Happy Leap Day

Even though we have an extra day this year... time is still going by real fast. It's going to March tomorrow... Spring is coming...

I just came home from taking pictures at the school this morning for the yearbook. Every Friday is spirit day and the kids wear their spirit shirts, but the last friday of the month they can wear a college shirt. While I was taking pictures of the students in their spirit wear a mom came up to me and asked if I have a business card. I told her I didn't have one for doing the yearbook and then she asked, "Aren't you a professional photographer? I see you taking pictures all the time, you don't do weddings and special functions?" I responded, "I wish I was a professional photographer. I'm just a professional mom taking pictures for the yearbook" Perhaps the big SLR camera around my neck while using the small compact camera made me look like a professional. Well a professional wouldn't bring the SLR without a memory disk. I forgot I downloaded pictures last night and didn't take out the card out of the computer and back into my camera. Good thing I carry my compact camera in my purse all the time. The students are also doing a Read-A-Thon all day today, so the students brought pillows, blankets, and younger students brought teddy bears, etc. So I stopped by my son's classroom and took pictures. They were so cute.

So now I'm back home and getting ready to go into work mode until the boys come home. We have to clean up today because tomorrow some licensed drivers (family and friends)are coming to help out on my son's science project. We have the livingroom set up with the steering wheel and pedals, a widescreen monitor, and a cell phone. They will be bus drivers with the task of picking up passengers and taking them to the airport. There are 3 bus stops that the driver needs to stop at. After the 1st bus stop, the driver needs to call someone (my older son, patiently waiting in my bedroom and is a great conversationalist) and they will have a conversation while the driver continues to pick up the rest of the people. You get points for using the blinkers, make smooth stops, stopping at a light etc... points are taken off if you don't do these of course. It's funny when you brake too hard, the passengers scream and become unhappy. If they are unhappy, you lose points too.

Just to let you know tomorrow will start my celebration sale 39-50% off most of my kits ($4.00 and up) and many kits are retiring and will be found in the clearance patch. If you purchase $10 worth of my kits in a single invoice, you will get Celebration free. Celebration coordinates with Funky Fresh. My husband told me that he's taking me out to lunch next Wednesday for my birthday. His birthday is the following day. When we were dating, we used to go to Denny's when they would give a free meal to you on your birthday. We would go around 11pm and we would show our driver's licenses. 98% of the time we got both meals free. We haven't gone since the boys were born.

Sharon-Shutterbug, the reason why I have so many freebies is because I make so many papers and elements for a certain color scheme. I end up making a kit with over 200 pieces, so of course in the end I will have 2-3 coordinating kits for a month. My coordinating sets are Splash, Retro, Artistically Colorful & Alpha Pack and then there's Passion, Overflowing Heart, Dreamy Days and Rugged Charm and my last coordinating set would be Funky Fresh and Celebration.

Dreamy Days is not in the store yet as it is half of the March Club Kit starting on the 15th. Rugged Charm is a store promotion kit you will get free if you purchase a certain amount... I forget, but check back tomorrow..lol. Celebration is my own promotional kit that starts tomorrow, if you purchase $10 worth of my kits on a single invoice you'll get Celebration free.

Here are your FREEBIES (Sorry, this link has expired). Enjoy!
These coordinate with all the other freebies given this week and my other kits. Now I've got to get into work mode. I just scanned over 70 baby pictures of the 6th graders and three 6th grade teachers. I now have to somehow fit them on a two page spread.

Happy Friday and big hugs!

Lynn

Sorry I'm Late

Hi All,

Yesterday, a mom came over to my house and I taught her how to use the yearbook program. She completed three pages at my house and one today. The parent volunteers (I've got 5 of them) will do the classroom collage pages (fit as many pics on one page) except I do my own son's classroom and help 1 mom do her children's class page. I flow all the classroom portraits on the left hand pages of the book and then when I get the completed collage page, import them on the right hand side. I do all the other pages like the Table of Contents, All About Me, Staff Page, Unity in the Community Page, performance page, inspiration page, etc. We even get together and the yearbook staff is in the yearbook. I always have a prop that I hold in front of me to hide my big stomach and wide hips. It's the previous year's yearbook...lol.

Today was my "day off". Every Wednesday is my husband's day off and so I sleep in (20 minutes the most), my husband cooks breakfast (usually oatmeal or makes the kids eat cereal) and he takes them to school (Elementary and Junior High) and picks them up. On Wednesdays, I usually go out with my cousin, who is my highschool classmate and one of my best friends. We went to two craft stores (Beverly's and Michael's), Ulta (beauty store with a great sale... I invest a lot of money on my big hair and need a sale big time) and ate at a Korean restaurant (yum!)

I then came home and uploaded 3 kits that will be out on Friday and my promotional kit. I created a thread in my designers forum, I went to the bank (I work for 2 carehomes and the checks are sent to me), I had a conference call at 6pm and went grocery shopping at 7pm. I washed the dishes while my kids ate their dinner (McDonalds)..still full from the Korean BBQ and munched on my son's french fries...lol. Then after dinner, I gathered some freebies, made a preview of the freebies, zipped the freebies and uploaded them... which leads me to right now.

Tomorrow is a late start for my junior hi boys. So I take the elementary school kids first and then go to the junior Hi. The other days it's the other way around. Since the Junior High is 5 minutes from my mom's, I visit her every Thursday before she goes to work and then I head out that way too (I work for my parents... 2 carehomes and a family practice) I work at the clinic on Thursdays until around 11 am. If a pharmaceutical rep. comes with lunch... Well then, I stick around. Tomorrow night is also karate so I bring some photoshop magazines or my knitting and watch the boys. Sometimes it's crowded in the school and I just stay in my car. The last time I watched, the only seat left was by the shoes.... oh my gosh, I was getting sick cuz I was smelling their shoes but visuallizing stinky sweaty feet. My family knows I have feet issues. I can't stand looking at peoples feet....even my own...lol.

Anyways I have chatted a lot to day. I have to prepare for my SticKit to Me Swap. Here is a preview of what I made. If you purchase my Funky Fresh Kit (in the store this Friday @ 50% off) and make a CD layout then you get all the CD layouts. If you make a 4x4 layout, well then you get all the 4x4 layouts. If you make both, everyone say it all together now, you get all the CD layouts and the 4x4 layouts. I hope you all get to participate in this swap/exchange. Last month we had 34 Stickits completed and were shared with all who participated. I will put size specs in the forum.

Thanks for all the great comments. I'm glad you like the kit. The Funky Fresh kit is going to be used in my yearbook. Each grade gets a color. I'm still learning how to make realistic elements and appreciate any comments you give me.

Ha... still talking... forgot to hand out the freebies. Here ya go Sorry, this link has expired.

Thanks for sticking around.

