Updates!!!

I have updated my links on my sidebar... I've added a few more blogs (most you know, I'm sure!) and a new website. I believe the ad inspiration site was started by a pea, but for the life of me, I can't remember who (someone please help me here!). Anyway, it's a great source of inspiration (as its name suggests!!).

Also, I've updated my links to both Tisha's and Tabitha's blogs. Tisha's is now linked to her photography web site, and Tabitha's is now being hosted by Scrap That Moment, a new e-zine she is now designing for. Yay, Tabitha!! (so happy for her!!!)

Enjoy!

This is a sad day....

OK, I can't be the only one who will sincerely miss Katie Couric on the Today Show. I will miss seeing her every morning!

I have so many memories of significant events attached to her delivery of the news, including the tragedy of 9/11.

I will follow her to CBS, though, now that Tom Brokaw is no longer host of the NBC Nighly News.

Anyone watch her farewell show this morning? I almost cried at the end... but I'm glad I got to see it!

Somewhere over the rainbow....

This was a spectacular site on my vacation to the Outer Banks!!! This rainbow was SO HUGE!!! As I left the Avalon Pier to drop off my older dd to go fishing with her dad, I spotted it. It was hard to miss!!! It was so large that it seemed like you were driving straight into it at the end of the beach road. And even more so on the bypass road.

As I drove further down toward the house we were staying in, you could see the full arch of the rainbow, as well as a second arch!!! Yes, a double rainbow!!!

Of course, I didn't have a camera by my side that time.... so the only spectacular images are in my mind. By the time I got to the house, the sun had nearly set, and this was all that was left.

I'm cheating...

On my mascara!!!

I am a tried and true Maybelline Great Lash user.... but I am easily swayed by the latest and greatest mascaras advertised. But I always go back to my favorite.

You see, I am hugely challenged in the eyelash department. In addition to them being blonde, they are not so long or full.... thus the need to wear it pretty much any time I leave the house!

So, my latest purchase is the new Cover Girl mascara... the one with the new purple brush. We'll see how great it works.... but, shhhhhhhhh.... don't tell my pink and green friend!!!!

It's good to be home!

I have been at the beach this past week (on the Outer Banks of NC, to be exact!).

We had a super great time... my baby simply adores the beach, just like her big sister!!

I will post photos soon!!!

Isn't it nice to have good friends?

I'm feeling very blessed these days. Actually, I have been feeling blessed for a while now... it all started in my (very) late 20's, after the birth of my first daughter. I realized that none of my "girlfriends" were MY friends. They were spouses of my husband's friends. Sure, I had friends from work, but we only hung out occasionally. I'm talking about a friend you could call up at any time for any reason.... someone who understands you and you understand them. Sure, I have a wonderful husband, but he's no substitute for a girlfriend!

Now that I am in my *early* 30's, I finally have it. A circle of friends I really love to hang out with, who lift me up, who tell it like it is, and who motivate me to be a better person myself.

My mom always told me that life would get better when I was older (as she tried to convince me that it was really worth struggling through those awful teenage years!). I wish I had known then how right she was!

How did I meet my wonderful circle of friends? Well, I had just become interested in scrapbooking, and had discovered my local scrapbook store. Encouraged by some cyberfriends on the Simple Scrapbooks magazine message board, I signed up for a crop on National Scrapbook Day in 2004. I met my two best friends there! And it all evolved from that one day... and if I hadn't had the courage to go to a crop where I didn't know a soul, I would have never found these wonderful friendships!

So, to all my friends, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for making me such a happy girl!

Easter Dress

Paper Salon flower stamps, Lil' Davis "Time Capsule" foam letter stamps, Hero Arts letter stamps, May Arts ribbon and slide, Making Memories brad, Bazzill, and various inks (Ranger and Colorbox).

I don't believe it!!!

For the second night in a row, my baby girl has gone down without a fuss!!!! Yay!!!!!!!!!! What is interesting is that both nights she has gone to bed at the same time as her big sister, who shares a room with her! Yay for big sister setting a good example!!!

I'm so proud!

