Black Belt Scrapping

Scrappy Goodness!

Just thought I'd post a heads up on some digi scrap fun! My very talented friend, Catherine (who is the master of layering elements) has put together this great collection of layered frames:

They're free and you can get them HERE, or on the Authentic Artistry blog at Christina Renee Designs.

Also, there are some new challenges posted on Lauren Reid's team blog as well. See if you can turn a layout into a card! I managed to do this this week when I did this Christmas layout and liked it so much that I turned it into this year's Christmas card. Elements here are from Katja Kromann's Silver Bells kit and from Holliewood Studios.

If you are a fan of Amy Hutchinson's layered edges like I am, she's got a holiday set out and they are so much fun! I used them on the "Better Watch Out" layout here with our Christmas Card photo for 2004. The frame and sparkly silver thing-a-ma-bob are also from her new Crystal Cranberry kit, which is awesome and a different color twist on regular holiday elements. Check out her stuff at AH! Designs.

That's about it! I'm hoping to get my Christmas cards addressed this weekend. Last year I did a photo shoot, made cards, and then never mailed them. It was awful. I vow to be better this year. Really, I do.

In non-scrap news, I actually cut my roses down yesterday and they were STILL blooming. It was time, however. We had a hard frost last night so they would have been goners this morning anyways. NEVER have I ever had flowers this late, not even close. Normally they're gone in early October. I still have daisies, snapdragons, and petunias blooming and I'm not yanking those until they are officially frozen to death. It's really bizarre. Bizarre but cool.

Happy Weekend!

Productivity Plus!

Don't you just love days when you get tons done?

Yesterday was one of those days for me. I was off work in the morning, so I made a list, checked it twice and got it all done and MORE! I love that!

I managed to get the following done....

- two loads of laundry, including folding and putting it away (that's very unusual for me!)
- cleaned the bathrooms
- vacuumed both upstairs and down
- made dinner in the crock pot
- paid bills
- updated my calendar with December events
- called my mom and jabbed for about 30 mins
- cleaned my office
- mopped the kitchen floor
- set the dinner table
- backed up my hard drive
- sorted out the leftovers from my scrap sale
- sold two more loads of scrap goodies to online friends
- gathered up the final leftovers for give-away
- staff meeting at noon
- worked all afternoon

I would have liked to have gotten some scrapping done, but I'm very glad that I stuck to the list and got my chores done! I'm off today ~ a nice surprise ~ so I'm planning on doing more scrapping. And speaking of scrapping, don't forget to check out the new Artistic Artistry blog at Christina Renee's website. There's a great freebie available and a few challenges going on, so be sure to check it out and grab the goodies before they're gone. Here's a peek at the freebie:

Have a great day!

Gettin' Real

For the person who felt the need to share a snotty comment yesterday....

I'm not complaining. I'm truly grateful to have all that I have and the ability to run around and yes, even gripe about it.

This holiday season we have several friends and relatives who are struggling with cancer, loss of a loved one, and various serious problems. I pray for them every day. I do what I can. I volunteer in the community, helping people with real problems. Compared to them, my gripes are silly. I know that.

On the other hand, I don't know one person who doesn't gripe about something now and then, and this is my place to do it. So if you don't like it, don't read it. It really is as simple as that.

I'm surprised that the hand slappers of the world actually have the time to read blogs. I thought they're all out there saving mankind or something. They wouldn't be caught dead shopping on Black Friday or hanging Christmas lights.

+++++++

And as I was writing this, a dear friend emailed me these thoughts. I thought I'd post them here because it pretty much sums up how I feel this Christmas season.....

To all the wonderful people who welcome me into their lives,

My wish is for everyone to find some joy and happiness as we prepare for the Holiday Season. The next few weeks are filled with a mixture of stress and fun as we search for special gifts for our loved ones and attend business gatherings and friends' parties.

Every year, our church has a Christmas concert with hundreds of singers and a complete orchestra. The music soothes my soul and gives me time to think of my blessings. I remember the people who are no longer with us and the time we spent together.

