All Goodies Have Been Sent

To all of you winners out there, all of your goodies are now in the mail and on their way to you. My kids thought I was crazy this morning when I was loading all of those goodies into my car. I hope that you all enjoy them!

So, what have I been up to? Well, to start with, there have been several requests for some new photos of the puppies. The pups are doing well, adjusting well. Their names are Trixie (the Boston Terrier) and Ginger (the mini dachshund). Trixie is still a bit under the weather. I took them in to the vet today for some vaccinations. Trixie had to have some blood work done as well. We are hoping that it is still just parasites or an over sensitive stomach. The doctor said it could be liver problems, hence the blood work. If that is the case, she has to go back to the breeder, which would just break my heart. We should know tomorrow…

The night before last, my oldest son was helping clean some of the animal… stuff, and he accidently left that back door open. We did not realize it until we were already in bed. A quick back story, my beloved Petey lost his collar about a month ago (the one that has the bell on it). So, we are in bed and I hear the sound of Buddy (one of our other cats) tugging on his collar, but the bell jingling was coming from outside. I told my husband, who ran outside to find Buddy laying on the back patio as if it was a totally normal thing for him to do. (All of my animals are inside animals) When he opened the door, Freddy came running in, scared as can be. Will chased Buddy in, but there was no sign of Petey. Trying my best to not have a heart attack, I grab my slippers and ran outside, calling Petey’s name the whole time. As soon as I got outside, Petey came running to me like a bat out of hell! I picked him up, loved on him for a while, then put him on the bed. When I crawled back into bed, I discovered that my shirt was all bloody! Thank goodness, he’s alright, but he shredded all of his toenails down to nubs and one is almost missing! Of course, I had to create a layout about it:

Now, I’m still trying to get my scrapping mojo back. I haven’t done any scrapping in a very long time, so I’ve been having a hard time getting back into it. I’ve been doing a lot of crafting and other types of art instead. So, here’s what I’ve created in the last few days:

As you can see, I don’t scrap in any kind of order. The first layout is from our trip to the Cook Islands in March 2006. The second one is from my youngest’s and my birthday last year. The last one is just some random photos that I took of my husband as one point. I’ve really been enjoying the cleaner space, though!

Just got about 80 more pictures today. Let’s see what I can come up with for them…

The Final 3…

Day 7 Prize #1 goes to Catherine.
Day 7 Prize #2 goes to Lacee.
Day 7 Prize #3 goes to Stacy Cormaci.

Congrats to all of my new friends! Please be sure to email me your address so that I can get your goodies out to you.

I want to thank everyone for stopping by this week and helping me to get rid of…. uh, I mean, bless you with some of my goodies. It has been great fun for me. I hope that you all will continue to visit and leave me some comments. I have so enjoyed every single one of them.

Oh, and my least favorite household chore… mopping. Of course, I agree with many of you who said that you hate all of it. I don’t think there is one household chore that I enjoy doing. I used to love to cook, until my kids became grumbling, complaining teenagers. Now, it just does not seem worth the effort to cook anything nice. Laundry is most definitely a very close second to mopping though, as is evidenced by the constant piles of laundry lying around my house. Well, that, and the fact that I caught my son taking socks out of the dirty laundry basket today because he didn’t have any more clean ones. Is that bad?

And just to make you all feel better, I found this wonderful article today from Time.com:

8 Ways to be a Happier Mom

I’m going with this excerpt:

(Re)consider your priorities

It may sound simplistic, but one key to being in a more positive mood is to structure your day so you do more things you enjoy. “It’s how you spend your time, not your money, that counts,” says Dr. Ubel. “If you have any financial flexibility that lets you maximize your family time, use it now. For instance, do you really need to be the one to clean the house? How about paying someone to help out? And if that’s not an option, think about how clean your house really needs to be — do you need to make the beds, or is bed-making time better spent drawing pictures with your kids?

I think I like that idea… Off to draw some pictures with my kids!

Day #6 Winner!

Chose the winner myself today.

Congrats, Ms. Susan M. Hee hee!

Good luck to everyone on today’s prize give aways!!

The Final Day!

