I spent some time organizing my digiscrap goodies this afternoon in preparation of moving some stuff off to my new portable 1 TB external hard drive. I deleted some stuff, and there are kits I haven't used for some time that I am not ready to get rid of yet that can be moved over. I don't want to bog down my laptop too much, and graphic files end up taking up a lot of space. I would rather move over some older digital photos to the laptop so they will be backed up with my online service. Too bad it is so much easier to organize a computer than a house. That is what I should be working! I really do need to go through and take out some toys that are not being used anymore, and get some papers filed. Once the weather warms up, I need to look at finishing my painting in the living room. I am so close, but never got it finished. I think with the implementing of the chores and having Sunday be the big cleaning day, we are doing better keeping the house in order on a daily basis, but there is still too much junk floating around, as usual. It seems to be a constant battle, and I need to remember how good it feels to get rid of stuff, and how much it stresses me out to have a bunch of clutter in the rooms that we use a lot. It doesn't bother me as much behind closed door. lol

I was able to participate in another speed scrap last night. The Friday night ones seem to work out since they start at 7, before the bedtime rush. You are given 7 instructions to create your page over one hour, and then you have another hour to finish it up. I used a new kit called Funky Wonderland by Geek Chic and Allison Pennington. It has a bunch of cool papers and elements!

Scot had to work today, so I took the kids out to lunch at Panera and then we went to the library. They were all worried that we were going to a different library than the one we got our books from originally, so I explained that we could use any of the county libraries. They were afraid we were stealing from the other library. I said they could have a movie night tonight, so they are excited about that. I optimistically checked out 5 books. We'll see how many times I have to renew!

The designers I work for received some surprising news today, and it looks like most of my CT work will be on hold for a short time. I am sad, but more sad for the designers losing their stores suddenly, without warning! They all seem to have a plan, so hopefully we will all be back to work soon. However, I do have a February guest spot on the CT for Geek Chic Scraps, so I will have plenty of time to work on layouts for her new kits. Her store is opening next week, so I can start posting the layouts then.

I did finish the last layout for the Scrapoff 2010 contest at DSA. Right now I have 16 points, so I'm pretty much in the middle. I am glad not to be at the bottom of the pack, at least, since there are a lot of talented people in the contest. It has been fun to try different things.

Tomorrow is my least favorite day of the week since I will be gone all day at work. It's a pretty good shift to have, but still, I get antsy being away from home for too long. Very sad, I know, but I am a homebody at heart. Plus, I have my exercise class and Owen has a Scout meeting, so we have to try and get his homework done before dinner. I'm not sure what will happen when soccer starts up again. I always hope they will not want to do it since it takes up two evenings and a Saturday. I hate being busy!

I have some layouts I have been working on, but I can't post yet because they haven't been released yet!

I have finished the two-page layout from Declan's birthday last year. It seems strange to say last year when it was only a few months ago! I used a kit called Birthday Boy by Shanmomto4 Designs and templates by Mandagirl.

Well, the good news first is that Scot was approved for vacation, so he will get to go to Florida after all!

I did a new page last night for the new kit that was released today from Pixiemama Designs. It's a P365 Kit available now at Scrapable. I don't really do 365 project pages at this time, but it works well for other layouts, also. I used it for Owen's Field Day.

I made this a few days for a template challenge at MLAS. I used a kit called Aquarium Adventures by Scrapalicious Cereal (A.K.A. Jenny Cereal) and the template was Templates by Kate.

No winning luck at bunco tonight, but I had fun anyway. I am looking forward to a day where I have nothing planned, which is tomorrow! I'm not sure my eye is getting any better, so I suppose I will have to contact the eye doctor again. I was talking to someone at bunco who is also going to in Tucson during spring break. I guess the Rockies are there for spring training. Too bad we aren't really baseball fans or it might be exciting to check it out! I guess I should get the plane tickets soon, but I'm still not sure what's going on with our vacations and which one Scot might get to go on.

Feeling worried about our "family" vacation to Florida this year. One of Scot's co-workers is married to a teacher, so he already asked for the same week off, which is her spring break. Initially they said Scot couldn't have the time off because they would be too short-handed (the other guy is also a field person), but then he said they could talk about it and see. I kept telling Scot to put in for the time off early because I knew that the teacher would probably have this week off (it is actually a week before our school's break, which is why it wasn't a problem last year for the cruise), but she is on the same time off as Boulder, which is our time-share week. We already have the plane tickets, so I guess I would take the kids anyway, but it's not how I wanted our vacation to go. I guess Scot can spend the following week with us in Tucson, but I think Florida is more appealing to him! He is really not liking his job anyway, so this doesn't help matters. I hope something will work out, and I told Scot to be sure to mention about the time-share and why we can't be flexible about the week we go. He only mentioned that we already bought the plane tickets. Maybe he will at least get part of the week off and we can just change his tickets. I am trying to positive about it, but I am kind of irritated about the whole thing.

