{bliss}

post & run...

...lots to do today!  This week has been flying by, and I need to take advantage of the sunshine today, because we've got rain moving in for tomorrow.  We had a great day yesterday - Aileen opted for Olive Garden for her special lunch (a vast improvement over her traditional Chuck E. Cheese choice!) and we had a nice lunch.  I wish I had brought my camera - her expressionwhen the kitchen crew came out with her cake was priceless!

My LOAD today uses the new Fancy Pants "Kraft Kuts" collection pp's. LOVE this set, and wish I had gotten more of it!  Pat has just a few sheets from the collection available here, so if you want it, you'd best grab it now!  My love affair with gingham continues - the green is from an old collection from Daisy D's...  The little squirrel die cut is Crate Paper from the Lemon Grass collection.

In haste -

have a great day!

Wednesday? Already?

Ok, someone slow this vacation week down!  It can't be Wednesday already!  =P  We've had a great week so far, and the pace is only going to pick up as we get to the end of the week and all of Aileen's birthday festivities.  Friday she's going to have her special mani/pedi (providing Mama can set that up - it's on my "to do" list!) and we're going to see the Hannah Montana movie, and then Saturday is our NSD extravaganza with Sharon and Erin, and the family party concludes our week of fun on Sunday.  I've got so much to do between now and Saturday, it isn't even funny! (and yet, here I am glued to the computer and Facebook!) 

Here's my LOAD for today.  Its for a color challenge at the Outta This Funk blog - fun place, and a great color scheme to work with!  Thanks, Jen!  And thanks, Dee, who introduced me to this group via blog hop this past weekend.  Too much fun!

The orange paper is new from Fancy Pants - part of the "Summer Soiree" collection.  The red floral is Foofala "Indian Summer" the blue, Jenni Bowlin "Tangerine Dream" and the yellow floral is from October Afternoon's "Weathervane" collection.  I used a bunch of my KI embellishment stash - I had forgotten how many of those acrylic Ice Cubes I had accumulated!  lol!  I think they make a nice tile border.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day today!

inspired!

I had so much fun chatting with the gals at InspireME this morning!  Terri posted a sneak peek of the new line, Sweet Cherry Pie, which begins shipping on FRIDAY!  Oh. my. gosh!  I just love the colors and the great patterns in the new collection, and I can't wait to decorate a recipe box with the "kitchen-y" ones!It's up for a limited time in the forum... 

I did this one yesterday with some more of the Magical Wishes papers & goodies - I need to order more, because I have just scraps of this collection left!  My sweet girl is just counting the days until her birthday on Friday.  She gave me 7 wishes for her 7th birthday, which I journaled here...

We have a relaxing day at home today.  Brigid has a friend coming over in the afternoon, and we've got nothing pressing until then, so we can just relax and play!

I *heart* spring break!

Ah, Spring...

This layout says it all for me today.  It is absolutely beautiful out there.  Bright blue sky, warm sun, and the perfect temperature - 75 degrees.  It was just too doggone hot over the weekend, so this is a vast improvement!

I went out this morning with Mom and did a little more birthday shopping for Aileen.  I still have one more thing that I want to get her, but I have to track it down first.  I think I'm going to try online and if Amazon has it, it may get here by Sunday if I'm lucky...

My page today is a Webster's Pages / Rhonna Farrer (AL) combo.  The pink die cut is Rhonna's, everything else including that awesome pleated trim is from Webster's Pages.

Hope everyone has a beautiful beginning to their week!

we've gone from "ice, ice, baby" to "hot! hot! hot!"

...in the span of about 3 weeks!  Crazy spring weather!  I was getting some photos ready to print, and in the March and April folders I had everything from snow fort photos, to the first jump rope/spring jacket picture.  On the night before Easter, it snowed, and today they were outside with shorts and tank tops - go figure!.  It's supposed to be even warmer tomorrow - we're all getting our hair cut, so we'll have some new "cute hair" photos soon!  ;)

I made a start on the spring cleaning projects I have for myself.  I figured with it being nearly 90, it would be safe to put away the snow pants, winter hats and mittens.  lol!  Tomorrow we'll trade over the bureau drawers from sweaters and long sleeves to shorts and summer tops, and see what we have left that fits.  It's a good thing Aileen's birthday is this week, because I don't think she'll have much that fits once we go through last years clothes. 

We're getting ready for NSD at Peek - we've had a few "countdown" RAKs, and there is more to come.  There will be a full day of challenges and games on May 2nd - I can't wait!  The PDT will have challenges beginning every two hours, and Sharon will be running a couple digi challenges with a special NSD kit available only at Peek. :)  Hope you'll join us for some scrapping fun on Saturday!  Register in the forums to chat throughout the day, and make sure you take advantage of Pat's fantastic NSD deals!

