Thursday, January 31, 2008

Where TearZ Came From...

Once again, thank you so much for all your comments! I am so glad that you are enjoying the quickpages and I'm very happy you like the papers to my new kit!


Nancy (pockets55) had some questions:

What inspired you to do your animals, especially all those adorable bears? Was it looking for something unique in designing kits? Were your children the inspiration?

I had always admired mulberry paper bears and paper pieced things in paper scrapping. I thought they were just adorable, but when I paper scrapped, I didn't want to put all the work into it. So I kind of just admired from a far. And as a collector of stuffed animals from when I was a child, I just have always had a weakness for cute stuffed creations. When I first began designing, the idea came to me that a digital version of mulberry paper bears might be something fun to have. So when I created my Teddy Bear TearZ Kit, I thought it was cute and a one time thing. But it was fun and I thought...oh let's do some zoo animals and once I completed that collection I had so much fun and so much success that I couldn't help but continue. It's really amazing when I look back at it, because I couldn't have even known that this would become my "niche." I was definitely inspired to do this and I'm grateful every day that I have something that I can call my own in the design world. The Bears and other animals are ALL MINE...I draw them, tear them, and complete them all from my own work and am just so blessed to have found something like that for me.

And yes, my children are partly my inspiration. They of course have kept me collecting all my stuffed creatures and actually my PENGUINZ, SNOWMEN, AND POLAR BEARZ Kit is completely inspired by my son's favorite stuffed animal, a little polar bear called Beary! And of course my kids love seeing my bears and it's fun to have designs that work so well with children layouts!




Sweetheaven also had a question:

How did you come up with the name tearz?

Once again I was totally blessed to come up with this name. Actually it was a little bit of a mistake. I was creating my Zoo TearZ Previews and at that time, I was just calling them tears, so like Teddy Bear Tears and Zoo Tears, because that was just something that I came up with because I "tore" the shapes that made up the parts of the animals. I did a typo with a great font called AMAZING RULER and to my shock, the Z shifted up, making it look kind of neat. (Look at the Z in all my previews and you will see what I mean). And it just really appealed to me and is kind of a quirky name, but I think that is one of the reason it sticks out and is noticed.



I am so grateful to all of you asking me questions, it definitely is easier to blog when I have something to blog about. My life, although busy, is quite boring, I don't really ever have much to talk about unless it's my designs LOL So keep the questions coming!

I have been busy all day and I am happy to say that I have completed the bearz to my valentine kit and I'm very excited about how they turned out! I can't wait until Feb 8th when I can release it! I don't want to totally spoil the surprise, so I'm not going to show you the bears until its released, but stay tuned, because I really think you are going to like it!

Well I'm going to let you go, because I got myself into helping my brother with a little movie editing so I gotta go help him for the rest of the night. I should have said no, but I'm no good at saying no, and plus he is my brother who is totally stressed out with working a full-time job and a full-time student at college as well, so I felt pity on him. LOL

But I have another quickpage for you! This was created by another member of my CT, lorig! Thanks Lori!


SORRY THIS LINK HAS EXPIRED


Have a great day and talk to you tomorrow!

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Wednesday...

Hello everyone! I hope everyone's week is going well! We have made it to the half-way point! Yay :)

Once again thank you so much for your comments! And thank you so much Sharon for that great suggestion of keeping a calendar near me to write everything down so that when I do actually get around to scrapping I will have the information I need! Thanks for that!

And thank you so much for using the qp grammadiane! Your page looked great!

Sharon-shutterbug: That is a good idea to do the multiple libraries...I will have to look into doing that for me too!

And I'm very happy to hear that so many of you are bear collectors! That is so awesome!

And just so you know...one of the reasons I am able to do all that I do, is because I have the most amazing husband in the world. Joey truly supports me in anything that I want to do. And he is always giving me suggestions and input on my designs and I just totally am the luckiest woman to have someone who supports me so much! He truly wants me to succeed and to enjoy what I do. It's so nice to have someone come home and take the kids when I really want to finish up a kit, and he just is so wonderful. :) So I really think if I didn't have that support and help from my hubby that I wouldn't be able to do all that I do. I Love him :)

Sweetheaven had some great questions again! :)

I was wondering what made you decide to design and how did you come up with the name for your kits?
Digital Scrapbooking Designing for me came very naturally. I am a freelance graphic designer, with a Bachelors Degree in Visual Communications (Graphic Design), so I was designing things anyway. Plus I have been a scrapbooker for over 13 years, so discovering digital scrapbooking was just right along the path I wanted to take, combining both of the things that I really like to do. As soon as I discovered Digital Scrapbooking, I plunged right in and right away I knew I wanted to create kits...but it took me a little while to actually get the courage to do it, but once I did, I knew I had found something that I would never leave :)

Actually the naming of my kits and the writing the product descriptions are the hardest part of the whole thing for me. Thankfully I have a CT Member, Vickie Weers, who writes my descriptions for me now...THANK YOU VICKIE...it takes a whole lot of stress out of it for me. As far as the names...sometimes it comes naturally and sometimes I have to really put a lot of thought into it and sometimes I even have to ask my CT or others to help me. My hubby has actually named a few of my kits for me! LOL It just depends on the kit and the colors and the theme....


So I thought I would give you a little SNEAK PEEK of the kit that I am working on. Valentine's Day is coming soon and I am working on a great kit. I have now finished the papers for it and am about halfway done on the bears and then I will do the miscellanous elements to wrap up the kit. This kit is called ATTACHED AT THE HEART and will be coming to all my stores on February 8th. In the meantime...I thought I would just give you a preview of the papers! Let me know what you think and I hope it gets you excited about what's coming! I am very pleased with how these papers turned out!




Well I want to go work on my Valentine bears some more...so I will leave you for today with another quickpage by catlady!

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Have a great Wednesday!


Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Another Day...

Once again, I am just thrilled to read the comments you all leave for me! It totally makes my day! I really appreciate all your support! But I have to say that I really think we all are busy...so I wasn't trying to say that I'm the busiest. LOL We all have our many things that go on in our lives and we all have to stay with it. Right? I bet if you all wrote down your schedules you will realize how much you accomplish as well ! But anyways, thank you and keep those comments and questions coming! :)

I got some questions from Nancy (pockets55)! Thanks Nancy!


Of all your kits is there one that is a particular favorite?

