At least my thumb isn't in the pictures anymore!

I admit it, I am a horrible picture taker. It isn't for lack of trying, because I have been in love with taking pictures my entire life. While this wonderful age of digital cameras has helped me some ( well, o.k., not really, it's just that now I can delete the REALLY bad pictures before anyone sees them!) I am still a less than average picture taker. I've been getting better at taking a little more time with the process and trying to really "look" at what I'm shooting, is it centered, is the background too busy, is my thumb in the viewfinder? Luckily, I have managed to learn to get my fingers out of the way now. I even try to get creative and "artsy" sometimes with my pictures. Why, I don't know, because the image I have in my mind and the one that prints out on photo paper never really match up. I'm also starting to play around a little with photo editing although at this point all I can do is crop the picture (and I don't even do this well half the time..you should see the last batch of pictures I just got back from Snapfish)! I bet somebody got a big chuckle when they pulled those off the conveyor belt. I did, however, manage to change a picture to sepia last week and darken the edges using the editing options on my photo printer, but I stumbled upon those features by accident and I don't think I could do it again. I've also decided I was going to start taking random photos every day and maybe, just maybe with enough practice and photo editing one day I will take a good picture.

I've been tagged!

I was sitting here tonight Instant Messaging with a friend of mine who was updating her blog and really chastizing myself for not being a good blogger lately. Well the blogger gods must have heard me because they sent Queen Kathy to tag me tonight and that at least got me on here! Now let's see if my technically challenged self can figure out how to do this.....

Ten years ago:
I was 27 years old and living in Miami with my husband. We were getting ready to celebrate our 2nd anniversary and had started to look around at buying our first home. Ah, the newlywed years..thank heaven's their over!!!

Five things on today's to-do list:
I woke up this morning and declared today a Lazy Holiday in my Kingdom and as the Queen I felt it was my duty to set the example. I'm happy to say that I did a fantastic job at it!!! I took dd to TaeKwonDo this morning and tonight I made spaghetti for dinner. That's the beginning and the end of my to-do list.

A snack I enjoy:
My guilty pleasure is Little Debbie's Swiss Cake Rolls that have been in the refrigerator. It's like Heaven on Earth.

Places I have lived:

Chicago, Illinois

Zaragoza, Spain

Snellville, Georgia

Miami, Florida

Florence, South Carolina

Things I would do if I were a millionaire:
Hire a housekeeper
Hire a cook
Buy every, single scrappy goody I could get my hands on
Go with my husband and daughter anywhere and everywhere we wanted to around the world

5 people I am tagging:

Michelle
Jenny
Mary

Jenn

Coni

Come Play With Me!!!

To all my family and friends.....if you would like to see me this summer then come on over to ScrapLove.com and join the Summer of ScrapLovin' contest because that's where I'll be for the next 6 weeks. Don't bother calling me because I'm gonna be too busy scrapping to pick up the phone. If you come for a visit, be sure to bring your own food and refreshments because I won't have time to go to the grocery store. If you wonder why my laundry is piled up to the ceiling, the beds aren't made and the dogs are looking a little hungry, it's because I'm having too much fun with all the scrappy challenges over at ScrapLove.com. I'll get to all the household chores once the contest is over!

P.S. If you happen to see my husband, tell him I love him dearly and to please take out the trash!

1984

Last night I finished this layout using my 9th grade school picture. What a blast from the past. Only the past hadn't seem so long ago until a friend of mine pointed out that it was 24 years ago! My mind just kinda froze. 24 years? It can't be. What the heck have I been doing for the last 24 years?!?!?!? The more I thought about it, the more depressed I got. What happened to that list of things I was going to accomplish before I turned 30? I mean I'm only 7 years late! Did I even accomplish 1 thing on that list?

• Write a book - NO - heck, I can't even manage to write a grocery list these days!

• Go mountain climbing - NO - I'm deathly afraid of heights so I don't even know why that was on my list!

• Go sky diving - NO - see above

• Be a millionaire - NO - I probably owe about that much, does that count?

