Life... One Step at a Time

Wow, I haven't blogged in forever!

I just didn't realize how long it has been since I blogged on Typepad!

A lot of things have changed in my life in the last year or so. Well for that matter, a lot of things have changed in my life over the past four years. I have lost a home to a natural disaster, bought a new home, moved to a new state, lost loved ones, had two kids start high school, I have a kid getting ready to graduate high school, have had a few health issues, and some personal stuff that has perhaps been the biggest change of all. Regardless, through the evolution of these events, I have become a much stronger, happier person, and am ready to dive back into life full-force!

Watch out - I just may blog TOO much! HAHA!  ;)

Loving the iPhone!!

This phone is absolutely incredible! This is the first photo I have taken with it and the quality is pretty good! The down side is that the iPhone battery is not long-lasting, so of has to be charged frequently.

Two thumbs up for the new iPhone!

A new Chicken Soup for the Soul call for stories!

I just received a new call for stories for Chicken Soup for the Soul - High School. Details are as follows:

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Teens Talk High School to be published Fall 2008

We are looking for true stories and poems about your high school years.  We prefer stories written in the first person and no more than 1200 words.  We would like to include stories and poems on the following topics, among others:
. Regrets (lessons learned from making bad choices)
. Sports (making the team, or not.  Winning the game, or not.  Social aspects of sports).
. Clubs
. Music
. Religion and faith - its place in your life
. Dating and sex
. Embarrassing moments
. Humorous moments
. Issues, good and bad, with instant messaging, Facebook, texting, cell phones, emails, the web in general
. Self image, self acceptance - would include coming out, eating disorders, different body types
. College applications
. Grades, SATs, ACTs
. Military decision, trade school, or other non-college plans for after high school
. Family relationships - siblings, parents, other family members
. Puberty - early, late, being a short boy, being a tall girl, etc.
. Friends - best friends, losing friends, cliques, support of friends
. Tough issues - divorce, cancer, suicide of friend, death, drunk driving death, pregnancy
. Failures and rising above them

If your story is chosen, you will be a published author and your bio will be printed in the book.  You will also receive a check for $200 and ten free copies of your book, worth more than $100. 

If your story is published by us, we will copyright it in your name and you will retain your rights to resell the story to another publication.

SUBMISSIONS GO TO http://chickensoupforthesoul.com/form.asp?cid=submit_story
DEADLINE IS June 15, 2008 although we may accept stories after that date if we have room.

I have been published in a Chicken Soup book and the authors are a pleasure to work with! Best of luck!

Wow, that's a long time.

Well, it really has been a very long time since I posted! My sincerest apologies for not updating, as my life has been crazy hectic for the last... 8 months or so? Most of the hectic stuff has been good; a few bumps in the road along the way but that is to be expected in this crazy game called life.

I am still scrapbooking like crazy, although the recent changes in the industry (and individuals involved in the industry) have caused me to be much more cautious about the choices I make in regards to whom I design for, whom I associate with, etc. I will try to post some recent work very soon!  :)

Life with teenagers in the house has become very interesting. There is never a dull moment to be had with a new driver, an independent 14 year old girl, and a talkative 9 year old that keep me on my toes. I got my insurance adjustment in this month after adding Matthew to it (he got his license in December - look out Frisco!) and HOLY COW it is nuts! Good thing he is getting the good grades discount, drivers ed discount, etc. or else I am afraid I would have to get a second job just to pay the additional premiums!

Here is a layout I did a while back highlighting the kids' first day of school this school year. Unfortunately the picture is a little wonky and a scan wasn't possible, due to the lumpy junk I added, but you get the idea. I wanted to take several photos on the morning of their first day back and form them into a collage with notes about each photo, so I came up with this.

Alright, I know this is a short update, but it is late (early? Y'all know me!) and I need some ZZZZzzz's. I promise to update more often!

Peace.

Sorry for my lack of updates!

I have been so busy lately, but I wanted to pop in and give some updates about me and my family.  :) Matthew had all four of his wisdom teeth taken out on Saturday, so he has been in a lot of pain for the last couple of days. Today is the first day of school that he has missed this school year, and he won't be going tomorrow, either. Luckily next week is Spring Break for the kids, so he will be able to heal. No trumpet for him for the next two weeks.

I remember having my wisdom teeth removed a few years ago. I never got any wisdom teeth in until I was 27 and oddly enough, I only had two! Both teeth on the left side of my mouth - one on top and one on bottom. The surgeon said it was very strange that I didn't have any on the other side, and they even did extra x-rays just to be sure. So at least I only had half the pain, but I would gladly endure childbirth all three times before ever going through the pain of having wisdom teeth removed again. That was terrible, but I am a complete wimp when it comes to pain.

I received a wonderful box of American Crafts goodies! Here are a few of my favorite items from the shipment:

These felt letter stickers are awesome! Here is my favorite sheet of new patterned paper:

And these ribbons are pretty cool, too:

I also got a box of new CherryArte! I am in love with the "Alien Invasion" paper - it looks like Space Invaders, and of course the Retro lover in me thought that was the coolest ever!  :) Here it is:

The color scheme is awesome. There were many others that I loved too, so just check out all the new releases if you haven't done so already. Can't wait to dig into their new stuff!

I am finalizing my projects for the Canada Crop for Kids event in October. I finished up another project for BHG last week and have a few other surprise things that I have been working on, so I will share more with you when I am able!

Before I go, I will share yet another deal with you for free prints! You know how I love those free photo deals! CVS is offering 30 free prints, just click here! Order your prints and pick them up at your local CVS store in just a few hours. Offer is good for existing CVS photo members as well as new members, so go get those free pictures!

