Crocs Part 2

So the Alice Crocs came! I was so happy.....then sad. My goofy foot is too wide for the Alice shoe. I was afraid of that. When the description says "slim fit" that is probably not a good sign for us wide footed people.... So back they go. I didn't feel like a bigger size would help. I mean basically that would just make then longer right? So here it is about to be September and I am still trying to get my birthday gift from my husband. He bought me a laptop skin. Ordered the skin and had it shipped. It was supposed to be PINK people. It looked more like plum or maroon and was basically a big sticker! Was not liking the skin, so back it went. So then I think OK, I'll just use the money from that and get the Crocs I wanted. So I wait for those to be released (since they are a new style) and order! Now they are going back too. So what's a girl to do but find another new style of Crocs, also in the Ruby Red and order those? (winking smilie here....) So now on their way to me are the Crocs Troika. That is actual suede on top of the shoe there. I thought they were cool and was happy to find a different style in the same ruby red. OK, I know many of you out there in computerland think Crocs are ugly, but for me they fall into that "so ugly they are cute" category. Not to mention the comfort. They are amazingly comfortable and cradle your foot like your favorite slippers or Birks. Now I also had some other birthday gift money to spend so guess what else I ordered..........

Yep, these are shearling lined Crocs. The comfort of Crocs in a warm cozy shoe? Wow. What could be bad about that? Seems as I've gotten older my feet freeze in the winter which in turn means all of me is cold so hopefully this will be the ticket! Both of these styles are also supposed to have a higher back to the clog so they will be good for fall/winter weather. I can't wait to try them out!

Are you having a good week? Mine has been OK. Things got better after Monday. I was somewhat crabby yesterday but have gotten over it for which I am sure we are all (or at least those in close proximity) grateful! Ha. I am so looking forward to the 3 day weekend! yay!! Hope to have lots of at home, relaxing, get away from work kind of time. Sunday we will head to my Mom's to celebrate our Nephew's birthday! He is going to be a teenager! Cannot believe he is so grown up!

On Labor Day six years ago, my husband and I were in the midst of trying to move here to Southern IN. He had to come ahead here and start his new job. I had to stay where we used to live and work on packing, finishing my job, and selling our then current home. I will never forgot how hard that Labor Day was. I knew it would not be easy but was not prepared for how hard it was to see him leave that day. It was hard because at that point we had no idea if we would have to live like that for 1 week, 1 month or even 1 year?? There was no way of knowing how long it would take to sell our home and I needed to stay there and keep working until we could do that. We planned to have Darrel in IN during the week and then to come back to IL each weekend. Those were long weeks without my husband beside me. It was also during that time that Sept. 11th happened and that was scary! I remember everyone kind of freaking out about what might happen to the economy and people being worried about getting gas, and lines at the stations, etc. It was hard and scary and no fun being alone during that time. I should not have worried though. I should have remembered and stood on how God has always, always taken care of us and provided for us. I prayed about it a lot and part of my prayer was to ask God if I could be in Indiana in October for the fall leaves and colors. Where we lived we had one small tree in our yard and not many others around. I adore the fall and here in Southern IN it is beautiful, plus we live on 3 acres full of trees. I so wanted to see the fall here and live here. Long story short, our home sold in 1 week to the first person that looked at it. Closing was set and we moved to Indiana on Sept. 29th (and that was at the buyer's request, not ours)... how cool is that. God is so good. Each year at this time I am reminded of those days 6 years ago. It's a precious important memory to me of a hard time, but now one that makes me smile and feel like I got an extra hug today from my Lord.

Hope you have a blessed day.

New DT layout

Here is a layout I finished up tonight for the new club's first Newsletter coming out in Sept. It was based on a sketch, but with my own twist to it. I am usually not much of a sketch kind of girl, so I was very pleased with how this came out. Very me with layers and lots of fun stuff. The pictures were taken on our recent family fishing trip day. This is Lindsay and Ethan, my niece and nephew. It was near the end of the day and they started goofing around on the boat ramp and I started snapping their pictures. These were a couple of my favorites.

So it was a typical Monday for me I guess. I am not big on Mondays. Yesterday was stressful and I didn't seem to have shaken it off yet by today. Sometimes its very hard to work at the same place that you go to church. It's hard to just go to church and worship on a Sunday when you also end up working. So, like I started out with, sometimes it gets stressful. So I worked and did OK, but just seemed to have trouble shaking that blah kind of feeling for most of the day. Left a smidgen earlier than normal for my 6 week haircut/trim. Headed home and dove right into a relaxing shower, a nice dinner with my husband and some scrapping. Well OK, there was a little venting in there about some of the stressful stuff but that helped too. (imagine the dreaded smilie here).

