Well, actually, lots of new ideas!  I have started two new blogs…

The first, Shrinking Diva, is a chronicle of my weight loss.  Notice I didn’t say diet, I didn’t say weight loss attempt, I said weight loss.  I am determined, for numerous reasons, to lose weight and get healthy.  I’m going to try to provide healthy recipes, weight loss info and just plain old support for others doing the same…if you want a link on my weight loss blog, e-mail me and I’ll add you!  I’d love to have a list of bloggers to support each other and share triumphs and even setbacks with.  You can see the new blog here: Shrinking Diva.

The other new blog is called The Idea Jar.  You can get more info on the blog, but basically, it’s a place to share all the little ideas and inspirations that come to me, but I don’t have time to use.  I wanted to put them down somewhere so that I could go back and draw from them when I have time and maybe others can benefit from them as well.  Since I want to offer a new idea every day, I’ll also be sharing sketches, some mine, some from other people, scraplift inspirations, color palettes and other great inspirations.  This blog does have ads as well as a tip jar because I’m hoping that by offering ideas for other scrappers, I can also generate revenue to finance my blog habit, LOL.  Please don’t feel obligated to click on an ad or leave a tip…these ideas are free, but if you love an inspiration I provided and want to drop some change in the tip jar, that will be great!

Oh, for those of you who might have applied for the Creative Team or Elements Team on the site, that is on indefinite hold.  I am actually making some changes to the site that will require me to have less help than I originally needed so I am putting those calls on hold.  I will, however, be doing a call for a Design Team to create layouts with my kits, so be watching for that if you’d be interested.

We’re having a big day at the ranch today…we are hosting the Fall Festival for my Mothers of Multiples group and are expecting about a hundred people here this afternoon.  So, I’ll be busy today preparing for that and won’t be around the site much.  I am going to really try to get a group shot of all the multiples and will post it, with permission, of course, for you guys to see.

Have a great weekend!

I’ve been working on these for a while, but finally figured out what I wanted to do with them.  Here are the previews of the first two…

I’m going to the same patterns and elements in black and white and a french blue and white (kinda like a china pattern)…off to work on them now.  I hope to have off of these finished up for the big sale this weekend.

Here’s the blue one…

Now, for the black and white one…I sure hope everyone else likes this floral pattern as much as I do!

Last one…am I wearing you out with the florals, yet?  Here’s the black and white one…

I finally got this one like I want it.  The page set will sell as one item and the themed printed papers, entitled Fathers & Sons, with some journaling thoughts on the papers, will be available as an accessory pack.  Here’s a preview of both:

I have to say that the Fathers & Sons papers were inspired by a conversation I had with Heidi and it got me to thinking about how the relationships between fathers and sons can sometimes become so awkward as the son reaches adolescence.  I so love the joy that my son and husband bring to each other and I just hate to think of that changing someday.  I did a layout about that a while back…The Days…that is one of my favorite photos ever of them together.  That layout was done with my Forever Boy Collection.

Now, to wrap up the nice floral one you see in my blog banner.  Suzy says she can’t wait to work with that one and I have to admit that I think it is truly one of the most beautiful ones I’ve ever done…maybe that’s why I’m having such a hard time figuring out how to finish it.  Any suggestions?

Gosh, I gotta go to bed…school tomorrow.  But I’m sure looking forward to that hot cup of Hazelnut coffee and a bagel from Panera Bread in the morning…almost makes getting up worth it, LOL!  I spend way too much time and money in that place, but the food is great, the people are nice and the wi-fi is free…what more can you ask for?

Let’s just say that I’m not a quitter!  I’ve worked too hard to give up now so we’re not only sticking around, we’re growing!  I’m putting together an Elements Team, adding to the Creative Team and recruiting designers as well…for details, e-mail me!

I’m excited to say that I’ve already heard from a few people about positions on the various teams, but I’m also saddened to say that my new requirements for the creative team seem to be too much for some of my current team members.  So, either I need easier requirements and more members or just members who don’t have commitments as some of those I currently have.  I don’t want to lose anyone, but I feel that the requirements need to be consistent so I’m sort of in a tough spot on this one.  I’m going to keep talking to the potential new members as well as my current team and see what I can work out.  In any event, I’m definitely getting some help with the site and that is such a relief!  I’ll just be glad to get it all put together and move on with some sense of order and organization in my life !

I’ve also heard from a couple of new designers, but I’m not sure when they’ll have items available.  I do know that I’m working on new kits and LaWanna Desjardin (of the former Yahoo! Scrapbook Journaling group) and Kelley McDonald are also working on new stuff to get in the shop for the big sale this weekend.  Be sure to stop by and check it out…here’s a sneak peek of one of the new kits I’ve got coming up:

Check back later for a couple more previews and more news on the teams.  Off to design more, now!  I did a restore on my laptop and now it’s running like a champ, so I’m sitting on the front porch, enjoying the view and getting some work done while my hubby and the kiddos are out exploring "new country" as he puts it.  Aaahhh, so peaceful!