That is such a hard question to answer. I have to say that I am proud of all my kits and my new favorite seems to always be my most recent one. So right now, I'm pretty proud of my ASPIRATIONS Kits. I loved the colors and all the sparklies and I got to do lots of fun bearz! :)







Do you ever scrap with your own kits or do you prefer to use other designers' kits for your own scrapping?

Unfortunately, since I began designing I have rarely even scrapped a page. But I have so many photos that would go so well with my kits, I just have to figure out some time so I can scrap! I have got the chance to make several quickpages from my kits and I love that! So hopefully someday I will find the time to get to work on my thousands of photos and memories!


And, speaking of organization...how do you organize your digiscrapping files on your computer?

I am on a Mac, so unfortunately ACDSee is not available for Macs yet..I hope someday. In the meantime I have my own little system. The Mac's desktop is very easy to navigate and so I just kind of make my own folders and have a system to backup to my external hard drive and I also back up to my Amazon S3 Service, which I totally LOVE! It makes it so nice...because I backup all my kits on the server and only pay for what I use (unlimited space). Using BucketExplorer I can even link to my kits for my CT and stuff...so it's pretty awesome! And if you know my kits you know they are very large and stuff...and I have 8 CT members that I'm constantly getting stuff for and right now I pay approximately $10 a month! That is an amazing price...and they backup too, so once I get it over to their server...I know that I will never lose it! Isn't that awesome!

Well Ladies the kids are in bed and it is now my design time for a couple of hours! Yay! I'm working on a Valentine Kit (with lots of bearz) and I'm anxious to get some work done on it. Don't forget to leave me more questions/comments for tomorrow! So, I will leave you for tonight with another quickpage from catlady! Once again, thanks to my CT for their awesome work!

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Monday, January 28, 2008

What a Day!

Wow...here it is the end of my Sunday and I'm exhausted. Just had things happening all day today with meetings, choir practice, visits from people from my church, Church, my brother and his friends coming for dinner, and then hearing that the president of my church, Gordon B. Hinckley passed away. I feel saddened and yet happy for him that he is now with his wife and gone on to a better place. He was 97, so it wasn't unexpected, but he has always been my favorite leader in my church, so I will miss him and his words.

Anyways, thank you all for the amazing comments and happy birthdays to my son! You are all so sweet! And you are all very welcome for the quickpages....I have such a marvelous CT to help me out when I need it! :)

And just some personal comments from your comments:
Sharon - my son's name is Joseph Jr. that's what his JJ stands for LOL
Nighty - Yes, you are right...JJ is a typical boy to love CARS :)
Tabby - That is amazing that you were able to make a haunted house out of a cake that was supposed to be a horse! We gotta see photos of that!
Lynn - You are crazy to have 50 people at your house for your son's bday party! LOL NO wonder you are exhausted! rest up!
grammadiane - I'm so happy that you enjoy my bear kits! I hope you can get some more soon! I love that you collect Teddies!
Sharon Kay - Great idea to buy characters to make your cake! I think I will do that next time!


And thank you so much to texjudy for her questions! Gives me something to talk about today!

How do you keep everything organized? Do you have a daily routine that helps you in your designing?

Well, as some of you know...I am a very busy woman! I sell at 5 stores, PLUS my own blogstore and keeping up with all the contributions/crops/challenges to each site is very time consuming. But it has been so worth it to me to get my name out there and be involved in the digital scrapbook community. BUT in order to balance my time out...I definitely have to stay organized and do a daily routine in order to get it all done. Here is what my typical weekday looks like (my weekends are totally different...it is usually when I relax a bit and just spend time with my family):

Somewhere between 8-9AM - I get up (No, I am not a morning person!)
8:00-10AM - I get the Kids Breakfast, get them ready for the day
10AM-11AM - I comment in my store galleries (I've been trying to do at least 5 comments in each of the 5 galleries every weekday), respond and take care of emails and forum postings, crop bonuses, all that kind of stuff
11AM - 12AM - Lunch and get JJ off on the bus for school
12PM - 4PM - Do my Exercises, Shower, Do some cleaning/picking up of the house, spend a little time with Beth, Design Time
4PM - 5PM - Pick JJ up from the bus, get him a snack, spend some time with the kids
5PM-7PM - Catch up on any of my Site responsibilities - Design Time
7PM - 10PM - Dinner, Clean up house, Scripture Study - Kids off to Bed
10-11PM - Spend time with hubby
11PM - 2:00 AM - Design Time

And then of course things change when I have crops and other things and I have to put those into my schedule!


And how do I keep organized....my computer has everything I need. I use the Calendar program to keep track of all my deadlines. I use my Stickies Program (like post its on my desktop)...to make all my to-do lists and my ideas for kits and I have a major spreadsheet that keeps track of all my kits and all my stores with links and it even includes tracking of my Creative Team and their work all in one place.

So my life is pretty crazy but I try to keep it all together and stay with it! I'm not always successful, but I have to try and keep at it! Balancing my life out is probably one of my hardest things and I am always trying to figure out how to do better. But for now, it's working!


If any of you don't know. I host a monthly crop here at TSG and it is on every 4th Wednesday of the month. We do different things every month! So we just had another crop last week and it is NOT too late to do the challenge! So please check out the recap forum and participate! FORUM IS HERE


Well I am completely exhausted tonight...so I will leave you until tomorrow! Thanks again to everyone leaving comments! I would love to hear more questions so I have something to post about tomorrow! So please let me know!

And I have another quickpage for you from my CT member, catlady!

Sorry, this Link has expired

Sunday, January 27, 2008

I'm BACK!!!

Hey everyone,

REMEMBER ME? LOL...I haven't blogged on the TSG Blog since that second week that it existed back in September! So it's been awhile and I'm glad for the chance again to be with you. Actually, that blogging in September was truly amazing for me as it got me to get my own neglected blog going again and I have to say that it has been a great experience for me! I love my blog now and it has been so nice to have another place to truly advertise myself and let everybody know what is going on in my little design world!

If you care to visit my blog: http://designsbydede.blogspot.com!


So anyways, I'm glad to be back and I hope you enjoy my week of blogging here at TSG!


It's kind of interesting, because yesterday Lynn wrote about the birth of her son and how it was his birthday yesterday...well, guess what? My son's birthday was yesterday as well! :)

My son, JJ, turned 6. I can't believe he's growing up so fast. I think he really had a great day. He gets overwhelmed pretty easily (he's developmentally delayed and we think he has some form of autism...no clear diagnosis yet), but he did pretty well yesterday. We actually kept it really casual and just had a family party. My hubby, me, JJ, and his sister Beth.



