My Poor Neglected Blog

I've had good intentions of hopping on here every day but somehow it just never happened.  Even with my shopping all completed really early, I still had a very busy month.  I did manage to stay somewhat current on my December Daily (yay!) but there never seemed to be time to photograph for blog updates. I will share a few of my pages after the first of the year.

Also on my plate this month.... I created and mailed out handmade Christmas cards, made all of the gifts for my local girlfriends, put together goodie bags for my first graders, created cards for teachers and school staff, baked more cookies than we can possibly consume, and attended LOTS of holiday parties.

Right now we're enjoying a nice visit with my brother and his family.  This weekend Meg and I will head to Tampa to spend the weekend with the rest of my family.  She starts back to school on the 4th of January so things should be slowing down soon.  I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas holiday and I'll "see" you after the start of 2012.

Chore Lists

Is anyone here a list maker?  I certainly am.  I live by my lists and even joke that I have "lists for my lists".  One time I actually put "make a list" as the first thing on my list just so I could have the satisfaction of crossing it off.  (It's an illness, I know.)

I keep a bound notebook for all of my lists which include lists for errands, lists for craft projects, lists for scrapbook pages I want to create, lists for home improvement projects and of course, lists for those dreaded cleaning/organizing projects.  I add and cross off as I go but somehow for every one thing I accomplish, I find two more to do.  Why is that?  When a list page fills I start another, carrying over those things that never seem to get done.  You know the ones, the ones you procrastinate the most.  The ones you hate but also the ones that, when done, give you the most satisfaction.  Well, that leads me to today.

I have ceramic tile in three bathrooms and my laundry room.  I used to be so good about keeping my grout squeaky clean but in the year and a half since my shoulder injury, it's just not been physically possible.  It's that one chore that "been on the list" and carried over day after day after day.  Well, no longer.  :) I spent my morning bleaching, scrubbing, mopping, (lather, rinse, repeating) all four rooms and am happy to say they look great.  Unfortunately I don't think any amount of ginger is going to help my aching joints.  My thumbs, shoulder and the "hitch in my giddyup" are already screaming.  It looks like I'm be helping myself to my daughter's prescription medicine for a few days.

But isn't this pretty?  It just makes me smile!  (Yes, I know...the "illness" coming out in me again.)

Now if I could only get my family to step over all grout lines for the next few months.  (You know, the ole "don't step on a crack or you'll break your mother's back" saying from when we were kids.)  Think they'll buy it?

DD Continued

Another rainy day here so it was the perfect day to catch up on my daily pages.  Here are a few more to share.

DAY 5

DAY 6

How it looks in the book with a little filler page ....

DAY 7

DAY 8

with the filler pages...

The red envelope is being saved for a story about the visit by the tooth fairy on the night of the 7th.

I have pages 9 and 10 done but will save them for another day.  Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

More December pages

I'd hoped to be able to share the next set of pages with you but my day is quickly slipping away.  I don't have time to scan the pages in so I'll share some photographs that I took a few days ago.  This is how the book looks with the embellished transparency filler pages.
 

Days 5 - 7 are complete.  I'll share them tomorrow.  I hope to work on Days 8-10 tomorrow.   I was able to get all of my Christmas cards finished this morning so they're set to be mailed early this week.  Right now I need to make a trip to the grocery store and whip up something for an outdoor holiday party later this afternoon.  It's been a raining for two days now,  my girlfriend's house is an island at the moment, but we're keeping our fingers crossed that the next couple of hours are dry ones.  If not, I just might have to show up in my Dexter boots.  :-)

December Daily

Following a concept started by Ali Edwards I have been busy creating my December Daily Album.  If I'm not mistaken I believe this is the third year I've made one.  (Missed 2009...bad year, remember?)  Because I  love the easy casualness of documenting our everyday lives around the holidays, this is one of my most favorite projects to do.  

Today I'm going to share the first few completed pages.  My album is an 8.5 x 8.5 two ring binder made my American Crafts.  My photo pages are in page protectors but I have decorated filler pages out of Hambly transparencies. Here's the first few pages photographed within my book.

I pre-printed red cardstock with the black frame and numbers in November so that my daily pages would be ready to go.  Here are days 1-4.

I am sooo upset with my Day 3 photos.  They all turned out horrible.  This was the best that I had and I had to turn it to b/w just to be able to use it.

