Dani's Delusions

2009-03-25T00:41:00.001-04:00

I have started a new blog over at Wordpress....I'd love it if you joined me :D

Check out this gorgeous kit!!!

2009-01-14T23:13:00.003-05:00

My friend Julie is not only a great ADSR partner but a fantastic designer. She has just released a gorgeous (and I am not just saying that!) kit called Lovebug Serenade and I just had to show it to you!

Isn't it beautiful? I just love it! And I got my hands on it a little early because I just knew it would be perfect for my Challenge 3 ADSR LO. Look how great this turned out...

My original LO from a while back ... Definitely nothing great...

And my new LO using Lovebug Serenade ... SO much better!!

Sunshine Sweetie Call!

2009-01-13T21:25:00.001-05:00

Let me tell you...it's one awesome gig to get to work with the Sunshine Girls (and guy ;) ). And now you can have that chance too! Check this out!

2009-01-10T20:18:00.003-05:00

My poor neglected blog :sigh:. Life was insane during December and I am still trying to catch up. I also started a new blog for my 365 project, so please come visit me there. I promise I've been better about posting there than I have been here.

I also joined ADSR with Julie from Julie.Itis. as my partner. I am finding it challenging but it is so nice to scrap again. I have been SO busy that I haven't had time to scrap,design or anything.

Here are our first layouts from the first challenge. I'm linking them to the gallery in case you want to check out the credits from these awesome kits.

Julie's:

Dani's:

Ice Storm!

2008-12-13T09:59:00.002-05:00

Well, my area got hit really hard by an ice storm the past few days. I mean REALLY hard. Mostly all of my county and the neighboring one lost power. There are trees down everywhere and power lines across the roads. Now that it's starting to melt there are flooded roads all over. It's quite a mess.

Thursday night we lost power at my house. And no power means no heat! So I spent the night laying in bed worrying about whether my kids were warm enough, and listening to branches and tree snapping right outside my windows and hoping none of them hit the house.

By the time we woke up in the morning around 6 the house was down to a brisk 50 degrees. The County had been declared in a state of emergency. And things were not looking good in terms of power coming back any time soon. I took the dog out for a walk and surveyed some of the damage. Of course you know I had to take the camera right?

This first shot is the tree right outside my window that I had to hear snapping and cracking all night. Check out the huge branch that is speared straight into the ground!

At one point I heard a huge crack and a crash outside my daughters windows. I ran over to check things out but it was too dark to see. She was safe and that's what mattered at that point. In the morning I found the source...

This the view from the side with the window I tried to look out that night.

This is a closeup from the other side. My landlord usually has his truck parked here but something told him to get up and move it in the middle of the night. Good thing, huh? Too bad he couldn't have moved that fence too.

And I'm glad it didn't fall to the left or my cute "reindeer" car would have been all squished. It's hard to tell here but there is about a full inch of ice on this car! It took forever to chisel it all off.

And this one hit my landlords porch but thankfully didn't do any damage thanks to the big bush taking most of the weight.

Too bad the tree didn't fare as well. This was a gorgeous tree too. :(

Strangely, in all that destruction there was so much beauty.

And this is my favorite. This is that gorgeous tree that we now have to cut down ...

We ended up packing up some stuff and braving the roads to get to my parents house. They didn't have power, but thanks to a propane heater they at least had heat. One of the first places that power was restored was the local shopping area so that people could at least get food and anything they needed so I headed there for coffee and to pick up some food that we could eat without needing to cook it.

It was a long day packed in a house with 6 bored people and no working toilets. We did have a battery powered radio for updates and some Christmas music at least. I got a call around 6 pm that my house had power back! I can't tell you how relieved I was! However, as of the time I am writing this (almost 11 am the next morning) my parents and many others still have no power. So if it keeps up the tables may turn and I may be packing a bunch of people into my rather small apartment. Oh well, we do what we have to, right?

I think I'm done!

2008-12-11T23:09:00.002-05:00

You know...it took WAY longer than I would have thought to redo the whole blog from scratch but I think it was worth it! What do you think?

I used my collab kit with Madame Wing called Azure Whispers.

Pardon my mess...

2008-12-11T13:12:00.002-05:00

Sorry about the messy blog. I'm in the process of making a new skin and have run into some glitches. It'll be prettied up soon :D

Improvements....

2008-12-05T22:51:00.003-05:00

Do you know what I love about scrapping and designing? The fact that I am always learning new things and improving. I hesitate to rescrap a photo I have already done before but sometimes you just have to. I did this LO back a while ago.

It's alright but nothing great. When I saw Franziska's gorgeous Grace kit I decided maybe it was time to redo this photo since it is a favorite of mine. I also did some work on the photo itself. Thanks to Lynda.com I am learning a TON about retouching my photos. I would like to show you the improvements.

First, the original photo as my mother took it.

And then the improvements I made .... the leaves actually have color again!

And with a little help from a great kit... the new and improved LO...

Full Credits

You can get this beautiful kit at SBG.

Sunny Sunday

2008-11-16T08:01:00.003-05:00

Alright, I'm back. Sorry to have neglected my blog but it's been a little hectic. I've been dealing with some emotional stuff on top of just being very busy in RL and the scrap world. But I wanted to pop in quick and let you know about Sunny Sunday and tell you that my kit Get in Gear is on sale for only $2 but today only.

Every Sunday SUN has a sale where everything in the Sunny Sunday section of the store is $2 or less...this week it includes my kit:

And btw...PDPlum is having a pretty great sale too!

Check out these 2 kits from PDPlum that you can pick up during this awesome sale...

The first is Ashlea Brooke, gorgeous huh? And if you pick this one up be sure to participate in the November QP Olympics since it's the featured kit.

And the second one is just plain awesome too....

And did you notice that second preview was a bit different? That's right...new packaging to match the brand new look of SUN!

You want what? ANOTHER freebie?

2008-10-31T23:59:00.002-04:00

Alright...you got it! I have the honor of being one of the girls to get my hands on the gorgeous collab Bubblicious by mgl Scraps and Ellie Lash. You can find this kit starting today at Scrapbook Graphics. Because Ellie Lash is one of the newest designers at SBG! And to show you how gorgeous this kit is several of Monica and Ellies CT members got together and made QPs for you. After you download mine just head on over to visit Debbie's blog "Musings of a Scattered Scrapper" and grab the next beautiful QP!

Wanna see the kit first?

Here is my QP (image is clickable), I hope you like it :) I left you plenty of room for a title too.

And here is what it looks like with a photo...

Enter If You Dare....Mwahahaha.....

2008-10-30T23:59:00.008-04:00

It's freebie time again!!! And Sunshine Studio Scraps designers have teamed up with several of Scrap Orchards designers to create a fun and safe Trick or Treat neighborhood for you. And unlike that other trick or treating you can stay nice and toasty in your own home :)

So step right up and knock on my door. And when you are done please visit my neighbor Allie at Lliella Designs blog and see what kind of candy she has for you! Just don't forget...the designers are from all over the world and if a link isn't up then it will be soon. These links will be up for a long time so don't worry about missing out on any of the goodies we have planned for you :)

Door graphic created using Midnight Pumpkin by Julie. Itis. at PDW!

Oh, and one last thing before you go. I just heard about a FANTASTIC sale coming up and I just HAD to tell you about it. I'm sure that if you had visited my blog before then you realize how I love the designs by Monica at mgl Scraps. Well, check this out!!

DSD Sale at SUN!

2008-10-22T14:20:00.003-04:00

You knew the awesome designers at SUN would never let DSD pass without a sale right? But did you know it would be this good?

I was digging through the secret files....

2008-10-19T22:30:00.002-04:00

So I was bored and decided to go rummaging around the files at SUN tonight. Guess what I found! Now, I'll show you ... but you can't go telling anyone about it OK? Alright, alright...I guess you can tell all those awesome designers you know all about it!!!

Amazing, isn't it?

2008-10-17T23:41:00.003-04:00

Are you the type of scrapper who's layouts all seem to look the same? I'm amazed sometimes at how different each page I do can be. I did 4 LO's this week (I know...I'm shocked too!) and I was uploading them and thinking about how they all have such a different feel.

Credits

Making good use of some sick time!

2008-10-09T21:01:00.004-04:00

Wow have I been sick this week. I truly thought I had pneumonia at one point. I was wrong thankfully but I sure was miserable. Thanks to my great doctor I am feeling much better (though still not good) now that I got an inhaler and some other prescriptions.

Anyway, my point is that I didn't have any energy to do anything around the house and I couldn't concentrate enough to design at all. So I tried to do a few layouts and I actually managed a few cute ones. So I figured I may as well show them off.

The first was using a kit that I got in a grab bag a while back and loved but never had the right picture for...until now :)

Template by Sya's Blueprints
Kit from Sweet Digi Scraps Grab Bag - Flowers a Go-Go
Alpha is from mglScraps Somewhere Else

The next was for the current "Scrappers Choice" Challenge at SUN.

Bountiful kit by Sherri Tierney
Bountiful Alpha
Bountiful Solids
Beaded Alpha and string from Britt-ish Designs Grab Bag
Date Slider is from Ellie Lash Barely Slidin By

And this one was just because this is cute is just WAY too cute not to scrap with!!!

Everything from Studio Flergs Awesome new Fairytale kit!

Seriously! Check this out! Is this awesome or what? (And BTW...visit Flergs blog for the girl dragon as a freebie!)

I'm IT.

2008-10-07T19:36:00.003-04:00

Julie, being the wonderful friend that she is ... tagged me. After all...I did say I wanted to make sure and post more regularly!

Husband Tag…..

1. Where did you meet? On the bus in middle school *LOL*

2. How long did you date before you got married? 7 years to the day.

3. How long have you been married? 8 years and a month

4. What does he do that surprises you? It's amazing that no matter how many times I say something he forgets it in a matter of seconds.

5. What is your favorite feature of his? His eyes.

6. Does he have an annoying habit? Many actually...but to name one...he's a tapper. He has to be tapping his fingers, or a pen, or his feet, or whatever he can get his hands on. It's enough to drive a person nuts. Oh, I JUST have to mention that he is also a slurper....I can not be in the same room with him if he is eating soup or cereal...or drinking iced coffee for that matter.

7. What is your favorite quality of his? His work ethic. That man will work his fingers to the bone to make ends meet for his family.

8. Does he have a nickname for you? Dani. Hon.

9. What is his favorite color? Navy Blue.

10. What is his favorite food? Magic Cookie Bars

11. What is his favorite sport? He's not a big sports guy. But he used to be on a stock car racing team and he does like baseball.

12. When and where was your first kiss? In my driveway.

13. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? Go to Disney World. WDW Rocks!

14. Do you have any children? Haven't you seen any of my LO's? I have 2 of the cutest kids you'll ever "meet".

15. Does he have a hidden talent? A hidden talent? Well, if he does...it's HIDDEN!

16. How old is he? Nearly 33

17. Who said "I love you" first? Him. And I told him I was too young for that and don't say it again *LOL* I was 15!

18. What is his favorite type of music? He likes all kinds of music. Usually remix dance club type stuff....you know, the stuff I hate *L*

19. What do you admire most about him? Didn't I basically already answer this one?

20. Do you think he will read this? Chances are slim to none.

I'm trying...

2008-10-01T11:08:00.005-04:00

I'm trying to be a better blogger again. So far so good. Life was crazy but I think I'm back on track now. In fact, I made it to not one ... but TWO speed scraps yesterday! Yay, me! Two layouts in just a few hours. And one of them I love and the other I really like too :)

Here is the one I did at the SUN speed scrap hosted by none other than ME! *L*

Click for Credits

And this one I did at the ScrapMatters Speed Scrap hosted by my fellow Wonder Girl Jen.

Click for Credits

And with all the chaos I haven't even been telling you about all the cool things going on at SUN! Check out these awesome kits that were released.

And if you have never bought a SUN Collab then now is the time to start. These Collab kits are HUGE and always awesome. This months Collab is absolutely stunning!!! The preview, as gorgeous as it is, doesn't even come close to doing it justice! Click the preview to get a better look at this awesome kit...there are NINE detailed previews in the shop so you know what you are getting!

A new look and some SWW fun!

