win it B4 you can buy it!

Hi diddly ho neighbors!

Sorry I haven’t been around all that much. Been busy busy, as usual! I have a new Quick Page album and I thought I’d have a wee contest! You can win it before it even goes on sale!

This sweet little album is made using my Monkey Do kit, but there are a few extra goodies tucked in here that you can’t get with the kit!

So, here’s the deal:

All you have to do is leave a comment here with a funny story about someone you love, or even yourself! It doesn’t have to be embarrassing, but if you wanna lay it all out on the table, I won’t turn down a good laugh! 😉

So, leave your little story in the comment section by Midnight EST on Friday August 8th, 2008 and I will put everyone into a drawing for the album. One lucky runner up will win my Monkey Do kit. 🙂

And since previews don’t really do an album any kind of justice, here is mine. I hope you like it!

CLICK HERE TO SEE MY ALBUM IN THE SHUTTERFLY GALLERY

monkey did it

Thanks to the lovely ladies who participated in my little blog challenge! I loved seeing your layouts! 🙂 I’m emailing all of you a GC code for my store. I hope you enjoy it! 🙂

And I just love what my CT is doing with this kit. 🙂

And one by me 🙂

Thanks for stopping by! I’m feverishly working on another kit and I’m hoping to finish a QP album with Monkey Do. Be on the lookout for it! I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend! Ciao!

a winner!

Thanks, everyone, for the amazingly sweet comments! 🙂 I’m so glad you all like the mini kit! It is no longer available for download. But you can purchase it from my store for just $2.00 🙂

I used the random number generator at Random.org and the winning number is 37! I’ll be emailing you your GC shortly! 🙂

Thanks, again, for all your comments! 🙂 And I hope everyone had a lovely weekend!

If you like to purchase the mini kit, you can grab it HERE at my Oscraps shop. Ciao, all!

Also, here’s a peek at a couple of layouts my CT made. Love these! 🙂

by Christine Newman (supertwinkle)

by Michelle Adams (rynonutmom)

happy 4th of july!

It’s the 4th of July in the States (and almost everywhere else right now, in fact) and it’s time to celebrate. Fireworks, tail-gating, the whole lot! 🙂

Noodle went to preschool yesterday and she made an American flag. The teachers told me it’s part of their “inclusion” policy that they honor all holidays of their students and their students’ families. I thought it was so sweet. I also thought it was perfectly hilarious, so I made a crack that went something like “Oh, that’s so sweet that you helped her celebrate the day we got away from you guys!”. Of course I said it in my most sugary sweet and playful voice so they knew that I was joking. We had ourselves a good solid 5 minutes of laughing and thigh-slapping at 1) my stupidity and 2) how well the Brits and Yanks can get along now and 3) how civilized I am, for an American. 😉 It was sweet. I really love her school and she has the most wonderful time there. Those ladies are worth their weight in gold. 🙂

Also, in the spirit of the holiday, I have a new mini kit. 🙂 I hope you enjoy it! It’s free for now, but I may put it up for sale soon. 🙂 Also, if you leave me a comment, I will put you in a drawing for a $20 GC to my store! 🙂

Click HERE to download. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by! I hope you’re all having a wonderful day! 🙂

This mini kit is no longer available for free download, but you can purchase it HERE for just $2! Thanks for stopping by!

summer storm

In the midst of this month’s chaos, I have completely forgotten forsaken the new kit I put up for sale. I even had a promo and everything, but of course I failed to talk about it here.

So, to make up for it, I’m going to host a mini celebration, but just here on the blog. 🙂

Anyone who buys my Summer Storm kit this week (27JUN-04JUL), makes a layout with it, and then posts that layout in a gallery will win a $10 GC to my store. Every. Single. Person.

