7 Quick Takes (10/13): Sunday Edition – Winners & Road Trips

By bobbi
October 13, 2013
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Linking up with Jen (at the 11th hour.)

~ 1 ~

I was supposed to start writing this on Friday but I never got past typing the #1. Today, I am almost certain I won’t actually make it to #7 but I’ll try anyway. Hey, look. I’m already onto #2. 😉

~ 2 ~

This morning I opened up my email and guess what I saw?? An email from CatholicMom.com telling me that I won a copy of Lino Rulli’s new book Saint from their recent contest. Yay! Lino is so funny (and a little crazy.) I am looking forward to reading his book! 😉

~ 3 ~

That email was also a reminder that I still had to announce the winner of the recent RoL contest. John-Paul had the honors of choosing a winner.

I was so happy for being a winner myself that I decided to pick two names…so there are two winners to congratulate!

So the winner of A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms: 52 Companions for Your Heart, Mind, Body, and Soul is Liana W. The winner of Small Steps for Catholic Moms: Your Daily Call to Think, Pray, and Act is Annery. Congrats to you both! 🙂

~ 4 ~

Speaking of books, remember how I told you that I loved the book Mysterious Albion (Vatican Vampire Hunters) (Volume 1) by Paul Leone? Well, his sequel is almost done – Vatican Vampire Hunters 2: The Book of Thoth. Mr. Leone (is is too informal to call him Paul?) sent me a sneak peak and I have been dying to read it but it’s a PDF and hard to read on my phone and I rarely sit at my computer just to read. I know there is an app to send PDF’s to your Kindle. I’ll have to go look it up so I can start Book 2. In the meantime, go read Mysterious Albion if you haven’t yet! 😉

~ 5 ~

I bought the cutest little St. Anne charm for my planner. You should click over to Tiny Saints and see all the adorable saint charms they have, including many “lesser known” saints. This would be a great gift for All Saints Day, Namesake Day or a Baptism.

~ 6 ~

Lastly, this time next week my younger sister Bridgette (and godmother to Andrew and Matthew) will be a married woman. I am so excited for her and my almost brother-in-law Mick! We will be leaving shortly to spend some time with my family. It will be the first time all 9 siblings will be at the same place in over 4 years. My fellow blogging sis EML and I have nieces and nephews we have yet to meet! Because I will be busy with the packing, road trip, wedding, family reunion etc, I’ll be taking a blogging break for at least for a week. I will however still post pics and updates on my Facebook page and Instagram so meet me there! 🙂

~ 7 ~

Wow, I actually thought of 7 things. Have a wonderful week (or two!)

PS – You can follow RoL on Bloglovin, Feedly or another news feed. If you are a social media fan like me, we can stay in touch through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, GoodReads or Instagram. 😉

{pretty, happy, funny, real} vol. 78 & Theme Thursday: Double

By bobbi
October 9, 2013
6 Comments

It’s another photo mash-up today as I link up with Like Mother, Like Daughter for {pretty, happy, funny, real} and with Cari for Theme Thursday: Double. That was a tough one! But I finally thought of something. See {real} to find out what!

{pretty}

You can never have to many shots of the ocean, right? 😉

{happy}

I already posted photos from Bella’s Scrapbook Birthday Party with her friends here. These are from her actual birthday.

It is a family tradition that when the birthday person wakes up they will find our dining table decorated with their theme and various stuffed animals. The Winnie the Pooh Bear, that Bella got when she was born, has been the master of ceremonies for a decade now. He has dressed up as various characters, including a pirate, train conductor and Jedi Knight. The night before Bella’s 12th birthday I mentioned to her that she is probably didn’t want that sort of thing anymore. But no, she was still looking forward to waking up to see her decor. So this year Pooh was one of the Newsies. 🙂

The birthday girl with John-Paul.

I’m adding a random photo of Andrew just to make him happy and not feel left out of the post. 😉

{funny}

Bella was opening her present from her aunt, which included some rolls of candy, and you could see what was running through each one’s mind. 🙂

{real}

I’m linking this photo with Cari for Theme Thursday: Double.

