Viva Las Vegas!

Yay! Hubby and I get on a plane tomorrow before the crack-o-dawn for Vegas. My mother is coming to stay with the kids. It is going to be a quick trip but I am excited to get away with him. We are staying at the Paris Hotel. I am very excited about this since it is my hearts desire to go to Paris someday. I am fairly certain that this is the closest I will get to the Eiffel Tower this year. One reason for that is the cost, which is a biggie. The other is almost equally as big. I don't have a passport (as I mentioned in an earlier post), so even if I had the money, they wouldn't let me across the pond. Oh well, it will happen someday!

Here are some cards I've made recently. I really enjoy making cards, much to my surprise! I used to be a "layout only" kind of girl, but lately the cards have been fun quick projects for me to do. I love that I don't need a picture and that I can use up all of those scraps that I've been collecting over the years.



These are my crazy peeps making faces at the camera. Those three are really too much some times. (smiles)

I have got a few more things I may get to post after we get back, but that's all I've got for now. I have got to go pack and get the kids off to Tae Kwon Do! See ya soon.

Ga-Ga for garland

Here is a cute little garland that I made for my daughters "new" room. I selected the colors from the new comforter she got for her birthday.

She really loves it! She can't ever find products in the store with her name printed on them. I know how she feels. Growing up, if there was something that has "Tricia" on it, it was spelled with an "sh" and not the way mine is spelled. So she is delighted to see her name splayed across her wall everyday, and especially delighted because I made it for her.

I promise to show more pictures of her room once it is completed. I still have to sew some curtains and frame a mirror for her vanity. Then the last, and most difficult task, is to have her clean it up (and keep it clean)!

I need a passport

That is what became evident to me through this quiz! (the things that I have done are in red)

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Held a praying mantis
9. Climbed a mountain
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo's David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone's life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100.Read an entire book in one day

It gets me every single time!

Sassafras that is! I just can't help it. This company keeps coming out with lines that I just adore! I love, love, love the vintage/retro feel. I am most excited about this new line then anything else I've seen so far for CHA.










Jenni Bowlin, another favorite of mine, is coming out with some vintage goodness too. Here is a sneak of some new chipboard buttons. Aren't they darling?


Alrighty, that's it for now. I have some work that I need to be doing.

Tricia

Let freedom ring

I wanted to share some great quotes of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Baptist minister, Civil Right leader, orator, pacifist, Nobel Peace prize winner.

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."


"Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant."


"If you can't fly, then run.
If you can't run, then walk.
If you can't walk, then crawl.
But whatever you do, keep moving."

"Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

My Project 365 kit came in the mail yesterday! I have it all set up and just have to print my pics. This kit will make recording this year easy peasy!


Today we are painting my son's room. He picked the color himself. It is called Daredevil Red, how apropos.

And last I would like to share this with you, it pretty much says it all:

Some things that have been keeping me busy...

My December daily. I have had it finished for a little while but am just now getting around to posting it. This was a lot of fun and I am really glad I did it. The only thing I would probably do differently next year would be to have it assembled in advance.







This represents the past 16 years of my life in photos. I recently finished putting them into chronological order and putting them into albums. The photos are also backed up onto CD for safe keeping. No more guilt about pictures that haven't been scrapped yet or worry about my hard drive crashing. Ahhhhh, the freedom.


This is a little something that took 10 years to complete! My parents gave me two maps to collect the newly issued state quarters as they came out for my children. So, for the past 10 years I have been scrutinizing my change to see if it contained a coin I needed. I even enlisted the assistance of my husbands bookkeeper once! At long last it is done, complete, finished. I have told my mother to never, ever give me a gift that requires a 10 commitment.


Last weekend we painted my daughters room.
This weekend it is my sons turn! I will share pictures of the before and after once both rooms are complete.

We are growing a bacteria farm for fun! We have collected 5 samples from around the house and will have to wait 12 days to see the final results. It has several days and the results thus far are quite alarming! We check on them every night and document our results. The kids think it's pretty cool.
The dog pictured above is the "farmer". He oversees the growth of our crops.
This is one of the germ discs that we use to cover the top and make sure the environment is dark. I think he's kinda cute!

So, that it about it. I gotta go complete some more projects.
Tricia

Wrapping up 2008 with these...

I have been meaning to make this post for a while. I wanted to share the last few layouts from 2008 and a few other things that I have been up to.

First off is this little beauty.

I am very proud of this design and I will tell you why. My husband asked me to design a logo for his store and their 2009 catch phrase. The design above is what I came up with. It is nothing spectacular in and of itself, but prior to 2008 I had absolutely NO Photoshop knowledge. But wait, that isn't even the best part. The best part is that he loved it so much that he had T-shirts printed up for over 200 associates to wear on Fridays instead of their regular uniform! The response has been amazing and I couldn't be more proud.

In this layout the page on the left is an actual photo we took when we where at Patrick's point in 2007. I enlarged it to 8 1/2 x 11 and put the text directly onto the photo in Photoshop then printed it out. Cool huh?
Here is one of me and my sweet boy.
These two kids are as goofy as they get! Here P & T are muggin' for the camera.
I took this photo in early 2008 when we were in San Francisco. We were walking downtown when I spotted this beautiful wall of graffiti and thought it would be the perfect backdrop to take a pic of my peeps. They are doing their best to look tough, can you tell?
These photos I took of my daughter in December. I was in my bedroom and the lighting was awsome, so I called her in so I could snap some shots. The layout lists some things she likes to do everyday. I realized once I printed up the journaling that I had omitted a word. I wrote it in and decided to just leave it at that.

I have a few more things that I wanted to share, but I just didn't have a chance to take pictures of them today. I am hoping to do that tomorrow and will get those posted. So, stay tuned. There is more to come!

xo
Tricia

And a Happy New Year!