It's not all bad

Well since yesterday I was cranky, I though I'd share some happier news today. I was down 3.5 pounds at my weigh in today! :) That's the most I've lost all month. I am now officially down 50.5 pounds.

And my mom did the nicest thing today. I had a huge pile of mail to go out today, and when I went to grab it - it was gone. First I thought that I dreamed getting everything ready the night before, but I called her and she said she took care of it for me. Saved me a trip to the post office!

Yesterday was another book sale at work. We save all the free stuff we get like books, cds, etc. and then have a sale and the money goes to charity. I picked up James Frey's My Friend Leonard, a book by Julia Alvarez (can't remember the title but I loved her book In The Time of Butterflies), Morely and Me for my sister (it's a book about a family and their dog) and some books for her classroom. All for about $30.

I also got a nice note from our editor in chief and a little "reward" for helping out last Friday when there were some crazy computer problems. I got a nice $25 visa gc.

And my dear friend Amy K said the sweetest things about her CT in a thread at DST. She's retiring from designing and today's the last day to grab her stuff at crazy low prices at Scrapdish. I just love this gal. I'm sad that I won't have any new kits from her to play with, but I know I'll also be happy to see lots of layouts from her as she plans to do more scrapping! :)

So even though I still feel kinda blah, there are some things to be happy about. And thanks to all of you for sending good vibes my way!

Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

I've been wondering if I'm a lousy photographer of it was my camera. I always need to take a million shots to get one I like. My sister and SIL also had Cybershots, but their photos always looked so much nicer than mine, even though I've checked to see if we have the same settings. For example, I took this photo with my camera when we took Kylie to get her ears pieced

And this one with Vesna's.
The second one is just crisper and the color is better. I haven't touched either of them up.

So here it is. Meet my new Cybershot DSC-w70! Isn't it cute. And it's so small. It's tinier than my Canon Elph was. And what I really love is - there's a bigger screen! The other camera has about a 1 inch screen.

I got a clear self portrait in just one shot - and even holding the camera at a funny angle. :) So I'm starting to believe it was the camera, and not me! There's hope for my photos yet!

Who's coming to my pity party?

Today's been one of those days where I just want to stay in bed and cry. Maybe it's the season or the overcast sky or maybe it's pms. But I am miserable.

I really wanted to have Kylie's book done by today, but that didn't happen. Shutterfly had a good deal on books that ends today.

I've had a string of bad news from people dying, getting into accidents, being in the hospital.

My to do list is so long that I've run out room and need a bigger sheet of paper. No matter what I get done, it's not enough.

And I'm hungry. Being on a diet when you're in a crappy mood sucks even more. I have hardly lost any weight this month, even though I'm following my plan.

My new camera arrived buy I didn't have any time to play with it.

December hasn't even started, but I wish it was over!

Scrap marathon!

I think I set a new personal record for getting pages done this weekend! I did 12 pages for my Celebrate Traditions project, a template and tutorial for the project, a set of alphas for Night Owls, 6 pages to finish up my Favorite Things book, 2 chick's life pages, and 3 more pages for Kylie's book. :) And I still have so much more to do before the holidays, but this was a nice dent.

I haven't posted any LOs in awhile so here are some I did this weekend and a few others are from RAKabration!
This is one I did for Chrissy's journaling challenge! That's a picture of my RAKScraps T-shirt, and I used Gina Miller's Gina Build Your Own Bulletin Board and Hampton Kits; Heart doodle from Carrie Stephens' Smorgasboard Frame and alpha from Jessica Bolton's Delight in Photographs kit.

I'm so excited about this page since I just found out it's a Digi Pick of the Day! I used Tracy Ann Robinson's Vim Kit and Kim Christensen's Fuzzy Pink Alphas.

This is one I did for Chick's Life and Meredith's 2 kit challenge. Ended up using way more than 2 kits! Deep fall by Meredith Fenwick and Kimberly Giarrusso at SBB; Free Style Stiched Arrows by Dani B at SBB; Alphas from Rough and Tumble and Heart from Sassy in Meredith Fenwick's Personality Collection at SBB. Flower from Jen Wilson's Blooming Bouquet. I just LOVE Dani's stitches! :)
Here's another one I did for RAKabration... Paper Heart - Meredith Fenwick & Kim Christensen's Cassie's Hat; Felt heart - Amber Clegg's A Lil Dainty at The Digi Shoppe;
Bedazzled Heart - Gina Miller - SBB; Fuzzy Alphas - Kim Christensen - ScrapArtist;
Doodle heart - Meredith Fenwick - blog freebie; Jewels - Meredith Fenwick - Fly mini at SBB

And I did this one last night for Chick's life too,with some photos from last week. Sketch template and stitching by Gina Miller; Vera Lim's Never Give Up kit

Getting nothing done!

