Sarah's Scrapping Blog Babble

New blog address and look

2007-03-21T00:23:00.000-05:00

I've moved my blog to my server now..

new address:
http://sarahs-scraps.com/blog

Sale at DSS!

2007-03-17T17:51:00.000-05:00

In honor of St. Patrick's Day today...many designers at DSS are having a 30% off sale! It's only good today, so run quickly and pick up some goodies at a great deal!

My DSS Store.

Don't forget everything in my PDW store is still on sale through tonight also for 33% off!

Wanna Free puffy sticker alpha?

2007-03-16T16:40:00.000-05:00

come join me tonight for my chat at SBB - the Scrap an Event chat - 11 PM Est. Those that post by midnight Saturday night will be PM'd the alpha. If you can't make it to the chat, you can still participate, just post in the Scrap an Event gallery by tomorrow night. Tonight's theme is "Spring is in the air." So thing about what means spring to you and scrap your layout and post. :) If you need a little more info or more ideas, see my posting here.

33% OFF

2007-03-15T14:55:00.001-05:00

Howdy howdy...I haven't had a chance to make a new pretty little ad, but I wanted to share that everything in my store at PDW is 33% of today through Saturday! Be sure to stop in and pick up some goodies at a great price.

My PDW store here.

What a week

2007-03-12T15:45:00.000-05:00

Man..when I went on my little girl's only vacation the first weekend of March, I had no idea I'd come back to a week of insanity. I did absolutely no designing, but I did finally scrap a page about my weekend on Friday.

Here's last week in a quick glance:
Monday
flight arrived at 10:30 AM
lunch with dh, dd#2 and FIL
nap while Ky napped
hung out with FIL
took Alyssa to TKD (FIL stayed home with Ky since she was sick)
went to bed early since I could barely stay awake

Tuesday
FIL went home
slept in a few hours and I think I may have taken a nap when Ky did too
trip to Alyssa's school to pick up things in the evening
early bedtime

Wednesday
9:30 AM Dr. appt for me with the OB/GYN
another nap during Ky's nap time (I could barely stay awake all week)
Girl Scout meeting in the evening

Thursday
Morning things with Eric and Ky
2:00 Dr appt for Alyssa
Ballet in the evening

Friday
9:15 Songram at OB/GYN office (she said all was good, didn't find any new cysts! yay)
Design my chat freebie (ok I fibbed about doing no design - I did have to do this)
Pick up Alyssa from School because school bus was broken
Baiely Vet appt
Host my chat

Saturday
relatively relaxing day just hanging out with the kids outside and writing out Alyssa's birthday part invites.
Dinner with the kids and dh
Shopping with the girls when Eric went to work
laaate night - not a good idea! lol

Sunday
early morning - barely drug my butt outta bed LOL
church
lunch with Eric and girls
Zoo
nap during Ky's nap
evening with the girls since Eric was at work again

Whew..and that week is finally over. Today I slept so late. I was sooo tired still from being up too late Saturday night and getting up early Sunday. I went to bed later last night than I should have too, and yet I still didn't do any designing. I did finish some things for OPA that I needed to finish.

so for this week... a little slower, but I have got to get caught up now
Today
didn't wake up in time to go to the gym (oops)
Tae Kwon Do (TKD) this evening

Tuesday
lunch duty at Alyssa's school (Eric may do this so he can see Alyssa)

Wednesday
nothing on the schedule yet (yay!)

Thursday
Girl Scout troop going roller skating

Friday
Parent Teacher Conference with Alyssa's teacher
Stampin Up party to go to (yippee some social time for mommy)

Saturday
Eric will have reserves duty this weekend....not sure what I'll be doing with the girls yet. We invited a family to come over for dinner, but they have a wedding to go to. I was going to invite another family, but I think we may just enjoy the quiet.

Sunday
Eric has reserves again, but I think we'll take Alyssa out for dinner since it's her birthday.

Hopefully I can get some design things caught up this week since it's slower that I need to do.

OK..what a totally boring post today! LOL I just can't believe how tired and unmotivated I've been for a week now. It's so insane. I hope my normal energy and motivation return very soon. I hate being so unproductive and constantly tired.

OH... I suppose I could share some Layouts.

This is one I did for the SBB March Ezine - Alyssa at the park back in Oct. Credits here.

here's another I did for the March Ezine. This one was done using a template freebie I made for the Ezine. If you haven't gotten your ezine yet, go pick it up - it's got some nice goodies in it. :) Credits here for this one.

And finally, here is a page I did Friday night of Janelle and I from the weekend before. She prolly won't love me for posting this one since her eyes are kinda closed - but it's the ONLY picture I have of both of us. I might have to see if I can switch her out somehow using the picture I took of her with her family. I used my freebies that I made for my chat Friday night on this page plus a few other extras - full credits here.

Oh..I don't think I've shared this kit yet either that I made for the March Ezine at SBB. Again, you can get this kit free, and several other goodies and kits when you purchase the Ezine for just $5.00 - or get yourself an annual subscription for only $35.

Ok..time to help Alyssa with some homework and then we've got to get to TKD tonight.

Gift for you

2007-03-09T21:31:00.000-06:00

I know it's a bit into March already, but with my busy week, I just finally got around to making myself a new wallpaper for my computer this month. I decided to make it nice and springy and PINK for my girls. :) It's a simple wallpaper with lots of extra space to fit all my icons, or notes. I used my new Spring Fling kit at DSS, my polaroid frame from my frames vol. 1 at PDW, and one of my paint and splatter brushes available at DSS. Anyhow... after I finished... I decided to delete my pictures and make it into a PNG overlay that I could share with my wonderful blog readers. I went ahead and modified it to make a blue version as well for those of you that don't want/need PINK. hehe

So...if you can use it, I hope you enjoy. The download includes both the pink and blue version so you can use the one you want.
Download your free wall paper overlay here.

I'm back from South Carolina

2007-03-06T23:38:00.000-06:00

I got home yesterday from my weekend with Janelle in Myrtle Beach. We just hung out and went shopping all day Saturday. We watched a movie at the hotel Saturday night, got lots of sleep both Friday and Saturday night, and did a little more shopping Sunday before we headed back to her house on Sunday evening. I spent quiiiiite a bit of money over the weekend, but had a blast. About all we saw of the beach, was from the balcony! LOL We were going to go walk on the beach Sunday morning, but after we checked out and put our things in the car we decided it was too chilly and windy so we just went and got lunch. We had planned on getting pedicures this weekend, but they were $75 at the hotel so we opted to shop instead with that $75 (plus a little more hehehe).

Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures to take. I only took 15 total: 6 are the beach from the hotel balcony, 1 of Janelle's family, 1 of her and I, 3 of her dd, 2 of her dh and ds, and 2 of my shopping bags Saturday night LOL Her husband and kids (and her inlaws - her dh went to his parents for the weekend with the kids about 30 min from where we were) came and met up with us for about 45 minutes to get some icees, shop at the Disney store and so I could see the kiddos. I haven't seen her daughter since her 1st birthday and her son is 3 weeks older than Kyleigh, so I hadn't met him yet.

Can you guess how much I spent this weekend? LOL..this is just the stuff I bought on Saturday, but I'll say that I didn't spend as much on Sunday. (but I did have to have it shipped home LOL).

Since returning all I want to do is sleep. I slept most of the flights home, took an hour nap yesterday while Ky was napping, was asleep by 1 am (very early for me) last night and slept till about 10 am this morn (minus getting up about 8 am to say good bye to my FIL), and then I took another hour nap while Ky was napping today. I'm still feeling tired and planning to go to bed here shortly again tonight. I have my OB Dr. appt tomorrow (last night I was so tired I thought it was today, but found out just before I went to bed that it is tomorrow). I think I'm going to talk to the Dr about these mood swings too. I'm just down again tonight for no real good reason, and this complete undesire to do anything but sleep is so out of now where. I had a great weekend, so you'd think I should be recharged and feeling great, not down. hmmmm

OH I did put up a new kit just before I left for the weekend, but I didn't have a chance to put it up on my blog. It's a new spring kit available at DSS - Spring Fling

Ok with that...I'm headed off for the night.

Photoshop Actions for Scrappers

2007-02-23T14:54:00.000-06:00

I have some new actions to help achieve some different effects to use on your photos when you're scrapping with them. These are both in my store at Digi Scrap Shak

Picture Divide
This action will quickly divide a picture into 3 equal pieces as if you took a pair of scissors to it and cut it into 3 pieces. Each section can then be moved or rotated to be placed on your layout anyway you'd like.

Works in PS CS2 and PS CS. Instructions are included.

Pick it up here in my store at DSS. Only $4.00

Photo Spot Highlight

Two actions are included in this set. One places a vellum overlay over the picture and creates a spot highlight that remains in the untouched color version. The "spot" can be moved anywhere on the photo and the size and shape can be adjusted. The color of the frame and thickness and the vellum can all be changed.

The black and white with color spot converts the photo to black and white and then creates a color spot that can be adjusted - size, shape, location, frame color and thickness. The black and white background can also be adjusted to darken the darks and brighten the lights to suit your photo and taste.

Works in PS CS2. Instructions are included.

Pick it up here in my store at DSS. Only $5.00

My Girl Scouts are in the News

2007-02-22T18:29:00.000-06:00

Thanks to many people who purchased boxes of cookies from our Brownie Girl Scout Troop for the soldiers, we managed to purchase more than 130 boxes to send to Soldiers in Iraq. Last night at our meeting we organzied the cookies, signed a banner to include in the boxes, and created a thank you card to give to all the people that purchased a box to dontate. We'll be putting a list of all donors on a thank you card in the box as well. We also had 2 newspapers show up to take pictures of the girls and find out about what we were doing. The girls were so excited. I haven't seen the actual paper yet (Eric picked one up on his way to work tonight, so when he comes home I'll scan it to share) but I found one of the online versions. You can see the online article here from the Peoria Journal Star.

Gotta love though how quote are taken out of context...one of the quotes they used from me really sounds bad out of context! LOL I had told them the goal was to send at least one box per soldier (there are 40 people in Bill's unit) but we managed to sell over 130. We told Bill when he gets them he can give 1 to each guy and then share the extras with other units or they can keep all to them self so each guy gets 3 boxes. Heck, we don't really care how they split them up and if each guy gets 3 boxes rather than only one, we're just happy to be able to send them any." Anyway...if you read the article you'll see only really that last bit made it in and it sounds like I dont' really care if they get them! LOL sigh...what can you do right?

Anyhow..thank you to all of you that purchased a box or two from Alyssa for this great project. We know the soldiers will be thrilled to get these huge boxes of tons of cookies! I'll have some pictures to add soon and I'll put the scanned actual article when I get that later.

Finally a real update and photos!

2007-02-20T10:57:00.000-06:00

I know I promised last week that I would post some pictures, and then I never did. I was trying to scrap the Valentine's Day ones, when I should have just posted the pictures first and then worried about posting the page later. I started the page Thursday night thinking I could do it real quickly and post, but then I ended up working on the page forever, completely changing it and finally giving up late that night. I just finally got back to it last night to try and finish it up. So..finally, here are a couple of the Valentine's Day shots I took of the girls in the layout that I finally completed.

I tried to take a few of me and each of the girls too, but I wasn't having a lot of luck taking pics of myself and the girls just holding my arm out. The ones of Alyssa and I are cute of her, but not by far too cute of me. LOL. Alyssa did take a few of Kyleigh and I though. I think this is about the best of those.

We had about 8 inches of snow last week (I think Monday night and all day Tuesday), and school was cancelled Tues and Wed. Eric wasn't able to get into work Tuesday either, so he ended up taking the girls out one day to play for a little bit and try to sled. The snow was so deep and fluffy though the sleds just really sank into the snow. Alyssa stayed down the street building a "snow fort" with friends so I didn't get any pictures of her past the ones of them walking down the street with the sleds. I got this one really cute picture of Kyleigh on her way out the door - she was actually for once happy and excited to go play. We had to talk her into leaving the kitty at home though.

When she and daddy came back from the hill up the street her little cheeks were sooo red. Eric said she'd taken a huge handful of snow and put her whole face in it to eat the snow! LOL She calls that snow "nummy nummy." haha

While Eric was shoveling the driveway Kyleigh and I laid in the snow to make some snow angels. Let me just recommend..if you don't have snow pants on this is not a good idea! LOL My back legs and butt were soooo cold afterwards because my pants were wet. LOL We had fun though.

The other day Kyleigh was actually wearing something besides pink so I grabbed the camera to capture this moment - to prove to everyone my kids do actually wear something besides pink all the time! ha Ky had brought me this purple poneytail holder she found in Alyssa's draw in the bathroom, so we put that in her hair. I think the poney holder is bigger than her poney tail! LOL She thought she was hot stuff though, and trying to get a picture of the BACK of her head was quite a chore. I had to chase her all over the house for several minutes to get a few decent pics.

Ok..finally, I forgot to post these last week too. I posted them at DST and DSP, but forgot to come add them to the blog. I was so busy last week trying to get lots of new things in my store at PDW for the grand re-opening. This is the 2nd set of frames I did that were distressed. I think I may have mentioned I was making them, but I didn't get the previews up.

You can pick these up at my PDW store.

This week I'm working on some more kits for SBB Ezines. I finished the kit for the May issue Sunday night. I have the June issue one to go. I also have some other upcoming special things at both PDW and DSS. I'm trying to get all these things done that will be due in early March because my FIL is coming next week and I'll be going to see my best friend next weekend. I don't expect much designing is going to get done next week. I am starting on some other new things for DSS this week - hopefully I can have some of that up by the end of this week.

Well, I should go get some lunch. I went to bed about 2 AM last night with today's goal/plan being to get up by 9:30 and go with Eric to the gym to work out. I was so tired this morning though from not having much sleep Sunday night, that I just couldn't get moving quickly. Eric didn't seem to be moving much faster than me. I guess it may take us a few days to change our schedules to be able to do this. We're both used to sleeping in a bit more. Usually Eric goes back to sleep for a few hours after Alyssa leaves for school, until Kyleigh wakes us up, but today I think he just stayed up and got Kyleigh up a little earlier. Maybe we'll make it to the gym tomorrow - wish us luck! We REALLY do want to do this. I think we may go take a walk around the neighborhood after lunch (before Eric goes to work) since it's finally a little warmer (up to almost 40 degrees today!) and so we can say we at least did something today!

Have a great day!

Announcing...

2007-02-19T16:07:00.000-06:00

my newest Creative Team members

First let me say thank you so much to all of you that applied. I was amazed by the number of applicants and the great talent out there! It was a difficult choice and i wish I could have taken more on. Thank you so much!
Please help me welcome the newest members to my Cretative Team:

Dottilicious is now available

2007-02-15T02:12:00.000-06:00

something fun and funky and all dotty and girly...Dottilicous! Available at PDW now.

Papers

Elements

Forgot to share another bit of news in my earlier post. I set up my own forum recently. I've started setting up some categories for those of you that use my product to link me to your galleries so I can be sure to see them and leave you some love. It's a great way to share ideas for inspiration for others too. I hope you'll consider coming on over to check it out and join. :) Let me know if you can think of any other categories of forums to add.

http://sarahs-scraps.com/forum

ok..I've got to get to bed here soon, so previews of the distressed frames will have to come tomorrow. It's been a crazy day. I'll have my recent layouts and some new photos to share soon too. We've had another 8 inches of snow this week, so Alyssa's been out of school for two days, and today I tried to get a good pic of both girls in red for a V-day LO, but the girls were just being silly. I did get a few cute ones of them playing.

Nighty night..

New product, DOLLAR DAYS sales, and more to come

2007-02-14T16:34:00.000-06:00

Just a quick post for now as I am stillll working on more, yep..more to come still this week.

For now: I have two new sets of PNG frames in my PDW store. Vol. 1 is a set of 10 frames, 8 are rectangular, 1 12 inch negative strip and 1 polaroid. Vol. 2 is a set of 7 square frames. Vol 3 and 4 soon to be coming - same frames but distressed. Pick these up at PDW before the 17th and they're only $1 each!!!

In honor of Valentine's Day, I have a swweeeeet treat for you at Digi Scrap Shak today and tomorrow only. EVERYTHING in my store there is $1, $2 or $3. Templates, element packs, brushes, all $1; paper packs $2, and kits for only $3!

This week is also our Grand Re-opening at PDW, so just about everything in the store there is $1, $2 or $3! LOTS of great bargains this week. These deals are good today through the 17th!
visit my PDW store here.

I have a new kit Dotilicous that will be in the store at PDW later today or tomorrow and it will also only be $3 this week during the Dollar Days Grand Re-opening. I'll be back with the preview later, and previews of the distressed frame sets. PLUS, I actually did a little scrapping recently, so I'll have some layout shares. Gotta run and take care of the kiddo for now - nap time has come to an end!

happy shopping and picking up some great great deals today.

