Another Year Ends..

I cannot believe it is New Years Eve already! Yet another year seems to have got away from me. Makes me glad to be a Digital Scrapper really, the camera goes everywhere so i am sure i caught most of the years happenings..now to locate it all on the pc! haha!!

Thank you to everyone who left comments on my post yesterday!! It was so great to get them, hosting this blog is nothing like having your own!! (You really want to get this one right - it's quite nerve wracking!)

So what are we up to...

The girls asked if they could bake some snickerdoodles (I got a new cookie recipe book!!) today so i let them loose in the kitchen! I have to say they are scrummy even if i did get left with the dishes in exchange for a taste of one!! Who taught kids to be so shrewd?!

David has been playing on his DS (the best thing i ever bought the kids!!) with his new Star Wars game that Santa bought him.

And me? Well i am now preparing for this evening when we will be seeing out 2007 and seeing in 2008. There is a bacon joint in the oven and wine in the fridge!! The rest i can cook tomorrow. New year is not a hugely celebrated tradition in our house but we quietly sit and watch the fireworks outside with a nice glass of bubbly! I think because Richard, my Dad and my brother all do shift work we phone each other at about 10pm and again in the morning but have stopped doing the midnight calls!!

As tomorrow is what we call a non-day (nothing happens and it is normally quite boring!), some close friends of ours are coming over for the day. We alternate who hosts and this year it is our turn! All the kids get on and we just sit and chat, play games and generally just hang around doing not a lot!! This year we have the XBox360 that i got for Christmas so we will probably be competing with each other on that!!

So it is for me to Wish you all a very Happy New Year, I wish all of you a wonderful time in 2008. May all your hopes and dreams come true.

Here is another gift for you (link has expired). Enjoy. HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Hi everyone

Well it's time that you are all made to suffer me and my ramblings...stop..where are you all going? hehe!!

So a bit about me....

I am a married Mum of 3 super kiddos! Rachel is 12 (future paediatrician), Becky is 11 (future movie star!!)and David is 8(future Army officer!). (Yes i know the girlies are close in age and trust me it shocked me as much as it has you, LOL). My long suffering hubby is Richard and oddly enough today is the anniversary of our very first date! He took me to London to see Les Miserables, we had box seats and it was so romantic! So 13 years on we are still together. We have a menagerie of animals! Hobbes and Hitchy are the cats, Beaky is the Budgie that my Dad hand reared and Fudges is Rebecca's rabbit! As if that isn't enough i work school hours term time as a nursery teacher to 4 year olds!

I began digi scrapping about 2.5 years ago now, i had never paper scrapped until i made paperbag scrapbooks with the kids one summer! Far too messy for my liking!!

So thats me!

As i am in the UK i will be posting during the afternoon (my time) until the 3rd of Jan when i will be posting in the evening (my time) as the kids will be back to school and I to work!

Speaking of which i have to iron their school uniforms this afternoon...man don't ya just hate that job! I can't believe they are back to school so soon :(. I could do with keeping them home till the 7th!

Meet the kids..

Rachel with her microscope, she got it for Christmas.

Rebecca dressed as the Washerwoman from the Wind in the Willows. She was in theatre the week before Christmas.

David with the obligatory Christmas hair cut!!

I have decided that as it is the last couple of days in 2007 and the start of 2008 i will be giving treats away as i go along! They have been kindly made by our own Karen Wallace so huge thanks to her. Enjoy them!

Here is your first gift :). Click here ( link expired).

Home Again

We spent this afternoon/early evening traveling back home from visiting with family for the past week. It was great getting to spend time with all of them, but also really nice to finally get back to our home. I can't WAIT to get to sleep in my own bed tonight :)

Anyway, with the traveling, and then having dinner with my mother-in-law who happens to be in our town through tomorrow afternoon, I seemed to have missed posting on here once again. Bad, bad Jen! Hopefully I haven't lost everyone with my crazy rambelings this past week! You sure don't want to miss out this next week when Gill will be hosting around here.

I hope you all enjoy your last couple days of 2007 and have a wonderful 2008!

Fabric Ornament Instructions

Ok, I finally got the instructions together for the fabric ornaments my mom and I have been making. Hopefully you all will be able to understand these. I have included a lot of photos along with the steps so hopefully that will help. Let me know if you have any questions. Enjoy!

Grab the Fabric Ornament Instructions Here (sorry this link has been removed)

I will leave these up for a few days to allow people to get them if you want over the New Year holiday.

What Happened to Thursday?

Thursday flew right past me and I missed jumping over here to say hello. We had to make a Michael's trip for supplies to make more ornaments, I worked on the instruction sheet for the ornaments (just need to get it converted to a PDF) and then I wrapped up my day with a lovely evening at the theatre to see (The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz)
My hubby went all out for my birthday this year and got us box seats to see Wicked at the Fabulous Fox Theatre in St. Louis. So while my parents watched the boys, we went and joined the world of culture. Boy did we! With the package my hubby had purchased, we parked right up behind The Fox in our assigned parking spot, went in the private members only Fox Club entrance and then had a yummy dinner at the Fox Club overlooking the grand staircase and elegant lobby area
After dinner we were escorted to our box seats (view from my seat when we were first seated)
Each box seated 8 people. There were plush chairs with 2 small tables - 4 chairs around each table. We lucked out and were seated with a really friendly couple who were around our age (very helpful when you are in close quarters with them for almost 3 hrs) who had recently moved to St. Louis from Austin, TX and the hubby had bought the tickets for his wife for Christmas. During the performance we were served by a waiter (ended up being the same one we had for dinner actually) with whatever we wished to order (and wanted to pay for of course ;)). We had a yummy brownie/ice cream/whipped cream dessert called a "volcano" during the Act II. MMmmmmm! The performance was outstanding!!! If you every get a chance to see "Wicked", GO! I only wished I had watched "The Wizard of Oz" again before going since it had been awhile since I had seen or read it. "Wicked" tells the story of Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West before Dorothy lands and Oz up through after Dorothy melts the wicked witch (or so that is what they say happens in "The Wizard of Oz" ;) ). It is a great story filled with humor/serious moments/love story, and it has outstanding music! I tried to take some pictures of the theatre with my little Cybershot, but as you can tell by the one I showed above, they didn't turn out very well. :( Made me wish I had went ahead and drug my Nikon D80 with me even though I couldn't take pictures during the performance. There are some great pictures on their web site though

