that there were gajillions of gallons of water flowing beneath us, i snapped a few pics. didn't exactly work, but i'm alive.

we spent our first 2 days here...at Canada's Wonderland. it's owned by Cedar Fair, so our season passes to Cedar Point allowed us to get in for free.




which i am grateful for, because if we had spent our hard-earned money there, i would have had to complain to someone.

i guess we're just spoiled. Cedar Point runs like a well-oiled machine...very efficient in my opinion as far as getting people on and off the rides, the food service peeps doing what they can to make your meal enjoyable, etc. Wonderland lacks just about all of that...they only load 1 or 2 trains of people at a time on all of their coasters, everything is very lacksadaisical (i know that isn't spelled right, lol) and there is no ranch.

what??

we had chicken fingers for lunch and they don't offer ranch as a compatible condiment.

they offered us either barbecue, sweet & sour or PLUM sauce.
i don't even want to know what that is.

so we asked for a ton of ketchup, lol.
and Mike ordered a burger...and asked for a packet of mayo.
they don't offer that either.

clearly, they have issues with cream-based condiments.

i don't know that i want to live in a world where ranch isn't an appropriate thing to dip your chicken fingers into.
(ok, that's a bit dramatic, lol...but we were taken aback)

Allie had fun taking lots of pics this trip...it's fun to see things through her view, i think. like the self-portrait above...i don't think she did too badly.

what Wonderland lacked in ranch, they made up for in chocolate choices.

WOW.

i tried an Aero bar with caramel in it, and it is divine. it's fun to try things that you aren't able to get at home...and seeing as it was WAY yumm-o, it's probably for the best that it isn't available here, lol.

they have a really cool mountain with a waterfall in the center of the park...

i do have to say that their park is much more scenic than CP...not as carnival/midway-ish. it was nice just to walk around and take it all in.

then we ran into Spongebob and Patrick.

on the second day, we went to the waterpark first...an entirely different ball of wax.

i'll just sum it up with a story about me heading to the 'changing house' to get out of my suit before we walked around for the rest of the evening. at CP, it is a huge building filled with stalls to privately get dressed in.

here, not so much.

i walked into some kind of scene from i don't know what, lol. there were women everywhere in various stages of undress...getting into and out of their swimsuits...and only 5 stalls. so i waited in the relatively short line for one of those. a gal in front of me turned around and asked if i was American...and then proceeded to mention that she wasn't surprised i was waiting for privacy...after all, we are known for being pretty uptight.

umm...ok?
as soon as a stall opened up i ran in, got dressed and got the hell out, lol.

the next day, on the way home we stopped by Niagara Falls. it was kind of rainy and overcast, but we figured we were going to get wet on the Maid of the Mist thingy anyway, so off we went...down this incredibly steep hill from the parking lot.

the Falls never fail to cause me to catch my breath...seeing something so powerful and beautiful at the same time just gives me chills.
the sun popped out just before we boarded the Maid of the Mist...i had brought along a disposable underwater camera to get pics instead of chancing my good camera getting wet, so hopefully we were able to get some neat shots. still have to develop those...but Allie posed at the gift shop to prove to my Mom that we were there...
then we set out for Clifton Hill...thanks to Tara for suggesting it on my last blog post! it was actually alot of fun...and full of all of those touristy things you have to do the first time you go...Allie LOVED it.


she met Tiger Woods while there. (ok, ok...he was wax, but she loved it anyway)

any man who lives by these words has to be ok in my book.
Mike and A wanted to go on this...umm, no.
i offered to wait at the bottom with my feet planted on the ground, but they laughed it off and said they were just teasing me...nice.

i was AMAZED at how many of these stinkin' doughnut shops there were...EVERYWHERE we went in Canada, lol! it's odd actually, because we couldn't find any restaurants to save our lives...you'd think that around a tourist trap like an amusement park there'd be scads of food options...WRONG. we found one place that was kind of like a Friday's the first night, but that was it. unless you wanted doughnuts...then the world was your oyster, lol.
ran into my man Orlando Bloom, aka Will Turner there as well...now if i had only seen Justin...
after leaving the Falls, i was sitting in the car...reading the latest issue of CK while trying to divert my attention once again from the bridges we were crossing...and i came to the directory section in the back. was scanning over the New York stores, and remembered that my dear friend Joanne from Studio Calico raved about her LSS that was in Buffalo. so i mentioned to Mike that if we happened to see the exit that was mentioned in the ad, maybe we could see if they were open.