Another Productive Day

2007-02-09T02:47:00.000-06:00

I've really been having some up and down days this week. That time of the month must be close (how sad does that sound that I don't KNOW for sure? That's my crazy hormones and upnredictable cycles for ya - lovely huh?). Anyhow, I was chatting with a good friend, Gina (CraftTeaLady) the other night as she was trying to cheer me up and help me put things into perspective. She mentioned that she bets I feel like I never do anything all day, when in reality I probably do a lot. YES, this is sooo true - and sadly I do know it. I'm so hard on myself about EVERYTHING. This even includes allowing myself to feel like I actually did a lot for the day. I make myself to do lists that are so unrealistic anyone would be unsucesful at completing it, and EVEN THOUGH I KNOW THIS, if I don't finish everything on the list, or most of it, I often tell myself.."man I just didn't get anything done today." Well I have started lately trying to cross off things on my list or check them, and even started making a new list of things accomplished. This at least allows me to see I do get things done. Gina suggested though that I write down everything I do for the day. Usually all I put on my completed list are those things I finished that were originally on my todo list, and we all know we do more than is really on that list throughout a day.

So today..here's what I've done (not necesarily in order):
Finished a kit for the April SBB Ezine
Created my freebies for my chat tomorrow (tonight)
Checked all of Alyssa's DVDs, added new ones to our movie list, and made labels for her DVD case to help her better keep track of all of these.
Cleaned the kitchen (actually a couple times - after lunch and dinner).
Made dinner (dh made lunch)
Dusted
Picked up the living room
Unpacked my bedroom (finally! We still have more to do, but we made some real progress finally)
Found all the bathroom stuff for the girls' bathroom so finished decorating that
Reorganzied a few things in the linen closet
Finished the Chevron (our publication) article requests for OPA and mailed those out
Attended a chat
Took Alyssa to ballet class
Commented many times in the SBB forum and gallery and a few times in the DSS forum and gallery
Did homework with Alyssa
Cared for and played with the kiddos
Signed up to set up a forum for OPA

Whew..I think that's all of it, but hey I may have forgotten something. Either way, that list is pretty darn long so I don't think I can say I did NOTHING today! lol

Alyssa has been a challenge lately. Her teacher has discussed the possibility of ADD with me, to which I was at first shocked and thought absolutely no way. The more I watch her, the more I am wondering. Her teacher called me again last night about her behavior (she's not doing anything terrible in school, she's just really independent and doesn't always follow directions as she should - no surprise since I have the same problem here). We talked about what happend for the day and then talked more about signs/red flags the teacher has noticed that may be ADD indicators. I think the best thing may be to at least discuss it farther with her doctor and do a little more research - it's been a long time since I read or studied anything on ADD. It's almost time for her 7 year old annual well child dr. visit, so I think I may go ahead and see if I can make the appt a little early to start discussing this.

Today she and I were putting the labels in her DVD case while Kyleigh was napping (Alyssa got out of school early today). When we were done, she went upstairs a few minutes ahead of me. I went up just a couple minutes later to get things out of her back pack and called her to come so we could go through things she brought home and do her homework. She didn't answer, so I started looking all over and started getting really irriated that she was hiding or something. Finally I realized she just wasn't in the house! Her coat and shoes were gone. The back door was still locked, so she must have gone out the front. She was no where around the house. I started to panic - she's NEVER left the house without asking me, and I was just at a loss. I finally called down to one of her friends down the street and sure enough she was down there! UGH I was so upset with her. I told her she was going to be grounded for a week. She's never been grounded before, and she has two birthday parties she was invited to this weeeknd. I feel terrible to take away all of her time with friends, and not let her go to the parties, espeically since she's never done something like this before, and I've never grounded her before. I just don't know.... She does have a Girl Scout Daddy Daughter dance tomorrow that Eric took off work for the day to take her too, and I'm still letting her go to that. I'll have to sleep on the parties. Eric has Saturday this weekend off too so we were planning to go do a few things all together. hmmm She was really good the rest of the night for me, and the girls didn't fight or anything today (that's really RARE these days!). All things to consider.

Well, I'd love to blog more, but it's getting late and I'm pretty tired. I have another dental appt tomorrow - turns out I have two small cavities so now I have to go get fillings. bummer... I also still need to finish my contribution for the February PDW kit tomorrow. I need to make a call tomorrow to set up a roller skating activity for my GS troop too. Lots more todo...as I said earlier always a full to do list.

Oh before I go, I do have a new LO share. This one I did a little while back for the February SBB Ezine, so I couldn't show it before now. Just a simple page of Kyleigh sucking her little thumb with her nose bent. hehe

Ky Nov 06 (credits here)

I've been productive AND scrapped

2007-02-06T23:42:00.000-06:00

I haven't done any designing now for two days! I've been working on OPA stuff, and did some work in my bedroom again for a little bit this morning. My goal is to get that darn room unpacked by next week - a little a day I'll eventually get it down. So, I cleaned out my OPA email today..it had over 200 emails in the inbox and now has about 15 that I need for website work for them. I did a bunch of current webupdates, and next will be work on the quarterly publication that is coming up again next week week plus I am aiming to finish up all the last bits of this new website package by the end of this week. This project just feels like it's been on going for forever now. Heck it started before Kyleigh was born!

Anyhow..I'm taking an OPA break now for the evening. I'll have to do some more on it tomorrow and then some design work I need to do (some new deadlines coming) tomorrow night. For tonight, I think I may try to scrap another page.

Here's a few new pages I posted early this morning and this afternoon. :) It felt so good to do some scrapping again after nothing for 3 weeks now.

{Snow Friend}

(credits here)

{Brownies for Uncle Bill}

(credits here)

{Bill & Jamie cover}

Used cover page in my 8x8 png Sweet Sensation mini album

{All Bundled Up}
(credits)

Ok..well I know this is a short posting..but I want to get in some scrap time and see if I can finish another page tonight. I can't stay up late tonight as I have a dental appt in the morning and need to work at unpacking that bedroom in the morning while I have Eric around to maybe help!

More new stuff and a couple goodies for you

2007-02-05T02:26:00.000-06:00

{new at DSS this week}

Well, it turns out...my Sweet Sensations Kit is going to be available at DSS now along with the mini album I made from it last week. Since this is a smaller kit, I've listed this one for only $3.50. It has 4 papers, 10 elements, 1 PNG quick page and a full alpha.

I have a little add-on to go with the kit as well. It's a couple extra elements I made when I was creating the mini album.

You can have this free by downloading here. (please consider leaving me a comment if you take). (DON'T pop out of here too fast...there's another goodie still in this post for you).

{new at PDW this week}

I also have a new item at PDW this week - My new Sponge Stamped Alpha. You can pick this up here.

{Available in the SBB Ezine this month}

I have a new kit that will be available free for download in the February Ezine at SBB - be sure to pick up your copy to get it and many other exclusive downloads, wonderful tutorials, and great articles and inspiration. I can't show you the my kit preview until the ezine goes out, but how about a little teaser? hehe

{Ok, and one last bit of design news...}

To celebrate Amy C. and I both starting up at PDW, we've moved our Winter Dreams Collection there and we're "re-launching" it this week.

Since winter is almost over, we've dramatically reduced it for this new launch. You WON'T want to miss these new deals! The individual kits and mini album have been reduced from $5.00 to $3.50, and when you buy the complete collection (4 kits and the mini album) which would normally be worth $25.00, you only pay $10.00!!! AND, you get a bonus element pack not available for individual purchase!

and if that's not enough..for all our blog readers, you can get the add-on that was previously only available at our launch chat here for free!

Download this freebie here (please consider leaving us a comment when you take)

Ok and with that...I'm taking a day or two off from design as I really need to spend a couple full days working and catching up on some OPA work that I've neglected and meant to get done this weekend.

{little personal update before I head out this morning}

I know it's been so long since I've posted anything besides previews! I've been just busting my butt to try and get lots of new goodies in both stores to make up for my lack of new product in December, and to fill up my new store at PDW. Anyhow.....

My best friend and I finally picked a place to go for our girls only weekend, picked dates and I bought the plane tickets yesterday! whoo hoo We are going to Myrtle Beach next month to relax, veg and pamper our selves. OK, maybe a little scrapping too..I'll prolly show her how to digi scrap while I'm there - see if I can convert another hehe. I can't wait to go - not just for the relaxing weekend, but because I haven't seen her since October 2004 when we were both prego with our 2nd kids. Her little boy was born about 3 weeks before Kyleigh, so we've both been pretty busy since the spring of 2005. :)

Dh and I went on a date last night - our first since our anniversary in JUNE! We went out to the coolest little restaurant for dinner, but by the time we finally got seated and finished dinner, it was too late to go to a movie, so we did a little shopping and then came home. It was so nice to just have a couple hours together again with no kiddos. When we got home the babysitters already had the girls in bed so we got out one of our movies we hadn't yet seen and watched that here. Turned out to still be a great evening. We really need to do a date night at least once a month.

Oh, I can't remember if I ever posted that I finally did make some calls and made an appointment for my annual ob/gyn appt so I can also talk to the dr at the same time about my endometriosis. I figure this way I'm not having to pay to go to the Primary Care Doctor just for him to refer me off to a speicalist. This way I am actually going to my regular appointment and if needed they can refer me to a specialist from there. I just didn't want to pay $80 to just see a dr for a referrel. I don't think I hav a copay, or at least it's less than $80, to do my annual OB/GYN appt, so this is a little easier to do.

OK..well I think I want to hit the bed earlier tonight than I have been doing for many days now. I've got some more design work to do for this week, but I'm taking a few days off. I already did a big house cleaning today, so I'll have all day tomorrow to be able to concentrate on getting caught up on OPA stuff, and MAYBE I'll even get to scrap tomorrow night! It's only been like 3 WEEKS! :(

Happy Monday.

Looking for a few good scrapers…

2007-02-04T06:29:00.000-06:00

I have a few new openings on my creative team, and would love to see what you have to offer.

You can view my designs at Digi Scrap Shak and Plain Digital Wrapper.

Basic Requirements:
*Create 1 LO per week, up to 4 per month.
*Post at the store galleries I sell in (DSS and PDW), DST and one other of your choice
*Display my blinkie in your signature

If you’re interested in working with my designs, please send me your name, user id, link to your most complete gallery, any other CTs you are on, and 2-3 (500x500, less than 125K) of your favorite LOs.

Applications due by Feburary 15. Email to scrappinsarah@aggienetwork.com with CT Application in the subject line.

Looking for something for the boys?

2007-02-02T15:01:00.000-06:00

New at PDW, I present "Garrett" This kit was made with boys in mind, but the elements are still general enough the can be used on anything. The name sake comes from my CTM Amanda Heimann's (aggiefamily) little boy Garrett who is such a cutie!

If you pick up BOTH the Garrett elements and papers this weekend, you can use code "garrettcombo" to get an extra $1.00 off the already discounted price. Regularly it will be $3.00 for each part, but for a short time it is listed at $2.50 each..with the coupon you can get both the elements and papers for a total of $4.00!!!

Pick these up here in my store at PDW.

and here is a LO by Amanda of her son Garrett in his special vest using this new kit named just for him! Be sure to stop by her posting to see her full credits and leave her some love.

Sweet Sensations mini album

2007-02-01T17:27:00.000-06:00

I have a few new things to share!! :)

Sweet Sensations 8x8 Mini Album at DSS

New to the DSS store today, My 8x8 mini ablum made from my Sweet Sensations Kit.

The album includes 8 pages and 1 cover, 8x8 in size and all png quickpage format. All you need to do is pop in your pictures and any text you want to add and in a few seconds you'll have a SWEET gift.

These are just in time for you to make a quick gift for someone special for Valentine's, or the colors are appropriate for a later date as well. ENJOY. Regular Price will be $5.49, but it's on sale for $4.00 untill February 8! Pick it up today and have your gifts ready tomorrow.

I'll have some more previews and goodies on my site this weekend, so be sure to check back. :)

Happy Scrapping

And the winning LO is....

2007-01-30T23:00:00.000-06:00

Ok..took me a few days to go through the galleries..I wrote down 20 pages I saw that used at least 50% of my goodies and then I went and checked siggies for the blinkies...I now have a winner...

LO #1 was by jsiebenlist at DSS posted 1/24/ @ 9:22 PM

jsiebenlist used a template from my Snappy Scraps Collection 5 (available at DSS) combined with Amy C's "Crash" Her full credits can be seen here.

LO #2 was by Deb06 at SBB posted 1/24 @ 10:24 PM

Debra used elements and alpha from my Adore Kit which is available free on my website (sarahs-scraps.com). Full credits here.

and the winning LO...

by Jannylynn at DSS posted 1/26 @ 6:41 PM

Jannylynn used a template from my Snappy Scraps Collection 11 available at DSS and my Paint and Splatter Brushes combined with "Little Prince" by Denise Bailey and a few other goodies. See her full credits here.

Congratulations to Jannylynn for winning the full Snappy Scraps Collection 11, and congrats to jsiebenlist and Debra as well for being #1 and #2. I'll be PMing you ladies to allow you to select one of the templates in collection 11 free, plus I'll send you a coupon to get the rest of the collection at a discounted price. :)

And....finally. I want to thank all the ladies that had LO's posted in the last week. I found 20 pages with 50% or more of my designs used. All those that also had a blinkie in their siggie when I did the blinkie check tonight at 10 PM Central time will be getting a 20% off coupon good in both of my stores. The following people will be getting PM'd with coupon codes:

jsiebenlist (@dss)
jannylynn(@dss)
wildblueeyez(@dss)
deb06(@sbb)

Congratulations everyone! Everyone else...grab your sarah's scraps fan blinkie and be on the lookout for future blinkie related contests. :)

Last chance..winner to be announced tonight

2007-01-30T15:25:00.000-06:00

OK I've got a list of 20 LOs I've seen in the galleries, and I've got them all ordered. I will be looking through forums tonight to check for blinkies. This is your last chance to add your blinkie to your signature if you haven't already. My fan blinkie is over in the right side column - be sure to save to your computer and host on your own service.

I'll have a little something for any of the 20 LOs I've seen that have the blinkie when I check this evening. Number 3 will get Snappy Scraps Collection 11 free, and number 1 and 2 will get a small gift as well. :)

Good luck everyone!

NEW: Card Kits!

2007-01-25T15:49:00.000-06:00

Here's a new concept, combining the popularity in templates and card making with a mini kit, all to make it a quick and easy step to make personalized cards easily and quickly. The mini kit can also be used when scrapping a LO.

This first one is for Valentine's day. Pick it up today here and enter coupon code "oneday20" and you'll get 20% off! Only good today, so don't delay.

Busy Bee

2007-01-24T04:29:00.000-06:00

Another late night (early morning) for me. I've been a busy bee trying to design this week for my stores. I've got a new set of templates up at DSS now, and this week I will have a brand new first in a new series of items that will be available at PDW. I will explain the new series more when I have the preview and am ready to load it to PDW, but here's a little sample of something I made using this new set.

(credits: all papers and elements by me)

Here's the preview for Snappy Scraps Collection 11 available now at DSS.

{fun little contest for my fans}

I'll be on the lookout for someone to give this new template set to for free. Make sure you grab your sarah's scraps fan blinkie and add it to your siggies. I'll be browsing some galleries this week looking for anyone who's posted a LO using ANY of my products. The 3rd person's page I come across that also has my fan blinkie in their siggie will win this template set for free. :)

I'll begin looking on Wednesday, Jan 24. Your page will have to have been posted Jan 24th or later, and at least 50% of the page will need to use any of my designs. I'll PM the winner when and where ever I see the LO. I typically browse the following galleries: SBB, DSS, DST, and PDW. If you post somewhere else other than these galleries, please leave me a comment here to let me know of other galleries I need to be looking through. :) I'll also post the winner here on my blog when I reach #3.

Remember, Post a LO this week using at least 50% of any of my product and have my fan blinkie in your siggie. If you don't post in one of the four galleries I typically browse, leave me a comment here to check out the gallery you post to. :) Good luck everyone. The third person I find that meets these requirements will win Snappy Scraps Collection 11 FREE. (hmm am I getting really redundant? I think I'm really tired LOL)

Well I know this is a short post tonight/this morn..but I'm pooped so I'm heading to bed.

