Internet Addiction?

yep, I am still sick, but at work, have a terrible headache but I can't go home even if I wanted to because my car is in the shop. ugh, oh and now I am spinning great! Anyway, I just saw this on yahoo - I get all my weird random facts from whatever happens to show up on the homepage there. But I found this one really intersteing because I have been wondering if Seth and I might be suffering from it, but on the other hand, it doesnt seem like an addiction to me, but rahter a procrastination technique - a way to avoid reality. but then again, isnt that what most addictions are really?


here is the article:
http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/87251
and this part I found particularly thought provoking:
"Recent studies are surprising, indicating the problem is worst not among game-obsessed teens, but rather among middle-aged women who stay at home, constantly on the computer as a way of connecting to the outside world."

Happy Easter!

I am feeling like crap today - yep started coming down with a cold yesterday and today is going to be the day where I just want to sleep all day. Kinda stinks! But Ellie was thrilled with the basket that the bunny left her. And since I havent gotten those pics yet, here are a couple pics of her from Friday after our trip to see elmo. I know they arent the best photos from a technical standpoint becasue she has the light coming from behind. But hey, with a toddler you take what you can get. She was in a good mood and posing and I thought the hat was going to come off in a minute so I snapped away!

The rest...

First some thoughts of the day.

1. Les's (from scrapwords) daughter Emma is in the hospital. We are all very worried about her. If you are the praying type, please keep her in your prayers.
2. Tomorrow I am going with Eliana, my mom, sister, brother-in-law, neice and nephew to see Elmo live. Can't wait! I will be sure to take lots of pictures! A chance to try to hone my indoor photo taking skills.
3. I just watched a segment from good morning america about how to save $800 a month! I seriously doubt that we could save that much, but I did get some tips. I think I really need to do a budget and figure out just where our money is going so we can start cutting some corners. (and maybe so my scrapbooking addiction can stop taking all the blame!)

Now for the rest of the pages from this weekend:


paper from KI memories, epoxy buttons from making memories, card from DCWV, misc chipboard, stamps, ribbon and embossing powder


papers from the scrapperie Dec kit, and some cosmo cricket, stamp from scarlet lime.


papers and ribbon from the scrapperie Feb kit, felt letters and journaling spot from ymbd.etsy.com , chipboard from making memories

My Sketch World DT!

I am so excited to be able to share this with you. I heard a couple days ago and have been just dying to share it! I was selected to be a designer for My Sketch Blog

You all know how I LOVE challenges and I am really excited{readmore}to be part of my first challenge blog! stop by and check it out! The new sketches are posted on the first of the month!

Tagged!

A- Attached or single: very happily attached!!
B- Best Friend: Renee
C- Cake or Pie: cake !
D- Day of Choice: Saturday because I dont have to get up early, or go to work the next day!
E- Essential Item(s): wallet, keys, camera, journal
F-Favorite type of music: I like a little bit of just about everything! (except country)
G- Gummy Bears or Worms: bears
H- Hometown: middle of no-where, PA
I- Indulgence(s): anything chocolate
J- January or July: July
K- Kids: 1- Eliana
L - Last movie: mmm, can't remember
M- Marriage Date: June 9st
N- Number of Siblings: 1 sister
O- Oranges or Apples: apples
P- Phobias or Fears: ticks, leeches, failure
Q- Quote(s): All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become. --Buddha
R- Reason To Smile: my family for sure!
S- Season: fall
T- Tag: Lindsay (my sis)
U- Unknown Fact About Me: I was a cheerleader in highschool AND college
V- Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animal: Opressor!
W- Worst Habit: leaving clothes out after changing, or glasses half full of water around the house
X- X-Rays or Ultrasounds: ultrasounds
Y- Your Favorite Food: everything! (that is why I cant seem to lose weight)
Z- Zodiac: Taurus/Gemini

a couple new pages

<{readmore}p>This one has Daisy D's stickers from Scrapwords. I LOVE these arrows! I misplaced them among my stash for a while and was really mad that I couldnt find them. Now they are back and I am going to use them by golly! This is just a simple page for a simple photo. Not much story here - none at all really. Just a cool photo that I love, that DH took of DD on our driveway. The house in the background is not ours - but it might as well be - lol! So, yeah, that is what our house looks like, except ours has black shutters. I used my sewing machine to stitch around all the papers and the photos, then threw the arrows on. Simple! That is just how I wanted it.

