What did you do today?

So I went to work...as always...and then my friend, Eileen, and I went out for some dinner and music. I really enjoyed the evening and all of the songs that Jason played for us. Do you remember Jason from season 7 of American Idol? I do...and boy did my mom love him. :) He played "Somewhere over the Rainbow" with the ukulele which I loved and then an amazing rendition of Hallelujah toward the end of his set. Thanks, Jason...great night and great music. :) So...you are my picture for today, my P.A.D.

Spring is soooo close!!

I simply cannot wait for the warmer days and the sun on my face!! I couldn't resist picking up this very springlike top today when I saw it at the store, it just screamed spring and summertime for me!! So...my P.A.D. for today is my new and very cute top.

Now...bring on the warmer weather and the pretty flowers that grow with it.

Scrap Giveaway

Go on over to this great blog and check out the freebies!!! Honestly there are so many blogs now and it's hard for me to keep up with them all but there are a few that I just have to "follow" when I see their work. :)

Saturday

Spent some time on the treadmill today at the gym after sleeping in until almost noon...still pretty tired from last night's concert but it was so worth it!

Not in the mood for cooking so we decided to get some pizza and I had 2 helpings of salad bar with my own ZERO calorie dressing...trying to stay focused on my Weight Watchers and training for the 5K.

Please click on the button at the top if you want to sponsor me. Thanks! :)

Bon Jovi!!

Wow, what a great concert...no opening band...just Bon Jovi all night...almost 3 hours of music! So for today, my P.A.D. is of Tico Torres, Richie Sambora, Jon Bon Jovi and David Bryan. Always rocking my world every time I see them!!

This is a photo of my winter survival kit...I could not make it through without my huge collection of chapsticks, lip balms and Burt's Bees moisturizing lip shimmers. Luckily I don't have to worry about it because I always keep plenty around!!

February 23rd

My Picture a Day for wednesday...Alex being goofy on the way home from visiting his cousin, Cole. We took the Megabus and our trip was free this go round...yay!!!

Time for tuesday

I took a few photos today and I can't seem to choose which one to use for my PAD so I'll just post 2 of them. I just love spending time with my nephew but what I love even more is seeing my son, Alex, playing with him! I can see that they will be best buds as Cole gets older because Alex is very protective of him already.

Time to get caught up

So it's been almost 10 days since I posted but I have been keeping up with taking my photos for my Picture A Day...still not sure how long I will last but I'm going to do my very best. I worked on a challenge from my scrapbook message board that I am on called Scrap N Chat and it was super fun to do this layout and use some of my goodies from the Quick Quotes private reserve weekend. So this is my picture for the 13th.

Valentine's Day I was working in the evening for the Bingo at work so I had time to run errands during the day and I stopped in and treated myself to lunch. When I came down in the morning Jim had left me a chocolate heart filled with my favorite Whitman's chocolates so I know I'll be enjoying those over the next few weeks....one delicious piece at a time...but I realized I have to hide it now because when I went to get a piece out of the box a couple days ago there were a few missing that I know I did not eat!! Hmmmm, I think I have been robbed by a certain 13 year old...little thief!!! LOL!!! This pizza that I had is called a Crispino and it was pure heaven...it is a thin crust sicilian and I was worried it would be crunchy but it was so soft I was delirious!! Anyone who suffers from TMJ like I do will understand! The cheese was sliced very thin and the slices of tomato were delish as was the fresh basil sprinkled all around with the garlic.

On tuesday the 15th it was a really uneventful day so I just decided to take a picture of my shopping bag that I got from the Quick Quotes company when I went to their weekend last September. Every time I look at the bag it reminds me of how much fun I had and that I can't wait to attend their private reserve event again this year. You really can't help but to be inspired when you work with their products, as well.

On Wednesday the 16th Alex wasn't feeling well and had to stay home from school that day, it was his very first absence since the beginning of the school year and I was a bit disappointed that his perfect attendance was out the window but I certainly wasn't going to force him out the door when he just wasn't up to par. He spent most of the day in this position on the couch and I went to work as usual and checked on him a few times during my shift. I am blessed that I work down the street and if he needed me I would be home in 2 minutes.

