Happy New Year!

Good riddance to this one would be harsh... but it's been a tough year. I'm happy to see it go. It wasn't ALL bad though.

I got to go to the beach for my birthday.



My first grandchild was born.



I went to a scrappy retreat with a friend.




I have been more selfish with my time this year, making sure to make time for ME to be happy. Creating makes me happy, and I will continue in the new year to make time for ME. Wishing all of you a very scrappy new year filled with lots of YOU time doing whatever it is that makes you happy. :-)

Happy holidays!

Thanks for your nice comments on my calendar page, makes all that stinkin' handstitching worth it! :-D This month has been so busy, as I'm sure it is for everyone. A few things we've been up to:


Christmas parade for the twirly girly


Eight crazy nights of Chanukah


Birthday celebration for my baby, who just turned 22


And lots of baby time, poor Ayden has been through the wringer! LOL


Not much scrapping time, but I have finished a few recipe layouts, hoping to have enough finished to give the kids as gifts, but alas, I'll need the fun challenges coming next year to Kitchen Keepsake before I'll have enough completed in each of the four albums to be considered a "gift." LOL

Speaking of which, the talented team at Kitchen Keepsake is working on a fun crop coming next month. I've put a fun kit together of Shabby Green Door that will "help" with a couple of the challenges. There are 6 left, you can see the kit and details by clicking the link above. If you'd like to get started on your recipe album, this would be a great time to do so! Come on over and join me and the girls, we're already having fun! Challenges will start on January 1st.

Wishing all of you a very merry Christmas and a healthy and happy new year! :-)

Happy December!

It's a good thing I finished this page back in October, it took forEVER to stitch all those numbers! LOL

November was a busy month and December proves to be the same. Despite my best efforts every year not to overdo and just enjoy the season, the calendar seems to get filled anyway. I'm still getting over the nasty flu, and I hadn't scrapped in a couple of weeks. I was afraid I forgot how! But alas, I took some inspiration from my friend Suzanna and a color challenge from Birds of a Feather Kit Club.



This week, I'll be announcing the DT winner of the contest on Kitchen Keepsake! We'll be starting challenges in January, after the holidays, so if you've ever thought about starting a recipe album, we'd love to have you join us!

Wishing all of my scrappy friends a very happy holiday season! Take time to enjoy the moments. :-)

This is why

Jews shouldn't be allowed to make Christmas decorations! LOL Oh, go ahead,laugh! It's funny! :-D I thought I'd surprise the hubs by making these and putting them on the mantle. Uh, yea, NOT happening.

This is what it was SUPPOSED to look like:



And VIOLA!




LOL! Yea, it's in the trash. Kinda makes the argument for using a scorer.

Here are a couple of other holiday projects I finished. Grams Hanukkah card, complete with pop up dreidel in the middle! She'll love it, after all, she's 97 years old. I could scribble on a piece of paper and she'd love it. The most important thing will be on the inside, a photo of her first great, GREAT grandson. :-)





And this {what would you call this?} tag for a challenge on Challenge Masters. I decided to turn it into a wine bottle gift tag? Sure, we'll go with that uber long name. Of course, I don't know any Jews in real life, so I guess I'll have to give this bottle of wine to ME! LOL



My friend Amy Bender sent me some VERY cool Savor from LYB. I neglected chores because I couldn't wait to get into it! Thank you Amy! :-)



Thank you all very much for your hugs and condolences. I appreciate you all! :-) Thanks for stopping by and if I don't get a chance to come back before next Thursday, I wish all of my scrappy friends a very bountiful and joyous Thanksgiving. Hug the ones you're with!

Letter to Bob

I want you to know what a privledge and an honor it was to have you share the last 10 years of our lives with us. As you know, I haven't had a relationship with my father for the last 22 years, and to have you as that role model is more special to me than I could ever express. I hope you know that, you ARE my father. Thank you for being that to me and accepting me as such. I love you and have always felt loved in return. I'm thankful that you've shared the growing up of our children, we've had some experiences, haven't we, and all the times you reminded me that children are a joy and I always asked, WHEN? I see now, with Aydens arrival, it's a circle. We all miss you, but know that you are getting the best care possible.

