TGIF

Honestly, TGIF means nothing to me, because I stay home with my children. There is never a last day of work lol. The only reason I like Friday is that it means my husband will be home for 2 days to help with them! :) He's such a sweet man. He came home this morning before school started to bring us doughnuts for breakfast. He knows me so well lol.

Something that not a lot of people know is that I am a terrible insomniac, and have been all of my adult life. My usual bedtime is somewhere between 3am and 5 am, then I get up with the kids at 7am to get them breakfast and ready for school. I am a really tired cranky person LOL :) I've tried all of the over the counter sleep aids and they either don't work, or the one that does work for me I am mildly allergic to and break out in little bumps all over my face and neck. Very attractive lol. Occasionally I stay up for 48 hours at a time just so that the next evening I will be so tired that I can sleep at a normal hour. No matter how much sleep I get, I just have no energy. I am using this as my excuse as to why I can't exercise lol.

I have not been "skinny" since my early 20's, but in the past 2 years my weight has ballooned to a very uncomfortable high. I know how I got this fat, I just can't seem to get the motivation to do anything about it. All you ladies out there with the willpower and motivation to lose weight, where does it come from? How are you staying on course? Inquiring minds want to know! :)

Did someone say tutorial?

Today I'm going to show you how to make a quick Lollipop cover. These are so cute and easy to make. Let me just mention that these are not my invention, I only wish I was this creative lol.

Here's how to make your own:

Make a design for your cover that is 6" x 2.5". Print it out and cut out. Fold in each short end about 0.5" and fold the whole thing in half. See drawing below. Punch holes where indicated. This is for lollipops smaller than 3" x 2.5". Adjust the design size size according to the size of your lollipop.

Line up the holes and put the lollipop stick through the holes. Add any ribbons or elements that you like. It's a pretty lollipop!

Bracelets

Oh I almsot forgot, Jen asked to see some of the bracelets that Ragan makes so here are some pictures.

We buy all of our supplies from Beads of Hope. It is a home-party based jewelry making company with a minimum of %10 of all profits going to children's cancer research. It was started by a woman here in the Kansas City area who has a son that was treated for cancer at the same hospital as Ragan, and it is now a nation wide company.

Is it Wednesday already??

Sorry I'm a bit late today with the post, but it's ballet day. We also went and ordered Ragan's cake for her birthday party on Sunday. She picked out a Hannah Montana cake much to my husband's chagrin. He has just started to realize that she a little girl not a baby anymore. Boy, he doesn't know what he's in for LOL! She cracks me up. Last night she asked if we could go to the "drink place" before ballet this morning. I had NO clue what she was talking about. She went on to say "you know, that place we always go to? The drink place with chocolate drinks?" Ahhh now it was dawning on me! She meant Starbucks. The funny part is, we have been there all of 1 time, but in her 5 year old mind that 1 time translated into always LOL. Isn't it great to be a kid??

I'm trying to get all my cleaning done so I can get the Christmas tree up this weekend. I always have such a beautiful tree, it's my favorite thing about the holidays. Putting up the tree and decorating always puts me in such a festive mood and really gets me ready for the holiday headache that looms ahead lol. Ugh I have not even started my shopping, I've been too busy with birthday preparations to even think about Christmas shopping!

I decided today I'd issue a little challenge. Post a layout using any TSG kit about what your favorite part of the holiday season is! Leave a comment here with a link to your layout and your TSG member name and I'll send you a little goodie :)

Tuesday

Tuesday night at our house is Movie night. Tonight on the line up is "I know who killed me", "The Invisible" and of course "Hairspray". A little known fact about me is that I am a musical junkie. My favorite movie of all time is Grease, but I love all musicals and My Fair Lady comes in a close second for me.

I don't know where this passion for singing movies started but it goes back as far as I can remember, and because of it, I also have a fondness for theater. When i was a teenager my mother would take me once a month to the local actors guild productions called TAG (Tacoma Actor's Guild). I was enthralled with the characters, the acting, the whole process. In Tacoma we had a large theater called The Pantages and it was so beautiful. As a child I danced in the Nutcracker production there. As much as I loved ballet, I never knew that I would love theater even more.

Now, my daughter Ragan is dancing and I understand her thrill and excitement of getting on that big old stage. I hope that even if she doesn't continue her dance career that she will always keep the love of the stage in her heart. She already is a musical lover like her Mommy. When she was in the hospital she must have watched "Annie" about 5 times a day! The hospital playroom is kept stocked with hundreds of movies to keep children occupied.

Some of you may know that Ragan had cancer and is now in remission. We have been working with her to help her see what a blessing all the people in our lives are and how they made such a big difference while we were going through this ordeal. She decided that she wanted to help her friends on the cancer ward at the children's hospital by making bracelets and selling them and donating the money to the playroom fund. So far this year she has donated $573.23! Not bad for a 4 year old :) I am so happy to have such generous and loving children, but they learned it by example from all the generous and caring people that helped us through our difficult times. So I guess my point is, when you give of yourself, it does make a difference. Remember that the next time an opportunity comes around to do something charitable.

Super Mom or Super Bomb?

Good Monday to you all! Mondays always make me think of the children's book Terrible No Good Rotten Monday lol. It was my favorite book as a child.

I've been thinking about the term "Super Mom". One thing I know for sure is that it certainly doesn't apply to me! The term itself brings great anxiety and feelings of deficit. How do those women do it? Is there something lacking in my genetic make-up that make me unable to be one of them? Am I too lazy or maybe just too selfish? I know there must be other women out there that feel the same as I do, but it's just not something we talk about. Our society says that if we stay home with our children we must ferry them around to endless activities and cook hot homemade meals for breakfast lunch and dinner. I know some people will say "oh what a terrible person!" but that's ok, I am just not cut out to be a Super Mom.

