In the Spirit....... Christmas has come and gone and it was my little family that brought the spirit back. Decorations are still up and shining and will be for days to come. Always late in putting them up, keeping up through the whole Christmas season, not just the retail season.

I've been recently chosen to become a part of Moments to Remember Design Team, a scrapping website with a local store. I will be their in-store Designer, also contributing to on-line contests, challenges, and other fun stuff on a regular basis. I look forward to taking this new opportunity to a new level. Here;s their website.. go check it out.... www.moments2remember.com

Here we are into December and I should be feeling the season, but I'm not. Even though I'm done making all my Christmas cards and they are sitting waiting to be addressed, I'm still not in the mood. Maybe taking our vacation to the balmy shores of Florida the last couple of weeks changed my outlook, or maybe having my family spread from coast to coast is the reason.

The houses in my neighborhood are all sparkling with lights and certainly helping out the local power company with their monthly output and I haven't thought of decorating and or bringing down the countless boxes of tinsel and trim. I keep putting it off hoping that some elf springs from underneath the holly bushes in the backyard and overnight puts up the garland and tree. Wishful thinking here. In any case, all my shopping is done thanks to the internet. When it snowed all day Thursday, my fingers did the walking on my keyboard and found gifts for everyone and I never had to clean off snow from the car.

So as we move forward into the season and I actually start playing Christmas music....( ordered Blackmore's Night new Christmas Carol CD) I may just "Deck the Halls", and actually enjoy the "Winter Wonderland" out the window. I'll let you know.

ROAR!!!!

Go Tigers! They made the World Series and tonight was their second game against the Cardinals from St. Louis. They go to SL Tuesday with a split win 1-1. I've been a Tigers fan ever since I was a little kid. Growing up in Detroit, just miles from Tiger Stadium, that's the only sport we watched. Dad was a super fan and we often went to the ballpark, always sitting between home plate and first base. When I got older and went with friends, it was bleacher seats only. I remember the '68 Series against the Cardinals..... mom was picking us up from school and when Northrup hit that grand slam..... she almost lost control of the car as we swerved down the road..... yeah, she was a huge fan too. Those kings of baseball.... Denny McLain, Al Kaline, Jim Northrup, Gates Brown, Norm Cash, Mickey Lolich, Wille Horton and my fav Catcher Bill Freehan... bring back such sweet memories.

I got my new camera .. it's the newly released Olympus Stylus 750 digital camera.. it's amazing with all the tricks it does. It has a huge LCD screen and a menu that I can read without having to put on my glasses. Small enough to fit in a pocket or purse whereby my other digital, still a great camera, is too big to carry around comfortably. I'll still hold on to the Canon model... just add to the collection of cameras.
We have officially moved to the new scrapbooking clubhouse that we lovingly call the "Gluestick" because our group are the "Girls with Glue". Cute, huh? of course we have a frig to hold our adult beverages... don't you know, because all work and no play makes for boring scrapbook pages.
Got tickets to see Bob Seger... twice actually... my girlfriend and I will go to the first show on Wed., Nov.8 and then we're taking our husbands to the Sunday show. Overkill? Maybe... but it's Bob Seger and he hasn't gone out on tour in a decade.

This week I was participating in an online Cybercrop at Croppers Cottage.. Several challenges were put out each day and we had to do as many scrapbook pages as we could. Over the course of the week I made 20 pages (shown on a slide presentation on my main page)... that's more than I have done in some months. It was fun and challenging and made me work outside my comfort zone at times. This was the push I needed to work on the Derbyshire Album.

The printer at home konked out and we had to run out and get a new one. It's a Canon and so far it's pretty nice. Good quality photos. Now we have a stock pile of ink and paper for the HP that I should try and sell.

A friend is introducing me to her book club this week and I have to start to read the book so I know what the hell everyone will be talking about..... so I'm off to cuddle in my chair, under the afghan and read, well maybe a little nap too.

Since I left my 18 year career in the advertising world, I've been looking for other avenues to make some money and support my addiction to paper. Naturally I fell upon on my creative side and began to work on developing myself in the artzy - craftzy field. So watch for me selling custom designed jewelry, decorative boxes, scrapbook pages, card sets etc. on e-bay and at renaissance faires in the near future.