Days 2 and 3

Well I felt even worse on Sunday. I think I slept most of the day, and then watched old World War II movies the rest! Didn't get anything done at all. I had made a whole list of things to do this week and I left it at work!!!!

Monday I was feeling a little better. Grandma came over, and so did Mike, Vesna and the nieces. So we all went to watch the little Memorial Day Parade on Bergenline, which is so sad. Hardly anyone comes out for these things and there's pretty much just the school bands, cheerleaders, some politicians and the recreation department in them. They were much bigger when I was in girl scouts and we used to march.

We went to see Da Vinci Code last night, which I thought was OK. Pretty much right out of the book, but condensed. One thing I didn't like about the book was that it refers to so much visual stuff - like paintings and symbols, and unless you look them up, you have no idea what he was talking about. So the movie made sense of some things for me. I have to completely agree with this review from the New York Times...

To their credit the director and his screenwriter, Akiva Goldsman (who collaborated with Mr. Howard on "Cinderella Man" and "A Beautiful Mind"), have streamlined Mr. Brown's story and refrained from trying to capture his, um, prose style. "Almost inconceivably, the gun into which she was now staring was clutched in the pale hand of an enormous albino with long white hair." Such language — note the exquisite "almost" and the fastidious tucking of the "which" after the preposition — can live only on the page.

That kind of writing made me crazy as I read the book. I just wanted to get out my red pen when I was reading it. So in that sense, I prefer the movie!

Mike put in my air conditioner for me last night - so that meant I didn't want to get out of bed today. I'm so behind on my plans for getting things done. I really want to get this mess sorted out, but it's going nowhere! And I want to get out of the house. Should have a review of X-Men for ya later!

Poker anyone?

I've told you all that mom is a creative person, but so is my brother Mike. Look what he's been up too...



He's built 2 of these so far and he's going to try to sell them.

Vacation Day 1

I suffer from post-traumatic sinus disorder. Every time I get some time off - even in school after finals - I get a sinus infection. So I've been loading up all day on meds trying to fight this off so it doesn't ruin my week off!

Today was pretty quiet, in between long antihistimine induced naps. Taylor and Kylie came to visit. And Rocky is here for the weekend. Kylie looks bigger ever time I see her. Now she can grab her toes and she bit me with her two little teeth too! Good thing she's cute!

Mom's also watching Corinne, my 11 year old cousin, and we played Mario Race Carts on her game cube. Pretty fun. I haven't even unpacked my playstation 2 since I've been here, but I still kicked some butt!!!

I also finished A Million Little Pieces and started another book, Little Earthquates by Jennifer Weiner. Tori fans would be interested to know the picture on the cover is just red hair. I wonder if there's a connection there.

Now I'm just waiting for some files to download to burn cds. I was showing Corinne how light scribe works and she was impressed, well and she didn't want to go to bed. Hee!

Memorial Day Weekend Sale

For the kickoff of summer, I put a few of my older summery kits on sale. Playa, Cool Breeze, and Summer's Coming are all 50% off.

It's almost here

My vacation is just hours away!!! Woohoo! I can't wait. Now I just need to sit through holiday traffic and get through one more shift at work and it's 10 days for me!

I barely slept at all last night. I was up reading A Million Little Pieces. I got the book before the whole James Frey scandal and finally decided to pick it up after I finished Geisha. I don't know how much of it is made up - but the scary thing is that so much of it seems real to me. This could be Matt's story. And in some ways, I'm seeing what it was like in his mind and the fury and madness that goes along with being an addict. I realize more now how bad he was. And the really strange thing is that it was three years ago today that I ended it. I stopped feeling sorry for him a long time ago, but I think I get it him more now. I'm glad I did what I did, because if things went as they did in the book, he would have destroyed me too. And I'm glad he didn't. :)

So that's my deep thought of the day... I've gotten some scrapping done lately. :)
Thanks to everyone for your CC on yesterday's post. I put it up here. I decided to make part of the title orange. Let me know what you think!

Summer SUNsations by Jen, Krista and Jeanine. This kit is soooooo fun!

Meredith Fenwick's Hero Kit from her Urban Spring Colllection

Amy Knepper's Forget Me Not Kit at Scrapdish

Berry Sweet by Jeanine, Rachel, Correen and me at Scrapdish.

