More Cosmo Cricket!

More projects for Scraplovers! I really love this paper line!

Scraplovers projects!!!

This month's sponsor is Cosmo Cricket!!! I love the "Be Good" line! Christmasy, for sure, but the colors can be used for so much more!

Speaking of Christmas, how are you doing with your shopping? I've got a long way to go!!! Hopefully I can take a day next week to shop a bit! I need to go out this week and buy a couple of gifts for some residents at the nursing home where I work (as part of our annual party for them given by the staff) and a book for a book exchange at my dd's school. I've still got family members to buy for as well!

Hope everyone is doing well!

Just a little card!

Just a quick card I made for Tin Box Creations using their "Laughlines" and "Youth Upper Alphabet" stamp sets! Inks are by Colorbox!

Baby, you can drive my car....

I created this car for a challenge over at Create my Keepsakes using Cosmo Cricket papers and felt! Assembling the wood car model kit from the Target dollar spot was, well, challenging! But I love the end result! I wanted to give it to my dd to play with, but I don't think that's going to happen now! LOL!!!

Comfort ye, my people...

It's that time of the year again. It's time for me to pull out my Handel's Messiah CD so I can listen to it full blast on my car stereo! My old car that I just spent $700 fixing. Yes, that's what happens when you ignore the obnoxious sound created by a rotten CV boot, yet you continue to drive it. The result is a ruined axle! whoopsie.... Did I mention that the starter had gone bad, too? And the transmission fluid leak? Driving a 9 year old car is GLORIOUS!!! Glorious, I tell you.... LOL!!!

On to more serious thoughts...

Comfort ye my people...

One of my favorites from Handel's Messiah is this one. Comfort ye my people, saith your God. I really hope He hears our collective need as a planet for comfort. When all goes awry, you have a rotten day, a rotten week, a rotten year... tragedies beyond your control. I'm not even talking about my life. There has been much death and destruction at the hand of nature this year. That doesn't even consider the harm we have inflicted on each other. What we need is comfort... plain and simple.

And here are a few funny thoughts...

We just returned from our annual Thanksgiving vacation. My 2 year old decided that one of the chair cushions in the rental house made a more appropriate canvas for her ink pen than her paper did! My mil washed the cushion cover, getting most of the ink out with some hair spray and stain treater. It did just fine in the washer the first go round... but with the second, it completely fell apart at the seams. Good thing I remembered seeing that the local quilt shop had sewing machines you could use in the back of their store! They graciously allowed us to use the machine to repair the cover. I, of course, made a few obligatory purchases... and now I am afraid that sewing projects may take over for my scrapping habit!!! LOL!!!!

Oh, and wouldn't you know.... I was one of the crazies outside the doors of Wal-Mart at 5 AM on Black Friday. My sil called me the day before with a crazy idea for a Christmas gift, and theirs was the best price! But I went, I saw, I conquered!!! I got what I was after (plus a few other things, too!!!)

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving, too!!!

Some backyard visitors....

My older dd had just asked me on Friday if she could buy a blue jay. I tried to explain to her that those are wild birds and could not buy one, but we could make a nice spot for them to hang out in our yard and, hopefully, they will come!

So, imagine her surprise when a FLOCK (and I do mean a flock!) of bluebirds arrived in our yard on Saturday! She decided she could settle for these!

We also had several yellow rumped warblers (thanks to a couple of OLP members for the ID!!!). One of these perched right on our chimney!

I used my longest lens to capture these, but it still wasn't long enough!!!

Time for another Scraplovers reveal!!

Here are a couple of layouts using the fabulous Luxe Designs papers!! We focused on "bling" for this technique team theme this go round!!!
I also used stamps from Tin Box Creations!!!

Another silly story!

We went out to dinner last night to a Mexican restaurant, and after we had finished eating, my older dd accidentally spilled her drink... ice and Sprite went all over her leg and onto the floor!

We reassured her that it was just an accident, and that these things happened all the time. She was still pretty embarrassed and miserable...

Well, about 2 minutes later, another little girl who was a bit older than my dd did the same thing, but made a much bigger mess and was absolutely soaked!!! (poor thing!!!) And we turned to our dd and said, "See, it really does happen all the time!!!" She giggled and felt much better about things!

When we went up front to pay, the mother of the girl who also spilled her drink came up to the counter soon after I did. I thanked her for their act of kindness... you know, making my dd feel better about spilling her drink, explaining the situation to her. We shared a good laugh... and suddenly 2 embarrassing accidents turned into something funny and happy!

*Giggle*....

I do have a funny story to tell.

