Friday, February 29, 2008

{I}nspiration = NEW BLOG!

Rachel had this super fabulous idea to open up a non traditional type of challenge blog. It's a place where you can go for SUPPORT and InspIRAtIon! ANY type of motivation, challenge, idea you may have.. we are there to root you on and inspire you so you can succeed!

How it WORKS
1. You can create your OWN challenge for yourself. It can be as simple as setting a new goal, or renewing an old one. It can be as complicated as trying out 20 different things. Check out the {I}nspired team to get ideas of how to share your stuff.

2. You can commit to joining an existing challenge group. Let me know about it here!

3. Maybe you missed out on a challenge, and you still want to DO it!? Then DO IT!! Show us here!

4. Every week, I will post with either a new challenge I find that I like, or a challenge for you.

5. You can play or not, but leave a comment!! Let me know what you are working on, and how you are doing in the challenges you have chosen for yourself!

The idea here, is to find inspiration. You share, and I will share. Let me know where YOU are finding yours!


Jan put up week#2 challenge. Go check it out! Put it on your RSS feed. Join in. Have fun! Don't forget to check out the flickr group as well.

Do you get your lawn serviced?

haha *snort* sounds so.. naughty!

We had Scotts lawn service come by yesterday and they did an inspection on the lawn. To get 7 regular treatments would be around $540. They have a payment plan.. how nice! Too bad they don't cut the grass too. The darn crabgrass drives me bonkers, and the wild onions too.. can't get rid of those suckers.

Samantha is finally not puking and pooing. She was able to hold a bit of liquid around 10 last night. She's in popsicle heaven this morning. Anything to get the liquids back in her. Cameron is going to get his stitches out today. So nervous about that. Katelyn still has a sore throat, so I'm sending her off with Doug. (hope it's not strep) And I'm slowly starting to feel more like myself. Doug on the otherhand is getting sick. Lovely stuff going around I tell ya. Hopefully, Cameron can keep it at bay.

I have got one long list of things to get done around the house and zero energy, but I can't put off any longer. And I can't wait to scrap... I've got 2 layouts due by Sunday to Coordinates Collections. And a Survivor layout over @ TallyScrapper. And a sketch challenge over @ The Scrapping Spot, and a stash challenge over @ TTT! I definitely bite off more than I can chew at times.

Here's a shout out to Tami C. She gave me a trial subscription to picnik. It's an online photo editing site that makes it unbelievably easy to edit your photos. Plus, you can link it to your photo hosting site such as Flickr or Photobucket. How cool? Thanks Tami!

Oh yeah.. so tell me, any experience with getting your lawn serviced?? What's a good price? Who have you used? Anything I should know?
TTFN!

Thursday, February 28, 2008

hospital germs suck

I'm convinced we got sick from going to the hospital and crawling all over the floor. Why is it I forgot to wash all of our hands when we got home?? dagnabit! I hadn't been sick in forever until yesterday. At least I'm feeling better. Samantha on the other hand has it coming out both ends.. *gag* she's running me ragged back and forth to the bathroom. Poor baby girl. Katelyn felt well enough to go back to school today, and her science test is today and we didn't study one little iota! eeks. Oh, a good email I found in my inbox this morning... from Frugalities. Take the survey and use the code before February is gone. Shop enough for me, cuz I can't right now! LOL

Activating the coupon code is easy: first, take our survey, and then use the coupon code before the end of February. There are about 25 questions and it will take you just a couple of minutes. The survey will help us better understand the things which are important to you, so that we can be a better company for you. So it's a win-win deal. Once you have taken the survey, use the coupon code FrugalSurvey49. The survey can be accessed from the home page or from this link: SURVEY.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

wooo *cough* hoooo

Found out yesterday I made it to round 3 of Scrapping with the Stars over @ Coordinates Collections! Here are the layouts from round2. The first one is based off of Elsie Flannigans scrap style.
devoted

journaling on the back of the cards
devoted - journaling

close up
devoted - close up

Next, we had to scrap the style of CC DT member, Mimi Schramm

learning to mow
Y'all know me.. I rarely do anything simple.. this was hard to come up with.

learning to mow - close up

I've had a really great time over there with this contest. The competition is fierce. Fabulous scrappers over there!!
I have zero bits of inspiration... I blame that on being sick. Don't know what the heck I have, but I've been fighting for two days, and came down with it overnight last night. Katelyn is sick, and Samantha has a scratchy throat. Praying we get better quickly, because we don't need anymore medical bills at the moment!

I got the photos off my camera phone yesterday. I cried a little uploading them... If you don't want to look.. close your eyes and turn away now. It really is hard to see a little one sedated.