He opened his presents which was a couple of Transformers and a Mac and Lightning McQueen Lego Set (from the Disney-Pixar Movie Cars) and he was so excited. He loves that movie and his favorite character is Mac. And I gotta tell you, there aren't that many Mac toys around. He's wanted one for so long and I haven't been able to find one for him, but as soon as I saw that Lego set, I knew he would love it...and he did. The Legos were large and not many pieces so that was good. JJ and his Dad put it together and he played all day with it:







While they put the lego set together and played...I decorated the cake. I have to say I'm not much of a cake decorator...so I always go with something simple. JJ loves a lot of things...Disney Movies (especially the Pixar ones), Blue's Clues, and most recently he's really been getting into action heros, mostly Superman and Batman. And since JJ's middle name is Clark...I thought what better cake than to do a superman one...you know, like Clark Kent. :) So I simply drew a Superman logo on a 9x13 cake! Simple huh? LOL But he loved it so that's all that matters! :)



Anyways, so I think it was a good day for him and I really think this was the first year he really understood what a BIRTHDAY was...so that made it a lot of fun.


Anyways, so I thought I'd share our day with you for today's post. It's actually not even Sunday yet here, but this is most likely the time of day I will post all week...just because it's easier for me once my kiddos are in bed! But I hope you will all participate with me this week! I would love it if you would leave me suggestions, questions, ideas, etc in the comments! I would love to hear from you and it's always easier to blog when you are asked questions! :) So please leave me some love!


Last time I blogged here, I gave away a WHOLE KIT! But I don't have that much energy this time. LOL So you are just getting quickpages from me this week....and all the quickpages were created by my amazing CT Team Members! And I just want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH to them for coming through for me and creating these amazing layouts!

So I think I'll leave you for tonight. Sunday is going to be a BUSY BUSY day for me tomorrow! I hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend and we will talk to you on Monday!

Here's your quickpage for today....thanks to catlady for creating it!

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Saturday, January 26, 2008

Happy Birthday Josiah

Happy Birthday to my son today. What we do every year on the day they were born, we set the alarms 2 minutes before they were born. We tell them that this is the moment that I'm pushing them out into the world. We tell all the details that happened before, during and after they were born..(parental discretion advised).. believe me it's a story to tell. With my birthday boy Josiah, I felt the contractions at about 4:30 in the morning the day before his estimated birthday. I got up and took a shower... just in case. While in the shower the contractions were more frequent. I yelled for my husband that this is it. My brother-in-law was living with us and so we woke him up to tell him we were going to the hospital and to watch our 2 year old son, Kainoa.

I called my doctor that I was on my way in about 10 minutes (the hospital was very very close) My doctor told me that the neighboring hospital was on strike and that the hospital was very busy and crazy. Their was only one room left and she was going to try to save it for me. My parents are doctors, she knew them, so I had connections. We had made arrangements for my sister-in-law to pick up my son and bring him to the hospital. My aunt was a nurse at the same hospital. She worked in delivery or post-partum. She worked graveyard so I new she would still be there.

When we drove up, the parking lot was filled. My husband was advised to drop me off at the emergency room. I got there in major pain and contractions one after the other. There were no more wheelchairs for me. I had to walk to delivery. A security guard came to help me walk to the elevator and stayed with me. I felt worried and bad cuz he was a cute old man and I was just moaning, groaning and breathing. My aunt and another nurse were about to go down to meet me with a wheelchair. They were at the elevator when it opened with me in it. Perfect timing.... I so needed that wheelchair. My husband at the time is trying to find a parking space....

I was quickly undressed and in bed. It was about 6:20pm. My son finally arrived with my sister-in-law and my parents showed up too. About 7:15 they broke my water. I was pushing and hurting. No epidural. All natural. About 7:26 the doctor and nurse said they lost a heart beat. A lot of hospital staff showed up into the room. I only had one time to push they told me. I was very scared.

At 7:28 Josiah was quickly born. I didn't get to hold him right away because he wasn't breathing. My husband said he was blue and not responding. But thank God I heard his cry a few seconds later. Wow I'm getting choked up as I write this.

So this is the story we tell Josiah every year at the time it happened. It's quite a story and I'm glad my husband was around when it happened. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that when I was giving my final one time push, I was screaming and grunting. My sister-in-law was taking my son out of the room because he was so upset and concerned that I was crying and screaming. At the exact time Kainoa walked by, Josiah was coming out, Kainoa had full view of my you know what and Josiah's head. He screamed and pointed "Mom. What's that!?" while trying to reach out for me over his aunt's shoulder. I can't forget that look. Yeah, I would be scared too...lol.

Anyways, I got to get ready for this big party were having. Thanks for stopping by. Oh yeah, don't forget that the template tutorial ends tonight!

This is my last entry. Please look forward to DeDe Smith tomorrow.
See ya, take care and thanks for visiting!
Mwah!

Friday, January 25, 2008

Sorry I missed yesturday....

I had to go into work last minute. Then since I was in town, I visited my nephews and then went shopping for party favors for the birthday party tomorrow. Then I forgot that my son needed/wanted to hand out birthday goodies in school today so I had to go to Costco.



Right now I'm uploading another kit for the store. I'm frantically creating ADs for our February newsletter and trying to clean up and work at the same time..... ARGH... Calgon take me away.


Since I'm in the role of creating ADs I've got some last minute info to share with you.


The Braving the Elements challenge is still going on. The featured kit, "Delightfully Wintry" will be on sale until the 31st. You have a chance to earn two kits for the price of one... that's on sale.




Our Live Love Laugh kit will be in the store on Tuesday as well as a Stickit Set created from that kit. You can purchase one or the other or purchase both at a discounted price. Those kits will also be on sale until February 2nd.






Which leads me to a Brag Book SticKit Exchange that I'm hosting. If you purchase our Live Love Laugh kit and create atleast ONE 4x6 Brag Book Stickit, then you'll get all the other SticKits that were created. Just to let you know.... there are already TEN bragbook stickits made. I know there are going to be more. I'll have the challenge posted by Monday. These are the 4x6 stickits I've created... double page spread style.



