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!

First Day of School, New Product!

Ah, my girls are growing up so fast. Today was their first day of preschool 4. Now, they did go last year, but still, it's a milestone.

Heidi

Gretchen

Don't you just love those little skirts? Thank you Target! :-)

Random layouts:
This was for Digi Dare #49. Credits here.

I think I'm finally finished with my pages from CHA. Credits here.

This was for the RAKScraps sketch challenge. Thanks for the cool template Robin! Credits here.

I'll save some more for later.

I just released a new product at My Digital Muse: Encyclopedia Style 8.5x11 Templates. I made these to help people out with the Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life challenge going on right now at DST.



Grab this set today for just $2.00!

I've made a couple of pages for the challenge so far:




Okay I better sign off for today. Hope to be more regular on blogging, now that school has started.

Hot hot hot

Daily Something

I made a hybrid layout from my now infamous electronic speeding ticket. I printed the background paper on an 8.5x11 sheet of paper, then printed the elements on a separate sheet and cut them out. I need to add journaling to jazz it up, but it's my creative project for the day. I used Sherri Tierney's Rev It Up, available at OAKS, which I think is so cute. Never thought I'd have a use for it though! LOL Those ribbons look amazingly realistic when you print them out and attach them.

Chatter
It is sooooooooooooo hot and sticky here. Every time you walk outside, you can almost slice the air. Now it's nothing like St. Louis, but it's still uncomfortable and makes me want to stay inside. So that's what we've been doing today...playing with PlayDoh, coloring and now the girls are playing in the basement, pretending they have an animal house or something. :-)

My brother was in town Saturday - Wednesday, and we've been doing a lot of fun stuff with him. Sunday was COSI, Tuesday we went out to dinner and then to the Mud Hens (baseball) game and yesterday we went swimming. The girls love seeing him, as he's the "fun uncle" and loves to spoil them. Here is a layout from all the fun:

Credits: Traci Reed - Bubble Wands and bubbles from Blow Me a Bubble, Papers from Trendy Blendys (blue) and Neutrally Yours (gray and black), Stitching from Unbound, Blue ricrac from Ric Rac Bits, Mini Alpha; Glitter stroke by Sausan Designs; Template by Andrea Gold (modified)
Font: Mish

Not too much else going on. Tomorrow we have a preschool meeting, and Rob and I are going to try to go out tomorrow night. This weekend is the annual German American Festival, which we always enjoy. Our good friends/neighbors are German dancers, and we love to see the dances at the festival. Plus, the beer is good too! When the girls were little, they had German dirndel dresses but they have since outgrown them. I'd love to get them another set, since they look so cute.

Well, I'm off to try to stay entertained. It's almost Friday! :-)

Oh, before I go, remember that Fridays are now Featured Fridays at Plain Digital Wrapper. Every designer puts one product on sale for just $2.00...a great deal! Be sure to check out my store late tonight to see which product I chose!

Oh Fiddlesticks!

Daily Something: Don't speed...it's very expensive!!!

Rob is working tons of hours this week, so this afternoon he came home for lunch and stayed for a couple of hours, since he'll be working very late tonight. He entertained the girls for a while, which was a nice break since it has been raining all day here and I can't send them outside to play.

I thought he had left to go back to work, but he returned about two minutes to hand me a piece of paper. It had several photos of his car, speeding along a road close to here. One of the city's intersection cameras got lucky and caught me going 62 mph in a 50 mph zone. Drat!! Turns out it was last Tuesday night, while I was on my way to Barnes and Noble to enjoy my night out. I'm so mad at myself! I've gone 19 years without a speeding ticket, until now. Rob, being the kind-hearted man that he is, just couldn't stop laughing at me. At least he's not mad. But $95 for a trip to B & N is a bit pricey, don't you think? Good thing I've had a record month in digi sales this month! LOL

We survived the FFO on Saturday. The girls really enjoyed playing with their cousins, who are almost 3 and 16 months old. The day was relaxed and the weather was absolutely perfect. It couldn't have gone better.

Yesterday we met Uncle Brian (in from California), Mom and Dad at COSI. I think Brian enjoyed it almost as much as the girls did...it was cute. Afterward, we had leftovers at Mom and Dad's house (another night off from cooking, yay!). Brian gave the girls their belated birthday presents - LeapPad Reading and Writing and a globe. They are going to be complete brainiacs with all these educational toys!

