A Truly Blessed Day

What a wonderful day I had! Rick was around much of the morning. Janie picked me up at 11:15 and took me to Mimi's Cafe for lunch. I had the roast turkey, very yummy! Then we went back to my house and opened my Kellar Creations order that had just come in. Pearls, rhinestones, beautiful paper with matching brads, some wooden clocks to decorate. It was really fun opening the box. Thanks Janie for a wonderful and memorable lunch, for the great presents and of course for having the foresight to bring your camera!

I am such a lucky lady. Hubby's aunt, brother and mom called today as did my brother, my best friend from Ottawa, my best French friend who lives down the street from where I used to in Parrish FL. Another friend, Judith also affectionately known by some as the Puerto Rican Mafia Godmother, dropped by unexpectedly, also bearing gifts. She couldn't really stay long, but while she was here we had a few laughs! Last but definitely not least my son called once he was free, which was after work and after Kendo.

I also of course had to do a little work as I have a crop I'm vendoring at on the 12th. So I had to prepare catalogs for the gift bags with a discount and information on TLC etc. Tomorrow I have to be a good girl and go back to the gym. So up not too late, breakfast, gym and then I have to make sure that I get the items off to the lady who is stuffing the bags as I am already a little late with that. Then back home to finish putting prices together and tidying the house, followed by cleaning it all up before the crop at my house on Friday which goes from 6:30pm till midnight. I'm looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones. All in all as you can see, another exciting day in the life of MC, LOL!

And the winner is...

Well it's been a busy day, but then which day isn't? Looks like the prescription for my glasses has changed yet again. Isn't getting old a pain? Well not really! I got an email form my friend Katrina today, that reminded me that we are lucky to be getting old and to be alive! On the eve of yet another milestone in my life, I am indeed happy to be where I am, who I am and much more that that, to be surrounded by the people that I have come to love and cherish. Yup as of tomorrow, I can now move into many if not all senior communities. Unbelievable! How the heck did I get here! But right now that's probably not the topmost thing on your mind! You probably want to know who won the posting contest for this month, right?

Well there are things that happen when you are old...er. Your mind wanders and sometimes jump from one topic to another. You are more likely to lose your train of thought and have any of you noticed that you often walk into a room knowing that you went to the room for a reason, but you can't for the life of you remember what it was? But to get back to the contest, I did pick a winner today and that lady is going to be very happy with what I've got going her way.

Did I mention that my first call of the day was fom a nice lady from whom I buy wholesale scrapbook products? We chatted for a while. She does expos and I got to see her this weekend. But I digress. Here is what the winner will get.

1 TLC 12345 Chatter Book and 1 Runway Meadowbrooke Shapes Kit and a surprise or two not mentionned here!

Curious to know what our April winner will get? Come back tomorrow and see what it is! And don't forget that the more "different people" post comments, the larger the prize is! The more often you post, the more chance you have to be the winner!

Seems to me I forgot to do something. Hmm... could it be that the winner is scraplin also known to her friends as Linda! Congratulations! Please email me to confirm your address and I'll ship that out no later than next Monday!

Linda, I hope that you enjoy your prizes and continue to post next month.

Woohoo! I'm back from the Scrapbook Expo

What a wonderful expo for at least 4 members of my Scrapbook Buddy group! We all won prizes! But more on those later! Yup, I'm a tease! Aww come on, don't spoil the surprise by peeking below!

I had such a great time! After picking Janie up at her house we drove to Orlando via Lakeland so that we could stop at Violettes. Janie did some shopping. I was good and just looked around and watched her shop! After eating at one of the best Chinese Buffets ever, Janie is better with names and might be kind enough to post the name in a comment, we went on to out hotel in Orlando. It took us a little while to unpack since our "luggage" included 2 folding tables and chairs , my cuttle bug, QK, BossKut dies as well as a whole lot of scrapbook supplies. Oh and I forget a very small suitcase with clothes for me and a slightly larger one for Janie. Our first night we decided to just scrap the evening away!

We did exercise while we were there! What can I say, we are ever so conscious of our waistlines (I'm definitely on the lookout for mine, which I lost in 1997). Given that the fastest way to the convention center was to hoof it there, we really had no choice, for which I'm quite grateful! The first day, the 20 minute, slightly uphill walk, left us slightly winded. By Saturday midnight, we could do it under 17 minutes, talking and laughing all the way! Three cheers for the grand (Janie) and her sidekick (moi)!

We shopped, took 2 classes, went to two evening crops and just enjoyed! Now for the prizes. Most of you already know that I am the organizer of the Scrapbook Buddies, a scrapbook meet up group that I started 18 months ago. Janie recently was elevated to the august title of assistant-organizer and Sharon and Anita are members. We planned on meeting up with them on Friday at the crop.