Lynn

Funky Fresh

Well I said I finished the kit that I'll be using for the yearbook yesturday, well I just finished 9 stickits that will be part of the SticKit to Me Swap starting March 1st. The kit is called Funky Fresh. Here is a little preview. The kit has over 150 items and will be 50% off for the entire month of March. Many of my other kits will be 39% to celebrate my 39th birthday. I will also have kits on clearance for $2.00.

I didn't get to make you a sample of a CD album, but I did make 9 CD Stickits that will be the beginning of the Swap. I would like to add 4x4 SticKits to the swap for those who can't create CD layouts or aren't interested in them. I'll make the 4x4's tomorrow.

Also during March, If you purchase $10 worth of my kits on one invoice, you'll get a coordinating promotional kit free. It's called Celebration and here's another small preview of that. It has over 100 items and the price after March will be $7.15.

Well I have to go to bed and prepare for tomorrow. I will have some moms here and will teach them how to use the yearbook software program. I hope they bring food...lol.

Oh yeah, thanks for the comments. Grammadiane, good for you that you're on the treadmill. I need some motivation. I plan to make a goal on my birthday. Kind of a 1 year journey to 40. I want to lose a total of 39 pounds and/or inches lost by my 40th bday.

And yes, Sharon, I definitely plan to have more ME time as that is one of my many "journey to 40" goals.

Talk to you all tomorrow.

Busy, Busy and More Busy

I'm Here! Sorry it took so long to get to today's blog, but did I mention I was busy? I originally signed on to take this week because I wanted to let you know that I'll be have a month long sale to celebrate my birthday, my husband's birthday and our wedding anniversary. I also have 3 nieces, 2 cousins, a brother-in-law and an uncle who are also celebrating birthdays in March. My husband, his niece and my niece celebrate their birthdays on the 9th!!! My birthday is the day before and our wedding anniversary is on the 11th, which is also Cheryl McCain's Birthday (she's not related, but a family member of TSG). Remember those logic problems in math... This sounds just like it.

I'm trying to get a lot of things done before the end of February because I have to take a time-out from designing and spend a lot of my time designing an elementary school yearbook. It is due a month from tomorrow and I just finished making the kit that I will use in it..hmmm about an hour ago. I even take some of the school event photos, like the Sock Hop I went to Friday night.

The kit I made (I'll show you previews tomorrow) contained 261 pieces!!! I made two kits from it. One kit is called "Funky Fresh" and it will be the kit for the March SticKit to Me Swap. We will be making CD layouts or 4x4 layouts. If you make a CD SticKit... you'll receive all the CD SticKits. If you just make the 4x4 layout, you'll get all the 4x4 layouts... and yup you guessed it. If you make one of each, well... you're going to have a fantastic album. We ended up with 34 stickits in our last swap. I've made some samples already and will show you tomorrow different ways you can display them. The other kit is called, "Celebration." It has over 100 pieces and will be my own promotional kit you'll get free if you purchase $10 of my kits (in one order) during March.

Okay, gotta go. I am helping my son with his science experiment. It has to do with driving while talking on your cell phone. We won't be driving for real, but using a video game with a steering wheel and pedals.

Please, if you have any questions that you would like to know about me, please ask.... please give me something to talk about tomorrow...

:)

Here are a couple of elements that didn't make it into any kits. These elements coordinate with my Overflowing Heart kit (Braving the Elements Challenge), Passion kit (Extra posting bonus), Dreamy Days kit (March Club kit) and Rugged Charm (TSG March Promotional kit).

Get your Sorry the Link has expired here

See you tomorrow!

Something Special Coming to TSG!

Good Saturday morning everyone! Hope you are all having a nice weekend so far. For my last blogging this week, I wanted to let you in on a little secret of something REALLY special coming to TSG.

On March 15th, the VERY FIRST TSG monthly Kit Club kit will be available!!! Each month 2 TSG Designers and one TSG CT member will create a kit filled with papers, elements, an alpha, wordart, a template and an 8x8 or 4x6 brag book album with covers. The March Kit Club kit has been created by Lynn Reloza and Pamela Yates and I created the brag book album. This is an 8x8 album with regular 8x8 size 2-page SticKits and front & back cover, but I also included a Shutterfly ready version of the album! What this means is that the 2-page spreads are sized to the Shutterfly specifications so all you have to do is add your photos and journaling, upload them to Shutterfly and create your own 8x8 story book for you to order from them. I have also included the front & back cover as well as the spine so it all matches on your book. This past Christmas I created my own 8x8 storybook albums to give to my parents and grandparents and they were a HUGE hit! These albums are such a great quality and I love the 8x8 size since they are so easy to handle and store. Anyway, I got off on a tangent there....
TSG will be selling 3-month, 6-month and 1-year subscriptions for the Kit Club which will give you access to the private forum and the monthly kits. So keep your eyes open for these to go on sale VERY soon!!!

I wanted to thank you ladies for the kind words and prayers for my little guys eye problems. Ok, I need to go get a few things done before my hubby gets home. Have a great Saturday!!

Finally Friday!

Ahhh!! It has been a LONG week for me :) Usually the week just seems to fly right past me, but with my husbanding being out-of-town all week on a business trip (he gets back tomorrow morning), it has been a LONG week this time. And what a week! Of course all the germs the boys have been sharing caught up with me this week and I have been fighting fever/runny nose/cough/sore throat/sore body and today no voice. Then we had a little more ice this week - thankfully not enough to do any damage or loss of electricity this week. When I took the boys to get their haircut, I got to experience some of that ice up close and personal...thanks to my 4-year old not watching his step and trying to jump up onto the side walk...which of course landed him on his bottom and me on my knee. What a sight we probably made as I tried to keep him from bashing his head into the concrete as well as me not landing on top of him and all the while hold onto my 18-month old whom I was carry! Thankfully I got the worst of it and it was only a nice large bruise on my knee. Of course our week's excitement doesn't end there- not in this household :) My 4-year old's eyes decide to start giving him trouble... with one sometimes turning in and causing him to see double. We go to see the only pediatric opthamologist on March 3rd to see what exactly is causing this to happen. Hopefully it will be something that can be solved with glasses or maybe even his having to wear a patch awhile each day....and NOT lead us to having to take him in for an MRI and something more serious being wrong. So if you think about him, I would really appreciate the prayers that the poor little guy doesn't have anything really serious wrong.

WOW! Sorry to bore you all if all THAT junk :) Let's move on to talking about what is going on around TSG!

Have you all visited the TSG forum lately? This month's "Team Best of the Garden Voting" is going on RIGHT NOW!!! So hop on over and check out the great layouts created by some of the TSG Team HERE and place your vote HERE. Every month the TSG Team members produce some WONDERFUL layouts...and no, that doesn't include me :) I actually don't remember the last time I got something scrapped...before Christmas...maybe as far back as before Thanksgiving. Anyway, make sure you go place you vote NOW since the poll will close on 2/24 (which is Sunday).

