Some movie reviews

I saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall this weekend. I love Jason Segal. I loved him in Freaks and Geeks and I love him in How I Met Your Mother. But I didn't love seeing so much of him! He's got quiet a few full-frontal scenes in that movie! But otherwise, I laughed my ass off. It was so funny and had some really great lines. I love that whole Apatow crew. And I loved Paul Rudd - he had the best lines.

I finally caught up on Netflix too this weekend. Walk Hard was not as funny as I expected. The songs were hilarious, but some of the story was cheesy. I did LOVE the scene where Dewey goes to India with the Beatles - who are played by Jack Black, Paul Rudd, Jason Schwartzman and Justin Long. I watched that scene three or four times!

I also watched the Nanny Diaries, which was kind of cute. I didn't like how they changed so much of the story. The book was way better. But I did like that the Xs were played by Laura Linney and Paul Giamati, who I've been watching as Abigail and John Adams over on HBO. I finally watched the miniseries' finale and it was so sad!!! The part were there daughter has breast cancer was just painful to watch. And they really wrapped up the series so nicely. I feel like I learned something watching all these weeks. No clue how much is reality-based, but it was really well done.

Scrapbookgraphics NSD Chat Schedule

Click here to check out all the freebies and prizes we'll be giving out!

Who's excited????

NSD is this weekend! Woohoo! I'm going to be glued to my computer! I'm going to be hanging out at SBG where we're going to have a whole day of chats and fun stuff! And I'm hosting my first SBG chat at midnight! You can find out what's going on here.

And be on the lookout for this month's DST newsletter. I wrote an article on how to survive NSD!

Hey, I'm in a good mood!

It's so rare when I feel like I'm in a really good mood. Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of fun, but I'm generally a negative person. Today, I feel very upbeat. Like I want to sing out loud. It's a good feeling.
Here's the page I was trying to post earlier. This was for the Studio Dana playday, and I just feel so lucky that I get to play with all these gorgeous kits at SBG. I have really rediscovered my love of scrapbooking lately! Credits

Work has had a lot of up and downs lately. Lots of downs. And I made this ATC last Friday after a really stressful night at work using Traci Sims' new ATC kit. (Enabling alert: That is one cool kit. Lots of ATC sized goodies!) I really love how it turned out and it makes me feel so relaxed and peaceful!

Maybe it's just something about spring that has me in a good mood. Inspite of the yucky allergies, everything looks so pretty. Even my drive to work is more pleasant because the Palisades Parkway is in bloom.

And I feel like I'm surrounded by friends. That really makes me happy. I hate feeling lonely. My phone's been ringing more - or at least buzzing with text messages. I'm always finding new people and reconnecting on Facebook. I like having people to talk to - whether it's at the bar or even just online. I'm lucky that so many people put up with me LOL! And I had a nice mid-week day with my sister yesterday. She's off on spring break so we went to see Smart People and had lunch at Greek to Me.

I've been drinking lots of water and trying to eat right. So that's probably helping my mood, too. Not doing too well on the exercising this week though. Mostly because hanging out with the above mentioned friends means staying out too late!

So I need to remember all of this stuff tomorrow, when I know I'll be having another bad day at work!

Attack of the Bumblebee

I was catching up on some Tivo late last night, when I heard a strange buzzing noise over by my window. And there I saw one of those big bumblebees. It must have been about and inch and half long. I have no idea how it got in my bedroom since the window was closed. But it was climbing up and down my curtain trying to get out. So I did what anyone would do: I threw a pillow at it and ran out of the room. Well that didn't work. So I tried a stuffed bear. That didn't work either. Another pillow and it seemed to be gone and I could sleep in peace.

Well, not really. At 7 a.m. I woke up to a loud buzz again. Now the bee was flying around my room then climbing on the window. It took off again and I opened the window, and I think it finally found it's way out. I still have the creeps from that bug!

Save the Beetles

Is it sad that I want to get this for my nieces so that I can watch it. :) I love the Wonder Pets!

Stuffy

That's how I'm feeling today. My nose is all stuffed up after a long fit of allergies yesterday. Blah!
Makes me want to stay in bed today.

I had such a crazy, but super fun, weekend! I was productive on Saturday and ran a lot of errands. And after all that, I went out with some long lost friends from high school. We're all on facebook so Betty organized a little get together at Park Avenue Grill. It was lots of fun to catch up. And since we're all still around, hopefully we'll get together again soon.
I found out one of my friends lives right up the street from the Rover so we stopped in there for another beer.