Well, right now it's 4:56pm and I've almost run out of ways to entertain the girls inside. We had done the Leap Pads, colored, PlayDoh, computer games, they helped with laundry, and right now they are playing drums and a mini-keyboard. Don't know how much longer I can take that!

Later!

Water is fun

Daily Something: You can be free in the water. Size doesn't matter. Everyone floats.

We spent yesterday and today at Castaway Bay in Sandusky and had a great time! On our last water park trip, I felt so self-conscious running around in a swim suit, but for some reason this time it didn't matter. Getting in the water with Rob and the girls was a truly freeing experience this time. It was their first experience with a wave pool and they were just delighted. I can see they have potential to become strong swimmers, with a few more lessons and lots more water time.

I will post pictures soon, but for now I'm going to bed. It's been a long two days (albeit fun) and tomorrow we have another FFO (this one will be a Fun Family Outing, rather than a Forced one...). My grandma is turning 91 tomorrow and my brother is flying in from California to celebrate with us. We'll be joined by my aunt and uncle, and one cousin and his family. It should be a really fun day, and the weather is supposed to be great.

Before I go, I want to link you up to a really cool blog about art journals. I came across Life is the Art at KB and Friends, where Sally (cellomom) is hosting a really cool challenge. I just might give this art journaling a try. Sounds like fun.

Night!

Spinach Ravioli

Daily Something: The grocery store isn't such a bad place to go.

Normally, I HATE grocery shopping. But I had to go this afternoon as we were out of milk, peanut butter, bread...you know, the essentials.

LOL! If you know me IRL, you know that cooking isn't really my thing. I mean, I do it, but it's not some huge passion or anything. When I make a new recipe, it's an event. Tonight I made Spinach and Cheese Ravioli. Sounds impressive, right? Well it's not, really. I used wonton wrappers instead of pasta. Easy to put together, but they don't hold up very well during cooking...pretty flimsy. Anyway, they tasted good and the girls ACTUALLY ATE THEM!! Woohoo!

Tomorrow we are going to take off and spend the day at a water park, and spend the night there. It's one of those indoor parks. Should be fun. And of course I'll have lots of photos to share when we get back.

Sorry, no layouts today. I have a couple done that have to wait... ;-)

Happy Hump Day!

New goodies

Daily Something: Sometimes honesty isn't always the best policy.

Yeah, I know...it doesn't sound right, but it's true. I guess I can rephrase this by saying that sometimes, you have to do things you don't want to do in order to avoid hurting someone's feelings.

I have a friend who is just the sweetest person, but her son is pretty aggressive and when we get together for playdates, something usually happens. By something, I mean he ends up directing his aggression at one of my girls. Last time at the park, it was throwing small stones at them; today, it was pushing one of them down into the sandbox. It's getting to the point where I would rather not get together with her, because I don't think the girls need to deal with that. They will have to deal with him in their class at school this year, so why add to it?

Anyway, she is fairly persistent about wanting to get together. I think I will have to be very busy for the next several months. KWIM?

New Product
I have a new template/quick page set up at MDM - Second Spring 8x8 Template Set :



It will be on sale for just $2.00 all day Wednesday, 8/14/07, so don't miss it!

I've also added the Summer Groove collab kit I did at Digital Tag Team to my store at PDW:



Okay, my battery is about to die, and I'm at B & N enjoying my night off, so I'll catch you tomorrow!

Monday Musings

Monday is supposed to be my day to clean and do laundry. However...not much of that is happening today! It's so much more fun to scrap, blog and surf. LOL

Daily Something: When your house is cluttered, and a "born organized" person visits your home, they become visibly uncomfortable.

Yes, Mom came to visit this morning. She and Dad had to come over and look at the swingset for some reason. Don't ask me! She absolutely cannot sit still at my house. She felt compelled to pull weeks, wipe stuff off the outdoor table (sand??), and while walking through the porch, she ran into the same pop container three or four times...I believe it was on purpose. Sigh. I guess I better get to that housework.

Before I go, a couple of layots:

Credits: Template by the fabulous Tracy Blankenship, Urban Vintage kit by Traci Reed.

I made this one for my dear friend Jeanmarie, who rarely takes pictures. So when she actually sent me one, I HAD to scrap it!! :-) J, I emailed you the full resolution version of this...did you get it?

