Thursday, April 27, 2006

My Favorite Things

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things

When the dog bites
When the bee stings
When I'm feeling sadI simply remember my favorite things
And then I don't feel so bad
I was inspired by an ad challenge last night (from the Pub on 2peas).



I used Heather Roselli's "April Showers" kit for the papers, and Marsha Zepeda's "Quote Pack - Beauty and Wonder" for the word art quote. Font is Garamond Premier Pro.

No showings on the house. It's starting to get really disappointing and frustrating that no one is looking at our house. We were told that the dining room looks too small with the table in it, so we're trying to figure out what to do with that (do we put the table in another room, covered up or do we dismantle/disassemble it and put it in storage?). In the meantime, we bought two bar stools for the kitchen's island counter, and we switched out the painting in the dining room (has a huge frame that sticks out a lot) and put up a print that one of my sisters gave me for my birthday. Looks really nice there. :)

In 9 days, I'll be heading for Las Vegas. Woohoo! Too bad it's for a conference, and I won't have a lot of time for play. :)

Monday, April 24, 2006

Scrapbooker Karen Russell is hosting a fundraiser for Women for Women International. I'm posting the main information here, but for WAY MORE detailed information, check out Karen's blog.

So here’s how it’s going to work:

It’s simple - it’s a drawing. The winners (and there will be a whole lot of you – more than 135 winners) will either win a 1 page layout completed by a “well-known” scrapbooker (using your photos of course) or a $50.00 prize package. Cool, eh?

For the next two weeks (through May 8th), we’ll be taking $1.00 donations on behalf of Women for Women International. Each $1.00 donation will enter your name into the drawing one time (so if for example, you donate 25 bucks, you will be entered into the drawing 25 times). 100% of your donations will go directly to this organization and to helping women around the world.

Every day, I’ll post where we’re at with donations so you’ll all know how it’s going.

On Sunday, May 14th (Happy Mothers Day to all you wonderful women), I’ll post the names of the winners here on my blog along with a photo of a big, fat cashiers check made payable to Women for Women International.

Don't forget, information on how to donate is available on Karen's blog.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

This is where I went for my birthday today!

This photo was taken at the Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center.



And I saw this on the way back down towards Silver Lake:

Happy Birthday to me
Happy Birthday to me
Happy Birthday, dear me
Happy Birthday to me!

Today, I share my birthday with the following folks (in addition to Shakespeare):

Actress Janet Blair is 85.
Actor David Birney is 67.
Actor Lee Majors ("Six Million Dollar Man") is 67.
Actress Blair Brown is 58.
Actress Joyce DeWitt ("Three's Company") is 57.
Actor James Russo is 53.
Director Michael Moore is 52.
Actress Judy Davis is 51.
Actress Jan Hooks is 49.
Actress Valerie Bertinelli is 46.
Comedian George Lopez is 45.
Drummer Gen (Jesus Jones) is 42.
Actress Melina Kanakaredes ("Providence") is 39.
Drummer Stan Frazier of Sugar Ray is 38.
Country guitarist Tim Womack of Sons of the Desert is 38.
Actor Scott Bairstow ("Party of Five") is 36.

In addition, my mom's birthday was yesterday (4/22) and my brother-in-law's birthday is tomorrow (4/24).

Just think, this time last year, I was in Las Vegas for my birthday celebration. :)

Saturday, April 22, 2006

I caved! I asked for this as my birthday present this year:



And that's what I got today, from CompUSA. It's charging right now!

At the home stretch, I almost didn't get the pink - the sales associate had the pretty cobalt blue version too. But, my eye kept wandering back to the magenta one, so there you go! Due to rebates and such, it will end up being free, so now we're thinking of another present I could get. :)

We had a great time with our friends at breakfast this morning. Apparently, today does NOT count as a birthday get together, so that will be next Saturday at someone's house (other than ours, which is still on the market).

Tomorrow is the open house, from 1 - 4 p.m. Fingers and toes crossed that someone falls in love with it right away and makes an immediate offer. :)

Friday, April 21, 2006

You could tell me tonight
That maybe the world would end
That the sun wouldn’t rise
And it was gonna rain again
...
It’s gonna be a perfect day


Clay Aiken, Perfect Day
No news on the real estate front. No offers yet!

