A Simple Girl's Scraps O' Life

I've Moved!!

2008-10-22T13:00:00.001-04:00

I've moved my blog! Please click here to visit my new blog home, don't forget to update rss feeds or sign up for the newsletter when you get there.

Tuesday....again, New releases & a CT call.

2008-07-29T09:47:00.005-04:00

Well here it is Tuesday....again. Has anyone else been watching the next food networks star? I love that show. I get so many great ideas from watching those chefs compete. I love to cook so its pretty fun to watch. Anyway....one of the recipes this past week was the beer can chicken in the oven with a spice rub on the outside of the chicken. It looked so yummy! And my husband loves chicken, buuuuuttttt, we no longer drink....ever.

So I spent most of the day yesterday trying to figure out how to make that without using beer. So I modified it a bit. We love the flavored teas so I picked up a can of the mango tea by Arizona. I dumped about a third of it in my fabulous mario batali enameled cast iron dutch oven....a wedding gift I totally love....and then mounted the chicken on the can. Let me back up a sec, because I dumped some of the rub into the can before inserting it in the chicken. I cheated on the rub...I was in a hurry...and I picked up a ready made rub from World Market, which I cannot pronounce, but it did mention the "taste of North Africa" on the label. It was a tasty combination of spices including paprika, cumin, nutmeg anise, rose petals, and a few others. I combined about half of the package of that with some brown sugar, granulated garlic, salt and pepper. Dumped a little in the can along with a few pinches of red pepper flakes for good measure. Then I rubbed the rest of it on the chicken after I put it on the can....probably backwards, but I didn't want to rub the rub off trying to get it on that can!!! Put it in the oven and roasted that fella til he was done...about an hour or so. Once it was out I took it off the can and poured everything in the can back into my pan and put it on the stove to make a little glaze/sauce....I added potato starch rather than flour or corn starch for thickening (I try to cut out gluten when I can). Served it with rice and pan steamed green beans(with butter...I detest margarine).

It turned out to be quite a tasty improvisation. I think my 11 year old was completely appalled at the perversion done to the chicken for our dinner...he had a really hard time eating it...but he's not much for chicken anyway. The six year old however raved all through dinner how wonderful the chicken was. I think the sweetness in the mango tea, may have helped. He ate his and his brothers and asked for more....which in my house is nearly a miracle....my boys are annoyingly finicky. I do think your kids become less finicky if you starve them real good before feeding them(it was near 8 pm when we sat down to eat)!! Just thought I'd share my little cooking venture. Of course I have no pics, I have been quite slack about taking pictures during July.

My husband's poison ivy is finally beginning to clear up. Apparently he is extremely allergic to it. He has been to the doctor now six times in 2.5 weeks. He has had 2 shots, 2 steroid packs, he's been taking benedryl and was also given allegra and clopex lotion this past friday. He has used every over the counter remedy to seek relief...none of them worked for him. I even put him in a baking soda bath. He's been miserable....poor fella.

Well don't forget its new release day over at digital freebies today. I've released an addon kit to my A Little Elegance kit called "A Little Extra Elegance" as well as the Elegance bracket album. You can pick them both up for 30% off until Monday, August 5 here.

And you know I totally forgot to post last week that I was having a CT call! I guess I'm going to have to extend my call, since I forgot to mention it. I'm pretty laid back, I just need a little help getting layouts and promotion done! And I would like to see layouts made with my kits to help me make a decision...so pick something up. It can be a freebie or two. Right now you can pick up several freebies right here from my blog or from my Designs in Digital Store. I'd love to see what you have to show me.

so here's the fine print:

-2 layouts per kit requested-post to digital freebies, designs in digital and dst
-promote my designs at DST forums or anywhere else
-participate in SGD CT forum

How to apply:send an email to simplegirldesigns@gmail.com with:
-a link to your favorite layout using Simple Girl Designs(you can use any kit or blog freebie, or combination therein, but it must be all SGD product)
-any ct’s you currently serve on (and your handle)-a link to your best gallery
-tell me your favorite element
-anything else you think will convince me! (blinkie makers and preview masters this means you!!!!)

Check back because I'm going to have to extend my call....and maybe there'll be another freebie in it for ya! Plus later this week, there will be mega kits coming out at both stores....fun, fun, fun....and I have some pretty snazzy new releases coming out next week too!

Jeez....where did the weekend go and New Releases!

2008-07-22T14:50:00.006-04:00

Can anyone tell me where the weekend went? I can't believe it is already Tuesday. Seems like it was just Friday and I was celebrating the 5000 hit mark with some fabulous freebies!

Well for starters, we spent most of the day Saturday getting my rising middle schoolers room changed over from little boy to big boy. That took some doing. We went through his closet, he has grown so fast, I pulled out three bags of clothing that no longer fits the boy. We got him a new desk and rearranged the room. We've gotta start putting some stuff on the walls, they are looking a little boring. I'll have to get some pics of the newly arranged room posted soon.

Then on Sunday, we had two separate birthday parties to attend in the afternoon, plus I was trying to catch up on laundry. In a house full of boys, there is always a mountain of dirty clothes. Later on Sunday I surprised Alan with tickets to the RUSH concert that evening. His birthday is in August and kinda got pushed to the side with all the wedding stuff last year, so I wanted to make it special for him this year. He was completely excited and suprised and we had a great time!

So my celebration of blog visitors continues. So I am going to make a great offer for all my blog readers that stop by. I have posted a grab bag in my store at Designs in Digital. Its a great deal. Its three mini/sampler kits for three (3) dollars, that's just $1/kit. These are not duplicate items and coordinate with several of my kits available in the store 19 items in all. Click on the bag for more details.

Now take a look at my latest kit, A Little Elegance. I released it at my store at Digital Freebies last week and tomorrow, July 23 it will be released at my store in Designs in Digital. And because Meg the new owner is sooooooo crazzzzzzy generous, you can pick it for the first day for half the price! What a steal!

So mark your calendars, sign up for the DID newsletter, because from now on DID will be releasing new products each Wednesday and every Wednesday new releases will be half price. After that (Thursday-Sunday) they will be 30% off. So even if you can't get into the store on Wednesday, you can still pick up a great deal through the weekend.

And because I'm feeling so generous, here's a super steal. Everyone that buys the new kit, A Little Elegance, from July 23-July 27 will receive this bracket album for FREE! Better get shopping!

Have a great day!

~Tanya

Simple Girl Designs

Whoops....and another freebie

2008-07-18T18:52:00.007-04:00

ok.....in an effort to thwart (dontcha just love that word) early birds who hack in to the 4 shared account and download my freebies before I had actually released them I had so cleverly checked the box "only publisher can download" and then went and unchecked it this morning when 5000 hits were counted. Unfortunately.....I overlooked the special save button next to that box and hit the one at the bottom instead.

Sooooooooo.....all the 200 folks that stopped by looking for the freebie got an error message. Jeez....I was too smart for myself. So I have fixed that and the link should work just peachy keen so give it a whirl again and if it doesn't work...Please leave me a comment letting me know if its still not working. And just because I value your time, especially those who stopped by twice. I've uploaded another little goodie just to say thanks and sorry for the oops! I was saving it for another freebie day....but....I felt so bad, just wanted to give you a little something!!

Download here
from my store at Designs in Digital
or here

5000 Hits & counting!

2008-07-18T00:58:00.008-04:00

Well, you did it! I hit the Magic number, 5000! So, I'm throwing a little party to celebrate 5000 hits and have a fabulous party treat for ya!

Just for stopping by today you can get a door prize! A teaser kit for free just cause I think its pretty cool that I've had 5000 visits to my blog.

download it here
from my store at Designs in Digital

or here

I'll be back later to post more party news. Just wanted to get this out to you right away!
~Tanya
Simple Girl Designs

I promised....and a couple of other things!

2008-07-17T11:31:00.007-04:00

Ok....so I promised to post a freebie today no-matter-what and I will. But first I wanted to give you more info about what's coming up in Simple Girl's Little Ole Scrap World! Ok....do you notice the counter over there to the left of the screen....you may need to scroll down. Well it is quickly approaching the 5000 hit mark! Unbelievable (to me). And my guess is that once I post all around the digi-scrap town that I have a freebie on my blog, it will go beyond 5000. So....to celebrate that little fact, I am locked and loaded to fire off a "5000 Hits Thank You Prize".

Its all ready to be linked up as soon as I am made aware of the 5000 hit mark! So be sure to come back by in the next couple of days and see if its here for you. I'll leave it up for a few days.

I also wanted to give you a little looksy at a portion of the August Collab kit (Punky Funky Firecracker) that will be available at Designs in Digital starting August 1. The colors are so much fun with this kit plenty of brights here! All of the designers over at DID have contributed, so it should be pretty awesome kit!

Okay, so here it is, the well deserved freebie that I promised yesterday. Its a simple quick page made from items available in my Almost White Mini-kit (which comes with another QP that you can embellish further) which you can pick up at DID or DF.

download here
and please remember to route people here to pick up this freebie, thanks!

Oh...before you leave, mark your calendar to come back soon for the 5000 hit freebie and also come back after that, cause I'm planning a special deal for next week over at Designs in Digital.

~til then,

Tanya
Simple Girl Designs

New releases! Upcoming Celebration and More sales Soon!