2008-09-28T21:25:00.002-04:00

So do you like the new look of my blog? I've been playing around with it and made a bunch of changes that I am really quite pleased with :)

Enough of that...on to really important matters now...SWW IS BACK! Please come join us at SUN and check out all the great challenges we have going on! Here is a quick look at all the great things happening...

And I am personally hosting the Quote Challenge so I hope to see some great layouts again this month!

Sunshine Wonder Week Blog Train Kickoff!

2008-09-26T22:49:00.002-04:00

It's that time again!!! Sunshine Wonder Week is here and as always there are tons of challenges and prizes! But first, we are doing a special Wonder Girl Blog Train to make up for not having Sunshine Wonder Week in August. A few pieces that we all made that will stand well on their own but compliment the Anchors Away kit perfectly! So click the preview image to find your download! And then visit the other Wonder Girls Blogs for the rest! Happy Scrapping and don't forget to come back and join us for all the fun that starts on Sunday!

Ale
Janel
Jen
Joanne
Laura
Mandi
Mari
Teri
Wendy

Pointless...and yet not.

2008-09-15T11:13:00.002-04:00

OK..so I have so many more important things that I should blog about but I am going to pop in and plug the awesome book series I am in the middle of reading. Many of you have probably already at least heard about it. I am on book 3 of the Twilight series and I am just as hooked as everyone else! If you haven't read it yet then you should! And do it before November, because the series is so good they made a movie and it comes out November 12th! The trailer looks fantastic! It looks like they stayed so true to the book.

And I took one of those silly but fun quizes this morning too. And guess which twilight character I am?

Alice Cullen You are Alice Cullen. Your ability to foresee danger and misfortune doesn't diminish your bubbly optimism. You are a force to be reckoned with -- anybody with enough sense knows, you never bet against Alice.

Twilight Quiz by QuizRocket.com fun tests!
Fun Quizzes | Quizes | MySpace Quizzes
» » "Who Should I Vote For?" « «

A sneak peek at something special.

2008-09-05T14:32:00.004-04:00

Did you think I disappeared? Sorry ::insert bashful face here:: August became one of the craziest months I think I've ever had. But almost all of it was great stuff that happened (I'm trying not to think about that ugly speeding ticket I'll be fighting in court)! I got a great new job and some of my work can be done right from home. You probably already know that I got a new puppy and that has taken some adjusting. My husband threw me a big surprise party for my 30th birthday and took the whole weekend off to spend some much needed time with the family. And all that is just the tip of the iceberg...it was a crazy and great month. But now I'm back and ready to roll.....and in a big way too!

I have just finished my first ever store-worthy kit!! YAY ME! So on Sunday you should find my collab with Boyerville Scraps in the Sunshine Studio Scraps shop!! I am SO excited!

Want to see what it looks like? Well, here is a hint:

And I just have to show you what my awesome fellow Wonder Girls just added to the shop. That's right...I said the Wonder Girls have added stuff to the shop!! Both items were created using the Jigsaw Peices SUN Collab.

There is a keyplate album from Wonder Girl Mandi

As well as a quickpage album from Wonder Girl Janel.

A special announcement and a freebie :)

2008-08-11T12:31:00.005-04:00

You may remember me mentioning my friend Julie before and what a wonderful person and designer she is. Well, I have a great announcement! She is the newest designer at Plain Digital Wrapper!!!! And she truly deserves it! I strongly urge you to go check out her stuff!

Here is a layout I did with her Canyon kit.

And you know what else I have...a freebie for you :)

It's a Funky alpha that I was playing around with. It's just upper case.

Sorry Link Expired

Short Rant and then on to some fun stuff :)

2008-08-10T09:03:00.005-04:00

Do you know what drives me crazy? People who need to complain about every little thing. Don't they know how exhausting it is to the people around them? It can only be ignored for just so long before it drives people away. OK, done ranting...see, told you it was quick! Sorry :)

Now...the fun stuff!

I've been very busy this week...my daughter was the flower girl in a wedding so I had to do all the wedding party stuff that goes along with that. It was worth it in the end, my daughter was beautiful if I do say so myself. My husband got to relax for a little while instead of his usual work your fingers to the bone routine. And I got a few hours reprieve from chasing around a two year old, YAY! I thought I would share a few pics...because I just can't resist!

Here's the beautiful flower girl!!
And I have to say I was a little annoyed when I saw this picture that my daughter had to be a goof instead of have a nice sweet picture with Mommy...
Until I saw this and realized that I know EXACTLY where she gets it! *LOL*

That's it...I won't bombard you with the hundred plus pictures I took but I had to share those. Wanna see what else I did this week? I've been on a roll scrapping. Don't know what got into me but I'm likin' it :)

Everything from Britt-ish Designs GrabBag :)

Andrea Gold Template 19A
Everything from Franziska's GORGEOUS new kit Dusk Dew!

This one was done for a technique Challenge at Hummie's World. I twisted the challenge a bit to make it work for my LO though *L*

Some stuff to show off...

2008-08-06T11:04:00.005-04:00

Wow, I've been a little MIA. Sorry. But I brought some fun stuff to show you now that I'm here :)

First, for those wondering about life with a new puppy. Aside from the potty accidents it's wonderful. Housetraining is such a chore but I have faith that it will work out in the end. I think I need to be a little "meaner" and crate him more often than I do. I just feel terrible since he spent the first 4 1/2 months of his life in a cage. And of course I have taken a ton of pictures! So here are a few of my favorites.

Here's one of me and my little pal. My 6 year old daughter took this picture, not bad, huh?

Here is where my son slept the first night we got the dog. Do you think he's excited?

The dog LOVES my daughter! How cute are they?

Dopey dog got his head stuck in the game jar!

Is it wrong to find this hysterical? While my daughter was walking the dog she ran into a tree!!

Ugh, how GROSS! Look at where I discovered my 2 year old!! He thinks it's a darn sandbox!

But how can you stay mad when they look like this?

I got a few layouts done this week too...how cool is that?

Here is the one I did at Teri's SUN speed scrap.

Papers from Delicious Collab
Handprints from SO SUNny
Staple, Splats and String from Delicious
Dreams Do Come True Alpha by Britt-ish Designs
Glitter border is mine from Mango Tango Collab
Font is Pea Beth

And here are two more I did this week.

Everything from Greedz Veralyn

Everything is from Amy Sumrall and Krystal Hartley's ooh-la-la

Lots of new stuff and you can win it!

2008-07-30T15:36:00.005-04:00

Sunshine Wonder Week is in full swing! My speed scrap on Monday was a great success! I am so relieved that I wasn't the only one there *LOL* And on Thursday there is another one at 10 pm EST and I can't wait to be on the other end scrapping!

There are great new things added to Sun all the time and this week is no exception. In fact, we have a new way for you to win some of our great new stuff!!! If you blog about certain new products in the store and help us advertise than you will be entered into a drawing to win the kit you advertised! How cool is that? Just visit the Give Away Desk and check out all the kits offering this.

Greedz just added a beautiful new kit called Veralyn to the shop.
And there is a matching freebie on Kelly's blog if you want to pop in!

And she has a matching alpha that I just LOVE!! In fact, it comes in 2 colors pink and blue.

Amy Sumrall did a Collab kit with Krystal Hartley called Ooh la la.
And I couldn't have described it any better than that title!
You can grab a matching freebie at Amy's blog too!

And for all you paper addicts out there like me, Kiki has a gorgeous new paper pack out called Haute Pink. Gorgeous shades of red and pink all in different textures.

Last, but absolutely not least is Lliella's new kit that comes out tomorrow.
Just check out this sneak peek!! How cool is that!!
I have seen the full preview and I can assure you that it WILL be mine!!

And as if this post weren't long enough I thought I would share some of my recent LO's since I haven't posted one in ages!!

Here is one I just did of my new puppy, who is doing very well by the way.

Background paper from Flergs' grabbag
Elements from Flergs' Rex and Tinkerbell
Font is Plantagenet Cherokee

Here is one I did for a quote challenge at Hummie's World.

Everything from Jigsaw Pieces
Fonts are Pea Eshley and Boopee
Template by Wonder Girl Laura

It's an exciting day!!

2008-07-28T10:14:00.002-04:00

OK, I told you to mark your calendars...did you do it? Today is my speed scrap at Sunshine Studio Scraps! 3 PM EST!! I sure hope you show up!

And this is a special day for another reason too. Look what I received this morning!

I got my Sunshine Doll!!!! How awesome is that? I chose this beauty because I love my Irish heritage and that Celtic Cross just called to me.

Happy Early Birthday to Me!!!!!

2008-07-26T21:37:00.002-04:00

So my husband asked me to meet him at my parents house tonight and when I walked in I found an early 30th birthday present waiting for me. I have always wanted a pug puppy and look what I got!!!!

OMG, he is SO cute and I love him to death already. I am slightly apprehensive since this is my first dog of my own and I need to house train him. But he is so sweet and fun and he is so good with the kids that I think it will be worth the work in the beginning. My cat is not too fond of him but I hope in time they will learn to ignore each other.

A freebie in case you missed it.

2008-07-26T06:00:00.000-04:00

Last month during the daily download the Wonder Girls gave away an awesome kit they made called the Missing Bits and pieces of Yesterday. If you missed it you are in luck. We are all giving away our parts all over again. Just visit all the Wonder Girls blogs and you can have all the pieces. But please remember that Sunshine Wonder Week kicks off tomorrow! So come back to the SUN forums and join in all the great challenges and games. And a special reminder that we have Speed Scraps on Monday at 3 EST and Thursday at 10 pm EST (scroll down to the previous post for more info and to see the participation prize).

So, here is a reminder of the Sunshine Wonder Week Schedule and then you can have your freebie.

And here is my part of the Missing Bits and Pieces kit as your freebie.

Download Here

Remember, to get the whole kit you need to hit all the Wonder Girls Blogs...

Jaye: http://jayedid-designs.blogspot.com/
Laura: http://lauras-little-world.blogspot.com/
Ale: http://madamewing.blogspot.com/
Dani: http://danisdelusions.blogspot.com/
Janel: http://janelscraps.blogspot.com/
Mandi: http://www.mandanickell.blogspot.com/
Teri: http://teri-scrappingmylife.blogspot.com/
Wendy: http://mydigispot.blogspot.com/
Heather: http://www.embracingthechaos.blogspot.com/
Mari: http://mari-lovelyscraps.blogspot.com/
Jen: http://jenuineartistry.blogspot.com/

It's almost here!

2008-07-25T10:44:00.000-04:00

It's almost time for another Sunshine Wonder Week!! And there are even more prizes and challenges this time around!!!! The schedule is announced and I would love to show it to you:

I will once again be hosting the quote challenge. But I am also, and I am SUPER excited about this one, be hosting the first ever SUN Speed Scrap!!!!! So mark your calendar for Monday at 3 EST and please come join me! Don't leave me scrapping on my own. *L* Do you want to see what you get if you come hang out with me at the speed scrap?

It's an alpha matching Mango Tango. Made by little ol' Sunflower Me *L*

Those of you who come to Teri's Speed Scrap Thursday at 10 EST will also receive this alpha. If you are one of those people who loves to speed scrap and attends both you will be entered into a drawing to win another special prize!

So please come join us this week and play along. And you can check back here tomorrow for another little surprise to get things started.

A few things to note...

2008-07-23T09:37:00.000-04:00

Can I even begin to tell you how exciting it is to have all these new designers at SUN? They are all so friendly as well as talented. If you haven't visited the SUN shop by now you really should!

One of my favorite new additions is Beckie Wallace and she just added an adorable new kit to the shop and even has an awesome coordinating freebie on her blog! (And by the way...it's on sale for a limited time!)

And head to Beckie's Blog to get this cute little freebie too!

In other SUN news....Kiki Halbert, another of our great new designers is having a CT call! You can work with stuff from all 3 of her stores not just SUN. Visit her blog for details.

And I would like to take this time to introduce you to a wonderful woman and an up and coming designer, Julie. It is. You may have come across her stuff already but if not then you simply must see it. Her writing style is sure to amuse you and she has grown so much in her designs in a short period of time and I just know that you will find something you like on her blog. And the best part is that she is not only a great designer but she has become a wonderful friend to me! Her newest freebie kit is called Cheerful Grunge and it's available at her blog.

I think that's enough for today don't you? But don't forget...next week is Sunshine Wonder Week and it will be bigger and better than ever!

