four weddings and a funeral

or in this case:

two awards, an AMAZING honor, and a blog makeover!

(many people don't realize that was the original title of the hit movie starring hugh grant and andie macdowell...now ya know...a bit o'film trivia for you there!) :)

the awards:

my long-lost card-makin', art-lovin', ingeniously inklin' sister stephanie presented me with the very cool "YOU MAKE MY DAY" award. which is pretty funny, since in fact she makes *MY* day at least six or seven times a week! thanks, stef!!! :)

my lovely australian friend ruby gave me the ARTE Y PICO award. (if you don't know ruby, you need to check out her blog right now...g'head...i'll wait!) one of my favorite things about ruby is that she never, EVER makes me aware of the difference in our ages (i'm just slightly older) or maturity levels (she's infinitely more grown up!) thanks, rubes!!!!! :)

the amazing honor:

the uber-talented ruby has been acquiring photos from others to expand the scope and depth of her (already formidable) scrapping skills. i sent her a few of mine, thinking she might like to have a go at the nieces. to my surprise she made a very cool LO about *me*!!! it's going to be featured with a bunch of her work at paperific in melbourne. if you're local, you should definitely check it out. (or you could just click here!)

the makeover:
ok, you've probably already figured that bit out. i've been wanting to change templates for a while. one of the reasons i went whole hog on paper adventure operation 10 was that i was planning on using the result as my new header. i actually *planned* to use a template that stretched all the way across your screen... (it's called "minima stretch" & it's exactly like this one...only wider!) ...but after fiddling with said header for nearly an hour, trying to make it stretch the whole width of the header segment, whilst keeping the same dimensions and NOT being six inches deep, i finally realized that i would either have to settle for the non-stretch version or drive to blogger headquarters and bludgeon someone to death with a stapler. and you know, the latter just seemed so ungracious, what with dear old blogger being entirely free and nearly always working so splendidly and all...plus my stapler is broken! :)

finally, a humble word to all my lovely blogging friends:

please accept my sincere apologies for the very shoddy quantity and quality of my recent visits to your lovely cyber-homes. normal service shall resume imminently! (you've been warned!)