New Quick Page

I've spent the past few hours checking out the kit "Bethany" by Ginny of GETdesigns. What a beautiful, feminine kit. Lots of lush pinks and plums. The papers have great pattern and texture with lots of sophisticated flourishes. If you love flowers, this kit has 4 different, real bouquets of flowers. The ribbons have graceful folds and curls. This entire kit is beautiful, feminine and sophsiticated. Does that sound like anyone you know? If so, go to Pretty Scrappy and check it out, and in the meanwhile, download this quickpage. It will be up for a week, so get it while you can, and send your friends over to my blog! Leave a comment if you like it!

Link removed...check back later for another freebie!

3rd Day of Christmas

Even though it's thought the Wise Men didn't come until the Baby Jesus was almost 2, they are still an integral part of the Christmas story. They believed the promises of Scripture and acted on them. It changed the course of their lives. They received blessings from following the star. The Scriptures record that they "rejoiced with great joy!" If you haven't taken a look at the Bible in a while, get a copy and open it up. Read it. Believe it, do what it says and let it change the course of your life! Be blessed by it! Rejoice!!!

Get today's word art LINK EXPIRED!

2nd day of Christmas

The reason I celebrate Christmas is because Jesus came to earth as a baby - not just so that we could have a holiday or a sentimental story to tell our children. He came to earth to fulfill what God wanted to do on the earth - save man from his sin by dying on the cross 33 years later. I know not everyone believes or understands, but this one birth has changed my life. My sin kept me from God, from knowing Him personally, but Jesus' birth and death on the cross paid my sin debt with God. When I was 5, I chose to trust Jesus for my salvation. And I understand more and more as an adult with children of my own what a gift God gave us when He sent his only Son to earth. Thank you God!

My gift to you today is this word art is the verse 2 Corinthians 9:15.

Click LINK EXPIRED to download. It's for personal use or scrap for hire.

The First Day of Christmas

It's only 12 days until Christmas, and I thought I'd try to make a little something to give away each day. Here's a little Christmas Word art for ya. It's PU/S4H/S4O. Enjoy!

Link Expired...come back soon!

Catching up on December Daily....

I've really been enjoying making my December Daily pages. Each day I do work on them, either by taking pictures, writing some journaling, jotting down some notes, or partially completing a layout, but normally on a weekend or slow weeknight I'll finish up the pages. Y'know the hardest thing for me is uploading the pictures from my camera, or from my phone. I have 7 pages that are done except for uploading the picture. Gotta work on that....But for now, here are some of the finished pages....

I'll post some more later. I actually have some that are open in Photoshop now. Look for a freebie soon too!

whoo hooo!

I just checked my Mediafire account, and there have been 131 downloads of the Grateful Quickpage....Too bad there were only 2 comments (both from search engines). I'm still pumped that so many people have enjoyed this quickpage.

Free Quickpage

Hey everyone....When I was given the chance to pick a kit to make a quickpage with, I immediately went to look at the newest kits made by Sweet Tomato Designs at Pretty Scrappy. She has so many gorgeous kits. She has a real knack with putting together great color schemes and textures and elements that you'll really use. I chose the kit "Grateful."

I loved the brown/blue/green/rust/purple color combination. The alpha is so cute!!! Cara (the person behind Sweet Tomato Designs) has also included a photo mask with the word "grateful" cut out of the corner, and on one of the pieces of paper, there are flowers cut out of the corner. Very smart! Perfect for layering. I love the idea of "transparent" things...

Cara hosted a speed scrap a few days back, and here's the layout I made....

I think it turned out really cute!!! I used the alpha for the title...I want to touch those little felt letters!

Here's the FREEEEEEEBIE! Click the preview of the quickpage to download. After 7 days, it will be gone, so click away! Tell your friends!

Freebie Expired....Check back for a new one soon!