My younger dd turned 2 in July, and she has already started to make jokes!!! She tries to tell knock knock jokes, but not very well.

Tonight, she made up a real joke! In Richmond, our local grocery store is Ukrop's. Since my dh is a "true" Richmonder, this is where we shop most of the time. Well, we told the kids we were going to Ukrop's, and my dd's response was:

"No!!!! Mycrops, not Ukrop's!!!!"

Oh, this sparked an onslaught of insatiable laughter from all of us!! And she absolutely knew that she had told a joke!!! Too funny!!

Long time, no blog!!!

So I have been seriously slacking on updating this blog!!! Ah, but life does get in the way sometimes! I did participate in a really fun crop at Create My Keepsakes over the weekend. I managed to get one challenge done! This is the layout I created for it... with an emphasis on texture. It was fun! These papers are from Creative Imaginations. They are from a beachy collection, but the colors look very fall-like to me! Letter stamps by Tin Box Creations! Chipboard letters from Maya Road.

Oasis

In the midst of our suburban Richmond utopia, we have an oasis known as Wawa. We live less than 2 miles from the closest one... and love it for its cheap gas, clean and well-lit convenience store, and COFFEE.

My dh would hate to admit it, but he has become hooked on coffee. At one time, he referred to the brew as dirty water, but this morning, he said to me, "It's your turn." Thinking that he was referring to getting our younger dd, who, at this point, had been asking interchangeably for mommy and daddy for about 5 minutes from her crib, he surprised me. "It's your turn to go to Wawa for coffee."

Keep in mind that we now also have a brand new Target with a Starbucks inside literally across the street from Wawa, but my dh chooses Wawa! Well, I happily obliged his request that I make the coffee run (10 minutes of solitude is priceless some days!) and left with 2 coffees and 3 doughnuts for less than the cost of 1 Starbucks fancy coffee! That is indeed a bargain!

My kids were in heaven eating their bakery treats! And I was (finally) awake in a state of caffinated bliss! What a great way to spend a Sunday morning!

My Final Scrapncircle projects!

I'm kind of sad to be posting these.... I have been with Scrapncircle almost since the very beginning... when my dear friend Tisha created the site. I have seen it pass hands a couple of times, each time to another dear friend. But, alas, good things must come to an end, I guess, and Jeri has decided to close the online store.

But for our last hoo-ra, Jeri gave us some beautiful products from SEI. I had the Kitty's Place line to work with... so cute! I almost bought the whole line literally the day before my package arrived on my doorstep! Imagine my joy as I opened that package!

Jeri, I wish you the best of luck in your future scrappy (and any other) endeavors... you are a fantastic person, and I'm so lucky to know you!

Nice.

What a simple word.

It's the centerpiece of my most famous Anne-ism... something I tell my patients all the time when they thank me for helping them.

"It's easy to be nice to nice people."

They think about it for a moment, then laugh when they realize that I have just paid them a compliment.

Our message this morning in church was about Jesus' lesson to love one another. Although I am not obtrusively Christian, I try to be a good person and exhibit my Christianity by example. (in fact, I'm usually suspicious of folks who flaunt their spirituality.) This is a product of growing up next to some of the most self-righteous neighbors you could ever meet, and learning repeatedly how truly un-Christian these folks were.... the stories I could tell!

Yet this brings up the other point... I struggle daily to not hate. Don't you? How difficult is it to not be angry with that guy who cut you off on the road... the customer service rep who clearly does not care about what you need... people who have hurt you in the past.... people who live on the other side of the planet, have never met you, yet still hate you.

How can I learn to forgive these people?

I especially struggled after 9/11. I can forgive the people who actually carried out the act. Why? Because in my mind, they were simply carrying out the orders of a clearly delusional, evil person. They themselves were victims, too. It is more difficult to forgive their leader. I'll leave that challenge for another day.

A more common struggle for me is when I have worked an entire day, my kids are driving me crazy, and I have to run an errand.... and the person I need to help me clearly does not want to do their job. Then I finally lose my patience. I become a mean person! How difficult it must be for them to be nice to me?! Does this happen to anyone else? LOL!!!

A clear lesson in forgiveness can be learned by the Amish who were so deeply wounded by the senseless murder of 5 of their daughters. Remember those school children who were held hostage? In the middle of perhaps the most peaceful place in this country, a most violent, un-peaceful act was committed. Yet the Amish families actually attended the murderer's funeral, offering sincere condolences to the widow and his children. They are now forming a trust fund for his children. I heard this story on NPR the other day, and it had me in tears.

I seriously doubt that if I found myself in the same situation that I could offer that kind of forgiveness.

