Album for little girls

Well, I finished another gift album. This one was geared towards being viewed by little girls and I used the new DCWV Pocket Full Of Posies paper with all its glitter. The pictures didn't come out that well. That's what you get when you try to do it at night with lamp light and a flash. I really liked the paper but I still look at the pages and wish I had come up with something more to do. They look a little plain to me. The friend I gave it to thinks it's pretty and that's what really matters. I'm ready to start another one for a new mother of a baby girl.

Some day maybe I'll actually get back to scrapping my Paris pictures. And then there are the 2000 pictures from England that I'm trying to pare down.

My Sister's birthday card

Here is the card I made for my sister's birthday. I played with a glass effect on some of the flowers. The only drawback was that when it dried it curled a bit and I found out the hard way you don't want to straighten it out (cracks). I used a glass art bead to give it additional dimension.



Oh, and I did make it back to IKEA. I was a little overzealous thinking I could get the rest of the stuff in the back of the Jeep. I did manage to get the rest of the cupboards but it's going to take a truck to get the bookcases and table. I'll at least be able to tackle getting the cupboards put together this weekend and hopefully make some headway on organizing scrap stuff.

ttfn

Half a step closer

Well, I went to IKEA last night and bought as much stuff as would fit in the back of my Wrangler so I'm about half way done with the purchasing part. Going tonight to see if I can fit the rest of it in and get it home. Then comes the back breaking fun part of putting it all together. The dangling carrot is that then I will be able to move my scrap stuff in from the garage and get it all nice and organized. I can hardly wait! The idea of having a place to work and to put things away almost takes my breath away. And no I'm not exagerating. Once it's done I'll post some before and after photos.

Tomorrow is another day at Archiver's. Went last Saturday too. Two weekends in a row! That's just crazy talk. I'm working on another photo gift album and was able to get a good portion done last week. A couple more pages and then I'm on to embellishing the pages. This one is geared towards little girls and is all sparkly. Love all that glitter! The only draw back to working at Archiver's is they are quite popular of late and you have to get there almost a half hour before the store opens to get in line. Especially when one of the rooms is being used for other stuff for the day. If it wasn't for all the supplies available it might not be worth it. I'm pretty sure we are going to start rotating meeting at homes for a bit.

Today I received my February kit from Scraptivity and it has really great stuff. It has cotton linter and molds to make your own dimensional embellishments. Can't wait to try it out. The kits have really pretty paper but they are really a little pricey. If they didn't come with Gel-a-tin stamps each month I wouldn't do it. Once my subscription is done, though, I'm going to let it go. I have so many stamps now you'd think I'd have enough. But there is always some great new one coming out. Oh well, what's a girl to do. It's a good thing I'm not married cause I'd try any man's patience. Course he'd probably try mine too. ha!

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Planning the craft room

Well, a couple of weeks ago I trekked down to IKEA to see about purchasing the organization cabinets I had picked out and they were out of stock. That and after seeing them in real life I didn't like the color of the wood. So I looked at everything and picked out another line but that meant going back to the drawing board to figure out how much I need of what.

So now I've got that all figured out again and have to make another trek to IKEA and of course the really fun part of putting it all together. I can hardly wait to have an actual area to organize my stuff and to work. Right now everything is in plastic organizers stacked in the garage. It makes it really hard to get creative.

The other exciting thing is for Christmas I received gift cards to Showcase, a photography store. The also have classes so I'm now signed up for Photography 101. I am so looking forward to learning how to play with the settings on my camera. I think I take good pictures but I want to take great pictures. Every now and then I go to pbase.com and look at some of the really wonderful photos there and see just how much I have to learn. I love photos of nature and textures and architectural features.

Here are a few favorites from one of the trips to the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Baby gift album

Well, I'm finally getting around to posting pictures of the baby album I made for Misti. It was a little challenging because they wanted to be surprised by the gender. When I started the album I tried to make it gender generic and then Jonathan was born so I switched to a little more boyish theme. I had a lot of fun with it. In creating the cover I found I liked the orientation turned better and did the rest of the album around that. Hope you enjoy.

Still having fun.

