30 more minutes

I'm sitting here watching the last 1/2 hour of the 2 hour scrapbooking slot on QVC - Creating Keepsakes hour (or two hours). I bought two things so far...some rub ons (I LOVE rub ons!!) and a cute shelf of paper flowers. There are two more hours tomorrow night from 10 to 12, and Saturday from 1 to 3 a.m. (yes! that is A.M.) I won't be able to watch tomorrow and Saturday's programs because tomorrow we are heading to the Great Smokey Mountains for the weekend. We took Friday and Monday off for a long weekend. We are staying at Buckberry Creek Lodge and planning on doing some golfing and some hiking at the Great Smokey Mountain National Park - over 800 miles of hiking - don't think we'll get to all 800 this weekend, but maybe at least 5 - 10! :o) Del is also planning on going to see Transformers - something he's been waiting to do since it came out last week.

I'll post pictures of our trip when we get back on Monday.

Have a great weekend!!

It's hard to believe it has been a month already since my last post. Time flies...Let's see what have we done since my last post...I won't bore you with all the details, but here are some of the highlights...

• Work has been busy as ever. Last month I had to do the hardest thing I've ever had to do as a boss...I had to tell six people that as of the end of the month of July, they will no longer have a job. They all took it very well...better than I did, I think.
• Del sold his black Porsche, only to buy another one - a dark grey one with more options. He says he is much happier with this one and will not be looking for a new car for at least another five years. :o)
• We went to a concert with Salvador, Todd Agnew, and Mercy Me. It was just last weekend so there were fireworks to celebrate the 4th of July after the concert. The rain held off during the concert, although threatened the entire time, but started raining as soon as the fireworks started. I was so disappointed. You see, I love fireworks and I was so looking forward to seeing them, particularly since I haven't seen any in probably three years - I think I wanted to see them even more than the concert. We got to see some of them from under the shelter, so it wasn't completely lost.
• Oh...probably the most excited thing...we bought a different cabin lot. This one has both long range and short range views (our other one only had short range views) and we absolutely fell in LOVE with it. Del and I are starting to look at plans now and are even more excited about it than before. Another step closer to our dream realized. Here are some pictures of the new lot.

Del's Dad came to visit this week. He and Del golfed everyday. We took him to see the lot yesterday and I actually golfed with them at Mt. Mitchell Golf club. It's really a beautiful course.

They were going to golf again today, but got rained out, so he decided to go home a day earlier than planned.

I've been able to do some things I haven't done in a while. I finished another really great book - Jodi Picoult's, My Sister's Keeper. I highly recommend it. A great story with a surprise ending.

I've also done some scrapbooking. I finished a whole album for a friend at work. She recently had a baby girl, Lily, after having two boys. The scrapbook turned out really cute. I bought a teddy bear with the idea that she is to take a picture of Lily with the bear each month to show how she grows. I, of course, cannot take credit for the idea - I saw it in Creating Keepsakes, which is where I get a lot of my ideas. For some reason I'm unable to upload the scans I took of it, which I guess is just as well since I plan on making a boy one for my great nephew who is due some time in September.

I also made some cards with the scrap paper I had left from the baby book. You can see those by clicking here. Maybe you shouldn't look after all, because some of you may get one of these cards in the future.

I think that catches you all up. I hope all is going well with everyone. Hopefully, it won't be another month before I post again.

Until next time...

What are your answers?

I should be working, but have decided not to tonight. So much going on at work right now - I can't keep up. So instead of working, I'm reading blogs and updating my blog (procrastination at its finest). Wendy Smedley, one of the scrapbooking blogs I read, had a list on it. The idea was to provide a one-word or short phrase responses to some "categories" (for lack of a better term)...so I thought I would try it...

Yourself: overwhelmed
Your Partner: ambitious
Your Hair: in-need-of-a-haricut
Your Mother: shy
Your Father: musically inclined
Your Favorite Item: camera
Your Dream Last Night: Aunt Louise's house
Your Favorite Drink: Diet Coke
Your Dream Car: Jaguar
Dream Home: Vacation cabin
The Room You Are In: Bonus
Your Fear: being lonely
Where You Want to be in Ten Years: retired
Who You Hung Out With Last Night: hubby
You're Not: outgoing
One of Your Wish List Items: more time
The Last Thing You Did: ate
You Are Wearing: sweats
Your Favorite Weather: sunny
Your Favorite Book: Bible
Last Thing You Ate: Hostess cupcake
Your Life: fulfilled
Your Mood: ever-changing
Your Best Friend: supportive
What Are You Thinking About Right Now: work
Your Car: SUV
What Are You Doing At The Moment: blogging
Relationship Status: married

So how about you? What would your answers be?

Makings of a great weekend

Sleeping in, hiking, napping, scrapbooking, watching movies (Catch and Release and Wedding Crashers - no we had not seen this one yet) - all things that make a pretty good weekend. We even got a little bit of rain this weekend (which makes for great conditions for napping and scrapbookig). Usually, rain would not be part of a 'good' weekend, however, this is something that was much needed in our area - we are currently in a drought and are on water restrictions right now - no washing of cars, and only watering the yard on Thursdays and Sundays.

I finally finished the layout from our Seattle trip.














Hope you all had a great weekend.

Happy Birthday, Kim!!

Why can't I seem to wish people a Happy Birthday on the actual day?? This is definitely a character flaw of mine. It's not because I don't remember when their birthday is or that I don't think about them on their actual birthday! I just never get around to saying something on the actual day.

Yesterday was our brother-in-law, Kim's, birthday - a significant, milestone birthday, nonetheless. Although I won't tell you which one it is, since I don't know how he truly feels about it, but I'm sure you are able to guess.

