I think I need a 12 step program

The Houston Area is having a Scrapbook Store Shop Hop this weekend through next weekend. 7 stores are participating, 4 of which are relatively close to where I live. Of the other 3, I visit one monthly for my "book club".

The remaining two are 45 mins or more away from me. Bestie H and I visited those 2 stores today - I was gone from my house for 8 hours!!! We hit construction on the way home (my fault) then exited when we should have stayed on the freeway (Bestie's fault) so that added a lot of time. It was fun though and I would do it all again! In fact, we'll be visiting 2 more stores together next weekend....

I really hope anyone wanting to come to the stores down this way realizes that the major freeway will be closed down next weekend! I hope they visited today...

So if you'd asked me 6 months ago what my scrapbook obsession was, I would have said embellishments...probably ribbon being the worst. But I have to say, now, I think my biggest problem is with paper.

This is a sampling of what I picked up today:

And this is the stack of all of the paper I bought. I seriously need to buy a new organizer just for what I bought today!

I went overboard, but it was at the store farthest away from me - which happens to probably be the largest as well. I've only visited there 3 times in the last 5 years or so and don't plan on returning anytime soon...

The really sad part is that I have 4 more stores to visit. Hopefully I'll be more restrained at those :)

Anyone recovering from this addiction that could be my sponsor for the 12 step patterned paper addiction program?

Time to Update

I haven't done much crafting lately because of a broken printer...can't print pictures to make my scrapbook pages.

So instead, I've been addicted to Etsy! My most recent purchase has been...

this quilt with some matching accessories. I can't wait to get them! The shop owner has been great to work with. So has this one (she made my Christmas stockings for me, too).

I've ordered a couple of onesies from Onesie Twosie before and she just announced she's having a sale for 12-24 month size onesies. You should go check her out. Dare I say, I think I actually like her boy stuff more than girl stuff?! It's times like this that I wish we had a name picked out so I could order a monogram onesie...

Actually, I must say that everyone I've purchased from on Etsy has been great. On my shopping list next is some headbands and bows :)

2 Day Benefit Auction

One of the blogs I follow is participating in a benefit auction. You should go check it out and see if there is anything you are interested in :) Bidding is easy, you just leave a comment on the post for the item you are interested in.

Click here for the master list.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

If I still had coworkers... :)

If I was still teaching, everyone I encountered today would get a heart paperclip attached to something :) Except maybe the kids...at least they wouldn't get theirs until dismissal LOL

Look at how cute this is! Even without the ribbon, it's still cute.
I saw this at Kristina's blog and had my Bestie grab me some large white, pink and red paperclips to use in future layouts and cards. I'm hoping she'll spread my idea and pass some heart paperclips out to other paralegals or lawyers today :)

If you click here you'll get a very short video that shows how to make them - it is SUPER easy!

R U a Twerd, too?

A couple of my friends/family have read all of the Twilight books and I just finished the last one this morning. I went to bed last night with only 20 pages left...it killed me to not finish it then! lol

I had been warned, that the last book was not quite like the first 3... and I'm still shocked. If I didn't know better, I would say that the last book was written by a different person!

Maybe I'm just sad that there's not another book in the series to look forward to. The only other series I really read is the Stephanie Plum novels and I trust that each June, I'll get my fix! I'm sure that series will come to an end one day, too, and I probably won't be happy with the final book...just because it is the end.

In case you hadn't heard - March 21 is the release date for Twilight on DVD. Borders is pre-ordering right now...

Finally!

It's a good thing I didn't post my New Year's Goal (not a resolution really -more of a wish) to get the first 12 months of my daughter's life scrapped before daughter #2 comes along. Maybe if I'd posted it, I would be closer to my goal, right?

I've had the 3 month pictures for over 2 months now. And for all of January I looked at them. And looked and looked. I picked the paper but I just couldn't ever really get into it. The paper was from my stash and really went well with the pictures but I was still stumped.

Then on Thursday, I was in one of my scrapbook stores...(for the 3rd time in a week!) and I saw paper that I knew immediately was meant for the March pages. It all fell together so easily after that! Isn't it odd that I didn't see this paper on my first 2 trips to the store?

Clicking on either photo will take you to Flickr where you can see the entire image.




Bestie H: I shot these pictures several different ways but fully manual ended up being the best ones!

Post It Note Holder Gift

I stole this idea from Scrappily Ever After. This is a gift for one of my daughter's preschool teachers. My daughter moves up a room this week and the change is a month past due because I didn't want her to leave Ms. Anna just yet! She's had Anna since August and her positive attitude and approach with the kids has had a huge impact on my daughter. She's one of those very few, really great teachers.

I didn't give any handmade Halloween or even Christmas gifts to the teachers because of my pregnancy tiredness and plain ole laziness. Anna needs a special gift though since she's remained constant in the room this whole time - PLUS she's being promoted to working with the office staff! I'm giving this to her before Valentine's Day so that her new teacher's won't be offended for not getting the same gift.

Post-it Note holder and note clip:

I thought about putting the bird on the front of the acrylic frame, but I wanted her to be able to reuse the frame if she wanted. I was looking for the really pale pink post-its but gave up on my search. When I was working, I had an endless supply. LOL
The letter has magnets built in so that it can be used as a magnet or stand up like in this picture. I wasn't as thrilled with this as I was the acrylic frame - but I hadn't planned on making this until the last minute...

Note holder in action-

I hope she likes it. I'm not sure of what her style is to know if she'll really like this and use it- but who can resist that little bird!?