I finally took the plunge and purchased a DSLR camera.  (A Canon T3i)   Hopefully my days of horrible photos will soon be over.  I've only played around with it in auto mode but it's already made such a wonderful difference.  And the shutter speed?  Incredible!  Loving it so much already.

I have my photos for Days 5-7 (taken with my new camera!) and hopefully will find some time tomorrow to work on them.  I'll also try to get some photographs of the smaller insert pages that I have sandwiched in between these main pages.  They really add to the overall feel of the album. And while each page is fairly simple, it can be a bit overwhelming to try to stay caught up.  Of course it would be easier if I hadn't decided to hand make all of my Christmas cards this year (a first) as well as take on some other Christmas crafty gifts for friends but it's all good.  I love doing this sort of stuff!

The Weather Outside Is Frightful....

NOT! 

Unless of course you call having the AC kick on in early December frightful. Our early mornings and evenings here in south Florida are pleasant but our daytime hours have been unseasonably hot.   I guess that's the price you pay to live in paradise.

These photos are for my dear friend Catherine who yesterday had to deal with 12 degree temps and snow flurries.

I may be complaining but I'll take 81 over 12 any day.  Just so you know...you will probably see these photos again as they are going into yesterday's page for my December Daily album.  The first four days of December are complete but I haven't had a chance to scan them in yet.  Hopefully I can share some tomorrow.  Til then, stay cool!!!  (or should I say "stay warm"?)  :)


Oh....and my thanks to both Mel and Catherine who are now playing Words with me.  :)  (You should both start games with each other now!)

Lynne????  Karen???

Words with Friends - strike that....Family

Any fellow Words with Friends addicts out there?  Jay got me hooked on the game last year right after he got his IPhone and we've played almost daily every since.  (With him living out of town, it's a great way for Mom {me} to know he's ok without it looking like I'm checking up on him. *wink*)

Words is an app that's based on the board game Scrabble.  You download the app, make a screen name for yourself and then invite friends (who have done the same) to play with you.  It's become so addicting that Randy and I will play each other on our "I Devices" even while sitting on the same couch.  Sometimes we have 10 or more games going and will ping each other back and forth, question words, laugh, boast etc,.....all from three feet away.  Meg will play from her IPhone on occasion but usually gives up before she finishes a game.

My mother has always loved Scrabble so it was a game we played alot as kids. When we all showed up with "I Devices" over Thanksgiving it wasn't long before she was interested and soon hooked.  (We brought three Iphones and an Ipad, my brother showed up with 2 Iphones and an Ipad and my niece and nephew each had their IPod Touches.)

Mom started out playing all of my current games which included about 8 with Randy and several more with Jay.  My youngest nephew wanted to play so I gave him Meg's Iphone.  My brother then had me download the app onto his Ipad so Mom could play on that as well.  Of course by now my sister's kids wanted in on the action so they started games on their Ipods.  I wish I had a photo of my mom sitting at the kitchen table with two Ipads in front of her playing more than two dozen games.  Everyone kept her very, very busy.  We knew it was bedtime when we'd run down the power on all of the devices.  :)

I didn't want Mom to go into withdrawals when we all left (with our devices in tow) so I downloaded a Scrabble app for her on her Kindle.  Playing a computer isn't quite the same fun as playing your family but she was enjoying it.  My brother (or maybe it's my SIL) has continued with the games this week, which has been a lot of fun.  They were so inspired that their family got out their Scrabble game last Sunday night.  I hope he doesn't mind me sharing but he totally had me laughing my butt off.  This is the photo he sent me with a request for help....

I didn't see it in time to assist but thought it was hilarious nontheless. Ahh...gotta love technology!

A bit more on Words before I sign off.   If anyone wants to play with me, I'm JB,FL2 on both Words and Hanging with Friends and I'd love me some fresh blood.  :)  Just promise me you aren't this person....

 conceptualizing

...although I now see that even this record seems to have been broken.  

Made me feel pretty darned small.

Post-Turkey Post

We're back from a wonderful holiday weekend at my parent's home.  Too much food, just enough drink, a little shopping, LOTS of Words With Friends, some fishing (and swimming *wink*) and the perfect amount of relaxing.   Here are a few photos -

My two children....