For thursday I was out shopping and couldn't resist snapping this photo when I saw how beautiful the sky looked when I came out of the store!! The colors don't really show up too well on my camera but I still had to take it. The temperatures were warmer during the latter part of the week and I could really feel that spring is not too far off although I'm sure we will still get hit with more winter before all is said and done.

Friday would be my last day at work until the 25th since I am taking some much needed vacation time to go visit my nephew Cole (and my sister and brother in law of course!) Alex is off from school all week so I am taking him with me so that he doesn't sit home with nothing to do (which usually means he's on his Xbox for hours). We always have a good time when we visit Virginia and this time I was able to get our bus tickets for free when Megabus was having their holiday giveaway of 100,000 free seats! Yay! My random photo is just one of the new stamp sets that I recently bought from Close to My Heart from my friend, Laurie, who is one of their demonstrators.

And now that brings me to sunday, the 20th. Alex and I had to get up really early because we had to catch our express bus at 9:30 in the city. Jim drove us to the train station so we could catch the 6:40am train that got us to Penn Station at 8:00am and we got something to eat (I had a banana and Alex inhaled a fresh croissant) and then I decided to get some Subway so that we would have our lunch for the bus ride. We were both really tired and Alex zonked out on the train for a while and then I had to rest a bit as well, not to mention the fact that it was brutally cold and we had to stand outside for about 1/2 an hour to stake our spot in line for boarding the bus...that is the only really bad part of traveling on the Megabus in the winter months but you deal with it to save on the fare that I would have to pay for Amtrak.

The bus ride was really comfortable and we made awesome time and got to D.C. at 1:45pm and Paul came to get us and we were at their house in no time. Looking forward to the next few days to spend time with them.

Busy time!

Wow...really been busy lately and I sort of like it that way! I finished up the Valentine goodie bags and brought them to work with me yesterday so here is my P.A.D. for 2/11. I think they turned out really cute and I enjoyed using my name stamp for the first time, I ordered it from Close to My Heart. The topper was made with the Sweet Treats cartridge as I mentioned in a previous post. I am already thinking about what I can make for Easter. I really enjoy giving goodies to my friends at work.

Today I took the test for library clerk, it is a civil service test and I will now have my name on the list for a possible job as a clerk in the future. The test only comes every 3 years so I felt like this was the time for me to take it and get on the list. After the test my friend Jessyka and I went to the outlets to do some shopping and I found my new running sneakers in the Reebok store, they are just awesome and my P.A.D. for today!!!

I went to the gym and already put some fresh new miles on them!! I have been working myself up all week and finally today I completed my first 5K on the treadmill! Now I need to work on my time and get a few minutes shaved off so that I can put in a good time at the Race for Hope in May. Click on the icon above to get to my page and make a donation.

Almost to the weekend!!

I will be so happy when February is history!! Well...that's not entirely true...I have something good coming up at the end of the month. Here is my P.A.D. for tuesday, can you tell what I am going to be doing in 2 weeks with a couple of my good friends? Whoo!! :)

My cricut has really been my best friend lately and I'm so glad that I am learning to use it more every day! It really is a joy to create and learn new things every day. I've started my goodies for Valentine's Day. I also think that having the Expression machine now opens up so many more possibilities for me! I did enjoy having my baby bug for 4 years but now that I've gotten the larger machine I am finding that I am getting more advanced at my die cutting. Not to mention the fact that my cartridge collection has gone up to over 50+!!

Alex's 2nd report card came in the mail yesterday and I am happy to say that after a pretty bad progress report he pulled it out and scored an 86 average for the 2nd marking period!! Sometimes I have no idea how this kid manages to do it because he is so disorganized and his backpack looks like a paper explosion!!! Oh well...I guess it works for him! He also got a 92 on his Living Environment mid-term and this is a regents course so we are pretty damn proud of him! Way to go Alex, keep up the good work!!

This weekend I will be taking a civil service test for library clerk to get on the list to possibly get a full time job as a clerk in the future. The test comes out every 2-3 years (I think) so I just felt like it was time to take it and get on the list. I hope I score well on it.

