Top 10 of 09

Over at Crop Addict, someone suggested that we blog our top 10 projects of 2009. Since I don't have photos of all of my favorites (I know, I know. Sometimes I just don't feel like taking the pictures,) I picked my top 10 from my "Scrap To Keep" file.

I found myself using a LOT of My Minds Eye and Sassafras this year. I realize that Sassafras has really fit my spunky mood this year. I also have been scrapping LESS kids and MORE me. I started a scrap only journal for myself. Basically I am scrapping photo-less layouts, just journaling about my feelings, things I like, things I hate... I am not much for just writing. And as I have said previously many times, scrapping my thoughts basically is cheap therapy. I need to work on it while I work on the layouts. And when I am done, hopefully I can let it go.

So here they are, 10 of my favorite projects from this year. Hope they are some of your favorites too.

Better and Scrapping Again

So I am much much better today. I am on NO pain meds. I am not 100%, still swallowing carefully, having minor earaches, and getting sore after a lengthy phone call. Thanks for the well wishes! I have actually ALMOST caught up on all the house work I missed.... Almost. Lets not get ahead of ourselves! Christmas shopping is done, but not all wrapped. And I gave up on making gifts for some people. Sorry guys. I love you, but there just isn't time. The kids were sick half of last week, Julia missed a day and a half and Trent missed 3! Then Thursday he had an all day field trip I went on and Friday was parties in the afternoon. I did both kids'.

I actually did scrap a couple pages, one that I am not sharing yet because it is for an upcoming TES post. But this one is using some fabulous My Little Scrapbox that Tanisha Long sent me. If you don't know her, go find her. She is SO talented. I have a STACK of photos of me as a child that my mom gave me in those old magnetic albums. Many of the photos are ruined from the discoloration, but some fared better than others. sorry for the bad photo, but it's already dark and I knew if I didn't blog now, I wouldn't get it done for days again!

And check out Spunky Scrappers for the new challenge! This week, it's all about "believe". This is my layout! Love this boy! The paper is one of my all time fav BG lines, Hang 10. And that stamp is by bombshell. They are AWESOME, you should check them out. I have a couple sets from them and they are the best!
If I don't blog before then, Merry Christmas!

Survivor: Greenwood

I think I can honestly now say I have an idea of what it's like to be on that show. I have not eaten more than 4 popcicles a day since tuesday. I cannot eat! STILL! I am woozy all the time, sleep most of the day because of the meds, and and feel like my stomach is eating itself.

My friend Ana has been coming over to help out with the kids and keeping my kitchen clean, which has been a god-send. The rest of the house is ankle deep. Luke has decided to take a side logging business again, against my better judgement. He works all 3 of his days off to make what he would make in simply working ONE more day at his real job. It infuriates me, but you can't tell that man anything. Whatever.

I have polished off the better part of a box of fudgecicles, some twin pops, and 1/2 a pint of ben and jerry's Cherry Garcia. I think I probably have consumed 2000 calories since tuesday, including drinks. I bought Sprite Zero (out of habit, not realizing that I could USE the calories right now!) and have been drinking that and water. More water because the sprite has been irritating my throat lately. I need to go to the grocery store something fierce, but am so weak that I have to hold the wall to walk to the bathroom.

I know it will get better some days, but obviously I am not healing quickly from this surgery. It's probably my own fault, I am afraid to swallow. But my throat swelling doesn't seem to be going down at ALL. I still live with an ice pack on my neck to control that swelling. Today is the first day I actually have a jawline since surgery. I still feel like I swallowed a ping pong ball. But I can speak, so that's awesme. I went for 2 full days with NO words. Then another 2 with very short sentences once in a while. It still hurts to talk, but at least i can make the sounds. Right now the ear aches are really getting me.

So to all of my committments I am slacking off on, I am really really sorry. I don't feel stable enough to scrap... at least not to have it be anything I would be able to share... I am not sure jackson pollack type scrapping would go over well! I tried to work on a few christmas gifts, but that's going no where fast.