Today will be another layed back day before we head back home some time tomorrow. The boys are downstairs right now playing with their grandpa which gives me some time to relax. Tonight we are going out to dinner with my parents, brother and his wife and son. I'm glad to get a chance to see them again before we head home since it might not be until my nephew's first birthday at the beginning of March when we get up here again.

Ok, I think I have completely bored you all for today now. I sure hope I haven't scared all the readers off because you won't want to miss next week! Next week we will get to know TSG Team member, Gill (MissChief) better. And I think she just might have some goodies to share from one of wonderful TSG designers. So you do NOT want to miss that!! Also, by next week the great challenges and crops will be starting back up for 2008. Man I can't believe there are only a few days left for 2007! So I bid you goodbye for now and I am off to finish up the ornament instruction sheet which I will share with you tomorrow.

Recovering

Well, I don't know about you all, but I am still in the process of recovering from the hussle and bussle of Christmas! Today was a "free day" as my oldest likes to call it. We just hung out at my parents' not doing much of anything. I worked on some more of the ornaments (still need to get that "how to" sheet done), and then started to work a little on the TSG Newsletter. Drew spent the morning with my dad running around in the mud outside while Zach spent time playing with his new toys in the house.

When trying to come up with SOMETHING to talk about here today (sorry I have been such a boring hostess), I thought I would share a project I did with Drew's preschool class at their Christmas party. I few weeks ago I put out a plea in the TSG Forum for suggestions for an easy craft to do with 3 & 4 year-olds. You wonderful ladies came up with some GREAT ideas and I had a really hard time just picking one to use (I have put the rest in my craft box to use next year with my boys at home). I finally decided to do a handprint and footprint angel and I think they turned out REALLY cute!!! Here is the one Drew did as my sample

I was really trying to avoid having to use anything that would need time to dry since the party was at the end of their school day and they would be heading home right after it was over. I didn't want them to have to transport wet crafts home. Which means there was a lot of prep work for me. On the Monday morning before their party (which was last Wednesday), I went up to the school and traced all 13 class members hands and bare feet and also took a picture of each of them. I decided if we were going to spend all this time making the craft, that instead of cardstock, I would use craft foam so they would hopefully hold-up longer. I then went home and cut them all out and put their name on the footprints with sticky foam letters. Then, to avoid having to glue the pieces together, I used glue dots and stuck the dots on the pieces (leaving the backing on the dots that they kids peeled off during the craft). I also printed out a headshot of each of the kids, laminated them and stuck them to foam circles to use as the angels' heads. Then I attached the shiney pipecleaner halos on the backs of the head along with a ribbon to hang them on the tree (I used magnets in the sample pictured above so it could be hung on the fridge) with hot glue. I also printed out the following little poem to put on the back of the angel:

This little angel is special you see;
Because she is a part of me.
Her wings are my hands,
Her body my feet,
And on the tree she'll look very sweet.

(of course changing she/her to he/his for the boys in the class).
The final step was dividing the stickers to decorate them with up evenly and putting all the pieces in a baggie so they could be handed out quickly. Whew...my table in the midst of the mess

All the prep work REALLY paid off when it came time to do the craft though. I think it went really smooth and I received lots of complements. The teacher even requested to keep my sample so she could share it with the other teachers in the school and have it for reference to use in the future :)

Ok, I will leave you all for tonight. :) Tomorrow I will try to sit down with my mom and get her to give me the measurements for cutting the fabric to make those ornaments and get the instruction together for you guys. I also get to go to the theatre tomorrow night! Wooohoo!! My hubby bought us tickets to go see "Wicked" at the Fox Theatre in St. Louis. So we will be going there for dinner and the show tomorrow night while my parents watch the boys. I night out with just the two of us...don't remember the last time THAT happened! I will try to sneak my little Cybershot camera in with me and get some pictures of the inside of the theatre. If you have never been there, it is a GORGEOUS. So....bye for now.

Merry Christmas!

I hope you had a very Merry Christmas! I sit here with my tummy stuffed with all kinds of things that are bad for me...but BOY were they YUMMY! ;) We had a peaceful day at my parents' with them, my aunt, uncle, cousin and grandma. Instead of everyone buying presents for each other, we do a "white elephant" exchange. Although we don't do the typical "white elephants" with a bunch of bad presents though. That was how we start some years ago, but with these being the only presents the adults exchange (except for my grandma), it has become gifts that are inexpensive but still nice. The rest of the day was spent eatting, playing Wii video games and just chatting. Since I don't seem to be able to just sit and not be working on SOMETHING...I also made up some more of the ornaments my mom and I have been working on. And as I promises, here is what some of them look like They are made of a 3" styrofoam ball, material, straight pins, ricrac (or some other trim material) and ribbon. I will try to get a little instruction sheet with pictures made up by the end of the week to share for anyone interested in them. They are pretty simple to make, but to take around 2 hours to finish (depending on how quick are). They were a huge hit with everyone we shared them with this year.

Have any extra Christmas money you received? Don't miss out on your chance to receive Linda Cumberland's "Christmas Joy" kit for FREE with any $10 purchase!! It is only available until the end of December!! You will receive your download links via email after your purchase. And as it is every month, get YOUR CHOICE of ANY kit in the TSG store FREE along with the monthly featured kit (that being "Christmas Joy" for December) with your $20 purchase!!!