All you have to do is buy it, scrap with it, post it, and then link it here. Easy peasy, right? 🙂

I also have a quick page and a template to help you scrap a little faster. 🙂 (pssst….You could even just make a page with the quick page. How simple is that!?!? )

Here’s some inspo from my CT to help those creative juices flowing. 🙂

This kit is my new favorite…it was inspired by a painting we have that my husband’s grandmother painted. It was the only painting he wanted (among hundreds) and it is very special to us. It’s a field of daisies against a dark, stormy sky. I just love it. That, coupled with the constant threat of rain here during the summer, came together and motivated me to make this. I hope you like it. I had a wonderful time creating it. 🙂

Thanks for stopping by! Happy scrapping. Ciao, all!

KIT LINK

QUICKPAGE LINK

TEMPLATE LINK

shy guy winners!

Thanks so much for all the awesome layouts! It was so sweet to see everyone’s entries! They were all so wonderful that I had to bring in my CT to help me decide! 🙂 So, the winners are:

1st: Natasha (bcnatty)

2nd: Annalee

I will email your coupon codes to you in the morning!

Thanks so much! I will be emailing all the entrants a coupon for this template!

Thanks for stopping by! 🙂

sonbird ave. june 08 kit

Yay! I’m so relieved that Songbird Avenue is back online and that there was no damage! Kinda scary when you think about tall the work you’d have to do to recover any lost data!

So, I’m totally thrilled about this month’s guest designer. Vicki Stegall. Her name just brings a smile to my face. 🙂 I started selling at Oscraps.com about 15 months ago. (I think I registered at the site right around my birthday last year). I was looking for a new site to give away my freebies at and I was rejected over and over again by the big sites. It was huge blow for my self esteem and I thought seriously about not designing at all.

But, in the midst of all that self-doubt and panic, a friend pointed me towards Oscraps. She told me how caring and professional and supportive the owner, Vicki, was. I was immediately interested and so I emailed Vicki and she took me on without a moment of hesitation. I instantly felt like I was part of her family. And when I was able to start selling my designs again last December, she was one of my biggest cheerleaders. And she still is.

Vicki works herself to death practically to keep Oscraps in tip top shape and to take care of all of her silly designers’ issues and mistakes (me, most of all!) So, when i say I’m excited about June’s kit..I mean that I’m thrilled. I’m ECSTATIC. Not only am I happy with the beautiful kit and to be working with another incredible designer, I’m so grateful that I have opportunities like this to thank those who have lifted me up in the past. I am truly grateful for Vicki’s friendship and support and it makes this kit that much more meaningful to me.

So, please help me support Vicki’s donation by purchasing this month’s kit. Be sure to read her bio in the “About Us” section for a very cool rundown on why she chose MercyCorps as this month’s recipient.

Thanks for listening. And thanks, as always, for your amazing support!

home stretch

Ok, I love a break, a vacation, a rest as much as the next person, but I am sooo glad the kiddos are going back to school tomorrow! We’ve been all lazy and sick and just generally unproductive. I’m tired of it! 🙂 I need my schedule back. I need a routine!

I start to get cabin fever and the jitters. 🙂

Of course, tomorrow morning, I’m sure I’ll be the last one out of bed. I do love my sleep!

And yesterday marked the end of my designing drought. It has literally been 2 months since I put anything new out. I’m sooo glad that is over. It felt so good to crank something out. I remember when I used to be able to design a full digital kit in less than a day (even with a newborn!). Now I’m lucky if I make 3 products a month. It doesn’t help that I always have ideas on the back burner that I simply don’t have time to develop. That’s never a good feeling, ya know?

BUT that’s in the past (for the present) because I have a ton of new stuff coming out in a couple of days. A template, a quick page, a paper pack, an embellishment pack… I’ve been a busy girl!

I can feel my inspiration slowly creeping back. I wish it would hurry up already! 🙂 Happy Monday!

click HERE to snag this sneak peek word art. 🙂

ALSO!! If you haven’t gotten your May kit over at Songbird Ave., the kit has been extended for a few hours! Our site is finally back online and, as promised, I’ve extended the kit for 7 hours! It’s now or never! 🙂 Click HERE to go straight to the Songbird shop. We’re taking it offline at 6 p.m. EST. Hurry hurry! 🙂

amalgamation

Lots of goodies today! First up, my collaboration kit with my awesome friend, Liz, of Paislee Press! This collab has been talked about for YEARS, and I am so happy that it’s actually here! We make a pretty darn good team!

