Hey Monday

Having quite a Monday. Feeling like I just don't have a lot interesting to say. Looking forward to the end of the month, Halloween, etc. J won't take his costume off, a firefighter who won't wear pants. (insert eye roll) Looking forward to my mom visiting next weekend. Looking forward to closing on the house at the end of the month. Otherwise, nothing else terribly exciting going on. I think I bored my self just typing that, I'm yawning. Seriously. :)

Since I feel like all I did was tease you with sneaks last time, here is an actual layout for American crafts, with the new junior line. J loves the embellishments, he played with that robot for 45 mins. :)

Almo Three

Supplies: American Crafts Patterned paper Junior We're Number 1! and TaDa!; American Crafts Delight Thickers-white; American Crafts Junior Foil Printed Chipboard Embellishments; American Crafts Junior Go! Flair Embellishment; American Crafts White and Cranberry Cardstock

J's word for almost is Almo. (Sounds like Nemo, Elmo, and Mymo.) I'll save you some googling, there are no peacock or blue colored American Crafts Delight thickers. I inked the white ones, they will take any color ink you put on them. I love that. Wait 5 or 10 mins for it to dry before using them. If you use my tip on the AC blog of using the clear backing from the Flair embellishments, you can ink them right on that and wipe the backing off with a tissue to clean. Super easy. I wanted to use the blue rocketeer thickers, but I forgot to measure before I printed. Oops. It happens. :)

Lastly, a couple of more sneaks for Cocoa Daisy:

The reveal is Wednesday night! Join us on the message boards, we will be chatting about any and everything! Happy Monday to you! Until tomorrow.

Sneaking in

Happy Wednesday! Doing some laundry, and some paperwork. J is "helping" me clean out my scraproom. I don't know if I mentioned it, but the room in the new house is about the same size, but the closet is smaller, almost half the size of this one. I can put my gift wrapping paper somewhere else, but I'd really like to keep the hanging storage piece I got at IKEA. It just depends on how my shelves have to be aligned in there I guess. But, we are going through stuff anyway and putting it in piles for the LSS sale. Some of it I don't want and some is just going to be too much to move. So, cleaning it out now. Also doing more paperwork for the mortgage company. At some point the banks need to have a little faith in people. :)

Here is the newest kit from Cocoa Daisy "Fashion week" (do you see that Tim Holtz ribbon?):

The add-ons are really amazing this month. If you love to sew and quilt you do not want to miss one of the add-ons. The kit is just beautiful, every single element is beautiful and elegant. But I think the Prima alphas still let it be gender neutral. I don't feel like it is too girly (important for me). Christine has put together a Halloween mini album with pink paislee too! Here is the first of my sneaks:

Hope you have a happy and productive day! Thank you for the well wishes! Until tomorrow.

PS Check out the AC blog today for a card I made for Kate.

Alive, I think

Still recovering from my cold. I haven't had anything terribly exciting to blog about and I suspected you could do without my reporting every sneeze and nose wipe. I am fairly certain we had a flu, don't sure if it was "the flu." (H1N1) But it was brutal. We did not go to the doctor though, neither J nor I developed any complications that I felt like I had to pull the parachute. We are finally recovered. J is about 95% recovered. I am about 90%, I'm a day behind him.

Still scrapping, though not as much since I've been sick. I've been doing more CMEs. It's easier for me to read in bed (and fall asleep). I did try to scrap on Friday night last week, but I was sitting leaned up against the closet door and I fell asleep. Scared myself silly when I woke up. So, I didn't try again until last night. I was in a Fall mood after walking the dog in crisp cool night air:

My Little Vampire

Supplies: American Crafts Glass Slippers Thickers Mulberry; American Crafts Hocus Pocus Thickers Accents Black; plus Pink paislee Twilight Eclipse patterned paper and punch out.

I love these thickers. Can you tell they are smooth? The glitter is encased. Love that, love the font especially. Definitely a new favorite of mine, and I'm not that much of a bling girl.

