Gotta Love Summer!

I am really excited about summer coming! There is nothing better than returning home after work, hopping into my bathing suit, and heading for my pool. I have been know to fall asleep on my float, sometimes for hours at a time! I often say, if only someone would invent a WATERPROOF laptop, my life would be complete ... lol. Well, not really. I would need to relocate to a place that was warm and sunny year 'round. I feel God made a mistake when he "delivered" me to the northeast!

Beside lounging in the pool, I love to garden. For most of my life, I have had a brown thumb, but with years of "learning", it seems to have turned around. Last fall, we took down several pine trees that had been planted by the former owner of my house. The roots were beginning to grow into my pool area ... HEAVEN forbid! So now, I have a new garden, where I am planting perennials, and sun on my pool from sunup to sundown.

I also like to barbecue in the summer, too. As far as the rest of the year, I am not really sure why I have a kitchen ... all I really need is a microwave and a phone for take-out! Seems, though, I am the exception. Do you know that EVERY house I looked at when searching for my current home had a kitchen?

I have a super recipe for grilled salmon. It involves some marinating, using of all things, chardonnay. A few extra little spices and I am in heaven. My favorite food to go with it is "grilled" sweet potatoes and some green beans from my garden. MMMMM!

If you are interested in my DESIGNING ...I have started work on a new kit named
SCARLET. I thought it would be a nice idea to offer you some FREEBIES from the kit, this week on TSG Blog. I decided against previewing, so you can be surprised when you open the zip.

So, you can DOWNLOAD freebie1, here; but grab it today for tomorrow it will be gone! Enjoy (sorry, link has expired)

I am heading out to my pool now ... see ya' tomorrow!

"They Say It's YOUR Birthday" ...

"it's my birthday, too, yeah" .. Well, not really, but just singing that ol' Lennon and McCartney tune in my head.

Although, it is not MY birthday, we are celebrating TSG's second birthday. This week has been full of SALES, fun crops, and all kinds of challenges.

Tonight, at 9pm, I am hosting a special IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY chat. I designed a kit, which is on sale in my store, NOW FOR ONLY $2.00!!!! It is full of everything you need to scrap those birthday memories, and is appropriate for any age group.
Like our celebration here this week, the kit is bright, cheery, and fun-filled! AND, I have a SUPER challenge that goes along with it.

I am really looking forward to seeing your birthday celebration layouts in the special gallery ... AND, a poll will be posted to choose the FAVORITE .. AND the winner will receive either my new kit, OR a coupon for my store is you have already purchased IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! So how can you loose???????

Today, as an "early" preview of goodies to come ... if you are able to attend my chat, is a QP for you. Enjoy!

DOWNLOAD HERE
(link has expired)

TSG Birthday Chat Schedule

(all times are EST)

Wednesday May 21st -
11:00 AM - Scrap your best year crop - MickeyB
9:00 PM - Quickpage Swap/Crop - Lynn R.
10:00 PM - Sketch by Design - Michelle R.

Thursday May 22nd -
1:00 PM - ACDSee Chat
2:00 PM - Scrapbooking your Faith - April
8:00 PM - Find of the Day - Joni & Shelby

Friday May 23rd -
8:00 PM - Elements Challenge - Pammy

Saturday May 24th -
9:00 PM - Scrapbooking your Faith - April

Sunday May 25th -
10:00 AM - Your Year in Music - Sweetie
9:00 PM - Celebrating YOUR Birthday - Marsha

Monday May 26th -
8:00 PM - My year and the way it was - Tina

Tuesday May 27th -
8:00 PM - Layout Crop - Pammy
9:00 PM - Birthday Carnival - Michelle R.
10:00 PM - It's A Birthday Blast - Dyanna

Don't Miss the SALES!!!

Make sure to check out the TSG Store for all the GREAT sales going on right now in honor of TSG's turning 2!
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Join us in celebrating TSG's 2nd Birthday!For one week only all TSG Kit Club subscriptions are on sale for 30% off! Add this to our newly reduced prices and you've got one whopper of a deal!While you're in the store don't forget that all our digital kits are 30% as well. Sale ends May 27th at midnight!

Purchase a 1 month subscription to the TSG Kit club and receive 2 beautiful coordinating kits as well as templates, quickpage albums, and goodies from our Creative Team!
Regular price: $8.00 Sale price: $5.60 (save 30%)

Purchase a 3 month subscription to the TSG Kit club and each month receive 2 beautiful coordinating kits as well as templates, quickpage albums, and goodies from our Creative Team! Regular price: $24.00 Sale price: $16.80 (save 30%)

Purchase an annual subscription to the TSG Kit club and each month receive 2 beautiful coordinating kits as well as templates, quickpage albums, and goodies from our Creative Team!
Regular price: $52.00 Sale price: $36.40 (save 30%)

Happy Cinco de Mayo

I can't say that I am even a fraction Mexican (Irish, English & American Indian for the most part)... but I do enjoy Mexican food :) I would LOVE to go enjoy the evening with some Mexican food tonight, but it is near impossible to get into our favorite one here in town on Cinco de Mayo. So we will probably just be stuck at home eating my non-authentic enchilladas for tonight. I will share the super simple recipe I use here in a minute.