11 New Shops Open at Sunshine Studio Scraps!!

2008-07-18T10:01:00.000-04:00

It's finally here! The new designers are all revealed and their shops are up and running. You simply have to check out the fantastic stuff that opened up in the store today. My wishlist is HUGE again!

And the best part is that the whole store is on sale 20% off for 3 days to celebrate! So why are you still reading...get your butt over to the SUN Shop!

Announcement Time! And a very special freebie!

2008-07-16T05:00:00.000-04:00

Before I went on vacation I told you I would have an announcement for you when I got back. Now I can finally tell you that I was chosen to be a Sunflower Designer at Sunshine Studio Scraps! This means that the SUN designers have seen potential in me and are willing to teach me and help me grow and shine as a designer. I am incredibly excited to be working with so many of my favorite designers! And there are many more new designers for you to get to know. And we couldn't think of a better way to introduce everyone than to make a big MEGA freebie Collab to share with you! And I'm telling you that it has stayed true to Sunshine style and is HUGE! All your favorite SUN designers and all of the new designers ... 24 designers in total all joined together to make you one fabulous kit!

So download my part and then head over
to the SUN blog to find the rest of the downloads.

*Sunshine Designers are from all over the world
so if someone hasn't posted yet just stop back in.
No need to worry, the links will be up for long time.*

Download Here

The new designers will open up their shops on Friday so please remember to check back :)

As Arnold once said....I'll be back!

2008-07-06T00:09:00.000-04:00

Well, I just wanted to let you all know that I am going on vacation for a week. It will be very hard to be away from all of my internet friends and I will miss you all terribly but my poor husband needs a break. And if we stay in town he will get 40 phone calls and end up feeling guilty and going to work on his week off. So we are heading to the Hamptons to stay with my uncle and enjoy some fishing, clamming and beach time. I will probably spend most of my time chillin' in the hot tub *L*
So I will catch up with everyone on Monday and I might even have an announcement...who knows....

Are you good at naming kits?

2008-07-03T09:37:00.000-04:00

If you are good at naming kits you should check out Amanda's fantastic new kit and help her find a name for it. Just head to her blog, Perfectly Imperfect, and leave your idea for a name in her comments. Whoever picks the best name wins the kit for free, how cool is that? And if she likes your name and keeps it in consideration for another kit you may find yourself with a goodie too :)

And when you stop by to add your name suggestion you should grab the matching freebie she posted for you!

Did someone ask for a freebie?

2008-07-01T08:34:00.001-04:00

Did you make it to Sunshine Wonder Week at Sunshine Studio Scrap? We had a lot of participants, a lot of fun and we sure gave out a lot of great prizes too! If you missed it then please come and join us at the end of July for another week loaded with fun and prizes.

I have a few sneak peaks for you too...

And you might have heard a little bit about the Cross-store Collab called Let's Connect. Let me tell you personally that it has a TON of awesome stuff packed in there!! So watch for it to come out today in some of your favorite stores including SUN!

A celebration of friendship and technology, Let's Connect is bright, bold, funky and fun! Jam-packed with goodies, this kit contains 85 papers and over 140 elements, including frames, stickers, flowers, glitter, ribbons, cords, speech balloons, word art and 2 alphabets!

Let's Connect is the collaboration of Amy Sumrall, Ellie Lash, Flergs, Franziska Altmann, Heather Manning, Kim B's Designs, Krystal Hartley, Lost Gurlz Venture Designs, mgl Scraps, Miss Crow, Moon Scraps, Polka Dot Plum, Sugarplum Paperie, Tracey Monette, Web Designz by Kristi and Wenchd Grafix.

And here are a few layouts I did with it. And let me tell you ... I know I will do a lot more with this one!

If you want to see more with this great kit then just visit this gallery. And while you are there feel free to leave the ladies some love :)

Alright, alright...is this what you were waiting for?

After a particularly funny conversation at Hummie's we decided that the June Design Challenge should be based on various toiletry themes. And since I am one of those Mommies that takes pictures of everything I have several potty training pictures to scrap. (Don't worry...I'm not THAT mean...nothing "important" shows *L*) So I decided to do a potty training kit. I also did a more traditional kit with the color palette as well. And since the original theme was toiletries and the colors reminded me of the odd color combinations and patterns in my own Grandmothers bathroom that somehow manage to work together, I named it Grandma's Bathroom *L*

So, here are your two freebie mini kits...

Sorry Download Expired

Late Breaking News....

2008-06-27T14:54:00.000-04:00

Since my post this morning I have learned about yet another great Sunshine Girl creation. You have GOT to get this! Monica of mgl Scraps is offering her first ever grab bag and it is CHOCK FULL of awesome goodies (yes, I've seen it...and yes it WILL be mine)!!! And get this ... it's only $3!!! GO! GRAB IT!! It's only here for a limited time and then everything is full price!!

2008-06-27T08:02:00.000-04:00

You haven't forgotten about Sunshine Wonder Week have you? We have been getting some fantastic entries for all the challenges and we have some games that have yet to begin! "Pick your favorite product" will start today and you might even win your favorite kit! Tomorrow is BINGO and "Smile, you got RAKed" and you never know who might win those! We still have the Wonder Wordart, Wonder Quote, and Pimp my Page, and the QP Olympics challenges for you too. Come join the fun.

Just watch the Sunshine Wonder Week forum and the SUN blog
to see when all the new games begin!

I also have to add that Shawn just added the greatest boy kit to the store. I just love it so I have to show it to you :)

And there is even a cool alpha and glitter!!!!

And on a personal note I'd like to share that I am now the Mommy of an official Kindergarten graduate! Where did the time go???

TODAY IS THE DAY!

2008-06-22T09:25:00.000-04:00

Sunshine Wonder Week is finally here! And with it comes some really great challenges!

Would you like to see the schedule of events?

And do you see that challenge up there that says Wonder Quote Challenge? That's mine. So I really hope you come and participate. Make this Wonder Girl smile, OK? And while you are there join all the other challenges too...we have worked hard on this and there are a lot of great prizes to be had too!
We even have a daily download going on..but you need to be quick and get it before it's gone. So visit the Sunshine Studios Blog for more information and to find the daily download. Because we all know how great Freebies are, right?

Click here to get the Daily Download

2008-06-20T23:18:00.000-04:00

I am so excited to announce that Sunshine Studio Scraps is having a designer call!!!!

Sunshine Wonder Week and a Freebie

2008-06-20T08:07:00.000-04:00

Are you as excited about Sunshine Wonder Week as we Wonder Girls are? I sure hope so. We have been hard at work trying to make sure you have fun stuff to do and lots of goodies to win. In fact, my fellow Wonder Girl Jen and I were so hard at work that we went a little too far when we made the papers for The Missing Bit's 'n Pieces of Yesterday. And rather than see them go to waste we decided that our mistake is your gain! You will find my extra papers here and then please head over to Jen's blog to download hers too. Enjoy your freebie :)

Download Here

There is so much more in store for you during Sunshine Wonder Week which starts Sunday. Make sure to visit the Sunshine Studio Blog and you may find a lot more pieces like this! And please don't forget to visit Jen's blog to get the other two great papers that never made it into The Missing Bit's 'n Pieces of Yesterday.

And one last thing for today. I wanted to show you the adorable signatures that Wonder Girl Ale and her husband made for all of us Wonder Girls. Thanks again, Ale!

What's better to cheer a person up?

2008-06-19T16:35:00.000-04:00

It's been a rough week in my house and it's had me feeling a little down. So I decided to cheer myself up. And there is no better way to find a cheap giggle than with a few LOLCats!! So I thought I would share a few that amused me and maybe I can amuse you too.

moar funny pictures

moar funny pictures

moar funny pictures

moar funny pictures

moar funny pictures

moar funny pictures

moar funny pictures

And BTW...I made it to the speed scrap again this week. That's 3 weeks in a row! They really are fun!! Here is what I did.

Do you want to party with the Sunshine Wonder Girls?

2008-06-17T19:16:00.000-04:00

Starting on Sunday June 22 the Wonder Girls of Sunshine Studio Scraps are throwing one big week-long party to celebrate the SUN collab kit Missing Yesterday. There will be games, challenges, and tons of prizes! No one who participates will go home empty handed! If you missed our Grand Opening than this is your chance to experience it all again.

And while you are there you might consider picking up these awesome boxes that mgl Scraps just added to her store. What an awesome deal at $3 each or $5 for the set!

Don't you love the word SALE?

2008-06-13T12:21:00.000-04:00

I know I do. And guess what? Another of our great designers at SUN is having one. Kristi has put her whole store on sale for Father's Day. A Father's Day present for us Mom's!!! Gotta love that!

I love Speed Scrapping.

2008-06-12T10:28:00.000-04:00

I made it to the speed scrap, Yay! I was so glad it was moved to Wednesday night so I could attend. Tuesdays are tough. This was a little bit more challenging than last weeks, but it's so fun to try and make your mind work in a slightly different way. Wanna see what I did?

All papers from Ellie Lash's Adam Kit
Stars, Button and Date Tag are also from Adam kit
Alpha is from Britt-ish Designs
Flowers are from lliella Candy Picnic

Journaling reads:
I was washing dishes while you
watched television and every few
minutes I would check on you. I
checked on you once and you were
not on the couch where you belonged.
After a quick search I discovered
that the door to my bedroom was
shut. I barged in expecting you
to be up to no good and there you
were. Curled up in bed with your
sister’s blanket, your binky, and
a bottle of water. You heard me
come in and looked up and all you
said was “NAP"! You had gotten
tired of waiting for me to finish the
dishes and climbed in the crib and
put yourself down for a nap.

Ooh, so much to say!

2008-06-11T20:04:00.001-04:00

Wow, things have been so busy and there is so much to post but so little time. I've done quite a few layouts and haven't posted a single one ::sigh::

But first I promised someone I would tell a little story on my blog at the first chance I got. And this would be the first chance :)

I walked out my front door a few weeks ago to find a bird nest right next to my door on the light. I mean, it's so low and close to the door I can just reach right into it if I want. One day I realized that Mommy Robin was getting a little worked up when I came in and out so I decided to take a picture inside the nest and see if there were any eggs. Well, I found more than eggs...I found a few little birdies already hatched.
I decided to try and take pictures of them each day until they flew away. Here's one of my favorites..how cute is this!! Oh, and you can see just how close to the door it is in this one as well as the damage that the parents did to my door somehow.

And here's where the story gets good. I never knew just how fast baby birds grow! It was insane, one day they just hatched and it wasn't even a week later before they were gone. Sunday morning, as we headed out to yet another event I opened the door and held it so that both kids could step out. As I went to walk out behind them I suddenly saw something come at me and then it was all just a big blur of feathers flapping franticly in my face (say THAT 5 times fast!). Yup...I admit it...I screamed! You'd scream too if there was a sharp beak in the same vicinity as your eyes, I guarantee! All I could think was "Uh Oh, Mama bird finally snapped!!!" So when all the flapping died down (both mine and the birds!) I look down and there at my feet is one of the babies! It decided to fly the nest right into my face!!! And now...it's in my house. It can't fly well yet (obviously) so it try to fly-hop up stairs. So now I'm trying to beat it up the stairs to close the door while yelling "CAT!!!!" as if the bird will understand! Phew! Door closed! But now I'm in quite a situation. I'm now late for Childrens Day and my daughter is obligated to be there. She has been practicing her songs for 8 weeks and has a solo speech at the end. But I have a BIRD in my house who has now "flown" off the stairs and is hiding behind a pile of books. In the end, I hesitantly make the decision to deal with the bird when church lets out. I just hope that when I come home I can still find it!

So we get to church late but she gets to sing and do her speech. I rush her through coffee hour and get home to tackle the task of saving this bird. I don't want to touch it because it's been said that Mama won't come back for her if I do. I don't know if it's true but I won't chance it...I'm attached to these little ones now. I have a plan in mind...a pillowcase seems like my best bet to not touch it and not let it hurt itself trying to escape. When I got home here is what I found...
It had wedged itself in a pile of totes and wasn't hurt...but it couldn't move. Seriously? That's just too easy! I slowly and carefully slid the totes outside and very very carefully pulled the tote it was sitting on and the top out so that in the end baby bird was sitting nicely on top of the tote in the middle of the yard for Mama to find, scared but seemingly unharmed.
I kinda miss them now :(

Alright...down to business now. Get this, one of my favorite designers, Ellie Lash, tagged me. Can't ignore that tag can I? *LOL*

So, 7 Random or Weird facts about me.

