Staying Busy...

Yep, and I guess that'll be my excuse for not keeping up with the bloggin' in over a week or two. My big fat Birthday occured this month, on the 16th. The roses up in the top photo there were from my sweetie... to help brighten my day a bit! They were gorgeous, and the first time he ever got me "pink" ones. But, those roses were thee ONLY bright spot of my day. There was nothing else great about turning 35 I'll tell ya! It just kills me that I'm that age already. Sooo much more that I wanted to accomplish by this time and it just makes me sad that I don't have either of my babies here with me (I wanted to have our family complete by this age). I guess I need to resort to the fact that those were my plans, but God obviously has others! Now I can be glad that I still have 5 years left til that #40 creeps up, lol! My parents also sent me the perfect Birthday card and it was actually the first time I ever cried from reading a Birthday greeting. Here it is...

It says, " Daughter, In the scrapbook of my heart, there are so many pages that carry your name...I have so many memories of you laughing and having the time of your life, celebrating milestones, sharing hugs with family and friends. Every year you keep adding to that collection, precious keepsakes that show how much you love and how very much you are loved". What a terrific card, and so perfect for a scrapbooker!

This week Mugi has vacation so we've been having a lot of fun doing this-n-that! Earlier in the week we took off to Lancaster, PA for a few days and did some shopping at the outlets and eating out a ton, cause we both love to do that. I even got to drag him around to some scrapbook places too, but he doesn't mind because that gives him more opportunities to play with his GPS system! We did some antiquing too, but didn't get anything. Here's some fun new stuff that I did get while we were there though...

Of course, a good heaping of scrap stuff (just what I needed)!

At the Yankee Candle Store I stocked up on some of my favorite new fresh scents, Vanilla Lime, Sage & Citrus and Island Spa. These are all sooooo good, but that Vanilla Lime is just insane!

At one of the Tanger outlet shops I found these adorable teddy bears wearing smocks embroidered with names. Of course I looked and they had an "Ava bear". Mugi told me to get it, and so I did...

Then last, I bought a sweet lil' birdie that I found at the "Flower & Craft Warehouse" (A favorite place to shop around for needful things)! Isn't he a cutie?

The rest of the week we've been just hanging out at home and doing some early spring cleaning of sorts. I had him go through his closet and get rid of clothes he no longer wears, or didn't want anymore. It's amazing because we bagged up 2 large trash bags of his dress pants and jeans and shorts, plus about 15 hangers of shirts, and yet it still doesn't look like a dent was put into his closet. So later next week I'll make a trip to Goodwill to drop it all off. Today we tackled organizing and re-arranging stuff in our computer/scrapping/guitar room I'll take some pictures of all my changes soon. I still have a bit yet to organize.

I think tonight we are gonna play some Sequence, and stay up late together watching some TV and I think I'll pop a pizza in the oven.

I must say that I love when my hubby is at home... it's the best to spend so much time together. I wish he didn't have to go back to work next week!

Rusty Pickle Challenge for Valentine's Day!

Just wanted to quickly share my page that I made to enter in Rusty Pickle's February Blog Challenge! I love my Rusty Pickle stash, so I couldn't pass this one up. We had to use one of their Valentine related lines and add a pocket to the page somewhere. Fun! I used their "Sweethearts Ball" paper and stuff from their Fair Verona line, including the quotes & sentiments coupons and acrylic stamps. I used one of the coupon sheets and created my pocket from that. The flowers were made from paper flowers and some of Rusty Pickle's fabric button brads as flower centers. My stems are strips of denim cut from an old pair of jeans! The photo is of me and my "valentine" on our vacation to Inner Harbor, Baltimore this past summer.



And here's my favorite photo of my guy from today that I wanted to show...

Lol! I LOVE it!! And I LOVE HIM!
Hope everyone had a sweet Valentine's Day!

A Missed Photo Opp!

