Girls just wanna have fun... (hint hint)

am on my way to meet these two chicks so we can have some scrapping fun.....more to come later tonight when I get back!  Most of you may know who they are...........later gators!!!!!

POTD-no real blogging...

people were texting me today all late; thinking we were on Christmas vacation or something...have no idea where they are getting that from-we didn't go on vacation this year NOR have we even made any plans for 2010 yet despite what others keep asking.  I'm scratching my head on that one...we just put a water line in in September, have to do some unexpected roof repairs since the 23" of snow that got dumped on us last week caused some minor damage (when it snows it pours too), and we have 2 small loans due-  How the "f" am I planning a vacation ??? Anyway, I've taken a break from blogging and scrapping this week if you can believe that {gasp}-my mojo is the one on vacation somewhere sunny-yup, that's exactly what it is! THE MOJO IS ON VACATION!

Have just been chilling with family and friends and playing lots of Wii! Love the Hasbro Family Fun Night (am getting better at Bop-It) and the Just Dance games-shows how coordinated we are NOT!  laugh away-Janet Jackson and Britney Spears we are not!

Scrapbook room is still a mess and I need to get on the good foot before Tuesday since I'm meeting my online friend Lindsay in person for a bit of creating! Will need to get a tote packed for that so....

am off to eat some pie, tuck the kiddos in and give my kitchen a quick check....Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and let the countdown to 2010 begin!

December/ Holiday Gratitude list

Thanks Jessica J for the idea...it's been passed around but a good thing to share as a Christmas blog post...just a few things I'm grateful for this month....

1. Spending time with great friends and/or family.
2. A nice cuppa joe. or two. or three.

3. Clean bill of health-and I pray for Kim and baby Ryan that 2010 will be better in the health dept.
4. Heat, electricity and hot water.
5. Wonderful friendships.
6. Our small but cute Christmas tree, filled with lots of memorable ornaments.
7. My son's excitement and joy this Christmas since to us, this is his FIRST "OFFICIAL" Christmas
8. The joy of books and reading.
9. Seeing Christmas lights & decorations.

10. Excitement of the Festival of Lights!
11. Peace and quiet.
12.  Great store bought desserts since I don't like to bake.
13.  Simplifying (think Jesus not Santa)
14.  Reading bedtime stories with the kiddos.
15.  Hampden-Hey hon!
16. Christmas movies that we love-  Elf (we've seen it at least 30 times), A Christmas Story-Hey Ralphie, you'll poke your eye out!   Santa Claus 1, 2, and 3 and Fred Claus (gotta have my Vince fix)

17. Vintage Christmas music-played over and over and over
18.  special Chistmas breakfast
19.  receiving Christmas cards in the mail (a slowly dying tradition)
20.  reconnecting with old friends in any way-blogging, fbook, telephone...
21. Christmas spirit
22. Love
23. Hope
24.  therapists (of the speech kind)
25. Livelihood-so that my husband can take care of his family until everything else gets sorted out.

Scrapgal Challenge (you have time)

December Challenge  is still on until December 31st!  Basic Grey with a Maya Road twist...I already did one for Thing1 so here's the LO for Thing 2....wasn't he so stinkin' cute ??  Basic Grey papers and cute woolies, Maya Road sheer, envelope and flower and isn't this title from The Scrappy Shack (Etsy shoppe) so cute?

Some snow for those who live in sunny places

and miss the white stuff...Elkridge checked in with a measured total of 22.9", I think we had about 21" here in my area..I just know that not ONE snow plow has some down our cloverleaf yet; fortunately, we had some neighbor who bought a truck with a plow on the front and he practiced using his new toy for about 6 hours-I'm betting that Wesley Lane is clear though....I do not do snow and neither does Thing 2; he went out for 5 minutes, fell and almost hurt himself really bad (another story) and so he came in and stayed in with me-both of us in our pjs.....and yes, I know, I can't get my family to wear Ravens gear no matter how hard I try...they refuse to be a Ravens fan so I'll just be alone in my need for the black & purple!

More December journal

not really Christmas stuff but just STUFF....this book isn't turning out how I hoped but I'll know differently for next year...maybe I'll be more interesting too by then! Again, not by date but just by things I've done...

NYC for Princess and the Frog Premiere!

Visiting my aunt's gravesite before I left NY

Thing 2 getting a Waverly "pawprint" for being his best @ school !

Silvers and golds @ Prima

and a giveaway!  Look at the potentials form all these goodies...aren't they gorgeous!?


 Head over to Prima today for a chance to win!

