One Good Friend

In June of 2003 Dave and I moved from the southern suburbs of Chicago where we had both lived all our lives and started our lives together down south. We lived four years in South Carolina and now have been here in Florida for four years. In the last 8 years I have really never developed any friendships. I still have a couple of friends in the Midwest that I have maintained contact with but no real "girlfriends" that I can share everyday ups and downs with. There was a definite void in my life. However, not long ago I found a wonderful group of "online friends" with whom I have become very close with. We share the same hobby -- paper crafting but we also share our daily trials and victories. I feel like I know these gals, their husbands and their children. When I come home from a 12+ hour day of working and commuting the first thing I do after changing into my comfy clothes is pour a glass of tea and catch up with what's been going on in everyone's life and share my day with them. Often I will find a package or a note in my mailbox from one of them with just a little "something" to pick me up exactly when I need it. This card was made for one of my online friends -- Abby in Illinois -- and the stamp I used for the sentiment on the front was from another friend -- April in North Carolina. What a wonderful way to connect and support and care about one another. I am truly blessed with my online friends which really is no different than any other friend. Friendship warms the soul and soothes the spirit and tonight I am truly counting my blessings for my friends.

Challenges that I entered this card in are:

Critter Sketch Challenge

Party Time Tuesdays

Do You Stack Up

Paper-Crafting Journey

Birthday Sundaes

There is a new challenge blog getting started by a friend of mine - Kristie. The name of the blog is Birthday Sundaes. Isn't that clever? The weekly challenge will be to make a birthday card to build up our stash. Awesome idea, right? I am excited to be a part of it and hope you will check it out too. Help get the word out and you can be eligible to win a new 6x6 paper pad. Check it out HERE

One of My Favorite Blogs

I just love bright and cheery things and you don't get much cheerier than one of my favorite blogs right now.....Wee Memories. Check it out HERE and don't forgot to enter the contest for a chance to win an awesome set of Unity Stamps. While there check out Jenny's awesome Etsy shop and be sure to stop back for the Scrappy Saturday Challenge. FUN, FUN, FUN!!!

Oh Baby....

The main reason I am involved in scrapbooking is to document and preserve family memories. I picture someday all of the pages and albums I am working on belonging to my children and grandchildren so they can remember their family members and experiences growing up. Why then am I uncomfortable with the idea of scrapping pictures of me? I have asked myself that question and I think I just feel slightly vain when I create a page about me. But if I am leaving these pages and books behind for my family then I am sure they would want some pages and insight into me and my life. I try to handwrite on many of the pages after realizing that I don't have any samples of my own mother's pretty feminine handwriting and now she is gone. So here is one for my family -- it's me about 1959-1960. I love the photo's little details....bracelet, necklace, spotless saddle shoes, curly hair and chubby dimpled hands. I still have the curly hair (although it is now a different color!) and the dimples in my hand and I still love to wear jewelry. Some things never change! I used Sketch #66 from Inspired Blueprints as my inspiration for this layout.

Christmas Begins in February?

Believe it or not, I made my first Christmas card for the 2011 Christmas season today. I was spurred on by a great new-to-me challenge site called Jingle Belles. The idea is if we start now and make one Christmas card per week by the time the holidays roll around we will have (in my case) about half of our cards made. Plus they hooked up this week with Sketchy Thursdays and are offering a double chance to win. Well that was right up my alley! I also have entered it over at The Paper Variety for their Feb. 23rd "Sew Much Fun" challenge which you can check out here. I used the sketch, created the card and now have three chances to win. And who knows....come December you just might find this card in YOUR mailbox!

The Paper Variety card entry

Here is a little card I worked on today for the challenge over at The Paper Variety this week. The challenge was to use this sketch. I had fun with the interpretation of the sketch and actually took my inspiration from one of the papers in the prize package I am hoping to win. That prize is so tempting to me because Jillibean Soup is one of my FAVORITE companies out right now.

I am also going to use if for the card challenge this month at Scrappin'-n-Chattin' to use five or more solid colored pieces of cardstock.

My First Winners!

