My Weblog

Night Owl

So, I have no clue why, but last night I couldn't get to sleep.  We headed down the hall about 11PM and settled down around 11:30PM, faces washed, teeth brushed, and chit chat complete.  At 1:30AM, I threw in the towel and came back out to the office where I worked on Bracket Album pages until about 4:30AM.  Slept for 2.5 hours and got back up at 7.  Sometime soon, I will try to recoup more lost sleep.

But, good news came in the middle of the night.  I've discovered, along the way, that I really enjoy doing Quick Pages and Bracket Albums and such.  They're about as much fun for me as I get these days.  I've been on Amanda Rockwell's Creative Team for about two years now.  She took me on when I was really not a very good scrapper.  My photos have improved considerably over the last two years and so have my pages, but I was really iffy back then.  My family was appreciative of my work, but there are some amazingly talented scrappers out there, whose work, Thank God, they've never seen!!!!!  I feel that I owe her for allowing me to play with her fun and beautiful designs.  Quite some time ago, I thought I had a deal worked out with her to do quick pages.  But, she changed stores and basically we had a breakdown in communication.  I thought she was only going to allow me to use some kits she was retiring in the changeover and I couldn't see where it would be worth my time with so few kits available with which to work.  Unbeknownst to me, it was her intention to continue to feed me kits.  Anyway, besides the breakdown in communication between us there was also a problem communicating with the store owner where I was supposed to sell.  It was all my fault--at the time I was feeling so yucky I just didn't have the ability to assert myself.  However.........

This week, Amanda put out a kit with some gorgeous papers in it, including PINK papers.  I so seldom get to scrap anything pink or girly.  I honestly don't have that many photos from Jennifer's childhood or even my own.  So, I scrap photos of scenery and of Will and Atticus, and pink is not a color they wear, LOL.  I noticed that, at the store where Amanda sells, other designers are putting out all sorts of QPs and brag books and albums but Amanda doesn't have any.  I know she is insanely busy and certainly can't produce these herself.  So, I asked her if, instead of a layout, I could use the latest kit to put together a bracket album for her.  It was meant as a gift, a "thank you" of sorts for putting up with me for two years.  Instead, last night in the middle of the night, she offered to put it up for sale in the store along with whatever else I produce.  I was stunned but I think, no matter where you live in the contiguous US, you must have at least stirred in your sleep around 3AM Pacific time.  It probably had something to do with that loud "Yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I let out about then.

This is not meant in any way to take away from LaWanna who gave me a chance to do this sort of thing with her designs, to prove I could actually make something salable.  LaWanna is a sweetheart and a total perfectionist.  Through her perfectionism, I have learned SO MUCH.  But, they are totally different personalities, Amanda and LaWanna.  Amanda is totally outgoing and fun-loving and positively crazy.  LaWanna is more reserved and I think as a result, not as well known in the scrapping community.  If you had to build a bridge between the two of them, I think I just might be that bridge.  I love 'em both, though Amanda is probably more like my own kid while, because we are both more reserved, LaWanna and I are more like friends and co-workers who have the ability to be down and dirty honest with each other.   I look forward to creating for LaWanna for a LONG time to come (don't tell her but my CT contract is up this month.)

Yesterday was an interrupted day.  I had to do a 2PM signing.  Joe got a call for 3 signings but they were all the way in Henderson.  There was no way he could cover a 2PM locally and meet the time schedule in Henderson so I took over.  I don't mind the signings.  I do hate it when the buyers are frustrated and taking it out on me, but, thanks to my prior work experience, I can certainly live through the worst they dish out.  I do hate having my time interrupted.  Everything stopped here at 12:30PM so I could get myself dressed in something more professional than shorts and a tee-shirt, do my hair, and do my makeup.  I pulled back into the driveway at 3:43PM.  So, if you take into account the more than 3 hours that passed, my per hour rate wasn't all that great.  But, we need the money, so off I went to do what needed done.  The fun part of yesterday's signing was that the buyer managed to make off with TWO of my pens!  Oh, well, I still have spares.

I forgot to mention that we had to buy new shoes (tires) for the Mitsubishi.  Poor old girl.  The last time she had new tires was in July, 2000.  Joe was headed over to Fidelity the other day and, just as he was pulling up to the red light at the freeway exit, one of the tires just shredded.  He coaxed her into the parking lot at Fidelity, did his signing, and then I brought him home in the van.  Next morning I dropped him off and he limped into Big O and talked himself into a pretty good deal for 4 new tires.  We hated to spend the money, but he takes that car on the freeway all the time, particularly when he has signings in North Las Vegas or in Henderson.  Can't have him driving on unsafe tires......

Well, the weather here is almost as weird as it is everywhere else.  A few weeks ago we hit over 100 two days in a row.  We had "unseasonably warm" warnings on the TV news.  Then overnight, it dropped to the low 70's and stayed there as a large storm front hovered overhead.  But bit by bit, the mercury has been climbing.  By the end of next week, the forecast is for highs in the high 90's.  Sadly, there is nowhere to go but UP from there.  At best, we'll see daytime highs in the high 90's again sometime late in September.  It really does discourage a lot of running around.  It gets so darned hot!  And the power bills--well, they're an obscenity.

Working on cleaning the inside windows yesterday, I had a new experience.  The vertical surfaces of the windows were so dusty I could write in the dust.  And, believe me, with three wet nosed dogs pressing their noses against the window panes, it hasn't been that long since those windows were cleaned.  Now, I understand horizontal surfaces that get dusty, particularly with the gritty desert outdoors and three dogs running in and out, but vertical surfaces?  That's a little hard to believe.  Joe claims this is the dustiest place he's ever seen.  No doubt! 