I am hoping that by the end of this next week I will be closer to 75%, I think 100% is a rediculous stretch! My Grandma and Grandpa sent me a thank you card which was really nice. The ONLY people who did mind you.... Bad friends, shame on all of you.

Hopefully the next time I blog, I will have better news. And no, I am not sharing any photos. I DID shower last night, but it's still not pretty!

Since I am now officially useless...

Thought I would share with you. I made this little layout about my sanity in a pill. If you don't know (which probably most of you dont), I have chronic daily migraines. I have had a few many years back, then about a year and a half ago, I started having frequent migraines. Then after about 6 months, they became a daily occurrence. Many people CLAIM to have migraines. They think that any bad headache is a migraine. That's just not the case. If you are one of these people, STOP! You make our affliction seem less.

Migraines are a very specific type of headache. They are vascular in nature. Basically, what happens is that the vessels in your brain dialate and as the blood rushes, it causes a throbbing pain. Many people have what's called "aura". Some people get halos or spots or a metallic taste in their mouths. I get light, sound, and smell sensitivity. I also get some odd aura. It's verbal. I have a hard time finding words or completing thoughts. Speaking is a task. I cannot read, I have a hard time following other people's speech too. And nausea and vomitting is pretty common too. I get it. The headaches are hemispherical. That means that you typically only get them on one side of your head or the other. Mine are almost always directly above my left ear. And specific things trigger them. When i have breakthrough headaches (meaning that while I am on my preventative meds, I still get occassional headaches) they are usually caused by something like alcohol (more than one or two beverages and I get one. that SUCKS!), certain medications, lack of sleep, etc...

OK, mini lesson over. So this page is about Effexor XR, my saviour. This is an SNRI that I take every day and it controls the seratonin levels in my brain. Research points to seratonin level issues as a cause of migraines, so controlling that seems to help. I went from being on my emergency meds daily and still non-functional many days to having one or two breakthrough headaches a week with maybe one or two significant headaches a month. That is a miracle. As a bonus, this particular med is also used to treat anxiety disorder, which I have! So it helps control my panic attacks as well and makes my little quirks less intrusive! Win Win situation!

I used Sassafrass Marmalade papers which I really didn't think I liked. Kelly sent them to me so I used them. And LOVE them! Thanks Kelly, you're my favorite! Also a Maya Road bird, Pink Paisley Pixie Stix, Prima flowers and lined paper, and Thickers. Cause what is a layout without thickers!

Photos and a little update

I promised photos from Natchitoches two weeks ago, and I finally uploaded them... Some didn't come out as well as I hoped, but that happens with fading light and plenty traffic! Some I really liked!

This general store is like nothing I have ever seen before. It's in a 100+ year old building and everything is in the flat top tables in cool bins as old as the building. The paint had to be 1/4 inch thick! They had such cool things stored in display counters and this wonderful older gentleman who used to be an art professor who now paints watercolors! So cool. I got to sit and visit with him for probably half an hour. Everyone else was ready to go and left the store to sit outside while I visited. I love talking to older people. One question leads to one hour! But it was really nice!

Other photos are just quick snapshots I wanted to share, Julia after she got her face painted at Bass Pro and Boudreaux and Tan laying together. She thinks she is one of the dogs!

So here is the update part. I am getting my tonsils out tuesday! I have been having problems with them a lot over the past, well, 29 years! They were supposed to come out in '98 and I got sick, then my insurance ran out. So I went in Friday, the doc said "Yeah, they're bad and they're coming out. How does Tuesday sound..." So I will be going in. Last time I had surgery, I got pretty sick afterwards and ended up spending almost the whole day in the hospital. So hopefully this time, they will LISTEN to me when I tell them to give me phenergan!

This means I will be largely unproductive for a while. I do NOT do well with pain meds. I get very ill. The doc said I won't be able to handle the pain without the meds, so I will be on phenergan to keep from yacking and Midrin to squash the inevitable migraines the meds will cause! Yep, it will be one happy unconscience week or two! I will be trying to facebook and MB occassionally, just depends on how often I am alert!

