and by the end of the day I will be squeezing these 2 so tight.   As  Delaney’s been known to say, “Call 911, Mom’s going to squeeze the stuffing out of me.”

She is right about that one.  I’m ready to be back home.

Thanks for all the comments on the new collection.  I enjoy reading what appeals to you.

We’re heading over to the show a little later after getting a few last minute things ready for my class I’m teaching today.  It’s the Photo Journal I showed the other day, which I promise to share more of when I get back home.   I’ve gotten several requests for a class kit by mail, so if you are interested in that kit, leave a comment about that and I’ll have more details on that to come.

I wanted to share with you the Creative Cafe book we made at the CHA Retailer party.  It’s little and cute and the best part about it is how simple and effective it is for documenting your life with such ease.  I was able to include a year worth of photos January through December of last year, random favorite photos of McKinley all in this book.      What I loved even more about this is this literally took me minutes to fill.  So in less than 30 minutes, I had put this book together, printed and filled a book all about McKinley from 2009 with over 100 photos.  She LOVED the book and I had to beg to get it back.  I love the little size of it.

You know after scrapbooking for so many years, I find myself constantly changing in what matters to me.  Really, for me, it’s all about the photos and the stories they tell and being able to enjoy them ALL.  Not just one event in the middle of the year, but the span of time.  So you will probably notice that most of what I take time to do HAS to be worth the effort of including lots of photos.  AND by doing that, then I find that I feel so satisfied and happy that all those collected supplies don’t leave me with a feeling of guilt of what I haven’t done or still want to do.  So this little book I find fits that so well.  I will be making this again.   Because I did this one so fast, I plan yet to go back  and add some handwritten details alongside the photos.

The papers in the book are the new Creative Cafe foil papers, months papers cut with our brand new CCafe dies we designed for AccuCut.  You can see more about those new dies on the Creative Cafe blog.

If you like it, leave a comment.   I’d love to hear about where you are in scrapbooking right now.  (Don’t tell, but I snuck one of these from my make/take and I’ll mail it to you when I get home and you can an entire year of photos in one book within minutes too.)

Getting ready to head over to the show this morning.  It’s been a good couple of days, saw lots of familiar faces and friends. Stores are in good spirits and anxious to pick up the new product to bring home.  So it’s just another day at the CHA.

As promised, I wanted to share the new Art Warehouse travel collection.  Here are a couple of projects from it.  This first one is a die-cut mini book that comes all ready to add photos.  You really have to do nothing, just add the photos.  I’m all about that.

Leave a comment on this post and I’ll give away a set of these papers when they arrive, which is supposed to be shipping in February.

Have to get my self in gear this morning, but I will check back in with a couple more things tomorrow.

Friday Note:  I tired to fix the photos, but I’m still not sure they are working right.  Added a few more photos too

I have to make this quick because I’m heading out to help my hubby pick out new lenses.  Good thing he realized he needs my help.

It’s been so cold here (really unusual) and so I feel as if the sun hasn’t peeked out in days.  But we had one bit the other day and Marty and McK took the go-cart out to a few of the last snow banks they could find.  Totally Dad’s idea and I knew that was going to be interesting.  They were muddied from head to toe with dirt clods stuck in their hair.  Of course getting it out of Marty’s hair was a lot different than Mck’s.  I didnt’ get any photos, but heard all about it.  They quickly got stuck and Mck told Dad it happened just as I said it would.  But at least they got outside and had a little fun.  I can’t wait for spring and it’s only January.  I think this has the be the earliest I can remember feeling that way.

I’ve been working on updating my photo journal and enjoyed seeing these photos of getting the go-cart last Fall.

Guess who is the wild driver and who doesn’t like to ride with her?

This look means she’s up to something.  I’m pretty sure she was born with that twinkle in her eye.

Still adjusting to what kind of pictures you get from Middle Schoolers…..

like this one below….

Here’s a few pics of the journal which I have to say has probably more photos than ever!!   I found too many photos from the year I loved.  (will share more photos of it tomorrow, since I’m out of time today)   Oh and I have a few new things coming out at CHA that I’ll get to also.

It’s a new year and I’ve gotten a few notes from those of you who actually read this thing.  So for you and for me, I’m back blogging.

I’ve spent a little more time on facebook this past year and I think I found it so much easier and faster, so I kind of quit updating my blog.  But, I think maybe, this blog in some strange way is good for me and I need to keep it up.

Over the past year,  I’ve been simplifying my life in many ways, which was long overdue and I can say very truly that I am happy with the changes.  For a long time, I’ve been pulled in so many directions and I felt like I was floundering.  I think this blog was one of the things that I dropped for that reason while I refocused.    As a dreamer and an idealist with strong right brain tendencies, I have to be careful and keep my priorities in check.  Guess I’ve been doing a lot of checking on those lately and it does feel really good.   But, I have realized lately, it’s time to get back to blogging for me and for connecting to you, thank you for the comments letting me know that it matters.

————————————————————————–

We have one kid at the elementary school and the other at the Middle School.  Can you believe I have a middle schooler?  Makes me sad actually.  Anyway, the elementary had a water main break and so they didn’t have school today.  You can imagine where I’m going with this.  Well, we had one very irate middle schooler and 1 very happy elementary student.   It made for an interesting morning getting ready for school.

So because McK didn’t have school today, it turned out to be the perfect day for something she has been wanting to do for months (go back to her babysitter with one of her best friends, who also went there.  We’ve been trying to orchestrate a day for this for a while and had one planned a few weeks ago, which was cancelled because of sickness.  So today worked great for these 2 to spend the day playing with (according to the girls) “the best toys in the world” and eating “the best lunch” and “best snacks in the world.”

It’s been about a year and a half since they’ve been regularly going and they have both been reminiscing about all their memories, favorite lunches, favorite toys, etc.

So this morning Marty took both of them and when he got home he told me about their conversation on the way.  They played “Truth or Dare.”  McK’s friend says to McK.”  Truth:  Do you like pickles?  Mck says, “Oh, ick no.”     Dare:  McK’s friend dared her to kiss her dog on the lips.  Friend says she doesn’t kiss any dogs on the lips except hers, that’s all.

And then Marty told me that McK took the dare.  I was confused as to how she did that on the drive.  Well, i guess when your dogs are riding in the pickup with you, you can take the dog dares.   I had to laugh because for McK that was no dare at all.  She’s always smooching with her dogs, cats, sheep and just about any pet and “on the lips” is even better to her.

So I’m smiling thinking of the fun these 2 are having.  They have been passionate friends since they first met and it’s just adorable.

(I decided to dig through my archives of photos of them)

….and after doing so realized why this blog is good for me, giving me what I call a little photo therapy.   It’s good to be back.