It has become a bit of a joke in the house that when one of the boys gets hurt they need one of “mama’s kisses” to make it better. Throughout the day they’ll come running to me with (low key) injuries – a bumped knee or a hurt finger so I can kiss it. It’s gotten to the point where I don’t give it much thought if I don’t see blood or a bruise. Well, the other day Matthew came to me while I was working on the computer. He was whining and held his finger out to me. I quickly kissed it and told him it will feel better but then I did a DOUBLE TAKE. He had a curious look on his face and the kiss tasted a bit weird… he wasn’t holding out his finger for a kiss, rather, he wanted to give me the booger he poked out of his nose. Yeah, that’s right. Don’t envy my glamorous life. 😉

Thanks to Cari and LMLD for hosting!

Pinterest Party & Link-up (Vol 13): Tween Scrapbook Party

By bobbi
October 8, 2013
No Comments

Note: This is a busy month with school, family and traveling to my sister’s wedding so I will only be doing one Pinterest Party this month (skipping the 4th Tuesday.) However, I will leave the link-up open for the whole month so you have plenty of time to link up and share with the rest of us! 🙂 Enjoy!

Welcome to the RoL Pinterest Party. Join me every 2nd and 4th Tuesday as we link up and share how we made, cooked, baked, crafted, did, or created one of the pins on our Pinterest boards.

Not on Pinterest? No problem. Link-up your own creation to inspire us so we can pin it to our own boards. It can be a recipe, sewing project, Catholic craft, homeschool project, organizing/ homemaking tip, themed birthday party, whatever you’d like. Don’t have a post ready? The link-up will be open for 10 days so there’s still time. Plus, feel free to link up a new post or an older post that hasn’t had much traffic lately. Don’t have a blog? No problem. Tell us about it in the comment box. Or post your photo and a description on the RoL Facebook page. 🙂

* * * * *

For Bella’s 12th birthday she originally wanted a Newsies themed party but she decided to have a Scrapbook Party instead. However, to give her a touch of the Newsies, I incorporated them into the invitation.

I took a copy of the playbill and added a “You Are Invited” sign and quote for the cover of the invite.

I used picmonkey.com to make the inside of the invite. (Sorry but personal info is blacked out. ;-))

When Bella and I were looking for party supplies and decor she found these Art Journal Kits and wanted to buy one for each of her friends.

They were a little more than I wanted to spend for 5 girls but I counted it as part of her gift and just cut costs on other items.

For decorations we went to the Dollar Store and bought a red table cloth, plates and napkins for $3. I opened up the table cloth and added a strip of butcher paper down the middle. I opened up a couple of the napkins and used them as decorative squares.

I got some containers I had around the house and labeled them.

We already had a big collection of various stickers, scrapbook pages and found washi tape on clearance at Target and Michael’s.

For the name tags I used a pack of thank you note I had and cut them down to size.

One of the girls used her name tag for her scrapbook cover.

Here are some other covers.

And here are a few pages I snapped as they were putting them together.

Lastly, during the party I took a photos of the girls outside. I printed them a copy so they could add it to their scrapbook.

Bella had a lot of fun with her friends and she loved the party and activity. It’s a birthday we’ll always remember. 🙂

* * * * *

Now it’s your turn.

1. Choose your creation, share about it and snap a photo if you can.

2. In your post, link back the original blogger/idea, rather than your Pinterest pin. That way credit goes to the proper person. 🙂 (But feel free to add your Pinterest profile link so we can follow you!)

3. Add a link back here so others can play along. Here is the html code:

4. Link up below. Make sure you’re sending us to your actual post, and not to your general blog address.

You have ~~10 days~~ A MONTH to post your link, so if you can’t get things done by Tuesday, no worries, put it up when you can. We’ll be here. Have fun!

Lastly, you can follow me on Pinterest here: http://pinterest.com/rol_bobbi/. 🙂

An InLinkz Link-up

7 Quick Takes (10/4/13): Downton Abbey Season 4 Preview Edition

By bobbi
October 4, 2013
No Comments

Today I am linking up with Jen for 7 Quick Takes.

It’s been a busy week and as I mentioned yesterday, I was having a difficult time coping, but I am feeling much better now and have a free 1/2 hour so let’s get to it!

