A quick look back, top 10 lo's and thank you

I'm "borrowing" this idea from JanMary who so brilliantly did it for her yesterday's post. They say that imitiation is the sincerest form of flattery.

I uploaded my first layout to the gallery at SBB on July 18th. I knew absolutely nothing about scrapbooking, let along digiscrapbooking. But I had time on my hands and a SIL who is a whiz at paper scraping, so I figured what did I have to lose. If you look at that first layout, you'll see that I truly started with nothing. That's Justin, my cousins son. For those of you are semi regular readers, you may remember him better if I tell you his dad was in the real bad motorcycle accident.I truly cringe when I look at this layout. But every one's gotta start somewhere. And I think that if I hadn't gotten so much support from people at SBB this hobby might have been short lived.

Here's my top ten favorites of the layouts I've done since I got my new computer in Sept.

More important than the layouts I've done and listed here are the friends I've made along the way. If I listed each of your individually and how you have impacted my life, we'd be sitting here all day reading this post. I am always thankful that someone wants to read about my insignificant life (especially since I haven't been talking much about scraping lately). I have made many friends and look forward to reading your blogs daily so I know more about what's important in your life. I now can say that I have friends all over the world. Thank you.

My wish for you for the New Year is quite simple. I wish you health and happiness, love and laughter, peace and proseperity. Scrap Happy and here's to next year!

I actually slept in.....

For a change. Go figure. I think it's quite funny since in yesterday's post I said that I probably wouldn't be able to. Well, 9:30 is quite late for me and I'm rather pleased. But now I'm behind on my blogging. Oh well.

I have officially become a Guitar Hero addict. I went out and bought it yesterday for Shannon and I end up playing it most of the time yesterday. Turns out I'm pretty good at it. Well at least on the easier songs. ZZ Tops La Grange, kicked my butt. My left hand hurts still from having it around the neck of the guitar to play the notes. It may not be a wii, but I'll say it's about as addicted. I'll have to remember to thank my brother since he started the whole thing by getting one for my nephew. Here's a picture of him playing it on Christmas day and then a screen shot on his big screen plasma tv. I wasn't sure if the experience would be a lot different on a regular size tv. It is a bit, but not enough to keep me from playing it. I'm sure it'll get broken out real soon. I only got 2 pages done yesterday and I had hoped to get a few more than that. Maybe I just need a break and then my mojo will come back.

Don't forget about the chat at DST on Monday night, 11 pm EST with Heather Manning. Freebies and fun to be had for all. I'm gonna have to go grocery shopping for our dinner tomorrow night soon. Fun, fun, fun. Then it's laundry time and I still need to clean up all the Christmas wrapping paper stuff and put it away again for the season.

Enjoy the last Sunday of the year! Congrats to any Patriot fan's out there for their teams stellar season. Scrap happy everyone!!!

The last Saturday of the year

How weird does that sound? The last Saturday. That means that tomorrow is the last day this year I have to sleep in. Do you think it'll happen? Me neither. I can never sleep in and rarely oversleep. Heck I feel like I rarely get any sleep, I'm always tired. But I'm in bed by 11 each night usually. Oh well.

So I've been horribly neglecting my CT duties pretty much since my vacation in November. I'm truly surprised that I haven't been fired, lol. I used to be a great cheerleader. Now I feel like football season is over and I can't get in the groove for basketball season. (analogy, I hate basketball in real life) I haven't even talked with 2 of my designers since mid month. I have no idea what they've got going on. (In my defense, I haven't really heard from them either). But that's not an excuse. Lost mojo, lost spirit? I don't know what my problem is. But I'm hoping that the New Year will bring it all back to me.

Let me show you the final page I switched around for SIL's parents calendar. I think I like how it turned out.

Also one last picture to show you from Christmas morning, for now. I bought each of the girls these adorable hand painted shirts at a big holiday craft show. They say "My Auntie loves me" on them. Very self indulgent of me. I'm hoping that my brother can figure out a way to get a better picture of them so you can see it. Being that I'm 200 miles away and don't see them as often as I wish, I am always trying to remind them that Aunt Diane loves them.

Oh yeah, the reason for my mentioning my shortcomings as a CT member. There's gonna be a New Years Eve chat at DST. I'm not sure if it's an all night thing, but Heather's hosting the 11 pm EST time slot. Giveaways and goodies galore. So if you're like the hundreds of us that won't be going out for whatever your reasoning, I hope you'll pop in to Heather's chat. I'm pretty sure that the old man will be asleep by then so I'll be free to spend the time with my friends. We stay home every year; 1) cheaper, 2) avoid the amateur drunks on the road 3) avoid being a drunk on the road. This will be our 9th New Years Eve together. The first one, we'd only been dating like 2 weeks so he went all out. The next year I worked til like 10 and we got into a fight at the bar and the 3rd year we went to a nice dinner with his cousin. Every year since then it's stay home or work for the overtime. We cook ourselves a nice steak & seafood dinner and do nothing. OMG how boring have we become????????? Well, safe is better than boring.