If you've been to a Scrapbook Expo, you also know that you do not have to be present to win a prize. Some, including the grand prize are drawn from the advanced ticket sales or pre-registrations and others are drawn from the tickets required to get into the convention, whether they are or aren't pre-purchased. The names of the winners are posted on a board at the entry to the floor and everyone checks the board.

Janie and I had quite a surprise when we came back from lunch on Friday. We read the name of the winner and all of a sudden I turned to Janie and told her that's our Sharon!!! Indeed Sharon, shown in the picture wearing a read sweater, won the grand prize of the beautiful scrapbook armoire shown in white, which is precisely the color she picked for the one they will be shipping to her! She has to pay for the shipping but so what, she won the armoire!!!

Anita and I also won door prizes, though small ones at the Friday night crop. Janie waited until the Saturday night crop, while I was out to dinner, to win a wonderful lavender faux-suede scrapbook bag filled with three months worth of storyteller monthly kits! Just a great, great prize! I also won a door prize at Saturday's crop, a size small t-shirt that the two ladies sharing our table both wanted. So I traded it in for some nice embellishments which I was able to start using right away. I'm realistic enough to know that no matter how much exercises I do, I will never be a size small, LOL!

Speaking of Saturday's dinner, which Janie was invited to but decided I should just enjoy with my son and his girlfriend, it was at Nelore, an authentic Brazilian Steak House. The occasion was my birthday, since we won't see each other the day of. Can I say OMGosh!!! It was amazing! Simply, simply amazing food, a wonderful ambiance, a charming waitress and all the food you can eat! Add to that charming hosts my son and girlfriend and the whole thing was just perfect! Yummy to my mommy's tummy!

All in all a wonderful weekend, where I did get some work done, but mostly had a great time, shared with wonderful people!

Have a great week people! You know the routine...it will only come once, so make the best of it! Oh! and don't forget! Tomorrow is your last chance to post comments for a chance to win the my March scrapbook/prize giveaway!!!

I'm All Good - Sort of!

Well at least my knee is! They took x-rays and determined that the implants are adhering to the bone and that the whole joint looks as good as it possibly can. The clicking, which they don't tell you much about prior to surgery, is apparently my new friend for life and just something I have to get used to, yeah! What I was told pre-surgery was that it would be there until the plastic components moulded themselves to my knee movements and would go away in about a year! Maybe someday they will make quiet knees, not that other people can necessarily hear the crunching.

It's hard not to want to play with my latest toy. Post appointment, I had this urge to give my PGC also known as my new SUV some room to roam and so I took it to Lakeland for a spin. It was one of those spur of the moment decisions as I was getting within feet of the I-4 exit off I-75. Did I mention that Lakeland has an awesome LSS named Violettes? I decided to stop in and take a look and on the way home, I stopped in at Scraptopia to say hello to Jackie the owner. I've got to say though, that neither store has a great web presence.

Unfortunately I seem to have picked up was some sort of bug on the way and I've just spent the last few hours in bed feeling terrible. Not sure where it came from, but it sure came on quickly! So I'll keep today to a short post and hope everyone out there is feeling better than I am, LOL! I want to scrap and I still have a lot of organizing to do! But I'm going to make the best of each moment I get to sniffle, cause each one only comes once, haha!

So to show you that I still have a sense of humor, I'll leave you with two pictures of me taken at Scrapbook in Paradise during the treasure hunt. Not sure what I look better as a pirate with a huge head or a flat chested mermaid with big hair? You tell me!

The Never Ending Task

Before I get to the never ending task, I guess you've noticed that I've added some of my favorite songs to the blog! Just found out how to do this and enjoyed it! Hope it didn't wake anyone up at your end! I know how it can be to expect to navigate to a quiet blog and suddenly find your ears assaulted by someone's idea of a good song!

Anyhow back to the Never Ending Task!

No I'm not speaking of dishes, laundry or grocery shopping. If you're a scrapbooker, you've probably guessed that I'm speaking about scrapbooking supplies. Somehow getting organized is a never ending chore. Buy just a few dollars more of paper or embellishments and suddenly you get the urge or is that the NEED to re-organize. What's with that?

Just so you know I got hit by the re-org bug in a big way! I guess it was caused by the Scrapbook Treasure hunt. You see the 1st store we went to had racks, great racks if you ask me for sale. They break down completely which is marvelous and they hold a ton of products! At any rate yours truly got the racks and then realized that they barely fit into my car, hence the need for a new SUV! OK, that's not quite true, but anyhow, once I got the racks into the house nothing would do but that I completely re-organize my for sale stash of supplies! I've been working on it for a couple of days already!

