Happy New Year!

I think this is the first time I've been awake to bring in a new year in several years. And, I think it's all because I took an allergy pill at about 6pm....I'm wired! I'm sitting here in the dark in the scrapbooking room and can see fireworks out the window. I hope the Mabank VFD is on their toes since a lot of us do live in the middle of hay meadows. No resolutions for the new year. There are many things I would like to accomplish but why resolve to do them...SLACKER! Ok...Lose a little weight, organize the cabinets and closets, re-organize the scrapbooking room (again), work in the flowerbeds, get the pavers down, quit spending so much on Ebay, keep your mouth shut....

See? Lots to do! Happy New Year!

Chicken Road

I'm working on my next swap (due tomorrow! Arg!). It's called "My little corner of the world". What you do to participate is take 8 to 10 pictures of your town and send them to your partner. The partner I send to is in NY state. The partner that sends to me is in Australia. I've taken pictures of the new High School and other stuff around Mabank but, I couldn't pass up a picture of what Billy and I call "Chicken Road".

I don't think the picture even needs explanation! A couple of weeks ago we were going to MeMe & Paw's for dinner and, as usual, we left the house via the Chicken Road. Billy was cruzin' down the road and I saw Kat1 on the left hand side of the road and I hollered at Billy "Don't run over Kat1" then I looked up and there were about 6 chickens in the middle of the road and I hollered at Billy "Don't hit a chicken"....too late...there were feathers flying everywhere! I thought it was much funnier than he did. I really think Kat1 was about to pounce on one of those chickens.

I'm not too good at this Dotee Doll thing!

I joined a swap on Swab-bot.com! "A" Dotee Doll! A dotee doll is a small handmade doll that is about 4 - 6 inches long with the hanger and tail. The object of the swap is to make a dotee doll for the letter "A". A on it somewhere. I chose Armodilla! Hey! This is Texas! This is my first attempt. And dang-it....I've already signed up for "B"!?!?!?



Please don't laugh as hard as I did when I showed this to Billy. He was sweet enough to not laugh (to my face) but, did suggest that I take sewing lessons. I learned real quick that I suck at this dotee doll thing but, I intend to stick it out...maybe by "Z" I will have it down!

Maybe I should stick to scrapbooking?

Merry Christmas!

Well! We had a good Christmas dinner. We had a small group, just Me & Billy, MeMe & Paw, our friend Linda, and Billy's Mom Merle. Heather is on call at the hospital and won't be able to leave until 7pm. We are doing our annual after Christmas day run to all the Wal-Marts in seven counties...well, maybe only six...but the plan is: GBC Wally World, then to Ennis, then Waxahachie where we will hit not only the Wal-Mart but the Crafty Scrapper! I got an e-mail that they were selling everything for 40% off tomorrow!! Yippee!

I wanted to post a few pictures we took today. This one is our sweet doggie...CiCi.


This one is us again. I don't look very happy.

Family portrait.

All that enjoyed a wonderful Christmas lunch at the Johnson's.

That's Paw, Merle (I love the way she is looking at Billy), Billy, Me and CiCi in the back.
MeMe & Linda in the front. They look like someone just took their last candy cane!

....Now I must go! My tumbly is kinda rumbly!

Happy Holidays to all!

Working on Scrapbook for Brooke!

Brooke belongs to Jeff whom I share an office with. Brooke is in kindergarten. Jeff wanted a scrapbook of Brooke for his wife Emily for Christmas. I offered to make it for him. Here is the first layout pages.

Brooke loves cows. I found these paper-pieced cows on Ebay. They are cuter in person than when I ordered them or even on this layout picture.


More cows & cow stuff!


The next layout reflects Brooke's love of tumbling.

Weekend at Holly Lake

All was good this weekend. We got to Holly Lake about 4pm on Saturday. Had a little dinner. Went to look at the local Christmas lights. Watched a little TV. On Sunday we drove about an hour and a half into Jefferson. Jefferson is an old town with lots to do. But, all we did was shop the little antique shops. I found a couple of glass dishes...I am addicted to glass dishes. I've been looking for some to put crackers in when we have little get-togethers.

This picture is of the Jefferson General Store.


And here is the Old Mill Antique shop.


Here is an odd picture!


We always have fun at Holly Lake!