I am watching a movie on Disney called Ice Princess. Have you seen it? My husband happened to turn it on and it has turned out to be pretty good. It's fun to have a good movie or old sitcom reruns on while scrapping. Something you can enjoy and listen to, but don't have to pay close, close attention to to know what is going on. I would reccomend this one.... but of course I always enjoy watching figure skating anyways. We used to have such fun going to Stars On Ice when we lived near Chicago. My husband took me several times and it was so, so much fun. Did you know you can watch a lot of the old figure skating routines on youtube? This is one of my absolute favorites:



I think their skating was just so, so amazingly beautiful. Takes my breath away. It was so sad when he died. I really missed seeing them skate together.

Well need to get myself to bed. Hope you are having a great week. Blessings.

Here is a layout I just finished last night. I wanted to do something using the embossing transparencies technique. Since I had a brass template that was stars, it went perfect with this layout I wanted to do about my niece playing basketball. If you click on the layout it will give you a larger image and hopefully you can see the stars along the bottom, above the title, and at the top next to the score board photo. It was so easy to do and comes out so cool looking. I think I mentioned I first saw this on a CK video with Jennifer McGuire. She used the Cuttlebug to emboss. For this layout I just used my plan old brass stencil and a stylus. Very easy and makes a cool embellishement for your layout or card.

I am off to scrap some more. Only have a few hours before time to head back to church. We are having an ice cream social with homemade ice cream! Yum.

Blessings!

Great Movie for Date Night

Have you seen this movie or read the book? I read the book several years ago and really liked it. So of course I was excited when I heard they were making it into a movie. I hadn't had a chance to see it until now. We had it in our queue at Blockbuster so this was what they sent to us this week. It was SO GOOD. Very powerful and full of truth. Couple spots gave me chills and a couple spots had me with tears. It is set in the Smoky Mts. in an Appalachian Community in the 1800's. The people think they have to have a "sin eater" who comes when someone dies and bascially eats that persons sins so they can go on to heaven. The people are all scared of this person who they think is evil itself. It told the gospel pretty plainly and how Jesus already took our sins on himself and because of Him we are free and that no person can do that for us. Jesus is all we need. It was a good story on many levels. I'd reccomend it and I'd see it again. I'd probably like to add the DVD to our collection. I'd love to tell more about the story but I don't want to give it all away. It was cool too I noticed in the credit that Henry Thomas played "the man of God." I'm like hey, Henry Thomas was the kid in ET. I ran and grabbed our copy to check and I was right! Now why or how did I know that? I have no idea!

We had a fun date night watching the movie together. We got carry in chicken from a local convenience store that has yummy broasted chicken and wedges and homemade rolls. Very good! This is a "new" place to us. My brother pointed it out to us a few weeks ago on our fishing trip day.

So the answer to the question...what color Alice Crocs to order is ruby red.. Yep! I went for the red. I used that code for free shipping and ordered them yesterday. Hope they fit! The Mary Jane styles seem to run more narrow and I have kind of a wide width foot. The regular Mary Jane's fit me in the size I ordred so I am hoping these will too.

Do you have a big weekend planned? I need to do some chores around the house and hope to have some scrap time and maybe read too. We have church on Sunday and an Ice Cream Social on Sunday night. Homemade Ice Cream! Yum! I hope you have a great weekend too!

Blessings!

So Ready For Fall....

Grocery night at Walmart today. Look what I came home with. I am so ready for fall. I adore the fall and now that the stores have fall decorations and mums popping up they are making me so excited! Not to mention that I have had way more than enough of this heat. Isn't this pumpkin cool? Darrel's Mom got one several years back and I always wished I had picked one up too. I thought it would be so pretty with fall candies, or leaves or maybe a pretty candle inside? I think I enjoy decorating for fall just as much as I do Christmas! My favorite thing to do is the back porch. We wrap leaves around the posts and get pumpkins, hay bales and mums. I love it!

So Walmart wasn't too annoying today. We didn't have to wait to check out and only 2 people were rude.... that is certainly an improvement over most trips. I do hate though that you can't just buy allergy meds when you need them. Because we shop after work, and had dinner first, by the time we got in the store, the pharmacy was closed. All the good allergy meds are behind the counter these days, so then you are out of luck. It's annoying. I mean I guess I understand their reasons with trying to control the meth. making but its still a pain to have to get there or any drugstore for that matter during pharmacy hours. Not so easy when you are working.

