A Christmas Story that 'they' will never let me forget!

This was the family Christmas card back in 1969. I was two and a half years old. This is B.A.D (before Aunt Debbie, I tell Bryant). This was the year I got coal in my stocking. As the story goes, my Mom and Dad took me Christmas shopping at Rich's Department store in Nashua, NH (which no longer exists). My parents had heard a rumor that Santa was in the area. They were pushing me around in the cart, hoping for me to meet Santa. Guess what? Santa just happened to be there, shopping himself that day. They were so excited for me. That is when it all goes downhill. Santa walks over to us. He tried to shake my hand and say hello. I looked him straight in the eye and said "My Daddy will beat you up!" Oh my! My parents were in shock. They have no idea where that came from. They laugh about it now. Out of the mouths of babes. Oh, and I get reminded of it every year. Not just at Christmas! I am sure there is a story about my sister, somewhere in the past, that is just as bad. Til I find it, it is all about me....

just catchin' up

I know it has been a while and I wanted to catch you all up on a few things that have been making me truly happy lately. Starting with David Cook. I mean really, how could this handsome guy not make a gal smile. he was recently on Carrie Underwood's holiday tv special last week. Though he sang a song I am not that crazy about....he still looked good singing it. LOL!

A couple of my co-workers 'dragged' me out on the town. Okay, I really wanted to go out and we had a blast! I really need to cut loose more often..

This gorgeous necklace was made by the fabulous Janna Wilson. It was an early Christmas present from my friend Heather (long story) and I have an outfit planned all around it to wear to my work Christmas party tonight!

As you all know, I am a huge Nascar fan (no really?) Well, one of my favorite sales reps in Charlotte, N.C. (from work), sent me pics of the Nascar Hall of Fame. The building is still in progress and is scheduled to open in May 2010. We can not wait to go to Charlotte and check it out. What a funky looking building

A view of the front:

A few weeks ago my work held a Christmas card contest for kids of employees 10 & under. The theme was Winter in New England. Bryant entered his 'cool snowman' pic. Though he did not win, he and all the other kids got $10 gift cards for Target. You would of thought he won the lottery. Very cool indeed!

A couple weeks back Bryant had a shopping day at school. The children were allowed to bring in a small amount of money to buy gifts for their parents, greandparents, siblings, etc. The presents he bought were fine....except this one. A Tiger Woods card (for Grampy). He knows my Dad likes to golf and he has been teaching Bryant a bit too. This was just bad timing. The card actually says "Tiger's Tales". I will just leave that one alone. We will just get Grampy something else..

Here is my lovely gift. A #1 Mom bracelet. I love it and will wear it even if my wrist turns green. I know these gifts were suppose to be for Christmas, but my child has no patience. LOL!

Tomorrow I am heading to a Pats football game with my friend Debbie. I am so over the top excited. It is going to cold out, but I don't care any chance to see the boys IRL and I am there! See this pom pom hat below. I want it! I have been trying find one, for like forever, to no avail. It is very popular I guess and in limited quanity. But the search goes. I will keep looking. I am determined...

I have also been working on this, my December Daily. Below is the cover. I promise to post pics of the inner pages as soon as I can. There is just not enough daylight to get good pics lately, but I will soon.

Okay...last, but not least, I signed up for this:

Yes, Teresa Collins Inspired Unlimited event. If you have not heard of this, you need to go check out her blog. I missed it the last 2 years and this year I decided to treat myself. Merry Christmas to ME! I am so excited!!

Well that is all for now. I know it is alot, but I guess I really am a busy chica!

Have a great weekend AND

GO PATS!!!

Fitzy

A couple of weeks ago, Steve and I got to have a night out (sans child), a bit of 'grown up' time and it was wonderful. Now we had to plan a bit in advance, but it was worth it and we had a great time. We actually attended a comedy event benefit here in MA, hosted by the local New England sports nitwit known as 'Fitzy' as portrayed by Nick Stevens. We love Fitzy in our household. He hosts a show on NESN (New England Sports Network) called "Pocket Money". For the show he actually walks the streets of New England testing people on our local sports trivia. Get the questions right and you win some pocket money. Get it? Got it? Good. He also has a website called Townie News and many, many, many funny webcasts on You Tube. He is hysterical! So basically, there are 2 versions of Fitzy, the clean cut version on Pocket Money and the webcast version. We enjoy both. Bryant of course loves the version of Fitzy from Pocket Money. He walks around quoting him from the show and has learned a lot about New England sports, which is very cool. He was disappointed that he could not come with us to meet him. He said "Mom, he's gonna swear isn't he?" I told him yes and that the show was for grown ups and he was okay with that. Insert puppy dog eyes here. He really was fine. We had a great time at the show. We had a few beers, laughed alot and got to meet Fitzy in person. He was funny, friendly, charming and very personable in person. Gotta love that! So being the scrapbooker I am (and trying to document events in my life more), I did a LO about us meeting Fitzy. I love how this LO came out!