I do have some new kits, but I'm not in a position to show them to you at the moment.  But how about I give you the premier viewing of Summer Girls Bracket Album.  There are three pages that are just plain.  People who purchase the album pages can use the plain ones for front and back pages or to create pages of their own.  I'll just show you the ones I've put some effort into.  These are 2 of the pages I did as a gift for Amanda.  I would show you more (there are 10 total) but Typepad is not cooperating.  Once they hit the store, I'll link you up.  Anyway, see the "holes" (solid white areas) in the designs?  You just open these digital files up in your scrapping program, put your photo behind these pretty pages, and they show through the holes--the holes show up here as white areas, but they're actually transparent.  These albums are meant to be printed out and then adhered to chipboard albums with pages exactly the same size.  And there's room on each page for a title and/or a bit of journaling.  My scrapbook pages and quickpages are designed at 12 x 12, but these pages are 6 x 6.





















 


  

Lesson learned?

For 4.5 years I've been telling my husband it is not real bright to put tupperware type containers in the freezer without labeling them.  They should be labeled with contents and date, I tell him.  We've finally made it to labeling them with the contents though the concept of putting a date on there appears to be an advanced concept requiring further training.

For 4.5 years, I've been telling my husband that I am allergic to mold and that the best thing for my health is for leftovers to be put into the freezer.  Otherwise, the moment the food is removed from the heat of the stove, mold begins to form.  Yesterday we found that THIS part of the training has not worked.  I vaguely remember him coming in from the garage the previous day, mumbling about containers in the freezer with no idea what the contents are.  Well, duh!  Wasn't it I who told you to label them in the first place?  I kept my thoughts to myself, however.  Yesterday, I got called in to do a signing.  Imagine my surprise when I opened the door from the kitchen into the garage, late in the afternoon, headed for the van, to find a minimum of a dozen containers full of food sitting on the concrete floor.  Apparently Numbnuts had pulled them out of the freezer and left them there to thaw out so we could identify the contents.  Need I point out that leaving them to thaw out for a full day in the Nevada heat is just none too smart?  And, need I point out that my allergist would have a coronary if he saw me eat any of that food at this point?  And, need I point out that we have much less income than we need to pay our bills right now and it is probably a really stupid time to waste a minimum of a dozen containers full of food?

Oy, vey!  Will he ever learn?  I have always known that my IQ is higher than his.  But, IQ isn't everything.  Experience, common sense, and street sense are all excellent assets.  I think at this point we can conclude affirmatively that he is also lacking in the common sense department.  I feel like I need to follow him around all the time to see into what idiocy he's gotten himself.  I don't have time for this!  And to think he has the audacity to tell me what I ought to do each day!!!!!!!!!  Hey, I know what I'm going to do today--dump a lot of previously edible food down the garbage disposal and wash a lot of Tupperware.  Grrrrrrr.........  To quote "The Rainmaker", "stupid, stupid, stupid". 

And the beat goes on.......

 Drums keep pounding rhythms to my brain.  Yes, indeed they do.  This blood pressure stuff is a pain and a puzzle.  Unmedicated, it soars to heights most people don't even think about.  Medicated, it dips to the deepest depths.  Sometimes I wonder if I'm still alive!  In either case, up or down, I have the most disgusting headaches.  I woke this morning with blood pressure (medicated) of 105 over 65.  It's been wonkier, let me just state.  But 105/65 is definitely low enough to bring on a killer headache.  So, here I sit with a cup of Decaf coffee which has been spiked with as much caffeinated coffee as would fit in the cup at the time (a very scientific process, you must admit).  And, the drums are quieting and the pain is less intrusive.  But, I have to be careful, because if the caffeine pushes it up too far, it will start all over again.  Then I'll take a BP pill, and it will start its descent, and if it goes down too far, the drums will start pounding.  It's an adventure!  In the meantime, I keep talking to my personal physician, GOD, and asking that He just finally fix it! 

We will be heading to Mexico, if not this coming weekend then the weekend after.  I've been trying to mobilize Joe into this for a month and a half.  By my count, we are now up against a wall.  It's go or watch Marci stroke out or watch my personal physician decide to save my life without benefit of "modern medicine".  I've counted, and my current bottle will run out in 15 days........  Our current medical insurance has, get this, a deductible of $10,000.  And, for the two of us, it is still over $400 a month.  (A more rational deductible would have increased the cost over $200 a month.)  This in spite of the fact that Joe hasn't seen a doctor in over 4 years and then only for a physical, and I'm going on 2 with claims for only 1 or 2 prescription refills in that time.  I wonder if I could actually see a doctor while I'm there, just to see if he/she has any recommendations.  I know I'd love to get my teeth cleaned while we're there.  It's so inexpensive ($20) and the "work" is actually done by the dentist.

Our adventure over the weekend was that this body of mine decided to retain water.  My ankles resembled tree trunks.  I cut way back on carbs and goosed up the exercise and water consumption and I'm pretty much back to normal.  But, it added a bit of excitement to the weekend!   One of the problems is that when the headache is pounding, I'm not inclined to move which just causes it to pound more. 

