Cover boy

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basket retreat.....Texas style

Went to Houston to go to a basket retreat with a good friend(who I miss dearly and wish I was closer). I wove 6 baskets and had a great time. Met new friends and laughed until we thought we'd pee in our pants. The retreat center was north of Houston and in the boonies....no phone reception unless you went way outside. Did have wi-fi, just no cell...oh, and no tv. That's ok, cause Becky and I just talked more. One night, I set the cell phone alarm and it said 7 hours and 59 minutes until it would go off. Well, if you talk for 2 more hours and then talk in bed another 1/2 hour, it doesn't leave near enough sleeping hours! But sleep is overrated and we persevered.

Here's the pictures.....my favorite...a black ash basket that is a quadrafoil. Very small, woven on a 4" mold.

Scrappy Girlfriend Retreat

Had a scrapbook girlfriend's retreat this past weekend, only 4 miles from home! Very convenient, and nice to be "away" but familiar. Cathi went over the top in the name tag competition, as usual. She always does "more" and not sure how much "more" she could go...unless she got a billboard. Had a great time, finished cards and three books from my "to-do" kits.

snow day=vacation day=PRODUCTIVE

Any one who crops with me knows that I am a big fan of sticky notes. If I want/need to add something to a layout, I do that at home and I just put a sticky note on the top of the layout. Those that crop with me also know that I started in December 2007 doing a double layout for each month. So even if I'm not caught up (what's that???) with my scrapbooking, I can at least have the highlights of each month. Thankfully, today was a snow day and I planned on staying home, sweat pants, no makeup and creating. I eliminated many sticky notes today and I am only 1 month away from being done with 2009! Wahoo! I also put December 2007 and 2008 in an album and moved 2009 into it's own album.

For 2010, I have 12 monthly layouts from Basic Grey and I'm going to try to use them. I'll need to check the layouts and get my picture sizes figured out and hopefully I'll be working on them in February at a crop. I've never figured out the pictures ahead of time, so we'll see if that works.

I also did some organizing, finished up that last single page layout, cards for the card swap(December cards, not January yet), and some packing of projects for a weekend crop. Unfortunately, tomorrow is back to the grind....not nearly as much fun and requires makeup.

Playing with Christmas presents

Someone got some drawer liner and a chance to organize their tools....a happy day indeed.

Go Pack Go

Well....chalk this off the bucket list. Chris and I were able to go to a Green Bay Packers game yesterday...and not just any game, the BEARS vs. THE PACKERS!!!! 70,000 people, and that was inside the stadium. Who knows how many were outside. The tailgating was amazing, fun people, beaver & coyote hats, lots of food, and lots of beer. We had the champagne of beers...Miller High Life. Chris wore his Superman snuggie, a Christmas gift exchange win, and had made a sign. I had on many layers and was surprisingly not freezing. Hand warmers and feet warmers are mighty nice. Paul and Josh had to watch the game from the parking lot, inside a heated tent with beer and nachos. They had fun, but not nearly as much fun as Chris and I. The crowd was very friendly; I got high-fives, my head rubbed, and hugged by total strangers. We did the "Jump" and sung "Roll out the Barrel," and we yelled "GO PACK GO" until we were hoarse. Clay Matthews was great. With Chris, I felt like I was with the most popular person in school as everyone kept yelling "Superman" and "Can I take your picture?"

As Chris described it....heaven.

have a little faith

I'm reading the book "have a little faith" by Mitch Albom. He wrote "Tuesdays with Morrie," which I never read, but I'd read a review about this new book and wanted to give it a try. I'm only halfway through, but two quotes jumped out at me yesterday. The first was from a discussion on whether or not God was real, with cloning, and surgeries available to change anything, and mapping genes. And the rabbi said that even with all of those things, you will die. "When you come to the end, that's where God begins."

The next quote was from a discussion about an atheist doctor. His brother had died and the man was angry, because he had no one to blame but himself, as he didn't believe in God. So Mitch asks about unanswered prayers and the rabbi says, "It is far more comforting to think God listened and said no, than to think that nobody's out there."