I've Moved...

and renamed my blog.
Come see me here: http://adetailorientedlife.blogspot.com/

Reflecting on gratitude & a blog hop

What a wild ride the past few weeks have been... If you're here for the Counterfeit Kit blog hop, keep reading...

My son Ryan had a bad concussion after colliding with a buddy in gym class. He became very confused and crazy about an hour after returning to class. He didn't recognize me or his brother. He had to be taken via ambulance with lights flashing and sirens screaming. All the while, I tried to comfort him and keep my mind from thinking about how bad it could be. I truly feared some terrible scenarios of brain surgery or worse. Afer cat scans and hospital transfers, it was determined he would be fine. There was no fracture, or bleeding or even swelling. Being told he was going to be fine let me relax. When you're a nurse, it isn't always good, because you know too much. I am so grateful to God that he let my boy be fine. That I have the opportunity to make sure he knows every day how much I love him.

One of my team mates at Coordinates Collections was not that lucky this past week. Her seven year old son, also named Ryan, lost his battle to leukemia. I am so devastated for her and her family. And I am reminded how close I felt to being in the position of losing a child. It's a parent's worst nightmare.


Ryan's favorite color was red, so we at Coordinates Collections wore red on Friday in a show of support as he was laid to rest. I was scrapping with papers from my counterfeit kit - which has a lot of red. I found myself thinking of him as I shuffled papers and looked at the sketch. This is what came together very quickly when I gave into my thoughts, and I will be mailing it to Kim to keep:



At first I thought maybe this wouldn't be a good layout to post for the blog hop, but changed my mind. Why? To remind people to stop today and give an extra hug or smile to their family and friends. To stop sweating the small stuff and just BE, and enjoy sweet moments.



By the way, this is the sketch I was inspired by:


So now go hop to Crystal's blog and be inspired. Hope you have a good week.

Love & stuff

I had a nice Valentine's day here with my family.

My mother-in-law sent us a box filled with the most amazing brownies, blondies and Snickerdoodle bars. I've asked for the recipes, and I'll share them when I get them.

Mike surprised me with flowers, chocolate, and cooked a lovely dinner for us. All of which he did after working all day, going to C's basketball game, and running errands for me on the way home. I'm the luckiest girl. Ever.

Of all the kids, Tommy was the most excited to give and receive Valentine's this year. I wish I could say that he passed out homemade cards, but he went with Toy Story 3 valentines that came in a little mailbox box. He made this for me at school. So cute.

It's my turn this week to post a challenge at How Much Is Too Much? In honor of Valentine's Day, we challenge you to create a page with mainly brown and red, flowers, an arrow, 2 photos and 14 hearts. Hope you'll play along and link up your project!

Here's mine:

The thing that's really cool about this layout - I made it with a "kit" I put together for myself, shopping from my stash. I was really inspired by this new challenge blog, called Counterfeit Kit Challenge. This is what the site is about:"

If you have ever browsed through those great monthly scrapbook kit clubs and admired their beautiful kits...but knew you needed more supplies, like a "hole in the head"...you know who you are (you're the one with TONS of supplies and
embellishments in your ever growing scrapbook stash)...this challenge is for you!

On the 5th of every month here at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog, we
will choose a kit from a popular kit club (for inspiration) and challenge
you to create a "counterfeit kit", using just the supplies you already own.
And to be fair, just in case you need the "inspiration" kit, we will only
feature current club kits, because we're nice like that! "

The inspiration kit and add ons were these, from Scraps of Darkness:

So here's what I put together:

Some closeups:

You would not believe how much fun I had planning this kit... I set out with the brown red color scheme in mind, and went from there. I got a real homespun vibe from the Jenni Bowlin papers, so I went with that. I rummaged through new stuff and old, and put together a mix of Kraft, red and brown. My embellishments were chosen for texture and theme - home, family, love. The canvas tags are around 7 years old! The colorwash has been in my stash at least five, and had only been used once. The Maya Road doilies are recent, as are the Making Memories Reverie & Hambly papers. Everything else is pretty much in between. How do you think I did?

I'm looking forward to playing along with the mini challenges there, and making a bunch more projects with my counterfeit kit. There's a DT Call going on there too. I'm thinking about going for it, since it would be an amazing way to get some of my big stash used up. Hmm.

Well, it's late here, so I'm off to snooze.

Peace.

Another couple of busy days have flown by.

Jimmy made his first reconciliation. He chose to go face to face with Father Dennis, who is very kind and patient.

