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I have just discovered that The Cuttlebug Spot is having a contest - "The Journey to 1,000"! They are trying to reach 1,000 followers by the end of July and need your help. To enter all you have to do is go to their site, sign up as follower and complete a few easy steps and you could win a $1,000 gift certificate to Custom Crops (www.CustomCrops.com)! GO NOW and check it out at www.TheCuttlebugSpot.com

In memory of Vince Lombardi

On June 2, 2009, a dear childhood friend of mine passed away. I haven't seen him in years, but from what I hear, he never lost his happy-go-lucky spirit and his love of life. Here are a few pictures I borrowed from the "In memory of" Facebook page that has been set up for him. I think these pictures show tht Vince really knew what it meant to "Live like you were dying", in the words of Tim McGraw.

I wasn't able to attend his funeral, but I was told that a friend of his read this poem, which I think is so fitting!

The Dash by Linda Ellis

There was a man who stood to speak

At the funeral of a friend

He referred to the dates on her tombstone

From the beginning to the end

He noted that first came her date of her birth

And spoke the following date with tears

But he said what mattered most of all

Was the dash between those years

For that dash stands for all the time

That she spent alive on earth.

And now only those who loved her

Know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not how much we own;

The cars the house the cash

What matters is how we live and love

And how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard.

Are there things you'd like to change?

For you never know how much time is left

That can still be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enough

To consider what's true and real

And always try to understand

The way other people feel.

We'd be less quick to anger

And show appreciation more

And love the people in our lives

Like we've never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect

And more often wear a smile

Remembering that this special dash

Might only last a little while.

So when your eulogy is being read

With your lifes actions to rehash

Would you be proud of the things they say

About how you spent your dash?

Cos that dash stands for all the time

That you spent alive on earth

And only those who loved you

Know what that little line is worth

It matters not how much you own

The cars the house the cash

What matters is how you live and love

And how you spend your dash

In case I haven't mentioned it.....

I'M GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!!!!!

Exactly two months from today we will be heading to The World! Even more exciting - we were able to take advantage of their new offer - buy 4 get 3 free plus a $200 gift card at check in. This deal saved us $428 on our trip! SO AWESOME!!!!

Come onnnn January!

My fanciest cards ever!

I saw something similar to these on Ebay recently and I knew I had to try it! I am loving how fancy these look, with the inside "finished" as well as the outside. I also machine stitched inside and out and inked the edges. I used brown ink for one and black ink for the other. I'm not sure which one I like more. Now, if I was REALLY good, I would do a lot more with this, but this is all I've got - I can't think of what more should be done! LOL!

Maid of Honor

On August 23 I was the Maid of Honor at my friend's wedding. Here are a few pictures from the day.

I think he said yes!!!

I'm not positive but I think last night my husband said YES to a Disney World trip in January!!! This is HUGE as last year he swore he would NEVER go to Disney!!! I'm going to call my AAA girl and get it set up, then see if he still says yes when I ask him if we're ready to go ahead and book it! Keep your fingers crossed for me! :-)

My beautiful handmade bookmarks!

FINALLY I am able to make my beautiful handmade bookmarks again! I am so excited because I loved making these but for the past couple years I haven't had the software to do it. I previously used MS Word to do this, but it was an older version (2003 maybe?). We just installed MS office Professional Plus 2007, and I was crushed to learn that they changed the Word program so the bookmarks no longer worked. then I started playing around with some of the other programs, and to my delight, I found that the bookmarks can still be made in Microsoft Publisher! In fact, it is much EASIER to make them in there!!!

So if you have MS Publisher, or an older version of MS Word, These bookmarks are really easy to make. As you can see from the pictures, some of them are made from my own pictures, and the more professional ones, I got those pictures from a photography website. I can't sell them, of course, but I can give them away as gifts, which I do! Hopefully someday I will be able to take nice enough looking pictures of my own and I can maybe try selling them!

If you want to try this yourself, just copy and paste your first picture into Publisher (or Word), then using the ruler on top, shrink it to 1 3/4 inches across. Be sure to use the bottom right corner resizer, then it will resize it both ways and keep the dimensions right. Then you past your next picture into Publisher, line it up with the bottom of the first picture, and resize it to match. it's kind of important to line it up first, then resize it, or else you'll have trouble getting it to line up right.

I do 4 pictures for each bookmark, using a strip of 8 pictures for each row (cutting it in half of course), and I can get 8 bookmarks per page. Print it out on high quality photo paper, let dry, and trim them down. I then also run them through my Xyron 900 machine with the two-sided laminating cartridge inserted, and then cut them all apart. The laminated bookmarks last a very long time and they make a beautiful gift! They look so much more beautiful in person... it's hard to take pictures of pictures, but they look like perfect quality photos in person!

I plan to include these as a free gift with every Ebay sale from now on (see link at right). And to celebrate my joy at being able to make them again, I'm going to give away a few to some members of the Cricut Messageboard (again, see link at right)!

Jacob's gone for six weeks!

Every year at this time, I have to put my 11 year old son on a plane to spend six weeks vising his dad across the country. It is so hard, knowing he is on the plane alone, but of course he LOVES IT! It gives me a panic attack every time!!! This time, ChrisM agreed to meet me at the Mall of America and help distract me... and wow did we do some shopping! the biggest hit to our credit cards, of course, was Archiver's. I love that store to death!!! I'm so excited - I got to use my 30% off coupon on the Paper Gator! Plus I got all the extra blades. I've wanted this thing since the first time I saw it posted on the Cricut boards!

As hard as it is to have him gone for six whole weeks, I have to admit that it does give me some much needed "Me Time", time to get some crafting done! :-) Plus I'm in an exercise competition at work (more about this later!), so I can concentrate my time on that. AND I am Maid of honor in a wedding in August, so there will be lots to do to prepare for that, too!

WHEW! Looks like I'm going to be very busy this summer!

Blog Virgin

This is my very first post on my very first blog. Patting myself on the back - I didn't even need help! ROFL! I've been following the blogs of all my Cricut MB friends for long enough to know that I really needed to give this a try. Now if I can figure out how to post pictures, I'll be really happy!