Oh, my goodness! I can’t believe we are at the last day of give aways. I can’t tell you how much fun it has been for me to give away some many yummy goodies to my friends. It’s nice to know that they will go to use somewhere. And if you end up throwing half of the stuff away… well, just don’t tell me! ha! At least it won’t be me doing it, so I won’t have guilt!

Anyway, I just couldn’t wait to post today’s goodies. My house has been a tornado zone since I started these give aways and I’m ready to reclaim my bedroom. (Yeah, I pretty much just moved it out of the craft room and into my bedroom. Sad, huh?)

Well, I still have a ton of stuff to give away. I was going to do one gigantic give away for the final day, but after looking at all of the stuff, I decided to break it into three give aways. That gives each of you a better chance to win!

Day 7 Prize 1

The papers here are from Luxe. I can’t be certain, but I think that there are papers here from every line that they have released, except for the last lines from CHA Winter 08. I LOVE this paper (and don’t worry, I still have tons). I was lucky enough to win several packs of it at a CKU. But, of course, some of it is just because I buy way too much. We have the standard rub ons, stickers, adhesive and felt flowers. I have also added a small Mickey Mouse punch, some foam stamps, some Heidi Swapp decorative tape, and a mini album from Bazzill.

Day 7 Prize 2

This package took up almost my entire couch! The papers here are from 3 bugs in a rug. There are several full paper lines in here, plus the matching stickers and punch out tags. I love this paper, and I didn’t keep one sheet of it. Why? Well, it’s just not my crafting style. I adore the look of all of their papers, but I have learned that I have to love it from a distance. My loss, your gain. And, of course, rub ons, stickers, felt flowers, and adhesive. I’ve also added a couple of punches, some acrylic stamps and a pin cushion made by me. (Or a cat toy, since my cats keep digging it out of the box to play with… hee hee)

Day 7 Prize 3

Ok, all of you Basic Grey fans. This is the prize package for you! For those of you who know me, you know that I am a Basic Grey freak. I love all of their papers – even the ones that others have shied away from. Again, I can’t be certain, but I’m pretty sure that there are papers here from every single Basic Grey line that has been released. Yes, you read that right. I even tracked down some of the ones that are out of print, because I am that much of a freak. I’ve learned my lesson, but I do still have a huge cropper hopper full of Basic Grey papers. I will never fully give them up. I didn’t count them, but there are a ton of papers here – even some 2 scoops! There are not as many rub ons and stickers here, but they are all K&Company and Basic Grey stuff, so they will match the papers very well. I’ve also included 4 premade layouts from a Basic Grey class that I took at a CKC, a box of chipboard flower thingys, and the Around the Block label tagger thing. I don’t remember what it’s called, but I, of course, had to have it and never once used it. It looks like fun, but again, just not my thing.

Ok… so there you have it. The last of the goodies for now. I still have several books to give away, but I think I’ll wait for another time to give those out. Definitely watch out for them, though. They are great books that I picked up at CHA and are signed by the authors! (hint: Journal Revolution is one of them)

Loved the answers for yesterday’s questions. You all almost turned me into a fall lover. Although I do love the fall (and I think all of you answered that, except my friend Jodi who’s crazy enough to love the summer!), I am a winter lover. I love the cold weather. I love to bundle up in pants, Ugg boots, sweaters, sweatshirts, scarves, hats, gloves… Love the smell of the rain (’cause we don’t get the snow). I love to bake cookies and cook soups all day long because using the oven helps keep the house warm. I love to cuddle with my hubby as we watch TV or a movie together. I LOVE flannel sheets, big warm blankets, hot cups of coffee and fuzzy slippers. I am always so sad to see the winter go away. Oh… and Disneyland in January, when it’s cold, cold, cold and nobody is there… THE BEST!

I’m off to clean the rest of my bedroom now, and start the massive chore of laundry. Yeah, I have huge piles of it all over the house again. I just hate doing laundry, don’t you? Today’s question: What’s your least favorite household chore?

I’ll post the Day #6 winner later since I said that I would wait until 4pm PST to post winners. I want to give everyone a chance to win!

