Happy Halloween!!

Oh my gosh can it be that we are already October 31st? I can't believe that time has moved so quickly! Well it's time to share again! I completed two challenges this month, a 2 page Halloween layout using a punch (the black cats) and the colors orange, purple and green as well as the October Christmas Card Challenge.

I think November is the last month for the Christmas Card Challenge. I guess with all the cards I made, I better start addressing the envelopes! It's been fun and I have Lynne to thank for making so many cards this year. On the other hand, it's been pretty difficult making over 80 different cards, and I must admit that the last batch took me a long time to get done, LOL!



Here are the cards:


Some of these are part of the card class I'm giving at Scraptopia on the 15th, which is why I'm not showing them individually. Once the class is past, I'll tell you which one of this batch is my favorite. And I do have a definite favorite! I'm also working on a sweater form my DMIL. So far I really love the effect of the two yarns I decided to put together to make it. Hopefully my MIL will also enjoy it and it will fit properly! Well that's it for this week! I have an all day crop tomorrow that starts at 9:30 and I need to email Lynne to let her know that these have been uploaded. For some reason, I'm having a hard time posting to the RCS newsgroup!

Have a great weekend!!!

I Got Tagged by Teresa

I got tagged by Teresa and I'm tagging my fellow friendly bloggers, Deb R, Marie-Laurence, Lynne M, Crystal W, and Linda C

THE FIVE TAG

5 years ago ...
1. I was enjoying my pool in Parrish, FL
2. I had just discovered scrap stuff other than CM
3. I was contemplating opening my own scrapbook store
4. We were getting ready for a trip to DC... we are doing that again this year!
5. My car, which I no longer own had somehow gotten thousands of flecks of paint on it from a house that was being spray painted in the neighborhood.

5 Things on today's "to do" list ...
1. Finish my perpetual 4x4 mini calendar
2. Cut out a second set of Xmas cards to serve as a template for the other sets that I need to cut out for one of the classes that I'm giving at Scraptopia on the Nov 15.
3. Watch TV (Dancing with the Stars, the Rays game etc)
4. Sew the sweater I finally finished knitting. It's for my little nephew for Christmas
5. Email Carol B and apologize profusely for not getting back to her sooner! Sorry Carol!

5 Snacks I enjoy ....
1.Chocolate (I'd say chocolate 5 times but...)
2.Ginger Snaps
3. chips (all kinds)
4. Granny Smith apples
5. Those big sour smarties (did you know that in Canada smarties are more like M&Ms)

5 things I would do if I were a millionaire ...
1. Pay off our house
2. Update the floors at our house
3. Buy my son a house in Orlando
4. Pay off my car
5. Help my brother out

5 places I have lived ...
1. Quebec City, QC, Canada (I was born there)
2. Paris, France
3. Montreal and suburbs
4. North Little Rock, Arkansas
5. Tampa Bay area of Fl (St Pete, Parrish and Riverview)

5 jobs I have had ...
1. Blood Taker at the Montreal General Hospital (didn't last long, I just can't stand hurting people)
2. Secretary Searle Pharmaceuticals, Montreal.
3. Canadian Armed Forces (25 years Private through Major)
4. PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Tampa (taught Oracle financials and the company's structure)
5. Arthur Anderson in Sarasota for a year before they got Enron-ed. (IT manager)

Wow that's more about me than I usually tell most people and on my blog... I'm losing my mind! If you find my mind, please be so kind as to return it. I'll even pay the COD if I remember, haha!

Scrapbook Sanity

Scrapbooking is something that grabs you and becomes a part of you. It is more than a hobby, it is a social phenomenon that has replaced the quilting bees of our great, great great grandmothers. It is not just something that you do alone in your home, it is something that makes you want to pack up your supplies and go and sit with others and share. It would be simplistic to say that what you are sharing is a hobby for what you share is so much more. You are sharing a part of yourself, you are sharing your life, you are creating a support circle of people who by their very nature will be there for you when you are in a tight spot. Scrapbooking is one of the great anti-depressants of our time.

With economic times being what they are, we still want and perhaps even need the interaction of crops and scrapbook classes. In fact in my case I need this interaction more than ever. As a scrapbooker I love to take time with my friends to sit and talk while working on my pages. I makes me feel not just connected, but like I'm accomplishing something special.

As someone who is fortunate enough to teach scrapbooking at a couple of scrapbook stores as well as to my group of Scrapbook Buddies, I have tried to make sure that the projects I offer have a lot of bang for the buck. I want, no I personally feel the need to make sure that the people that come to my classes have a good time and leave with a feeling that they had a great few hours and that they came out of class not just with a great project but happier, more fulfilled and empowered than when they came in. I take far more time than many of my fellow instructors getting my classes ready because more than anything I want them to be a no stress zone where I can assure the people that they will be able to complete the project before they leave. I cut out anything that is not part of the learning process ahead of time, make sure that there is time to complete the project and always make sure that there is no class immediately following mine so that I can stay as long as I'm needed.

As someone who hosts crops, I've seen an increase rather than a decrease in the interest people have to get together, to be a part of something while getting away for a few hours from the daily grind. I confess to having the same need to have my friends around me and get away from it all, the economy, the declining prices of homes, our house which we got for about $10,000 less than the market value when we bought it is now worth about $65,000 less than when we bought it, and the rest of the bad news out there.

When I am scrapbooking with my friends, I know that tomorrow will come and that we, each of us can have a hand in making sure that it is better. How do we do that? By having faith in each other, by making a stranger smile, by being courteous rather than curt, kind rather than abrupt, optimistic rather than negative. By holding out a hand to someone that is less fortunate than we are and there is always someone far less fortunate. But more than anything by looking in the face of a friend and knowing that together you can help each other make it through the week, the month.

St Francis of Assisi wrote this so many years ago and it is still my favorite prayer:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood as to understand;

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.