I'm a bit emotionally spent at the moment so am not up for giving details, but here's how creativity hit me tonight. For those of you know know what she's been going through, let's just say things have taken a turn for the worse the past few weeks. Now we just need the strength to get through this and come to an agreeable solution that will be beneficial to her health. And since the brunt of this will be on my shoulders, let's hope we dont' kill each other since I don't have Andrew's patience.

More trip plans

So on Friday I commented about not knowing how we were going to deal with the whole camping aspect of going to Scotland. I started thinking of the various options- bring our own gear with us, ship stuff to the UK office, ask people from the UK office if they had anything we could borrow, buy new while we're there... None of these seemed like good options.

I posted on the James forum about my quandary. One person offered that if I wanted, I could have stuff shipped to her, and she would bring it along. Nice offer, but probably not something I would choose to do- sending things to a random stranger. And then someone else mentioned about Tangerine Fields.

This is the best option yet! You book through them and you get a tent, air mattress, and brand new sleeping bags. When you're done, you can take the sleeping bag with you, or if you leave it, they'll donate it to charity. Also, they do all the set up and take down of your tent. This certainly isn't an option I would choose had we actually been living in the UK, but it's perfect for us since we'll be flying. So I booked a tent package this morning.

Hmmm, what's next on the planning list?

I've started to look at flights, and they're all ridiculously expensive. We'll probably fly in and out of different cities- either fly into Edinburgh and out of London, or vice-versa. However, finding direct flights to Edinburgh, or anywhere near there, is proving to be impossible. And like I mentioned, everything is crazy expensive. Flying RT from the same city doesn't really help anything.

And realizing that we're going to have to pay for a rental car to be parked for 3 days while we're at T seems like a waste of money, but otherwise we're not going to have anywhere to stash the rest of our luggage. I'm somewhat concerned about leaving a laptop in the car for 3 days as well, but not too much we can do about that. I know I'll need it for back-up for my photos. I'm sure I'll be taking way more pictures in 2 weeks than my memory cards will hold.

Active Weekend

So skating has been a lot of fun lately. Although my waltz jump is still really sucky, my teacher has realized that I'm better than the other students on other things. So last weekend she taught me to do a spread eagle, and then yesterday she had me doing a lunge and a 3-turn simultaneously. Yeah, not so easy. And I was doing so many lunges that I'm in a bit of pain today.

But then since the weather has been so nice (upper 50s, low 60s) Chris and I went for a bike ride today. Only about 6 miles, but that was enough. I don't think we've been on our bikes since we went to Acadia back in August.

Too bad tomorrow it's supposed to snow. I guess we're back to winter for a bit longer. too bad the garden didn't get that memo. I've got bulbs popping up all over the place.

Mel, you can call me crazy now...

So a week and a half ago when I first mentioned it to Chris, he seemed to think I was crazy. I guess somewhere along the lines I wore him down. Would have been cheaper if he had said yes a week ago though. :)

James is playing at T in the Park in Scotland in July. If I had gotten tickets last week when they first went on sale, we might have just been able to get a ticket for Saturday. However, he didn't approve the purchase a week ago, so tickets sold out, without me getting any. And then yesterday I saw that a limited number was going to be re-released. (Ticketmaster had a limit on how many could be purchased, so these were some of those extras now going to the public, etc.) No mention though of how many tickets, what types, etc.

Tickets were going back on sale at 10 am. 10 am UK time, 5 am in Boston. Blech. I dutifully set my alarm for 4:30. For those of you who know me, I HATE mornings. But I was even semi-awake before my alarm went off. Hit snooze a couple of times and got up.

First I tried for tickets for Saturday only. Tried a few times and no luck. Tried for weekend with camping, and found tickets right away. So now we're going for the whole weekend and somehow we have to figure out how to get a tent and other camping gear over there. I guess worst case we skip the camping and find somewhere else in the area to stay, but who knows.

And we all complain about Ticketmaster fees, right? Well the service charge on the tickers and the parking ticket are expected. But for ticket delivery, when purchasing internationally, box office collection is the only option. Why does that cost me £2.25? It's not like they are sending it anywhere. Actually, I gladly would have paid to have the tickets sent to me, but that wasn't an option.