Sorry, couldn't resist.  So typical of him.

The five cousins....

And the two dogs....our Jasmine (with the bows) and my brother's Daisy.  They chased and chased, played and played all weekend.  Such good dogs.

On the home front....Meg's science fair project was turned in this morning.   (yay!)  She's now hard at work on a big book report.  

I'm hoping for time in my scrap room tomorrow to make my holiday cards.  I have the components all ready to go, just need to sit down and assemble them. Thursday will start my Dec. Daily album.  I've created a holiday mini album the last three out of four years.  They're very manageable and a great way to record our little snippets of everyday life around the holiday season.   I'll post the pages as I go.

Thanks again for checking in!!!

  

Happy Thanksgiving!

here's hoping you all are fortunate enough to spend the day/weekend with your loved ones...

eat lots of turkey, relax and reflect on all of the good things in your life...

and for those of you brave enough to shop Black Friday...good luck! You won't see me out anywhere.  :)

Random Stuff

It was a very busy weekend and start to this week.  My girlfriend's annual RAK Soiree (Random Act of Kindness) was this past weekend. She and her husband both love to throw parties and decided five years ago to create one with meaning.  They came up with the idea of RAK which raises money for a local charity/family in need.  What began with a guest list of 20 in 2007 has grown into 125 ... held in their home, I might add.  With that many in attendance it has become a weekend event for her closest friends with Friday setup, the Saturday event, and of course the Sunday aftermath, but it's one we all look forward to it every fall.

How it works....every year she takes recipient nominations in advance, requests a $15 donation/person from those in attendance, and votes are cast as the guests arrive.  At the end of the night the DJ pulls a name out of the jar and that family/charity receives all of the money collected.  This year we raised $1900 which, given our hard hit economy, is quite remarkable.  The donation is done anonymously and how she has managed to keep it all a secret in our little community for five years now is simply nothing short of amazing.  This year the recipients are a local family whose four year old son, currently enrolled in the same preschool that Meg attended, was recently diagnosed with brain cancer. So very, very heartbreaking.

On a much lighter note....

Here's a photo I shot of Meg on 11-11-11 at 11:11 AM.

And while I was busy with pre-RAK stuff, Randy was busy in his garden..  So far he's planted strawberries and tomatoes.

He and Meg are still planning what to plant in the rest of the space.

With any luck we'll have some home-grown goodies this winter.

Tortellini Soup....continued

More on my tortellini soup...

While no one in my family would try the soup, Meg kept commenting that first night about how good it smelled.  Unfortunately I was unable to coax her into trying it.  Instead she insisted on a bowl of Cheerios for dinner. Yesterday I had a late lunch and had heated myself up some soup while Meg was starting her homework.  Once again she kept commenting on how good it smelled.  I offered her $1 to try a tortellini.  She said that wasn't near enough so we ended up settling on $5.  (I know Mom and Dad are shaking their heads right now but I do what I have to do.) She finally tried the pasta...no broth, tomatoes or spinach...and smiled.   For another $5 she ate a small bowl (no spinach) and agreed that she would eat it for dinner next time I fixed it.  Bribing a child to eat might not be "your thing" but in my house, it's money well spent.

Now a little bit about Randy's latest project.  He has been very hard at work in our backyard.

He's always grown winter tomatoes but this year he has great expectations of a full vegetable garden.   I'll keep you posted as to his progress. 

PS - My sis got the inspiration to the title of this post correct.  It was a line from Steve Martin in the Jerk, as you already know, one of my all time favorite movies.  

  

Quick Dinner Post

I made this very easy, delicious and healthy soup last night for dinner.  The latter is probably the reason no one in my family even tried it but me.  *sigh* Their loss.

To make it....

Sautee about a half an onion and a clove of garlic in 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil.  Add a teaspoon of dried oregano, salt and pepper as desired.  To this add two cans of diced tomatoes (I used one regular and one Italian seasoned), a 32 oz box of chicken stock and 1-2 cups of water.  Allow to simmer for about 20 minutes. Add a bag of frozen cheese tortellini and cook according to directions. (2-3 minutes for my bag.)  Right before serving add fresh spinach and stir. Sprinkle with a bit of fresh Parmesan cheese and enjoy.

I can attest to the fact that it's just as good (if not better) the next day and I'm looking forward to some yummy lunches this week. Let them eat cereal.