Speaking of the weekend, we pretty much did nothing.  We put on the old movie channels and watched war movies to our hearts' content.  It's not that they are new and exciting to us.  Actually, with some of them, we can recite bits of the dialogue from memory.  But, we enjoy them and we feel as though we owe a debt to the real people who participated in the real events portrayed in these films.  Somehow, this process seems to help us remember what should never be forgotten, the price of FREEDOM.  When I was younger, I took some of that price for granted.  Now, I understand it better.  If I see some handsome young man being shot on film, I think of how his mother would have felt and I understand the price Americans have paid through the years for our way of life.  This country will never be without faults, but it is so much better than the rest of the world.  And, yes, even if it is the FREEDOM of other people that we defend, I am proud of us for having the backbone to stand up to the world's bullies.   I can only ask, if we aren't willing to do it, who will?  If we look at WWII as an example, without the US entering the war, all of Europe and the Balkan states might have ended up being under Hitler's influence.  France was a "big power" and Hitler's blitzkrieg rolled right over her.  England hung on in opposition by the skin of her teeth and with huge amounts of help from the US through the back door.  They were unable, on their own, to stop Hitler.  Poland tried to stand up to Hitler's highly mechanized army with men mounted on horseback--it didn't work.  Thank God, the US stepped to the plate, eventually, whatever the circumstances, whatever the motives.  Biblically, we, as Christians, are charged with the duty to stand up for, be a friend to, Israel.  Thank God we finally did what was required to stop his attempt to eradicate the Jews.  

Well, I am finding the new store I've been asked to scrap for to be difficult.  It is not that THEY are difficult.  Rather, their site is difficult to deal with.  And some of their procedures are prohibitive.  At the first store I scrap for, I have a coupon code.  I go into the store, pick out what I want to scrap with, checkout and pay nothing and create my layout.  At the second store I scrap for, the designers get to choose if they want to make their new products available to the Creative Team.  If they choose to make them available, when I sign in, I just download the stuff from my own special download location.  At this third store, there are a number of little quirks that are irritating.  First, I refer to it as a "store", but it is a store, a forum, a blog, a gallery, and so on.  It seems one has to register in each area separately in order to be able to function there, which is a bit unusual.  They set me up with a screen name in one area which is different from the screen name I use all the time.  I have to try to remember what my screen name is in which area which is a pain.  They had a procedure for downloading kits.  It was complicated enough that I printed out the instructions and followed them step by step in order to download my first two kits.  Now, for whatever reason, they've changed the procedure.  I understand the need for security.  Recently, the unthinkable happened in the digital community.  Both designers and CT members have been caught giving away designer products not their own.  That's called piracy, but, in reality, it's theft.  If I give you a kit you really like, you won't go buy it.  And, by doing that, I've taken money from the designer who created the product.  I cannot make the new procedure work.  I tried all day yesterday and again this morning.  I'm going to have to recontact the CT leader and try to get her to help me again.  She's been very patient and helpful (maybe she's used to this????), but I feel like a total PITA or dunce.  To make matters worse, with familiarity comes a certain dialect.  So, the way she explains things doesn't always "compute" for me as I have not learned the "dialect" yet.  I have no doubt this is just a bump in the road, but, unfortunately, I have little doubt, based on past and current experience that there will be more bumps in this road.  But, I have to admit that yesterday, I was frustrated enough to consider resigning from the CT before I've really gotten started.  We'll see what today brings.

I don't have any pages or kits to paste here.  I just got a new kit from Amanda yesterday, but it's really girly and I haven't had time to figure out yet whether I can adapt it to my usual boy pictures.  Cori didn't put out a new kit this week.  LaWanna has put up some new bits and pieces, but hasn't put up a kit.  I guess I could just pick an existing kit and do some quick pages, but......I've got 16 quick pages in reserve now.  That's AT LEAST two weeks worth, so it's not pressing.  My friend Lynn only produced a paper pack so I don't feel too obligated there.  I'm up to date with Deb's stuff.  Nina hasn't put out much lately.  I DO have a page I can post for her, but I can't seem to get motivated for that.  I can always dig in and do something for the two stores where I can operate with ease and try to solve the problems at store #3.  But, I spent most of yesterday working on organizing kits and unzipping them.  Someday, if I keep plugging at this, I'll be caught up.  Of course, I may be using a walker by then, but hope springs eternal......  I am trying to concentrate on getting old kits that might have papers or elements by LaWanna or Cori in them into the organizer program I use (ACDSee).  I unzip my kits, then add them to a list, then work on getting them into the organizer.  Right now, I have a list that is about 20 steno pages long to organize!  So, you can see why I need to get that done!

Okay, I'm going to get going for the day.  Lots to be done, both organizing and around the house.   My project for the day is to continue washing the insides of the windows.  I got a start yesterday, but still have a lot to do.  And, I've observed one  cobweb here in the office which I either missed or which has popped up overnight so I want to get after that.  Because of my organizing efforts, no new layouts to post today.  Have a blessed day!





 

Bank of America

So, Joe has 3 accounts with Bank of America.  Originally he had one account with BofA and 2 with another bank.  The other bank was bought out by Bank of America, so now it's 3 accounts with BofA.  If there is one thing Joe has protected, it has been his credit score.  It was excellent.  But, after so many months with little or no income, there is just no way we can make the payments on these accounts.  I must tell you, these people are ruthless.  I have personally fielded 4 phone calls from Bank of America today.  Joe has called them once.  That is 5 conversations with B of A employees in one 5 hour period.  Somehow, that seems a bit excessive.  Both yesterday and the day before, they actually text messaged Joe on his cell phone while he was in signings.  I've been an account holder at Bank of America for at least 25 years.  If this phone call stuff doesn't stop, that will change.  I'll take my 2 cents and go somewhere else.  It is no wonder people file bankruptcy, if only to stop the harassment.   It is truly unbelievable.  I hope no one who reads this ever has to go through this.  It is not conducive to good mental health!