1. I hate tomatoes but I love ketchup and salsa. How's that for random?

2. I cannot say no to my Grandmother. Whatever that woman needs all she has to do is call. I'm such a Grandma's girl! *L*

3. In real life I am actually somewhat introverted. I get very nervous in crowds where I don't know people. You can't tell that by how I can't shut up in the forums though :)

4. I'm highly allergic to penicillin ... so please keep it away *L*

5. I make a mean veggie lasagna.

6. I wish I had listened to my father and taken the $20,000 he spent on my wedding and put it toward a house instead. This is probably the only time you'll hear me say he was right *L*

7. I am distantly related to 2 famous people. Jackie Gleason and Adolphus Busch (one of the founders of Anheuser-Busch Brewing Association)

And speaking of Ellie....did you know that she made the prize for the speed scrap at ScrapMatters tonight. I'll be there...you should be too.

And in the spirit of sharing details about myself I'd like to share a layout I did and then I'll leave you alone and let you stop reading....

Everything from Flergs and mglscraps What Dreams May Come
Except the pen which is from Ronna Penner at scrapadelic.com (express yourself kit)
Font is Halcyon

QP Olympics!

2008-06-10T20:34:00.000-04:00

Are you ready for the Wonder Girls first official challenge? I know we are. We are excited to invite you to participate in the first of our monthly QP Olympics. Every month we will be featuring a new kit. Your job will be to use that kit to create a Quickpage and upload it to the QP Olympics thread. At the end of the challenge you will receive the whole set of QPs from all participants!

This month we are proud to be using Moon Scraps Nirvana kit. And what a cool kit this is! And to make this deal even better we have a coupon code for you to get it for 20% off too! Just enter the code qpolympics after you add this to your cart. We hope you will join us and make this a huge success.

It's a WONDER-ful feeling . . .

2008-06-06T07:39:00.000-04:00

If you read my blog at all you realize I have a few sites that I just adore. And one of those is Sunshine Studio! I just adore the people there and I mean come on...the designers seriously rock! So just imagine how excited I was when I received a PM from Vasco asking me if I wanted to be a member of the newly forming Wonder Girls! It's a small group of girls dedicated to helping out the Sunshine Gang with various tasks. I'm so excited to see what this has in store for me. And check it out ... Flergs made us all official badges ::giggle::

And speaking of how awesome the SUN designers are ... have you seen the latest Collaboration kit yet? It is so BEAUTIFUL. And as always with this gang ... it is huge. Over 40 papers and more than 50 elements with a full alpha too! It's called Missing Yesterday and you will not be disappointed.

And Franziska added a beautiful kit you just have to see too. It's called Charmed Meadow. I just love the colors.

I have no clue what to use first!

2008-06-04T16:27:00.000-04:00

I got so many new kits this weekend that I almost feel overwhelmed! I don't know which great kit to scrap with first. I did use a few of them during the grand opening for the challenges. And I was excited last night when my husband got called out on a service call right around the time that ScrapMatters SpeedScrap started. I had wanted to attend one but it was alway scheduled for a time that my husband was home, and since that time is rare I try to get my scrap obsessed butt off the computer and spend it with him. So last night I got to attend one guilt free, YEAH! And one of my new kits worked great. Here is what I ended up with. It's quite fun and very challenging too.

Template by Simply Sarah Designs
Papers and Alpha from Ellie's Adam kit
Frame is my own - Dani's Delusions
Button is from Iliella's Moonica and friends
Font is Journal

So, you wanna see what I ended up with? It's a lot! First I went to the store the first day and took advantage of the 30% storewide sale and my GC I had won.

and

And then, as if that wasn't enough ... it bugged me that I really wanted Grasshopper Kisses or What Dreams May Come. I guess I needed a Flergs fix or something. So I went back the next morning and picked up ...

And I am SO glad I did because it just so happens that Monica picked that invoice number to RAK with another GC! So I also got ....

And let's not forget that today is the Scavenger Hunt at ScrapOrchard and Sunshine Studios! So I got this big Collab as well!

So, do I have a ton of awesome stuff to work with now or WHAT! Now I get to go to some more challenges. I'm way behind at Hummie's and I want to do the new WordArt challenge at SUN too.

Oh and BTW....HUMMIE, OPEN THAT CAMERA!!!!

Fun times at Sunshine Studio Scraps

2008-06-02T16:32:00.000-04:00

The Sunshine Gang had there Grand Opening this weekend and despite a few setbacks, like explosions, nope...not even kidding, it has been a blast. What was supposed to be just the first of the month has turned into a 3 day event *L*. The Challenges were extended through Tuesday evening and the Scavenger Hunt for the newest Collab with not only the Sunshine Gang but Scrap Orchard too had to be moved to Wednesday in the hopes that SO will be back up and running. I had set the money that my MIL gave me for Mother's Day aside for the store opening and I'm glad I did. I had also won a gift certificate to Polka Dot Plum's portion of the store in a challenge. I ended up with 6 kits, a paper pack, and a CU texture pack yesterday. And then it was driving me nuts that I decided not to buy What Dreams May Come and I went back and got that this morning too *L*. So anyway, here are a few of the layouts I got done thanks to these new kits and all the awesome challenges.

The first is just for fun. The resident prankster over there is Monica from mgl scraps. So they decided to let us make her an angel for the day. Here was my entry.

Paper from Strawberry Buttercreme - Polka Dot Plum
Glitter Alpha from Flergs

And this was from the Scraplift Challenge. I scraplifted Crystals Silly Boy.

Background Paper, curled ribbon, and letter a - Deacon Closet - Flergs
Frame is mine - Dani's Delusions
Flowers from petit moineaux
Stitches from Monicas portion of Walking on Sunshine
Paperstrips from Polka Dot Plum's Fern Gully except the blue strip from Ellie's Adam kit.
F and L - both from Easter Collab
M - Amy Rockwell - back in black
I -Festival by Shabby Princess
Y - doodle alpha from Julie. It is.

And here's my favorite....from the Wordart Challenge

Paper and Elements from Lliella's (Allie's) Candy Picnic Kit.
Some actions used from the Walking on Sunshine kit.
Font for "tree writing" is Journal

I LOVE that kit. And the sister kit Moonica and Friends is equally as awesome if not even more so!

Check it out!!!

2008-05-30T19:45:00.000-04:00

I just found this awesome post at the Sunshine Studios Forum .... here's what it says:

The following 10 participants of the Ad Challenge were randomly picked as winners of a $5 gift certificate to one of our Sunshine Designer's store!

Krash
justjess
tiffiedawn
MadmeWing
chigirl
MGMum
glooper
nof007750
ldrag2004
ColdFire

A quick post

2008-05-30T07:23:00.000-04:00

I won't be on much today because I will be going to my daughter's school for Field Day. She's so excited to have Mommy come to her school and hang out with her :)

But I wanted to share a few layouts I did this week. I've actually been pretty productive even though it's been a very busy week. These first two were both done using the Sunshine Studios Collab kit called Walking on Sunshine. It's a HUGE kit! The second one was done for an ad challenge at their forum but I'm not sure if I'm happy with how it looks. I think I took the ad layout in a much more literal sense than some of the entries. Some of them don't even look like the ad at all in my opinion but I guess the whole point is to have fun and use the inspiration to get another page done, right?

And I did Hummie's new Template Challenge too. I love this template! And this awesome "Spring is Coming" kit by Photo Scrappy Mom.

Want some CU Grunge Brushes?

2008-05-28T19:16:00.001-04:00

One of the many wonderful things about Hummie at Hummie's World is that all you have to do is ask, actually sometimes you don't even need to ask...just mention it in passing *L*, and she is right there to teach you something new! I mentioned having to find new grunge brushes since I was bored and unhappy with what I have. And next thing you know Hummie is teaching me how to do it myself. Check out the tutorial thread here.

But in the meantime, I'd like to share with you a few of the ones I had fun making this morning. And you can feel free to use them for commercial needs too :) There is even a frame that I played around and made to see if the brushes were "usable"and I threw it in the download for you to enjoy.

Sorry Download Expired

Another Challenge Down...and I was tagged :)

2008-05-24T09:35:00.000-04:00

Sunshine Studios had another great challenge this week and of course I participated. It was all about using the number 2 in a layout. I had a lot of ideas but since I am still trying to get Lynn's first year done I decided to do this one. It is a totally different direction than I thought I would go originally but sometimes it's nice to set aside your initial reaction and try something new.

Flergs' Chocolate Berry Kit
Glitter style behind "2" Flergs Muted Glitter styles
Stitched Flower from Flergs A Mothers Love Freebie
Font HavingWrit and Euphorigenic

Check it out...Sue tagged me. Funny part is...I read that post and never realized it was me she tagged. *L*

So, you want to know 7 random things about me? OK, but I can't promise they will be interesting. *L*

1. I was only 14 years old when I started dating my husband. I have now been with him for more than half of my life already.

2. My wedding anniversary is the same day as our dating anniversary. When we were young we joked that we would get married on 8-5, the day we went on our first date, and that the new millennium was a great year to get married. 8-5 happened to actually BE a Saturday during 2000, so we stuck to the plan we jokingly set when we I was 16.
3. I knew I was pregnant with my son after only 2 weeks of trying. Talk about a LONG pregnancy! My hair was falling out when I washed it and I thought "not already!?" but sure enough...2 lines.
4. My best friend is a guy. Yup, a man. And my husband is totally OK with it. He calls him his stand-in *L* I spend more time with my best friend than with my husband since he works so much and most people have the wrong impression. When my family invites me to parties they often tell me to bring one or both husbands *L* Seriously though, he's the brother I never had. He's a great guy and he is so good to my kids (he is the Godfather for both). There is nothing romantic goin' on there people .... REALLY!

Please excuse our goofy appearance, this was at the end of a very long & very fun wedding :)

5. I have HORRIBLE luck with cakes... here are just a few of the mishaps..

My daughters 2nd birthday cake. They spelled her name wrong and decided that plopping a big ugly shamrock in the middle of it would disguise it. Notice, it's also lopsided!
This one looks awesome right? Except one little thing. The ONLY thing my daughter asked was for her name to be written in her favorite color BLUE! Over and over I had to hear, Mommy my name will be blue right? And I put on the order form in BOLD letters to make all writing blue. Does that look blue to you? What a shame too, it's a beautiful cake. But oh my goodness were there tears!!!!!
This one I cried over! I had a big first birthday BBQ for my son last year with almost 100 people. I ordered a cake decorated with primary colors. THIS is what I got! My daughter could have written it better and that is their idea of decorating!?!?!?! (I tried to jazz it up a little with candles). I went back to the store and got my money back but I still had to feed that to 100 people!
It's hard to tell in the photo but the most recent cake trauma was at my Mom's 50th. The cake was so perfect when I picked it up. I actually researched where I could get a beautiful cake that actually tasted good in the area and found a woman who does it out of her home. I was determined that this would not be another problem cake. It was beautiful....until I handed it over to the restaurant staff! They must have put something down on the box or something. The whole top left was smooshed and the flowers were mashed .... "Happy" didn't really exist anymore. I can't win. I give up. For now on...I make them.
6. I was an art major in high school and college. Somehow I lost that part of me when I became a SAHM. That's why digital scrapping has become so important to me. I got started digital scrapping because I wanted to make my own Myspace profiles (something I only managed once..it's not that easy!) and siggies for CafeMom (a place I haven't been in months now *L*)

7. I sell AVON. I even sell online. HINT HINT. Boy, that was a shameless plug wasn't it? But since I already said it...shipping is typically $3 or even free :)

Phew! I got into that didn't I? Now I have to tag people...Sorry girls...but here ya go.
Hummie
Julie &
Chris

On a roll....

2008-05-23T09:34:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm trying to get some therapeutic scrapping time in before next week gets chaotic again and I think it's working. I managed to get 2 more of Hummie's challenges done yesterday and I have 2 in the beginning stages for challenges at Sunshine Studios. I still can't seem to get my butt in gear to finish the elements for the May Designer Challenge but look for it soon.

