new stuff to show off

the designers i am lucky enough to create for have been busy lately! :)

rachael giallongo is debuting her CHICK CLICKS tomorrow at the digi chick! here is a little preview of what's to come:



aren't they so cute!??

also, lena brandenburg just found out she is going to be selling at the digi shoppe! and she just released these really cool yarn element packs:



she also has yarn alphas--check out her store at ACOT or ES!

faith true just released a beautiful valentine's kit at OAKS:




otherwise, evie catherine is starting to drop her nap. i think i am going to put her down for quiet/rest time everyday, and if she sleeps, great. if not, then not great, but i can't do anything about it...she is only 28 months old, and i had hoped i get a lot of napping years out of her, but if she takes a nap everyday, she won't go to sleep till like 10pm. we put her down at her normal bedtime (7:30ish) and she lays in there and talks and plays, but won't sleep. when she doesn't nap, she will go to sleep. the catch, though, is that by the 3rd day, she is strung out (like she is today) and very difficult to deal with! then she'll collapse for an afternoon. any ideas? anyone? PLEASE!!???

going away for the weekend!!!

need i say more????

i am going away for the weekend with my friend trish, and i am so excited!!! we aren't planning anything too exciting, mind you, and her kids will be with us, but still!

I NEED SOME TIME AWAY--AND I AM GETTING IT!!!!

and i am taking my computer: i have major scrapping to do!

check in on sunday/monday!

have a great weekend, girls!

samatha brown & oktoberfest, and major enabling!

we like to watch the travel channel at my house, and so we are watching samantha brown's "passport to europe" in germany right now. if i ever get on jeopardy, i am going to totally ROCK the catagory on oktoberfest! :) did you know that real oktoberfest is actually held in september and was originally a wedding celebration? anyway, it cracks me up because kevin thinks samantha brown is hot, and i know that has to be part of the reason we watch it!

BIG TOOT--my "stitches" layout was featured in the ACOT newsletter today! i am so excited!!! it is my first publication--totally a "right place right time" kind of thing. they were featuring lena brandenburg's "booboo basics" and used my layout as an example!

i am going out of town tomorrow with my friend trish! we aren't going very far, & i am mainly going to keep her company. but kevin is going to keep the kids, and so i will get a little time away, which i need right now!

another little tidbit of info: i think i may be taking on an additional class starting as early as next week. we are 3 weeks into the semester, but apparently another instructor has just found out that his wife has terminal cancer and has only a few weeks to live. needless to say, he is taking off to be with her...i don't know how long i'll have to take over, if it works out. i am happy for the little bit of extra money, but i am just so sad for them. i cannot imagine...i am praying for them to have peace.

okay, now to the enabling!!! have you seen lena brandenburg's latest collection? it is awesome--her absolute best yet! here is my favorite kit from her new :::cool contrast::: collection! you can find lena's products at ACOT and elemental scraps! go check it out!





and here is a layout i did using the "blue meets orange" paper pack and embellishment pack by lena:



AND i have to brag about faith true's "my boy" collection! it is amazing!!! faith is selling at one of a kind scrapz (OAKS) and digi scrap divas (DSD)--



for this layout i used faith's "my playful boy" & "arthur's bug day" kits! i also used a layout sketch from "duplicates-one fish two fish" by rachael giallongo & heather roselli!! rachael has just been named a designer at the digi chick! congrats, rachael!

i hope you all had a good day!

by the way, my final ebay total was $397.48! WOOOOHOOO!!!

a new look, as promised

it took forever to figure out, but i finally posted my new blog topper!

the picture of me looks terrible, and i think it is because it is too big, but i am just so happy to have it up!

oh, and i used "the good life" kit by nancie rowe janitz and "star bazaar" by linda gb to make it. both cool kits are available at scrapartist!

what do you think???

6:44am, saturday morning...

i didn't sleep well last night, even though it was friday night and i could theorectically have slept late. kevin usually does morning duty on saturday, but i can't sleep, so here i am....

i just checked my ebay, and my auctions are up to over $300 now. they start ending in about 3 hours, so i'll be interested to see the final total tomorrow night when they have all ended. but i had hoped to make over $300, so i am satisfied! :)

i went to dinner last night with some friends from grad school who had come into town. it was so fun to see them--they are sweet girls, and it was nice to have a meal in peace (translation: with no children!). we went to the new country club here, and it was interesting. i am not a member (although we did look into it a couple of years ago when it was brand new and decided against it), and it wasn't really my crowd exactly. but it was interesting, none the less. my friends are running a half marathon today, so we actually ate the the spagetti dinner for the runners. after that was over, we went downstairs to the formal dining room/bar where regular members were eating and drinking. there was a guy playing the piano and singing, and he was really really good! he played songs like "piano man" and "american pie," and it reminded me so much of college hearing those songs. we sat at a big long table, and it appears that the normal thing here is to sit at big tables sort of family-style. my friends and i sat at the end and mainly talked to ourselves, but in the lulls, i watched people. the women there were, for the most part, older than i am. they were all dressed up in dresses or skirts or, in one case, leather pants and a sweater lined with fur. lots of makeup and accessories, but obviously expensive makeup and accessories. and although i was dressed well, etc, i felt out of place. they were all nice, but i just felt like i was in the wrong place, ya know? it was a strange sensation for me. i wonder if i would have felt that way if i had joined?