2008-07-16T09:11:00.006-04:00

Summer has been so busy this year. I can't believe we are appoaching the last leg of summer and school is right around the corner. So close, we are going school shopping this week.(well I got 30% at kohl's on top of their sale....can't miss that right? Since I have an up and coming middle schooler, we need to shop for some more appropriate middle school clothes and shoes. And then of course there's my 6 year old fashion diva....who really only wants to wear Tony Hawk or something that looks like it could be Tony Hawk. We've been getting Josh's room ready for middle school...got him a desk, we're going to get in there this weekend and organize it better, (there are still some winter clothes in there...ahem). I think all this getting ready is just to help get me ready more than anything. 5th grade was a pretty easy year for us. And I have heard nightmares about kids starting middle school.....so I am bracing myself for a wild ride.

On the scrapbooking front, I am currently selling at two stores, Designs in Digital and also Digital Freebies. Designs in Digital has recently gone through an ownership change and those of us still over there are working to make the store really great. Right now there's a super cool design contest going on. So check it out and vote(free download) for one of your friends or a rising designer. The winner will join the Designs in Digital Design team.

We have so many things coming up at Designs in Digital. In August we will begin the Scrap Factor Contest with a fabulous grand prize, so check back for more details. Each of us at DID have designed original mini-kits as part of the start-up packet you can get to participate in the challenge. Here's a peek at my kit that's included in the start up packet:

This kit will not be available for sell until after the challenge, plus I have an add-on kit I will offer at that time too. BUT I will offer a coupon to get the add-on for FREEEEEE for all of those who buy the start-up packet! Check back here for more details about this contest and also hopefully soon a preview of the entire startup kit!!

Later this week I hope to tease you with the upcoming August mega kit at Designs in Digital....so far it is looking awesome! And again....I will have an accompanying pack of some type!

I have some fabulous new releases this week at Digital Freebies. As I am setting up store there, I am adding product and all of my stuff will be on sale as it is added to the store over the next few weeks. At digital freebies this week you will find my latest kit, A little Elegance, where it is currently on sale for 30% off this week only.

You'll also find my recent Almost White Mini-kit at 30% off there as well!

I have also uploaded an older kit, which is quite lovely for this time of year, Fishin' Hole and the Fishin' Hole QP's...all 30% off this week!! How cool is that!

Be sure to check back I am working on a little celebration because my hit counter is approaching 5000 hits! Wow! 5000 hits. That's something worth celebrating, right! So I am planning something special for all you folks that stop by and check out my little life. I've been trying to get together a freebie for blog readers....so hang in there, its a coming. And I'm toying with a grab bag sale to celebrate hitting the 5000 mark. I'd love to hear what you think about grab bags!

Ok...this was incredibly long....I promise to be back in the next 24 hours with some kind of a freebie, you deserve it!

~Tanya

Simple Girl Designs

getting back into the groove of things!

2008-07-08T15:52:00.007-04:00

Brand new mini-kit in my store at Designs in Digital:

Almost White mini-kit and it comes with a bonus quick page.

find it here.

Also available as separate paper and element packs!

find it here.

find it here.

And that is a perfect way to celebrate a Brand New Shopper Sale going on now at Designs in Digital!!! If you've never shopped at Designs in Digital, this is the sale for you! The entire store is 60% off for first time shoppers. Click on the ad to go the store page and get more details!

Enjoy the sale!!!

~Tanya~

Simple Girl Designs

summer, summer, summer

2008-07-07T22:47:00.015-04:00

Where on earth did spring go? It was a glorious spring here in the Carolinas. And summer has been quite bearable. I guess the beautiful spring kinda kept me busy and away from blogging. Lots has happened. Let's catch up a moment, shall we?

The school year ended with a bang. Two graduates, my kindergartner and my fifth grader. So I am just a few short weeks away from being the frazzled mother of a middle-schooler. Not too happy about that either.

My little garden patch has kept me quite busy. I am now harvesting tomatoes, cukes, eggplants, watermelon and peppers, tons of peppers. We had our first watermelon on Saturday...the boys were super excited to eat a watermelon that we planted and raised. I made pepper jelly last weekend and made peach jam from peaches we picked up at a peach farm on our way back from the beach. I picked wild blackberries on the side of the road Saturday, got two whole quarts!!! I made blackberry jam with those. Not sure why I am making so much jam...but hopefully it will turn out tasty! I plan to make pickles and maybe something with tomatoes to can as well. Our pumpkins are coming along nicely as well. Hopefully we will have our own pumpkins this year and not have to buy any from a market.

my little basket of harvest goodies!

Proud watermelon farmer!!

Homemade Peach Jam!

Homemade Golden Pepper Jelly!

I also have been busy creating stuff for my digital scrapbooking store over at Designs in Digital. Check out these new kits just loaded this week!

I just recently got an opportunity for a three month stint at Digital Freebies, so I am super excited! I have new releases coming out tomorrow at Digital Freebies. Check back here for a fabulous freebie and updates on what's going up in the stores. Take a peek at my latest layouts on your way out!

credits here

May Day, May Day...WooHoo, I'm a Designer

2008-05-01T23:42:00.004-04:00

Ok....so here's the really brief summary of the last two months so I can get right to the current news.

March: In a word "mayhem". OMG....it was so crazy...work kicked my butt, ADSR kicked my butt so bad, I bailed before finishing. Hopefully Cole has forgiven me for recruiting and then flaking out! She keeps returning my emails, LOL. My husband got bersitis or something in his knee hobbled about for two weeks, poor thing. My kids swung my mothers porch screen right out of the support beams...way to go kiddos. I was so glad that March was over so April could just be an "easy" month.

April: Not quite as a chaotic as March, but sped past. My designing mojo returned with a vengence at the end of March and has been fueling me for weeks now. Let's see apparently six months into our new neighborhood we have been deemed the "crazy ones" from the us four and no more crew up the street...oh well, somebody's got to be the "resident crazy". I won't even go into the neighbor issues...jeez....but I have a plan to renegotiate our crazy status on the block. Onto other April news, hubby was back at the doctor for a splinter gone really wrong that led to an infection...this was obtained during the repair of the great porch swing calamity of 2008. I finally gained the nerve to begin applying to digi-scrapping stores for designer spots. Which leads to my big news!!!

I am so thrilled to announce that I have been picked up by Designs in Digital as a designer there. I have been working diligently to package my wares and stock my shelves there. And in an attempt to get my name out there I made a banner to advertise. Check it out below. I will be sporting it somewhere on the blog eventually.

click on the banner to check out my store! Once I get all my current stock into the store I am going to have a "grand opening" so be sure to stop by here or my new store for more details.

so stop back by, there may be a little treat for ya!!

A Million Little Pieces.....Not a book review, trust me.

2008-02-28T22:47:00.004-05:00

I heard a noise today, sounded like a small contained explosion in my kitchen. My 11 year old, said it was nothing...the next sign that it was definately something. I went to check out the situation. When I arrived in the kitchen, the boy sat very still...another sign, something was amiss. I asked him again what the noise was, he stated calmly the microwave, his snack exploded. Great, I'm thinking to myself, another microwave casualty. I open the microwave and nearly fall over...a million little pieces is what greets me. A million little pieces clinging to every possible surface inside the microwave. And upon opening the microwave that hovers above my stove, some of the million pieces begin to drop, onto the stove and the floor.

Oh...you're probably wondering at this point, hmmm a million little pieces of what? Well, a milllion little pieces is what you find when your 11 year old hits the high button for one minute and walks away after placing a hard boiled egg inside. For those of you keeping score, there were about 20 seconds left on the timer, factor in the sprint to the microwave to stop it, I figure about 32 seconds is the threshhold for a large cold hard boiled egg to handle the high heat of the microwave before actually exploding, but don't take my word for it.

Upon making this discovery, I simply closed the microwave, hung my head in shock and disbelief and asked my son...why? Why did you put a hard boiled egg in the microwave? To cook it he answered. Sweetie, it was already cooked, I replied. OOOOOHHHH, he said and then added, but it had been put back in the fridge and was cold I wanted to kill the tapeworms. Mom, I didn't want to get a tapeworm, he says to me, completely serious, as though this is common knowledge. At this point my head nearly snaps off from the million mile double take at that response....the whhhhaaattt?

I guess at this point I need to let you know my kids have this preoccupation with tapeworms...ummmm....not because we have them.....because they saw one show-one ridiculous episode of that moronic show on nickelodeon, Mr. Meaty, and they saw it like...8 months ago. We have had countless tapeworm discussions in the last 8 months. I'd been better off if they had seen a horror movie. Anyway back to the attempted tape-worm killing, egg-laden microwave incident....

I then explain to my son that boiled eggs are fine to eat cold, they don't need to go in the microwave....plllleaaasse...don't ever put one in the microwave again. Ok, mom, he says, he's terribly sorry, but still not sure how to stay safe from the tapeworms. In his mind, the cold temp provides parasites an opportunity to inhabit his food...again...I have no idea where this is coming from. Finally I look at him and ask him when the last time was he had food at home from the fridge or otherwise with worms or bugs in it. Never, he replies. Enough said kid, no bugs, or tapeworms in the food, got it. Got it mom. Remarkably all this did take place as a rather calm conversation...I think I was in shock. About ten minutes into cleaning up the mess, we both crack up...and he says finally, It was really something when it exploded mom.

It took me about 15 minutes to clean up the mess However, everytime we open and shut the microwave door now, we do have exploded egg remnants falling back through the little teeny vent holes that got pushed through the holes during the catastrophe. Wonder how long that will last. (just in case you ever find yourself cleaning exploded boiled egg, go with dry cleaning supplies, papertowels and a dustbroom and pan worked great for me, to clear away all the egg, then use your liquid cleaner to sanitize and really clean).

Thats the big excitement round her today....Check out this layout I finished up for my CT at digital freebies, before you go:

credits here

New Layouts!

2008-02-26T17:36:00.003-05:00

I've finished a couple of layouts for digital freebies CT.