Ok, he's up and I'm about to play let's make a deal for Guitar Hero. Wish me luck. Enjoy your day and scrap happy.

Great deals on printer ink cartridges

If you're anything like me, you love to print photos and layouts out on your own printer. Just to have a copy, even if it's not professional grade quality. After all, not every layout needs a professional print. But that takes a lot of ink and I find myself going through it very quickly. It's always sticker shock for me to go into a store, even that discount mega store to grab a new ink cartridge. I found this site, Inkjetdeals.info and wanted to share it with you. It lists several online stores that offer deep discounts on ink cartridges. It also list coupons that are available for the different stores. I also liked that it has several articles of interest about ink cartridges and printers. My particular favorite was Seven Tips for Saving Ink. Check it out, buy compatible printer ink cartridges, and plan ahead for your ink refill needs. I'm glad I did.

My brain is 43% fried

So I took this quiz to see how creative my brain is. I guess I know now why I have no mojo. I have little creativity left in my brain. I think it all leaked out. You try it, it's weird.

"Synesthesia is the overlapping of the senses. Have you ever pictured a number in your head and noticed that it has a certain color? For someone with synesthesia, senses like sight and sound often cross over into one another and create involuntary assocations. Synesthesia is very common among artists, musicians, and other creative individuals. This 8 question quiz will test how cross-wired your senses are."




57%

Become an Ultrasound technician

Christmas stories

Hi there! More pictures and stories from the weekend. I had pictures of Em and I making cookies for Santa yesterday and have a funny story that goes with it. My brother has a different sense of humor so if you're easily offended, you may want to skip this one.

We were using the sugar cookie dough that comes in a tube. You just roll it out, cut it out, throw it in the oven and then frost. Well, my SIL only had 1 cookie cutter. I don't know if they got lost in the move over the summer or if that's all she had. It was candy cane shaped. So Em and I would roll out the dough, press the cutter into the dough and then try to pick up the dough and get it on the pan. I don't know if I was rolling it too thin, but I was having issues getting them from the counter top to the pan. We finally got 2 pans done, put them in the oven and called it quits for the night. Ever given flour to a 3 year old. That's what they look like, covered it in. It really showed well on the black pants.
Next day we get to frost them. I don't know why but SIL had chocolate frosting for them with red and green sprinkles. So I would put the frosting on the cookies and Em would pour (over pour) sprinkles. We got them done and they weren't bad. We put them back into the corner so the dog wouldn't get them. This is Christmas Eve now. About 2 hours later, I walk into the kitchen and my SIL is doing dishes. Now remember that these are supposed to be candy cane shaped. My SIL proceeds to tell me that my brother said the cookies looked like male genitalia. Most of the cookies fused together at the hook and the frosting covered any openings and the way they were on the plate I had to agree. Then it spread like wildfire that Aunt Diane made dick cookies for Santa. Everyone had to come look at the cookies. (I'm still looking for the picture, I think it's on the 35 mm film). We were bringing presents in on Christmas morning and Em told Shannon that Santa ate all the cookies. Which made us all burst into laughter. So I asked her again later, Em where are the cookies? And she shrugged her shoulders and said "I don't know, somebody ate em all." They were in the cupboard. I guess it may be one of those stories that is only funny if you were there, or if I could find that picture.

Ok, here's a replacement page for my calendar. I think I actually have too much stuff and that's why my mojo's off. I can't decide what papers to use and it takes me way to long to go through it all. Such a complaint hun. I finally got it to the point where I was happy with it.

Well, I am so glad it's Friday. Don't know where the week went, just glad it's almost over and I get a weekend again. I have a house to clean and tons to scrap. Can't believe that 2008 is right around the corner. Wow! Have a great day and scrap happy!

Edit: While jumpin on the DST blog train I found something very interesting!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY YEN!!!!
Stop by her blog to wish her a wonderful day/night (she's half way around the world from most of us).

