Life Update and Week Six Challenge

Good grief the last week has been absolutely crazy! Last week started off great we met up with my cousin Cindy for dinner. It was so nice catching up with her and dinner was fabulous the food was so good. But then when we got home Mike had messages from his grandmother and our week took a downward turn. As many of you know Mike's mom has a laundry list of medical problems - more then any one person should have and on Friday she had to have major major surgery we have been spending a lot of time at the hospital with her. Some days have been pretty rough and all the days have been totally draining. So please keep her in your thoughts and prayers the road to recovery is going to be a long one.

I did manage to complete my week six layout on time. This challenge was to group ribbon together. I got another page full of cruise photos completed and I loved playing with ribbon I don't do a lot of that.

This turned photo business is getting on my last nerve!!!!

My mom's layout just screams Spring it is so much fun and the ribbon she chose is so pretty!



I haven't been doing much cooking these days but I am hoping to start again soon posting new recipes each week. I'm definitely open to suggestions so if you have any recipes you think I should try just send them over!

Happiness Is...

On a daily basis I take time and read blogs from some really fantastic, creative and inspiring people. This week on Stacy Julian's blog - Altogether Too Happy - Stacy Julian took photos defining what happiness is and suggested we do the same, so on Thursday I did just that!

Happiness Is...

Hooper greeting me at the door when I come home. You can't help but feel good when this cutie is so excited to see you!



Iced Coffee from Dunkin Donuts with a shot of coconut flavoring. My cups of coffee are becoming fewer and farther between these days so when I do indulge it is pure bliss!



Flowers blooming on our little porch garden! It just brightens my day to see them blooming and makes me thankful that Mike does all this work so we can have a beautiful garden!



My laptop! I keep in touch with a lot of people, I write, I create, I find inspiration and I play!



My phone where I talk to my parents and grandmother almost every single day and it's a connection I don't take for granted.



A beautiful blue sky! It just makes me happy to walk outside under a clear blue sky!!



This face! My husband makes me laugh and smile, he brings me comfort and he loves me, what is happier then that?!

Two Geeks Have One Great Day!

I have been a huge Buffy The Vampire Slayer fan since the day the pilot aired on television back in 1997. My love for Buffy lead to my love for Angel and all the characters in between so when Mike sent me a link to the FX Show in Orlando where James Marsters (Spike from Buffy & Angel) would be appearing along with the gals that played Darla, Druscilla and Glory (Julie Benz, Juliet Landau and Claire Kramer) I knew we had to be there! So yesterday morning we dressed in our geek wear celebrating the fact that some of the folks from Star Trek would be at the show and we headed to the Orange County Convention Center.



I hadn't been to a comic/Sci-Fi show in a really long time so I was excited and Mike and I had never been one together so that was another super exciting thing. We immediately headed over to find out the autograph situation. The one disappointing thing is how the convention milks you for every penny. To get James Marsters autograph it would cost $40 and that would not include getting my picture taken with him in order to do that I would have to slap down another $65!! But Mike my AWESOME husband grabbed a ticket for the autograph and said I could get it and to enjoy! Waiting for our turn I was super nervous because the convention staff was spewing all these rules at us and I just kept thinking would the money we spent be worth it - trust me when I say it was! We got up to Mr. Marsters and he couldn't possibly have been nicer. He chatted with us, commented on Mikey's shirt, talked about the upcoming Star Trek movie, I asked about any possible Buffy/Angel movies and I broke the news to him that Buffy star Sarah Michelle Gellar was expecting her first baby! He SERIOUSLY couldn't have been nicer. It is always a fabulous thing when someone you watch on TV and admire turns out to be a really great guy in real life.



After the autograph session we grabbed a seat for the ladies of the Whedon-verse panel. Juliet Landau who played Druscilla on Buffy and Angel was one of the greatest characters on TV ever in my opinion I so enjoyed her and hearing her speak on the panel was incredible she seems super intelligent, Julie Benz was smart and funny and Claire Kramer made me insanely jealous because she was in fantastic shape but recently had a baby. There were two gals from Joss Whedon's Firefly which I never watched but I enjoyed hearing them all speak about their characters, their shows and working with Whedon. These girls were bright and funny and just enjoyable to watch.



Mike's friend Peter joined us and we walked around all the booths and got great deals on Buffy figures to round out my collection which I'm planning to pull out and get set up so we can see what we have and what we need/want. Mike also picked up a Transformer he wanted and we just saw a lot of cool stuff. Then it was time for James Marsters's panel-WOW he was so dynamic. Since he was on the panel alone he just perched on the edge of the table and walked around the stage and told stories, answered a ton of questions and was just open and honest about everything. At one point Mike drew some interesting attention our way (a story much better told in person) but it was a highlight and lead to James telling a story directly to Mike. How cool right?! It was a great day - really fabulous - a nice bonding activity for me and Mike and we talked about it over our delicious Thai dinner and well into the night until we both fell asleep while chatting! What a great day and how lucky I am to share such great things with Mike!





