Life is Art

I’ve Moved!

2010-06-08T14:28:00.001-07:00

I’m consolidating some of my locations on the WWW and I’ll no longer be updating this blog. Please visit: http://www.ThePixelGypsy.com for all my latest ramblings and updates.

See you there!

Scrapping, Hair & Halloween?

2010-05-24T21:55:00.001-07:00

Whenever I scrap more than 1 layout in a month, I feel like I should throw myself some sort of party. I’m continually amazed at how many layouts some of my digi-scrapping friends churn out in a month's time, and know that the measly 3 or 4 that get me all excited and feeling accomplished look paltry in comparison—but hey, that’s the way it works for me. I have 3 creative mojo modes: design-mojo, scrap-mojo and something-else-mojo (the latter meaning that I’m pouring my creativity into something completely non-scrap related). So yes, I feel a personal sense of pride when I’ve experienced more than one round of scrap-mojo in the span of a month. This month I’ve managed to scrap…

…an old picture of Madison (her hair is SO short! I forgot that it was ever that short) with a kit from my girl Amanda, called "Like Totally" that fit that crazy, funky outfit my little diva is sporting

…a few recent pictures of Madison that just blow me away every time I look at them because I can’t believe how grown up she looks, using some products from Dysfunctional Design

…and one last recent photo of Madison in a rare moment where she was unaware of the camera (those are always my favorites), using the collab that I did with Dysfunctional Design (which is pretty damn gorgeous, if I do say so myself!)

A little over a week ago, I went into a salon and got a major hair overhaul. When I went in my hair was about 6” shy of being waist length, and was dark, dark brown. I came out with a short cut (the longest hair on my head is now my bangs) and a color that is much, much closer to my natural golden blonde (ultimately I want it quite a bit lighter still, but I have to take that in phases, despite my impatience). Because I babied the heck out of my hair with the exception of the repeated coloring, I was able to donate the length to Locks of Love. I felt a certain measure of pride when the stylist told me that I could donate it because it was in such good condition. I hadn’t had a haircut since 2006 aside from my own time spent playing search and destroy for split ends (yes, I actually did sit and pick through my hair looking for splits and clipping them off one by one). I used sulfate-free shampoo, did protein packs twice a month and rarely ever dried my hair with a blow drier or heat styled it. It’s hard work taking good care of long hair, but I was happy to be able to donate it because I didn’t think I’d be able to due to the repeated coloring. And let me just say that I’m tickled to death with how quick washing/drying/styling my hair is now! I’m going to save a bundle in shampoo and conditioner too! ;) Alas I’ve yet to get any good pictures of my new, short hair. There’s a reason why 99% of the time I’m behind the camera rather than in front of it. I’m just more comfortable that way. ;)

Finally, we’re in full swing with Halloween planning and prep in the Piegdon household. Yes, you read that right. I said Halloween. For those of you who don’t know, we throw a large, pretty involved Halloween party each year for the big “kids.” We started hosting the party in 2006 and each year we’ve started the planning process earlier and earlier. Both Scott and I feel a certain drive (and dare I say, expectation?) to make the party bigger and better than the year before and that takes time and a LOT of planning. We started getting down to business last week and as of tonight we have the party theme chosen, the invitations designed, some niggling concerns from last year addressed with new ways of doing a couple things, our party favor gift packs planned (we’re now in the process of finding affordable vendors for a few of the more niche items), and some new features planned. No costumes for us have been officially chosen, which weirds me out a bit because usually, I know very early on what the winning choice is. This year’s decision isn’t as easy as years past. We’ll soon be having serious decor discussions and I need to try to find a couple of the recipes that went over well from last year because my party files seem to have gotten lost in my computer move. :( I wish I could be less cryptic about the specific details of what we’ve decided on, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise for those who attend the party and may be reading this. I promise I will blog a post-party rundown though, as I’m really excited about some of the things we have going on and really want to share. :)

Well, that’s all for me tonight. I feel the need to crawl under the covers and warm up. I managed to get myself a decent sunburn during my walk today and the AC feels twice as cold as it normally does (which means I’m feeling the deepfreeze over here!).

Catching Up

2010-05-11T20:37:00.001-07:00

Normally when I haven’t blogged in a while it’s because I don’t have much to say or nothing new has been going on and I figure who wants to hear about the same old stuff all the time. I haven’t blogged lately because we’ve been doing a lot and I’m trying really hard to take my extra time and do fun stuff like fit in more reading time or relax and play a game with the kiddos or hubby.

Now that we’ve finished up the office and are slowly really getting everything that belongs back in the room, we’re moving on to other projects. Before I mention those, I figured I’d post the after pictures of the office and the bathroom that’s off of our office.

Here are two shots of the bathroom, which was originally supposed to be dark gray, but the paint had much more of a blue tone to it, so we kind of changed gears half way through and went with it. Luckily, the brown flooring we chose worked perfectly. I love this bathroom now!

I’d taken some pictures after we got the office furniture assembled, but before the chairs were delivered (good riddance to our old chairs!). I love that our desks are side-by-side now (the room is really narrow and we used to sit with our backs to each other) and that we have a shared workspace created by the two returns that are backed up to one another. I seriously dig the new track lighting too.

Our new chairs are Herman-Miller Embody chairs and are seriously the most comfortable desk chairs I’ve ever sat in. Scott’s old chair was an Aeron (also by Herman-Miller) and that was nice, but nothing in comparison to the Embody. We also got a side chair for when we have someone over in the office (usually one of Scott’s friends) that is covered in the same fabric as our chairs. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a photo that really shows the true, gorgeous mulberry color of the fabric. :( Note the cool, spine-looking frame of the back of the chair. I think it makes for a really interesting look, even from the back.

Now we’ve moved on to getting some new stuff for the family room, including replacing our widescreen LCD tv with the projector and motorized screen that Scott’s been wanting for—well, pretty much as long as I’ve known him. The current seating in that room is horribly uncomfortable—to the point where we never watch tv in there anymore because my butt literally goes numb when I sit for longer than 15 minutes—so we’re getting a new sectional sofa to go with the projector. We had to install some room darkening blinds on the 5 windows in the room because the thin weave curtains I had up just weren’t cutting it. I was happy that we were able to have the blinds cut down to fit inside the window casing and I was able to put the curtains back up. If you’re ever in the market for some room darkening blinds, I recommend the cellular shades made by Levolor. We were able to have them cut to fit at Lowe’s for no extra charge, they were super easy to install and they make the room completely dark during the day time.

In between the completion of the office and deciding we were getting some new toys for the family room, I painted our full bath downstairs, got an étagère for over the toilet, new shower curtain, painted the frame on the existing mirror over the vanity and did some overall organizing. There are a couple things I need to get for the walls in there and that room will finally be totally complete after being only what I would consider half-done since we moved in—four years ago. :p

In the family room there will be no painting or flooring changes, thank goodness! I still love the red and brown that’s on the walls and when we moved in there was already a really nice, large ceramic tile on the floor, so aside from putting the new furniture in and having the video components installed, that room just needs to be majorly organized since it ended up as the catch-all while we were clearing out the office.

After that, I’m moving on to the living room. :D I have a definite plan for that room, I just haven’t really started putting the pieces together yet. While I’m at it, I’m going to give the hallway between the living/dining/kitchen and family/bedroom/office areas a badly needed coat of paint and finally get some of the family photos up on the walls there. I’m sure I’ll round out the kitchen with some fresh paint too, but I’m not really thinking that far ahead yet. I’m kind of on a redecorating kick and the hubby isn’t putting up any complaints so I’m taking him up on it. ;)

Write On Challenge & Latest Challenge Winner!

2010-04-21T09:14:00.001-07:00

Happy hump day friends! Before I get to the new challenge for today, let’s take a look at the winning layout from the last 1-2-3 Challenge. Congratulations to Melissa, who wins any kit of her choice from my shoppe!

Melissa, to claim your prize, browse thru the kits HERE and then send me an email (sherrie [at] pixelgypsydesigns [dot] com) letting me know which kit you’d like!

Now on to our next challenge! It’s a Write On Challenge, which means there is some journaling involved, but have no fear. Even those of you who aren’t so hip to lots of journaling on your pages are going to find this one easy-peasy!

I myself am not a prolific journaler. Every once in a while I’ll include a short paragraph, but I’m not a scrapper who gets into lengthy writing on her pages. One way I really like to incorporate text that has meaning to me on a page is via lists. They’re virtually painless to write and they do a great job of providing the snapshot of info on the subject of the layout.

For this Write On Challenge, I want you to create a favorites list of some kind. In my layout, I documented my son’s list of favorites for this month (because you know it changes often!). You can follow my lead, or you can create a favorites of the year list, favorites of all time, favorite foods, favorite music, favorite…anything! The sky is the limit on how you choose to form and focus your list—it just has to be there. There are also no rules on how many items you have to include on your list. Be as short or lengthy as you please. :)

Prize: One winner will receive their choice of any one element pack from my shoppe.

Deadline: Please link me up to your layout challenge layout in the comments of this post no later than Tuesday, May 4th.

I can’t wait to see your list!

Spring Cleaning Layout

2010-04-15T12:51:00.001-07:00

I got to busy scrapping with the new Spring Cleaning kit from Dysfunctional Design (that’s my girl Ami) yesterday. It’s not often that I do a layout without any photos, but I’m quite happy with how this one turned out:

Here’s the fab kit I used for it (it’s 20% off today—woot!)

What’s rather ironic about this layout is that it seems that I’ve been doing a LOT of cleaning over the past month. With the office re-decorating, we had to empty the room and that meant sorting and cleaning through one of the most oft-used rooms in the house (let me tell you, 4 years worth of stuff piles up while you’re not looking). I’m trying really hard to get better about my organizational systems so I can have a fairly neat house without a ton of effort. Madison’s even getting on the bandwagon, purging some of the toys that she never plays with in order to help her keep better order of the ones she does play with. I was very proud of how much she removed from her room yesterday. If she’s anything like I was when I was a kid, it was hard to pick and choose which to keep and which were going to go.