Ohhh my word. What a morning! I have always wondered if our smoke alarms went off while we were asleep...would I hear them and get up, or would I sleep through it? Got my answer and it's YES -- I sure did hear them! Sometime after 7:30 am this morning, we were lying in bed sleeping and I heard beeping. I kept listening, in my sleepy state and then quickly realized it was our smoke detector beeping. I sniffed the air and it smelled funky so I get up and open our bedroom door and see smoke billowing in our hallway. I open the front door of our apt. which leads to a stairway to our basement section where the washer and dryer and apt. furnace are all located and the smoke is even thicker. So Andrea goes into panic mode and dials up 911! All is okay though, so no worries, thankfully! Seems as though the furnace was in need of a good cleaning:) It was a scary hour or so this morning and I felt kinda sorry for chasing the Fire dept. here when there wasn't actually a fire, but it's like they say...better safe than sorry! So yep, that was my exciting missed photo opportunity for the day :)

Hope everyone had a great weekend. I thought it went rather quick... I spent all day Saturday scrapping away with the CHA In Spirit Day challenges over at the Pub on TwoPeas. I didn't do so bad... I managed to scrap 4 pages and 1 card. I even won one of the drive-by prizes (BG Mellow collection pack and chipboard)! I LOVE the Mellow collection too so I'm happy to be getting the entire pack now. Here's one of the pages I did from the day...

Still scrapping last year's Prom, and it'll soon be time for another. I guess my niece just ordered her dress this past week, and it's going to be RED! Hope there will be some new awesome red papers to play with :) Lol, my wheels are turning already and Prom's not even here!

I made somethin' today!

My Saturday didn't go completely wasted. I actually got off my lazy can and made a card today... and an Easter one at that! I woke up this morning with the sneezes, and thought that wasn't a good sign, so I stayed in bed for awhile longer. Needless to say, I've been using almost a whole box of tissues today and tonight I'll be taking Nyquil before I go off to bed... it can't get any worse because I've got food to prepare for tomorrow nite's SuperBowl matchup. I'm not at all thrilled about either two teams playing in it this year, but hey, it's always a great excuse for a party with good food! We'll be going to our friends' house, where we've gone for the past 3 years in a row. My guy has already given me my orders weeks ago that I'm to make my Country BBQ Pork Ribs (well, actually my mom's recipe)! Ohhh, and just so you know where I stand... I hope the Giants knock the living crap outta the Patriots :)

Okay, onto the card I made. The other week when my mom was in here visiting us,her and I went over to The Street of Shops in Lewisburg, which is one of our favorite places for antiques and all types of crafty treasures. So there I rummaged through a huge box of old vintage cards and I picked out 3 really cool ones that I decided would be really neat to give a revamp... make them into new greeting cards. Two of them are Valentines and the other is an Easter theme.

Here's the 2 Valentines...

(This one is a fold out card, and it didn't have a year on it... but I'm assuming it's from the 60's)

(And this one is a post-card... very unusual on a chipboard-like backing and made with velvet and ribbon with sculpted flowers and gilded heart... so pretty!) I may leave this one just so and put it in a frame. I couldn't find a year on this card either, and it wasn't sent through mail, so no postmark either.

Now here's the adorable Easter post-card and this one did have a date... it was postmarked from the year 1913! Yea...real old!

I also found these vintage floral ribbons and thought they'd be sweet for card making and on scrap pages...

And here's that Easter postcard that I translated into a card for today..

I used some of that golden yellow floral ribbon along with some baby blue stretch lace, a chipboard flourish that I painted and antiqued from Making Memories and {Note}Worthy paper too. I didn't want to adhere the backing of the vintage card to the "new" card, so I used photo corners to hold the post-card. Cute, eh? I'll be making more of these type cards!

And before I forget, I've been tagged by my ohh so talented friend, Allison!

Here it goes... (I'm making this part short and sweet).

FAVORITE SITES

* Most all are listed on my side-bar, along with

QVC.com ( where a good portion of our income goes...)

The Thrift Shop Romantic (My latest favorite blog site)

The Polka Dot Pixie (A second latest fav. blog site)

The Scarlet Lime (I don't subcribe... but I drool :)

Target.com (= all of what's left of dh's paychecks :)

CHALLENGE FAVES

*How Much Is Too Much

Scrap My Scraps

GUILTY PLEASURES

*Sleeping in til noon :)

Mucho Mud-Slides or Pina Coladas from Applebee's :) :)

Babysitting Faves

* No need for any!

Creative Faves

* Way too many to name, but Allison would top it off I believe!

Clothing Faves

*Sweater and jeans... but I must wear my jewelry too!

Now I will tag...

Rachael

Aleta

and Stacy

Good night all! :)

A New Look...

and a first! I've never had a designed blog banner until now. Do you all dig? I kinda do... I finally got a chance to make one up with my scraps ... get it? I'm livin on scraps... ahhhh-ha-ha! Well, most of it was scraps at least. I even changed the background color from black to light pink, but I'm not sure if I'll keep it this way. I may just switch off every week or so, lol!