Before I get to the recipe though, I thought I would share what the boys and I did this morning. I got the wild idea yesterday, that since today was suppose to be a gorgeous 75 degree day (before the rest of the week is filled with rain), that we needed to make a trip to our local zoo. Since my hubby couldn't get off work on a Monday morning, I loaded up the boys, along with their wagon, and headed to the north side of our town. Our little zoo is home to some 500 animals representing 170 species - so certainly not huge like the St. Louis Zoo where my boys have been to in the past. Upon arriving, my oldest son requested we start with the giraffes which was fine by me since they are one of my favorites. I think they ended up being his favorites too since we arrived just in time to feed them some of their special crackers

My youngest son's favorite part (I'm guess since he doesn't talk real well yet...at least not in a language anyone can understand) was probably a tie between some lizard in the reptile house (forgot to see what the name of it was) that he kept running back to see. He LOVED how it would jump at the window tryig to get him. He laughed and squealed every time. Do to lots of laughing and squealing I would say he also really enjoyed the goats MY favorite part was having our wonderful wagon with us

I have NO idea what I would have done without it! Every time Zach (my youngest - 20 months old) was out of it, he was running one direction while Drew (my oldest - 4.5 years old) was headed in the opposite direction. All in all I think they had a pretty fun morning. In fact, Drew was just looking at the map of the zoo, "So I can plan what I want to see first next time!"

I must share my VERY favorite part of our day so far though! After we got back home and had finished lunch, the boys and I were sharing a chocolate frosty from Wendy's restaurant when Zach looked at me and says "poo-poo" and I asked if need to go. He nodded his head and ran off to the bathroom and SURE ENOUGH he actually went! This is a HUGE thing since he is 20 months old and we have never really done a much potty training with him yet (other than set his little potty out in the bathroom)...especially since our oldest didn't potty train until he was 3.5 yrs. Needless to say I was COMPLETELY floored that he did that! I'm not expecting this to happen much at all right now, but I am very excited that he is showing interest all on his own. :) Sorry if that was a little too much info for you :)

Hmmm...now I am trying to think of how to nicely transition from that "too much information" to the recipe I was going to share with you. *laugh* Since I can't think of a good way of doing it, I will just plundge right in.

Super Simple Enchiladas

Ingredients:
1 pound of hamburger
2 cups of Monterey Jack shredded cheese (I actually prefer Colby Jack with just a little extra cheddar)
1 package of flour tortillas
1/2 onion - chopped
3 cups enchilada sauce (we like Old El Paso - Mild brand...I buy one 10 ounce and one 14 ounce can)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brown hamburger and onion. Drain. Mix in the 10 oz can of enchilada sauce and about 1/2 c to 3/4 c of the cheese. Spread some of the mix on a tortilla shell and roll. Spray 9x13 casserole dish with vegetable oil and place rolled shell in the dish. Repeat with remaining shells - lining the rolled shells up across the dish. Poor remaining exchilada sauce (I use the 14 oz can for this) over the top of the rolled shells. Cover with remaining cheese and bake for 35 minutes.

It's THAT simple!!

I usually make some rice and green beans to round out the meal for us. I am known for my lack of cooking skills, so if I can do this, ANYONE can :)

How Did You Spend NSD?

I hope everyone had a great NSD surfing around digi world. :) I also hope that you saved some money to catch the deals that will be coming at TSG at the end of the month as we celebrate our 2nd birthday! You had to pick and choose of where to visit on NSD, but during the week of May 21st-27th you won't have to pick and choose! You will have the chance to catch all the GREAT crops and deals going on at TSG and have a relaxing & fun time with us. So make sure to mark your calendar!!

Have you checked out the May issue of the TSG Newsletter? You can check it out HERE


You won't want to miss out on this issue! Get a chance to put a face to a name for each of the TSG Team...and grab some great goodies from some of the TSG Team.

Have you been keeping an eye on the Petal Pushers Contest? There are already some GREAT layouts in the Gallery,so make sure to go check them out! Voting with start very soon. There are some VERY talented individuals who are competing for a spot on the TSG CT Team.

FINALLY A NEW POST!!!

I am finally feeling some better. I am still very tired but am feeling better. Now JP is getting sick and my DH is getting it again!!

Cher, I send my love and prayers! I am so sorry for what is happening to you. If I was there I would take care of you and help you. I have had pain make me sick before too. My heart goes out to you! I wish there was something I could do to help. I will pray that God will heal you quickly and that he gives you the strength to cope in the meantime. Consider that you have been given a Bear Hug!!

I finally have a wonderful freebie for you. A quickpage from one of my Creative Team Members. Her name is Chantal and she is very talented! I am very proud to have her on my team!

Here is a layout I made with her quickpage. It is a layout of the Living Last Supper. My nephew was Jesus. He was the only person that attends his church that has long enough hair! lol
He is very handsome and a fine Jesus if I dont say so myself!. Here is the qp and the link for it.


Here is the link for your freebie! (Sorry, this link has expired)

I hope you enjoy this QP as much as I have. Please make sure to leave a little love for Chantal and I will make sure she gets it.

Feel free to post your layouts using this beautiful qp in my designer gallery at The Scrapping Garden. I would love for you to share your layout with me so I can give you some love.

A remindar too that Blueprint of my Garden is still going on. I would love for you all to participate in it. This has been one of my favorite challenges before I decided to fill in for Linda. I learned so much about layout construction and how to not make it look to cluttered or detracting from the photo. The link to this awesome challenge is here: http://www.scrappinggarden.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3699

God Bless and I definitely will write again tomorrow! I Promise!! Have a wonderful Evening! Hugs and Happy Scrapping!!