I still have a bunch of Christmas presents to make, all of my gifts to wrap, and some DT stuff to do. Wish me luck! If you want to send flowers, feel free! Also, Papa John's would be greatly appreciated! lol! I promise NOT to post pictures of my scars.

December!

November flew by. Yeah, I am a bad blogger. Since there are like 3 of you who actually follow me somewhat regularly, Here is what has happened in the past 2 weeks.

1. Steve and Gayle (my in-laws) came and stayed a week with us for Thanksgiving. It was really nice. We took in the sights a bit, got to visit a lot, did some shopping, and just hung out.

2. I had some medical issues that took a lot of time and stress. Long rated G story is that I am ok, just adding another "disease/disorder/condition" to my list. Yep, it's fun.

3. Our outdoor cat passed a tape worm. Yep, it was like 12 inches. At least. It was the most incredibly disgusting thing ever so I had to share. It was too much nasty to keep to myself. Just be glad I didn't take a picture.

4. trent is now missing both his front top teeth and his two bottom side teeth. Then we went out for supper and he got corn on the cob. Yep, we all laughed.

5. You know you're a redneck when.... You take your kids to Bass Pro Shop to see Santa.

6. Stood on line for 3 hours to get INTO toys r us on black friday. Then took another 30 minutes to check out once I got inside. Yep, that was awesome. It was 33 degrees and I wore a fleece. Wahoo. By the time I got in, half the stuff I was waiting for was gone. Then I stood on line at Target for one hour. I got everything I needed plus a reusable shopping bag and checked out in less than 5 minutes. Much better choice at Target.

7. We had another scorpion in the house. Yep, the insect variety with the sting parts. EW. I am not a fan of the south. Just sayin.

8. Got a bunch of stuff to work on Christmas projects with. I am making a ton this year for gifts, so that is taking most of my crafting time. So that's more of why I am not posting scrappy stuff. Cause the altered items I have made are gifts and that would just ruin everything!

My goal is to scrap at least one or two pages tomorrow. Wish me luck. I'll post if I get the chance! Hope all of you are less stressed than I feel right now. Enjoy your holidays!

Pictures coming soon, we got to go to Natchitoches (pronounced nack a tish) where they are old plantations. It's the oldest city in louisiana and was incorperated in 1714. So I have some really good photos, I just need to upload them from my CF card, which I cannot just stick into my laptop!

Hasta!

I am scrapping, I promise!

I know pretty much everyone who follows my blog does so because they know me from scrapping. Well, I promise I am working! I just cannot post ANYTHING! I made a new design team. Well, actually, 2! But one is a secret and I can't spill till next month! So here's the good news.

I made the DT over at www.spunkyscrappers.ning.com ! I am so stoked. This is a challenge blog with weekly challenges as well as a whole ning community. I am on the "B" team as we are split into two groups. We do a challenge every week, so we split so that there isn't quite so much work. So I have been working on upcoming challenges. Check this week's out, it's all about the word FREE. There will be another one up in a couple days and the layout I am working on is SO ME! Spunky Scrappers is a group of girls like me- no filter. Well, i don't think any of them are as bad as I am, but it's kind of a "gloves are coming off" kind of group. We scrap anything and everything. I will tell you that my layout on my desk right now for this week doesn't contain pictures because we would have to change to a R rating! It's way fun, we just got new sketch artists too, so there is a LOT coming up. Go check it out!

Plus, I have been working on getting stuff going over at www.TheEverydayScrapper.com with some new contributors. Also, the new team, which of course you don't get to know about yet. But lets just say my profile picture for it is freaking HOT!

Add this to the PILE of Christmas presents I am working on. I am B_R_O_K_E this year. Having 2 houses and having moved etc has just taken the budget down to NIL. So I am making as many as I can. Which really just works out well because I am so awesome, everyone wants my gifts anyway... right? Yeah, maybe not. But I am working on cool stuff. I will post some when I get them finished.