Had a wonderful relaxing New Years Eve. I slept in very late and then Mom and I watched some travel shows planning our next big vacation. We want to see everything but have to pace our selves. I managed to get dressed and headed over to Renee and Rebecca's house after picking up a nice healthy load of snow crab legs. We had a lovely girl's night of dinner and a movie curled up on the couch. I didn't get the memo though about the pajama dress code.

Last weekend was my birthday celebration and I had a grand time. I rented the class room at Archiver's for the day so Kimberly, Rebecca, Misti and I had the room to ourselves and could spread out. I'm afraid I was having too much fun hanging out though and only made the cover of a new gift album. After that Rebecca and I met up with the rest of my family for midnight bowling. The place closes at 2am so we didn't get to bowl as long as I would've liked but we had a lot of fun. We then went and terrorized Waffle House for breakfast. I got to bed finally about 4:30 am and drug my butt out of bed about noon. I was going to just stay in my pj's but my sister spent the night and wanted to go out for a birthday lunch so off we went for an early dinner at Outback. Ah, steak and lobster. What more could you ask for?

Here are some pics from the day's festivities.

A view of Christmas

Here are the Christmas cards. This year I resolve to have them done by the end of November.

What a fun Christmas!

Had another fun family get together with the whole crew at my house. The more I hear about other families and how they don't talk to each other the more I appreciate the fact that in my family we all like each other and get along. I think most of the time it's because we choose love over taking offense. Things happen at times where one of us could get our panties in a wad but it's more important to remember that we love each other and to let it go. I think part of it too is that none of us believe in playing the victim which is another choice to be made. My Christmas sermon is "people do things you don't agree with or like but let it go and just love them."

Getting presents is not important in my family either but we do really enjoy it when we can give gifts that are really wanted. I think everyone received some things they will enjoy for a long time. I know I did. My family got me a flash for my camera and a photography lesson. I can hardly wait to learn to use my Rebel better.

Monday Mom and I had our little gift giving and lounged around and watched some travel shows. Of course, every place we see we want to visit. Managed to move from the pajama mode to going out to visit Rebecca and her family. She has quite a gathering this year with her Mom in from Germany and her brother in from Autstralia. It was a really nice evening hanging out with all of them and enjoying all the laughter. The Bible says "a merry heart doeth good like a medicine" and I find that to be so true.

Well, guess I better get back to work. Ugh!

Christmas is almost here

Well, the Christmas cards are finally finished and in the mail. Maybe this weekend I'll manage to post some pictures of them. I really needed to make more than 46 but I fizzled and just couldn't squeeze out any more. Next year I really have to start much earlier. This December has been way too hectic and it's not going to calm down until after the new year. It's all fun but I'm so ready for a nap.

My friend Rebecca and I met at Archiver's on Saturday for the full day scrap to finish said Christmas cards. It was really nice that Misti was able to break away from her new baby and join us for a while. We also got to meet two new friends Sandy and Stephanie (sisters). They were hoot. Rebecca and I act like sisters so it was quite funny. And I finally met someone else who is in computers and scraps.

I'm really looking forward to some family time on Christmas Eve and to some pajama time Christmas day.

I hope everyone has a blessed and beautiful Christmas!

Getting Up to Date

I've been a little distracted lately because I'm considering gastric bypass surgery. Each week I've been to different doctors for testing to see if everything is okay and if I'm a candidate. I'm in pretty good condition except for a little elevated blood pressure (probably from all the coffee), low iron and found out I'm diabetic.

With the surgery I'm torn between doing something that drastic to my body and needing something that drastic to not spend the rest of my life morbidly obese. I need to lose about half of what I am today. I'm a firm believer in avoiding surgery except as a last resort and to try everything else first. I could keep trying different programs for weight loss but in my heart I know the results will continue to be the same. I will lose 30-40 pounds and then lose the momentum.

Through the process I've asked God to help me with the decision and each time I start to think of aborting the process someone who's been through it all comes along to offer encouragement. I'm starting to feel that for me this is what is necessary to attain a healthy lifestyle. I so admire those who have found the light switch in their heads and have been able to get the weight off and to keep it off but I also find no shame in needing surgery to get on that path.

So that, in a nutshell, is what has been going on for a month now. In the next few weeks I will find out if my insurance will pay for it and then I have to make my final decision.