Second Anniversary!

     I cannot believe it has been almost TWO years since I married my first love! It still feels almost surreal! He has been in my dreams for all my life - and now he is for real! He treats me like a queen every single day and spoils me to no end! We are busy making memories and making up for lost time. We are a perfect match in every way. We were back then, and we still are. I can't believe how lucky and very blessed we are to have this second chance at love.

Smoky Mountains

Happy Halloween!

     Halloween is tomorrow and it marks the second anniversary of the night my sweet husband asked me to marry him! He met me at Albany airport where I had flown in to spend a long weekend with him as we were renewing our love. It was kinda difficult living 1,000 miles apart! He had his guitar with him so I knew he would sing to me...but I had NO idea he was going to propose! He sang Train's "Marry Me" in front of everyone at the airport! Then got down on one knee and proposed to me! I was so totally shocked and surprised! Of course I said YES! That was the beginning of the most wonderful times of my life!

Fall Break!!

   Two years ago on Fall Break from school is when I met the love of my life again! My sweet husband was my very first boyfriend. We had lost touch with each other for many, many years. We were finally reunited and realized that we were really meant to be! We married right away and he moved here to Tennessee from our hometown in NY. We made a pact to live every day to its fullest and part of that has been traveling whenever and wherever my teaching schedule will allow. This last week we ended up in the Great Smoky Mountains! We had such a wonderful time! Beautiful scenery, easy hiking, climbing to the top of Clingman's Dome, sunset at the top of the world, yummy food, shopping, and real live BEARS!

Not So Smart!

   I am having an awful time learning all the ins and outs of Cricut Design Space and all the things that I want it to do! I know I am getting old, but jeesh!  Inkscape, svgs, unsupported files, font issues! I just want to create! It shouldn't be so hard! I want to make this and I can't add the text I want so it looks good. SIGH!
   Nevermind, I can't even add the picture here!! Goodnight!

One of the errors

Messy kid!

What a Weekend!

My brother, Michael made a quick trip into town from Manhatten! He stayed with us on Saturday night. Some of the kids and grandkids came to visit. Sunday was grandson, Criss' Birthday party. He wanted it to be at Granny and Grandpa's house! We rate right up there with Chuckee Cheese! The kids went swimming...brrrr...but they didn't care. They rode bikes and scooters, played frisbee and basketball, ate cake and ice cream...all in all a great day! Here is a card I made for Criss. He is into Minecraft this year.

 On Saturday, Brian and I went to a local craft store and  made some Halloween decor. Brian was a good sport about it and did a great job designing his pumpkin. It was the first time either one of us had tried anything like it. We had fun!

Sick Day

     So, I am home again today with strep throat. Yuck! Medicine is working as I have no fever today. I spent a little time in my craft room. Cricut updated their Design Space program and since I was feeling a little better I made a project! Lowe's had their little sample paints on sale for .99 while we were in Florida this summer and I bought 10 different colors. I found an octagon shaped piece of wood that had been on my craft room closet shelf for years. I painted it red. Then I cut a heart shape out of cardstock to use as a template/stencil. I laid the stencil in the middle of the red octagon and painted over the red with an off white color. I took the stencil off and had an almost perfect red heart surrounded by the white. I used sandpaper to distress the white and let the red show through. Then, I cut a split Mr. & Mrs. shape in black vinyl using my Explore machine. I added a cute filigree heart shape and our last name. This is how it turned out!

    The Mr. & Mrs. is a little crooked. I will re-cut and reapply the vinyl so it is straight. I think the little heart embellishment is cute!

Hello Again!

    Wow! I am such a slacker! I cannot believe how quickly time flies by. Seems like school just got out and here I am back at it already! Brian and I spent all summer traveling. NY, Cape Cod, Lake Placid, Hot Springs, Texas, Florida...whew!! I went back to work to rest up!
    We lost Brian's brother, Robert, to lung cancer in early April. We had a celebration of his life over the 4th of July in Texas. It was a strange mixture of happy sadness. It was wonderful seeing family again - but for all the wrong reasons.
    We spent some time in Hot Springs (One of Robert's favorite places). We visited the crystal mines and found some really great crystals! We did the whole Bath House experience with hot mineral baths, steam boxes, and massages! Bliss! Then there was the food! Sigh!
     We spent over two weeks in Florida again this summer! We love it there! We even looked at some places to buy in a couple of years when I retire! Even after Brian's melanoma diagnosis and subsequent surgeries, we still spend a lot of time at the beach both in Florida and at the Cape. We are just really careful with sunblock, umbrellas, long sleeves and timing.
     I am ready to get back into my crafting and spending time in my craft room! I have done one complete scrapbook for Brian and me. Working on our wedding and our selfie one now. I am also trying out some new crafts and learning how to use my new Explore machine. I seem to spend a lot of time on Facebook and YouTube for tutorials.  Here are a few random pictures from our travels.