In other news, we had to take the baby to the doctor today. She cut her finger on one of her very age appropriate toys. I was so sad!!! I got a somewhat frantic call from my mil at work.... who had been called by the babysitter. So, I left work early to meet them at the doctor. The doctor was just going to clean it up and stick a band-aid on it, but when she saw what a little drama queen the baby is, she decided to dermabond it so it would stop bleeding and wouldn't require a bandage!

Then I got to go to the doctor this afternoon myself. My little girls have passed a cold to me, and now I have bronchitis AGAIN!!!! I swear that I do not smoke... really, I don't!!!! Just have a touch of asthma...

So, more meds for me. Ugh.

I hope to finish a new layout soon!!

I should be working...

But I am totally consumed by my computer!!! You know how it is... you log on "just to check your e-mail," then just to check on a couple of message boards... then an hour rolls by... and you realize you may have been able to complete a page in that time!!!

Check out what my dd drew tonight. It's on the back of a menu from our favorite little Italian restaurant. I think the grease spots from the parmesean cheese and the tomato sauce glob really add something special to her art, don't you? LOL!!! (I never thought I would be such a regular in a restaurant that the owners and regular wait staff would know me by name OR bring me my favorite drink without me ordering, but that is what has happened to us at Gino's!!!) Anyway, she was so proud of her picture of peas... I had to post it on 2peas, of course!!

I have to share these...

Because they are SO cute!!! My friend Jamie makes them. They're called Beverage Beacons, and, kinda like those wine glass tags you can get, they let you know whose drink is whose. But these will work on any cup/can/glass. This is, of course, her scrapbooking set. I am ordering a set for crops!!!

Here's a link to her website:

http://www.beveragebeacons.com/index.htm

Another new one...

Anna is my new muse!! I actually thought of the journaling first, then had to find a picture of her "playing" one of her musical instruments that wasn't blurry!!! Man, it's hard to catch a good shot of an active child with a point and shoot camera!

Patterned paper by Christina Cole for Provo Craft, Bazzill cardstock, foam stamp by Teresa Collins for Junkitz, and American Crafts letter stickers.

New layout!

Here's a new one I did as part of our Friday night chat and challenge on Scrappinchicks! Amy challenged us to use an arrow on a layout, and here's what I came up with. The arrow motif was inspired by the Radio Flyer logo (older style). I used Junkitz papers, ribbon from my stash, and Bazzill. I love Junkitz!

Yay!!!

I actually scrapped today. Not only that, but I had such a difficult time locating my American Crafts letter stickers for this layout that I had to *gulp* CLEAN my scrap desk!!! Yes, there is a desk under my mountain of paper and scraps!!!

Hey, I even have room to scrap a 2 page layout if I want to!!! That's progress!!!

This was a quick one I did based on an idea I woke up with yesterday! KI Memories patterned papers, American Crafts stickers, and Bazzill. It morphed a bit from my original idea, but I still like it! Photo by Tisha McCuiston.

Woohoo!!!

I'm very excited that one of my layouts from my DT work for Scrappinchicks has been requested by Cantata Books!!! Sounds like they have a great concept in mind for a new baby book!!! YAY!!! I'm not a 2 hit wonder! It was great fun putting up one of those "out for pub" signs!

Sometimes you want to go...

Where everybody knows your name! And you walk in, and there's at least one friend to greet you by name ("Norm!!!") OK, so it's not your neighborhood bar, but your local scrapbook store.

Does this happen to anyone else, or is it just me? I rarely go into either one of my lss's and not know someone! Have we scrappers reached the equivalent to the neighborhood bar with our frequent visits to the lss? It's true... I love to go there and hang out, especially if I run into a friend. And, while I don't get the cocktail or glass of wine I may order at the bar, I am satisfied by wandering the aisles and filling my mind with inspiration (and maybe getting a little retail therapy!)

Conincidentally, I did just this very thing on Sunday... went to my lss, saw a lady I go to church with shopping with her daughter, and I bought one of the hottest books right now... Cathy Z's new Clean and Simple book. I have just skimmed the book so far, but it is wonderful!!! I'm normally not the type to buy an idea book, but I did want this one!