Is that not just the most beautifully painted pillar that you have ever seen? I'm hoping that my husband likes it too as we have an unpainted pillar in our living room. My gracious friend Tina, volunteered as a docent during the Street of Dreams held in my old subdivision in Oro Valley. She treated Carmen and I to the tour and acted as our own personal tour guide. We toured five homes and are full of inspiration. Feast your eyes on some of my favorites. I'm loving this crystal trim on the draperies. Imagine pulling up to this garage instead of the standard ones that most of us have. Gorgeous! I adore this tile separating the counters in this Country French kitchen. Hope you have enjoyed your tour. After leaving the Street of Dreams, we went out to lunch, and then went on a whirlwind shopping trip that included "Wallwords". Can't wait to get several phrases up on my walls.

It seems that I have two smarty pants living in my house and I couldn't be more proud. Within a week, we received two congratulations letters for our children. Cole will be inducted into the junior high National Honor Society and Taylor was accepted into the gifted program for next year. I hope I can keep up with their homework!

Our fun weekend is over, but what a total blast we had. I went to bed this morning at 2 am. I expected nothing less from this weekend. We started out Thursday at Analis Scraptique which is one of my most favorite scrapbook stores. It is so full of charm and imagination which is just what I look for. Not to mention the latest and greatest products. Look at these darling chairs in the workroom. I loved the chair seat on this one too. We used their lab for a few hours and their awesome new dies. Lots of flourishes, rick rac, fleur di lis and scallops. Very fun. Friday morning we worked as teacher assistants at the convention where we were spoiled rotten. The girls from Making Memories were just so sweet and so much fun. We had a blast and were well rewarded for our efforts. Then we shopped the vendor faire for about 4 hours where I discovered the most charming vintagy company named Crafty Secrets. I spent the majority of my money there, met the owners and was asked to work in their booth the next day and at the next convention. I agreed to work at the next convention as my friends and I had other plans in mind. As I was oohing and aahing over everything there and loading up my arms with merchandise, I exclaimed, "That's Becky Novack" on that display. Turns out she's good friends with one of the designers. What a small world we live in. We midwesterners come from long lines of crafters. Saturday we went to a 7 Gypsies metal charm make and take at Recollections and then hurried back to the Scrapbook Retreat (aka my house) and worked until 2 am. Check out my kitchen table. I compled 11 layouts. It usually takes me one year to completed that many. Gotta go and put away about a thousand items.

Chloe goes to school. My daughter was "student of the week" this week. She was able to bring in "collections" every day this week and a pet one day. Of course that meant that I was given the honor of bringing her in for a few minutes. Chloe started crying the minute we entered the building. She is such a little baby doll. Doesn't she look scared?? Taylor sure had fun showing her off though. She had to have a bath for the occasion and she's even wearing her pearl necklace.

I'm going to be very busy through the weekend. Having fun, playing, reconnecting with friends. Some wonderful friends of mine are coming up for the CK Convention in Mesa. They arrive on Thursday. We are working as teacher assistants Friday morning and then we are on our own for the rest of the weekend. My husband, kiddos and pup will be staying with my inlaws for the duration. If it's anything like last year, very little sleep will be had. We stayed up until 2 am, giggling, scrapbooking, soldering and creating.

Pictures are being hung on the walls and furniture put back in their place. We are having company this weekend - can't wait! We are pushing to get this room in a reasonable order which otherwise may have taken us a few more weeks to do. I love my slice of cake and cup of tea pictures. The doors open to hold a wooden piece of fruit in each of them. It was just a coincidence that we found the little table that looks like a perfect match. I'm envisioning a piece of Jenny Holiday artwork to go with this grouping. I'm off to buy candy to bribe, I mean "hand out" to the class I'm teaching tomorrow. I'm the substitute for my daughter's class. Wish me luck with that one. Just kidding. This is my 3rd or 4th time this year with her class.

Here's sweet Caroline at work. She must be so tired tonight after working so hard and then driving an hour and a half home. I know I am without the driving. We split the work. I did the diamonds and solid walls, she did the faux chair rail and the swirls. The large green diamonds look distorted but they aren't. It was just difficult to get a good angle. I think that wall will be my favorite. Taylor was so excited to see her room after school today. I'm glad I could put a smile on her face. I'm off to get ready to teach tomorrow and meet company for dinner tomorrow night. I think I'll be seeing diamonds in my sleep tonight.

Diamonds are a girl's best friend you say?? I say not. These pink ones took me a minimum of 20 hours to line up and paint. My daughter has quite a long wall. Anyone who has attempted painting harlequin walls can feel my pain. Don't look too closely. There are lots of imperfections. My dear friend, Carolyn, muralist extraordinaire, is arriving this morning to paint some swirls and flowers in and around these diamonds are well as some other magic on the other walls. This will help disguise some of my imperfections. More photos to come, I promise!

Golden dollars were in four of the Easter eggs that my daughter collected at our annual neighborhood Easter egg hunt. She also found a one dollar bill in another one. Lucky girl. Each parent provided 25 filled eggs for every child that participated in the hunt. My son and one other father hid hundreds of eggs in the front yards and off they went. This is so much better than going to a city sponsered hunt where there are so many children and each child ends up with only 2-3 eggs. Happy Easter everyone. He has Risen!

I had the opportunity yesterday to take a black and white album class at my local scrapbook store, Devine Memories. Teresa Collins provided us with the most elegant ribbons, papers and embellishments for this project. I had over 30 black and white photos that a photographer friend took of our family a few years ago and they were perfect for this project. In fact someone in the class asked me if I had the photos taken specifically for this project. I still have to work on mine, but I love the way it turned out.

I'd like another week to get ready for Easter please. I've decorated (of course) but I do not believe that I've done anything creative and it's killing me. Too many kid's sports, music and school activities that are interferring. Imagine that? I have a few vintage family readers and I've started using them with my holiday decor. This one belonged to my grandmother's sister when she was six years old. I cherish it and love the illustrations. Our plans after school today are to do our Ressurection Eggs and colors eggs. (Note to self to buy eggs and hardboil them.) Enjoy your Easter plans and activities.