Murphy's Law @ Work

I have the first installment of what I am going to call, Murphy's Law @ Work!

We all know who Murphy is, the guy who basically said if it can happen it will at the most inopportune time one could image, that guy. Well, he is at work all the time, here is my latest run in with him.

So, I am out of town on an overnight business trip and I packed relatively light, with TSA restrictions and baggage fees one night really did not warrant checking luggage. I am staying at a very nice hotel, I checked it out before hand and notice free wifi (love it and thank you) and the standard hair dryer and iron in every room. Sweet, perfect no problem then I can do my hair and all is right in the world. Not so fast, all was not right. Oh no, Mr. Murphy was hard at work.

That is right, he knew it was a big day for me. He also knew that I did not sleep very well the night before either (his doing I just know it, more on that later). When he saw the opportunity he struck, and not in a good way. I am getting ready for my very big day and I go to do my hair. Now the hair dryer was not a standard stuck to the wall hotel hair dryer since it wasn't on the vanity in plain sight. So, I figured it must be in the drawer, logical I realize that now but I was tired and to be honest stressing just a touch. I looked in the closet, since in Denver it was hanging in a nice bag marked Hair Dryer in gold stitching, but I did not see it. I did however find the iron, super I don't need the iron I need the hair dryer. I search some more and come up empty handed, I had no choice honestly. I picked up the phone and called the front desk and when the nice lady answered I said, "Hi, I am not sure if it is because I am tired, stressed, or blind but could you tell me where I might find the hair dryer in this room?" To which she promptly replied, "Well its in the closet behind the iron." I was dumb founded, thanked her for her time and hung up, walked to the closet. Yes sir, wouldn't you know it there it was, curled up nicely and tucked in the dark closet behind the iron.

I could not believe that Mr. Murphy could be so cruel, yes life lesson learned, always bring a flashlight and look behind the iron for the hair dryer. But seriously, it really made more stress for me than was necessary, funny none the less but seriously not so much all at the same time. In the end, my hair for the most part looked pretty good and my very big day went pretty fantastic. Still not liking Mr. Murphy but that part of the story will be for the next installment of Murphy's Law @ Work.

Things have been going pretty good here for the most part, stay tuned on that news. That is it for now, peace out!

My Dates Book

Yes it's true I finally finished my perpetual calendar. I really need to say that I am in love with every thing Tim Holtz and this calendar certainly proves that. Second, the Bind-it-All totally rocks, if you like to make books or albums then look into this tool--I agree with Tim it is a must have!

I created this perpetual calendar so that hubby and I could keep better track of birthdays, anniversaries and other yearly events that we tend to forget. Seeing that I now have a nice pattern for it I may make some of these as Christmas gifts.

Supplies, Materials and tools used:

Chipboard

Canvas paper by Canson

Bazzill Cardstock

Bind-it-All Oring (altered)

Bind-it-All

Dermal Tool--to distress the Oring

Provo Craft Alphaletterz

Spare Parts Silk Flowers

Ribbon

Spiral Clip

American Crafts Rubons

Archival Sepia Ink

Mica Magic Copper Ink

Stampin' Up! Calendar Stamp

Stampin' Up! Occasions Collection

Autumn Leaves Months Stamps

Studio G Month Stamps

Recollections Splat Stamps

WRMK Stamp Bunny

Personal Signature Stamp

MSE Sentiments Stamp

Tim Holtz

Ranger Distress Paper

Ranger Distress Inks

Ranger Distress Crackle Paint

Idea-ology Corners

Idea-ololgy Mask

This was a really fun project to make. I used pictures taken from each month to add a personal touch to each month, then put that with a piece of distressed notebook paper. I used the notebook paper to write all the important dates down. Matted with a piece of Bazzill cardstock and then added it to the canvas paper that was inked all up with yummy Distress Inks.

If you have any questions just let me know. I hope you enjoyed the project, until next time from the Bunny Hole, peace out!

Refresh!

I know it has been ages but here I am with a little update.

Health:

Well things are going much better lately. It took some time to get completely up to speed and back to work full time, but I am back! Once I had the endoscopy done and they determined it was only muscle spasms life got better--well and the medication helped too. So, still getting stronger and healthier, even am down to my lowest weight in years and feel darn good about it.

Work:

Well work has been crazy, as always with the fiscal year end. Not to mention the fact that the University of South Carolina Gamecock Baseball team won the World College Series so they are National Champs. I will say what a way to kick off the July 4th weekend. The annual AALL conference has come and gone, and as usual it was jammed packed. I will say Denver was AWESOME and getting to hang out at Mile High Stadium was very cool--I can punt a football almost 40 yards!! Enemy territory for sure, but what a blast. I already miss my colleagues from other schools, I so wish we could see each other more often than once a year. So, I guess it is time to look forward to Philly in 2011!

