{bliss}

good morning!

And it is a lovely one outside today too!  It's Tuesday, and I'm feeling like I am back in the swing of things after a very busy weekend!  Mother's Day was great - I had my very first "breakfast in bed" served to my by my two very enthusiastic daughters.  They were so excited about the holiday that despite the plan to let me "sleep in", they were up at the crack of dawn ready to go make me breakfast and give me the gifts that they had made!  And later (much, much later!) after work, Jon called me to wish me a happy Mother's Day too - so from 6:30am to midnight, I was feeling a very loved Mom. 

I've got a new page to share today.  I'm scrapping up a storm, but because it is for CHA, I can't share what I've been working on, but I did do a 'for me" page with some new Prima "Dude" pp and Scenic Route.  Very simple page, but I like the way it came out.  The journaling is 21 random things about Jon on his 21st birthday - some of which were suggested by his sisters!  ;)  I like Aileen's "His hair is really, really long".  ;) 

Hope everyone has a great day!

just a quick page share...

...I have to go into work early today, so I haven't got a lot of computer time this morning.  Just wanted to share my LOAD for today - some oldish Making Memories stuff (does anyone know what collection the purple dotted paper is from?) and some new Heidi Grace. 

The girls have had their heads together with Mother's Day secrets for days now, so the suspense for tomorrow morning is high - I can't wait to see what they have been up to!  I've never had a "proper" Mother's Day, so this will be a first!

Hope everyone has a great day today!  I've got my fingers crossed that the powers-that-be at work actually remembered to order BAGS this year.  Last year, we ran out on the day before Mother's Day, and it wasn't pretty.

TGIF!

I am so happy that it is Friday - what a week!  Good news about the car, the part that had let go was under warranty, so they were able to replace it for us free of charge.  :)  Definitely good news!  It was nice to have my normal, quiet vehicle back this morning!

My LOAD for today is more of that gorgeous "Delight" line by Sharon Ann for Deja Views.  I just love the colors, and it mixes so nicely with so many other lines.  I added some Pink Paislee to this one in the form of alpha stickers and the transparency.  The embellishments are a mix of manufacturers and some are old and some are new, but it was fun to "load it up" on this page.  Nice to have my scrapping "groove" back too.  The photos are from Aileen's birthday and her brand new racoon Webkinz.  It was the only thing she asked for, so Grannie got the "win" by finding it for her for her present!

The girls are getting excited about summer vacation already.  They were supposed to start swimming lessons on Saturday, but the Rec Dept cancelled the program because they didn't get enough sign ups to make it worth running the bus.  Guess I don't blame them, given the price of gas, but I had hoped that Aileen would have a few swimming lessons before we head out for our vacation.  There is a pool at the place we usually stay, and it is all the girls can think about.  If we're lucky, we'll have some really great weather while we're there, because we have found that when it is hot and sunny, most people use the outside pool, not the indoor one, which gives us plenty of room for our beginner swimmers. 

I'm looking ahead to Summer CHA in Chicago.  I'm not sure if I will make the show this year, but I know I'm going to be busy, busy, busy for the next month or two with projects for CI.  :)

I'll post my Fiskars page next week, but in the meantime, if you want to see it on the blog (and enter May's giveaway for some of the adorable "Little Birds Tale" collection!) leave your comment here.  Have a great day!

everything falls apart

...at the same time, it seems.  2008 has turned out to be a long line of repairs - one after another!  The water heater coil followed closely by the well pump.  The water softener is completely "dead" and is causing problems for any water-related appliance, so our washing machine and dishwasher are both limping along.  (We have very hard water).  This morning I had a workman out to replace the glass in the girls' bedroom upstairs, and as I speak, the technicians at Saturn are determining what went *ka-phlooey" in my van in the Target parking lot yesterday afternoon.  I managed to get home, but we had to have a tow truck come and take it to the dealership.  We've had many, many Saturn vehicles over the years, and this is the first one that has ever given us any trouble at all.  What is most disturbing is that I just had it in at the same garage exactly a week ago to get an inspection sticker and have the 30,000 mile service done.  So anything that was looking shaky should have been spotted last week.  *sigh*

So that's my current reality.  Could be much worse, but why does it seem that everything "goes" at once, and usually right around the worst possible time? 

