Greetings from....: November 2007

New sketch challenge!

I took a break last month from the Sketch Challenge - big thanks to Melinda for filling in for me! And here's the latest sketch - it's in square and rectangle sizes with templates available! Find out more here.

In case you miss The Office

If you're a fan of The Office (like me and Krista) you probably know the show is on hold because of the writers' strike. There are no new episodes coming up, so I've found a few ways to get by.

- Watch the British version of The Office. I've now seen both seasons and the final special thanks to Netflix.
- Watch all the commentaries on the DVDs for the first three seasons.
- Check out The Office web site at NBC. There are so many great features - the Dunder Mifflin newsletter, Dwight's Blog, full episodes. I've also just discovered Creed's blog, which is nuts!
- Read random quotes from The Office Quotes.
- Make friends with the actors from The Office on Myspace. A lot of them have their own pages, and Krista (I think) has told me some of them can be spotted browsing MySpace in the background of the show.
- Get news from the Life in the Office blog.
- Check out John Krasinski's Gap ad.
- Go see Dan in Real Life with Steve Carell.

If you're a fan, let me now how you're coping!

Blah!!!!

That's how I feel today. I have some kind of nasty cough and I'm feeling so tired. I really don't want to go to work. I've been in bed all day watching TV and haven't worked on a thing. And now I need to get ready to go. Sigh!!!!

Here are my latest pages. Knowing I have to work on Christmas projects, I've been procrastinating by actually scrapping LOL! ...

Used lots of goodies by Jessica Bolton and Kim Jensen. Credits.

These two were inspired by challenges Jennifer Trippetti was running at RAKscraps.
Credits.

Credits.

My family is awesome!

Hope you had a great Thankgiving! One of our new traditions has become Thankgiving Eve karaoke at the Moose Lodge. That was fun - but it didn't make waking up easy! I didn't sleep in too late though and got to catch some of the Macy's parade on TV.

We got to spend time outside in the yard playing with sidewalk chalk because the weather was so nice. We didn't even have have our coats on! Taylor was bossing us all around (She told me I couldn't draw stars because only her cousins could draw stars. That's about all I know how to draw!) and Kylie and Rocky were covered in chalk. Dinner was pretty good too.

Then I stopped by my friend Lisa's house to drop off some cookies. The cookies turned out great - except they are too crumbly. But luckily, even the crumbs taste good! Lisa was getting ready to have some of our friends over and was cooking up a storm.

Then I was off to work where we had even more food. They have catering from a local restaurant and it's always great. It's pretty laid back working on holidays so it isn't too bad.

I didn't go shopping on Friday since I had to work, but luckily my mom and Randi stopped at Staples and picked up a 500 gig external drive for me that was a super deal.

Saturday I wanted to shop for a coat - just a coat - but we ended up in several stores and the coats I like didn't fit. So I was cranky! I am not a fan of shopping around crowds. So I went home and watched the 2 hour finale special of the British version of the Office to cheer myself up. We went to dinner at a new place called Tomoso's and the food was so great. After that I went out with my friends and then kicked some butt in Trivial Pursuit on Playstation2.

I slept in Sunday and had a nice suprise from mom and Randi. They had gone shopping and picked up a coat for me! And it fit perfectly!

So to celebrate, I wore it out to the movies. We went to see Enchanted starring my boyfriend Patrick Dempsey and it was so cute!

See, I was feeling kind of tired of being around everyone this long weekend. I was kinda feeling like I'm always doing things for everyone while I'm getting nothing done for myself (did get a little bit of work done on my calendar gifts). But then they go and do all these nice things for me and we do all these fun things together, and that's way better than sitting around on my computer.

Happy Thankgiving!!!!

Hope you have a great Thankgiving! I have to get ready now because company will be coming soon! Here's my favorite Thankgiving song ...

Skiddly Do!

Last night Randi and I went to see Dane Cook at the Garden. We both think he's pretty yummy and ever since we watched Viscous Cycle, we're always telling each other to go google it. :)
Well, our new favorite Dane pharse is "skiddly do" from the show last night. He was so funny and pretty raunchy as usual. And the place was packed with people who made me feel old.