Play:

I already have my parking space and season tickets for Gamecock Football! I am so ready for some football! I have started using Twitter so I have been following a lot of Green Bay Packer related tweets and that has me so longing for kickoff. Thank goodness training camp is only a couple short weeks away. I have also been trying to scrap some, seems I took a little break for a while. I just finished my perpetual calendar book, and I have to say I love the Bind-It-All 2.0. I am also quickly becoming addicted to anything Tim Holtz, I find myself drooling on his website especially now since the CHA sneak peeks are showing up. I will say his embossing folders are so nice and leave such a great impression. Did I mention I cannot wait for my next scrappy trip with my peeps, yep watch out Lancaster, SC because we are coming!!

All else:

Not much else is new here, always busy it seems. The family is doing well, mom is having surgery on her foot again so hopefully this will fix it for good now. My brother is crazy as ever and the first chance I get I am going to go see him--hmmm maybe early August will have to look into that. Looking forward to a possible trip to Disney in October as well, should be fun, I so want to go to an amusement park and just be a kid!

Not much else to report, hopefully I will have some projects to post soon need to get my scrap on! So that is it from the bunny hole, peace!

One Month Out

So, it has been a crazy month since my surgery. I am getting stronger everyday, which is very good. I am also able to eat more which is good as well, however, I don't mind the size I am now! I want to thank everyone for their thoughts, prayers, cards, flowers, and chats--they have all helped me get through this difficult time. I go back to the doctor in a couple weeks so I should know then when I will be returning to work.

Lots of stuff has been going on, Mom went home--I wish she didn't have to but she really needed to have her foot fixed. That went well and now I am sure it is hard to stop her. Dad is talking about coming down to see me before I head back to work but that is still up in the air. Grams isn't doing all that well, so we are waiting on that. It is so hard to be this far away when stuff like this happens. Oh, and did I mention my in-laws are in Hawaii! They were in the process of being evacuated when they called. Other than all that--things are looking up.

I believe I may have finally found a new scrappy home--almost a full year after the collapse of my former scrappy home. Thanks to Nutter I found this place and last night had an absolute blast chatting it up with everyone. Seems like such a fun group, those scrap gals really know how to make a girl feel welcome.

I am actually scrapping right now, so hopefully the next post will be full of scrappy goodness (a girl can dream!) Again thanks to everyone for everything! Well that's it for now, peace out from the Bunny Hole!

My Health!!

I guess I best update everyone as to what has been going on with me health wise for the last couple of months. And it is probably best to start from the beginning.

In June I started experiencing some stomach issues, I figured it was due to the stress of all the budgeting things going on at work combined with my Fibryomyalgia. The problems continued into July which I then attributed to year end stress and my two almost back to back trips. Things never really got better and they really started getting bad over November and December. I tried a few over the counter things the first of the year and when they did not ease my discomfort I finally made a doctor's appointment.

At my doctor's appointment my doctor took one look at my abdomen and ordered an Ultra Sound on the spot. She initially thought it was Fibroid Uterus, and set up an appointment with an OB-GYN. My initial appointment was Friday, January 8th. I received a call from my doctor's office and the radiologist ordered a CT scan of my abdomen that Monday, January 11th. The CT scan was done and the next day I was meeting with the OB-GYN. At this appointment my hubby and I were told that there was a 21 cm or 8 inch bowling ball sized tumor on one of my ovaries. They did a blood test to check for cancer and we set up the operation to be done January 26th, the Tuesday after my scrapbook retreat. We waited three long days for the blood tests, which came back as negative for Cancer--much to our relief. Fast forward another week.

I had my pre-op appointment on January 25th, and then went to the airport to pick my mom up. The 26th I was at the hospital at 6 a.m. for my surgery. We knew what the worse case scenario would be, other than cancer would be a full hysterectomy. The surgery was scheduled to take about a half an hour. Well, about an hour or so in they moved mom and hubby from the main waiting room and told them that the O.R. cancer screening was inconclusive and that they would be taking both ovaries and my uterus. This was very scary for them, as they were told if it was cancer I would be immediately started on Chemo. The entire operation took over two hours. I came too and just knew that all my girl parts were gone, this is very sad for me but the upside is that I am alive and the rest can be worked through. We waited one full day, much better then the original three days to hear the two best words, NO CANCER. This still makes me cry, and I know all my family and friends waiting for the results did a collective sigh of relief on the 27th of January at 4:50 est. I would like to thank all my friends and family for all their thoughts, prayers, and positive vibes it has helped me and my husband deal with this situation more than anyone will ever know. I also want to thank my doctors and nurses for their care and compassion, I had the best team possible taking care of me and for that I will be forever grateful.

I was able to come home from the hospital on the 29th of January, and let me tell you my dogs and cats were more than elated to see me. I probably have two dozen staples going from my belly button to my pubic bone, actually looks like a zipper. The incision is so large because of the size of my tumor. The main tumor was about 25 cm across, and the CT scan only showed what the doctor called "the tip of the iceberg." The main tumor had encased my one ovary, and from that tumor another tumor the size of a nice sized cantaloupe was growing. In all the tumors weighed 6 1/2 pounds, and was full of a mucus like material. But again the biggest blessing was that there was no cancer.

