Up early this morning

My insomnia has been getting the better of me lately, but I was finally able to get some sleep last night. The problem is that I was so exhausted that I went to bed before 8 p.m. and was back up for the day before 5 a.m. Needless to say I have had time to catch up on making cards for Operation Write Home as well as some other challenges.

There is a Midweek Throwdown Challenge at OWH: "Our challenge this week is to make Anniversary or Love themed cards for our Hero’s to send home to their loved ones!   You can make them masculine or feminine themed or you can make some of each!"

Challenge Masters Color Challenge: "Use black, orange, white/cream, and 1 additional color on your project this month. And there's 1 more twist you cannot scrap Halloween or Fall layouts with this color combination." 

AIFactory's Embossing Challenge: AIF#51

"Penny's Challenges #40".
A sweet pair of birds thinking about each other

Until next time.....

A Busy Fall Day

Today we had a family day and attended a quilt show. The weather was wonderful. The quilts were fabulous. Now I wish I had a better sewing machine for myself. It was very inspiring.

This greeting made with Smilebox

Moving to a new phase?

How cool is this!! Recently my hubby and I started a weight loss program on Sparkpeople.com. So far things are going great. I lost 7 pounds the first week which is probably the most weight I have ever lost at one time in my LIFE!! I am really excited about the program. The website is easy to use. The suggested foods are made from ingredients that everyone has in their pantries already. We are cutting out refined sugars. We are participating in Meatless Mondays. We are slowly adding regular exercise into our lives.  I am just loving this program!

Another aspect of the program is the wonderful motivational tools they provide for you. There are recipes, articles, polls, trivia contests and health challenges to help you on your way to a better lifestyle. The people I have encountered are all very motivated and excited to be there. There are even virtual goodies that look great, even though they have no taste, LOL!! One of the tools is a personal Sparkpeople page with a blog that we can use for triumphs and tribulations. Today was my first time adding an entry to mine. Low and behold, I am so excited that I can link it to this site!!!

Moving to a new phase?

I have also added a new project to my list of fun things that I will be posting here. I LOVE to make greeting cards, but don't really send many out to folks for one reason or another. I was introduced to Operation Write Home which is an organization that pledges to "support our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them." I am so excited to be helping out with this cause. I have many scraps of materials around the house that I have used to make scrapbook layouts and other cards that I probably won't use again for myself. This is a great way to utilize those supplies and help our armed forces overseas to keep in touch with their families at the same time. It also gives me a way to continue to do my favorite hobby without overloading my craft room with stacks and stacks of unused cards!!

For more information on this worthy cause, log onto their website at operationwritehome.org.

Until next time...

It's Sunday - New Week, New Blog, New Ideas!!

Okay, I have been making some big changes on this blog. The name changed, the design changed, and hopefully the followers will be able to find me again, LOL!! 

Sunday is here and one of my favorite days, if I am not scheduled to work that is. Generally, my hubby makes me breakfast on Sunday.  In the evening, I usually make a big dinner which includes a big dessert for after dinner. We watch movies. I scrap or make cards. We have Xbox competitions, Avatar Golf being one of our favorites. We relax and hang out at the house with no pressure to complete anything at all. 

Otherwise, we take a day trip to nowhere in particular. We did just that recently. We visited the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. The outdoor scenery was beautiful as was the indoor decor. I can't believe a family lived in this huge mansion and grounds. We hope to return to the estate some time around the holidays to see it decorated for Christmas. Until then, I will just have to settle for the photos we took this go around.

Now, what to do today.....

FOOTBALL HAS RETURNED!!

I am not a "boys of summer" kind of girl. I was raised in a football household. I am the type of girl who sits in front of the television on Saturday nights cheering or jeering my favorite football team. My DD has often come in and told me that I am not at the game and that the coach and players cannot hear my advice during the plays. But I don't care. I have fun anyway. When I was younger I loved living in the town where the team played, going to the tailgate parties and the pep rallies. Now I am older and have moved states away from my favorite team. But WAHOO! Look out DD!! Football is back for 2010 and I am ready!!! Kick off is minutes away! GEAUX LSU TIGERS!!

It's September ALREADY!!!????

