{two steps forward, one step back}

Every time I think I'm catching up, I find about 10 things on my to-do list that I've neglected. Sigh....there just really isn't enough time in a day, and the older I get, the more true that becomes! I know I'm way overdue on a way more interesting blog post, and it's coming. I promise. My daughter has a Christmas parade tomorrow, and I hope to get some cute photos I can post, along with the promised kitchen island photos. But for now, I leave you with this:




Cheers!

{cyber monday}

Hubby assured me that all online stores had their big sales on the MONDAY following Thanksgiving. Of course, I soon found out that all of digiland seemed to go with Black Friday. Oh well. I like being different :) This way, the turkey's done, and all your street shopping is out of the way, right? Spend a little time on yourself ;)

{feeling festive}

Wow, Thanksgiving is next week? As in 7 days from now? Really? How did that happen? Wasn't yesterday the 1st? I can't believe how time flies by when you're ultra-busy! It seems like that should work the opposite way. Shouldn't time slow down when you really need it, and speed up when sucky things happen, like waiting in line at the DMV, or at the grocery store? Makes sense to me. Let's campaign for it!

This year, the huge Thanksgiving get-together is going to be at my house. I have no idea what I was thinking. My house, that hubby and I painstakingly constructed ourselves 5 years ago, yet remains unfinished. Shower doors are missing. No backsplash in the kitchen. Cabinets still need painting. So what do I decide to do instead? Re-do the kitchen island! LOL It's been completely rebuilt, repainted, and re-tiled. It still needs grout, but it's looking fabulous! I'll post before and after pics when it's done.

But things are finally getting done. No, we still won't have shower doors, but things are getting cleaned up, and other projects are getting done. My scrap room is seeing the good side to this. Since it's also the office/guest room, it has gotten a complete overhaul before guests arrive. New bed, new bedding, new French doors, new artwork, and a thorough cleaning. I actually feel creative in here now!



I'm finishing up work/scrapping stuff this week so that I can clean and decorate all next week. My house has to be completely decked out for Christmas by Thanksgiving Day. It just makes it feel so much more festive! With our 6 Christmas trees, and infinite yards of garland, it usually takes me about 3 days. So I probably won't be online much next week.

I do have new products going in the store tomorrow, though. And with all this holiday stuff surrounding me, my new kit for November will be just as festive. Here's a little peek:

{latest layout}

On a side note, my little nephew is turning 1 this weekend! I was commissioned by my bro to do his invites. Happy Birthday Dylan!



Here's to sugared rims, tinsel, and white fairy lights! Cheers!

{halloween 2007}

The end-of-year holiday frenzy has begun. Halloween kicked it off, and is now over, so I suppose we are to move straight on to Christmas. My local Hobby Lobby has had Christmas decorations out since the end of August. I don't understand that at all. Are there really people who begin to decorate, or at least begin PLANNING to decorate, that early? I guess there must be, otherwise they wouldn't do it, right? I give kudos to my grocery store, who at least waited until the last pumpkin was out the door!

I can't even start thinking about Christmas yet. Well, that's not entirely true. I have already begun some early shopping, but that in no way includes holiday decor. The fact that I have already purchased FOUR Christmas presents is a huge accomplishment. I mean, we are a last minute family. I bought Halloween costumes two days before Halloween, when there was hardly any selection left (and yet, still nothing was on sale). But it always gets done, and more often than not, it gets done right. I WILL have the house decorated for Christmas on Thanksgiving Day, but not before then!

Speaking of Halloween, I had too much fun taking GOOD pictures this year. I never ever have good photos of the kids in their ultra-cute costumes, so I did it right this year. We had 2 pirates, and 2 witches. Maybe not original, but they were all adorable!

It was Alex's first time trick-or-treating (a HUGE deal in our neighborhood):







Morgan was his wench ;) :











These two are always inseparable:

latest layout

One Halloween layout done, 3 more to go!



Here's to last minute! Cheers!