If we have 15 activities a week for our children, chair charity boards, volunteer at school, lead the brownie troop, or any of the other many things that are associated with super Mom's does that make us better mothers?

I started seriously wondering if my kids are missing out because of my shortcomings, but then I realized that my kids love me just the way I am. They love that I don't look like the other mothers, that sometimes I have pink streaks in my hair and wear lowrise jeans and have tattoos. They love that I don't act like the other mothers, that sometimes we have pancakes with whip cream for dinner and that they each get a special ice cream and shopping day all to themselves. They love that because I make them each choose one activity a season we have more time to spend at home together reading books, playing games and making goodies in the kitchen. They even love that I spend so much time at my computer making "cool" layouts of them! So maybe I'm not a Super Mom, I'll proudly take the title of Super Bomb instead!

Happy Sunday!

Hello happy scrappers! I'm Michelle Rodriguez, the guest blogger for this week. I have been a designer at TSG since they opened, and have a warm fuzzy spot in my heart for this site and it's members that I could never have for any other site.

You'll have to bear with me this week as I'm not an experienced blogger and I never know what to talk about lol.
I am married to my wonderful hubby Joe for 9 years now and I live in the heart of America, the great Midwest. I have 3 children, Ragan 5, Tommy 7, and Gabe 6 .... yesterday was my baby Ragan's 5th birthday! I sat down to scrap a few of her pictures, and couldn't find a kit I liked so I made a little mini kit that was appropriate for her new found"Rock Star" status now that she got a Hannah Montana guitar for her birthday lol, and this is what I came up with.






The kit will be available this week in the store in the Lil Buds Mini Kit section of the store. We have been switching around the kids rooms and redecorating them so that each of the children will have their own rooms that are uniquely them. Unfortunately this has cut into my designing mojo. I have several kits that are almost finished, but I just can't seem to come up with those few final pieces that will make it fabulous lol.

In addition to my designing and home responsibilities I am honored to be one of the mentors for the design mentor program that we have started this fall. I am so excited to see what great potential all of these ladies have, I know you're gonna love their designs!

I hope that this beautiful Sunday finds you all well and I'll see you tomorrow! :)

Hello Again

Hello again everyone, Just a quick one this time to let you all know I have finished off my freebie for you. Here it is, Christmas has come early! This is my gift to all you blog readers, hope you enjoy it! I wish you all a very happy Holiday Season!

Grab the two parts here: Papers and Elements (Sorry, these links have expired)

~ Kristina

My Last Day

Well here it is, my last day of blogging! I hope you have all enjoyed my chattering!! And I hope I didn't bore you all so much you won't come look at this blog anymore!! Cheryl and Robin will not like me anymore if that were to happen!!!!! Well fear not, tomorrow you will find someone much more interesting than me!! For my final day I would like to offer you all a big surprise, however unfortunatly I havn't got it ready yet so I need you all to check back a little later on after I have had time to package it up and get it uploaded for you. I am sure you find it worth returning for and I am sorry that I didn't get it finished in time!! I'll leave my last day short and sweet and bid you all a farewell for the time being. Thankyou all for listening to all my blabbering on!!

~ Kristina

Friday

Well first off I need to apologise, as I did not get the time to do the surprise I had intended on doing today. I did sit down here and try to do it but for some reason my computer is working slower than ever (probably time for a good clean out!) and I just didn't have the time to wait so long inbetween every step! Hopefully I will have a better time today and be able to get you your surprise for tomorrow. Tomorrow is my last blog day, can you belive that a whole week already, were has the time gone! It will be Christmas before we know it and my goodness I have so much to get ready before then! If anyone knows of any tricks to add a few extra hours in each day then please let me know!!!! I certainly could do with a few here and there!!! Oh and especially at night, I could do with a magic posion to keep the kids from getting up at the crack of dawn, what am I saying? They are getting up before dawn cracks even!!! What is wrong with them?!!! They have a day off school today, a teacher's day or some such thing, I don't know I think they have far too many days off school!! My hubby is off tomorrow also, I think this is his first day off in about 2 months, the boys are exited to see him again. And I am exited to have some help with the boys for a change!! Well I am going to leave it there for today. I'll try working on that surprise and hopefully have it for you all tomorrow.

~Kristina

Happy Thanksgiving

Okay so I know it's Thanksgiving in the US today so Happy Thanksgiving to all US people!!! In the UK and Canada, Thanksgiving is in October so we had ours a month back! Well hopefully the most of you will deep into your Thanksgiving celebrations that you won't have time to come to read this blog and notice that I am late in getting my entry up today!!! So sorry about that for anyone who did notice, I got so bogged down with my kids and ... life, that I just didn't get a second until now. Did I mention we are having a few problems with my eldest boy? It is so tough with him, he doesn't want to do his homework and what a hard time we are having to get him to do anything! He goes to 'homework help' after school two nights a week and what a pain that is for me cos I have to go pick him up from school as the bus leaves at normal time and he's missed it, I have had have my 2nd son subscribed into the homework help aswell even though he finishes his homework the day he gets it and usually doesn't have anything to do at the homework help!! But I can't be in two places at once, home for him to get off the bus and at the school picking up Joël so I had no choice! Joël also does a session of homework with our nighbour one night a week as he just totally refuses to do it with me! Now he's started to not do it at the homework help and with our neighbour aswell, he'll make up excuses about forgetting the home and leaving it at school or at home or wherever he is not at the time!!! It's driving me nuts!!! Well I think that will have to be all for today, I will try to have another surprise ready for you for tomorrow or Saturday, we'll have to see how my time goes!!!

