I've changed my Playlist to ALL "PRINCE", ALL DAY today...have disabled auto play for my listening pleasure only...it's my tradition to rock in the New Year with him, even if it's not in person.....Prince lover till the end!! Also, the countdown to my RAK has started; I'll probably post after midnight!

each time I get insomnia, I troll around my favorite sites and link to new ones and always seem to find at least a few more friends! That's how it is in the scrapworld..so today's new friend is Teri with one "r" and you can find her here....she may even have a goodie for you!

http://teridaughteroftheking.blogspot.com/2008/12/yeah-i-get-to-teach-again.html

while watching the NY Giants "try" to lose today and while waiting for my Baltimore Ravens to play, I decided to turn on the tv down here and get to cleaning the room and the table...that way, I can start fresh and work on 2 pages that I will be submitting for publication that have to be done by Tuesday.

One hour later...tada!!!!!!!!!! Looks the same to me but I know stuff has been filed and put away. I actually found some things I can use today and also put some more stuff in the RAK box :)







PS- THE NY GIANTS DID LOSE *** :(

"Angela D-F#009" over at the Fiskateers blog has issued a Scrap Room challenge-CLEAN IT! and so this has inspired me to clean this up and give away a scrapbooking RAK! OR, 2 or 3 depending on how big the pile is!!! (the giveaway box is in the closet where you can't see it :)



Will post my challenge (will only require typing; no layouts or work involved) on New Year's Day (afternoonish) and will draw a winner quickly {by January 4th since 4 is my favorite number}...spread the word! You do not need to be a Fiskateer to win ***

:)

**and yes, I know the one LO is *&#ed up; the more I tried to fix it, the worse it got and it was at the end so I just left it as it was....I got distracted by the number of friends that BB has had here in the house this week while school's out..they kept disturbing me...I shoulda locked them out of the studio but....

pss-that Prima Marketing paper is too cool! I won it at Coordinates Collections and was very happy with it's cool factor!

here at http://kath-allthatglitter.blogspot.com/ I wasn't sure if it was ok to copy the picture of her giveaway but trust me, you haven't seen anything like it! Chock full of Fiskars goodies and flowers, buttons and ribbons plus tons of other stuff! She's obviously in the giving spirit!

AND maybe winning !!!!!!!!!!!! This lovely goody pack can be used for altered notebooks, clipboards, card-making and of course scrapbooking!!!!!!

for a closeup, go to http://www.thepaperplace.ca/samplegiveaway.html** Entries must be received by December 31st !!!!!!!!!!!!

Everybody's asleep-I thought Thing 1 and Thing 2 would never go to bed! For some reason, Brandon decided he was gonna stay up late tonight; he finally went down at 10:30~ yep, 10:30-pm! Everybody who knows him knows that's CRAZY for him...sis finally followed at 11 pm...my lord! Gotta get my butt to bed since I am in charge of Christmas breakfast!!

***Yep, they are both wearing boy's pj's; Thing 1 begged me to let them wear "matching" clothes for Christmas morning so boy's pajamas it was; they didn't haved any Christmas ones and I got these back in early November so....

That these little things called
GINGERBREAD houses were a
pain? What do they make that frosting stuff out of anyway? It def didn't want to stick to that stuff they called gingerbread...hence, we show you the house that didn't make the "EXTREME GINGERBREAD HOME MAKEOVER" challenge...but it was fun for me & BB :)

None here in Maryland and I DO NOT miss that! This is a layout I did of pictures from last year's excursion in NY...I had to do a LO of L in the "Fiona" hat cause I love it so; I bet she does NOT miss having to wear it this year either for many reasons :) People forget that snow is beautiful to look at and to photograph and to play in; especially a snowfall like this one in the picture, it was WAY early in the morning, no one in the town was awake and it was just {us} and the birds and the snow but hell, once you got back from the back paths and back to civilization, ain't nothing breathtaking about shoveling a foot of snow!!!

forgot about the reveal! I was one of the lucky few to get a tour of the White House Holiday Tour...no President or First Lady (present or future) were in site but it was still beautiful both on the eyes and the ears.












This years theme was a Patriotic one...I was going to scan the book that goes with it to tell the story (it's very cute) but I have misplaced it {shhhh!}...love the red, white and blue theme -it was SOOOO VERRRYYYYYY American and I loved that! May do a room like that at Christmas next year with leftover 4th of July scrapbook decor once it goes on sale...Pretty cool idea!

So anyway, ENJOY some of the sites we saw!

a/k/a Ms. Leah K is giving away an awesome awesome Cosmo Cricket goody box/bag/basket later this week. Go to her blog at http://www.lifeaslou.blogsome.com for details-don't waste any time!

of where I was yesterday...am off for a few days but will update when I return
on Monday! Hint: it was very festive AND patriotic! ANY guesses????

I'm always looking for new sites when I'm suffering from insomnia and came across this site~ http://blog.papermonkey.org/index/2008/12/happy-hauladays-my-biggest-giveaway-ever-.html

and did I mention that they were having a holiday giveaway today????

with Thing 2...Thing 1 (big sis) is with friends tonight & at a sleepover so...I thought I'd see if Mr. Man was gonna cooperate-the answer was a resounding no when it came to looking straight at me and smiling so...I just took what I could get and he still looks so darn cute in his tie! Had to roll up the sleeves cause he's outgrown the shirt and the sleeves were pretty high!

Hey friends and family, just in case you haven't heard, the girls at Glitz are doing some Santa elf giveaways for the 12 Days of Christmas! Head on over to
http://glitzitnow.blogspot.com and join the fun! You'll be glad cause they have some awesome stuff to give.

