Celebration!

Did you celebrate today? It is a holiday! It is National Scrapbooking Day! (I know, it is kind of sad I know that!) Really, it is a day where friends are supposed to get together and scrapbook. My family and I got together and celebrated my mom and Aunt Sharon's birthday. We ate pizza and played the Wii. (That thing is awesome!)

To celebrate today's holiday, I did a couple of layouts when I got home. Last week, I went through all of my old scrapbooking magazines and pulled out my favorite layouts and put them all in a binder. I can then go through and get ideas when I am stuck. Some people might call this copying, but we scrappers call it "scraplifting." It is a real word - just waiting to find a spot in the dictionary. It inspired me to do some pictures I have had since last summer and last winter. Enjoy your day! Scraplift when you have the time!

Waiting . . .

Happy Friday Everyone!

Here I am - anxiously awaiting the arrival of my friend Jamie and his daughter Kate. They are coming from Wisconsin to spend a whole week with me. (His wife and son Drew are flying in on Sunday.) I am anxious because Jamie had to leave his cell phone with his wife so I have not heard from him for about six hours. I am hoping this is good news and means that he made his connecting flight in Minneapolis! Ahhh! We are going to the Phoenix Zoo tomorrow and I am so excited. I will definitely take lots of pictures and do some scrapbooking.

Here are the boys' albums I made for that fellow teacher of mine. These were tougher for me than the girls. You cannot add too many bows and flowers! This teachers is even going to have me make some for her mom and mother in law for Mother's Day. How great is that!

Sold!

I finally did it! I sold some of my scrapbooks. Maybe this hobby will pay off. :) Thanks to Bella's book (who was born, by the way, on March 16) I sold six more scrapbooks. The lady who bought them wanted the word books for her nieces, nephews, and friends. I thought I would first show the girl's books because I just LOVE how they turned out. I used papers and embellishments from SEI and Karen Foster.

On a personal note, a close friend of the family died on Easter Sunday. Lucy battled cancer for thirteen years and waited until her five grandchildren enjoyed their Easter before she gave up the fight. It is such a privilege to have known her. She was one of the funniest ladies I have ever known. I loved her Christmas cards because she included tons of photos of her family. Her oldest daughter and I were best friends in elementary school and she and my mom have always been very close. I cannot even think of my childhood without thinking of her and the endless hours spent swimming in her backyard. Times like this really make you stop and reflect on what is really important in life. Thanks Lucy!!

Baby Bella!

Can I tell you what a wonderful day it is? Not only is it March 7th and the weather here in Arizona is gorgeous but today was the last day of school. I am officially on Spring Break! I am so happy - really and truly happy!! To celebrate, I made this book for a teacher I work with. Susan is having a little girl named Isabella Faye (can you tell Mom is from the South!?) They are going to call her Bella. How could I not make a book for Bella?! Bella tried to come about a month early last week so I wanted to quick make this book for her before she arrives to meet her big sister, Natasha. (Don't worry, Tasha -if Mommy wants, I will make a book for you too!) First I cut out the letters using my Cricut machine. The Mickey Font looks so fun. Then I used a line of papers called Paper Heart. They are just adorable and there are coordinating stickers and these little journaling tabs too! Sadly, these are some of the last things I bought at Recollections. :( Oh how I miss that place! Susan can just add pictures and write a little bit about her little girl. It is only the first night of vacation and I already have a project done! Whoa! I must go rest and eat some some of those Girl Scout cookies! Talk to you soon!

Great vendors

Hello everyone,

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend! My mom, sister, and I went to the Glendale Civic Center to the Rubber Stamping and Scrapbooking Expo. I bought some ADORABLE things and I cannot wait to use them in the next coming months. (Don't worry - I will show you soon!) I just wanted to mention a couple of places because they were so nice and helpful. Check out their websites for their great products: Accent Scrapooking and Denami Designs. The best thing about these two vendors is they treated us so nicely, like they were really happy to see us. Unfortunately you do not always find that with all scrapbooking vendors. :( Also, they got my mom soooo excited about using her stamps and that means the world to me! Enjoy!

We Are Family!

March is almost here! Does it bother anybody else that St. Patrick's Day and Easter are in the same week? Do I put out my Easter decorations and my St. Patrick's decorations at the same time? What do I do in April? One of my students, and her twin sister, are from Illinois. Their birthday happens to fall on Easter this year. She thinks it is so strange that Arizona has Easter so much earlier than Illinois does!! :)

For a Heidi Swapp class I took, we had to use a very large photo and put our embellishments around it. We also had to do some handwritten journaling which I cringe at! I would much rather print something out on my computer but I wanted to see how it looks. I chose this photo that my dad took of my cousin Sonja at I at a family get together. It is not the best quality, but I love this picture. I printed it in sepia tone to match the pink and brown of my cards. Sonja and I have a special bond - I cannot really explain it but whenever we are together, I feel so much love and happiness. She is so spunky and keeps me laughing! I need a little bit of Sonja everyday!

What do I love?

Happy Valentine's Day! (Okay - maybe just a day late!) Most people who know me know that I do not like this holiday. It is the day invented by Hallmark and See's Candy! It is the one day when it seems like everyone is looking at you because you are the "single" one. I know they probably aren't, but it sure seems like it! The day was fun because watching first graders open Valentine' cards is so funny and cute. So many of them said that this was the best day of their life. I guess candy and a little love is all we need!

One thing I do love, besides all of the chocolate I got yesterday, is Kate. She is my friend's daughter and I made this layout last year for a contest. She is coming to visit me in a couple of months and I can hardly wait! Whenever I visit her,I take a picture of the two of us. Looking at it reminds me how much I love this little girl! It is so nice to be able to hug someone you love!