~Kristina

Sorry For the Hiccup

Well I am sorry for the hiccup with the link to my freebie yesterday! Not sure what happend there but anyway I am glad the 4 shared link worked in the end. This will have to be a short entry, becuase I am a bit short of time just now - what's new?!!! I can't think of much to say anyway really, I feel like I've told you everything there is to know about me!! Today is my nephew's birthday, he's 6 and I haven't seen him since he was 1. I live here in Canada and they live in Ireland. My poor parents have 7 grandchildren and none of them live in the country they live in! Ireland is a bit closer to England than Canada is though so my brother and his family get to go home a little more than I do. It's been 5 years now since I've been home, my family havn't even seen my youngest son. And it doesn't look like I'll get to go back any time soon either, unless I should just happen to win the lottery or something!!! Well I can dream can't I?!!!! That will have to be all for today, so I wish you all a good day and I'll 'see' you tomorrow!

~ Kristina

New Link to SticKit

Ok, since we seem to be having problems with loading to TSG, Kristina has graciously loaded her SticKit to 4-shared for you all.

Grab the SticKit HERE (Sorry, this link has expired.)
(this will be available until around 2:30pm EST on Wednesday)

Freebie Anyone???

Finally I had a little bit of time to make you all a freebie up!!! It is a Stickit made with my Fun at the Fair Paper Pack and Fun at the Fair Elements Pack. I even made a layout with it - first layout I've made in too long!!! Here is the layout I made using the stickit
So, grab the SticKit HERE! (Link taken down and we are working on fixing it. After it is fixed I will post a new Blog Post with the fixed link and it will be available for 24 hours from the time it is posted.)

Everything went well at the docs today, very long but well. The little chap has a touch of tonsilitis, he's going to be just fine!!! Ack! I've just sat here stairing at the computer for ages trying to think of what to write next!!! I am so not good at this blogging thing!!! I guess I could talk about myself again!! I've done loads of jobs in my time, the most enjoyable of course is designing digi scrap kits!!! But the most interesting has to be my job on the cruise ships. This sounds alot more glamourous than it actually was! I took photos of the passengers having a good time on their holidays, making keepsake memories for them to take home and enjoy for years to come - well at least that is WE thought we were doing, the passengers on the other hand would describe it more as bugging them constantly and disrupting their meals and blocking up the gangway etc etc. We got so much stick in this job it was horrible! However I did get to see the world which was what I did it for. I also met the man of dreams, who also worked on the ships with me for two of the four years I stuck with this job! Well I shall not bore you anymore and hope you all enjoy my little freebie - I will be keeping a look out in the gallery for some layouts using it!!

~ Kristina

Here we are yet another day

Time is really going by fast. Hope everyone had a good weekend. Today I will have to take my son to the doctor as he had a temperature of 103.8 yesterday and his tonsils are 10 times the size as they should be. I know I had problem with my tonsils and ended up having them out, I hope he is not going to have problems like that too. I have 3 sons aged 8 1/2, 6 and 2 1/2. It is my 6 year old who is sick right now. He is going to enjoy a day off school I am sure! My 8 year old has lots of troubles, he has ADHD (Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity) and ODD (Oppositional Defiance Disorder) He needs Ritalin but we are trying not to put him on meds just yet. It's been 5 1/2 years since we started to have problems with him and unfortunatly things are just going from bad to worse and I fear it will be very soon when we start the Ritalin. My second son, also has ADD but thankfully that's all he as, no hyperactivity or ODD which is just as well becuase belive me one with this is quite enough!! My third son is well into his 'terrible twos' and so life in my house is ........ well I just can't put words like that on a blog!!!

Look out for a freebie from me tomorrow, Depending on how quickly things go at the doctors tomorrow, I might just have a surprise!!!

~ Kristina

Hello Everyone

Well my time for 'blogging' has come around quicker than I had anticipated!! But then again most things do! Where does the time go? Now I understand exactly what my mother was going on about all those times when I was growing up, time really does fly when you are mum!!!

So what can I say about myself? Well the first thing I should mention is that I am terrible at talking about myself!!! The second secret I perhaps should let you all in on straight away, is that I am dyslexic, so hopefully that will excuse me for all the spelling mistakes etc I am bound to make whilst doing my blog entries!!! Now to get down to the details. My name is Kristina, I am a new designer here at The Scrapping Garden and I design under the name of Kristmess. I am originally from the UK and moved to Montreal, Canada, about 10 years ago when I married the love of my life. I was dropped into the deep end with a big splash and had to learn the lingo FAST! French was not one of my better subjects at school I can tell you!!! However a little perseverance can go along way and I am now fluent in French, which comes in handy when my kids converse with their father about me and think I don't know what they are talking about!!! Well I think I'll leave it there for the time being as I need to keep something to say for the rest of the week.

~ Kristina

*******
Edited by Jen:
To see some of Kristina's wonderful items, visit her TSG Store HERE!

Good bye for now….

This is it… My last post for the week.. Once again I want to thank everyone for taking the time to stop by and leave a hello and smile. I really appreciate it, and I hope you will all continue to drop by TSG Blog and visit our forums. Take the time to check out the crops, challenges and all the other fun activities we have.

I also want to take this opportunity to wish you all a very nice Thanksgiving Holiday…

Ok…. Now for what you have all been looking forward to… This weeks winner of the December Mega Kit designed by TSG Designers. The winner drawn is…….

tabasco7992

A big congrats to you! Enjoy your new kit, a coupon will be on it’s way to you soon… Have a great weekend everyone

OHMIGOSH! What happened to Thursday!?!?!