Things are still rolling along on the house. We probably will not move until Dec. or so. I was offered a really awesome guest design team position in the next month or so, keep an eye on this blog for a giveaway connected with that. It's something I've always wanted to win myself when I've seen it given away on other blogs. I wanted to give my regular readers a heads up before it happens. Happy, Monday! Until tomorrow.

PS If I didn't make it, I think this is heaven. They let me scrap here! :)

There ought to be a law. . .

Against being sick more than twice in a month. Feeling and sounding so very bad this time. J is also very sick and cranky. It's been about 4 days into this one. I'm about ready to give up and take J to the doctor, except he seems a tiny bit better today. We went to the home inspection on our new house, and very few things were found. The seller is addressing all the concerns. Mailed off the mortgage paperwork (all 50 pages! Did people really get no documentation loans way back when?). Today I'm an ear-aching, snotty-nosed, NyQuil-drinking fool. But I'll leave you with a layout for the Cocoa daisy newsletter, it's for a sketch challenge.

Everything from the Cocoa Daisy Sept kit. Happy Tuesday, until tomorrow.

Driving-by

"Jane, get me off this crazy thing!" George Jetson

Feeling like I'm perpetually behind. Like I'm running on a thread mill and can not catch up or get ahead. I can only fall down and get sucked into that little conveyor belt, so I run even faster. And so does the thread mill. Anyone else feel like that? Another layout with the Cocoa Daisy Sept Ali Kit:
I don't recall Fall being so stressful in recent years. But then, I haven't tried to buy a house in a while either. After the home inspection tomorrow and the mortgage paperwork is complete, it will get better. Happy Wednesday, until tomorrow.

The Conclusion

Background for those who don't follow this blog: We have been searching for a house for nearly a year, unable to find anything with location, good schools, good commute, good price and good condition. We finally found such a house on Thursday of last week. We presently live in a lemon of a rental, in a not great school district.

Up to date: today

The deadline for our final and best offer was 1pm today, but we wrote the offer last night. I knew there was a 50%/50% chance we would not get the house in our bid against the other buyer.

I got a call from my realtor at 3:30pm. I saw her number and closed my eyes. And covered them with my hand.

Me: Hello?

Realtor: Hi, can you talk?

Me: Yep (voice cracks), yes.

(in my head to myself: pull yourself together, we are prepared, we are not going to cry or fall apart in anyway. Be cool.)

Realtor: Do you want the good news or the bad news?

Me: The bad news.

(in my head to myself: Don't cry.)

Realtor: There are now 5 offers on the table.

Me: FIVE?!

(in my head to myself: And we're done. Don't cry. Don't cry. I mean it. It's so over. What a bunch of crap, 5 offers. Don't cry.)

Realtor: Yes, there are really 5 offers on the table.

Me: So now what?

Realtor: Don't you want to know the good news?

Me: Sure, hit me with the good news.

Realtor: The homeowner doesn't want to play games anymore, the house is yours. You guys won the house!

Me: (speechless)

(in my head to myself: are we still going to cry? Maybe. . .)

Me: Really, really? Like really for real? Not kidding?

Realtor: Yep, looks like you have a house with some resale value there, congratulations!

Me: I guess so! 5 offers, that's insane. Thanks!

Seriously, there were 3 offers overnight on the same house, for a total of 5 including ours. How insane is this market? See, the problem is that it's the best house to come on the market in a long time here, in a great location, and the best school district. And at great, unheard of price. Plus everyone only has until Nov to use the Obama tax credit.

And after stringing us along for 4 days now entertaining all these offers, they chose ours. We had the most creative (not necessarily the most expensive) concessions. :) I still can't believe it, I was so prepared for the conversation to end very differently that it seems surreal. Hoping to lock in a great interest rate, crossing fingers. But I already know how blessed and lucky we are. :)

We won't be moving for almost 90 days, so things should start to get back to a new normal around here. Until tomorrow, happy day!

