Christmas Explosion In My House!!

I've been decorating for Christmas over the last few days. I am exhausted, but it is done! Now I get to enjoy Thanksgiving weekend without a bunch of pressure to get.it.all.done!

These first pictures are of our white tree in our master bedroom. We keep the ornaments to colors like aqua, blue, green, silver, gold, and white. Our room is aqua, brown/beige and white. This is the first year using a white pre-lit tree. Previous years have seen me struggling and fighting with an unlit tree trying to light it. No more, I say! Pre-lit is the way to go!



I just love this sweet little blue Santa! He looks so kind.


Next, is a small tree for Brian's desk.


This next series is of the living room. Sorry for the grainy quality of some of the pics. Gotta try and retake some of these.

Our tree. And Mr. Snowman. :)



I went with giant candy canes sticking out of it this year for a little whimsy.


This is our mantel. Stockings, from left to right: me, Beatrice, Sleepy, Black Kitty, and Brian. :)

Also, I hand-lit all that garland myself. I did this a couple years ago, before pre-lit garland was big in stores. Sore fingers for sure! But the result is worth it.




There are more decorations to see, but this is all I had time for tonight! I have to take more pics of the trees anyway when they have presents under them, so they don't look so "naked"! LOL!

Just wanted to share some pre-holiday cheer!

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!! I am thankful for all of you sweet folks who read my blog!! :)

More New Layouts (I've Been Wicked-Scrappy!) :)

So, I finally got the pics from Wicked scrapped. There were so many good ones, I had a really hard time picking the few that would fit on a double-page LO. I still may scrap the rest on additional layouts.




Here the pages are together, to show what they'll look like in the scrapbook.


And, here is a LO I did of Beatrice. She is so darned cute when she sits in this chair in front of Brian's desk and then pokes her little head up over his work phone. She will do this whether the phone is ringing or not. It is SO cute!!

New Layouts

Just dropping off some new layouts I've done recently.

This first one is for The Eiffel Tower Group's November BOM Challenge: create a LO of yourself/your life right now, using two of the following journaling prompts: I am...I wish...I dream...I am not...

I used I am and I am not

I am: creative, kind, real, happy, very blessed
I am not: patient or perfect



This next one is also for the ETG -- November Challenge: use as many brads as you can!! 25 points for the LO, and an extra 25 for using more than 25 brads--I used 30 brads, for a total of 50 POINTS.

Journaling:
Beatrice is such a scared little kitty. This may be why she loves boxes and other hiding places so much. She took over this Diet Coke box and seemed to feel really safe and protected in it. I don't think she'll let me throw it away! Two months after putting it in the living room for her, she still hangs out in her Diet Coke Bunker daily!

The alphabets are from Target $1 spot (the word "diet"), Prima (the word "Coke") and Wal-Mart (the word "Bunker")



And the last one is for the November Cosmo Cricket Challenge on sb.com:

This LO is of me when I was little. I am in this picture with my cousin Jenn, best friends Rachel (and her little brother, Joe) and Wayne (and his little brother, Matt). From left to right: Jenn, Joe, Wayne, Rachel, Matt and me. I was probably 8 or 9 in this picture.

My friend, Wayne (the bright-eyed, grinning redhead in the back row), was one of my very best friends, basically a brother to me, from the time we were babies, all the way through adulthood. He was killed in an automobile accident 5 years ago while responding to a call (he was a Deputy Sheriff). I still struggle with his death, and while I have been wanting to scrap some of the pics I have of us together (too few), this is the first attempt. I am planning to put this in my BOM because he (and these other people) were/are such a big part of my life. Some of us have lost touch and some of us are still in touch, just not as often as I'd like.

Anyway, the journaling reads:
I'd tell her to savor these moments, because they will be gone too fast

I'd tell her to treasure these friendships, because some will fade

I'd tell her to express her love often to these people, because some will be lost along the way, through distance and time, or through God's Plan...

And she would know--sooner, rather than later, to never--EVER--take a single moment for granted.


Hope you're all having a great weekend!!

Yes.

Leslie and the LYs are so. awesome.

"And I'm scrapbooking everything we do." Yes.

Special Friends, New Layouts

Here is a layout I did today, documenting when Laura and her family came to visit us and spent the day. We had so much fun and I will always remember it!



I used the Basic Grey Mellow Collection and some cute pompom trim I got at Hobby Lobby recently.

And here's one of Brian and Sofia with the ukulele. Brian was teaching her some chords, and she was singing along as he played songs. It was SO cute! I used the Basic Grey Infuse Collection because I thought it worked perfectly with the clothing and our red rug that Sofia is sitting on. I painted behind the title with some pink acrylic paint, to make it stand out more.




And one last one, of Sleepy.

Duck, Duck, VOTE!!

Brian and I just got back from voting.


We went on Brian's lunch hour, and we were in and out of there within 15 minutes. It was awesome. So, we had some extra time and decided to stop by the lake to take some pictures and hang out with the ducks. They're so cute!

Here's Brian, proudly wearing his voter sticker.


And me.


It was kinda windy. ;)


The ducks spotted us and started swimming towards us. They love people.




Brian posing with the duckies.



Our beautiful Lake Wildwood.



