Greetings from....: December 2006

If you're home on New Year's Eve

.. Check out DST's Rockin' New Years Party! There should be lots of fun and prizes! :) Fun starts at 9 pm EST.

December in Review

Here's my last month in review page for 2006! I really want to keep these up for 2007. I am going to miss the Chick's Life. I used Correen Silke's gorgeous Christmas Confection kit from SBB. Alphas by Jen Wilson. And based on a sketch by Becky Higgens, aka, my hero.

Warning this is gross!!!

I have the freakiest eye infection. It started Friday when I had this pain in my eye like someone punched me. Then I noticed the swelling in my lower lid. Then yesterday it was a little icky and puffier... Don't look if you have a weak stomach...

It's not itchy or red, which is usually what I get from allergies, and there is a white bump on the inner lid. I know - GROSS - but I'm sharing in case anyone has every seen anything like this. Being a holiday weekend I can't really get to a doctor and I need to work tonight. It's mostly just annoying and I can't stay on the computer long since my eye gets tired.

37-10

That's the score of Rutgers game against Kansas State in the Texas Bowl!!!!! And even though it's not a BCS bowl, it's still super cool because it's Rutgers FIRST bowl win and only the 2nd time they've played in one! It's just too great to finally see & feel some football spirit because RU has been such a laughing stock. New Jersey will be celebrating like crazy tonight! :)

We're not the only ones!

So we're not the only ones in my family who dress up the pets for Christmas. Here are some of the new additions to our family. My aunt gave me some pictures of the horses down at my aunt and uncle's farm. I haven't had a chance to go down there yet, but aren't they gorgeous! :) There are four of them - King, Lakota, Blaze and something else I can't remember LOL!

Homer's neighbor

So I don't really remember Gerald Ford as president, considering he was just in office a few more months after I was born. But I did love him on The Simpsons! I've read different things about whether he did the voice or if it was Dan Castellaneta. In the season 7 episode, Two Bad Neighbors, which happens to be one of my all time faves, Ford moves in next door after the Bushes move out...

From the Simpsons Archive...

Gerry: Hi!  Pleased to meet you, I just moved in.
My name is Gerry Ford.
Homer: [gasps] Former President Gerald Ford?
Put her there!  I'm Homer Simpson!
Gerry: Say, Homer, do you like football?
Homer: Do I ever!
Gerry: Do you like nachos?
Homer: Yes, Mr. Ford.
Gerry: Well, why don't you come over and watch
the game, and we'll have nachos?  And then, some beer.
Homer: Ooh!
     [they walk across the street]
    Gerry, I think you and I are going to get
    along just --
     [they both trip]
Both: D'oh!

Here's a clip from Google video. :)

Hope it was a good one! :)

So how did Santa treat you this Christmas??? I have had a great weekend - a little crazy, but still a bit laid back.
Saturday was the party at Michelle's. I thought it was just going to be a few of Randi's friends, but there were a lot of people, so I didn't feel too bad. There was lots of great food, and I had brought a cinnamon appletini bucket that was really good. (Have you seen these booze bucket mixes at Target? Love them for parties!) I wanted to steal their dog!!!!

On Christmas Eve, we went to see the Pursuit of Happyness during the day. Will Smith's son Jayden is just the cutest! It was pretty good - a little long and so sad, but it all works out and leaves you feeling warm and fuzzy. :) Then there was dinner at my dad's house, and coffee and dessert at my mom's friend's house.

How cute are my nieces dancing??? My dad has a dancing Santa and they were dancing along with it. And can you tell Taylor loves her Dora kitchen?

Here's Vez with her scrapbook. She said the nicest thing to me. She thanked me for always making Christmas special. :)

Later, mom and I got the house ready for Christmas day...

Christmas morning, we opened presents around our tree. My nieces had on cute santa dresses and Rocky was dressed up too! (Getting them to pose together not easy!)

The kids were so cute opening their presents (and then playing with each other's toys!)

And I sort of got McDreamy... (see my letter to Santa below!)