Here's what I accomplished yesterday. I'll warn you now...I'm on a template kick to keep me movin' along *L* The first is for the underpainting filter challenge. It's a very cool technique, you should check it out.

Template d20 side B -Andrea Gold
Papers from DZines by Teri Hanson -Sugar Kissed
Arrow and stitches from Miss Vivi's - Home Sweet Home
Tag from Flergs Denim Blues Kit
Fonts - Pea Ashley and Tempus Sans ITC

The next I was inspired to do when I went to Kim B's blog yesterday and spotted this freebie template. I thought it was so cute and it went so well with a challenge I remembered Hummie posting. This was a hard picture to scrap for me...I LOVE it too much *L*. It's one of my favorites. I take A LOT of pictures and this one always stands out in my mind as one I cherish. So thank you to Hummie and KimB for the inspiration to scrap it.

Template by KimB of DSO
Scalloped edge template from Ana Mara Designs
Papers and all elements except ribbons from KimB's Old Festive Cheer Add-on kit
Title Font is Porcelain
Tab Fonts are (top to bottom) Pristina, Script MT Bold, Segoe Print, Vladmir Script, Aon Cari Celtic.

Now I'm going off subject for a moment. Why? Because it's my blog and I can, so there *LOL* How AWESOME was it when David Cook won American Idol????? Yup, I cried with him. I think I might be in love. Here's a question though....in the beginning I thought he was kind of ...well, odd looking! *L* How is it that by the end I was drooling? Is it purely a matter of growing a scratchy beard and getting a MUCH better haircut...or is it his personality that made him attractive? Who knows. But if you missed it the other night please check out this video. David Cook Rocks!

Challenges and Texas Toast

2008-05-21T15:21:00.000-04:00

Well, I am trying to get my house back together so I haven't had a whole lot of scrapping time. I did, however, manage to get a challenge done at Hummie's that grabbed my attention. She is doing a whole gradient theme at the moment and the latest technique challenge is a simple gradient mask. I would have had a hard time scrapping these pictures but the challenge inspired me to do a layout that I am very happy with. Oh, and by the way ... Hummie is Queen for the Day at DST today so stop in and say hi.

The frame is from Angel Wings N Things - Dirty Boy
The pin is from Heavenly Designs - Paper Bag
The font is Qlassic Bold

I visited Hummie's blog earlier today and she was talking about Texas Toast. Now there was post where this was brought up yesterday. I have to admit ... I thought it was very odd that Texas toast was mentioned in connection with maple syrup. In fact, I was mildly repulsed *LOL* You see, when someone mentions Texas Toast to me I think of this ...
See? I was thinking that Garlic and Maple syrup are not the best combo. From reading Hummie's post it seems that what she calls Texas Toast, I call French Toast *L*. So, Hummie, now I can answer the question posted on your blog...

How do I make my Texas Toast? I take it from the box and throw it in the oven for a few minutes. *L*

As for how I make my French Toast .... I crack a few eggs, a splash of milk, add a generous splash of vanilla extract and a couple shakes of ground cinnamon and then I quickly dip both sides of my bread in it (not too long though...I hate when it stays soggy in the middle) and then I grill it up. If I'm feeling fancy or want to give the kids an extra treat I may sprinkle it with a little confectioners sugar.

So there you go :)

I just needed to scrap.

2008-05-19T22:19:00.000-04:00

I needed to unwind and just sit and scrap something. I couldn't even bring myself to do a challenge, I just needed to let something flow. So here is what I came up with. It's another peice of my daughter's first year scrapbook. Every time I think I'm almost done with her first year I find another event I haven't done yet. These pictures are of her on her first Easter with my Grandmother who passed away a few years ago.

Template 4 by Choukette
Papers are by Betsy Tuma - Spring Thing
Tag is by Kristmess (Kristina Messier) - Merry Kristmess Kit
Flower Doodle by Bunny Cates

I also took time tonight to make that BBQ invitation for my Grandmother. I made a few but I keep coming back to this one. It's the first one I made and I think I'm drawn back to it because of it's simplicity. What do you think? Too simple?

Green Paper is from WetFish Designs
Grill and utensils from Chari Class' Doodle Doodles - BBQ
Date Marker and Strip are from Britt-ish Designs
Alpha is from A Work in Progress - Dandelion Dreams

I'm glad it's over.

2008-05-19T16:50:00.000-04:00

After months of planning the party is over. And I am SO glad! *L* My Mom was 50 this week, Shhh! Don't tell her I spilled the beans. So we had a pretty big party for her. Somehow all the preparty running around was put on me. So I'm so glad that it went well, but glad that all the stress of making sure it did is over. There were a few problems, isn't there always? I got there at 3:30 lugging a TV to display the slideshow I made, along with camera bags, 2 kids, wet umbrellas, a cake, and various other party paraphernalia, only to be told they booked another party before ours and they hadn't left yet. This right after I found out my husband never loaded all the decorations into the car after he told me he did. So he left me there, standing in the lobby, surrounded by piles of electronics to guard and two kids to chase before they disturbed other people's meals so that he can go home and get all the decorations I was there early to put up. Let me tell you...if the people came out one more time and told me 5 more minutes I was gonna scream! But finally they let us in, unfortunately some guests had already arrived but my family is awesome and everyone grabbed decorations and things were up and running in no time flat. We weren't sure if my Mom had figured it out, but judging by the fact that her hair was just back in a quick ponytail and she was dressed in baggy clothes I doubt she knew *L* The only other thing that went a little wrong was that someone at the restaurant must have either put something on top of the cake in the fridge or held the box wrong and the cake that I had gone out of my way to get from a special bakery was a little smooshed and the writing and some of the flowers were screwed up. I just have bad luck with cakes I guess, it's not the first time. But oh, well...it tasted good. REAL good! *L* And as you'll see...my son especially enjoyed it.

I'll stop yackin' now and show a few of the fun pictures from the party. I even jazzed 'em up a bit for ya. *L*

Seriously folks! You know you wish your Grandma was this cool! *L* She was being smart and making faces at the camera when I told her to smile. She never expected me to actually take the picture. Gotcha. (BTW...the frame is from Christiane Enoy's Dune kit, it's one of my all-time favorite kits and it's still there AND free)

Do you think my son enjoyed the cake? Normally I wouldn't allow this but everyone thought it was the cutest dang thing they had ever seen since every scoop he took he would say "UMMY" really loud. And yup, that will definitely get scrapped *L* (recolored double frame from JenLin's Holiday Hearth Kit)

And here is a picture that was taken of my immediate family. Both of my sisters, myself, my husband, Mom and Dad and both of my kids. It's actually a pretty good picture. In fact, it's one of the few pics of myself I don't hate. (frame from Bunny Cates)

A few challenge layouts and a few new pictures.

2008-05-14T19:50:00.001-04:00

Despite feeling a little out of sorts still after my long weekend, I managed to do two challenges in the past few days. The first was one I found at Hummie's World, though it was actually an away challenge from scrapbook-bytes called Creative Ways to use Your Stash. The point of the challenge was to use a photo prong to hold down a fold in a paper or on a photo.

So here is that one...

Photo Prong from Color Line Designs Birthday Collab
Paper and Bracket elements from Amy Teets Sunporch Kit.
Frame is from Ellie's Autumn by Lynn.
Fonts are Snap ITC, Tunga, and Pea Heather.

And I did another challenge at Sunshine Studio Scraps too. That place is just chock full of awesome designers I tell ya. And they are all so friendly! Their 8th Challenge was a font challenge, but with a twist. We weren't assigned a specific font. We all had to use at least two of our favorite fonts in a layout. The point was to maybe introduce people to new fonts they hadn't seen yet. I picked BlackJack which Hummie had done a challenge with and I have been in love with ever since. It's great for titles and journaling both. I also used Pea Alesa, since I love just about ALL of the Pea fonts.

Everything is from the Challenge 7 Freebie Kit Splish Splash from Ellie and Shauna
Fonts are BlackJack and Pea Alesa

And I wanted to share a few more pictures from my weekend. I keep going through them and I just can't stop laughing! So here is a picture of my husband to make you laugh too, you know the poor guy that works 4 jobs and never gets to enjoy himself. He made up for it big time this weekend! Can you tell?
Oh, yeah...that's mine. *LMBO* But to be fair I should post a picture of what I looked like around the same time that night....
Yup, I'm looking a little rough! *L* Talk about droopy eyes! And here is one of my favorite "caught on camera" moments. The groom came back to the table to find one of his best friends in his seat chattin' up his new wife.
Ok...now for a more serious picture and then I'll stop posting. (for now :: HeHe::) Ever have one of those moments that really reminds you what drew you to your husband in the first place? My husband can drive me nuts, but this moment at the wedding reminded me why I love him. Both the bride and groom have lost their Dads. When the wedding party did the first dance one of the bride's uncle's stepped up to dance with the mother of the bride. The mother of the groom was left standing by herself on the side. My husband looked at me and said "That's not right!" and went up and took her hand and danced with her. I just thought it was the sweetest thing and darn it if I didn't cry! But I held off long enough to get a picture *LOL*

I'm back and somewhat recuperated.

2008-05-12T18:07:00.000-04:00

I knew I needed some ME time away from the kids but I didn't realize how much. My mom had the kids overnight this weekend while I went to an out of town wedding. I almost didn't go but I am SO glad that I did! I had the greatest time. My husband needed some down time as much or more than I did and it was nice to see him relax too. I took just shy of 500 pictures so I certainly won't post them all but I would love to share some of the highlights with you.

Have you ever seen a man more in love than the groom? How sweet is his face as the bride comes down the aisle. I almost cried with him.

Here is my husband and I outside the beautiful waterfall at the reception.

And here I am by the end of the night with my best friend and his date. Do i look like I had fun? 'Cause I sure did!

Then I got to come home and enjoy Mother's Day with my husband (for once) and my kids. My husband "didn't have time" to get anything (that's another whole post right there isn't it?) but my Mom took my kids to pick out flowers for me. My daughter sure knows what she wants too. She picked out a basket and said I want that one ... but I want those flowers. And I'll be darned if the florist didn't rearrange the whole thing for her. And she did a beautiful job picking! She also made me a bracelet (which is a little snug, but we won't let her in on that).

Teacher Appreciation Week

2008-05-08T08:13:00.000-04:00

Did you know that this week is National Teacher Appreciation Week? Having several teachers in my family I know just how under-appreciated (not to mention underpaid) these important people are. It's not too late to send a little something into school with your child just to say thank you to their teacher. My daughter's school is having a luncheon for the teachers and staff and I volunteered to bake some dessert. As I was baking it I was thinking how I should share the recipe since I have never once taken this one someplace and not been asked for the recipe multiple times.

Does it look yummy? It is! In fact, it's so yummy that as I was cutting them and packing them up for the school....I snitched one (Shhh, don't tell the teachers...they'll never know *L*)

Anyway...here's the recipe. Oh, and did I mention they are SUPER easy too?

Cream Cheese Bars
2 8 oz pckgs cream cheese, softened
1 cp white sugar
1 egg yolk
1 teasp vanilla
2 8 oz pckgs refrigerated crescent rolls
1/4 cup white sugar
1 teasp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350
Lightly grease a 9X13 pan.
In medium bowl, cream together cream cheese and 1 cp sugar until smooth.
Stir in egg yolk and vanilla
Unwrap one package of crescent rolls, and spread in pan pinching seams together lightly.
Pour and spread cream cheese mix over the crescent rolls.
Unwrap next pckg of crescent rolls and spread on top of cream cheese pinching seams together.
Combine remaining sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the top.
Bake for 30 - 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until the top begins to brown.
Cool and cut into bars.

I also have a bunch of layouts I've done recently and keep forgetting to post. I'll just add a few today so you aren't stuck looking at 20 of them all at once *L*

Here is one that I just finished for the Sunshine Girls Challenge.

Background paper and bracket from Flergs Denim Blues Kit.
Black And White alpha from Seebies Freebies
Blue Alpha from Jessies scrap Shak - Baby's First Haircut kit.
Font is Pea Beth

And, thanks to one of Britt from Britt-ish Designs' NSD Challenges, I finally did a Disney layout. I'm afraid to screw them up so they sit there just asking to be scrapped *L*

Her Royal Highness and Who needs a fairy godmother kits by Britt-ish Designs.
Glitter style by Flergs.
Fonts - Pristina and Edwardian Script

Oh, and last, but certainly not least...have you seen the new Designer Color Challenge at Hummie's? I'm working on my new kit, are you? Here's the color palette. Click it to go to the Challenge thread.