TFL!!

Go Pats!!!

Scarlet Lime Creations

Over the past week my mojo started to finally come back. I say finally, because it has been a while. I really could not help but be inspired by the last two Scarlet Lime kits. they are just so beautiful, I could just eat them up. Okay not literally, but they are truly delicious to look at. So, I scrapped and scrapped and scrapped some more and here is what I came up with. These first two LO's are using the October kit. The LO below is using a pic I took at the Keene, NH Pumpkin Festival last month. I swear this kid can find something to do with Transformers anywhere!

Every Fall we take a trip to Brookdale Farm in Hollis, NH for an annual photo op with their big "scary" scarecrow. This year we almost missed out. I think this may have been the last day...

These next two are using the November kit. I am usually not a 'purple' person, but the papers and embellies in this kit are gorgeous! This is a pic of me taken a couple weeks back, when I got 'all dolled up' for our night out. I was feeling so pretty that day and really just wanted to capture ME in that moment.

This last little ditty is a notebook I decorated with a few things from the kit and I love how it came out!

So...I still have tons of stuff from both kits left and now that I have my mojo back, I am on a roll baby! Love that! How 'bout you??? What are you creating? I am always looking for a little inspiration...

Happy Scrappin'!!!!!

Fall Happenings...

I love Fall, but dread Winter. Fall is so beautiful. The colors, the smells, the temperature. We have been enjoying Fall as much as we can, between sickness going through our house. Not that it is good to be sick, but maybe it coming through now, will promise a healthy Winter. One can hope...right? Seems like we have done quite a bit lately.In mid October we went to the Pumpkin Festival in Keene, NH. We had the perfect weather for it. last year it rained and we ended up leaving early. This year we were not impressed. There were a ton of pumpkins, but not nearly as many as in past years. Bryant zoomed in on this Transformer one. Very cool:

Here is a distant view of the wall of pumpkins. This is always a vision:

The weekend before Halloween, I had an oppotunity to head down to Martinsville, Virginia to see a Nascar race. I was not feeling my best, but I was not going to pass on an opportunity to see my boys live and in person one last time this season. Oh, how I love me some Tony & Jr...

Here is the view from our seats. It was perfect:

One of my favorite things about Fall is the simple beauty of nature. I park by this tree everyday at work. It is so beautiful it almost takes my breath away:

On Halloween this year, we just spent the evening with family. Bryant did not want to go trick or treating. His explanation was simply that he could get candy at the store anytime. yes indeed-y that is true. So we headed to Grammy & Grampy's house to help hand out candy. First we made a pitstop at Brookdale Farm in Hollis, NH. They have so many beautiful things to see. First Bryant had his picture taken with the big scarecrow. He was not as big a production as in years past, but still fun:

Here are some pics from inside. Pretty (& scary) decorations :

and a few more:

and of course Bryant had to have a spin on the tractor:

Though he did not want to dress up, he had fun with his air guitar and grammy's witch hat. Rock on dude!!

One last thing that I wanted to share was, I received some very happy mail today:

I ordered this beautiful necklace from Janna Wilson's new Whimsy Shoppe:

Lots of beatiful handmade goodies there. You can check it out for yourself here.

I admit I have not done any scrapping lately. I know. Me! Right? I need to get back on the wagon. I have many more Fall pics, along with the ones above, to scrap. Plus, I am getting together the items that I want to use for my December Daily. Can you believe that it is almost that time again? I am really happy that I did it last year. You can check it out here.

Have a great rest of your weekend! Send me some Mojo. I need it!

Go Pats!!!

Well, hello....

I have been a bad blogger lately! Lots of stuff going on. Busy, busy busy. I wanted to pop in and share a LO that I have been struggling with for at least 3 weeks now. I loved this picture and the story behind it and the title, but I could not make it work! Finally, I had an idea...and another one...and another one, and then it finally came together. Finally. So, the story behind this LO "He is my Back up" is:


We LOVE the RED SOX in our house. No big surprise there. My favorite player is Josh Beckett, I have a couple t-shirts and his jersey. He's my guy. Well, I also aquired a Dustin Pedroia jersey. Bryant asked one day "why did you get a little man (my nickname for Pedroia) jersey, if JB is your favorite?" I told him it was because Pedroia is my back up or my second favorite and he was cool with that. Bryant's favorite player is Jason Bay. He also has Jay Bay shirts and pics. While shopping for back to school clothes, he decided he wanted a Jacoby Ellsbury jersey, so my Mom bought it for him. I asked him why Jacob and not Jay Bay and his response was..."He is my back-up." End of story. It is all good.

