Remember me....

I am still here- and I am still scrapping.
I have lots ot share- but it has been so dark and gloomy taking good pics is awful hard and since I worked so hard on my projects I want them to look nice when I post- will get them up soon, I promise! But,...was looking at my friend Dee's blog (she does an awesome job with it) and saw I had been tagged in this cute little game (Miss Emma started it).

So here it is!


I just got tagged (by Dee) with this so I am passing it on. If your name is below, please follow the rules.

Here are the rules:
1. Make a list of what you want for your Birthday.
2. The list should be 10 items
3. Include the image of the award on your post
4. Give it to ten friends.

My birthday is in July, so I guess this could be printed out and saved by those who may "need" it-hahaha:)
Ten things that I would love for my Birthday:
1. New earrings
2. Lunch or dinner out with all 4 of the kids at the same time (Mike and Hunter too) and anyone else who wants to join us!
3. Tickets to a concert, a show, MONARCHS!!! (Mike does not care that much for this stuff...)
4. My housekeeper back- I miss having a housekeeper..
5. The room over the garage finished
6. GT500 accessories- you know what I "need"
7. More Vera.....
8. A pair of jeans that actually FIT
9. a day at a spa (no kidding, so not me- but I need a massage...bad)!
10. ________________ I reserve the right to fill this in as the time gets closer.....

who to tag next? Kathy, Brianna, Bethany, Erica G, Becky, Amy C., Brenda, Layle, Margie and Jenn

Wow!!

Have I really not blogged in over 3 weeks??
Sorry- but I have been busy!

Son #2 moved back home, one additional person int he house and the whole routine changes.
Ever notice this? It effects everything, so good to have him home but what happened to the grocery routine (I shop every day now) and the laundry routine (two loads a day? He is ONE person), picking up CONSTANTLY...oh well, did I say it was good to have him home?? It is!
Speaking of home, my Mom and her friend Buck are visiting. Arrived here on Monday the holiday- they drove up from Florida, the scenic route way (via Ohio) and are int own for my cousin Kimberly's wedding. While waiting, the wedding is 5/31, they are touring New England, seeing the Maine coast, much of NH and some of VT-too bad we have three days of rain expected.
What else- I enjoyed the holiday weekend, not sure why we cannot work 4 days every week and have 3 off, sounds so much fairer than the 5/2 scheme we comply to now doesn't it? we did BBQ, played on the lake, shopped and shopped. I cleaned the house good, scrubbed the sun porch top to bottom, worked in the gardens and scrapped!
I have been a scrapping fool lately- loved seeing all my scrap friends and having a BALL at CKC this year- love that weekend. I have been on a roll ever since, many cool projects being worked on for ACB-exciting days there and speaking of exciting days my scrap friend Margie Aslett and her daughters ahve started an exciting adventure, they created a cool place called The Girls Loft, coming June 15th- check them out, tell them I sent you and look for many great prizes and surprises these ladies have TALENT!

Speaking of talent, wanna see my most favorite layout? I did this!

Isn't it so cute?? It was SO easy, from a class by Technique Tuesday. It is a CKC thing. I love it- I have had these pics for a while, that was a few Halloweens ago, Hunter was Spiderman two years in a row, so he wanted to be something different, so he was "black Spiderman" here-hahahaha, he loves these costumes cause "the suit has muscles" they are "built in"- he cracks me up! I so envisioned a layout that was titled "My Hero!!!" but this seemed like the perfect pics to use on this one and Meagan is not really the "damsel in distress" type....
I really like how it came out - I LOVE TT stuff - gonna make another, same but different using similiar pics for Hunter's album as this pinky sparkly one is for Meg's album and I am gonna use these tips and techniques on other pages so be ready!

And the AC Bailey Blog Hop Winner is.....

Are you excited?

I sure am, I LOVED having all these visitors to my blog- you gals gotta keep coming back you hear??? I promise to give away more stuff and tips and pointers and whatever you need if you keep stopping in. I LOVE the comments, I have read every one and I am not too techy but I WILL figure out how to access everyone's email address and answer comments next time!

Okay- enough,...you want the winner....on MY blog, the person picked for the blog "leave a post" gift is CARDSISTER!!! You win all the Marks papers in this kit (not the kit but a pile of the PAPERS you have seen here- you are going to LOVE this! So,...leave me another comment with your address or email me your mailing address at scrapqn@wildblue.net so I can get that prize mailed to you!

