Just a few photos from the house...

The house we bought has been sitting empty for at least one year, maybe more. The grass was dead, we weren't sure we'd be able to bring it back, but so far it's coming along! We have four trees in our front yard. One is DEFINITELY dead, one is definitely alive. The other two are really questionable. So off we went to the Nursery this week to pick out our new tree. This is a big deal for us, we love our plants and trees and buying a new tree is like welcoming a new family member! After MUCH deliberation and searching, we found our perfect addition! He's an English Oak tree. Slow growing and very very strong. We love him and can't wait for him to grow along with our family! (no.. let me re-phrase, he can grow UP with Ashli and Mason, we are NOT growing our family!)

Here is Gregg planting the new Oak, while Ashli supervises.

Guess who I walked in on "helping" me to paint Ashli's room? Yeah.. that was a heart-stopping moment! A two-year-old with a loaded PURPLE paint brush in my new house! YIKES!

I'm in heaven.. I found RUB-ONS for WALLS! YAY!!!!!!!!! You scrapper people know what I mean! These are Vinyl rub ons from www.vinylwallart.com. These were the PERFECT addition to Ashli's new room! She loves her flowers!

This is Ashli's room (unfinished). I spent this week painting it the colors that Ashli chose. The darker purple on the bottom and the lilac on top. We're waiting for daddy to pull it all together with a beautiful chair rail to separate the two colors. Then, I have to paint a book case and add a few little things and her room will be complete!

Here's the back yard. I think I took these photos two days after we moved in. We had NO fence and let me tell you.. with "Matani, The Wonder Spaz" living in this house, we NEEDED a fence! Not to even mention what a pain in the butt it was to leash up both dogs to take them outside every hour or two! Thank GOD I have a very handy husband who was equally motivated to get that fence up ASAP! (I did help.. quite a bit too!)

Another view of the backyard. Don't I have such lovely weeds? The yard had never been landscaped, so that is our NEXT big project! YIPPEE! More trees!

And yet, another view of the back yard. This one shows the little deck we have off the dining room.

Here is my honey building our peace of mind. (And my sanity).

You know I had to throw in a shot of Mason's amazing smile! *sigh* I love that boy!
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More photos to come, SOON hopefully!

From A Dear Friend...

Many of you who read my blog know my dear friend Paulien Van den Bosch, of Castricum Holland. This woman is a card making PHENOM! HOLY COW her work is so unbelievably GORGEOUS! She just finished giving classes in the Netherlands to more than 100 people on how to make cards like 'SHE' does! Anyway, my beautiful friend sent me this gorgeous card for my birthday and I just had to share it! It's STUNNING! Thank you Honey! I LOVE IT!!!

Found a few minutes to SCRAAAAAAAAAAAP!

I snuck down to my little craft-room / office in the middle of the night (okay, it was 10:00. But at my age, that IS the middle of the night!) to get in a little bit of scrap-time. It felt good to get back to the hobby that I love and actually PLAY with some paper!

This is Ashli and her first Snowman. The journaling here reads:

" I just love this photo of you with your first snow man! Oh how you loved him. You, daddy & the Smiths worked on him all morning and your "imagigation" brought him to life. In your eyes he was alive, and you loved him. It broke your heart when he melted, but he will always live in you!!"
A big thank you to my dear friend Tracey Jackson, from whom I stole the lacing idea! Her layouts are REALLY fantastic!

Here is a layout I've been trying to get done since FEBRUARY. (I'm a tad bit behind) This layout documents Matani's travel from Johannesburg, South Africa to the United States. It's just a fun little collage full of memorabilia from his memorable journey. The tassels on this layout were made by Eco-Africa , A company who employs women in a small village in Zimbabwe to create hand made paper crafting papers, kits and other stuff. All proceeds go to help these women feed their families.
Look for a complete feature on Eco-Africa in the March/April issue of Scrap N' Art!

Wanna know what'll freak ya out?

So today, I am lazily going about putting laundry away and tidying up the house. No biggy right? Right. I walk into my bathroom to toss a loofa into the shower and turn back around to leave.. but I stop. Had I just seen... something outside the bathroom window? No.. No, it couldn't have been. I turn around slowly and gaze out my bathroom window. And just WHAT to my wondering eyes should appear?
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A FRIGGIN' TORNADO! (No, I am not kidding. Who could possibly make this crap up?)
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Yep folks, there was a TORNADO outside my window. I sat and stared at it for about a minute while trying to collect my thoughts and come to terms with what I thought I was seeing, when Gregg came in and says, "whatcha lookin' at?" I tell him that I'm not sure... but I think it's a tornado. He comes over and peeks out the window and sure enough... it's a tornado! "Go get your camera!" he says. Not, go get the kids.. go turn on the news.. no. "Go get the camera!" LOL! So I of course go turn on the news to see what is going on, as we had received no warning. The sirens never went off and sure enough there is a tornado warning in our area and a tornado currently on the ground (duh!). Being as the tornado was moving away from us, I thought it was safe to go ahead and grab my camera, but by the time I got all the way down to my scrap-room, unpacked the camera and got back up to my bathroom the tornado was dissipating and returning to the clouds. (Of course). So, here are the shots I did catch of it before it finally disappeared. You can click on the photos to make them larger if ya wanna.

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This first shot shows the funnel going back up.

funnel going back up...

funnel going back up, and the view from my bathroom LOL!

The End!

WE'RE IN!

Gosh it's been a long time huh? We finally got moved into our new place two weeks ago. It's been CRAZY trying to unpack, get settled, build a fence, do the window coverings, keep up with therapies 4-5 days a week, keep up with Scrap N' Art and with My Acrylic Album and *attempt* to keep my sanity!

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So here we are! All moved in, no photos on the computer yet *GASP!* But I'll get to it as soon as I can! Maybe tomorrow? I don't have any plans tomorrow other than staying in my Jammies ALL DAY LONG! LOL~

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Anyway, just wanted to post an update and let everyone know we're all alive! I hope to be able to start posting regularly again soon!

Big hugs!
~K~

Mason's Puzzle makes it to ENGLAND!

Thank you to my very dear friend Tracey, who has brought Mason's Puzzle to England.

Check out the link below to see the store display for Paper Paradise, in England!

http://tj-runningwithscissors.blogspot.com/2008/08/masons-puzzle.html

Just a little update...

Well, our house is STILL under contract. No one has backed out *yet*! We did manage to get our other house 'back', but in order to do so had to move the closing date up to the 8th! This seriously gave us less than 2 weeks to get ready to get out! I'm not going to count my chickens before they hatch this time, but if all goes as planned, we sign off on this house and sign ON to our next house on Friday the 8th, and Saturday is moving day!

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We have been terribly busy with house hunting (up to 50+ properties in 4 days), Mason's therapies and various inspections and appraisals all over the place. Did I mention.. all of this with psycho dog? LOL! I only say that because he's right next to me mutilating his squeaky sea-horse! Anyhow, I'm hoping that by Sept. 1st our lives will be SOMEWHAT back to normal, whatever THAT is!

We have LOTS to do at the new house (landscaping, furniture and window coverings.. etc) so I may be off and on sporatically for a while!

Hope everyone is doing well!

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~K~