December 1

I'm on my way with my December Daily Album! I've gotten nearly all of my foundation pages made, and I've made my first page for December first! It really was so quick to have the foundation page made first. I decided along the way that I would take the numbers off the foundation pages and add them as I go so I can choose the page that best fits the photos I have and the story I want to tell. So initially this page was labelled December 4th, but I used it first. The Journaling reads: Our Family Tradition is to strap the Christmas tree to the top of the Jeep. It started the year I was pregnant with Andy - the first year we had the Jeep. At first we had it sticking out the back, but now, with every seat in the Wrangler filled, we strap it to the top. This year we bought the tree from the youth group fundraiser, and we set it up the Sunday after Thanksgiving. since there was no PM service. We got to do our tradition twice because we took Grammy Lu’s tree to her house too. We’ve been slowly decorating the house this year, which is unusual for us. Tree, lights, and blow-up nativity on Sunday; Ornaments on Monday; Christmas Village and wreath on Tuesday. Still more decorating to go but I kinda like being able to take my time. The kids enjoyed putting the ornaments on the tree, seeing pictures of themselves on them, and Andy’s starting to read some of the words. We sat tonight and pointed out some of our favorites. It was fun to hear the kids’ reasons for liking

what they liked. The Coca-Colo choo-choo is the favorite because it makes NOISE!

Black Friday

Who doesn't love a good black Friday sale? Go to Pretty Scrappy or Inspiration Lane to take advantage of the savings...

Birthday Sale

I just wanted to let you in on a great sale....Teri's birthday is this weekend, and all of her designs are 25% off!! If you haven't found just the right Christmas kit, you should check out Teri's kit "Merry and Bright." I've been making cards and album pages with it right and left. And at 25% off...you can't beat it!

Also, some of Teri's retired kits will be less than a dollar each during this sale! Some of my favorites are Hometown USA, Weekend Getaway, and Somethin's Fishy.

Go to Pretty Scrappy and check it out! Stop by Teri's blog and wish her a happy birthday......

The Beginning of my December Daily

For a few years, I have watched with creative jealousy at Ali Edwards' December Daily album. She always does such an artistic job of telling her life story. I want to try to make a December Daily album. I loved the idea of documenting the little things that make up the holiday season. The first step, according to Ali, is to gather your materials. I've gone through all my scrapbooking materials in iPhoto, and tagged all my Christmas kits with the Keyword "Christmas." (For more on keywords and organizing in iPhoto, click here) After doing this, I realized that I had a big variety of Christmas and winter kits, and if I used them all, I was afraid that I would lose a cohesive look. Then Teri Mayo came up with an amazingly huge holiday kit called Merry and Bright. It's awesome, full of traditional and not so traditional colors and textures. It feels totally festive. This kit is huge too - 20 papers, 65 elements, a plain and an embellished alpha, felt and glitter styles......Check it out...

So here's my first page of my December Daily album. I'm hoping that each page will have room for 1 focal picture and a spot to tell the story of what's going on. Keep coming back to see more pages...

I'm Losing It!

A few weeks ago, Teri challenged those of us on her CT team to join her on a weight loss challenge. I had been thinking (read: postponing) starting a diet because I really needed it, and she was just the kick in the pants I needed to start. And in Teri's style, she made a kit to help her document her journey.....

Here it is....

She's also included all sorts of add ons, from blog wear to pieces of flair to hybrid journal pages to organize your day and keep track of your progress. I've had so much fun making my journal this week. The pages come in 5x7 format, which is a typical size for lots of organizers, but I wanted to make mine out of a 5.5x8 3 ring binder. It was easy to modify the pages Teri designed to fit my format and customized to my needs. The guy at Office max showed me plastic page protectors that fit this size binder, so my pages slide right in! No holes to punch. On the daily pages there's a spot to record what you ate, things to do, and a spot to write an inspirational scripture or quote. There's also a cute monthly exercise tracker. Here's a preview of some of my pages

I'm also trying to make some mini scrapbook pages to record my thoughts along the way. Here's one about how I feel about myself at the start of this weightloss journey.

So far I've lost 8 lbs! Can't complain!

Speed Scrap Tonight!

Hi everyone!

I'm hosting my first Speed Scrap at Pretty Scrappy tonight! It's at 9pm eastern (8 CST, 7MST, and 6 PST) Please come!! Here's how it works....Log into the forum at Pretty Scrappy. Then at the top of the page there's an icon that says "Chat." Click that, and it will take you to the chat room. Starting a little after 9, I'll give the first instruction for you to build a scrapbook page, and every 10 minutes after that, you'll get another instruction. By the time the hour is done, you'll have 7 instructions for a completed scrapbook page. You'll have another hour to finish your layout and post it in the gallery. The ones who complete the challenge within the 2 hours will receive my kit "Preschool" as a reward, and you'll get Pretty Scrappy points (good for goodies in the store). You don't have to use Pretty Scrappy products, anything goes.