I finished my layout for week three of the contest at DSA. It isn't due until Friday, but I had an idea and got it done today.

The kids spent a lot of time on the trampoline today. I'm glad the weather has been pretty decent. Scot took them to the stock show on Sunday while I was at my recorder meeting. I went last year, so I don't feel I missed out on anything. Not sure whal all the excitement is about, but Scot had never been so he was curious.

I have wasted a lot of time trying to get rid of the "read more" and have the comments show again on the regular post. I guess I either have to live with it or go back to a boring blogger template! I didn't even realize I had comments, so sorry, mom! I don't have to post every day, it's just a challenge that people do for fun.

Well, I skipped a day. Oh, well! I was busy with speed scraps for the last two days. I will share a page from yesterday. This was from our visit to Humboldt in August when the adults all went out to dinner. I used the Midnight Kiss kit by Pixiemama Designs, since I hadn't had a chance to play with that one yet. I love the purple and blue colors in it!



This afternoon I have my recorder society meeting and tomorrow the kids are off schoool again for MLK holiday, so I will have to figure out if there's something fun we can do. Maybe there is a good movie at the cheap theater...

Poor Owen, I hope his knee feels better tomorrow! He is still limping around today after smashing his kneecap into the brick retaining wall stones. I got an ace bandage to wrap around it for extra support. Sometimes he seems fine and then he starts limping again and complaining that it hurts. He has to put the finishing touches on his pinewood derby car this weekend to be ready for weigh-in on Tuesday night.

Declan got to see his best friend from preschool on Thursday night. We had plans to go swimming at the Apex after dinner, so I called and invited this other family to meet us there. They were happy to see each other again and he has an older brother than Owen was able to play with.

The kids were done with their school testing early enough for me to make it to the 9 a.m. exercise class this morning. It was no fun to have to wear my glasses, but after I tried putting in my contacts Wednesday night, I sure paid for it on Thursday. My eye was horribly bloodshot. I must have re-infected it, so I threw the contact away and will start with a new one after another week of the eyedrops. I hope that takes care of the problem!

The new Pixiemama kit was released today, the February PU Grab Bag called Candy & Kisses. I found some old Valentine's Day photos to scrap. We don't seem to have any from the last few years since we really don't do anything special or elaborate. The kids are just excited to get their Valentine's from school. Mainly I like to make a heart-shaped cake and let the kids decorate it, but I don't think I wanted too many sweets around for the last couple years!

I finished a layout this morning for a color challenge. The challenge was to use silver, which is a favorite of mine anyway, and I had been wanting to use this kit called Midnight Resolutions by IBD Designs and Jayaprem's Hangout. The template is by Sweet Tomato Designs.

Not sure I am thrilled with the results, but it's growing on me. This if for the DSA contest, and I was challenging myself to use some of the yellow. The main colors of the kits are the red, black, and grey, but then there is a yellow added in, which is not my favorite color to work with! I had one photo to scrap that didn't really go with anything else, so it was good to use it for this. One photo makes it easier and quicker to get the page done.



Owen really wants to see the Percy Jackson movie coming out, but it's not rated yet. I have a feeling it will be PG-13, but maybe not. I'm not sure what age group the book is geared towards since I hadn't heard of it until I started seeing the previews for the movie.

It is week 2 of the layout challenge at DSA and I am having trouble figuring out my page. I had an idea right off the bat last week, but this week, not so much. I had a photo picked out, but maybe I need to scratch that and start over with something else. At any rate, I probably won't get to it until tomorrow evening since I will be at work tomorrow during the day.

For a challenge at MLAS. I had to use a specific amount of specific items. I used A Brand New Outfit by Bubblescrap Designs, except the staples. Template by No Reimer Reason.

Another page from my Christmas album.

Imagine my surprise when we got home from the movies last night and I saw a bunch of Facebook updates about an earthquake near Eureka. Luckily it wasn't too late to call the west coast, so I was able to talk to both my parents and they were fine. They did lose power for a few hours, though. Dick was on the roof at the time, so he went to the middle and just watched the trees swaying around wildly. My mom was inside so she ran to the doorway and watched her car bounce around in the driveway. Wild! There was a big earthquake there in '92, which knocked their house off the foundation (they were out of town at the time, luckily!), so after getting it repaired it has held up well to future earthquakes.

Precious was a a good movie, but very sad. If I ever feel like complaining about my life, I will remember how some people have to fight so hard just for the basics.

Owen was invited to a playdate this afternoon, so he's very excited. He has been friends with Abbey since kindergarten, so I'm glad they are still friends in second grade. It helps that they've been in the same class all this time.

