Thanksgiving...

We're off for 5 days and I'm hoping to get some XMAS projects done! I scrapped calendars last year, so I'm thinking about something different this time around. I have a few hybrid projects in the works, but can't really discuss yet as SOME people who read this won't be surprised when then get their gift if I do... but I'll be sure to upload and share soon. We should be busy visiting with both families over the Thanksgiving holiday, but it's a relaxing busy... you know what I mean? Rather than busy with work, the kids, etc.

Anyway, be sure to tell those you love how much they mean to you over the holiday. I know we have a lot to be thankful for: healthy children, families that love us, a comfortable home and food when we're hungry, good jobs... my list goes on. I know we are blessed and I will never take that for granted. Hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving!

Back to scrapping...

I've not had as much time as I'd like to scrap, so I'm working on it right now! In the meanwhile, be sure to check out what the girls have cooking! You can find my designers in the sidebar- the blinkies are clickable- so go check out the great stuff from Andrea Gold, Christy Skaggs, and Amanda Kay. :) More to come soon so keep an eye on the new slide too!

Halloween, tee ball and oh yeah...DSD!!!

I guess it's been busy around here because I almost missed DSD!

First we had Halloween, the next morning was Jaxon's semi-final tee ball tournament and after all of that I was feeling sick, tired and just overall crummy. But I came home and turned on the computer to check e-mail and realized it was DSD! I knew it was coming, but had forgotten about it. I rarely shop (for anything really- how I'm related to my mom and sister who are world-class shoppers, I have no idea!)... but I had to grab a few deals out there, so be on the lookout for some new layouts. I'm adding a new slide of recent layouts in the sidebar, so be sure to check them out. :)

Hope you had a great DSD! :)

Check out what I made to show my class!

I started working on it this afternoon and I'm so pleased with how it came out I wanted to share it! Credits are on the last page, but in case you can't see it, I'm including it here too.

5 Little Pumpkins (traditional poem)- "Halloween borders" by Christy Skaggs @ GDS, "All Hallows Eve" by One Memory at a Time @ GDS, "Enchanted Forest" by Milla Designs @ Catscrap, and "October Rust" by Miss Mint @ Peppermint Creative. Font: GG Katie.

Enjoy! I know my kiddos will love seeing this projected on the big screen. :)

See KCB's October releases and prepare to be amazed!

As always, Kristin Cronin-Barrow at Sweet Shoppe Designs, creates rich, gorgeous kits and this month is no exception. I am BEYOND THRILLED to be her guest this month and want to show you her two newest releases.

New this week from KCB: "Playtime". Aren't the colors in this kit fun? I just got it and can't wait to play with it. Check it out below or click HERE.


Now check out "Moments in Time"- talk about a versatile kit. I can dream up TONS of layouts for this kit and I'm sure you can too! Check it out below or click HERE to get in in the shoppe:

Here's another new one this month, "Nature's Retreat" by KCB and Meg Mullens. I have already played with this kit and it is FULL of fabulous elements and papers. Click HERE to get it at the shoppe.

Check out the new stuff...

From the fabulous designers at GDS I'm lucky to create for!

First Andrea has lots of exciting stuff happening! She put over 70 items in her shoppe on clearance 50% off!! And, she's running a promotion through October 15th. If you spend $5 in her shoppe at GDS including her clearance items, she'll send you a $5 gift coupon to my shoppe!! WOW! Not to mention the challenges she got going on over there. Check out her shoppe or her blog for more info.

Here's 2 new kits from Andrea Gold: Click here for the "Possibilities" Page Kit.


Click here for the "Just for Fun" Page Kit.


Also at GDS, check out these kits: "Hocus Pocus" by Christy Skaggs and "All Hallows Eve" from One Memory at a Time. Not only are they both adorable and perfect for October, but they compliment each other beautifully!

Click here for "Hocus Pocus" by Christy Skaggs.

And click here for "All Hallows Eve" by One Memory at a Time.

Enjoy!

FINALLY getting back to scrapping...

I have been SO busy with school, home and just plain life but I am FINALLY back to scrapping! At this point, I don't care if I have to stay up all night to get some layouts done- I need out of this creative funk! :)

I will be adding a new slide (maybe even trying blogger's version) to show you my newest layouts. I like having the slide with all of my layouts, but would hate to subject you to old, poorly done, amateur layouts! Ha ha! Sometimes looking back at early work is pretty scary! :) Thanks for hanging in there with me!

An even YUMMIER FOBTY!!!

This week's FOBTY is even more mouthwatering than the last! :) Well it involves ice cream, but also a personality quiz. Here are my results, though I'm not sure it really sounds like me! :)

Your Ice Cream Personality:

You are not a particularly modest person. You're proud of who you are, and you don't care who knows it. You are the type of person who likes to throw caution to the wind. You only live once, so you're going to live as large as possible. You are definitely a wild one! You are a somewhat open minded person, but deep down you're fairly conservative. You don't like trying new things very much. And if you do find something new you like, you stick with it. You are a natural multitasker. You feel alive when you're doing more than one thing at a time. You can be a big dramatic and over the top sometimes. You are bold in every way

The Ice Cream Personality Test

Fast Food FOBTY!