Sending lots of hugs and love always,

Suzanne

My father in law passed away this afternoon at 4:30. He lived a long and amazing life. He served his country in 3 wars flying airplanes, and raised 6 children while married to the love of his life for 64 years. One can't ask for much more than that! His legacy lives on in his children and their children and their children... He is at peace now and while we are saddened at his passing, we are thankful for the time we had with him. He was an exceptional human being.

Thank you all for reading all my crazy rants, sending prayers and hugs and generally just being my friends. I love you all for that. :-)

Lotsa layouts

NOW I can show y'all what I've been busy doing. :-D Today is Week 2 reveal of challenges at Challenge Masters, including my challenge. Here's my layout showing a breakfast item, using a sketch at A Million Memories.



And another using the same recipe for the Cookbookin' sketch challenge...



And just in case you haven't had your fill of pumpkin pancakes, here's another I did using the color challenge at Birds of a Feather...



And a few others for various challenges on Challenge Masters. Those divas really rocked the challenges this month, I hope you'll come check them out! :-)







Back to the scrappy table for me! I hope y'all have a scrappy week as well!

Read all about it!

Ch{all}enge Masters has gotten a facelift! Lots of other changes as well, not the least of which is Suzanna Lee has been promoted to Design Diva Leader. Lord knows, with that many divas, we needed some whipping into shape! LOL Also, the uber talented Colette Bate has joined the team. Y'all think I'M crazy? SHE'S got me beat! :-D All of the week 1 challenges are up and I've been a scrapping fool, those challenges are amazing! And guess what? Guess who got a new job at Ch{allenge} Masters? ME! For the next few months, I'll be challenging everyone to appreciate the everyday things in the new challenge called "A Day in the Life." And the icing? Guess who the sponsor is this month? Naw, I'm not telling, run over and tell them I sent ya! Unless you don't WANT them to know I sent you, totally understandable, just come on over and say "Hi, I don't know Suzanne!" LOL Things are really picking up, come on over for tons of EXTRA chances to win the fabulous prize! Cya there!!!

Lotsa stuff

Am I the only one who had a total brain fart about falling back an hour today? We were all rushing around at 9 a.m. trying to get Caitlyn out the door and to work on time, only to find out she was an hour early. She was mad. And it messed with me the entire day. But, tomorrow is Monday! YAY!!!

I'm so, so, so, so excited! Next month, the hubs is treating the family to a performance of the Trans Siberian Orchestra!!! {insert excited jumping up and down guy here} We've been wanting to do it for years, but time and/or money always got in the way. No cameras allowed, but we'll make lifetime memories anyway!

Guess what else? Today, as I was at Walgreens picking up photos? They were putting all their Christmas candy out! YAY again! I still love me some mint M & Ms, but my new fav is the Hershey's candy cane kisses. I wish I didn't have to unwrap each one individually, then I could eat them much faster! LOL

And, I was going to share some layouts, but backed up my photos yesterday and apparently removed everything up to Nov. 1st, so, I just have a couple to share until I can copy them back to my computer again. Sigh.

Funny how a girl who takes zillions of photos of herself gets so aggravated when I take a couple of very important events, such as this. This was the first time she drove BY HERSELF. I had to get the photos, right? At least I didn't follow her in my car, like I did when my first born took her first bus ride to school. :-D I handcut the word GOES in the title and the little heart "button" on the right side using a paint sample from Home Depot, which is why the hubs won't take me along anymore. Good thinking, huh! LOL




This one is for the stash challenge on Paper Whores. Jen challenged us to complete a project that had been started. Well, guess what? I didn't have any! But, I found this in my paper holder...



So, I finished cutting and rolling and used it. I LOVE these photos. Not that the photos are great, but the story is. We surprised Caitlyn at work with her dream car. The journaling says that we loaded up the entire family, bought two bags worth of groceries and had her carry them out to the car for us. She was embarrassed and thought we were silly, since it was just two bags. That's the first photo. Then, she sees me in the parking lot and is wondering "why is mom standing by the car?" And then realization sets in, I'm standing by HER car. (with the camera, of course! LOL) She cried, I cried, we were a mess I tell ya! :-)



The first challenge is up at Kitchen Keepsake! The deadline for the DT Contest is Wednesday night. Y'all have heard it before, but WOW, there are some talented ladies who are going to make the decision process difficult! Come on over and give them some lovin' and get some yummy recipes to boot! :-)

Last but not least, the new challenges are up at Ch{all}enge Masters. Come check them out AND the new facelift!

