Greetings from....

Grandma's Party

2012-02-20T20:09:00.001-05:00

I finally finished my pages for Grandma's birthday album at the crop this weekend and ordered the prints from Persnickety. My friend Melissa is being featured in an article about creative things women do when they get together and needed some photos of us (which I'm stealing from her FB)! The theme of this crop was a pajama party - which made scrapping very comfy. We don't normally dress like this when we get together.

I've been working on this book all month using the February BOYC from Lily Pad and I've shared a few pages in past posts. Here are the rest. My fave is probably the page featuring Diane's jump into the pool.

I'm going to put all of the pages - and a copy of the page I made and framed for Grandma featuring lots of photos in the shape of an 80 - in an 8x8 SEI album and then I'll decorate the cover. I wasn't planning on doing a whole album, but I was inspired by the kit and there were just lots of great moments from the party I wanted to remember! It feels great getting another project done!

Rhyme & Reason

2012-02-19T17:59:00.000-05:00

My good friend Kim Jensen had done it again! Check out here new kit, Rhyme and Reason, now at the Lily Pad. I love the colors in this kit. Sometimes, I get a kit and just want to look at it up close - and that's what I did with that ribbon frame.

Here are some pages I did with it!

My nieces and nephew came over on Super Bowl Sunday before the game. While mom helped Derek defend the universe from Darth Penny, I helped Taylor and Kylie with their crafty projects. Tay worked on an American Girl mirror that I had gotten her for her bday and Kylie drew pictures and wrote a little story. So cute!!!! Credits: Kim Jensen's Rhyme and Reason and Pinned Purple Dates from Lily Pad; Kim's Chalked Alpha; Amy Martin's Tiny Alpha White from The Lily Pad; Heather Hess's The Dry Ribbon font from The Lily Pad

And I did a page about my nook because I love it! Credits: Kim Jensen's Rhyme and Reason; Karah Fredricks' Heartbreaker; Heather Hess's The Dry Ribbon font; CD Mucksosky's Teeny Type Too - all from The Lily Pad

Scrapbook Roundup

2012-02-07T12:27:00.001-05:00

I've been slacking on sharing my pages! I have been a scrapping fool this year!

My nieces playing soccer! Credits: Misty Cato's Side by Side Soccer template from Sweet Shoppe; Michelle Godin's Varsity Chip alpha; Gina Miller's Soccer Buddy from Lily Pad; Kate Hadfield's Beautiful Game from Lily Pad; Various papers by Amy Wolff, Lauren Grier, Jennifer Barrette, Amanda Rockwell, Ashley Olson, Amy Martin, Aja Abney

Some more pages from Grandma's Party. The little guys playing on the swings. My cousin's son Morgan is a year older than Derek - so that can give you an idea of how big my nephew is! Credits: Amy Wolff's Seasons of Love Papers, Skitchy Sketch Alpha 3; Kim Jensen's Bloomin Sweet; Jenna Desai's Scrap Essentials No. 4; Amber Clegg's Lovin' Life Trims all from the Lily Pad. Template from Studio Sahlin's blog.

The kids spent most of the party in the pool. Credits: Amber Clegg's Glitter Sparkle Alpha and Lovin Life Trims from the Lily Pad; Gina Miller's Whimsy Love Papers and Flowers from the Lily Pad; Jenna Desai's Scrap Essentials No. 4 from the Lily Pad; Janet Phillips' 2 Page 2 Pack No. 6

Here is Penny with her "DFF" Misty! Credits; Emily Merritt and Laura Banasaik's XOXO from Lily Pad; Amy Martin's January 2012 challenge template from Lily Pad

My pups love the pillows on our couches. Credits: Emily Merritt and Jacque Larsen's Pillow Pets from Lily pad; CD Muckosky's Splattered Alpha from Lily Pad

Here's another Penny page! Emily's kits lately are just so cute and make me want to scrap my pug! Credits: Emily Merritt's Unbearably Cute from Lily Pad; Micheline Martin's Don't Be Square alpha from Lily Pad; Amber Clegg's These Moments button stitches from Lily Pad

I finally scrapped this photo from Becky's visit a few years ago! I chopped up the photo so that I don't look so short next to Krista! Credits: Amy Wolff's 11 a.m. papers and 11:30 elements, Autumn Artistry frames from The Lily Pad; Amber Clegg's Date Stamps from Lily Pad; Sugar Cookies for Kids 2011 template from Sweet Shope

And I scrapped some of my Instagram photos to test a template that my friend Holly made. I used Lauren Grier's Photo Op kit.

My super cool nails!

2012-02-07T12:07:00.002-05:00

I love painting my nails and after years of practice, I can paint them without getting polish all over myself. Seriously, that skill took me years! So no, I didn't learn how to make funky patterns. I bought some Jamberry Nail Wraps from my friend Holly, who is a consultant, and I love, love, love how easy it was to get this cool look.

All you need is a few nail tools and a blow dryer. It took me about a half hour. (I admit I used some of my scrapping tools - scissors and a Basic Grey file because they were already on the table!) Because I have little hands and short nails I cut the row of wraps in half - so I'll get even more use out of the sheets. The whole process took me about a half hour. I think I'm going to order some more very soon. There are some cool St. Patrick's Day designs calling my name!

Kim's new adventure!

2012-02-04T21:11:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite scrapbooking designers and dearest friends, Kim Jensen, just started a guest gig at The Lily Pad! I am so excited for her! Her designs are just so awesome and unique. I know she painstakingly works on her elements to create elements like no one else in digiscrapping.

To get things started, Kim created these awesome sets as part of The Lily Pads BOYC kit. If you like Kim's designs, you can follow her on Facebook. See what I'm talking about!

In Stiches Alpha

Bloomin' Sweet

Here are my pages using this month's BOYC. I am going to use even more of it to work on an album about my Grandma's birthday party.

The two youngest family members at Grandma's party playing together. Credits: Amy Wolff's Seasons of Love Papers, Skitchy Sketch Alpha 3; Kim Jensen's Bloomin Sweet; Jenna Desai's Scrap Essentials No. 4; Amber Clegg's Lovin' Life Trims all from the Lily Pad. Template by from Studio Sahlin's blog.

Here's Grandma. Doesn't she look great! Emily Merritt's Lovey Dovey Papers and Templates; Kim Jensen's Bloomin Sweet flowers and In Stitches alpha from Lily Pad

The giraffes at Disney's Animal Kingdom.Credits: Emily Merritt's Lovey Dovey Papers; Jenna Desai's Lovely Alphas and Scrap Essentials No. 4; Micheleine Martin's alpha from the Lily Pad Designers' Hoppy Birthday collab all from Lily Pad

Furcation!

2012-01-25T20:54:00.001-05:00

I'm on furlough this week and I really don't mind losing a week's pay! The time off is worth it! Plus, I'm saving a lot of money on gas and tolls to make it even better!

My week hasn't been very exciting. I took Penny to the vet and the groomer. I went to the doctor to see about getting rid of this stupid cold and ear infections. I've done lots of cooking, too.

So while I'm staying home and trying not to spend money, I'm trying to finish stuff up! I got through a pile of magazine, watched my Netflix movies, rooted through some old clothes, use stuff in the pantry. And my big goal for the week is to work on my crafty projects!

I have already finished two big projects - my Comic Con and December Daily albums - and ordered prints from Persnicketty Prints. I'll just need to assemble them and hybrid them up a bit! I also really want to finish up some of my frame projects - they have been a work in progress for months now.

Here are the last few pages on the Artists Alley, Decor, Star Wars & Doctor Who stuff and cosplay.

This book

2012-01-17T18:39:00.000-05:00

I really think that if I won big jackpot lottery, after buying myself a nice place to live and quitting my job, I would be perfectly happy to just sit around reading and crafting. I wish I had more time and energy to do just that. Is that sad?

I have the day off today and I haven't done much at all. I'm recovering from two nasty nights at work and a an equally nasty cold. And I have been listening to a book that I just can't "put down."

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green has me captivated. The only reason I am not listening to it right now is because Mom came home and my ears are bothering me too much to listen to it with my earbuds in. It's about a girl with cancer who meets a boy at a cancer support group and they obsess over a book about another girl with cancer and talk in a way that most teenagers don't. It's funny and sweet and sad. When I'm done with this, I am going to start over and then I'm going to look up John Green's other books.

Oh the places!

2012-01-11T15:31:00.000-05:00

I really don't like traveling. I don't like flying orsleeping anywhere but my own bed.And I'm lucky to live so close to NYC, wherethere's so much to do and see. But once in awhile, I do like to get the heck out of Dodge,or Jersey, especially if there are friends involved. My friend Tania shared a list of her dream vacations so I'm going make a list too!

Here are places I want to go and things I want to see...

London: I really would love to live there for awhile, but I'dsettle for some time to visit the city and an excursion toLiverpool. I think if you're reading this you know about my obession with allthings British.

Ireland: I want to go see if it really is thatgreen!

Cuba: I want to see the country where my father was born,maybe visit the places my family is from and see Havana. I really hope theridiculous travel ban gets lifted.

California: There are so many things I want to do inCalifornia. I want to see the San Diego Zoo and wine country and the GoldenGate Bridge and the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson! I'd also love to govisit my friend Tania!

Disney Cruise: I've wanted to go on one since Mom and I sawa program about the cruise. It looks like so much fun! Mom's got a milestone birthday coming up and I think I'm going to save up for a trip with her.

Graceland: Randi and I have been talking about making thisroad trip for years.

Orlando: I want to go back to Disney World, but I also really want to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

Visiting friends: I have so many friends I'd love to visit!I want to hang out with my friend Melinda and her family in Colorado, go to aDisney park with my Amanda and Haley, party withAmy, Holly, Amanda and Carrie.

There are also a lot of U.S. cities I'd love to see, like New Orleans or Austin. Maybe some day I'll get there. In the meantime, I will keep playing the lottery and try to enjoy the super cool places around here and hope some of my friends will come visit me, too!

Boring!

2012-01-08T22:51:00.002-05:00

With my crazy work hours and the cold weather creeping in, I have become so boring! I might get out to the movies with my sister on the weekend, but otherwise, I'm not doing much. But the upside to having no life lately is getting a lot of scrapping done!

The girls and me on Christmas! I remembered to get in the picture for once! Credits: Emily Merritt's Light the Way from Lily Pad.

A very doggie Christmas. Credits: Kitschy Christmas 2 by Rachel Young, Jacque Larsen and Christina Kirk from Lily Pad; Kim Jensen's Random Moment staple

My 3 favorite kids hamming it up on Christmas. Credits: Credits: Kitschy Christmas 2 by Rachel Young, Jacque Larsen and Christina Kirk from Lily Pad

Because I should be working on my December Daily album, I've been procrastinating by working on my Comic Con book! Here's a page featuring Katie Cook drawing my little portrait of Penny. Credits: From Zero to Hero by Lauren Grier and Jacque Laresen, Lauren Grier's For The Dreamers, Julie Billingsly's Color Spectrum Alpha, Kate Hadfield's Kindergarden Palooza paint brush

Star Wars Crafts. Zero to Hero, Pamela Donnis' School Stuff, Tangie Baxter's Galaxy Far Away

Some of the cool tees at NYCC. Zero to Hero and a Janet Phillips template.

Some Disney World icons. Emily Merritt's Highlight of the Week template, Tiny Patterns papers and These Are the Days Date Cards from Lily Pads, Jacque Larsen's These Are The Days Word Art from Lily Pad, CD's Graffiti Spray Hippitty Hop Alphas from Lily Pad, The Tattered Pear's This & That elements from Lily Pad

I've also done some random number scrapping. Here's one of Kylie's first lost tooth. Credits: Amy Wolff's For the Boys papers from Lily Pad; Jenna Desai's Photo frames No. 5 and Scrap Essentials 2 from Lily Pad; Karah Fredrick's Open Book word strips from Lily Pad

Some flowers from my yard. Credits: Krystal Hartley's Pocketful of Sunshine

And some goals for 2011. Credits: Amy Wolff's Everyday Papers, Calendar Cards and Mega Labels from Lily Pad; Kate Hadfield's Snippets 2 Alpha from Lily Pad; Amber Clegg's These Moments elements from Lily Pad; The Tattered Pear's This & That Elements from Lily Pad

What I've been up to this week...

