My Birthday Crop...let's try this again...

          I spent over an hour working on this last night, giving up at around 12:30 am.  After all the frustration of my pics not posting, I now discover that NONE of it was saved/posted.  Another learning experience I guess. haha
          I was lucky enough to have my best bud, my niece Sarah, join me again for an overnight SCRAPBOOKING PARTE'!  A bonus this year was the 1st overnight & crafting visit of my sister-in-law, Deb.
          For the past few years, Michael & Wesley have been going to stay with Grandma Stream, leaving the house free for my girls' weekend.  The only male lucky enough to hang with us was our cat Rusty.  Myself, Sarah, Deb, Dakota, Smoke & our kitten Squirrel all enjoyed our 'girl time', without the loud, masculine influences (& interruptions) of Michael & Wesley!
          We started out our weekend with a trip into town to develop Sarah's film (from a disposable camera) from her son Brandon's horrible accident last Halloween.  She thought that she would be able to look at and work with the photos by now....after trying to scrap them, she realized that she wasn't quite ready yet.
          During our wait for the film to be developed, we enjoyed an inexpensive treat of lunch at Mancino's.  From there we checked out Dollar General for some decorative boxes that Sarah & Deb had been seeing, as well as a trip into Peeble's for nice work shirts for Sarah's new teaching position.  We then visited Grandma Veerman & Aunt Annetta, discussing our girly plans for future play dates, including a possible overnighter at Grandma Veerman's beautiful, large home, before returning to my home to start crafting. 

  

A lot to catch up on!

  Wow!  It's hard to believe that I haven't posted here for so many months!  But...life happened...for a long time apparently!
  I'll have to spend a fair amount of time posting layouts that I have completed since last visiting, as well as photos of life in my little world.
  Let's work our way backward, okay?  While currently working on our taxes, I once again consider whether or not to continue selling products.  Yes, it pays for MOST of my own supplies, but the physical labor, time, & expenses involved with the packing, hauling, unpacking, displaying....packing back up (although this last sale sent MUCH fewer product home with me!), hauling, & unpacking/displaying again........very low income per hour, oftentimes at a loss in fact, but the physical tole & stress have the most impact for me.  We are not getting any younger, but I DEFINATELY must get back into better shape!  Fibromyalgia does not differentiate between 'fun work' & just plain 'work'.
  Okay....back to the basics.  The past 2 weeks found us celebrating Wesley's 8th & my 48th BIRTHDAYS YEY!!!  We had a couple of neighborhood friends over for Wesley's birthday cake & ice cream.   Good times!
  I was lucky enough to (once again) celebrate my birthday with my best bud, my niece Sarah, who comes up for an overnight SCRAPBOOKING PARTE' !!!  A bonus this year was the 1st overnight stay & crafting visit by my sister-in-law, Deb (Kozak) Gleason!  We had sooo much fun that we stayed up until 3:15 Sunday morning, NOT EVEN MAKING IT TO THE CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN THIS YEAR:<   (Pics to follow haha)
  Michael & Wesley made their usual trip to Grandma Stream's for the weekend, so that we girls could have the house to ourselves.  There was one lucky male in the household though, our cat Rusty.  Otherwise it was myself, Sarah, Deb, my devoted Dakota, Smoke & our newest family member, kitten Squirrel. 
  Christmas, as usual, was FABULOUS!  After we opened our gifts we were visited by Uncle Leon (my oldest brother, who as of this week is RETIRED!!!!!!) & his wife Annetta.  They have been stopping by on Christmas Day, on their way to visit her family in Ludington.
  My favorite gift this year was my CRICUT IMAGINE! WOO HOO!  Michael said "don't you think you hinted about it enough??????" hahahahahahaha  Yes, I hinted A LOT after finding out that our local Wal-Mart had it in stock for only $187!  I did some research online for Imagine cartridges &, after receiving it, purchased a few cartridges to play with!  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to use my favorite of the included cartridges, Imagine More, because it was faulty.  I also had to exchange the machine after 2-3 days & printing only a few papers because it stopped feeding in the paper.
  I can say that I have had very few problems with the machine or cartridges since exchanging the machine & receiving the replacement cartridge.  I still get frustrated with the machine shutting down frequently while using the Imagine More cartridge, especially when combined with another cartridge, but I'm trying to work through it and enjoy the capabilities of my new toy.
  Wesley's favorites were, of course, Thomas train items, plus he really likes his Cars 2 movie, Indiana Jones Lego PS2 game from Uncle Leon & Aunt Annetta, etc.
  This fall found us adopting little, FRAIL, Squirrel....a kitten who found her way to our front porch on August 10th, just before Michael's birthday.  She immediately came to me & allowed me to hold her, as if she KNEW we would love & help her.  Michael named her Squirrel after seeing how long & bushy her tail was when compared to her body.  I am afraid to say that she was the most emaciated animal I have ever seen which was still alive.....she required a lot of TLC, & ultimately, prescription food as well as medication that was added to tuna fish for several months.  I recently switched to feeding her adult cat food, which she was constantly sneaking out of the other cats' bowls, when we ran out of prescription food.  I think I might have to return to giving her medication for a while if she continued to have tummy problems.
   I have been hoping to have some of my projects appear as samples on a 3 Birds presentation, or perhaps their blog, etc.  So far, no luck, but perhaps in the future, with the reappearance of their blog or something...perhaps things will happen for me.  Either way, I enjoy the process & chance to share.  3 Birds rocks!!!!! 
   On to crafting & constantly renovating my scrap "studio"!
 

