that was strangggggggggggggge. My post below worked this morning...then stopped,lol. But it is all fixed up again. layouts are there as is the preview for the freebie...and link works.

Fun fun weekend,lol. (edited and fixed)

Got the boys bed set up and they love it. I don't...they jump off, they fight over it and they don't sleep well in them yet...making mommy climb in and sleep (using the term loosely) there the rest of the night. sigh. picture..big overweight momma crammed on to a twin bed with an almost three year old old that flops around...then falls out...then can't find his blanky..then I finally fall asleep...only to have a five year old pounding on my tushy telling me to scoot over...he is sleeping down here with us. man....I am sorrreeeeeee and then the snoring, teeth grinding, and bed hogging. sighhhhhhhhhh

Then Sunday I traced and cut out 28 pairs of glasses shaped in the number 100. Today is the 100th day of school so we are partying. I also had to get Chase's star student poster ready (his turn this week) and cut out 50 1 1/2 inch squares of tissue paper. Then tackled the floors, bathroom and eighty loads of laundry, teehee.

But then...the meeting of my book club! woohoooo...those ladies make me giggle and guffaw! We wore sweats and pjs and ate lots of comfort food and drank some vino. SOME discussion of the book actually happened too, hehehe. We decided what charity walks we would be doing...and that we are going to adopt a few families in need this year. I think that would be really good for hte boys.

I also got some scrapping done this weekend. Here are my last few layouts...you can see full credits etc in my Raks gallery
Layout title:A love story
What:how my grandparents met
kit: a la folie
designer: genevieve dupus of scrappindigikreations.com

Layout title:Expression of self
What:my youngest dressing himself
kit: gelato
designer: Valerie Foster of doyoudigi.com



Layout title:Gonna be rockstars
What:my boys and their "band"
kit: Riff Raff
designer: valerie foster of doyoudigi.com


Layout title:No More Pictures
What:my youngest getting irritated that mom won't stop taking pics
kit: can't stop crying
designer: robin cabana of scrapdish

And since I made you look at all of those, hehehe...here is another freebie sketch template for you. Remember...tell me hi if you take it.



click here to download template

ok...off to work in Chase's class and then home again home again...
have a great day!

Happy Birthday to my friend Melinda. I have met some wonderful people the last couple years. Even though they are people I have never met IRL, I still consider them friends. A lot of them I would love to hang with. Melinda is one of them. I tease her that I want to be her next door neighbor. She is such a great person, mom and wife. She makes me want to be better at all of those things. Today we celebrate the day of your birth and the amazing person you have become!

Love ya girlie!

I used Eva kipler's dream joy kit from SBB

ding dong...anybody home. sorry guys...the link for this new sketch was for the bday one again. it is now fixed..heheheh.

here is the new link: click me click me
heheheheheh
blushhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Happy Friday everyone.....lol. I use the happy part loosely here, lol. It has been a wild morning here already and it is only 9:26a. The boys woke up cranky and fighting...I got in an argument with my mom (which is so rare) on the phone, I broke my fave bowl, Hayden won't eat anything...he asks for something, I give it to him, he breaks down in tears and says....can't do it momma and criiiiessss, lol. Def think I should have stayed in bed, lol.

Yesterday was so beautiful here weather wise. I took the boys to the park and we frolicked for hours. We played frisbee...hahahahha that was a hoot. A five and almost three year old...teeeheeee...but it was fun. Then we played Batman. Hayden was batman, I was Robin and Chase was Bat Dragon. We ran all over the park and on top of tables and rocks and the play equipment fighting bad guys. The other moms just stared at me, lol. But it was good for my fat fight...I swear I burned 150 calories at least!!!!

Then Breanna came over and hung out and they took Chase to the movies...not one Hayden could go to so he was totally devastated. It took me a long time to get him happy again, sigh. Sucks to be little sometimes,heheh.

Today I am staring at the mess I call home, heheh. I swear..you clean and clean and clean and then a day and half later it is a mess. ah well...

in other news...we bought the boys a bed...should get here today. It is so cute. It is really a loft bed...but I like it better than a bunk since it isn't so high. My boys are the climber and jumpers remember?? so Hayden's mattress will just sit on the floor. They are too excited. here is a pic.



so I will drop some stuff off at goodwill, get my crafting stuff I have been eyeing for some altered projects, get bed,pick up my meds and stuff for dinner, and then home again home again.

In digi world...the ikea goddess is giving away a coooool kit...and is so perfect for me, lol. Chase's kindergarten class is called the busy bees! I am so using this kit for his school album and to make his teacher some cool gifts...her bday is Feb 14th. I also feel some valentines....bee my honey eheheheh.