2012-01-08T00:51:00.001-05:00

Reading: Miss Pergrine's School for Home for Peculiar Children by Random Riggs on my new Nook Tablet; Inheritance by Christopher Paolini; The Last Letter from Your Lover by Jojo Moyes

Watching: Gossip Girl on Netflix; Mildred Pierce on TiVo; Captain America and Page One: Inside the New York Times on Netflix DVD; The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo at the movies

Listening: Adele (and bawling my eyes out); Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (laughing, and alternately gagging)

Waiting: for my new iPhone to arrive

Creating: taking photos with my phone for Project 365; scrapping a few pages; making plans for my "craftcation" (furlough week!)

Etc: Working, driving, taking lunch to work everyday, playing with Penny, staying home, missing my friends

Merry December!

2012-01-01T22:12:00.000-05:00

I know it's January 1, but I never got around to recapping my December! So here's a rundown on my very merry month!

My little pug ornament is the best ornament ever!

My co-worker brought in this little tree for our work area. I added the "snow."

I got to hang out with my friends and celebrate some birthdays at the Rover.

I visited Randi's place to see her real tree and take some pictures. This is my fave!

Then we went to NYC for our annual trip to see the tree.

We went to the market place at Bryant Park were we saw lots of cool gifts and these awesome Star Wars figures. They also had great food and we tried lots of stuff: apple cider, waffles with a gingerbread spread, dumplings, grits with cheese.

A new polar bear for my tree!

Randi was going to Florida for Christmas so we had a little celebration at her house before Christmas. She gave the girls their gifts and I gave Kylie her birthday presents since I hadn't seen her.

Derek loves his new Super Grover.

And here's what I got Kylie for her 6th birthday. She though it was so cool!

We got to talk with Karran via Skype at karaoke. It was 4 am in the UK! It was an awesome karaoke night - with lots of good friends coming out the Thursday before Christmas. I even managed to stay awake and stay out long enough to sing some songs! I miss karaoke night - and my friends - so much!

My super cute stocking stuffers!

Rocky spent Christmas with us.

On Christmas Eve, mom and I got up early and picked up a few things at Target. Then I spent the rest of the day baking cookies (chocolate chips, apricot almond chews and peppermint kiss sugar cookies), cooking (chicken enchilada casserole) and wrapping gifts while mom set up her nativity and angels.

I went to my brother's house on Christmas Eve. Dad brought some Cuban food and the kids opened gifts.

I played Hedbandz with Taylor and Kylie. So much fun!

Grandma, Aunt Lorraine, Aunt Joanie and Corinne came over Christmas morning for breakfast. Mom made eggs, bacon, cinnamon buns and french toast.

Then I tried to take pictures of mom with the granddogs!

Mom and I went to my brother's house for Christmas dinner and more gift giving. Derek got these drums from Santa and they were a big hit. Taylor got an iPod touch (lucky!!!!), and Kylie got a new DS - but she wanted Taylor's iPod. I gave the kids books and small toys on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve, D got two t-shirts, including one with Buzz & Woody, and the girls got clothes for their American Girl dolls. (Kylie went to buy her doll on Monday.)

Here they are hamming it up!

I also finally got to meet the kids' baby cousin Glenn. He is a cute and quiet little guy! Derek wanted to play football with him!

And I got some squishy hugs from the girls! I also got a picture frame and some food for Penny from mom, a doggie frame and a George Harrison book from the kids, my cute Kermit ornament and an owl lip gloss from Randi, and money from my grandma and dad, which I used to buy a Nook tablet! I didn't really want anything, but these gifts were all pretty awesome! I also bought myself a light saber lip gloss, some gloves, a calendar. I always like to get myself a few things to make sure I get things I like! But spending time with my family and friends is really what it's all about! They make my life so great and I'm so thankful to have them!

I can't spell!

2011-12-29T20:28:00.002-05:00

I got my Shutterfly book a few days after Christmas - and I had been so busy getting it finished - I never noticed the big old typo right on the cover. Ugh! I'm trying to come up with a way to cover it up. I'm so mad at myself! As someone who got paid to edit stuff up until recently, I suck when it comes to my own work!

I still need to upload my Christmas photos, but in the meantime, here are the rest of my album pages and a few others from the last few weeks...

D & my dad: Credits: Jennifer Barrette's Miss Personality and Mister Personality Add on from Sweet Shoppe, Staples by Flergs

I got a daily wake up call at Disney from a robot that sounded a lot like Kylie. Credits: Emily Merritt's E is for Energy from Lily Pad; Micheline Martin's Alpha from the Things That Matter Most collab at the Lily Pad

D's first birthday party. Credits:Janet Phillip's Scrap Your Heart Out templates from Sweet Shoppe, Micheline Martin's Noteworthy Alpha, Smile and Rainbow Dreams from After Five Designs

D's 1st two Halloweens. Credits: Emily Merritt's Simple Scraps Templates 12, King For A Day, Platform 9 3/4, and E is for Energy from the Lily Pad

The birthday boy. Credits: Emily Merritt's King for a Day and D is for Dapper (recolored paper) from Lily Pad, Janet Phillips' Scrap Your Heart Out templates from Sweet Shoppe

Some random pictures that didn't make it onto pages but I still wanted to use. Credits: Janet Phillips' Too Many Photos template 13 from Sweet Shoppe, Micheline Martin's Rainbow Dreams from After 5 Designs, Julie Billingsley's Color Spectrum Alphas from Sweet Shoppe

The crazy kids. Credits: Micheline Martin and Jenna Desai's Togetherness from Lily Pad; Micheline Martin's White Washed bits and Junk Mail alpha from Lily Pad; CD's Markerific alpha from Lily Pad;
Cookies 4 Kids templates from Sweet Shoppe; Lauren Grier's Beginning is now bracket; Heart by Baers Garten; Amber Clegg's Rush beads

Cabana guys watching soccer. Credits: Lauren Grier's Go Go Go from Scrapfastic Designs; Janet Phillips' Scrap Your Heart Out template from Sweet Shoppe; Baers Garten soccer ball from Get in The Game; Rachel Young's Wish Alpha

Some goals. Credits: Emily Merrit's G is for Goals from The Lily Pad

2011-12-12T20:37:00.000-05:00

I am home sick today. I have had a nasty cold all weekend and it really hit me hard today. I spent most of the day in bed and am feeling a little better though.

I'm trying to catch up on some Derek scrapping. I want to finish the book I never got around to finishing for last Christmas, but I just don't feel inspired. It's not that I'm not feeling creative! I've found lots of other things to work on instead of Derek pages!

Here's my latest round!

Some Christmas Eve funtivities. Credits: Emily Merritt's Gingy Papers, Amy Wolff's Gift Tags and Kaye Winieki's Santa's On His Way Elements from the Lily Pad Dec 2011 BOYC; Fruit Loop Sally's No Place Like Home alphas from Lily Pad; Janet Phillips' Scrap Your Heart Out templates

The kiddos' Christmas card photo: Amy Wolff's Reindeer Games papers and Gift Tags, Kaye Winieki's Santa's On His Way Elements, Karah Fredrick's Awesome Sauce 2 Alphas, Jenna Desai's Holiday Essentials Elements from the December BOYC kit at Lily Pad; Valorie Wibben's Christmas Morning word art; Scraplift of Kimpson's Winter Fun LO

Derek's baptism. Credits: Sahlin Studio's Blessed from Lily Pad, Janet Phillips' Too Many Photos 17 from Sweet Shoppe

Derek's first horse ride! Credits: Jen Barrette's Wild Horses from Sweet Shoppe; Sara Gleason and Crystal Livesay's Love Letters November Templates from The Lily Pad

D's 1st birthday portrait. Credits: Emily Merrit's D is for Dapper from Lily Pad; Sara Gleason's Apple Tree Alpha from Lily Pad; Janet Phillips' Scrap Your Heart Out template from Sweet Shoppe

Some of D's first photo. Credits: Lauren Grier's Go Go Go from Scrapfastic Designs
Amber Clegg's string from Wicked Smart at Lily Pad

The kids vs. Santa. Credits: Kim Jensen and Kate Hadfield's Deck the Halls from Lily Pad and Scrapdish; Amy Martin's Dec 2011 Template Challenge template from Lily Pad; Lili's Teeny Tiny Alpha from Lily Pad

Penny has a fear of the stairs: Credits: Lauren Grier's Standing Tall from Sweet Shoppe

Some of my new ornaments from last year: Credits:Valorie Wibbens and Creatiions By Tina Marie's Christmas Morning kit and Christmas Morning Alphas from The Lily Pad; Valorie Wibbens' word art from Hocus Pocus from Lily Pad; Janet Phillips' Two Page Two Pack template from Sweet Shoppe

Getting crafty with the girls. Credits: Jacque Larsen's Winter Workers, Micheline Martin's Very Merry Christmas, Heather Hess's The Faulty Marker font, CD Muckosky's Markerific alphas and Valorie Wibben's Love Muffin word art all from Lily Pad

Scrapdish Closing sale

2011-12-02T20:57:00.001-05:00

Once upon a time in the digital scrapping world, I was a designer. It seems like a lifetime ago! When I started digiscrapping, there were plenty of kits to buy and freebies to download, but that was back when people really did try to make everything themselves. About seven years ago, I got involved first at Scrapbook-Bytes and The Digi Chick, back when my friend Holly owned it, and eventually found RAKScraps, where I was making lots of digtal elements as part of the monthly collabs and for freebies. One of the other RAKScraps admins, Jeanine, had opened her own store and invited me to sell my kits there.

Remember these???? They were my best sellers! I still love them.

We had lots of fun behind the scenes at Scrapdish. So many of my good friends "worked" there, too - Coreen, Rachel, Krista, Melissa, Amy, Tania, Mish, Melinda and Kim. Krista just reminded me of how we worked together on the newsletter - I had forgotten all about that. After I retired, Coreen and Rachel took over the store and brought on lots of great designers.

So I was a little sad to hear this week that Scrapdish is closing its doors. The ladies are having a big sale so be sure to stop by and pick up some goodies!

And you really need to check out Kim Jensen's designs! Seriously, she is the best designer out there. Lots of truly unique and creative element and even some great collabs, like her new kit with Kate Hadfield - Deck the Halls.

It really is so weird to think that it's been so long since I've designed kits. I don't even remember how I did most of it! I got out of the game when a lot of realistic elements and commercial use stuff came into play and made my computer-made stuff look pretty shabby. But it was fun to create pieces and even make some money to support my digi habit, and even more fun to get the chance to create and design with my friends!

December Daily and other crafty plans

2011-12-01T21:27:00.001-05:00

How does December always get here so quickly? And for the first time in a really long time, I don't feel the December blues. I was a little grumpy this morning because I wanted to sleep longer, but I shook it off. That never happens!

I'm attempting a December Daily type project. I don't know what shape it's going to take yet. I'm just going to journal and scrap as see what I come up with. Of course, this is just adding one more thing to my ever growing list of things to do. Here's what I'm hoping to finish up by Christmas:

Christmas cards
Derek's baby book
Christmas ornaments
Crafty frames for several people
Baking

Now, I just need to see if I can get any of it done! Plus there's shopping, wrapping, decorating and all the other stuff I never get around to finishing. I should really take time off in December!

I have been scrapping up a storm lately! I hope all this craftiness stays with me this month! Here are my latest pages.