Here is a view of the racks as they are now, set up at the back of the kitchen in the eat in area. (I don't cook so nothing is really in danger!).Plus I have some awesome supplies for sale from Cookbookin and they really look good in the kitchen, LOL!

On another topic, tomorrow is my one year check up on my knee. I sure hope that everything is going on as it should in there and that the bones have fully knitted to the hardware. I still get a lot of clicking and strange sounds and there is still some discomfort when I touch the areas under and to the inside and outside of the knee. So it's up early tomorrow to make sure I make it on time to my appointment.

I hope that all of you are having a great day and that you did not miss out on a single moment of joy today! Enjoy the music and remember, each moment of your life only comes "Once!"

Happy St Patty's Day

I wish you the luck of the Irish. I'm not sure if somewhere deep inside me there is Irish blood, but I can tell you that there certainly is a part of my soul that belongs to Ireland. As a little girl I went to a Catholic School run my a wonderful order of nuns called the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary or RSHM. I would not be guessing to say that the sisters were influenced by their Irish members. Marymount Quebec had a great tradition of arts and sports as well as being top notch academically. Each year we put on many shows, but one that we always did just for fun was our St Patrick's day show. If my spirit wasn't born Irish, then certainly it was lifted by the beautiful tunes such as the one I've included here for your enjoyment and it danced an Irish jig, much as I learned to do. When I think of St Patrick's Day I think of my cousin Eugene, who we affectionately called Paddy. The RSHMs and Paddy are hugely responsible for my looking to the positive in people and in life. This is a tribute to them.

Happy St Patrick's Day to all of you!

Some fine Pipes!

I found this on my friend Marie Laurence's blog. She obviously found it on YouTube or someone else passed it on to you. I really like the sound of this so I thought I'd share too! Hope you are having a great weekend and that your upcoming week is a happy one!

Guess What I Did??!!!

OK, so after mostly staying home yesterday, I just had to get wild today and that is exactly what I did! I got up and went to Curves, came home and said hello to Hubby and then went out again. My first words when I got home the second time? Guess what I bought today! Hubby, who knows me well, took one look at my face and said... "an SUV"??? "What kind", he asked? "Oh, not a big one", I said looking rather innocent. "Ah, how much", he asked? "Not all that much, it's not a big one and I got a great deal, it was the manager's demo. Wanna see", I replied? Sure, want me to drive you somewhere, he asks? "I thought you might ask to drive it so I've already adjusted the seat for you, I said"! "It's a nice SUV" he said contemplating the vehicle. " I know, but it's beige!" "Well it's really a pale metallic gold" he said trying to make me feel better about the color. He knows that I don't like beige and my whole house is painted that color. It was a good house at a great price when I bought it, but it was beige. With all the surgeries I've had since moving here, painting the whole house really wasn't on the agenda. I did manage to repaint my room to a pale green that I also used in most of the family room and I painted the guest bedroom which is a nice blue, all before my hands got really bad with carpal tunnel.

So here is my new, pale gold chariot or PGC as hubby calls it:


Because it was the managers demo car, it is fully loaded. It's a 2007 which helped with the price as well. In addition, I don't have to pay for any maintenance or roadside assistance at all for 5 years or 60,000 miles whichever comes last and as long as I do all my maintenance at the dealership, I get free tires for life! Another feature that I love is that it has a full size spare, not one of those donut thingies.

I even have a DVD player for the back seats, a sun roof, satellite radio, dual air, a cd/mp3 player in the dash, as well as an extra 6 disk cd player! It is absolutely fully loaded. The only thing I compromised on was the power pedals and the color. The rest is way more than I really needed, but this really was an unbeatable deal! The really great thing is that I can now figure out exactly how to load it when I go and vendor at crops of do the TLC booth at CKC in Lauderdale! I am really pleased and think of this as my birthday present! Hubby BTW likes it too ;-) And no it was not really an impulse buy. I've been looking at and getting quotes on new cars for about a month now and I was fairly sure that I'd get the Santa Fe. A friend of mine who drives fairly long distances, loves her Santa Fe more than she liked her Lexus SUV and we all know that one is about twice the price of the other! Now back to working on all the scrapbook supplies!

I Finally Escaped From the Pirates

ArrrrH! It was difficult, it was long, it was fun, it was the Tampa Bay Scrapbook Treasure Hunt and for this year at least, unless I or my buddy Janie win one of the two big prizes, it is over! We did it! I put 550 miles on my car, visited 15 scrapbook stores and had a great time! Some were better than others, some were bigger than others, some were friendlier than others, some were better stocked than others, some had better projects than others, but all were visited!