Swap-bot.com.....WOW!

This swapping thing really is the best thing since sliced bread! I just got my envelope with my 50pc embellishment and it was super! I'm really upset I didn't send more. I kind of held back because I thought it was supposed to be kinda minimal...boy was I wrong. Look at the pic's and just see what I got!

I got my Cuttlebug today!

Now I can emboss cards with cute stuff! It came with a die that looks like a postage stamp and four different embossing folders. One is a Christmas present (pictured). There is a cupcake to represent birthday, a baby buggy and a heart that says "Love" in it. I can't wait to order oodles of embossing folders on E-bay!!!!



I'm super excited!

Look what I got!

Swap-bot.com Christmas Card & Stickers swap! WOW!MOM!WOW! (that was me doing a somersault) An adorable Santa Christmas card and loads of stickers! I can't wait to use the flowers. All made up with brads & everything!

Look what I made!

Well! I started out pretty good and ended on a rough note. I wanted to make some scrabble tile pendants from some of the papers I got on the "42cent swap #19" on swap-bot.com. All started out well until I stuck my hand on top of the freshly glazed pentants. I added more diamond glaze and set them aside. I was looking for something in my sterilite 12"X12" holders and set one of the drawers right on top of the now freshly re-glazed pendants. So Kimberly? What did you learn? I learned if I ever intend to make more pendants I will find a far out-of-the-way place to set them until they are completely dry! (I do the same thing with stickles!) Here is a picture anyway!

On the treble clef tile you can kinda see the indentation on the top. It kind of looks like there is a ring on the outside of the tile. Oh well! No use crying over spilled milk. They would have been really cute though!
I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! We sure did! We had such a good holiday I forgot to take pictures. I only got one and it was of Heather making mashed potatos! It's on my 35mm and I it was the first pic on the roll. It will be a while before those get developed.
Blog later, Kim

Swab-Bot Addict

I have quickly become addicted to this Swap-Bot.com thing! I have already completed two swaps. The first was a Thanksgiving card swap. I sent Thanksgiving cards to four people and have gotten cards from three of the four that are supposed to send me cards. The second one was an International Christmas card swap. I sent cards to 6 different people. Four from the USA, one from Finland, and one from Australia. I have signed up for two more swaps. One is send postcards to five people with a Christmas recipe on the backside. I got my first recipe today and I kinda copied (like scraplifting) her design. She used an old Christmas card and just cut the front off and used that. She printed off her recipe and taped it on the card. I printed my recipe on cardstock and added address labels. For the side that should have a picture on it I just stamped a Christmas tree from SU's "Solemn Stillness" and embossed in gold. I am mailing those tomorrow. I just signed up for another swap that is for one Christmas card with a sticker sheet. That will be a down & dirty one (quick & easy). Oh yeah! I just looked at my pile and realized I signed up for a Scrapbooking one too. I had to fill a #10 envelope with scraps of paper. I think I overfilled it caused it needed two stamps. It's really turned out to be a fun website. swap-bot.com!!!

November Crop!

Well we had great fun at the crop Saturday! Everyone had great projects to work on. I worked on Christmas cards. Here are some I completed!

Christmas Cards for Swap-Bot

I'm doing another Swap-Bot! This time it's Christmas cards and it is International. I get to send out 6 Christmas cards and two of my 6 people are outside the USA. I'm looking forward to receiving my Thanksgiving cards from the last swap.

These cards were made earlier but, I made them none the less.

Thanksgiving Cards!!

Wow! Two posts in one day! I just finished four Thanksgiving cards. I'm thinking about trading on Swap-bot. It's an interesting website Heather told me about. You can find others that want to trade simple things. The swap I'm thinking about trading in is a Thanksgiving card swap. You send your assigned swap person 4 cards and someone will send you will 4 cards. Here are the cards I made.

Some Recent Pages!! Finally!

I just got finished putting away all my goodies from the retreat in October. I did a couple of pages there that were "make-n-take" that I would like to share. The first one is of our group. We embellished the page with flowers & bling.