Ok, I need to work on a few other things this evening, so I best be going for now. Talk to you all tomorrow.

A Busy Christmas Eve

Wow! What a busy day here. It started at 8am this morning with opening presents with my immediate family...continued with a visit to my hubby's family and lunch at (I can't believe I am saying this) "Chuck E Cheese". *laugh* Never in my life did I think I would be visiting that place on Christmas Eve. My hubby's mom loves to take the boys out and do things with them when she gets to see them, so this was her pick this time. Of course the boys thought it was wonderful. The evening was spent with a large group of my extended family...and with 2 VERY tired little boys. I have to say, especially since they were both going with only a very short nap, they did great!

Hopefully with a much more layed back day tomorrow, I will be able to get a better blog entry together for you guys. And I haven't forgotten about the picture of some of the ornaments my mom and I have been working on! Need to get that off my camera along with the tons of other Christmas pictures. :)

For now I bid you good night! Hope everyone has a wonderful day tomorrow!!

I'm Going to be Fired!

Oh my goodness! It completely skipped my mind that _I_ am suppose to be hosting the TSG Blog this week! I'm so sorry I haven't dropped by here before now. My family and I traveled to my parents' house yesterday afternoon and not long after arriving the stomach flu which had effected my boys mid-week caught up with me so I got nothing done. Feeling much better today, we were off to church first thing in the morning and then visiting with more family the rest of the afternoon/evening. Here I am working with my mom this evening on finishing up some ribbon Christmas ornaments (which I need to take a picture of and share with you later this week - they are so gorgeous!), when I finally remembered. Cheryl, Robin & Sherry are going to fire me from overseeing the TSG Blog. *laugh*

Anyway, since it is later in the evening and I still need to finish a few things before heading to bed, I will make this entry a short one. I hope any of you that still have to travel in the next few days to be with family with have safe trips. I will try my best to drop by and share some photos tomorrow. Christmas Eve is always the busiest for us. We will be up early in the morning for my boys and my nephew to open presents together here at my parents' house. Then it is off to have lunch with my husbands mother, step-father and his grandma. Then back to do more with my family. We always have a HUGE get together with my mom's side on Christmas Eve. TONS of people all in a great room. Lots of noise, food and fun. :) Christmas Day is always our quiet time with family. My dad's side comes over to my parents' house for breakfast after which we open presents and then spend the rest of the day watching movies, playing new video games and of course eatting. With only about 10 of us (only 2 of those being kids...my boys) here this year it will be really quiet.

I hope you all have been getting the GREAT deals with the 12 Days of Christmas over at TSG!! You certainly don't want to miss out on the awesome deals and it is almost over!!! So make sure to head on over to the TSG store if you haven't yet!! Today (day 11) Kat was the featured designer and for Sunday, December 23rd ONLY If you purchase the Christmas Memories Kit by Kat and use coupon code cc-cM5kR while checking out and get Kat’s Christmas Memories Add-On Kit for ONLY $2.00! Make sure to check out Kat's store at TSG!

Hope you all have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!!!

This is my last post of the week. I can’t believe how fast this week has gone by. We got all the cookies made and my little granddaughters and Miranda helped me get them all decorated. Now all we have to do is wait for tomorrow when all my kids will come home and we will celebrate Christmas. I have a meat tray, relish and cheese tray and assorted dips and chips all made and waiting, plus all the cookies, which are quickly disappearing into the mouth of my son. The way he is eating these poor gingerbread cookies you would think he never got cookies. Ohhh And the gingerbread boys turned into gingerbread balls because I couldn't get the dough to roll out for some reason :(

I want to thank everyone for joining me this past week. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all the nice comments from everyone. I am not sure who is taking over the blog tomorrow but I hope you will continue to drop by. You never know when a gift might be waiting here for you, plus we just appreciate the fact that you care enough to drop by and check up on us….

Don’t forget to stop by The Scrapping Garden and check out the numerous challenges and crops we hold every week. And I hope you all took the time to go to The Scrapping Garden Store and see all the new kits that our wonderful designers have been making.

I have it from a reliable source that some new and wonderful things are in the works for The Scrapping Garden site after the first of the year so be sure you come back often to see all the new things.

That’s pretty much it for now… Once again thank you soo much for sharing this week with me. I want to wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas and a very blessed and prosperous New Year… If you would like to check in on me from time to time I have a blog on Dy's Place, feel free to stop by and say hi :)

I'm beat!

So I am going to make this a quick post. I promise to come back tomorrow and give a better update for my last day. Hubby and I just got back home from taking the girlies home. They came over tonight and we decorated cookies. Boy! Am I glad we are finished. But like I said, I am beat right now, the only thing I want to do is climb in bed... So... Sweet dreams :)

Another Busy day…

And 15 new kits in The Scrapping Garden Store! You really should go and check these beautiful new kits out… I also want to congratulate our December Garden Pick, MyEmmaDoodle for her beautiful winning LO “Just Emma” Please go Here to leave congratulations for Sarah.

Just a few more days of shopping left til Christmas. I am finished with all my shopping, now I just need to finish the baking.. The kids are coming over on Sunday to celebrate Christmas. I need to get the relish trays ready and since all the gingerbread boys were eaten already, Miranda and I need to get some more baked. I think my little granddaughters are going to come over tomorrow night to help us decorate the gingerbread men so that should be interesting. I hope to get lots of pictures to share…

This afternoon was very foggy. The temperature is supposed to stay above freezing so the roadways shouldn’t be icy in the morning. That is good because I really hate driving the bus on icy roads. School lets out at 1:15pm and then we are off school for the next 2 weeks. I asm looking forward to some downtime. It seems like all I have done is rush around the last few weeks..
Hubby just made me some dinner so I am going to call it a night. What do YOU have planned for Christmas??

