Every scrapper's nightmare.

My external hard drive bit the dust this morning. Bob's taking it to a dude now to see if they can recuperate the files. It's still under warranty, so that's good. And as it figures, I hadn't backed anything up since at least the beginning of summer, except for my Maine vacation photos, b/c I've just been too busy.
Crap, crap, crap.
I know, I'm an idiot.
Please say a little prayer for me that they can retrieve everything- I'm freaking out thinking about it.
Sick to my stomach is more like it. :(

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The Lake, lovely no matter what the weather

So, we did end up going to my friend's cottage last week, and alas, the weatherman wasn't wrong. It did indeed rain for the 3 days we were there, but it was ok. It's a perfectly lovely place, no matter what the weather. My kids are troopers, and I love that they're not easily put off by a little ( or in this case, a hell of a lot) of rain. They swam, they fished, they played, caught toads, picked blueberries, and Bobby learned how to drive the boat- an amazing 3 days of adventure for 2 active boys. Someone needs to figure out a way to bottle that mountain fresh air too. My boys are very hard to get to bed most nights, but up here, they're almost begging to sleep by about 8pm. It always amazes me. I've already scrapped about the lake in this layout, but here's a few photos I took to show you how beautiful it is, even in crap weather. My friend Norah and I had so much fun together, and I'm always so grateful that she invites us up here to spend part of her vacation with here every year. Love her!

Here's a particularly ominous looking shot taken shortly after we arrived Wednesday afternoon.

Then a sunbeam gave us some false hope...

The kids didn't care about the rain. They wanted to fish and swim...

We ran out of dry clothes. Not so fun.

Here's Lily enjoying the scenery. Her fur is almost normal again. And soft from the lakewater.

Ahhhh, the good life. We didn't want to leave.

I went to work on Saturday, and came home with some new American Crafts rub-ons and more papers. I just couldn't resist, I'm so weak. It's foolish of me, since I should be getting my AC box any day now... pretty please?! This collection is N I C E. Really, really, really nice. I'd say it comes close to being my fave.

I had to sit down and scrap with it Saturday night, even though I was exhausted, and should have gone to bed. I made these note cards... easy, cute, and very quick. I think these kinds of little cards are going to be perfect for those teachers gifts I always seem to be scrambling to make on December 21st or so, so I'l be whipping sets of these up every week or so until I have enough. Famous last words. ;p

I'm particularly fond of this awesome, funky flower paper. Yum!!

Ok. That was the longest post ever for me.

I'm off to watch the rest of '21'... hope it's worth staying up for!

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Weather woes

The weatherman is messing with our heads here. I know, everyone's talking about it, but it's enough to depress even the most optimistic person. (that would be me) After enduring massive amounts of snow this past winter, I was looking forward to a lovely hot & sunny summer, but so far it's been a bust. It's rained almost every single day this month, and most of June too. The kids and I are supposed to go stay with a friend tomorrow at her cottage, and because getting there entails crossing the lake by boat, with the 40 mm of rain we're supposedly going to be pelted with tomorrow, it's not looking good. I tried to get a pic from the weather network's website on here, but can't get it to work- let's just say that the 10 day long range forecast is enough to make me want to move to Arizona! While we were in Maine, we had only 2 1/2 good days of beach weather. For me, beach weather means laying on the sand, reading a good book with a hard ice tea next to me, and sweating enough to make me have to dunk myself into the frigid water every 20 minutes or so, but I only managed to wade up to my waist a few times on the days that were hot. We did, however, enjoy many beautiful morning walks on the beach in the fog, ( see above photo) which was lovely, albeit chilly and damp. It was amazing to be able to walk there in 1 minute. We took day trips to Boston and Portland b/c of the rain, and got stuck outside of Boston in one of the heaviest downfalls I've ever seen. But it was cool actually visiting 2 beautiful cities, and it was thanks to the rain that we went, because if it had been hot and sunny, you know where I would have been. ;)

I'm not in a blogging mood lately. I've been scrapping up a storm for assignments, and am gladly taking a little breather from scrapping for the next few days. I did however get my hands on some of the new AC stuff ( no, did not receive the box yet, but I'm hoping and praying it's soon!) and man, this is probably my most fave collection ever from what I've seen. It's pure deliciousness. Hopefully by the weekend, I'll have enough mojo back to actually use some of it!Speaking of American Crafts, if you haven't checked out the DT's stuff on the blog using their fab Kid's line, go now! Some totally cute projects there.

