Mid-Month Garden

I neglected to post the layouts I completed for the mid-month Garden over at 2Peas. One of my layouts was supposed to be for tomorrow (surprise!!), but I'm still learning the system and made a mistake and it got released early. Lucky you!! That is this one:

Can you guess the theme? If not, you will tomorrow when you see all the lovely releases from the rest of the Garden Girls. I just wanted to make sure and journal about some things that I think. I know that I often neglect my own perspective in my scrapbooks sometimes so this is an effort NOT to do that. :)

Here is my other project from the mid-month Garden:

Want to see more of what it really is? Then check here!

Tomorrow the First of the Month Garden goes up, so be sure and check it out!!

And for those of you celebrating New Year's, Happy New Years to you! I'm hoping for a happy, healthy, beautiful 2009 and the same for you as well.

Hugs!

RESEND, RESEND, RESEND!! (if you want to be published!)

This message was posted on 2Peas from Scrapbook Trends Magazine. I thought it was worth posting here as well:

"Long story short - our computer crashed so we lost all submissions submitted over the last two months for Scrapbook Trends June and July 2009. If you submitted an email for possible publication, please send it again."

If you'd like to read the entire post, then look here.

I hate computer problems.

But if you submitted to them (and even if you didn't) for those calls, then here's your chance to be published.

Don't let the opportunity pass you by!! :)

Doing Better and Merry Christmas Eve!!

I didn't mean to be so very vague. I just had a little health situation, and it was both emotional and physically stressful. But I am doing better. Really I am. Thank you for all the love and support.

In order to help kill some time today before the kids get more ornery and excited than they already are, I decided to do some stamping today. I just love how cathartic it is. :)

Anyway, here is a layout with the Little Yellow Bicycle "Say What" stamps. That cute little man is my darling nephew!

And here is a "boyish" card using another set from LYB:

And finally a girl card, using the little girl stamp set:

Again, thank you for your love and support. And have a safe and happy holidays!

Difficult Week

You know I most often feel that I (and my family) are in a relatively good place after the things we have been through in our lives. I feel genuinely happy and look forward to things like Christmas.

But then something will happen, and I am reminded that our wounds are still fresh and we haven't quite healed; and perhaps a part of us never will.

This past week our family faced another difficulty. I won't go into any details except to say that it was traumatic and sad but it is over now and we are again trying to move forward.

I would do anything I could to spare my children any worry, but life is full of difficult moments and sad things. And those experiences are the events that make us who we are. And I could not have spared them this (although I would have if I could have).

I am a private person, and I don't typically like to share my personal trials and that is why I don't feel comfortable sharing the details. But I do know that some people know, and I appreciate their love and concern as we deal with yet another trial.

I love my kids and my husband, and hearing their worry and sadness (along with my own grief) has been difficult. But I think I needed to be reminded to be cautious and careful with their tender feelings and respect their own perspective on losing Joey and the other things we have had to face in our married life.

I am grateful for them--so very grateful!

I know that this is typically a "work" blog, but so many people know of our son's experience and I haven't felt like posting anything creative for days, and wanted to sort of explain why. I am sure that I will be back to a new "normal" as Christmas approaches. I do want it to be a very happy time for my children. That's important to me.

So if we don't talk before then, Happy Holidays!

Hero Arts Blog

I have been a follower of this blog for a long time. I mean who wouldn't want to visit a daily blog with yummy stamping samples? Seriously?!! I LOVE it! So when Jennifer McGuire contacted me about doing a layout for the blog, I was more than a little excited. I was ecstatic!!

Here's the layout I completed:

You can also check it out here. Thanks again for the opportunity, Hero Arts!! :)

Birthday Blessings and a Few Projects!

So I ended up having a wonderful birthday--spoiled rotten by family and friends a like. I cropped at Archiver's the night before with my friend, Amber; and my sister from Alaska surprised me with a GC waiting at the store so I bought myself a cute small scallop punch. Thanks, S!

Then in the morning my Mom dropped in for a few minutes with Inkdeath and the movie Persuasion, which I LOVE!!

Then Brett and the kids gave me the most lovely gifts.

Lunch was with friends. Thanks, ladies. We MUST do it again--monthly I'm thinking.

Then Brett took me back to the American Crafts sale, out to dinner and to the see "The Day the Earth Stood Still."

It was a lovely, relaxing day. And I don't think we're even going to worry about a cake. Who wants to blow out 36 candles anyway? LOL!

While at the crop, I finally got to play with my new LYB "Say What?" stamps. Oh, yummy! I have just fallen in love with stamping. I love that scrapbooking has introduced me to sewing, stamping, and even digital scrapbooking. What a cool hobby!

So here are some shares (and thank you again for the great b-daysuggestions--you guys were a big help!):

Have a great week! :)

Crazy Good Shopping and Cropping

Did you hear about the American Crafts sale? Oh my goodness!! Seriously!! Thickers for $1, Albums for next to nothing, cardstock, etc. It was supposed to end last Saturday, but apparently they have extended it. I may have to go back. I know my sis wants some things sent up to Alaska.