Hi all! I'm trying to get caught up on stuff today - but not really accomplishing much. Work was crazy last night so I was there super late. Then I was up even later getting my Get Creating project together - I'll be posting the ideas in a bit at RAKScraps - but here's a sneak peak! :)
I'm using the gorgeous Scrapdish Designers Collab kit for December for this project. I didn't have time to contribute - but I wish I did!

So Thanksgiving was great! Had dinner before work and got to play with the nieces. Kylie has gotten timid about walking but she did take a few steps toward me! Here are some photos from Turkey Day...
Check out Kylie's pigtails! :) She is just too cute!


There is still so much food in the house. I brought some pies and stuff to work to help make a dent in the fridge.

Mom and Randi went Christmas shopping. I didn't even want to bother. Crowds make me a little crazy. And I seriously don't even want to look to see how much money I spent on kits yesterday! LOL! Next thing on my to do list is getting a bit organized.

Oh and don't forget my Inside the Designers Studio chat is tonight at 10:30 pm at SBB! Hope you'll come chat!

And I've also extended my black friday sale through the weekend too!

Someone make me stop!!!!

I need to stop shopping! I need a recovery groups like Digital Scrap Shoppers Anonymous or something. I shopped when I got home last night. Did some more this afternoon. I am sick! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!!! :)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! :) I hope you all have a fantastic turkey day. I'll be celebrating with my family before heading in to work. But I don't mind working this holiday too much - it means no dishes!

One of my favorite things about Thanksgiving is the Macy's Parade. I always try to catch some of it - even though I sleep late. My favorite balloon is SUPER GROVER! My paper has done a pretty cool little flash graphic about the parade that you can see if you go here and then click on the picture of Garfield on the right a bit.

Well today has been pretty nuts! I spent the whole morning running errands. It took me TWO HOURS at Cingular to get a new phone. But it was worth the wait because ...

I am so happy about my PINK phone. I lost my phone the other night at Borat! I should sue Sacha Baron Cohen - since everyone else is - for making me laugh so hard that my phone fell out of my pocket!

Well, then I had to get to work early, so I spent the whole day away from the computer. But at least I got out early and got to hang out tonight with some friends. I was home for about an hour when my sis finally got back to me - no one expected me back so early and I didn't have anyone's numbers since I lost my phone. So we hung out at the Moose and had lots of fun. Here's me and Randi...

And some of the other gals ...

And now I'm a little tipsy, but before going to bed I wanted to tell everyone about the HUGE sale I am having at SBB!!!!! Everything is marked down 40-50% off!!!! And well, it's a black friday sale, but I started a little bit early. :) (No idea why this image came out so small- blah!)
And I've also put some of my kits on sale for as low as 60% off at Scrapdish too! :)

Hope you have a great holiday!!!!!!!!!!!!

More new stuff!

Jeanine, Correen, Rachel and I have teamed up again! Seasons of Friends: Fall is now available at Scrapdish and it's on sale too for 30% off at Scrapdish!
And we've also put together our November RAKScraps Mega Kit add on, which is also at Scrapdish. This month's mega kit, which you can get for free at RAKScraps or on CD at Scrapdish, celebrates RAKScraps & frienship!!!
I'm going to be having an Inside the Designers Studio Chat at SBB this week! Join me pm Saturday, Nov. 25 at 10:30 pm after you've stuffed yourself with turkey and shopped till you dropped! I'm having HUGE Black Friday sale at SBB for one day only! All my kits will be 40%-50% off!

And did you check out RAKScraps latest newsletter? The tutorial on black & white conversions is fantastic!!!

Catch up!

I have been so busy that I haven't remembered to blog much! RAKabration is over now - even though we still have some more prizes to give out at RAKScraps! I wish I could have scrapped a little more last week - but I didn't have time. And I also had to get ready for Betty's shower, which was Sunday. :)
Betty knew about the party, but I still think we pulled off some surprises. Randi had this great idea to hang a clothes line for all the cute little outfits we got. (I think you can see I was watching Grey's)

We filled these little boxes with candy as favors.


We played some games, including guess how many inches around the belly. 42 inches - her mom guess the closest with 40. She's 11 months - and she doesn't look like she's gained weight except for the basketball under her shirt! :)

Betty got lots of gifts. I am the WORST photographer - most of my pics are blurry. She got so much stuff - and it was funny that some of it needed to be explained! Ok, I think she'll know what to do with this one...


