{bliss}

goodbye January!

I will be happy to turn the page on the calendar tomorrow!  January certainly got off to a rocky start - a sprained foot, crutches, a sinus infection, yukky antibiotics, Jon's wisdom teeth extraction, more medication to monitor, lots of sick days at home, snowstorms, icestorms, and to cap it all off nicely a case of strep throat!  I called the pediatrician first thing yesterday morning because I wanted him to see Aileen again before the weekend.  She went to school, but I got a call a couple hours later from the school nurse to come and pick her up because she had a temperature.  :(  Luckily, I had gotten an appointment for 2:20, and was able to get her in quickly.  I was right, the school nurse was right - she has strep!  Ugh.  She's on amoxicillan for 10 days, and I will be so happy when she starts feeling better.  If he had just taken the swab last Friday when we were there, she wouldn't have had to suffer for another whole week.  >:E  I wish doctors would listen to parents better.

So it is Saturday.  Brigid has a basketball game (luckily a home game this week!) this afternoon.  When Aileen gets up I'll be able to see what kind of shape she is in, and hopefully I can bundle her up and she can go too.  She should be starting to feel better after having two doses of the antibiotics yesterday, and another this morning.  I'm letting her sleep as long as she can this morning too and hope that will help!  Brigid has three more games until the end of her "season" and she has had so much fun and learned so much!  She's already talking about participating in the Rec program again next winter!  She and I put this page together with some Pink Paislee Sweet Cakes pp last weekend during the Fiskateer crop - I'm not entirely happy with it, but she loves it, so that's all that counts.  My favorite thing is the font of those American Craft Thickers.  :)

Hope everyone has a great weekend! 

Webster's Pages appreciation

  Another company that has releases that I am really looking forward to is Webster's Pages.  Their previous collections have been gorgeous, and the new releases don't disappoint.  I'm having a tough time deciding which I like the best:  Magical Wishes or A Sweet Life - they're both beautiful!  Accompanying these two new releases are splendid new "Storytellers" alphabet stickers and diecut and vellum sheets as well. 

My LOAD page today uses two papers from the "Reflections of Nature" collection.  Love the rich colors!  Papers in the "Hello, Beautiful" collection are stil available at Peek, and that luscious velvet trim too!

The storm yesterday gave us an additional 8 inches of snow, but the rain at the end packed it down.  I've got my fingers crossed that I can make it up the driveway this morning to get to work.  The rain and sleet last night turned our driveway to a sheet of ice.  We may have to have it sanded if it is too bad.  If I can get a "running start" by backing right up to the garage doors, I may be able to make it.  Wish me luck!

Snow Days = Bliss

We're midway through what was supposed to be the first full week for all of us to be back at work and school.  It's mid-terms at the high school, and the end of the marking period for the elementary school, so the first half of the year is wrapping up.  But, it's snowing again.  Lots and lots and lots of snow, and, just to add to the fun, maybe a little ice.  So, no school today (again).  I appreciate a well-timed snow day, however, and this one was perfect.  After two nights out for activities (basketball practice and Brownies) the girls needed a morning to sleep in a little to catch up.  The last thing I need is for either of them to have a relapse!

 

My LOAD for today uses a digital freebie that Rhonna posted on her blog back at the beginning of the month.  I just printed it out on white cardstock, added my goals and scrapped it with some of my October Afternoon Hometown hoard!  The colors in the digi piece matched perfectly with the OA, and I like the simple look.  It's the example piece for a challenge that I'll be hosting over at the Fiskateer site today during the second half of the CHA Crop.  I'm calling it my "Simple Scrapbooks Shortcuts" tribute challenge as I'll be using one of the quizzes in the book as the journaling inspiration.  You can choose one of the questions like I did for this page, or do the whole quiz.  I am *so* going to miss Simple Scrapbooks and the awesome special edition magazines like this one.  *sigh*

Hope all my friends that are also off on a snowday have a fun and productive day, and my friends who are wrapping up at CHA have a safe trip home!

Sunday = scrapbook day!

I am so ready to roll with the challenges at the Fiskateer site today!  I'm hosting the challenge from 11am to noon (central time) and am posting my example this morning for any blog-readers that might want to get a jump start on the challenge.  <wink>  The theme is "Home Sweet Home" and my challenge is to create a page, a decor piece or a card with a house or home theme.  My example uses October Afternoon's "Weathervane" collection papers & die cuts, Scenic Route alpha stickers, Creative Imaginations chipboard letters, and a Creative Cafe 8x8 clipboard for a decor piece that's all about "home".

I am looking forward to the reports from the show floor today, and I'm already on the lookout for photos from last night's preview parties!  I am so curious as to how busy the show will be this year.  The economy seems to be having such a devastating affect on the hobby and craft industry.  :(  Sending my best wishes to friends at the show, and hope that you have a fun and successful day!

CHA-eve

CHA opens tomorrow, and I sure wish I could be there!  I wish all my friends who may still be traveling to CA safe journeys, and to all my friends who will be working hard for their respective companies, I wish you comfy shoes and BIG SALES!  :)  We'll be kicking off the day bright and early tomorrow with an online Crop at the Fiskateer site with challenges and chats and fun.  If you're a Fiskateer, grab your orange scissors and come and scrap with us!

