Happy Leap Day

When I was little, I used to hear "leap year" and think of playing leap frog. I can't wait to hear what my little one may have learned at school today about leap day.

I looked it up on wikipedia - just because I like trivia and interesting things. It said:
February 29 is a date that occurs only every four years, in years evenly divisible by 4, such as 1988, 1996, 2008 or 2016 (with the exception of century years not divisible by 400, such as 1900) for the Gregorian calendar, which is most widely used in the world today.

anything to do with math makes my head swim

but there's even more! who thinks of these things?
February 29 is a date that occurs only every four years, in years evenly divisible by 4, such as 1988, 1996, 2008 or 2016 (with the exception of century years not divisible by 400, such as 1900) for the Gregorian calendar, which is most widely used in the world today.

Although the modern calendar counts a year as 365 days, a complete revolution around the sun takes approximately 365 days and 6 hours. Every four years, an extra twenty-four hours have accumulated, so one extra day is added to that calendar to keep the count coordinated with the sun's apparent position.
who was the dude that counted the hours of the sun's revolution?


A century year, which ends in two zeros, is not a leap year unless it is also evenly divisible by 400. oops - it lost me at the word 'divisible'.This means that 1600 and 2000 were leap years, and 2400 and 2800 will also be, 1800 and 1900 were not, and the years 2100 and 2200 will not be leap years. To correct a slight inaccuracy that remains (it isn't exactly six hours extra), it has been proposed that years evenly divisible by 4,000 should not be leap years; but this rule has not been officially adopted.

A leap day is more likely to fall on a Monday than on a Sunday.not this year!! This is because the Gregorian calendar repeats itself every 400 years, which is exactly 20871 weeks including 97 leap days.
...stop...stop.....for the rest go look it up on wikepedia...seriously.

Speaking if time and numbers and making my head swim.... How many LOST fans are reading this? Did you see last night? The whole jumping-forward-in-time-but-only-your-concious? And psssttt - if you go to you tube you can search for the video about the Orchid Hatch. Play with the stop/stop, rewind thing and you will see some weird things.

We're doing the dinner date thing tonight. It's sort of a late anniversary night out b/c we had to wait until a date when this other couple could go with us. Yes, we are not allowed to eat out alone (just kidding). Outback, here we come.

I don't have anything new to show right now. Here's a couple of photos from my daughter's birthday party earlier this month. She was having such a good time with TEN of her friends (and parents) crowded in a room at one of the area game / activity places.



And one of her friends to her right was a bit "party blower happy" right in her face one too many time. Look at her face now.



Don't we all feel like that sometimes?

Have a wonderful weekend!

Counting Down to Memory Villa's Retreat!

In about 17 days I'll be going here:

Memory Villa Retreat!

I'm soooo looking forward to going. One of my scrapbook friends is going with me. Donna will be meeting us there. My plan is to take her a pot of my Louisiana gumbo. I'm thinking Pecan Pie, too. How often is it she comes this far south.

Petite Jean Mountain holds sentimental memories for me. That's where me and my hubby went for our honeymoon. But I told him that he couldn't come. Someone has to watch the kids.

Here's a peek at one of my project for . My little one got some adorable boots from my sister for Christmas. This was perfect for Christmas time since we get rain instead of snow.

And the Happy's go to....

Libby and Rex! Happy Anniversary
Rebekah! Happy Birthday

Not that they ever read my blog. :)

Monday, Monday, Monday. 4 weeks until spring. We already have daffodils popping up in the region. Hope those that have been buried in snow can see the sunshine peeping through soon.

Here are a few random things. The layout is done with the January Self Addressed Kit; papers are from Collage Press.



This card uses a combination of Melissa Frances, Dream Street, Prima and Fancy Pants.


And for those of you dreaming of warmer weather - he's a beachy card using Flair Designs.


Have a sunny day!

Just Some Monday Ramblings...

Our 20th anniversary was a week ago. It was my intention to scrapbook some pages... and it still is. But I haven't done any scrapbook pages. I did scan some photos from my wedding album with intention to scrap them. We had a budget wedding.... everything associated with the wedding was budget. We didn't even own a credit card so we didn't charge a thing. Jeff was in college. Our families did what they could. The one thing we were blessed with was a photographer. Jeff had a friend who's family business was photography. He did our wedding for us - and just said pay later. Which we did at least a year later (thank goodness for income tax returns). These are some of my favorite shots - aside from the traditional posed shots. The one of us in street clothes was right before we headed out. I wanted a white/pink wedding but had a white/red one instead (that's another story) - so my going away dress was pink and white and this is the only photo of me in it.






Hubby got off work around noon on our anniversary. He was going to come home and take me out for dinner. When he got home, I had decorated the dining room with some valentine streamers (something that I just happened to have in a bag of stuff someone gave me b/c they know I like scrapbooking???), lighted candles and was doing the last few steps of making lasagna and frosting a chocolate cake. And the best part - no kids!

The previous weekend was full of birthday parties. That is one reason I didn't buy a special cake from our favorite bakery. We had a small one and a large one for my daughter's birthday party. Anyone want cake??




Anyway - we had a nice peaceful romantic afternoon. And it was totally unplanned... I decided at 7:45 that morning while dropping off my daughter - that I would cook. Whew!