So, we did our Civic duty! So if things don't turn out the way I'd like, then I have the right to complain. ;)

GO VOTE, everybody!!

New Layouts (House-Related)

I did a couple layouts this week, both of them house-related. The first one is of the closing date, September 26th. I just wanted to document the day with pictures of the bank, lawyer's office and house. The second one is just about how Brian and I are totally homebodies.





Hope everyone is getting out to VOTE TODAY!!!! Brian and I are going around 2 PM. Hopefully there won't be a long line!

Have a great day!

Go Yearbook Yourself!

Ok, I guess I'm having a silly moment, but I thought this warranted its own post. My sister told me about Yearbook Yourself and I must say, it is pretty hilarious and addictive. According to the site, this is me, circa 1994 (I graduated in 1995, but it only does even-numbered years).


Sadly, it's not too far off. But--I in no way ever came close to having bangs that were that awesome. No, that right there is the stuff that dreams are made of. I used to call bangs like that "Garden Weasels" after that little garden tool that could till up soil. If you are not familiar with the Garden Weasel, it looks like this:



Yep. Pretty similar, right? Anyway. I LOOOONGGED for Garden Weasel bangs. But, my hair is too fine and thin to have had them.

This is what I actually looked like in 1994/1995:



Ok, I have to go listen to some Alanis Morissette now. It's only right. In the meantime, y'all go yearbook yourselves!!

This Is The Cold That Never Ends...

It just goes on and on, my friends!!

I have been sick since last Friday, so going on a week now. It seems much longer, actually. It started with a horrible sore throat, then moved into my sinuses. There was/is stuffy nose, earache, dry hacky cough, which morphed into horrible croupy bronchitis-type cough, and headaches and fatigue everyday. I tell ya, it has truly been FUN!! (The cold was unable to defeat my sarcasm, ha!)

Anyway, I am still feeling crummy today, but it seems to be on its way out. But now poor Brian is sick. Ugh. We all feeble and stuff.

So, earlier this week, we went out to get some soup because that's really all I felt like eating and I sure didn't feel like cooking. So we went to Ming's, our most favoritest Chinese restaurant. It's awesome! Anyway, we got our food and then, on the way home, were just riding and talking when all of a sudden, we heard this loud "THUD!!".

We were both like, "what was that" and I looked out my (passenger side) window to see this big green blob on the side of the car. We had been hit with a paintball!




We really couldn't believe it. We were on a busy road (for those of you who know Macon, it was Zebulon Road) in a residential area!! We were pretty sure it came from a patch of trees next to some houses. We called the Sheriff's Department and they sent out a nice Deputy to talk to us and see the car. He went to try and find out who did it, but we haven't heard whether or not he was able to. I doubt it.

Anyway, so thankfully, there wasn't any permanent damage. We rinsed it when we got home, but upon inspection the next morning, there was still some film on it. So we took the car for a good car wash and everything came off. But you just never know what kind of crazy, random thing might happen when you're just innocently driving along in your car. Gah!!

Well, I think that's about all the excitement I've had for the week. Hope you're all having a better one!

Wickedly Awesome Day

I am having a hard time coming up with the words to describe the awesomeness that was Wicked yesterday. We went to the historic Fox Theatre in Atlanta with a few friends to see the show last night.

We weren't allowed to take pictures while the play was going on, but here are some we snapped outside before we went in:

This is the Fox marquee. That tree is SO in the way, but this is the best shot I could get without walking out into Peachtree Street during rush hour traffic. Uh, no.


Here we are, inside the theatre, seated and waiting for the show to start. This is Brian and me.


And our friend, Billy and his mom, Kathy.

Here is my sister, Ginger, and me.


Ok, so then the show started. I was completely ENTHRALLED from the first moment. It was completely and utterly AMAZING. Katie Rose Clarke as Galinda (Glinda) and Carmen Cusack as Elphaba were just both so talented beyond words. Here's a pic I found online of them:


I got pretty emotional several times during the show and teared up a little because I was just in complete AWE at the performances and vocal abilities, let alone the actual story line. Carmen Cusack was definitely my favorite vocalist. That girl is just, WOW. Unbelievable.

Anyway, the whole cast was perfect and wonderful and so amazingly talented. I could watch them every night and never get tired of them.

So the show ended, and we walked outside. Here is a pic of our whole group. From left to right: Ginger, Brian, me, Kathy, Billy, and Trish.


After our group split up to leave (Billy, Kathy and Trish were in the same car), Brian, Ginger and I hung behind and went back into the Fox to take more pics.

Outside the Fox, the musical's semi trailer (well, ONE of them, anyway--the show travels in EIGHTEEN semi-trucks!) was parked, and I had to get pictures of it!
This is Ginger and me in front of it.


And Brian and me.


And here's the girls, close up.


Here, I tried to get the whole trailer in the shot, but cut Glinda off a little.


This is a display window they had set up outside the front of the Fox. It was pretty cool.



And here are a couple pics I took of the Wicked poster in display windows.



I had SO much fun at this show. If you haven't seen it, GO! You will LOVE it. Wicked is the absolute best thing I have EVER seen. I have been to many, many concerts and other shows/plays, but this is by far the most amazing thing and most wonderful experience ever.

I'm still in awe. Anyway, just wanted to share my Wicked Day! <|:-)