Step Right Up and Win Some Crap!

This past weekend was our little town's 24th Annual Pineapple Festival held in celebration of the fact that 100 years ago our community was once the site of a large pineapple plantation.  Today our town "boasts" a population of 11,000 but hosts almost 35,000 in the three day weekend event.  We have attended every year since Meg's been two.

Because Randy was working this weekend Meg and I attended the festival yesterday with Aimee, her daughter and two other of their friends.  There was a light rain off and on all afternoon but we weren't deterred.  The girls all had wristbands for unlimited rides and they took full advantage of them.  I know of two rides in particular that Meg herself rode at least four and five times each while we moms stood by and chatted the afternoon away.

In addition to the rides there were music concerts, food concessions, game booths, as well as local advertising and craft booths.  Of course the girls wanted to see, do and buy one of the everything there.  Aimee and I managed to hold off any and all purchases until close to the end of the day.  Thank goodness, because by the end of the afternoon she and I became "The Collectors of All Things Crap."  Between the two of us we had five balloon animals, four foam Metro PCS cowboy hats (free), two huge bags of kettle corn (Aimee's), silly freebies from Sonic, free coolies, frisbees and bags from a local slip and fall attorney, lemonades, water, two jars of awesome pickled pepper relish, an owl necklace (Meg), a Hello Kitty watch (Meg's friend) and four big inflatables won by each girl at the hammer/bell booth. We definitely did our part to boost the local economy.  :)

We all had a really fun time but were exhausted and ready to come home.

I'm posting another photo for Chris.  These are the pineapples we grow in our yard.  Very, very easy...all you do is cut the top off a fresh pineapple and then pop it in the dirt.  Mother Nature does the rest.  We've discovered that it takes about 3 years to get your first fruit but they come about twice a year after that.  This particular plant (we have about a dozen spread out all over our property) has given us two pineapples at once.

They tend to be on the smaller side but they are absolutely delicious!!!

PS...anybody know what movie I'm referencing in my blog title?

Be vewy vewy quiet, I'm hunting wabbits

Last night, right before bed, Meg comes to us saying she heard some weird noises outside the kitchen window.  Randy assures her that it's just Sparky but she wasn't convinced.  Knowing that she was about to play the "can I sleep with you?" card, he went out to investigate.  A few minutes later he walked in with this in his hands, rescued straight out of the jaws of Sparky (that hissy cat you see in my banner heading.)  It was a youngster and thankfully appeared to be uninjured.  Of course Meg immediately asked if we could keep him but we both simultaneously chimed in "NO!"  Randy did however want to keep him inside for the night so the poor thing could recover.

They got a box, set him inside, and Meg made sure he (she?) was quite comfortable.  When I asked if it could escape, Randy laughed and reassured me that there was no way.  He set the box on top of the toy bench in the kitchen and loosely closed the lid.

At 4:00 I heard a weird noise.  I listened for a few seconds, heard another one and then I woke Randy up to investigate.  I just knew that rabbit was on the loose.  Sure enough, when Randy didn't return, I poked my head out the door to find him on his hands and knees with a flashlight.  Grrrrreat.

We spent about 30 minutes looking for it with no luck.  It could have squeezed in anywhere.  (He had initially put it in Jasmine's kennel but it squeezed through the bars.)  I headed back to bed lying there thinking about rabbit droppings and bunny decomp.  Thankfully Randy popped in about 15 minutes later with the little thing cupped in his hands.  He had let Sparky in and sure enough, that darned cat found it within 60 seconds!  Randy had to pry the poor thing out of his mouth all over again.  (So much for trying to de-traumatize the poor thing.)

Knowing Meg would be upset if she didn't get to say good-by it went back into the box until 6:00, this time with the lid weighted down.  With Sparky safely contained on the patio, Randy let him go in the woodsy area at the back part of our property.  I sure hope the poor thing did a "Run, Forest, Run!" to safety.

Halloween Photos

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween!  Meggie and I made our annual Trick or Treating rounds with my friend Aimee and her daughter Grace last night.  I think this is the fifth year we've gone out together and it's always a good time.

