It's Date Night Live

Ok, this may be a first. I am blogging to you live during date night. Now how cool is that. Darrel and I decided to pack up the laptops and head "to town." I am told by my dear friend Lisa that if I am coming to Vincennes, then I am going "to town." I am no longer allowed to say I am going "to town" if I am refering to Evansville. That, my friends would be "the big city...." bwa ha ha ha ha.... (to which Darrel replied "No... Chicago would be the big city....) See Lisa always asks me where we are going for date night and when I say we are headed to town, she thinks I speak southern Indiana language forgetting that I am from Northern IL and still the "new person" sometimes. So to me, going to Evansville is going to town... Well around here, if you say you are going to town you mean Vincennes... So I of course want to blend right in like I've lived here my whole life so I need to learn the language right? Aren't you glad I filled you in on all that.. Did I get it right Lisa?

Anyway, back to date night. I am sitting beside my sweetie, laptops running, enjoying the free wi fi at the local town gourment coffee/ice cream shop. Oh my gosh, I wish we could have scratch and sniff blogging... when we came in they were making homemade waffle cones. YUM... it smelled so good in here. We got to have a fresh cone and some yummy ice cream. (Darrel had butter pecan and I had mint chocolate chip. YUM) Then we got ourselves a diet soda and parked in the warmest corner we could find and have been happily relaxing and enjoying the nice atmoshpere (well except for the yelling um err... music). Of course it didn't take me long to think how fun to take a picture or two and blog while I am here. Here is Darrel. Doesn't he look serious?













So he of course demands... well ok asks for the camera because he says since its my blog, the picture should be of me. So here is my best serious look.













They have these pretty murals on the wall. Don't I look like I am on the balcony of some beautiful Villa someplace? And notice, the pink stuff comes with me wherever I go..... Then I thought how cute if I get a picture of me peeking over the top of my pink computer.... here is the result

Now that ranks right up there with one of my favs from covered bridge with the whole picture being the sky and a few hands peeking up at the bottom... Why I thought peeking over the computer would be cute, I have no idea. Nice picture of my hair though huh?













Here is a better shot of the place. Isn't it cool? There is going to be a big crop here on Natl. Scrapbook Day (do you have it marked on your calendar?). I can't wait!

Well the place is about to close in like 8 minutes so I have to wrap up. Need to head home to make any last minute prep. for tomorrow's big 12 hour crop! Lisa got us the coolest Shabby Pink Designs t-shirts. I am hoping mine fits right so I can wear it. With this weight loss stuff, one day to the next I am never quite sure what is going to fit and how it will fit you know? NOT that I am complaining. Great problem to have!!

Have an awesome weekend! Blessings!!

Time for another kit.....

OK, that was way too corny I know... but how could I resist. This ladies and gentlemen is a clock I designed for Shabby Pink Designs and YES, it will be a new kit. How cool is this clock base from Kaiser Craft? Very cool idea. Once I knew what I wanted my design to be, this came together pretty quick and easy. Maybe an hour to assemble once I had my picture picked out and printed and after I played around with my journaling and fonts on the computer. Now... how stinking cute are these Buzz & Bloom chipboard flower borders? This kit will include both the large and small border because I mixed them to make sure they would dip below my photo and journaling. Loving playing with inks, paint and glimmer mist on this one as well. I am hard at work getting Lisa all the details for instructions and supply lists so we will have this one up for you soon. I am spending time this week getting pieces cut for that Webster's kit as well so keep watching for that one.

Can I just say I am in love with the new Canon wireless printer we got? Tonight was the first time I printed any photos on it. Oh my gosh... sooooo simple. Load 4x6 paper, picked out my photos from my laptop, click on print and presto perfect 4x6 borderless photos that look like I just picked them up at my local Walgreens! Serious! PLUS it will also print them with the white border around them!! Loving that! Very happy with the quality and how easy it is to use.

I was just doing some blog browsing before adding this entry to my own and was looking at this one called Lolly Chops. Ok, I totally mean NO offense.... and I love the blog and all the cool crafty stuff and what a great craft room.... but the name Lolly is so cute and being a child from the um 70's..... all I kept thinking was "Lolly, lolly, lolly get your adverbs here....." Bwa ha ha ha Who else remembers that? Do I see any hands up? I loved Saturday mornings and school house rock... oh my gosh, I need to go look that up on youtube or something now. I bet it's on there. LOOK! They have it... see now you have to listen. You can find it here. I think my favorite was Interjections or Conjunction Junction....

Have you seen the new little Vera B catalog that came out in the mail this week? They have Vera flip flops! Oh my gosh and sunglasses and a cool new cooler bag with purchase.... Do they not know about the spending freeze. No fair sending out catalogs with cute stuff! You can see the new stuff here on their web site. How stinking cute are those flip flops.... They even have pink! OH my gosh....mentioning pink... today I had the cutest little girl in my office and she was looking at the things I have on my desk. Among those things I have a little pink fan. She said to her Mom, "look mama, pink wind..." HA!!! How adorable is that? Still makes me smile.

So been printing my pics and making my list (and checking it twice...) for the big crop on Saturday! 12 hours of cropping fun with friends. Now doesn't that sound awesome? I cannot wait!! I promise to take pictures and share!

Happy Wednesday or um I guess now its Thursday! Happy Thursday! Blessings!

Best Memories of 2008

Here it is the completed 2 page kit for "Best Memories of 2008" (click on photo to see larger size.) This is a look at the 2 pages side by side. Since that of course means a smaller photo, here are closer views of each page.


