Did you make it?

2008-05-02T23:20:00.001-04:00

The NSD chat at Hummie's World with ACDSee was lots of fun tonight...did you make it? Lots of freebies were handed out including two people winning full-versions of ACDSee, a subscription to Hummie's wonderful tutorial area, an alpha by Hummie and a unique and wonderful Mother book template by Lori. Oh, yeah ... and this little tidbit by me :) If you missed the chat you can still grab it here .... but just know that you missed out on some great laughs watching tons of girls scramble to win the software.

So here is Lynn's Watermelon Picnic. I named it that because it started out with me just playing around with some watermelon elements and my daughter decided to show some interest. The ants and the picnic "blanket"are all her idea and I was so glad to share the time with her while we worked on it together that what choice did I have but to name it after her?

Sorry Download Expired

2008-04-30T20:12:00.000-04:00

I've finally finished the kit I was working on. I am quite happy with how it came out. With the timing of me finishing the kit so close to NSD I decided to give away at the NSD chat with ACDSee on Friday night at Hummie's World. Please come join us if you can.

Visit this thread to learn about the chat and see a preview of my new kit.

My new toy :)

2008-04-25T10:11:00.000-04:00

My recent dabbles in the world of designing scrap kits left me wanting a graphics tablet in the worst way. I had always wanted one but now I needed one (work with me here, I know I didn't NEED it ... but I needed it KWIM?) So yesterday I started a cute little kit and I kept thinking how much easier it would be if I had the tablet. Yup, you guessed it ... I ended up driving 45 minutes to Circuit City and getting myself the Bamboo Fun Small tablet.
I haven't had much time to play around. I got home around 10 and my son just refused to fall asleep. So I only had an hour or so to play last night. At first, I was confused but you catch on pretty quick to how it works. One of the other cool things is that it came with PSE5. So now I can do all those awesome PSE tutorials and learn how to use PSE as well as PSP. So much to learn, so much fun to have :) In fact, I'm going to stop rambling now and go play.

But first...a sneak peak at the new kit I am working on...Can you tell what it is? I'm only giving you a little hint.

I couldn't wait until tomorrow to post this

2008-04-22T14:07:00.000-04:00

Even though I already posted today I just had to add this! I was reading my usual blogs this morning and when I came to Kim B's I found an offer I just couldn't resist! To celebrate her first anniversary at DSO she is having a huge 60% off sale. Now, you may know already that I pretty much only scrap with freebies due to serious budget restraints but I have wanted Kims Unda Da Sea kit since she revealed it! So I checked and it was only $2.80!! Oh, yeah...I scooped it up. By the time I was done I had bought 6 items and only spent $16. Not bad at all seeing as there were 5 commercial items and a full kit! Anyway, I wanted to post today because the sale is today only. And I have already had fun with the kit I wanted. Seriously, how cute are her little sea creatures??
Here is the linked preview for Kim's adorable kit...

Oh yeah...have I got plans for that lobster *LOL*

It was a fun weekend but I'm glad it's over.

2008-04-22T07:45:00.000-04:00

This weekend I learned what it would be like if I had 3 kids and a dog instead of just my two kids. And do you know what conclusion I came to? I'm quite happy with just my two kids *L* Don't get me wrong, for the most part we had a blast...but it's exhausting. I ended up puppy-sitting for my sister. Her dog, Einstein, is a rambunctious puppy. It was actually fun at first, he rode around in the car with us, he came to the ice cream place with us, he resisted the strong urge to jump all over the kids and lick the skin off their face. He even slept by my feet...until a noise in the house scared him and he crawled up to lay upside down ON my pillow and snore in my ear. But it was so cute that I just laid there and giggled for the last hour before the kids woke up. You can not imagine how loud this little dog can snore! Well, apparently he decided he liked my house and was comfortable there...because he decided to "mark" my daughters bed!! And as I was cleaning up that mess ... he went in the livingroom and marked MY COUCH!! Are you serious? Didn't I just get rid of this problem? So he got put in the kennel for just over an hour, and then I felt bad and let him out. STUPID! He jumped up on the couch and did it again! Now 4 of my 6 cushions have been "Einsteined"! Ugh! What a mess. I couldn't wait for him to go home. But after another 2 hour timeout in the kennel he came up and behaved himself. Of course, I wouldn't even let him out of my sight for a millisecond! (by the way, in case you are wondering...the thing on his eye is called cherry eye (I think) and it gets taken care of next month) As I mentioned, I also had a third child this weekend. One of my daughters BFF's spent the night Saturday. The girls are so darn cute during sleepovers. Even if they were up until midnight and seriously irritable the next day. Notice that my son found a way to worm himself in there too.
I took my new little gang outside to play in the beautiful weather we finally got and I decided to take my camera and practice some action shots before Tee-ball starts. I got some really fun shots and got much better at taking action shots by the end.

I'll stop now, I just wanted to share them with you because I think they are so fun. I love the way the last one came out, I just wish I could see their faces :( These are all unedited, they will be so much better when I do a little cropping. I didn't want to leave them outside long enough to go get the long range lens *L*

One last thing..I'm still trying to get my daughters first year scrapped and I managed to find time last night to do another layout. I am so happy with this one so I wanted to share it.

All papers and elements from a beautiful kit by "designs by vicki" called Pompey. I did recolor the swirls.

The fonts are Windsong and Vademecum.

A few Soggy Spring layouts and then it's Alpha Time!

2008-04-15T21:10:00.001-04:00

I finally got a chance to do a few layouts with all the great kits that came from Hummie's April Designer Color Palette Challenge. There is so much great stuff over there and it is such a wonderful and supportive environment. I strongly encourage you to check out Hummie's World if you haven't already. The April Challenge is LOADED with fantastic kits that are yours for the taking. They are all based on the same color palette and you might even think of it as one huge collaborative mega kit. You can now find links to all the kits on the first page of the thread, however for the previews you would need to go through the posts or the gallery. Yes, there are a lot of pages but you may just find yourself quite amused at our silly antics :)

This one uses a background and stickers from Julie's kit and her add on doodles.
I also used the grass element from Hummie's.

These two were both done with my own kit.
For the second layout I used a template from "Templates by Erica"
Do you like that Alpha on the second one? I hope so...
Because it's yours if you want it :)

Here you go...my next freebie ...

SORRY DOWNLOAD EXPIRED
And if you didn't get it before ... here is the link for my free Soggy Spring kit.

That was exciting!

2008-04-12T12:26:00.000-04:00

Wow, do you know how scary it is to put out a first kit? I know that I like it, but is it good enough for everyone else? Had I just convinced myself that it was nice because it's was mine? *L* But as of now I've had 60+ downloads so somebody out there must have liked it. I would like to thank all of you! I hope you enjoy it, and make beautiful things.

I mentioned in my last post that Miss Chris has a kit with matching colors, but my friend Julie has now added her part to her blog. She just got a new tablet and made some adorable doodles. My personal favorite is the ladybug :)

It's finally done...please enjoy!

2008-04-10T22:04:00.001-04:00

Remember when I mentioned that I hadn't been blogging for a good reason? Well, here it is. At Hummie's World there is a monthly Designer Color Palette Challenge. This month I decided to try my hand at designing a kit for the very first time. I loved the colors that Hummie chose and I had such a fun time. I actually think it came out very good, especially seeing as I had never even made a paper before *L* I worked hard on it and I am very proud of it. So I hope that you can take what I have made and use it for your own projects.

Without further ado .... (HeHe ... just had to, sorry!)

Here is my first ever freebie for you. Please Enjoy. There are two separate downloads for you. I would love to see what you make with it so please send links :) Happy Scrapping!

SORRY DOWNLOAD EXPIRED

I hope to make a few more traditional frames and an alpha as add-ons, so check back later to see if there is more for you :)

Oh, and by the way ...

You can also pick up my friend Miss Chris' similar kit on her blog. Feel free to stop by and give her some support too! It was her first time too : ) Thanks

And our wonderfully talented and always amusing Julie has also made a kit with the same color palette. Please check it out here.

Did ya miss me?

2008-04-10T16:37:00.000-04:00

Sorry, I neglected my blog again. But I have good reasons this time! I have been a busy little bee. Since my last post I have done quite a bit actually. More than I can write in one post and not bore you all.

I guess I should update you on how the house is handling the absence of the cat. It was hard at first, and I still have some serious guilt issues, but the relief part is setting in too. It dawned on me as I was carefully stepping out of the shower the day after dropping her off that I could once again actually have a bath mat! For some reason every time I put one down she peed on it! And then I came out and saw my remaining cat trying to get comfortable in his ugly wicker bed and realized he could finally have a comfy cushion bed since the other cat would no longer jump in it and ruin it! so I headed out to the store the next day. Target loves his new bed. He is always laying in it. It must be so nice not to have broken wicker poking him in the butt while he naps *L* You can tell he is confused though. Every now and then he lays at the door near the top of the stairs just waiting to hear Dixie Meow to come up like she used to. And today I found him looking under my bed where she used to lay as if to say "where did she go?" My daughter handled it better than I expected. She cried, and she said she would miss her. But I think even at 6 she understands that this was not easy for me and that it was not healthy for us to have her in the house.

OK, on to more cheery things! My Mom will be 50 next month and we are throwing her a party. I was (of course) given the job of making invitations. I went a slightly different route this time and I hope I am happy with the outcome. I created postcards instead of traditional folded cards. I scrapped a 4.25X6 image and uploaded it to Walmart.com with all the party info all entered on the back already. I'll let you know how it goes. But here is the image that takes up the whole front of the postcard.

The background papers are from Maman Scrap Passion's Bonne Annee kit.
I made the 50 by recoloring one of the papers and
adding some glitter by Flergs (Muted Glitters).
I used a scalloped template by Ana Mara as well.
The font is Harrington.

And things were going so well....

2008-04-02T23:33:00.001-04:00

Today I woke up feeling good and things just seemed to go so well. Even the silly things like the coffee coming out just perfect pleased me *L* There was no fighting to get everyone out the door, they all cooperated and things were so smooth. My results came in from my cholesterol tests and I am very happy. My cholesterol went from 255 to 217 (still high, but I dropped almost 40 points in 2 months of dieting alone) and my triglycerides, which were a MAJOR concern had been astronomically high at 554 and are now down to ...are you ready?....164!!! AWESOME! That's barely considered high now and I was in the DANGEROUSLY high zone before. I got on the scale and realized I am down another 2 lbs this week. Which brings me down into the 170's from 195.5. I have pretty far to go but I am happy to see results. As the Mom of two young kids it isn't always easy to stick to a diet let me tell you. For instance, my daughter came home with a note from school about McTeacher night being tonight. Several of the teachers from her school were going to be working the counter at the local McDonalds and a large portion of the profits went back to the school. Despite the fact that I wonder about the intelligence behind encouraging unhealthy eating I decided to take the kids. We had a good time actually. Things were going well, so I decided to try and attempt a late night trip to the mall. I wanted to exchange a slew of old games that we never play and try to get the new Karaoke Revolution American Idol game my husband and I both wanted. I got $70 worth of credit for games we haven't played in ages and managed to get AI and put a deposit down on Mario Kart Wii. Hubby almost wet himself when he found out the new game would come with a steering wheel and everything. When we were teens I had people over my house to play Mario Kart on the N64 all the time and we had a BLAST. So we are looking forward to reliving our teen years with that one. The kids behaved SO WELL in the store. It takes a while to go through all those games and do the transfer. Even the 1 year old sat in the stroller patiently. It was so nice. So they got a yummy ice cream treat for a reward!

Sounds like a great day right? Well, it was. Too bad I really mean WAS :( My daughter mentioned being cold when we got home but I didn't think much of it (she only weighs 32 lbs at 6 years old, not much to keep her warm anyway) until my feet turned to icicles while playing my new game. I get up and check....sure enough, no heat again! Why couldn't this wonderful day have ended well? I'm really going to try not to think about how pissed I am that this is the fourth time I have to call the furnace guy in since last Thursday. The landlord is trying to wait for summer to replace the furnace but I think enough is enough. I am going to try to think of how cute my kids looked tonight with ice cream all over their little faces after having such a fun time....for once, I want to look on the bright side. But man...thinking of ice cream makes me think how cold it is in here!!!! *LMAO*

I did what I had to do, but I'm not happy about it.