I just want to testify........

Well, you all know that several months ago we were given some carpet.  It is a lovely cream color and we had just enough to do two bedrooms.  That was indeed a treat.  Unfortunately, there was a large Kool-Aid type stain on the carpet used in one room, but the fan covers it nicely, so no one is the wiser unless they move the fan.  But, the floors throughout the house are a disgrace.  This house is 25 years old and this is the original carpet.  It has worn areas from people walking over and over in the same place--like the length of the hall.  It has been ripped loose from the tacking strips anywhere Punkin could get to it.  There are numerous holes where Indiana and Punkin have chewed on it.  And, it is at the point that the joins, where the carpet layers have glued two pieces of carpet together, have come apart, frayed out, been chewed.  There is not a single room that is a "public" area of the house that doesn't look like ka-ka. 

After the carpet we'd received was installed, I admit it--I was disappointed.  I'd prayed for that carpet, but I'd prayed for enough to do all three bedrooms.  I certainly hadn't prayed for stained carpet.  But, I was very careful with my words.  I really guarded the words that came out of my mouth, making sure I was thankful for what we'd received.  We still wanted hard floors in the rest of the house--tile or wood.  Something the dogs would need a lot of time to destroy!  But, SOMETHING!  Anything would be better than what we have now.  I can't tell you how tempted I've been to have someone rip it all up and put it at the curb and walk on the bare concrete.  Even that would have looked better than our current carpet.  Of course, I've continued to talk to my Heavenly Daddy about the floors in this house.  I've prayed for tile.  I've prayed for laminate flooring.  I've prayed for hardwood.  Finally a few weeks ago, I told Him I didn't care what He got us as long as it went with the stuff we'd recently had laid.  Last week we got a call.  Would we like some carpet?  Apparently the lady of the house just didn't like her carpet and her husband had decided to indulge her and spring for all new wall to wall carpet in their 2000 square foot house.  We were told it was a shade or two darker than what we'd been given before and lighter than the original carpet in the house.  Well, yesterday was the day.  Matt and Joe went and rented a u-haul and loaded it with carpet and padding.  Later, Matt went back and loaded his truck with more carpet and padding.  Our van is now parked in the driveway and our garage is FILLED with piles of carpet and padding.  We had a small remnant from the previous gifted carpet.  I pulled that out and laid it against what fills our garage--it is the same color!  The stuff that just arrived might be just a bit darker, but so little that if you noticed it at all, you'd probably dismiss it as a trick of the eyes or the way the light is hitting it.  It is a near perfect match.  And the newest stuff is an excellent grade of carpet, obviously an upgrade.  We think we will be able to do the remainder of the house with what we just got.

What a remarkable thing--to receive 2000 sq feet of carpet for free, and to have it be a perfect match for carpet that is already on the floor!   That's NO COINCIDENCE.  That HAS to be GOD!  I am  just overwhelmed with yet another sign of His love for us! 

That is our big news for the week.  Other than that, things remain pretty much the same.  There's still scazillion things to do in this house.  The laundry still never ends.  I'm still churning out a few tax returns and Joe is still busy telling me what I need to do next because I'm not capable of figuring that out on my own.  And there are still signings.  We've been getting the leftovers after everyone else has their schedule full and we don't understand that.  We should be "the head and not the tail".  However, I have cautioned Joe that we need to keep encouraging ourselves with God's miracles in our lives.  Getting depressed because a day goes by where we're only scheduled for one signing, I'm sure, does not signify to God our great faith in His provision!  And, I'm getting tired of taking laps around Mt. Sinai because Joe can't control his thoughts, or walk in faith.  This life is nothing if it's not a perpetual faith walk!  We have no clue as to how we will eat next month, other than from God's own hand.  But, surely, a God who will shop for carpet for us and send it to us for the cost of the rental on a U-Haul trailer will see to it that the power bill gets paid and there is something to eat.  Now, if He'd just give us enough signings to pay our creditors.......  I feel like I'm on a first name basis with some of them.  Collectors from Bank of America call EVERY DAY.  That is not an exaggeration--that is the truth!  It does get old, but until God increases the supply of greenback dollars, there's just not a thing we can do.  I just keep explaining to them that Joe hasn't had a commission since September and we just don't have the money to pay them. 

Meantime, in the scrapping world, LaWanna has added the second bracket album into the store in time for anyone who wants to use it for a Father's Day project.  You can see it here:  http://scrapbookbytes.com/store/digital-scrapbooking-supplies/LDesj_SonsandFathersBracketAlbum  And, my 4 Quickpages with Marmalade are also in the store.  You can see them here:  http://scrapbookbytes.com/store/digital-scrapbooking-supplies/LDesj_MarmaladeQPs
I think both the album and the quickpages turned out very well.  She won't be adding anything more to the store, I think, until June.  Her in-laws are coming to visit and she will be tied up with family stuff for the next little while.   I did some quickpages for Cori.  I doubt I'll make anything from them.  She may not even use them--I don't know.  She was doing brag books and bracket albums herself and giving them away as a bonus to people who bought her kits.  But, she's been ill lately  and hasn't been able to put those together.  I'm amazed that she continues to be able to produce such gorgeous kits.  So I made 4 quickpages with her latest kit and sent them to her.  She can use them any number of ways; whatever she thinks is best.

