Happy Kwanzaa

Today is the second day of Kwanzaa! http://www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org/index.shtml

Photo of my kinara

NGUZO SABA (The Seven Principles)

December 26- Umoja (Unity) To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.

December 27- Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.

December 28th- Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility) To build and maintain our community together and make our brother's and sister's problems our problems and to solve them together.

December 29th- Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics) To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.

December 30th- Nia (Purpose) To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.

December 31st- Kuumba (Creativity) To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.

January 1st- Imani (Faith) To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

by­ Maulana Karenga

Pre-Holiday Updates

Christmas is almost here and as you can imagine, things are quite busy here! So far I've gotten most of my holiday chores out of the way, the only things left to do are bake my gazillion dozen cookies from scratch and wrap gifts. Gift wrapping will take place tomorrow, that way if I've forgotten anyone, I can make a mad dash to the store and then I'll do the baking on Christmas Eve like always!

This year will be Donovan's last Christmas as an only child, so I decided to make it a little extra special for him! I bought him a 3 1/2 foot tree for his room and let him decorate it and I let him help me with the big tree, too. I must say he was a very good helper! Since he's been a good boy, I think Santa will deliver everything he asked for this year!

Check out my big boy in front of our tree! This photo was taken last Saturday on my attempt to get him to visit with Santa...let's just say it DID NOT go very well! Donovan talked on and on about Santa so I planned to take him Sunday. We were at the mall Saturday and he kept asking to see Santa, I told him we would go the next day while we were shopping at the other mall. Sunday morning came and I got up bright and early and washed his clothes so he'd have something to wear and despite the fact that it snowed, we headed out to see Santa. As we were walking through the mall, Santa passed us on his break and Donovan just looked at him. We went on to the line and were the first ones! I explained to Donovan that he would have to take off his coat and smile nicely for Santa. Santa came back and the tears started flowing..."I don't wanna see Santa Claus, I don't wanna see Santa Claus"! I tried to walk him near Santa in hopes that he'd change his mind but he wasn't having it at all! He wouldn't look at Santa or tell him what he wanted for Christmas, he wouldn't even say thank you when Santa handed him a coloring book. He looked up at me and pointed to the gifts that were part of the decorations as if trying to let me know he wanted one. I told him that they were only for kids that had their photo taken with Santa and then marched his little butt right out! Oh he cried as we walked the mall and of coures all of the shoppers gave him the sympathy look. I just knew I was going to get a nice Santa photo this year, but nope and to think I went out in the snow!

Yes, that's a popsicle in his hand in the middle of December!!

A few close-up pics of the tree!

Can you believe that the year is almost over? If I don't chat with you before the holiday, I hope you and your family have a happy and safe holiday! Look up, you're under the mistletoe...MUAH!!

Thanksgiving Pictures

I had so much fun with my family during the holiday! I finally have a moment to post a few of the pics I took! This is my mom and my brother...we were so happy to see him, it's been a while.
My sister with her her signature "kool-aid" smile with her son Jaden and Donovan.

My baby sis and her man. Can someone please tell me how I am the oldest child, yet both of my sisters have men older than mine?

I think I ate too much...what do you think? LOL! Looks like I swallowed a whole turkey! This is me 1 day shy of 20 weeks pregnant!

OK, what's wrong with this picture? My mother in law has been on me to give her a family photo, well I tried but Troy and Donovan were very uncooperative. Look at my eyes, I hate it when it looks like I'm trying not to blink...Troy is talking, which is why his lip looks funny...notice Donovan's crusty nose? Oh the joy of cold season!

My sis with her big kids...the twins AKA Jamal and Jasmine! They are 12 and nearly as tall as their mom!

Can you say TRYPTOPHAN?

Donovan and Jaden decided to entertain the family by break dancing on the kitchen floor. These 2 sure know how to have fun when they get together!

Check me out in my niece's wig! Her school had pink day last month in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness, all the kids wore something pink and she went with a wig. Is pink my color? HAHAHA!

The Sunday after Thanksgiving, we saw Chris Rock at the Borgata! He is so darn funny!!!

I'm A Pair Of Socks

I found this on Adriann's Blog and thought it was so cute!

You Are Socks!

Cozy and warm... but easily lost. You make a good puppet.

What Crappy Christmas Gift Are You?

One More Holiday To Go!!!

Thanksgiving is over and everything went well, but I swear I haven't sat down since Wednesday! We spent Thanksgiving in South Jersey at my sister's house with her husband and 3 kids. My mom, my baby sister and her boyfriend were there, my sister's husband's best friend, his girlfriend and their 2 kids, and my cousin and her daughter also attended. And then there was my brother whom I haven't seen since March 2005, I've missed him! My siblings and I had a lot of fun reminiscing about torturing each other as kids. I haven't laughed so hard in so long! I have a lot of pics I wanted to post, but I left my camera (my other appendage) at my sister's...darn pregnancy brain! I'll be heading back that way today anyway because we're going to see Chris Rock at the Borgata in Atlantic City! Can't wait!