This one is of my sister and her husband being silly at her birthday party.

credits here

This one is using the february club kits...only took me a whole month to get one done! The various flowers in the layout are pictures I took while we were on our honeymoon.

credits here

Ok...here's my #1 challenge layout for the ADSR:

credits here

Thanks for looking!!

ADSR starts today..working on a new kit...getting old...visiting the DMV

2008-02-24T14:55:00.009-05:00

Well, today is the day. The ADSR starts today. I am excited to see what the challenges will be like.

So I'm working on a new kit! The name of the kit is So In Love...inspired by and for my friends Denise & Franz's wedding. Here is a sneak peek of the color scheme on some of the first papers I've completed.

Not sure where that blue stripe came from...hmmm...suffice it to say it is not part of the kit!! You can see the inspiration for the kit from the photos below. My gift to them was a personally designed scrapbook of their wedding day.

Visited the DMV Friday afternoon, finally....Its only taken me six months since we got married to navigate my way to the DMV to change my driver's license. Partly because, well I 'm just a bit slow at times...but I had a little help with this one. To start out, our marriage license was signed incorrectly. So after returning from our honeymoon we had to retrieve our license from the register of deeds and mail it to my sister in FL so she could ahem...correct her signature. Some nonsense about signing her name differently than the way she wrote it out...that took a couple of weeks.

Then after getting that back sending it back to the register of deeds and then waiting a couple of weeks for them to wave their magic wand over it, we finally took a morning off to go about town and complete all the legal paperwork. Jeez what a mess. It took all morning to go to the social security office and complete my paperwork. Which is quite messy. Not only was I married before, but I kinda have two maiden names...crazy huh....the long and the short of it. A stepdad legally changed my name to his when I was 12. Upon adulthood I reunited with my biological father and he "undid" the name change and had my name changed back to my birth name. So here I come to the social security office with all these legal documents, adoption papers, divorce papers, marriage license. On paper I truly look like a basket case!! (After getting it changed at social security...which was really pretty easy when you have the right papers.) I am then told I have to wait for a minimum of 24 hours before attempting to get my driver's license, but I would really be better off to wait until I received my new card in the mail.

Well that took a couple of weeks. Then we moved and I lost...no misplaced my legal docs file that I would need to take to the DMV. Just found it last week...so now I have a current photo ID. Yay...It even has the right address on it. Very impressive, first time in about three years...shhhhh...don't tell anyone.

Apparently while I was at the DMV some lady was arrested for identity theft. I was so distracted, I was reading and listening to my ipod, that I missed that. Of course while at the DMV the picture taking station had to die and we had to wait forever to get our pictures taken. But its all done now and I don't have to go back again for two years!!

Well thanks for stopping by. No freebies today. I'll see what I can get together in the near future. On your way out check out another one of our engagement pages. I've still got a few more to do before I can start on our wedding.

credits here

Humpday, Freebie

2008-02-20T09:32:00.003-05:00

Ok, so I'm still dealing with the piracy aftermath. Don't want to seem like a big meanie. Here's the freebie I promised. Working on some layouts. I'll upload those when I get a minute. Looking forward to the ADSR starting on Sunday.

click here to get the last freebie that goes with the chocolate and flowers kit.

Gotta run...busy day.

ARGGGHHHH.....I'VE BEEN PIRATED!

2008-02-18T19:32:00.003-05:00

ummm...not sure exactly how it happened, but in this last batch of piracy issues (the notorious 6000+ usurped files) all my brand new not even released in a store kits got snagged and passed around, sold, what have you.

Perhaps I should be really, really devastated. But I'm not. Disappointed yes...completely. My stuff got unveiled before I had a chance to officially release it. I've been patiently waiting the opportunity to announce that I had stuff to sell. Oh well. As you can imagine, this little snafu will delay that announcement. Bummer.

And I'm not going to tirade about the evilness of modern day digi-pirates and what they are doing. That horse has been beaten to an incredibly bloody pulp all over the digi-scrapping world. The pirates know what they are doing and that it is wrong. Let me just tell you when it was brought to my attention that I had been pirated, I had this overwhelming feeling of confusion, shock and powerlessness. Its kind of like an invisible person, a ghost if you will slipping into your art gallery that is awaiting opening night and stealing all your pieces right off the wall, taking them to kinko's, making thousands of copies and then plastering them all over town. Rather deflating, to say the least, when you discover your "art" on display elsewhere unbeknownst to you, while you were progressing towards opening night.

I had one freebie left to give out...of course the hackers have probably already snagged it. Just not feeling in a giving mood. I need a few days to recover my mojo. Check back later this week, when I feel like giving away the mini-kit below for free...

Amost Valentine's Day, ADSR & a freebie

2008-02-12T08:53:00.008-05:00

Its almost Valentine's Day. Only two more days. Ok, so speaking as a total newlywed, why do we have to got to work on Valentine's Day. We should have that day off from work. They could call it relationship development day. I know, I know there are a lot of people out there who hate Valentine's Day...and have nothing to be excited about. I don't mean to sound like I am gloating...I'm just so fortunate to have such a sweetie for husband. He really is a sweet man and so very thoughtful..all the time.

Trust me...my first marriage was not so blissful and loving...even only six months in(I remained in that miserable marriage for 7 years)...so I deserve a minute to relish in the excitement of new, appreciative, respectful and healthy love....

So I'm a bit inspired these days...the ramp up towards Valentine's day has got me thinking about my hubby and our relationship, and how fortunate we are to have found one another. We knew right away we were soul mates...but waited (2.5 years) and took our time (because of my kids) before getting married.

I am scrapping our engagement photos, here's one of my favorites so far.

credits here

I really was very uncomfortable with having my photo taken. So in all the tight shots where we were facing one another...Alan kept crossing his eyes and making silly faces before the photographer snapped. Kept me laughing. He's definately a keeper.

I'm taking the plunge, joining the race, the amazing digi scrap race that is. I have partnered with Cole check out her Digital Freebies Gallery here. She's an up and coming designer...check out her blog here. She made a really cool blinkie for us!! And we even have a blog to post our ADSR (mis)adventures!!

And here's the freebie, as promised:

Download here

TGIF....finally!

2008-02-08T16:48:00.004-05:00

Ok so just a quickie here. My week has been so hectic. Its never a good thing to miss the first two days of the work week, ya know. The doctor called today. Apparently my son has had strept throat all week after all. Perhaps that explains why he's been so tired...which is unusual for him.

Why don't they just listen to moms? Doctors that is. I told her that he had had a lingering extremely sore throat for nearly a week when we went on Tuesday. I told her that my son had spent a lot of time over the last week or so with a child that had just been diagnosed (the day before our Dr. visit) with strept throat. I told her that he didn't seem to have any normal symptoms outside of a very sore throat, but that my gut was telling me it was more than a cold, because my child is up and at 'em in the morning usually and never complains of sickness. And that day, he just could not get out of bed and said he could not go to school and his throat hurt really, really bad. You kinda have to apply the "dog years" theory to my child's symptom complaints. By the time the symptoms have held his attention long enough to warrant complaining to mom more than once...he must be reaaalllly uncomfortable....chances are his discomfort and or sickness is several times worse than it would have been if he had complained at the first hint of it. Ok...sorry for the rant...but some doctors...well...they just make me crazy.

Ok...since I was sick this week I am behind on everything....so here's a little freebie for ya...cause I gotta run.

click here to download

Catching Up, Challenges...and a freebie

2008-02-04T10:53:00.003-05:00

Well, I've been horribly neglectful of my blog over the last little while, but I kinda have been a tad busy. We moved in November, barely got the house unpacked enough for Christmas, had a huge Christmas feast, featuring a roast beast, of which there were no leftovers. There has been one birthday after another beginning in November. The last three months have been a whirlwind. Its no wonder I am sick...again. Nothing major, but I have had three horrible, mind-muddling, energy snatching sinus infection/cough/cold thingies. Since November. Yuck!

So I am at home today, and my oldest is home as well. Will have to take him to the doctor later, he just might have strept throat. My youngest cried all morning at the sheer devastation that he would actually have to attend school and would not be allowed to stay home since his brother is sick. He actually whined to me that he needed a break from school. Um...excuse me, you are in kindergarten little fella...and you are not sick!

I am working on a couple of layouts using the club kit from digital freebies which is actually two complete coordinating kits from two different designers. This month's kit is designed by Karen Lewis and Danielle Engebretson. It is so cute and colorful. Take a look at the kits below.

It is such a bargain! Head over to Digital Freebies and you can pick up both these kits for just $5 total. And they both made all kinds of coordinating addons to go with their club kits that you can pick up in the boutique!! I'll post my layouts when they're complete...still gotta find the right pics.

I'm also working on a QP bundle for retrodiva using her All I Need and the add- on kits. Those kits are so gorgeous. I'll let you know when those are finished and posted in the store as well. Some of the other members of the CT have got some completely awesome QP albums in the store. Retrodiva is so awesome to be giving her CT a chance to design and sell in her store!!

I've got a few challenges going on as well and I've been bitten by the designing bug this past month. I've been wanting to design for a while, but haven't really felt ready for it. I'm hoping that the inspiration will continue and I will continue to improve my skills and maybe even carve out a style. So here are a couple of freebies you can get your hands on during the month of February:

Check out the Scraplift Challenge at Digital Freebies this month to pick up this little kit, "bring me flowers & chocolate add-on".

It's a weekly challenge hosted by me and the kit will be divided into four parts for the month of February.

At retrodiva this month I will be giving away this kit "More Chocolate & Flowers" for the Font Challenge.

This challenge runs twice a month, so half the kit will be given out at the end of each challenge.