Today we are going to get some stuff done around the apartment, grocery shopping, going to the gym and some relaxing. After yesterday I think I feel a Buffy marathon coming on!!

More Soon...

Week Five and Still Alive

I really can't believe Mom and I have 5 challenges under our belt, which means we have five completed pages/layouts complete. It's really exciting to know that we are making this time to craft and do this for one another and it's nice to know that regardless of what's going on each week we're getting at least one page done.

So this week's challenge was playing with flowers, altering them and adding different embellishments to them. Now I use a lot of flowers on my pages but usually one or two as just a finishing touch and I almost always just place a button in the center so this time I thought outside of that box just a bit. For one flower I sprayed it with shimmer mist and added a touch of glitter to the center and on the other page instead of just one or two flowers I used six and filled the centers with colorful brads with either a hint of glitter or some well place bling! I love how these pages came out and I can't wait to hear what you think. I absolutely loved Castaway Cay so it was really important for me to get some of those beautiful feelings out of my head and into my scrapbook. Hopefully I succeeded!





Mom's page is gorgeous! I think this is my favorite of the pages she's done for these challenges which is saying a lot because I love them all. Mom painted her flowers, layered flowers, used paper flowers and chipboard flowers and this page turned out gorgeous! How lucky am I to have such a talented mom??? If only more of her talent rubbed off on me!



This week I went to the doctor, no real surprise I have to lose weight. Mike made the appointment behind my back but he was right to do it. I hate going to the doctor but we really have to get healthy and start viewing this infertility from a different standpoint. Instead of viewing it as the problem we are viewing it as a symptom to a bigger problem. So my wonderful doctor gave me an exercise regimen to follow, and she wants me to go off caffeine - ACK - obviously I didn't just pick the title for this blog out of thin air, I love coffee, I'm addicted to coffee! I like it iced or hot, I like the fancy flavored creamers or the frozen concoctions and now I have to cut it out!! AHHHHH. I mean I know that I drink way too much coffee, I drink a pot or more most days! So I know, like I know that I'm chubby, that I have to cut down the coffee, it's just a lot to take in but if it will help get me healthy I'm committed to it. Wish me luck!! I'm sure I'll be posting my progress here and whining about how much I miss coffee.

This morning we have to get going and do some errands and I have to absolutely get to the gym and do my workout but first I had to post. Stay tuned for another update shortly as we Taylors had a very fun day yesterday that I just have to share!!

what do you do when the dr says you're fat?

get ben & jerrys of course

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Easter Weekend Wrapup!

I can't believe Easter is over already! Though this house is full of Easter goodies and leftovers that will last for a good long while. Mike and I went a little overboard in the Easter Basket department!



We had a weekend full of yummy food and togetherness. Friday Mike tried his hand at frying fish and it was amazing! He did such a great job and though it's not really dietetic I can't wait for him to make it again! Saturday Mike was in the kitchen again and he made chocolate chip pancakes - YUM! The rest of Saturday was spent shopping, cooking and cleaning for Easter. Saturday night we kept our tradition and colored eggs. It's fun doing this every year and then I know with the eggs Mike will make his fabulous egg salad!!






Sunday morning I woke up early and walked Hooper. I love the quiet Sunday morning walks. After the walk I set up Mike's Easter basket and hid candy filled eggs around the house for him. It was so fun being big kids. Mike's parents arrived around 1PM and we ate! I made my family's traditional Easter Pie and for dessert with had cupcakes and St. Joseph pastry. It was my first time making pastry and I was super impressed with myself. After Mike's parents left we watched Easter Parade and played cards it was a nice day.





Now this week I've got to get back to working out, and crafting! I hope to have lots of things to show you all soon!!

Happy Easter!

I love Easter and this morning has been a very happy start to Easter. I hid eggs for Mike and we made each other Easter baskets - it's silly but I like getting into the traditions even if it's just for me and Mike. We colored eggs last night and I prepared all the food for today - I will post pictures later or tomorrow so stay tuned! In the meantime I hope you have a Happy and Healthy Easter!!

Ok and now or this week's challenge update. This week mom and I were challenged to make our own chipboard. Now in the past I've had issues with cutting and I can't draw for anything so I was nervous about this challenge but I have to tell you I'm happy with how it turned out and I'm loving that this challenge is really getting me in the scrap room and getting creative! I drew and cut out hearts and I textured them and inked them - maybe not something I will do all the time but I think I will definitely make my own chipboard embellishments in the future.

