Too funny. Ok, I'm working all day today and while I'm waiting for stuff to load I keep bouncing back and forth checking out Bloglines to see what blogs I subscribe to have recently been updated. It's becoming a bad habit I'm afraid but I regress... Donna Downey (a scrapbooker and artist) was having 5 give-aways today and I thought it would be fun to participate (seeing as I've never done this sort of thing before). After all I love free things and how hard could this be? The deal was every hour, on the hour, she would post it was time for the give-away and the 36th person to post a comment would win. As simple as that! Ok, I will periodically check and participate by making a comment, and maybe I'll be a lucky winner.

So, I go back to work and after a bit I remember this is going on. I check and all of a sudden I have missed 3 of the give-aways. What? What has happened? Then I realize, there must be a delay since I'm accessing her blog through Bloglines. Normally this isn't an issue, however, when time is this important I need to be directly on her page! I check the clock and realize it's only 7 minutes before the next give-away. Ha. I'm so ontop of this now! I pull up her site, refresh. wait. refresh. wait. work. refresh. work. refresh. wait. refresh. wait. refresh. Ah Ha, it's there. The new posting with 0 comments. I decided to go ahead and post a comment as a test comment because posting this early surely I'm going to be commenter 3 or something like that. I put my quick comment, press post and all of a sudden I'm like commenter 50ish. What the ________???? I look back at all the times and there are a ton at 3:01. Everyone is doing what I'm doing.

Ok, so obviously I didn't win. Bummer. I then begin to think, how many people are just hanging out waiting for her posts? Insane. No wonder her dh is working with her now. I'd love to have a business where people are just hanging out, waiting for my next word. You go girl! I mean, I know free products are a draw but seriously that's amazing! Ok, only 42 more minutes to go until the last round. What do you think my odds are?

So far real good! Friday night worked on our family room drapes. Not done yet but making significant progress. As a matter of fact I should be finishing one of the panels now but decided to get in a quick post. Will be sharing photos once at least one is made and hung. Looking good. Feels great to have real panels, with interfacing and lining. No one but myself will probably notice that but when you feel them you know they are nice. Makes me feel like a grown-up.

Yesterday, Saturday, ran out as a family (minus one) and got a birthday gift for a belated birthday for an out of town family member. We got the game shinney. It's something my boys love to play and we hope will be passing on the newly made tradition. Fun! Also, decided on some landscaping ideas for the backyard, cleaned up the garage and then went to our neighbors sons ice hockey game with dinner following. So much fun! I forgot though how cold ice hockey is! I also forgot that when the boys fall, since they are on ice they slide. LOL! Kind of funny! It was also shocking at the age of 13 how much they check. It was awesome and a great time as usual with our neighbors. Oh, and I did I mention I got to take a nap too? This is becoming a new thing for me on the weekends. Something I normally NEVER do. I'm liking it! Oh, also ran by dh's grandparents house to chat. Just love seeing them. They are so neat!

Today we went to church again. Another great service and further confirmation that I want to continue at this church. Went to Rombach's Pumpkin Patch for our yearly pumpkin search. We all wanted to go but I can tell the boys (as well as us) are getting older. This was the first year we didn't mess around. Got in, found our pumpkins and left. Still managed to get some pictures and even some video of our pumpkin search. We almost took Oscar but since the Pumpkin Patch is close to church we decided to just go without him. Poor Oscar. We then went out to lunch, came home and took another nap. Now up and getting ready to work somemore on the drapes before heading out to a soccer game. Unfortunately tonight I do have to do some work, but not too much.

To make things even better I have come up with a design plan for "my room", my scrapbook, craft room. I already have a closet system in place but it's still not functional. I need more storage and a place for inspiration. I really want a large bulletin board to post some items I'm working on, to post some magazine cutouts for inspiration, to jazz up the space. And, boy do I have a GREAT idea. Not going to share just yet, you will have to wait. I'm so excited about it.

Weather has been great. Family has been fun and loving (love). Inspiration flowing. Great weekend. Hope yours has been just as enjoyable.

Found this challenge today on Two Peas and decided to participate.

If you could create something to help make scrapping/card making easier for you what would it be?

I would like to create a larger space for me to work in. Although I'm very grateful to actually have my own space, I do realize it isn't big enough for all that I do, or want to do. I dream of some day having a loft type space where I can have stations for each activity; scrapbooking, sewing, drafting, library, painting... Oh I can see it now! What a joy that would be.

