Black Belt Living

Boo!

Sorry for the lack of update....no reason, really, other than being ridiculously busy and suffering from lack of motivation.

But on to Halloween! We love Halloween and like to get into it. I love how my house looks and this year it was the best ever because the flowers are still blooming and we even had the windows all open!

Earlier today I took pics at the elementary school Halloween parade, then again tonight at home. Pardon the blur. I was goofing around a lot with my camera, trying different things and most things didn't work. I did get some cool mistakes, however. I'm doing a wedding this weekend, so I could always use the practice.

Here are some fun shots from the day!

What's That Sound?

I hardly remember what that sound is...it's steady, pouring RAIN! I love it. I had basically given up on our lawn and miraculously it's green again! I love sleeping when you can hear the steady rain on the roof. And now that we have our new roof and the water is going where it should be going (instead of into our basement!), it's even better. No stress.

Thanks to everybody for your advice about Shannon and her braces. I ended up calling the ortho yesterday and getting her in to have them adjust her wire hooks in the back and she's now feeling a lot better.

Tuesdays are my killer days. I'm off in the morning, but I pay in the afternoon with a wild day. I'm always whooped on Tuesday night and I look forward to Wednesdays, because they are much more calm at work. Busy is good, but nuts is stressful.

I leave you with two more new layouts...one silly and one serious.

A New Look

After a lot of anticipation, the braces finally went on this past week. I took a few photos before the pain really kicked in, because now that her mouth is all torn up inside, there isn't a whole lot of smiling going on.

For you parents of orthodontia-challenged children, please reassure me that the torn up tender tissues inside her mouth will get better, or I'll have to start medicating not only her, but myself too.

Here's a layout I did with the new pics ~ so pretty, don't you think? Elements are all from Christina Renee Designs, and the pretty dogwood branches can be found at both CRD and at AH Designs by Amy Hutchinson.

Digie RAK 4 U *** Winner Announced ***

....and the winner is JMama! I'm off to work right now, but I'll be back later to deliver your prize! Thanks to everybody for playing along!

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Like I said the other day, I'm so excited to be on the team at Christina Renee Designs! Honestly, every day I do the "I'm so not worthy" thing....but I guess I am or I wouldn't be there, right? Such fun for me.

We're sporting new funky new blinkies at Christina Renee Designs. If you'd like to use one online in your signature, feel free to copy and past the code below. Be sure to take out the asterisk first!

[IMG*]http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd206/christinareneedesigns/Blinkies/CRD_FanBlinkie.gif[/IMG]

Here's what you need to do. Copy the new blinkie into your signature, then go back to my thread on DST here and tell me what year I went to my senior prom, based on a layout that's posted on my blog somewhere recently. My daughter will pick a winner tomorrow morning when she gets up and you'll get a $5 coupon to CRD. That's right...shopping money!

If you leave a comment here too, we'll double your chances of winning! :-D

Retirement.....

Well, I know I'm long overdue to be updating here. Unfortunately, I'm at home with a horrible cold and sore throat, so there's no time like the present, right? It's 3pm, I'm in bed in my jammies, and here goes.

First of all, RETIREMENT. I've been hinting for a while that I had scrap related things that I was going to post, but I had to take care of some things first. Those things were resigning from any remaining "paper based" design teams that I have been on. That's right. After a lot of soul searching, I've decided to retire from paper scrapping and put my scrap energies into doing all digital. I'm not saying that I won't do any more paper layouts, but I'm certainly not putting my focus there anymore.

Why? Well, lots of reasons. First of all, TIME. Since my job responsibilities have increased as well as my hours, I was finding no inspiration or motivation to scrap. On Mondays and Tuesdays, I get home late and it's all I can do to get dinner on the table and help S with her homework. I'm constantly running and on the go at work and when I come home I'm just exhausted! The last thing I want to do is go up in my scraproom and haul out all of the paper and glue. With digital, I can plunk down in my chair, grab my laptop and watch The Bachelor while doing a layout. No fuss, no muss, no mess.

Second reason...CLUTTER. I've been on a rampage against dust and clutter lately, and anybody who scraps on a regular basis knows how the junk can clutter up your trunk. I have so much stuff that I don't know what I have anymore...hence the Crop and Shop (more on that below...important update!). Yesterday I spent about two hours putting together two large baskets of supplies for two different events at church, and sorting out what to keep, what to sell, and pitching the rest. I still have a lot of CRAP that nobody will want, so that stuff needs to go. I am going to liberate one entire closet! Seriously, I have so much shit. It's just obscene. It has got to go. By Thanksgiving I'm determined to have 90% of it gone. I'll keep a little patterned paper, my basic cardstock, some basic inks, adhesives, and my tools. That's IT!