Here's the Sweet Shoppe FOBTY for the week:So my question is… what is YOUR favorite fast food and how often do you eat there? talk about a challenge that is right up my alley! I am a self confessed fast food addict, so choosing a favorite will be tough. I'd say my fave is Fazoli's -but I never get to eat there as it's far away. :( Local faves: Thundercloud Subs,Whataburger & Taco Cabana probably take the honors. Chains like Chick-Fil-A are good too! Now I'm hungry! :)

The FOBTY speed test

Ok... so I would not make a good secretary for many reasons: I'm unorganized, I stress about small stuff, don't drink or make coffee... but who'd have thought I was such a bad typist? Well this week's FOBTY has brought this weakness into the spotlight! :)

Check this out:
64 words

Speedtest

I guess that teaching certificate is even more valuable to me now! LOL!

My AWESOME CTs and a FOBTY...

First let me start by saying how fabulously lucky I am in the first place to work for such wonderfully talented designers in the first place. Now with school starting, the new program we're piloting at school, my new computer finally arriving, and just plain managing life with my family, I was VERY busy and had not scrapped at all, let alone made any layouts to showcase my designers' gorgeous stuff. :(

But each one of them were so understanding... I was ready to quit because I didn't feel like I was carrying my weight... but they all said no problem. They have been SO wonderful...

So today I'm scrapping- YAY!!!!! And I want YOU to check out their stores: Andrea Gold (who btw has a 40% off coupon in September's DST Insider, Christy Skaggs, Amanda Kay and Garden Girl Designs. Also, I have a new guest gig (I was so busy I would have forgotten about it)- so also check out One Memory At a Time. :)

Ok... now onto the FOBTY. This is right up my alley as I'm reading the Twilight series and with halloween right around the corner, who wouldn't like to find out if they're "vampire material"? :)

You Could Be a Vampire... If You Had To

Like most people, the thought of being a vampire has crossed your mind. But you're not sure if you'd do it, even if you could. Living forever doesn't sound half bad, if you could live forever with the people you love the most. But do vampires even love? And would the vampire version of you even be you? It's all too much to contemplate. Luckily, the chances of you ever becoming a vampire are astronomically low. What you would like best about being a vampire: Living forever What you would like least about being a vampire: Blood stained teeth

Could You Be a Vampire?

FOBTY

I've got to get some planning done for my sweet husband- his birthday is tomorrow and I want to do something nice for him, so here's a quick FOBTY.

You Are 76% Real

You know who you are, and you're pretty darn comfortable with yourself. Like everyone, you struggle with the parts of yourself that aren't so great... But you're good at accepting who you are and not dwelling on your faults. As a result, you're confident, optimistic, and very real.

How Real Are You?

So do you like my new digs?

I was tired of my old blog and wanted an update, but really didn't want to spend all day fiddling with html coding... and so I finally caved in and got one of Zoe Pearn's Blog in a Box kits to make things easier for me. Not only that, but the MARVELOUS Becca (aka Becca Boo) of Graffiti Chicks helped me when I had one little catch (darn photobucket settings). Anyway, I hope you like the new look... I'll be redoing my family blog at some point soon too but I've got a HUGE headache and need to take it easy tonight!

Be sure to stop in at Graffiti Chicks or in Zoe's store to check out their fabulous stuff!

FOBTY 9/4

Being a teacher, I love school supplies (yes... I'm a nerd)! So this week's FOBTY was right up my alley! Take the Crayola Color Quizzer and see how you fare! As for me, I'm a "Color Genius"... but missed 29!!! Of course, many of the ones I missed are "Kids Choice Colors" that were named way after my coloring days. :) Got to run- sorry for the quick post, but I'll be back soon!

Drum roll...

I'm now a guest CT for Amanda Kay at Sunshine Studio Scraps! Here's her blog announcement. I'm so excited to be working with her, even short term. I'm sure you freebie hunters know her, even if the name doesn't ring a bell yet. Her blog is Perfectly Imperfect (now you know who I'm talking about)! She has done lots of the freebie collab kits with the Sunshine girls (including the fabulous Flergs) which is how I found her designs. You'll love to see what she's got planned and in the meanwhile, check out her store at Sunshine Studio Scraps. Well gotta run and get some things done for school before tomorrow's open house. :)

FOBTY and why I've been MIA

First let's start with the FOBTY: The spelling quiz. I think I'm pretty good at spelling but we'll see...

Your Common Spelling Mistake Score: 90% Correct

Your spelling is excellent. You don't fall for common spelling pitfalls, and you spell almost everything correctly.

Do You Make Common Spelling Mistakes?

Not bad! I just love the SSD FOBTYs.