Random things going on around here!

First, I am so proud of Domonique. Yesterday was her first cross country meet in Frisco and her school took first place! I was worried that her asthma might act up - and - it did about halfway through the 3 mile event; however she said that she just kept going and breathing deeply and then everything was fine. The weather was absolutely beautiful! It was around 72 degrees after school when the meet started, and after having a bit of cold weather the last few weeks, the warm weather was very welcome. Then today it was 42 out and drabby gray! Ah well, we certainly enjoyed the gorgeous sunshine yesterday while it lasted!

Domonique wants to try out for cheerleading in May at her middle school, so we are enrolling her at a gymnastics training center here in Dallas so that she can work on back handsprings, tucks, and other stuff for cheerleading. She is pretty excited about starting next week.

I just took some tuxedo brownies out of the oven for Alex to take to his school's silent auction tomorrow night. They smell really good and I wish I could eat one! Yes, I am up baking brownies at 3 AM! LOL! Seems like all my creative energy comes to me very late (or early, depending upon how you look at it!) and that is when I get the most projects finished.

Many of you have e-mailed me and asked me where I find some of my good deals that I post here. Finding bargains has always been a hobby of mine, and I actually have an e-zine that I send out periodically with great deals, freebies, bargains, etc. so if you would like to join (it's free, of course!) you may sign up here: Oustanding Deals list

Ok, I am off to bed!

I love Clark Color prints!

I guess I lied.

I really do have one resolution that I made, thanks to my dear friend Melody Ross at Chatterbox. Last February, when all the Chatterbox designers went to the Chatterbox retreat in Idaho, Melody really inspired me with her discussion about digital pictures. Many of us who are strictly digital (myself included) can probably identify with this, but she really hit home with me. She spoke about how it doesn't do us any good to have all these archives of photos sitting on our hard drive unless we get prints of them so that our kids can look through them. Now don't get me wrong, I realize that some of you may be superwomen and can scrap all of your photos, therefore eliminating the need to just have prints made, but I am not a fast scrapbooker, so I have literally thousands of digital images sitting on my hard drive, with no way for my family to really view them. So Melody inspired me to resolve to get prints of my images (even all the less than stellar ones!) and put them into simple acid-free photo albums so that I can leave them out for my kids to look through whenever they want to.

That being said, Clark Color online had a great sale last week on digital prints (and they send great sale offers periodically to their customers!) so I took advantage of the deal. I had several hundred photos printed (just of Christmas and New Year's alone!) and they came in yesterday. The quality of the prints is outstanding! I knew it was worth it when my kiddos came into my office and saw the stack of photos; immediately asking me if they could look at them! I saw smiles on their faces as they remembered the events from the photos. Priceless to me, to say the least!

So get some digital prints made and don't keep those pictures stashed away on your hard drive! To get you started, try Clark Color! Click here to register - New customers get 20 free prints! Shipping was fast and inexpensive, plus my photos came carefully enclosed in a sturdy box mailer to keep them safe during transit.

Thank you, Melody! You have changed my life in so many ways!

Need decorating help!!

Alright, why is it that I can create a piece of art on scrapbook paper (art - if you want to call it that! HAHA!) but when it comes to decorating my house, I am at a complete loss??

Here we are, a year and a half after Katrina, in our new house, and my walls are still white. Yes, boring, plain white. Even the kids' rooms are still white! So I need some serious suggestions on painting this house, and hope that you can give me some ideas.

Let's start with the main family room. Here is a photo of it in all its bareness, and you can suggest what color to paint the walls. Please keep in mind that my furniture is a soft camel color and I am thinking about accenting the room with cranberry and sage green. Does that sound ok? If so, what color should I paint these walls? The family room is open to the kitchen and I want an Italian theme in the kitchen (with grapes, wine motif, etc. so the cranberry will carry over nicely). The family room has a two story vaulted ceiling and tons of windows. I want the mantel to stay white.

Help! Any ideas for me??

Love these cookies!

I adore these cookies! We make them every year around Christmas time and now they are all gone, so I might make some more! So tasty! Here is the very simple recipe:

Jam Thumbprint Cookies

1 c. butter
1/2 c. sugar
2 c. flour
2/3 c. jelly or jam

Soften butter. Add flour and sugar; mix well. A small amount of water may be added to the dough to facilitate mixing. Roll into 1/2 inch balls. Flatten with a glass dipped in sugar. Indent center. Add 1/2 teaspoon jam or jelly. Bake at 350 degrees until slightly brown. Makes 3 dozen.

Have an awesome cookie recipe? E-mail it to me! I am looking for some more really good recipes!

Mountains of laundry.

This is what my laundry room is beginning to look like. Nope, not out of laziness, but because my washer is BROKEN! The stupid thing stopped draining water, so we called out Maytag and the pump went out! This thing is only a year old! And that, my friends, is why we buy the three-year extended warranty! So it won't cost a dime to have it fixed, but because the parts are on order, my laundry is piling up in the mean time. More time for scrapbooking, right? HEHE!

Here is a page I did for the December issue of BHG. I used a dingbat that I found online for the gingerbread "cookie", then mixed artist's gesso with acrylic paint to make the "icing". I sprinkled glass beads onto the gesso while it was still a bit wet to mimic the cookie sprinkles, then let it dry before adhering the gingerbread man to the layout.

I am starting on some more projects for the May/June BHG issue and some layouts for Chatterbox for CHA! Whew! When I can, I will post some more projects!