• Be famous - NO - but then Ted Bundy was "famous" too, so maybe it's not that bad that I'm not!

• Bring about world peace - NO - but it's not my fault no one will listen to my ideas on this matter!

• Get married - YES - and I've even managed to STAY married, which is really more remarkable than just getting married if you ask me!

• Have children - YES - although I had always dreamed of having a big family, God blessed me with 1 amazingly beautiful, loving, cheerful, energetic daughter, and that's plenty for me!

• Own my own business - YES - did it for a while - it's overrated if you ask me!

• Be Happy - YES - I can honestly say that I am happy, but that's because 24 years later they make a pill for it!!!!

I may not have accomplished everything I set out to do 24 years ago, but I like where I am now just the same. Well, except for maybe a few extra pounds and a couple of wrinkles!

100 Daylillies

I am the Queen of Too Many Projects. I rule in the land of Neverending Work. I have no subjects to help me. My King of Silly Comments wants to strangle me and my beautiful daughter, the Princess of Attitude, is upset because I don't have time for a Tea Party at the moment. I have been locked away in the Attic Tower for 3 days and today I was finally freed to walk about my Kingdom of Disaster. So what do I do with my new found freedom? I decide to ride my Carriage of Horrible Gas Mileage to a local nursery to walk blissfully among the flora and fauna. As I go to purchase some shrubs for my kingdom what should my eyes behold but a sign announcing the arrival of several different varieties of daylillies. "Just what my kingdom needs", I declare to the keeper of the flora and fauna. "For your Majesty I will make a special offer" says he. Before I could blink my eyes I have purchased 100 of the beautiful flowers. Luckily for me my Carriage of Horrible Gas Mileage has a large cargo hold and with the help of one of his servants soon my carriage is overflowing with daylillies. As I arrive at my kingdom, my head full of the beautiful aroma of daylillies I realize I have no servants! Alas, I, the Queen of Too Many Projects is now knee deep in dirt and mulch as I begin the long laborious process of planting my beautiful flowers. 6 down, 94 more to go. And the King of Silly Comments still wants to know what is for dinner!!!!

