Christina Renee Designs Sell-Off

Christina Renee has her entire store on sale because as of Oct. 1st, all the old stuff will be GONE! Gone! Gone! So if you love her stuff and have something on your mind that you didn't get yet...you better get it. I know I did. 9 delicious yummies I just had to have before they departed! So visit Christina and get your goodies before it is too late. Oh yeah, and all her stuff is 50% off right now. She's never done that before. It's not the Christina is going anywhere. She's not. Just having a big celebration starting Oct.1 with lots of new stuff!

Let's see...ds was not home after school, and I was miffed because he is on driving restriction. I naturally assumed the worst - that he was using the car and off with friends. Much to my utter surprise and delight, when he got home from work after 11p, he informed me that he had been at work the whole time. He went by work to see what time they wanted him to come in, and he ended up staying because they needed him. How can a mother be mad at such a diligent, hard-working son?

I cannot believe Congress didn't pass this bail-out package. Kramer from "Mad Money" on CNN and Suze Ormon explained this thing in very good detail that even the most moronic of individuals should have been able to understand. But then Nancy Pilosi got up and pissed off a bunch of people with some ill timed comments and so it didn't pass. Partisan politics. Sometimes you gotta keep your mouth shut.

Think of it this way. The farmer goes to buy seeds. He buys his seeds on credit and pays off his debt when the crop comes in. The credit market is lacking funds to loan because of the bad debt so he can't get a loan. He doesn't have money to plant his crops. He doesn't grow his crops. Many of his fellow farmers are in the same boat. They don't grow their crops...get it?

I worked in the S&L industry when the S&L crisis was going on. There was a 3 month period we had no funds to lend. We read the paper, twiddled our thumbs, evaluated current loans. No funds to lend means no commercial loans for businesses, no personal loans for consumers. No mortgage loans for would be homebuyers. Think about the trickle down effect of that in a national economy.

This is serious business. It is ugly business. But if you take the politics out of it, it is simply a matter of survival or we will have the greatest depression far surpassing that of the '30's. The Grapes of Wrath comes to mind. Dust bowls and poverty. The mess we are in will take several years to recover from. Years. Not weeks. Not months. Not one year. It is grave. I'm not being overreactive. I understand. I read. I educated myself. I do have a degree in finance anyway so I get it. I get it really well.

And on that note of levity, I will be off to pull weeds unless it rains. In that case, I will clean, clean, clean.

FREEBIE 11x17 Calendar

Hop over to Rasberry Road to get my calendar freebie using the Savoir Faire Collection designed by Susan Darter. Don't forget to leave a comment!

Tangie Baxter Birthday Celebration and the Teenage Mind

Just had to share that bit of news. I mentioned it yesterday, but Tangie put together her ad! I did a QP for it, which I believe will be part of the giveaways. I can't post it yet, or even the original that lead to the QP...but soon!

And the same thing is happening over at Christina Renee Designs with all kinds of guest artists, freebies, contests and such...for the whole month of October! I've seen some of the freebies, some of the collab kits, and girls, it's gonna knock your socks off!

Ah, the teenage life. Enjoy your babies, ladies, because the teen years are going to drive you nuts. My ds skipped school yesterday for the first time in his life. Mind you, the school has an automated system that calls the home phone if your child is absent from school. So he was snagged. Confessed. Why did he do it? No reason. Loss of cell phone, XBox, and car for one week. I hope that nips it in the bud. He's worked so hard to get to his senior year. I'd hate to see him screw it up and have to repeat! The teenage mind is a marvel. Do we ever really know what is going on in there? I feel a lo coming on...

Calendars Galore!

I'm cruising calendars for Christmas gifts. They are big bang gifts, as in people love them, and they are not hard to do at all! Check out this one by Beth Rimmer at Digitals. It fits right on the Ethan chipboard album by Cosmo Cricket, also available there. Easy and convenient!



CottageArts.net has a delicious selection of calendars in all sizes from CD cases to 11x17 that you can print out and put in an acrylic frame! I'm working on one of those right now and plan to make this terrific CD calendar that I'm showing you here!



And, Tangie Baxter Designs is having a one year BASH with lots of FREEBIES, new releases, and sales starting Oct.1-3. So mark your calendars and pop over. I've been a lucky dog and gotten to see all the stuff that is coming. You know how talented Tangie and her crew are so save your $$ and c'mon over and join in the fun!

Big news on my laptop home page this morning: Clay Aiken is gay. Are they kidding me? Like no one knew? Yeah, he just came out, but pu-leeez, it's not headliner news.