My Walmart trip actually even ended nicely. Look what my husband picked out for me.....

Isn't he the best? Love you honey.

Have you ever been to an At Home America Party? They have cool stuff. Some of it has a vintage/retro kind of look and that of course is the stuff I am drawn too. My friend had a party recently and I ordered these.

New salt & pepper shakers for the kitchen. They look like little Mason jars. Aren't they cute?

Have you heard about Scrap-A-Faire? It's kind of an online scrapbook show/fair. You can shop, take classes, etc. I didn't get to participate much last year but I am thinking of maybe trying a class or 2 this year. Registration started yesterday. I haven't had time to check it out yet. Hoping to do that tomorrow. My friend did take several of their classes last year and she enjoyed it so I am thinking it would be fun!

I've been debating going ahead and ordering that pair of Mary Jane Crocs and guess what just came in my e-mail? A free shipping code for crocs. com. I think that just put me over the edge. Now to pick a color..... ruby red or chocolate brown?

Have you heard the Casting Crowns Song East to West? LOVE the lyrics to this song. They speak to me so much. Especially this part:

I know You’ve cast my sin as farAs the East is from the West
And I stand before You now As though I’ve never sinned
But today I feel like I’m just one mistake away
From You leaving me this way

Jesus, can You show me just how far the East is from the West?
Cause I can’t bear to see the man I’ve been
Rising up in me again
In the arms of Your mercy I find rest
You know just how far the East is from the West
From one scarred hand to the other

I start the day, the war begins
Endless reminding of my sin
And time and time again
Your truth is drowned out by the storm I’m in
Today I feel like I’m just one mistake away
From You leaving me this way

I know You’ve washed me white
Turned my darkness into light
I need Your peace to get me through
To get me through this night
I can’t live by what I feel
About the truth Your word reveals
And I’m not holding onto You
But You’re holding onto meYou’re holding onto me

I just love the words. That so describes the battle in me sometime. Feeling like I'm not good enough. Like I always fail Him. How can He love me? How can forgive me again? These words speak to all that. The self condeming. But Jesus removes my sins as far as the east is from the west. I can't live by what I feel. It's the truth of what he says. The truth of His word. I heard the DJ on WBGL talking about the whole east and west thing and saying how cool it was because the east never meets the west. If you start out going east, you will always be going east. You don't reach a point where you are traveling west. He was saying that was important and specific because we should notice it doesn't say north from south. Because with those directions, if you start out traveling south, you do reach a point where you then begin to go north again... Isn't that cool?

There is a great article about the song and album here. It is well worth the read. The song is posted from you tube in the sidebar to the right if you want to give it a listen.

Hope you have a fabulous rest of the week! Blessings.

Good Mail Day

So great mail day to come home on a Monday…not my favorite day… and have 3 QVC packages waiting for you. Especially when they contain scrap stuff! Don’t you think? All that I am waiting on now is my Bazzill. That was such a good deal and I think they said it wouldn’t be shipping until later this month. What came today were my 13 Heidi Swapp Stamps, The Daisy D Beacon Hill Patterned Paper, and the 8 tearing rulers. It all looks pretty cool. I was hoping to blog a bit and then still have a little time to play. I have a few layout ideas in mind.

I am planning another crop here at my house on Sept. 10th. The last one was fun!! I’ve been trying to think of something yummy yet easy to make for dinner. Something in the crock-pot maybe. Any ideas? I also wondered about taco salads. That would be yummy. I do have a recipe for the crock-pot where you cook chicken breasts (boneless/skinless) in the crock-pot all day with a jar of salsa. Then just shred the chicken and serve with tortillas and taco/fajita type fixings! I don’t know why I have crock-pot stuff on my mind so much all the sudden? Maybe because I’ve been getting tired of not having dinner ready till 7PM which means not being done and cleaned up till at least 8PM which leaves too short of an evening for other things that need to be done. So tomorrow’s dinner is already in the crock-pot and just needs to be plugged in in the AM. We are having pork chops and scalloped potatoes. This one is so easy and has 4 ingredients. It is yummy too! You slice 5 potatoes into the bottom of the crock-pot. Next add 1 onion that has been sliced/diced (your preference). Spread on 2 cans of Campbell’s cheddar cheese soup, and then on top lay 4 pork chops. I get the thick ones. Let that cook at least 8 hrs on low and there you have dinner. Easy and yummy. The meat gets so tender and the potatoes are yummy with the onion and cheese and meat juices for flavoring.

