Weekend Full Of Photos

Friday night, I decided to take a drive out to the Zone since they just posted this week that they got the new Basic Grey in & it was also Freaky Friday. Shortly after I got there, I ran into Staci Compher. I haven't seen her since I worked at the Zone last year, so it was really cool running into her there. I made my dh take this picture with my cellphone of the two of us together. Notice that number on her shirt......a # 9 which is also the number on my jacket :) It was great seeing you Staci & yes, we do need to get together sometime to crop, even if it means just having you come to my home to crop here!
While I was there, I picked up some of the new Basic Grey as well as some Heidi Swapp paper. I really only liked 2 of the new lines from Basic Grey, so that's all I bought.....for now anyway.
Saturday, we left around 10:30 a.m. to head to Traverse City to drop our dd off for a week. We made a pitstop in Saginaw to go to Hobby Lobby, but I didn't buy much there.....just 2 stamps, some ribbon & a pack of the Basic Grey Mellow papers. As we were leaving Traverse City, Jim & I stopped to take some pictures of the Bay. In this one above, there are fishermen out on boats & there were also a couple of crazy ones actually standing in the water! Do they not see that ice on the water??? Luckily, the sun was out all day, which made the drive really nice, but it was still only in the 30's.
I just love how gorgeous Traverse City is.....the water is always so clear & blue. Truly beautiful!
Just a picture of some boats that I had to take :)

Here's my hubby, shivering.

And me.....shivering as well.

Some geese that didn't want to get their picture taken as they kept walking away from me when I tried to get closer.

Just a random photo that I had to take of Jim getting back into my car. Yeah, I know it's dirty (the car, not Jim, lol), but we stopped at a car wash on the way home, so now she's all clean & shiny :)

The "Beach" (click on picture to enlarge). I guess they couldn't think of a better name for it, lol.

This picture is just of me being, well......me, lol. I was extremely tired on the way home & told Jim that I even liked the way my car looked in it's shadow. Then he said "your shadow's beating you!" LOL So I had to take a picture of it. Yeah, I know......I'm weird!
The other day, Lida honored me with this Blog Award. Thanks Lida :) The rules for the *you make my day award* are to re-present it to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blog land. Let them know through email or by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times yourself, and if you do, consider yourself really, really loved.

So I'm passing on the award to the following people (in no particular order):

1. Staci

2. Lorrie

3. Sherry

4. Jewls

5. Emily

6. Jennifer

7. Kip

8. Kim

9. Sarah

10. Toni

Enjoy your award :)

Jim & his partner didn't do very well in the bowling tourney today. They were knocked out after 3 games. I'm glad that I didn't bowl in it as I was still exhausted from being on the road for 10 hours yesterday, so I just stayed home, cleaned some house & did some scrapping. Plus I'm trying to get prepared for a scrapbook garage sale at an LSS this coming Saturday. I'm hoping I do really good with it especially since this store gives you half cash & half store credit.

Have a great Monday,

Benita

Spring??? HA!!!

Just 2 days ago, we had a visitor in our yard, although he was also 2 days late for his Easter debut :) I was sitting at my computer desk looking out my window at all of the birds & saw him run across my yard. I figured by the time I grabbed my camera & tried to find him, he would be gone, but he wasn't. And he just stood there, almost as if he was looking at me out of the corner of his eye as I took his picture through the window. But look at what else you see in that picture......grass! GREEN GRASS! That's actually our neighbor's yard behind us on the other side of the fence, but most of the snow was gone from our yard.......until.......
TODAY!!! It started snowing around 2:00 this afternoon & hasn't stopped yet! Spring??? You call this Spring? What the heck! If you click on the above picture, you'll see my poor froggies covered in snow & you can see blades of grass coming through. See.....it wanted to be Spring, but Mother Nature had other intentions. I took the above picture about an hour after the snow started. And this is what it looked like around 8:00 p.m.:

It's a pretty snow.....that is, if snow can be pretty after the very long Winter we've had! So far this season, we've had 85 inches of snow! 85!!! Jim wants to hit the century mark! I think he's nuts! LOL But by the looks of things, we'll end up with at least 90" for the season before all is said & done tonight as they're calling for 3-5" for Oakland County & we already have at least 3" on the ground now! And it's still coming down! Yep.....this is Spring in Michigan!