Well, now for a few pages and I've got to get to work.  I'm blessed in that I expect Joe to be gone for almost 3 hours this morning and I want to take advantage of the peace and quiet and the lack of a "boss"!


When this photo was taken, Atticus's dad was confused. What in the world was the deal with the toes? Obviously, he doesn't understand the fascination we ladies have with those teeny tiny toes....... I used Verena Karolyi's kit, Sweet Affection, for this page. Verena's designs are available at www.daisiecompany.com. The alpha is by Cori Gammon from her Clothesline kit. It's my "go to" alpha when I want something "soft"--I just love it. Cori's designs are at ScrapArtist.


This is the gorgeous kit, Sweet Affection, by Verena Karolyi, that I used to do the Piggy Toes page.  It's available at www.daisiecompany.com.


Cori Gammon will frequently create a large kit and then still offer an "add-on" to the kit over and above.  This is the "add-on" for her latest kit, Truly Blessed.


That's the preview of the full-size kit, Truly Blessed, by Cori Gammon.  It's available at ScrapArtist.  And, last (for today) is the page I did with the kit.


When I was a little girl, growing up in Florida, from time to time we'd see flamingos in a park or a zoo. My father always referred to them jokingly as "long-necked chickens". My DD has a gorgeous long neck which I really envy. I used Cori Gammon's new kit, Truly Blessed, which is available at ScrapArtist for this page. The circle stitching is by Cori, but from a kit that I believe is retired.

Hot Sunday

Well, it's only May, but we're seeing temperatures around 100.  It's HOT.  With temperatures that high, one is none to anxious to go running out in the heat for any reason.  Of course, there was church this morning but other than that, we've hidden in the air conditioned house. 

I made a most excellent Asian salad for dinner last night.  We love the stuff.  And, it's one great, tasty way to get a fair amount of nutrition into us.  It looks as though one recipe is about enough for four meals for us.  We had it for dinner (I added some chopped up chicken breasts) last night and again for a late lunch today.  We still have at least as much left as we've already eaten. 

I managed to get my treadmill time in today, but not without interference from Mr. Wonderful.  He left and I thought he had finally decided to go to the grocery store.  There are a few items we've needed and he's been promising to go for days.  So, I climbed on the treadmill and fired her up.  I was only about 5 minutes into it when he reappeared.  I hate that because I try SO HARD to not do that sort of thing when he is around because of his "jokes" which are always hurtful.  I am walking 15 minutes a day these days.  I will eventually do more, but I always start slowly.  I do a 5 minute warm up and a cool down that is somewhat less than 5 minutes.  I walk at a very slow speed for a count of 25 steps.  I bump it up a bit and walk at that speed for 50 steps.  I bump it up a bit and walk at that speed for 75 steps, and so forth.  This necessitates that I count steps as I go.  In the middle of my walk, he started to ask me questions.  I simply started counting out loud.  He KNOWS I don't want to talk when I'm on the treadmill!  Suddenly, he's out of his chair and over messing with all the buttons on the treadmill.  The treadmill has a function in which it counts the number of steps taken.  But, it counts total number of steps taken and I'm not really wanting to add and subtract while I'm walking.  And, pushing buttons like that will change other functions that I don't want changed like speed, calories burned, and distance gone.  I do wish he'd let me do whatever I happen to be doing without his "assistance".

I've been doing upper body strength training for a while now, but have only been back on the treadmill for about 2 1/2 weeks.  Physical trainers and others talk about "muscle memory" and it's true.  We can retrain our muscles, even when we haven't been working out in a long time, pretty quickly.  I'm amazed at the tightening in my rear end and thighs with so little time devoted, but a quick glance over my shoulder in the mirror confirms that a big difference has been made.  Now, when that difference is equally evident elsewhere, I will be one very happy person!

LaWanna put my second set of Ladybug Lucy quick pages up in the store on Friday.  I've sent her 4 pages with Marmalade which will most likely be up in the store some time soon.  In the meantime, Jan Hosford and I completed a second bracket album with one of LaWanna's more masculine kits.  It, too is pending put up in the store, in time for Fathers Day gifts.  And, I've got 16 pages waiting when she's ready for them. 

Alright, that's about it for today.  Except to say I miss my boys.  I haven't seen them since last Sunday.  And then, only for about an hour.   Here's some kits and pages for you.

I got this kit from Amanda Rockwell about a week ago.  I posted a layout with it a few days ago, but I did another with it this weekend.

Several weeks ago, Jennifer and the family had some professional photographs taken.  They are VERY well done.  This is one of them which I scrapped using the green from Amanda and Traci's kit. 

I recently grabbed Dunia Acuan's Boys Collection from the store at Natural Designs in Scrapbooking.  Cute kit with some cute embellishments included.

I snapped this photo on the steps outside the restaurant where we had breakfast on Mothers Day.  Isn't this a CUTE kid?  I used Dunia's kit for this page.  The swirl is from Blue Ice by Julie Bullock.  I hit it with a glitter swirl and I like the effect. 

Hooray! He's gone.....