2008-04-01T16:07:00.001-04:00

Well, I did it. I didn't back out like I feared I would. I packed up the cat and I took her back to the shelter where I got her. I can't believe it. It's something I never in a million years thought I would do. I would love to adopt more animals not get rid of them. But what could I do? It turns out that it's been almost 5 years since I adopted her. I dealt with the issues for almost five years and now I just gave up. I feel horrible. My brain knows that I dealt with the urinating longer than most people would and that I tried SO much. But my heart says there had to be something I could have done. I'm afraid that they will really give up on her and she will be euthenized. I try not to think about it. They said that there is hope still. They are going to do what they can to find her a home where she won't do it. Maybe in a home without kids. They are taking her to a different vet to see what he says and if there is something my vet missed. I thought I would feel some relief that's it's over but right now I feel too terrible to care about the 1,000 pee spots I've cleaned up over the years. I hope that changes. And I hope my 6 year old understands once I get the nerve to tell her.

Poor thing knew something was up.

And so did my poor son. He didn't like that she was in the bag. He knew she didn't like it. It broke my heart. When they took her out of the room he said "Our MEOW!" It nearly broke me! I nearly took her and her pee and got back in the car.

Is March over yet?

2008-03-31T19:13:00.001-04:00

Wow, March has been chaotic! Just too much was going on this month and I can't wait for it to be over. April 1st will be like starting over, it can't be as crazy as March. Or can it? Boy, I sure hope not.

Tomorrow I take the cat I've had for almost four years and turn her in to the Humane Society. Believe me, this is a last resort. She has major issues with urinating in the house. I've taken her to vets, changed litters uncountable times, put multiple boxes throughout my house including one that "cleans itself" and I spent a small fortune on, I even went and got another cat because I was told maybe she is "lonely" since she came from a shelter with lots of other cats. Nothing works. In the past week and a half she peed IN my daughters bookbag, ruining her books and homework (it was quite embarrassing to bring her to school and explain that), I left the house and kept smelling it but couldn't figure it out ... until that is I realized that my son was wearing a hat that she had peed on and it had dried up so in my haste to leave the house I never noticed (how disgusting!!!), and then to top it all off nicely I woke up Sunday morning to find a puddle of cat pee in my $100+ leather coat. I'm done, there is nothing more I can do at this point. I tried to find a farm to take her and had no luck. I tried Animal Kind but they only take strays. So back to the shelter she goes and I can only hope that they don't put her down. I have dealt with this for so long because I was told that cats with this problem get put down. I truly hope they find another solution. It is going to break my heart to hand her over tomorrow but I need to think about how unsanitary it is for my children to live in a house with this cat.

Well, now that I have vented I'll move on. It's been a little crazy this week. My furnace is going "wonky" on me and I woke up twice with no heat and once with the whole house filled with the smell of oil *yuck*. So I haven't blogged and I haven't done much scrapping either. I only got one lonely little layout done but I'll share :) You may even recognize one of the pictures.

Hummies Template #17
Papers by Ditters Doodles, Gyrlie World Kit
Font is Pea Alesa

And I am kind-of excited about a tutorial I just found tonight. I keep hearing designers talk about how they photograph textures to use in their papers and kits. But I had no clue how to take my photographs and turn them into a PSP texture. Tonight I came across this site called pspmadeez.com and there was a tutorial on making your own textures! How cool is that? It is so easy too. So if you use PSP and you want to know how to make your own textures go check it out!

Easter is over!

2008-03-24T18:08:00.000-04:00

Yup, Easter is finally over. I just wasn't feelin' it this year :( I even forgot to leave the poor Bunny a carrot for all his efforts. Oh, well ... I guess he gets 2 next year.

But what does it mean when Easter is over? Well, it means lots of leftover hard-boiled eggs, that's what. And what does that mean? Oh yeah, Egg salad sandwiches. I tried to resist the urge since it's not really diet friendly but it kept coming up over at Hummie's and the temptation was too strong. *L* So, Hummie ... this picture is for you ....

Our eggs before:

And after:

See all those chunks I was talking about. Yummy! *L*

Anyway, enough about my sandwich :) Here is the real reason I enjoy Easter (usually). My two awesome kids. I had fun helping my daughter get dressed again this year. She picked everything out but I helped her put it all together. She wanted her "Miley Cyrus" hair (blown straighter) with sparkles. And Mommy remembered her QuickClips in time to add a few gems in there too. It looked so cute! She even got sunglasses in her Easter Basket that matched her dress. When she walked into church everyone started talking about how darn cute she was. Makes a Mommy proud :) Unfortunately boys aren't quite so much fun to dress but he looked handsome too. I even managed to get a few pictures of myself with the kids thanks to my nifty new shutter remote :) So here we all are:

Here is one of my two little wonders.

And finally, my little lady and her sparkly hair...

Wow. What a mess I almost made!

2008-03-21T16:03:00.000-04:00

Hee Hee. I decided to play around with my blog. BAD IDEA *LOL* Not ready for that yet I guess. I changed to a 3 column template and I lost my header. Couldn't figure out the problem so I switched back to the template I had saved...and Uh Oh..still no header. All is well now, I have my header back after reuploading it. I may even know what the problem is with the 3 column template but I am not going through all that again today. For now, go take a look at all my pretty blinkies and visit some of those great blogs if you haven't already. The Sunshine "Girls" have a new Free Collab kit up that's awesome for Easter/Spring. I love their stuff.

Speaking of stuff I love...guess what Hummie did. Remember the kit I last posted about? Remember my layout? Weeellllllll, Hummie liked it so much she recreated my element cluster and is giving it away as a Freebie. So, in an indirect way...it's sorta my freebie too *LOL* Here it is ... But hurry, it's a very limited time freebie.

Crazy birthday weekend and a great new kit from Hummie

2008-03-19T09:40:00.000-04:00

Six? Really? My daughter is six already? Part of me feels like it was yesterday she was born and another part of me can't believe I was ever anything but a Mommy. Her birthday happened to fall on the weekend so she was able to have a party on the actual day this year. We took her and 5 of her closest friends to a local pottery place and they all got to paint a piece of pottery to keep. They are all very crafty kids so it was a big hit. This year Lynn wanted me to make her cake instead of buy it. She wanted a tall princess cake with towers. It had to be decorated pink and purple but she wanted one blue tower up on top. Oh, and the towers had to have flags of course. Too bad she has no clue what she wants, huh? *L* So here is the final result. Keep in mind it's the first big cake I decorated. I love to bake, but I usually don't go all out in the decorating department. However, it was fun making the flags since I digital scrapped them *LOL*

And here's the birthday girl with her cake ...
*sigh* It's hard to see them grow sometimes. My youngest is going to be 2 this summer and then I have no babies. And he is my last so it can be tough sometimes. But there is always something new and fun about each age (at least for now *L*).

The whole weekend was hectic, with Lynn's birthday came 2 parties, the kids pottery party and a small family gathering at my Mom's where we all got to have yummy corned beef and cabbage in honor of Saint Patrick's Day. And one of her BFF's was born on Saint Patrick's Day so there was a bowling party to attend too. I had fun but I'm glad it's over. I was so stressed the cake would come out bad, or I would forget the goodie bags, or I'd get there and realize I never brought the forks or something. I'm such a worry-wart.

As opposed to rambling on more about my crazy week I would like to show you something. Over at Hummie's World forum we had a discussion about how there was an abundance of "cartoony" St. Patrick's Day kits but nothing that was really about Irish culture and just pretty. Silly leprechaun hats and giant four leaf clovers have their place but I kept hoping for a kit to scrap pictures expressing our heritage not just about one day. I asked...and Hummie delivered. How great is that? Check out this beautiful kit she made as an add-on to her already wonderful Heritage kit. She posted a freebie Celtic cross on her blog and you can click the image to purchase the whole kit.

And here is the first layout that I have done with the kit.

I used an Andrea Gold template (#209) but took the flowers out.
Hummie's Irish Heritage Add-on Kit (link above)
The fonts are Minya Nouvelle and Lucida Handwriting

Look what I've been missing...

2008-03-14T10:21:00.000-04:00

The hubby is the one who usually takes my daughter down to the bus stop in the morning because he leaves at that same time for work anyway. But this week he has had a few extra overnight shifts at the rescue squad and it's been my job. My daughter and I stepped out the door yesterday morning to find a beautiful scene. A gorgeous colored sunrise. So, of course, as soon as the bus picked her up I ran inside and grabbed my trusty D40. I actually missed the most spectacular part of it but I managed to get some very pretty shots anyway. Especially in contrast to the dismal wintery foreground. Even in the minute I was taking pictures it went from this pretty pink to a gorgeous deep blue. I can't wait to see some signs of Spring here but this sunrise gave me a little hope that it's coming.

Argh!

2008-03-06T15:51:00.000-05:00

Enter the ICHC online Poker Cats Contest!

HeHe...I thought that was appropriate given all the crazy pirate nonsense going around the digital scrap community lately. I was having a bad day (broken washing machine and the repairman won't return my call!) so I took a trip over to Icanhascheezburger.com to cheer myself up. It kinda worked :) for now anyway.

I did a challenge over at Hummies again. I seem to find good inspiration over there, along with some friendly people to chat with. Here is what I did with my daughter's Christening pics from 2002. I am so glad I am getting some of the older stuff scrapped now.

Done for Template Challenge at Hummies World. (Temp #37)
Paper and elements by Fraisinette (Moka-Creme Kit)
Title Font is ChocolateBox
Journaling Font is Rage Italic

Not sure what happened...

2008-03-05T08:07:00.000-05:00

I have no clue why, but Blogger kept telling me my email didn't exist and I couldn't log in. I had to log in to Google and come in "the back way". Strange.

Anyhow, It was a pretty good weekend so not much computer time anyway. My daughter had her first ever slumber party at a friends house. She is only 5 (very soon to be 6) and already she has her own little Clique. She has two friends that she met in gymnastics when she was almost 3 who have totally become her BFFs. Greatest thing is, all of us parents have gotten pretty close too. The girls are VERY close in age. I mean VERY. *L* All 3 were born in the same 2 week period. The first birthday girl had her party this weekend and her parents were brave enough to take on the first ever sleepover after the main party. There were four girls all together, The 3 musketeers as we often refer to them and another little girl that my daughter and the birthday girl are friends with from school. The girls had such a blast! It's so scary to see your "baby" growing up but it makes you proud too. She made it through the night without a problem. Since my Blogger is working again I thought I would share a picture that the Mom took right before they settled in....or at least, were supposed to settle in *L* Look for scrap pages in the future since I am sure they will be coming.

I also did another challenge over at Hummies. Actually a double for me since it worked for 2 challenges. Here it is.

This was done for the Cut Out text Challenge and the Template Challenge (#36) over at Hummies World.
The papers I used were from a kit by Beanela called Dreaming.
The fonts used are Boopee and Book Antiqua.
Template is obviously by Hummie.
I also used a tutorial from 3Scrapateers to add a drop shadow to transparent images in PSP without ruining the transparent effect.

Another layout and a useful PSP tip

2008-02-28T18:35:00.001-05:00

When I first bought Paint Shop Pro (PSP) XI I would sometimes get confused about where I was supposed to install certain things. If I tried to install a new frame the site would tell me to put it in the Picture Frames folder. Makes sense, huh? Too bad Corel replaced the sensible and straightforward folder labels with a numerical system in version XI. Who knows why. ::shrugs:: At some point I came across a list of which number corresponded with the old folder names. I found it in a PSP group on CafeMom. It has become a great tool of mine so I would like to share it with you.

Former PSP Folder Name - PSP XI Folder Name

Brushes Corel_01
Bump Maps Corel_2
Deformation Maps Corel_3
Displacement Maps Corel_4
Environmental Maps Corel_5
Gradients Corel_6
Masks Corel_7
Patterns Corel_8
Picture Frames Corel_9
Picture Tubes Corel_10
Preset Shapes Corel_11
Selections Corel_12
Styles Lines Corel_13
Swatches Corel_14
Textures Corel_15
Mixer Pages Corel_16

Hopefully that helps someone out there.