Friday Scrapgal-a card maker!!!

and a good one too...her cards looked like the kind you get at a Hallmark store.  Today's Creative Blog (where I found her) features over 350 different artists and since most of the decorations are up, tree is up, boy wonder has had a snack, Santa already came and went,  and BB's off with friends {whew}, I get to scrap and surf for a bit :) ...

anyway, hop on over to today's Scrapgal, Cindy C.....and leave her some L-O-V-E.

Sarah's got a giveaway!

Sarah de Guzman, scrapping diva seen here

is having a Christmas giveaway on her blog today and is showing a sneak preview of some cute papers from Imaginisce too...you have until Saturday to play along so hop over to her blog and check it out!

SENSORY FAMILY MOVIE EVENT-AMC COLUMBIA

SENSORY FRIENDLY MOVIE EVENT

Saturday, January 9, 2010

10:00 a.m. , AMC Theaters Columbia Mall

Columbia, MD

"Alvin and The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" brings back our favorite furry brothers, Alvin, Simon and Theodore who must enroll in school. School presents challenges to these rock stars, like dealing with peer pressure, and of course, “girls”, or rather, The Chipettes. The Chipettes are managed by the Chipmunks’ greedy former manager who wants to turn them into the next big thing. Initially there is a rivalry between The Chipettes and The Chipmunks but in the end they realize that they make great friends.

During the showing the lights will be kept up and the volume will be kept down. Sensory breaks are encouraged. Doors open at 9:30 and the movie starts at 10:00 with no trailers. Sponsored by The Howard County Autism Society and AMC Theatres Columbia Mall .

On The Thirteenth day of Christmas, WWC

gifted me....THIS!
I was born on the 13th and have always
thought 13 was a LUCKY number!

Thanks Jo!

All in the spirit of Christmas-Do something different!

It's the most wonderful time of the year... and with your help, PaperBackSwap  is ready to send the gift of books to more deserving elementary schools!  Your unused credits can make all the difference in a child's life. At PaperBackSwap, they believe in both the power of reading and the power of giving. For each credit you donate, PaperBackSwap and their supporting organizations will provide a new book for the chosen schools.  PaperBackSwap has chosen 4 schools but with your generous donations of credits, they hope to fulfill the goals of up to twelve schools during this round. They'll add more schools as soon as these first four schools' goals are met.

Research proves the power of books! 

Sadly, not all children have access to books. This program will provide schools in low-income and rural districts the age-appropriate books they need. If you know of a school in need, you can suggest it to them as well.  

I thank God that my children go to fantastic, well-funded schools that have tons of books and resources at their fingertips; it's sad that there are millions of schools in this country that don't.  I can't even imagine it....


If you aren't registered @ PaperBackSwap, you should check it out! It's a great program and keeps books out of the landfill and in reader's hands!  And it is EASY!

and I'm hoping that if you are already a member of their site like I am (even though I freecycle a lot of books too), do what I did and donate whatever credits you have as of today....

Remember there's no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end. - Scott Adams


Thanks again for making a real difference in the education of kids!

Scrapgal's Manufacturer's Challenge-Basic Grey with a twist

so, I've decided to do 2 totally different layouts-simple ones since the requirements are specific and I don't want to clutter them up with all the other manuf's embells.otherwise I woulda added more bling, PP, snow, other junk.....Up first, THING 1:

You have until Dec 31st to enter....here

POTD**December blessing

I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles~ Christopher Reeve

This is my HERO:

today he goes from "A" reading books to "B" reading books ! For those of us who know of his OVERWHLEMING obstacles, THIS IS a BIG DEAL...he gets a special treat tomorrow and you should've seen his face when I noticed it and he got a family clapping ovation!  For those out there who have kids with different abilities, it's the small things that get us to the BIG deals....step by step.   Thank You God, for the small stuff!

Go Ravens and a sports layout!

well, we kicked major butt today; all despite the rain and the chilly temps...reminded me that I had started these layouts back in November and needed to finish up with a bit of journaling on them....thanks to the ladies at Great Scraps in Millersville for helping me find the ultra cool Ravens/football papers! 

Gotta thank my scrappin' friend Danyiel for "trying" to teach me the flapbook thing; gotta keep practicing...I messed up a bit but I made it work for this layout-great way to showcase multiple photos on one layout in a creative way....am adding another one to the back of the layout to keep all the fan pics that I didn't use together...

Go Ravens!

December journal

haven't added dates yet since I am adding things out of order...developed some pics for the days when I was in NY & NYC but they were the wrong size so...not everything is Christmas "themed", more of blessings and daily stuff until we get closer to Christmas and I actually have a house that gets decorated and we actually start getting out (rain rain go away!)  So...here's some more of my pages....

