{discovering} life

Freestyle Blog Challenge

Another challenge layout from me this week! :) This one was for the challenge on the Autumn Leaves Freestyle blog to use a crappy photo. Here is a link to my layout if you want to see it: Freestyle.

'Freestyle' isn't necessarily my style, but it was fun to play along this week! I'm always game to scrapbook right! I tried to be more random and not so linear - hope you like it. I'll post my layouts for both the blogs on here tomorrow or Saturday.

Sorry for the short posts -  just busy! Got lots I've got to get done before I leave for Arizona next week. Hope you like the layouts in the mean time! Let me know what your up too - I'll be here checking emails! :)

Have a good one!

the ME Blog Challenge

If your interested, I posted my layout in response to Danielle's QUOTE challenge on the ME Blog this morning.  You can check it out here.

Come play along this week if you have time! It's a fun, easy challenge and you could win a prize too! :)

Thanks for looking!

Hi!

So, I got sick Saturday night right in the middle of the night. Yuck! My stomach has been yucky ever since and now I have a horribly sore throat. Ouch!!!

Hope you all had a great weekend! Hubby and I went out Saturday night to Ruby River - yumma! And then we went furniture shopping - we want to get some new stuff and ended up finding a bed for Hudson! Yeahhh! I really wanted to get this bed from the Land of Nod but it's sooo pricey. I couldn't find anything else I liked though but we found a bed that looks almost the exact same as the one I wanted! So that's awesome! I just hope it comes in soon cause we have got to get this sleeping situation under control with these kiddos!

I'm working on my 'challenge' layouts that are for the challenges up on the Autumn Leaves Blogs: Freestyle and the Me Blog this week. Fun challenges by Danielle and Genevieve were put up and I'm excited that I get to play with them this week. So, I'm working on those layouts. I'll post here when they are up so you can come see and hopefully play along this week - they are great challenges that anyone can do! :)

I ordered some business cards - saw a place that had them for free ... and then I designed my own but it only cost me like $5. Super cool! I got them today and they look so cute! So fun! It will be nice to be able to hand them out at Creative Escape. I keep hearing people that are going - so fun! I can't wait!

Ok - another boring post, I know! LOL! My friend Amy did a 'Ask Amy' on her blog awhile ago...where readers post questions and then she answered them. Anyone interested in doing that here? If there is any interest I'll post about it and we can do that this week. :)

Have a good day!

My mail surprises! :)

Thanks for your posts - Sherry mentioned about spending too much time online and I think that is a killer for me. I need to seriously restrict my time online! Thanks for your thoughts!! And sorry - I meant to post sooner. Got a little busy. Ok, so Mr. UPS man brought this today:

The new Quickutz set on QVC that I bought this weekend and had shipped faster. Cutest flower shapes and alpha - I already put the foam on it all last night and was die cutting fabric flowers! Love it! My black squeeze tool has some issues so I need to mail it into Quickutz to be fixed - so glad I got this one cause it cuts like butter! Yes, I buy too much - I know! :)

And, my second thing didn't come yesterday but I'm hoping it will be here today. I'm so excited to see it:

They sent the designers an early copy on Wednesday - yippee! I have a few things in it so it's always so fun to see a book and your projects in it - how they photograph it, how the text and everything looks around it...and everyone else's projects too! Super excited to see it! It will be my last book with Making Memories....as soon as I get more copies I'll give some away here on my blog! :)

Anyway, hope you all have a good weekend. I'll be back I'm sure. I really want to try to create something just for me this weekend and post it. Not sure if it will happen or not, but I hope so. Even if it's simple. Any plans for you? Any scrappin' plans? I've got lots I need to still finish up and some things I need to mail out - so need to get to all that today and tomorrow.

OHHHHHHHHH.....a girl emailed me off my blog a few weeks ago about signing up to be a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator. There is a great, great special right now to sign up and I CANNOT find your email!!! Will you please email me again so I can get you the info and the right forms!! THANKS!

Have a great Friday! :)

TIME

Where does it go each day? I have projects I need to complete and I am so stinking slow! I need help! Obviously I get distracted a bit with two little kids at home, but I need to figure out a way to get things done, and get them done quicker. Does anyone else deal with this? I am such a perfectionist with my work and I have to make it all look 'perfect' to me ... so that means playing around with things and it always takes so long! Any one have some tips to speed up the process? Anything? I'd love to hear some suggestions - I need to be more efficient with my time.