I'm disappointed in myself as a scrapbooker because as I was going through all my pictures, I realized that I do not have a good recent picture of Kim. So here is a picture of him and Tina from our cruise four years ago. (As a disclaimer - I do have more recent pictures of Kim, just not ones that he is looking directly into the camera, so I thought this would be the best bet!)

Kim - We hope you had a great day, yesterday, and you have many more wonderful birthday's to come. Please forgive the tardiness of the well wishes.

Sensory Overload...

That is the only way I can think of to describe Las Vegas, NV. This was my first trip there, and I must say, I don't think I will be going back any time soon. Maybe it was just because I was there for so long (arrived on Monday, left on Saturday), or maybe it was just that I was completely out of my element...not sure. The conference I went for - the APA Congress - was pretty good and I did have a good time while I was there, but I was definitely ready to come home by the end of the week (really before then...)

Here are a few pictures of my trip...I stayed at the Planet Hollywood...

while my good friend, Chris, from OH, who I got to meet up with there...

stayed at the Paris, where most of the conference was held...

Her manager was not able to go at the last minute with her, so I got to tag along with her to her vendor party with ADP. They bought tickets for all their clients to go see The Producers - and yes, I got to tag along to that, too! It was a very good show - very funy! Thanks, Chris, for letting me tag along!!

We had several opportunities to do quite a bit of shopping...I brought home A LOT more than I went with. I'm still amazed that I was able to fit it all in my suitcase.

One of the best events of the week was Chris and I decided to treat ourselves to tickets to go see Celine Dion's A New Day show on the last night we were there. This is Celine's last year of performing at the Colosseum in Caesar's Palace. It was a REALLY good show. I'm so glad we splurged and did that.

All in all it was a good trip...and what made it especially good was being able to spend the whole week with Chris!

Here is one last picture of the fountains in front of the Bellagio, with the Paris in the background. The fountains spray to music - very cool!

P.S.

We did attend the conference most of the time - just didn't want to bore you with the details about the payroll classes that were actually pretty good! :o)

Can you believe, though, I didn't gamble once - not even the slots!! What kind of nerd am I??

Weekend Project

I got to do some scrapbooking this past weekend. I started a layout for our Seattle trip, but haven't finished that one yet. I'll share when I do. I did finish this project, though.

I was asked to make the group card for my boss's wife's baby shower. She is having her third child, but first girl. Not my best work, but other's seemed to like it.

Off to watch the rest of my recently discovered new favorite TV show - House.

It's coming!!!

This past week was a very long week, it seemed, however, it was broken up by something very exciting!! You see, August 2 through August 4 is earmarked for the very highly anticipated event - The Creating Keepsakes Scarpbooking Convention!!!!!! Wednesday of this week we were finally able to register for classes for this thrilling affair! And what makes it even more exciting (if that is even possible)...is one of my best friends from Ohio, Karie, is coming to visit that weekend to go with me!!!

So these are the fun classes we registered for:

Friday
8:30 - 9:30 Everything Embellished (Karie is actually taking 5 in 1 SEI at this time - a class I wanted, but sold out before I could register! (Heavy Sigh!))
9:50 - 10:50 A Thing or Two about Girls
12:30 - 1:30 Finished in a Flash
3:10 - 5:10 Focus on Friends and Family

Saturday
8:30 - 9:30 Thru the years
9:50 - 10:50 10 Things Every Scrapbooker Should Know
11:10 - 12:10 You've Been Framed
3:10 -4:40 The Choice is Yours

Of course this leaves us plenty of time to shop at the Vendor Faire! I get so excited about this event every year, but it is always so much more fun when you have someone to go with! Thank you, Karie, for coming to Charlotte for this! (It's about time - it only took you seven years! :o)!!)

Does anyone else want to join us?

Happy Belated Birthday, Bruce!!

A big shout out to Bruce, our brother-in-law, for his birthday, which was yesterday! Sorry for the late greetings, Bruce! Hope you had a great birtday!

For those of you who are wondering about the picture above - you can read the story HERE

Poor Pitiful Me...

It is amazing what I can get away with when I'm sick. I've somehow caught myself a pretty bad cold. I tried to convince myself that it was just allergies (something I never had before moving to North Carolina), but now I believe it really is a cold...the sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, fever, having problems resting kind of cold (actually, without the fever, but couldn't leave that off the description). Anyway, I played the "oh, poor pitiful me" card and Del took the pictures I've wanting to take for about four days now so I could finally post them. (He's so good to me!!!)

While we were in Seattle a couple weekends ago, we bought two accessories for the house. The glass one was shipped home, which is part of the reason why it has taken two weeks to post these - we just got it on Tuesday.

We have this one in our fairly newly painted bedroom.



We found this at Pike's Market from one of the local artists selling there. A really nice lady that seemed to have a lot of passion for what she did.




And this one on our dining room table.





I fell in love with this piece while on my tour of the city and had to drag Del back to the Glasshouse Studio to see if he loved it as much as I did. I'm not sure he did, but it ended up on our table anyway.


So, tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo! Of course, everyone knows that, however...did you also know it is NATIONAL SCRAPBOOKING DAY?!??!? To celebrate this joyous ocassion (hee hee!), QVC is having a special day of scrapbooking treasures - can't wait!!!!!! The fun starts at 2:00 a.m., however, with the way I'm feeling right now, I don't think I'll be staying up for that two hour stretch (heavy sigh!!) , but there is plenty more throughout the rest of the day to make up fo it!

Also to celebrate, I am having a few friends over tomorrow for a Scrapbooking Cinco de Mayo party. I may need to make this an annual event! Should be fun.


Until next time...