So, now I am home and on the road to recovery. I will be home on medical leave for the next four to six weeks. I will be working from home some, but will mostly be concentrating on getting my strength and health back. My inners were so squished that it is going to take some time for my systems to fully recover, but they will recover. I go in on February 2nd to have the staples removed and for a check up. I have a long road ahead of me but I know that I can do this.

There y'all have it. Scary I know but it has turned out so much better than it could have. I try not to dwell on what could have been or on what I will lose out on, my life is more important than any of that and I am focusing on that. Please remember my parents, siblings and husband in your prayers, as they need as much strength as I do to get through all of this. I am thankful to all my friends and family for their support. I will do my best to keep everyone updated on my recovery, I may even post some before and after pictures (I know I will be scrapping this one for sure.) I want to add, for those of you who are dealing with cancer in some way my thoughts and prayers are with you, I may not have had cancer but I know what it means to survive and that is the best gift your family and friends will ever have. So keep fighting, someday a cure will be found, until then stay strong and remember I will always be in your corner.

With heartfelt thanks and bunny hugs peace out from the Bunny Hole.

2009 Recap!

Well 2009 has come and gone and I guess in the grand scheme of things it was an alright year.

I got a lot of scrapping done and even have my scrappy hole in pretty good order. I love looking around the room and seeing all the colors. I have made some new scrappy friends and look forward to cropping with them in the near future. I have also branched out and tried some new things. My favorite scrappy community decided to ditch the community all together so I really do not have a scrappy cyber home. I really miss all the fun we had, the late night chats and the cyber crops, hopefully in 2010 I will be able to fill this void.

I was able to go up and visit my parents and family twice this year. Once in July when I showed up and surprised my mom on her birthday. That was the best, sneaking through the house talking to her on my cell phone. The look on her face when she saw me standing in her bedroom door talking to her on the phone was priceless. And I do believe she even lovingly called ma a little sh*t! Dad and I got her for sure. On this visit I was able to attend my Grandma's 90th birthday party as well as see cousins and family I have not seen in years. It was really nice reconnecting with them. The second time was in September, no surprising anyone that time. The purpose of my visit was strictly football, Green Bay Packer Football that is. Dad and I went to the season opener against the Bears, what fun it was to win in the last seconds of the game--whoo hoo go Pack go! I was also able to participate in the Second Annual Poo's Ride for Autism. The 100 mile loop was a beautiful drive, I had a lot of fun. So totally different then the other Poker run I had been on.

I was able to enjoy another season of Gamecock Football. My friend Sam and I went to all the home games, we have so much fun tailgating and people watching. Ok, not all the home games, she missed the first one, and I sold the Clemson game tickets, but otherwise. I was able to get different seats this season so I moved across the field to the home side, hurray!! I will say it is odd yelling Game instead of Cocks at the game! LOL My seats are pretty good, not far from my parking spot, and the family that sits with is AWESOME. Its Grandparents and their two grandchildren. The Grandma reminds me of mom when she is watching football, hearing "take his head off" brought back so many memories. The Gamecocks had a pretty good season, we were so close to beating Florida and Alabama we could taste it. The Florida game was just CRAZY too, and it was the only loss at home all season. We even BEAT Clemson this year!! Bowl bound we were, to the PapaJohns.com Bowl (seriously). Too bad we didn't show up for this game, reminded me the game against Arkansas--you have to show up to win boys. But, beating Clemson in the Palmetto Bowl works for me. So, here is 2010 may it be the year of the Gamecocks in the SEC!!

I had another wonderful information filled time at AALL in Washington DC this year, and again met a lot of wonderful fun librarians. (Honestly we are a crazy bunch in large groups, trust me!) The first night I was at the right place at the right time for supper, as I was able to enjoy networking with some Directors (rubbing elbows with the big wigs). Who knew that the Director of the Duke Law Library was from Marshfield, Wisconsin and a huge Packer fan? I know crazy. We had lots of fun, sitting on the bench outside the hotel people watching was a good time. The West party was again way fun, and way to short, so afterwards I went with some friends to a Salsa club, very fun. Let's just say the Cab Driver was not enthused when I asked him if he was going to ask us general knowledge questions on the way back to the hotel. Cash Cab it was not, and he was no Ben Bailey, I will say maybe that last Limon and 7 was NOT the best idea. The closing party, was somewhat of a drag! The band was horrible, everything they played was at least two beats too slow--we are librarians not little old people walking with canes and walkers (this statement is in no way meant to be mean towards this group of people). Needless to say, when a room full of librarians are heckling you that is not a good sign. At least the music they put on during their brake was something we could dance to, and we did.

What else, oh I went to the NinJa Concert with my friend Bev this summer. Hottest day of the year but we did not care Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction was well worth every bead of sweat. We went for her birthday, surprised her with better seats then she thought she was paying for. It was an AWESOME show, my third time seeing NIN but my first seeing Jane's and it was so cool. I didn't think I would get to see them since they had broken up, but the original band was together for this tour. It was so awesome! Hubby and I and another couple also went and saw Steven Lynch who is a signing comedian, omg FUNNY! We had a great time and hopefully we can do something like that again real soon.

