Simply Scrappin' Boutique

goes live very soon. Elizabeth sent me some cool product with which to design for this first month. And all these goodies are available now. Thanks for looking!

Look out CHA...here we come!

Although the Craft and Hobby Association Summer event is not until July, I am so excited already. Our room reservations are made, my plane tickets purchased and classes have been confirmed. I am not taking as many this year as I have in the past but did find a couple of good ones. I fly into Wisconsin and will spend some time with Pam B and then we meet up with Janet, Sus, Julianna and the rest of the gang. Janet and I are hoping to get together with our dear friend and holder of the bail money, Maria too.

CHA is right after our two weeks at the beach. Thanks to the kids who are 'loaning' us their house sitter, we are covered for those two weeks and the three weeks we are cruising and traveling the rest of the summer. Thanks Tom and Rob!

Meanwhile, I'm off to help Kristen get organized for the end of the school year and to put the scrap book mini albums together for her students so we can do these the last two days of school. Thanks to Lisa, owner of Ruban Rouge, who generously donated papers and embellishments for this project, this year will be easier on my pocket book. Thank you Lisa!

We have a due date for our babies to arrive if not before...June 15. They will be Gemini just like their Nana Jules and my mom before me!

Hope everyone has a great day!

Sunday's Baby Shower

Lisa and Shiloe did a great job with the co-ed shower for Kristen and Chris. Using a Pampered Chef party as the means of getting the kids to Lisa's without Kristen being the wiser, she was totally surprised. It was a lovely day and everything went well. The kids have really good and very generous friends!

We have a date for the arrival of the Twins if they don't come before then: June 15th. So, I'll be getting a belated birthday present. What fun!

May's Dinner Club (May 15th)

Our host and hostess for May were Suzie and Justin (who was recovering from dropping a motor on his foot and breaking at least one if not more toes). Suzie set the theme with some really great seafood...red snapper in a great sauce and grouper that was to die for. Becky and Bob brought red beans and rice and a wonderfully fresh salad and E finished off the meal with a frozen raspberry mousse topped with fresh raspberries. Buddy was our wine sommelier and clean up crew. Another fun evening with good friends!

Bob and Becky are the hosts for July but because everyone's lives get busy in July, we're having the next Dinner Club in Aug. Becky and Bob are cruising to Alaska, E and I are off to the beach for two weeks and then I am off to visit my friend, Pam, in Wisconsin and then to Chicago for CHA with the A Cherry on Top gals and Suzie and Justin are talking about a return to Costa Rica where they got engaged.

The picture of the grapes are from Suzie's back yard...are they just not the prettiest! And those are Suzie's pups. Snoopy and I are now fast friends...gotta love the Boxers!

Hope everyone has a great week. I am off to the dentist this morning for an over due apt. and have a busy week ahead with scrapping here with the Crew on Wed. and helping K with her end of the school year stuff Thursday and finishing up my donation mini albums for Dee's upcoming crop. And throw in some yoga and that is my week!

And the weekend is just starting...

Wednesday, I met Diane and Jackie at Ruban Rouge for a day of scrapping and frivolity. I worded on one of the two mini albums I am making as donations to Dee's Cause for the Paws (animal rescue) Crop and the other gals worked on projects of their own. We broke for lunch and headed to Marathon Grill for some wonderful Greek food!

Thursday was Book Club hosted by Linda at her lovely condo on the way to Honeymoon Island. It was so good to see everyone and catch up on their lives. Gloria, Nancy and I put the top down on Hot Mama, my transformer convertible on the way home and let the .night air blow our hair! Thanks you Linda (far left in photo) for being the hostess with the most-est!



Friday, E and I met Kristen at her high risk pregnancy doctor who has dismissed her from his care...both Little Mama and babies are doing great. One of the twins weighs 4lb 10oz and the other weighs 4lbs 11 oz starting into week 34 (I think).

E and I stopped at our new hang out for Friday afternoon happy hours: Santini's on the Sponge Docks. The name will soon become Dimitri's on the Water as it has been acquired by the same family that owns our favorite Greek restaurant in town, Mykanos!

The view is lovely, the food good and the beer nice and cold. The mojitos are not too shabby either. We had a great breeze off the river and there was lots of boat traffic to keep us entertained.



