belated Nov news...

Yep... its December. I know. Thanks for the heads up. Goes to show you how far behind I am on just about everything. Seems to me that life just stopped around the, oh, I guess the 23rd or so of October. Yea, a while ago. Wanna know what happened? Well, I wont bore you completely.

Basically, had a school function that required ALOT of prep work from me and the one other parent volunteer I could wrangle... plus lots of nights working late and then being at the school working on stuff all day... etc etc.. ya get the picture right? So, day after Halloween, I wake up sick. Yucky sore throat and stuff... just a cold but annoying. Then the kids get it and the hubby and for those of you with kids and hubbies, ya know how bad this is. Right, right. Moving on... finally get better and then we have several store visits (for work) in a row, leading up to the President (of the company, not the USA) stopping by which results in one really long shift... like till 5am. Yea... long long night. But we were great and the next week is the dreaded BLACK FRIDAY... OH... FYI - if I am moving really fast, its because that's how my life moves.... zoom zoom zoom - so Black Friday.... {insert evil laugh}... I get the 8:30pm Thursday night to 5:30am Friday morning shift. Its crazy crowded, its hot (because the A/C shut off thinking we were all in bed), half the people don't understand me (I don't speak Spanish), it goes on and on. But in the end, I stumbled home tired... but happy. I managed to get an awesome jacket at PacSun for 50% off... it was my size and the ONLY one there... I had been eyeballing it a few weeks prior but they didnt have my size. Destiny, I think. Went home and pretty much crashed because by now its after 7am and I have been awake a very very long time and those two Monster Loca Moca Energy drinks have long worn off. My MIL very generously had volunteered to watch my kids since she knew I would need sleep and hubby had to work - who knew the the day after Thanksgiving was a busy golfing day. Not me... Anyways, so hubby took the little devils to gramma's and my eyes were shut solid long before they walked out the door.... and they stayed shut.... until 5pm that night. Yep... I slept a long long time! Got up for a bit, ate, etc and pretty much went back to bed. I had to work the next 2 night so I need the energy. Skip past those two work days and you have Monday, Nov 30. I am feeling the need to scrap and stay up till 4am scrapping. 3 layouts done but I wake up in the morning sick... again! By Tuesday afternoon, I am running a fever of 102, so I lay on the couch with my BUG until hubby comes home and then I pretty much pass out... until Thursday night... yep! When I get a fever, I go out for the count. I am feeling alot better now, well rested. Just full of snot like you couldn't believe. But guess what I got a few hours after rising from the depths of my comfy bed... a little BUG with a temp of 101.7 and the sniffles. Ugh... yea, that means he cant go to school. So my one day home that I feel kinda decent, I have a sick kid with me. And of course this story cant end like that... nope. The other kid comes home from school sick... coughing up a small lung and spewing germs all over me.... again. I love being a mom. Yep. germs too.

Ok... was that alot? That is exactly how things go for me. Does it go like that for you? Well, if you made it thru all that then I want to share some recent layouts. Of course, these layouts are created with kits that I got for free - in exchange for working with and promoting the kit - blah blah... don't like it, don't read my blog .

So these first two layouts are created with a kit from CONNIE PRINCE called HEY SANTA. If you haven't seen Connie's stuff yet, then you are missing something. Plus, the girl is a kit machine. I think she cranks out a new kit every day. If you click on the layouts, it will take you to the Gotta Pixel Gallery and you can get more info on the kit there in the layout credits (and you could leave me some lovin'). Ok. Connie sells at Gotta Pixel and Elemental Scraps so click on either store name to check out her shop! She always has great deals and kits for $1 or $2... cant beat that.



This next layout was created just tonight during a speed scrap at Gotta Pixel hosted by Connie herself. I love her speed scraps! So much fun. Well, I used another of Connie Prince's kits, this one is called Deck the Halls. Isn't it cute? Click on the layout for the full credits because I used a couple of things that weren't Connie's.



This next layout is one of my favorite one's lately. First, I just love the photo! I used one of My Four Hens Photography Actions on it... can't remember which one off the top of my head but its one of the almost sepia ones. If you havent checked out Sarah's shop with all her amazing actions, do! And then follow her for great sales. I NEVER EVER used an action and then bought some and and now I use them each time.

Ok, back to the layout... hehe... this one is created from a new kit by Michelle Underwood Designs called Vintage Holiday Memories. Michelle sells at 2 Peas in a Bucket, which is a fun place that is both paper and digi!!!.