Well I have my first winners! Yay! Both winners were drawn randomly. The blog candy of the 12 sheets of Bo Bunny's Noel collection and a Little Yellow Bicycle tote bag from my first blog hop goes to: KIM!!! Congratulations -- your package will go out in Tuesday or Wednesday's mail.

The winner of the mini album is: Kristie!!! Kristie, if you would contact me I will give you your choice of my assortment of mini albums.

Abby-tude

My granddaughter Abigail is still smack dab in the midst of the (dare I say it?) terrible twos. She wants HER way and she wants it NOW. She doesn't like to eat with the family at meal times or go to bed when it's time. She does not appreciate standing in line (as we and those poor folks in line with us found out at Disney World last November). She is quick to loudly vocalize her displeasure at any situation she is no longer interested in. Her attention span lasts no longer than the blink of an eye. She is unreasonable, illogical, stubborn, sassy, vocal and but absolutely ADORABLE. I hope she remains strong-willed as it will serve her well as she gets older.

This layout is for the Lasting Memories red and pink/white challenge. I used this week's Sketch over at Sketchy Thursday which you can see here. They offer great prizes and I submit an entry nearly every week. I am also entering this page over at my favorite yahoo group Scrappin-n-Chattin for the February 4 photo challenge. I will be picking a winner tomorrow for my blog candy so be sure to check back. And if you haven't already please comment on my Feb. 6 blog post to enter.

10 Reasons I Love You

As promised here are a few of the pages from the mini album I made for my wonderful husband, Dave for Valentine's Day. I have decided to enter this album in the Live Love Laugh challenge over at Wee Memories. The above page is probably my favorite. I found that cute little record in the clearance bin in the sewing section of my local Super Wal*Mart for $1 and I loved it. Everything is from my drawers of stash. I worked on it for about 5 hours total on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. Plus I had been looking at mini-albums for weeks gathering ideas and inspiration. Leave me a comment and let me know your favorite page and I will chose one commenter at random and send them a blank mini-album to create your own.

Dave and my Dad hit it off immediately....two geeks who love computers......

Don't forget my blog giveaway is this Sunday....leave a comment on my very first blog post telling me you have become a follower and then leave another comment on the same post telling me your favoite Super Bowl commercial. I am giving away 12 sheets of Bo Bunny's beautiful Noel Christmas papers and an awesome Little Yellow Bicycle tote. I will announce the winner Sunday 2/20 before the Daytona 500.

Happy Valentine's Day

I have always loved Valentine's Day and telling my family I love them. I have been so inspired the last few weeks by the beautiful handmade expressions of love that I made my own Valentine cards this year and made a lovey-dovey mini-book telling my amazing husband of my love. Now that the gifts have been exchanged I can share them here.

First...here is the wonderful little gift that Dave gave me:

Don't you just love Charlie Brown and his eternal optimism? I do. Believing in one another is such a gift and so important in a relationship and Dave gets that. Who ever said men just don't get it? Hallmark has a whole set of these Peanuts characters that might just be my latest new collection.

So now on to my gift to Dave......

Dave has been wanting to read Dave Mustaine's new book and I neglected to give it to him at Christmas so a week ago I snuck out to Books a Million (Oh I love the smell of a bookstore and could get lost for hours in there....) and picked him up a copy. It must be a good book since he has been reading it non-stop since Sunday afternoon and is nearly finished with the book. Then I also spend a few hours this weekend putting together the whimsical book 10 Reasons I Love You. I wish I had more of that Cosmo Black Board because it was very hard to stop at 10 reasons....I really am a lucky gal.

In my next post (maybe tomorrow) I will share some of my favorite pages in the book. In the meantime I want to go watch some of our favorite shows on the History Channel....one of the few things that make Mondays much more bearable. I hope everyone is spending a little time with someone you care about...even if it is just a phone call. Life is good but life is short...tell someone tonight that you love them.

