Thursday at the Lake

Greeting from Lake Murray – again. Yesterday was a fun and busy day here at the lake. We made a shopping trip into Columbia where we visited Michael’s, A.C. Moore, and the Columbiana Mall. I spent all of my time (and money) at Coldwater Creek and Williams Sonoma.

I was asked the name of the place where we are staying…. It is not a public place; it is my friend Beth’s family’s lake house. The house has five bedrooms and is just perfect for our group…. Well I suppose for Beth’s family too.

In the evening we took a sunset boat ride to Bird Island (Google Bird Island Lake Murray for more information on the phenomena). At sunset thousands and thousands of birds flock to the island, circling counter clockwise, singing and flying until just before darkness. It is a very beautiful and amazing sight.
Ironically, on the way back from the island we ran out of gas. Whoever took out the boat before us left it nearly empty…. This came as quite a shock to my friend Beth’s dad, who was driving. He had checked the tanks three days earlier and found them full, and he had not taken out the boat in between.
What everyone forgot was that Beth’s college age nephew and some friends had spent Sunday and Monday at the lake house and most likely used the boat. Sigh…
My friend Kathy sacrificed her acrylic tumbler and the last of the gas from one tank was then drained into the cup and poured into the other tank. This procedure allowed us to coast into the dock on fumes!!! It was a quite an adventure.

As a group we worked on a project for Beth’s daughter’s wedding. We were making the tags for the table favors. We cut two hundred white dog tags from Stand and Salute (the groom was served in Iraq) and two hundred initial sets and affixed them atop the white tags. We then cut two hundred red tags and layered them. The tags will be tied to small bags of personalized M&M’s, which have special meaning the bride and groom.

Between our trips and meals and wedding projects, I played with the Tammy Potter’s Mosaics again yesterday. I scrapped more of the Steeplechase as well as some photos of my older son and his fiancé.

I think today will be more scrapping and less running around, but will be just as fun.

Another Vegas Layout - Luxor Hotel and Casino

I have another layout to share with you today - the Luxor Hotel and Casino.  This is where we stayed for our week in Vegas.  For those not familiar with Las Vegas, the Luxor is a large pyramid (with side towers).  We purposely chose a pyramid room because I wanted to experience the fun shape.  The elevators were interesting... They rise on an angle due to the pyramid shape.  You suddenly realize you are not going just up and down, but slightly sideways too. 

This layout is of the Luxor exterior, including a photo of one of the four pool, and a photo of the view from the hotel front   I like the phrases "Every smile has a story to tell" and "A picture's worth a thousand words."  I thought both of the phrases were perfect for scrapbooking.  I used Bo Bunny paper for this layout - simple cricut cut letters, and a personalized die cut I purchased from Scrap Your Trip.  Julie has great products that can be customized.  My scrap-trip to Las Vegas will continue tomorrow with another layout. 

I have BIG NEWS:  Thanks to "My Friend Kathy's" outstanding shopping skills I am the owner of a new PINK tripod!!  I will be attempting another video soon - this time with less arm in front of the camera!! :-) 

Also, I noted today that I am five followers away from reaching 500 followers.  When I started this blog I never dreamed that I would have 500 followers.  WOW.  I am humbled. 

Totally NOT Papercraft Related: Michigan State University Moves to the Final Four!!

Happy Dance!! Happy dance!!!  My Michigan State Spartans are on their way to the final four!!  I just had to share - Donna Mundinger and I are both celebrating tonight.... We MSU Alumni take our basketball seriously - as does Sparty - just look at the photo above.

Sparty is quite the guy!  Look at him rallying the team during a game!!  I love Sparty... but then he is the ULTIMATE Spartan! 

Too funny - I just checked Donna's blog to copy the link to her site - and she too has a MSU post.  We Spartans take our team seriously!!!!

Spring Steeplechase and Birthday Bash ... What a Saturday!

I have to tell you that I am wiped out today.  Yesterday was such a full and wonderful day.  We attended the Aiken's 44th Running of the Steeplechase, T H E spring event in Aiken, as well as hosted a 50th birthday party my husband threw for me. 

Steeplechase is a day of tailgating, horse racing, sun (!), friends, food and beverages.  We had such a nice time attending with a few friends, my mother, and two of our three children. We took our E-Z up canopy, tables & chairs, and tailgated from the backend of my minivan.

