Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

xoxox,
Dee

Our Christmas in Pictures

From Our Family to Yours....

May you have a wonderfully blessed Christmas!

Cocktail?

Where will I be the Friday night before Christmas? Only at the most rockin cocktail party on the net!


So grab a glass, some paper and adhesive and come on over and join us! It's going to be a great time! Oh and did I mention there will be Hottie Bingo?!?!

Be there or be square!
xoxoxo,
Dee

My Santa Baby

Okay, so she's not a BABY anymore, but she's still MY baby!!

My Canvas

While I was in Mississippi this past weekend, I met up with my scrap gal GRETA at her LSS to make a canvas. She told me that we would be painting on canvas and I immediately tried to back out. I can't paint! I can't even draw a stick person - ask AJ!!

So I met her on Sunday and we created this:
It's 16x20 I think. I am totally proud of this creation! Here's a side view as well:
It was so fun hanging out and creating with Greta. It almost makes me want to move to Biloxi *wink wink* ALMOST.

Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoyed it!

xoxox,
Dee

See? Told you

I'm just not in the Christmas Spirit this year.

Your Christmas Sprit Level: 35%

You definitely have some Christmas spirit, and you enjoy the holidays as much as the average person. You don't go over the top celebrating, and by December 26th, you're ready to pack away your decorations. You have your own special Christmas traditions, and you tend to pick and choose what you like about Christmas. The holidays are important to you, but you don't let them take over your life.

Do You Have the Christmas Spirit?

What's YOUR percentage?

home......................

Don't you just love these guys? AJ has a weird fascination with nutcrackers, so I took this pic for her. She picked one out, I will have to remember which one so Santa can deliver it to her (she gets one every year)

I just got back from being out of town for the last five days. We did lots of family things, some shopping and I even got to take an awesome class at a LSS. For now, I am winding down and taking in the reality of home....LAUNDRY, CLEANING, COOKING, etc etc.
I'll be back with pictures and scrappy goodness.............

xoxox,
Dee

Oh Tannenbaum....

The tree is up and decorated. We did it on Monday, I just haven't uploaded the pics here. I'm now have a new dilemma with the tree: CATS They seem to LOVE the tree and knocking all the ornaments off the bottom. I was pleasantly surprised this morning to only find ONE ornament on the floor. Maybe they are starting to understand - or it could just be the fact that there are now NO ornaments on the lowest branches. We shall seeeeeeeeeeee.




Trying to get into the Holiday spirit and it's just not coming that easy. Maybe I should pull the rest of the crap, err, I mean stuff out and decorate the entire house. I'll post pics if/when I do.

Tagged for Christmas....

My girl Mel tagged me!

Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your friends. Okay, here's what you're supposed to do, and try not to be a SCROOGE!!! Just copy this and paste into your blog. Change all the answers so that they apply to you. Then send this to a whole bunch of people you know, INCLUDING the person that sent it to

you.......'Tis the Season to be NICE!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? wrapped

2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial...

3. When do you put up the tree? the day after Thanksgiving

4. When do you take the tree down? New Year's Day

5. Do you like eggnog? no

6. Favorite gift received as a child? a Big Wheel

7. Hardest person to buy for? my MIL

8. Easiest person to buy for? Adrienne

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? the Clapper

12.Favorite Christmas Movie? National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? November

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? no
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? fudge

16. Lights on the tree? Colored and White
17. Favorite Christmas song? "Happy Christmas" - John Lennon

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? yes

20. Tree-top angel or star? a bow

21. Open presents on Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? the unpleasant people

23. Favorite Ornament theme or color? Snowmen with red and white bulbs.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Honey Baked Ham,sweet potatoes, broccoli casserole, etc

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? a new camera, a few Cricut cartridges, a KitchenAid Mixer

26. Who is likely to respond to this? I have no clue

Happiness Is....

