Ah it is Friday, it is finally raining here, the girls are napping, and I got some time in this week to actually scrap. Check below for new layouts. Definitely a great week! I have tons of movies DVR'd (is that right or should it be DVRed?) and can't wait to have some downtime with Jamie tonight to kick back, relax and enjoy them. And since today is Friday, there is a new blog challenge up at the Sweet Shoppe blog. This week we are to share our plans for the Fourth of July that is next week. Well in my case since Independence Day is next week that means our anniversary is next week also! I just can't believe that next Thursday Jamie & I will be celebrating 10 years of marriage. It has been amazing to say the least. Jamie truly is my best friend and my rock. He balances my quirky high maintenance self with amazing love and kindness. He is a fabulous daddy and I just can't imagine life without him, and I hope I never do. I can not even begin to tell him how much I love and appreciate him. But to celebrate this great journey I have arranged for my wonderful inlaws to keep the girls for us and I've made reservations at Cooper's Landing for the night for July 3rd (Jamie has the 4th off but not the 6th, so we will just be celebrating early.) This place looks so wonderful, and I love staying in Bed & Breakfasts. We are reserved for the Vineyard Suite for the night, plus have reservations for dinner that night and the best part is we are the only guests (or at least we were when I made the reservation). So that means we won't have to share the jacuzzi. Oh and I also reserved the chocolate dipped strawberry platter, yummy! We had these at our wedding, but I never got to eat any, so now it is like a tradition that we have to get these on every anniversary to make up for that. LOL. I don't really know yet what we will do the following day for the 4th. We usually go to our community parade and then out to watch the fireworks, but I don't think we are going to rush back home for the parade this year nor do I know where we will see the fireworks (although I will make sure that we go see some - I love fireworks!) During the day we will probably do some local hikes or try to find some good local music, or check out some of the small town shops around the inn. Who knows. :)
And speaking of music, the other part of the blog challenge was to link up a You Tube video that makes me smile. So without a doubt that would have to be the OK Go guys singing Here It Goes Again on the treadmills. I just love this song and can't be in a crummy mood when I see this video or hear this song. So here ya go:

Ok so I got this new fancy camera now and my photos are worse than ever! For instance, the other day the girls were outside playing and being cute and I was just snapping away. I had everything on manual but I thought they would be fine (I mean after all it was a gorgeous bright day). Well they aren't fine! Take a look:


UGH! Apparently my aperture (I think) was set too low. So now I have to figure out some way to fix all of these shots from Ruthie's birthday. Someone help me please! Tell me who you think has the best photo actions that can work magic on these. Or do you guys think they are too overexposed to be helped? Please don't tell me that, I will be so heartbroken.

So this week SSD's blog challenge involved taking a pixie quiz to discover our inner pixieness. And I came up as a forest pixie. I have no idea why this is. I mean don't get me wrong, I love the earth (I do happen to live here after all) but I wouldn't consider myself in tune with it and doing anything to protect it. I mean I recycle (most of the time). But today in my disgust with the many spoiling foods in the fridge I admit I threw some glass jars and plastic containers in the trash - I just didn't want to bother with it. So I guess I'm a fair weather forest pixie. I'm a good little pixie when it is convenient for me, but otherwise you're out of luck. Thanks Shawna for that little quiz to help me see just how self-centered I am. LOL. Now I'm thinking I need to retake that cartoon character quiz and see if there is a description for Oscar the grouch on there. :) Oh well. I'm off to do a sudoku and get some sleep.

Yep this was actually last week's blog challenge post from SSD. I have no idea where the week went and totally forgot to post, so here it is. Note: if you want to see the full quiz, visit the SSD link above and play along. But here are my answers:

1. Which one of the following describes the perfect date? a) Candlelight dinner (4 pts.) I actually would have picked coffee at the bookstore, but that wasn't an option so this was the next best thing. :)

2. What is your favorite type of music? b) Alternative (1 pt.)

3. What type of movies do you prefer? a) Comedy (2 pts.)

4. Which one of these occupations would you choose if you only could choose one of these? c) Teacher (3 pts.) DUH!

5. What do you do with your spare time? b) Read (4 pts.) (Sudoku, scrapbook, and stamping weren't choices LOL)

6. Which one of the following colors do you like best? c) Sky Blue (3 pts.) - such a bummer purple wasn't a choice

7. What do you prefer to eat? c) Sushi (1 pt.) Finally a clear cut choice!!!!

8. What is your favorite holiday? b) Christmas (3 pts.)

9. If you could go to one of these places which one would it be? d) Hawaii (4 pts) But really all of the above would be fabulous!

And last but not least:
10. With which of the following would you prefer to spend time with? a) Someone smart (5 pts)

For a grand total of 30 points, and that makes me:

(29-35 points) You are Sponge Bob Square Pants:

You are the classic person that everyone loves. You are the best friend that anyone could ever have and never wants to lose. You never cause harm to anyone and they would never not understand your feelings. Life is a journey, it’s funny and calm for the most part. Stay away from traitors and jealous people, and you will be stress free.