Beth Rimmer and Tangie and Stuff

digi credits HERE

digi credits HERE

I finally got to scrap with some of Beth Rimmer's stuff again! I love her designs. You can click on her blinkie and go right to Digitals to check it out!

I hope that you enjoy my new blog header. I'm giving you a preview. I will post it Oct. 1st. There is a blinking part that says, "Happy Halloween". I made this using some new stamps that Tangie Baxter has at her fab site. Click on that blinkie if you want to check it out!

I keep thinking of things to blog about and then when I get here, I've forgotten! I did have fun this morning chatting with a girl I met several years ago at a scrapping site. We did a bunch of swaps together and hit it off. I even got to visit her on a trip to my brother's once! Anyway, we have alot in common and are currently suffering together as our girls are in the throws of friendship drama.

Spent a whole day with dh this weekend as the kiddies were off at work or with friends. We went to a college game and everything. It was alot of fun. We drank a few beers and ate our little sandwhiches and watched the game. I watched all the fans in the stands, the cheerleaders from both sides and the goings on around me. DH was soooo into the game. I tried. I really did for his sake. I enjoy going. I just enjoy different aspects than he does and am easily distracted by goings on around me! Especially the fish wife behind me who kept yelling with her shrew voice after every play. I have no idea what she looked like, but she was so common and loud. It was really "trashy" as dd would say!

Follow ME!

Do you like to read my blog? Even on occasion? If you are a blogger, you can add me to your list of followed blogs. Select DASHBOARD after you log in. Towards the bottom you will see an tab that says "Blogs I'm Following". Select "ADD" and type in my address. It's that simple! Then you can follow me on my scrapbooking adventure!

If you check on my sidebar, and scrolldown, you can see I follow Rasberry Road CT blog, although I follow others, that is the one I added so far. It gives you choices about what you want to display. I chose to have it display snippets so I can get a glimpse and pop on over if I want to check it out!

POsted at Rasberry Road today

If you are looking for me, I posted HERE today!

Terri Walsh at Digitals and ATC Fun

digi credits: Birthday by Terri Walsh at Digitals


digi credits: Timeless by Terri Walsh at Digitals


Check out Tangie Baxter's ATC stuff by clicking on her blinky!

I made some lo's this weekend. I scrapped my brains out! And I'm still in the mojo! I'm binge scrapping!

Remoulade Sauce (courtesy of Emeril Legasse)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/4 cup chopped celery
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
2 tablespoons prepared horseradish
3 tablespoons Creole whole-grain mustard
3 tablespoons prepared yellow mustard
3 tablespoons ketchup
3 tablespoons chopped parsley leves
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and process for 30 seconds. Use immediately or store. Will keep for several days in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Talk about tangy and delicious. OMG I made this to go over some salmon and as a side to dip shrimp in for dinner. It was absolutely amazing. I highly recommend it. It's easy, but it has a big bang impact. Definitely something you'd want to serve to impress your guests...and it's so easy.

I had to help my dd with a paper on some aspect of Beowulf. Surely she realizes that I have been out of high school more than (ahem) twenty years (egad!). Thank goodness for the internet because I was able to help her organize her thoughts and find examples to complete her paper.

Cottage Arts News and Rasberry Road

credits: HERE, and if you want to leave me some love, you can!!!

This lo is made using the Sunflower Susie Collection by Rasberry Road. Click on my blinke if you want to check it out. And if you like it, a QP based on it will be released on 9/18 at her site! I know, cuz I did it!

OMG! They just said that if you live in a 1 or 2 story house in Galveston, you need to leave or you will die. So my dh put this in perspective for me at our beach house, which is up on stilts, that the water would be up to his neck on the 1st floor at the expected levels. The sea is such a powerful force, that at that depth and ferocity, it would level what was in its path. How scary! I hope everyone listens and evacuates.

DD is still sick. The strep has really wiped her out. I feel so bad for her. I have used all my motherly knowledge to keep her comfortable.

Ds has worked every day this week except Sunday and Tuesday. I'm so stinkin' proud of him I could bust! He hasn't complained one time, well except for trying to keep his check, but his fight was short and he showed up with his insurance $$ for me today. What a good boy!

Cottage Arts has released 2 calendars for 2009 with more to come. HERE to check it out. This is the blurb from the site.

