Saturday, March 28, 2009

Democracy in Action


Do you know how a bill becomes a law? I'm not sure either, but last Tuesday I had a chance to see how things are done up close when I spent the day on Capitol Hill participating in the National Bar Association's annual Day on the Hill. It was a productive and interesting day, although it was also a little hectic and disorganized. We met with several congressmen and congresswomen to discuss the legislative agenda of the National Bar Association. A few observations - Did you know most of the meat and vegetables served in the Capitol Hill cafeteria are organic and they recycle all of their trash - even the republicans do it. Talk about your tree hugging elitists! If you're claustrophobic you could not be on the staff of any congressperson - all of their offices (even the offices of long-time powerful members) are tiny. Not sure if any of the banking plans will work, but I will give Ben Bernanke and Timothy Geithner credit for having the patience of Job. At the congressional hearing I watched, every single congressperson asked them the same exact question about AIG bonuses - even though they gave the same answer everytime - and neither one of them ever snapped at any of the congress members - they would make great parents of toddlers.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Time To Dance

So here are my brackets for the Men's NCAA Div. I Basketball Tournament starting today. Never one to keep all my eggs in one basket I have made 2 brackets. If you would like a printable bracket for yourself go here. And of course as a scrapbooker I must have a theme. My first bracket is what I call the "Book Smart Bracket". This bracket is based on stuff I read in the paper this week about the teams - it has Louisville, Villanova, Memphis and Oklahoma in the final four, with Louisville winning.

My second bracket is called "ACC Pride" and this is a bracket that any fan of the Atlantic Coast Conference would love. It has Wake Forest, University of Connecticut, Duke and North Carolina in the final four, with North Carolina winning it all.


In both cases I did some rethinking at the end, but I think these are winners. If there are any other scrapbookers or others who read this blog that did brackets this year, send me a note, I'd love to see your picks.

Plus, check out the President's picks.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Any Excuse

So I'm not Irish and I don't regularly "celebrate" St. Patrick's Day, although I do love corned beef and cabbage and I'm looking forward to eating the one I'm going to throw into my Crockpot tonight. But I was in the mood to make a card and to use my Cricut machine - afterall I did pay over $300 for it (but I digress - I'll save my thoughts on why this hobby would drive a pretty practical woman to spend over $300 on a machine that cuts shapes for a separate post). So here is my first ever - St. Patrick's Day card. I plan to give this one to my husband and I have two others (with a different sentiment of course) to give to the boys.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Go Maryland! Go Terps!


This note is not about scrapbooking, but I just had to recognize the beginning of one my favorite sports events of the year, and that is the NCAA Division I Mens and Womens Basketball Championship tournament. I love the University of Maryland terrapins. I am an alumni of the University of Maryland at College Park, and while there I ran Cross Country and Track and Field at Maryland for 3 years (don't miss much about college, but I do miss my abs - but I digress). If you are a fan of the University of Maryland Women's Basketball team, then the last five years have been wonderful - the ACC Championship this year and the NCAA Div. I Championship in 2006. At the same time, if you have been a fan of the University of Maryland Men's Basketball team the last 5 years have been a little disappointing. But, this year the NCAA Div. I Basketball Championship should be great time for all Maryland fans - with the Women's team sure to receive a No. 1 seed and the Men squeaking in with a No. 10 seed. I will be posting my picks and brackets later this week. Let the Madness begin!

Monday, March 2, 2009

Memories Monday - Fond Memories of my friend Barbie

I could not let this day pass without mentioning the anniversary/birthday of a woman who meant a lot to me growing up, and that woman of course was Barbie. I heard this morning that today is Barbie's 50th birthday and I for one hope that I look that good at 50 and can be that good at reinventing myself along the way.

As a girl growing up I loved my Barbies. I played with them for hours in my room, creating elaborate story lines about her friends and her boyfriends and her adventures. I had everything for her, including the Barbie dream house, corvette, horse and jeep, and even the Barbie McDonalds (yes they made these things, and yes I had them). When I went to a friend's house with Barbie, I lovingly packed her into her own pink Barbie suitcase with space for clothing and accessories. With kids of my own now, I'm just beginning to appreciate the tremendous investment my mom and dad put into Barbie and Mattel (but I digress). But, alas life was not always so easy for Barbie in my house. Between being subjected to my hairstyling techniques that frequently included scissors and food coloring, and being terrorized by my little brother - who often bit the feet off of my dolls, life was a series of highs and lows for Barbie - and yet she always seemed to weather these trials with a constant smile, ready to start a new day. Not a bad approach to life.

This is possibly the start of a weekly feature on this blog, that will be called Memories Monday, in which I write about memories big and small, and consider ways to use these memories in a scrapbook. What about you? Is there a toy that you grew up with that you still have fond memories about? Write those thoughts down, and consider doing a scrapbook page about that toy, with or without photos. I for one am off to look for that picture of myself in front of my Barbie dream house on Christmas Day in 1981.

Head of the Class - part II

So I talked about one of the classes I'm taking at 2 Peas In A Bucket. The other class I am taking is called Here, There and Everywhere. This class cost me a few dollars and is more involved than the A Year of You class. The class description from the website is below.

Here, There & Everywhere is the title of the album but also of the album's three sections, as we scrap things near home, places you've been and the places you still want to go.
With all of the job and life moves I've made in the last year, I thought this would be an interesting album to undertake. So far I've been happy with the class. In the first week the instructor challenged us to take pictures of our environment, to use photo editing software in new ways and even discussed how to organize our scrapbooking projects. This past week we started creating the first section of the album. Unfortunately, starting the album also coincided with my sons getting sick and a hectic week at work, so I've only finished the title page and one section, but I hope to catch up in the next week or so. That's the thing with on-line hobby classes, it is the ultimate - you only get what you put into it - experience. Some of what I've done below.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Head of the Class

Lately I've been having fun taking a few on-line scrapbooking classes. Both of the classes are at Two Peas In A Bucket - one of my favorite scrapbooking websites. The first class is really more of a monthly challenge and it's called A Year of You. On the 20th of each month the instructor sends out a class handout featuring a layout featuring photos taken that month and several techniques to try. The point of the class is at the end of the year you will have 12 layouts - with one layout for each month of the year featuring pictures of your family or whatever you're into. At the end of each month or maybe the year she will give away a prize. Here was the instructor's layout for January and below is my take on it.

Here was her layout for February and my take on it below.

You will notice my layouts look a lot different from the instructors, but that's ok. For this class, and really most of these on-line classes, you can either follow the layout exactly or adapt it as necessary. So I'm psyched, if I can keep at it I might end out with a complete album for 2009.