I also share the hosting with Conny for the Template Challenge at Retrodiva. Conny has posted a gorgeous template for Valentine's day for the first part of the month and the prize is a beautiful QP from retrodiva using her newest kit, Just So You Know. I'll be posting the second template this month around the 15th.

Terribly long post, but I have been neglectful. So for hanging in there here's a little freebie for your time. It coordinates with the kits above and I have more where this came from so check back! You might get lucky!

download here
Download it quick before the link expires! I'll be back later this week with more goodies.

Thanks for stopping by!
Tanya

Winter stopped by today....

2008-01-17T12:54:00.001-05:00

So we got winter for one whole day. Don't get me wrong, it gets cold down here in the sunny south. Its been a strange winter. Two weeks before Christmas the weather was breaking heat records, and now we have icy-snow-rain day. And I know all you yankees think we are big wimps cause they close the schools or delay them for very little down here. But just remember this since we don't get as much as the northern states, we just don't have all the trucks and slag and stuff. its really not a great use of the tax money to have an army of salt/slag trucks that get used twice a year ya' know.

And, as of Jan 1, umm...its summer round here in the retail world. They had bikinis in the retail stores by the first of January, and good luck finding gloves or scarves if you didn't buy them before Christmas. I went to Target yesterday to get boots for the boys, my gut just told me we would get something today and the boys outgrew their boots and I hadn't replaced them, cause it had been such a warm winter. There were three pairs of boots left. So I bought a pair for each of the boys, don't think they will even fit properly, but at least they will stay dry.

Check out these pictures I took in the rainy snow:

Made a layout using the photos and a fabulous kit from retrodiva, blue christmas.

Full credits can be found here.

I'm working on a kit, we'll see what happens.

Let's see Christmas was fun around these parts. We had a nice Christmas dinner, with lots of friends and family and unbelievably not one picture was taken. My sister and her husband came up for Christmas. It was fun having all the family together. My sister got a major haircut, she hasn't had short hair in about 18 years. It looks great! The boys were completely spoiled. Its so hard not to be, they both have birthdays scattered during the holidays as well.

Here are some of the layouts I made for Christmas:

Full credits here

Full credits here

I tried so hard to participate in the 40 days of scrapping over at Divine Digital, but I only got one layout completed, before the holidays took over:

Full credits here

Well that's all for now. I'll stop in later with some shots of my new kit!!

The end of 2007

2007-12-31T08:57:00.000-05:00

So here it is the end of 2007. I gotta tell you...I am ready for 2008. 2007 has been a rascal of a year around here. There have been some pretty great things; getting married, buying a gorgeous new house, hosting a fantabulous Christmas party. But some serious low points and craziness of 2007. My mom and fiance(at the time) were laid off within days of one another in March and have been searching for full time work ever since. My mom was diagnosed with uterine cancer in July and had a full hysterectomy three weeks before my wedding; then underwent radiation for 6 weeks through September and October which wreaked havoc on her diabetes. I am really ready for this year to end, because next year has got to be overall a better year.

We bought a house!!!!

2007-11-21T14:11:00.001-05:00

Okay so I've been MIA lately, cause we've been running ourselves ragged to maintain the status quo at home while jumping through all the mortgage lender hoops and packing up our house at the same time. We did buy a house and we moved in over the weekend. I am still kinda not used to the new place. I find myself walking around in disbelief that it is ours. Its pretty much the nicest place I've ever lived, its brand new...which is really cool. We are up to our ears in boxes right now...and we are trying to get things in order. I hope to make tremendous progress over the long holiday weekend. We'll see.

I am really behind in my scrapbooking ventures. I've downloaded lots of kits so I can get caught up on my CT duties. There is some awesome stuff right now at http://www.digitalfreebies.com/ and http://www.retrodiva.net/.

The club kits are gorgeous on both sites and so worth the teeny tiny $5.

And if you are into totally free stuff...that's worth downloading because it is spectacular....check out this site http://www.digitalscrapbookingfreebies.com/. The club kit and free collection there are amazing right now. Join the mailing lists so you know what's going on and you'll rack up even more freebies.

North Carolina---The New Dust Bowl

2007-10-18T15:08:00.000-04:00

We need some serious rain around here. At my sons' soccer game this week there was a foggy haze hovering just above the field. It took me a while but I finally figured out it was the dust from the gravel parking lot just hanging in the air. Just a teensy bit eerie.

So halloween is just around the corner and of course Gabe has known what he would be for weeks, Dracula. Its a mild version of dracula. Really I think he just wants to dress up again, ya know since Dracula is kinda stylin' with his velvet tux, satin cape and bow tie!! He looks very cute and insists on wearing his black loafers because his sneakers are just not dressy enough. Josh is still trying to figure it out. He has to make a decision this week or he is gonna wind up being a hobo.

Hopefully we will being buying a house soon and moving. We have a house in mind and are hoping to sign a contract in the near future if we can actually afford it. Keep you posted.

Hey check out www.retrodiva.net. I recently joined the creative team there and will be hosting a font challenge. Retrodiva's stuff is gorgeous...I so have a secret scrap crush on her designs.

That's all for now. I'll be back soon and bring some picks too!

Template Challenge!!

2007-09-09T01:09:00.000-04:00

I've posted a new Template Challenge at Digital Candy. Come and play!!!! Great template, Great Prize!!!!

I created the prize for this challenge and it coordinates with a little blog freebie (prize) if you read through the previous blog post. Short and sweet today!!!

Married...3 weeks and holding!

2007-09-06T08:31:00.000-04:00

Forgive me blog world, for I have sinned its been 2.5 months since I last blogged. So very much to catch up on here. Strap on your seat belts, grab a snack and whatever caffeine laden liquid you prefer 'cause here we go:

Its hard to believe that three weeks ago I was running around like a total crazy girl finishing up the last minute details before our wedding on 8/18/07. We had such a fun and special day, it was all worth it. I just received my photos from the photographer yesterday. Very exciting...can't wait to start scrapping all those. We got such a great deal, the photographer is developing her professional portfolio, so she gave us a cd (actually 5 cd's) with over 300 photos from our wedding day and we have printing rights. I was thrilled at that, then I can scrapbook what I want.

So here are the details of our special day/weekend. I took off from work the week prior to the wedding...a lot was done, but there was so much last minute running around to do. On Thursday, my mom, sister and I had manicures and pedicures...super fun. Friday we set up for the wedding all day at the church where I work. We decided to do it there, because we were not going to have any booze, so we decided to have a BBQ reception at the church after the wedding...keep it simple, right? OK...sorry on to /set-up rehearsal Friday.

Thursday evening we tried on tuxedos...I have a layout to prove it...scroll down! Gabe had a total and complete melt-down when he had to take his tux off. He loved wearing it. I had to keep promising him that he could wear it again in a couple of days. Josh's tux jacket sleeves had to be let out, so I did not manage to get one picture of him in his tux at the bridal shop. We took the tuxes, my dress, my mother's dress, and the bridesmaids dresses over to the church where we were meeting all my parents to commence table cloth ironing. With about 20 table cloths its a good thing we got started early. One less thing to do on Friday.

We spent all day Friday setting up the reception. What took the most time, were the centerpieces of course. Pretty simple, but tedious none-the-less. It was through this process that I determined that I had absolutely no talent for arranging even a simple, simple flower arrangement, even while equipped with color photo and comments from Martha Stewart's magazine. So my sister, came to the rescue and worked it out. And the centerpieces (see below) came out looking quite nice. We had to add three tables to the reception area so I had to run out and buy more flowers at the last minute for the tables. I ordered seven dozen roses for the cake...it was gorgeous. Around 2:30 my best friend from college arrived from New Jersey, we hadn't seen each other in 11 years and that doesn't really count, cause she just crashed at my house over night in route to New Orleans. My nails had gotten ruined from the set-up so my friend and I were ordered away from set up and to the nail salon for manicures and catch up time.

Oh and during this time my wedding cake went missing. My very sweet girlfriend, Dawn, who hosted my bridal shower offered to make the cake for the wedding, she did a trial run at the shower and it looked great and tasted great too. Wednesday before the wedding her three year old became ill. Now she had already made the cakes and was planning to begin icing them that day. I checked in with her and visited with Belle, who just didn't look right. Dawn wasn't too worried(or wasn't letting on to me that she was), they were going to the doctor and would probably need to run a couple of tests, but she felt certain they would be back later that day and she would be able to get to the cake....no worries.

6:30 Thursday morning I received a call from Dawn's husband, Belle had been hospitalized over night and has been running a temp of 105 and Dawn has been at the hospital all night with her. OK...I called Dawn later, she thought they would be released sometime later that day, still not worried. By Thursday evening,they had called in the CDC to figure out what was wrong with her and were doing blood cultures, she was still running a 105 temp. Bypass worry head straight for scared, and oops...there's the whole cake issue to address. So here I am totally worried about my friend's daughter who has become suddenly very ill and now I am trying to get the wedding cake away from her, so she can worry about her daughter without worrying about the cake. Dawn is a total type A and was not wanting to let me down and wanted to finish the cake herself...she was completely exhausted and not thinking straight, but short of breaking into her house (which I considered), I could not wrangle that cake away from her. Finally she had her husband drop the cake off to a baker friend and we picked the cake up at 4:00 pm Friday evening, just before the rehearsal. I sent Alan out to the boonies armed with very little knowledge about the area and a cell phone to retrieve the cake on his way to the rehearsal. So the next order of business...get a couple of friends who had not seen the cake, touched the cake or been near the cake, to assemble the four tiers and the seven dozen rose buds all over the cake first thing Saturday morning, no problem!My college friend and best girlfriend round town jumped in and put it together Saturday morning. So my wedding cake was a labor of love by my three best girlfriends, kinda neat when you think about it. (BTW: Belle is on the mend, it was determined some time on Friday that she had an extremely dangerous strain of an e-coli infection, like the strain that can kill a person. She wasn't released from the hospital until sometime Monday, poor baby. She is still on medicine for this today.)

