Today is starting off to be a doozy, lol. The boys woke up ready for action! And it is cold and rainy---never a good combo for my two. They Love love love to be outdoors! I was telling a friend last night...Hayden is like a Werewolf...he turns into this crazy monster...not at the full moon...but at the rain! It is true...everytime the clouds let loose their liquid sunshine (as I think of it...I happen to enjoy the rain) his hair sticks up, his eyes get this extra twinkle and he goes bonkers! We have to be known as the crazy people on the block. You can often find us in our rain clothes playing around outside...we just cannot stay in for too long. So they are bouncing off the walls already. ughhh.

Then...my darling husband realllly hurt my feelings this morning. In his defense...he is a totally analytical person....not good with feelings etc. I am also pretty anayltical but have been blesses/cursed with an overabandance of feelings. Every personality test I take shows me right down the middle with Left and right brain tendencies, lol. So...he is totally stressed with everything that is going on...he has a leisure show this weekend to promote his new business plus all the regular sprinkler design he has to do. And I was trying to love on him and be sweet and he got irritated and shook me off...yup...literally...shook me off. Boy did my temper flare...meowwwwwww!

Phew! But we talked it out and all is good, lol. That is the really bad thing about him working from home...it is hard for me to not want to talk about something or get a love when he is walking from point a to b. I really need to work on that.

I am still amazed that we humans are expected to mate for life in the SAME house!!! lol. I still like the idea of the big duplex with the adjoining door. He could decorate his way...I could keep it as clean/cluttered as I want...he could have his space and me mine...and we could meet to tango and dine!

Well...off for now...time to tame the beasts...I have a feeling playdough his hanging from the ceiling fan!

Have a fantastic day!

Here is my newest creation...soon to be at Scrappin' Digi Kreations.
I have been wanting to make this for a while...I really like it! Hope you do too...it will match the kit I am making for my friend...Madeling Rose page kit.

Here are some of the results of another photo shoot with my friend Missy...I love how she captures my boys! I loveeeeeee these photooosss!

I just added a new tutorial...how to write in a cirlce in photoshop. Check it out here!

Here is another freebie for ya! All you have to do is leave comments for everything you download from Raks or my blog for everyone...everyone likes to see the comments. I have had like a hundred ppl download my country kitchen from the two places and not very many comments. Also...please send me a link if you use anything...I love to see it!

This is just a small freebie...a couple doodles: (scroll down through the blog to see if there are others still active)



> Here is the link


On the home front...pretty quiet weekend. Brandon (dh) spent the weekend getting ready for a leisure show he is doing next weekend. He is trying to get his own business going...home theatre--surround sound; plasmas; home cameras; you know...the technologically hip home. He had the boys for a while helping out...I got to scrap a bit. Got a new kit done for the element challenge prize at Raks:
I call it Masala Chai tea...it just reminds me of that...probably will become a full kit for sale soon:




I decided that I am not in enough pictures/layouts. Chase asked me why I wasn't in them while he and I were browsing through my gallery I just said...momma isn't happy with the way she looks right now baby..I don't like my picture taken. But then I started thinking...the boys and I do so many fun things together...but I am in no pics. Years from now...these will help spur their memories...and I will be missing. Dang it...I can't let my vanity and sadness from not looking like I used to take away from this time in my life. So chubby or not...I am going to be in some damn photos.

Here is a layout I did of the boys and I this past October. We were riding the train at Bishop's Farm Pumpkin Patch. I used Brenda Kempf's Autumn Splendor kit available at Addicted to Digital or SBB.



Oh...and if you haven't heard...I am becoming a grandma. Oy!@!! My 19yr old stepdaughter and her boyfriend (who we don't really know nor are sure of) are around 13wks preggos! Oyyy!!!!!! gRandMa!!!???? lol. It all happens for a reason, eh????

Oh...and if you have any book recommendations (except romance...yikes, lol) or music (except heavy metal or hardcore rap) please leave them here...and some movies too. I haven't seen a movie in ages. I am going to expand my horizons...so seriously...leave me those favorites of yours!!!

BLOG CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION...PARDON MY DUST

ok...sooo I have been blog hopping...I have been thinking....I have been wishing...and decided I won't make actual resolutions...but a list. So...here goes my list

Things that make me happy:

diet soda...oh...first thing in the morning...that fizz...that tingle..that taste...yummmm. (I do intend to cut back...see below ;) )

my silly silly boys. They are so funny, quirky, intelligent, silly, intuitive...and did I say funny??? I love cuddling with them, playing, reading, doing arts and crafts, cooking, playing dragons... They make me smile every day.

my family. They may drive me crazy. They may be a little off...but they are mine. They ALWAYS are there for me. They don't judge me. They are unique, caring, and they oh so love my boys.

digi scrappin. I can do it anytime. I have met some wonderful people who I hope to get to know better. I feel creative. I feel that I am accomplishing something while having fun.