The weather is gorgeous here today. You know it’s getting to be summery weather when I have to literally push the dog outside. :p He’s already starting to blow his coat, so it shouldn’t be quite *this* miserable for him too much longer. He has a lot of winter fur to get rid of. He should really stop being lazy about that task. ;)

Anyhoo….hope everyone is having such a beautiful, sunshiny day!

Cool Digi Stuff & More!

2010-04-12T15:34:00.001-07:00

Happy Monday all! This weekend was the wrap up of spring break in our corner of the world and I know Nicholas and I are happy to have our routine back. Madison wasn’t ready to go back to school, but she perked up last night when I pointed out how close summer vacation really is now. She’s such an easy kid to cheer up—we just have to help her re-frame her perspective once in a while. ;)

I know I haven’t been too regular on posting Cool Digi Stuff the past Mondays, but with the {near} completion of our office, the kidlets’ return to school and my improved health I’m ready to get back at it. In fact, today I’m pointing you toward some freebies that are going to keep on giving for a while! (Does that make up for a less than stellar posting record?)

In case you’re not aware, Little Dreamer Designs is running their apprentice program again and it just started. That means for the coming weeks you’re going to have the opportunity to download the great freebies these designers create as they move through the competition. The Round 1 freebies can be found HERE. Don’t wait around to download though, because I believe they’re available only for a limited time. Then keep checking back HERE for subsequent freebies from future rounds as the competition tightens!

It’s time for another Pixel Peek from me too! I have a new kit hitting my shoppe on Wednesday—here’s a little peek:

Oh, and hey—don’t forget about the 1-2-3 Challenge going on right now here on my blog. You still have until next Tuesday to whip up an awesome layout for yourself following the challenge rules and I’ll be picking a winner who will receive a free kit of their choice from my shoppe. Check it out if you haven’t already!

Until next time…happy scrapping!

1-2-3 Challenge!

2010-04-08T13:02:00.001-07:00

I’m back with your challenge for the next two weeks, and this one is a 1-2-3 Challenge. That means I’ll be giving you 3 steps to follow when creating your layout. You’re not restricted to only the three steps (meaning you can add more to your layout), but you must include the steps to be eligible to win the prize.

Challenge Steps:

Use a stitched border on your page.
Use a combination of 1 alpha and 1 font for your page title.
Use a stamp of some sort on your page.

Here is my layout example (click for full-sized image):

Prize: One winner will receive a kit of their choosing from my shoppe.

Deadline: Link me up to your completed layout in the comment section of this post no later than Tuesday, April 20th in order to be eligible for the prize.

I look forward to seeing your layouts!

Twist-a-Lift Winner

2010-04-07T19:16:00.001-07:00

I’m running behind on the new challenge for this week. I will have that posted for you tomorrow…but in the meantime I can announce the winner of the Twist-a-Lift challenge. :)

Congratulations to RealRach, who is our winner and gets her pick of a product from ListGirlDesigns.com!

(click for full-sized view)

Rach, please send me an email at sherrie[at]pixelgypsydesigns[dot]com about your prize! Thanks for playing along, and a huge thank you to Christine (List Girl Designs) for sponsoring the challenge!!

I’ll be back tomorrow with a new challenge. Thanks for bearing with me. :) My office still isn’t quite back together again yet, but at least I’m back at my computer. ;)

Twist-a-Lift Challenge

2010-03-24T07:48:00.001-07:00

Before I get to today’s challenge, I need to announce the winner of my last On Topic challenge. I’ve chosen Carol as the winner because I really, really enjoyed the journaling on her page. It was honest, funny and I can really relate to her message.

Congratulations Carol! Please email me at sherrie [at] pixelgypsydesigns [dot] com to collect your prize! Thanks to both Carol and Cari who played along with my very first challenge here on my blog! Now….on to the NEW challenge!

This time around the challenge prize is being sponsored by my friend Christine, a.k.a List Girl Designs! Since I admire Christine as both a designer and a scrapper, I thought it would be fun to Twist-a-Lift of one her layouts. :D So, your challenge is to lift this layout by Christine, but put your own twist on it. Your twist could be to change the orientation of the layout, flip the journaling to the other side, use one photo instead of two, twist the lift in any way you please, just be sure to put your own personal stamp on the lift.

“I wanna be a cat” by Christine (click image for full size layout & credits)

Deadline: Post a link to your lift in the comments of this post no later than April 6th to be eligible for the prize. Check back on April 7th to see if you’ve won!

Prize: Your product of choice from www.ListGirlDesigns.com. :)

I look forward to seeing your layouts!

Cool Digi Stuff—So Very Late

2010-03-17T10:09:00.001-07:00

So, Cool Digi Stuff is supposed to be posted on Monday, and here it is Wednesday. I apologize for the delay—profusely. Monday morning I decided it was time to finally “Spongebob-ify” Nicholas’s room (which had been on my to-do list for some time), including emptying the room and painting it. Somewhere in the midst of emptying his room (and getting rid of a few other things in this house we didn’t need), I did something horrible to my back. For the remainder of Monday afternoon as I worked painting the room (with the help of the super-hubbins—without him, the room definitely wouldn’t have gotten finished at the slower pace I was reduced to), I felt the pain every time I moved. By the time the painting was finished, I could barely move. There was no way I could sit and blog. Sadly, going to the bathroom was difficult even. The spasms I was having felt much like the back-labor I experienced when having Madison. Unfortunately, this time I didn’t have a sweet little baby to look forward to and help me look at the positive side of the pain. Yesterday saw an improvement and today as well, but I know I won’t be spending much time here at my desk still because I’m starting to feel more and more uncomfortable as I type. So….on to the Cool Digi Stuff!

Drop Shadow Tutorial from Peppermint
Ok…I’ll admit it (and have admitted it to her)—I have a total scrap-crush on Peppermint. Now she’s gone and posted a tutorial on how she does her drop shadows, pushing her into the realm of total scrap goddess! You can find the tutorial here on her blog. I can’t wait to give her smudge and shadow duplication steps a try!

That’s all I’m going to post for you today. Now I’m apologizing for being late and only sharing one thing with you (but hey…it’s a real quality item!). Have a great St. Pattie’s Day!

10 True Things

2010-03-12T17:05:00.001-08:00

A couple of days ago, my friend Christine tagged me with the Honest Scrap award, so here I am to list my 10 truths and pass this on to a few other people. I have to warn you though, I’m not sure I’m what would be considered a horribly interesting person—so you may find yourself snoring loudly by number 5….

I seriously love fairies and my collection encompasses figurines, paperweights, books, calendars, paintings, Christmas ornaments, shirts, pajamas and socks.
I also have a thing for post-it notes. I have all sorts of shapes, colors and sizes—and often find myself unwilling to use my extra cute ones. It’s kind of like burning a pretty candle (yes, I find that hard to do too!).
I play World of Warcraft and am fluent in the lingo. If you know what “5k gs dps lfg for ICC” means, you’re my kind of person!
I have many sets of polyhedron dice and still shop for more even though I haven’t played a tabletop RPG since getting into World of Warcraft.
I am just about the furthest thing you can get from being a neat-freak. If there is visible surface area on my desk it’s most likely because I got fed up with not being able to find my keyboard under all the stuff that finds its way there.
I stay up really late. I’m rarely in bed before 2 a.m. on weeknights and on Fridays & Saturdays, it’s often later. I am a night owl stuck in a morning person’s world.
I consume copious amounts of caffeine (see truth no. 6). From 7 a.m. until about 3 in the afternoon it’s coffee. After that, it’s Mt. Dew until my head hits the pillow. I generally get my daily H20 from my coffee. That counts, right?
I’m totally into True Blood, Entourage, Big Love, Nurse Jackie, Californication & The Tudors. Rome and The Sopranos used to occupy that list as well, until HBO took them off air. *sniff*
Halloween is my absolute. favorite. holiday. ever. Even though I spend months of time and God knows how much money planning our Halloween party (with a ton of help from the Hubbins, of course!), there isn’t enough time or money to plan my dream party. Well, maybe….if we stopped paying the mortgage, feeding & clothing the kids and I stopped doing all of the things I do in a day….but I digress.
I covet my red Swingline stapler. “And I said, I don't care if they lay me off either, because I told, I told Bill that if they move my desk one more time, then, then I'm, I'm quitting, I'm going to quit. And, and I told Don too, because they've moved my desk four times already this year, and I used to be over by the window, and I could see the squirrels, and they were married, but then, they switched from the Swingline to the Boston stapler, but I kept my Swingline stapler because it didn't bind up as much, and I kept the staples for the Swingline stapler and it's not okay because if they take my stapler then I'll set the building on fire...”

Now that I’ve done my part, I’m going to pass this award on to Cari, Carol, Whit, Holly, & Ami!

A Pixel Peek!

2010-03-11T13:12:00.001-08:00

I’m just popping in to post a little peek of a fun new kit I made that’s releasing tomorrow. The weather in my corner of the world lately couldn’t be better to work on something like this too! ;) You’ll be able to pick this kit up tomorrow morning (around 10 a.m.) in my shoppe.

Aside from packaging my kit up, I’m trying to find the motivation to do some more work in this office. We’re in the process of sorting through the mountain of stuff that’s been stuffed into the this room over the past couple of years so we can get the walls painted, carpet torn out and floor laid. This office is one of the most used rooms in our house and consequently seems to be a catch-all for all sorts of items from the kids’ toys & games, to books & magazines, to my extra linens—along with the “normal” stuff you’d find in an office. Scott and I are also bad about not sorting through our paperwork in a timely fashion and instead making tidy little piles that eventually turn into not-so-tidy, large piles. So there are lots of papers to go through as well.