Cam_sedated8
It's looking so good today. I dread the stitches coming out Friday. I wimped out and asked Doug to take him for me. More to come later!

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

4.5 hours in the ER last night...

we are home.

Cameron fell yesterday, put both, top and bottom teeth through his bottom lip. Top teeth went through on the outside below his lip, and the bottom teeth went in a ways on the inside of his lip. At first, I couldn't tell that. Called our family doctor and they said take him to the ER. I called Doug and he rushed home. Cam quit crying like 5 minutes after it happened. Got him dressed with shoes, and gave him some tylenol for the pain. Doug got home and we went to the hospital.

They got us in there pretty quickly, and it was a full house. The doctor finally came in and took a look. At first he wasn't going to do stitches, was going to do some type of glue thing. They cleaned his lip up again and it was deeper than he initially thought. He said the best way to put the stitches in was to use Ketamine(sp?) - it's a sedative that takes effect in about 5 minutes, and starts wearing off (the numbing effects) in about 10-15 minutes. Plenty of time to pop some stitches in.

Once we decided on how we were going to proceed, the doctor took off... for 50 minutes. By that time the tylenol was wearing off, Cameron was in so much pain. I have to mention, he is such a trooper. A real rough n tough type of kid. He hardly ever cries when he's in pain, just takes it. It about killed me listening to him cry the last 30 minutes before the doctor came back. Finally, they were moving.

Gave my boy that shot and had oxygen blowing in his face and gosh.. it was breaking my heart. He didn't go under completely, it was like he was sleeping awake. They said he could hear us, but wouldn't feel the pain. In total he had 3 stitches on the outside below the bottom lip, and one dissolveable stitch on the inside. It was just horrible watching my baby get stitches, and see fresh blood from the suture being made...
and watching him try to come out of the sedation... it was horrible. He had the shakes wear his body was fighting the sleepiness.... the best words in the word was when he croaked out, mama.

He gets the stitches out thursday or friday. I have to call and make the appointment today. Poor kids didn't get in bed until about 10:30pm. We were all exhausted. Thankfully, Cameron did not have night terrors, which is a side effect of the sadative he was given.
Thankful for many things this morning...
I have more hugs n sugars to give out.
ttfn!

Friday, February 22, 2008

eggs n ash

Samantha says ash instead of HASH. so funny.
See Doug.. we left you a bite! *wink*
Say eggs and ASH ten times fast!
breakfast

In other news.. NBC just KILLED Las Vegas.

I loved that show. It was cute, dramatic, funny, and fluffy.
Made me wanna go see Vegas in all it's sinful glory.
I didn't even get to see Delinda's baby for Pete's sake!

Thursday, February 21, 2008

the party

we had the best time last night. Mom and dad didn't get over until 6:30, and guess what? They forgot his present. LOL Told them not to worry about it, he could get it Saturday.. but noooope.. mom was insistent that Cameron get his gift on his birthday.
(you can click on the photos to see them larger!)
Camerons Birthday (#2)Camerons Birthday (#2)
So we played around until dad got back with the gift. Cam had been trying to get into his presents all afternoon, so I thought I would start the party off with him opening his gifts first.
Check it out.
Camerons Birthday (#2)
This little guy started crying when we tried to get him to open his gifts. Didn't make any sense to me... so mom gave him a little piece of candy, and it hit me. He wants his cake!!
Camerons Birthday (#2)
He just smiled and smiled when we placed his cake in front of him. He helped to make and decorate his cake yesterday. (Dark chocolate.. yummy!)
AND he blew out the candle on his cake all by himself.. you can see his lil lips pushed together here to push the air out between his lips.. so cute!
Camerons Birthday (#2)
He was SO happy to eat that cake up... and silly me didn't get a photo.
But I did get some of him opening his presents ;)
Camerons Birthday (#2)
You know Basic Grey is coming out with some Dinosaur paper... oh yeah.. he got a dinosaur puzzle and some dino figures to play with for his birthday. teehee.. now I can't wait to get me some of that paper ;)

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

He is TWO!

Cameron's two!
Where does the time go?
His favorites right now:
  • Dora (poor guy, loves her now because of Samantha)
  • saying, WOW, I WUV YOU, MAAAAAAAMA!, HERE, RAWWWWWRRRRRR (roaring)
  • singing, twinkle twinkle little star; ABCDEFG....; one, two three, four
  • Plays with: cars, grabs my phone and says, hewwo? loves stealing Sams blankie and running away with a giggle... he's getting good at aggravating her
  • Still climbs in bed with mom around 5am in the morning.. I love that. Doug does not... lol

I'm sentimental this morning. This lil guy is tops on my favorites list.... you know, a mom is not suppose to have favorites... but today he is!!!!