However, we do have a showing at 10:30-11:00 this morning. Looks like someone saw our house on Craigslist and is very interested. Let's hope they really like it and make an offer! That would be a very cool birthday present!

Apparently, I'm Kermit. :)

You Are Kermit
Hi, ho! Lovable and friendly, you get along well with everyone you know.You're a big thinker, and sometimes you over think life's problems.Don't worry - everyone know's it's not easy being green.Just remember, time's fun when you're having flies!

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

I was tagged! My good friend Becky T tagged my blog! :)

To return the favor, I want to chat it up about Becky. Ever since I met Becky online, it was like we'd been friends for all of our lives, even though we've never met in real life. She has a unique way of seeing the world, and always creates the most inspiring and motivating layouts. I'm very proud of all of her scrapbooking accomplishments and get a thrill seeing my friend's layouts in magazines. She makes it easy to get through every day at work - I don't know how I'd do it without her emails. You can't (and shouldn't) talk about everything at work, so she's a great confidante and listener.

Now, it' s my turn to tag someone. I am going to tag Diana! :) Yes, yes, I know you tagged me last week, and I will get those answers up. Might even get them up today! :)

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Well, it was a slow, (mostly) quiet weekend.

No showings on Saturday or Sunday. Guess the Easter weekend had something to do with that. I sure hope more people look at it next weekend, when we have our open house.

We went to the DMV, renewed our tags on our 2nd car, checked our mail, and my husband got a haircut. Then we had dinner with my brother-in-law and his girlfriend at a local restaurant. First time they'd been to our house - figured they should see it before we put it on the market. :)

This morning, we got up early and had breakfast with my mother-in-law, (same) brother-in-law, and his girlfriend. It was her birthday on Friday, and she also wanted to give me my birthday present. When we got home, I promptly conked out for a nap, I was so tired.

Spent the day resting, catching up on unwatched TiVo programs. Tomorrow's a new day!

Let's hope tomorrow brings more showings and potential offers. I really don't want the house to be on the market that long. It's stressful keeping it this clean. :D

Friday, April 14, 2006

Clean and Simple 2 is HERE! So is Tracy White's Photography book!

I just called my scrapbook store and they both just arrived in the store. My copies are set aside and I'll have them in my hot little hands by 6 p.m. this evening. :)

Nothing like a double whammy of idea books to get the juices stirred up for scrapbooking. I'm headed to an old favorite scrap store tonight, haven't been there in a while.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

UPDATE!

I can now officially let everyone know that I lost the election I was in. I was one of 5 candidates, and only 2 could win, so 2 other folks are disappointed too. I wasn't in last place, but by such a slim margin (2 votes), I consider it a tie.

I appreciate everyone's support. I had a day or two to "mourn" and now I'm moving on. I will still be attending my conference and it will show more than words can say that I'm still committed to be a leader in my profession to show up when I've lost. No hiding my head in the sand.

I haven't decided if I want to run next year or take a breather. It has been brought to my attention that as silly as it may seem, I may just be too young (less than 10 years in the organization, just less than 10 years in the profession) to be elected.
Whew! The house is on the market, officially!

Entered this morning, already showing up on the MLS websites and everything. My agent just has to make one fix - she put the 2004 property taxes (the land didn't have a house, much lower) instead of the 2005 taxes (house on land, much higher). Apparently the database didn't show 2005, but we have records to show what we paid.

In other news, the election results have still not been made official, so I still can't say anything publicly. ARGH! Get the official email out already! Better yet, get it up on the official website. :)

Wish us good luck for a speedy house sale. I really hate having to keep my house looking like a show home. :)

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Just had to post this review of the Queen concert before I head to bed.

OMG!

I just saw Queen (with Paul Rodgers) in concert. They ROCKED! I knew our seats were good, but I didn't realize how good they were...I was 20 feet from the stage, and probably 30 feet from Brian May at any given time (unless he was on the walkways).

My ears are still ringing. I *might* be able to hear again in the morning.

They even did Bohemian Rhapsody, by having a big screen behind them with Freddie Mercury in concert footage doing the song - that was spectacular!