I love challenging myself to use certain products - I find that products really are the things that inspire me. I love it when I get new scrapbook products/supplies....one item can just make my mind spin with ideas and I just want to create. It's funny how my creativity seems to be so product driven. But, it's fun and I like it.

I'm playing with some fun Hero Arts stamps right now for a project for them and that is fun. Lovin' the stamping! Wish I could share them...but you'll see them eventually! So grateful for the opportunity --- so fun!!

I went to about 3 different online stores today, filled up my buckets and then didn't check out. I'm such a loser! LOL! I have bought so much and there is more that I really want - it seems like their is new stuff online every day - but I really need to stop spending my money and save it for the Creative Escape in AZ...which is only two weeks away. Crazy! I'm getting excited to play!

Me and my friend Amy are going together...she designs for Stampin' Up! and we met back when I was just starting scrapbooking - well, probably 4 years ago at least. Bizzare to think it's been that long. Anyway..we were talking and we are both going to put together a goodie bag for eachother for the trip...of scrapbooking stuff. I'm super excited! I've been getting some fun stuff for her - it will be so fun to exchange - I love surprises! Especially when they are scrapbooking surprises! LOL!

Speaking of surprises...I have 2 fun things coming tomorrow. Anyone want to guess what they are?? I'll post pictures tomorrow night! :)

OH.....

I wanted to say that you've probably realized that I mostly speak about scrapbooking on here for the past while. My hubby is really worried about this blog and doesn't like it when I talk about the kids a lot or post a lot of pictures. He had a co-worker look up the blog, actually posted here...which is fine, but it's just weird ya know. And I had a guy from High School search me and find my blog and said something to me...just another weird thing. Anyone can read this and it's kinda freaky! So....

long story short....I'm just gonna keep this mostly a 'scrapbooking' blog. I know that's mostly who reads this anyway...hope you all don't mind. I'll share things about the kids, worries and stuff still I'm sure - I need to vent or ask for advice somewhere, but I'll probably try to keep it more to sharing about ideas, finding inspiration, fun things...etc.

Ok - I'm out! No photo - I heard you can't post without a photo - is that true? I've been a bad blogger lately then! Hugs!

Oh, SNAP!!!!

((I was teaching my class in church on Sunday and this girl said that as she had realized she had forgotten something. It made me laugh....yes, I've heard the term. Do I say it, NO! It just made me realize how much older I am getting. Oh, snap! LOL))

Sorry that that 'bored' post was here all weekend - I had good intentions to post, but just got busy. Yesterday, Ryan came to give me a kiss before he left for work and his shoe banged up against my foot and chipped off some of my toenail on a little toe - OH SNAP!! (See, that's where that comes in! LOL! See how stupid I sound! Ok...I'm moving on now!) Anyway, it starting to bleed - it hurt. It broke it off about halfway only on one side - so now I have a pretty little toe nail! Bugga bugga! :)

ANYWAY....

This little girlie started school again yesterday (preschool). We've had a few hard nights with her - not sleeping well at all which means I am up with her most the night. I am exhausted. Oh well! Glad she will be getting back into a routine again - hoping that it will help give us some balance. She's at a new school, but the same...just a new location. Hope she will like it there!

And Jayme asked what I have ordered lately....I don't know if I could list it all! I got some of the new Bohemia line from My Mind's Eye, new Heidi Swapp goodies, new Sassafrass papers (really liking some of these new ones!!), some new Quickutz dies, got some Making Memories new goodies at Michaels - just had to get them right then!!! LOL!, and more! Oh, I spent a ton at Joann's superstore on felts and lots of cool little things I found there. They had their fabrics on sale at a great price so I stocked up on some basic colors and stuff - love fabric! Already dug into that stash! :) Hoping to use the rest soon - or at least start to use it! :)

Alrighty, totally lame post but oh well. I'll be back soon with something else! :) Have a good one!

Bored! :)

Is anyone else, or is it just me? Funny thing is...I have lots I need to be doing. And, I'm working on it all, but I just got in this funk today...I hate it when that happens! LOL!