Middle of the week

Saturday night Jim and I went to see Hot Tuna Blues at the Tilles Center, we had a really great time!! I didn't get such good photos but I chose one that was posted on the site for my PAD. This is Jorma doing what he does best. I really enjoyed all of the guitar playing...I do love hearing the blues, that's for sure.



Sunday I played around with my Cricut in the evening and put together these cute little love bugs to decorate our window by the page desk. I made blue ones for the boys and pink ones for the girls. Aren't they adorable? :)


So my PAD for sunday is all of my cute bugs and my PAD for monday is the window at work all decorated up, not a great photo since the sun was coming through the window but you get the idea, we put everyone's name on the bugs.



Whatever shall we do for March and April? Hmmm, I just love my Simply Charmed cartridge, so many possibilities!!

It is sooo cold tonight, I truly hate winter...when will it end? I think I will warm up with a nice glass of wine and my cricut. :)



I do have a somewhat busy week coming up but I like it that way because time tends to fly by and then before you know it spring will be here!! Yay!! I need to feel the warm sun on my face once again and to see the flowers grow and the leaves begin to bud on the trees.

Here we go!!

It's official, I joined the gym today and started my training for the 5k on May 1st!! Please help cheer me on by donating to this cause or just posting supportive messages, your choice!! Thanks, in advance!! Check out my page by clicking on the logo.

My PAD for February 4th

Pretty happy with the way this turned out! There are 2 photo collages on 2 of the sides and the other sides are where I used the white letters on black poster board.

We are adding quotes to the bottom section but the banners were printed in the wrong size so I wasn't able to finish that today before I left to head home.

I had a nice time at my friend Laurie's open house tonight. Loving the layout she put together with one of the new Close to My Heart paper packs!

Getting my Cricut on at work

Worked on one of the displays at work and I made 2 of these to cover a large wood cube that is on one of our rolling displays, I will try to take a photo of the completed project at work today to post here. I used my Storybook font with my Gypsy and cut the "Black" and "Month" at 4 1/2 " and then "History" I went down to 3 1/2 I believe.

I ordered 70 photos and went to pick them up at Sam's Club so I am hoping to add some of them to a couple of recent layouts I worked on. :)

Time to catch up a bit

It's been a few days since I posted but I have been making sure to take at least one photo each day!! :) I am really going to make an effort at this picture a day thing...we will see how long I last!!

I have had a heck of a time unpacking from my weekend crop back in January and quite frankly it is really hard to be creative when your space looks like a paper explosion!! So these past few days I have been using whatever free time I could squeeze out to just work on cleaning up and putting everything away. My PAD for 1/29 is the before picture of my scrapping space...who could work in that mess? Not me, that's for sure!

And the "after" is my picture for 1/30 and I am pretty happy that I was finally able to clean up and get my space ready to scrap again!! I don't have another weekend planned until August so there is plenty of time for me to be creative at home whenever the mood strikes me so I better have my space ready to go!!

I have recommitted myself to Weight Watchers and getting my body ready for the 5K in May so I have to work with some of the recipes I find on the website or my Weight Watchers cookbook. Jim went fishing over the weekend and we have loads of fresh COD to eat and I used this recipe for a fish dutch oven bake and it was really very yummy!! I am halfway to my goal weight and I am confident that I will get there! My PAD for 1/31 is my fish bake with veggies. Yummy!!

Wow...we are finally out of the month of January and honestly I would love to fast forward right out of February as well but hopefully it will just go fast!! The weather has been just so cold and snowy this winter that I long for the days of summer and can't wait for the warmer weather. In the summer I take so many photos because we are outside more and the sunny days make for great photography and then I can spend the winter months scrapbooking all of my summer photos! I guess you can say I am a scrapbook Queen in the winter...and a beach baby in the summer. :)

Today I took my Gypsy to work and she did a fine job on the Black History Month display I was working on for the main floor of the library, I was so very proud of her and how hard she worked...she didn't even take her 15 minute coffee break, can you believe that? It's a good thing she's not the type to let compliments go to her head because she got so many of them today. I will venture to guess that she will be coming to work with me quite a bit in the future, maybe they should put her on the payroll...she's all dressed in her pretty pink, she could blend in and be a library page, don't you think? It was fun to get crikeeee at work :)