On this page you are seeing product from Webster's Pages, Prima (paper flowers, page pebble, postage stamp alpha stickers), Chatterbox Artsylicious (turquois frame, metal flower, deco. brads.) and then also some distress stickles in vintage photo, Heidi Swapp Mirrored butterfly, and Kaiser rhinestones. I'm probably missing a few details, but Lisa will have them listed when the kit goes up for sale. Here is a closer look at page 2.


















Page 2 has more of the same, but I am especially loving these chatterbox frames. They are a beautiful color and really go well with the colors in the Webster's papers. I am so excited about this kit. I hope you like it. Lisa and I are working on the details now to get the kit produced and will have it up on the Shabby Pink web site soon!

I often use my bazzill splat mat when I do inking on my layouts, such as I did here on the edges of lots of the papers. This is the one I have. Ok - BUT did you hear that at the recent CHA that Tattered Angels came out with a PINK craft mat? Check it out here. Now how cute is that? I am sure I need one... I mean my splat mat has 2 cuts in it.... why you ask? Um because I had it sitting on top of my self healing mat and not once, but um twice, I decided to use my craft knife or rotary cutter and found out that DUH you can't cut thru the craft mat too...... So see, I need a pink one. I promise not to cut it. Lisa wouldn't this be ideal for those "not misting the floor" kind of times?

We stopped at M's the other night when I was looking for some scrapbook organizing containers and I spotted some new punches from EK success. They were a "slim profile" long border punch and they had one that was like the torn spiral paper edge. I almost bought one but decided I was happy with my stampin up spiral punch, plus I have a bind it all which can be used for that affect also. There were lots of different ones. If I hadn't spotted a pad of K & Co cut and paste paper to use my coupon on, I might have gotten one. I looked for a picture online, but all I found was this post on Jennifer McGuire's blog (scroll down to Valentines share). Evidently only M's has them for sale right now. Oh! Just spotted a couple on ebay. Here and here. There was a bunch of different designs, not just the spiral. I don't think I mentioned that.

When we hit Barnes and Noble the other night, we had considered bringing the laptops along. However, I don't think they have free wi fi. Anyone know? I know Panera and Starbucks do but we were hoping for a coffee shop/book store combo kind of place. As we were driving home we spotted Borders and wondered if they have Wi fi.... might need to check that out. Sometimes I wish I had one of those mobile wireless cards, but we so do not need to add that to the montly bills. Lisa has one though and um she has been having trouble with it so now I am thinking I am glad I don't have one...... Anyone know of any good places like that with free wi fi? Leave me a comment please if you do. I was thinking the even the little gourmet ice cream/coffee place in the next little town over has wi fi.... I'd be thinking Barnes and Noble could afford it huh?

Well I need to go find a devotion for staff meeting in the AM and work on the kit details for Lisa. Hope you have a great Monday! Blessings!

A Little Peek....

Yes, it actually happened.... I had a Saturday, I had some time.... I actually started and completed a LO! Yay me. This was designed to be a new kit for Shabby Pink Designs. It is the first 2 pager I have done in quite some time. They can be a challenge for me to make them balanced and to flow together. I think I succeeded. I was able to include 15 wallet size photos on this LO. 15... be VERY impressed! Ha! The above pic. is a little peek at the title. This Webster's Pages Life is Beautiful paper is so gorgeous, I don't see how you could come up with a bad LO! ha. The left page is based on one of their calendar papers and that just seemed to beg for a year in review LO. I had been wanting to do one of those anyway so I ran with that idea. When Lisa and I were pulling product for this, I just happened to spot some of the Chatterbox Artsylicious stuff she had, especially these teal/turquoise frames... Look how pretty!

It goes together really well with this paper. I also had some fun with some prima flowers, glimmer mist, and a very cool prima page pebble. I am hoping to get this scanned, and have full images up for you tomorrow. I will also need a day or two to get the supply list and instructions to Lisa, but will do my best to have this converted into a kit for you SOON. Hope you will love it! It was very fun to make. Something about looking at the year in picutres laid out in front of me just about got me choked up a couple of times. There was just something about seeing so many good times and more importantly so many blessings. God is so amazingly good to us, it just blows me away.












So have you ever watched Ceaser Milan? The Dog Whisperer? Darrel and I first watched his show at my parent's house one night. Since then we have found his show entertaining and educational and tend to watch it during the week. We have tried some of his techniques with our little stubbon, strong willed, bull headed little dog..... and yes, they have actually worked and helped. He always mentions how important exercise is for your dog, even little dogs and fairly often he shows people how dogs can walk on treadmills. So the other day after I was done with the treadmill we got Tanner's collar and leash on him and decided to try it out. Well at first we had the treadmill a little too fast and Tanner was not liking the idea and basically had a little fit and refused to walk...He kind of freaked out. It was rather funny. So failure the first time out, but we thought it wise not to end on that note so we gave it another try. We backed down the speed a bit and put him back on. At first he refused to walk and tried to pull out of his collar, but as Darrel persisted in keeping him on there, he pretty much had to start trying to walk and suddenly a little at a time he was doing it! It was very cool. It only took a few minutes for him to understand and to be able to walk on it. Now as I have mentioned before... our dog is a wimp. He does not like to walk far. The times I have taken him on my walk with me, it takes him all of 10 minutes to start bumping me in the leg which is code for "I'm tired now... pick me up..." It is too funny. He can totally walk farther, he just seems to not like the idea if he thinks he can get out of it. So what does he do on the treadmill? He got this little rhythm going of step, step, step, step, ride....... step, step, step, step, ride............. So he'd take 4 steps and then ride the belt to the back and then when he had to... yep, step, step, step, step... He was cracking us up! Ha. So we are thinking maybe he needs a doggie boot camp with some regular visits to the treadmill? He is too funny.... stubborn little thing. I am certain God gave me a stubborn dog to teach me patience... Um maybe if I'd learn the lesson quicker, the dog would ease up on me you think? Ha!!