"You can see it comes with alot of goodies for you to personalize the CD calendar: Our very popular CD Case Calendar is back once again...this one having an everyday theme in creams, browns, greens, and blush. The everyday theme comes with 16 monthly calendar overlays (Sept 08-Dec 09), 7 patterned paper ScrapOver Templates, 1 texture overlay (play with layer blend modes for more possibilities), and 4 frame clusters. You can use the plain calendar overlays as they are and simply drag a photo behind them, add the vellum flourish overlay over the photo (beneath the calendar), or use one of 7 different ScrapOver templates with a photo mat opening. We've included 4 of the frame clusters if you would like to use them with other backgrounds or simply on white. Print 2-up on your home printer. Take a CD case and pull it back for a fun easel desk frame (slim line with black back work real well)."

And finally, our news told us there was a shortage of gas and that in some parts of the country, due to Ike, gas had already reached over $5.00. Locally one of our gas stations was limiting customers to 10 gallons each. Now you know with them saying that, it caused a mass panic (in our small town). Walmart was backed up all in its parking lot with people lined up to get gas at each of its pumps. The station at the end of our neighborhood had an accident due to cars lined up in the road waiting to pull off to get gas. Mind, you we decided to fill up since the national news said that the floating oil rigs and such might get damage causing a shortage like after Katrina. OMG! Now, I'm trying to restrict my teenage drivers to ONLY drive where they must and NO hauling anyone anywhere.

A New Rasberry Road LO

I made my lo using the Boys To Men Collection available from Rasberry Road Designs. And then I made a QP based on my lo. To get the QP, if you are interested, CLICK HERE and you can download it!

Oh, I got so many comments about the nasty little cheerleader. Y'all have no idea what a crushing decision it was to leave, but with my hands tied behind my back, it's impossible to effectively coach. So thanks for your support. But some decisions are perhaps the Holy Spirit hitting us over the head for not seeing earlier messages. As bummed as I was, when I hit the lss to sign up make a deposit on an all day crop, she asked me to teach a digi scrapping class! WAHOO! Now that's right up my ally. So I'm jazzed!

I've got a kiddo down with strep. 1000mg of Amoxicillon 2x per day. You know she's puny!

I have a weird allergy that I get on my hand from touching something I am allergic to which erupts into a strange kind of hives that blister and hurt and itch. Today I had two eruptions on my hand. I'm about to go crazy itching! ACK! I'll ask the dermatologist when I see her next.

Ds got his first paycheck from his new job which he so richly informed us that he needed to keep to use towards the car. AHEM! You will put 1/2 of your check in to pay for your insurance son! Driving isn't free. The rest you may have towards gas or whatever. GEEEEZ! What are they thinking?

Saw a cute movie today called "Smart People". Dennis Quaid was in it and that girl from Juno (which I disliked that movie!). It has some very funny lines in it and is a cute movie about a quirky family. I rather enjoyed it and had more than a few laughs. That to me is entertainment!

I guess I am chatty today. Oh well! Thanks for stopping by!

Rasberry Road QP and some ramblings...

The QP for this page is available here: Rasberry Road. Designed by me. Kit by Susan Darter. It is called Boys To Men.

I'm having kind of a bumpy run right now. At the moment, I have a migraine, which I did take some stuff for, and I do have numb, but I can feel it rumbling around.

I want to know what lessons we teach our children when we allow them to be disrespectful to an adult in a position of authority. Instead of letting them take their punishment, we bale them out. Thereby negating any lesson that should have been learned because our perfect child never would have done that.

I'm talking about a nasty little cheerleader I know with a very bad attitude. she disrespected me infront of all her jv and the varsity squad. The head coach gave her 10 demerits, which 11 is enough to be kicked off. Her mother had a stinkin' fit, and the principal said that since I am not a full time teacher, I can't give punishments. I'm the asst. coach. Well, I was. I didn't give the punishment. The head coach did. I've retired. I'm kinda sad about it as I love coaching cheerleading, but I can't coach without any discipline.

Page Maps Debut & More

Check me out in the September newsletter of Page Maps by Becky Fleck. I'm so excited. I've used her sketches for a long time and to finally be a part of it is just wonderful!

Credits HERE

Credits HERE

I spent the day at my dear friend's house doing what we love best: scrapbooking! Wahoo! I made two lo's and had lots of girl time. Now that's a great day!

School Tearz

Credits

Can you imagine? My dh told me to take it easy today, relax, and scrap. HAHAHAHAHAH! OK! I will! So I made this lo! Went back to bed this morning. Drank a diet coke. Ate some popcorn. Watched Oprah. Yeah, that's a great day! LOL!