She also got a lot of Pooh bear stuff - and we found out her husband doesn't like Pooh! I think he'll be sing the songs in a year. :)

And here are some pictures of the cutest party guest, Kylie, who was very happy to have her mommy to herself, as Taylor was at a bday party with her dad.


And guess what! She's walking now! Those photos were too blurry to even show ya.

All Wrapped Up again!

For some weird reason, I got the idea to finally make some elements to go along with my All Wrapped Up papers, which I created last year! They're available at Scrapdish, individually or as a combo, and they're 50% off for a limited time! :)

Scarlett Fever

RU Rah Rah! I have to admit, I'm getting a little caught up in Rutgers fever. It's pretty hard not to here in NJ these days. My alma mater's 8-0. And I got to see their biggest win - probably ever - while we were out in Hoboken last week. The whole town was PACKED. Every bar was filled with people in red and football was on every TV. We left about two places before ending up in City Bistro, which wasn't packed, but still had the game on. I never saw this kind of school spirit while I was at Rutgers. I was in Target the other day and there was a whole little section with RU stuff! It's pretty cool.

The last time I saw a Rutgers football game was in 1996! Rutgers was mutilated by Notre Dame - and to make things look even worse - it was the game where Lou Holtz retired (the first time)! So RU had these lame-ass ads with then-prez Fran "genetic hereditary background" Lawrence and a scientist, while Notre Dame had these well-produced glitzy ads. I wrote a column about the ads - not the team - and how RU was doing a lousy job marketing itself for the Targum and got so many letters about how I had no school spirit!

New kits and a coupon!

Wow, where have I been!!! I have so much to share, but first I want to show off my new kit! :) Keep reading for a special coupon too!

Twist of Fate - the name is from one of my favorite Dylan songs. I just love the colors. It started out as just papers, but I felt like doing some extra elements. It's now up at SBB for 30% off through the weekend!
And I also added some more Colorfully You pieces to the SBB store. Sassy, which was a bonus set of papers, and the alphas, which were included in the Collection, are now available for 25% off through Nov. 19.
And since I have been a bit MIA lately, here's a 25% coupon to my SBB store for you all: getscrappin
It's good through Nov. 19. Enjoy!

Mondays

I just got in from work, and it's later than usual. Don't know how long it's going to take to get adjusted to this new schedule. Even though I had 2 days off, it still feels like something's not just right. Like I didn't get enough sleep or something!

Well, I did have to work early because I had a meeting. I'm on a committee that's working on communication as our newsroom is about to undergo some big changes to keep up with how the news business is changing. I'm kind of glad to be taking part because I like knowing what's going on! And then we had a party tonight for my friend Pam who is leaving and moving to Indiana. I'm so sad - she was my soap opera gossip buddy! Hee! I guess we can email gossip now. But at the same time, my friend Betsy is back from maternity leave (and her baby is soooooo cute). It's good to have a fellow digi at work again!

And speaking of work, my boss just ran the NYC marathon. How cool is that. He looked beat today, but that's still pretty awesome.

My sister said she would miss me on Mondays. Monday has been our day to hang out since she was in college. So we went to the movies yesterday instead and saw The Prestige. It was pretty cool - but I got confused! There are a lot of flashbacks and I couldn't keep track. The magic stuff was pretty cool too.

And I got a lot of pages done this weekend! :) RAK events are always good for getting motivated. I always think if I go through all the trouble of planning the fun, I need to take part too! So here are some of my pages...

Did this one for my Take 2 challenge (which runs through Tuesday). Challenge was to redo a page you weren't happy with or re-scrap a photo you love. This one falls into both categories. Here was my orig. I used Amy Knepper's Darling Dreamer kit, Stitched Heart by Dani B and felt heart by Gina Cabrera.

Here's my Chick's Life wrap up for October! The one thing this page is really missing is a photo of Jen Reed! I can't believe we didn't take pictures. I guess I didn't think of it - we were so busy either talking or stuck in traffic! :) Love ya Jen!!!!! And I used Correen Silke's Weekend Escape kit from Computer Scrapbook and Christy Lyle's Distressed Stamped Alphas (my new fave alphas).
Melinda challenged us with this quiz at last night's Night Owl challenge. :) It was so much fun to do this one - and even easier since she did a template for us! I used Tracy Ann Robinson's Thankful kit, which was a freebie I got in Chicago. Speaking of quizes, I did the prize for the Quiz Me challenge at SBB this week, which I think is for subscribers. :)

And this is my Chick's Life page about fall, which is my favorite season! Took this photo on the walk last week. :) I used Kim Jensen's Rich Autumn from Scrapdish, and my Sunrise papers from Scrapdish, and my October Night Papers from SBB for this LO. And I am all caught up with my Chick's Life pages, for now at least!

