My Weblog

Upside down kind of day.......

I did it again. I stayed up REALLY late last night. Actually it started earlier than that. I ended up taking about a 3 hour nap in the afternoon. So, of course, when a "normal" bedtime rolled around, I wasn't tired. I'm trying to tell myself I got a full night's sleep; I just did it in two different time periods.

Anyway, I have been hard at it for hours now. I am working on that birthday kit, again, yet. I decided to ditch a bunch of layered flowers I had made, and now I am working on replacements for them. I couldn't decide exactly why, but the ones I had made (this was my second batch!) I just didn't like. Now, finally, I have some that make me smile! 'Bout time!

I've managed to pull the kitchen together in my "spare" time. I've also made a couple of trips to the van to bring in more stuff. I had not carried in the canned goods--tuna and canned peas--so that needed to be done. Next, the dog food bucket brigade begins. And I have got to bring in at least one bucket before the kids need to be fed...... The dog food barrel is really low at the moment!

I am eating sushi for lunch. The container I bought at Costco had 15 pieces in it. I told myself that I would allow myself this indulgence if I could get three meals from those 15 pieces. So far, I am finding that 5 pieces is more than enough to fill me up! I think I paid $8.99 for the container. Making a meal of 15 pieces brings a "meal" down to around $3 a serving which is less than it would cost for a burger at Mickey D's. And there's no doubt in my mind that the sushi is a lot healthier and easier on the hips than a burger from Mickey D's.

Well, sorry to say, I can't hang around. I need to do uploads for the team, post new release stuff in the forums at the two stores, and so on..........

New Releases

I have two new releases for you this week that I think you're gonna love. At A Cherry on Top, I am introducing a kit called The Orient. I started this kit (did a few papers) a long time ago. Then I thought maybe I just didn't have enough elements to bring it off the way I'd want to. So began a long process of searching out and acquiring elements to go with this theme. When I finished the design work on this kit, I was pretty darned proud of what I saw on my screen. Do you have photos of the decor of your favorite Asian restaurant? Photos your Dad took in Hong Kong while he was on R&R from sea duty or the 'Nam? Have you taken a trip to Chinatown lately? See that little girly figure dressed in pink? She's the perfect accent for the layout I want to scrap of my daughter dressed in finery from Chinatown one year for Halloween! Here's your kit. This kit would also scrap a great feminine kit. The papers are lovely.

The kit is on introductory special right now, 30% off. I also have the "separates" available at 30% off.

Just a little hint here: You'll find a surprise tucked into the alpha file. Just sayin'.........

We have some gorgeous extras with this kit.

As usual, I am at a loss to pick a favorite among our frame clusters or stacked paper sets........ Yes, they're on special at 30% off as well.

At FPD, I have a great kit called Mischief Maker. It's perfect for boy layouts and would work for girl layouts as well. I know most of us dress our little girls in red or turquoise every now and then, LOL.

Yes, there really are 5 alphas in this kit! I got a little goofy when I was creating the kit and after seeing a letter or two in the various colors, just couldn't choose one or two or even 3 colors so I did 5! Everything from Mischief Maker is on sale at 30% off. The kit previews are linked to the stores for your convenience.

End of my week.....

I haven't quite decided. Is Saturday the end of the previous week for me or is it the beginning of a new week? I know that schedule is a bit off from everyone else's..... Maybe I'm just a "bit off" kinda girl. Anyway I start every Saturday morning with uploading the fruits of my labor for the past week. Two new kits in the store. I am grateful the upload process went remarkably fast today--under 4 hours. That may be a new speed record! AND, usually, I upload the FPD kit ahead of time and then just have to put it in the store come Saturday morning. Today I had to upload it too. I'm grateful for the gift of a few extra hours in my day!

So, I think the next thing on the agenda is breakfast/lunch. I've had my morning frappuccino, but no food as yet, not even a smoothie. And I am feeling hungry. It must be time to forage for something edible. Lord knows I bought enough yesterday. I MUST have something out there that will satisfy my hunger, LOL.

Then, onward. I need to finish that birthday kit. And I really need to spend some time on updating my inventory spreadsheet. My failure to do that resulted in a rather last minute substitution for next week and I don't want that to happen again any time soon. I have downloads to unzip, organize and delete and I've been chipping away at e-mail while the computer worked on those uploads, but there's plenty more to delete. AND, I need to put in some time on accounting work so I can bill my time for this month. It won't be a whole lot, but it will help. Every little bit helps. My bank account is looking pretty puny about now.

