Happy Valentine's Day!!

First let me start you off with a delicious chocolate sucker that I made

Then I must show you that silly little girl of mine who absolutely loves to dress up with accessories for every holiday. She went to school yesterday with all her gear on...lol She ROCKS!!


And then here's a little something I've started working on for my sister's baby shower. I saw this cute little treat on Two Peas and had to make some. I've wrapped most of the bags of popcorn and then decided to jump over to producing a final project to see if I liked it. I do! The "hip pregnant mama" is a digi file that I purchased from Designer Digitals. I wanted a stamp, but I talked myself out of it because I knew I'd only use it once and that wouldn't justify the cost. Here I paid only $1.75 for the file and after using it 40 times, I think I can justify that. Plus, with a stamp I'd have to color them in and that I will not do...lol

I have so many ideas for this baby shower that I need to get in gear!! That's what I promised myself from now on -- less computer time and more constructive time!

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day and share it with someone you love. My hubby got grandma to take Collin for the night and Marisa will be at a birthday sleepover, so we're going out!! WOO HOO! Where I don't know yet, but I better get to making some plans. I know he didn't go that far and if I leave it up to him we will be walking the aisles of Lowes again

to you all!!

February's BPM Reveal

Look at these BEEE-UUUU-tiful kits at Back Porch Memories this month!! The Medley is full of LYB Love Letters, SEI Love Birds, and Collage Press Jackson Lodge...yummy!


Then you have the lovely solo kit that is chock full of Crate Paper goodness!! Gotta love the color combos of the Mia line



And how could you resist these fabulous stamps!! I can't...lol



So as you can see, I got the pleasure of working with the solo kit. I can honestly say I used almost all the patterned paper except for a few scraps -- love that! Thanks for peeking :D

February sketch challenge

I'm up for one of the February challenges at Back Porch Memories and I decided to create a sketch. Those are always fun and easy challenges, huh? So here is my sketch and the layout I created.



If you should like to play along, make sure to load your completed layout into February's challenge folder in the gallery at for a chance to have your name drawn for an awesome prize pack.

A Boy and His Toy

The hubster picked up his new toy today. Believe it or not, he actually bought this to remove the snow. Yes, he actually tried to convince me that we needed this because it was better than the snow blower...uh, yeah, sure baby I believe ya

Shuttin' Detroit Down

This song couldn't be more truthful!!! I flipped on the local radio station yesterday while taking Marisa to her before-school Chinese class only to hear John Rich introduce his new song. He wrote it two weeks ago and just recorded it over the weekend, and then brought it to good old Detroit to let us hear it first. I couldn't find a video for our local station, so I had to bring one from YouTube. If you glide the bar over to 3 minutes, you can skip his interview and listen to the song. So true!!

Finally scrapped

a page! I was beginning to think there was seriously something wrong with me. I have had no desire to want to scrap. I mean I think about it all the time, but I just can't make myself go to my room and do it. We've had a lot going on here with remodeling the front room. I wanted it to be a simple thing -- freshen up the paint and lay the new Pergo flooring. I should know nothing ends up being simple...lol It's taken a good two weeks, but I LOVE the look! As soon as I have the finishing touches up, I'll show the before and after.

The layout I created was so much fun because there was no limits to what I could put on it. That felt weird at the same time because I'm so used to creating with design team kits. It's almost as if I don't know what to add because it isn't already picked out for me...silly, I know. You might be thinking, "who's this little girl?" Isn't she just the sweetest thing! She's the daughter of a friend of my friend Cheri. Cheri scraps pictures of her all the time and I asked if I could have a few to get inspired because her mom takes some AWESOME photos!! Well, it helped because it made me dig through paper and find a perfect match. From that point, I grabbed a fab sketch from Beggahuna and ran with it.


The good thing, too, is I actually used my Silhouette! I love when I put that machine to use and justify my purchase.