If either of us wins, we get to do it all over again!!!! We looked for things, found things we weren't looking for and brought most of both home with us! Yes we are stocked or is that stoqued? Hmmm, something like that! Hubby is stoickly walking through a house gone mad with scrapbooking supplies and pretending that nothing is out of the ordinary, are you kidding? Everything around here is out of the ordinary or is that simply out of place?

I have a list of things to work on tomorrow, since it is the first day in over a week that I'll be home! OK, I was home on Sunday, but I wasn't really lucid, LOL! I hope to get the answers for our Carnival Scrapbook Cruise. We may need to add outside cabins and dump the inside ones. Looks like none of us want to be inside! I can't blame anyone, I personally prefer an outside or a balcony. At any rate, I'll do everything I can to get through my To Do list after I get through a workout at Curves! Ah, a day at home!

Too Little Sleep but SO Much Fun!

Oh my gosh do I sound like a broken record yet? I had a lot of fun despite the lack of sleep! Friday was crop night at my house! We had a great time and everyone was kind enough to leave early (just past 11pm) knowing that I had to pack all my stuff so I could vendor at a crop in Sarasota on Saturday. The first picture is of my setup at the crop in Sarasota! By the time I got everything packed and ready and managed to fall asleep it was 3:30 am and I had to be ready to go out the door at 7:15am. For some weird reason I woke up at 5:30 and managed to get a cat nap in between then and 6am. I did have a great time at the crop but according to my friend Janie, I was more talkative than she had ever known me to be, and she's now known me for a year and a half! Probably my body's way of keeping me awake! She said I wasn't bad, but she is a generous soul! Thank goodness she drove and was there to help me load and unload and load and unload again!

We also managed to visit two of the 15 LSS included in the Tampa Bay Scrapbook Treasure Hunt, Scrapbooking Memories and K2. Both stores are within about 7 minutes from each other in Sarasota, and you'd wonder how they manage to survive, but they do, at least so far. It may be because of the difference in their styles.

I had great plans to sleep all day Sunday, but we all know why they are called plans! Hubby woke me up at 8:30 am new time and just when I thought I could go back to sleep, a friend of mine called to tell me that she was finally starting work in a new restaurant. So hubby and I went and had lunch as a show of support.

Today Monday, Janie and I got together and visited 4 stores. Violettes in Lakeland, Sew and Scrap, Scraptorium and one of my favorites, The Scrapbook Shoppe in Tampa. We had a great time and got home somewhere around 4:30pm. Tomorrow i have to get to Scrap Happy and then back to Scrapbook Memories where I had a couple of racks put aside for me on Saturday. Aside from all of that, over the past few days, I have chatted with two people that have organized scrapbook cruises, paid the bills, fed the kitties, done 6 loads of laundry, cleaned and messed up the house, finished a mini album and 2 layouts and somehow managed to enjoy all those moments which we all know, are precious because... they only come once!

Measuring Day

Wow I was so tired yesterday that I forgot to post this update! Given that I have a crop with about 8 people tonight and have to have to pack my stuff up and be ready to load Janie's car at 7:15, methinks, it is likely I won't be able to post anything new tonight!

It was my measuring day at Curves today! I went in thinking I hadn't lost any weight, since my emphasis this month was to really work on my right leg so that the surgeon would have only good things to say on the 20th when I get my 1st year post knee replacement checkup. I was wrong! I lost some, not a lot, 3.5 lbs and better still I lost 10.25 lbs and my BMI went down another 1.5. Still a long way to go, but given that I'm not dieting, just being a little careful, I think this is all good news!!! Best off all I've apparently regained 1/4 inch in height that I'd lost over the years! Awesome what excercise can do for you, LOL!

Gotta go clean house... one room at a time or I'll never get anything done, haha! How do you clean and tidy? Do you go from room to room, tackle a pile in one room and when you go to put the pile in the "right" room you tackle a pile there and hope that by the time 10pm comes around all the piles have changed places??? Frankly, it can work and save on leg wear and tear, as long as you put away the articles in piles that you move into the "right" room rather than leave them in a pile. Confused? You should be, cause this honestly doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me either!!! ;-)

Pictures are from the mini album I made on last Sunday watching TV and scrapping in my bed! I was a tired lady! It's of my little niece Lindsay and is another of TLC's new Shape Upz kits. Everything I used came from that little 6x6 boxed kit, from the ribbon to the ring!!

I'll update you on all the weekend fun on Sunday! Meanwhile, have a great weekend and don't forget to tell your friends about my blog contest and the RCS 4 day cruise March 5th, 2009!!!