I’m feeling a little more motivated than I was a week ago to get this ball rolling though. We spent a few hours doing some sorting and organizing in here yesterday and we also finally got the swatch for the chair fabric and I fell in love. Now I’m nearly salivating for my new, awesome desk chair. That’s helping light a bit of a fire under me. ;) I suppose it seems a bit silly to be excited about a chair, but I can’t help it. Scott’s finally retiring his Aeron chair that he got as a bonus when he was contracted to work on Herman Miller’s website (he noticed, happily, that a good portion of what they built is still being used on the HM site, even though the look has changed). After some debating and deep thought, we decided to go with Herman Miller’s new Embody chair. The Aeron chair has been good to Scott….and can’t be overlooked for it’s durability. He’s had that chair for about 10 years now. It’s survived 4 moves, and has been carried all over the house, bounced off the walls, subjected to Nicholas (who is just mean to furniture), sustained the weight of an adult man and two kids as they climbed all over him at the same time and a million more punishments that I’m sure I’m forgetting. Though all of that, aside from the recline control that finally gave out, the chair has held up well. It was hard for me to discount all of that when we were discussing which chair model to get—but the Embody has some features I just couldn’t ignore (like adjustable seat length—great for a long-legged person like me, a flexible, “spine-like” back, and reviews that touted no specific points of pressure when sitting in the chair), plus I think the chair design is just rockin’ cool.

I think my backside is going to be particularly grateful to me when it’s parked in this new chair. Despite having chronic coccyx (that’s your tailbone, in case you’re wondering) pain for the past 9 years, I’ve never “spoiled” myself enough to spend good money on a desk chair. As a result, I spend my computer time (which is copious, I’ll admit) shifting my weight from one *ahem* butt cheek to another to keep as much weight and pressure off of my tailbone as possible. This means that for about….oh….60% of my day, my back is forced out of alignment into a horribly unnatural position. Though the backaches I get aren’t even a shade of what I feel in my tailbone if I sit "properly", I am kind of worried about what it will do to me down the road. And in all reality, it seemed silly to be a cheapskate about a piece of furniture I spend so much time in. Yes, the price of one chair is about what we paid for the sofa in our living room—but you know what? We hardly ever use that room and I had no problem springing the money for that. So I figure, this time around, my butt deserves it. :p

On Topic Challenge

2010-03-10T06:42:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my first challenge posting here on my blog!

When pondering what this first challenge would be, my mind wandered to the fact that I’ve been going through a lot of change in my life lately—change in my business, change in my home (we’re getting ready to remodel our office), and change in my personal priorities, just to name a few. So, I decided that this first challenge would be an “On Topic” challenge and I’d like you to scrap about change in your life. You can scrap (like I did) about the growth of a child, how you or your significant other has changed over the years (physically, mentally or emotionally), a move, a new car, a new job, changes you are trying or hoping to make in your life—the possibilities are endless.

You can scrap with or without photos, with a lot of journaling or just a line or two (or if your title says all you want to say, that’s fine too), and with any supplies you’d like and in any style that suits your fancy. Just make sure that the topic of your page revolves around change.

Here’s my “change” layout documenting how much my daughter has grown and changed in the past 6 years:

[Click here for credits]

Deadline: Link me up to your change layout in the comments of this post no later than March 23rd to be eligible for the prize! (To leave your link, click the post title and leave your comment at the bottom of the page).

Prize: Any alpha pack or single template of your choice from my shoppe here.

I will choose my favorite layout and post the winner’s name when I post the next challenge.

Happy Scrapping!

Cool Digi Stuff

2010-03-08T07:53:00.000-08:00

Power Scrapping with Katie the Scrapbook Lady
I don’t often have an over-abundance of time to read digi scrap articles, but I came across Power Scrapping—Digi Style by Katie the Scrapbooking Lady last summer and thought the way Katie approaches tackling several layouts at one time to be very neat. In this article she covers her workflow for creating 3 layouts simultaneously. Check it out. You may find yourself adapting her power scrapping concept to your own scrapping!

Random Alphabet & Random Numbers
Check out these very cool products from Dysfunctional Design for original titles and numbering on your pages (images are lined):

Hope you enjoy this Cool Digi Stuff!

Challenges coming soon!

2010-03-06T17:10:00.001-08:00

I know I’ve mentioned before that I have a major goal for getting more pages scrapped. I decided it might be fun to start posting a challenge here on my blog every so often. I will post 2 challenges per month and anyone participating in the challenge will have a week to complete their challenge layout and link me up in the comments to the challenge post. From the submitted links I’ll pick my favorite layout and the winner will get a little prize. What will the prizes be? Who knows? Sometimes it may be a gift code for my store, a special little freebie or a prize donated by one of my designing friends. I will post the prize announcement when I post the challenge, so you know what you have a chance to win while playing along.

Be on the lookout for the first challenge to be posted this coming Wednesday! I hope that you’ll play along with me!

I love new stuff!

2010-03-04T09:39:00.001-08:00

A couple of weeks ago the hubbins said to me, out of the blue, “we’re getting you a new computer.” Being that I’d gone without any significant upgrades for quite a while, I officially had the oldest and slowest computer in the house. Yes…my children had newer, faster computers than I did, despite the fact that I spent 40 hours or more a week at mine. (Isn’t that the way of things, though, when you’re a parent? It just feels easier to spend money on your kids than yourself.) Scott ordered the parts that day, and just a couple days later I had myself a new, shiny computer. The only things that weren’t replaced were my monitor and my keyboard (both of which are fairly new anyway).

Then I got the notion that I wanted to go ahead and buy myself something that I’ve been drooling over for a long time, but couldn’t quite bring myself to part with my hard earned design dollars in order to purchase it. I think maybe it was a bit of retail therapy to help with the PGD store closing—I did end up buying it on the 28th after all. Yesterday, this little piece of digital technology arrived at my door:

I give you the Wacom Cintiq. I’ve been using a pen tablet for about 2-3 years now, but this baby is a pen tablet taken to a whole new level. No more looking up at a monitor while my hand draws on my pen tablet. Now I’m drawing directly on the pen tablet. And what’s even better than that? This puppy is small enough to prop in my lap while I’m drawing! Needless to say, I spent the bulk of my free time yesterday playing with this wonderful gadget. I’m also pleased that when not in use as a tablet, the Cintiq can be used as a second display. Handy!

So here I am, in total tech heaven, with a new computer that I finally have everything installed on (that’s always the worst part of getting a new computer—reinstalling all of my ‘must have’ software) and a new tablet to draw and paint on till my heart’s content. I love new stuff!

I’ve never forgotten…

2010-03-02T14:26:00.000-08:00

…how much I love to scrap, but with all the hard work at PGD I’d been doing through the past few years I rarely found the time. When I had the time I was too drained creatively to do much of anything in the way of scrapping. I’m seriously enjoying attacking this backlog of photos that keeps growing at an alarming rate, capturing our memories and marveling at what a beautiful family I have.

Wanna see what I’ve scrapped lately? No? Too bad. I’m showing you anyway! ;)

Tea Time:

This is a photo from last summer of Madison and her friend who lives down the street having a little tea party in the front yard. Girls are so cute when they play! I used the awesome Sweet For Certain kit by Dysfunctional Design for the layout. Love this kit!

Sweet Thing:

I might—just might—catch up on that aforementioned backlog of photos if I can stop myself from scrapping the batch that this one was taken in. I seriously love these photos and can’t get enough of scrapping them. And I got the opportunity to work with an adorable collab kit, Cupcake Darling, from Amanda Carlson and Spinky Dink Designs:

And finally, remember that 09 Year-In-Review template from Listgirl Designs I mentioned a few weeks ago? I finally got *my* YIR layout done, and you know I used that terrific template to help me get it done! Rather than fill all the little blocks with photos, I opted for picking a smattering of shots that kind of summed up our year and clipped solid papers to the remainder of the blocks. I love the way it turned out and I’m committed to doing one of these for every year as long as Listgirl keeps making them (because I sure don’t have the patience to create all those layers!)

And in case you want to make one of these YIR layouts yourself, here’s the template that made it all possible for me (again, not even close to enough patience to construct 145+ layers to make something like this myself…):

I have a whole mess of ADSR layouts—but I’m not sure if some of those won’t be candidates for a major re-work after the race is over, so I’m not posting them yet. Seriously, these challenge people keep forcing me to pile the stuff on my pages….what is a white space scrapper to do? Speaking of ADSR…I need to right my bucket list. Here’s to hoping I can think of 50 things that I need/want to do before I die. I dunno….I’m quite content with my life as-is and I can only think of about 10 things I’d be disappointed with myself I didn’t do. Apparently this challenge was not created with someone like me in mind. :p

Well, that’s all from me for now. TTYS!

They were right!

2010-03-01T21:31:00.001-08:00

When I first announced the closing of PGD and my intention to “retire” from designing, someone told me that I wouldn’t be able to really peel myself away from designing. If I remember correctly, the basic gist of their message was “no one ever stays away for long.” And just like I tend to do with a new, lose-20-pounds-in-the-blink-of-an-eye-diet, I fell off the wagon before I even technically got on it.

I rationalize my world’s shortest-lived design retirement due to the fact that when you’ve been doing something as long as I’ve been designing, it’s hard to just stop—cold turkey. For four years I have trained myself to design through it all—through creative highs and creative slumps (and I’ve had some major ones to work through!), through being sick, through being dead tired, through times when under enormous life-stress, through good times and bad. How do you just stop doing something that’s come to feel as natural to you as breathing? Yah, you don’t.

So…you can find my new shoppe here. Currently it’s stocked with my favorite products moved from PGD that didn’t get put into retirement (I can retire my products, but I can’t retire myself). I have a template on the way and more things in the near future.

I’ll also be catching up on posting some layouts (lots of scrapping going on around here between ADSR & CT work) and try to get back on track with my Cool Digi Stuff posts. I’ll also try to remember to post about my newest techie toys because I know you’re all just *dying* to hear about those. heh.

TTYS!

Cool Digi Stuff!

2010-01-25T09:15:00.001-08:00

I’m not too fond of Mondays. In an attempt to give me something to look forward to so that I don’t dread Mondays so much, I’m aiming to post every week Monday about cool digi stuff that I use or find. There are so many things that I have or use (digi stuff and otherwise) that I never would have known about if it hadn’t been pointed out to me by someone else.

So…here it goes—my first Cool Digi Stuff Monday!

Winter Romance Kit by Amanda Carlson:

I’ve had the pleasure of working with this kit because I’m on Amanda’s CT and I had no problem creating a layout with it without pulling from other kits. I love the warm colors and Amanda’s quality is second to none.