Other than that not much has been going on, I know I am looking forward to 2010 and all it has in store for me and my family. I hope that you and yours have a wonderful 2010 as well.

I will try to update a little more often and post some creations. For now, peace from the Bunny Hole.

Football Season--Finally

First I want to say bad bunny on the blog posting, but hey life got real busy when September hit.

Yes it is my very favorite season of the year--Football Season!!! Real women love football, the rest of y'all stay in the kitchen!!! With that said I got to start out the 2009 Football season in absolute style.

Week One, Sunday Night Football, Lambeau Field, Green Bay, Wisconsin the Packers beat the Chicago Bears and I WAS THERE!! I could not talk for almost a whole week after that game, but sometimes winning the game means losing your voice!!! That was a rule I lived by, the last 2.5 minutes of that game I screamed, I hollered, I yelled, and I cheered. I am going to say that was the best ending to a football game ever, at least for me being at live. I mean really, if you watched it you get it, if you were there you know it!! Dad and I had a blast and an opening night win totally rocked!!! Go Pack Go!! More Packer Football to follow.

Week Three, Saturday Night, Williams Brice Stadium season opener, Columbia, South Carolina the University of South Carolina Gamecocks beat the Florida Atlantic Owls and I WAS THERE!!! What a fun game too, I am going to say that Carolina has the best entrance in College Ball, honestly. There is nothing like 2001 blaring, the smoke billowing, Cocky, the cheerleaders, the band, and then the team runs out it is so awesome. It may not have been a pretty game but it was a win, so Go Gamecocks!!!

So, you may have noticed that I have put the fan back in fanatic when it comes to my teams. I watch all the Packer games even though I live in South Carolina and I am lucky enough to have tickets to see the Gamecocks. I have to say 83,000 people is crazy, and the Student Section is insane (one of these days I may try to sit over there, lol) when they jump you can feel them in my seats!! Oh and my new seats this year ROCK!

How are my teams doing you may ask, well, the Gamecocks broke into the top 25 this week after their win over SC State. Let me say the week before that we the unranked Carolina Gamecocks beat number 4 Ole Miss, and that game was crazy. I can honestly say I have never been to a louder game, and the ending was pretty similar to the Packers Bears game I was at. This week we are at home again to face Kentucky--tailgating is breakfast biscuits with coffee. More to come!! So we are 4-1 for the season and 1-1 in the SEC, the toughest Division in College Ball.

My Packers are 2-2 going into the bye week. We are banged up and are showing some gaps. We cannot let our Quarterback get sacked 8 times in a game, even if half of them are his fault. The loss to the Bengals was horrible, we had Chad Johnson (sorry there is only one 85 in my NFL) for the most part all day. Speaking of my 85 can you show the man the ball? But then again our receivers have been having the drops, basically our Offense is offensive. I could go into a big huge rant right now but I need to be cautious as the open wounds of Monday night are still fresh and burning from the salt. I think ESPN needs to check what a football game is, can someone please send them the link to Webster's Dictionary? I mean honestly, by the time the game started I had the feeling that there was only one team playing and well frankly only one person, make me throw up. Did they really think WE the Cheese Head Faithful needed reminding of what the history is, was, and always will be there? Get a grip, you didn't show that man that much love any other time of his career--I remember I have been there. Okay, that little soap box is gone. But I said don't get me started. If you would like to discuss this more leave a comment.

I will say, that I have been having a lot of fun during the game chatting with the guys at CheeseheadTV before during and after the games. There is a live chat as well as a live blog and we have fun win or lose. One word of caution, shots on Monday night not always good for Tuesday morning, but I was to work on time. Thanks guys, looking forward to the next game.

So, if I am MIA or have nothing what so ever to share that is scrap book related you now know why. I will at least attempt to do some football blogging, I will be sure to behave, I will leave all the bad words out. I will also try to get some pictures up. Until next time Go Packers!! Go Gamecocks!!! Stay safe and have fun, peace out from the Bunny Hole.

It's been CRAZY

First sorry its been so long, but things have been crazy since I got back from my mom and dads. The AALL Annual Meeting and Conference was held the end of July in D.C., so that kept me busy getting ready to go, going, and then coming back. The Law students are also back to school so we were dealing with that at work. I also have another trip planned to go to a Green Bay Packer game the middle of September, and then there is Gamecock Football starting. I am so ready for some football. I am happy to say that even though I have been very busy I have had time to scrap. And I have been having a blast using my favorite line of paper--BasicGrey. I just love everything about this paper, and so I thought I would share with you some projects created using the various lines of BasicGrey, so here they are.

Lienie--this was created thanks to a good friend of mine who sent me all these wonderful BasicGrey Scraps, yes all scraps were used for this out of the Periphery line. With some help from the Cricut and a sketch from 52 Sketches I really like how it turned out, added some Primas to bring out the girly girl nature I wanted in this page.

