biiizzzzeeee!!

yep, that is me, busy, busy, busy..and it feels great! LOL

I have a few things to share...first off, I applied for and got accepted for a position on a digital creative team!! YAY!!! I was a little nervous about applying for the position and nervous that if I made it, would I be able to handle the requirements?? LOL but, I am determined in this life of mine to look my fears head-on and not let them stop me from something that could be a wonderful experience for me! so..I applied...I got accepted and I have just completed my first "assignment" with them.

What site am I talking about you ask? One Single Seed! Such a fabulous site. Tracy, the owner, had the best paper and digi store, not to mention a ton of fabulous designers and creative team members! I am so thrilled to be a part of her site and her digi creative team! The forums are fun too, I'm getting to know a lot of really wonderful people there! Seriously, if you are looking for a nice new "home" on the net...come check out One Single Seed! How cool is this announcement she made too...hee hee, I'm such a geek, lookey...there's my name!!!



why else am I so busy you ask? well, since getting this position, I figured I had better get some control over my totally out of control digital files! I had them on two externals and was in the middle of tagging all my stuff into Bridge when I gave up! Roger just happened to get me a wicked cool new external hard drive so I decided what a great way it would be to get myself organized and ready to create for OSS by going through all my kits and stuff...moving what I wanted to my new external and in the process setting up folders for designers, sites etc..(so that I know where everything is), and purging out the stuff I don't want anymore. Then, once I have it all moved to my new, small, compact, cute a a bug external, I can then take each folder and tag the stuff into Bridge (I deleted my half-assed attempts from before at tagging)...viola, I would be kickin' butt then...sooo ready to dig into my digi and play! But...this is not a simple task...no, it takes hours and hours of work and I'm still not done..but, happy to say, I'm more than halfway done! I'll keep, keeping on and soon enough, it will be all set up! Add onto that, that I took on an impromptu assignment (since my regular term with OSS doesn't start officially until April 1st) this week to create two layouts! Also, on my docket is the wedding album that I am making for my sister, Shari. Shari is getting married the end of April and asked me to make her a combination guest book (since she didn't want the cheesy store bought icky kinds LOL) and album that she can add some pictures too! Talk about pressure! LOL I want this to be perfect for her day so I've been spending a lot of time working on that!

Now, add in the responsibilities of house and child and it makes for a pretty busy life right now..it's good though, I'd rather be busy than bored!!

so, that's my life right now! I'm super excited about my new opportunity! I have done 3 layouts so far for One Single Seed...the first is entitled "I Matter" (all the CT members had to create one for the site) and I used a fabulous kit from Ambowife entitled "Faith, Hope and Charity" of course, available at the OSS store! I added a photo frame and some flourishes to the background using elements created by Rhonna Farrer.



these next two layouts use templates from a kit designed by Nibbles Skribbles. Again, this Template Kit #1 can be found at the One Single Seed store. The first layout also uses the Summer Bloom Kit from Digi-Designs by Nicole and the second layout uses the Dreamin' Kit from Digi-Designs by Nicole..both these kits are availble at the store as well!





Whew! Well, that's it for me today...I'm still in my pajamas and it's almost 1:30 p.m.! I need to shower and gather up my stuff, heading out to Archiver's tonight to crop with my girls Amy and Tracy! Mandi will be officially on Spring Break in another hour and I can't tell you how excited I am about that! Lets just say, I won't need to set that darn alarm for a whole week!! We've got some fun stuff planned for next week, it will be keeping us busy, but I'll be back again!

Until next time,
Blessings!

Best day!!

Had the best day yesterday!! I finally got to hit Victory's Banner with my girlfriend Mary. It's this cool, very happy and peaceful Vegan restaurant in the city, and they serve the bestest, yummiest, food evah!!! Mary introduced me to it a little while back and last time we were gonna go eat there, they were closed (it was okay, we hit another vegan diner that was da bomb diggity bomb!) but this time it was open....SCORE!!

I do dairy...and eggs...yep, so I'm a lacto-ovotarian? LOL...who cares, anyway...I had the tastiest veggie omelet with vegan cream cheese..seriously, had never had that before and it rocked..full of dill and flavor..yum! and, and...we both had a soy hot chocolate that you would die over!! I mean...it was like dessert! I actually told Mary that it was more like a dessert then a drink! It was sooo dark and chocolaty and thick...I mean...thick like pudding so that we actually drank it from spoons!! LOL It was full to the rim too, so full it spilled over the top as our waiter was bringing them to us! I had to take a picture!!