Here’s my layout of the ever-impish Miss Madison using Winter Romance:

If you’re at all like me, you may not be exactly “caught up” on your scrapping. I’m more behind that I’d like to actually admit, but even if I were more current, now would still be about the time I’d be working on a year in review layout. So how about a template to make your ‘09 YIR layout super easy?

2009 Year in Review Template from Listgirl Designs:

If you’ve never tried a template from Listgirl Designs you really, really should! Christine creates some of the best layouts I’ve seen, with a strong foundation in shape and design—so I was naturally very happy when she decided to start sharing her wonderful layout design ideas in the way of templates. She also has a great knack for creating templates that help you pack a lot of photos onto a layout without clutter or chaos.

Well, that’s it for me today. I’m looking forward to a visit with one of my very best friends and her son tonight and I have a bit of house cleaning to do before they come over. Have a great Monday!

So Many Changes…

2010-01-17T17:46:00.001-08:00

It’s been eons since I’ve blogged and there is so much going on right now. Many changes on the horizon for me. At the end of February I’ll be closing the doors on PGD. Part of me is very sad to be closing that chapter in my life, but another part of me is looking forward to new things like more time with my family, more time to scrap, more time to fiddle around my house…so with the sad comes the good. What’s most important to me is that I will be able to stay in touch with those that I’ve grown closest to during my time as a designer and as the owner of PGD. I couldn’t imagine not keeping up with these fabulous women on a daily basis. One of the best things about the years PGD was in business was that I had the opportunity to create some wonderful friendships with people across the country whom I probably never would have met otherwise.

As far as designing goes, I’ve decided to bow out of the arena commercially. I imagine I’ll be plucking around with design to suit my own whims, but I was on the edge of losing the magical feeling that I got every time I sat down to design something, and I just can’t bear to have that happen.

I’m happy to say that my new-found time will give me the opportunity to CT for a couple of my friends, Ami Collofello and Amanda Carlson who I worked with at PGD. I’m looking forward to scrapping for these ladies and getting through some of the backlog of photos I’ve been building up these past few years.

I’ve already made a few layouts (one of which I’ll have to post at a later date—it’s using an upcoming release of Amanda Carlson’s!):

In this one I used Ami Collofello’s Happy Christmas Kit and her Warehouse Alpha

In this layout the stitches & papers are from Ami Collofello’s Play on Time, (again) Warehouse Alpha (I’m addicted to it!), and the metal hearts were made by moi.

And finally, for this one I used Ami’s Whitty by Nature kit, and elements from her Faded Winter kit, and I made the frame and word art.

With that, I will leave you for tonight. I look forward to more time for personal blogging and sharing layouts—another thing I’m really looking forward to. For now, it’s off to get the kiddos in bed and spend a little quiet time with Scott. :)

Odds & Ends

2009-07-07T10:02:00.001-07:00

We had a really nice holiday weekend. It was so relaxing. We stayed close to home and went to Fenton to catch the fireworks on Saturday. The kids had a great time. I took a lot of fireworks photos. Madison asked me if I needed to take a picture of every single firework. I told her yes. hee hee :p

I spent yesterday busy finishing up some new products that I’ve been stewing on for a while and started on something new this morning for a future release date. Here’s a little sneak peek of my upcoming Friday release:

Well, I have to go wait for a school bus. It was Nicholas’s first day of his summer program and I’m curious to see what kind of mood he comes home in. He’d finally just gotten used to being home all day long. Heh. Poor kid. They have some fun stuff lined up for him though. I’m sure once he gets used to the teacher and new bus staff he’ll be fine.

Ta-ta!

Productive Day…Sort Of

2009-07-02T21:10:00.001-07:00

The past 4 days have been horrible weather. :( Very cold and fall-like and I’m not happy about it at all. I want the weather we had last Sunday back! It was gorgeous—sunny, breezy and a perfect temperature.

Jay and Jen brought their puppy Kaska over for a play date on Sunday. Kaska is an Alaskan Malamute too and is over 40 lbs at 4 months. She’s going to be a big girl. Ajax had a bit of a learning curve, wanting to play a little too rough with her for a while, but then he fell in line and started being more gentle. Here a couple of shots from the day (thanks for sharing Jay!):

Getting acquainted….

Mom’s love their fur-babies

Sharing a drink

I managed to get a little digiscrap work done today. I will have something new releasing next week. The blah weather has made for blah creativity. :(

Madison went with Grandma & Grandpa P. to go see Ice Age 3 in 3-D today. Afterward she went back to their house for some quality time with them. She came home hyper and happy….after all, she knows how to be spoiled proper. ;)

Nicholas starts his summer program next week. They have some really neat activities planned for the kids and I’m sure he’s going to have a blast.

Well, that’s all for me tonight folks. I’m tired and I need to find my hubby. ;)

Crafty Thursday

2009-06-18T07:17:00.001-07:00

It’s a cloudy, dreary day out today. I have the itch to do something crafty. I don’t know if I’ll actually find the time to do something crafty today, but I figure blogging about something crafty might help that a bit—kind of like when I have a craving for ice cream from Cold Stone and instead opt for the fat-free fudge bar. It’s not completely satisfying my craving, but placating it enough where I can survive. ;)

On Monday I scrapped a layout with those photos of Madison that I’ve been dying to use. I’m hosting the technique challenge at PGD this month, so it was the perfect time to grab one of those and get to work. :)

You Are <--click for credits

I’m quite happy with the way it turned out. Vast expanses of white space and the color white itself punctuated by pops of bright color has really been appealing to me lately.

The other crafty thing that I want to share with you today are epoxy scrabble tile pendants. I made several of these at Christmas for the PGD creative team and 2 for” the Lisas” (my sisters-in-law). Amazingly enough, I didn’t photograph the pendants before giving them. Yes, I’ve been kicking myself for it every since! But here’s an example made by Anne Howes, who is also the author of the tutorial I will be linking you up to:

Bee-lieve it or not (get it? bee-lieve? heh. corny wordplay is my specialty. :p ) these little beauties are not that difficult to make. It can be a little scary working with the epoxy at first—especially if you read online because some of the tutorials make it seem like either the fumes going to knock you out cold or that you have to be really fast at working the epoxy or you’ll have a ruined project. I used Envirotex Lite epoxy (got it at Michael’s) and found it both relatively “non-stinky” (and it was winter, so the ventilation was minimal because I live in a very cold state) and easy to work with.

I’m not going to recount the steps because Anne does that so beautifully in her tutorial HERE, but I will say that it was a fairly quick project that I really enjoyed. I plan on making more in the future—maybe even one for myself, this time around! You should give it a try!

Photo Woes & Cute Straps

2009-06-09T07:21:00.001-07:00

Today is Nicholas’s first day of summer vacation. He seems to be quite happy about this and woke up all smiles this morning. I tried to get a few shots of these smiles, but I encountered a problem that is becoming a common occurrence with him when I try to snap a picture.

His fingers in his ears. :(

The older he gets the more sensitive he is to certain sounds (though some sounds that drive me bonkers seem to have no impact on him what-so-ever—go figure), and now he’s in the habit of plugging his ears. He does this when he knows I’m saying something he won’t like too—so I know some of this ear plugging is not simply a sensory issue. :p But now we’re at the point where apparently my camera shutter makes a sound that he finds very unpleasant, because when I pull the camera out—before I can even get the lens cap off—his fingers are planted firmly in his ears and there they stay. It’s very frustrating. I have to figure out a way to break this habit so I can get my cute photo ops back.

And speaking of cameras, photography and all that jazz—I’ve discovered a whole little retail market that I never knew existed: cute camera straps. I guess I never realized that some people desire a strap for their camera that isn’t so---utilitarian in look.

I found a couple sellers on Etsy who make them. How cute are these? (These photos happen to be of ones sold by Shabby Straps)

Shabby Straps also sells wrist straps which are great for point & shoot cameras if you don’t need a strap for an SLR or dSLR.

A couple other stylin’ strap crafters on Etsy:
Cotton Candy by Natalie (she’ll make custom straps in fabric you choose too!)
Phat Straps (lots of straps here, including guitar straps, wristlets and even lens huggies if you want cute bags for your lenses!)

I haven’t girly-fied my camera with one of these yet, but I just may some day. :)

Isn’t She Lovely?

2009-06-03T19:40:00.001-07:00

I’ve had that Stevie Wonder song running through my head ever since I reviewed the photos I shot of Madison earlier this evening….

Isn’t she lovely?
Isn’t she wonderful?
Isn’t she precious?
Less than one minute old.
I never thought through love we’d be
Making one as lovely as she.
But isn’t she lovely made from love?

I set out to just get a simple head shot of her for Nicholas’s book at school. They’re trying to help him with recognizing and naming people he’s familiar with, so they asked for photos of me, Scott & Madison. The light was good and her smiles were coming easy (no fakey stuff). I ended up with more than I bargained for—quite happily, I must say. :D Can’t wait to scrap these, but that will have to wait for another evening.

From Memphis With Love

2009-06-01T18:15:00.001-07:00

Ok—haven’t blogged in forever. I suck at blogging. I admit it and am now totally over it. At least I Twitter a little bit better than a I blog—a very little bit better. LOL

Scott and I got back from a trip to TN on Saturday. We went because PGD is a sponsor of CKU-Nashville and CKU-Provo and we had a sponsor table at the event. We also managed to sneak down to Memphis on Thursday. We were supposed to meet up with our pal Whit and her hubby, but that didn’t happen (*cry*)—so we took in the city on our own. Here are some of the pics from the day.

These two statues stand in the visitors center in Memphis. Very cool.

A miniature replica of the Mississippi River on Mud Island. They have a really cool little museum there too.

Scott always likes to take a picture of me walking ahead of him just about everywhere we go. Not quite sure why…

We paused by this fountain to sit on a bench and enjoy some ice cream.

We walked down to the older, “not as nice” part of the downtown area—I found it incredibly beautiful. There is something about old, forgotten buildings that capture my imagination. This one was taken at a trolley stop

One street over from the pic from the trolley stop was the Lorraine Motel. We kind of stumbled on it. It had completely slipped my mind that it was in Memphis. I didn’t even need to enter the Civil Rights Museum—(which the Lorraine is part of)—standing down at the corner even I felt the weight of the significance of the place. That feeling is still lingering with me even though I’m far away from that eerily quiet corner now.