they were...and it really is a great store! i asked at the counter about Joanne, and the gal mentioned that she was working 2 doors down at the salon...so Allie and i mosied on over and asked about her. she was finishing with a client, so we plopped down and waited for her to walk out. i think she truly was surprised when she saw us there on the couch, lol...it took her a second, but then the look on her face said it all. so happy to have met you Joanne...and i'm sorry if we got in your way! i would have loved to have talked all night...she really is just as sweet as i had imagined she would be.

so we're happy to be home...an adventure is always fun.

but coming home is the best part.

feeling sentimental.

about this girl. i'm not sure if it's her age. or her attitude. or maybe just that i'm enjoying spending so much time with her this summer. but i know for certain that this time in our lives is good.

for so many reasons, my relationship with my daughter is a gift. we disagree on a lot...don't get me wrong, lol...but there are so many things that we see eye to eye on that i am constantly reminded that she is me, only on a younger level. like the way she enjoys 'alone' time...when she needs a break from running around outside, she'll come in and go up to her room to sit down with a new book. she may only be there for 30 minutes or so before she heads back out, but she enjoys time to herself every now and then.

or how she constantly questions
every
single
thing
going on around her.

and at times this seems annoying, but then i realize that i am the exact same way. i usually have a hard time with the 'because that's just how it is' explanation...if i can't get a concrete answer as to why something works a certain way, i'm shooting out questions galore, lol. i don't just want to know the answer...i want to understand it.

she loves to stay up late. not acting crazy...not making noise...just lying in bed watching Home Improvement (her newly discovered fave show, lol...). so our routine for this summer has been in the house by 9pm, bath, up to her room until 10pm doing whatever she wants (usually coloring or reading), and then lights out at 11pm. she falls asleep within a few minutes after the lights go out and either Mike or I sneak up to turn off her tv. maybe that's too late of a bed time for her, but it works...she isn't crabby the next day, and it's SUMMER! the only time during the school years that you can break the rules, so it's all good.

Mike and i both started our vacations today...we were supposed to head up into Wisconsin for a quiet stay at the summer home of one of his clients with Jenn and her family. that plan fell through when Wisconsin was it by those horrible storms several weeks ago, and the house was struck by lightning...leaving it with absolutely no power. now, we were all geeked up about a relaxing week by the lake, but doing that 'camping style' just isn't my idea of fun, lol. the guy has contractors working on the house, but it won't be finished until late August...so we'll try again next summer, lol.

so we knew we wanted to get away, but had no idea what to do...especially last minute. so while we were both at work one day, Allie got online and looked up Cedar Fair's website. they are the company that owns Cedar Point and several other parks...

so when i came home, she was waiting at the door and the conversation went something like this:
'Mom, i found somewhere for us to go on vacation.'
'ummm...where??'
'Canada.'
(i immediately look over her shoulder to Mike, who assures me that i should just hear her out.)
hesitantly i say 'ok...'
'we can go to Toronto. there is a place there called Canada's Wonderland and it is owned by Cedar Fair so our Cedar Point passes are good there and we can go for free. then on the way home, we can stop by Niagara Falls and ride the Misty boat down on the water.'
(now i look at Mike again...and his eyebrows are raised, indicating he is impressed with her research.)

so before we commit, he looks online to see if there are any hotels available...which there were, so that's where we're headed next week for a few days. he and i have only been to Toronto and the Falls once...before we had Allie, so i think we're all looking forward to our unexpected adventure. especially Allie...who is over the moon about visiting another country, lol.

but this is just another example of her not letting life get in her way. our plans fell through, and she took it upon herself to find something else for us to try. she has a difficult time accepting 'we can't' as a reason not to do something...just like her mama.

we went shopping for a few school clothes on Tuesday afternoon...and had a blast. no arguing, no crazy requests and no frustration. what we did have was a good time and lots of laughs.

i guess i am just taken aback at how mature she can be. only child syndrome?? there's probably a touch of that in there...but i think deep down, it's just who she is. sure we have our disagreements, but overall there aren't too many of note.

and every single day we spend together reminds me once again of how fortunate i am to have such a wonderful young lady in my world.

so there it is...i'm feeling sentimental.