I was asked to be on a new Design Team today. Not sure I can share details yet. I will soon though. The club I was designing for, Memories 2 You will be closing. I was excited to be asked to design for this new team because I really enjoyed my time with M2Y and was going to miss it! The 1st kit will be out in October and is some cool new stuff just released! I will share more soon so you can go check it out!

I guess I’ll run for now so I can fit in some scrapping before bed. Hope you have a fabulous week. Blessings!

Embossing Transparencies

So I've been seeing on 2Peas and CK that you can emboss a transparency. It looks so cool. Now both of the examples I've seen, one with Jennifer McGurie on CK, they used the Cuttlebug machine to emboss with. Well, I don't have a cuttlebug and would like to not pay $69 just to emboss a transparency. So, I thought well if it can be embossed, than anything that embosses should do it right? So above is a photo of a sample piece I tried with my sizzix embossing folders. I rubbed some paint into it to make the detail show up a little better. Kind of cool huh? I can think of lots of possibilites for cards and layouts doing this. I'd like to get some stazon ink in some other colors and try that over the embossing too! Cool huh?

Need to make this short as I need to head to bed sooner than usual. We had a huge storm pass thru today around 2PM and it took out the power at work. I was not done with work that needs to be done before tomorrow at 9AM so I need to head in way early tomorrow to get finished up. Thats OK though. Got to come home early today because the power was still out after an hour and these days it doesn't take long to run out of things that can be done without the computer and/or electricity!

Blessings!

QVC Scrapping and Mental Health Day

So today was the QVC scrapbook and craft fair day. I guess it's a sickness with me or something but I just love watching those. I made this layout while watching all the scrap stuff. This is for my book of me. It was fun to do a just for fun layout! The "quiz" came from the Simple Scrapbooks book Scrapbook Shortcuts with Quizzes & Questions. As the book suggests, doing something like this would probably be fun and eye opening to do like once a year. I bet it would be interesting to see how your picture and your answers have changed. I used a ton of Heidi Swapp products here. I was joking with my friend that my alternate title for the layout is "how much Heidi stuff can I cram on a layout." Ha. Ha. Ha.

Did you watch QVC today? I thought it was pretty good. They had a bunch of new items and that always makes it better if they have the "latest and greatest" kind of stuff. Yes, I caved and made a purchase or two. Although, I would say too of them were scrapping "neccessities" not just to be buying. One was for Glue Dots which I am about to run out of and which are a must have for buttons, chipboard, etc. The other was an awesome buy on Bazzill cardstock. They had 160 sheets for $34! That included shipping. That makes it around .21 per sheet. Umm, at the LSS it's minimum .40 per sheet and that is a rare find. The other 2 things I got were the Heidi Swapp clear stamps (are you surprised considering my alternate title?) and a Daisy D Beacon Hill paper kit. Love their papers. Some of the things they sell on there I do not get. Now that doesn't mean someone else doesn't love and enjoy them, but I just don't get it. Like the Wacky Tack stuff for instance. Do others really think this stuff is great? Maybe I'm missing out? My friend asked if I was going to get the bedazzler thing. I'm like ummm no. She wondered if people really like and use it. I said well I guess so since they are still selling it.... Unless of course they made like 250 of them back in 1972 and all this time they have just been trying to sell off that same 250..... Ha. Ha. ha.

Ok, time for bed since I am like so entertaining myself at this point. Need to hit the bed so I am ready for work in the AM. Hope you are having a great week.

Blessings,

Storing Food For The Winter?

So Darrel was cleaning the dog's crate today. Our dog Tanner is crate trained and when we leave the house, he stays in his crate. He is a Maltese and the breed is known for being destructive by going to the bathroom in the hourse or causing damage when they are mad about being left behind. Tanner has scratched marks into the wall and once tried it on one of my scrapbook albums (can you believe he is still alive after that one?) so as I was saying, he is always crated. Well usually as I leave in the morning, I'll give him a couple of milk bones, his favorite treat. He has a blanket folded several times as a pad on the bottom of his crate and as soon as he sees the milkbones, he starts digging and pushing the blanket with his nose to "bury" his treats. Well I don't know if he is like storing food for the winter or a rainy day or what, but Darrel found this whole stash of milkbones at the back of the crate. How funny is that? Of course the whole time he was cleaning the crate, Tanner is trying to crawl over him and walk around him to see what he is doing to his stuff. I guess now we know why! Actually it looked like with all his "digging" and "burying" he had gotten this whole pile trapped between the crate and the wall where he probably couldn't get to them. I guess he created some entertainment for himself. I mean maybe this is how he has been spending his time each day, trying to figure out how to rescue the trapped milkbones. He was in there smelling them the whole time I am sure. See I told you he was goofy. Oh, and we are finally stepping on the placement part of the time. Then it's like he suddenly remembers that he didn't want to step on it so he has to go back to the leaning.....

