“I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.” (Pride and Prejudice)

It is SOOOO good to be home! I had my first day off today since what feels like forever. I just got back from an intense tour of London and Paris with my students (14 seniors, 4 juniors). And as much as I love London and the IDEA of Paris, I am so done with international travel. At least with teens! :) They ran me ragged this year.

But I'm sure I will come back to the trip in subsequent posts, as we DID get some nice pictures I will HAVE to scrap someday! :)

I am actually posting again today because besides being tax day, April 15th means we have a new challenge up at the Sunshine Mail Foundation!! If you haven't checked out this amazing cause yet, please do head over to the main website to get an idea of what the mission is... In short, we are asked to create cards and send them in to the organization, who then distributes our handmade goodies with care packages to kids suffering from sicknesses, homelessness, and other horrible situations. It feels so GOOD to actually be giving back to young people...

This fortnight's challenge is sponsored by Oak Pond Creations who is having a HUGE party/giveaway to celebrate their one year anniversary! :) To play along for THEIR blog candy, all you have to do is submit a card using an Oak Pond image... THEN you can submit it to Sunshine Mail, mail it into the organization, and viola, you have entered TWO really cool challenges with one fell swoop... :)

My creation is a Garden Inspired card that I sent into the Sunshine Mail Foundation for a young boy in need. It is SO hard for me to make masculine cards cause most of my stash is feminine, so this image came in VERY handy! :)

I am also submitting this one to Card Mania for their Punches/Diecut challenge, as well as Cards for Men (do boys count?) and Digi Darla's Gardening Challenge. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and if you are headed to Paris, watch out for pickpockets! It got so bad that they closed the Louvre on Wednesday (two days after we left) because even the locals feel unsafe. It made me sad that the city of love was surrounded by very aggressive pickpockets.... Anyway, more on that later! :)