The rehearsal went well. We rehearsed the walking in, the walking out, the giving away, the seating of the mothers...we forgot to rehearse the exchanging of the rings, which apparently would have been a plus, as we learned during the ceremony on Saturday. After the rehearsal, we all went to the rehearsal dinner which took place a small restaurant in the area. My parents had arranged it and set it up while we were setting up the reception area. It was a nice evening. It was nice to see all the people special to us (except Dawn and Belle) there. After the dinner, Casey (Dawn's hubby) took Alan and the boys bowling for a family style bachelor party. My college friend, sister and another friend came to my house to hang out for a while. It was fun to sit down and relax and chat with an old friend.

My friend Kassia left around 1:15 am and I had to be back up at 6:00 am to give Josh his medicine and pack, and write the remaining checks to be given out later in the day and shower and get the boys ready and all of us out of the house by 8:30. I am a very lucky person. Even on the eve of such excitement, I fell right to sleep.

Saturday morning my dad picked up the boys at 8:30 and I was packed and ready to go. I went straight to Starbucks for my fix...a Venti chai tea latte (thank you very much) and then onto the salon to have my hair and makeup done. Had to buy lip gloss from the salon, because I realized, I had not thought about lip stick for the day and had not brought any with me. oh well, new aveda lip gloss for me it is! The girl who did my hair and makeup did a fab job and had me out of there before 10:30. I moseyed...yes moseyed, over to the church and snuck into the reception area to see how things were shaping up. It was starting to look like a real event. My girlfriends had finished the cake and were awaiting my approval. I thought it looked great. Everything was getting exciting. I had to sneak up to the bridal suite to get dressed. I was the first one there, ahead of my mom and sister and step-daughter. My dress laced up the back, and my mom couldn't do it, so my sister was going to have to get busy lacing me up. The photographer came in and started snapping away while were getting ready. She took a ton of shots of odds and ends that really looked nice when I saw them. The grooms pictures were taking place while we were getting ready and then we went into the sanctuary for the bride's side of pictures. I think that really helped to calm my nerves a little bit...although I was not as anxious as I expected, actually I was pretty calm....I think it helped that I had some time to myself that morning. We finished up bridal pictures just 15 minutes before the ceremony started and would you believe it, we actually started on time.

The ceremony was a surreal experience. I expected to be a bundle of nerves and shaky...but I wasn't. I waved to people that I had not seen in forever and before I knew it I was at the alter. My dad gave me away. And a minister whom I work for, and who is just the sweetest man ever, performed the ceremony. He was the most emotional of us all believe it or not. He did our pre-marital counseling and had told us several times that he knew we were just right for one another. The ceremony was over before we knew it but we did have one little snafu...the rings!! We forgot to rehearse that part of the ceremony. So Bruce (the minister) asked for the ring and Alan got it out and while Bruce is going on about the ring and its symbolism, Alan is doing his darnedest to shove that ring on my hot, swollen finger. He finally got it on about the same time that Bruce announced, "Alan, place the ring on Tanya's finger and repeat after me"...Alan and I giggled and Alan let out this big "oops". Bruce then said, "OK, Alan hold the ring on Tanya's finger and repeat after me". It got a chuckle from the crowd. Pretty funny. Minutes later we were married...its still sinking in for us.

We made it to the reception about 45 minutes after the ceremony ended, with pictures completed. All told there were about 100 people for the wedding/reception. We did not sit down and did not get to talk to everyone either. I wished I had had more time with some folks, especially those from out of town. We served BBQ and beans and rolls and chips and fruit salad and a cheese tray. The boys had a blast at the reception, and they were remarkably well-behaved for both the ceremony and reception. I wanted them to have fond memories of the day, because this was not about just Alan and me...this was a huge event for them as well. Gabe was particularly happy, because now Alan can sleep over, and he hopes he will camp out in his room with him.

After the wedding, we drove up to the mountains. We are only a couple of hours from the mountains. We stayed at a friend's cabin in the Linville, NC area. It was so peaceful and quiet. It was a nice getaway for a few days. Alan has promised to take us on a cruise, once he gets settled into a permanent FT position...yes he is still trying to wrangle a FT job....more about that later. We went to grandfather mountain, Linville caverns, we went gem-mining...Alan wasn't really excited about that one, but ended up finding some great stuff and had a lot of fun doing it! We also drove down to Asheville via the Blue Ridge Parkway....which took way tooooooo long, beautiful, but slow.

So we had a nice, nice time. A fun and sentimental and spiritual wedding, shared with friends and family. A fun party afterwards and then we jaunted off for some honeymoon time. All and all it was great.

Now we are back in the real world. School has started, my baby went to kindergarten. My mom starts radiation next week for her cancer. She was diagnosed mid-July and had a complete hysterectomy on July 30. We don't think she will need chemo...which is good. Alan is still looking for a full-time job in his field...he currently has two PT jobs mostly in his field. My oldest son is in 5th grade this year...his last year of elementary school....and I really don't want to think about that. My sister is back in Florida with her hubby. And I am back to the grind...which is not so bad. I now alter my work schedule during the school year so the kids can come home from school instead of going to after-school....it has made a huge difference for my oldest. Its only our first week of the new schedule so I am still getting into a routine. Anyway this has been an incredibly long post and to reward you for your stick-to-it-ness...here's a little prize.

Til next time... and no it won't be months!!

Two days 'til I see the new Harry Potter movie!!!!

2007-07-10T00:02:00.000-04:00

Ok, ok I know it is nothing to do with anything ever posted before, but besides being a photoshop junkie and font fanatic I am a Harry Potter fan. I have been counting down the days until this next movie and have been watching all the previous movies to get ready for the new one this week. I can't wait!!!!! I had meant to re-read the last two books, also in preparation to the release of the final book, but scrapbooking has all but rendered me illiterate...see there, I'm not even sure I spelled that right! No time to read when there is scrapping to be done, but I will have to make time to read the new book.

Now, back to movie news. My mom is having a small surgical procedure on Friday early and I am taking her there. As a result a friend is keeping my boys over night Thursday so I can stay over at my mom's and rise and shine long before the sun to get to the hospital. So we are going to go out (mom and me that is) to the new HP movie and a late dinner.

In other movie news I read today on the M. Knight Shamaylan website that he has released the title of his next "thriller" type movie, "The Happening" to be released next summer. Can't wait for that one either....love his movies too. Something Alan and I share.

On the wedding planning front...can I just say here and now, I think I suck at this wedding planning stuff. So many decisions that really are not important in the grand scheme of things. I mean come on, why do we stress so over centerpieces, jeez -o-man. I am a big picture type of girl...all these little bitty details are driving me insane. I keep making to-do lists to no avail. And I am forgetting everything else I need to do, because I am thinking of napkins and tablecloths for 100+ of our closest friends and relatives.

Well enough whining about that.

Back from vacation

2007-06-25T15:36:00.000-04:00

We are back from the beach. OMG, let me tell you, prior to the next car trip the five year old is going to the vet, yes the vet, to get whatever sedatives we gave the cats on long trips when I was a kid. Because, because he was an absolute raving maniac for 4 hours. I have not seen such discontent and mayhem in the back seat on a car trip since the sedatives wore off the cat in the third hour of the five hour car trip way back in 1985...long before the notion of kitty crates. That cat actually leapt onto my mother's head claws extended, and of course my mother was driving the car. Its a miracle we survived that trip, we all made it to our destination including the cat.

I love my little boy, but he can be one of the most trying individuals to be around. So next car trip, he's gonna be sedated. I mentioned this notion to some folks at work...I work at a church, remember...and received several stories from people who have used this practice, Dramamine, night time cough syrup, etc. I know you're thinking, just pack more toys....I DID!!!! He did not behave this way on any trip prior to this one. I really thought I was going to lose my mind...is it any wonder my sweetie got a speeding ticket on the way back?

Truth be known and anyone who has traveled through itty-bitty beach towns knows that they set you up for these tickets. Apparently the speed limit changed from 55 to 30 in a space of less than one mile on a 7 mile road. We saw the cop, but not the sign, we were completely oblivious that we were speeding, practically waved at the cop as we passed by his parked car. Imagine our shock when he pulled us over like two minutes later. Completely stunned were we that we thought surely he must need to get around us to get to a an actual emergency. Nope! Needed to hand out a ticket. Dangit!

Well, we had a fun time while at the beach. We took the boys to Alligator Adventure one day. Very cool. Needless to say they have a lot of alligators, over 1,000. I have never been up close to an alligator before, man they are completely prehistoric and monstrous looking. So glad they do not run loose in my home town. The boys completely enjoyed checking all the various alligators and other reptiles they had there. They got to touch a snake....yuck...which they completely enjoyed because I am totally terrified of them. We all touched a little alligator, not too bad. Saw some interesting creatures, one enormous crocodile and a tail-less alligator named Bob, of course.

The boys had a terrific time playing on the beach. They would love to live at the beach all the time. Gabe says he is going to move to the beach, most likely Hawaii when he grows up....I'll remind him to pack sedatives for that trip!

I got no scrapbooking done while we were gone. We had a very volatile wi-fi connection and I could not believe how tired I was at the end of the day. Fell asleep each night with my laptop on my lap. So I was completely disappointed that I did not get just tons of layouts done. Bummer.