3 Days of Scrapbooking = 1 Layout

It's been a crazy week of trying to cleanp up my scrapbooking space since ScrapLove's cyber-crop last weekend. I had never participated in a cyber-crop before, so I was pretty open-minded about what to expect. Let me tell you my friends, I was blown away. If I had had any more fun it would have been illegal! This cyber-crop included games, challenges, tutorials and classes and so much on-line chatter it's amazing we got any scrapbooking done. Well, I really didn't get much scrapbooking done to be honest. I did however, win the Bingo, Scattegories, AND word scramble games. Hey it might not have been scrapbooking, but the words were scrapbooking RELATED. What?! I did manage to completely finish one layout titled "Take My Picture". This was part of one of the sketch challenges for the cyber-crop. The sketch was the easy part. A lot of my friends on the ScrapLove site are very creative and can really think outside the box. I cannot. So why I thought I could get all "fancy" with my layout, I don't know. We'll blame it on the euphoria of getting to scrapbook all weekend long with the blessings of my wonderful husband. After I had picked my papers and pictures and placed them where I wanted to on the cardstock, I brought out my sewing machine and thought I would sew some of those fancy little squiggle vines that I've seen on other layouts. I drew them in pencil first like I had read on a tip. Threaded the machine with purple thread and stepped on the pedal. I now know that I cannot sew fancy little squiggle lines with my sewing machine on a 12 x 12 piece of cardstock. (lesson 1) "No problem", I say to myself, "I'll just add more flowers". Simple enough. I happily picked out the perfect chipboard flowers for each vine and carefully marked the exact spot where each of them should go after I made them sparkle with glitter. Afterall, everyone who is anyone is adding glitter to their pages these days. I've got a 4 year old, I know how to use glitter, we do it all the time! (Not really, we did it once and it was a big mess). Why I had even bought several bottles of glitter at my local craft store the day before just in case such an occasion should arise! I get out my paper plate, gently placing my chipboard flower in the center...I wonder what kind of glue I should use? I'll post the question on the ScrapLove message board, someone will surely know the answer. I wait patiently for 10 seconds, no reply, I'll just figure this out myself. It's only glue for pity sake. I look through all my adhesive options and decide that the Zip Dry is the way to go. A note to all of you reading this post...Zip Dry dries REALLY fast (lesson 2). I select my little glitter bottle and carefully unscrew the top, because I don't want to spill glitter all over my scrap table, and set it off to one side. Now I take my Zip Dry bottle and unscrew the top to it, cleaning off the nozzle to ensure I get a smooth flow. Perfect, I'm ready. With my left hand I pick up the little chipboard flower and hold it in between two of my large fingers. With my right hand I pick up the Zip Dry and begin to squeeze it out onto the chipboard flower. I now have a big blob of glue in the center of the flower. How do I smooth it out? Can't really ask anyone at ScrapLove because my hands are full. Let me think...I'll use my fingers to smooth out the really fast drying Zip Dry glue. (does anyone remember lesson 2?) I smooth out the glue and now I realize I need to wipe my finger before I pick up the glitter bottle. I try to set down the flower that is in my left hand, but I can't. The glue has now dried and I have a chipboard flower stuck to my index finger! I don't want the glue to dry on my right hand so I wipe it on the desk top. I peel the chipboard flower off my index finger leaving half of it still stuck, but I'll worry about that later I have to get the glitter on the flower while the glue is still a little tacky. The flower is back on the paper plate, I sprinkle the glitter on it and wait for it to dry. No problem. As I'm waiting I realize that it's gotten quite warm in my scrapbook room so I get up to turn on the ceiling fan. I return to my desk to see glitter flying everywhere from the wind coming off the fan. (lesson 3) I turn around quickly to go turn the fan back off and accidently bump my layout. I come back, finish gluing glitter on all the other chipboard flowers as quickly as I can because at this point I don't really care anymore how they look. I let them dry and then I attached them, without incident, to the layout. I am so proud of my layout that only took me 5 hours to do, that I want to scan it and upload it to the ScrapLove gallery right away. I try to pickup my layout to place it on the scanner but it won't move. Remember the glue I wiped off my finger onto the table top? Remember the layout I bumped when I went to turn off the fan? Well, low and behold the two have found each other and now my beautiful glittery layout is glued to my table top. Did I mention that this was only the first night of the crop?! Now you know why I dedicated the rest of my weekend to playing the games!

Glimmer Mist Isn't Found in the MakeUp Aisle

It seems like everyday I am learning about some new product, designer, or website in the scrapbooking world that everyone else seems to have known about for years!!! Now granted, I don't live in a booming metropolis, but I'm not living on the top of a mountain either! I know that the internet is a bottomless pit of information, but I'm doing good to remember to put my bra on and brush my teeth in the mornings! I have a friend, Michelle, who is truly one of THE most amazingly talented scrapbooker's I have ever seen. Really. I call her my Guru Goodess of All Things Scrapbook. Seems like a long title, but it doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the knowledge this woman has. First it was Stickles, a puffy glitter type paint thingy that comes in small bottles with little bitty nozzles (I think because I ordered 4 colors of it 2 weeks ago and it hasn't come in yet). Then it was these little letter stickers that are showing up on layouts everywhere (except mine because I haven't been able to find them yet, but when I do, I'll own every sticker ever made, even if I never use them). Yesterday she introduced me to the beautiful, shabby chic world of Jenni Bowlin and now I must own everything that Jenni Bowlin has ever created, even if I don't know what to do with half of it! Today Michelle posed a question on ScrapLove where she is a member of their Design Team..."Does anyone use Glitter Mist"? I must admit that for a moment I thought my friend had slipped and hit her head on a piece of chipboard because why would she be talking about body glitter on a scrapbooking site? Once again I was apparently the only scrapbooker in America that had never heard of, much less used, Glimmer Mist. I'm still not sure what it is or what it does, I only know that now I have to have it. I can't wait to see what wonderful thing Michelle opens my eyes to tomorrow, and neither can my husband's credit card!!!