The day after Thanksgiving, my sister and I went shopping! I know I may sound crazy, but I love shopping on Black Friday! Sales send my endorphins way up, thus making me extremely happy! We hit Walmart, AC Moore, Old Navy and then the mall! We were thoroughly pooped afterwards.

I spent Saturday cleaning my room, which was a complete mess and running a few errands! Then my vacuum, that I just bought mind you, broke! Argh! I hated it anyway because it was nothing like my old one, so I'm taking a trip to Best Buy to get another one. I really want a Dyson, but my sensible side just can't justify paying $400+ for a vacuum cleaner!

In baby news: I had the fetal anatomy scan this past Monday and everything looks great! I'm so happy and really can't wait until my little Xander Sebastian makes his entrance into this world! I'm half way there, though 20 weeks down, 20 weeks to go! Meanwhile, he's bumping around and his kicks are getting harder and stronger everyday. He loves to make an appearance around 10:30-11:00 PM!

SCRAP-DINER's first ever crop went over very well!! There were 12 fun challenges in all and lots of new members. Sher, the owner, gave away 10 RAKs, 2- $20 Gift certificates and a grand prize $50 Gift Certificate. The Rusty Pickle Chat was a riot, Troy was probably wondering what the heck I was laughing at! I did manage to get a few of the challenges done:

This one was based on a sketch challenge provided by Lucy Chesna. I love this picture of Donovan when he was about 6 months old. He loved that jumperoo and we loved it too because it kept him busy!


This LO was a result of a grocery list challenge. I had to chose 5 things from a list and use them on a LO. The 5 I chose were stitching, inking, chipboard, glitter, and brads. These pictures remind me that I need to get out this winter and take pics of my baby, but I just hate the snow! These photos are of Donovan when he was about a year old, it was the first winter when he could play in the snow and he loved it! He cried when it was time to come in!

I've wanted to scrap the photos on this LO for so long. The pics are of my little cousin Kaden on his second birthday (he's 2 monthe younger than Donovan). I guess I interrupted his playtime at the wrong moment because he gave me this mean look and then minutes later, I got a BIG smile! Although the photos aren't from Christmas, I couldn't help the play on the title!

And lastly, I used a lot of bling on this last LO. I ended up going back after the challenge and adhering the entire LO to a piece of red Bazzill, which looks a lot better and allows the scallops to stand out more.

Thanks for looking!

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's 12:54 am here and I am beat, but I can't go to bed just yet because I'm waiting for my sweet potato pies to finish cooking!

Wednesday has been a looooong day for me! I had to work, I was 20 minutes late because I had to stop in Walgreen's to get oil for my car so I can hold off on an oil change until Monday. On my 15 minute break, I ran to the dollar store to get all of the aluminim pans for baking and carting food to South Jersey. On my lunch hour I ran to my LSS to drop off some projects that I did in the past. They came up with this ingenious idea to sell scrappers' projects for them between now and Christmas and the best part is I priced my own stuff and I get all of the money if it sells! Isn't that great? I then left there and went to Walmart...I made record time because I can spend an entire lunch hour in that store. After work I went to Shop Rite to pick-up the rest of my ingredients. I then picked DS up from preschool, made pizzas that I bought from his school's fundraiser for dinner.

We're having Thanksgiving dinner at my sister's house, YAY! I made sweet potato pies for my house, I baked a chocolate cake from scratch for my sister's house, I'm too tired to icing it right now, and made potato salad. I also prepped all of my cheeses for my homemade macaroni and cheese. I need to get up early tomorrow...uh today so I can make the oven stuffer and stuffing for my house and greens, mac n cheese to take to my sister's.

Don't you just hate it when you forget to get something at the store and the hope and pray that something is opened on the holiday so you can get what you need? Yeah, well it happenes to me everytime!

Anyway...I hope you have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving! Enjoy your family and or friends!

Scrap-Diner's Crop Is Tomorrow!!!

Get those calendars out and get ready for a Pickelicious night .... when some of the chefs of Rusty Pickle like Libby MacNeilly and the owner Tasha will be coming over to chat with us Date: November 16th (Friday) Time: 7pm PST (8pm mst, 9pm cst, 10pm est) Place: The Tiki Lounge at Scrap-Diner , RAK will be given from our RP chef so dont forget and join us!

There will be a ton of challenges for the entire weekend! Stop in and join the FUN!

Good News On The Scrap Front!

Today, I decided to take one of my regular visits to my favorite LSS and guess what happened?! One of the owners said "your ears must have been ringing, we were just talking about you", I responded "all good things I hope". Then, I was asked to become one of their teachers! Oh My Goodness, talk about a total surprise! I used to be on their design team, which was great, I love the owners to death- they are so FAB, and now I'm going to teach there! This is my first ever "in-person" teaching experience, I've taught through Zsiage's newsletters and some techniques on-line, but WOW! I'm still in shock! The best part is they are so flexible! I can teach whatever I want, whenever I want! Now the challenge is coming up with something that scrappers will want to learn!

In other news, one of my closest friends is also having a baby. Her baby girl is scheduled (by C-section) to arrive 1/21/08. I've been dying to make some little girl stuff, so I created this mini album for her. It's a 6"X8" mini album, 12 pages long, and holds 8- 4x6 photos and a wallet size photo or 7- 4x6 and up to 4 wallets.

