New Projects

I started doing some projects again, and it makes me feel better. I am working on some cards, and ornaments for the Holiday Ornament Swap hosted by the delightful Diva, Lisa who takes the time to sort and package the buggers and ship them back to us all. Thanks for all you do Miss Lisa!!

Here are the pictures of my cards. I used my cricut expression and the accent essentials cart to cut the 2 circles, and my scallop edge punch for the bottom, along with inking the edges. I need to utilize that bug more often, it can cut some really great shapes. They are thank you's for some very special people in my family who are absolutely indispensable and priceless to us. During our terrible week my family surrounded us and loved and helped us in ways we can never repay.

This is the card I made for the monthly card swap. I used a Mary Englebright calendar page. I save my faves and cut them to use in scrap pages and cards. My mom buys me the desk and wall calendar every year and there are some really cute pictures to keep -

inside -

Now these ornaments are for the ornament exchange that I have been participating in. I have gotten some original and just gorgeous ornaments from the talented ladies who participate. I was trying to come up with something for the 4th that would be a little different. I saw majestic forest scene, my hubby and son saw Christmas. "Sorry Mom, just think Christmas when I look at em" was the quote I got from my newly graduated very handsome son John. Oh well I think they came nice just the same, and again I utilized my cricut with the sampler cart-

I hope you enjoy some of what I've made here and shared with you. Creating can be very theraputic!

Lets Lighten Up!

Well, my friend Carrie has inspired me to blog about a passionate obsession of mine....SHOES!! I just adore shoes, the higher the heel the better. Don't get me wrong, I love flats as well, and have several pairs of sneakers, or tennies, or whatever your neck of the woods calls them, but, something about a nice high heel makes my heart go a pitter patter!

It doesn't seem to bother me that I have more shoes than clothes when one puts the two in context of each other. Quite frankly, I like shoes better than clothes. I think they're sexy, and the high heel makes your legs look awesome. I buy all colors and styles, sometimes not even considering if I have something to go with them, who cares.

Here is a parade of just some of my shoes, I didn't feel like digging into the closet for all of them. Just sing the tune "Food Glorious Food" from Oliver, and substitute shoes in there, like this -

Shoes glorious shoes, brown, red and black ones. Shoes glorious shoes, mules, and sling backs are hot ones! Manolo's and Jimmy Choo's, so many yipee! Just shoes glorious shoes marvelous shoes wonderful shoes!!!!

You can never have enough shoes. One always feels better after buying a great pair of em!

Heartbroken

I just want to take a moment to dedicate this post to my Dad Tom, who passed away on Friday morning. He was the most wonderful Father, Grandfather and Husband that one could ask for. One of my most fondest memories I will always treasure is how he would put me on my Mom's dresser when I was a very little girl and sing "Daddy's Little Girl " to me. I was the only daughter and that is a very special mantle to carry and everyone has told me how he always bragged about his Paula. I love him dearly and will miss him terribly, as we all will.

For The Teachers

Well, the end of the school year has arrived again! Where in the world does the time go? I can't believe another summer is just about upon us. With the end of the year comes gifts for teachers, and this year I decided to give a little of me to them.

One of the swaps I joined was an altered paint can swap. I loved the idea, the way it came and how it looked, so that is what I'm doing for 2 of the teachers, and for 1 teacher I altered a crayola crayon box, which was done by one of Memory Makers magazine's Masters, Melissa. Inside I will put a Barnes and Nobles gift card, a little brag book that they can keep in their pocket books and some sweets as well.

Here is the crayola box -

After the basic cutting and mod podging I embellied it a bit -

This is the brag book I put together for them. The top is the little pages for the book, the bottom is one assembled. They will each get one-

These are the paint cans that I made for MaryAnn and Sophia's teachers. I didn't go crazy with embellishing, I think they look fine the way they are. On very very rare occasions, I do feel less is more -

For their patience, love, and dedication, our children's teachers deserve our thanks!

A Little Detour

I am going to take a slightly different route here. With summer coming, I just wanted to talk about one of my other passions...reading!

I find reading a wonderful way to escape the everyday doldrums. It is also a very good way to increase your vocabulary as well as help your mind stay sharp and hold on to the vocabulary it has. During the summer, most Libraries, and, since my local Barnes and Noble does, I would think all of them do, have summer reading programs for the kids. It is important for them to keep up their reading and be able to grasp vocabulary and putting together a sentence, that progresses to an essay. This is stuff that they will have to do in school, right through college. Fostering a love of reading is a great thing!

Okay, enough of the soap box for today. Let me tell you what my latest reading obsession is. I was hooked on all of Anne Rice's vampire chronicles, I also loved her Mayfair witches as well. I fell out of reading for a very very long time. Various reasons, but one of them being, I couldn't sit "still" enough to free my mind so I could get lost in a book. I would read one here and there, usually during my 2 daughter's tennis lessons, which would be once a week for an hour. Needless to say, a book would last me months. This past September, I watched HBO's True Blood, if you scroll to the bottom of the blog you will see I am anxiously waiting season 2! My 21 yr old daughter Desirae told me they were based on the Southern Vampire Series by Charlaine Harris and she wanted them for Christmas. Well, that was it, hook line and sinker we have fallen in love with all of them, which are 9 so far. Number 10 will come out in May of 2010, boo hoo!

This has lead me to other vampire series that I am just loving. Now, the ones I have been reading are not for the faint of heart. They are violent at times, and quite risque as well, but this is a genre I have loved since Ms. Rice first blessed us with dear Lestat and Louis, who quite frankly was played irresistbly and stole Tom Cruise's thunder, by Brad Pitt. Alas, I degress. I have read all the Twilights, and to be honest, and this is only my opinion, I know there are hundreds of thousands of tweens and their mom's who loved all of them, but after the first 2, well, peeyoo. 3 was not good, but 4 was torture for me to finish. I don't know if Ms Meyers was put on a schedule from her publishers to get them out, but I didn't like the book at all. Not the writing style, the storyline, none of it.

Reading the reviews of other people has lead to me finding other authors and series as well. Right now I am just loving the Anita Blake series by Laurel K Hamilton, The Black Dagger Brotherhood series by JR Ward, and of course, the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris -

My most wonderful husband also bought me the Amazon Kindle, which is like an ipod for books. It holds 1500 books on it, and I love the gadget. If you are a gizmo kind of person, go to Amazon and check this little wonder out. Here is a pic -

No lie, in the last 4 months I have devoured at least 12 nice size books. Now shush, don't be thinking, "how in the world does this woman take care of all her kids, her home, cook wonderful dinners, keep her hubby happy, do her scrapbooking and have the time to read this much too?" Well, a girl has to have some secrets, doesn't she ;) ?