Well, we are officially within two months of the wedding and I have got to get final plans made. I am so not a planner, but things must be ordered and such. Today I start back at the Y, going to try that plan 9 weeks from couch potato to runner that at digishop talk posted by travelgirlut a couple of weeks ago...I am now armed with an ipod...so I can really get my exercise groove going.

Gotta run, no really, I am going straight to the Y!

Wedding details and Layouts

2007-06-19T19:50:00.000-04:00

Heading out to the beach tomorrow. So thought I would share a little bit before I go to the land of possibly no wi-fi. I mentioned the cake stand a couple of posts back, but just found the pic today. Here it is, I love it, it is so pretty.

This is a sample of a cake similar to what I desire. Stopped by a hotsy-totsy bridal shop the other day to inquire about the "cake jewelry" monograms atop the cake. Totally more than I want to spend for the topper, over $120 just for some letters and they are bedazzled...granted with swavorsky crystals...but still not my personal style. I was hoping they offered a non-bedazzled alternative, but no they do not. So on to plan B for a cake topper.
(note to self: devise plan b)

Well I finished my layout using the fabulous club kits from Digital Freebies. So in love with this kit. I must say I was "totally" into creating this layout....sorry for going valley on ya. I finished it late last night and posted it completely bleary-eyed mind you to the gallery and was completely agape when my layout turned up on DF's weekly newsletter today as the featured layout.

Credits Here

So the next layout I did using retrodiva's Bohemian Love Affair...another kit that was love at first sight! I have got to find something else to scrap with this kit. I tend to gravitate towards kits that are a bit grungy, shabby and masculine...perhaps because I have a couple of grungy, messy little boys.

Credits Here

Well as much as I would like to ramble about more stuff....I gotta go pack, which includes downloading stuff onto my laptop for the trip...like itunes so I can get the ipod up and running.

'til next time......

Monday, Monday....

2007-06-18T15:11:00.001-04:00

The day after. Had a great birthday yesterday. Thanks so much to everyone for all their sweet comments on my birthday. Truth be told, it was a birthday weekend. The festivities began Saturday night at my dad's house. Received gifts from my sweetie and his family over there and we had baby back ribs for dinner. Pretty yummy. My dad and stepmom couldn't give me their gift because they said it would blow the surprise of my mom's gift the next night.

Sunday we went to church and then my dad and I went to lunch to celebrate Father's Day. Alan watched the boys and everyone lived to tell about it!! (Just kidding, Alan does a great job with the boys. We have taken our time so he and the boys could build up good relationships, before we got married.) I stayed up way too late, until 3:30 Sunday morning scrapbooking, so I needed a little nap Sunday afternoon.

We headed to my mom's for dinner, Sunday evening, linguine and clam sauce and key lime pie. Another yummy dinner. I got gifts from my mom, aunt and kids over there. The selections my kids make for gifts is usually quite interesting. My eldest son selected a fabulous bag for me from target and he picked red, apparently my mom was directing him to choose an orangy color(eek) and my youngest was sold on yellow, but Josh chose red....good job kiddo, you know your mom well. He thought the bag would be cool for our upcoming beach trip(oh crap I have to pack!) .

My youngest, at 5 years old, selected a hot pink wallet and a set of bangles made of 100% bonafide bamboo, because as he told my mother, "bamboo is really, really good and my mom should have some!" Couldn't find pictures for those on target.com, but I'm sure you can muster an image in your head.

My big surprise gift this year was something I wasn't expecting, but have kinda coveted secretly for a while now...an ipod nano. My soon to be 18 year old stepdaughter had a hand in selecting this one and of course they chose hot pink, or as I like to refer to it, "pink flamingo pink". Totally cool and still trying to figure out how to get my tunes on it. Of course they made sure to pick one that could sport pics, because everyone knows how obsessed I am with digi-scrapping and this way I could have teeny-tiny pics of my layouts on my person at all times. Check it out!

Don't have any layouts to share right now. Although I am working on a layout using retrodiva's Bohemian Love Affair from Digital Freebies.

Love retrodiva's stuff. I think I have just about everyone of her kits. And how cool is this, retrodiva just launched another freebie site called Digital Scrapbooking Freebies. Its a nifty site so go check it out.
.
Well, I gotta run but I'll leave you with this pic from our engagement photo session a couple of weeks ago. It was kinda strange for me as I am so shy and have stage fright for things like this. Click on the photo to see a few more shots or to get more info about this photographer if you live in the area (Charlotte, NC).

Later!

Its my birthday and I'll scrap if I want to!!!!

2007-06-17T08:40:00.000-04:00

Happy birthday to me!! I am so proud of my boys, my oldest, such a sweetie, remembered it was my birthday without prompting and sang happy birthday to me as soon as he saw me. My youngest, not much of a morning person, did manage to share a pleasant Happy Birthday sentiment, also without prompting. So its starting out to be a great day!

So its father's day and my birthday. It happens every few years. So I'll be taking my dad out to lunch today and then my mom is cooking my favorite dinner for me tonight....homemade linguine and clam sauce. Its the clam sauce with butter and garlic and olives and mushrooms and parsley.... yummmm. For dessert this year we are having key lime pie instead of the customary homemade strawberry cake that I have had almost every year. Why you ask? The strawberry cake is a lot of work for my mom and I am kinda starting a modified Atkins diet tomorrow(gotta be trim for a wedding dress).

Okay on to scap news. Head over to Digital Candy today and pick up the template for my template challenge over there(the link to the challenge is in the sidebar on the right). I have put together a little kit, called Hawaiian Shirt(scroll down to yesterday for a preview...keep scrolling and you'll find a freebie too!) for the prize to be given out in four parts over the next four weeks. Its gonna be fun, so come and play!! (Be patient with Digital Candy....they have had explosive response over the last few days and its wearing the host server out...if you can't pick it up today, try again tomorrow, k?)

My layout made with the template using lauraskathi's "My Star" kit over at Digital Candy

I have to rave for a moment about the new club kits over at digital freebies. This month's kits are made by Maria LaFrance and Michelle Swadling. The colors are devine and the kits are enormous....an absolutely amazing bargain at $5. Go get them...I can't wait to scrap with them. Gotta find just the right pics.

Well its a few minutes past 9am EST and I gotta get my fanny going so we are not late for church today. Everyone have a great Father's Day!!

Layouts, Challenges and a Freebie...oh my!

2007-06-16T12:17:00.001-04:00

Great news...school is out, finally....yeah!!! My big boy finished out the year with a bang, next year he will be in the gifted class for both math and reading!! His final report card was all A's and B's. 4th grade was a tough year, hopefully 5th grade will be a little easier. Amazingly in our school district, 5th grade is the last year for elementary school, I don't like the idea of 6th grade being in junior high school, it seems so young. So next year my big boy will be in 5th grade and my baby boy will be starting kindergarten.
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I have some layouts to share with you that I created recently using great kits from Digital Freebies. Be sure to stop by there and pic up this weeks Friday Freebie.
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"At the Fountain"

This is my friend's little girl. She is such a sweetie.

Credits

"Petting Zoo"

Credits

On to other news. I made it on another CT. I have recently joined the Digital Candy Creative Team. Check out these layouts I made using Flow's "Good Life" kit available at Digital Candy.

"Monkeys at the Zoo"

Credits

"At Grandma's Pool"

Credits

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Are you up to some challenges? Cause I got a couple for you. To find out the details about the challenges click on the links on the right hand side of the page. Check out the kit available for participating in the scraplift challenge over at Digital Freebies.
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Each week Jen Maceyunas and I take turns hosting the scraplift challenge over at Digital Freebies and every week, part of the prize is given out for participants. Its a great way to collect some kits.
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I am also excited to announce that I will be hosting a template challenge at Digital Candy. I am completely excited about this. I will provide a template each week and provide a prize for the challenge. This challenge is due to start tommorrow, June 17....also my birthday! Here's the prize I have made for you if you participate in the challenge. I am completely excited about this because it is my first kit ever!! My inspiration for this kit came from my youngest who has recently developed an obsession with Hawaiian shirts. He acquired one that is red with a white print and sewn with the right side of the fabric inside, so it looks kinda worn.
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To celebrate my birthday and the new challenge launch I have a little freebie for you!! Hope you love it!
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Available here.
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Have a great Saturday. I am off to scrap some layouts! See you guys tomorrow over at Digital Candy for the new challenge!

2007-05-31T19:11:00.000-04:00

Ok, so last time I promised you some information about visiting a movie set. So here goes; my fiance has a set of friends who happen to be brothers. One of the brothers is producing a straight to dvd movie. Alan went to help out on the set/location and they needed someone to play the doctor the following day and they asked Alan if he would do it. He said sure, so we drove up to the location, "Harmony House" apparently some civil war era built home outside of Winston Salem so that Alan could "play" doctor.
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The really neat thing is this; one of the stars of the movie is Mickey Rooney. He wasn't in the scene that day, but was sitting on the front porch while we were waiting for Alan's scene. He called Alan up to the porch and insisted in running lines with Alan to prep him for his scene. Alan introduced me, but he(Mickey) really wasn't interested in idle chatter and just wanted to get about the business of rehearsing with Alan. So I quietly and discreetly found a spot and took a few shots. My Alan is a total movie buff and I knew he would never forgive me if I did not sneak and take shots of him with a Hollywood legend. At the time of these photos I believe Mickey Rooney is 84. After doing a little research we discovered that he has been in show business since the age of 18 months. He has had succesfull careers in both silent and sounded films.
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So with out further ado I give you "Mickey and Alan Running Lines".

Pretty cool, huh!