 

 

This one has some kraft paper that Les was so kind to send to me! and some thickers and a sheet from my new Making Memories journaling notebook.

You can't read the journaling here, but it says: "You sure do love your horses! When I gathered them all up and asked you to sit with them so I could take a photo, the first thing you did was stick out your tongue. Then you settled down and gave me a few canned smiles. Finally, I asked you to hug the horse. Your melodramatic hug made us both laugh! Then you started having fun and I got a few good shots."

Other than that, all the papers and fibers on both of these pages are from my Scrapperie kit.

Ellie quote

Eliana was eating watermelon today:
Eliana: it's juicy
Seth: that's why its called watermelon, because it is watery
Eliana: no, its melony!

and here is a page from this weekend:




The papers are from the Scrapperie Feb Journey home kit, and the bingo card, journaling tag, mini die cut and tickets are from Jenni Bowlin and are currently available at Scrapwords.

easter page, a toot and some randomness

here is another page from this weekend. My easter page!

Love this page! This one also too forever! I just couldnt get it quite right. Every time I have a lot to go on a page it seems to take forever.

This one was for ymbd.etsy.com and you can see it featured on the blog today (and you can win a prize if you go over there and leave a comment!) The journaling tag, white glitter letters, and white felt letters are all from ymbd.etsy.com

the rest of the page is from my noel mignon kit that my wonderful hubby ordered for me!!


So, on to my toot. (which by the way, that word cracks me up and I try not to use it - yes I have the sense of humor of a 10 year old boy, but anything else made the title of this post too long)So, anyway, the scrap goddesses have been good to me lately, and believe me when I say that I am NOT getting jaded. Every single RAK or accolade that I receive fills me with joy. I know that sounds cliche and maybe a bit ridiculous, or maybe just pompous, but its true. So with that, I am thrilled to share my latest joy with you: I was chosen as the trendsetter of the month at scrapsupply.com for my Priceless Moment page.



Now on to randomness. I have been reading this blog Stuff White People Like because sometimes I find it humorous in a dry sarcastic kind of way. Well, today was one of those days. I love this part:

"It is also worth nothing that on this day (St Patricks Day), there is always one trump card that never fails to gain respect and acclaim. When you are sitting at an Irish bar and someone orders a round of Guinness, you must take a single sip and while the other white people are savoring their drink, you say: “mmmm, I know it sounds cliche, but it really is true. Guinness just tastes better in Ireland.”

This comment will elicit an immediate and powerful response of people agreeing with your valuable insight. This statement also has the additional benefit of humiliating the members of your party who have not been to Ireland (and thus cannot confirm this proclamation). Having not traveled to Ireland and consumed a beer that is widely available in their hometown and throughout the world, they will immediately be perceived as provincial, uncultured, and inferior to you."

This cracks me up for various reasons, but one of them is definitely that while I would be the first to point out - while in Germany or Prague or wherever - that the beer tastes the same here as in America. And while in several European countries I have lamented that everything is the same as back home, still I must confess to being one of those people who loves to drop comments about 'the time that I was in Europe' - lol! It isnt so much meant to make people who havent been there feel inferior, but to yeah, brag, about all the things that I have seen and done. hmmm, is bragging the same as making people feel inferior? Plus, I guess to give myself a little credit, the time I spend in Europe was some of the most relaxing, exciting, fun-filled time in my life so I do just enjoy recalling it.

anyway enough randomness. til tomorrow.

This is what it is about

THIS is what scrapbooking is all about. this page took me forever! I have been meaning to work on it since August when Gump passed away, but it was too painful for me, so I kept putting it off. when I finally did start working on it - it took me hours of moving stuff around and trying new things. {readmore}I really wanted to get all these photos, the poem and the quote on there. Actually seth was the one who came up with the idea of using the blue letters for the title.

