Just a short note to say Hi

HI!

Did you all enjoy your holiday and black Friday shopping? I did go out to the stores yesterday, but not til 9 am. I was this close to grabbing the EHD at Target, but gave it back to the cashier since technically I was Christmas shopping. Bath & Body Works had their wallflowers and refills on sale for $5, so I loaded up on those. ToysRUs was by far the worse place. They didn't have what I was looking for in store, so now I'm hoping for Free Shipping for Cyber Monday. Last year I found some really good deals online on Cyber Monday. Let's hope it's the same this year.

Spent most of yesterday trying to get the calendar done. I only have 4 months left. I'd show you what's done so far, but I'm at the other office that has the horrible computer and dsl, it would take all day just to upload 1 of the files. Will finish them off after work today. (Hopefully)

Ok, gotta go open the doors. I'm sure it will be a madhouse today since no one's been here since Wed. Just didn't want to go 3 days without a post. Tomorrow will be back to normal - scrappin and info.

Have a great day!!! Until next time, scrap happy.

Give Thanks - Life is good.

Hi there!



With Thanksgiving coming up tomorrow, I decided to stop for a minute and think about what I have to be thankful for. I think that far most I am thankful I live in a country where I am free and I am thankful of parents whose children are fighting to keep it this way. I wish you peace this holiday season from the bottom of my heart. I am thankful for the family I have now and the love that we share. I am thankful for the roof over my head and the love that it contains, the unconditional love of my two dogs and the "even though we annoy each other we still love each other madly" love of the old man. I am thankful for my health and the ability to make a living. I am thankful for the warm embrace of the scrapping community and the friends I have made here.

Look, I made you a little avatar type thingy. Heather, I'm thankful to you for giving me a chance. Kristine, I'm thankful for you cuz you always make me laugh. Cate and Andrea, I'm thankful for you for your unfailing support of me and reading the blog daily. Yen, I'm thankful for you for sharing yourself so freely on your blog and updating us on your little peanut, I'm glad that I can share that with you. Dawne & Traci, I'm thankful for you for showing that a grand idea can grow if you put enough love into it. Fantacy, I'm so thankful for you for giving me such a warm welcome over at SBB and letting me know it's ok to be new. And Kerry, I'm thankful for you for bugging the heck out of me to see my own potential and getting me into the CT scene. Without you, I wouldn't have 90% of the friends I have now. And if you read my blog on a regular basis I'm thankful to you too. If you haven't stopped by the blogs of these wonderful ladies, take a minute. Each and everyone is talented in their own way.

Ok, on to Black Friday. My favorite subject - Shopping. I'm pretty sure that most everyone is having a sale. Some of the designers over at SBB have already started theirs and I grabbed some great closeout products from Michelle Underwood for dirt cheap. (I mean like $.25 and $1.00) And I know that several of the designers over at OAKS are going to have their store on sale at a ridiculous 50% off on Friday only. The good thing is that there aren't any "doorbuster" sales and you don't have to get up at 4 AM to get the good prices. Just make sure you check it out. OAKS ladies will have their grab bags out too. In the real world, I'm debating as to whether or not I'll get up to try to get some of the "earlybird" sales. It seems that they are opening the stores earlier and earlier each year. I mean Kohl's is opening at 4 AM. And the outlet stores at Jeffersonville are opening at midnight. Unbelievable. I'm thinking Target and ToysRUs may be the only ones I try for early. I've given up on the laptop idea.

Make sure you check out the Humpday Hunnies for their fabulous freebies today!!! Start at Kristine's, she has the link to them all. No one has previews up yet. And while you're out looking, make sure you stop by Andrea's and check out her fab new kit Tickle that will be available at DSO. Don't forget about Heather's PSP actions and great new Christmas kits.

I hope that if you're celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow, you can be with your loved ones and you can remember what you're thankful for. Right now, I'll be thankful that I don't have to work on Friday. hehehe

Happy Thanksgiving!! Scrap happy.

Scrappers Block and a little something for you.

Hi all!

Boy have I hit a brick wall in my scrapping. Nothing seems to turn out the way I want it too and I can't get inspired. I have tons of great new products so that's not the problem. Anyone have any words of wisdsom for me to get my mojo back? I need to find it soon, I'm way behind on CT stuff but I just can't send out layouts I don't like or think that are any good just to get the kits seen. I don't think that does the designer justice.

Ok, I wasn't gonna do the Black Friday shopping thing, I hate crowds not to mention getting up at an awful hour to do so, but I found this website - http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com/ yesterday and spent half the afternoon checking out stuff for ME. How sad is that. I have nieces and a nephew to shop for and I'm more interested in getting an EHD. Remind me again that Christmas is for the children.

Speaking of Christmas, I had mentioned last week about doing an exchange of some sort amongst friends here. I don't know if it should be a card, kit or regular secret santa exchange. What do you think? And is it something you may be interested in? Let me know.

Heather Manning's having a chat at DST on Wed. night at 11 pm EST. If you missed the last chat, you gotta try to stop by for the hysterical fun. And though it may be late, you don't have to work the next day. bwhahaha Cookin turkey's not work. I'd love to see ya all there.


