figuring out 40

i heard the funniest thing today...

but no one in my family laughed, so maybe you just had to be there. Or maybe I just thought it was funny b/c I got up at 4am for my flight, so I was wicked tired by noon. Anyway, so we're on the tarmac (sp?) for take-off on my flight home, and we're taxiing for what seems like a really long time. One of the (male) flight attendants comes on the intercom and says...

"We're sorry for the delay ladies & gentlemen. The captain is looking for the onramp to the NY state thruway."

Laughter? Anyone? I guess you had to be there.

So, quick trip to NYC today. Gorgeous day in the city. About 65 degrees & sunny. Successful meetings...you can all sleep better knowing that all's well in the world of lip balm, right?

Got some exciting news from Rob's cousin tonight - a new baby on the way!! Very cool. (oh, and anyone who is trying to connect dots right now...no, it's not Karen...she'll be an Aunt!) I love that she's relatively close by. That's one thing that I've really missed about being away from all of my friends from high school & college...not being able to see your babies growing up in person. So, it will be nice to have a baby close by to snuggle & babysit & photograph & scrapbook!

Basketball banquet tomorrow night...then it's almost the weekend. I need to do some serious cleaning this weekend. Need to start packing away the winter clothes & bring out the spring stuff. I know, I know...you CA people are saying "huh? you have to do what?" We have to COMPLETELY change out our closets with the season. Sucks.

Guess what I got? Dark brown crocs. Except now I have to exchange them b/c they don't fit quite right. Dang it.

Alright, that's it for my fractured nonsense post. I'm going to get some sleep now. :)

no sleep = no blog

I was up until 1:40 this morning working on my assignments for SS. Crazy!? I wanted to get them done by today b/c I'm in NYC tomorrow...6am flight, home at 8pm...so the day is pretty much gone. I sooooo wish that I could share the layouts b/c I'm really happy with them. I am exhausted, but it's so totally worth it!

THANK YOU to everyone for your congrats both here & on Two Peas - y'all make me smile!

scrapbooking rocks

Somebody pinch me b/c I must be dreaming....I'm going to have a layout in one of the Creating Keepsakes special issues....due to hit the stands in August. The crazyhappycheesey grin is back, and it might just stay for a while.

dude. scrapbooking rocks. seriously.

hang ten...

It's Saturday! Woo hoo!! I'm headed over to Plattsburgh to play today with Karen - can't wait to see her art room! Lots of other little things on my to-do list - pay bills, keep looking for a swimsuit, clean house a little. Just a typical weekend! enjoy!

More scrappin' last night - my other layout for the 3 Bugs contest....

sugar & spice...

and everything nice, that's what Miss Olivia is made of! Did this layout last night b/c shhh...I'm being brave & entering the 3 Bugs in a Rug Design Team contest. One of the things that I'm working on with this whole submitting process is getting over the feeling of "if I don't tell anyone that I entered, I won't have to tell them that I lost." Hate that feeling!! Anyway, back to Miss Liv...

grinning like an idiot

That would be me. I have this HUGE CHEESEY GRIN on my face.  OMG. I am exhausted from being ON TOP OF THE WORLD yesterday. Okay, really, I'm STILL wicked excited today. Wanna know why? Huh, huh? Wanna know???......

Simple Scrapbooks wants one of my layouts. No, go ahead and scream...lord knows that I did!! We're still working out details, and I'm completely expecting an email today that says "oh, sorry, I didn't have my glasses on yesterday, but I do today and now I realize that I don't really like your stuff" LOL. But that's just my pessimistic mind playing tricks on me.

My stuff. In Simple. Holy. Crap.

I'll return to regular blogging when I wake up from this dream. Because anything I write now is simply (pun intended) going to be incoherent. Which probably means that I shouldn't be emailing with Wendy from the magazine. But she seems forgiving about my hysteria. I {heart} Wendy. 

(Oh, and for those Peas reading...I'll "toot" in the pub soon...I just don't want to jinx anything!)