The nasty cold that started with Bailey, moved on to Casey and now has crept up on me.  We actually stayed home today because we all felt so bad.  Funny, every time I get a cold, it’s like allergies.  My eyes water and my nose literally drips incessantly, I sneeze like mad and am just basically miserable.  Hopefully, the worst is behind us now.  So, now I can move on to other things…

Like making a couple of banners.  We are a sponsor for the birthday celebration at RAK Scraps next month.  I also got a spot on Jen’s Digi-scrapping blog that starts up on Thursday.  I think it will be just for me personally, and the RAK one will be the site.  Anyway, I have those two banners to make.  Don’t tell anyone, but we’re having a sale this weekend in the shop and I really want to get a few new kits finished up and ready to go and even maybe use a preview or two of them in the banner for Jen’s blog.  So why am I sitting here blogging instead of working on these banners and new kits?  Well, the kiddos wanted to come outside and most of my tools are on the desktop, so here I sit, basically wasting time until we go in for dinner.  After they go to bed tonight, I’ll be hitting Photoshop pretty hard and getting some stuff done, provided that the horrible cold symptoms don’t return .

Okay, my kids are officially driving me crazy right now!  What is up with this?!?!?  Casey is a police officer and Bailey is a bad guy that he needs to take to jail…geez!  okay, now we’ve switched roles…no, wait, we’re fighting over the police hat.  Aarrgh!  Okay, where is my husband?  We need dinner and he went off to be the county vet.  Yes, this is ranch talk now, but there are really no decent vets in the area and he has been doing this for a good while and has been educated on cattle by his favorite vet who we left when we moved back up here.  Anyway, so if anyone who knows him at all has a problem with an animal, who do you think they call?  Yep…my hubby.  I know it makes him proud to be thought of as so knowledgeable about animals, but I also know that there just aren’t enough hours in the day for him to get his real work done, let alone having to make house calls that don’t pay much…or anything at all, LOL.  Maybe these people will wise up and at least start paying him like they paid their doctors and vets in the old days…one of these days he’ll come home with a goat or something that he received as payment for his services…wouldn’t that just be a classic?

Oh, on another note, we have a birthday party this weekend.  My babies will be 4…yes, 4!  I can’t believe it!  Here’s a link to the website I made as their party invitation:

Casey & Bailey’s Birthday Party Invitation

Isn’t that fun?  For those few invitees that don’t have e-mail, I did print the top section, printed the info on the back and mailed them.  But, I think I only had to snail mail a total of four invites…isn’t the internet wonderful?

Okay, well, hubby or no hubby, it’s time for some dinner.  I’m off to cook some chicken nuggets, one of the few things that I know they’ll eat.  So, what are you having?

except for the fact that I’m sitting in a coffee shop, with two four year old children who can’t be still, trying to upload something I’ve finished up this morning and wasn’t able to upload from home.  I guess I sort of picked the wrong hobby/career…where I live the only internet options are satellite, dial-up or wireless.  I have wireless.  Wireless is great…sometimes.  But other times it is really…umm…not great .  And the last few days have been very not great.  He’s working on it, I know he is.  He tries very hard.  But that still doesn’t change the fact that I can’t work from home.  So, here I sit.  Waiting on this file to upload…wondering what else I can do with this time I’m sitting here sipping on a frozen 2% Pumpkin Spice Cappuccino (yes, that’s the upside of this situation).  It’s down to 18 minutes.  18 minutes in a coffee shop with two kids is an eternity!

As for the site…  I’ve had a great response from my team members who want us to continue.  I have decided to upgrade/revamp the site a bit, get a few more team members with better defined roles and responsibilities, recruit a few designers and get more organized.  Hopefully, DSD and I will both be better for it.  I have to have a team who is willing to promote the site the way it needs to be promoted.  That’s what I just plain don’t have time to do. 

I plan to have more info available on the site by the end of the weekend, but if you can give your time and effort to helping build DSD into the kind of site that it has the potential to be, please, drop me a line!  If you’re a designer and want in on the ground floor of this fantastic place, drop me a line!  I can do the admin stuff, I can design, I can do challenges, I can promote…but I can’t do it all at once!  I need help, so if you’re out there, let me know!

