Here is where I will be on Sunday! I plan to attend our local ScrapPink Scrapathon to benefit Breast Cancer research.....My mom battled this illness in 2004 and with early detection and surgery at Mayo Clinic, she came though with flying colors and no remissions so far. I hope you will also join the crops locally or donate money to the research effort. So many women need this research and a cure is so close. Click here to help the effort... http://cms.komen.org/komen/index.htm And while you are at it, scrap a page about a woman in your life who has influenced you!

Look what I made! Click on the photo for a closer look at all the parts. Here is what inspired me today from seeing it on EBAY from QuillySilly http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q80/quillysilly/ebay1/canvas1-1.jpg And from that concept, I decided to make a Halloween door calendar so I gathered up some orange and black papers from the stash, orange accents, ribons, brads, some sturdy cardstock background and so on seen below. Looks like a mess so far! LOL Then I printed out a October calendar with my greeting card workshop program. Any premade calendar page for the month will do. I personalized this one with their names since dorm rules say all door decor is supposed to also identify the occupants. Then I started building the background (below) to make it sturdier. I made 2 layers of pattern paper onto my orange cardstock to insure it was very stiff and would hold the weight of the other decor and utility items I intended to attach. (envelopes, pens, notepaper) Trimming out my calendar...

I love how this project is turning out this week. Drumroll please..... And now for a little creation of mine made from scraps of a different sort! Not paper this time! Quilting is one of my other fun pastimes and this quilt is in progress for my daughter for her dorm. She picked the color scheme a few years ago and I only got as far as hand appliqueing the two floral panels back then... But 3 days ago, I got back on it so that she can have it ALL done and use it at school... WOW What a difference 3 days makes! 2 years ago: I can't remember the name of this hand done applique pattern but I found it online about 2 years ago. It was a little time intense so I only hand appliqued a few blocks this way--two are done completely--one purple and one yellow. Three days ago: just squares Yesterday: adding 4 heart panels ...and lots and lots of rows of squares! This pattern is paper pieced using a online pattern I found called Candy Box Heart found here http://...

above: dear son above: dear daughter Comments on my empty nest... Ahhh yes, and away they go.... It is September again and if you have kids, you know what that means. They are off to school and books and all kinds of adventures with their friends. Change is in the air. On alternating pre-fall days the air is sometimes over-warm and sometimes crisp, leaves are changing slightly. This year all these famliar things bring a wistfulness for me. You see my kiddos are both off to college now. My youngest just left this week for a very large universtiy close by and my oldest is off to his cozy little campus way up in the UP (the Upper Peninsula of Michigan). Can we say Empty Nest? :) And what do I think about that? I get asked this at least 4 or 5 times a day now. How do I feel now that my kids are gone? Hmmmm, good question! Like the weather in MN right now, I can't quite make up my mind. I miss them immensley from the social aspect. I love to tease them, talk to them, gripe at them, c...