With that, I need to say bye for now and go get some cleaning done while my boys are down for naps. I found out yesterday that my husbands mom, stepdad, sister and her husband are all coming into town this weekend! And I thought I might actually get some rest - lol. ;) Hope you all have a great Friday!!

Chilly Thursday

I would like to ask you all to please remember Pat in your thoughts and prayers. She is having a lot of issues with her mother and is needing to handle that so she will be coming back another week to guest host the TSG Blog.

So, provided my power holds in with the rain/freezing rain/ice/sleet storm that is moving through my area today into tomorrow, I will be here for the next couple of days.

I wanted to make sure you all know about the great "Keeping It Straight" Challenge at TSG! It is a WONDERFUL way to keep yourself organized with all the crops & challenges you are participating in around TSG for the month. Just copy and paste the list of challenges into a reply to the thread HERE, then edit your reply and add the link to your layout in the TSG Gallery each time you complete one of the challenges for the month of February. For each challenge completed, you'll get either a stickit or a piece of the kit Bee Mine by Kristmess. If you complete all of the challenges, you'll end up with a complete kit at the end of the month! You can see a complete list of all the challenges and crops for the month HERE.

I totally forgot about Monday!!!

Hi there! I forgot to post yesterday, it just dawned on me tonight(Tuesday). My Mom, who is in a nursing facility recovering from a hip fracture, was knocked out of her wheelchair by another lady in a wheelchair who grabbed onto my mom's chair to keep from falling out of her own. So Mama hit the floor with the chair on top of her, since she is restrained to keep her from getting up and breaking something else. Thankfully she didn't break anything, but it scared us all, as well as the staff, out of our wits! So I didn't even think about the blog until just a little while ago.
So I will try to post a freebie tomorrow to make up for it!

I hope all of you have had better days than mine. On top of the wheelchair accident, I had to drive to our state capitol to host a meeting that' s been in the works for months. I intended to stay over tonight after it was over, but drove back home to check on my Mom. So I'm tired and cranky (lol) and want to go to bed! Oh, and my dh met me at the door when I got home wanting to know if I was cooking dinner, since I came home. And I said, POLITELY!!!, no, dear, if you want to eat you will have to get takeout or cook it yourself! I REALLY was polite about it, and he got the message - so we had pizza for dinner!

So, enough of the complaints! I'm gonna go now and work on your freebie for tomorrow! Hopefully I will do a better post plus have a pretty for you to download. See ya then!

What's Happening at the Garden

I just wanted to remind everyone that tomorrow evening, Wednesday, February 20th, at 10pm EST will be "Sketch by Design" with Michelle Rodriguez. She will be featuring her "My Love" kit which will be on sale February 17th - 21st for only $3.00!

The Featured Sketch for the crop can be seen HERE (& I will put it here too):

Post your layout in the Sketch by Design Gallery by Midnight, Wed, February 28th (EST) using any kit and receive a Posting Bonus. Post your layout using Michelle's "My Love" Kit and recieve an additional bonus that you are sure to love!
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ALSO...
The newest Blueprint of My Garden Challenge was posted yesterday and will run for a month!! Be as creative as you would like. Just remember to keep to the basic Blueprint.

HERE is this month's Blueprint for you to follow when creating your LO:

Post your LO's to the Blueprints of my Garden Gallery.

Don't forget to go back to the Blueprints of My Garden thread in the forum and post the link to your LO to receive your posting reward!

Happy Sunday!

I'm glad to be back here "blogging" with you again! I hope your Sunday will be very nice - around here we are pretty laid-back on Sundays. We try to really take "a day of rest" but you know it doesn't always work that way, lol!

Today I want to tell you more about the 2 challenges I host here at TSG. By the way, any of you who haven't yet checked out the TSG challenge forum should really do that. There is something there to interest everybody, plus there is also a forum to help you keep up with doing all of the challenges.

I'm the host for the ABC Challenge where we create 2 layouts per month using a letter of the alphabet plus a theme. There is also an optional element that you can use in your layout. I usually have a kit of mine featured and you receive a posting bonus ( sometimes 2) for posting the link to your layout in the ABC forum. I post the new challenge on the 1st and 16th of each month. Check it out here in the forum -http://http://www.scrappinggarden.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=240

My other challenge is a font challenge called " Can You Face the Type?". I search for free, fun fonts for you to download and use to create a layout. Each challenge lasts for the entire month and you get posting bonuses for this one too! More info is available here in the forum-
http://http://www.scrappinggarden.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=233 .

Check both of these out as well as all of the other challenges in the forums. I'm sure you'll find that it helps with scrappers block when you have a challenge to jump-start your creativity. You'll have fun and also get your pages scrapped!

See you all tomorrow!

Template 2 Treasure

I forgot to remind everyone...

Tonight (February 15th) at 9pm EST is the monthly "Template 2 Treasure" Crop with Cheryl!!

She will be giving out a brand new template for you to use in creating your layout.

Her featured kit for tonight is her "Blissfully Yours" Pagekit. It's on sale for 25% off until Sunday night at midnight.
She has also placed her entire "Blissfully Yours" collection back on sale - 25% off until midnight Sunday night. Just scroll down a bit and you can see the entire collection here.

If you post a layout using the FREE template, you'll get another template FREE. If you use the Blissfully Yours Pagekit with the FREE template, you'll get another Blissfully Yours Album free - different from the one that's on sale in the store!!

Post your layouts in the Template 2 Treasure gallery HERE no later than midnight February 21st to receive your posting bonuses.

Once again this month, Cheryl has a TWIST for this crop..........
if you use the "Blissfully Yours Album" that's in the store and on sale until midnight Sunday night, and post pics of your completed Blissfully Yours Album (including at least 1 photo of the completed album actually put together in album form, showing how you bound it together and any added glitz, such as ribbons, buttons, etc. - making it a completed altered project) you'll get another brand new brag book album FREE made from one of
Cheryl's other kits.

By completing BOTH challenges for this crop, you could end up with 2 brag book albums FREE!!

You'll have until March 13th at midnight to post your completed altered album project in order to receive your 2nd album free. Post your photos in the Template 2 Treasure gallery.

There were several AWESOME Brag Book Altered Albums posted for this challenge last month in the Template 2 Treasure Gallery. Make sure to check them out!!

I Love Fridays!

Even though I don't work outside the home right now, I still LOVE Fridays!! Our week is usually very busy running from place to place and I enjoy the usual slower pace of the weekend. Normally my Saturday morning would be spent running errand while my hubby stays home with the boys. Ahh...I LOVE that time to myself! I know, I'm not really by myself since I am surrounded by strangers...but I think you know what I mean :) Well, this Saturday that won't be happening *sigh* My hubby flies out early tomorrow morning for a business trip to Florida for a week. My parents were suppose to be coming to visit for the weekend, but my mom has come down sick. So...it will just be me and the 2 little guys until next Saturday afternoon! OH BOY! Maybe I'm not so in love with this Friday - lol!

