I had originally planned on posting a blog about our weekend up in Northern California for Meg's birthday, but I just read Ash's and she did such a fabulous job and used all my favorite pics. As you can see ifyou read her blog, it was a great weekend and a lot of laughs and, I think, really special that we all have so much fun together.

So instead I am updating you all on my wonderful scrapbooking room. I have been dreaming about this and planning it for so long I can hardly believe it is actually finally coming together. I think I have gone through about a thousand different design ideas and drawn so many plans after looking at ideas in magazines and on the internet, but I think the design we finally came up with is going be great. Dirk is doing a great job building everything and is really concerned about making it just what I want it to be. I will post some in progress pictures.

Needless to say, I can hardly wait until it is all done and painted and I can start filling it with my stuff and actually do some scrapbook pages and start making cards again!



This will be a cupboard with doors and shelves above.

This table is the built in work table with a 1o inch utility shelf above it.

This is the closet build in, its hard to see in the picture, but the bottom is 24 slim drawers that will hold all my stamps and stamp pads and various ohter suppplies. I will put a TV in here where the plug is and there will be shelves on the two sides of the tv.

I will post more pics as it gets completed and then the doors will be open for friends and family to come scrap with me!

Greg and I spent last weekend in Prescott, Arizona with his parents, unfortunately because his Aunt Sis (Ruthann Lee) passed away and her memorial service was on Saturday. All things considered it was a good weekend. The memorial service was at the church she joined when she moved there about 10 years ago. It was really heartwarming to see the turnout. There were 9 of us in the front row that were family and the rest of the church was filled with friends she had made and they all had wonderful things to say about her and how they would miss her. Two people came up and told us the thing they would always remember about her were the rings that she always wore and, pretty consistently, one on each finger - yes - at least 8 at all times. I think if you asked my girls, that is what they would remember too along with her bell bottom jeans and red hair and her beautiful smile. When we got to Arizona, Bonnie asked me to put together a collage board of pictures of Aunt Sis for the memorial. I really enjoyed doing this and it really brought back memories of when the kids were small and loved to be around her and help her open gifts at birthdays and Christmas. It was a great task to be given and really helped me reconnect with my memories especially since we hadn't seen her for so long.

After the service we went over to her home to help organize things and because there were a few things Bonnie knew Aunt Sis specifically wanted certain family members to have. That is always kind of an awkward thing to do but it went well and it was AMAZING to see all of the things she had collected. She was a diligent collector of the things she loved - Elvis Presley, Christmas Musical figurines, Cut glass items, jewlery, etc. She was meticulous about it and kept all of the packaging for everything. There was a set of crystal apperitif glasses that she wanted Greg and I to have and I have been entrusted with all of the photo albums. Now I just have to get my scrapbooking room done so that I can do something special with all of the photos.

We all had dinner together at everyone's favorite -Murphy's- on Saturday night and them made the long drive home through the desert on Sunday. It is always good to be home, but I'm really glad we were able to be there and I know it meant a lot to Lee and Bonnie to have us there.

We'll miss you Aunt Sis!

Okay believe it or not I am actually posting my first blog. I started this back in March and haven't written my first post yet. I just haven't been convinced that I have anything to write about that would be of interest to anyone. However, Ashley convinced me that it would be a great way for her to see pictures of what is going on down here at home and she assured me that things to write about would just come to me once I got started. I have so thoroughly enjoyed reading Mandy's, Susies, Lindsay's and, of course, Ashley's that I decided to join the fun. I am at work right now and a little bored with the festival stuff I am working on so it seemed as good a time as any to get this thing started. I have been coming in to the office about four days a week since the beginning of September. It's taken a little getting used to since I haven't worked outside of home in over 10 years! I really have fun here though and am lucky enough to be able to set my own hours for the most part. Well that's enough for now. I'll post some pics of the remodeling progress next time.