Happy Scrapping

Today's goal: relax

2007-01-21T11:33:00.000-06:00

Well yesterday was a day from hell. Ky woke me up at 8 AM (a little early for her usual time, and only 4 hours after I had gone to bed *yawn*) and had thrown up all over her bed. *yuck* So immediately upon waking I was cleaning. She ate some applesauce and a little bit of cereal and drank some water for breakfast, and all seemed fine. She acted normal, nothing came up, no fever...so by lunch I had forgotten she'd been sick and I just made her a normal lunch like Alyssa's. While we were eating, she threw up everything about 2/3 of the way through lunch. So...off we went to change her clothes again and clean that up again. Then of course she acted normal again up till I put her down for her nap. I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned alllll day (the only break was lunch and here and there I sat down for just a few minutes, and I did take a shower while Ky was napping). The cleaning was going so well, I thought I would be done early, have some time to relax before everyone came, and even maybe actually get to my room too (I never get to my room) and maybe even unpack a few boxes in there. WELL...all that thinking was before Ky woke from nap. When she got up, she was fine, but within about 10 minutes she was throwing up. I got her all cleaned up and then we went to the basement to help Alyssa finish picking up some last things so I could vacuum the play room. Eric called in the middle of it and I ran back up stairs to get my list of things I needed him to grab for me from the grocery store, and then I went to put the ham in the oven. As I was prepping the ham, Ky was messing around with my legs and I looked down and she was throwing up again all over my feet. *ugh* So, I stopped cleaned all that up, washed my hands again and threw the ham in the oven, and then went to change her AGAIN, and then I sat down on the couch to put some new socks on my feet. As I got the first sock 1/2 way on, she began to heave again, so I had to stick my hands out to throw up so she wouldn't throw up on her clothes again and the carpet. *ewwwww* Cleaned that one up and gave her a cup to try to aim into the next round, and FINALLY went down stairs to try and finish vacuuming. While I was down here the girls went upstairs, and within a few minutes...you guessed it...Alyssa yelled down to me that Ky was throwing up AGAIN! OMG Just then Eric walked in the door! LOL After I was all down vacuuming, I was upstairs again to change Ky's clothes for the umpteenth time and finally to get myself ready in a hurry with only 30 min left now till people would come. And yes, I hadn't gotten to my room yet! *sigh*

Oh well...the dinner party went well and we didn't have much trouble keeping Ky from the other kids. She was happy to just sit in mommy or daddy's lap and rest. We had no more throwing up episodes (but I had taken the water away as I suspected it was causing the problems). She did end up eating a little rice and applesauce and even a few chips and by the night even a little piece of cake. She held that down and went to bed easily and slept all throw the night. No throwing up yet today *fingers crossed* and the rest of us still feel fine *fingers double crossed*.

Soooooo on to more exciting things than sick kids....

I can't believe I didn't blog all week and haven't put up any of my previews. I'm not sure if I put up my previews up at DST or DSP. I've been so out of it this week. Let's see if I can put some previews in here now...on hello bloggerbot says it's dead - that's how I've always loaded my pictures, so I hope I can get this to work through here. It seems every month there's a new problem with updating this blog.

My new birthstone charms at DSS

Ok I got an image in here, but now this formatting is irritating me. Let me put in some of the others and I'll have to play more with the format later as Ky is just having melt downs every couple of minutes - thus this posting is taking me allll morning.

My new TWO pager templates available at PDW.

Ok, well I have a few other things I've been working on that I want to show everyone, but since this post has taken forever and my kids are now starving for lunch...I'll have to come back and play with this later to add more and fix the formatting. errr

Lata gatas.

I really am still here

2007-01-20T03:55:00.000-06:00

Things have been so crazy this week, I've barely been on the internet. I have lots of things to share, but I just can't do it all right now. I've been cleaning up the ocmputer room and I've got to get to bed here in a few minutes. I have to get up early with the girls tomorrow while Eric has reservers. I'll be cleaning and cooking all day as we have a potluck dinner party at our house Saturday night. I haven't done ANY scrapping this week :( but I've been designing. Unfortunately (for me and my stores) it hasn't been much for my stores. I did put something new in each store this week though. There are new 2 page templates in my PDW store and Birthstone charms in my DSS store. I'll have previews of these and all the other things I've been doing this week later.

Have a happy Saturday and see everyone soon. :)

BIG NEWS!!!

2007-01-15T04:05:00.000-06:00

I'm just bursting to share my news, but I wanted to make sure everything was set up and official before I said anything...so now...

I will now be selling at Plain Digital Wrapper!!!!

I am soo super excited!!!! I just can't WAIT to have some new goodies to put up at PDW!

I'm not leaving DSS; I'm just adding another store. I plan on selling different items for the most part in each store, so you'll still want to be sure to check out both places. I'll need to start the revamp of my sarahs-scraps website asap too so I can have one place you can find all my designs and then click to the store were they are. All with time...for now I need to just design, design, design to get some new goodies out for everyone!

I'm up late ONCE again (surprise, surprise right? LOL) tonight. I finished my two more scrap pages today, so I met the 7 pages for the page-a-day challenge this week, but man that about killed me! hahaha With the new store coming now, I don't think I'm going to be able to push it every week for that any more. Maybe here and there I will be able to, but not that I see in the next couple of weeks.

so, here's the two pages I did today (another 2 pager.) These are some OLD pictures I badly needed to get scrapped; they're from Alyssa's 5th birthday (she'll be 7 in March!).

left page (credits)

right page (credits)

Ok and finally...to celebrate my NEW Store and and exciting new opportunity, I have a new Word Pack that will be going in my PDW store this week, but FIRST I'm giving it away here for free! Get it while you can as I'll move it to the store on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.

Sorry, the free download time has expired. You can pick these up in my PDW store here.
Happy Monday to everyone!

And the winner is...

2007-01-14T13:24:00.000-06:00

Good Afternoon!

Dh gave me his pick for a winner..I asked him to pick a number between 1 and 18 and he said

#12....so

The winner is Krista!

and because I'm feeling generous and I'm so late at getting dh to pick this number, I told Alyssa to pick one too, soooo she picked #7.

which is Angela!

Congratulations to both of you ladies!

I have an email addy for Krista, need yours Angela. You can email me or PM me at DSS, so as soon as the next Snappy Scraps Collection is ready I will email or PM you both your FREE Download link! You'll probably have it before it even gets loaded to the store! :)

Thanks everyone for playing. Remember to display your blinkies proudly as I'll be on the lookout for them, and you just NEVER KNOW what I have up my sleeve for loyal blinkie displayers. hehehehe

I'm off to try and scrap TWO more pages today and finally see if I can carve out some good time for OPA today too since I should have been in New Orleans for my OPA meeting this weekend anyway. :)

WHY am I still awake again?

2007-01-14T03:24:00.000-06:00

Once again, it's 3:30 AM, and I am stillll awake! I'm not doing too well on that resolution of getting more sleep am I? Notice this year, I didn't say I'd go to bed earlier, just that I would get more sleep! LOL I haven't really been getting enough this week though as I've been trying to get all caught up on things. I don't really see myself getting too much sleep in the next couple of weeks either with the changes coming soon. I've got a biiiig secret, but can't share just yet. :) hehehe

Thanks sooo much to all of you for your comments and those of you already sporting the nifty new blinkie. :) You all rawk! I'll start watching for those blinkies, and who knows....I just might pick out people here and there sporting the blinkie for little special things....stay tuned for information on this.... OH and for the random comment winner... I told DH he needed to pick a number for me, but he went to bed before he gave me one. I'll ask him again in the morning and then post the winner. The winner will get my next Snappy Scrapps Collection FREE, coming soon. :)

I've had a fairly lazy day. I slept till almost 2 I think! YIKES...told you I haven't been getting enough sleep. Dh was off and had the girls so he just let me sleep and sleep. I caught an impromptu template chat at DSS just in time at 3ish and got another page scrapped. Then this evening I scrapped another one...2 more to make my 7 for this week! Maybe I can do it this week if I can do two more before midnight tomorrow. I don't think I'm going to be able to keep up with this page a day thing much longer. It's adding stress, and though I'm thrilled with all the pages I'm getting scrapped, I'm not getting much of anything else done now! LOL I need to find a little more balance. I do need to be doing more than one page a week, but to bump upto 7 a week right now is more than I can manage, and things are only going to get a little tougher here soon. NOPE...still not telling my news...gonna have to wait. lalalalalala hehe

Ok..here's my pages from today and then I better go to bed. I can't sleep in too long if I'm going to get two more pages done before midnight tomorrow and try to get a few other things done that I need to do.

Alyssa's Self Portraits
credits

Resolutions
credits

Ok and with that...I'm off to bed... till tomorrow!

a little gift, and a random prize

2007-01-13T05:04:00.000-06:00

Well, my flight to New Orleans was cancelled. :( United left me a message that they had rescheduled me on a flight that leaves Sunday morning and would arrive in New Orleans at 3:35 PM. That's all fine and dandy, but my return flight leaves New Orleans at 5:30 PM! Not to mention that I'd miss all of my meeting Saturday and Sunday, so what's the point? I asked if they had any other airlines that they could switch me to, and the only thing they could come up with would get me there tonight at 5:30 PM (provided there are no other delays). That would put me in New Orleans for at least 24 hours, BUT most of the meeting occurs on Saturday. I just don't think it's fair to OPA to spend $500 for me to fly out and only end up in about 1/3 of the meeting, so I told the airline to just cancel my flight and refund my ticket. They said no problem, we'll refund you the complete ticket price, BUT it usually takes about 2-3 billing cycles for it to show up on your credit card statement! GOOD GRIEF! *sigh* what can you do? anyway...

I'm about to head to bed. Yes, I've been up all night working on some things and was dealing with phone calls to the airline and expedia trying to resolve this. I'll be back later, but wanted to share a little something I finished up for my loyal friends and customers. :) I hope you like it!

Please right click on the blinkie and save and then load to your own hosting (i.e. photobucket) service, and then you can proudly display in your sigie lines and blogs! Thanks so much for your support.

OH..and I'll be watching for comments today to pick a random commentor to give my next Snappy Scraps Collection to FREE! :)

I'll be back later....

Thursday, going on Friday

2007-01-12T03:29:00.000-06:00

I didn't get a chance to pop on here to blog earlier, so just gonna have to do a very early Friday entry now. hehe

{A little Scrap Business First}
We're having a STORE WIDE sale Friday and Saturday all day at Digi Scrap Shak.

I've got a new set of templates up in the store that are included in the sale, and all of my template collections 1-9 also include PNG files along with PSD and JPG now. These can now be used for scrappers using programs that can't open the PSD layered templates. If you can open PNG files, you can now use these templates. Instructions are included.

{Business of the day}
I didn't quite get done all that I wanted to today, but I did get a few things done. My days this wee have been so thrown off with Alyssa's school bus not running. I needed to get another 2 rooms cleaned today, but just didn't have the energy to do it. Mabye tomorrow depending on how things go.

Friday's goals:

I think that's MORE than I'm really going to be able to accomplish..... but it's what I NEED to be getting done.

{Scrap an Event Chat}
For tonight's chat at 11 PM Est at SBB, we will be scrapping "firsts," as in first date, first bike ride, first birthday, first steps, etc...

Freebie for those that post to the Scrap an Event Chat by Saturday midnight.

{New Scrap pages}
Two new pages today from Christmas morning. These were made using one of the 2 pager templates in a new soon to come 2pgr collection.

Christmas 06 Kyleigh
credits

Christmas 06 Alyssa
credits

{Girl Scout Cookies and the Soldiers}
Many of you know my brother is in Iraq, and my daughter is in Girl Scouts. As a gesture of friendship and support our troop selected my brother and his unit as a group to send cookies to. All the girls in our troop are selling Girls Scout Cookies right now, and in addition they're asking if people would like to buy an extra box or two to send to the soldiers in Iraq from our troop. This offers a great way for friends and family that are not near by to get the cookies easily from the girls to still purchase cookies and support their favorite Girl Scout. Our troop will add up all the extra boxes sold in the end and we'll order a variety of different boxes and ship them all to my brothers troop. I think it is such a sweet gesture by the girls to show their love and support to Alyssa as well as for our Soldiers serving in Iraq.

If by some chance you'd be interested in donating a box or two as well, you can paypal me at sarah96 @ aggienetwork.com (obviously, you need to take out the spaces, I just didn't want it to link here and increase the volumes of junk mail I already get hehe). The cookies are $3.00 a box. You can put GS Cookies for the soldiers in the subject and add your name in the description so we can put a thank you letter and sign your name to it in the box we send.

I'll be sure to take pictures to show the cookies and such before we mail them out.

Thanks in advance to all that would like to donate.

Ok with that...it's almost 4 AM now, so I think I better go get some sleep so I can start on that todo list tomorrow. I'll need to have everything done and be ready to go to bed right after my chat tomorrow so I can get up and leave at 4:30 AM (so like 24 hrs from now) Saturday morning to drive to the airport. ugh...

Hump Day

2007-01-10T10:00:00.000-06:00

We're off to a wonderfully fun and exciting Wednesday already! NOT! LOL.

Eric woke me as he was about to leave at 9 am this morning. As I woke up I heard Ky already starting to fuss in her room. Almost within seconds of Eric waking me, my cell phone rang. It was the mailing house letting me know they finally received the OPA newsletter and needed the mailing list now. So then after hanging up (I mean this took like 1 - 2 minutes), I went to use the bathroom real quick and headed into Ky's room to get her out of bed and change her. She was already hysterical by the time I got there. GOOD GRIEF! I mean come on..it had only been MAYBE 5 minutes since I heard her start waking up to when I got in there. *sigh*...why are kids sooo impatient? I won't even go into the details of the next 2-3 melt downs, we'd be here FOREVER if I blogged about every melt down or little thing this kid does every day. LOL Not that it is all bad, but she has got some REAL personality already at this age. She's really a stinker and thinks she is quite the funny girl.

Anyway, we've had breakfast now and I've sent off the mailing list. Getting ready to go upstairs and attempt some cleaning with the lovely help of Kyleigh (that should be a blast huh? LOL). Hopefully the morning will go fairly smooth and we'll wait until after nap for hell to break loose as usual.

So...on the list for today: new templates, OPA website package (OMG!!! I have 3 days left to finish everything I need to for this), dental appointment scheduling, a little more cleaning, and I hope some SCRAPPING tonight. Oh... I do need to start on my freebies for Friday too...we'll see if I can get to that this evening, if not, it will have to be on the list for tomorrow. I've already got quite a full plate to try and complete today. I sent myself an email from my phone (cuz I'd already shut down my computer and was laying in bed when I was thinking about it) last night (ok this morning) with several scrapping ideas I want to do...BUT I think I mistyped my email addy in the phone and so now I didn't get it! UGH...I'll have to see if I can find an OUTbox for my cell phone somewhere. uuugh..

Ok so happy hump day to everyone, and wish me luck on this long list today!

Terrible Tuesday...on the verge of Terrible TWO

2007-01-09T23:02:00.000-06:00

So today has been quite the DAY! I went to bed late (about 3:30) expecting to be able to sleep till about 8:30 (since DH had to be somewhere this morning). I don't remeber what time Ky woke up, but it was MUCH before 8:30. I vaguely remembered Eric saying he didn't realize it was Tuesday not Wednesday, so it didn't have to go in early afterall. He too was for whatever reason tired too, so neither of us wanted to deal with her just yet, and we hoped she would fall back to sleep. NO such luck. We tried bringing her in to lay down with us, but that didn't work either. She'd be still long enough just to let us fall back to sleep, then get up or sing, or something, to wake us back up. At one point she thought she was quite funny to JUMP on us and jumped so hard on my stomach when I was half asleep. OHHH it hurt so much and for so long. After several hours of trying to get enough sleep, Eric gave up and got up with Ky. I still didn't manage to make up any missed sleep as she or Eric would come back in the room, or SOMETHING every like 20 - 30 min. When Eric came in about noon and woke me for like the umpteenth time of the day, I just got up.

Eric informed me at one of the wakeup times that Alyssa's school called about their bus being broken down and that we'd need to pick her up today. So I had told Eric to put Ky down about 12:30 today so she'd be ready to get up by 2:30 for me to get there in time. He also said the school said if we couldn't get there in time she could go to afterschool. Well, little Miss Ky didn't fall asleep until a little after 2, so I called the school and said I won't be there in time (I was NOT going to wake her up after only 30 min of nap) so send Aly to afterschool.

I then took advantage of the couple of hours and worked on my todo list for today, and paid some bills. I got a few calls, and while I was on the phone with a good friend, Ginger, I heard Ky wake up. I went up to get her so I could get ready to go get Alyssa, and discovered that my little munchkin decided her diaper was too stinky to wait on mommy today! She had taken off her pants and poopy diaper at some point and then must have slept some with it off because the bed was also wet. There was POOOO every where! UUUUGH. I totally NEVER had any issues like this with Alyssa. When I walked in Ky said "neeky" (her word for stinky, to tell me her diaper is dirty) and was patting her behind (this is normal when her diaper is dirty - but it's USUALLY STILL ON!). I realized her behind was BARE and she was covered in NEEKY LOL

oooooh sigh..the joys of almost being two! LOL When I found Alyssa changiner her own diaper, I started potty training..but she was almost 3, not 21 months old. Though Ky is very good at telling me her diaper is dirty and doesn't care for it to stay that way very long at all (LOL), I still just don't think she's old enough or ready to start actual potty training. hmmmm

OK...well onto more boring info of the day. LOL here was my to do list for today. I had circled only 3 things to try and do today. I managed to do all of my items marked yesterday, so that turned out well. Today the plan was to make some calls and do some more cleaning, and if all that gone done, I'd try to get some scrapping in tonight.

I finished my phone calls before Ky woke up with the Neeky mess, and then after dinner we spent 2 1/2 hours (OMG...) cleaning Alyssa's room! So, again all goals for today still completed even with the lovely extras. I didn't cross off cleaning because the whole house isn't near done, but I tackled one of the two worst rooms today which was my goal. Tomorrow another room.