Hope you all had a very nice Valentine's Day! It sounds like April's was a very good one since John Paul finally got to come home!! Here is her update from last night about JP in case you missed it:
"I just wanted to give you all another update on John Paul. We are home finally earlier this evening. He is doing much much better. He has his color back as well as being able to get around and be stable. He is continent again. The Dr. said that if he is feeling well enough he could go back to school on Monday. I was like WoW!!! He is doing well. I thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers and I ask that you pray for a little while longer that there will be no relapses. I am so grateful for you all. Thank you again for your support. You all RAWK!!Hugs, and Happy Valentines Day!!"
It is SO wonderful when your kiddos get all better! It appears that for now my two are finally over what they had been fighting. Zach appears to have gotten over his bought with pneumonia very well (hopefully JP's goes as well!). I am praying that we are over the junk for this cold/flu season.

It seems with so many fighting the old cold/flu bugs, TSG forums have gotten a little quite, but there have been plenty of wonderful layouts posted in the Gallery!! So if you get a chance, head over to the TSG Gallery and check them out. And while you are their, why not leave some encouragement for your fellow scrappers!

Hope you have a Fantastic Friday!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Well, since it is Valentine's Day in the EST, and I have a busy day ahead of me, I thought I would drop on by and leave you the little goodies. Hope you all have a good Valentine's Day!!


Very Valentine Add-On (2/15/08 - 10:33am: Sorry, this link has expired)

Wednesday

Another late entry, sorry about that folks. We were able to come back to a nice and toasty warm house this morning. *cheer* There are still almost 3,000 people in our city without power tonight though. We had a sunny day today and there was a LOT of melting today and they are calling for tomorrow to be in the 50's. Hopefully most, if not all, of the ice will be melted by the end of tomorrow...especially since we have another storm moving in tomorrow night/Friday morning! Anyway, when we got home this morning, our DSL wasn't working :( I tried what I knew to do, but now luck. Which mean no interent access for me until my hubby got home. He had to reconfigure the router (it lost all it's settings for some reason) and now we are back in business :)

Since it is late, I will leave you with a quick reminder that tomorrow evening is the Paper Patch Crop at 9pm in the TSG Chatroom. See all the information HERE.

I will also give you a preivew of the Very Valentine Add-On I will be sharing with you all tomororw. :)

There have been no new updates on John Paul posted in the TSG Forum by April, but lets not forget them during this rough time.

Now I will leave you for now and see you tomorrow!

Update on JP

I would like to first start off with make sure you all saw the updates April posted in the TSG Forum on John Paul....

Monday, 11:13pm
"John Paul is about the same. He did sleep through the night. He has a low grade feve now of 101. He had one coughing fit of about 45 minutes. My DH said it was hard to watch. I am leaving for the hospital now. Will update more as there is news or things change."

Monday, 9:36pm
"I was John all day today. We were able to get his temp down to normal. No major coughing fits today. He has eaten a lot of Jello today as well as drank some. They still have him on IV liquid although it is turned way down low. He also still needs to be on Oxygen. He also had a very good day. He is well enough to know how sick he is. We had a hard time keeping the O2 clip on his toe today. He kept working it off. He also realized his IV was hurting him and they re-wrapped it. Now it is not bothering him. So this in itself is good news although it makes more work for everyone. They are keeping him in ICU again tonight and do a chest xray tomorrow as well as blood work. That will decide whether they put him on the regular ward or not. The Doc is expecting maybe 2 to 3 more days in the hospital. Pray he continues to get better.Thank you all so much for your comments and praying for him. TSG ladies are the best! Thanks again!"

No new updates as of this afternoon though. So please continue to keep them all in your thoughts & prayers!
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Sorry about getting around here to post the updates for you on JP so late! We lost our power due to the ice storm around 5:30pm last night (Monday night) and it is now 3pm today (Tuesday) and it still isn't back on. We thought it was coming back on around 11:30pm last night when it came on for about 5 minutes....and it came on again around 2:30am for almost a half hour...but for some reason it just doesn't stay on very long. Around 3:30am this morning the temperature in the house got to about 62 degrees F (not terribly cold, but with one child just getting over pneumonia and another that had been running a fever most the day cold enough), so my husband FINALLY agreed that we could call and get a place at a hotel for the night. So at 4am this morning we were pulling into a local Comfort Inn to get some warmth. It seems that it is just a relatively small corner of our town that is without power, since the place we are staying is only about 2 miles up the road from our house and has never lost theirs. Here is a picture of one of the streets in my neighborhood (MANY trees have been lost ) & the other is just to show how thick the ice is on the trees around here. I took them when we went over to the house earlier today to check on things.

I did get a chance to start on some goodies for you all for Valentine's Day before we lost power. I decided to make a little add-on for the TSG February Mega Kit "Very Valentine" and plan on sharing it on Thursday with you all. So far all the farther I have gotten is a couple papers and a frame cluster. :)
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Paper Patch Crop - Thursday, February 14th @ 9pm EST

Even though it is a couple days off, I will remind you all that the Paper Patch Crop is on Thursday at 9pm EST. So, if you aren't out for Valentine's Day, drop on by the TSG Chatroom and join Kristmess as she features her gorgeous "Cozy Romance" kit. How the Paper Patch Crop works is that you purchase the featured paper pack (which also includes a SticKit) for the special price of $2.00

...then complete a layout using the included SticKit, post the LO in the TSG Paper Patch Crop Gallery and receive the matching elements for the kit for FREE!! And you don't have to worry if you aren't able to be at the crop, you can still participate. You can read all the information on the crop in the TSG Forum HERE.
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Ok, I am going to try to work on the add-on while the two boys are napping. You all have a great Tuesday! Talk to you tomorrow. :)

Monday

**FYI: If you are here to get a "reward" for reading "so much", you might as well move on to the next blog. If you are looking for a daily download, please go visit TSG's HERE and grab the next piece of the beautiful kit by Karen Wallace.

Ok, for those of you that are here to keep updated on what is happening around TSG, sorry about that little intro. It seems some people don't realize that this blog isn't here to just hand things out :) Anyway....moving on....

Hope you all are staying warm and safe in your area. We are getting ice/sleet/freezing rain here this morning and just hoping that there aren't massive power outages like we had last year. I think they are still calling for 1/2 inch of ice along with a possibility of 4+ inches of sleet. Yucky!

For those of you that joined April here last week, I wanted to make sure you saw the post regarding JP she put up late last night in the TSG Forum HERE:
"I ended up taking John Paul to the emergency room today with 106 temp. It just spiked out of nowhere again. It ends up he has Pnemonia in one lung. While we were in the ER his oxygen dropped down to 70% and his blood gas was not good. They gave him oxygen and as of 8:00PM tonight it was back up to 100% He is in Intensive Care for the night at least we will know more tomorrow. He has had two doses of some pretty strong antibiotic and have put two huge bags of glucose in him. He had gotten that dehydrated again. I will be out of comission until he gets out of the hospital. I may pop in now and then. I hope to bring my laptop to the hospital to have something to do but it depends on how sick he is. I forgot my meds at home so I had to come home anyway and only one person can stay the night with John so Dean will stay with him tonight. I am going to try to get some sleep. I will try to let you know how he is doing at least. I will let you know when I know.