Saturday we had a family fishing trip/picnic day. We went to several spots we used to go to when I was a kid and we would visit here (where we now live). It was hot, but not unbearable. No fish were caught, but we still had a nice time. We had our picnic lunches, and visited. The kids rode their bikes. We ate Zucchini bread. I took a bunch of pictures all the while planning the scrapbook layout in my head..... I know, it's a sickness. I took the photo above and then these below are a few favorites of my family.

This was Lindsay and Ethan playing on the boat ramp thing. Yes, I am sure that is the technical term. Aren't they cute?

This is one of the spots we spent time at. It's called Iron Bridge and it's one of our favorite places. My Mamaw lived in this area when she was a little girl. Now there is nothing left but the train tracks and the bridge. Love it here!

This is my Dad. LOVE how this picture came out. I love the natural look to it and that he happens to be at Iron Bridge which is a family history kind of place.

Well its 11 PM central. QVC scrapbook and craft fair day begins! Yay!! I have the day off and plan to scrap and watch as much of the 24 hours as I can. I hardly buy anything anymore but its still fun to watch kind of like being at a fun crop all day! Hope you can join in too!

Blessings!

New Heidi Goodies!

Look what was waiting for me when I got home today! Cool new Heidi goodies! This was my 3rd shipment for Heidi’s Year To Remember class with Big Picture Scrapbooking. I thought it was so cool we got a whole set of foam stamps. They are a cool size too. Nice and big, but not huge. There was also XL ghost clocks, chipboard clocks, credit card slides, and a large clock overlay. Can’t wait to play. The stamps will be perfect for my picture a day mini book. I was just trying to figure out what I was going to use to stamp “31” on the cover of my book.

So day 2 of the red placemat and the dog will still not step on it. As a matter of fact, he is making a worse mess with his water than he was before because he is trying to get a drink while leaning to reach the dish so he is slopping it all out in front of the bowl. Goofy dog.

My husband was helping me get dinner ready tonight when we got home from work. He is very sweet like that and always helps and sometimes cooks. So tonight we were having tacos and nachos. I was making the meat and he was busy chopping the tomatoes, green onions, lettuce, etc. OK here is one of the ways we are completely opposite…. To chop the lettuce he is pulling one leaf off of the head at a time, stacking them in a neat little stack, and then slowly cutting it into neat little squares. I happen to notice this and I am like “you aren’t seriously pulling that off one leaf at a time are you?” He says he is like what’s wrong with that. I of course then have to show him whats wrong with that. My way is to grab a hunk of lettuce off of the head which accomplishes getting several leaves rather than one… slow… leaf… at…a… time. Then I grab the knife and slice, slice, slice, slice, slice and presto, shredded lettuce in like what a minute? This is the same reason why when he asked if I wanted him to get the potatoes ready for boiling the other night I said “no, you will take like an hour and it will make me nuts…” I knew he would scrub each potato within an inch of its life and then take his time chopping each one into equal pieces. Let’s just say I am NOT a “beat around the bush” type of person. I am a lets get it done and move on type of person. You have to give him lots of credit though. When I told him why I did not want his help with the potatoes, he thought that was hilarious because after 20 years together he knew I was right and we are way, way past the fight about whose way is right stage. Now we just know each other and accept how we are. If you want precision and patience he is your guy. If you want quick, multi-tasking efficiency, then I’m your girl. Please don’t think I am picking on him. He is amazing and if you need anything done with precision…he is absolutely your man. He does everything so, so well!!

Hope you are having a great week! Blessings!

Scary Placemats?

If I were still doing picture a day, this would be my picture a day. Why? Because my dog is so goofy! We bought this vinyl placemat this evening to put under his food dishes and protect the wood floor. See he has to make a big mess when he eats because he shoves all his food around in his dish looking for the specific pieces he likes. So we put the mat under the food and the dog goes over to eat. What does he do? He leans to reach his food. He refuses to step on the mat. He has been leaning every since we got home. I mean I should have known a red placemat would be scary because in the past things like dinning room lights and tree branches and picnic tables have been scary. Anything new and unknown in his environment is scary at first. He leans to sniff it while still staying as far away as possible. Usually he has to bark at it too. I guess we should be thankful we didn’t have to go thru that stage too. Maybe his food on top of the scary thing was enough of a lure to get him near it. He is just too funny.

