Weekend Wrap-up

Have you seen the new Making Memories papers at Michael's yet? Well, if you haven't, you need to & FAST! I read about them on 2 Peas this morning & since my dh had to run to another store today, I asked him if he would stop by M's to see if they had them yet (since our M's always seems to be one of the last ones to get new stuff). He came home with not one, but 2 of the paper packs :) The first one (above & below) has shaped, flocked & glitter paper in it, 8 designs & 3 sheets of each design.
The line is called Chelsea's Place & it's just gorgeous! I think I need to make a trip back to M's tomorrow to see the embellishments that go along with it. Jim told me that they had a lot of different ones, but he had no clue which ones I would want. The specialty paper pack costs $12.99.
Here's a picture of the plain paper pack which costs $9.99.
And here is just a glimpse of a layout I started using the papers already :)

On Friday, we went to Kalloway's for Jim's birthday & then came home & watched the movie Good Luck Chuck with Dane Cook in it.....it was truly hilarious! Lots of nudity in it, though. Afterwards, we decided to go to the movies as well & went to see The Bucket List. Really good movie & definitely a tear-jerker. Needless to say, I lost it towards the end. But it really gets you thinking about your life! I highly recommend seeing it.

Then on Saturday, Jim & Cassie wanted to go see Cloverfield, but I wasn't excited about seeing it, so while they were at the movies, I went to Archivers :) I must have walked around that store for almost 2 hours, just checking things out, seeing if there were any must-haves that I just had to bring home. But I honestly couldn't find much of anything that I wanted/needed. Okay, what's wrong with me??? I never go into a scrapbook store without spending at least $50.00 or more! Well, Archivers only got $22.00 out of me! $22.00!!! Either I have way too much stuff already, or nothing is appealing to me anymore. Or maybe I just need to make a trip to a 'real' scrapbook store like Scrappy Chic or the Zone :) It's been a while since I've gone to either of them, so I see a trip coming up in the very near future :)

On the way home from Archiver's, I decided to check out the new Super Walmart that just opened on Wednesday. I wanted to go there after bowling this past Wednesday, but since that was their Grand Opening day, I decided to wait. Wow, talk about a HUGE store! Right before we left Virginia to move to Michigan, they had just opened a Super Walmart a few blocks away from where we lived....I didn't want to move because of that, lol. The closest Super Walmart to us (before this one just opened) was in Lapeer, which is about 25 miles north of us, so the only time I got to go there was whenever we had to take one of our cars up for an oil change since our dealership is also in Lapeer. But now I'm in shopping heaven :) Just think....now I can go to this Walmart every Wednesday if I want after bowling since it's on the way home. Not too sure how much Jim will like that idea, though, lol. Sorry, but I'm not a Walmart hater.....in fact, I LOVE Walmart! Heck, I even used to work at one years ago & loved my job :)

Well, it's getting late & I'm getting tired. Got a kinda busy week ahead of me, but I hope to finish the above layout in the next day or two. When I do, I'll post a picture of it. Have a great week :)

Benita

Happy Birthday, Babe!

Today, this wonderful, generous, handsome, loving man of mine is turning 43. Yeah, yeah, so he's still younger than me & he reminds me of that fact all the time, lol. But I just remind him that he's got more gray hair than I do & that usually shuts him up ;) Happy Birthday, Babe......love ya!!!
Cindy surprised us with one of her fabulous chocolate cakes for his birthday. She dropped it by this evening & I couldn't wait to cut into it :) YUM!!!
Now, onto the wonderful idea that my dh came up with for my scraproom. He knows that while I loved the idea of my Clip-It-Up, I hated how much space it took up on my desk.....it was just too big & bulky for me. So, he thought why not make a clip-it-up underneath my shelves & that's exactly what he did. He drilled holes into 6 of my shelf brackets & then we purchased a metal rod (the same diameter as the Clip-It-Up circle rods) & ran it through the holes in the brackets. I hope you can get the idea....here's some pictures of the finished product (click on each image to enlarge):

My alphabets.....can you tell I like American Crafts Thickers? :)
Embellishments, etc. Yep, I think I'm going to like this MUCH better!

I finally finished making the 15 memorial mini albums (shown above) that I was asked to make for a school for children that all suffer from life-threatening illnesses. It seems that sadly, they lose a few children each year & they wanted me to make these albums so that when one of them passes away, the teachers will add photos of the child & give the albums to the parents. I was truly honored to do these albums, even with as hard as it was to do them knowing why I was doing them!