Thirty minutes before leaving we had a costume emergency as in...Meg's was nowhere to be found.  She wore it to a school function and then again to a Halloween birthday party but last night it seemed to have disappeared. We tore apart her room, the laundry, called her friend.  Nothing. Thankfully she rolled with it without any arguments and donned a costume from two years ago.  So rather than Trick or Treat as the beautiful Greek goddess Athena, she went out as the beautiful Egyptian Queen Cleopatra. Of course, Randy called me as soon as he got home to tell me that he'd put her Athena gown away in the spare bedroom closet.  *sigh*  Maybe I can talk her into wearing it next year.

Randy and I were invited to a Halloween costume party last Saturday.  In the end, he decided to play Daddy Nanny to Meg and one of her girlfriends so I attended solo.  We had a really great time and everyone's costumes were fabulous.

If you don't subscribe to ShowTime you probably will have no idea who I am (many at the party had no clue) but I had so much fun assembling my costume. Sorry, it's a horrible photo.  It was taken after dark and the girls (my little 10 year old photographers) informed me I wasn't allowed to smile.

Did you guess?  I'm Dexter, the Miami homicide blood splatter analyst/vigilante serial killer.  LOVE that show!

The next few weeks are busy with Meg's science fair project.  She hates science almost as much as she hates reading so it's not been as fun as it should be.  I mean, c'mon....science is fun!!!!  Sometimes I question whether she's truly my child.

Getting Personal

When recording one's life onto pretty pages filled with beautiful papers and fun embellishments the tendency is to document the fun/good times and ignore the ugly/bad times.   While I don't feel that every dirty little secret/severe illness/emotional trauma needs to be recorded in extreme detail I do feel like it is my responsibility to my children/grandchildren to at least make reference to our life's downs as well as our ups.  (I did this with my CRMO layout.  It's just not possible to accurately document the anguish we felt during those few months but I felt it was important that I acknowledge that period of time.)

Many of you are already aware of this but some of you are not.  I co-own a scrapbooking website with two very good friends, Catherine (Idaho), and Lynne (Colorado).  For many years now we have shared stories of our children and our lives though forums (chat) and web galleries (scrapbook layouts) with 50 dear friends, all in the private setting of our site.  Catherine and Lynne were privy to the information in my layout below but others reading here were not. No doubt there was a lot of speculation as to just what happened to me in 2009-2010 when I virtually disappeared off the site.  I thank Catherine and Lynne for taking up my slack and covering for me.  It was a dark time when creating layouts and mindless chatter with online friends was just not possible for me.

I created this page as part of the Sept. LOAD.  The prompt was to document an ending.  I deleted the journaling when I uploaded it into the LOAD gallery but have decided to share it with you all here.

I see no need to record all of the heartbreaking details so I've decided to let this layout speak for the year that Randy and I were apart. We've been back together for well over a year now and it thrills me to say that we've never been happier.   I do plan to create a follow-up page sometime in the near future but I envision it being much like this one...short and to the point.

The ironic thing about this layout is that, while it is not the most pleasant subject to discuss, it is one of my all time favorite pages with respect to color/photos/design.  Maybe it was meant to be another important part of the healing process.

PS - For anyone interested, our website is PlaygroundofMemories.com.  If you're interested in joining us, please register so that you can view the entire site.

Blog Neglect

It's been a bit hectic lately.  I spent a few days last week visiting my parents in Tampa and then came home to a very busy weekend.  It's been awhile since I've had any play time in JulieWorld but I'm hoping to get in there for a couple of hours today.

I'd like to share another layout I did for the September LOAD class.  The prompt was to scraplift yourself.  (This design is the same I used in my Happy layout.) The very willing subjects are my daughter and her three cousins.

When at my parent's it seems most all photos are taken in the kitchen.  One of these days I'm going to learn how to set my camera manually to eliminate the yellowness.  See those cabinets?  They're not maple, they're an antiqued white/cream.  Even my Photoshop skills aren't enough to get the final coloring right.  Mel, Catherine....any quick pointers?

Mickey Card

One of my daughter's friends is a real Disney fanatic.  She just loves everything Mickey, Minnie, Pooh and Princess etc, etc, etc,.  She recently celebrated her eleventh birthday and I wanted to make her a special card to go along with her Disney gifts.  

