Happy New Year and Happy Reading, Ya'll!

If it didn't bring you joy
just leave it behind
Let's ring in the new year
with good things in mind

Let every bad memory
that brought heartache and pain
And let's turn a new leaf
with the smell of new rain

Let's forget past mistakes
making amends for this year
Sending you these greetings
to bring you hope and cheer
Happy New Year!

Wishing all of you a Happiest of New Years and, as usual, Happy Reading, Ya'll!

C4CC5 Challenge & CPS Year In Review

My first post for 2011!  Happy New Year everyone.  May each of us resolve to serve the Lord more faithfully this year.

Here is another card with the Celebration theme for the Crazy 4 Cocoa Challenge.  This week's Card Positioning System challenge was a Year in Review (use any sketch from 2010).  I chose sketch CPS166.

I just realized I forgot to take a picture of the inside.  I'll try to remedy that later today and add the pic to this post.

Supplies:
Cardstock - Georgia Pacific
Papers - Colorbok
Embellishments - Brad (MM), Ribbon (Michael's)
Ink/Pencils - Memento Tuxedo Black (inside sentiment), Prismacolor pencils
Stamp - Cocoa's Gift (Sweet 'n Sassy), Inside Sentiment (Studio G)
Tools - Nestabilities (Standard Circle Large, Lacey Circles)
Computer font - Annie BTN

SSS88 & C4CC5 Challenges

This card is for the challenges over at The Sweet Stop and the Crazy 4 Cocoa Challenge Blog.  I used SSS88 for the sketch and the challenge on the Crazy 4 Cocoa Challenge Blog was to make a celebration card.  I apologize for the lighting.  The colors are much brighter in real life.

Supplies:
Card Base - Bazzill
Cardstock - Georgia Pacific & colorbok
Papers - Colorbok
Embellishment - Brads - MM
Ink/Pens - Memento Tuxedo Black (inside sentiment), Prismacolor pencils, Gelly Roll pen (clear star)
Tools - Nestabilities (Petite Ovals Large & Petite Scalloped Ovals Large), Cuttlebug embossing folder (Swiss Dot), Fiskars Border Punch
Stamps - Cheese Cocoa (Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps), Inside Sentiment - Studio G
Computer Font - Annie BTN

Tri-Shutter Card

When I saw a Tri-Shutter Card for the first time, I knew I wanted to make it for a special occasion.  What better time than for my husband's Christmas Card?  I found a tutorial for the Tri-Shutter Card in the resource tutorials over at Splitcoaststampers.  The step-by-step instructions made a card that looks complicated very easy to make.  I chose to decorate my panels the way Beate did in her video tutorial.  Cutting the layers to size was the most time-consuming part.

The poem on the front was a freebie I found on the internet at this site's Christmas Love Verses.  I printed the poem on regular copy paper and then attached a piece of pattern paper over the top.  I ran it back thru my printer so that the poem would be printed right on my patterned paper.  I inked the edges of all my patterned papers.

Supplies:
Cardstock - Bazzill
Papers - Basic Grey
Embellishments - Offray Ribbon, Basic Gray Pearls
Journaling Pen - SU
Ink - ColorBox Fluid Chalk
Tools - Nestabilties (Petite Scalloped Ovals Large, Petite Ovals Large), Fiskars border punch

My Top Ten Favorite Books of the Year!

2010 was a banner year for great books, in my humble opinion. So it was extremely difficult to pick just 10 of my favorite books of the year. But I have narrowed it down, and here is what I considered some of the best of the best!

 1. Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman - my absolute favorite book of the year!

And in no particular order -

Here's to more great books in 2011! Happy Reading, Ya'll!

2010 Challenge Wrap-ups!

Here is a wrap-up of all my reading challenges for 2010!

The 12 Days of Christmas Cookbook; The Farm Chicks Christmas; Christmas Jars; Miracle Baby; It Started With A House, The Perfect Love Song, The Christmas Journey, A Wallflower Christmas, Promise Me, On Christmas Eve, The First Love Cookie Club, Knit The Season, An Amish Christmas, A Holiday Yarn, Call Me Mrs. Miracle, A Riverwalk Christmas, A Woodlands Christmas, I Am Santa, A Chesapeake Shores Christmas, Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor, His Christmas Pleasure,The Christmas Knight, A Christmas Waltz, Christmas With The Duchess, The Christmas Chronicles, Holiday Affair, Gingerbread Cookie Murder, The Diva Cooks A Goose, Mistletoe and Mayhem, Advent of a Mystery, Drowning in Christmas, Redbird Christmas - TOTAL READ = 32!

I read 132 Cozy Mysteries this year for this challenge.

Kinda flopped on this one, but I did manage to read some Young Adult books - 12 in all.

And last, but not least -

I read a whopping 467 books this year! Not too shabby, if I do say so myself!

Now, here's to looking forward to new challenges in 2011!

Have a very happy new year Bloggers!

I wish you all a safe, happy and beautiful new year celebration!

Take the chance to reflect on your year and make your resolutions for next year that are not only realistic but ones that you know you will keep. Do not be afraid to admit you are incapable of doing something dear Bloggers, instead strive to work towards what you cannot yet attain and maybe next year it will possible.

Did that make sense? No? Good, think on it a little more and you will be enlightened!

Love,
Suki. x

LOTD: New Year Look

If I were able to do a proper new years eve celebration, I would welcome 2011 with a completely purple look! Purple has fast become my favorite color this year and I loved using a million different purples in this look.

Sorry these photos are super quick and almost frazzled but today has been SUCH a hectic day!

Happy New Year

Hi Everyone~

I want to wish you all a Happy

New Year!!!

My crafting has been in full swing. I hope

yours has too! This is a jar that I created

using images from Shabby Cottage Studio.