Ok now for why I've been missing. As most of you may know, I'm a teacher. Well, this year the beginning of school has been even more hectic than usual. Why? Well, first the school itself is brand new and so there are lots of kinks to be worked out. For example, I got some of my furniture order (separate from the school itself) the day before school started. Don't get me wrong... I love my new school and once things settle down a bit, I know it'll get easier. The other part making it a bit stressful is that I'm piloting the new program and still feel like I also have kinks to work out. I know what I want it to look like in my head, but I'm still trying to translate that into the real classroom. Thankfully, they all know that this is new and are ok with the idea that there will be some trial and error, but I want it to be perfect right now, you know?

Plus, I got a new laptop (which is actually good news and I'm no longer running my broken laptop rigged to a desktop monitor) but I just installed firefox and the CS3 trial on it and haven't gotten to use it much. I'm hoping to churn out a few layouts this week and have a few already to add to my slide. In the meanwhile, the designers I CT for have been WONDERFUL and understand that sometimes things happen. How lucky am I to work for these fabulous ladies? They rock.

So run over and check out Andrea Gold, Christy Skaggs and Garden Girl Designs and tell them I sent ya! :)

Another announcement and a FOBTY...

First and foremost... I saw a designer whose stuff I really admire was having a call. I'm kind of a newbie to the store she sells at so I totally did NOT expect to get a response, but I did. I'm guesting for 3 months for a great designer... so you want to know who? :) I'll wait for her announcement before I spill... but here's a hint... she's bright and SUNshiny. :)

Now for the Sweet Shoppe FOBTY: This week it's "Which American Accent Do You Have?" Being a life-long Texas girl the results were surprising!

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West   Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.
The Midland
Boston
North Central
The South
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

A New Team and a FOBTY

I've been invited to join the CT of one of my digi-friends so expect to see some new CT layouts in my slide. I'm now part of the Awesome Blossoms designing layouts for Garden Girl Designs. She is just starting out and selling at Scrappin' Out Loud, and J3 Designs... talk about a busy gal! Be sure to go check out her stuff and be on the lookout for some new layouts by me!

Now for this week's FOBTY- this is a quick little quiz that tests your knowledge of Grease. Ok.. I LOVED this movie but it's been awhile since I've seen it (like jr.high)! How'd I do on the quiz?

I got 13 out of 15 right! Woo hoo! Of course, I have no idea which 2 answers were wrong, but I'd say that's pretty good... gotta love pop culture! You can take the Grease quiz here. Off to work! :)

FOBTY 7/31- Show me happy!

The mission: Show off a layout that makes you happy. It doesn’t have to be your best layout or even your favorite layout, just one that when you look at it, something about it makes you happy. Well I had to scrap two of course- one for each kid- so here they are:
This is great because it's wild and messy and happy just like my little Marley Moo!

This layout is a lift from Missys3lilbugs "Prek Grads"
This one makes me happy because Jaxon is so happy and loves school... and I loved having him in my class and watching him learn over the past two years. :) I LOVE being happy!!!

FOBTY about music this week

This week, the SSD FOBTY is all about music. So what kind of music am I? Well, it's not my favorite kind of music, but the description fits.

You Are Country Music

You are friendly, down to earth, and fairly conservative. You are true to your friends and your upbringing. Change is hard for you. But beneath your old fashioned attitude, you are expressive and artistic in your own way. Very few people can express pain and pleasure as eloquently as you can.

What Kind of Music Are You?

I'm hard at work on this month's hybrid album, but as soon as that's done, I'll have some GREAT pics to scrap from Jaxon's 5th birthday. :) See you soon!

Scrappin' projects and another FOBTY

Well I'm busy working on a few hybrid projects right now. The first is an album for my mom (can't get into details because I know she reads this)! The second is the hybrid workshop at SSD this month- a vacation album- and I'm so excited about it. The timing couldn't be better as the kids just took their first road trip this summer. The third is an altered notebook and pens for my son's teacher this upcoming year. And the fourth is a mini-book of letters for my daughter Marley. I don't know why I start one without first finishing the previous one, but such is life. hope to have some shots to show you soon!

Now for the FOBTY- your mission is to blog about the summer jobs (or adventures, if you didn’t work) you had when you were a teenager. Well this should be fun! My parents were awesome and didn't push the work thing which made me WANT to get a job... maybe that was their idea. My first job was at a movie theater and it was awful! I hated it!!! I went in soon after starting and told the manager I wanted to quit. She must have run off quite a few folks and was under watchful eye, so she convinced me instead to "take a leave of absence". Not sure if she was expecting me to have a change of heart or what, but it was a leave from which I never returned!

Then I worked at a seafood restaurant- it had been started by a family who had a big chain on BBQ restaurants so it was not fast food, but not fancy either. The pay was good, they worked us hard, and it kept me from eating on the job as I'm not into seafood... it was a great job for a teenager. :)

Well got to run back to working on these albums and cleaning up the house! :) S

Time for another SSD FOBTY!

SSD- Sweet Shoppe Designs
FOBTY- From Our Blog To Yours
No more explaining those acronyms! Y'all should know by now! :)
This week's FOBTY is your favorite vacation spot or dream vacation. This is fun- and I'm posting both. My old favorite vacation spot was Las Vegas- Brian and I used to go every year and always had a blast, but since the kids have been around, we make the trip much less often. :( Since neither of us had a "big" 30th celebration, we may go to celebrate our 31st birthdays!