Well...I think I may go treat myself to a bit of scrapping tonight and maybe even a few other things I need to take care of still.....

Till next post....

AND THE WINNER IS....

2007-01-09T01:34:00.000-06:00

Finally, the time has come to announce the winners for the "Winter Dreams" Contest!

Wow, you should check out all the fabulous layouts in there. 42 in all!

O.K., so here is how we decided to do the judging. Amy and I had two gift certificates worth $25 at the DSS store, one for my store and one for Amy's store. We let each other's CT's do the judging. My CT had such a difficult time choosing just ONE out of so many great layouts.

However, the final choice and winner is: Laurie9585

Congrats to her for her winning layout, "Snow Baby"!

This page is so beautiful. I love the black and white picture contrasting against the color, and the way she used the charm as part of the title. Her design is just gorgeous. You can see Laurie's complete credits HERE!

I'll be contacting her soon to give her a coupon code for $25 off Sarah's Scraps (my designs) at DSS. Have fun shopping Laurie!

And a special thank you to all who played along and the great support we've had with this collection! You can find who Amy's team picked on Amy's blog.

Manic Monday

2007-01-08T14:35:00.000-06:00

Well, I suppose it hasn't really been to manic yet (but then usually hell breaks loose around here AFTER nap time...so we'll see how things are in a few hours).

{Business of the Day}
I made myself up a little list to help me keep track of this so it doesn't just get lost farther down in the posts...This way I can keep updating this each day with cross offs and circles for the day's goal.

So for today, I've got 4 things to try and get crossed off this list, PLUS we have Tae Kwon Do tonight. I've been working on the house all morning, so that's probably about as far as I'm going to get on that today. 2 1/2 rooms are cleaned up...will have to get a few more rooms tomorrow morning.

Amy and I did have our CTs vote over the weekend on the Winter Dreams LO Contest, and we determined the winners last night. We need to get the coupon codes now and a little announcement made up so we can post that tonight or tomorrow morning.

{Ma'm, do you live here?}
LOL...last night while I was hosting my hour of the 7-7-7 chat at SBB (about 10:30 PM my time)..I get a knock at the door. I'm thinking WHO the heck is that at this hour. So, I run up the stairs and look through the peep hole to see a single person standing there. I open the door and it's a POLICEMAN. He says, "Ma'm to you live here?" I think OMG!! (Mind you just 10-15 min earlier I had practically CHUGGED a beer down to relax from my terribly stressful afternoon and evening, so I'm feeling a tad bit of a buzz from drinking so quickly). Anyway...to my horror... I learn on of my neighbors called the police because my dog was barking! GOOOD GRIEF! I usually bring them in after the girls go to bed and certainly right away if they're barking at night, but I forgot they were still outside last night, and I was in the basement on the computer and didn't even hear them. I can't believe a neighbor couldn't just walk over and knock on my door or call me to ask me to bring them in. I could see if this was a reoccuring thing night after night, but geesh..ONE night, for about maybe an hour or so? sighhhh Thankfully he didn't give me any ticket or anything and was very nice (almost seemed annoyed that he even had to come out for something this stupid), but he did have to take my name and birthday! UUUGH am I in some database now as as a criminal who allows her dog to bark all hours of the night? LOL anyway....

{Layout shares}
OK..on to some new LO shares. I didn't make it to the 7 LOs for the week in time before deadline last night, but I did get to 5 and then I finished another early this morning, so I've got one up for this week now.

These first two pages go together to form a 2 page spread. I so very rarely scrapbook about things like the tree or our ornaments - I need to do more pages of this sort of thing..more about the "season" and not just pictures of us opening gifts. hehe

Our Tree
credits

Our Favorite Ornaments
credits

This one is a picture of Kyleigh last year for her first Christmas. I don't think I've scrapped anything from last Christmas yet, so I figured it was about time to get some of these done, especially for Ky's book.

First Christmas
credits

And this page I actually did a couple months ago for the SBB Ezine, but it's just now out in this month's issue, so I can finally post it. I started off good with scrapping her month pages, and then life got really crazy with finishing up Grad school last year and I left off after about 9 months, so I'm trying to finish up some of these too.

Ky 10 months
credits

And, finally this is the last page I finished early this morning. It's the same design as the one I did of Kyleigh, just Alyssa's version with different papers to match her jamies. :)

Santa's Other Helper
credits

Ok and so with all that...I'm off to work on that to do list today. Alyssa will be home soon, and Ky awake soon and as I said, that's when all hell breaks loose here!

Have a happy, NONmanic Monday.

Scrapped Again

2007-01-07T13:03:00.000-06:00

one page done today (2 towards the goal of 7 for the week)

{First Christmas}
Credits: Papers, brad and star from Jen Wilson's Merry Days of Christmas Day 10, Christmas brush from Jen Wison's Merry Days of Christmas Day 12, and tag from Meredith Fenwick's Everyday Inspirations CDsketch by Brenda KempfFont: Tekon Pro

Finally finished all my stuff for SBB. Made the call Friday to f ind out the status of the Chevron, Eric took Alyssa to sell some cookies yesterday, and I had my chat. I haven't yet finished new previews and store items, but maybe later today.... Today I want to do some digi scrapping, and I promised Alyssa we'd do some more work on her paper scrap friends book we started this summer.

Tonight is the 7-7-7 Crop at SBB. January 7th, 7 crops/7 hours, starting at 7 PM (EST). I'll be hosting the 11 PM Est chat. I don't know if I'll be able to be in the many before about 9 PM my time since DH will be working tonight and I'll be trying to get kids dinner, baths, and to bed before that. Hope to see some of you tonight. I'm off for some scrapping today.

My Celebrity Lookalikes

2007-01-05T20:29:00.000-06:00

Ok this was kinda funny...found the link for this from that DST post (Sara posted this and now we're all trying out it to get another good giggle)....

anyway...here are my celebrity lookalikes, using my avatar picture. hehe pretty funny...

OH this is cool, dh came home and wanted me to run his celebrity lookalikes too..man is my guy HOT or what? LOL this is an old pic of him (and not a very good one at thta), but it pulled up some real hotties. hehe :)

OMG!!!

2007-01-05T15:13:00.000-06:00

Ok, if you need a GOOD laugh today...this thread at DST is COMICAL!

sigh...yes, this is what I've been doing now for like 15 min instead of making that phone call I needed to be making.... LOL..but seriously, I'm ROLLING on the floor laughing! Def made my day. LOL OK..now I really better get scooting before Ky wakes and Aly's home in 30 min! YIKES!

I need to get busy Scrapping

2007-01-05T14:09:00.000-06:00

As best as I can tell (from counting pages in my galleries), I only scrapped 61 pages for 2006! YIKES! Tha's barely more than one a week! In 2005 I scrapped about 100 pages, so this was really slow this year. I think it was due to working on my final capstone paper for my masters from Jan -April, then moving in the summer, and then add to that my starting to design this summer and becoming a DTM at SBB. All that has just pushed the scrapping down farther and farther on the to do list. :(

There is a new challenge at SBB this year "Page a Day." I don't know that I will manage to scrap that many this year, but I'm going to try to participate as I can to help me get more pages completed than 61! LOL Check out the challenge rules at SBB if you're interested in participating too. I linked the thread for ya up there where it says "Page a Day." :)

So..today..on my to do list I need to finish up
# 11 (I'm about half way done so far),
#6 (need to make this call today before the weekend comes),
hopefully #1 (so they can be in the store this weekend),
also got to take Alyssa out to sell Girl Scout Cookies this afternoon when she gets home, and I have my chat tonight at SBB.

Tonight's event is "sports." Join us in the SBB chat room at 11 PM Est if you'd like to participate.

And finally, here's my first page posted of the year. I need to scrap a page similar to this of Alyssa still, and I'm working on a two page layout of our tree too. :) Maybe I can get all of these done before the end of the week, PLUS 3 more and complete 7 this week for the challenge! whew...we'll see. hehe

{Santa's little helper}
credits: everything on this page is from Gina Cabrera's (at DDE) Jubilee kit. fonts used were CK cursive and century gothic. :)

Ok with that..I'm off to get some work done and phone calls made before Ky wakes and Alyssa comes home....lata gatas.

To Do

2007-01-04T13:26:00.000-06:00

Ok...I slept like 10 hours! LOL I went to bed about 2 am...Ky slept with us all night and she did wake us up about 8:30 or so, but dh got up with her at some point and I must have just passed out, cuz I never knew they left the room. When I woke up (because dh's cell phone rang), it was almost noon! yikes! I guess I really needed the sleep for whatever reason.

So..I have a little more energy today and am trying to think of all the things I need to get done in the near future. I don't know the order yet, but thought if I write it all down here I can maybe remember some of this and start getting myself organized.

Post png versions of templates collections 1-8 in the store
Get new templates ready for store
Get actions and new element packs ready for store
Finalize OPA website content package
Call DeepBlue (web company)
Call printer and mailing house for OPA to find out status of Chevron printing
Make Doctor appointment
Make Dental appointments
Clean out email
Clean up computer files
Ezine items (article and kit)
Finish scrap pages and post
Christmas thank you cards
Reschedule potluck dinner
Make February girls weekend plans
Clean my house
Determine and announce WD LO contest winner(s)
Revamp Sarah's Scraps website and blog
Complete new CT blinkies

(ETA completed so far today
11. 1/2 of kit done, template for article done & 2 samples collected so far)
12. one page posted, 2 more 1/2 done
wow that's it? sure seems like I did a lot more today...maybe everything just wasn't on this list hehe).

OK..while I'm thinking of things I need to do...here's some resolutions I have for this year:

Get in shape and prepared to try for another kid (am I really this crazy? LOL)
Plan more mommy & alyssa days/activities
Get involved and meet more people here locally (make new friends hehe)
Work towards starting my photography business
Get more sleep
Unpack, decorate house and declutter!
Reduce stress
PRINT DIGI LOs

Ok with all that now written down before I forget it all, I'm going to redownload some things I bought that had errors in it and then get to work on a few things on my list. :)

It's good to have some ambition again today.

I've got the blues

2007-01-04T01:54:00.000-06:00

Howdy, Howdy and Happy New Year. I'm home now but I'm still not back.

We got home Tuesday late afternoon and within 10 min of coming in the house Kyleight threw up, and when I took her temp it was 103! So...that didn't help start the return on a good note.

My house was a complete disaster when we left, and it's even worse now with all the crap unloaded from the car that I haven't had much time to put away yet, and the 2 weeks of laundry we are trying to get cleaned up.

On top of all this...I think I'm in a low right now. I have had NO desire to sit at my computer and do anything...I have so much that needs to be done, and I just don't even want to check my email. :( I don't know what my deal is but I'm just tired and non interested right now. I'm on such a "down" at the moment I barely want anything to do with digiscrapping right now. :( I hope this will pass very soon.

One of my resolutions for the year was to reduce deadlines and stress and try to enjoy the little things again, but as I began entering "stuff" on my calendar for this month, I'm already stressing and seeing no change. I felt like all of 2006 was constant go go go and no resting and I really want that to change this year, but I just don't see it starting this month. :( I think this is part of why I just don't have the energy to tackle anything right now. I HAVE go to get a handle on this and even more so I've got to get the mood swings back in check. Each down is getting worse and lasting longer. I told myself I would make the calls this week to get dental appointments for Alyssa and I that we are way behind on and get an OB appt to find out what has been going on for months now. Tuesday night was filled with caring and worrying about Kyleigh and then just going to bed from the exhaustion of driving back, and then today was just long and an insane day..I don't even want to go into it and relive it. ugh... So..I'm going to head up to bed here in just a bit; Eric came home about 2 hours ago and went to lay down with Ky about an hour ago to see if he could settle her...it's been a rough day with her.

I have been gone since the 23rd of December, so I haven't gotten with Amy C yet to pick winners for our Winter Dreams LO contest. I'll try to catch her sometime this week so we can do that and get the announcement made. Sorry for the delay.

I hope to be able to get back into the swing of things in the next day or two, but at the same time, I've really got to slow things down too. I've got to regain control of my life.

I've got a wireless connection!

2006-12-28T00:38:00.000-06:00

quick post tonight (posting from blogger and at my inlaws with VERY limited internet connection). We left my parents this afternoon and arrived at my inlaws this evening. It's been a quiet night, the girls playing fairly peacefully in the playroom and spending some individual time with grandma and grandpa - Alyssa just cherishes this alone time with them. :) On the way up here her front tooth FINALLY came out - she was super super excited and had to call my mom right away to tell her, and of course grandma and grandpa as soon as she came in the door. This evening after the girls went to bed I ventured to see if someone around us might have a wireless connection and sure enough I found a realllly slow one, but I found one, so I can sort of hit the net here for a few. Tomorrow we are planning to take the kids to Six flags if the weather permits and I hope to get some scrapping in this week. Better run for now so I can get some sleep for the big Six Flags day tomorrow (and the Aggie game tomorrow night! hehe)

Merry Christmas

2006-12-25T11:45:00.000-06:00

Wow...can't believe 9 days have passed since my last post. After we all finally got over the stomach flu, I had less than a week to get things finished and packed before we had to leave. I didn't get much sleep the last two nights, but we did finish most everything we needed to. I ran out of ink the night before we left while I was printing gifts for family, so we had to bring the printer with us and pick up extra ink...all finally printed, bound and wrapped though, so we finished it in time. We drove 16 hours on Friday to my inlaws and then another 5 Saturday to get to my parents. Yesterday we drove another hour out to see my grandparents for the day and then got back in time last night to eat some dinner and get Ky in bed, and then while she stayed home with my parents, Eric and I took Alyssa to her first Midnight Mass. I think she enjoyed getting to stay up late and going to Church with just Eric and I. When we got home we checked with NORAD to see where Santa was. Since he was in Colorado and headed south, Alyssa ran to change into jammies and brush her teeth and was in bed and asleep finally about 1:30 AM! LOL The girls slept in till about 9:30 this morn, so we all got a bit of rest finally.

We had Christmas at our house last Sunday morning, and Santa had stopped by early so the kids could have a few days to play with their gifts before we left for TX, and they brought many of the new movies and xbox games in the car with them and some other toys (doodle pads, magna doodles, etc...). Santa did save a few things though to bring the girls here. He brought Alyssa a MP3 player, and a Cliford movie for Ky and then a gift certificate to Build a Bear for each girl. So with these gifts and a good handful of gifts from my parents, the girls are very excited and having a wonderful time this morning.

I got my new lens and flash when we stopped at my inlaws Friday night and so have been playing with those today. My parents got me a new camera bag to hold all my lenses and flash - and there is still some room for another lens or two! hehe I also got a negative scanner (so I can start scanning all those old negatives to back up and use digitally), and another season of Xfiles. :) I'm just peachy! lol

Eric has gotten some great new gifts as well. We bought him a ton of tools and goodies that he opened at home, and my parents have a few fun things for him here, and my dad said he'd take out tool shopping tomorrow too. :) He still needs a new truck too, so we may even look here in TX and if he finds what he wants and gets a good deal, we may buy it and just pull it behind the van home! haha That would be a great gift for him! He's had the same truck since 1998 when we bought it - I've had 3 new cars now since we got married. This truck is the only car he ever got that was HIS - not passed down. It's a very bottom of the line V6 Dodge Ram, and it's served him well all these years, but it's coming to a point where it's just wearing out and he really needs something better. He really deserves something nice, so I hope we can get him what he really likes this time.

So this afternoon my SIL is coming over to eat Christmas dinner with us, and we have a few gifts for her, plus my mom has some for her that my brother had mailed here. We'll probably just relax and enjoy the time with family (and not driving! lol) today. Tonight or maybe tomorrow I think I'm going to try to take Alyssa to see Santa Clause 3 - just me and her (my mom might come too) while Eric keeps Kyleigh. We haven't had much time to do any me and Alyssa things since we moved to IL, so I need to make up some time with her while we have an opportunity.

Tomorrow we'll meet up with an old friend of mine and her boys. We'll be doing a book exchange with the boys and prolly let the kids play for a little bit. Then on Wed, we'll head back up to my inlaws for Christmas up there for a few days. All of Eric's siblings will be there by then and all our nieces. We're looking forward to watching all the girls play, especially to see how Ky enjoys playing with the other little girls her age.

Well, I suppose I should stop rambling and go help mom get ready for this afternoon.
I hope everyone else is having as wonderful a Christmas as we are.

stilllll sick

2006-12-16T01:24:00.000-06:00

I'm up just for a few minutes to eat some jello - my stomach is making so much noise I thought maybe if I ate a little something it would feel better. I have still been sick all day - not throwing up, but still got butt issues (lol). Eric was feeling much better when he came to bed, but I have a fever again. :( I fell asleep just a bit after 10 and then woke up when he came in at midnight and couldn't get back to sleep...I just felt uncomfortable, so finally got up to eat some jello and check email for a few minutes.