So Wal-Mart was pretty uneventful compared to past visits. No one was rude to me during the whole trip. Wow. They did have only like 1/16th of their checkouts open when they really needed at least several more. I made it all the way thru the shopping trip without wanting to hurt anyone and then when we were in line to check out, the lady behind me starts complaining about not enough check out lines being open and how much she hates that place. Now how ironic is that?

Do you watch So You Think You Can Dance? Did you see today’s episode? Wow! Everyone was so good! That last dance with Neil and Sabra was so cool. The way she fell down at the end? Wow. All the couples were really really good tonight. I am not sure who I’d like to see win. We like Pasha a lot. We also like Lacey and now Sabra and Neil are really doing great. That dance with the table was really good too. Can’t wait to see how it turns out for the finale.

Hope you are having a great week. Here is a video from you tube I am enjoying. I know you are thinking what is she like 5 years old? Nope. I just love this song from Cinderella. I used to sing it to my niece when she was a baby and it still makes me think of her. Blessings!

My ABC's

- I was reading in the pub on 2 peas and today there was a blogging challenge issued to Blog with the ABC’s as your starter for some random thoughts. Sounds like fun and a challenge (can I come up with 26 things?) so here goes….

- At home today instead of working. Normally I am off on Thursdays. It was a peaceful and relaxing day!
- Big Brother is on. Are you watching this season? Who is your favorite? My husband and I have been watching. We like Jameka kind of but its been hard to pick a favorite this year.
- Crying…. Speaking of Big Brother are you like so over Amber crying allllll the time. Darrel and I like crack up every time she starts up. I mean it’s not even sad anymore.
- Darrel is out in the garage finally fixing the garage door! Yay! So happy to have my garage door opener back!
- Ever feel like feverish/chilled after being out in the sun? What is up with that? I get that almost every time. Feeling it now from being in the pool earlier.
- Friends! A few friends came over last night for my first at home crop. It was so fun! We had pizza and brownies and scrapbooked. Well OK, all I actually accomplished was to glue a piece of pat. paper to a piece of chipboard…. Don’t ask.
- Grocery day tomorrow. Lets hope we have a better Wal-Mart trip than the last one that I blogged about. I mean could it be worse? Sorry I asked!
- Heidi Kit went on sale today. Yes…. I caved and ordered one. Looks like it already sold out too! Wow.
- I am looking forward to Saturday. We have a family fishing trip planned. We are going to places where we used to fish when we would visit down here when I was a kid.
- Just realized I still need to make a grocery list for tomorrow. Better do that next. Yes, I shop with a list and often a calculator. My list is also categorized by the way the store is laid out. I know, way too organized right?
- Kits are piling up in my scrap room. I need to get busy and get some of them used up!
- Lunch for our fishing trip Sat. is supposed to be a picnic lunch. Need to decide what to fix and take. I don’t think we have a portable grill any more where we could like do hot dogs. Probably won’t want hot food in 92 degree heat duh!
- Memories 2 You September kit details should be coming soon! I can’t wait to hear what I have coming my way soon!
- Napped floating in the pool today…..that is so relaxing.
- Ordered some Bazzill cardstock today. I want to start on my vacation book and have been using kits so much these days I don’t have enough of any one color of cardstock.
- Picture a day for a month is over! I finished July 31st. Now I have a mini album to make. I tried to start last night, that was the one piece of paper I glued down. I seriously could not make up my mind which side of the chipboard to use for what. What is up with that?
- QVC craft and scrapbook day is a week from today! Mark your calendars for next Tuesday!
- Reading a really good book right now by Charles Martin. It’s called Chasing Fireflies. You should check it out.
- Slippers! I still need to order some! I guess I have time, but I was just reminded of it because my feet were freezing and I had to go get my worn out pair.
- Tivo – I love it… like when I am sitting here blogging and not paying attention for the 9th time I can Tivo back and listen to what I missed!
- Unbelievable that it is back to school time! Wow. When did it get so early? I think my nephew said he starts Aug 9th! Wow. Where did the summer go?
- Vera Bradley purse is still in the cool shopping bag in my room. I haven’t switched yet. Trying to wait until the fall….
- When will this heat let up? It is supposed to be 100 degrees or more the next 2 days! Wow. Thank you Lord for air conditioning!!
- Xyron… see now if I wasn’t a scrapbooker, I would not have a word for X. Got to show my sister-in-law how great it works to adhere your letters after you die cut.
- Yay! Almost to the last one.
- Zucchini bread (thank goodness for spell check because I can NEVER remember how to spell that word!) I so want to get some Zucchini bread made this week!