We recently went to Ruidoso, New Mexico and that was great. I love the mountains and everyday I woke up and walked on to the balcony and thought one day, we will live in mountains like this. (Sorry mom- I MAY move one day, but don't worry about that NOW ok)? So I'd say that's my current favorite vacation spot.

Dream vacation? If it was just me and and wonderful husband, I'd say Lake Como in Italy. It looks SO beautiful. I have a painting of it in my house and I swear I could walk right into it. If it was a family vacation, it would be Disney World of course. To be quite honest, I'm excited to go to Disney World not just for the kids, but for me too! I remember it being such a fun trip when I was a kid. :) Another fun FOBTY from SSD!

My first chipboard album!

Now that I have given this to my mother-in-law I can share the pics! I was so excited to get my first album done so I wanted to show you. This one was an easy one becasue the album was made to fit the maya road album, but a good way to start hybrid so I didn't mess it up!





I'm working on 2 others for my mom and sister, so those are top secret right now (so if you're reading this, no peeks for you mom or Linds)! I'll be sure to post pics after I get those to them. :) Off to declutter the toy closet (and hopefully do a layout or two)!

Time for SSD's From our blog to yours...

As I have mentioned before, I have a new addiction- Sweet Shoppe Designs. Each week they have something you can add to your blog, which is fun AND earns sweet rewards points- so here it goes!

This weeks FOBTY, in honor of Independence Day here tomorrow in the states we are going to do a little fireworks quiz! Enjoy!

Here's my results:

What Your These Fireworks Say About You

You are deeply passionate about a few things in your life. Everything else, you couldn't care less about. Your passions tend to hold steady over time. If anything, they intensify. Once you hold on to something (or someone), you don't let go!

The Fireworks Test

I have a new addiction

...two actually! The first new addiction is Sweet Shoppe Designs (or SSD). I've loved their stuff for quite awhile and made many purchases there, but have just recently discovered their forums. Lots of fun people there, great challenges and ways to earn Sweet Rewards points good for %s off their products each month. All I can say is that I can see myself spending tons more time there!

The second new addiction (was actually started by the above mentioned forums) is HYBRID. I never scrapped until I went digital- what can I say- scissors and glue are scary. ??? I've been checking out the hybrid galleries at SSD and Peppermint Creative and marveling at all of the cool projects and thought to myself, I wanna do that! So I'm working on 3 projects and have finished one- it is really fun! Plus, since I scrap put of order and therefore am bad about getting layouts printed, so this gives me something tangible! I hope to post some pics of my hybrid projects soon!

Join the REVOLUTION!!!

Well it's summertime, and since I'm a teacher, I have all of June, July and part of August off from work. I had these great big ideas about what I wanted to accomplish- mainly around the house- but found myself overwhelmed. Either my husband and I would bust our butts going through organizing, throwing out and cleaning up for an entire weekend OR I'd start something, get pulled away by the kids, and then feeling like I'd accomplished nothing, give up. The house isn't dirty or anything- I'd clear a social services check LOL... but I feel overwhelmed by little clutter piles and sometimes can't find what I need.

So, being that I have this great digiscrap community at DigiShopTalk, I reached out with a simple post in the Chatter forum: "I'm Domestically Challenged". I wasn't sure what to expect but hoped to get some ideas to keep the house free of clutter (I'm a stacker- stacks of magazines, the kids have toys stacked up on the built-in bookshelves, etc.)

Well, the response was HUGE! Everyone either had a helpful comment or were letting me know they were in the same boat and also looking for ideas and support. It has spun off into a "Declutter challenge" and what I'm calling the "Declutter Revolution"! I've already gotten some great tips and feel INSPIRED to get to work one step at a time.

Who'd have thought all of this support would come from the digiscrap community? Just one more reason I not only love to scrap but love the forums at DST and GDS!

A little peek from our trip...

How cool is Smilebox? Especially for non-scrappers, but I still love it for QP style pages. Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Back from a FABULOUS vacation...

We drove 11 hours (my kids first long road trip) to Ruidoso, New Mexico late last week and met my parents and my mother-in-law at a big cabin in the mountains for 7 days (it was supposed to be 10 days but we came home a bit early to recover). So it doesn't sounds like TONS of fun from that first line, but it was great!

The scenery was unreal and we had a gorgeous view of the mountains from the deck. It was dry (unlike the humid conditions I live in) and only got into the upper 80s (where it was record breaking heat for weeks at home). We went shopping, sightseeing, hung out in the hot tub, took the kids to the Smokey Bear Museum and FunTrackers (race cars, bumper boats, etc.), went golfing, gambled at Inn of the Mountain Gods, hiked (but only around the cabin as Lincoln National Forest was closed to due extreme fire risk) and just enjoyed some much needed R&R. I've got literally hundreds of photos to scrap from the vacation so be on the lookout! I'm still working off the rigged-to-work laptop, so all of those photos I mentioned are on my son's laptop. I'll get it from him while he sleeps! :)

I have joined a new CT, but since its not been posted yet, I can't say who yet! :) More to come...

