Laura's piece of Paradise

I'm  little bit early for my word for the year.  It is going to be JOY.  I want to find Joy in the little things and have joy in my life.  I am tired of living with depression and how it sucks the JOY out of EVERYTHING!  I am now going to find Joy in everything.  I am going to start by having a bracelet made that says JOY.  When I start to feel down or blue or insecure or just plain ugly, I am going to look at that hopefully turn myself around. It is a start, right? Thank you for reading I know I have not updated any pictures of myself lately, it is coming. I promise! :) Finding Joy is how I want to embrace and then remember 2012. Hugs and thanks for reading. Laura

It has been a long time since I posted.  It has been a rather strange year.  I'm hoping to do more scrapping in the next few months, but I'm still into LIVING rather than documenting.  I have a hard time being able to do both so I think I will live for now and hope for time to document later! :) Have a wonderful holiday I know I have.  I have been spending time with my husband and children.  It has been very low key and wonderful. Thanks for stopping by. Hugs, Laura

Hello Bloghoppers! Welcome to our Memorial Day Blog Hop! This is a layout I made for my husband when he retired from The Air Force.  There is NO cricut stuff...but this is a simple statement of the pride I have in him and the long career we had in the Air Force. K & Co. paper and stickers CD's (see'd's) stamps for the military Thank you stamp is stampabilties Thank you for looking to day and leave a comment and I will send some blog candy (a box of scrappy goodies) to a randomly drawn person in comments. Just leave a way for me to get in touch with you if you win. Thank you for visiting today... here is next in line.  Kristen - http://fantabulouslypink.blogspot.com/ --You go here NEXT! You are here from.... 1. Michele - http://greengirlscraps.blogspot.com/ ------- You camer from HERE! 2. Laura - http://lauras--piece--of--paradise.blogspot.com/ ----- You are here! 3. Kristen - http://fantabulouslypink.blogspot.com/ --You go here NEXT! 4

I am having a beautiful Mother's Day.  I have a wonderful family that loves me and here are my beautiful Children... Yes, Mother's Day has some gifts... An Expression 2 from HSN...I got this a little early so I could play with it during National Scrapbook Day. A Beatles Itunes Card and I got Yellow Submarine! :) Bethanie drew a picture of my favorite picture of Rajah.  She used pastels on orange paper.  It really loooksjust like that picture I took of him, smiling and all. I am so spoiled by my family and the best part is, I am still scrappin! :)  After a QUICK trip to Michaels to get a frame for my beautiful picture of Rajah.  Now, where to put it? :) Here is the 3d object or Challenge #5 from My Pink Stampers NSD Challenges.  I am still having fun. This is an altered clothespin.  I had to paint it and then I added a Lion to it and butterfly...This is for my classroom of course! I am Mrs. Lee and we are Lee's Lions. (we really do ROAR) LOL 

National Scrapbook DayI will be posting off and on all day to participate in several online places! YIPPEE!! My favorite day of the year! ok...this is me scrapping my kitty layout! :) I am on Challenge #4.  I did the Mother's Day theme... Prima papers, with some Basic Grey Cardstock for the journaling box.  Everything is Steel Toe Mary and Whisper lines of paper from Prima.  Prima flowers and leaves.  Quickutz Marisa for the title. (yes it has been a long time since I pulled out my QK fonts) LOL I also used the elegant corner punch from EK Success.  Lots of blasts from the past.   This whole layout is over 2 years old except for the flowers...those are the newest thing I have on the layout.  The baby pictures are 20 and 18  years old...yes I know that means my babies are no longer babies, but they were so cute! :) This is for the mother layout on MPS! :) Thanks again for looking at my work...:) Good Night (it is 2:30 A.M) ! I had to take a break for dinner and stuff

Ahhh...remember Saturday when you were a kid (depending on your era).  Running down the stairs at the crack of dawn to watch cartoons.  (Scooby Doo,  Fred Flinstone, The Loony Tunes Hour and Captain Caveman were some of the favorites). Now my Saturdays are all business it seems, run one kid here and one run kid there.  I LOVE MY LIFE... But sometimes...I miss running down the stairs in my favorite jammies turning on the t.v. and watching cartoons while eating Sugar Smacks.  Here is to your Saturday and I hope you are having a Wonderful Day. 

The winner of the blog candy and 12 pack sampler of Divine Twine is Your prize will be in tins, but will not have the bugheads on it. :) Thanks for playing!!! alwayscharlie said... I love your 'sappy' layout AND the idea for a love album!! smilesmoore2 atverizon dotnet Please contact me Charlie and I will send you the twine! Have a great day. Laura

Welcome to the Lovely Blog Hop brought to you by   ScrappyRN aka Dawn . If you get lost just click on the link above and it will give you all of the addresses. There will also be a listing at the bottom of this post, so you will know where to go! :) You should have got here from Liz And you're next location will be Michelle This blog  hop is to showcase someone that we love.  Mine just happens to my dear sweet husband, Billy.  He is the rock in my world and I would not be the person I am without him. The  journaling is hard to read on the layout so here it is. I love you With all my heart What that means to me is I get to go to sleep with my best friend. When I laugh with you, it is not the same as with anyone else. When you look at me with such love, I sometimes feel I am not worthy of being loved so much. I know what it means to be truly loved. I know that I always have you with me, even when you are not by my side. I know that I am on your mind as much as you are on

Ok, so I am part of the Cricut Circle, we are having a fun cybercrop, because we were unable to attend the Cricut Stampede in Frisco TX, for whatever reason. :) So, we are having our own crop.  The first challenge of the weekend was this card sketch. And this layout sketch:  And the next challenge was to use this color pallette! eek! I have a plan, but come back later to see what I made! :) Have a great day and don't forget to come back tomorrow to see all the participants in this blog hop! :) Have a great day!

