2 years ago today...

we welcomed this little bundle of joy into our lives.



And, today we celebrated another wonderful year with him. Happy birthday, Luka! May you have you cake and eat it too. ;0)



So, did everyone that went to CHA enjoy it? I hope so. Hopefully, you got to go and check out Pink Paislee's booth. If you're like me, you didn't make it to CHA... yet again. So, so I will go ahead and let you take a gander at some of the pages that I created with their fabulous new lines. Enjoy!

the "Captivating" line...



the "Enchanting" line...



the "Fetching" line (you can view the rest of this mini-album here...

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)

Winter wonderland...

Rarely is it that we see snow in our part of North Carolina. We might get "snow" once a year, but it only lasts an hour or so, and still leaves blades of grass poking through the white patches. This morning was different, though. We woke up to a blanket of a couple of inches, and it didn't stop until late into the afternoon. Overall, we probably received 4"-5" at our house. And, lthough it's a few weeks too late for a white Christmas, we are enjoying the magical winter wonderland...





Although, Luka wasn't really sure what to do with it. He had seen snow last year when we were in Alaska, but he hardly played in it and definitely doesn't remember it. He mostly shadowed his older sister, and followed her lead...



Sake, on the other had, was totally bewildered. I'm sure she'll be more than happy when the grass makes its reappearance...



So, since I missed out on posting my LT projects right after the gallery premiered, better late than never! A Valentine wreath...



Then you just take that chipboard waste from all the little Scenic Route hearts on that wreath up there, and make a nifty little page frame out of it...



Our challenge this month was to use only 5 products on a layout...



And, we had a fabulous member gallery lift this month from Amy Parker...



It was the perfect opportunity for me to finally use all of those brochures I collected along the way during our trip to DC. I don't know about you, but I am guilty of always picking up brochures from all the places the we visit with the intention of using them on my pages. Somehow, though, I can never actually get them to "work" with my pages. But, the little circle border around the original layout definitely "worked" for adding some punched circles from the brochures. As dark as those museums are, it isn't easy to get a good photo and most of mine stunk. Fortunately, most of the things I took pictures of were included in the brochures. So, I just busted out my circles punches, and punched away...



Well, it's back to the last of my CHA projects for Chatterbox. I think you will be loving the new line! Wanna' peek? Check here.

And, there are lots of peeks of the amazing new lines by Pink Paislee here.

As soon as these projects are in the mail, and the CHA project insanity has died down... I'll post up the January 12 Months of Christmas project! ;0)

One for the road!

I've got one more Label Tulip peek for you. And, let me just say... to the women who joined me on the forum a couple of weeks ago to discuss whether or not we used any of the brochures we collected on our trips (most of us didn't)... I have found a solution! I'm proud to say that I found a way to incorporate the brochures from our trip to Washington DC in a ONE PAGE layout! You'll have to tune in tomorrow night at the gallery reveal to see just what I'm talking about. ;0) I'll just have to tide you over with this...



And now, I'm off to get a little rest before I dive straight into a night of crafting for Pink Paislee! I'm sure I'll be snacking on these as I work...

I don't know what my deal is. I usually don't like tomatoes unless they are pureed and fancied up into ketchup, served in soup along-side a grilled cheese, part of a delicious marinara sauce, chopped up into salsa, or married with some lovely sauce. Raw tomatoes? Tomatoes on sandwiches? Not so much. But, these grape tomatoes are deliciously sweet... especially dipped in a little bit of ranch dressing. Yum! See... I really am trying to eat healthier this year! ;0)

It's about that time...

for some LT sneaks! I absolutely loved this month's kits! I still have one more page to do, so I'll probably post another sneak of that tomorrow. But, here's what I have so far...







Now, don't think I forgot about January's "12 Months of Christmas" project. I know I promised to post it a couple of days ago. But, let's just say that something labeled as a "simple" sewing project turned out to be anything but. I'm nearly finished, but my LT projects needed to get done, so I had to take a break from other things. I plan on having the sewing project completed in the next couple of days, ready to post by this weekend. Want to know what we'll be making? Some cute little stuffed doggies! So, in the meantime, I'll give you a list of supplies to gather so that you'll be ready to play along. You will need: a pair of socks - neutral colored if you want a traditional looking dog, or you can funk it up with something more colorful (*new* clean ones, please... nobody wants to receive an adorable stuffie that stinks of toe jam), poly fill or some other sort of stuffing, needle and thread, scissors. Those are the basics. But to give you pup some personality, you might want some buttons for eyes, pipe cleaners if you want to make the ears stand up, a pom-pom or button for the news, ribbons for a collar, another patterned sock to make a sweater for your doggie, or anything else to doll your stuffed pal up.

On top of Label Tulip and my stuffie project, I have the most lovely box of goodies from the new Pink Paislee lines sitting at my feet, begging to be played with. In my opinion, they are quite different from previous PP collections... and I LOVE them! I just wish I could share some sneaks with you. *sigh*

Well, I'm off to watch Forgetting Sarah Marshall for about the 5th time this week (love that movie) while flipping through my Elsie recipe box book. I'm in search of some inspiration for a mini-book idea for the PP booth at CHA. I've made so many mini's lately, my mind is starting to run dry on topics to make books out of. Wish me luck!