An Early Start

For the month of December I wanted to share Christmas projects & LO's, old & new. New creations from this year and favorites from last year. I know December 1st is tomorrow, but I thought I would start early. I LOVE Christmas! Below are a few projects that I did last year for Paper Jam Studio, using the very funky Christmas papers & embelishments from Doodlebug Designs. The first is a cookie sheet Advent Calendar. I even used some Grungeboard letters, along with some other odds & ends:

Next was a little wall hanging to spread some "Joy":

Last, but not least is an online class I did for Paper Jam Studio, for an online crop they had. This is the completed LO:

And here is mine, with photos, title and journaling (on back of tags) added:

Just a few things to get us all in the spirit. It truly is the most magical time of the year! Did I mention that I LOVE Christmas?

Getting Back in the Swing of Things

I feel I have needed a little creative 'kick in the butt' lately. I have all these ideas in my head and many projects, as always in progress. Now that I finally have time off (for the Thanksgiving holiday), I am really hoping to get some things finished. I know that Fall is almost over and Christmas is right around the corner, but I wanted to share this LO that I did last Fall of me, Steve and Bryant. I do not have that many pics of the 3 of us together. I am always the picture taker. I need to work on that. This is one of my faves using Love, Elsie papers. So unique and fun:

I wanted to share some things that are bringing a smile to my face today. One of my favorite of all time "Scrap Godesses" has nominated me with this Kreativ Blogger award. This is so COOL and I am so honored. Thanks SWEET girl!!

The Rules are : 1. The winner may put the logo on their blog. 2. Put a link to the person who sent you the award. 3. Nominate 5 blogs. 4. Put links to their blogs. 5. Leave a message for your nominees. So I would like to nominate Jonnelle, Tami, Kathleen, Debbie and Lisa to say thank you for your inspiration, creativity and friendship. It means a lot to me.

Also, there is a new site out there with the cutest stuff in their etsy shop. They sent me a sweet RAK a while back and are now featuring my Fall '08 mini album. Check it out!!

This RAK arrived today. I won this from the Scrapping the Music site months ago (for this LO)and had given up hope that it would ever arrive. So you can imagine my surprise and happiness when I got the mail today. Lots of cute embellies, travel embellies and gorgeous Kaiser paper (one of my new faves!) :

Okay, time to share a few current projects. Made this little Birthday plaque/card for a co-worker with the beautiful Scarlet Lime papers from the November kit:

And next, is anyone out there doing the December Daily project from Ali Edwards site? I am so looking forward to this one. I picked brown, blue, white and cream as my color theme. It will be a work in progress. I will share the pages as I go. Here is my cover for starters:

Last, but not least, have you seen these?? Lots of people are talking about these fabulous pendants. I have got my eye on this one. I LOVE Sunflowers!!!

I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend with lots of relaxing and creativity. I will be sharing lots of my Christmas projects (past & present) real soon. I LOVE Christmas!!!

Heavy Hearted

I truly feel that I am being tested. I mean, how much more sadness can this girl take. Three friends, three deaths, in three months. I have worked fifteen years at the company that I am at now. I have worked in different departments along the way and have had a few different bosses. One of my former bosses, that I worked for, for four years passed away today of cancer. She was only a year or so older than me. It just doesn't seem right and it doesn't seem fair. I ask myself "why??!!" I guess I will really never have an answer to that question. My mom sent me this poem. She thought it to be a perfect sentiment for today:

Boogie through Life

Don't cry because its over, smile because it happened.

Pain and Suffering is inevitable but Misery is optional.

Yesterday is history, Tomorrow is a mystery, Today is a gift.

That's why it's called: The Present.

A good exercise for the heart is to bend down and help another up.

Life is what you make of it...kinda like Play-Doh

The bubbling brook would lose its song if you removed the rocks.

Happiness comes through doors you didn't even know you left open.

Everything is always okay in the end, if it's not, then it's not the end.

If all my friends jumped off a cliff, I wouldn't jump with them. I would be at the bottom to catch them.

Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you're alive, it isn't.

So be happy!Don't let anything burst your balloon! Boogie through life!

Have a real happy day today! Enjoy it because you got up this morning!

This Boy...

..LOVES trucks! They are currently doing some work on our street and Bryant is so excited!

By the time we get home at night it is dark out, so he has not been able to get a good look .

Since it is now the weekend and the workers are gone, we took a walk over to check them out.

It is really cold out, but it was worth it just to see how happy he was.

Twilight

Today is the day that this book:

Comes to life:

Isn't this exciting?!!! Happy Friday!!!

Just a few things that are making ME happy right now..

I finally got my hands on some 'Vintage Moon' from Pink Paislee!!! Thanks to a link from my friend Greta! Thanks girl! Still not being carried in my local scrapbook stores. What a pity!!

Dustin Pedroia is the 2008 AL MVP!!! Rock On Little Man!!!

Gas is below two dollars. Took this pic earlier today and on the way home I saw that it had dropped (again!!) to $1.95. Woo Hoo!!

Oh..and did I mention I got this?? Oh ya! My boyriend is rockin' the house!!!

It really doesn't take much to make this girl happy. What are your happy things at the moment?? Do share...

Looking For a Good Challenge?

Well, our second challenge is now up over at the BASB site. It is basically to create a kit with your own stash. With that kit create a LO. Here is my kit. It contains Scrapworks, Junkitz, MM, We-R-Mermory Keepers, Basic Grey, Prima, Dymo, etc. Lots of odds & ends and it just all came together. A fun way to use stuff up!