Decorative Outdoor Lighting

I've been reading more and more about LED lighting for uses other than Christmas time. We have used rope LED lighting for the past 3 years down at the campground, outside our travel trailer. The lights have become the decorations of choice down there. LED lights are often given as gifts for those of us who are lucky enough to celebrate birthdays during the camping season. I bought several strands of rope lights this year to light up my backyard and incorporate into my landscape. I feel that LED lighting is an excellent choice not only because they are attractive but also energy efficient. The lights will last 50,000 hours or more and costs about 90% less than traditional landscape lighting. There are even solar powered products available. I would definitely say that LED lighting is the next new wave in decorative outdoor and landscape designs.
LED landscape lighting

Disclosure: “Carjaziscraps - The Rants of a Buckeye Scrapper” is a personal blog written and edited by me. In it I write about things that interest me and/or that I feel need to be mentioned. From time to time I will be writing about products, services, websites and assorted other topics in posts sponsored by one or more advertisers.Any claims, statistics or other statements about a product or service mentioned on this blog should be verified with the manufacturer or provider thereof. The opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own regardless of the topic and whether or not it is a sponsored postings.

Christmas pictures

I was able to get my pictures uploaded late last night after dinner with Shannon's family. There are so many of them and I took the 35 mm with me and shot about 6 rolls with it. I'm going to have those developed today. I picked out a few to show you.

A sleeping angel.

Opening gifts on Christmas morning.

Josh made out big time, but I think this was more for my brother. It's a blast and I think we're getting one.

Em helped decorate the tree this year at home and my moms. Her favorite saying is "No, it's MY job". Let's see if she feels that way in a few years when it's her turn to do the dishes.
She has her own sense of style and loves to play dress up, especially with her Princess clothes.
Shannon with Addi. She's such a good baby.
Em and I made sugar cookies for Santa. I'll have to tell you the story about them tomorrow.

And yet another shot of Addi. Isn't she beautiful?

There are hundreds of photos. I ran back to Target yesterday on my lunch to get more of the Shutterfly stuff that was on sale (if you missed it, read yesterday's post below after the ad). Here's a rundown of what I got for Christmas this year.

2 Kitchen Aid Saute pans from Shannon

A digital photo frame preloaded with photos

A digital ornament that holds 60 photos

A hand made Christmas ornament, made by Em

An Ohio State Sweatshirt

An emerald necklace with matching earrings

gift cards to Kohl's and Starbucks

All in all, it was a good Christmas. Hope yours was too. I'm hoping with all the photos, I can find my mojo. Mom loved the calendar and cried when she opened it. My SIL parents were there too on Christmas morning and her father was so impressed with it. (Which really validated it, cuz mom had to love it). I'm redoing 2 pages of it with her parents instead of my mom and she'll have them shipped to her house. So that's what I'll be doing this weekend, scrapping all day (hopefully).

Well, looks like it's about time for work. Hope ya all have an awesome day. I could really get used to these 3 day work weeks, but probably not short checks. Can't believe it's Thursday already. Scrap happy!!

Does your New Years Resolution include weight loss and diet plans?

Now that Christmas is over, New Years is right around the corner. And that means New Years resolutions. And since I've stuck to the quiting smoking now for 2 months, it's time to get the diet and exercise under control. I found this great site, Weight Loss Diet Help that I think will really help me get a head start on my resolutions this year. This site has reviewed several of the following big name diets; such as Nutrisystem, Weight Watchers, South Beach and others and has coupons to help you save. For example, the Nutrisystem section has a coupon for Free Multivitiams with purchase of a particular package, or Free 14 days worth of food if you go on the auto plan. Another of online plans they have listed is the Jillian Michaels Diet and Exercise plan. If the name sounds familiar, then you watch Biggest Loser. Jillian is one of the trainers from the show. And if I were going on the show, she'd be who I'd want to train me, but I know she'd kick my butt and I'd be the one crying all the time. I didn't know that she had her own online site. I'm definitely checking hers out. And another great thing about this site is there are well written articles regarding weight loss and exercise. These articles are on topics like How to achieve permanent weight loss and The skinny on diet products. So if you're like millions of Americans who have weight loss plans on your resolution list for 2008, then I'd urge you to check out this site, weight loss diet .
Disclosure: “Carjaziscraps - The Rants of a Buckeye Scrapper” is a personal blog written and edited by me. In it I write about things that interest me and/or that I feel need to be mentioned. From time to time I will be writing about products, services, websites and assorted other topics in posts sponsored by one or more advertisers.Any claims, statistics or other statements about a product or service mentioned on this blog should be verified with the manufacturer or provider thereof. The opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own regardless of the topic and whether or not it is a sponsored postings.

Hope your Christmas was Happy!

So how was your Christmas? I hope that Santa brought you everything your little heart desired. Was your Christmas white? Did you eat too much? How far did you have to travel?
And more importantly did you go to the sales today? bwhahahaha.