Home again….

Today has been another busy day… Lots of errands to run and things to do. I had to make a trip back to the grocery store… All those gingerbread boys that Miranda and I made yesterday and FINALLY got decorated last night were all ate by the time I got back home from my bus route this morning… So Miranda and I have a fresh supply of ingredients to make MORE gingerbread boys and Miranda said this time she is hiding them from Alex :) She thinks Alex ate all of them :) Kinda cute because I think everyone in the house had their share of little gingerbread boys. (By the way, she was soooo happy when all the little gingerbread boys had eyes)

I had a Dr appt this afternoon. I see my Rheumatologist about once every 8 weeks. About a year ago I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis and Fibromyalgia, and have been taking medication ever since. I do feel much better now than I felt a year ago, but even though I feel better than I did a year ago I am still tired, sore and ill feeling most of the time. I lay down when I have to, go to bed early most of the time, but I still manage to get things done. Anyway, my blood work came back good, my sed rate was higher than normal which means the arthritis is flaring again. The medication I take is supposed to stop any major damage from happening to my hands and feet and so far it has worked fine. The Dr is always fine-tuning it though.

Remember the car my son drove into the ravine? Well yesterday afternoon the tow company got it out of the ravine and towed it home. I now have a totaled car sitting in my yard that cost $215 to tow out of the ravine and get it here. I was all kinds of angry when they told me what it cost. First of all I didn’t want them to get it out. We had already contacted a friend of my husbands that has a towing company and he was going to come out today and get it for us. But the Sheriffs department decided to get their own company to tow it and it cost us mega bucks… I contacted our insurance company last night and sent the bill off to them and am hoping to be reimbursed for at least part of the tow charge.. it never fails to pour when it rains does it?

Well, time for me to head out of here for the night. Little Miss Miranda wants to go in and watch a movie. We got her the movie “Underdog” and she has been waiting patiently for me and hubby to go watch it with her. So now is the time… Before I go I want to thank all of you for leaving such nice comments about my living room :) Have a great night everyone and thanks for stopping by :)

So fire me now!!

What a goof I am.. I totally forgot to do any blogging yesterday. Mondays and Thursdays are typically my busy days getting kits ready for the store and I just got busy and forgot the blog. At least I am here now :)

First of all I want to thank everyone for all the nice comments you left Sunday J I try very hard to make sure things move as smoothly as possible and it is so nice to hear that you all notice and appreciate it :)

So now I hope I don’t bore you all too badly, but I thought I would tell you a little about me.. I am happily married to a sweetheart of a man. (We were married at midnight on New Years Eve 2002/2003. We officially claim New Yrs Day as our anniversary, but like to tell people our wedding ceremony started in 2002 and ended in 2003. ) I am mom to 7 kids, 5 daughters and 2 sons, ranging in age from 4 yrs old to 27 yrs old. You will see my family in just about every LO I make. I am also grandmom to 5 grandbabies, 3 little girlies and 2 little boys. They also provide lots of pics for LO’s. We have 2 furbabies, a German Shepherd named Baron and a little Papillon named Mitzy. When I am not doing my Mom and Grandmom stuff I am a schoolbus driver. Every morning and every afternoon I am out driving the bus, just like the mailman I drive thru all kinds of weather, rain, snow, sleet, and ice. We just recovered from an ice storm last week and took our first snow day of the season off from school. We still have ice and snow everywhere but the temps are supposed to climb above freezing today so I am hoping some of the ice melts.

Last week my son left for school, (he has to drive into town for a class he takes in Diesel mechanics). I came home from driving the bus to find him standing in the middle of the kitchen. I asked him why he was home and just about got all the words out to “and where is the….” When he threw his arms around me and started crying. Seems a deer ran out in front of him and he swerved to avoid the deer and drove down a 10 ft embankment into a ravine. The car ended up in a drainage culvert but thank God my son was all right. The car is totaled though; we are still trying to get it towed out of the ravine. So now we are down to 1 car and leaving extra early in the morning to get my son to school and hubby to work. Hopefully we can find another junker soon and replace the car that is totaled. That has been all the excitement around here and I am really hoping that there is no more excitement for awhile..

I have our Christmas tree up and we are so happy about that. For the last 2 yrs we have been remodeling and we finally got the living room/dining room finished enough to put furniture in it. We still have the hardwood flooring to put down, but we can do that after Christmas. I am going to share a before and after pic with you so you can see why I am so happy :)

This morning my little girl and I made gingerbread men. They are waiting to be decorated now. She isn't very happy right now because none of them have eyes. I told her we would fix that as soon as we get to the store and get some cookie decorations… She is so funny sometimes.

Well, on that note I think I will sign out for now. Have a great day everyone and don’t forget to visit The Scrapping Garden for your daily download and to check out all the wonderful challenges going on this week.

Hello everyone! Once again it is my chance to say hello to everyone and visit with you all for the week. My name is Dyanna, I am the Forum Administrator and the Store Manager at The Scrapping Garden. Actually I pop up in all sorts of places on the site… My official duties are to keep the forums running smoothly and to keep the store running smoothly and our customers happy. So anytime you have a problem, or question, please don’t hesitate to contact me at dyanna@scrappinggarden.com

