WHOOHOO!!!!

Don't tell Mike that I'm here? As far as he knows, I'm unpacking boxes! LOL

YUP! We got our stuff! Of course I had to make sure my baby's came over in one piece, so I set up the computers in a corner of the living room, surrounded by boxes and a frenzied cat. He's in heaven, and he SOOOOO wants to go to sleep, but there's boxes all over in various heights, and although it makes my head spin in anticipation of seeing what made it vs where to put it now that it's finally here.... it must look like a jungle gym to our little fuzzie family member. He is all over the place, and he literally is so tired, that he falls down, and takes a nap for a couple of minutes, and than he's exploring again. I know he's actually asleep, since I can hear him snore! LOL.  He is usually pretty smart, (he undoes the deadbolt)  but I think he's got impression overload, and consequently a bout of  "the stupids" as he got stuck in a box three times, and between boxes once since friday...... and last night he woke both of us out of a dead sleep when he dislodged a box that made quite a thump when it hit the floor LOL. Oh well, getting up at 4 instead of 6 is not so bad.... and I can nap later if need be. I feel for Mike though. He had to go to work today till 6.

Haven't hooked up my tera-drives yet, just wanted to make sure the computer was as smart as they told me it would be, and switched itself to 220V..... It did. Way to go MAC!!  Our laptop doesn't like being here, and is consistently shutting down before I can do anything, but now that we have our real computer, I can take the laptop for a check up..... and I hope to be able to sit down, catch up on the websites and do some serious scrapping by Friday!!!

I'm  looking around the house, as I'm having my "fun break" and honestly... I don't know where to start. My sister loaned us a lot of things, some she wants back, some not, and I don't remember which is what, so I have to keep it all out, but I have our stuff to put away....... It's a good problem to have, I'm not complaining, just a little overwhelmed. We had the most room in the living room..... so that's where all the boxes ended up. Mike moved a couple, but if we fill every room, we won't be able to put the things away, so he stopped doing that..... He may be off tomorrow, but they're having a lot of people out, so that may change by the time he gets home tonight..... At the same time,  I'm not sure, having 2 people rummaging thru boxes, pulling out stuff, and trying to find a spot for it, is going to be an improvement either..... LOL. I had this plan, I would empty my sisters' stuff out of the cabinets, and put ours in, as I unpacked, washed and dried it..... but I can't seem to get it to work? Anybody have any ideas?

Well, either way, break is over, so wish me luck, and for all the dads out there.. Have a great Fathers' Day!!

And..... I'm back!!!

Well, almost.....

I DO apologize for being awol, but it couldn't be helped. You see, we moved. Not just to a different town, but across an ocean. And we just got word that our stuff will be delivered .... in about 3 weeks. SO..... although I probably won't be able to work on this one at all, I decided to make the point in time challenge I host over at The Studio this month:

"PULLING UP STAKES" aka MOVING HOUSEHOLDS

You know that I have been sick, and off work, and while looking for a job after he got laid off, Mike decided to bring me home, and started looking in Holland. My only wish would have been that we could have done it StarTrek style... As in "Beam me up, Scotty!"   LOL

Mike is happily working with the Military again, our stuff is on it's way, kind of, and I'm feeling better than I have in a long time. So.... life is grand!

However, as my grandmother used to say... "If I don't do anything, I can do everything." I know! It loses A LOT in translation, but basically, it means, that I feel awesome, untill I start doing things.... that's going to be a BIG deal in finding a job. And finding a job, I must do, because Mike gets paid in Dollars but the bills get paid in Euro's..... OUCH! (And for civilians, there's no off base housing or living expenses comp, like he used to get when Mike was in the service, many, many moons ago.)

You know, they say that you can never go home again? Well, yes and no. After 23 years, soooooo much has changed, and at the same time... I hear the same music as when I left LOL! But all kidding aside. I think it has been harder to come home, than it was to move to The States!

I thought it would be the lack of personal space, (15 million people in the space of Delaware) but it's not, really. When we first got here, and I was all gushy about being home, a friend told me... talk to me after the honeymoon, and I shrugged it off. How could this NOT be good? Well, there's a language barrier, multiplied by my lack of brain/memory, and sooooooo many rules, regulations and downright silly things that what little brain I have that's in working order, is on overload! And than, there's the town we live in.... but that's for another post :-)

Don't laugh about the language barrier! I thought I hadn't lost "that" much Dutch.... well, people I only say Hi to, start talking English! How's that?! I find myself thoroughly sucking at both Dutch AND English these days. I dream in English,  think in English, write all my lists etc in English, as well as talk English at home, but everything I have to read, fill out and call around on, is in Dutch............ Combine that with chemo-brain............. and you know exactly how much fun I have in an average day LOL.

