TIME FOR ...

With the new year I have all sorts of things that I think I need to be better about making "time for". 

Time for ......

making better choices in my diet!  Who doesn't think about this at the beginning of the New Year?  I started this back in November because when I do this in January it never works.  So far, so good.  I've lost 12 pounds and gone down a whole size.  Hurray, me.  (Thank you, Jenny Craig!)

Time for .....

moving my bootay.  And I mean in a cardio, fat-burning way.  Bill bought me a gym membership for Christmas (which I haven't used yet) and my first subconscience thought was that he thought my bootay was getting a little bit too round.  But then someone pointed out to me that it was all in love and he really only wanted me to be healthy.  The next day he went to the grocery store and brought me back an US/Weekly magazine with the Best Diets of 2011 - a 23-page special.  Hmmm.  I'm telling myself he bought me that because he knows what a kick I get out of the "fashion police" section and that it had absolutely nothing to do with my bootay.

Time for .....

a new Bible study.  And what better than a Beth Moore home study!  I am currently doing one of her Personal Reflections Series entitled David - 90 Days with a Heart Like His.  Click on the link for its availability at Amazon.  Available for the Kindle too!  (Gotta get me one of these!)  This series includes short daily devotions that don't take too much time (so you can't use "being too busy" as an excuse) but that help to get your mind right before starting out your day or laying your head on your pillow at night.  Sections like, "When Husbands Wimp Out" and "Where to Go When it Hurts" - can you relate?? 

Time for .....

A STORY!  It's hard for me to write a post without including some scrapbooking and here is one with that exact same title!  This is Lucy and Grandpa.  It is several years ago, she's FIVE now, but that is why I scrapbook, you know?  To relive the precious moments of my life.  So here it is:

(Click on it, it gets bigger). I totally "scraplifted" (it's legal) this design from here.  I changed it up a little by making it 12x12 instead of 8.5x11 and changed the embellishments.  I don't normally scraplift a design to this extent, but it was so perfect for these photos, why reinvent the wheel?  Thank you, PickleBallChamp (don't know your real name) for the terrific inspiration.  My favorite part of the layout (other than sweet Lucy) are the cute kittens from Crafty Secrets.  It is a page from their Childhood Image and Journal Notes and you can see them here.  They've been around for a LONG time but I never tire of their cuteness.

AND it's Time For ....

a new job!!  Yes, I wasn't even looking for a job, especially with our move to Oklahoma on the horizon, but a good friend was retiring from her sales rep job with a manufacturer's representative company and she put me in contact with the owner of the company.  AND guess what the territory is?  Oklahoma!  Crazy, huh?  So I will be representing several scrapbook manufacturers and gift lines to scrapbook and gift stores across the great state of Oklahoma, a bit of North Texas, and a bit of northwest Arkansas.  I am soooo looking forward to this but am scrambling a bit as it means a frantic trip to Los Angeles in two weeks for a trade show (CHA).

Frantic?  Yes.  Scrambling?  Yes.  So what the heck am I doing sitting at the computer writing this blog?  See you!

Up for a Challenge?

My scrapbooking goal this year is to use a lot of the old product that I have in my scrapbook room.  I'm also participating, for the first time, in some online classes and online challenges - which is proving to be a load of fun!  Here are a couple of the classes/challenges that I've participated in so far this year:

This first is a challenge from the website Two Peas in a Bucket called Scrapbook Stamping / 2011 and taught by Nichol Magouirk.  The specific challenge was to pull out some old stamps and incorporate them into your layout w/out using any black ink.  I used Color Box chestnut roan (everyone's favorite) and prussian blue.  Here's the layout:

The diecut letters are the Cricut Cuttin' Up cartridge (an oldie but a goodie!) and the diecut boot and sheriff's stars are from SVG.com.  They are free SVG images that are sent out weekly in their newsletter (sign up at their website) and then I cut them out with my Cricut.  You have to purchase the software in order to be able to use your Cricut for these types of images but it is very reasonably priced at around $75.  There are two companies that make this software.  One is Sure Cuts Alot and you can find them here.  The one that I use is called Make the Cut.  I understand they are both very good but I can personally vouch for Make the Cut and their terrific customer service and easy tutorials to get you started.  My friend Sheri Skains is an authorized dealer for Make the Cut and at times offers discounts on the MTC software.  She is currently offering it for around $60.  Click on her name to access her website and the discount.  Here is a closeup of the boot and badge:

Cute, huh?  I backed them with a circle stamped with a subtle texture in prussian blue.  Anyway, just thought I would tout this excellent software as I sure get a lot more mileage out of my Cricut this way.  It has not kept me from purchasing Cricut cartridges, however.  :o)

This next layout is a class that I am taking from the great Ali Edwards at Big Picture Classes.  It is called Yesterday & Today and started Dec. 30 and goes until the end of March with a class posted every Thursday.  I LOVE this class.  The goal is to complete 12 double-spread layouts using pictures from "yesterday and today", of course.  This is the title page:

What I learned in this first class:

• How to enlarge a print to 8x10 while keeping the integrity of the photo so it doesn't appear grainy or pixelated.  When the enlargement spitted out of my printer, I gasped!  It was weird to see a baby picture of myself so LARGE!  I can see glimpses of my daughter and granddaughter in this picture.  And, unfortunately, my knees still look like that. :o(
• I also learned how to shrink photos to a smaller side as on the left of the page.  Shrinking is easier because you're not blowing out the pixels.  The photos on the left are also in a strip.  They weren't cut out individually and adhered to the page.  This is cool because I can now make an entire collage of smaller pictures in Photoshop and print them all out at once.  I will definitely use this technique.
• And, I learned how to change the color of a .png file to match my cardstock or pictures (the title in the case of this layout).

