Big News! Small Packages...

First off. Like my new look? I was getting tired of the dots.

Anyway, after much serious inactivity in the scrap world I managed to crank out a layout that just won a contest! If you go to Scrapbooker Online you will see my layout on the home page for the entire month. I had no idea I had won, until Cindy told me the other day. It was announced in the Newsletter which I hadn't read yet. I got a gift certificate to use in their store!

I go through fits and spurts when it comes to scrapbooking. I know I should network more, but, I don't. This hobby can be pretty consuming, if all I do is think and work in the hopes of being published again. I have a family to tend to, you know.

Actually, Charlotte and I have been working more on Artistic Trading Cards. They are mini art cards, you stamp on them, paint them, draw, whatever. Anyway, we have a group in Salinas that we've been trading with the last couple of months. The first one, I did in November, is at the top of this post and this is the second one I did. Funny, these don't look half as good as the ones Charlotte or some of the other ladies at Stamp Bug did. They are fun to make and trade but, it's hard for me to work on such a small canvas! I'm long winded. I'm a big girl. I need lost of room!

I have a hard enough time working on greeting cards! I made a couple of regular greeting cards that I thought were alright. I had fun making them anyway. This one is for Cindy's mom Ruth.

Cindy just had a milestone birthday and we were lucky enough to celebrate it with her. We went to Cilantros for dinner. We got pitchers of margaritas. Henry and Sam actually did really well. (I brought some chicken nuggets for a cerrtain picky boy but, Henry actually ate his Quesadilla quite happily). We came back home for cake from The Buttery afterwards. Yum o rific!! The cake was raspberry poppyseed. Anyway, Ruth was kind enough to pay for the entire dinner, so I made the card.

!And here's the card I made for our friends Mila and Chaz. It's pretty self explanatory. I am so happy for them. They are gonna make great parents!

And finally since I'm catching up here, talking about parenting, and additions to family...I wanted you all to know that after much consideration and mulling over, after some real conversation and more hemming and hawing than I cared to admit (because, as much as I love my kids, I thought I was pretty much done done with having anything more to take care of...I mean, this was really mostly Matts idea. He really really wanted this. I wasn't sure if the kids were ready for this but, they all seemed to really go for the idea. Anyway, I'm stalling. Basically, Matt and I have decided to add one more addition to our family...

We adopted Bonzo, a male domestic shorthair on February 15th from the Animal Shelter here in Watsonville. Now, I am by no means a cat person. Really. I am classically allergic to cats. But, knock on wood, fingers crossed, I have had no problems. I take my claritin everyday now and I haven't had any sneezies or watery eyes and it's been well over a week.

Bonzo, so far, has been one of the sweetest cats I have ever met. He spends most of the time lounging around and sleeping. He loves to be pet on the head and under the chin. Even Sam, the whirling dervish that he is, doesn't phase him. If Sam gets crazy, Bonzo simply leaves the room. Actually, to his credit, Sam has been wonderful with the cat. He hasn't pulled his tail or tried to ride him or anything crazy like that. And Matt's taken full charge of the feeding and the kitty litter etc. The vet thinks Bonzo is about 4 or 5 years old and pretty much agreed with our assessment that although, he was put in the shelter classified as a "stray" he must have had an owner or owners at some point because he's incredibly docile.

And yes, before you even ask the question, yes I have already bought a scrapbook album for him and papers, stickers etc. There are actually some popular paper lines like Ki Memories and Flair Designs that carry scrapbooking supplies specifically for pets! And yes, this is crazy, but, I will be making pages about him too. (Some people dress their pets, I will be scrapbooking mine.) He is, after all, now part of our family!