Penny on Christmas last year. Credits: Kim Jensen and Kate Hadfield's latest awesome collab Deck the Halls from Scrapdish and Lily Pad

The Rockefeller tree last year. Credits: Emily Merritt's Twelve Days 'Til Christmas Journaling Book from the Lily Pad; Amy Wolff's Christmas Everyday and December Snowflakes from the Lily Pad; Kim Jensen and Kate Hatfield's Deck the Halls elements from Lily Pad and Scrapdish; Amber Clegg's Date It

Derek spent most of Thanksgiving crying when the dogs got too close! Credits: Amy Wolff's Mega Thrift Store Paper Pack, 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Element sets and Metro Alphas from Lily Pad

Derek @ Disney World. Credits: Janet Phillips' Scrap Your Heart Out Templates from Sweet Shoppe and Britt-ish Designs's Leave the World Behind from Britt-ish Designs

The Dumbo Ride at Disney. Credits: Amy Wolff's 8 p.m. papers and 8:30 p.m. elements from Lily Pad
and Sahlin Studio and Britt-ish Designs' Land of Fantasy from Lily Pad

Some pics of my friends at our friend's baptism. Credits: Amy Wolff's 2 P.M. papers and 2:30 P.M. Elements from Lily Pad, Lauren Reid's Kitschy Kitchen alphas from Lily Pad, Janet Phillips's Scrap Your Heart Out template from Sweet Shoppe, Julie Billingsly's Cookies and Milk alpha from Sweet Shoppe

This really is all I want for Christmas this year. Credits: Amy Wolff's Christmas Everyday and Puddle Jumpers Christmas from Lily Pad; Word Art/Strips by Weeds & Wildflowers and Pixelworks

I heart cupcakes! Credits:Emily Merritt's C is For Cupcake and Simple Scraps Templates No. 11 from Lili Pad; Lili's Waiting for Spring Alpha from Lily Pad

The Harry Potter Experience exhibit: Credits: Emily Merritt & Valorie Wibbens' Platform 9 3/4 from Lily Pad, Janet Phillips' Scrap Your Heart Out template from Sweet Shoppe, Darcy Baldwin's I'm No Wizard font from Sweet Shoppe

One of T's school portraits. Credits: Amy Wolff's Metro from Lily Pad, Emily Merritt's Simple Scrap Templates 11, Gina Miller's Good Witch flower

Some of my favorite Thanksgiving food. Credits: Emily Merritt's Little Turkey and C is for Cupcake from Lily Pad; Janet Phillips' Scrap Your Heart Out Template from Sweet Shoppe

T @ The Cinderella Fountain. Credits: Studio Sahlin's Autumn Afternoon and So This Is Love from Lily Pad; Lili's Cloud 9 alpha from Lily Pad; Font: CK Bella

Kylie got stung by a bee. Credits: Scraplift of LeeAndra's Le Livre layout; Studio Sahlin's Enjoy the Moment from Lily Pad; Kay Winieki's A Perfect Day bee; Wendy Page's Designer Stash words; Jacque Larsen's Comic Relief words from Lily Pad

Some jouranling about new hours. Credits: Kaye Winieki's Here Come's the Sun from Lily Pad; Amy Wolff's 7 pm papers from Lily Pad; Kate Hadfield's Tiny Marker Alpha from Lily Pad; Amy Wolff's Coming Home staples; Allison Pennington's Good Morning Sunshine Strips from Lily Pad; Lauren Grier's You Make Me Crazy alpha

Penny in her new sweater. Credits: Amy Martin's Nov. challenge template from Lily Pad
Amber Clegg's Lovin' Fall from Lily Pad; Gina Miller's So Sketchy alpha from Lily Pad; Fonts: DJB Robin, DBJ Laurent, Misproject

In scrapping news

2011-11-18T22:05:00.001-05:00

Well, at my new job in the awesome creative space, I haven't had much opportunity to be creative yet. I've been working on pretty standard inside fare, but it's been helping me get used to the new computer program. Good thing I have scrapping to help me be creative!

So I have some good scrappy news! I finished all the challenges at Lily Pad last month and was chosen as Guest Pollywog! I can't wait to start in December! And I've been chosen for Emily Merritt's creative team! So this means lots of new goodies to scrap with! Here's my latest roundup of pages...

Here's my first page as part of Emily Merritt's team and my first Disney page. Credits: Emily Merritt's Simple Scrap Templates No. 11, You Are My Sunshine Elements and Papers, See through strips - Family, Circle Sticker Alpha from Lily Pad, Hot Summer Day Flower; Sahlin Studio's Enjoy the Moment button from Lily Pad; Fonts: Misproject, DBJ Journal Bits, Darcy Baldwin personal handwriting font

I scrapped my Comic Con-Twitter story for this page. Credits: Jacque Larsen and Lauren Grier's Zero to Hero from Lily Pad; PixelWorks' Geekazoid; Fonts: Misproject and Darcy Baldwin's Personalized Handwriting Font

I scrapped this page during DSD weekend for a Lily Pad challenge. Credits: Micheline Martin's Mr. Mustachio, Happy DSD Template, Coupon Clipper Alpha, It Girl elements, Togetherness tape all from Lily Pad; Darcy Baldwin's Coffee Shoppe font

This is a page I did for the Lily Pad project challenge featuring some ghosts hanging out at the Rover. Credits: A Hopping HallOween by the Lily Pad and Oscraps designers - inlcuding the template by Sara Gleason; Rachel Young's Starry Night Alpha from Lily Pad

My dog does not like her new sweater! Credits: Amy Martin's Nov. challenge template from Lily Pad;
Amber Clegg's Lovin' Fall from Lily Pad; Gina Miller's So Sketchy alpha from Lily Pad; Fonts: DJB Robin, DBJ Laurent, Misproject

I love this template by Nettio so I wanted to make a page about the states I've been to. I need to get out more! Credits: Nettio's Oh The Places template: Amy Martin and Dani Mogstad's Funky Free; Amy Wolff's All About You paper from Lily Pad; Traci Reed's Dynomite Words, Kate Hadfield's America the Beautiful, Heather Hess's The Teenage Dream font

And here's one I did using the Lily Pad's Nov. BOYC kit. Credits: Amy Wolff's Jot It Down & For the Girls papers from the Nov. BOYC and Remember When Corner at Lily Pad; Jenna Desai's Scrap Essesntials No. 2 from the Nov. BOYC at Lily Pad; Gina Marie Huff's Sisters word art from Weeds & Wild Flowers; Kim Jensen's October Breeze stitching from Scrapdish

Greetings from Disney World

2011-11-16T20:08:00.001-05:00

I got home on Monday after five days in Disney World with my brother, sister-in-law and the kiddos. And while spending so much time with family can be crazy, I had a great time with the kids. There were so many magical moments that just warmed my heart or made me laugh. I took about 2,000 pictures and took notes, so I have lots of ideas for my Disney scrapbook! Here are just a few of my favorite photos and things I loved about Disney.

Cheesy character meals: It was hard to eat when you have to stop every few minutes to say hello to Eeyore or Princess Aurora, but the kids were so happy to see these guys!

One of my favorite photos of Kylie, who usually doesn't like to pose but was all about pictures during our trip. She cracked me up by quoting the Disney staff, "No flash cartography." (She meant photography!)

Argh!: The girls joined Capt. Jack Sparrow's crew. A fun little show we saw after the Pirates ride.

Oooh, the claw: I love these alien guys!!!

Space Mountain: I was a bit afraid of Space Mountain, unlike Kylie who rode it 4 times!

All Star Music: Fun decorations at the hotel where we stayed.

Monkeys on safari: The kids at Animal Kingdom.

White Rhino: This guy decided to cross the road while we were passing by.

Turtle Talk with Crush: One of my favorite shows. Crush interacted with the audience, answered Taylor's question and kept an eye on the "little dude" who was menacing the audience.

Kylie's always hungry. She finished off the rest of the turkey leg. She's always willing to eat! Plus she looked so cute in her mouse ears.

White Rabbit: I just love Alice in Wonderland and got to see some of the characters in the parade.

You've Got a Friend in Me: This sign is too awesome.

Taylor time: Since Taylor didn't want to go on some of the rides, I spent some time hanging out with her. So I tied her up to a rocket.

Buzz Lightyear's twin: Can you see the resemblance?

Star Tours: Best. Ride. Ever.

Kermit ears: I love these ears! I came pretty close to buying them but settled for a picture.

Cinderella's Castle: I took so many pictures of the castle. I love it.

Cheesy shows: I saw this one - Dream Along with Mickey - about three times. It's so lame, but I still liked it. We also really liked the Festival of the Lion King show, but no so much the Voyage of the Little Mermaid.

Princesses: The girls got princess makeovers and looked so pretty!

Happy boy: Derek is probably too little to remember this trip, but he still had fun. He loved It's a Small World, the safari ride, any chance to run around and the Lion King Show. His reactions were too cute. He also had big hugs for Mickey & Minnie and he was happy to meet his favorite Buzz Lightyear, even though he wanted to hit him.

I am not used to this!

2011-11-08T15:53:00.003-05:00

Don't we look excited! Well, maybe not, but I do! And My hair was looking good. It feels weird to be happy for a change. I'm sleeping better. I'm getting out of bed. My new job is going great so far. I got to see some good friends this weekend. I'm about to go on vacation with my family. I can only be grateful and hope for more good things to come.

I have more than 40 gigs of memory cards for my cameras so I hope that's enough for pictures at Disney World! My bags are packed, well mostly. Still need to finish my carry on bag. I decided against bringing my laptop so it will be weird, but I will have my phone with me so I won't be cut off from the world.

I am going to miss my Penny! I have never left her for so long! I hope she's not sad, but I know my mom will take good care of her.

I hate flying - and really hate waiting in airports - but as I told my sister-in-law, we need to suck it up and be brave for the kids. They've never flown at all! This is going to be an interesting trip for so many reasons. I will have lots of pictures to share when I get back!

On my bookshelf

2011-11-05T08:38:00.003-04:00

My reading has slowed down a bit lately and there are few books in progress on my nightstand. But I think I have found one of my new favorite books ever, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I just finished listening to it for a second time.

I was seriously intrigued from the first line. "The circus arrives without warning." Les Cirque de Reves is a magical and mysterious place filled with impossible acts, stunning sights and delicious treats. It was just described so vividly - I felt jealous of characters who got to go! I think I will be getting a red scarf like the cult-like group of fans who followed the circus - which was a pretty cool network considering most of this book is set more than a century ago! Fueling the circus is a magical competition between two students, who try to outdo each creating even more wondrous additions and spectacles. The book also follows the group of people brought together to create the circus, a pair of red headed twins born the night the circus opened, a clock maker, and a boy who dreams of the circus while facing his family's plans for his future. There are a lot of people - but I thought they were all fascinating and tied together so well. I don't want to give much away, but I will say it is simply magical.

The audiobook was read by Jim Dale, who did all the Harry Potter audiobooks, and was very entertaining.

I'm also reading Mindy Kaling's new book, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? She might not be as slapstick as Tina Fey or raunchy as Chelsea Handler, but she is just so funny an adorable. I love Mindy on the Office - where she's also a writer, and love her Twitter posts and talk show stints. I want to be her friend! I'm only halfway through, but have had lots of laugh out loud moments. And while she might be snarky, I don't think she's cynical and that is a pretty rare thing these days. I'm enjoying reading about how she got started in comedy and I'm already hoping there are even bigger things in store for her.

I Am Hit Girl

2011-11-03T19:58:00.004-04:00

My first week at the new job has been going well! I've been getting up at 6:30 and getting to work on time, despite a few traffic snafus. I was so tired on Tuesday night that I went to bed without dinner on Tuesday and slept 10 hours!

The computer system I'm learning is very different from Quark, so it's like learning a new language, but I'm getting there. One of the women in training with me is always asking for help, so I think being able to assist her is a sign that things are sinking in.

On the downside, I am falling really behind on my TV shows (mom hogs the tv!) and I don't think I'll be going to karaoke any time soon. And I got pulled over for speeding, but the trooper, who was really mean to me, gave me a lesser ticket.

But there are some nice perks! My new boss threw a mandatory root beer float party yesterday! That was fun and we got to meet some more of our co-workers. And my job is right next to an outlet mall so I had some retail therapy yesterday. Need new clothes for the new job, right?

Another good thing about getting home early and being bored while my mom hogs the TV: Time to scrap! Mom did help me make my Halloween costume. I was Hit Girl from the movie KickAss. Don't look her up if you are easily offended! My skirt is an awesome plaid flannel fabric and I plan on working it into my wardrobe!

Here I am on Halloween! :) Credits: A Hopping HallOween by the Lily Pad and O Scraps designers, Jacque Larsen's My Super Herione and Paper Dolls, Penny Springman's I Am wordstrip

Here's a page about leaving my job. Credits: Amy Wolff's 7 p.m. papers, 7:30 pm elements, One Fine Day tag, Recovery clip, Jot It Down cards, Wicked Smart owl from Lily Pad, Micheline Martin's Junk Mail Alphas from Lily Pad

Greetings from Asbury Park

2011-10-30T20:05:00.000-04:00

So much has happened in the last two weeks! Friday was my last day at The Journal News. I've been working there since 2000 and it was just crazy to have to pack up my desk (I had no idea how much stuff I'd been hoarding!) and say goodbye to some very good friends.

They even got me a cake - which I am sorry to say I didn't even try - because I also brought in cupcakes - red velvet and pumpkin (which were amazing!). I had to give a little speech and babbled like an idiot about how much I'll miss them.

But I won't really be going to far! I'm starting tomorrow at the Asbury Park Design Studio. My job at TJN was coming to an end because all the design work at Gannett papers is being consolidated at several centers across the country. I was very reluctant to make this move because I thought it was too far and that it would be the design equivalent of working at a fast food restaurant. But after talking to some people and visiting the studio, my mind was completely changed. The people all seem really nice and that they like working there. I'm going to be working on features pages and I'll be working normal daytime hours for the first time! The commute isn't even that bad - it's about the same distance in the opposite direction.

