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.....

What I'm Working On....

I'm lovin' this Rusty Pickle paper Tracey sent me. I had to take a picture of the layout because it's only put together with magnets. Once I take it apart to glue it permanently, I won't remember how I had it! So this picture isn't the best, just meant to be a map. But I wanted Tracey to see that I'm working with the paper and that I love it! I just have to figure out the embellishments....for some reason, flowers don't seem to be calling out to me.

And I found another great blog to share with everyone. That'll be coming up soon.

Google Translator

Thank goodness I found this thing. Every time I visit Iggydodie's site in France, I SO wish I knew what was written there about her layouts! Some sites have a translation bar where you can choose the language you want, but if they don't offer it....what the heck do you do? You go to GOOGLE! (Boy do I wish one of those brilliant kids were mine).

Click on Google Translator , insert a few phrases for translation, or use the second option and type in the URL for any web page...Google with translate the whole page! I can't tell you how I'm lovin' this thing.

It's been quite a week. I took both of my boys to the vet Monday, knowing one of them would have to stay. It turned out to be the wrong one! Geez....I had to give poor Magnum a knock-out pill just to get him there, had to have a bump on his lip checked out. I thought it would be an easy in.....bug bite-infected type of thing... and out again. But no....it was his canine tooth digging into his flesh and it had to be pulled. He ended up with 3 teeth pulled, while my older boy who needs regular dental work had only one broken tooth that needed to be removed. And since Magnum's such a feisty critter, the only way the vet could check on him was to keep him there...I wasn't going to try and catch him again, cram another knock-out pill down his throat and wait for him to slow down....watching him swagger from side to side trying to figure out what the hell's going on...NOT enjoyable. So he stayed with the vet all week and it was so quiet here I couldn't stand it. I had no idea he talked so much....he really does....he talks all the time...to anyone or to no one....doesn't matter.

Between vet visits, breakfast meetings and trips to the corporate office 2 hours away, the week went pretty darn fast. I feel like I haven't scrapped in a long time, and as usual...there's so much I want to do...so many ideas in my head. Boy, I've seen some gorgeous layouts lately. Scrapbook.com has an excellent gallery of "artists" where you can print out copies of the layouts. Let me tell ya...my printer's been smokin! Then there's this one here at Two Peas that I fell in love with. I'd like to try this with a picture of my mother....not even sure where to begin but it's worth a try. I love the ribbons, the heritage look, all the little touches. Yum. It's printed out...I have my copy right here and don't hold your breath waiting to see my version, because I have a long list of unfinished projects and not enough time. If I hadn't been so foolish in my youth I'd be retiring by now and spending my days doing nothing but scrapping and gardening....(insert very big sigh).

On Saturday, I visited the online crop at All Moments Remembered. I've never done an online crop and I probably never will....there's just too much going on for me and I'm not a fast scrapper. What I did, was use the time to finish some projects I've been working on for ages. I have two other mini albums going that aren't done, three albums I'm almost done with for my nephew, one for my niece and.....this one. My little tag album of favorite pictures of my big sister. She's 12 years older than me, and when I was growing up, I thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world. It wasn't until a few years ago that I saw pictures of her as a child and now think she was also the most ADORABLE little girl! (I'm sure I saw these pics before....I just didn't remember them!)

My mother had written our names in the border of one of the original pictures. I copied it and pasted it across the layout....it's nice to have that.

I must have taken 50 pictures of this layout at different stages, and none of them are very good. I'm going to try again this weekend when I can snap during the daylight hours....I think it would help if I laid off the caffiene too. The picture is a bit blurry....maybe it's the pic and not me? Nah.

I really like my new camera but I can never remember everything. I try using it on auto and the flash goes off, leaving a nice glare, which is great if you like that effect. Then I try it without the flash and it's too dark. OR I catch a couple of roadrunners and the pics are great! I have no idea what I'm doing.....

Well, I posted at CKMB that I have an award to pass on, but there doesn't seem to be any interest. I thought people would jump at the chance to add traffic to their site. I'm amazed at the traffic I get from other blogs, and I can see that people are jumping TO other blogs from my links...I really like that. I like for everyone to see the blogs that I love because I honestly think they're much better than mine, and that's why I have the links!

So, here's the deal, Friday night I'll pass on this award. If you would like one for your blog, let me know. I only have 7 and I have a few people in mind already.

Boy, that picture has GOT to go.