May everyone who has lost someone special, find comfort knowing that our loved ones are no longer in pain, will never feel despair or loneliness, hunger or cold. They are in God's presence, filled with JOY, and waiting for us to join them.

God Bless You

Nothing is Ever Easy

When I was growing up, my parents always used to say "Nothing's Ever Easy". I used to think that was silly. Of course some things were easy. Plenty of things were easy. Heck, I even thought that school was pretty easy. But now I'm all grown up and I know exactly what they meant. It's never more apparent than on Thanksgiving weekend when all of the Christmas decor goes up in our house. And this year, my husband got his first taste of "Black Friday" shopping, and the "Nothing's Ever Easy" mantra really hit home.

It all started on Thursday morning before we left for Thanksgiving dinner at my inlaws house. I found the rest of the family hunkered down in the family room scanning the Black Friday ads for the ultimate man toys....big screen, high definition televisions. Now don't get me wrong, I love my television, and the idea of a brand new baby in the family room as the big family Christmas gift this year was a pretty sweet idea. Besides, grabbing a television on Black Friday would really cut down on my holiday run-around. I was all for it.

But alas, nothing is ever easy. I warned Andy that if he really wanted that particular television at Circuit City, getting there much later than 5am would not work, because as we shoppers who have tried this unfortunate bargain shopping effort in the past, they probably only have three in stock and the really hard core crazies will have camped out all night for the too-good-to-be-true deals.

We got there at 6:05. Television sold out at Circuit City (the one we wanted sold out at 5:20am...I asked. They had ten of them). Choice number two, sold out at Target. Choice number three sold out at Sam's Club. Back to CC to check out something else with no luck. My husband was annoyed. Black Friday shopping is NEVER easy. He left for the office at 6:30am, and I drove to a different shopping area, where I visited eight more stores, only to come home empty handed. No luck, no dice.

So how is it that I am watching my man Tom Brady on high definition right now? The internet. We ended up finding a whale of a deal on Circuit City's internet site and we actually went back to the store to pick it up. On Friday, I was at Circuit City four times in one day. Nothing is ever easy. Oh, and after three trips to the Time Warner Cable store, we find out that the box that they gave us is defective. Great. We have a service call scheduled for Wednesday.

Then Saturday started the infamous "D-Day", or Decoration Day. It's well known that I despise D-Day, but I love the payoff at the end, so it's always worth it in the end. Well needless to say that when you're dealing with about 5,000 Christmas lights...you got it, Nothing Is Ever Easy. How is it that you can painstakingly pack away perfectly good lights into a box where they don't move for 11 months and then they don't work when you get them back out? Everything was a pain this year. Lights that didn't work. New windows that forced me to do things differently than I've ever done before. I had a fully decorated wreath fall off of the wall and take down all of my mantle garland with it. Crash! Time to build it all over again. Nothing is ever easy. Then on the outside, none of the plugs with the new lights would fit together right. Aaaargh!

It's all done now. It's so nice to see my Santa Collection again. In the meantime....

Four trips to Circuit City.
Three trips to the Time Warner Cable store.
Two trips to Hobby Lobby.
Three trips to Walgreens.
Ten boxes of new lights, three which have to get returned because they have white cords.
Six new extension cords.
Four plug adapters.
Seventeen hours of work between Andy and I.

I'm tired! So much for five days off. Nothing is ever easy.

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From the Table

I have NEVER dropped my laptop. Well, never until today, that is. When I got home from church this morning, I went to go charge up Baby Mac, only to have it slip out of my hand and fall from the end table next to my chair to the ground. Now there's a sinking feeling for you. Fortunately, it fell pretty easily and on to the carpet and it was fine. But a few hours later, I went to pick up the power cord to recharge, and it got caught on the kitchen chair, flipped off of the table, and the transformer part landed in the Olive's water bowl. BZZZZZZZ! Unit fried, game over. You should have heard the guy at the Apple store laugh when I told him that I fried my power cord by dropping it in the dog water. It IS funny. Well, sort of.