Here is a LO I made about my son having fun in the leave pile:

Here is another with his little pumpkin:

Here is another at a local farmstand with the 'Big Scary Scarecrow":

I even threw together a couple of cards with the scraps:

This was the perfect challenge for me! You only need to complete one LO. I just used my stuff up. I got to use some papers that I really loved and I got my Fall scrapping completed. A win-win for me! So go check out the challenge here. We would love for you to play along. I can not wait to see what you all come up with.

Plus, did I mention that there is a great prize to win? Go check it out. Good Luck!!

Fall '08 Mini Album

I LOVE fall. The weather is still somewhat nice and there are so many fun things to do. I wanted to capture them all and this acrylic covered mini that I won from Sketchbook Designs was perfect for this. I really enjoyed creating this and getting to play with Teresa Collins new Spooktacular line (and a couple of her past Halloween lines too!) Here is the cover. Aren't the copper leaves so cool! I also used copper paint around the edges of the pages for a little bit of a distessed look:

These pics are a few hi-lights from our afternoon of apple picking:

A few of fun at the Farmstand:

These Pumpkin pics are my favorite:

The Pumpkin Festival in Keene, NH was awesome:

Here are a few of our favorite carved pumpkins:

A couple more of Bryant's Faves. One is a Transformer and the other cannibal pumpkins?

A leisure Sunday afternoon of carving our little pumpkin:

Bryant as a Storm Trooper on Halloween:

Playing in the leave pile:

Here is the back cover. Love this mini album. It hi-lights some really good times. I enjoyed making it.

Well, TGIF! So glad it is the weekend. Remember the 1st BASB challenge is going on till tomorrow night. Come join in all the fun. I will be posting the second challenge on Sunday. See you there! :-)

Just checkin' in...

I have been feeling a little heavy hearted the last few days. Found out that an old friend had passed away last year. Makes me sad that I did not know.
Today my Mom stopped by and took me to lunch and then I stopped to pick up a copy of this:

It made me smile. New music makes me happy. My Love, David Cook's CD comes out next week and that makes me even happier.

BASB...Challenge #1

A group of us were brought together a while back by our sweet friend Aleida. Through her we have become great friends and sisters. She also had a plan for us all, that was just coming to fruition, when she was suddenly taken from us. This plan was to start our own scrappy site and call it the BASB. That would stand for 'Bad Ass Scrap-Bookers'. This was so spunky and soooo Aleida! Of course we all LOVED it and it has now become a reality. We invite everyone to come join us in all the activity and good times. We are not selling anything. We are just hoping to bring scrapbookers together to share ideas, techniques, throw out some challenges and give away some prizes. Our first challenge is now up and will still be up until November 15th. The challenge is to create a LO about a 'first' (ie, first day of school, losing the first tooth, a first birthday) whatever you like. Here is my LO:

My son's first belt. We have a little issue with his pants staying up. LOL! So we went and bought a belt. Bryant's first belt and he thought it was 'so cool!' It is black with aqua dragons on the front and just plain brown on the back. Yes, reversable (for the times we do not want to look so wild).

So check us out. The link to the BASB site is on the left. You can post a link to your LO Here. A winner will be picked in less than a week. Who doesn't want to win a cool prize, just for doing what we already love? Remember you have have less than a week (November 15th!) Good Luck!! WOO HOO!!!

Happy Birthday Waleska

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear Waleska,
Happy Birthday to you!!!

Enjoy your day! I hope it is wonderful my friend!!!

Leave Pile Fun

I LOVE Fall, but the typical weather here in New England is anything, but typical. One day it is raining, one day it is really cold and windy (and we brace ourselves for Winter) and the next day it is sunny and in the 60's. This past Sunday was one of those nice days, so we decided to have a little outdoor fun. I should have been cleaning my car, but we created a huge leave pile instead. I really did most of the raking, with Bryant trying to help, but getting to tired from it!

WOO HOO! This was all worth it!!

We did not do this to clean up the yard. This was just for pure FUN!!

I love this picture! I just can not get mad at a cute face like this, right? Yah, right! LOL!!

Still enjoyng Fall and dreading Winter...how about you??

A Night of Treats...

This year we missed trick-or-treat in our own neighborhood. It last Saturday night (Oct 25th) while we were at the pumpkin festival. So we went to Grammy & Grampy's on Halloween and trick-or-treated in their neighborhood. I started off the evening by treating Bryant to a brand new toothbrush and toothpaste. He was very excited..."Mama it's electric AND it has Wall-E & Eve". I am glad he liked it. We have had enough dentist/teeth issues with him and are now at a good place with it all. He has been petrified of the dentist and now has become (finally!) comfortable with the one he has now. It has been a long road. So, as you can tell, we want to keep having good trips to the dentist.

Mr. Storm Trooper. Looking so tough...even without a weapon. I couldn't find one, so I gave up.

Looking cute here and not so tough:

He did not get a ton of candy, but he did get a lot of full size Hershey bars:

Starting to sort out the candy, so Mama and Grammy could check it for him:

So all in all we had a good time. The weather was somewhat nice. We have alot of 'good' candy. It was a very Happy Halloween!!!

Just Because

One of these...

...may be on their way to you, as we speak. Just because. Happy Fall!!


***If you LOVE a good challenge (like I do!) then you will need to check out our new site called BASB. Click the link on the side to check out the first challenge and participate on our message board. I will see ya there!!***