Grey Skies, Happy Times!

Hi all my friends and ONLY 10 MORE DAYS till Christmas----ackkkkkkkk! LOL I am sooo behind on my shopping that it isn’t even funny—Sunday hubby and I are going to finish all the holiday shopping.  We are like a tag team in the stores hee hee—running this way, texting each other and then meeting up at the cash registers.  Its fast and with a list we can finish up quickly with only a few stops—just the way I like it.  Then we have a marathon wrapping evening each year where we have lots of yummy goodies to snack on and watch movies while we wrap every last present.  We usually finish up around 3 am LOL exhausted but at least its all done.  Hubby is a very sloooooooooooooooow & meticulous wrapper so I assign all the large or oddly shaped presents to him while I rip thru wrapping everything else and adding bows & tags.  And yes I pick a color scheme each year and everything matches---last year was teal, silver, hot pink & green.  This year its all white, silver and blues (yeah I’m anal that way so shoot me).  Then we lock up everything in our spare bedroom until Christmas morning.  We have been doing it like this since the kids were tiny hee hee and sometimes it was almost hilarious the things we’ve done.  Building tricycles, barbie houses, train boards, and last year putting together a complete drum set for Riley---oh my goodness & you know the directions are never good so it takes twice as long as it should. (James and I are looking at each other saying "why did they only send the directions in Japanese?" LMBO)  GOOD TIMES RIGHT?!!!  That’s what holiday memories are all about! (and the stress, craziness & exhaustion too)  The funny thing is that as the kids get older the present pile gets so much smaller but so MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE—now how the heck does that happen? LOL ;)

Tonight we are headed to see Alexa sing with her women’s choir at the high school.  She has a solo so this mom will be very nervous for her but oh so proud.  I hope to actually remember my video camera this time to tape it all—yes trust me I forget it a lot or forget to charge it (yeah it’s a running theme in my life, ask my hubby).  Riley has a band concert at his school tonight as well but because he has 5 concerts this month, one of which I already went to we will head to Alexa’s tonight.  Then see his other two band concerts next week—whooowheee it is hard balancing concert nights when they are not in the same school.  Next year they will both be in high school so it will be a bit easier (I hope).

NewsBitz:

-Ok so there is HUGE MONTH-LONG CHALLENGE over at my CMC Challenge Group (runs thru Jan 5th).  There are lots of different ways to enter for all the fantastic prizes (including a NEW Cricut Mini Machine, a Kindle and other fab crafty prizes).  You can also enter by donating to a charity “Reading is Fundamental” which promotes literacy programs and books to children—reading is one of my fave things to do and I think it is so very important to establish early on.  You need it to get through life, school and for fun so I always support reading programs.  By donating you can get entries into the prize pot—so even if you don’t have time to make a project (theme is golds, whites & creams) you can still enter.  I do a couple charity events a year and hope to raise some money for a great organization.

You can see details of the charity & donate HERE!  Head over to the CMC Challenge Group to see all the details, ways to enter & prizes!!

-Anyone going to CHA in Anaheim, CA in January?  Anyone live in CA & want to take a Copics class with me?  I will be teaching on Jan.28th in Anaheim for 1 day and all details/registration is up at www.cmcroad.com – I’d love to see ya!!

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Grey Skies Can Bring Happy Times!!

So today I Brake For Stamps has some new Wee Stamps (a Whimsy Stamp Company) in stock & for sale and they are just cuteness personified!  This lil’ cutie is called “Spring Bringer” and even though we are not yet in the depths of winter here (ugh) I am ready for spring LOL!  I love everything in bloom, warmer weather and more sunny days—makes me a happy girl.  So I’m bringing a little bit of spring into your day today for ya!!

My papers are new from Teresa Collins “Carolina Breeze” – I absolutely love the gray & soft yellow colors and patterns in this paper pad.  The sentiment is from PTI along with the silver shimmer cs I used.  I used a mix of Wild Orchid Craft flowers & rosebuds along with a Cherry Lynn Designs die for my leafy scroll.  The embossing folder on the yellow cs is a newer one by Crafts Too “Scrollworks”.

I'm entering this into the following fun challenges:

Make it Monday (anything goes)

Paper Creations Ink (bling it)

Cutie Pie Challenge (sentiments)

Pile It On (bling)

The Crafty Pad (no xmas or bdays)

Awww isn’t she a sweetie-pie?  I colored her up with Copics C7,C3,C1,C00 / Y11,Y000, Y21 / E11,E00,R20 / E25,E33,E31,E50 / G20,YG93,YG97 & BG10. Then I added some Stickles to her wings, pants & flowers.  A few mini yellow pearls finish off her pant legs.  She was fun to color!



That’s all for me today!  I will be back tomorrow for a special Gina K Blog Hop—so stop on back by!  Holiday hugs to you all!