Seriously now, mine were wonderful beyond belief. Christmas truly is for children and so much more magical when there are little ones around. I really believe that Em & Addi saved Christmas for mom and I this year. Mom was really having a hard time without Dad. But as long as one of those girls were in her arms, she had a smile on her face. Oh the antics of an almost 3 year old to make you laugh. Em is so into the Disney Princesses that I think there were only a handful of gifts that didn't have at least 1 of them on it. I thought that she had just about everything there was with the Princesses on it, but there just seems to be more and more. I hope she doesn't outgrow them before Addi gets to like them. And Addi at 6 months old is just the happiest baby I've ever seen. I swear I only heard her cry like twice the whole weekend. She sat in the middle of the floor while everyone handed out gifts and played with wrapping paper. The pile of gifts for her just kept growing and soon you could barely see her. My brother played a Christmas version of Deal or No Deal with my nephew (soon to be 13 and in the total teenage mode). They put all his gifts in one location and then had an envelope. He had to choose between the gifts and the envelope. He chose the gifts. In the envelope was a note saying if he'd have chosen that, he'd get all the gifts plus a membership to the Rec center. Then there was a second choice, a new envelope or his gifts. With help from the audience, he choose the envelope. Inside it said "Too bad, you should have taken the 1st envelope." After a few seconds, there was a 3rd envelope that they had him open. It said "Did you really think we wouldn't give you anything for Christmas. Not only do you get all your gifts, but you also get the Rec. center membership". The kid was pretty happy. But I think that Dad was happier cuz one of the gifts was Guitar Hero 3. We played that for a little bit before we left. I'm seriously thinking about grabbing one for us, it's a blast.

Well, since this has been a long post, I'm sure you're bored to death by now. So I'll save the rest for part 2. Plus it's late since I ran out to do some shopping before work. But I gotta share with you what I found at Target. I was looking for a zip drive and came across an end cap that had Shutterfly stuff on it. ON SALE!!! I grabbed a calendar and 8 X 11 Book. The calendar was $16.98 and the book was $20.99 and those prices INCLUDE shipping. I'm heading back at lunch I think to grab a few more books. I figured I paid $6 for shipping on my free calendar. So if you have a Target near you, go and check it out. Plus they had all their Christmas stuff on sale at 50% off. I was surprised that it wasn't very crowded. They had lots of lights and wrapping papers left. I spent way too much money again. lol.

Have a great day and scrap happy!!!

Wedding Lights

We went to a wedding last summer that was such a good time and has given me so many ideas for my own. But what really stood out for me was the lighting. And since you really don't get to talk to the bride and groom a whole lot at the wedding, I didn't get a chance to ask her how she did the lights. So when I got a chance to see her at Christmas and look at the wedding photos, it jogged my memory. And I wasn't really surprised at the answer, just something I'm not sure I'd have thought about. She used LED Christmas lights. Since the rope lights are encased they were able to wrap a sheer fabric around them and it gave off a gorgeous glow in the same color her bridesmaids wore. And since it turned into an evening reception and the patio was lit by the same LED lights, it just added to the ambiance to the evening. I love my LED lights that we use all year long and now there's just another great new way to use them.
Christmas lights
Disclosure: “Carjaziscraps - The Rants of a Buckeye Scrapper” is a personal blog written and edited by me. In it I write about things that interest me and/or that I feel need to be mentioned. From time to time I will be writing about products, services, websites and assorted other topics in posts sponsored by one or more advertisers.Any claims, statistics or other statements about a product or service mentioned on this blog should be verified with the manufacturer or provider thereof. The opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own regardless of the topic and whether or not it is a sponsored postings.

We wish you a Merry Christmas

Seasons Greetings!!!!
I hope that you all are enjoying your holiday season. I am having a wonderful time with the kids. They grow up so fast. And I've discovered a new found respect for mothers with 3 year old daughters. I volunteered to give Em a bath. How hard can it be? Well, it's been 25 years since I've baby sat and obviously I've forgotten the "I can do it myself", "That's my job" and "NO" that goes along with bath time. Yes, the can do it themselves and it can be their job, but when it comes to getting them to actually rinse their hair, then No they don't want to do it. But then again, all you mom's already know that. Em screamed so loudly that my brother had to come upstairs to make sure I wasn't drowning his daughter. But actually I think he just wanted to rescue me and make Em get her butt in gear and get out of the bath. We had fun rolling out sugar cookies and get to frost them today. I'm so looking forward to that. I've taken at least 200 pictures so you'll get to see plenty. Hopefully this is what I've needed to get my mojo back.
Mom loves her Kitchen Aid mixer. It's sweet and now I'm thinking I need one. But I don't. Anxiously awaiting to see what fun my brother and SIL put together for me for Christmas. I'm pretty sure it involves pictures of the kids. (and I'm hoping a scanner). Shannon and I picked up 2 very nice Kitchen Aid saute pans. They're his gift to me, but he'll use them much more than I since he's the fry everything king. So far, it's been an awesome Christmas. It's been a little strange without Dad, but I truly think he's here. Just little things that have happened. Maybe it's just because I want to believe that I'm reading into it. But isn't that what Christmas is all about? Believing.