Don't go OVERBOARD--this was done for a challenge at a scrappy site. The layout had to have orange and light blue as well as a quote. So, I cut into my Lime Rickey collection and with the help of my Cricut and Life's a Beach Cart I really like how this turned out. The title is my quote and putting it in the waves helps the letters come off the page as if they were falling out of the boat. I still need to add the journaling which will be on the light blue circle under the life ring.

90& Fabulous--I love this picture of my uncle pinning on my grandma's flowers at her 90th birthday party. The Lemonade line is perfect for this picture as it shows the softness of the moment, the stitching was done with a Bazzill Stitchz template and embroidery floss. I used Graphically Speaking for all the flower layers and the title.

Well that's about it, stay safe and have fun. Peace out from the Bunny Hole!

Life can be full of F words!

Get your mind out of the gutters!  I am talking Fiscal Close, Family, Friends, and Facebook--sheesh you people.  Warning not much scrappy here!  

Life has been pretty hectic with the end of the Fiscal Year and all the work that is necessary for that.  I can honestly say I never thought that becoming a librarian would require me to do math, not my favorite subject, but become and acquisition's librarian and well I live in numbers.  In fact this year I felt like Scrat, the little squirrel in Ice Age.  I tell you when $.07 yes seven cents has you all tweaked out, trust me you know what exactly how he feels about that dang acorn.  But, its all worked out so whoop whoop for me and my team!

On to Family.  My mom's birthday was last week and I really wanted to do something nice for her, so I did.  I surprised her by showing up at her house on her birthday.  It was great fun to surprise her like that.  Only a hand full of people knew I was going to be up that way, didn't want the cat to get out of the bag, and so I was off.  My dad picked me up at the airport where we devised the rest of our scheme.  I had a plan and just needed to get him in on it.  I needed a balloon and a bow, he needed a card.  On to the store, no worries, all three attained.  Then it was on to the house.  Dad went in and I waited a little while and then called mom.  I wished her a happy birthday, asked if she got her card, and then asked if her present was there.  Hee hee, I can be so devilish at times.  She was like no but I haven't looked, and we were talking.  At one point she asked me if I was at home and I was like, hum, nope at work just wanted to call.  Did I mention I was walking in the back door of my childhood home, lol.  So, in the short, she was greatly surprised to see that her present had arrived, right on time.  She even called me a little shoot, lol, and said something about cell phones.  

Friends and Facebook actually go hand in hand.  I just gotta say that I am so glad that I checked the graduating class ahead of me from high school because I finally found a friend I had been hoping to find for a while.  But wait it gets better, she only lives 3 yes 3 hours away, I am so stoked.  I have not seen her since like 1996 I mean, wow!!  Crazy, I know.  So its been a great thing catching up with her, now just to find time to get together.  

I can say Facebook is a beautiful thing, its also allowing me to stay in contact with my cousins better--it was great seeing them all while I was at my parent's.  We had a great visit at Grandma's 90th birthday, and I just need to add, elderly say the darnedest things.   I also got to see some good friends, missed one but she knows I will get her next time.  And until then keep fighting like a girl, we are all here for you.

Other than that just gearing up for AALL this next week.  It will be nice to see colleagues I have only emailed with over the last year or so.  I am also excited about going to the Library of Congress--I truly am a nerd, but I am ok with that.  It will be a full hectic week, but I am up for the challenge.  Well, that's it from the bunny hole for now, peace out!

Sketches Anyone?

I absolutely love sketches, creating them, using them, changing them, and they can be down right handy when preparing for a crop.  So, I am always on the look out for new sketch sites, and well with the help of Picnic I found a super place for sketches, the blog 52 sketches.  I was really on the look out because I was getting ready for a benefit crop I attended last weekend.  It was a great crop too, more on that later.  Anyway, I wanted to scrap the group picture I have from the Acoustic Lunch that Jayne and I went to one afternoon, and since it was such a fun crazy thing I thought the page needed some of that attitude too.   And 52 sketches had it, number 23, with a flip of the design it was perfect.

What do you think?

Here is a close up of the Grunge Board skull with I painted with Smooch, I just need to say I love this stuff.  The circles and the title were cut out of the Black Magic Coordinates paper, it is black on top and red underneath, I love the effect it gives when all distressed--done with sand paper.d

I used the Cricut Indie Art cart to cut the barbed wire, the silver paper was a little difficult only because the color was like a film over the paper so, next time I will use some Bazzill most likely, but I have had this forever and just wanted to use it.  

 

Materials for "With the Band"

Bazzill Card stock

Coordinates Card stock

Karen Foster Pattern Paper

Love Elsie Pattern Paper

Silver Paper unknown

Cricut Expression--Indie Art, Wild Card (circles), Lyrical Letters

Me & My Big Ideas Bling

Making Memories Sandpaper Block

Zig Millennium Journaling Pen

Grunge Board

Smooch

Good times for sure.  

Oh and the crop, the crop was a lot of fun.  I got a total of eight pages done, which for me is good.  I was just shy of my 10 page goal, but man was I tired.  The crop raised money and brought in a lot of non perishable foods for Harvest Hope Food Bank, which is good.  I made some new scrappy friends, so hopefully we will be able to get together soon and get our scrap on. 