Today's 2 Peas question was: What are you scrapping plans for the weekend? As much as I would love to try to get some scrapping done this weekend, I think I might just take a break for a few days & finish cleaning up the rest of my room after doing those mini albums & rearranging my clip-it-up. I also might do some scrapbook shopping as it's been a while.

Tonight, we'll be going out to dinner for Jim's birthday to his favorite restaurant, Kalloway's & then maybe go to a movie afterwards.

Have a great weekend :) Benita

A Helpful Husband & Lots Of Thanks

First off, I'd just like to say Thank-you to everyone that reads my blog & has kept my Mom in their prayers. She didn't have to have the gallbladder surgery (yet), so they discharged her from the hospital & she's now back at the nursing home. As of right now, the surgery has been put on 'stand-by', but we still don't know for sure why. I guess she's still not strong enough to have the surgery. So right now, we're just waiting to see what happens, taking one day at a time.

Also, thank-you as well for all the compliments on my scraproom.....I never expected to get this many compliments on it! I don't see it as a fabulous room like some others I have seen out there, but I'm happy with it :) I would love to put cabinets up on the walls, but since we're renting, that's just not possible, so shelving was the way to go for me. And besides, I like having everything out in the open (especially my Primas :) ) because that way, I can find what I need & it also looks so pretty :)

The 2 pictures above are of my wonderful dh helping me finish the 15 mini albums that I made. He was trying to put rhinestones on the Primas for me, but we found out that his fingers are just too big to work with something so small. Gotta love a man for trying to help, though :) He did help me with sanding all the edges of the pages & I also taught him how to use a Xyron. I may just make a scrapbooker out of him yet ;)
On his way home from work yesterday, he stopped & picked me up this beautiful bouquet of flowers. He said they were because he was so proud of me for doing these mini albums & he thought I needed a pick-me-up since they took longer to do than I expected them to. Plus, he said it's his early birthday gift to me as his birthday is this Friday :) Damn, I love that man!!!

That's all for now.....have to get ready for bowling soon. I promise I won't wait this long to update again. Plus I'll have something new to update soon.....an idea that my dh came up with for my scraproom :)

Benita

A Week Later

Wow, I just realized that it's been a week since I last updated my blog. No reason why I haven't done it sooner, other than I just haven't had much to blog about. Plus I've been extremely busy working on 15 mini albums that I'm making for a good cause (more on that later).

The other day, I did manage to take a break from the books & do a layout (above). I am SO happy with the way this layout turned out! I think it's my favorite one to date :) I used the Making Memories Noteworthy line along with pink Stickles, eyelets (yep, I still use them :), Heidi Swapp flower, Basic Grey clip which I attached an epoxy sticker to the center & some ribbons from Target's $ spot. I printed out the journaling on the sheet that came inside the package of glitter stickers which matches the Noteworthy line. The layout looks so much better in person......my scanner is currently broken, so I have to take pictures of all of my layouts right now. But trust me, everything is straight IRL.

Tonight, Jim & I went to Dave's 50th Birthday Party (Cindy's husband) & had a blast! She made the most delicious dark chocolate cake.....it was absolutely the best cake I have ever had! I told her that she has to give me the recipe so I can make it for Jim's birthday in 2 weeks :) We just got home a little while ago, which explains why I'm still up at 2:00 am. And I figured I might as well update my blog now since I'm wide awake.

Remember when I posted last week that the temps were supposed to reach 50 degrees? Well, it ended up getting even warmed than that.....we hit a new record of 64 degrees the other day! Plus, at one point, we were under a tornado watch & had some really bad thunderstorms. And now, all the snow that we got on New Year's Day is just a faded memory. But at least I can scrap that memory since I took a lot of pictures of it :) It was so nice though, to take my Charger out of the garage & I even opened the sunroof.....in JANUARY! But now, reality is back & it's cold again. And snow is in the forecast for the next couple of days....I don't think they're calling for much accumulation, though. Ah well.....I guess I can't complain.....afterall, it IS still Winter! But when you get a taste of Spring like that, it truly makes you want it even more!

Guess I better get to bed....back to working on the albums tomorrow.

Have a great Sunday!

From Zero To 50.....

....in 3.5 days! The temps in Michigan, that is. Just 2 days ago, it was -1 degree for a low. Now, they're predicting that we're supposed to get into the 40's this weekend & possible hit 50 or higher on Monday. Then later in the week, back down into the 30's again. Geez.....it's no wonder people are always sick around here! On top of all that, it's supposed to rain the next several days, so this 13 1/2" of snow we have will turn into a mushy, slushy, messy mess! One good thing, the 2 days that the temps were extremely cold, the sun came out & I managed to capture some pictures of it :) Trust me, when the sun shines in Michigan in the Winter, you cherish it as much as you can because it doesn't shine for long!