Anyhoo, here are the last couple NSD layouts from the weekend.  I'm waiting on a package to arrive with new MM Noteworthy stuff, and I have a whole pile of new CI on the way, so I see a lot of scrapping in my future.  One of the collections, Art Warehouse's "Candles and Cake" is going to be perfect for the photos from Jon's birthday, and I can't wait to get that collection!

This one was for Sharon's Digi Challenge on NSD.  She created a whole bunch of new elements that you can find linked here on the challenge thread at Peek.  I used the cool grid alpha and one of the journaling tags - just printed 'em and cut them out to use on my page.  The patterned papers are new from Bo Bunny - the Organic collection.  Love 'em!  I embellished them with Bo Bunny rub ons, and used Karen Foster button brads in the centers of my flowers.

My second page today was for the journaling challenge that Alicia posted.  I journaled on my photo (I love doing that!) in PSE, and scrapped the photo using papers from the beautiful new Melissa Frances collection, Thankful.  I am such a sucker for pink florals, and I just love this collection!  The chipboard alpha is Making Memories Noteworthy (the original collection - I have the yummy new pink ones from Noteworthy 2 on the way - yay!) and the scalloped heart is actually a Narratives French Sweet Pea sticker that I "filled" with pink cardstock.  THe dimensional flowers, birthday sticker and brad are all MM Noteworthy too.  The clock is Heidi Swapp.

Looking forward to a much less "exciting" day today - I only need to make a quick stop in at the grocery store today, I think I can handle that! 

New Grey's and Lost tonight.  Yippieee!  I love Thursdays!  Oh, and if you stop by the Fiskateer blog, a little something I was working on a couple weeks ago is posted today....

NSD layouts

Here are some of the pages I completed for challenges on NSD at Peek...

This one is for my 8am "Green" Challenge:

This one was for Lisa's 10am Stitching Challenge.

and this one was for Jenny's "Distressed" challenge.  It is hard to see in the scan, but I used Sharon's distressed overlay to "antique" my photo before I printed it out.

More tomorrow...

If you missed playing along on the challenges on Saturday, don't despair - you can find all the fun here in the NSD forum, and all the challenges are listed as well!

And you can see all the wonderful layouts and projects that were posted in the Peek NSD Gallery.

Have a great Wednesday!

day by day

What a week!  What a weekend!  Wow!  Here's a quick rundown:  Monday, I taught at the AC Moore store in Portsmouth, NH in the morning.  The girls went with me and they were so cute showing off some of the tools and "helping" Mom demo.  Tuesday was our only day that we spent completely at home.  It was lovely.  We stayed in our pajamas half the day, and only got dressed when it stopped raining and we wanted to go outside and play!  Wednesday was spent at the garage in the morning, and the mall in the afternoon.  Thursday, Aileen's actual birthday, we went out to lunch with Daddy and Grampa, and I got my hair cut (yay!). Then we came home and cleaned like crazy for the parties to follow. Friday, Aileen had her "friend" party, and that was so much fun.  Her two best friends from school came over, and the four of them played so well.  The Moms chatted, and they played and it was great.  Saturday was NSD, and Sharon and Erin spent much of the day with us.  That was awesome, because the girls get along so well that they are very "low maintenance" at this point, which gave us much more time to scrap.  Of course, the challenges kept us busy all day, and we chatted and scrapped and chatted some more.  I love NSD!  :)  Then yesterday, Sunday, we had the big family party.  For Aileen, it was almost anti-climactic, because she'd had all of her "best" fun on the days previous.  lol!  She did get some really nice new summer clothes, which she needed desperately, and had fun with her aunts, uncle and cousin.  I'm wiped out today after all that, and am just hanging out today.  I cleaned the kitchen, but the scraproom and the livingroom are still a mess.  But that's ok. :)  I'm all scrapped out right now, but I know I'll get jazzed by about Tuesday night and pick back up where I left off!