I love you Cameron, Happy Birthday sweetheart!!

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Did you know...

that Miley Cyrus isn't her real name???
It's Destiny Hope Cyrus. She was nicknamed Miley by her dad, because she smiled a lot when she was younger. A cute nickname.. but I was surprised to learn this the other day.

In other news, I woke up this morning and went into my sun-room and could smell the smoke from the fires behind us. It was quite unnerving to smell the smoke inside of my house. We have been getting rain/freezing rain since last night, so hopefully that is aiding the Firemen in putting out the fire... or at least getting it contained. We had several fires pop up in Virginia since Sunday morning because of the high winds we had here. The one in Roanoke Country where I live is only about a mile from my house... still scared we'll be asked to evacuate. See, I have this fear of fires..

School is two hours late because of the freezing rain, which has changed over to just rain since it is now 33 outside.

I got some cute shots of the dogs the other morning.. can't wait to scrap them

the flash hurts my eyes ma!
Domino was squinting her eyes while I was taking pics.. so darn cute!

I'm sleepy
This is Weiner, my shar pei. Doesn't she resemble an old lady laughing without her teeth in? haha

OH.. I am so STOKED!
I actually made it to Round 2 over @ CoordinatesCollections in their contest, Scrapping with the Stars. I didn't think I had a chance considering I only had 2 votes for each layout. I'm going to work on these today. We have to scrap resembling Elsie Flannigan and CC's own Mimi Schramm. I can do Elsie, but Mimi's style I'm going to have trouble with.... this is such a cool contest... wish me luck!

I haven't scrapped much lately, and most of you have seen this already..
This is my layout for SCRAPVIVOR over @ Tallyscrappers.
Your CHALLENGE is to create:
a layout in the shape of an antique label
with a found item
hand journaling
a metal object
chipboard
felt
one photo
Brain Freeze
Have a happy humpday!

Thursday, February 7, 2008

mini paper bag coupon album

that's a mouthful.

Doug, if you are reading this, or at flickr.. stop now. You are going to ruin your suprise!! LOL



Supply list:


  • 3 paper bags. Mine are smallish that came in a kit from last year.
    measurements are 6 3/4 x 3 1/2
  • pattern paper (I used Sassafras Lass, Around the Block, & Ki Memories)
  • ink and stapler
  • embellishments of your choice
  • cardstock cut 6 x 3 1/4 (6 of these or more if you want!)
  • brads & ribbon
  • glimmer mist
  • adhesive of choice (I use Scotch ATG gun)
  • --you can click on any of the photos that are cut off, to see them full size at flickr

When I first started getting the bags ready for decorating, I was spraying the glimmer mist on the bags, drying them with my heat tool, and the flipping. (Which is the first step. Spray the glimer mist on the bags, holding it 6-8 inches away from the bag. Make sure you have scraps of paper, or newspaper underneath to catch the misting.)LRC_step2LRC_step3

DUH! It is MUCH easier to open the bags up as shown here, then spray to your hearts content. Once it has dried, then flip over to spray the bottom.LRC_step1

I sped up the drying process by using my heat tool. Using that it probably saved me 15 minutes or so.

LRC_step4

Now, decorate the bags. I cut my pattern paper 5 1/2 x 3, sometimes adding matting or cute little borders before gluing it to the bag. You could also add machine stitching as nice touch.
Here are mine decorated:

LRC_step5

Time to put them together. Grab the bottoms (the opposite end of the bag opening) and fold together. Do this for all three bags. Stack them in the order of your choosing.

Grab the inside flaps and pinch together, leaving one flap open in the front, and the back.

LRC_step6

Now staple. I used two.
LRC_step8

Now you are left with those flaps. Grab some ribbon and adhesive. Put a couple lines of adhesive down on the flap. Now, grab your ribbon. I used 2 inch pieces of ribbon and laid them down on the adhesive. You can also layer flowers to hang off the edge a bit if you want.
LRC_step9

Once you're done putting your ribbon on, place more adhesive over the top, and push down to adhere the flap to the stapled piece. Do this for the front, and back flap.
This accomplishes two things.
  1. Hides the ugly blue staples (haha)
  2. and lets you add beautiful ribbon easily.

Yours should look something like this.
LRC_step10
Now, to the coupons.
Grab your cardstock, ink it, bling it, whatever.
Write your messages of love on there.
Here's a sample one.
LRC_step11
I didn't bother making them look too fancy. Punch a hole in there, add ribbon and a brad, and my message.. viola! done. I figure once they are redeemed, they'll just be thrown away anyways... and Doug will still have his mini album of us :)
Once you've decorated them all, slip them in the front of the bag. I put two in each bag.
LRC_step12
One facing the front, the other facing the other side when you turn the page.
LRC_step13
Now, decorate and add photos to the inside of the album. (I still need to finish this part)
Here's my front and back now.