Can't wait to get our computers and books though, and the odd change of clothes. (Do you realize we've been waring the same 5 sets of clothes for 6 weeks!? LOL) On that note, I'm beginning to wonder what we could have left, and what we should have packed, that we didn't!? Oh well, water under the bridge, ship has sailed.... we'll see!

Just thought I'd share the good news, and now, it's time to finish dusting. I swear, Perky looses a cat a day on  fur, and it all ends up under the coffee table!  YEP!, we brought the furball! There was never any doubt, and it turned out, it was easier to bring him, than anything else, including us! LOL.  I'll keep that for another post too. I'm not going to be very talkative until our stuff is here, and the computers set up, but I'll try and keep you updated, but I have a couple of things I want to share before I go....

Go check out Flights of Fancy! They have been busy while I wasn't looking!! There's a bunch of new kits in the store, and I spotted a new designer and a couple of freebies too.......

Can't wait to do the NewsLetter again!   Man-O-Man, I'm having severe withdrawl!!!

Don't forget to stop by IvyScraps for their new mega. It's delicious! Have a taste... uhm, look

Of course, I don't get to play with it, yet, but doesn't it look great?

I started a family cookbook to share with my sisters and their families, and looking at this kit... it gives me hope that I may have an extra special Christmas gift to give this year!!!

Time to go!

Spring IS coming.... isn't it?

It's been really weird in the weather department lately..... The weatherman tries to get spring here, (I truly believe that) because every couple of days, the prediction is for 51 degrees, and sunshine, but the closer it gets, the lower the temperatures get again, and the snow shows back up on the map...... 

Normally, I'm a snow puppy, so I love looking out and seeing the white stuff, but we're working with a deadline to get the garage sorted out, and storage empty...... and I still get cold so quick, its not even funny. I will stay that way for waaay much longer than I used to, so working outside in freezing temperatures is a wonky proposition at best.....

So, I was pleasantly surprised when I found a little bit of spring in my email, with the monthly mega from IvyScraps  called "spring is in"

Since I couldn't sleep again last night, I played around with it for a while, and came up with this page.

Since spring seems so lazy this year, I used pictures from out trip to Pella's Tulip Time last year.

I think I'm going to take my computer apart and see if I can get it working again. I miss messing around on the "yellow box" I built a couple of years ago, but haven't had time/energy/brainpower to open her up, and see what's going on..... I think I will give it a try today. (Still looking for some stuff I can't find on the MAC, so I'm hoping it's on "The Box" LOL

If I can't sleep tonight, I'll probably play some more with the mega, so, as they say, 

STAY TUNED!

Not sleepy yet.....

but I should be!
Did a lot today, for me anyway.
We're cleaning out the garage, and doing the downsizing thing... yuk!

I don't mind getting rid of clothing, kitchen things, dishes and that sort of stuff, but it breaks my heart to put books in a bin for the half-price bookstore.... for what you get for them you might as well give them away, but either solution goes against every fiber in my body! I LOVE BOOKS! Been collecting them for about 40 years now. Gave up a ton of them when we moved from Iowa to Arizona, and we're really running out of room, so we're going to do it again. So I'm keeping a couple of authors I REALLY like (Dick Francis, Tony Hillerman, Charlotte McLeod,  Max Brand) and my reference books, and hope to replace some of them, some day.

We went thru clothes boxes..... Mostly  mine. My cancer was a built in weight control, according to the doctor, and ever since the cancer got smaller, my weight went up, with the result, that I now am 2 sizes bigger than I was 2 years ago...... My business suits, jeans, t-shirts, dress-shirts... nothing fits any longer.... so it all went... I think I have 2 pairs of jeans and 10 t-shirts left.... but lots of room in the dresser :-)

In a tie with the books.... The hardest part of the last few days was the Teddybears! LOVE those little guys. Been collecting them since I came to America, and Mike gave me the first one after our first dinner here. Most of them we got for a specific reason, from a friend as a gift, or on a trip, so they all had special memories attached. We gave all but a couple to the Childrens Hospital here in Cedar Rapids... They have a good home, but it was hard.... Isn't it strange what tugs on you .........

Now mind you, most of this "work" is done with me sitting on a chair in the middle of things, and Mike moving boxes, unpacking and repacking. However, I'm bushed like I would have been after a hard day working in the stables, years ago..... Dearly hoping that will get better!  The reason this is done in the garage, and not where you would normally find these things, (in the house) is that when we moved here, I was so sick, I literally couldn't walk, and Mike had to do everything, so we decided to put everything but the bare necessities in the garage, and "get to it later".......... Riiiiiight! That was a year and a half ago.