~ 1 ~

Well, fellow Downton Abbey lovers, it’s that time of year again when we lament that the UK gets to see Season 4 before we do and we figure out ways to watch it online or read all the UK blogs with season details, unless you are like me and try to avoid all spoilers at all costs! I do however, enjoy the teaser trailers I have been seeing.

~ 2 ~

When I saw the preview trailer from PBS Masterpiece, I was happy to see that Mary is grieving. Not that I am glad that Matthew is gone, (I am still shaking my fists over that one!) but when I was seeing the news about the casting of new love interests for Mary, I was afraid that she (and we) would not be given time to grieve the loss. Her struggles makes it more realistic.

On the plus side, there is no more Bates in jail prolonged drama and plenty of Team Anna&Bates secret looks and stolen kisses. 😉

~ 3 ~

Check it out for yourself.

~ 4 ~

Here’s another trailer from ENTV

~ 5 ~

We have to wait until Jan 5th for season 4 to air in the US but in the meantime, you can watch this preview of Masterpiece’s The Paradise, which starts on Sunday, Oct 6.

The preview reminds me a bit of Mr. Selfridge… since it was a period piece set in a retail shop. Let’s hope that this one is better. Mr. Selfridge was a disappointment to me. I like Jeremy Piven but he didn’t seem the right cast for this role and I hated that ALL the characters (including the married once) had no power to keep their pants (or corsets on.) Well, I’ll be hoping for the best anyway. 😉

~ 6 ~

Check out the trailer.

~ 7 ~

What did you think?? Are you excited? I can’t wait. 🙂

Oh, and don’t forget to enter the contest to win a free copy of Small Steps for Catholic Moms OR A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms here. The drawing is on Wed, Oct 9. All you have to do is tell me which you prefer. (And you get an extra entry if you tell me you like(d) RoL on facebook.) 🙂

Have a great weekend!

Theme Thursday: Secret (Coping with Stress)

By bobbi
October 3, 2013
6 Comments

I am linking up with Cari for this week’s photography challenge Theme Thursday: Secret. 🙂

***

Okay, here’s a little secret. I don’t have it “all together.” The other day a friend was complimenting me about something and made the comment, “I want to be Bobbi when I grow up.” HA! That’s a hot one. I don’t have it all together and sometimes I feel like I am downright losing it. This week was one of those times. I haven’t made any posts because I could not get myself to type anything other than “life sucks.” It doesn’t really and most of the time I feel like this…

But this week I felt like this. Literally.

I needed a good long cry yesterday because I was just overwhelmed with everything. When I get like this I have three secret places I like to visit alone. It depends on how bad it is where I need to go.

Code Yellow – Elevated Stress

When I need to regroup I go to the beach and take a few moments to slow down and breathe deep. It allows me to see the situation differently and realize how blessed I am and I can thank God for it.

Code Orange – High Stress

Sometimes after a long day I just need to get out of the house. Brian knows how much I love the movies so after the kids are in bed he’ll send me off to two hours of cinematic bliss. This may not be such a secret since for my birthday my family gave me a Fandango gift card and bag of peanut M&M’s but they may not know I love to keep all my movie stubs in this little wooden box Bella gave me. 🙂

Code Red – Severe Stress

This kind of stress can only be elevated at the feet of Christ, particularly after receiving the grace of Reconciliation. That may not be such a secret to my fellow Catholic friends but what you may not know is that when I pray I love to think about the feet of Christ.

Where he walked. What he endured. How those feet were washed by the tears of Mary and dried with her hair. I picture myself crying at his feet and him stroking my hair and telling me not to worry, that this will pass and I will be strengthened once again. Thankfully, I am.

Thanks to Cari for hosting!

Revolution of Love

Do small things with great love.

Category Archives: weekly quizzes/questionnaires

7 Quick Takes (10/13): Sunday Edition – Winners & Road Trips

{pretty, happy, funny, real} vol. 78 & Theme Thursday: Double

Pinterest Party & Link-up (Vol 13): Tween Scrapbook Party

7 Quick Takes (10/4/13): Downton Abbey Season 4 Preview Edition

Theme Thursday: Secret (Coping with Stress)