Each studio has a themed logo depending on the location - Phoenix has a cactus. Louisville has a horse. Des Moines has a cow. Nashville has an acoustic guitar. So if you know me, you'll know why I should be a good fit in Asbury! The symbol: Bruce Springsteen's guitar!

I start tomorrow at 9 a.m.! I hope I can get some sleep tonight. I have training for a week and then I'm off to Disney World! Since I'm transferring, I get to keep my benefits, too. That's a nice perk!

How I Spent the Weekend

2011-10-25T02:10:00.001-04:00

I didn't do a thing this weekend and it was awesome! And by not doing a thing, I mean I mostly stayed home in my pjs and scrapped. I did take some time to go to AC Moore to get some crafty stuff and frames for the new prints I got at Comic Con. And I did bake some brownies. But that's as adventurous as I got! I needed some time to just relax.

Here's what I worked on....

Another Comic Con page featuring the celebs and panels I saw. Credits: Kim Jensen's Appabets from Scrapdish, Lauren Grier and Jacque Larsen's Zero to Hero from Lily Pad, Janet Phillips Too Many Photos Squared 3 template from Sweet Shoppe

I got a page done for Derek's book! Credits: Amy Wolff and Jenna Desai's Oh Boy from Lily Pad, Pixel Works' Everyday Awesome alphas

Here's Melissa at the crop after she captured the rooster by finishing a page. I thought the rooster was a creep so I wouldn't admit to finishing any! Credits: Kate Hadfieldnd Lili's Capture the Moment from Lily Pad, Kate Hadfield's Scrapping 9 to 5 laptop and Hand-Sewn Stitching from Lily Pad, Amy Wolff's Junky Journalers from Lily Pad, Michelle Godin's Old School scissors, Pamela Donnis' School Stuff glue, Jenna Desai's staple from Lily Pad collab Wicked Smart

I did an Awesome list page awhile back and wanted to do an update on all my favorite things. Credits: Micheline Martin's Citrus Splash papers from Lily Pad, Valorie Wibbens' Woodlands elements from Lily Pad, and a big assortment of flowers and word strips by Jessica Bolton, Amy Wolff, Kim Jensen, Lili, Valorie Wibbens, TLP's Hope kit, Shawna Clingerman, Cinzia, Miss Mint, Penny Springman, Stitching by Amy Martin

I got to see Yankee Stadium at the McCartney Concert. Credits: Darcy Baldwin's Scrap with Linz templates, Kaye Winieki's Home Run, Spring Promenade paper, and Click 2 Scrap Alpha, Michelle Godin's Varsity Chip alpha

My latest pages

2011-10-20T14:43:00.002-04:00

I've been hooked on Avatar: Last Air Bender on Netflix and the marathon sessions I've been having have scrapping while I watch. Thanks to my random number system and Lily Pad challenges, I've been getting lots of pages done!

This is a train show we saw last December at Grand Central Terminal. I especially liked the King Kong!
Credits: Cindy Schneider DIU 1 template, Wimpy Chompers Chuggga Chugga, Baers Garten's Petiti Noel, Amanda Rockwell's Cardboard Edges, Jessica Bolton's Wintry, Iron Orchid Designs Figgy Pudding papers

Some of the toys at Comic Con. Credits: Jacque Larsen and Lauren Grier's Zero to Hero from Lily Pad,
Janet Phillips' Too Many Photos 33 template from Sweet Shoppe

The dog parade: Amy Martin's template for the October Template Challenge at Lily Pad, Gina Miller's Good Witch Paper and Elements, Rachel Young's Falling for You Alpha, Kellie Schmitt's Halloween Kraft Alpha, all from Lily Pad

Penny's got a purple monkey and elephant for her birthday. I always thought that was funny - like the telephone game! Credits: Amy Wolff's Puddle Jumper Noir, No Flowers Allowed strips, All About You brad and flowers, Midnight Magick Papers, Amy Wolff's Calico Cabin flowers, Gina Miller's Good Witch Elements from Lily Pad, Penny Springman's Birthdays corner, Scraplift of Melissa Lewis's Say What LO

The Howloween party last year. Credits: Amy Wolff's Midnight Magick Papers and Treat Labels and Valorie Brown's Hocus Pocus Elements from the Oct. BOYC at Lily Pad

Some of my recent costumes! The purple hair is a hint as to what I'm going to be this year. Credits:
Amy Wolff's Midnight Magick papers, Metro frames, Krafty Pieces 2 from Lily Pad, Valorie Wibbens' Hocus Pocus elements from Lily Pad, Sahlin Studio's Autumn Moon papers from Lily Pad, Jacque Larsen's Paper Dolls and Super Heroines from Lily Pad, Rachel Young's Starry Night alphas from Lily Pad, Kelly Mickus' Gimme Candy Label from Lily Pad & 9th & Bloom Collab, Darcy Baldwin's I'm No Wizard and personal handwriting fonts from Sweet Shoppe

I ruined all my Halloween photos from last year by resizing them for the web. But I came up with a way to scrap them. Credits: Sahlin Studio's Autumn Moon papers and elements from the Oct BOYC kit at Lily Pad, Janet Phillps' 365 Template from Sweet Shoppe, Lauren Reid's alphas from the Lily Pad Wicked Smart collab

The dogs were in most of my pictures at Thanksgiving last year! Credits: Ummmmm I lost those! I think the template is by Nannie(?), kit by Lauren Grier and some extra stuff by some others.

The girls making silly faces at the zoo. Credits: Micheline Martin's Bo Jangles, Dani Mogstad This Love alphas

And another silly pose from the zoo. Credits: Amy Wolff's Puddle Jumpers Noir, Hop Skip Jump flower, Renegade Rainbow butterfly, Skitchy Sketch Alpha, Cinnamon Toasted frame, Junky Journaler tag, Wicked Smart number tags, all from Lily Pad; Kim Jensen's flower and cardboard from Audaciously Aweome at Scrapdish

10 cool things about Comic Con!

2011-10-19T00:54:00.001-04:00

So here's what I loved about New York Comic Con!

1. Costumes. Imust have seen every kind of character at Comic Con. There were Ghostbusters withblinking proton packs. I stood on a line with Aang and Prince Zuko. There werelots of Doctors, X-Men, anime characters, cute little kids in superherocostumes, a Boba Fett Chicken and even a big Bumblebee.

2. Celebsightings. I didn’t get into the big Avengers panel or see the Jay and SilentBob podcast, but I did see a few celebs. I know there were even bigger namesthere – but I didn’t bother going to the autograph area. I think it’s insanethat people charge for autographs. I heard it cost $100 to get an autographfrom Mark Hamil! But here’s who I did see:

>Wylie Dufresnewas on a panel about comics and food. He’s always one of my favorite judges onTop Chef and it was pretty cool to hear him talk about creativity and eveneggs! (If you watch Top Chef you’ll get why! He’s a “notorious egg slut,” toquote Anthony Bordain.)

> I went into awrong panel and saw Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine. He was promotinghis new comic, Orchid, which sounds pretty bad ass.

> Kevin Brown whoplays DotCom on 30 Rock was talking about running for president.

> Ian McNieceplays Winston Churchill on Doctor Who.

> And the ScienceChannel panel had the crew from Oddities (which my brother always makes mewatch when I’m at his house), Gene Roddenberry’s son (who was promoting adocumentary he made about his dad), and Michio Kaku.

3. Star Warscrafts! I had so much fun at the Star Wars craft panel. My poor “AdmiralSackbar” looks so bad. Some other people dressed theirs up like Doctor Who orYoda. The panel was hosted by Bonnie Burton, who wrote the Star Wars CraftBook. She has the coolest job – blogging for Lucasfilms.

4. The Doctor isin. It was just too awesome seeing so many Doctor Who fans. There were peopledressed like the 10^th and 11^th Doctors. I even saw aTARDIS, an Amy Pond and a Weeping Angel. (Don’t blink!) There was a lady whomade a TARDIS back pack and there were t-shirts, toys, posters. I now own asparkly TARDIS t-shirt, Doctor Who lunch box and two prints.

5. AwesomeT-Shirts. They had shirts for just about every show and character, as well asspoofs of them.

6. Toys. Therewere so many toys on display and for sale. There was a cool display of actionfigures fighting each other. And there were some great 80s toys, like Jem andVoltron.

7. Artists Alley. Thiswas one of my favorite parts of the con. There were so many artists sellingtheir prints and happy to talk about their work. There were lots of creativetakes on super heros, from baby Justice League to zombie Spiderman. And therewere cute and quirky artists, too. Katie Cook was doing custom drawings and Igot a picture of Penny!

UrbnPop Display

I got a Yoda and Princess Leia

Battle Pug!

8. The Displays.This stuff was so cool. A giant Optimus Prime. Action figure packages you couldpose in. A big Just Dance stage (where people in costume were grooving). Giantbanners of the DC characters.

9. Free stuff! Ididn’t take home too much swag, but there were lots of give aways of comicbooks, tote bags, pins and t-shirts. I did get a cute little Bumble Bee!

The one I got was a lot smaller

10. Cool people. Igotta say people at Comic Con were awesome. People in costumes were happy topose for pictures. Everyone in line geeked out over common interests while wewere waiting. The artists were really amazing. And even though some celebscharged money, I heard stories about some walking around and signing stuff. Itwas a big, nerdy love fest.

Doctor Who taking pictures of some X-Men

Comic Con: Nerdy tweets

2011-10-15T21:30:00.001-04:00

I just spent the last two days at New York Comic Con and I am exhausted! Pow! Bam! Splat! I took a ton of photos that I want to share, but first I want to share my nerdy twitter moments!

Can you see me there in the background! I was at a Star Wars craft panel where we made Admiral Sackbar puppets - and a few people made him a Doctor Who cosplayer. These were taken and posted by Bonnie Burton, who wrote a pretty cool Star Wars Craft Book!

The one on the left is my puppet and he's wearing my "Bowties are Cool" pin.

And I got retweeted by Science Channel! I thought that was too funny. I did feel smarter after listening to Michio Kaku talk about types of civilization, the future of energy, possibilities of space travel. That kind of stuff really blows my mind. I love science types who can make big theories understandable.

I'll have more on Comic Con soon!

Sneezing on Saturday

2011-10-08T15:21:00.001-04:00

It's a gorgeous Saturday here in NJ. The weather is beautiful. We were suppposed to go apple picking today, but I overslept. And I have a sinus infection! Blah! I'm cranky!!!

Anyway, enough of the pity party. Here are some new pages!

Here's my tribute to my favorite British TV shows! Credits: Kate Hadfield's Cool Britania, Great British Alpha and Bonfire Night from Lily Pad, Papers by Amy Wolff from Calico Cabin from Lily Pad, Lauren Grier's Longtime Sunshine alpha from Sweet Shoppe

Here are some pics from the Hoboken arts fest. I loved the border so much on this page that I didn't add a thing to it. Credits: Amy Wolff's Puddle Jumpers White, Metro alphas and All About You alphas from Lily Pad

I used the questions in Amy's new kit for this one. Credits: Amy Wolff's All About You Kit and Alphas from Lily Pad

Lately......

2011-10-04T01:59:00.003-04:00

I'm slacking at blogging lately. I blame the new fall TV season. So many things to catch up on! Glee, The Office, Big Bang Theory, Parenthood, How I Met Your Mother, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Community, Parks & Rec, Vampire Diaries, The Good Wife, Grey's Anatomy. My DVR list is way longer!

One of my new favorites this season is Ringer on CW. I was never a big Buffy fan, but I do like Sarah Michelle Gellar, since back when she was Kendall on All My Children. She plays a character pretending to be her own twin sister. Lots of good twists so far to keep me watching. I've also checking out 2 Broke Girls, Up All Night, and Person of Interest, and I'm waiting for Grim and Once Upon A Time to get started.

*****

One of my other obsessions lately has been the book Ready Player One by Ernest Klein. If you like video games, the 80s, sci-fi or anything geeky, you will love this book! I have been listening to the audio version by Wil Wheton and I can't help but giggle whenever he reads something about Star Trek. I usually only listen to books in the car, but I stayed up listening to it last night because I couldn't wait for the ending anymore.

The book is based in the 2040s, the not so distant future, and the world is pretty much a mess after wars and an energy crisis. People spend most of their time in a video came/alt-reality/social network called the Oasis. The guy who created the Oasis, who was obsessed with sci-fi, the 80s and video games, died and left behind his fortune to whomever can find an Easter egg he hid in the game. The main character, Wade, and the other hunters are obsessed with this quest and try to find the clues to win the game before an evil corporation beats them to it. It's good nerdy fun - and I just started listening all over again.

