Recap of the last week...it's been a wild ride!

So let's see where to begin...

Yes the rain came back to Southern California as Dan & the kids arrived; but moved out by Wednesday.

Starting with Wednesday we were awoken at 4am with a ringing phone (7am back east)...the kennel! To bring you up to date Dan had texted me on Sunday saying that the dog was acting really weird (mopey) his guess was that he really missed me. Monday morning Dan decided it may be something else so he took him to the vet. The vet checked him out and couldn't find any outward symptoms...his guess was maybe depression, but took some blood just to be sure. He said it was okay to drop him off at the kennel...so Dan went about his day getting things ready to leave for Philly that night. In the afternoon the blood work came back with signs of a kidney infection. Dan picked up meds & special food to drop off at the kennel. According to the kennel he took his meds on Tuesday and was up drinking and lounging in the office with the owners (not 100%, but seemed to be improving) When they went into check him Wed. morning his eyes were dialated and he was taking very shallow breaths and was totally out of it. Within 1 hour of frantic phone calls back & forth and finding a 24hr emergency service that would see him, he passed away as they were loading him into the car. Poor baby he was only 7 1/2 and there must have been something else going on that nobody detected. He had never been sick in his entire life. (okay I'm crying now...) We told the kids later that day and there were many tears especially from Becca. On the way home yesterday in the plane she told me she wished she had never gone on vacation...her logic, if she stayed home she would have taken care of him and he'd still be here. Poor baby I've tried to explain that nobody knew what was going on and he probably would have died anyway. Here's a picture of "Riley-Roo" from January 2009 out enjoying the snow...
He's usually much "hairier" than this; but we had had him stripped down in November...he was really "blowing" coat. Normally he looks like a solid black collie...ie "Lassie". He loved the snow, just last month when we had all that snow I would look out the window and just see this big blob of black lying in the snow surveying his surroundings. Happy as a pig in mud. I kept meaning to take a picture, but never had the camera handy when I would see him out enjoying the snow.

So that was our downer and will be for quite sometime. Today I'm busy vacuming the upstairs trying to get rid of as much visible dog hair as possible. He was to go to the groomers this week...so he was shedding like crazy...leaving clumps of "Belgian" everywhere. The March "Charmed" kit over at Coordinates Collections is based on the "Lucky" papers from LYB...look for a tribute to "Riley" as one of my projects next month...already got an idea floating around in my head. (EDITED:oops...have to rethink this...I'm not getting the "Charmed" kit! Offered it up, before realizing I had projects I wanted to do with it. I really need to think before I open my mouth sometimes.)

So the weather turned sunny although a bit cool (upper 60's) and we were able to enjoy the park. Becca was distracted from the bad news at home by visiting "Pixie Hollow" each day.

Here she is visiting with Tinker Bell & Terrence. She even managed to get a "Silvermist" costume from the store in Downtown Disney.

As you can see by my outstretched arms...a self-portrait of Becca & I on the Materhorn! Love that ride.


A snap shot of Dan & Fritz...I think this was a ride in "Toon Town".

So we arrived into Philadelphia about 8:00pm last night. Circled the airport for quite a while before we eventually landed. They had a few inches of snow on the ground and was lightly snowing. It took us over 2hrs to drive home last night (usually a 1hr drive) The closer we got to home the harder it was snowing and the worse the roads got. Finally just before 11pm we pulled into our driveway. Snow covered, but sitting in the driveway was Dan's new truck delivered from the dealer that day. Here's a picture looking out our driveway this morning...

So long sunny, balmy, California....hello 10" of cold New Jersey snow!

That's it our week...told you it was a wild ride.

Stay tuned for tomorrow I'll have my February projects to post with the "Heart" kit from Coordinates Collections.

We finished it up today

All done...10 kits...yay!!! Now I have to wait "patiently" for them to arrive each month. I really hope you guys will like them. Here are a few parting shots from the show floor...

This is the LYB booth...always easy to spot with the spinning bicycle on it's roof! We stopped by this booth quite a few times.

You know we stopped here since we had a member of "Team Pink" with us.


and yes this is always a must booth to visit. See anything you like yet?

and you asked for them, you got them! We placed an order here too.
So there you have it...a few of our many stops at CHA. Stay tuned for a few videos soon too. Lisa came armed with her video camera.

So we all got up bright an early this morning to go to our class 7am-9am...ugh! What were we thinking? It was totally worth it!!!!! I loved it. Totally played and I am SO inspired to play more. Here is a look at a few of my pages...

Okay here's a picture of Jamie & I with Donna. Like I said it was early...so we are looking mighty tired.


Now I told you we talked with Donna & Bill yesterday and again today. Can you guess what about?

Now it's time for a little R&R...this is the view outside my room right now!
Talk later.

A busy day...

We're all sitting here completely drained. Traveling/jet lag/lack of sleep catching up with us all.
Last night took a fun Hero Arts class last night with Lisa. Made 6 fun cards and used lots of fun new stamps. This morning was day one of kit building. We walked the show floor picking up catalogs and any samples we could get.

Just some of the samples as we begin building kits.

Then we go to the walls, this year we were prepared with painters tape (easy removal w/o damaging the walls)
We got the bones for 9 kits done tonight. Tomorrow we hit the show floor finalizing and looking for embellishments.

Getting excited for Tuesday morning. All three of us are taking a 2 hr class from Donna Downey. Look at some of the fun stuff she had in the Prima booth...