Christmas Outtakes Part I

Number one:  We need some cold weather clothes on for Christmas photo shoots; looks better with the Santa hat, even if it's not cold outside.

Number two:  we need a professional

Number three: Brandon NEVER cooperates !

Today's Mama's Holiday Giveaway & Wish List

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme


TodaysMama  and Provo Craft are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

  If you want to be entered for the giveaway too, click on the red links above and follow their directions-Easy Peasy!

Here's my answers:

1. What 5 items are on your holiday wish list this year? Hmm....Bind-it-All, Nikon Coolpix P90, black ballet flats, coupla pairs of flannel pajamas (I stay cold now despite the human heating pad I lie next to at night), and a Borders gift card for my Somerset magazine addiction

2. What is your favorite handmade gift you have received?  Crocheted blanket from my aunt when I was around 17 or 18 yrs old-still have and use it too!

3. What handmade gift have you always wanted to tackle?  Scrapbook album for my brother-not even started though!

4. What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child? tie between Barbies (I wanted to own 50 of them- me and my sisters had TONS) and my Baby Drowsy doll (mommy, I'm sleepy!)

5. What items are on your kid’s wish list this year? Wii games, perfume, iTunes gift card, slippers, new bedding for my daughter.  My son doesn't know what Christmas is so he likes everything-I think he'd be most pleased with cookies, cookies and more cookies!

6. What is your favorite holiday food? sweet potatoes and Honey ham

7. What will you be hand-crafting for the holidays? my December journal

8. What is your favorite holiday movie? Elf!

9. Favorite holiday song? Breath of Heaven by Grover Washington Jr. and Santa Baby by Eartha Kitt

10. Favorite holiday pastime? turning on A Christmas Story on the upstairs lr tv and leaving it on all day long, watching Elf at least 10 times, and of course planning Christmas dinner/drinks.  Driving around neighborhoods looking at lights :)

To enter to win all these cool prizes below simply answer the questions in this meme on YOUR blog, make sure to post links back to TodaysMama.com and Provo Craft (use this link: http://bit.ly/4ikY3c ), and send them a link to your post to info@todaysmama.com with “Wish List Meme” in the subject line. You can even tag a few friends to participate in the meme.    Spread teh Christmas cheer but you gotta do it asap!

AARGH..I give up, I cannot do cards

or Tim Holtz tags!  It's been hours of sheer torture trying to do both...those who say I will perfect card making IF I practice are seriously hallucinating...So, the initial card was a fiasco and I needed to get "something"  to Sarah in the mail by TOMORROW, SO I made a Christmas tag...

again, with stash and with some amazing trim from Becky June and some MME paper and Prima bling...I decided that there will NOT be Tim's 12 tags of Christmas...I have no idea how Tim Holtz does it, but trust me, it takes incredible talent and patience of which I do not have in that magnitude.

And, oh yeah, Mandy, thank you so much for the SMOOCH spritz, that stuff is amazing!  I love it! You can see it if you look at the tag closeup-hate to say it, but it's way better than the "other" shimmery stuff; will have to get to the LSS and get some more!

Friday Scrapgal

I'm still trying to get back on schedule and so today's Friday Scrapgal is somebody who's work I LOVE...she's probably been around for quite sometime but as I've said before, I don't always know all the "better known" scrappers till WAYYY late so...without further ado, give it up and go see Ms. Wendy Morris! 

December Journal

not a daily journal-I'm too boring- so far I've only got the cover and Day 1 for ya- tfl!

Maryland, DC and Virginia scrappers-MLK crop coming soon!

MLK crop**Host: Amber Treat** Co-Host Kat Blue (me)

Location:  Church exact location will be announced via Evite (but it is in Ellicott City)
When: Sunday, January 17, 2010              9:00AM to 9:00PM
Cost: $10 per person

Little Frills MLK crop!
Proceeds to benefit Crossroads Church School

Bring as many friends as you want!

The Church has a full kitchen, of course we need to clean up after ourselves and leave it clean.
We will have full access to frig, stove and microwave !!!
Amber will provide: Snacks, Drinks, bagels and I will tag on to that and add some other breakfast goodies once I get a feel for what folks are bringing. We can split and some folks do breakfast/snack stuff while others do appetizers, side dishes and main dish stuff.

On your own for Lunch... There are places close by.  We're hoping to plan this potluck thing right and make sure you won't have to run out, but just in case.....

Dinner: POTLUCK-everybody's bringing a dish!

send me a PM with your contact info if interested (I won't publish it) and I'll send you the full Evite ASAP!

12 Tags of Tim **Tag 1 FINALLY!

when I started this tag on day 1, I didn't have any of the required supplies to make it look like his so I improvised...I know, it looks nothing like TIm's but I was inspired so...they are hard to do!