So, while it is easy to be nice to nice people, it is, obviously, extremely difficult to be nice to mean people. I hope I can learn to exude niceness rather than impatience at the end of the day!

She's too young....

to be thinking about stuff like this!!!

So my 5 year old dd says to me:

"Mom, can I have a sleepover with Carter?"

me: "Is Carter a boy or a girl?"

"He's a boy."

me: "No. Girls don't have sleepovers with boys."

"But Carter LOVES me, Mom!"

me: "I'm sure he does, but girls don't have sleepovers with boys until they are married."

She seemed to understand that answer. I think 7AM is too early to deal with issues like this!!!

Birthday Bash!!!

Looking for something scrappy to do this weekend? Well, we are having a BIG PARTY to celebrate Scraplovers' second birthday! Come on over and celebrate with us! We've got tons of challenges and special classes for this event. I have a class on hand stitching myself!

Yay!

Just got an e-mail from Paper Trends for a card for the Feb/March 2008 issue! This is my first card pub!

Two for Tuesday!

These are a couple I did for the Scraplovers' September second reveal! Our sponsors are American Crafts and Strano Ribbons. Our theme for the month is "angles." My technique team partner Heather and I concentrated on journaling "angles" the first reveal, and I concentrated on ribbon use for the second reveal!!

***ETA: "Sling Babies" has been picked up for pub.***

2 year olds are soooo funny!!!

We were out this evening, and my 2 year old saw the moon in the sky as it was rising (at this point, the sun was still up!). As usual, she was excited to see it, and made a point of telling us that she found it!

When we left dinner, the sun had set, and she saw the moon again.

"*gasp* I see the moon!!! Look!!! They turned the light on!" (since by now, the moon was a very bright crescent low in the sky!)

That kid really cracks me up!

I had an epiphane....

I was listening to NPR the other morning, and I heard a news story that gave me goose bumps. The story was about the local VA hospital here and how it has become the hub for recovery for soldiers who have suffered spinal cord injuries in the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

I have searched my soul for many months, wondering what I could do to help with all that is going on that is horrible in this world.... and then that moment came. My skills? I am a rehab PT. It's just what I do best. I love where I work now, but I feel like I am being called by some higher being to work for the VA. I shared this with my husband, who most likely thinks I'm crazy.... but I've decided to look into it.

Once I made this realization, a part of my spirit seemed relieved that I had finally figured it out. Hopefully, I will have the courage to act on it!

My grandfather was a C6 quadriplegic.... he is one reason why I felt called to be a PT to begin with. It seems like beginning to work with this population will pull my professional journey full circle.

A cute one of the "baby".....

I'm having fun playing with the lasso tool in PSCS!

First day of school!

I'm finally getting around to editing and posting these photos!!! She was so excited to get on that bus! I actually started to tear up when she got on the bus... but somehow, I managed to hold it together!

And another:

I took a whimsical approach... a love letter (and apology) to my enduring favorite Maybelline Great Lash mascara! Papers are from the fabulous Dream Street papers!

A September project for Scraplovers!

One of our sponsors this month is American Crafts. Yes, those are paper beads... from a continuous strip of double sided paper! One of the residents at the nursing home where I work makes paper beads, so she inspired this technique! The beads sure make for a lousy scan, though!!! I also used a stamp from the "Block This" stamp set from Tin Box Creations! I will take a photo later... TFL!!!

Anyone else feel uneasy...

When the weather starts to get a bit of chill to it.... you know, the kind of gorgeous late summer day with that nice crisp breeze? The kind of day you looked forward to all summer?

It always reminds me of 9/11 now. I can't get over that feeling. As far as the weather goes, that was a perfect day, and I remember that morning before those dreaded events very clearly.... as clear as that crystal blue sky. My birthday is on the 14th. My birthday isn't really a day to celebrate for me anymore, since it coincides with all of the events of that time.

It's a very sad time of year, indeed. A time to reflect on all of the things happening in this world that we can't control... and a time to hold on to our loved ones dearly.

I'm still waiting on the world to change... hopefully, for the better. And hopefully, to reach a point where I feel safe again.

And a card...

OK, so I used this same technique for this card as I did for the tag I just made... I just love using the resist technique!!!

Just a tag!!!

I made this tag with 2 Tin Box Creations stamp sets.... "Block This" and "Spring Flowers Set." I used a resist technique which I will detail this week for Technique Thursday over at Scraplovers!

This must be my lucky pub week!