• Having Web home all week
• Making Turkey Cupcakes with AJ
• Getting the Tree up and ready to decorate
• Mingling with my extended family on Turkey Day
• Having two Thanksgiving dinners in two days
• Getting a RAK in the mail (go Greta!)
• Alone time with my man
• Starbucks and Target

Love,
Dee

My Bucket List

I'm sort of a day-to-day girl, so I have never really thought of things that I would want to do before I kick the bucket. I mean there are the normal things, like be a good person, raise AJ to be the best she can be, stuff like that. And yes, that is all important, to me more important than menial things like travel and shopping. But in the scheme of things, I think I'm doing a pretty good job with myself and AJ.....we're still works in progress, but we're turning out okay. So when Greta told us about a challenge on the new site Forward Progress, I gave it some thought. After I did this exercise and put it down on paper, it seems as if I pretty much just want to travel. I guess when you look into your "wants", you just need to take what comes out. Even though there are a LOT of things I would like to do, these five kept coming back to me, so I figure they must need be on the top of my list.

I don't talk about it ever, but I am not the healthiest person. I mean I started January 2008 in the hospital having brain surgery. My brain is now fine, but I have other health issues going on. Things that need attention. Issues such as breathing. I am currently on oxygen full time. At 33. It sucks. It makes you realize that NONE of us are guaranteed tomorrow. That things that should come so easily (like breathing) can be one of the most difficult things to do. A small task such as folding the laundry turns into a marathon. It makes you realize that yes, life is precious, and it is okay to focus on frivolous things every now and again. Like going to NYC and shopping all day.

Being sick has really brought me down. I'm not the happy jovial person I once was. I WANT to be that person again. I have promised myself that I am going to strive to be that person again.

So see, making a "bucket list" isn't the negative thing I thought it was. For me, it actually gave me some motivation to keep on keeping on....to do some of these things on my list. To not focus so much on my condition, but my life and the gift that it is.

So what's on my list?
I want to :

• Watch my baby girl marry the man of her dreams
• go shopping in NYC and take in a Broadway show
• Live in a new and different city
• Visit Northern Italy where Web lived and let him be my tour guide
• Tour all of the Napa Valley Wineries

I'm Ready...

I have quite a bit of down time this week, which means time in my SCRAPROOM. I just finished watching the last episode of Sex and the City on DVD. I've watched the entire series twice now. So, needless to say, I'm a little bored with SATC. So as I was in Target today, I saw this on sale
It's only the first season, but I can't wait to walk down those halls of West Beverly High. I, too, was part of the class of 1993 - only about a 180 from West Beverly. But I loved this show and watched until the very end. Plus who can not love Dylan and Brandon's creative sideburns and all of the high-waisted pants?! Hopefully I'll get some creating done, too...

~Dee

I've been a MACHINE...

....a scrappin machine this week. I've done three LOs so far which is a LOT for me. I'm so glad I FINALLY cleaned my scraproom so I can be in there whenever I want!


I love this LO...it's sooooo AJ! She loves to go to Target, mainly because of the $1 spot, where she knows she will get 2 or 3 items of her choice. She also loves the huge circles outside the store and let's not forget the chocolate milk from Starbucks. It has to be in the cup - no Horizon Organic milk box for her - she wants real deal. And she gets it. :-)

I've been stalking Sisterhood of Scrap this week. It's a really cool site if you haven't been there, you should go check it out. They have a theme for every day and it is really neat. Saturdays are "Sketch Saturday" which is where I found inspiraion for this LO. I knew I wanted to go with circles and a bullseye, but the sketch really helped me along.




I know this is 4th of July in November, but I was finally inspired to do these pics. This is us in our patriotic garb, getting ready to head to a party and watch the fireworks. I love this LO because not only is it our happy little family, but I was also able to get a pic of AJ and her big brother Ryan. Ryan is the best brother to her...which is really cool since they are 19 years apart. She loves him sooooo much as you can see in the pic.

I used Valerie Salmon's Got Sketch? #70 for this LO. I haven't done a multi-photo LO in a while and it was nice to do.






In other news, I am meeting up with Julie tomorrow to scrap and laugh all day. I know it will be a blast and I am sure we will have some pics and funny stories to share come Monday.

Have a great Weekend!

xoxox,
Dee

Because I am bored

and these are cute!!