Check out some of the goodies I purchased today at Two Peas. I want to jazz up my banner and thought I might be able to put some of this together for something special!









Gotta love digital art! Can anyone say Wacom tablet? I'm totally putting one on my Christmas list this year.

Baaaad blogger I know! Here's some of what I've been up to:



Yes I did get my little Crackberry - oops, Blackberry. It truely is addicting! I totally don't mind being hung up in traffic, long lines at events, waiting for my boys hockey games to start... Anytime there is downtime I can surf. It takes a little bit of getting used to but it's awesome! I was so enjoying waiting forever to get my oil changed at Firestone the other day. No problem, I think I'll check out Two Peas message boards. I've set Google as my homepage because I love them - everything about them. Have you ever checked out their employment page to see behind the scenes of what they do and how they treat their staff. It's great!

I've been scrapbooking a lot (for me anyway) lately. I would like to finish our New York album sooner then later. This first photo is of course of the Statue of Liberty. She is so beautiful and amazing to look at. I was surprised by how special she would feel to me. What she stands for gives me goose bumps and looking at all the details, the folds in the material... it's just perfect. That's why I titled that page "It's all in the details" I tried to draw your eye into the details causing one to look a little bit closer by stacking a smaller photo on top of the larger one. Eventually I will go back and reprint the one photo that is a little bit darker then the rest - so those details don't get lost. But, by the time I finished this up I wasn't in the mood to do further tweaking.


This is my two-page spread on Ellis Island. I used an Ali Edwards two-page spread as inspiration for this. I wanted to break out of my box like layouts which I have done on a few other pages. I wanted something linear but something I could still use several photos on. I love having a printer that I can quickly print multiple size photos on. I find I'm using less and less 4.6 photos. I'm still working on using my computer for journaling. I'm from the old Creative Memories days (used to be a consultant) where journaling in your own handwriting is important. I agree with the importance of that but I'm really ok with more computer jouranling. It's cleaner looking and quicker for me to do.




This is the last page I finished last night. All the photos were dark but bright colors pop throughout because of all the neon lights. New York is filled with neon lights! The picture in the center opens up where it lists the description of each photo. I stamped the corresponding number on each photo. I'm going to put a clip with a ribbon on it to use as the page turner for the center photo but I didn't want the page/book to get too bulky. I'm using embellishments carefully because I don't want bulky albums - if I can help it. It will be fun to see if this changes.

As you can tell I really like using multiple photos on my pages. Although I am setting aside individual photos that I really like that I will use to create special pages, some which I've already used. I'm finding I can look at one photo and have it generate different feelings. Hmmmm, my wheels are spinning...

I LOVE having my own room to create. I realize now one of the reasons I never got anything done was because by the time I got everything out it was time to leave to do something. The stuff would lay where ever (dining room table or worse the kitchen table) for a couple weeks until I couldn't stand it there anymore. Then I'd pack it all back up and the cycle would continue until I just never took anything out anymore. This way when I have a spare minute or at night when everyone is snuggled in bed I can quickly go in there and get some things done. When I have to stop I can just leave everything there and close the door. Plus, I love knowing where everything is. I just LOVE it.

What happened to my blog? Why is my sidebar down at the bottom? I know HTML but this I can't figure out. Until such time I can get this fixed, please excuse the mess.

CathyZ's blog is back up and it's ironic that I should visit it this evening. Cathy's blog today was about a friend and neighbor of hers that passed away from cancer (melanoma). It's a beautiful tribute to her. I decided to visit her friends blog that is still up and was touched by reading her words and thoughts as she went through the last months of her life. It saddened me because I look at her two boys and I understand exactly what they are going through at this very moment, having lost their mom. Words absolutely cannot describe what they are feeling right now.

Same evening, few moments apart, I visit FORCE's website for our annual fundraising, awareness raising chat-a-thon. Our chat room is open and active 24 hours a day for two days straight. It's a unique and fitting event for FORCE. FORCE is a website about hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. It's for individuals that are interested in learning about how family history can play a part in breast and ovarian cancer and how there is a link between the two cancers. I'm a veteran of FORCE and have been on the board of directors of FORCE for many years now. Unfortunately I've had to take a break from active participation outside of my bod responsibilities for a couple years as my focus has had to be on our families business but I will be back in full FORCE soon enough. This evening at the chat-a-thon, conversations were being had about some dear FORCE friends who have passed and one who are currently ill. Just brings up a lot of feelings.