And here's the ABC keychain I gave to mom. :) I thought someone had taken it because we couldn't find it anywhere! It would have been much easier to put together if I hadn't used the Xyron laminator. It ate up two sets of the photos! But then I just used the sticky cartridge and it worked ok. Thanks to Sue Bond for the idea!!!!

What do you think?

I need some CC on this. What do you all think. This is my Day in the Life layout for this week's chick life. Shows how BORING I am! LOL!

This should be my day off...

Will and Grace's final episode really made me sad. It made me miss my best friend David, who is my Will and who lives in Missouri. He called me on Sunday and we got to chat, and I told him we have to end up like Jack and Karen, who end up living together off Jack's inheritance from his sugar daddy.

I am almost done with this long stretch at work. I hope I'll be feeling better and not so cranky when it's done. I'm sorry I've been such a drag lately. But thank you all for putting up with me and all your nice emails and comments. :)

My vacation is coming up and I still don't have anything planned yet. Part of me wants to just veg and hide. But I do want to clean up, get some stuff unpacked once and for all, get to the city and finsish up my project.

I stopped by the chat at Scrapartist today - and I won a prize! So did AmyK too! I thought that was pretty cool. I usuually can't make chats with my crazy hours, but they were nice to have a make up chat! :)
Well I'll finally have a few days off coming up. I need to get a lot done. Mom wants t-shirt iron ons for the lodge. There are cd orders, RAKScraps ads to send. I feel so behind!!!!!

Summer Style and some more cool stuff!

I finally got this paper pack done! Some of my night owl friends my remember this one from when it was in the works. :) Summer Style is up at Scrapdish and it's 20% off for the rest of May. I may have some matching elements coming soon.

One of the fun things about making these papers is I used Amy Jo Smith's Touchy Feely Overlays on some of them. I love lots of texture and AJ has made it easy! You can use one or more and play with the blending modes to get cool effects. They are pretty afforable and they are OK for commecial use! You can get them at the Digi Chick or at Amy Jo's site (where she's having a nice sale this weekend).

So I know you'll have lots of summer photos to scrap, so you should check out this awesome kit by Jeanine, Jen and Krista called Summer SUNsations! It has 82 papers and tons of fun elements to play with too!

The news from here

Things are pretty crazy in my hometown!
There was this HUGE fire on my sister's block last night. Pretty scary stuff. I got home last night and could smell the smoke. I was freaked because I could see the trucks near Randi's block but it was all cordoned off. But I ran into one of my friends who was driving around drunk (nice!) and he told me it was a warehouse. I think my sister's house is in one of those pictures.

Then this morning there were crazy storms here. There was even a funnel cloud spotted over Bayonne. That's not something we see around here so that is pretty scary!

Out of the mouths of babes

The title of this page is taken from a conversation with Taylor...

Taylor: Ewwww a bug
Me: That's OK bugs live outside in the yard ...
Taylor: The bug's sad
Me: Why's he sad
Taylor: Bugs don't eat rocks

I want to scrap everything this kid says, even when she's being bratty, because I think she's a riot. I've been around a lot of kids, and none of them were this funny, with the exception of Mikey, but maybe I think that because she's my niece.

Here are some more conversations with Taylor from last weekend...

Taylor: Wait a minute! What happened to Alice? (This was about 4 hours after we turned off the movie that she wasn't watching. So I put it on.)
Uncle Bruce: I don't want to watch Alice.
Taylor: Then you go home!
Uncle Bruce: Alice is on drugs
(Ok so she didn't get that last part but the adults in the room thought it was funny. Also told Taylor that wasn't nice!)


This one is from when I was holding Kylie.
Aunt Lorraine: Can I take Kylie home with me
Taylor: No! Her needs me!

So she can be a brat, but she can also be sweet. And everytime she cracks me up.


BTW, I used Dani B's Doodle Bugs and Correen Silke's Refreshing Citrus, both from SBB, for this LO!

Heehee

I got an email from my crazy uncle called if women rulled the world. Some of the pictures were MEAN, but these cracked me up. That toilet one especially! Now, what I really think needs to be a LAW is there should be two ladies rooms for every men's bathroom at places like stadiums, concert halls, etc. The line at PNC was hugenormous the other night.