We called all our "guests" tonight to cancel our Christmas party for tomorrow as we were still feeling blah this evening, and Ky threw up again after dinner and then started in with butt issues herself tonight. ugh...will this end? I've had enough of it already. Please pray that Alyssa doesn't get this too and that we all get better soon.

sickies here

2006-12-14T23:17:00.000-06:00

Kyleigh came down with the stomach flu Tuesday night while we were out Christmas Caroling with the Girl Scouts. This morning I woke up throwing up and this evening after Eric came home with the girls from Alyssa's school Christmas program he started throwing up. Ky was pretty much back to normal today and Alyssa hasn't seemed to be affected yet. I've been in bed all day, and am hoping tomorrow morning I'll feel better to take over care for the kids again since Eric will probably be in bed all day. Thankfully he had taken today off, so he took care of the kids today. Sigh.... I had something planned for the blog this week, but things have just not worked out. I'll have to make up to everyone in Jan.

I think I'm going to get a little jello and then go back to bed.

Been doin' some scrappin'

2006-12-11T17:02:00.000-06:00

Well the last few days I was trying to make up on some scrapbooking and other stuff I need to finish before we leave for Christmas. Almost have my Christmas card ready, but then today I had a new thought for it, so gotta take some more pictures tomorrow morning before I can finish it.

My latest scraps:
both of these 2 pg spreads were made using the new Layout Blueprints sketch book by Amy Elkins. What a great book! It has 55 2 page sketches, and then a few samples by scrappers of each for great inspiration. Even though all these sketches are 2 pagers, you could easily make many of them into single pages also. Check it out if you like sketches.

Snow Play

Credits: sketch desgin from Layout Blueprints on page 23, by Amy Elkins; papers, alpha, and elements from Winter Dreams: Calm by Me and Amy Cheeseman available at Digiscrapshak; date stamp by Sherri Tierney available at digiscrapshak
font: century gothic

Halloween

Credits: sketch from Layout Blueprints by Amy Elkins; Gina Cabrera "Digitally Sparked vol 2 Spooky" (alpha, ricrac); Meredith Fenwick "Everyday Inspiration Perfect Time of Day (gold paper); "Everyday Inspiration Cowboy Baby" (black paper); "Everyday Inspiration Elements" (brads); fonts: CheltPress Trial, CK Flourish

Peek a boo... little Miss Kyleigh was so funny today. She was playing in the blinds in the kitchen, playing peek a boo, as if I couldn't actually see her behind ONE blind. haha She was just so cute I had to grab the camera and snap a few shots.

Christmas Decorations
In reading Sondie's blog today, I was inspired to take a few photos of our Christmas decorations. We set up the tree and decorated back during Thanksgiving weekend, but I hadn't yet taken any pictures. I liked Sondie's idea of capturing some shots of some of our favorite ornaments, so grabbed my camera again and captured a few here:

Here's our tree (these are all straight out of the camera..haven't edited...so a bit dark on some of these).

I love glass ornaments and have collected a few here and there over the years.

Alyssa's first Christmas ornament from Hallmark

Kyleigh's first Christmas ornament - this one is an Aggie one :)

A number of years ago we went up to my aunts' beach house for Thanksgiving. While there we got a few really cute beach/shell ornaments. I've always enjoyed these as a reminder of that trip, but they have even more special meaning now that we've moved away from the beach ourselves..they're a nice reminder of warmer weather when it's freezing outside. hehe

This is Alyssa's favorite ornament. She got this when we went to NYC a couple summers ago. She absolutely loved NYC and the Statue of Liberty, so this reminds her of all our adventures there.

And finally, I can't remember where we got this one, but I just think it's a really pretty cross ornament that we put up every year.

Oh, and we got some PINK Poinsetta's this year. Aren't they pretty?

Shopping
Yesterday I took the girls shopping for Christmas presents for Eric and we were gone ALL day. One of the things we picked up while we were out were santa hats for all of us. I know we have one somewhere around here, but I don't know where it is and I wanted to get 4 so we could all wear one for a pic sometime. Today though I tried to get a few of each of the girls' with their hats on. Ky was so not in the mood for my plan though and kept taking the hat off and throwing it and running off - no sitting by the tree for mommy this evening. I finally just gave her the hat to see if I could get her to put it on and I just held down the button on the camera to take picture after picture hoping at least a few would come out. I actually ended up with a few pretty cute ones. I can't wait to scrap these now :)

Well I'm not feeling so great today, so I think I may head up to bed early tonight. I went to bed late last night and got up early today, so I need to make up for that and with not feeling well, I need some extra rest. Eric has been working on my new computer and it should be ready for him to set it up tomorrow! yay!!!! I can't wait. :)

50% off TONIGHT!

2006-12-09T12:10:00.000-06:00

Ok today is just a huge nightmare, and I don't even have time to explain right now. I wanted to put up a quick announcement about a few store things for now - other update to come later :)

OK first, Tonight everything in my store is 50% off from 7 - 11 PM (eastern time).

There is a new Snappy Scraps template set- collection 9 in the store, and it too is included in the 50 off. I really want to get some extras in there before the sale tonight, but with all that has been going on the last two-three days, I just think I'm not going to make it, but if I don't...I will do something special to make up for it.

The new Snappy Scraps Collection 9 now also comes with individual PNG files for each layer in the template. This means, if you work in a program that can't open the PSD files in layers, you can now use the PNG files, layering each file in your program to create the template in your program's native file. If you're not quite sure what I mean, click on my template instuctions link over in my right sidebar. They've been updated to include directions for using the PNG file. Yes, this means those using DIP CAN use these templates now. Only collection 9 currently includes the PNG files, but all future sets will include them and I will be going back to add them for my older sets as well.

Next...The Winter Dreams Collection which includes all four kits, the mini album and the bonus element pack, all worth $25 plus bonus, has been 40% off through yesterday, and will remain at $18, but for ONE DAY (today) it will be 50% off! That means you can pick up the ENTIRE collection (4 kits, mini album and bonus elements) all for ONLY $12.50 TODAY! Don't miss this absolutely awesome bargain price! Also each kit and the mini album will be 25% off today only too! (if you check the dss store and the sale price isn't listed, please check back later..I think there's been a delay in getting the sale price entered for today on this..maybe some confusion as to when it starts).

And finally, the Winter Dreams Collection contest, where you can win yourself a $25 shopping spree to my or Amy C's store is being extended through the end of this month! Don't miss a great chance to win another $25 in FREE stuff! Details here.

Did all hell break lose yesterday?

2006-12-06T00:45:00.000-06:00

Is there a full moon right now? What is it that is causing my kids to all of a sudden be completely bouncing of the walls? Alyssa has come home both days this week now with notes of getting into trouble, after we've had like 6 good weeks! And OMG Kyleigh is completely going mad! She threw the biggggggest tantrums yesterday from the time she got up from nap till she went to bed about EVERYTHING. One tantrum was because she wanted me to sit on the potty and I didn't! I had no idea that would cause such an emotional breakdown! I had to go sit on the potty to make the kid happy again! What the heck? LOL Then, while Alyssa and I were making dinner and unloading the dishwasher, she was just getting into every thing possible, and at one point as I put something in the cabinet, I heard a loud crash behind me on the floor. I turned around to find my LAPTOP! Ky had actually carried (I can't believe she's even strong enough) my laptop from the living room into the kitchen and threw it on the tile floor! ugggh Thank goodness it still works since it's my ONLY consistently working computer right now.

Speaking of computers..my desktop is going bonkers too again. It's been fine for a couple of weeks now and then all of a sudden the last several days it started freezing up on me again. I had to restart it 5 x on Monday, and yesterday I just didn't bother even turning it on till about 1 AM when I worked on it for like 1 1/2 hrs and then just went to bed. Eric has been looking for a new motherboard for it, and hopefully will put the order in any time now! He has to order one for his computer too, because he'll get up and then come back to it, and as soon as he pulls out his keyboard the computer SHUTS OFF! LOL What is the deal? Are our computers just on strike up here? Maybe they don't like the cold basement! LOL

Well..let's try to focus on today's activities and to-do list, and hope that things are more calm today (though it isn't even noon yet and Ky is already bouncing off the walls- man I can't wait for nap time LOL).

So tonight Alyssa's Girl Scout troop is going to pottery place to paint ornaments. The troop did so well with their Fall product sales, we are rewarding them and taking them to the pottery place, all fees paid from the troop funds. Alyssa is really excited - it should be fun. Ky will be staying home with the babysitter of course - I'm not EVEN trying to control that little busybod in a pottery store tonight! LOL

I need to make a couple calls today and finish a kit for the February SBB Ezine. It was due yesterday, but with my computer issues the last couple of days I haven't been able to work on it to finish it up. I also need to make my freebie for my chat this week and if time permits for the next several chats. Once I leave to go home for Christmas I won't have any way to make anything. I have got to get our Christmas cards made so I can order those. I also need to get a few new things done for my DSS store. I have a 50% off sale this Saturday from 7-11 PM (eastern time), but that does NOT include Winter Dreams Collection or kits, so be sure if you're planning to get that to pick it up by Friday - the whole collection is only $15 through Friday, after that it goes up to $18. AND if you pick up the collection or a kit this week, create a layout and post it in the Winter Dreams gallery at DSS for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate good in my or Amy's store! Details down below in the previous post.

(OMG, Ky is having a fit right now because she is trying to get IN a Magazine holder and OF COURSE it's too small! It's only 2 inches wide! Come on)

OK..back to the to-do list (actually I'd say it's this week's list, as I won't be able to do all this today, LOL). It's laundry time again too - though does that ever end? It sure doesn't seem to. I need to somehow run to the grocery store today to..hmm Gotta figure out when we can do that. Oh and I need to finish up a little something I've got planned for my blog readers starting next week :)

OH before I go, I have to rant about AT&T! If you happen to need to set up new phone service, DO NOT GET AT&T, or if you've got no other choice, beware when you set it up, esp if it's a new house. We've had the absolutely worst time getting our phone set up and then now getting charges and billing correct. I won't carry on about all the set up problems, but I will warn you about their lovely little $90 fee and the difficulty in disputing charges with them. We signed up online so we could get the free installation, after much trouble and several calls and a couple weeks, they finally came to hook up our phone. Because it was a new house, they connected the phone cable to our box while setting up. They never told us there was an extra charge for something like this (and they did know full well it was a new house). When we got our first bill it had a $90 installation fee! We called to dispute this as we had "free installation." The girl informed us we did get free installation (normally $40) but the $90 was for hooking the cable to our box! Eric was PISSED and argued with them forever, and finally told them, he was paying all of the bill excep tthe $90. The girl said "no problem, I'll mark it as in dispute and someone will get back to you within the next 2 days." We never heard another thing for about a week until we got a call telling us our bill was past due by $90. Eric explained the situation again, and of course there was no record of our previous call and complaint, but they said they'd mark it down this time. Later that afternoon, ANOTHER call about our bill being late, same thing..no mention in the record. Eric talked to at least 5 people over several days all assuring him they marked it as in dispute and the next never seeing anything. Then we got a call telling us if we didn't pay our remaining past due amount they were cutting off all the extra plan services (call waiting, caller ID, etc..) Eric again explained the situation. Last night I noticed the caller ID had been shut off and I got the new bill in the mail yesterday. The new bill had $90 past due added to it plus a late fee now, and our regular plan was now 2x the amount of what we signed up for! Good grief! There is no way to dispute charges with this company as they all just keep not recording it, and instead just keep haselling us. UGH... Well, this morning I told Eric to call them and tell them if they didn't let us speak with someone that could fix this problem, we'd call better business bureau and possibly the news channel too to warn others of this $90 fee. They finally let him speak with a manager today and credited our account for the charge, and our caller ID is back. Now we have to figure out why our billing is 2x what it should be. So, my recommendation...if you don't have to use AT&T DON'T! The company is a crook and a major pain in the butt to dispute when they mischarge you. If you do have to use AT&T, and you set up new service, BEWARE of the $90 fee! Go connect the damn cable to your own box! LOL If you do have an unfair charge on your account, don't give up! Keep on them and make a complaint with BBB if need be. Don't let this company push you around!

Man..can you tell I'm all hormonal lately? LOL Maybe whatever is affecting my kids is affecting me too! LOL No it's not that time of the month..remember I don't have those any more since Sept...my hormones are just going bonkers! LOL Yes, I know Lisa..I need to go to the doctor. I just need time! sighhh.

Well with that..I'm going to eat lunch and put Ky down for nap soon (whoohooo). Better get some hugs and kisses and make that baby giggle too before hand so I can remind myself what a sweetie she really is and how much I like her. hehe

Happy Hump day everyone.

Relaxation after a bad day

2006-12-04T22:30:00.000-06:00

Sitting here this evening with a big cup of hot chocolate, a piece of cheesecake, and an episode of Xfiles. All very needed to relax, "chill out" and wind down after a frustrating day. So what was so frustrating you ask?...
1. My computer, yes again! My desktop again started freezing up a few times a day a couple days ago. It has been doing so much better with me shutting it down every night, so I figured it was just overheating and getting over worked. Then now it's started it again, and even today it never even let me use it! I started it up and then went to do a couple things. When I went to sit down at the computer it was already frozen, so I restarted it and went to do something else again. Again when I returned it was already frozen again. After the 3rd time this happened today, I just turned the darn thing off and gave up on it.

2. Amazon! UGH..well, this part isn't all bad, hehe... I finally saved up enough to buy my flash for my camera so I set out today to order it. There was a rebate on it and if I signed up for the amazon credit card there was a $30 cash back. How could I resist saving $45 on the flash? So I went through the motions and signed up and was approved. Then I ordered my new flash and got my email receipt. As I looked over the receipt, I realized the shipping address was my TX address! ugh!! I had to cancel the order so I could redo it and have it shipped here. Seems simple enough huh. WELL...this turned into a freaking 2 hour ordeal. The delivery time for the free shipping was estimated to arrive after we would be leaving to go home for the holiday, so I figured ok I'll just have it shipped to my parents or just pay for the shipping for it to get here sooner. Well, to get the $30 credit from the credit card, I had to use that to purchase, but to be able to use it, I had to have it shipped to an address already in my amazon account when I signed up for the card or I'd have to wait for the physical card to come to have the number to enter for use. Well, I had hit edit on my current address to correct the phone number so it voided that for a shipping address, and my parents address wasn't listed. LOVELY. I did finally figure all this out and found my inlaws address in my account, so I had it finally sent to their address and if it's not there when we get there, Eric said we can always stay an extra few hours for to arrive or I can just get it I guess when we go back after visiting my parents. So..though this turned into a long ordeal...i did finally get my flash ordered. OH and..a new lens I wanted, also had a nice rebate on it, so I told dh it might be good to order it now. He said OK go ahead, he was planning to order it for me for Christmas anyway! yay!! So for christmas I get a flash and a new lens. :) I'm so excited!

3. OMG..Ky is sooo busy and into EVERYTHING. If she gets into one more drawer, moves the kitchen chairs to reach one more piece of candy or marker, draws on one more wall or piece of furniture..uuuuugggghhh. but then she knows just when to give a big hug, a kiss and a giggle to make my day! Darn cutie. :)

4. Alyssa :( My good girl is having some real trouble at school. Academically she's doing fantastically, but behavior wise..things aren't going oh so well. :( Her teacher called us to discuss some of her concerns with Alyssa's attention. She suggested we might consider a medical check for ADD. ADD? Alyssa? This seems completely insane to me! If I have a child with ADD, it is KY! lol Alyssa has the most amazing attention span of any child I've ever known, and she's been that way since she was Ky's age. The teacher said she's not doing a good job focussing in class though, not doing well at staying on task, and is very unorganized. I know she acts a little scatter brained often, and can be very forgetful. I agree she's not very organized, but she is only 6 1/2! I'm just shocked. I have never ever thought of Alyssa with ADD. I honestly wonder if it's lack of interest, lack of challenge, maturity, or just tiredness. I know ADD is real, but I honestly believe teachers and parents jump to this and medication way too often these days because they just don't know what to do with these kids. I know it's hard, I was a school teacher, but I honestly think it's way over diagnosed these days. If my kid is academically not suffering any, she's not doing anything "naughty" or to be spiteful, she absolutely loves school and is extremely sociable, and aces everything with such little effort...could she just not be interested or challenged when you see her not on task? This would be my first guess, not ADD. I had a student with ADD when I was student teaching and he could not concentrate on anythng when his medication wore off..I have NEVER seen Alyssa have trouble concentrating when she's interested in something, and I've never really seen her behave like that little boy did. My mom did tell me I shouldn't rule it out so easily though without considering it. As she put it, I'd feel terrible if she did need help and I didn't seek it for her. I guess Eric and I will have to discuss this more. :( My poor Alyssa. She's the sweetest kid, has the biggest heart and is such a smartie..I hope I can help her pinpoint what's causing the behavior trouble, cuz she really is a good kid.

sooo...all of this today...it's just been a lot..I needed some "down" time to wind down before I could really try to work on the next things I need to do.