I'll be back later this week, after I track down the layouts that I removed from my hard drive. LOL Have a scrappy week! :-)

Happy November!

I love this paper line from Cookbookin'! Very festive for Thanksgiving! Can you believe it? THANKSGIVING! Seems like I just posted my January calendar this year.

My mood is a little more upbeat than the last time I posted. It's been one week nicotine free and I haven't ripped anyones lips off. LOL I DID, however, spend the money that I saved in smokes and invested in some MLYB Savor! Just a little reward for my stick-to-it-tiveness. :-D

I finished up a couple of layouts, but I don't have pics uploaded yet, so that'll give me a good excuse to update again soon. Don't forget about the DT Contest that starts this Friday on Kitchen Keepsake! I hope y'all come over to play. Don't make me lecture again about the importance of recipe albums! LOL

See ya soon! :-)

Day three

and no nicotine. I can't really say that I've been the most pleasant or upbeat person to be around, so consider yourself forewarned. This is NOT a scrappy post, but you might find it amusing from a distance nonetheless.

1. What IDIOT at Fox 6 thought it would be a good idea to preempt Glee to let everyone know that there were NO tornado warnings, NO tornado watches, but there MIGHT be a thunderstorm in a remote area that has a population of TWO??? Oooh boy, it didn't take long before I was googling the station to get the name of the programming manager and whip off a two sentence scathing email. The rest of the family was making fun... "Sweetie! (thats me, he's yelling because I'm in my scrap room shooting off this email to Fox 6) They have a new warning for Hurricane Suzanne, it's just north of Shelby County and it's category 6!" Wise ass. :-/

2. Then, after Peyton quoting that comment on her Facebook status, some 17 year old twit comes along and says "Dear god everyone needs to stfu about Glee... It's a freaking fake tv show. There possible life threatening weather going on out there. I believe its more important. Ugh." Which resulted in my current Facebook status, just in case you're wondering. It COULD have been much uglier, I used great restraint. I COULD have said "this coming from someone who lives in backwoods TN in a tent and eliminates waste into a can in the ground. And by the way, learn how to spell." Although it's true, I didn't say it! Pretty good I thought! :-D

3. Last but not least... not too long ago, I'm talking to my attorney friend about an online stalker that I have. It's harmless stuff, but we were just laughing about her antics when he gave me a very useful tidbit of information about IP addresses. I share this with all of YOU so that if you ever find this useful you'll know about it. Whenever you're joining forums, it doesn't matter which user name you use, it's still the same IP address. AND, with the advent of all these cool tools such as feedjit and clicky, you can see ALL the information on that particular IP address including time logs and each click you make on a site. My friend asked me yesterday how that was going and I told him that she's moved on to terrorize someone else and he "wondered" outloud if her employer would be amused with all of her Internet travels using a work computer. :-O I never thought about that, but I guess thats why he's an attorney and I'm NOT. LOL BUT, definitely made a mental note of that.

So, if you've made it this far through my rantings, thanks for stopping by and I promise my next entry will be at least somewhat scrappy related. :-D I'll leave you with this... I'm getting back into my positive zone today. Have a great day!

Exciting news!

INTRODUCING...



You all know how I love my recipe albums and I think you all should too! Not mine, but yours! :-D I truly believe the albums that I'm making for my children are heirlooms that they will treasure, and I know this because they already love them!

The Designer contest will begin November 5th, but in the meantime, come join us on Kitchen Keepsake to find out how to win this beautiful, hardcover cookbook by Art Smith.



Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous weekend! :-)

Me again!

Sick of me yet? LOL

Okay, lets see, I've joined a couple of new forums, so hopefully, I won't get these mixed up.

Birds of a Feather Kit Co. is having a grand opening crop called the Great Migration. Funny, right? The girls are super nice and a lot of fun! I've done two layouts for the challenges there.

The first one had to be about ME. Kristie took this photo (and many other worse ones!) at the retreat we were at in August. As bad as it is, it makes me laugh every time I see it. :-D I doubled up challenges and also did this for Diana's challenge on Challenge Masters.