We will definatley be doing this again. Check the forum ladies to see who won the May ACB Goodies Kit of the Month and the store to buy one if you want, there were only 9 left when I checked this morning.
And, now that you have found me here- keep coming back to visit okay????

AC Bailey National Scrapbook Day Blog Hop Stop

Welcome to my blog. I am so excited to be asked to participate in this, AC Bailey's FIRST ever blog hop! This is amazing....this is an awesome opportunity for you to meet all the ACB DT members, learn lots of (hopefully) new ideas and techniques, gain some inspiration and rumor has it that YOU may even win a prize or two along the way.

Here is how this works, if you are already on my site via a link you already know this, but for those of you popping in here mid-stream, let me explain. The FIRST post or START to this blog hop is on the AC Bailey blog. There you will find the instructions, all the "fine print" details and such. From there, you will go the firsat DT member whose link is in the post (at the bottom). Once you have visited that gal's site, you will click on the link she has in her post to the next ACB DT designer and so on and so on,...following me? Be sure to leave a comment on each blog as at every site there will be a random name drawn from all who post and one lucky person who leaves a message/comment will win a SUPER prize. Don't forget to leave a comment here too! Then- when you are finished with all THAT, you can still win a prize, a bigger better one I am sure! Just create a layout or project using three or more of the ideas you saw demo'd on the blogs and post that layout in the ACB gallery in the NSD layout folder (under Scrap Stimulus Contest). There is also a thread in the forum there for you to post "I did it" and you can even post a link there to your layout (all instructions for this are on the forum and we can help you - it is easy peasy) . We will then draw one lucky winner from all those posting qualifying layouts and THAT lucky "rabbit" will win an ACB May Goodies KOTM . That is what is pictured here (actually there is MORE to it than what you see here, this is a good idea of what it is - it is GORGEOUS stuff, Marks papers, Chatterbox tags and embellishments, Maya Road Ribbon, Prima butterflies- all KINDS of stuff! How cool would winning that be?? It COULD be you, all you need to do is PLAY! It is a lot easier than this perhaps sounds, try it! You will enjoy it.
So, since we all promised to answer these questions - here is a little about me-
1) My name is Gail Connor, I am from Rindge, NH - I have lived most all my life in New England and I love it. I am one of the "oldest" DT members, I have been on this team since I am also theACB Consultant Coordinator. I love this company.
2) I found ACB by accident! I was with another direct sales company of scrap supplies and I wanted something more so I was looking around. A friend found the forum and we joined to chat with other scrappers, who knew it was the start of something so much BIGGER for us?
3) What I like most about being part of ACB is the friends I have made-these gals are awesome, but the constantly new items in the store is good, and the gallery full of inspiration is good too and the daily tips, links and pointers on the forum ...I like it ALL.
4) My current favorite product or line, and it may change next week is the Marks Paper line. It is amazing, the colors are so rich and the papers so thick and easy to handle and use. I also LOVE my THICKERS and the ACB store carried LOTS of them.
4) One thing unique about YOU. Hmmm,....I have bunions. There, I said it- no one else I know has bunions and they hurt and they are ugly and I need them removed. Don't tell anyone.

And,..you want me to teach you a technique or give you a tip or two? Well, my lastest craze (okay I have been crazy for years) is altering THICKERS! I love Thickers, when I saw all the options available to us at the CHA Summer 2008 I thought I had died and gone to Thicker Heaven. Look at this pic with me and some of the Thickers they had there...who seriously can have that many thickers?

Not me- there is a limit to my scrap budget too. So,...I figured "your imagination is your boundary" not your budget girl and I decided to make my own thickers, not actually branch out and manufacture them, but alter and re-cycle and create my own. You can too. There are several different ways.
You can buy each style thicker in white only and really stretch your creativity and budget. Just paint or ink them any color you want to match your layout. You can also cover them with pattern paper for a different look too.

Try paints and all kinds of different inking and painting styles. Here I painted the "g" and "m" with acrylic paint and the "&" was painted with crackle paint-

Or you can apply a few coats of Ranger Glossy Accents (or diamond glaze) like I did here-
these thickers were yellow, I inked them orange and then just added the brads to the "d" and "y" and the glaze to the rest for two totally different fun effects.