And I got a lot of other good stuff - a bunch of DVDs DVDs, the Beatles Love CD, a sweater, a pink Rutgers shirt, some lotions, the U2 book and Johnny Cash's autobiography, a Simpsons CDs, some lotions from Victoria's Secret, tickets to Spamalot, socks, and Tivo! (I am totally spoiled rotten!)

Mike made us breakfast, and after everyone left, Randi, mom and I watched The Muppets Christmas Carol - one of our favorite Christmas movies - and bummed around all afternoon. I read about 80 pages about Johnny Cash. We then went to visit Betty and Lucia. (Poor Betty is not getting much sleep!) And then we headed up to Mike's house for dinner. The house was crazy with all the new toys. I still feel stuffed! Think I'm going to have a Grey's marathon tonight! :) Hope you had a fantastic Christmas!!!!!

Huge Christmas Sale!!! :)

I'm having a big sale through the rest of the year at my stores at Scrapdish and SBB!!!!

It's a Christmas miracle

I've been using that phrase all week! Work was pretty smooth this week - I was actually home at 1 am a few nights and I didn't have to double up on assignments. I have almost all of my gifts ready to go - with the exception of a little problem with the CD calendar. The pages were too big for the cases. I usually call my photos into Picassa and then print, because for some reason the colors look better than when I print from PS. Well, I think it expanded the pages when they printed or something. I'll see if I can get that fixed tomorrow. Thanks to the gals at DST who gave me some ideas on other ways to package these.

** On Demand & Six Feet Under **
While I was cutting out my pages last night, I was watching more Six Feet Under. I a, so HOOKED on it this week. I watched all of Season 1 last weekend and now I'm watching it over. It's on HBO On Demand right now. I never watched it when it was on much, although my sister is a huge fan. I think I didn't have cable when it started and I didn't want to get hooked on something. But I like being able to watch entire seasons without having to wait for the next episode. I'm going to have to Netflix the next round. I also caught up on Rome (never saw the season 1 ender) and Da Ali G show, which just kills me. Love, love, love On Demand.

** More Chick's Life pages **
Here's another Christmas miracle. I am caught up again with my Chick's Life pages. I got two more done today! This one is my letter to Santa...

(Michelle Coleman's Merry Little Christmas. That Scrapartist sale is killing me! Template by Gina Miller)

And then this one is about my holiday decor and my new Simpons ornaments.

(Jen Wilson's MerryDays 2 & 5 and template by Rachael Giallongo)

Oh and see that page right up there - did that in PS CS3!

**Another reason I love Shutterfly **
I ordered prints earlier this week - and they arrived today. And they are gorgeous. They're not at all muddy like the Sam's Club prints I usually get. It was much easier to upload, just as quick, even if it was a little more expensive. I think I'm going to use them for my photos from now on.

**Pandora Internet Radio**
Another Christmas Miracle: I found a music service that works on my mac at work! :) (Nothing ever works there!!!) I was in the mood for some Christmas tunes and I found Pandora Internet Radio. You can put in a song or artist that you want to hear and it will come up with a playlist of songs for you! And it's free too!

** Christmas Plans**
I am going to a party with Randi on Saturday night, then to Dad's on Christmas Eve, and I'll probably stop by my mom's friend's house. Sunday we open presents in the morning and we'll probably make Mike make breakfast. Randi and I still haven't decided if we want to go down to my aunt's farm. Mom doesn't want to go. Mike, Vez and the kids will be staying home, too. But the rest of my mom's family will be going. It's about a 2 hour drive - but traffic coming home is always a killer. Not a great way to finish off Christmas.

But I'm just really excited to be off for three days! That is the biggest Christmas miracle of all. I can't wait to give Taylor her gifts, watch Kylie play with wrapping paper, make Rocky pose for photos, and give everyone their scrapbooks. I have a nice suprise for Randi, too.

And since I don't have all of your addresses, here's my Christmas card. (Used Meredith Fenwick's True Spirit kit and that's the Rockefeller tree last year.) Hope you all have some Christmas miracles, too!