We then came home and set up a couple of round tables with chairs in our backyard.  We served a selection of food, beverages and of course, birthday cake and ice cream.  We finished the night off with funny rounds of Catch Phrase and Apples to Apples.  It was seriously so much fun.

Today is my actual birthday and it has been a slow lazy day... Now that I am 50 apparently I need a recovery day! LOL. 

I just wanted to share some of my birthday weekend fun with you.  I hope that you will stop back on Monday for the BBTB2 new projects (hint - BBTB2 is celebrating with me also).

Scrapping Pre-Birthday Bash

I have THE BEST friends!!  Honestly.  It is so wonderful to type that sentence and truly mean every word.  My friends threw me a 50th Birthday Crop last Saturday and it was a blast.  A moment of full disclosure here:  My actual birthday is NEXT Sunday.  However, there are several events all going on next weekend that made it necessary for the birthday crop to be a week early.  And as I ALWAYS say, a good birthday should last a few days; a great birthday should last a couple of weeks.  This is a great birthday!

My friends put together a 12 hour scrap-bash that included fabulous friends, wonderful food, scrappy gifts, and lots and lots of laughter. Photos above show the luncheon table and Peggy (the hostess) with the almost b-day girl.

My girl-friends are the best!  They made me a scrapping scrapbook.  It is a scrapbook of our scrapping adventures.  It includes trips to three out of town cropping locations, trips to the CKC conventions, notes from Kelly at Custom Crops and Regina at BBTB, and my blog.  Each of the friends at the party contributed pages, as well as Suzanne who was out of town.  It is the book of my scrapping adventures and it is AWESOME!  In the photo above are "My Friend Kathy", Toby and Andrea. 

And finally what would a birthday party be without cake?  My Friend Kathy made this fabulous double layer pineapple upside down cake that tastes even better than it looks!!!

Thank you girly-girls for being the MOST awesome friends and for the all the fun I alway have with all of you!!!

Happy Bird-Day Card for my Mother-in-Law

My mother-in-law's birthday (84) is three weeks away so I thought it was time to get going on a card for her. She is a diminutive, southern woman who enjoys the beauty of various birds - so of course this called for a Bird-Day card!

As luck would have it I stumbled upon a FREE copy of the Serenade cartridge yesterday! (Let’s all say WOO-HOO for free cartridges)! Okay I didn’t really stumble - - it was sent to me along with a warranty replacement cricut expression from Provo Craft. And what is on the Serenade cartridge??? Bird cages and birds – YES!!

I really like how this card came out. More importantly I think my mother-in-law will really like the card. She is very supportive of my paper crafting, even sharing projects I send to her with her friends. Of course now that I know that I do try to make her projects “share worthy”.

I used not just the Cricut and Serenade on this card, but also the tall nesties – scalloped and plain, the rectangular nesties – scalloped and plain, and part of a stamp set by Darcie’s. I used Stampin’ Up ink, Core'dination carstock, assorted other paper, and pink ribbon from my stash.

Last of the Weekend Layouts

This is the last of layouts that I will be sharing from last weekend's crop at Lake Murray (thank you Sally & Beth)!! Let me see... We featured Aaron, then Bethany... So it must be time for Ian. I must tell you that my photo stash of Ian has declined significantly since he went away to college. I am going to have to speak to him about being IN the photos he takes and posts.

The photos in this layout were from January 2009 when the Carolina Panthers were in the playoffs. I was excited that I had a reason to use the Carolina-Like Panther cut that I designed a couple of years ago.  Sadly they were destroyed by the Cardinals.... and it rained… And the quarterback threw a zillion interceptions…. OUCH. My poor guys - there they were in the rain watching their team loose. My husband assured me that except for the game the guys enjoyed their trip to Charlotte. That is one of those "huh" statements. They only went to Charlotte for the game!!! Yes they did spend the night and have dinner, etc. But they went to see the game!!!

I think the look on Aaron’s and Ian’s faces in this photo says it all - they look so annoyed with the game. I will add that Ian was better trained as a scrapper child - I not only got photos, he also brought me his game ticket to go on his page. Alas, now I would be happy to just have photos!!

And finally I will share this layout of Doug and me on New Year’s Eve. Not my best layout design, but I loved the paper. Note that the dancing couples in the back ground match my dress and Doug’s sweater. … I really did not insist that he wear that color…. Honest. This was a great set of paper that I found at Scrap Your Trip. Thanks Julie.