Better head to bed for church in the AM. Hope you are having a great weekend. Check back for more info. on the new kit! Blessings!!

She Is Back!

Gracie came home! Ask me how happy I am about that?! I mean look how sweet and cute she is..... So you have to hear the story.

I mentioned a few times here that I was sad our cat was missing. We saw her on Valentine's Day in the afternoon and then suddenly she was gone. We saw no sign of her all the way thru Tuesday. She had never been gone that long since she came to live with us. I found out quickly that I am apparently attached to this cat. I was sad and by Tuesday, when still no sign of her I was emotional and sad and yes, weepy because I missed her and was feeling like she wasn't going to come back. I have never been this attached to an animal and kept telling my husabnd I felt like I was being a big goof! Ha.

I had mentioned here when she first showed up at our house that I felt like God had sent her to us. Call me weird if you must, but that was how I felt. Strongly. I also felt like God gave me her name. I guess that is all part of why she is special to me. So again... was really missing her. I had been praying the whole time she was gone, God please send her home, please send her back to us. I was sad that I had these pictures of her I wanted to scrap, but was now feeling like I wouldn't be able to do that because I thought she was gone and it would just be too sad. See we had another kitten a year or two ago that was with us and then disappeared one day and we never saw her again. So even though people were telling me that sometimes cats do that, she'll come back.... I wasn't feeling it. During the time she was gone, I'd walk by our back door and think "God, I wish I could hear her climbing on the screen..." She likes to do that and it usually is annoying, but of course, when she is missing, then I would have been happy to hear that sound.

So while I am missing her and feeling upset, I felt like God answered my prayers by showing me a couple of things. I realized that the thing I was feeling upset and even angry about was not only that she wasn't coming back. It was more about me being upset that I wasn't getting what I wanted, when I wanted it. I didn't want to have to wait on God's timing. I wanted her back now so I could feel better you know? Yet if I love and trust Him which I do, then I need to let Him be in charge even when I don't understand. I also realized that you know what? She isn't really mine. She is His. He just let her come stay with me. Steven Curtis Chapman's song "Yours" came to mind and how nothing we have is really ours. Not even Darrel is mine. It all belongs to God. I needed to remember that.

So I dealt with those things and was doing a little better and headed to bed Tuesday night. At 3:53 AM I woke up from a dream thinking I was hearing a cat. I wasn't sure if I had dreamt it or actually heard it until I heard it again. It was right at our bedroom window which was open. So then I am thinking, "is it her?" But telling myself probably not - but figuring I should get up and check. About this time, the cat jumps on the screen, stil meowing loudly.... now Darrel is awake. He looks out the window and in the 4 AM darkness can still see her and he says "Hi Gracie...." I'm like is it her?! He said yes and got up to go get her. I laid on the bed laughing for a minute and said, "God has a sense of humor. It is so like Him to answer my prayer and send her back to us at 3:53 AM announcing herself loudly and jumping on the screen!" Darrel went to the back door and she met him there. She was starved and purring loudly like she does. We fed her and put her in the garage for the night. She has been home and happy every since.

Now.. I am not a complete idiot. It had occured to us that maybe she was old enough that she was in heat and that was why she had taken off. I also know that cats in heat will sometimes meow and that underneath windows. I've had it happen before. So we may have kittens on the way. You know what though, she had never been around that part of the house. She had never jumped on any screen but the back door. Out of all the places and windows in our house she could have went to, she picked our bedroom window and it was like first she meowed and then when we didn't respond she jumped on the window like "hey you guys!! I'm out here and I'm hungry! Come and get me!!" I just feel and know in my heart whether she is/was in heat or not, it was a complete answer to prayer and I've been praising God for it every since.













Date night! Weekends have been so busy every since Christmas and vacation. We were really looking forward to a date night tonight that had no agenda or to do list attached to it. So we headed to dinner and ate at Sirloin Stockade. We usually like it but I was not that impressed tonight. Plus the place seems dirtier all the time and for whatever reason, I seem to have more issues with that kind of thing then I used to. I mean if the glass partition around the booth is filthy and the bathrooms are not all that clean.... don't you begin to wonder what the kitchen looks like? The food was OK and we had a nice dinner regardless.

We hit M's and HL to check for some scrapbook storage containers. I wanted to pick up a few things to help me pack for the crop next weekend. I am beginning to wonder if I need to get one of those XXL totes..... (um does it come in PINK?) So I found what I wanted and then we headed to Barnes and Noble. When we lived in IL very often on a Friday night, you would find us there with a stack of books and magazines just relaxing and reading. We haven't done that as much in Indiana because for one thing, the store is almost an hour away. So this was fun! We were blessed enough to find a couple of their comfy (if you don't mind sinking) arm chairs. This was my stack of things to look thru. I grabbed several mags like Martha Stewart, Country Living, Artful Blogging, Real Simple (I wanted to see what all the hype was about on that one) and Simple Scrapbooks. I also grabbed a couple of the Laura Childs Scrapbook mysteries I've been hearing about on the message boards and Scrap Scene. I enjoyed browsing thru that Firefly Lane and may need to get that one and read it at some point. I also was enjoying the Gosselins book. We like to watch Jon & Kate plus 8 sometimes so I was interested. I also found the info. about their infertility interesting since we deal with that subject as well. We pretty much stayed until closing, grabbed a yummy hot choclate on the way out the door and headed home. It was a good evening. We were hoping to have a normal Saturday, but Darrel has to work tomorrow. I am NOT complaing. Another answer to prayer and we are thanking the Lord for the hours.