New products that have recently arrived:  Scenic Route Garden Grove, Basic Grey Lime Rickey, Basic Grey Wisteria, Crate Paper Little Sprout, Crate Paper Lillian, Crate Paper Orbit, Fancy Pants Delight, Fancy Pants Summer Soiree, Fancy Pants On a Whimsy, Fancy Pants Kraft Kuts, Webster's Pages Magical Wishes and Webster's Pages A Sweet Life.  And if all the new stuff isn't enough, how about 20% off of all my favorite October Afternoon collections?  It's a good thing that I'm working full time now!  lol!

Wish it would cool off a little more here in the house.  I don't want to go from having the heat on Thursday night to having the air conditioning on on Saturday!

It's Friday...It's Friday!

Hooray!  I hope the day flies by, that I don't have to substitute anywhere today, and that 2pm arrives in a flash!  I'm more than ready for our spring break!  The weather is going to be astonishingly warm this weekend, so we'll get a little preview of summer, and actually be off from school to enjoy it!

Here's my LOAD for today.  I found this Making Memories collection at Michaels - I don't know whether it is an exclusive or not, but I just love it!  The butterflies are from Jenni Bowlin's "Spring Picnic" digital collection at {We Are} Storytellers.  I just printed the butterflies in a row on a transparency!

Have a great FRIDAY, everyone!

two days to go...

The kids are getting really anxious for vacation to begin, and I'm right there with them!  Two days to go - woo hoo! 

My page today uses papers from two different Sassafrass Lass collections: Bungle Jungle and Anthem.  Love the bright, happy colors and thought they'd be just right for some egg dying photos!  The big flower is from Prima, and is the product feature for this page.  Pat has them 25% off at the store this week.  :)

Today's the last day of more or less regular classes - tomorrow will be assemblies for over half the day - woo hoo!  Two more days, I think I can...I think I can... I think I can...

Happy Birthday (and Happy Earth Day!) JON!

Jonathan is 22 today, which is something I just can't wrap my head around yet!  Hope you have a great day, hon!  These two kiddos want to wish you a happy day as well!

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sunny Sunday

Now why couldn't we have had this sun yesterday for Earth Day?  Oh well, at least it didn't rain.  We all had a great morning at the park.  It was a little buggy, but not too bad - we've definitely been there when it has been worse.  It's still dropping down to around freezing every night, so it has held "black fly season" at bay for an extra week or two, for which I am thankful.  It has been dry too, which has slowed down the mosquitos too. I hate bugs, and Aileen reacts to bites with giant welts and pain.  I'd rather delay all of that as long as possible, thank-you-very-much! 

We met up with the Brownie troop at the park, and it was cute to see them running around with their uniforms on.  They didn't have anything "official" to do this year (the Boy Scouts did the opening flag ceremony) but it was good for them to get together as a group and do some nature things.  I remember many Brownie occasions when I was their age - marching in the Memorial Day parade was a big one.  I wonder if they'll want to do that this year?  We're usually spectators, but now that they're involved in Scouts, I think that we'll probably be marching instead. 

Monday is the beginning of Spirit Week up at the high school.  I've heard that it gets pretty competitive between the classes, so I am looking forward to seeing how much participation there is in the different activities.  Monday is "movie character" day - I'm trying to think up what character I could portray that wouldn't prevent me from being comfortable (and effective at my job!) all day.  Hmmm. 

Earth Day washout?

Our Earth Day celebration was supposed to start this morning at 10am at the park, but it is so cloudy and gloomy that I bet they move the celebration to the "rain" location at the Elementary School.  :(  Boo!  I wish I had taken photos yesterday when it was so gorgeous out!  Oh well, my little Brownies will have fun wherever the celebration is held, and will be able to show off their new sash (Aileen) and vest (Brigid)  that I sat and sewed all the patches to last night.  The packaging for those patches said "iron on" - but only some of them actually did!  The rest had to be secured with stitching, and I was annoyed to find that I had not one spool of "Brownie Brown" thread in my entire sewing cabinet!  So if anyone looks really closely, they're outlined with black.  Oh well.

Here's my page for this morning.  I was digging through my "old" paper stash yesterday afternoon and found a whole stack of gingham papers that I have been hoarding basically since I started scrapping.  I went through a huge gingham phase back around when Brigid was born.  Her baby quilt is gingham patchwork, her baby announcement was gingham, and my original scrapbook pages that I started while I was expecting Aileen featured gingham quite often.  I'm glad that I held onto those "vintage" papers, because I've come full circle and am craving that old-fashioned gingham again!  The large red gingham and the background on this page are both from a vintage Valentine's Day-themed line from Karen Foster from 2004, and the tan gingham I used for the bird cutout is from Daisy D's  from around the same time period.  I thought that they coordinated wonderfully with the elegant new patterned paper from Webster's Pages.  The collection is called "A Sweet Life" and I loooove the artwork!  I'd like to just stick some of the pages in frames, because I am loathe to cover any of the art up!  I just picked up both collections from Pat and you can find them here - but they are going fast!

Off to rustle up a second cup of coffee and get this show on the road.  I guess we'll find out which venue they've chosen for Earth Day if we drive past the school and see a bazillion cars there...  Have a great weekend!