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! :)