Wow! I can honestly say that the ticket price was worth it, staying up past my bedtime was worth it (we're in bed by 10 p.m. Pacific, 5 a.m. comes early)...and the temporary hearing loss was worth it.

Off to bed now.....
WOOHOO!

We are attending the "Queen and Paul Rodgers" concert tonight. I'm so excited! We haven't been a concert since we saw Journey in September 2004. While we aren't on the floor, we are in very decent seats, the front row of our section, so we'll be far enough from speakers, but close enough to see the band.

I received the election results last night. Unfortunately, I cannot publicly reveal the results to any faithful blog readers until the results have been officially announced. While word seems to be trickling out here and there, nothing's final until the email is in my inbox.

Monday, April 10, 2006

Today's the day!

I am a candidate for an elected position in the professional organization that receives all my volunteer hours. I ran for the position of nominating committee. There were 5 candidates, and only 2 can be elected. Today's the day I find out if I was elected or not. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, as I ran in the same election last year (different position) and did not win. If it is anything like last year, if I am not elected, I will receive a call tomorrow. So if I don't get a call by this evening, I can probably assume I am not a winning candidate. That's how it worked last year.

If elected, I will step into my position at the upcoming conference in Las Vegas. I will still attend the conference even if I lose, as I am a presenter, but it would be nice to attend as an elected official. :)

Wish me luck!

In other news, the house is almost ready! We removed the showerhead extension and reinstalled the original showerhead (the original one assumes that both of us are MUCH taller than we are), steam cleaned the carpet in the front area, donated a truckload of stuff to the Salvation Army, and got closer to "stage" clean. What's left to do? Vacuum all carpets, clear the hall closet so it doesn't look so cluttered, wipe down the bathtub and shower surfaces, pick up clothes in the master bedroom closet, and make sure the kitty litter boxes are not overflowing.

On Saturday, I accomplished quite a bit. I did (11) 11x8.5 layouts, and one 2 page 12x12 layout (minus journaling). The 12x12 was for my best friend, pictures of her daughter's face over the years. The other 11 pages were for a "conference" album I'm going to take with me to Las Vegas. I am thinking I could also add pages for 2004 and 2003 in time for the conference.

Friday, April 07, 2006

Here are a couple of layouts I did for the digital design team at Treasures to Scrap. Valerie Fowler (ValGal) is the digital sponsor for April.

This one was done using Valerie's "Trying 2B Girly" kit, and the staples from her "Rustic Craft" kit.



This was one done using Valerie's "Days of Eden" kit.
WOOHOO! Happy Friday!

Tonight, my husband and I are heading over to a friend's house for a barbecue. Informal, casual, just getting together to catch up on each other's lives....kinda nice to have a kickback time in the midst of all the house madness.

We drove by our lot again yesterday. Nope, nothing has changed. :) Construction isn't even scheduled to start until at least June, but it's nice to drive around and point out our lot marker. Some of our friends have driven by to take a look.

Tomorrow, I'm going paper scrapping with my best friend. Don't know what time we're going, but we'll be scrapping for at least six hours. Guess I better upload some pictures to Costco so I have something to scrap! :)

On Sunday, we'll be fixing up all the little stuff in the house. The showerhead in the master bathroom, carpet cleaning all over, and painting any little spots that need a touchup.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

The paperwork is signed!

Our house officially goes on the market next Thursday. It was supposed to be tomorrow, but the yard folks won't be done until next Wednesday. It will show better to potential buyers without all the weeds and with some fresh barkdust. :)

In the meantime, I can slow down a bit and recover from this infection I seemed to pick up. I thought it was a sinus infection at first, but I think it has something to do with my mouth (the gums). I did have dental work done last week, so it is the first possibility to explore. I see the dentist tomorrow at 10:30. Let's hope it's a gum infection and not strep throat, which someone brought up at work today. I've never had strep, so I wouldn't know it if I did.

The scrapbook room is no more. Pretty much all I've got left is a computer desk w/hutch, a bookcase, and three stacked cubes. And my XXL tote...that's supposed to last me until we get into an apartment, which is after we have an accepted offer.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days!

Been busy trying to get the house packed and 'staged' and cleaned.

Tomorrow we sign the paperwork to put the house on the market for Thursday.

Wish us luck that it sells fast (priced right, good location, great view)... :)