Orange Sneakers

What a fun day! It's amazing to me how the weather affects my moods. Today was my idea of a perfect fall day...sunny, cool and about 60 degrees. I put on one of my favorite warm up suits (a cute one that isn't frumpy and makes me look like a "hip" SAHM) and took the girls to school.

Then it was on to my WW meeting, where I actually LOST 0.6 pounds! This was astonishing, because I ate way over my point limit for the week. I kind of slipped back into my old habits of snacking late a night (as a result of staying up too late). But I'm so glad I went. :-) Our leader talked about using music to motivate yourself, so I'm digging out all my funky and high energy tunes. I think I'll start with "Pump Up the Jam" by Technotronic.

Speaking of funky, check out my latest layout. I made it for Amy Knepper's CT challenge called Just for Kicks. I think I surprised a couple of people with my orange shoes. :-)

Amy Knepper's Vintage Vashon kit, available at The Digi Chick. Font is Ellifont

Hopefully tomorrow will be just as good as today.

Awww Eli...come on!!!

Eli, you might ask? Who is Eli? I am speaking of Eli Manning, QB of the New York Giants. He's my QB for my fantasty team and he's getting his butt kicked right now...3 to 35!!!

It may surprise you to know that I have a fantasy football team. This is thanks to DH who needed "just one more person" to fill out his league. Wanna know my team name? Wilderness Buffalo Chip. But then, it's appropriate since his league is called the Moose Poops, and the division names are Snout and Rump (I'm in the rump division...fun, eh?).

I have been doing some extremely strange layouts as of late. Quirky, you might even say. Ever since I started hanging out at Digital Art Quirks, I've been exploring the darker, quirker side of my scrapping personality. It's a bit scary, I must say, but also a good thing (I think).

I had to make a layout for their naming ceremony over there, and here is what I finally came up with:

Credits: Paper and beads by Krista Mettler;
Doodle shapes by Catscrap; Alpha by Meredith Fenwick

Oh and I forgot to show this one...it's an ATC I made for the Andy Warhol themed snail mail exchange, also at DAQ:

I can't remember where I found this lovely lady...sorry! I did all the recoloring myself.


I've been tagged by AmyK (thanks Amy!). This one is kind of fun. :-)

Here are the rules:
List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether or not they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to.

1. I'm So Glad Jesus Lifted Me (from Lifted, by Doulos, my old quartet)
2. Streetcorner Symphony - Rob Thomas (how can you NOT like this if you are a Grey's fan?)
3. How We Operate - Gomez
4. 100 Years - Five for Fighting (makes me cry every time I listen)
5. We Built this City - Starship (yes, I'm an 80's junkie!)
6. Start Me Up - Rolling Stones (great hockey warm up song)
7. Send in the Clowns - Judy Collins (I can't even explain this one!)

I want to tag Dawn T., Tania, Jane, Audra, Robin, Kim Smith and Raji. Have fun girls!

Surrounded by...

...some interesting people right now. I'm at Panera, while my girls are in school. I should be out walking, and I may actually do that once I leave here, but for now I'm catching up on blogging, emails, etc.

A Favio (Fabio?) look-alike just walked in. Give me a break...that look was over a LONG time ago! LOL! Two tables over there are two late 40-something women having breakfast. I think the one lady must know everyone in this end of town, because she has said hello to every other person walking through the door. Right next to me there is something of business meeting going on.

I like to come here just to be around people, specifically adults. I know all you SAHM's know what I mean. I just enjoy hearing adult conversation, even if I am not participating in it.

I'm having a really hard time right now being content with being a SAHM. I'm pretty sure this is where God wants me at the moment, but I'm getting restless. The daily tasks of doing laundry and constantly picking up toys are becoming mind-numbing, and I can feel myself slipping back into a darker mindset.

I had considered really launching into designing, but I've realized I have so much to learn and I just don't have the energy to get into it right now. I already spend too much time on the computer as it is, so I don't want to commit to anything more.

I did this layout last night. It's a somewhat weak attempt to "freestyle".

Credits: RAKScraps September 06 Mega Kit Add-On, available at Scrapdish: Alpha letter by Correen Silke, Flowers and corner swirl by Robin Cabana; Papers by Rachel Dickson;
Font: Batik

Journaling:
There is nothing you two won’t try. Today you decided to make your own balance beam out of
the toy bins. Of course...the toys that were inside all ended up on the floor! I couldn’t be mad, though, because you were having so much fun. Your creativity continues to amaze me every day.

Geez...this sounds depressing! Guess I better go take that walk. It's almost Friday!

Just scrappin'

I think fall is officially here. Today it's about 60 degrees and actually feels chilly! Makes me want to curl up and take a nap (but then, what doesn't?). LOL

I finally finished a layout from the girls' birthday in July. I started two other layouts but didn't like them. Melinda made this cool template which was perfect for all those photos, and of course Amy's new kit had the girls' favorite colors.