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas!!!

Memory foam mattress

Having spent the past 2 nights on an air mattress, tossing and turning. I must say that I am looking forward to getting home to sleep in my own bed. But then I toss and turn there too. And I started thinking about why. It could be my mattress. It's 5 years old and my body has changed some since I bought it. I've been wondering about those memory foam mattresses and thought I'd check them out. Memory foam is a high-density foam that conforms to your body to provide you with the support it needs, and memory foam mattresses are comfortable and therapeutic. AngelBeds and Tempur-Pedic are unique in that they are the ONLY memory sleep system manufacturers to offer identical NASA-developed HD (higher density) foam technology. However, I've found AngelBeds to be more economical than the Tempur-Pedic beds. AngelBeds offers a 90 day in home trial to make sure that you are completely satisfied with your new memory foam mattress. There is also a 10 year FULL warranty and an additional 10 year limited warranty for a total of 20 guarantee on their memory foam mattresses. Now I know that since I didn't ask Santa for one for Christmas, it won't be under the tree tomorrow morning; but tax time isn't that far off. Can you think of a better way to take care of your self and your body than with a good nights sleep?
Temperpedic
Disclosure: “Carjaziscraps - The Rants of a Buckeye Scrapper” is a personal blog written and edited by me. In it I write about things that interest me and/or that I feel need to be mentioned. From time to time I will be writing about products, services, websites and assorted other topics in posts sponsored by one or more advertisers.Any claims, statistics or other statements about a product or service mentioned on this blog should be verified with the manufacturer or provider thereof. The opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own regardless of the topic and whether or not it is a sponsored postings.

Merry Christmas!!!

Led lighting

You know what I love about this time of the year? All the Christmas lights that people have out all over the front of their homes. Bright colors, various shapes and all pretty. The one thing that driver me crazy about my Christmas lights is when one of the bulbs burns out and the whole strand goes out. Something that I found a few years ago at the after Christmas sales was LED lighting. LED or light emitting diodes are what you find in the rope lighting that has become so popular in the past few years. I use my rope lighting all year round in my landscape design. We have 2 strands that run along our deck out the back door, to help light it and down at the campground to illuminate our campsite, we run the rope lights along the fence and under the bottom of the camper. It adds ambiance to the site and provides great light. And it's very inexpensive to run. The cost to run 2000 LED lights for 8 hours a day, 365 days a year is only $50. And they last a long time without burning out and you never have to worry about a bulb getting smashed and the entire strand not lighting up. So why not consider adding LED lighting to your landscape. It's not just for Christmas anymore.
Christmas lights
Disclosure: “Carjaziscraps - The Rants of a Buckeye Scrapper” is a personal blog written and edited by me. In it I write about things that interest me and/or that I feel need to be mentioned. From time to time I will be writing about products, services, websites and assorted other topics in posts sponsored by one or more advertisers.Any claims, statistics or other statements about a product or service mentioned on this blog should be verified with the manufacturer or provider thereof. The opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own regardless of the topic and whether or not it is a sponsored postings.

This one's for you Aunt Hannah

So my Aunt Hannah forwarded me an email today. She gets lots and lots of funny emails from all her friends here in Ohio and in Florida. She's gotten and forwarded some that I've had to send her back an email with an explanation from Snopes.com as to why the photo or email is a hoax. I really think she hates it when I do that, but I do it to a LOT of people. My FIL got a really nasty note from me when he forwarded the Bill Gates/AOL will pay everyone lots of money hoax. Yeah, you know the one. You usually get it about once a year now cuz most people have actually heard it's a hoax. Anyway he stopped emailing me after that one. But my aunt, she's gotten pretty good about checking out the emails at snopes.com but this one she didn't. So I sent her an email saying, hey it's not true, the kids not missing but thanks for sending just in case. She sent back a reply, laughing at herself and saying she was so sure on this one, but will check em out in the future. But she said she loved my blog. Well, I didn't know any of the family was reading it. So here's to you Aunt Hannah!!! These are layouts I did last weekend. They're in my slide show but I never posted em here for everyone to see.

I'm off to wrap more gifts and pack. I'll tell you what Shannon bought himself, I mean me for Christmas tomorrow. Enjoy your night.