#6

Ok, so I took a day off from the prize giveaways… for 2 reasons really. The main reason is that I was just so wiped out after spending the day with my family that I didn’t have the energy to put a prize together and photograph it at 9:30 last night. But the other reason is that I know that there are a lot of people who go out of town for this holiday weekend, so I wanted to have my last day of prizes be on a day when people will be back from their weekend getaways, and maybe even back to work.

At any rate, I hope everyone is having a great holiday weekend. I hope you’ve had time to spend with family and friends. And most of all, I hope that you have had time to remember our troops and maybe even say a prayer for them and their families.

Today’s prize is a bit different. There is still a lot of stuff here, but I’ve upped the ante a bit.

As always, there is some good stuff here. The paper is all from Cosmo Cricket (love this stuff). There is a book that I have never opened from Lisa Bearnson. It’s hard to read, but it says “Best of QVC page layouts. My guess would be that it has page designs in it, but since I haven’t opened it, I couldn’t tell you what’s in there. We have more rub ons, stickers, adhesive and felt flowers. Today’s bonuses… an EK Success Curvy Cutter and a Fiskars border punch. I will be honest, the Curvy Cutter does work, but it works best with a glass mat underneath it. I have a glass mat, but not one large enough to use this. I have discovered that that just is not a circle cutter out there that can compare to drawing a circle and cutting it with scissors.

If you are a regular shopper, you know that today’s prize is worth a lot of money. This is a great prize pack! Let’s just not discuss how much it actually IS worth. hee hee

The winner of the Day #5 give away is Gloria L. Congratulations, girl! Be sure to email me your address so that I can get your prize pack to you.

I have had so much fun with all of your comments. I have to say that I am surprised at how many of you are happy exactly where you are at. That is so great. I’m jealous, to tell you the truth. I wish I was as content! My husband and I talk about moving all of the time. Neither one of us is very happy here in California. For those of you who have no been here, it’s not all palm trees and beaches, trust me! We live in the desert and during the summer it gets miserable hot – 115 degrees sometimes. Now, I know that my Arizona friends can relate, but I am just not cut out for this kind of weather. I am cranky and lethargic all summer long. I would give just about anything to move away from this place.

My dream… well, it varies from day to day. Some days, I can imagine living in a hut in the Cook Islands and having nothing more than a few books to worry about. But, honestly, I don’t think I could live like that for very long. I’m a go girl and sitting is just not my thing. So, I think if I had it my way, we would live in upstate New York, Vermont, Maine… somewhere where the weather is a bit milder. My husband has friends in Rochester, New York. The weather in the summer is ridiculously cool. I think their high is like 85 degrees. Hello? I think I could handle that. Yeah, I know about the winters. To be honest, it would be nice to have some actual weather – something to tell you that the season is actually changing. My kids are always asking me what season it is because it never really changes much here. Our lows are like 65 degrees on a cool winter day.

Anyway, today’s question… what is your favorite season of the year and why? Good luck!

I didn’t forget

Hey there everyone. I just wanted to let you know that I have not forgotten about the give aways. I spent the day with my extended family and I am totally exhausted. So, I’ll post the winner of the Day 5 prize in the morning, along with the Day 6 prize. I might have to add an extra little goodie because i missed a day. Stay tuned!

#5

Welcome to prize day #5. Sorry for the late post. I had to work today and I had some family issues come up that delayed my post. Here is today’s prize package.

Today we have 2 brand new, never opened Heidi Swapp paper packs – one is 12×12 and one is 8×8 (I think). There is also a nice pack of Imagination Project paper. Of course, there are stickers and rub ons, plus glue sticks, some Heidi Swapp decorative tapes, some Maya Road clear things (not sure what they are called), and a completed project that I made at Creative Escape last year.

The winner of the Day 4 drawing was Kiera! Congrats, my friend.

Oh, I told you that I would tell you what my one must have product is. It is definitely Distress Ink pad Vintage Photo. I use it on everything. I kind of feel like I could make do with a lot of other products, even stuff from around the house. But I could not live without that color ink. I just love it.

I have had SO much fun reading everyone’s comments over the last few days. Some of you have just made me chuckle, and I love that! Thank for all of your kind words and honesty. It’s been so much fun. Alrighty, today’s question: If you could live anywhere in the world that you wanted without worry of money, where would it be?