This next layout had to include a specific quote about autumn. Can I tell you how much of a mess I made with gesso and the sanding block? :-O I was totally inspired by Chris's layout at Scrapgal, it's almost an exact lift, only hers looks way better. But she doesn't have a cute baby on hers. :-D



Wishing all my friends a very scrappy weekend, thanks for visiting! :-)

Faux stitching and scraplifting

So, apparently, somewhere in taking care of everyone else these last couple of months, I seem to have misplaced my mojo. Thank goodness for all the many talented scrappers out there to provide much needed inspiration. :-) And maybe one of these days, I'll actually learn how to change the thread in Caitlyns sewing machine. When I need black stitching, I'm reduced to poking holes and connecting the dots. LOL

Remember the photo of Ayden in the pea costume? Yep, scrapped, using a sketch on A Million Memories.



The journaling reads: "Ayden, I want you to know that your OTHER grandmother is the one who did this to you, although I'm not above scrapping it. You look disgusted with the get up now, I can only imagine how you'll feel in 12 years from now!" LOL

Here's another layout I did today, totally lifting Julie Bonner's layout for A Million Memories.



And last but not least, Jen issued a Use Your Stash challenge on Paper Whores, so I dug out some birthday stamps for Peyton's birthday layout. This was a funny layout also. Peyton decided she wanted all 14 candles on her cake and it took her a good while to light them all. Once lit, we all sang happy birthday, and Kennedy promptly blew out all the candles! LOL Peyton then proceeded to relight all 14 candles.



Thanks for stopping by and be sure to stop by again soon! I have some very exciting news to share! :-D

Layouts to share

Thank you to all my friends who followed my countdown on Facebook and cheered with me when we actually launched son and his family out of our house. Father in law has also departed with his oldest daughter. He's now living in Missouri and has hospice care. His prognosis is not good... two months since he's opted for no chemo. He's at peace with his decision and has no regrets in his 86 years. I guess you can't ask for more than that.

Just a quick share before I load my layouts. Even "I" am embarrassed for this poor kid in about 10 years. Doesn't he look disgusted? LOL



I've managed to fit some scrappy time in the last couple of weeks. I've discovered a new site which I'm totally digging called Let's Scrap. Sketches and tons of inspiration! This first one was also for the Go Green challenge on Ch{all}enge Masters.







And this one is for a sketch challenge on Cookbookin'. Not recipe related, so I'm not in the running for this months awesome prize, but go check it out!



Thanks for stopping by and hopefully I'll be able to update more than once every couple of weeks and also stop by and visit all of you!

Happy October!

Is it just me, or are these months just zipping by? I'm diggin' the cooler temps and bright blue skies that autumn brings though. :-)

This months calendar page is one that I completed at the retreat that I went to at the end of August. Simple, using a DCWV stack and a little fussy cutting, but so it goes when you don't have all your tools available for use. LOL And by now, my calendar has writing on almost all the little squares. Busy month, as most of them are nowadays!

I wanted to share a sneaky peek of my December calendar that I just finished. What possessed me to hand stitch all the numbers on the calendar, I can't tell you. :-O



Although I'm really happy with how it turned out, I can't say I'll be doing that again any time soon! LOL

I will be back soon with a new challenge layout for Ch{all}enge Masters. Hoping all of you have a very scrappy week!

House of 9

It has been a very long, very hot, very dry summer. I can almost hear all the trees and grass and animals saying "ahhhh" to the rain and cooler temps that I woke up to this morning.

Thank you all for your thoughts and best wishes, especially for my father in law. His diagnosis is hairy cell lukemia. He has declined treatment, so it seems like the only thing left to do is keep him as comfortable as possible. He seems to have come to terms with the fact that he's lived a long and happy 86 years.

As to the other extreme, 2 month old Ayden is keeping us all busy! I know now why the good Lord only lets YOUNG women birth children. LOL You'd think with him living here, I'd have tons of baby photos to share. I do not. I promise, I will take some this week, I will!

Despite the engorged state of our house, I have managed to spend some quality time with my scrap room. It's such great therapy for me! Here's a layout I did for the layout tag we played on Paper Whores. I thought the Cosmo Cricket paper was perfect for the subject of the layout. I was amused with myself for thinking of the title. :-D



If you can't read the journaling, it basically says that Lickety Split loves to bring me presents and she gets all proud with herself for it. And I have to praise her and tell her she's a good hunter cat before she'll saunter off, leaving me to deal with disposal of whatever it is she brought me. Eewwww! LOL

I will be back in a few days with the October calendar page. Can you believe it? OCTOBER!!! Thanks for stopping by!