We're going to put a lot of things on CraigsList, but we're finding out that people want lots of stuff, but they mostly want it for free. Now I agree, free is good, but you don't have to get nasty if people are asking money for things... Do you?  I looked thru the "wanted" part of the site, and emailed a couple of people... never heard back from them. In itself not a big deal, but if you ask, and somebody offers... the polite thing is to let them know you're not interested.....or atleast, that's what I thought... THAN I made the mistake of calling..... WOW. I know times have changed, and the normal niceties aren't observed so much anymore, but JEEZ!!  This lady blew me away! I called, asked if she was still looking, and said we were selling what she was looking for.... so far so good. Than she asked what we wanted.  I named our price, and got a tirade, on that she was not about to pay good money for something that should be free, because it wasn't worth anything to anybody anyway, and she would be able to find it easily somewhere else and to not bother calling again........ and she hung up on me.

Now, don't get me wrong, but if it's worth nothing to anybody... why did she want it? Since when is it perfectly acceptable to give someone an earful who is trying to help you out? Where not asking much, we did our figuring, what did we pay for it, how old is it, what would it reasonably be selling for, and than we take 10% off..... seemed fair to us. And with Mike off work, every little bit helps...... And than, there's my favorite: the bartering.... If we wanted 20$ for a $50 dollar item, we'd ask for $20..... drives me nuts! LOL

As you will learn, there's a couple of things, that "get my dander up", so to speak... courtesy (or lack thereof) is definitely one of those things.... I've read on some of the blogs I follow of people going off on designers, because it's not the style they like to see... but hey, if it's a freebie, and you don't like it, don't pick it up! If you paid for it, and don't like it, don't blame the designer, but look at it before you hit the "confirm purchase"button.... It seems that it's easier to be rude these days, than to use common sense. Common courtesy seems to be a dying art as well, as Mike found out the other day. He's a gentleman, short and sweet (the saying, not Mike LOL), so he sees this "lady" coming up to a door he has opened to let me thru, and he keeps it open for her. I thought that was nice of him.... obviously I was the only one that had that thought. She stopped in the middle of the doorway, turned on him and starts yelling at him, that she is very capable of opening the door for herself, and she doesn't need some chauvinistic pig to do it for her!

I just about came unglued!  I just looked at her and told her to go take a flying leap off a cliff, get that chip off her shoulder and go see a shrink! I was soooo mad!  Mike just kinda looked at me funny.... I have no idea of anybody was around, but I really didn't care. He didn't mean anything by it, he didn't make any comments, he was just being nice.... no need to turn that around like that?

It's just something that gets to me.... We're all busy, we're all stressed, we all have more things to do in a day, than we have time to do in a week, and more things to handle than we are able to, but is that an excuse to just forget about anybody else? Let me know what you think? Obviously, I was either born a couple of decades too late, or I need an attitude adjustment LOL

Stepping off the soapbox, and will try and get some sleep. Have a date with a paint-can and a friend tomorrow..... Read," Mike will probably do most of the painting, while Ruth and I talk while trying to get one wall done" LOL

"Night!

New monthly Mega at IVYSCRAPS

Hi there,

Just got the links to the March Mega over at IvyScraps . 

It's called Spring Is In and it looks, well.... Springy :-)  Lots of bright but soft colors. Everything you'd need to scrap spring or easter pictures, and perfect for childrens pages as well!

Take a look at the preview:

Can't wait to play, but I'll have to. 

Talk later.

I'm so excited! :-)

Just saw that my layout 

won Layout Of The Week at Ivyscraps and is now put in the public voting box for Layout Of The Month!

SOOOOOOO COOL!

Is it snowing where you are?

It is "sissy snowing" here. This means, a snowflake comes by the window, every so often LOL

The Weather Guy has been threatening SNOW for a week, and it's finally here, sort of. Overnight, we got about 2 inches, but the sun is peaking through the clouds, and you can almost see it melt, so .... It will be slushy, mucky, miserable, and once the sun goes away (it will be 8 degrees tomorrow) slicker than an icerink.......

BUT! Since I didn't go to bed last night, I got some scrapping done :-)

First I made an "add" for the Point in Time Heritage Challenge, I'm hosting on DigitalScrapbookingStudio

Everything except the pictures are by CJ's Dreams

You know what? I like this page, I may just use it for the challenge, take the add info out, and write a little bit of information......... 

I'm also done with one of the 2 LifeBook pages for this week..... The subject was Inlaws. So, I thought it would be nice to put a page together with photo's from our family when we were little, and one of a later date. Maybe not current, since I haven't seen anybody for quite some time, but updated none the less.

