Holiday Planning & Love the One You're With

Today, I want to share a little album I came up with to do my holiday planning. The best part about this album is that it's reusable from year to year (depending on wear and abuse, of course). I used two chipboard pages from a scalloped Rusty Pickle album and then the Hot Chocolate line from Upsy Daisy Designs. Other supplies include Tim Holtz grungeboard (the snowflakes), American Crafts ribbon and Martha Stewart glitter. I cut down scraps of cardstock (from my big adoption album project) to fit inside and them separated the sheets with patterned paper tabs. My categories are gifts, cards, baking and parties.

The other thing I wanted to share today is a book recommendation. I just finished the book "Love the One You're With" by Emily Giffin. Without giving too much away, the main character is happily married and really has an ideal life...until she runs into an old flame on the sidewalk. This relationship was built on passion but did not end well. A series of events unfold that bring the main character back in touch with this old flame. There was one particular passage in this book that rang so true with me...

"But maybe that's what it all comes down to. Love, not as a surge of passion, but as a choice to commit to something, someone, no matter what obstacles or temptations stand in the way. And maybe making that choice, again and again, day in and day out, year after year, says more about love than never having a choice to make at all."

My workplace is committed to keeping marriages and families together and we have a mentoring program available to help couples in crisis. Many marriages have been put back together through this program. I'm saddened by the fact that 50% of today's marriages will end in divorce. And to me, it all comes down to this passage I shared. It's such a beautiful thing to see couples who have been married 25+ years. That says something to me about commitment. More often than not these couples have seen their share of heartache, frustration and disappointment but they CHOSE to stay committed to each other.

I recently read through another book called Intimate Issues. It's basically a Christian perspective on sex in marriage. A recent survey of Christian married women showed that 90 percent of them have been attracted to another man at one point in their lives. When faced with temptation, what do you do about it? It can be so easy to put yourself in a situation that can destroy what you have. You know the saying "the grass looks greener on the other side?" Well, if you get to the other side, you might just discover it was pretty green where you already were!

That's enough deep thought for today...enjoy your Wednesday! :)

Cardalicious 6 & More

Hello, dear friends! :) Here's my card for this week's challenge at Cardalicious. We had to make a card using a minimum of 3 circles. I retook my photos of my card yesterday because I wasn't happy with the colors. Hopefully this is a better representation of the Spirit line from Upsy Daisy Designs.

I had quite a busy week complete with a stomach bug from Friday into Saturday. I spent some time resting so hopefully I'm good to go. It seems like a lot of flu/cold bugs are going around. I hate when people go to events and work when they're sick. It's okay to say no and it's okay to use your sick leave. You don't need to be a trooper when you're getting the rest of us sick! That's one of the things I miss working for the state - we got 18 days of sick leave a year! :)

Sunday was a massive day for my church - we had our annual Celebration Sunday event where we brought all the services together for one huge service. My hubby was up almost all night working on videos and powerpoints. He was there by 5:30 a.m. and I was there by 7:00 a.m. I was in charge of centerpieces and I'm so thankful for the crew of ladies I had to help me! We managed to get almost 100 centerpieces done in less than an hour. I also helped the kitchen folk during the brunch and helped restock the buffet tables. Needless to say, my feet hurt and I was so tired by the time we left at 1:00. We had over 800 people at this event. It was very moving worship music and I left feeling filled up!

Yesterday, I watched a very sweet baby boy for a friend all day. He's 3 months old (I think). It was good practice for me and I have a new appreciation for moms and multi-tasking! :) He was such a good baby and let me snuggle with him all day...so fun! I didn't get too much accomplished yesterday but spent some time with new friends and old friends at Starbucks last night. It was a good time!

I am BEYOND EXCITED to see Twilight this week! Holy cow! I've been waiting over a year to see this movie. I just know I'm going to be a blubbering (and probably drooling) mess the whole time I'm sitting there!

Well, that's all for today. I'll be back with another book recommendation. I've been reading some good stuff lately! :)

Sparkles and Provision

Yumm-o! I am a HUGE fan of glitter on my crafting projects. In fact, it's common around my house to find a sparkle or two on both Glen and me (which he absolutely hates!) HA! I just laugh at him when he starts ranting about my glitter use. He probably gets strange looks when he goes to work all sparkly! Using a lovely 40% off couple at Michael's, this gem was recently added to my scrap stash. The colors match my hoard of patterned papers quite well. I used two of the colors on my card below and can't wait to play with this some more.