~*~*~ check it out here!~*~*~

She and some other fab ladies have been telling ppl where to find all the blogs giving away goodies...and they have renamed me Jan! hahaha. Not sure how that happened...for those of you who don't know me...I am Tracy. heheh. it is funny. But I don't really care...call me whatever you want...just don't call me late for dinner,heheheh.

And my sweet friend Melinda is a Dani's Girl. On their blog they are showing you some great altered projects...and Melinda has a template for you....it is so cool!



http://designbydani.com/girltalk/

and how bout a freebie template???


download here...leave me some love if you do please ;)

and if you have used any of my goodies...email me a link at tmblankenhship@gmail.com...I would love to go leave you a comment!

Have a good day!

PHEWWWWWWWWWWW!

I

Am

Tired!!!

lol. I got to watch my grandson (Tobee, 5months, son to stepdaughter Jen). Got up and got Chase ready for school, fed and lunch made, me showered and dressed and hubby up. Him off to school. They arrived at 8a. We played. He is quite high maint, lol. Hayden (my almost 3yr old handled it all quite well...I was so proud). Last year I would watch my friends 1.5 yr old and he would get so jealousssss! then Chase got home. I loaded him up in stroller (his first time ever) Hayden on trike and chase and I walked...Chase's bike had flats...and we walked to the park. they played and Tobee (grandson) had so much fun just being outside, walking and hanging out. Then we hung out front. He only takes like 30 min naps. He eats A LOT. and he wants to be held ALLLLL the time! They came and got him at almost 7:30p.

I am tireeeeeeeeeed, lol. If I ever wanted one more baby...I changed my mind...a grandbaby is just fine, thank you.

Now the boys and I are going to read and go nighty night early...I didn't sleep good...my eye was acting up. Plus I work with 20 crazy 5-6 yr olds *Chase's class* tomorrow,lol.

I wanted to offer this freebie template for any bday layouts you might have. make sure you visit the link at the top right of this page to see some older freebies that are still active



sorry..this freebie is no longer available.And you have GOT to check this out...she is doing Hybrid kits. you get the 6x6 paper and embellie kit plus the full digi kit. It is so stinking cute. She will be doing a new one each month. I am in *****heart***** with these!





Click here to check out this awesome new hybrid digi/paper kit!!!!!

and now I will leave you with some pics of my visit with Tobee! not retouched...but like I said...I am tireddddddddddd, lol.

happy saturday!

I can see I can see, lol. Remember the double bout of pink eye I had..well I think it really messed with my eye. It has been bothering me ever since...and the other night I woke up and opened my eyes. pain shot through me and I couldn't see. fast forward to trip to eye specialist. I have corneal erosion AGAIN (last time 4 yrs ago diff eye.) your cells break down causing the cornea to slough off and stick to eyelid when closed...thus when opening...you rip off part of your cornea. OUCH. they said it was rare to happen in the first place...little lone twice to one person.
so I am on pain med drops and thick eye gel on my right eye.

but do you think that would keep me from the puter? nooooo. still have one good eye, lol.

Guess what???? I am on a couple more CT's! Whoohoooo!

Ok...so we have added Digirocks...it is a combo of two designers Eva Kipler of SBB, Digital Freebies and Retrodiva.net. Talk about a wonderful designer. she has got it down. Gorgeous kits and she is just the sweetest! And Ms. Jan Hosford of Scrapbook Elements and Digital Freebies. Don't know much about her yet...expect that she is a fantabulous designer!! I am tickled pink! My friend Gen (hosanwelha)is going to start designing for Scrappindigikreations. She is a brand new designer and full of talent and excitement. I am so happy and proud for her!

And how bout a freebie for you???? Leave me a comment if you grab it please.

layered tag template...use your own papers etc to make it cool. too fun
~*~*~*~*~*~click here to download~*~*~*~*~*~
At the top right is a link to take you to some older freebies...go grab them before they are all gone

Here are some layouts I got done:

~*~*~*~*~A winter Angel~*~*~*~*
*~*~*~*~*~see credits here~*~*~*~*~*~~

And this one was done for Rakscraps Amazing Race Photo Swap...Danielle's Daughter's Surprise Sweet 16 party
~*~*~*~*~*~*~see credits here~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Now that I can see a little better...I can see the horrible mess my house is...so off to fold and put away laundry (since I guess I am the only one who knows how in this house ;) ) Then clean the kitchen and bathrooms and maybe go look for bunkbeds for the boys. woohooo pretty exciting eh?

I also wanted to show off some layouts using my template for my challenge (still time...scroll down guys)...these gals put a diff twist on it.

Connie Kresin aka freemo


snowjewel's



and bayoujac's



hugs to you all

In search of kit:

My buddy Melinda is looking for a kit she saw mainly made of duct tape...even had some duct tape PAPERS. Anyone seen it? If so...can you point us in the direction? Anyone finding a kit with duct tape papers can pick two free kits of mine out!

happy end of tuesday! I had such a great day today...making this short as I am whooped and I have a feeling little mite (Hayden) won't fall asleep without some more singing, lol.