Certainly not much going on here this week for me, although I did just finish up a bunch of Paper House dt projects that will be used at CHA which is fast approaching. That all did keep me quite busy and I'll be showing you all pictures of all the cute things I made a little bit later. You can also catch glimpses of my stuff as well as other dt members creations over on the Paper House Blog if you'd like. I'll tell you that there are some mighty cute themed collections being debuted at CHA by Paper House... including NEW Chipboard :) So if you are a pet lover, or in need of some way cute Birthday embellishments keep checking out Paper House, because those are just a few of some of the fun new product being released soon. I almost forgot... you'll also want to keep checking out the PH blog because there will also be some cool give-a-ways to be offered leading up to CHA! Who doesn't LOVE new schtuff?!

Okay, I'm calling it quits for the night. The hubby is home so I think I'd better pay him some attention ;) Later you all!

Big Bummer!

Well you all, thanks so much for all the good luck wishes regarding my entry for the CMK dt, but I'm sad to say that I didn't get a spot on the new team.
I was disappointed :( but certainly not surprised... I'm kind of used to the rejection as far as dt's go, lol! There are two or three on-line store or kit clubs that I'd be *thrilled* to design for, but it ALWAYS seems like there are so many other talented ladies out in the huge cyber world beating me to that glorious finish line. Ohhh well, I suppose I'll keep throwing myself out there and maybe someday I'll measure up!

The snow is falling, and I guess it's just in time to ruin the weekend plans (of course). My mom was planning on coming in here for a weekend visit tomorrow, but now she probably won't since she freaks out about driving in the stuff. So now perhaps I'll stay put and get some scrapbooking mojo going! It's been a long while since I've done any scrapping for just me... geez, I can't even remember the last time.

Hey, it's time for you all to meet a special lil' girl... her name is Ginger!





Isn't she the sweetest wittle puppy? I could just snuggle her all day... but she's not mine :(




Ginger belongs to our good friends, Jen and Jason and their boys. They just got her a few weeks before Christmas... Santa's helpers made an early Christmas delivery! We all just love her to pieces, as you can probably tell.


Okay, I'm off to try and get some scrapping underway. Don't know how much I'll actually do, because if all this snow keeps up, I just may go into hibernation mode. I'm starting to feel a bit sleepy, and a nice long nap just may be a better option right now, but we'll see ;)

The 13th... A Day of Regrets.

Today is January 13th, 20008... an anniversary/birthday of sorts for us. It was 3 years ago today that I unexpectedly had our first baby at just 17 weeks gestation. We had such hopes and dreams that just never came to fruition. That was 3 years ago already and not much has changed because we are still at a standstill.

Why does this happen to so many people like us, who so desperately want more than anything to be good loving parents? I find myself trying to make sense of this every day. I don't know if I'll ever understand, and that hurts. It's funny because I've been having such a lousy week. I haven't had any energy or motivation... heck, I haven't even been able to scrap. Then I realized this morning that today is the 13th of January, and all the memories of that day came flooding back (well, what I can remember of that day, because most of it was a blur).

Today I am filled with so much regret of that date. I don't often talk about it, but yes, I am tormented by decisions that I had made that day. When I was lying on that bed at the hospital and I was told that I was going to have my baby now and that there was no chance of our first baby's survival, I was immediately in a state of shock and denial. We were told that we had to "quickly" make the decision on whether I wanted to be sedated and they would take the baby, or if I was going to have labor induced and deliver our baby? This was my first pregnancy. I so wanted to give birth, but when they told me our baby wouldn't live, I was scared to deliver, and I was confused about what was happening. And from the beginning, we knew we wanted to wait until the birth to find out if we were having a son or a daughter. Arghhhh, so much information to process in such little time! At the time, I just knew I couldn't go through with the birth, and I also could not bare to know what gender our child was. We cried and cried, but my dear husband... he went along with my wishes.

And so that day, I was sedated while he waited in a seperate room with my mom. We had our first born that day, but we didn't know "who" our baby was. We didn't see her/him...we didn't hold her/him... and we didn't even name her/him. My 3 biggest regrets! I still wrap my brain around these regrets everyday... especially since giving birth to Ava and actually seeing and holding her! Since having Ava, I now believe that we should've made some different choices on January 13th, 2005. But I also know that I can't beat myself up over what was done. I have to believe that my angel baby knew how very hard it was for us to let go and that we had and still do have so much love for our dear first born! So, this day marks another year... and I've been wondering all day about my 3 year old child. What would our child be like? Hmmmm... we can only imagine! ---- And we do!