Credits: Template by Melinda Staley; Papers from Darling Dreamer, Elements from Clay Creations - both by Amy Knepper, available at The Digi Chick starting tomorrow, 9/21/06; Stitching by Doris Castle; Corner swirl by Robin Cabana, from the September RAKScraps Mega Kit Add-On, available at Scrapdish; Crayon doodle shapes by Tiffany Brady from Crazy Crayon Shapes, available at Plain Digital Wrapper; Hand Stamped Alpha by Michelle Coleman

Well I'm off to watch Lion King II with the kiddos...have to be there to explain potentially scary scenes. :-)

Happy hump day!

I'm done...

...reading about all the drama in the digiscrapping world. Over. Finished.

*** DISCLAIMER *** PMS **** WARNING ****

You are wondering what I'm talking about? Go on over to DST. Check it out for yourself. But I wouldn't recommend it. There was a thread there a few days ago about the digi world being oversaturated with designers. People basically started getting on their high horses talking about how great they were and how a lot of designers should not be selling because their work is low quality. It got pretty heated. One designer even said some of the kits she has seen "made me want to gag". How rude and unprofessional is that? Needless to say, I won't ever be buying from her.

Then tonight I'm reading the blog of a designer I've been following for a while. I like her stuff, but then, I like other people's stuff too. She is doing a guest CT call but is going to chose who gets in just by watching their activity at DST. It's as if it's the greatest privilege in the world to even be on her team for just one month. *Sigh* I'm sorry, but please get over yourself.

I guess I wonder how things went from a bunch of ladies who like to scrapbook, and use their computers to do it...to...a bunch of little girls in cliques who all think they are better than everyone else.

I just going to be taking a step back from the community aspect of this digiscrapping world for a while. I take things to personally that I know I can't handle it. This whole competitive designer stuff has stolen the joy out of scrapping for me. I did manage to finish a couple of layouts this weekend, and it was fun to just scrap, if for no other reason than to do it because I like it.

This first one is just a fun layout about the joy of pizza:

Credits: Whimsey papers and elements, and Slop Alpha by Tiffany Brady
at Plain Digital Wrapper; font = Michelle Marker


Here's a cute picture of Gretchen after she licked all the ice cream and cake off her plate at a family party:

Credits: Kate by Jen Wilson, Template by Melinda Staley, Font: LB Marci, Atomic Cupcake Inked Edges action


Now here is the most exciting one: how cool am I as a brand new 7th grader?? Check out the pin striped jeans, jean jacket (denim on denim would be a fashion disaster now days) and the Trapper Keeper.

Credits: Chocolate Swirls by Sue Bond Hand Stamped Alphas by Michelle Coleman Font: Shelton


And last but not least, my sweet Heidi, who since her 4th birthday has developed a bit of an...


Credits: Birthday Doodles kit by Tracy Blankenship
Fonts: Times New Roman, Stamp Act
Sketch by Robin Cabana
Atomic Cupcake Pristine Chipboard action

That should do it for now...gotta get some sleep. Church tomorrow, then bathroom painting, then another church service...it wears me out just thinking about it. Nite nite!

School shoes

~~ Time to shop ~~
Do you remember going shopping for school clothes and shoes as a kid? I sure do. I was really spoiled. I used to go with my Grammy (great grandma), Ma (grandma) and mom each fall. All three of them are only children, and I just have one brother, so you can imagine the amount of clothes I would receive. We used to go to this little place called "The Moppet Shop" in a small town nearby. I was always so well dressed!

Now...with my girls it's a completely different story. We don't exactly have the funds to be running around buying clothes at upscale stores, so I shop garage sales and K-Mart! LOL Apparently my mom felt it was time to step in when I told her Heidi didn't have any dress shoes and wore her "high heel" princess dress up shoes to church on Sunday (remember, she's only 4). But hey, if she wants to buy them shoes...I'm not going to stop her!!

We started at K-Mart and found some for Heidi, but none in Gretchen's size. Figures. Then it was on to Target where we found some for Gretchen. We just got black paten leathers, but then they wanted to try on the sparkly red "Dorothy" shoes too. Those went on the list for Santa. LOL Mom couldn't resist getting them each a Halloween shirt with a little sparkly bat on the front too. After lunch at McDonald's it was time to come home. I really like having Mom back in town. :-)

I finished this layout for Tiff Brady's contest on her blog. I think it came out cute, and it's a little different than the stuff I normally do, especially since it's a square!

Credits:
Random Scraps elements by Tiffany Brady
Background paper by Maya of Scrapbookgraphics.com
Sketch by Gina Miller (September blog freebie)
Machine stitching by Christina Bartholomew
Hand stamped alpha by Michelle Coleman
Date-It tag by Mindy Wade

I have a new album ready to go into my store at 1 Hour Scrap...it's an 8x8 (yes, another square shape...what it wrong with me?). Hopefully it will be up in the next day or two.

Happy Wednesday!