So yeah, we're going to Scotland. Now we need to plan the rest of our vacation. :)

Productive Day

Yesterday I went to a crop. It was scheduled to go from 9-9. I knew that this was way too much time for me, so I figured I would get there around 10, and leave around 7 or 8. Well I got there at 10:45 and left around 5:30. I didn't bring nearly enough to work on, so by that point I was done with what I had brought. Oh well, I still had a productive day.

And then today, I spent some time this afternoon cleaning up my scrap room. Came across lots of things that I didn't remember that I had. Probably have a lot more that I can get rid of as well. Now I have a bunch of things to give away, some to save for a yard sale, and some others to possibly put on eBay.

Chris joined the Facebook and now she doesn't seem to blog anymore. Not that she was blogging much to begin with. She's also not sure why she is referring to herself in the third person.

However, she feels that Facebook is a rather interesting addiction. It's amazing how many people want to become your friend. And she realizes how horrible she is with remembering names. What? She went to school with you 10+ years ago and she's supposed to remember who you are? And your current photo is supposed to trigger a memory of you were? Not likely!

I'm a scrappin' machine!

While the rest of the world (or at least most people in the US) were watching the Superbowl, I was watching The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and scrapping. Well, mostly watching the movie, and then when it ended I got my scrap on. Three more layouts to check off the list! Woo hoo! And earlier this week I got another one done as well.



I pretty much failed with LOAD, but at least I'm getting back into it. I'm feeling really behind, so hopefully I'll get a little more caught up soon.

Brown paper packages tied up with string...

Ok, so they're not wrapped with brown paper or tied up with strings, but coming home to a package on my doorstep is a favorite thing- or at least a fun thing.

On Monday the Derby trophies arrived. It's weird having them so early. I opened them up to make sure they're spelled correctly, and then they went back in their box and down to the basement with some of the other Derby stuff.

And then according to the tracking, I should be getting another package on Friday. This one makes me VERY happy! A little over 3 years ago I ordered a new trimmer. They were being made by a small family run company who made each one individually, so they took a long time to produce. And there was a lengthy waiting list. Then the family sold the company so the new owners had to take some time to get things up and running to the same standards. But now mine is on its way! I hope it was worth the wait and that it lives up to its hype.

And for those of you wondering why I would wait 3 years for a trimmer? Because I've already gone through at least 6 other trimmers. Favorites aren't favorites for long. They always seem to develop some kind of quirk that you just can't fix. And many of them can't cut a straight line. At all.

Days 6 - 8

So what have I done, scrappy-wise, since last posting?

Day 6 I didn't do anything. Everyone needs the occasional day off, right?

Day 7 I worked on a 2-up album of some photos from the days before my wedding- an Open House that we had, rehearsal, bowling, etc. This project should be really easy, but 5 1/2 years later it's still not done. Nothing really worth posting, but I think it will be my project for the next few days so that I can finally cross it off my list.

So that brings us to day 8. Tonight I did both of the layouts pictured here: Suzanne's graduation photos from May, and the cover page for our 2008 album. Chris' mom requested photos of the kids and their families for Christmas, so on Thanksgiving I had Andrew do a mini photo shoot of Chris and I.

Not happy with it

Here's my day 5 of LOAD, and I'm not happy with it. I liked it much better when the photo was centered over the strips of paper and it was centered towards the bottom of the page. But I wanted to add the little journaling block. The only way I think I would have been happy with it stylistically would been to have hid it behind the picture, but I didn't want hidden journaling. Oh well. I guess not all of my pages can be winners. (I realized this fact a LONG time ago!)

And since I haven't posted it yet, here's day four. I like this one. Not sure when I realized it, but somewhere along the line I realized that when I had taken a photo during my UK trip in '98, I took a picture of the same rock that my mom found in '86. I wish the pictures were a bit lighter, but I wasn't up for lightening it in PhotoShop. I guess I'm more happy that they are done.

So today I joined Weight Watchers Online. For a while now I've been less than happy with my body. After going through adolescence and never having to worry about what I eat, I think it's starting to catch up with me. Over the past few years, whenever I go to the doctor, there has been an increase in my weight. I'm still within the "healthy" range, but I'm personally not happy with my weight, the extra bulges of fat, and the slowly increasing clothing sizes.