Here's a page that I did on Thursday for Aileen's birthday.  I loooove that baby photo of her, and still can't believe how quickly the past 6 years have flown by!  I used Samantha Walkers "Day by Day" collection (love it!) from CI.  Pat has it on sale this week at Peek, 30% off!

Check out the CI blog today - two new collections from Renae's House are featured:  Baby Ben and Baby Bella.  SO CUTE!

12 hours until NSD!

Our fun starts first thing tomorrow morning at Peek, and the first challenge goes up at 8am Peek (central) time which is 9am Eastern.  There will be games and RAKs and a new challenge every two hours straight on through to 6pm.  Pat's prize closet is stuffed with about $1,000 worth of gift certificates goodies that she will be giving away throughout the day. Sharon's got some fun new FREE digi stuff, and a challenge that will run all day.  And sales - oh my goodness, does Pat ever have some deals in store for you!  Check it all out here in the NSD forum  and here at the shop at Peek and come any play along with us!

Happy Birthday Aileen!

My youngest turns six today!

Happy birthday, sweetheart!

a drive by posting...

Forgot to put my layout up this morning!  We were out the door early in the morning to go to the garage and then had a great afternoon checking out the shops at the mall.  The girls got new sunglasses at the Disney store - on special this week, only $3.  I love that it takes so little to make their day!  ;)

Here's my April "Lovin'" page with my favorite layouts and the scrappy stuff that I loved working with this month.  I love looking at these pages I'm making for my "Scrapbooking Scrapbook" and seeing what I was excited and inspired to work with each month.

Tomorrow is Aileen's *real* birthday and we kick off her birthday weekend with a lunch out with Grampa and a special trip to the library to get her first library card!

rainy Tuesday afternoon...

Looks like we are going to be stuck with a chilly, rainy vacation week.  Last week was simply gorgeous, and this week it is more like the beginning of March than the end of April.  Oh well, April showers bring the May flowers and all that.  I'll look on the bright side - at least I didn't have to go out for anything today.  Tomorrow is a "garage" day, though, so I've got my fingers crossed that the rain tapers off overnight.  I don't mind it being cool, I'd just like a little sun this week to perk us all.  The girls are crabby from being stuck inside for two days, so tomorrow we'll take a quick trip over to the mall after my car is done and let them walk around a bit.  They want to go see what is new at Build A Bear and in the Disney store, so it will be a fun way for them to get a little exercise!

Here's my LOAD for today.  I looooove the new Fancy Pants "Celebrate" papers and this was another fun page to put together.  I took a zillion photos of the girls last week when we got home from getting their haircuts and these really illustrate well what kind of friendship the two of them have.  I'm almost out of my favorite K and Co "Mira" butterfly stickers, so I will have to try to find some more.  The colors work so well with so many collections, and I like the whimsical touch they give the pages.  I found some felt ones yesterday, and they are really fun too.  It is hard to see in the scan, but I used my new Martha Stewart "Doily lace" punch on the edges of the yellow patterned paper.  I'm addicted to punches again!  So funny how what goes around comes around again in scrapbooking.  When I started scrapbooking it was paper piecing and punches, and tags - I'm seeing more and more of all of those being used on pages again.  The tags have evolved into journaling cards, but they are similar in a lot of ways, and both are fun to embellish!

Can't believe that it almost NSD!  I'll be playing host for all the festivities at Peek again this year.  The PDT have been hard at work on new challenges which will be starting at 8am central (9am eastern) time.  There will be prizes, games, trivia, RAKs and more.  Sharon has been creating some new digi goodies and will be hosting a digi challenge that will run all day.  Here's a link to the NSD forum at Peek - I hope you'll come and crop with us!