i am in a little scrapping slump. i go thorugh creative spurts, and i am on the tail end of one...it will hit again, and i will try to work through it, but i hate these dry spells!

i have some good news, but i am going to wait till it is official today! :)

i'll update later!

did i mention i am addicted to "law & order?

i am addicted to "law & order" shows. they come on everyday on TNT, and i watch them while i have my hour or two to scrap. i mean, i have seen so many now that i can usually tell what episode it is before the second "bum bump"! and so i watch them for the second or third time. but at least they make me think a little bit...i was flipping through the stations and caught a bit of tyra banks talk show. how in the world do people watch that? it was painful to me. i mean, painful. so i thank God for reruns of "law & order"!

it is quiet earlier than it usually is. evie catherine fell asleep in the car, and she actually stayed asleep when i got her out. i was able to take off her shoes and everything! she must have been exhausted!!! cater is watching "spongebob" and eating a banana and pringles (he has to eat the fruit before he gets potato chips). and once again my house is a mess, but i am on the computer instead of cleaning. i will clean this afternoon, though! i will. really. but i like the few minutes of peace..

okay, i need to vent a second about potty training. cater was potty trained in 36 hours, literally. i knew he was ready because he had all of those typical readiness signs. so he woke up on a monday and i told him, "today is a very special day. today you are going to wear big boy underwear and put all your peepee and poopy in the potty." he, of course, peed through 6 pairs of underwear. the next morning when he woke up, i told him, "today is a very special day...." at 10am he went into the bathroom, told me, "mommy, weave me awone!" and shut the door. about three minutes later he stuck his head out and said proudly, "mommy, i made a BIG poopy in the potty!" and he had. and that was basically it. he never had a poopy accident, and he had very very few peepee accidents. he was 30 months old--so right at 2 1/2.

evie catherine is 28 months old, and we are trying to work towards it, but she just doesn't seem to get it. she can tell us as she is pooping or peeing, but she will sit on the potty for 10 minutes, get up, and peepee 2 minutes later and then look down and say, "uhoh! i peepeeing." i don't know. she is very verbal, and she understands almost everything you tell her. and she is a girl--everyone told me, "girls potty train earlier than boys and second children potty train more quickly than the first." she is going to prove everyone wrong. we are working on it because she wants to wear panties. but i wonder if she is physically developed enough to do this right now...i am going to get some thick training pants with plastic covers and maybe even dig out my old cloth diapers...maybe if she could feel it? i know i just need to be patient.

i have to show off my latest layout:



i used lena brandenburg's "booboo basics" word art (available at ACOT), faith true's "arthur's bug day" (papers and elements available at OAKS), and rachael giallongo's layout template from "duplicates--silly one" by rg and heather roselli (available at TDC).

i am off to scrap!!! have a great day!

my memaw...

my memaw fell this morning. and the ambulance had to come and get her because my mother couldn't get her up. my mother just called to let me know that in spite of memaw's severe osteoporosis, she only has a small fracture in her arm. a miracle, as far as i am concerned. but it scared me. my memaw is 87, and i know that a bad fall can be the thing that puts her on the downward spiral...and my memaw is the person who kept me grounded during a turbulent childhood. her influence, i think, is the thing that helped me to be healthy and (fairly) normal. my mother and i are very very different, but my memaw and i are sympatico. she understands me, and i adore her! here is a pic of her and me together this past september:



isn't she gorgeous? she is even more beautiful on the inside! if you can, say a prayer for her. i am selfish, but i want her around a bit longer!

another big development in my house is that CATER IS READING!!! look at this sweet pic:



he read a book called "max" to his daddy last night, and i was so happy to watch the two of them. he is such a boy, so it is a struggle to get him to sit still and do "school stuff", but he has made such amazing progress! i am one proud mommy today.

ebay update: bids on 23 of my 41 auctions, and i am up to over $200!!!

hope you all have a great day!

wednesday's child...

i am a wednesday's child--you know, "wednesday's child is full of woe." i always felt really crappy about that when i was a child. but my grandmother had a cross-stitched hanging with the whole thing:

monday's child is fair of face
tuesday's child is full of grace
wednesday's child is full of woe
thursday's child has far to go
friday's child is loving and giving
saturday's child works hard for a living
but the child born on the sabbath day
is fair and wise and good and gay.