How about "blinging" your thickers with stickles or rhinestones! You can decorate them with buttons or brads too. These techniques definatley give them a totally different look from plain out of the package and they are unique and one of a kind.

I have drawn on mine with sharpie-check this funky look out-

You can stickle them for a sparkly look, or ink them like I inked this white one with pink cat's eye ink and then stickled it, the periods and exclamation point are also stickled on the plain white.

and this ultimate alteration was done for a snow layout.
I inked the thicker, then when it was dry I stickled it, then when that was dry I covered it with Ranger Glossy Accents (you can use Diamond Glaze too). It looks awesome in real life- dimensional and sparkly and like glass.

My DT friend Gin (tell her I said "hi" when you visit her blog) inks her thickers and glazes them and she says they look like tile. How awesome is that? Here you will see both the inked and glossy accent ones and the "just ink" version. If you visit the ACB Gallery there is TONS of inspiration in there and if you look close you will see all kinds of layouts with thicker titles alters and created by myself, Gin and the other ACB girls. I sure hope you try this altering technique and add YOUR layout to our gallery too.
Oh, and another tip with regard to altering Thickers-if you line them up in order on a sheet of wax paper, prepare them there and then transfer to your layout the backs stay sticky and they are easy to work with. Clean up is a breeze too. Do you need letters and have run out? You can create new ones by altering other letters into something else and by creatively adding the ink, paint, or bling you can masterfully hide the alterations. You know, cut m's into n's and cut the middle out of e's to make more c's. Shortened j's are more i's and shortened h's are new n's...got the picture? See if you can identify the "used to be a..." letters in my samples-there are some, keep looking.
Have fun and STRETCH those thickers ....you can do it- be creative, you are only limited by YOUR imagination.
Hope you had fun visiting my blog- your next stop on this "hop" is the blog of my good friend Lisa- tell her I said "hello"!!
Enjoy the rest of your blog hop-see you on the ACB forum-come back here soon too to visit me, you are welcome anytime.

Anyone else Expecting??

HAHAHA:) No Mom, it is NOT me-(fooled you? I doubt it!)
but it does seem like all those around me are having babies!
Relatives, co-workers, neighbors...
I have been scrapping and it seems I am always making baby things. Baby books (two lullaby albums), baby mini's (Bo Bunny word books -I made three) and baby cards (lots and other cards too)!
I cannot believe it has been weeks since I last blogged-it sure has been busy around here and it will continue to be, we do not have a free weekend until mid-June now and the datebook is gettign double-booked for some days.
LOTS of news to share, but wanted to pop on and quickly share this really quick and easy accordion card I made- I actually made a few but in my excitement to get them to the recipients I mailed a few before taking PICS! If you like it, email me at scrapqn@wildblue.com and I will give you the directions. But beware, it is addicting.

this is the card "closed"

and standing up "open"

and flat on the table so you can see each edge decorated

Just so darn cute!

I scrapped!

Amazing but true- I squeezed a little scrap time in this weekend.
I worked on the layout of Nick on Friday night, finished it on Saturday, created Meagan's girly-girl one on Saturday and started Hunter's What now layout and wrapped it all up Sunday- and, Anthony came home Saturday night. He picked Aunt Jeanne up (she says thank you) at the airport and took her home then came over- we yacked until 3 am!!! I did not think I could get much accomplished -pulling "all nighters" is hard on us "old" people, but I managed! I scrapped, I did errands, took Meg to a friends and cooked Chicken Parmesan FROM SCRATCH! Shoulda gotten a pick of that one,..but I forgot!
Anyway- here is some layouts for you. All made with Crate Paper Prudence paper set and accessories sold at the AC Bailey store. It is BEAUTIFUL stuff, got embossing and glitter on it, brown and green and blue colors. It is real rich looking and I got 5 layouts and some cards with plenty still leftover for another project and all that stuff was under $10!
Check these out:

You all know Miss Meagan- featured in lots of layouts.
Her shirt was the perfect match to the papers here, funny in real life these layouts look so different, and her eyes are SO blue- really! No enhancements with Photoshop here-I really do not even know HOW to do that! They glitter like the sparkles on this paper! She is a natural beauty!