Last week I told you that I had won the Crazy Daisy October kit:

and the October add-on kit from Donna Downey's blog:

Well, they arrived yesterday. Aren't they beautiful?!!! I really need to clean up/out my scrap space. I guess today is the perfect day. I am home with Bryant. He has a bit of fever and is down for the count. Poor guy. I also have to get ready for my trip. Where you say? I am headed to Martinsville, VA to the 6th race in the Chase for the Nascar cup. Go Tony! I have never been there and I am so excited! I also get to meet my friend Kathy IRL that I met through this crazy scrapbooking hobby of mine. Good, good, good times.

I also wanted to share one more thing. My sweet friend Jonnelle just opened a very cool etsy shop. You can check it out here. She is so creative!

Have a great rest of the week! I (maybe) will post pics from the weekend when I return. It really depends how incriminating they are...LOL!

Happy Birthday Jonnelle!!

Happy Birthday to YOU
Happy Birthday to YOU
Happy Birthday dear Jonnelle
Happy Birthday to YOU!!

I hope you have an AWESOME day my sweet friend!!!

A 'Black Sunday' and Life goes on...

Yesterday was definately a bummer of a sports day here in New England. The Boston Red Sox season is officially over and the New England Patriots definately had an ugly loss. To say the least. Life does go on though. It is not the 'end of the world'. There really is next year. I still love both teams and will not be jumping off the wagon anytime soon. So with that said, I move on to some really great things that have been happening. Remember this LO? Still my favorite at the moment. Well, I had shared it with the fabulous Teresa Collins and she shared it on her blog. Very exciting...I must say! You can check out the post here.

I also wanted to share some more exciting news. I entered a giveaway on Donna Downey 's blog for this:

Crazy Daisy's October 2009 Main Scrapbooking Kit
&
Crazy Daisy's October 2009 Add-On Scrapbooking Kit

When I was checking out her blog today, I saw this:

** congratulations Dawn Tavela you win today's Crazy Daisy giveaway!

I am so excited! This is an amazing prize!!! Donna totally ROCKS!!

AND...remember this LO? I entered it in a sketch contest over at Let's Scrap last month:

and I won this awesome Kaiser Craft wooden album from Citrus Tree Studio
I recently recieved it in the mail and it is so COOL!

Yes, I have been very lucky. I am an admitted obsessive scrapper and these goodies will all be put to good use. As you all also know, Nascar (escecially Tony Stewart!) is my other obsession. He, I must say, had a good day on Sunday. So my sporty Sunday was not a complete loss!

The long weekend is coming to a close. Don't know if I got all that much accomplished, but I did get to sleep in for a couple of days. Life is good.

SOXYCONTIN

Really bummed out about the Sox! I could really use a big dose of this! Do you think they make a version of this for Pats fans? I love all things Fitzy ( the New England sports nitwit)!! :-)

Don't Stop Believing

Circle Journals

Okay, so I had been hanging on to a couple of circle journals for a while now. They are just so beautiful, but I was feeling a bit un-inspired. Basically, I had no mojo and I really did not want to disappoint. So. they sat in plain view for me to see everyday. Then a third shows up, so I figure I best get my a$$ in gear! As I sat and watched my favorite sporting events (Nascar, Red Sox and Pats) I was a creatin' away. Phew! I finally completed all 3 CJ's. I loved the results and I hope I did them proud. So without further ado, here they are. The first one is for the fabulous Anilu . Her CJ theme is 'favorites'. I chose my 'fave sports', which again would be Pats, Red Sox and Nascar:

The second was for the amazing Amy Coose. Her theme is 'simple pleasures'. I have many, but here are a few:

The third was for the very beautiful, very talented and very missed Aleida. Definately keeping this alive for her family. Her theme is 'a first'. I chose being a first time mother. Though my son is now nine, it is something I will always treasure and never forget:

Well, three more CJ's complete (you can click on the pics to see them better). I think I only have a couple more to go? I am so anxious to see mine! Soon. Must have patience.

TFL!

