Running a skype meeting from a bar??

We had a great time on vacation.  I'm home now and settled back in.  We're getting ready for school to start in a few days.  I can't wait! :)  Lots of fun things happened while we were gone, though.

We went to the water park and a great time was had by all--even me.  I wish we'd been able to stay longer.  We took one of Miss McKenzie's friends with us and they were having so much fun I would have liked to stay.  Turns out that I like water rides a lot better than roller coasters.  There's not nearly so much falling.

Swiffer enjoyed his day at preschool.  When we went to pick him up he was enjoying the company of a couple other little dogs, which was weird since he doesn't work and play well with others.  The girl who watched him said he was happy to meet the other dogs as soon as he entered the play yard.  Hmmm...maybe he's been holding out on me.

We also camped on Lake Superior, which we've always wanted to do.  It was beautiful, even though it was hot.  The sunset over the water was so pretty.  Every time I thought it had reached it's most beautiful moment and put the camera away, it got better!  The water was absolutely silver with the glowing clouds over it.  Then, when it finally got dark, the stars were amazing!  I laid on the picnic table and just stared up for a long time.

When we got back to Boulder Junction, Travis needed to go to a meeting using Skype.  So we went in to town and checked out the internet cafe.  It's called the Dancing Bear Cafe and they make an absolutely phenomenal Iced Vanilla Frappe. They put a mountain of whipped cream on it, too.  Anyway, we did a test run of the Skype ahead of time to make sure it would work out since the meeting would be after hours. When we came back in the evening, we sat at a couple iron tables out front of the cafe and signed in to Skype.  It turned out that the only place he could get good reception was at the farthest table which put everyone looking over his shoulder at JJ's Tap!  And the clientele there were having a rousing good time out front.  So everyone in the meeting was teasing Travis about running the meeting from a bar, lol.

As an aside, this sign was in front of an antique store across from the Dancing Bear.  It got a good laugh from all of us, so I took a picture.  I think I need one of these for my yard, lol!

Yay, Vacay!

So, here I am on Vacation.  Every year when we travel the kids salivate over this water park we pass.  It's always looked like a nightmare to the grownups, so we've just scooted on by.  This year, we decided to rent a room and let 'em check it out.  So we found a place that would let us stay with our Shihtzu and packed up.  I don't usually stay in a room with my dog, so it never occurred to me that they wouldn't let us LEAVE the dog in the room alone for a few hours.  I brought his kennel and everything thinking he'd be safe there for three or four hours.  I certainly can't leave him in the car, right? (I hate it when people do that on a hot day. Sadists.)  Anyway, the bottom line is we can't leave the dog...which was the whole point of the room in the first place.  I could have just gone to the park and then got in the truck and driven the rest of the way to the cabin.

So, I get on the phone and find a really nice "doggy resort" where I can stow my baby for the day.  Cool.  When I call them they say he has to have current shots to stay with them and play with friends.  No sweat, it's early so I'll just call our vet and have them fax a vaccination record.  Why is nothing easy?  Turns out Swiffer's shots expired just a few days ago.  Had I known THAT I would have had him to our vet before I took him out of state and into a forest with all sorts of rabies-likely critters like raccoons, squirrels, bats, dogs.....Sigh.

Well, the Hub is the brains of this outfit.  He walks in and I tell him the sitch and he says, "so call a vet and get the shots." Huh. WHAT A GOOD IDEA! So I called a vet's office near the doggy resort (like almost next door) and they had him in and good to go in less than an hour.  They were good at handling him (he thinks he's pretty special and doesn't like to be handled by strangers) and they insisted on talking to my vet at home first, too, which made me think better of taking him to a strange doc.  AND it was half the price.  Wow.

So he's going to his first day in preschool tomorrow, boo hoo.  Maybe I'll take pictures for this milestone event, lol. 

And I'm going to a water park.  Should be interesting seeing as how I hate sweating, swimming, feeling like I'm falling, being touched by strange people and generally being out of control of, well...anything.  Those of you who know me will know how funny this is.

Wish me luck.  :)

Stuff to Scrap June 2011 Color Challenge

Well, I thought I wasn't going to do anymore color challenges this month, but I loved these colors too much! I just had to do a little something.  So here's "Guy Stuff".   It does have a couple flowers in it...because every kit should have flowers, right?? lol.  Hope ya like it!

It has three files for papers because that's just how many it took.  I don't like having so many to download, but it just worked out that way.