This is becoming much too much like it was when he worked from home.  This man is making me bats.  One of the things I really like is that he seems to know just what I should do with each day of my life.  It never seems to occur to him that I might be bright enough on my own to actually have some idea of what needs doing.  No, sirree.  I obviously am too stupid to work that sort of thing out on my own so I must have his orders as to what to do with my day.  I feel so blessed to have such wisdom imparted to me on a daily basis.  NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, it's not often you hear me talk about buying something, but I actually bought something.  It took forever to get here but finally arrived today.  My metal water bottle.  No more drinking my daily water from plastic.  I now have a stainless steel water bottle.  It's pretty and ruby red.  It will not leach plastic weirdness into my drinking water.  Just as important, it will not leach aluminum into my drinking water.  I do not want to drink water from an aluminum bottle and contribute to the growing number of people who have Alzheimers and are forecasted, in a TV ad, to be the future demise of the Medicare system.  Nope.  Mine comes from stainless steel.  Now let's see what dread disease THAT is supposed to bring on!  Anyway, I had searched for something of this sort on the net and found them at Amazon.com, but they were pricey.  When I finally had a few (very few) bucks to spare, I found them on www.watercheck.biz for about 2/3 of the price on Amazon.  But, while I liked the price, I sure hated the time it took to receive it.  I've almost certainly sealed my fate by continuing to drink from plastic bottles in the meantime while weeks passed awaiting my stainless steel water bottle!

In reality, I haven't accomplished much today.  I never do when he's around.  If I sit quietly in my corner and play on my computer, I am least likely to be bothered.  If, on the other hand, I actually get up and go do something, it is sure to elicit some smart ass, critical "joking" comment from him.  Or, he comes around and decides I am not performing whatever task correctly and need the benefit of his vast experience and managerial talents.  It's not a hard choice.  I will sit quietly in this chair and watch my rear end grow for the rest of my life if it will keep him out of my hair!  And, it feels so good, so relaxed, when he leaves!  I've been waiting all day for him to leave.  Once I'm done here, I'm going to tie on my running shoes and hop onto the treadmill.  And when I've done my walk the way I think it should be done and haven't had any coaching from the man who has been on the treadmill only once in the last 7 months and don't have to explain again why I've been on only so long and gone at the speed I think is best, it will be a good thing.  I had that planned for yesterday afternoon too, but then got an emergency call from the escrow company--"how fast can you get here?"--and ended up doing a signing.  Then, I actually went to a grocery store. 

I quit going grocery shopping shortly after we married.  Week after week, I'd come home to a running critique of everything I bought.  "Why did you buy more canned tomatoes?  We have a can."  "Did we really need more cucumbers?  We have one.  Oh, you're going to make my favorite cucumber salad?  Well, then I guess it's okay!"  Yup, narry a grocery shopping trip passed without him listing off the food I bought which I should not have bought.  I particularly appreciated it when he became concerned that we had too many cans of whatever--just exactly what IS the shelf life of a can of peas?  Do they spoil anytime in the next two decades?  I don't think so, so what's the problem? 

Anyway, yes, I went to the grocery store.  I am making Salisbury Steaks, mashed potatoes, and broccoli for dinner and needed ground beef, seasoned bread crumbs and broccoli.  I bought some other things that just needed to be bought.  We were totally out of peanut butter.  That's one of my favorite low carb snacks--can't have that!  Bought some gluten free cereal.  Bought more canned tuna and some canned clams.  I make a mean spaghetti with clam sauce, so clams are a necessity for those days when dinner rolls around, I have nothing else planned, and my energy is flagging.  All in all, I managed to spend $68.67 at the grocery store.  And he managed to keep his mouth shut about what I bought--is it possible that in only 5 years he has learned that he either keeps his mouth shut or he shops himself or he goes hungry or he pays restaurant prices?  In only 5 years????  Probably not, but on this one extremely rare occasion, his 5 years worth of training paid off!  I thought training him would take at least a quarter of a century, but I can now say definitively that he IS able to learn in shorter periods of time......   I'm just concerned about retention.........

Okay, I've got to wind this down or I will find myself still typing and Mr. Wonderful will be back and I won't have gotten done what I want to do.  SO, here's a few pages and the great kits I used to create them.  Enjoy!  Most of these have not been posted elsewhere yet, so consider yourself blessed to be getting a sneak preview!

This kit is called Wheels and is by LaWanna Desjardin.

This is an add-on to the Wheels kit shown above.  LaWanna feels her kits sell best in a certain price range, and, because of the Quick Pages, I am always crying for a bit more.  So, I don't know if this is an experiment or a trend (I'm hoping it's a trend), but she's made her usual sized kit and then created a small group of extras which are available for a separate purchase.  One more trick she's trying which was my suggestion.  She's made even a smaller freebie and will be giving it away in her newsletter.  It also coordinates with both of the above.  I'm hoping that having just a few pieces in this color scheme will make customers want to have MORE or want to have it ALL.  We'll see.  I don't have a preview of the freebie because I haven't had a chance to unzip it yet.

Here's the page I made with this kit.  We plopped Atticus into the driver's seat of the van and he really had no idea what to do next.  He was only 8 months old.  Just wait.  In fact just wait about 14 years!  He'll be all over it then!

This is the first kit I picked up from the new CT for Daisie Company.  I just love the colors.  I think it might have been designed as a Valentine's kit.  It's named "In Love with You".  I was "In Love with" the colors!  This kit is designed by Verena Karolyi whose designs make my little heart go pitter pat these days.

This is the page I designed with "In Love with You".  This gorgeous plant lives just outside the sliding glass doors in my DD's kitchen.  At Christmas it is pure red berries and green leaves, but during spring these beautiful white blossoms appear.