Third reason...the INDUSTRY. It was no secret that working inside the industry didn't suit me well. I felt that it sucked all of the creative mojo straight out of me. I got tired of hearing that my work was "too Barb Hogan", in other words....not mainstream enough to sell to the average Creative Memories scrapper. It was true too, but I didn't like compromising my style. Anyhow, I'm glad I got out when I did. The industry is in upheaval...companies going out of business, the whole "scrapbook celebrity" culture, the brutal backstabbing hidden behind a facade of phony sunshine and sweetness. I am tired of it and I don't want to be a part of it. Then this past week, the controversy surrounding the disregard of the rules in the Creating Keepsakes Hall of Fame contest exposed CK for what they've been suspected of for years....playing favorites, and that did me in.

So hello, digital world! I guess in my mind I made the switch several weeks ago, but it was hard to put down the glue stick. In the meantime, I got offers to be on the creative teams for two hot new digie sites, Christina Renee Designs and AH! Designs by Amy Hutchinson. Both ladies have incredible teams and incredible products. I've been so inspired that I've cranked out nearly 20 layouts (digie layouts dont' take me near the time that paper ones did either...bonus!). I'm so thrilled and honored to be on teams that include some of the hottest digital scrappers in the biz. Combine that with my design work for Katja Kromann and Something Blue Studios, and I'm certainly keeping the layouts coming!

So anyways, that's the deal. I still feel sad about letting my paper teams go, but it feels like the right thing to do too. The time factor was the biggest thing, well, that and lack of motivation and it's just not right to stick around if the motivation isn't there.

CROP AND SHOP
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NEWS FLASH.......... The date will be changing from the first weekend in November until the weekend of the 16th and 17th of November. Like a doofus, I totally spaced on the fact that our good friends Jason and Kris are getting married that weekend and I'm doing pics! That's a big DUH right there. I'll do another blog updte on it this week as a reminder.

IN OTHER NEWS
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Shannon's braces go on tomorrow! She's excited and freaking out all at the same time. The Bengals...well, let's just say that it's starting to look like the Bad Ole' Days. The car ~ loving it!

BLOG ACTION DAY
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Today is the day that fellow bloggers are supposed to get out the word about going green. Well I don't want to get political in any way, but I try to do my part to recycle, reuse, and repurpose. Like I said earlier, I'm trying to give away and sell most of my scrap supplies. What I can't sell will be given away. And frankly, going digital really does reduce the amount of garbage that I produce each week. So do your part, try to be get into the recycle groove if you're not already there. If you are, see if there's something else you can do to clean up your world. You know, give a hoot, don't pollute and all that jazz.

If you'd like to see some real inspiration, check out the Stand Up and Scrap contest for digital scrapbooking. I've had a LOT of fun participating and the layouts are just stupendous. You can check out the weeks 1 and 3 galleries here and the week 2 and 4 galleries here.

That's about it for now! All layouts here done for Christina Renee Designs and Amy Hutchinson.

Beep Beep, Goodbye Jeep!

My Chick Jeep was coming up on six years old and I've basically hated it since it got it's rear end creamed when it was two weeks old. It wasn't the greatest vehicle for me....too small with a ridiculously large engine. The thing was basically built to tow a boat and that's not exactly what I need. Anyhow, I've hated it for what seems like forever, and now it's somebody else's burden.

Yesterday I was ruthless and swung a great deal on a not-new-but-new-for-me Santa Fe. I can't say enough about late model Hyundais. Andy's got one and it's a great car. Now I've got one too.

I hate car negociating and had a pounding headache when I left the dealer yesterday. I was this close to walking out the door over a mere $100 or so, but we worked it out and I'm so glad. I'm also glad that I even though I hated the Jeep, I took good care of it. I got a ridicuously great trade in on it.

I've never bought a used vehicle before, so I'm cautiously optimistic on it. So far I really like it. Let's hope it doesn't die on me next week. It was well maintained and it's coming off of a lease, so I don't think it's a piece of junk. It looks really good, one of my neighbors thought it was brand new.

Meet my new baby....

Windows to the World

After a lot of planning and waiting, this was the week that the beautiful new windows went in! I can't get over how pristine they are, how well they work, and clean they are! I know that the clean won't last, but it's great while it does. They even keep street noise out better than the old rattely ones. I know it may seem really silly and pretty boring, but I'm thrilled to have my new windows.

So now we're done with the roof, the gutters, the drains, and the windows. We're still waiting on the skylight and I'm in the process of getting bids for exterior paint. Hopefully in a month or so, this place will look brand new on the outside. We've come a long way...just a bit more time and a few thousand dollars to go!

Sorry for lack of update...busy week! Some big changes coming along in my scrap world, I'll post about those in a few days. I did get three layouts picked up by Scrapbooks Etc. this week. Woo hoo! There's a few more coins in the new monitor fund!

Guess Who Is In Town?

Har! Har! Har!

Nick Lachey is in town too. Ginger and I considered a double date!

Seriously, our husbands aren't worried (but I do look kind of hot with long hair!).