I seriously need to restrict myself from buying any more scrapbooking stuff this month! It's so so bad! I have placed so many online orders this month it is so pathetic. Then, I dropped even more when I was up in SLC. It's a sickness! I do love that I'm using it though....I mean, not all of it right now, but I've got plans! :)

I'm getting excited for the Creative Escape event in Arizona in Sept. Only 3 more weeks! I haven't really had time to think about it, but I'm getting excited. I talked to my friend, Amy, last night (she is going with me) and we talked about some stores to try to hit and some things we are gonna bring. I hope that we can make it fun together - I know it will be just nice to get a break again - get to go play and scrap....always a good combo! :)

NO big plans for this weekend...I never think to call a babysitter in advance...my own fault!

Instead of buying a new computer right this second, I got an external hard drive to move all my photos too. They are taking up sooo much room on my hard drive that I thought it would be a good idea. Help free up space and hopefully make my computer faster. I've been using my hubbies laptop (thanks hun!!) a few days in my studio and I just love it. So, I may end up getting a laptop. Not sure. Not sure on the Apple or PC yet either - I'm nervous about switching everything over and having to buy new software. Just a big step...so we'll see.

Anyway - I'm just blabbing! :) Are any of you still reading? LOL! Ok, got to get my butt into gear and get some layouts done. Off to scrap....huggers!

Quick layout share...

Thanks again for all your posts - I love hearing from you! SO keep them coming! :)

I thought I'd share a quick layout I just finished...but I'm gonna have to take it down tomorrow, so your getting a sneak peekie here. Just for you! LOL! :) Hope you likey! Have a good night! I'll be back tomorrow.

ETA: Had to remove it now. Thanks for all your nice posts. :)
For those asking, it was for a Scrapbook Trends project. I'll give more info when I can. :)

Have a good day!

As promised...

Here are some first photos of the desk and the paper shelves. I haven't decorated - just placed things there to take a photo. I need to really see what works best and how I want to have the desktop set up. I am loving it though! It's so pretty - really goes well with my shelf from Pottery Barn above it. Looks so clean and just love it! :) Did I say that already? LOL! Here are some quick picts....I'll post more this week once I get it looking good. I've got to get some assignments done today! Spent too much time doing this yesterday! :)

Oh, the paper trays go all the way to the floor - love the way it looks. Can't see it that well in this picture.

THANKS for saying hi yesterday! I love hearing from you all - and you newbies that were coming out of lurkdom - hope you'll post more too! :)

Huggers!

ETA: I've had some questions, so I thought I would post for everyone. The bins on the top of my shelf that say 'store' are at Target RIGHT NOW! They were on a end cap with a bunch of cute notebooks (got those too for my inspiration notebooks), magazine folders (got a bunch of those), and some file notebooks - got two of those for my receipts and stuff. In all those bins, I have my loose stamps. Hero Arts...graphic in one, words in one and flowers, shapes in one. And then the other is misc. other company loose stamps. SU! stamps are all in my red furniture piece that is now under my windows. I'll post picts of that soon.

The red/orange/yellow bins were in the $1 section at Target awhile ago. I posted about them on my blog back when I got them - totally love them too! The exact colors of my room.

Anyway - thanks for your sweet posts! :)

Hi! Anyone there?

HELLLOOOOOO!!!

Sorry I've been a bad blogger - we went up to my parents house in SLC for the past few days. We had a great time (besides the kids not sleeping at all = me not sleeping at all). We swam, I shopped way too much again at the scrapbook stores and Joanns Superstore (found lots of cool things there and got lots of great fabric on sale), had a baby shower for my sister, Shannon, who is due with baby Camden in 3 1/2 weeks, went to church at my sisters where my parents spoke - so great to hear them, the boys went to the REAL Soccer game and so much more. It was busy, but lots of fun. I didn't take a ton of photos - we were just busy! LOL! But, I'll come back and post some soon.

I'm off to get my Project Desk at Pier 1 in just a bit and my paper trays that are at my hubbies work. Can't wait to get it all together - I know I'm gonna come home and want to work on it. I've got a bunch of stuff I need to finish up for a magazine that is due tomorrow so I need to work on that too.

Please come and say hello - I get so many hits on my blog and feel like not many people say hi! :( :( :( Thanks to those of you that do - I love hearing from you! :) It's one of my fav things about having a blog - hearing from all of you - keeping in touch - posting! LOL! What are you up to today? Kids back at school yet? Madi starts on the 20 - or 21, don't remember! LOL! What did you do this weekend? Scrappin?

Ok - quick post! Wanted to say HI! I'll be back with photos of my room hopefully tomorrow! :)