Create Fake Magazine Covers with your own picture at MagMyPic.com

Create Fake Magazine Covers with your own picture at MagMyPic.com

Simon...

When we brought Simon home, his name was Pixy. "She" was going to be AJ's little kitty---her new little baby to dress up and play with continuously. Well, Pixy took a liking to me. She started following me around and becoming MY buddy. When she was about two months old, I started to notice 'nuggets' growing under her tail and I realized that Pixy was not going to be a girl kitty. Plus, she didn't like to play with AJ, well, she did, but only in her way of jumping out and biting her, me, anyone walking by. About that same time, Web brought home ANOTHER kitty, a girl (for real this time) and AJ affectionately named her Sara. SHE is AJ's baby; that cat has the best temperament of any cat I have ever seen! So, PIXY became SIMON. (AJ had just watched Alvin and the Chipmunks for the 3rd time, so the name was fitting.)

Simon, Si, Si-Si....he's definitely MY cat...he has to be in the same room as me at all times...even the bathroom. If I close the door, he will scratch and meow until I open it. I've never really been a cat person, but I guess now I am!

Dee

Here's My Gabriella....

Halloweek?! **Picture heavy Post**

That's a new word I just made up. We've had a week filled with activities, costumes, and parties.

On Monday, we decided to carve and decorate the pumpkins we got from the patch. AJ chose a cat for her daddy to carve and then we created two monster faces on her pumpkin.




Here are the finished products:





So far this week, we've had a cat and a cheerleader in the house. One more costume to go for tomorrow night.


Love,
Dee

my Revamped Scrap Room

It has taken me right at a year to get my scraproom into shape. Don't we all remember THIS pic?
If you look at my blog header, you will see what the room looked like in the beginning. About this time last year, we moved into our new house and I immediately claimed the back bedroom as my scraproom. Web has the entire den the way he wants it (including the wall of murder - as named by my friend Julie) My scraproom was pretty, but it wasn't very functional. The workspace was only 13 inches wide and stuff always slid off the back. I had crammed everything into the small little drawers and they were just a mess. So for Christmas last year, Web made me a nice wide counter top and some matching shelves. It took me a while to figure out where to put the shelves, but he was able to install them for me. It was all nice, but still I had a HUGE MESS.

Last week, I decided that it was time to tackle the clutter known as my scraproom. I worked on it a little each day and it is FINALLY FINISHED!!

Here's the view from the doorway:
There wasn't much change on that wall, except that I moved the lamp and added a rug. Mel, yes that's your LO on the wall...Victoria, that's yours on top of the shelf. :)

Here's my new and inproved workspace:
You will notice a HUGE difference between this pic and the one on my header. See my ribbons?! That's probably my most favorite part! My friend Vel gave me this idea and I totally LOOOVE it!

Here are the shelves Web made:
On the top shelf are all the cards I have received from my scrappy friends. (Debbi, yours fell over, but it is there) They make me happy. :)

The other side of my workspace has more storage and another shelf. Also you can see my TV and DVD. I love to watch episodes of Sex and the City or throw on Dirty Dancing while I am scrapping.
The newest addition to the scraproom is my new table that holds my laptop, printer and scanner. It will also double as a workspace should I have a friend come over to scrap. There used to be an oversized loveseat in here, but the table is much more practical:
I hope you have enjoyed the tour. I am so thrilled with the way it turned out. I think I may go scrap for a bit....

xoxox,
Dee

at the patch

We started October at the Pumpkin Patch this year. It was 85 degrees and HUMID...but AJ was the best pumpkin model ever!

Tea, My Lady?

that's what AJ says when we are having a tea party. I have had this picture printed out forever and bought the Sassafras Lass Lollipop papers right when they came out for this LO. Funny how I just got around to it. But it turned out pretty close to how I had it designed in my head.

I hope to get to a few more Layouts before the week is over. We'll see how the rest of the week goes. I'm not having a great week health wise. Let's hope I start feeling better.

xoxox, D

Our "Tropical" Vacation...

Okay, not really, it was just a trip to Weeki Wachee Springs...but I loved the play on the title.

Enjoy!