Want to know what I've been doing while I scrap ... Watching Season 1 of the Muppet Show on DVD on mom's computer. It was so stinking funny!!!!

Well, now I'm going to catch up on the shows I taped. Going to take a break from scrapping tonight. And if you're in the U.S., don't forget.... Tuesday is Election Day. I don't care who you vote for, just vote! I do believe that ever vote counts and that women, especially, need to have their voices heard!!!!!!!

The mayor of my town is running for the local congressoinal seat - so things should be interesting around here. And then they'll be really crazy at work tomorrow!

The T-Shirts

Michelle asked to see the logo I did for the t-shirts for the walk - I was trying to find a good picture of the shirts - but this is the best I got! :) Here's what it looked like up close:

Woohoo! RAKabration is here!

I am having a blast at RAKabration! The forums are hoping and here are so many LOs in the gallery! It's amazing!

I have another reason to celebrate too! My day off have changed so I'm off on Saturdays and Sundays, after working weekends for the last 8.5 years! So I spent yesterday on a little shopping spree for my friend Betty's shower! I wasn't going to say anything about it since she sometimes reads here - but the cat's out of the bag because we had a little scheduling snafu. But it's all ok now and we'll be partying next Sunday. I just love shopping for baby stuff! We also went to Toys R Us and I was checking out all the fun stuff I want to get for my nieces. We are thinking of getting the Ariel's Ocean Salon for Taylor, since she loves dress up and The Little Mermaid. And they also had Ariel's Wedding Dress, which is so pretty and it would just make my brother nuts. Taylor always says she's going to get married to a little boy in her day care class, which Mike does not approve of! LOL! Randi bought Kylie the Bounce & Spin Zebra. I want to get her this Polar Bear. :) Mostly because it roars, but also because of Lost! Can you tell they are going to be spoiled rotten!!!

Well back to RAKabration! I've sitting in my pjs and scrapping most of the morning! I got some pages done last night too, and even remembered to turn on Hello. Caught up with Melinda, Audra, Sarah and Jeannie!
Our first challenge for RAKabration was a template challenge with Jeannie. I used Jeanine's Breathe kit from Computer Scrapbook, which is totally gorgeous.

I did this page for Shelly's Daily Challenge about 2nds. This is from the BCA walk last weekend, which was my second time doing the walk! I used the Inner Beauty Kit at SBB for this, and another template - this one by Janet Phillips at The Digi Shoppe.

And I did this other page from the walk last night for the Chick's life challenge. I am so behind on my pages. This was for the theme 3 weeks ago about hope. :) I used the SBB inner Beauty kit and a template by Lori Barnhust, with an altered verion of the frame by me. (Can you tell I'm loving templates right now!)
I was telling Sarah that I hadn't scrapped since Chicago, but I forgot that I had done some chick's live and favorite things pages, and about this one! I used lots of fun Halloween stuff by Dani B at SBB for this page. That's my brother in the headless costume - his head isn't cut off, that's how he looked!

I'm also hosting a bunch of stuff for RAKabration: Team trivia, daily chit chat, gallery hunts, and a challenge that starts tomorrow. You can find it all in the RAKabration2 forum!

Well, back to scrapping now. Mom & Randi went shopping so I have the house to myself. Going to listen to my Grey's soundtracks and get some pages done!

RAKScraps is turning 2!!!!

If you've been wondering why I've been quiet lately, it's because I've been getting ready for RAKScraps 2nd Anniversary celebration! The fun starts on Friday with our Gallery Mixer at 9 pm EST. :)


We have so much stuff planned! Chats almost everyday. Daily challenges. Contests. Gallery Hunt. Trivia. 170+ prizes from sponsors to give out. And the team worked on this huge FREE kit that will be given out for participation in 12 challenges throughout the week! :)



You can find out more by visiting our RAKabration2 forum! I hope you'll join in the fun!!!! I even took a few days off from work so that I could play along too!

Today's buzzword

From buzzwhack ... Think I've been guilty of this one!

PUI
Posting Under the Influence. Posting on blogs or Internet forums while under the influence of any mind-altering substance (usually alcohol). You may have a tinge of regret about a PUI the next day, but you're going to feel really stupid when it comes up at your next job interview.