So, please, if you see me, don't make the comments about "you look great, you don't need to loose weight." Remember, clothing hides a lot of the flab.

But I don't think I realized how restricting this would be! I only get 21 points a day. I plugged in what I've eaten already today and what I plan to have for dinner, and I'm already over. And I'm sure that I normally would have added an afternoon snack, and even more at dinner, but now I see what a real portion size is. Ugh.

I think one of my issues is that I have absolutely no self control when it comes to food. If I'm hungry, I grab a snack. And I'll admit, I'm really bad about the portion size of that snack. If I want a cookie, I'll have 5 or 6. I also eat when I'm bored. And it certainly doesn't help that there's a well stocked kitchen of snacks here at work.

This is going to be tough!

January LOAD

Lately I seem to have gotten out of a scrappy groove. I know I'm in bad shape when I'm behind in my albums going back to about May. To help remedy this, I'm hosting a LOAD (layout a day) challenge over at Tally.

Unfortunately, I really need to find the time to sit and edit photos for my 2008 album, so until I get a chance to do that, I'm working with some photos that I had on hand.

So here we have the start of my challenge. Yesterday I did Halloween 1984- The Indian and the Witch. My scanner really doesn't like lumpy and bumpy stuff, so it had a hard time with the numbers. That's why it's so dark and blurry.

Day two I did Christmas 1948. I need to find out who Santa was, and once I have all of the names I'll slip them into the gold label holder on the upper right.

On day three I was on a roll. Still working on the older photos, so I looked through my stash and found this one of some rocks behind my childhood home. When we were younger, Andrew and I each had our own rock that we would climb on. Mine was the jagged one because it was easier to climb- more foot and hand holds. He got the nice smooth one.

Then, since I was still in a crafting mood, I decided to make some cards. I have some really fun supplies that I was itching to use, so decided to make some birthday cards. And I used some older supplies as well, which is always nice.

I have so much stuff in my craft room I often think that I could scrap for a year and, except for adhesive, not need to buy a single thing. Too bad I'd never do that.

Is it Derby time already?

This must be the time of year when most "normal" people hold their Pinewood Derbies. By normal I guess I mean the Boy Scouts of America. I say this because I just got an email from the place I ordered trophies from last year. They were offering them at 10% off. Always wanting to save some money, I went ahead and ordered them. How's that for being ahead of the game?

For those of you wanting to plan for the Derby, nothing definite yet, but my in-laws said that the middle of the month is easier for them to get away than the beginning or end. So plan for the middle of probably June or July. I'm guessing by August they'll need to get back home for the start of school.

Christmas 1948

Prior to Thanksgiving my aunt and uncle did some sorting of the various slides that they have and divided them into piles for some of the various family members- some for me, some for my cousin, and some for my aunt's cousin. This is one that I got. It is my mom, my aunt, and my uncle celebrating Christmas in 1948. I LOVE this picture. Had to go out and get a new slide scanner so that I would be able to get a print of this and others. I love how Aunt Cathrine and Uncle Rob get that they are supposed to be playing with their toys, but my mom just is quizzically looking at the photographer.

Or what about this one?

"Santa, how did you know I wanted a new dolly? You're the best! I'm going to try to pretend that I don't notice how dirty the trim is on your suit. Maybe it got that filthy from going down all of the chimneys? And I'll also ignore how fake looking your beard looks."

Meanwhile, Aunt Cathrine, being the smart young lady that she is, is just laughing to herself about how gullible her baby sister is.

Ah, those were the days.

Days 5, 7, 8 and 9

Day 9

Are you looking for that perfect gift this year for a teacher’s gift? Well this is a great gift cheap & easy....Cookie Mix in a Jar

I made these about 4years ago when Kyle was in preschool for his 3 teachers and they loved them! I got this idea when I saw them at the store selling them for whatever ridiculous amount they were asking for them! After reading the ingredients I thought I could do them myself for half the price! And there are so many different ways to make these such as different cookie recipes or decorating them your jars and the best thing they don't have to be just for a Christmas gift a great gift for many occasions! I couldn't find any mason jars so i found this jar and found some snowman decorations that are made of some kind of plastic and i cut the head off and glued it to my jar makes my jar look a little extra special for a Christmas gift!

