Happy Ending

I can't believe 2007 is actually over, and 2008 will be arriving on our doorsteps in just a few more hours. I can't honestly say that there will be many fond memories from 2007. This past year was a difficult one, and I'm looking forward to 2008 with much anticpation! There will certainly be lots of changes and excitement around our house. God willing, Bryan will be home in a few more months; we will be adding an adorable little fur baby to our family; we will be moving to a whole new city. Lots of changes indeed!

I've enjoyed taking the last several days off on a much-needed blogging and creative break. I'm hoping that once I get home in a couple of days, and get settled back in, that my creative juices will start flowing again. I've been in a little bit of a creative slump lately. In fact, I really didn't think that I was going to get my project finished for December's challenge over at ScrapMojo. But, I squeaked it out at the last minute:



I must say, the pictures don't quite do it justice. But, in Alaska, during the 6 months of nearly complete darkness, it's hard to get great-quality photos with some good lighting. So, I've been left to use the indoor lighting available to me. You can view the album in its entirety here. It was my first time playing with the Clearly Heavy Overlays by Hambly, and I must say...I am ADDICTED! At first, I thought being able to see through the whole book would bother me. But, that turned out to be not the case at all! I really love this little book!

I just realized that I never showed pictures of Tina's Christmas present:



A couple of months back, I ordered one of Rachel's scrapbook portfolios. I loved it, and had planned on buying one for Tina's Christmas present. Then I thought, "Hey...I can make on myself!" So, I did. I'm very happy with how it came out and, surprisingly, it didn't take all that long. Well, at least not considering I hand-stitched the whole thing. Yeas, I still plan on getting over my fear of the sewing machine sometime soon. Just, not quite yet! ;0) I did add a couple of things that weren't part of my portfolio. Such as, a pocket inside to hold supplies or whatever:



I also added some velcro closures. I'm always worried that the waxed linen thread is going to break on mine. So, I figured velcro would give this one a little extra holding-power. Here's a picture of the album all closed-up and ready to wrap:



Christmas was wonderful. I can't really say as much for my birthday. But, thank you all SO MUCH for the kind birthday wishes. My faux birthday with Tina on Saturday night was 100 x's better than the actual day. Yummy sushi. Delicious Benihana food. Good drinks. A wonderfully relaxing massage. Good times with a dear friend. It made for a perfect day. All in all, it has been a happy ending to a rather unhappy year. Bring it on 2008! I'll be back tomorrow with resolutions and such. But, in the meantime, I will leave you with pictures from Christmas. Hazel got her hippopotamus that she asked Santa for. Even if it wasn't real, she still loved her Build-A-Bear version:



Coincidentally, Luka's favorite gift was also a Build-A-Bear creation from Santa:



He LOVES that thing...drags it everwhere, and just lies on the floor snuggling it. So cute! I hope that you all enjoy a safe and happy New Year's Eve. Best wishes for an awesome 2008!

Today is her birthday...

1. Sugar Shock, 2. birffdays are fun!, 3. Um ano de Pano p'ra Mangas, 4. Happy Birthday addicted2love!

It's official. I'm 30. And, I have to admit, it doesn't feel so good. LOL! I really didn't think it would bother me this much...for some reason it just does. No plans for the big day, but so it goes when your birthday is the day after Christmas, and your husband is deployed. I know that if Bryan were home, he would try to make it really special. And, honestly, just having him home would have made for the best birthday. But, I'm determined to enjoy this day somehow! :0) I'll let you all know if anything unexpectedly exciting happens. Although, I tend to doubt it. Saturday will be my "real" birthday celebration...a lovely day spa massage that was my birthday gift from Tina, and dinner with Tina at Bennihana. No kids. Just one last "adult" hurrah before I head back home for 4 more months of solitary confinement in my house with my two little terrorists! Ha! I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas...I know we certainly did! :0)

About that lottery ticket...

Yeah, I'm thinking that's what I will be buying the second I get anywhere near a convenience store upon my arrival back home. Seriously. I won a freakin' Coach purse...a cute little wristlet! Merry Christmas to me! And, thanks so much Melinda! You totally made a stressed-out girl's day!