In the meantime please pray for him that the Lord will touch him with his healing hand.

Thanks so much!"

So PLEASE, everyone, keep JP, April and Dean in your thoughts & prayers!! April, you all are in my prayers!! *HUGS*

Don't forget the "Easy as 1,2,3 Crop with Cheryl" TOMORROW at 2pm EST in the TSG Chatroom HERE
Here's how it works.
1) Cheryl will feature a NEW kit (on sale of course, AND very affordable)
2) Cheryl give out coordinating pieces during the course of the crop
3) Post your layout using the featured kit and get a coordinating Add On for your posting bonus.
Do you work outside the home? You can still participate by posting a layout with the featured kit. Once you've done that, you'll receive the coordinating crop freebies as well as the posting bonus.
How easy is that??!! You can watch the forum HERE for more information.

Well, I guess I will go try to find something to help keep my oldest occupied today since they just closed the schools around here for the day due to the icey conditions. Hope you all have a good Monday!!

Hi Again :)

I am SO glad that April volunteered to host last week! You all owe her a HUGE "thank you" because it saved you from two weeks in a row of listening to my rambles ;) I really enjoyed working with her in the TSG Mentor program and then I was able to learn even more about her last week. She has just jumped right in here at TSG and I am so excited to have her as part of the team!

The last time I hosted the blog, I remember ending with a hope that I didn't loose you all during my time...and I said you wouldn't want to miss the next couple of hostesses. I hope you all enjoyed getting to know more about Lynn, DeDe and April as much as I did.

I don't have anything much to share today, sorry. Last night was the first time in over a week that I was able to get more than 2 or 3 hours sleep. My youngest has been fighting pneumonia and nights are the worst for him :( Last night he slept the whole time in his own bed without waking up every couple of minutes in coughing fits. Which ment sleep for me too :) *cheer* I am REALLY going to try to get a little something together for you all for Valentine's Day though (there now that I said it I HAVE to do it - lol). For today I will leave you with a picture of my older son out in the snow the week before last...all 2-3 inches we had of it. Not much, but the most we have had this winter so he was so excited to go play in it for awhile. In the picture he was trying to throw snow at me, but having difficulty since I had him bundled up so much - lol.
Have a great Sunday and talk with you all tomorrow!

Last Day!

I'm kinda sad that today is my last day blogging. This has been such an awesome experience! You all have been so wonderful. I appreciate all of the support you have given to me this week. Ya know God knew that I would need you this week when he whispered in my ear to take the blog for Jen this week. It has been a rough week! Your support has made it just that bit eaiser.

One of you asked if JP has a lot of ear and throat infections. He really hasnt. He very rarely gets this sick for this long. He even had a flu shot this year. I havent been as good as I should in past years about getting him his flu shot. He would get sick but only a cold no fever. Then this year I get him a flu shot and he has had the flu twice. This time about 10 times worse than the first time. At least I was mostly done with my designing for the week so I was able to spend the time I needed with John. His appetite still hasnt come back yet. I think he may be getting a sore throat or has had one all along. He is better today then yeaterday.

I forgot to tell you that my DH brought me an Orchid Plant home yesterday. He said he knew it had been a really tough week for me and knew how much I loved Orchids. The Orchids are probably about 3 - 4 inches. There are two three spikes. Only one spike is completly in bloom. It is beautiful. I have it on my desk here by my computer. It will make me happy for quite awhile. I have had bloom last for over 3 months before.

I have a layout to share with you. It is made with my Bearly Valentines Day Kit. I did this layout for the Snap a Masterpiece Challenge. The challenge is to scrap a picture you love that did not turn out. so the picture in this layout is not that good. That challenge is found here:
http://www.scrappinggarden.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3215
You should try it out it is fun!

Here is my layout:
This is a great picture of my husband and JP. I am just sad that it came out too dark. I tried to lighten it several ways with no real sucess.. This picture depicts the great love that my husband has for John. He was leaning over whipering in his ear.

Now it is about time for me to say adieu for now. I will be back on March 2nd. Until then here is your download for today. A Sample of my Bearly Valentines Day Kit

Sorry, this link has expired

You can find this kit here:

http://scrappinggarden.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1880

Thanks for reading and putting up with me this week. Thanks for your loving comments and support not only of my designing but personally too. You all RAWK!!! TSG Ladies are the best!
See you in March!

News Flash!!!

Chocolate Silk Add-On Now in the Store!!!

Are We Through The Woods Yet?

I hope so, John was so sick last night with his fever he was crying. He never cries. It truely broke my heart. Dean and I both sat in his room with him almost the whole evening. I put cool towels on his forhead. I remember my mother doing that when I had a really hight fever. That combined with some Tylenol did the trick. His fever broke. He still was dellerious (sp?) and in and out of consiousness. His fever was 102 degrees. We finally got him asleep. So he slept almost the whole day yesterday and then from about 6:00PM on until about 5:00AM Pacific Time. I was surprised he slept so long. I went to bed early because I thought for sure he would wake up in the middle of the night.

His fever is gone now but he is still wanting to stay lying down which I think is the best thing for him. I pray this is the end of this virus's hold on him. It is super scary when it just rears its ugly head again and worse the second time.

Dean brought John home a birthday present last night and John didnt want anything to do with it.

On another note My Chocolate Silk Add-On did not make it into the store for some reason. I am sure they were overwhelmed with new kits because we have so many new designers on board now. Hopefully look for it on Tuesday. My new Valentine's Kit is in the store now so that is the important thing since Valentines is right around the corner!

I am working on another Valentine element pack. Hopefully I will have it done in time. If not I will pack it up for next year. I might put it in the store anyway. It is Vintage Valentine Collages to add to your layouts. I may make a paper pack to go with it I am not sure. We will see what the Scrap Fairy has in mind for me!

