What Can I Say?

The girl's a musical genius. No seriously...she did very well, and was quite pleased with herself even after her slip ups. She told me she was nervous, which surprised me. I think next time she will want to practice more.

I really like her new teacher. Her old teacher did not have high expectations of her students and it showed in her recitals. This recital was very different.

Amanda's new teacher gives her difficult pieces and Amanda rises to the challenge. A much better fit.





This is her new teacher Azusa. I think she is a very talented teacher and would recommend her to anyone.

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Amanda’s Fairy Garden

Amanda’s been a little fascinated with Fairies these days.
Unbeknownst to me, she’s been leaving notes under her pillow for the fairies and they were not replying. I explained that without a tooth or a reason, the fairies will not visit.

So we pulled out a Fairy Book she got last Christmas and we decided to create a fairy garden to attract them to our home.
We went to Target, bought some flowers, a large aluminum pan, some fish tank ornaments, and some potting soil.

She is so proud of the way it came out. Take it away, Amanda Shenkman...

Check out Amanda's first YouTube Video Clip

She is now working on making some clothes so that the fairies won't get cold.

The Fairies' CafeThe Fairies' Sleeping Area

The Finished Product

I love this girl!!!

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Twilight Book Purse in the making

I bought the Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga for my niece Andrea last Christmas. She loved it. I read the book with my book club, so I can appreciate why she was so crazy for it. I on the other hand did not care for it at all, and Bella made me want to scream. I hope most young readers did not find her to be a

Anyway, I think it would be fantastic to make her a SmartGirl Twilight Purse. I ordered the book today, so hopefully I will be working on it by Tuesday.

Here is a SmartGirl's Twilight review that I love.


SisterSalad YouTube Channel

I cannot wait to get started on this purse. Thanks Missy for the idea!

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Painful Expectations

I told Amanda we were off to buy her school shoes and backpack for the new school year. She was very excited for she had her shoes picked out already. She wanted the Girls' Twinkle Toes: Shuffles - Glitterazzi. I was cool with her pick, unfortunately they slid off her foot when she walked and the smaller size was too tight. The pain began. She cried and begged me to buy them anyway. Every pair I would pull out, she would tell me how she hated them. I found her a cute pair that had some of the same qualities, but she still did not like them because they did not have scull and crossbones on them. Why was my 8 year-old into scull and crossbones was beyond me. After about 30 minutes of threatening to not buy any shoes, she agreed to try on the pair I thought would work. She liked them in the end. We even found laces with scull and crossbones on them.
How cute are these?

Well the pain did not end.

Amanda has to carry a lot of books to school along with her lunch box. Plus she rides a bus. With that in mind we needed to get her a backpack on rollers. Target had nothing left on wheels that did not have a Disney character on it. So off to the mall we went. After seeing all the cool messenger bags, Amanda could not and would not find a backpack she likes. Now mind you...Amanda weights nothing and thinks she can carry all her books over her shoulder. Walking in and out of stores through out the mall, she is trying to convince me she can carry a heavy bag. The fighting, pleating and crying begins. I even showed her a Roxy backpack on rollers at Nordstrome's, that any girl would love. She stubbornly did not want it.

I now have no patience, I'm 8 weeks out from my surgery and I give up. I walk from one side of the mall to the other where we are parked, with Amanda behind me crying and pleading for me to buy her a messenger bag. I can't give in now because she brought it to such a crazy level.

On our way out I point out a regular backpack that would work and how ridiculous she is behaving. She looks at it and said OK. I try and explain to her that this process should be fun not painful and she starts crying that she feels bad for fighting with me. She tells me that she just felt disappointment and could not help herself. She tell me she does not want to act like that but she felt out of control and just wanted her way without thinking. It amazes me how she can look at herself. Many adults cannot critique themselves when it comes to behavior. I think she truly understood how unreasonable she as acting. A painful experience became quite a learning experience.

Well we purchased the backpack I liked and she ended up loving it too. It is made from organic cotton so she thinks that's way cool. She did spent the rest of the day apologizing for her behavior and we had good conversations about expectations.

Next year, I will begin shopping early enough so that if she behaves badly we can just leave. And if I am lucky, she will be a little more mature and not be so unreasonable. One can hope.

Tuesday morning I packed up her lunch and I forgot the pain. .
I am so proud and happy of my little 3rd grader.

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Grandpop Marvin would be proud

I helped by drawing the outline. It was tough to only help when she asked for it. I kept my controlling impulsive to a minimum.

