geez...that's A LOT of candles!!!

ok, so the cat is slightly out of the bag: some of us DID have a bit of a birthday recently. and it turns out the old saying IS true: once you're over the hill, you DO pick up speed!!! :) (kidding!) (sort of!)

but the great part of birthdays is that one is showered with cool cards...including lovely handmade ones...like this one from june:

and this one from tracy:

plus lovely blogging friends post pics of one's favorite heart throbs--kristie showed this one, amongst others-- in my honor on monday:

one might even find a goodie or two in one's mailbox, including a hilarious book full of craft projects inspired by bollywood films, like this one from my friend gill:

as far as special treats go, one's husband might well have arranged for a fun day in new york city, featuring a great museum, and some stellar gelato, and perhaps culminating in the adoption of a puppy?? or perhaps not...i'm not sure our roof is big enough for this fella!

yes, indeedy, one might well be said to to have crammed 44 years worth of fun into one day...to which i say, thank you thank you thank you to everyone for all the lovely wishes! of course, there are still 364 more days of forty-fourish-ness where THAT came from...to which i say:

BRING 'EM ON!!!!

operation 23: BEFORE & AFTER

we are at the official halfway point of paper adventure, woohoo!!! i came THIS CLOSE (hold your thumb and forefinger really really close together ok? yeah--i was that close!) to being caught up. i have one more to do...plus, today being tuesday...this week's assignment. but i will be THERE before next tuesday. count on it. in the meantime, i could not resist taking the official halfway portrait of my paper adventure journal. since it doesn't stand up too well, i've photgraphed it sort of sideways, so you could see the pages better. i think i am gonna need some bigger bookrings if i am to fit 27 more pages in that thing. yeah. waaaaaaay bigger bookrings!

here is my take on "before and after". it concerns a box i got in the mail from two peas a few weeks ago, during their big sale. i don't go crazy shopping very often...but it was a VERY nice sale...it would've been fiscally irresponsible NOT to go nuts, wouldn't it?!

(kodak premium photo paper; basic grey alphas; sassafrass journaling tag; autumn leaves rub-ons; sharpie pen)

text reads, "Q: how much fun fits into a medium-sized mailing box?

A: really quite a lot, if you stack it very, very neatly!"

one of the best books...

...i have read recently is russell the sheep. however, with no disrespect to rob scotton's excellent story and charming illustrations, the thing i liked MOST about it was...

...the company!

yes indeedy, if you are looking for three girls to form an appreciative audience, you cannot possibly do better than nieces (from l to r) madeline, lindsay, and riley elizabeth!!!

if you are wondering: "geez, was it a good idea for elderly aunt lauren and her charmingly disintegrating vertebrae to sit cross-legged on the floor for the length of time it takes to read even a fairly short stoybook?" the answer is, "ummmmm...NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" fortunately LHJ had the foresight to bring along a hydraulic winch and some chocolate biscuits and eventually the poor sad old dear was restored to a standing position where she remained, chastened and rebuked, for the rest of the afternoon. :)

operation 25: PLAY

when it comes to paper adventure, i've pretty much tried to follow whatever my first instinct is...even when that leads me in a different direction than i think is actually intended by the prompt. case in point: i'm pretty sure "PLAY" is meant to be taken as a game or recreation. but--possibly because i've just had to send my beloved i-pod in for servicing and endure 2.5 excrutiating music-free days--i immediately thought, "play MUSIC" ...and specifically, "play music on I-POD"!!!!!!!!!!!

so that's the page i made...and i *REALLY* love it! :)

(images downloaded from t'internet; felt letters: american crafts; around the block mini label maker; colorbox inks)

you may have noticed that i've been pushing to get caught up on paper adventure...having twigged to this week being the halfway point of our year-long odyssey, it suddenly seemed important to me to get current, in order to enjoy the milestone of that. i'm just about there, too! i need to make one more page today... (for which i've got "the plan" in my head) ...and VOILA! o'course the downside is that *now* the thing on which i am hugely behind is blog-visitin' and emails. so if i owe you either...or in terrie's case BOTH...i apologize and will work on that this week, i promise!

in the meantime,

happy sunday, darlings!!!