Thankfully, I think I have completed all my backups for September. Of course, two days from now it will be October and time to start all over again, LOL. But, I've been through one hard drive crash, and I wasn't prepared. It was a disaster, emotionally, time-wise, etc. I do NOT want to go there ever again. It was a very hard lesson to learn.......

Around here, I really will dust today. I know I just ran the vacuum cleaner through the house two days ago. But, I'll bet you wouldn't be at all shocked, if you read this blog often, to know there are clumps of dog hair here, there, and everywhere already. Yes, I'm pretty sure I can stay busy!

Alrighty then. I need to go do something about this hunger. YOU be BLESSED today!

 

I am giving myself a gold star......

Honestly, I was TIRED when I got home from Costco. But, all the frozen food is in one of the freezers and all the fridgey stuff is in the fridge. I operated the suck-em up machine all by myself and stored 4 pounds of ground beef in the freezer. (You do know that that food saver thing is mechanical and therefore strictly the purview of a man, right???? Yeah......) Tomorrow I'll turn one pound into meatloaf which I've been craving and one pound into burgers. All the cold foods have been taken care of. Stuff that doesn't really matter is still hangin out in the van--four trips carrying boxes full of stuff were enough for tonight. Kitchen is reasonably clean. Dishwasher has been unloaded and the few dirty dishes around have been rinsed and loaded in there. Tea is steeping for iced tea tomorrow. All in all, I think I've turned in a decent day! Got to get to bed--tomorrow is upload day...........

I spell exhaustion......

C.O.S.T.C.O. Yeah. I left here and made a 7-11 stop. Then I went to the bank. Then I went to Costco. 1.5 hours later and WAAAAAAAAAAAAY too much money later, I emerged from the store and went to the gas station where I dropped another $50.

When you're putting off and putting off going to the store and using up what you have, it's a good thing. The bank account doesn't go down nearly as fast. But, God help you when you finally have to face the music and replace all that stuff you've been putting off buying. I tell you it was life threatening. I was SO HOPING that this was not the month when it would cost me yet another $55 to renew my membership. That was the only good news to come out of the whole trip. Well, not quite. For the first time ever, I lifted a 52 pound bag of dogfood into my cart with no injury to myself! That is pretty spectacular. Now, I still will not be carrying it in from the car. But, I'm betting stronger! "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as the eagles. They shall run and not be weary, they shall lift heavy bags of dogfood and not faint" or something like that! Thank you Lord for making me stronger every day.

So, two 52 pound bags of dogfood. There went $50. I bought frozen fruit--frozen strawberries, frozen blueberries, and frozen pineapple. I bought frozen Marie Calender pot pies. I bought frozen Chicken Teriyaki bowls. I bought a spinach salad which will be lunch/dinner for some part of the next 3 days. I bought milk. I bought cranberry juice and orange juice. Have you priced Orange Juice lately? It's horrendously expensive. I bought instant coffee and NesQuik for my morning frappucinos. I replenished my supply of tuna fish. I bought some canned peas. I bought 6 pounds of ground beef. How many times have I wished for a hamburger and not been able to have one because I had no ground beef in the house? Lately it's been meatloaf...... Well, no more. I needed that rinse-aid you put in your dishwasher. Have you any idea how much I resented spending $11 on that! But, I checked at El Cheapo last trip and they don't even stock the stuff. I was going to have to buy it somewhere! I bought some of Costco's house brand (Kirkland) fruit and nut bars. Last time I bought some Granola bars that are a bit like the old Payday bars. They are too sweet! I can't eat more than one or two of those a week. But it's great to have something not so sweet to munch on and those Kirkland Fruit and Nut bars hit the spot. I bought some shredded cheese and some jarred chiles. (I am still enjoying my cheap quesadilla meals). I bought a bag of spinach for my smoothies. I got a dozen and a half of eggs. Milk--yup,had to buy milk. 7-11 has raised their price on milk so it is now $1.20 more for two gallons than it costs at Costco. I was almost out of butter so I ended up buying 4 pounds of butter. I am amazed that 4 pounds at Costco costs about as much as 2 pounds in the store. I bought some jarred Alfredo Sauce. I don't love the jarred stuff, but I do not keep ingredients like Heavy Cream on hand to make homemade Alfredo sauce myself. Now I have 3 ways to eat pasta--red sauce, green sauce, and white sauce. That sounds like someone's flag colors. I think it's Italy! My splurges for the next 6 weeks: a package of sushi and a package of licorice.  I literally had never tasted sushi before. But they had a bunch of guys making fresh sushi right there in the store. And, of course, I got a free sample. I was surprised that I really liked it. So I bought some. Anyway, I think that's about it. DO NOT ask me what it cost. I do not want to say that number out loud or see it in writing.