Tomorrow I hope to complete my next layout for Shabby Pink. This LO is going to be a 2 pager! Yay me. Haven't done a 2 page in quite a while. I am using some of the Webster's Pages papers and products one being a calendar page so I decided to do a 2008 year in review kind of thing. A lot of it is still in my head... so lets hope it all works out on paper! Ha. I also think I will be using some Chatterbox Artsylicious embellies among other things. Very cool stuff. I will try to at least post a peek for you sometime this weekend so check back! Lisa, Lori and I will be at the Evansville Crop for the Cure next Saturday! Shabby Pink will not have a booth, but we are looking forward to cropping and seeing everyone!

It is very late... so I better head to bed. Even us night owls need our rest. Have an awesome weekend! Blessings!

Monday Miscellaneous

So how was your Monday. Mine was OK. Had some stressful work stuff... which most people seem to think wouldn't be the case when you work at a church, but not true. I think in this life stress is just a part of life because we are all imperfect people who aren't always on our best behavior. Amen? Ha! I tried to leave work right at 5 PM because I was thinking if I got home and got out the door by 5:30, I'd have time to do my walking outside before it got dark. I made it and I did get my walk in but was wore out by the time I made it home. Glad I went though. It feels good to be outside more again. I've missed it. I know it's just February but it seems like signs of spring are starting to peek out. I saw a couple of robins today. Figured that was a good thing. Darrel had some overtime (thank you Lord!) so by the time I got back from walking, he was just pulling in from work. Good timing! We had a nice dinner together and now I am sitting here thinking I should get up and go unpack my scrap stuff. See my desk?! It's been like this since the super bowl. I need to get unpacked so I can work on a layout when I have even a few minutes. If you know me, you know I cannot work around all the stuff on my table. I need things neat and orderly..... stop laughing Lisa.... So this is my next project.

Was just checking e-mails and reading a blog or two. I enjoy reading Kayla Aimee's blog. She generally cracks me up and has a great writing style and I really like her scrapbooking too. Her post from 2/14 really hit home with me. You can read it here. She had me laughing about buying a pregnancy test, a snickers and a family circle magazine. Too funny. Thing is she has mentioned that she and her husband struggle with infertility issues, a subject we are all to familiar with. I was reading her post to Darrel because he wanted to know what I was cracking up about. One minute I was laughing and the next I was crying. My heart breaks for them because I've been there more times than I care to remember or count. I've had the test that maybe might be positive and done the "spazzing out" and the dreaming and wondering... only to find out that yes, yet again, the test is negative. Just got to me and I had a good cry. I love our life and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Seriously. But just because you have accepted something and are OK with it, doesn't mean the emotion of what could have been doesn't still get to you once in a while. Make any sense? I was just touched by her post and know that there must have also been some pain involved in the whole story and was very touched and impressed at the way she was able to write about it. OK... moving on....

Did I mention the sewing machine arrived? See... it does look cute on my scrap table.... Now - all I need to figure out is what one does with said sewing machine..... bwa ha ha ha ha!!! Thinking I need to set up those sewing lessons with my Mom asap! But first, perhaps I should get off of this computer and go unpack my scrap stuff..... maybe it will warm me up... Seriously! The heat is set on 70 (which is as high as I am going considering the amount of the last bill! Goodness!!) and I am sitting here in my fluffy socks, fur lined slippers, long john pants, pj pants, Darrel's t-shirt, thermal pj top AND my fluffy pink robe and YEP... still cold... Maybe either the cleaning or going to choke the dog will warm me up. He is getting on my last nerve today and I have threated to go put him out in the yard and maybe he will get lost and the cat will come back...... OK no seriously I would not do that. Just kidding.. Just am missing my kitten (who is still among the missing and very sweet to me) and the dog who insists on getting into mischief every chance he gets... Is there like a conspiracy? Was there a memo? Ok - just venting. I feel better now. Hope you have an awesome week! Blessings.

Valentine's Stuff...

So did Valentine's Day visit your house? It sure visited us. Why? Because my husband is awesome and he knows me so well. He outdid himself this year and went all out! I am feeling especially spoiled and yes, I am proud of it! It all started on Friday. I was feeling kind of bummed/emotional... who knows why.. us girls are just like that some days right? Well usually first thing I do is check e-mail. I had an E-card from Darrel that was just perfect, and he had added a note that said "go look in the classroom across from the offices. I left something there for you." So of course I hopped right up out of my chair to go and investigate. I found a dozen red roses in a vase waiting for me. That perked me right up. Ha! I had already gotten what I thought was my only present on Thursday. He ordered me a pair of PINK earrings from QVC. Aren't they pretty?













It's hard to tell in the picture but they are pink. I love them and love that they are dangly. We did our best to both get off work by 4PM so we could meet at home and then head to town. Darrel said he wanted to take me to dinner and a movie. We ate at Biaggis. We had only been there one other time, but Darrel had thought of it because he wanted a "nicer" restaurant and he remebered them having nice "atomosphere." He was correct, they did. We had a good dinner even though our waitress was getting on my nerves. I love it when they take good care of you, but sometimes you get the ones that check on you way too often and talk too much when they do? She meant well and she was very nice, it was just that we were trying to have a quiet romantic dinner alone...not the three of us... Ha! After dinner we had planned on seeing the movie Taken. We got done with dinner sooner than we thought so when we were rechecking the times that it started, we noticed that the movie was only 1 hr 33 min long. Doesn't that seem short? I mean for what you pay for a movie, that almost seems like a rip off or something. So we also noticed that "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" was playing and that it had a running time of 2 hrs 48 min! Um quite the opposite of the other one huh? Plus, it had a better start time and because it has been out longer, we thought it would be less crowded. So we opted for that one. We really enjoyed it! Good movie and we liked the love story part in it. I thought Brad Pitt did a good job. How on earth did they make him so young in the scenes where he was supposed to be in like his late teens (I am guessing...)?? Since we had time between dinner and the movie, we decided to walk the mall.