Today's challenge on 2 Peas posted by Maureen fit perfectly.....or not, lol. "Do you take special spring photos and scrap them every year?" Well.....if we ever have a Spring this year, I do plan on taking lots of pictures to scrap as I do every year for every season. I can't wait to see what flowers are planted here as this will be our first Spring at this house. Plus I transplanted one of our Lilac bushes & a rose bush, so I'm hoping they survived & will bloom this year.

Today, I have tons of laundry to do as our daughter is leaving on Saturday to go to Traverse City to visit her friend for a week. Then on Sunday, Jim bowls in another tournament with a friend of his.

Speaking of bowling, our team is in second place & next week is position round. The first 5-6 spots are only 1 point away from each other, so anything can happen. If we win this half, then we'll have to bowl the team that won the first half the following week. I bowled pretty good this past week, shooting a 576 series & Jim bowled even better (except for the second game, lol). His games were 246, 143 & 269 for a 658 series. He also won $70 for his 269 game & should have won more for series, but another guy beat him by 1 pin.....1! He has no clue what happened in his second game.....I kept telling him to switch balls & he finally listened to me for the third game. MEN! And he says I'm the stubborn one! LOL

I'm off to bed as I have a long weekend ahead of me. Hope you have a wonderful & warm weekend :)

Benita

A Wonderful Weekend

My Easter couldn't have been any better! Shawn called me in the morning & said that he might not make it over afterall, so Jim & I decided to go to a friend's house as we were invited over earlier in the week. About an hour after we got to our friend's, I get a phone call from Shawn telling me that he's on his way & so is Toni & my granddaugther. Ummm.....we're not home! We had already made plans to go out to dinner with our friend & his son, so I just told Shawn to meet us there & I would buy him, Toni & my granddaughter dinner.....I knew he wouldn't pass that up, lol. Here's just one of the many pictures I took.....my son & granddaughter.....priceless!
Afterwards, they followed us home & I got to have my granddaughter go with us in my car.....she kept talking & talking the whole way home. Gosh, I love listening to her voice :) She found my Tony Little Gazelle Glider (I decided to break it out since I still haven't decided between getting a treadmill or joining a gym yet) & wanted to know what it was, so I jumped on it to show her how it worked.....BIG mistake! LOL She couldn't stay off of it afterwards. And as she was using it, she kept saying "Exercise, exercise, exercise." It was so cute! I guess you had to be there, lol.
Here she is in her pretty Easter dress.....now I gotta find scrapbook paper to match it ;) Yep, he hair is much shorter now.....Toni cut probably 6" or more off of it because she said she had too many problems trying to take care of it.
And here she is in Gamma's arms :) That's Toni in the background.
The proud Pop Pop, as she called him :)

Tomorrow, Jim goes back to work after being off for 4 days. I've truly enjoyed having him home, but now I have to get back into my routine tomorrow, which is never easy! Now that I have some new pics to scrap, I may just spend the day doing that :) Besides, it's supposed to snow/rain all day.....fun!

Till next time,
Benita

Happy Easter!

If everything goes as planned, I'll be spending Easter with this pretty girl & my wonderful son :) Shawn flew in from Florida this morning just to spend Easter at home (not sure if I ever mentioned it or not, but he's been living & working in Florida for the past couple of months now). He told me that Toni is planning on bringing my granddaughter by & I can't wait! I went out & bought her a Spongebob Easter basket & lots & lots of candy for it. I haven't seen her since Christmas :( so I'm definitely anxious & excited to see her again!

I did the above layout using my final design team kit from the Zone.....almost everything is by Making Memories except for some rhinestones & Stickles (I stickled all of the brown dots on the paper).

I saw this on another blog recently & thought it looked like fun. Feel free to do it on your blog as well:

Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following...{they have to be real places, names, things...nothing made up!}Use different answers if the person before you has the same 1st initial and you CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl.

1. What is your name: Benita

2. 4 letter word: Brat.

3. Vehicle: Barracuda.....I owned one years ago & would love to have another one someday.

4. City: Bethlehem

5. Boy's Name: Benjamin.....I always liked that name.

6. Girl's Name: Barbara (my sister)

7. Alcoholic drink: Beer (although I can't stand it!).

8. Occupation: Barber

9. Something you wear: Bra ;)

10. Celebrity: Barbara Walters

11. Food: Bread

12. Something found in a bathroom: Brush

13. Reason for Being Late: Busted for speeding, lol.

14. Cartoon Character: Betty from the Flinestones.

15. Something You Shout: B*tch!

16. Animal: Bear

17. Body part: Boobies :)

18. Word to describe you: Bashful (at first).

I'm off to get some sleep as it looks like it's going to be a long day.