Another challenge is my Petals of Wisdom challenge, featuring Karen Wallace. All her kits are on sale, so if you use her kits in this challenge (which by the way has a word art freebie) you'll get an extra posting bonus. Check it out here


Phew.... Okay here's the final sorry, link has expired to our Live Love Laugh kit. I have to continue cleaning up and preparing for my son's 10th birthday and my God son's 3rd birthday. I have a Mad Scientist coming to entertain and I have to cover my living room windows with black garbage bags to make the room dark. Um, my windows are very very tall and there's 4 big windows to cover. Busy Busy Busy,


Sorry for missing yesturday and thanks for visiting today,


Take care, Lynn

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

I love you brahda!

I'm sure by now you have heard Reynaldo Lapuz sing his song "I love you brother" on American Idol. I wish I can link an audio version or video version of my boys singing it. They have been singing it since they heard it on the radio while driving to school. They had asked to see it on TiVo as well. When they sing the song, they have their arms around each other and sway side to side... totally cute and a crack-up. When they perfected the song, I called my parents, big American Idol fans, to let them sing it to them. My dad had to put it on speakerphone so my mom can hear it too. So now everytime we visit my parents, the boys have to sing the song. Well the reason why this topic came up is because Reynaldo was interviewed on our favorite radio station. The boys were upset that they were going to miss it so I quickly went home to tape it for them. They will crack up. Reynaldo sang a couple of other songs, even one in Tagalog (Philippine dialect). I could understand Tagalog and it sounded cute.



Did you know I'm still w/o my computer? When I last blogged in December, my computer was broken for almost two months. There is a dispute between Velocity (the computer maker) and Best Buy (where the computer was purchased). This is my second computer I'm borrowing now because my brother got a laptop for Christmas and he is letting me borrow it while he tries to get my other computer fixed. Since I've had it so long now, he said once I get my CPU back I can give this laptop the boys. He spoils my boys so bad....lol.



Here is another freebie from our LLL Designs - Live Love Laugh kit. It looks like it will be in the store on Tuesday with a 12 x 12 Stickit set to coordinate with it. I'm also hosting a challenge to create brag book stickits with our Live Love Laugh kit. If you purchase the kit and create atleast one 4 x 6 stickit with it, you'll get all the other brag book SticKits that all the CTs and other members have created. I've made 6 already and one of my CTs made one.... I'm sure there will be a lot more soon. That challenge will be up by Monday. The kit will be on sale for 3 days when it is introduced on Tuesday. Sorry Links are expired
This will be up for 24 hours only.



Well, another busy day. I've got so much to do that I put a timer on for 30 minute increments. I work on one task for 30 minutes and then when the time is up, I do something completely different.



I appreciate all the ideas for my ice cream kit. I will do my best to take all the ideas and incorporate it into that kit.



Take care all and thanks again for visiting!

Lynn

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

It's Raining. It's Pouring...

I love it when it rains... when I'm inside the house, of course. My hair is allergic to moisture. It swells and frizzes. It makes my hair bigger and my already chubby face smaller...lol. It's weird because back in Junior high up until months before getting married, I had to have permanents to get my hair curly. Now my hair is naturally curly. My hair dresser friend told me your hair chemistry changes every 7 years.... interesting.


Funny story, before going to Hawaii, I bought a hair product to "waterproof" your hair. I didn't want my hair to frizz in the humidity. Well the stuff is pretty thick and oily and you use it sparingly and try to spread it thoughout all the hairs. Well, in Hawaii the weather was kind of misty. My hair looked like I had glitter sprinkled on it. It was an accumulation of dew drops forming on my "waterproofed" hair.



I'm getting a few template uploads from some members experimenting with my tutorial. You are doing a great job girls. You can find the forum post here. The links and the challenge will end 11:59 on Saturday.


Here is a Link has expired that coordinates with our Live Love Laugh kit. It will be in the store soon and will be 25% off for 3 days. Freebie good for 24 hours only.


Susie and Jen, thanks for the scrumptious ideas for the kit. I'm actually excited now to design this. The ideas are wonderful and really helps in the designing process. Because you kindly commented on my blog, I will think of you guys when I create this kit.... freebies....hmmmm...lol.


Well I've got a super busy day ahead of me. I don't want to give you an anxiety attack with all the crazy details. Thanks again for visiting me. I appreciate your comments!!!

Take care, Lynn

Monday, January 21, 2008

Designing

As a designer here, I don't get to create layouts much anymore. But I do enjoy seeing layouts made with my kits and seeing kits made with my templates. I'm addicted now to making paper templates and have created hundreds of paper overlays, waiting to be sold in the store. I have created a tutorial for you found in the TSG Forum (click here) where I have included two template freebies for you to play with. If you create a paper using my templates and post it in your gallery and post the link in the forum, I will send you a third template to play with.







Tomorrow, I'll have a coordinating freebie for you from a kit that Linda Cumberland, Lien Griffin and I created together. Check out our new kit that will be in the store on Friday and it will be on sale for a limited time. (Click here to see more of the kit... it's wonderful!!!)
I am making an ice cream kit and would love to hear some input on what kind of things you would like to see in this yummy kit. We all Scream for Ice Cream!!! Hey, I think I just thought of the kit title...lol.
Thanks everyone for visiting me today.
Lynn

Sunday, January 20, 2008

I'm Back!

Hi Everyone, I'm baaaack! I totally forgot how to get into this blogger thingy to post. I'm so glad I work with fast and helpful "TSG Co-workers" to help me get thru my first post of the week. THANKS JEN!

I was gone all day yesturday. I went to a digital scrapbook workshop where consultants and scrappers bring their laptops, digital scrap, talk and eat all day. It was a different atmosphere in there because they didn't know anything about the digital scrapbooking world on the internet. I was introduced as a digital scrapbook designer and they all looked into ScrappingGarden and it was a new world to them. They even asked if I had a business card. So that is something I need to add to my long list of To Do items. They use this program and use the kits that are included in the program for $2o per month and then create books and get them printed. To me it seems very costly to print a book, but I signed on as a consultant so I can create templates to sell. And if your month is over, you don't have any scrapping kits to keep. I'm not sure how dedicated I will be in this because I have to individually import one file at a time of my kit and use their program to create the templates. It's very slow and basic and would rather work in Photoshop. I'm going to another workshop in February where a consultant will teach people how to use Photoshop elements. I'm going to check it out because they want me to teach a class...me?... yeah right...lol.

