I am so Honored and Touched...

So I made myself a cup of green tea with steamed milk this morning, and I sat down to my laptop to check my emails.   There was an email from my Blog Sister, EssenseVibez. 

Here is what she said:

"here's a gift for being a faithful follower of my blog--
you have inspired me in so many ways with your blog posts
you're very creative and it shows in your work--
keep your positive vibez flowin' my sistah!

love you much!"

I am so honored and touched by this lovely gift!!!  Thank you so much EssenseVibez!

Sketch Friday at Practical Scrappers

It's Sketch Friday over at Practical Scrappers!  Here is the sketch by Lucy this week:

And here is my interpretation of the sketch:

I know it's still fairly early but I just can't keep my eyes open!  Until tomorrow, have a blessed and serene evening!

Best regards and Happy Scrapping!

Yesterday was Thursday!!!

Yesterday was Thursday and I was up over at Practical Scrappers!  As I mentioned on Tuesday (gosh, I seem to be running a day late!), the challenge was to use PP in your layout.  The DT was charged with using minimum 2 PPs.  Well, I managed to use 9 PPs on my layout!  Here it is:

Aren't these PPs just gorgeous???  I used my December monthly kit from A Cherry On Top which made it easy to coordinate all of the colors and PPs.  The kit was mostly made up of PP from S.E.I.  By the way, A Cherry On Top is having a great sale on everything in the store--they want to move everything out to make room for the new stuff they bought from the Winter CHA out in CA.  Make sure to go and give them a looksee!!!

Thanks for looking and Happy Scrapping!!!

Practical Scrappers - Patterned Paper!

This week's challenge over at Practical Scrappers is Patterned Paper

We (the Design Team) have used two patterned papers or more on our projects. We want you to use at least one! The deadline to enter is Saturday at 5:00 ET and the prize is a gift certificate to JuJu Bees.

This is the last week for my designer teammates Sandi, Amy H, Joy, and Jill.  They provided great inspiration to the team and they will be missed!

Don't forget to stop by Thursday to see my LO!

Happy Scrapping!

New Winner for Heart Basket

I entered all eligible names into my trusty name picker and it chose Joy-n-Jesus as my new winner!  Congratulations - please send me an email with your address and I'll get the basket right out to you.

Happy Scrapping!

Redo for Heart Basket Blog Candy!

I had not heard back from Amanda B, so I went to my followers list to go to her blog and she did not become a follower.  I assumed that everyone who commented on my candy had become one.  So I'm off to the random picker again and will post a new winner shortly.

Happy Scrapping!

And the Winner is...

O.K., I did a search and found a random name picker online which I used to generate the winners of my blog candy.  The link to the picker is below.

Without further ado, the winner of the Heart Basket w/note cards is:
Amanda B

The winner of the Heart Box with Jelly Beans is:
Sparksgal

Congratulations Ladies!!!
Please note my email address in the sidebar and email me with your address and I'll get the prizes right out to you.

Best regards and Happy Scrapping!

http://classtools.net/widgets/fruit_machine_3/PA1fv.htm

http://classtools.net/widgets/fruit_machine_3/PA1fv.htm

Welcome to Practical Scrappers Blog Hop Weekend!!!

Thanks for stopping by my blog during the Practical Scrappers Designer Blog Hop!  Today I have created a Heart Basket with note cards and  a Heart Box filled with yummy jelly beans to share with you!  l  will also be giving these 2 projects away as my PS Blog Hop Prizes!!!  (Unfortunately, I will only be able to ship within the United States).  In order to qualify for these prizes you need to become a follower here and leave a comment on the posts below for either  or both prizes that's caught your fancy.  I will announce the winner on Monday, January 25th, so make sure to check back in! 

You should've arrived here from Crystal's Blog, and your next stop is Jill's Blog.  If this was your first stop, please head over to Practical Scrappers to start at the beginning of the hop.  The Designer's are giving away some great prizes - you don't want to miss your chance!

So kick back and have some Blog-Hopping fun this weekend!!!
Happy Scrapping!

Become a Follower and Leave a Comment here for a chance to win this Prize!

Become a Follower and Leave a Comment here for a chance to win this Prize!

Practical Scrappers - Embossing!

I almost missed posting my LO on embossing!!!  It's Thursday, so I was up today!

Practical Scrappers - Blog Hop Weekend!!!

Get ready for the Blog Hop coming this weekend!!! There will be great prize giveaways and lots of inspiration from the Practical Scrappers Design Team. Please check back here Friday morning for all of the details.

Artastic - My January Entry

Artastic had a great inspiration piece this month by Australian Artist Pro Hart.  Here is the inspiration piece:

The colors just pop off the canvas!  Here is my interpretation of the above:

I was so inspired by the vibrant colors in the piece, that it made me think about my little vibrant one!
Some more detail:

There is an option to gain points if you included flowers in the layout--I hope a wheelbarrell of flowers will do it!

I like the fiber-it adds such whimsy.