We took a trolley back over by the river from down by the Lorraine. We wanted to grab our car and park it up by Beale St. where we planned on having dinner and spending the evening.

We had dinner at BB King’s. I had a BBQ pulled pork sandwich. I had been waiting to eat bbq that I was told (by Whit and Scott) was the best that could be found anywhere—and let me tell you—I was not disappointed! My mouth is watering just thinking about it. And now I want to buy a smoker and make my own. ;)

We had to get pictures of the Blues Hall Juke Joint. Why? Because we both found it hilarious that this place—according to their signs—was a juke joint, licensed & bonded pawn broker and also sold drinks to go. ROFL

Scott and I managed to get in a shot together. Shocking and rare. :D

And this last one is not the best picture—and may have you wondering what it even is—but Scott and I are both pleased that we got it. If you’ve ever seen the movie The Firm, there is a little kid doing flips down Beale St. and Tom Cruise flips with him. The last time Scott was on Beale St., he met that “kid” who was about 18 by then and was teaching his little brother how to flip (the little brother was about 8). The guy flipping in this picture was the kid being taught that Scott met many years ago and he’s now teaching other kids to flip too. We had a great time watching these guys flip for tips, and it’s neat that Scott got to see this little kid grown up. The original boy from the Firm holds the Guinness Book World Record for the longest string of flips in a row and has a music note on Beale St. Neat stuff—neat culture down there. We listened to a lot of good music too. The weather was great. We’ll be back. I enjoyed Memphis too much not to go back. ;)

And if you’re interested in seeing some of the photos from CKU, buzz on over to the PGD blog where they’re posted.

Project 365

2009-01-28T19:46:00.001-08:00

So, I started Project 365....late. Because that's how I do everything. Late. lol For anyone who's not familiar with Project 365, the challenge is to take a photo every day for a year. I'll be posting my photos here, and I have them up on my Flickr photostream.

Day 1 and the kickoff began with a photo of our paper snowflakes. When taking down the Christmas decorations, I decided the flakes could stay because the flakes are still flying like gangbusters here in MI.

Day 2 is a photo of a trophy that is waiting for his time to shine at our 2009 Halloween party. He was bought this past October on clearance and will be eventually taken to the trophy shop to be re-based and get his engraved plaque.

And today's photo is of Madison checking out the latest Shindigz catalog. Shindigz is the place where we ordered the gossamer for our walls this past Halloween. It's a huge party supply store and they have some really cool stuff.

Well, I'm really mentally drained tonight (though I'm not quite sure why) and I'm headed off to bed. Thanks for peeking at my newest project. :)

New additions, a lot off the top & a resolution

2009-01-25T23:42:00.001-08:00

Today was a busy day but not that out of the ordinary. We did welcome into the fold a couple new fish. Our tank is finally cycled and we added 2 albino cory cats in with our hardy little danios. In a few weeks we'll take on the task of adding the final fish if water levels stay stable. I really want to add a betta as they are my favorite fish (maybe it has something to do with that first betta named Spike whom I had so many, many moons ago). Scott and Madison are convinced a betta will kill the other fish. I keep trying to explain to them that male bettas are primarily only aggressive toward other male bettas or other fish who have likewise showy color and fins (mistaking them for own kind). They're not buying it. I've successfully kept a betta in a community tank before, but they're just not listening to me. Because the cory cats and the danios aren't very colorful, I want a little flash in the tank. I am considering guppies. They come in many nice looking varieties and I won't have to deal with Madison being nervous when she gets up and checks out the tank every morning.

I gave Nicholas a hair cut today. I don't think I can possibly emphasize just how much he hates having his hair cut. Everything about it gets him going. The constant touching of his hair, the buzzing of the clippers, the vibration against his scalp, the tiny hairs falling everywhere.... Today's reaction was no different than that we've had during any other hair cut. Lots of screaming, crying, struggling and generally angry-sounding babble that makes me think he's definitely cussing me out in his own little language. I've given up on taking him to a barber for a cut. The same exact reaction happens, and at least at home I don't have to deal with trying to reassure the barber that this is a normal reaction for him, or have them look at me like 'why can't you just make him behave?' In the end it was worth it. I did a good job (I'm actually getting pretty good at it....starting to get very professional results) and Nicholas no longer looks like Johnny from Karate Kid. (I really let it get waaay too long this time! He had the blond, side-swept, huge bang thing going on...)

And finally, to top off the day, I've decided to join in Project 365....albeit late. As my friend Ami said, when I start doesn't really matter. 365 is still 365. So...you'll start seeing a lot more photos posted as I move through this daily photography challenge. I need the practice!

Well....it's bordering on 3 a.m. and tomorrow is a school day. I'll be kicking myself when that alarm goes off in 4 hours. I may just crawl back into bed once I get Nicholas on the bus since Madison has tomorrow off for records day. I'm leaving myself completely open to that option. ;)

TGIF...oh how I love thee!

2009-01-23T10:26:00.001-08:00

I love Fridays...I mean really, really love Fridays. Why? Well, Friday is pizza night which means no cooking for me and I don't have to go anywhere to get it. Hey, this is a big deal when you live in a cold and snowy climate. Friday also means that I won't have to kiss my husband as he goes out the door to work for two mornings. Wait...that sounded bad. I like the kissing part. It's the "out the door to work" part that I don't like. Friday is the beginning of 2 whole, blissful days that I have a daughter who is happy. Madison is not a fan of school. She lives for Friday afternoons and her weekend cheer is infectious. And finally, Friday signifies that Nicholas, who has been sleeping soundly through the night but seems really tired on school days lately, will be all full of smiles and giggles because of the two day work break. School is hard work for him.

Have a couple photos today. The first one illustrates how, since becoming a mom and a family girl, nothing is 100% mine any longer. On Sunday morning I got up to use the bathroom. The house was quiet, everyone was still snoozing and I had all intentions on snuggling back into bed. Until I saw this (apologies for the focus in the wrong place. She's pretty camera shy so I just had to hurry)...

I was out of bed for maybe 3 minutes maximum and I lost my spot. *sigh* It's a rough life being a cat!

And here is that icicle I was talking about the other day. It warmed up a bit and Madison was able to play outside without her fingers freezing off, so I grabbed this shot while she was playing in the snow.

And I had a little surprise today...my friend Christine thinks my blog is fabulous and gave me this little award:

I'm supposed to list 5 things I'm addicted to and pass the award along to 5 bloggers who I think are fabulous.

My 5 addictions would most certainly be:

caffeine
movies
cheesecake
designing
gaming

And 5 blogs that I really enjoy are (and I'm sad because I'm not able to put Christine on this list. I love her blog, her everyday life photos and her soulful posts):

Girly Do's by Jenn--I don't know her, but she is wonderfully generous with her time, posting hair styles for girls. Madison's long hair owes many cool styles to her!
A Walk through Durham--Kathleen Connally is very talented behind the lens. The photos on this blog take my breath away and inspires me to become a better photographer.
Hello--More beautiful photos from Alison Garnett's photo blog.
Bittbox--Ok, so this is a bit girly for him, but I had to mention Jay here. Awesome tips & tutorials, and even better design resources. Jay Hilgert ranks so high up in my book, I even overlook the fact that he uses a Mac. ;)
Lor's World--I love keeping up on all of her layouts and her scrap supply acquisitions. She's enabled me more than once!

And that's it for me today. I am going to try to squeeze in a little work before the little man gets home. Hopefully that will go better than the attempts on Monday through Thursday. :p

Redecorating

2009-01-20T18:58:00.001-08:00

Well, I decided it was time for a bit of a facelift for the blog. The poor thing hadn't seen any significant changes since I started it and I was getting tired of the old look. Let's see how long this one lasts. ;) I will admit though, I know people who update their blog look seasonally. If I were to try something like that, we'd have Christmas in July around here. In fact, my house would be like that too if it weren't for the fact that we have company and I'd be mortified to have guests over with my Christmas tree up during short-wearing weather. So...this new little change of pace for the blog was just about all that I got done today (regular everyday chores not-withstanding and I scrimped on those too) that could be considered even semi-productive.

I did manage to finish reading The Deep End of the Ocean today. I'd seen the movie many moons ago and I enjoyed the book equally. There is definitely something to be said for reading a book after watching a movie (or vice-versa) and leaving a lot of time in between. I really liked the movie as well, and if there were differences between the two, they were too minor to stand out in my memory. Reading a book and watching the movie it was based on can be a dangerous game for me. Especially if I loved either one with particular abundance. It's easy to find myself upset because whichever one came second isn't as good. This is why I'm nearly afraid to see Twilight. I really, really enjoyed the book and I'm afraid the movie will murder everything I loved about the book to the point where I can't even watch. I felt this way about The DaVinci Code. Great book, dismal movie. On the flipside, Fight Club, which is on my list of Top 5 Best Movies ever was not as good in book form as it was in the movie. What Brad Pitt and Edward Norton brought to those characters was unparalleled and I give them a lot of credit. I'm such a book lover that it is rare that I'm more impressed with a movie thank I am the book.

Well, I could prattle on about books and movies for hours. But I have a husband who is waiting on me, and he's going to start getting seriously impatient very soon, so that's it for me tonight.

Till next we meet again...

Digging Into The Way Back

2009-01-18T22:24:00.001-08:00

One of the first things I did today was scrapped a layout and I dug into the old pictures for that. We're talking a photo that was taken before we went digital with our camera equipment. I've gotten so spoiled by the fabulous quality of my camera that the scan looked horrible so I did some selective coloring and turned the rest b&w.

Scrapping this one was a not-so-gentle reminder that my babies are certainly not babies any longer! My tiny baby Nicholas, just two days old there is now taller than 95% of other kids his age according to the height charts and little Miss Madison is now a impish 3rd grader who constantly keeps me guessing. I certainly don't know where 7+ years have gone, that's for sure.