Credits: Scrappin Cop, Andrea Gold, Scraps by Andrea

Download: Alpha, Elements, Paper 1, Paper 2, Paper 3

DSO Color Challenge: June 2011

Yep, it's time for another color challenge!  Here's my offering for this month at DSO.  These colors were awesome to work with.  I'm exhausted and heading to bed as soon as this is posted.  I hope y'all enjoy it.

I did an alpha and a couple glitters as well as a few papers and ellies.  As was previously suggested, I zipped them in categories so there are four files to download.

Credits: Scrappin Cop, Gunhild Storeide, Atomic Cupcake

Download : Alpha, Elements, Papers 1, Papers 2

Miss McKenzie's Pictures

First of all, let me say a great big THANK YOU to everyone who left me nice comments about my rant.  I really appreciated your words and it made me feel better :)

I haven't posted a layout for awhile, so here's one I did recently.  Miss McKenzie takes pics of herself.  It kinda cracks me up.  She spends time dressing and doing her hair and makeup then she stands in front of this big mirror and takes pictures.  Tee hee.  If you look at them very closely you can see that she doesn't bother to wash the mirror or pick up her room first, though, lol.  One time recently I laughed at her because she took pics with a couple friends, but she didn't pick up the bright pink bra that was laying on the floor so there it was in all its glory, screaming hot pink and jumping right out of the picture.  She didn't even notice until I mentioned it, lol.  Then she made me photoshop the bra out of the picture!! Ha ha!!

Hope you like the layout.  It really feels like McKenzie: Sweet, colorful and chaotic!

Click the pic to enlarge.

Kit: Most of this is from iColor (the pink, purple and black sections) by Jenasis Designs.  I used some bits and pieces from: Tiggconn's Scrap Designs, Sky's the Limit Designs, Suzy Q Scraps.  The Vector circles stamp at the top is mine.  Alpha is from Puckered Kiss by Jenasis Designs (which is an awesome, bright and original kit, btw.)

Rude comments, Drama and How to get what you want

Anonymous said...
thank you , but since this kit is a huge 100 Mb and some people are only interested in the elements , why not mention where are the papers & elements , instead of this unbelievable CIA secret code " LDYMCBETH 201105BSCC 3.zip " ?

To bypass the DRAMA skip to the blinky arrow below!!

Well, I'm doubting that you'll ever be back to read this, but my keyboard is fixed so here's my 2 cents worth, I'm going to try to be civil, but sometimes I get on a roll, so brace yourself because who knows?  I know this comment isn't even close to the worst I've ever had, so what's the rub? I've just had it with people who do this, and you are the final straw. Lucky you.

First of all...once again, big surprise here.  Negative comments from ANONYMOUS.  This seriously reduces your credibility and my patience level.  I don't mind nice things from anonymous users, because they're, ummm, NICE, but if you're going to be negative you need to not hide behind anonymity.  If you don't want credit for your suckish comments, then DON'T LEAVE THEM.

Secondly, I understand what you're saying, and I even gave some thought to this before I posted the files, see a couple posts back for said thoughts.  In the future, you might want to consider that it isn't WHAT you say it's HOW you say it that is most abrasive...are you always this rude? or only when no one knows who you are? I hope it's always, because then I might have a tiny bit of respect for your opinion.

Thirdly, my keyboard was broken (if you had read the post and not just gone directly for the goodies.) I was doing the best I could.  The "CIA" code is fairly standard, actually, and most people do it similarly.  My name first, then the identifier for the kit.  In this case, for example, it is 2011 May Brownie Scraps Color Challenge, then the number is part 1, 2 or 3.  It's even in the title of the post. See? It's not rocket science to the rest of us.

Fourthly, I try to keep each zip as close to 30MB as I can to be respectful of the people who only have dial up available to them (also mentioned recently, IF you weren't going straight for the FREE stuff).  So I mix up the papers and ellies to fit and not have to have 8 files for download.  I really try to keep my minis to only two downloads, but these were particularly large for some reason.

Fifthly, I am not a designer, but just a humble scrapbooker who likes to play with Photoshop a little once in a while.  Since you are getting them for FREE and I make no profit on any of my offerings so far, but I do put money INTO them sometimes, and, further, since they are free to you...did I mention FREAKING FREE??...I would think that if it's a problem for you, you could just pass them on by if you don't like them, or you don't like me, or you have a problem with my labeling system, or what ever else there is with which you might have an issue.