It had these incredible chunks of chocolate that were melted with the hot soy milk...you can actually see the dark spots if you look hard enough...it was unreal! And...and...they sell the chocolate!! So, I scored myself a bag to take home so that Mandi and I can indulge in some soy hot chocolates this weekend! I'm lucky, Mandi likes soy milk just as much as I do!!

After eating, we headed over to check out my sista's new space! Mary opened up her own yoga studio and it is fabulous!! She has been open two weeks now I think....anyway, it's all zen and om shanti and very spiritual there LOL!! I can't wait until the weather is warm, Mandi is out of school and I can head down to take some yoga and hang out! It's also right down the street from the wonderful cafe she works at...so, of course, we stopped in there to hang for awhile, and also hit Fran's store..Ethical Planet...such a cute shop, totally vegan and animal rights aware....nothing sold in there is from animal product...very cool space I have to say! Picked up some vegan chocolate chip shortbread cookies for the ride home yesterday LOL...they were yum!

I had a great time, however, it always is hard.....hard to have to come back to my yard. (Mary would love my lingo right now!)....while I like my home, and I love the school system right now for Mandi, I just can't take living here, in the land of nothing, much longer.....we seriously have no diversity, nothing outside of the mainstream, midwest, boring burbs...I've made up my mind that I am just going to have to road trip it out of here more often...maybe even once a week....with summer coming up, it will be much easier to do! Eventually, like I've said a million times...I will get the heck outta here! LOL!!

Took a pic of Mary yesterday too...I wish you could see her dreads...man...they are sooooo long and cool and I am in amazement everytime I see them!! Maybe next time I can catch her with them down....I jokingly told her that I was gonna dread my hair!! (ya, how silly would that be?? LOL)...



I have to just say that I am so blessed with the friends I have in my life right now. Each one is such a gift to me, brings something so special and unique to my life, and I'm very thankful for that! My girl Cathy, she gave me the coolest gift this week...totally went out of her way to do something special for me, and it really rocks! Wait til you see!! I'll share that this weekend...still need to get pics!!

Alright...got pizza dough rising...yep, doing homemade pizzas tonight (according to Roger, we needn't order out any more...how sweet is that!)...and since my girl and he like pepperoni (ewwww)...I'm doing two, one for them and a veggie for me! Should be a nice, quiet evening!!

Oh yeah...temporarily switched up the tunage...yep, not giving up my hair bands guys...but this one, well, he rocks!!

Until next time,
Blessings!

More cards...

sorry...took a couple days to get back here!

So, yay! Today the weather is showing us real signs of spring. We almost got to 60 degrees out and the sun is currently shining! I love it!! My mood is sooo much better today then yesterday, just this little bit of warm and sun makes all the difference for me. I have a ton of energy and positive vibes going on, and ya gotta love when you have positive vibes!

I'm heading out to a crop on Saturday..woo hoo..two weekends in a row of paper playtime! This crop is being held at Craft Fancy and it's our SIS crop. I can't wait to see all my SISta's that I haven't seen since November..wow, it's been awhile guys! Think I'll be making more cards, as it is just so easy to schlep all that stuff. Might, just might, try and pre-plan a layout or two but not gonna stress about that..

I do have a major scrappy project that I need to start on, but that is gonna require me locking myself in my sCRAP room and getting down to business...gonna try and get that going early on next week...although..I've already hooked myself up with two lunch dates next week, Mandi has a half day schedule and Roger will be home..whew...okay, okay, I'll deal with that later...

So, yeah, here are the last of the cards I made at the retreat last weekend. Again, tried to use up scraps and older papers...

This first card uses a new paper however. Remember, I said I had stopped off at my lss on the way out of town and I grabbed up the cutest pack of new 7Gypsies papers. Used a sheet for this card. Again, distressing a ton, using a quote stamp and a scrap of ribbon I had hiding in my basket. Yep, 3 buttons...isn't it always 3 buttons on my work! LOL



This next card was in close contention for my favorite, but I really love that blue and yellow floral card so this is my second favorite! However, I totally dig the tree stamp!! I see myself using this stamp a ton! papers used are Around The Block (I'm almost positive LOL), and the tree is from Hero Arts! Not sure who makes the quote stamp but I love the font and I thought it went well with the image and papers! Yep...3 buttons!



I had just enough time on Sunday before we were due to pack up and leave for one last card. I used up some way old SEI papers, heck, I think I've had them for 3 years or so...wow! the stamp set is a new one from SU during Sale-a-Bration, and I colored in my image using my Prisma's and babyoil. I embossed the card with the Swiss Dots embossing folder and my Cuttlebug..fun! and...yep....3buttons! (see a pattern for me??)



Now, I just need to get out my address book and start sending out some happy mail. I mean, seriously, what good are cards that never get sent???