We didn't buy much, just mostly walked and browsed and talked but I did find this fuschia pink hard case for my phone.... Once I snapped it on to see how it looked well then I had to take it home.... Isn't it cool? Well maybe not if you don't like pink but as you know, that is not a problem here. I also found a Columbia Fleece jacket marked down that Darrel decided I should have for walking. I've been wearing one of his but its a pullover and when you are tired and sweaty and um exhausted sometimes peeling that back off over my head is about the last thing I have energy for! I know... I'm a wimp.













So then we get to actual Valentine's Day on Saturday. Darrel had to work so he headed out in the morning and I headed out to walk. We met back up at home in time to get ready for and head to church for the "couples retreat." This was one of the center pieces on the table. Isn't it pretty? A couple of local ladies did the catering and it was yummy. When we sat back down after getting our food, Darrel bumped the table leg and sloshed the water which put out the floating candle. I was teasing him about how now he needed to re-light it. He said he had nothing to light it with. Well next thing I know, he reaches into the water, grabs the candle and turns it upside down to light it from the candle on the table. When he dropped it back in, the water sloshed again and it went back out.... too funny! So he did the whole process again and this time it stayed lit. Is he good or what?













This was us after dinner. Not too bad of a shot. You of course knew I'd be wearing valentines pink rather than red right? I mean I had to wear my new earring didn't I? After dinner the movie Fireproof was shown. This was our 2nd time to see it but we enjoyed it every bit as much as the first time. I had forgotten the line in the movie about that you can't just follow your heart... you have to lead your heart. wow. How good is that. Following our heart and our emotions can get us into trouble. Marriage and love is often a decision when you are not so much feeling the emotions. I also liked how they use the thing from fire fighters about "never leave your partner behind." After the movie each couple received the Love Dare book like in the movie. We had a really good time and a wonderful Valentine's weekend. When Darrel got home from work yesterday he walked in and handed me a 1 lb box of Fannie May Mint Meltaways. I'm like wow.... flowers, earrings, candy, dinner & a movie... He covered all the bases plus didn't he? I was surpised. I had gotten him 2 cards and a 1 lb mixed box of fannie may (hand picked to be his favorites) and then a 1 lb tin of their cashews which are YUMMY.. Those came while I was home Thursday and I wasn't feeling good that day. Had a sore throat and was hungry and man... having a lb of fannie may nuts and candies sitting next to me.... He is lucky he had some unopened packages when he got home cause it was tempting! Ha! I almost had to go hide them from myself... is that possible?












Look what else arrived on Saturday? HOW COOL IS THAT? And yes... I am yelling! I stinking love this computer and look at the pink mouse!!!!! Everyone should have a pink mouse. It should be a rule! Why oh why have I been using the touchpad for so long? This mouse is fabulous. I love it!! The computer is very cool too. Learning about it and transfering files and stuff today. Can someone tell me WHY things that should be quick and easy on the computer always end up taking like HOURS? We thought we could use this file transfer cable and "windows easy file transfer" to move my files. Yeah... I am thinking they need to change the name to "windows takes a long stinking time and is complicated file transfer" cause um easy so does not cover it. We finally got it to work using my 2 gb jump drive, but it had to break it into 5-6 times to move everything. At least it is done now.

Went walking today. Since I've eaten a bit more with two evenings out I wanted to add some distance/time yesterday and today. I did that but man I was tired when I was done... today we went after lunch and it is all the harder walking on a full stomach and then throw in a little wind. Darrel went with me today and at one point he says "they are pretty aren't they?" and I'm like huh? what?? He points at some Hawks which I hadn't noticed. I said to him between trying to breath.... "um I am just concentrating on staying vertical...." which he of course thought was hilarious. I was quite tired at that point, yet near the end of the walk, what did I do? Go home? Nope, I added about 1/2 mile... I know.. I make no sense. I made it home though and we put in 71 minutes today and I think it was 72 or so yesterday. I am still holding at 66 lbs gone... trying hard to get to 70... the scale just moves so stinking slow sometimes. I intend to keep doing my best to move forward.

Ok we haven't seen Gracie since yesterday afternoon. Evidently I am seriously attached to this cat. I miss her! She is such a sweetie and she always makes me smile and I just find her comforting. I have literally cried twice today worrying about her and wanting her to come home and being scared she won't come home. And yes, I've been praying about it. Call me nuts if you must, but I completely feel like God sent her to us so I am believeing he will send her back home. Me... crying over a cat. I looked at Darrel and said I know... I'm goofy, crying over the cat... I can't help it.. I seriously have become attached to her and I just want her back home. He said I wasn't goofy and he missed her too. He even hugged me and prayed with me. See I told you, he is the best!! So say a prayer Gracie comes home safe. I hope you have a great week! Blessings!

Valentine Give Away

Hey just a quick post to tell you that Shabby Pink Designs has a cool give away up on their blog. Check it out here. All you need to do is leave a comment on the blog post to be in the running for some cool free stuff! It's like all pink.... maybe I can quit as DT person so I can sign up.... Do you think that would work? I mean its PINK! How can a girl resist! Ha!

