I Love Being A Girl!

Yes that's right, I do, I do, I do!!!  This week was Jenn's turn in her cj, and her subject was 5 things I love about being a woman.  Well I truly love lots of things.  I have no desire to be a man, look like a man, act like a man, none of it.  I know there are plenty of gals out there who have this equality grudge match going on with men, but guys can't hold a candle to me so I really don't care ;).  Don't get me wrong, I'm no man hater, but they don't have anything I want.  I can multi-task, let me see a man paint a room,  make the kid's lunch, and then change a baby's diaper, run out to pick the older kids up from school all in the same day without screaming for help even 1 time.  Not gonna happen.  I have done this very thing, God made us gals quite special, guys just don't have the gene.

I can pitch a royal fit, and if someone says, "whaduhya, a girl?"  YES!!!   I can carry another living being inside my body, then I can feed that sweet baby with my body as well.  I just love pink, pretty, frou frou frilly things, Hello Kitty and all those girly goodies make me happy.  SHOES!! I dedicated a whole blog post to  my shoes, I can't get enough of those babies, the higher the better.  Those are the 5 things that just make me smile at being blessed to be female. 

This was a great subject and I had fun with it.  I used Bo-Bunny paper and some flowers, cut hearts from my cricut using accent essentials cart, a flourish and lettering from Ashlyn's alphabet cart, inked and of course, stickles, every girl has glitter running through their veins ;)  My tag, I googled Vera Bradley bags, I have a couple of those and I just love em, though some have slammed em for being so expensive and made out of quilting material, but hey, to each their own, I like em, and I put my pic on it and printed it up. 

Here is the finished products -

Up next is Miss Lisa, who put this whole cj swap together and is doing a great job.  Her subject is 4 things I miss when I'm out of town. 

On Wednesday I am going home to NewYork.  My niece Alexandria is receiving Confirmation and she asked me to be her Godmother!  I am very excited about it, and seeing my Mom.  Nothing in this world is like Mama love, and being with her makes me feel good.  I'll be there till Monday the 3rd.  I don't like leaving my hubs, but I'm honored that my niece asked me and this is a good reason to be there.  Going to make good, happy memories with family is wonderful.

A Beautiful Difference..

I don't know if most really stop to consider what a difference flowers planted outside your home makes.  I put out my pots, with my red white and blue flowers that'll take me from Memorial Day through the 4th and it looks so pretty!  I had to buy new Boston ferns, my others died, so I re-potted them in the hanging baskets and it gives such a great pop of green to the porch.  Those go perfect with our style home.  These guys are still babies yet, the biggies are about 20 bucks each so I just spent the 8 each for these, and when they grow big and wide they look fantastic!  Sometimes I get lazy and aren't as diligent with the watering, but I need to stay on top of it because it makes just a gorgeous finish on an already pretty house.  I also potted a new azalea that has pretty coral colored flowers when it blossoms.  That I keep at the top of the steps. 

This past weekend was so beautiful, I whipped up a batch of beignets from the mix that I bought at Cafe DuMond's store when I was in New Orleans and some of their chickory coffee and the hubs and I relaxed on the porch just enjoying.  It really lends itself to that sort of vibe!  Here are some pics of just how nice it looks out there-

I 've also been working on a swap hosted by Sondra over at Memory Makers.  Handmade flower embellishments.  I love it!  I just love flowers, so I am looking forward to getting a slew of em in the mail.  That is why I love swaps so much.  You get goodies to use for scrapping and all it costs is the postage for the most part.  Us scrappers usually have so much in our stash, we rarely have to buy things for the swaps.  Here's some pics of those-

The 1st one is without the pearl or stickles, adorned, and then with some bending and rounding with a toothpick to shape the petals a bit more.  I inked the edges with a gray ink for some pop.  The paper I've had for a few years.  It was in a pack I got from costco and it's all handmade paper.  Hope everyone likes them.  They aren't small, they're about 3", and I cut them with my BigShot die.

Re-purposing?!

Why yes, I am and do for scrapping, and that's Courtney's cj subject.  I re-purpose a LOT of stuff for scrapping, you just can't help it.  This is a hobby that just lends itself to that sort of thing.

This is the inside of my scrap closet, which I also share with my kid's games.  That's ok, one day I'll have a room to myself ;) anyway the ribbon is on an old tension rod I had.  It works great for storing the spools I have.  The next is a pretty box I picked up at Party City.  I just cut some holes, bought a dowel and cut that, stuck it through and then threaded the ribbon.  The coat hook I had bought from a Home Decorator party and never used it, till I had the Uh Hah moment and said that'll work for my fancy cutter's and little punches. 