Here's the early one.

Since I've been threatening you with pages made by the IvyScrap February Mega Sweet Smooches, I'll share them with you. Still working on the Bingo QP.... thought I had it done, looked at it a couple of hours later, and had to wonder "What the H was I thinking about when I put THAT together", so it got recycled, and I'm working on another one...., but may just put this next one inLifeBook......

It's made with  Sweet Smooches 

The pictures were taken when my sister and her family were visiting us in 2003. We took them to Custer State Park and Mt.Rushmore. 

It was awesome! Having her close again, and getting to know my Niece and Nephew a little, was so good!  It was the first time we got to see eachother after Mom passed away, and we talked and got some insight on what went on. We "rented" a booth at the local Perkins, and talked all day. We came early for lunch, stayed thru that, and had dinner also... It was great. The nice part was, that when we walked in, I told the lady that seated us, that we had about 7 years to catch up on, so to give us a quiet corner, and she did! They kept the coffee coming, but left us alone the rest of the time... SOOOO SWEET!!!

Seems like yesterday that I received the first baby picture of my niece, and look at her now! 

This pictures was taken year before last. I think I like how it came out. 

This page was also made with  Sweet Smooches 

That's all the news for now, and I will "talk" to you later :-)

New monthly Mega at IVYSCRAPS

Hey, just got the new Mega at IvyScraps and a couple of announcements.

The kit is called Sweet Smooches . It has really nice colors, but still leans towards Valentines. As soon as I'm done playing with it, I'll show you what it can do :-) but for now, you'll have to either be happy with the previews, or go see for yourself LOL 

(trust me seeing for yourself is WAY more fun!)

The kit is made by 5 designers, and has 70 elements, 40 papers and an Upper Case Alpha with numbers.

(I saw some journaling papers and some WordArt too!)

                                          

I'm making the QP for this months Bingo Game for the winner, so I can't show it to you here but as soon as I have the regular pages done, they'll show up here. I promise!

Bingo as I understand it:
                There's a list of words.
                You pick 25 and call it your bingo-card.
                You email the card to the moderator
               On the 10 the calling starts.

You really should be thankful that I have to make the prize, and not the cards!  I have never played Bingo in my life, so this is as far as I get with explaining. (Actually, I copied it from the very first Bingo challenge LOL) but I'm assuming, if you  have played bingo before, this doesn't sound like a foreign language to you.....

Hands have been killing me this week, but they're not tooo terribly bad right now (only took me an hour to finish this post :-) .....), so I'm going to try and get some scrapping done, so..... talk later :-)

Hiya

I forgot to post these. They're from DigiDesDesigns kit SouthWest Evening. The companion the the morning kit I used earlier in the month.

Check out the kit at IvyScraps here: Southwest Evening Kit

THe colors are great on their own, but mixed with the morningkit..... Lets just say, I'm anxiously looking for more pictures of our time in Arizona :-)

I found something really neat!

I was blog-hopping on some blogs I follow, and got to ScrapGenie's blog , where I found the coolest way to get genealogy blogging going, I've ever seen. It's called Ancestral name roulette. This weeks rules were to take the age of a grandparent or age they would have been would they still be alive.
This is your roulette number.
Than, you take the corresponding number in your familytree index.
You have to tell 3 things about this person.
Cool, Right?!

 I picked Mikes grandfather Benjamin. He would have been 110 this year
So my roulette# is 110
This turned out to be Mikes favorite aunt, wife to his dads brother, Eleanor Virginia (Gile) Kelley.

The weird thing is, for a favorite aunt, we really don't know a whole lot about her, but with a little thinking I did come up with 3 things.
1 She worked for the Marshalltown Courthouse before she married
2 She met Keith thru work (I think - and I have to verify that thought - that she met him when he filed for a delayed birth certificate when he joined the Navy.)
* She is the sweetest person you'd ever want to meet. (I know, this one doesn't count, but it needed to  be said LOL)
3 She married uncle Keith in Nebraska.

Well, I went back to double check, and guess what..... I missed a step. I think my lack of sleep is catching up with me, or the pain pills. Hard to say at this point, so..... you'll be getting another glimpse into our family tree :-)

The step I forgot was to divide 110 by 4. Rounded out, that makes my new roulette# 27
Now my person would be Rick Lutjens, my cousin on my dads side thru his oldest Sister.
I have never met him, and only emailed with him a couple of times and somehow we lost contact again.
1 He spend his early years in Indonesia
2 He now lives in Tasmania
3 He has one son and one daughter

For the full effect of this, you HAVE to go to Jean's genealogy side of her blog. Thru lack of information on my 2 people that came up, this post is really a very watered down version of what it should be.