Jaxon starts swim tomorrow and tennis soon- and Marley will take her first class ever: Kindertots dance! Expect LOTS of pics from that! :) S

Summer is here! Woo hoo!

Well, I'll start with good news. My FABULOUS assistants Jana and Christy basically packed my classroom single-handedly. I just don't know what I'd do without them. So the classroom is packed and I'm "checked out"- the last day I went in to work with Christy, I was sick and only spent about an hour there and she took care of it. They are SO truly awesome! Now that school is over, the only school related stuff I have going on is planning for next year, the "buddy group" for kids with autism and some in-home training for one of my families. I'm so excited about this extra time in my day- I hope to get a lot of new layouts done so I can finally get some printed out. I made Scrapper of the Month for June at GDS which is cool- not only is it nice to be recognized, but I got the huge and fantastic June GDS collab along with it!

The bad news (other than being REALLY sick for two days that is). I made it through to round 4 of the GDS Supreme Team site CT contest. It was down to 23 this round and they made the final cut to 12 Supremes. I was really hoping I'd make it, but I didn't. :( I know I should feel good for making it this far, but I can't help but feel a little disappointed. I'm glad for the gals who made it, and their stuff is awesome, but I thought sunmer would be a GREAT time for me and was really hopeful. My sweet husband reminded me that this was my first try for the Supreme team and that out of 104 people, I made it down to the final round. He is actually trying hard to support this "habit" of mine (how sweet is that?) I think I'll try next time around, but I was hoping for a summer term- oh well!

Well, I'm off to do some laundry and run some errands. When I get back, I'm planning on some layouts for Andrea and Patty (who by the way is Scrap Outside the Box's Designer of the month- woo hoo Patty!), so keep an eye out! :)

Ok... so maybe I DID fall off the face of the earth!

Well, I'm going to save you all from my moaning and complaining about my laptop breaking (actually it's not broken, the screen is just shattered- which is kind of important so I can SEE what I'm doing-) Here's the short version- The laptop screen cracked inside, I tried to get my PSE to work on my son's laptop, but it was slow, missing all of my actions, fonts, etc. And most recently, heard my frustration as I posted my round 3 layout (which I'm still not sure I like) for the Supreme contest at GDS. I had a dead desktop and let my dad have one flat panel, but I got my small flat panel monitor back from my sis yesterday and low and behold, I can hook it up to the broken laptop and it works! I have the flat panel sitting on a wooden tv tray (classy) and the laptop actually on my lap, but I don't even care because IT WORKS!!! Now I can wait and save up for a really nice replacement.

I'm loving Andrea Gold's CT and all of the folks at GDS. They've been so supportive through all of this "stuff" (surgery, being a busy working mom, the computer issues, etc.) I've made it through to round 3 of the Supreme Team contest (to be a part of the site CT) but its a tough competition so we'll see what happens. I'm actually surprised to have made it thus far! there are 4 rounds and then the team will be announced- fingers crossed! This is the best time of year for me to try for this because with summer coming, I'll have tons of scrap time. I was starting some guest stuff for Patty's Designs, but then all of this "stuff" happened, so I've only done one layout for her! She's being so patient! Go check out her stuff at Scrap Outside The Box.

Sadly, because of my computer issues and the above mentioned "stuff", I decided to leave Beckie Wallace's CT. It's a bummer because I love her and her designs, but with my surgery and now this, I felt like I was short-changing her and it was not fair to her or the others on the team. I'm still keeping up with all of their blogs and hope that maybe I can catch up and reapply next time around. Those gals are GREAT and Beckie is just a fabulous gal all around. :)

The last month of school is ALWAYS hectic and this year is no exception. I'm up to my ears in paperwork and have even brought some home in the hopes of getting it all done without having to work after school is out. My campus opted to work extended hours so we can be done by May 30th, but I may end up having to work a day or two after school is out, but we'll see. I really need to get my room in order so I plan on weeding through things as well if I have the time. If you're not a teacher, you may not know that in addition to all of our other end of the year stuff, we have to completely take down the room. Nothing is left out unless its boxed up or shut away the cabinets so it takes some time.

Anyway, I need to get around before my husband returns from Starbucks... I'll be back soon to update my slide and post, but in the meanwhile, leave me some love at GDS or check out my gallery at DST.

I didn't fall off the face of the earth...

It just looks that way on the blog! :) So here's the month in review.
I'm 17 days post-op and other than a little soreness, I'm fine. I feel much better than I expected I would. Brian was wonderful and took over for me completely so I could recover. He laughs and says "What did you expect me to do?" But really... taking over in every aspect of the child-rearing and running the house takes work! I only missed 3 days of work, but even after I went back, Brian took care of business around here. He is simply wonderful.
I had my birthday this month. The big 3-0. We kept it simple, just dinner and a movie, so I wouldn't go into shock or have a midlife crisis. Ha ha! Jaxon assured me that "30 is a lot" but that I'm "not old". :) I still don't feel like a grown up, let alone like a mom in my 30's (sheesh)! Ok... I need to stop now before I DO start to feel old... here's some scrap news from my fabulous designers that I'm lucky enough to CT for!