Now you will get your ingredients for your cookie mix and will layer them into the jar one by one. Layering flour on the bottom packed down (don’t push hard it will go all over believe me!..lol), mixing the rest and pack them down tightly (if you don’t have enough room for the chocolate chips (you should not have too, but i thought it would be cute to put them in a baggie and you could tie them to the jar).

After you have packed all your ingredients tightly in your jar you are ready to decorate your jar your own way! Put your tag on it with your baking directions and there you go Cookie Mix in a Jar! It will probably cost about $8 (not including the ingredients you may already have them) to make, can’t beat that for a gift and its the PERFECT HOMEMADE GIFT!

As you can see, I decided not to go with a cookie mix. I just didn't know who I would give a cookie jar to. However, I have the perfect person in mind for this "jewelry making" jar.

Day 8:
Let it Snow!!! Let it Snow!!! Let it Snow!!!

This challenge is to scrap about what snow and the holidays mean to you! You may interpret this broadly. You can do a page about a great snow storm you had on Christmas Eve. A sled as a present. Or maybe that Christmas Cruise to Mexico where you actually MISSED the snow. Or maybe your holidays are always snow-free; how do you feel about that?

Other than the snow/holiday theme the other requirements are:

Use blue or purple as a prominent color on the page.

Use something shiny! (Bling, glitter, glitter letters, whatever)

Use circles and/or snowflakes (which are kind of circular)

DAY 7
Okay ladies! I want to see a two-page layout. I hardly see these and I am guilty of never doing them. Here are my rules. Two page layout (no smaller than 8 1/2x11) 7 pictures 7 patterned paper 7 buttons and last but not least...... 7 different techniques (such as distressing, inking, sewing, paint, doodling)

Day Five
My challenge will go with the 12 days of Christmas song. So the 5th is the Fiiiiiiiive Goooolllldeeeen Riiiiiiiiings part. :) like my singing? My challenge is to scrap a page using gold and tones of gold (tans, yellows, etc.) and iincoorperate ONLY round and circular embellishments into your page. (five would be SWEET)

Scrappiness continues

I guess I'm in a creative groove, because I think I've been making something pretty much every single day. Plus I spent some time yesterday working on cleaning up my room a bit.



So here we have the 3rd tag for Day 4 and a birthday card for my nephew. I also made this year's holiday card, which I did for Day 6, but I'm not going to post it here yet. Don't want to spoil the surprise.

Now to get cracking on Days 5 and 7. I have an idea of what to do for 7, but no clue about 5!

12 Days of Christmas

So in my last post I mentioned that I was participating in a "12 Days of Christmas" challenge over at Tally. Here are my entries for days 1 - 4, as well as the rules that went with each one.

December 1st Challenge
"I Believe"

Welcome to the first day of the 12 days of Christmas! I present you with your first challenge.

I was driving along and heard this old song "I Believe in You" by Don Williams, and thought, hey, this is my theme for the "Twelve Days of Christmas" challenge!

So your challenge is to Google the song, and lyrics.
*Use any part of the song; the title, lyrics, etc.
*Use the word "Believe" in either your title or journaling or both.
*Use red. A little or a lot, the choice is yours.
*You creation need not be Christmas related, the choice is yours!



December 2nd Challenge
Times are so different from when we were kids. Parents had to put together gifts, baking was an all day event, Advent Calendars, the specials on TV. Remember the sights and sounds of childhood. I can still envision my favorite Christmas. The things we did as a family. Our traditions. Some may have slipped us by and we should remember them. Your challenge is to:

• Scrapbook a tradition from your childhood that you no longer do and miss now.
• Must include journaling and the color red.
  
• Use Wordle somewhere on your page or let it be the page. The words should be thoughts of your traditions from Xmas. Wordle.

DAY THREE This challenge is about YOU. As parents we are so busy running from toy store to electronics store to walmart and to a zillion other places we tend to forget about ourselves. So this layout focuses on you. It should be titled "Dear Santa/mom's Christmas list". Requirments: 1. Your Christmas list 2. You must use at least 2 different alphas on the page. 3. Santa must be somewhere on your page. 4. Must use a stamped image of some sort. 5. Colors must include Red, green and blue. 6. Must include a photo of yourself!

