Okay, I admit it…I am a bit nervous!  But, so excited!  This is my first crop to host and the first one on my server so it’s really a test…cross your fingers for me!  I sure hope it goes okay!

Oh, and after the crop…I have to make myself close this thing and do some housework.  Laundry, cleaning, all that fun stuff!  It’s Friday and I don’t want to worry about it over the weekend, so I’m getting it done today.  So, I’ll be a little scarce today, but I’ll be back by naptime.  Meanwhile, have a great day!

I popped in at one crop and plan to visit a few others throughout the week.  I have finished the mini-kit for mine…I hope everyone is up to the challenge of doing a layout with just papers and a staple because that’s what we’re doing.  I have a few people who are working with the kit early and are going to upload layouts to the gallery so the croppers can have some ideas and inspiration.

Meanwhile, I made a blinkie today for the site…

Cute, huh?  It’s from my Recycled Hat collection.  Anyway, I should be doing laundry or dishes or something while the babes are sleeping, but I can’t seem to tear myself away from this darn thing!  I also really need to work on my own layout with the crop mini-kit…oh, well, I’ll get motivated soon.  Meanwhile, enjoy the digiscrapfest activities…here’s a link to the site in case you don’t know all about it, yet:

Digiscrapfest

Have a great afternoon!

I love seeing the music info on other peoples’ pages and I do love music, so I decided to add my own music list to my blog.  I also added some "Words of Wisdom from the Ranch"…not usually original, but I have a great collection of books, including several by H. Jackson Brown, Jr. and a couple more full of little quips and quotes about life that I think are worth sharing, so I’m going to try to make it a habit to change that out every morning over coffee.  Oh, and since Debi’s unkymood is back, I guess they’re back up and running, so I think I’ll go put mine back, too.

Okay, now on to scrapping talk…I’m still contemplating the design team thing…I’d love to get some great layouts out there to show off my kits and I’m running out of photos to scrap!  I’m also still contemplating changing the site…again!  I started with the Simple Scraps theme ’cause I really liked the idea of producing paper packs and separate accessory packs to make it simple to choose what you wanted to buy and use.  I still like that idea, but I was told by a customer that those collections can get pretty expensive, so I’m back to making regular page sets.  Another consideration is the possibility of adding a couple of great designers to the store.  I have a good friend who is honing her digital designing skills in preparation to sell her kits and, who knows?  Maybe another one or two great designers will come by, looking for a place to land and sell their kits.  So, if I change the name, that will open the way for that sort of thing, too.  I mean, I have everything else the consignment shops have so why not have a few great designers adding to the mix?  I also have to admit…I still have a shred of that high school
kid in me, wanting to be cool and popular.  So, really, which would be cooler…a Kathy’s Simple Scraps blinkie or a Digiscrapdivas blinkie?

The only hesitation I have is that I sort of worry about
changing the name because I don’t want to appear flighty or flaky or fickle…but I know that designers move from store to store
and if their customers love them, they follow…so what’s different
about this?  I’ll just move my whole store to a new address and be the
digidiva…can I call myself that?  Yes, that’s that cool and popular thing in me coming out again, I have to admit it.

Okay, off to start my Saturday now.  I have cleaning to do, laundry to do, kids to entertain…and some scrapping to do if I have any time left.  So, enjoy your Saturday…I’m going to try to enjoy mine!

I am so loving this new Weathered Paisley kit that I decided to give my blog a new look…and put my cute kiddos on my banner, too.  I show them off everywhere else, why not here, too?

In case you haven’t seen the kit, here it is:

One of my best, yet, I think.  I did a really fun layout of Bailey with it…you can see it here.  It’s actually a quick page that I’m giving away free with the purchase of the kit, too.  Fun, huh? 

Okay, on the design team thing…I just don’t know.  I really, really enjoy scrapping with my own kits, but I get such a charge out of seeing someone else’s layouts with my creations.  It was suggested by someone I know to just pick a couple of customers that I know and whose work I like and ask them to be DTMs…the only problem is, as I told my sweet friend and customer Debi, I just don’t have that many paying customers, yet .  I can’t afford to give them up, LOL!  I’m not even paying for my time, yet, as it is!  I do this because I love it, it’s true, and I did get some good news that takes a bit of pressure off of me financially (I’ll cover that later), but I still am taking time away from other things I should be doing and my family, including my children who are growing up way way too fast as it is…there has to be a little payoff, anyway.  So, I’ll keep plugging, creating kits and scrapping with them and taking photos and working on the site and…well, you get the drift, right?  This is not to be construed as whining, because there is already enough of that at my house with two three-year-olds, LOL…just honestly, that’s all.