So, please come!!! Invite your friends! I'll post my layout tomorrow!

WORKS FOR ME WEDNESDAY!!

My kids are paper collectors. Every time they come in the door from church, or a friend's house, or from visiting a friend, they have a picture they colored or a craft they made. They are constantly coloring and drawing. Now that #1 has started Kindergarten, he brings home papers daily, and he gets a folder of weekly work every Monday! The memory keeper and teacher in me doesn't want to throw away a single paper or drawing, because when you look at them all as a whole, you can really see a progression of skills, and you can see the things the kids are "in to" at a specific period in their lives. The clutter-hater in me wants to shred it all and recycle it!!!! What to do?!? So I consulted my buddies..... One said she keeps them all in office file boxes, no order, she just dumps them in there, and just stacks them in her garage. Simple enough, but I think that my garage isn't big enough for that! Another friend said that she sits with her child once a week and they decide together which papers to keep and which to toss, and they put them in a file box. Then at the end of the year they go through the box again and try to whittle it in half, so hopefully they can fit 2 or 3 school years in one box. That seemed a little better to me, but the problem was, when I went through the papers each week with my #1, there were no papers he was willing to part with! They were all too important!! And I didn't really enjoy "negotiating" with him like that every week. So here's my solution. I bought an expandable file for each child.

Every time a child comes home with papers in hand, we look at them and talk about them. I'll trash ones that I know can be trashed (parent announcements & reminders- I transfer important info to my calendar then trash the paper), then I put everything into the file. I'm amazed at how much they hold! We're only halfway filled the file from everything from church and school this year. When we fill it, I plan to go thru it with #1 and ask him the things we can keep and trash, and tell him we've got to only have filled halfway. That way he can see his progression over time too. And having 1 file on my credenza is much neater than a stack of papers....

Now, if I can only convince my Husband of the same thing....that's his stack in the back!!

October Roundup

What books and/or magazines did I read this month?

I'm still reading The Mentoring Mom by Jackie Kendall. Reading it slow on purpose. Trying to apply some of the things I like...trying to digest what she has to say.

As always, getting inspired by my Creating Keepsakes Magazine.

and I'm a very vaithful reader of Ali Edwards blog, along with Katie the Scrapbook Lady

What movies, television shows, plays, etc. did I watch this month?

We've watched a lot of Gator football this month, and my MIL is a huge fan of #15 Tim Tebow.

Everytime they show a close up of him on TV, she had my DH pause it, and she takes a picture of the TV with her camera. She has over 40 pictures of him like this. She admires him b/c he's good looking, a good quarterback, and a good Christian - now only if he was 65, then she'd make a move on him! J/K

#1 is really getting into Scooby Doo - the old ones - thanks to Boomerang channel. And we've started watching Electric Company. His school teaches reading in a very traditional phonetic way, so Electric Company is right up his alley.

We rented Tinkerbell, Monsters vs Aliens and Surfs Up for the kids. We rented Grand Torino - loved the plot and characters, hated all the swearing and racial slurs. And we saw The Invention of Lying at the theater. I was disappointed at how sacrilegious the movie was, and it wasn't really that funny.

What fun things did I do with my family and/or friends?

On the 29th, a friend of ours let us stay for a few days at their beach house. It was the best little vacation we had in a while. We played on the beach for 3 days, rented movies, and chilled. The beach is close enough where we were still able to go to #1's football games. We made a sand snowman and took this funny picture....it's for my Dad and Mom's Christmas cards. No, it wasn't cold at the beach....we all got sunburnt.

Speaking of football, he is getting so good at it! Remembering and running complicated (for little guys) plays!

My family visited to see #1 play football and to celebrate #3's birthday. It was a "YoGabbaGabba" themed party. We made all sorts of fun crafts and played great games. We had about 30 people in our house! Yea for big birthday parties!!!!

We also celebrated the fall festival at our church with jumping on big inflatable obstacle courses, slides and bounce houses, as well as kid carnival games....More on costumes below in "accomplishments."