Good luck everyone!

Pages and Prizes!

Howdy do, everyone! Are you as excited as I am to have a long weekend? Not only do I get to spend some time with my extended family, buy my oldest son will be home for the first 3 day weekend in a very long time. It will be so fun to just hang with my family all weekend long.

I know that it is a holiday weekend, but the prizes will continue through the whole weekend. I wanted to celebrate what, to me, is a pretty important holiday for our country. Taking time to honor those who have so bravely defended our country and all that it stands for is just so very important to me. No, I do not come from a military family. As a matter of fact, my father was drafted during Vietnam, but the war ended before he had to serve. My grandparents served, but only because it was expected of them. My husband couldn’t join the military for a few “medical” reasons, which are silly to me. So, knowing that others are serving for me and my family means so much to me.

Anyway, off the soap box… I finally took some time today to enjoy my new, cleaned out room. I can’t even tell you how nice it was to be able to move around AND find everything that I wanted. I was even so good as to put it away after I was done using it instead of waiting until I was done with the whole page I was working on. I think that’s how things start to get out of control for me. So, I’m going to try this new way of crafting and hope that it helps me to stay organized.

I plan on working in here the entire night… and weekend, if possible. For now, here’s what I have accomplished:

Using my little point and shoot camera today, so the images are not very good, but you get the idea. I’m pretty happy with it. I decided to not stress over the placement of every little thing. I picked some papers that I knew I wanted to use for this layout and just moved forward.

Ok. Here’s what you all are waiting for…

the winner of the prize for Day #3 was…

Notice how his eyes are still on the video game screen. LOL! Congratulations, Stella. Email me you address so that I can get your giant goodie bag to you! So glad that I can bless you as you blessed me with my goodie bag!

Prize Day #4

I DID NOT count the papers today. It’s a lot, that’s all I know. What’s so sad is that, seriously, this is only a small portion of what I’m getting rid of. Can you believe it? Anyway, there is some Signature Life, MME Magnolia (the good stuff, not the Costco stuff), and a whole bunch of Sweetwater papers here. I used to belong to a kit club with Sweetwater, only I never used any of the product. Sad, I know. Lots of stickers, some adhesive, felt flowers, rub ons, and other goodies.

It must be getting hard to leave a comment, so I’ll have you answer a question today. Will that help? So, tell me what the one crafting product is that you know you could not live without. I’ll tell you mine tomorrow. Good luck!

No Scientific Method Today

Sorry. No fun pictures of my son making a mess with tiny papers in my living room today. hee hee I wanted to be sure to get the winner’s name posted, since I said that I would pull the names at 4pm PST.

So… the winner of the Day 2 prize is…

Jilliene!

Congratulations, Jilliene. Be sure to email me your address so that I can get your package out to you. Also, while you all are here, be sure to leave a comment on the post named #3. Today’s prize is an amazing one!

#3

I didn’t want you all to have to wait to see today’s prize, so I decided to post it early. I have to work tonight, so to be fair to all, I will be posting the winner of Day 2’s prize after I get home from work.

Are you ready for Prize Day 3? Today’s prize package is a huge one!

This package comes just in time for our Memorial Day weekend holiday. I’m calling this the Holiday Package. I have a huge cropper hopper full of holiday paper. It makes it easy to find paper when I’m ready to scrap, or craft for a certain holiday. Of course, it’s now only one cropper hopper instead of two. But you all get the benefits from that purge, right?

I swore that I wouldn’t count paper, but I couldn’t resist today. There are almost 60 sheets of paper in today’s prize! (59 to be exact) Plus, there are lots of fun stickers, rub ons, ribbon and some punches to go with all of the holidays. This is not just Christmas stuff, guys. We’re talking Valentine’s Day, Easter, Independence Day, and Halloween in addition to Christmas.

I will warn you, though, that some of the Easter and Halloween stuff is… uh… I guess gothic would be the best way of putting it. I love that funky Rusty Pickle stuff. I know that my vintage friends will adore these papers. They are hilarious!

Good luck to all. I will post the Day 2 winner later…