I have been holed up in the house all weekend and I'm not really feeling too motivated to go outside. When looking out the bathroom window this morning I noticed an icicle hanging from our house that appears to be longer than I am tall. I considered going outside and getting a shot of it but quickly discarded the idea, not wanting to risk blowing snow touching my camera.

Ok. That's a lie.

I didn't want to bundle up and trudge through the snow in my front yard. But dismissal on the grounds of protecting my beloved camera equipment sounds a lot better than saying I'm not willing to go out in the cold for a few minutes.

My day wasn't didn't really consist of anything out of the ordinary. We did have a conversation with Madison about MLK day and why she has tomorrow off of school. We also played the I Have a Dream speech and gave her some background on why MLK is important to our nations history.

After the conversation I pondered something that I'd never really thought about before...I know that the hotel King was staying in is now a Civil Rights Museum and I know that they painstakingly recreated the room he stayed in as it was that day he was shot and I thought to myself...that's a bit creepy. Then I immediately felt guilty for thinking that. I'm sure the sight of that room has a very profound affect on many, if not all people who visit it, but I just can't get over how the concept weirds me out. I guess I think enshrining the room mere feet away from where he was gunned down is somewhat of a disservice and somehow contrary to his message. I don't know....but what I do know is that I wouldn't want anyone to create that sort of shrine in the event of my death.

And now you have a glimpse into some of the unusual thoughts my brain touch on throughout any given day.

Little Bit of Everything

2009-01-15T22:01:00.001-08:00

It's late and I'm very ready for bed, but feeling guilty about the idea of sneaking off and crawling under the covers while Scott is stuck at his computer working. He's toiling away on a code deployment for work and it's not going as smoothly as it did on the test run. That's Murphy's Law, isn't it? The company that he works for provides call center services for credit unions across the nation, so they have to wait until late at night to update the call center software to mitigate down time. The company runs two sizable call centers, but only one is staffed 24 hours and the other shuts down at 11 p.m.

Anyhoo...that's while I'm still up despite the fact that I'm starting to feel the effects of a week of staying up late and getting up early. The kids' Christmas vacation from school kind of threw my sleep schedule for a loop. Because I didn't have to be up before the sun, I didn't get up. Which means that slowly over the course of the 2 weeks, I went to bed later and got up later. I'm still trying to adjust myself back to my normal sleep schedule. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly I can wreck my schedule and how long it takes me to get it back. :p

I scrapped a couple of layouts this week. Between working through my Everyday Inspiration book and the PGD challenges I've been inspired to scrap more since Christmas, which is good. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in designing scrap products that I forget to scrap. I love running a business, but I don't want to lose my hobby in the process.

This layout was inspired by a topic in my Everyday Inspiration book that focused on what I would miss from my daily life if it was no longer there. I know...scrapping the kids is cliche right? But it's true, I would miss what they bring to my life and the influence they have. The layout was also dually inspired by Gypsy Girl Lori's challenge to journal first, so I completely broke my normal scrapping workflow and wrote the journaling before I even picked my photos. This time around it went smoothly, but I don't think I could journal first for every layout.

And this second layout of Nicholas is for an upcoming PGD challenge. I stepped out of my comfort zone a bit and used some natural elements. Twigs and leaves usually aren't my thing, but I was pretty happy with how it turned out. All in all I think it's pretty good considering I was tackling a different style. Notice how I overall kept the layout pretty simple. Some habits are tough to shake. ;)

It's been really cold here in Michigan and I'm not loving it. I've been dreaming of moving to a more temperate climate each and every morning as I wipe snow off of the car and feel the tip of my nose turn into an ice cube. My friend & fellow PGDer Christine has helped this daydreaming. I've been feeling rather jealous while reading her blog knowing she's in sunny CA.

But, as much as I'd love to pack up and move to southern CA where I could enjoy blue skies in the dead of winter sans 15 layers of bundling I doubt the dog would enjoy it. Oh yes, my crazy Ajax is in heaven right now. Sub-zero temps? No problem! He has had even greater spunk and energy than normal. He came inside and hung out with me for a while this afternoon, but before too long he was standing at the door panting and giving me a look that told me he was "wearing too many clothes" to be inside. His coat has gotten extremely thick and wooly. Sure does make it nice to cuddle with him though. ;) But I know come late spring when the temp starts to creep up, I'll have to push him out the door to go to the bathroom. He's a backward doggy.

Well, now that Scott is on a conference call I have the distinct impression he's not much closer to being done. I just might have to throw in the towel after all...

Christmas is Over & I'm Glad.

2009-01-09T08:21:00.001-08:00

We did our last Christmas celebration on the 3rd of January and I'm happy to put the holidays behind me. I love the idea of Christmas. The reality is a whole different story. I know...that's a scrooge-ish thing to say, but it's the truth. Maybe it's because Halloween is such a big deal around here, and just about the time I feel recovered from that we're rolling into Thanksgiving. And well, let's face it....with the kind of 'official kick-off' of Christmas-prep activities of the day after Thanksgiving, there's no reprieve. With each year that passes October, November and December seem to move further into the classification of months I just try to survive.

Because of the rush I end up from October thru December I have looked at cutting something out, but the only thing I could cut out is our Halloween party. I refuse to do that. Out of all of the events, that's the only one we do 100% for us. We don't do it because we have the most space (like Christmas and Thanksgiving) or because it's convention. We do it because we love Halloween. Nope...not giving that one up. ;) I'd rather pack my schedule a little tighter and have that to look forward to every year.

That said, January and February (months that I used to hate for their long nights and slow, boring tempo when I was young) are a welcome sight to me this year. I'm looking forward to slipping back into my regular routines like a comfortable pair of jeans. Like those old favorite jeans, my routine isn't glamorous or exciting but when I get out of them I realize how much I miss them. :)

Well, look what I found!

2008-11-20T13:00:00.000-08:00

Seems like my Feet layout was chosen as a featured layout by one of the lovely ladies over at the Genuine Praise blog on Tuesday. You can see that HERE. That sure does make me feel nice! I've never been one to scrap for recognition (as you can tell by some of my layouts, I'm sure! LOL) but it was very flattering to see that all the same!

If you're into digital scrapping, take a good look around the blog...the girls who contribute regularly pick lots of cool layouts that have caught there eye. It's a great way to find new scrappers and layouts for inspiration (I've totally been known to lift a favorite scrapper when I just can't get the creativity flowing).

Just a quick share...

2008-11-19T11:22:00.001-08:00

I found my way to Wil Wheaton's blog this afternoon and in my perusing I came across this post which I found priceless:

Who's gonna drive you home tonight

Boy, I'm not looking forward to this kind of experience with my own kids. I know it will come soon, but I'm very, very afraid.

And I have to say, Wil Wheaton tells a good story. I didn't realize he was writing books now. I've heard recordings of some of his speaking at events and he's quite entertaining to listen to. I used to have the biggest crush on him when he was on ST: TNG when I was about 9. LOL It was weird for me the first time I saw that he speaks at a lot of game conventions because he's all grown up. I still pictured him as the teenager from the show that I remember. It reminded me that I'm getting old too. ;)

Ha! Not quite a month!

2008-11-18T20:14:00.001-08:00

Alright, so I've been ignoring my blog reminder. I've been busy...since the party it's been a constant flow of getting caught up with the work that I put off while party prepping and then working on current deadlines. Now Thanksgiving is creeping up on us and then you know what's next. I'm so not ready for Christmas. I still have spiders and skulls lingering around the house. Behind much? What do you think?

I did manage to scrap a couple layouts, one for the Winter Expressions issue (but it still counts!).

I've had this picture of Madison just waiting to be scrapped...and finally I was ready to put it to a page after making some word art for the DSD product release.

She's such a nut. She cracks me up. I used some of Abish's goodies in that layout. Her papers have such a wonderful, rich texture. I really love them.

This is the one I did for Expressions. Oddly enough it came into fruition on a day that I was making fun of myself and my obsession with feet. I love taking pictures of the kids' feet, I notice people's shoes, painted toe nails. I have no idea why, but I do. And one of these days I'm going to get a family photo of all 4 of us very similar to the one in this layout...just our feet. :) Poor Scott. I wonder how he's going to react to posing for that one. LOL

I got a chance to use Elise's Cowboy Cool elements on this one. Love the old, country feel of them. I don't have any cowboy themed photos, but the elements are very versatile. They'd be great for 4th of July layouts too! And I finally, finally was able to use a set of Amanda's Abused Alphas. I've loved their beat up look from the second I saw them and I've just been itching to use 'em.

My camera hasn't been out of my case since Halloween night, 'cept to take a few example pictures of a couple hybrid projects. *sob* I haven't had much time to play around with it. I have been eyeballing some new lenses and a tripod though. I keep gazing at macro lenses. I just haven't quite decided if I'd use it enough to justify buying it. I may go for the cheaper magnifier option for a while....I'm thinking if I use the heck out of that and I really want a macro, then I'll be able to reason myself into the purchase.

Well, I have a couple more things to wrap up and then I'm going to get myself to bed. Actually falling asleep before 3 a.m. tonight would be nice. That hasn't happened the last two nights, so I'm starting to feel the effects.

It's crunch week

2008-10-19T10:43:00.001-07:00

Well, 7 days until our party. It's crunch time now. I'm feeling pretty ok with the schedule of tasks as long as I don't fall behind. The family room is 97% complete. All the cleaning has been done, the gossamer is on the walls, spider webbing is up (unless I decide it needs more), Scott has the arcade cabinet up and running, the pinball machine has been tested and is working order (it hadn't been played in a while...such a shame) and furniture has been moved. I have a couple prop-type decorations that I will get to work on today for our "dungeon" area (yah, that will be the family room in the basement).

After the birthday party wind down last night, the boys went to get Rock Band 2 and Lisa helped me hang some gossamer in the hallway while they were gone. We have a roll of different gossamer that will go in the hallway, living room and kitchen. Lots of staple gunning to do in the next few days (and subsequently probably a good paint job afterward. hee hee).

Scott, being the project manager that he is has put together a project plan for all party prep, so if we stick to the timeline we will get it all done in time without that last minute crazy push at the end. :D

And speaking of party prep.......yah, it's that time. Gotta go, but I figured I needed to blog a little bit this week. Off I go...have a great Sunday!