Declan decided to decorate an empty wine bottle we had leftover from the holidays, so now he has a new friend called Mr. Bottle! lol

Dinner and a movie for me and Scot tonight. I don't know where we're eating, but we're going to see Precious. Yay for the $5 movie club! I had a fun orchestra rehearsal this morning. We actually played well on the first read-through's, so hopefully it will sound really good by the time we have a concert.

Week one of the chore chart was very successful. Declan typically does even more than one extra and Owen picked clean the toilets as a free choice chore. I don't know why that sounded so exciting, but I won't complain!

I did this layout as a template challenge at Scrapable. Those are my favorite challenges of all since I love to use templates. I used Holiday Sugar Cookies by Pixiemama Designs. I was having fun using the glitter styles since I couldn't use them with my old version of Photoshop 6.0. I am still on the trial download for Photoshop Elements 8.0, and after forcing myself to use it for a few layouts, I think I am getting used to it. I will be able to use brushes and styles, so it makes sense to get it, but I will keep my dinosaur Photoshop around anyway since there are only a few weaknesses with it in terms of digital scrapbooking and it still works well for my web graphics.

Yay, I figured out how to make my blog look pretty!

I completed a page today for the Add-on challenge at Scrapable. We had to use 5 patterned papers, which was hard until I came up with the idea of putting a bunch of layered paper behind the coins letters, since they were see-through anyway. I used Life is Good by Valarie Ostrom Designs with a template by Red Leaf DigiScrapping.

Not bad

Work was not bad today since we were slow again. Things were pretty busy during the school break. Scot had to drive downtown tonight for work stuff, and of course it's freezing cold and snowy. I will wait up for him, not that I need an excuse to stay up late. I should probably work on a scrapbook page, but I was distracted by watching Closer on IFC. Clive Owen is hard to ignore!

The kids had a fun day back at school. They were up early, dressed, and urging me out the door, so I think they were excited to see their friends again. We didn't do much socializing during the break, apart from one afternoon at the roller skating rink. We met friends there, and then sisters that are in each of their classes showed up, so they saw even more kids they knew. I guess Owen and his school friend were skating around holding hands. I didn't see it, but her mom came up to talk to me and said something about it. I'm glad a lot of Owen's friends are girls!

Blah

Wishing I didn't have to work tomorrow, but that's nothing new. I need to call and make an appointment for my eye to be looked at by the real eye doctor, and maybe get a hair cut. Most of all, I am excited to get back to my excercise routine. I didn't have much time while my family was visiting, and then the class schedule was kind of weird through the holidays. Scot and I are going to the 12th Night dinner on Saturday and then I have a work party Sunday night, so I have a few things to look forward to. I got my script for the reading today, so I just need to get my Toga for Saturday night, and make sure Scot doesn't bring the camera. hahaha

Contest

I signed up for a month long contest at DSA. Each week we get some minikits to work with, and a layout is due on Friday. I already did my page for this week. The contest is for a chance to be on the CT for the site for 3 months, but I am only doing it for fun and to try and challenge myself. There are some really talented people participating!

School Break

I made a page using Bloodlust by Pixiemama Designs. I know the kit was inspired by the Twilight Series, so I guess seeing New Moon on Saturday made me want to use it!

I am starting to think I need the school routine more than the kids do. Without a schedule, it is hard for me to even be motivated to get up in the morning!! Luckily the kids don't rely on me to fix breakfast, or they would be eating brunch instead. It doesn't help that I have been staying up later than normal all this vacation. Declan's preschool teacher was supposed to call about bowling today, but I haven't heard from her yet. If not, I guess we'll find something else to do. I am glad that the kids are spending more time outside since we set up the trampoline, but we are getting another cold snap, so they won't be doing much jumping this week, I think.

Chore Chart

I finally finished a new project! This couldn't have come at a better time since we are getting more formal about chores for the new year. The kids have things they need to do every day, the basic stuff like picking up after themselves, getting dressed, etc., but now they will have a can-do list that they can pick from in order to get an allowance. It is optional, but I assume they will want the chance to earn some money! I used the hybrid rewards chart and Get This Party Started kits from Pixiemama Designs.



I wanted to make it nice and festive so the chores will seem appealing! haha

It seems there are tons more digital scrapbooking forums than I realized. I need to find one more to join, but it might be hard to decide! It is a little overwhelming, but I suppose some are bigger/more active than others.

Christmas layout

So this year I signed up for the Jessica Sprague free class called Holidays in Hand. She gave us a template and a list of prompts of things to journal about and subjects to photograph. Although I have only completed a few pages so far, I did make notes and plans for the rest of the layouts. I plan to print the pages out for a 6 X 6 album when they are done. I was lucky enough to find the Holiday Sugar Cookie blogtrain, so I got a bunch of mini kits that all used the same color palette. This page used the kit by DIGI_licious Designs.