I have some cool things to share with you for Valentines...such as the pretty pink earrings I am wearing or the cool way I received some flowers from my husband today... He is good! I hope to post later or tomorrow with some pics! Probably tomorrow. Tonight is Valentines Date Night! yay! More soon! Blessings!

Is it a bad thing?

Yes, it's pink.. Well OK, pink and white. Is it like a bad thing that at least in part, my decision about which sewing machine to purchase was based on the color? I mean if its pink, it will probably sew better too don't you think? Don't all things work better when they are pink? Plus, another part of my decision.... was how cute it would look in my scrap room on my spare table.... I know... I have a sickness don't I. What can I say? At least I am honest. Ha! So did I mention in a previous post that I was getting a machine? My sewing machine was another flood damaged item so more insurance replacement cost funds. Now, even though I had a sewing machine, I am so not a sewing kind of girl. I do not know how to sew. I used my machine for like emergency mending type situations and if like duct tape or hot glue or something would work then um not so often. However.... I LOVE the look of sewing on scrapbook pages. I have seen on the scrap boards different people rave about the Janome Sew Mini or the Kenmore Mini ultra which are both petite machines that are very simple/basic. The mini ultra at least also used to come in pink. Well I don't even think they make the machine any more. I can't find it in the store or online or even on ebay. Well ok, I found blue ones, but I needed PINK. Sew while looking for those 2 machines, I came across this Brother machine on Amazon. It was PINK. It was a good price, it says its lightweight and many of the 27 good reviews said it was good for beginners (plus, in my defense, I few other ladies admitted they were swayed by the pinkness). Yep, you see my hand in the air! That is me! Because other than wanting a machine, and wanting it to be pink.... I had absolutely NO idea what to look for in a sewing machine. Did I mention I know nothing about sewing? Um yep. So, now I have a pink machine shipping this way even as I type and my Mom has agreed to teach me the basics. Jen - you know how to sew too don't you? Want to get in on teaching your big sister? I'll let you use my pretty pink machine. Sorry.... sometimes I lapse into talking to my family while blogging... e-mailing/blogging... its all works. I can do this right? I can learn how to sew. I mean if I can figure out how to thread the machine, like turn it on and sew a semi straight line on a scrapbook page - I will consider that a huge success... I'll keep you posted on the results.

So do you see me on Scrap Scene today? Big smile. How cool is that? On today's post they mentioned my "Always Kiss Me Goodnight" banner in their post on Valentine's projects. Love that! Loved the other projects them mentioned today too. Did you see that cute clear heart shaped mini book? Love that!

So when we were at the mall this past Friday, I had a coupon for Bath and Body for a $13 item free with a $10 purchase. Since we were out of hand soap, I stocked up on that and set out to pick out my free item. I love shower gel and have my favs at Bath and Body. I've noticed this "pink" brand before, but hadn't tried it. Of course... I was lured in by the name so I decided I'd give it a try. OK I love this stuff. It smells awesome. It says its blackberry/vanilla. Love it. Plus only like 5 small squirts gives tons of creamy lather which I also love. Now.... problem is... when I just tried to find this on Bath and Body's site, it wasn't there. On the bottle it says PINK is a Victoria's Secret brand. So I looked there. It's not there.... then I found a cached page from Victoria's web site and it said "clearance...." Now seriously.... did I just find this new thing I love and now I am going to find out they are doing away with it? Do I need to stock up quickly? Anyone have any insight? I hate it when that happens.

Remember me mentioning another cool thing with the insurance replacement? Well my husband ordered me a PINK laptop.... (are we sensing a pink theme today?). Ok I totally swear, on my honor that this was TOTALLY his idea. You can ask him. I even tried to talk him out of it. Told him that was sweet, but we didn't need one. Did he listen? Nope. Just like with the printer, the cash value on the damaged computer is like 1/4 or less of the value received than if you repurchase the item so he thought this was the best way to go, and again, the insurance will pay in full... so a new pink dell xps 15" laptop is being built as we speak, um type or err read.... It will have office small business 2007 which will make my work life easier when I need to work from home. It will also have a pink wireless mouse.... Too cool huh? Now- for a small vent..... Dell in their infinite wisdom, called Darrel on Sat. to confirm our order and to try to get him to upgrade a couple of things. He told them unless they were offering that at the same price as what we had spent, to leave it alone. They said of course they couldn't do that. He said, I am happy with the configuration I ordered. Leave the order alone. Do you know what they did? They cancelled our order, and re-entered it as the upgraded version, leaving out a few things we had ordered and charging us over $300 more...... Can you believe that? Darrel caught them today and has been on the phone for 1/2 hour with them and has not finished with them via E-mail. They promised him a gift card for his trouble and then disconnected him and now say, gee, we can't give you a gift card. He is not done yelling at them. And yes, he can yell... he has an outdoor voice and everything. Honest. You don't want to hear it. Just take my word for it. So the order is corrected at least and put back how it was. They now have my husband on their back and are supposed to ship 2/17 I think.

Are you ready for Valentine's Day? I am!! Looking forward to the church couple's retreat on Sat. and our own Valentine's celebration on date night Friday. I already know what my gift is. Darrel ordered it from QVC and didn't know that they send my e-mail address a confirmation on orders... oops. No biggie to me. I really don't like surprises as much as I like knowing about things and being excited and looking forward to them. I ordered his gift today. Will share some pics later in the week. He just ran and got us chocolate chip ice cream.... we were out and I had saved 8 points for a chocolate chip ice cream cone.... isn't he sweet? I told him it was hard work keeping up his reputation as the sweet doting husband.... He agreed.... Bwa ha ha ha ha!

