Hello, 20-30 Inches

of snow that is!  Are you kidding me right now?  I could not be happier.  I should be able to get a lot of scrappy stuff done this weekend, WooooooHooooooo.  I will post some pics of the winter wonderland later. 

More Snow

this weekend.  Supposed to start Friday and roll out Saturday.  The weatherman is still undecided on whether we are going to get a little or a lot here, but he says that this storm is going to drop buckets somewhere. 

I Am Officially In Love

With my family of course.  Being wife/mom makes me so happy.  hmmm, now if I could just learn to let go of the feeling that I should always be doing something.........

With the new scrapbook store that I found that is just 20 minutes from my house.  I left with a headache from looking at so much great stuff!!!!!!

With my new classes.  OMGoodness the ideas, the ideas.  I can't wait to teach them!

With starting school back up again soon.....

With the Smithsonian.  Not only is it the bestest museum ever, it has some of the greatest activities.  Scavenger hunt in the art museum, artist lectures, concerts, movies heeello.  Love it. 

With scrappin photos that I printed out last week instead of last century, lol.  Yeah, i'm that bad.  And one of those to boot.  You know which one, "gotta scrap all those photos from the first 20 years before I print out new ones" one.

Do you have old, ugly (why did I ever buy this & what the heck am I goint to use it for?) patterned paper that you know you're never going to use?  I have a ton of it, probably literally.  Here are 10 things that I came up with to use it for. 

• Use the white back instead of cutting up a piece of white cardstock.
• Paint it, glimmer mist it, stamp it or emboss it than cut it up into decorative embellishments.  You can use paper piecing, cricuts, sizzix, quickcuts, slices or any die cut machine with very good results, you just have to make sure your paper is bone dry.  I especially love stamped & cut out flowers.    
• Use it as a template.  When I am designing a layout, I often cut regular copy paper to the size of the photo/s that I am thinking of using to see if I like the size and to plan placement.  Works like a charm.  I would use the white sides because it is much less distracting than a pattern (especially if it's ugly).
• Punch elements out of it and use the paper or the element as a mask.
• Use it to protect your work surface.  Old magazines work well for this too. 
• Sometimes I will have paper that I want to use as a base of my layouts but it is not strong enough.  I simply adhere it to a piece of junk paper to make it a little stronger.  Sometimes you may have to trim it a bit so it doesn't show, but it works like a charm.  Tape runners & not liquid adhesive seems to work better for this.    
• I read a lot.  It is not uncommon for me to be reading 3 or 4 books and a couple of magazines at the same time.  So (i'm sure you can see where this is going) I cut it up into bookmarks/placeholders.  Also great for making notes on when I see a project that I like. 
• Challenge yourself to use it. 
• Emboss it than sand it.  I have gotten some great looking mats doing this. 
• Use it to make patterns for boxes, shapes, cards, etc. 

I always love to get tips for using the stuff I buy, so share please.  What do you do with your ugly paper?

And He's Off

again.  Don't know if I would like to travel as much as he does.  I used to but lately it seems as I am ready to come home the day after I leave.  So not like me.  I love to see everything and am very (very) nosey!

Me + Him + Karaoke

= a hot mess.  Neither one of us can sing and we are both boring with a capital B.  You can see where this is going, not far if a career in singing is involved.  But even a bombing in a karaoke bar is a pretty good way to end a whole, entire day spent with your honey.

My Honey's Home

I have to go pick him up in about an hour and I am beyond excited.  I haven't seen him since the middle of December.  While we were freezing our butts off, he was in the Virgin Islands chillin by the pool.  Welcome home babe, its 35 degrees today, cold yet?  Can you tell I am a teensy, weensy bit bitter?

It's Cold As

a witches' tit in a brass bra (as one of my bestest friends used to say very regularly about the state of the ac in our dorm). 21 degrees when we got home last night and apparantly our heat is stuck on 65! I am not a 65 degree type gal. I need that blasted unit to give up at least 8 more degrees. Had plans to go to the movies, library and somewhere else that I can't remember but it's super windy outside and my studio (with space heater) and bed are calling me. Ok whine session over.


Have been making something everyday. So, so happy with myself. I would put out there what I am working on but it does not seem to motivate me to finish when I do that so I will keep it to myself. But I did do this......

No photos yet b/c I haven't received all my Christmas photos back yet.  I have the perfect ones in mind.  We roasted marshmallows and I have some really cute pics of my niece eating hers. 

I think I've had my facebook account for about a year and am still a total no show there. No pictures, no posts, no comments, no nothing. But I received an email saying that a friend that I haven't seen in ages wrote on my wall. Checked it out and he actually wished me a happy birthday. I can't believe he remembered! He always was a very, very sweet man and his wife was CRAZY to let him go!!!!!! I just hope that means that there is another woman that is worthy of him waiting in the wings. Anywho, my prince charming will be here on Tuesday and I can't wait. I truly miss him and the holidays did not feel the same with him gone. I believe this is the first or second holiday in 14 years that we have not spent together.

I went to Target yesterday to process some of my photos and duh, I left the darn memory card in my busted, only want to work occasionally card reader. DITTTZZZYYYY I have been lately. Maybe it's because my better half is gone.

It's 12pm and where is my piggy?

Still in bed. What???? He is gonna be a real pill on Monday when he has to get up at 6:30 and it is 25 degrees outside. So not looking forward to that.

I haven't posted in ages so I will apologize in advance for being super chatty today.  My daughter, sister & her kids and my niece came here for Christmas and it was so much fun.  I wish they could have stayed even longer.  We did so much!!!!  And had a wonderful time. On Christmas day I thought that the kids would be homesick but they loved it.  We opened gifts, we played in the snow, we watched movies, we took naps, we played with the kids toys, we..... well you get the picture, we did a whole bunch of nothing! We did not even cook because we had plans to go to Old Country Buffet and enjoy a home cooked southern meal that we did not cook ourselves (or wash any dishes for). We loaded the kids in the car, agreed on our plan to eat greedily, sit back and chat for an hour or so, eat greedily again than come home stuffed to the gills and go for a walk (not! it's cold outside) nap, nap and nap. We pull up and were so happy that it didn't seem crowded at all. Uh, that's because it was CLOSED. What the heck! Closed you must be kidding me, I did not buy any food to cook for Christmas dinner and it is now 4pm. My brother told me that it was packed last Christmas what is going on. Closed. The universe stricks again. Plan B. Sit in the parking lot and call restaraunts in the area till we find one that is open. Finally, Ruby Tuesday answered the phone. Not southern but food. Not buffet but salad. And we had the place to ourselves. Great food, lots of laughs and we managed to still get stuffed.

I managed to steal some photos of our vaca from my girls facebook page