Silly putty

Since some of you were wondering, the silly putty is from Easter. It is a tradition for Mikey and me. Mikey is the 14 year old son of my mom's best friend who's like our little brother. We always bring him down to the farm with us. One year my mom gave him a basket before we left and it had silly putty in it. So it kept us busy on an otherwise super boring 2 hour ride to the farm. And since then, he makes sure to bring it along. He has a few of them now, but I was holding on to one and forgot to give it back, so that's why it's still in my purse. :)

I think I can talk about this now

How is it that some things that are just silly bits of TV or books can really get to you? Like reading the end of the last Harry Potter or watching three hours of Grey's Anatomy?

I don't know what made me sadder, watching Doc get put to sleep or poor, poor Denny! Oh, I can't believe they did that! I love Denny.

And poor Izzie! She really need to be tackled there in Denny's room. How did George not stop her! And her break down was just so pathetic, but so real. And I just love how it was Alex who was the one who could snap her out of it. She looked so gorgeous too in her prom dress.

I have been trying so hard not to like Addison, but I really felt for her as Mer and Derek had that fight at the vet and then she had that scene on the bridge. I love that line she said to the chief about how the only people who don't know that Derek loves Meredith are Derek and Meredith.

That scene in the elevator at the end of Sunday night was so great. I read that it was Patrick Dempsey's idea to have them not say anything.

I also really liked the little monologues they had in the chief's office. Can't believe how cold Christina is though. I guess maybe she showed a different color at the end, but it was just weird to see her be so distant toward Burke.

And then of course, Meredith and Derek. They finally broke down. And while I wanted them to be together, it just opens up a whole other can of hurt by sneaking around like that. The end was just like the end of last season, but now with Meredith having to make a choice. And now we'll have to wait a few more months to find out what she's going to do.

Oh and they're moving the show to Thursdays at 9 pm. It's going to be up against my other favorite show, The Office. I'm going to need another VCR.

Got tagged

Gina tagged me!

Five things in my fridge: Leftover chicken from Mom's day, leftover salad from mom's day, leftover sangria from mom's day,
leftover steak from mom's day, leftover fruit from mom's day

Five things in my car: cds, napkins (some used - gross), books that I bought last week and haven't brought in the house yet, a copy of the last Digital Scrapbooking Magazine, charger for my iPod

Five things in your bag: wallet, cellphone, planner, silly putty (for those long car rides), dental floss

Five things on my DVR or video player: Here's what I'm taping this week - the Grey's finale, Scrubs, Lost, Will & Grace, ER

Five things in my wardrobe: Dark blue jeans, lots of black sweaters and tops, khakis, socks with patterns, denim jacket

Some photos from Mom's Day

Here are some photos from Mother's day....

Not sure who was following who around in this one. I think they both may have been following Randi!

Check out Kylie's little ponytail! She's got so much hair now! (Just turned 5 months today!)

And here's the book I gave mom! Everyone loved it and thought it was funny! They all look different because I used a few different alpha sets. Of course I noticed for my own book, the A fell off and it's now an "dvice" book.

Cool news!!!!!

RAKscraps May newsletter has just been released! Our team and Correen did another fabulous job!!! I just love all the layouts from our sponsor team and the gals also have some great articles and tips too! These really just get better every month!


I'm also so excited that we now have Melinda's super cool digital craft templates available at Scrapdish! You can see them here. So if you missed one of Melinda's Digicraft Chats, you can get them now and get crafty!

I need some balance!

I finally got caught up on my Chick's Life LO...

I used Jessica Bolton's Delight in Photography kit (I love her stuff!). The theme was balance, which was a pretty timely topic with all the craziness that's been going on!

Depeche Mode, Greys and a thank you

I just have to say you all brought me to tears with your comments on my last post! You are all so sweet to me and have helped cheer me up so much!

I have to say I didn't know how I could sleep last night after watching Grey's!!!! I knew what happened at the end as soon as I heard those gunshots. I really wanted to smack Izzy too.