Because I was sick all last week and gone all yesturday, the house is a major disaster. I decided that we do a power clean up for two hours. We put some fast paced music on... I like my satelite radio that plays disco to eighties music.... and we clean to the beat of the music. The music is set up so we can hear it loud throughout the entire house. We all clean a specified room in a really crazy and rhythmic pace for 30 minutes. You cannot be slow or walk. When the 30 is up we move to another designated area. If the first room is not complete, two stay to finish while another two start the next area. It's pretty fun, we can be silly, we work up a sweat and we get the job done.

It will be a busy week for me as I have a birthday party for my son and my nephew here at my house next Saturday. This week I will work, plan for the party, shop for the party, order a cake, plan a yearbook meeting, uploade a kit or two in the store, clean the house, etc.... phew... getting tired already. Well I got to go.... I've got no freebies to give out right now but I can lead you to my Braving the Elements Challenge where you can get four element freebies and a chance to earn 2 kits for the price of one.... that's on sale even.

Thanks for joining me today. Happy Sunday!

Saturday, January 19, 2008

See Ya Later!

Well, tonight marks the end of my hosting for a few weeks. I know you all are going to LOVE our next hostesses - So don't miss out!!

I spent my Saturday running erronds and then helping hold things for my hubby as he mounted our new TV on the wall and started installing new ClosetMaids in our laundry room. I know, SO exciting ;)

Since I am REALLY hoping to get some sleep tonight after having 2 nights of not much more than 3 hrs each night, I am going to cut this entry very short and just leave you with this...

Michaele Burkhart has created yet another lovely SticKit with Kristina Messier's "Fun Fair" kit (Elments available HERE and papers HERE). You can grab the SticKit HERE (sorry, this link has expired)

And with that...I'm signing off for the night ;) *wave*

Friday, January 18, 2008

It's Finally Friday!

I don't know about you, but I didn't think Friday would ever get here this week! Most weeks fly right past me, but this one seemed to drag by for me. Probably since I spent most of the week at home and I am use to only having one day a week that I am at home. Between Drew's behavior problems at school earlier this week (wow doesn't even seem like the same week), and then the sickies the kiddos seem to be sharing, before today I was only out of the house a short time Monday and then yesterday to take Drew to his swimming lesson. I think I might treat myself tomorrow morning to some shopping time by myself tomorrow morning ;)

Before I ramble about what has been happening around my house, I want to remind you all again about the "Template 2 Treasure" crop tonight at 9pm EST! Cheryl is featuring her "Open Meadow" kit which is available for 25% off until midnight tonight. And for just attending the crop, you will receive a brand new template to create your layout for the challenge. Once you have completed that layout, you will receive another template as a posting bonus. OR, if you create a layout with the template AND the "Open Meadow" you will receive the posting bonus template AND the "Open Meadow Bragbook Album" for FREE!!! Your layouts for this challenge must be posted HERE by midnight EST Thursday, January 24th. Og, but wait...there's MORE (lol - do I sound like an info-mercial here ;) )...
anyone posting pics of their completed "Open Meadows 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) gets another brand new brag book album FREE made from one of Cheryl's other kits. You'll have until February 7th at midnight (the night before the next "Template 2 Treasure" crop) to complete your altered album project in order to receive your 2nd album free. Post your photos in the Template 2 Treasure Gallery. Let's get creative and see what we can come up with!!
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Ok, now a little about my past 24-hours :)
Last night just added to the length of the week for me. A little before 5pm last night, Drew came down with the stomach flu. Yucky! I thought we were all past that junk since it went through our family the week before Christmas, but it looks like it might be revisiting us. *cringe* Thankfully around midnight he was finally feeling good enough to get some sleep. Now we are just holding our breath to see when the rest of us come down with the junk Drew had last night! Then Zach woke up about 4:30am this morning struggling to breath. Looks like the poor kid has croup again (he has had this at least 3 times before in his 14 months in this world). So he and I spent some time outside breathing in the COLD (less than 20 degrees F) air trying to get his airway to relax and then also some time in the bathroom with the hot shower going to breath in some steam. Thankfully about 6am it had relaxed enough that he could get back to sleep. Of course, since Drew was feeling so much better he came bouncing in around 8am to wake us back up. But that was good so I could call the doctor to get Zach in. She put him on steriods for 5 days to help him get over this junk hopefully. And of course during the fun even I had with the sick kids, my hubby missed most of it since he had his annual shareholder meeting at work and didn't get home until pretty late.

Anyway...I guess I need to go look at getting dinner started. I think we will have enchillada's since that is a pretty easy meal and one we haven't had for awhile. Talk to you all tomorrow - which should be your last day for a little while of listening to me ramble. *big cheer goes up* ;) We should have a guest hostess for your starting on Sunday, so don't forget to drop by to see who it is!

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Thursday Already?

My Wednesday morning was spent keeping my oldest occupied with school work since I had decided to keep him home because of his behavior on Monday. So instead of getting to spend his morning with friends at school working on his winter art fair project, and seeing the animals the zoo brought for "Animal Encounters" (something they have one time every other month- and the thing I think he was the most upset about missing), he sat with me and we worked on his handwriting and letter sounds. Not nearly as much fun and hopefully it will make him stop and think before he acts the way he did on Monday. I know, I'm a MEAN Mommy - Drew has made sure to let me know that more than once over the past couple of days.

This means that I also didn't get my usual morning time to myself while Drew is at school and Zach takes a nap. Having missed this time on Monday and now today, that has put me WAY behind on things around the house. And it also cut into my daily computer time. So I won't bore you any more and get down to what I have to share with you today. :)

Michaele Burkhart has created another lovely SticKit that I am able to share with all of you. This time with Linda Cumberlands's "Thankful" kit (available HERE) You can grab the SticKit HERE (Sorry, it has been over 24-hours and this link has expired.)

If you missed out on the Sketch by Design crop at TSG tonight, do not fear!! You still have time to participate. You need to use this sketch
and create a layout using Georgia's "Peggy's Rose" Kit (available HERE for $2 until Jan 18th!) Then post your layout HERE by next Wednesday, January 23rd to receive the posting bonus!

Don't forget to mark your calendar for the "Templates 2 Treasures" crop this Friday, January 18th at 9pm EST. See all the information HERE

Ok, I need to get myself off to bed since I have to take Drew to swimming lessons tomorrow morning. Bye for now!

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Did it again!

I missed a day of blogging again. SHAME on me!!!

Since it is after midnight here, I will just leave you with this great ad Michelle created
In honor of Michelle's 33rd birthday, all her items in the TSG Store are 33% off!! See them all HERE!

And - HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MICHELLE!!!

Monday, January 14, 2008

Manic Monday

I hope you all had a better Monday than I did! I dropped my oldest off at school around 9am...went to Target to do some shopping and got a call a little before 9:30 as I was headed toward the check-out. UGH! I had to ditch my cart and go pick Drew up from school with him right in the midst of a HUGE fit. That boy is going to put me in the funny farm!

Enough about that :) The super talented Michelle Rodriguez was kind enough to share this great craft! This is a great project not just for letters, but with some small adjustments you can make an album for all the Christmas Cards that you get each year and don’t know what to do with! You can grab the instructions HERE

Hope you all enjoy your Tuesday!

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Oh no! It's Me Again!

Yes, I am sorry to say you all are stuck with me yet again. But do not fear, next week you will get the pleasure of having a different hostess! I only hope I haven't run you all off before then :)

So is anyone else out there doing the "Project 365"? I know Gill said she is. I would love to know if you are. We can could all cheer each other along the journey. Not that there are outstanding pictures there (something I hope will improve with this project), but you can see mine HERE.

I'm going to make this another short entry, but before I go I wanted to remind all of you of Cheryl's "Easy as 1,2,3 Crop" which is tomorrow - Monday, January 14th at 2pm EST!! You can see all the information for this crop HERE
Here's how the crop works.
1) You purchase Cheryl's featured kit to use to make your layout.
2) Cheryl gives you a NICE coordinating freebie during the crop.
3) Once your layout is posted by the deadline, you get either an Add On that coordinates with the featured kit OR a totally brand new kit comparable in size to the kit you'll purchase for this crop.
This months featured kit is "A Fresh Start" Available HERE for only $2.95!
Then after you post your layout for the challenge, you will receive this for FREE "A Fresh Start in Blue"
And if you are unable to attend the crop, do not fear! The Awesome Mrs. Cheryl has said that as long as you purchase the featured kit, complete the challenge with it and post it in the correct gallery, you will receive the posting bonus AND the crop freebie! What a gal!!

Ok, I have a few things I need to finish before heading off to bed. Hope everyone has a good Monday.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Oops!

I completely missed bloging on Friday! Tonight - last night actually I guess it would be now....we will just say Friday evening was the monthly Ladies' Scrapbook & Craft Night at my church. So from 6pm (actually more like 7:30pm since I had some erronds to run first) til around midnight I was enjoying a night chatting with the gals. I enjoy these monthly nights out so much! And since I missed last month (my parents were in town), it made it even nicer to get out tonight.

Tomorrow...or rather today...I need to run to the grocery store to pick up a few things, my hubby is going to purchase all the closet organization things, laundry awaits me, as well as some other items...SO I think I best be heading off to bed (since it is 1:40am Saturday here). Which means I will spare you my ramblings today (since I'm not sure I will be able to get back around here today), and leave you with a lovely SticKit created by Michaele Burkhart with Kristina Messier's "Fun Fair" kit (Elments available HERE and papers HERE). So grab it HERE (sorry, this link has expired) - and remember it will only be available for 24-hours from now!

Oh, and have you all seen the great redesign Cheryl has been working on over at TSG??!!

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Check Out What's Happening

Lots of things going on around TSG!!

Did you check out the January Bingo game in the forum? You just need to choose 25 numbers between 1 and 60 and PM your list to jsiebenlist at TSG by midnight Saturday, January 12th! Joni will post one word each day starting Sunday, January 13th in THIS thread.

And don't forget the Paper Patch Crop with Michelle tonight at 9pm EST at TSG!! Purchase part I of "Ragan's Hope" (14 papers & 1 SticKit) for only $2.00 before midnight tonight!! Then complete the challenge (create & post a LO using the SticKit - HOW SIMPLE!!) and receive Part II (which is all the elements) of "Ragan's Hope" for FREE!! See all the information HERE
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Today my oldest started back to swimming lessons. So far he had 16 lessons and is now able to stick his face in the water without freeking out on us. In fact, at the end of the last session (before Christmas), he was diving in from his knees and did a short backfloat by himself. He had an OUTSTANDING teacher during the last 8 week session, but we were unable to get the same teacher this time since we are limited on when it fits in our schedule to take him. So we will see how these 8 sessions go with a new teacher. The other thing that was great during the last 8 weeks was that he ended up having private sessions and all for the normal price of group sessions since they didn't have anyone else sign-up for the time. This time he has 2 other younger kids in with him. I was just thankful that he seemed to listen pretty well to the teacher. He was a little apprehensive about a couple of the things he was doing well before, but I figure that has been because of the 3 weeks off.

Our new TV was also delivered today. Problem was the surround sound system we received was the wrong one. Which means we now have FedEx coming to pick it back up tomorrow. The thing my hubby really isn't happy with is the fact that the correct one is now backordered and they don't know when they will be getting them back in for sure. So tonight will be spent taking down the old equipment and entertainment center and putting the new center and TV up. We also need to get to HomeDepot to buy our closet organization stuff before their sale ends on Sunday.

That is about it from here for now. Don't forget about the Bingo Game and the Paper Patch Crop!!

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Where Did Wednesday Go??

Goodness! I completely forgot about dropping by here earlier today. I am still trying to recover from a lack of sleep from the storms we had. After I post the last entry, I was attempted to get a little sleep when a couple of storms decided to move a closer to us than the previous ones had. So from about 3am to almost 4am Tuesday morning we spent time in our downstairs bathroom as the house popped and creaked from the strong winds outside. The boys hung out in the tub, just in case we needed to take cover. Thankfully those 2 tornadoes decided to go a little further north too. The only damage from wind that I saw in our neighborhood is one of the neighbors trees split down both sides and some trash cans were blown over. Thankfully Drew didn't have school on Tuesday because he was VERY cranky! He still wasn't caught up today and I think was part of the reason (along with trying to get back in the routine of going to school) I had to go pick him up from preschool early. He had shoved 3 kids and when taken to the office, he crawled under the chairs and stayed there screaming. I really think I will have a full head of grey hair before I am 35 from this child! I did have to get up and go to a doctor's appointment though. I went to see an ENT (ear,nose & throat specialist) to discuss having my tonsils removed. He said he couldn't believe I hadn't had them removed long ago. Then he went on and on about how this would be very painful and the worst sore throat I had ever had. Now isn't that reasuring! *laugh* So right now I am scheuled to have my tonsils removed bright and early Saturday, March 15th. That is if I don't change my mind between now and then :) At least it would mean a week of rest for me after, plus he says I will probably loose 10-15 pounds since I won't be able to eat hardly anything during that week ;)