It DID spark the genealogy/research bug again, so be prepared to see more family tree information soon LOL.

Before I forget, for the 3rd day running..... I'm doing  the progressive scrap at DigiDesignResort again this month. We're on step 2, and I THINK I have a plan, but how that turns out depends on what our ringmaster has up her sleeve this time......... I'll show you when I get done, or stuck, whichever comes first.

For now, I'm going to say goodnight, and see if I can sleep tonight.... If not, I'll be back in a little while

just one more winter picture....

HI,

I know, there's way too many, but I LOVE winter pictures! Can't help it. Once a snowpuppy, always a snowpuppy LOL

This page is made with Snow Much Fun, the January mega at IvyScraps.

It looks strange to me, but alright at the same time. I think it's the pink (not my color) but I'm not sure. If you have an opinion, let me know?

The mega is on sale till the end of the month.

Snow Much Fun

(Couldn't have been a better name for the kit if they tried!!!)

Now, about the mention of pink not being my color ..... Don't know if my memory is the only thing that went wonky with chemo, but Mike just pointed out that THERE IS PINK IN MY BLOG!!! . I went for the shapes and orange and reds, never noticed the pink....... LOL

Maybe next time they send me for a CT-scan, they should include my brain too.... Something to think about. But honestly. I don't link pink. HOT pink, yes, (from bedsheets, to nailpolish, and anything in between has been known to find its way into the house) but "baby pink"? Nope! LOL 

Still working on adds for Flights of Fancy. 

Paris Designs is re-releasing her part of the mega at Deco-pages. CABIN FEVER.

I LOVE that kit. I'm not sure, but I swear there are new things in it from the version I have, and there's 4 brag-book pages that are new too.

CABIN FEVER 

I'm dropping the ball here. Partly because I don't know how to do things, partly because my brain/hands don't cooperate with daily life and partly because of not being able to because of, lets just say "bad days'. I'm inventing a schedule to start following, and I'll follow it, if it kills me LOL. I HAVE to make concessions for "bad" days, but at the same time, I'm going to push myself as long as Mike will let me, or until my body just gives up and puts me to sleep.whichever comes first.  I can't sleep, but I don't have any energy, so.... something's got to give.

I'm going to start walking, half hour at a time, and see how that works. We went grocery shopping the other day, and had to make 3 stops, and by the time I had to get into the truck the third time, my legs wouldn't work, and Mike had to unceremoniously shove me on to my seat. He's been doing this for 18 months now, and now that I'm more aware, it really bothers me. I know he doesn't mind, and he notices before I'm ready to admit that I need help, and doesn't even wait till I ask (He knows I won't unless I'm ready to cry) but I want to do things for myself again. Between physical therapy and occupational therapy, it's getting better, but so excruciatingly slow, that it's driving me nuts!  I keep thinking as long as I don't strain myself, it will never get back to where I used to be..... catch 22 at its best!

Below are 2 Christmas cards I made with the kit when it first came out in 2008.

Well, I've been up since 8.30 yesterday, and besides dragging, I'm not making much sense, I think, so I'll shelf this post and see if there's a chance at sleep today. I'll even settle for a cat nap LOL.

G'Day!

Crashing later, but I got some scrappin' done .......

Hi all, I just got done playing with the most amazing kits.....

by Elke Romero.

XmasNight 

The XMasNight Add-On 

The Pearls CU collection 

2 freebies at Flights of Fancy digi-scrap By Paris Designs to match her kits Roses for Winter and the combined freebie from Winter Joy and Winter Blues

And  DDD's kit SouthWest Morning. 

Here's the previews:

      

And here is the page I made with them sofar.

Still working on the other one, but this shows you a little bit of the kit...

Go check out XmasNight by Elke Romero

The XMasNight Add-On by Elke Romero

The Pearls CU collection by Elke Romero

I have a really good idea for the pearls, but I can't get it to look right, so untill I have that problem licked, I'm not going to let you see the page......  You ever had one of those moments, where things look a WHOLE lot better in your head than on paper? Yeah! That's the one! LOL

The following page I made with the freebie I found on Flights of fancy's blog It's "related" to Roses for winter .  Alright, I KNEW it was there, but it's still a cool little add-on to the full kit!  

I wish I could figure out how to post the add for Flights of Fancy..... I'm working on it, but all the Yahoo-Groups I was going to post on, require that you join them first, and explain why you want to join.... It feels a bit awkward to tell them, to advertise for another site, and I don't want to lie, so I don't fill that part in...... I think that may be a reason I don't get any answers..... Well, as soon as my foggy brain clears up a bit, I'll try and figure another way. 