I broke out the sewing machine to sew the ric rac to the layout.  Also to add the zig zag stictch to the bottom of the layout.

Best regards and Happy Scrapping!

I won at Tellen's Place

I was doing my usual rounds of blogs I visit daily and I got to Tellen's Place.  AND to my surprise, I found out I'd won Week 2 Challenge!!!  What a wonderful surprise and check out my new badge in my sidebar--too cute!

Happy Scrapping!

Tellen's Place - Week 2 Challenge

Tellen's Place - Week 2 Challenge was to create a card using this great sketch:

So this is what I came up with!!!

Here's a side view:

This was a fun card to make!

Thanks for looking and Happy Scrapping

Practical Scrappers - Embossing

This week's challenge is Embossing over at Practical Scrappers!

Go on over and post your project that includes any kind of embossing - dry, heat, pre-embossed paper - any of them will work! Deadline to enter is 5:00 ET on Saturday.

Best regards and Happy Scrapping!

My Christmas Mini Album

It's become our tradition since we've been in Florida for my mother-in-law to come and spend the night Christmas Eve, so she is here to celebrate Christmas day with Charles, Temple and me.  This year I decided I wanted us to wear matching pajamas.  Well, I waited too long to coordinate that but we were close enough.  I'll do better this year!  So, here's a little album capturing a bit of our Christmas Day!

This is Temple's Christmas Village that she started 3 yrs ago.  She adds new buildings each year.  This year I surprised her with 3 new buildings (3 big ones in the back).

O.K., the pajamas are not totally coordinate but we got close enough this year.  Charles and Temple totally loving Wii Mario Cart!

Give Charles anything with his NY emblems and he's a very happy guy!  These are mats for his SUV!  We got Mom her convection/toaster oven that she was hoping for!

I rarely make albums so this was a nice project to make vs. the 12x12 LOs that I love to do!

Thanks for looking and Happy Scrapping!

NYC - December 2009

Charles, Temple and I went home to NYC for my oldest daughter's 30th birthday.  We arrived at that time (December 11th), on what was the coldest day of the year--21 degrees with a windchill factor of 10 degrees!  We still had to check out Rockefeller Center at Christmas time!

Here is the Rock Center Christmas Tree looking towards 5th Avenue.  The building with the lighted stars is Saks 5th Avenue.

I believe we were walking down 53rd Street towards 5th Avenue.  That's Charles, Temple and my mother.

Got to love the window shopping - This is Fendi!

Cartier needs no introduction!

The skaters at Rockefeller Center!

Temple is checking out the ice skaters!

Had to take a picture of Charles in front of 30 Rock--it's his favorite TV show!!!

Thanks for looking and Happy Scrapping!

Practical Scrappers - Glitter/Bling!

This week's challenge over at Practical Scrappers was Glitter/Bling and because it's Thursday, I was up!  Here is a layout of my very lovely niece, Kera, just totally rocking her new hairdo!!!

Thanks for looking and Happy Scrapping!

Polar Express

Here is a layout that I posted over at Let's Scrap!  It is based on Cheri O'Neill's sketch 1-6-10.  It's about Temple's Polar Express Day at school where they got to wear their pajamas to school, watch the Polar Express Movie and then be dismissed early from school to start their winter break.  Can you tell how happy Temple is this day???

Best regards and Happy Scrapping!

I Know I Haven't Been Around Lately...

I didn't know how to share this before it happened but last Thursday, 1/7/10, I had a scheduled hysterectomy.  I've been dealing with my sick uterus for a few years now and at 49yrs old and 3 children, there was no need to suffer anymore.  The upside to this is that I am on medical leave for another 5 weeks.  I know right now that I still get extremely tired and I tend to take pretty long naps (avg. 5 hours!!).  But it will be nice to be on the mend, get healthy again and move on from this period in my life.
Best regards and Happy Scrapping!

Practical Scrappers Challenge - Buttons!

Everything is back to normal over at Practical Scrappers with using up our supplies, and this week's Challenge is Buttons! Christine has decided to adopt the format we used over the Holidays where each day several of our designers will share their projects with you.  So I will continue to be featured on Thursdays.

This week in addition to a Top Three there will be a grand prize winner for the person who uses the most buttons on their project. If you think you qualify - leave a comment telling us how many buttons you used. The grand prize winner will get a roller stamp from Glitz Design!

You have got to go over and check out the wonderful projects my DT colleagues have created--they are simply buttonlicious!

Best regards and Happy Scrapping!

Top 16!

Blog hopping has shown me that a lot of my scrapper sisters post their favorite LOs of the year, so I've decided to do that myself.  I found trying to pick my favorites a bit difficult as there were so many different reasons why a particular layout was special to me, but I kept it down to these 16, and here they are in no special order:

This has been a great year for my family and me, and it's been a wonderful year of scrappy growth for me which I will continue going forward.  My layouts are becoming more meaningful to me in documenting the life we are living in this moment and the moments to come.

Best regards and Happy Scrapping!