Not much else to chat about!

Final Brag Book FREEBIE Pages

I was writing a bit of bitchin' about some things that have kind of chapped my hide lately. Then I decided, who really wants to read about that? NOT ME! hahahahahaha

So instead of doing that, I am posting the link to Rasberry Road for you to pop over and get the last 5 pages of my 4x6 Fish Tales (Tailwater) Brag Book Freebie. I hope that you like it, and if you finish yours, it would just tickle me to see what you put together!!! I'm sure Susan, the designer of the Tailwaters kit, would love to see your handiwork, too.

This is my final installment. You should end up with a total of 10 pages all together...the first four, the bonus, another four plus one bonus!



CLICK HERE to download!

What did I love about the Olympic games? Aside from Michael Phelps who just was an unstoppable athlete? Jimmy Page!

me: "Matt! C'mere! Jimmy Page! Led Zeppelin!"
ds: "So."
Did you hear me deflating? Completely lost on my son.

I'm sorry Leona Lewis, but you should just not have sung. It's just trite next to Jimmy. 'Kay! I know they made ya do it, but who really cared about you? HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Freebie 4 Today

I had a run-in with vertigo yesterday. I wanted to finish my brag book, but honestly, you can't do anything when you have vertigo, except take something for it and go to bed.
So all I've got today is a lil' bonus page freebie, and I will get the rest Monday as promised!!! So please come back if you are looking for more!

I will post the 4 final pages and an additional bonus page.

CLICK HERE to go and get your download link!

FREEBIE from Rasberry Road and HILARIOUS band story

Can you tell that I'm going to see Mama Mia? I wonder where my title came from! LOL!
Credits HERE





These are the first four pages I have put together of a 4x6 brag book using the Tailwaters kit by Susan Darter available at Rasberry Road. There will be four more tomorrow.

Click here to download and if you download, please leave a comment! Thanks!

Then I was cruising DST yesterday and came upon this hilarious real life e-mail a woman over there got from the band director at school. I asked her if I could share it because the whole thing just tickled me silly:

Today I was checking my email. I'm a week behind but whatever, it's mostly junk anyway. So I'm checking when I see one from my son's school. Ok, I'm thinking what has he done now, i mean he's only been in school a few days. And he was out sick yesterday and today.

So I open it up to find this.

On Tue, 8/19/08,wrote:

From:
Subject: 7th Grade Band
To:
Date: Tuesday, August 19, 2008, 7:27 PM
I have ______ listed on my Band Roster. I would like to talk with him so that I know what he plays. Please stop in the band room on Wednesday if possible. Thanks Al
Immediately I got the giggles

Below is my response.


Re: 7th Grade Band

Thursday, August 21, 2008 3:41 PM


From:




To:



Mr. ____

I'm sorry _____ did not be stop by the band room yesterday as he was out ill. Here is a list of instruments _____ does play.

Piano- Never formally trained, but he can play chopsticks exceptionally well.

Drums and Guitar- He totally Rocks at Guitar Hero and Rock Band on both instruments. Oh, and he can play a mean Air Guitar as well.

He is also extremely talented as a singer. As his mother I will admit that I'm a tad biased so you can take all of this praise for what it's worth.

Sincerely,

_______


P.S. just for Kicks and Giggles I did ask him if he wanted to join band and he stated that he was not interested. With so much talent to offer I'm sure his presence will be sorely missed.

How come when I get a note home from school it is never funny?

Printing at My Pic Tales: A Review

Okay, my prints came! I'm not going to discuss the uploading at this time as I believe they fixed or are fixing the bugs they had with that.
I ordered 1 8x8 print and 11 12x12.

In order to print, they ask for bleed. Now there are tons of threads at DST about this and even actions for sale if you save your files as a layered PSD. I don't. Frankly, that isn't necessary. I increased the canvas size on each lo to 8.25x8.25 and 12.25x12.25 respectively. I use PSE 5.0 if that matters. Anyway, this made a border around my lo's.

The purpose of this is that in mass printing, they do mass cutting, which means they put it in a stack and chop. I am not sure what type of tool they use for cutting because I used to work in a factory that had what we called a cutter. Now, it would go through stacks of paper the thickness of file folders effortlessly. Anyway, the bleed is so that as the blade goes through the stack and papers shift, you are not getting anything cut off that you consider important on your lo's.

The one 8x8 came back with no bleed are left on it at all. Smart, clean edges as it was a single page cut.