Some Fun Shopping Finds

Are these cool or what? I found them last night at Barnes and Noble. Since my cataract surgery I can see pretty good, but do need reading glasses. My prescription reading glasses are great for a book, but not so great for the computer. The screen is too far away. So, I've been using just a pair of readers from Walmart and they do pretty good. Last night we were out for date night just doing some bumming around kind of shopping and we ended up at Barnes & Noble. We used to live much closer to a store and would often go there on a Fri. night. We'd get inside, split up and find an armful of books and magazines we were interested in, meet back up and find a seat, get some hot chocolate or tea or pop or something and relax for the evening. So last night we did that and spent a couple hours there. So while I was wandering around I noticed their rack of reader glasses. I think these are so cool. They are not something I would normally pick. I am sure my family who may be reading probably think they more look like something my sister would pick. Guess what though Jen... .they are brown not black! Ha. She loves black stuff. I really like these and have decided I do not not look too geeky or nerdy in them. You'll notice though I am just posting a picture of the glasses, not me in the glasses. Ha. Ha. Ha. That has way more to do with it being Saturday and having no make up on.

So while we were in town we of course had to check out the scrap stuff. I found these at Michaels. I love coming across cool new scrap stuff I haven't even seen before. These are from Making Memories and they are all kinds of different transparency titles and overlays in a little swatch book kind of thing. This one above is called scrolls. This next picture is travel and I'm going to use it with my vacation stuff.

Michael's even had a 40% off coupon for the week so I got a discount too! So has anyone seen these before? Are they old and I'm just behind or are they brand new?

Been playing some more on Shelfari and looking around there. It's kind of fun compiling your bookshelf of things already read, plus creating a reading list of things you are planning on reading. As you may have noticed I added my to be read list in the sidebar using their blog feature.


Monday is my first crop at my house. I have 3 friends coming. We are ordering pizza and breadsticks for dinner and we are going to eat and have fun and scrap. I am sure there will be visiting as well and maybe a brownie or two eaten.


I have a question.... Have you ever had someone ask you a question and when you say "I don't know" they keep asking you the question? What is up with that? Do they think if they keep asking you, that you will suddenly have a vision or something and get an answer to the question you already said you don't know the answer too? Do they think you will just figure it out? Or maybe they think I could come up with a better answer and just don't want to tell them? Someone please explain this to me. It happens to me all the time and for a patience challenged person... it so gets on my nerves. I would like to state here that guess what... sometimes, I just don't know the answer. It happens. Honest. Please do not continue to badger me for an answer. I do not want to have to start making something up just so I can have some peace. Ha. Ha. Ha. Kidding. I woudn't honestly do that.


I think I will go scrap for a bit. I also need to wrap a birthday gift for a friend and get things ready for the morning. We have to be at church at 8AM and boy does that come EARLY. Hope you area having a fabulous blessed weekend.

Do You Love To Read?

Have you heard of this website? I hadn't but I received an invitation to join today in an e-mail from a favorite author! How cool is that? I am just now exploring and learning but it looks like you can go here and make lists of books you have read, books you would like to read, etc. You can also have lists of friends who like the same kinds of books and see what books you have in common or what things you would like to add to your to be read list. This is such a cool and fun idea! Here was some of the info. in the E-mail invite I received:

Shelfari is a free site that lets you share book ratings and reviews with friends and meet people who have similar tastes in books. It also lets you build an online bookshelf, join book clubs, and get good book recommendations from friends. You should check it out.

Sounds cool doesn't it? I added a link in the sidebar under my favorite places. Or, you can click on the image of the logo above. Leave me a comment if you'd like to be part of my group and I'll e-mail you an invite! I noticed it also says something about being able to put your bookshelf on your blog. Definitely going to go back and check that out!

So I tried to order the Heidi kit I posted yesterday, but now they have postponed the order date until next Tuesday 8-7. Maybe that is a good thing and I'll forget all about it by then.

My skin came for the laptop today. I am sad to say I am disappointed. I thought that it being a "skin" it would have some thickness and texture to it. It is basically just a big sticker. I am not impressed and think the cost is too high for what it is. I also was not happy with the design. I picked a design called pinky stripe. This looks like plum or maroon.... soooo not liking it. I am praying returning will be easy and I will look for something else for a birthday gift. Hmmm those Mary Jane Crocs are sounding better all the time.

Have you ever visited the Scrap Supply website? Pretty cool store and I love their newsletters. So much great info and ideas! I just got the August Newsletter today and haven't read it all yet. You can check it out here.

