Urban legend of the scrapbook fairy

Last week, I received a very mysterious package in the mail. My husband, who happened to check the mail that day, looked very suspiciously at me - the first words out of my mouth were, "But I don't know who it's from! I didn't order anything!" Ah, yes... I was automatically very defensive. But of course - I had to open it.

 Lo and behold, all this amazing and wonderful scrappy goodness came flowing out. Yummy things like vintage Junkitz, all the way to new Echo Park and Fancy Pants stuff! All I could think is, "My goodness! Where did this come from? How could such a mistake be made?" And then I found a typed note, "To keep you busy until you can play soccer again - scrapper al". What a great and sweet scrappy friend! THANK YOU, SCRAPPER AL!!! It was nice to get such a warm fuzzy from you!

I'm still in the phase of looking things over and thinking how I want to use them - this is what I call the "admiration" stage. It is sometimes hard to cut things up. :)

And speaking of my knee, I'm pretty bummed. I went to see my doctor last Friday for my 12-wk follow-up and was told to be patient. I'm not allowed to run yet (I'll have to ask again at 6 months), can't bike outside for another month, can't (well, "shouldn't") play soccer until a full year has passed (although he says I can "probably" coach in August, but we have to revisit that later), and if my quads are the same size in 12 more weeks, then I can be fitted for a custom brace, which I'll have to wear for a year - and yes, it will slow me down. If you've seen me play soccer, you know speed is a major part of my game, so I don't know what I'm going to do! I feel so... restricted! ARGH! *sigh* But would I have still had the surgery done, knowing the recovery would take so long? YES. At least... I'll do the surgery this one time - but I don't think I'd do it again. I'd hang up my soccer cleats first (or at least get an expensive brace to wear in order to play).

I've been trying to keep up with the weekly challenges at cropchocolate.com - here is my entry (last-minute, of course) for this week. The task was to use some of their packaging to create some element. I searched the web for inspiration and found this great tutorial on how to make a paper guitar. I sized it down, added another layer of cardboard, swapped the rubber bands for twine and dressed it up with some Echo Park.

Last week, the challenge was to use something upcycled on a project. I diecut from newspaper with the Tim Holtz's tattered floral die and sprayed them with Glimmer Mist. I hadn't used the Glimmer Mist yet and was surprised with how easy it was to use, and what great coverage you could achieve.

And so, it begins...

Today was Opening Day for the girls' softball league. This was only our second Opening Day ever, because it was rained out for the past two years! There was no chance of that happening today, since the weather was absolutely gorgeous and the high is supposed to be 84 degrees. Oh, well! Mika's first game is next Wednesday while Marika's is next Friday. We'll see how well their season goes!

In the meantime... the chocolate fundraiser has begun! At least the selection has improved this year, since they stopped selling the Chocolate Crunch and instead added chocolate-covered raisins. We're already sold out of the Mint Meltaways, as the neighbors bought a couple and a friend put in a request for 8 boxes. Woohoo! We had to find some more Mint Meltaways from a teammate, since the girls wanted some as well. So, if anybody wants to buy any chocolate... you know where to get some! :)