Amanda's very excited to share it when her grandfather comes to visit. He gave Amanda her very first painting lesson during a visit. It really came out great. I'm very proud of her.

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Summer Reading

This summer Amanda who loves to read and reads well, showed no interest in reading. Well...until this morning. I woke up to find her at the kitchen table reading. I gave her breakfast and off to a cozy corner on the sofa she went. It is now 11:00 and she hasn't moved. Thank G-d!I love how she piled the pillows to keep her toesies warm. Oh yeah! She is reading Gilda Joyce Psychic Investigator by Jennifer Allison. Must be good!

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Watch out Shakira

I am so happy that Amanda got to go to a great camp this summer.

Because I knew I was spending my summer recovering, I could not enroll Amanda in her usual summer fun. She usually attends camps at Lion Country Safari, The Children's Science Museum, and the Palm Beach Zoo. I knew I was not going to be able to drive her all over the place so I had to find a place that had a full day and was close enough for Ben to drop off in the morning and pick up at the end of the day.

I discovered Camp Fusion last year. Because I had a bad experience at another full day public school camp and I wasn't sure Amanda would like attending a camp where she did not know anyone, I did not enroll her.

Well this summer I had no choice. I went over to the school and met with the director and toured the facility. I was very impressed with the program and what it was offering. The camp was at a Middle School and run by middle school teachers that are off during the summer. A dance teacher, a music teacher, a drama teacher, a PE teacher and even a science teacher were giving quality instruction while incorporating a lot of fun. I then told a couple of my friends and next thing you know, the school is packed with Wellington kids that Amanda knew.

Amanda woke up every morning excited to go to camp. If I had to struggle with her everyday over going and knowing she was not having fun, I would have had a horrible summer recovery.

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From her nose to her toes...mosquito bites.

Amanda's confidence amazes me. She just got back from a camping weekend where she was bitten by mosquitoes. She looks as if she has the chicken pox or a bad case of acne. Did this make her self conscious? Not in the least. She still thinks she looks great with her curled hair and scarf- and she is right. I hope she continues to feel self assured forever.

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The Perfect Man

As you know I have been on house arrest recovering from my surgery. Ben has done an amazing job of taking care of me and Amanda. The kitchen stays somewhat clean, the laundry is caught and he is doing all the cooking. He's managed to keep the housework in order, totally making me look bad. Besides running his business, he is also getting Amanda off to camp every morning and making sure she does not miss a single dance or piano class. Then there is me, I am the most needy of all. He's taken great care of me and managed to curse at me only a few times. I'm tough.

Anyway, this Sunday he promised to clean out my craft studio so that I can get back to my scrapbooking. Which as most of you know is my favorite thing in life to do...other than tennis.

Are you kidding me? Your going to clean my scraproom?

I'm floored!

The man is truly perfect.

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I am truly blessed

I want to thank all my amazing friends for all your support and love. I could not have done it without you.

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Two more days

Thursday at 6:30am, I will be driving to Bethesda Memorial Hospital. I am no longer afraid. I had my hospital visit this morning and I met my care takers. I feel that I am in the best hands possible. All I can do is say a prayer and leave it up to the experts.

I am now looking forward to not being anemic, which means having more energy and overall better health. I am looking forward to having a flatter tummy and not having anymore periods. And I cannot wait to see what happens to my tennis game.

I am hoping to be home by Monday and back on facebook and blogging by this time next week. I want to thank my family and friends who have been so patient with me. I love you all very much!

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Having second thoughts.

I've written before about my upcoming surgery. I am scheduled to have a hysterectomy on June 18th.

I gave two units of blood as requested by my OBGYN, which in it self was quite a feat. I knew I was anemic but I had no idea how bad. I ate high iron enriched food and went in. I just barely made the cut to donate for myself. My numbers were not good enough to be a regular donor. When I came home I got sick and threw up all and was weak for days. I went back a week later after eating iron enriched foods again and taking iron like I always do, my numbers were off and I could not give blood. I was able to give the last unit a week later. I could not believe how exhausting it was for me to give blood. It took a good week for my body to feel normal.

I guess normal is relative. I went to talk to my OBGYN because I had some more questions and he looked at me and told me I looked very anemic. I had started my period and they are VERY heavy...major reason for hysterectomy. He told me that I needed to stop the bleeding and he gave me a serious drug to stop my period. The minute I took it, my period stopped. I felt better and my energy level went up.