Back on the LOAD bandwagon today, and this one uses some items that have been in my stash for at least a year, maybe two!  The Anna Griffin snowflake paper was one of my favorites the year it was released, and the color scheme matches my favorite K and Co collection from this year, so it seemed natural to pair them up!  The library pocket is from my SS - love the big poinsettia.  The tag inside has a list of Aileen's favorite presents from this Christmas.  Now I need to do the same thing for a page for Brigid's favorites!

More sneak peeks went up yesterday. KI Memories has posted their new products - three new collections: Friendship, Juicy Summer, and Baby Cakes, and lots of pretty Sashes, colored Sheer Delights new stamps and collection pads!  Yay!  Here's an image of the Friendship collection - love the bright colors and the cute little birds!  

CI has been posting lots of peeks on their blog this week as well - fun new products by artist Jenn Mason, new Art Warehouse Sports collections, new Magic, and lots of sparkly Creative Cafe goodies.

And I just can't wait for these collections from Crate - I think they're my favorites that I have seen so far along with the October Afternoon Cherry Hill collection!

 

Have a great weekend, everyone!

"sick ward" updates from Dr. Mom

What a week!  As of the moment, Jon is sleeping in a cozy painkiller bubble, Aileen is sleeping on the couch.  She was dignosed this morning as having a bad cold, but no infection.  Phew!  Only Brigid is doing well - back at school, she went to her basketball practice last night, and is steadily improving thanks to the amoxicillan. 

I think I have set a new school employee record.  I became eligible for sick days on Jan 11, and have used them all already.  :(  Guess I'd better stay healthy for the next 90 days!

Haven't had much time for anything aside from taking care of my kidlets this week, but when I've been able to be online, I've been checking out all the new show advance peeks.  October Afternoon's blog rocks and I love both the collections that they've previewed so far.  The Sassafrass Lass new releases are awesome, and I love Pink Paislee's too - especially "Fascinating".  Pat says that the new Scribble Scrabble collections are shipping and should be arriving soon.  :)  Looking forward to show photos when they start showing up online, and for the full views of BasicGrey's new lines!

short and sweet

This will be a quick blog post this morning, because I need to run out the door shortly.  I've got to get gas and stop at Walgreen's before we head off to the doctor's office.  I have no idea how much I'll get done after we get home!  My suspicion is that he's probably going to sleep for most of the day today, and wake up crazy hungry tomorrow morning because he hasn't been able to eat anything since last night!

Here's my LOAD for today.  I pulled out some Boho Chic papers from Making Memories for this winter page.  I thought the cool purples went nicely with the photos.  The tag is one of the original scrapbooking embellishments I bought way back when Ali E. was designing product for her company called "Two Busy Moms".  I discovered it when I was looking through my die cut drawer, and decided to build a page around it!

I'll update when I've got some news...

October Afternoon appreciation

Yay!  October Afternoon has a blog!!!  And they have the first sneak peek of one of their new CHA releases, "Cherry Hill." Absolutely adorable!  (and worth the wait to see!)  Yep, this makes being home today worthwhile!

"Life is what happens...

...while you're busy making other plans." - John, you're soooo right! 

I'm home again today.  Aileen is back to school, but with a note for her to take it easy in gym class.  I don't want to have to have her go back on crutches!  Brigid is going to try to go in for part of the afternoon, but I'm going to stick around here in case she needs to turn around and come back home again.  After I drop her off, I'm going to go back to the pharmacy and get a different flavored amoxicillan.  The "bubble gum" flavor just isn't doing it for her, and rather than battle for the next 24 doses, we're going to give "orange" a try.  Jon arrives this evening, so I need to vacuum his room and get it ready for my next "patient".  His surgery is scheduled for 11 tomorrow morning, so we have to be up and out of here fairly early to deal with Boston-bound traffic.  I have no idea what shape he'll be in when he is ready to come home, or how long it will be, so I am bringing a good book with me!  If he is doing ok, I might try to do a half-day on Friday myself, but I won't know about that until pretty much the last minute, so I called out for the rest of the week just to be on the safe side.  Just call me Dr. Mom.

Haven't done any crafting - or to be precise, haven't finished anything at all this week.  I hope to get my LOAD groove on starting next week.  The last color inspiration piece goes up on Sunday, and Sunday is also the online Crop at Fiskateers.  I'm really hoping to get some scrapping done that day!

Hope all *your* plans for the week turn out better than mine have!

*almost* 8:30

...which is when I can begin calling the pediatrician's office to try to make a couple appointments for today.  Aileen needs a followup on her foot, and Brigid's cold just seems to be getting worse and worse, so I want to make sure that it hasn't turned into a sinus infection or something else that will require antibiotics to make it go away.  We're still trying to dig out of the foot of snow we got yesterday, so I hope the appointment is after 9:30, which will give us enough time to clear the driveway.  I desperately need to get some groceries too, but I don't know how I'm going to manage that, unless Mom and Dad come and stay with the girls later so I can run out for a bit.

Here's my LOAD for today which is the Product Showcase at Peek today.  The spotlight is on the Creative Cafe Ticket Strips. Very good deal this week at 20% off!

I'm thinking about my grandmother today.  It's her birthday, and she would have been 90 years old today!  The photo of Aileen was taken at her house, and I'm so glad that I didn't crop out the background.  It is so sweet to see Jonathan's framed photo on the little table, the quilted pillow I made her and the "Nannie's House" stuffed toys along the back of the sofa.  I miss her so much. I know she would love to see how the girls are growing up...