Ok I am seriously going to go work on unpacking from the Super Bowl Crop. Can you believe I haven't done that yet? Where does the time go? I keep meaning to and I have all these ideas in my head for my next Shabby Pink kit and I am getting no where.... I either don't have time, or when I do have time all I am ready for is a nap! ha! If I don't get with it on the unpacking it will be time to pack for the big Crop for The Cure on 2/28. Really looking forward to that and going with 2 good friends! yay. We are doing another one in Terre Haute on April 18th! Cool huh? Have a great week! Blessings!

What Is That Goofy Cat Doing?........ Please Don't Let Her Get Me.....

When I snapped this picture today with my phone - I thought that would be the perfect caption... Tanner does NOT like the cat. He tolerates her, growls at her, sniffs her if he thinks he can do it without getting too close and mostly wants her to stay away from him. She of course does not understand that these are the rules and just goes along being her silly carefree cat self that waits for him and pounces on him. HA! After my walk today it was warm outside so I was sitting on the porch for a bit trying to recover. After the cat decided to come down from the tree......













She thought chasing the dog and attacking my shoes was great fun. Tanner just kept an eye on her so he knew when it was his cue to growl at her. This does not phase her in the least. She just looks at him like awww you are no fun and goes on with her play.... see....













She cracks me up! I just love her. I swear I can head out to go to work or wherever and tell myself "you do not have time to stop and pet and hug the cat..." Yet every time, what do I do? Stop and pet and hug the cat. She is a sweetie.













So its pretty warm out today so I thought I'd head outside for my walk. There was still snow/ice in the driveway, but I was hoping I could manage. I've not been outside for like a week and a half due to the weather. Getting down our drive was a little tricky in a few spots, and walking along the highway over to the road down to the park was an adventure... Everything is soaking wet because of all the melting so as the cars went by I was getting misted with water plus, the shoulder was soft and muddy and you can't like walk on the highway so I was glad to get off that portion of the road. I got over to the park and everything looked pretty clear so I turned where I normally do to head thru the campground. Well I got up the first hill and had to walk thru some ice and snow to do it (I have the wet muddy shoes and socks to prove it...) but then had to turn around and go back down. When I got to the top I could see it was still all snow and ice all the way down a steep hill and thru the rest of the campgournd which is up and down hills too. You know how ice gets more slippery when its wet? Well that was sure true today. Plus it was stinking windy! I do not do so well in the wind sometimes. It wears me out.. So I headed back down the hill I had just climbed and out to the main road of the park. This was pretty clear so I walked to the end and back and then headed home. Walked for about 65 minutes and I would like to apply for extra activity points today for the extra struggle of the wind and mud and staying vertical on the ice! Seems fair to me.....











Know what this is? It's basically a free wi fi capable printer! Well, unless you'd like me to count in the cost of my insurance premiums....then not so much free. However - A wireless printer. Yippee!!! Among the damaged contents from the flood in our spare room/bath/garage was a printer (and a computer) (the computer and printer were probably in the wettest part of the room) . I *heart* our insurance guy because he has been very fair and decent with us. For like the first time ever it has actually not been torture dealing with an insurance company. We have replacement cost on our insurance so the way that works is they pay you the depcreicated value of the items lost, then you go and purchase a new item up to whatever amount they tell you their research shows that item should now cost you. Then you turn in your receipt and they pay you the difference between the depreciated cost and the replacement cost. So when we were discussing this the other night I said to Darrel, "hey could we get one of those wireless printers so we could print from the laptop without all that networking stuff?" He liked that idea so we found this at Best Buy last night. Yes, it is blue. I do not care... the blue one, which was the same as the silver one, was $100 less because they were trying to get rid of the blue ones! So its wireless and it will print borderless 4x6 photos and it has individual ink tanks for each color (like the blue, yellow, magenta) which is supposed to save you in ink costs because evidently with normal use you might run out of yellow or magenta and have to replace your whole cartridge even if blue is not gone yet. We did not "need" a new printer, and you can just deicde not to replace an item if its not needed, but then you are accepting the cash value, which is generally a fraction of the items worth. I got pretty good at this after the church fire and having to deal with all the replacements and billing, etc. There is another part of the whole replacement thing that turned into a very cool blessing but I will share that bit of news with you later in the week when I can show you a picture. *wink* I'll give you a hint... remember #14 on the 25 random things...........................











LOOK! New pink socks! Would you believe I have like 5-6 pink sweaters and/or jackets.... well of course you would.... Problem is - no pink socks! ZIP. I corrected that problem at Macy's last night. How cute are the stripped ones? Now I can wear my pink clothes and match in peace.... Ha! I also had no turquoise ones. I wore my turquoise jacket and shirt yesterday and could not figure out for the life of me what socks to put on (I wore black). Darrel said I should have worn white cause I had a white tank on. White? I told him that was too high school gym class...

We got socks at the mall after dinner and after Best Buy. I wanted to stop at CJ Banks and see if they had that pink shirt in the store that has been suddenly missing from their web site. Well wouldn't you know, yesterday it was online and in the store. Of course now I will surprise you and tell you I did not buy the shirt! I know, I make no sense. I was tempted to buy it because I was afraid it would disappear again... however I could not make myself spend $39.50 for what is basically a T-shirt. I love CJ Banks, but have learned that if you wait long enough, things will go on sale and then that will REALLY annoy me if I paid the $40! Ha. So I am back to waiting and hoping for a sale and hoping it doesn't disappear again! Ha.

Well I off to reorganize a computer armoire so we can fit another printer in there! Have a happy weekend!

Blessings!