Welcome to the 4th day of Christmas! Today your challenge is to make FOUR things....don't worry, they're small! Your challenge today is to make one ATC and three gift tags. You can keep the ATC for yourself, or trade with someone else who completes this challenge. The gift tags are for you to use on your gifts this year, since a handmade tag adds a lovely personal touch to your gift!

Sounds easy so far, right? Okay, here are the rules:

1. Your ATC (sized 3.5 x 2.5 inches) has to include at least FOUR things from the following list:

• a reindeer
• an angel
• the colors green and white
• Santa Claus
• a snowman
• bling (ie glitter or rhinestones)
• a tree
• the colors red and silver
• a candy cane
• a star

2. Your gift tags must be the same size as your ATC or smaller. They need to have the words "To:" and "From:" on them, but otherwise....anything goes!




Ooops. Just reread that as I was posting and see that I need to make a 3rd tag. Guess I'll be taking care of that tomorrow.

12 Days of Christmas

Over at Tally I'm participating in a 12 Days of Christmas challenge. For the first 12 days of December a new challenge is being issued every day. No idea what I'm doing for yesterday's challenge yet, but I have some good ideas for today's. One element for today's challenge is that it has to include a Wordle, so pictured is the one I created, using the words to 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. If only I could be at home scrapping.

In other Christmas news, since probably 1999, every year we get together with my dad for Cookie Baking. Originally it was one of his theme weekends, but due to schedules it's now pretty much become a one day affair. We use to schlep all of our stuff out to Secret Lake, but in recent years we've had it at our place.

Anyway, in 2002 I started to make an annual cookbook, including pictures and recipes from that year. Last year I was stressed with a number of different things, so I didn't make the cookbook. A couple of weeks ago I had a coupon code for a free photo book and I'd been hoping to finally make a book for last year. That's when I found out that due to a computer crash I lost all historic record of last year and that is bumming me out a bit. I tried looking at pictures of what we made, but many of them are blurry and I can't tell what anything is. (Also, many of the bars end up looking similar.)

So now I'm starting to look at digital scrapbooking items and wondering if I can essentially make the book ahead of time so that all I'll have to do is drop in the photos for this year. Anything to make the process go more quickly, right?

Weekend To-do list

Yesterday I was working from home so that I could be there for the cable guy, but it also gave me a chance to get some stuff organized for the craft faire. (I will be so happy when it's over!) There's still plenty more that I would like to get done, but now I feel comfortable with what has been done. Most of the day was spent with printing price signs, taking photos of some of Chris' puzzles and editing them, etc. One of the things on my list, was to make more lavender sachets if I had time. The ones I had made previously were knit, and probably took about and hour and a half to two hours each to make. Due to a minimum order requirement, I had TONS of lavender, so I figured I would sew some up instead. So in about 2 hours, maybe a bit more, I made 25 of these. I hope I sell most of them, because otherwise I have no idea what I'll do with all of them!

Friday- tonight

• Redo price signs for sachets- changing price of knit and making new sign for fabric ones
• If there's time, make some more cards (Ha! this one is really wishful thinking on my part)
• Iron and price apron
• Sew cupcake print coaster sets (these have already been cut out. however, if I don't get to them the world won't end)
• Start to load up the car
  

Saturday

• I typically have skating on Saturday mornings, but due to the craft faire I'll be missing this week.
• Craft Faire- set up starts at 7:30. Not sure if we'll be there that early or a little later. Sales goes from 9-2.
• 11ish have to leave the Faire to go pick up my mom. Not really wanting to do this, but if saves her from having to find rides in both directions.
• Afternoon- relax/ nap?
• Dinner most likely at Sunset. I think we'll both be too exhausted to cook. And if we go, we'll probably run into friends who told us they would be there.
  

Sunday

• Brunch at home of one of Chris' coworkers
• Relax!!!!!
  

I lied

So on my last post I mentioned that I had lost my thumb ring. Guess what- I didn't! I can't sleep with my rings on, so I always put them in this little dish on my dresser. Turns out that when I was putting on my other rings, I never put on my thumb ring.

Today I've been "working" from home. The cable guy came to get us set up for digital cable, but I've also been busy getting things ready for the craft faire- taking pictures outside in 25 degree weather, editing those photos, creating price tags, etc. Now that the rest of the things are more or less under control, I may start making some more product. I'd like to make a few more cards and some more lavender sachets. We'll see....