Today we headed to Dunedin bright and early for one of the last of the Green Markets held in the park on Main Street. The seafood guy was there and we picked up some good sea scallops for one night's supper and then got a bit carried away by all the fresh veggies and assorted produce. We picked up a loaf of olive and herb bread...guess I better save some of my Weight Watcher's points for breakfast tomorrow!

Later today, I am heading to a baby shower and, as soon as I get home from that, E and I will be going to our friends, Suzy's and Justin's, for Dinner Club. It is there turn to host and Suzy is serving an assortment of sea food delights. We've had Justin's and Suzie's cooking before one night when they brought us supper and I can hardly wait! We have the dessert course and E has (literally) whipped up a frozen raspberry mousse. Of course, I've had to taste test while he has been preparing this and yum!



Stay tuned tomorrow for the next exciting episode of Life in Paradise...lol.

Rumors, misinformation and inuendo

abound when people make assumptions. I chatted with a good friend this morning and have the straight skinny...RUBAN ROUGE is NOT closing forever. It is undergoing a transformation and will be reopening better than ever come this June. Check out the blog and leave a note. As for me...I can't wait to see what Lisa has up her sleeve.

http://www.rubanrouge.typepad.com/


So put those rumors and gossip to rest gals. RR is coming back!

Long time no blog...

Life has a way of sometimes getting in the way of living and that is pretty much what happened to me this week. We have been so busy taking care of things, we've pretty much missed taking care of ourselves.

I wanted to share these pics of Just Jack who has a need for an intervention. He believes that all boxes no matter what size and all bags no matter if they are empty or not are his to do with as he wishes. I had barely gotten the solar lights out of this box, when Jack climbed in and made the sack and the tissue paper his! And it was MY day...lol.










I have been scrapping when I can and have managed to do four layouts and an altered project for A Cherry on Top (I can't show any here because my reveal is not until the 26th) and three layouts and a card (so far) for Simply Scrappin' whose on line is about to go live. More updates on this when it does...go Elizabeth! I'll have to find a cyber bottle of champagne to help her launch it!

I have Book Club tonight and actually finished the book, RUN. It was interesting and will make for a lively conversation I am sure. Tonight's meeting is at Linda E's in her lovely condo on the way to Honeymoon Island. Will take my new camera to get and share some tropical pictures.

E and I have a busy weekend ahead. Friday morning is the Farmer's Market in Dunedin. Then, later that afternoon, we are going with K to her last apt. with the high risk pregnancy specialist and will get to see the Twins rocking and rolling via sonogram. Chris and his friend are headed over to the other coast on Friday to watch the last shuttle launch. We have company arriving Sat. for the weekend.

Off and running...I feel the urge to scrap one more layout! Hope you have a great day!

Mother's Day in Paradise

Thanks to my honey and the kids, I had the best Mother's Day. It was fun, relaxing and the boys pampered both Kristen and I. We felt like Queens for the Day.


E and I started our day with a nice long bike ride. Instead of heading through the Anclote Preserve, over the river and into town like we usually do, we headed down Alt. 19, over the bridge, by Spring Bayou and through some of the quaint back streets of our town. Now, we've seen dolphins and manatee and young Greek boys diving for crosses in the bayou, but Sunday we saw a gator which is rare. He was chasing the fish and feasting!



The kids came over around 2 and the boys all fixed our meal for us: chicken on the grill, baked potatoes, corn on the cob and a salad. K and C's friend, Brian, is in town visiting from St. Louis and we all played in the pool. It was such a lovely day.




And Little Mama is going into Week 34...the Twins spent Mother's Day tap dancing away in her tummy.

Hope everyone had a great Mom's day and a pleasant week ahead.

Thank you Ann

This morning on facebook, my friend, Ann, directed me to Stein Mart's sale. I became a fan, printed out the coupons, joined the preferred customer list and off I went. (edited to spell Ann's name correctly...and I know better. )




When I checked out, the gal told me my bill would have been $163.00 but, because of the in store 12 hour sale and all my coupons, my total was $43 and some change. The cruise boat to the Med. can leave any day now...I will be dressed to the 9s (ok...the pants are 10s but the dress is an 8). Along with the outfits I got at JC Penney's sale and my coupons that I used plus another sale I hit, I am ready to go! And my clothes fit nicely...bye bye 12s!

And another red letter day event: E found me round trip tickets to CHA summer in Chicago via Milwaukee for a couple of days visit with Pam B (DT leader and good pal at A Cherry on Top)and the tickets were 84.00 each way. Looking forward to seeing all the Cherries.