Where Women Create-Day 9 Giveaway

doesn't shouldn't this have MY name all over it??

Beth Quinn has generously offered to send the lucky winner of this contest one of her gorgeous necklaces! And best of all, you get to pick which one! Beth is a Jewelry designer whose company, Beth Quinn Designs, offers a unique and fabulous style that are just up my alley! WWC by the 12th !

Where Women Create-jo's giveaway

I'm backtracking to Jo's Day 6 Days of Christmas with a giveaway from Pamela Armas-this Gypsy Club Fabric packet is so my style for an Autumn journal  but it's not just that; I wanted to link you guys to her WWC feature here ...I'll wait while you sit there with your mouth open.  My next house, I gotta have a REAL studio, my space would just hold "some" her fabric!  Her gypsy dolls are amazing; you can find her featured at various doll sites if you google her. I'm in awe....

ok-I've dragged out the Christmas trees

and the holiday decorations....bathrooms cleaned, 2 laundry baskets emptied and more laundry going (always), kitchen-done...my house is a mess so I decided to give it a 2 hour clean for the holidays before putting up the trees tonight; the scrapstudio is a hot mess (no lie-I shall take a picture later...but forgot to say yesterday that Jo P. from Where Women Create is doing a Christmas giveaway-12 Days of...you have until the 12th to go check it out...she has some very cool indiee/Etsy goodies which are, in my opinion, WAAAYYY better than chain store gifts.

Anyway, after rest and medicine, Thing 2 has gone back to school today; he may be exhausted when he gets home but I'm gonna TRY to get some Christmas photos in too for my December journal; more than likely the pics will look like Tim's Day 9 tag  {below}

No Evil Queen-just pretty Princesses

Lovely Tiana !

I did tell her that "I" was the Evil Queen-she said she wasn't so sure if she should

stand so close to me !

More NY!

just some shots of NY-in both the "city" and also the small town where we stayed!

Ny Pizza from Pasquale's Pizzeria- YUMMO !

going to grab a cuppa Joe in the early am!  Sister had no coffee and she knows I could drink a whole pot-whzzup with that?  Had to walk to the coffeeshop-interesting!

We got a new Princess ya'll!

As a birthday gift to BB, Aunt Karla treated us to the Ultimate Princess
Experience at the Zigfield Theatre in NYC...weather was totally uncooperative as you can see-cold and wet; especially while trying to catch a cab in NY!

 But it was all worth it once we got in the theatre; it was beautiful...Walt Disney presented the Princess and the Frog, introducing the first African American princess EVER-a beautiful girl named Tiana that gives a fateful kiss that leads her and her friends on a magical and musical adventure.  As you know, the place was packed and I won't give away any of the movie- YOU GOTTA go see it for yourself...but I will say that I thought that there were some dark areas (the shadows) that may or may not be strange ( I wouldn't say scary) for your child under the age of 5...I talked to some little girls at the Princess meet-n-greet and the dark feeling  seemed to go away once the movie was over-they remembered the funny parts more than anything!  It moved in a fast pace and a lot of the small kids didn't get it or ended up falling asleep...at least the ones near me were...may have been that it was in a large theatre instead of a movie theater...could be that it was late and that it took a lot of travel to get to the venue.

But with all that said, SHE was beautiful, the prince was Charming and it all was just fantastic! I'm still trying to figure out who my favorite character (after Tiana) is! I'm thinking it's a tie between Dr. Facilier and Mama Odie!

Happy Monday!

Just got home an hour ago and whew! All I can say is that I had a great weekend in NY with Karla and that I stayed up entirely too late each and every nite!  Got a shower, am off to check my hotmail, then I am off to bed!  Am not even watching the Ravens tonight if you can believe that! Came home to my baby boy showing sick symptoms AGAIN, but he was asleep so I didn't disturb- we'll see what's up tomorrow....tomorrow will be a heavy blogging day, I assure you! Nite all!

I'm off to NYC, but before I go- December journal cover

dontcha just love the Webster's Pages paper?

Stop, oh yes, wait a minute Mr. Postman ....

November was a very good month, I participated in a lot of challenges and got tons done and was the recipient of goodies as one Crate Paper challenge winner @ scrapbook.com (thank you Estee!), an RAK from J @ Scrapgal (scream Prima ya'll), and a blog hop winner from Becky (see the delish Making Memories Mistletoe as well as Prima goodness)...so with all this stuff, you know I need to get my mojo back, clean my table and get super busy!