Happy Easter to you & yours,

Benita

A Small Glimpse Of Spring

Although it was cloudy & dreary all day today, that didn't stop this gorgeous Cardinal from making his appearance right outside my scraproom window. As soon as I saw him, I grabbed my camera & started snapping pictures. Then I realized I could get even closer if I'd just change my lens.....DUH! But wouldn't you know it.....as soon as I switched out the lens, got the camera in focus, he took off! Zoom! Flew away! Poof! Gone! So I went about my day, did some cleaning around the house & then came back to check my email a few hours later. No sooner than I sat down, there he was again. This time, the zoom lens was on the camera & all ready to go. I got him! I got pictures of this gorgeous, beautiful, vibrant red Cardinal!
You actually need to click on the pictures to see him better since I didn't have the best lighting in the background due to the clouds. But look at what else you see in the pictures.....those are buds on my tree!!! SPRING BUDS!!! I can't wait until this tree blooms.....our landlords said that it's really pretty in the Spring. I have no clue what kind of tree it is, though.....I'm thinking maybe a Kwanzan Cherry, but I'm not sure. It looks different from the one we used to have. But those buds are proof that tomorrow is the first day of Spring. YAY!!!
Today, Jim stopped by Target for me on his way home from work as I needed a few things, so I figured I'd ask him to check & see if they had the Threading Water Border Punch that everyone is talking about on 2 Peas. And look what he brought home to me :) He also got me one that has hearts on it, but I'm not 100% sure if I like that one, though. But this one.....this one is so cool! As you can see, I couldn't wait to try it out. You can make your own scalloped & dotted edges! I can see this is going to get a lot of use on layouts & cards.

Just a short post for now....off to watch some tv & snuggle :)

Benita

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Today, I'll be putting this:

and this:

inside this:
along with potatoes & carrots & letting it simmer all day long while I'm out of the house so I don't have to smell it!!! Every year on St. Patty's Day, Jim has to have his Corned Beef & Cabbage & every year, I have to leave the house while it's cooking because I just cannot stand the smell of it! I don't eat it, either. YUCK!

So while it's cooking, I'll be out doing some shopping. I'm going back to the place where I purchased the Elliptical at to check out a treadmill that they have on sale now. It's the same price as the Elliptical, too so that's a plus. Jim & I went to check out Great Lakes Athletic Club on Friday & while we really do like it, we just can't afford it right now :( But one day, hopefully soon, we'll be able to join it. In the meantime, though, I want a treadmill & I want a treadmill BAD! I know a treadmill is something that I'll use as I really loved my old one (until it stopped working, that is). And now that the weather is finally starting to get nicer, Jim & I have started taking walks again as well. 4 more days until Spring arrives.....WOOO-HOOO!!! Can you tell I'm just a little bit excited for Spring to get here? :)

That's all for now.....hope you have a wonderful St. Patty's Day!

Benita

My Husband's Job ROCKS!!!

Today at Jim's work, Ryan Newman (my second favorite Nascar driver.....after Kasey :) came in for a celebration after winning the Daytona 500 a few weeks ago. When Jim found out that he was coming, we dug out our Ryan Newman diecast cars so he could take them in to get them autographed. While he was there, he also bought me a t-shirt with Ryan & his Daytona victory on it & got that autographed for me as well :) They also had Kasey's car there, but no Kasey :( as well as Kurt Busch's car (GAG ME! LOL). Sorry, but when he replaced Rusty in the # 2, I wasn't thrilled at all!!!
Just one of the many perks at his work :) Now if he'd just get ME a job there! Jim said it was really cool the way they had Ryan come into the celebration.....he actually drove his car in & he said you could really feel & hear the roar of the engine as it echoed throughout the whole building.
A close-up of the autograph on the t-shirt. I wanna wear it so bad, but I'm almost afraid to because I know that the autograph will fade a little with each washing. Our daughter has a t-shirt that Godsmack autographed & it slowly started fading off. Does anyone have any tips to keep it from fading (besides not washing it, that is, lol)?
Thanks for all the wonderful comments on my newly re-altered Ikea Fira drawer units :) I really do love the way they turned out! Someone asked me what I am using them for......I store chipboard & other alphabets & numbers in the smaller drawers & other loose chipboard pieces in the remaining drawers. I also altered 2 other things using the same papers. Here, I did a wooden caddy that I bought at JoAnn's quite a while back.
You can't see the sides very good, but they have the black polka-dot paper on them & I 'stickled' the holes in the paper. I store our bills & budget notebook in this.