ElfYourself a Merry Christmas Featuring the Convention Girlfriends

I had so much fun making the ElfYourself family dance yesterday that I decided to immortalize a few of my scrapping friends with another ElfYourself.  This dance features "my friend Kathy", Suzanne, Pat and me.... dancing like crazy little elves. 

I hope your Chirstmas is full of joy and peace....

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Merry Christmas

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

I wish each of you a very Merry Christmas filled with love and family and joy!!! 

The photo above is a copy of our Christmas card insert, the 2009 Christmas Newsletter.  If you are interested it should enlarge when "clicked" on.

Joyous Noel!!!!

Trip to Beaufort

Yesterday my husband and I made a trip south to Beaufort, SC to visit our older son.  We were celebrating his birthday a week late while meeting some of his friends and enjoying the area.  We had lovely outdoor lunch at a small sandwich shop that was FABULOUS - round sandwiches!  Dinner was at a local seafood establishment.... With THE BEST crab legs every!

We also did a little Christmas shopping while we hung out with Aaron and his girlfriend Crissie.  On the way to our Christmas shopping we did a littel half hour detour to the Old Sheldon Chruch ruins for a few photographs.  We had no idea that a wedding was getting ready to begin or we would have timed a visit a bit differently.  I spoke with the wedding planner who told us we had 20 minutes until the wedding so to feel free to grab a few photos. 

We quickly spent 10 minutes grabbing a few photos, though my son refused to relax due to the wedding. But overall I think we did okay for a ten minute photo shoot!

Where is my BBTB project????

I apologize for not having a Bitten by the Bug project this week. In my defense I had a busy week.

Thursday marked the end of another era at our house: we moved my youngest son to Atlanta, Ga to college. He is attending a school that is on a quarter system and he decided to start now instead of waiting for fall. My husband, Ian, and I left bright and early Thursday morning. After the three hour drive, we went to the school and completed a number of tasks (had his student ID made, picked up $1700 in audio equipment, etc.). Then we were off to the housing off where there was another 45 minutes in paper work. Finally we moved Ian in... late afternoon. Then we were off to Walmart to grocery shop and pick up the forgotten things.... Then out to dinner... And finally we left for home at 9:00 pm.

I will confess to crying the first hour of the drive home. The tears were more about the lack of children at home and the ending of the "mom" years more than anything else.

Saturday I had stamp club... We made the cutest projects!!! Thanks to Beth for hostessing, and thanks to Steph for putting up with our gabby group!! :-)

And finally, it was my husband's mother's family reunion, near Asheville, NC.

So .... There was NO TIME to complete the BBTB project this week!!! But do go by and check out the fabulous RING projects!!!

Photo is the card I made for stamp club to share.... It is only a peek preview because of Custom Crops.

Megan's & Brandon's Wedding

Megan, Brandon and the priest:


Bethany, Susan, Doug, Diana, Kathy and Beth:


What a fun weekend!!! My husband and I traveled to Charleston, SC for Megan's big Greek Wedding! The ceremony was held at a 100 year old Greek Orthodox Church in Charleston, and the reception was at the Holiday Alumni Center at the Citadel. The church was so beautiful with murals, stained glass windows, and candelabras... Just amazing. And the reception was so much fun.

We went with "My Friend Kathy (!) and her daughter Diana, my friend Beth, my son, and my daughter and her house-mate. Other than my son Aaron who was not having a great evening, the rest of us had great time. Good food, great drinks, and wonderful music and dancing. Megan's father's Greek band played and they were fabulous! If you want to know more about the event, just go rent "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", except picture it with THE MOST adorable bride ever... and without the chair bows and over the top tackiness and THAT would be our weekend!!!!

Kathy and Beth:


Susan and Doug:


Dad and daughter:


Grandma Bonnie and Mark:


Today we had a Father's Day brunch with our daughter and two of her house-mates before we came home. It was at Vickeries on Shem Creek. What an awesome view of the water!!! Charleston is a truly beautiful city with so much to offer. If you are looking for a great place to visit... Think Charleston!!!

Doug and Bethany on Father's Day!!

High School Graduation.....

My youngest child graduated from high school this evening. What a milestone... for Ian and for his parents!!! In just a few weeks he will be off to college and I have to wonder at the lightening-speed passing of time!!! Tomorrow will be Ian's graduation party, a low key affair to celebrate his achievement with friends and family. Tonight we are all tired and happy.