Here's wishing our first-born angel a Happy 3rd Birthday ! ~XOXO~

Now before I sign out, the above layout that I have posted is a page about me that I did for my designer profile at the Paper House Productions blog. I usually don't like pictures of myself, but these were some that Mugi took of me this past summer while we were visiting my parents and I think they turned out pretty good. Just thought I'd share :) Have a great week! I'll be busy making lots of projects this week, hopefully, and of course, I'll be quite anxious to hear who makes the CMK DT tomorrow... I'm hoping for my chance, but not counting on it, because the talent displayed in the dt entry gallery was amazing to say the least!

Looking Ahead... And NOT Turning Back!

That's for dang sure! I'm so elated that 2007 is behind us. It's been one tough, emotional year and I want to move on to brighter moments, so I pray that 2008 is filled with them for me and my family... we desperately need them! But don't get me wrong; I don't regret what all we've been through and a won't forget the difficulties we've faced, because it's through these aspects that we have grown. I just hope for more strength and ways to be more positive and focused. I'm optimistic for this new year.

So, New Year's was quite uneventful. We didn't do a thing. I took zero pictures. In a nutshell, we were being boring people. I don't know, I always feel as though New Year's is all so much hype. But yea, I made a few appetizer type finger foods for us to snack on, we watched the ball drop in Times Square and then all most immediately after, we went to sleep... real exciting stuff! There's always next year... lol.

Nothing much going on this week, but I am excited because I just got my entry submitted for the 2008 Design Team Call at one of my favorite places... Create My Keepsake (CMK)!

We had to submit a questionaire along with 3 projects (a card, a layout and an altered item). I had so much fun doing all of these over the weekend. Here's my card that I did...

~ SHABBY FLORAL FLOURISH CARD~
We had to use common product on the card in a unique way and I choose to use the "negative blank" of the chipboard flourishes from fancy pants designs...

Here's my layout then which had to incorporate at least 4 products from the same manufacturer...

~ A Perfectly Matched Corsage ~

I chose to work with my favorite, fancy pants designs, and actually used 5 of their products on here... patterned paper(Kewl and Botanical), acrylic Chic Alpha stamps, Sassy buttons, Sassy crocheted posies, and chipboard flourishes.

Then finally for my altered piece, I had this old ugly letter/bill wall organizer hanging up in my kitchen, and I have been thinking about fixin' it up for awhile now, so I had an excuse to play around with it. Here's what it looked like before...

and now this is what it looks like after...


Here's some top, middle and bottom close-up pix too...

I think it looks sooo much better now! For this I used Christine Adolph paper by Creative Imaginations and I used antiquing gel medium over the paint to add a distressed, shabbiness to the piece. Well, it's all submitted now, so there's no turning back here either! My fingers are crossed :)

Christmas Re-Cap!

Christmas has come and gone. Now everything seems so blah! Nothing really exciting to look forward to except for a new year, and I find it particularly hard to believe that it will be 2008 already. Seems like just yesterday we were all eagerly anticipating the arrival of the new Millennium, but that's been 7 years now!

We had a wonderful and blessed Christmas once again! God is so good! He's blessed me with such wonderful loving parents, and my parents always give and provide me with so much more than I ever deserve! I love going home to see them... and not just at the Holidays. One of the things I love about them most is that they treat my husband the very same way... as one of their own children! Anyway, it's always good to go home. It's a shame to think that not everyone has that opportunity. Such a blessing!

Christmas Eve service at church was nice. Another reason I enjoy going home is to go to church. We go to church here where we live too, but it's just not the same as back home where my dad happens to be the pastor! Call me a tad bit partial, but I would rather attend my dad's church services and listen to his sermons over anywhere else! So we went to church and then came home and had pizza and listened to some Christmas music before settling down.

Here's a few pictures from Christmas Eve before going to church. This is of myself, my gram and my mom...

and one of just gram and I ...

and then one of me and my guy.

Here's the pretty glow of the Christmas tree lights. I just love this part of Christmas... always magical!