Gracie

So I think this is the first decent picture I've managed to get of our kitten Gracie. She is the sweetest thing and she makes me smile. I told Darrel earlier that I actually looked forward to seeing her after work today. Is that goofy? It was a stressful day and I was actually looking forward to hugging and petting the kitten. (after hugging and petting my husband of course..... bwa ha ha ha ha ) I do not know what has happened to me and why I am attached to this cat. I have never been a cat person. You might remember she just showed up in our yard in early November. It was election day. She seems to have adopted us and has been here since then. She purrs louder than any cat I've been around before and loves affection. She also has an extra helping of personality and cracks us up! When she sees you and wants you to pet her, she walks over and throws herself down on the ground kind of backwards and upside down and waves her paws at you... it is too funny. She also loves to chase our dog. Our dog does not think this is the best idea. As soon as Gracie sees Tanner go outside, she hunkers down and gets all ready to spring out at him as soon as he gets near her (which of course he tries to avoid). Half the time she jumps clean over him. It's hilarious. Then she will wait for him on the porch for when he comes back into the house. He knows this so he will come up the side of the porch to avoid her. She still traps him and jumps out at him so he goes back off the porch and then we repeat the whole process... quite entertaining. She is an outdoor cat, but while its been so cold and snowy, she has a spot in the gargae which she seems quite content with. Most days when I head out to the garage to leave for work, she has headed out the small side door when I go in only long enough to determine it is too cold/wet/snowy and she heads right back in the garage in the time it takes me to raise the big door to get the car out.












Today after work she decided to stay out a bit longer. Now I was not thinking this was the first time she had walked in the snow, but maybe it was because she would take a step and then shake her paw out to the side like "what is this cold wet stuff on my foot?" Another step, shake the other paw out to the side and um again... repeat. Now after doing this, she decided to sit down in the snow for a rest... Um if you don't want to walk in it or feel it on your paws...why would you sit down in it? Is it just me? Maybe its a cat thing... She had me so cracked up and I so needed it today.

So how has your week been? Mine has been stressful... It's been a couple of days where it has felt like one thing after another and from all directions... I am seriously ready to catch a break here. So instead of dwelling on that I was thinking about things that made me smile today such as wearing an opal ring that my husband gave to me in 1985 when it was our anniversary of dating for 1 year. We weren't even engaged yet at that point. I've smiled every time I've felt it on my finger today, especially since it's been ages since it fit. I smiled today getting into my purse to get my camera to take the pictures of Gracie and seeing all the pink stuff. Yes, the pink stuff made me smile. Pink camera and case, pink calendar, pink key chain, all nicely tucked in my pink striped purse. I smiled when my husband got home from work and held me and gave me that hug I had been needing all day. Especially when he is dealing with the same stress and we can still be there for each other. It seems we are taking turns on whose day it is to need taking care of! ha. I smiled when I heard from Scrap Scene that they are going to use one of my Valentine's projects in an upcoming post! I smiled when I was on my niece's page on facebook today and saw the note "my aunt Deanna is amazing so I thought I'd post some of her creations." She has a whole photo album on her page of my scrapbook layouts. Plus um a 13 year old thinks I am amazing? Wow. It made me smile to watch LOST with my husband tonight. We look forward to doing that. We are loving all the time travel stuff and seeing flashbacks of like when Danielle got to the island, or Claire having her baby or Jin being alive! wow! It made me smile to realize at the end of a stressful day I did not want to go eat, but was wanting to go walk because I know it clears my head and helps me think better. It was definitely a smile to hear the damage portion of the insurance claim for the room flood is done and we have a check coming. PLUS the insurance company has been very fair and decent with us and good to deal with. Thank you Lord on that one. So, see I feel better now thinking of the good things today and not the stress... now if I can just stay there....

Hope you have an awesome Thursday. I plan to do some cleaning and hopefully some scrapping to work on a new kit for Shabby Pink! Blessings!

So its Feb 1st....... good day to finish my December album!

Yay! It's finished. We had our church crop/super bowl party tonight and I finally took some time to finish my December Album. I have had the pages completed for a few weeks but had never gone back and did my title page. Came out pretty cool don't you think? I like it! This is with the front clear cover closed. The ornament clear frame and ornament clear stickers are on the outer acrylic cover. The title page looks like this below.













I used Daisy D and Rhonna Farrer Christmas paper, an etsy tag, JB bingo card amd AC thickers. The "our" was done with hero arts alpha stamps. Used my tearing rulers and SU sprial punch too for some added texture.











I love how all the page edges look. I have 2 inch rings on it, but I think I actually need to find some 3" ones so it will lay flat and pages will turn easier. Here are the rest of the inner pages you haven't seen yet.

Here I did several pages about our big vacation shopping trip. I liked the Godiva candy box so much, I punched the red scallop circles from the box. The laser cut design was from the box too.

I really like this picture from our walk on the 3oth. This might be my favorite page in the whole book. It was a clear acrylic page.

And yay! It's done! I loved doing this and love the completed book I now have. Very cool idea and so glad I got on board for this. Just might have to do it again next year. I am thinking it would be a fun project for birthday week! Ha.

Was looking at the heart bracelets on QVC again today and found another cool charm bracelet I liked. Check this one out. I don't usually like the kirks folly stuff because I think the fairy stuff is a little over the top. I do like this bracelet though. Add that one to the gift idea list.

We had a nice time at the super bowl party/crop. Left a little after half time and watched the rest at home. I had 3 ladies come and crop with me so that was nice. Really looking forward to the big crop at the end of this month!

Been stalking the prima site today... They haven't announced their new design team yet. I applied.... not sure I have a chance, but a girl can hope. It would be so cool to be on their team.

I am still kind of wiped out from the busy weekend so better head to bed. Hope you have an awesome week! Blessings!