My achin' bones

Just an update...the upstairs of my house is still in an absolute disaster area state. I'm stealing a few minutes away from "waiting for the primer to dry" to post to my blog. We were at an absolute stand still for a week because dh threw his back out while golfing (oh correct that, how dare I say it. It didn't happen from golfing, and he says it with a straight face!) Over the past 2 days, I have contorted my body into more configurations to sand, prime & paint than a carnival freak show act and now, I am starting to feel the pain. Whose big idea was all of this anyway??

On hiatus

It is official...I am on scrapping hiatus. It wasn't planned, it was just a spur of the moment type thing. And oh what a mess it is!!

A little background: Our house has 4 bedrooms, 2 upstairs, 2 downstairs. The master bedroom is downstairs. When ds was born, we thought instead of putting a baby upstairs, alone, we would let him share the other downstairs bedroom with dd. Ok, fine. This has been working out well for the past 5 years, 10 months. However, I, being the cleaning & neat freak, can no longer stand this arrangement! Do you have any idea the "stuff", the "junk", the "crap" that a 9 year old & almost 6 year old can accumumlate? It's just too much for one bedroom!
Soooo....I have decided that it's time they inhabit the 2 upstairs bedrooms. This has been a subject of interest to dd for about a year now, but she is a little scaredy cat so as appealing as the topic may have been, it never went anywhere. We did know that this would have to happen eventually. I mean how long will a girl want to share a bedroom with her little brother anyway? I mean really! So with that, dh & I decided it was time to push the issue, dangle some bait & they bit. (still keeping fingers crossed there are no future issues)
Now bear in mind, we are living in an old home, 74 years old to be exact. The one upstairs bedroom has not been touched by us. Meaning: it still has the original wallpaper. Black & white. Yes big time black wallpaper. This awful black wallpapered room? My scrap room. I decided to waste not a second of time however & began the tedious process of removing the wallpaper. Huge mess! I can proudly say though that after 2 days, the room has been removed of all offensive wallpaper. The mess it created has been virtualy colossal. Only those of you who have dealt with an old house truly know about the "can of worms" theory and can probably predict what I'm going to say next. The walls under this wallpaper? Not exactly the greatest. Translation: lots of skim coating, plastering, spackling, etc. before we can even think about painting. Lots of work ahead and...have I mentioned the mess?

Now you see why I am on hiatus. My scrap stuff is literally everywhere and it appears it will be everywhere for some time. But, I must keep in mind how happy I will be when this is all completed. I can see visions of Potter Barn-esque children's rooms and a lovely scrap room for me (downstairs) that looks nothing like the black wallpapered plastic bin warehouse of my former memory. Ahhhh. Amazing how I can still dare to dream through all this mess. Wish us luck.

NO.WAY.

No.way. Oh.my.God!!! Rebecca Sower, The Rebecca Sower just posted a comment on my blog! I am giddy with delight, I can't believe it!! How did she ever see my last post? It's not like I'm a scrapping celebrity or anything!

OK, I'm sure that one of you girls is responsible for this, you'd have to be...how else would she have seen it? So whoever the sneaky yet clever one is out there, I thank you from the bottom of my heart! You have no idea how instrumental you have been in making my day!! Thank you and I hope you have a wonderful day!

Heart and soul

It’s strange sometimes how you can be influenced and inspired by a person you’ve never met. For me, that person is Rebecca Sower. I have adored her work since I laid eyes on it in the Creating Keepsakes 2000 Hall of Fame Idea Book. I remember being fascinated with her paper piecing patterns and so thrilled when I was able to purchase her Bumper Crops pattern book (which I still have to this day).

Sometimes when I am scrapping, I become overwhelmed. There have been times when I have rushed through layouts just to finish them and get them done and over with. This is just plain wrong. Why should I ever feel that scrapping is a chore? This is the hobby I enjoy, the hobby I love, the one that relaxes me and takes my mind off life’s little worries. This is not something I should be loathing and hurrying through. When I find this happening, I quickly become discouraged...bitter almost...at the whole scrapbooking world.

And then, like a beacon of light, I look up and see on my shelves, Rebecca’s two idea books and some of her art that I purchased from her Etsy shop. I grab the books and scan the pages, soaking up all that I can. I go through these books as much today as I did when I purchased them years ago. They are just pure eye candy and pure relaxation to me. I feel that she allows me to be non traditional, gives me permission not to have to match everything, allows me to let go and just enjoy the process for what it is. She encourages me to go ahead and tell a story (my favorite part of scrapping) and not just state the obvious about the pictures. And just like that, I am renewed.

The thing that I love the most about Rebecca’s work is that you can literally see her heart and soul through her art and that’s so inspiring to me. I’m sure if I can see it, others can see it to. Isn’t this something worth striving for? I don’t want albums full of pretty pages if there’s no substance to them, I want albums full of pages that show me, shining brightly through them. Now don’t misunderstand me, Rebecca’s pages are as aesthetically pleasing to the eye as any. She has uncomparable talent, and an enviable style that’s not easily duplicated, but she also has that whole soul thing going on and I simply adore it!

So Miss Rebecca, you will most likely never see this post on my blog (and maybe that’s a good thing, I don’t want to frighten you!) but I wanted to sing your praises today for you have blessed me and inspired me with your talent and I am most grateful!

Slow it down

I'm struggling with something here...dd actually. She is growing up way too fast. I'm not sure I can handle it. I'm not even sure I'm ready for it. I realized yesterday that she is at the halfway mark now. You know, halfway to 18 years old, when she'll be considered an adult and most likely go away to college. Ugh! Someone needs to slow this roller coaster ride down. I am so not ready for any of this!!

Tagged!

I was tagged by Gina, one of the girls from We B Scrappin', who hopefully I will meet in person one of these days.

Here are the rules:
1-post these rules
2-each person tagged must post 8 random(... hopefully interesting) facts about themselves
3-those tagged should write a blog post of these facts
4-at the end of the post, 8 more bloggers are tagged and named
5-go to their blog and leave a comment telling them they're tagged

Here goes:

1. I only gained 6 pounds when I was pregant for dd, 7 pounds with ds. (This fact always amazes people especially those who gained a ton)
2. I have met a few Food Network celebrity chefs--Sara Moulton, Giada DeLaurentiis & Paula Deen.
3. I had my first cavity when I was 24 years old.
4. My exteneded family comes over every Friday night & we all order take out together.
5. I just finished baking Cinnamon Sugar Butter cookies & the house smells wonderful!
6. One of my biggest achievements was when I lost 44 pounds a few years ago.
7. I love all things Harry Potter.
8. Journaling is one of my favorites parts of scrapbooking.

So, I'm not sure of who to tag....maybe I'll just leave it alone...I think all of my girls have been tagged 100 times by now!

The We B girls

Yesterday, I got to meet some of the girls from We B Scrappin...my not so local local scrapbook store. We went for pedicures at Miracle Nails and then to lunch at Panera. What a fun time we had! Of course, I made the mistake of taking pics with my film camera, instead of my digi, so I have none to post here yet. Holly put the whole thing together and what a sweet thing she is! She came bearing gifts--Heidi Swapp lip gloss and her own fabulous handmade buttons. She's a big believer in the "goodie bag" and who doesn't love that? I got to meet Nic, Marty, Jen and of course Holly. I'm so glad that I went ahead and did something against my shy nature and met up with these girls. I hope we can get together again soon!