This is Cutie Patutie designed by Patricia Amaral who sells at Natural Designs in Scrapbooking.  If I knew her better, she and I would have a conversation about her previews.  She needs some serious marketing advice.  Her kits are LOADED with goodies.  There's pretty much everything in there but the kitchen sink.  It's amazing.  And, yet, from her previews, you'd have no clue.  Unfortunately, that makes her kits look expensive when, given all the stuff that's in them, they are a good buy. 

This is the page I created with Cutie Patutie.  I love the colors in this kit.  And, of course, the massive amounts of stuff!  I don't really know what's going on in this picture of my mother, so I made up my own story!  Looks good anyway! LOL

Cori Gammon just put out this kit called Indian Summer.  Again, gorgeous color scheme in this kit and Cori is more than generous when it comes to the contents of a kit.

This is an add-on Cori created to go with the Indian Summer kit. 

This is the page I created with Indian Summer.  The gentleman is a neighbor of ours from just up the street in a subdivision where I once tried to get my parents to buy a house!  He was out taking his two little grandson's for a walk and I was lucky enough to catch this shot from behind.

Okay, that's about it for now.  I MUST go get my running shoes on NOW. 

Tuesday's List

Well, I didn't do half bad on Monday's list, though I admit, I was still working on part of what I got done at 10 o'clock last night.  I have finally conquered the mountain of laundry.  Today's primary chore will be to clean the kitchen.  In theory, I cook and Joe cleans up.  I can promise you, if he did work like that for my mother, he'd be grounded for a month!  So, it took me 3 tries to get the sink and the countertop next to it cleaned off and all the coffee stains removed.  Next, the stove, UGH!  If I didn't go out there and clean it, it would just never get cleaned.

So, I ended up pulling what folks in Nevada call "country style pork ribs" out of the freezer.  Joe made an emergency run through Food for Less and we had pork, sauerkraut, and mashed potatoes for dinner last night.  It was yummy, if I do say so myself.  Of course, any self-respecting mid-westerner would know those are pork steaks, not "country style pork ribs".  Fortunately, they cooked up just fine no matter what you call them.  Joe has a 7PM signing tonight so I'll probably end up eating leftovers from the fridge tonight.  Not my idea of fun, but........

I am working on getting the new CT thing ironed out.  First of all, I hate to say it, but I think their store site is about as user UNFRIENDLY as a commercial site could be.  I am being directed to the proper screens by someone I don't know, and when I get there, I am going blind trying to find the proper place to click.  Whew!  Thankfully the "someone" is patient and helpful.  And, even organized.  But, I'm looking forward to doing some scrapping with the gorgeous products there!

Well, that's about it for now.  I've got to get going on chiseling stuff off the countertops and floor in the kitchen.  It's such a fun job, but somebody's got to do it and apparently that somebody is me!  I do have some new kits to show off, but I haven't had a chance to do anything with them yet, so--maybe tomorrow.

Monday's list

Well, my "to do" list is pretty long today. 

1) The never ending pile of laundry.
2) Print tax return for PB
3) Research gift tax question for PB
4) Complete 940 for DW and put package together for pick up tomorrow
5) File scrapbook pages
6) Figure out what's going on with my new CT
7) Raid the freezer and figure out what we're eating for dinner.
8) Clean out 1 dresser drawer.
9) Assorted other tasks as time permits.

I went after cob webs and dirt on the ceiling in the office over the weekend.  Parts of the ceiling look a lot better.  Parts of it look the same.  We have those cruddy popcorn ceilings and I think the ceiling just looks better where the vacuum cleaner scraped off the popcorn.  Well, at least part of it looks better!   I'll scrape some more someday soon.

I am so paranoid about spiders these days.  I know it's a function of the spider bite I got last spring.  I still have a "hole" above my right eyebrow from that.  I know the Lord protected me in that.  It had to be a Brown Recluse spider.  They're awful.  I am convinced it was a male spider though.  A female lays her eggs in the bite site and I've heard of people having to have whole sections of their skin removed from a female bite.  So, I guess I should count myself blessed that I still have a forehead, eyebrow, and eyelid.  I got by with three weeks of antibiotics, ice packs, and ibuprofen.  I picked up my nightgown to get ready for bed the other night and let out a scream!  There was a HUGE spider on it.  I'm a big girl and am normally completely competent to deal with bugs and insects.  Spiders?  Not so much anymore.  I can't tell you how much I'd like to have the money to call an exterminator and have this house sprayed.  It took me hours to get to sleep after the spider incident.  I was alert for anything that felt the tiniest bit abnormal anywhere on my skin! 

Laundry......how do two people make so many dirty clothes?  I do a load almost every day.  That seems too much for just the two of us.  But, there's a huge pile, again, just waiting to be put into the washer.  I have to put on my detective outfit and do some investigating.  My washer stinks!  I've been trying to leave the door open on it, hoping some fresh air would do it good.  But, with his usual helpfulness, Joe closes it every time he sees it open.  I've explained it to him but it doesn't seem to compute.  Anyway, I'm wondering if there's some sort of filter in there I've been supposed to be cleaning?  Lord, I hope not--we've had the thing for a year now.