A quick run down of some of my duties… In the forum I keep an eye out for unwanted spam messages and quickly delete them. It is my job to send infractions out to members that break any of the rules we have at TSG. I also keep the threads pruned and move posts to appropriate threads if they are put in the wrong spot. I moderate all threads and keep an eye out for any member that needs help. If I cant help I sure try to find someone who can. I also browse the gallery looking at all our members wonderful LO’s. I try to comment as often as possible. As the TSG Store Manager it is my job to get all the kits our fantastic designers make into the store twice a week. The designers submit forms with all the info about their new kits and I go thru every form watching for typographical mistakes or any other type of error. I add the html coding that makes the kit description show up in the store. Then I check every zip and preview link to make sure they are within the size guidelines. To make it easier on our members who are on dial up or slower connection speeds we make sure every zip file is as close to 20MB as possible, and we keep every preview under 125KB. When I have checked all of that I make sure every zip and preview links up with the proper kit. Then I adjust the pricing to 25% off for the first 2 days and then the kits are activated and an email is sent to Robin who then does the Store Newsletter. This is done twice a week every week. Sometimes the designers give me a break and only submit a few kits, but sometimes they get in a designing spree and I get deluged with new kits… At times like that I am very busy. Today I managed to get 7 new kits ready for the store on Tuesday. Tomorrow will probably be another busy day as I am sure a few more new kit submission forms will come to my email over night.
If anyone has any questions about how something works at TSG, or a question about me, please ask. It will give me something to blog about. Tomorrow I will tell you all a little more about me…

Thanks for stopping by...

Congratulations to Teenybop61, withnuts & davoli82 for guessing the correct kits used in my element scavenger hunt. I would like to thank all those who participated in this challenge. I will PM you the SticKit. As for the three winners, please PM your kit choice from one of the 12 featured kits in the challenge below. Congratulations again.

ANSWERS

1. Party Time

2. Painted Paradise

3. Earthly Beauty

4. Very Cool

5. Out of this World

6. Shoebox Memories

7. Paper Wishes

8. Charmingly Beautiful

9. Out of this World 2

10. Soaring Star

11. Citrus Fresh

12. Flower Power

I was able to look at my files retrieved from my broken computer and found a couple of freebies for you.

They are extra papers that coordinate with my

Shoebox Memories Kit.

Starting next year with a brand new computer...lol

(fingers crossed) join me in my Braving the Elements Challenge, Petals of Wisdom challenge and my SticKit to me bragbook exchange.

Well I hope I kept you entertained this week. Please enjoy the next week with Dyanna, she will be your next guest blogger.

My wish to all of you and your family
a Joyful Christmas and Blessed & Healthy New Year.

See you around TSG and thanks for stopping by.

Take care,

Lynn Reloza

TGIF

I am so sorry. I can't believe I didn't even post yesterday. My cousin didn't have her baby yet. I was just really tired yesterday. I volunteered in the classroom yesterday and did more shopping for the carehome party. I went home and cleaned up a little. I then laid down on the couch because I wasn't feeling good and fell asleep just like that. When my sons were dropped off from school, I still laid on the couch while they were doing their homework. It was time for karate so instead of dropping them off, I stayed inside to watch them. We had to pick up dinner because I usually cook that before we leave for karate, so we didn't come home until 7:30. I laid down on the couch again after dinner while the boys were taking their showers and getting ready for bed. My husband put a blanket on me because he said I looked cold.... I still had my jacket on.

My yougest son then woke me up because he had to make something for his math class that he could sell to make money (Doggy Dollars).... So we went through my stash of arts and crafts and made magnets with glass pebbles and scraps of scrapbooking paper.

This is a project I used to do with my kindergarten students, except I would have them draw images, designs, write words and then we would glue them on. I used regular Elmer's glue and glued them on the paper. I cut them out this morning and my son put the magnets on. We polished them up and he's going to sell two for $25 doggy dollars. Once in awhile, they have auctions and bid on donated items that students bring in or that teachers buy.

My wonderful CT, Pammyj, created some bragbook sticKits to give out. It is created from my "Beaches" kit.

Sorry, Link has Expired

This is the last day to submit an entry for my 12 element scavenger hunt. I've given a few clues of some kits that are or are not included in this challenge. PM your answers to me at TSG. Do not send the answers as comments here on this blog. All the correct entries will be gathered tonight. I will randomly pick 1-3 winners (depending on the amount of correct entries) and announce the winner(s) tomorrow. The winners will get to choose one of the 12 featured kits in the scavenger challenge as their prize. All those who send in entries will get the SticKit, that I will PM to you.

Tomorrow is my last day to blog. If you have any questions, comments, ideas for future kits, my home address so you can send me a brand new computer (I wish), etc for me I will answer them tomorrow.

Have a super Friday everyone!

Lynn

Play or Work Wednesday

Wednesday is my husband’s day off from work so it’s my day off from home. Wednesdays my husband is in charge of waking up the kids while I sleep in for 30 minutes more, he makes them breakfast, takes all the boys to their schools and he stays home to wait for them to come home. Wednesdays are always his laundry day as well. He should do the Wednesday dishes, but I usually end up doing them. As for me, sometimes I go into the office, pick up paper work, make deposits, visit my mom before she goes to work and then run some errands. There are Wednesdays my cousin and I go out shopping and eat out for lunch. Most Wednesdays, I stay home and my husband and I hang out, run errands together, go to lunch, see a movie (one a month), or do a project at home. Today won’t be a play day for us. I have a morning meeting in the clinic, make deposits, go to Kohl’s and buy my oldest son some pants (he’s growing way to fast) and then a meeting with my oldest son’s Pre-Algebra teacher after school. My husband will be fixing a tractor he is borrowing and broke and then will come home to finish the laundry.

Many of you have commented how busy and hectic my life seems. You’re right, but these days have been mild. 95% of the time, I work from home. I do the billing, bookkeeping and marketing for 2 carehomes for the elderly and one family practice, all owned by my parents, who are doctors. I am a substitute teacher at a private school that I used to be a Kindergarten teacher at. I design the yearbook at my son’s elementary school…I volunteer at the elementary school and I have a lot of side jobs as well. I also just got an email yesterday from a mom if I can tutor her son in reading (we know each other from the school I used to teach at.) Oh yeah, I forgot, cuz I haven't done it for so long... design kits Exclusively at TSG!