A little more about myself. I know I mentioned briefly about having a Crafts Classroom at a local Craft Store here in Port Orchard. It was fun. I was there for 1 and 1/2 years. It was a pretty large classroom in the back of the store. I taught all kinds of crafts there. I also paint so I taught Toll Painting along with Onestroke Painting. I also taught regulare Acrylic painting where we did landscapes and such. I had a 9 year old girl that was almost better than me. She was such a sweet girl too. I taught Beading and Kidz Crafts, Floral Design, Crochet, Broomstick lace and Pin Lace. It was a lot of fun. I met some real interesting people along the way also. In lieu of a very, very reasonable rent I also helped in the store. I learned a lot. It is hard work running a craft store much less a family owned craft store. You just cannot compete with Michaels or Joanns. People now days with spend the money they can save in gas to buy the cheaper item. That never made sense to me. We really were not that much more expensive. Maybe 50 - 75 cents more. They would spend more than that just to drive to the craft stores up north in Silverdale which is about 20 miles from here. Go figure? Anyway, there were two reasons why I closed up shop. Not enough people actually signed up for class. I had lots of interest but when it really came down to it not enough people actually came. I also was diagnosised with Fibromyalgia and we were having a horrible time controlling my pain. It was almost intolerable. Some days I just wanted to die. That wouldnt happen so I would just curl up in a ball and cry all day. I think it was the stress of wondering if I could pay my rent or not. It has been 7 months since I closed shop and my pain is mostly undercontrol. I still have some bad days but they are not anything like in the beginning. It is still hard to digest that I will have this disease for the rest of my life. I am only 46 which is young by todays standards and I live in an old ladies body! God does everything for a reason so I am just waiting for the reason why I have this to be revealed. Until then I just take it one day at a time and do what I can do on that day.

Well, I bet you are chomping at the bit for your next piece of the pie. Well you need to wait a little longer I have a few things I would like to share with you first.

I did a layout yesterday with my Chocolate Silk Add - On here it is



Here is a really good recipe for you too. I used a kit from Linda Cumberland which is no longer available.

I think you will enjoy the recipe though. It is one of my Mother's Recipes.

Okay, Okay I know I made you wait long enough. Here is the link for your next portion of the kit. It is the last. But still come back tomorrow I will have another gift for you and Im not telling what it is! You will just have to come back and see.



Here is your Link: Sorry, this link has expired

Thanks for your wonderful comments yesterday and I look forward to hearing from you today so leave a comment even if it is just to say hi.

Have a wonderful day and I will talk to you tomorrow.

Another Morning

Whew, Dean just woke me up about 45 minutes ago and I slept like a rock. This is good since I have a tendency to have insomnia and even have been on sleeping meds before. I finally stopped taking them after trying many different kinds. They all make me drowsy during the day and that is just not okay with me. Besides I am on too much medication as it is.

Dean, informed me that John was up most of the night with a fever again. I got some tylenol down him as he was shaking like a leaf. His temp was 103 degrees again. My heart is breaking to see him this way. He is sleeping now and I am sitting next to him as I write this. Another long day ahead. At least I got my two kits submitted for the store so I can take it easy today and just take care of my baby. Yes, I know he is 18. I just had a thought today is his 19th birthday. I knew it was this week but with him sick and all I havent kept track of the date. Now, I really feel bad for him. Sick and running a fever on his birthday. Poor Guy. He normally loves his birthday. He loves the candles on his cake and blowing them out. The presents (Thats what I like the presents! lol). Well, we will not say anything to him and just celebrate when he is better.

I am still in shock that I am actually a designer now and that people are really enjoying my designs. I appreciate all of your comments on the Valentine's Kit. I wasnt sure about how it would be received it is a little different than my regular style. Glad you all were ooooing and awing over it. It makes me feel a little more secure about this designing thing and that I can do it and that I am good at it. It is hard to put yourself out there. You dont know whether people will like it or stomp all over something you have worked so hard on. You women rawk!!

Today I will probably just sit here and do some layouts. That way you can see my kits in action.
I was going to do this yesterday but time just seemed to slip through my fingers yesterday. I do have the previews of my Chocolate Silk Add-On to share with you.

and

I love this kit. It was so fun to make and I hope you love it as much as I do. See how many elements are in this pack. More papers too. Not all of the elements are shown in the preview. I ran out of room. So with some of them like the ribboms is there was more than one I did not show it. I cant wait to see what you all can do with it.

Make sure that when you upload your layouts if you use one of my kits including the Mega Kit that you put it in my Gallery too. I would love to see your work!

Well, I am going to cut it short for today so I can baby my son. Here is your link for todays freebie.

Here is your link: Sorry this link has expired

Thanks for coming by this morning and I will blog more later this evening for tomorrow. Hope you all have a great day!

Another Long Day

I had another long day today. It wasnt a bad day just busy and I am so tired. I think from the past few days John has been sick. I am going to go to bed early. I plan on getting up early tomorrow because of JP so I will blog more in the morning. If you check back around 11am-12pm Eastern Time, I will have blogged a full post and the next link by then. I did get both of my kits submitted so they will be available by Friday in the store.

Thank you for all of your prayers and well wishes for John Paul. Today is the first day no temperature. He is also feeling a lot better. I will blog more in the morning.

Hugs

Valentine's Day is on it's Way!

Got John's fever to break a few times today. The second time it has taken(see me crossing my fingers) I hope. His temp is still normal. I got some over the counter meds for him and they seem to be doing the trick. He slept most of the day which as we know is the very best for him. He was up for over an hour this evening and was a little grumpy which I hope means he is beginning to feel a little better. He drank more today then he did yesterday. I have been telling him that we will have to go back to the hospital and the Dr. will poke his arm again if he doesn't drink. It helped some. I tricked him one time which probably isnt too nice but I wanted liquid in him. I told him to open his mouth and I stuck the straw in there and squeezed the juice bag and down it went, whether he wanted it or not. Of course I got the most wicked look you could ever imagine. I am just so worried about him getting dehydrated again. I am sure we are over the worst of it by now.

Valentine's Day is just around the corner. I still dont know what I am going to do for my dh. I think I might cook a very, very nice dinner and get him something he has really wanted. I just need to put on my thinking cap to remember what it is! lol

Coming soon, Hopefully Friday my Valentine's Kit will be coming out. I wanted to do something fun and Whimsical. Something that you could use to show off your kids, babies, maybe use it for Mother's Day or Grandma's day. I included some pockets that go across the whole page so you even could scan your valentines and place them in the pocket or print it out and make a pocket out of it that way. It has 52 pieces in it and that number includes 17 papers. I still used my grungy style I like so I hope that you like it. Here is a preview. You are the first people to see it. I wont get a chance to submit it until tomorrow:

and:

Let me know what you think of it! I think it came out kind of cute. It is packed full of fun! It reminds me of the fun I used to have when I was a kid. I used to love the parties we had at school. We used to exchange cards with one another. They used to send down Vanilla Icecream Cups and Very Red Fruit Punch from the Cafeteria. I remember taking my Valentines home and showing my mom all of the Valentines I got. I think I still have some of them somewhere. I will have to look it would be fun to post some of them on the Gallery.

Those of you who made the Chat on Monday, wasnt that a blast. There were so many people there. Things were flying so fast I got dizzy. It did give me a warm fuzzy that so many people came to see me as a new designer. I am also proud of my classmates. If I do say so myself we did put out an awesome Mega Kit. There were many new faces that came to the chat and I love to see all of the new people/talent that is coming to The Scrapping Garden. Thanks so much for coming. If you were not able to make it you missed an awesome chat. If you were not able to make it but would still like to participate in the challenge leave me a comment here with your email addy or your pm name and I will send out the two freebies that I gave out which I will show you below and you can participate in the challenge.