Now for some real laughs, that was yesterday, when I spent the afternoon yakking in the kitchen with my pals Jan and Susan. Susan was such a good sport...she drove three hours to get here, but I left out a CRITICAL turn off of the interstate and the poor thing ended up across the river in Kentucky. Good Lord. Some days I'm just such a freaking moron. I felt so bad. I still feel bad about that.

The good news is that she did make it and we all had a blast of a good time. We found that we have a lot in common! Unfortunately, she was feeling a bit under the weather last night and into this morning, so we didn't get to spend really any time together today. Boo. I know that her sister was really sick this past week, so I sure hope she's not coming down with the same thing. And a huge thanks to Jan for baking two delicious cakes for my scrapbook sale! Yum! My house smelled SO good all weekend, thanks to all of that cake!

I have photos to share from the weekend, but since I was without my power supply most of today, I didn't get them uploaded yet. I'll be sure to put them up soon. I have two killer days, tomorrow and Tuesday, so be looking for them on Wednesday.

Speaking of the scrapbook sale, I can't say it was a flop, because I made a surprisingly good chunk of $$$ and those that showed up sure had a lot of fun, as did I. Unfortunately, I only had seven people show up. That was a bit disappointing. I'm still left with a ton of product that I was hoping would get moved out of the house. Now I have to figure out what to do with it all again. Ebay is such a pain and I just don't have the time that it takes. Maybe Craigslist, or maybe I'll just dump it all. That would really be a shame, however, because I have things like packs and packs of chipboard alphabets, Big Board Chipboard and new papers by Fancy Pants, gobs of rub ons by Basic Grey, Imagination Project Coaster board, Prima Flowers, and American Crafts alphabet stickers. And yes, pounds of cardstock. If you're reading and you're interested, drop me an email and tell me what you want.

Bad football weekend too...Michigan lost, Bengals lost, U of Cincinnati lost..... at least the Steelers lost, that's always good! Now I'm off to bed, I'm whooped!

Shop Until You Drop!

Yum-O!

Normally I cook pretty healthy around here, but we do have our days where we go the other way. Tonight was one of those nights.

I saw Rachel Ray make this on Thiry Minute Meals the other day and my family was drooling over it so I told them I'd make it tonight. Well, YUM-O. It should come with a health warning label, this is NOT a healthy main dish. I did make some lower fat substitutions and I'll indicate those below.

I also ended up adding a few bread crumbs on the top, then baking it in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 mins before serving it. That crisped up the edges a bit. Oh so good! This would be terriffic for a pot luck, or if you are taking a meal to a friend. My guess is that it would freeze really well too.

Mac-n-Smoked Gouda with Cauliflower

Recipe courtesy Rachael Ray
Show: 30 Minute Meals
Episode: Special Delivery

Coarse salt
1 pound elbow macaroni (I used whole wheat, whole grain pasta)
1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter (I omitted the butter)
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I doubled the cayenne pepper)
1 teaspoon paprika
3 cups whole milk (I used 2% milk)
1 cup chicken stock or broth
3 cups shredded smoked Gouda
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
Freshly ground black pepper

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add salt to season the cooking water, then add the pasta. Cook for 5 minutes, then add the cauliflower and cook for 3 minutes more or until pasta is cooked al dente and the florets are just tender. Drain well and return to the pot.

While the pasta cooks, heat a medium sauce pot over medium-low heat. Add the extra-virgin olive oil and heat with the butter until it melts. Add the onions and cook for 3 to 5 minutes to sweat them out and turn the juices sweet. Raise the heat a bit, then whisk in the flour, cayenne, and paprika. Whisk together until the roux bubbles up, then cook for 1 minute more. Whisk in the milk and stock and raise the heat a bit higher to bring the sauce to a quick boil. Once it bubbles, drop the heat back to a simmer and cook until the sauce thickens, 3 to 5 minutes.

Add the cheese to the thickened sauce and stir to melt it, a minute or so. Stir in the mustard and season the sauce with salt and pepper. Pour over the cauliflower and cooked pasta and toss to combine. Adjust the seasonings, transfer to a large platter, and serve.