My (belated) Bday Crop & (almost) clean studio...

    My birthday crop wasn't held until January 29th this year & between getting permission to post some pics & digging out around here, I'm just getting around to posting some of my pictures.

    Two of my local scrapping friends, including my 1st & BEST scramping friend Dawn (that's scrapbooking AND stamping for those of you not familiar to our crafts), came to spend some time with me. 

  Dawn brought me this AWESOME adhesive gun!!!!!! plus refills, stamps & rub-ons!

Dawn even brought gifts for Wesley...bath paints!  I've been thinking about getting some of these for him....she read my mind.

    Michael & Wesley were just leaving for GR (Grand Rapids) to go sledding with his family as my girlfriends arrived.  Because my GOOD camera (my digi Rebel) is in need of work & Michael took the CoolPix with them, I was without my camera...."feeling naked" as I usually say upon these rare occasions!

     I apologize for the remaining clutter & in-progress demolitioned state of my studio.  The area beside my former "cutting station" cabinetry used to be part of our utility room's storage space.  When we moved here, Michael built shelving units to house all of our boxes of "stuff" until we finished unpacking the household items, and then stored our ever-growing collection of Christmas decor.  The floor and walls of the utility room were not finished when we moved in, so the new square footage of my studio needs the floors to be brought to level with the existing floors, and one exterior wall needs to be brought flush with the wall behind my former cutting station. 

    We have the new walls framed in, but currently they are curtained off until we spend the money on drywall & paint.  I am planning to complete the sw wall with white wainscoting below & a shade of dusty lavender above, similar to the color of my curtains that hang there now (I robbed them from another portion of my studio & our bedroom).

    Hopefully this summer we will scrape down the textured walls so I can do the remaining wainscoting & painting, as well as add insulating flooring.  I can't wait to rip out the orange carpeting that is on the stairway & office/mini-store area of my studio!

   

 My former cutting station, now my Cricut station, plus storage for all my additional cutting & embossing supplies.  

 Tables for guest scrampers, the first of which Wesley now claims as his own!

 

 

     Anyway, this is the cleanest my studio has been since we ripped out the walls, and even though it is still decorated for my belated birthday crop, this gives you an idea of what I'm working on.  I'll also include some pics of the layouts I've been working on, as well as other layouts I've done with my 3 Birds products. 

Last Christmas

Last Bday's layout pg 1-2

Last Bday's layout pg 2-3

3 Birds paper

Last winter

Stamp Rack

Okay, I'm REALLY frustrated with this program not letting me put things in the correct order!  One last time & I'm gonna post it....

My 3 Birds main display