So, thanks for all the cyberhugs and support.  It was a long day and I’m still having some concentrating at times because I really still have my Mom on my mind.  But, I also remember how bad life was for her before she passed away and I know that she is in a better place.  It’s just hard to realize that both of my parents are gone and both went within about a six month period.  On my birthday this year, I realized that my sister is the only one of my family who was actually there when I was born that is still alive and actually remembers my birth.  That’s kind of a strange realization.

Okay, we’ve been to the bathroom, they’re being forced to sit still in chairs and we still have five minutes to go…geez, will this thing ever finish?!?!? 

I’m tired. I am really, really tired.  I have two paying jobs (neither of which pay much), the site, the shop, the new magazine creative team, two preschool children, a husband and six hours of college classes.  I just feel like I never get caught up.  I am in a constant battle with my husband who thinks I spend too much time here…my babies will be four in a few days and I can’t believe how the time has flown by, causing me to question my priorities.  I say my family is my first priority, but I spend so much time trying to make my site a great place that I am missing so much.  I worry, I fret, I try to decide how to get more people to come over or how to get the ones that are there more involved or how to get my team members to participate more.  Earlier this week, we had two days when our site was partially down and we’ve dropped from 27 to 42.  I also haven’t given out any freebies this week…so, what does that tell you?  Sure, we have some great members, who are regular posters and seem to enjoy the challenges.  But these are the same people who make the rounds everywhere doing the challenges and that’s okay…but when I see 3 members and 20 guests at the site on the day I’m giving out a freebie, that tells me that either my site isn’t good enough to keep people around or that people are just coming around for the freebies.  Either way, I feel like I’m fighting a losing battle and I’m not even sure why.  Is there really any hope for making a career out of being a digital designer?  Maybe for a select few, but in many cases, it seems as much like a popularity contest as it is a true test of design skills.  There are so many great ones doing it that it’s very hard to compete and stand out from the crowd.  When I spend ten hours on a kit and only sell it a handful of times, I have to ask myself if I’m really getting paid for my time.  It seems that I’m not…so why do I do it?  I’m not sure.

I have the opportunity to sell my licenses for vBulletin and PhotoPost and close the site altogether, only keeping the shop open.  This would at least allow me to recoup most of my investment, cash-wise…and the site would go away.  That’s one option.  The other option is to dig in my heels and really bust my tail to get the community it takes to make my site move back up in the ranks and stay there.  But, again, for what?  Do the people who download my freebies really come back and buy from the shop?  I’d estimate that less than 10% do.  I have a few loyal clients and I really, truly appreciate them.  But, who’s to say that I couldn’t have those same few loyal clients if I didn’t have the site?  Couldn’t I just host a challenge or two from my blog?  Give out a freebie every now and then?

It’s late, I’m tired and I have a big day tomorrow…and it will be a very difficult one because tomorrow is the first anniversary of my Mom’s death.  That’s been on my mind alot lately because hers was such a long, horrible death…not like when I lost my Daddy.  His was very unexpected and very quick…I do regret not being there to say goodbye, but I don’t regret not having to watch him die…and that’s literally what we had to do with Mom.  October of last year was one of the most difficult, if not the most difficult times in my life to date…and tomorrow is just a reminder of exactly how horrible it was.  So, maybe that’s why I’m down.  But, really, that’s not the only reason.  It’s been coming for a while…I just feel like this whole digital designing thing is one big popularity contest and I was never the popular girl in high school and don’t seem to be fitting into that role here, either.

So, anyway, I’ve got some thinking to do…

The Sketch Challenge at Digiscrapdivas is today, so I’m going to post the sketch here until the site is back up (edited to add: it’s back up now).

and here’s my layout:

That’s my niece…look at that face, LOL!  She really enjoyed her cake .

I used my Summer Fruits Page Set for that layout. 

The site is back up and I’m trying to get this up now.  Thanks for looking!

I’ve been wanting to do this layout for a while, but it finally all came together today.  The layout itself is a scraplift from the BH&G Scrapbooks, etc. Made in Minutes idea book, page 65.  The idea is something I might have seen before, I’m sure I’m not the first to do it, but I just love it.  I think this will be such a great layout to look at in the coming years because it tells so much about my daughter right now.  Anyway, here it is…

I can’t upload it to my gallery at DSD because it is still down…aarrgh!  But, that’s another story.  Anyway, I definitely plan to use this for a challenge or something because I think it’s such a fun idea.  Just had to share because I’m so proud of how it came out.

Hope to see you later at the site…cross your fingers that it’s fixed soon!

I have to admit that I did the 80’s heartthrob one first, but when it came back Kirk Cameron, I couldn’t make myself put it here. I mean, he was cute, but just not really my type.

So, what kind of sandal am I?

You are Flat Sandals

Casual yet flirty You look great in a simple top and jeans Your look is approchable and cute!