OK, in-laws coming in LATE tonight. I am not feeling well. I have been having constant dizziness for 3 days now. It's something with my eyes, not an inner ear infection. I think it must have something to do with my optic nerve or something. My lips tingle when i move my eyes. It SUCKS. BAD. I am going to try to get to the doc tomorrow cause I cannot do anything like this!

Till later this week, have a great time! Enjoy the fall, enjoy your families! And Getcha SOME!

Almost My Favorite Holiday!

It's Saturday. That means like 5 days until Thanksgiving. I LOVE Thanksgiving. I LOVE everything about it. I love the house full of people. I love the colors. I love the chill in the air, the smell of hot cider and roasting turkey and candles burning. Yes, there are no presents, but I am ok with that! So much less stress leading up to it than Christmas. No mass shopping expeditions, no stress about finding the perfect "IT", no crowds. Just a warm house and great food.

I am blessed. Really, we all say that right? Sometimes it's harder than others to see the blessings. Especially when the bills have piled 6 inches high and there is no more money to pay them. When relationships are stressed and tensions mount. When my attitude is gone and I don't see it coming back any time soon. I have to step back and look at what I do have. A husband who loves me. 2 healthy kids. A great family and network of friends nationwide. A roof over my head, and (almost bald) tires under my butt when I need to get out. I live in a free country run by officials I pretend to have a say in electing. I get to stay at home every day, be here when my kids get on the bus and when they get off. I don't have to pay someone else to raise them. Luke lets me scrap to my hearts content, although I am sure at many times he is gritting his teeth at the lack of housework getting done. I have food, clean water, access to medical care, and no one waiting to beat, rape, torture me. No war in my backyard, no armed men at my door. And do I deserve any of it? Not especially. I haven't really done anything spectacular or worthy. So I guess it all comes down to the fact that God is good.

Yep, I seep into sap every once in a while. I don't like to let it happen often because it's of little use, all the blubbering and whatnot! So now that we have that all out of the way, I am off to finish putting together the guest room. Steve and Gayle are coming tomorrow very late to spend the week with us. I need to scrub the kids' bathroom since they will be sharing and the kids make a nasty mess out of it daily! I finally locked them out of it yesterday because they refuse to clean up after themselves.

So i am off, I need to get some design team blog posts ready too at some point today. Right, I just dont see that happening! Have a great weekend.

I want my cake.

I found myself Friday evening hanging out on Facebook for the Maya Road crop and chat. So much fun those girls! The design team amazes me. And the owners are sooooo sweet. I didn't know anything about the company before then.

One of the challenges was to make a tag using MR stuff. I pulled out my stash and came up with this little girl. Lots of chip pieces, a trinket pin, rubons, and a cupcake topped wtih dimensional elements, pixie stix, and smooch.

No idea what i will do with it, for now I think I will just look at it and think about making some cupcakes. I do have some cherry frosting in the pantry!

Coupons!!!!!

It's getting on Christmas time. That means using using up lots of scrappy supplies making gifts and less money to buy new stuff! So the ladies over at http://www.savvynsassy.com/ are hooking us up. But you have to go check out http://www.theeverydayscrapper.com/ to get the codes! So RUN to the blog, get your codes, and get shoping. They have the awesomest (is that a word even) ribbon! I love this months' finds!

A new photo I love

I got a new kitten. Her name is Tan. As in the drink "Black and Tan" which is, if you don't know, a guiness and bass ale. Our other kitten, if you didn't figure it out is black! So anyway.... She was in my craft room playing while I was working the other day. When I scrap, ALL of the animals come in there and pile around my table. Tan was rolling around in a pile of wadded up light pink tulle I had on the floor. She ended up all in it. Luckily I had my camera on my desk next to me. I got a few really good shots of her. She is quite photogenic.

I am changing the name of my blog...