Hey that's me!

Read a Q&A with me in the Dec SBB newsletter! You can see it here.

It feels like Christmas

I got another Chick's Life page done this week! :) I had to wait until our trip to NYC to get this one done. I used Dani B's St. Nick Collection at SBB for this LO. Sketch by Rachael Giallongo at Digi Chick! :) I'm loving all of Dani's Christmas goodies!!! Have you seen her candy cane doodles! These are just too cute! :) And there's another set too. I can't wait to play with them!

I have so much to get done, but what do you think I am doing??? Installing the beta version of Photshop CS3! It's like an early Christmas gift! Woohoo!

December Mega Kit!

I have to say I love the new RAKScraps Mega Kit!!! It's so fun and festive! :) You can download pieces of the kit here or get it on CD at Scrapdish.

And Jeanine, Correen, Rachel and I created this add-on that's also available at Scrapdish! :)

And... if you haven't seen it yet, check out the RAKScraps December newletter! It's packed with so much stuff - and some freebies, including this one from me! :)

Only 7 more sleeps until Christamas

And I'm here printing out my calendars. Staples wanted to charge something crazy for printing them this year - but forget it! I'm home early tonight from work. And I don't feel like designing, which I need to do, but I do have lots of things I can blahgger on about while these pages print!

**Kylie's Party**
I tried to post some photos from the party the other day, but couldn't get it to work. So here are some pics!

Mom made the Elmo cake!

Randi and Taylor got matching Strawberry Shortcake tats.

Kylie was pretty excited to open gifts. Of course, the boxes and paper were the most entertaining parts to her.

Taylor helped open the presents. She was not so happy with the clothes (even though she usually loves to get clothes herself.

Got a good picture of me and Kylie. She was walking around and she walked up to me and hugged me a few times! :)

And birthday cake doesn't taste as good unless you get it all over yourself!

I tried to be good at the party. But that didn't work too well. I could have done worse - but I did have a chocolate martini and some Elmo cake. Then afterwards, Randi and I hung out in Hoboken. We had an awesome dinner at Mile Square and then had a few drinks at Stinky's and then at Maxwells. I have to say the music at Maxwells kicked ass - lots of punk and rock. Too cool. We also watched the crazy Knicks-Nuggets fight on Tv

**NYC**
We made our annual trip to the city on Sunday because we are crazy and couldn't got on a week day. And with the super nice weather we were having, the crowds were insane!!!

The traffic outside Rockefellar Center was gridlocked while the building across the street had these giant snowflakes light up in time with music. Nice but I mean, come on! This is New York. You gotta keep moving!

And here's the tree! :) I am so glad I have a new camera! :)

**Kylie's book**
I picked up my book today! And I have to say WOW! I am so thrilled at how it turned out. Here's the cover and a few pages...

And well now my printer is acting like a jerk! Ugh! Must tend to it now if I'm ever going to get this project done! Have a good night!

The man in the red bandanna

Do you know about Welles Crowther? It really makes me teary whenever we run a story about him in the paper. He was a 24 year old who worked in the World Trade Center and also happened to be a volunteer firefighter. He died in the 9/11 attacks. After his death, people who survived told about how they were saved by a man wearing a red bandanna around his face. His parents knew that had to be him because he always carried a red bandanna in his pocket, and the survivors were able to identify him from photos. Before he died, he had wanted to join the FDNY, and this week the FDNY made him an honorary member. You can read more here.

Happy birthday Kylie!!!!

I can't believe my little niece is turning one today!!! I really just adore this kid - and I think she likes me too, which is more than I can say for Taylor LOL! (Aunt Randi is her favorite.) It seems like just yesterday that she was born - that I was waiting in the waiting room at St. Mary's for news, then rushing off to work late, but super happy! They were a little worried when she was born because her clavicle broke on the way out - but you'd never know it now! Here's a page I did about her today - and by some Christmas miracle - using all of my own stuff! :)

Her birthday party is on Saturday and mom is making an Elmo cake. I bought her some cute tees and courdoroy pants from Baby Gap. Vesna says she's been running around on her own all week too.

