Baby Shower Gift

I went to a baby shower today for a kind-of relative . . . my sister-in-law's niece. Don't try to figure it out, it's confusing! Anyway, the shower was this afternoon. They knew it was going to be a baby girl so I made a mini-album for the mom-to be. Except that on Thursday, a month early, the "to be" part became a reality! Since Mom and Baby were still in the hospital the shower involved a couple of games, eating, and that was it! No gift opening, the Mom will do that when she gets home. I was sad that I didn't get to see her but in this case Baby Nora made the plans! It was fun to visit with everyone there and no one complained about getting outside a little early because it was a beautiful day.

The album I made is shown above along with the litte card I made. I took pictures of the pages in the book - but I took them out of the protective sleeves to avoid glare. Here are the pages, in order (I think!).













This was a really fun album to make. I found an adorable paper pack and the papers were so fun that every page was more fun than the last. It went together really quickly too since the papers were so cute - in many cases I didn't need to add a thing!

I'm excited to meet Baby Nora and I hope that her Mom loves her new album!

A Baby Girl Treasury! And I'm in it!

I received notice today from gaiali that she had included my Baby Buggy Congrats card in her Treasury! It's so cool to know that someone from Modiin Israel likes my work! The pink arrow in the photo above shows my item in the Treasury.

Thanks gaiali!

Feeling creative!

Why does this always happen? I need to get to bed early, early, early tonight to make the sunrise Easter service tomorrow. Why is it that I'm on a crafting roll tonight of all nights? I've been busy crafting most of the day and I've made a few new items, and I have a couple of other ideas ready to go. I've set a deadline of 10:30 p.m. - I have to be in bed by then! Wish me luck!

The set of tags shown above are simple and fun; I listed them in my shop this morning.

UPDATE: I went to bed at 11:12 p.m. Dang.

Reality TV

I admit it, I'm a huge fan of reality tv. I know, some consider it really silly tv, and some consider it downright awful. I've spent time defending myself and the best excuse I can offer is that I like to study human nature (thus my day job in HR) and I'm fascinated by the variety of people on these shows.

The shows I watch, pretty faithfully, are (in order starting with my favorite):

• Big Brother
• Survivor
• America's Top Model
• The Apprentice

There are a couple more, but I consider them to be more entertainment then reality:

• So you think you can dance
• Dancing with the Stars
• American Idol (is Adam Lambert awesome or what??!!)

Then there's one that I do consider downright awful, and I watch it with my hands over my eyes like a scary movie:

• The Bachelor

Big Brother is on in the summer starting in July (there was one winter season during the writer's strike) and it's on 3 times each week. I know. To make matters worse, you can subscribe (and I do) to live feeds, which allows you to watch the house and the contestents 24/7 (and I do). When the show really starts to get good - after a few weeks - I start to lose a lot of sleep because I'm downstairs at my craft table with the live feeds up on the screen. I listen to the conversations more than I watch, and it's so entertaining! I've been known to stay up until 1 or 2 a.m. on a weeknight, which makes getting up for work at 6:30 a.m. very difficult. There was one season in which the contestents were so disgusting I was able to cut way down on my viewing (remember Chelsie and James??) but usually I find them very interesting.

The other shows are all on once per week, so they don't take nearly the same time committment but provide good entertainment. My daughter and I got hooked on America's Top Model and we always watched it together before she left for college. Now we watch separately but we still discuss the show and we typically like the same contestents.

I think it would be fun to try Survivor except that you get really dirty and I'd most likely break a nail, so that's out. I'd also love to be on Big Brother, but I don't think I'd be given a sabitical from work if they knew what I was going to do. I'll guess I'll just have to be a fan . . . I can't wait for July!!

Oh for the love of paper!

I've said it before and I'll say it again . . . I love paper! It's truly my weakness when I stop at a scrapbooking store. I have two standing paper holders that are FULL of paper; one patterned paper and one solid colored paper. They are so full that it's hard to find what I'm looking for, so I sometimes have to pull it all out and spread it out on the floor. As if that's not enough, I currently have 3 packs of 12" x 12" patterned paper, 3 packs of 8" x 8" patterned paper and 2 packs of 6" x 6" patterned paper.

My biggest hurdle when it comes to picking a piece of paper to use on a project is that each piece I see inspires me to create something - a card with this piece, tags with this piece, etc. I get so carried away looking at all of it that sometimes that's all I accomplish in an evening!

Even with all that paper, I'll stop in a scrapbook store to get a specific thing (not paper) and the next thing you know I have a handful of paper that I just have to have! I could seriously work with the paper I have for the next year and never run out . . . but I keep buying more!

I recently bought a pack of Amy Butler paper. To be honest, it's not my favorite! However, her designs are very popular and I felt like I needed to have it to be HIP! I've been working on some tags tonight using some of this paper and they are turning out pretty cute I have to admit. I'm using my new Cricut to cut out some shapes and I'm still learning how to use it so it's taking me quite a while. Hopefully I'll get them listed tomorrow.

The tags shown in this picture (from the set of tags shown above and listed in my shop) were made from a pack of paper called The Daily Grind. I love the colors and the look of the paper. I was going to use some other pages from the pack tonight but I went through the whole pack and I wasn't ready to cut into any of the pages tonight . . . they are just too cute! That's another reason why I have so much paper; I get attached to it and don't want to part with it!

I guess you could call me a paper addict, or in more current terms a paper whore. Oops. Did I just say that??