I love this messenger bag and there was an extremely gorgeous camera bag too.
We talked with Donna and her husband Bill this morning at the show. Keep an eye on the MB at CC for something related to our chat today.

{packing}

Hitting the road bright and early for my 9am flight.
Stay tuned for updates from CHA!

it hasn't been this clean...

since I moved in this past fall!

A clean work surface...yay! Finished up all my projects this weekend. Wrote my newsletter "blurbs" and sent of my projects this morning. The only thing left to do is sort thru that glass dish on the counter...that's my catch all for sm items that don't get used up while working on projects. The idea is that when it's full...I sort thru and put it all away.

Getting excited for CHA...sneek peeks are popping up all over the web!
See anything you like? I do!

{one more to go}

Hopefully I can get one more project done this weekend.(but I have no idea what yet) Sunday I managed to get 2 done and then Sunday night another idea came to me....I could barely stand sitting at work all day on Monday. I was itching to create. It took me 2 nights...lots of cut work and paper pleating and then I had to wait for those pleats to dry. Intrigued???

Here's a little peek...


Stay tuned for the full reveal February 1st! Got to find a few pictures for a multi-photo layout...got to have one of those every month. Then and only then can I say my projects are done.

Starting to get my list together, this weekend will be doing a few errands picking up stuff, before the packing begins. Speaking of packing it dawned on me this morning that I have to pack up my peeps stuff too before I leave. They will all be joining me in CA for a few days after CHA. A little mid-winter break for us in the California sunshine. Plan on doing Disneyland, the San Diego Zoo and possibly a few other things...including a visit to the Pacific Ocean(living here along the Atlantic the kids are curious about the Pacific)

Pressure's on...

Got my Heart kit in the mail yesterday from Coordinates Collections...once I stopped drooling I needed to buckle down and get to work. Just 2 weeks to get everything done before heading out to CHA! I drooled all afternoon yesterday...that "bullseye" paper is fabulous...how am I going to cut it up? When I went to bed last night I had no idea what I was going to do...this morning a few ideas came to me. Finished up one layout and printed a picture for the second this afternoon.

Here's a little peek for you....

As you can see I did manage to cut the Pink Paislee "Bullseye" paper...but only a small piece. The flowers/leaves were cut fro the PP "Hearts Bloom" paper which is part of the pattern paper addon for February. Otherwise everything you see here comes in the February Heart kit.

So I'll be working on a few more layouts this week and probably next weekend. Also need to start making a list of stuff that I will need to get before packing for CHA. Can't wait to go to California...busy working on putting kits together, but it's always fun just to hang with Jamie and Lisa. We are even taking a Donna Downey class together one morning...should be fun!

On a personal note....I've given up...my eyes are not what they used to be! Had my eyes examined last week and as I suspected I need reading glasses. Now I just need to get use to wearing them. I spent close to a half hour picking out a pair, this is what I got....

Not the best picture...I took it with my phone on Friday at work.

So that's where I am at right now...

Confetti Projects

Yay... I can finally share! Like I said before this kit was SO fun....fresh, bright, funky, a big old party in a box!

So here they are, two of my favorites from this month...

I kinda stepped out of my box on this one...paint splatters and all. I love it! When I first put down that piece of the Hambly transparency it didn't look right (needed to be bigger) so with some pen work I extended the grid design out onto the page...taking up more visual space. The stickers and Prima Sprites are available as addons this month. The doodlebug shindig letters came from my stash.

This is a real simple 2 pager (which seems to be my style when I do a 2 pager) The yellow pattern paper is American Crafts from the addon package available this month. I pulled some Heidi Swapp acrylic snowflakes from my stash & some Pink Paislee letter stickers too.

My other layouts and card are up in the CC gallery.

Have a great day.

Happy Belated New Year!

yeah, I'm a day late I know. Yesterday we all slept in which is very unusual...I guess the dreary day made it possible. I finished up some scrappy projects and then started where I left off (before the holiday madness) in the organization/purging process of the new "scrappy space". So far I have a nice bag of stickers to take to the before/after school program run at the local primary school. This afternoon I'd like to sort through my stash of papers and donate some of those to the school too.

The sun is finally shining so I hope to get photographs of all my DT projects, do the writeups, and get them sent out this afternoon too. Can't wait to share with you all. Reveal day has been moved to the 5th of January.

Speaking of DT projects have you seen the previews of the February kits over at Coordinates Collections? They are called Heart & Soul and are now available for pre-order. I always love when they get a name; the monthly name contest is always SO fun. It finally gives life to the kits that we've worked hard in putting together (some months are harder than others when we find product isn't available and have to go back to the drawing board :wink:)

Here they are....



The inspiration for Heart came from the "Bullseye" paper from the Pink Paislee Cupid Collection. As soon as I saw this paper back in the summer I told Jamie & Lisa that we had to do a kit using that piece as our jumping off point...Love those polka dots and the colors. Mix in a little Bobunny, some more Pink Paislee, and a dash of American Crafts & Basic Grey. Naturally this is the kit I picked. Hopefully it will be arriving on m y doorstep by next weekend.

Then we like to do a kit that is a nice contrast to the other kit offered. When we saw the new Basic Grey Origins we knew we had our inspiration for the 2nd kit...Soul! Mix together some Basic Grey, Jillibean Soup, a bit of Maya Road, and a dash or two of Daisy Bucket & Doodlebug and you end up with another fanatstic kit. So different yet just as fabulous as Heart.

So I'm off to take some pictures and organize/purge some more.