Carrying a camera with you every minute of the day leads to some interesting shots....(it's too bad I forget I have it with me!), but I did manage a few for Halloween. I had to go to the vet's to pick up a prescription for Frasier and found this cute little girl waiting to see the doc...

And when I stopped at the grocery store...

Then I came home and started moving all my scrap crap to this little corner of my bedroom. I've got a lot of organizing to do this weekend. My stuff is everywhere and I need it in one place. I'd rather have it all where I scrap, but I use my kitchen island, and I've already taken over two kitchen drawers for scrapping. Pretty soon I won't have any utensils at all.

I hoped to move to a two bedroom and finally have a craft room, but I'll stay put in this little corner instead, and just spend my money on more supplies.

Week In The Life

I've noticed that a lot of people have been making Week In The Life books, so I clicked on a link at Paperclipping, and found the culprit behind all these books. Ali Edwards. Of course. She's SO creative. She just creates and creates and creates. (Right now she's busy creating a baby.) When I clicked on the Week In The Life link, I found this list of posts that Ali had made about the Week In The Life project....and I began to read....and now I'm hooked. I'm totally making a Week In The Life book. I know I can do this....even if my life is boring and I'm stuck in an office all day...I'm doing it. One week. Just one.

I already started...I'm taking pictures. Making notes. Went to Staples and bought some trading card page protectors. Took a picture of it. Went to Starbucks and bought a Frappacino. Took a picture of it. Made my bed. Took a picture of it. Yep, my life is boring....but it will be well documented for at least one week.

Seriously, I love this idea. There's so much in our daily life that we take for granted. I'm looking forward to appreciating the small stuff.



I received a Fall package from my secret sister yesterday. First, a birthday gift and now a Fall gift. I'm lovin that girl. Look how color coordinated....yummy stuff.

Meet Maliki

Isn't he adorable? He's the newborn giraffe at The Living Desert. So unbelievably graceful when they walk. I think this is the most popular exhibit they have...I know we had a hard time dragging ourselves away...the adults were THIS close...I swear...

Had a fantastic day at The Living Desert on Saturday... spent a lot of time taking pictures of butterflys and hummingbirds. The kids tried to pick up the butterflys but they wouldn't cooperate.

And those hummers are so hard to photograph... if you don't catch them in the sun, you can't see their colors. Needless to say, I didn't get any shots in the sun, but I love those little guys.

Happy Fall Y'all

Yeah, I know, Fall started a month ago. I told you I was behind! My family is coming out this weekend and we're going to The Living Desert. Love that place! The Hummingbird and Butterfly exhibit is open and I can't wait to see it and get some great pictures!

I need some new pictures of the kids too. They're growing so fast and I don't have any recent pics....still scrapping old ones.

That was just the motivation I needed to set out my decorations and clean, clean, clean. My plants are doing pretty good right now, the beaugainvillea is blooming again and I put out some impatiens now that I have shade. Bought a new fall wreath for the door, (love the colors), made this darling mosaic at Flickr, and I'm set for fall.

I'm SO FAR BEHIND!! I haven't scrapped, I haven't blogged, I haven't done anything FUN for weeks! I have awards to give away, OPB's to gush about, a layout or twenty to finish, mini albums to work on, a design class that started a week ago, and I haven't done a SINGLE thing. Nada. Zip.

As of last week I'm 61 years old. Damn. I can't tell you how I wish that number were 40, maybe even 50....but 61? Oh, that's old...it's SO old. But I DON'T FEEL 61!!!! I don't have grandchildren, I don't even have a mate to grow old(er) with. I'm still the same person I always was....wiser, but no different now than I was at 40, or any other age. So you see, therein lies my reasoning for not feeling like a grown up.....I obviously believe you MUST be married and have children in order to grow up. I didn't....so I'm still a kid. Deal with it.

And... like a kid, I happy danced all over the place last week when my "secret sister" from CKMB sent me a birthday package full of scrap goodies. I just love these packages...but this one was extra special because it was for my birthday...and because it was from my "secret sister" who's been spoiling me all year long.




Love the K&Company goodies, and the mini book (isn't it CUTE???!), and my INITIAL all blinged out in pink! And the CATS word book and cat stickers and an adorable little cat stamp! And on top of all that, she sent me the Mini Album in an Evening mag. Isn't she a cool pal? I hope I'm doing as good a job for mine.

Over the weekend I cleaned out my closet.....exciting huh? Then I cleaned up the balcony since the temperature finally dropped below 100 degrees. I'm still discovering what I can grow out here that the sun won't kill in the summer. The balcony doesn't have an overhang for shade, sun, wind, nuthin'. At least I'm learning to like the desert landscape, it's so different from what I'm used to.

I cleaned up my kitchen island too....the one where I scrap. Put everything away and now I have no choice but to get to work on my design class items. Later folks.

That's Nancy WITH A Jones....

Nancy Jones has a jones......a scrapbooking jones! And since one of my jones' is OPB'S,(other peoples blogs)I knew I had to highlight her blog as soon I saw it.

The following is from Nancy's bio...

"I'm married to the love of my life, and we have an amazing little girl. Bella. I have MS/ (Multiple Sclerosis) with secondary systemic Lupus Erythromysis. I am an advocate for a cure. I scrapbook every moment of our life.. Just in case Im not here one day to tell her all about what a wonderful life we have myself. I want her to know how loved, wanted, and what a gift she is to us and how amazed by her I am."

I think that says it all in a nutshell. At the core of our scrapbooking, besides the memories and leaving a piece of ourselves behind, we want the ones we love to know we loved them. I know I do.

Today I'm gushing over Nancy's layouts...her daughter is in most of them and they're just precious....this is one of my favorites..."Visions of Sugarplums"


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I hope she doesn't mind that I linked a copy of her layout, but can you blame me? That picture is too precious...and the layout only adds to the magic of it. Anyway, it's free advertising and I love to advertise! You should see the new layouts she's posted this week. They're so full of love and flowers and butterflys. So Sweet! Then there's her papercrafting, and photography, and just sharing her everyday life with us, which is what I like most.

She shares so much of herself....and she's such an inspiration! If you read her blog for any length of time, you'll find out why she's so special.

Here's to you Nancy with a Jones.....