And this is another layout of Hunter- another favorite scrap subject.
He LIKES posing for the camera. The baby he is holding is my nephew Ryan's baby who is also named Ryan. He is usually very happy-bu this was his Christening Day and he had had enough of flashing cameras and people passing him around I think-Hunter loves babies and wanted to hold baby Ryan-until he started to cry!

And this layout is of my oldest son Nicholas. Nicholas is my "gentle giant." But he loves anything with wheels and horsepower. He was pretty excited that we had ordered our Shelby GT 500, but we had not yet gotten it from Ford when Uncle Tom located a used one. He was able to go and pick up this pretty white convertible before our car even arrived and Nick fell in love. These pics were taken by my nephew Tommy with his CELLPHONE camera, can you believe that?? Anyway, I printed them and scrapped them. It is hard to get pics of Nick, he lives out of town. I did the hand journaling thing here, but HATE my handwriting on layouts.

Hope you enjoyed the tour of "Prudence" as much as I liked using that Crate Paper- wait until you see what I am working on now,...maybe post more by the end of the week!

Good Mail Day!

Wow, has it really been over a week since I last blogged?
So sorry- I was doing so well too...Anyway, I thought I'd hop on and share with you all my today was a good mail day.
I love getting mail. Never used to, but since I now have so many scrappy friends, the mail is something I always look forward to. I got an ATC card- for those of you who do not know what those are, they are called Artist Trading Cards and are like baseball cards that scrappers make themselves and trade or give away. I also got a new scrap magazine- cutest layout on the cover, cannot wait to see inside and figure out which of my friends are published in THIS issue- just love turning the pages and saying, "I know her, and her,...okay, not that lady,...but HER!"

My mailman has gotten used to me, but he used to always give me the "crazy lady" look.
He told me once that no one but me gets happy and dances a little jig when the mail arrives. No one runs out to the mail box skipping and singing - just me. He said he used to wonder what was in those packages I so enjoy getting (hahaha- what was he thinking was in them?) but I started showing him my scrap stuff and I always give him home made treats at the holidays and he seems happy now to bring me nice stuff...He knocks and says "Gail, a box from AC Bailey- AGAIN and he smiles- hahahaha:) So, he said today- I think someone made you something and he handed me a small brown envelope-he was RIGHT! Check this out-


a handmade thank you card from my SIL's daughter -in-law (so is she my niece-in-law??) Miek and Renee have the cutest son, but she just had an adorable daughter. I love new babies and this one is a cutie and she named her MEGAN!!! (coincidence???) So I made them a bo bunny baby album- don't think I took pics, if I did I cannot find them....but she MADE me THIS card- how cool is that??
Didn't know she was also a talented scrapper- coulda sent her the stuff and watched HER make the album I bet. I love mail!

And wanna know a funny thing about my mailman? He is deathly afraid of DOGS! All dogs, but MINE! Found out when I had a mail issue once, I called the post office and explained that the mail man left a slip on my porch and the lady on the phone asked, "Where do you live?" THREE times and then insisted it was not MY mailman leaving anything on the porch cause I have a dog and he would NEVER get out of the mailtruck here. But, we fooled her! I get lots of mail, somedays it does not fit int he box and I have an oversized box too! So, he'd meet me out front and I explained to him that Casey (the dog) has an underground fence wire thing that beeps when she is leaving her boundary and if she crosses the line she gets "bit." I showed him where she could go and could not go and he liked that she could not reach him in the driveway or walk. He was funny to watch, he'd turn to always have an eye on her and he'd carry a biscuit and tell her if she was good he'd toss it to her after. But in time, her cuteness got to him. He now knows her name, calls out to her, tells her to sit and I think I saw him pet her once!

Here is a layout of Casey with my son Anthony who loves her even more than the mailman does.
Who knows, maybe Casey will get mail someday and then what will he do then? HAHAHA:)
Old layout- sorry! I am scrapping this weekend, will post even better layouts for you by Monday-promise.

What a Weekend!

Those that know me know that my life is always very interesting and no one describes me as "bored or boring"...but what a weekend we had! Exciting even for me.
We awoke Saturday morning to a chimney fire. Mike thought he had it pretty under control but they thing was just not going out so he decided to report it to the local fire department "in case" ..well I will spare you all the gory details but suffice it to say that the phone call was the start of a very long series of events best described by these few pictures.