Other happiness to share in the form of a prettiful little Flickr mosaic:


1. Baby Moondancer's Winter Gear, 2. Saturday Morning Sakura, 3. Preview of My Christmas Tree, 4. Little Cake Ornaments, 5. Wintery Wonderland Belle, 6. Tiny Hot Cocoa for Tiny Squirrel, 7. Gingerbread Village, 8. Our Christmas Tree, 9. Patiently Waiting for Santa

I'm not a toy collector by any means. But, I seriously love this girl's photos of her collections. They just make me happy! So, I thought I'd share some of her Christmas snaps. Hopefully, they will bring a smile to your faces too, dear blogger friends.

And, speaking of bloggy friends, I have THE BEST! Melanie's lovely Christmas present arrived on my doorstep the other night. A handy little "Scrap Sack" in the yummiest of fabrics! I LOVE it, Mel! Thank you, thank you! I can't wait to get it home, safe and sound in my craft room. :0)



So, the pup pictures that I promised. Well, let me first say that we are on the list for a female dog. So, depending on how many girls are born in these 2 litters, will determine which momma dog our little girl comes from. Here are the 2 moms-to-be. Tiffany...



And, Abbie...



Not the best pictures of the girls, but here is daddy Diesel...



I'll post more pictures as I receive them. Boy! Scary times here the other night! So, I'm lying in bed watching the Golden Girls (don't laugh) and blog-surfing, and all of a sudden I hear that God-awful noise from the Emergency Broadcast System start blaring on the TV. "Tsunami Warning" starts being repeatedly cranked out of the speakers. Wha? I didn't feel an earthquake. And, of all the years I've lived in Alaska, I have NEVER seen anything like that come across the TV. And, believe me, I've been through my share of earthquakes. Well, I DID see it happen one time before, but some idiot at the TV station accidentally hit the "tsunami alert" button. That was a mistake. That time, there wasn't even an earthquake. But, this time, sure enough, there was a 7.5 magnitude off the coast of Alaska. All of Alaska was under a tsunami warning for about an hour. Of course, most people never even knew it because it was 12:30 am, and normal people are usually asleep at that time. But, I heard it loud and clear. My parents live high up in the mountains, but it's only a 15 minute drive to town...to the coast. Scary stuff! Fortunately, no tsunamis were reported. Whew!

For today, I'll leave you with this...my new favorite Etsy storefront. Block Party Press. Love them. Seriously, L.O.V.E. I could drop about $200 in their store (if I had it...hey, here's where that lotto ticket would come in handy!) Anyway, this stuff is all made out of polymer clay. I MUST have one of these woodgrain necklaces:



And, let's just pretend for a minute that ANY of my husband's semi-formal wear wardrobe consisted of something other than a military uniform. HEY...I said let's "pretend"! I would so be buying him these cuff links:



While we're pretending, let's just make-believe that I had a refrigerator that magnets actually STUCK TO! (Note to self...no more stainless steel appliances...not my style.) If only...I would be buying these magnets. Heck, they're so cute, I think I need to find SOME sort of metal surface in my house that is magnet-worthy just for an excuse to buy these...



There's so much more...I could go on an on. But, instead, why don't you just check out their shop! :0) Happy Thursday all!

It's been a long time...

Geez! I feel like it has been forever since I've blogged. But, things have just been crazy-busy around here with the holidays, and getting ready to head back to North Carolina. But, I'm back with so much to share! I don't even know where to begin, so we'll just start off here:



Yep...I finished up with my Banner Project kit from Poppy Ink. The December kit (and ALL of the add-ons) were the BEST yet! I seriously depleted nearly everything from December's stuff, and I haven't even had the kits for a week yet! Of course, I added a lot of my own little extras to the banners too. Here's a close-up of the snowflakes that I used from Pageframe Designs to back the paper stars to give them more strength:



They are very thick, acrylic shapes (they also make tons of other shapes and albums). I LOVE them! They are on the pricey side, though. And, I wasn't sure what I wanted to use them for exactly when I first bought them. But, I knew those paper stars needed something behind them, or they would just get ripped up over the years. I thought these would be the perfect solution! I painted one side of the acrylic snowflake with the Clear Effects Glitter from Making Memories. And, on the other side, I went around the edges of the snowflake with silver Stickles. They're even more beautiful in person! Here's some close-ups of the rest of the banner:





This little banner was made for my friend, DeAnn. You know, the one that made me the adorable little ribbon loop tree?!? I made my own banner too, but I can't post pictures of it just yet. I had to order another package of the Bon Bon Basic Grey chipboard letters because there is only one "Y" in each package. For the life of me, I couldn't think of another Christmasy word that didn't have a "Y" in it for either of the banners, so I had to order another package. I'll post pictures of mine when I get the last letter added.

Moving on...



I started making the monthly dividers for my 7 Gypsies ATC Holder. I'm actually going to use it to start the card-a-day project. So, I got my January divider done. Again, it's even prettier, and more glittery in person! I finally got some spray inks...so freakin' ADDICTIVE!!! I want them all! But, I had originally taken a piece of the KI Pop Culture lace, and laid it over a piece of old book text. Then, I sprayed it with the turquoise ink. I was going to use the book text as the background for my card. But, when I pulled the lace cardstock away, I like the lace itself even more. It has the most beautiful sparkly sheen to it! I'm hooked!

And, since I have been promising peeks of my project for the ScrapMojo Christmas challenge, I finally broke out the camera and took some pics.



I've been so busy, I haven't had a chance to print out all of the pictures for the inside yet. And, obviously, I haven't added any embellies inside, either. But, part of the challenge was to find things around the house to paint with. I repeated the same techniques a couple of times throughout the book, but here are the 4 techniques that I used. Paper Dixie cups dipped in paint for the circles on the cover:



Bubble wrap:



KI Memories POP Culture Lace Paper:



And, some mini-foam roller thingy:



And, with that, I will go ahead and stop for today. I have more to share, but don't want to overload anyone. ;0) I'll be back tomorrow with some more eye candy. Oh, and we put a deposit down on our puppy! Yay! I'm so excited! I'll post some pictures of her parents tomorrow. She hasn't actually been born yet...due in Jan or Feb (depending on which momma dog we get her from). But, I'll be receiving newborn pics as soon as they are born, so I'll be sure to update!

Also, you'll have to wait a few more days for pics of Tina's Christmas present. We are actually going to be doing the exchange sometime this weekend...hopefully. :0) Hope everyone is ready for Christmas. It really snuck up on us this year, didn't it?

The search is on (and over)!

First of all, thanks to my lovely blogger friend Gina, my search for these...



is over! Thanks, Gina! You're the bestest! And, thanks everyone else for offering! :0)

And, the search is on for our dog. My dog. My husband refuses to own up to having such a girlie dog that, I think, really isn't so girly. LOL! We are in search of a French Bulldog, and I think I've found my breeder. So, hopefully, around the time that Bryan gets home, we will be adding a new fur baby to the family. I had a little Maltese for years before Hazel was born. He was about 11 years old when I finally had Hazel, and he never got over not being the "baby". He was getting aggressive (without being provoked) towards Hazel, and tried to bite her a couple of times. We had to give him to friends of pets, and they found him the perfect home with a little old lady. I've missed him so much. We're finally in the right place to have another dog. Trust me, it was a long consideration. Bryan has wanted a dog for MONTHS, and I kept telling him no. And, this is going to be done right. We're going to obedience school, the whole shabang! So, as soon as I find something out, I'll fill you in. :0)

And, I never remembered to post pictures of the purse that I actually got from Becky OH!. It was even better than the one I posted before. Not only is it black and white (which is what I liked so much about the other one), it's POLKA DOTS! I love polka dots, and I love this purse!!!



I still haven't taken pictures of the mini-book. I really just wanted to post about those wine bags before anyone else went looking. I'll post more pics later. And, ending on a sad note...



Blueprint magazine is folding. Boo! Another wonderful magazine bites the dust. It will be sorely missed along with Martha Stewart Kids (at least it will for me).