What gifts did I give and/or receive?

My sister made the cake for #3's party. It's Brobee, a character from YoGabbaGabba. Very cool to have her help like that. #3 got more presents than he knows what to do with. One of the coolest ones was a picnic basket with plastic gardening tools, a flower pot, seeds, watering can and children's book about gardening. We've had fun planting our plants just like the kids in the book.

My kids also got fleece blankets from G&G. At first, I wasn't too impressed, but they have latched onto those blankets like they are their best friends.

My M&D said they were going to send me a check to cover the cost of the Tamiflu (see below), and they ended up sending us a check for $700! The letter attached said that my mom found some letters from when we first got married that I sent them with payments for a car we bought from them. My mom kept the deposit slips with them. She said that they felt so badly at the time that they couldn't just give us the car, and now they could, so she added up the deposit slips that she found and sent us the check for $700. We're calling it the M&D stimulus package.

What special or unusual purchases did I make?

Bought #3's birthday present online...that's not a usual thing for me, but I liked the convenience. I'll have to shop around for better shipping deals next time though.

What illnesses or health concerns did I have?

We finished up H1N1 in our house. #3 had the worst case. The worst symptom was a high, hard-to-control fever. I took him to the doc, and she prescribed Tamiflu, and 1 dose did the trick! He still acted like he didn't feel well, but the symptoms were much less severe. Missed some work and church as a result. #1 got a preventative dose of Tamiflu b/c of his heart, but never had symptoms, never missed a day of school. #2 started having symptoms, and I started her on the Tamiflu, and she never got very bad. All in all, we survived.

What were my accomplishments this month?

I started CTing for Teri Mayo again, and I'm getting back into the swing of deadlines and forum posts again.

I have been very crafty this month....Homemade masks, puppets, goody bags, food, hand-painted backdrop for #3's birthday party. I made #1 a rocket jet pack out of 2 liter bottles, glue dots and duct tape. I also handpainted a superhero logo on a red teeshirt and made a belt out of duct tape too. I made #3 a plex the magic robot costume for Fall Festival, and I managed to find pink clothes and a pink wig so that #2 could be Stephanie from Lazy Town.

I completed 13 layouts this month, and my first full kit called Preschool, that I'm going to be giving away at a Speed scrap that I'm hosting this Friday 11/6 at Pretty Scrappy at 9pm

What were my disappointments this month?

I had another student quit taking lessons......

I didn't have much time to work on playing guitar....

I got on the scale and weighed the highest I've ever been (not including pregnancies), which has prompted me to start a diet and so far so good....

Anything else noteworthy to include?

#1 really enjoys the water at the beach and has started body surfing at the beach...

Another Layout with Freshly Picked Fall

Hey everyone! I'm loving Freshly Picked Fall by Teri Mayo! I made another layout with it yesterday. Check it out!

My #3 gives the best hugs! He'll grab me and we'll rock back and forth and one of us will start humming "Big Baby! Big Baby!" It makes my day! If you like it, you can check it out at Pretty Scrappy!

Snapfish Coupon Code

I got this in my inbox today from Snapfish.com and thought I'd share the love......

As a special thank you for being one of our best customers, you can get a FREE 8" x 11" custom cover book when you buy one! Just place two 8" x 11" custom cover books in your cart and use coupon code FALLBOOKS09 at checkout by November 6.*

Fresh Picked Fall Layout

I just got Fresh Picked Fall by Teri Mayo of Teri's Thing O My Jigs today, and it is so nice. It's a great combination of fresh fall colors. The embellishments are nice and very useable. No filler here. One thing that I've really enjoyed about this kit is the beautiful frames. They are very unique! I hope you'll go over to Pretty Scrappy and check it out. (PS is in the middle of changing servers, so if you get an error message, just try again. They'll have all the issues worked out in a couple days). Check out this beautiful preview....

And here's my #3 doing what he does best....pushing my buttons....

Three Things Thursday

I'm feeling like I need to document my life as it happens, so here's my version of "Three Things Thursday."

1. I'm totally overwhelmed by birthday party preparations. Who would have thought that we'd have over 30 people in our house to celebrate #3 turning 2? I have a lot of cleaning to do, and I can't help but thinking that all the cleaning that I do will be "uncleaned" by Saturday night. So I kinda have a "what's the point" attitude.

