More Layouts

Here's some more new layouts!

Happy New Year!!

New Layouts for My Book of Me

Here are a couple layouts I did to finish out my 2008 Book of Me.

The first one is the promised hairdryer layout. I still miss it, although the new Revlon one is pretty awesome. I think I can move on now. :D

This layout (Ode To My Hairdryer) will be published in the July/August 2009 Issue of Scrap N' Art, so it is temporarily removed.


And this one documents my love of Real Simple magazine. I've been reading it for at least a decade. I love it and still have tons of issues saved, that I will never throw away or recycle. I still reference them!


That's all for now. I'm trying to get caught up on some of the year-end layouts so I can start on Christmas pictures!!

Happy New Year!!

An Image-Heavy Christmasy Post

Well, Christmas has come and gone for another year. We had an awesome one!! The fun started on Christmas Eve, when Brian and I opened our gifts to each other. We went ahead and did our gift-opening on Christmas Eve since we'd be visiting family all day Christmas Day.


I got him a Lansky Deluxe 5-Hone Sharpening System and the clamp that goes with it, so he can start sharpening things himself, such as knives. And such. :D

He was happy.


Next, it was my turn. Please excuse the bedhead and pajamas. It's Christmas Eve morning, you know. I was worrying about what was in that little box, not my appearance. :D


It's a SLICE!!!!!! I'd been wanting one of these!!! Brian says that he and my sister, Ginger, were in cahoots together on this and she got it for him at Hobby Lobby (using a coupon, no less, which made me so proud!!) and secretly gave it to him at his birthday party. And he kept it hidden and wrapped it himself!


So I had lots of fun playing with it Christmas Eve. It's my first die-cutting machine, and I LOOOOOVE it!! It's really awesome and I can't wait to get more of the design cards!

Next, we headed down to my parents' house for Christmas Eve supper and to open one gift.

Here's my Daddy, looking festive in his Santa hat.



And my Mama and sister, Ginger, modeling the fleece hats Brian made for them.


I got a cute little silicone "gator" to use when handling hot things. Yay! He's so cute!


And, here, on my Mama's tree, is one of my very first paper crafts. I had to take a picture. I'm not sure how old I was when I made this. How sweet that she still puts it on the tree. And look at how well it's preserved! Go, Mama!


Then, we went home and headed back down for Christmas Day.

Here's Ginger, opening a gift. Oh, yeah, notice the shorts and t-shirt. It was HOT on Christmas Day. Gotta love Georgia weather. Ugh.


And here's Daddy, opening a present.


And Mama.


Brian and me.


Here's my sweet 85-year-old Maw, who visited with us on Christmas Day. She has on the cute pink fleece hat and scarf Brian made for her.


Our niece Jessica, and nephew, Christopher. Gift-opening was such a frenzied blur of activity, this is probably the best picture I got of them!


I had to get a picture of the outside "tree face" wearing Christmas antlers. Ha!


Everyone is always so sweet and remembers the kitties with gifts, so after we let them open their presents, Black Kitty decided she would claim the whole pile. :D


So, there's a quick glance at our Christmas. There are so many more pictures (I took more than 300!!) but those are some of the best.

Hope you all had a great holiday and are looking forward to the new year!! Happy 2009!

Christmas Eve

It's finally here! Christmas Eve! I can't believe it. I just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!!



Also, Mr. Snowman says Hi. : )

Awesome Cosmo Cricket Giveaway!

The Awesome Leah Killian is giving away a HUGE prize pack full of Cosmo Cricket goodness! If you'd like to be entered, check out her blog, Life As Lou! The giveaway entry was posted on December 20th, so you may have to scroll down.

Just wanted to spread the love!!

Happy Birthday, Brian!!

Today is Brian's 34th birthday. In honor of his special day, I thought I'd list 34 things I love about him.