 

the journaling tag is one of the new Jeni Bowlin tags - I just colored in the dog.

The poem (I wrote the third stanza) reads:

We wish we could have told you,
in words you'd understand,
We wanted you to stay with us.
This wasn't what we'd planned.

We wish somehow to tell you,
How empty we now feel.
A part of us went with you,
A part that time can't heal.

We wish we'd once more hear you,
trotting down the hall
we'd love to hear you bark hello
and see you chase your ball.

We wish we had you back again,
to fill this empty space.
But one day we'll be together
in a far, far better place.

and the quote reads: Dont cry because it's over, smile because it happened.

Here it is framed. I am going to let my dad stain the frame because he probably has stain that matches their house, plus I think it might be something good for him to do.

some random pages

from last weekend:

This is from our vacation in new hampshire. I dont know what brand the paper is, but the circle ( ) tags are from ymbd.etsy.com and the letters are from american crafts and doodlebug. the rub-on is from american crafts.

 

rub-ons from american crafts and CK, thickers from american crafts, fabric from the scrapperie feb kit.

 

papers and stickers from 3 bugs in a rug here at scrapwords, ribbon also from scrapwords. Cardstock from die cuts with a view and bazzill, letter from american crafts.

What's a prolific scrapper to do?

This is from a conversation that a friend and I were having about topics in scrapbooking that have been 'overdone'.

I said: but then that is true of pretty much everything. I mean, there are only so many 'significant events' in our lives (otherwise we wouldnt call them significant) and even those get boring after a while. I mean, yeah scrap your birthday but then you have another birthday next year and the pics are more or less the same and the sentiment is more or less the same.

so what is a prolific scrapper to do?

I find myself constantly bored with my available topics because the ones that I am excited about, I do right away.

--------------------

what do you think? I mean, we are always hearing how the 'hot' pages have one pic and one word titles and that is boring and doesnt tell a story. But how many stories does one person have to tell? I scrap A LOT. I don't intend on stopping, maybe slowing down a little as my pages get more complicated, but my creative time is something that I NEED. So if I don't scrap one word, one photo, no-story pages, and holidays are the same every year, then what do I scrap? Do I scrap my everyday? Yeah, I already do that. I scrap my feelings, my past, my present and my future. I scrap funny things that Ellie said. I scrap trips that I have taken. I scrap parties and holidays (and being in an interfaith family, I have LOTS of holidays). But do people still get bored looking at my pages that repeatedly show similar pictures of Ellie? probably. do I care? not really. But do *I* get bored with those pages? sometimes. do I care? absolutely! I dont want my books to be filled with pages that don't mean anything to me. So what am I to do?

I guess something that compounds that problem is the fact that I have been trying to be more selective about the photos that I scrap. I took about 300 pictures at Christmas, and I scrapped about 5 pages. Could I have scrapped more of those pics? yes, but I didnt want to. In 50 years, I dont need 20 pages about Christmas 2007.

I have a new camera. and I am getting into photography a little - very very slowly. And I know you are absolutely *SHOCKED* to hear that, being that it seems getting into photography is the trendy scrappy thing to do right now. I hate going along with trends, I really do. But I got this new camera mainly because it can take pictures much faster than my old camera. But now I see the photos it takes and it just amazes me! I mean, when I see these photos I think - wow! I could actually take photos like the 'celebs' if I put a little effort in. So far, I havent put any effort in, but I COULD, right?

Anyway, I digress. What I am getting at is that I guess if I take more photos of everyday things then I could scrap them. But is that something I really need to do? I mean, I love nature and plan to take lots of photos of nature and stuff, but would I really want to scrap those photos? arent the photos enough?

I guess what it all comes down to is that I just want to scrap.I dont really have anything exciting to scrap right now, but I still want to scrap. so I guess we are back to the original question: what is a prolific scrapper to do?

had a rough day, made a new card

well, yesterday I had a really rough day, I am blaming it on hormones, but I missed Eliana so much that I left work early. (That is the long story short anyway)

When I got home we hung out for a while, and that made me feel better. Right before bed, I decided to make a card for a challenge at willow traders. Ellie came downstairs with me and I whipped up this card using a becky fleck card map (as per the challenge) in about 15 mins or less! It was fun and I am really happy with it!