*Apparently the flipped pictures is not something I can fix but an acknowledged problem that is being worked on. I am also not the only one having trouble thank goodness!


It's funny mom also used heart shapes for her handmade chipboard and she added just the right embellishments to a page she had already been working on.



This week Ruth came over to hang out and I was able to introduce her to my new addiction - Twilight! But since Ruth was coming over I took the opportunity to get creative in the kitchen and I made a Swiss Cheese and Onion Quiche. I had never made a quiche before and I was really happy with how it turned out so there will be more quiche in our future. You can find the recipe here.



More Soon...

mmm cupcakes

made some fun and festive Easter cupcakes

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Super Sleepy Monday

I'm sitting here fighting to keep my eyes open, drinking cup after cup of coffee. Last night I just couldn't fall asleep - I found myself watching tv, walking around the living room, reading, just waiting for my eyes to get heavy but no such luck. So today is no doubt going to be a long one but I'm proud of myself I did wake up, get Mike to work and did a good workout. Today I also want to create and I have some writing I want to do.

Friday Mom and I completed another challenge. This challenge was to use ribbon as a border. This was a fun challenge for me because I have a ton of ribbon but I'm always afraid to use it and this challenge gave me permission to use my ribbon stash and to also complete my 2008 Christmas layout. I had a lot of fun with it. Mom did another great layout where she included pictures of herself. I can't believe we are three weeks in already. It is a great feeling to know that no matter what else happens during the week I'm going to at least complete one page.




Once again I can not get my photo to turn the correct way even though every place I have it saved it is not this way! But if you click on it you can see a full size photo.

Yesterday I made a big pot of sauce. I put it on the stove early in the day and just let it simmer all day the whole house still smells like sauce and it tasted fantastic. I did a few things with the sauce I don't usually do, like adding sausage and pork hocks to it and Mike and I sat at the dining room table to eat instead of on the couch which was a nice change of pace. Sometimes it's nice to sit and talk instead of sit in front of our computers and TV. Now we have lovely sauce to eat all week. I'm seeing homemade pizza in our future.

Well I'm off for now but will post more soon!

Aaahh Amour

I think as part of the Creativity Project I have to think of creative ways to get me and Mike off the couch and away from the television but that don't include eating haha! I got one of these ideas last night when oddly enough we were leaving a nice dinner and walking around Epcot when I thought - why don't we do this all the time? Why don't we just take a walk around the parks after I pick Mike up from work. We can walk, talk, people watch and then still get home early enough to have a light dinner and quality TV time. I think this is something we are going to start over the next few weeks.

Now back to the location of the creative brainstorm - last night Mike took me to dinner at Chefs de France in Epcot. Again it felt nice to be taking advantage of our easy access to Disney parks. It was also nice to try a new restaurant. We had a great meal, had a fabulous table and after dinner we walked around the park taking pictures of course and just continuing our dinner chat. It was a beautiful evening.





Today I've been laid up, I think I got a little carried away with the working out and I hurt my knee. I did the same thing a few weeks back so today I did my best to stay off the knee. I'm a horrible patient so it hasn't been easy to keep off it or walk around smelling like Icy Hot but I'm coping and hopefully by morning I can do a light workout at least a little yoga.

Also tomorrow I have to work on my next challenge layout. The challenge is to use ribbon borders. I have a few ideas but nothing totally mapped out yet. I am hoping that once I get going with the challenge that will inspire even more ideas because I definitely need to get to crafting on a more regular basis. Will be sure to keep you all posted and of course post pictures.

Mike and I are planning for Easter - what is everyone planning for the upcoming Spring Holidays?

More soon...

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

Today marks the anniversary of the day Mike and I officially started dating. We were friends first but we started dating 9 years ago today!!! Nine years! I don't know where time goes. It doesn't seem that long until I look back through the years and see how far we've come and how much we've done and how much we've changed. The photo below was taken seven years ago so not at the very beginning of our relationship but before we were even engaged.



I consider myself very lucky to have Mike in my life. He is supportive, caring, loving, he has been a calming influence on my life and he's fun. We laugh all the time which is probably what has made this time speed by.



These photos were taken on the trip to Vegas where Mike proposed! He is always so full of surprises and that has not changed over the years, in fact he surprised with an anniversary celebration planned for today! Once we got married we had a much lower key celebration of the day we started dating but yesterday Mike let me know that he made reservations for Chefs de France at Epcot for dinner so we will be enjoying a lovely evening of togetherness. Stay tuned for pictures of course. And not to get completely mushy on all of you but I can't close out this blog with out thanking Mike for 9 amazing years - you're the best and I'm very lucky!