I can't believe that I am sitting here on the brink of the end of the month. August of 2010 will go down in the record books as the busiest month we have had since we moved to South Carolina.  It all started at the end of July with the first set of visitors. Since then we have traveled to the GA/FL state line to drop off and pick up my DD on her way to South Florida. We had two more sets of visitors during the month and we took a mini vacation to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. On top of that, my job has started to give me more hours with the coming of the holiday season (yes, I am talking about Christmas here on the last day of August). AND school started for my DD who is a high school senior this year with all the fun perks that comes with that event; school supply shopping, open house, registration meetings, etc.... I am exhausted!!

This month, I was so excited to see the challenges that Ch{all}enge Masters posted. There were many more card challenges, which are always my favorite things to create. The examples from the website divas were truly inspiring for me. I printed guidelines out early in the month and held on to them intending to run into my craft room on the spur of the moment to sneak in a project or two between visitors and activities. Needless to say I barely scratched the surface on the crafts I wanted to complete.

I will share a few that did manage to be completed.

This challenge was to make a kitchen bookmark for your favorite recipe book. It was rather challenging for me because I did not get the measurements quite right the first time and had to make a second one. (OCD!!)

Here is a  ribbon challenge to use ribbon in a way other than as a border on the page or to make a flower.

I was on a roll with this set of colors this month. There actually is another project I completed to go along with this one that cannot be released at this time. I am using it for a contest. This project was to create your own background paper using a stamped image.

Project Scrapbook

This last project was by far my favorite one to make this month. We are doing a series of projects based on the Project Runway show. We have been given very little direction so far. This is week 1, the party supply project. Our challenge was to use party supplies to create a layout. The more supplies you used, the more points you received.  I used the gift bag pictured in the top photo to create a 12 X 12 layout and used only party supplies and photos to embellish it. We have 5 more weeks of interesting challenges for this project and I can only imagine what the design diva has in store for us. (I am thinking newspaper next!!)

As the end of August is rapidly approaching, I am looking forward to September and the challenges it will bring to me. DH and I have some more traveling adventures planned. There are projects to create, books to read, movies to see and people to visit. In the words of The Happenings, "See you in September".

Ch{all}enge Masters Layout Tag

I signed up to participate in the layout tag Ch{all}enge Masters held in June. Who knew it would last until almost the end of July. It is really cool to see where the layout started, how all the participants affected it and then how it turned out in the end. The funniest part is that about half way through the challenge, the layouts started to look more like the original, even though it had changed and no one but the second person had seen the original layout. By the end, it was a totally different looking product.

Here is my contribution:

To see how it all began and how it all ended,

http://www.challengemastersonline.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=482

While you are there, sign up for the next layout tag. Deadline for signup is this Friday, July 30,2010.

See ya there!!

Summer Camp for Scrappers

I have been a mad woman today trying to get some scrapping done. I entered myself in the CK Summer Camp 2010 series and forgot that it was this past week. So I logged on today to see if some of the activities were still active. I got lucky! While the camp ran until Friday, they happily gave us the weekend to earn some merit badges for our signatures if we had lost track of time. So after a trip to World Market for wine for later in the week, I hit the activities running.

First I earned the Fire Safety Badge for making an embossed card or layout.

Then I earned the Orienteering Badge for looking through the website and familiarizing myself with my surroundings.

Then I earned the Photography Badge for my photo of nature

By the way, I will be scrapping this photo in the future.

I just love it!!

I have about 2 1/2 hours left to earn more merit badges, but I am losing my gumption at this point. So I think I will be happy with the badges I have earned and the camp blinkie I get to add to my blog. Next summer I will have to add it to my calendar so I don't forget.

Blow Out Your Candles......WAIT!

Yes, it is 8 months after the event, but I am finally getting around to scrapping DD's 17th birthday. These shots were the best I could do. It seems that teenage girls love to have their photos taken by themselves, holding the camera at arms length and taking multiple shots to get just the right one. However, when her friends are present this is not the case. I squeezed in a couple of shots. However, we had candle/camera failure. After two attempts, she just posed near the cake. The layout however is priceless with the look of horror and the laughing photo.  Bless her little heart.

Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Dayz of Summer

After living in this home for over a year and a half, I have decided to try to make a creative wall display for our guest room/scrap room. Currently there is nothing on the largest wall in the room over the bed. And it is the focal point as you walk into the room. But nothing has struck my fancy that I would enjoy seeing there every day. I have an ornamental sunflower on our front porch that I have often thought I should move into the guest room, but I like it so much on the porch. So here is my alternative:

Challenge Masters is having a "contest" of sorts with a new leg of the challenge each week in July. The parameters for this week were to make a mosaic out of a photo, then add patterned paper, journaling, a title, embellies, and masking. I love the results and will be searching for a frame for it today when I go to work to get it up on the wall before our guests arrive next week.

My Michael Day

I had a busy day on Saturday, July 10, 2010. I spent the morning working at my job at Michael's Arts and Crafts putting out beads. I am not a jewelry maker. And the fun I encountered unwrapping individual strands of beads and decorative glass and charms will not win me over to the hobby anytime soon. But there were quite a few beading elements that would look great on a layout. So maybe it was worth it.........

After my shift ended, I hightailed it back home to shower and have dinner with my DD, named Michael, in case I had not mentioned it before. He cooked me dinner! He even went as far as to cook me my own dinner because he wanted spaghetti and I can't eat tomato sauce. He is such a sweety ((batting eyes lovingly)).

Then DD and I took off to attend the Michael Buble' concert at the Time Warner Arena in Charlotte, NC. The venue is really cool. I had not been there before. The building itself is such a photo op, both inside and out. It is located across the street from the train station downtown, which is a cool looking building too. I have got to get down there to take some photos one afternoon. Anyway, I digress.....

The concert started on time,which is always a plus. But it would not have matter cause I was on the edge of my seat ready to sing along as soon as we got there. Naturally 7 opened the show. We saw them the last time we attended a Buble' concert in 2008. They are great. They perform without musical accompaniment. They are by no means a regular A Cappella group. Look them up on line. They are very talented.

After a short while, actually an hour, but time was flowing fast for me, it was time for the big show!! The big orchestral sound of "Cry Me A River" started from behind the curtain. It was such a big opener. The concert went on with a mix of the older hits and all the new songs from the current release "Crazy Love" for about an hour and a half with one encore. Buble' was funny and charismatic. His singing was top notch, even performing part of the last song without a microphone to the crowd of 12,000. It was a great show.

My favorite part of the show was a surprise stroll he took through the audience with Naturally 7 to a platform riser in the middle of the floor. And I must admit, I was a total nerd about it. He was now going to be closer to our seats, which were excellent to begin with. As he moved through the audience, I spun around and told my DD "He's right there!! He's in the audience!!" not once, but twice!! And it's not like my DD did not notice himself since he was sitting right next to me and stands about 12 inches taller than me, but I did it again!! NERD!!!!! Anyway here is part of the video I taped from the center stage in my excitement. The shot is cool looking since they turned the house lights up when the audience sang their part.

(After hours of attempting to upload this video, I give up. Please enjoy this instead.)

I took about 100 photos, but I will be tossing about 85 of them as my camera has such a pause when adjusting to flashing lights and a moving subject. But some of the good ones will surely make it into a layout in the near future.

Well, I'm off to another day of work. Hope we did not get in any more beads...............

Ode to a paper cutter

Recently, I accepted the challenge to answer this question, 

"What is the one tool you own, that you must have to be able to scrapbook?"

 The result:

The journaling says:

Thank you cutter, so much,
For being here today.
So please get nice and comfy,
'Cause there's something I want to say.

Now I'm a crafty scrapper,
Yes, it is really true.
But I know I couldn't have done it,
Without the likes of you.

The paper you have measured,
The lines that you have scored,
You make all of my layouts
Straighter than before.

You make my projects so wonderful,
I say it 'cause it's true.
Don't know where I'd be
Without a cutter just like you.

Happy 4th To All!!

This evening I am working and unsure if I will be back on here anytime soon. But I wanted to be sure to pass along a Happy Fourth to everyone. Please stay safe and drive carefully if you are traveling.


My latest from Ch{all}enge Masters:

By the way: Hooray for ME!! I am Master of the Month on the site this month!!

And yes, it is Harry Potter fabric I pinned the tag to in this photo. I'm anxiously awaiting the new release!!

Starving from reading blog sites....