I was on a roll last night and had to scrap one of my favorite pictures of my son since I found the perfect kit to do it.

This is a great western or equestrian kit by Thaliris called Equitation.
The fonts used are Blackjack and Wild West Shadow.

Wow, 2 posts in 1 day...

2008-02-27T10:57:00.000-05:00

While browsing through the Gallery over at Hummies I came across this page by Magnolia57 that I loved. I had just gotten my daughters class photo yesterday so I guess I thought it was perfect timing and couldn't resist jumping right into it :)

Here is Magnolia57's original layout. Feel free to leave her some love!

And here is my version of it. Now please bear in mind the fact that I felt it necessary to block out the kids names and faces. This is a current picture and I didn't feel comfortable posting other kids faces and names to the public. So it doesn't give the full effect.

The yellow paper on the bottom is from cafe Digi's Lifes Journey
The font is Pristina
The frame I made myself using colors from the page.
I used a texture that was preloaded into PSP

I knew I'd cave..

2008-02-27T08:36:00.001-05:00

Yup, I scrapped the new pictures. *L* But I compromised with myself. I made myself do an older picture too. Oh, and guess what ... I lost another two lbs this week. I would love to maintain a 2 lb a week loss, it would be perfect. I don't want to lose it too fast, it tends to go back on easier that way. Two pounds a week would put me at goal in about 4 months, perfect for my July vacation : )

Here are my newest pages ...

Here is what I did with the tooth pictures ...

This one was a mash of different kits...
Layered Template by Andrea Gold (temp #205)
Flergs blue paper (Deacon's Closet kit)
Digital Crea pink paper (Little Flower kit)
Cafe Digi Purple paper (Life's Journey)
Scrappin Texas Style elements (Tooth fairy kit)
Amandas DS Freebies blue notepaper recolored (Note Paper)
Verena Karolyi white notepaper (you_are_beautiful kit)
Font is Minya Nouvelle

And here is a picture from when my daughter was about 7 or 8 months old. The girl always had her tongue out!

This was done for the Technique Challenge (Knock Out Ribbon) over at Hummies World
All of the papers and elements came from Ellies ScrapKit Challenge - Autumn
The frame was made from one of the papers.
The font is Papyrus

Perhaps I found that inspiration I needed :)

2008-02-26T09:31:00.000-05:00

My baby girl is getting so big. I spent the morning making calls to plan her 6th birthday party! Seriously? SIX? And if that wasn't bad enough, last night she lost her first tooth. She was SO excited! I was so happy that it happened at home so I could get pictures *L* I even have it on video this time. She came up to me and said Mommy, I think it's REALLY loose now! Sure enough, it was sticking way up and ready to go. So I jokingly asked if she wanted me to pull it out. To my surprise she walked out of the room to get a tissue. So I put down the video camera and pulled it out. It came out so easy, even I was surprised. So out come the video camera and the D40. We went out for pizza as a mini-celebration of her getting so big. She was so excited to put the tooth under her pillow she was ready for bed 45 minutes early! So here are a few of the pictures I took. I can totally see me forgetting all about that promise I made myself to scrap the older stuff first and scrapping this today : )
Oh, and BTW...I am kinda proud of myself too! Notice the difference in her skintone between the two pictures. The first one was on auto and the second picture was taken in Program mode with the exposure and White balance readjusted by me. Admittedly it could be a bit sharper but I am still very happy that I was able to change things to make the picture come out more the way I wanted it. I mean, my daughter is Irish but lets not be ridiculous in thinking she is THAT pale *L* Then again, maybe she is and I am just in denial..either way I like the second one better *LMAO*

Where is my Mojo?

2008-02-25T09:16:00.000-05:00

It's gone. The desire to scrap and take pictures is strong. But I just can't seem to do anything. I started 3 different layouts yesterday only to delete them. I wonder if my problem is that I promised myself I would go back and scrap the stuff from when my daughter was a baby and work my way forward. Back then I thought my camera was wonderful, I was so happy to have a digital camera. It was a Toshiba PDR-M25, 2.2 megapixels, 3X's optical zoom. I thought it was fabulous. Boy was I wrong! The pictures are terrible looking back on them. So much noise, so few are correctly exposed. It takes so much PSP work just to make them somewhat OK. It's frustrating. Check out this picture...what should have been a great family moment is a dark grainy mess.Technically this next one is a different pic but it had the same problems. The original was so bad (as you see) it wasn't worth keeping. I had to play around with it and the best I could do was this...
When you have to play around with every picture it gets old fast. Can you believe they still sell that camera for $150 - $200!!! I guess (which I did not realize at the time) this camera is designed to support optional lenses and filters similar to a SLR. But if the camera itself takes crappy pictures who cares if it can use a wide angled lens. You'll end up with a wide angled crappy picture *L* Why pay $200 for this when there are SO many other great cameras on the market? I had 2 Kodak Easy Shares and both were far better than this. The biggest problems with them are usually exposure but there are ways around it (which of course I learned AFTER using my DSLR and gaining more knowledge of photography). It is amazing what you can correct with White Balance. And that "way too bright" flash on the newer P&S cameras...put a coffee filter over it! May not look as pretty but your pictures will be so much better.

I'm rambling, sorry. Let's recap...if anyone knows where my Mojo is, can you please send it home? And please don't buy a 7 year old model camera...it makes no sense..technology has come SO far in those years! Oh yeah, and I have gotten spoiled with all these "great right from the camera" pics I take with my Nikon D40.

Wow! What a weekend!

2008-02-19T16:00:00.000-05:00

I got one of the worst scares of my life this past Friday. I got a call saying my Grandma was admitted to the hospital because she had two blocked arteries. My best friend just lost his Grandfather about 2 months ago after he went in with a blocked artery. So that was the first thing on my mind. I was supposed to be going away this weekend and I was afraid to go. Then we heard that they wouldn't do anything until Monday and I decided to try and keep my mind off it by still going (I wasn't very far away, only 2 hours). I'm happy to say that I managed to have a very good time this weekend and more importantly that my Grandmothers cardiac cath went PERFECT yesterday!

It just wouldn't end....

2008-02-15T13:12:00.000-05:00

Wow, my son just would not get healthy! He started with a chest cold, that became an ear infection, he wasn't even done with his antibiotics before he came down with a nasty stomach bug, and then he finished off (I HOPE!) with a virus that gave him a fever of 102 for no explainable reason. In this same time period my daughter had the chest cold, I came down with Strep for a THIRD time this year, and then my daughter ended up catching the stomach bug from my son and missed two days of school. As you can tell, it's been a rough 3 weeks+. Things are looking up now though : ) All 3 of us seem to be on the road to health. My husband treated me good on valentines day for once. He brought home a rose and 2 carnations (one from each child), a box of the Dove Truffle hearts I love so much and he took me out to dinner at one of my favorite Italian places. Not so good for the Weight Watchers I started but I refuse to lose out on important things like time with my hubby because of a diet. I need something I can stick to. I lost 4 lbs last week by the way. Yay for me.
I am so excited! My sister is watching my kids for me so I can slip away for a weekend with my friends. It's my BFF's 30th birthday this coming week and he wanted to go to a casino for the weekend. I've never been to one so I am looking forward to it a great deal. After the last 3 weeks I am in serious need of a break.
I only managed to get one layout done since last time (sad huh?) I was slightly inspired by valentines day.

All papers and elements came from the Collab Kit called "Love Actually".
I used a template from "designs by Luisa" (No TOU)

Not much but illness going on here ...

2008-01-28T19:43:00.001-05:00

Not much to post seeing as my kids have been sick for a week. First it was my daughter and then my son got it and in his usual style, he took what was just a bad cold and turned it into a big deal. This poor kid gets sick all the time and it's never "just a sniffle" either. Grrr. So now he is on albuterol and prednisone and we are hoping he doesn't end up on Azithromycin too since his one ear was getting red but not yet infected. Hope to be back doing a few layouts soon.

Only missed one day this time L

2008-01-24T19:17:00.000-05:00

I managed to make it back this time. I did miss a day but who can expect perfection when there isn't much to say. Chance are very high that not one soul has seen this blog but me anyway. Oh, well...gotta start somewhere. Hopefully someday I may even get good enough in PSP and confident enough in myself to try designing something. Now that I finally have a great camera I am also trying to work on my photography. I got a Nikon D40 for Christmas and really haven't been brave enough to do anything off of the auto settings yet. I am not usually a "manual reader" type person but I want to make sure I understand what I am doing to a certain extent before I go flipping a bunch of buttons that I don't know how to reset. So I have been reading "Digital DSLR camera's and photography for Dummies", I thought it was a good place to start. I am learning a lot but I am still finding exposure settings daunting. All the fractions and ratios make my head spin. I looked into a digital photography class at the local college but they offered what I need in the Fall and aren't doing it for Spring classes. My luck, right?

I did manage to do a page yesterday evening. I was cleaning up the house and had put a movie on for the kids. I peek in the livingroom to check on them and find them snuggled up together watching the movie on the couch. Damned if my heart didn't just melt. I love to see them getting along. They sure do their share of bickering over toys and such. I just had to snap a picture and could not resist the urge to scrap it after they went to bed.

The heart shape is actually a preset button shape with the holes filled in from "scrap-stuff-with-psp"
The other papers and elements all came from Raspberry Road's Strolling Along kit.
Fonts used are "4990810" (the stamped look) and "Bickley Script"

I'm back

2008-01-22T12:27:00.001-05:00

Jeez, I barely got started before I disappeared huh? Well, the holidays were crazy and I just realized taking on one more thing wasn't going to work. So lets try again shall we? I have been a busy woman since I last blogged. I have managed however to download tons of wonderful digital scrap kits and even pulled off a few layouts. I have been meaning to go back and start at the beginning for a while. I didn't really know much about digiscrapping when my daughter was born and although I loved the idea of paper scrapping (and even started one) it was just too much effort and mess. So now that I have discovered this awesome world of digital scrapping I am finally going back to scrap my daughters first years as well as the new stuff.

For today, and to get me off and running on this blog again...I'm going to post a few of them. Don't be too critical. I'm still learning : )

For this layout I used the Baby Logan Kit from Sue's Desk.
Except the frames, they are from Raspberry Road's Hearts Desire kit.

This one is kind of a mix and match layout.
Paper by Janniscrap (My Sweet baby boy kit)
Top Frame by Cafe Digi (Lifes Journey)
Bottom Frame by JenLin (Forget Me Nots - slightly recolorized)
Tag by Sues Desk (Baby Logan Kit)This one is all from the same kit. Finbar the Frog by CanDesigns (Mermaid's Haven)
I did use a preset shape to make the "flower" shapes but I believe it was one that came with PSP.

That's good for now, right? At least I remembered this blog existed : ) For anyone who may wonder, I make all of my layouts in PSP XI.

Gotta lose weight

2007-10-25T10:20:00.000-04:00

I went to the doctor a few weeks ago and my blood tests came back pretty bad. My cholesterol is high and my triglycerides are through the roof. They are supposed to be between 100 and 150 and mine are 554 (yikes!). So I started a diet right away (after having a huge cheeseburger the night I found out ... just to say goodbye *L*) I'm a little disappointed with my results. I weighed myself Wednesday morning and had lost 1.5 lbs. I try to tell myself that at least I lost something but the first week should be higher than that. When I did Weight Watchers after my daughter was born I lost 7 lbs the first week. And I made things worse by weighing myself Monday and being down 3 lbs. Somehow in 2 days I added 1.5 back on : ( I've been so much better about what I eat, not perfect but much much better. I had hoped for at least 3 lbs or 4 lbs and only had 1.5 lbs lost. Oh, well...can't change the past, you can only work harder in the future, right? Wish me luck.

Hello Blogging World...

2007-10-23T22:11:00.000-04:00

I am very new to the blogging world and as of now I have no clue where this will lead or if anyone will care. I have many interests so who knows what direction I may take. One of my favorite things that I have found on Blogger is all the wonderful people who design for digital scrapping and share their wonderful work. I'm sure I will add some freebie links at some point.

For instance ... check out Happy Scrap Girl she has tons of links all the time for great freebies.