The Mega Kit is still on sale at 50% off It is $3.45 and you can find it here:

http://scrappinggarden.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1849





Here are a few layouts that I did using my posting freebies from the Crop:

This is my Cool Joe layout. It is of John Paul. August of 2007 when we were visiting my parents in San Diego. We had gone down to Julian which is a small Tourist Town close to where my parents live. It was very hot that day and John just wanted to sit inside the General Store and be cool.


This is a layout with of course John Paul in the front, Me behind him, my Father and my Mother out in their drive way. Of course since the fires it doesnt look the same anymore. Everything off in the upper Right hill is gone, My parents yard and house were spared. I will have to share that story another day. It was a true miracle that their house was spared. The fire passed over it TWICE!!

Tomorrow I will post a few layouts using my new Valentine Kit and I promise I will get it submitted first thing in the morning so that it will be in the store hopefully on Friday. I am also shooting for Friday to get the Add-on for the Chocolate Silk Kit in the store too!

Nothing much else has happened today. I spent most of the day designing and cleaning house a little. I am house bound because of John. It is okay though. We had an awful storm today with really bad winds and pelting rain. Not the most fun weather to be out in.

Last but not least is the link for your Fourth Part of Faith, Hope, and Charity



Sorry, this link has expired

Thank you for all of the wonderful comments you have left me. I am so glad that you are really liking this kit. I do believe that I have decided to make an add-on. It may be a few weeks before I get it finished but I will let you know on my blog when it will be coming out. I will also do a few ads. That is what I think I will be concentrating on after I get my next two kits submitted. I need to get some advertising done get myself out there a little. I need to go to the sites that I used to post at when I was a CT and let them know I am designing now and post some layouts.

In another couple of months I will most likely be having my own CT call so if you are interested in earning free kits then leave me a comment and your email or PM username at The Scrapping Garden and I will get in touch with you when the time comes.

Thanks so much for reading my blog all the way to the bottom and again thanks for the awesome comments! That is what has kept me going this week with John being sick and all.

You all have a great day and I will post again tomorrow night.

Report On John Paul

Okay, first off I have now re-read my post from last nite. OMGosh!! I am so sorry my spelling and grammer are horrible. I really must have been tired! Please forgive me. I really am not a moron!!

Second, I wanted to let you all know how John Paul is. Dean got home with John around Midnight Pacific Time. John just has a really bad virus. They put one huge bag of fluids in him to because he was so dehydrated. Poor guy. He does seem to be a little more perky today but is still running a fever. He slept until over 11:00 AM today. I am glad he slept so long. He slept with me again last night but went right to sleep. I got a good night sleep too.

At least I know that it is just a virus. They totally did the once over on him. X-rays and blood work, urineaylisis. The whole bit. It is hard when your child is non verbal. They cant answer questions or tell you where it hurts. John has learned very minimal sign language so it does get tough. Anyway, I will blog more tonight. Make sure to scroll down and read the entry from last night so you can get your freebie.

Intro Crop Went Great More than 30 There!

I hope you all do not mind that I am blogging early tonight. I have had such a long day and now I am so tired. Plus I did not sleep well because John slept with me last nite and that is always hard on me. My DH and I do not sleep together any more because I have insomnia a lot and
keep him awake a lot and he snores so LOUD!!! I have never heard anyone snore as loud as he does. I wear 30decibal earplugs and it is still too loud!! Amazing. Anyway, John slept with me and insisted that I hold his hand all night. Needless to say my left shoulder is frozen in PAIN. I have Fibromyalgia so I am sure that is why it hurts so bad it has flared my Fibro up. In a few days it will be better. I am really more concerned about John Paul. I had the Intro Crop tonight(Thank you everyone for coming!! It was so great to have over 30 people there!!) so Dean took JP to the ER. Couldnt get a DRS apt for him at all today. I havent heard back yet and they have been gone quite a while. I hope it is because they are busy not because he is that ill. He has really only been this ill a couple of times before one time he was hospitalized.

I really enjoyed the Crop Tonight. I have been to a lot of chats but never thought I would be helping leading one. Oh My Gosh!! Things were flying in there. So many people. It was nice to see everyone and to get to know some of you newbies to TSG.

Thank you everyone for your comments. They are so awesome and so supportive. It is hard in the beginning. I am feeling so overwhelmed by it all and you have made me feel that maybe I can do this designing thing and be okay with it. Please let your friends know that they can come and pick up this kit. There are several more days or it will be in the store hopefully the end of next week.

What do you all think? Should I make an add-on to this kit? I sure would like to it would be fun. I have gotten a couple of suggestions for what I should put in it. What would you like to see in it. Let me know. If I get enough response this week I will make an add-on. I havent really seen to many Faith based kits out there so it would be nice for me to make on. These colors are so delish too.

SweetHeaven asked me a question today:

What mad you decide to sell your kits and why TSG? Well, as I stated in Sundays Blog I have only been digi scrapping since May of last year. I am always interested in new Craft Magizines and had only just recently heard of digi scrapping. I saw the new magizine Digital Scrapping and picked it up to check it out. I had never used Photoshop before except to touch up my photos so I was really intrigued. My DH Dean was a photographer in the Navy so he is sort of a part time Professional Photographer. So when he found out that I was interested in checking out digi scrapping he was all for it. (He also wanted me to get rid of all the scrapbooking mess I have downstairs in the basement too). Men they always have alterior motives dont they? LOL
He purchased Elements 5 for me and off I went. I found an ad that month in the Magizine for The Scrapping Garden and decided to check it out. Well, once I found out how wonderful everyone is here I decided to stick around. Then a few months later my DH purchased CS3. I was so excited!! I went to Atomic Cupcake another ad I saw yes ads do work. Picked up some actions and started tinkering around with some designing. Shortly after this there was the Call for the Mentoring Program. I sent in my application and waited. Two long grueling months I waited. I was accepted. I wanted to design and sell to pay for my habit. I have always wanted to share my creativity with others. I paint and also do bead weaving (off loom) so I have always been creative in on way or another. It just seemed like a natural progression. I have always sold some of my work because after awhile you have too much. At the present time TSG is the perfect place for me to spread my wings. I have never met a more wonderful bunch of supporting women in my life. You can Bloom wher you are Planted Here!

Okay that was long winded but it was an answer. I promise if anyone else asks a question I wont ramble on so much. When I was a lot younger I used to write prose so that is what I ramble on so. I am sorry if I bent your ear too much.

For some of you newer ladies you havent seen some of my digital work from when I first started. If you just started digi scrapping it may inspire you to continue because it isnt that great! lol But nonetheless I wanted to share it with you. So here are a few layouts for you



This is a layout of me when I was Jr High School (or Middle School) age. I did this layout when I was on Beth Kern's CT Team. So this kit is hers.