I mentioned before that I had gotten the books ordered from Shutterfly. I placed the order on Monday, and I got confirmation tonight that the books have shipped out!!! They should be here by Tuesday! I didn't want to bore you all with all the pages here, but if you'd like to see them here's the gallery.

But I will share this one with you! Jessica Bolton had a little contest on her blog called Project Gift Giving. You could enter any gift that included projects from Scrapbook Graphics. I entered this page I made this page for the album using Meredith Fenwick's Piece of Me Silly Smiles kit - and I won!!!! A big huge thanks to Jess!!!!

** Brown Bag Sale at Studio Jessica **
Speaking of Jess, she's having a 1 day brown bag sale at Scrapbook Graphics! You need to run over there and buy everything, seriously! It's all 50% off for just 24 hours. I LOVE her kits and I just bought a few things that I didn't have - including her brush strokes and painted arrows. I always need to have everything she makes, because Tania is a huge enabler!!!

**Another Birthday Girl**
And I also need to wish a happy birthday to one of my cybernieces, Emma Knepper, who turns 1 on Saturday! (I tried to convince Amy to name her 'Ruby Ann' so that her initials would be R.A.K., but that's OK since Emma's one of my favorite books.) Can't believe how fast these littel girls are growing up! Sniff, sniff.

** TV stuff **
I found this preview for Lost, which starts again next year. I can't wait.
When I finally get off this computer tonight, I'm going to watch the 1 hour episose of The Office that was on tonight. I found this hilarious game on The Office site - Bobblehead Bash. You can be bobblehead Dwight and beat up Donald Trump!

**Disc Talk Radio**
Have you tuned in yet to Disc Talk Radio??? This site is so much fun! There
interviews with Gina Miller, Shannon Bieger and Katie Pertiet and some special perks for subscribers. And there's an interview with Shabby Princess comign up that I can't wait to hear, but mostly because it's with Patti Knox, who I just love!

What's next

I have been busy today! I got up early this morning to cook some arroz con pollo for our Christmas party at work tonight. Dropped off some toys for Randi's toy drive at school for the Four Foundation. Finished labeling my Christmas cards and just need to mail them. Called Shop Irish to check on mom's gift since there was a problem with it my order. Did two more pages for my traditions album. Stopped by ScrapArtists 12 Days of Christmas Sale. Unzipped and organized a bunch of kits. And I still have time before work! :)

I got Kylie's baby book done and ordered on Monday - and now I don't know what to scrap next LOL even though I have TONS of photos and other things to do!

Want to see my calendars! They are done and ready to print. I'm just waiting for my sister to let me know which one she wants. Yes, I got two done! I used the Funky CD Desk Calendar template from Heather Ann Designs for both of them.

This one is for my aunt and grandma. All of the photos are from the Walk for the Cure and I used the SBB Designers Breast Cancer Awareness Kit for all of the pages. I pretty much set up a template and then changed the photos and papers to make life easy!

And this one is for some other family members. I started working on this one months ago at a crop, but never got around to finishing it until this week. All of the elements are by Jen Wilson.

I think I'm mostly done with shopping too. I have a few more people to shop for, but other than that, I'm waiting for deliveries. Got most of my wrapping done Monday night too. Good thing too because this weekend is going to be busy - Kylie's first birthday party is Saturday and we're planning to go to NYC to see the tree on Sunday.

And Betty and Lucia are doing great! I got to visit them on Sunday and Monday. Isn't she cute! She's so little too. My nieces were so big when they were born, but Lucia's just 5 pounds, 2 ounce. She's long though - 19 inches. :)

I heart my team!

In case I don't tell them enough, I LOVE my CT! Even when I'm don't have time to make new kits, they still whip up these pages and make all of my work look fabulous! I just have to share some recent ones with you! :)
Here are some pages using Just A Memory papers and elements at SBB ...