The Depeche Mode concert was pretty cool. We saw them at PNC Arts Center, which I like because you can get tickets cheap and sit on the lawn, but bad because all the drunkies and stoners sit on the lawn too and they like to fight and spill beer on you. (Krista you know what I'm talking about!) I'm not sure if it's a Jersey thing or what, but people are nuts!(I'll get to more on this later)

They played a bunch of songs from Violator and Songs of Faith and Devotion, which are my faves, and some newer stuff too - some good, some boring. (Isn't that always the way when you can't sing along!) I was just suprised by how much older they looked. You know, it's not like the Stones - I expect them to look the way they do. Martin had on this weird spikey hat thing, and David had all this pancake make up on. But I still love how he dances. Reminded me of being in high school - even saw some high school friends there - when I first saw them. (I can't remember if this was the 3rd or 4th time I saw them.) So then when they showed all the people in the audience in the front row on the big screens - they all looked old too. So I guess its not just me!

Well anyway, David still kicks ass and I love his voice. But I was kind of annoyed that he didn't sing any of the choruses. He kept pointing the mic at the audience - and when you're out on the lawn you can't hear that, so all I could hear was Randi singing along and, well, I can hear that in the car! LOL! Plus, there were some songs I didn't know so I had no idea what the chorus was to those at all and now I still don't! I wanted to heard Dave Gahan singing "Words are very unnecessary. They can only do harm"!!!! Not my sis and the drunks!

Speaking of drunks, one of them snuggled up to Khoder and asked him if he had any weed. It was a riot. And normally Khoder would have KILLED someone for that, but he was miserable because he doesn't like DM!

It was also FREEZING last night, but it was fun! We should have brought more blankets, but Rand and I just sang along, laughed at the drunks and loved it.

Lots of stuff on my mind today...

To answer Melinda's question about which of my kits will be going away, I'm not really sure yet! There's just some of it that is more than year old and some of it that has not sold at old. I'm def. going to be clearing out a lot of my Day Old Donut stuff, but not the mega kits. I am working on a pretty cool project that some of you know about so as soon as I find some time and motivation, I'll have lots of new stuff!

My birthday is about half a month away and I'm really down about this. I don't want to be 30. I can remember when dad turned 30. I was 6! I feel like my life is a mess and I'm just not ready for this!!! I'm single, living with my mom, dealing with a mountain of debt, stressed out from work, feeling sick, and horribly unorganized. This is just not where I wanted to be. That great kick I was on last month - gone! Don't know where it went, but it's not here anymore.

Too make things worse, I've got a really long 7 day work week coming up. But at least after that I'll have some vacation time. I always take off for my birthday because I really think it's a travesty to work on that day. I usually have a party or go out with friends, but this year, I kind of want to hide. Everyone keeps asking me what I want or what I want to do, and I say nothing.

I really think I just need time by myself. So if anyone has any good ideas for me, let me know. I have 10 days.

OK, enough of my depressing rant. I picked up SS Digital Scrapbooking 5 today and it was so cool to see my names in the credits. hee! (Hi Clara!) And it was cool to see some of my friends in the pages too. (Hi Shelly! Hi Peta!) And of course our Jazz fundraiser kit looked fab!

I was up late last night finishing up my ABC keychain album for mom. I had 2 malfunctions with the Xyron machine. I was using the laminating sticker roll and it just kept wrinkling my pages. First I had the pages cut out as 2 by 2 squares and it jumbled those up. Then I reprinted and tried to run the whole sheets through and it destroyed them! Finally, i just reprinted as 3 x 3 squares and ran them through with the normal sticky roll. I stuck them onto these little matt papers I got and I think it came out pretty cool. I'll take some pics later and of the finished mom's advice albums before I give them all away tomorrow.

The family is coming over, so I'm going to have to get up early and clean the house. BTW, I'm going to start a new holiday - Single Childless Women's Day. If you really want to know how I feel, watch the Sex and the City episode "A Woman's Right to Shoes." Seriously, I'm not dissing mother's day. Most of my favorite people are moms. I just think we deserve a little recognition too (ie presents). Then we're off to see Depeche Mode! Woohoo! Plus with Night Owls and all the shows, tomorrow is guaranteed to be insane. Hope you all have a great mother's day!


Oh, oh... and some Scrapdish news. Rachel has a super cool mother's day freebie! And be sure to sign up for our newsletter because there'll be something worth it just for subscribers in our upcoming issue!

Big sale at Scrapdish

I'm having a huge sale starting May 13-May 19 at Scrapdish! Everything's been marked down from 40-60% off and some of my kits will be going away after this sale too!