My dad is gearing up for the next step in his treatments. There's been a lot of discussion as to how things will proceed. As it stands now, he will be having a liver resection at Mt. Sinai in NYC. Dad really likes and trusts the surgeon there. However, if he is to change over to a special type of chemo that goes directly into the liver, he will have to go to Sloan Kettering. We've spent a lot of time on the phone, calling around to different places to see if anyone more local could help him, but with no luck.

I have been scrapping more since I've been home. One of my favorite manufacturers these days is Echo Park. I love the playful colors, fonts and patterns in every collection. The Little Boy collection is part of one of this month's kits at Coordinates Collections, along with some American Crafts and Maya Road. This line was made for me. There is not a picture that wouldn't work with this color palette.

Here are my February projects with the Blue Skies kit and add ons:







We're still buried up to our eyeballs in snow. Here are a few pictures of what it looks like at our house:

This is the pile of snow blocking my front steps. Much of this is snow that Mike had to shovel off the roof. See how tall it is? Tommy can almost touch the roof:

The snow is almost up to Mike's waist in the backyard:

Crazy, isn't it? I wonder when it will all thaw...

Weekend Wrap-Up & Some new pages

The past few days have been a blur.
Here's some of the highlights...

Friday 2/4/11 On the Road
After dropping the kids off to school, I drove to the Stamford train station, planning to catch either the 10:14 or 10:17 into NYC. I knew I was cutting it close, due to a disabled vehicle just south of Waterbury. The train chugged away as I ran to the platform. Crap. I was going to miss meeting up with my parents at Grand Central.

The next train left 15 minutes later, and I was back on track. I needed a few minutes to get my bearings when I exited the station, so I walked for a few blocks then hopped into a cab to Mt Sinai.

The reason we were there - to meet with a liver surgeon for my dad.

After meeting with him, he sent Dad for a CT scan and labwork. It was amazing to be able to do all the things in one building, all in the same day. So unlike the way my father's care has been managed in Poughkeepsie. More than five hours later, we left with a date for surgery.

A liver resection on March 8th, which is Mike's birthday.

We stumbled out of the building exhausted, but upbeat. It took a while to flag a cab, since it was a Friday evening.
I got home after 10pm.
Looonnnnngggggggg Day.

Saturday 2/5/11
Brenna is better after her stomach virus, and anxious to play at her JV Basketball Tournament.
The whole family goes, to cheer her on to victory.
She was intense, and focused on playing hard.
Here she is strategizing with some teammates:


and going for a free throw:

After, I spend the rest of the day scrapping, while hanging out with the kids.
It's my parents 46th wedding anniversary.
Fun Day

Sunday 2/6/11 Superbowl Sunday:
Scout Sunday. Father talks about role of family in society, in the church, and questions why some view big families as a problem to be avoided. I am captivated and uplifted.
We head home and fold 4 loads of laundry together. Many hands make light work after all...
A menu of nachos, taquitos, chicken wings and hot oven grinders for our little party at home. The kids are excited.





Did you spot Mike, rocking his new goatee? It was so fun to watch the game and halftime show on our new TV. :0)

I promised some new pages, and here they are...

I created these during the crop at Coordinates Collections last weekend...


Some details...

And this old photo of Colin & Bren - were they really this little once?

Thanks for stopping by!

2011 RESTORE

Well, another year is underway. Each night, I've thought about my neglected blog and wondered what profound thing I should say for my first post of the year. I know many scrappers have chosen their OLW for the year. I stewed on the idea for a while, and nothing surfaced in my brain.
Until the other day.

While surfing around the web, I came across an amazing website - the Brave Girls Club website. The message and the images really got me thinking. The colors were cheerful and bright, with inspiring stories and creative ingenuity.

That's when it occured to me...
My one little word should be:

RESTORE

and so there it is!(Said with a little bit of a flourish, LOL).

I want to restore...

*my health
*my sense of hope & aspirations
*financial security
*organization at home
*my physical appearance
*my creative freedom

Now this is a tall order, but I've already begun working on all of these items behind the scenes.
My birthday is in December, close to New Year's and a time that I always begin reflecting on my progress in this world.

So I began to think about what needed attention in my life.

I know it will be an ongoing process, but that's what the word means to me. It takes time to restore things to their original conditions. To sand out the rough spots. To bang out the dents. To refresh and revitalize.

I want to surround myself in happy, and to not be such a worrier.

I scrapped a layout that I think reflected my outlook for 2011:

About this layout...

First, this is a rare picture of me. I always make excuses to not be in pictures, like I'm too fat, or
I have no makeup on. Yadda yadda. But I didn't think about any of that when my BIL snapped this picture.
And I'm laughing. I am genuinely happy there. Mike is by my side.
The layout, it has lots of pink. Which makes me happy. And flowers, and frills.
I'm a girlie girl at heart, but seldom let that side of me show.
It has a bird, flying free. Unburdened. The sky's the limit.
It mixed my old and new supplies. It's okay to mix them up and pile them on. To be a bit arsty.
It represents the ideas I have for what to restore in my life.