I'm not sure how accurate this is because I definitely don't feel that my life is a calm journey, but it was fun nonetheless. Enjoy!

So the blog prompt for this week from the Sweet Shoppe is such a fun one. Here's a hint:


If I had a million dollars what would I do? Well the first thing I think of is the BNL (Bare Naked Ladies) song - and you seriously have to watch this. :) :

But realistically I actually do know what I'd do with it. First I'd finish paying off our debt, then we'd make the additions (plus a couple of extras) we want to make to our house, then I'd take our whole family (especially my in-laws) on a great vacation. I mean seriously we owe them big time for all they do every day for us. Yet I know they don't see it this way and would never consider us owing them anything. They are just fantastic people in that way. Then, we'd take the equivalent of Jamie's salary for 2 years and open up his own software consulting business and the rest of the money would go into savings. So there ya go. A bit of extravagance and a bit of practicality. That's me. :) If you're reading this, I'd love to know what you'd do with the money. :)

So for the past two weeks I've been in Ella's preschool classroom at least several times a day if not the entire day, EVERY day. Why? you ask. Well because I adore her teachers and her classmates and I just can't say No when I'm asked to help out. Seriously this started back in September when her teacher asked me to be room mom and I've been taking on tasks ever since. So we had the preschool graduation yesterday, which made for a bittersweet day. The kids were so cute all dressed up in their little caps & gowns and it is so amazing how much these children have grown over the year and the friendships they have developed. I know Ella is certainly going to miss so many of them. Here are a few photos from the big day.

So now that the school year is over I'm looking forward to a bit of recovery time. No getting up early, and rushing through the morning to get Ella to school on time (which unfortunately rarely happened). Instead we can enjoy breakfast together and pajama days. However, I'm sure that in a week or so I'll be looking forward to the fall. LOL Especially if this heat and humidity continues as bad as it is now. I mean I can't even stand to walk the dog outside for 10 minutes. UGH.

So I've gotten some time to scrap lately so I thought I'd just pop on here to show them.

This first one is for SSD's Cookie Decorating challenge and uses the new Songbird Avenue kit:


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And this one uses Miriam's new Lolly Pop papers:

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And this one shows off my little Ruthie:


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Well I guess that's all for now. So I'm off to chase Ruthie some more and maybe get a little housecleaning done.

Look at me blogging twice on the same day. :) I completely forgot to add in my previous post about Sweet Shoppe's Blog to Blog challenge so here I am doing it in a new post because it really is an interesting one.

This week's was to blog about our favorite designer, kit, product, etc. Now it would be super easy to blog about the incredible Miriam Lima. She is just such a wonderful person as well as a talented designer, but since I'm on her CT I feel like that may be cheating a bit. So I decided to choose another designer to blog about. But of course that was so difficult because, well if you've been in the digi community even a short while you will realize that almost everyone you interact with is super incredible!

So I've chosen 2 designers to spotlight. :)
First is Meredith Fenwick. She was the first designer that I actually purchased from. And now I think I have almost all of her stuff. Plus she is half of the creative genius that is behind Songbird Avenue (see past blog entries) and I love the whole focus on charity that they have created there. Plus I just love her designs. I don't really "know" her and I'm sure she has no clue who I am but I'd love to be a guest CT for her.

Here's a LO I did with some of her designs (By the way, this super cute little girl is Sarah the daughter of Erica Webster (pne123) who is an amazing scrapper!)

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Second is Jen Caputo. She is the template guru! I absolutely love her stuff! I knew of Jen from her days with The Angel Company (I'm also a demonstrator for TAC) and her amazing Caputo kits. So when I first started playing around with digi and I saw Jen in the forums and later found her great templates, actions, etc. I have become an even bigger fan. Not only are her templates amazing but she is also a fantastic scrapper. I'm always inspired when I look through her gallery or on her blog. And when I am really looking for some honest feedback and critique I know I can count on Jen to be real with me. Thanks Jen! And anytime you need a guest CT member I'd be thrilled to scrap for you. :) And here are some pages I've scrapped with Jen's fab templates:

I can't believe it is already June! Lately I've been so busy that I feel like my life is just in fast forward. I hate it because I feel like I'm missing so much just because there isn't enough time for it all. It's like that movie Click, except I don't have any control over any of it. Which is probably why it bothers me so much. :)

Anyways, it is a new month and that means a new Songbird Avenue kit is available. I blogged a few entries ago about this awesome collab. project. Last month they donated almost $3500 to the March of Dimes! How phenomenal is that! Well this month, all proceeds will go to The American Diabetes Association. Of course I've already bought mine and hope to get a page done with it today. :)



Speaking of getting pages done. I went to Archivers last night with my friend Anne for a crop. Of course I was the only one there scrappin' digi style and I only finished one page, but it was so fun to catch up with Anne.

Here's the page:


Credits

I've been scrapping a lot of Ella's pics lately so I thought it was time to do some of Ruthie's. Ok now I'm off to get some stuff done today before Jamie & I go out on our date tonight. :)