but, you know, i don't think i am that full of woe! :) (well, maybe sometimes...) my son is "full of grace" and my daughter is "loving and giving"--at least let's hope their days end up describing them. so, what day are you?

it is so nice to have kevin back home again. last night went so much better--when he got home from work, evie catherine went screaming across the house into his arms, "daddy's home!!!" it was precious, and he just lit up, ya know? and then to actually eat dinner with my husband and have a little help was blissful!

it has gotten cold here again, although most people wouldn't call it cold. two days ago it was in the mid-70s and my son was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. today it isn't supposed to get above 50 and it is breezy. i like cold weather! i just wish it would snow. nothing too harsh, just a nice 2 inches or so. you know, enough to make a snowman and take pics, but not so much that it shuts the world down.

i finally got some prescription stuff for my cold, and i am feeling world's better this morning! thank goodness!!

i still haven't worked on my blog, but i sooo want to. maybe i'll do that this afternoon!

have you seen lena brandenburg's latest element/doodle pack? it is too cute!!!



i have some pics i can use it with already!













also, i am in love with a little project a fellow CT member did. vanessa (nesser1981) used rachael giallongo's and heather roselli's "duplicates quick books--book of colors" (available at The Digi Chick) to do a book of colors for her little girl--she actually printed it out and laminated it, and i just loved it!



















otherwise, here is my latest layout using faith true's "about a boy" and her "cheat sheets, edition 1":




i hope you all have a good day!

a new week....sort of :)

a new week, at least work-wise. i so did not want to get up this morning. evie catherine as up from 3:30am-4:30am, and it is becoming a real habit for her. she is transitioning out of her crib, and wants to sleep in her tinkerbell sleeping bag. the problem is that she doesn't know what to do with all that freedom and access to mommy & daddy. we are going to get her a mattress, maybe this weekend. she has decided she hates her crib! i remember that cater had a little bit of a transition and woke up early, etc when we were going through this with him, so i know it will pass. but i am TIRED! i am still fighting this cold, and i know one reason it is hanging on is because i am not getting enough sleep.

on a good note: i got an awesome, awesome email this morning!! RACHAEL GIALLONGO has asked to be on her duplicates CT! oh, and did i mention that FAITH TRUE invited me to be on her CT as well?!! i am simply thrilled--my friend trish was so sweet about it. she said, "i am not surprised! you are good, elizabeth." she is so good to me! and speaking of, she also got on faith true's CT, so i get to be on a CT with my best friend! tell me that isn't so cool!!! i am on 5 CTs, which is my limit (at least for right now).

it is so weird to have come such a long way in such a short time! my scrapping has improved so much in the past couple of months since i have been active at DST. i tell my students all the time: "the more good writing you read, the better writer you will become!" i think it is the same with scrapping: "the more good digital scrapbook art you see, the better your scrapping becomes!" the exposure to such amazing talent has really encouraged me to step it up, and i am so thankful for that!

kevin came home last night--he enjoyed hiking, but i know he missed us so much. we fell asleep holding hands last night, which doesn't happen that often, but makes me feel loved in a way that i can't explain. holding hands is so intimate to me, and when he reached over for my hand and kissed it, i felt so cherished.

i hope to finish my first layout for faith and rachael today--i'll post it when i am done.

oh, and an update on ebay: last i checked, i already had 12 bids!!!

a new week....sort of :)

a new week, at least work-wise. i so did not want to get up this morning. evie catherine as up from 3:30am-4:30am, and it is becoming a real habit for her. she is transitioning out of her crib, and wants to sleep in her tinkerbell sleeping bag. the problem is that she doesn't know what to do with all that freedom and access to mommy & daddy. we are going to get her a mattress, maybe this weekend. she has decided she hates her crib! i remember that cater had a little bit of a transition and woke up early, etc when we were going through this with him, so i know it will pass. but i am TIRED! i am still fighting this cold, and i know one reason it is hanging on is because i am not getting enough sleep.

on a good note: i got an awesome, awesome email this morning!! [url=http://www.rachaelgiallongo.com/blog/index.html]rachael giallongo[/url] has asked to be on her duplicates CT! oh, and did i mention that [url=http://simpledigitalgirl.blogspot.com/]faith true[/url] invited me to be on her CT as well?!! i am simply thrilled--my friend trish was so sweet about it. she said, "i am not surprised! you are good, elizabeth." she is so good to me! and speaking of, she also got on faith true's CT, so i get to be on a CT with my best friend! tell me that isn't so cool!!! i am on 5 CTs, which is my limit (at least for right now).