Andrea Gold is hosting a quick page exchange using her gorgeous "Discover" kit at GDS with some GREAT participation prizes. Check out her blog post for more info or check out the QP exchange at GDS.

Beckie Wallace will be hosting a lyric challenge all weekend long and having a huge sale in her Digital Candy Shoppe to celebrate NSD! So be on the lookout May 3-4th!

Brian and I will be sending the kids to grandma's next weekend (I must admit this was BEFORE I knew it was National Scrapbooking Day) but I still plan on checking out some sales! :) I know a gal started a NSD master sales list at DST which I'll be checking on. I also have gotten some of my ADSR prizes and WOW is all I can say. I can already tell you I'm going to be a Bella Scraps fan. And those memory purses are cool (just got to figure out what I want to scrap and put in it!) Anyway, more LOs to come- I'll update my slide soon too. :)

Surgery went well and some REALLY EXCITING news!

I can't really move my arms too much yet- I'm swollen and sore, but I'm feeling better today than I thought I would. I just wanted to tell everyone thanks for the well wishes. It really makes your day when you're feeling like this! I will still be limited on computer time, but hope to be back soon.

And for some REALLY exciting news... I had my husband check my e-mail this morning and he said "Melody is excited and says to check ADSR"...

If you have been living under a rock, let me fill you in. ADSR (the amazing digiscrap race) was a 6 week long set of challenges you worked on as a team. Some challenges were independent, some we had to combine pieces to make a layout, and some were "roadblocks" only 1 team member was responsible for. As long as you completed the challenge by the deadline, you were able to continue the race. You also got awesome gifts along the way for completing each challenge.

Ok, so I go check the ADSR blog and see these adorable kiddos drawing names from a hat for second place, first runner ups, and the grand prize... goes to ELECTRIC HARMONY!!!! OMG! WE WON! There are so many great prizes I honestly can't remember them all!

So, I'm going to hurry up and rest (ha ha) so I can get to scrapping with all of my new stuff! I'm not sure you can ever top that, but just participating in the race was awesome and NDISB folks have been so friendly, so I'll be back next year for ADSR 4 for sure and NDISB in general.

Off to the first doctor's post-op... hope to be back soon!

I've been tagged AND a kit for a GREAT cause

Ok, I was tagged- twice actually- by my friends Rose AKA RoseMcDigital and Beckie AKA Lillypug34 but all are invited to join in the Links fun! PLEASE just follow the rules!

Just copy paste THIS and everything below up until my Five links.

I thought it would be cool to have a meme where we post links. We can post up to five.

Then we tell five more people to share their links. If we all share who tagged us, our links are sure to be seen!

They can be business links, favorite sites, affiliate links, whatever you want…

There are Five Rules:

1. MUST be clean. No R rated sites.

2. Only FIVE links.

3. MUST tell 5 people.

4. A link back to the person who tagged you

5. Lara’s Place is the meme originator. (an active link is appreciated)

Here are my 5 Links (only 5? Argh... mine will all be scrapping)!

1. Go Digital Scrapbooking- I'm here a lot checking out challenges, posting in the forums and making new digi-friends.

2. Andrea's Bits, Scrap and Little Ironies- I LOVE Andrea's blog because she gives away FABULOUS templates all of the time. I am also VERY lucky to be on her CT and she is so great to us- no drama or pressure, just fun!

3. Peppermint Creative- First, I love her stuff. But her blog is a close second because she is hilarious! She has tons of tips and project ideas too.

4. Sunshine Studio Scraps- I found these gals through a HUGE freebie collab kit around Christmas and have been hooked on their stuff ever since.

5. DigiTreats- Pamela's blog is awesome. She was supposed to be on a break from designing when she started making these ABC Skip, Run and Jump kits. It is going to be HUGE by the time she's done. My first CT experience was with her and it was great too- no drama or stress, just having fun!

I am tagging these folks (whose links you should also definitely check out),
Nicole Great stuff and generous with freebies!
Theresa Great kits and a sweet gal!
Kim B She cracks me up- she laughs as much as I do!
Shana Great designer and a very nice gal!
Christy I'm new to her designs, but from what I can see so far, they all rock!

That was hard as several of my digiscrap friends don't blog (like you Melody!) and my friends who do blog aren't into digiscrap. What can you do? :)

Now for the info on the kit I mentioned earlier. This is from a friend of mine, and when I saw the kit, I HAD to get it. Most of my students are on the autism spectrum, so this is particularly close to my heart. Here's a link explaining about the kit, with big previews and the link to donate here in the GDS forum.

World Autism Awareness Day

Please spread the word! As many of you know, most of my students have autism, and it is rising at near epidemic rates, yet there are still many who know very little about it. Check out available resources, research and community support at Autism Speaks.

My busiest month is almost here

...which is both exciting AND stressful! Let's see... I'm getting blond highlights back (the old reliable) so my mom will be very happy! :) My sister and I were referred to as "Brownie" and "Blondie" respectively as children and apparently we need to remain that way. Ha ha!