Stylish Blogger Award I feel so honored to be given a blog award. Thank you so much Caroline!  To be recognized by someone as talented as you is a true honor! :) View her blog Here  and her wonderful work!  She has wonderful tutorials that I have learned from! :) Thank you again, and now along with the rules of the blogger award I must share 8 things with you about me! 1.  I am totally in love with my family.  2.  I love Scrapbooking to a point where it is almost unhealthy. 3. I Love to shop for crafty goodies. 4.  I love my Cats and Dog.  They are so silly. 5.  I love Chocolate and Coffee. 6.  I love the color purple and plan on painting my VW Bug purple. 7.  Oh yea, I LOVE MY CAR...her name is sunshine! :) 8.  Like Kate, I love my job!  I am a teacher for children with autism. I am now passing this fabulous and stylish award to the following (in no particular order): Heather - A Little Time Jennifer and Summer - Cricut Diaries Carolyn -   Carolyn'

I finally got to go to a Crop at Scrap Happy last weekend and I had some fun.  I decorated my Cricut  Expression so when I do go to a crop, there is no mistaking who it belongs to! :) I really wanted a purple expression and couldn't justify spending the money for one when I already have 2 of these machines!  I used my brand new EveryDay Cricut Cartridge.  Exclusive to the Cricut Circle Members! (me). The cuts I used were the font, the phrase Love My Bug, but cut off the Love My part.  I used the cricut head on the cart and the circle that was part of the nameplate.  I love the purple.  Now when I go to crop's I don't have to worry about making a nametag! It is on my cricut! I used some purple vinyl from Scrap Happy and I used some Doodlebug forget me knot Bazzill to cut the letters. I  used the iRock to add a little bling to all the antenea of the letters.  I used Picturesque to make the corners.  Looking at my Bug now just makes me Happy.   

So, it is February again.  I can't say that I am looking forward to it.  I can't say that I love Valentine's Day. I can't say that I am happy it is the shortest month of the year.   I can say that I still miss my mom so much it hurts.  I can say that I when I think of Valentine's Day I think of the horrible pain of losing my mom.  I can say I am glad it is the shortest month of the year so it can hurry up and be over. That is all I have to say today. I miss my mom.

My word found me as is often the case.  I was going over ideas with my husband and he said what about Courage?  I said, me, little mousy me?  Not likely to have a lot of courage.  He says then well how about Encourage you are always encouraging others to do the best they can and to have faith.  After that I started seeing where it could be an inspiring word for the year.  Encouraging words for others as well as to encourage me to do the things I want to do.  So, that is my word for the year.  Encourage...but more for myself to do and try new things and to keep up with my weight loss.  Encourage myself not to lose hope on losing more and getting to my goal this year.  I know I am half way there and know I can keep going.  I just need the right encouragement. (Like a shopping spree for new clothes)! LOL I am also encouraging myself to use what I  have in my scrapbook room instead of buying new items.  That is going to be sad for the Local Scrapbook Shoppe. Sometimes I think I was a g

DEAR BETHANIE!!!  My Dearest Daughter turned 18 today. How did I end up with a woman in my home? I miss my little baby, but I love the woman she is becoming. She makes me proud to be her mom and I LOVE being her mother. She opted for no actual party this year at the house.  She just wanted to go to the local Hibache restaurant and enjoy a good dinner with family.  We were lucky to have Grandpa come with us to eat.  He had never been to a Japanese steakhouse.  He loved the food and the experience!  Daddy partied it up at the Japanese Steakhouse.  They offered him Saki and he took them up on it! Silly man! Branch and Bethanie both caught food with their mouth and Billy had  thrown at him. Maybe he shouldn't have offered the cook a mouthful of Wasabi! Bethanie loves the Volcano they make with the onion on the grill.  It keeps us all warm! :) Here is our beautiful birthday girl with her flower and ice cream for her birthday.  How did she turn 18?   Of course I have to add som

I hope all of you had a wonderful New Year Celebration with family and friends. Bethanie was blessed to see her best friend that she had while we stationed in Biloxi together.  Hannah is now in Tennessee and came to meet us at my Dad's house in Georgia when we went to see him in the first week of our Christmas break. the first page shows Bethie and Hannah now, the right page shows them when they were  much younger in Biloxi.  Look Beth is bigger than Hannah! Hannah is 4 inches taller than her now! In these pages I used: Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday background paper Cosmo Cricket Gretel papers Basic Grey Bling Imagine Better Together on the right page. Hello Kitty Font and shadow fused with gypsy Lots of brown (chestnut roan) chalk ink (cat's eye) The left page I am submitting to MY Pink Stamper for Design Team call. :) The right page doesn't apply because there are too many colors. (I needed to use pink, green, brown and one other color.) It has been a long time s