*****

I've spend the last few weekends having some fun in Hoboken. I had a great day with my friend Amanda checking out some cool art, making fun of the crappy art, and stopping for Indian food for lunch. I bought a sort of screen print of the Statue of Liberty, which I haven't taken a photo of yet. I really loved all the local art - if I ever have a house I want to have a Jersey room. Here are some of my favorite Jersey scenes.

Bruuuuuuuuuuce! You know I need this!

This weekend, I took Penny to the Dog Parade. Lots of cute doggies in costumes and free stuff for Penny. It's hard to take photos when Penny's around other dogs because she can be nuts, but here are some of my faves...

She was an American girl...

These treats were not free but looked better than people food.

September scrapping

2011-09-24T00:26:00.002-04:00

I'm so glad I have been in the mood to scrap! I got to crop with my scrapping buddies last weekend and got a few more pages crossed of my list.

I took Penny to the park where we met up with Randi & Rocky and got some cute pictures.
Credits: Amy Wolff's Sweet September Papers, Junky Journalers and Petal Pops from Lily Pad

I scrapped my award from the AP along with a picture of us from the ceremony and the pages that one the award. Credits: Little Help From My Friends fundraiser kit, Amy Wolff's Remember When corners and strips, Shawna Klingerman's Stitched Shapes

Here's an old photo of my and my siblings. Credits: Amy Wolff's Calico Cabin from Lily Pad

T showing off her sense of style. Credits: Jen Caputo's Shape Collection 2, Rachel Young's Fat Alpha, Rachel Young and Jamie Young's Tweet Heart

Four pages worth of photos from St. Patrick's Day this year! Credits: Jennifer Barette's Happy Go Lucky, Heather Hess's Hip To Be Square Alpha, Janet Phillips' 365 Templates, Traci Simms Bitz and Pieces Dated

And here's K showing off a t-shirt my mom made for her in honor of her favorite team.

Credits:Amy Wolff's Puddle Jumpers Cardboards, Calico Cabin frame & paper, Offset alpha, Recollection star - all from Lily Pad, Wicked Smart by the Lily Pad Designers, Dani Mogstad's MVP football

The last days of Pine Valley

2011-09-22T13:16:00.000-04:00

I've been a sobbing fool this week watching the last episodes of All My Children. Although I haven't watched regularly in the last few years, I was sad to hear the show and my other favorite soap One Live to Live and being canceled.

I used to make fun of soaps, when my sister and my old roommate used to watch. But soon, I was the one updating them on who Erica Kane was married to lately. I've been watching on and off since 1994. I've been through a lot with this show.

I added AMC to my DVR schedule when the guest stars started coming back - Josh Duhamel, Carol Burnette, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Eva La Rue - along with the return of some old regulars - like Dixie, Zack, Adam, Brooke, Jamie, Babe, Joe & Ruth.

And I am totally caught up in the unbelievable ability of Dr. David Hayward to bring people back to life. It's so perfectly soapy and convenient! I was cheering out loud when they revealed who his latest patient was. I really hope they all get happy endings, especially David and one of my other favorite troubled characters, JR Chandler. I hear the shows will be continuing online, but I don't think it will be the same, especially since Susan Lucci hasn't agreed to appear.

So after the last episode tomorrow, I guess I'll switch over to Llanview and see what trouble Todd Manning is up to.

It's ok to laugh

2011-09-11T15:22:00.000-04:00

If you could use a laugh like me today, check out some of these other Sunday comics.

Does it have to end?

2011-09-04T12:37:00.002-04:00

Summer is usually not my favorite season, but this year I made an effort to really have fun and enjoy it. I didn't go to the beach, but I did spend a lot of time in the city and having fun with my family and friends. I feel a little sad that it's coming to an end.

I was hanging out in the yard yesterday and here's what a I saw.

These flowers make me so happy!

Irene Inspiration

2011-08-30T00:15:00.002-04:00

Since I was cooped up all weekend, I thought I'd work on some crafty stuff...

This is a print I got at the Renegade Craft Fair. I finally found a frame that sort of fit, but it was a few inches too long. I was looking for some funky papers at the craft store use as a matte, but instead I found these Prima leaves which I liked so much better. I love how it turned out!

I did a little bit of scrapping too. Saturday would have been my crop day, but I didn't want to drive so far and get stuck coming home in the storm. I love my random number system! This page was 4 separate items on my list! Credits: Traci Reed's 1 Up and Darcy Baldwin's Scrap with Laura templates, all from Sweet Shoppe.

I don't know if I love this page - but at least it's done. I've been wanting to scrap my karaoke obsession for awhile and took the journaling right off my blog post from a few weeks ago! Credits: Miss Mint's I Rock kit

And, since I got sick of looking at my computer (I was following twitter and Facebook all weekend for storm updates, along with watching Netflix) I started this little guy!

Hurricane plans

2011-08-27T17:40:00.004-04:00

We are hunkered down here at Casa Cabana, which means Mom, Penny and I are sitting around watching TV. I'm baking some cookies. I've got some craft projects to work on, books to read, Netflix movies to watch. I'll be good as long as we don't lose power.

My sister and I went out to the movies before and it was crazy seeing so many boarded up and taped windows. There was hardly any traffic, but we weren't the only nuts at the movies. It wasn't even raining so we figured we'd get out of the house while we still had time.

Mom brought it all the stuff we had outside so my plants and sunflowers are hanging out on the kitchen table.

I'm hoping Irene isn't as big as all the hype.

At the zoo...

2011-08-23T23:20:00.006-04:00

I hung out with some monkeys at the zoo today... And here are some of my favorite photos...

This monkey was posing for me.

A red panda...

A butterfly in the butterfly garden... I really want a better lens!

A tapir...

Hello turtle!

This guy walked right up to pose, too...

And the zoo had these cool Lego sculptures all over!

Glory Days

2011-08-21T14:56:00.004-04:00

I saw two of my good friends play with a band called Senior Moment yesterday. They played about 30 songs at a little poolside block party. Lots of classic rock covers. I thought they were pretty good, especially since my friend Dean's only been practicing with the band for a few weeks. I recorded two of their Springsteen covers. That's Dean singing lead and Jaime on bass.

Here's Glory Days...

And one of my favorite songs, Rosalita...

The weather was nice yesterday - after a week of nothing but clouds and rain. And I got to ride down the turnpike in a convertible listening to some good music. A good start to my week off!

The only bad thing was my point and shoot fell into a puddle and was covered in water. I have it drying in some rice... I really hope it recovers!

More random numbers

2011-08-18T21:44:00.002-04:00

I'm still on a roll with my random number scrapping!

These are some drawings the nieces made me for my birthday. Credits: Irene Alexeeva's Tim Tam Tum and Forrest Polka paper, Lili's Capture alpha (recolored) and Waiting for Spring word art
Credits: Amy Wolff's Ziggy

Credits: Pixel Gypsy's Techno Girl

I saw a page like this ages ago and have been wanting to scraplift it. Of course, I don't have the old bookmark anymore. Credits: Amy Martin's Ribbon Princess's 1& 2, Amy Wolff's Recovery paper and Flergs' Dusk til Dawn white paper.

Credits: Valorie Wibbens' Farmers Market, template by Yin

Maybe I'm Amazed

2011-08-17T00:00:00.004-04:00

On July 16, I got to see Paul McCartney at Yankee Stadium! You may have heard the story about the last time I saw Paul - I checked myself out of the hospital against doctor's orders to go to the concert. And I don't think it was just because of my health, but this show, almost 10 years later, was so much better!

The fun started the Subway. (We took the subway after hearing my friend Krista got stuck in traffic for hours at the show the previous night. After wedging ourselves onto the train, past some very rude people, Randi and I found ourselves near a woman wearing a big "I love Paul" button. She told us she was the president of his fan club in 1964! The train was packed with Beatles fans trying to hold on - including a very tall redhead from Capetown who bumped into us a few times. Not that we minded. The fan club president kept asking him to marry her. She was a hoot.

We spent some time checking out the new Yankee Stadium. We're not exactly baseball fans, but the stadium was pretty cool. All kinds of food and bars - my kind of place. Our seats were waaaaaaaaaaay up in the rafters, so we took our time getting up there.

Then the show finally got started. Paul played lots of Beatles songs and his solo work. He was silly and goofy as usual. He made some funny cracks about the closed captioning and about Derek Jeter having more hits than him, and his drummer did a funny dancing bit.
I got a little teary during a string of songs – Maybe I’m Amazed, I Will, Blackbird and Here Today. which he dedicated to John.

Paul's playing was pretty amazing. He played several different guitars, bass, piano, mandolin and ukulele. For a guy who's almost 70, he sounded great, especially considering the range of his songs - from the softer songs like Yesterday to Helter Skelter.

Fireworks and explosions went off during Live and Let Die, and then the show got even more awesome when Billy Joel showed up and sang I Saw Her Standing There with Paul. Randi and I screamed like Muppets!

Paul played two encores and it didn't seem like he was exhausted a bit. We started our way down from the rafters during Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End and watched from the lower levels so we could beat the crowd to the subway. The ride home wasn't as crowded, but still felt like it took ages - but at least I had lots of good songs in my head.

Credits: Baers Garten's Little Christmas Alpha, Shawna Clingerman's Intensit-he, Amanda Rockwell's Fresh label, Blythe Evans's Funky Mama notebook paper, Gina Miller's I Wanna Rock Guitar

Cure for the Mondays

2011-08-16T23:57:00.001-04:00

Monday was a rainy, nasty day. I had to be up early for a day shift. But I was in the best of moods and here's why....

Waiting...

2011-08-13T13:28:00.002-04:00

I started out with this little pot...

And when it got too crowded, I moved them to some bigger ones...

And now I'm waiting for my sunflowers to open up!

88 more days...

2011-08-11T13:43:00.002-04:00

... and I'm going to Disney World!!! I really can't wait. I'm going with my brother, my sister in law and all the kids and I think I'm more excited than any of them!

I've been to Disney World three times. This photo with Goofy is from a trip around 1982-83? I remember taking the monorail from where ever it was we were having breakfast and I remember my brother pulling on a character's tail, I think it was Pluto, but I also think he had words with Donald! You can just see my sister cowering next to my mom.

I wish I still had those ears! They had my name stitched on the back. :)

Look what happens when I don't try!

2011-08-05T23:33:00.004-04:00

So I've been struggling with my scrapbooking and creativity for a few months now. I never finished enough pages for the book I give my family every year for Christmas. I'd get a few pages done when Kim Jensen or Amy Wolff came out with new stuff since I'm still on their CTs.

To make things worse, my computer is slow. The program I use to organize my kits keeps crashing. My external hard drive keeps shutting off. All that makes digi scrapping nearly impossible. I was thinking about giving it all up!

While I was suffering from scrapper's block, I decided to scale back on things. I've been unsubscribing from newsletters and unliking designers pages. Don't need the temptation. The amount of money I've spent on scrapping stuff - digi and paper - has to be insane.

And while I was at the last crop, I got things going by scrapping for myself. I didn't worry about making a book for anyone else. I decided to scrap some of my own adventures. That's when the mojo started coming back. I stayed a lot longer than I expected and then finished a few more pages during the week.

I keep a long list on an Excel spread sheet with ideas for pages. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by the list, which has more than 100 ideas, I called up a random number picker and made a game of it. It's been pretty fun to revisit some of the older photos that I haven't gotten around to yet. I made a nice little dent in it!

So here are the pages I've gotten done since the crop. I'm not going for trendy or the latest kits anymore. I don't even think I'm going to post to galleries anymore. I just want to tell my stories.

T's dance recital theme this year was "Lights, Camera, Dance." All the songs were from movies and she was surprised when I told her that her ballet dance was set to one of my favorite songs from when I was young, "Somewhere Out There." Credits: Holly Designs and Kate Hadfield's Movie Night.

This is my adorable friend Laila. She is one of the newer members of our karaoke crew. We threw her a little karaoke bachelorette party the night before her wedding. Credits: Laura Banasiak's Gurrrls Night and Water Color alphas.

Here's the Hans Christian Anderson statue from Central Park. I lost the credits on this one, but I'm pretty sure it's mostly stuff by Shawna Clingerman.

And here's the Alice statue. I have been collecting Alice kits for ages and finally put them to good use! Credits: Valorie Wibbens and Jacque Larsen's Unbirthday, Karah Fredrick's Open Book word strips, Cafe J Free 2B word strips, MandaBean and Dani Mogstad's Unbirthday, Tangie Baxter's Wonderland

Kim Jensen has some new school things out and I scrapped this page from my 8th grade yearbook. The yearbook was my first editing gig. It was so lame - dot matrix printed pages and pencil drawn doodles - but I still like looking at the pages. Credits: Kim Jensen's Three R's Alphas, School Zone papers and Elements and Date It Beads from Scrapdish.