2. I'm feeling like I need to spend more time with #2. She hasn't had a lot to look forward to that's special for her, and she's starting to act out a little to get attention. Maybe she can stay up and help me paint the backdrop for the birthday party....if she'll take a nap.

3. I feel like I'm running in circles. My husband calls it "wallering." Instead of moving and acting with purpose, whatever I do doesn't seem to accomplish what it should. Maybe a little time of thinking and praying this afternoon will help me with that.

This was a melancholy "3 Things Thursday." Hope yours is better.

I'm going to leave you with a new preview of a kit Teri made called Freshly Picked Fall. You can get it at Pretty Scrappy.

Organizing Digital Scrapbooking Supplies with iPhoto

One question I see a lot on scrapbooking blogs is "How do you keep organized?" It is a dilemma - how can you organize your digital scrapping stash so that you can find what you want when you need it? Do you keep your kits together? Do you organize by designer? By color? By theme? Do you break every kit apart, and keep all the papers together in one file and all the ribbons in another and the buttons in a third? What about things that fit into more than one category?

I've found a way where I can organize my scrapping stash in a variety of different ways, so that I can find what I'm looking for by designer, by kit or by element. If you are lucky enough to have a Mac computer and iPhoto program, then you can too.

1. When I download a new scrap kit, it ends up in my downloads folder in my Finder. I drag all my newly downloaded folders onto the iPhoto icon at the bottom of my computer and import them into iPhoto. Each folder is a new event.

2. Most of the time when you buy a kit, it comes in a few folders - a paper folder, an elements folder, and an alpha folder. Each folder will be its own even in iPhoto, but I will merge all 3 events into one for the sake of streamlining. I shift click on 2 of the events and drag them onto the third event, and choose yes when it asks if I really want to merge all 3 events. Then when you click on the event, all the paper, elements and alphas for a specific kit will be in the same event.

3. I also re-name the event with the designers name and the name of the kit. I double click on the event and usually the designer includes a preview, and I make the preview the key photo for the event. The key photo is the one that shows up on the event page. You can make a photo the key photo by right clicking on the photo that you want and choosing 'make key photo.' I organize my events alphabetically by designers name, because that's how I normally remember what kit I want to use. in the photo above, you can see several of the kits that I have from Teri Mayo. If I remember the name of the kit, but not the designer, I'll use the search bar at the bottom of iPhoto and type in what I remember, and it usually pulls it up.

4. Once I've imported and re-named my kit, then I'll add keywords to each piece of the scrapbooking kit. I created custom keyword tags for my stash. Every paper gets tagged with the "paper" keyword; every ribbon gets tagged with the "ribbon" keyword. Here's how to create custom keywords. First, press command + K at the same time, and your keyword menu will pop up

Then click the "edit keywords" button at the bottom to add your custom keywords.

Click the plus sign at the bottom to add your new custom keyword.

Type in your keyword. Then choose a shortcut for your new keyword and click OK. A shortcut is the key you press on your keyboard to choose that keyword. I use the number 1 as my shortcut when I want to add the keyword "paper" to a digital scrapbook paper. 2 is for accents; 3 is for frames and borders; 4 is for ribbons; 5 is for journaling spots; 6 is for buttons; 7 is for alphas; 8 is for templates and quick pages; 9 is for brag book pages. I also have a letter designated for each person in my family, so that when I import photos that I've taken, I can tag each person in my family that's in each photo. That way when I'm looking for the perfect shot of my son, all I have to do is type his name in the search bar and all the photos that I've tagged of him will show up.

5. Once you have all your keywords set up, double click your new scrapping kit from your events, press command + K to open your keyword menu, click the first photo in your scrap kit, and start tagging. For the photo below, the first 3 photos in my scrap kit are paper, and I press 1 to tag it (because 1 is the shortcut for the paper keyword), then I'll press tab to go to the next photo. I can add keywords to a normal sized scrap kit in less than a minute.

That's the basic way I organize. I've also added something called smart albums to help me find things quickly. A smart album groups all the photos together that have certain properties. I have a smart album for all my scrapbook papers, for instance, and when I click on it, it will show me all the different papers i have.