Right now, we are getting ready for Christmas parties for the carehomes and the clinic. One carehome and the clinic, combined, will be this Sunday and the other carehome will be on the 22nd. I help out with the planning and I make party favor bags or some kind of giveaway that advertises the carehome’s address, numbers, etc. In the past I’ve made notepads, letter openers, and wrapped chocolate bars. Now I’m making 96 goodie bags. My boys helped stuff the bags and then all day yesterday I made the bag topper. I still need to print brochures and business cards to place in the goodie bags. So I made a freebie for you (Sorry, this link has expired) made from the bag toppers I created. It coordinates with my “Party Time” kit. You can use them as gift tags. It looks weird now, because I fold them in half for the bags, but you can cut them in half and you’ll get eight tags or you can make 4 bag toppers too. Hmm....remember my scavenger hunt.... Party Time is a clue!

Here is what I have so far on the goodie bags. Inside is a biscotti, two different hot chocolate flavors and one candy cane ornament, plus a brochure and a couple of business cards.

Thanks for all the comments. You guys can feel the pain I’m going through with this computer. All your Christmas wishes for a new computer for me just gives me warm fuzzies inside and most of the time you guys crack me up. Now does anyone have Vista on their computers? I heard that Vista can slow down or even crash your computer. I heard it from my brother who has been trying to get my computer fixed and from a computer salesman when I was this close (right pointer finger and thumb 1/8 of an inch from touching each other) to buying a new computer last week.

Again thanks Tracy for taking my spot in the Paper Patch. Tracy is the Paper Patch Pro everyone and please support her by purchasing her "Winter Jewels" kit and being at the crop tomorrow. It’s $2.00 for a whole kit and more, if you participate!!! I haven’t tried chatting on this computer Tracy, but I hope to be there.

See you later and take care,
Lynn

Totally Tuesday

Yesterday I said I was going to do some work. Well I did for about 15 minutes. While driving my two boys and my two nephews to two different schools I remembered I didn’t pay my property tax for my house and the property tax for one of my parent’s carehomes. Both were due on the 10th. Then when I got home, my cousin called and asked if I can take her to Sam’s club to go Christmas shopping. My cousin is my also my high school classmate and one of my best friends, we talk every single day. Her oldest son is also my oldest son’s classmate and we live just a few blocks away from each other. Neat, huh? So, yesterday I wrote two tax checks, called the bank to transfer money, went to Sam’s club, Costco, Smart-n-Final (saw a friend and talked to her for awhile), the post office (which was really crazy in there), Gottschalks, Walgreens (talked to two of my former coworkers, from two different jobs), went to my cousin’s house to drop off her groceries, went to the elementary school to pick up two of our boys and then she dropped my son and I at home and then she went to pick up our older boys at the Junior high….phew! I have to add that during that time I received 2 calls from my husband, 1 from my dad’s friend and 1 call from one of the carehomes. I also had to check up on another cousin/high school classmate/very pregnant best friend to see how she is doing. I call her at least once a day because she is due at anytime and I am the one to take her to the hospital and be with her in the delivery room if her husband is at work or out of town. Every time she answers my call she always says, “No baby yet”

I woke up this morning to find out which eye I keep open. Well when I woke up at 4:12 I had my left eye open walking to the bathroom, did my thing with both eyes closed, blew my nose still with my eyes closed, then walked back to bed with my right eye open. When I woke up again, it was my left eye open. To Laurie, if I don’t do my morning “anti-morning allergy” treatment I will sneeze that much too all in a row. My son, he will sneeze 5 to 8 times if he doesn’t blow his nose right away.

There were 322 visitors/hits on this blog since yesterday morning…. Well, about 70 of them were mine checking to see if I got any comments…lol…and only received 8 comments total for the two days….sniff sniff…. I guess you are all wanting a freebie. Just let me tell you a sample of what this slow poke computer puts me through.

Open Photoshop = 2 mins. 3 secs.
Open a file = 43 secs.
Complete a long brush stroke = 7 secs.
Merge 5 layers = 1 min. 5 secs.
Save the paper = 1 min. 23 secs.
Save for web = 2 mins 25 secs.
Photoshop to close = 3 mins. 19 secs.
Computer to shut down = 1 min. 58 secs. Yes, I had plenty of time to use a stop watch and file or open bills while waiting for the little circle timer thing to stop swirling...lol


This paper coordinates with the same color scheme of Splash, Retro, and Artistically Colorful. Since my Photoshop CS3 trial ends in 1 day, I’ll try to make freebies from my Xara or Corel Painter programs that need to be installed on this, what Pammyj calls “dinosaur” computer. Sorry, this link has expired.

In the meantime, I want to squeeze in a little advertising here. My CT, Pammyj, is hosting a challenge of challenges called “Keeping it Straight”.

Participate by creating layouts for all of TSG’s challenges and crops held during this month. Keep track of them in the "Keeping it Straight Challenge" Forum.

You will receive elements/papers/SticKits from my “Angel” kit for posting bonuses.

Also I want to add that Tracy Beck helped me out by taking over the Paper Patch Crop that I was supposed to do (thinking I would get my computer fixed by now) this Thursday, the 13th.

Please support Tracy by purchasing her “Winter Jewels” kit for $2.00 until the 13th.

The Paper Patch is a fun crop and a great deal to get a kit and more for $2.00. Her crop will be held this Thursdayat 9pm EST.

Don't forget my Blog Element Hunt Challenge I'm doing. PM me with your entry. Remember, all those that submit an entry will get a SticKit.