I am excited to have a page picked up by Scrapbook Trends for their wedding idea book!!! It was a layout I created at the VA SIS crop at the beginning of the month!!! This kind of week never happens to me in the scrapbook world!!!

Yay!!!!

I got an e-mail request for a home decor project I did using beads! It will appear in the new Bead Trends magazine in their premeire issue! :) Bead Trends is a new venture by the same family of publications as Scrapbook Trends!

This was fun!!!

Your Linguistic Profile:

60% General American English 20% Dixie 15% Yankee 0% Midwestern 0% Upper Midwestern

http://www.blogthings.com/whatkindofamericanenglishdoyouspeakquiz/">What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

So, does this mean I speak "normal" American English with a touch of Southern charm? LOL!!! I do live on the northernmost fringe of the South!

The house...

We are under way with building our house. The roof structure is almost complete now, actually, and we should be under roof by Tuesday. The windows and exterior doors arrived yesterday, ready to intall.

Do you think the house will be ready by the end of November as promised? I'm not holding my breath!!! But it would be nice!

Now, with the crash in the mortgage market, I'm a bit nervous about putting our current house on the market, to say the least! Our current home is in a modest, quiet neighborhood where all of the homes are well within the price range of properties which are still moving in our house market. Crossing my fingers....

By the way... see those cute little dormer windows on the second floor? Those windows belong to my new "project" room! Hubby has his big garage of his dreams... the kiddos have a playroom above that.... and I have my special room, too!!! Happy, joy!!!!

Scrapncircle Projects! Piggy Tales!

We got to play with the super fun Piggy Tales papers this month!!!! Thanks, Jeri!!! Love how versatile these papers are!

The "Muscles" layout also features the circle stamp from the "Block This" stamp set by Tin Box Creations! I used the stamp as a border, journaling spot, and to make a tab! You seriously need this stamp set! It is so much fun!

http://www.tinboxcreations.com/boutique/product_info.php?cPath=1_6&products_id=107

Thanks for looking!

I am such a blonde....

I can't even order myself coffee at Starbucks!!! LOL!!!!

Our special treat on Sunday morning (if we get ready in time!) is to go to Starbucks before church! It was my "turn" to go get the coffee this week, so I ordered a Tai Chi latte. The barmister (or whatever you wish to call him!) says to me, "Ma'am, Tai Chi is an ancient form of Chinese martial arts. Perhaps you would like to try a Chai Tea latte instead?"

Now, I tried to explain to him that I just took a course on Friday that discussed all of the benefits of Tai Chi.... before I asked him if I could get an iced Frappachino. To which he replied, "Ma'am. All of our Frappachinos are iced. That's what makes them Frappachinos."

Yep. I even have a Master's degree. But I can't order coffee and sound reasonably intelligent.... LOL!!!

So glad my kids are good! (well, most of the time!!!)

We went out to lunch after church Sunday at Ruby Tuesday (I'm seriously addicted to their turkey mini burgers... I know! not orgainic!!). About midway through our lunch, another family sat down near us. They had one boy (maybe about 4 or 5ish). He had a couple of little tantrums, and then all YOU KNOW WHAT broke loose. They were sitting in a booth, and the boy THREW his little container of KETCHUP behind him and over his head... it landed all over the booth seat on the other side AND all over this lady's dress and WHITE cardigan!!!! EEEEKKKKKKKKK!!!

Can you imagine the anguish on both sides of this situation? The lady's outfit was most likely ruined.... and the parents of this child?The thing is, this could have been my children.... it's just today they were exceptionally well-behaved.... and when my younger dd grabbed the ketchup container, we caught her before anything happened!!! The father actually left the restaurant to get money to pay this lady's dry cleaning bill.... he did the right thing... I have just never seen something like this in person!!!

Both my kiddos got dessert after lunch... and lots of praise for being good!!! :)

My sweet dh...

Brought home a surprise the other night.... the Plain White T's CD! Wasn't that nice? He noticed that I had been listening to their song from their website, and brought the album home for me!

He made a statement that these guys were not the best looking... but I also pointed out to him that it looked like their portraits were taken with a very wide angle lens, distorting their features. I don't know if this was the photographer's intent or not, but I am very sure that these guys look much different in person!

It's a fun album.... definitely subjects pertainant to the late teen to twenty-ish crowd!

Whew! I can share...

Well, I can finally share the second bit of news.... I am so happy that Christina and Mackey at Scraplovers have asked me to serve another year at their site! I really love it over there!

A DT call will be announced soon to fill the vacant slots! They have restructured the whole DT design, and it is great!!!

My baby is 2 today!

It seems like it was just last summer that she was born! I can't believe she's 2 already!!! We are going to take her somewhere fun for dinner....