Someone in my photography class asked me to make one for her which wouldn't be a problem except I wouldn't know what to charge. HELP...what do you think?! What would you charge or pay for this?

Is It Monday Again?

This weekend was a little productive. I was off Friday and went to Junkitz's warehouse sale in Manalapan and purchased a few goodies. Thanks Dolores for the heads up about the sale! I just hated the fact that I got lost trying to get home! I had to work Saturday, but I was able to start a couple of LOs for my DT at scrap-diner and Sunday I completed them along with a Christmas card.

Here are the projects:

Scrap Diner's Crop Is Coming

Believe me, you don't want to miss this crop! There will be lots of cool challenges administered by the Design Team!

When: Friday, November 16 starting at 7PM EST and Ending on Sunday, November 18th 7PM EST.

Where: Scrap-Diner

Theme: 7 Course Crop

Don't miss the chat with Rusty Pickle in the Tiki Lounge, 10pm on Friday!

Zsiage DT Assignments

I'm super excited to announce the my Design Team term has been extended at Zsiage! Working with these papers really push my creativity!

I used Zsiage papers and chipboard to decorate this wooden box by Prima. I love this color combination! The silver charm was a necklace I found at Target for 25 cents and the beads are actually wooden hair beads.

My sister gave Troy a bridal party gift in this box (it was originally all black) and I saved it knowing it would come in handy one day. I love the the way the Confucious Say What? line looks here.

This is a close up of my technique from the "My paradise layout". I covered Zsiage chipboard alphas with patterned paper and then coated the bottoms with 2 layers of fiber paste to mimic the look of waves crashing on the shore.

I took this photo in Jamaica this summer. Troy thought I was nuts for taking several photos of my flipflops on the beach. He'll never understand how a scrapper's mind works! I love that this turned into a BOM page about my favorite place in the world: the beach!

Scrap-Diner DT Projects

Have you missed me? I know I've been slacking, but what can I say? You know the excuse already! Slowly but surely, I'm getting back into my scrapping flow. Here are 2 LOs and a card I created for scrap-diner using papers from 7 gypsies and TADA. I loved working with both papers. TADA's laser cut cardstock is just plain FABULOUS!

This photo was taken in the airport in Jamaica. The title fits Donovan's expression perfectly!

Look at my silly little boy! These photos are from our last day in Jamaica and Donovan decided to entertain me with some of his antics! He keeps me cracking up!

This card was so much fun to make!

In other news, I had another ultrasound today. I'm 16 weeks along and everything looks good so far. I'm so excited about this baby, I know he will be a wonderful addition to our family. The morning sickness has eased up a little bit, but it's not gone though. I'm not surprised, with Donovan, I had morning sickness until 18 days before I gave birth!!! It wasn't as bad in the end as the beginning, thank God, but it was still nerve wracking!

I'm still not eating all that well. I tried to eat some fruit today. I managed to eat 1/2 of an apple, 1/2 of a plum, and a teensy bit of watermelon. I love fruit, I just can't seem to stand the taste now, but I know I need to get in the healthy stuff for the baby! Soup or a slice of pizza usually makes up my lunch, along with a sprite and some water. I'm surviving on carbs! Bagels are my friends! I've recenty discovered Thomas's cinnamon raisin toasting bread with a cup of black tea, yummy! I having some right now! This helps ease the sickness in the morning if I eat it just before bed because when I wake up in the morning my stomach is not completely empty.

I have my monthly appointment on Halloween. I wonder if I've started to gain any weight, since I lost nearly 10 lbs in the first 3 months! We shall see!

Here's The Real Deal

I've been complaining a lot lately about not having any scrapping mojo, the truth of the matter is not so much a mojo problem but a first trimester fatigue problem. Yeah, you heard right, I'm pregnant! I don't remember ever being this tired in my life! I come home from work and lie on the couch until it's time to go to bed, of course Donovan is bugging me every 10 minutes which makes me more tired. This morning sickness is kicking my butt!! Actually, it's more like morning, noon, and night sickness! Let's not mention the fact that I can't eat because everything, even my favorites, taste disgusting...I've lost almost 10 lbs! And everything stinks to high heaven...I walk around with a permanent grimace on my face and "what is that smell?" on the tip of my tongue! I'm almost 14 weeks along and due April 12, 2008. I had to have a CVS test done so I was able to find out the sex early....Donovan is going to have a little brother! I never pictured myself as a mom of two boys, but it was meant to be and I'm so happy! You know Troy is beside himself! So say "HI" to my little guy!


Donovan and I have been talking a lot about the baby in mommy's belly. He knew from the beginning that he wanted a baby brother, he said girls are nasty! Big brother to be is becoming quite the artist. At 3 1/2 he tries to be very detailed with his drawings. I just had to share this one because I thought it was so adorable. When I asked him what he drew he said "a dinosaur eating pizza". I couldn't help but laugh and if you look close enough you can see a triangle shape in the dinosaur's mouth. Can you see the long sharp teeth? He is too much! Today he drew a picture of a fish eating his tail! This boy cracks me up!