And this is my final thought since I've ticked myself off and really didn't intend to waste this much time on you and, probably, no one else wants to read my rants and raves anyway.  It is not last because I don't have more to say to you, I surely do.

Anyway, lastly, you actually have a valid point. ::read that as if I said it with gritted teeth, because it hurts me to say it::  BUT, if it were me, instead of using a passive-aggressive attitude and saying something mean with a smile on my face and trying to pretend I wasn't trying to be offensive when I really was, I might have just asked in case they really didn't know it makes a difference.  But, I wouldn't have insulted them while asking them for something...that just doesn't seem very effective to me.  As I tell my children, if you want something you have to tell people in a way that lets them hear you...unless you really aren't interested in solving a problem, but only in being insulting and nasty without having to reap the harvest of it, which is what I suspect of you.

 The relevant stuff is BELOW...

SO, Anonymous,  this is what I'm going to do:  I'm going to pretend like you said this:

          "Thank you for sharing with us.   This kit is large and I have a slow connection for download.
          Can you tell me which sections have elements in them so I can download only those?
          Thanks for helping me."

And my response is:

          "Thank you so much for your interest! It's a good point that some people might only want papers
          or elements, and in the future, I will pack them so they are separate.  It does make more sense that
          way.  For this kit, there are elements in all the zips, but I will repack them so you can download just
          the elements if you wish. I hope you enjoy them!"

Oh, wait, I can't do that...you're Anonymous and I can't contact you.  What a shame.

And one more color challenge!!

Okie dokie, here is my submission for Brownie Scraps color challenge. Since I am typing with the on screen keyboard cuz 6 keys stopped working on my laptop yesterday, this is all ya get! Please check the TOU for credits!

Download:

Pt 1

Pt 2

Pt 3

Another Color Challenge...YAY! I love these things!!

Here's my offering for the May 2011 color challenge at Stuff to Scrap.  When you're done downloading here, go over and check out the other great stuff that's being offered.  Make sure you check back because designers will be adding their parts all month.  You gotta love such great quality stuff---FREE!

I apologize that this month I have four files to download, but I'm trying to keep the size low in consideration of our rural scrappers who only have dial-up available to them (or anybody else who has trouble with large files).  I tried to make it work in three, but it just wouldn't cooperate.  I am also shunning 4shared, because of their incredibly long wait times.  If anyone has a file sharing site they REALLY like, let me know and I'll give it a shot.

Here's the preview:

Thanks to: Andrea Gold, ScrappinCop, Gunhild Storeide, Flergs, Graphics Fairy, Statchoo Scraps.

Download HERE:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

May 2011 DSO Color Challenge

This is going to be short and sweet this morning.  I'm in a hurry to get to the hub's office this morning, but I'm breezing in to upload this and get it out.  I've worked hard on this one and I hope you really enjoy it.  I started it on a day when the hub was out of town at a business conference, hence the name "miss you."

Credits:

Andrea Gold, Timounette, Scrappin Cop, Gunhild Storeide, Flergs

Download "Miss You" here:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Family Tree Freebie

I am working on my book about me and one of the first pages I've done is a family tree. Here's what it looks like:

I used pieces from the Autumn Harvest November 2010 Collab from Stuff to Scrap.  

The specific designers are: Adranna's Cafe, Scraps N Pieces, Sexy and hot Mamma Scrapper aka Becky, Designs by SnowLady, Digital Scrap Fun, Jenasis Designs.  I think that's everyone I used.

I love this layout.  It's simple and straight to the point.  It's just the beginning of my book, the beginning of me. I made the papers and trees into a jpg for you to use, if you'd like.  I included some tags that I made and a rivet, staple and paper clip to fasten the tags on the layout.  I made new tags for you since I couldn't include the original tags, because I couldn't include separate png's according to the designer's TOU, but I think if I had made them first I would have used them instead!

Anyway, I hope you like it.  If you'd like to start your own "Book of Me" I recommend starting with the book by Angie Pedersen called The Book of Me: A Guide to Scrapbooking About Yourself. It's an awesome resource and it's not very expensive, either.

Presenting the Beautiful Miss McKenzie....