Then- no sooner did we have that over with, and cleaned up I had a girlfriend over to scrap and within a very short time she fell ill. We were thinking we needed an EMT and ambulance but we decided her husband could take her to the ER instead so Mike and I were off to deliver her back home to get the husband and baby and trek to Peterborough Hospital. She was there a LONG time but we finally got word she was not having a stroke or aneurysm issue and she will be FINE. Good news there...

So, I did what any gal raised Catholic woulda done at that point- I headed to church and prayed that I would fall back into the Lord's good graces and this stress would end, adn my prayers may have been answered cause things did manage to improve from there. I got to spend the evening with two of my sister in laws, their husbands and family. We had an awesome spaghetti dinner and some real yummy strawberry shortcake for dessert!

Meagan spent the night so Mike and I came back home to do more clean up, squeezed in a movie and when we got up Sunday we headed to Patriot Place in Foxboro MA. It was OKAY, but we decided we'd try the Wrentham Outlet instead- glad we did! After an awesome lunch at Uno's we did some quick shopping and I came home with some goodies from Lindt, Coach, Reebok, Crabtree and Evelyn, William and Sonoma.....my kinda shopping trip. Then we hightailed it home to make it to my niece's b-day party for pizza and cake and more socializing with loved ones- so,...the weekend definately took an uphill swing from where it started. And,...with all that chaos I still managed to get a layout done. Whatcha think?


The colors and the "sparkle" from the fine glitter on the rela life layout is incredible - gotta get you all a better pic of this.

Happy Spring Everyone!

The sun is finally shining. We had a nice day yesterday, great sunset- I captured it on film too.
It is getting really warm out too - can hardly wait for Spring, uh...MUD season to come (and go) I so want to get the Mustang out of storage and have some fun. But, while waiting I am enjoying passing the time actually getting some scrapping done.
Look what I made this week-
I really enjoy using up some scrap supplies- this was the CI Day by Day set that Erica provided me with as DT stuff a few months back, but I used ribbon from scrap, my broken Cat's Eye Inks, some MME journal cards, Primas, Jenni Bowlin stickers and several other stickers I had laying around so long I forgot (and it is not on the back of the pack either) where I got them.
Love using up stuff- makes room for more NEW things, ya' know. Speaking of using stuff up- I am also starting to get cracking at those SEI kits- I have a weakness for monthly kits (I am good now, only get two regularly, used to get SIX)...and I decided that if they are going to keep coming I have got to get them made up

so,...after making these cute cards from the CI Day by Day collection I made about 15 more from a SEI mini-kit. They came out SO cute!
Yes, I have been quite a busy-bee! I am so loving it- having some "me" time...
Look what else I did- I noticed how nice the sky looked last night and went outside with my "good camera" to play a bit. I amaze myself sometimes when I actually work it right and get some good shots too. LOOK at these, and NO editing (ya think I figured that photoshop out yet?? No chance-one thing at a time). This is straight off the disc! Standing in my own driveway!
Man, sometimes LIFE can be GOOD....

Sunday Night Already??

Here is a pic of what I scrapped this weekend.







What? You see NOTHING?? Well, then - you got it! That is what I scrapped!
And, I cannot even explain why-I mean, I didn't sleep the last two days away or anything, but I didn't get anything on MY "to do" list done. I accomplished laundry, house cleaning, all the bathrooms are scrubbed, I cooked and everyone has been well fed all weekend - requiring 3 trips in 3 days to the grocery store. I saw Hunter on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. My checkbook is balanced, my inventory updated, the new stuff for NEXT Saturday's crop is all priced and labelled, the tupperware cabinet organized, every room vacuumed. Meg's "to do" list is done (thank you Mom) and so is Mike's (thank you honey) and now I am BEAT and ready for bed, not my scrap space. Please tell me why the weekdays are SO long and the weekend days are SO SHORT. Anyway, we did get to open the windows and get some fresh air in here today- that always gives me spring fever and the sunshine was so nice, quite a welcome change.

