*C*E*L*E*B*R*A*T*E*

Did you all see this? I can't believe I have been able to hold that exciting news in all weekend. I can't wait to get to work with all of the fabulous new American Crafts goodies! And, what an insanely talented bunch of ladies! Congrats to you all! I'm so honored to be a part of this team!

And, to help me celebrate... I'm sharing the love with all of you. I have a RAK filled with a rainbow*licious assortment of Chatterbox's artsy.licious goodies! I was saving this until a little later in my month-long blogiversary celebration. But, in light of this exciting news... I couldn't save it any longer! There will be at least one more giveaway this month too. *wink* *wink*

You will receive one of *almost* ever sheet of their gorgeous papers (there were a couple of designs that I don't have extras of).



You'll also receive one of each color of their lace paper designs.



In addition, I will include...

a kohl velvet mini-album,



alabaster frames,



bloom Splendid Ribbons,



chocolate tags,



peacock Fine Pressed chipboard letters,



ruby Fabulous Brads,



and willow Splendid Treasures.



All you have to do... leave a comment here. A link to your fave Etsy shop, some visual inspiration, just a friendly "hello"... whatever you like. You have until 11:59 pm PST on Sunday, August 9th.

We are leaving tomorrow for a 5 day trip to Illinois to celebrate my great aunt's and great uncle's 50th wedding anniversary (not to worry... blog posts are already scheduled for my daily blogiversary party). Once we get home, I will select a random winner from the comments to receive this rainbow assortment of goodies, and announce it here on Monday.

Thanks for helping me celebrate this exciting news!

Fabulous, Dahling!

Only caught a little glimpse of the new Chatterbox line "Fabulous" that will be debuted and featured at their CHA booth this weekend. I did manage to put some samples together with the little samples they sent to me....

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These papers work double duty. The bold star designs are perfect for pages on spots teams, and the colors work well on layout for boys. Like wise, the flatter pages about dance recitals or, in my daughter's case... a competitive cheerleading squad!

On the other hand, you can take the ultra-feminine route will all of the gorgeous butterflies, and more dainty embellishments.



I'm just lovin' that cork butterfly! Aren't you? I had so much fun playing with the new line. I just wish I had more time, and more product to play with. ;0)

Don't go yet! I had one more Chatterbox project for CHA: a monochromatic layout... all in their kohl (black) papers. Immediately, I thought of my step-mom, Carol... "MiMi" to the kids. She loves black... wears almost all the time. And since, we don't have many pages about MiMi yet, I thought now was the time. I asked my dad to snap some portraits out in front of their new gorgeous home in Florida, and send them to me for this project. I had forgotten to mention to have her in something black. No problem. It was what she was already wearing. LOL!



So, if you find yourself at CHA, be sure to check out the Chatterbox booth and check out all of the loverly samples!

So, the Christmas decorations are put away, my diet is revving up in the background, and piles of mess are being methodically diminished, I'm trying to get life back on tack. Back on a schedule. So, maybe mark the thousands of blogs hanging on by threads in my Bloglines "read," cut my losses, and start with a fresh bloglines slate. My communication will begin again soon. I promise to untangle all the wires this weekend. Since I have all of my CHA goodies on their way in other peoples' hands, I'm worry-free. Well, for today.

And, since I'm working towards a goal of blogging much more often, let's try to keep up with the Fill-In Friday. Here goes...


1. Oh, I am so frustrated! The military health care system never gets you answers in a timely answer. Sick girl here, staring at my watch, waiting for some news that might or might not profoundly impact my life. Waiting. Still waiting...

2. Everything changes, big and little. Always.

3. During this week, I cried. Way. too. much.

4. Luka; are you kidding me??? Spoken when he walked into the living room naked from the waist down, and I had figured out that he now knows how to remove his pants AND dirty diaper.

5. Right now I'd like to be feeling like I did this past summer.

6. My new silver Nintendo DS is my favorite gadget. (An early V-Day gift from the hubs since he will be in some training camp on actual V-Day.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to quietly removing myself to my room with the kiddos and a stack of board games so that my husband can have "bachelor night" in our living room, drink beers, and play video games with his friends. ummmm... Fun? Not really. Tomorrow my plans include cleaning, cleaning, oh, and more cleaning. And Sunday, I want to finish my first 12 months of Christmas project!

Happy Friday, peeps! And enjoy CHA if you had the fortune to attend! :0)

Hello. Hello.

Well, I didn't mean to be away that long. I've actually had quite a bit to share over the last few days. But, as you know... the holidays seem to keep us all quite busy. Computer work has been on the bottom of the to-do list for quite a while. To be honest... so has creating. But, I'm trying to get back into the swing of things. All of the family presents have been wrapped, and are in the mail (as of this afternoon). The shopping is done. The doll house is well on its way to completion (thank heavens). So, why do I still feel so overwhelmed? Probably because I had planned on being done with all of my deadlines and obligations by yesterday so that I could officially enjoy the last week and a half before Christmas. As it is, I'll be lucky if I can get everything done by Saturday and enjoy the last 4 days before Santa arrives.

There are still Label Tulip projects to be made... thanks to the sucky USPS for losing my first package from LT. I still have projects to make with my goodies from Sketchbook Designs. There is baking to be done, presents to be wrapped, packing to be done (we're going to DC after Christmas). Whew! I'm exhausted just thinking about it, and I'm sure there are still some things I left off of that list.

On a happier note, I got a huge shipment of goodies from Chatterbox! Seriously. Huge. The box stood about half-way up my thigh and weighed over 50 lbs! I've never worked for such a generous company. Here are a few peeks at the contents. Although, it is impossible to grasp how much product there really was... at least 3 of everything they made! These pictures certainly don't do the stash justice!





Now, what to do with all of that delicious product? To spite how busy everything has been, I had to take some time out this weekend to play! So, how about a quick little project idea? Marie from Sketchbook Designs included this cute little 6x6 white acrylic mini-book in my box of stuff to play with. And, I had some 6x6 pockets lying around from sarabinders. These are the particular pockets I used for this project. And, ya' know what those pockets are perfect for? Holding CD's. So, I made a little storage album to put all of my CD's full of family pictures after I download them to my computer and burn them off.



And I swear, the new "Together" line from Chatterbox was made just perfectly for a project like this! The line includes cardstock labels, stickers, numbers and date embellishments... among lots of other stuff. It coordinates with all of the Willow, Peacock Ruby and Chocolate embellishments and alphas from the artsy.liscious line. Love those colors! Here's what the inside pockets look like:









Well, that's all I have for today. Now, if you'll excuse me... I have some cookies to bake, and a pile of Label Tulip stuff to start on. I'll be back later with some peeks. By the way, the LT gallery will be posted later this month on Dec 20th at 6pm PST. I'm not the only one of the girls that had issues with their package arriving. So, stay tuned for a couple of peeks this week and the full reveal on Saturday.