I follow more than enough blog spots than one person can read in a day and still lead a 3 dimensional life. One of my favorites is The Southern Plate. I am not advertising for her, but Christie can cook up some mean down home southern dishes. And quite a few of them have now become my own "family recipes".  She has posted a give away food basket today that looks rather yummy. I could get additional entries into the contest if I visited some other blog sites and entered there as well. This coupon queen here decided to follow the "if it's free, it's for me" philosophy and get as many entries in as I could.

Now I need to go shopping as I am hungry for more than one of the recipes I spotted as I read. And of all of the kinds of shopping there is, FOOD SHOPPING!! I detest grocery shopping. I hate pushing the cart around, loading the food in to the car and taking it back out once I get home. I used to cheat when I lived at my previous address. First off, my DD always went with me. She would push the cart. (Don't worry, she's in high school and big enough to do it.) Then to fib a little more, I would load the groceries in the side door of my van behind the driver's seat instead of in the back. That way all I had to do was pull my van into the garage and swing that a big side door open and take out the frozen and cold products when I got home. Before the van moved again, I would be sure to get the rest of the groceries out and into the pantry. It usually was completed in the next few hours. My reasoning was that I had spent all this time shopping and now I needed a rest before I completed the job.

These cheats are no longer possible for me. My DD is not so DD anymore when it comes to grocery shopping. She doesn't go with me. So now I either go alone and push that buggy or take my DH, who is wonderful to go with me, but he does not push the cart around the way I like it done. (I know, OCD!!)  I shuffle the coupons, thinking out loud, so passersby think I am NUTS. I load the car, drive home and have to get all of the groceries in the house because we now live in a condo without a garage and the car reaches about 357 degrees in 5.2 seconds!! (I know, I know. But it sure feels that hot!!) I leave the non-chilled groceries on the counter until after my designated "after shopping" rest, but it drives me crazy to have that many bags on the counter, so I wind out putting them away fairly quickly after all.

Well, except for that bag of flour that is still sitting on the counter from the shopping trip a couple of weeks ago. I better get dressed and head on out. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Scrapin' and Scrapin' and Scrapin' Some More

I have been having some health issues this week. So in order to take my mind off of my sorrows, and my aching back and hip, I decided to get some scrapin' in. I hit the Ch{all}enge Masters website early this morning, started planning and printing photos. My favorite one for today? Well, here you go:

A pink Walt Disney World layout!! But it is not just the completed layout that makes me love it. The "assignment" was to make a page about a place that has special memories for you. I really have been stumped all month on what to do. My family traveled around so much when I was a child that we never went anywhere more than one time. As I was looking through boxes and sleeves of photos to try and decide, I kept finding photos of my family and friends of all various clothing and hairstyles having fun at WDW over the years. I found some mementos that were my grandparents from their trip over the bicentennial in 1976. I found pins to swap, old park maps and ticket stubs. 

And it was not just my generation. OH NO!! I have raised a Disney child myself. On DD's very first visit, she was 7 months old. She wore a big floppy hat and little cute sandals. It is all documented for her. In the photos on this layout, she was an old pro. She is four and half in these shots and knew her way around the park as well as any employee should. Some day I need to get around to creating a scrapbook with Walt Disney World through our eyes and lives.

I also complete a "Rule of 3" layout. Everything had to be in threes; papers, embellishments, photos, etc...

For this one I cheated a little. We only had two tickets as DD and I were the only ones to attend the concert. And I lost my copy somewhere in the house. But a quick copy and we  have just enough for the challenge. So there are three photos, three tickets, three album cover embellishments, three red buttons and three sets of rhinestones with three in each. (hee hee!) The rhinestones were a particularly good choice I think as the popular song for Rob Thomas at the time of this concert was "Her Diamonds".

I worked on a few other layouts and then watched 6 episodes of Sex in the City Season 4. I am trying to make my way through the entire series as I only had HBO the first three seasons and faithfully watched it every week. Then the business of life got in the way. And while I know I have seen most of the episodes in reruns on WTBS, they are the edited versions and not nearly as funny. I have also found in my viewings of the newer movies that I missed some stuff, like Samantha having kemo and Aiden coming back into Carrie's life a second time. (I thought all the Aiden episodes were part of the original Aiden story line. When he dumped her at Charlotte's wedding to Trey I yelled at the t.v. "What happened to the cabin scene?!" I had to call my sister to fill me in.) Hopefully I will get them all under my belt before Sex in the City III comes to theaters.