I got busy and forgot, that’s what happened. Mondays and Thursdays are always busy days for me because that is the day before TSG's new release day in the store. I have to get all the last minute kits ready to go in to the store and that takes some time. Add in going to physical therapy first thing in the morning, driving my bus route, doing laundry etc, chasing around after Miranda, and you have a very busy day! No wonder I forgot….

Well, all the new releases are in the store, physical therapy for today is over, Miranda has had lunch, so now I have a few minutes to post. I got some very good news last night. Two different sets of kids are moving off my bus route and today is their LAST DAY!!! I am so tickled, mainly because I have had nothing but trouble out of these kids for the last 3 yrs. It seems like one or all of them are in trouble every single day. The news that they are leaving has caused me to break out and do the happy dance! Cant you hear all the commotion?? That’s me having a party! :) Ok, enough of me expressing my delight over those kids moving….

Hubby was able to get a good portion of the walls sanded in the living/dining room area. When he gets home tonight he is going to get it finished up and then we should be ready to prime the walls. We went to Menards last night and bought a handy dandy paint sprayer, no more rolling paint on the walls for me! After the primer is good and dry we will be able to spray the texture on the walls. Of course all the windows need to be taped first so no texture goes anyplace we don’t want it. Then once the texture dries it can be primed and then painted. I cant wait to get it done…..

Tomorrow I have to get Thanksgiving Dinner ready since we are having it on Sunday. The kids will all be over with their families so it will be a full house. On Thanksgiving Day, hubby and I and baby and Sara will be making the 8 hour drive to Columbus, Ohio to visit Hubby’s mom and sisters. So this weekend will be our Thanksgiving celebration, and I will be darn busy! The 25# turkey is thawed and waiting. I will get the fruit salad and cranberries done tomorrow, Hubby likes to make the stuffing so he is in charge of getting that ready tomorrow night so Sunday morning all we have to do is get up and pop dinner in the oven… And wait for the hungry horde to descend LOL

I hope everyone has been stopping by TSG every day and picking up the fantastic daily downloads from DeDe Smith, which can be found HERE. The kit this month is a beautiful one called “Nippity 2”. Purchase $10.00 worth of DeDe's kits in one order during the month of November and receive the Nippity Extras Kit absolutely FREE! If that’s not enough Nippity for you… You can go to HERE and pick up Nippity 1. Those little bears are just too cute!

Moving on… You have until tomorrow about noon to get your LO in TSG Blog Gallery if you want a chance to win the December Mega Kit. Come on everyone, what are you waiting for?? This is an easy way to make a LO and maybe win a fantastic mega kit. I will post the winner here Saturday afternoon. Once again… You can find the stickit HERE, make a LO, upload it to the gallery and get in on a great drawing. Don’t forget to check out the beautiful kit this stickit was made from, “Maryann” by Linda Cumberland found HERE……
I have really enjoyed my week here at TSG Blog. Thank you all for sharing it with me. Tomorrow will be my last day on the blog and I will turn the controls over to our next host. Since I managed to botch up and not blog yesterday I thought I would give you 2 gifts today… Gift 1, Gift 2, Have a great Friday everyone!!

Sorry, these links have expired.

Yeah! It’s Wednesday!

I thought today I would tell you about a typical day in my life… My alarm goes off at 5:45am. I get up and get ready to drive my schoolbus route. I have a quick cup of coffee if I am lucky and get the kids up so they can get their chores done and get ready for school. I drive my route and get back home about 8am. Time to get laundry going and finish up any dishes that weren’t washed and put away. I get Miranda some breakfast and turn the cartoons on for her, and maybe get some breakfast myself if I am hungry. Then it is to the computer to check my email and see if anything needs my attention at TSG. I mentioned before that I am the Forum Administrator and Store Manager. My job as the Forum Administrator involves checking the forums everyday. I delete any spam msgs that get posted, I ban members if need be. I answer any questions that new or old members might have. I add new forums when we need them. I also take care of wishing our members a happy birthday on their special day as well as sending them a small gift from TSG. I keep the forum threads cleaned up and running smoothly.

As the Store Manager my job is to put all the kits that our wonderful Designers make into the store twice a week, as well as answer any questions a member may have with their order, etc. I pass out the promotional links, and I genuinely love interacting with all our members. When our designers have a new kit to put into the store they fill out a Submission form that goes to me. I add the html coding and proofread the descriptions. When I have all that done and ready I actually link all the zips and previews with the kit and put it into the store. I activate the links and previews and send a list of all the kits to Robin and Cheryl. Then Robin does the store newsletter that goes out twice a week. Everything here at TSG is done as a Team. We all have our individual jobs, but each one is connected to the other in some way, and all are needed to keep TSG site working smoothly.

I try to do all of this during the day and before I have to leave to drive my afternoon route. Once I get home from that it is time to check on kids, get supper ready and if I am lucky relax before bedtime. As soon as it gets dark baby wants to crawl in our bed with hubby and I and watch a movie. The next day I get up and do it all again :)
A recap of our challenge for this week… I am supplying a stickit made from the beautiful Kit, “Maryann”, by Linda Cumberland, which you can find in the store HERE. Your challenge is to download the stickit, make a LO and post it in TSG Blog Gallery. Everyone who does so is entered into a drawing for a chance to win the December Mega Kit. You can get the stickit HERE (this is the same stickit that I have posted twice before) Make a LO, post it in TSG Blog Gallery and be entered into the drawing. The drawing will take place Saturday and I will post the winner. And now for bearing with me and reading this entire post, Here is a gift (Sorry, this link has expired).. Enjoy your Wednesday!