And lastly, a huge congrats to my uber talented friend Moon who made the AC team earlier this week -I'm seriously thrilled for her!

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the beach is calling my name...

I hear it... and I'm heading to Maine tomorrow to answer that call. I can't wait to put my feet in the water, breath the salt air, and soak in the sound of the waves crashing. There's no better feeling in the world. I'll be back next week, hopefully with some great photos, and a rested mind, body and soul. And if you could send some hot sun vibes my way, I'd really appreciate it, because they're calling for rain most of next week... not good!
Later!!

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a good ear.

Last night I went out to walk the dog alone, since my walking buddy is away at her cottage, and truth be told, it's a bore to walk alone when you're used to company. So instead, I listen to music while I walk, and I could walk forever. ( ok, not forever, but longer than 20 minutes). I'm frantically looking for my Ipod all over the house, and the dog is becoming increasingly agitated because I've been putting off going out for the past 2 hours, all the while telling her that 'yes! we're going for a walk Lily!!!' over and over. I finally grab Bobby's Ipod since mine is nowhere to be found, and I'm a bit annoyed, because I'm not in the mood to listen to Led Zeppelin at 9pm. I head out, turn on the Shuffle, and got a cool surprise.

The boy has an ear for good music.

I know you're all probably thinking I should be monitoring what's on an 11 year old's Ipod, but he changes it every day obsessively, and I can't keep track. So every once and a while, I listen to a few tracks and check him out, just to make sure he's not listening to Eminem ( which I have on my own playlist, and is therefore accessible to him) or some godawful rapper like 50 Cent.(dh's doing, not mine.)

So here's what I heard on my walk:

Blue Hawaii-Elvis Presley

Hallelujia-Rufus Wainwright

Here Comes the Sun-George Harrison

All Apologies-Nirvana

Ring of Fire-Johnny Cash ( I kid you not)

lots of Green Day.

and a bunch of other equally cool tunes, no swearing involved.

No Ben Harper though.. he draws the line there. ;)

I LOVE that he's so into music now. It makes me happy that he's like his Mom in that respect.

He's 11, and we're coming into full tweendom, God help me.

I'd love to hear some music suggestions from everyone... I still have a ton of room left on my Ipod, and I need some ideas of what to buy. My taste is totally varied and I'm open to anything, so feel free to let me know what you like. I haven't bought any new music in a dog's age, and I feel woefully out of the loop.

Leaving you with a card I did last night, using some AC goodness. I looove this paper!!! It's kind of shiny in parts, and you can't see that here well, but I'm happy with the colours in the photo.

Enjoy your weekend!

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Thirteen...

is the number of years I've been married today. I can remember so many things of that day in minute detail, and then again, so much that has completely gone out of my head forever, thanks to nerves and lack of sleep. I distinctly remember how terribly hot & humid it was that day, and that minutes before stepping outside into the limousine to go to the church, the heavens opened up and poured rain like I'd never seen before. I was so afraid the dress would be drenched and my hair ruined, but I managed to get into the car without a drop on me. I remember my Mother, coming into my bedroom that morning and hugging me, saying, 'wake up! you're getting married today'! I remember how I trembled as I walked down the aisle with my Dad, only to see my handsome groom waiting smiling for me at the end, and knowing I'd made the right choice. I remember my grandparent's faces, beaming with pride. I remember dancing with my Grandfather, my Gigi, and knowing that he was happy because he had always told me since I was a little girl that he wanted to dance with me at my wedding before he died. And our reception, that we worked so hard on making every little arrangement, right down to the napkins, went off without a hitch and was perfectly beautiful, except for a pesky fire alarm that went off for about 20 minutes during our meal. It was memorable, every little bit. Up until the birth of my children, it was the best day of my life.

The layout above is us on this day 13 years ago, kind of a staged photo, but cute, no? It was SO hot, and we were dying of thirst. Some kind soul took pity on us in the heat, and brought us each a coke, so the photographer snapped this pic of us toasting each other with our coke cans.
This was the first layout I ever had published, in BHG, back in 2005, and I still love it today. :)

13 years is a long time. I won't lie and say it's been all sunshine and roses, but for the most part, it's been great. A house, two beautiful children, and many mortgage payments later, I can honestly say to my husband- I did not choose poorly! ( sorry, it's an inside joke. ;p)
Love you. xoxoxo

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Happy Canada Day!

hope yours is a fun one. :)

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