Ali provides a layout to make for the week, so the design of the layout is not my own.  She gives you the basic layout and you just customize it.  I just added my own colors and the hand stitching at the bottom of the page. She also provides .pdf and .png files for titles, etc.

Rather than design, the class focuses on telling the story behind our photos from yesterday and today and includes a lot of digital tricks for working with old photos.  We had to come up with 12 stories that we wanted to share with the help of appropriate photos.  I really LOVE this class and if you haven't checked out Big Picture Classes, you really should.  They offer many free classes/workshops and since they are all online, you can attend in your pajamas - my favorite part! 
   

Doin' the Tulsa Turnaround!

I just returned home from a week long adventure traveling with my husband (Bill) while he worked in Oklahoma.  We hit every small town in the northeast quadrant of the state!  Our homebase was at the home of our good friends, John and Mary.  We will most likely be moving to the great state of Oklahoma sometime this year, so it was fun scoping out communities that we might possibly call our home.  My favorite so far?  Claremore - home of the famous Will Rogers.  Wouldn't he have made a great neighbor??

Claremore is a small town surrounded by horse and cattle properties and very peaceful.  And I'm told it is also where Garth and Trisha make their home.  Maybe we could be neighbors!  Probably not.

Things that you see A LOT of in Oklahoma:

• Indian Casinos!!
• Sonic Drive Ins and Taco Mayos
• Coney restaurants (who knew???)
• Dollar General Stores
• towns that end in vowels:  Kiowa, Atoka, Checota, etc.
• towns that reference Indians:  Broken Arrow, Tecumseh, Seminole, Shawnee, etc.

and my very favorite thing of all:

• the Big Blue Whale!!!  I love odd roadside attractions and Bill is happy to humor my obsession.  We stopped again at the Big Blue Whale located on historic Route 66 in Catoosa (note the vowel ending) and this is a scrapbook page that I created in 2002 on a previous visit.

I'm glad to be home ......

Meet Freaky Harold

His given name is Harold.  I added the adjective myself.  Rather self-explanatory, right?  You are not seeing things, one of his eyes glows red.  Not just in photographic situations either.  Sometimes he'll peer at you from around a corner and that freaky eye glows an eery red.  I'm sure it has everything to do with the light catching it just right - but he still freaks me out.



Other freaky things about Freaky Harold:

• He has one blue eye and one brown eye.  This is, in itself, very freaky because you can't tell where the pupil stops and the color starts in the BROWN eye, but it is very evident in the BLUE eye, making one eye look larger than the other.
• Harold can dance around on his hind legs for a freaky amount of time.
• He makes this strange warbly, cooey pigeon sound. (Which he does randomly in the middle of the night).  Freaky, I tell you.
• Harold can balance on his front legs.  He literally supports his body weight on his front feet!  I really want to cultivate this talent further as I'm sure he has a future on a segment of David Letterman's Stupid Pet Tricks. 
• He also snorts like a pig.  I think this is because his face is so flat his sinus passages are all crunched up.  And the walls really rattle when he snores.

Anyway ... Mick (our eleven-year-old Australian Shepherd) tolerates him.  Mick snarls at his puppy antics but always welcomes a good snuggle.

I'm very worried this glowing red eye business might be contagious, however.  This is the picture I took of my grand daughter at her recent Christmas program.  Yikes!

At least she doesn't walk on her hands.

Happy New Year!!

I have a feeling this is going to be a GREAT year.  Just something I'm feeling in my bones.  I need a good year - I'm DUE a good year - and what better way to encourage such greatness than to start a blog.  I've been tossing this around for awhile.  Actually I've been resisting the idea for awhile but decided it a great way to share my passions with anyone interested.  And how did I ring in this new year??  With my favorite past time - scrapbooking.  Here is what I created last night while watching the new year festivities in NYC (and worrying that my adult children were out on the road with the crazies!).

Photos of two of my sweet grandsons - Jaxson and Morrison.  (If you click on it, it gets big.)  I love to do layouts from sketches and while this wasn't from a sketch, I did hijack the layout from here (thank you Sarah Milne!).  I modified it a bit to work with my photos.  Did a bit of doodling ... but kept the main idea.  Fun interpretation, I'd say, and who doesn't love a classic Van Halen lyric??

Okay ... so this is a start, eh?  Now if I can figure out how to make some snazzy title for the blog rather than the pre-fab, Times New Roman version that comes with the blog template we'll be in big business!