Blessings

This past weekend I had the honor of spending it with some amazing women! "Technically" we went to a scrapbook retreat. But in all honesty we mostly laughed (LTYP!), ate, moved paper from one spot to another, went shopping, added to our scrapbook stashes, oohed and aahed over photos, checked out one another's supplies and then laughed some more. All in a setting away from home.

They totally surprised me with a celebration of my birthday that was just days before the retreat. It would not have been complete without the traditional birthday song and cake (and might I add light up butterfly crown?). I received an album filled with precious pages from my friends.........and I love it!

I must say, the highlight of the weekend was definitely that I spent it in the company of girls that I can just be myself with. That I can make mistakes and they still love me. And that when my inner blonde-ness shows itself, that they laugh "with" me! :)

Thanks girls! I miss you already!

Toot!

Just a quick shout out to share some fun news with you. I just found out yesterday that I've been chosen to be a part of an amazing team of women over at Scrapmuse as one of their designers! I'm so excited to be a part of their Specialty Kit Design Team! The kits are gorgeous and the ladies over there are an amazing group of women. The talent there.........well I'm just honored to be a part of it as they are so creative. SO creative!

So come on over today if you get a chance and say hello....I'd love to have some friends pop by and say hey. You will have to register at the forum, but it's quick and painless. I promise!

Here's the linky: http://www.scrapmuse.com/index.html

Real Life

What does that mean? Well most of the time I have happy news to share and I guess I consider myself to be a very positive person. But there is Real Life too. And today was one of those afternoons.

This week I made some positive changes in my life. Eating & exercising. I'm even being accountable and doing this together with friends. We are being sensible and doing Weight Watchers. So far (wow a whole 5 days LOL) it's been great, but this afternoon was one of those times.

Maybe it was the weather (it's cold and rainy out..........feels more like fall than August), maybe it was boredom (it's not like I didn't have anything to do, but they were not things I was looking forward to and my mind was wandering too much), maybe it was a bit of stress.....not really sure. But I felt so unsatisfied. Not hungry really, but unsatisfied. I kind of expected a bit of that (I remember last year this time of the year), but still I was stuck for an hour or so. What would make a difference?

Well I kinda pushed through it and then starting getting ready for our evening (wedding reception tonight). Then it happened. I tried on my first choice outfit. Ewwww....just a tad snug. Maybe more than a tad. Then I grabbed another one (remember I'm grabbing cold weather clothes since it's cold today.......haven't worn them since spring), same thing. Well if that isn't motivation and renewed enthusiasm to count those points and not care that I'm not satisfied for that moment, I don't know what would work!

So there....I'm past the mini pity party and see my goal again. And now I know exactly what to do next time........get a favorite outfit and try it on. If it doesn't fit well I can renew my committment......if it fits better I can feel good about doing something positive for myself.

Tomorrow is a new day. I'm still on track and it will be easy to pass on the wedding cake tonight. I'll figure out a few boredom busters and maybe do some duel rewarding for when I do those jobs I've been procrastinating on when I hit that wall instead of thinking about whether or not this is hard. :)

Tomorrow is also a mini vacay with friends to visit extended family and...........IKEA! :)

New Camera!

Well technically it's not new, but I did get my Digi Reb back! Unfortunately it had some shutter issues and I was waaaaaaaaaay too long without it. But in honor of the camera coming back I took some house photos. Only from the outside....but, hey, it's a start.

We did get our lawn planted and a few flowers. Today Heather dropped off a cute little table and chairs for the front porch. I'm "table-sitting"......ever heard of that? It's so cute it kinda makes me hope she has a really small front porch if she gets a new house. Not really, but......well, kinda. :)

Not too much to add.......just views of the house.

Brace Yourselves........

Yes, yes indeed, it is a post three (count em!) days in a row! I'll admit I've been more "miss" than "hit" in "hit or miss," but I'm working on it! Now if I could just get my exercise heading in that direction too. But that's a whole 'nother blog post.

Well I've had lots of requests for house photos, but I'd really like to get my camera back (soon....it's supposed to be this week......let's hope so!) and take some nice shots. I did dig up a picture of the dining room from before we moved in. Just before. It's one of my favorite spots. I love the circular tray ceiling a bunch, but my fav thing is that we entertain there. Have friends over for dinner, invite the Pink Flip Flop girls for scrapbooking, family meals....enjoy life there. Better photos soon.......promise. Less than 10 months. Really! :)

This weekend we are going to have a chance to meet up with Andrew in the U.P. We have a 50% chance of rain, but 100% chance of having a great time! He and his college friends are camping on the Lake Superior shoreline, so we are going to see some of the sights with them. They are camping......we are moteling. :) But we'll join them for a campfire I'm sure. I've done lots of baking in preparation for the trip. Why is it that we think so quickly to feed their tummies? Well I don't get to spoil Andrew very often, so I think that's why. Yeah, I totally went overboard, but I'm sure 5 college guys can polish it off very quickly.

Well that's today in a nutshell! Off to a graduation open house tonight for a terrific young gal. One thing about open houses is that it's a great time to just relax and visit with friends. I love that!

Just a little something....

I saw someone post "what a difference a year makes" the other day. How very true! In my case it's been a year of some of the biggest blessings of my life and some of the biggest challenges I've ever faced. But in the end, God is just so very faithful and always, ALWAYS, good.

We are in our new home that you saw pictures of earlier.....clearing trees and making the foundation. I will take some new and updated photos when I get my good digital camera back (hopefully this coming week). Nothing is really decorated or anything yet, but that will come with time.

It seems like we moved in, unpacked boxes (still a few to go), got settled, tilled the soil and planted lawns, planted two flower gardens and a little veggie garden, began building a pole barn (for all the stuff we had in the barn at the farm), had our youngest graduate high school and celebrated with an open house and so on. It's literally been one thing after another. All good though!

So there will be time to decorate later. And after we are in the house a bit and knowing exactly where we want things, right?

But we've had lots of fun in there too! Lots of evenings on the deck having dinner or dessert......or both........with friends. Lots of crafting days with friends (and through the evening and night). :) I've done more crafting in the last two months than all of last year. So what have I done?

Okay, well I admit first of all that I am no Carin or Renee, but I did make a little something that I think turned out pretty cute! Lyn gave me a link to this website ( http://lifeaslou.blogsome.com/2008/01/30/magic-boxes-a-life-as-lou-online-class/ ) and I printed these instructions.......and there they sat. Until the last 24 hours. Then I just HAD to do something (you know when you get like that)...and this was that something:

I'm using this as a birthday card/gift box for my niece. I will fill it with little candies, stickers, do-dads and a gift card. All I need to do is add a birthday tag to the top, that she can remove so she can use her box for whatever she wants.

Well thanks for sticking with me. I guess there wasn't much to stick with over the past 10 months. I can't say that I am a faithful blogger, but hopefully a faithful friend makes up for it. That's more important anyway. :)

Testing, Testing....

One, Two, Three.........Check, Check...........anybody out there? :) Update coming soon!