Not much else, the Fiscal Year End was this past week, we have a few things to get done and then we will do our annual roll over in our system.  It was a pretty crazy week, working with numbers and making sure we were balanced to the penny--trying to find 7 cents in a 16 page invoice can get a touch nerve racking, but it was found.  I have also already started getting things in place for the coming fiscal year, so this way things can transition smoothly.  I learned a lot this past year with the budget cuts and all so I am looking forward to another year or challenges, growth, and perseverance. 

Seeing that its the 4th of July, I think I will celebrate my freedom by scrapping some and thing going for a swim.  Have a great and safe holiday, from the Bunny Hole, peace out!

Hop Along on the OOTF Blog Hop#2

Hop on over!!

Well if you are hoping along today with OOTF then you got here by way of Fink-hugs girl, miss you! 

June is a crazy month for us when it comes to birthdays and other events, in fact June has five birthdays, one anniversary, and Father's Day, so I have been, well more like need to be, a card making fool.  I can say if it weren't for my Expression and Wild Card Cart this month would be just about impossible.  I do not work for the company but I will say that this Cart is a MUST!!  

I made this card for my grandmother who turns 90 at the end of this month.  

I remember when I was little and growing up she had a few owls throughout the house.  So when I saw this card on Wild Card I knew it would be perfect for Grans!

 

Materials:

Card Stock--DCWV and Paper Studio

Inks--Colorbox Fluid Chalk and Pigment Ink, Stampin' UP! Classic ink

Pens--Gelly Roll Glitter Pens (out lining a few places such as the tree trunk, tree greenery, and the feathers), Glaze Pen (inside of the eyes and beak)

Miscellaneous--Diamond Glaze (beak), Doodlebug Jewels (eyes), Making Memories sander

Cricut Expression and Wild Card Cartridge (5")

This was such an easy card to put together and I think distressing it really made it look a little more authentic.  Quick and easy is perfect when you have so many cards to make and so little time!

Well thanks for hopping on over, now please hop on over to CutTheScrap's (aka Cutter) blog and see what kind of eye candy she has for you.

That's it from the Bunny Hole, enjoy the hop!  Peace Out!

Long time no posts

Yeah sorry about that, life gets a little crazy this time of year for me.  Coming into the last stretch of a crazy budget year is a little more stressful then just a regular budget year.  So yeah if I start busting into random numbers and equations attempting to find the percentage increase or decrease of an item don't worry its totally normal.  Now if by chance I then give a predication as to what I think the cost will be next year at this time based on an average of years past be afraid be very afraid!  Yes, this means that I am not only doing math but I am doing serious math.  Who knew that my job as a librarian would require me to do so much math, thank you UW-LaX for making me take Statistics most appreciated.

Ok, onto other stuff.  Mom and dad made it home safe and  healthy from Mexico the day before Mother's Day, whoo hoo!  Yes very excited about that.  Haven't heard much about the trip will need to get some details and hopefully some pictures soon.  They did come home to some craziness however.  While they were out there was a forest fire behind the house, yes a forest fire!!  The fire department thinks an arc caused it, the power lines go through there.  Luckily it went north and not south and no one was hurt.  My sister luckily caught a glimpse of it and called the fire department.  I guess three fire departments responded due to the size of the blaze, yikes!  Again waiting on pictures.  But like I said no one was hurt and the houses are fine.

Scrappy wise I am gearing up to go to a benefit crop the end of June.  The crop is to benefit the Harvest Hope Food Bank so its for a good cause.  I will most likely will not be able to get there until after 4 the day it starts but its all good, three days of scrappy goodness is going to be needed!  It will be a great little de-stressor before the final fiscal push!  LOL that sounds so funny now that I typed it, anyway.  I have been scrapping away, I have 2 of 3 Father's Day cards done, 1 of 5 June Birthday cards done, and still need to work on one Anniversary card and 2 July Birthdays.  Ok, now I feel a little overwhelmed, lol, this looks like a job for Cricut!!  Love my bug, I am going to put a plug in for a couple of cartridges that I think are must haves, especially if you have difficulty with cards--Wild Card and Lyrical Letter!  Seriously, with these two carts you will never have to worry about another card again.  

I will leave you with a Birthday card I made for our 

nephew who will be 7 in June.  I used only the Cricut Wild Card Cartridge for this and cardstock (Colorbox)

This little monster is so perfect I think for a little boy.  Wild Card cut the card, candle, and cake slice so I

didn't have to change a cart once.  The card is cut at 5" as is the candle, the cake is cut at 2.5" i believe.  

The cake is covered with Fun Flock to make it more cake like, and the icing is done with Stickles, this was so fun to do and it looks so cool in person.  The Candle was covered in Diamond Glaze to give it the waxy appearance and then the flame was colored using my Smooch--whose got the Smooch, baby!  Love this stuff, my fav new product.  The inside reads: "Add another Candle! It's your Birthday!"

Oh, and the envelope for this card is too dang cute.

Next Outta This Funk Blog Hop is coming June 6th!  That's it from the Bunny Hole, peace!