Off to hide my check book from myself! lol

Hope everyone is having a great Sat...off to scrap a bit!

It's Fun Friday...

What a wonderful way to spend a Friday. It all started with flowers from my honey for no reason at all. Now we have a garden profuse with roses and gardenias and flowers of all sizes, shapes and colors but these...these are so pretty!




And this is was off to the 1st Annual "Every Child Counts" Chari-Tea held to benefit Community Pride Child Care, Inc. This 50 year old child care center has worked hard to provide (in their words)"quality child development and supportive services for families of children ages 2 months to 6 years who have been exposed to poverty, prejudice, homelessness and violence" Becky DeLay was the one who invited me to attend and with whom I took a tour of the facilities last month. This is one of the best run organizations I have seen. This group deserves the support of the community that it so richly services.



Small world that it is I met my neighbor four doors down from us at the luncheon. Who knew she and I both shared Becky as a friend? We just met this gal who serves on our board of directors at the recent neighborhood garage sale. Guess we didn't recognize each other all cleaned up...lol.


10 Connects News Anchor, Reginald Roundtree, was the emcee for the event and did an excellent job. There were several guest speakers who contributed to the importance of sustaining the child care center and supporting the work it does.



After the luncheon, I met Kristen at Babies R Us to pick up her bedding for the twins room...cute cute Jungle themed curtains, comoforters, sheets, bumper pads and diaper holders. And boy oh boy, did those gcs from her staff sure come in handy.

On my way home from shopping with Kristen, I called E and we made a date to meet at Santorini's on the Anclote River...soon to be known as Dimitri's on the Water. We love sitting out on the back deck and watching the boats (and the afternoon) drift by. This is fast becoming one of our favorite places for a late afternoon libation.



Chimichurri Steak and asparagus on the grill for supper and our day is complete. Hope you are having a great Friday too.

Dear Blog Readers

A thank you from me to you!

The staff at Kristen's school is the best!

Yesterday afternoon, the staff at Kristen's school threw her a wonderful baby shower. The second grade team hosted it and did a wonderful job. The staff was so generous and, thanks to them and this generosity, the kids think they will be able to finish off the nursery bedding. What a great staff!

La Vita Bella (life is beautiful)

It has been brought to my attention that I did not give my word of the month last month. I have been posting a word each month and then take my pictures for my version of the Project 365 for that word. I did have one last month and it was REJUVENATION: to restore life to. Our Spring here in Paradise was late coming and we had thought we had lost tons of plants to the two freezes we had last winter. BUT, plant after plant spent last month rejuvenating. E and I did a bit of this ourselves...coming back to life after a long, cold winter.

This month's word is GRATITUDE: being thankful or indebted to or expressing thanks to. And we have so much to be grateful for.

Generosity on the part of our friends (Janet Miller got these darling and oh so soft toys for the Twins)and many others continue to hold us in prayer and good thoughts


We are grateful for the continuing good health and pregnancy of Little Mama (week 32!)


.And we are grateful for the lovely flowers that bloom for us daily!


We are grateful for fresh veggies coming into our farmer's markets here (I cooked this meal for E and I with minimal assistance from the resident chef!).


and for my new camera! (so I can take more and more pictures of things for which I am grateful).


Plus lots and lots more, of course!

So, La Vita Bella...for what are you grateful?

Our first Ray's baseball game.

(Don't know why the print is so tiny on the Longoria photo but it says, "This one is for Evan Bennett!)


We had such fun yesterday. We spent the morning planing new pretties in the side yard and lower lawn. The Kristen and I went shopping at JC Penny's with coupons and discounts galore and got some great clothes at excellent prices. Kristen and I had a snack and then shopped some more.

Around 4, she dropped me at Peggy O'Neils' in old Palm Harbor and Bob, Gene and I had an early supper before we met Becky back at their house and we all headed to Tropicana Field for our first ever Ray's baseball game. It was a blast despite the fact the Rays lost after fighting hard for eleven innings. We only stayed for a bit of the ZZ Tops concert before heading home. We got in a bit after midnight and I had the early 6-8 shift at the National Scrapbook Day crop at A Cherry on Top with Ronny, whom I love ! What a great partner. I have been so lucky to get Pam B and great partners for mys second shifts each crop at ACOT.

Thanks to Becky and Bob for driving last night! Hope everyone is having a great weekend and it is not too late to still get in the running for some great prizes at the ACOT crop...it goes until 8 pm tonight!