Happy New Year! December 31, 2007

I love the idea of a new beginning. I really feel like I need one this year. And I think that I am not going to look back. I am just going to look forward to what 2008 has in store for me.

I don’t have much in the way of resolutions. I don’t need any more pressure. I simply want to focus on a few things. These aren’t S.M.A.R.T. goals or ways to totally change myself. They are just a way to bring a few things into my life.

I am going to try to do something creative every day.

And I am going to try and bring moments of peace into my life.

I hope this year brings each of you many blessings. Take a moment to reflect upon them when they happen, so you can hold them close! Love to you all.

saturday recap and another card December 30, 2007

Tracey is in town! I’d link to her blog, but she doesn’t blog. I keep reminding her that she should but, well, she’s shy or something. All that aside, we both had some time free yesterday, so we got together.

We had planned to meet at one one of ou favorite restaurants – Pizzazz. The original one in Mayfield. Home of the very best calzones I have ever eaten. Also the yummiest salad. However, when I arrived I found that they are npt open for lunch on Satudays. We quickly changed our destination to Golden Dragon and Tracey, Matt and I caught up over lovely Chinese.

We then paid Ollie a quick visit so they could meet my giant guinea pig. At this point Matt decided to go get some rest and Tracey and I went shopping. I got my much needed jeans, discovered the joy of chocolate covered potato chips, and Tracey enjoyed browsing in the scrapbook store cleverly named after her.

At the last minute we thought it would be a good idea for our riend Kim to meet us for coffee. I am convinced that they haven’t seen each other in 10 years. Unfortunately, it is more like 16, but I am in denial. Kim was a very good sport about the sudden nature of our invitation. I do not have permission to post the photos I took, but I did get permission to draw stick figures, so here you go.

We gabbled and reminisced for about  2 hours, then Tra and I headed to her parents’ house for dinner, Underdog, Apples to Apples, a frosty dog walk, and Kabooki. It was loads of fun!

Today I did the Emily’s prompt from last week, made me think of you.

And for what it’s worth, I am starting another fun year long project. Check it out here.

good blogging December 30, 2007

I think that at some point in my blogging history I had hoped to hone my writing skills. I don’t think this has happene yet, but I remain hopeful.  I have a huge list of blogs in bloglines, and for the most part I look at the pictures. I carefully read all the words of my friends blogs, and any interesting posts in my vast list that look entertaining, interesting, or compelling in some way. Everything else I tend to skim. But there are some blogs that I really like to READ.  I like the way these people write and look forward to reading what they have to say. I would like to look back on what I wrote and feel the same way I do about the way these people write. Does that make sense?

Anyway, these are the ones I am talking about:

Elise – http://eliseblaha.typepad.com/golden/

Alynda – http://alyndabear.com/

Shimelle – http://www.shimelle.co.uk/

Journal Revolution – http://visualchronicles.typepad.com/visual_chronicles/

Tune in later for a recap of my wonderful Saturday with one of my favorite people of all time. Complete with a picture or 2.

Are you ready? December 29, 2007

Get a L.O.A.D. of this! One of my favorite scrapppers, Lain, is really throwing down a challenge. We can do a layout a day in the month of January. This is going to be so much fun. So clean off your scrap table, get yourself organized, and head on over to Big Picture Scrapbooking to sign up. It is FREE to sign up for this. We will have our own gallery to post our daily layouts, there will be a message from Lain, a chat, etc. And, since this is Scraphappy, there will be prizes! I love prizes. Did I mention it’s free? And there are prizes? You can totally do this. And if you need some inspiration for doing some quick layouts, check out some of her 30 Minute Thursday layouts. Surely you can carve out at least a half hour a day to scrap?

art journal December 28, 2007

Yesterday I really wanted to do something creative, but I couldn’t even see the top of my scrap table – things were a total mess. I also had lots of tidying to do – and I did some of it. Since I didn’t have enough room to do a scrapbook page, and I couldn’t find my notebook where I was recording my every day moments, so I took my regular journal and used some scrap stuff. My favorite bit:

To do the journalling I smooshed white stazon all over the green paper, then wrote on it with a sharpie. It looks really cool.

Today I worked on one of the mini art journal cards from Emily’s challenge – the greatest gift.  This card was inspired by Sarah Bowen – I love how she incorporates magazines into her artwork. I started flipping through magazines looking for the word life, planning to paint the background. I found this in an old issue of real simple and found it lovely on it’s own. The box was made with a bit from another page. And the ribbon was a happy coincidence – I had one last little piece left on a spool and was about to toss it into the scrap box. I tied it into a bow instead – and found it complimented my card perfectly.

diy bliss December 27, 2007

I remember being so jealous of people who had diy network several yars ago. I think there was a scrapbook show on there. When we recently got our dvr I noticed that we got diy. I never really watched it until I was home early Chistmas Eve. I stumbled across the show creative juice an kinda liked it. Then I saw a holiday giftnanza and holiday open house and discovered all the other shows. Craft Lab, Carol Duvall (I didn’t know she was still on), Scrapbooking, some knitting shows that I will watch if i ever learn to knit, and what may be my new favorite show – Scap. Now, I may just have loved it so much because Emily Falconbridge was on. I love her even more after seeing her in action on TV. That, along with the podcasts I listened to today really have me inspired o do something cafty today. I just need to clear a path to my table!

Overwhelmed December 26, 2007

Christmas was so lovely. Corey and I spent Christmas Eve with my mom. I helped her make dinner and then we visited my cousins for a little bit. I came home and napped before Midnight mass. I do wish they would just be done with the bells. Either their bells don’t work properly, or their bell players are just lousy. It actually distracted from the beautiful hymns. The singing was nice though.

After church we opened our presents as usual. While watching A Christmas Story as usual. I love tradition, have I mentioned that? I do try and wait for Christmas morning, but I wanted Corey to have his new PJs, and He gave me a Canon Digital Rebel xti. My mom gave me an EF 50mm 1.8 lens. My sister in law gave me a camera bag and my father-in-law a 1gb memory card.  And that is just the camera-related stuff.  Everyone was just so generous – I think we all got everything we ever dreamed of. Below is a picture I took with my present of Corey with his present.

And this is just a fun one I took. My mother-in-law has all the cool glasses. You look at Christmas lights with them and it gives you these cool images on every bulb. I took a few photos with the glasses in front of my camera lens and it actually worked!

Merry Christmas December 25, 2007

I just want to take a moment to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

corey wanted me to share December 23, 2007

He really likes this movie too:

 http://www.angryalien.com/aa/xmasvacaybuns.asp

bunnies December 22, 2007

In case you can’t catch the 24 hour arathon of A Christmas Story on TBS Christmas Eve, here is a shorter version. It has bunnies.

http://www.angryalien.com/aa/xmas_storybuns.asp