Ok, here's a few freebies that have been in my computer for awhile. Thought I'd go ahead and bring em out to see if anyone one them.
You can get this Thanksgiving word art here.

And the butterfly overlay here. Special thanks to AfriDigiDiva for use of her butterfly. Please don't share the links with your friends, send them here to get it themselves.

Well, I guess that's about it for today. Don't forget to check out the challenges over at OAKS, Digital Scrap Garden and DSO.

Until next time, scrap happy!
Diane

Back to the scrappin!

Hi there!

Hope that everyone enjoyed their weekend. I still can't believe that Thanksgiving is on Thursday and Christmas is right around the corner. Where has the time gone? Well, between my vacation, my pictures and my football team, I've kinda gotten off track with the tone of my blog. It hasn't focused on digiscrapping for awhile now. I'm working on getting that back under control. It's kinda helping that I'm getting a chance to scrap a little bit more.

Here are some fantastic new products from Heather Manning. I'm really loving her new Christmas kits and hoping to get a chance to play with them asap. Maybe even redesign my blog header with em? And look at her new grab bag especially for designers. I love the fact that

she gives you a look at what you're getting in her grab bags. I like surprises, but not in everything. All previews are clickable, so go check em out. (after you finish reading.)

One of the challenges over at OAKS is a brag book exchange. The kit for the second half of the month is by Jennifer Barrette and is 1/2 off until the end of the month. Here's 2 pages I did

for the exchange. The first half of the month exchange got more than 40 pages. I bet that this one gets even more. You can find out more about the challenge here.

Have you gotten this fab collab. kit yet? It's free!!! All you have to do is to join Dawne, Traci & Nita over at the Digital Scrap Garden. The girls have been working so hard to get the site going and they're doing a fantastic job. They also have great challenges going on this month. Stop by and say hi and join up. It's a terrific place and wonderful kit.

Don't forget that Andrea is joining the crazy ladies over at DSO the 26th of this month. I'm looking forward to seeing what she's got cooking for them. I know that she'll do great there, Kristine, Kim and Bunny are good people who are experts at making me laugh.

Also look for new holiday kits from Fantacy (Scrappin Hillbilly Sweetpea Designs) and Kelli (Tallula Moon Designs) to be featured here soon (or as soon as I get my hands on them.) Also I'll try to have a list of Black Friday sales. I know that OAKS is having one.

Ok, lastly here's a lo I did today

. There's just something about a sleeping child that is so precious. Click to see credits. I still need to get the callendar finished. I'm having issues with getting the pictures, I had to email them to myself from work and download them here. It's taking forever.

In case you were wondering, Ohio State won the game on Sat. against Michigan and are the Big Ten Champs and most likely heading to the Rose Bowl in Passadena on New Years Day. Go Bucks.

Until next time, scrap happy!!!!!!

An All Ohio State Football Rant

(Disclaimer: This is an all OSU Football rant. If you would prefer not to read it, just scroll down to comments and leave a GO BUCKS!!!!!!!)

GO BUCKS!!!!!!!!!!

Beat Blue!

The Best Damn Band In the Land doing Script Ohio.

Photos from last years victory over Michigan. The celebration!!!!

Proof that Jesus is an Ohio State Fan. On the way to Chicago, some of the Sphinx men stopped at Notre Dame. There were only three of them, but they still wanted to show their support for Ohio. Luckily, they had a volunteer!

Jokes:

On a tour of Florida, the Pope took a couple of days off to visit the coast for some sightseeing. He was cruising along the beach in the Popemobile when there was a frantic commotion just off shore. A helpless man, wearing a Michigan jersey, was struggling frantically to free himself from the jaws of a 25-foot shark. As the Pope watched, horrified, a speedboat came racing up with three men wearing Ohio State jerseys aboard. One quickly fired a harpoon into the shark's side. The other two reached out and pulled the bleeding, semi-conscious Wolverine fan from the water. Then using (autographed by Woody himself) baseball bats, the three heroes, in OSU Red, beat the shark to death and hauled it into the boat. Immediately the Pope shouted and summoned them to the beach. "I give you my blessing for your brave actions," he told them. "I heard that there was some bitter hatred between Buckeye and Michigan fans, but now I have seen with my own eyes that this is not the truth." As the Pope drove off, the harpooner asked his buddies, "Who was that?" "It was the Pope," one replied. "He is in direct contact with God and has access to all of God's wisdom." "Well," the harpooner said, "He may have access to God's wisdom, but he doesn't know shit about shark fishing.... how's the bait holding up?"

May there be joy in Buckeye land again. GO BUCKS!!!

Until next time - scrap happy!

Where did the month go?