I had put off buying gasoline. Normally I fill up at the halfway point. But I had that signing last weekend which took me 38 miles across town and back TWICE. So, I was down almost 3/4's of a tank. There went $50!

So, it was a very expensive day. Now the trick will be to make every penny count. The dog food should last til about the second week of November. I wonder if I can make the human food last as long? And how long can I make the gasoline last? This is such a challenging game!

Okay, I have only managed to bring in one box of stuff. There were 3 plus various other extras not in boxes plus the milk which is in its own box. It may be dark, but I have to keep hauling stuff in. I don't know if I'll be back any more today or not.........

I wish this were lunch break........

I am hungry. Sadly, I have some eggs sitting in boiling water, waiting at least another 19 minutes til I can make some egg salad. I figure, once I get it made, I'll enjoy that.

I've had a pretty good morning. I reworked an older kit, adding in some new elements and improving, I think, some elements that were already there. I'm about ready to send it off for new previews. And start it uploading to the site from which my CT downloads. I hate being this last minute about things, but I needed to change up my plans. Happens, even though I don't like it.

I did manage to do a little swish and swipe in the master bath. Also got the bed made and did a little straightening in the master bedroom. I've been doing the "turned down bed" look since I don't really have shams to match my duvet. I'm not thrilled that this seems to mean I have to straighten and restretch and rearrange the fitted sheet every time, but it does look nice when I'm done. The dishwasher is also loaded and doing its thing. So, progress on both the design and home front.

I guess there is just no avoiding it. I'm going to Costco today. Got to buy dog food. Getting low on butter. Okay on olive oil only because I broke down and bought a small bottle at El Cheapo last trip. It saved $$$$ only in the sense of saving cash. I paid a lot more per ounce, I know. I will look for some more of those pot pies and some more yakisoba. And frozen fruit and fruit juice. Anybody think I'm going to get out of there for $100? No, me neither.......... And, when I've blown the food budget, I then have to go get gasoline!

I had to giggle the other day. I read about some mayor (I think) that decided to eat on the food stamp budget which is $29 a week for a single person. I don't know if that varies from location to location or not. He claimed he was hungry during the day. I do think that was a good experience. In general, I am not in favor of the proliferation of welfare-type benefits, but I can tell you, I'd be thrilled with an extra $29 a week to spend on food! Or even to pay some of my food costs at their current level with someone else's money at the rate of $29 a week. What a blessing I would consider it. I may have to go back to the local site and try to determine if I'm eligible. Last time I checked, Joe and I were eating mighty cheap but with his earnings, we made a few dollars a month too much.

Well, 4 minutes and the eggs will be cooked. In the meantime, I'll finish getting the last preview ready to send to my assistant. I think I forgot to bless you this morning. YOU be BLESSED today. There, you are blessed, and if I didn't forget to bless you this morning, you are twice-blessed!

 

 

 

Another blessed day........

in the making. I've been up for quite a while but I got involved in a FB chat and had to do the CT update. All that takes a while.........

So, I have now missed the trash pick up for today. And I didn't have the trash at the curb. No biggie. I'll just catch Tuesday's pick up.

I didn't dust yesterday. I DID run the vacuum cleaner again throughout the office, the pathways in the livingroom/dining room, did the hall and did my bedroom. So, the house is pretty thoroughly vacuumed. One of the really great things about the Dyson is that I was able to do all that only moving the plug in twice. I LOVE that longer cord........ Now I really WILL have to dust. Yuck!

And, I'm facing the end of life as we know it if I don't manage to get to a food store somewhere today. I have only a tiny dribble of milk left. I'm low on fruit and juice for smoothies...... Frozen food for quickie meals is pretty well depleted. I know El Cheapo doesn't have any frozen fruit; I scoured the frozen food aisle there last time. I may actually have to break down and go to Costco........

I am still hacking up mucus. That's better than just hacking, I suppose. I did make it through the night with just one Benedryl instead of one every 3 hours. I think that's a major improvement. Perhaps if I finish the dusting I can really make progress!

Well, that's it for me for now. Later, maybe.

 

Software upgrades........

Do you dislike them as much as I do? Yesterday AOL shut down on me. Understand, I don't love AOL. But when I first started with them, I knew nothing about computers, e-mail, or anything like that. AOL was reputed to be dummy-proof so it sounded good to me. Now, my aol e-mail address is out there everywhere. It would be foolish, I think, to switch. But, yesterday, AOL just quit on me. When I tried to reopen it numerous times, I got nowhere. I signed onto AOL.com and downloaded the newest version of the software. And, here's the fun part--it won't open either!!!!!!! So, I am having to read my e-mail via AOL.com. Maybe after I reboot a few more times?????? I hope........