This page I made with Southwest Morning from IvyScraps, DigiDesDesigns.

Its a real soft kit, but definately South West! I also saw that she has a matching kit out..... 

South West Evening! Together, or alone, they would make that special South West picture, extra special... Who can pass that up?

Wow, not sleeping has its advantages! I think I may actually be ahead of the game this month...... Need to post the pages to 1 more site each, and I'm caught up, and it's barely halfway thru the month!

Too bad my brain doesn't keep up with me this month though! I've been trying to get my head around setting up a Thunderbird account for the Flights of Fancy newsletter, and in the process I wiped out all my emails on one computer, and seriously fubarred my email on the other..... and if it had worked that would have been a small victoriy, but it didn't........

So, in that respect..... I'm a little behind LOL.

Does that even things out?

Oh, I don't know......

Later!

A little advertising for a new friend

actually, it's a new shop from an old friend.

Some of the designers from Deco-Pages have gotten together, and started a new shop.

FLIGHTS OF FANCY DIGI_SCRAP

If you like what you see (and I'm sure you will) leave some love, 

and spread the word :-)

Happy New Year from the new kid on the block!

                                           FLIGHTS OF FANCY DIGI-SCRAP.COM

We’re still unpacking and organizing, but you’re welcome to come and join us. We already have a challenge going on our blog, and of course kits for you to scrap with in the store.  

Now, because we’re not settled yet, and we like our friends to “join in” anyway, how about you tell us what kind of kits we should think about? What do you want to see in your store?  Leave us a comment on our blog, and don’t forget to register at the store, so you’ll receive the newsletters, updates, special announcements and GRAND OPENING information delivered right into your mailbox. No calendar required. We’ll remind you 

There’s a variety of kits already in the store, with more to come, as soon as we get them quality checked, so all you have to do is play when you unwrap them! 

Our designers Paris Designs, P4DSDesignz, Deb Ammermans Designs, Angels Digi Scraps, Theta Designs and Designs by Abbe are busy creating and checking new kits for you create with, so you can Preserve and Share your memories!

Paris Designs has 2 kits that can make one HUGE winter-kit with cute Christmas tree ornaments to accompany your holiday pictures, as well as “just” winter pictures. They’re called  WINTER BLUES and WINTER JOY. And there’s SEASON OF GIVING, a more traditional kit with a variety of coordinating colors.  Great for those more traditional pages, or maybe even getting a head-start on making those Christmas cards …… Brand new is also ROSES FOR WINTER, an overall winter picture kit for all those "cold" pictures that don't fall under Christmas, but that you STILL want to show off.

P4DSDesignz’ HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011 speaks for itself. What it doesn’t tell you is the muted red, blues and greens and the unique elements.

Deb Ammermans Designs has different parts that, together, would make for one bundle of coordinating inspiration. BROOKLYNS CHRISTMAS is broken down into “the complete page kit”, “the elements”, “the papers”, and my personal favorite a “10 page quick-page album”! She also has WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS TIME. It's a Christmas kit with bright and lively colors.

Angels Digi Scraps rounds out what’s in the store for now with HOLIDAY FEVER. This is a soft, traditional, holiday kit. She offers it as a complete kit, or you can either get the papers, or element packs. 

Here are a couple of things you need to know:

    * Our store is at: 

             http://flightsoffancydigi-scrap.com/boutique

    * Our blog is at: 

            http://flightsoffancydigi-scrapcom.blogspot.com

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The Flights of Fancy Digi-Scrap Family

PSSSSSSSST......... I think I saw a freebie on the blog this morning!

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YUP!
It's 2.30 and one week into the resolve to keep up with LIFEBOOK, and I flunked  in Capitals. Not proud of it, not really ashamed either, come to think of it LOL, just thoroughly frustrated!
Just one of those things. I know what I want to do, have the sketch ready, papers picked, photomask ready, journaling set up, to what I want to tell and than..... nothing. Can't find the graduation book from basic, with the pictures I want to put with the journaling. Came up to 3 pages too. (A record for one subject, so far) It's all saved on the Tera-drive (the same one I'm trying to organize) and it will stay there, until I find what I'm looking for. I guess that at least the planning is there, and the pages will be done to the point of adding pictures, but that still leaves me feeling like I'm not keeping up..... I hate this living out of boxes. I used to know exactly where every book or piece of information was, now I don't even know which box to look for, let alone, where that box would be. Of course, not having brainpower enough to remember what you're looking for if you have to look for longer than 5 minutes, doesn't help matters much either. We made a resolution though, Mike and me. We're going to go thru every box we have, and make 3 piles of the content. Keep, give away and throw away. (I added another one, but Mike doesn't know that yet - the "HAVE TO THINK ABOUT pile......)
After that, we will still have boxes, but at least I'll know what's in which box! And we made a deal. My genealogy/photo things will stay in the house. WHOOHOO!!!   Did I mention we're going to put everything that's in a box, on a list, with the box number? ONE of these days, we're going to be organized enough to find what we're looking for! LOL

