Ya... New Year's Day again.

So looking at the blog I see that last year my resolution was to blog at least once a week..........you can see how well that went over. But it has been a FANTASTIC year. 2008 was filled with great times shared with friends so close and special they're like family.
So what's the resolution for this year???????????????? I am not going to make capital "R" Resolutions this year. There are things that I can hope will happen this year, and there are things that I can do to help those things along, but really, what will be will be. So I 'll be sure to pop in occasionally =P and let y'all know what's "be-ing".

A few more before we hit the dusty trail

We're off to our Scrapping retreat bright and early tomorrow morning (look out Bruce County, swwet and sexy 30-sumthin's headed your way, with marker on our fingertips and glue in our hair). In a perfect world I'll get a ton done and the whole weekend will be super-productive, but even if I only complete one layout and spend the bulk of the time in the hot tub or sitting in the Muskoka room gabbing with my girls, it won't be a waste of time.

You know why? 'Cause, (from Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert)

"Un'amica stretta means 'a close friend.'
But stretta literally means tight, as in clothing, like a tight skirt.

So a close friend, in Italian, is one you can wear tightly, snug against your skin."

So a few friendship layouts would be in order, right? Um.... I think I've already posted the good ones, but let's dig into the deep backfiles and see what we have. Hmmm......

This One is WAY old, as in "one of the first 10 layouts I ever completed. For a novice, I was a dreamer, thinking that I could do a handcut title like it was nothing. What a pain in the @$$ that was. Looking back at this one though, I am genrally happy with it. No real, "oh my goodness, what was I thinking using that paper/squiggly scissors/sticker sneeze" regrets. K*I*S*S really works!

This one isn't so old, finished about two month ago. Most of the goodies came out of one of the lovely Red Velvet Art Kits (http://redvelvetgirls.typepad.com/rvkc/)

This one I did last fall (almost a year ago? Can it have been that long? Oh my!)

The inspo for this paper flower came from here, http://onelittleword.typepad.com/olw/2007/08/gigis-tips-tech.html

And another seasonally sampling since it is Breast Cancer awareness month:

You know Lesley's blog that I mentioned yesterday? Well today her blog points to this HILARIOUS blog about when cakes go wrong. I mean really wrong, aesthetically. One entry also nods to October as Breast Cancer awareness month. Now I know Cancer I no laughing matter, having watched it sneak up and bite my mom on the butt, and her tun around a bite it right back (she beat it, and is the tall lady in the middle of the pic featured in the layout above), but THIS(http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2008/10/save-ts-and-vs.html) had me laughing so hard I almost peed.

Alright my loyal follower, let us head to scrap-a-palooza! We and our other homies shall imbibe on wine and share great company while making cut "n" paste art.

Ciao ciao ragazzi!

More layouts for archiving

So, the reality is, I keep this blog as a place to archive my layouts, and share them with the ~3 friends who read this.

Okay dokey, here are a few more:
- This is one I did at a scrapbooking class that Tina and I attended on my birthday weekend. The class was given by a local collage artist, Lesley Denford (check out her website, which she updates faithfully Monday-Friday, http://www.lesleydenford.com/). While Tina and I made our layouts, Leslie made this: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=15387346 (recognize the Basic Grey Obscure paper? It's the same background paper as I used in the Ars Memoriae layout....

This summer I really was aching, Aching, ACHING to get back to Italy. I was a new job, and about $1000 dollars away from making the trip. So, if one cannot go to Italy, one scraps Italy. I wrote a love letter to Florence, to let her know that I still love her and think of her daily.

This is an older one with some fun pics I took at the Science centre back in December (look at that... just a hoodie at the end of December. Those are the winter days I can live with.

A couple of Jake layouts, both new, but one done with an older picture, obviously (one of my favorite Jake pics).

I have way too many pictures from my various trips to Italy (seriously.. there's no such thing as too many pics of Italy =P), so here's one more Italy layout for ya (believe me, there are more, and I will get them all up in time. All the pictures in this layout were photographed in Venice. the relief sculpture is a detail from the back of the Doge's Palace, near Ponte Sospiri.

My New Favorites

So this l'il craft geek is goin' on a scrapbooking retreat. Ya... I said retreat. Can we get any geekier? Probably, but I rather not think abouit it! Ha haha.


Four of us gals are heading to Bruce County to spend a girls weekend doing "cut'n'paste"(what some of us girls call scrappin'), hot tubbing, shopping, chatting, laughing, gossiping, eating, hanging out in our PJs at a lovely B&B. This whole weekend is hosted by Sandy the owner/operatore of my LSS, http://www.oldetymecountrycrafts.com/


So, speaking of my new favorite, I am referring to my new fave scrapbook layout. So here are the two newest (and bestest, I think):










And something seasonal (from last year):

I freakin' LOVE Modcloth.

Check out the sweet autumn duds at Modcloth (http://www.modcloth.com/) !

I lust after this jacket....

oooo... and this one:

And I am hot for these dresses. (particularly the teal one)....

and these shoes....

And I wish I knew a closet drinker so I could buy her this pretty little flask to keep in her purse (but I guess if I knew all about her habit then she wouldn't be a closet drinker now, would she? Hmmmmmm....

And although I look at these and can hear them screaming WEDGIE, this girl knows that sometimes you need to suffer for fashion. Aren't they pretty?

Now go check out their stuff. I will admit that some of the merchadise is entirely unwearable by women of a certain age (read over 30), but they certainly are fun!

Some New layouts

Alright lady (because I am pretty sure that there's only one person who reads this =P )... here are a few new layouts. I fixed up the earlier posted "dental hygiene" post, but the pics were very poor in quality, so i will retake them tomorrow.

So here goes....

The family layout was made with a flyer for a local nightclub advertising a Sunday night party on Family Day weekend. I loved the flyer. It begged to be screapped.

More tomorrow (or soon after) =)

I am a deliquent

Seriously.... February is the last time I wrote anything on this bolg? Wow!
Well, summer has been BUSY! In a good way.
I took a couple of scrap classes and we're doing the countdown to a scrapping getaway in October... plus a Christmas card day like last year. That was fun!
Anyway, no pics of my creations right now becuase they're saved on a different computer, but I do have some new things to share.
In the meantime, I will post these beauties.... plates featuring the artwork of early Twentieth-Century designer, Pietro Fornasetti (yes, more Italy love!)