And that's it. I had 2 more layouts lined up but then realized they aren't released until Monday... so confusing for me to be early on a layout. hehe So come back to see 2 more adorable Christmas layouts.... from Digi-Designs by Nicole.

So in love with...

Story time, kids! Sit down, grab a warm cuppa joe or tea and read along with me (hehehe, I always wanted to be a teacher).

So, one of my FAV designers - Christina Renee Designs - has opened up at a new shop! She used to run her own shop, CRD and it was fab-U-lous! It's been closed for like ever now so when I got the newsletter from her with the WHERE her new shop was... well I ran on over to O'Scraps! Now I have been receiving the O'Scraps newsletter for some time and I look around and stalk some blogs but never really shopped there. With Christina Renee opening there, I went in to grab her newest kit and then went to see what else was around and that's when I fell in love with...
Yep, its Ashalee Wall and I just love her stuff! I am stalking her blog and she even has her own little shop too. So, do you wanna see some of her stuff? Of course ya do! I just love all the swirls and flourishes that she uses in her product. Those are what got me into digital in the first place. So I grabbed this set of Fillers along with another similar one with diff colors.
I also grabbed this lil' mini kit, as well as some others. I just love the simply elements but still stunning.
Ashalee had a new product in her O'Scraps shop that was so adorable that I suggested doing the same with a Christmas theme and.... she did!!!

She has beautiful handwriting and these will look stunning on my Christmas pages. So... whatcha think? Everything is linked so check out her shoppes and her blog and fall in love too.

That's all I have to share with you right now. I have been working like crazy lately with the holidays (retail) so I hadnt scrapped a layout all month until the other night. I did 2 that night and 3 last night so I will post those soon. It felt good to scrap again, I know that! Chat with ya soon!

Blog Hop for Operation Write Home

Today Operation Write Home is doing a Veteran's Day Blog Hop. The smart people at OWH decided to do the hop on the weekend so that readers will have time to sit and read the lovely posts and comment on the great cards.

If this is the first time you have heard of Operation Write Home, then let me explain it a bit. Operation Write Home is a non-profit organization that helps get handmade cards out to our soldiers. The soldiers then can send cards to their families and friends for various things. You can read more about OWH's mission HERE.

Are you interested in joining?
I joined up with OWH earlier this year for the Memorial Day Hop. As a former member of the US Navy, I think it is a wonderful idea to send out cards to those troops/sailors that are away from their family and friends and unable to go out and shop for a card. Plus, handmade cards bring a touch of home to the troops. Here are some of the cards that I am sending to OWH.





A little info on why I support OWH:
1.) I was in the US Navy myself
2.) I have many friends who are still in the Navy and get deployed often
3.) I have an aunt who is a few years older than I who was in the Navy and she is married to a Marine and they are stationed at Camp Pendelton.
4.) My grandfather was in the Army and a recipient of the Silver Star and many other awards. You can see my layout about him from last year HERE.
4.) My husband's uncles were all in the military. That is 6 brothers that followed their father's footsteps.
5.) Uncle Jimmy - who passed away last year shortly after Xmas. You can see my layouts and read my tribute to him HERE and HERE.
6.) To all those who have served and died for my freedom.

Credits: Enchanted Forest Collab by A Work in Progress and Sweet Blossoms Designs

Now, head to the next blog on the HOP... It's gonna be Loni and her blog is HERE. Loni is a Stampin' Up demonstrator and has the cutest cards on her blog. In case you get lost along the way, you can return to the OWH Bloghop home page.

Thank you for stopping by and remember... no matter what your feelings are for war, it is still our family and friends out there and THEY deserve our support.

My Birthday Wish.... will you help it come true?

I normally do not mention my birthday at all. It comes and it goes. If I get a card, email or phone call... great! If not, oh well. I dont dislike growing older, its more that my birthday always happens during the time of the year when everything in my life (childhood mostly) was going bad. But this year I have chance to change all that negativity surrounding my birthday. I have made a Birthday Wish and if my wish came true then I would have the best birthday ever!

I'm turning 34 on November 9 and this year I'm donating to a good cause: Kawasaki Disease

You can read about my wish here -----> MY BIRTHDAY WISH

If you are unfamiliar with this disease, click on the HERE to find out more. A brief summary by the Mayo Clinic describes it as: Kawasaki disease, named after the physician that first identified it, is a condition that causes inflammation in the walls of small- and medium-sized arteries throughout the body, including the coronary arteries, which supply blood to the heart muscle. Kawasaki disease is also called mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome because it also affects lymph nodes, skin, and the mucous membranes inside the mouth, nose and throat.