I used leftover basic grey paper scraps, a my mind's eye rub-on, a fancy pants stamp, and a new stamp that I got at ACMoore yesterday from My Sentiments Exactly.

I am rather proud of it:

Some Easter and spring cards

Here are a few cards that I made this weekend for challenges at Willow Traders. This first one is an easter card using some labels from Cat's etsy shop - ymbd.etsy.com

and these are a few more that I did using some sketches for a challenge:

 

The one with the big flower doesnt have a sentiment on it, because I planned for that to be the first of several sympathy cards that I want to make to have on hand. And I didnt have a stamp that said 'sympathy' so I left it blank, and I kind of like it that way. The flower is up on pop dots, that is why you see the big shadow.

 The big pink flower on the Thank you card is from the scrapwords store. I had a package of them for a while and I didnt open them because they didnt really speak to me from inside the package, but when I took it out I was pleasantly surprised at how soft and delicate they are! It was the perfect thing for this spring card!

I'm in the newsletter!

I am so excited, I was featured in the Scarlet Lime Newsletter this month!

She had mentioned that she was going to share my work, but then a newsletter came out and she didn't so I thought maybe she said that to everyone. Guess not! Yay!

Just had to share. Oh, and they are going to start up a message board and gallery! I am so happy because I LOVE this kit! I mean LOVE IT!!

the wipe off board to keep track of my weight loss goals was made from the Scarlet Lime kit too! Here it is again because I think it got buried in all the posts I made today.

Won at Method Playground!

I am honestly not sure if it was a 'they picked their favorite pages' thing or if they drew names from a hat, but I don't really care. I am just thrilled to have won one of the RAKs at Method Playground for my 'cupcake joys' page. the theme was 'hand cutting' and I must say that I did some crazy hand cutting here! I worked on this cut work every day before work, so that my hand wouldnt cramp up too much. I love how it turned out though!

'Us'

Here is a page that I made about Ellie and I having fun. I used a lot of Fancy Pants felt on this, and I was goign to enter it in the Fancy Pants felt challenge, but I couldnt get the colors to come out right on the photo. The green is much softer than it looks here. and the pictures are dark and high contrast, but not as dark as they look here. Anyway, these pictures are from when Ellie and I were playing in her 'tent' and there is (or will be) some hidden journaling under the main photo, about how we were playing and she kept bumping her head on that table and yelling for me to kiss it, then bumping it again, repeat, repeat. That is what I am laughing at in the pictures. She wasnt bumping it hard enough to hurt or obviously I wouldnt have been laughing, but it was just so funny that she kept doing it (I dont think she was doing it on purpose - at least not at first)

the felt is fancy pants from scrapwords, the vellum flower is from Cat at ymbd.etsy.com, I dont know what the paper is, the chipboard letters are scenic route, and the brads are autumn leaves.

Copnstantly Inspired

Today, I decided that I just had to share one of my favorite blogs with you all. I have no idea where I came across this blog, but every time I read it my jaw literally hangs opened. Her creations are just so gorgeous and well thought out, and must be incredibly time consuming. And I know that I will never (ok, never say never) follow her fantastic instructions and make something of hers for myself, but still I enjoy just literally gaping at them. so here it is:

Taylored Expressions

Oh, and this inspired me to make a new section of links - "places that inspire me" so look for more additions to that section in the coming weeks.

Can you believe that bag? how she stamped two different colors and lined them up to create the patterned paper like background? just amazing!

My altered wipe off board

At scrapwords, Grace issued a challenge last week to create something that is just for you. I didnt have anything planned for it, but this just came in my head from out of no where. ok, maybe not from no where. I was looking at a Shape magazine and thinking about my failing quest to lose weight. As I planned another tactic, I was thinking about how to keep track of my progress and I remembered this acrylic sheet that came with a kit and I had no idea what to do with it. I decided to make a wipe off board to keep track of my progress towards my healthy living goals each week. I wanted something that I can keep in my kitchen and have it be beautiful and blend in with the decor. and I wanted it to be beautiful so that every time I write on it, I think about how gorgeous it is. the pictures (and I tried three different times) do not do it justice!