Note to self: have faith, something could go right!

I think it's about faith. . .

God doesn't give me more than I can handle. I just wish he didn't trust me so much. -Mother Teresa.

Today I was sitting on the front step eating popsicles with J. I debated whether we should go out on the back porch or the front step, and since we never sit on the front step I felt like we should mix it up a little and do that. I had forgotten that God will put you exactly where he needs you. I feel that so much more acutely being at the epicenter of other people's medical crisises. But I tend to forget this in my personal life, with my family.

About 5 mins into our popsicles a young boy of maybe 4 or 5, clearly upset, came to the bottom step and asked me for help. He was lost, couldn't find his mom or dad or home. In my gut I knew his story was true. I asked him his name, tried to calm him down to help him remember his address (he didn't know it). Asked him for a phone number, which seemed a jumble of numbers that didn't go anywhere. I told him to wait on the step, and I went to grab my house phone and I called the police. There was clearly a language barrier with this child, and I wasn't getting any closer to helping him, so I figured best to leave it to the police.

They came at once. Officer Kelly was very nice. He asked the child tons of questions, and came back and told me he was frustrated that he was getting no where too. The child could have come from anywhere, there are dozens of neighborhoods that intersect with the local woods and park nearby. We just had nothing to go on. So we stayed with him and waited for his parents to report him missing so that he could be reunited that way. An hour and 1/2 later I heard a mother's gut wrenching scream as she called for him. I ran to her and told her to follow me and J (who was very cranky, he didn't bank on being on the front step that long).

When reunited she screamed and hugged her son. It could only be her son because only she could actually pronounce his name. She thanked me profusely, the father just glared at me. I don't think he liked the police being involved. C'est la vie. The family had just moved here yesterday, they were in the process of moving in today when the child wondered off. That's why he didn't know his address. The cop told me we did the right thing, we kept him in one place long enough for his parents to track him down. Considering he had an hour and 1/2 start on them, no telling how this might have ended otherwise. God wanted me on that front step for that child. This I know.

So I know that being in a bidding war for the house we want is meant to be too. It isn't fun, it's not pleasant, and it's made everything much more stressful. (Just when I was starting to chill a little). But the outcome is not in my hands. I would be thrilled to get the house, however since there is now a 50% chance I won't, I'm at peace with it. Because he showed me today exactly what I needed to know, that he is in control, all the time, in every way. Even when I think he is not. So I think it's about faith. Happy weekend to you! A decision will be made tomorrow afternoon. Until then.

And a little child shall lead them. Isaiah 11:1-10.

Time to put my money where my mouth is. . .

In the middle of trying to buy a house, can you believe it? My story is like House hunters-- the ground hog day version. I've been searching for a house for over a year, and no the drama is far from over. We don't know what will happen with our offer, this is a very tough market right now. It's all going to work out however it is supposed to. But, that's why I've been such a slack blogger, I've been spending every waking moment with my real estate agent. She's great but I'd rather be scrapping. :)

Here are some of my Cocoa Daisy Sept (Ali's favorites) kit layouts. I got the McDougall add-on:

This kit is on sale now. Come over and hang out with us, we have a great group on the message boards! I had a few technical glitches on reveal night, so my gallery is in the que at the moment. It will be fixed soon. :) I hope this weekend is quiet, slow and boring. (I want to spend more time with this kit!) I'm still recovering from my cold, and J's been sick. I'm sure the stress from the home situation is not helping all that much. Thank you to everyone who left a comment, I'm getting to you if I haven't yet! Happy almost-weekend! Until tomorrow.

Sick, but sneaky

Feeling very sick this morning (and Sat, Sun. and Mon too), even after antibiotics yesterday. I probably should not have made pages with my kit last night, but I couldn't help it. What a kit! :)

So, I'm sick but sneaky.

Happy Tuesday! Until tomorrow.