Here's my front yard.....thought I might as well get some more snow pictures before it's all gone.

Our back yard.....look at that blue sky!
We were also blessed with a gorgeous sunset, something else we don't get very often in the Winter.
View from our bedroom window.
I also managed to do some scrapping the other day & did the layout above of my granddaughter. I didn't have any black Bazzill with the holes punched out, so I made my own :) The swirls are made from Tim Holtz Grungeboard (LOVE that stuff!) & the Quickutz swirl die. The die wouldn't cut all the way through the Grungeboard, so I ended up having to cut it out.

This weekend, nothing much is going on....just the usual laundry & stuff. Hoping to get some more scrapbooking in as well as I started printing out some of my Christmas & snow pics. On a side note, I've already lost 2.2 lbs. since the 1st of the year :) I definitely needed that motivation this morning when I got on the scale!

Have a great weekend & stay dry,
Benita

Happy New WHITE Year!

Here is what we woke up to this morning.....13 1/2" inches of white stuff! It started snowing last night around 9:00p.m., but they were saying that we were only supposed to get between 4-8 inches. HA!!! Surprise, surprise! I guess they didn't get nearly this much near Detroit.....only a couple of inches down there. All the neighbors were out this morning shoveling & snow blowing & probably thought I was nuts for taking pictures. But do you think I cared? :)

Here's one of my wreaths that's around the garage light. I was planning on taking them down today, but I think I'll wait now cause they're just so pretty with the snow on them :)
When we opened the sliding glass door this morning, this is what we were up against. We had to let the dogs go out the front door to use the bathroom as they never would have made it through this!
I took this picture of our backyard through the sliding glass door & I love the way you can see the droplets on the door!
Another view of our backyard/deck.
Our front porch. You can even see that my other wreath got snow on it & it's hanging on the light under the porch.
Jim hard at work :) Take notice to who's car is in the garage ;) MINE!

One of the bushes in our front yard. Somewhere under there are some Christmas lights :)

Yesterday, Cindy & I went to Hobby Lobby as planned & I bought 2 Figgy Pudding paper packs (50% off) along with a really cool 'retro' looking silver 4 1/2' Christmas tree. It was originally $49.99, but I got it for $17.00! Couldn't pass that deal up! I won't be taking a picture of it until next year, though as it's already put away in a storage box.

It's supposed to get windy today & even colder tomorrow & Thursday with highs only in the low 20's, but then this coming Saturday, they're saying that the temps are supposed to be around 50 & it's supposed to rain, so all of this gorgeous white stuff will be gone by then :( But I'm sure this won't be the last we see of snow this year.

Last night, Jim, Cassie & I decided to go see a movie. At first, I thought we were nuts.....who goes to see a movie on New Year's Eve, especially when the movie doesn't end until 12:15a.m.? Well, apparently, we're not the only nuts people in the world as there were 6 other people seeing the same movie as us.....National Treasure, Book Of Secrets. Really good movie, although I think the first one was a little better. But I love Nicholas Cage, so I'll watch anything with him in it ;) As we were leaving the theater, I yelled "Happy New Year" to all the workers there :) I think they thought I was drunk or something, but I didn't have even one drink all night. And besides, if you know me, I'm not much of a drinker anyway.....I was just in a really good mood last night :)

It took us about 45 minutes to get home when it usually only takes about 15 or less. The roads were just starting to get covered & you couldn't even see any of the lines! So I just drove slowly & took a longer route that I thought would be cleared better (wrong!).

Today, we'll be taking down the real Christmas tree (we already took down my angel tree last night) & cleaning this mess.....I mean house! I love Christmas, but I'll be so glad to get my house back in order!

Also today, I start my new eating habits. I refuse to call it a diet because diets never work! No more ice cream at night, cut back on the portions I eat, drink even more water than I do now & cut back on Pizza (although that one's going to be really hard!). I could eat Pizza everyday of the week if my husband & daughter would let me ;) I'm hoping that when we get our income tax refund this year, we'll be able to buy an Elliptical or something. I loved my treadmill & really miss exercising!

I hope you all had a very safe & Happy New Year!

Benita

Happy Birthday to my Mom

Today my Mom celebrates her 75th birthday. It's even hard for me to believe that she's 75 already! My Mom has always been my best friend! Before she went into the nursing home, I used to call her every single day.....just to say Hi.....just to see how she was doing.....just to say I Love You. I definitely miss doing that :( With her being in the nursing home, it's hard to get ahold of her since she doesn't have a phone in her room, plus the nurses there don't want to be 'bothered' sometimes with taking the cordless phone into her. But I will be calling her later today & they WILL let me talk to her! I just wish I could be there with her today :( (This picture is of my Mom back in the early 1960's.)