I would love to receive some comments, questions, ideas about future kits, etc…or even just to say “Yo, What’s up?” or “Hello”

Take care and Hugs, Lynn

Morning Allergies

Am I one of the very few that experiences morning allergies, ie: sneeze the very moment you wake up? This is something my dad, my brother, my youngest son and even my best friend go through every morning. It’s even Googleable and the diagnosis is allergic rhinitis, but I still call it morning allergies. Every morning if I wake up “wrong” I will start sneezing or I’ll start sniffling and get that weird pain in the nose or that sensation that you get when a sneeze is trying to come out. I’ve had this for as long as I can remember. For about 20 years now, I’ve been able to lessen or even prevent the morning allergies, it’s a ritual I do when I get up in the middle of the night and every morning. When I wake up, I have to have one eye closed. Yup, you read it right. One eye closed and then I have to blow my nose. Sometimes it’s hard to blow my nose when there is nothing in there, but if I don’t do it…. Yup, I’ll sneeze. As I’m typing this I really don’t know which eye I close, I’m thinking my left, but I guess I’ll have to figure that out tomorrow morning. I probably can just get up and just blow my nose when I wake up, but I’ve been closing an eye for more than half of my life, it’s automatic. Weird though I never do this when I wake up from a nap… I don’t get nap allergies. After my husband and I got married he would see me walk to the bathroom with one eye closed. I would have conversations with him with one eye closed. I mean I don’t look like Popeye or look like my face froze while winking. Is there anyone out there like me?

I received a couple of entries for the scavenger hunt. Great hunting girls. Here’s the layout again. There are 12 elements shown, each coming from 12 different kits of mine. Find the kit for each of the elements. May be tricky because some elements are not shown on the previews, but are just a different color or you can tell by the theme. I also gave a clue in my first post. PM your answers to me at TSG (again, I’m jklmscrapper) do not send the answers as comments here on this blog. All the correct entries will be gathered and on Friday I will randomly pick 1-3 winners (depending on the amount of correct entries) and announce the winner(s) on Saturday. The winners will get to choose one of the 12 featured kits in the scavenger challenge as their prize. Everyone who participates in this challenge will get the SticKit of the challenge layout.

I also host the Petals of Wisdom challenge. I create a free word art for you to use or you can create your own. Posting bonus for all who participates and if you use any of Linda Cumberland’s kits in your layout, you get an additional bonus.

I only have 3 more days left of my free trial of CS3. After I do some work, I will create a small freebie for you. See you later.

Happy Sunday!

Hello everyone! My name is Lynn Reloza and I’m your guest blogger this week. This is the first time I’ve ever blogged. My first fear was that I wouldn’t know how to publish/post this blog, but if you’re reading this, I must of done something right or I got some help…lol. My second fear is that I will bore you guys….crickets chirping..lol.

Well, here I go… I am an exclusive designer here at TSG since December of last year. I have 3 boys. My first is my husband, Mark, who I have been together with for 17 years and married for 12. Our oldest son, Kainoa, is 12. He is our Honeymoon baby and gave him a Hawaiian name. My youngest son, Josiah, will be 10 next month. We prayed for him and gave him a Biblical name. My TSG user name is JKLMscrapper. That is the first initials of all our names in alphabetical/age order. If I have another baby and it’s a girl, her name will be Nina. If I have a boy, his name will be Isaiah…. Still naming them in alphabetical order. And no there are no plans for babies in the future, but if it happens, it happens…and if it’s gonna happen, please happen soon…..

I haven’t created a kit since the beginning of November, my computer completely crashed on me. It’s been a nightmare trying to get it fixed and then just last week my colored laser printer stopped working. I’m borrowing a computer that is very slow. I bought a new colored laser printer so now I am in a crazy rush to make my Christmas Gifts and our Christmas/New Years card. I apologize in advance that I will not have a freebie for you everyday, but I’ll try my best to create one or two for all of you.

But in the meantime, I have a pictorial scavenger hunt for you. There are twelve elements shown here, each coming from 12 different kits of mine. Find the kit for each of the elements. May be tricky because some elements are not shown on the previews, but are just a different color or you can tell by the theme. I’ll give you one hint. If you played the November Bingo game, elements from the prize or the kits on the coupon are not shown. PM your answers to me at TSG (again, I’m jklmscrapper) do not send the answers as comments here on this blog. All the correct entries will be gathered and on Friday I will randomly pick 1-3 winners (depending on the amount of correct entries) and announce the winner(s) on Saturday. The winners will get to choose one of the 12 featured kits in the scavenger challenge as their prize. Everyone who participates in this challenge will get the SticKit of the challenge layout, I will PM it to you…well hey, there’s your first freebie. Good luck to all.

If you have any questions, I would love to answer them in my next blog.
Happy Hunting and see you later!!!

My Last Day...

My last day..... Sob sob. I hope that you haven't been bored by my rants too much over the last week and if you have My Scarecrow kit made up for it...lol
I have really enjoyed my time with you all, you have no idea how sick I felt the day before I was due to do it. I almost emailed Jen to tell her I couldn't do it as I was just to nervous and scared that I would have nothing to talk about. But I am so glad I did as it has been such a pleasure to read all the comments each day.
Ok on to a couple of question's - Diane you are such a sweet Lady it is always a pleasure seeing your name pop up around the challenge's , Blog and site , You asked how I do it. Honestly some days I wonder that myself...lol It's not too bad, I do get weeks or days if I have been real busy in my real life that it takes me a few days to get caught up again..But I Love it, I Love to Create stuff and seeing that people enjoy it. That makes it all worth it.

Judy you mentioned a Manly Heritage kit. ... I will certainly give that one a go , I think it could be very popular and something I think I would use myself for some photo's of my own Dad. Thank you for that. You also ask what program I use... I Love my psp I started with psp7 went on to 8 and now I just love my psp9 I have used psp10 but prefer my old faithful PSP9. I do also have CS2 and PSE3 that I do use for certain elements, but all the putting together and bulk of the work is done in psp. I started by accident , took me 3 days to get to grips with paint shop pro , my pal Janey gave me the programme and I was determine to crack it as I had seen tags on the Internet and I really wanted to be able to make them myself so I sat at this programme for 3 days cursed it and everything but once I got the basics nothing could stop me and I was doing tutorials that I found on the web and I just loved it, I have always loved arty stuff even from a very young age I loved art. Most of my inspiration comes from seeing what others do around the scrapping community, I might see one item and think Ohhhh that's nice and before I know it I have created a kit from it ...with my own twist. If I get stuck I usually research a theme and see what pops up on it and usually the colors or pictures will give me enough to do something with.