Chase's preschool. I love kids. I love their faces, their voices, their sense of wonder over everything. The fact that everything is new, exciting, un-jaded, fantastic and coooool with them. That I am the ONLY mom who plays hide and seek, basketball, tea party etc with them. That they are just so open and accepting. That I get to help them learn, trust, nurture, develop friendships and sense of self...I just love being on the board there and will oh so miss it next year. wahhhh

CCHCHHHOOOCCCCOOOLLLLLLLLLLAAATTTTTTTTTTEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! oh yesssss~


Things that I miss:

Being girly. I used to delight in doing my nails, wearing perfume, giving myself pedicures, wearing cute jammies....so doesn't happen right now...and so is going on my intention list. Part of it is becoming a mom. I do all for them...I come last. And I am so tired. Part of it is being so sick this last year. And part of it is how I have let myself go....not losing weight, going to the gym etc. I guess maybe I don't think I am girly anymore...so has to change

Reading. oh..I miss reading books. I used to have 3 books going at a time. ahhh...I miss that. Seems like every spare min I have is spent playing with my kiddos, teaching them, digi scrappin, cleaning, or trying to sleep.

Baths. Don't get me wrong...didn't take them nightly....or even weekly...but I did take them and loveeeddd them. The warm sudsy water...the candles...the smell...the shaving every part of my leg without missing...the whole shebang. Then came kids...then came digi scapping....then came some movie where the guy said...I don't get baths...soaking in your own filth...ewwwww. hmmmm.

My old friends from my Capitol days. I worked at the Capitol for over 11yrs. Almost all my friends were met there. Most of my days were spent either there or with people from there. Then I became a SAHM (which they just didn't understand), had another baby, became sick and depressed, got a little better and just kept trucking...but I still miss them...and working for that matter.

Working...I love being with my kiddos...but I miss that part of me that shined and sparkled and thrived in the work place. As does dh, I am afraid.


Things I intend:

To de-clutter and organize home

To lose some weight

To look at the bright side of everything (even if it is after bitching about the annoyance of it first)

To do my feet and nails

To cuddle with dh more and wink wink

did I mention organize

contact old friends

only eat bad once a week but make it something I reallllllllly like instead of mindless grazing

oh yeahhhhh....and organize!


ahhh...feel better just getting some on "paper"

ever wonder how to get your own handwriting on a layout with out too much fuss...check out this little tip at SomethingBlueStudio owners' blog...scroll down to her dad layout..she tells ya how! cool idea...think I might use this in a Super Element Challenge at Raks, lol

I am also starting a tutorial section for diff photoshop techniques. Here is the one I am using for my element challenge...."color" in a black and white photo.

I will put links to other tuts I find out there on the side...others I will write up in my tut section.

If you need to know something specific...leave me a note and I will try to figure it out for ya!

YOU HAVVVEEEEEE to check out these magnets from something blue studios....omggggg I love them! you email them your jpeg layouts and they put them on magnets for your fridge!!!! See now

I have had a few people ask me for my Hog Wild kit I gave away for a Wishing Well chat. I thought I would put it up here. Make sure you send me a link if you use any of my work...I love to see them...makes me all happy!!


Also...please do not give someont my kits or the direct links...send them here to get them...that way they can see what else is going on.

Thanks...with out further delay...

Here is the kit:



Here are the links:

link one

and

link two


and

link three

here is what I made for Rak's Member's Mega Kit for the second half of January. This is such a good idea that Christine put together...check it out here.

I thought I would make it available here on my Blog too..hope you like it. Download here.

got some more layouts done today..amid computer problems, fights with ants, crazy kids and laundry, lol.

The first is of my dh and I. I really like the way it turned out. I was inspired by Someday by Elise Flannigan in the Dec 05 issue of CK magazine.

I used Correen Silke's Elegant Tights papers to create everything here--SBB

The second is my 4yr old and his first friend. I used Correen Silke's My Summer kit available at SBB

And lastly I did this layout of my girls when they were younger...used Robin Cabana's Flowers for Randi available at Scrapdish

ok...so I am getting on the rectangle bandwagon....I made a ton of 5x7 layouts for xmas presents...check out my gallery for those. I also have done a couple 8.5x11 and 11x 8.5 since then. I am liking this size as well.