Well, gotta run, Mike has an early day today. He'll be home in a little over 2 hours, and I want to have dinner almost ready when he gets here....  After dinner, we'll be moving the livingroom around, so we have room to empty and re-pack boxes without tripping over things while we sort thru them, and at 8PM, I have a chat for Lifebook.......

Talk soon, and don't forget to check out FLIGHTSOFFANCYDIGI_SCRAP.COM

                               

had some time.....

and scrapped a bit last night. Couldn't sleep, been up since Tuesday 5.30, so I should crash soon LOL.  (Or at least hope to)

Visited a webinar on the Legacy site. How to use google for genealogy research, and let me tell you, there's a lot of stuff out there I had no idea existed.

I'm going to make this short and sweet, before I slam a salad together and call it dinner. While I'm having said salad, I'm going to put in Hunt for Red October, and see if I can nap a bit before Mike gets home.

Here's 1 page I made.. I haven't decided yet, where/if I'm going to post to any of my galleries yet.

Here's the one that I made for my POINT IN TIME challenge at The Digital Scrapbooking Studio

Since Mike loves Steam-punk and actually is actively finding elements and papers to add to "his" pages, this one is going in his "lifebook". I'm going to try and keep up with the schedule at Heritage Scrap for that. Sofar, I'm not doing too great. It's mainly because I either make it up as I go along, or I try to get the information from hubby.... And since it's his life..... Let's just say it takes a bit of coaxing LOL! And than, there's the issue of not having a clue where the pictures and/research is that I DID have........

OK, time to go. Talk soon.

SNOW FUN

Actually it's called SNOW MUCH FUN
It's the January Mega at IvyScraps.  It's a great kit, with colors that make you want to bundle up with some hot chocolat, but I bet it would be good for baby pictures also, and pretty much anything in between LOL

I had my first page together about 12.30 New Years Eve, so actually, I guess half an hour into the new year, but I have ransacked the post so many times, trying to "fix" and add things, that I almost lost the entire thing a while ago, and decided I better quit while I'm just a little bit behind, and start a new post.
SOOOOOO........

Check out the previews of the kit:

and the CT gallery for some inspiration , although I'm pretty sure, once you look at the kit, you won't need our help to make wonderful pages!

Here's the page I made today. My mind is still mulling on others, but my hands are urging me to give the computer a rest for the day, so that will have to be the last one of the day.

BEFORE I GO, there is a challenge going on at Flights of Fancy DigiScrap . Go have a look, and check out the store. It's filling up nicely, but we're not ready for the GRAND opening yet. Bear with us on that. Before the kits hit the stores, they go thru Quality Control, so you can be assured that when you "unwrap" them they're ready for use, and you won't have to tweak them, unless you absolutely want to! LOL

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We actually MADE IT till Midnight LOL
That hasn't happened in quite a few years... It's tough getting old! HA!

To stay awake, I played with the pictures I took on my walk this week, and the new MEGA from Ivyscraps. It's called SNOW FUN.

 It's a labor of love of  6 designers, with 54 papers and 83 elements in  cool blues and greens, and even some pink. It has snowmen, penguins, buttons, frames, snowflakes and all kinds of fun stuff to add to those cold pictures! I think, it may even work with baby pictures! (I'll have to borrow some from my sister to test that theory, but I'll try)

Here are the previews of the kit, and links to the store. While you're there, check out the what the CT's have come up with so far.  I'll post my pages here, as I get them done. And here is my FIRST lay-out of 2011!

My wish for just a date.....

didn't come true. There was more to be added to my teddybear lay-out than I wanted, BUT.... It turned out pretty neat, even if I say so myself!  If I change my mind, I may take off the wire, and re-arrange the cluster, but the blended picture of Perky, is definatly there to stay.... We'll see.

Granted, I haven't done a whole lot of them, but I don't think I've done a progressive scrap that had this many twists, turns and flat-out switchbacks as this one.... Nobody got stumped to the point that they quit though and that was cool! Go take a look at: Progressive Scrap Gallery

Here's my final result.....

