WOW, what a weekend!!!

This weekend has been full of ups and downs. I promised you all that I would have good news soon. Here is my good news-I am the new designer at Make it Scrappy!!!! I am so excited about this opportunity. MIS is my first digi community home. It was the first place I actually came out of lurk mode and posted. I know a lot of the members there and I know all of the designers there. That is a huge plus. I am just so excited, I just can't even tell you how excited I am. I feel like a kid at Christmas who just got the best gift ever. I am still in the process of getting all of my products in the store. I have had to redo some of my previews since they had other store logos on them and I have had to redo all of my zips. MIS does single zips per products where as my other stores had a zip limit of 25MB. I have a lot of them done, so I am just working on the last few. I hope to see you all at Make it Scrappy.



Not long after I got this wonderful news, I got some really bad news. Friday night, the owners of Scrappers Zone had a BIG FIGHT!!! It is no ones business what the fight was about even though one of the owner tried to drag us all in the fight. One of them deleted the entire store. She has left to open her own store. The other owner is working to restore Scrappers Zone. There are going to be changes in the way it looks. The previos look belonged to the owner that left, so it will have a new look.



I am really sad that this happened. Scrappers Zone was a wonderful place. I was getting to know designers from all over the world. We had designers from the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, the Philippines, Russia and many other countries that I can't even remember the all. We had a section where scrappers could get help in their own language-russian, german, spanish, portugese, tagalog and more. I hope that one of the two new sites coming out of this will have those options. The were new and not a lot of people knew about them so they hadn't been used much. The potential was huge there.



I have decided that I will stay with Scrappers Zone. The fact that the other owner deleted the site in anger has caused some trust issues with me, especially after all of the problems with DigiScrapDesigners (if you are not already aware of the problems, be grateful as this means you didn't lose your hard earned money) I wish the other designers and owner the best of luck. I have no hard feelings in this. I am only sad. Some of the designers going with the other sites are designers that I had started to make friends with. We talked in the forums a lot. I hope we can all keep in touch.



Then, last night I got another piece of bad news. The prophet of our church, President Gordon B Hinckley passed away at age 97. This man was an inspiration. He was so active, despite his age. He traveled with world speaking with members everywhere. He dedicated more temples than any prophet in history. There are about 124 temples in operation now. I was reading a news article about his passing. It said he was working in his office up until 2 weeks ago. He said something in a conference address recently that he has only been in the hospital once in his life, not counting his birth (this is amazing to a person who had 3 hospitalizations in 2007 alone). Pres. Hinckley has been our prophet for almost 13 years. He served as the councelor to 3 prophets before him; Pres Howard W. Hunter, Pres. Ezra T Bensen and Pres Spencer W Kimball. I loved listening to Pres Hinckley speak. He always brought humor into all of his talks. He made them so interesting to listen to. He was an amazing speaker. He will be truely missed by me, my family and every member of the LDS church. I hope that I can always be grateful, be smart, be involved, be clean, be true, be positive, be humble, be still and be prayerful (from Pres Hinckley's address to the youth in 2001).

Alta

Back in October, I did a design contest. This is a kit that I started for the contest. I have really added to the kit and made it rather large. I finally have it in my stores. I named it after my grandmother, Alta. I love the colors for this kit. Purple is my favorite color. This kit contains 16 papers, 3 bows, 4 ribbons, 4 bead strings, 1 brad, 1 conch, 2 buttons, 1 set of photocorners, 8 flowers, 4 frames, 1 lace doily, 4 gem pins, 4 ribbon slides, 1 book plate, 3 tags, and complete upper and lower case alpha with numbers and symbols. Here is what the full kit looks like. You can get it at Scrappers Zone and Studio Style Designs.

Here is a freebie to go with my new kit. I really hope you like it. If you make any LO with this mini kit, I would love to see them.

download here

I'll have an exciting new announcement later this week. Please check back later.

Layout of the Week

It has been a while since I blogged. I didn't realize I had missed an entire week. It has been a busy week. My son had his Cub Scout Pinewood Derby on Saturday. He placed 3rd place. He has placed every year for the past 3 years. He was really happy with his car. This year, we made him do almost everything, except the inital cutting of the wood into a wedge shape, by himself. In previous years, we made him do a lot himself, but still helped him a lot.

Today, I ran a first aid certification clinic for the young women at church. They have to have certain certifications for girls' camp each year. I am the nurse at our girls' camp. I love being the camp nurse. It is a lot of work during the week, but I usually don't have any prep before hand. This is the first year we have done this. It went really well. All of the girls that attended got all of their first aid certification out of the way for the year. This will probably become a yearly thing now. The hard part is done though, so next year I will just have to make the assignments. Even more important than getting the certification done, the girls had a lot of fun. That is what girls' camp is suppose to be about.

I got layout of the week at Scrappers Zone. It is actually for the first week of Janaury, but we are running a little behind. I was so happy to get this recongnition. I worked really hard on this LO and I worked hard on the accomplishment this LO is about. Here is my layout.

I have a new kit in the stores this week. I am putting together a freebie for you all so watch for it this week. Now that the first aid certification is over, I can work on the freebie. I'll see you later this week.

Help a friend

I have this friend from church that has a blog. She is so funny. Her blog is about her family. She is the mom of 4 little kids. She has had several comments that she should be an writer. She said if she gets 403 comments on her blog that she should be a writer, she will start a book. Here is a letter she asked us to post in her behalf.