Okay, moving on.  I am enrolled in six hours of college for the Fall and I was worried about how I was going to cover daycare costs.  At this point, I’m not selling enough to cover it and it just isn’t in our budget.  But, as has been the case since I decided to stay home with my babies, it has worked out.  Last semester, they went to LaPetite and I really loved it and so did they.  But, because I only need part-time (two days a week), they weren’t going to be able to go back because LaPetite was not going to be doing part-time this Fall.  I thought about just paying the full-time tuition so they could go there and just getting a job to cover the rest of it…a part-time bookkeeping job wouldn’t be that hard to find, I thought.  Then, I had a brainstorm…look out, that doesn’t happen very often, LOL!  Anyway, the discount for LaPetite employees is awesome and, even if they paid me nothing, it would be worth working a couple of afternoons a week to cover the daycare.  So, I go tomorrow to fill out the paperwork and my problem is solved.  What a relief!  Maybe they’ll put me in the baby room…I love babies!  I fondly remember when my two were babies…seems like so long ago, now.  Anyway, wherever they put me, I’m just so relieved to know that I don’t have to worry about that anymore.  I’ll have less time for scrapping and designing, between classes and work, but I do have to think about the long-term, and as much as I’d love to make a career out of designing kits, I just don’t see it.  Who knows?  Maybe I’ll get lucky and somehow it will lead to something else where I can use the skills I’m developing by doing it.  But, if not, that accounting degree will at least somewhat guarantee a fairly comfortable financial future for my family in the long run.

Oh, gosh…I’ve talked about music before and will continue to do so because I love it so much.  I’m having a flashback right now because I’m listening to my Yahoo! station and the Bangles just came on, LOL!  Remember them?  Manic Monday was probably my fave tune of theirs and, do you remember Walk Like an Egyptian, LOL?  I can still remember that silly video.  Wow, that was a long time ago, huh?  Geez, I’m getting old.

Okay, if you’ve read this far without a potty break or refreshment, I commend you.  Enjoy your evening.  I’m going to look at my restyled blog one more time, contemplate patterns for a new kit I’m working on, package up the ABC Collection (coming soon to my shop) and go to bed.  Have a great night!

that is the question.  I don’t think I really want to have a design team, per se, but maybe I do.  Maybe they would participate at the site as well.  That’s another thing I’m thinking about…I am seriously considering changing the shop to be incorporated with the forums and gallery.  I mean, originally I didn’t want to do that because I wanted to invite other designers to participate.  But, I just haven’t had much response from that, yet and I hate that I have to have two identities.  I think it would be easier for the customers to remember me if there were only one site name…and I wanted to broaden it so that other designers could participate…not to mention that I just think digiscrapdivas.com is just a cool name, LOL.  So, will people think I’m just a total flake if I change it, yet again?  That is my concern.  Hmmm…I’m so bad at decisions.  Well, I have PM’ed one person from SBB because I like her layouts and wondered if she’d be interested in doing some layouts for me.  I think that’s a start on a design team and I’ll just go from there.  I’d love to see more of my work in the galleries, but I just don’t want to send out an open call for DTM’s…I guess I’ll just see what this one person says and then decide what to do next.  And keep thinking about the site/shop issue…aarrgh!  I wish I would have just made up my mind to begin with!

Okay, on with my day…hope yours is great!

I admit it…I have gotten lazy when it comes to my kids.  When they were small, we did fun stuff all the time.  I was always letting them color, paint, play with play-doh…but, alas, then came digital scrapbooking into my life and I just, well, spend way too much time at this darn computer.  So, yesterday, I had a brainstorm…and here are the photos to prove it, LOL!

Last year, at their birthday party, we painted pumpkins.  So, I dug out all the leftover paint and a few paintbrushes and let them paint the driveway.  They had a ball…and the beauty of it was that afterwards, they just climbed in their little plastic swimming pool and cleaned off…no paint in the sink, floor…it was great!

So, my fellow digiscrapdivas, beware…there’s a challenge on the way.  But Debi seems to have known what I was thinking, from looking at her latest layout.  Oh, well, this will give her a great excuse to take Mikey out and let him make a big mess.

Happy Monday, all!
   

Wow, what a week!  I finally just took the plunge and got a bulletin board and gallery going.  I didn’t integrate them with my store, though my banner is at the top where I eventually hope to have other sponsor banners.  I’m very happy with the way it looks and hope to grow the community into a really fun place for digiscrappers…

You can go there by clicking here.

I put up the new Greet the Day set last week and am working on one to hopefully get up this weekend.

Not feeling too great today, don’t know why, but I’m gonna keep pluggin’ on the set.

Come visit me at digiscrapdivas.com!

I am tired!  I woke up very early today and stayed up…drank a pot of coffee, did some work on the new site I’m working on, did some awesome networking and had a great conversation about more promotional stuff (though I’m not able to discuss that at this point) and had company tonight.  Oh, and along the way, I did a layout of my beautiful daughter with my American Child Page Set…

C’mon…you have to admit that she is a doll, right, LOL?  If it makes me any less of a bragger, she doesn’t look like me at all…as much as my son is my mini-me (see layout below), she is her Daddy’s.

Yes, he really does look like me, doesn’t he?  Anyway, I’m hoping to hear more feedback on my little project…maybe everyone else has a life and has gone to do something fun this weekend, LOL.  Oh, well, I’ll do some scrapping tomorrow, maybe some designing…who knows.  Any kit requests?  Lemme’ hear ‘em!

I’m sleepy…nitey nite.  Have a great day tomorrow!