I took these pictures of Randi and Rocky in their "matching" jackets back when she still had long hair and have had them on my list for ages. Credits: Gina Miller's Frosted Flakes

My puppy gets into the weirdest spots to hide or just get comfy. Credits: Kaye Winieki's Come Find Me and Green Jelly alphas.

This page is based on my Christmas card, which I didn't send to anyone! Credits: Lauren Grier and Shawna Clingerman's I Believe, Gina Cabrera's Idea Notebook Dec. 2010, Gina Miller's Merry Jingle

This is my friend's very mean dog! She was actually calm this day and let me take photos. She's usually barking and trying to bite me. Credits: A hodge podge of stuffs by Lauren Grier, Dani Mogstad and Krystal Hartley.

One of my friend's birthday parties. These have been sitting on the list for awhile, too. Credits: Cocktail Hour by Christina Renee and Amy Hutchinson.

Penny really loves people and she was so cure with my friends Jaime and Heather. Credits: Krystal Hartley's Puppy Love, Janet Phillips template, Christina Renee alphas

I also made this page for Heather for her birthday. Credits: Valorie Wibbens stuffs and some Tracey Monette stitching.

And here's one I scrapped using Amy Wolff's Krafty Prints from the Aug. BOYC at Lily Pad and papers from her assorted other kits. Word label by Penny Springman.

Renegage Craft Fair

2011-08-04T21:50:00.008-04:00

Back in June I had such a great time browsing and shopping at the Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn. I did a lot of walking - checked out everything once or twice before deciding what to get. And I really liked talking to the people who created the items at the booths, too. I came home with some earrings, a necklace and a few prints that I just love! I took lots of photos too of all the funky and cute stuff I saw!

How cute are these little guys? The woman who made these said her husband drew the critters and she made the dolls. Her husband's art was pretty cool, too. Check out the Wonder Woman and Alice in Wonderland prints.

Since I'm hooked on Words with Friends, I had to get an R tile!

These capes were so cute. I wish they came in my size!

Haha! I don't have a gall bladder anymore! These were from I Heart Guts.

This stuff cracked me up. Thought about getting my brother a big cigarette.

Jersey!

I was wondering if this was a Doctor Who shout out!

I had to have a cute little pug print.

Cool little cameras.

The Breakfast Club

I really wanted the octopus, but didn't get think I had the guts to wear it. So I got the flowery one instead. So then I saw a friend of mine a few weeks ago and she was this same octopus necklace that she got at a different craft show.

These bags were made from place mats. I got one with a cute little hedgehog.

Here's a cute dog I met at the fair.

Some of the stuff I saw was crazy. See the ciggies above or these Mexican wrestler salt and pepper shakers.

My aunt and uncle have dead animals all over their house - I like these better!

And I just loved these cute little animals and pillows. Makes me want to learn how to knit.

Greetings from Berlin, London, California and more

2011-07-30T20:50:00.004-04:00

It's been awhile since I've shared some of my postcards. Some are from friends, some I've picked up along the way. I'm sorry if they bore you, but there's nothing I love more than getting a new one in the mail!

My friend Becky's daughter Hannah spent the semester in Berlin and she remembered to bring a postcard back for me. Who knew they had pandas!

There's no place I want to go more than London and my friend Daphne has been living there.

My friend Amanda, who lives in Japan, came back to the U.S. after the earthquakes and she sent me this postcard from her hometown in California.

California is one of the place I really want to visit so I'm very jealous that my mom recently went to Anaheim for her Moose lodge convention.

Mom also got to go to Disneyland!

Last year, Mom's convention was in Nashville where she got me these Elvis and Johnny Cash postcards.

Here's one I picked up after driving upstate to Albany for the New York AP awards last year.
I found this Beatles cards mixed in with my recent stash. My dad got me this one. I have a ton of Beatles postcards, like that's a surprise!

And here's one my mom found while cleaning out a closet. I sent this to my brother when I was out in Houston working as an intern. My brother and I talked a lot about cartoons when we were in college!

Thursday nights are alright

2011-07-24T22:44:00.003-04:00

One night – almost two years ago – I found something I didn’t know I had in me. I found the courage to get up and sing in front of a bunch people on a karaoke night at my favorite little pub. I’d done it before – mostly with other people though. But it was different on my own. At first I would wait until I had a drink or two and then stand their nervously. I’d think of songs to sing and spend a week learning them, googling lyrics, memorizing all the words, playing them over and over in my car. And people said I sounded pretty good, so I kept on singing.

Now, I keep a list of songs I want to sing on my phone. Maybe I’ll learn them ahead of time, maybe not. I don’t really get nervous. I’ll sing even without a drink in me and I’ll get up there as often as I can. I’ve had people come up to me and say, “You’re the girl who sings at the Rover.” I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing, but I think that’s a riot.

Karaoke night, at least at the Rover and most of the other place I go to, isn’t just about who sounds good. It’s about having the guts to get up there. I have heard people who sound like they should win a Grammy and people who sound like they belong in an insane asylum. My friends and I like to come up with themes (80s nights, guys singing chick songs, power ballads) and try to out do each other with our awesome song selections. We’ll try things out, team up for duets, steal each others’ songs. We cheer for the newbies, but also do our best Simon Cowell impressions. Mostly, we sing along and have a lot of fun.

I thought I’d share some of my favorite things to sing.My list of songs has gotten really long!…

Stay by Lisa Loeb: One of the first songs I sang solo. Don’t need the words on this one!

Madonna’s greatest hits: I love to sing Madonna. Borderline is probably my favorite, but I’ve also done Like a Prayer, Material Girl, Lucky Star, Into the Groove, Crazy For You, Live to Tell, Like a Virgin, Dress You Up, Open Your Heart. Can you tell I’m a child of the 80s? I’m dying to sing Burning Up if I can find a DJ who actually has it.

Pat Benatar’s collection: Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Invincible, Love is a Battlefield, We Belong

Songs that kill my voice, but I love anyway: Joan Jett’s Hate Myself for Loving You, Scandal’s Good Bye To You, Laura Branigan’s Gloria, Bonnie Tyler’s I Need A Hero, Melissa Ethridge’s Come to My Window

Classic Rock: Carly Simon’s You’re So Vain, Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams

I wanna be Chrissie Hynde: Don’t Get Me Wrong, Back on the Chain Gang, Brass in Pocket and I’ll Stand By You

Going Gaga: Bad Romance, Poker Face, Telephone

Sheryl Crow: My Favorite Mistake, The First Cut is the Deepest, Strong Enough

Girl Groups: Be My Baby, Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow

More 80s: We’ve Got the Beat, Let’s Hear it for the Boy, It Must Have Been Love, Voices Carry

Favorite Duets: Because the Night with Dean, Walk Like an Egyptian with Randi, Total Eclipse of the Heart and Poker Face with Heather, Love Shack and Bad Romance with Josh, anything by Madonna with Marianna, Self Control with Karran, Don’t You Want Me with Jaime, Fire and Need You Now with Tony, Time of My Life with John, Beatles with Amanda

I told you that was a long list! (There’s also a list of songs I should never try again.) And I have to say, I never would have gotten up there to sing if it wasn’t for my friend Amy, who got me to sing Bohemian Rhapsody with her playing the American Idol game hanging out at Holly’s party in St. Louis. You created a monster!

Have you ever sung karaoke? What do you like to sing? And let me know if you have any good song ideas for me!

Credits: Kim Jensen and Kate Hadfield's Audaciously Awesome from Scrapdish; Miss Mint's I Rock

Veggie Patch

2011-07-18T10:33:00.008-04:00

This year I really wanted to start a veggie patch. I've never grown anything before, so I thought I'd be happy if I got one tomato. But my little plants are doing really great!

My veggie patch 6.2.2011
My veggie patch. 7.2.2011

I started out with some tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, along with some basil, rosemary and cilantro. Then I added some cucumbers, eggplant and peppers. I'm also growing sunflowers from a little starter kit, which was a gift for my birthday.

I'm using pots - I got them in my favorite color at Target! - because the grassy side of our yard is kind of gross. It's filled with weeds and berries from my neighbors tree. And I wanted to keep my plants out of Penny's reach. The dog house she's afraid of makes a great plant stand!

It has been really fun taking care of my plants and watching them grow. I've been doing a lot of research. I found out my cilantro started to "bolt" because it got too hot. Although it did make for some good salsa while it lasted. The tomatoes were the first to come in - I had forgotten how good tomatoes can be! And now I've got little cucumbers, peppers and an a little eggplant starting to grow.

My nieces came over this weekend and helped me do a little gardening. They helped with watering. Taylor was excited to pick tomatoes. Kylie didn't want to because she doesn't like tomatoes - but she did have her eye on a cucumber.

My family has been asking my secret. I water the plants everyday. Pick off some dead leaves. Give them plant food - that stuff is like crack. And I talk to them. Yeah, that sounds crazy, but I hear that's what great gardeners do. I like to thank them for growing.

My first tomatoes in a salad!

And I really can't wait until they grow some more so I have even more veggies to eat, cook and share with my family. Next year, I plan on expanding.

Here are some more pics...

Cucumber flower

Who knew eggplant flowers were so pretty!

The little eggplant starting to grow

Here's what it looks like now

My sunflowers

A little pepper. It'll be red some day!

Going green

2011-07-13T02:13:00.003-04:00

I can always tell when I need a new pair of glasses because the headaches just don’t go away. I made an appointment at the eye doctor, who told me my prescription hadn’t changed that much and that other problems could be causing the headaches. This of course led me to believe that I could drop dead any minute from an aneurysm because I am a hypochondriac and always think the worst.

I also thought it was time to go for a different look. I’d been wearing wire frame glasses since I was 12, but I decided to jump on the nerdy/hipster bandwagon and go for plastic frames. I had read an interesting article about an online company called Warby Parker in the NY Times. They’ll send you up to five pairs to try on at home and you just send them your prescription info. The glasses all cost $99 bucks. Mine cost a little more because my vision is so bad, but even with special lenses, the glasses were cheaper than my last few pairs.

I instantly fell in love with these green frames and it took me awhile to work up the nerve to order them because they were so different. I also got them in brown, in case I started to feel like Yoda. I love having two pairs because I always seem to misplace my glasses at night and then have to search my room blind as a bat. I think I look cute in them.

I was happy with Warby Parker’s service, even if it was a little slow. They’d recently been inundated with orders after the Times article, but they sent me frequent updates and were very friendly. They’re also now offering sunglasses.

And, the new glasses solved the headache problem. So I can stop worrying about aneurysms.

Finally!

2011-07-12T02:36:00.003-04:00

Check it out (especially if you're using a blog reader!) ... After 10 million years I finally put together a new blog banner! I think it says a lot more about who I am now. And it feels good to do something creative.

Elements I used were by Lauren Grier, Shawna Clingerman, Tracey Monette, Rachel Young, Christina Renee, Baers Garten and Jacque Larsen.

Speaking of creativity... here's my latest page. I used a lot of goodies by my friend Kim Jensen, including her Daisies and Dandelions elements. She really is one of the most original designers out there.

I never get tired of taking photos of flowers with my DSLR!

Credits:Kim Jensen's Daisies and Dandelions, Pop Top Poppers and Date It beads from Scrapdish. Backgrounds from Kim Jensen's Audaciously Awesome and Seriously Stoked from Scrapdish

So... I was going to write a post about some of my summer adventures, but got distracted with the blog design so I'll have to come back later with some more. But if you don't hear from me for the next few days on here or FB or where ever people are hanging out these days (I don't get Google+ yet!) it will be because Dances with Dragons, the fifth Ice & Fire book, is coming out tomorrow. I will be at Barnes and Noble with my birthday gift card as soon as I get up!

Geek TV

2011-07-04T23:13:00.003-04:00

Ok, so recently my sister called and asked what I was up to and I lied and said I was reading or cleaning or something because I was really catching up on some of my nerd shows and didn't want her to know. Here's what I've been watching.

Firefly

Firefly didn’t run very long, but now it’s on Science channel. The residents of Earth have packed up and pioneered their way into the universe. And it’s pretty much like the Wild West out there. I’m such a big fan of Nathan Fillion. I love him in Doctor Horrible and Castle, so it’s fun to watch him on Firefly. Love the quippy, old-timey dialogue. And Adam Baldwin, who I love on Chuck, is awesome as another tough guy, Jane.