Using a large Spellbinder circle die I cut out two circles from black cardstock.  I used a smaller die to cut out two ears on a fold.  I attached the smaller folded circles to the two larger ones so that the card opens vertically at the ears.  I hand drew the face onto white, black and red cardstock, cut the pieces out and then attached them to the front of the card.

According to Meg her little friend LOVED the card which was later confirmed by her mother.  I just love it when recipients appreciate the love and work I put into a project.  Meg, who was more impressed than she cared to let on, has already put in a request for a Pooh card on her next birthday.  :)

Weekend Guest

As if I'm not already feeling old enough this week, my son is home for his 10 year class reunion.  I honestly do not know where the time goes.  But it's wonderful to have him home and we're enjoying his visit tremendously.

I wanted to show you all just what "happy mail" looks like.  I got these wonderful goodies from my dear friend Catherine on Wednesday.  So much better than AARP notices.  :)

And Dad, maybe I'll bring along some jam and pickles when I visit next week. Maybe.

50 and a day....

Yesterday came and went very quietly.  I am officially 50 and even AARP knows it.  Got this little tidbit in the mail last week.

I love "happy mail."  Happy mail is defined as cards, scrappy supplies at my door, surprise gifts, etc.  This, my dear friends, IS NOT happy mail.

But putting birthdays into perspective, they can't be all bad when you have a fun loving tween in the house constantly making you smile.   Meg called me in to her room a couple of days ago to see something.  Before she opened the door she prefaced it with a "You're probably not going to like this but..."  (Never a good sign.)

I couldn't help but laugh though when I saw her latest creation.

The story goes....

"I found these clothes pins in your scrap room and wanted to make a clothes line.  I went to the garage to get the rope and remembered the pulley.   Daddy helped me hang it.  (The hook was already there.)  Isn't it cool, Mommy?"

:)  This girl is a real trip.

Surprise!

At least it was to me.  At 4:30 Saturday afternoon there was a knock at the door.  My husband called to me and opened the door to pouring rain, a strange man with an umbrella, and a white stretch Hummer limousine in my drive.  I thought we were heading out to friends to hang out (not out of the ordinary in the least) but instead we were heading to Jupiter to celebrate my 50th birthday.  I can honestly say, I had absolutely no idea.  (My girlfriends had told me that they were taking me out on Sunday for a girls day birthday celebration and I totally bought it...even had my clothes picked out for the next day.)  My husband had arranged the whole thing and they somehow all managed to keep it all a secret.

The limo dropped Meg off at a friends and then headed south.  (It was a short ride for her but she LOVED every second of it.)  There were 13 of us total and on the way down they decked me out in a 50th tiara, birthday pins, banners, boas, etc which I wore most of the night. We went to dinner at a cabana type restaurant on the water and then stopped at a local bar on the way home.  I have to admit, it was my best birthday ever, even if I do have to turn 50 tomorrow.

Cameras flashed all night.  I don't have any photos yet but I'll share them when I do.  And if any of you are reading this....thank you once again for an absolutely wonderful night!!  And thank you Randy, for making me feel very, very special.

Latest Page

I had some time today to play in JulieWorld today so I tackled one of my remaining prompts from LOAD.  The photos will give you an idea of just why my shoulder aches.  (Which it did today...always does when I'm in at the desk playing with paper.  I finally figured out that it is the pressure I put on my left arm/shoulder when I use my exacto knife.)

Prompt - Use numbers on your page

I just downed an extra "dose" of ginger juice for my shoulder.  My thumbs are still good.  No real change in the hitch in my giddy-up which is better but has a long way to go.

TFL!

Update

I've been on my ginger juice tonic for a full two days now.  I can honestly say that my thumbs, while still quite stiff and somewhat achy, are no longer sore to the touch.  Hopefully they will continue to improve.  My groin-whatever it is (in my family it's referred to as a "hitch in my giddy-up") is still bothering me quite a bit but there is definite improvement. 1)  I was able to run last night (slow and easy 2 miler) but done with a slight limp and 2) I'm sitting here typing this with my legs crossed at the knees, something I haven't been close to being able to do in over two weeks.  My shoulder continues to be just fine. I'll keep you updated as to any further progress.

I wanted to share a couple more of my LOAD pages.

Prompt - Music.  Sharing some of my 70s Geek....

Prompt - Scrap like it's 1999...incorporated some older techniques and some really old stuff.

TFL!!