I have a new obsession

Along with scrapping, stamping, cooking,  reading, movies and travel, I have developed a new hobby. But not just a "hobby", an OBSESSION. And it is really overwhelming me right now. I purchased a new Xbox 360 game for my husband for Christmas. "Fable II" has sat in the entertainment center unopened and unused until last month when I broke it out. I watched him play the first day and when he went to bed I was up for hours playing. I woke up the next day, had my shower and breakfast, started a load of laundry and heated up the game. I was still playing when he got home, hours later. I had not stopped for lunch, to move the laundry or anything. Since that day I have tried to keep my playing to just a few hours a day, but sometimes I must admit it is hard. "Hello, my name is Resa and I am a game-a-holic."

Gaming. I used to think it was just for kids. But when I see the actual games, some of this stuff is definitely meant for adults. I mean, I like the Lego Batman, Indiana Jones and Star Wars sagas. They are cute and send you off to find things and complete tasks. And who can resist a cute little Lego avatar persona? LOL!! But apparently the makers of Fable II were made aware of my "likes" to those Lego games and created something else. Anyway I managed to complete the whole game in a couple of weeks and have now purchased the expansion pack to continue my life as a hero.

So today I am trying to keep myself busy and keep myself out of Albion (the world of Fable). I have completed one layout for "Layout Tag" on Ch{all}enge Masters. Unfortunately, I cannot post it yet, but will with the whole story behind it. I have been lazy with my layouts this month, thanks to the above. I am attempting to make a go at it today, along with laundry again. There is so much new stuff at Michael's I would like to purchase, but I have to get rid of some of the stuff I have hoarded at home first.

Back to the art desk.....

Renovating under the Tuscan sun...

...Well, more like the Carolinian sun. Today was not a crafting day for me. I have been trying to get my house together. My parents coming in next week for their first visit to our house since we moved away from Florida. My scrapping stuff has been stashed for a week or two. And while the house is not in need of renovation or anything like that, there have still been many boxes left laying around since our move and the wedding. I thought I would never even get close to finally having everything unpacked and sorted, but I feel by the end of the weekend I will  have accomplished that goal.

Currently there is a menagerie of "stuff" laying in the living room waiting to be carried off to their new homes. Office supplies, paperwork to file, items to donate, and others to be trashed, shredded, or recycled. There are books to be shelved.  Fabric swatches to be coordinated for sewing projects. Memorabilia to be riffled through and reconsidered. I can't believe all the stuff we have collected through the years. And most of it is my stuff!!

When we decided to move from Florida to South Carolina, DH was very good about getting rid of things. He left Florida with very little. We kept all my furniture and household  items as they were  in better shape or newer. All the holiday decorations and yard tools are things we just don't need here in our current living situation, but we still own for the future. We have unloaded furniture and household items galore. Some of our older things were replaced by wedding presents. So for a while we had doubles for the kitchen, like coffee pots, sets of pans, silverware, etc.The combination of two households worth of bath towels has caused my linen closet to look like it will explode at any given moment. But finally the house is beginning to look more like a home than ever before.

I have been really having a hard time parting with the "things" I have collected over the years. I have things that I do not need, but I might someday. And every piece of everything, in my mind at least, has a story and a purpose in my life. It is almost like these are the things that are the definition of me. I place things in the boxes to go, and then an hour or so later, go back and reconsider the items. Should I keep it? Will I miss it? Luckily for me, most things have returned to the exiting boxes.

As fate would have it, today I watched Under the Tuscan Sun with Diane Lane. After surviving a tense divorce, Frances (Lane) leaves California for a vacation in Tuscany. She gets caught up in the Italian life style that appears to be more casual and carefree than her own. She stays on in Tuscany and begins the task of renovating both a villa she has purchased and her life. She rids herself of mementos and possessions that remind her of the person she was when she was married. She begins learning Italian, cooking, and home renovation all while writing her own autobiography. In the end, Frances learns that she needs to rely upon herself. She realizes that she has grown, becoming more accepting of others and realizing that she can survive this chapter of her life. She does not need to hold onto items and memories from the past to live a happy life.

Funny, I guess I needed to be reminded of that lesson myself.