Well, at least my banner title. I had a lovely chat last night over at serendipity scrapbooks with Becky Fleck. She is a KICK in the pants! I'm not a big sketch fan, but do admire her work with BG. We all know what a BG whore I am. Evidently Nook and Pantry hasn't been the big hit they were hoping for, but I am in LOVE! I got to play with some via my DT connections at scrapgal.com. So I chose this eggbeater page, not knowing what the HELL I was going to do with it. I just loved it so much. Yesterday i was scrapping when I kept thinking naughty thoughts about Nook and Pantry. Nooky and Panty kept coming into my head and running around. So after I finished my layout, I took the scraps and made this card! Becky got to hear about it last night, but since it is MY brand of humor, I opted not to post it in the gallery with my layout. So here it is!

Spunky Scrappers GDT!

So i found this fabulous little blog, as you have already seen me post about. It's called Spunky Scrappers. Spunk is something I have plenty of. I am in love! A group of girls that will tolerate, even encourage my particular brand of cheeky, obnoxious, shocking, honest scrapping! So I am GDT this week. Head over here and check out this weeks' challenge. It's all about scrapping a random though. Here is my layout. There are some really fabulous layouts up with me this week!

Trusty ol' Random.org

Says #4 and 6, so that's Mara and carolyn! Email me your addy's for your magnet/pin sets! I will have them sent out to you! THanks everyone for stopping by! I will be looking for some more etsy finds soon! It's lots of fun! I hope you girls all head that way and do some christmas shopping homemade, even if it's someone else's homemade.

The Coolest Chipboard EVER!

I was hanging out over at the Crop Addict today and someone shared this company with me. So I thought I would pass it on because it's the coolest thing ever! It's called riff Raff Designs and they do laser cut chip. Such cool designs. I really really love their stuff. Did I mention that? Oh, cause I really love their stuff! They have everything from flourishes to pregnant body outlines to guitars and angel wings!

Just click on the photo to get to their website! I'm hoping someone who reads this will decide to carry their entire line because I WANT IT!

Because Jaybird did one...

Well, not really, but kinda! I have been planning on altering an older copy of "Bridges of Madison County." It's my favorite book in the world. But it got a grease spot on the front. My bff Jason got me a new copy for christmas, so I am going to ffix this one up good! In the meantime, it's been sitting around for months and months because I don't know exactly where I want to go with it and I only get one shot since the book is important for me to keep.

My girl Jaybird altered this awesome book (check it out at http://www.thegalblog.com/) and I figured "Know what, what the hell!" Kelly sent me this super cute little pink address book. Well, I don't use them. I use my trusty palm pilot or a spreadsheet. But it was SOOOOOO cute I knew I HAD to use it. So, voila! I modge podged the crap out of it, cut my hole, and trimmed it out. I wanted to obscure it a bit, so I used some sheer swiss dot fabric.

Mostly this was a way to blow off some steam for an afternoon. Over at the Gal, we are having an "Attitude of Gratitude" contest. One of the challenges is to make a gratitude journal, which I intend to do. But I started thinking about the old "Daily Affirmations" sketch on SNL. So right now, I am affirming away. And this little pinky is here to remind me.

New blog!

Hey gals and pals. Just thought I would give a little shout out to a fab little place called Spunky Scrappers! It's a super cool challenge blog/site and they just put up a new blogspot blog to go along with it. So head over and check it out. They are having a dt call too, so if you're interested....

www.spunkyscrapper.blogspot.com

You can check out the ning community too at www.spunkyscrappers.ning.com

Happy Haunting

My friend Ana and I took our kids to this very old cemetery by my house. I live out of town in a rural area. Up on the side of this random little raised wooded area is a very small cemetery. We're talking maybe 25 graves, all from the same 3 or 4 families. The earliest in tact grave marker is a death date of 1899 and the latest is sometime in the 30's. It's not marked, I can't find out anything about it. But it's there and occasionally someone comes up there and mows over the grass overgrowth. We got all the kids ready to go to the Halloween Party at the Calvary Chapel. we made a stop up there on the way to town.

These are a few of the photos I took with my Olympus E-500. Sometimes it gives me fits and makes me crazy, but right now it's working ok! They were pretty much all shot at 1/30 or 1/40 and F4.3. No flash on my standard lens.