Carolina Coffee Company

Ok, I thought I had all my Christmas shopping done. Then I realized I forgot 1 person, my SIL. Yikes. So I started to think about what she likes and then decided to do a little surfing to find something that may work for her. And I found this great site that I know will suit her to a tee. Carolina Coffee Company!! Chris loves her coffee just like millions of Americans. The day doesn't start until she has at least 1 cup down. What better gift for a coffee lover? I was so amazed at the variety to choose from. They offer a wide selection of specialty single origin estate coffees, specialty blends, including top selling Carolina Christmas Blend, certified fair trade organic coffees, Swiss water decaf coffees (100% chemical free), and their own Owens Family Roast Signature Series. But what I really loved about the site was their great selection of gift baskets and gift items. They have cookies, cakes, candies, biscotti, breads and mixes, cocoa and an entire section of what they call Artful food. Oh, the Bella Cucina Artichoke Lemon Pesto sounds to die for.

These are 2 of the many gift items that I'm seriously considering ordering for her. Gourmet coffee and Christmas Biscotti box. Just 2 of many gifts being offered at this terrific site. So if you're a coffee lover or know of one that you need a gift for, check out this great site for gourmet coffee.

Disclosure: “Carjaziscraps - The Rants of a Buckeye Scrapper” is a personal blog written and edited by me. In it I write about things that interest me and/or that I feel need to be mentioned. From time to time I will be writing about products, services, websites and assorted other topics in posts sponsored by one or more advertisers.Any claims, statistics or other statements about a product or service mentioned on this blog should be verified with the manufacturer or provider thereof. The opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own regardless of the topic and whether or not it is a sponsored postings.
gourmet coffee

Buckeyes & Buckeye Nuts

A lot of people having been asking me what a Buckeye is. Here is a picture of a true buckeye nut from a buckeye tree. It's the state tree of Ohio.

The buckeye nut is poisonous. People often will gather the nuts and then turn them into jewelry for Ohio State fans. The often appear on necklaces and key chains of the Buckeye faithful.

These are Buckeye candies. Everywhere other than Ohio, they are Peanut Butter Balls and are completely coated in chocolate. They are to die for! The recipe that is in the prior post is just one that I found when I Googled buckeyes candy and have not tried that one. I think that if you were to Google Buckeyes, you would definitely find lots and lots of recipes for them. They are not hard to make, just a little time consuming. Also you can Google Peanut Butter Balls and get the same thing.

Careers in music

I think that it's every one's dream to be a great singer or a rock star. I know it was mine as a kid, but as I grew up, I realized I can't hold a tune and a dream of a music career was shot. But there are lots of other careers in music available. And I found a great site that explains what they are and offer videos on how you can get started. Artistshousemusic.org is a website dedicated to explaining the business side of the music business through video interviews with top industry leaders, musicians, and professors. It really offers a great perspective on the behind the scenes on the music industry. Some of the sub sections include Marketing, Production, Legal, Education, Genre and Resources. There is also a community section that you can join for free that offers benefits such as free lessons, industry news updates and exclusive music content available just for members only. There are video interviews with big names in the music business such as Murder Inc. (The Inc.) producer Irv Gotti - former head of RCA Records Bob Jamieson - musician Randy Newman - Interscope president Jimmy Iovine - Allman Bros. bassist Oteil Burbridge in addition to prestigious schools like NYU Steinhardt School and Loyola University school of Music. So if you've ever considered careers in music this is one great site that you definitely need to check out.

music careers
Disclosure: “Carjaziscraps - The Rants of a Buckeye Scrapper” is a personal blog written and edited by me. In it I write about things that interest me and/or that I feel need to be mentioned. From time to time I will be writing about products, services, websites and assorted other topics in posts sponsored by one or more advertisers.Any claims, statistics or other statements about a product or service mentioned on this blog should be verified with the manufacturer or provider thereof. The opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own regardless of the topic and whether or not it is a sponsored postings.

The holiday is closing in fast

Hi there,

Well, I got the last of my wrapping done last night and went and grabbed the last of the gift cards I needed. My laundry is all done and all I need to do is pack up and I'm ready to take off tomorrow. I'm still searching for my holiday spirit, it's missing too. I think it and my mojo took a vacation together. So I started thinking about the holiday spirit and realized that I missed 2 important things this year. I didn't go to any holiday parties that had Buckeyes. Shannon's Aunt Sandy and my cousin Beth make the best Buckeyes I've ever had, even better than Anthony Thomas or Cheryl's Cookies. I'm seriously considering picking some up to take to my SIL cuz she loves em too and the one's they get in Michigan aren't true Buckeyes for obvious reasons. Someone had made a layout with a recipe for them that I saw on their blog yesterday and had me thinking about them. The above recipe came from a google search.

I also realized that I haven't caught ANY of the usual Christmas shows. No Rudolf, no Charlie Brown and most importantly no No Snow Miser & no Heat Miser. A Year Without A Santa Clause is hands down my favorite Holiday special. But not the movie they made of it last year. That was sooooo lame. Give me the claymation or how ever they did it. I love the songs and the theme behind it. Maybe I just didn't check the right channels, but I swear I never saw it advertised on regular TV. And you'd think with this writer's strike, they'd use as much filler as possible.