it is so weird to have come such a long way in such a short time! my scrapping has improved so much in the past couple of months since i have been active at DST. i tell my students all the time: "the more good writing you read, the better writer you will become!" i think it is the same with scrapping: "the more good digital scrapbook art you see, the better your scrapping becomes!" the exposure to such amazing talent has really encouraged me to step it up, and i am so thankful for that!

kevin came home last night--he enjoyed hiking, but i know he missed us so much. we fell asleep holding hands last night, which doesn't happen that often, but makes me feel loved in a way that i can't explain. holding hands is so intimate to me, and when he reached over for my hand and kissed it, i felt so cherished.

i hope to finish my first layout for faith and rachael today--i'll post it when i am done.

oh, and an update on ebay: last i checked, i already had 12 bids!!!

finally!!!

well, i am finally done listing everything on ebay! i don't even want to think about how many hours that just took me!! 41 auctions--wow, i am tired!

kevin called and he is out of the woods and on his way home. he sounded tired, too, and ready to come home. i can't wait for him to be here! i missed him like crazy.

this cold is still kicking my smurf! i am tired of clearing my throat!!

i am going to have a snack now, and then i am going to pick up the house--i know it sounds very 50s of me, but i want it to be clean when he gets home. i just know how relaxed it makes me feel to come home to a clean house....

ebay...ughhh...

i am in the middle of the long, tedious process of listing all the spring/summer stuff on ebay. the trunk show season is coming up, including my kelly's kids party, and i need money for all that--not to mention that the new hanna andersson catalog came this week! oh, and there are a couple of scrapbooking kits i have to have! so, no update to the blog yet. i didn't make my header today because i was listing stuff on ebay...

evie catherine and cater are in bed, and things are finally quiet in the house. they were good today, for the most part, until the end of the night, when cater ended up in his room for time out. i can hear the strains of lynard skynard coming from his room. he likes to listen to it to go to sleep. he is so like his daddy in that way. kevin loves to listen to music before he sleeps, and i cannot do it. i need white noise of some kind to sleep, but i guess my love of music actually works against me. i actually LISTEN and it keeps me awake. i am listening to tempo, the different instruments, the voices, etc. i can't explain it, but my brain is active when music is playing.

anyway, ebay takes forever. and i am tired of listing stuff. but it must be done and it is only twice a year for me....

back to the grind. good night!

early morning musings...

it is 7:17am on sunday morning, and i have already been up longer than i care to think about....kevin is hiking in the smokies, and he won't be back till tomorrow night. so it is just me, and evie catherine has become a super early riser. it would probably help if i wasn't on the computer till late at night, although last night i did go to bed before 11pm.

i woke up to an clean house this morning. it was bliss. truly. yesterday i dusted, vacuumed, cleaned my kitchen, swiffered all the floors, cleaned the bathrooms, and did laundry. i still have a bit of laundry to finish, but it felt so good walking through the house this morning.

it especially helps to have a clean house because i have a cold. i have had a sore throat for days and yesterday i got super congested. i feel like smurf....so it is nice that i don't have that "i am sick but i need to clean the house" thing going on today--because i already cleaned the house! :)

evie catherine just looked at me and said with glee, "i'm making a mess!" she is taking all the dvds out of the cabinet, and i am just letting her. nothing that can't be picked up easily, and she is happy and occupied! she is so growing up so fast, and i am so aware with her of the passage of that time. with cater, i always had this assumption when he went through any stage that this as only the first child i would have and so i would see whatever it was many many more times. not that i didn't enjoy him, because i did, but i was so young and didn't realize how precious and fleeting it all is. we struggled to have evie catherine, and now after losing the baby this summer, i am just so acutely aware of how short it all is...i want another baby, but evie catherine may well be my last baby. only God knows his plans for me, and i am trying so much to enjoy what i already have.

i am so excited because my friend trish is going to tell me how to change the look of my blog this afternoon! i am going to make a header for it today! so keep checking back because i hope to have something pretty soon!

have a good day!

long time no blog...

it has been an embarassingly long time since i actually blogged--this is not good for a writing teacher! :) i tell my students that daily writing is a great exercise, but i haven't been practicing what i preach.

i am feeling a bit down tonight, and i don't know why exactly. i found out i didn't get on a CT i tried out for, but the designer didn't send out a rejection notice or make any announcement that i can see. i found out because one of the other applicants had a blinkie in her signature. i didn't expect to make it really, but i hate that i didn't even get the courtesy of a "thanks but no thanks", ya know? oh, well...one of my CTs seems to have come almost to a halt, and i am sad about that, too. i liked the designers stuff, but i don't know that she will be designing much longer because of some personal issues....so i am looking for another CT. i did apply to be on faith true's CT, and she gave a GREAT minikit away as part of the application. here it is:



otherwise, school has started back & i am so not in the swing of things!!! oh, and i have had a sore throat for 4 days now, and i am sick of my throat hurting, especially since it is my only real symptom.