My kick in the rear post

I've been missing from my beloved blog for a few weeks now and I have missed so many of you so very much. I hope you all had a fabulous holiday season! I know I have a lot of visiting and catching up to do and believe me when I say I will be doing just that in the coming weeks. I don't know if any of you do this but I like to do what I call my own personal "blog hop" by visiting every blog I follow. It's been awhile since I have done this but what a perfect time than the beginning of a brand new year, right? Now I wanted to give you a heads up, this post has the potential to be long so if you don't want to read all the fluff and skip to the pictures just go ahead and scroll on down, I totally understand. When I read my tabloid magazines I tend to look at what the celebs are wearing rather than reading the article, so I get it!

We had such a wonderful Christmas. I'd have to say it was one of the best. However, there was one thing that didn't make it 100% perfect and that was how hard it was on me this year. It's fair to say Christmas is a LOT of work but it's the type of work, that while exhausting, is easily forgotten when you are basking in the joy of all the hard work. This wasn't the case for me this year. My mind and my body are in this massive civil war right now. The mind is saying, "you can do it, keep going". The body is saying, "wave that white flag dummy!" Needless to say, Christmas wiped me out. The week after Christmas my 17 year old went out of town for the week so I thought I would be able to bounce back that week. That didn't happen. My DH had the week off so we took advantage of the "us" time. Even though my husband knows when I'm in pain or exhausted he really doesn't know just how bad it is. I'm very good at masking how bad it is. I do this for two reasons: The first is because I don't want to be treated like I'm breakable and second because I don't want to be the party pooper, so to speak. Again, the mind/body civil war. The day after Christmas we went to Mall of America to return a gift of his. (Returning a gift of his seems to be a ritual for us). Well, while we were there the mall went into lockdown, then there was a huge fight and to top it off we witnessed a mob of atleast 250 teens run full speed into Nordstroms, throwing chairs, knocking people over, etc... You know what I did? I hid out in the scrapbooking store I love so much, Archivers, until it all settled down. Later in the week my husband and I did go to a local casino to play slots and guess who won $150 on a penny machine? Yay! Not bad on a $12 dollar investment! Well, much too quickly the week was over and it was back to the usual. I thought I would be able to relax and bounce back but it still hasn't happened yet. Everytime I sat down to update my blog I would fall asleep. And I am so tired, all the time and I just hate it. I just want you all to know that I am really trying hard to get back to my normal and that I have not forgotten about you, not at all. To be honest, I think about so many of you often and hope you are all doing good. I am so thankful for the wonderful friendships I have with so many of you.

Ok, now that I got that off my chest how about we talk about papercrafting? Santa baby (hubby) brought me a new Gypsy and I haven't the slightest clue how to use it. He did all the steps for me to get it going so now I have to figure out how to use it. I know once I understand it I will love it just as so many of you do! And many of you know I made a commitment to myself to make one Christmas card a week for the challenges at http://christmascardchallenges.blogspot.com/. Now even though I didn't enter these in the last three weeks, I did get them done. Want to see?

 Week 3 was to use non traditional colors on your card:

 Week 4 was to use a sketch:

 Week 5 was to make a Christmas thank you card:

All five weeks so far!

Now for this week CCC is asking for a card with lace on it. This should be fun, I've never made a card with lace! I'm also going to be a special guest designer on a very special blog this week so stay tuned!

Before I end this post I do want to thank all the wonderful ladies that I won blog candy from last month.

 http://joyslife.com/. I won the Scandinavian Christmas cartridge! Thank you Joy, I received it and love it!

http://www.nanasscrapspot.com/. Thank you Miranda for the beautiful Christmas paper and embellishments!

http://anniebeescraftroom.blogspot.com/ . Thank you Anne! I love the stamps and all the goodies!

http://justbcreativecrazy.blogspot.com/ . Beckie, the stamps and ink are perfect, thank you!

http://danascraftycorner.blogspot.com/ . Dana, you left a comment for me on Dec. 5th that I won your blog candy but I couldn't find the post that announced it, so I'm guessing it was a mistake? LOL, no worries dear.

http://creationswithbecka.blogspot.com/ . Becka was sweet enough to send me a stamp for participating in her blog hops. Thank you Becka! I used it on my Christmas thank you card. Becka, it really was my pleasure to participate my friend!

I really should have played Powerball last month huh? To let you know, if I ever win Powerball we will all be going on a Hawaiian papercrafting retreat, on me of course!

I can't believe I made it through this post without falling asleep! Ha ha, hope you did the same! I look forward to visiting with all of you really soon and thank you to my close buddies that stopped in while my mind/body were at war. ;)

Happy New year my friends!

{Hugs}

Susan