On Sunday, Mike stopped by with the girls for a while to help mom fix the grill since it's getting nice out. And he helped me fix a light in my car. It's nice having a brother who's very handy!

Then I went to my first bbq of the year with a bunch of my friends from the Rover at our friend Frank's house. That was kinda crazy but a lot of fun. Afterwards we went back to the bar for open mic night, which is turning into a lot of fun. I think now that they've been doing it awhile, they're getting more people to join in and the kids who are there every week are just getting better and better.

I am so behind with my Tivo because I was out so much this weekend! I still have to catch up on the Tudors, the last episode of John Adams and probably some other stuff. I think my head is going to explode on Thursday, with Lost now on that night along with Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty, The Office, Earl, 30 Rock and Scrubs. I won't know what to watch first.

Here are my latest pages...

This is my mom in high school. I love this photo. And my mom loves butterflies so this was a perfect kit! :) Credits

I'll have to add the other one later. Blogger is doing something weird. Oh well!
I'm off to make myself some lunch, but before I go, just want to wish a happy birthday to my dear friend Amy Knepper! Hope it's a great one!!!!!

Playing games

I did this page for the Studio Start this week and it took a lot of thinking!
I was trying to remember all the board games we've played over the years and they fell into different groups: games we had as kids, games Grandma had in the basement that belonged to my aunts and uncles (I'm still trying to remember the name of one game in which you dropped marbles in the top and then tried to catch them with these little shovels through holes.), games we weren't allowed to have because they were too noisy (Operation, Perfection - although someone finally gave Randi Hungry Hungry Hippos for her birthday one year!), and drinking games (I am never playing Pass Out again!!!!). It took me forever to remember the name of Trivia Adventure, which I remembered had planets on the board. We had that before they came out with the kid's version of Trivial Pursuit. No one ever wanted to play with me because I always won! Credits

I also remembered there was this photo of Randi and our cousin Robert that was part of the scans from Grandma. They are playing a Rainbow Bright game. There are just so many things I love about this photo. There's a Trapper Keeper in the background. My old book shelf with all my books from when I was a kid. The crocheted pillow my mom had on the couch. Our ugly rug and wall paper. The basket filled with mismatched socks. The case for VCR tapes on our old entertainment center. I forgot the house looked like that! The only thing that looks the same is the clutter! Still have that! LOL!

I'm off to do a little exercise now. My theory seemed to be right. Work was not too stressful last night. Not sure if it's because I was dealing with different people or what. But tonight I'm doing two cover pages and I want to be prepared!

Getting some exercise

All day, I've been in my typical computer mode. Trying to do 50 things at once. All those things I obsess over. Checking email. Keeping up with Twitter and Facebook. Organizing in ACDsee. Thinking about my next page. Looking at layouts in the galleries.

I took a little break from all of this to do some exercise. And it occurred to me, why can't I ever get addicted to exercise? That would solve so many of my problems!!! I would feel better, lose weight, look better. But sadly, I am a lazy type of person. I like sitting down. I like playing on my computer. I'd rather drive than walk. I always hated gym class.

I've been making an effort this week to do some exercise. I did yoga two days and I did a little bit of Dancing With the Stars today. (That is one fun video!) I'm so uncoordinated and out of shape that I can't do the tapes straight through, but I figure a half hour a day is a good start.

And I really wanted to work out today because I had such a bad day yesterday. I had felt so good on Monday and Tuesday after doing yoga, and the rest of the days went sort of ok. But yesterday, work was a disaster. I was having problems with Quark and the Mac. Things kept changing on my front page. I was so stressed out I felt naseous.

So today, I did my exercise, and if for nothing else, I'm hoping the good energy and endorphins will at least help me through the rest of the day!

This week in scrapbooking...

If you read yesterday's big long, ramble - this post is much simpler! LOL!
Poor Kylie doesn't have Taylor's gift for puzzles. Taylor's always been good at them. Kylie is more interested in tearing them apart! So when she was trying to put this one together she just fit things where ever and then said to me "It's stuck" or "It's broken" and I helped her with the rest! I haven't put this one up in my galleries yet. I used the Love of My Life Collection by Baersgarten, which is just out today and filled with so many goodies and lots of glitter and it's on sale for half price too today. Just had to enable a little there because I really do think it's great!

These photos were among the stash I found at Grandmas - my mom and me at our first communions. Weren't we cute??? This is Jenn Trippetti's new Rebirth kit. Credits.