Here are three more layouts I did of Miss Mac. From her sweet little freckled nose to her precious heart, she's turning out to be a lovely young lady.  She's the encourager of the family.  She's always cheering someone on!  She comes home and tells me how upset she was at school that someone was picked on, or got hurt.  She feels everything deep in her heart, but she doesn't say a lot.  She ponders everything and stores things away in her heart. She's smart as a whip and so funny!  Just her giggling makes me laugh.  She's away for spring break right now, and I miss her.  The house is darker without her.

This one is of some silly pics I snapped at her school Valentine's party.  I'm the only mom with a camera, so she gets a little uncomfortable with me always taking her picture...but those other kids just aren't as interesting as she is! Click the pic for a larger view.

 Kit: February 2010 Color Challenge at DSO: Specifically Tiggconn, Mojo, Moni, Kim B, Deatles, dhariana, Blue, Brenda Grafton...Thanks to all these designers!  And thanks to the Daily Digi for help with titles

This one is also Valentine's Day.  I got some other people in these, LoL.  The journaling tells you that this is the last class party.  Next year, in Junior High, they don't do class parties anymore.  Also, this was Taylor's last day at school. She moved that weekend and they were very sad.  It's been a difficult time for Mac.

 Kit: Same as above.  You guys ROCK!

This is of McKenzie and my sister's Yorkie, Shelby.  Shelby is the cutest little rat in the whole world! She's a real love bug and wallows and rubs all over you, sometimes so much it's hard to hold on to her.  She is in to everything and knows everything.  She barks at things like she's really telling them off then acts like, "Well, I guess I showed them." She really cracked me up!  McKenzie thinks all things small are cute, She's such a GIRL! :)

Kit: I Will Survive Facebook freebie from Persnickety Prints...Gotta love these guys! AND if you "like" them on facebook they give out regular freebies, coupons AND they have contests for prints.  Awesome. 

Check 'em out on Facebook.

Three Dogs and Corned Beef

I still have my sister's dogs, but she'll be picking them up this evening.  I'm going to miss them, believe it or not.  Tito is so sweet and Shelby is a lot of fun, she makes me laugh all the time.  She's such a spaz.  My Swiffer finally started getting used to them yesterday and will hang out with us until Shelby gets excited and tries to play with him, then he runs and hides.  He's such a fraidy cat, poor guy.  They did both sleep with me last night, but Swiff slept on the other side of the bed.

Travis' family does a St. Patrick's Day dinner and they all get together and eat corned beef.  I have missed it the last couple of years, because the Hearts at Home National Conference has been on that weekend.  This year, however, the conference was before St. Pat's so we decided to have it at our house this year.  I've never done corned beef before, but it came out awesome! I used two recipes from foodtv.com: one for corned beef in the crockpot (I just put in the beef, carrots, rutabaga and leeks) and one for some garlic baby red potatoes. The beef came out tender and juicy and I even enjoyed the carrots and rutabaga, which is not one of my favorite veggies.  The garlic potatoes were SUPER easy to make and delicious.  I served it with the horseradish sauce from the recipe (not too horseradish-y) and a loaf of bakery bread.  It got rave reviews...maybe I can cook after all. ;)

This is the layout I did today.  I loved this kit and have been saving it for a couple months because I knew McKenzie's birthday was coming and she'd have a sleepover.

Kit: Sleepover blog freebie by Crazy4Monograms

Alpha: A Vintage Christmas by Trixie Scraps

A Beautiful Spring Day

Today is a fabulous day! It's going to be 70 degrees here in Illinois, even better than yesterday.  These are the first nice days we've had.  I hope it doesn't rain.  I love being able to have the doors open.  My dog thinks he's somebody when he can just go in and out as he pleases!

I am also watching two dogs for one of my sisters, a 7 year old, very mellow mini schnauzer and a 5 month old, very hyper yorkie.  The Schnauzer is very sweet and spends most of his time watching the door for his Mom and Dad to come back.  The Yorkie is a spring bouncing around.  She nibbles on my toes if I'm standing and rolls in my hair if I lay down!  Yesterday, they didn't eat much, but this morning they ate like piggies and Tito is so good, he just moves aside if Shelby (the yorkie) wants his food.  Since she eats like lightning and he takes his time, I have to pick her up or she'd eat his, too!

So, we got up to go outside this morning and I laid down on the floor to play with Shelby for a little bit.  She's so funny, she just hops and jumps at my hand while I push her around...and she growls and yips like she's very ferocious.  While we were playing Tito came up and laid down right next to me.  He wanted me to pet him and rubbed his face all over my tshirt.  I figured if he was getting his scent on me, I must be his now.  So I scratched him for awhile, he even showed me his belly for a good rub.  I love dogs.