And some of the other Scrapdish Designers will also be having a sale too! Check out Rachel's new Soleil papers and elements. They are just so gorgeous! And Krista and Jen have put together the most amazing wedding line. (Also available separately.) I also really love Tania's Sun Showers papers and elements, and Amy's Forget Me Not.

Draw a pig

My dad & uncle sent me this Draw a Pig link and it was really hard to do using my right hand and mouse, plus I can't draw. Maybe I should have drawn a picture of either of them! Well it's also supposed to tell you about your personality based on what you draw, and it says I am pessamistic, traditional, friendly, remember dates, care little for details and are a risk taker, insecure or living through a major period of change, and a poor listener. The details and risk thing is way off, but the rest was pretty right.

Scrap Week Challenge

Today's my day to host a Scrap Week challenge! So if why don't you try my inked edges challenge, and maybe you'll find a little freebie in my post!

Book binge

At work we have a book sale where all the books and things that publishers send us are up for sale super cheap and all the money goes to charity. I've got a CRATE full of new books! I picked up a few mom and baby books that I think would be nice gifts for a friend who is preggo. BTW, one of them is full of lines like we used in the mom's advice challenge. Can't believe I didn't find this one sooner! I picked up a few books by Sophie Kinsella, who I've been wanting to read, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Night Elie Wiesel as well as his Day, which I didn't know about. Then there's a book called Enrique's Journey, which I actually already read on the LA Times web site, but I just love it. It's a journalist's report about a boy and how he traveled on the tops of trained, almost died several times, etc., all to find his mom in the U.S. It was so sad and it one all kinds of awards. Then I also got a cool color book and two nonfiction things I had read about, The Year of Yes (about a girl who says yes to every date in 1 year) and Self Made Man (about a woman who spends a year living as a man). Also got a little box of teas that sound so yummy. So you see I buy books the way I buy digikits. Have way more than I know what to do with, but I love them. I spent way less today than on NSD and I tell myself - at least it's for charity! LOL!

Buy this kit!!!! :)

Here's my digipick of the day (hee) ... It's Melissa G's Bill's Kitchen kit! And it's on sale through May 15th for half price!
All the proceeds go to Share Our Strength, which fights hunger. It's a great cause and Melissa has done a lot of great work for this group! :) You can get this kit at href="http://www.digiscrapz.com/store/cart.php?target=product&product_id=115&category_id=39">Digiscrapz and help a great cause!!!!

I watched last night's show twice. I'm really getting mad at Derek. What jerk! All the guys were kind of jerky last night. Except for McVet. There's a thread over at SBB about the show and someone called McDreamy a McA$$hole and I thought that was a riot!
Only two more shows left - that is so depressing!

Anyway, Randi and I went to see MI 3 this afternoon. It was so hard to root for Tom Cruise! Especially when he's up against Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Very different from the first 2 movies. I can barely even remember those, except that a lot of things blow up. In this movie, I don't remember the explosions as much as the story.

I really need to get some kit stuff done, but I'm feeling so uninspired. I think I'm going to be early tonight.

Oh no!

I had a whole post going and I don't know what happened to it! It's not here! :(
AGH!!! This is the kind of luck I'm having today. I am working on a mini version of Taylor's ABC book for my mom and I tried to xyron the little pieces which took me forever to cut out - and I screwed it all up. Didn't leave enough space between the rows and it just ended up a huge mess!

So now let's think, what was I blogging about... I had a really exhausting weekend! First, NSD and work on Saturday and then hanging out with my nieces and Rocky Sunday morning and then Melissa, Krista and Jeanine all afternoon.

The nieces and nephew all spent the weekend here. They had me up at 7:30 (which is super early for me since I don't get home from work until 1:30) Taylor was a riot. She has a new saying. "Wait a minute! I have a great idea." Which was followed by "Everybody, everybody put your hands on your lap." I guess that one is from daycare. But of course I put my hands on my head, because that's the kind of aunt I am, and she comes over and tells me very matter of factly: "I already asked you three times!" Heehee. A three year old is the boss of me.

Left the girls early to head to my crop with Krista, Melissa and Jeanine. It was so cool to finally "meet" Melissa and Krista. It was like I've known them for ages - they are such fun, cool chicas! And they share my twisted sense of humor. :) Whe laughed our butts off, talked about kits, ate some junk food, scrapping stuff and how much we love Jeanine (while we were waiting for her to get there), and I even managed to get a few pages done!