The 12x12 came back with a few having a small area along the bottom. It happens to be a light gray, but you don't even notice it. I am very picky and it didn't bother me at all, but if you were bothered by it, you only have the one edge to trim so it's not like it is all 4.

I am very pleased with the paper quality. It is a nice thickness.

The colors on all my lo's are true. You know how when you used to get film processed, if the person didn't know what they were doing, you might get a greenish cast or a pinkish cast, and they'd have to re-do all you photos? Well, this is not the case.

The printing is sharp. Very high quality as far as I can tell. My 12x12's look fantastic. I can't even begin to tell you how nice they look. And my 8x8 is gorgeous, too. On a bigger canvas, you would definitely notice shoddy work.

So, in closing, I have to say that this place is IT! Their prices are perfect for my SAHM earn-printing-money-through-paypal-sales budget. I highly reccomend them as I am very pleased with my end result. I am pleased enough that I will be placing another order today!

If you have any other specific questions that I might be able to answer, let me know...Oh yeah, shipping was very reasonable and the pages came in protective plastic in a heavy duty cardboard box. There were several options for shipping and I'd say it took my entire order about a week from order placement to my door.

FREEBIE
Click here for a beautiful QP by Cheryl at Rasberry Road.

And right now there are only two entries for the Bucket List Challenge to win a $10GC to Tangie Baxter's Store. Challenge ends today at night so you still have time! Click here for details

I'm Aggravated and Lo's and Rasberry Road Grand Opening

Let's chat first about Rasberry Road. Susan Darter has slated her Grand Opening of her new fully functional site for October 1st. There will be tons of games and prizes so it should be a good time. The new site will include a gallery and forum and blog and all that good stuff, along with her fabulous shop which she has been using Blogger to host.


This lo was made using Wee Lil Wise Guys available at Tangie Baxter Designs. Click on my active blinkie on the side to check out her store. I do still have ds's back to school page to do. At least I'm putting along on my lo's.

I ordered some lo's from My Pic Tales. Still waiting for those to come. I don't know what their turnaround time is. When I get them, I will give a full review.

And lastly, we have decided to sell one of our beach houses. BOOOHOOOO! It's mainly an economic thing in this slowed down economy. Which this economy is eating us alive. It's kind of depressing, and I handle all our bills so I'm feeling all of the pressure. Looming on the horizon is sending two to college a year apart, although all of their tuition is already paid. A fourth car since one will be gone. You know, all the usual home maintenance stuff with a 20 year old house ...plumbing, new dishwasher. I'm coming unglued...back to school. ACK! I know we are all going through it. I'm just venting! Oh yes, and ds is always starving because we are starving him because "we have no food in this house."

Michael Phelps, Thanksgiving Layout

I saw this pic on photobucket. I figured I'd share it. Ummm...Michael...that speedo is really teeny! and yes, I watched every single race he was in because I knew it was history in the making. I really loved when they interviewed him with Mark Spitz. He was very gracious, and it was fun to see Mark Spitz so many years later.

I remember in 4th grade, my girlfriend had a life sized poster of Mark Spitz in her bedroom with his 7 medals around his neck. We thought it was so racy! And HOT! I guess by today's standards, it was pretty tame! LOL!

Credits: Christina Renee Designs, Sherriejd at Tangie Baxter Designs, Rasberry Road.

I made this lo today. It might be a little busy, but I just really love all the kitchen stuff that Sherriejd whipped out at Tangie BAxter Designs. It is not out yet, but soon to be released. Isn't my dh a ham? He can't help himself!

Random comments:
My ds's friend noticed that none of the female atheletes have boobs. He doesn't like it. Now...do they really not have boobs or do their ensembles just mash everything so it looks like they don't have any?
Can you wear a one piece and play beach volleyball or do you have to wear a bikini?
How are the Olympic beach volleyball girls keeping their bikini bottoms from riding up with all that moving?
Are Chinese cats waiting for the volleyball to be over to poop in the big cat box?
Knowing they took dog off the menu before the Olympics in China, would you still be comfortable that no dog was on your plate?

Contest at TBD

I'm hosting the current week challenge at the Tangie Baxter CT Loft. I've posted all the details HERE with a link to the loft, too. Check it out because you can win a $10.00 GC to Tangie's store where you could buy her latest kit: Hip Junkie and still have $$ left over to get more cool stuff!


Some random comments from me:
How come toilet paper used to come in 12 packs and now you only get 8? Have you noticed that? I did today at the store.
Why can't kids use the same towel more than once? When I was growing up, my mom made us use the same towel for a week.