I just bought some Glitz products last week with my scrapbook.com winnings and hope to start some Christmas layouts this evening......would love to win more to add to this small stash :)

just using some of the stuff I got from my Secret Santa to do some Thanksgiving layouts!

to the holiday decorations; normally I'm way behind and don't have stuff up and done until Dec 23rd...but I decided to get all the damn decorations out and "attempt" to start since this is Brandon's first idea~ not about Christmas, but I thinks he knows SOME type of celebration is happening {I think}. Can't ask him so...I shall assume YES! He enjoyed putting ornaments on tree #1 with sister; we (Me and the tall one)poured some wine and turned on Christmas tunes and put up the artificial tree in the living room and will get the real one for the den next Friday. The kids have theirs up in their rooms and I did add some decorations and trees in the hall bathroom...may take some pics of that later.

Here's Thing 1 and Thing 2 !!!

Charityj posted about the giveway at Scribble Scrabble and regardless of the giveaway, check this out! Makes me wish I had saved BB's old ballerina shoes; but I wasn't a scrapper at that time so...



Check this and other creative ideas at http://scribblescrabble-scribblemethis.blogspot.com/2008/12/christmas-creativity.html

they are kinda addictive, doncha think?? I got this one from the gorgeous Tina (yes she's very pretty) at http://lifelovepaper.typepad.com/just_a_girl_who_likes_pap/ or you can catch her over at her Etsy shop (user: lifelovepaper)

so here's her Qs: Supposed to be one word answers but every body knows I can't do that so...on that note~

Where is your mobile phone? purse {maybe}**I did say MAYBE I can't keep track of it,poor thing
Where is your significant other? tv watching
Your hair colour? dark black when it's not dyed & streaked
Your mother? NY
Your father? NY but traveling right now
Your favourite thing? scrapbooking
Your dream last night? you don't wanna know-weird-did I say Simon Cowell was involved??
Your dream goal? continue to be my childrens life coach
The room you're in? my scrapbook room
Your hobby? scrapbooking-I'm repeating that entirely too much huh?
Your fear? fire
Where do you want to be in 6 years? Working to pay for snorkeling trips
Where were you last night? sleeping
What you're not? gorgeous
One of your wish-list items? visa gift card so I can go to Ulta and Home Goods
Where you grew up? everywhere (Born in NJ-been to Japan, Virginia, Germany, NY, Maryland)
The last thing you did? took nap
What are you wearing? jeans (tank top, shirt on top, socks)
Your TV? we have too many too describe-old & new
Your pets? none
Your computer? needs more memory
Your mood? hungry
Missing someone? my Aunt Rita
Your car? Saturn VUE
Something you're not wearing? perfume
Favourite shop? Macys and Home Goods
Your summer? long vacation/rejuventation time
Love someone? totally
Your favourite colour? turquoise-change from yellow
When is the last time you laughed? weekend when I watched Fred Clause movie
When is the last time you cried? today when one of my son's NICU nurses saw us out in the community and recognized him right away-she had very nice words to say

are you checking out his blog? I wasn't sure if we could post his actual tags so I'll just say go to the blog- He is SOOOOOOOO creative; I'm intimidated by all the steps/techniques/supplies involved but the end result is wonderful; makes me wonder if he goes to bed dreaming about tags :)

generous spirit of giveaways-check out http://glitzitnow.blogspot.com/ for their fabulous Christmas giveaways! And tell your friends too!

Just thought I'd post a few pics even though some of us are in our pajamas doing the prep work for the Thanksgiving dinner-Lynne did ALL the cooking and boy o boy was it a yummy feast fit for a queen {me}! I was just glad to just have to chop stuff. And yes, that brined turkey was DIVINE!! Gotta do that myself next time I cook turkey...

As you can see it (day)was FABULOUS and to have Dad with us was truly a blessing; considering he was at death's door in critical condition this time last year. What a difference a year can make; being healthier and making great steps to recovery. Cancer is no joke and if you know a friend or loved one who is is either fighting it or is in remission, you know how tough that road is for them both physically and mentally. Being healthy is a BIG thing to be thankful for.

I'm in heaven :) -lots of Basic Grey goodness and how did she know I ADORE Kaiser??? Aren't these large rhinestones amazing? I'd never seen them before and can't wait to get to creating soemthing special tomorrow! My favorite thing though was her gorgeous card; it's even more delish in person... and,it's the 1st one I've received for the season~ Thanks Kimberly!!!! I'm doing the happy dance!!!!!

I saw this list on Katrina's blog {http://katyat34.typepad.com/being_30something/}, and thought it was an interesting list. You bold the items that you've done. How many have you done??? I think I counted 35 for me; need some $ to travel!


1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band

4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/ Disneyworld
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped

12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelos David
41. Sung karaoke **NOTE: and badly too!!!
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant (does coffee count?)
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy (one of my kid's toys)
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone's life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

master of it all, TIM HOLTZ....I am not a tag maker BUT damn is he good...there are so many techniques to take away from him; he is extremely creative and the first tag is vedddddy cute; love the grungeboard lamp post and the way he embellished it!

Of course ,it's http://www.timholtz.com and then click on his blog.

already-so many things to be thankful for as we close November and start December....
Stacy Julian posted a list she wrote this week on her blog, and I took a few minutes to quickly jot some of my many blessings (some big, some little, some weird):

coffee*modern medicine*surgeons*peace*american flag*democracy*choice*ice tea*music*family*health*my own scraproom*cozy blankets*beach*friendship*books*
kisses*education*God's blessings and favor*pasta*seafood*faith*love*soul*
warm boots*dancing*smiles*gratitude*love*cheesecake* multi-tasking*reflection*sun*
travel* rejuvenation*american sign language for without it, "WE" would be lost!*
the 5 senses for indeed they are gifts; you don't realize it until one is gone or is compromised :)

Have a great week everybody!!!!!!!!!!