Is it only Tuesday???

I feel like I am already meeting myself coming and going. I drove my bus route this morning and no sooner got back home, got in the car and I had to go straight to my Physical Therapy appt. I ran into school traffic once I got to town so I was about 5 minutes late getting to my appt. I have to do therapy 3 times a week for the next couple of weeks. Back in June I fell and badly dislocated and broke my ankle. That kept me in bed for about 6 weeks. Once I was able to get up I put so much stress on the knee on my “good” leg that now I have an inflamed, grinding knee. The Orthopedic Dr gave me a cortisone shot 2 weeks ago this Thursday and said I needed therapy and here I am. As if I don’t have enough to do every day. I finished therapy, got home and got laundry going. Hubby called a few hours later asking me to come back to town so I could bring some long light fixtures home in the van. So back into town me and baby went for light fixtures. He got those loaded up and I came back home to finish laundry, dishes and try to get a few TSG chores finished up. Now I have about 20 minutes and then I am back off to drive my afternoon route. Before I go… I hope everyone has downloaded the stickit for the challenge this week… If not I will post it again tomorrow along with a recap of the challenge… Here (Sorry, this link has expired) is a gift for today… Enjoy it!

Up bright and early

for another day of driving the school bus. I got a phone call about 6:30am from the girl at the bus barn. Calling to let me know that 2 of the girls on my bus route finally moved up on top of the hill. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but it makes a 7-minute difference in my bus route since I no longer have to go all the way down to the river to pick them up. They were SUPPOSED to let me know at least a week in advance of when they were moving so I could let the other parents of the kids this would affect know about the time change. Well, needless to say I was let know early this morning, about 20 minutes before I was ready to leave to start the route. I called the parents of the kids this affected, (4 families) and let them know the new time I would be there to pick up their kids. Everyone was understanding about my early morning phone call.. Now we'll see how it works out in the afternoon. Since I no longer have that road on my bus route I shouldn’t be going down it. BUT I have 2 other girls who go to their grandparents’ house in the afternoon and the grandparents live down there. I am hoping the grandparents will drive up to the stop before there and pick the girls up. That would cut about 15 miles and 35 minutes a week off my afternoon bus route. (See? I warned you all that there would probably be an entry sometime about driving the bus) :)

Hubby got the living room half of the living room/dining room area sanded and mudded again. Hopefully it will be ready to prime and texture soon. I would love to have it finished in time for Turkey day.

Speaking of which, I need to get my Thanksgiving groceries bought sometime in the next few days. We are going to have our family Thanksgiving this Sunday. On Thanksgiving Day we are going to make the 8-hour drive to Ohio to visit with Hubby's mom for the holiday weekend. Miranda is so excited. She loves going to visit Grandma. I got her calendar all made up and posted on the refrigerator so she can check off the days until turkey day and then until time to go to Grandmas. She was up early this morning asking me if she could make her check :) She is such a sweetheart.

I want to thank all of you that left comments on TSG blog for me. I love reading them and really appreciate when you take the time to leave a hello and a smile. A big thank you to Sheila for her info concerning finding a cat that might be a good mouser :) It has been awhile since we had a cat so I wouldn’t even know what to begin to look for other than something that would be nice to the people and dogs that live here too.


If you haven’t checked out the TSG Blog Gallery yet you should. There are already some beautiful LO’s posted with the stickit I passed out yesterday. This challenge runs all week so if you haven’t already downloaded the stickit do so NOW.

On Saturday everyone who posts a LO using the stickit will be entered into a drawing for a chance to win a coupon for the December Mega Kit! There couldn’t be an easier way to win a fantastic kit!

Also, if you love this beautiful stickit please go HERE and check out the entire "Maryann" kit by Linda Cumberland in TSG store...


Well, I better get a move on. I have a ton of things to get done. Re-working my bus schedule is one of them. :) Have a wonderful Monday :)

Happy Sunday morning!

Hello everyone, and welcome to TSG Blog! Let me take a few moments to introduce myself. I am Dyanna, a member of the Administration team here at TSG. I am pretty much a jack/jill of all trades here at the Garden, but my official title is Forum Administrator and Store Manager. I am happily married to my sweet hubby of almost 5 years, mama to 7 children, (4 that have grown and made lives of their own) and the youngest 3 still at home, one of which is my beautiful little Miranda, 4 yrs old,(more commonly known as Baby). I am also Grandma to 6, 4 pretty little girls and 2 handsome grandsons. Two furbabies round out our household, a German Shepherd named Baron and a small Papillon named Mitzy. Everyone shows up in my LO's from time to time and you can check out My Gallery if you are interested in seeing more of my family. In my "other, offline" life I am a Schoolbus Driver of 11 years. Yep, thats me... The lady that picks all your angels up every morning and safely drops them off home every afternoon. From time to time this week you may also get to listen to me vent about my job as a bus driver.

That pretty much sums up my life, kids, TSG, family, hubby... Sometimes I wonder how I could possible fit anymore into it. But somehow I always manage to. I have 1 son and 2 daughters still at home. My son just turned 18 and enlisted in the Marines. As soon as he finishes his Senior year he will be off to Boot Camp. I am proud of him, but at the same time scared to death that something will happen to my baby. I want to just lock him up in the basement and keep him home. I am sure I am just one of a million mothers that feel the same way..