The papers in the calories column are a gorgeous peach color. the swirl and fleur d lis are chipboard, painted black and sprayed with hi gloss cover coat. They are there to cover up the glue on the back of the acrylic that keeps the paper on. I used just a little bit of repositionable glue, so that I can change it to have different colors or a different configuration if I need to.

I also used some making memories arcylic shapes, a sparkly creative imaginations brad and some bling. Oh and I made a pen holder too!

all it is really is some of the paper scraps wrapped around the pen cap with a ribbon underneath glued on. But it works! It was necessary because we dont keep pens around our house except in certain very inacessible locations - since i have some scribbles on my couch to prove the folly of that.

Anyway, here it is hanging on my kitchen wall. My kitchen is red and black and yellow with a sort of french theme, so it kind of coordinates


I am just so proud of this! this is my favorite thing I have EVER made! I thought about submitting it, but I didnt know where I would send it and I wanted to share it so much with you all, and I couldnt get a great pic of it.

just a quick post

here is a new page:


Hmmm, the weather here is really weird! It has been unseasonably warm, then all of the sudden it will snow, or just turn frigid. Right now it is pretty warm. I really hope that we get one more snow this year, because even though I hate snow, ellie had so much fun in the ONE snow that we got that we could play in, that I will gladly suffer the hassle of it to let her play in it one more time

A little update on me

I figured that I should give you gals a little update on me because I have been sooooo busy!

So, hmm where to start. Friday night I got some scrapping time and relaxation time. Saturday morning I took my mother-in-law and Ellie to see a children's theater production of Cinderella. It was TERRIBLE! I wasn't expecting broadway but I was at least expecting a high school level. Like my mother-in-law said - her 5th graders could have done better. AND the worst part was that it was sorely mis-cast. The best actress was one of the step sisters and Cinderella was the worst - she was quite, and bland and couldnt sing! Ellie was bored half way through and said, "Im all done!" LOL! But we were parked in so we couldnt leave. oh and I paid $28 for this!!!

Then Sunday we had breakfast with my parents and my neice, then the kids played. Then we had dinner with my in-laws and seth't grandparents, and we were supposed to meet some relatives who were in from Israel but their plane was delayed.

Oh and seth dropped his car off for some maintenence on Saturday, and on Sunday he found out that they did something wrong and messed up the engine and will need to keep it for several more days and give him a rental car (they gave him a mini van which is really funny because seth is really anti minivan) So on Monday we asked my dad (a mechanic) to go talk to the car guys and find out what is wrong. He did, and he said that they said it wasnt as bad as he had at first thought - BUT my dad said that if they didnt get it done by Tuesday that that must mean that they lied and really messed it up. Well guess what day today is? Wed and still no car - so now Seth is on his way to see what is up.

And last night we went to a Kosher Chinese restaurant with the Israeli cousins. It was better than I expected, but still stressful. Oh and speaking of stress - my supervisor just left for a two week vacation and left me in charge along with a pile of work on my desk!

And now for the grand finale! So this morning I am on my way to work, on the turnpike (3 lanes) going 75mph in the left lane with no shoulder when all of the sudden my car stalls! I am luckily fairly calm in a crisis, so first I registered the problem, tried to press the gas and nothing happened, checked the gear shift (yep still in Drive) then started moving into the middle, then right lane as my car slowed down REALLY FAST! I pulled off on the side and put my flashers on and turned it off and back on and it started! I was so happy that it started, but still freaked about what happened. Well then I remembered that my mom has the same car as me and she had this same problem and it was a recall, and it is really a ticking bomb until it stalls and doesnt start. so I had to take it to the dealer.

So now my car is at the dealer and seth is driving a rental, and CALGON TAKE ME AWAY!!!

And now I have a ton of work to do so I have to go.

YITL cards and Balance

Here are my last three YITL cards FINALLY.