Hailey dressed up as a vampire. By the time we got out of the truck, she was over her vampire teeth and didn't wear them the whole day! So much for being a vampire! Henry was a skeleton. Nuf said. Trent was the white ninja from the new G.I. Joe movie. He's the bad guy, aparantly. We haven't seen it but Lindsey told me he was. So Trent had to tell EVERYONE that he was the white ninja from GI Joe and he was a bad guy not a good guy. Julia was a Zebra. So cute! She had a bit of a cold though and wasn't feeling so excited. Of course I had to take a photo of Napoleon in his super cute bumblebee costume! He didn't fight it, he did fight the leash, so we couldn't take him with us. Bummer. Next year though. I will work on the leash thing. He's just used to being in my purse of my carrying him.

Isn't the flare and the sun streaks on Hailey's photo FREAKY? Seriously! I had one that came out perfectly, really crisp and clean. But the other 3 I took had obvious streaking and this odd flare. I zoomed in on it and it looked like a flame from a bunsen burner! TOO CREEPY. It's sun flare, I was shooting into the sunset. But still. In a graveyard on Halloween....

Christmas Blog Candy Etsy Style!

If you follow my blog, you know I like to give stuff away. You also know that I am crafty. And that I get behind stuff and people I like 100,000%! I am a fan of Etsy, not just because it gives artisans a way to sell their goods, but because it encourages us all to support hand-crafted goods. I feel like 100 years, women prided themselves in their hand-made goods. Quilts, ebroidery, needlecrafts, and garment making. But since the era of 2 income families, that has very much gone by the wayside. Scrapbooking as an industry has encouraged women (and men, I know there are a few of you out there!) to craft, and to be proud of it. Now Etsy is doing that AND making it a viable way to make money!

So this is the part where I get behind soemthing and RUN! A few days ago, I posted a few things I loved that I found on Etsy. And a few of those vendors were kind enough to either donate products for me to giveaway or offer a limited number of discounts. You ready? Cause these goodies are VERY Christmas giftable!



This is SOOOOO awesome! Nicole over at Naussica Distribution on Etsy MADE these special for me to give away to you! 2 sets! So 2 people will win one magnet and one pin. So awesome! Did I mention that? If you never took statistics in college, you may not be familiar with this guy, but it's the normal distribution curve. This version is MUCH more pleasant than the version in my books! You can't buy these in the store, they are just for you here!


And Judith over at Wild Fiber Knits is offering a $5 coupon to the first 5 people who convo her through her Etsy shop. Her prices are very reasonable and she makes very cute things! I am in love with her scarflettes and this green purse! Friends and nieces and the like can be difficult to shop for, but her scarflettes would make anyone happy to open a pressie from you! I know I would be! So check out their shop right here, make sure you let them know I sent you!

So leave me a comment and you will be entered for the normal distribution magnet/pin sets! and keep your eyes pealed as I am working on some more stuff in the near future! and go to Wild Knit Fibers and order something fabulous for someone you love (maybe that's yourself!)

Oh, if you link my via facebook or twitter and let me know, I will give you an extra entry! You have until November 7th to enter.

Daily Dose of Fabulous!

I am all about supporting small businesses. This year for Christmas an Channukah, I would like to encourage you to join me. And to entice you, I spent a little time looking around Etsy or some super fab finds!

OMG. Seriously. I found this today on Etsy. I love Etsy. And I HATE statistics. I hate it I hate it I hate it. It about gave me a nervous breakdown. So imagine my surprise when I saw this today! My first reaction was "Where the hell was this when I needed something to cry into?" My second reaction was I really hope someone else besides the person who made this shares my opinion. So all of you current or former college students, please RUN to this etsy store and buy one of these! They also carry log distribution, which I never did understand, simply dumped the formulas into my calculator like a freaking monkey! Log what/who? Here is the store, go check them out!