Cleaned and cleaned today...then headed off to shop. Went to Michaels and bought some stuff to donate for Chase's class. The school doesn't provide a lot of art supplies and no one really donates too much in our class...so it leaves the teacher, a few other mommies and me. sigh.

While there, I picked up this fun goodie for me....on sale! So much in their home decor section I wanted. It is a recipe book holder...and has these cool things that hold the pages open.

Also got some supplies for some fun altered art and hybrid projects.

I am sure you have all heard about the princess purse craze...well...I want one! But I have to wait for my bday. sighhhh. So I took it upon my self to make do till then. I took a tote and made my own. Enter sticky velcro, hot glue, ribbons and buttons...made a page...wallaaaa. the real thing looks WAY cuter...will take some pics in better light tomorrow. just got these for now. but you get the idea. not too bad if I do say so, lol. Will hold me over till the real thing comes!




I used Amy Knepper's Young and Carefree kit and based it off my layout the simple things. based on sketch challenge 7 by Andrea C from the digi shoppe used her template for the waves.

btw...on ebay I found someone selling them a little bit cheaper. $27 (includes shipping) for the first...$23 for any after that. The paper princess is almost $31 or more depending on how you have it sent.

I work in Chase's class tomorrow...will be fun! Will chat with you all after that. Don't forget to scroll down and get the template and stitch freebies in previous posts.

cheers and love!

Well hey and howdy! This new blogger is pretty easy to use. lovin it!

oh...and the link for the photobooks below didn't work...so here is a new one...click here to go to site. And the sale is till the 16th. phew.

Hope everyone is great today. It is so so so cold here today. The gutters and my sodas outside were frozen! brrr to the bone baby.

The boys are at my aunt's having a blast. I miss them like crazy, but it was a good thing they were gone. I had a stomach thing going on yesterday. My mom had it last week and she passed it along, isn't she sweet? So...I didn't get to do all I wanted, wahhhh. I didn't make it to my fave thrift store nor did I get to go out with my girlfriends...didn't want to use a public toilet (dinner and movies) constantly kwim?

But...I stayed all bundled up at home. Got two layouts done. Got to watch some of my tivo shows and read a couple magazines. I hate hate hate sleeping in a house by myself...I get scared (yesss....I am a wusssss. Must be all the crime shows and books I read,lol) and I miss my family. It was past 1a before I fell asleep.

Got up and put together a prize for my last double trouble sketch challenge at Digital Freebies. I think I will have to hold a monthly sketch challenge on the blog...I will miss my chickies over there.

Here is the prize...a compilation of some of my must haves for digiscrapping.


Do you want to play in the challenge? Well ok then...if you missed the first sketch...I will give you a second chance. Here it is...and I also have a freebie template for you to use. Now...for the first half of the prize...use the sketch and or template to do a layout. Post a link to it in the comment section here and include your email addy so I can send you the first part of the prize.

The first sketch:
~*~*~*~Click here to download the free template~*~*~*~

(I have some great takes on the challenge to share as soon as I get permission from their creators).

To get to the second part...click here and go to Digital Freebies to play.

Now...on to my layouts:

This one is using Audra Little's (my buddy from raks and amy's CT. she just told me I get to work with her kits...so funnnn) Grandma's Attic kit available at DigiScrapShak.com It is a pic of Brandon and his family. Going to ask his mom the year and the occassion and then update the journaling.


This one is my first CT assignment for Valerie Foster's CT! I used her Love Buzz kit...so fun! love it. and she has a freebie for it on her site right now. Go here and register in the forums. Then go to the product announcements for her gift. Make sure to say thanks too...tell her tracy sent you to the site, lol, ;)


After getting the prize put together and uploaded, I went through lots of galleries to leave some love. I like to go back like a week or so and try to pick layouts that don't have a lot of comments. Also trying to get to all the people that do my challenges.

Now to shower (yup...almost 3p and still in jammies,lol) and straighten up...Brandon will be home this evening. We can cuddle and watch a movie or play some scrabble...uninterrupted. then go get my babies in the morning..she wants to keep them one more night...after I stop by the Goodwill by my aunt's. Hers is freakin awesome up there...way better than ours.

love and hugs to everyone!!!

oh man...been waiting for shutterfly to have another sale on their books. I am so doing this...missed out last time. I am doing the 8x8 of my layouts (I set it up and it will work perfectly). for 20 pages it will be 23 dollars and change and .80 for each additional page. Sale only till the 15th. Go check them out...have had a couple friends do this and loved them...our layouts in a hard bound book oh yeah baby!!!

click on picture to go to site.

Toot Toot Toot, lol.