Here's Randi and the bug cookie. Yuck! I love Correen's new Summer Memories collection and I used Beach Front Serenity for this one.


Here's Taylor at Ag Field Day. Throwing a fit and acting like a cat. I used Jeanine's Softly Summer kit from Computer Scrabook.com for this one. I was scrapping this one while sitting next to her so it was cool to be able to show it to her! :) Sort of based on a BH sketch too.


And then here's the princess! (Or the Queen as Karen called her in her comment!!! LOL) I used Rebecca DiGrazio's Perfectly Princess kit for this one. I knew this kit would be pefect for the party photos before the party even happened.

Happy National Scrapbooking Day!!!!

Some one please cut me off! I have been shopping like a psycho all day! LOL! There were just too many great kits and great bargains! I slept late so I didn't make it to any chats since I wanted to make sure I hit the sales before work!

Here's some of what I got: The Make a Wish fundraiser kit at ACOT (I'm a sucker for that charity since they did so much to help my cousin Ashley), some stuff by Gina Miller and Tracy Ann Robinson at SBB. Like Amy K, I Tracy is my new crack pusher. :) I stopped by Sweet Shoppe and got some more stuff by Tracy and Mindy Terasawa and got the free kit. Picked up the freebie at Scrap Artist. (I just love those gals!) Then I checked out Designer Digitals - haven't been there in awhile and don't know why! Amazing stuff. I got some kits by Katie and Jackie Eckles. Why have I only just found Jackie now! Then spent some money on Eve's kits at 3 Scrapateers and at Shabby Princess too. Um, isn't it obvious I have a huge problem!!!!!! I think there could be some more but I'm not remembering!

So I have a few things to show off! :) I just love our team at RAKScraps! They got together and surprised us admins with this amazing kit right around the time we were dealing with all the piracy stuff. And now it's up at Scrapdish as a fundraiser for RAKScraps!



Correen, Rachel, Jeanine and I got together to create another kit too! :) I just really love these colors and I love these gals too! They are just amazing and I love their work. Sometimes, I still can't believe I get to work with them! :) Berry Sweet is on sale too this week for half price!!!!


I have some more exciting news too! Tomorrow I'm going to a crop tomorrow with the other Jersey girls from Scrapdish!!! I really can't wait to "meet" Krista and Melissa and see Jeanine again! It's going to be a blast. I put CS2 on the laptop and figured out how to work my wireless mouse. Now I gotta get my photos and stuff on the external and I'll be ready to go! I already warned Krista that I'll be taking photos!

The best news I've heard all day!

http://www.vh1.com/movies/news/articles/1530180/05042006/story.jhtml

The original, unedited Star Wars on DVD! Woohoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gallery Mixer...

Check out the cool freebie Jeanine made for the Gallery Mixer (Friday May 5 9:30 PM EST)at RAKScraps. You can find out more about the chat in our forums.

And if you like this, there'll be more to come soon, but that's all I'm sayin' for now!

LOST

Does anyone else watch LOST??? That show really messes with my head - worse than another show. Because I spend time trying to figure out what the hell is going on. I was talking to one of my co-workers today about how the characters are connected before the crash - and she didn't even notice. Like how when Shannon's dad was in the car accident and they show Jack in the background. And now how a bunch of people - ok just 2, and maybe 3 - have ties to Jack's dad. Or how Hurley owned a box factory and Locke worked in one. Or how Kate's dad was in Iraq with Sayeed. Crazy stuff. But seriously, this week's episode was the BEST one in a long time! I had to check Television Without Pity today because I just didn't believe what I saw. I really can't wait to see what happens next week.

Who's ready for National Scrapbooking Day?

I'm so excited! This is kinda like Christmas. I started a little spread sheet to help me keep track of all the fun stuff that's going on on NSD this Saturday! :)

RAKScraps, of course, is kicking off Scrap Week, with lots of fun challenges, chats, prizes all week long. But since we spread it out all week, that means we can spend some time checking out all the other stuff going on on Saturday! And besides the crops, I know there will be a TON of sales. Woohoo!