Tag - I'm it! The 4's
I’ve been tagged for the 4s – by KimJ and Jeanine,hehe

Four jobs you’ve had in your life:

Ice cream scooper at thrify's
Mailroom clerk at state capitol
Travel coordinator for the California State Legislature-State Capitol
Legislative Aide/Committee Assistant for a Senator
Stay at Home Mom

Four movies you would watch over and over:
hmmmm...I don't get to watch many movies anymore, teehee And I am not one to watch them more then once or twice...it bugs me lol....except kid's movies

But....if I had to...I would watch

coming soon, lol

Four places you have lived:

Wayne Nebraska (born there)
Aiken, South Carolina
Sacramento, CA
Yuba City, CA

Four TV shows you love to watch:

Grey's Anatomy
Desperate Housewives
Any crime/suspense show like Medium/Numbers/Closer
Zoboomafoo---a wildlife show for preschoolers on PBS. My boys and I loveeeeeee to watch it together...they are so cute when it comes on...they adoreeee it.

Four places you have been on vacation:

Maui for a surprise 30th bday...go dh
Mexican cruise
Corpus Christi Texas
Lots of camping

Four websites you visit daily:

RAKScraps and rakscraps...and rakscraps, teehee
CNN.com
deviant art
and google's search engine


Four of your favorite foods:

teriakyi chicken burger and fries from Red Robin
chicken fajitas
Any type of pasta
choc chip cookie dough



Four places you would rather be right now:

hmmmm...visiting any of my Rak friends...I seriously want to meet them
in hawaii with the boys
camping
working at the preschool...love working with the kiddos

Four bloggers you are tagging:
to come as I find victims not already tagged

ok...found Judy aka mrs gator.

That was fun, thanks!

yayyyy...scrappindigikreations has a gallery now....check it out. And if you have used any of my kits, please post a layout there...I am so tickled, hehe.

Sooo...I have been trying to get prizes and layouts and new kits done lately. Here is what I have been doing. This is my newest kit....I was doing Shelly's ad challenge at Raks...which I love to do...and made some things for it. Several people wanted me to turn into a kit...so here it is...a mini.



I also made this kit which I thouroughly love. It was for a freebie and prize for my midday chat I hosted.



I also have issued an impromptu challenge to use any prizes given out by Raks' team members. You will get this add on to my mega kit contribution.

well...dh comes home tomorrow from his super relaxing, long vacation in Texas. He went for 8 days (I originally said 10, doh). He is visiting my inlaws...where is ever perfect (she really is) step mom cooks everything for them, cleans up after them, and even does his laundry while he and his dad hunt, go boating and fish. hurumph! lol

But..to tell you the truth...it has been nice. the boys and I have gotten along famously...doing whatever we want whenever we want. Sleeping in the same bed (I will pay for that, I know), hanging...bonding....playing. Why is it so much easier when he isn't around, lol. Ever since he has been working at home, our routine has been so out of whack.

I have been trying to organize and downsize also. Going through literally boxesssss of clothes from my before Hayden days and my before Chase days. Dang I was tiny, lol. I didn't think so then, but now I am like...I fit in THAT?!@? I am going to donate my work clothes to Weave and ebay some of the boys and my other clothes. Need to really start getting some more money coming in.

We had a couple sunny days, so that was nice...it is dreary once again. I don't mind it so much for me...but the boys are such OUTDOOR creatures, that I am praying that spring will be speedy, lol. They are never cranky, sad, mean or anything but happy when outside. WE are hoping to do a lot of coastal and mountain camping this summer. I can't wait. We took Chase a few timeswhen he was about 21months to 2yrs and he loveeeeddd it. But boy...I will be on my toes with these two, lol.

more later.

ok...I didn't go to sleep, hehe. here is a layout I did for just the sheer fun of it. I decided to send it to the mom's...who are sisters. they will love it I know. I used the Rak's Anniversary kit which is now available at scrapdish in the day old doughnut section....a beautiful kit!

Can we all say bad blogger bad blogger bad blogger. Wow...I cannot believe how long has gone by since I have checked in here. sigh....I always start off with the best intentions. I just get so sucked into life...trying to deal with my two little monkeys...one of which has such a "spark" to him, lol. Raks...my love and passion. My home...which I am trying to pay more attention to. My marriage...which was needing some attending to.

But I really think it will be good to check in here more. So, I hope it will happen.

Really trying to get more people into the exchange club at raks...where we take our own creations, those donated by Rak members and those donated by designers and create our quickpages that we share with each other.

Also trying to do more layouts....I so enjoy doing those. Right now I am a little slap happy with tiredness....so I will turn in. But at least I checked in!