Hit & Run Post Tonight

2008-10-06T20:27:00.001-07:00

Just a super quick post tonight because I know it's been a while (yah, I've been ignoring my reminder. LOL). I found some really neat hair blogs yesterday with oodles of how-to posts for cool and funky girls' hair styles. I went out and grabbed some more hair elastics so I could give some of these a go because many of the styles call for very small elastics to form the designs. We didn't have any since Madison and I both have tons of hair and generally need hair toys made for thick hair. Up to this point I always looked at those tiny elastics and thought "what in the heck are those for? No one has hair that thin." LOL Now I know. I test drove one of the styles tonight and it turned out really cute. No pics this time because I was already keeping Madison up way past her bedtime just so I could play around. Next time I'll get to work earlier in the day and pull the camera out when I'm finished.

I have a fascination with cool hair styles. And because Madison's hair is considerably longer than mine, I can do a lot more interesting things with hers than my own, not to mention it's really hard doing intricate work on the back of your own head! I'm just waiting for my own hair to get long enough so I can use a hair stick to hold it up without either ripping my hair out at the roots (trying to get it tight enough to hold all of these horrid layers I'm growing out) or having it just fall right back down on my back again when I let go.

Well, I have some Oreos calling my name. So not good for the weight loss goal, but tonight I just don't care. I need me something sweet!

Ciao!

Nicholas in Pictures

2008-09-23T07:32:00.001-07:00

So, on the second day of fall I've finally finished processing Nicholas's summer photos. Little behind? Yep, that would be me! ;) But, I figured I should get these done considering it's almost time to take fall shots. :p There aren't as many here as there were from Madison's shoot, but it's very difficult to get a wide variety of usable pictures of Nicholas, as he is very sensitive to sound and even the slight whir the lens makes when focusing is enough to send his fingers up to plug his ears. I managed to get some smiles this day, so all-in-all I'd say the endeavor was a success!

Notice the shots of his feet. I'm obsessed with his cute little feet. LOL

Since taking these I've gotten my 50mm lens, so I'm very excited to give that a try with fall portraits. :)

Well, that's all for today! Happy fall!

Recent Layouts

2008-09-21T21:56:00.001-07:00

I finished up some layouts over the past few weeks. Some I like better than others, but hey, you know how that goes. :) Layouts are linked to credits.

Back to school photos:

Summer photos:

That's all for tonight! Have a great Monday! :)

The Best Holiday of the Year!

2008-09-18T15:57:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I don't know if most people consider Halloween an actual holiday, but I do....and it's the best one of the year in my book! Yep, it even beats out Christmas (though Christmas does run a close second for the warm, cozy, homey feeling of sharing good food, laughs and smiles and gifties with the family)!

Last year we held our first annual Halloween party for the big kids. It was a blast and some of our friends are still talking about it (and a couple complaining because they weren't able to attend and they heard about it from other friends). This year promises to be bigger and better than last year. The guest list has grown...by probably about 20 people, the decorating process is already underway (yes, I have Halloween decor going up in early September....but hey, there is a lot to be done and it's my goal not to be rushed like I was last year), and Scott and I have pretty much secured all of the important pieces of our costumes. The Best Costume trophies are done and waiting to be picked up. This year's categories include: Funniest, Most Outrageous, Scariest, Sexiest, and Best Overall. We were really pleased with the engraved plates for the trophy bases we got from a local awards shop last year (Scott attached the trophy tops to the bases and affixed the engraved plates), so we decided to cut out some of the work and have that place to the whole shebang this year.

I'm going to be doing a HUGE batch of my Padded Room Pineapple infused vodka this year and forgoing the rest. I'll have to get that stewing around the first of October. We found a huge 3-gallon ice tea dispenser with a spigot for the purpose. I keep telling Scott I'm going to make 3 gallons of the vodka. I think he believes I've lost my mind.

Lisa's already started her awesome cake creation, which she found on a site. I want to post a picture so bad, but I can't because it needs to be a surprise for our guests. I will say this though...I have a feeling most people aren't going to think it's edible when they see it. Wee!!

There is much more to be done, including some extensive decor creations and now that things have slowed to a normal pace work-wise, I'm looking forward to tackling them. :D I will continue with updates on the progress and share pictures of the house once it's decorated.

Playing Catch Up

2008-09-16T15:29:00.000-07:00

Because I pretty much skipped a month and a half without blogging, I plan on playing a little catch up here and in future posts. I'll do this in between general life chatter, showing off new layouts (if I ever carve out the time to scrap) and sharing photos.

Speaking of photos, I have some of Nicholas that I took in July, not too long after shooting Madison (wow, that reads badly, but you know what I mean). I haven't processed them all yet, and I need to get them web ready. I should consider doing that soon.

My poor, beautiful camera has been a bit neglected lately. She (I guess I've decided to call it a "she") did get to come out and play during our day trip to Chicago (must process those as well) and on the first day of school (again, processing needed....see a common theme here?), but otherwise has sat looking spiffy in my new Canon backpack. Scott came home from work one day with that in tow....right before our trip to Chicago. It couldn't have come at a better time because I wasn't really hip to carrying around the camera on my neck all day (I'm forever worrying about bumping it into things because I'm klutzy by nature) and had yet to even shop for a camera bag.

Honestly, I had no clue that they even made backpacks. What an ingenious idea, though! There are all sorts of adjustable nooks for lenses/gear and the Rebel, well, she's safely secured with a handy velcro strap, not to move an inch in there. I find the backpack styling makes it much easier to carry than a standard bag.

We also picked up one of these wireless remotes, though I haven't used it yet beyond some test shots.

And a new 50mm lens. I did take this out for a test drive for back to school pics and I'm really enamored with it. I keep forgetting that my feet are my zoom, and am learning to be more careful without image stabilization, but overall this does a really beautiful job.

I'm keeping a very close eye on the leaves. When they start to turn, I want to get the whole family outside and see if I can't get all 4 of us in a shot (now you know why I ordered the remote). Maybe I'll even get brave and try to get the dog to sit still for one with us too. I have a feeling that's a bit of a pipe dream though. ;)

Lists

2008-09-12T15:06:00.001-07:00

See? Do you see what a bad, bad blogger I am? I have such a hard time remembering to blog. When I finally sit down long enough with nothing in particular to do it's late at night, I pretty much have no coherent thoughts in my brain. Enter "neglected blog" stage left.

Yah, that has to stop. :p So, the blog has made onto my list. Before I go any further, just let me say that there is something I seem to inherently abhor about lists. Scott insists it has something to do with my mother and her love affair with lists...whatever. He's a man, what does he know, right? (Ok, he probably is right to some degree, but I'm never telling him that!) Now that we've established how I dislike lists, imagine my dismay to have discovered that I actually kind of need them! My lists don't come in the traditional handwritten-on-paper form, but I certainly have started to keep them digitally. My daily to-do list has come to find a home within Outlook. I realized I could set "appointments" for the things I need to do daily, but that often are forgotten by my slightly addled brain--and these appointments come along with reminders!!

With each day that passes, I come to love my lists more and more, and they're growing to reflect that. More things that I forget to do are being added to this never-ending digital list, with reminders set up to reoccur on a regular basis (this is so I don't forget to re-add things to my list that I don't want to forget *tee hee*). And now blogging is on my list, because apparently I need a naggy little reminder popping up on my computer monitor in order to get it done.

So here I am, the list-hater who's becoming a slave to lists. My friend Christine is a list-maker...or so one would assume considering her blog is called Fabulous Adventures of Listgirl. I bet my friend Laurie makes lists...she has to, she's one of the most organized people I know! Scott makes lists....without them his work day would be chaos. Maybe I'm just late to the list party, and maybe--just maybe--lists really aren't all that bad. Now forget that I ever said that! ;)

What a gift!

2008-07-15T19:26:00.001-07:00

So Scott gave me a Cannon Rebel xsi for my birthday, and I have to say, I've never taken so many pictures in such a short period of time! He gave it to me on Saturday (a couple of days early) and I've been driving the kids crazy with it ever since. Today I spent some time getting some shots of Madison. Here are my favorites from today:

I have some more things to post about tomorrow (have to share with you what the awesome PGD Creative Team did for my birthday!), but for now that's it for me! :)

It's been a busy couple of weeks

2008-07-10T08:28:00.001-07:00

Scott and I worked the last week of June to get the changes for PGD ready and pushed those out on July 1st. There was some more design work sandwiched in between that and the 4th of July weekend. The Friday of the 4th I twiddled around in PS, but didn't actually get much accomplished. That night we took the kids to see fireworks. Fireworks and Nicholas is one of my favorite combinations. He gets so excited and wears this expression of complete awe. It's priceless. I wanted to beat my head on the car dashboard when I realized that I forgot my camera at home. :( I'm so not good about taking it places with me. You'd think the darned thing would be attached to my hand all the time, but it's not.

On the 5th we drove north to visit with some of my extended family. That was nice. I had the chance to see all of my aunts and uncles and some of my cousins. That doesn't happen much anymore. The young cousins are growing up and making me feel exceedingly OLD because I remember things like holding them when they were newborns. Now they're teenagers with girlfriends or like my youngest who's sprouted herself into a beautiful pre-teen who is now really taking an interest in boys. Where's the girl who pulled Madison around in a wagon just a few years ago and sneered if anyone with an Y chromosome came within 10 feet of her?

Yesterday I had the chance to visit with my pal Sandy. She came over with her little one, Isaac, who's growing like a weed. It cracks me up because he'll be 2 in December and I see that he's starting to test boundaries. I remember those days and don't really miss 'em.

I'm looking forward this weekend. I'm going with my SIL Lisa to girly stuff on Saturday. Kind of an early birthday present from Scott. He told me to take off, leave the kids with him and go do relaxing girls things. I know a mani/pedi is on the menu for sure. Haven't quite figured out what else we want to do yet, but I know I'm going to enjoy myself.

The last couple of layouts I made were done with 2 layout templates I made for the shoppe. One has a photo of Nicholas that I took just a couple of weeks ago and the other is of some up-to-that-point-unscrapped photos of Madison from last summer (they're linked to full credits).