So I finished a couple of more layouts. I am scrapping like mad..or trying to. How does one capture every meaningful moment, scrap them, work a job and not neglect children or home responsibilities? Oh yeah and did I mention I am also planning a wedding, we are getting married in August.

Credits

Ok so wedding details. I have ordered the cake stand from ebay. Its gorgeous. My sister comes into town next week to get her brides maid dressed fitted. I have designed the save the date cards...kinda pretty if I do say so myself. I am going with sage and ivory for my reception colors and really leaning towards hydrangeas for use as much as possible. The reception fare will be simple...cause that's what I like. But we hope that people will have a comfortable time and stay and enjoy themselves and visit and such.

We are postponing a big honeymoon and taking a JV honey moon as Alan says, to a bed and breakfast for a couple of nights probably in the mountains. I want to take a cruise and he promises we will but is being completely practical and not spending that much money until he lands a permanent job. Makes sense...that's why he will be in charge of the money! I have got to sit down and make a detailed list of what is left to do. My head is spinning.

I can't wait until school is out!! Only two more weeks, 4th grade just ain't as much fun the second time around. Well that's all for now. I'll try to check in again soon.

Tanya

Wow! Is it really mid May?

2007-05-22T12:57:00.000-04:00

Holy cow, where has the time gone. And once again I am on the verge of being a neglectful blogger. But I've been quite busy since my last blog. In the last two weeks I've been camping, in the hospital and on a movie set. That doesn't even include my very cool exciting news...I finally made on it on a CT and not just any CT, but for Digital Freebies. I am thrilled.

Ok so to back pedal a bit. About two weeks ago on the heels of not making the W&W CT, I received an email from Maria LaFrance saying I had been selected for the DF CT. Totally cool, since DF is really the place that hooked me into digital scrapbooking anyway and has been my online digi-scrapping home.

So the excitement of that melted into a camping trip on mother's day weekend....ok...moment of truth here: We camped out for one night in another cub scout's backyard, pause for qualifying statement, this particular cubscout did live in a very "foresty" place with a creek in the backyard way out in the country. And lets face it campout for one night or weekend or week, you still have to tote all the camping crap!! Just a few less clothes, food and water. I did not sleep as well as my two little boys, because being new to the camping scene I have not acquired an air mattress, which countless people mentioned I could have borrowed AFTER we got back. Thanks guys. Needless to say I grew curves that need support since the last time I camped as a kid...therefore I slept poorly with the root going through my back all night. Note to self: roll around inside tent once set up to check for roots and rocks on future camping trips.

I won't even go into how much fun a severely ADHD kid coming off there meds is around a campfire!! I really thought we were through our pyro stage already....more about that later...I feel a scrapbook page in there somewhere.

So we left the camping night, came home bathed headed to a birthday party, got home from that later in the afternoon. I was exhausted, bolted the doors turned on movies and napped after pleading with my children to remain inside the house and to not destroy it further. They complied and I ended up taking a 3 hour nap. The next day was mother's day and I woke up feeling poorly and weepy....great. The boys did honor me first thing. Joshua made a stunning bird house out of clay in art class-I think it weighs about 10 pounds. He also acquired a set of four really cute Christmas mugs from a neighbor(one that I have never met mind you) who had them out in her garage to give away to goodwill. I can only imagine that conversation. Somehow he managed to get them home on his bike and hide them from me for like a week...and for that effort I was quite impressed. Gabriel made a beautiful glittery flower and card at daycare. They were too cute.

The day wore on...literally and I felt worse and worse all day. When we returned home around 6 pm I was beginning to run a fever and I felt horrible lots of pains and symptoms that were sounding like gall bladder problems. My mom convinced me to go to the ER...which was nothing like the one on tv. She kept the kids and my fiance drove me there. My dad met us there. My fever continued to climb and the doctor was fairly certain that it was my gall bladder and sent me to the ultrasound tech to make sure, the ultrasound showed a healthy gall bladder so then I got to drink that yummy liquid for two hours to take a CT scan. Which also came back fine. All the blood work came back fine.

So at three in the morning having ruled out anything major and still not certain what was wrong with me I was released completely doped up on duladin? with pain meds and anti-nausea medication. They thought it was a virus. I slept through Tuesday, which presented an interesting set of circumstances since I am still currently a single mom. My parents took my kids home with them and my fiance kept watch on Monday night. So what was it you ask? Nothing too exciting. All my symptoms were mostly gone by mid-day on Tuesday and I was able to resume Mom duties that evening. I was able to determine it was a ruptured ovarian cyst. I have had them in the past and they can be very painful and present like an appendicitis(which I had 5 years ago) or some other organ dilemma. Apparently one of the test indicated a small amount of fluid just rolling around in my abdomen where it wasn't supposed to be and until your body can fully reabsorb that fluid, it can be quite painful. Nice, huh?

All better now...yeah which is why by the latter part of the week I was coherant enough to return to scrapping and able to get my CT layouts done. So my first layout was done using this super cool kit at Digital Freebies by Blythe Evans:

And here's my layout:

Credits for "Isabelle" can be found here.

Okay, so the second layout I completed was using the May Club kit over at Digital Freebies:

And here is my layout:

Credits can be found here.

I know I mentioned a movie set, but this has been a pretty long post already and well quite frankly blogger is making a little bit crazy right now!! Would love to know the secret to avoid mysterious reformatting while blogging. Have a great rest of the day!!

Tanya

Happy Saturday!! Word Art Freebie!

2007-05-05T11:19:00.000-04:00

Hello out there in Blogland! Hope you are having a great Saturday. I have a little prize for you today...A mother's day word art Freebie.

Download Here

In the download file you will receive a .png file at 300 dpi and also a brush file for PS users. I am just learning to make brushes, so if you see that I could have done anything differently please let me know so I can improve. Also I have included the fonts I used in the TOU file, just in case you want to be able to match up fonts you may you elsewhere in your layout. Hope you enjoy it.

I have some more quotes that I found that I am planning to make into word art. So check back this week, as I plan to upload them as I finish them throughout the week.

Ok, well its short but sweet. I gotta get moovin!! My kids are with their dad this weekend...one of the few advantages to divorce when your kids have regular visitation. It gives me a weekend every other weekend to get things done and have a bit of respite. So, if there is something I need to do that would work better without the kids in tow, I put it off until I have my truly free time. So today, I am off to run errands and look for wedding dresses with my mom.

Did I mention I am planning a wedding? Its a bit different when you are late 30 something planning a simple affair. No matter how simple you want it, it just seems to get more complicated. My main concern for the day is...what else...nice photos. I am not as concerned with any of the formalities or traditional wedding ceremony/reception bruhaha. Don't get me wrong, I want it to be a spiritual and meaningful event, but just not crazy with all that other stuff. Oh and to make things a little more interesting...we have decided to move up the date to August. My parents are a bit nervous that I am not nervous about the lack of time to plan. They forget...I thrive under pressure. Well that's it for now....have a great National Scrapbooking Day!

Bad, Bad Blogger

2007-04-30T19:47:00.000-04:00

Shame on me. I am like the worst blogger ever. Its been forever since I blogged. I have been busy actually creating layouts and developing photoshop skills. And lets face it, with two busy boys they actually want to go outside in the beautiful weather. Crazy me I thought when I changed my work hours three weeks ago, I would be able to be a better blogger, not worse.

I changed my work schedule to help alleviate some stress from my eldest child. He was getting behind on homework and projects. This spring has been an experiment in chemistry once again. We have changed medicines a few times over the last few months and it helps a bit. But he is still struggling to manage himself throughout the school day. And he was not getting his homework done at afterschool and by the time we would get home and start on it, the medicine was wearing out and he could not get his homework down. So now I leave work to pick Josh up from school and then we go home and have plenty of time to do homework before picking up my little guy from daycare. I still have to complete my Asperger's Rating scale for the school. I have insisted on the school evaluate him for Asperger's, but I am suffering from a case of be careful what you wish for.

Its been great and definately an adjustment for our schedule. I am looking forward to reigning in my scrap obsession long enough to start cooking a decent meal in the evenings again. Its kinda cool having afternoons off, I almost feel like a stay at home mom again. Still tweaking the schedule and developing my self-discipline to only scrap during scrapping time and not like all the time when I am not doing kid stuff.

Ok, so let me share some layouts with you. OOOOOh and speaking of layouts, I must say I was mighty proud to be the featured scrapper for the scraplift challenge over at digital freebies last week. Truth known, I have been coveting that small honor for a few months now.

I've been scrapping alot of late so here are some of my recent layouts:

Here is a layout from Easter.

I used the Young Beauty and Easter Add On kits by Misty Cato.
I love Misty's stuff, she is so talented. See all credits here.

This is a layout of my baby, when he was actually a baby, just about 18 months old. I just fell in love with the Weeds N Wildflowers Welcoming Spring Kit as soon as I saw it. I just had to scrap something with it. I played with this layout for hours before settling on this:

see credits here

Speaking of Weeds N Wildflowers, here is my layout for their Creative Team call that ends today. I nearly had a coronary when I saw they were having a call. I know it is a total longshot, but I would so love to be on their creative team. Its kinda weird, but I have so many pictures of my kids sleeping. They just look so sweet when they are asleep.

see credits here

One more layout before I go...I gotta put my kids to bed...their in bed, just not realizing it is sleeping time. This layout was completed for Maria's Weekly Challenge at Digital Freebies. I must credit Digital Freebies for lighting the digi-scrapping fire beneath me. Anyway, Maria issued a template challenge a couple of weeks ago, but you had to embellish the template with additional elements. Here's my take on the challenge:

I used a Quick Page from the In Memory of Miles Kit.
You can find the kit and quick pages here.
See all the credits for the layout here.