I finally have made some progress as far as the new CT is concerned.  They contacted me WEEKS ago initially and asked if I would do 3 blog posts a week in exchange for 4 kits a month.  Okay, I checked out their designers and they have some whose stuff I just drool over.  Sign me up!  In the meantime, I got the contract from then and it's 3 blog posts a month--even better!  Finally, today, I got some instructions on what I needed to do next to make this happen.  I've done my part as best I could.  We'll see if things move on from here......

Sorry about not posting the Quick Pages here last time.  I decided it was going to take a lot more time than I thought it would.  I'll try to get that organized sometime soon.  Sometime today I have to try to figure out how to move my earnings from April from my Paypal account to my bank account.  I need to use it to make a payment on my recent photo paper and ink purchase, not let it be spent on my very rare digital scrapping supply purchases.

Joe is still sick, but on the mend.  It seems to be some sort of a flu, accompanied with much moaning, groaning, sneezing, blowing, and a sore throat.  I am always amazed at how fast he comes back from these things though.  I'm sure, by Wednesday, we won't even know he was sick.

Yesterday was Mother's Day.  I got a card and some sort of a container from Joe with one of my favorite scripture verses on it.  Jennifer gave me a gift certificate to the new hair salon she's been going to.  They're literally four blocks from my house, so certainly convenient.  She got her hair cut short a few weeks ago.  She was looking for something that would make her look a bit more sophisticated.  I think it must be tough to get students to take you seriously when you look like one of them.  Anyway, it's a really cute cut and she likes it, so that's good.  She really is made for short hair--petite, slender frame, small bones, long neck, beautiful eyes.  Short hair just plays up all those features.

Well, I'll post a few of my latest kits and pages and get back to work on the laundry! 

I got this gorgeous kit from Cori Gammon.  My gosh, that girl can design! 

She also created this add-on as a separate purchase.  It blends perfectly with the kit and adds so much flexibility.

And this is the page I created with it.  A couple of months ago, dd got all dressed up to go out. She looked so good, mom called for an impromptu photo session. I got some great shots, but towards the end, the expressions on her face were 'different'. This page may show the reason! Money is tight at our house, so this page was my gift to her. She's a great mom. I used Cori Gammon's 'Boho Mojo' kit for this. That girl can make an alpha, or a swirl, or another whole kit for me anytime--oh yeah. You can find 'Boho Mojo' at ScrapArtist.  Note:  the font for the journaling looked fine when printed but went all wonky somewhere in the "save for web" function.






























This is Cori's "Trendy Pop" kit.






























And this is the add-on she created to go with it.






























And this is the page I created with Trendy Pop.  You'd never guess that Will shared one of Grandma's Thin Mints Girl Scout cookies with him.  Such a little chocolate puss!

Just a few weeks ago, Amanda Rockwell came out with a collection called The Nursery.  One of the kits in the collection was called "Vibrant Ocean".  I needed the blue and red from that kit to scrap this page.  The yellow gingham was created as orange gingham, but I recolored it.  The yellow is from her Eve Paper pack which she just put in the store and which is super!

Here's Vibrant Ocean:






























Here's a sneak preview of the page I did with it:






























Well, that's it for today, folks.  Have a blessed day.

I'm rich!

Well, at least I got paid.  That counts, comparatively.  Last month was $2.50.  This month is $23.16.  The quickpages with Astronomical are in the shop as of Friday.  I've already sent LaWanna a second set of pages from the Ladybug kit to put up.  I've also got 8 pages done with Fresh Bliss and last night I finished 4 with Marmalade.  I thought I'd post the quickpages here. 

If you are not a digital scrapper, here is how a quickpage works.  You receive a file that contains 4 pages (in this case--some people do more in a pack, some people sell them singly).  You open a photo file and you open one of the pages, all in Photoshop Elements, Photoshop, or Photoshop Creative Suite.  Then you open your digital photo.  In Photoshop Elements, you would merely copy the photo to the quickpage file and then make sure the photo is placed behind the page where the opening exists for your photo.  You would probably want to add a title and maybe even some journaling, but the design and construction of your page is done for you.  If you are not a digital scrapper, but scrap with paper and glue, you can still probably use quickpages if you're computer literate and use a Photoshop or similar program.  Just print out the page and glue your photo in the "hole" and continue from there. 

Anyway, you can see the first few sets I've created here:  http://scrapbookbytes.com/store/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=96

All of the quickpages are mine.  I did half of the pages in the bracket album.  The other half were created by Jan Hosford.  Jan does the smaller brag books by herself.  According to LaWanna, she thinks the sales we've had are pretty good considering the small number of products that have been in the store.  As you can tell, I'm working steadily to increase that number.  I tried counting on my fingers and toes and I think we have only 8 sets up so far.  Of course, I've got 4 more finished.  I can do a set of 4, on a good day, in an afternoon and evening.  It goes much faster for me than scrapping a "regular" page.  So, doing this while we're watching an episode of Law and Order for the 12th time is a good way to pass the time.

Joe is sick today.  He was sick yesterday.  He doesn't seem to be able to describe a specific symptom.  He's a bit feverish and he says his joints and muscles ache and he has a little bit of a headache.  The trick will be getting him to lay down and give his body some time to heal.  He has a signing in Pahrump at 11AM.  Hour drive there and an hour drive back.  He should be pretty ragged when he gets back.

Well, that's it for now.  I have to quit doing quickpages for a while and do some scrapping or risk getting kicked off a few CT's.  I've been keeping up with team requirements this month so far, but, while I've got lots of Quick pages waiting, I have no CT layouts waiting and one designer just gave me 3 new kits to scrap with yesterday.  I'd better get on it.