(why dontcha go out and PLAY?!)

operation 20: THREE WORDS

hooray! i've done another paper adventure page! i am halfway to caught up!!! here are the directions for this one, from elise:

"This week: Tell yourself about yourself in just three words."

at first i thought this would be impossible. and then, i suddenly remembered something lovely husband jeff said to me years and years and years ago... (so many years, in fact, that he was then still known as "lovely BOYFRIEND jeff"!) ...when i had said something that particularly amazed and amused him. for better or for worse--and it depends on the day, really--but, "you're too much" does pretty well sum me up!

whilst looking for a different photo from around that time (the early 1980's) i stumbled upon this one (from 1966) of a not-quite-2-year-old me, in my grandfather's office. it doesn't REALLY go with the quote. but jeff insists that when i am sitting at my computer, trying to think of what to write next, i still get this exact same expression on my face.

does this mean i've used *a thousand and three* words??!

(patterned paper, border stickers, numeral & brackets: creative imaginations; fabric paper: love elsie; ghost clock & plastic letters: heidi swapp; glitter stickers: k&co; rhinestone star: mambi photocorner: scrapworks; heart pin: joann essentials; fonts: ck typewriter, bobmono; other: foam tape, colorbox ink, jewelcraft gems)

text reads: "Lauren," he said admiringly, "YOU'RE TOO MUCH!!!" ...and they lived happily ever after...

operation 24: WATER

unlike yesterday, HERE is a paper adventure page i really *do* like!

(kodak ultima photo paper; lil davis labels; sharpie pen; flattened pellegrino cap; foam tape)

text reads, "sheepish confession #471: i don't enjoy water as a beverage...in fact...i would ideally drink nothing but diet soda. the compromise: *pellegrino*...it's water...but with flavor (and more importantly) FIZZ!!!"

again, when i heard the prompt, ("water") i knew just how i wanted to approach it. because as much as i know i should drink loads of water...and more importantly NOT drink loads of diet soda...i really just do not like water all that much. you can make it super-cold, put it in a crystal glass, and add as many perfectly symmetrical lemon slices as you want...but it's still water...and i'm still not that impressed!

the idea of photo-ing the bottles of pellegrino in my fridge (which amused LHJ no end, i can tell you!) came almost immediately. i've been wanting for quite some time to use elise blaha's technique of journaling in little label stickers, and this seemed like the perfect occasion to try it. jeff smooshed a bottle cap for me & i attached it with some foam tape for a little dimension...and that's another page completed!

can i get a "wahey"?! :)

operation 19: EXTRA SPECIAL

here is what elise blaha had to say about this particular paper adventure assignment:

"I am in love with details. The little things that make big things extra special. Like pretty packaging. And putting takeout food onto plate before eating it. What is extra special to you these days? What are the little details you are enjoying? Or would like to enjoy?"

i immediately knew i wanted my page to be about wrapping presents. because i LOVE wrapping presents and decorating them! i always have. and having three nieces at "christmas-and-birthdays-are-magic" ages has totally intensified this particular urge; thus my gift packages have gotten fancier since the girls have been around.

so this should've been the EASIEST PAGE EVER right??! i had my theme...i had pictures...i had cute product...and yet, somehow, i just could not make it gel. so i did the best i could and decided to admit defeat. it's a page that doesn't look like i wanted it to look...but it does at least *say* what i wanted to say...and that's ok with me.

(patterned cardstock: making memories; journaling chip rhonna farrer; felt ribbon: k&co; other: sharpie pen, colorbox ink)

text reads: "if gift-wrapping ever makes it into the olympics...i'm pretty sure i'll have a shot at the gold!"