Here are three layouts I just finished.  I really like two of them, the one of Christmas with Grandma isn't my favorite.  Isn't it funny how that happens?  I worked it all out and placed everything on the page, but it just didn't all come together.  I may redo it someday....in my spare time. :)

 Kit: A Vintage Holiday, blog freebie, from Trixie Scraps Designs

WordArt: Elegant WordArt by Bethany

 Kit: Hellraiser, a collab from Sunshine Studios

(hmmm...Hellraiser...how appropriate)

Kit: The Altered Path, blog freebie from The Latest Scoop, Too

March Color Challenge

I decided not to wait so late this month! So here's my mini for the color challenge.  Sweet and simple.

Download

The shadows are just for the preview.

Thanks to Andrea Gold, Scrappin Cop for the overlays I used.

NEW FREEBIE!

YAY, a new freebie!!  This one is to coordinate with the pallette for DSO's February Color Challenge...I'm uploading on the very last day.  I felt a little guilty downloading everyone's goodies without contributing so I thought I'd whip something up this morning.  I realized there were SO many gorgeous papers and elements that my poor efforts seemed unnecessary.  Then I noticed there were only a couple alphas offered and, BINGO, here is another one!! It includes Uppers, Lowers, Numbers and Punctuation.  If anyone needs a special character or some international ones, leave a comment below and I'll send you one.

Oh, and I threw in three glitters since there weren't any this month.  They are in with the numbers.

Here are the previews:

I used Dhariana's paper for the alpha and I used 

some of Deatles' great creations for the previews.

Oh, and that's Dhariana's cupcake trim you see.

And here are the download links:

Uppers

Lowers

Punctuation

Numbers and Glitters

Lotsa New Stuff

So, I haven't posted for a while and there's a lot to catch up on!  So grab a cup o' coffee and here we go...

Child #1 is coming to the end of her second semester in college.  She's doing SO well, I can hardly believe it.  She was able to get an accounting internship at a local business and really enjoys it...she's especially taken with the laminating machine.  It's a good day when she comes home and says she had to laminate that day :)

Child #2 is also doing well in school.  His grades are better in 11th grade than they have been since 5th grade. I think spending the summer in the kitchen at the boy scout camp had a good effect on his motivation.  He's grown a little in maturity level, too, so I'm sure that helps.  His room is still a wreck and I don't guess that will ever change, LoL.

Child #3 is turning out to be just lovely.  She is beautiful and sweet.  She is doing well in school, but she always has for the most part.  She just refuses to do poorly.  This was her second year cheering for the junior high school and I think she loves it and it shows.  Her whole squad is really good; they're crisp and they get made fun of by other schools because they sound like "drill sergeants." A lot of the others sound squeaky and sing-songy in comparison.  She's nervous and excited about moving to high school next year...me, too. :)

Child #4 continues to be a delight.  She is in 6th grade and we are SO pleased with her progress.  She is organizing all her own school work.  I kept telling her the last couple years that if she doesn't like being told what to do, then take care of her own business and I'll keep my nose out of it!  I think she finally got it!  I just check on her grades online every little bit and, unless something is slipping, I leave her alone.  I figure if it ain't broke, don't fix it!  She's growing up and wanting to be all girly, so our life is now full of clouds of perfume wafting from her bedroom, Justin Beiber on every wall and a whole new set of worries...boys, LoL.

This weekend we went shopping in Indianapolis.  Boy stayed home...he doesn't dig shopping so much.  When I see something I think he needs or he'd like and it's a good deal, I snap a pic and send it to him and he tells me what he thinks....I guess, I'm his personal shopper!  The girls, on the other hand, had a blast at the mall for four hours and wanted more time.  We were eating dinner with the Hub's sister, though, so we had to leave, thank goodness!  I was worn out by that time and it was HOT in there because it was way crowded.

We had thought Child #3 might not feel great and we'd have to cut the trip short, but she was perfectly fine.  She had the best time of the three girls, I think!  She picked an entire outfit, skirt, top, leggings and shoes, by the time she was done.  I don't think she stopped talking for more than five minutes the whole trip!  She was all giggles and squeals all day!  She didn't mention not feeling well one time and I was really glad to see that she wasn't really sick.

Anyway, I have a few layouts to post.  I've just been lazy about getting them up so I'm going to dump them all at once.  Hope you like them.