As many of you know, I design for the studio and

enjoyed making the jar with this attached tag.

And, of course, I didn't want to forget the lid as

it is "icing on the cake!"

If you would like to make one, you can get images

from Shabby Cottage Studio with which you

can design many different projects...I know that

if you browse through their images, you will

fall in love with them as much as I have.

Happy Creating!

Happy New Year!!

XO

Suki's fond memories of 2010

What a year 2010 has been! I personally found it to be one of the happier years of my life: I finally went off to pursue a degree after years of waiting after graduating from high school, I discovered a quaint city I fell in love with upon arrival, I have met and gotten close to some very wonderful people who will most certainly be life-long friends, and most importantly I have been fortunate enough to find in Scott a soul-mate and best friend.

Life could not have been more perfect this year even with its downs (the amount of times I have been ill this year has been considerably fewer than other years but the severity of each bout of flu has been terrible!) and I am so grateful that my beautiful parents have provided me with the opportunity to further my education and have been so very supportive and loving at all costs and at every hour I have needed them.

I have lost two very cherished pets: Jodhaa (Jodi), my barely a year old guinea pig earlier in the year and Pebbles, my fourteen-year old cat just this month. However Scott and I have our two adorable hermit crabs, Jackson and Trent, while my parents still have our two remaining cats, Sydney and Prince as well as our beloved still-nameless tortoise. Pets are beautiful additions to a family and I have benefited from all of mine in so many ways and 2010 has taught me to cherish them that much more.

2010 has taught me so much about myself and changed me in a lot of ways too. I was able to become a better person this year and most definitely a happier person for which I am most grateful for. Scott, my family and friends are an incredible support system in my life and they all are too amazing for words. It is them I thank for all the happiness and success I have gained this year.

Enough of me rambling away! I leave you with some photos of this year and a tale of each.

From the moment I arrived, fell in love with Adelaide and university and college life, 2010 has been amazing. I can only thank my parents for giving me this opportunity to study abroad and further my education and my life.

Life in Adelaide has been fun no matter what everyone has to say about the quaint, sometimes slow city. Trust me, after a 1am jaunt to Glenelg and getting a photo with a police jeep life is never unexciting unless you choose to be boring (:

The people I have memories with are ones I hope I know for life, because they are beautiful and like I did with Laura on the engineers pub crawl, there is always much fun to pursue and laughs to have.

Scott is the most amazing person in my life and probably the most important after my family. With him I have experienced so much and have yet to experience more with him. He is the one person I want to go through life with, he is my best friend as well as my boyfriend.

From wind farms...

...To caves (:

And not to forget, some very long car journeys together.

Our tradition is going to the zoos of SA and hopefully in the future we will be able to go to others.

My memories of this year show how much I have changed as a person - me stealing even a candle?! That was unheard of a mere few months prior to me moving to Adelaide!

I have kissed pandas...

...And gotten slushies from my boyfriend when I need them the most (:

I take myspace style photos unintentionally but love the people I take photos with.

My girlfriends are SO important to me...

...And we always get up to no good!

This year has been full of experiences...

And I cannot wait to go through it all over again with Lex as my partner in crime (:

I thank all the professionals I have gotten to work with this year and for the beautiful photos they have given me.

Let me know what your fond memories of this year have been!

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee - Plus Scout, Atticus and Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Mary McDonagh Murphy

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

2010 has marked the 50th anniversary of the publication of Harper Lee's novel, "To Kill A Mockingbird," and I thought a great way to end the year would be to re-read this classic Southern novel once again.

Being from the South, I have always been familiar with the novel but the first time I experienced this great work of literature in entirety was on a trip to Alabama with my family in 1999.

We had the book on cassette tape and after a whirlwird tour of Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia over a two-week period of time, I decided to put the tapes on to pass the time away as we made the long 12-hour trip back to Texas.

Our boys (who were 14, 13, 11 and 7 at the time) had settled down quietly in the back of our van, and my husband and I thought they had gone to sleep. I reached over to turn the tape off midway through the story, and I hear "Hey! Turn that back on, Mom!" come from the back. They weren't asleep at all - they were mesmerized by the story of Scout, Jem, Atticus and Boo Radley! We listened to the tale all across Mississippi, Louisiana and into Texas, and the time just flew by. To this day, my boys remember how much they enjoyed that experience.

One of the best-loved classics of all time, "To Kill a Mockingbird" has earned much distinction since its original publication in 1960. It has won the Pulitzer Prize, been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than forty million copies worldwide, and been made into an enormously popular movie. It was also named the best novel of the twentieth century by librarians across the country.

If you have not had the chance to read this American classic, do yourself a favor and take the time to sit and enjoy a visit to the Old South. Harper Lee's words and the lessons of the book ring as true today as they did fifty years ago.

Scout, Atticus, and Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Mary McDonagh Murphy

In conjunction with the Fifieth anniversary of "To Kill A Mockingbird," film documentarian Mary McDonagh Murphy interviewed some of the top novelists, historians, journalists, and artists to see how their lives had been impacted by the novel.

 
In a collection of fascinating interviews, Anna Quindlen, Tom Brokaw, Oprah Winfrey, James Patterson, Wally Lamb, Adriana Trigiani, Rick Bragg, Lee Smith, Rosanne Cash, and others reflect on when they first read the novel, what it means to them - then and now.
 
 

 
It is heartwarming to see just how many people have been influenced by the sole work of Harper Lee. I particularly was fascinated by the interview with Alice Lee, Harper's older sister who gives probably the most in-depth look at her sister's life. When asked about her sister's reluctance to do interviews, Alice simply says "She just felt like she'd given enough."
 
"Scout, Atticus and Boo" is a great companion book to go hand in hand with "To Kill A Mockingbird."