And Cue Holiday Music

When I was a child, November was for Thanksgiving. We used to decorate for it - Mom had beautiful ceramic decorations of pilgrims and cornocopias that she set about the house. Food preparation began well in advance (Mom would pre-roll the dough for her famous croissants and store them in the freezer). At school we cut out the shape of our hands to make paper turkeys and studied the contents of the first meal the Pilgrims shared with the American Indians (we didn't say Native Americans back then, although I say it now). Christmas was only a distant idea.

Now mainstream retail and media treats November as the pre-cursor to Christmas, preparing everyone for Christmas shopping, baking and decorating just as soon as the lights go off on Halloween. I'm as guilty as anyone, I guess, as I buy into the Black Friday hype, but I do still enjoy the idea and celebration of Thanksgiving.

This year I'm participating in the unofficial 30 Days of Thanks challenge that is circulating around Facebook. Everyday I post something I'm thankful for - some days it's super serious and other days it's lighter fare, but I think it's important to remember to be grateful for everything we have when there are so many that have so little. Today when I walked out the door to what we consider arctic air (it was supposedly 51, but I'm not buying it), I'm thankful that Florida is not as chilly as Canada.

I'm thankful for so many things.

I'm thankful for my faith (my niece Tabatha, kit used is Elfin Magic by Katie Pertiet)

I'm thankful for my husband (John and our cruise waiter a few years ago, kit used is Grapevine by DigiZines by Teri)

I'm thankful for family (Mom and Connor, kit used is Give Thanks by DigiZines by Teri)

I'm thankful for Disney (me with Bianca and Libby, kit used is Best Day EVER plus coordinating alpha by Sweet Spot Designs)

And I'm thankful for my country, the good old USA (me as a child, kit used is All American by GreenEyedLady Designs)

Why are you thankful?

Frightfully Fit For Fun!

It's October! The weather is cooler, the ghouls are testing the waters, and I am so ready for the fun of fall festivals! I've been eating concord grapes, eyeing caramel apples, and downing Pumpkin Lattes in preparation for the season. We'll be hitting up Sea World's Halloween Party, Epcot's Food & Wine Festival, and Syrup Sopping in Alabama before the month is over.

Since the activities for this year are just getting started, I took a look back at some highlights from last year's Halloween. These layouts were created using papers and elements from Fright Night kit and Fright Night Special Papers by Courtney's Digiscrappin'.

Trevor made up his own costume last year.

We started our trick-or-treat route at the mall, Lisa met us straight after work.

And not all of these pictures are from last year, although Logan and Connor as Tigger and Eeyore are, but this is a fun collaboration of costumes.

This year Logan is getting into the holiday spirit, although it's still a little too scary at times.

I found the perfect mask at Target, it's Batman (and Lisa can get Captain America). But I just found out that though we're allowed to dress up for work this year, masks are strictly prohibited. I can't be Batman without a mask! Back to the drawing board I guess. I still think it would be completely awesome to show up to Logan and Connor's house as Batman, though.

Happy Valentine's Day

Yes, today I'm celebrating a widely recognized holiday, but I think all the other daily holidays I've been celebrating are equally as important. For example, celebrating "Get a Different Name Day" was easy, since I already have a Rock Band Name, Malika, that I love almost as much as my real name. ;-) And I didn't have to live through the never-ending questions "What did you get for XYZ Day?" I was also pretty excited about Inspire Your Heart with Art Day, that's a worthy cause to celebrate if I've ever heard one.

Thanks to Mom, though, for remembering us with cupcakes on this day of love, and to Trinity for helping to deliver them. My manager also sent out a nice note to the department today - she is such a wonderful lady.

Last week I won 3 books from giveaways held over at Goodreads.com; I'm patiently waiting for them to arrive. The books I'm expecting are Expats: A Novel by Chris Pavone, Sinners of Sanction County:  Stories by Charles Dodd White, and The Big Five For Life - 2012 Edition by John P. Strelecky. They all sound fantastic, and I'm so excited that I won!

I finally finished reading Dormia by Jake Halpern & Peter Kujawinski - Mom gave me that book 2 years ago, she stumbled upon an advance copy of it. It was one of those books that takes a while to get into (it took me a couple of tries), but really picks up steam about 7 chapters in, check it out:

Dormia by Jake Halpern

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


What do you do in YOUR sleep? Do you sleep soundly? Do you dream? Do you sleepwalk? Do you fix clocks? If it's the last two, then perhaps you are a Dormian-in-waiting... perhaps you might even be the next Great Sleeper.

Dormians are best noted for their abilities while sleeping. They don't waste time, as soon as they are asleep their sleeping selves get busy with their own specialties. They are just as productive when they are awake. In fact they make the rest of us look like sloths. Alfonso knows nothing of any of this, however, and is quite disturbed to learn that he does things in his sleep. When his Uncle Hill appears with a strange story of a far-away land, Alfonso is snatched from the comfortable life he has always known and thrust into the adventure of a lifetime.

It's an incredible story that starts off with an odd stranger and builds into an epic adventure. It's rated for ages 10 and up, or grades 5 and up, but it's a hefty book at 528 pages and an intricate storyline. I found it to be a slow read until Chapter 7 - I actually only read the first 5 chapters on my first attempt, but the second time around I stuck with it and I'm glad that I did. By the end I didn't want it to end. The heroes and villains are well-disguised for a good part of the book, increasing the suspense-factor.

View all my reviews on Goodreads.com

Happy Independence Day, America!

The 4th of July is a wonderful holiday for The United States of American - we celebrate 235 years of independence this year! 

God Bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam
God bless America, My home sweet home.  (by Irving Berlin)

Here is my tribute to our great land and our celebration of independence:

There is another celebration going on this year, and this one is not specific to America.  It's the 7th birthday celebration for E-Scape and Scrap that begins on their blog.