And for a limited time, you can grab 2 fabulous quick pages for absolutely free! Click HERE to purchase ZIPPY HIPPY. 🙂 Here’s a bit of a better peek at the papers:

They are seriously yummy! I am so in love with the colors!

I’m getting back into the groove around here. Even when I leave for just a couple of days, it takes me a bit to get back into the swing of things. I wish I could hit the ground running, but apparently I need more time to decompress than most. 🙂 Here are some photos from my adventures of being a supermom wannabe.

Almost every day for lunch, the kidlets and I consume rice and kimchi. It’s a habit. So, I smell like hot, pickled cabbage and so do the wee ones. We can’t help ourselves. Even the Noodle partakes of the goodness. She calls kimchi, “chim chim” and it the cutest thing ever. And since we’ve discovered furikake, the kids would eat this stuff for every meal if we let them. Furikake is a topping you sprinkle on your rice and they should change the name to “CONDIMENT HEAVEN”. As if I really needed to be more enamored of Japanese food!

Yesterday, I prepared the kidlets their bento lunch, but it wasn’t really photo worthy. Today’s was rather purdy, though, so I snapped a quick pic of it.

Of course, I have to make 3 on Thursdays. Noodle goes to school all day, so I packed her a diminutive version. We’ll call it “Le Petit Bento” since I’m still rather fresh off the plane from France. All I need is a beret and a jumpsuit and I can pretend I work on the assembly line at the Ford factory in France. Do they even have a Ford factory in France? Oui? Non? Hmmmm?

In about an hour, my kiddos will be chowing down on yogurt with fresh strawberries, blueberries and Cheerios, a mini Caprese salad with fresh basil, little garlic bread pretzel things, and apple butter on whole wheat PLUS bread. The PLUS is important, as you know. PLUS is very good for you. I tried to give them more food, but they literally can’t eat it all. This may be a way for me to buy much cuter, much smaller bento boxes. (Of course, this conflicts with my self-induced budget…sigh..) And the girls have told me that their lunches are a great intrigue in the lunchroom. Everyone wants to know what they’ve brought every day. Pretty cool huh? Being different is apparently…cool. And I have to give mad props to my daughters for not only taking furikake to school, but reveling in their lunch glory like madwomen as well.

So, after I dropped them all off at school, I had a lovely, leisurely walk back home all by my lonesome. The garbage men had just emptied my trash can, so I grabbed that and headed to my backyard to deposit it. On the way there, though, was evidence of what I believe to be our first domestic homicide.

Oh the poor poor birdy. I hope against hope that this bird is OK somewhere. I am a wuss. Then I realied that the garden was lookin’ pretty cheerful, so I ran inside to grab my camera. I took a photo of the crime scene. (A silent moment for the bird, please.)

Thank you. 🙂

Let’s take a stroll through my backyard shall we?

Ah, that’s nice. Such a beautiful day. Hardly a cloud in the sky. I hope everyone is having a wonderful day! Thursdays are my days off, so I’m outta here. Lots of fun, non-puter stuff I want to do. Ciao, all!

au revoir!

The countdown has officially started.

I’m meeting up with some fabulous women tonight in Paris. You can read about their antics so far here. I’ve got some last-minute packing to do, but I wanted to show you this little sneak peek of what’s to come.

My brain feels like it’s all over the place right now! So many things going on in my head, that it’s difficult to know that I will not be able to take care of things for a few days. Yikes! On the other hand, I am so totally looking forward to hanging out in Paris. Good wine, fabulous friends, new acquaintances, croissants. Should be heavenly. 🙂

Au revoir, mes amis!

On y va!