Before I head out of here for today....
Did you guys see that the January Bingo game at TSG should be starting soon? Make sure to keep an eye on the forum HERE to see when the word list to pick from is posted!! The winner this month will receive Cheryl McCain's "Dots of Fun" kit

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Turbulent Tuesday

Actually I guess that is more a turbulent Monday....but it is continuing into Tuesday :)

WOW! What a night we have had in SW Missouri!! We spent the evening into early Tuesday morning in our basement waiting out storm after storm. They have just kept coming in waves through our area for the last 7+ hours (starting before 5pm Monday evening) and are suppose to continue until about 5am today (Tuesday). Once again I have been very thankful to have a basement to take refuge in. I am such a fraidy cat when it comes to these sorts of storms. There have been many tornado touch downs all around us leaving a good amount of damage along with golf ball to baseball size hail. They just announced on the news that there have been 2 confirmed fatality and over a dozen injured that have been taken to the local hospitals. The first storm that went through was recorded as having 106 mph winds in an area about 2 hours northeast of us! My nerves are pretty frazzled :)

Besides all the excitement of the storms, it was a pretty normal, uneventful day. Just taking Drew to and from school and a trip to SAMS.

In TSG News...make sure you don't miss out on some of the great challenges:

Box of Dreams: Don't miss out on the sale price of only $2 for Georgia's "New Year Jewels" kit!

January Color Challenge (here is the color swatch for you)
January Snap a Masterpiece Challenge: create a LO with a photo of an object from outside. It can be anything at all as long as it was taken outside. Try looking around and seeing what you think would make a great photo.

January Daily Download Challenge: create and post an emerging layout in the Daily Download Gallery each week to earn extra pieces of Krismess' awesome celebration kit, "New Year"!

ABC Challenge: Letter - C, Topic - Children (child), Optional Element - chalked edges

January Scraplift Challenge: This month you are scaplifting a beautiful LO created by one of the TSG Designers, Flow. See her LO "Peder" HERE for your inspiration.

Blueprints of My Garden: See this month's blueprint to follow HERE

And to help you keep track of all the wonderful challenges & crops at TSG, why not join in the "Keeping It Straight Challenge" and earn some goodies too!!

Whew!!! That should keep you all busy for awhile! :) And what a great way to help you scrap all those holiday photos! Ok, since the weather seems that it should be settling down to just strong thunderstorms here in the next 30 minutes or so, I think I will go start getting ready for bed. Talk to you all tomororw and I hope any that might be in the path of these storms stays safe!

Monday, January 7, 2008

Back to Monday

It is so good to hear that I am not the only one out there that had their Christmas tree still up after the beginning of the New Year. I have never had the chance to have a real tree since my mom was allergic to them and now my hubby is. I had always hoped that when I was married and had kids of my own we would be able to go pick-out and cut down our tree each year, but that just wasn’t ment to be :)

It was a gorgeous day yesterday in southwest Missouri with the temperature in the high-60’s. Hard for me to believe that just about a year ago we were having a record breaking ice storm that left almost 90% of our city without power! Since I have a sick kiddo (nothing major just a yucky old cold), my hubby and I took turns going to church – John in the morning so he could run the video equipment and me in the evening to work with the evening youth program. I’m not really too sure where my day when – lol! John put our new TV stand together, and I did some paperwork that I needed for church last night.

Have you all heard about “Project 365”? Well, I have decided to give it a go this year (I'm using Photoblog to keep it all organized, but know others that are using Flickr). What a perfect way to have plenty of pictures to scrapbook to remember our year! I can’t wait to create a layout at the end of the year feature my pictures. I’m hoping it will help me to make sure to capture those every day moments. I have a habit, now that the boys are getting older, of just photographing the bigger events in our life. It’s not too late for you to join in! Better to just miss a few days than the whole year. If you do start to join this, I would love if you share the link to your daily photos!

Other than the “Project 365”, the other things I would like to achieve this year (I just don’t get into calling them resolutions…I always seem to fail horribly at those) is to organize my house, take the time to complete a couple scrapbook pages a month, and loose the last 20-25 pounds I need to before my 15 year class reunion at the end of June. I started Weight Watchers last June and did really well at it until about October (even lost 26 pounds)…then the holiday season hit. *cringe* I am just thankfully I only put about 3 of those pounds back on enjoying all the Christmas goodies. My biggest thing that I need to work on is exercise. I know I get some with keeping up with the boys, but I also know I need to make myself set aside time to put our elliptical machine or treadmill to good use. Did you guys make any lists of things to do this year?

Things are starting back up around The Scrapping Garden. Now that the holiday season has passed on, don’t forget to check out the “Petals of Wisdom Challenge” which starts tomorrow and the Paper Patch Crop which is scheduled for 9pm EST on Thursday, Jan 10th.

Also, do you all know about “Plant Your Comments and Bloom” at TSG? As you “plant” your comments in the TSG forum or gallery you start working towards different goodies. Make sure you check out the link and start “planting” those comments!! And don’t forget, when you reach one of the levels to post back in the thread in the TSG forum to receive your goodies!

And with that, I bid you farewell for today. Off to my day of shuttling Drew to and from school and a trip to SAMS to restock the pantry shelves after the holidays. Hope you all have a Marvelous Monday! :)

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Get it While You Can!

I’m very sad to see that TSG Designer, Kat, will be “hanging up her designing tools” this month. :( Kat announced last night in the TSG forums that January will be her last month to have products in the TSG store. So if you haven’t grabbed any of her great kits, grab them now HERE!!! We understand your reasons, for leaving the designing world, Kat, but I hope you know you will be greatly missed. *HUGS* I still expect to see ya around TSG though! I also hope you enjoy your time doing those “touchy-feely kind” of crafts ;) And make good use of your new Cricut machine!

I hope you all enjoyed getting to know Gill and her family this past week. Doesn’t she have some of the cutest kids! And the goodies that were handed out all week…WOW, thanks SO much Karen!!

Now you are all stuck with me again. I know, what a let down :) I need to go see if I can dig something up for you all this week! I also need to actually remember to blog on here this week!! I have really been neglecting my own blog since before Christmas, so I hope to do better on here.

