Just a quick post

I want to get back into more of a routine with blogging. I was doing so well for a while, and then pooped out, like always. But I do have a recipe to share. We have a family tradition of having breakfast every Saturday morning, and this is one of Rob's favorite pancake recipes. I was fooling around with Smilebox and thought I'd give it a try. Enjoy! :-)

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Click to play | Make your ow Smilebox

Excuse me while I vacuum

Ha! Yup, that's why I haven't blogged in a while...at least, that's my story. ;-) Last week I got a new vacuum. We went hog wild and bought a Dyson All Floors sweeper. Let me tell you - the hype about this product isn't just hype. It is truly a Cadillac of vacuums! It is pure joy to use. I have vacuumed more in the past week than I did in the whole month before that! So, with all that vacuuming time, who has time to blog? lol

I do have a couple of announcements to make concerning my role in digiland. I decided to leave MDM before the November 1 closing, as I've been invited to sell at another store. I can't say where quite yet...that will be October 1. But I can say that if feels like a homecoming, in a way. :-)

Also, I am now a proud member of Kim Jensen's CT! I've known Kim for a long time now, and have admired her work. She is one of the most technically detailed and thorough designers I've seen. And her stuff is just fun and funky! Check her out at Scrapdish. Here are a few of her newer products:

I use these on almost every page!

This is a GIANT collection!

I am working on a fun little tag album that I hope to have in my store at PDW by Friday.

Okay, back to vacuuming!

Diesel, anyone?

Man, apparently I need to get out more. After I dropped the girls off at school this morning, I stopped for gas. I prepaid and went to lift up the nozzle, and the only price showing up was on the diesel area. I tried this several times, pushing the button for "regular" gas, but the price kept showing up on the diesel. I sure as heck didn't want to end up with diesel in the van, so I go in and ask the lady. She comes out with me and points out that I was using the WRONG NOZZLE. On each pump there is a nozzle for the regular gas, and one for the diesel. Um....DUH!!! I just laughed and laughed. Other customers were looking at me, laughing at myself. Wow, my common sense had left the building! I blamed it on not enough coffee.

Other than that, it was a good day. Got a couple things accomplished this morning, girls stayed for lunch so I had some extra time, and then this afternoon we got all the fall/Halloween decorations out. They get so excited when we do that. And it's fun for me too, to take all the stuff out of the boxes and remember. For some reason, I am very organized when it comes to decorations. Everything is properly labeled it its plastic tub in the attic. Sigh. Why can't I do this in the rest of my house?

Coming out of the black hole

Yup, that is where I've been the past week or so...in a hole, of sorts. It's something I deal with on a regular basis. I could blame it on about 100 different things, but the truth is I don't know why my mind does this to me.

Anyway, it's a few week and another fresh start. It's it amazing that God rewards us with a brand new day, and a chance to start over, every morning? Awesome!

Speaking of mornings, in my quest to gather fresh, unique inspiration, I came across this blog yesterday. You don't have to be a scrapper to appreciate it. It's just two ladies comparing their photos taken each morning. The composition and subject matter are quite appealing...just little snippets of daily life, portrayed in an artistic way.

I made this right after getting our passport photos taken last week. I tell you, there is always an issue doing something like this (see the journaling). Don't get excited...we aren't going on a European tour or anything. We are taking a Disney cruise, compliments of my parents, in December and they recommend getting passports, just to be safe.

Digi Dare #52 - Ink Spotz alpha by Doris Castle, Background paper is construction paper :-)
Photographs word art by Jessica Bolton, Font: KGD Mozer Script

Journaling: Isn’t this the most attractive bunch you’ve ever seen? On the way to the photographer, Gretchen decided she didn’t want to get her picture taken. “I’m not going to smile! When the picture comes out of the camera, I am not going to look at my angry face!” Well, it turns out she was right. You are not allowed to smile for passport photos! They use some kind of face recognition software, and if you smile it messes up the process. So, mug shots it was. 9/7/07


I tried out the "Ali Edwards" philosophy here...don't try to make it perfect, just do it! I just laid out the photos on a piece of construction paper and scanned it. Rather than fooling around with fancy papers and elements, I left it stark looking, to match the serious expressions on our faces.