Hubby and I went to Menards last night to pick up a new water line that goes from the sink to our icemaker. A MOUSE had chewed thru our other one and water was spraying everywhere! I hate mice, and I really hate when they cost me money :( We have had poison out since it started getting colder, but now hubby is talking about getting a mousing cat. Now just HOW do you know if a cat will be a mouser or not? Our luck will be to get a cat that turns out to be destructive and has no inclination towards catching mice of any kind... Sometimes it feels like there is no winning.... Back to Menards though.... We got our water line, picked up a new furnace filter... ($30 for that filter ) and then went over to find a texturizer sprayer for our walls. (We are also in the midst of remodeling our home) We found it and right there was the display of all the Christmas lights and trees... I should have ran in the other direction... but I didnt... I looked up and saw a beautiful white tree with blue LED lights on it. I have never been one to like white xmas trees, but this one really was beautiful.. I showed hubby who promptly pointed out one of those white tress already decorated sitting in a display on the floor. it was absolutely breathtaking... I imagine I really dont need to go on do I?? I am sure you have figured out by now that we spent over $500 buying a white Xmas tree and a whole new set of beautiful blue ornaments and lights to put on it! I cant believe we did that... Talk about impulse spending! We got home, baby took one look at all the xmas decorations and now all she wants to do is decorate.... Forget Thanksgiving, she wants CHRISTMAS!! So now I need to make her up a calendar that shows her when Thanksgiving is, then our little trip to see Grandma, and then when it will be Christmas time. There is nothing more determined than baby when she sets her mind on something :)

Well, I imagine I have rambled on enough... This week I am going to do something a little different on the Blog. I am supplying a SticKit made from the beautiful kit "Maryanne" by Linda Cumberland

If you use the stickit to create a LO and then post it in TSG Blog Gallery you will be entered into a drawing for a chance to win the December Mega Kit. The drawing will be held next Saturday so that gives you all a week to complete your LO's. The winner will be Pm'd and a coupon sent to them so please be sure you are registered in the store. This is the SticKit you will be using...

You can get yours HERE (Sorry, this link has expired) , I am looking forward to seeing all your beautiful LO's...

Enjoy your Sunday everyone :)

My last post for the week

Well, I survivied work and am getting ready for a nap. The kids are out at social events and the house is quiet. This week really flew by. I can't believe that Thanksgiving is in less than 2 weeks. Ahhh. I'm not ready to go away for the long weekend. I have too much to do here.

Here is my final blog goodie. This matches Pretty Dreams and Pretty Dreams II which you can purchase exclusively at the Scrapping Garden.

It's Saturday morning, well afternoon ...

Hi all,



Shopping was great yesterday even though we had a few disappointments. The Disney outlet store closed. We were traumatized. That was the best store in the mall. We eventually recovered and I got quite a bit of Christmas gifts purchased. Mostly for the kids that we buy for and a couple of gifts for my kids. We were very happy that the Lindt Chocolate store was open. I bought more gifts (for adults) and maybe a few things for myself and the family. yummy. I found a comfy pair of black suede shoes for work and some new shirts for myself. I really love the Gap t-shirt I got my 6 year old son. It says, Santa, I can explain... perfect for my boy.

I'll post more later after work and get up my last goodie link for the week. I can't believe a week went by already.

It's Friday.... Boy this week went fast

Hi All,

I'm actually posting early so that you don't have to wait for me to get home tonight to get some goodies. I'm leaving here at 8 and I'll probably be home around 11 pm. Long fun day. I'll tell you all about the trip tomorrow.

We had a fun Paper Patch Crop Thursday night. The conversations ranged from Sandy's new dog (well, her housemates new dog) Check the gallery HERE for a cute layout of Missy and Lexus. Chatter about who is cooking on Thanksgiving (about 50/50). I am going to Virginia to my Husband's sisters house for a mini family reunion and good food. I wouldn't go without the good food. Just kidding... It will be fun but I'm starting to get stressed about being away. I have been working on a project and I need some time with my computer. I also told some Maxine jokes and a few people are watching their grandchildren this weekend. 4 year olds. You miss a lot when you miss a crop around here.

SO since you don't want to miss any more fun crops, come join me and the gals next Thursday night and again on Thursday November 29th at 10:00 for the Fresh From the Garden crop. You never know what Fresh Goodies I'll be serving up! All information can be found Here in the Forum.

I have some great kits on sale right now in the store. Time 4 School and Victorian Garden are on final Clearance and are just $2.00 each.

Are you Plum Ready for Christmas? I'm not ready but my kit is 50% off right now. Feeling Fall and Autumn Wind are also 50% off in November.

Today's gift is some fun elements that match my Mothers Garden kit. I didn't do a preview so you will have to download them to try them out.

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I made it thru Thursday!

Hi all,

I am cropping tonight at 9:00 after Survivor and Ugly Betty (2 of my favorite shows). This fun fall kit matches the Let's Talk Turkey kit that is being given away in the Store with a $10 purchase. Until midnight tonight you can get this kit Talk Turkey 2(paper and stickit) for just $2.00. Complete a layout and get the elements for free.

Today was so crazy at work that I wa getting interupted 2 and 3 times while I was trying to do each thing. Ahhh! It was kid day at the office and we had about 2o children patients along with our usual amount of adults. It felt like all I did was talk and my mouth is so dry now. I got my Invisalign braces 2 days ago and from doing so much talking I am getting some sore spots. It has greatly reduced my snacking so that is a good thing right. Everytime I put the trays back in after eating I have to brush and floss. Since that can be such a pain I am eating less. Well, more at one time less snacking.

I am off tomorrow but I have to work on Saturday. That should be a busy day too. Tomorrow, I am going on an all day shopping trip with my good friend Sandy. We have been doing a pilgrimage to Potomic Mills every year for 10 years to do Christmas shopping. That is really the best outlet mall I have ever been to. Also, the largest. We never can finish the whole mall even though we get there when the stores open at 10. One of my favorite stores is the Disney Store outlet. I have gotten some great Halloween costumes at cheap prices there. Also, great jammies for the kids. Another favorite store is the Lindt outlet. yummy......