Dear friends,

I've been very busy helping my son and his family move into our home. Temporarily, of course... and father in law is in the hospital with I don't know what, and sister in law has moved her visiting date to tomorrow, and, and, and... I haven't had a scrappy moment in the last week, but I do have a couple of shares. :-)

Here's my latest creation with the subject being my latest tenant. :-) I'd like to thank my very talented friend Rita for RAKing me with these very cool Cosmo Cricket stickers. Isn't he just the sweetest? I may keep him when the others depart. :-D



My Kitchen Keepsakes challenge is up at Ch{all}enge Masters. I completed this layout at the retreat a couple of weeks ago and can I just say, I'm ready for another! Retreat, that is! LOL



Lolis ask in my last entry about a tutorial for the "quilt." I SO wish I could give credit to the original artist, but alas, with all of my blog hopping, I can not. But here ya go Lolis!

I used a 1 1/2" circle punch. Use double sided paper. Each "piece" of the quilt takes two circles, so punch as many circles as you want for your quilt. The bottom circle is easy, you don't do anything to it. The top one is folded so that each side of the circle is folded toward the center. This needs to be done precisely so that it looks like a square, instead of a rectangle. Very tedious for larger "quilts"! OH, and also, determine which way the paper is going to be folded. The flat bottom circle should be the same as the inside of the folded circle. Lay the flat circles with sides touching and then all the folded circles with points touching. Here's a closeup of my "quilt."



Thanks for stopping by! Wishing you all a scrappy week, and me too! :-)

Sketch layouts to share

I hope all my scrappy friends had a wonderful Labor Day weekend! I got just a bit of scrapping in and wanted to share. :-)

The first one is a sketch from Magistical Memories. I had the hardest time scrapping this photo, but knew I wanted to, so this sketch was perfect for it!



This one is a layout using a sketch at Upsey Daisy Designs.



And another layout using the same paper line but a new technique. New to me, anyway. Lots and lots of folded circles!



Lots of fun stuff going on at Paper Whores too! Stacey has started the first Creative Therapy session and I'll be hosting a layout tag this week. There's still time to sign up for tag, so come on over and join the fun!

I'll be back with more creations on Sunday, when I post the next Kitchen Keepsakes challenge on Ch{all}enge Masters.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week! :-)

Happy September!

Thank you for all your wonderful advice about packing for the retreat! It was wonderful! I enjoyed meeting new friends and old ones too. I'm sure I got the least amount done due to all the chit chatting, and drinking wine. :-D I spent a lot of time sitting on the deck looking at this:



BEAUTIFUL!!!

I guess you probably want to see what I got done, right? Well, I can show you MOST of them.

This is the title page of yet another recipe album. This is for Ethan, so I didn't want to make it TOO girly! :-D



Here's one I did using a recipe of something that was served at the retreat. (Obviously, this layout was NOT done at the retreat. I did this one today.) The picture doesn't do the carrots justice, and I'm not a huge carrot fan, but these were delicious, and it's easy enough that even "I" can make them and DID last night. (Is that a run on sentence? LOL) I used a sketch from the Cookbookin' blog.



And last but not least, here's one I did using pics of my father in law and baby Ayden. Probably seems an odd title, but y'all know me, that's how I roll. LOL The manufacturers challenge last week on Paper Whores was to use Basic Grey, so this paper is from the Nook and Pantry line.



And speaking of Paper Whores... Starting Monday, Sept. 6th, we will be starting a new project called
Creative Therapy! Every week Stacey will bring a new topic to the table and
we will vent and laugh and and heal TOGETHER. Every week you will create a
piece of art that helps you express and explore that weeks topic. It can be
a scrapbook page, an art journal, a written journal, a tag, a painting..
ANYTHING that speaks to you. This is YOUR art. And if it's too personal and
you don't want to share, don't worry! This is all about you and helping you
to become the woman and artist you've alway wanted to be! This is not your
typical All About Me scrapbook project because in reality those projects
are made to be passed on and tell your story. This project is for YOU.
There is no due date, this is not a challenge for the board, but a
challenge to yourself.

Every Monday Stacey will also be posting a technique or product in the
Gettin Down And Dirty section of the forum in hopes that this will help
your mojo for your weekly project.

I hope to see some of you there! :-)

I guess that's it for now, but I'll be back very soon with another project I completed at the retreat for my next challenge at Ch{all}enge Masters!

Thanks for visiting!