Valentine Banner

On a trip to Michael's I found some goodies to play with.

Started with these.....


Made this..... (hard to take a decent pic of--sorry)


This is similar to THIS banner I made awhile back. I had hung the banner before I pulled out the Valentine decorations so I'm not feeling the red hearts below the banner....might be moving the banner.



The inside of the "O"'s were missing so I improvised with a few jewels. (I backed the letters with Bo Bunny Double dot in "Blush"--I have a huge stack of these papers & will be sorry when I run out.) :(


And these just looked cute so I added them along with the pink balls in between each word. (They weren't part of the banner kit.)

Love is officially in the air!

I'm Walkin....

Yes indeed!

This year I decided to MOVE MORE (a `la Cathy Zielske). Now I wouldn't call it my "resolution" for 2011 to get in shape, exactly. I just want to fit better in my clothes, have more energy & feel better. And I'm not following the whole Move More Eat Less program. I just try to make a point to workout. Sometimes it's just a quick 30 mins. The next day might be 45 mins with some incline. Today I even went for broke & walked for an HOUR!! I walked 3 miles in 1 hour! Yes I am patting myself on the back.

So my days have involved time with my treadmill. Things I have discovered are to:

• make sure I have enough water with me.
• make sure to tie up my hair BEFORE starting to walk.
• make sure to have something to watch on TV besides Food Network. (it defeats the purpose)

Some things I need to find are:

• a good water bottle. I have a few but nothing that's easy to drink from as I walk.
• a good sports bra...you know to keep the ladies in check.

And before there are any grand visions of me running on the treadmill, let me make one thing clear....I.DO.NOT.RUN. I walk. FAST. I'm not a runner. I couldn't run if I wanted to. The treadmill is in the basement & the ceiling isn't high enough for me to run.

Besides I only run if someone's chasing me!! ;)

I'm not one of those people that loves to exercise. Not by far. I hate it. I'd rather do other things with my time. Something that's helped me is the "Lose It" app on my iphone. At first I was just going to use it to log my workouts. I keep a small notebook near my treadmill to keep track of my workouts so I added that to the app. Now these last couple of days I started using it to keep track of my food intake. Yes it's totally cheat-able, but who would I be cheating besides myself?

In the past when I've started working out, I'd do good for awhile, then things got in the way & I'd give up. Somehow I feel THIS IS MY YEAR. And now I have to make sure not to eat my words... ;)

I'm DONE!!

It's all packed up! Finally!!

Do you realize what I'm so thrilled about??

CHRISTMAS!!

What? Do you mean to tell me that to most people it's already a distant memory??

Truly you jest!

I know most people wouldn't be this excited but it seems like Christmas hung around here far longer than I was okay with. I was over it before New Year's this year. But things were going on & I didn't have time to get to it. And then all those boxes upon boxes of stuff!! Don't even ask me about all the ba-jillion of ornaments that need to be packed up in their little tiny boxes....can you say time consuming??
crappy late night pics in my basement from my phone
This doesn't even cover how boxes there are. I can easily fill 5 trees with all the ornaments we have. I just rotate them from year to year. OK it might be an addiction!!

But now, NOW it's GONE!

The house needs a good deep cleaning from top to bottom, which doesn't thrill me but then I can relax (not really). Possibly get on some sort of schedule of doing things around here so it's not all last minute.....***coughcoughIprocrastinatetoomuchcoughcough***ahem.

Now I can get ready for Valentine's Day......LOL!!!

Obsessed

Since I've got the iPad I've been searching for new apps, or books to read in iBooks. And before you even ask Yes all the Twilight books are on it already & I'm reading them for the 4th time! Working on the movies. ;) For some reason I can't find the Harry Potter books in ibooks....anyone know why?

So what are your suggestions? I want to know your favorites (both apps & books). Anything scrapbook related?? Inquiring minds want to know!

Marie's Birthday

Uh oh! It's the BIG 4-0!!

My older sister Marie turns 40! But I'm not going to say anything like "40 is over the hill". Nope not here. Around here it's more...

"40 is the new 30"

or even better...

"40 is FABULOUS"!!

Yep anything but old....that's partially due to the fact that I'm just 3 years younger than her & 3 years can FLY!!

This past Sunday, for her birthday, her hubby Danny threw her a surprise party. The main reason? Because she's one of those people that says she is "Un-surprisable". So he enlisted my help to surprise her. Does that mean he thinks of me & the word "devious" comes to mind?? Possibly. I've been called worse. ;)

Months ago, at an earlier party at my sister's house, I got everyone's addresses....since my B-I-L doesn't know where my sister keeps their address book. {{ahem--no comment}} Then after he decided where he wanted to have the party, I handled the invites, RSVP's & cake. My sister Chet & I also made sure to get the birthday girl some "accessories".....

Of course the birthday girl needed a flashing Tiara (modified with Thickers to say "40"), a wand (modified with Thickers, Swiss Dots, & Stickles) a sash saying Fabulous birthday girl (or something along those lines), a feather boa (cause she needs to flaunt her fabulousness), a beaded necklace (modified to match her wand), a flashing "40" pin AND to top it all off a honking HUGE "diamond" ring that blinked colorfully.

She was quite the fashionista!


Everyone had a great time. I was extremenely happy to have the pressure off of not accidentally telling her. It was nuts enough having her drop in at my house & me scurrying around hiding all the accessories the week of!

So with that I say...

HAPPY 40th BIRTHDAY Marie!!

You are FABULOUS!!

Still here...

Happy 1-11-11!! (What's left of it.)

My new year has been all about organizing so far. It's a vicious cycle of moving things from one area to another.

Joe got me the iPad for Christmas & my plan for it is to use it at my scrap desk. This would move my laptop to the desk in the kitchen where my dinosaur-of-a-desktop is. So what I've been trying to do is transfer my itunes library from the desktop to my laptop. Sounds simple right? It's NOT!! Everytime I think I copy it to an external hard drive (like the directions say) it's NOT the library....just some mumbo jumbo I THINK is my library. Following?? ANYWHOO it's aggrevating to say the least.

Besides that I've been packing up the Christmas decorations.....still. I usually don't start until the 2nd week of January. This year I wanted to start much much sooner but I didn't have time. Now I've been at it for awhile but I keep getting interrupted.

I was helping my brother in law plan my sister's surprise 40th birthday party....which turned out great!! I'll be posting pics soon....

Another thing I've got going is my December Daily. I have a good start to it but have to finish de-Christmasing the house.For some reason I never seem to have time to get creative between Dec. & Jan. Too much going on. Hope to have something to share soon! Wish me luck!

1-1-11

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Today is 1-1-11...cool right?

This year there will also be...
1-11-11
11-1-11
11-11-11 (my eyes hurt looking at it all in one line & had to break it up! HA!)

Mark your calendars. ;)

Last night the girls & I watched the ball drop on Dick Clark's Rockin New Years. Where was Joe? Sleeping on the couch. He's sick...AGAIN. Poor guy has been working LONG long hours lately & it's all taking a toll on him.


I think Gianna really "got it" this year. She had lots to say....

• Is it New Year's yet?
• When's midnight?
• Where is that place? (Times Square)
• What's in the ball?
• Are there people in there?
• I don't understand what he's saying. (Dick Clark)
• Why do people have strokes? (after hearing about Dick Clark)
• Can people die from strokes?
• Whose on the phone? (people calling to wish us HNY)

Yes, it was an informative evening. ;)

Wishing everyone a fabulous 2011!!