I created a couple of layouts and a quickpage (which you can download for free right here) for this celebration using the new Lucky 7 Collaboration kit for sale in the shop:

In case you missed it above, click here to download your free quickpage.

However you spend the 4th of July, I hope you have a wonderful day.

A Big Little Project

Well, I'm a lot more excited about my latest project than pretty much anyone else, but that's the way it goes, lol.  I recently made a mini-album (which I used as an example for this week's Use Your Stash Challenge at ACOT) and when I handed it to John to show him he opened it up to the middle page.  That's not how albums work!  Where's Nicole when I need her?

I've had an Epcot Passport kit for several years - it was super cute in the store but I had never gotten around to opening it up and using it.  When I decided to create a challenge about kits I suddenly had the urge to use that kit (even though it's technically not a scrapbooking kit).  I loved the end result - a passport book filled with memories of my experiences at Epcot's Holidays Around the World, one of my favorite events at Ecpot.

Check it out - here are a couple of images from the mini-album.  The rest can be found by clicking here.

cover:

title page:

intro:

Germany:

USA:

United Kingdom:

Thanks for looking!

Eat What You Want Day

May 11 is Eat What You Want Day.  I know some people who ate chocolate cake today just because.  At least the holiday fit the crime.  :-)

After a couple of weak months, my scrapping has picked back up.  I finished 11 layouts for the crop this past weekend which brings me to 17 in May.  My end goal is 47 in order to catch up with what I didn't finish in March and April.  I have plenty of digi kits I need to work with, plus I'm having a lot of fun playing with my paper stash, so I don't see this being too much of a problem.

Here are a few of my most recent layouts:

Groundhog Day

The bottom line - no shadow = end of winter.  I think that's something everyone is looking forward to this year.  Good old P. Phil has our backs.

Speaking of Groundhog Day, it's one of my favorite movies. If you haven't seen it, starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell, you should check it out for some sweet and silly laughs.

February is here and that begins the parade of birthdays that march through this month for our family.  Uncle Vern and Brian both have birthdays today to start it off.  If you can believe it, on top of all the existing birthdays Nicole is purposely creating another February birthday.  She literally scheduled a birthday in February - she's having a C-Section on Feb 24 so that New Baby Hickey can share a birthday with his Uncle John.  :-)

One Man's Holiday is Another Woman's Challenge

Monday was Martin Luther King Day.  I realize this is an important holiday.  And I do not begrudge anyone a day off.  But if everyone could just start scheduling their lives to be a little more compatible with mine, that would be awesome.  Thanks.  :-)

We recorded Lisa's speech for an online speech class over the weekend.  (I can't say we taped the speech anymore because when she made a mistake and we had to start the recording all over, my mom told me to "rewind."  I did finally figure out how to delete the first recording and she made it all the way through the second time.)  She either had to upload it to the website by Monday or it would have to arrive to her teacher in the mail by Wednesday.  My camcorder creates mini-DVDs, and it has no adapter cord to hook it up to anything.  I tell her no problem, I don't know how to make it a digital file but if I mail the DVD by Monday it is sure to arrive by Wednesday.  If nothing else we can send it Express mail for $10 (that's not how much it costs, by the way, in case you are suddenly excited about Express mail - turns out it's double that). 

Monday morning before work I arrive at the post office - and that's when it finally dawns on me that it's a holiday.  We don't get this holiday off, so it's kind of easy to forget that other people do.  I don't panic because our PO has self-service kiosks.  I put the package on the scale and type in my info.  There are only two mailing options offered to me - Priority Mail and Express Mail.  Priority Mail tells me it will arrive Thursday, which obviously won't work.  I try to the Express Mail option.  Thursday.  Freaking Thursday.  I look at my Express Mail packaging - it says Extremely Urgent, Please Rush.  It's Monday.  It can arrive on Thursday.  How in the heck is that a rush?  I can drive it there by Thursday.  I cancel out and try again, certain there is a next day option.  There is not.  I leave and go to work without mailing the package.  I check with Fed Ex and UPS.  You don't even want to know how much they wanted.  This is bad, really bad. 

I decide to get off work early so I can try converting this DVD to a digital file at home.  Yeah, not leaving work early - suddenly everyone needs something.  I finally get home and pop the DVD in my laptop, where I think I might have software for the conversion.  The laptop has decided it doesn't want to read mini-DVDs.  RB.  I take the DVD to the desktop.  Aha - we have a winner!  I do have software that will convert the DVD file to a digital file.  Yippee!  I had to convert it 4 times to get a format and size that would work, then Lisa had to get the file uploaded into her school site.  By 11 pm it was done - file was readable on her school site and ready for her teacher to grade.  I haven't heard the verdict yet, but I think she did a nice job on her speech.  We have another one to do this weekend, but at least I know how to digitize the file after we record it.  The sweet smell of success.  And that's my holiday story - some people got the day off, I had to work extra-hard but had a sense of accomplishment when it was all over.

Happy 4th of July

Independence Day - it is the day our forefathers fought for and bled for and dreamed of for us.  It is the day that made all of our freedoms possible.  It is a beautiful day.

I love the 4th of July but I do not love the traffic that comes with it, or the ever predictable rain, so I watched my fireworks a day early at Disney.  The view from the beach of the Polynesian was perfect, and we had only a slight drizzle of rain, unlike the all-day downpour we experienced on the 4th.

Here it is - because of the drizzle I didn't take my camera but I took these pictures on my cell phone.
A Tribute to the Good Ole USA, using ACOT's digi doable challenge template and the Solids paper pack from Little Mrs. Liz.