I still have a layout to do for the AAM challenge that will be posted next week, so I'm sure I'll be back with that soon (I'm hoping to get to that today!).

That's all for me. Live, Laugh, Love & Scrap people!

Special Delivery

2008-06-30T10:38:00.001-07:00

I wanted to blog about this on Saturday, but didn't stop to take any photos until this morning. One of my favorite things about being a designer in the digital scrapbooking world is that I have the opportunity to meet so many wonderful, really kind people.

When Scott brought the mail in on Saturday, I had a package waiting for me from Candy, who is on the PGD creative team. About a month ago I started working on a collection of kits inspired by the girls on the CT, based on color palettes that they chose and using themes and elements that they love to scrap with. Candy's kit was my first, and through the process I learned that she loves fairies. I'm a fairy lover too and am starting to amass a very respectable collection of prints, figurines and fairy art books, all of which (with the exception of my art books) are surrounding me at my desk when I work.

I talked with Candy about making a fairy themed kit and she was really excited about the idea. I dug right into making it and I think it was the single most fun creative journey I've been on yet involving digital scrapbooking. And miss Candy, total sweetheart that she is, sent me the most adorable little pewter fairy figure for my collection along with a note thanking me for the kit! I wanted to share with you a few photos of my newest little winged friend, who immediately joined the others on my desk....to help inspire me with a little bit of fairy magic each and every day. :)

Thank you so much Candy, for this little beauty! I love her!

See the little orange jewel she's cradling in her hands? :D

Side view...she has a detailed wing design...someone really enjoyed sculpting her.

And with the beautiful card that accompanied my new fairy friend....this will be framed and set on my desk as well! :D

Kung Fu Panda

2008-06-29T23:03:00.001-07:00

Just a quick post before I head off to bed, since it should be way past my bedtime, but alas is about my normal bedtime because I can't seem to get myself in bed much earlier than this!

We had a fun day today. We took the kids to see Kung Fu Panda. Movie outings that involve all four of us have been, up to this point, a real rarity since it's hard to predict how much is too much for Nicholas and a place where quiet is expected is not usually a place to take a kid who gets loud when he goes into sensory overload. We usually stick to activities that, if Nicholas gets a little loud, don't draw murderous glances from other people. I'll admit it, I'm extremely intimidated by the thought of taking Nicholas places where his autistic behaviors/traits draw attention to us. I know I shouldn't be like that, but I am. Most likely because I've encountered times in the past where people made not-so-quiet remarks about his behavior. I've had people say, intentionally loud enough for me to hear, that I should invest in some duct tape for my kid's mouth. :( I've also had worse encounters that I don't even want to recount. I'm easily irritated by the fact that it seems I need to pin a sign to my son's chest that says "I have autism" in order to not bear the brunt of others' misplaced judgement. In fact, I get pretty pissed off that I have to explain myself, or him at all. And believe me, the meltdowns themselves can be hard enough to handle without stares, disapproving looks, or unkind words. These types of reactions just make it worse and make me want to run for home into our little cocoon where it doesn't matter if a particular noise makes Nicholas scream for 15 minutes.

But, that all aside, Nicholas did really well. We had a couple of minutes that had me on edge, thinking I might have to take him out of the theater but he pulled it together nicely and enjoyed the experience as a whole.

Madison is a dream to take to the movies. She has no problem sitting for an hour and a half without chattering or needing to use the bathroom or even laughing too loud. Her first movie theater experience was Finding Nemo when she was about 2 years old and she was just as good then, on her first trip, as she is now. This means that she's often invited to see movies with Grandpa who is an avid movie-goer that expects fellow patrons to observe polite movie behavior. I'm quite proud of that. :D When Grandpa says that she's a great movie companion I know we've taught her good movie theater manners. :)

The movie itself was very good. Fun for kids and entertaining for adults. I foresee it making it's way into our dvd collection when it's released.

Well, that's about it for me. No scrapping news today because I didn't scrap. ;) I was too busy having family fun!

Remember...live, laugh, love and scrap, people!

'Tis The Season....For Fur

2008-06-26T11:40:00.001-07:00

We have an Alaskan Malamute named Ajax who just turned 2. Something that a lot of people don't realize about Mals and other arctic dogs is that if they live in a climate with definitive warm and cold seasons, they'll go through a coat "blow" twice a year where they shed (at the very least) a good portion of their undercoat. Some dogs will blow their guard coat too, leaving only a baby fine coating of hair on their body until their new coat grows back in. Needless to say this happens usually in the late spring/early summer and again in the late fall/early winter. Arctic dogs that live in climates that are warm pretty much year round (like the southern US) don't actually have periods where they blow their coat, they just shed a greater amount on a more constant basis.

I started noticing earlier in the week that it looked like Ajax was starting his summer season blow. You can tell because he'll start to have these little errant tufts of fur sticking up from beneath his guard coat, or just stuck to his guard coat.

It's quite warm out today, so he is completely into the idea of lazing around inside in the AC, and I wanted to brush off some of the loose fur so that it didn't end up all over the house. I spent at least 30 minutes brushing him and this is what I ended up getting:

I don't know if you can tell or not from the second picture, but that shopping bag is about 3/4 full. And as you can see from the picture below, our boy is no where close to being nekkid.

This will go on for the next week to two weeks, until his body has decided it's gotten rid of enough fur. I'm not sure how much he'll loose this time around. He's yet to completely shed his guard coat, but last fall was his first real cycle through a coat blow. As a pup he didn't lose much at all in the summer. This is the joy of living with a Mal....lots and lots of hair. Hair tumbleweeds even, that hide beneath the toe kick ledges of the kitchen and bathrooms, in the corner of our tiled family room and along the baseboards of the carpeted rooms. And this is even with the fact that he spends a lot of time outside, hunting, digging and doing doggish things (in the winter, we can't even get him to come inside for any longer than about an hour. Any longer than that and he's just sitting at the door, looking through the window to the backyard and back at me again until I relent and open the door for him).

A lint roller is a must in this house and we have several. I've had a lot of people tell me that they couldn't live with a dog with that much fur. I expect to go through several vacuums in Ajax's lifetime. I've read that they don't stand up too well to Mal fur. But the thing is, I don't really mind the dog hair. This face more than makes up for it! :)

Madison and other stuff

2008-06-25T14:12:00.001-07:00

Madison has been at her aunt's house since Friday, and when she left I packed up the laptop for her to play webkinz and club penguin if my SIL had any work she needed to get done while Madison was visiting. Last night she messages me to ask me where her dad is so she can ask him a question. So, I tell Scott that he needs to message Madison. Their exchange was quite funny. She was wanting to know how to turn off sticky keys on the laptop because they kick in when she starts playing a particular game. Scott proceeds to tell her how much he misses her and she says "ok Dad, but that's not what I asked." LOL My daughter is a teenager at the age of 7 1/2.

It's been really quiet around here without her. Nicholas doesn't seem to be minding much though. LOL Though they aren't very close because of his differences, they really do have their typical brother/sister moments where you can tell they're just driving one another up the wall.

Yesterday I was able to snap a few more pics of Nicholas. He's so hard to corner long enough to get a good shot. I think these ones turned out pretty good. I plan on dumping them to my computer later on and maybe scrapping one or two, along with some of the ones I took a couple of weeks ago. Over the weekend I made some layout templates that need to be given a test run, so this is the perfect opportunity to do that.

I'm trying really, really hard to scrap more often. I feel guilty that I'm so far behind with my photos. I may catch up some day. Maybe I'll have all of my photos scrapped by the time I die. I doubt it though.

Well, that's about it for me right now. Remember to live, laugh, love and scrap!

Setting a goal

2008-06-18T22:36:00.001-07:00

Ok, so I seriously need to baby step myself on this blogging thing. Honestly, in the morning I have a list full of things to get done before things around the house (yes, that would be the kiddos) gets crazy and by the time I have everything wrapped up for the night it's usually way past my bed time and I say "I'll blog tomorrow." Wash, rinse, repeat.

So maybe I should shoot for blogging twice a week. That would be better than every 10 days, and get me on a roll. I have to work up to organization and habit. It doesn't come naturally to me...at all.

On a non-I've-already-failed-at-being-a-good-blogger note, I did get some layouts done since I posted last. :D Today was an especially scrappy sort of day. After zipping up some products and getting them into the store and posting my ads, I just felt like scrapping.

Here's one I finished on Tuesday for an upcoming AAM challenge at PGD:

Then I worked on scrapping some old photos from 2001 on our honeymoon trip to Mackinac Island:

I think 5 layouts in a day must be a record for me...but now I'm on a mission to get our wedding/honeymoon album finished. So within another 2 anniversaries that pass, I just might get that done! LOL

Well, I'm tuckered out. Live, laugh, love and scrap people!

So, here we are...

2008-06-09T20:18:00.001-07:00

I decided it was high time I set up a blog of a more personal nature. My blogging over at the PGD blog is pretty much all related to the store and what's going on there, and I didn't really feel that it was appropriate to post 'everyday stuff' there. So here I am. LOL

It's been such a long time since I've blogged about me and life that I feel a little rusty. Today was not a very inspired design day. I started out trying to work on a paper pack that I have in the works, but ended up very, very stuck. I thought maybe switching modes would help, so I decided to try to work on a fairy painting. I finished the initial sketch and started to block in the color and realized that wasn't really working either (good to realize before getting to the detailed work, too). I resorted to doing some housework for a bit (uh...yuck. You know I was having issues because I did that voluntarily), then my mind settled on setting up this blog. It's taken me practically all day because, well, with kids there are no big blocks of time to work on something unless they're in school or asleep.

I scrapped a bit last night. I may fit in a little more tonight before bed....who knows. It all really depends on when the DH starts complaining about being tired. He doesn't like it when I stay up without him. Men are so funny!

Here's the layout from last night. It's the first for the AAM challenge series we're starting over at PGD. I'm so happy we're doing these cohesive challenges. I'm stoked that I'm going to have a full album when it's all said and done!

Well, that's all for today, see you on the flipside!