Odds & Ends

Hi all, oh and I do believe the parents are home from Mexico, not sick and home.  

I didn't do much this weekend, Saturday I cleaned and ran my errands so I wouldn't have to leave the house on Sunday which was awesome.  Sunday was Mother's Day--happy Mother's Day!--so I decided it would be a PJ day as well as a scrap day.  So, I scrapped.  I found a great sketch challenge over at October Afternoon -- love their paper!-- so I had to play along, here it is:

Materials all Scraps

Bazzill

DCWV

October Afternoon--Detours

Colorbox Fluid Chalk

LePlume Pen

Hand Journaling

I also created a couple of cute pages this weekend, all done somewhat on the fly--no plan, which is very tough for me, but I will share those at a later date.   I want to keep all y'all in suspense so you will stop by and visit me again.

Not much new here, looking forward to a visit from the in-laws this coming weekend.  That means that hopefully, fingers crossed, that we will be going out for some Sushi!  I am in desperate need of a Dragon Roll!  Well, I guess that's it for now, peace out from the Bunny Hole!

Happy National Scrapbook Day!!

It's a scrappy holiday, whooo hooo!  Can you believe it, it is true there really is a National Scrapbook Day, and today is it!  If you have to ask you don't know me to well, yes I am scrapping!  Last night was the first every cyber crop over at OOTF and I am working on the challenges.  I did run into the scrappy store (stamping bella addiction) and mikes--had to return that trimmer.  I am so looking forward to a fun day of scrapping and probably some chatting with the girls.  

I wanted to share a card I made for my Nephew, he turns 8 next week, so here it is.

Materials:

Scraps of course--all Bazzill

Cricut Life's a Beach

Stamps by The Cat's Pajamas

Ink by Colorbox

Inside the card reads: "Shiver Me Timbers, It Be Yer Birthday!"

I almost forgot, the winner of my blog hop rak was Shellie!!  Girl I will get a little something out to you this week.  Thank you to everyone who left a comment, first time ever I have seen that many comments, so thank you again.  The hop was a lot of fun and I look forward to the next one.

Oh, still no word on the parents, but the wedding is today I believe so hopefully they will be home soon.  Sheesh.

Catch all y'all on the flip side, peace out from the Bunny Hole!

So, when do I freak?

Let me give you some background.  Friday night my mom calls to let me know that her and dad leave in the morning to go to Mexico for a couple weeks.  Oh, thanks for letting me know didn't know they were going, so good to know!  Saturday I get up open my Yahoo page and notice that there is a crazy little thing called the Swine Flu going on in Mexico and people have died.  Did I mention my dad is a transplant survivor?  I didn't?  Yeah, so there we get to my question of so, when do I freak?

I called my sister, she doesn't know how to get a hold of them, wth, seriously?  Ok, I will try their cell on the off chance that they not only have service in Mexico but that they have the phone on, yeah not so much.  So, do I try to find my aunt's number to see where they are and call?  Oh, right forgot, my cousin is getting married there next weekend so like a ton of people are suppose to be there--yeah no worries right?  I am stuck.  I am worried about my dad, this cannot be good.  

Now I read that they are saying all unnecessary travel to Mexico should be avoided, well crap they are already there.  This so got issued two days and a few hundred dollars short.  I am more than freaking out.  What if they don't let them back in to the States?  What if the wedding party (bride is in Mexico already too) isn't allowed to go to Mexico?  Man, my mind is working overtime I tell you.  Again, with the question so, when do I freak? 

I know, freaking out is not going to  make the situation even better, but what am I suppose to do?  Seriously, what would you do?  Because this bunny is stumped and about FREAKED OUT.  I guess I will have to wait for my sister to call me, she better call me, so I can talk to her.  I am not the only one worried about this am I?   CALGON TAKE ME AWAY!!!

Will keep all y'all posted, fingers crossed and good thoughts.  Peace out from the Bunny Hole.

Come and hop with me and OOTF!!

That's right, this is just one hop on the first ever OOTF blog hop.  Be sure to hop to all the other OOTF Community member blogs and check out all the eye candy.  These are such talented scrappers you are sure to get some inspiration.

I have had this Bella stamp for months now and I finally inked it, and I am in love!  Again I looked through my stash of scraps to find the perfect pp to go with this cute little stamp.  And since I love the color combo of pink and green I had to go with it.  Love this Fairest of Them All line from Imaginisce, add some ribbon (nutter inspired), a little bling on a Prima and its a very girly card.  I colored in my Bella with my Prisma Color Pencils, I so need to use these more often, also added a touch of fun with my glaze pens.

Thanks for peeking.  I will be drawing a random winner from all who post a comment and sending out a rack later this week.  Now hop on over to one of the sweetest most fun and fabulous scrappers I have ever had the pleasure of meeting Miss Teri at A bit of this. A bit of that. she is sure to inspire you!  Enjoy the hop everyone.  

Peace out from the Bunny Hole!