Dear Friends,
My dear friend needs your help in pursuing a life long dream. Your task, if you choose is simple. Please visit her blog, www.4kidsnodog.blogspot.com and read her post, "I'm Flattered...me an author?!- Jan 6, 2008" and just post a comment basically saying "go for it." That is all you have to do, you don't even have to read the blog if you so choose. But please leave a comment. Heck you can even say "dude its not worth the effort" but please take a few minutes, visit the blog and make a comment. It doesn't cost you a thing, just a tiny bit of your internet time. And if you so desire, browse her blog and read some of her posts, she is rather entertaining in my humble opinion. Have a good one. Thanks,

So, please visit her blog and leave her some love. You will enjoy her blog and it will brighten your day. You may even feel as if your kids are not that bad.

Happy Bithday Jeremy

Yesterday was my son's birthday. He s 6 years old. He was so happy to be 6. He thinks now that he is 6, he can be a cub scout. He has to wait until the fall though. Then he will be a Tiger cub. Andrew has been in cub scouts since he was in 1st grade. Jeremy has wanted to be part of the cub scouts for so long. Turning 6 was a big milestone for him being part of scouts.



He had a really good birthday. We had a family party at grandma's house on Sunday night. My neice turns 1 on the 11th, so we celebrated together. Yesterday, I took him to walmart to spend his gift card he got from his great grandma. He bought an Imaginext Pirate ship. He loves anything related to pirates. Last night we took him to Gatti Town for dinner. Gatti town is one of those pizza places that has a pizza buffet, then has a game room and you exchange your points for overly priced toys. He had a lot of fun though. I had a hard time keeping up with him though. He runs from game to game and I can't move very fast.



Scrappers Zone has a new mega kit out. It is called Doctor Doctor. If your kids are anything like mine, you will have plenty of uses for this kit. My boys have had stitches 3 times each. Andrew has had 6 broken bones in his life and Jeremy has had 2. Rachael has been my careful one and has never had to have stitches and broke part of her foot once, but didn't require a cast. I'm sure my boys will continue in their accident prone nature and I will end up with more accident LO to do.

There are some new games going on in the forum at Scrappers Zone. Check them out. There is a lot of fun stuff in the forum. Later this month, I will be hosting some games that are brain teasers. Participatns will get a prize for sending me a PM with the correct answer. I'm still working on the brain teaser and the prize. In the mean time, check out the games forum here for some fun games and more to come.

A sale at Studio Style Designs

We are having a sale at Studio Style Designs. Everything is going to be 25% off with a coupon. The coupon code is 25-weekend. This sale is only going to happen this weekend. Don't miss out on all the wonderful kits available.

I think my CT is now complete. I have 4 wonderful members. They are wonderful scrappers. Here are a few LO from them.

This LO was done by Nanna Susie. She was my first CT member. This kit is called Baby Conner. The picture in the LO is the baby that this kit was made for. You can find that kit at Scrappers Zone and Studio Style Designs

This LO was done by Robin. She used my kit Pretty Poinsettia for this layout. It is also available at Studioi Style Designs and Scrappers Zone.

This LO was done by Angie. Angie is also going to be making some quick pages for me. Check back because some of them are going to be given away here. Angie used the kit Autumn Outdoors for this LO. Find the kit at Scrappers Zone and Studio Style Designs .

My most recent CT member is Lavendar Angel. She did this adorable LO with A Night Of Romance. This kit is all sold seperately. Again, they are available at Scrappers Zone and Studio Style Designs .

I look forward to seeing all the wonderful things my CT does with my kits. Check back here for some quick pages. I plan to have some available on Monday provided no one else gets sick in my home. I hope everyone has a good weekend.

Happy New Year

I know, I am a few days late. I hope everyone had a safe and happy new year. We are starting off the new year with a bang. On New Year's Eve, I took Jeremy into the doctor for fever and complaints of an ear ache. He has never had a ear infection in his life. His ear only had a little bit of fluid in it, but he did have a lot of fluid in his lungs. He has pneumonia. 2007 was the year for pneumonia at our house. Rachael started out the year with strept and pneumonia, then Andrew got pneumonia in February. I got pneumonia in September after my gall bladder surgery. Now, Jeremy ended 2007 with pneumonia. Stan was the only one that didn't get it during the year. Jeremy has been on Zithromax for 3 days now. He no longer has fever and he has a bit more energy. Unfortunately, every time he starts to play, he coughs really bad. Initally, the doctor was concerned about pertussis. Jeremy had an allergic reaction to the pertussis vaccine, so he is not immune. His cough is so bad that it reminded her of pertussis. He was going to get tested for it if his xray had been clear. Of the 2, pneumonia is preferable.

Are you one to make New Year's Resolutions? I don't really. I am a goal oriented person anyway. I make goals throughout the entire year. I don't wait until there is a new year to make a goal. This week, I did recommit to a goal I have been working on for 17 months. I have been going to weight watchers for the past 17 months. I have hoped to have lost more weight than I have by this point. I had initally hoped to be at goal by now. I didn't anticipate being diagnosed with MS. I know that has played a role in my slow loss. However, lately I have been using it as an excuse to completey blow everything. Getting this diagnosis has been a huge relief, but it has also brought me more stress. It is a life changing thing. I have found myself wondering what the future brings me. I realize that no one knows what the future brings. I need to make sure I don't let my MS become an excuse for me to be fat. My MS symptoms will be so much easier to handle if I get my weight under control. So, I am recommitting to my goal to lose weight. This week, I am focusing on eating 5 servings of fruits and vegetables each day and drinking 64 ounces of water each day. Next week, I will add one more healthy habit and work up from there. I am going to try to blog about my weight watchers experience frequiently. I am hoping it will keep me on target.