To make a smart album, click File - new smart album

Name your smart album - I have ones for each of my scrapbooking keywords. And use the dropdown menus to define what goes in each smart album. I choose "keyword" from the first menu, "is" from the second, and then the keyword that I want included. Then click ok. For instance, in my "Scrapbooking Papers" smart album, I have all the photos whose keyword is "paper," and every time I add the keyword "paper" to a photo, it automatically updates in the smart album.

I hope that helps all you Mac scrapbookers who use iPhoto! If you have any questions, leave a comment!

Today....

I get really inspired by Ali Edwards. I love her articles in Creating Keepsakes magazine and I've been following her blog for a while now. Last summer she did a blog post called "Today" and it contained several "fill in the blank" sentences to help you record the details of your everyday life. I remember liking it so much I copied it into a document on my computer thinking, "One day I'll make a layout with this." Did I? Nope.

Today on Ali's blog, she did the same type of blog post, and she referred to the blog post from last summer, and I remembered it! So today, I'm going to document my day, instead of saving it for later.....

Outside my window...It's about to storm - a good, old-fashioned Florida afternoon thunderstorm.

I am thinking...that I hope the storm doesn't wake up #2. She doesn't like storms. I'm also thinking that I should be cleaning the bathroom instead of blogging, but I enjoy the computer so much more than the toilet.

I am thankful for...The unexpected blessings in our lives this week. The kids are all healthy again. Air Conditioning. My husband who is handy enough to fix the air conditioner. My friends who tell me what I need to hear and love me anyway.

From the kitchen...Mini Moon Pies! We watched an episode of "Unwrapped" about marshmallow treats, and they featured Moon Pies, and I found them at the grocery store this morning.

I am wearing...a Nike t shirt, adidas athletic shorts, no shoes

I am creating...a crafts to make at #3's birthday party next week, quick pages for my Preschool kit, and an accompaniment dvd for a music student to sing in church with.

I am going...to go clean the bathroom as soon as I'm done with this so that I don't have to think about it anymore, then to church tonight for a Sunday School teacher's meeting.

I am reading...The Mentoring Mom by Jackie Kendall and Communicating for a Change by Andy Stanley

I am hoping...to get more time to practice my guitar, and to really get our dining room/work room organized. And to get all the laundry put away. I'm also hoping that #2 doesn't melt down when she realizes that #1 gets to spend the night at grandma's house with his cousin tonight and she doesn't......

I am hearing...#1 mumble while he is "inventing" things....

Around the house...It's surprisingly orderly. I've been trying to get things more organized and clean so it's not so overwhelming, and fortunately, my husband helps. Right now, it's really quiet because #2 and #3 are asleep. Hubby is delivering lunch to the local football team. #1 is "inventing" while I'm doing my thing...

One of my favorite things...Hearing my kids sing....

A few plans for the rest of the week...Church meeting tonight, #1's flag football game in the morning, celebrating mother-in-laws birthday, church, preparing for #3's birthday party,

A picture to share...

I was playing with Photobooth on my computer and #3 was totally confused by what he saw....It makes me laugh

My quick Page - FREE!

Hey everyone...

Teri is offering the quick page that I made based on the layout below as a freebie on her blog!

Go Get IT!!!!

www.teristhingomyjigs.blogspot.com

New Kit by Teri!

I was looking around the gallery at Pretty Scrappy a few days ago, and I saw this preview...

Teri's back!!!! Let's call her the Brett Favre of the digiscrapping world. Out of retirement and better than every. And this kit is very, very adorable. Great color and texture. Fun elements. Great frames and little spooks to adorn your page. It's perfect for those of us who like the fun part of the Fall season, but don't get into the scary, gory stuff that can accompany it. Here's a layout I made last night..

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The Cutest Thing in the Universe!!!!

Oh my goodness! I think I saw the cutest thing in the universe today!!! Flair for your fridge!

Where can you get these? Somethingbluestudios.com They have an amazing collection of different types of magnets in their store. Ok, go check them out. You can download a free template and customize your 9 magnets, and they come to you in this cute little box!! I'm LOVING IT! Set of 9 is $10. You can get them in sets of 1, 2, 4, 9 and 16. They have square magnets, calendar magnets, magnets with post it notes. Can you say Christmas presents? I'm in love....

September 2009 Round up!