Battlestar Galactica

BBC America started showing BSG, but I just couldn’t wait for more episodes. All of them are available for streaming on Netflix. My mom’s away for the week so I have watched nothing but BSG for days. I’ll probably have the whole thing done by the end of the week. Like Doctor Who, I just can’t believe I didn’t watch this show sooner. (I think it might have started when I didn’t have cable) I am so obsessed with this show that I started googling all kinds of things about it and spoiled a lot of the surprises, but I don't care. I think my favorite characters are Starbuck, because she kicks ass, and Gaius Baltar, because he's insane. Also, I am scared of cylons.

Jem

Ok, maybe this isn’t so geeky, but it’s my little guilty pleasure. Jem has been showing on Hub and I love watching because it’s so awful. I love the crazy 80s fashion and the horrible songs. I remember listening to a tape of them as a kid. I could write those songs. Here’s the formula: Title of song. Add some clichés about that title. Repeat title of song, ending on a high note. Outrageous!!! For example, here is a song I will now sing to my pug: Penny is my dog… They say dogs are man’s best friends… But girls can love them too... And we’ll always be together forever…. Penny is my doooooog! Yeah!

Seriously, those Misfits and their cohorts would be considered terrorists nowadays! My favorite character was always Stormer, the nice Misfit. Also, did you know that you dress Ken dolls up in Jem’s clothes since she was a bigger doll.

The only bad part it having this stuck in my head all day: “Jem is truly outrageous, truly, truly, truly outrageous. Oooooooooooh, Jeeeeeem the music’s contagious, outrageous...” I will have to go watch some more BSG to make me think of something else!

Grandma's 80. Seriously

2011-06-27T22:09:00.010-04:00

On Sunday, my Grandma turned 80 years old. And really, I think she could pass for 60! My Grandma is really one of the most amazing people I know. She retired from her job, but still works in the schools and at an after-care program. She still shovels the snow outside her house. She takes care of her older aunts. She grew up in the Depression and I think she has finally gotten out of the habit of storing little bits of string or other things you wouldn't throw out back then. She raised six kids and now she like to play with her great-grandchildren and even great-granddogs. She's done a lot of traveling and has been to almost every state in the U.S. She fought breast cancer and won more than 15 years ago. She's a great baker. She writes letters to the editor or to her representatives when she's thinks there's a problem that needs taking care of. She's a volunteer. She has a long list of people to whom she sends birthday cards. She goes to the hairdresser just about every Saturday and to church every Sunday. And my cousins and I were remarking how she's getting kind of snarky and telling us some surprising stories now that she's getting older. I could go on and on.

For her birthday, we had a big party at my uncle's girlfriend's house. She's got a great big yard and a pool, which kept the kids busy. Grandma knew we were having a party, but didn't know who was coming - her son who lives in Massachusetts, along with two of his grandkids, some old family friends and almost all of her nieces and nephews, in addition to the rest of her children and most of the grandchildren and great-kiddos.

I didn't know what to get Grandma, so I made her a page based on an idea I found on Pinterest and she really loved it. It was being passed around the party before she could even get a good look at it!

Here are some pics...

Grandma opening her gift.

See what I mean ... she doesn't look 80!

Time for blowing out candles.

Here's Grandma with the grandkids who were still there when we were taking photos.

Getting a photo with the youngest generation was a bit more challenging.

And Grandma dared Diane, a good family friend, to jump in the pool - and she did!

Derek woke up from his nap as soon as he heard Happy Birthday and started clapping.

I really am so lucky to have my Grandma in my life and I'm so glad she had a great day. I know because she's also the kind of person who sends thanks you notes and emails and makes thank you calls the next day.

Happy birthday to me!

2011-06-18T19:36:00.015-04:00

I have really been neglecting my blog, but I’m hoping to change that. I want to document some of my recent adventures, especially in case I get scrapping again. These last few weeks have been pretty busy, but really awesomely fun. I had a week off for my birthday. I’ve started a little veggie garden in my yard. We’ve been grilling a lot. I’ve been hanging out with the kiddos, reading a ton, obsessing over Game of Thrones (the show and the books), watching summer movies and spending a lot of time in New York City. I’ve also taken a ton of photos. So here it goes. Here’s how I spent my birthday week.

THURSDAY, May 28:
Even though I still had work the next day, I declared Thursday the start of my vacation. We threw a bachelorette party for my friend Laila at karaoke ! We had crowns for the girls and sang lot so fun chick songs.

Me & the bride-to-be. Like our tiaras?

FRIDAY:
See work reference above.

SATURDAY:
We spent the afternoon at my brother’s having a little bbq. Then it was off to the Rover for my friend Adolfo’s karaoke birthday party. I made my awesome chocolate cake, which was a big hit.

Birthday boy and world champion

SUNDAY:
I hung out with Randi in the afternoon. We had lunch at Chee Burger Chee Burger. The burgers are ok, but we really like the shakes and the dipping sauces that came with the fries and onion rings. Then we laughed our asses off at Hangover 2.

I went to the city at night to a little going away party for my friend Karran at the Pony Bar. Karran is one of the reasons our karaoke nights are so much fun and it’s just not going to be the same without him. The city was filled with sailors for Fleet Week – I really laughed at the sailors outside the peep shows. Pony Bar has really good craft beers – I especially liked the Dogfish Head Black & Blue, which had a nice blueberry flavor. We had falafel and gyros around 3 a.m. and sang on the bus on the way home. The other passengers thought we were nuts, but we had so much fun.

Mmm, black and blue beer!

Here I am with the boys - Karran, John and Adolfo - my karaoke buddies.

MONDAY:
I don’t remember what I did Monday. I probably slept late! I know mom and I took Penny over to Bergenline to watch WNY’s very sad Memorial Day parade. My town has skimpy parades and horrible turnout for Memorial Day and Flag Day, but huge parades for cultural days. I boycott those!

TUESDAY:
This was probably the hottest day ever and I spent it walking all over New York City. I took the ferry into the city and had a lovely lunch at ‘Wichcraft (owned by Top Chef’s Tom Colicchio) in Bryant Park.

Outside the Met

Then I went to see the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the Met and almost passed out! It was probably a combination of the weather, the crowd (it was packed!) and the creepy music and sets. The exhibit was pretty cool – the costumes were exhibited in different settings that reminded me of a haunted house, a pirate ship and a Tim Burton music box. I usually love the Met so much, but I didn’t stay long because almost passing out really freaked me out.

The rooftop exhibit was lame!

After leaving the museum, I decided to walk around Central Park and I surprisingly felt better even though it was so nasty outside. I found some the Alice in Wonderland statue, which I have always wanted to see!

Hello Alice!

And here's Hans Christian Anderson and the Ugly Duckling.

Once I got back to Jersey, I spent the rest of the day relaxing and busting my gut while reading Tina Fey’s Bossypants.

WEDNESDAY, June 1:
Well, I turned 35 but don’t feel any older. Mom and I did some shopping at Target and Home Depot and got more stuff for the yard. And I got myself a few presents. Then Randi, Brian and I went to Eataly in the city and had some amazing food.

THURSDAY:
I planted the cucumbers, peppers and eggplant that I had bought the day before. I’ve never been into gardening before, but my plants are looking good!

My first tomatoes!

I had a nice lunch with mom and Grandma at Sorrentino’s and then got a mani-pedi.

If you were thinking my actual birthday was uneventful, that’s because I was saving it up my karaoke party! It was really so much fun and lots of friends came out. I must have sang about 10 songs!

I got the whole birthday sign to myself!

Heather and me singing Total Eclipse.

With two of my best friends Amanda and Shannon - we're thinking of forming a Wilson Phillips Ccover band.

Lisa made me brownies. I look hilarious.

FRIDAY:
And even after my party, I got up early the next day and went to the city to get my hair cut. I’ll never get it to look as good as Stacy does!

Later that night, I met up with Randi and Brian at the Greek Festival in Tenafly, where we ran into some other friends and had some good Greek food and yummy pastries.

I think the rest of the weekend was uneventful. I made some cake balls that looked horrible, did some reading, made some salsa with fresh cilantro from my yard. Then it was one last hurrah at open mic night, where a really amazing guitarist from Canada stopped by and wowed us all.

They look gross, but tasted good!

So that's my big week off. I'll leave you with some of my birthday gifts - some books from Randi and a few I got myself. ...

And a sunflower pot from my friend Leticia. It's one of my favorite gifts ever.

Sometimes I scrap

2011-06-13T20:38:00.004-04:00

I have been wondering what happened to all that time I used to spend scrapping? Who knows? I have so many crafty ideas, but don't seem to get around to them! I did do some scrapping for my creative teams recently.

I can't believe how grown up T is getting! She was playing on her own at her sister's soccer game when I took these pics. I used Amy Wolff's Recovery kit from Lily Pad.

K is such a crazy kid. She has more energy than the Energizer Bunny. She can play t-ball and soccer in one day and still have energy to dance around like a crazy maniac! I used Kim Jensen and Kate Hadfield's Audaciously Awesome kit from Scrapdish & Lily Pad.

On the telly

2011-06-12T22:39:00.004-04:00

I’ve been crazy about British stuff forever. The music, the books, the actors, the history, the accents. I even followed West Ham football for awhile when I had a British roomie. Sigh! I seriously want to go to the UK!

My new British obsession came about when we switched from Cablevision to Fios and BBC America became part of my lineup. There were a few British shows I already loved, but now I’m really hooked. Here are some of my past and present faves.

Couplings: (Netflix) It’s like a British version of friends, but a bit spicier since they can get away with a lot more on the BBC. So very funny and I developed a huge crush on Jack Davenport, who you may know from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

The Office: (Netflix) One of my favorite things about the original Office was its limited run. It doesn’t have the same heart that the U.S. version has, but the cringe-worthy moments are excruciatingly awesome and Ricky Gervais is a maniac. The British version of Jim, who is called Tim, is played by Martin Freeman, who will be Bilbo in the Hobbit!

Extras: (HBO) Another hilarious Gervais series. I love all the celebrity cameos, like Daniel Radcliffe hitting on Ashley Jensen. And the show within a show is just a great spoof on the sorry state of sitcoms. “Are you havin’ a laugh?”

An Idiot Abroad: (Science) This show had me laughing so much it hurts. Ricky Gervais and his partner in crime Stephen Merchant send Karl Pilkington around the world to see the Seven Wonders. They describe Karl as a real-life Homer Simpson. The guy is dumb, but at times brilliant. And as someone who hates to travel, I can relate to some of his frustration as Ricky and Stephen screw around with his plans. They put him up in the worst hotels, make him eat horrible foods and finds endless ways to humiliate him. And the things that come out of Karl’s mouth are unbelievable. “It’s the alright wall of China.”

Doctor Who: (BBC America) This has become one of my favorite shows ever! I’m so obsessed that I got a TARDIS cell phone case. I decided to check it out after seeing a Craig Ferguson episode dedicated to the Doctor. It’s kind of hard to explain the show, but it’s been on in various forms for about 40 years and it got a reboot a few years ago.

The doctor is a time lord who travels in time and space, usually with a human companion, in a space ship that looks like a British police box. The tenth doctor, played by David Tennant, is my favorite, but the current doctor, Matt Smith, is also fun and quirky. There are crazy planets and aliens as well as lots of historical figures that they meet along the way as they save the world and the universe over and over again. I love the cameos by British stars – Michael Gambon in the last Christmas episode and Carrey Mulligan in epsidode Don’t Blink. Some of the aliens and enemies are the creepiest things I’ve ever seen. The mid-season finale was last night and it was just amazing. I think this is turning out to be my favorite season.

Torchwood: (Netflix/BBCA/Starz) I just love Jack Harkness. He can never die and he’s not too hard to look at either. Torchwood is a spin off of Doctor Who (rearranged letters!). Capt. Jack spent some time travelling with the Doctors before he got his own show. He heads up an agency that deals with all the aliens trolling around Wales. The newest season is going to be on Starz this summer.

Merlin: (SyFy) This show feels like it should be on the CW. It’s a silly update of the Camelot stories, in which Merlin, Arthur and Gwen are teenagers. I like it a lot better than the Camelot show on Starz.

Being Human: (BBCA) I’ve only seen the latest season of this show, but I’ve seen the first season of the American remake on SyFy, which I also enjoy. A vampire, a wolf and a ghost live together under one roof. The premise sounds like the start of a joke, but it’s drama and the characters all help each other deal with their conditions and trying to get by in the human world. The BBC version’s Aiden Turner is going to be in the Hobbit.

AbFab: I watched lots of AbFab with my roommate David in college. Boozy broads and lots of hilarity.