 On this page you have one of the VERY many basil containers I save for all my scrappin doo-hickies.  They hold buttons and flowers, stickers and chip board glitter letters, rub-ons and any other overflow I have.  They are just perfect, and you can be sure I always have em, what Italian doesn't use basil?  Or bahsileegole as my family says.  That is most certainly the phonetic spelling friends.  I picked up that little pink crate, where I don't remember but it is just perfect for stickles.  Though my collection is growing and I'm going to need a bigger one soon!  My journaling just lists the things that I re-purposed.  What a great way to be green without any effort what so ever.  Awesome subject Courtney!  My tag is re-purposed too, a music card.  I save those things and gift cards too, and one day I'll use em for a project, but I thought it would be perfect for this :)

The next cj is Jessica's, 3 things I love about summer.  Hands down the 4th of July is my favorite thing of all!  Next to Christmas it's my fave.  I don't know why, but I love the bbqing and celebrating of our country's birth.  We spend the day just enjoying each other and eating then doing some fireworks.  The kids always have fun.  Next is just the long lazy day's of summer itself.  The fact that you don't have to go or be anywhere is so wonderful and I'm very very lucky that I can be at home with my kids and do just that.  One of the wonderful things summer in my town brings to us is the Redlands Bowl, click on it to see just how fantastic this is!  And it's all free.  Every summer I take the kids and we have a picnic dinner and enjoy the show.  We've seen Beauty and The Beast, Brigadoon, The Wizard of Oz, Lorna Luft  just to name a few.  It's a fantastic way to spend a summer night and get some great culture.  Here are the layouts -

Here are the tags I made.  For Court's I used a music card that Starbucks gives out each Tuesday for iTunes.  Hey Courtney, you can use the card if you have iTunes, and you like the song!  Jessica's is just a summery fourth kinda tag -

Of course being last minute Lucy, I missed the Scrapping to The Music's deadline and didn't get it in.  The song was Footloose, from the movie of the same name.  I had everything ready to go, just not done.  Oh well, I need to work on that.  In the meantime I'll post it here.  Yes those are my kids flying through the air and landing on my couch while Dad snaps the pics.  Nice, huh?  Oh well, it doesn't hurt to cut loose, footloose once in a while right ;)

This week I will try very hard to get the layout done and in before the deadline!  So what do all of you that blog think of blogger's changes?  I'm liking them, the only thing that bugs me a bit is you can't upload more than 1 pic at a time, unless I'm missing something.  Otherwise it's very nice : )  Don't forget to travel to my other blog and become a follower, find out about some books you might be interested in, and just read the reviews and funny observations about another of my passions. 

Have a great rest of the week and weekend!

Paula

Simple Things

It's those that bring me the most pleasure.  Tomorrow I'll be going to lunch with my hubby and I love doing that.  Meeting in the afternoon and having that brief alone time with just the two of us is wonderful.  Take time to do that sort of thing with your spouse.  You'll walk away with a lilt in your step and the rest of the day you will feel good.  Just having him with me when I go to Costco or Target is great.  He's my heart and I'm much loved and spoiled, I might add.  Being with him brings a smile to my face!

Scrapping to the Music

This is the first time I've done a layout without using pictures that have meaning to me.  My family or friends aren't in it.  The song was Fireflies by Owl City, I've had it on my iPod for months now, my daughter MaryAnn discovered in in our family and we like it's upbeat melody.

Here's my layout, simple but to the point, boy those memories of catching those litte bugs are so wonderful.

I am adding more pics of the lo now that I've submitted by the deadline, and boy did I just make it at 12 right on the dot, I am soooo bad at deadlines!!

Oh Well

I didn't get an email on the 30th from Memory Makers, so my layouts didn't make it into their book :( boo hoo. Just kidding, I'm not that upset or disappointed for that matter. Though, it has afforded me the opportunity to post the layouts I submitted here on my blog. Yay! I loved the way they came, hope you like them too -

This is the layout my brother's in law ribbed me about and then spoofed, I love this one. The heart I made with my stampin-up stamp and then the accent glaze to shine it up nice. I love the affect of the love quote over the word ever, then the 4 overlaying it all.

This is on the small side, I had resized for emailing ease, but it's from Sophia's 1st recital. Love the colors and the accents.

Next up is Courtney's cj, her theme is items repurposed for scrapbooking, so I need to get moving on it. I didn't scrap AT all this past week!

A New Blog

I wanted to take a minute to tell you all about a new blog I've started. It'll be strictly book related. I have a link to it on the side bar to the left. I hope all who stop here will travel over and see what's happening in my reading world. Books are a big part of my life. I love to read and I'm excited to have a blog just on that. I'll review, have my kids review what they've read, and hopefully some of you will post some comments and maybe we can even get some discussions posted on books you may or may not have liked. I would love you to email me and I'd be happy to post your thoughts on any great authors or books you've encountered!!

Check it out -

http://tomesdevotee.blogspot.com/

Become a follower, and be sure to leave a word or 2 ;)

If I don't get back on, for those of you who are Christian, have a wonderful Easter, enjoy your families and revel in the meaning of the day!!