Use those Scraps

If you are a scrapper like me you have scraps all over the place.  I don't like to part with my scraps because I know I can use them.  Usually my pattern paper scraps gets used for cards, its a great way to use up those scraps of all that fun paper you didn't want to cut in the first place.  Seeing that it was my older sister's birthday this week I created a card for her using scraps of BasicGrey Urban Prairie, its such a yummy line.  

Materials:

Bazzill Cardstock, BasicGrey Urban Prairie pp, BasicGrey Grow-a-Garden Stamps, Studio G Stamps, Scrappy Cat Font(Timbres Clair) Stamps, Stampin' Up! Ink, Me & My Big Ideas Bling

Use those scraps!!  Even the little bitty ones come in handy from time to time.  Until next time, that's it from the Bunny Hole

Some recent work

I just wanted to share a couple layouts that I have done recently.  Both of them are using BasicGrey Urban Prairie papers, so yummy, and both of them are from the same sketch that I came up with, just a different twist for both.  

 This is one of the pictures from my photo shoot in Utah.  Love how all the pictures turned out.  Prima flowers and Bazzill Stitchz template along with the Robin's Nest blobs and some fun bling brad really make this page fun.  Have to say thank you to the Cricut for some title help.

 This is a picture of my older brother, some crazy clown and myself at Opryland when I was like four.  Bazzill Chipboard helped add some dimension as did the Prima flowers and all the fun bling.  Again the Cricut sure did help with the title.

Thanks for looking!

Seriously?

Ok, its been a while, and I had to calm down before I even attempted to post this. But I am more than a little upset, I am downright mad.

Many of you know that for the last few years I have been a VERY active member of a (what I thought) was a great scrappy cyber home. Well that all came to a crashing halt this week. No, all of us ladies didn't finally let the drama happen or anything like that. Nope, CX themselves decided to pull the plug. They say it all messed up when they went to change servers, and since it was beyond repair they decided to just end it, right then and there. They didn't even have the decency to contact the design team, nope if you got a Newsletter you found out in a little blurb on the side.

I know I am not the only one who feels betrayed and very let down. We had a little family there, a group of people who laughed together, cried together, and genuinely cared about others. I can say I am glad that that will not end, oh no it won't. We are slowly moving to OOTF, Outta this Funk,! Which seems only fitting considering it is former CX DT members that created this wonderfully inspiring place. So, if you are a former member of the afore mentioned community and you feel lost, come on over to OOTF, they have rolled out the welcome mat!!

Can I just add, that the least THEY could have done was give us some time in the archives to maybe find some contact information and other items that could have been in there. The archives were up and running along with the chat room until they decided to pull the plug completely. I will add, their thank you to me irritates me. I didn't do it for the company, I did it for my family of scrappers, because we had fun and I wanted to.

Ok, I promise not to be such a stranger. Happy Scrappin'

Due to Budget Cuts

Can I just say that I HATE that phrase, especially when I have to use it.  Today I had to do something I was hoping I would never have to do, I had to let a part-time employee go due to the budget.  Totally sucked, but she is gracious and understanding, and she is already retired, just wanted a part-time job.  But when they get rid of Adjunct Faculty she was on the list too.  Did I mention this totally sucked?  Not only did I have to tell her, but I had to inform my staff, one of which I still need to inform because she went home sick.  Too bad too, because she is one that will be the most directly effected by this decision.  Looks like more work for all of us.  I tried to keep her, I really did, but there was nothing I could do, totally and completely SUCKS!!!  I can honestly say I hope that I NEVER EVER have to do that again.

Other than that I have been working feverishly on the baby gifts for Saturday's Baby Shower.  I am so excited, I have both albums done--whoo hoo!!!  Just some finishing touches to both, make a card and the gift bag and life is good.  Thank goodness too, because I have so much other stuff that I need to do between now and well for the most part the 15th.

I need to make 60 Christmas Tags and stamp them for the kid's stockings.  I am hoping that we can stamp them at work, they won't all be the same but they will all be stamped.  Too bad I cannot bring the Bug to work, because then we would make them all right there.  I also need to make three gift card holder cards, have no idea what I am going to do this year, but hopefully something will come to me quick.  I also want to make Christmas Cards for everyone at work, which is about 30 people, YIKES, hopefully I will at least get my department done this weekend in time for the Christmas Party.  I also need to get cards made for family as well as get some gifts for the niece and nephews, one hopes I can do a good job.  Oh, and I got my first assignment for OOTF, and well that is due by the 15th.  And then there is everything else.

My wedding anniversary is on the 10th, whoo hoo!!  We will be celebrating 10 years, how crazy is that.  I have been working about 50 hours a week, I have meetings, and projects I am working on, I would really like to scrap for me, and to actually enjoy watching a football game.  Calgon and Mr. Bacardi take me away to a special place.  Seriously, this is one stressed out Bunny.  

I can say, that it has to get better, hopefully it cannot get much worse--but don't quote me on that because, well, where is that wood I should be knocking on?  Thanks for letting me vent, not that I feel any better about the day, but at least I got that off my chest.  Well, I will post the albums and such when I get everything done.  That's it from now from the Bunny Hole, peace!