The Tudors: (Showtime/BBCA) Jonathan Rhys Meyers made a pretty hot Henry VIII. I loved the richness of the series – the costumes, the sets and all the details. And of course all the fighting, treachery and marriages. One of my favorite stars of the show, Henry Cavill (that's him up there), is going to be the next Superman.

I have even more British series on my to-see list: Sherlock, Gavin & Stacy, Life on Mars, Spaced. But for now, I have a new reason to love BBCA. They just started showing Battlestar Galactica from the beginning. Because I need another show to obsess over.

Reading list

2011-05-11T23:47:00.000-04:00

I finally, finally finished Game of Thrones. And it was awesome! There are a lot of characters to keep track of along with lots of politics, geography and fighting to keep track of, but it takes a lot of unexpected twists that make it all worth it. I think the HBO series is doing a good job with it so far!

So here’s what I’ve been up to since I last updated you all on my reading list.

Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later: (Audiobook) This book was just terrible, but was still fun in a guilty pleasure kind of way. I loved the Sweet Valley High series when I was about 10 through 12, so it I was interested in finding out what the Wakefield twins were up to all these years later. But the writing is just so terrible! I really cringed or laughed at some sentences. I think there’s a reason why Francine Pascal was always billed as the creator and not writer of the series. Ugh!

Unfamiliar Fishes: (Audiobook) I picked up this book after seeing Sarah Vowell on Craig and I thought it was funny, interesting and all kinds of delightful. My mom happened to be working on her Hawaii scrapbook while I was listening to this one so I had lots of pictures to refer to! Vowell tells about the period of Hawaii’s unification up until American annexation. But it’s the funniest, snarky-est history lesson I’ve ever had. She has a lot of celebs reading the parts of notable/notorious characters, which made it even funnier.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen: I absolutely loved this book! I really loved all the bits of circus history (and postcards!) woven into the love story. Even the animals are great characters. And the ending is one of my favorites ever. Way better than the movie.

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness: (Audiobook) I started listening to this one for a second time. I think of it as a mash up between Outlander, Twilight and Harry Potter. It’s very academic and some parts are tedious, but I found myself making extra turns around the block so I could listen a bit longer. The story is about a witch (one who doesn’t like to use her magic) who discovers an ancient manuscript that holds lots of secrets and falls in love with a vampire along the way. And no one else in the book is happy about any of that. This is the first of a series, so I’m looking forward to the next one!

Witch and Wizard by James Patterson: I hated this book. I couldn’t wait for it to end. Trying too hard to be cool for the YA readers, but no.

Portrait of a Lady by Henry James: (Audiobook) After Middlemarch and Vanity Fair, I was looking for something similar. I liked this one, but didn’t love it as much as the others. I didn’t like the heroine – well I did up until she gets married – and it kind of went downhill from there for me. Isabel Archer starts out as independent and adventurous, but then she gets mixed up with the wrong people and makes horrible decisions.

Battle of the Labryinth/The Last Olympian: The last two books were a great ending to a great series. I couldn’t put them down. Plus, according to the map at the front of the Last Olympian, the Titan’s camp was right around where I live!

Solo: A Novel by Emily Barr: It’s hard to like a novel when you don’t like the main character, a famous British cello player. She admits she’s a bitch – and yeah she has a lot of issues – but I think it took too long to make her likeable. I don’t even remember how this book ends!

Next up: I'm working on George R.R. Martin's next Fire & Ice Book - the Clash of Kings, as well as a book about wolves called Shiver. I downloaded a bunch of audiobooks to get through the next few weeks once I'm done re-listening to Discovery of Witches.

Really want to read: Tina Fey's Bossypants, Lies Chelsea Handler Told Me and Charlaine Harris's new Sookie book, Dead Reckoning.

Happy belated NSD!

2011-05-09T23:13:00.005-04:00

I hope my scrapbooking friends had a fun NSD this year! I didn't scrap, but I did hit a few sales. On Saturday, I had a lot of running around to do before Mother's Day, then I went to the movies and then to a college newspaper reunion (and forgot my camera!). It was a crazy weekend!

But I wanted to check in to show I'm still alive and to show off that I actually finished one whole page today! I have just lost the bug and it sucks. I have so many ideas for pages and I keep buying kits, but I just can't find the time/energy/desire to get back to scrapping. I missed the crop this month because it was Derek's bday party and the next one falls on Taylor's first communion day. Seriously, my mom has been scrapping more than I have!

While I was checking out my lack of scrapping and blogging I noticed there were a bunch of pages I never shared here. So now it's going to look like I'm not so lazy after all!

Taylor and Rocky happened to be visiting on the same day and Taylor was talking about how they've been friends for along time. She is just too sweet with the pups!
Credits: Credits: Kim Jensen's Butterfly Fields papers and paper butterflies from Scrapdish;
Kitschy Digitals' Fresh Blooms flowers; Shawna Klingerman and Lauren Grier's Besties kit from Sweet Shoppe; Amy Wolff's Calico Cottage journal block and Cinnamon toasted frame (recolored) from Lily Pad

I think Penny's ears look so funny when they flip over! We call it the "Crazy Ear."
Credits: Rachel Young's With You from Lily Pad; Natali Braxton's Spring Alpha Beads; Lili's Us arrow from Lily Pad

Here are some scenes from Kylie's 5th birthday party. Credits: Libby Pritchett's Charles Edward Limburger (The name of this kit cracks me up!) and Janet Phillips' Too Many Photos 62 template from Sweet Shoppe

Kylie is a serious Bieber fan! My sister-in-law can get her to eat things by saying it's JB's favorite. Credits: Valorie Wibbens and Creations by Tina Marie's Stinkin Cute from Lily Pad, Shawna Clingerman's Dirt don't hurt alpha from Sweet Shoppe

And here's what I set out to show off. My nieces and nephew are just getting so big! Everything here is from the May 2011 BOYC at Lily Pad except for Shawna Clingerman's Sketchy Graph Alpha from Sweet Shoppe.

iPhone Photos

2011-04-09T15:38:00.005-04:00

I seem to be taking a lot of photos with my phone lately. Some of these are older, but I love 'em.

It's so easy to grab the phone when I'm torturing Penny! I though she'd look funny with the bandana around her head.

She always looks so cute hogging the blankets.

Here she looks like she's saying "Let me sleep."

And there's the tail sticking out...

Penny wanted to come with me to Atlantic City.

My friend Dean's dad was in the group the Knockouts. They had one big hit - Darling Lorraine, but Dean's dad still performs around NJ.

Here's a view of the AC beach - it was pretty cloudy and my Hipstamatic app made it look kinda cool.

My friend Tony has been raving about these muscles for two years.

Here are some chicks dancing on the bar at Bally's Wild West.

My friend Krista sent me an awesome surprise! We love the show An Idiot Abroad. I've read a few pages so far and it's hilarious.

I loved finding this book right outside the kids section at B&N.

Here's a cake we had at our last crop!

And here's a craft project I was working on this morning. I am covered in black and blue paint.

Beer on the brain

2011-03-29T23:30:00.006-04:00

In just three more days, I'm hitting the road for Beerfest in Atlantic City with a bunch of my friends and I really can't wait to get away! I'm just so tired of work right now. We'll be launching the new typefaces while I'm away and I'm so glad I won't have to deal with it!

So I went cropping on Saturday and by some miracle, I was actually in the mood to scrap! Maybe my creativity is coming back to me!

The crop was celebrating its second anniversary so we had a special treat. One of the scrapper's daughter works for Carlo's Bakery in Hoboken - which you may know from Cake Boss - and she made this cake for us. And it was really good, too,

This crop had a strange six-degrees of Jersey reality shows. First there was the cake. Then I scrapped this layout from Uncle Rob's surprise party. The party was at the Brownstone, which is owned by one of the families on the Real Housewives of NJ.

Credits: Catalina Template by Mrs. Wresh at Digi Chick; Lauren Grier's A Million Pieces from Sweet Shoppe; Jennifer Trippetti's Black Satin Alphas, Valorie Wibbens and Sahlin Studio's New Year's Eve alphas from Lily Pad.

Then I scrapped these silly photos from last year's Beer Fest. When I was taking these photos at the Tropicana, I had to scoot out of the way to make room for Jersey Shore's The Situation and his entourage.
Credits: Amy Wolff's Hello Spring papers and elements from Lily Pad's April BOYC and Kim Jensen's Rubdown Alphabetic.

Crazy huh? I don't even watch any of these shows but they seem to have taken over NJ! Well, I also did two other pages (and have one more 2-pager I need to finish up) that have nothing to do with TV shows.

Here's my Penny wearing green on St. Patrick's Day! Credits: Darcy Baldwin's Scrap With Laura templates from Sweet Shoppe, Jennifer Barrette's Happy Go Lucky and Every Day Moments alpha from Sweet Shoppe.

Here's Kylie in last year's dance costume. Credits: Traci Reed's Made 4 U kit from Sweet Shoppe.

March Madness

2011-03-23T00:45:00.004-04:00

March has been a strange month. I saw a bunch of old friends – sadly at two wakes. My family celebrated my Uncle Rob’s 50^th birthday. The Rover did a lot of celebrating - the 15^th anniversary and two St. Patrick’s Day parties. The font conversion project at work seems to have taken over my whole life. At least the weather’s finally getting nicer and the sunshine seems to last a bit longer.

Here’s what march has looked like!

My Oscar recap...

2011-02-27T23:28:00.004-05:00

I was tempted to update my facebook status through the Oscars, but that's annoying. So I saved all my snarky comments for my blog. I'm a little bummed that Anne Hathway and James Franco are lame hosts, but I'm glad some of my faves won. Here's my recap...

- Melissa Leo, just because Russell Brand is presenting, this is not the MTV VMAs. Please don't curse at the Oscars!
- Kirk Douglas should make a film with Betty White.
- There was a really sappy commercial for cat food. A guy built a room for a cat and proposed to girl. I need to meet someone who would build a room for Penny.
- I thought Night & Day would win Best Animated Short, because it was before Toy Story. I like Jake Gyllenhall's comments: See short films and increase your Oscar pool chances!
- Yay Christian Bale! So weird to hear him speak in his own accent. He definitely doesn't sounds like Batman.
- Why did Anne Hathaway need to sing that ode to Hugh Jackman? At least James Franco looked funny in a dress.
- When I think of Social Network, it's not for the score. Trent Reznor winning an Oscar -> weird.
- Zack Levi from Chuck is singing with Mandy Moore. Songs from cartoons always look out of place on the stage. (Except for Randy Newman's songs)
- All these lines sound like someone on FB wrote them. "Congrats nerds." "That's gross."
- Randy Newman and the King's Speech writers gave my favorite speeches.
- I like the auto tune clip better than the song performances.
- The death reel made me cry because I can't stand Celine Dion!
- Too bad they didn't bring back Billy Crystal and Bob Hope to host for real.
- Glad to see Inception winning technical awards. I loved that movie.
- Best director goes to the King's Speech director Tom Hooper.... I thought Fincher had it in the bag for Social Network. I didn't pay attention to the speech because I was playing bejeweled d'oh!
- I always like the Thalberg award presentation - too bad that got cut out.
- Sooooooo glad they got rid of the 5 actors presenting the other actors. I want to see clips! I guess it's not so bad having Jeff Bridges making these comments.
- I did not recognize Michelle Williams. Nice hair cut.
- Congrats Natalie Portman! That dress is lovely!
- Maybe Sandra Bullock should host the Oscars? She's funny.
- And the Oscar goes to Colin Firth!!!!! Yay! Good night for two of my favorite British actors!
- I wonder how my times Anne Hathaway "whooo"-ed during the show?
- I like this best picture montage. I've seen all these movies!
- And the King's Speech beats the Facebook movie!!! And it's only 11:36.
- These kids singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow are kinda cute. Nice to see all the winners on stage. And there's one last whooo from Anne.

I'm done talking about movies for now! Even if you didn't watch the Oscar or don't care about them, I'll leave you with one of my favorite stories from the awards season. It's about a former actress who became a nun, but is still a member of the Academy. It's got a great headline: Mother Dolores Hart: The Nun Who Kissed Elvis

Make that 10!

2011-02-27T02:23:00.002-05:00

Netflix came through for me and sent the Social Network. So I'm even more excited about the Oscars tomorrow. I will say I think the Facebook movie was a lot better than I expected it to be. Jesse Eisenberg was great and so was Justin Timberlake - they were both kind of douchey. But I think my Facebook feed has more drama. It was a lot sitting around at computers or in depositions. I did like the writing and how the story unfolded, but I don't think it was my favorite movie of the ten. My money's still on the King's Speech.