Of course, I can't find one place that lists everything so I thought I do it here. :) If you have anything going on or have heard of anything else, let me know!

Scrap Week at RAKScraps...
* Gallery Opening mixer with Jeanine on May 5 at 9:30 pm EST
* Spotlights on our CT members
* Daily scrapbooking challenges start Saturday! You'll get a prize for each challenge you complete!
* Participation and posting challenges with GREAT PRIZES!
* Sign up for Scrapbooking Bingo
* Lots of fun in the forum and chatter about scrapping!
* Gallery trivia all week


Sales...
Correen Silke (SBB)
Jeanine Baechtold at SBB

Michelle Underwood (SBB, ACOT)
Deb Fisher (http://debfdigiscraps.com/store/)
Amy Teets (ACOT & 3 Scrapateers)
Shabby Princess - Shabby Shoppe
Natural Designs in Scrapbooking
Deco-Pages.com
Eve Recinella at 3 Scrapateers
Meredith Fenwick (ACOT)
Gina Miller
Holly McCaig Designs (along with a blog contest, newsletter release)
Dani Mogstad (Designs by Dani)
Scrap Outside the Box (spend so much and get free stuff)
Cottage Arts
Lori Furoy at Digitals
Val Lemons (SBB)
E-scapeandscrap.com
Pixel Expressions (buy one get one free)
Modscraps
Scrapbook Elements
Tracy Ann Robinson at SBB
Sophia Davies at Digitals
Scrapin by Design
Roberta D'Achille at Rendered Memories and SBE
Jasbeanie (blog coupon)
Traci Simms at SBE
Butternut Squash Designs
Betty Jo at SBE
ShannonLee designs
Sheila Dixon at SBE
Fat Cat Designs at 3 Scrapateers
Ronna Penner at SBE
Francine Haman at SBB
Dani B at SBB
Hunibuni at SBB
Kathryn Balint at SBB


** I saw a great tip on Amy Edwards' blog - Do your shopping early! You can leave stuff in your cart as long as you are signed in, and then check out when the items are on sale! I'm sure the stores will all be having a lot of traffic tomorrow, so this is a great idea!

Events...
* Scrapbook bytes has chats all day and prizes (including some from yours truely!) Here's the schedule.
Update: Just got another email from SBB:::: AND DON'T MISS our HUUUUGGGEEEE off-site scavenger hunt.... who says the entire day needs to be spent ONLINE???? Grand prize for winner issued at midnight!
SPECIAL GUEST CHATS scheduled between crops with: Jen Wilson, ScrapArtist, MissMint, and Gina Miller!
You just never know what these quickie chats will bring!!! Vouchers, prizes, etc.


* The digi designers at Cherry On Top have put together a big kit called "Circle of Friends" that is suposed to benefit Make a Wish Foundation. They have a lot of chats all weekend long.

* Scrap Artist has this posted on the site: We will be giving away a free kit to everyone just for dropping by the site! - woohoo! Sounds good to me! :) They're also having a "Why I scrap" contest. Here's more details from Dianne: Post an inspirational image and story in our special Why I Scrap gallery that explains how scrapping has changed your life. One winning entry will be chosen by the Scrap Artist Designers to be the inspiration for a fabulous new collaboration kit. The winner will receive a complimentary copy of the kit as well as a $20 dollar gift certificate to the Scrap Artist Shoppe. Three runners up will also receive a $10 gift certificate to the Scrap Artist Shoppe! Posting deadline: Wednesay May 10th at 12pm eastern.

* CK has posted: Don't miss our online scrapbooking extravaganza. We'll be celebrating all day long with fun surprises including free layouts and tips, a HUGE giveaway, free downloads and more! Don't miss it.

* Scrap Girls has a whole day of chats and games planned.

* Shabby Princess is planning a whole day of crops too. And since her add listed all CST times, I thought I'd trnaslate to EST...
Tech Talk 10 am CST (11 am EST)
Realistic Digital 1 pm CST (2 pm EST)
Scrapping the Shabby Days 4-5 pm CST (5 pm EST)
Photography 6-7 pm CST (7 pm EST)
Just for fun 8-9 pm CST (9 pm EST)

* Daily Scrap: Finish all the challenges and get a special prize.

* The Sweet Shoppe is offering a pretty cool free kit to anyone who spends $10 at the store this weekend.