I've been trying to finish my pages from CHA - here's a funny one:

Credits: Papers, elements and template from Funky Train - SBG collab kit (available soon!), font is Mish

Robin and Audra met Holly and her pals one night to have drinks - it was a blast! I was so tickled that the background paper had "Chicago" on it (among many other cities) so it fit right in with my theme. This page is busier than my normal style, but somehow it seems appropriate for that evening...LOL And yes Jeanmarie, this was the night I called you... ;-)

Okay, off to wash now. Have a great one!

Migraines

Daily Something: migraine headaches are NO FUN (notfunatol)! I spend most of the bed in bed. Mine come with all the fixin's - sensitivity to light, sound, temperature, stomach issues...the whole shabang. Now that I feel human again, it's wonderful.

Daily Something: Bionic Cricket

Apparently, crickets can chirp continuously for an infinite amount of time. It just so happens we have one of these lovely creatures living right outside our house, which can be heard from the first or second floor.

A day off?

Yesterday we had a wonderful time at the art museum. First we walked around the galleries, which I haven't done with the girls before. Heidi took everything in, and of course asked about a million questions. That girl is such a thinker! Gretchen, on the other hand, glanced at things and then asked when we could go downstairs (to the family center). Sigh. I plan to take Heidi back there so she and I can just gaze at all the inspiration.

Which brings me to my Daily Something: in order to be inspired, you must leave the house once in a while! Sounds basic, I know, but since leaving the house takes effort, lots of times I choose not to. The art museum is literally about 12 minutes from my house, and is just full of amazing art, architecture, lighting, people...everything! I should be taking the kids there every week. AND IT'S FREE!

Today Rob will be home in the afternoon, giving me some "time off". This is a result of the meltdown I had on Wednesday. I hate that it takes having a fit to get his attention sometimes. It's never intentional though (hormones take care of that for me). I don't have anything planned yet, but I'm sure I think of something. :-)

The girls had their last swimming lesson of the session yesterday afternoon. I can't believe how far they have come! They got to put on life jackets and ride the "boat" into the deep end, where they jumped in and floated around. They even decided to jump off the starting block, which in the past they have been too scared to do! I'm so proud of them. I tried to take pictures, but the lighting is pretty bad in there and they didn't come out.

Rob has to work tomorrow morning, so it looks like it will be just me and the girls again.

TGIF (I think!)

Lost and Found

Daily Something
It is extremely annoying to lose electricity for four minutes during a thunderstorm. I am completely dependent on it! But, it is thrilling to find my calendar, after wondering where it has been for nine days (should have opened that drawer last week...)

Daily Something Layout from 8/8/07 (yeah, it's weird...)

Daily something brush by Ali Edwards
Paper by Carrie Stephens
Alpha by Krista Mettler
Tape and bubble wrap by Dana Fran
Paint drips by Jessica Bolton
Font: Childish Alpha, Eight Fifteen

Ramblings
We are going to the art museum today, since it is supposed to rain and storm all day. They have a really cool family center there, with one room full of toys like blocks, puzzles, pretending stuff, a water table, etc. The other room is the art room, where they have every kind of recycled material you'd ever want for the kids to make "masterpieces" (Heidi's name for her creations). Gretchen really enjoyed painting on the easel last time.

Rob is taking tomorrow off, so I can have some time to myself. I guess he figures he should, since I had a giant meltdown last night right before he left for hockey. He only plays once a week, and normally I don't care at all, but he was out of town Friday through late Monday night, and then Tuesday night we went to my parents' house for my birthday dinner. I feel bad for it now, but what can I say...it was day 27 of "the cycle" and I was psycho! LOL He has been gone a lot lately, and it just gets old.

My Daily Something

I just finished reading Ali Edwards' newsletter about doing something creative each day. She is so wonderfully practical, and down to earth, and a NON perfectionist, that I can totally relate to her. So, I've made it a mission to tell a daily story, of some kind, here on my blog. Some days may have more info, but at least I'll have one story from each day.

Today's Story
I've been in a rut lately. Lots of stress (about a certain huge family decision that probably won't be settled for another month or so) and insomnia. I've haven't been feeling my best. Plus, it's been really hot and humid here for the past week or so...the kind of weather where you either stay in the AC, or if you are outside, you are swimming.

Today is one of those hot, humid days, so I set up the pool for the girls and we initiated the slip and slide. They've never tried it before, so it was a bit challenging to explain to them how to slide without actually showing them (thank the Lord there is a 110 pound weight limit on the thing! LOL). The quote of the day came from Heidi..."Mommy, you are not the boss of this! I want to do it my own way!" Wow, did she tell me or what? So I sat back and watched them slide, incorrectly, but boy did they have fun.