My hubby and I have been working through a 2-week devotional from Stephen Curtis Chapman's adoption organization called Shaohannah's Hope. Last night's devotion was really good - all about obedience to God. There was one line in particular that rang true for me - "Where God guides, He always provides." How true is that???!!! If life worked out how we wanted it, Glen and I would already have two biological children. But for whatever reason, He has guided us along the path of adoption and at this point in my life I couldn't imagine NOT being on THIS path. Back when I started scrapbooking over 5 years ago, I never would have imagined God using that passion to make a profile about us for a birth mother to look through. And I know Glen never thought when he pursued a career in video production in college that he would be creating a video for our birth mother to watch. When I first found out we would have to do a scrapbook and video, I thought "Wow! God really has a sense of humor! This is what we DO!" And now as we're working through the financial burden of this adoption process, we're trusting that God is going to provide for us. And when all is said and done, we'll be able to say "Look at what God did!" How cool is that?!

Enjoy your day! :)

Cardalicious 5 & RAK Winner!

This week's challenge at Cardalicious is to create a card in a file folder style. I used a file folder from Rusty Pickle as my template. The patterned papers are Upsy Daisy Designs new Hot Chocolate line, chipboard is Tim Holtz, yummy glitter is Martha Stewart, rub-on from Crate Paper, ribbon from American Crafts and jewels from Yellow Bicycle.

I am feeling so much better today and finally got caught up on some housework. Saturday was a bad day...I didn't move from the couch very much. I was so congested and feverish. I ended up staying home from church yesterday but felt good enough to work in my scrap studio later in the afternoon. It really bothers me when people don't stay home when they're sick - it's no wonder that colds and the flu spread so easily this time of year. I'll keep my germs at home thank you very much! :)

Now for my Rusty Pickle RAK...

congrats to....

krazgrl

Please e-mail me (cornellgj@yahoo.com) your name and address and your RAK will be coming right from Rusty Pickle's headquarters!

Enjoy your day everyone! :)

Croak, sniffle...snow?

Yep, I'm siiiiiiiick (that's me whining). :) I started to get sick last Sunday with a sore throat that quickly moved to a cough. I thought I was starting to get better yesterday but I had a rough night and didn't sleep well. I'm pretty congested today and have a bad sinus headache. I hate this time of year. I'm all snuggled up in a blanket now and I just finished a hot cup of tea. I might take a little nap for a bit as I have zero energy at the moment.

It's been snowing all day here. I was out running a couple errands earlier as I'm trying to put together 100 centerpieces for our church's annual banquet next weekend. The wind has been blowing something fierce so although the snow isn't sticking it's still miserable outside.

The card above uses Upsy Daisy Design Vroom line. I'll keep my drawing for a Rusty Pickle RAK open for a couple more days...I'm feeling too sleepy to draw right now.

Enjoy your day and stay snuggly! :)

Merry & Bright!

Here's a new card I want to share that uses Upsy Daisy Designs new Hot Chocolate line. The colors in these papers are so vibrant and fun! I also used a sheet from a Making Memories notebook.

Thanks so much for all your well wishes on the adoption! We're so excited to see how this is going to play out. It's been a long time coming!

Let's see...what else is new? I have to say I want Daylight Savings Time to go away. I would gladly give back my extra hour of sleep for an extra hour of daylight. This dark at 5:00 stuff is for the birds. I get off work and want to go to sleep! It will only be 7:00 and it feels like it's 10:00. I've been pretty unproductive this past week. And to top it all off, they're talking snow or a rain/snow mix in Iowa tonight and tomorrow. I am so not ready for winter to be here! Although, I am very seriously contemplating putting up my Christmas tree this weekend. Last year we were grinches and didn't even put it up so I feel like getting a head start on the celebration this year. I think part of it is the holiday season is so busy that I would like to check at least one thing off my list!

Well, that's all for now! Have a fabulous day! :)

Cardalicious 4 & Awesome News!

Here's my card for the challenge at Cardalicious this week. We had to create a "give thanks" card. Be sure to stop by the site to see what the other designers created this week! I used some Melissa Frances papers I've been hoarding, a tag from 7gypsies, label stickers and chipboard circle from Scenic Route, and ribbon from Making Memories.



Here's my awesome news I've been itching to share...as of yesterday Glen and I are officially on the waiting list of families to adopt! Our adoption agency will start showing our family profile to birth moms which consists of our scrapbook, the video above and a one-page profile. Getting to this point has been quite the process...it took us a whole year! I feel like throwing a party so leave me a comment and I'll draw a random winner to receive a whole line of products from Rusty Pickle! You have until Friday to comment! :)

Edit...for some reason blogger is not showing comments on this post. If you click on the title on the top of this post, you should be able to comment. Thanks! :)

And two fun things today, don't forget to vote! It's such an important election! And the Twilight soundtrack was released today! Just a couple weeks to go until the movie!

Have a wonderful day! :)