Did this one about my Guitar Hero obsession for the Digi Dare. Credits.
I saw this poor daffodil on the ground and was inspired to scrap about it. Credits.
The girlies on Easter. Last year, I think they had a big fight over this egg LOL! Credits.
My favorite beer. Credits
And I finally scrapped a bit of my goddaughter's first birthday. Need to do a 2nd page on this. Credits.

С днем рождения

That's how you say Happy Birthday in Russian - at least according to Google's translator. It's my friend David's birthday today and I don't know if he even checks in, but I want him to wish him a happy one. He's in the Ukraine right now for work so I hope he has a great birthday over there!

I always remember April 17 for a few reasons. First, it's David's birthday. It's also the day Linda McCartney died - isn't that sad. She was one of the coolest rock and roll photographers - before she even met Paul. I have this book, Linda McCartney's Sixties: Portrait of an Era , which I just love. Here's just a few that I think totally rock...
The Beatles - an outtake form the Abby Road album cover shoot. You can tell that they weren't too thrilled with each other!

This is from the Sgt. Pepper's release party. I have that same button that Ringo is wearing! I have this one in poster size! One of my faves. Linda caught this shot while they were goofing off in between the official shots.

Linda and Jimi were good friends before she met Paul and before he was huge.
Pete Townshend doing his thing! I just love this stuff and all the music that goes with it!
Linda and Paul only spent one night apart their entire marriage. That was when he got busted for drugs in Japan. Pretty romantic. Makes me so sad considering all the crap he's been through with Heather Mills. I always said that was a bad match!

Well, April 17 also has another crazy memory for me. That was the day six years ago when I checked myself out of the hospital to see Paul McCartney in concert. I was having major gall bladder attacks, but I didn't care! I had sat around in the ER all day - in a supply room no less! My parents were screaming at each other in the middle of the room. And they weren't going to do surgery until Friday anyway. And it was a Thursday. It is sick how good my memory is.
I remember having Chinese food with mom on Monday night and feeling really sick to my stomack. The pain was horrible. When I finally felt better, I packed up my laundry (this was when I lived in Cliffside) and stopped by the Rover. I had a beer with my friend Eddie, but I felt horrible. The next day, I still felt crummy. I was working in the Life&Style department, and I was eating carrot sticks and sweating from all the pain I was in. Didn't know that any food would have triggered an attack. I was supposed to have my first date with Matt that night. I had left work early because I was so sick, and he thought I was just making up an excuse to go out with him. But I drove to mom's house and we went to a clinic where they told me I had gall stones. So, on their advice, I went to the doctor the next morning, then went to the ER where I wasted the whole day. I had taken the day off anyway because I was supposed to see Paul! But there was no way in hell that I was missing that! I signed myself out. And Randi and I went to the show. I didn't eat or drink a thing, like the doctors said. The show was still awesome. I need to dig up the set list - which I saved somewhere. He did a great mix of solo & Beatles songs. And he sang Blackbird a capella in memory of Linda.

The next day, I woke up, packed a little bag and drove myself to the hospital. Sat around the whole day long waiting to be admitted. That was a Thursday. The next day, they did a procedure in which they cleared some tubes of gall stones. Then Saturday, which was also the day my dad was getting remarried, they took out my gall bladder. Fancy laser surgery. LOL!

I remember when I came out of the first procedure I was in a lot of pain. And when I came out of the 2nd one, I remember the recovery nurses saying watch out for her, she's pretty whiney!
I was on demoral that 2nd day, so I don't think I was so cranky. When they brought me back upstairs to my room, I remember my room was packed. Uncle Gus was up from Florida for the wedding and he said "I remember that look from the 60s."

Over the next few days, I developed pancreatitis, which is not fun. I don't recommend it! LOL!
I was in the hopsital for about a week. So many people came to visit me or called, and I barely remember it because I was pretty stoned on the meds.

After a few days they finally gave me a liquid diet, and to this day, I don't want to eat jello - unless it's jello shots! But I did get an extra week off from work! Yay! And when I went back, I wore sweat pants for a week! So that's my crazy story about April 17. That's why I tell everyone I'm the biggest Beatles fan I know. I have the scars to prove it! LOL!!!!

Where does time go?

