Whine, whine, whine... can I have some wine please?

Yesterday, I took some time off from site business (backend stuff that tends to stress me out a bit - ok, a lot lol) and do some designing. I have an almost finished kit that I've been working on for over a month now, squeezing in a little here and a little there. So, I spent most of the day putting finishing touches, pulling together, packaging, etc. and realized that I wasn't quite happy with how everything went together. So, at 8pm I started reworking again. At 10:30, my munchkin - who should have been in bed an hour earlier, says, "Mom, do the people you work with know you have a son?"

WOAH! That was a "step back, take a look around" moment for me. I've worked pretty much non-stop since March of last year when I got this crazy idea to start my own site. With the new year, I made the resolution to not work so much this year. I thought I was doing pretty good. I mean, I haven't been working every waking moment like I did most of last year.

But, apparently it's still too much in Alyx's eyes. And, when I step back and look at it, it really is too much. I'm going to have to accept the fact that, as Genevieve's husband says, "There's only one way to eat an elephant. One bite at a time." I'm going to do what I can do and get done what I can get done during the day while Alyx is at school and Anthony is at work and then I'm going to shut it down at night.

Wish me luck.

Getting Organized and Say Anything FREEBIE!

So, one of my resolutions for this year is to get organized - especially my computers and digiscrap sctuff! I've fallen in love with ACDSEE photo manager for this. I'm working on it a little bit each day. It's so fun to find all those photos and digi stuff that I thought I had lost forever... check out my latest find in my "in progress" designs folder!!!

They were all done and ready to go except for the preview. So, I threw that together and here they are (click here)! And, they are free for the first 1000 downloads, too!

If you want to check out ACDSee and start getting organized yourself, check it out here!

Did you see? Did you see?

Lookie, lookie! I've hit the big time now! My newest kit, Comfortably Grunge, is Digi Kit Pick of the Day!!!!! Check it out here !!! Thanks so much Melissa!!!!!!!

Here's a few pics of the kit!

This is totally amusing...

Have y'all seen this? http://www.shaveeverywhere.com/ you'll need your speakers on, it's pretty entertaining...

I'm off to take the munchkin to school then wrap presents!!!!

Another wedding layout and the flu!

Ugh! The flu has hit our home! Alyx has it the worst. Anthony and I are just starting to feel it. I called the doc this morning and he's calling in some tamiflu for Anthony and I so hopefully it won't hit us full on....

Here's the 2nd wedding layout that I made last night. Submitted it to Simple Scrapbooks too. Hopefully they'll pic up one of these...as always, click the image for a larger version. You can see the full credits here

Our Wedding - nearly 10 years later...

Yep, we're coming up on our 10 year anniversary and I have never scrapped our wedding pictures. So, Simple Scrapbooks is having a call for digital layouts. One of the calls is for Weddings, in particular themed weddings like Renaissance, etc. Well, since we had a medieval wedding, I thought what better time to scrap them. So, here's my first...You can see the full credits here

A year later and I'm getting started scrapping...

In case you don't remember or you didn't know me in November of last year... here's a link to my posts about my trip to Vegas with Gena! Vegas Blogging ( it's toward the bottom of the page...)

I've been scrapping....

WWWednesdays...

So, Jane has been giving us some inspiration for posting in the daily moos over at oscraps. Wednesdays have turned into WWWednesdays. WWWednesdays are simple, you just post your 3 www's for the day - wishes and wants of things you want to get done or wish would happen. I've already posted my www's for today in today's daily moos, but I've got a few more to add...

1. I wish I had gone to the grocery store yesterday like I was supposed to when it was a beautiful 60+ degree day.
2. I wish that I had not walked all the way across the warm grocery store to go out the far set of doors because my car was parked in that end of the parking lot.
3. I wish that I had actually parked on that end of the parking lot instead of the other end.
4. I wish I hadn't walked all the way across the parking lot in the freezing drizzle and just thrown my groceries in the back seat.
5. I wish I had actually taken the donations to goodwill so that the back end would have been empty and I could have put the groceries back there.
6. I wish I hadn't taken that corner so fast on the way home, tipping over my bags of groceries and knocking over a mostly full can of coke all over the bag seat.
7. I wish my bag of fruits and veggies hadn't fallen out upside down when I opened the door to get the groceries out.
8. I wish I had actually picked up *all* the grapes that had escaped packaging in the fall.
9. I wish I had cleaned out the refrigerator before I went.
10. I wish that the tub of butter hadn't fallen out on my foot when I tried to sneak another tub in behind it.
11. I wish I hadn't stepped on that grape that was on the ground when I got more groceries out.
12. I wish that grapes didn't look so yucky when squished on the bottom of your shoe.

Thanksgiving 2006

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving this year! We spent the day with my mom, my sister and her family and their extended family and friends. Boy, that is a mouthful.

We ate and ate and ate, of course, celebrated Bethany's birthday, the kids got in the hot tub (naturally my camera battery had died by this point), and generally just hung out enjoying the gawgus weather! Alyx ended up having a sleep over at my mom's house, so Anthony and I came home and watched TV and ate the potroast I had put in that morning. It was a wonderfully relaxing and fun day.

Here are a couple of layouts so far from the day!





Hopefully I'll get more layouts posted later as I've got some serious scrapping to do with all my Black Friday purchases!! Ooooh, thank goodness for ACDSee 9!!!!!! Getting me all organized and schtuff or I would be a MESS - ok, a bigger mess....

OMG! I think hell has frozen over!!!