Well, that's all for tonight. I will do better about posting blogs. I am working on another freebie and possibly a tutorial. Check back in soon....

Sparkly Egg Freebies

2007-04-06T10:13:00.000-04:00

Okay....Okay here's another Easter Freebie...sparkly eggs for your layouts! Enjoy!

DOWNLOAD EXPIRED
Special thanks to Atomic Cupcake!

We dyed our eggs last night. With the amazing super speedy egg dying boys it took us about oh, ten minutes. And I must say, we did much better with keeping the dye in the cups this year. My boys actually employed those amazing egg dippers this year instead of just plunging their hands into the cups to retrieve their eggs. Pics of our actual eggs:

Our Eggs...dyed in a frenzy of creativity.

Egg Artists proud of their Masterpieces!

Craisins, ADHD, and Easter Egg Freebie

2007-04-05T11:32:00.000-04:00

I just can't be trusted with craisins (dried cranberries). I cannot stop myself from eating the entire package the same day I get them. I bought some the other day to add to my oatmeal, they did not last 24 hours. So I did find an oatmeal made by a Sturms Farms and sold at Walmart of all places that has some dried cranberries in their mix and no sugar added. Its completely organic and even includes flax seeds and plant sterols!? Not sure what the plant sterols are, but I don't care I get a moderate portion of craisins and I won't eat half a pound of them in like 2 hours.

So what's with all the food talk, huh? Well I have returned to my six week body makeover plan as of last week. Yes, I know I actually bought a diet plan, ehem...lifestyle plan...as a result of an informercial and yes I made 6 or 7 payments of 39.95. A lot of money I know, but before you fall out of your chair laughing at me, let me tell you this...it works! And I paid less than someone else would pay to go to a weightloss center and I get to keep it forever and it came in this really cool kit with a resistance band, and, and , and.....Ok enough of the qualifying statements. The plan itself promotes healthy eating, so I am now 4 weeks clean from diet cokes or soda in general (I am a true addict with diet coke), and two weeks into limiting flour, sugar and salt. I am going organic where I can afford it. And I have lost 7 pounds in about ten days.

The change in diet obviously is good for my family as well. I am modifying my children's diet, switching to organic milk/yogurts and eliminating as much fast food as possible. I have had my kids off of red dye for years and let me tell you, when they get there hands on it by "accident" they are through the roof hyper. My oldest has extreme ADHD, (no really extreme ADHD) and is also gifted and has the sweetest heart I have ever known. If you know anything about ADHD you may know that ADHD, Aspergers and Autism are on the same line or continuum. Well, my child's ADHD confounds every teacher he has, because (and I hear this every year) "he's not like the other ADHD students I've taught." And no, he's not like the other kids, his ADHD is so far along on the line, that he is getting into Asperger's territory. So I am willing to try almost anything to help minimize his symptoms. So we are beginning to cut out the junk, eat more pure foods and we started back at the chiropracter yesterday to help with some of these issuses as well as his motor development.

Ok, ok...enough of the scraps o' my life stuff. I promised you a freebie and here it is. Be gentle on me its my first freebie, leave me some love and constructive critism if you see something that can improve, 'cause I want to learn and improve my skills.

I boiled eggs last night to get ready to dye them tonight and here are some already dyed eggs for you:

Click Here for download

DOWNLOAD EXPIRED

Happy Monday

2007-03-26T09:24:00.000-04:00

Yeah!!! I finally got the second template completed and uploaded! Here it is, Enjoy it! This file no longer available.

Mommy Dollars Save the Day!

2007-03-22T09:01:00.000-04:00

Okay, so this week has been a bit better. Still haven't gotten that template posted from last week, sorry about that. Will try to finish it up and get it posted soon.

So we had our "family meeting" on Saturday morning sans SuperNanny, much to my five-year-old's chagrin. And I was so impressed that my kids came up with some house rules and also reasonable consequences and Mom here introduced the incentive/reward system. Dr. Phil always says to find your child's "currency", well for my little one it is the almighty dollar. So I developed "Mommy Dollars". The kids earn mommy dollars by performing services around the house and then get to spend the money in the household for goods. I have a "menu of rewards" using pictures so my little one can understand it clearly. And I feature bonuses of the week for certain jobs completed that will earn extra mommy dollars. My dad is astounded that I can develop an "economy" of sorts within my household, but still struggle to balance my checkbook. Here is a pic of my mommy dollar below:

I have been amazed at how hard my kids are working for these mommy dollars and not willing to spend them frivolously so they can save them for bigger ticket items. I will even allow them to cash in mommy dollars for a real dollar 2x a week.

So, last time I mentioned that my cat was chased up the tree by the neighbors dog. Of course the scrapping sicko that I am, I was out there taking pictures of the cat in the tree, because I just knew there was a scrapbook page in it, so here it is:

view credits here

We went to the park this weekend after church. The boys had a great time. I snapped a few pics, hope to scrap them soon:

Beware the Ides of March

2007-03-16T11:24:00.000-04:00

Ok, so that mystic way back when in Julius Ceasar time who told him to "beware the ides of March" knew a thing or two. The past 10 days have been absolutely a whirlwind of confusion here at the smplgrl ranch. In one week my mother, fiance and close friend were downsized. I have been playing Lucy (see cartoon at right) over the past 10 days or so. In my former life I was a job coach so I have been helping my fiance (who needs little help, really) revamp his resume. He has worked as a promotions writer/producer for a local station for many years, so if anyone has job leads...don't hesitate to send them.

kl;k;

To add to the madness of March, my (extremely) adhd child is experiencing a major growth spurt which means his medication becomes virtually ineffective. I think the doctor and I have finally landed on an effective dose of medication. This week has been a good week....no timeouts needed at school.

jfkd

If that wasn't enough my kids have told me that they want to call SupperNanny to get our family fixed!!! What?! After careful investigation I determined that my youngest just wants to show his fanny on national TV and my oldest wants SuperNanny to get the younger one inline. We compromised and agreed to use the SuperNanny method of getting a grip on our familylife. Soooooo, our family meeting is Saturday morning where we will create a new routine and discuss things that need to improve...told you March has been crazy!!! I won't even get into the neighbor's dog chasing our cat 25-30 feet up a tree earlier this week. By the way, firemen don't get cats of trees anymore, LOL!!

jfkdsl

Hopefully the second half of March will be a little lighter than the first half. Needless to say digi-scrapping has been tough. But I was able to complete these layouts earlier in the week before I zoned out:

view credits here

I am working on a template for the "sweetness" layout and hope to post it later today or this weekend. Check back.

2007-03-08T10:29:00.000-05:00

So we are home sick today. Not too sick, but sick and tired (very tired) none the less. My little guy has a pretty putrid case of the sniffles and a low grade temp. My older fella started new medication yesterday and didn't react so well. I don't like to give him new medicine on a day when I cannot observe him, but he had to start it yesterday. Since he was up from 1:30am until 10:30 pm yesterday and put in a full day at school, I kept him home as well. He definately needs the rest, he still looks tired today and I am pretty exhausted too. I should take advantage of our time home today and clean....yuk, who wants to do that when one can scrap and play in photoshop, besides I am tired all over and scrapping has got to be the cure for that, right? Not cleaning. I am going to pretend that I did not just hear 10,000 legos get dumped in the living room, I'm resting and scrapping today.

The other day I participated in the Quick Fix Challenge by Alma Townsend at Scrapbook Elements. Alma provides a cool template and if you complete it by the end of the day, then you qualify for a cool little prize. Here's my entry:

view credits here

I am hoping to also participate in this week's Alma's Quick Page Challenge as well, if I can find the time. The kit used for it used in layout above, is sooooo cute!

I've kinda been in a scrap slump lately. I've been so obsessed with downloading really cool stuff from all over the web and organizing my files in Digital Scraproom(more about that in the future, I promise), I haven't been creating.

But the other day a friend of mine sent such a cute picture of her girls in matching pink outfits, I was completely inspired and determined to create something pretty cool. Of course I had to tweak the pic in photoshop first...my other addiction...I wanted the colors to pop and the girls to stand out from the background, their hair blended in with the background. Being the mom of boys, I rarely get the opportunity to make a girly page. So I just couldn't help myself but to scrap a cute little girly page with that picture, here it is:

View credits here.

But I didn't stop there, I decided to make a layered template for photoshop users using the basic elements of the page. Its my first attempt at a template for others, so please give me feedback so I can improve anything.

This file no longer available.

okay, so its official I'm addicted

2007-01-22T15:52:00.000-05:00

I am officially declaring myself addicted to digi-scrapping. It doesn't seem to matter where I go, somehow I manage to work it into the conversation. Its funny, because I never really paper scrapped. Oh, don't get me wrong...I bought the supplies, the tools, papers, stickers, embellishments, etc. Even have one really cool scrapper backpack thingy. I amassed these supplies for a few years. I have yet to paper scrap my first page. Now I did use the tools to make some cool invites for my little sister's wedding shower I hosted in 2005...but most of my creativity took place on the computer and then I printed stuff out and assembled the invites using eyelets and an eyelet setter. I'm thinking about ebaying my paper stuff, but then the packrat in me says...hey you might actually do something with it.

So now I am on the digi scrapping bend. Which I am finding far more satisfying. I truly love downloading stuff...sick huh? I think that's part of the appeal...I can shop and have things in my possession instantly. I lurked around digi-scrapping sites for about a year or so collecting freebies, too scared to actually try anything. Then finally in November of 2006 I just dived in head first. I have already completed about 40 or so layouts. This of course includes my christmas cards and some really cool tumblers I made for family.