Oh and on top of the frustration, my hormones are sooo out of whack. I have been drawn to tears at least 3 times today! ugh. A couple years ago I was going through fertility treatment in an attempt to get prego (for Ky). During the treatment, they woudl do a folic study/ultrasound each month. They found cyst on my left ovary that they watched for a few months and then finally determined it warranted additional testing. They ran an ovarian cancer marker which came back high and referred me off to a GYN Oncologist immediately. I dropped out of school that semester and underwent surgery to have the cyst removed and tested. I had to have an actual incession, not just laproscopic surgery and they determined I had pretty bad endometriosis. The cyst was about the size of a softball and could not be separated from my ovary, so they had to take it out. After several more months, I finally got prego with Kyleigh and all went smoothly. After she was born the doctor gave me a progesterone pill to help slow the regrowth of the endometriosis and hopefully help balance my hormones (they diagnosed me with POS and a hormone imbalance when I was trying to get prego with Alyssa). So, all has been fairly ok until a few months ago. My last NORMAL cycle was the beginning of Sept. Since then I've had a TON of light spotting bleeding, but never a full period, and it goes on and on keeps coming back after only a week or two of stopping. At first I thought I might be prego and took like 3 tests in the period of about 2 weeks. All came back negative. I'm now beginning to think the endometriosis may be back. I know I really need to go to the doctor, but 1) it is an $80 copay on our insurance, 2) I don't know if I should just go to an OB/GYN, a fertility specialist or my primary doctor first, but I don't want to pay $80 just get a referrel to someone else, and really...I think I'm scared to find out it may be back. What if it's already so bad and I lose my other ovary or my uterus or something that will make it impossible for me to have any more children? I'm not ready to hear that, as Eric and I actually hoped to start trying for a 3rd kid sometime next year. :( I really need to find out what to do and do it..it's not getting better and it's just upsetting me more each day. sighhh

well..I think I need to log out and finish my show. have a good night everyone!

Tonight's the big night!

2006-12-03T19:24:00.000-06:00

Chat tonight, and here's a previw of the awesome freebie we'll be giving away to everyone that attends. Don't miss out. You will not be able to get this freebie anywhere else.

Also, with the launch of this collection, we're having a fun contest. Be sure your pages are loaded to the Winter Dreams Gallery by Saturday night (Dec 9) and my and Amy's ct will help us select the winners to announce on the 11th. :) Good luck!

My CT has been doing such a fantastic job with these kits - I just love all the pages they've come up with. I'd like to share a few of their pages here, but before I do, I also have a few new ladies I've added to my team in the last couple of weeks and just havne't had a chance to make a public welcome for them..so without further delay, I welcome 3 new ladies to my creative team: Amanda, Angel, and Katy. If you click each of their names, it will take you to their gallery at DSS. They also have more complete galleries at other sites, such as SBB, DST, etc...

And now, on with the show of their beautiful layouts:

Lisa W

"Calm" kit, full credits

Angel

"Calm" kit, full credits

Geri

"Cozy" kit, full credits

Lisa B

"Calm" kit, full credits

Amanda

"Cozy" kit, credits here

Katy

"Celebration" kit, full credits

Sondie

"Calm" kit, full credits

You can see many many more pages created with these kits in the Winter Dreams gallery at DSS.

OK, and with that...I hope to see you at the chat tonight!

Snow Much Fun

2006-12-02T05:15:00.000-06:00

{Snow Much Fun}

Well we got our snow finally! We've had a forcast 2 other times before now, but this time it really came! About 12 inches of it! lol We were probably the only ones in the neighborhood (besides the kids) that were truly excited about it. We haven't gone through this year after year to be tired of it yet. hehe Alyssa just could NOT wait to get out there this morning, but it was still falling very heavily with pretty high winds so we waited until it let up a little and then finally bundled everyone up to go out.

Kyleigh was not too thrilled about it at first, as the snow in the drive way came up to her croch and she couldn't move! Alyssa's gloves didn't hold up long (especially since she could only find one of them and was in too much of a hurry to look for the other one) so maybe 5-10 minutes into being outside she threw a huge drama mama fit and ran inside. Finally after about 15 minutes she came back out to join us and Eric gave her a pair of his gloves to wear.

Eric shoveled off a little runner area on the driveway for the girls to use his old childhood sled. The girls both loved this, even though it went pretty slow. The snow was just so soft, dry and deep! Eventually though they noticed the other kids across the street on some of the plastic slides on a big hill and we headed over there for a few minutes. Ky and Alyssa both went down on one of the other kids sled and boy did they fly compared to our drive way. The first couple runs were slower, but as the kids went again and again and packed it down it got better. I can't wait till it's packed down still a little more and I think I'm going to have to try! hehe It's been many a many a years since I went sledding (We lived in Alaska when I was in 2-4th grades).

So...here's a few of the snapshots from today of the girls playing outside.

Alyssa standing at the bottom of the neighbors hill were they were all sledding.

the girls going down the big hill. hehe

Ky's first moments and experience in snow! haha Poor baby.

ahh now we've got some smiles coming.

slowly sliding down the drive way on Daddy's sled.

Looking up for mommy to take a pic. :)

{Winter Dreams}

Only a couple more days till Amy and my "Winter Dreams" Collection is released. These winter kits are coming out just in time for my new winter pictures! I can't wait to have a few minutes to start scrapping again and use these kits. We'll be having our launch chat on Sunday night, 10 PM Eastern time at Digiscrapshak.com. We hope you'll come an join us. We'll have an exclusive ad-on freebie for all in attendance, at least one free collection to give away, and a contest to announce for a chance to win more products.

The whole collection will be only $15 through 12/8, after that it will only be $18. This is a $25 value if each of the parts were purchased individually, but it also includes a bonus element pack that will NOT be sold individually! Scroll down to my preview postings and you can see all the individual previews.

{Holiday Tag}

And now.... a tag from my friend and CT member of mine, Amanda (thanks Amanda, sorry it took me so long to respond to it lol)

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Sometimes he wraps the smaller things.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No, but i was thinking about it when we were putting up our decorations this year. I thought back to a year when my little brother and I went around the neighborhood selling bunches of it to make some extra $. LOL

5. When do you put your decorations up? We put them up Thanksgiving weekend...especially good this year since it's way too cold, and the snow and ice now would have made it a little tough.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? I think I'd have to say Green Bean Casserole..I never make it any other time. yes, I know I have werid favorites. lol

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: hmmm I don't really know... nothing is coming to mind for this right now, but maybe I'm just too tired...

8. How and When did you learn the truth about Santa? You know, I really don't know. Must not have been all that traumatic for me. If I had to guess, I'd say it was probably when we lived in Alaska sometime between 2nd and 4th grade. Wow..will Alyssa really know the truth that soon? I hope not.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Sometimes my parents let us open one growing up, but my husbands family always did Christmas on Christmas Eve after returning from midnight mass. We've sort of followed his tradtion some years, but it really just depends on when we're leaving to go home. We often have Christmas several days early before we leave to go home and see our families.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? How? Well, put the lights on, put the garland on, add all the ornaments that will fit, and then put that topper on. :)

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Still LOVE it. Give me a few months and a few more huge snow falls and my love may fade lol

12. Can you ice skate? It's been many years now, but I used to ice skate everyday at lunch time when we lived in Alaska.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Well, I think I might have to say my iceskates were one of my faves, maybe the Barbie Dream house too. Can't think of any more recent gifts that might top the list right now.

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Spending time with family.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Pecan Pie and Fudge

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Probably the tree trimming and decorating the house.

17. What tops your tree? an Angel

18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving? Giving

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? I don't know that I really have one.

hmmm, who do I pass this tag onto now? I think....Amy C, Lisa W, Sondie, and Raechel! hehe Anyone else interested, go ahead and do it too and link me up here so I can visit your blog to read. :)

{Glitter Flakes}

OK..so now..did you make it through this entire novel of a posting? hehe if you did, I have a gift for you! I was inspired by my recent snowy weather and made some glass glitter snow flakes, AND I made them so they can coordinate with the Calm Kit in the Winter Dreams Collection. :)

upclose details:

download here, and please let me know which kit in the collection is your favorite! I can't decide between cozy and calm for mine, but I know I'll be using calm very soon to scrap my snow pictures! :)

Hope to see you Sunday in the DSS chat room, and by the way..I think you may want to stop by Amy's blog also if you haven't done so yet. She has this AWESOME Grinchy freebie for you. :)

The snow is heeeeere!

2006-12-01T08:32:00.000-06:00

Wow what a difference a month can make! This gorgeous tree is our neighbor's across the street. We awoke early this morning to several inches of snow and it's still coming down heavily for several more hours. Stay tuned for more snow pics today

Winter Dreams, the Collection

2006-11-30T06:05:00.000-06:00

Finally, after many all nighters, Amy and I have finished our collection. We are extremely excited and proud of how this collection came out! Please join us at Digiscrapshak.com on Sunday night, 10 PM (eastern) for our launch. We'll be giving away at least on complete collection free. We'll also be announcing a contest for a chance to win more free product, and we'll be giving an additional exclusive add-on freebie to the collection that you won't be able to get anywhere else.

The collection will be an AMAZING deal! You'll get 4 full kits, a bonus element pack, and an 8 page 8x8 mini album, all for $15 through December 9. After that, it will only be $18. We will also list the kits for sale individually for $5 each, and the mini album will be available for purchase, but the bonus will ONLY be available with the purchase of the collection.

Be sure to come back this weekend to see some wonderful pages already created by my and Amy's CT and maybe even an extra little goodie :) (hint hint).

Individual Previews:

Cozy

Comfort

Celebrate

Calm

Bonus Element Pack

Mini Album

Winter Dreams

2006-11-28T02:39:00.000-06:00

Winter Dreams Collection by Amy C and I will be released on Sunday, Dec 3. We had to change the date due to some scheduling conflicts.

We'll be having a release/launch chat on Sunday at 10 PM Est at Digiscrapshak! I hope you'll join us for some fun, freebies and prizes. :)

More info to come very soon!!!

33% off this weekend!

2006-11-25T00:24:00.000-06:00

It's finally up and running. Stop by and pick up some good deals. :) Don't forget the FREE color-ins for my newest doodles are down below in yesterday's posting too. :)

I've also got a new set of templates ready and have been submitted for the store at DSS. They should be up soon, so be on the lookout.

I'll be back later to add all the deals I got today! haha

How was your Turkey Day?

2006-11-24T04:20:00.000-06:00

{Thanksgiving Recap}

Well I thought our Thanksgiving would be so lonely with just the four of us, but it turned out quite nice. It was themost relaxing and laid back Thanksgiving dinner I've made, and Alyssa really enjoyed helping make all the different items, setting the table, and getting to be part of the "big people" table with China and all. :) Alyssa even tried several new foods this year and LIKED them which just made the whole dinner sooo enjoyable. Kyleigh tooootally had a blast with dinner. I haven't seen the kid eat that much food in a long time. Her favorites were definately the mashed potates, corn on the cob, and the fruit pudding. She tried everything on her plate as well, and ate almost every bit of it.

Today my mom forwarded an email to me from my brother. Here I've been so selfish complaining that we'll be so lonely to have no family with us for Thanksgiving, and he's over there in Iraq ALL ALONE for the holiday. :( Made me cry to think of how lonely he must of felt and how selfish I've been. He did get his box the other day that we sent him last week though and it had a little Christmas tree with all the trimmings for him. Mom said he really loved it and has already put it up. I hope that when he looks at it, it reminds him of our love and that we are there with him in spirit this Christmas.

{Ok so on to some fun digiscrappin stuff... }

Everything in my DSS store should be 33% off this weekend (I'm not sure when Lori has it set to go on..later Friday or Saturday), but it will include everything in my store for this weekend in honor of Eric's (my dh) 33rd birthday. :)

Also...remember the Flavors of Summer Collection (at SBB under Raechel Knight) I did with Raechel and Lisa W? Well, it's on sale today too for 30% off, AND we dropped the regular price to $20, so for today you can get it for only $14 - all SIX kits! PLUS, if you buy the collection this weekend, you can get the 12 page mini album we've made to go with it (regularly $6.00, on sale for 30% off today) FREE!

And...Don't forget my Christmas Doodles are on sale today in my DSS store, and you can pick them up today for only $1.35.

As a gift to you, to go with the Christmas doodles, you can download these color-ins to go with them here FREE. All you do is put this png color layer under the doodle and in a snap you have a colored doodle. I hope you'll leave me some love if you take. (Sorry this blog freebie has expired.)

And so with that..I'm going to head off. I need to do some shopping myself now and catch some deals while I can. hehe

Down, down, down....

2006-11-23T03:53:00.000-06:00

That's how my blog hits have gone over the last few days. Funny how that happens. Well, I was supposed to announce 2 winners of my little blog contest on Wednesday (it's actually now very early Thursday morning), who won my Christmas Doodles, but I didn't have any links in the comments for anyone entering. :( I did find one LO in the DSS gallery using my Winter doodles, and so I'll award her the Christmas Doodles for free.

Congratulations, Debra..

I'll be sending you the link to download these for free by PM at DSS.

So with that...the Christmas doodles will be in my store at DSS starting this Friday and will be 40% off all day! And don't forget to stop by here to pick up a FREE coordinating gift to go with the doodles.

So..I haven't posted the last few days because I've been very busy trying to finish up some stuff for OPA (the service sorority I am on the board for), and I've been spending lots of time with the kids. :) I just haven't been on the computer a whole lot in the last couple days.

This weekend will be fairly quiet for us. We're just having a small family (just the four of us) dinner on Thursday and taking advantage of Eric being off for 4 days! Our goals are to have NO more boxes upstairs by the end of the weekend, and at least one car in the garage by Sunday! I do hope to get some scrapping done too, finish up some OPA work, maybe get in some shopping, and just enjoy the time with my family.

I will be hosting my normal Friday night scrap an event crop at SBB this Friday night (11 PM Est.) still, so I hope many of you will drop in and join us.

Well since it's getting really really late (or early) I need to head to bed so I can get some rest before the big Turkey Day tomorrow.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving Day!

ok, here's the deal....

2006-11-18T15:21:00.000-06:00

these won't be availabe until Black Friday (Friday, November 24), but...

they will be available at 40% off that day in my store at DSS. They'll be priced at $2.25, so you'll be able to pick these cuties up for only $1.35 that day! What a deal huh? hehe

AND, to make the deal even sweeter...if you stop by my blog next Friday you'll be able to pick up another coordinating FREE gift for these. :)

Even though you can't get these till the 24th, I'm going to give them FREE to 3 random commentors from yesterday, AND 2 more of you will have a chance to win them (feel a little blog contest coming on??)

To win these doodles free, all ya gotta do (sorry, my CT is not eligible for this contest):
1) create a LO, a card, or something using my freebie doodles from yesterday.

2) post your creation in this gallery here at DSS by midnight (eastern time) Tuesday, November 21.

3) post a link to your page here in the comments with your name and gallery user id (so I can find ya if you win)!

My CT and I will judge all entries and I will announce 2 winners on Wednesday, Nov. 22!

That's it! Create, Post, Link and you could be the owner of another set of doodles for FREE. :)

Good luck!! Can't wait to see what you come up with. :)

OK, now for the ladies that have already won these cute little doodles....

My daughter picked two numbers and I picked my fave number...

and the winners are commentor #3, 7, and 15 from yesterday.

SOOOO

That's

"Love my Fonts,"

"Michelle (Plumtuckered),"

and "prettyglo"

Conratulations ladies...

you have won my winter doodles FREE and can have them now, before they go up in the store!

Send me an email (sarah @ sarahs-scraps. com - remove spaces from that obviously) or PM me at DSS (Sarah96) and I'll send you a download link. :)

Christmas Doodles

2006-11-18T13:28:00.000-06:00

are coming soooooon..

and a few of my commenters from yesterday are going to receive these FREE!

I may give them away to a couple more people too.

Stay tuned today to find out HOW you might be able to get them free, and find out who already has!

Yes..I know preview is little...bigger one will be coming soon. hehe

WOW! Thanks soooo much

2006-11-18T02:39:00.000-06:00

OMG!! I posted that simple little pack of doodles for free yesterday, and absolutely NEVER expected it would be that popular! YIKES! I had over 250 hits on here, and you all left me some very nice love. Thanks so much. It truely made my day. I've got something else up my sleeve..so stay tuned. hehe

So..two of the kits in the collection I'm doing with Amy Cheeseman are done and we made a little teaser for you of each..can't give away too much. There are two more kits to come still, and these two so far are FAB! I'm totally loving this collection. Be sure you've marked your calendar for the release on Saturday, December 2 at Digiscrapshak. We will have an extra coordinating mini kit for those that attend, maybe some other freebies, you just never know what!!! hehe

Well..tonight is a short post..I didn't get enough sleep last night and it's already late again. I can't sleep in tomorrow cuz Erich has duty EARRRRLY in the morning, so I'll have to get up when the kids do.