Ironic that two sites I go tonight are expressing those same feelings and thoughts. Of course it all makes me think of my mother, what I went through (which I will blog later about), family and friends. I've known way too many people who have been afflicted and affected by cancer; lymphoma, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, lung cancer, melanoma, throat cancer - to name only a few. Cancer is such as horrible disease. It robs people of so much. It sucks.

Ok - enough of that. To bring me back out of my zone I hear Oscar boy SNORING away LOUDLY in the other room. LOL! I have to say he makes me smile and giggle absolutely every day. He reminds me to slow down and enjoy the little moments. The way he sits on us, the way he holds his head. The way my boys (and dh) interacts with him. My dh asked Oscar to jump in his lap the other day while he was sitting in his new chair. That just doesn't happen! I just look at him and laugh. Someday I hope to capture in a picture what I see - so far I have been unable to do it. Then I move to Zoe and think just how pretty she is. Chad made a comment about how different they are and I told him we have beauty and the beast (a cute beast but one none the less). LOL! We laughed. I've always looked at my kids this way but it's fun to see animals in a new light. I'm think I'm turning into one of those crazy dog people. LOL!

Sorry for the delay but here's the proof of our scrapbooking weekend. What a fun time we had. The biggest challenge was hauling all our stuff in there and then trying to decide if we wanted to keep it there overnight while we slept for a few hours. Here's a link to more photos. I tried to embed the photo album here but it didn't work like I had hoped. When all else fails, create a link I say!

What's so exciting is Patti, Tammy and I have another scrapbooking adventure in a couple weeks. We are taking an Ali Edwards class in Illinois which I can't wait for. Only thing is I haven't done a thing on my homework and some of my pictures that I want to use are on slides. I need to get working on that because it may take some time to get prints from slides!

Nothing else blog worthy going on here. Starting to get geared up for Christmas. Excited about Friday because that is when we get our Christmas tree!!! Love that! Also, can't wait until tomorrow because Thanksgiving is always wonderful. Can't wait to eat some turkey and mashed potatoes and sit and talk with my family.

To everyone - have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Sorry about that. I realize I've been a bad blogger. Although I've been very busy I don't have a lot of things I would think you would find interesting and definitely nothing that has been picture worthy. I have been multi-tasking a lot lately, with my mind going back and forth on several items:

Scrapbooking. I've been busy working on setting up my photo albums and getting ready for a going to be really fun crop this weekend - a first for me. I did finish two quick albums showcasing my youngest son's artwork from birth through fourth grade. Don't get too excited, the artwork was just placed in the albums. Little to no journaling and little to no embellishments. The purpose was to get the items from piles off my floor into albums. I also scanned approximately 150 school papers of his that I'm printing wallet sizes of and placing in 3-ring photo albums in baseball card holders. Again nothing too special added. Soon my large lingering piles will be gone and I will begin creating fun artsy pages with all of my photos. I'm hoping to begin that this weekend at the crop. FUN!

Working. Not exciting but none-the-less something that is taking up my time. It helps that I have fun while I work - thanks Patti!!!

Designing our home office. I have been given the green light to order cabinets for our home office. We are in here A LOT and I'm embarrassed to say we have piles of paper in here as well. Do you see a theme here? We all are sick and tired of it so it's time I address this issue. My dh is quite funny though because he thinks I can just go out and get some cabinets as if I were going to Target to pick up a new CD or something. This is where my designer thought process kicks in. So, I'm in the planning, design and product research phase of the project. This leads me to think about a design business for *moi*, see below:

Design business. Should I or shouldn't I? Since I'm not in a position to get or want clients now it would make sense to say no. I've decided I have a lot of behind the scenes work to do to refresh my design skills and learn the business side of design so I should focus on that first. I have begun this research and I'm finding out that more doors would open if I did have a business set-up surprisingly. I would be able to research trade only resources which is huge. The product and information available to the trade is so much more then to the average Joe. Fun!

Well that's it for now. Soon I will post some more interesting bits of information and some updated Oscar happenings. Until then, have a good day!