I also thought it was funny how he said he didn't want to join Facebook because someone poked him with a zombie and bought him a drink. :) I know Krista will appreciate that! LOL!

I won't divulge any more because he's not very PG or PC.

We had some time to kill before the show so we stopped into Macy's and it's all decorated for Christmas! There's a big blow up Shrek outside and they even had the ball that's going to drop in Time Square inside. It was all pretty cool and had us feeling less stressed out and much more into the holiday mood!

November Mega Kit Add On!

Now available at Scrapdish: November's Mega Kit add on created by Correen, Rachel, Kim and me!

Colorfully me - and a toot!

These two pages that I did for RAKabration are very colorful! :)

This was for the scraplilft challenge. Credits.

And this was my rule of thirds challenge. Credits.

Here's a page I did for the recipe swap. I actually cooked last Sunday! Credits.

And I did this one for the three little words challenge - and my page was chosen as the layout of the week over at Scrapbook Graphics!!! I am so excited. I was really trying to try different on this page and I guess it worked lol! Credits

The holiday panics

Instead of feeling full of the holiday spirit, this is the time of year when I start to panic. I can't believe Thanksgiving is in a few days. Where did November go? I need to get to the store to buy the ingredients for my apricot cookies, which a friend of mine requested this year. Just another thing to add to my never ending to-do list.

And I have no idea what I'm giving for Christmas this year. I have given hardcover books the last few years and calendars. And now everyone looks forward to them. So I feel just terrible about not having enough done. I may have to go buy gifts!

This last week has been crazy for me. (Seems to be a theme this month!) I had to do some designing. I helped Randi pack and deal with a crazy situation with her closing. She and Rocky have moved in with us for a few days now. There's been all kinds of crazy stuff at work and I worked four different shifts and on seven different sections in one week, which had me so confused!!! My aunt had surgery - and she's doing well. And my RAKscraps email is acting completely bonkers.

So when I want to get stuff done, it just seems life gets in the way. I'm trying not to panic too much today. I'm going to see Dane Cook later with my sister. I could use some laughs!!!!

RAKScraps November Mega Kit

RAKScraps November Mega Kit is here! This month our Elements Team has created a kit that will help you scrap your Thanksgiving Memories and all those day-to-day moments that you are thankful for! You can find out how to get this kit by visiting our Announcement Forum. Each piece is available for a limited time only!

And be sure to check out this month's RAKFile!!! This month's edition has a new look, a great tutorial, designer highlights, profiles and FREEBIES!

I'll have more info on the mega kit add on soon! :)

We're still celebrating!

I've been living in the bubble that is RAKabration the last few days! :) It has been so much fun and what I really love is seeing so many people posting in the forum, especially the mix of new members and some who have come back!

This week has been really crazy for me! I had Taylor here Tuesday and Wednesday because she was sick. We had crazy election night at work - but with awesome catering. I had a follow up visit with the endocrinologists this week. My thyroid levels are coming down, but are still pretty high. I have more tests to schedule - yuck! And I talked with the doctor about this shaky feeling I've been having lately that I thought was the meds I've been on, but they said that wouldn't be a side effect. So they advised me to lay off the caffeine. It's been 5 days cold turkey!

I took off a few days from work so I could enjoy the celebration. I did manage to sneak out for some shopping and movies. I saw Lars and the Real Girl and The Darjeeling Limited - both really great movies.

And I've gotten some scrapping done!!!!

I did this one for Correen's "A My Name Is" challenge. And I got to use the fabulous new collab by Tania and Jess - Whatever Mama - from SBG! Credits

And here's one of my favorite photos of Kylie - I didn't even crop it. This is for my Third Wheel challenge as party of the anniversary. The challenge is to use combos of two similar and one different thing - shapes, papers and elements. Lot harder to do than I thought! :) Credits.

Some great customer service!