Thank you again so much to everyone that left me some sweet love. Stay tuned for some more fun. The freebie is still available in yesterday's post and I'll probably leave it another day or two, so if you missed it, scroll down. :)

2006-11-17T16:02:00.000-06:00

Don't forget the Scrap an Event chat tonight at SBB (11 PM Est)..we're scrapping "birth" or "baby" pictures.

new Scrappy Snaps Collection

2006-11-17T01:26:00.000-06:00

Soon to be in my store at DSS..a new set of templates! :)

It's been a while since I blogged. I've been working on a website content package for a new website for OPA (the national service sorority that I am on the national board for). It's a project that has been in the works for a couple of years now, and I'm soooo looking forward to it almost being done. In addition to that the quarterly newsletter deadline for OPA is also upon me (I'm the editor for this) so that is also keeping me busy right now. I took a few days "off" from everything over the weekend as well, and on top of my OPA duties I've been working on a special design project this week..so I seem to just be MIA in the galleries and forums lately... I promise I am still alive and am coming to catch up very soon.

So..my special project??? I'm working on a collaborative collection with Amy Cheeseman to be released at DSS Saturday, Dec 2. We finished the first two kits today, and boy are these some cuuute kits. :) Want a little hint of what to expect???? hehe The first kit is called "Calm" and the second one is "Celebration." hmmm Can you guess what the collection name might be, or what the overall collection theme is???? Maybe I'll have to drop a few more hints the closer we get and EVEN if you're lucky..a sneek peek at colors or something fun.

OMG...Alyssa is involved in way too much now. Trying to get dinner on the table, do homework, baths, etc...every night at a decent hour with running to all these activities every night..oh man..what was I thinking? I've got to figure out how to get a better handle on all this craziness.

OH..I forgot to mention I found the Target last week, and ohhhh my did my wallet suffer! lol The girls and I (ok..maybe it was me hehe) were so excited to get out and do some shopping again...we spent like $200! YIKES. I can't even tell you what all I bought now, but I think only about $20 was for something for me! lol I did get several things in that trip for my brother for a Christmas box we shipped off to him this week, and I did get Alyssa some ballet shoes and a new leotard..besides that...I don't remember. haha

This weekend we went on a shopping spree too! Oh what fun..the MALL! I got a ton of clothes, and so did the girls..I think Eric got a couple of sweatshirts (we all needed some winter clothes as it's starting to get REALLY cold here!). Everyone now has snow boots and heavy coats, and gloves..we SHOULD be set and ready for the snow now - well, at least clothing wise. I still don't think I'll be able to drive in it. haha I think we picked up a few other things for my brother, and honestly...again, I don't remember what else. It was mostly a clothing trip.

Well, I have to say that's about all the excitement that's been going on here the last week or two..shopping, ballet, tae kwon do, girl scouts, homework.... etc... haha OH and Eric finished the fence so the dogs can finally go out without leashes again! They are so excited, and so am I that I can just open the door and let them run! Bad news is though that our younger dog, Bailey, can now reach the cable and phone lines that are STILL not burried (yes we've been in this house more than 2 months now) and he chewed through our phone line! They had to come back out and replace our phone cable so we could have phone service again. oops hehe

OK..so if you've stuck it out through all this now..I also have ONE more thing for you..a little blog freebie. I know it's been ages...it's been enough for me to keep up with my chat freebies and store goodies the last few weeks, so I appologize. I have a few other blog freebies in the works for my faithful blog readers, so keep checking up on me... :)

Please don't share or pass along my d/l link...you can direct your friends to just stop by and d/l these themself. I'll leave them up for a few days, so get them while you can. :)

sorry time is up for this freebie..

If you take, I hope you'll consider leaving me a comment :) I haven't had many comments in so long..I'm feeling so unloved and visited! hehe Besides..who knows when a comment my pay off for an extra freebie... hmmmm

2006-11-11T01:45:00.000-06:00

A new page tonight..based on a lift of a page by Dani B. All elements and papers from "Your love is better than chocolate" by Ams Digi Scraps. Date stamp by Toni Berman from DSS. Font: P22 Typewriter

2006-11-11T01:43:00.000-06:00

Name print I made to frame for Alyssa's room. All papers and elements from Jen Wilson.

2006-11-11T01:41:00.000-06:00

some new scrapping from me... pumpkin page using my template and pumpkin patch kit with prongs and rivet border from Jen Wilson.

2006-11-04T17:12:00.000-06:00

tomorrow - ONE DAY 40% off at DigiScrapShak. All my new goodies will be included in this sale! You don't want to miss this!

2006-11-03T16:01:00.000-06:00

Add some spice and warmth to your layouts with Spice of Life. Slightly grunged up and rich with color. Lots of new goodies from me to be in the store at DSS very soon! We expect the site should be back up and running tonight!

2006-11-03T16:00:00.000-06:00

Perfect for pumpkin pictures, or any other fall or thanksgiving layouts. Comes with about 12 chipboard words that are not all pictured.

2006-11-03T15:59:00.000-06:00

Add some bling to your pages with these new stylish jeweled shapes and borders. Soon to be in the store at DSS!!

2006-11-03T15:58:00.000-06:00

Lots of new charm packs and some chains...to be it in the store at DSS very soooon!!!

2006-11-03T02:46:00.000-06:00

Join me tonight in the chat room at SBB for the Scrap an Event chat at 11 PM Est.

yet another page.

2006-10-31T01:39:00.000-06:00

another new page..Credits here. At least this way I can show off some of my recent pictures. I'm in the process of checking out other blog options....I'm so frustrated right now with blogger that it makes me barely want to post any updates...

Today Alyssa started Tae Kwon Do and loved it! There was only one other girl in the class and lots of boys, but she got in there and fit right in. I was impressed with how well she did for her first day. She's also starting ballet this week. Interesting combination huh? hehe So our life just got a LOT busier...TKD 2x a week and ballet 1x, plus we already have Girl Scouts once every 2 weeks. She still wants to get into some Piano lessons too, so I guess I need to find an instructor for that. Thankfully none of these things so far are very far away, but I'm sure it's still not going to be fun packing ourselves up 3x a week to run here and there when it gets reallly cold. It's going to make my evening routine a little different, with later dinners too, but I'm sure we'll adjust soon. It'll be good to get out more. Since her lessons are at the local community center/gym, they also have babysitting and classes and stuff for me. We signed up for the family membership, so while she's in her lessons, I'm going to drop Ky off at the babysitting (good for her to play with some other little kids too) and work out or go to one of the excersize classes- will give me an hour to myself plus help me lose this extra weight. This week I'm just watching Alyssa and letting Ky get used to the idea of being dropped off in the babysitting. Next week I may go walk or do something I can leave if they have to call me out. Ky did great tonight when I left the room, but after about 45 min they had to bring her to me..said she was just ready to go and they couldn't console her any more. Though really, I'm not sure the lady was the type to have tried that hard, but it's ok..that's why this week we're just easing into this.

Other news..hmmm We carved the pumpkins Sunday morning before Eric went to work (if I can get blogger to let me add anything...I can post some in here). He had Saturday off (first day off in like 16 days), and the girls spent most of the day doing stuff with him to catch up on some daddy time and to give me some free time to work. Today was so warm that Eric took Ky out with him all morning to work on the fence and get some outside time - mommy got to sleep in a bit :)

I've been really busy getting a bunch of designs ready for the store. DSS is still down right now while they move to a new server, but it should be back up in the next couple of days, and I'll have lots of new goodies, a couple kits and several charm packs. There's a rumor there will be a big sale for the reopening next weekend too! hehe

A good scrapping friend of mine, Kelly (Kellbukley) has been scrapping some of my recent pictures too. She needed to do several fall themed ct pages, so I sent her a bunch (and I mean a bunch hahaha) of my pictures and she picked out a few to scrap. Since I don't think I'll be able to add previews of them into this post, I'll give ya the links. You HAVE to go see these (and leave Kelly some love while there) - they're beautiful! Thanks again sooo much Kelly.
Fall Photoshoot
Brrr
Beautiful Girl
She's working on another right now of Alyssa too..I'll share as soon as she's done.

Well..I need to go get some more of my previews ready and get to bed before it gets much later. I have been staying up way too late the last few nights, and tomorrow I have to go help out at Alyssa's school for their Halloween party and events tomorrow. Eric took the day off too (whooohooooo), so he'll be going with me too.

later gators!

Some more scrapping....

2006-10-28T19:59:00.000-05:00

A new layout from last night using some of those new pictures I've been taking but can't post yet cuz blogger is being a snot. Maybe it's time to switch to typepad...hmmm
Credits here

2006-10-27T03:26:00.000-05:00

Tonight we'll be scrapping Mother's Day (or any pictures of your mother or you as a mother...) The flowers are the bonus this week for posting by 11:59 PM Saturday night. Sketch will be given as well.

New items in the store this week

2006-10-26T00:19:00.000-05:00

New kit in the store this week. I'm having trouble posting anything and adding any text to blogger for some reason..errr...will have to post some of the fall pictures later...this is making me crazy to even try to put these preveiws in here.

Summer Charms

2006-10-26T00:16:00.000-05:00

Summer element pack - comes with 5 gold charms, 5 silver charms, gold and silver chains, gold and silver connectors and brads (brads not pictured). In the store now!

Colorable Alpha in the store

2006-10-26T00:15:00.000-05:00

Colorable alpha with some bonus elements and an overlay. Also in the store this week!

We had a good weekend

2006-10-24T02:00:00.000-05:00

Despite Eric having duty this past weekend, we managed a pretty relaxing time. When Eric got home from work on Friday night we took the girls to a local farm/pumpkin patch before it got dark. The girls had a great time and I got a few pictures. Ky was more interested in all the little farm cats running around and chased them all over. After purchasing our pumpkins and some colorful mums to decorate with we headed out to dinner.

Saturday was duty for Eric and the other Girl Scout Leader for Alyssa's troop and her kids came over for a couple hours. We ordered pizza for lunch and then Brenda and I worked on some troop planning while the kids played their little hearts out. After they left Alyssa went down the street to play with another little friend for a couple hours while Ky took a nap and I did some work. Once Eric came home, he got a few fence pannels up before it got too dark, and then in the evening Alyssa and Daddy had a movie night while Ky and I played downstairs.

Sunday we planned to go to the park and take some nice fall pictures, but it was soooo cold we decided it was just too cold to play outside. I took a few fall pictures from the porch, the deck, and the kitchen window and then Alyssa and I just lounged around while Ky napped. When Eric came home the kids were just dying to go outside, so I bundled them up to go play for a bit while Eric worked some more on the fence. I went ahead and put some warm clothes on too and grabbed the camera. I layed Ky in the yard in some leaves to take some pictures, and the poor baby was so cold she didn't even move! We got several really cute shots before we were just too cold to stand it any more. I think the temp was a little less than 40 degrees, but felt like 30. BRRRRR (I am posting from my laptop before going to bed, so I'll have to add some pictures later).

Today I took Ky outside since it was a bit warmer to take her 18 month pics before Eric left for work. It's helpful to have him help control her while I try to take the pics. I got several cute ones before we came back in and Eric left for work. Then I planned to wait for Alyssa to come home so I could take both kids to the park after we ran to the vet, but by the time Alyssa got home it was 38 degrees again! ugh. So...no park again, just a run to the vet.

Well..I'll have to post all the pics tomorow...Eric is working 12 hours every day this week and will be getting home REALLY late so I have to be able to get up and get Alyssa ready for school. I need to go to bed early so I can get enough sleep. I'm about an hour later than I planned now, so hopefully I'll do better tomorrow! ha.

Night for now...

Scrap an Event Chat

2006-10-20T03:39:00.000-05:00

Where should I go?

2006-10-19T01:32:00.000-05:00

So...I talked to my best friend, Janelle today. We decided we should pick somewhere and meet for a weekend. I haven't seen her in 2 years now when my family last went to visit her family for her little girl's first birthday. Now we each have another kiddo and haven't had a chance to meet up again for 2 years now. So, the problem now? Where do we go? Who knew given the entire country, it would be so hard to pick A CITY to go to. I'm starting a brainstorming list, but anyone out there that actually reads this have any ideas for a girls weekend getaway? We're not party people, so somewhere we can hang out, catch up, relax, maybe get pampered, and maybe see some fun sights would be great. hmmmm

My computer was out again all day today, and when Eric came home he changed out the network card and now it works again (knock on wood). I'm so behind again on things and I can't believe tomorrow (well today now since it's 1:30 in the morning already) is already THURSDAY? Where did the week go? I need to make my freebies for my chat on Friday night (we'll be scrapping Christmas this week), and I have a loooooong list of things to catch up on as well. It just never ends and this computer crap is not helping. It's just one thing after another every other day. Even though my computer is fixed now, I've lost all the email that was in my inbox! I'm HOPING Eric can find that or get it back for me tomorrow night. Cross your fingers somethign else doesn't come up and this stupid computer is fixed now... I may scream and throw it pretty soon. LOL

Well, I'm trying to decide what to do tonight..go to bed early (praying the computer still works tomorrow) or suck it up and stay up tonight for a while longer so I can work on my freebies for Friday. hmmm

why why why????

2006-10-18T01:48:00.000-05:00

All day yesterday and today my comptuer worked fine while I had no desire to really work on anything. So tonight I was surfing the net looking at some pics on a friends website for a bit. Eric comes home, changes out some network cable (I have no idea why..he just did after looking funny at the network box). After that, he goes up to take a shower and I go to actually work on some design....and guess what??? Everything started freezing up. So, I log out of hello (where I was talking to a friend and my mom) and restart. Now NOTHING wants to work again. siiiiiigh. This is so ridiculous. I truely am not meant to design anything lately. What's the deal? I guess I need to give in, forget about a todo list (it just stresses me out) and just work on Eric's computer to at least try to get OPA's new website content all together. Maybe I could then get SOMETHING done and feel a little less frustrated. So, I guess I'm watching the end of this xfiles show that is on and just going to bed for the night. MAYBE something will work for me tomorrow. I am going to try and take Ky's 18 month pics tomorrow..maybe my camera will be more cooperative than my computer. Though I will need my computer to help me look at them when I'm done! ha uuuugh. :( night night

Home from Chicago

2006-10-17T02:25:00.000-05:00

Well I headed up to Chicago on Saturday afternoon to meet up with some gals from SBB. I meant to leave in the morning so I could go into Chicago and meet up with Lisa W and see some sights and then go back down to Napperville where the SBB gathering was for the crop Saturday night, and to stay with Raechel, Amy, and Robin. Well...I know this is hard to believe for those who know me..but I can actually be a little nervous and shy about heading out to meet a bunch of people by myself. I was afraid I'd end up by myself, hanging out in a hotel all alone, and just plain wishing I was home. On top of that, Eric was actually off for the weekend, and I really wanted to take the girls to a pumpkin patch to get some pictures and such...so I just had a hard time motivating myself to leave Saturday morning. I kept debating whether I should really go or not. I was kinda nervous about driving all the way into Chicago by myself too and didn't really want to pay $40 to park just for a couple of hours....so...I DID finally decide to go, but I left at 12:30 so I just went straight to the hotel in Napperville, hoping I'd be there in time to do a little shopping or something in the area with the girls there. I didn't get there till 2:30 and by then when I called Raechel she said they were already on their way back, so I just went ahead and checked in and waited in our room. About 3:30 Raechel called to tell me they'd be there in about 20 min and to meet them in the lobby and we'd go right to dinner. So I went downstairs after about 15 min and waited......They hit trafic and got lost and such so didn't show up at the hotel until almost 5 PM. By then it was just too late to go out because we needed to be at the hotel by 6:30 for when people might start arriving for the crop. So we ordered in some pizza. I went down to the hotel bar with Robin Cabana about 5:30 and we got a drink and relaxed for a bit and just chatted. About 6 we went back to the room to eat the pizza and gather our things to go downstairs for the crop. About 11 people total showed for the crop, but we didn't get much scrapping done since we were all so busy giggling and having a good time. I thought I took more pictures, but turns out I only took 5! How sad am I? lol Thankfully some of the other girls took more pics and shared them with all of us. Jen Caputo even got a good group shot of everyone.

So...Saturday night Amy and Raechel turned in as they had early flights out and Robin and I sat up chatting till some late hours and then we slept in Sunday morning. We headed out into Napperville to find somewhere to eat lunch and then I finally headed back home about 3:30. Turned out I had a good time. I only wish I could have met up with Lisa W and the other girls downtown to meet them too, but I just didn't have time to go into Chicago and I didn't want to pay $40 to park for just an hour or two - not to mention, it's another hour drive or even an hour by train from Napperville into Chicago. SO...maybe another time. I hope.

Today..I've been soooo tired. I fell asleep on the couch last night after we got home from dinner and the girls went to bed, slept about 2 hours and then got up and checked email and such for abotu an hour. Then I went to bed and actually slept about 8 hours. Then after being up for a few hours this morning, I passed out again and slept for another 2 hours before Eric left for work. I was dragging all day and finally got a bit of energy after the kids were in bed tonight and started on a scrap page. I figured I could be done with this page in about an hour or so and go to bed early, but NO..simple pages always take me forever. LOL

So...here's my page from tonight finally. These are my girls with my friend Shayna's boys last month when we went home. We met up at Chick-fil-a for lunch and the kids had a great time playing in the play room together for about an hour. We braved it and attempted to get a picture of all four of them before we left, and actually managed a few with all 4 looking at us and sitting.