NY trip!

Florida!

It's cold!

New Toys!

     So my new Cricut Explore Air arrived a couple of weeks ago and I have been in my craft room almost non-stop! I wish I could say I have made a lot of stuff but, actually, I have just been playing around! I had to send my Gypsy in for repair (I didn't want to). They lost it and all my content!! NOT happy!! Same company that sold the Explore. All my cartridges were on it and could not be linked to the new machine design space. REALLY not happy!! After lots of messing around and phone calls and emails I finally got a new Gypsy with all my old content (minus my designs). At least now I can use my new machine. They extended my trial subscription to the site for a month - that's not really enough but I guess I'll stop complaining. I'll add a picture of my new stuff later.

Soggy Saturday

     On top of our snow and ice storm we now have rain - both freezing and regular! It has packed the rest of the snow and ice into a thick slab of wet ice. It built up in our gutters and now we have a leak in the kitchen! We were up at 4:30 am cleaning it up and Brian went outside in the freezing rain to try to get the ice away from the gutters. Not my idea of a good time! I called the insurance company but haven't heard anything yet.
     I spent most of the day in the craft room! I have been practicing with my sister's Explore while I wait for mine to come. I made a couple of cards in a very short time. I'm liking it!

Too Much Time On My Hands!

    So today is my mother's birthday! Happy Birthday, Mom! She called me early this morning, which is unusual because we are all under strict orders to not call her before the crack of 10am!! She wanted to share the info that HSN has the Cricut Explore Air on special launch and she would be happy to help me buy it! I got out of bed - on a Snow Day, mind you, and booted up the computer. Sure enough, there it was! I did some research to make sure I could use my many cartridges and chose the flexpay option! It will be here in ten days!! I am so excited! Thanks Mom!! Oh, Brian says thanks, too!!

February Ice Storm!

    Crazy weather here in Middle TN! We have had cold weather but no snow all winter. As a teacher I have been very disappointed! No Snow Days! That all changed on Sunday night with at least an inch of freezing rain/sleet with over an inch of snow on top of that! School was out Monday for President's Day so, again, no snow day. BUT...the whole area has been declared a state of emergency and more snow is expected tonight along with record low temperatures! School has been cancelled for the rest of the week!!!! SWEET!!

icicles on the garage

ice on our Japanese maple out front 



See how thick the ice is!?

Mom's Pics

Ice Storm in Tennessee! Here are some pictures my mom took of both the ice and some birds at her kitchen window. Pretty awesome if you ask me!

ice is HEAVY

Lunchtime!

Waiting....

Favorite Picture!

   Brian is a musician, in addition to the many other hats he wears. This is one of my favorite pictures of him. We are in our upstate NY villa apartment and he is singing and playing love songs to me in bed. Sigh...it was our last day together before I had to come back to TN after reuniting again. We already knew we would spend the rest of our lives together. We just had to figure out the details.

Scrapping Again!

    Sooooo...I have been absent from my ScrapRoom for some time except for brief spurts of activity. Lately, I have been really working and spending time in there! I am finally getting some pages done and the muse is working on me! These are pictures I took with my phone so they are not very good! You'll get the idea, though.

One of our first hikes!
 

Part of our NYC trip!



Apple orchard hike!

Happy New Year!!

     It has been a very good start to the new year! We traveled to NY to see family on Christmas Day - after hosting Christmas Eve festivities AND Christmas morning festivities for TN family. We spent 5 busy days visiting family and friends there. We ate "real" pizza, Charlie's Hot Dogs, Ted's Fish Fry, and stopped at Uncle Sam's candy store in Schenectady! We arrived back in TN just in time to repack and head to Nashville for New Year's Eve! We joined 130,000 of our closest friends to watch the music note drop and see a great outdoor concert headlining Lady Antebellum and Gavin DeGraw. They even had fireworks and confetti canons! It was a great time and we will do it again!