1. I love the way he takes care of me.

2. I love the way he knows when I'm having a bad day, and he gives me extra hugs.

3. I love the way he tells me I'm beautiful all the time.

4. I love the way he says "I love you" many times, everyday.

5. I love the way he encourages my creativity, and wants me to indulge in my hobbies and interests. He's quite the enabler. ;)

6. I love the way he helps me around the house. He takes care of the cats, and often times the laundry, and anything else that needs doing.



7. I love the way he always knows how to do things. Complicated things. I love how he geeks out over things I will never understand.

8. I love the way he watches HGTV with me and acts interested.

9. I love the way he gets excited when we go to Hobby Lobby, and he helps me pick things out or look for certain items. He usually finds them before I do! He remembers all the scrapbook "lingo" I tell him, as well as manufacturer brand names! He is an awesome shopping buddy (again, enabler!).

10. I love that after 15 years together (nearly 12 of those years married), that I still get butterflies when I look at him. I fall in love with him all over, everyday.

11. I love the way he always drives when we go somewhere.

12. Similarly, he always pumps the gas. That rules.

13. I love the way he goes to the doctor when he's supposed to, and gets check-ups.

14. I love that he has absolutely zero interest in sports. I never have to "lose" him to a playoff game!

15. I love that he will eat cereal for supper, and sometimes even requests it!

16. I love how he will go grocery shopping with me, even though he hates it.

17. I love how he is adventurous and wants to try new things. He helps me come out of my shell sometimes because there are so many things I would never try without his encouragement.

18. I love how he takes care of the house and yard.

19. I love how he is so silly and makes me laugh all. the. time.

20. I love how he can fix things, and if he doesn't know how, he researches it and tries anyway, and usually succeeds.

21. I love how he is so generous. He will help anyone, anytime.

22. I love how he works so hard to support us. Even though he works from home, his job can still be difficult at times, and he very, very rarely complains.

23. I love how he gets excited to go to IKEA just as much as I do.

24. I love that he sews and I don't. He can do just about anything with that machine and I'm totally in awe.

25. I love that he took up playing ukulele and has become so passionate about it. He's totally part of the uke revival!

26. I love that he lets me listen to Tori Amos in the car on long trips and sometimes he even sings along.

27. Speaking of Tori Amos, I love how he goes to concerts with me and he even drove us to Birmingham, AL to see her.

28. I love that he enjoys the arts.

29. I love how he supports my craziest ideas and helps me implement them. Sometimes they turn out great, but when they don't, he never says so.

30. I love how he loves music. He has introduced me to so many awesome artists that I never would've known by myself.

31. I love his smile.

32. I love how we have the same sense of humor about things and have so much fun together.

33. I love how he serenades me on ukulele when I cook supper.


34. I love how easy it was to come up with 34 things to love about him, and how I could keep going with more and more reasons until this post would be endless.

Happy Birthday, baby! I love you!!

Brian's Birthday Party

Brian turns 34 on Wednesday, but we had a little family party for him yesterday. Just immediate family came--my parents, Brian's parents, my sister Ginger and our nieces, Kyrie and Alita.

I took this picture before the party. All was calm, all was bright. ;D


Getting the kitchen ready for the party.


My parents were the first to arrive; Brian holds my Daddy captive in a discussion on straight razors. :)


Mama and Daddy hanging out, waiting on everyone else to arrive.


Daddy, me and Mama in front of our front door.


Brian and me in front of the mantel.


And then, the "entertainment" arrived. :) Alita and Kyrie try out the new pink fleece hats Brian made for them.

They loved the hats and hardly took them off the whole night.


Brian opens presents!!


Among Brian's gifts: The Jerk. Awesome.


The girls waiting on their plates.


Brian blows out the candles on the cake I made and decorated poorly. :)


Again, I say, VERY poorly. I drew the ukulele, but it was very hard to "draw" and "write" with the icing. This was my first attempt at cake decorating. It's hard!!

Anyway, I was glad when we cut into it so I didn't have to look at it anymore. Brian loved it, though. He's so sweet.