Oh I am so ready for today to be over and it hasn't even started yet. Why is it the day before a long weekend is always the longest day of the month????? So no scrapping news today. I am so out of the loop. Maybe I'll get a chance tonight to scrap since every thing's pretty much done. We're not leaving til tomorrow late morning. The weather's going to cooperate, at least for the ride up.

Wishing you peace today. Scrap happy!

Hotel Reservations

So Shannon's niece will graduate from high school and turn 18 this summer. She said she wanted us to take her to Las Vegas to celebrate this. So I've been checking out different sites for air fare and hotels. Then I found this site HotelReservations.com It was very easy to navigate and offers the ability to search for hotels and make reservations easily and quickly over the net. In addition you can search for flights, car reservations and vacation packages. I was very impressed with the pricing they offer for the various hotels. And they also seemed to have all the big hotels along the Vegas strip at very competitive pricing. I also did a search of New Orleans for the National Championship game and they had a wide variety of hotels to choose from there too. Now if only Santa would find me 2 tickets to the game.


Hotel Reservations
Disclosure: “Carjaziscraps - The Rants of a Buckeye Scrapper” is a personal blog written and edited by me. In it I write about things that interest me and/or that I feel need to be mentioned. From time to time I will be writing about products, services, websites and assorted other topics in posts sponsored by one or more advertisers.Any claims, statistics or other statements about a product or service mentioned on this blog should be verified with the manufacturer or provider thereof. The opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own regardless of the topic and whether or not it is a sponsored postings.

I told you so

Hi there,

I'm sure you remember my telling you about the Kitchen Aid mixer I got mom for Christmas. I ordered it online from Target on Sat. while at work. I had planned to go into the store and grab it, but it was snowing in the part of the city where I was working and everyone who came in was telling me that the roads were really bad and people were driving like idiots. (which happens every time it snows here in Ohio) So when I found out that they were offering free shipping and I found the 10% off coupon, it was a no brainer. I also went through Ebates.com and got a 4% cashback rebate, along with the $20 sign up bonus. My only concern was the possible 5 days shipping. I wasn't sure what the holiday schedule would be. I knew that I'd be there on Sat. and if we needed to go and pick it up on Monday, it would be ok. But I told my mom to be on the lookout for a package, later in the week. I started thinking about how the package would be shipped. I had marked it as a gift, but didn't pay the $5.95 for gift wrap. Since it was a gift, they'd put it in another box, right? I logged on yesterday to track the shipment. SURPRISE!!! It'd had been delivered on Tuesday night. Well I hadn't heard anything and the time that it was dropped off, mom would have been at work. So I call her at work. "I'm gonna wring your neck" were the first words out of her mouth after I said hello. That answered my question! They had just slapped the shipping label on the box. Mom knew what her Christmas gift was. I swear it took me 10 minutes to convince her I didn't spend as much as she thinks I did. After that, she was tickled pink. I think she was going to use it last night cuz she had some pies to make for a work luncheon. I could tell she was pleased.

Ok, I just want to say that Shannon is NO saint!!! Yes, he did clean my kitchen and make dinner for me on that 1 night. I think I figured out why. I missed the anniversary of our first date. Now he didn't say that was why he did it, until I asked him about it, then it was like, um yeah I wondered if you'd remember. After 8 years, there's still some controversy about what the actual date was of our first date. All I know is that it was the Sunday before Christmas that year. I go anywhere from the 18 to the 21st. Last night when I got home, he was fast asleep and nothing was done. I had to cook for him. Which was good cuz I wanted Mexican and he wanted sloppy Joe's. We had Mexican of course.

No new layouts. I tried to wrap presents last night. I just wasn't in the mood. I did manage to get quite a few done, but I still need to finish up. I really wish that someone would explain to me why the companies feel they need to make the packaging they put young children's toys in such weird shapes!!! One of the toys I got for Addi, the youngest, is by far the strangest box I've ever had the misfortune to wrap. It just looks bad. (I was trying to come up with an analogy but all were offensive to the disabled so insert your own) I don't think I ever showed you one of the adorable, but quite self serving gifts I bought the girls. I went to a big craft show and as I was leaving found this booth where the lady did kids clothing. I had picked out these for the girls.There's one for both of them. Aren't they adorable! I was looking through all the stuff she had and I found one that read "I love you a bushel and a peck and hug around the neck". That stopped me dead in my tracks and I started to cry. My Dad used to sing that to me when I was the girls age. I had pulled it together and was cashing out when I mentioned that to the artist and started crying again. She was the sweetest lady and told me that she also had just lost her father but was in CHINA with her son when it happened. Wow, that must have been so hard, not being able to attend the services. Anyway I just thought that she made the cutest things, I wish she had a website, but she said it's all she can do to keep up with the craft shows.