I'm going to look at the pictures I took Monday, and see if I can put some pages together. Maybe even practice extracting..... There's a way to include the little fuzzies in hair and such, but I don't remember where I saw the tips, so I'm just going to play, and hope I remember what I did, when I get there LOL 

There's no way this side of the universe (barring a lottery win) that I'll be printing them, but it IS a nice way to spend a wintery, cold, rainy, better stay inside day LOL. As long as I have my helper nearby, full coffee-cup and some music.... I can hibernate as good as the next bear! LOL 

If I could only have a view of our Christmas tree while I was doing it..... deep sigh!

Tomorrow is supposedly a nice dry day of 48 degrees, so we'll make a trip to storage, and see what we have that we can do without, and maybe (gasp) even find things we've been looking for to take home with us....

Stay safe, and have a VERY blessed 2011!

Life goes on.....

Well, Christmas is over (Tree is staying for a little bit longer though, don't want to lose that holiday feeling yet) and life goes on. Mike is back to work, after 1 day off. I have 2 doctors appointments and 1 test this week, and than it's 2011 already....... I pretty much lost out on 2009 and 2010.... I'm hoping I'm going to enjoy and remember 2011!

We have things we would like to do next year, wishes for each-other, and a small leftover supply of optimism that we are keeping close to our hearts. We've learned over the last 18 months, that Murphy's Law, is anything but a myth.... Anything that CAN happen, WILL happen.... and we don't want to jinks anything LOL

Did my picks for LayOut of the Week at Ivy.... tough one, and I was sooooo glad we were given extra time this week.... I keep thinking it's Monday, and I about had a heart attack! I thought I had missed it again. Than realized it was Sunday, and went in a panic, because it was after 10! (WAY after 10)   But found out that we had extra time... THANKS DENISE!!!

Just put the finishing touches on the 4th step in the progressive scrap at DigiDesignResort... I'm out of ideas! SO GLAD there's only one step left, and I hope that amounts to nothing more than putting a date in! LOL

Not sure how these work, but I'm quietly thinking that Elaine goes thru the gallery to figure out what the next step should be to keep everybody thinking LOL It's fun though. When I started, I would have liked to leave the page "as is", but now that I added things, it DOES look better..... 

Last step should be done by the 31st, and than I have to get cracking on the next MEGA from IvyScraps.... Haven't heard anything about it yet, so I'll be as surprised as you are!  The December kit was so much fun, I've been trying to take pictures to match the kit, so I can play some more LOL. That was probably not the smartest move I've made in a while, but hey..... Gotta have some fun too.

Made moms potato salad for Christmas.... well, let me rephrase that, I instructed Mike on what to do next. I tried peeling potatoes, and was about one and a half spud into 2 pounds, when my hands were cramping so bad, I couldn't even hold on to the knife, let alone work it without risking serious injury, so after that, My ROCK took over. He's soooooo cool! I didn't even have to ask. He just came in, parked my butt on a chair in the kitchen, and started! We have an agreement. I try, and if I need help, I'll ask. Sofar, it's the "I try" part onlybecause I still have a hard time asking for help. Mike knows when to let me be, and do things at my speed (A snail would beat me, most times) and when I'm so frustrated with myself, that I'm ready to cry. And than he just quietly comes in, and takes over..... Don't know what I would do without him.

Didn't send any cards this year, again..... BUT, atleast I had enough sense to send some thru email.... I KNOW I forgot a bunch of people, and I hope they'll forgive me. I tried over time, to keep reconstructing my email address book, every time my computer blows up, but..... you know how that works, right? LOL 

AND! drumroll please.....

The store at FLIGHTS OF FANCY 

is set-up, and open. The GrandOpening is not there yet, but... go take a look and sign up for the news letter, so you don't miss it! 

(Yours truly puts the NewsLetter together, so I'll let you know when it's available on the site, but... it never hurts to get an advance copy in your email! Am I right?

Gotta run, maybe I'll catch up with you before years end, if not 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Did you ever.....

Google for blog-trains?
I hadn't, until today! MAN O MAN did I NOT know what I got into LOL

I had on the calendar that on the 15th, a blog-train would start, but in  my foggy state of mind, never bothered to add where.... so, since google is pretty much my best friend, I did a search, figuring "how many can there be?

i should have smelled trouble when it came up with a possible list of extra searches, but no, I just HAD to hit enter.... 478 and 6 zero's!!!!

I quietly closed the search window and started going thru the blogs I look at on a regular bases....

I found the one I was looking for, (the one at bits and bobs) and while going thru it, and catching up, I found 3 more, so.... I'm, going to make my goal this week...Staying out of trouble, more or less LOL

Got some train travel to take care of but just in case I'm not coming up for air before Saturday.....

Have a great Christmas every one!!!

Hugs,

Pauli