It doesn't take much to make me happy these days.   And these $3 stickers made me super happy this past weekend.  (I spend the weekend scrapping - made 17 pages actually!!)

I just love, love these.  I found myself reaching for them for every page I was creating this weekend and had to stop myself.  :) Title letters have been so big for so long in scrapbooking that the change to these tiny letters was refreshing.  Plus they are sparkly which you have got to love!

The upper case letters are about 1/2" and the lower case are about 1/4".  There are tons in the package so you can make lots and lots of titles with them.  Especially if you have more than one color!  Hee hee.  I have these two colors/font too - so maybe it was more like $9 of happiness. ;)

[aqua, copper, brown]

They say it is the little things in life that make you happy.  These are little and they definitely make me happy! :) :) :)

****

(apparently I am shallow, lol)

Do you ever engage in paper therapy?  You know, time spent with paper, glue and scissors?  Where you can be relaxing and creating and doing something you love while your mind is free to sort out some problems?

This was me this past weekend.  And boy did I need some paper therapy! :)

I haven't mentioned it here on my blog but life has thrown up on me.  Not a very nice picture I know but I can't pretty it up.  First, let me mention that my family (and extended family) is fine.  But in the last week everything else in our lives is different and not so great right now.  Now, I am not quite ready to share all the details but to say I have been distracted is an understatement. 

I am not posting this 'cause I want to engage in a pity party.  Actually, I am pretty positive.  As you can see in the above page I made a layout reciting my mantra - life CANNOT get me down!  This is the page I started my paper therapy with.  Though I am not quite ready to record the events that have changed our lives so drastically I was ready for a paper pep talk. And you know what?  It worked.  Just getting some of my feelings onto paper made me feel better.  Scrapbooking is my comfort and it made sense to me to turn to the familiar.

One of the most important things I have taken from scrapbooking is an appreciation of the small things.  Scrapbooking has caused me to look at my life with new eyes to capture all the details of us.  And with that new sense of observation came a new sense of appreciation.  Appreciation of what makes us unique and what makes me happy.  I love that I can look through my pages right now when times are tough for us and smile at everything that makes up our life.  I cannot tell you how much I appreciate all the little details that I have recorded.  If my pages do not last to reach another generation (and that has never been my intention) all the time and effort I have put into my pages will not have been wasted 'cause I am not sure I could appreciate them more than I do now.

So.  I know that it is sometimes hard to read a tone of voice when reading but know that it is all written with a smile on my face.  There are a lot of you who read this blog who I consider friends and I do not want you to worry.  I can take anything life decides to throw at me and I am ready for the next thing.  I know it is bound to be good!! :)  I am looking forward to discovering what it will be.

Back to regular posting tomorrow.  I just wanted to take time out today to share how much I appreciate this hobby and everyone out there who reads this blog. :)

OH and I am almost caught up with emails from Grand Rapids.  I promise to get to you all in the next day or so. :)

So remember the summer album I started to have a place to record moments from our summer vacation?  (here and here)  I have finished Magnus' cover.

Here is the front.

And here is the back.

The yellow circle is chipboard covered in paper so it gives it a bit of lift.  I just randomly wrote his name all over it to give it a fun design.

I have a few more pages filled in for their albums but I need to finalize them and then I will post photos.

And now I thought I would share some more photos from the GASC - Grand Rapids.  (Chattanooga registration is open if you want to join the fun next time.)

This was my schedule for Saturday.

And some class action shots.

And I had a book signing on Saturday (always makes me feel glamourous lady!! LOL) and look who was in the MM booth while I was there.

That is Beth Williams on the left and Corrie Schaffeld on the right.  Beth is the Executive Editor for Memory Makers magazine and Corrie is a designer for Memory Makers books.  Both are awesome people who I am happy to get to work with.

And you want to know what the best part of my trip to Grand Rapids?  After a long day of teaching I got to come "home" to this...

My kidlets.   All clean and ready for bed thanks to Grandma and Auntie.  Loved getting to kiss them goodnight and relive the experiences of the day as they recited their adventures in the hotel and surrounding area.  The best!

From the internet that is.  You see, it has been incredibly stormy around here the past few days and with thunder, lightening and wind - things happen!   And that thing was my internet connection!

Talk about withdrawal.  I mean, I live in the middle of no where - aka the country-side and I depend in the internet.  OK. I will admit to having a major city a short jaunt away but in reality I live with dirt roads and sometimes spotty connection to the wide world via the internet.

I have sort of been lulled lately with really good internet connections (minus the email drama of last week!) and was shocked when I clicked and nothing happened!

I resorted to the tiny screen of my husband's blueberry (affectionate name given to his blackberry - but that is another story) but seriously I hated it!  The screen and the none normal keypad are enough to make this full laptop lovin' woman crazy!!! 

So basically I was down to the essentials - just checking in to make sure I wasn't being fired from any major projects and no patience to post anything to my beloved blog via tiny screen and weird keyboard.  Sorry for that but I am sure you understand. ;)

But I do have some new stuff to share with you.  I got scrappy last weekend.

I love this page.  It looks so much better in real life.  I cut out patterned paper from American Crafts and mounted it on foam squares. Love how this looks.

And here is another page.

Love the tone on tone color of this page.  I repeated the photo on this page since it is a recent fave.

So.  That is it for now.  I leave in approx 8 hours for Grand Rapids with family in tow.  It is the middle of the night as I post this (total insomnia, possibly due to caffenine or maybe excitement, who knows?  LOL) and I really should be in bed but I couldn't resist a post here.  Plus I am waiting on the laundry....gee where is the magic laundry fairy when I need him?

I hopefully will be posting from the show.  Beth Williams will be there (whom I love) + Staci Etheridge (so funny and full of life) and hopefully I will get post some funnies of us at the show.  But you know how it is...best laid plans and all.

:)

Next week I will be back to more budget scrapping tips (after I sleep off the GASC of course!)

Today is a busy day for me.  I am prepping to leave for Grand Rapids, MI later this week to teach at the Great American Scrapbook Convention.  I haven't been to Grand Rapids since I was a kid so I am looking forward to it.  I grew up on the border of the USA and Canada and Grand Rapids is just over an hour away from my home town.  I could have flown but since it is driveable I have decided that a road trip was in order. 

And do you know what the best part about deciding to make the journey to the GASC via a road trip?  My kidlets are coming with me! :)  They never get to travel with me when I teach (and they really want to) but this seemed like a perfect opportunity for them to come along (and my wonderful hubby to have some quiet time).  My mom and sister are going to come along to complete our little road trip party and I have a feeling that the car trip is going to be half the adventure!

Since I know that the trip will be filled with many adventures and laughs I decided to create a mini book to record it all.  I used one of the Melissa Frances albums I picked up at the last GASC along with the perfect road trip scrap supplies - the Passport collection by Making Memories.

Here is the cover.

And here is the back.

I prepped the inside but of course it isn't anything much right now since we haven't actually been on the trip, lol. 

The album came with cream colored pages so I am using those plus I cut out some from the patterned paper - it is great that they are double sided.  The album binding is large so there is tons of room for extra pages plus the memorabilia I plan to add.

It is really great to have it all ready to go BEFORE the trip.  Maybe this way it won't take me 3 months to finish it, lol.

Everyone around here is pretty excited and we are counting down "sleeps".  Harper is going to be my helper which she has always wanted to be.  My mom and sister both plan to take a class from me. They are not scrapper but they are getting into the whole adventure of it!  I am really excited to meet all the scrappers there and have fun creating and laughing.  Magnus is just excited. :)