A few of the wedding invitations went out last week–local ones before the bridal shower invitations arrived! The rest of the invitations go into the mail tomorrow. but the exciting part was receiving six RSVPs so quickly, several with lovely notes on the bottom. There have been hours of planning, but it’s just now beginning to feel real.

My daughter loves to rub it in. But here’s what we’re faced with in the Northeast–plus high winds!!

Blogging has seemed like hard work the last few weeks so I’ve just avoided it. Getting back to it reminds me of how hard it is for me to get back to the gym if I haven’t gone in a couple of weeks. I could plead being busy and it would be true, but it’s not the real reason.

Yesterday I went with a couple of friends to our lss and took a card class compliments of the Arctic Frog company. One of the design team members for the company lives near Rochester. She came to last weekend’s all day Saturday crop and we made a cute matchbook album. Yesterday we made this:

The little wooden box came from AC Moore and we make these six cards to go into it. I know exactly who to give this to, and will make another one in colors to match my study later on.

Here are the cards that go in it:

I’ve actually gotten a lot of scrapbooking done recently. Made two batches of cards for the March DW 2006 challenge. You can see them here. Thanks to an all day crop in January and another one in February I have years 1-10 finished in Sarah’s birthday album. I can identify all but two of her friends in the photos. I’m hoping she’ll be able to tell me who they are when she’s here at the end of the month. She doesn’t seem to have much confidence that she’ll know either.

Sarah and Adam’s wedding is only 76 days away and although we have many, many plans in place and I have absolutely wonderful help from my sister-in-law, I am beginning to wake up in the night and worry about what I don’t know about or the little details that we cannot yet make decisions about. Finding something to wear is also preying on my mind. A friend and I spent one entire day looking (only tried on three things–none right) and I’ve ordered and returned several other items. No more ordering! I’m going to assume that if I don’t see something here before we go to Atlanta in April that I will certainly find something there. It’s the little things–or maybe that’s a big thing.

Well, I’ve done it. Back to blogging. I’ll try to be more conscientious although this is not a week to make promises. I have commitments after school or in the evening  every night except one.

This was a blog challenge listed on 2Peas yesterday.

List 10 things that you couldn’t possibly live without.

1. My family (Can’t imagine life without any of them.)
2. My cell phone (More dependent on it than I like to admit, but being able to press one button and talk to my daughter in Atlanta is priceless.)
3. iBook (For work and for pleasure!)
4. Target (What did I do before Target showed up in our area?)
5. Coffee (Love my Starbucks and need one cup in the morning of any kind)
6. My study ( I love having my own space.)
7. My Forrester (Love this car; so dependable and fun to drive.)
8. My cameras (I have two Canons and love them both.)
9. My printer (Got a new Canon Pixma for Christmas. Rely on it for work and for scrapbooking
10. Scrapbooking and stamping supplies (Does this count as one item?)

Annually our church shares a weekend of  interfaith dialogue with the congregation of a local synagogue. Today was the dialogue between our pastor and the rabbi and, as always, it was thought provoking. I thought the quote on the cover of the bulletin by Jonathan Sacks from The Dignity of Difference was worth sharing:

"So it is with faith. If we cherish our own, then we will understand the value of others. We may regard ours as a diamond and another faith as a ruby, but we know that both are precious stones. But if faith is a mere burden, not only will we not value ours, neither will we value the faith of someone else. We will see both as equally useless. True tolerance comes not from the absence of faith but from its living presence. Understanding the particularity of what matters to us is the best way of coming to appreciate what matters to others."

Another blog challenge from 2Peas:

1. Where were you born?
    Hays, Kansas
2. Name something you’ve always wanted to do.
    Travel extensively–no one place in particular
3. What do you want to be when you grow up?
    A great photographer
4. What’s the number one problem we face in the world today?
    Poverty
5. If you could change the world, what would you do?
    Provide meaningful, paying jobs for everyone
6. What’s the most dangerous thing you’ve ever done?
    I’m a chicken. I don’t think I’ve ever done anything particularly
    dangerous.
7. Favorite word?
    Can I have two? Love you. Love saying it; love hearing it.

Found this challenge on 2Peas tonight:

List 5-10 blogs that you read online on a consistent basis.. and also journal/write why you love these blogs so much!

Since I’ve become a regular blog reader here are the ones I read regularly. I read almost all of them for the same reasons:
inspiration for scrapbook layouts
inspiration and techniques for taking better photographs
information on new products
information on techniques
great quotes and funny stories–great for journaling ideas
book reviews (all kinds, not just scrapping)

Here are my favorite scrapping blogs:
fertile press
altogether too happy
{bits and pieces}
ali edwards
the  possibilities are endless
simply me
{me}
There are some others, as well, but these are my favorites. I have subscribed to most of them at bloglines.com so I can go to one site and see all the updates at once. It’s a real timesaver.

And then there is my daughter’s blog. She’s a seminary student, a great writer and photographer (no prejudice here). I read her blog for uplifting messages, to keep current on important issues, and to find out what’s happening in the lives of young seminarians. One of my favorite entries is “Failures of Imagination.”

I really, truly tried to resist the urge to reorganize once again but . . . when I read that Stacy Julian organized all her embellishments in shallow drawers by color, I was immediately intrigued. I resisted for over a month, but the idea stayed in the back of my mind along with her comment that having all the embellishments in one place increased her creativity. So since I already had some shallow drawer units doing other (rather insignificant) duty, I decided to give it a try. It only took one evening and I organized mine in six drawers rather than ten. I put pink and purple, green and brown, yellow and orange, and black and white together. I can already tell you that it was worth the time and effort. Stacy is right. We scrapbook by color and seeing all the embellishments you have prompts you to consider things you might never have thought of using. The only expense was the purchase of some small ziplock bags to hold the tiny embellishments. Thanks, Stacy–once again.

It’s the end of the semester. Today I turned in 23 updated literacy profiles and 10 week plans. I have all but six report cards ready to turn in next week. Then the flurry of paperwork will die down for a while. Whew! I’m ready for some serious "me" time.