Sometime life passes by so fast that you get whiplash! I'm glad that I learned years ago that the best way to make the best of what is going on is to do a mental adjustment. Yup folks, everything good and bad happens between my ears. That might explain why I've had so many earaches and even virtigo, LOL!

Wouldn't you know it, my TIVO recorded something else and not American Idol last night! My fault, obviously, so I had to go through the season pass manager and give Idol a higher priority than Designed to Sell or was it House Hunter. At any rate it will record Idol tonight! I am "trying" really hard to get things all done by Friday, but it is an uphill battle which should be a snap for me given that I spent 11 years of my life living on a pretty steep hill! Here is a picture of the street I lived on.

Le Vendome that you see here, is the restaurant that my parents started in the 50s in Quebec City. We lived on the top two floors of this historical house built in the 1700s! The main and 2nd floor were/are taken up by the restaurant which actually had two full kitchens. Actually I found some beautiful pictures of the city of my birth taken by a tourist last year or was it the year before. I thought I'd share so here is the link.

I am still working on the cruise and I'm no longer sure about doing a class at CKC. They told me today that of the $25 I wanted to charge for the class, they would take $22!!! I guess I'm not charging enough, but that seemed reasonable to me. The album and the techniques I'd be teaching do require 2 hours. I hate the classes that you go to at conventions that are so fast paced that everyone walks out with most of their kit untouched and nothing quite completed. I guess I might offer the class somewhere more reasonable. Maybe on the cruise, LOL! Just kidding!

Finally, as requested, here is a picture of the mini book that goes with the little mailbox. Now off to bed I go!

Rush, Rush, Rush 'n Breathe 'n Smile

I've got to laugh at the day I had. As I've mentionned before I have the TLC booth at the CKC Convention in Ft Lauderdale at the end of June. Today was the outside deadline to get my class plan to CK. I thought my booth partner was buying the kits for the class. Apparently there was a miscommunication, or rather my email telling her that it was ok and to go ahead and buy the kits never made it to her and so I only had today to put another project together including the class description. Just a little pressure! So here is a picture of the book we will do if the class is accepted.

My poor friend Janie saw me have an artistic frustration fit this afternoon. It doesn't happen often, but with the deadline looming the book just wasn't where I wanted it to be. Thankfully my funk disappeared, I thought of a way to get the balance that was missing on the pages and I'm happy with the final product. Hopefully it will be approved and people will sign up for it. That part is always scary!

Other than that I had a nice chat with my RCS friends. I watched the Biggest Loser and talked briefly to my hubby who was really tired. I'm so proud of him! He has been taking yoga classes twice a week before work, which means that he has to leave here at 6:15. He demonstrated some of his moves the other day. Now, now people, I am speaking of yoga positions here! I was amazed at how flexible he has become! I have another busy weekend ahead of me, I have a 6-12 crop on Friday and I have to then pack my TLC items and some other stuff as I am vendoring at a crop in Sarasota on Saturday. For those who do not know, Sarasota is 45 minutes from here and I have to be there at 8:30 am to set up. Well that's it for another day in the life of "moi"! Now off to see what happened on American Idol. Thank goodness for TIVO!

But It's ONLY Monday...

Someone, who shall remain nameless, but is a very good "buddy" of mine, called me today and said, "you haven't written in your blog since Saturday!" OMGosh... but it's only Monday, right? I actually took it easy yesterday though I did work on a mini book of and for my little niece, while sitting in bed and watching TV. It's almost finished, I was going to share it with you tonight, but I had this brilliant idea that requires that the embellishment dry and then that they actually work and look good, so I'll share tomorrow.

So... I thought I'd share something else, a layout from the wedding album I made for Amy and Eli.

Also here is a picture of a class I'm going to offer. It is a small pink mailbox with a mini book. The paper is all Basic Gray.

Let me see what else did I do today? I gathered April's winnings and they should be out priority tomorrow. I worked on gathering information for a special cruise for all the nice people in my newsgroup to be held sometime in March 2009. I'm hoping that this will be something that everyone wants to attend. I expect the 4 night cruise to be less that $400/double occupancy for an outside and less than $35o for an inside, plus taxes and port fees. Hopefully we'll have a dedicated conference room for the whole trip included in that price. If people are willing to be 4 per cabin the cost could be a little lower for all 4. 3rd and 4th bunks are uppers though and I know that isn't always very popular. We need to reserve a minimum of 8 cabins to get group benefits. Anyhow, I better post this blog before much more time goes by as it will soon be Tuesday and then I'll be in big trouble, LOL!