Next is this little gem. I saw this in the recently listed section of Etsy and I swooned. I am a huge fan of steampunk, but find a lot of the pieces to be too big or loud for my jeans and t-shirts style. But not this. Or about 20 other pieces I found in this store! And so reasonably priced. They are going on my kaboodle list for sure. Go look, I am sure you will find something you will fall in love with too!

2 more to go! Here is the most amazingly hilarious wall art. I have a puppy who at this point is doing his fair share of pissing, mostly on the floor thank heavens. (as I was typing this, he actually just peed on the carpet right by the window. DOH!) But this is just too funny! I am looking at a few designs for my craft room! She has so much stuff! Another of my favorites is a piece of flying paper that turns into an oragami bird! You can find her Etsy store here. How awesome would this be for a Christmas gift!

Last but certainly NOT least is this incredibly cute scarflette. I love scarfs but the extra bulk on my already ample chest is enough to disuade me. This little guy is perfect! Extremely stylish, just quaint enough to be trendy but not look like you are trying too hard. If someone got me one of these, it would be a happy Christmas indeed! Go here and buy me one, I'd be happy with this blue one! But i did just get a dark mossy green peacoat, so a white, cream, or tan would be great!

Check back later in the week for some pretty sweet blog candy. Be sure and tell a friend!

Sad Times

I just realized it has been a full week since I blogged! No No Bad Rachael! Things have been kinda hectic around here. I have been running crazy with my friend, running around with the kids, and working on my craft room.

I also have a bit of bad news. Our amazing old kitty Dragon has left us. He is a VERY indoor kitty. He is 13 years old and over the past year has lost over half his body weight. So we knew it was coming. Sunday, he wanted outside. He NEVER leaves the house, EVER. So he ran out and we tried to put him back in, but he ran off again. And that's the last we saw of him. We think he probably went off to die. Very sad. Luke took it hard. Dragon was his main man. Luke decided he wanted a new kitten, that he missed the kitty snuggles too much. He has been wanting one for a few months now, but kicked it into high gear. So Ana and I went to the shelter today and found a black kitty, just like Luke requested. While there, the man offered to give us one free if we wanted! So of course I got a second one! She is sooo beautiful. Of course I will post pictures. right now we are calling them black and tan (guinness and bass!) but I don't know if that will stick.

I will leave you with a picture of my fat Dragon and a promise you will hear from me sooner. I will be posting again on TES Friday, so come check us out. and look for us on facebook too! I would LOVE you to add us!

Giveaway coming soon... keep your eyes pealed!

Happy Pig Day!

I bought some paper mache pigs a week or so ago with the intention of sending them out to friends and having them create something with them. well I changed my mind, so there! I LOVE polka dots. I don't know why, but especially vintage style polka dot patterns. Like this one from 7 Gypsies. I searched for almost an hour in my wreck of a scrap room for it!

I tore it into a million little pieces, then used some modge podge to stick the pieces down. Luke thought I was crazy! I also used a piece of SEI paper lace, kind like a little skirt. Then this morning when it was dry, I used some old Basic Grey rubons for the black flowers. Lots of little trims, some black Kaiser bling, and my very favorite My Little Scrapbox alpha stickers. (Just let me know when you all get tired of seeing them!)

The result is something that will go fabulously with the new colors I have chosen for my scrap room. My walls are tan and I have a zebra rug, so I will be using a buttery yellow a bit lighter than this pig for my other accent color. Fabulous!

Spilling the beans...

As you may have noticed, I have a new blinkie over on the side of my blog. And that means I have been selected for the design team over at The Everday Scrapper! I am really excited! Just like the blinkie says, we will be giving some inspiration, showing you some new ideas, and even a challenge or two! The team is mostly new, so it's exciting to see where the new girls will take us!

We do have a forum, which I hope you guys will participate in! No store, no pressure, just a cool place to hang out! The official announcement should be coming soon, but I was told it was OK to spill! I will be on the blog a couple times a month, so keep your eyes pealed! If there's something you would like to see, let me know and I will do my best!