* 2 peas is having a whole day of crops and some exclusive crops.

* Day of crops at 3 Scrapateers

* Divine Digital is having crops, freebies, mega kit release, contests and challenges, and a sale.

* Designer Digitals is having a sale and chats, with freebies, all day too.
Pre-game show ...
* Digital Design Essentials is having a count down to NSD. They are having a free gift and a nice gift with purchase every day! :)

* Kim Hill is hosting a Diva Doubles chat Friday night at 10 pm E to promote the at Digi Scrap Divas with lots of prizes!

* Digitals is also having a weeklong celebration with 2 crops a day, daily downloads and blog giveaways.

Contest...
* Kim Hill's Essential Scrapbooking Contest starts May 7: http://www.cgessentials.com/contest.asp

And...
In case you're wondering why Scrapdish isn't on this list - we're going to have some fun stuff coming up once the madness is over!!!


***Updated sales again (5/6)
** Fixed Shappy Princess times - thanks Kim!

Letters

I've been putting off writing a letter for a really long time. Part of it is just that I forget, and the other reason is that I never think of writing real letters anymore. When we moved to our house more than 20 years ago, we met Jean, who lived across the street and who was recently widowed. She became a babysitter and part of our family. She'd got to dinner or the movies with us, have supper cooking some night when we got home, and spent holidays with us too. But in recent years, her health was getting worse, and she couldn't get around too much. She lived on the 3rd floor of an apartment building. So she moved to Florida to go live with her son. And it couldn't happen at a worse time for us - the day we said goodbye to her was also the day my grandmother - my father's mother - died. So it was like losing two of the people who raised me in one day. Of course she calls on holidays and writes us letters, but it's so easy to forget to resond. And she's always nagging me about when I'm going to find a nice fella or my sister about when she's going to get married. She had sent me a set of embroidered pillow cases a few months ago, and I just kept forgetting to write a thank you. And the longer I put if off the worse I felt.
So last night I finally made myself write something - of course I had to do it on the computer. I mostly wrote about how everyone else in the family is, because I couldn't think of anything interesting to tell her about myself. I don't think she'd get digital scrapbooking. And I didn't feel like writing that I don't have a fella because I don't want one. But I got it done and sent out today and I feel a little better. I really hope it makes her happy.

Never done!

I got about 3 or 4 things done off my list today. Not too good! I can't seem to get anything done and my place is just a mess! You can leave messages in the dust around here! YUCK! I did manage to get to the post office to mail some CDs and pick up prints. I thought I would save myself a trip to Sam's Club by having my prints sent here. Well I paid the extra for shipping and it was delivered when I wasn't here! It figures! But I did get all the 4x6 prints of my mom's advice albums! I also bought more ribbon today too so my little altering project is coming along. :) And I bought a few new albums to put in all the 4 x6 prints at Target. I couldn't find Digital Scrapping 5 at Barnes and Nobles so I'm not entirely sure if it's out yet. But I did pick up from the bargain rack Playing With Boys, which is by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, who also wrote Dirty Girls Social Club - one of my favorite books about Latinas. Then Randi and I had dinner at Panera and saw American Dreamz, which I thought was pretty funny. A nice big spoof on politics and American Idol. And I just love anything with Hugh Grant pretty much.

So here's some pictures from the weekend...

Cows at Ag field day

Randi eating a bug cookie

Taylor's tattoo

And here's my RU scrapbook!

A McRant

Ugh! Did you see the end of Grey's last night?????? It made me want to puke! Gross. Well at least Meredith can date the hot vet and Derek got all jealous! I'm so on her side! LOL! But anyway, if McDreamy is being McNasty, at there is poor, poor Denny to drool over. :) I am just loving Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

I missed Grey's but it really messes with my head! LOL

Big annoucement at Scraps-n-More

My friend Mellie is now the new owner of Scraps-n-More, which is where I was on my first design team, and she and all the other gals on the design team just annouced the grand reopening. If you're interested in paper crafts and altered arts, you should check out their challenges and gallery! I'm always amazed by what these ladies create, and you all know I'm pretty much allergic to paper (LOL) but they make me want to try things out!

There's also a digital forum to help people get started and I'm going to be helping answer their questions. And they'll be looking for sponsors in the digi community too, so if anyone's interested please let me know!