Wine and "French Kiss"

My DH and I were married almost a year ago (April 18, 2009). I have been meaning to start scrapping our wedding/honeymoon shots, but time always seems to have slipped away from me before I know it. We were forced to wait until July '09 to sneak away for an extended weekend to finally have a honeymoon of sorts. We traveled to upstate North Carolina to the Yadkin Valley to have a mini wine tour and get away from it all. We stayed in a lovely B&B,  the Pilot Knob Inn, at the foot of Pilot Mountain in a rustic cabin made just for two. During the weekend we traveled to Mount Airy, the hometown of Andy Griffith, where I took a lovely photo of my honey behind bars in Otis's cell based on the show. We also went to the pinnacle of Pilot Mountain and took some stunning photographs that we will cherish forever.

The highlight of our trip was our visit to some of the vineyards in the area. Our experience at Shelton Vineyards was wonderful. The grounds are quite impressive with willow trees and paths that lead you around lakes and throughout the property. There is a wine tour of the facility as well as a tasting bar where for a small fee, you can taste 5 wines "home-brewed". We purchased two bottles to take with us from the gift shop, one for the cabin later that evening and one to take home for our collection. The photos in the layout above are just a couple of shots from the grounds of the vineyard. There were many more vineyards in the area that we simply did not have the time to see. We are hoping to return to enjoy more in the future.

I had never been to a vineyard before our trip. I had only seen them in movies. As I worked on our photos tonight I was reminded of the romantic comedy French Kiss. In the movie, released in 1995, Kate (Meg Ryan) and Luc (Kevin Kline) are seated together on an airplane to France. Kate is on her way to rescue her fiance'. He has telephoned her to tell her he has fallen in love with another woman while he was in Paris at a medical convention. (Do doctor's often have medical conventions in Paris?) Luc, on the other hand, is on his way home after "acquiring" a diamond necklace and a vine that he is aspiring to use to begin his own vineyard. Mayhem occurs after Luc hides his possessions in Kate's bag to avoid customs and all of Kate's belongings are stolen. And while Luc teaches Kate to act more French to woo her fiance' back, Kate helps Luc to find the necklace and fulfill his dreams. Their lives are turned completely around by the time the movie is over. I just love this type of movie.

My favorite line in the movie? Kate and Luc are sitting in an outdoor cafe. Kate begins to mimic Luc.
"You'll become one of those hunchbacked, lonely old men, sitting in the corner of a crowded cafe, mumbling to yourself, "My ass is twitching. You people make my ass twitch."

Notting Hill Inspiration

Today was an off day for me. My DH was home ill and when that happens, my schedule is off-kilter. Try as I may to get into my "regular" hardly workin' routine, I just seem to flounder. So while I did completely finish one load of laundry and clean the kitchen, that was it for today.

After noon rolled by, I watched a few movies today. And yes, I said movies. I am a big movie buff. I probably own enough DVD and VHS titles to watch one a day and not see them all before the year is up.  I also have an assortment earmarked in my Netflix queue as well as the unlimited amount of movies they can stream to my television via the internet. And don't even get me started on hulu.com and all the other sites that will feed me more movies daily. And did I mention cable?

My first feature today was Enchanted, a Disney fantasy that starts off as a cartoon and morphs into a live action film about a princess who is thrown into a world of heartbreak and distress so as not to off balance the cartoon world ruled by the evil queen. So naturally the Disney makers sent her to modern day New York City. Princess Giselle bumps into Robert (Patrick Dempsey) who helps her to find out who she is and what she wants to do with her life by the end of the movie. This was actually cute and I found myself really enjoying it, singing along to the songs I recognized from my DD's music collection. But somehow I found it funny that Patrick Dempsey was the love interest in the movie. I am sorry to his fans. I have also grown up with him and seen him in numerous movies. He is a good actor and can be a very romantic subject. But when he was dancing around in today's flick, all I could see was him as the teen gigolo teaching himself to dance with taped footprints to the floor in the movie Loverboy in 1989.

My second movie today was the inspiration for my scrapbook page I completed this evening. Notting Hill is one of my all time favorite movies. I like everything about it, the actors, the story, the location, the music, etc. This is the story of William Thatcher (Hugh Grant) who owns a travel book shop in the neighborhood of Notting Hill in London. By chance he meets Anna Scott (Julia Roberts), an American actress, in his shop. The story continues as he deals with her fame in his life and she deals with the want to live a normal life out of the spot light. "Remember, I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her." (Best line of the movie!)