Frog Prints

I guess this week is back to basics for me. Back to making pictures. I have been scrapping but nothing I can share yet! I have something new in the works... I'll spill soon! But I will tell you it's something I am very excited about! So as soon as I can, you'll all know!

Tonight when we got home from Julia's program, there was a super cute tree frog crawling across our window! I am talking about the window over my kitchen sink! I have no idea how he got up there, but the humidity is so horrid outside that he left really cool tracks all across! By the time I got my camera, he was already up on the top sill. So I went out and took a picture for the kids to see. But here they are, frog prints

My light filled evening

Even though I am not the best, my first love is photography. This evening, we had a pretty significant thunderstorm. we're talking thousands of strikes an hour significant. Everyone else went to bed but I was working on putting all my ribbon onto my new ribbon ring (yeah!) We missed half of CSI for the tornado warnings just north of here, so I was looking forward to a doozy of a storm. We, of course, caught the thinnest band of it. But it was impressive nontheless.

Here is one of the 204 frames I took this evening. Do you know how hard it is to capture a thunderstorm with a 3 year old point and shoot digital camera? Argh. Frustrating. I missed all the best shots cause the lag time was so slow! Grrrr. But anyway, here is my favorite shot of the night. Bear in mind, that this frame was shot at about 9:45 pm, not in the early evening. It was pitch black out. Hope you enjoy your friday/weekend!

Loving Amplified

Anyone who has seen my blog more than once knows how enamoured I am with Sassafras Lass. Maybe enamoured isn't a strong enough word. Anyway, semantics. Over at the Gal, we got the new Marmalade, Amplify, and Monstrosity. So at first, I wasnt really sure about any of it, to be honest. I saw the CHA booth stuff and wasnt impressed. Then the stuff got in the store. I looked at it and thought "What the heck, it's only a few bucks right?"

Last Saturday while I was locked in my craft room, it arrived! I almost attacked my poor postal lady! It's amazing! Seriously amazing. The photos online do NOT do it justice. I am so in love. I bought some of the Monstrosity and Amplify both. I passed on the Marmalade for now just because I have SOOOOOOOOOO much girly stuff right now I need to get through. I may pick some up down the road.

This is one of the layouts I did with the Amplify and one of the felites from the Monstrosity line. I really with that Sass would have put out some rad felties for the Amp line. Oh well, maybe I will just have to make my own. Heaven knows I have enough felt laying around my craft room. Hmmmmm. Maybe while Luke is hiding from poor defenseless deer in the woods I could do that!

Another Weiner!

I want to say thanks to everyone that hung out with us this weekend at the Gal. The winner of my RAK of MME Bloom and Grow is Kimbo! She does some AWESOME work, you should check her out!

In other news, I am a bit worried about Samoa. I don't directly know anyone from there, but My sister-in-law now has some family there. Her step-sister just married a Samoan and his family all lives there. I don't know them, have never met them. But I know Alisa's step dad. If you pray, please pray that their family is ok. An 8.0 is a pretty damn big earthquake. And 3 to 4 waves is a lot of devastation. Tuna packing is the main industry there and the tuna canneries have closed now, not due to damage but I'm guessing out of health concerns. This will be devastating for the island. No jobs, no money, no money no food, no way to fix what they lost. So find a charity and DONATE. Check out http://www.charitynavigator.com/ to get an idea of what charities pass on the most money and which are valid to begin with.

It's a good day, I have no complaints. My dark cloud is hopefully lifting. Things here are going well. Slowly, but well. Time to hop up and clean the kitchen before supper. I'm the worst housekeeper ever! Here's a new card I whipped up.

Win Stuff! Pseudo Blog Candy

So as I said, http://www.scrapgal.com/ is on crop overload. I am hosting a couple of challenges. Super easy peasy. Go to the Gal, sign up, and do any of the 3 of my challenges. Let me know you did it and you will be entered to win a Bloom and grow My Minds Eye paper kit! Sweet right! So get moving. You have until midnight Sunday night. And there are several other RAK's including GC's to the store! So have fun, look forward to seeing you tonight at chat!