Beth Williams, Executive Editor of Memory Makers, released this statement yesterday.

Please see attached from Vice President Teri Mollison regarding the closure of Memory Makers magazine with the September/October 2009 issue. Decisions like these are never easy and aren't entered lightly, as you can imagine. We at Memory Makers have been proud and honored to be the scrapbookers' go-to source for scrapbooking ideas and inspiration for the past 13 years. Subscribers: We are working closely with our circulation department and fulfillment company and will distribute information regarding your subscription closer to the publication date of the September/October final issue.

Attachment is here.

As you can imagine this saddens me.  I have so enjoyed working with Memory Makers over the years.  Through them I have had such a wonderful opportunity to share my creativity and passion for scrapbooking.  I cannot express to you what a wonderful group of people the woman who ran this magazine are.  I wish all them all the best in their future endeavors. 

I also want to say thank you to all you wonderful readers and supporters of the magazine and in turn, this blog.  I have met many wonderful MM readers over my time with the magazine and I love that there are so many of you out there who feel as I do about scrapbooking. Thank you for sharing your passion with me.

With all that said I want to say - I am not going anywhere just yet.  :)

I will still be blogging here for awhile.  I will slowly transition over to a new blog and will share the details for that soon. 

For those of you who I have dates in the classrooms of the GASC I am still coming!  :)  Oh ya - me & you, paper & glue!  As always, I can't wait!

I've been crafting today (yay - it has been over a week and I was in withdrawals) so I will posting tomorrow with some new "stuff". 

And for you moms out there...Happy {early} Mother's Day.  Hope you get spoiled. :)

It was my little guy's birthday this past week.  He turned the BIG 5!

Today is party day. 

Lots of prep going on.  Lots of excitement.  Much asking of how much longer 'till the party starts.

So we put him to work to help the wait go faster.

Here he is making cupcakes with my husband this morning. 

As part of the party we are letting a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds decorate their own cupcakes.  LOL, I cannot wait to see what happens.  I am sure it will be a giant, sugary mess.  I cannot wait!  Think of the fun they will have. 

Oh to be 5 again!

My little guy has decided to keep my company while I clean my craft room. 

Actually, he offered to help.  This is what he is doing.

Currently having a Star Wars/Jedi battle with my freshly tidied buttons.  Apparently they were too tempting all together in one jar so they have been dumped on my table. :) As I clean I hear missle sounds, explosions and the story as the battle unfolds. 

I love being a mom. :)

It was late Fall when we moved into this house and to be honest the yards were a mess.  There had been no maintenance done and things were a bit wild. :)

This was ok with us.  We knew some hard work this Spring would turn things around. 

So this is how we spend our weekends right now (no crafting for me!).  And it is SO satisfying.  I love seeing how much better things looks after we have worked on an area.

My new kitchen garden is all ready to go now.  Weeds dug, soil worked, new path created.  Ahh....my back hurts!  LOL

But the best discovery this weekend?

Snow Drops. 

In an area that is horribly over-run.  The are tons of them.  I love the sense of hope they offer.  Even though tons of yard waste has been dumped on them they still pushed up their way through it all and bloomed. 

I want to be like these Snow Drops.  No matter what happens in life I want to push forward and offer a reason for others to smile.

*in a whisper*....of course....!

Guess what? I have POWER! aka E.L.E.C.T.R.I.C.I.T.Y!  OH YA!  It is late at night as I type this but I cannot seem to pull myself away from any and all bright lights - my computer screen included! I mean - This. House. Is. Lit. Up!  Kinda like we have a party goin' on!  I am so excited about our electrical ability I want to shout it to out!  Hello world - we have HYDRO!!!!!!!!    LOL

Electricity has been my whole world recently.  I mean, we didn't have much of it so everything seemed to revolve around whether we could do things as "normal" or whether we needed to figure out a new way to do it.

Think about laundry.  I mean, I have kidlets.  Messy kidllets.  Who love dirt and mud.  This means that the dirt invariably gets on the kidlets and the clothes they are wearing.  Of course my kidlets are no Vanna White - they actually have to wear their clothes more than once.  Imagine!  So the laundry baskets have been filling up with clothes covered in dirt.  Now I am faced with the dilema - things as normal or a new way.  Well, normal would mean the washing machine and dryer (these of course require hydro to work).  We have had limited hydro and have had limited hydro for a week now (which means those dirty kidlets have managed to create A LOT of dirty clothes!).  AND of course this limited hydro seems to be diverted to non-necessary aread like the hallways and certain plugs.  NOT the areas a mom of dirty and hungry kidlets would seem important - like the kitchen or laundry room!  You know I love the hallways but really...I could probably survive without any light in them!

So handwashing....

Yah...I am sure you don't need a play-by-play of that!

I have clothes drying on every surface available. Dining room table - lets lay out some clothes...Beautiful wrought iron staircase...a perfect drying rack just waiting to happen!  When I say every surface is covered, I mean every surface is covered!

Can you tell my whole world has revolved around laundry today????  LOL

So.  Why am I blogging today?  Well, really because I can!  I have POWER!  HYDRO!  ELECTRICITY!  Whatever you want to call it - I have it!   WOOOHOOOOOO!

This means I can get back to crafting.  Being the pioneer woman has taken up too much of my time.  I have had to actually do things durings the day which only left the night time, after the kidlets went to bed, to craft which wasn't all that enjoyable in the dark...who knew????

So tomorrow (which really is today if I look at the clock) I can craft.  YAY!  I am all crazed up on electricity and can't wait to get to creating, lol!

This means less blogging about the joys of electricity and more about the joys of the paper and glue!

I have some fun things in store for you...:)  So stay tuned!

OH and a P.S. to all those who have emailed me - I have a lot to get through but I promise to reply asap!  :)  Love ya!