Why can't I just take meds that prevent my periods? I am sure it's not an option since Ive spoken with so many doctors.

The genius that I am, watched Oprah yesterday and the topics were Medical Mistakes. Not the best thing for me to be watching two weeks prior to surgery.

It's 4 am and I am thinking about canceling the whole thing. I know my friends and family are going to think I'm crazy. All I've talked about for the past 3 months is this operation and now to not to go through it. Three years ago I flaked out and canceled the same procedure. I am smart enough to not have the surgery just because I will feel stupid if I don't, but I will feel stupid. I can live with that.

I have a appointment tomorrow for my medical clearance with my regular doctor. I think I am going to talk with him and see what he thinks.

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The drive home was the real thrill ride.

Tricia is my BFF. We’ve been friends since Tricia first started to drink (legally). I on the other hand have already been drinking for ___ years .

Even though I moved away from Atlanta 12 years ago it has not stopped our sisterhood. We try and get together as much as possible along with our daughters who happen to be the same age. They are mini-us.

Tricia’s mother moved to Sebastian Florida which is only 2 hours north of me. So when Tricia decided to visit her mother, nothing, not even the cold I was getting, would stop me from crashing her visit.

Amanda and I drove up Friday night. Seeing Tricia, still as beautiful as always with her Brittany smiling, made me so happy words cannot describe. Brittany and Amanda hugged each other as if they were sisters. They were so happy to see each-other.

We had dinner with her mother Jackie and step-dad Dick and the following morning off to Universal Studios it was. The girls had an amazing time and because of the weather conditions, the park was not as crowded as it could have been considering it was Memorial Day Weekend.

After the park, it was Hard-Rock Café because the 2000 calories we consumed in the park was just not enough.

The drive home was the real thrill ride. While we were driving south on 95 my Prius ran out of gas (only I could run out of gas in a Prius). We ended up on a ramp exit were not one gas station was in sight. We called 911 and they send a cute 12 year-old policeman. He drove Tricia to get gas and left me, a stray cat hanging around the car and the two sleeping beauties. The battery ran out and I could not roll the window back up. All I kept thinking was this cat-lion was going to jump in the window. Tricia and the baby cop came back with gas and off we were again. Carried Amanda and Brittany to bed and they never even knew about our predicament.

We left the following morning after Dick made us a home cooked breakfast and on the ride home Amanda did her usual…I miss Brittany cry. She then started playing her DS and all was right with the world.

Tricia and I are already planning our next get-together….miss you Tricia!!!

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Do we like this logo for SmartGirl?

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Scrappylicious is SmartGirl

I've been Scrappylicious since 2001. What started as a profile name on a scrapbooking forum became a public persona. I like the Scrappylicious me, but now that I am embarking on a new venture. So you know...Scrappylicious is doing business as SmartGirl.

Wish me luck!

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Amanda's SmartGirl Art

After I removed the pages from the original Scarlet Letter to make my SmartGirl Purse, I rebound the book and made a new cover that Amanda and I designed.
All SmartGirl Purses will include the rebound book with a new cover designed and crafted by my little artist Amanda.

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SmartGirl's First Photo Shoot

A talented friend photographer Bonnie Greenberg shot my SmartGirl Purses. I love the way they came out.

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It's getting better all the time

better, better, better

I gave the two purses to a photographer today and then realized I did not have one for tomorrow. I am going to our Annual Tennis Luncheon and I wanted to have one to show my friends. Anyway, the first one I tried to make this afternoon was a bust. I started over at about 5pm and finished with a few breaks to eat and facebook at about 8:30. This might be my favorite of all. I think this is going to be the model that I will duplicate.

I took these photos using my DIY photo-box and my point and shoot. Not bad, if I may say so.

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My Second SmartGirl Purse

I start with a used classic hard cover book that has some interesting details and I carefully remove the pages and put aside. Amanda will be making new artwork for the new cover. A SmartGirl loves her books.

After careful measurements I cut out the lining. Using a high quality velvet I emboss using a rubber stamp.

I sew the lining and set aside.

Some beading...Only the best; Swarovski Crystals, Swarovski Pearls and even black onyx. All of the fittings are Sterling Silver.

Two rows of Swarovski Flatbacks. One in the front and one in the back.

Putting the lining in was very tricky. No pictures I was too busy crying.

I like it. With a little more practice, I am going to be able to make them for others.

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