_________________________________

I don't think I ever posted about the fact that I joined the whole "Project 365" club... I was one of the lucky ones who got a kit -- actually I ended up with two and the only reason I kept the second is a gal from Willow Traders contacted me to see if I had the extra one coming and if so she wanted to purchase it. Well, of course, I couldn't turn her down. I've been having fun putting mine together and taking pictures every day. I'm just hoping I can keep it up in a month or two. Some of the cards need a little more decorating, but I'll get to that later...maybe

Where is January going?

That's the question I'd like to ask! Seriously, I think this year has started off at warp speed. I'm begging, pleading, please Father Time slow things down a bit...lol

Yesterday was the 10th and that means get to post our layouts and projects over at Back Porch Memories. This month I was so slow to scrap. Usually I am all over a kit as soon as it arrives, but I haven't had a chance to do much. I did squeeze these out loving every single piece of patterned paper in the Medley kit!





With the card and the Lollipop Kid layout, I used sketches from Creative Scrappers -- love that place for inspiration!
Here is just a look at my monthly project. I came up with the idea to make a desktop calendar. I'm still working on a few more of the months, but here's a little preview until I can come back with a finished version.


Okie doke -- I think that takes care of everything. I'm off to help hubby finish painting the front room which started off as just a freshen-upper type of thing before he laid the new Pergo-style flooring. Now he's gone and cleared the room, added new fluted mouldings with rosettes in the corners around two door jambs and the big front window. We had this on all the other windows in the family room and hallway, but he finally finished it up in here. Now he's looking at me like "get off the computer" so he can lay the plastic over it and finish painting the ceiling. I have to focus on the mouldings today. That's always my job to paint and I HATE it! I like rolling walls -- the easy job
Whatever you do today, have fun!

And the Wii injury goes to...

me!!! Don't ask me how, but of course you put me in front of an interactive game and I hurt myself. I was playing with Collin punching the the punching bag. I guess I got a little over zealous and eager to win.

Well, I won the game and I also got a HORRIBLE pain in my neck and shoulder. It's gotten worse and the days have gone by. Last night I couldn't even sleep and I'm taking ibuprofen by the hand fulls!!! I don't know what more to do -- I've put hot and cold on it, icy hot rub, and hot showers. Nothing is helping!!! No more Wii for me!!


I wish you all the happiest of New Years!! Have fun and be safe!!

Merry Christmas!!!

We've had so much fun yesterday and today!! My side of the family was over for Christmas Eve and we celebrated with crafts and games -- my SIL Rose came out the big winner!

We had an awesome morning with the kids waking up bright and early of course. My mom spent the night and we always enjoy having her here Christmas morning. The kids ran and woke her up instead of us...lol I loved seeing their smiling faces and looks of shock as they opened each one of their gifts. Let's just say Santa was good this year! Mom and Dad had to take credit for the Wii that they got which they totally did not expect us to get with the fact that we just got back from Disney. They LOVE it and spent the whole morning playing all their games. Marisa especially loves the Wii Music.

I got a few goodies of my own that I wanted including a new Canon 50-250mm IS lens, hot rollers to help give my hair a new look now and again..lol, and a new blender because my other one no longer would crush the ice. I loved all my gifts!!

The best news came a bit later when my niece Gabby called to talk to Marisa. She was telling her what she got for Christmas. I then hear Marisa say, "Aunt Pam is having a baby!" I said, "What!!" Thinking I just saw her but then things started to add up. She wouldn't take her vest off yesterday and was bundled in a sweater with her scarf wrapped around her. We told her to take it off and stay a while. She commented she was cold. UM-Hum now I know why things have been as they have lately -- that explained it all...lol I'm so happy for her and Gabby. I LOVE LOVE LOVE babies, especially when they are other peoples

We're off to my inlaws to celebrate the rest of the day with them. Dave's sister and brother just drove in today from Florida with all their family. Another fun day ahead..yippeee!!

I wish you all the best this wonderful holiday!! God bless!

I'm BACK!!