Well, I must get myself up and off to work. Only 2 more days. From the sounds of the weather reports between here and there, it's only gonna be rain for our travel day on Sat. Please hope for good weather for me and those who are off traveling to be with their loved ones for this holiday. Enjoy your day and scrap happy.

Help to learn to manage your finances

We all get regular check ups at the doctors, most on a yearly basis. How often do you do a financial checkup? This time of year is always a good time to do so. Especially if you're like me and overspent on your credit cards for Christmas. This site I found, Finance Genius is a good place to find resources to do that check up. There you can find information about refinancing your auto loan, get insurance quotes, mortgage basics, credit score information and identity theft prevention info. There are also links to outside companies that provide the necessary services outlined. Lots and lots of good information, especially on credit cards and identity theft. So while it's time for the new year to start, start out fresh and do a financial checkup.

Used Car Warranty
Disclosure: “Carjaziscraps - The Rants of a Buckeye Scrapper” is a personal blog written and edited by me. In it I write about things that interest me and/or that I feel need to be mentioned. From time to time I will be writing about products, services, websites and assorted other topics in posts sponsored by one or more advertisers.Any claims, statistics or other statements about a product or service mentioned on this blog should be verified with the manufacturer or provider thereof. The opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own regardless of the topic and whether or not it is a sponsored postings.

Am I breaking all the sites I visit????

I don't understand what is going on in digi land lately. It seems that several of my usual hangouts are having issues. Am I breaking these sites? It sure seems that way. Like I mentioned earlier, OAKS is being rebuilt. It will be stronger, faster than before. We have the technology. bwahahah. Seriously, I'm missing my usual posting spot and the usual suspects there. Now today I'm having issues with SBB. They've been having holiday chats all week and I'm trying to get to each one I can. I missed last nights because I wanted to watch the season finalle of The Biggest Loser. So I figured that I'd have a chance to chat today while working. But NOOOOO for some reason every time I tried to log on to SBB I'd get the No Server found 404 message. Grrrrr. So I missed the last chat and chance to tell Raechel & Amy and the girls happy Holidays~! I'm afraid to try to log into DST. But I'll tell you right now, if it's down, don't blame me. But I wanted to show you one of the great things I got with a gift certificate that I won at one of the chats. It was a $5.00 to Amy Cheeseman's store. I'm gonna use it for the rest of my vacation photos (or at least a few more of the beach photos). I also have 2 GC to Melissa Baxter's store for fonts. Yeah!!!!! Well off to check out some of the other sites. Hope I don't break them too.

Digital Cameras

Of course if you digiscrap you have a digital camera. It's literally a must have for anyone who takes pictures of any kind now. I love mine and was panicked when I lost my original, actually I think it was stolen, but either way it was gone. When I went to replace it, I went for an inexpensive model and got the Sony Cybershot. It's a 7.1 megapixel with a 3X zoom. It takes great close ups, but isn't that great on those shots where I need a zoom. But it's perfect for those photos of the nieces and the dogs. Especially since I'm not a "photographer". But my brother on the other hand is and he has a top of the line Nikon with all the fancy attachments that would make anyone jealous and makes me scratch my head wondering what to do with all the extras. But I have compared the photos that both camera's take.
Taken with my Sony. Taken with his pro Nikon.
Hands down the Nikon is a better. So I've been eyeing a Nikon myself, the D40X. I think that's the one most of us in the digiworld are eyeing right now. Now the best thing about being digital is that I can shoot away to capture as much as the moment as I can. If a photo doesn't turn out well then *poof* it's gone. No worrying about developing bad photos again. Plus the ease of sharing them. It's so easy to upload photos into different sites to share with family and friends. And then the digital photo frames are all the rage this year as Christmas gifts. My brother, being the tech guy he is was way ahead of the pack and got my parents one for Christmas last year. He takes the disc and uploads new photos about every 3 months. I'm thinking he got me one for Christmas this year. That or more goodies for my computer. But that will have to wait. I can't imagine not having my digital camera in today's world.






Disclosure: “Carjaziscraps - The Rants of a Buckeye Scrapper” is a personal blog written and edited by me. In it I write about things that interest me and/or that I feel need to be mentioned. From time to time I will be writing about products, services, websites and assorted other topics in posts sponsored by one or more advertisers.Any claims, statistics or other statements about a product or service mentioned on this blog should be verified with the manufacturer or provider thereof. The opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own regardless of the topic and whether or not it is a sponsored postings.

digital picture frames