Do you remember when many many months ago I bought a jar of pesto sauce at Costco. I think I paid $9 or $10 for it and was concerned that I should not have spent that much. I had dinner last night from that same jar of pesto sauce. I am pretty sure there must be at least 4 more servings and I can't begin to tell you how many servings I've had so far. As it turns out, it was a good investment after all!

Well, I've been up and working for quite a while. The kitchen is clean and I've been doing some design work too. The birthday kit has 45 elements that I plan on using. Unfortunately I just ditched a bunch of layered flowers. I liked the look, but it seemed a little "hard". This is a very playful kit and perhaps it could have stood up to the flowers, but I knew customers were either going to love them or hate them and I don't want my customers forced to make that choice. So, I'll replace them with something a little tamer........ Not sure what yet, but something.

So, yesterday, I managed to get the desk dusted, the side chairs dusted, the printer stand dusted, and the Total Gym dusted. Today I am on the stuff on the south wall. I've decided I'm going to unplug the TVs as a budget step. I no longer have cable TV so I can't use them anyways, and there is some cost to keeping them plugged in and in "ready" mode all the time. I cleared a bunch of stuff off the surface of the desk, but there is still much to go. I want a clean surface, like the one you see in magazine ads. It may be 2013 when I get there, but it's a worthy goal, I think.

So far today, I've returned the kitchen to "clean". By now, Max has had 2 full days to shed in the house, and Parker and Punkin have had the same amount of time to drag in dirt and dust. I think my next step should be to run the vacuum, at least through the high traffic areas. I do think the drainage and phlegm in my throat are decreasing as I get rid of the dust and dog hair. This is a very good thing. I'm getting tired of living on Benedryl! So, maybe by tonight, I can call this room clean from stem to stern, even if it's still cluttered. I hope so!

I have advertising to do so I can't hang around. Besides, it's almost lunchtime and I find I am hungry! I'm off to scrounge in the kitchen for something edible. I am going to have to break down and go to a store that sells food SOON......... Later, maybe.

 

 

The gift of another day..........

Good morning! Here we are together, celebrating the gift of another day. I have been up for several hours, working away on design. What have you been up to?

So I pulled out a mini kit I created last fall. Some of it I like, some of it is kinda blech. I quickly got rid of the blech part and started making more that I like. Papers for the kit are now finished and without using the blech stuff, I still have enough for a freebie when the time comes. I just had a zillion papers on a white background and it was too much white. This will be a birthday kit. All these years of designing and I've never done one of those! Shame on me! I haven't really sorted through the elements I did before to see if I'll keep any of those or not. Maybe........ I created the cake from scratch. It's kinda simplistic, but I still think it's cute.

Around here, it will be dusting and dusting. There's enough dusting in the living room to warrant some time spent on that and I still have about half of this room to work my way through. I didn't vacuum the hall yet either and by now the living room is looking like it needs more vacuuming....... That ought to keep me out of trouble.

I will also do some unzipping and organizing of files, some e-mail deleting, and some advertising. Got to do school too. I will be a busy lady today.

Eye Candy. Yes, we have some..........

Laura created a great two-page layout with Life Could Be a Dream. I think it looks just great. She actually created her own layered flowers by combining some layered flowers from the kit with the satin flowers and then also mounting them on circles of paper. I've been waiting for someone to do that! It's the reason I include the extra flowers in each kit--so you can make your own to match YOUR color scheme. Laura also used our FlashPages: Live Could Be a Dream template for this layout.

Laura also did this cute layout with Hugs n Kisses. This photo is from her wedding 22 years ago! She explains that she'd really like to have one of those really romantic photos of the two of them kissing, but finds kissing on command for the camera difficult. I love the way she worked the blues, browns, and pinks together. This is a darling layout!

Alright I'm off to tackle some of my other assigned tasks. YOU be BLESSED today!

Energy is flagging.......

I think I've had about all I can stand for one day. I have significantly lowered the level of paper on my desk. Wrote a loan letter for a client, then scanned it and e-mailed. Bundled up the previews for the latest fall kit and shipped it off to my design assistant for previews. I did get the computer desk dusted today which was so dusty it took 15 minutes just to wipe everything down! So, it's been a decent day in terms of productivity. Now I am giving it up for the day. See ya on the flip side.