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!

…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!

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!

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!

 

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. :)

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!

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. ;)