We are finally getting back to our “normal” routine around here. Well, that is minus the fact that we have decided to gut our closets and redesign the shelf systems in all of them! Here we haven’t even completely finished the remodeling we started last February (painting a good portion of our main floor, installing hardwood and tile flooring, and installing new counters and sink in the kitchen). I still need to get around to the touch-up painting where the walls got banged up with the floor instillation. My hubby also decided last week that we needed a new TV in our living room. We will soon (it is ordered and due to arrive this Friday) the proud owners of a 50” plasma TV as well as a surround sound system. *rolls eyes* Boys and their toys! Of course the new TV doesn’t fit in our current entertainment center (thankfully since I never really did like the one we have), so we spent the weekend deciding on a TV stand. Not an easy task since my hubby and I often have very different opinions ;)

I FINALLY got my Christmas tree taken down yesterday! I must admit that I am one of those people that LOVES to put up a tree, but HATES taking it down! :) It has gotten better since I received a new, pre-lit tree for my birthday in 2006. The thing I disliked the most was fighting with the strands of lights. Am I the only one that didn’t take their tree down the day after Christmas?? We had friends over for New Year’s Eve and they thought it was funny that our tree was still up.

Well, I will stop rambling for now and let you get back to enjoying your Sunday.

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Time to bid you farewell....

Well for now anyway! Thank you everyone for your kind words about today. It was not as bad as i imagined it would be!
So my week with you has come to an end. The new year is well and truly under way and life for most of us is returning to some normality. I would like to thank you for taking this small journey with me and looking into my busy life.
I have no doubt i will be back again in the future but for now i will leave you with a small anecdote from my little man over Christmas...

We are in the car and a little voice pipes up,
" Mum!"
I curtly replied " Yes baby ", I am driving and concentrating on the road so my mind is not fully on my son's important statement.....
"Mum, i do not think Santa should give gifts to tourists!" I think to myself oh bless he thinks Santa will have trouble keeping track of all the tourists in the world.
I ask, " Why not Son?" Expecting the pre thought answer to come out he replies " Well Mum, tourists blow people up, it's not right if they get presents too!"
Okay so my darling offspring meant to say terrorists!!! Man i nearly put the car in a ditch i laughed so hard. Poor little guy had to wait ages for me to explain my reaction!!

I thank you again for your time spent with me, and leave you all with a parting gift...You can get it here (Sorry, this link has expired). Thanks again to Karen for all her help with the weeks giveaways.

Friday, January 4, 2008

Late Post. :S

Sorry all for the delay in todays post. Since we are officially into the swing of things i took the kids to their swimming lesson! We have just got back, so all the swim kits are in the wash with the school uniforms and i am now ready to sit and take some time for me!
I can't believe how quickly this week with you all has passed by and that tomorrow is my last day.
We are off to Kent tomorrow to visit my husbands mother. Not something i am overly looking forward to as relations are somewhat strained with her, but at least it gets it out of the way. I am practising my false smile as i type!! We are lucky in that some very good friends of ours live about 5 mins away from her so we can go there before leaving, for a coffee and to calm down before the drive home!! Yes things are that bad LOL. Even the kids are sulking! haha if i have to suffer so do they!

I am sure i am not the only person in the world with this sort of problem so i will stop rambling about it now!

We are about to have some Pizza now so i will leave you with a parting gift and when i post tomorrow i will let you know how delightful my day has been hahaha!!!

You gift for today is here (link has expired).

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Brrr ...So cold!!

It is bitterly cold here in England at the moment :( I am sure most of you that live in real cold countries will think me a wimp LOL but it is freezing!! I sent the kids to school as wrapped up as they would let me hehe!! We are meant to be expecting snow but i don't think it will happen!!
It was good to go back to work today, seeing all the kids and hearing about all the nice things that Father Christmas bought them, but i still wish i had been off till next Monday!!

So tonight i have to do some college work, a bit of logging and some write ups and a case study!! Still let's start as i meant to go on :).
Of course it will be easier if it snows and i can't get out of the village tomorrow haha!!
I swear at some point i will have time to scrap christmas and play on the xbox!!

So today is a short post i am afraid everyone or the kids and Rich will go hungry and i will be rambling for ages :), I will spare you till Saturday ;).

Here is the link for todays gift (link has expired). I hope you enjoy :) It is from Karens new kit: Manly.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Holidays are nearly over.

Well here inthe UK most people went back to work today and the kids are all back to school tomorrow.
Today has been spent chilling out and Rachel went to get her hair cut. She has had a "little girls" style forever so she had layers put in and the front feathered. She looks quite adult now!



Before the hair cut:


After the haircut ..


So i spent today running round making sure school bags are ready, p.e kits are packed, luch boxes and water bottles are found and shoes are clean! The joys of parenthood!!

So with everything ready to go we are now just hanging out and making the most of the quiet!

It has been real nice just being able to mooch around the Scrapping Garden today. Some of the christmas layouts have been amazing and it sure looks like everyone had a good time.

There is a wonderful kit as the Daily Downlaod this month. Please check it out HERE.

I am now off to make dinner for the kids and Rich' so i will leave you with todays little gift. You can get it here (link has expired).

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Happy New Year

Well welcome to 2008 everybody :). I hope you all had a wonderful time however you saw in the new year.

We saw the night in by sitting around with some wine and chatting!

Today has been spent with my poor hubby having to work from 8 -6 but i had friends over to celebrate and swap some more presents with the children!

My Dad sent a Christmas pudding for us all to eat (this thing is HUGE!!) so i took the opportunity to prove we ate it:

So it has been a really quite new year for us but a very pleasant one non the less :).

So here is another small gift to welcome you into 2008. You can get it here (link has expired).

Oh i forgot so i am adding this on:
Snickerdoodles Recipe :)
Ingredients:

175g butter softened,
225g sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
300g plain flour
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Coating:
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

  1. Preheat oven 200 degrees c / 400 Degrees F/Gas mark 6
  2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, beat in egg and vanilla. Sift flour, cream of tartar and bicarbonate of soda together and blend in butter to form a soft dough.
  3. Break off pieces of dough the sixe of a small walnut and roll into balls. Mix the sugar and cinnamon and roll each ball into the cinnamon sugar. Arrange on a baking sheet, allowing room for the cookies to spread.
  4. Bake until pale golden, about 8 - 10 mins. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Eat and enjoy :)