And my PSA for the day: don't tell you hairdresser really exciting news like this in the same breath that you say "I want to go a little shorter"....because she'll be cutting while she's excitedly talking and "a little" will become enough to make your husband say "holy sh*t" when you walk in the door. LOL. It's not bad. It's actually cute. It's just really, really short.

because Ali inspires me...

So, remember that post a few days ago about drinking italian margaritas with Gina & talking about scrappin' our life...and then discovering the next day while toasting my waffles that Ali Edwards had written about that in Creating Keepsakes...got all that? Well, while pondering a page for Scrapbook Central, I decided to capture exactly what the article was about...my life, right now. So, here it is...and in case the text over the little photos (put together w/the photo gathering technique from the article, of course) is hard to read, they say: {addicted to coffee}, {visiting daily} over the 2Peas sign, {needing a haircut}, {being inspired}, {lovin' these shoes}, {trying to eat healthy}.....

And that wonky little light burst isn't really there...it's just the result of trying to take a picture of the layout inside w/bad lighting instead of waiting until daylight to do it. 'Cause I'm really not that patient. And the side of the layout really is pretty straight & even, but my cropping apparently sucks. Again, 'cause I'm really not that patient.

there's a new Pea in town!

As many of you know, I like to spend my should-be-housecleaning time visiting the scrapbooking mecca that is Two Peas in a Bucket. It's the place where people realize that size doesn't matter, but adhesive does...where they ponder the question "will I ever get to buckethead?"....and where the word "toot" has a joyous meaning. It's where Peas go to play. So, I'm so very THRILLED to report that there's a new Pea in town: Karen!! We spent some time yesterday getting her all set up, and uploading layouts into her gallery. It rocks!!! Go check it out here: basically*karen.

with this ring...

well, you know the rest! LOL. Did this layout for Scrapbook Central using a picture from our wedding. The picture itself isn't really that great...so I decided to layer the heart over it in PSE to cover up the "flaws"....

Back in the day

First, you should know that back in the day is one of my favorite sayings. We use it all the time at work....that, and come to jesus meeting and open up a can of whoop-a**. We're a clever group. Really. But this entry isn't about work...it's about one of the reasons that I scrapbook about me and my friends, and not just about my kids & events.

Second, you should know that this conversation began last night at the Olive Garden with Gina, fueled by an italian margarita, shrimp scampi alfredo, and white chocolate cheesecake. I stopped counting the points that the margarita. I think I burned all of the calories off through laughing anyway!

Okay, I'll get to the point. We were talking about all of the scrapbooking projects that we want to complete, and the excitement that we felt after the CK Convention last year, and the "real life" stuff that we want to capture. Like the fact that Gina doesn't eat orange cheese. Or that I don't eat condiments. Or that we both love American Idol and think that Chris and Ace are HOT. Or that we can sit at the Olive Garden for 4 hours and laugh until we cry and ENJOY the time so freakin' much. And we wondered....did our mothers do this?? Mind you, both of our Moms are very much alive, so don't read that as if we're wondering about the deceased. It's just not something that comes up in our conversations....Hey Mom, who did you think was hot back in the day? Why does it seem like our Moms were so much more "Mom-like" than us? Did they worry about their clothes as much as we do, or are we just shallow? Did they rehash the previous night's tv show with their co-workers? What were they thinking, back in the day?? It's just those normal, everyday things that we want to capture somehow. So that we're giving ourselves credit for who we are. Right now. May not seem deep to any of you, but it struck us. And no, I haven't just been reading The Big Picture again.

Now it's really hard to go to work today. I'm tempted to call in sick and just stay home and create something. But I need an income to support this habit that is my hobby, so I guess I'll go to work. Darn.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

**edited to add: so, I'm standing in my kitchen, toasting my english muffin after writing this entry this morning, and I'm flipping through my April Creating Keepsakes that came yesterday. I turn to Ali's article and see the words "scrapbook your life. right now." So now it seems like I'm ripping off Ali's genius. LOL. I totally wasn't trying to copy... :)