After we ate, it was Turtle Time! The girls just HAD to play with my collection of turtle stuffed animals.





Brian posing with Alita and Kyrie in front of the mantel.


And Brian with his parents, even though I promised Brian's mama I wouldn't put this picture on the Internet. Oh well. Maybe she won't be too upset. :)


We all had a great time, although the girls made it a little crazy!

I'll update again Wednesday with a special birthday post. :)

New Layouts

OK, Blogger is acting stupid. It won't let me type above the first layout. Anyway, that's a layout of Sleepy being adorable. This layout is a scraplift of the awesome Christine Middlecamp's work.

As you can see from my layouts recently, I have a growing addiction to Sassafras Lass. The cuteness. It's ridiculous.

The next layout is of Brian, when he got his first brand-new straight razor. He collects safety razors and straights, and he was very excited to get this new straight!



Hope everyone has a great week!

Let's Make A Wish Come True!!

UPDATE *** UPDATE *** UPDATE

I am disabling comments on this post as of 12/11/08. I am very frustrated with the fact that people I don't know are leaving comments here and are not leaving any way for me to contact them back. My blog is apparently being discovered as people Google Christopher's name or search for him online. I do not know this family; I was only participating because I wanted to help grant a wish for a child dying from cancer. I have worked with similar children and it breaks my heart to hear his story. I just wanted to help in any way I could, and get as many people involved as possible. I am passing along the most accurate information I have, information which was given to me by the American Cancer Society office here in my town. According to them, this WAS Christopher's wish, to receive as many Christmas cards as possible. And as far as the family being harassed, perhaps that is why the cards were requested to be directed through the American Cancer Society, and not sent to the family's residence.

Anyway, please keep Christopher and his family in your prayers. And God help you, don't send any more cards. Thanks.

***********************************************

Due to some comments this post has gotten, today I called the American Cancer Society here in Macon and found out that the family would like the cards to stop coming. They are being literally inundated with cards and there are too many. I was a little confused--wasn't that the child's wish? But anyway, if you've already sent a card, he will still get it, and the family appreciates it. But please do not send any further cards.

*****************************************************************

I received a note from my neighbor yesterday telling me about a little 6-year-old boy who is local and has cancer. He is not expected to live past the end of the year. Make-A-Wish is trying to get together a wish for him. His only request/wish is to try and receive as many Christmas cards as possible.

This really touches me because I have a huge place in my heart for children with cancer. I used to work in a Pediatric Hematology/Oncology office (for 6 years!) and got to know so many children with cancer and their families. I also saw several children die from this horrible disease and its complications.

Please send Christopher a card if you can. It doesn't have to be hand-made. Just any Christmas card will do. The American Cancer Society is going to try and deliver the cards to him on December 15th, so please get it in the mail as soon as you can.

Here's his address:
****ADDRESS REMOVED****

Here's the card I made for him.



Thanks so much for helping make Christopher's last wish come true!

Happy December!

I cannot believe it is already December. Wow, it's been a year this month that I left my job. It has been a good year, but also not without its challenges.

As Thanksgiving passes for another year, I can't help but be retrospective. I have many things to be thankful for.

One major blessing this year for me has been discovering scrapbooking. Well, I had already discovered it several years ago, but only this year began scrapping for the "art" of it, and as a creative outlet.

Here is a layout I did today of Beatrice, trying to fit in a box that was way too small. She loves boxes, but this one just wasn't big enough. I am thankful for our cats, and it makes me happy to scrap them because they bring us so much joy.



This next layout is of Brian. I am so thankful for him. He is my rock!!


This is an ornament I made for our tree this year. In honor of us buying our house, I tried to find an ornament of a house, but couldn't find one in stores. So I made this one, to echo the sentiment on the layout I did a few weeks ago. I am so thankful we were able to buy our house!


There have been so many blessings this year. I am so thankful for them all.