Credits here

OK and with that...I am going to bed now. It's late and all I've done today is load the dishwasher, take care of the kids, and scrap this one page! LOL Mabye I'll have some energy again tomorrow so I can get back to some design that I'm behind on, and some OPA work I REALLY need to get done.

Family Beach picture

2006-10-14T00:42:00.000-05:00

yay! Finally a new page scrapped. See full credits here.

2007 Calendar Templates

2006-10-13T17:32:00.000-05:00

Now available in my store at Digiscrapshak.com Get it this wekend for ONLY $5.00!!!

2006-10-13T17:28:00.000-05:00

see you there

More computer trouble...

2006-10-12T20:46:00.000-05:00

Would you believe? Yep...STILL having computer problems. Seems like everytime I sit down to work or I start to actually get caught up, my computer won't work again and I have to shut it off for several hours. While it's doing it's COOL down, I can work on my laptop, but since I can't access any of my files, I can't really do much other than surf the net. :( When I CAN get on, I've been working on a calendar template - it will have 12 LO templates, and each month's overlay for 2007, this way you can put in any kits you want to use and mix and match the templates you like best. I HOPE to still have these in the store tomorrow. I had meant to have 2 other things up this week, but I don't know that it will happen at this point. siiigh.... So in other news..I bought the girls winter coats, snow pants and snow boots last week because the weather for today predicted SNOW! Can you believe SNOW already? YIKES! Well, they did need the warm coats as it was 32 degrees this morning when Alyssa left for school, but there was no snow. Alyssa was sad, but I'm sure she'll see it soon enough. OH we had a bit of real excitement tonight! I lit the fireplace tonight since it was getting chilly and Alyssa was looking forward to the fireplace...it works so well and produces so much heat! I was in the bathroom giving the girls' their baths when the fire alarms started going off! I had to run around opening doors and windows and figure out how to turn the things off! OOPS. LOL Well, I'm making a quick post for now...getting the kids ready for bed and posting via hello for now. I'll post whatever goodies I have ready for the store tomorrow, and I should have nice little blog freebie/gift for you all soon too (all computer willing).

Rant coming....

2006-10-07T16:41:00.000-05:00

My computer isn't working AGAIN...it's been down Thurs night, all day Friday and now again today. It's actually our network acting up, but because all my files are saved on a HD on the network, I can't access or save anything so I can't work on much of anything. I did some unpacking yesterday to get something done. I also spent hours looking for stuff so I could get all the patches on Alyssa's GS uniform and then we went out for an hour or so to sell her fall product. Dinner took me forever..wasn't going well and I burnt the PEAS! come on! lol About 4 yesterday I truly felt like just going back to bed and starting over...nothing was working for me. So then Eric came home and fixed everything in a few minutes. WHEW so happy I could catch up on stuff finally. So I finished up some freebie stuff to send Lisa, then helped Eric do some more unpackign in the office. He went to bed about 1:30 or so and I was going to work on some other stuff I had due today...and sure enough..computer wouldn't work again. So after trying for a little while I gave up and just went to bed. Today it finally allowed me to check my email and work on things. I logged in to catch up on the forums at SBB and DSS, then went to the bathroom and was going to work on the stuff due today...when I came back...everything was down again. :-( I guess I'm just meant to do any designing this week. ugh. Have I mentioned my dryer sucks now too? It doesn't dry! It requires running each load for 80 min about 5 times to finally get the load dry enough to take it out. So needless to say, it takes days to do each load of laundry. Eric is working again - both days this weekend and then said he's working 12 hour days again Mon and Tues...sigh... I'm beginning to get really lonely, and he's gone so much I can't really get out to meet anyone. I think this is why I've way overcommitted myself to things...keeps from foucusing on how alone I am. Plus, I suppose I volunteer too in hopes that I will get to meet someone and it gets us out of the house some. I feel like I'm becomming such a hermit. Days just run together here, the only difference between a week day and weekend day, is that Alyssa is here on the weekend days to hang out with me. :-(.....ok...sorry...one long rambling post (did it in hello where I can't hit return)....done with my woe-me rant and rambling...

Scrap an Event Chat Tonight at SBB

2006-10-06T02:37:00.000-05:00

We'll be scrapping about friendship tonight! Join me in the chat room at SBB at 11 PM Est.

I am still alive

2006-10-06T00:40:00.000-05:00

Sorry I haven't done any real blogging in so long. It's been a couple of tough weeks. My brother left last week to go to Iraq and every time I thought (and even still now) of him it would just bring me to tears. I'm not so much scared that he will be hurt, he's really going to do a relatively safe job (well, as safe as one can actually be in a war zone), and in my heart I really know he'll be ok, but for some reason I'm still just really upset about it. Maybe it's just the idea that my little brother has to go and be in such a horrific situation. I know my parents are having a really hard time sending their only son, and baby off to war and that may be part of what upsets me - knowing how hard this is for them. I think of his wife left behind, and though I know she's very strong and will keep herself busy, I remember how hard it could be to get through even the regular 6 month deployments with my husband. I don't think I can even comprehend saying good bye to him for a year to go to a WAR. I guess it will just take time from all of us to accept his being gone and worry less about him. He's called my mom a couple of times now and says he's ok and it's not as bad as he expected, but he's not in Iraq yet...he's in Kuwait for a couple of weeks right now. We're planning to try and do care packages for him each month to let him know we miss him and are thinking about him. I know Alyssa is really upset too about him being gone, but she doesn't really understand the danger of where he is. She just knows he's gone for a long time and he's fighting the bad guys. sigh...

In addition to worrying about my brother a good online scrapping friend of mine lost her son in a freak skateboarding accident. He was killed immidately upon impact. I've been thinking about her and praying for peace for her and family every day. I just can't imagine that I'd even be able to function, and yet she is so strong and has such awesome faith - she truly is amazing. The digi communitiy is so wonderful, over 40 designers came together so we could make an amazing kit in her honor. The kit turned out HUGE and ended up split into 6 kits! All the procedes from the sale of the kits goes to my friend Gina and her family to help with the costs of Nick's funeral and such. You can pick up this gorgeous kit at SBB. The entire thing is $20 or get the individual parts for $5 each.

Gina, I continue to think and pray for you every day. I hope the coming days as everyone returns back to "normal" things are not too terribly painful for you.

So I haven't been blogging because my mind has been busy worrying and thinking of my brother and my family, and Gina's family, and last week I was just so tired. Eric has been working many 12 hour days last week and this week, and I've just not been getting all the sleep I need between going to bed late and getting up early. It's been tough adjusting to Eric's new schedule since getting out of the Navy, but lately it's been even harder with him working weekends and 12 hours days too.

On to some other more chipper news...

Have I mentioned I LOVE my new fridge? lol We got a newer and larger fridge when we moved into this house and I really really like it! I can get so much more in the freezer and the fridge, and the water dispenser measures out water for me! This is so handy...when you're cooking, or filling up something large! You can set it to whatever amount you need and let it go while you grab other stuff. No getting out measuring cups either. ha! the little things...what can I say...easily amused I guess. hehe The only down side...keeping stainless steel clean and free of little people finger prints is a pain the butt! LOL

Speaking of new things...we also got a new vacuum...very cool too. Now I have one upstairs and one downstairs so I don't have to drag it up and down the stairs to clean. :-) The upstairs one cleans quite well, pushes very easily, and is very handy for cleaning the stairs too.

Another new love - the PLAY ROOM! At first Kyleigh would barely have anything to do with it, but it turns out it's because it was a HUGE mess and she couldn't find anywhere to sit in there and play. I spent many hours last week cleaning it up and getting everything organized and put away in there, and now she actually plays in there! yay!! This is great when I want to sit down and work on the computer for a little while because the playroom is downstairs with the computer room (it's really all one big room that we've divided up using the furniture) so I can watch her while I work. Eric still has to make the new shelving for the playroom, but for now it's functional and the kids like it, and so does mommy! hehe

oh..a rant now...SO frustrated with the phone company. Let me recommend..if you move or want to set up phone service with AT&T, DON'T DO IT ONLINE! They give you free installation if you do it online, so we though GREAT we can save $40! YEAH..they sure make you work for it! There system SUCKS! It keeps restarting while you're going through it, and we had to call them to put our address in the system so we could do it anyhow. After about 10 attempts, Eric finally got all the way through the process and it gave him a number, said they'd hook us up this week on Monday between 8-12 and sent him an email saying they had our order and would be sending a confirmation email in 3 business days. Well, Monday came (mind you the order was done last week about tuesday), we still hadn't received an email, Eric didn't writed down the phone number because he expected it would be in the email, and about 2 PM, noone had still come or called. So, I called them. Found out somehow their system input us as a completely different city and told them there was already service at that address, so they just didn't finish the order. Didn't bother to contact us or anything. After a good 1 1/2 hours on the phone I had a new order finally placed for the correct city, a new phone number, and they told me they couldn't come hook us up now until next week on Wed! I was a little upset since I'd already waited a week and didn't care to wait another, but we really don't have much choice. Not a lot of phone choices here. They had me call the installation department and they told me they could come this Friday! Still not as soon as I'd like, but better than having to wait until next week. SO...we'll see if they actually show tomorrow and if my phone finally works!

Well this posting has taken me a few attempts to get this much down, so I think I'll call it enough for this round. Will have to come back with more info later.

Tough week, but some scrapping this weekend

2006-10-01T02:18:00.000-05:00

I really need to blog..but it's been a hard week physically and emotionally...

so for now...a couple pages I finally scrapped.

{Water Day}

credits here

{Hugs}

credits here

Scrap an Event Chat Tonight at SBB

2006-09-29T16:40:00.000-05:00

Tonight's event "Water Fun" Hope to see you all there - 11 PM EST SBB chatroom.

New items and 25% off!

2006-09-28T16:23:00.000-05:00

my store

Winning Name and a SALE!

2006-09-27T21:35:00.000-05:00

Thanks so much to everyone that came out to offer names. That was a tough choice!! I was so worried that no one would stop by my blog to try and name it!!! You all are so awesome! All the names were so fantastic.

I came down to two names....Juicy Fruit and Tropical Smoothie (reminded me of those smoothie mix skittles mmmmm) LOL....

and the winning name is:

Congratulations, Jo! I loved the yummy name "Juicy Fruit" If you will email me at sarah@sarahs-scraps.com I will email you a download link for the kit. :-)

And, because I loved the Tropical Smoothie name too, I'll be email you, Shayna, with a coupon code for $2.50 good for anything in my store at Digiscrapshak.com.

Everything in my store will be 25% off starting tomorrow (Thursday) through Sunday!

Juicy Fruit and 3 other new items will all be in the store and are ALL included in the sale!!

Also don't forget the Flavors of Summer Collection is on sale through the 1st as well at Scrapbook-bytes.com! Stop by and get the entire collection (6 full kits) for $22 this week!!!! You can also pick up individual kits for only $4.40 each. After the 1st, they go up to $25 for the collection and $5 for each kit.

Lastly, don't forget to pick up your raffle tickets for the Canon Digital Rebel while you're shopping at DSS this week...only a few more days till the drawing.

Name me and WIN me...

2006-09-25T12:12:00.000-05:00

Well I have this new kit ready to put in the store at DSS, but I don't really know what to name it...I guess I could really think and think and probably come up with SOMETHING...but I thought, HEY wouldn't it be fun to put it up on my blog and see what others can come up with?? YEP...I do think that would be fun.

SO...please post your name ideas in the comments section by Wednesday, Sept 27 (11 AM Central), and I will give the kit free to the person that comes up with the name I choose! :-) I'll post the winning name sometime Wed or Thurs depending on how hard it is to decide. LOL THANKS in ADVANCE for everyone's help!

Please be sure to leave your name or something in the comment for me to identify you!!!

Do you want to win an AWESOME digital camera????

2006-09-25T00:38:00.000-05:00

Have you heard??? YOU CAN WIN A DIGITAL REBEL!!! There are three ways to win (but you have to get your ticket before the 30th - you a WEEK LEFT!). You can buy the ticket, get one with a purchase over $20, or get one with your paid membership at DSS. I will be putting up several new kits this week at DSS and having a mini sale, so take advantage of it, get some great goodies and a chance to WIN AN AWESOME CAMERA!!! :-) (click on the camera picture and it should take you to the store where you can buy a ticket).

ALSO...while you are shopping at DSS, don't forget about this HUGE Metal Pack that all of us designers there contributed to. It has 309 pieces and SIX alphas in it and is only $5.99 till Oct. 1 . Pick it up here.

Ok with that...I'm heading off to bed. I promise...a REAL post this week..not just ads and previews. :-)

Night.

Flavors of Summer Blog Winner

2006-09-24T22:30:00.000-05:00

The Flavors of Summer Blog contest winner was Deb06! Congratulations!

Thanks to everyone that came to the chat tonight too and all the awesome layouts you all did!!

The collection, and individual kits are all in the store at SBB now and on sale until Oct 1. Be sure to pick up while the price is low!!!

:-) Sarah

Flavors of Chat tonight!!!

2006-09-24T17:26:00.000-05:00

Tonight's the big night!!! Don't forget to stop in for the chat. Freebie for all who attend, and several prizes. Be prepared to scrap with the freebie to be eligible for the biggest prizes - the full collection free and the 50% off coupon! SBB, chat room 10 PM Est!!

I recently scrapped a page of Kyleigh at the parade last weekend using the Watermelon kit from the Flavors of Summuer Collection. :-)

Ky Parade

Thought I'd also share some of the fabulous LOs my CT has been working on the past week with this collection:

Watermelon: Sonya

Mint Chocolate Chip: Sondie

Chocolate Sundae: Gina

Lemonade Stand: Lisa B

Iced Tea: Geri

Popsicle: Geri

Full credits, and MANY more LOs all found in this special FOS gallery:

Flavors of Summer Collection - Blog Contest

2006-09-23T00:19:00.000-05:00

Don't forget... the launch chat is tomorrow!!! We'll be giving a sample from the collection FREE for attending...will be scrapping (so pick out some pictures), and several prizes to give away (one will be the entire collection FREE!)

In addition.... we are having a BLOG trivia contest.

You will need to visit each of our blogs (links below) to get each trivia question.
Then you need to go find the answers to all three questions.
Be the first to email ALL THREE CORRECT answers to: sarah@sarahs-scraps.com
Be SURE you put "FOS Blog Contest" in the subject line. If you don't, your email may not sort into the right folder and may get missed.
In your email, be sure to put your first and last name, username at SBB, and your email address.
The winner will be announced in the Chat Sunday night and posted on our blogs.
Winner will win: (1) One free kit from the Flavors of Summer Collection of your choice!

**Sarah's Question below**

QUESTION:

Who opened the first commercial ice cream factory, what year and what city was it in?

Remember to check out Raechel's Blog and Lisa's Blog to see what questions they post some time today.

Tonight's Scrap an Event Chat at SBB

2006-09-22T16:49:00.000-05:00

Tonights Chat/Crop - Carnival or theme park (or carnival themed costumes...whatever works for you!). See you tonight at SBB. Post by 11:59 Saturday night.

We have blinds!

2006-09-21T01:38:00.000-05:00

Yep..we finally bought blinds over the weekend and have most of them up..we now have some privacy! whoo hoo. AND we've got most of the upstairs unpacked. We're getting closer, but still have LOT to do. Today I worked on unpacking boxes of stuff that goes in my scrapping cabinet. Man I really have a ton of crap! LOL

I really think I've totally over extended myself again these days, but I'm hoping it will be better when we've finished all this unpacking. I've committed to volunteering in Alyssa's classroom and as a Girl Scout Leader again this year. This all on top of my OPA responsibilities and trying to start this digi scrap designer stuff. I still want to try and start my own photography biz too, but for right now I'm trying to save up some money to buy some extra equipement, and I'll need to put together my portfolio, get some more practice and make some contacts...so I assume that is still a little ways off at least.

Anyway...I've been so consumed with trying to finish up the Summer of Flavors Collection with Raechel and Lisa that will be released this Sunday (preview in previous post) and moving, an a trip to San Antonio....etc.... that I haven't posted anything new in the store at DSS in almost 2 weeks :-( . I put together another Snappy Scraps (templates) collection today and submitted it that, so finally there will be something new probably tomorrow. I have a few other goodies up my sleeve to be coming soon and in the coming months. :-)

OH..and I reduced the price of all my snappy scraps collections, they are now $2.50 for each collection of 3. :-)

Snappy Scraps Collection 6

Flavors of Summer!!

2006-09-20T01:44:00.000-05:00

Here it is...the collaboration collection I've been working on some time now with Raechel Knight and Lisa Weisenberger.

Join us in the SBB chat room on Sunday night for the launch.
We'll have a freebie and prizes and have lots of fun!
The collection will go up for sale at SBB on Sunday at a discounted rate for the first week.

OH and be sure to stop by here again later this week to watch for the blog contest to go with the release!