Now it's time to go attempt to make my day have a purpose. Happy Monday!

Friday Favorites at PDW!

Just a quick post with my Friday Favorite products, on sale for just $2.00 all day today at Plain Digital Wrapper!

Brand new: Square Quickies Power Pack 4


Fun with Five-By-Sevens 2



I also have a collection on my Rectangle Quickies, sets 1-4, available:



Nothing too exciting to report today. I organized my "office" space (a counter in the sunroom) but now all the junk from that area is sitting on my dining room table. Where do I go with it all? LOL

Tonight I'd love to go watch a high school football game, but the mosquitoes have been so bad around here lately that I'm thinking not...we'd be eaten alive! Tomorrow is the annual Black Swamp Festival in Bowling Green, so we might give that a try, depending on the weather.

The NFL Football season started last night, as did the fantasy league Rob convinced me to join. It's his league, just for fun, and this year I have another girl in the league with me - yay Steph!! I did okay last night but Sunday will be a different story. I was, well, a bit happy during the draft and totally botched my picks. Oh well. It will make for an interesting season. :-) At least I'm ahead of Winterstein so far this week!

Okay, off to do some more laundry before the kids get home. TGIF!

It's September

...and it's almost Fall. It can't come too quickly. The feeling of the crisp, cool air and blue skies are always welcome in Ohio this time of year.

We had an interesting weekend. Some out of town friends, who were passing through our city, called at 5pm Friday evening an invited us to meet them for dinner. They gave us one hour notice! Now, I try to be flexible about things like this, but we already had plans to drop the girls off at my parent's house for the night (woohoo), attend an engagement party and then do Rob's fantasy football draft. I didn't feel as though I could say no to them, so we ended up missing the party. I felt bad. It's never easy to make those decisions. We did have a good time though, and the kids had fun too.

Saturday Rob and Dad put some finishing touches on the playground, like a rock climbing wall and a climbing rope. That rope brings back harsh memories of elementary school gym classes. We were supposed to be able to climb that damn thing, all the way up to the ceiling (which was probably at least 20 feet up there!! I never could do it.

Sunday we went to the Fulton Co. fair. Now, THIS is a REAL fair! I'll have some photos later on. We got to see the sheep being sheered and the goats getting their baths, along with the dairy cows and even a demonstration of how sprinklers work in the event of a fire. The girls kept asking to go on the rides, but we don't do fair rides so there was a large amount of whining!! LOL They weren't horribly mistreated, though...they got ice cream, and played a game where they each won a new ball.

Challenge Time
I've decided to take part in the KB and Friends Slice of Life challenge. Things have gotten so negative and destructive in digi-land lately that I had to take a step back and remember why I started scrapping in the first place. I think this is a good way to re-focus on those reasons. I will admit, that I had been reading the "nasty blog", but today I removed it from my Google Reader. Even if there is useful information there, it's not worth it to me to have to read all the other garbage too. Supposedly people have started receiving nasty emails and even phone calls, and one designer who has a popular blog has decided to password protect it for a while. It's sad that things have come to this. It sucks the joy out of a hobby that is supposed to be fun. And there are those for whom it's a business, but they still shouldn't have to deal with personal attacks from anonymous idiots.

I'm just going to keep doing my thing and try to stay out of all the drama and crap.

A Layout

Journaling: Journaling: Heidi, I love watching you play. You go into your own little world and your imagination seems to go into overdrive. I wish I could know what you are thinking.

Credits: Papers and flowers by Laura Alpulche, Frame and ribbon by Lemonaid Lucy, Stitched circle by Karen Hunt, Journaling paper by Meredith Fenwick, Play stamp by Toni Berman

I think I'm going for a walk now. It might be nice to actually move a little!