We sang happy birthday this morning and she started blowing (the candles, of course, even though there was no cake for breakfast!) And then she says, "Eat cake!!!" LOL!!!!!

The first picture was taken out by the new house. She found this ring of bark on the ground and was pretending that it was real jewelry! And the second was at a friend's birthday party!

Today was a good day!

I found something that I thought I had lost.... my Lemonheads "It's a Shame About Ray" CD!!! I bought it before I began college, and I really missed it! Well, somehow, it found its way into a Smiths CD case, which I discovered this morning.

I have been on a nostalgic music craving for some old school alternative 80's rock! So I dredeged through my extensive Smiths collection and decided to take a greatest hits CD with me for my morning commute. I still love the music, but man, oh, man.... I was a most self-tortured teenager! I have forgotten how sad Morrissey's lyrics really are!

I'll be giving that old Lemonhead's CD a little more love, too!!! Oh, happy day!

Want to know my first secret?

Go here:

http://www.tinboxcreations.com/entryform.html

:)

More Williamsburg pics!

Here are a few more images from Williamsburg! I can't wait to go on another shoot with my Dad!!!! As you can see, I love to take pictures of STUFF!!!

I have a new look!

Well, I was just getting tired of my old blog.... so I made this banner a while ago and decided to try it out!!!

Have you heard of these guys?

It's my favorite new band.... Plain White Tees! They have this amazingly sweet song called "Hey There Delilah" that plays only on our local Richmond station Y101. I normally don't listen to this station all the time, but it's one of my preset stations, and I happened to hear this song. I was hooked instantly!

Here's a link to the band's website, and you can hear it for yourself!!!

http://www.plainwhitets.com/

They are actually doing a Tiffany-like mall tour and will be at a mall that's not even 5 minutes from my house in August! Just don't know if I want to fight the teeny boppers to see them, though!!!

Scrabook Answers = Sassy

Remember Sassy magazine? How different and fun and hip and cool it was? I was a child of the 80's..... emerging into adulthood in the 90's.... and I remember it well. I was a Seventeen subscriber, and my best friend in middle school was a Sassy subscriber. I always read about the cool new bands in this magazine, and found clothes that were things I would really wear!!! (I was one of those semi-goth, alternative, drama chicks in school... even though I cheered, too!)

So, anyway.... when Scrapbook Answers debuted, I was very excited! And right away I saw it as the Sassy of the scrabooking industry. It was as rebellious of a scrapbook magazine as Sassy was as a teen girl fashion magazine. The writers at Scrapbook Answers let us in on their personas, lent their voices to their articles, and dared to discuss products with honesty. I loved that magazine!

But, alas, their run was much too short.... just like Sassy. But die hard fans will still remember them!

Wow! A photographer's job is TOUGH!!!!

So, yesterday, I embarked on a new adventure. My dear friend Tisha asked be to help her shoot a wedding. Granted, I knew the bride and actually referred the bride to Tisha, but I was so honored that Tisha trusted me enough to help her with this!

Anyway, I realized many things. I know that I'm not even close to being good enough to shoot an event so important on my own (not that I really had plans to, anyway!), that I need to be more assertive during shoots (I'm not the bossiest of people... but I need to definitely take on a new persona if I do this again!), and that my camera (Canon XTi) has multiple limitations. Oh.... and that Tisha is one fantastic photographer!!! (well, we already knew that!!!). It was so much fun just to watch her work!

So, I learned a TON about myself and my camera.... and had lots of fun, too! I just hope Tisha will let me try again!!!

Second June Reveal!

Here's my third project for Scraplovers using the super cute, bright, and cheerful papers and templates from the Crafter's Workshop!!!

My inspiration for the giant swirled paper cutout came from a design magazine from the BHG group!

Shhhhhhh......

I have not one.... but TWO secret toots..... so SHHHHHH for now.... (and for the record, I've never had a secret toot before!!!!)

I promise I'll spill the news soon!!!

So much fun!!!!

My Dad invited me to meet him in Colonial Williamsburg for a "photo shoot" on Friday. He's a Pentax man.... he's got the new K10 and it's little brother. He's still trying to convert me from Canon!!!

Anyway, we had a blast!!! He may think that my spending the day with him was a gift from me to him, but I was the one who felt gifted on Friday! It's been a long time since I've had my dad all to myself for a day! I'm just so excited that we both have this passion for photography. Of course, he's the one who planted that seed in me.... he gave me my first real camera.... his Nikon FG!!!

So, Dad, thank you for such a great day! And happy father's day!