(Sorry, this link has expired)

Here is a little something that matches My Summer Scrapz kit that is available in the store.

Yeah!! It's Wednesday and so far so good.

I woke up and so far no major problems. My boy still has a cough but he is looking better.

I need to get you all up to date on my Halloween. My office decided to do a circus theme this year. We put streamers and balloons in the reception area. Sharon (one of the clowns) made trapeezes out of yarn and dowels and hung stuffed animals from them. Our office trapeeze artist (Wendy) decided to be a male and taped chest hair to her chest. Too funny. Dr Epstein was a scary ring master. Great suit, Scary mask. I was a gypsy fortune teller. I had a crystal ball and pretended to tell fortunes.

We had a great time acting all silly with the patients. We do warm them ahead of time in case they do not want to see us in full crazy mode. For lunch, Dr Epstein took us to Mimi's Cafe a new restaurant in our area. We all loved it the food was delish!!!! There were even some other people dining there in costume.

Sorry, this link has expired.

Ever had a Monday that kept going thru Tuesday....

Hi again,

I'm sorry I didn't get the goodie link posted last night. When I hit the house at night after work, it's like work starts all over again. Cook dinner ( I really cooked last night), prompt daughter to do her chores that should have been done before I got home, help son read a book. He actually only needed help with a couple of words. I'm impressed with how well he is doing this year.

Speaking of the son, I had to take him to work with me today. OH BOY! great fun for mommy.... He was complaining yesterday of a sore throat and he woke up with a croupy cough. My Husband took him to the doctor and brought him to my work. So, we need to set up the humidifier and get him a prescription for the night. Luckily, we have TVs and movies. I have him set up in his own operatory with Scooby Doo and a piece of ice cream cake. Sometimes I wish I had my kids lives.

To make up for yesterday, I'll be posting double goodies tonight. Really, I promise.

Is it Wednesday yet?

Here is my first little gift.

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And Here is the second gift

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It's a Monday....

You know it is Monday when the phones ring off the hook and you can't get anything done. It's also Monday when the photocopier eats the paper instead of just being nice and doing its job. I guess you figured out that I am back at work. Not as nice as being at the beach. Not even close. Even building maintenence is bugging me this morning.

Anyways, I will be posting a new gift for you tonight when I get home from work. I just wanted to check in. I hope your Monday is going better than mine.

Sorry this is late!!!

Hi all,

It's nice to be back hosting the TSG Blog. The reason I am late with today's post is that I just got back from Bethany Beach Delaware. Never went to the beach, just scrapbooked all weekend long. I was supposed to go on one of those organized scrapping weekends but it got cancelled about 3 weeks ago. We were not happy at all, so I got the idea to rent a town home in Sea Colony for our group to scrap in. It was a 4 bedroom town home and we had 4 women. perfect. Since we didn't do the organized crop, we probably saved about $200 each and we had a great time. We were able to fit our 4 tables all in the family room so we could scrap together.

Each night we went out for a nice dinner and then came back to scrapping in our jammies. Last night we found an 80's radio station and played name that obscure 80's band. I learned that I have a feature on my phone that can identify any song. It only missed one song all night.


It's that turkey time of year and time for a new Paper patch Crop kit. Cooler winds blowing colorful leaves everywhere and the smell of Thanksgiving in the air. This kit matches Let's Talk Turkey which is a gift in November with a $10 purchase.

Here is how the Paper Patch Crop works. Join me Thursday, November 8th at 9 p.m. EST You have before midnight of November 8th to purchase part 1 of Talk Turkey 2 - 12 papers and 1 SticKit for just $2.00. After midnight ET, the entire kit will be in the store at the regular price of $4.95

If you post a layout using just the SticKit, you will receive part 2, all the kit elements, for free.
You do not have to attend the crop to participate in this special challenge. I will however, be handing out coordinating elements at the crop. These crop freebies are not included in the kit.
If you post a layout using the crop freebies and the Talk Turkey 2 papers,then I will send you the kit elements and an additional coordinating SticKit.
Post your layout by midnight ET November 14th in the Paper Patch Gallery found HERE and receive part 2 of the Talk Turkey 2 kit, That's a full size kit (and possibly an extra bonus SticKit) for only $2!!

This is a little surprise set of goodies that match my A Horse of Course Lil Bud Mini kit. Enjoy the goodies! Sorry, this link has expired.

Good morning ....

I'm said this is my last day of blogging with you, but I'm sure I'll be back around for a turn another time. I hope you've enjoyed my silly rambling and picking up the pieces of Spooky Dreams. For those of you who missed any part of it, I'm working on getting it together to go in the store next week. If you like my rambling, it's easy to find me rambling away on my blog. Also, I'd like to announce that I've got the greatest Dream Team Creative Team ever and I have started a blog to showcase their talents. Stop on by the Dreams Ink! Dream Team Blog and meet the members of my team. They make my life so much easier and they are super talented ladies. I'm so glad that they've chosen to work with me and my designs.

Be sure to check out the forums today for some fun Digital Scrapbook Day activities! You never know what Miss Cheryl has up her sleeve. I know it will be a great day.