Here's the last picture that I've had taken of my Mom & I together, before she lost her leg. This one was taken back on Thanksgiving, 2004.

I was talking to Linda, my sister, last night on the phone & she told me that today, Mom's life insurance will be cancelled. I guess it was some sort of policy that cancels on her 75th birthday. I'm honestly glad that it's getting cancelled.....I'd rather have my Mom here over money anyday! And even though it wasn't for much money anyway, I just had this feeling that it would have caused some problems in our family.

I mailed out a package to my Mom with her Christmas & birthday presents on the day after Christmas, so I just hope that she gets them today. Yeah, I was late, but she wanted me to send her some cookies & my famous fudge :) , so that's why it was late seeing as I didn't even bake until Christmas Eve.

In other news, Jim & I are 'famous' ;) We went out shopping the day after Christmas & got stopped in Target by a reporter for our newspaper. She asked me if she could interview me & I thought, okay, sure.....I was in a really good mood, so why not. And besides, I doubt she would publish it anyway. Well, surprise.....she did :) But luckily, she didn't take our picture because I was having a very bad hair day, lol. Instead, there was another woman on the front page that she interviewed as well. The article was all about shopping the day after Christmas & whether or not you had any problems doing any returns. She put in there what I said about being ready to go home & go back to bed & then she also quoted my husband about him joking with me, saying that I "dragged" him out. HA!!! He was just as willing to go out in that mess as I was, so don't let him fool ya :)

I can't believe that I completely forgot to tell you all what I got for Christmas in my last post! It wasn't much, but I'm extremely happy with everything (except for some sweaters I had to return). Jim got me 2 Koala stuffed animals (one is a Ty & the other is a Webkins), 3 Yankee jar candles (2 of them are called Vineyard & smell soooooo good!), 2 new motorcycle angel pins since mine keep breaking for some reason, a Kasey Kahne calendar, a Hallmark angel for my angel tree, a new pair of slippers, which I needed badly, the purple scrapbook tote filled with embellishments & an album from Sam's Club (although I was a little disappointed in it, but I'm keeping it) & a new Epson PictureMate Dash photo printer plus a replacement ink & paper set for it :) He got an excellent deal on the PictureMate.....first, he had a $25.00 off coupon for Staples, so that brought the price down to $75 & then when he bought it, they were offering a $50 rebate, so now we're just waiting for the check for that. I'd say $25.00 for a PictureMate is an awesome price!

Not sure what I'm going to do today.....may just stay home, may go shopping, may take the tree & decorations down (although I'm not sure if I'm ready to yet). Guess I need to go make some breakfast first & then I'll decide :)

Have a great Friday,
Benita

Through The Eyes Of A Child

My Christmas couldn't have been any better! Christmas Eve, Jim & I spent most of the day baking cookies & listening to Christmas music. On Christmas morning, Shawn, Toni & my granddaughter came over & let's just say, I was in Heaven :) I just love this little girl so much! And once again, I was able to capture some wonderful pictures of her.....this one, above, is one of my favorites & this truly is what it's all about! After she opened her gifts & played for a while, she spotted my Nativity display & was just amazed by it.

Here she's debating whether or not she can touch it, looking at each figure. She kept asking me who each person was, pointing to each one individually. And if you're wondering, yes, I did let her touch them (see picture below):

I think she loved Baby Jesus the best :) She kept taking him out of the manger, putting him back, taking him out again.....it was the sweetest thing!
Here she is, sitting in her SpongeBob chair that we got her.....yep, she's my dollbaby! Just look at that expression! Yes, she needs her bangs cut! LOL

After playing with the Nativity set for a while, she then found my houses (aka village) that I made. She kept knocking on the doors of the houses to see if anyone was home.....it was SO cute! Several times, after I took her picture, she would say to me "Got it, Gamma?" & then she would say "Let me see." She sure knows her technology already ;)

Playing with Gampa, as she calls him :) Yep, that's a goatee that Jim's growing.....still not sure if I like it yet or not, but he does.

Our Christmas tree with all the presents

Here's Shawn opening one of his gifts. I bought him a flag display case & put the flag from his father's grave in it. I think he already knew what it was before he even opened it, though because of the shape :)

Well, that was my Christmas.....hope you had a wonderful one as well! I also got to talk to my Mom, Dad & 3 sisters yesterday, so I couldn't have asked for a more special Christmas! If you're wondering why I'm up so early, it's because Jim & I are heading out shortly to try to get some more lights & stuff for next year. We love to go shopping the day after Christmas, seeing what kinds of deals we can find :)

Have a great day!