Then on Christmas day we woke up and got ready for Santa! Actually, we waited for my brother and his family to arrive. They all showed up around noon or so and then by 1:00 we were eating lunch... Mmmm, turkey and prime rib with everything else! My favorites are always the stuffing and my gram's Cranberry sauce (no one can make it like she does)!

We finally started opening gifts after all the lunch dishes were cleared away. I must say that Santa was particularly generous this year, but then again, isn't he every year?! I think so!

My parents got us some really useful things that we've been wanting to get like a fire-proof security lock box and a Mag-Lite. I also got a watch with interchangable straps and lotions from Ulta, and Mugi got some new cologne and socks and such, and they gave us money to use for what we 'd like or need to, which is always much appreciated. But my personal Santa (hubby) really went overboard in the spoiling department this year! Totally! He got me a new cell phone (because my other died right before Christmas), some Givenchy Organza perfume, a white gold/amethyst/diamond necklace and earring set, AND the #1 present... my 55-200mm lens for my Nikon D40!

I was so surprised by everything! I wanted this new lens bad, but I didn't ask for it or anything else because we just got our new laptop in October and I told him not to get me anything. I feel bad cause all he got from me was a watch and one of those great big remote controls.

So, it was a great day! Later at night then, my SIL and niece and I all went to the movies. We went to see "P.S I Love You" with Hillary Swank. Ohhhh it was such a great movie! If you haven't gone to see it yet, I really recommend you do because it's one of the best movies I've watched in months. Such a "feel good" movie with a message that just makes you appreciate life and what it has to offer! I'm so glad that the hubby wasn't along though because he would've surely laughed at all the tears I shed. If you go be sure to take extra tissues, because you'll need them.

Ohhh, before I forget, the day after we went out to hit some of the after Christmas sales. Got some pretty good deals too, but the thing I was so happy about is that I was able to find the item I wanted the most... a 4 ft. "WHITE" Christmas tree for my babies' ornaments next year! I didn't think I'd find it this year on clearance but I did. I got the next to the last one at Wal-Mart for 50% off! Made my day as well as my Christmas complete! :)

~Special Ornaments~

We've started collecting ornaments this year for our first baby and Ava Noel, and we will continue to do so each and every year in their memory! Eventually... maybe next year, I plan to have a tree dedicated to the babies ornaments, and I'm sure at first it'll be a "baby-sized" tree. I'm actually on the look out for a smaller artificial "white" tree! Anybody seen any?

That first ornament shown in the picture above is one that Mugi and I found last night while doing our run for the last round of Christmas gifts. It was in one of those lil' seasonal kiosks in the middle of the mall with just ornaments. I think we both glanced at it at the same time and we knew it was a must have to commemorate Ava's first Christmas in Heaven. It's actually the 2nd Christmas if you go by the fact she was born premature in October (06), rather than on her estimated due date in January (07), but I still consider this to be the first Christmas. I just think this is so darling and it makes me smile to look at it.

And here's a sweet Snowbabies stocking ...

My parents have collected Snowbabies for my niece since she was 3, so I had to get one of these for my girlie too!

I still can't believe that this is all we get. This is what celebrating Christmas with our babes amounts to. All we have are ornaments to gaze. I'm glad that we can buy these precious momentos, yet I'm sad and I'm mad because that's all it'll EVER be. I'm dealing better with my emotions this year, and I suppose it will get easier as the years go forward, but I don't know... I'm so "homesick" for my babies. I hope God hugs them extra tightly this year and showers them with these tears from earth as heavenly kisses!

Here's a picture with two more very special ornaments ...

The first porcelain angel was made by a wonderful lady who goes to our church, and she gave it to us last Christmas along with a glass "NOEL" candle votive. I was sooo touched by this woman's thoughtfulness! The second pewter one, "Merry Christmas From Heaven", I found locally at a country/primitive gift shop a few weeks ago. Tears welled up as I read this and the beautiful poem which accompanied this in the box. I'd like to add the poem here, but since it is copyrighted and I don't have permission from the author himself, I'll direct you to the site and you can read the poem there at - http://www.merrychristmasfromheaven.com/ -


If there is ONE lesson or good thing to be gained from losing my babies, it is that I am no longer afraid or scared of dying... ever! I know that I have my angels looking over me, and that whenever I am called to my eternal home, I have so much more to look forward to! This poem reminds me of that and now with this ornament, I will be reminded every year.

Merry Christmas to our two dear lil' ones, Baby Amu and Ava Noel!

We love you and miss you so much!