Yesterday I found the blog of Katie the Scrapbook Lady. What a great find! I haven't seen such a informative and well organized blog in a long time! I got tons of ideas in just the few minutes I spent cruising around, but one of them I'm going to implement now...the monthly roundup. Katie has been doing monthly roundups for years now, and she uses them to keep track of what was going on in her life while it's fresh in her mind. Then when she gets around to doing scrapbook pages from that month....she refers to her blog for the details. Brilliant!!! So here's our monthly roundup for September 2009

What books and/or magazines did I read this month?

I'm in the middle of Communicating for a Change by Andy Stanley. It's given me lots of great stuff to think about in one of my roles as a Sunday School Teacher. I also read a back to school issue of Flute Talk magazine, and it made me want to teach more flute students.

What movies, television shows, plays, etc. did I watch this month?

Lots of new TV shows because they're not re-runs anymore!!! So glad to be seeing new episodes of House and CSI (the original). We are also watching lots of episodes of YoGabbaGabba as #3 is addicted to the show. (and honestly, I think it's wicked cool too.) Not a lot of movies. The last one I saw in the theater was Julie and Julia, which I absolutely loved!

What fun things did I do with my family and/or friends?

It was the first full month of school, so we were in the full swing of our crazy schedule. We had a few fun playdates with friends. #1 started playing flag football, and dad is coaching. Very cute to watch. My husband and I also did a series of 4 skits in our church on stewardship. The first one was written for us, then I had to write the following 3. Definitely harder than I thought it would be, but the congregation really liked it, and I think learned from them.

What gifts did I give and/or receive?

I got a $25 gift card to Starbucks!!!!! For helping a friend decorate her baby's bedroom. In turn, I bought my whole family starbucks one afternoon. That was fun.

What illnesses or health concerns did I have?

I got the #1 & #3 both got a pretty big virus. I got the flu - fever of 103! I felt awful. While I was about to die, my husband was running the house, even though he had a cold too. We both ended up finding a doctor and going for appointments. Somehow #2 never got sick.

What were my accomplishments this month?

uuuuuhhhhhmmmm........It's hard for me to think about my life in terms of accomplishments. I did design a tshirt for my dad for the volleyball team (see older post). I got the choir tour album finished and printed. I got a gift album made for my friend for her grandmother's birthday. I got 19 scrapbook pages done! And I made a magnet system for my husband to teach his 4-6 year olds their football plays.

What were my disappointments this month?

I had a few music students quick or reduce the number of lessons they take this month, which is disappointing for 2 reasons. I had to tell my babysitter, who my kids love, that I didn't need her to watch my kids anymore (b/c I had that many students quit), and she got another job. It's also disappointing because it's made our budget tighter.

Anything else noteworthy to include?

I tuned my guitar and started playing it again.

October Desktop

I wanted to share with everyone the desktop I made for October. I love October in Florida...just starting to cool down (if you call high of 80 degrees cool - we do). It's a busy month, but I just don't get into the halloween and autumn harvest stuff like everyone else does. Don't get me wrong...we do dress up and find pumpkin patches to take pictures in. But what's really on my mind is that my baby is turning 2 this month, and he is in the throws of the terrible 2's. His vocabulary has really taken a huge leap, and he gets overly excited when we understand what he's saying. By like token, he gets overly frustrated when he can't communicate with us. When he pitches a fit, it's loud and long. By the end of the day, I'm normally pretty frazzled, and my hubby has to always remind me that it's easier to train him up the right way now than to fix his character when he's a teenager. He's right...I think he read Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it." Anyway, I read the quote by Frederick Douglass that says "It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." and I thought that I needed to see that on my computer desktop every day to help me not get frustrated with my children. I used Wendy Tunison's kit MishMash to make this desktop. Check out her Blog, and you will be totally inspired. Here's the desktop with my kiddo in the picture...

His face is just full of mischief, isn't it....

You can put your little mischief maker in your own desktop. It's Personal Use Only. Download it HERE

Thanks to all the people who post comments...I like hearing them.

Does it feel like fall yet?

The answer is no.....It's wicked hot here. But I made a couple of fall CU items for the CU Challenge at Pretty Scrappy. Here's what they look like!

The first is an overlay....

and the second is a little pumpkin....

You can download them HERE