How have I gone without writing anything for almost a month?!  I really thought it had only been a couple of weeks.  Remember when we were kids and time seemed to go so slowly?  When does that switch flip and time speed up?

I've been thinking a lot recently about friends and family, relaxing and working.

I made a concious decision  a long time ago to not be friends with people that take a lot of my energy.  As I've gotten older I've learned that friendship should be a give and take.  That doesn't mean that you shouldn't lean on your friends when you are going through a bad patch.  I needed my friends last year when John and I went through a horrible time.  My friends gave me the most amazing support--I couldn't have made it without them and I hope I can give them back a portion of what they gave me.  That doesn't mean my family isn't supportive.  They are.  It's different though and hard to quantify.  My family will always be my family and although we may be angry at each other or hurt by each other, we will always forgive and move forward.  Friends can choose though and sometimes make the choice to move on without you.  I feel like I've chosen wisely and although some of my friends I see only rarely, they are all important to me and I love them all.  I hope that once I get a little more done around here I can give Christina, Crystal, Amy, and so many more the attention they deserve.

Relaxing is something I'm not good at.  I always feel like I should be doing something.  John doesn't help--he can't even sit in the hot tub for 20 minutes without talking about all the things we have to do.  I agree with him--the amount of projects we have right now is overwhelming when I think about them all.  I am trying to focus on one thing at a time.  Right now it's finishing up the apartment.  Then it will be my kitchen, my office, the painting of the two remaining bathrooms, the back yard...  There is so much more to do and I want the house to be presentable by the time we have our party in a month.  Would it be the end of the world if it wasn't perfect though?  Would my friends whisper and point?  I seriously doubt it.  So how do I let myself relax a little?  That is something I'm still struggling with.   I'm going to continue my quest for relaxation and the ability to let myself fail a little.  Wish me luck.

The biggest disappointment for me in the last month is the fact that I have not done one little bit of scrapping or card making.  So sad.  I have so many things I want to do!  There is a box of paper and embellishments sitting in front of me right now mocking me.  My goal before I go back to work next week is to make my Mischief pages and projects.  Pictures will be posted!!  Wish me luck everyone and thanks for listening to my crazy thoughts. 

Look what we did!!

We were able to get so much painted over the week-end!  It's amazing what a different color can do for a room.  It's not as if the original colors were horrible, but now that we have painted rooms with colors we chose it's starting to feel more like our house.  It's hard to go back to a place you've lived and see it all changed but Heidi (my friend who we will buy the house from) is being really great about it.  Her daughter Katie is NOT happy about us changing the color of the bathroom....lol  I didn't get a before picture which is too bad....it was a very bright minty green.  Great for a teenager but not so great for us.  That room is now a very nice, light, grass green. 

We had some great help and we can't thank my mother-in-law Joyce enough for all of her hard work.  We couldn't have done it without her!!  Dear daughter Jade was a great moral support.  Teenagers...sheesh.

So here are some pictures of our very long week-end.  We painted 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.....

Poor Jade!  Painting is such hard work!!

This is my scrapping room. I would never use this color in any other room--it's so bright and cheery it just screams creativity to me.  I still need to paint the trim white but it's so close!

John starting his office. 

John's office after the walls were painted. We will be painting the trim a dark green.  He has some hunting camo items like curtains and a pillow that he will be using in here and these colors match great!

Joyce hamming it up as she was starting to tape in the master bedroom.  She's so silly!!

This is the new color for the master bedroom.  Joyce is so amazing at the detail work we had her take the tape off and touch up the spots that needed it.  I love her green streamers on the ladder....lol

We painted the master bathroom the same as the master bedroom.  I was concerned that the color would be too dark for a small room but it actually turned out really nice.

That's it for this week!  Hopefully I will be able to post pictures of the finished rooms next week.  Wish me luck. 

Isn't that special?

I can't believe the month is already almost half gone!!  A couple more weeks and we'll be in our new place and I can hardly wait.  I will (hopefully) have pictures of my freshly painted scrapbooking room to post by the end of the week-end.
I wanted to be sure to let everyone know about the awesome stamp specials happening right now.  Close to My Heart revamped the Stamp of the Month program and made it much simpler.  Now, with a $50 purchase you can get the SOTM for only $5!  In August only you will also receive A Typeface A-size stamp set at no additional charge.  AND, beginning Monday, August 15th, if you spend $75 you will receive the Pair-A-Phrase stamp set FREE. Yep, free.  This stamp set is really handy for cards with coordinating phrases and images.  This set has two D-size stamps in one envelope.  It doesn't get much better than that.  The Pair-A-Phrase stamp special will be available until September 30th.
That's it for now!  Let's hope for a paint-splattered week-end. 

And so it begins.....

Here is the first post to my first blog and I'm excited to get started.  It's going to be a slow start since I am smack in the middle of moving but by the end of the month I will have pictures of the projects for my Halloween workshop posted along with kit options.  The workshop will be on October 1st so mark your calendar now. 

 In the mean time, this was a little something I put together last night.  I made the invitations small--the folded dimension is only 4x3--to help cut down on the mailing costs.

I am trying to use up papers I have on hand so I used a 1 x 6 inch strip of Crystal Blue cardstock (swiped in Crystal Blue) under a 3/4 x 6 inch strip cut from the dotted paper in the Cherry O Creative Basics pack(swiped in Chocolate).   I adhered this strip 1 inch from the bottom of a 4 x 6 piece of Colonial White cardstock, folded, and swiped in Chocolate ink.

All stamped images are from the Fanfare WOTG stamp set.  The sentiments are stamped in Crystal Blue ink, the stars in Sweet Leaf ink, and the party info in Chocolate ink.  The cupcake bottoms are stamped in Chocolate ink, cut out, and then swiped.  The frosting is stamped in Crystal Blue, Blush, and Sweet Leaf, cut out, and then swiped.  I adhered two of the cupcake bottoms and frostings to the card and then the third I adhered with 3D foam tape for added dimension.

The final touches are 3 Bitty Sparkles in the corners on the card front and Liquid Applique to the bottom edges of the frosting.  After the Liquid Applique dried I heated it with my craft heater for a fun texture.