I mentioned three trips to the grocery store earlier, the last one was just to grab more whip cream and another package of frozen veggies as more dinner guests were added. Well, I was so wishing I had my camera. While I was waiting in MY line, I was watching the folks in the next line over- first was a man, dressed in snowmobile boots and overall type snowpants- no coat, just shirt sleeves. Next was a woman wearing a suede and wool lined coat and her son was wearing shorts, sneakers and a T-shirt, then the gal behind them-college student perhaps, was wearing a big puffy down-like jacket with a hat and scarf (musta been real cold) except for her feet- she had on clunky leather sandals. She was buying lettuce and ice cream... funny huh?
And for me,...I was wearing jeans, a short sleeve top, a sweater, and my LIME GREEN flip flops!
Snow on the ground, my toes were kinda cold- but what the heck- don't believe me?...here's my "pic of the day" from the snowstorm we got last week.




Enjoy! Oh, and no comments about my ugly toes- they have been wrapped in wool socks for MONTHS and I KNOW I need a pedicure- this is New England after all!

Happy Saturday Everyone!

I am hoping to fit some scrapping in today, between dusting and laundry-
the GOOD news is, no errands to run today! So I am home.
The wayward traveler finally made it to my Mom's and he made it, albeit late, to his college interview too. He is going back to talk to a few more people on Monday as well.
He is EXHAUSTED-but as you can tell, he is being well fed.




He arrived at Grandma's to a FEAST of crawfish, shrimp, seafood chowder, salad, etc. and when I talked to him today he woke to breakfast ready and waiting. Eggs homefries, bacon and toast! Talk about SPOILED!! Well, he is NOT spoiled at home, he told me not to post his less than flattering pic.

What was I thinking??

So, son #2 wants to go to Florida...
he works full-time and has college.
He tells me he can squeeze it in if we book the trip the second week of March between Thursday at 10:30 pm and Tuesday at 4:00 pm- with advance notice to schedule Florida appointments and arrange to have off from work-
Mom: "A if we do that you have to leave on a Friday"
A: "So,..."
Mom:"We cannot do that in MARCH- the Friday is Friday the 13th"
A: "So,..."
Mom: "No, that won't work- you cannot fly on Friday the 13th!"
A: "why,...."
Mom: "Cause it is FRIDAY the 13th"
A:"You are so SILLY- they don't shut down the airports and all cause it it Friday the 13th Mom, book it I will be fine."

SO- Mom books the flight against her best judgment and it is "fine" all right! Conversations ensue regarding the trip and son assures mom we are "all set" and after many many discussions regarding arriving early, what to pack, arriving early, what not to pack, arriving early, print boarding pass, arriving early, don't forget boarding pass, arriving early, getting the "needed" itinerary vs. the "wanted" itinerary scheduled, arriving early - did I mention arrive early??

3/13/2009 -Phone rings at 5:35 AM. Mom was SLEEPING, Son reports he is still HOME. Son just woke up, not at airport. Son called at 5:55 am, is now at airport and long lines -lots of waiting. Son calls at 6:05 am, still in line, airport paging all flight passengers-guy in front of him is a "jerk" has a noon flight and won't let son cut in line. Son very agitated and of course this is everyone else's fault....Son speaks to agent who assures him an alternate flight will be arranged. 6:15 am, son misses flight, mom checks computer, next plane leaves in 15 minutes. 6:30 am son arrives at designated gate- is informed he was booked at his request on next flight, but while he did not make it through the gates on time his luggage did! He has just missed flight #2 but his luggage didn't! Bags are off to sunny Orlando.....Son is "not yelling" on cell phone at mother,...Happy Friday! Son gets flight to Ft. Lauderdale, has to kill an hour in the terminal but won't leave area and risk missing flight #3- good idea. Once he gets to Ft. Lauderdale he will kill another 1.5 hours then board a new plane to ...Orlando, where he will hopefully meet up with his LUGGAGE and my mother. His 6:15 NH direct/non-stop flight to arrive 9:30 am at proper destination is now a WAIT-Fly-WAIT-fly-find bag-find ride 6:15am t02:10 pm kinda day...ask me again why we should not fly on Friday the 13th?? and I am SURE there is more to come as it is only 7:50 am....stay tuned!

And, Happy Friday the 13th to you to!

Hello and Welcome...

...to my new blog- I cannot believe I even have a blog, I, truth be told, have been coerced into it by my friend Dee. But, I have always wanted to make a blog and I will be very happy she got me started when it is finally completed. So, this is my latest "Work of Heart" and it is truly a work in Progress. Stick around, the best part is yet to come!