We were asked to bring in a pic of ourselves when we were teenagers. First, we played a game with the pictures. Sheri, our retreat hostess, layed out all our pic's and we had to guess whose picture belonged to whom. I won! (look below for my prize). Then we created a page from the items she supplied. The project idea was to write a letter from the future to ourselves when we were teens. I added notes like Have fun, watch out for that lanky boy (Billy), and Love that Brown eyed girl (Heather). Sheri is not only a retreat hostess but somewhat of a therapist!!
I call this page "Note 2 Self"


I want to add a couple of pages I made at our August crop from pictures made last Christmas. Marla made these pictures to put on a website called "elf yourself". The website took your head and put it on a dancing elf body. I saw it on the Today Show. Lester & Jenna were really funny elves. When Marla went to add us they had already closed down the website for the year. Awww! Too bad! So, I found these little "costumes" on 50% sale at Hobby Lobby after Christmas and made my own "Elf Yourself"! First is Santa Elf Billy & Head Elf Kim.


The next page of this layout is Secondary Elves Paw, MeMe, and Gary! This is a great picture of MeMe because Marla got her to smile!


I'm currently working on a calendar kit I got from the auction back in June. All the stuff is there to make a complete "book" type calendar but, I'm adding extra touches to each page. I've gotten the "book" made and have started on January. I really need to be sweeping and mopping floors but, that stuff can wait!!

Successful Retreat

Well, all is good on the scrapbooking front! We made it through our retreat without a scratch! I got all but one of the pages done for our wedding album and just have to added the pages to the album. I took a few pic's while there.
Here is Marla and Heather


Staci & Sandy


Here is H hamming it up wearing Sandy's glasses


And finally, me! I'm holding up my prize for winning the "name the teenager" contest. We all brought a pic of ourselves when we were a teenager and Sheri (the hostess) numbered them and layed them all out for us to guess. I guessed the most and won a paper pack! Like I need more paper! But it was great!

Scrapbooking Retreat

Getting ready for the big weekend! Our scrapbooking retreat at the Crossroads B&B in Lindale. We have always had fun at these retreats and this weekend should be no different! Lots of food, fun (Scrap Crap Poker), and lots of scrapbooking! Here it is a mere 3 years later and I'm going to work on our wedding scrapbook. I started our Honeymoon book and still haven't finished but I intend to focus this weekend on just the wedding....lots of pink and black paper, ribbon, and embellishments. I guess I can finish our honeymoon book at the next crop weekend....November 15th!!!! Next I want to start my "Book about Me!" Because who can tell my story better than me? I also want to do a heritage book for my Mom and one for my Dad. Maybe I can finish those by next Mothers & Fathers day! I think if I am able to finish them before then I will give them early! I have lots of pictures, I just need to organize them and figure out who is in each picture. Daddy has lots of pictures for WWII that have soldiers in them he knows but I have no clue as to who they are??? Well, I've got to finish gathering things up and pack my clothes...oh yeah, we mostly wear PJ's!!!

CiCi - Before & After

Poor Pooch!

We waited way too long to get her groomed!
This is the before!



& here is after!

Lake Conroe

We had a good weekend at Lake Conroe. Nice and peaceful. Except....When we go there and found out our "brand new room", Studio accommodations was more like an efficiency apartment. Really, more like a hotel room with a reallllllyyy dinky kitchen! And, no cable because of Ike. First thing we did was complain. They promised that they would check on Saturday morning to get us into something else but, they were booked!!! There wasn't a grill so all the food I brought to cook for dinner was out...so, let's eat breakfast! That'll work! WRONG! I started the oven to bake biscuits and started frying up bacon and guess what? The smoke alarm (IN THE KITCHEN NO LESS) went off. I flew to the phone and called again...this time had to leave a message! Billy managed to yank the beeping blanker off the wall and stop it. I was fit to be tied! Then, we settled down to eat our dinner and watch our DVD's that we got for free since there was no cable. Watched Larry & Something with Adam Sandler...you know, the one where they act like a gay couple? It was OK...Then was kept up off and on all night because the folks in the next room watched television until 3AM. It all ended well because we got the kind of room we expected and had a grill and didn't have to listen to the neighbors television and got to watch television and even got to watch all the Texas vs OU game!! Hook 'em!!!!

We found the DoodleBug Train in Montgomery Heritage Park!!! I never even knew she worked for the railroad! That dog was full of secret! And we rode the wagon with Mollie and Willie as the pullers!






Here are a few of the sights we saw along the way!

We went to a nursery that I wish was here!