Kit: November 2010 blog freebie from Chaos Lounge...not sure where I got the red paper, but it looks like one from Hellraiser by Sunshine Studios.  Yes, I think that's it...It has glittery cross bones on it, but they wouldn't show in this layout much anyway ;)

Kit: July 2007 Summer Getaway Build a Kit from Digiscrapbook Mania (now Scrapable)

Kit: The Altered Path blog freebie from The Latests Scoop, Too

Kit: The Altered Path blog freebie from The Latest Scoop, Too

Kit: Just Me blog freebie from Amy Stoffel

Kit: September 2010 Build a Kit from Digiscrapbook Mania (now Scrapable)

Kit for both Morgan and her Birthday: Makin' it Funky from Designs by Christi at Stuff to Scrap

Kit: October 2010 Build a Kit from Digiscrapbook Mania (now Scrapable)

I don't know where I got the cluster frame, it was a blog freebie, I think. The alpha was a Jelly of the Month Freebie by Libby Pritchett at Sweet Shoppe Designs.

A Nap Can Fix Anything

This says it all...

My son with fur (down there at the corner of the bed) sleeping with my baby girl.

Kit is: A Vintage Holiday from Trixie Scraps Designs

Cheer Layout

Just watched the Skinny Stick again...still cracking me up, LoL!  Those girls are too cute.  Anyway, I just wanted to post a layout from cheer that I finished up.  So....yeah....here it is.

Kit is Sweethearts {the kit} from SuzyQ Scraps

The Skinny Stick

The Skinny Stick, LOL! It cracks me up.  My daughter had to create a video commercial for class and I'm posting it below.  A great time was had by all with lots of giggling and snorting! I thought I'd upload a copy of it here just for fun. (and a few outtakes she doesn't know I put in, tee hee)

And here are the outtakes.  Other people laughing makes me laugh...so I like this set.

Well, that's all I've got for now.  See y'all later!

Freebie Photo Pop Action

So, I obviously take...oh, about a million or so photos a year.  Of those, maybe a tenth make it to my computer screen and a teensy-weensy fraction of those make it onto a CD to be saved.  The point is, I edit A L O T of photos. A few need special work, but I do the same flipping things to most of them...over and over and over.  I have fancy actions I've downloaded to pop, sharpen, and defog...but I end up doing it myself most of the time.

Okay, now here's the kicker...I scrap in Photoshop Elements...so I can't make my own action to automate the process.  I know, right? Bummer!

For this reason (and about twenty others) I got Photoshop...I'm still gonna do most of my mojo in PSE, but some stuff just needs the real thing!

Here's my first action.  It automates my standard photo prep that I do on every single pic: It saturates the color a wee bit (I have the opacity of the color pop layer turned down for pics of people, which is what most of mine are.  I dial it up to 50% or so for landscapes and my dog, LoL!  You can adjust it as you please.)  It also has several levels of sharpen.  They're all turned off, you just pick which one works best for your pic and flatten.  I often add a vignette, but I didn't include it because I don't use it all the time.

So there ya go. If you don't know how to install actions, check out these instructions on the Coffeeshop Blog (Rita makes the best and most useful actions around, so check those out, too.  Her perfect portrait action ROCKS.  I also love her vignette action. Oh, and she has an action to let PSE users add layer masks to any layer, too.  I use that one a lot. And they're FREE. Who doesn't love that?)

Photo Pop

New Layouts

It was a really long week last week.  We had a death in the family that I will talk about some other time; I'm just not up to it yet.  It's enough to say that the grief has been overwhelming and I've basically done nothing except wander through life and sleep.  I'm trying to get back into my life, though I think the grief is going to be resident for awhile.

Here are two layouts I did a couple weeks ago and never posted.  I noticed them just sitting there and thought I'd like to get them up.  I'll be back soon, hopefully a little more upbeat, too.

The first is McKenzie and her friend Rancey at Speech contest.  It was the first contest for both of them and I was so proud of them!  They were awesome and ended up with a second place doing a piece about two sisters bickering while on a long vacation car ride.

Kit: Sept 2009 Build-a-Kit from DigiScrapbookmania (now Scrapable.com)

This one is Jordan and Austin (Child one and Child two) from this Christmas.  

Kit: My Christmas kit I posted in December.

The cluster frame is from someone named Jennifer, LOL! It was a freebie and I downloaded it without noting where I got it.  If you know, tell me and I'll post it here.