Now Pebbles is having a warehouse sale (and Quickutz had one last weekend as well). 'Tis the season for major savings I suppose. ;) I'm being very good. I hate bringing home a bunch of stuff that I won't use. Takes up too much room in my office.

And on another note. It looks like I am going cropping at Archiver's tonight. Step 1 in the b-day plan. ;) I need to get everything ready so I can be productive. I hate sitting at a crop and just moving stuff around. Waste of money and time. I have some LYB cards/layouts I'd like to complete and maybe some other projects. If I can get them to the halfway point, then I'll have plenty to work on.

Thanks again for the b-day suggestions. It's supposed to snow and be all yucky, but I'm hoping to have lunch with friends and then dinner and a movie with the husband. We'll do my cake: a jello, cool whip, vanilla pudding concoction on Sunday. YUMMY! ;)

CK KOTM: Little Stories

This darling kit comes with three chipboard mini books and loads of beautiful papers and embellishments to complete the books. I chose to do a book for each of my three children.

Joey's book:

Here a few pages from Katelyn's Book:

And finally, Jimmy's Book:

If you are interested in this kit, you can find this and other CK KOTM's on this site. :)

Stamp Winner!!

The winner of the stamp set is . . .

Justin and Shara

Please email your address to me, and I will get these right out: js_gallacher@hotmail.com

Thanks again everyone for the lovely suggestions. I'm just hoping that my congestion clears so that I feel good this weekend for the big day. LOL!

Sick, Sick, Sick!!

So I had a lovely Saturday going to lunch with these lovely ladies:

Pictured: (back row: Wendy, Wendy Sue, Deneen, Jenn, and Judi. front row: Brenda, Shaunte, me, and lovely Laura). These gals are so much fun to be around. Wendy Sue and I worked for Making Memories back in the day. She still does and ROCKS their lovely products. She is just as sweet in person as I thought she would be. Shaunte and I couldn't keep our mouths shut. Bad girls, bad girls! Brenda is my new good friend--I can tell. She's awesome!! I've been wanting to meet Laura for-evah!! I'm definitely on her stalker list. She is so beautiful. Only wish we could have hung out longer.

I also hit the American Crafts warehouse sale. Thickers for $1, people. Yeah, I KNOW!! I was good, however. No sense bringing home a bunch of goodies that I won't ever get to use. It was all about stickers, stickers, stickers--as I love letter stickers.

But then Saturday night I got sick. I get dizzy spells when I'm super congested. Luckily I caught it before I was completely sick but then the non-drowsy meds kept me up all night.

And then I had flu-like symptoms yesterday and felt weak and tired. Spent the day in bed and missed church--sorry gals! Hoping I feel better today. I have laundry up to the rooftops and loads of work to complete. I'm about to brave breakfast so we'll see how that goes.

And as far as my birthday suggestions. I think you should all come hang out with me. You have such great ideas!! In fact, it's actually really nice to hear that having a grouchy attitude on my birthday isn't unusual. So I'm still deciding, but I will pick a winner tomorrow morning and post it on the blog. Thanks so much for the great ideas!

So for My Birthday . . .

No, it isn't today. But it is coming up, and I have a long tradition of not loving my birthday so I thought I'd take matters into my own hands and make my own plans this year. I'm trying to decide if I want to do something like a crop with my friends the night of the 13th or if I want to do lunch with them and then a date with my husband the night before. I just can't decide, but I don't want to have all the anxiety and stress of past birthdays so help me out!

So I'm looking for some good suggestions. And there's something in it for you!! Leave a suggestion of something fun you've done on your b-day, and I'll choose a lucky winner to receive this darling stamp set from Little Yellow Bicycle:





I'll really take any suggestions. LOL! I think if I have a better plan things won't be quite as depressing for this lady turning a whole year older. ;)

Happy December!

So did you venture out on Black Friday? I did! ;)

Walmart was a joke. Wish I hadn't wasted my time there as I got nothing. Target was a bit more successful. And then I hit a craft store and Old Navy. All in all, I am pretty happy with what I ended up with. No huge deals for the things on my list, but I did finish up the kids and am now about halfway done with the hubby. He's so hard so that makes me happy.

Did you have a nice Thanksgiving?

We went to the in-laws. It was delicious!! And a smaller group this year so we all sat at the table and chatted and chatted. It was perfect.

We also put up the Christmas trees. One for the living room and one for the family room. The kids were bored halfway through. Maybe it's time to go back to one tree. They are happy to have it up, but it takes so long to hang ornaments on both trees. Brett and I just sat on the couch and watched. LOL!

Today the Garden went up at http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/.

Here are my seeds for today:

The theme for this month was color combos using the color wheel. Fun theme! You can see the products used here.

And the new product focus that I chose to new was the LYB Christmas stamps. I love those. Here's that layout (you can see the supply list here):

Well, I've got loads to do today: laundry, work, kids back in school. I hope it's a very Merry December for all of you. :)