So....GUESS WHAT???? I got on a CT!!!!! For the wildly talented and super unique designer Valerie Foster!!! I am so excited! Didn't tell anyone I applied cause I don't like rejection...but she took this little homeless scrapper in! You have got to check out her work here....DoYouDigi.com. Be looking for some layouts from me using her creations soon! She has NINE other great gals so you should be seeing a lot of her work out there!

Today is collllddddd even for me. It is 30 something but windy so that makes it worse. The boys want to play outside but yesterday (after I bundled them to the butts) they quickly changed their minds. So we headed off to Burger King to play on their inside playpark. I was sooooo goooood. The boys had their nuggets and fries. I asked for a cup of ice and poured my Low Carb protein shake over it and sucked away. Sighhhhhh,lol. How I long for my size 6 body back. But hey, I will take my size 10 back in a heart beat. I took off the few pounds I gained back, so the total lost so far is 11lbs. Not a poke in the eye with a very sharp stick, but man I want it to go faster.

The old body is a tad sore after yesterday's workout, but I set off on the elliptical this a.m. boy am I a wimp. Gone are the days I worked out for 3hrs. Geesh,lol. Hayden was so cute...doing the stretches with me. I really want to be a healthy example for them so this is good.

Bran is leaving to go to Monterrey to dive tomorrow. If the boys stay well, my aunt will take the boys for the night...leaving me some time to chill, scrap and watch Tivo, lol.

I went back to toys r us and totally stocked up on presents for upcoming bdays. What an awesome clearance sale they are having. And got the boys all new undies and socks too! And I had some good Karma going on for me...(that is one of ongoing experiments. treating ppl better than I would want to be treated...and I have been getting treated so nice in return...crazy huh, lol). So the guy behind the counter said to his coworker...hey...do you have your card on you? can you swipe it for me? the other guy said...is she your girlfriend, cousin or what? He gave me their associate's discount. how cool is that!!?!?! Nice people Rock So Hard!

Can you imagine the world if we all let people go in front of us on the streets instead of leaving them stranded in the parking lots, if we had a full cart of groceries and someone with only a couple of items is behind us...and we say...you go ahead...I am not in a hurry. Or if the little kid is trying to buy something and is short a dime...and you say...here you go. The little things people...they just make life nicer ya know?

ok...so off to dry my hair and do some speech exercises with hayden and return this blasted ant farm chase got from his sister...it was all corroded inside...was supposed to be this lime green gel...and ours is all nasty and brown and gross. poor guy,lol

have a wonderful day. I challenge you to leave some love in the galleries...go to people's layouts that don't have a lot of comments. You will make their day. Even if it isn't your style...find something nice to say. And let someone cut in front of you, ;)

hello all....long long long time no post. hoping to get back into the swing of things. the last time I talked here I was going through a very rough time. I lost my grandmother...who had helped raise me and with who I was very close. The next week we lost my uncle. Then we lost my husband's grandmother.So...I took some time off. I spent lots of time with my boys...going to the park and movies. Doing lots of crafts. I worked extra hours in my oldest's kindergarten class. We shopped. We cuddled. We got ready for xmas (which I realllllly was not in the mood for).

Christmas was "ok". The boys had a fabulous time. They love the lights and decorations. The magic is so there for them. We had started to get sick right before and are still battling it...but I thankfully have gotten the worst of it (two yes TWO bouts of pink eye for me...one each for them...and sinus/ear infections for me too...geesh). But they had a good time. Lots of spoiling occured.I really do NOT want to take down my decorations, which is too funny seeing as I didn't want to put them up in the first place.

The sun has been shining here...though darn cold in the early morning. We have been outside as much as possible...played at the park yesterday for hours with some friends. too fun.

I am going to Minnesota with the famdamily next month...going to see Greg, Missy and the boys. So excitedddd!

So...what else. I am no longer on the Rakscraps CT...I needed time to heal and didn't think it was fair to them for me to not participate. I am also not an admin over at Scrappindigikreations anymore and I stepped down from Digital Freebies...jsut finishing this month's sketch challenge. Same reason. They are all being very loving and supportive. I also decided to not worry about designing kits right now...instead I want to scrap my little heart out. I am actually thinking of trying out for some creative teams...so if you know of some calls I should see, let me know. And if you are a designer or on a team, put in a good word for me pretty please. I promise I will do a great job promoting you/them, lol. (shameless aren't I?? heheh).

Here are some layouts I have been popping out.....











~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~see credits in my gallery~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~


I also have a fun little freebie to share...I made some stitches and holes to use on some layouts...thought I would share those with you all...leave some love if you snag them. you can see them used in my snow day layout above. If you have problems downloading..come back later...too many ppl might be trying to get them.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*download here*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~~*

Ok...I am off to exercise!!! woohooot. Gonna make it part my daily life. Then work with Hayden and to play!!!

hope you all have a fab day!!!

be kind to each other.