Happy Belated New Year.

Best Creation Holiday Blog Hop!

It's our first blog hop at Best Creation today. We're so excited to show you lots of projects for the upcoming holiday. We are giving one lucky person a chance to win $100 of Best Creation products, and a second person a chance to win our Valentine collection of papers and stickers. How great is that?!

So here's how it works... Start at the Best Creation, Inc. Blog. We have 13 stops, so leave a comment at each blog as you hop along to collect the letters of our secret word. When you are done, leave a comment on the Best Creation blog AND email the word(s) to teresa@bestcreation.us.

Today I'd like to share a couple of projects I made with the Winter Wonderful line.

First is a home decor item. I created this wall / door hanging with a piece of acrylic.

You can create a frosty edging to the acrylic by rubbing a white Stazon ink pad along the edges. Layering paper on top of and beneath the the acrylic adds extra dimension. A pleated paper ruffle border and some jingle bells finishes the project nicely, don't you think? Products Used: ESG005, EC005, GP432, GP437, MSS025, GCS012

Next up is a layout with the Winter Wonderful line:

I began by misting my cardstock base. I used 2 different colors of glitter cardstock here. The big snowflake was die cut with an Accucut machine. Products used: GP440, GP437, GP433, ESG005, EC005, GCS012, GCS009

So what do you think? Leave a comment for me!
My letter for the blog hop is the letter "E".

Now you're off to visit Kim Holmes' blog... Have fun!

Thanksgiving

It hardly seems possible to me that the holiday season is upon us. Time just flies by me these days.
I spent almost every waking moment the past few days getting ready for Thanksgiving, and now it is over.

We hosted this year. I cooked for 16 people. Mike had to work this year, so dinner was to be served early. I decided we'd roast a couple of turkey breasts to have everything done in time. When the turkeys came out and the sides went in, Mike accidently put in two pans of potatoes and no stuffing. So dinner was put on hold, and Mike ate a quick plate before leaving for work. Oh well, everything was yummy and worth the wait.

After working so hard, I treated myself to a little creative time.

As I played with my December DT kit for Coordinates Collections, I realized I never shared my November projects. The kits this month are:

Festive Feast:


Just Dessert:

Aren't they both beautiful?
I designed with Just Dessert this month. The Pink Paislee Anthology papers are a blast to work with. I used a variety of alcohol and distress inks to create this layout:

I so loved the feminine feel to the My Minds Eye products.

Hope you had a wonderful holiday!

Hello, my poor neglected blog.

Where have I been, you ask? Well, let me tell you...

Caught in a whirlwind of soccer games, football games, practices, dance lessons.
Homework and housework and paperwork.
Medical tests and flu shots.
Broken computer, broken well pump, 3 birthdays.
Apple picking, pumpkin picking, trick or treating.
Trying to fit in some scrapbooking and sleeping in between.

How's that for a crazy month?

Here's some pictures from our October happenings...

and here's a few of the projects I made:

From Coordinates Collections Black Magic kit:

Stay tuned, because there's some fun happenings in the works at Best Creation, Inc, and Coordinates Collections!

Toot!!

I've been keeping a secret the past several days...



I came across this awesome website, Coordinates Collections ,
a few weeks back. Since they were having a design team call, I decided to stick around. What a great kit club!

Each month, there are two kits to choose from, along with embellishment add ons. There is oodles of inspiration, like sketches, videos, contests and tutorials.
And there's lots more good things coming soon.

I was thrilled when Jamie emailed me and asked me to join her team.

I hope you'll stop by the forum, where I'll be the Forum Coordinator.
Be on the lookout on the blog, where I'll be posting a tutorial every month.

Have a great day!

Playing Catch Up

So much for my blog plans the past week.
My road of life took me on a few detours.
Mostly busy stuff with the family, but all things that needed my attention.

Then I pulled my back out at work this week, trying to put panties on a plus sized patient who was still pretty numb from her spinal. I am sore and stiff and have learned that 800mg of Motrin makes me fall asleep!

Ah well, what can I say?

I have some scrappy projects to share:

First up is my first DT work for Best Creation,Inc. This is the Autumn Splendor line which is absolutely gorgeous:






I glimmer misted some aida cloth from my cross stiching days. If you pull a few threads from the edges, it creates a cool fringe. Then I stitched a quick border with DMC floss and beads. I was happy with the texture it added to the page.

Here's a sneak peak of my next layout with the Trick or Treat line:



Til next time...