Happy Birthday, Mary!!

Today just happens to be a very significant day for the lovely Very Mary, one of the most amazing people I know!! She is celebrating 3 decades so Heather and a whole bunch of other friends contributed to a blog-hop in Mary's honour. You can start over at Heather's blog and follow the links to see some great cards and read some awesome thoughts about Mary.

I met Mary via Heather, who was so, so excited to finally have a scrapbooking friend in Calgary, when they met many years ago. For awhile we all hung out online at a place called Canada Scrapbooks and then later we moved on over to Scraptivity. The rest is history, as they say, since we all now hang out at blogs and online galleries. And some of us are totally in awe of others, which would pretty much explain my relationship with all of the girls in this here blog-hop! But I digress - back to Mary!

There are so many marvelous things I could share about Mary but here are my 5 random tidbits:

1. I loved hearing Mary's description of her trip to CKU-Nashville several years ago. And I was blown away when I heard that she won the contest there for best photograph (I think) and came home with awesome prizes. I still have CKU on my "bucket list" so I'm in awe of pretty much anyone who's been able to attend one :))

2. A few years ago Mary's Mom (who is also a teacher like I am) took her on an awesome trip to Italy. It's just hilarious to hear Mary's stories about the trip!! Ask her sometime about the waiter that she kissed or all the time (not!) they were able to spend at amazing sites in Rome. The way that girl can tell stories is mind-boggling!!

3. And then there's the scrapbook album that Mary created for her Mom about that trip - sensational photos + attention to details + incredible writing = an album to treasure forever!

4. After Mary wrote her Professional Engineering exam. she and Derrick went on a little holiday to Disneyland in California. They had the best time and her stories made me want to go back and experience the happiest place on earth again. Oh, and the other thing about that trip - Mary forgot her inspiration book on the plane, which is an awful thing to lose for someone so creative. So now everytime I get off an airplane, I check the pockets to make sure I haven't forgotten something - and am reminded of Mary's loss!

5. Mary is so inspiring and so very generous! She gave me the most perfect little treasures from her stash of scrapbooking supplies to create pages about our trip to China. And she's always sharing ideas and tid-bits to make my layouts better. The attention to detail and the time she devotes to having each thing perfect when she creates is such an inspiration to me. And I love her blog too!

So, Happy Happy Birthday, Mary!!



I hope you got to sleep in this morning, that there will be cake and birthday hats in abundance, and that you will be completely spoiled today! ((( HUGS )))

And there's more - hop on over to here and see who else is wishing you a happy day! (I know this certain someone had to work today so you might have to be patient until she has a chance to post.)