Benita

Merry CHRISTmas!

Yesterday, Jim & I celebrated our 18th anniversary & I was literally in tears by the gift he gave/made for me! Usually, he buys me a piece of jewelry....but not this year. His gift this year, I have to say, was way more romantic & thoughtful than any piece of jewelry could ever be! First, he purchased this picture frame & mat & then he had a friend of ours that knows how to 'fix' pictures completely redo our wedding pictures for us.

The guy that took our wedding pictures messed with some settings on our camera & every single picture was extremely dark. But my husband (bless his heart), went through all my photo boxes one day when I wasn't home to find our pictures, took them to our friend & had them all fixed so he could put them in this frame & even had the pictures put on a CD for me. He even used my scrapbook trimmer to crop the photos so they would fit into each letter :)

He truly surprised me this year as I had NO clue that he would even think to do something like this! Don't get me wrong.....I LOVE jewelry, but this.....this was something that he took the time to do.....something he put a LOT of thought into doing.....something that would please anyone, even if you're not a scrapbooker like me :) Now I know why I said "I Do" 18 years ago on Christmas Eve!

As you can see, I couldn't wait to hang it on the wall & I had the perfect spot in my scraproom right above my sewing machine & next to my computer. And the thing that I really thought was neat was the matting almost matches the wall color perfectly! Now I just need to patch the holes I put in the wall. Apparently, there's a stud in this wall that runs horizontally (strange, huh?) & well, it wasn't straight the first few times I tried to hang it & the nails were a pain to get out of the stud, so now there's some holes & dents in the wall behind the picture. Shhhh......don't tell our landlords ;)

Since today is Christmas, I figured it was the perfect day to finish up the Christmas meme that Sophia had us doing these past 25 days. I was doing 5 questions at a time, here & there, so here are the final 5:

21. Do you have a family get-together during the holidays with extended family? Not usually, unfortunately. All of my family is 500+ miles away in Pennsylvania & Jim's sister lives in Indianapolis, so it's usually just Jim, I & the kids.

22. What's the most important thing that you must do each Christmas season? Celebrate our anniversary ;) , get a real tree, put out our nativity set (keeping Baby Jesus hidden until Christmas morning) & celebrate the birth of Jesus.

23. Do you bake Christmas cookies? Yep, but this year, I really procrastinated about it & didn't make them until Christmas Eve!

24. Do you leave cookies and milk for Santa? We used to when our kids were younger, but not anymore.

25. Share a favorite Christmas memory. The year I married my husband (see yesterday's post). And after the gift he got me today (see above), he has definitely proven to be my best gift/memory ever!

Thank-you Sophia for a fun meme :) And thank-you, my blog readers, for the anniversary & Christmas blessings. May you & your families have a very safe & Merry Christmas.

Blessings,
Benita

18 Years Ago Today.....

....I married this silly, handsome, loving, wonderful man! Yep, we tied the knot, got hitched, became husband & wife on Christmas Eve, 1989. I thought it would be romantic.....he thinks we should have waited another week & did the deed on New Year's Eve because "at least then, there would always be a party to go to & we'd just have even more reason to celebrate". Ha! See, I told you he's silly!

It's actually kind of funny looking at us now (above) & back then (below). Boy, have we changed through the years! We've both added the pounds (too many!), he's lost some hair & what he does have left is turning gray (both of which he blames on me, lol), but for some reason, I just can't seem to give up my 80's hairstyle ;)
It's hard to believe that it's been 18 years already. We've been through so much together these past 18 years.....raising a son & a daughter, deaths of family members, him being in the Navy & going out to sea, me working several different jobs, us packing up & moving from Virginia to Michigan on less than 2 weeks notice, owning 2 homes & losing one to foreclosure, numerous vehicles (too many to count!) along with lots of good times, bad times & in between times, but always doing whatever it takes to make it through them all! Marriage is full of compromise....and lots of hugs & kisses :)

Our plans on this Christmas Eve? French Toast for breakfast (or maybe Belgium Waffles), bake some cookies (since I still didn't get them done because I went out shopping yesterday instead with all the other crazy people!), finish wrapping presents & then we're thinking about going out to a movie. Afterwards, we'll spend the night at home, snuggling by the tv (since we don't have a fireplace, lol) & just enjoy the rest of the day together. Ahhhh.....my kind of day :)

Merry Christmas Eve,
Benita