Could It Be?

Is it really spring? Can I say that without jinxing it? Besides the tulips and daffodils and hyacinths and crocuses popping through the earth, I've got two pieces of proof: 1) it was 73 degrees today - or at least that's what my car thermometer said, and 2) yesterday I went to get the mail and there was a ladybug crawling on my front door. Sadie let the ladybug crawl all over her and loved it (look in her hand):

One Year Ago Today...

Lisa Bearnson called me to tell me I had won a spot in Creating Keepsakes' 2007 Hall of Fame (also known as "HOF"). I was stunned. Truly. I had had exactly six scrapbook layouts picked up for publication at that point (and had had zero layouts picked up by Creating Keepsakes, although certainly not for lack of trying!) and had entered the HOF contest more to hang out with friends who were also entering than to win. I almost gave up entering with one layout to go (I was trying to fit entering in around a major work deadline), but Emily, Heather, and Mary Kay all threatened me within an inch of my life and were instrumental in giving me the final push I needed to finish my entry. When I mailed my entry off I honestly thought I had the teeniest tiniest chance of winning an honorable mention and never for a moment thought I'd win one of the top spots. In fact, I still can't believe it, even with multiple copies of the The Scrapbook Hall of Fame, Volume 9 lying around my house!

So...to everyone who says it won't happen to them, or that they don't have the "right" equipment to achieve success in the world of scrapbooking, don't give up hope! I put together a HOF entry with photos taken on a five-year-old Nikon point-and-shoot digital camera, used Microsoft Office Picture Manager for photo editing, and printed all of my photos at home. I didn't - and still don't - own any version of Photoshop.

Here are photos of one of my entry pages (all four layouts pictured were published - three in the Hall of Fame book and one online), front and back:


This has really been an amazing year in so many ways. I have had the privilege of getting to know the other Hall of Famers online and have had the opportunity to meet many of them in person, as well as most of the Creating Keepsakes editors, at the summer and winter CHA trade shows.

I know the announcement of the 2008 Hall of Fame winners is still a couple of weeks away, so I want to wish all who entered (and are reading this) the best of luck!

I Have Homework

This evening, Eli asked me to play school with him. He wanted to be the teacher and asked me to be the student. He disappeared and returned about five minutes later with this assignment for me to complete:


Clearly, his vocabulary is far beyond his spelling - love the "intrnl bode prts" bit. His kindergarten class is in the midst of a science unit on the body and Eli is loving it.

The Birthday Review

I have a long history of being sick on my birthday, and today was no exception. While I'm past the flu bit, I've got lingering pinkeye. Ugh. I'm also hugely sleep deprived because both of my kids have been sick off and on for the last three weeks; I can probably count the number of uninterrupted nights of sleep I've gotten in that time frame on half of one hand. However, today could have been worse, like my birthday two years ago...that year I got a stomach virus exactly two hours before my birthday dinner; I distinctly remember sitting on the bathroom floor, trying not to vomit (unsuccessfully), with four-year-old Eli standing over me asking, "Mommy? When are you going to come downstairs and eat your cake?" Fun times.

There were lots of good things today, though, even though I wasn't feeling 100%. There were birthday calls and emails and message board well-wishes, hand-drawn cards from the kids, and a dinner of matzo ball soup followed by homemade cake and ice cream. (An aside... since a sleep-deprived Seth forgot to chill the bowls for the ice cream maker ahead of time, my birthday continues tomorrow with the intended-for-today homemade ice cream. In less than twenty-four hours I will be eating Seth's famous hazelnut coffee toffee crunch ice cream. Mmmmm.....)

The best birthday present of all, however, came at the kids' bedtime, when Sadie came in to hug Eli goodnight while I was reading to him. She climbed up into his bed and, while they were hugging each other very tightly, Eli said to her, "I'm so lucky that you're my sister." Sadie replied, "You're the best brother in the whole wide world." At that point I dissolved into a puddle of tears, because I'm the world's biggest sap.

And that, folks, reminds me of a layout I created a few months ago that I've never posted anywhere because I was hoping it would get picked up. In a way I'm glad it didn't, since that means I can share it here:

Insanely Jealous

A few weeks ago I purchased two tickets to see Stomp tonight. I was supposed to take Eli, who I knew would love it. I was so looking forward to our special date night and to seeing that look kids get on their face when they experience something new for the first time.

Alas, flu season had other plans. Here I sit, with every joint in my body aching (and that's while on Advil, folks!), while Seth is out at Stomp with Eli.

I'm insanely jealous.

Catching Up On Challenges

Since last fall, I've been running a challenge over on the Pub message board at Two Peas. It's called the Scrap my sCRAPs challenge, and was originally started several years ago by Angela Daniels. It's a great idea - everyone who participates gets to make a kit with their scrap supply leftovers (new and/or partially used products) and receive a kit from someone else in return. It's fun to wait for the package every other week and see what surprises will be in the box! A couple of times I've even received chocolate along with scrap supplies! :) The challenge runs every other week to allow time for mailing and creating in between rounds. If this sounds intriguing to you and you haven't participated before, the next round will go up on Wednesday, March 12th. Newcomers are always welcome!

I had been keeping up with the challenge pretty well at the beginning, and then the holiday season hit, followed by a tough January and February. I spent all of my limited scrap time at the beginning of the year working on assignment/call stuff and neglected everything else. I am now finally coming up for air and have been making cards with the kits like a madwoman. I'll post five here today. The first two are from my Round #4 kit, which came from Steph Homburg, and the last three are from my Round #8 kit, which came from Steph Herbert. I've added a few things from my stash here and there, but the cards are primarily made from kit supplies:





(I think I channeled Emily Pitts on this one. I never use buttons and she is the queen of buttons, especially buttons on kraft cardstock! :))

(Someone very small wanted to "help" me photograph cards today. Think she has a future as a hand model? :))

I'm planning to share more kit cards (and maybe some kit layouts, too) over the next few days - I've got four kits I haven't even cracked open, other than to ogle their contents when they arrived, so stay tuned!

I've Been Tagged

By Paula, with these instructions:

* Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
* Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
* Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I can't start my day without a glass of 100% Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry juice diluted with water.

2. My first car (1987) was a pale yellow hand-me-down 1976 Oldsmobile Cutlass, which my sister and I dubbed "Ermengarde."

3. Seth took me to a Christmas party at the White House (yes, the White House) for our first date back in 1993. It was all downhill from there. :)

4. I buy veggie booty "for the kids."

5. I have traveled to (or lived in) 34 U.S. states, 1 U.S. territory (Puerto Rico), 4 other islands in the Atlantic and the Caribbean (the Bahamas, Jamaica, Martinique, and Bermuda), Canada, and 8 European countries (Finland, Russia, Latvia, the Netherlands, Italy, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Germany).

6. I don't own Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.

7. I am messy. Very, very messy. I dump things - mail, clothes, scrap supplies, kids' artwork, etc. - in piles and only clean when I can't find something (or if we are having friends or family over).

Apparently I travel in a very small circle in the scrap-world since I followed Paula's link's back to the person who tagged her and back to the person who tagged her, etc., and it looks like exactly six people whose blog addresses I know are not already on tag lists. So, consider yourself tagged, Christyn, Heather, Houston, Arleigh, Mary Kay (ahem...Ms. I Haven't Posted In Over A Month), and Rachel.