I have tons of meetings coming up too for my kiddos headed to kindergarten and end of the year stuff. I am also presenting a few trainings for staff and parents with my teammates which is giving me gray hair (now you see that my reason for the blond highlighting is NOT to make mom happy)!

Next week I have surgery which I'm only moderately nervous about, but I'll be sore and out of whack for a bit, and that has me more worried than the process itself. It's tough to tell the kiddos to go easy on mama or the teacher for that matter- I think my title should include "child wrangler" and "human jungle gym"! That week is also when Jaxon has kindergarten round-up and kinder buddy day which I'm excited about. I can't wait to see what he thinks about the whole thing.

The last but not least of the stresses... I turn 30 this month. Yes folks, it's all downhill from here! Ha ha! I wasn't all that concerned about it until my friends kept reminding me about it... and now I'm thinking I'll make 30 fun. Maybe it'll be my year to lose those last 10 pounds I want to rid myself of, and get more organized, and I WILL do more for myself this year. So, if I'm not around much this month, you'll know why. Anyway, keep your fingers crossed that all goes well.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes...

Ok, so I'm a dork, but is that really news? Yet again I'm playing around with my blog. I changed my template and then fiddled with all of the html code (I realize that this adds "techie" and/or "geek" to my title as well)! Anyway, I'll probably have a new blinkie sometime soon too. Well, back to scrappin'...

Spring Break = lots of scrap time!

Spring Break starts tomorrow after school and I am SO excited! I have no plans other than to relax, hang out with the kids and scrap (oh and clean house)! I am on a guest CT spot for Theresa Borntreger this month so expect to see some new things from me. and I plan on doing the bonus and optional challenges for ADSR this week too.

Also, as you know I'm VERY lucky to be on Andrea Gold's CT, so I'd like to take a minute to thank her for reading my mind when creating her newest product! :) Ha ha! My hubby's grandma passed away recently and she was always quite the cook. Everyone loves her recipes, so I thought it'd be nice to type them up and send copies to all of the aunts, uncles and cousins (this was BEFORE I realized how many recipes she had)! These new recipe brag book templates are a must have in my book! Check them out here while she's got them on sale!

My messy Marley

Perhaps she has a green thumb? I need to add some LOs to my slide, but don't have the time right now, so here's a quick one.

:) Credits: Andrea Gold's new "Pink Parfait" page kit.

And one more from the same kit...Andrea Gold's new "Pink Parfait" page kit and Template Set #25

ADSR3 is coming!!!!

What is ADSR3? The Amazing DigiScrap Race of course. Ok I admit, I didn't know what it was until I saw a post about it on GDS, but I'm SO glad I did. Here's some info about it:
At NDISB, we've come up with a cool internet digital scrapping game that will mirror the excitement of the TV reality show "The Amazing Race." Teams of two will traverse the digital scrapping world, site by site, completing challenges and collecting prizes along the way. Everyone who completes the week's challenges in the allotted time frame will move on to the next week, where they can collect even MORE prizes! And at the end of the race, everyone who has travelled around the digiworld and completed each and every challenge will be entered into a drawing for the GRAND prize!

A gal from GDS named Melody and I have teamed up. Our team is Electric Harmony (you know- Schock/Electric and Melody/Harmony). It sounded like an 80s cover band at first, but darn it, we're going to ROCK ADSR! Ha ha! Melody even made a blinkie for us... check it out in the sidebar... we are going to have so much fun. :)

The bad news is GDS is down right now for site maintenance. I know it won't be long, but I have found such a digi-home at GDS that I miss it already. Ha ha!

The good news is my sweet husband surprised me on Valentines Day with a new Sony H3 Cybershot (we weren't going to "do" Valentines, so I had nothing for him, but he didn't seem to mind too much). AND, Andrea Gold has some GREAT new mini-kits and full page kits going into the store at GDS. Keep an eye out for them... her new one "Pink Parfait" is going to be a new favorite of mine already I can tell! More LOs coming soon...

Back in time for the Superbowl...

Well, most importantly, we are back from Kansas and Grandma's service was lovely. We got to spend a lot of time with Brian's aunts, uncles and cousins which was really nice as well. She was such a wonderful lady and it was great to think back on her life. We flew in during a snowstorm (they got 5 inches that day) and I was in shock. We don't "do" snow in Texas, and on the off chance it does snow, it lasts a day at best. It was 15 degrees when we flew in...eeek! Anyway, luckily it warmed up some ("warmed up" for Kansas is in the 40s by the way)! So we're glad to be back in Texas! :)

We made it home just in time to watch the Superbowl (thanks to TIVO we could rewind the first 5 minutes we missed and catch up during commercials) and the GIANTS won!!!! Since our teams didn't make it, Brian and I were both REALLY rooting for the Giants, but didn't think they'd be able to win. As the game went on and they kept sacking Brady and doing well on offense, we thought "Well this may be a game"... but holy moly they WON!

