Whoopsie daisy is right! I somehow managed to way over-schedule myself for the end of August! Maybe I need to hire one of those $15/hour personal managers in China.... hmm... Seriously, people do this, at least according to one "Wired" magazine article....

What have I been so busy at, you ask?

Wedding invites for my sister-in-law (very cute! but I totally forgot to take a picture of them before I put them in the mail on Friday).

4 different card swaps - lots of fun... lots of work. Going in the mail today!

Prep for a workshop this Saturday! Yeah!

Prep for a Scrapbook Class this Sunday! Woo hoo!

So now that I've got 2 of the four major projects out of the way, I finally had time to post one of my swap cards! (of course, it took like a bazillion hours, since the moment I had a second to finally post, blogspot decided to conk out for a couple of hours.)


And, in the midst of the temporary insanity, I took this opportunity to remind myself that Christmas is coming soon! LOL! Nah... not worrying yet... just wanted to use this stamp for one of my swaps. :)

Breathe.....

Card Credits: Everything Stampin' Up! Cardstock - Wild Wasabi, Soft Sky, Real Red, Shimmery White; Stamps - Linen Background; Sidekick Sayings (Hostess Level 1); Ink - Stazon Jet Black, Wild Wasabi, Real Red, Soft Sky (plus Close to Cocoa and Summer Sun for watercoloring); Accessories - Soft Sky and Wild Wasabi Double-stitched ribbon, Vintage Brads, Ticket Corner punch, Aquapainter, Dimensionals, Dazzling Diamonds

It was a long time coming, but I finally found the secret to life. Wanna know what it is?

Just...

Be Happy!

Okay, I know it's not quite that simple. But, barring anything major, I've found that the secret to being happy in life is to just be happy.

Roll with the punches baby.

Smile. :)


Card Credits: Layout inspired by Celebra card on page 148 of Fall/Winter 2007 Collection Catalog; Cardstock - Stampin' Up! (Real Red, Whisper White, Bayou Blue, Soft Sky); Ink - Stampin' Up! (Real Red, Bayou Blue); Stamps - Stampin' Up! (Pick a Petal, So Many Sayings); Accessories - Stampin' Up! Blossoms & Basics Chipboard, Round Tab Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, Rhinestone Brad, Cuttlebug embossing

Boy howdy! I haven't scrapbooked in quite while! Not that I don't love to... it just seems like a major project compared to card-making, and then the boys are getting their grubby hands all over the pictures I have out, and grabbing my implements of creativity and turning them into weapons of mass destruction, and... well, you get the picture!

But, with an upcoming "scrapbook-in-an-afternoon" class and a pile of pictures to get busy on, it was time to get a little scrappy!

If you know me, and my scrapbooking style, you'll know that these pages are way different from what I usually do. I'm one of those who tends to accessorize and patterned-paper-ize things to death, but I knew I couldn't on these, because we'll be making 10 of them in an afternoon.

I kind of liked having to go light on the supplies and make it quick - simple, but effective I think.

Oh, and all the blank space? Don't worry - that's for my journaling (which, as you can tell from my blog posts, tends to get a little lengthy..... :)

What about you? Are you a "scrapbook in an afternoon" or a "one-scrapbook-page-takes-a-week" kind of scrapper? I think I'm both, though haven't always been. I really need to focus on recording the memories in an attractive way, instead of trying to create the Sistine Chapel of pages each time I embark on the scrapbooking journey.

Happy Thursday, everyone!

Credits: Home Again Simply Scrappin' kit, Round Tab Punch, Uni-ball white pen, Short Order Alpha stamps, Rough Edges Mini Alphabet stamps, Chocolate Chip & Bordering Blue Inks

Okay, so I promised to have some slightly more uplifting news... and here it is!

We have adopted two new furry members into the family - a pair of adorable, fuzzy wuzzy, super-cute little guinea pigs!

They're still babies, and, my goodness, they are adorable!

This has been a little while in the making. Jason has been very gung-ho about getting the boys a little pet, but as soon as he would start talking about snakes or lizards or other cold-blooded things, my eyes would just glaze over, and out would come a clearly disinterested "hmmm".....

So we never really did anything about it.

But then I remembered my own little pet mice I had when I was a kiddo, and thought, hey... what about a little furry friend? So I asked Jason, he was all for it, and the rest is history.

Quinn has been such a big boy about the whole thing. First we went to the pet store last week and got everything we needed. I had explained to him that we would need to get all the schtuff it takes to care for the little buggers before we brought them home. Okay, okay, he kept saying, but I was sure that when we went to the store and he actually saw the animals, we would have a showdown about actually bringing him home that night. But nope! Nadda! Not a single whine or beg to bring home a critter before the cage was set up.

In fact, the morning after we were at the pet store, he hopped out of bed at 6:30 sharp, marched out to where daddy and I were and promptly began helping to get everything ready.

So on Friday, Jason and I began calling around to different shelters (much better to adopt some poor little furry soul), and sure enough, there were some baby guinea pigs up for adoption.

Except that they were in Connecticut.

Well, that wasn't going stop Mommy and Quinn. No way! We packed ourselves into the car, armed with a big box filled with bedding, timothy hay, treats and pellets and away we went. 4 hours later, we were home! The proud owners of two cutie patootie baby piggies.

Quinn claimed naming rights, so here they are.

Meet Charlie:


He is soooooo sweet! Lover of tomatoes and timothy hay and a good nose rub. He's the smaller of the two, but definately the braver and more adventurous one.

And, according to the source, Quinn's new best friend:




And this is Roufy:



He's the bigger one, but more shy, and not real keen on treats while we're holding him... I think he's on to our taming tricks.

The best part - Jason loves Roufy. And Roufy loves Jason.

Well, I'm sure you'll get lots of piggy stories over the coming posts - there is just too much cuteness in this house!

Have a Happy Day!

I'm mad.

And I've been working really hard on that let go and let live thing... so I've haven't been really mad for a long time.

This one I have a really hard time coming up with jokes about (though my co-workers and I did manage a chuckle or two).

Here's the deal.

Someone broke into our house!!!!

They took the laptop. And the GameCube. And... the Nintendo Wii!

Why? Why the Wii? That's just not right - Jason stood outside in the freezing weather for hours to get it. Is there any decency left in the world?

Seriously, though, I'm over the "totally freaked out and want to get out and live in a hotel" thing. We've got additional "security measures" in place now (not revealing what - state secret), although the boys have been sleeping with us the past couple of nights.

Ah, well. Let go and let live, right?

Anyway, we have a teensy weensy exciting thing happening in the next couple of days and I will share with you when I can.

Really, dude, the Wii?

Grr....