I can't believe it's the 15th already and that Thanksgiving is only a week away. Where did the time go? That means that I only have 39 more days to shop for Christmas. ugh! I refuse to shop on Black Friday. The crowds are just riduculous and lately the bargins haven't been all that great. With the state of the economy, I'll bet that there are sales and big ones all season long. So I plan to scrap all day that Friday. And I really have to cuz I haven't gotten my callander done. Since the majority of my blog readers are a pretty tight knit group and know/read each other, does anyone want to maybe do an exchange of some type amongst us? Just puttin out feelers on this one.

Ok, I promised a manatee photo yesterday. There was an underwater observatory at the park.

I have a lot of other photos but they look like big blobs in them. I had a picture of Lu up yesterday, the hippo. Well they make a big deal about staying out of the way when Lu comes out of the water. I thought that this sign was hysterical! Now the next day we went down to see another aunt in Tampa and went to the gulf coast at a little place called Hudson Beach. So I took another shadow photo- this time it's me at the Gulf of Mexico.We had the waitress take this photo. (I used to hate doing that when I waited tables). It was kinda funny cuz another table asked if we were 4 generations. I'm pretty sure my aunts didn't think that was funny cuz only 1 of em is a grandma and I'm 40 so that would make 1 of them have to be pretty old. We all have the same chin so they knew we were related somehow. In case you were wondering, I'm the one with the long hair.

And here is my first vacation layout. I used Heather's Dirt Don't Hurt-It's a Pink Thang. Worked awesome with the flamingos. I would love to get a few more done, but will be gone tomorrow night and Sat.

Big, I mean big game on Sat. against Michigan. It's for all the roses. Even though Ohio State has the better overall record 10-1 vs 8-3, we both have only lost 1 game in the Big Ten. So once again it's down to The Game. It's the biggest rivalry in all of college football. And that was voted on according to ESPN. We'll be back down at the campground for the big game. They open it back up and turn on the electricity and bring in a big screen. Everyone brings lots of food and drink and it's a good old time! So I'll be freezing my butt off this weekend.

Today is the last day to get the current challenges over at OAKS done. Tomorrow starts a new batch so stop on by to see what's going on. Don't forget about the challenges over at DSO and Digital Scrap Garden. I still owe Andrea a lyric layout. I promise I'll have it done by the end of the month. Congrats too! Andrea (Boyerville Scraps) will be joining the zany designers over at DSO starting the 26th. She's movin up!

Ok, gotta go get ready for work. Enjoy your day!

Until next time, Scrap Happy!!!!!!!

There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home,

Isn't that how Dorothy got home with her ruby slippers? Well it's one statement that I can agree with. And there's nothing better than your own bed! And your own pets and your own man. Who I swear can't live without me. I bought tp 2 weeks ago and put it in the closet in the hallway. (not it's normal spot, but I got tired of seeing it out and about). Do you think he bothered to look for it? Do you think he bothered to get some while he was at the store 2 times? Is my septic tank gonna be stuffed with paper towels? grrrrr But I missed him and my dogs very, very much. And I missed all my friends here too. As you know I did try to get to some of the sites at least once and walked into a hornets nest at one. If you didn't read my rant on manners and freebies, it's under this one. The day I left, Yen passed on a friendship award to me and many of my friends. Well, while I was gone everyone I was gonna pass it forward to, passed it on to me. I love ya all and it's good to know that we're a happy family. So I'll list ya all, just cuz I know it's good to read your name sometimes. But better than that, it's good to know that you're considered a friend. In no particular order: Heather, Fantacy, Kristine, Cate, Andrea, Yen, Kim, Dawne, Traci - You all RAWK!!!!

Ok, on to some photos. I took over 300. I have a simple point and shoot and I never know how they're gonna turn out until I load em into my computer. All the Christmas talk about new camera's and replacement cameras have really made me wanting one with a decent zoom. But it's not to be, for now.

This is the Atlantic Ocean at Jacksonville Beach. There was really no one around to take my picture there so I decided that my shadow would be the next best thing. The thing with shadows is they add oh about 100 pounds to you. (yeah I wish) The next one is just waves

crashing on the beach. There's just something so majestic about seeing that. The water was cold! But beautiful. That was the first time I'd been to the Atlantic since I lived outside of Ft. Lauderdale for a year in 95.

On Saturday morning we drove to Homosassa Springs to the wildlife preserve there. I'd say it was the most fun of all the excursions. After a 20 minute pontoon boat ride, you get to this park that had all sorts of Florida animals.

The gators are heading into hibernation season and there were about 8 on the beach in area they had cordoned off. The didn't move at first and I truly thought they were fake. But then one stretched and I jumped and then started taking a ton of photos.

This is Lu. He's the main attraction there. He's 47 and was a movie actor in the early 60's. That's kinda why he's there. Obviously hippos are not native to Florida. Feeding Lu is a big production. And thrilled kids everywhere. That's only a face a mother could love.

They had the coolest bird sanctuary there. I love the flamingos. Nothing says Florida like a pink flamingo. But I also got photos of herons and cranes and all sorts of birds.

I'll save the manatees for tomorrow, that is if you want to see them. If so, mention it in comments. It's good to be back. I have to go get dressed for work now. grrrr I'll be poppin by blogs and sites all day.

Until next time, scrap happy!