Disney was a blast, but it went WAY to QUICK! Can I just say how much I love Florida in December or at least when we were there. It was sunny and 80 every day....just GLORIOUS!!! We had to fly home through a snow storm and arrived at Detroit Metro Airport to tons of snow....yuck! It took me so long to drive home it was crazy!!!
I'm buried with tons of stuff to do both scrappy and for the holiday. I actually haven't been on the computer much since we've been back because there's no time to spare before Christmas Eve when we have my family over.
So I'll post some pictures of our vacation that I'm sure you'll be seeing in future layouts...lol Gosh, did I say how much I LOVE Disney???!!! LOL
This is pictures of our arrival at our resort and the next day at Epcot. (Click on the pictures for a better view)


These are photos of us at Hollywood Studios...so much fun!!! I actually rode the Tower of Terror and the Rockin' Rollercoaster!!! My stomach will never be the same...lol

And here we are at Magic Kingdom. That castle is so beautiful!! Marisa had her hair and makeup done at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. She had to have a princess outfit, so I said if it was that important she could use her birthday money to buy it. She picked out a beautiful red Belle gown.


That was the overview of our trip. I think I'll get to planning the next one now...lol Off to start dinner and finish up baking some cookies. Have a great night!

Little late....

but I've been super busy with all that's going on here at the house in preparation for Christmas and then our trip to Disney. First I'll start with my layouts created with December's BPM kit.






Here is a little ornament I made last month and still have more to make for the rest of my kids, nieces and nephew.


I made this little snowman for Back Porch Memories' December newsletter. A fellow scrapper, Jules, showed us this cute project last year at another site. I couldn't resist finally making one for myself. Super easy!!


I think that's all for now. My head's swirling with everything. We just got back from my niece Kaylynn's birthday party and now I need to go back out to pick up my Christmas cards to send out before we leave. Nothing like last minute, but I didn't think I was going to send them this year. However, my sister never fails in persisting that we send out cards to keep in touch with family members. Here are the cards I made -- one for her and then one for me. I found free templates online (one from Miss Tina and the other one from Katie Pertiet from Shutterfly) and just used those because I couldn't find any cute ones at Sam's.



I think that's it for now. I hope you all have a great weekend!

It's the 1st

Wow! I can't believe December is already here!! Time is a flying and I'm trying to get as much done before Christmas...actually before our vacation on the 15th. I was going to make Disney autograph books for the kids, but now I've decided to just take some note paper to get the autographs. Then when I come home I can tear out the note paper and pair it up with the photo in a book. Whew! I can cross that off my to-do list for now

I've got a sneak peek for ya. It's December's Solo and Medley kits from Back Porch Memories along with the stamps. Holy moly, these stamps are FABULOUS!!




And then being it's the first, I get to show you my early layout...can I just tell you I find the Basic Grey Urban Prairie to be utterly scrumptious!!

This layout is of my Marisa when she was just a year old...a bit of a weepy feeling came over me when I pulled these pictures to scrap. I wanted to capture and remember every memory of my children being infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. But when I look at old pictures like this, I think that time has gone way too fast and I can't remember much of when they were younger. It's a shame I didn't scrap much, but it was all new and I just didn't make it a priority. I wish I would have written more stuff down so I could remember, but I didn't. At least, thank goodness, I have the pictures to bring back those good thoughts and warm fuzzies of my kiddos when they were sweet little babes. Okay. Enough of this sappiness and on to the layout


If you're looking for a few good challenges this month, check out BPM's forum and play along for a chance to win a fabulous prize pack given by our awesome Paula. My challenge is to create a layout using a trendy animal on it. You know -- an owl, bird, deer, hedgehog, etc -- whatever floats your boat. It can be cut out of paper, stamped, a die cut, or even a rub on. Here's my example for the challenge. Gotta love that new Quickutz owl...so cute!



Now I must go and start my day of errand running -- bills, return movies, grocery shop....you know, all the fun stuff
Have a TERRIFIC day!!