This week,I did clean out some of my older stuff since AMM was doing a scrap supply drive for Chloe's friends at the oncology unit so....may do that again and box up some stuff for the kids over at Johns Hopkins. You know you have too many supplies though when you clean it, donate stuff and it still looks the same! Thank you Staci, for putting that on your blog and encouraging me to de-clutter all for a good cause! With CHA around the corner, maybe others will be encouraged to do the same and with flat rate shipping, send some supplies over to their local Children's Hospitals-they are easy to find and you can just contact their public relations department on the web and they'll get you an address. Easy -peasy. If there's anybody in Maryland who wants to tag on with me, you are welcome to drop it off at my house and I'll get my personal buddy Kim to get the stuff for Hopkins. I do remember when Brandon was hospitalized how important children's crafts were-they provide crafts not just for the kid patients, but also to their siblings how have to come to the hospital to visit. Kids don't care about brands or whether it's a complete set of letters or supplies.  Just remember that your scraps can be turned into cards as well....just a thought to think about while giving this holiday season....

On another note, Am going to NYC for a few days and if all goes right, I may have a challenge with another RAK (Carrie, I mailed yours this week) once I get back IF I have some takers-Who's in for a layout challenge???  If you are interested, email me !!!!

Since I am going to see "Her,"it may be a color challenge, may be a theme challenge-MAYBE-am not sure, gotta think about it once I get there.

Sesame Street celebrates the big 4-0 !

They celebrate 40 years of teaching kids to learn, laugh and love** Allie G. over at Croppinsville had a great challenge: to create something inspired by Sesame Street and while I didn't enter the challenge (no camera issue remember?) I did still do the layout-still have Thing 1's pics from Sesame Place that needed scrapping!

And even though I scrapped Elmo, my favorite is always gonna be Cookie Monster!

POTD

BUSY DAY, and am late.....Day 3 of Tim's Tags and Day 3 of my December journal, I promise to add pictures sometime before I leave for NYC!

But for now, I leave you with some DIVAS {hahhahahhaaa} {smile}-This is me and "{C}, the diva who was responsible for yours truly getting to be the Nov 19th guest blogger over at Making Memories!!!!!  Wish I woulda had a flower; it looks really cute-channeling her inner Niecy Nash?

Where's my mailman??

We are going into Day 3 of the 12 tags of Tim and my stamps aren't here!  Everybody knows I don't have that many stamps since I just started to "try" and stamp...so, tomorrow is a busy day and I won't be around that much so I'm hoping with fingers and toes crossed) that when I get home in the evening, a package will be at the door!

So, I shall leave you with a Layout of the Day, courtesy of My Minds Eye :) 

hope to figure out the new pocket camera and post some better shots tomorrow of some more layouts and of my Ali E inspired December journal.....

{POTD} And this is for all you Redskin fans and Raven haters!

nothing like a win against the Steelers!

Boo-ya!

Welcome December!

am off to bed, but thought I'd share a DOUBLE!  Layout that is-cool altering of pictures courtesy of Picnik-wanted to do something different so...ya'll know it'll be another year before I do another double :)   cute little cooking embells courtesy of Karen Foster and Jolee's-love the potholders!   Papers are frm Reminisce I think....

Let the countdown begin...2 more days

If you don't have your #8 tags yet, try Office Max or Staples or, if you have a Cricut, I think there may be a cartridge to make your own!  Hope to have a camera by next week since the tag group will be posting theirs daily :)    

Thursday Freebie download {link}

don't ask me how I found this, but I thought I could use these free calendar printables in one of those December journals...they had some other cool downloads like calendars, tags and other cute stuff-click on the printables forms and gifts tabs- Enjoy!!

Thankful

Just wanted to say that as turkey day comes to a close, I'm very thankful for the friends who did such sweet things for my family today-Ya know who you are!  I just couldn't get in the spirit, not of being grateful, but of the whole turkey and too much food that gets wasted and the whole slaving in a kitchen thing all day (after all 1 in 6 people will go hungry this holiday season) so I decided NOT to cook a Thanksgiving dinner this year...I KNOW! My friends are like WHAA!??? Is you cwazy???...we did a nice dinner on Tuesday but no turkey & trimmings as in years past.  BUT, I had some friends who thought that my craziness was gonna mean that my huzband  and kids were gonna starve (as if)so they sent over lots of goodies!  So, they are upstairs happy and fed....

I'm just gonna say that as we think about our blessings, I have to say I personally am thankful for health, love, life, shelter, friends who act like family, 5 senses, this amazing country we live in and the servicemen and women who give their all for those who may or may not appreciate what they do, and also for a husband who tolerates me through all our ups & downs....especially the creation of these two UPS {smiles}

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!