{promised pics}

A blog post is just no fun without photos, right? Well, I have plenty of them this time! I spent most of the day editing, while I should have been working. These are all from a weekend spent at my mom's. I still haven't figured out the best way to save them for the web. It takes out so much color and leaves them looking kind of blah. Hints, anyone?

{my adorable nephew Dylan}

{paper hats}

{some urban processing experiments}

{being moody}

{my beautiful girl}

{games with daddy}

{4-wheelin'}

(this one's blurry, but i couldn't resist that priceless look on Jessie's face!)

My ultimate, yet unattainable goal in life is to take photos like These Girls. Talent galore.

{latest layout}

I was a guest artist for the Hodge Podge Challenge this week! I got to play with some talented ladies, and create a no-obligations layout for ME. It was quite therapeutic.



Here's to my oldest, who handles a lot in life and is always complaining that I never scrap her. Cheers!

{getting cooler}

Memphis is one of those spots in the country where we only have two seasons: Hot and Cold. Last week it was mid-80's. Today, I'm in a sweater, and wearing socks! *gasp* You know it's cold when I suffer the socks. It's probably not even considered cold by most Northerners, but to me it's freakin' COLD. Good weather to stay in and scrap ;)

My middle daughter turns 10 on the 29th, and we're going to be celebrating this weekend. That reminds me...better get out and do some shopping! Kids, I swear. They always expect presents or something *teasing eyeroll* She and I sat down last night and made up these invitations to hand out to her friends:



I am not sure how it happened, but she is "little miss popular" in her school/grade. She says she's expecting about 19 kids. Ummm.....19??? Yikes! We are a family of small, intimate parties, so this will be a challenge! Should be fun, though....for her, anyway! LOL

{latest layouts}

Scrapologie's October kit was simply amazing! I love exercising my paper brain once in awhile (i mean the paper aspect of scrapping, not that my brain is made of paper!), and this kit was so much fun to play with!

Hoot: Yes, these are repeat photos, but I love them so much!



This Side Up: A captured moment between DH and DD. Love it when we can catch these non-posed shots!



Natural Beauty: A precious photo to me, because Helen hates to show her teeth when she smiles. I fought and fought with this one, but it ended up being my favorite!



Autumn Bouquet: Ranjini sent me these sweet little cone-shaped boxes, and I knew I had to do something with them! I thought they called for a perpetual bouquet. I am going to (eventually) make one for each season.







I spent last weekend in my hometown at their Octoberfest. Got lots of great pics. I'll edit those and share soon. Here's to more hours in the day! Cheers!

{autumn mood}

For some reason, autumn always gets me in a "house" mood. I want to decorate, clean, and rearrange the house. I want everything to look good, and smell good! We've been wanting new sitting room furniture to take the place of the breakfast room that we never use, so we finally went out and splurged. Four new leather chairs, a glass coffee table, a new rug (the only one in the house so far), and some shelves. I love how it turned out! In fact, I sit in here ALL the time! We've dubbed it the "internet cafe," since I can always be found in here with a laptop!







I've been wanting a place to hang and display my layouts for some time now. There is only one small hallway downstairs, and I decided that would be perfect for an "art wall." I talked hubby into painting it a dark chocolate color. I scrap 8x8, so I mount each layout on a 12x12 piece of white cardstock, and they just pop off the wall! We hung three lengths of wire on some hooks, and I use office clips to hang the layouts from the wire. This makes it easy to arrange and switch out. We have cable lighting on the ceiling, and it's perfect to "spotlight" the wall.





I've also been doing a bit of Halloween decorating. I love Halloween! Last year, we got a lot of those cute Halloween village pieces on sale at Michael's, so I just couldn't wait to set them up this year! I don't care much for the Christmas ones, but for some reason, I adore the Halloween ones! They're just so much fun! They all light up, move, and play scary noises. Fun stuff. I set them all up on a table in our foyer.







I put some fall garland and purple lights on the front door, so now we're ready for Halloween! All we need now are a few pumpkins ;)

latest layouts

I'm starting to go back and scrap some older pics. Love this one of Helen, with the light shining off her then-blonde hair:



Real men wear pink (at least their sister's bathrobe):



Here's to autumn! Cheers!