And this is how I roll.......................!

Well Hiya & Happy Saturday to you all! Boy do I have a tale to tell you AND GUESS WHAT???? It's ALL TRUE!!!  So as most of you know a blizzard/snow/ice storm blew thru the DC area on Wednesday and I WAS SUPPOSED to fly out Thursday morning with my pal Marti to LA for CHA!  At 10 pm that night I am packed and ready to go and fixing a late dinner for me & hubby because it took him 6 HOURS to get home from work because of the storm.  The storm was so bad that some people spent 10 hours in their cars, abandoned their cars, ran out of gas---it was BAD!  Hubby gets home and I get an email saying that my Southwest flight has been CANCELLED!  So I freaked of course and called Marti-O who was already in bed.  They couldn't assure me that I would be able to fly out Thursday morning from Dulles sooooo I HAD to be in LA Friday to teach a class so THIS WAS NOT AN OPTION for me 'kay!  So hubby is on the phone with Southwest and they have a flight out of Norfolk, VA on Thursday morning--Norfolk is 3.5 hours south from me and in the blizzard it was 6.5 hours!  Hubby says "can you be ready to go in 45 mins"----UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I guess, LOL!  So 45 mins later we are in the car driving in a blizzard, roads closed, vehicles abandoned EVERYWHERE like a friggin' obstacle course.  So I arrived in Norfolk at 6:30 am, airport is deserted and no snow to be found---great!  Runway goes right off over the water--not so great, lol!  Get on the 8:50 am flight for $300 EXTRA to Chicago --flight has 22 people on it and 3 Fed. Air Marshals----WHAT????????  One behind me, one in the row beside me and one in front of me---am I being escorted to Chicago??? LOL!  Well it made me feel a bit safe so I stretched out with my pillow and coat and was asleep before the darn plane took off--if you know me you know that that is HUGE!  Usually I'm a nervous wreck but I was so exhausted I didn't care if we crashed right in the darn water at the point, LOL!  I arrive in Chicago at 10 am (chicago time) to snow and ice on the ground and DELAYS everywhere---OY VEY!  But my flight is on time.  Meanwhile Marti-O calls and she was able to get a later flight out of Dulles that morning and is meeting up with me in Chicago to fly to LA.  I get on the plane (full house this time) and save her a seat--no Marti, no Marti, still no Marti.  20 mins after boarding the plane she gets on, LOL, her flight was late and she had to run to make it!  We both crashed and slept the whole darn way to LA.  Get to LA and no luggage for Marti--didn't make the plane, LOL!  Thank goodness my bags did because all my class stuff & copics were in my luggage and I would have seriously laid an egg if it hadn't arrived KWIM!?  1 hour later we finally get Terri (my roomie) to pick us up at the airport and then thru a series of bad turns arrive at the hotel 1.5 hours later (the airport is only 15 mins away okay) LMBO!  We check in, settle in and grab a quick bite to eat and then we all die in our beds by 9 pm (midnite my time).  Well okay, Marti died at 7:30 pm LOL! At 11:30 pm the hotel phone rings and rings and when we finally wake up  they want to let us know that Marti's luggage has arrived-- AT FREAKING 11:30 PM, are you KIDDING ME?  Helloooooooooooooooooooooooo we are SLEEPINGGGGG & we'll get it in the morning people!  At 5:45 AM the FREAKING HOTEL FIRE ALARM GOES OFF NO LIE---scares the living daylights out of us and you can hear people leaving their rooms and the hotel.  BUT NOT US--I said "they will have to come up here and drag us out if its a real emergency cuz I AIN'T going out in the LA street at 6 am in my  jammies---NO WAY JOSE!"  The alarm continues to go off for an hour and then shuts up finally.  By that time I'm awake and cranky but I get ready for my class at 10 am.  Class starts and at 11:30 the banquet manager comes to tell me that they power in the hotel MIGHT be shutting off for a few hours!  ARE YOU KIDDING ME---HELLO WE NEED LIGHT TO COLOR---DUHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!  So we broke for lunch, came back STILL NO power--power finally came on at 1:30 after I pulled out my McGuyver skills & tied the curtains in the room back with my Ipad power cord and phone cords, LOL!  Class finishes and we head out to dinner---Terri wants to show us around LA---so we saw the GREAT parts of LA & the not so great parts, LOL!  But it's always an adventure and I figure if I don't die or stroke out from it all I'll just chalk it up to another fun adventure in Suzanne's life, LOL!  I'm hoping the next few days are BORING, I'm really good at boring and calm stuff KWIM!  So this story is to be continued for you all on Monday..............................

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Monkey Fun!!

Today is my last project as a Guest Designer for Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps (sniff..sniff) and I've had such a great time working with the stamps this past month.  They are always so much fun to color and use!  Today is another fun Kraftin Kimmie Challenge and today's challenge is to "Reuse & Recycle"!  I pulled out one of the new stamps by artist Crissy Armstrong called "Cheeky Monkey"

for my Valentine's Day Project (find Kraftin' Kimmie stamps in the US HERE)!  This one I made for my hubby and I found this super cute Chocolate Monkey at my Wegmans and he inspired the whole project, LOL!  Aren't they CUTE??

So for my recycled part of my project all of my cardstock and ribbon were from my scrap bins.  The patterned paper is Bo Bunny and I liked the browns in it with the reds and pinks---perfect for a guy's card.  The hearts were cut out with my SB nesties and then embossed.  To make the fun rings around my image I used my circle nesties--a large one and then a smaller one and looped them around the image.  I liked the whimsical look it gave the card.  The pink cs embossed with hearts was done with a CB folder as well.  That cute sentiment is from PTI and punched out with an SU "Word Slot Punch".  A fun chocolate bow and rhinestones finish it off!

Isn't he a cutie-pie?  He's colored with Copics---I colored him in dots instead of soft blending so it gave him some fun texture me thinks.  (E37,E35,E31,E50,E51)  The leaves got a coat of stickles for just a bit of sparkle--not too much bling for my hubby :)  Make sure to hop over to the Kraftin' Kimmie Challenge Blog to see all the fun DT projects and join in the fun too!

Hope this post gave you a smile today and that you have a WONDERFUL weekend!  I'll be back with a post on Monday or Tuesday (depending on my state of mind, LOL) and then I head home on Tuesday!