At the beginning and the end of the movie is a song called "She" sung by Elvis Costello. It is a beautiful song with a relaxed melody telling the listener that even though she brings chaos into his life, she is the best thing he's got. And while the song is centered around the partner of the singer, somehow it always reminds me of my DD.  For many years DD was the center of my world. I was divorced shortly after her first birthday. She and I have grown up together as she was my best companion for 14 years before I met my DH. While other moms love their children too, I have felt DD and I have had a special bond. As she grows up, she is pulling away to become her own person as it should be. I am proud of the person she is becoming, but this song really pulls at my heart strings. So before I start to sob all over my keyboard, here is the layout inspired by this movie:

My DD saw this layout lying on the table after it was complete. I am very proud to say that she loved it.

Scrappin', Shoppin', and Sharin'

Today is the last Sunday of the month. As I have just begun to be an avid participant of the Ch{all}enge Masters website, today was D-Day. All March projects had to be completed, photographed and uploaded to their website by midnight. I was very happy when I realized I completed 12 paper projects this month. Well technically, one was an altered candle. But it was 12 projects all in the same. I was also chosen to be a Designer of the Week during week 2. I received an email this afternoon inviting me to be a Guest Designer for the month of April. I am feeling very enthusiastic and creative thanks to the fine ladies working hard at this site. I extend a hardy "Thank You" to all those involved.

On top of the glee I am feeling regarding the above paragraph topic, I am happily sitting here knowing that I accomplished many projects this weekend. One of which was the shopping and purchasing of my teenage daughter's prom dress. Shopping is not rated highly in my book. I tell you now that I would rather sit through a televised golf game or a lecture on the drying of wet paint than shop. (sorry golf fans and paint watchers everywhere) Take me to a mall and I find the largest book store with a coffee shop to hide. But as I was the carrier of the wallet today, I had to be directly involved.

Usually shopping with my daughter for clothing of any sort is a nightmare. I spout "this shirt is too short, too tight, too tacky". She thinks "Shut up Mom and let me grow up". Today we both must have taken our sensible pills. There was no bickering or arguing of any sort. My opinions were expressed and not batted back at me with a racket. She tried on every item I asked her to try without the rolling of the eyes or "come on MOM!" She asked for insight and accepted whatever I said. I let her try on prom dresses until she was satiated. Then we headed over to the food court to split a value meal and discuss the rest of the ensemble. Later we found the perfect shoes and bag without raising a voice. All in all the whole experience was ............... grown up.

What has happened to that little girl of mine? Could it be that she is growing up and realizing that her mom knows a thing or two about the world and what lives in it? We talked all afternoon at the mall amid whining children, sluggish window shoppers and the child train ride that tried to run us over on our last visit. Even the ride home was pleasant. A normal car ride with DD involves an MP3 player and headphones. I listen to the car radio and attempt to talk to her between the newer songs I do not know while she blocks me out with her own brand of music via the headset. I  tire of yelling her name to get her attention. She tires of me interrupting her. Today we discussed driving techniques, friendships and boys. We giggled, talked badly about people we don't like and poor drivers on the road. We had a great time.

Once upon a time....

I have been meaning to start a blog many times over and over. What's that excuse? Procrastination? Does everyone start a blog like this? Never mind!! Make up any excuses for me that you like. I am just going to get started here.

Currently I am sitting around goofing with various blog sites trying to decide how I want to set this up. I have been ogling over others "works of art" and information trying to come up with my own ideas. "Write what you know" keeps running through my mind from my Walker High School teachers. "Be creative" is another one. And my favorite "Just do it!"  How easy it is to pass out these words of wisdom to others. I say, Stop it now! Leave me be! I am going to do it my way.

My life is currently a creation in the making. I am in search of a newer fine-tuned version of myself. My old self just wore out. I was tired of the day to day doldrums that were driving my life. You know the ones: home, work, home, work, on and on and on. Through no fault of my own, my life completely changed last year. I got married. I moved to a new state. I started the pursuit of a new career as mine had become one of stress and anger. But the highs have come with lows. Unemployment. Health issues. Teenage angst.

In an attempt to thwart off the depression that could easily set into my mind, I have begun to release creatively. This blog will be a reflexive outlet for my pursuits. Feel free to follow along. Any guidance will be read and taken into consideration.