This layout I did when I was on Linda Cumberland's CT Team. The kit I used is call About a Man and you can find it in her Store at http://www.scrappinggarden.com/ . I so enjoyed working with Linda. She is one of the first friends I made at The Scrapping Garden. Now I feel I have many.

Last but certainly not least I wanted to show you a layout made from my Chocolate Slik Lil Bud Kit that is coming out tommorrow and the add-on kit will hopefully be out sometime next week. With JP sick I just did not have time to get it in to go into the store tomorrow.

My DH took this picture at the Aquariam at Sea World in San Diego. These are Giant Sea Anenomes and there is a small Clown fish in the Back. Yeay, there is Nemo!!!

Okay, last thing and then I will let you go. Here is the preview again of my Lil Bud Kit



I hope you will check it out tomorrow in the store and pick it up if you do not have it already. The add-on will be coming out shortly which will make this one great kit to have!!!

I know this has been long and I sure appreciate you sticking it out until the end and reading all of my blabber. Dean still isnt home with John so I dont know if he is alright or not.

SweetHeaven also asked for my regular blog address so here it is and I do normally have a Friday Freebie there though I will not this week because I am blogging here.

http://www.divasdesignscustomscrapbooks.blogspot.com/

Anyway here is the link for your thrid piece of your kit:
Sorry this link has expired.

Thank you for stopping by today! I so appreciate you support and your comments! It would be great if you would leave me some more love and I will post later if I know anymore about how John is doing! Remember to post to my gallery with the bragbook stickits that I gave for freebies at the crop when you use them or my kits I would love to see what you do with them.
Thanks again for stopping by.

Monday Nite Intro Crop Post Add-On

How remise of me not to mention my own crop!!! Actually Michelle Rodriquez is hosting it. She will be introducing Myself, Jen Alexander, Pammy Yates, and Diann Suner as new Designers coming from the Mentoring Program that TSG held. We did a Mega Kit Collaboration and here are the previews of that kit





It is on sale right now for 50% off!! $3.49 What a deal! Then to top that off come to the crop for some more freebies!!! Then for even more prizes Do a layout with the kit or the freebies given out. Post it in the gallery and presto more freebies!!! Come to the crop tonight at 9:00PM Eastern time for all of the details! See you there!!

Now don't forget to scroll down for todays post and the second piece of the Faith, Hope, Charity Mini Kit.

Have a great day and again hope to see you tonight!

***Note from Jen***
The crop will be held in the TSG Chatroom: http://www.scrappinggarden.com/chat.html

MONDAY, MONDAY.....

Happy Monday! I know, I know Mondays are the pits right. Here you have had all that rest over the weekend and then it is back to the grindstone. Even though I am a SAHM I feel the same way. I try not to work to much at designing over the weekend and start really working it on Monday. I just dont want to burn myself out. That always seems to be what happens to me. I jump into it at about 200% and it will last for a few months and then I am burnt out. I do not want that to happen with designing. I love it and it keeps me creative.

I dont know exactly what this Monday will hold for me as it seems as though my youngest John Paul (my son with Downsyndrome) is sick again. He is running a pretty big fever. We gave him some tylenol and his fever is down but he is just acting punky. I will wait to see how he is feeling when he wakes up and we may forgo school and have a Drs. Apt instead. I will let you all know tomorrow how it all turns out. I hate when he is sick. He just doesnt understand why he isn't feeling well.

Yesterday, Sunday was quiet except during the game. My DH gets verbal very verbal during football games. I think that must be a man "Thang". lol I scrapped a couple of layouts. Then spent the rest of the day with my DS with his head on his lap. They never want to cuddle unless they are sick, Right? He is very loving most all of the time though. We get many hugs and kisses many times during the day.

Please feel free to leave comments. I love to hear them. I dont know exactly what you would like to know about me or my day so ask away. Let me know what you want to know.

On Tuesday my first kit will be in the store. It is the Mini Kit that I gave out last month on my Personal Blog. If you have it great! If not here is the preview and it will be available Tomorrow for purchase in the store.



I am working on the final business details on the Chocolate Silk Add-on and hopefully it will be available on Friday. I will post the preview tomorrow after I get it finished. It is guarnteed to be a huge add-on. Lots more papers and elements of all kinds.

Here is one of the layouts I did today. It is using the Mini Kit that you are receiving for free this week.



It is a picture of my father Larry and my youngest son John Paul. My dad is 70 in this picture and he is going down the slide with JP!!! Then he wonders why he hurts all of the time!! lol

The journaling/Title reads ...Greatest of these is Charity, 1Corinthians 13:13 from the King James Version.

If I get enough feedback from you all on Faith, Hope, Charity I will make an add-on for this kit too! Let me know what you would like to see in that kit.



Here is the link for part 2 of Faith, Hope, Charity Mini Kit:

http://www.scrappinggarden.com/april/als_FHCharity_Part2.zip


We will be keeping yesterdays link up today until about 1:00pm so if you didnt have a chance to grab it scroll down and grab it now.

Thanks for checking in with me today. I will blog a little later to let you know How John Paul is.

Have a good one and Bye for now!

Well, Hello! I am finally here. Jen will have my picture up soon. At least then you will know who you are talking to.

My name is April Sevigny and I hail from Port Orchard in Washington State. I am a native Californian. I was born and rasied there. I was born in Lynnwood CA when Lynnwood was a good town! lol I have two boys: Marc who is 24 years old. He is in the navy and getting ready to transfer off of a Fast Frigate in Hawaii to Balboa Hospital in San Diego CA. I also have a son who is 19 years old. He has downsyndrome and is severly impacted. He is non-verbal and is cognitively around about 5 or 6. He is our angel, our light in the darkness. We love him more than God made words. He goes everywhere with us. Then there is my wonderful DH! His name is Dean and we have been married for 19 years. He has been with me through thick and thin never wavering. He is very supportive of me and my endevours.

I started paper scrapping about fifteen years ago. When there was nothing but stickers and rulers and sissors. It was hard and overwhelming back then. You had to be really creative. In the past few years I had a Craft Studio in a local family operated Craft Store. I taught Scrapbooking, Altered Art and many other kinds of Crafts. Last June I had to leave due to a chronic pain disorder. I just never knew when I woke up if I would be okay or not. Just before I left I picked up a Magizine. It was a new Craft Magizine and I just wanted to check it out. That Magizine was Digital Scrapbooking. As I looked through it I found an article for The Scrapping Garden. I checked it out. Liked it and stayed. Digital Scrapping seems to be a natural progression for me. Then designing. This will work well for me since I can work at home my own hours and be happy doing what I do.

I am very excited to be designing for The Scrapping Garden and thankful and grateful for the opportunity they have given me through their Mentoring Program. I will be forever grateful.

Well, that is an awful lot for today so I will stop for now.

Look below for the link to your freebie.



The link is DISABLED

See you all tomorrow!