Keep Calm

I love cupcakes....who doesn't? One of my favorite shows on the Food Network is "Cupcake Wars". Last year I lost 50 pounds and this year I am on a quest to lose my final 50 pounds so alas, I do not eat cupcakes these days. But I still love them and made what is one of my favorite cards in awhile today that features a cupcake. This is for the current weekly challenge on The Paper Variety which is run by two of my bestest buddies...Suzanne (who helped me get my blog designed and up and running) and Abby. Check it out....great weekly challenges and awesome prizes and lots of fun! I have also entered this card over at Squigglefly for their "Making the Rounds" challenge and the "sweet treats" challenge at Fussy and Fancy Friday. Thanks for checking in again and please check out my older posts to enter for my blog giveaway on February 20th

You Warm My Heart

Here is a layout that I completed today for several challenges. I used this week's sketch over at Sketch Inspiration and I am entering it over at Lasting Memories for their Cricut/Die Cut Challenge. I had a Cricut baby bug that I bought off Craigslist a couple of years ago but unfortunately it died on me. My online friend Randi cut me this title a year ago on her Cricut and I was saving it for just the right layout. This page also qualifies for the Scrappin'-n-Chattin' challenge to use two punches. I used my Fiskars Threading Water border punch and a cute heart shaped corner punch as well.

The story of the layout: Dave and I lived in South Carolina from June 2003 until March 2007. Just south of Myrtle Beach is a beautiful place called Brookgreen Gardens. Every December they do a fantastic display called Nights of 1000 Lights where they have the whole gardens filled with candles illuminating the trees, plants, ponds and sculptures. Finally we went in 2006 knowing that it may be our last year in South Carolina. It was 25 degrees that night and having lived in the warm South for several years we 'bout froze to death! I just printed off some more pictures from that evening and plan another layout on the same subject soon. I am working hard in my scraproom this weekend and will have hopefully alot more to share with you this weekend....so stayed tuned for more posts...... AND don't forget to enter my giveaway on my first blog post. I will be choosing a winner next Sunday 2/20/2010.

Love Stinks

Until my daughter-in-law Amy and grandaughter Abby joined the family I lived and worked in a sea of males.  Testosterone dripped from the walls!  So I understand, appreciate and even at times possess the male mindset. That is why I made this out of the ordinary Valentine's Day card for my 5 year old grandson Cole.  At the age of 5, girls are yucky and "Love Stinks".  I rather wish it would stay like that until oh around the age of 30 when the wisdom and maturity catches up to the emotional and physical but it is what it is and I'm hoping that Cole digs this card.  The inside?  It says "But you ROCK and Grandma loves you".  My Valentine's Day packages to my grands go out in tomorrow's mail.  They are filled with chocolate, DVDs, surprises, handmade cards and most of all love....I hope they feel the love the most.  I am also sharing the cards I made for Jacob and Abby as well.

 I wanted to say that I lifted the idea from this "stinky" card from the extremely talented Tessa Buys....thanks for the idea Tessa!

 I used the sketch from Lasting Memories for this "monstrous" card for Jacob

I had to do a "sweet" card for my darling Abby.

Thanks for following along....don't forget about my blog giveaway.  Leave a comment on my first blog post and stop back sometime this week for another entry by leaving me a comment as to your favorite SuperBowl commercial.  Have a great Sunday!

Welcome to my Blog!

Wow!  My very own blog.  I really vascillated as to whether I wanted to start blogging.  There are so many awesome blogs out there that inspire me I think I was intimidated.  But everyone had to start sometime and this is my sometime....Super Bowl Sunday.  It will be an easy anniversary date to remember.  I wish I was more excited about the game today but my Chicago Bears fell one win short of playing today.  Oh well I will watch it for the commercials as they are always quite entertaining.

I am going to offer some grand opening blog candy.  I have 11 sheets of BoBunny's beautiful Christmas collection ...Noel.  We are all still scrapping Christmas aren't we?  I also have an awesome Little Yellow Bicycle tote bag that I will throw in for the winner.  Giveaway is open only to the US and Canada.  To be eligible to win please leave me a comment and become a follower.  For a second entry come back a second time this week and tell me what your favorite Super Bowl commercial was.  I will choose a winner on Sunday February 20th before the Daytona 500 so be sure to check back.

I really want to thank my friend Suzanne for all her help in getting me up and running and sharing her expertise.  She is really responsible for most of what you see here....now all I have to learn is how to post. I will be back later today to share some of my latest projects that I am working on.....that will be my first attempt at posting pictures......see ya'll later!