Dyanna , you mentioned Vintage kit's... That will be on my new years list as well , I have not done anything along these lines yet so I am certainly going to give them a try and I do want to do a little girly princess kit as I have never done that either with having a boy .
It really has been a pleasure I am going to miss doing this also... I am sure you will see me again some day in the not to distant future and if you don't want to see me then you will maybe want to see what I have for a freebie...lol

Here is the Very last kit for $2.00 my lovely Framzz pack get it HERE for the next 24hours.

And the very last part of my kit A Touch of Christmas is here . If you missed this kit or Part of it ,You will be able to get it in the Store on Tuesday, Along with all the challenge bits as well.

Todays( Link has Expired)Link

I am sorry for the problems some of you had with the last link... No idea what happened but because of the problem i will leave it up a bit longer.

Thank you again to all who joined me this week and i hope to see you around the garden sometime as well. Take care and i hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas when it comes.

Friday Here Again....

Good Morning everyone. Friday again. I don't know where this week has went , I am just so behind with all my duties , I have two kits that i need to get done and i have hardly even started them yet, I have been playing around this morning with one as It HAS to be done by Sunday and i just can't get it going at all. Don't you just get weeks or Days like that where nothing just seems to work for you.... And then other days everything just falls in to place and you have so much time on your hands you are looking for something to do.... Not that i get many days like that mind. I keep saying if i go sit down and forget about it , it will come to me. I even sat in bed Last night with a note pad and just doodled some idea's down but Today trying to put them on the Canvas just isn't working. I need to get the color swatch down and then it might just work, but i can't even decide on that for some reason....I could scream.

Soooooo Anyway Tomorrow will be my last day and the last piece of the Freebie , I am really sorry that some of you have missed the freebie's, But the rules are they are up for 24 hours and i have been very careful to make sure that they are not up even one minute shorter than that , so that you all have at the very least 24 hours to get them. I don't think the time i post should be an issue to anyone because if i post at 5 am on Tuesday the piece will be there for the next 24 hours so you have all day and night to get it because it's going to be 5 am the Wednesday at the earliest before it is taken down. If you did miss some bit's then you will be able to get The Kit in store next week. I would have had it in today if i had time, but i have just had one of those weeks where nothing seems to be getting done so the plan is to have it for Tuesday.

Since this is my second last post, Is there any questions that you would like to ask me?????? Anything you ask i will answer tomorrow , So please feel free to ask anything that takes your Fancy , I would be more than happy to answer anything you care to ask :)

Here is the $2.00 Kit for Today . The very popular Dogs Life kit , Click HERE if you would Like it or just want to see more about it , There are more Previews in the store .

And Last but not Least my Day 6 piece of the Download for this week .

Here is Todays DOWNLOAD (Sorry, this link has expired)

***Link fixed at Friday @ 9:25am EST....so it will stay up until that time tomorrow.

Regarding Missed Links

Instead of repeating myself yet AGAIN....please see this thread
http://thescrappinggarden.blogspot.com/2007/12/link-is-up.html

Karen has posted her links in the early AM EST (since she is in Scotland) every day, so I would suggest stopping by in the afternoon/evening if you are in the U.S. If you miss anything, Karen has stated that she will have the kit available in the TSG store soon.

OOp's A bit late Today

This week has gone so fast , I can't believe that it is Thursday already and today i went and slept in so i didn't have time to get on here before rushing out to work..... BAD ME!!!!!!! Still gave you a little longer with yesterday's Download.


Yesterday turned out to be quite a nice day, We took Jason to Glenrothes and got his ear pierced as we intended. The guy wasn't going to do it at first, Said it was too busy, but with it just being one ear they did it for him , Jason sat down in the corner very straight faced, I was half expecting him to get up and say "No I don't want it done now", but no he waited till it was done then said he didn't want it now...LOL I stood back a bit and my mum was near him and I could hear him saying to Gran are you sure it doesn't hurt Gran... Now this was after he had got it done...lol I must admit his face was a picture , I wasn't sure if he was going to cry or what, as he was really straight faced. I think he got a shock as he didn't expect it to look like a gun. When he got up he said he wants it out now as it stings. We said no you have to keep it in till it heals, he said FOREVER ... We said yes and off he went arms swinging all ways, saying he knew he shouldn't have got it done... And he went out of the shop and across to the big tree in the middle of the town center in a huff...... It was quite funny and I think that was what stopped me crying as I had a lump in my throat when I saw his face after it got done. I really wasn't sure if he was going to cry or not at that stage. He did calm down and then just went around with one hand covering it because he said people will see it.
We went for a coffee and a roll and he settled down and seems fine with it now. We did get him a pair of Gold Hoops so that if the stud bothers him while sleeping I can put the Tiny hoop in and it wont bother him. I must admit I think his little stud is just so cute though. I am really glad he got it done.

I managed to get a few of my Christmas presents in as well and feel really relieved at that, I was starting to worry that I wouldn't get them in , I just couldn't think what to get, I think that is most of my Shopping done now , just a few little bits to get , like sweets and things like that.

Today's $2.00 kit is My Cute as a button Cars Alive kit. I think this is such a cute kit . You can grab that kit HERE for the next 24 hour's.

And Here is Todays part of A Touch of Christmas

Todays( Sorry Link Expired) Here

I just want to thank everyone for all there Messages, I really do enjoy reading them. Thank you again and keep them coming. See you all tomorrow.