The bad news On my trip, my camera was safely under my seat in my carry-on... or so I thought. Someone sitting behind me was kicking under the seat and now the lens keeps giving me an error, so basically my camera is broken so I have no "snow" pics to show the kids. Then, on the way home, my EHD cable was lost (I think it must have fallen out of my bag when we changed planes). The good news My husband said I can get a second EHD (good to backup the backup anyway right)? AND a new camera!!! WOO HOO!!! So, if you have a camera you LOVE, please e-mail me with your camera, what you love about it and what you wish you could change (link to e-mail is on the sidebar). I want to get to shopping before Brian realizes how much this may cost him! :) Thanks... more Layouts added to the slide so check it out!

A huge loss...

My husband's grandma passed away today. We spent all weekend with her and I am so thankful for that time. We may be headed to Kansas for the funeral, so it may be a few days before I have an update for you. Please keep us in your prayers and be sure to take a moment to let your own family know how much you love them. S

My new Slide!

Well I've gotten on an organizing tear with ACDSee 10 Photo Manager (I have WAY more stuff than you can even imagine)! So I combined all of my locations for LOs into one folder and realized I had lots of LOs finished and not on the blog.
So I saved them all as jpegs and made a slide. If you have not yet checked these out, you can find them Slide.com and the best part? They're free! Plus it saves space on the blog which is always nice too. I have lots of QPs I've scrapped too, but I'll save those for another slide. :)
Looking back at some of my LOs is really interesting. The "old ones" look so... amateur. Rough edges, no shadows or layer effects, etc. I've learned so much that I want to go back and "fix" my old ones. But for some reason, many of my first LOs I merged before saving instead of leaving in layers...ARGH! You live and learn I guess. I still think of myself as a "newbie" as there is still so much I want to learn, but I definitely can see how I've grown! :) SS

EXCITING news!!!!

I am SO excited, I can barely contain myself!!!! You know I have a "top 3" list of designers right? Well, when I saw one of my top 3 having a CT call, I couldn't help but try for it. I knew if I didn't, I'd wish I had, so I went for it fully expecting NOT to be selected. Well she went from adding 4 to 6 spots and I was checking the blog and GDS to see who she ended up selecting (to be honest, I was kind of obsessive about it checking every time I had a free moment to see if she'd made her announcement just so I could say congrats to the new CT members and "at least I tried!")

So when I saw her post announcing her CT additions, I was SO excited that I actually screamed- about giving Brian a heart attack! Check it out here!

It seems my schedule became less hectic just in the nick of time for this CT call. So now I'm on 2 CTs for 2 of my favorite designers- how cool is that!?! Anyway more news and LOs to come soon!

More work this weekend...

Some vacation this has turner out to be! We've still been working on home projects and boy is it a LOT of work. We started going through the kids closets and I have TONS of kids clothes (4 years worth to be exact) to take pictures of and sell (that's not counting the donations over the past few years and the 6 bags we donated yesterday!!!) I guess I was hanging onto them in case we decided to have more children, but now we're moving them out. Fingers crossed I can get rid of them all- I'm taking pics as I go, so I should have some interesting before and after LOs!

Brian's grandma is settling into her new home and it sounds like all is well. It is a person's home who cares for 2 other older people and she will still have the hospice workers coming in as well. This ended up being a good alternative as she refused to go into a nursing home, but we couldn't provide for her during the workday. We hope to go visit this week now that she's had a chance to settle in. She is just a mile or so down the road from us so we'll be able to visit often.

I'm hoping to get some of her pictures scanned in and make some family LOs with them (I don't have much as far as extended family goes, but since my mom is a geneology buff, it makes sense that I should have some historical LOs). I'm also thinking I'd like to scrap her recipes into hardbound books for all of the grandkids.

Off to finish conquering the closets and then I'll scrap this afternoon... it's back to work tomorrow and the students return Tuesday! :) I almost forgot, I'll post pics of the new haircolor soon too (it's a bit more red than I imagined, but still cute I think!)

Ok let's catch up...

I've been busy lately with lots of house projects- we put in a new kitchen sink and faucet (which sounds silly, but I swear it makes SUCH a difference in my kitchen), we finally got extension ladders tall enough to hang the big iron wall art in our 2-story foyer, and decided to switch out Jaxon and Marley's rooms. That in itself was quite an undertaking because Marley's room was lilac, so of course we had to repaint it blue before we could move Jaxon in and then move all the furniture, etc. I still have not finished redoing their closets, but that, as well as painting Marley's "new" room, will just have to wait! I'll probably have some great before and after LOs too! Ha ha! But, I've got lots of scrapping to catch up on and plan on getting to work soon.

I wanted to quickly share my secret project- it was a calendar that I made using shutterfly. They had it so that instead of using one of their photo ploppers, you could have an entire blank canvas to put your pictures in- perfect for a digiscrap calendar! I'm including it on a slide below. The credits for the calendar all go to a few of my favorites- DigiTreats and Peppermint Creative for the materials and Andrea Gold for the templates- if you'd like more specifics on a certain LO, e-mail me or leave a comment and I'll be sure to share the details with you. :) Happy New Year!