The last few days I have been trying to get things done that have been hovering for awhile. I was able to finish all of our laundry - YEAH! The best part is it is all put away - at least mine and dh's. The boys are old enough to put theirs away themselves or live with the mess. Doors close so I'm ok with that. Tonight I was able to wrap and mail three different family gifts (birthdays and babies from last month). I've even taken Oscar to the vet for his monthly check-up. (Oops forgot to schedule next appointment... ok done). I'm now getting ready to run to Michaels to use my 50% coupon on some adhesive - thanks Patti for telling me about today's coupon! And hopefully my dh, son and I will get to go out to dinner. Our youngest is at 5th grade camp this week so the rest of the family needs to do something out of the ordinary.

The good news for me is my scrapbook room is now picked up and organized. The presents are wrapped and gone which means my table is near empty. It might be time for me to begin getting some pages done. Such an interesting idea since I've been back into scrapbooking for maybe nine months but have yet to do one page. LOL! Will post results once available.

My photos for this post are of two totally different things. First is my new closet. It's not totally done but I don't care. I love it!!! It's amazing how great it feels to work on different projects and know what you have and where it is located. I have scrapbooked and done crafts and projects for many years now. I started out in boxes moving from room to room. I then used the dining room table. I moved it to a small closet that I converted to a scrapbook area. I've been in the basement and now for the first time we've devoted a room to it. I should have tried to do this earlier!! It's a great feeling.

The second photo is of trees. Have I ever told you I have this thing for trees? I love them. Someday I will live in the middle of trees. I grew up living in the woods and I miss it terribly. Trees give me a major sense of peace and calm. They remind me of my mom, my family before. Trees are beautiful and are my thing. I think I should do a page about that on my new clean table with stuff from my semi-organized closet!

Oops. Photos are in reversed order - you get the idea.

Today was a good day - mail wise. I love it when I get things I've ordered in the mail and it's even more special when multiple items arrive on the same day! Here's what I got:

I've been considering getting some Birkenstocks and happened by the TV last weekend when QVC was on and it was a Birkey day. It was time for me to get my "winter shoes" so I pulled the trigger and ordered these. I got the Mocha color - yummy! Only problem I might have ordered a size too large. I'm truely in between a 36 (5 1/2 - 6) and 37 (6 1/2 - 7). I'm a 6 - 6 1/2. I went into a local store to see what size I am and I couldn't decide. The 36 was a bit snug, the 37 a bit roomy. I ended up ordering the 37 but I may have made a mistake. Ugggh. I have 30 days to decide. I'm going to get some funky socks and see if that makes a difference. I'm hoping since I will be wearing these with socks that I made the right choice with the 37. Only time will tell, and so will I.

The other thing I got was this months Jenni Bowlin scrapbook kit. Love it! It's so fun opening the package to see what she is including this month. It never stops to amaze me that the kit always looks better in person then the picture on her website. Not that the picture is bad mind you but for some reason I'm never quite sure. But, when it comes it's always perfect! I think only one time have I followed her instructions and used the products like she has chosen to do. It's just my way of getting product I wouldn't necessarily be able to find in any of the stores or at least in just one store. Only problem with this shipment was the box was damaged and all the yummy papers were bent. Really bent. Bent enough to really bother me. This is heavy duty paper and you can really tell. I just hate that. I emailed her to let her know. That was disappointing.

Overall, even though both items have some issue with it, I'm still glad I ordered them. Once I resolve the shoe size issue and hopefully get some unbent papers I will be one happy camper. To top this day off the mail didn't have any bills in it! Now that's what I call a good mail day!

On a sidebar, having referenced QVC above. This was my first experience with QVC. I've watched the infommercials before but never ordered anything. So funny 'cause when I was done placing my order and giving my credit card information she confirmed my order and then welcomed me to the QVC family. LOL! This could be dangerous.

To Do's - To Done!
The month of August was crazy for us. We went on two trips. Although fun and deserving it messed everything up. I've been spending the past week trying to go through my huge list of To Do's. I'm happy to report that a large majority of my To Do's are now To Done! What a huge relief! Some of those suckers have been hanging around for several months!!