Here is the Crafty Caddy (as I call them) that I did. I use this one to store my pens, pencils, scissors & calculator next to my computer. You can click on each image for a larger view.

In other news, sadly, I'm going to be returning my Elliptical :( I've been using it for 2 1/2 weeks & I just cannot get used to it no matter how hard I try. Even the guy at the store where I purchased it said that I should be able to go on it longer than I am by now. I want to like it.....I really do! It's just kicking my butt :( But I'm not giving up on losing weight! No-sir-ree! Jim & I are very seriously thinking about joining the gym right down the road from us.....we're going to go check it out this weekend to see if it's something we'll both like. And I may also invest in another treadmill because I honestly miss my treadmill! I want to exercise so badly & I'm determined to lose this fat! I WILL NOT let the fat win this battle!!! Nope, nope, NOPE!!! The good news is, I did lose 3 lbs. in 2 weeks :) So that's a start, right? :)

I'm off to watch some tv & relax.....have a great weekend!

Benita

A Productive Weekend

This weekend was long, but for the most part, very productive. I managed to finish re-altering my Ikea Fira drawer units. They really weren't as hard to do as I thought they would be since they were already painted black.....I just changed out the papers on the fronts & really like them much better now.
I used my favorite Creative Imaginations papers on them. I also have an altered caddy & bill holder using these papers, so I decided to make it the new color scheme of my scraproom/office. The alphabet stickers are by Rusty Pickle & although some of them don't show up very good, I still like the way they look.
On the 4 long drawers, I used the black & cream polka dot paper on 2 of them & the scroll with writing paper on the other 2. Since the drawers are longer than 12", I had to piece these ones together, but I love the way they turned out! I'll probably add some embellishments to the black drawers eventually. After Jim installed the 'Clip It Up' underneath my shelves, I had to move these to the desk space right underneath my paint racks. I really like them better here, though.....and now, I have better access to them as well.

Since I got sidetracked doing these drawer units, I still have a partially finished layout & mini book sitting on my desk. I thought I'd finish them today, but then we decided to go shopping instead. I actually haven't been out of the house since Wednesday, so it felt good to get out for a while. But hopefully, I'll get them done sometime this week & post them when I do.

I was tagged by Sarah & although I've done this one before, what the heck.....it's fun to do, so here it goes again :)

Here are the rules:
Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
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.

Here are my 7 random/weird facts:

1. I used to play the violin in middle school & wish I would have stuck with it!

2. I have a tattoo of a heart & a flower on my ankle that I got while I was in Athens, Greece in 1983, but it got infected & now it's badly faded.....one of these days, I want to have it redone, but I'm too chicken!

3. Sometimes I'm a real klutz. Proof in point.....right now, I have a bruise on my booby, lol. I tripped last weekend & slipped on some ice, which landed me flat on my chest. And I didn't even realize I had the bruise until the other day!

4. I'm a pack-rat, although I'm not nearly as bad as I used to be before we moved. Moving 8 years of worth of clutter makes you purged (although I'll never purge my Primas ;)!

5. My Mom got my name from a radio show.....after already having 4 girls, she was running out of girl names & then heard my name on the radio & although I never cared for my name, I would never change it, either.

6. I don't drink coffee....I can't stand the smell of it, either! Give me hot chocolate instead.

7. Before I got into scrapbooking, I used to collect Beanie Babies & was obsessed with Peace Bears (as much as I'm obsessed with Primas :) ). And I still have hundreds of them in tubs in our basement!

Okay, I'm tagging Staci, Toni, Brooke, Emily (since she really needs to update her blog, lol), Jewls (who also needs to update!), Kim & Cindi. Can't wait to read all your answers :)

Wrapping this up for the night as I have another busy Monday ahead of me.