Taylor's birthday was actually yesterday. I can't believe she's five now! She's grown up so much in the last few months. She talks about all the things she learns in preschool - like the seasons and how they change. She's more willing to count or write her name - although she spells it T-A-Y-L-O-G. She writes it properly with an R (even if a few of the letters are backwards) but she thinks Rs are Gs! And she's as sassy as ever. I asked her to write her name while we were playing in the yard so I could get a picture and here's what she wrote instead...

(That says N-O!!!!!)

And here are some photos from the party...

D'oh!!!

I can't believe what I did today! I left my camera's memory stick in my computer. So that means I have about 5 photos from Taylor's birthday party. I took about another 5 with Vez's camera, but her memory stick was full!

The party was pretty typical. More grown ups than kids. Taylor wanted a Tinkerbell theme this year instead of princesses. But she wore her her Ariel wedding dress and fancy slippers all day. She got lots of Barbie stuff, clothes, a doll named Robyn, some makeup, a princess necklace and other goodies. She liked the Enchanted DVD, but didn't pay much attention to the book I made her. I'm sure she'll like it once things calm down. I like the Barbie "My House" that she got. All of us older girls were checking out all the cool little accessories it came with while Mom and Teri put on the stickers. And she got her first Hannah Montana stuff - a doll and video. Looks like we'll be going down that road now.

Randi and I left just as the girls were getting cranky and fighting over gifts! I'll have to post some photos later when I go upstairs. I've been practicing my guitar hero skills on medium level. Still stink at it! And I just watched No Reservations - cute movie. Made me hungry!

My dinner just got here from the pizzeria - white pizza and salad - and I'm going to watch John Adams. I'm so hooked on this series. Tonight should be about his term as president.

Bored

I'm staying in tonight. I've been on the computer almost two hours and still haven't figured out what to do next. I'm mostly sorting stuff in ACDSee and watching 80s movies - first Pretty in Pink (thanks to Krista!) and now Adventures in Babysitting! (Oh wow I didn't realize Elizabeth Shue's boyfriend was Bradley Whitford from West Wing! LOL!)

It is taking me hours and hours to upload these photos to Shutterfly! Then I still need to go through and crop them. (Oh and there's Anthony Rapp from Rent!)

So I made this little project for Taylor - not my best work - but I figure it's not going to last long with Kylie around. She always talks about how she misses her cousin, so I printed a bunch of photos of her and Danielle, made a little cover for the brag book album and added some ribbon. I think she'll like it.


(Credits: Gina Miller cluster frame, Flergs' Girly Swirls and Pretty Papers, Anna Benjamin Preppy in Pink Alphas, Jessica Bolton's Thrifty Blooms.)

A yellow converse day

For some reason, I don't like to wear my cons until the weather gets nice. I guess because they're not good in snow or the cold, epsecially since I like to wear mine without socks. But it's a gorgeous day today and I've got mine on! I just picked up a new pair of black cons at Target.

Of course I slept most of today. Catching up after a late night last night and lots of early starts during the week. I sorted through more than a year's worth of photos and they are slowly uploading to Shutterfly for prints.

We went to an early dinner at Outback and I am so stuffed! I saw a friend I hadn't seen in ages, so that was cool. I saw a bunch of other old friends last night at my friend Jeff's birthday party too. Feels like I'm running into people everywhere I go!

Up early today

I've got Kylie with me here today. She's sick. But in spite of that, she' s got out a million toys and has been climbing all over me. I've been documenting our morning on Twitter. We are watching Dora right now - which Kylie loves - and she plays along. I'm glad to see she's learning - even if these shows are annoying! In between shows, we played row your boat and I started singing it in funny voices. Well, I guess she liked my bad opera version because she'd tell me "no" when I tried a different one LOL!

It's going to be a long day. I've got a big cup of coffee here, and it's not helping. I couldn't sleep last night - something about knowing I have to be up early makes it impossible to sleep.

Well, I'm so glad I at least have my laptop to keep me entertained.

Here are some more new pages...
This is another one for my Christmas album. I love the girls' portraits. Credits
And I think this is going on my list of my favorite pages. :) I love how it turned out. I used a template that you can grab on the Studio Matters blog for the Studio Start challenge. My Aunt Eileen took this photo - I still remember that day. She was taking a photo class and took a bunch of portraits. I especially love this one of Grandpa and Great-Grandma. I have been thinking about them so much lately. This kit from Traci Sims was so perfect too - the colors are sort of masculine, but the lace and buttons and trim remind me of Great-Grandma. Credits.

Tagged

Mish just tagged me on her blog...