Here's one more "love" card that I made using Paper Salon's First Blush line, as well as chipboard and cardstock stickers. And I just found out that Emma's Paperie, a fabulous new online store, will be carrying First Blush along with other new Paper Salon products.

Sunny in the South

It's a sunny Sunday in the south. It's a beautiful afternoon, sunny and 68 degrees. Those of you still under snow... spring is coming - just hang in there.

I just made a few things with the February Self-Addressed kit. This kit featured We R Memory Keepers White Out collection - it's very summery so it will warm you up. Here's a peek at a couple of the cards.






Have a great day and stay warm!

Love and Hugs

I'm hoping everyone had a good Valentine's Day! I made surf n' turf for my family (well, hubby actually grilled the steaks but I prepared them.) and they were soooo yummy. We were sitting around the table and my littlest one said: teacher said that when you say something bad to someone, it wrinkles their heart... so you have to say something nice to make the wrinkle go away. Isn't that the cutest thing? I asked her to say the blessing before we ate and she said: Lord, thank you for this nice food, the cute decorations, the nice drinking glasses..... I forgot what else she said but it was precious. Wish I had that on video. So in the spirit of getting wrinkles out of hearts, we decided to take turns saying something nice to everyone at the family. Even tho it consisted mostly of "I like the shirt you have on.." it was still sweet.

Here are a few love and kisses cards. The love card uses Dream Street Paper's "Hugs n Kisses".


The Hugs card uses Dream Street's "Remember the Moments" collection.




Have a wonderful weekend!!

Sweet Love

Yep - another love thread. (and you will love the contest posted at the bottom). Tomorrow is my 20th wedding anniversary. I scanned some of my wedding photos in hopes to do a layout tomorrow. I can't believe it's been 20 years. 10 - yeah - but 20??? Gosh. I have to try not to go too deep on that thought.

Instead - I'll think about my another scary thought... my little one and her first boyfriend. Uh huh...she came home after one week of kindergarten writing "I (heart) John David" and I didn't know if I should be shocked at the sentiment... or proud that she spelled it all correctly (and drew a perfect heart). A few months later at a field trip - I snapped a photo of them. This layout is in Cindy Smith's Pinecone Press book "Be Mine".




The papers are from Flair Designs "Crazy for You" collection. Speaking of Flair, how would you like to receive some new Flair Designs collections? It's all about Love Contest... And Flair! Go HERE for the rules. Good luck!

Whirlwind Weekend...

It's been a whirlwind of a weekend. After having the flu in our house for about a week, it ended with my little one's birthday - which means dinner out, party the next day, and since it's the weekend before Valentines Day - me and hubby went to a banquet a few hours after her party. And our anniversary is in just a few days. We are already tired of cake. Well - THAT my friend is the reason why I didn't go to CHA Winter 08. Too many "celebration" days all in a matter a few days.

I saw a few booth photos posted here and there. So, since the show is going on, I'll share a few more random things made for CHA. A friend send me some photos, so I know my boxes made it there safe and sound. (whew).

This layout uses Dream Street's new Art Nouveau paper line.




Hampton Art / Limited Edition just introduced several lines of stamps from Marah Johnson. This page uses several of them.





And last for the night, Paper Salon's Sorbet II is perfect for spring, Easter and girlie things. The pink print is glitter paper, and the chicks paper is thermal images (you have to see it and feel it in person... just yummy!).



I'm hitting the bed. I'm hoping for a flu-free week this week. (smiles)

The Language of Love

..sign language. My daughter likes to say "I love you" with various hand motions. I showed her this birdie card and asked her what the birdie is saying.




He's saying "I love you".

I knew she'd know the answer.

Well, this is my first batch of cards made using Dream Street Papers' New CHA Winter 08 release. The birdie paper is from the "Birdie Bits" collection by Audrey Neal. Here's a peek at more cards. Check the Dream Street Blog for more peeks.

I'm Love Struck!

Are you sick of my play on the love words? Can't help it. Blame it on Marah Johnson and her gorgeous stamp sets from Hampton Art. Yes, that's right - her work is now available in stamps! Here are a few peeks made with Love Struck - available in March from Hampton Art.



You can view the tutorial and supply list here.

This is a mini-book using Love Struck stamps. I colored the images in with colored pencils.




The tutorial can be found
here.

The weather is getting warm and sunny a bit here for now. I'm still taking it easy as I shake of this flu bug. Hope you are staying warm!

Exciting things around the corner...

Well - exciting scrappy things are just around the corner. CHA is almost here and I'll be working hard this weekend on getting some projects made. Check back often. Meanwhile - for the first time ever I have contracted the flu - so I'm going to have to work around bedrest. LOL. Just don't tell my doc that I'm "working". Here's the last project I made before this thing hit me. It's a slide book from
Piggy Tales. It's about 7.5" x 8", thick chipboard type pages, with little inserts in the book that "slide" to reveal hidden journaling or more photos. I incorporated barn door flaps with the slides just to create more interesting elements. I used paper, chipboard alphas and ribbon from the Peter Peter Pumpking Eater line. Here are a few of the pages.





Oh and I almost forgot! How about a Piggy Tales Sneak Peek? Check out the Piggy Tales Blog!

Have a wonderful weekend!