Alright....that's about it for me today. Tomorrow I need to pack up my stuff and get ready for Saturday and it's going to be a major baking day at my house..LOVE that! Got a couple treats I want to bring to the crop with me! And...it's gonna be even nicer tomorrow (or so they predict!) and I'll be soaking up all the positive vibes the nice weather is gonna bring me!

Until next time,
Blessings

March!!!

Yay, it's March!!! That means we are just that much closer to winter being over (however you'd not know it by this mornings weather in Chicago..cold, grey and snow on the ground!!)...but, not gonna stress....next month is April, then May and woohoo, summer time, summer time!!

So, spent the weekend having fun at a scrap retreat in Wisconsin! Got to hang out and play with my friends Cathy, Pat and Kim, had lots of bad food (but good food LOL), laughed a ton, and played with paper and ink and stamps!! I didn't do any layouts this weekend, just brought stuff up to make some cards and I actually got a lot accomplished! I made 7 cards in between all the eating, laughing and some sleeping that had to be done...it was nice and so hard to have to pack it all up and say goodbye yesterday afternoon.

Today Mandi had the day off of school which was fabulous, meant I got an extra day to sleep in a little and recover from the weekend, always a good thing! She had a "date" with a new guy today, met him this morning when he came to pick her up and he seems like a really nice guy...kinda cute too! LOL so, I've had a quiet day here, and time to take some crappy pics of my cards so that I can share them with ya'll!!

One beautiful thing about these cards (well for me anyway..hee hee) is that I used nothing but scraps and papers I had pulled out of my stash a while back to give away!! I was getting ready for the crop last week and decided to challenge myself to make cards with my un-wanted papers and scraps! Woo Hoo!! I think only one card was made with a couple new papers that I purchased on my way up to the retreat (stopped at the lss for a quick once over before heading out of town!)...so, I'm happily keeping my box of give-away papers and will go to them first when I feel the need to make some cards...yay for being economical right?!


First card made this weekend....a baby card. Haven't done one of these in awhile!! Papers used are Basic Grey's Lily Kate line. Did a lot of distressing on this one (love to distress...feels good!), some hand sewing and added in a few pearl-ish flower embellies. The sentiment is an SU set that I borrowed from Cathy!



This card is a stamp I've used before and love. I had originally borrowed this stamp from Cathy and after I used it, decided that I needed it for myself (after all, I am a cow lover!!)...Used Graphic 45 papers on this one. While they were not in the give-away box, they were in my stash from being purchased in September while in Arizona..so, not really new papers! Again, some distressing, used my Prisma's and baby oil to color in my cow and added a cute chipboard milk bottle top embellie by Jenni Bowlin. Oh yeah, stamps are from Stamps by Judith! I love that little "Moo!" stamp...toooo cute!



This next card was just a quickie! I used some Basic Grey, and Bazzill cardstock. Some hand sewing, distressing, paper piercing and used a quote stamp for the front. Added in some buttons (love me my buttons) and a cute little photo corner embellie from Melissa Francis that I got in a kit awhile back...not my favorite card of the weekend but I do like it!



and lastly for today (I'll share the last 3 tomorrow) is this card. I really, really like this one. I was kinda stumped for what I wanted to do. I had pulled the papers I wanted to use but couldn't find an image I really was in the mood for, so I went a different route and chose a phrase stamp I could use and incorporated the theme of the quote into the card with the embellies I used. I think this one is my favorite card of the weekend...well...humm....yeah, it probably is! LOL

I used some K & Co. papers that were in the give away box (I had used these papers last year to do a mini album of my Cambodia trip) and threw the extras into this box. I love the blue and yellow combination. The quote stamp is my favorite in my collection. I just love the font used on it. I pulled out some matching florals from my stash, inked up my papers good and viola, a card is born! Think I'm actually going to have to make another one like this for myself, as my plan is to start sending out the cards I make..I mean...that is their purpose in life right!? LOL Anyways, here it is:



So, that is some of what I accomplished this weekend, and, I'm thinking, I am pretty happy to have gotten so much done. I usually spend my weekends just chatting away and not really doing much. I will share the rest of the cards in another post and I also have some recent layouts I've done that I'd love to show you all! But, for now, I need to go get dinner started for the girl and me...it's back to regular life tomorrow and that darn alarm clock will be brutally waking me up at the butt crack of dawn...damn!


****seriously, I was just sitting here, ready to post this and I heard the door open...I called to Mandi to find out what she was doing?? and Roger answered back!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!! Roger is home and I didn't expect him at all!!! LOVE nice surprises!!

Until next time,
Blessings!