~My Birthday, P365 Update and a couple Layouts~

OK--Seems I have some business to take care of...

First and foremost, it was my birthday yesterday, yay!  My family gave me a nice day by letting do whatever I wanted, which turned out to be not much, LOL, so we decided togo to dinner!  Int he afternoon they let me open my gifts, bought me my favorite German Sweet Chocolate cake and some beautiful flowers, they sang to me and we all had cake, of course!  Then, we went to dinner a little local Mexican place near our house.  We all love it.  So, I was happy, you can go to my family blog for photos if you want to see my cake and flowers and such.  Got some good shots of me and the kids.

Second, I started P365 here the other day and have since recruited my almost 7 year old DD to do the project with me!  So, we started a dedicated P365 mother daughter blog for those pics and I will post the LO's at the end of each week here as a summary.  Go to our new P365 Blog to see how we're doing...hint-hint, she's DYING for comments, she thinks that is so cool to get confirmation that people are looking, let's face it, we all do, right?

And last but not least, I have a couple layouts to show you...my first of 2009.  I've only done two because I have been so busy getting myself organized!!  P365, new desktop, new planner pages, kids back to school, I am doing ADSR (layouts on that coming soon), etc, etc.  OK, here they are, both New Year's related...

The first uses Britt-ish Design's 'Life's a Party' (available at ScrapMatters)  kit which worked out so well for my theme party...

Full Credits Here

This next one uses Alma's Scrap Habit's cute kit 'Brighter Tomorrows' (also available at ScrapMatters) There is a funny story here...I did this for the first ADSR assignment, and I did it wrong, people have been PMing me to tell me, isn't that sweet?  So, I need to do another one, too late at night and I missed the specifics on the requirements!  But I still LOVE how this turned out,  and it is getting a great response, so here it is!

Full Credits Here

And that's it for me tonight, visit my other blogs if you wish!

~Toss the Fruitcake Day~

Did you know that today is the "official" day to toss that fruitcake sitting on your kitchen counter that no one in your house will eat?  In case you were wondering how long you had to keep it, I am here to save you and say that today, you can safely and without guilt toss it!  Which reminds me of gifts we receive that we don't want...we all get them!  That pair of earrings from your mother-in-law that you get every year even though you don't have pierced ears or the tacky piece of home decor that is so not your style (or anyone's! LOL) and in my case the peacock Christmas Tree ornament that I "won" at a Bunco white elephant ornament exchange!  To me, it is AWFUL!  But I am not a bird person.  Maybe to others it is really neat or just their thing.  I can't wait to get rid of it and I have just the place...at January's Bunco, we are having the "worst gift you got for Christmas white elephant exchange"!  Pretty cool huh?  Everyone in my Bunco group knows what I am bringing because I announced it at the December Bunco where I "won" it!  But don't think I am rude, it was given as a joke and I received a pretty bell wreath ornament in addition to the tacky peacock, so it wasn't like I was looking the gift horse in the mouth.  It was all in good fun.  So, I'll now get to trade it for someone else's worst gift..hmmmm, a fruitcake maybe?  LOL  Here it is, what do you think?

Ok, that's it from me today, off to scrap!

~Happy New Year! and Project 365~

I hope everyone is off to a prosperous 2009...we sure rang it in with gusto at our house...we had a dress-up Rock Band party...soooooo much fun!  See pictures on my family blog.  Here's a little tease...  

And speaking of the new year...I am going to tackle the Project 365 project this year...you take a photo of something in your life everyday all year and end up with a montage of memories at the end of the year.  A bunch of us at ScrapMatters are going to do it and they have a thread posted there where we can share ideas on what to photograph and how to scrap the photos.  For my January 1st photo, I took this photo of us eating breakfast this morning after last nights festivities...we all had a slumber party after the New Year's Eve party, and when we got up this morning, we had a huge breakfast together and continued to enjoy the holiday together, cooked by my DH, thanks hunny!  It was an awesome party, excellent company and an all around fabulous memory!  Definitely worthy of my first photo for Project 365.  Here it is...

And last but not least, my New Year's resolutions...I am writing them here because I am the queen of justification.  Hopefully having them here in "public" will  make me think twice about breaking them!  LOL!

~Workout 3 times a week

~Blog more regularly (I am going to try a 'schedule' i.e. Mondays are a tidbit or neat link I find, Sundays are my 365 recap, etc.)
~Scrap  183 layouts, I know, weird #, but it's an average of one every other day

~Be more diligent about craft time with the kids (we started planning a date every week for craft time together and with the holidays, things got hectic and it went my the wayside, I want to get that going again)

~Less procrastination!  i've done better on this recently, I want to keep it up!  This can mean anything from going through the mail as soon as it comes in to cleaning out a closet.

~Be "smarter" about money..which has a myriad of meanings for me including buying less "frivlous" items when I am out shopping.  Wal-Mart kills me, I go for groceries and inevitably end up with ten things I didn't think I needed!  Being more mindful of that will help.

What are your resolutions?

See you tomorrow!

~Oh, yeah, did I mention?~

We're going to Walt Disney World!!!!  We booked it a couple days before Christmas so the news got temporarily lost in the Christmas fun...but I never stop thinking about it!  I am so excited, I am a Disney magic person, I am one of those that will never forget walking into The Magic Kingdom and taking in Main Street and wondering like a kid, "How'd they do that, that is so cool!"  DH and kids feel the same.  We are all transported for the duration of our vacation into a "happy mode."  I LOVE it!!  I know some people don't get it.  You either love it or hate it.  I am in the "can't get enough" camp.  I can see DH and I going when we are 65 and still enjoying every moment.  So, that's that.  The only bad thing is, it isn't until June, so we have a long wait!!!

Gonna do some scrapping tonight...I'll come back and post my masterpieces!  LOL

~Happy Winter Freebie~

Hi again!  I am feeling wintery today...the weather is rainy and it's a quiet Monday...I have a wintery layout to share...I really like the way this turned out.  I used Mandy Mystiques' adorable mini-kit Snowman Kisses at Elemental Scraps.

(click for credits)

And here is the adorable kit...click to go to kit at Elemental Scraps

In the spirit of winter, I also decided to share a template!  Use it for a winter layout or whatever you want.  If you scrap a page with it, email me the link so I can see, that's always fun!  Have fun and Happy Winter!

Download Here

Enjoy and Happy Monday!

~Ahhhhh, sigh of relief...~

Did you hear that, my sigh of relief?  Well, not to be a scrooge, but I always feel better when put away the Christmas decorations after Christmas.  I put them up pretty early, weekend after Thanksgiving, so I am usually ready right away after Christmas to reclaim my house from Santas, candy dishes and the color red.  I LOVE Christmas and I love Christmas decorations, but I am done now.  Ready to move on to the Rock Band New Year's party we're having in 2 days, eek!  We are having a rock star "dress-up" party, should be fun.  Just wanted to get that off my chest....have a great Monday!

~Back in the swing~

Nothing heart-stopping to share...just wanted to get the header updated for the season and make a post so I can say I did and that will hopefully motivate me to get "back in the swing" of posting more often.

We had a great Christmas and things are settling down.  Kids are off for another week or so, so we are sleeping in and just enjoying the time playing with all the new loot.

I have been scrapping, and updated my slideshow above, I will be posting some specifics in the next couple of days.

Hope you all are enjoying your Holidays too and I will see you soon!