This disease is scary... very scary. For me, my 15 month old first born son got it. I wont go into the whole long drama but let me say that when you go into the dr.'s office and they say, you need to go to Children's Hospital because something is wrong with your son's heart.... well, I still cry over this. My son healed and luckily with no anerysums but he has never been the same. I believe that the trauma to his body just changed him and maybe even caused the mild autism. I participate in as many KD studies as I can because this is horrifying to a parent, let alone the child. Please take the time to read about my wish and this cause and see if you can find it in yourself to donate so a cure can be found.

taking a bite...

I had a chance to work with two pretty awesome designers (Sara Ellis and Connie Prince) collab today and I had sooooo much fun. The kit is called I love Cord-uh-roy and it is a warm fallish apple-y kinda kit but at the same time, you could create very non fallish or apple-y kinda layouts. I choose to do apples because I have had these fun pics for 2 years now and there were just saying - scrap me!! So,

Ok, here are the kit previews. The first preview is Sara's portion. Stop by her blog and say howdy and maybe find something else. You can also click this image to go to the shop. This kit is on sale Tuesday, 10/27 for only a dollar at Gotta Pixels Dollar Day.


This second preview is Connie's portion. You should also stop by her blog because there is usually a freebie or two... plus it's just a nice thing to do. You can also click this image to go to the shop.


Finally, here is my layout. You can click on the layout to leave me love in the gallery if you would like. Because all we need is love....


It's my first layout in a week or so. Mr. Mo Jo ran away again and its pretty annoying to me. I miss scrapping but instead I have been cleaning house alot... yuck. I even dusted off a years worth of dust from my paper scrapping space... which is baskets and shelves on two walls. It took me two days to finish the job. Dang. I plan on getting busy with Christmas presents. What about you? Have you started preparing for the holidays? Shopping done yet? Are you doing more handmade gifts this year or is it just too much work?

Tee Time.... FORE (watch your head)

Well, I have not been fond of blogging lately but I just had to share this kit! Its called Tee Time by Digi-Designs by Nicole and I think it is my favorite kit from her. Here is a preview of the kit and the image is linked to the shop!

My husband is a golfer... he wishes he could go pro but no money to go to the golf school. So my kids have been exposed to golf since day one. I can't tell you how many golf sets we have around here... from the small plastic ones that my 4 yo uses as weapons to the petite sized real clubs. I just wish that daddy had more time to take my oldest out to practice, after all, he does work at a golf course. But the life of a food and bev manager is a busy one with long days and nights.

Regardless, I have a ton of golf pics and scorecards to scrap so I know that I will be using this kit again and again (at least for a couple holiday gifts) and here are two layouts I made with it!



That's it about this kit. Maybe I will be back with more stuff, maybe not! I do want to share a fre other things. Education.com is having an activities photo contest. You take pics of activities you do with your kids and submit them. 100 days, 1o0 winners. You can enter HERE. I like this site for more than this contest though. I have been a member for almost 2 years now and it has lots of useful info on schools, education, worksheets and classroom fun, ways to incorporate learning into everyday fun and there are even groups you can join to connect with others like you. HERE is my profile page if you want to connect.

Another fun thing to do that helps kids who need books is to join Classrooms Care a joint effort by Scholastic and Peyton and Eli Manning. Basically the class decides which books to read and they read and pledge... 100 books by Dec 18th... that is easy. No money involved, just reading! Share this with your child's teacher and help get more schools involved!

Remember when....

I used to post all the time! Ha ha....

I totally forgot about ya'll yesterday and didn't post my freebie for you! Oops... so here it is today! I just took my super cute layout and made it a QP for you! Don't forget to grab the Family Ties FREEBIE kit from Digi-Designs by Nicole if you haven't yet.

I love the colors of this one and am going to print and frame mine for the house.... Artscow.com is where I am going to get them printed at... on canvas! I don't know if you have to be a member already but they are having an awesome deal on the canvas. You can get the first one, up to 12x18 canvas printed for $11.99 and then $6.99 for the each one after! I haven't seen it cheaper than that!

Click on the image below to download the freebie. I hope you enjoy it!

Please remember your manners if you download. A thank you is appreciated!

Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back!!!!!

ok... you can't hear the song going thru my head as I was writing that, but it was the Welcome Back song by Mase. Anyway.....

Nicole (of Digi-Designs by Nicole) has begged me (ok, not quite begged but gave me really big puppy dog eyes) to come back to her creative team and being that she gave me my start, how could I say no (or resist the eyes)!!

And to start back, she is releasing a BLOG FREEBIE this week! Do you know what that means?? It means if you stop by Digi-Designs by Nicole's blog every day this week, you can grab the entire kit for FREE!!! And ya wanna know something else? This week is a collab FREEBIE.... so you can get TWO kits for free..... just by remembering to stop by each designer's blog every day this week ------> so whatcha waiting for?????

Oh.... you wanna see the preview of the BLOG FREEBIE.... ok! Here ya go....

Click the image above to head over to Nicole's blog!

And here is the layout I made with this adorable kit.........
So.... go go go! And stop by here later this week for a little freebie....

I'm a bad bad girl....

and uh, yea, I like NEVER ever blog anymore. I hate being busy....

So, what is everyone up to? Has school started back for ya? It did here... on July 27th!! Ryan started 3rd grade and Dylan started preschool. The preschool is at a local school for only 3 hours but still... I was so excited, thinking wow, all kinds of time for me! Uh, NOT!!!! Dylan has to be there by 7:45 in the morning.... why so early I dont know.... but I drop him off, spend about 10 mins there helping out (the kids all go to the cafeteria to eat breakfast so I help them), then head home. I get my coffee and me and Ryan walk to school (his school is around the corner). I stay with him till the bell rings then head back home. By this time, it is 8:30 and I only have 2 precious hours until I have to leave to pick up Dylan. If it is my hubby's day off (he is off on Wed and Thurs - fun times with restaurant managers), then we usually head off to do errands. If I am by myself, depending if I worked the night before, I either lay back down for a nap or take the dogs for a walk. I have found some day time speed scraps around the digicommunity, and I have been reading alot more. I just finished up book 6 of the Sookie Stackhouse series (the HBO show TrueBlood is based on these books) and now I am reading a new series by Kelly Amstrong, the Summoning. So far, its ok.

So, you? Anything new going on? Read any good books? Got any recommendations? What about movies? The last movie I saw was Transformers 2. We aren't big movie theater people here, especially since it is like $10.50 for an adult ticket.... But we did watch the funniest show on tv the other day. Hitch, with Will Smith was on tv and I had never seen it but had always wanted to. It was funny and it was on sale for $6.99 this week at Kmart so we grabbed it up. I also got the 4 Benji movies for $5 at Walmart. My kids love movies about dogs and cats, or animals in general so they loved watching it.

I have lots of layouts to share but dont feel like going to all the galleries to get the links... he he....I am so tired tonight and am gonna head to bed now! But I did want to share this layout that I made today at a speed scrap at Gotta Pixel... I love how it turned out!!! Click the image to go to the gallery for credits.



Now mostly everything is from 2 people.... Connie Prince and Deb Fisher Designs.

I am a new stalker of Connie's and love how all most everything she makes works so well together. I love that about a designer. Connie loves Twitter and Facebook like me so stop by there (the words are linked with her info) or her blog and say hi to her. Connie sells at a million places... lol. Ok... not that many. She sells at Gotta Pixel, My Life and Scrap and some other places so follow her.... lots to see.

I love Deb Fisher Designs and have talked about here before as well as shared a layout. I love that her kits are simply but stunning and they and the Oddbits elements work so well with any layout and are perfect for that finishing touch. You can find Deb on Twitter or her blog and she sells at Pickleberry Pop. Make sure to say Hi!

Ok.... nite all!

Did I fall off?

Oh my.... I just realized that I haven't posted in weeks.... so much for that new resolution to myself! But I have been keeping up with my other new resolutions. I have been having so much fun scrapping for myself that I haven't had time to blog! Whohooooo! I forgot how much fun this is.

So.... much has been going on! I have been on a speed scrap streak and love all the layouts I have produced from it! Amazing sometimes that the best stuff comes from random instructions and out of the box ideas! I have to show these off.....

Created at Gotta Pixel

Created at Plain Digital Wrapper

Created at Enchanted Scrap Studios

Created at ?? I forgot!

Created at My Life and Scrap

yea... this post has been on my computer for 3 days - so I will just post it and come back and add the links to the layouts! Terrible huh?