Benita

I Joined The Ranks

If you haven't noticed yet (see link in sidebar), I decided to join the ranks of Etsy & opened my very own shop :) I'll admit, I was nervous at first, but I thought this would be a way for me to start selling some of the things I've been creating. I have a lot more stuff to add.....just haven't had the time to do it yet. So keep checking back & wish me lots of luck. And feel free to buy something, too if you want :)

Today's challenge on 2 Peas really hit home for me: "Do you try to memorialize someone that has passed in a special way? If so how..." I have a very special curio cabinet in which I display treasures & momentos of my sister Karen & brother-in-law Jimmy. Inside this cabinet are photos of them, a Coca Cola clock, a stained glass owl light, several owl figurines, jewelry, a Harley patch, Karen's Tupperware nametag & business card plus things from the funeral (a bag of dirt from the gravesite & ribbons from the flowers). I also have a t-shirt of Karen's, but haven't figured out a way to display it inside the curio yet. I miss them both so much! Not a day goes by that I don't think about them! Thanks for posting this challenge, Maureen.....it brought tears to my eyes, but sometimes I need that to cope.

This weekend, I'm doing some more organizing of my scrap space.....nothing major, though. I already rearranged my albums plus I went through some papers & purged. Then I'm also re-altering my Ikea Fira drawer units. I decided that I just didn't like the fronts of them anymore, so I'm changing them. My wonderful hubby even helped me remove the alphabets that I had adhered to them & then sealed with mod podge. Isn't he sweet??? :) I have so many projects going on at once right now that I'm probably crazy for starting those, too, but I just couldn't help myself.....not to mention, I'm impatient & when I want to do something, I want to do it NOW! LOL

Just a short post for now.....I'm pooped, so I'm off to bed. Hope you have a great weekend! I should have some new layouts & things to post next time I update.

Benita

Emotional Goodbye

Here is my last, my final design team kit for The Scrapbook Zone :( I have truly enjoyed being on the Zone's design team this past year & will incredibly miss it! The Zone needs some new faces, which is completely understandable. But still.....this is a very emotional goodbye for me. Since this is my last kit, I am currently design team free right now. I've had so much fun working with the monthly kits & being a part of the Zone family.
This last kit was FULLY loaded with lots & lots of goodies! Lots of Making Memories Noteworthy embellishments & papers, new papers from MME along with diecuts & some Bazzill Really Big Chips.
Just another view of my goodies :)
And here are the papers. I've already been playing around with this kit a little, so stay tuned for some new layouts soon.
Yesterday, I received the sweetest RAK in the mail from Toni. She won my Prima RAK that I gave away a while back & sent me a nice gesture of thanks.....a handmade card (love it!) along with a $15.00 Starbucks giftcard. Thank-you so much, Toni! You truly brightened my day after having a very long & somewhat depressing weekend (see below).

Speaking of the weekend, Saturday was the craft show, but sadly, it didn't go so well at all :( Apparently, the store never really advertised it except for sending out emails to the people on their email list.....there were no signs on the road, nothing to bring people in. I did manage to sell 2 items & made $43.00, but I honestly was hoping for a lot more than that! Okay, even just a little more would have made me happy. Cindy didn't end up selling anything :( & neither did quite a few other people that were there. Everyone's tables were set up really nicely, so I know that wasn't the problem. Cindy & I even ended up leaving early (around 3:45p.m.) as did several other people that were there. Hopefully if this store does something like that again, they'll advertise it more!

Sunday was another not-so-good day. Jim & his team lost the 1st game they bowled in the tourney, so they were out of the running right then :( They did win $200 ($40 a person, which is how much the entry fee was), but I know they were all hoping to go all the way. Ah well.....there's always next year :) And we are happy with the team that did win.....a good friend of ours, Tom & his team won the tourney.

As I type this, it's snowing.....AGAIN! We're under yet another Winter Storm Warning & they're expecting anywhere from 4-8 inches overnight. Can I scream??? Can I? Please????? The sun was out for most of the day today (see the reflection on my table in the first picture above?) so I was hoping that the storm was gonna move east instead of north.....no such luck! Remember a few months ago when I said to ask me in a few months if I still like snow? Well, don't ask! I think you can probably figure out the answer to that question by now, lol.

Today's 2 Peas challenge was to name 5 things in life that give you joy....here are mine:

1. My husband :)

2. My children & granddaughter.

3. My mother, father & siblings.

4. Scrapbooking.

5. Bowling.

If you've made it this far, bless you! :) I'm officially pooped just from typing all of this, so I'll stop here. Have a great rest of your week!

Benita