January Color Challenge

I finally finished my kit for the January Color Challenge at DSO.   I had made a kit previously for my own use that I thought would be nice with this color pallet.  I couldn't find it and I was never happy with the layout anyway so, I decided to do a new kit and a new layout.  Zoey was the daughter of my youngest niece.  It's been about 3 1/2 years, and her mama is finally brave enough to have another baby.  We are looking forward so much to a new little one!  All of our babies have grown up and Christmas just isn't the same without littler ones to enjoy it.

Tea Party with Jesus

The painting is one by Greg Olsen, I photoshopped my niece into it.  It is strictly for this layout for my personal scrapbook.  

And here's the kit: Tea Party with Jesus

6 papers, 12 elements

Credits:

Designs by Jessica

Scrappin Cop

Gunhild Storeide

Midnight's Touch (Ivy)

Xe0s@Deviant Art (Floral Patterns)

Download

Happy New Year!

2011.  Twenty-Eleven. Wow.  I'm speechless (which, we all know, means someone has LOTS to say).

I remember when I was in about sixth grade or so and a teacher had us figure out how old we would be at the turn of the century.  31.  I remember wondering if I'd even live that long, LoL.  It took forever to reach it and it's been barely a breath since then.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to 2011.  Just like everyone else, I have a (cue echoing voice effect) RESOLUTION.  Actually, I have several, but they all hinge on one, new frame of mind.  Yes, I want to lose weight, eat healthier, control my tongue, be kinder and more generous, stamp out hunger and disease and usher in world peace.  I think that shows the reason why resolutions fail...we're trying to change the effects of what we need to change, not what we need to change.  I mean, WHY am I fat?  Until I change my attitude, I will fail at weight loss.  Why don't I exercise? Why can't I seem to shut my mouth? Why don't I share more?  It's all in my attitude which affects the actions I take. And my attitude is built out of the whirling mess my life has become.  I feel like I'm standing in one of those money booths...you know where the air flow comes on and dollars fly all around and the person is trying to grab as many as they can before the time is up....and I keep trying to grab what I need as it flies past my face, but I can't see it coming so I'm always guessing.

SO, this year, I am changing my attitude.  I am spending the next couple weeks really considering what I want in the next year.  What do I want to be like on January 1, 2012?  What do I want to have accomplished? What is most important?  So far, I'm seeing that I want to be more in control of my life, more intentional.  I want to be the author of my story, instead of just a character.

Now, don't get me wrong.  I recognize the sovereignty of God.  I know he sits on the throne and holds my life in his hand.  I know that every breath I take is by his willing it to be so.  I find great comfort in knowing that no matter how I run around like a busy little bee, God has things well in hand and he never runs around.  That being said, I also recognize that he expects me to use what he gives me, including my time, effort, and good sense, to build something worthwhile out of my life.

I am tired.  I am tired of being unprepared.  I am tired of procrastinating.  I am tired of not being able to take advantage of moments because my schedule is too tight or because I haven't done what I should. This year I want to take control of my life.  I want to decide what is my vision. What is my mission.  Where is God moving me? Then I'm going to clear out my life.  Does this activity, or board, or whatever fit in the direction of my life?  I want to only do, say and be what moves me that direction.  No more guessing.  There are so many worthwhile things to do...but I can't do them all because I end up dried up and I gain nothing and I don't do justice to any of them.  I have only so many resources, physical, mental and spiritual, to go around.  And the open slots are very few, I'm telling you!

God help me, because he did not make me to naturally be a person of clarity.  My brain is a cloud and I get caught up in many details and often miss the big picture until it smacks me in the face and I'm thinking I should have noticed that!  Fortunately, the Hub is a lot more clear about stuff like that.  He's a visionary.  He can go right around all the details and focus on the real issues.  Hmmmm...this could be the reason we drive each other nuts sometimes, huh?

So, I'm spending the first couple weeks on my knees.  My first step in this search is to declare my Bible as my best friend.  The first place I need to clean is my heart and the first and best support God has given me for this journey is my husband.  So we begin together.

In that spirit, here is a word art for you.  Carpe Diem.  I know it's cliche, but it's exactly right.  Seize the day.  THIS day, this moment.  Make it count.  Use it well.  Don't regret it when it's gone.

On December 31, 2011, may we all find 2011 to be the best, not easiest, year we've ever had and may we be the best we've ever been.

Download