I know a lot of people like to post these things over at DST, but I just wanted to say some thank yous here. :) I've gotten some great help and goodies from designers lately and I just wanted to share.

I shop a lot over at Funky Playground. So much so that I tend to lose track of my zip files or mess up my files. But Corina Nielson is always so helpful and gets back to me right away to help me out!

While I could pick up Amanda Rockwell's stuff over Funky Playground, I tend to shop at her own store. She has been so sweet and she recently sent me a RAK just because! I really love her new collections if you haven't checked them out yet. Gorgeous stuff!

Miss Tina at Scrapbook-Bytes is also a sweetie! She sent me a RAK through Kaboodle and I used it to pick up some of her goodies. She also has some great commercial use items.

And I want to give a shout out to Amy Cheeseman and Amy Blesser over at SBB, too! They are just dolls and they've both sent me really nice notes after I picked up some of their stuff. :) I've known them both since I started digiscrapping three years ago and I think we all were on the Chain Gang together. I'm so glad to see they are just rockin' with their designs!!!!

Some scrapping

Well I didn't think it could be done, but I managed to get one page done yesterday during the madness that was Digital Scrapbooking Day! I don't know about you, but with all the sales and stuff going on, my head was spinning. I couldn't decide what to do, so I ended up not doing much. I even took a break to watch a movie and then went out to karaoke instead of going to chats.

I used the Studio Girls new Impressions of Gratitude kit for this page. Credits.

And here's another one I did last week from Great Adventure. This is how I had to scrap this page because I don't like scary clowns, but still wanted to be brave and include it...

Pulled the photo over before saving LOL! I used a bunch of Halloween-y stuff from Krista Mettler and Jennifer Trippetti. Credits.

I haven't blogged much at all in the last week since I've bee so busy with RAKabration plans. It's unbelievable how many prizes we have this year. Things are really getting off to a great start too so I hope you all stop by!

For anyone joining in Kim's trivia challenge, here' s a clue for you! This was my Halloween costume. I went all out as you can see LOL! I would post a few photos from the party at the Rover, but I don't think they're all PG! Some of the costumes were pretty crazy. I wasn't in the greatest mood though because I was out the night before and still hurtin' from that.

Reminds me I need to get some Halloween photos from my SIL. I haven't seen the girls in their costumes yet. :(

I also saw Dan in Real Life last weekend and that movie was just awesome! It was funny and sweet but not sappy at all. Steve Carell is just such a great actor - he can be funny, but not at all like Michael Scott from the Office. I also loved it because it was about a big, crazy family, sort of like mine. And also because of Dane Cook! I'm going to see him at Madison Square Garden in a few weeks. Can't wait!

Karaoke was a lot of fun last night too. I saw a good friend of mine who I hadn't seen in ages. And I sang Manic Monday along with my sister and Holly. I am not as brave as they are LOL! Forgot the camera though. D'oh. Gotta love that extra hour of sleep though this weekend after a night out!

Need to get back to RAKabration now! I hope to see you there!!!!

RAKabration Chats!

Hope you can join us at RAKScraps as we celebrate our third anniversary! We're having lots of chats all week long!!!

We have more than 300 prize to give out this week!

We're starting off this chat with a big party at 8 pm EST/5 pm PST Nov. 4 in the RAKScraps chatroom tonight, Sunday, Nov 4 and lots of prizes to give away!!! Here's what you could win....

ACDsee's Photo Manager 10

Clink Its Glass Packs

$15 to Amy Teet's store at OScraps

$15 coupon from Kim Hill at CG Essentials

$10 coupon from Juliana Gordon at KB & Friends

Misty Cato’s Smooth Sailing Kit

Digital Scrapbook Artisan Guild – 3 Month Membership

$5 GC for Erikas Digital Scrapbook.com
$300 Prize Package from Scrap Wow

$25 coupon to Gina Miller Designs

Monthly Subscription to Disc Talk Radio

$10s to Little Dreamer Designs

1 custom kit from Demiurgia Designs