Stand Up and Scrap

I promised to upload my layouts for the Stand Up and Scrap contest. I can't put up my week one layout because it's been picked up for publication. But anyways, here goes!

Week 2: Theme - The Sweetness of Life, Technique - Using 3 or more patterned papers

Week 3: Theme - Song Lyrics that Move You, Technique - Typography

Week 4: Theme - Color is Power, Technique - Monochromatic Layouts

Week 5: Theme - One Dramatic Photo, Technique - Clean and Graphic (no journaling, minimal title)

Week 6: Theme - What Can You Do to Make the World a Better Place, Techinique - anything goes

Taking Care of Business

I know I've been bad about blogging around here. Well, I've had my chops busted now, so I'm back in business!

Needless to say it was a heck of a week last week, a week of real ups and real downers. I was super stressed all week, a bit under the weather, and just basically exhausted. I'm really hoping that things will settle down this week. They've got to.

First, the downers. Andy's cousin Bill's funeral was on Wednesday. He was a very popular teacher and basketball coach who passed away from a heart attack suddenly at age 42. Now there's a kick in the teeth right there when you're in your mid-40's. Scary stuff. I've never seen so many people at a funeral/burial/wake before. It was something to see. There had to be over 1500 people at the funeral alone, and everybody was crying. There's just something different and even more sad about somebody who passes away before his time. If you've got some extra good thoughts or prayers in you this week, send some to his family. Bill leaves a wife and three girls, age 14, 12, and 7. So very sad.

Better News: Taekwondo testing was on Saturday and while that's not a bit sad, I was sure stressed. As much as I wanted to deny that it was nagging me, it sure was, because when it was over, I felt like the big stress ball that I had been walking around with all week was totally gone. Unfortunately, Shannon messed up her ankle in gym class on Thursday night (bad timing!) and it was really hurting her on Saturday, but we braced it and she finished her testing. I was really proud of her! I was testing for second degree black belt, so of course, I got to fight the big boys. That went fine with the exception of when I took a kick straight to the teeth and it knocked me silly for a minute or so. Thank goodness for our mouth guards. I still have my teeth, thank goodness, and they're not even loose. Whew! Belt ceremony is Friday night. I remember being a white belt thinking that I couldn't even imagine being a second degree one day, and now here I am. Time really flies, that's for sure. Hopefully I've improved a bit since those days too.

Great News: Our friends Jason and Kris finally got married last weekend. It was a gorgeous wedding and great weather and loads of fun. What more can you ask, right? Andy and I are so happy for them. They're off somewhere near Barbados for another week, we'll see them around Thanksgiving....

Scrap News: Don't forget, my Crop and Shop is THIS SATURDAY from 8:30 - ?????. I'm extra excited because my friend Susan Opel is driving down from Indiana to visit, and she's a Michigan grad, so that will be extra fun, given that the Michigan/Ohio State game is at noon. There will be plenty of television available :-)

More Scrap News: I don't know if my paper scrapping friends are aware of the contest, but there has been a huge digital scrap contest going on this fall as a charity fund raiser. It was a seven week challege contest, with every week having a theme and a technique to do. Initially there were over 500 contestants! Not all 500 ended up making it to the end, but a huge majority did, in two divisions (intermediate and advanced). I had to enter the advanced category because I had been published before. Well, much to my total shock, I ended up finishing 4th, and I was the #1 finishing American (the first three were all European scrappers)! I'm still excited about it. I certainly have a love-hate relationship with scrap contests, so it was nice to finish at the top this time, even if I didn't win. I am thrilled! I'll post my six layouts this week here on my blog.

Even More Scrap News: I was selected this weekend to be on Lauren Reid's creative team ~ yay! She's a great designer and scrapper and sells her goodies at Oscraps and at SisTV. I can't wait to get started.

And speaking of layouts, you asked for it. The one at the top of this page is my first one for Lauren's team.

I Double Dog Digi Dare Ya!

Guess who won last week's challenge at The Digi Dares?

BHo, that's who!