Or rather, my own personal hell appears to be thawing out and turning into heaven! My son and hubby have been purging!!! Anthony has started cleaning out his closet - he's gotten rid of 6 very old and very large computers! Alyx has gotten rid of 5 HUGE trashbags full of toys. He is finally over power rangers and dinosaurs it appears. Well, he still wants to watch Power Rangers and dinosaur movies. But, all he wants to keep are just a few favorite items and dino books! I'm so proud of him. All of these years of taking him with me when I go to donation and talking about how some parents can't afford to buy "new" toys for their kids, so they buy them at donation stores has finally sucken in. He wants a lot of kids to be able to get a lot of toys for Christmas so he's donating most of his. Ah, I love that boy.

Oh man... I just realized something... this means it must be time for me to purge too.... Oh crap, guess I better start sorting through the old paper scrapbooking supplies. *looks around in panic*

Some things just don't work as planned...

So, here it is... covered in glitter. I'm covered in glitter. My living room is covered in glitter and the turkey for the Pin the Feather on the Turkey is atrocious!!!! So, I'm off to Walmart to buy more poster board so I can redo it sans glitter!


How hysterical is this!

Simply Holiday :: Page Kit ::

I got one of my Wednesday wishes done today! (see today's Daily O's thread in the Oscraps forums if you don't know what I'm talking about 8) )

Here it is! Ronee's and my collab kit!!! I love the way this one turned out.

AND! It is on sale at an introductory price of $4.50 for one week only!

Here's the link

In other news:
We're having a snow day today with no snow - only bitter cold and extreme winds. The power lines outside of Alyx's school were on the ground today so no school. Which is a good thing as out power went out around 3 am (imagine that rude awakening with 7 UPS's all blaring and beeping randomly!!!!) and we slept in because the alarm didn't go off.

Confused on how to use the Alpha templates?

Here is a little sample to test the DIY Alpha Templates. I've included a psd, a tiff, and png versions so you can see which type works best for you before you buy! I've also thrown in the how to :)

Download sample HERE

DIY Chipboard Alpha :: Layered Templates :: at PDW & Oscraps

Create your own unique alphabet with numbers and special characters!

Layered templates include chipboard base and drybrushed overlay giving you endless possibilities! Use the chipboard base 'as is'. Layer with colored and/or patterned papers. Use the drybrushed overlay alone or layered. Mix-n-match to your hearts content!

Available at: PDW and Oscraps

Commercial use license available at Oscraps.

Trick or Treating with his best friend!

This is Alyx and Ethan getting ready to go trick or treating! Alyx came up with his costume idea himself. He is an Undead Knight. LOL! This boy :)

Ethan's mom took the boys (that is Ethan's little brother there with them) around the neighborhood. They had the time of their lives I tell you! I actually ran out of candy this year - 6 big bags wasn't enough.../sigh.

Alyx's Bag O Treats has a hole....

My son, Alyx, has been wandering around the Oscraps.com website, looking at all the goodies. He was having so much fun, he never realized he had a hole in his Bag O Treats! Will you help Alyx find his treats and fill your treat bag as well? There are 10 treats total!

Alyx's first stop was in the Oscraps forums because he wanted to see why his mom was always chattering about getting her "daily moo". What do cows have to do with digital scrapbooking anyway? Alyx made his first post at Oscraps.com on Monday, Oct. 30th...

PS~ you'll find this image when you've correctly solved the clues! The goodies will be available all week!

Zen-10 Mini Kit

Here's my latest mini kit!



Available for just $2.99 at

PDW
http://www.plaindigitalwrapper.com/s...3&cat=0&page=1

and

Oscraps
http://www.oscraps.com/store/index.p...roducts_id=204

Have you been KISS'd lately?

WOW have I totally fallen in love with sketch templates!!! For some reason I totally freeze up when I try to do a digi layout from scratch, but if I make a template first, then make my pages I'm good to go! So, expect to see lots more templates from me!

Here's a new set in my new KISS line - Keep It Simple Sketch templates. These sketches are super quick and easy to use with a minimal number of layers and designer details included!

No. 2 - Clean lines with a little twist - notebook paper!

Designer elements include:

• Torn Spiral Notebook paper (thank Atomic Cupcake)
  Lazercutz - Chipboard Bookplate Tab with Rice Paper label insert and drybrush layer to paper, recolor, or leave as-is
  Staples

No. 3 - Slightly wonky layers make this page appear just like a paper scrapped page (I never could cut straight even with a trimmer!)

Designer elements include:

• Realistically "straight" Stitching
  Craftpaper photo tab

Both layered .tiff and .psd files (available in separate downloads). 'How to' included.



Available at:
Oscraps.com
http://www.oscraps.com/store/index.p...roducts_id=208

and
PDW
http://www.plaindigitalwrapper.com/s...8&cat=0&page=1

Celebrity in a red cast...

OMG! first off, I'm sitting here watching TV - have y'all seen the new Burger King "eat like snake" commercial? I can't even count the number of ways it is wrong! LMAO! OMG!

so, back to the originally scheduled update...

Alyx is doing really, really well with his cast He's definately enjoying all the attention - everyone wanting to know how he did it, how he feels, etc.

Here's the promised pics :)

At home, after the ER - with all his requested comfort snacks around him :)

His best friend, Ethan was the first to get to sign his new cast.

His dad and I got to sign next - his dad drew the T-rex head :)

He was the definate center of attention as all his classmates got to sign his cast before class. We found the coolest metallic sharpies!

Even his teacher, Mrs. Allen signed :)