Slacking again.....

I know, I know, I have been slacking again. Actually, I had a few busy days and a very full weekend last week so I did get behind on the blog posting. I've been crafting a lot though. Last Sunday was my birthday and my DD gave me the Basic Grey magnetized cutting mat, and I gave myself the Scor-Pal so I have been woking them out. I made some stamped cards, and I am working on an interactive accordian card. I have been making the envelopes too. I will post something with the cards soon.
I also got two pages scrapped. The first is for the Bren Boone CT blog challenge asking people to step outside their comfort zone. I used very large patterns and bright colors on this layout.

I also got one done using some of our vacation photos. As you can tell, I never finish I just scrap hodgepodge, whatever I am in the mood to scrap. This layout is for our Williamsburg album. I used the SBG's new collab. Impressions of Fatherhood which will be available June 1. Thanks for looking!

Full credits can be seen in my DST gallery.

I need help...

I really need help! There are so many things that about me that could use some work. I could make a very long list, but that would be overwhelming. I decided to try a little accountability therapy. I am posting a photo today and I am going to take better care of them so that a visible improvement can be seen in one month. That may not sound like a big deal to some but for me, it is monumental. I have a sad condition called "crafter's hands" I always seem to have some ink or glue or dry skin to display instead of groomed nails and cuticles. I have tons of hand creams but I forget to use them. I never wear gloves for cleaning and my nails split and peel all the time. Dr. Phil says you have to acknowledge the reality of something before you can change it. So...




One more...

Okay so the plan is to take another photo in two weeks and then again in one month. Would you like to join the challenge? If you have a blog, post a photo of your hands or nails on it and put the link in your comment to this post. Come on, you know you want to!

Wow, two posts in one day!

I am so proud of myself. I upgraded my laptop all by myself. Well, I did use the Kingston installation guide. I have been thinking about upgrading for a while because my PhotoShop Elements 5 has always run very slow on the laptop with only 1 GB of RAM. Once I got the new PC and saw how fast PSE could run on 2 GB, I found myself working on the PC instead of the laptop. I missed using the LP for scrapping because I like being able to start dinner and work while I am waiting for things to cook and being close by to check on things. I didn't think I could get any more memory for the laptop. I thought it was maxed out, but did some research and found out that I could if I replaced both of the memory modules. So I ordered it from Kingston, 2 1 GB modules and I just followed the directions and voila' I have 2 GB of RAM and my PSE runs seamlessly now. Yay for me!

A pushy friend...

a little furry friend. My husband Don and I have been feeding this little squirrel for quite a while now. She is at the point that he will take the food from our hands. She visits at least twice a day and is now getting a little bold. When she comes to the window, we open the window and go get the container out of the cabinet to give her some peanuts and sunflower seeds. I guess today I wasn't getting the peanuts fast enough and when I turned around she was almost inside the window!

Alrighty....

Another day, another dollar. Well, not really since I am not working. At least not at anything that pays money anyway. If I had a nickel for every file I've transferred from my laptop to my EHD (extended hard drive) this weekend we would be eating out tonight instead of having ham and cabbage from the slow cooker! I wonder, would the world rock if I didn't organize and tag these files? Probably not, but I couldn't find much either. My laptop is very much like an overloaded closet. There is so much jammed in there, I wind up using only the stuff near the door. So in the interest of sanity, I am purging the HD and reorganizing again. Right near the front of the closet was this new kit from Cori Gammon at ScrapArtist and so some of her goodies now grace this latest scrapbook page.
Central Park NYC
My sister, me, my daughter, and my nephew and niece in the back row. A trip to New York City in the early Spring of 1981.

Okay, so I skipped a day but I am back...

I had a lot of errands yesterday and a doctor's appointment yesterday so I didn't get around to blogging. I did spend a very long time downloading my new goodies from ScrapArtist. Wow, what a treat! Thanks again, Nancie! I wish I could link them all here but it would take such a long time so I will link them as I use them. For today, I have another layout using some of my favorite designers' designs. I especially love the BG paper by Jessica Bolton.
My granddaughters were staying a couple of days with me last Fall and they had fun making a camp in the woods. The photos are just so-so, not really good shots but I wanted to scrap the moment so I used them anyway.

See full credits in my DST gallery

7 inches of rain?

Yep, apparently that is how much rain we got over the weekend. No wonder the base was leaking a bit. It seem to be all over now and today is sunny and gorgeous! I wanted to go out and get a few errands done but I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow and I thought I would try to combine errands to save gas. I settled for sitting on the deck for a bit.
I got another page scrapped. These great photos were taken by my sister Carol on a trip to Niagara Falls. The handsome young man is Jason, her grandson.

I just hate that...

I just hate it when the power goes out. Lots of high winds and a deluge of rain here last night. About midnight, we lost power. No power, no = Internet, so I decided to go to bed early. Not an easy thing to do with the winds gusting at 50 miles an hour. When I awakened to no power it was a real bummer. You don't realize how dependent you are are certain things until they are gone. I definitely need electricity to do most of what I do. I did spend the morning picking up and folding laundry, and all the things I could do without power. Don is home so at least I have company too. We have a generator and he did crank it up and run it for a while so the foods in the freezer didn't melt and we could make some coffee. The power came back around 1PM and hopefully it will stay on. The rain isn't over yet and there is still the minor leaking in the basement, but that is for another entry.

Photo extractions......

are really popular in digital scrapbooking and I have wanted to try this technique for a while. My attempt isn't especially creative but this photo was so suited for this, I had to try it. This little cutie is Nick, my daughter's friend's son. You can see all the credits for my layouts at my DST gallery. Link over there on the right.....

I had the nicest suprise last week...

Nancie Rowe Janitz of ScrapArtist emailed me to tell me that since I was SA's very first customer back in 2005 when she opened her site that she was rewarding me with all the goodies on my wish list and a guest spot on the ScrapArtist creative team for the month of my choice. Wow, is all I can say! What a generous gift! I am so excited! As ScrapArtist winds up it's birthday celebration, I wish them many more happy birthdays! Thank you so much Nancie and the ScrapArtist designers!

I have almost recovered...

from NSD. May I just say OH MY GOODNESS! I now have a ton of terrific new stuff to scrap with. I am still downloading and categorizing the kits but I can't wait to use some of the cool new stuff. Overall I think I was pretty reasonable and didn't overspend. I will post my list of new goodies soon.
I did scrap one page:

Let the madness begin......

and it has already! National Scrapbooking Day is upon us and the sales are already started. Scrappers everywhere have been gearing up to get out there (on-line) and hunt for the bargains and the best freebies. There are tons of chats, challenges, contests, and give-aways. The digital scrapping community is so generous, and NSD is no exception. My purse has been open already,lol! I couldn't resist this darling kit from Shabby Miss Jen for only $1. Available here