Is Fall around the corner?
The last two days it has been - dare I say - Cool outside. We have opened our windows and I've even put on my new David Letterman sweatshirt. I LOVE fall. It is my favorite time of year. I love wearing comfy clothes, sitting by the fireplace (with it on - gas), having a glass of wine and watching tv and/or reading something. I also like working in the fall with the windows open. It somehow makes the work a little bit of fun. I work from home which is WONDERFUL. I get to wear what I want and watch TV throughout the day. Ok - most of the time it's off or on Mute but still having that as an option is really great. I've even been in the mood to begin thinking about Christmas gifts. As a matter of fact I'm going to put that in my planner (see previous posts) as a reminder to make my master list. Days like today make me smile.

Scrapbooking
I really need to set time aside and get some things done. Right now I have photos and memorabilia dating back many, many years. I really want to put my sons albums together but I'm stuck on exactly how I want to do this. I've finally organized all my photos so I can get to them quickly (physical photos I'm talking about here) but the memorabilia is out of control. I've decided the best way to tackle it is to put it in albums. Just get it done!!

Weight Loss
Ugggh. The dreaded weight loss issue. I've never truely had to worry about my weight until the past few years but I have gained substantial weight and I have to do something about it. Sitting at the computer working non-stop, stress, no exercise, Coke and oopherectomy have combined taken a toll on my my stomach and well other places. DH and I did go look at some exercise equipment (Bowflex and Treadmill) but we haven't pulled the trigger yet on it. I've cleared a nice space in the basement where it all will go. (That was my scrapbook area which I moved upstairs). It's just a matter of time.

I'm now being forced to exercise a bit because we were in a car accident and I've sustained Whiplash. I've always thought of whiplash as having a negative vibe about it because it's not something one can see from outward appearances usually and a lot of people have taken advantage of their diagnosis. But I'm learning it really is something real. My neck has continued to cause me problems since the accident like sporadic cricks in my neck, loss of range of motion and pain of varing degrees. My husband set up a doctor appointment for me and the xrays revealed substantial whiplash. I didn't believe an xray could show that but the doctor walked me through it. Sure enough, my neck is messed up. My neck does not look like the picture of what it's supposed to be. Part of my treatment is physical therapy. They are going to teach me to do certain exercises to stregthen my neck and back. I'm hoping this is going to sike me up to do more exercise on the rest of my body parts. Fingers crossed.

Decorating and DIY.
Love this so much! I'm an Interior Design major but have never officially practiced it. I love decorating, designing and building things. That's a picture of our fireplace mantel I designed and built. There isn't much to it but we love it. (It looks a lot better in person then in the photo). The pieces on the front are old porch balustrades we got at a giant flea market. My latest project are drapery panels in my family room. The fabric has been chosen, bought, cut and literally hung up but not sewed. That's a To Do that's been on my list for at least six months. I'm thinking I might need to tackle that one sooner then later. Hold on while I add that in my planner...

Estate Sales...
My dh's Aunt and I go to Estate Sales on the weekends sometimes. It is SO MUCH FUN! I'm checking the papers Saturday morning and if there are some going on this weekend we are going! We have a great system in place. I check the papers and print out mapquest to all the ones we want to go to. I then put them in order based on location. We have been doing it long enough that we know the areas we prefer to go to - you know the areas with the big old houses. We take our car (Yukon XL) so there is plenty of room for any goodies we want to bring home. She drives though. We have found that I'm a much better navigator and she doesn't get distracted when driving. LOL! It goes much smoother and faster this way.

We also have a system of where we go once at the house. We immediately go through the family room, kitchen while finding our way to the basement and garage. If there is an extra building outside that is added bonus because the good stuff is usually out there. Of course you have to check out the backyard . All equally important. My best all time can't believe it type of find was my old (I'm not saying antique because I'm not sure) drafting table. I got such a steal on it I almost hyperventalated. Seriously. It is such an awesome story which I'll save for another day.

Another thing that I get excited about when going to Estate Sales is when the sale is at one of the big old houses. It's like double bonus points here as we get to tour the house in addition to the stuff. I've been caught googling over architectural details of houses instead of the items in it on many occassions. I've even called my best friend from one of them to tell her about the details. I just LOVE everything about houses and the older the better.

Oh, I'm so siked to go. I hope with this weekend being Memorial Day that doesn't mean it will be a slow Estate Sale weekend. Will have to let you know.

That's it for now. Just some of my random thoughts for the day. Hope you have a great day too!