Playing along with the latest BASB Challenge

Last week, my Dad was quite fortunate to be given 4 (free!) tickets to a Boston Red Sox game. So Thursday night, Steve, my parents and I took a ride down to Boston to watch the Red Sox take on the Cleveland Indians. Though they are already in the play-offs, there were still a few regular season games left. The game we saw was perfect. We saw the fabulous Jon Lester as the starting pitcher. The weather was crisp and perfect. We saw Jonathan Papelbon (our fave!) as the closing pitcher and we won 3-0. It was just awesome! I do not get to go to too many live games, so this was a treat. Something about being in Fenway Park live, is quite magical. I guess that is the best way to describe how I personally felt. I wanted to capture that feeling. Denise's newest BASB challenge was a perfect oppurtunity. The challenge is a photo mix up, to combine color and black & white pictures on a LO. I had the perfect idea. I loved this photo of Jon Lester as he saluted the crowd as he walked off the field, after pitching his last game of the regular season. I was there! He was amazing! I also added in pics of inside and outside of Fenway, along with a picture of the scoreboard, showing Jon's stats at one point during the game. I knew of the perfect papers and embellishments (that I have been saving to scrap my many Fenway photos) that I would use. The awesome Sports Edition by Teresa Collins. Can I say how really cool this line is! LOVE it!!!

I am so happy with this LO. Love the challenge! Love the papers! Love especially that I was at the game! Love that I can combine 2 of my favorite hobbies, scrapping and New England sports! Did I also mention how much I love these Sports Edition papers?! Got lots more plans for them...

TFL!

Go Sox!!

Happy Scrappin'!!

Happy Monday!!

Just a quickie...

Wanted to share a LO I completed last week:

A two pager (which I rarely do) based on the sketch below:

I found this sketch at one of my favorite new sites called Let's Scrap. I really like sketches and the versatility of them. As you can see, I switched it up a bit and I really loved the result. They have a ton of cool sketches to choose from and a whole gallery full of inspiration. I have been wanting to scrap these pics of Bryant in his Dad's old Def Leppard t-shirt for a while now. Bryant's thing is that it is cool, but it is "So 80's"...whatever dude! Anywho...I had fun scrappin' AND I got to use my favorite Piggy Tails paper evah "Old King Cole". Love , love, love this whole line. So if you are looking for some inspiration, go with a sketch. It is always a great starting point. TFL!!! :-)

Sports Edition Part Two

This past Saturday I had a chance to spend the day with my BFF and do a little scrapping. I even got to play a bit with my new Studio Calico kit (Cotillion) and add ons and put together a couple more sporty LO's. I, as the mom, know little about skateboarding. Could never balance on one as a kid and would not even think of trying now. Bryant on the other hand, is getting a little better at it all the time. He has not tried any jumps and there have been no major falls (yet!) Thank God! But, he is a boy with 'no fear'. So anyways, he has been trying to show me some of his cool new moves lately and I liked this one the best. It is called an 'ollie':

We are die hard New England sports fans in our house. We love our Celtics basketball, Red Sox baseball and New England Patriots football. I have been wanting to scrap this picture of Bryant from a couple years ago for a long time now. This was the perfect opportunity! So, put on your game face...are you ready for some football??!!

I am really digging this kit and hoping to work on a few more LO's really soon! I also went to the Nascar race in Loudon, NH on Sunday and am still recouperating. More on that real soon...(speaking of sporty LO's!) Hope you are having a great week!

Happy Wednesday!!!

Happy Birthday Stacy

Happy Birthday to YOU
Happy Birthday to YOU
Happy Birthday dear Stacy
Happy Birthday to YOU!!!

How old are you now....

Okay, so I will not go there, 'cause you will always be younger than me!
I hope you have the best day evah!!!
Love ya!!!

Sports Edition Part One

This gal is an admitted obsessive scrapper. She is also a bit of a sports junkie. Put them together, you get some fun sporty LO's. So...this past Summer, while down in the Fenway area of Boston, I saw this cool Andy Warhol-ish group of pics of our favorite Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon. I had to get a picture. I knew that I would find a way to scrap it. So here it is, along with some of my favorite Pink Paislee papers and other assorted goodies. Bring it on...Papelbon:

I am very well known for my obsession with Nascar and absolutely love to go to races whenever possible. This past June in Loudon NH it was a rain shortened race. So as the title goes, I am a 'true blue nascar fan' (rain or shine!) I LOVE these papers and embellies from Piggy Tales too!

The above LO was based on this sketch:

Which can found at Let's Scrap. This is the first time I played along and I loved it. Very FUN! I also used a few rub ons (can you see them?) from Denise's weekend challenge. Mental note. Need to use rub ons. Have too many. Need to use them more often...

Anyways...so there are my sporty LO's part one. More to come that are already in the works.

Hey! How 'bout that Pats win last night??? I (heart) Tom Brady!

***This just in.....check THIS out!!! I just found out I won the RAK at Let's Scrap for my 'nascar' LO above! Can you say psyched!!!!***