Balance - what is balance? to me, balance is finding a situation where I can get all my work done, spend time with my family and friends and still have time for me. Not an easy feat sometimes, but I seem to be making it work lately. I have learned the hard way that I really need 'me' time to scrap. It is my down time and if I dont get it at least once a week, I get stressed even more than normal. Sometimes I feel guilty for taking that time for myself when I already dont have a lot of time with Ellie, but I am getting to the point where I realize that my time with her should be quality over quantity - maybe I could have more time with her if I didnt work out or scrapbook, but I would be miserable and irritable and that is no fun!

My husband the photographer

He says he isnt a good photographer, and who knows maybe the camera did all the work, I mean, I did spend a lot of money on that camera. But really, dont these look a lot like some of the pics that some of the 'well known' scrappers post on their blogs to boast about their photography skills?






this one would be perfect if that car wasnt there. I thought about cropping it after the mound of snow but before the car, but then you miss the rest of the story - being that ellie is looking at penny. awww, maybe I just love my 'kids' too much. but arent they cute?!



And notice here (I don't know what Ellie is doing) but notice in the background, on the sidewalk, there are a bunch of my scrapbook pages from this weekend. Isnt he the best?! He followed my instructions, took the pages outside on the sidewalk to get the best light, took some pics of them and emailed them to me!!

I dont often have time to take the pics myself because by the time I am home it is dark. PLUS whenever I have new stuff to share, I am just dying to do so. But am I going to share these new pages today? the ones that he so dutifully took the photos of? NO! because I am sharing the pics of my kids and how wonderful my husband is. you will have to wait until tomorrow for the pages.

It's time for some March Madness here at Scrapperie! We have lots of crazy fun in store for you; we are going to play games, have fun challenges, giveaways, and we are also having a referral contest with a rockin cool prize! You don't want to miss it!

Our Tres Chic Girls have something exciting planned for you...

All you have to do to is make a minimum of 10 posts per day starting on March 1 and ending on March 31. You will then be entered into a drawing for a fabulous RAK! We will be giving away 2 RAKS per week, on pre-determined days, but we aren't going to tell you which days we are giving them away because we want it to be a surprise! So get those posts in, because you never know which will be your lucky day!!

We are also going to have a little fun and play some Layout Tag. What is layout tag you ask? Well, it's like the Telephone Game (the game where you whisper a phrase to the person next to you and keep going until you get to the last person and then see how much the phrase has changed) except we will be doing it with a layout.

If you want to play Layout tag, you have two days left to sign up! it is going to be so much fun! Oh, and if you do go over and sign up and play March Madness with us, tell them that I referred you and we will BOTH be eligible for ANOTHER prize! woohoo!

Oh and one more thing - one of the first challenges was to change your avatar to something March Madness or Alice in Wonderland related, so there are lots of cute fun alice in wonderland avatars popping up - here is mine:

Quote Storage Box

I thought that Grace's challenge on scrapwords to create some quote storage was really great and couldnt wait to start! I used the recipe box that I got on the Micheals $1 rack and altered it. I filled it with 4x6 index cards and made some dividers in coordinating colors. I smudged out the front because it is extremely similar to my ATCs for a swap so I didnt want to give anything away.





The patterned paper is prima and tinkering ink. then on top I used layers of brown ink and clear embossing powder. I also inked the edges of all the papers and lightly inked to distress the surfaces. On the top of the box I used prima letters, misc trim, button and crocheted butterfly, then I sprayed the whole thing with glimmer mist. Oh and I used pop dots under the letters to keep them level despite being on top of the thick trim. I am LOVING how this turned out!!!. The front that you cant see is a piece of paper cut with scalloped scissors and a few other things and features my favorite quote.

Scrapwords March Theme

Scrapwords is starting a new tradition of having a theme every month. This is the first month and the theme is Fuel your passion, ways to live creatively.

I made this blinkie, graphic, banner thing, and hope to put it on the banner at the site, but for now it is on the homepage.

Check it out, we are going to have lots of articles and challenges and ideas about how to live creatively!!