The Scariest Moment of 2011!

I must start with the back story.   When I turned 45 (almost 2 years ago) having had pretty good vision my whole life, I had a moment of slight terror when trying to focus on something, I could not.   I recalled scenes from a movie when the main characters vision goes wonky and come to find out they have a brain tumor.  Needless to say I was in my eye doctors office pronto!    I love her.   She is close to my same age and whether true or not, she humored me by saying I made it longer than most before the "dreaded over 40 vision changes" struck.   Lucky me.   My vision wasn't bad enough to be able to buy the ever stylish (as a friend of mine calls them) "cheater" glasses that are sold most everywhere, but it was bad enough to need something, and since my eyes are both different prescriptions..... I got to pay $ for another pair of glasses.   It was that or switch to progressive glasses and spend my days in perpetual nausea from vertigo!   No thanks.     FAST FORWARD.......


My bathroom has bad lighting which isn't good for aging eyes and beauty routines, so I asked for a magnifying-lighted mirror.   The good news---- I got it!   The bad news--- I got it!   

My scariest moment of this year to date was about one hour ago when I gave that thing a test run!   Good Lord!   To those of you who call yourselves my friends.... why did you not tell me to run... NOT WALK to the closest place offering facials.... and eyebrow shaping too!   The good news......  no chin hairs.  My dear friends who have travelled down this magnified/lighted mirror path before me tell me that's the next joy to look forward to!   

Merry Christmas everyone and may you not have any scary moments for the remainder of 2011! 

Dishes & Happy Thanksgiving!

Dishes.   I love them.   I collect them.   I love new dishes, but I must admit, the ones I have inherited and collected intrigue me the most.   My Thanksgiving table is set this year with  my grandmothers china.  I have my own personal memories of eating many Thanksgiving dinners off of them, but also fun big family breakfasts with all the breakfast food that is so not good for you, but oh so yummy (can we say BACON???)!

These dishes trigger my own memories, but they also take me down a path of wondering about their life and service before I met them.   When my mom and my aunt were a little girls and young women, what memories get triggered for them.  Fortunately for me, I can still ask both of them, and journal it, and of course, scrap about it!   But I don't stop there.   I know my grandmother and grandfather got these dishes at their wedding.   What sort of dinners and holiday's were these dishes apart of way back then?  Unfortunately for me, I can't ask about those, and when I could, I wasn't really thinking about it.   A good lesson to remember as we are with family and friends, ask what we want to know, push ourselves to think about what we might want to know in the future and ask!   Take advantage of our time together.

My musings are not just about my personal connections to dishes and serving pieces, they expand to those I pick up because I like them.   They provide me with the opportunity to imagine the grandest of experiences, and sometimes, even the simplest.   I wonder about the people who ate off them, what they thought about them, if anything, and what the conversation was at the table. 

If you really think about it, dishes are amazing in that, if treated well, they can live through so many generations and be a part of so many stories.  I suppose this is where the famous phrase "if {walls} could talk" came from.   In this case...... " If dishes could talk."

Wishing all of you love and memory filled Thanksgivings.   Enjoy your day, your dinner and most of all, the time you spend with those you care most about!

 Ah.... I almost forgot, the name place card is a project I have followed from Kathryn from Life on the Scrapbeach.   I joined in with her last year on the same project and I (as well as my family) loved the result.   It is still fun to read what we highlighted as what we were thankful for (especially my nephew who said he was thankful for water cause you need it to stay alive!). 

Love
Debbie            

I'm baaaack!

Wow, time really flies when you are making many, many baby albums!   I even successfully You Tubed one, and now I just have to figure out how to get it from the camera to the computer.   I've done it before, but it keeps stalling on me this time.    I'll figure it out though.    I will post photo's as well later tonight.   I'm really excited with how they turned out.   I gave one already and it was well received.   The other two will go out in November so until then, I will most likely be fussing with them, adding things here and there. 

I am planning a PJ Crop Night in October..... watch for info.........   COMING SOON!

Deb

Art Philosophy Cricut® Collection

Welcome to September!

September always reminds me of the onset of my favorite season- FALL (well Spring is a close second).  This month CTMH offers a lot of great buys and celebrations.   The Stamp of the Month is awesome and if you spend $75+ you can get the double stamp set below FREE!    I am encouraging everyone to check out the Cricuit Cartridge and Bundle for $99.   It has over 700 images and coordinates with many CTMH stamps!  How awesome is that!   I have a Silhoutte, but was lucky enough to aquire the cricuit from a pal who upgraded their machine.   I am super excited to get my cartridge so I can start playing.   If you have consdidered getting it, this is a great month to do it because you will automatically reach the $75 amount and qualify for the FREE double stamp set. 

I will be posting soon about my September Workshop!   Stay tuned!

I hope everyone enjoys this Labor Day weekend!  Blessings!
Debbie

Gathering Tomorrow!

I'm doing a gathering for a friend tomorrow and have some fun projects lined up!   My photo's below aren't turning out well due to some lighting issues, but I am going to post 'em anyway!    She chose to feature the Roxy collection so that is what we will be using for our take home projects.  

I love the Roxy collection because it is so versatile.   I did a Christmas layout and an all occasion card (the ended up looking more like a Valentines card), and there is so much more you can do with it!  The layout features a hidey pocket for journaling and more photo's and the card features a lot of paper distressing using one of my favorite tools, the Distrezz-it-all!   More coming soon!
Debbie

Wow!

Ok.... It has been a REALLY long time.   Despite my lack of posting I have been scrapping my  head off.   I have made several baby albums and multiple pages and projects for upcoming CTMH gatherings.   Speaking of CTMH the new catalog is out!   There are some great new products and some new ways of presenting some of the regular faithful products. 

To follow up on my last post, we finished the bedroom re-do for the most part.  Still adding some finishing touches and deciding what to do with some items my son is not quite ready to let go of, but doesn't need totally accessibility to. I'll post a pic of the new updated "pre-teen-ish" room soon.

I am posting a recently completed page using CTMH products.   Everyone knows I love CTMH, but I am in no way a purist to any specific brand.   The page below does use all CTMH products though.   I used the Elemental Paper Collection as well as the Elemental Compliments (chipboard accents).   I also used the Ten Things My Acrylic stamp set which I love.   There are so many ways you can use it!

Some of you know  my dad passed away 2 and a half years ago.   Since then I have been paralyzed when it comes to scrapping anything related to the last year he was alive.   I have gathered supplies, paper etc for several projects "I plan" to do, but have not done them.   I especially cannot do the last Christmas as he passed away the January right after.   Anyway, I have been able to do some smaller things honoring him using my hobby/craft in a truly therapeutic way.   This layout is one of those things.......

 
I hand wrote on the numbered tags things I miss about my dad.  It turned out to be very easy and they just kept flowing.   I continued on a separate paper.  

I will post some other projects tomorrow that I will be doing on Sunday at a gathering I am doing.   Those projects feature the Roxie paper collection, Mischief paper collection, Love Life stamp and the Stamp of the Month, Wicked!   

Take Care Everyone!
Debbie