As this week winds down I reflect on why I scrap and design. For me it's about capturing memories and being able to visit them in my mind and print (or paper, I love paper scrapping too!). It's about a creative release, allowing my creativity to flow and learning new things. Designing gives me great joy and even though it often seems I don't have the time, it's something that fulfills me and makes other parts of my life better. It's about showing my family (and fur-babies) to people and letting them know that they are the most important part of my life. Without my family, I am nothing but a lone person in the world. It's about letting my inner spirit shine to the world without "preaching" about it. It's a stress reliever when the pressures of life and the world get to be too much, somehow escaping for a little while into photos, papers and elements eases the stress and gives new perspective. One of the greatest joys in my life was the look on my Grandmother's face at her 80th birthday party when not only did I surprise her by showing up with my hubby and son (we had told her for a year that we wouldn't be able to come to her party), but also showing up with a 50 page album that showcased her life from a young woman through the present. Her joy in that album made the year and countless hours I spent on it worth every moment. My hubby and son supported me every step of the way, gave me ideas, critiqued my work, praised my work and it turned into quite the family event. To me, that's what all this is about. So whatever your reason for scrapping, keep it up and keep sharing those pages with us.

I'm going to leave you with the dedication page beginning my grandmother's album, one of my favorite layouts because she is absolutely beautiful in that picture and the final page of the album so you can see I intend to continue it. One of these days I'll get all the pages uploaded in one spot so that everyone can see this album that I treasure as much as she does.






Here is the final piece of Spooky Dreams:

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Enjoy life and happy scrapping!

Hugs,
Georgia

p.s. In the spirit of this post and today, I'm making pumpkin bread from one of my Grandmother's Aunt's recipies. After that I think I'll work on some extra pages for her album. Ollie's game isn't until 8:30 tonight.

TGIF!!!!!!!!!!!

Good morning! Coming to you this morning with more peace of mind because my floors are sparkling clean. I wasn't able to accomplish quite as much as I wanted to, but I did get a lot done and feel much better as a result. Of course my back sure doesn't feel better! :(

Thanks for the great comments all week and especially some insight and ideas yesterday as to what you ladies are looking for in kits. Looks like color themes are a big interest. That's wonderful news for me because I LOVE color. That was my favorite part of my graphic design courses in college. We learned how to mix any color from the basic colors. Can I tell you how many times I've used that in my own home when painting accent pieces, shelves, etc.? I learned real fast that I could make any color paint I wanted to match from the basic colors, black and white. Hmmm maybe I should work for a hardware or paint store... hehe

Last night we had our first high school hockey meeting and got Ollie all registered, sized for jerseys, warm up jacket, hockey bag, etc. I came away with an empty checkbook but one super happy kiddo. He was so excited last night that he had a terrible time getting to sleep. I love to see him beaming from ear to ear. One of life's greatest treasures. Of course I also came away with fundraisers for cookie dough, candles, sweatshirts, a bus trip to Atlantic City, etc. Good news is I managed to keep my forever raising hand from raising up and volunteering for anything at this point. Believe me, I put in way more time than most with every team, better not to be jumping up and down and bringing on even more right away! LOL


Today I'm going to show you previews of two of my favorite kits, maybe because they were my first two kits. Shades of Summer Bright was inspired by those little sunglass pins you get at Margaritaville and Cheeseburger in Paradise in your drinks. I love the towel, silver hanger and embroidered words in this kit. Shades of Summer Light is a "sister" kit with lighter colors for those that don't like the bold colors of Bright. I LOVE the elements in this kit. These are kits I go back to time and time again for our Myrtle Beach vacations.






I don't know if you've seen my Dream Your Own Monogram kits, but I love Dream Your Own Monogram for Spring and Summer because they coordinate so nicely with these kits.




I've loved being here this week and am sad that tomorrow will be my last day. Good news is if you're ever in the mood to see what I'm rambling on about on any given day you can always catch up with me on my blog.


Here is today's treat:


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Have a fantabulous Friday!

Remember ...

Remember that mental health day I needed? Well today is the day. No, I didn't call in sick. I arranged it with the partners since it's going to be so tough to take days between now and the end of the year off. I was supposed to be off next Thursday and Friday to be home with Ollie (teacher's convention days off school)... but the one partner is going on a business trip on Friday so I only get Thursday off. They agreed to let me have today instead of next Friday. Soooooo the task of the day?????? CLEAN MY HOUSE! Yeah, not much of a mental health day off, but you have no idea how much better my mental health would be if I could get things in order around here. It's out of control with the business of the hockey season. I'll put on some music and clean up around here. Don't laugh at the thought of me dancing through cleaning the bathroom, dancing while vacuuming and singing at the top of my lungs while dusting and straightening. How about doing the twist while mopping? Listen, housework is only fun if you make it fun (well as fun as you can make housework).


What do you do to make chores seem less like chores? What gives you peace of mind and mental health?


Not that I want to spend the WHOLE day doing chores. I'd like to sneak in some design time or maybe just some scrap time for me. Who knows... the day awaits and my life is anything but predictable.


I hope you are all planning to join in my Box of Dreams crop tonight. I might be a little late (parents hockey meeting for the high school), but my Dream Team has all the details, links, etc. and will hold down the fort and chat away with everyone until I get there. You can see details in the forum or my blog. Fun thing about my crops is that I pair them with weekly challenges and it's a great way to earn a mini kit each month.


Speaking of kits, what kind of kits are you ladies looking for? Sometimes designers need to know what you guys want... right? What kind of elements do you love most? What kind of elements or papers are a must have in every kit?


Here are two recent kits that are a little different for me. They are more color based than theme or season based. Both were colors I just started playing with and the next thing I knew a kit was evolving.


Blue Tranquility





Avocado Spice





Here is a gift for you today:

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Now off to accomplish some things. Wish me luck on my projects. Enjoy Life .... you only get to go around once!