What I learned: sometimes rules are meant to be broken, and directions don't always need to be followed, in order to have fun.

Other stuff
School is starting soon...yeeehah!!! The girls will start on Wednesday, August 29, and I'm almost counting the days. I am craving a regular schedule again, as we all function much better that way. I've already purchased the school supplies (gotta love Walmat for 17 cent glue sticks and 78 cent marker sets). As an aside, I love school supplies. Every August I go into school mode, even though I'm not in school, and decide I must purchase supplies. Maybe it's because I always liked school, and it's a sentimental thing. Hmmmm.
Random Scrapbook Pages
Did I mention that I am a scrapbooker? ROFL!!! It seems like forever since I'm posted any pages here.

Journaling: Rob surprised me this year and took me to dinner at Gianno’s on River Road in Maumee. He reserved the wine room for us, and we had our own waiter! The food was delcious and the atmosphere was wonderful. Our waiter was a real ham too. Right away, I noticed the “creepy window that leads to nowhere, and he took advantage of that. A few minutes later, I heard this knocking sound coming from the other side of the window and I jumped out of my seat! It turns out that our waiter had asked the bar tender to knock on the window, since her knew it scared me. Later on the bartender paid us a visit and poured us two glasses of free champagne. For dessert we shared a divine piece of cheesecake (als free). Once we were finished, both the bartender and waiter escorted us up to the third floor, which is supposed to be haunted. I didn’t even want to go up, since the stairway was so scary- looking. [That’s where a woman hung herself, so the story goes] It was pretty interesting but I didn’t want to hang around up there. One room is said to have so much ”energy” in it that no one will go in it (we didn’t either). They did their best to keep me very jumpy, bringing an odd looking doll with blood on it out of the bathroom. After the haunted restaurant experience, we went to Levis Commons and walked around (it was a gorgeous evening). We finished the night with Starbucks. Here’s to 13 years!

Credits: Template by Tracy Blankenship Date Beads by Kim Jensen Paper and red ribbon from Love Ahead by Nina Heart ribbon and background paper from Heartfelt by Krista Ring Blue paper from Boy Zone by Jeanne Button by Jessica Bolton Label tape alpha by Christina Renee Over the Rainbow alpha by Michelle Godin Font: Mish

Credits: Birthday Party kit by Gina Miller and Tiff Brady; photo cluter by Nancy Comelab

Credits: Sketch by Robina Cabana (for the RAKScraps sketch challenge), My Digital Muse Summer Breeze collab kit

Okay have a happy Wednesday!

Even more CHA...

It's amazing what a good night's sleep can do! LOL

More photos from yesterday...

Robin and I with Elsie Flannagan. I totally need that apron!

Here's Audra and I with Kellie P, My Digital Muse CT member. She is such a sweetie!

We went to dinner last at Carlucci's - yum! Afterward, we had drinks and dessert at Gibson's, out on patio. It was such a beautiful evening! Holly and Audra practiced taking photos of still objects using manual settings. So, I had to capture them, using my little point and shoot.

Holly's friends Kathy and Jen met up with us, and we ordered the biggest desserts I've ever seen! Check out this carrot cake...


and my coconut cream pie...


We figured there was about 50,000 calories in that carrot cake! LOL Good thing we didn't eat it all!

This morning we are meeting Holly in her hotel lobby so she can take some head shots of us. I can't wait to see how they turn out.

I will be going through withdrawal tomorrow, leaving my new friends and going back to "real life". I have learned so much about them, and about myself too. Hopefully all this inspiration will help me do something new and exciting! Who knows!

More CHA :-)

The fun continues! Today after a real breakfast, we hit the show again and did so many cool things!

Isn't this an adorable little mousepad?

I loved using this product. First you rub on the adhesive, then the glitter or foil. There is NO mess and it's easy enough for this digiscrapper to do! LOL

Over at Elsie Flannagan's booth we made this sweet little mini-album from playing cards. Elsie really couldn't be any cuter.

This is my favorite thing that I've made here. It's a Zoom Album, and I used the photos from our silly night last night and totally made this book about the evening. You buy the kit, which includes a printable sheet with directions on how to fold it, adhesive and a cover.

Okay, Audra wants to go to sleep now so I will have to continue this tomorrow. There is sooo much more to say!