LRC_step14

LRC_step15

Let me know if you make one!
TFL, Leah!

Survivor starts tonight!

WHOOP!
Excited about that.

Working on making a tutorial using mini paperbags and glimmer mist. We'll see if it turns out cute enough to even bother posting. ;-)

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Whole lotta taggin' goin' on!

LOL Amanda tagged me this morning.. here we go!

10 random facts about me:

1. I love LIME green.. I would eat the color if I could.. I know.. weird, but true
2. Speaking of eating.. I can't eat with the lights off..
3. I wear a size 11 shoe.. so does my DD who is 11 ;)
4. My favorite time of day is laying in bed on Doug while watching TV shows together
5. I love teasing Doug about his age, but don't like it when he does it back to me ;)
6. My nose is super crooked (doug broke it on accident years ago.. bled like crazy and I didn't go to the doc cuz I didn't realize it was broke) and one day I would love to get it fixed
7. I love HUMPday (wednesday) for the obvious reason... (it has nothing to do that it's in the middle of the week)
8. I hate hate hate cleaning bathrooms..
9. I like watching Blue's Clues with the kids... heehee
10. I smoke and hate that I do....

I'm not taggin' anyone else today... if you read this and wanna do it, lemme know so i can read it ;) Thanks for the tag Amanda!

Tag numero 2

My friend Rachel has tagged me for a bucket list. Five things you want to do before you die, based on the movie The Bucket List. So... let's see.

1. Visit NYC at Christmas time
2. Lose this weight and get healthy.. I wanna see my grandchildrens' children.
3. Fly on an airplane
4. Visit another country. (Keeping this one.. I actually would love to see Ireland & Australia first)
5. Have the courage to apply/be on a game show. That would be so cool.

NOW I tag....
Dawn, Sarah, Michelle, Shan, Tami

phew... :)

Tag numero 1

I was tagged by Michelle to do this little game... thanks sweetie!

Here are the rules:
1. You have to post the rules before you give your answers.
2. You must list one fact about yourself beginning with each letter of your middle name. (If you don't have a middle name, use your maiden name).
3. After you are tagged, you need to update your blog with your middle name and your answers. 4. At the end of your blog post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name. (Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged and that they need to read your blog for details.)

well I have a LONG middle name, so here we go!

R - Reality TV show junkie
O - obese
S - scrap*a*holic
E - eccentric
T - trustworthy
T - taken (married)
E - entertaining

I'll tag Dori, Amanda O, Nikki Z, Rachel W, Minda, Robin, & Jan S

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

So...

I was going to talk about an incident that arose from my past from 9 months ago... but decided that as flabbergasted as I am over the occurrence, I won't stoop to their level. And that's, that.

On to brighter things.. Voting is going on over @ Coordinates Collections. If you are a registered member over there, you can VOTE in the gallery! Check out all the fabulous entries from Round 1.. amazing talent this contest has brought out! If you want, you can vote for me... *grins*

Here are my layouts from the competition.
Geared towards Ali E's style

I had a tough time with hers... I did however put a mini album on my layout. The main photo opens to the pages below.




and Geared towards a member of the DT Mahlin Anderssons style

This is more like my style.. bright, funky, and fun.

Monday, February 4, 2008

How about them Giants?

hahaha
I always have heard people start off sentences with something similar to the post title... I've never had a chance to say it.... until now. How about them Giants, eh? WOW! They really played a good game. I can't believe how many times they sacked the Pats quarterback. Good thing hubby and I had no real bets... or I'd be paying up today. He got lucky in the 4th quarter anyways *wink*

The crop this past weekend at Tally was super cool. Loads of points and lots of scrapping inspiration. I have one or two more I want to work on, and since my house is in good order, the laundry kept up, I can play a bit in between playing with the kids today.

Doug has been working on a new program. It's an awesome third party tool that can be used in Great Plains for sending out invoices to customers. He actually has a major company behind him that will be a reseller. He sends out the demo program to them this week for testing, talks about contracts are coming up, and hopefully this thing will sell like hotcakes. Doug is super excited. He's an amazing programmer, and I'm so proud of him for stepping out and writing something not related to his projects for work. More to come on this subject in the following months.

Here are a few layouts from this weekend.








This was made for Breann over @ Tally. She'll be giving birth soon to her first baby. A bunch of us got together and make a blank page for baby book put together for Maxx. Mine was on his first Icecream.

CRAP! I almost forgot. My news this month?
I was selected as Scrapstreets Discovery Drive designer. Check it out!
How exciting!!
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