Crabby. That is the one word that would describe me pretty well today. I think the stress of some difficult things over the past 2 weeks has caught up with me and pinned me to the ground. I was having a very hard time not being irritable with people and failed miserably at that once I got home. Good thing I have such a forgiving husband. I have the day at home tomorrow so that will be good. Maybe I just need a good day off. You think?

I will leave you with a video I came across on youtube. I used to love this movie, um like 20 years ago. Wow. Where does the time go? I still love to watch ice skating so it was still cool to see this again. This song was a favorite too. (The movie was Ice Castles, the song was by Melissa Manchester and is called Through The Eyes of Love). We had it in our wedding. So, very 80's.... but enjoy. The 80's were great! Blessings!

So check these crocs out! They are finally available at Nordstrom.com. I think they are so cute. Now I just need to decide if I should go ahead and order online, or if I should wait and try to find them somewhere local where I can try them on. I hate having to ship things back when they don't fit. I've needed different sizes for different styles of crocs so I am not sure which way to go. I am thinking they'd probably be similar to my other Mary Jane Crocs. I also need to decide on a color. Nordstrom only has the chocolate, black and purple. I think there is supposed to be like a ruby red too and I am thinking I might want those. I guess I don't have to hurry right?














Have you ever ordered from Zappos.com? I haven't but they look like they are a pretty good deal. I have these slippers and Zappos sells them. I need to replace mine this fall/winter and since I like these so much I was thinking of just getting the same thing in pink again of course. It looks like they have pretty good deals with free shipping and free return shipping and even a price guarantee. Just wondered if anyone had a good or bad experience with them.


















Have you seen the Heidi Swapp kit for August. Umm it's pink and brown.... how am I supposed to resist Heidi stuff in pink and brown? No fair. I so enjoy her products. They are unique and fun and I love how she designs with them. She is so clever and creative. Thinking I might need to order this tomorrow.

Can you guess what we have in our yard now? They are creepy and like black brown and fly really fast..... Yes... we have BATS. YUCK. What is up with that? Why did they pick my yard? Darrel noticed them a week or so ago when he was taking the dog out at night. We live out in the country and out on our detached garage we have a vapor light that is on all night, each night so there are like millions of bugs right? Well what do bats eat? Yes, bugs.... so I guess I could be thankful for that and say that is a good thing right? But ewwww.... I do not want bats flying around over my head...which they were tonight when we got home around 10 PM and were walking in from the car. I won't be calling my brother to protect us! Remember that Jen? (my sister) We were in Arkansas vacationing back when we were kids. We were at the pool just the 3 of us late in the evening and this bat starts swooping back and forth over us right by our heads! My sister and I are freaking out and ask our brother to get out of the pool and get our towels so we can put them over our head and get out and head for the cabin.... What does he do? He gets out and like takes his time drying off and leaving us in the pool still freaking out.... What a hero right? Ha. Ha. Ha. So back to the bats in my yard I am beginning to feel like we are like wild kingdom or somehting here I mean first we have the whole bunny colony community going on and now we have bats? I mean are we a rest stop on the wild life tour for animals beginning with B or something? Where do I sign up to get off the tour?

So we had work today and then headed right back out for a quick dinner and then over to see a friend. We had a nice visit and I am glad we got to see her. We got home about 10 PM watched some Tivo'd shows and now its time to head for bed. Thing is that since I am not a morning person, I am a night person, so even though I should be sleeping by now... I am like so not tired and ready to like clean or go scrap or something. However, these things will not help me get up for work in the morning so I guess bed it is.

Monday I have 3 friends coming over to scrap! It is my first "crop" at my house. I am way excited and can't wait! We are ordering some pizza for dinner (my wonderful husband has said he will pick it up on his way home from work) and plan to scrap or crop (whichever term you prefer) the evening away...thinking I may get started on my picture a day album now that I am finally thru July. It was fun doing the pic. a day thing, especially since it was birthday month, but by the last day I'm like OK, what is there left to take a picture of? ha. Ha. Ha.

My whole family has agreed to come on a fishing trip with Darrel and I. A week from Sat. we are all packing our picnic lunches, grabbing our fishing poles (or our books for those of us not fishing) and heading out to some old fishing holes we used to go to when we were kids and used to come down here for summer vacation. I am really looking forward to it!

Added a new song/video to the sidebar -----> it is the coolest song called "Carried To The Table" by Leeland. Wow! So, so powerful. We used it in church Sunday during communion. It was awesome. Love the words to this.. so amazing to think about how Jesus died for our sin and because of that He does literally carry us to the table. Please click on the video and listen to this one. So, so good.

OK, I've put it off long enough. Time to head for bed! Hope you are having a great week.

Blessings.