10 YEARS AGO-
I was in college and working parttime at the Courier News. I spent spring break working on two big research papers, one on Alice Roosevelt Longworth and the other on Ida B. Wells.

5 THINGS ON MY TO DO LIST
Deposit a check that's been sitting on my desk for 3 weeks.
Crop and edit at least 5 photos that I had scanned each day.
Do some CT layouts.
Call HP about a part for my computer.
Go to the allergist.

5 SNACKS I ENJOY
Sun chips
Chocolate
yogurt
Apples
Carrot sticks


5 FOODS I LOVE
Peanut butter
Pizza
Enchiladas
Chicken Parm
Mac and Cheese

What would I do if I were suddenly a billionaire.
Buy a penthouse apartment and throw a big party for all my digi gals!


5 PLACES I HAVE LIVED
West New York, NJ
Cliffside Park, NJ
New Brunswick, NJ
Norwich, CT
Houston, TX


FAVORITE QUOTE
If you can't say something good about someone, sit right here by me.

I'm tagging anyone who wants to play along!

Word of the day: Journey

So I have two songs spinning alternatively in my head. One would be Journey's Don't Stop Believing. I'm not a big Journey fan, but my sister is. And we sang that at karaoke (along with a few other things very badly) the other night. Then I heard it on the radio today and it's stuck again, just like it was post-Sopranos season finale. Makes me crazy!

The other song - I had to google this - is Magic to Do - which has some lines that start with "Journey." I just got back from seeing my cousin Melissa play Catherine in Pippin, which that song is from. I didn't know the song was from Pippin, but I remember it was the song they always played on PBS when they were doing their membership drive LOL! Now I know!

It was a pretty cool, but weird, show. The kids were all great - we've seen some of them in a few shows now over the years. This will be Melissa's last show in high school since she's off to college next year. She's a really great singer and I hope she does more shows in college!

And we had a bit of a journey today, too. First, I went to the mall with mom and Randi. Garden State Plaza has gotten so crazy that we had to park so far from the mall. The crowds were so insane, too. We didn't stay long! Then I drove to Aunt Lorraine's house (which I finally got to see - it's so nice and cozy!) before driving to Wayne for the play. I don't like playing chaufer at all - I get neverous when I have a full car. I'm used to driving by myself. And mom was yelling at me for driving too fast!

Well, it was a fun night! I'm staying in tonight. Maybe I'll scrap or catch up on some netflix.

March Madness

Not that I follow basketball or anything! I only found out Rutgers women were in the final four yesterday and then they lost! I was more closely following the Bracket Brawl on 92.3 KRock which came down to Metallica kicking Pearl Jam's butt.

I counted all the pages in my DST gallery that I finished in March - and there were 21! Seems like I've caught a bit of scrapping fever! And so far, just two days into April, I've done 4 more - two of which I can't show off yet! Here are some more of my recent pages...

This is a page I did for a circle journal I'm doing with some of my favorite digi gals. Someone mentioned that they liked the font - that's my handwriting, thanks to Darcy Baldwin! I had this idea in my head for a long time, and I finally got the mojo to scrap it. Credits.
I also scrapped all the little kids on Easter. Here's one I did with the Studio Girls' new Impressions of Healing and Calm kit.
This is Jenn Trippetti's Suddenly I See. Had me singing the song while I scrapped these photos of Nick. He's Danielle's little brother. Credits
I did this page using a lot of stuff from Sausan Designs and I love how it turned out! A very different style for me! :) Credits.
And here's my cute little Kylie niece. I don't even like purple, but I loved these goodies from Flergs and they matched my photo so nicely! Credits

These are some photos from Ag Field Day last year using more of Jenn's stuff. Credits.

This is my friends' dog Patches - she hates me! I think I'm becoming a Flerg addict. Credits
And here's my first page from my new stash of family photos! Grandma and her sister June as little girls. I just love it! I scrapped this one with goodies from Anna Benjamin, who's the newest Studio Girl and has some fun and pretty stuff in her new store!

In memory

I am really at a loss of words over the sadness I feel for Vesna and her sister. Their mother, Ana, passed away yesterday. She had been very ill, after several recurrences of cancer over the these past few years. I didn't really know her very well. I know she was a very strong and tough woman! Here she is dancing with Vez at her wedding.
Will you please keep their family in your thoughts and prayers! Thank you!

For the animals!

I had to grab this kit right away! Last time around, I was involved in designing an awesome kit to the ASPCA, and this year Holly and some of my favorite designers have created another kit to help them! You can find out all about it here!